Website Building Update – Week 23
February 5th, 2010 by Clayton
This week has been all about backlinks! I’ve taken the articles I’ve spun last week and the articles my outsourcer has spun as well, and I’m going berserk with directory submits and web 2.0 sites. It’s pretty boring, but at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve done so much stuff!
I finally earned “platinum” status on Ezine Articles after submitting 60 articles. This is pretty cool for me! Sometimes I need minor accomplishments like this to make me feel good about myself. I can now get an article approved in a few hours, as opposed to the two weeks or longer it took back in September.
Article Marketing Automation (AMA) was down again on Tuesday, which was incredibly frustrating since basically everything I’m doing right now relies on me having access to my account on their site. They seem to be having lots of problems lately. I wonder when they’ll decide they owe us a free month of service to compensate for all of their constant site errors…
Plus there was an internet outage on Wednesday, which slowed me down too.
Sales-wise, this week has been pretty slow. I came in just shy of $500 for the month of January. Only two sales from website #4 since last Friday. I’m not letting it get me down though since I’m pretty sure that after doing my current SEO activities for a solid month or so, I should be getting a butt-load of traffic and hopefully sales.
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Website Building Update – Week 22
January 29th, 2010 by Clayton
I just past the 5-month mark doing this.
I’ve also started using a program called the Best Spinner to help with article spinning. I found out about it from an Affilorama member. It’s free while it’s in Beta testing, so I’ve been going crazy spinning as much as I can before it goes live on February 1st and I have to pay for it. Using this software has been great. I feel like some kind of really lame super-hero that has the power to spin an article in 30 minutes. This week has primarily been an article spinning marathon. Next week, or rather next month (!), I get to start using all these articles and submit them to directories.
Other than that, it’s hard for me to know what to write this week. I had one of those a-ha moments a few days ago and I am in the process of overhauling my SEO strategy. I think this will be extremely effective when I put it into action. The only problem is I think I built too many websites too fast and now I’m starting to feel like I’m drowning in work. So much to do. I’ll write more about this if/when I know it works.
This week I crossed the $400 mark for this month. This is really exciting for me because I just met one of my goals. I remember hearing about a report a few months ago that said that 46% of internet marketers make less than $400 a month, and 17% make over $20,000 a month (I can’t seem to find the report, otherwise I would link to it). Anyway, I’m in the top 54% of marketers now! That’s pretty exciting. Soon I’ll be able to pay my rent with all this IM stuff. I guess it will probably take some time to get up to the top 17%…
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Website Building Update – Week 21
January 22nd, 2010 by Clayton
This week I’ve started backlinking some backlinks to build up some link juice to my first level backlinks. Kind of complicated, I know, but I’ve been taking my previously spun articles and reformatting them for a different spinning service called Free Traffic System and swapping the link URL’s out for my web 2.0 sites and Ezine Article pages.
I also started some preliminary keyword research for website #7. This time, I’m running an extremely tight game. I’m going after keywords that not only pass Traffic Travis analysis (4- and 5-star rating), but I’m also using the Niche Profit Classroom keyword model, or at least what I can make of it from watching a few free webinars. I think this site is going to be really successful because of it. I know it makes me a super-nerd, but I get really excited about doing keyword research.
My outsource guy also got me my batch of 25 articles for website #6 (website #5 is still on hold for now). So far, I am really impressed with this outsourcing stuff. I did one day of keyword research and sent a few e-mails, and someone else did what would have taken me one or two weeks of work. Pretty spiffy! I’m really looking forward to getting my spun articles from this guy! All I need to do now is just go through these articles and add in my own voice and unique flavor.
My advertisement in a local paper went live yesterday. I think I’ll cut it out and save it as a memento.
So, let’s see how I did this week…
One sale from my newspaper ad so far. Not too bad, considering I only paid $25 to place it. Other than that, this week has been a little quiet.
Well, time to get back to spinning/writing/link building.
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A Few Odds and Ends
January 19th, 2010 by Clayton
Lots of cool things are happening these days!
This past Sunday, I met up with some internet marketers here in the Seattle area. It was really cool to actually meet people that are doing this. It makes me feel a little less crazy to actually be around people that talk about SEO, affiliate commission rates, and other topics that seem to make everyone else’s eyes glaze over. I even met one guy that makes a full-time living from an affiliate website. This was pretty huge for me. I’ve talked to people online that make lots of money doing this. I’ve even traded a few e-mails with some. But to actually meet someone that’s doing this in person… There was something especially motivating about that.
