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Millonaire Mind Intensive
Right, let me show you how you can have money paid in to your account
everyday!
You are about to take the first steps to having more money in your pocket every
day.
What I do is so simple you are
going to be amazed. I will take you through the millionare money making system step by step so that you can
generate £ 2,206.26 over a weekend just
like me, using other peoples products.
Improve Your Blog’s Revenue, Traffic & Bounce Rate By Using WordPress Menus & Static Pages
One of my pet peeves with some blogs is the lack of static pages,
which can make browsing and finding information a complete nightmare.
By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.
While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.
For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog. It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc. So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.
My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator. That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.
Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.
This post is fairly long, but stay with me. It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.
Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories. Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.
So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.
This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.
Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.
The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages. So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.
The problem is, most themes only have one menu. Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.
Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development. I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.
Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.
The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus. I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs. So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.
You can download my theme here and use it if you like.
The good news is that it’s a child theme. So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.
Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.
One
of my pet peeves with some blogs is the lack of static pages, which can
make browsing and finding information a complete nightmare.
By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.
While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.
For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog. It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc. So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.
My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator. That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.
Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.
This post is fairly long, but stay with me. It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.
Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories. Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.
So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.
This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.
Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.
The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages. So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.
The problem is, most themes only have one menu. Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.
Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development. I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.
Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.
The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus. I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs. So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.
You can download my theme here and use it if you like.
The good news is that it’s a child theme. So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.
Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.
You can apply these lessons to any theme, however if your theme only has one menu then it may be more challenging (especially if you want to highlight your post categories in your menu).
Let’s go back to the wedding planning example.
Instead of using your theme’s menu to highlight your post categories that send people to a list of your random posts sorted by date, we are going to create 4 static landing Pages that represent the 4 main topics of your blog. These Pages will be linked from your main menu.
So in your WordPress Dashboard, go to Pages and then select Add New. Create your landing pages. For this example we will name them…
1) Budgeting
2) Hiring a Planner
3) The Ceremony
4) Invitations
We are going to add these landing pages to the WordPress Menu because they contain important content that your visitors need to read. The idea is we want these pages to remain visible on your blog no matter the date! That’s the purpose of static pages.
Notice the two links below the opening paragraph on the Budgeting landing page. These are links to 2 more WordPress Pages that are “children” of the Budgeting Page.
When you create a new Page in WordPress, you are given the option (in Edit mode) of choosing a Parent for that page. So I created two more Pages called What You Should Know and Best Ways to Save and assigned the Budgeting Page as their Parent. Then I linked them from the Budgeting landing page.
Note: You don’t have to assign a Parent to these pages, but it’s a good habit to get into because some themes (Thesis) will automatically add your child pages as drop-down options in menus.
Now I’m going to show you how to highlight these important static pages on your theme’s navigation menu.
So we’re going to create a brand new menu on the very top of the blog (you can call it whatever you want.) This menu is going to consist of the 4 landing pages we just created (Budgeting, Hiring a Planner, The Ceremony, Invitations) and any child pages you created.
The child pages will show up as drop-down options underneath the main topic as illustrated below…
Once you’ve created your Pages, setting up this kind of menu is super easy. Just go to Menu under the Appearance tab in WordPress and click the + sign to create a new menu.
Name the menu whatever you’d like. I named mine “Main Menu” since it’s at the top of the blog and links to my most important topics.
Now you’re going to add your 4 new landing Pages (and their children) to the menu by scrolling down to the Pages section and selecting all the appropriate pages. See screenshot below where I’ve selected the parent Page “Budgeting” and all its children.
Now we want to make sure the child pages show up as drop-down options when you hover over Budgeting. You do that by simply dragging all the child Pages over to the right so they are indented. See screenshot below…
Repeat this for all the Pages and children you want to add to this menu. Save your menu when you are done.
Now when you refresh your blog you should see your main topics in the new menu. When you click the main topic (Budgeting, for example) it should go to the static landing Page you created.
When you hover over each topic, it should also display the child pages as drop-down options.
I’m just trying to help you improve your blog’s navigation so your readers can find your most important (static) content. When you have a tutorial/how-to site there is certain content that should always be accessible. That’s why you want to make good use of Pages and highlight them from your menu(s).
There are a few ways to highlight your recent posts and categories on your menu:
1) Simply add the Categories to your menu like you did the Pages above
2) Use my Twenty Eleven child theme and reserve one of the extra menus for your Categories
3) Create a new Post category called “News” or “Updates” and make all your existing Post categories children of this new category.
Add the “News” category to one of your menus and the sub categories as drop-downs underneath. Now your readers can find your most recent posts and view by category if they wish.
Now you’ve got the best of both worlds with WordPress. You can feature your most important and potentially highest-converting static content while continuing to highlight your recent work (latest posts).
- When your navigation is logical, your readers can find what they need and they are more likely to return to reference your content. They will also stay longer and view more pages (improves your bounce rate).
- When people return, they are much more likely to buy products you recommend and sell, which will increase your blog’s revenue.
- This can also be beneficial for search engine optimization because your content is organized logically and it gives the engines a better idea for what your site is about. Having more static pages can potentially boost your search engine traffic in the long-run.
By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.
While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.
For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog. It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc. So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.
My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator. That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.
Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.
This post is fairly long, but stay with me. It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.
The Example
Let’s pretend you are building a website on how to plan a wedding — a topic where the information is best presented in a certain order instead of random posts sorted by category.Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories. Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.
So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.
This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.
Static Pages are the Answer
I’m sure you already know by now that creating Pages instead of Posts with WordPress is the way to display important content that you don’t want to get buried over time.Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.
The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages. So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.
Using WordPress Menus
The WordPress Menu feature is really powerful. You can take your theme’s default menu and change it into a completely different menu with pages, categories, external sites or a combination of all three!The problem is, most themes only have one menu. Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.
Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development. I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.
Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.
The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus. I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs. So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.
You can download my theme here and use it if you like.
The good news is that it’s a child theme. So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.
Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.
Improve Your Blog’s Revenue, Traffic & Bounce Rate By Using WordPress Menus & Static Pages
October 10, 2011 By 167 Comments
One
of my pet peeves with some blogs is the lack of static pages, which can
make browsing and finding information a complete nightmare.By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.
While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.
For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog. It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc. So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.
My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator. That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.
Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.
This post is fairly long, but stay with me. It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.
The Example
Let’s pretend you are building a website on how to plan a wedding — a topic where the information is best presented in a certain order instead of random posts sorted by category.Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories. Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.
So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.
This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.
Static Pages are the Answer
I’m sure you already know by now that creating Pages instead of Posts with WordPress is the way to display important content that you don’t want to get buried over time.Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.
The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages. So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.
Using WordPress Menus
The WordPress Menu feature is really powerful. You can take your theme’s default menu and change it into a completely different menu with pages, categories, external sites or a combination of all three!The problem is, most themes only have one menu. Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.
Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development. I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.
Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.
The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus. I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs. So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.
You can download my theme here and use it if you like.
The good news is that it’s a child theme. So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.
Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.
How to Improve Your Blog’s Navigation
Whether you use my 3-menu theme or not, this section is very important. I will show you how to make your blog navigation more intuitive and useful by using static Pages and the WordPress Menu feature.You can apply these lessons to any theme, however if your theme only has one menu then it may be more challenging (especially if you want to highlight your post categories in your menu).
Let’s go back to the wedding planning example.
Instead of using your theme’s menu to highlight your post categories that send people to a list of your random posts sorted by date, we are going to create 4 static landing Pages that represent the 4 main topics of your blog. These Pages will be linked from your main menu.
So in your WordPress Dashboard, go to Pages and then select Add New. Create your landing pages. For this example we will name them…
1) Budgeting
2) Hiring a Planner
3) The Ceremony
4) Invitations
The reason I am creating Pages instead of Categories is because we will be highlighting these 4 topics on your navigation menu. And when your readers click on any of the 4 topics from the menu, they will be taken to a static landing page instead of a dynamic page that displays a random hodgepodge of all your recent posts (which is how most WordPress blogs are setup.)Here is what your first landing Page may look like.
We are going to add these landing pages to the WordPress Menu because they contain important content that your visitors need to read. The idea is we want these pages to remain visible on your blog no matter the date! That’s the purpose of static pages.
