Building from broke

I'm back from the North. Severely missed the Internet up there. Done nought since the 23rd and the adwords cash runs out today. Made no sales right now so my thoughts are that the website doesn't look high enough quality. I mean even if the product was utter shite, people would still be buying it unless they didn't trust the page enough.

A fantastic post from CCarter (link here) has made me change my plans. Instead of concentrating for link building over the next week or two I will instead concentrate on making my site look more like a brand.

Steps:
- Integrate the payment system into my site and secure with a SSL certificate (looks more professional and it means I can track more).
- Install the Search Meter plugin to track what people search for on my site. I have a feeling this will be useful in the future. As CCarter says "People are type in what they are looking for on your site, why the fuck aren't you taking advantage of this?".
- Add a FAQ.
- Install Cloudflare for the website, get a Google Pagespeed of 90+ and make sure the W3C validation checks out.
- Add a phone number (Toll free redirecting to my phone perhaps?) and an address to the site. Put the phone number at the top right.
- In the future: Mailing box that redirects mail to my place. Gives the illusion that the site is based in more than one location.
- An improved contact form with more information.
- An improved thank you page and thank you email. Upsell in the future.
- Local citations?
- Video testimonials from fiverr? Put on website and on Youtube account.
- Improve Facebook, Twitter and Google plus page.
- Get the social media icons in the footer of the website to associate the accounts with the website.
- Buy US/UK facebook likes/ twitter followers.
- Promote relevant news stories on facebook/ twitter (Get Hootsuite?)
- Use Microdata. Connect the Google plus account as the author, add address, phone number etc etc.
- Make the homepage a 1800-2500 word post.
- Make 5 1500+ word posts for category pages. Add the video testimonials, written testimonials, lots of pictures, picture captions, bullet points and make it look nice.
- Make tons of posts that target longtails (about 20 exact searches a day).
- Add more authority trust seals
- Use the wordpress responsive theme.
- Make sure there is solid breadcrumb structure on pages.
- Going to rewrite the ebook at some point and make it more understandable. This can wait however.
- Logo from fiverr (link here - found it in the Louey thread).

c4yrslf12 said:
What is your "Buy Button" system? Seems like you have actually had quite a few buy clicks, but no conversions. Is there something up with the system? Are buyers losing trust? Seems like the rest of the numbers aren't too abnormal, just the conversion ratio.

Might check through your system of payments and make sure there is plenty of "Verified" words/pics/etc to make sure the customer is comfortable making the purchase, as well as making sure your paypal or whatever is also working seamlessly.
Click to expand...

Time to make the above changes I think ;)
 


sixthcutuan said:
Steps:
- Integrate the payment system into my site and secure with a SSL certificate (looks more professional and it means I can track more).
- Install the Search Meter plugin to track what people search for on my site. I have a feeling this will be useful in the future. As CCarter says "People are type in what they are looking for on your site, why the fuck aren't you taking advantage of this?".
- Add a FAQ.
- Install Cloudflare for the website, get a Google Pagespeed of 90+ and make sure the W3C validation checks out.
- Add a phone number (Toll free redirecting to my phone perhaps?) and an address to the site. Put the phone number at the top right.
- In the future: Mailing box that redirects mail to my place. Gives the illusion that the site is based in more than one location.
- An improved contact form with more information.
- An improved thank you page and thank you email. Upsell in the future.
- Local citations?
- Video testimonials from fiverr? Put on website and on Youtube account.
- Improve Facebook, Twitter and Google plus page.
- Get the social media icons in the footer of the website to associate the accounts with the website.
- Buy US/UK facebook likes/ twitter followers.
- Promote relevant news stories on facebook/ twitter (Get Hootsuite?)
- Use Microdata. Connect the Google plus account as the author, add address, phone number etc etc.
- Make the homepage a 1800-2500 word post.
- Make 5 1500+ word posts for category pages. Add the video testimonials, written testimonials, lots of pictures, picture captions, bullet points and make it look nice.
- Make tons of posts that target longtails (about 20 exact searches a day).
- Add more authority trust seals
- Use the wordpress responsive theme.
- Make sure there is solid breadcrumb structure on pages.
- Going to rewrite the ebook at some point and make it more understandable. This can wait however.
- Logo from fiverr (link here - found it in the Louey thread).
Click to expand...


Now we're talkin'. :hitit_sml:
 
Site is really starting to take shape now. Looking quite good but has required shit-loads of edits. Doing it all on a subdomain with no-index up for now.

