adiakritos

Someone else here made a public journal and it seems to be a solid idea for gaining feedback and advice, helping other noobs like me, and for organizing my thoughts ideas and tasks.

I'm in my 2nd semester my freshman year in college, I'm 19, and I know how to start with nothing and go to creating a blog on wordpress using downloaded themes from the internet and tracking each post with prosper, even though it fucks my theme up a bit.

My goal is to make $600 dollars a day in 6 months and I'm nearly a month behind. So its now 5 months to make that much.

I hadn't realized the importance of researching and planning before moving into the creation stage of my first campaign though I suppose thats the lesson I've learned for wasting my time and hacking around.

I've never created a web page before and so in order to learn I did a 2 week subscription at PPC-Coach for $1 that showed me how to start from scratch.



I'm currently running a wordpress blog on Hostgator that has about 12 different blogs posts ( I discovered I had no idea why I was doing this and that thats way to many to keep up with )

I'm running only one type of offer and one picture on each blog post

I've practiced creating keywords, ad groups

I'm using ads4dough as my Affiliate network

I'm using MSN as my search network

I'm willing to spend $400 total in keyword optimization

Iv'e set up tracking already (took forevvvver)


My current questions are:

How am I going to split test for one of my chosen blogs posts or page?

what is a CMS or WCMS

What tools can I use to have great ease and speed in creating or changing nearly every aspect of my ad groups, keywords, webpages.. ect

Should I pick up a book or two on marketing and niche marketing since I dont know much about it anyways, I'm not aware of to many key concepts on marketing in and of its self.

Trigger

cms= content management system. Wordpress is a csm, so is joomla, etc..


And no you do not need any ebooks about niche marketing... When you see an ebook always assume it is bullshit or you will waste lots of money.... ( And they are all bullshit)

Hell it might even be in wickedfire. UTSF and find the free ebooks thread... Could be there if you really want to read it. ( It will waste your time)

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adiakritos

No I'm not gonna read much really, I've already realized that those books are all about simply following some other guy's method blindly. Which is stupid.

Anyways, I'm with the task now of figuring out how I'm going to really take control of my landing pages and place things where I want them, change colors ect.

I decided to simplify my endeavors and instead of creating a full fledged blog site with tons of posts I'll just create two at a time that are similar, and remove any link for each since they are rehashed information anyways. This way I can split test my lp's.

But before I do that I must figure out how exactly I want to target my niche.

The plan before was to create a blog about something thats current and popular. And with that I'd figure out the demographic for that topic and place ads that would be relevant to the demographic, and not necessarily the topic its self.


So first I must:
Plan my campaign around the domain name I've already created and
then figure a free way to take greater control over my lp's

tygoldberg

these thread never seem to work...just do what you gotta do, fuck telling us...let us know when you become a super affiliate and blog...

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adiakritos

quick update,
with the technicalities I'm doin great, as i would like to believe as now I've been able to achieve the flexibility I desired using my CMS and a very dynamic theme called Affiliate Theme.

Now I must plan, Gotta know what I'm gonna do with the shitty domain name I'v got now. I might try and sell it though I'm unsure of the labor it requires or the return it would bring.

Gotta go over my niche again and plan with greater detail. I should be done with that by this monday.

mr coolerer

No such thing as a shitty domain, learn, rank, dominate. WpTweetBomb helps alot.

adiakritos

thanks

adiakritos

Trying to discover what are the bases I need to cover in planning to set up something like a review site.

adiakritos

P202 still messing with my Theme even with Affiliate Theme. Dont know how to track individual posts without my widgets dissapearing when I place the tracking code at the bottom of the post... Gotta figure that shit out.

adiakritos

Unsure about I'm gonna do at this point. Gonna promote something instead of using affiliate networks I think. Not sure yet though.

adiakritos

I've been throwing ideas away like crazy still trying to organize myself. Before I start planning for a full fledge campaign aimed at helping my mother profit more, and me earning some commission I'm getting a hold of organizing myself, learning how to plan, what to plan for etc..
I got a great idea from what this guy used and ezine article.
So now I'm gonna start researching for a niche and fuck them in the ass with a badass copy and product value.

The thing I hate about this whole online marketing thing is that there really isnt to many people who are willing to help you grow a solid foundation. So Its like you gotta build one campaign after another to learn about your mistakes in your foundation. After awhile you'll have enough knowledge to build a campaign on a good foundation and have even better chances of prospering. Thats what I think so far but what ever. Just gonna keep chuggin along till I make some fuckin money.

adiakritos

Redoing in whole site. using my Under construction page to promote some games I personally like. lol you never know!

