Article Syndication Challenge

Joe Stewart · 17th Jun 2014, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Stewart

Next week I'm going to have her start repurposing the articles into different formats as well. I want things to start happening a bit faster. Newsletters are also on my "to-do" list. I'm also considering offline publications.

Actually, not long after I posted this I read a post by John McCabe that reenforced my belief that it's important to mix things up and not rely only on blogs, but be diverse and use newsletters and ezines as well. You can read it below.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post9286541

In many cases a newsletter or ezine will provide a nice flow of traffic that will allow us to test our sales funnels. If we get a lot of clicks but few or no signups, then we know we may need to modify our landing page, test a landing page vs our blog or even test our free giveaway report.

If we're getting a good amount of subscribers but they're not converting into sales, we need to look at our email sequence, our call to action (how many people are actually clicking the link to the product or review) and, finally, the sales letter of the product or products. Something else to consider here is the newsletter itself. Is it a list of freebie seekers or buyers?

That's just off the top of my head. I know that it's necessary to have enough traffic to test those different elements, though, and newsletters will get me there a lot faster.

Just sayin'.

Alast · 17th Jun 2014, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Stewart

Actually, not long after I posted this I read a post by John McCabe that reenforced my belief that it's important to mix things up and not rely only on blogs, but be diverse and use newsletters and ezines as well. You can read it below.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post9286541

In many cases a newsletter or ezine will provide a nice flow of traffic that will allow us to test our sales funnels. If we get a lot of clicks but few or no signups, then we know we may need to modify our landing page, test a landing page vs our blog or even test our free giveaway report.

If we're getting a good amount of subscribers but they're not converting into sales, we need to look at our email sequence, our call to action (how many people are actually clicking the link to the product or review) and, finally, the sales letter of the product or products. Something else to consider here is the newsletter itself. Is it a list of freebie seekers or buyers?

That's just off the top of my head. I know that it's necessary to have enough traffic to test those different elements, though, and newsletters will get me there a lot faster.

Just sayin'.

I have currently had 5 of roughly 20 subscribers click my product link. I'm not sure if it's a good amount or not, but I think it's too early to tell.

On a side-note: I had an interesting incident with someone I offered an article to. Essentially they told me my plan was going to fail, and claimed to have started six 7-figure businesses online.

Joe Stewart · 17th Jun 2014, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by Alast

I have currently had 5 of roughly 20 subscribers click my product link. I'm not sure if it's a good amount or not, but I think it's too early to tell.

On a side-note: I had an interesting incident with someone I offered an article to. Essentially they told me my plan was going to fail, and claimed to have started six 7-figure businesses online.

That's nowhere close to being enough. You really should have at least 200-300 clicks to get a better idea of whether it's working or not. That's just a number based off my pay per click experience. Of course, if you're using a squeeze page you could also split test and keep increasing your conversion rate.

Regarding the person that says it won't work, I know for a fact that it DOES work. Syndicating content is an everyday event both online and offline. It's never, ever going away.

I still have articles on sites all over the internet that I wrote back in 2007 that are bringing traffic to sites I sold. Brittany's thread was for real. Alexa Smith, John McCabe, Mike Tucker, Annie Potts, tpw, myob and several others are also earning a living doing this. Some are doing VERY well.

Unless that individual is willing to show you how to start a 7 figure business for free I'd ignore him and stay focused on what you're doing. Of course, that's up to you.

Change your approach and start targeting newsletters, ezines, make some short YouTube videos, etc. Mix things up a bit.

Alast · 17th Jun 2014, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Stewart

That's nowhere close to being enough. You really should have at least 200-300 clicks to get a better idea of whether it's working or not. That's just a number based off my pay per click experience. Of course, if you're using a squeeze page you could also split test and keep increasing your conversion rate.

Regarding the person that says it won't work, I know for a fact that it DOES work. Syndicating content is an everyday event both online and offline. It's never, ever going away.

