When I started this challenge, I really believed I could put in 8 hours plus per day, and that I would smash the $1,000 barrier. 30 days later, I didn't even get halfway towards the $1k and 2-4 hours per day has been my usual amount of productivity.
That doesn't mean I consider it a failure though, in fact far from it. I'll go more into why later, but for now, here's how much I made:-
Week 1 - $105
Week 2 - $35
Week 3 - $206
Week 4 - $40
Total - $386
I'm not sure I've even made half that during a month since I have been in IM, so it shows I've definitely made progress. During those weeks before Christmas when I didn't make a cent, if you'd told me I'd make $386 over 4 weeks, I'd have taken it in a heartbeat.
I've got into some good habits - things like leveraging my content by rewriting, spinning and syndicating it. I've also been a lot more organised than before, partly down to this blog and partly down to the productivity software I bought a few weeks back. I've learned some new things - how to put a squeeze page up, how to upload and sell my own digital product to name two.
In terms of the money I generated, it came from three areas - a couple of sales from my main niche site, my JV PLR article pack WSO and largely from a CPA offer I have been promoting. I'm going to look at these 3 in depth.
Main Niche Site
Just a couple of Clickbank sales from this is very disappointing. Although I concentrated more on ranking it higher in the SERPs and building a list, to only get 2 sales from it is a poor showing. Just from the search engines alone it gets 15-30 unique visitors per day. I know that isn't many, but the Clickbank products on there are pretty prominent so I'd expect more. I think one of the main reasons it doesn't convert is because there is a LOT of information on there about every aspect of the niche. In fact, without wishing to blow my own trumpet, a visitor could be well on the way to fixing the problem that makes them go there by implementing the information and advice on there.
It feels good that the content on the site is helpful to the visitors, but I'd like to make some money from it too. With most of the products on there costing $37 upwards, no wonder they usually don't buy any of them. I plan on writing and releasing my own product in the coming months, at a cheaper price than other similar products, maybe that will make a difference.
The site holds the number 10 spot in Google and 7 or 8 in Bing, and the keyword phrase gets searched 500-600 times per day. Maybe things would change if could get the number 1 spot. But instead of thinking like that, I'm going to look at the site and see what changes and improvements I can make. I'm also going to continue trying to build my list and tweak anything I need to on that front.
PLR Article Pack WSO
In terms of the PLR article pack, we sold 14 of them, which isn't bad for a first WSO. I never expected to sell the entire 50, but if I'm honest I'd have liked to have sold at least a few more. We wrote the articles for Warriors only, and I'm glad we did but if we hadn't and had advertised/promoted them elsewhere, I wonder if we could have sold more. I'm probably going to do another PLR pack, but I'm going to look more into places to sell/distribute them. In fact, in the future I may even create a PLR article site. Definitely something to think about.
CPA
With the CPA sales, I think I struck pretty lucky, although saying that, I would have liked my clicks to have converted much better than they did. Throughout January, my site was getting 20+ unique visitors from Google every single day and my site/articles/press releases were dominating the keyword phrase they were coming from. At this moment in time, I don't have any active offers on the site, as they have either expired or been dropped by the networks I am in. I'm currently looking at other networks to apply to. As I've said before, I was happy with the 3 I was in and didn't really want to join any more. I have no choice now though.
My stats for this offer during this challenge are something like 6 actions from 300 clicks. Not terribly bad, but the problem I have with those stats is that the keyword phrase people were typing in to get to my site is exactly what the offer gives them. I found driving traffic to the site(aside from the natural Google traffic) to be difficult as the keyword phrase looks a bit on the 'spammy' side, being as it has the word 'free' in it. Once I have got into a couple more CPA networks, I'm going to continue with this offer though, and if I can rank for the main term I want to, I should still pick up regular traffic and sales.
There are some areas that I really need to improve on - namely list building, traffic generation and article marketing. In terms of the last one, it's most of my strategy, but I don't get the CTR's I want. I know I'm a reasonably good writer, but I think I'm going to step back and really critique my writing style - perhaps I'll buy a course or WSO to help. There are so many variables though - the main niche I'm in is difficult to predict and gauge, and the niche where all the CPA sales have come from is the same.
I have a LOT to learn still, but I'm always willing to do just that. Not only am I nowhere near finishing my IM education, I've barely even started. I am determined to stay determined and motivated though - and that's what will hopefully carry me through to where I want to be.
