Website Building Update – Week 47
July 23rd, 2010 by Clayton
This week I met some cool Seattle-area internet marketers like Chris Guthrie who runs Make Money on the Internet and Caliban Darklock (the guy with the long hair and the “Here’s Johnny!” smile on the Warrior Forum) among other cool guys (and one gal).
I had to walk around the block a few times to work up the courage to go into the coffee shop the meeting was at. I will admit that meeting “big players” in internet marketing (ie. people actually making a healthy living income) is a bit intimidating for me. I guess on some level I feel like I’m just some dweeb doing some online shenanigans for a few bucks and that the “real” marketers are doing something dramatically different or won’t take me seriously or something.
Anyway, this week has been more of the same. Submitting articles, adding messages to my newsletters, working hard…
I also wasted a lot of time trying to determine a good digital camera to get for my trip to Thailand. One thing that’s cool about working for yourself is that you can waste massive amounts of time doing things like this without having to answer to a draconian boss.
Did you guys (and gals) see Glen’s SEO strategy on Viper Chill this week? What do you think about this? To me it seems way too simple and easy to be true. But if it’s effective, I’ll give it a shot. It sure sounds better than spending months writing and spinning articles for article marketing.
I think after I finish my 1-year experiment next month, I’m going to do an experiment with different traffic generation strategies. Maybe have 3 or 4 different websites and use different methods to promote each one to determine the most effective way (i.e. easiest way) to promote a website. Does this seem like something you would be interested in? And if so, do you have any promotional strategies you’d like to see me try? I’m considering giving Viper Chill’s Cloud Living a test drive. I’ve got a few other ideas too, but their not really packaged up neatly into a shiny e-book.
PS: OMG! Next week is the AffiloJetpack launch and if you’re chomping at the bit to get a butt-load of cool awesome content for niches like weight loss, men’s dating tips, relationship advice, self-help, among others, consider checking out my AffiloJetpack bonus package.
If you’re thinking of entering these niches, you need to understand them well. Do you know what a PUA is (or why one would neg an SHB)? Do you know why drinking water is important to weight loss? Do you know what the “no contact” rule is and why it’s so powerful? Do you know what it means to align your vibrational frequency with your intentions? Well I do. I can rewrite some of the content articles you get with AffiloJetpack (so that they count as unique content) in a way that will earn your visitors’ trust and not just make you look like some half-baked marketing tool that pretends to be an expert.
Plus, I’m offering free beer. Can it get any better?
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (12)
Website Building Update – Week 46
July 16th, 2010 by Clayton
This week has been a little off. I took a short camping trip last weekend to Mt. Rainier with my girlfriend and went hiking through the forest. My girlfriend took some vacation time this week too so I’ve been working part-time on IM to spend more time with her. Plus I got this stupid rash on my right hand from camping (I think) and it makes typing more difficult…
Anyway, I’ve shifted focus to website #4 for link building. This really excites me since this is one of my “big earners.”
I sent James Pruitt my keywords and URL for him to give me my cool prize for his blogging contest. I’m eager to see the results from his social bookmarking. I want to branch out from SEO to get traffic from other means. Heck, this blog is actually a big experiment in non-SEO traffic! I do absolutely zero SEO work on this blog and I get about 1500 visitors / month just from forum posting and blog commenting. Not too shabby.
I’m still ridiculously stressed at the moment trying to keep up with my worker. I wish there was some kind of easy push-button way to build backlinks without so much work. I just want to send someone a couple hundred bucks and say “here build links to every one of the pages on my site,” without having to go into some lengthy, in-depth discussion of exactly what I want them to do. I guess I can just keep dreaming 
But things are pretty consistent. If I make a sale tomorrow and Sunday, then I’ll finally put a sale on every day of my Clickbank report. I’ve got my fingers crossed…
PS: Who else likes free beer? They say you can’t buy friendship, but I beg to differ! If you buy AffiloJetpack through my affiliate link, not only will you get my awesome AffiloJetpack bonuses, but I will also be your IM BFF and buy you beer.
