Lemons884 Journal- Will this noob succeed?

Part of the Day 50 summary since I could not edit. I did a lot of work on the store. I added a testimonial page, gift cards, and coupon/deals page to help presell. I also added a About Our Store page so the readers know the return policies, guarntees, and shipping details. I also put a direct link to the store. I think this should help a lot with conversions.

Did a little content and will do some more ;)
 


kingwhat said:
Dude I cant wait to see that "Negative: $74.88" turn into some positive cash flow for you. Keep doing your thing.
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I can't wait either. Hopefully it happens with my new site. I feel my new site already has 3x more potential then my first.

Just got backlinks to Digg and Stumbleupon. Both 8 PR. Also got 3 backlinks to wikipedia (and hopefully they stay). Wikipedia is PR 9.

With the high PR backlinks, hopefully my site gets indexed quicker. I'll probably go ahead and buy more links from Red_virus. (edit: and reddit)
 
Lemons - this thread is full of so much info. Thanks for keeping it going! (and I think I speak for all the other n00bs that have been following along)
 
I think you should have made some conversions already,
Although you have your niche, it's still not targeted enough,
Try target on a specific level or product,
try concentrate more on the AFFILIATE marketing,
and not on the CPC ads in your site.
For me at least It was low rates, low payouts, analogously to CPA offers promoting.
CPC doesn't really look like worth the effort for,

Choosing a product, target it, build an LP, drive some PPC traffic to it,
set up tracking and tweaking the campaign continuously
>>>>> will be much technically but finely would make the moniez and put you on the right wave,

But this is only me,
there are defentlly some moniez on CPC and affiliate blog's referrals,
but as for breaking through as a newbie to this marketing thing,
promoting CPA offers with LP's and PPC advertising, has been working better for me.

best luck though, props on the hard work.
 
lemons, pm me what niche you are targeting, I'll help you out a bit with keyword research. Also can help you with backlinks. :)
 
I think I need to look into all this "PPC" talk.

I'm on the first page of Google for my keyword. :)

Awesome note- Your domain has a lot to do with your keyword. I am on the first page on Google for "Track and Field Events" and my site is barely a week old. That is because my domain is trackfieldevents.com, I have a good amount of backlinks already, and this time my content is all unique.

I already feel like my other site kinda failed :/
Maybe I should sell it? The competition for it is too rough, I have clickbank links and some duplicated content so Google probably didn't like that either. 6packnow.net, simply does not convert at all.

My new website; I like a lot. It actually has an awesome theme and I revamped the store. I learned a lot about keyword search and I'm already doing better in the search engine with my new site. Again, its a niche I enjoy writing about and I stressed that earlier in this journal; I think everyone should find a niche they like writing about. Last night, I didn't even sleep; I wrote content like 5-6 hours straight; I was hooked on it.
 
Just activated an account at Google Adwords and I have $5.00

I don't know anything about PPC so I'm gonna read up on this tommorow. I gotta get some sleep- did an all-nighter.

Do you guys think it is possible to make a conversion with just $5.00? So far my keywords are:

buy discus
buy shot put
buy javelin
buy throwing hammer

I want my customers to be in a buy mode when they click my ads.
 
I'm not trying to be a downer here. I just wanted to point out a couple of things out. From what I can tell, the daily search totals for the keyphrase track and field events is around 50. The Adwords bid on that keyword is between $.31-$.49, meaning that any clicks on your adsense ads related to that will probably only pay $.08 at most. I didn't see how you chose the Track & Field niche, but it doesn't seem like it would be very profitable. I'm all for doing sites about what you're interested in, but is it worth it for such little returns? Like I said, I'm not being a negative Nancy or putting down your efforts. I think you're doing a lot of good stuff. Nice work getting to the first page of Google for those keywords. There's 52 million competing pages showing. Hopefully you won't incur the wrath of the sandbox.