I've pretty much decided that writing things down, and sharing things with others is something I want to continue, so I'm probably going to put up a Wordpress site in the near future. I'm going to blog(not every day like here though!), do reviews and document my strategies and plans. I guess it will be a step towards being in the make money online niche, which I'm sure I'll be in at some point in the future.
I made $386 in the last 30 days, and know I could have made more. At the same time, I know if I had been doing the things I was doing months ago, I would have made much less, so overall I'm pretty happy. I've really enjoyed this challenge, and I hope you guys that have followed along have too - thanks for reading, and I'll see you soon.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Day 30 - Solid Yet Disappointing
Today was the final day of the 'challenge' aspect of things, but I am going to write a detailed conclusion tomorrow so I'm just going to go over what I actually did today in this entry.
I prepared two of my articles for spinning(with the Article Productions Spinner)by rewriting each title and paragraph 3 times. As I usually do, I'll spin 20 versions and spread them around the article directories and web 2.0 sites. I timed myself doing this, it took me 1 hour and 43 minutes in total. Not too bad, considering I'll get 40 articles ranging from 70-95% in uniqueness as a result.
I did my daily blog commenting too. I don't know if I've mentioned this here before, but my strategy is very simple. I'll go to Google Blog Search, go to advanced search, type in a keyword phrase, type in any words I don't want results to include, set it to blogs from the last day and 100 results per page. I pay no attention to dofollow and nofollow like a lot of people seem to, I just try and contribute to each blog I comment on with something helpful, and have a link back to my site in the anchor text. I spend half an hour each day doing this, and Google seems to find the links very quickly.
The 3 articles I submitted to EZA yesterday went live. So far, the CTR's are poor, although I picked up 2 new subscribers to my list so it's not all bad. I really think I need to look at my article writing technique, because it's not getting me the results I want in terms of traffic, subscribers and sales. I've gone from not giving much away and getting high CTR's, to being as helpful as possible and getting low CTR's. Maybe I need to find a happy medium. I also think I need to look at my resource boxes. I might actually shop around for WSO on this by one of the article marketing experts.
I ran into some frustration later in the day though, yet another CPA offer I'm promoting has expired, meaning the links on the site that has made me the most money in the last few weeks lead to nowhere. I spent time going through other networks to find ones that carry the same offer. It looks as though I'm going to have to apply to at least two. I don't like applying to new networks because like I've said before, I have trouble keeping everything organised. I was happy with the 3 networks am in, and feel like any more and I am spreading myself a little thin. Saying that, most people that do well with CPA encourage you to apply for 10+ networks, so I'll have to suck it up.
Like I said earlier, I will be posting a detailed conclusion, probably tomorrow. I'm going to dissect the entire challenge, find out what I've learned, and decide where I'm going to go from here.
I prepared two of my articles for spinning(with the Article Productions Spinner)by rewriting each title and paragraph 3 times. As I usually do, I'll spin 20 versions and spread them around the article directories and web 2.0 sites. I timed myself doing this, it took me 1 hour and 43 minutes in total. Not too bad, considering I'll get 40 articles ranging from 70-95% in uniqueness as a result.
I did my daily blog commenting too. I don't know if I've mentioned this here before, but my strategy is very simple. I'll go to Google Blog Search, go to advanced search, type in a keyword phrase, type in any words I don't want results to include, set it to blogs from the last day and 100 results per page. I pay no attention to dofollow and nofollow like a lot of people seem to, I just try and contribute to each blog I comment on with something helpful, and have a link back to my site in the anchor text. I spend half an hour each day doing this, and Google seems to find the links very quickly.
The 3 articles I submitted to EZA yesterday went live. So far, the CTR's are poor, although I picked up 2 new subscribers to my list so it's not all bad. I really think I need to look at my article writing technique, because it's not getting me the results I want in terms of traffic, subscribers and sales. I've gone from not giving much away and getting high CTR's, to being as helpful as possible and getting low CTR's. Maybe I need to find a happy medium. I also think I need to look at my resource boxes. I might actually shop around for WSO on this by one of the article marketing experts.
I ran into some frustration later in the day though, yet another CPA offer I'm promoting has expired, meaning the links on the site that has made me the most money in the last few weeks lead to nowhere. I spent time going through other networks to find ones that carry the same offer. It looks as though I'm going to have to apply to at least two. I don't like applying to new networks because like I've said before, I have trouble keeping everything organised. I was happy with the 3 networks am in, and feel like any more and I am spreading myself a little thin. Saying that, most people that do well with CPA encourage you to apply for 10+ networks, so I'll have to suck it up.
