I hope 2010 is better than 2009
Dec 23, 2009 General Stuff
Not posted for a while so thought I would update you all.
I have neglected my affiliate sites a little as I have spent most of my time trying to find a job. Fortunately It looks like I have secured employment with a large SEO company and fingers crossed will be starting in January.
I have also been trying to get my web design company off the ground and I have found a couple of clients for the new year.
2009 has been a horrible year for me. I lost my job and split up with my wife and have had to start over again. I am looking forward to 2010 though because things are slowly falling into place.
On a positive note; Even though I have neglected my affiliate sites, they have still been earning me a little bit of pocket money and with a bit more effort I should be able to increase this to a steady income.
I will keep this blog updated and will definitely be adding some of the juicy stuff I learn in my new SEO job.
My niche website indexed in less than 24hrs
Dec 12, 2009 Case Studies
Well, I am pleased to report that my niche website has been indexed by google in less than 24hrs.
My tried and tested method has worked yet again! I am pretty certain that out of the steps I took to get it indexed, it was the submission to Digg that got the spider crawling.
As of this morning the site is in position 32 on the 3rd page so over the coming days I will keep adding content and hopefully some nice backlinks to improve my rankings. My goal is to get the site in the top 3.
Give me a few more days to work on it and then I will reveal the site in all it’s glory.
The diary of a niche website part 2
Dec 11, 2009 Case Studies
I’ve been working on the site for a few hours. Here is an update of what I have done -
Changed the theme to the brilliant Constructor theme by Anton Shevchuk which I have tweaked a little bit. The best way to quickly customize a theme is to change the CSS. I use the Web Developer Toolbar in Firefox to preview any changes.
I’ve also started adding some posts and whilst I am not very good at writing copy, it is very important to write good keyword rich posts as a lot of traffic will come through Long tail searches.
I’ve knocked up a simple table in Dreamweaver so that I can display affiliate products in a neat, attractive way.
I will copy and paste this code into each post and use the Raw HTML plugin so that the table is formatted correctly.
As I have got some content on there It’s time to try and get the site indexed. I have a checklist that I usually follow which has worked well for me in the past so I will stick to my tried and tested method.
- Submit my site to Google webmaster tools and send them my sitemap (the one created with the Google sitemap generator plugin).
- As the site is a blog type, I submit it to Google Blog Search
- Add a link to my new site from one of my established older sites using my keywords in the anchor text.
- Submitted to yahoo, bing and dmoz
- Find related blogs with a good page rank and post relevant comments.
- Submitted site to Digg and StumbleUpon.
Finally I have added Statcounter code to my footer so that when the site gets indexed, I can see where it got crawled from.
I always use Statcounter to monitor my traffic. I know most people use Google Analytics, but I prefer how Statcounter updates in real time.
I will continue to work on the site on the next few days and update you when the it is indexed. I will also reveal the site in all it’s glory!
Tags: analytics, bing, digg, dmoz, dreamweaver, statcounter, stumbleupon, webmaster tools, Wordpress, yahoo
The diary of a niche website
Dec 8, 2009 Case Studies
I’ve just started a new niche website that I hope will generate me some extra income. I thought I would diarize the whole process so newbies can see how I work and the more experienced among you can maybe offer me some help and advice.
I will be updating this article as I go along, so it will be best if I limit it to a list format.
Please feel free to comment on this post. Any help or constructive criticism will be much appreciated.
Ok, Here we go -
First off I spent a couple of hours researching keywords in the Google keyword tool
I have an interest in musical instruments and audio equipment so I eventually settled on [to be revealed].org.uk. The “exact” monthly search in Google is showing as 40,500
I do a search for my chosen keywords in google uk and find that there doesn’t seem to be too much competition.
I have also found several merchants on Affiliate Window who sell the products I want to promote.
I register the domain and install a wordpress blog.
A quick search on the net for “free wordpress themes” and I evetually decide on the nice, clean looking Blue Bubble theme by Thomas Veit.
I upload the theme to my blog using Filezilla and whilst I am on with that, I also upload some of my favorite plugins -
I then like to spend a little time activating my plugins and familiarizing myself with the theme. It is important for SEO purposes to change your permalinks to something more search engine friendly. I use “%postname%”.
I will now start looking up products and adding them to the site.
Part two coming soon
Oh money, money, money!
Dec 8, 2009 Web Design
I’m generating a few sales through my affiliate sites using organic SEO efforts but I’m rapidly running out of money!
I have been seriously considering getting a job!
Another option would be to find some self employed work as a web designer. I’m talking about small, basic websites for local businesses. I was thinking about knocking up some business cards, putting my suit on and trying a bit of cold calling (I used to work in direct sales).
Ive already got a Re-seller hosting package with Heart internet and I’m pretty nifty with Dreamweaver. It can’t be that difficult to get work can it?
It would be great to hear what you think about this. have any of you tried it?
If I could earn an extra couple of hundred quid a week I’d be happy.
Tags: dreamweaver, money, Web Design