We can talk about internet marketing, travel, self-employment , or I can just be your wingman and help you work up the courage to talk to that hot girl (or guy) that’s been eying you from across the bar all night.
My AffiloJetpack bonus package is the only bonus package that offers free beer. Your search is over!
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (13)
Getting in Shape – Week 4 (Late Again…)
July 16th, 2010 by Clayton
Well, I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t really done a whole lot this week. I went on a camping trip to Mt. Rainier this weekend. I got a lot of hiking done, which is good exercise, but I guess it doesn’t really count as running, does it?
I got a weird rash on my hand (ironically not from camping and hiking), which made lifting weights difficult.
So basically, I’ve just been doing the Eating for Life diet (even while camping!).
We stopped by my mom’s house to get some camping supplies and I weighed myself while I was there. I’ve lost about 3 pounds in 2 weeks. Not too bad at all.
Anyway, camping was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Ohanapecosh campground and spent most of our time hiking through the forest. It really is a rewarding experience to be “unplugged” from all the pings and e-mails of modern society. I wanted to take some awesome photos, but I think my camera is ready to bite the dust. Either that or the battery just died from me not using it in like a year.
I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things with running next week.
Posted in Getting in Shape | Comments (0)
Website Building Update – Week 45
July 9th, 2010 by Clayton
Okay. I’m starting to feel anxious here. I’m getting dangerously close to 52 weeks here and I’m not a freakin’ millionaire yet! In fact, my current monthly earnings only put me at about $15,600 / year gross income. This is probably about 1/3 of what I would like to be making. Granted, my friend tells me that everything is 1/3 cheaper in Buenos Aires, so I know I can get by somewhere on what I make now. Still I have dreams of visiting more expensive places like Europe, Japan, Austrailia, and New Zealand (I have to find some way of personally thanking Mark Ling for turning my life around). But I’ve still got just under 2 months to ramp this up.
The only problem is I’m grappling with burn-out and exhaustion. Fortunately, one of the skills I learned in my 6 years of college is self-inflicted suffering, so I’m not going to give up. Not by a long shot.
Anyway, I’m still slugging away. More directory submissions. More web 2.0 sites. More wasting time reading news stories when I know I should be working.
Someone in Florida likes me (and no, I’m not talking about that girl I used to date that went to UF)! This week I won James Pruitt’s blog commenting contest. I want to return the favor, so I will be keeping you all updated on how effective James Pruitt’s social bookmarking efforts are on my sites. I’ve been thinking of branching out into other means of getting traffic besides SEO, and this is a great opportunity.
I don’t know if you know this, but in addition to Affilorama, I’ve also been really interested in Niche Profit Classroom. The legendary Jem008 at Affilorama (you know, he’s the guy that was making over $1000 per week in the success stories forum) says he combined AffiloBlueprint with NPC to get his explosive results. Anyway, last night Adam Short, the guy that run NPC, held a webinar where he gave out a free 1-month membership to NPC. So I got in on that. I’m snooping around to steal as many cool ideas as I can to hopefully copy Jem008’s success.
This weekend I’m going on a short camping trip to Mt. Rainier. I wanted to go to Victoria, Canada, but the costs of ferry tickets plus hotels kind of added up. I’m too poor to really afford a proper vacation, but my girlfriend got some time off work and I think I could use some time “unplugged” from the internet. This should be fun!
Things have been going well this week, sales-wise. I’m excited to dive back in though and make that final push to get up to a living wage.
PS: Hey if you haven’t heard yet, I’m taking part in the AffiloJetpack launch. So if you’re thinking of buying AffiloJetpack check out my cool AffiloJetpack bonuses.
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (11)
Getting in Shape – Week 3
July 7th, 2010 by Clayton
This past weekend was Independence Day in the United States. Here in Seattle, we celebrated by going to a park by Lake Union called Gasworks Park to watch them set off fireworks from a barge. The event is very popular, so we showed up at the park around noon even though the show didn’t start till 10PM.
Anyway, in stereotypical Seattle fashion, it rained. I wasn’t expecting rain since there was good weather the day before. I got drenched and as a result, I was a little sick on Monday and Tuesday.