Like I said earlier, I will be posting a detailed conclusion, probably tomorrow. I'm going to dissect the entire challenge, find out what I've learned, and decide where I'm going to go from here.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Day 29 - A Great Start To The Week and February
If I could reproduce the amount of work I did today 5 times a week, I'd surely get to where I want to be sooner or later. I put in a good solid 5 hours(probably a little more actually) and got a good range of tasks completed, including the following:-
-Blog comments
-CPA research
-SEO research
-Article submissions(to my site and EZA)
-Created some new Web 2.0 properties
-Done some social bookmarking
The research tasks really needed to be done. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm really disorganized when it comes to CPA offers. I put together a list of offers I want to promote, it's just a case of getting sites and landing pages together for them and/or where on my existing sites to put the offers.
SEO research can be a real eye opener, and sometimes not for the better. I have been wondering why this one site has been dominating a keyword I have been targeting(my site is at the top of the second page). It's been a while since I've even seen the site in question have any content on it, it has usually redirected straight to a CPA offer. I analyzed it's backlinks today with SEO Spyglass and what come up was.....interesting. Most of their links are poor quality web 2.0 properties and blogs. When I say low quality, I mean the same article posted multiple times on the SAME Squidoo lens, paragraphs that make no sense and keyword stuffing. Why Google rewards such little effort with the number 1 spot is beyond me. Those of us that do things the right way and offer value to readers and visitors will surely surpass these kinds of sites, I hope so anyway.
I put a new article on my main niche site, and submitted 3 others to EZA. I'm really interested to see the CTR's and views for those 3 articles as I've barely submitted to EZA in the last few weeks.
I really want to keep up this level of productivity, I know I have to if I really want to make a success of my online business. I think the penny has dropped about that aspect of things. Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge. I may not be making much money, but I'm learning so much along the way and am getting into some really good habits that will hopefully serve me for years to come. So I'm pretty happy.
-Blog comments
-CPA research
-SEO research
-Article submissions(to my site and EZA)
-Created some new Web 2.0 properties
-Done some social bookmarking
The research tasks really needed to be done. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm really disorganized when it comes to CPA offers. I put together a list of offers I want to promote, it's just a case of getting sites and landing pages together for them and/or where on my existing sites to put the offers.
SEO research can be a real eye opener, and sometimes not for the better. I have been wondering why this one site has been dominating a keyword I have been targeting(my site is at the top of the second page). It's been a while since I've even seen the site in question have any content on it, it has usually redirected straight to a CPA offer. I analyzed it's backlinks today with SEO Spyglass and what come up was.....interesting. Most of their links are poor quality web 2.0 properties and blogs. When I say low quality, I mean the same article posted multiple times on the SAME Squidoo lens, paragraphs that make no sense and keyword stuffing. Why Google rewards such little effort with the number 1 spot is beyond me. Those of us that do things the right way and offer value to readers and visitors will surely surpass these kinds of sites, I hope so anyway.
I put a new article on my main niche site, and submitted 3 others to EZA. I'm really interested to see the CTR's and views for those 3 articles as I've barely submitted to EZA in the last few weeks.
I really want to keep up this level of productivity, I know I have to if I really want to make a success of my online business. I think the penny has dropped about that aspect of things. Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge. I may not be making much money, but I'm learning so much along the way and am getting into some really good habits that will hopefully serve me for years to come. So I'm pretty happy.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Days 27 & 28 - Quiet On The Whole
I had my usual Saturday off, and today I did a bit of social bookmarking and not much else. Stepping back at the weekends really helps me to be raring to go by Monday morning, in fact by Sunday night! I say stepping back, I still check stats, search engine rankings and hang out at the Warrior Forum quite a lot - I can't help it.
Today marks the end of week 4, and I'm pretty disappointed to have only made $40 this week. In fact, I'm very disappointed, especially as I put in quite a lot of work during the week. There are reasons why I'm not consistently making the money I want, and understanding those is going to be vital in terms of after this challenge. That was one of the reasons I started this blog.
I'm already thinking of additional strategies - one of them is a new approach to CPA. I'm so disorganized with it, it's untrue. I think it would serve me best if I maybe pick out 3-5 specific offers I want to promote at the beginning of each month and really concentrate on them. Having various offers(some out of date) scattered around sites is not the way to go.