Notice the two links below the opening paragraph on the Budgeting landing page. These are links to 2 more WordPress Pages that are “children” of the Budgeting Page.
When you create a new Page in WordPress, you are given the option (in Edit mode) of choosing a Parent for that page. So I created two more Pages called What You Should Know and Best Ways to Save and assigned the Budgeting Page as their Parent. Then I linked them from the Budgeting landing page.
Note: You don’t have to assign a Parent to these pages, but it’s a good habit to get into because some themes (Thesis) will automatically add your child pages as drop-down options in menus.
Now I’m going to show you how to highlight these important static pages on your theme’s navigation menu.
Using The WordPress Menu
When you go to the WordPress Menu section (under Appearance), it will automatically tell you how many menus are available for your theme. As I already mentioned, my child theme will give you three menus. See below…So we’re going to create a brand new menu on the very top of the blog (you can call it whatever you want.) This menu is going to consist of the 4 landing pages we just created (Budgeting, Hiring a Planner, The Ceremony, Invitations) and any child pages you created.
The child pages will show up as drop-down options underneath the main topic as illustrated below…
Once you’ve created your Pages, setting up this kind of menu is super easy. Just go to Menu under the Appearance tab in WordPress and click the + sign to create a new menu.
Name the menu whatever you’d like. I named mine “Main Menu” since it’s at the top of the blog and links to my most important topics.
Now you’re going to add your 4 new landing Pages (and their children) to the menu by scrolling down to the Pages section and selecting all the appropriate pages. See screenshot below where I’ve selected the parent Page “Budgeting” and all its children.
Now we want to make sure the child pages show up as drop-down options when you hover over Budgeting. You do that by simply dragging all the child Pages over to the right so they are indented. See screenshot below…
Repeat this for all the Pages and children you want to add to this menu. Save your menu when you are done.
Now when you refresh your blog you should see your main topics in the new menu. When you click the main topic (Budgeting, for example) it should go to the static landing Page you created.
When you hover over each topic, it should also display the child pages as drop-down options.
What About My Posts and Categories?
Don’t worry. I’m not suggesting you abandon creating Posts and using categories. Obviously you still want to keep creating and highlighting new content.I’m just trying to help you improve your blog’s navigation so your readers can find your most important (static) content. When you have a tutorial/how-to site there is certain content that should always be accessible. That’s why you want to make good use of Pages and highlight them from your menu(s).
There are a few ways to highlight your recent posts and categories on your menu:
1) Simply add the Categories to your menu like you did the Pages above
2) Use my Twenty Eleven child theme and reserve one of the extra menus for your Categories
3) Create a new Post category called “News” or “Updates” and make all your existing Post categories children of this new category.
Add the “News” category to one of your menus and the sub categories as drop-downs underneath. Now your readers can find your most recent posts and view by category if they wish.
Now you’ve got the best of both worlds with WordPress. You can feature your most important and potentially highest-converting static content while continuing to highlight your recent work (latest posts).
Benefits of Implementation
- Static pages make your blog easier to reference and they improve your visitor’s overall user experience.- When your navigation is logical, your readers can find what they need and they are more likely to return to reference your content. They will also stay longer and view more pages (improves your bounce rate).
- When people return, they are much more likely to buy products you recommend and sell, which will increase your blog’s revenue.
- This can also be beneficial for search engine optimization because your content is organized logically and it gives the engines a better idea for what your site is about. Having more static pages can potentially boost your search engine traffic in the long-run.
What About Other Themes?
I chose this theme because it’s the WordPress 3.0 default and everyone has easy access to it. Unless you’ve removed it, you should still have it installed. Also, it would be quite difficult to explain this for every theme since the code is drastically different.This is a great example of when premium themes like Thesis come in handy. You can actually create drop-downs in your navigation menu without having to edit the WordPress Menu. It’s part of the Thesis Options panel. So Chris Pearson was actually ahead of the game when he created Thesis.The Twenty Eleven theme also has extremely clean code and is a good theme to use if you’re interested in learning more about theme development and modification. You can really do a lot with this theme if you spend time learning about the inner workings (hooks) of WordPress.
My Top 7 Money Making Programs
I’ve noticed from reading other blogs, readers seem to enjoy learning how other sites make money.
So I’ve developed a “Top 7″ list of my top income generators based on nothing more than monthly income earned.
Note: This list is from all my sites combined.
—————-
If my site got wiped out today, I would still be able to live off the residual income I’ve generated since joining this program in 2002.
If you have a site that targets future Webmasters/Bloggers, reselling domains and web hosting is a great way to build a long-term income that continues to grow and grow.
This is also a great idea if you know people in your personal life who need websites. You can just send them to your reseller store and earn commissions on their hosting and domain fees.
As a reseller, you receive your own customizable website that allows you to set your prices and determine your profit. The parent company handles all the customer and technical support, so all you do is promote your own reseller store.
It would be hard for any other affiliate program to bump this from the #1 spot because of the residual income.
Learn more about how you can earn from reselling domains and hosting.
(See the post about my February 2008 check)
This was my biggest lesson in the importance of knowing and actually using products you refer from your site.
SiteSell’s affiliate program pays a generous $75 per Site Build It! sale, plus residuals on all yearly renewals. I really wish more affiliate programs would put the same amount of time and energy SiteSell does into helping affiliates.
I’ve never known another company to offer so many tools to help their affiliates make sales. From videos with your affiliate links embedded in them to over 60 audience-relevant landing pages, this program has it all.
Belonging to an affiliate network has its advantages…
1) If you’re looking for a specific product to promote, you can do a search to see if there are any relevant affiliate programs that offer the product.
2) You can join multiple programs with a few mouse clicks.
3) All of your earnings are tracked in one place, so you have one-stop reporting instead of multiple affiliate account logins.
The downside is that many companies who run their affiliate programs through large networks tend to have sub-par customer support.
There have been many occasions where I’ve sent an email to a company I’m affiliated with through CJ and never received a response. Companies that run their own in-house affiliate programs seem to have better customer support over all.
Nevertheless, large affiliate networks are definitely worth exploring, particularly if you’re looking for a specific product to promote on your site or blog.
AdSense performs much better on my sites not targeted to Webmasters and Bloggers – which is a big reason why you don’t see many AdSense units on this blog.
Bloggers and Webmasters tend to be immune to Google ads so they ignore them. However on my fitness site, my click-thru ratio is a bit higher.
Even though my main site, 2CreateAWebSite.com targets Webmasters/Bloggers, it does OK with AdSense because it gets enough traffic to make displaying the ads worthwhile.
Watch a video about my record Google AdSense Earnings…
1) Easy Starter (CSS) Templates – customizable templates for static HTML websites
2) WP Starter Guide – WordPress tutorial for beginners
3) Niche Website Success – a very detailed, practical guide to making money with a content niche website
Many of the eBooks you can sell are a bunch of recycled facts you can find anywhere on the Web.
They are usually promoted by an over-hyped landing page with a loud sales pitch that promises you to either get rich quick, lose weight tomorrow, or get out of debt in seconds.
However, if you really comb through the ClickBank marketplace, you can find some winners. I was able to find a few good e-books to promote that convert very well on my sites.
The great thing about ClickBank is that the commissions are extremely high since product development and delivery costs are low. You could earn up to $75 on certain products in their marketplace.
Here’s a video where I show my Clickbank earnings and how I promote it.
I used to use AdBrite, but there was a glitch with their system and my ads stopped displaying properly. It was good to get rid of them anyway because now I don’t have to share my revenue with anyone except PayPal. (They take a very small percentage.)
————————-
These aren’t the only programs I earn money from, but these are the highest paying by far. The rest of my income comes from a collection of other affiliate programs.
This post was not created to encourage you to join all these programs. Quite frankly, if your site does not target the same people and does not have the same kind of traffic, your income will be drastically less than mine.
But hopefully this shows you what is possible if you build a website that allows you to become the “expert” in your niche, and you recommend quality products that you use and are relevant to your audience. You can apply this strategy to any niche.
So I’ve developed a “Top 7″ list of my top income generators based on nothing more than monthly income earned.
Note: This list is from all my sites combined.
