Building Site #2 - Still Spinning & Dithering

Week Eight

Okay, January 2010 is over.

I made some steps towards my goals for this week - I've got a total of three spins uploaded for site #2 at ArticleMarketingAutomation.  I've had 99 visitors since the site went live.  I've gotten 6 hops and 0 sales (well, yeah).  I plan to do 3 more spins and I may attempt a small PPC campaign after that if I can use the Hostgator $50 credit at Google.

Site #1 is a puzzle.  I had 6769 visitors in January and 919 hops.  That's great!  Of those hops, 797 were from the site and 112 were from the newsletter.  I have 76 new signups to my newsletter in January bringing my list size to 165.  But sales are abysmal: 566 hops to get 2 sales for one product and 108 clicks to get 1 sale for another product.  If the niche was healthy, I should have made 9 sales in January, but I only made 3.  And since Clickbank isn't releasing the money (STILL), I can't even say that I broke even for this month!  Not loving all the work I put into site #1 right now.

I've been working on the ecommerce angle,  too.  I sent in my trade name paperwork and the vendor's license paperwork.  I've picked a niche. 

I can't open the bank account until I have the trade name/vendor's liscence paperwork to show the bank.  I went in to the bank and that's what they require.  So, the wheels are turning slowly there as I wait for the government to process my paperwork.  What do you want to be the IRS gives me a vendor ID before the state gives me a trade name?

I've also continued on and watched the rest of module 3 in Niche Blueprint 2.0 - about sourcing products and pricing products.  I ran down the names and contact information of 10 brand manufacturers that my competition is selling in my chosen.  I've found dropshippers, too, for 9/10 brands.  I also watched module 4 about domain names.  I wish I had a couple grand to buy an aged domain name, but I don't think so! 

The next step is to contact the dropshippers and brand manufacturers to see if I can set up accounts.  I'm waiting on the trade name/vendors license here again!  I need a bank account and license number to look professional to them according to module 3.1.    So I've been doing some niche research and keyword research as I wait.

As soon as my trade name/license papers arrive, I will set up the bank account and begin lining up the dropshippers.

Meanwhile I'm going to continue researching product and learning about the niche while I wait.  This week I will buy a domain and watch module 5.

And keep spinning for site #2.  You never know.  Registry cleaners are supposed to be a top 10 niche.

Building Site #2 - Affiliate Spins and eCommerce Frustration

Week 7

This was another tough week.  My registry cleaner website newsletter is live - a popup on the site delivers 6 autoresponder emails that are the "PC Basics Mini-Course."  I didn't bother with the redirects.  Instead I just used affiliate links.  I'm drawing a blank about what to write 4 more emails about.  But I may get to it eventually.

I got one spin finished and uploaded at Article Marketing Automation.  I'm not proud.  My goal for next week is two more spins uploaded at AMA.  I'll never make sales without traffic, and I'll never get traffic without marketing. 

I admit that my motivation is taking a major hit because site #1 is tanking.  My traffic is good.  My CTR is good.  My Google ranking on several words is good.  But no one buys.  Whether this is about vendor copywriting conversion or the niche being uninteresting in buying, I don't know.  But, I wrote an article for site #1 this week and Twittered about it.  It is #2 on Google for the keyword.  I'm getting people and clicks from it...no sales.

I am SO glad I wrote the site myself, because if I'd paid someone hundreds of dollars and the site was doing this kind of business, I'd be sick.  Sure, I'm out some major time investment.  But I'm not out the cash and I learned a lot.  But my faith in the affiliate marketing model is at an all time low.

On to the newest Bright Shiney Object - eCommerce.  I've worked through module 1 and module 2 in NicheBlueprint 2.0.  I've got a list of niches and I'm pretty stuck trying to pick the "right" one.  I'm already annoyed because the first video in module 3 tells me to get a trade name/DBA and a sales tax/vendors liscence and that's $75 in my state.  When I bought NB2.0, they said I'm need $15 per month for hosting and no much else.  Sigh.  There is always something that cost.