My main niche site is holding it's number 9 spot nicely. I'm hoping to get it up even higher this week. It does concern me that I'm getting very few opt ins to my list though. It's something I've really got to work on. One of MANY things I have to work on. At the end of this challenge, I'm probably going to spend an entire day dissecting it, and really looking at what went right, what went wrong, what I should have spent more time on, why I didn't reach my target etc etc. I may have had my best month in IM in a lot of ways, but I still have a LONG way to go and I know it. I'm going to throw myself into Monday with lots of enthusiasm.
Today marks the end of week 4, and I'm pretty disappointed to have only made $40 this week. In fact, I'm very disappointed, especially as I put in quite a lot of work during the week. There are reasons why I'm not consistently making the money I want, and understanding those is going to be vital in terms of after this challenge. That was one of the reasons I started this blog.
I'm already thinking of additional strategies - one of them is a new approach to CPA. I'm so disorganized with it, it's untrue. I think it would serve me best if I maybe pick out 3-5 specific offers I want to promote at the beginning of each month and really concentrate on them. Having various offers(some out of date) scattered around sites is not the way to go.
My main niche site is holding it's number 9 spot nicely. I'm hoping to get it up even higher this week. It does concern me that I'm getting very few opt ins to my list though. It's something I've really got to work on. One of MANY things I have to work on. At the end of this challenge, I'm probably going to spend an entire day dissecting it, and really looking at what went right, what went wrong, what I should have spent more time on, why I didn't reach my target etc etc. I may have had my best month in IM in a lot of ways, but I still have a LONG way to go and I know it. I'm going to throw myself into Monday with lots of enthusiasm.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Day 26 - A Couple of Stumbling Blocks But Positive On The Whole
Ever since I bought the domain and put up(with the help of my wife) my main niche site, I have had the aim of getting it into the top 10 for it's keyword phrase in Google. After 5 months or so, that day came yesterday. I always knew I'd do it, but it felt good to actually see it there. I made a thread on The Warrior Forum, saying how I did it, and how I would go about things in the future, so I won't go over it all again here:-
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/172747-finally-broke-into-top-10-google-how-i-did-what-i-would-do-next-time-step-step.html
Got some positive feedback, and some thanks, which was really nice. It's dying now, but I kind of expected that. The 800 threads about profile backlinks and such continue to go strong though, oh well. Seriously though, without wishing to sound bitter or like a know it all(I'm nowhere near either), it kind of worries me that a lot of people seem to think posting thousands of profile backlinks is the way to rank high in the search engines. Yes, it can of course help, and even get you the number 1 spot in some cases, but to me a good link building campaign is all about getting good links from a variety of sources and providing value at all those sources.
At some stage, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get into the make money online niche(I was actually in it for a few months in my MLM days, and had no business doing so really as I lacked experience and knowledge) in the future and I hope in doing so I can help newbies to learn some really good, fundamental strategies for establishing sites and such. In fact, when I have more experience, I'll probably tweak that post and turn it into a free ebook. It's going to be a while before I enter the MMO niche, but when I do I want to be able to offer great value and help steer people in the right direction.
I made a CPA sale yesterday, and a few hours later the CPA offer expired at the network. Luckily though, it's on another network I'm in, so I just changed my banners and links. I also called the CPA network I applied to last week, no answer and they aren't responding to my E-Mails. I'll probably pick a new one to apply to, in order to promote the offer I want to promote.
I wrote some new articles, making 5 brand new ones for my main niche. I had my wife read over them to give her opinion on which ones to put on the site. I've already put one of them on there, and will probably put at least one more on there. All 5 are going to be rewritten/spun and submitted to directories/web 2.0's anyway.
That's about it really - I'm really pleased to have got my site into the top 10 in Google. It's gone up to number 9 today too, which is fantastic. The number 1 spot would be a dream come true - the top 10 is full of heavyweight sites so to be top of the tree would be incredible. Not that it's all about rankings - I look on it as an opportunity to reach and help more people. This niche is pretty close to my heart, so not only do I want to eventually have the best site around, I am going to start writing what I would love to be the best product around to supplement it. I'm ambitious, but also know I have a helluva lot to learn and a long way to go.
http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/172747-finally-broke-into-top-10-google-how-i-did-what-i-would-do-next-time-step-step.html
Got some positive feedback, and some thanks, which was really nice. It's dying now, but I kind of expected that. The 800 threads about profile backlinks and such continue to go strong though, oh well. Seriously though, without wishing to sound bitter or like a know it all(I'm nowhere near either), it kind of worries me that a lot of people seem to think posting thousands of profile backlinks is the way to rank high in the search engines. Yes, it can of course help, and even get you the number 1 spot in some cases, but to me a good link building campaign is all about getting good links from a variety of sources and providing value at all those sources.