—————-
1. Domain and Web Hosting Reselling
This program is a great example of why you should look for affiliate or reseller programs in your niche that pay residual commissions.If my site got wiped out today, I would still be able to live off the residual income I’ve generated since joining this program in 2002.
If you have a site that targets future Webmasters/Bloggers, reselling domains and web hosting is a great way to build a long-term income that continues to grow and grow.
This is also a great idea if you know people in your personal life who need websites. You can just send them to your reseller store and earn commissions on their hosting and domain fees.
As a reseller, you receive your own customizable website that allows you to set your prices and determine your profit. The parent company handles all the customer and technical support, so all you do is promote your own reseller store.
It would be hard for any other affiliate program to bump this from the #1 spot because of the residual income.
Learn more about how you can earn from reselling domains and hosting.
2. SiteSell
I’ve been receiving checks from SiteSell’s affiliate program since 1999, but nothing like the ones I started getting when I bought Site Build It! and displayed my own success story.(See the post about my February 2008 check)
This was my biggest lesson in the importance of knowing and actually using products you refer from your site.
SiteSell’s affiliate program pays a generous $75 per Site Build It! sale, plus residuals on all yearly renewals. I really wish more affiliate programs would put the same amount of time and energy SiteSell does into helping affiliates.
I’ve never known another company to offer so many tools to help their affiliates make sales. From videos with your affiliate links embedded in them to over 60 audience-relevant landing pages, this program has it all.
3. Affiliate Networks (CJ.com, ShareASale.com, etc.)
I promote a variety of products that I find on some of the larger affiliate networks. From web software, web hosting, HTML editors, to anything I can find that’s useful and related to my audience.Belonging to an affiliate network has its advantages…
1) If you’re looking for a specific product to promote, you can do a search to see if there are any relevant affiliate programs that offer the product.
2) You can join multiple programs with a few mouse clicks.
3) All of your earnings are tracked in one place, so you have one-stop reporting instead of multiple affiliate account logins.
The downside is that many companies who run their affiliate programs through large networks tend to have sub-par customer support.
There have been many occasions where I’ve sent an email to a company I’m affiliated with through CJ and never received a response. Companies that run their own in-house affiliate programs seem to have better customer support over all.
Nevertheless, large affiliate networks are definitely worth exploring, particularly if you’re looking for a specific product to promote on your site or blog.
4. AdSense
I hate using the term “easy money”, but if you have enough traffic, AdSense has got to be one of the easiest ways to generate an income from your site or blog.AdSense performs much better on my sites not targeted to Webmasters and Bloggers – which is a big reason why you don’t see many AdSense units on this blog.
Bloggers and Webmasters tend to be immune to Google ads so they ignore them. However on my fitness site, my click-thru ratio is a bit higher.
Even though my main site, 2CreateAWebSite.com targets Webmasters/Bloggers, it does OK with AdSense because it gets enough traffic to make displaying the ads worthwhile.
Watch a video about my record Google AdSense Earnings…
5. Sales of My Own Products
When setting out to make money online, your ultimate goal should be to sell your own product. Today I have three digital products I sell:1) Easy Starter (CSS) Templates – customizable templates for static HTML websites
2) WP Starter Guide – WordPress tutorial for beginners
3) Niche Website Success – a very detailed, practical guide to making money with a content niche website
6. ClickBank
With ClickBank, you really have to feel it out and see what works for you. Even though it’s on my Top 7 list, I must admit there is a lot of garbage on ClickBank.Many of the eBooks you can sell are a bunch of recycled facts you can find anywhere on the Web.
They are usually promoted by an over-hyped landing page with a loud sales pitch that promises you to either get rich quick, lose weight tomorrow, or get out of debt in seconds.
However, if you really comb through the ClickBank marketplace, you can find some winners. I was able to find a few good e-books to promote that convert very well on my sites.
The great thing about ClickBank is that the commissions are extremely high since product development and delivery costs are low. You could earn up to $75 on certain products in their marketplace.
Here’s a video where I show my Clickbank earnings and how I promote it.
7. Ad Sales
I sell ads on my static website, 2 Create a Website. I use Ad Peeps to manage the ads. I used to sell ads here but I wasn’t happy with the click-through rates (traffic is much lower here than on my static site), so I discontinued ad sales here.I used to use AdBrite, but there was a glitch with their system and my ads stopped displaying properly. It was good to get rid of them anyway because now I don’t have to share my revenue with anyone except PayPal. (They take a very small percentage.)
————————-
These aren’t the only programs I earn money from, but these are the highest paying by far. The rest of my income comes from a collection of other affiliate programs.
This post was not created to encourage you to join all these programs. Quite frankly, if your site does not target the same people and does not have the same kind of traffic, your income will be drastically less than mine.
But hopefully this shows you what is possible if you build a website that allows you to become the “expert” in your niche, and you recommend quality products that you use and are relevant to your audience. You can apply this strategy to any niche.
100,000 Monthly Page Views & No Backlink Building
I couldn’t wait to write this post because the results I’m about to
show you probably go against many of your opinions about search engine
optimization today.
If you’ve been following me closely, you already know I’m not a fan of aggressive backlink building.
I’ve always found it to be a tedious task that leads to short term results for the most part.
Having said that, I’m not against SEO and focusing on the right kind of backlink building.
For example, growing your brand and building relationships by writing guest posts on high quality, relevant blogs or any kind of natural link building that abides by Google’s guidelines is fine.
I just personally don’t believe in spending loads of time chasing backlinks.
As a result, a lot of people have criticized my stance on this, stating that I never had to focus on it much because some of my sites are mature and have an advantage.
While having an early start played a tremendous role in my success, I am still finding that today, quality content in the right niche still works for SEO.
To be honest, I didn’t expect the site to do well and I will reveal the traffic results below.
Some of you are not going to like this part, but I made the decision not to reveal the site to anyone (at least not yet) and my name or any other identifying details (Adsense ID, company name, etc.) are not associated with the website or domain records.
Although, I am using my picture because I just don’t like faceless websites.
Of course this is not going to completely prevent that from happening, but it will cut down a lot of it.
Being transparent has its advantages and I have no regrets because it builds credibility and a loyal following. However, there are obvious disadvantages, and for this experiment I have chosen to keep it hush-hush.
- Most of the traffic is from Google, but it also receives quite a few visits from Facebook. Of course, I cannot see the actual referring page on Facebook in my reports (I hate that!), but it’s probably from people sharing the content on their walls. I do not have a Facebook business page for the site.
- I didn’t do much number crunching with keyword research. Most of the search engine traffic is from a variety of longtail phrases instead of competitive keywords.
- The site is not overly optimized. In other words, I don’t go overboard with keyword repetition and I made sure to vary my anchor text (text inside hyperlinks) when linking internally.
- Bing and Yahoo are also drawing more traffic than usual, which I found quite interesting. Perhaps it has to do with the niche and the audience demographic preferring Bing over Google? I have no way of knowing for sure.
- Once again, I’ve taken the tutorial route with my approach to this website. As you know, this has worked so well in the past, and I love teaching. So I continue to use that style as opposed to just posting generic information and re-reporting facts.
- I’ve chosen another niche where I can use my own personal life experience with the subject to educate and inform.
- So far the site has escaped all Panda and Penguin updates.
- I did manually submit to Google and Bing/Yahoo and also created sitemaps for each engine.
- I’m not using AdSense (it’s not a good niche for CPC ads at all) but I am selling sponsor ads and monetizing with affiliate programs.
Right now, there are only a handful of sites linking in according to Google Webmaster Tools, and a couple of sites that are just scraping my RSS feed and displaying my posts.
I’m not sure.
I haven’t spent too much time observing what my competitors are doing. The traffic growth has been very gradual but steady, and I didn’t see any major jumps in traffic with any algorithm updates.
My main goal was to see how a website would perform in Google today without doing any manual link building.
Google seems to be less concerned about the quantity of your backlinks and more interested in the quality, diversification and how natural your backlink patterns are.
After all, the Penguin update really decreased the SEO influence of many types of backlinks.
There’s nothing wrong with targeting the engines for traffic. I mean… you have to start somewhere, right? As I mentioned, you just need a plan to diversify beyond SEO if you want longevity.