Here's my worry: Say I get a trade name and vendor's liscence.  I set up an eCommerce site and it doesn't work out. (Sure I hope it makes money.   But hello, I thought affiliate marketing would make money and ZIPPO.  Getting tired of believing the promises and assurances these gurus make.)  Then I'm on the IRS's radar as a home business.  Is that bad?  Should I be concerned about that?  I'd rather be making money before the IRS knows I'm trying to make money.

Well, I've got the affiliate sites and the eCommerce site fighting for my attention.  This is resulting in less productive work being done and my discouragement is getting a little intense.  I took the majority of the day off on Sunday by curling in a fetal ball with chocolate.

My goals for this week: Open a bank account for DBA.  Send in trade name paperwork.  Send in vendors liscence application.  Choose a niche.  Write and upload two spins for the affiliate site.

Wish me luck and some fresh faith in my business.

Building Site #2 - Newsletters & Bright Shiney Object Syndrome

Week 6

I was going along so good in week 1 through week 5!  This week was not a banner week for me.

First the good news: Site #1 did not get slapped by Google.  I am still ranking on the first page for several "money" keywords.  I think I may be seeing a bit of the post-holiday belt tightening.  I get lots of CTR, but no sales.  (Some of that is the vendor sales pages just don't convert very well.)

Also, I did manage to write the first 4 newsletters for site #2.  I'm hoping to make ten newsletters for this site.  Then I'll decide if it's worth my while to write more depending on if I get any traffic or sign ups.  I'm hesitating because I wonder if the Registry Cleaner market is a problem-solution market, and therefore not interested in a newsletter.  Maybe they want a solution and then they want to forget it.  Like the "yeast infection" market, ha!

I get a lot of sign ups for my Mafia Wars newsletter as I expected because it's a different kind of crowd.  I've got 22 newsletter installments for that series.

I also rewrote 4 articles from site #2 as the first step toward spinning them.  I just loathe spinning articles.  Each one takes something like 4 hours.  I made them super short this time -  all under 500 words.  On site #1, I wrote 700-800 word spins and that was just agony.  I also tried to write simple sentences more, because it is much harder to rewrite complex compound sentences.  I'm trying hard to get motivated on the spins because I know they are the #1 shot at ranking for my keywords.  ArticleMarketingAutomation really gets the job done.

Now the bad news: I'm losing confidence in the affiliate marketing model I'm using.  Site #1 traffic is stabilizing and I'm just not seeing the sales I'd hoped for.  The whole point of site #2 for me was to test to see if I chose a bad niche for site #1.   But it is mega-discouraging to see all the work I put in to site one just wasted as my Clickbank account flatlines.

Unfortunately, when I get rattled I start to go for the Bright Shiney Object syndrome.  You know, "If this doesn't work, what will?"  And I get sucked in to another course.

And that's just what happened this week.  I spent Sunday curled in a fetal ball and then I bought Niche Blueprint 2.0.  It's an e-commerce site building class - selling hard goods on the 'Net.  Mistake?  Hard to say right now.  I've watched four videos and done some research for a niche using their system, and they have some cool tools for research.

So, for site #2, my goal is to write 6 more newsletters and get a popup signup form on the site.  Also, I want to spin about 6 articles, driving links to my "money" keyword pages.  Then, I'm going to let the site age.  I hope this will take another 2 weeks.  (I wish I could finish it in 1, but those spins...ugh!)

More report on Niche Blueprint 2.0 as I go deeper down the rabbit hole.

Building Site #2 - Content Complete

Week 5

So I researched and wrote like a fiend this week!  And I beat my goal and finished all the initial site articles.  That means 30 pages are up and running with monetization and on page SEO, including 5 review articles and the chart.