So I haven’t really exercised due to being sick, but I’m starting to feel better. I’ve been doing the Eating for Life diet though and that’s been going pretty well. Honestly, this is probably the easiest diet in the world. It’s too soon to see if there are any results yet.
Short update this week.
Posted in Getting in Shape | Comments (0)
Clayton Is a Dirty Money-Grubbing Sell-Out!
July 6th, 2010 by Clayton
Yes, I am promoting AffiloJetpack as an affiliate. I’ll admit, I’m in it for the money!
I know that most of the people that come to my blog are Affilorama members, so I know you’ve probably been hearing about AffiloJetpack for awhile now (If you want to learn more about AffiloJetpack, click on my obvious affiliate link here). Let’s cut to the chase:
Why you should buy AffiloJetpack from me and not Mr. Money-Bags-IM-Guru:
I’ll admit, I don’t have $15,997 worth of bonuses to offer you. I don’t have “my dirty little secrets of how I generated $10,000 in 5 minutes” top-secret report.
Look, I’m just a guy that’s trying to make money online. I’m no millionaire. Heck! I’m not even a hundred-thousand-aire (or a ten-thousand-aire).
However, there are a few things that I am really good at:
Awesome Bonus #1 – Keyword Research – I am absolutely meticulous about keyword research. I dig down deep and hunt the keywords that everyone else has overlooked. These keywords are easy to rank for. I’m talking stupid-easy to rank for! I found a keyword once that gets 5000 searches in Google each month and ranked number 5 without any backlinks.
If you buy through my affiliate link, I’ll do keyword research for your new affiliate sites. I’ll give you a list of 50 sneaky, under-the-radar keywords for up to 5 niches (10/niche or up to 50 for one niche) that I believe you have an excellent chance of ranking for with very little effort. All I need from you is the niches you’re interested in entering.
I will not give you keywords that I have ever given anyone else and I will not target these keywords myself (now or in the future).
Awesome Bonus #2 – Website Review – When I was in college at the University of Washington, I took “Intro to Psychology.” We had to take a bunch of cool tests and quizzes. We even took a “How OCD Are You?” test. I scored in the 90th percentile. That means I’m more neurotic than 90% of all the other people out there!
Why not use my psychological problems to your advantage? Look, I’ve been doing this stuff for awhile, and I know what I’m doing. I’ll take a look at 5 of your websites once they are done and give you a blow-by-blow break down of how you can improve them. This is not just a Traffic Travis on-page SEO analysis. This includes:
- on-page SEO
- design (I have a masters degree in architecture and design, so I have a “trained eye” for what looks good)
- attention-grabbing headlines
- other technical and neurotic criteria
If something on your site doesn’t measure up to my obsessive quality standards, I will tell you exactly what you need to do to put my neurotic mind at ease. This might include exact headlines to use on your site, hexadecimal color numbers for your site’s design and layout, internal linking, etc.
Awesome Bonus #3 – Header Design – That’s right. I’ll design you 5 kick-ass headers for your websites. I have a master’s degree in architecture, which basically means I spent 2 years of my life doing nothing but PhotoShop. Not a lot of people know this either, but I also designed some music album layouts and CD artwork for my friend’s band Conversations About the Light.
I will use free (but awesome) stock photos to design your header. If you want to provide your own images, that is totally cool, but I will assume that you have rights to these images and will not take responsibility for usage violations from images you provide.
I will use my mad PhotoShop skills to design you 5 totally sick headers for your AffiloJetpack websites. It’s no secret that AffiloJetpack comes with some cool header designs, but do you want your website to look just like every other AffiloJetpack website out there? Make yours stand out with some unique header designs by a guy with a masters degree in design.
(Note: Your headers will be completely unique and I will not give identical or similar headers to anyone else EVER)
Awesome Bonus #4 – 25 Article Re-Writes – If you want to rank well in search engines, you need unique content. If you buy AffiloJetpack through my affiliate link, I will personally re-write 25 AffiloJetpack content articles for your websites. You could have me write 25 articles for one website, or 5 for each of your 5 AffiloJetpack sites. The choice is yours.