As I continue to emphasize, my overall business is not SEO dependent thanks to my forum, multiple YouTube channels, residual income, social media (especially Facebook), my email list, offline consulting (occasionally) etc. I’ve diversified my income and traffic sources to give myself a great deal of stability.
I hope you are planning to do the same.
Also, finding the right niche and angle is key too. Yes, the Net is incredibly saturated with websites, but a lot of the content out here is poor quality and created with minimal effort.
I don’t exactly buy the “net-is-too-saturated” claim as a reason for failure. This experiment definitely proves that.
So the door is still wide open for high quality, useful websites. The angle you take is what will set you apart and get you going in the right direction.
Never underestimate the power of establishing your unique position in a well-defined niche!
If you’ve been following me closely, you already know I’m not a fan of aggressive backlink building.
I’ve always found it to be a tedious task that leads to short term results for the most part.
Having said that, I’m not against SEO and focusing on the right kind of backlink building.
For example, growing your brand and building relationships by writing guest posts on high quality, relevant blogs or any kind of natural link building that abides by Google’s guidelines is fine.
I just personally don’t believe in spending loads of time chasing backlinks.
As a result, a lot of people have criticized my stance on this, stating that I never had to focus on it much because some of my sites are mature and have an advantage.
While having an early start played a tremendous role in my success, I am still finding that today, quality content in the right niche still works for SEO.
I can’t write a post like this without mentioning how risky it is to rely completely on search engine optimization — especially today. So as you read through this, please understand that SEO should only be one part of your traffic plan.
My Little Experiment
In July, 2011 I created a new WordPress authority niche website as an experiment to see how far a website could get today by just writing content and doing absolutely no backlink building whatsoever.To be honest, I didn’t expect the site to do well and I will reveal the traffic results below.
Some of you are not going to like this part, but I made the decision not to reveal the site to anyone (at least not yet) and my name or any other identifying details (Adsense ID, company name, etc.) are not associated with the website or domain records.
Although, I am using my picture because I just don’t like faceless websites.
Why So Anonymous?
First of all, I don’t want any mentions/links on my sites to skew the results. Second, I am getting tired of seeing my content scraped, copied and plastered all over the place.Of course this is not going to completely prevent that from happening, but it will cut down a lot of it.
Being transparent has its advantages and I have no regrets because it builds credibility and a loyal following. However, there are obvious disadvantages, and for this experiment I have chosen to keep it hush-hush.
Pat Flynn recently wrote about this same issue on his blog where he decided not to reveal one of his newer websites after so many people tried to duplicate one of his experimental websites. I completely understand where he’s coming from. So I decided to take a leaf out of his book and keep this one quiet — especially while I experiment to keep the results from being skewed.
Traffic Reports
Even though I won’t reveal the site, I will at least share some statistics you may find interesting. Here is what the traffic looked like for the past month…More Things to Note
- The site has about 100 pages and posts combined, and I have no real publishing schedule/pattern.- Most of the traffic is from Google, but it also receives quite a few visits from Facebook. Of course, I cannot see the actual referring page on Facebook in my reports (I hate that!), but it’s probably from people sharing the content on their walls. I do not have a Facebook business page for the site.
- I didn’t do much number crunching with keyword research. Most of the search engine traffic is from a variety of longtail phrases instead of competitive keywords.
- The site is not overly optimized. In other words, I don’t go overboard with keyword repetition and I made sure to vary my anchor text (text inside hyperlinks) when linking internally.
- Bing and Yahoo are also drawing more traffic than usual, which I found quite interesting. Perhaps it has to do with the niche and the audience demographic preferring Bing over Google? I have no way of knowing for sure.
- Once again, I’ve taken the tutorial route with my approach to this website. As you know, this has worked so well in the past, and I love teaching. So I continue to use that style as opposed to just posting generic information and re-reporting facts.
- I’ve chosen another niche where I can use my own personal life experience with the subject to educate and inform.
- So far the site has escaped all Panda and Penguin updates.
- I did manually submit to Google and Bing/Yahoo and also created sitemaps for each engine.
- I’m not using AdSense (it’s not a good niche for CPC ads at all) but I am selling sponsor ads and monetizing with affiliate programs.
Backlinks?
As I’ve already mentioned, I have just focused on writing content instead of searching for backlinks — which is what I normally do. But what is most surprising to me is the Google traffic I’ve received compared to the minimal number of backlinks I’ve earned.Right now, there are only a handful of sites linking in according to Google Webmaster Tools, and a couple of sites that are just scraping my RSS feed and displaying my posts.
Why Does Google Love The Site?
Could the mild success and traffic gains be a result of the penalties other sites have incurred from unnatural linking, etc?I’m not sure.
I haven’t spent too much time observing what my competitors are doing. The traffic growth has been very gradual but steady, and I didn’t see any major jumps in traffic with any algorithm updates.
My main goal was to see how a website would perform in Google today without doing any manual link building.
Google seems to be less concerned about the quantity of your backlinks and more interested in the quality, diversification and how natural your backlink patterns are.
After all, the Penguin update really decreased the SEO influence of many types of backlinks.
To Sum it Up…
Don’t get me wrong. The moral of they story here is not to just focus on SEO to build a business. I was just trying to make a point that you can still receive good traffic from Google without obsessing over backlinks and just focusing on quality content.There’s nothing wrong with targeting the engines for traffic. I mean… you have to start somewhere, right? As I mentioned, you just need a plan to diversify beyond SEO if you want longevity.
As I continue to emphasize, my overall business is not SEO dependent thanks to my forum, multiple YouTube channels, residual income, social media (especially Facebook), my email list, offline consulting (occasionally) etc. I’ve diversified my income and traffic sources to give myself a great deal of stability.
I hope you are planning to do the same.
Also, finding the right niche and angle is key too. Yes, the Net is incredibly saturated with websites, but a lot of the content out here is poor quality and created with minimal effort.
I don’t exactly buy the “net-is-too-saturated” claim as a reason for failure. This experiment definitely proves that.
So the door is still wide open for high quality, useful websites. The angle you take is what will set you apart and get you going in the right direction.
Never underestimate the power of establishing your unique position in a well-defined niche!
How Fear Cost Me Thousands of Dollars (eBook Creation)
Fear can be a stifling thing, and I can think of some occasions in my life where I let it get the best of me.
This business is one example.
Before I published my two ebooks, WP Starter Guide and Niche Website Success, I would often get comments and emails from followers who wondered why I didn’t sell my own ebook on affiliate marketing or website creation.
Well, there were a few reasons…
The first was I am not the most organized person, and when you write a book, organization is a must.
Every time I would begin to write, I’d get frustrated with the direction and table the project for a later date.
The second reason was I had so much free information out here, I had trouble deciding what to include and what to leave out.
The third and biggest reason I put it off was the fear of not being able to please everyone.
Let me explain…
A couple of years ago, I published a YouTube video asking my subscribers what kind of product/ebook I should create. While most responses were helpful, positive and encouraging, I let one comment get into my head.
This was the response…
Ouch! This comment really rattled me. Not because I doubted the value I could offer in a book, but I did worry that more people would think the same way shokiplex thought and I feared failure.
Now, I should also mention this was the only negative comment posted. So isn’t it funny how we can get 1,000 positive comments, but we let that one negative response screw with our heads? Crazy how that works, huh?
So this comment greatly added to my indecision over whether or not to write an ebook. I tried to act as if it didn’t bother me, but it really did and I let it plant more seeds of doubt into my head.
I look back on this and realize how silly it was to worry about such a thing, but I did.
Lisa, you have so much information out here and it’s scattered all over the place. Even though I’ve read your sites and watch your YouTube channel on occasion, I honestly wouldn’t know where to start. I need a more organized guide. I would buy your book simply because it has everything in one place.
That’s when a light bulb went on and I reminded myself that different people value different things.
Everyday I spent quite a bit of time answering emails from people who needed a step by step guide like my friend. All signs pointed to the fact that this was a big audience, yet I was still concerning myself with who wouldn’t need or want my book.
I’ve
heard people say they would never write an ebook because they wouldn’t
have anything to write that’s different from what’s already on their
site.
I can understand that concern because you should always strive to put out something of great value.