I tweaked the keywords even more this week, because I found that some keywords in this niche are seriously underserved.  Search volumes of 9000+ with only forums in the results!  Some of those words are wide open.  Of course, I don't know if they will convert.

I've learned  a hard lesson with site #1 - conversions MATTER.  I generate a CTR over 15% but the copy on the vendor salespage doesn't convert even at 1%.  I just wasted a ton of time, right?  Ah well.

I was in such a writing groove this week that I wrote another article for site #1.  And I added another newsletter to my series.  I also used Twitter to promote site #1 and #2 a little.  I expected this to have a positive impact on my site...

But whoops!  Something awful has happened at site #1 and I don't even know what it is.  My seo organic traffic volume dropped from 400 on Tueday to 28 on Wednesday.  Is this the "Google Slap?"  If it is, I don't know why I'm being slapped.  My content is original and high quality.  (Not trying to sound vain, but have you SEEN some of the junk out there??) 

There are a few possibilities:

• Someone copied my content and now I'm seen as "duplicate" by search engines
• Google changed the standards again without telling us
• My lack of privacy policy and contact page has finally bit me in the butt

I don't know.  And I can't figure it out today.  I want to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow to find this has been a bad dream, but I have a feeling I'm in big trouble somehow.  And it's such a bummer, because the site was just starting to turn out about a sale a week. 

(Hey, it's peanuts, but I've worked ridiculously hard for those peanuts.)

I checked the Affilorama forum, but no help there.  I don't know where to go to find out what is happening.

Meanwhile, site #2 looks real pretty.  And I've had a few visitors, including the search engine spiders.  I guess that's good, unless site #2 gets slapped, too. 

I'm feeling pretty discouraged right now.  In the coming week I'll have to figure this problem out and begin writing the newsletter for site #2.  I don't think I'll be knocking myself out for the newsletter on site #2 like I did for site #1.  I might start spinning the money keywords for site #2, as well.  A newsletter doesn't do me much good if I don't have traffic, right?

Building Site #2 - Construction

Week 4

I found out that the reason my site hosting didn't propagate until Thursday was because I didn't know how to link the account right.  It was an "addon domain." It is a very strange situation to see my new domain tucked into the first domain on Filezilla.

But now that hosting is finally ironed out, I had the pleasure of loading up my articles and monetizing and doing the SEO for 18 pages.  I made a header and, after major fits and tearing out my hair with finding the upload url, attached it to the site.  So my site is visible and has some content for search engines and anyone else who stumbles across it.

I've also hunted down some better keywords and swapped them on my initial keyword plan for the site.  This registry cleaner niche is very interesting, because there are so many errors with really decent search volume.  And as new errors crop up, the seo is WIDE open.  I mean, some of the keywords only have exact matches of 3 or 9 on Google.  That's OPEN.

So, I'm hoping that will result in better traffic for me then my initial keyword plan.  I can see that this site could grow and grow if I continue to dig up fresh keywords and write.  Although the writing proces has been painful, because I'm learning so much about computers. Not my special area!

Site #1 is still out there.  For the month of December, I had 4,237 visitors, 758 hops, and 3 sales.  So my clickthru rate is good (almost 18%), but the sales letter conversion is BAD.  This suggests that the vendor's copy is pretty lousyl 

Ah, well.  At least I'm persuading people to clickthru!

I need to write 12 more pages to have a 30 page site.  If I can get it going at a rate of 1 per day, I will be happy.  I should take day 7 each week and write an article for site #1, too.  No rest for the weary!

On the bright side, I've crossed the Clickbank payment threshold and I should get my first check for site #1.  It's a sad little check, but it is something.  And - hello! - I've EARNED that puppy.  Never worked so hard for so little in my life. 

But I'm still hammering away at it, because I think site #2 has a better shot.  We shall see.  After all, what am I going to do, watch TV in my free time?  Nah.  This is my preferred activity now.  There is more hope in building websites than in watching another CSI series, right?