Website Building Update – Week 31
This week I redesigned website #1 after some people at Affilorama gave me a bit of a crit. Honestly, I’m liking the new layout better. It looks more professional, which I think is a good thing for the panic and anxiety niche.
I’m starting my “slow growth” strategy on some of my sites. I’ve added a handful of articles that pass NPC standards (I hope they rank quickly because of that).
I’m also working on website #7 (learn Japanese), which I have neglected for oh so long. This is a very fun niche because it’s something I’m actually interested in. Plus it gives me an excuse to fantasize about riding the JR to Shinjuku or Shibuya when I go to Tokyo…
I installed instapop on my men’s dating advice site just to experiment and see if it really would increase newsletter sign-ups by 400% as people seem to say. I only did it yesterday, so I can’t really say how effective it is yet.
Things are pretty mundane. My daily ritual is basically:
- Arrive at coffee shop, order black coffee and start up computer.
- Write one article for “slow growth” on existing websites and post article to site.
- Spin article with the best spinner then save in AMA as a draft.
- Submit spun article to ezine articles.
- Take yesterday’s spun articles which has been approved by ezine and submit to a bunch of directories and web 2.0 sites.
- Take break and read affilorama / warrior forum / news / etc.
- Spend rest of day writing “learn Japanese” articles, or tweaking other websites.
- Leave coffee shop around 4:30 or 5:00 and meet girlfriend at work.
Anyway, it’s kind of dull, but it works.
March turned out pretty good. I made about $665. Still not enough to really make ends meet. Maybe I should look into getting a small business loan or just run away to the Philippines where I apparently already make a full-time income…
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:16 am
Hey Clayton,
Great month man. It seems like you have pretty low overhead for living expenses, so maybe that loan isn’t such a bad idea… The second 31 weeks are bound to be way easier than the first 31 weeks.
Do you use Aweber? They have some pretty cool templates, and they include the pop-up code too. I couldn’t get instapop to work too well on my sites.
Good luck in April and thanks for keeping up the updates, they’re an inspiration.
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
@Devin, yeah, I don’t really spend much money. Being poor kind of does that to you
I’m keeping track of every dollar that I spend for a month right now to get an accurate look at how much I spend. I’m guessing it’s around $1,000/month. I just want enough to hire someone in the Philippines and maybe get Unique Article Wizard.
Instapop seems to be working for me okay. However after about 50 popover impressions, I still haven’t had any opt-ins. I would think I would have had at least one. Maybe I didn’t insert the instapop code right… Without popovers I get a 2.5% sign-up rate. I might need to do an Aweber popover if I don’t get any opt-ins after a few hundred impressions. Thanks for the tip.
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Hey Clayton I like this blog. Tell me would you, how is the panic attack niche? I got into it a couple of months ago. Is it a decent niche? I am going to charge on with it anyway was just wondering what your thoughts were on it. Thanks
Todd
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:33 pm
@Todd, Thanks for stopping by my blog. Honestly I’m not doing very well in the panic attack niche. It is probably mostly because it was my first site and I made a lot of mistakes. Mostly I just didn’t go for buying keywords. I picked ones like “panic attacks and depression” when something more like “cure panic attacks and depression” would have been better. I would suggest being very careful about your keywords too. Look at your competition. Are you up against webMD or Mayo Clinic? If so, you might have a hard time. Hope this helps.
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Hey nice month Clayton, $665.
That is $8000 a year if you have that each month.
hmm, $8000 can buy you alot of outsourcing to speed things up or just use $4000 (50%)
Regards
Troy
April 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm
@Troy, Thanks for the encouragement, man. I guess I get caught up in trying to make enough money to live off of, that I sometimes forget how far I’ve come.
PS: Any more of “Troy’s Tips” in the works?
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm
OMG, you did amazing this month! I have been following your blog for several months now (I know, total lurker alert) because it gives me a sense of how the process of making passive income really works. I can keep a realistic mindset about this when the hard work that it takes is in front me as well as the exhilaration of actually succeeding. I originally clicked your blog from Tim Ferriss’ website and to be honest, I think YOU had a hand in me starting my own blog. Its regular (and totally awesome) people like you that make me want to take tangible actions towards pursuing my own dreams. Keep working hard, as you inspire us all!
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:10 pm
@Su, Thanks for reading my blog. You’re a fellow 4HWW’er? Unfortunately I still think I’m doing 60 hours a week or so, but I’m having a lot more fun and I’m more dedicated to all this than I ever was to a 9-5 job. I’m glad you like this blog. I mostly made it to document my experience because I’ve noticed that there’s a really big rift between all the people that are just getting started and the “gurus” out there that are raking in 5-figures or more a month. I’m not really sure where I’ll end up doing all this, but when I first started my mind was filled with questions like “how long with this take?” or “how much time before I can make $X/month?” I really just wanted to use myself as an experiment to help answer those questions for other people.
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I know what you mean about the disconnect, which is why I appreciate your blog so much. I basically got my own copy of Tim’s updated version. It just made me think differently at the right time in my life. So hopefully, this summer I can devote some time to pursuing my own internet projects. Its a bit overwhelming and I am a bit unplugged with all this technical stuff. I write, I dont design things, do programming, etc.. so trying to find my own area to flourish. I just need experience, you know? So I can get a better understanding of this whole game. And, I am glad that you are more passionate about what you are doing now! I am not afraid of hard work.. just afraid of working hard and being miserable.
April 4th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
@Su, Don’t feel intimidated by technical things. Just learn what you need to as you go. Last summer I didn’t know how to do any web design, I didn’t know what SEO stood for, I had no idea what article marketing was. You just need to know what you want to get done and take the best action you can think of to get there. It probably won’t work out seamlessly, but that’s fine. Just use that as feedback and correct your course as necessary. You’ll learn really fast!
April 6th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Clayton seems like you’ve put a lot of effort in already.
I’ve just found your site through a link at the affiloblueprint forum and I’ve just read all your past posts.
Sounds like you’ve had a tough time with some highs thrown in.
I’m sure this will turn the other way round for you soon with more highs.
Your earnings are heading the right way.
Keep up the good work. Hope you succeed.
April 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@Jeff, Thanks for reading my blog. Yeah, it’s been a crazy few month, but I also have a tendency to be an over-dramatic cry baby. I guess things are going in the right direction, but There’s always a battle with self-doubt and all my career-friends laughing at my meager success, thinking that anything under $40 or $50k is living in poverty (although I probably literally am living in poverty, but still…).