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Open Questions Thread
- Thread starter Deliguy
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Eli:
How much effort per day do you put into any given web site, and please itemize it
Jason
//EDIT: Have to add...in addition to effort, please include time and money spent if you would.
Jason
I also put the absolute minimal I have to. However more importantly would be the fact that I automate every possible step I can in the building and promoting of a new site. For instance if I'm coding the functionality of a site and basically laying out its structure, most of the time that structure can be reused later for another project or site. So instead of hardcoding it and making it how I want it to be, I'll take a little extra time to make it variable based and easily customizable for another day on another project. Sometimes I'll even go as far as to create a packager and quick installer for it, one that'll setup the database and all that for me. This is a pain in the ass at the beginning but after so many projects it really starts to pay off big time. You can start looking through your structures and decide on one within your library for just about any new site you can produce, and boom most of your work is already done because you thought ahead. Every once in awhile you'll need a new structure or something so I just keep the future in mind when I code it, then add it to the library.
The same goes for promotion. I started off a long time ago with a base. I know I'd eventually start promoting a lot of websites. So I setup a small server and had a secret website on it where me and the people in my office can login and see the global stats of all of our sites and quickly promote a site. Then when we would get a neat idea of how to get some links we would code it into a module and add it to the system. After so long it built up and built up until you can login, put in the sites information, check all the methods of promotion you want to do with it, over what amount of time, and pick several options on how many links you want and other variables, hit a button and be completely done. so you can move on to the next project. Set it and forget is a strong policy in my office, there's no point in ever coding things twice.
One more if I may
My wife is forcing me to ask you another question. I finally got her to start doing something productive on the internet, (she is a stay at home mom). So she is really good with writing tutorials and I gave her an unused blog I had. She has been writing tutorials for a while and it has paid off in terms of adsense. Is their any other way that you could think of to monetize a tutorial based site?
My wife is forcing me to ask you another question. I finally got her to start doing something productive on the internet, (she is a stay at home mom). So she is really good with writing tutorials and I gave her an unused blog I had. She has been writing tutorials for a while and it has paid off in terms of adsense. Is their any other way that you could think of to monetize a tutorial based site?
Absolutely, hand written tutorial based sites always do very well with pagerank due to their own internal structure plus the fact that they can easily be submitted to places like Wikipedia(nofollow isn't as ineffective as you may think). So places like textlinkbrokers provide an awesome steady income that can usually match the adsense dollar for dollar each month. They usually climb in income each month because the people who bought the link are usually so happy with the site its on and never take their link down. I have a few tutorial based sites that have had the same textlinkbroker links for 4 solid years now, and still gains one every once in awhile. With the textlinkbrokers example they also have a directory program, where you put up a small link directory and hide it on your site with a link on the main page and no where else. Then they can automatically insert content based links at will. They payout $5/link and can be negotiated up to about $7/link. People buy these directory links in mass so you can usually average a solid 50 links/month. Also with a bit of negotiating you can break down the tutorial topics into subdomains and they each count as a separate site. Especially if you assign a different class-c ip on each subdomain.
There are also several other options she can do, she can promote products directly related to the tutorials. I'd sign up with Shareasale because they have an absolutely huge inventory of products and she can easily find just about any product she wants. Also, Ad-Bright and other places will work and remain discrete on the pages.
Well, it depends on the tutorials (sorry)
Say, photoshop:
- Photoshop software (plug ins, adobe creative suit, etc)
- Photoshop Books
- Photoshop Tutorial DVDs
All of this can probably be found at amazon, so open up a partner ID there.
Just take some of her writing skills and review some books/dvds etc..
Same for tutorials on anything (just replace photoshop). If the thing is craft related, you might also peddle accessories, etc..
So here goes: Oil Painting
- Painting software (Multimedia museums, painter, etc..)
- Painting Books
- Painting Tutorial DVDs
::emp::
Say, photoshop:
- Photoshop software (plug ins, adobe creative suit, etc)
- Photoshop Books
- Photoshop Tutorial DVDs
All of this can probably be found at amazon, so open up a partner ID there.
Just take some of her writing skills and review some books/dvds etc..
Same for tutorials on anything (just replace photoshop). If the thing is craft related, you might also peddle accessories, etc..
So here goes: Oil Painting
- Painting software (Multimedia museums, painter, etc..)
- Painting Books
- Painting Tutorial DVDs
::emp::
Yeah just look at the AdSense ads on your site. Chances are you're going to see "buy photoshop" ads. BLOCK THAT SHIT!
Why should you get paid like 10 cents for someone to buy PS from a guy who will get paid more along the lines of $50....do it yourself!
Why should you get paid like 10 cents for someone to buy PS from a guy who will get paid more along the lines of $50....do it yourself!