But here’s the deal…
You will have certain visitors who are like hunters and gatherers. They follow every single thing you put out and absorb your information like a sponge.
So if you’re writing a book that targets beginners or sums up major lessons on your website, these people are not going to be in your book’s target audience.
When I first started writing Niche Website Success I kept saying to myself as I was writing …But I’ve already talked about that on my site.
Then the next day I’d have several emails from someone asking those same basic questions I’ve already covered or they’d be looking for more getting-started advice — even after visiting my site.
This was another reminder of how people place value on different things. So while the hunters and gatherers may pass on Niche Website Success, beginners who prefer to learn via an organized guide may value it more.
So that brings me to the other issue. I kept forgetting who my core audience was.
For example, this blog gets visits from some intermediate-level bloggers/website owners who may not need Niche Website Success, but my core audience is still made up of beginners who need help getting started, and that’s the audience I zeroed in on when writing.
But remember, most people won’t read your entire site and you can always go into greater detail in your book. Even though my ebooks cover many of the same topics on my websites, I expand on them to add more value.
Or you may be considering re-publishing existing articles or your entire site into an organized ebook. That’s fine too. Just make sure that you disclose this on the sales page so your potential customers have the right expectations when they order.
No doubt many people would love to have all your content assembled nicely into one, concise resource — especially if your site is a traditional blog, which tends to have articles sorted by date and/or category.
Darren Rowse used this strategy with his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series. He took his published, free email course and assembled it into an ebook!
Even though many people had already taken the free course, they bought the book because they valued the packaging of information.
So are there people out here who would never buy re-packaged information that’s already out here for free? Sure there are and I’m sure Darren knows that.
But guess what? Those people aren’t his target audience anyway. He knew there was value in the packaging and many people would appreciate that.
Remember, you are a unique individual. No one has your exact same experience, voice, and presentation. Many of your loyal followers will buy simply because they like the way YOU present the information.
That’s the advantage of selling a book after you’ve established an audience. You’ll have people who appreciate your angle and approach so they will be more than willing to buy even though they are aware of similar products on the market.
Plus, you can use emails, blog comments and other social media feedback/conversations to help inspire content and make it even more unique.
So don’t sell yourself short. There’s value in your own unique presentation.
Not to mention, you can have your own affiliate program so other people can promote your product — which will create another layer of income. And if you publish a digital good, both Clickbank and eJunkie have instant affiliate programs for your product.
My critic above mentioned how I could make more by cutting deals with companies I’m affiliated with instead of creating a product. (I often wonder how he came to that ridiculous conclusion.)
Well I say…. why not do both? As a business person you should always look for multiple ways to diversify and pad your income. Relying on a single monetization source is limiting and risky.
How crazy is it that I was leaving money on the table just because I was worried about critics?
Here I am always talking about how you shouldn’t fear failure and rejection, yet I was doing that very thing myself. In fact, that’s why I talk about fear of rejection so much on YouTube. I can relate.
I won’t be making that same mistake with my hair site and I’m already on the 3rd chapter.
First of all, having your own product creates much more stability for your business and it’s a great way to monetize a niche that may not have as many affiliate programs or relevant ads for CPC networks (AdBrite, AdSense, etc.)
Just keep the following items in mind…
This business is one example.
Before I published my two ebooks, WP Starter Guide and Niche Website Success, I would often get comments and emails from followers who wondered why I didn’t sell my own ebook on affiliate marketing or website creation.
Well, there were a few reasons…
The first was I am not the most organized person, and when you write a book, organization is a must.
Every time I would begin to write, I’d get frustrated with the direction and table the project for a later date.
The second reason was I had so much free information out here, I had trouble deciding what to include and what to leave out.
The third and biggest reason I put it off was the fear of not being able to please everyone.
Let me explain…
A couple of years ago, I published a YouTube video asking my subscribers what kind of product/ebook I should create. While most responses were helpful, positive and encouraging, I let one comment get into my head.
This was the response…
Ouch! This comment really rattled me. Not because I doubted the value I could offer in a book, but I did worry that more people would think the same way shokiplex thought and I feared failure.
Now, I should also mention this was the only negative comment posted. So isn’t it funny how we can get 1,000 positive comments, but we let that one negative response screw with our heads? Crazy how that works, huh?
So this comment greatly added to my indecision over whether or not to write an ebook. I tried to act as if it didn’t bother me, but it really did and I let it plant more seeds of doubt into my head.
I look back on this and realize how silly it was to worry about such a thing, but I did.
A Voice of Reason
Months later, I was discussing this with a close friend of mine and she said to me…Lisa, you have so much information out here and it’s scattered all over the place. Even though I’ve read your sites and watch your YouTube channel on occasion, I honestly wouldn’t know where to start. I need a more organized guide. I would buy your book simply because it has everything in one place.
That’s when a light bulb went on and I reminded myself that different people value different things.
Everyday I spent quite a bit of time answering emails from people who needed a step by step guide like my friend. All signs pointed to the fact that this was a big audience, yet I was still concerning myself with who wouldn’t need or want my book.
Know Your Audience
I’ve
heard people say they would never write an ebook because they wouldn’t
have anything to write that’s different from what’s already on their
site.I can understand that concern because you should always strive to put out something of great value.
But here’s the deal…
You will have certain visitors who are like hunters and gatherers. They follow every single thing you put out and absorb your information like a sponge.
So if you’re writing a book that targets beginners or sums up major lessons on your website, these people are not going to be in your book’s target audience.
When I first started writing Niche Website Success I kept saying to myself as I was writing …But I’ve already talked about that on my site.
Then the next day I’d have several emails from someone asking those same basic questions I’ve already covered or they’d be looking for more getting-started advice — even after visiting my site.
This was another reminder of how people place value on different things. So while the hunters and gatherers may pass on Niche Website Success, beginners who prefer to learn via an organized guide may value it more.
So that brings me to the other issue. I kept forgetting who my core audience was.
For example, this blog gets visits from some intermediate-level bloggers/website owners who may not need Niche Website Success, but my core audience is still made up of beginners who need help getting started, and that’s the audience I zeroed in on when writing.
Deciding What to Publish
As I already mentioned, sometimes it’s difficult to write a book when you already have oodles of content already online. That was what I struggled with and why it took me so long to publish something.But remember, most people won’t read your entire site and you can always go into greater detail in your book. Even though my ebooks cover many of the same topics on my websites, I expand on them to add more value.
Or you may be considering re-publishing existing articles or your entire site into an organized ebook. That’s fine too. Just make sure that you disclose this on the sales page so your potential customers have the right expectations when they order.
No doubt many people would love to have all your content assembled nicely into one, concise resource — especially if your site is a traditional blog, which tends to have articles sorted by date and/or category.
Darren Rowse used this strategy with his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series. He took his published, free email course and assembled it into an ebook!
Even though many people had already taken the free course, they bought the book because they valued the packaging of information.
So are there people out here who would never buy re-packaged information that’s already out here for free? Sure there are and I’m sure Darren knows that.
But guess what? Those people aren’t his target audience anyway. He knew there was value in the packaging and many people would appreciate that.
Market Saturation
Are you worried about similar products already on the market?Remember, you are a unique individual. No one has your exact same experience, voice, and presentation. Many of your loyal followers will buy simply because they like the way YOU present the information.
That’s the advantage of selling a book after you’ve established an audience. You’ll have people who appreciate your angle and approach so they will be more than willing to buy even though they are aware of similar products on the market.
Plus, you can use emails, blog comments and other social media feedback/conversations to help inspire content and make it even more unique.
So don’t sell yourself short. There’s value in your own unique presentation.
Earning Potential
The other reason you should think about having your own product is it creates another layer of income diversity for your business. There’s nothing like having an income stream where you control the profit margin.Not to mention, you can have your own affiliate program so other people can promote your product — which will create another layer of income. And if you publish a digital good, both Clickbank and eJunkie have instant affiliate programs for your product.
My critic above mentioned how I could make more by cutting deals with companies I’m affiliated with instead of creating a product. (I often wonder how he came to that ridiculous conclusion.)
Well I say…. why not do both? As a business person you should always look for multiple ways to diversify and pad your income. Relying on a single monetization source is limiting and risky.