Some of the things I have done with/to the responsive theme:
- Added a contact button at the top right of the screen, phone number below it
- Made 4 main categories and put them in my top bar
- Added a FAQ and also put it in the top bar
- Added a background to the page
- Added a nice side image that imo fits really well in the main content area
- Added an email submit instead of the regular call to action button in the main content area. I think CCarter mentioned this in his post. Seems like a good idea to build my aweber list.
- Removed two of the widgets at the bottom of the page (left and centre one), replaced them with bit I coded myself that fills up the same space as the two widgets and instead shows the latest blog post with the featured thumbnail beside it.
- The other widget is going to be showing off the iPhone/Android app that is easily generated by appmakr (credit to tavin on his thread).
- Made the social icons much bigger and more colourful. They are now 64x64 px and it looks much more brandy imo.

Still need to do some fixing on the blog/ category pages as imo the basic ones with responsive are a little bit crap.

Also thinking of buying a fairly long article to stick at the bottom of the home page (about 1000 words?).
 
sixthcutuan said:
- Added an email submit instead of the regular call to action button in the main content area. I think CCarter mentioned this in his post. Seems like a good idea to build my aweber list.
Click to expand...

I don't recommend this going straight to aweber. I would collect it through a wordpress plugin or something, which you control, and then upload it to your email/newsletter service provider. Excerpt from my Permission Based Marketing thread:

CCarter said:
I manually upload/update my list instead of having a Mailchimp script running. This way, if I ever get into trouble with Mailchimp, I'm not going to lose access to my data. Never trust a 3rd party with control of your data. It's all good in the hood now, but what happens when Mailchimp or any 3rd party switches their TOS on you?
Click to expand...

From
http://www.wickedfire.com/enlightened-members/165991-my-1000th-post-permission-based-marketing.html
 
CCarter said:
I don't recommend this going straight to aweber. I would collect it through a wordpress plugin or something, which you control, and then upload it to your email/newsletter service provider.
Click to expand...

Very true. This would also make it a million times easier for me to implement some effects I wanted too. I'll add this to my list.

Also I plan on creating some useful tools for others once the site design is done. Link-baity type of stuff. Saw a tutorial that gave a few hints how to do it in HTML5. Oh and for those that complain they can't code, get off your lazy asses. I've got very little idea how to do it but I've been learning with Google every time I have a problem.
 
I've also found a pretty cheap service that can redirect people phoning your 0800 (freephone) number to your landline/mobile or take a voicemail and email the wav file to you. It's only £6 a month too so no excuses for not getting that.

EDIT: Also installing wp-leads which adds the email subscribe option checkbox for those that are writing comments. Seems like it should improve subscription rates for those that are active in the niche.

EDIT2: Seems like wp-leads sends it directly to the mail providers (mailchimp etc). Looking for an alternative option right now.
 
Crap. Got too much into improving the site that I forgot to go to sleep last night. Now half 9 and I'm shattered.

- Finished off the home-page design. Just need to throw the content on and it's done.
- Finished off the blog pages design and make lots of fixes.
- Spend AGES optimising for speed with pagespeed and yslow. I've done everything I can/ know how to do for now. Got 92 for pagespeed and 94 for yslow with the page at about 100kb. Seems good for now. Also found what seems like a decent-ish UK host (any recommendations?).

Left to do:
- Waiting on logo from fiverr
- Need to make favicon. Will probably be based on logo so waiting for that.
- Need to transfer all the files from subdomain to main domain and need to setup cloudflare
- Add a custom gravatar. Want to look like a brand in replies to comments.
- Have to do a fix for a part of the page that isn't aligned quite right when on a tablet. Can wait for later.
- Pay for UK webhost
- Buy toll-free voicemail service
- Find a wp-leads alternative
- Make useful tools
- I'm going to PM Kaedus soon and see if he is still offering content. Others seem to like his stuff. Will be throwing a 1000 word permanent article onto the home-page below the widgets (below the fold but it looks better).

Also:
- Any thoughts on double or single opt-in people?
- I'm also looking for some sort of plugin/ script that won't send the user to another page after pressing the subscribe button but instead does some kind of black overlay over the subscription form with a box that says "Thanks" or something. Would rather not take people away from my main page. Anyone know of anything?

Shouldn't be long till the site is fully re-branded. Trying to get it in ASAP because I will be seriously busy in other life things from the 10th to the 28th. The good news it that I have tons of time after.
 
Hey nice thread. I haven't got any experience with selling ebooks but have you tried getting reviews on your book? You could get some links and buyers at the same time.
 
techmen said:
Hey nice thread. I haven't got any experience with selling ebooks but have you tried getting reviews on your book? You could get some links and buyers at the same time.
Click to expand...