At some stage, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get into the make money online niche(I was actually in it for a few months in my MLM days, and had no business doing so really as I lacked experience and knowledge) in the future and I hope in doing so I can help newbies to learn some really good, fundamental strategies for establishing sites and such. In fact, when I have more experience, I'll probably tweak that post and turn it into a free ebook. It's going to be a while before I enter the MMO niche, but when I do I want to be able to offer great value and help steer people in the right direction.
I made a CPA sale yesterday, and a few hours later the CPA offer expired at the network. Luckily though, it's on another network I'm in, so I just changed my banners and links. I also called the CPA network I applied to last week, no answer and they aren't responding to my E-Mails. I'll probably pick a new one to apply to, in order to promote the offer I want to promote.
I wrote some new articles, making 5 brand new ones for my main niche. I had my wife read over them to give her opinion on which ones to put on the site. I've already put one of them on there, and will probably put at least one more on there. All 5 are going to be rewritten/spun and submitted to directories/web 2.0's anyway.
That's about it really - I'm really pleased to have got my site into the top 10 in Google. It's gone up to number 9 today too, which is fantastic. The number 1 spot would be a dream come true - the top 10 is full of heavyweight sites so to be top of the tree would be incredible. Not that it's all about rankings - I look on it as an opportunity to reach and help more people. This niche is pretty close to my heart, so not only do I want to eventually have the best site around, I am going to start writing what I would love to be the best product around to supplement it. I'm ambitious, but also know I have a helluva lot to learn and a long way to go.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Day 25 - Unremarkable, But Solid
Today I did around 3 hours of IM work. Although(as I keep saying) that's not enough, I'm at least being pretty consistent in terms of what I do. More about that later in this entry.
I wrote some more articles, did some blog commenting and submitted my first article to Article Productions. I also spent an hour or so reading an ebook that a Warrior very kindly gave to me for free, even though it is a WSO.
A few months ago, I heard something about a 'bum marketer' woman that was making 100k+ per year purely from writing and submitting articles to Ezine Articles. Well, within this ebook was a link to the video about it by Travis Sago. Inspiring stuff indeed. Travis emphasizes a few points in the video, including the fact that she consistently works every single weekday, she cares about her readers, and her articles are long.
I started thinking which of these applied to me. I definitely care about my readers, particularly in my main niche because I have been where they are. I put a lot of effort into my articles and try to make a connection with every reader.
In terms of my main sites, my articles are usually between 500 and 600 words. In terms of directory submissions, they are usually between 400 and 600. I did go through a phase after buying a WSO where I'd write 250-300 word articles and try my best not to give anything away in them. I was only submitting to EZA back then. It didn't really feel right, and with changes in rules and such I went back to my usual 400-600 word articles.
Consistency - this is perhaps the most important area. I do work every single weekday, but my consistency in terms of what I do and how long I do it can sometimes be lacking. You'll have seen from reading this blog that I usually do between 2 and 4 hours work a day. Sometimes less, but rarely more. I'm finding it hard to reach the dizzy heights of 6-8 hours a day. When you think about it though, if I had a '9 to 5' then I'd HAVE to. So why can't I do it with my online business? It's something I definitely need to look at.
Take short tasks like blog commenting and Yahoo answers - there's no reason why I can't do even 15 minutes of each every single day.
Whoever the bum marketing lady is, I applaud her, admire her and envy her. I'm going to take a leaf out of her book on all 3 areas that I just mentioned.
I'm very disappointed to have not made a cent for 4 days now - the CPA offer that was bringing me most of the money seems to have stopped converting now. Maybe that's a good thing though, I was becoming a little dependent on it. I'm living and learning, and I still want to finish this challenge strongly.
I wrote some more articles, did some blog commenting and submitted my first article to Article Productions. I also spent an hour or so reading an ebook that a Warrior very kindly gave to me for free, even though it is a WSO.