Tonight, I am going to start my first Japanese language class through the UW Experimental College. I took a year of Japanese in college when I was an undergrad, but I forgot most of it. Going to Tokyo in 2008, really made me want to learn Japanese so I could actually be a bilingual bad ass! Plus, I’ve decided to set up a Japanese language website (which I will refer to as website #7 from here on), and this will be a great opportunity to get content for it. All I need to do is go to class and learn something I want to learn anyway, then go home and write about what I learned to make an affiliate site. Pretty sweet if you ask me!
This week is kind of hard for me. My girlfriend is doing the Tim Ferriss Diet again. She is forbidding me from doing it this time because she’s afraid I’ll wither away to nothing. So, to help keep her motivated, I’m choosing to suffer as well, by only checking my Clickbank account on Fridays. I did not realize, how addicted I was to logging in and seeing if I’ve made any sales.
There are some other things going on this week too, but they are directly related to my online business (my newspaper ad, outsourcing, etc.), so I’ll save those for my Friday update. It’s times like now that I’m really excited to be alive!
Posted in Goals, Life, Online Income Experiment | Comments (2)
Website Building Update – Week 20
January 15th, 2010 by Clayton
This week has been pretty busy. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on outsourcing some article writing and spinning. I don’t know if it’s overkill, but I gave my guy a list of article titles and a short description of what the article should be about with a few relevant bullet points. It took me about a day to do all the keyword research and find topics to write about, but it should be more than worth it in the long run. I should get some articles back from him next week.
I’ve also been going back and polishing up the first four websites. I’ve made them FTC compliant and I’ve changed affiliate ads on products that haven’t been converting for new ones that will hopefully make some money. I redid the design of one site to make a little less ugly and I’ve also started adding new articles as well, which will ultimately mean more spinning down the road (ugh…).
At the recommendation of an Affilorama member, I’ve started doing some social bookmarking, which is very time consuming, even with something like Onlywire. I don’t want to be a spammer, so I have to hunt down other things to bookmark as well. Very dull work.
In an effort to generate some quick cash (so I don’t starve to death), I’ve taken out a small ad in a local newspaper which will direct people to an affiliate offer. The paper with my ad will be published next week.
It seems like juggling all these websites and promoting them is quickly getting out of control. I hope I start pulling in a significant amount of money soon so I can outsource more work.
So this week has been pretty good. A few sales have brought in over $130, which my working friends may snicker at, but I’m quite proud of it. It’s strange, my sales seem to be clumped on certain days. I’ll go a few days with nothing, then get 2 or 3 sales within a few hours of each other.
Have a good weekend, y’all!
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Why Don’t You Get a Job?
January 12th, 2010 by Clayton
As someone who has decided to start their own business, I am met with constant criticisms from people in my life that just don’t understand things the way I do. These are the early days and I’m not making a great amount of money. Whenever I tell my mother about a small success I’ve had or a sale of a few dollars, she cynically asks me if I found that money on the sidewalk, as if my entire business was nothing more than looking for stray quarters that people drop on their way to work. My friend assumes that this is a passing phase and that I’ll soon regain my sanity and get a job. People are always giving me tips on some job they saw in a newspaper or on craigslist.
It’s frustrating and disheartening. It feels like the people in my life that I trust the most are betraying me and trying to pull me down.
So, why don’t I just get a job? The answer is two-fold:
First, the economy sucks. With the real unemployment rate around 17.5%, now is a very stupid time to go out looking for a job unless you are absolutely desperate. I have a masters degree in architecture, which makes me too “over educated” to get a job in any other field. With most of the major architecture firms laying off about half of their staff, my odds of actually landing a job in my field are even slimmer.
There are barely any jobs out there in architecture these days. The few job that there are are bombarded with so many resumes that the competition makes it almost an exercise in futility. Even if I could get a job, all it would mean is that I’m willing to do the most amount of work possible for the least amount of money. Not exactly the optimal position to be in. Why try to win a battle in a losing war?