Eli,
Between your blog and this forum, I believe you are one of the most generous people I have ever encountered. You could easily keep all this to yourself or hire out your services or otherwise sell the information but you choose to give freely. The reciprocation gods will look favorably on you! :bowdown:
My question is about learning to implement so many of these techniques. Specifically, learning the lingo and jargon, as well as the technical intricacies involved.
How does one go about learning what's needed to automate? How do you seperate what's important to know from what's not?
I know a lot is subject to personal preference but, if one does not know the difference between say, PHP or RoR, how would one choose to learn one over the other? (That was merely an example and I'm NOT trying to decide between PHP or RoR.)
So many things I read take for granted the reader already knows and understands the technology or topic. There is so much specific lingo in the text it's impossible to understand unless one is already familiar with it.
My question boils down to, how do I figure out what it is I don't know and where to learn it? What's a good starting point for someone who wants to learn something useful and what is most useful to learn first?
I already earn a handsome living from my efforts but so much of what I do is manual labor because I don't know how to automate very much. The automation I have is either commercially produced or I have to hire someone to custom build it for me. I'd really like to learn more but I don't know where to begin.
I know this kind of knowledge will not come to me through osmosis but I don't have the time or inclination to spend the next 4 years attending school full time to earn a degree in computer science.
Basically, I don't know what I don't know and I don't know how to figure out what is important to learn and where to learn it. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much for starting this thread and allowing all of us to ask these questions!
PS I always thought, when you referred to Recessive Pat, you actually meant Androgynous Pat from SNL. My bad!
Between your blog and this forum, I believe you are one of the most generous people I have ever encountered. You could easily keep all this to yourself or hire out your services or otherwise sell the information but you choose to give freely. The reciprocation gods will look favorably on you! :bowdown:
My question is about learning to implement so many of these techniques. Specifically, learning the lingo and jargon, as well as the technical intricacies involved.
How does one go about learning what's needed to automate? How do you seperate what's important to know from what's not?
I know a lot is subject to personal preference but, if one does not know the difference between say, PHP or RoR, how would one choose to learn one over the other? (That was merely an example and I'm NOT trying to decide between PHP or RoR.)
So many things I read take for granted the reader already knows and understands the technology or topic. There is so much specific lingo in the text it's impossible to understand unless one is already familiar with it.
My question boils down to, how do I figure out what it is I don't know and where to learn it? What's a good starting point for someone who wants to learn something useful and what is most useful to learn first?
I already earn a handsome living from my efforts but so much of what I do is manual labor because I don't know how to automate very much. The automation I have is either commercially produced or I have to hire someone to custom build it for me. I'd really like to learn more but I don't know where to begin.
I know this kind of knowledge will not come to me through osmosis but I don't have the time or inclination to spend the next 4 years attending school full time to earn a degree in computer science.
Basically, I don't know what I don't know and I don't know how to figure out what is important to learn and where to learn it. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much for starting this thread and allowing all of us to ask these questions!
PS I always thought, when you referred to Recessive Pat, you actually meant Androgynous Pat from SNL. My bad!
1. Here's my thoughts on fluctuating serps.
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-...echniques-loosing-urgent-help.html#post157346
2. If the top sites are shit than you got an easier job ahead of you. Your linking campaign is more likely to stick and the people who link to them are more likely to link to you as well and possibly even remove their links once they see your site. Consider checking out a program called Link Fetcher.
3. I actually gave this exact advice to another member here with one of his sites. He was going for a term that had very little link possibilities just like niches such as mortgages would. So I recommended he looked for his links through parallel niches where the gathering is still relevant but much easier to acquire. For instance if you're going for "mortgage loans." You could search for links with "mortgage forum", "mortgage blogs," "mortgage directory," "loan forum," "loan blog," "loan directory." The basic technique you want to aim for is look for mediums and site types that are quick to give out a link, like i mentioned above, blogs, forums and directories. Then break down all your keywords and similar keywords to find related sites, build your links through them. It makes it much easier and gives you a much larger bucket to pick from.
I used to have this professor that was an ex high level nasa engineer. He was a really nice guy and incredibly smart. However he warned us at the beginning of the term that since he's new and is so used to the nasa environment he used a lot of acronyms. So he gave us a cheat sheet of all of his most used acronyms along with our syllabus. That fucker was not joking! We spent the first few weeks of class frantically scrambling through our cheat sheets just to figure out what the hell he was talking about, he'd say shit like, "just connect TRW to the common ground" What the fuck! What the hell is a TRW. *scramble* TRW- The Red Wire. Ooooooh. haha. So don't get too caught up in all the jargon and lingo. It's just to make our writing lives easier, if you systematically work your way through it and look 'em all up you'll find each has a very logical and simple meaning. The same goes for automation.