I still have articles on sites all over the internet that I wrote back in 2007 that are bringing traffic to sites I sold. Brittany's thread was for real. Alexa Smith, John McCabe, Mike Tucker, Annie Potts, tpw, myob and several others are also earning a living doing this. Some are doing VERY well.

Unless that individual is willing to show you how to start a 7 figure business for free I'd ignore him and stay focused on what you're doing. Of course, that's up to you.

Change your approach and start targeting newsletters, ezines, make some short YouTube videos, etc. Mix things up a bit.

In all honesty, I'm beginning to question my niche. 725 emails have been sent, and over 650 have been resent, and not one sale, only 34 subscribers. It's really not going as I would have hoped right now, unfortunately.

I'm not in the position to make videos, unfortunately. My pen name does not correlate with myself at all. Completely opposite, actually. Unless I turn to whiteboard animations or something?

I suppose I'll stick this niche out for another month or two, but it's becoming quite a drag seeing as I am not having any results.

Alast · 18th Jun 2014, 07:21 AM

DAY 60 AND 61

I did nothing on day 60.

As opposed to day 60, on day 61, I got up at around 2:00am and sent around 20~ emails; to see if time made much of a difference. I then went on to send more throughout the day, totaling 32 emails sent. I also resent numerous emails to websites, etc.

I have had another website that agreed to publish my article, now tell me that the article isn't suitable for their audience. Such is life.

I have had 2-3 agree to publish my article; one which already has. Unfortunately no noticeable traffic.

Finally, I got my 35th subscriber about 2 hours ago.

andrewm · 18th Jun 2014, 07:53 AM

Alast,

Like Joe said stay focused on what you are doing. I also encourage you to do so also. You have came a very long way. Still trying to figure out how you stay motivated,

Joe said that syndication works, and is not going away, and he is trustworthy based on what I have read from him so far. Alexa and many other have proven that it works. I would definitely take Joe's advice to stay focused. Even as I read Joe's post to you, I am motivated. Experience does have it's advantages.

I do not have as much experience as Joe, but that's my two cents.

Andrew

[QUOTE=Joe Stewart;9287944]Regarding the person that says it won't work, I know for a fact that it DOES work. Syndicating content is an everyday event both online and offline. It's never, ever going away.

Alexa Smith, John McCabe, Mike Tucker, Annie Potts, tpw, myob and several others are also earning a living doing this. Some are doing VERY well.

Unless that individual is willing to show you how to start a 7 figure business for free I'd ignore him and stay focused on what you're doing. Of course, that's up to you.
QUOTE]

Joe Stewart · 18th Jun 2014, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by andrewm

Alast,

Like Joe said stay focused on what you are doing. I also encourage you to do so also. You have came a very long way. Still trying to figure out how you stay motivated,

Joe said that syndication works, and is not going away, and he is trustworthy based on what I have read from him so far. Alexa and many other have proven that it works. I would definitely take Joe's advice to stay focused. Even as I read Joe's post to you, I am motivated. Experience does have it's advantages.

I do not have as much experience as Joe, but that's my two cents.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew.

Just to be clear, I am NOT the expert that the others are who I listed in my post. I was doing "article directory marketing" to achieve the results I had. Article syndication is similar, but there's very little use of the article directories anymore.

That being said, the last time I spoke to the guy that bought my best website a few months ago he was still making a few hundred dollars per month from my article traffic and I sold it to him back in 2011.

In addition, at one time I was a member of a couple syndication sites called "Article Marketing Automation" and "Traffic Jumbo". They're basically both the same place, but long story.

Anyway, I submitted a few dozen articles to those sites back in 2011 to promote my Amazon affiliate sites and I STILL get a few hundred clicks per month on those links! I really hate that because it's permanently skewed my Amazon stats, but on most months I still get up to 500 clicks. Not much for conversions, though. It's crap traffic. My point is that the content is out there to stay. Make sense?