What Fear Cost Me
The monthly earnings for the sales of my two ebooks have now surpassed what I used to earn per month at my old 9 to 5 job. They’ve also allowed me to monetize my YouTube videos much better so I’m not just earning from the Partner program anymore.How crazy is it that I was leaving money on the table just because I was worried about critics?
Here I am always talking about how you shouldn’t fear failure and rejection, yet I was doing that very thing myself. In fact, that’s why I talk about fear of rejection so much on YouTube. I can relate.
I won’t be making that same mistake with my hair site and I’m already on the 3rd chapter.
The Take Home
So if you’ve been talking yourself out of writing an ebook, I hope this post gave you something to think about.First of all, having your own product creates much more stability for your business and it’s a great way to monetize a niche that may not have as many affiliate programs or relevant ads for CPC networks (AdBrite, AdSense, etc.)
Just keep the following items in mind…
- Know your core audience and deliver what they will value
- Use emails, blog comments, social media conversations, etc. for content inspiration
- Be clear about what is in your book and who it’s for (publish a Table of Contents)
- There’s value in re-packaging info if it’s organized and useful
- Want to add more value to a re-packaged product? Include new information, a workbook or video
- Do your best and know that you will never please all the people all the time
- Your concept may not be 100% unique, but YOU are and so is your delivery. Your followers will value YOUR approach.
Did Google Kill The Niche Site Model?
For the last two weeks, the Net has been buzzing with chatter about the latest Google algorithm shake-ups.
This time there were 3 fairly big updates that rolled out over the span of 10-12 days.
So in case you missed it, here’s a recap…
On September 27/28th, Google launched an EMD update (Exact Match Domain) that targeted “low quality” (their words) sites that were ranking well primarily because of the phrase match (and didn’t have enough other signals to support and validate such a high ranking).
That one other algo that Matt was referring to in that Tweet was later confirmed as Panda. So that would explain why the “small EMD weather report” didn’t seem so small after all.
So if you were hit and you don’t have an EMD then you were probably affected by Panda.
Then on October 8th, there was another update (Top Heavy 2) that targeted sites that had too many ads above the fold. (Top Heavy 1 launched in January.)
In fact, my static site actually has 25% less organic traffic than it did this time last year. That’s the bad news.
The good news is my income has not dropped proportionately because of diversification and I’ll talk more about that in a bit.
But first, let’s discuss The Almighty G.
Some believe they are pushing down content/affiliate websites and favoring brands to force more spend on AdWords.
Whether that’s the truth or not is beyond my control.
Some people hit by the EMD update said they would change domain names and do a 301 redirect to the new name.
I’m no expert, but I personally think that’s a waste of time. Remember, Google didn’t penalize all EMD’s. They penalized the ones that didn’t have enough pre-determined “quality” signals Google looks for to support the ranking.
So even if you do create a completely new website, you still have to build it up to make it worthy to rank again, and that’s going to be much harder given that SEO seems to be changing.
I say, stick with what you have and work on diversification. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s been a journey, but I’m having some success that I want to share and hopefully inspire you.
The list has been growing by about 1,100 subscribers per month and I have primarily been promoting the list in certain YouTube videos and pages on my sites.
Most of the tips are not promotional in any way. However, in some I make recommendations for WordPress themes, my WordPress ebook, etc. and it has really helped with income.
As you may know, I am having a love affair with the Genesis themes (Yes, that’s the theme this blog is now sporting). I’ve started switching more of my sites over to them, so I’ve been promoting the themes to my list, via video, etc.
(I will also be having a giveaway on this blog very soon. (Yipppeee!)
Email marketing has always been a struggle for me because it’s tough to strike the right balance between informational and promotional content. Obviously people don’t want to be pitched to all the time, but I still want to monetize the list.
So it’s been a challenge, but I’m finally seeing some results. Below is my current ShareASale affiliate earnings that have come mostly from Genesis referrals.
If you are having trouble getting conversions with traditional email marketing (something I’m just not very good at), setup some useful autoresponder tips that go out on various intervals.
Just keep the inform/promotion ratio around 90/10.
I can’t say enough about YouTube and what it’s done for my diversification. Even though my 3 channels combined earn a small salary with the YouTube Partner program, I don’t focus on that because it’s Google-dependent revenue, and who knows what could happen with that in the future.
What’s more notable is that YouTube has helped with traffic, converting sales for more affiliate products, ebooks, etc.
It’s growing by the month and is not Google dependent. It started out that way, but lately more visitors are coming from Facebook, Pinterest, my YouTube channel and my forum that I just launched 2 1/2 months ago.
And finally, I’m getting into the Kindle publishing game and working on a book to add to the monetization mix.
So yes, I’ve been in Diversification Land, and it’s why I’ve only been blogging every other week instead of weekly (I hope you forgive me.)
No, Google did not kill the content/niche site model, but I do believe it is forever changed. The days of building content sites in hopes of drumming up a ton of Google traffic are coming to a close for the most part.
Of course, there will always be ways to find some success this way, but I think it’s even more of a risky model if that’s all you’re going to focus on.
There’s nothing wrong with targeting Google, but you should definitely plan to diversify sooner than later.
Keep experimenting with different strategies and hang in there!
So what about you? Were you impacted? What are you doing outside of Google to promote your business today?
This time there were 3 fairly big updates that rolled out over the span of 10-12 days.
So in case you missed it, here’s a recap…
On September 27/28th, Google launched an EMD update (Exact Match Domain) that targeted “low quality” (their words) sites that were ranking well primarily because of the phrase match (and didn’t have enough other signals to support and validate such a high ranking).
That one other algo that Matt was referring to in that Tweet was later confirmed as Panda. So that would explain why the “small EMD weather report” didn’t seem so small after all.
So if you were hit and you don’t have an EMD then you were probably affected by Panda.
Then on October 8th, there was another update (Top Heavy 2) that targeted sites that had too many ads above the fold. (Top Heavy 1 launched in January.)
How Did I Fair?
With regards to my sites, I had some winners and losers. This blog won (15% traffic increase), but my static site saw a 10% drop in organic traffic.In fact, my static site actually has 25% less organic traffic than it did this time last year. That’s the bad news.
The good news is my income has not dropped proportionately because of diversification and I’ll talk more about that in a bit.
But first, let’s discuss The Almighty G.
The Rumor Mill
I don’t want to spend too much time on rumors and speculation because it does no good, and no one really knows what’s going on but Google.Some believe they are pushing down content/affiliate websites and favoring brands to force more spend on AdWords.
Whether that’s the truth or not is beyond my control.
Some people hit by the EMD update said they would change domain names and do a 301 redirect to the new name.
I’m no expert, but I personally think that’s a waste of time. Remember, Google didn’t penalize all EMD’s. They penalized the ones that didn’t have enough pre-determined “quality” signals Google looks for to support the ranking.
So even if you do create a completely new website, you still have to build it up to make it worthy to rank again, and that’s going to be much harder given that SEO seems to be changing.
I say, stick with what you have and work on diversification. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s been a journey, but I’m having some success that I want to share and hopefully inspire you.
Email Marketing
You may remember I launched my WordPress Starter Tips for beginners several months back. This is the most success I’ve ever had with email from a conversion standpoint.The list has been growing by about 1,100 subscribers per month and I have primarily been promoting the list in certain YouTube videos and pages on my sites.
Most of the tips are not promotional in any way. However, in some I make recommendations for WordPress themes, my WordPress ebook, etc. and it has really helped with income.
As you may know, I am having a love affair with the Genesis themes (Yes, that’s the theme this blog is now sporting). I’ve started switching more of my sites over to them, so I’ve been promoting the themes to my list, via video, etc.
(I will also be having a giveaway on this blog very soon. (Yipppeee!)
Email marketing has always been a struggle for me because it’s tough to strike the right balance between informational and promotional content. Obviously people don’t want to be pitched to all the time, but I still want to monetize the list.
So it’s been a challenge, but I’m finally seeing some results. Below is my current ShareASale affiliate earnings that have come mostly from Genesis referrals.
If you are having trouble getting conversions with traditional email marketing (something I’m just not very good at), setup some useful autoresponder tips that go out on various intervals.