Task automation is a skill just like marketing and design are. It involves knowledge of server side language's just like marketing involves a knowledge of consumers. Automation seems very complicated if you look at it from behind the glass, but once you get up close and start learning how to script yourself you'll find it's incredibly easy. A good place to start out would be to find a good server side language to learn, you really only need to learn one. A server side language is a programming language that allows you to directly interact with the operating system, so you can do actual tasks internally and browser side as apposed to just browser side which would be languages like Javascript and CSS. Here's a great tutorial on the differences between the server side languages, because like you said it really is just a matter of preference.
Which Server-Side Language Is Right For You? [Server Side Essentials]
I personally use CGI/PERL. but I know most of the people here prefer PHP and a select few are hardcore into Ruby on rails. Just pick whatever you think is best for you. The reality is they all will do nicely.
Name 3 places to get links for mostly white hat sites. So trackback spam doesn't count and social bookmarking sites does. Also ones that most people wouldnt think of 
Name 3 places to get links for mostly white hat sites. So trackback spam doesn't count and social bookmarking sites does. Also ones that most people wouldnt think of
I'll give you one right off the top of my head
Dmoz editor bookmarks. Editors can bookmark sites they like and it shows up under their public profile (many have very high page ranks because they edit top level categories), and dmoz has a form you can submit to contact each editor. Convincing a couple hundred or thousand to bookmark your site is worth quite a few dmoz listings. :rasta:
Here's about 44,000 to get ya started -> Yahoo! Site Explorer
I always find the niche than the offer. Offers are easy to come by. In fact i consider the montenization of my sites to be the job of my account managers. They know their inventories better than I ever possibly could. So first i find the niches, build the sites, then everyday i schedule a small meetup with my account managers. I give them their sites for the day and they respond back with what ads I should put on. If they don't have any ads to match they let me know and I give the site to someone else on another network. It's a give take relationship. They know the better they serve relevant and high converting ads the better I will do on their network and the more money they will make, so the sites rotate through until all the best matches have been made. Then after about six months they go through the revamp process, where all poorly performing ads are given to other account managers where they are allowed to make any changes they'd like and swap in their own ads. If those ads end up performing than they get to keep the site 6 months later. Eventually every site I own ends up with the highest performing ad placement possible.
Eli,
Thanks man!
I guess your answer validates my recent decision to learn PHP. I just wasn't sure that's all I'd really need. I imagine, as time passes, I'll want to learn other stuff, too. I just wasn't sure of the best place to begin.
I allowed my lack of knowledge to overwhelm me and cause me to doubt myself. I recall how satisfying it felt when I finally started to grasp HTML so long ago. If I can keep that in the front of my mind, I think I'll be OK.
I read things like are posted on your blog, as well as so many other places and the ease which people use to explain things and the comments by others who already understand just contributed to my feelings of being overhwelmed. I'll look at it all differently now.
Thanks for making something complicated so simple.
I'll give you one right off the top of my head
Dmoz editor bookmarks. Editors can bookmark sites they like and it shows up under their public profile (many have very high page ranks because they edit top level categories), and dmoz has a form you can submit to contact each editor. Convincing a couple hundred or thousand to bookmark your site is worth quite a few dmoz listings. :rasta:
Here's about 44,000 to get ya started -> Yahoo! Site Explorer
So are you saying scrape all those names and use the email form? Then just use a generic email saying "hey you should bookmark my site?" How do you make it so it doesn't sound like you're just begging for links...
Eli, you rock.
I set up a script for your blackhole method. It scrapes weblogs for now, but will be different soon. When I create my feed, it pulls a random description and link from a database. So, it pulls a different link/description everytime the feed is updated.
2 quick questions:
1. Where should the channel link point to, or does it matter?
2. My posts are not showing up in blogsearch at all (after 3ish weeks), but the feed is indexed in google's normal serps. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
I set up a script for your blackhole method. It scrapes weblogs for now, but will be different soon. When I create my feed, it pulls a random description and link from a database. So, it pulls a different link/description everytime the feed is updated.
2 quick questions:
1. Where should the channel link point to, or does it matter?
2. My posts are not showing up in blogsearch at all (after 3ish weeks), but the feed is indexed in google's normal serps. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
channel link can just point to your site. So thats fine.
Google blogsearch is a big cookie to take on. They are very slow at indexing(in my experience it takes about 3 weeks) but once your feeds are in they get updated fairly often. It also takes a lot of feeds and a lot of time before they start producing results. There's millions of feeds in gbs and scraper sites only grab the top 100-1000 for their keywords. In my experience i've gone up to 400 megs worth of xml files alone before i started seeing the 100's of links/hour rolling in. It takes time, patience, and continually building before any measurable results start coming in. The best indicator of whether or not its working is if your getting any links at all. When you do then it starts snowballing from there and becomes very big very quickly.
Good luck man and keep plugging away.
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