The 6PackAbs site sounds like it might have the potential for a lot more profit. Higher paying niche (health & fitness), plus the keywords will get a lot more searches.

Are you going to be selling actual Track & Field related goods via Commission Junction or Amazon etc. or are you just going to Adsense clicks? Keep posting...Cheers.
 
Before you dive into PPC, I think you should probably learn a bit about it first. High chance of losing money if you don't know what you're doing. Have you signed up for Shoe Money's free course? Or used any of the tutorials at hqhow.com? Done any Google Keyword Tool research? Can't just shoot in the dark and hope for the best but base your decisions on solid data.
 
efeezy said:
I'm not trying to be a downer here. I just wanted to point out a couple of things out. From what I can tell, the daily search totals for the keyphrase track and field events is around 50. The Adwords bid on that keyword is between $.31-$.49, meaning that any clicks on your adsense ads related to that will probably only pay $.08 at most. I didn't see how you chose the Track & Field niche, but it doesn't seem like it would be very profitable. I'm all for doing sites about what you're interested in, but is it worth it for such little returns? Like I said, I'm not being a negative Nancy or putting down your efforts. I think you're doing a lot of good stuff. Nice work getting to the first page of Google for those keywords. There's 52 million competing pages showing. Hopefully you won't incur the wrath of the sandbox.


The 6PackAbs site sounds like it might have the potential for a lot more profit. Higher paying niche (health & fitness), plus the keywords will get a lot more searches.

Are you going to be selling actual Track & Field related goods via Commission Junction or Amazon etc. or are you just going to Adsense clicks? Keep posting...Cheers.
Click to expand...

I think 6packabs has a lot of potential. The problem is for me, the competition is really rough. But I won't give up on it even though I feel like it. I have to work on the sales presentation for it like I did trackandfield.

As for the trackandfield one, I think visitors will pick up around track season which is this fall and then the coming spring so I'm hoping for the best.

remarkablycleve said:
Before you dive into PPC, I think you should probably learn a bit about it first. High chance of losing money if you don't know what you're doing. Have you signed up for Shoe Money's free course? Or used any of the tutorials at hqhow.com? Done any Google Keyword Tool research? Can't just shoot in the dark and hope for the best but base your decisions on solid data.
Click to expand...

I use google keyword tool and I try to pick keywords that have only average competition, but a pretty good amount of searches.

Day 51 Summary:

-Activated Google Adwords account yesterday which cost $5
-Gonna work on the sales presentation for the 6packnow site; pretty much gonna make it the same as the trackandfield site.
-Gonna work on my content for the trackandfield site.
-I'm thinking about getting a new theme for the sixpacknow site as well.
-For trackfieldevents, my content is slowly going up
July 10- 22 visits
July 11- 39 visits
July 12- 48 visits
July 13- 61 visits
The visitors are mostly coming from Google search
-For 6packabs I'm still getting 100-150 visitors a day. Mostly from my ezine articles and wikipedia backlinks; Not search engines


Questions Still Lingering in my brain:

-I'm I in the right direction or not? If I am in the right direction, I'm I going slow?

Future Projections

-More visitors to my first site. I believe the backlinks will help out a lot.
-I have $24.88 in the paypal; so we could be looking at another domain. 3 sites, I think, has more potential to make money then 2 sites. My first site was like a project, my second site is doing great in the search engines but the search volume is really low, my third site I need to find a niche to really take control over.

Current Assets
Negative: $79.88
 
Can't edit todays post but I am running a google ad right now. I only have $5 in my adwords account but we will see how it does. I'm selling a protein shake off of my shareasale affiliate network. My keywords are like "buy whey protein shake" and such like that. Trying to get visitors in a "buy" mode.
 
Nevermind...ad disapproved for the display URL being different from the redirect.


:/

I can't get the regular URL because Google says its "steroids" when its not.
 
