404 Page Profits

©Cheryl Wright - All Rights Reserved

How many times have you clicked on a link only to find a ‘dead’ page?

That dreaded 404 message comes up, telling you the link is wrong and to visit the main page.

Frustrating?  You betcha!

So you can imagine how frustrating this is for YOUR visitors. They want information from your site, but for some reason it’s no longer available.  Or maybe they typed the URL incorrectly.

They get the 404 message and click away.  You just lost money.

Instead of losing a potential sale, and losing a browser / surfer / buyer from your site, why not earn money by making good use of your VRE (virtual real estate)?

Did you know you could do this?  Or maybe you did but you were told it was complicated.

Yep, me too.  First I was told I needed to buy an ebook, then I was told I needed software.  I swear, I am so sick of the lies being told by marketers who just want to rip me (and you) off!

A little over a year ago I stumbled onto a site.  I surfed for a while and was about to click away when something caught my interest – how to easily set up 404 pages.  No technical knowledge required, and definitely no software.

For this techno-dummy, that was majorly interesting, and within minutes I’d learned the simple technique to turn my dead or non-existent pages into cash.

And here it is:

Create a blank webpage and name it  www.yoursite.com/404.shtml

Add the products you want to promote and upload the page.

That’s it.  Seriously.

I earn very good residual income from my 404 page, just by people landing there.  How do I know? I started off with only one product on that page; a product I wasn’t promoting elsewhere, and was selling several copies each month.  So I knew it was selling via the 404 page.

Okay, take a look at my 404 page and you’ll see for yourself:

Go to:  www.writer2writer.com/xyz.htm   -- this will bring up the 404 page. (You may need to type it manually.)

I discovered this formula doesn’t work for sub-site pages, but did some testing and found that using the sub-site URL and the same extension as before, it will work.  Like this:

http://freelance.writer2writer.com/xyz.htm (Again, you may need to type this manually to see the results.) 

If you happen to have a WordPress blog, editing your 404 page is super simple.  Just navigate to 'Appearance > Editor' (in version 2.7 up) and click on the 404 page at the right hand side then insert your html into the field and save the template.  It should be noted that not all WordPress themes contain a 404 template.  In which case you would simply follow the above instructions for creating a standard html page (named 404.shtml).

Alternatively, on some blog themes the html for a 404 page is found in the index.php template. If a 404.shtml doesn't work then navigate in your dashboard to your templates, select index.php press 'ctrl f' and enter the words 'not found' in the search box that appears (without quotes).  Make sure the insertion point is inside the editable field then click 'find next' to find that text within the template.  Replace the text that appears in that section with whatever html you want to appear on the page and click the update file button to save.  

In all cases, make sure the products you are promoting are closely targeted to your audience.

Now that you know how easy it REALLY is, go set up your 404 pages. This truly is a great way to earn a passive income with affiliate products, your own products, or a combination of both.

About the author: Cheryl Wright has been an internet marketer for over five years. She delights in helping others achieve their dreams of turning a profit. Grab your free copy of “Making Money Online: From Zero to Profit” at http://www.resources4marketers.com  and start your internet marketing career today!

Free use: You are welcome to use this article in your ezines and on your website, but the article and bio information (about the author) must stay intact.