Granted I did get straight C’s in my high school English classes, I doubt you’ll be wanting any articles about the significance of the white whale in Moby Dick (If you do want any articles on this subject, I highly recommend you don’t get my bonus package–seriously! I think I got a D on that paper!). However, if your niche is something like relationship advice, weight loss, men’s dating tips, etc. I think I could write some good stuff for you. Just promise me you won’t have Ms. Altman grade it.
All of my articles will be written in conversational American English.
Awesome Bonus #5 – Free Beer – I plan on traveling all over the world and going on all kinds of cool adventures. When I’m visiting your city or country, I’ll get together with you and buy you a beer (or just dinner if you don’t drink or are under the drinking age where you live) at a bar of your choice and I will let you kick my ass at pool or darts (which should not be that difficult).
If you don’t want to hang out with me (or you don’t want to wait for me to visit you), I will PayPal you $15 to buy a cool beer of your own choosing (I recommend trying Gonzo).
Almost a year ago, I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 to get AffiloBlueprint. Since them I’ve used AffiloBlueprint to make over $5000. That’s a pretty good ROI! I have not gotten a review copy of AffiloJetpack because the rules say you need a list of 10,000 people or more (and I don’t even have a list!), but I know from personal experience that Mark Ling is a good guy that will genuinely help you succeed in every way he can.
This isn’t going to be a horrible piece of garbage like that Miracle Traffic Bot thing a few months back. I didn’t get that, but I could tell it was a load of rubbish from a mile away. I’m actually really excited about AffiloJetpack.
If you’re interested in getting AffiloJetpack, and you’d like my awesome bonuses, please do the following:
1. Clear cookies from your browser to ensure that you are actually buying through my link.
2. Click on my blatant affiliate link right here.
Make sure that the bottom of the order form has this or else I can't help you
3. Send me an e-mail from my contact page so we can get things started.
FTC Disclosure: Clayton is a soulless internet marketer and by clicking on his affiliate link and buying AffiloJetpack, Clayton will make a commission that he will use to buy groceries and pay his bills. Buying AffiloJetpack though Clayton’s affiliate link will also put a big smile on his face and make him feel great for the rest of the day (maybe even the rest of the week).
PS: Yes, this is a totally real bonus package. I just thought that people take this stuff way too seriously and forget to have fun with things (I mean, come on! Who else puts a flaming skull on an e-cover?).
PPS: Even if you don’t buy through my link, I at least hope you got a good laugh out of this.
PPPS: Even if you don’t buy though my link, I’d still like to get a beer with you (though I can’t promise I’ll pay for it and I can’t promise I’ll let you kick my ass at pool or darts).
Posted in Shameless Ploy to Make Money | Comments (14)
Website Building Update – Week 44
July 2nd, 2010 by Clayton
Well, June is over and that means I need to do another monthly update. In June I made $1338.82. When I break it down to each website’s performance it looks like this:
Website #1 – $204.86 ($86.58 from PPC)
Website #2 – $94.04
Website #3 – $148.44
Website #4 – $665.40
Website #5 – $0 (on hold)
Website #6 – $205.14
Website #7 – $0
Other Shenanigans – $20.94
My income was just a little lower than last month. But I’m not complaining. Most of it was completely passive. All the work I’m doing these days hasn’t kicked in yet, so I’m really excited to see the results next month!
It seems like all I can do is just barely stay ahead of my worker. Between proof-reading spun articles, making web 2.0 sites, and submitting to a handful of directories, I’m spread pretty thin. This is just growing pains though, and it should only last until I can finish my mad dash to my August 26th deadline or until I can find some sort of clever way to download all my scattered thoughts to my worker.
I am currently weighing outsourcing all of my link building efforts. Has anyone ever used Offshore Ally or any other backlinking service? I probably won’t get around to this for a few months, but I want to start shopping around.
Also, is anyone out there considering getting AffiloJetpack? I’m putting together a bonus package and I’m wondering if there’s anything you guys would like to see to sweeten the deal? Currently, I’m thinking I could do some keyword research and header design for you. What do you think?