If I were you I would concentrate on building and monetizing a single site, messing around with 4 different ones when you are inexperienced will just result in 4 half way done sites.
 
aeisn said:
If I were you I would concentrate on building and monetizing a single site, messing around with 4 different ones when you are inexperienced will just result in 4 half way done sites.
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Good advice there. At most limit your efforts to 2 sites for now. Get those making positive cash flow and you'll have learned the skills you need to rinse and repeat and start making even more scratch.

I can see you some of the skills necessary to do this. Just keep increasing your affiliate marketing IQ and you'll get there.
 
Day 52

aeisn said:
If I were you I would concentrate on building and monetizing a single site, messing around with 4 different ones when you are inexperienced will just result in 4 half way done sites.
Click to expand...

yeah, thats what I decided to do.

efeezy said:
Good advice there. At most limit your efforts to 2 sites for now. Get those making positive cash flow and you'll have learned the skills you need to rinse and repeat and start making even more scratch.

I can see you some of the skills necessary to do this. Just keep increasing your affiliate marketing IQ and you'll get there.
Click to expand...

Yep. Thats what I'm gonna do. Decided not to get another domain yet

Day 52 Summary:

-bought 100 backlinks from "thestudent" which is worth $4.
-Just working on the track site.
-Doing the summary right now its 2:40 AM so that counts as today. Should get a lot done; can't sleep.


Questions Still Lingering in my brain:

-None

Future Projections

-None

Current Assets
Negative: $83.88
 
lemons884 said:
yeah, thats what I decided to do.



Yep. Thats what I'm gonna do. Decided not to get another domain yet

Day 52 Summary:

-bought 100 backlinks from "thestudent" which is worth $4.
-Just working on the track site.
-Doing the summary right now its 2:40 AM so that counts as today. Should get a lot done; can't sleep.


Questions Still Lingering in my brain:

-None

Future Projections

-None

Current Assets
Negative: $83.88
Click to expand...

you are progressing great. a few quick pieces of advice

1) Get involved in communities related to your niche (forums, social sites, blogs), its a great way to both get links and build up natural traffic

2) Paying for backlink services has never worked for me. IMHO its generally wasted money.

3) Not to be a downer but $5 or even $50 spent on ppc would be completely wasted. PPC is an entirely different game than SEO and requires things like a tracking system, an understanding of CPC and EPC, an understanding of where you can buy traffic and what kind of traffic that is (which you then target your approach to).

You'll get there but first get this site making you some money, you've put in some good effort and you're pretty close.

4) From what I can tell you have good traffic now. Its time to get in some other CPA networks besides clickbank and get some offers you can use to actually make some money.

I'm impressed with your journal, keep up the hard work.
 
Thanks for the above advice. I'm doing most of what you have said; but as far as I know #2 is working for a lot of people when the backlinks are high PR.
 
I took down the Statue on the 6packnow.net site on put up a CPA offer. Its time I start monetizing this traffic that I am getting. I'm averaging about 100 visitors a day. I also want to fix up the store on it like I have the Trackfieldevents.com one. Buy fixing up I mean having better store integration, adding testimonials, putting up Privacy Policy statments, shipping details, and return policies.

According to my Affiliate Network, ShareASale, I get $35 per lead for this one. The CPA offer fits my website perfectly so lets hope for the best. I think I picked a good one.
 
lemons884 said:
Thanks for the above advice. I'm doing most of what you have said; but as far as I know #2 is working for a lot of people when the backlinks are high PR.
Click to expand...

most of the links you buy will be fairly worthless, even if they are dofollow because either

a) they will be in the same place the person selling them puts all their sold links or
b) they will be from low trust rank / low quality, possibly unindexed and rarely authoritative themselves pages.

if you can get high PR links for fairly cheaply then thats not horrible but the person you are buying them from will probably keep selling on the same source, reducing your net benefit. Otherwise he/she will price according to value, which means you arent getting high pr cheap.

Your money is better spent on outsourcing for people who can engage communities, comment on blogs, build more satellite sites, etc.
 
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