I just didn't want anyone to think I'm something I'm not. I'll get there soon, though. You watch. :-)

TrustedSEO · 18th Jun 2014, 01:42 PM

Hi,

Love your passion. I'm an SEO veteran of 10 years. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll help you absolutely free. I enjoy seeing young entrepreneurs with your passion.

Greg

[update]

I didn't really read your post at first.

You're doing something that sounds really silly. I don't intend to disrupt your motivation, but... seriously -- what are you doing. Explain it to me -- I have a TON of experience and know what works and what doesn't.

Why are you emailing people? Spam? Did they request that you email them?

How are you getting your subscribers?> Are you manually adding them?

Article syndication? Guest posting -- ending out unsolicited emails asking webmasters to publish your article? Is EVERY article UNIQUE?? This normally doesn't drive a whole lot of traffic. The SEO benefits are your greatest benefit.

I've written for some of the biggest SEO blogs on the web and still do.

Again -- let's talk..

Greg Smith

TrustedSEO · 18th Jun 2014, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Alast

DAY 41

9 more emails sent. I'm getting replies here and there.

The website I offered to write for (uniquely) which is strongly targeted to my niche is interested in the topic I offered to write about. It won't be long now!

I'm going to publish all my articles to EzineArticles right now!

If you publish your content to Ezine Articles -- then leave them there. Don't offer this same content to a serious webmaster. This is duplicate content.. I hope you're aware of that.

Greg

Joe Stewart · 18th Jun 2014, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by TrustedSEO

If you publish your content to Ezine Articles -- then leave them there. Don't offer this same content to a serious webmaster. This is duplicate content.. I hope you're aware of that.

Greg

We're not at all interested in SEO and aren't concerned about "duplicate" content. This is a tried and proven method, though it does need a bit of tweaking. Thanks for your input.

Alast · 20th Jun 2014, 08:31 AM

DAY 62 AND 63
Yesterday I sent out 18 emails, and got back in touch with several other websites who said they were going to publish my article, but had not. Overall a few got back to me; some simply linking me to the article which was actually online.

Today, I found out that I had two people unsubscribe. One left a reason of "too many emails" (even though I send one every 5 days) and the other simply said "other". Disappointing.. oh well.

I discovered a massive flaw in my website, which I still don't understand how it happened. My sign up form had the text shown as white, so it looked like nothing was typing. I honestly don't understand how that happened especially with my constant testing upon implementation. I figure that could have had a drastic effect on my opt-ins.

Other than that - not much has changed, unfortunately.

Joe Stewart · 20th Jun 2014, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by Alast

DAY 62 AND 63
Yesterday I sent out 18 emails, and got back in touch with several other websites who said they were going to publish my article, but had not. Overall a few got back to me; some simply linking me to the article which was actually online.

Today, I found out that I had two people unsubscribe. One left a reason of "too many emails" (even though I send one every 5 days) and the other simply said "other". Disappointing.. oh well.

I discovered a massive flaw in my website, which I still don't understand how it happened. My sign up form had the text shown as white, so it looked like nothing was typing. I honestly don't understand how that happened especially with my constant testing upon implementation. I figure that could have had a drastic effect on my opt-ins.

Other than that - not much has changed, unfortunately.

That's a huge mishap! Your opt-in rate will likely increase now that that's fixed. It's a good thing you caught it.

Regarding unsubscribes, I tend to look at it the same way I do with my offline business. Some will, some won't, oh well.

Alast · 22nd Jun 2014, 03:51 AM

DAY 64 AND 65

I've come down with the flu, which is why I haven't been able to do anything. I'll see if I can do something productive with my time tomorrow.

Joe Stewart · 23rd Jun 2014, 07:16 PM

I just received notice from one site that they'd finally published my article today. This site is obviously getting traffic, so I'm very happy about that.

Also, I received three replies, two new and one response from a week or so ago, that all agreed to publish my articles. Two of them are interested in multiple articles. One sent me titles that he wants and the other wants me to send titles that I have available, which I already did, but I'll do it again. These sites both appear to be getting good traffic and one has a very interactive audience. I see multiple shares and likes on several articles.