Secondly, working for a living is a waste of time. Yes, you heard that right. If you’re here on my blog, you probably already believe this to some degree. Take me, making a few hundred dollars a month and any one of my friends out there with a full-time job making $40,000/year ($3,333/month), and it looks like I’m coming in the loser. But if both of us stopped working, I’d still be making a few hundred dollars every month, while their earnings immediately go to $0. Starts to change the way you think about things.
Add to that the fact that there really is no ceiling on how much I can make on my own. I can keep working and keep growing my income into the six- or seven-figure range if I keep at it long enough. While my full-time friend is stuck earning a solid $40k on salary if he works 40 hours this week or 80 hours. The only time he can get that bumped up is by crossing his fingers and praying that once a year, his boss will give him a one or two thousand dollar raise.
So, even though I’m not really making “big money” yet, I still think I’m in a better situation. I can keep my dignity by running my own business. I don’t have to go out and sell myself all over town the the lowest bidder in this dismal economy and I don’t have to trade my time for money.
So keep laughing at me. The joke is on you. You ask me if my money comes from finding nickles on the sidewalk, but you wake up at 4AM to “survive” another day and come home tired only to piss away your free time in front of the TV. You think I’m insane when you rent out your mind and body to someone else who can instantly decide to kick you to the curb and leave you with nothing. I’m out here creating my own opportunity, and I’m out here creating my own assets. One day I’ll be living the life and you’ll be left wondering how I did it still zoning out in front of the TV and renting your mind. See you then.
[end rant]
Posted in Life | Comments (8)
Website Building Update – Week 19
January 8th, 2010 by Clayton
I got a little cash for the holidays and I’m looking to put it to work for me by trying to outsource some work for a new website. I’m admittedly a little nervous about this since I’ve never done this before. Also, I’ve been so involved in the process of doing all the work that I am both anxious about giving it to someone else and worried that somehow there will be a miscommunication somewhere.
If nothing else, this is a great chance for me to do one of Tim Ferriss’ exercises from the 4 Hour Work Week and practice outsourcing and delegating things to other people. If this outsourcing stuff pays off, building these websites will get immensely easier. As dorky as it sounds, I fantasize about what it would be like to never spin another article again.
I took advantage of Sean Morrissy’s New Year’s offer to evaluate my business plan. He said it was pretty good, but I need to do more SEO. So I’m going to spend more time promoting my existing sites and try out some social bookmarking. I signed up for Onlywire, which I can use for free by putting their bookmarking button at the bottom of my blog posts here. I tried SocialMarker, but I found it to be time-consuming at best and non-operational at worst.
Also, I’m not really sure why, but it seems to be nearly impossible to open an account with Propeller. Has anyone else experienced this or found a work-around?
This year, I’m trying to reach out and meet other people in “the game,” hence contacting Sean. I also joined a local Meetup group here in Seattle for internet marketing. They are meeting next weekend. I’m excited to start meeting other people out there and hopefully learn a thing or two from them.
Anyway, this week was a pretty quiet week. Only one new sale since I last posted, which is strange since my hop clicks have gone up through the roof this past week. I’m beginning to think that my recent surge was a result of the holidays. Well, my sales still have a slow pulse, so I’m grateful, but I’d really like to get back to making sales nearly every day. I guess that’s a bit of a taste of things to come.
Till next week.
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The Question
January 5th, 2010 by Clayton
So a few weeks ago, I was got an e-mail from super bad-ass internet marketer Frank Kern about this holiday DVD he was giving away for free as a way to give back to the community. I got it and watched it.
The DVD is a presentation he gave at some seminar. He details this exercise where you sit down and answer one question. You answer it in incredible, minute detail. Doing say has the power to change your life. What is this “magical” question?
It’s “What would you do on your perfect day?”
Go into insane detail on this exercise. Write about what you think about when you wake up in the morning. What do you have for breakfast? Where are you eating breakfast? What do you do with your time? What do you wear? How do your clothes feel against your body? Where do you live? Who do you spend your time with? What do you do when you spend your time with them? How does that make you feel? What are you working toward? What makes you happy?
You get the idea.
Frank spent about 4 hours writing down the answer to this question. He advocates getting into the boring, mundane details because the boring and mundane things are what life is made of. Make this a day that you could live over and over again for the rest of your life and be completely content with it.
Frank says that almost as if by magic, he ended up living the exact life he wrote about within the following nine months after doing it.