Yep I'm thinking that I need to re-evaluate my strategy right now. Currently re-branding the site and making it look a hell of a lot better and focusing on content for now, not sales.

Then I was thinking of making the ebook more legit and throwing it on Amazon for like £7.81 (70% royalties go down to 35% after), getting some reviews and making it look like something decent instead of a scammy clickbank offer. We'll see, for now I'm just concentrating on finishing the site re-design and getting some solid category pages up.
 
Right so I've been pretty busy getting the new site design done over the last few days. Updates:
- Kaedus isn't open for content orders but referred me to someone else. Purchased 1000 words for my front page.
- Created all the social profiles necessary.
- Started coding a useful calculator app in HTML5. It combines many of the features that other calculators in the niche have but as a kind of all-in-one (noobs should like it). Hopefully could be link-bait.
- Added the posts from my main site to the new design. Currently rewriting bits of them and making them look better.
- Happy with how the google sitespeed score is now. Feels very optimised.
- Generating the iPhone app didn't work as expected so either going to say the website has a mobile version (its responsive) or use it as a funnel to my calculator.
- Waiting for logo design + home page content to be finished. Should be ready within 5 days.


To do:
- Add images/ videos to social profiles.
- Finish setting up rich snippets.
- Finish coding calculator.
- Add image + thumbnail to posts. I'll get them from sxc.hu or something.
- Move the website onto a UK server + add cloudflare.
- Add tags to posts. Means I can boast more about how many indexed pages it has in google when it's being sold.
- Find some good email subscription code instead of using the aWeber one.
- Add more subheaders/ bullet points/ outbound authority links to content.
- Buy the 0800 phone voicemail.
- Finish FAQ
- Add google map to contact page
- Add a subscribe widget in the sidebar of category pages/ posts.
- Make favicon, set up automatic backups, add custom gravatar to admin, buy video testimonials and social likes from fiverr then upload to vimeo and youtube, interlink my social profiles, add widget logic plugin for custom sidebars so that "recent posts" on category pages show the recent posts in that category instead of all recent posts.

Seems like a lot but I feel like it's almost done.
 
Got my logo. Liked the vector but didn't like the font so I've changed it. Also been fiddling with my colours to make it look a bit nicer. Should be getting the front page content soon.

Also I'll be very busy for the next four weeks so the thread will probably be updated only every few days. Plan to get it back on track after.
 
c4yrslf12 said:
Good to see you still truckin'. Haven't seen any numbers in a bit. Traffic still there?
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Traffic is gone (maybe 1-3 a day now) since adwords ran out and there was very little point in continuing it. Once I've finished the new brand-style design on the website then I will start publishing more content and hopefully start doing a bit of organic ranking. It's gonna be a long term game imo.
 
techmen said:
Hey nice thread. I haven't got any experience with selling ebooks but have you tried getting reviews on your book? You could get some links and buyers at the same time.
Click to expand...

This can be key....so long as you have confidence in the product. Consider giving out review copies to established blog owners in related niches and such.

Get down and dirty in the community of the niche. Write some blog posts, excerpt a chapter of the book. It may take a while but the payoff is usually worth it. Provide some value and gain some trust. Conversions will follow.
 
c4yrslf12 said:
Probably a good plan. Traffic is good, but so is reputation.
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TJ Grymes said:
This can be key....so long as you have confidence in the product. Consider giving out review copies to established blog owners in related niches and such.

Get down and dirty in the community of the niche. Write some blog posts, excerpt a chapter of the book. It may take a while but the payoff is usually worth it. Provide some value and gain some trust. Conversions will follow.
Click to expand...

Thanks both of you.

And yep tbh I'm concentrating less on selling ebooks and more on making this a website that I can sell in the future (I might even provide the ebook free at one point if they join my mailing list - Or ill split up the content and upload it).

I'm insanely busy right now (I've been working for the last 16 hours today not excluding meals + 1 short trip to a shop) so I won't get much done on the website apart from small bits occasionally. Schedule should be much more clear in a couple of weeks. Looking forwards to 8 hours sleep and another 13-16 hours of work tomorrow.
 
c4yrslf12 said:
8 hours of sleep? what's that? ha!
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Well actually those 8 hours include showers etc + a 1 hour workout 3 times a week ;) Worked 14 hours yesterday, might have a little bit of time tonight to do something about microdata. Otherwise I'm back to doing work for now. It's solid work too, all paperwork.
 
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