I'll probably have to offer some unique articles for at least one of them, but it's not a big deal.

This is definitely a slow process at first, but I still think it's worth it. There'll come a point when the traffic begins to snowball. I'm still interested to see how my opt-in and follow-up process converts, though. I suppose time will tell.

Alast · 24th Jun 2014, 08:30 AM

DAY 67

I managed to sent 12 new emails out today. I have already received two responses both which are interested!

I have also had 4 clicks in the last two days for my products; no sales unfortunately.

Tomorrow, I plan to add an About Me page to my website, and add 1-2 more messages for my autoresponder.

Alast · 25th Jun 2014, 07:27 AM

DAY 68

I have resent over 70 emails today. So far 4 have responded, one willing to publish my article. I also resent emails to those who said they were going to publish my article, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.

I didn't get the time to do what I said I was planning to do, however tomorrow or over the weekend is when I'll find the time to doing it. I have decided it's time to start on a new article, and hopefully I won't get bored and begin procrastinating.

In other news, here is my hop count. It was relatively sudden, but I can't complain - other than the fact I have yet to make a sale.

Alast · 26th Jun 2014, 06:31 AM

DAY 69
Today I decided to do things a little differently. This means I did most things except for sending new emails.

I have now updated my Autoresponder sequence to 70 days, and will be up to 80 hopefully in the next few days to get ahead of the messages (a few are on day 68/69 right now). It's not really an issue for me as I know exactly what I have planned; all I need to do now is do it.

My article was shared again by the same website which has given me the most traffic, and has currently given me 6 subscribers over the last hour~. Although it's not 'consistent', it's the most I've had in a short period of time, and I hope it only grows. This means I currently have 39 subscribers.

I have had a few more responses of my emails (around 10~) and although none have directly accepted - several are interested, and several have declined.

Anyway.. today, I decided to reorganize my document for it to be easier for me to navigate my way around the websites I have sent to; the ones who have accepted/declined etc. I now find I'll be able to be more productive without so much clutter, which brings me to my next point.

I decided to do some calculations of my email statistics for mainly my own benefit, but also for those interested in what I've actually done and achieved.

Total emails sent: 766 (not including resends - that would be over 1000)

Total Articles Declined: 202

Total Articles Accepted: 51

Total Non-Responses: 480

This means I have a response rate of roughly 37%, which isn't too bad, I think. Although my analytic results don't necessarily correlate, it shows that something is working. I just need to make a sale.

Alast · 28th Jun 2014, 07:43 AM

DAY 70

I didn't do a huge amount today. I added two more emails to the sequence up to 80 days (which puts me nearly 2 weeks ahead of the schedule).

I have also sent 11 new emails - hoping to get some responses!

I am considering sending a third email to those who have not gotten back to me; at least starting to send them, anyway. That being said, it's nearly 500 emails to send so I'm in no rush. It would be a weeks worth of work at the minimum.

Alast · 29th Jun 2014, 07:11 AM

DAY 71

Today I really didn't do anything - again. I have been 'swamped' with other commitments (school, family) so decided that nothing was going to be done today.

That being said - I have managed to get 6 more subscribers today, and one unsubscriber; bringing my total number of subscribers to 53.

In other news, I have holidays coming up for two weeks, which means I am able to dedicate at least one week to working full-time online. The other week I might work only part time and do some school assignments.

Alast · 1st Jul 2014, 08:17 AM

DAY 72 & 73

Yesterday I sent out 11 new emails (and did not much else).

Today, I resent around 30 emails (third email) and around 10 second emails. I have already had a few responses, although none have accepted (some are undecided).

I currently have 55 subscribers; not getting many clicks though.

Alast · 3rd Jul 2014, 02:47 AM

DAY 74 & 75

I haven't had time to do anything the last two days as a result of school. Tomorrow I begin holidays, and will make up for the lost time.