Havn't done shit to the site, I'm still learning about the industry its self and and devising aplan as I do that. I'm also working on putting together the things I've learned from my social psych class. Gonna use variations of NLP, Hypnosis, simple persuasion and social Psych into my marketing strategy.

I'm still looking into my products to promote, and once I find one I'll go ahead and start doing some hardcore target analysis and begin devising my marketing strat.

I should be done with all this by March 1st. Now that I have internet at home I can reallly continue working my ass off to get this progress I want.

adiakritos

Now, I've decided to put marketing down until I am earning consistent money in other areas. Otherwise I'll be depleted of money without a way to make more quickly enough to sustain my campaigns until they, themselves can produce anything.
Be back in a few months.

adiakritos

Learning xhtml and CSS right now. Its pretty fun. Can't wait to learn shit on photoshop and get into flash and java

adiakritos

Finished a near complete form page with XHTML, CSS and PHP yesterday.. I'm pretty stoked about what else I will be accomplishing with this.

dchuk

Man, I'm impressed, you're still coming back here and posting when it seems like everyone else has moved on. Dig the perseverance.

If you need any help with coding hit me up and I'll see if I can help out.

Tezza

For what my nub advice is worth..
- Slap some Adsense onto your park/construction page.. you might get lucky.
- Depending on the CMS you're running, Artisteer is awesome for building good looking templates fast.
- If you dont wanna spend hours working everything out for yourself, Joomla has a huge library of freeware modules & plugins

Good luck ! I've been reading this forum for a few months and "got my feet wet" around the same time you did, so its cool to read your progress.

yamahoto

Go to school instead

dchuk

bahh so many of my friends have come out of school and gotten left in the dust by kids who took it upon themselves to learn the skills they needed to work in the real world.

datzFdup

^^^this

adiakritos

thanks for the encouragement guys! When I first was directed here I got a bad impression of the community, though with time I guess you start to attract the best of it. =)
I'm glad you guys are taking something from these posts. I hoped it would be of some value.

Next update..
Reading Stylin' with CSS by Charles Wyke-Smith.. Got the book like 3 days ago n I can't sleep feeling that I'm not getting something done lol. Its 1:35 on my friday night and I just wanna absorb as much as I can to start really planning a site and building away.. building a little portfolio and putting it up on elance. Getting paid and spending away with really fuckin cool looking campaigns and landing pages =)

Got myself two affiliate programs on business that seem to be off the chain, although they are more aimed toward starting an online business with my own products rather than doing affiliate marketing, though both are niche marketing...

My outlook with all this, for those who are interested, is that of submitting to practice. To learning to love the mundane along with resolving to do this until I make it.
I got it from this book called Mastery by George Leonard. That mindset really calms be down and keeps me focused without feeling like "FUCKING A I HAVENT MADE A DIME AND ITS BEEN # MONTHS!" it hasn't been three months, and I really think that the quality of the practical knowledge that I get now will be worth more that just a quick buck here or there.

adiakritos

thanks man, I'll let you know if anything. =)

adiakritos

A little more than half way done with my CSS book. I'm already thinking about approaching some people who might be interested in hiring me to build them a web page or take on some job I can save and use on my elance profile. I have to remind myself every day of the vision I have to be successful not in just web development but online marketing business.

Its like I've first saturated my head with marketing knowledge, then decided to shift gears and saturate my mind with the technical aspect to learn and earn income...
I have keep that in mind so that I do not spend more time that necessary in this phase. I guess only time will tell.

adiakritos

I am going to school. Though its not my dream to be a psychologist or whatever other profession. There is a ceiling to the amount you can earn, and with it a price tag. I choose to take the risky rout without a ceiling. Its not like I'll end up dead if I run out of money, I live in the land of opportunity, I've got family to take care of me and I've got resolve.

adiakritos

Getting these different basic layout designs down pat. After its moving on to forms and user interface stuff and then meshing it all together. I'm having fun doing this all. I spend the first half of every day of my spring break fucking like an animal, and the second half of every day of spring break learning the stuff thats gonna help me make a ton of cash... not bad for not having walked out my front door in 2 days.

yamahoto

School time boy

adiakritos

On the last section of my CSS book. now I'm gonna be implementing everything I've learned up until now. Apparently what took me 2 or so days to learn html took me maybe 2 weeks to learn CSS a little more in depth...