Just keep the inform/promotion ratio around 90/10.
YouTube
You knew this was going to be on the list, didn’t you? I can’t say enough about YouTube and what it’s done for my diversification. Even though my 3 channels combined earn a small salary with the YouTube Partner program, I don’t focus on that because it’s Google-dependent revenue, and who knows what could happen with that in the future.
What’s more notable is that YouTube has helped with traffic, converting sales for more affiliate products, ebooks, etc.
Multi-Site Diversification
As I mentioned in another post, I have some other small sites I’ve been working on to further diversify my portfolio, but I have been spending more of my time building up my natural hair site.It’s growing by the month and is not Google dependent. It started out that way, but lately more visitors are coming from Facebook, Pinterest, my YouTube channel and my forum that I just launched 2 1/2 months ago.
And finally, I’m getting into the Kindle publishing game and working on a book to add to the monetization mix.
So yes, I’ve been in Diversification Land, and it’s why I’ve only been blogging every other week instead of weekly (I hope you forgive me.)
The Verdict
Now, to answer the question I posed in the title…No, Google did not kill the content/niche site model, but I do believe it is forever changed. The days of building content sites in hopes of drumming up a ton of Google traffic are coming to a close for the most part.
Of course, there will always be ways to find some success this way, but I think it’s even more of a risky model if that’s all you’re going to focus on.
There’s nothing wrong with targeting Google, but you should definitely plan to diversify sooner than later.
Don’t Give Up
I know it’s frustrating, and I’ve heard a lot of people say they are just going to throw in the towel. I can testify that diversification is hard work, but think of how much better off you will be when you do discover a way to be less dependent on The Big G.Keep experimenting with different strategies and hang in there!
So what about you? Were you impacted? What are you doing outside of Google to promote your business today?
How Ti Drives Traffic Without Google & Her Advice For You!
Content may still be king, but relationships are definitely queen.
No one can vouch for this better than blogger, Ti Roberts who gained nearly 2,000 visits, 400+ Facebook likes, 117 Retweets and more shares in just 3 weeks of re-launching her blog.
I met Ti about a year ago when she reached out to me via social media. I would see tweets from her here and there, but one in particular got my attention. It read…
How I Got 1,325 Unique Visitors, 159 Facebook Likes, 70 Retweets, and 89 Sugars??
So I clicked the link to see what Ti was up to.
First of all, her posts are fun to read because they are enthusiastic, bubbly and even sprinkled with some humor here and there. Her posts draw you in and take you on a ride — especially the one about her SEO allergy.
So clearly, that’s the first thing she has going for her blog. But what I want to focus on is how Ti is really taking advantage of social media marketing.
And when I say taking advantage of social media, I don’t mean just setting your posts to go out on autopilot via HootSuite and re-tweeting a few links here and there. I’m talking about full-fledged engagement with actual people on networks like BizSugar, Scoop.it and others.
Here’s what she said….
You want to be able to give the visitors something of value to digest so you can at least peek and sustain their interest once they arrive. If you have truly epic content, it’ll naturally get shared and start building up some viral momentum.
I only had 2 posts on my blog when I began really focusing on driving traffic through social media. Even though I only had 2 posts, they were both high quality content that shared some extremely valuable traffic generation tips and strategies.
Those posts alone started taking on a life of their own and began building up some viral buzz. I got several comments on both of those posts, plus many of my visitors began linking back to them naturally.
It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality.
The time that I put into my posts definitely shows, and I always make sure that I infuse my personality into my writing. I used to damper my writing style for the purpose of SEO and because I thought it was more important to get a lot of posts published quickly.
However, I learned that it’s the time that I put into my posts and my unique personality that sets me apart. I’m no longer afraid to let my true personality show through in my writing. I regularly spend 8 to 12 hours on the post that I create (4x times longer than I used to).
There’s more leverage in just 2 high-quality post that really give value and shows your personality then 10 dry SEO’d to death posts.
Find an active community within your niche and begin to really get
involved with the culture. Authentically engage and interact with the
community.
Don’t just do surface interaction because even though you’re sitting behind a computer, people can see right through it and know when you’re being fake.
Open yourself up to making true connections with the members by actually taking the time to read their content and leaving thoughtful/insightful feedback and comments.
In your comments, engage the writer and the existing community by sharing examples of how you can relate to the content through your personal experience.
I initially began to do this on BizSugar.com. I became very active within the community, doing the exact things I described above. I put myself on a set schedule and didn’t deviate from my routine.
Consistency and a high amount of quality interaction will allow you to stand out from the crowd and begin getting some recognition.
Through my activity on BizSugar, it only took me a week to get noticed and become a featured member, which naturally got me more exposure.
One thing you can count on is that you will catch the attention of the members in the community that you’re interacting with and gain their respect. This allows you to build relationships with a tribe of like-minded people who will naturally rally around you. And then you can begin to support and promote each other’s content.
Don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with influencers within your niche. In my book, this is a mandatory part of gaining leverage and creditably in social media.
You can’t afford to get wrapped up in yourself or be paralyzed with intimidation when it comes to blogging and driving traffic through social media.
Connecting with influencers not only helps you rev up your traffic but it allows you to gain creditably 10x faster.
I began connecting initially by consistently leaving high quality comments on their blog posts and sharing their content with my social networks on Twitter and Facebook.
Then I started doing Top 7 or Top 10 list posts sharing things that I learned from them: i.e. Traffic tips, content creation tips, etc. Every time I did one of these posts, I’d always link back to them, either directly to their site or the specific blog post that I learned the tip from.
After I published my post, I always sent them a personal email as well, telling them how much I appreciate the content they shared on their blog and letting them know that I just included them and their blog in my latest post.
If the post you’ve written is any good, naturally they’ll share it with their social networks because you’ve included them. This is how you can begin getting on an influencers radar and start building connections with them.
Building social proof is actually simple to do. I used to think that
this was the hardest thing to do in social media, but it’s really not,
at least not the way that I decided to do it.
What I do to build my social proof is simply track, document and celebrate any kind of success that I had. This is what I started to focus my weekly traffic case studies around.
All I did was make note of (take screenshots) and document any kind of interaction I got on the social networks, from how many people “liked” and retweeted my posts to any notable influencers that shared my post with their social networks.
Additionally, I began to keep track of my daily marketing activities: including any blog commenting and interaction I did with influencers on their posts, as well as any mentions/comments influencers made on my blog posts.
The point of building social proof is to build trust. Collecting and documenting all of this social interaction and then compiling them into weekly traffic case studies is a fantastic way to build proof and trust very quickly.
Don’t feel that your results aren’t good enough or aren’t worthy of being shared. Your results are your own and you should celebrate them. This is how you start building your story and begin attracting an audience who’s engaging and interacting with your content.
I love doing this and as I went along I really began to look at it like an adventure – documenting and chronicling some of my most exciting and notable business moments into my cyber scrap book that is my blog.
I’ve found that building my social proof in this way has quickly gained the loyalty and trust of my readers. It’s not because I’ve had the best results in the niche, it’s because I’ve proven that I know how to produce some level of results and I’ve been extremely transparent in sharing them with my audience.
One thing that I have noticed, especially with influencers in the blogosphere is that if they see that you’re really putting a sincere effort into creating great content and building up a true business and community, they will take note and begin helping you even more.
Opportunities for even more high leveraged social proof will begin to open up to you that you never saw coming, such as my being asked by Lisa to provide tips/strategies for this blog post.
With blogging and driving traffic through social media, I’ve learned that it’s vital that you show your appreciation to EVERYBODY.
Not just to the influencers that interact with your content, but everyone who has anything to do with helping you expand/grow your blog and knowledge.
This is the exact approach that I’ve been taking in my business. Every post that I’ve read since the re-launch of my blog has expanded my knowledge base and has enriched my blogging experience.
From the influencers to the up and coming bloggers, I’ve taken the time to comment and interact on their posts and let them know my appreciation for their content.
Don’t be afraid to share other people’s content as well. Share it freely and endorse it even. Let your social networks see what you genuinely learned from that person and their content.
I’ve even gone as far as featuring 10 bloggers I connected with through BizSugar and sharing specific things that I’ve learned from them as a result of reading their blog posts.