Joe Stewart · 3rd Jul 2014, 08:28 PM

I'm still around, too. I haven't done much this week myself because I haven't been feeling well and had to focus on my offline business.

That being said, I have my helper writing 5 unique articles for submission as guest posts over the next few weeks to one particular site. I normally wouldn't consider it, but this site is very interactive, very big and is getting several social media shares on its articles. It's taken my helper longer than I anticipated to get them written, but I have to admit that the topics are tough! These aren't your usual keyword research type of articles. It's kind of a pain and I definitely wouldn't have agreed to it if I hadn't research the site myself.

I'm also going to start emailing newsletters very soon, though it may be after June 14th before I can start helping. Long story. I'll spare everyone.

I just wanted to chime in, offer some support and let you know that I'm still with ya'!

Joe

Alast · 5th Jul 2014, 06:34 AM

Good to hear, Joe!

DAY 76 & 77

Yesterday I only sent out 10 emails and did nothing with the rest of my time.

However, I have been talking with Alexa, and wondering why I have yet to make a sale given I have over 50 subscribers. She said she would expect me to have around 27 sales, which is clearly not the case.

Today I decided to go through my Autoresponder series and it turns out my first product offer was set to "off" for some reason. After being in contact with support, it has been sent to the technical team.. so it could very well be the reason I haven't had much success (keep in mind I did not set it to off, and that there were 3 which were off).

I also sent out 10 more emails today, and wrote another article (yay!). The article is just over 1000 words, and I hope to send it out on Monday or Tuesday.

Lastly - a mystery website has published my article and has already given me 9 unique members visit my website. The "read more" link is a direct link to my website, which is obviously good for my audience. I still wonder if it was a website I sent which decided to publish it on another website?

Alast · 6th Jul 2014, 08:08 AM

DAY 78

I currently have 59 subscribers (3 over night). Still no sales, unfortunately.

Today I sent out around 20 new emails. Tomorrow I plan to send out more new emails, and then begin sending out emails to older websites.

Alast · 7th Jul 2014, 06:32 AM

DAY 79

I now have 61 subscribers and still no sales.

Today, I sent around 20-30 new emails, 57 third emails, and about 10 second emails. In addition, I sent my new article to all those who have previously published my article(s), and so far one has responded.

Alast · 7th Jul 2014, 11:03 PM

Guys,

My hardrive has crashed and it appears that I have lost all my files, including my emailing websites, to all my software, games, movies, etc. Unfortunately I did not backup my files, which was my fault. Currently I am scanning through my hardrive partition, and it is detecting my files, but whether or not I'll be able to recover them will be the next problem.

As a result, I have decided that if I can't recover the documents, I will move on to a new niche as clearly this one is showing no results; three~ months of working every day with nothing to show for it really does suck. If I manage to recover the files, then I will go another 3-4 weeks of working with this niche to see results. There's no point in continuing if I can't make any money.

I will still update this thread with my new niche, or even start a new one. I have a feeling I know what niche I want to head into. I genuinely only consider this niche a 'practice' niche as it's the first time I have ever tried to make money online. Now I'm more familiar with what to expect and what to do, I believe the next niche I head into will bring me more luck.

Moreover, I will still keep this niche just in case my luck starts to change. I can't see myself sending many more new emails as I have probably sent around 800 and only have 61 subscribers to show for it.

Joe Stewart · 8th Jul 2014, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by Alast

Guys,

My hardrive has crashed and it appears that I have lost all my files, including my emailing websites, to all my software, games, movies, etc. Unfortunately I did not backup my files, which was my fault. Currently I am scanning through my hardrive partition, and it is detecting my files, but whether or not I'll be able to recover them will be the next problem.

As a result, I have decided that if I can't recover the documents, I will move on to a new niche as clearly this one is showing no results; three~ months of working every day with nothing to show for it really does suck. If I manage to recover the files, then I will go another 3-4 weeks of working with this niche to see results. There's no point in continuing if I can't make any money.