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (18)
Getting in Shape – Week 2 (A Little Late – Oops)
July 2nd, 2010 by Clayton
So, I’m running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then I do simple exercises like push-ups or sit-ups on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I miss the days of when I had a gym membership, but I need to operate on a tight budget (after all I only make about $1000 per month after paying my worker).
Anyway, things are going pretty well. I made it a little bit farther than I did last week and I started running up some hills, which are incredibly difficult for me.
Total distance: 1.5 miles +/-
My girlfriend and I have also started the Body for Life program after some friends of ours have had some pretty incredible success with it over the past 6 weeks or so. I checked out the Eating for Life cookbook at the library this week and now I’m eating every 3 hours or so.
So far it’s pretty easy. Eat 6 small meals with one “fist” of carbs and one “palm” of protein. Also, no sugar allowed. I think that’s the basics of it.
This is going pretty easy, though it is difficult to get myself out of bed in the morning to workout sometimes.
I visited my mom in the suburbs last weekend and I took the opportunity to use her scale. My starting weight is 145 (about 65 kg for those not in the States). Again, I’m not trying to lose weight. I just want to get in shape, but I think it’s a good idea to keep track of stuff like this.
Posted in Getting in Shape | Comments (4)
Website Building Update – Week 43
June 25th, 2010 by Clayton
Well, I made it through the awkward gear-shifting phase from writing/spinning articles to article marketing. Surprisingly this is a lot more difficult than it sounds when you’re juggling 7 websites and trying to keep your writer busy.
I’m now doing some heavy backlinking together with my worker on websites #3 and #7. This is probably what I’ll be doing for the rest of the summer.
On Wednesday the internet decided that it was going to be huge pain in the ass for me. Hubpages stopped working and I couldn’t make a hub. Same with Tumblr. And Tripod became almost useless by making all the text I gave it invisible and inserting random symbols everywhere in my blog posts.
Anyway, I’ve got way too much to do these days. If you see me skulking around leaving comments on your blog or posting too much on Affilorama, smack me and tell me to stop slacking off and get back to work
Also, I think I’m going to put together a bonus package for the AffiloJetpack launch. I have an idea that might just be stupid enough to work. If nothing else you’ll get a good laugh out of it. If you’re interested in AffiloJetpack, I will totally be your IM BFF if you buy through my affiliate link Stay tuned…
This month has been a little slower than last month despite slowly increasing traffic. I think it’s because I added a lot of unmonetized pages on my sites that were “leaking” visitors. I patched up the problem this week with more monetizing. Hopefully this will help boost sales. So far I’ve already made two sales from the website after I monetized the extra pages.
Overall, things have been more consistent though. No dry spells, no hot streaks. I’m making about one or two sales per day, which is pretty nice for someone like me that craves consistency.
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (15)
Getting in Shape – Week 1
June 22nd, 2010 by Clayton
Okay, so I’m really out of shape. I’ve basically been sitting in front of my computer for the past 9 months. I need some exercise. Especially if I’m going to be hanging out on those beaches in Phuket in a few months. I’m sure no one wants to be blinded by my pasty, amorphous body ruining their pristine views of the ocean.
Vincent is doing a 16 week six-pack challenge, so I figure now is a great time for me to get in shape too.
I’m not trying to get a six-pack (though I wouldn’t complain if I got one). I just want to be able to run more than 20 feet without having to stop and catch my breath.
My goal for this 16-week challenge is to be able to run from my apartment to Blaine Steps (and run up Blaine Steps) and back without stopping. This is about 3 miles round-trip, which shouldn’t be too hard, except for the fact that I have to trudge up several hundred steps at the half-way point.
I used to run track when I was in high school. And aside from being the second worst person on the team (and receiving the yeah-you-suck-but-at-least-you-never-gave-up award), I at least felt like I was “in shape” back then.
I started exercising yesterday. Let me tell you, I have really let myself go over the years. I started out slow and ran half way to Blaine Steps. Kind of lame, but I don’t want to over-exert myself while I’m just getting started.
Total distance ran : 1 mile
Well, I hope I can give you better results next week.
Posted in Getting in Shape | Comments (3)