I've currently also picked learning hypnosis and next week I'll begin working out. The girlfriend is'nt gonna take more of my time, instead I'm gonna bring into my time doing things that are actually worth doing... Not nearly as much sleeping the middle of my day away.

adiakritos

Felt kind of lost today and yesterday. I get really irritated and slightly depressed when I feel that way.

I realized now the reason I used to dabble at everything I did and feel lost and slightly depressed.

It was because I failed to make a plan out for my life's goals and really immerse myself in that plan, whilst continually reminding myself every day of the vision I have in attaining my goals.

Although those goals, to what I believe, have to be congruent with my true and highest values. Things like using my money to simply create time and opportunities to love people and create the kinds of experiences I want my life to be filled with.

eat it, Murphy

You're over-thinking and under-doing, and if you don't start doing something real (build a webpage, find a niche, start a link building campaign, whatever) you'll just crap out.

Go go go go go gogoogogogogo

lovetoearn

That's right brother, persistance is the key to success at anything you do. Best of luck, and never quit.

adiakritos

It took me two hours to plan a general map of where I'm at now and where I want to go in a few years.
I feel what your saying and I'll be doing just that.. as soon as I can have some income doing something. at that point I can spend freely and just GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOG which is what I can't wait to do!!

I simply wanted to have a way to track my progress to see if I'm moving toward or surpassing my set goals and how quickly I am doing it.

adiakritos

Finished reading and working in the book. Time to start building for people and make some monamonamonay!

adiakritos

I'm really starting to harness the time I've got available to me. Never really took to the time necessary to Determine how much time my days would require MAXimum to progress in school and work WHILE having time to let my body and mind rest.

So I split my week into even days (Mon Wed Fri = 'A' Day's & Tues Thrus Sat = 'B' days)
I figured how much time I have available and how much time I require Maximum.

The hard part is sticking to it and not compromising! Thats FUCKING HARD at early in the morning. I'll get used to it.

adiakritos

I cannot sleep because I just conceived a plan to give people MASSIVE amounts of value, something that I can put together to really TRANSFORM their lives for the better. I will immediately take action by developing my plan and taking action to put it in motion!

DBWebDev

These ideas come all the time(especially when you're trying to sleep), don't get too distracted and make sure you conentrate on one thing at a time.

Demize

If I had a dollar for every....

I feel you brother, sometimes the mind refuses to sleep. I keep a notebook and write down the ideas that come as I try to get some rest... so I can get some rest.


This has been a cool thread to read, great to see your still keeping up with it, 99.9% of these type of threads die within a week.


Keep kicking ass bro, best of luck to ya.

adiakritos

Thanks guys =)
Yeah I gotta stick to one project at a time. Its a bit difficult since this one resonates with me more deeply than the others..

I dont want to spread myself to thin. The point here is to make the money... Though I really want it to be about helping people.

I suppose the best thing for me to do right now is work on the shit thats worth my money each hour I work at it and not on distractions.. I'll infuse that desire to help people in whatever it is I'm doing anyways so the fire wont stop burning.

adiakritos

Making criteria list of stores to approach about designing them a site. Dont really know how its all going to work out.. so I'm figuring that out too lol

adiakritos

Ok, I gotta break this shit down some more! I gotta know.. what can I offer at this point... what the client wants... and how much it is worth.
learning how to make a legal contract...

thats pretty much all that I'm aware of that I have to be aware of so far.. I dont know what else to look out for yet.

catonkeyboard

Good read, Im just starting off myself, Good Luck bro.

adiakritos

Thanks man. the same to you! I hope you resolved to get where ever it is you wish to go cause... that resolve I think is the only thing really pulling me through when I feel like getting distracted. Make sure you know how to plan your time! I figure out how many hours in a day I actually have to work. and do what I call "cycles" which looks like this...60/10/60/10/30
that is, 60 mins work, 10 mins rest, 60 work, 10 rest, 30 rest/small meal... I do this for everything. I use my cell phone as a timer and I alternate between standing and sitting work. This helps me be able to work everything I do, even if it is one thing.

Like yesterday I did just math for 6 hours.. with only those break in between. 6 hours of solid, undistracted work. Thats the best way to do anything man. Try it and you'll find time for everything. Thats whats happened for me.. so I hope its of the same significance in your life as it has been in mine!