I will still update this thread with my new niche, or even start a new one. I have a feeling I know what niche I want to head into. I genuinely only consider this niche a 'practice' niche as it's the first time I have ever tried to make money online. Now I'm more familiar with what to expect and what to do, I believe the next niche I head into will bring me more luck.

Moreover, I will still keep this niche just in case my luck starts to change. I can't see myself sending many more new emails as I have probably sent around 800 and only have 61 subscribers to show for it.

Alast,

I'm so sorry to hear what's happened. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, though. You may hop into a different niche and start seeing success much faster. Honestly, I may have done it sooner if I were you. You have a lot of grit and tenacity. That's admirable. Still, there comes a time when you have to make changes.

I'm considering dropping one of my niches. Partly because I'm running out of places to syndicate, but also because of the lack of backend products. Also, I'm going to set up a blog about what I love doing - marketing, and driving traffic to that. Between my helper and myself, I can promote two sites at once, but not three, so I'm having her syndicate that content and the blog everywhere I can think of like social media, etc and then I'm putting it on the shelf for awhile.

The obstacles that you had with your autoresponder and other things may have played a big part of not getting any conversions. I'm sure that those things will be on your checklist from now on.

I hope that you can recover the lost files. If not, as you said, this was a learning experience. It has been for me, too.

Keep it up. You'll get where you want to be eventually.

Best,

Joe

Alast · 8th Jul 2014, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by Joe Stewart

Alast,

I'm so sorry to hear what's happened. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, though. You may hop into a different niche and start seeing success much faster. Honestly, I may have done it sooner if I were you. You have a lot of grit and tenacity. That's admirable. Still, there comes a time when you have to make changes.

I'm considering dropping one of my niches. Partly because I'm running out of places to syndicate, but also because of the lack of backend products. Also, I'm going to set up a blog about what I love doing - marketing, and driving traffic to that. Between my helper and myself, I can promote two sites at once, but not three, so I'm having her syndicate that content and the blog everywhere I can think of like social media, etc and then I'm putting it on the shelf for awhile.

The obstacles that you had with your autoresponder and other things may have played a big part of not getting any conversions. I'm sure that those things will be on your checklist from now on.

I hope that you can recover the lost files. If not, as you said, this was a learning experience. It has been for me, too.

Keep it up. You'll get where you want to be eventually.

Best,

Joe

I hope it's a blessing in disguise. I kind of felt like I was running in circles with no actual progress to show for my efforts. I figure I still have around 10 days before school is back; might as well make the most of it by starting a new niche.

I think something that I now know I have to do is be organized with sending my emails. I would send the first email, and only send the second email 1-2 months later. I guess it's all a learning curve that I can now apply to a new niche - starting a fresh slate.

I have managed to recover all my lost files and put them on a new partitioned hardrive, however the document is reading as corrupt - which makes me think that there was an issue with the word document right from the beginning. Nevertheless - I'll know the backup all my documents this time and improve my organization.

The next question is whether or not it would be worth starting a new thread and recording my progress. If I do, then I'll most likely update it every 2-3 days opposed to every day unless something significant happens. I figure there's no point and it's an inconvenience to update daily with no real progress.

andrewm · 9th Jul 2014, 07:41 AM

Alast,

Thanks again for posting your progress. It may very well have been your offer being off that contributed to you not making any sales. Even if no sales were made, at least you have even more experience now with Article Syndication .

Andrew

nicebiz · 10th Jul 2014, 12:20 PM

Hi Alast

To me, at least you hv tried yr best and now you know
what to do next. ;-)

Also, you dare to try and challenge yourself which many
of us do not even dare to take risk and do something new.

Keep up yr good work ... and never give up.

The good thing is, now if I need someone to
do a whiteboard animation, I know who to
look for. ;-)

Cheers!

Joe Stewart · 14th Aug 2014, 05:53 AM

Hi Alast,

I hope you're still working at this but if not, I wish you well.