This shows true commitment and helps me to always remember to edify and uplift other bloggers and show my appreciation for all that they contribute to the blogosphere.
It’s important that you never take your audience for granted. Go above and beyond to respond to every single comment that you get. Give your commenters a shout out in your posts. Do everything that you can to show your appreciation and make them feel important.
I make this a constant part of my weekly traffic case studies. I always mention every commenter I get for the week and every voter I get from BizSugar.
This is helping me build a strong culture around my blog because I realize that they don’t have to interact with my content so I want to make sure they know that they’re valued.
This is how you build a true loyal community that will continue to rally around you and share your content with their social networks.
No one can vouch for this better than blogger, Ti Roberts who gained nearly 2,000 visits, 400+ Facebook likes, 117 Retweets and more shares in just 3 weeks of re-launching her blog.
I met Ti about a year ago when she reached out to me via social media. I would see tweets from her here and there, but one in particular got my attention. It read…
How I Got 1,325 Unique Visitors, 159 Facebook Likes, 70 Retweets, and 89 Sugars??
So I clicked the link to see what Ti was up to.
First of all, her posts are fun to read because they are enthusiastic, bubbly and even sprinkled with some humor here and there. Her posts draw you in and take you on a ride — especially the one about her SEO allergy.
So clearly, that’s the first thing she has going for her blog. But what I want to focus on is how Ti is really taking advantage of social media marketing.
And when I say taking advantage of social media, I don’t mean just setting your posts to go out on autopilot via HootSuite and re-tweeting a few links here and there. I’m talking about full-fledged engagement with actual people on networks like BizSugar, Scoop.it and others.
Ti’s Advice For You
So I asked Ti to share her three most important tips for someone who has not had much success with social media. She’s so chock-full of advice, she upped my offer and gave me five tips instead! Here’s what she said….
1. Don’t Skimp on Quality
Your first focus has to be on creating epic content. It’s not required that you have pages and pages of content, but you do need to have at least some content on your website that’s of high quality before you begin driving social traffic.You want to be able to give the visitors something of value to digest so you can at least peek and sustain their interest once they arrive. If you have truly epic content, it’ll naturally get shared and start building up some viral momentum.
I only had 2 posts on my blog when I began really focusing on driving traffic through social media. Even though I only had 2 posts, they were both high quality content that shared some extremely valuable traffic generation tips and strategies.
Those posts alone started taking on a life of their own and began building up some viral buzz. I got several comments on both of those posts, plus many of my visitors began linking back to them naturally.
It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality.
The time that I put into my posts definitely shows, and I always make sure that I infuse my personality into my writing. I used to damper my writing style for the purpose of SEO and because I thought it was more important to get a lot of posts published quickly.
However, I learned that it’s the time that I put into my posts and my unique personality that sets me apart. I’m no longer afraid to let my true personality show through in my writing. I regularly spend 8 to 12 hours on the post that I create (4x times longer than I used to).
There’s more leverage in just 2 high-quality post that really give value and shows your personality then 10 dry SEO’d to death posts.
2. Build Authentic Engagement
Find an active community within your niche and begin to really get
involved with the culture. Authentically engage and interact with the
community.Don’t just do surface interaction because even though you’re sitting behind a computer, people can see right through it and know when you’re being fake.
Open yourself up to making true connections with the members by actually taking the time to read their content and leaving thoughtful/insightful feedback and comments.
In your comments, engage the writer and the existing community by sharing examples of how you can relate to the content through your personal experience.
I initially began to do this on BizSugar.com. I became very active within the community, doing the exact things I described above. I put myself on a set schedule and didn’t deviate from my routine.
Consistency and a high amount of quality interaction will allow you to stand out from the crowd and begin getting some recognition.
Through my activity on BizSugar, it only took me a week to get noticed and become a featured member, which naturally got me more exposure.
One thing you can count on is that you will catch the attention of the members in the community that you’re interacting with and gain their respect. This allows you to build relationships with a tribe of like-minded people who will naturally rally around you. And then you can begin to support and promote each other’s content.
3. Connect With Influencers
Don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with influencers within your niche. In my book, this is a mandatory part of gaining leverage and creditably in social media.You can’t afford to get wrapped up in yourself or be paralyzed with intimidation when it comes to blogging and driving traffic through social media.
Connecting with influencers not only helps you rev up your traffic but it allows you to gain creditably 10x faster.
I began connecting initially by consistently leaving high quality comments on their blog posts and sharing their content with my social networks on Twitter and Facebook.
Then I started doing Top 7 or Top 10 list posts sharing things that I learned from them: i.e. Traffic tips, content creation tips, etc. Every time I did one of these posts, I’d always link back to them, either directly to their site or the specific blog post that I learned the tip from.
After I published my post, I always sent them a personal email as well, telling them how much I appreciate the content they shared on their blog and letting them know that I just included them and their blog in my latest post.
If the post you’ve written is any good, naturally they’ll share it with their social networks because you’ve included them. This is how you can begin getting on an influencers radar and start building connections with them.
4. Build Social Proof
Building social proof is actually simple to do. I used to think that
this was the hardest thing to do in social media, but it’s really not,
at least not the way that I decided to do it.What I do to build my social proof is simply track, document and celebrate any kind of success that I had. This is what I started to focus my weekly traffic case studies around.
All I did was make note of (take screenshots) and document any kind of interaction I got on the social networks, from how many people “liked” and retweeted my posts to any notable influencers that shared my post with their social networks.
Additionally, I began to keep track of my daily marketing activities: including any blog commenting and interaction I did with influencers on their posts, as well as any mentions/comments influencers made on my blog posts.
The point of building social proof is to build trust. Collecting and documenting all of this social interaction and then compiling them into weekly traffic case studies is a fantastic way to build proof and trust very quickly.
Don’t feel that your results aren’t good enough or aren’t worthy of being shared. Your results are your own and you should celebrate them. This is how you start building your story and begin attracting an audience who’s engaging and interacting with your content.
I love doing this and as I went along I really began to look at it like an adventure – documenting and chronicling some of my most exciting and notable business moments into my cyber scrap book that is my blog.
I’ve found that building my social proof in this way has quickly gained the loyalty and trust of my readers. It’s not because I’ve had the best results in the niche, it’s because I’ve proven that I know how to produce some level of results and I’ve been extremely transparent in sharing them with my audience.
One thing that I have noticed, especially with influencers in the blogosphere is that if they see that you’re really putting a sincere effort into creating great content and building up a true business and community, they will take note and begin helping you even more.
Opportunities for even more high leveraged social proof will begin to open up to you that you never saw coming, such as my being asked by Lisa to provide tips/strategies for this blog post.
5. Show Appreciation
With blogging and driving traffic through social media, I’ve learned that it’s vital that you show your appreciation to EVERYBODY.Not just to the influencers that interact with your content, but everyone who has anything to do with helping you expand/grow your blog and knowledge.
This is the exact approach that I’ve been taking in my business. Every post that I’ve read since the re-launch of my blog has expanded my knowledge base and has enriched my blogging experience.
From the influencers to the up and coming bloggers, I’ve taken the time to comment and interact on their posts and let them know my appreciation for their content.
Don’t be afraid to share other people’s content as well. Share it freely and endorse it even. Let your social networks see what you genuinely learned from that person and their content.
I’ve even gone as far as featuring 10 bloggers I connected with through BizSugar and sharing specific things that I’ve learned from them as a result of reading their blog posts.
This shows true commitment and helps me to always remember to edify and uplift other bloggers and show my appreciation for all that they contribute to the blogosphere.
It’s important that you never take your audience for granted. Go above and beyond to respond to every single comment that you get. Give your commenters a shout out in your posts. Do everything that you can to show your appreciation and make them feel important.
I make this a constant part of my weekly traffic case studies. I always mention every commenter I get for the week and every voter I get from BizSugar.
This is helping me build a strong culture around my blog because I realize that they don’t have to interact with my content so I want to make sure they know that they’re valued.
This is how you build a true loyal community that will continue to rally around you and share your content with their social networks.
Share Your Strategy
So how are you using social media today? Are you an active user like Ti who consciously works to build relationships or are you a more passive user? Share your experience and strategies!
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