A buddy of mine got a prospect to consider him in a job that he estimates to be like 2-3k. I fuckin hope he gets the guy to commit.. even for 1k, him and I can split it and that 500 dollars and another couple hundred in experience points ;-)

I told him to make a simple contract and have the guy to sign the dotted line.. so its officially and legally in play.

This sure beats the hell out of doing free work for people to build my portfolio.

adiakritos

One last thing.. I realize that my initial goal of $600 per day in 6 -1 months is nearly gonna be pushed waaay back haha. I'll get it though, as soon as I can consistently make marketing spending money designing web pages. and THAT I'll have to make a new goal.. Fuck it.. I'm gonna be making sites for 1k consistently by July. That is... taking into account all the sites I'd have done by the end of July and average over 1k.

adiakritos

Fused with a friend to build a small web design company. Bought a domain name, got the hosting, planning personal site and company details now.

No more 3k contract deal. We realized we were asking to much for the dead lines that were put upon us. The site we were to design if we accepted the job would be the back bone of promotion for a huge event that would be featuring Akon. The client would be spending 200k to feature him in addition to everything else they would purchase to host the event, using our site for promotion.. and the only knowledge I have is CSS... haha fuck that. I'm not getting sued for not meeting the dead lines and fucking up some event for some loaded jewish kids. lmfao I'll stick to a task I can handle with the guns that I got.

Minderwinter

^ Big mistake. Fake it 'till you make it.

juntao65

You backed out from that? Like the above poster said, fake it till you make it. Learn it as you go. It's his own fault for not doing due dilligence. It's just an opportunity for you.

adiakritos

We haven't really decided yet. We don't want to pass it up. Its a golden opportunity to learn so much. It'll really push me hard.

I'm having a hard time adding up the benefits against the consequences. For me really, there isn't any real consequences.. I'm the programmer behind the face of the guy who's signing the deal. I have no real legal affiliation. Although, don't want to fuck my friend over.. or anyone for that matter. I can leave the decision up to him and just work hard to serve up the best stuff I can. But I don't want to absolve myself of any responsibility for fucking up. Its like I'd get the money and credit for doing a good job and no blame for fucking up. Its a good deal on paper... though I've got character, man.

Really what the client has in mind is to have us create the site.. and then do all the events to promote the site its self.. not anything else.

They want us to make a facebook for universities type thing. I only have CSS and HTML knowledge with some basic programming knowledge. I don't know what I have to know to make that work.. or where to start. or how to set it up with joomla...

Any technical advice.. books.. tutorials... that anyone can offer me on using Joomla to make a facebook type of site?

adiakritos

I didn't think fake it till you make it meant taking on seemingly professional projects with novice practical experience.

I thought it meant thinking and behaving like a professional to take on challenges that are within reach given the time constraint. If there was no time constraint I'd take the job and go at it with more time to breathe.. and ultimately do a better job in the end. Thats what I envision at least.

dchuk

You need to look into something like an open source social network, like elgg, dolphin, or anything listed here open source social network - Google Search

That's a hugeeee undertaking if starting from relative scratch, so give yourself a hand and start from something prebuilt and customize it.

emp

dchuck is the man.

We are also looking at elgg for another project.

There is also a WP extension - buddypress which looks like it will do a lot most people need.

With this thing, make sure to get all the details you can get in writing.

See my own articles on specs here:
Blind Ape Seo How to manage outsourced projects

Or Joel Spolsky's series on functional specs:
Painless Functional Specifications - Part 1: Why Bother? - Joel on Software

Best regards,
::emp::

__________________
Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

Blind Ape Seo

dchuk

To add on to what emp is saying, it takes a lot of skill and practice to learn how to manage clients and projects. Getting stuff built out is actually not as hard as it sounds, as long as you have a good idea of the project and relatively good knowledge of coding. My advice is start reading like a motherfucker, books, magazines, good blogs, anything.

There's a lot of monies to be made in the world of brokering, no matter what the industry is. If you can learn how to handle clients and run projects, you can find some developers to make things happen. Then just coordinate things in the middle and start throwing some d's

Finally, get EVERYTHING in writing. Get a formal proposal signed off on, lay out your milestones for the whole project, get a sign off at each one. Always get formal sign offs on everything, I can't stress this enough. It keeps everyone on the same page and keeps you from having to deal with a lot of the client bullshit

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