I recently had my helper stop focusing on blog syndication for awhile and start focusing on newsletters instead. That way I can get larger bursts of traffic when my articles are published and can test my funnel faster. I'll eventually start the blog syndication again, too, but I really need to see some results and I think the newsletters will build my list faster.

I hope to see you back soon.

Joe

Alast · 14th Aug 2014, 07:09 AM

Hi Joe,

I have recently started in a new niche, and have sent around 100 emails over the last two weeks. I have had three articles published, but no results yet. I chose not to make a new thread in case it turned into another failure (really hope this works).

I think the reason my last niche didn't work was because the traffic wasn't entirely targeted, maybe.

I might keep this thread updated once in a while with this new niche (just not daily).

Alast

andrewm · 14th Aug 2014, 11:26 AM

Alast,

I am continuing to wacth this thread also. All the best in the new niche.

Andrew

Alast · 30th Aug 2014, 09:06 PM

Just to update:

I now have 4 articles on my new website, and am currently writing the 5th. I have sent over 200 emails to separate websites, and have 6~ agree to publish my article (3-4 have already done - no real results, unfortunately).

I'm dissecting Google with the specific niche related searches, and it's progressively becoming harder and harder to find results that aren't loosely related to my niche.

Alast · 2nd Dec 2014, 08:32 AM

I know this is an "old" thread, but I have to share my news:

It only took 10 months, but I did it. This is the first month in my new niche, and after the learning curve and complete disasters... I can finally sleep happily.

Willing2Learn · 2nd Dec 2014, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by Alast

I know this is an "old" thread, but I have to share my news:

It only took 10 months, but I did it. This is the first month in my new niche, and after the learning curve and complete disasters... I can finally sleep happily.

Congrats Alast! It's only the beginning.

Onward and upward!

18th Jun 2014, 07:21 AM	#155
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 60 AND 61 I did nothing on day 60. As opposed to day 60, on day 61, I got up at around 2:00am and sent around 20~ emails; to see if time made much of a difference. I then went on to send more throughout the day, totaling 32 emails sent. I also resent numerous emails to websites, etc. I have had another website that agreed to publish my article, now tell me that the article isn't suitable for their audience. Such is life. I have had 2-3 agree to publish my article; one which already has. Unfortunately no noticeable traffic. Finally, I got my 35th subscriber about 2 hours ago.

18th Jun 2014, 07:53 AM	#156
andrewm HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 142 Thanks: 189 Thanked 52 Times in 39 Posts Blog Entries: 3	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Alast, Like Joe said stay focused on what you are doing. I also encourage you to do so also. You have came a very long way. Still trying to figure out how you stay motivated, Joe said that syndication works, and is not going away, and he is trustworthy based on what I have read from him so far. Alexa and many other have proven that it works. I would definitely take Joe's advice to stay focused. Even as I read Joe's post to you, I am motivated. Experience does have it's advantages. I do not have as much experience as Joe, but that's my two cents. Andrew [QUOTE=Joe Stewart;9287944]Regarding the person that says it won't work, I know for a fact that it DOES work. Syndicating content is an everyday event both online and offline. It's never, ever going away. Alexa Smith, John McCabe, Mike Tucker, Annie Potts, tpw, myob and several others are also earning a living doing this. Some are doing VERY well. Unless that individual is willing to show you how to start a 7 figure business for free I'd ignore him and stay focused on what you're doing. Of course, that's up to you. QUOTE]