Pretty cool.
I actually did this exercise, oh, maybe two years ago. I don’t remember where I heard about from back then, I didn’t take it into as insane detail as Frank did. Personally, everything I wrote didn’t come true, but my current reality bears an odd resemblance to what I wrote about.
At the time, I was single, living in some sprawled out suburban desert wasteland in Tempe, Arizona. The heat was oppressive and made me feel miserable most of the time. I was in grad school taking lots of classes that didn’t particularly interest me that much.
I wrote about living in an exciting dense neighborhood where I could walk anywhere. I had an awesome girlfriend and we lived together in a historic apartment building. I spent my days hanging out in coffee shops and creating artwork. My evenings were spent with close friends sharing good times.
Today, I now living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, which is pretty cool place. Lots of activity and essentially the complete antithesis of anything you could find in Arizona. I have a girlfriend that fits the description of the girl that I wrote about very closely. I spend my time working on building websites in coffee shops.
Pretty cool! I may not be all the way there, but I think I’m on track to getting what I wrote about two years ago.
I’m going to take some time today to answer the question again. This time in more detail and with more description. I’d recommend that you do this too. When you finish doing this you should be totally jazzed and excited about what you wrote about. You should be chomping at the bit to get out there and make it yours. If you’re not, then you need to go back and do it again, focusing on what you really want for yourself.
It’ll be interesting to see how this goes…
Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Life | Comments (0)
Website Building Update – Week 18
January 2nd, 2010 by Clayton
Alright, a new year! I had some friends over for a few days, so I’m a day late update this week.
I wanted to take a moment to log my monthly income from my first four months of this stuff:
- First Month (September) – $184.50 (I was using PPC)
- Second Month (October) – $38.74 (Quit using PPC — too expensive)
- Third Month (November) – $134.43
- Fourth Month (December) – $317.27
With the holidays and everything, I haven’t been able to focus too much on these websites. The sales from last week have died down a bit, but I’ve had a few more roll in none the less.
Hope you all had a good new year!
Posted in Online Income Experiment | Comments (6)
New Year’s Resolutions
December 29th, 2009 by Clayton
Although I don’t believe that there is anything magical about New Year’s resolutions and that people should constantly strive to improve their lives without limiting it to a once-a-year thing that falls on December 31st, I find great joy in making New Year’s resolutions. It’s a good idea to stop and take stock of things and adjust our trajectories now and again, and New Year’s is just as good as any other arbitrary date.
Plus it seems to be trendy this year not to make New Year’s resolutions. Being the stubborn contrarilian that I am, I’m going to do it anyway.
What has 2009 brought for me?
- I finished grad school.
- I left Arizona and moved to a city that I enjoy much more than Phoenix.
- I heard someone say “I love you” to me for the first time in almost three years (not counting my mom or best friend).
- I decided to go out on a limb and use the rest of my savings to try and start a business that may just end up financing the rest of my life (!).
- I became poor.
- I left the country (even if it was just Canada, and even if it was only for four days).
- I decided to follow my dreams.
Overall, pretty good. I must say, this isn’t the way I planned on everything playing out. I wish I made more money, and I wish my girlfriend and I could travel more, and I wish she didn’t have to go to work at a job she doesn’t like. But I suspect that will be a story for 2010.
For 2010, I’m making a few resolutions:
- I want to get up to making about $40-50k per year online.
- I want to begin outsourcing and removing myself from the equation so I can have free time.
- I want to be able to pay for my girlfriend to go to school full-time for Spring Quarter (around March).
- I want the two of us to go on a one-month mini-retirement to Thailand.
- I want to study Japanese.
- I want to take some art classes.
- I want to participate in NaNoWriMo in November.
- I want to develop this blog into something more.
- I want to laugh in the face of everyone who told me to get a job and that I was wasting my time (this is my petty goal for the sake of revenge and my ego).
- I want us to move to San Francisco.
- I want to buy new clothes (haven’t in two years).
Well, I guess that’s pretty much it. When you’re setting goals, it’s important to go into insane detail about them. I’ll spare you all my rambling daydreams and write them down privately. But, well, I’d like to come back to this post next year and see how I did.
So hold my feet to the fire, and make sure I make an effort to make these goals a reality.
I hope you all have a great New Year’s. And I hope we all have a great 2010!
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