As the internet continues to grow, we are seeing the convergence of business and personal sites, with many of the more popular personal site owners now realising that there is money to be made, and traffic equals income. In order to stand any chance of being successful on the internet you need to decide whether you are in it for the money or not……

Some of the more popular sites on the internet have actually started off as personal sites, but quickly grown into more commercialised sites due to the power of the internet. There does come a cross over point when you need to decide if you are in it for the money, and if you do change to a more money orientated style, will it still work and will you be able to retain your readers?

Many people seem to believe that there is little difference running a personal site compared to a business site, but how wrong they are. The whole lookout, attitude and styles are totally different and you can often tell from a great distance whether a site is in it for the money. However, there is one dilemma when you have a successful personal site, if you don’t monetise your site then there is a good chance that someone else will either try to buy it or copy you - taking away some of your traffic and readers.

The internet can be a cruel world, and if your site does become popular you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be others who have spotted your niche market. While they say that copying someone’s work is one of the highest forms of flattery, it does not feel that way when all of your readers have gone on to pastures new!