A n00b's first steps into Internet Marketing

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OK, I had promised more help than I have given.

So here is one of my feared Photochops. :D

AShelp_01.jpg


We will go through some of my points.
- rename "home"
This is (IMHO) a noob error. Call your home page something that has to do with your topic/site.

- remove the stripes.
They have no function and make the page look busy as hell.

- Remove the adsense link block.
No one clicking there? remove it. This will make your other adspaces more valuable.

- Recolor the Black stripe
Sleeping is one of the fear-laden things for young parents (sudden infant death, ..) This will also be one of the concerns driving the research into infant sleeping bags. Making your site look like a graveyard does not endear you to your customers.

- rethink the ad strategy.
Right now, you have this horrible, blinking mess on the top right of your site.
Remove all of them and promote ONE or two offers.

And a possible end result:

AShelp_02.jpg


(The green rectangle would be a premium adspot)

You STILL have to add content. You have not added amazon links/reviews/products. All I see now is 13 sites in google of which probably 6 are mere navigational pages (April overview/March Overview/Home Page,Category Overviews...)

When to stop?

Well... I did a bit of market research
Google: "Toddler Sleeping bags"
Ignoring amazon, here are some page 1 results:

Sweetbedbugs.com --> 265 pages
Littlebigfoot.com --> 65 pages
babyinabag.com --> 45 pages
netkidswear.com/kidsleepingbag.html --> about 42 sleeping bags

So aim for about 100 pages and you might get there slowly.
Keep in mind that all these pages are pure resources for your blog. Articles, product reviews, etc..

GOOOOO!

::emp::
 


Thanks for the pointers emp!

I have updated my site accordingly, and it looks a LOT better. Unfortunately I have done nothing else this week as I was struck down with tonsillitis. It was bad enough that I qualified for proper painkillers from the GP, which is an added bonus as I have quite a few spare in case of inconvenient hangovers or boredom. So, not much done this week apart from watching the ceiling spin round and having some really strange dreams.

Since my last update, I've been looking into PPC more. I ran a poll campaign on MSN adcenter through to an email submit, which generated me nearly $70 in revenue.

I used $100 worth of clicks to get that $70 income, but it still proves the concept is workable. I was using a £50 adcenter voucher, so it's still profit, just not sustainable. I guess it counts as "making my first buck online", so I'm pleased.


Encouraged by this, I've joined up with the PPC Coach program, and I'm following his course. I will, of course, post up my progress with PPC coach along as a review in this thread.

From my experience so far PPC is more attractive to me than blogging, as I'm a systems freak at heart. What the Toddler Sleeping Bag blog has taught me is that it seems to require a hell of a lot of content to rank - which could make scaling difficult for me. I'm going to carry on with it though as I think the lessons in SEO will be useful.

A concrete benefit I've found from having this site is that I don't seem to be having the troubles getting accepted by networks that some people seem to. Even having something as basic as this up seems to reassure aff managers.

I think I may have made a fatal error early on in not being sure how well my niche will monetize - even if I do get to result 1 for "toddler sleeping bags", will it make bank for me? I probably could have sorted that out early on by running a PPC campaign before I invest time in SEO. That's something I'll try next time.

Ok, on to getting some more content up, and launching PPC campaigns :)

Total gross income so far = $68.75 (PPC campaign) + $1.82 (blog)
 
emp said:
You could, of course just sell the site now.

::emp::
Click to expand...

Now there's an interesting idea. I don't think I'm quite done learning from it yet, as I'd like to see what backlinks and more content does to the ranking. Although it's pretty clear this site isn't going to make my fortune, I've already learned things that I can apply to ventures with more potential. And maybe, when I'm done learning, selling it is the best thing to do.

But does a non-ranking site with $1.83 in income have any value? If so, what sort of ballpark?

I'm guessing DP is the place to sell stuff like this?
 
Hi AS,

I think it's been over two months on this one site?

Where is it ranking in Google now?

Imo, you need to stop everything you are doing, (especially stop all site
tweaking), and focus 100% of your energy on getting backlinks.

What good is a pretty site that is wonderfully navigatable with lots of
interesting, relevent content IF IT HAS NO TRAFFIC?

Get traffic first, then tweak the site.
Get traffic first, then monetize it.
Get traffic first.


just one man's opinion,
Bompa
 
now, bompa... If you weren't just a fucking douche, you might have provided tips / tricks / links with which to get traffic. But you just wanted to troll, not add value. Asshat.

Yes, of course build traffic. I would still go with building content.

Also:
I think your adsense is too intrusive.

- Try putting it on the LEFT side, so it is closer to the navigation.
- Fucking get rid of the topmost adsense link block... ARGH.
- Make your excerpt text longer, so the ads blend more.
- Also make the link color in adsense the same color as the links in your right sidebar.
- Out more posts on the front page (7) and display adsense every 3rd post only.

I copied this how to from here: WordPress - add Adsense to your blog

But I already tweaked the code for a 3rd adsense spot.

Here ya go:
Code: 
<?php
$postnum = 1;
$showadsense1 = 1;
$showadsense2 = 3;
$showadsense3 = 6;
?>
which would go at the top.

Again copying from the above, you already have this:
Code: 
<?php if ($postnum == $showadsense1) {
echo '
Your adsense code goes here
';
 } ?>

<?php $postnum++; ?>
and you would add another block below the first ad, but above the counter at the bottom. Here it is all together:
Code: 
<?php if ($postnum == $showadsense1) {
echo '
Your adsense code goes here
';
 } ?>

<?php if ($postnum == $showadsense2) {
echo '
Your adsense code goes here
';
 } ?>

<?php if ($postnum == $showadsense3) {
 echo '
 Your adsense code goes here
 ';
  } ?>
<?php $postnum++; ?>
The first bit says the values, then the values are checked each time WP goes through The Loop.
If the counter matches what your value is, the ad is shown. Changing the numbers lets you change the placement.

No, no sexual favours please. Just paypal me some beers.

::emp::
 
Thanks for the feedback - I've missed a week with my updated, but for good reason, been busy with other IM projects :)

I have removed the link at the top, and made the suggested changes to adsense code.

Here's a neater way to do it in php:

at the top

Code: 
<?php
$postnum = 1;
?>
at the top part of The Loop

Code: 
<?php if ($postnum==1 || $postnum==3 || $postnum==6) echo 'adsense code goes here';  ?>
at the bottom of The Loop, just before it iterates:

Code: 
<?php $postnum++; ?>

(I've managed to remember how to code after a 5 year break :) )

I haven't done much else with the blog, as I've been busy with other stuff, so a quick update on my general situation.

As I mentioned before, I've sussed out that my chosen niche is unlikely to recoup the investment of my putting a lot of time into writing articles. I'm not going offload it right away though, as I want do some linkbuilding to see how it works.

I'm investing all my time (and some money) into learning PPC, as I think that will provide me with a quicker return. I know I'll need to pick up SEO again later as it's good for longer term income.

I've also set up a joint venture with a friend of mine who's a very successful marketer (the old-style kind - mailouts, ads in papers, PR etc) which I'm already learning loads from.

All in all, this experiment has been a great way for me to find out more about Internet Marketing, enough to know that I want to pursue it as a career. Luckily I have a 1 day a week contract that (just about) covers my living costs, so I have time to spend on this.

I've got another 2 weeks to go before the promised 3 months is up, so I'll keep posting how my "first steps" are going, although they will probably be more in the field of PPC than with this blog.
 
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