A few months ago, I heard something about a 'bum marketer' woman that was making 100k+ per year purely from writing and submitting articles to Ezine Articles. Well, within this ebook was a link to the video about it by Travis Sago. Inspiring stuff indeed. Travis emphasizes a few points in the video, including the fact that she consistently works every single weekday, she cares about her readers, and her articles are long.
I started thinking which of these applied to me. I definitely care about my readers, particularly in my main niche because I have been where they are. I put a lot of effort into my articles and try to make a connection with every reader.
In terms of my main sites, my articles are usually between 500 and 600 words. In terms of directory submissions, they are usually between 400 and 600. I did go through a phase after buying a WSO where I'd write 250-300 word articles and try my best not to give anything away in them. I was only submitting to EZA back then. It didn't really feel right, and with changes in rules and such I went back to my usual 400-600 word articles.
Consistency - this is perhaps the most important area. I do work every single weekday, but my consistency in terms of what I do and how long I do it can sometimes be lacking. You'll have seen from reading this blog that I usually do between 2 and 4 hours work a day. Sometimes less, but rarely more. I'm finding it hard to reach the dizzy heights of 6-8 hours a day. When you think about it though, if I had a '9 to 5' then I'd HAVE to. So why can't I do it with my online business? It's something I definitely need to look at.
Take short tasks like blog commenting and Yahoo answers - there's no reason why I can't do even 15 minutes of each every single day.
Whoever the bum marketing lady is, I applaud her, admire her and envy her. I'm going to take a leaf out of her book on all 3 areas that I just mentioned.
I'm very disappointed to have not made a cent for 4 days now - the CPA offer that was bringing me most of the money seems to have stopped converting now. Maybe that's a good thing though, I was becoming a little dependent on it. I'm living and learning, and I still want to finish this challenge strongly.
Day 24 - Pretty Solid, Progress Made
After an extremely poor day 23, I got back on track. I've finally submitted an article with Article Bot, to 200+ directories. It does concern me that although some of them have gone up fine, I've seen a few that are missing paragraph spacing and such. The main purpose of submitting to these(mostly '2nd tier') sites is admittedly for backlink juice, but traffic would be nice too, and I don't want any viewers seeing any articles that look funky.
I also did some work with The Link Juicer. I'm now using The Best Spinner(it's free during BETA) to get my content into syntax format for things like this. It's an extremely good program, and I'm curious to see how much it is going to cost when it is officially released next week.
I got a new article written too. I know that doesn't sound like much of an achievement(and it isn't), but the majority of my time lately has been spent getting things into place for long term SEO benefits. The 2 sites where I make most of my money are around the top of page 2 in Google for their targeted keyword phrases - I know being on page 1(hopefully right at the top) for them both will have a dramatic effect on traffic and sales. Perhaps I spend too much time on SEO and backlinks, but I absolutely love natural, organic traffic. With that said, I know the 'Google Dance' is going to come at some stage and when it does I'll be frustrated.
I really need to get into an article marketing routine. During this month, I have kind of been creating and testing a strategy, and it's now taking shape. I think this is pretty much the long term strategy I'll be using:-
1. Write fresh article
2. Put original on site(if I consider it suitable for the site)
3. Rewrite 3+ versions of the title, and each paragraph.
4. Using the Article Productions spinner, spin 20+ unique versions.
5. Submit 10 to the top article directories - EZA, Article Productions, GA, Articlesbase etc.
6. Submit some to web 2.0 properties - Wetpaint, Weebly, Blog, Squidoo, Hubpages etc.
7. Take one of the unused spins, rewrite words/sentences/paragraphs with The Best Spinner.
8. Submit Syntax format version to Article Bot.
Of course, there should be much more to it than this - I've barely been backlinking articles recently, and need to step that up. In fact, I need to step everything up.
I'm writing this at the beginning of day 25, and I'm ready to put a lot of work in today. As I was writing this, a Google Adwords £75 voucher came through the post - I would have wondered if it was a bit fishy, but I've seen others mention this on the WF. I'm definitely going to use it, it's just a case of which site to use it for. I'll talk more about it later though. BTW - $0 earned in the last 4 days now - not good. Hopefully I can change that.
I also did some work with The Link Juicer. I'm now using The Best Spinner(it's free during BETA) to get my content into syntax format for things like this. It's an extremely good program, and I'm curious to see how much it is going to cost when it is officially released next week.
I got a new article written too. I know that doesn't sound like much of an achievement(and it isn't), but the majority of my time lately has been spent getting things into place for long term SEO benefits. The 2 sites where I make most of my money are around the top of page 2 in Google for their targeted keyword phrases - I know being on page 1(hopefully right at the top) for them both will have a dramatic effect on traffic and sales. Perhaps I spend too much time on SEO and backlinks, but I absolutely love natural, organic traffic. With that said, I know the 'Google Dance' is going to come at some stage and when it does I'll be frustrated.
I really need to get into an article marketing routine. During this month, I have kind of been creating and testing a strategy, and it's now taking shape. I think this is pretty much the long term strategy I'll be using:-
1. Write fresh article
2. Put original on site(if I consider it suitable for the site)
3. Rewrite 3+ versions of the title, and each paragraph.
4. Using the Article Productions spinner, spin 20+ unique versions.
5. Submit 10 to the top article directories - EZA, Article Productions, GA, Articlesbase etc.
6. Submit some to web 2.0 properties - Wetpaint, Weebly, Blog, Squidoo, Hubpages etc.
7. Take one of the unused spins, rewrite words/sentences/paragraphs with The Best Spinner.
8. Submit Syntax format version to Article Bot.
Of course, there should be much more to it than this - I've barely been backlinking articles recently, and need to step that up. In fact, I need to step everything up.
I'm writing this at the beginning of day 25, and I'm ready to put a lot of work in today. As I was writing this, a Google Adwords £75 voucher came through the post - I would have wondered if it was a bit fishy, but I've seen others mention this on the WF. I'm definitely going to use it, it's just a case of which site to use it for. I'll talk more about it later though. BTW - $0 earned in the last 4 days now - not good. Hopefully I can change that.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Day 23 - Frustrating and Unproductive
I barely moved forward at all today, and I have nobody to blame but myself. I ran into a few technical problems with sites and such, but still I did far less than I should have.
I'm nearly ready to submit some articles with Article Bot, and my sites are still rising in the SERPS, but there's nothing more to add really. A couple of days since I made any money too. The way I'm going, it's going to be a $0 final week. I really don't want that to happen, so I'm determined to really get going tomorrow.
I'm annoyed and frustrated at myself, but I'm going to channel that negative energy into positive tasks that will move everything forward.
I'm nearly ready to submit some articles with Article Bot, and my sites are still rising in the SERPS, but there's nothing more to add really. A couple of days since I made any money too. The way I'm going, it's going to be a $0 final week. I really don't want that to happen, so I'm determined to really get going tomorrow.
I'm annoyed and frustrated at myself, but I'm going to channel that negative energy into positive tasks that will move everything forward.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Day 22 - A Quiet Start To The Week
I had a few things to do around the house today, so it was late afternoon before I found time to work on IM. I only completed 2 tasks - signing up for article directories with Article Bot, and updating a weekly keyword rankings spreadsheet I have.
I can't stress enough the importance of reading through instructions when you buy a product. I have a few of Incansoft's other 'Bot's' - Social Bot, Directory Bot, RSS Bot. I bought Article Bot a few weeks ago, and spent literally seconds skimming through the manual.
Last week I was spending an hour a day manually signing up to accounts, and I found out at the weekend you can do it completely automatically - doh! It doesn't do all of them, but the vast majority. So I'm almost ready to start submitting - hopefully a little traffic and lots of lovely backlink juice will flow as a result.
I say 'weekly' keyword rankings spreadsheet - I haven't updated it since the very first day of this challenge(rolls eyes). So today I could see in black and white, a bunch of my sites and articles rankings side by side. The site that I'm getting most of my sales from at the moment has gone up from number 37 in Google to number 12 for it's main keyword phrase. Quite a few of my articles have risen too.
By my standards(I'm a bit of a nightowl), I'm having an early night tonight. I really need to catch up on sleep. I plan on putting a lot into tomorrow.
I can't stress enough the importance of reading through instructions when you buy a product. I have a few of Incansoft's other 'Bot's' - Social Bot, Directory Bot, RSS Bot. I bought Article Bot a few weeks ago, and spent literally seconds skimming through the manual.
Last week I was spending an hour a day manually signing up to accounts, and I found out at the weekend you can do it completely automatically - doh! It doesn't do all of them, but the vast majority. So I'm almost ready to start submitting - hopefully a little traffic and lots of lovely backlink juice will flow as a result.
I say 'weekly' keyword rankings spreadsheet - I haven't updated it since the very first day of this challenge(rolls eyes). So today I could see in black and white, a bunch of my sites and articles rankings side by side. The site that I'm getting most of my sales from at the moment has gone up from number 37 in Google to number 12 for it's main keyword phrase. Quite a few of my articles have risen too.
By my standards(I'm a bit of a nightowl), I'm having an early night tonight. I really need to catch up on sleep. I plan on putting a lot into tomorrow.
3 Weeks In - Time For Some Reflection
I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge for a number of reasons. It's been great to keep a daily journal of everything I have been doing, it's really helped me to stay focused and organized - 2 things which I struggled with before.
In terms of performance, I'd probably only give myself a 7 out of 10 - I know I could have put more in. At the beginning, I was looking to work 6-8-12 hours a day, but I've found that easier said than done. Between 2 and 4 hours seems to be the average. That is one of the main reasons I'm probably going to fall short of the 1k target.
Speaking of the target, I don't even look upon it as important any more. I've moved forward so much from where I was in December, that the amount of money I am making doesn't seem to matter so much any more. Of course, the more the better, and the chances are I'll hit the $500 mark for the 30 days, which isn't bad for someone who didn't make a cent for six weeks not so long ago.
This probably sounds ridiculous, but I liken it to Rocky(I'm a huge fan) in the first movie - beating Apollo Creed was irrelevant in the end. The fact he proved he could see it through and be competitive was more important. After that, he knew he had the ability to beat him, and of course he did second time around.
I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but in the last few months I've pretty much sacrificed one of the big loves in my life - music. I play various instruments, write and record original songs and just love to play. I think I thought to myself that I need to put things like that on hold while I get to grips with this whole IM thing. Pretty silly really, everyone should find time for their hobbies and interests. Now though, I'm going to get back into it - even if it's just half an hour a day.
There's still a pretty long list of things I should be doing better with, but I'm always looking to improve. I need to improve. For example, I've written very few new articles during this challenge. I've concentrated more on rewriting and spinning existing ones and submitted them to lots of directories and web 2.0 properties. I know I should also be writing lots of fresh ones every week too. On that note, I think I'm going to get into freelancing too, as another income stream. I briefly tried odesk and guru a few months back, but found the whole portfolio/bidding/application aspects to be daunting. I'm now looking at sites where you simply submit, and people buy if they want to.
OK, with 9 days to go - how much have I made? I'll break it down week by week.
Week 1 - $105
Week 2 - $35
Week 3 - $206
Total - $346
I really want to break the $500 mark, so I'm going to put a lot of hours in this week.
In terms of performance, I'd probably only give myself a 7 out of 10 - I know I could have put more in. At the beginning, I was looking to work 6-8-12 hours a day, but I've found that easier said than done. Between 2 and 4 hours seems to be the average. That is one of the main reasons I'm probably going to fall short of the 1k target.
Speaking of the target, I don't even look upon it as important any more. I've moved forward so much from where I was in December, that the amount of money I am making doesn't seem to matter so much any more. Of course, the more the better, and the chances are I'll hit the $500 mark for the 30 days, which isn't bad for someone who didn't make a cent for six weeks not so long ago.
This probably sounds ridiculous, but I liken it to Rocky(I'm a huge fan) in the first movie - beating Apollo Creed was irrelevant in the end. The fact he proved he could see it through and be competitive was more important. After that, he knew he had the ability to beat him, and of course he did second time around.
I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but in the last few months I've pretty much sacrificed one of the big loves in my life - music. I play various instruments, write and record original songs and just love to play. I think I thought to myself that I need to put things like that on hold while I get to grips with this whole IM thing. Pretty silly really, everyone should find time for their hobbies and interests. Now though, I'm going to get back into it - even if it's just half an hour a day.
There's still a pretty long list of things I should be doing better with, but I'm always looking to improve. I need to improve. For example, I've written very few new articles during this challenge. I've concentrated more on rewriting and spinning existing ones and submitted them to lots of directories and web 2.0 properties. I know I should also be writing lots of fresh ones every week too. On that note, I think I'm going to get into freelancing too, as another income stream. I briefly tried odesk and guru a few months back, but found the whole portfolio/bidding/application aspects to be daunting. I'm now looking at sites where you simply submit, and people buy if they want to.
OK, with 9 days to go - how much have I made? I'll break it down week by week.
Week 1 - $105
Week 2 - $35
Week 3 - $206
Total - $346
I really want to break the $500 mark, so I'm going to put a lot of hours in this week.
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