18th Jun 2014, 01:42 PM	#158
TrustedSEO Forensic SEO Join Date: 2012 Location: Kentucky Posts: 98 Thanks: 20 Thanked 20 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Hi, Love your passion. I'm an SEO veteran of 10 years. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll help you absolutely free. I enjoy seeing young entrepreneurs with your passion. Greg [update] I didn't really read your post at first. You're doing something that sounds really silly. I don't intend to disrupt your motivation, but... seriously -- what are you doing. Explain it to me -- I have a TON of experience and know what works and what doesn't. Why are you emailing people? Spam? Did they request that you email them? How are you getting your subscribers?> Are you manually adding them? Article syndication? Guest posting -- ending out unsolicited emails asking webmasters to publish your article? Is EVERY article UNIQUE?? This normally doesn't drive a whole lot of traffic. The SEO benefits are your greatest benefit. I've written for some of the biggest SEO blogs on the web and still do. Again -- let's talk.. Greg Smith
	Visit My Reputable SEO Company -> Either Click here OR Here OR To Email me click here!! :) *A Top 20 Local SEO Blog: Check out our FREE SEO and Internet Marketing Tutorials!* An awesome SEO Blog just for you!

20th Jun 2014, 08:31 AM	#161
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 62 AND 63 Yesterday I sent out 18 emails, and got back in touch with several other websites who said they were going to publish my article, but had not. Overall a few got back to me; some simply linking me to the article which was actually online. Today, I found out that I had two people unsubscribe. One left a reason of "too many emails" (even though I send one every 5 days) and the other simply said "other". Disappointing.. oh well. I discovered a massive flaw in my website, which I still don't understand how it happened. My sign up form had the text shown as white, so it looked like nothing was typing. I honestly don't understand how that happened especially with my constant testing upon implementation. I figure that could have had a drastic effect on my opt-ins. Other than that - not much has changed, unfortunately.

22nd Jun 2014, 03:51 AM	#163
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 64 AND 65 I've come down with the flu, which is why I haven't been able to do anything. I'll see if I can do something productive with my time tomorrow.

23rd Jun 2014, 07:16 PM	#164
Joe Stewart Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Sunny Oasis, USA Posts: 646 Thanks: 993 Thanked 512 Times in 341 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: I just received notice from one site that they'd finally published my article today. This site is obviously getting traffic, so I'm very happy about that. Also, I received three replies, two new and one response from a week or so ago, that all agreed to publish my articles. Two of them are interested in multiple articles. One sent me titles that he wants and the other wants me to send titles that I have available, which I already did, but I'll do it again. These sites both appear to be getting good traffic and one has a very interactive audience. I see multiple shares and likes on several articles. I'll probably have to offer some unique articles for at least one of them, but it's not a big deal. This is definitely a slow process at first, but I still think it's worth it. There'll come a point when the traffic begins to snowball. I'm still interested to see how my opt-in and follow-up process converts, though. I suppose time will tell.
	My New "Share All" Blog Is Coming Soon! Online & Offline Marketing, More! http://www.UnCENTSored.com

24th Jun 2014, 08:30 AM	#165
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 67 I managed to sent 12 new emails out today. I have already received two responses both which are interested! I have also had 4 clicks in the last two days for my products; no sales unfortunately. Tomorrow, I plan to add an About Me page to my website, and add 1-2 more messages for my autoresponder.

25th Jun 2014, 07:27 AM	#166
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 68 I have resent over 70 emails today. So far 4 have responded, one willing to publish my article. I also resent emails to those who said they were going to publish my article, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. I didn't get the time to do what I said I was planning to do, however tomorrow or over the weekend is when I'll find the time to doing it. I have decided it's time to start on a new article, and hopefully I won't get bored and begin procrastinating. In other news, here is my hop count. It was relatively sudden, but I can't complain - other than the fact I have yet to make a sale.

26th Jun 2014, 06:31 AM	#167
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 69 Today I decided to do things a little differently. This means I did most things except for sending new emails. I have now updated my Autoresponder sequence to 70 days, and will be up to 80 hopefully in the next few days to get ahead of the messages (a few are on day 68/69 right now). It's not really an issue for me as I know exactly what I have planned; all I need to do now is do it. My article was shared again by the same website which has given me the most traffic, and has currently given me 6 subscribers over the last hour~. Although it's not 'consistent', it's the most I've had in a short period of time, and I hope it only grows. This means I currently have 39 subscribers. I have had a few more responses of my emails (around 10~) and although none have directly accepted - several are interested, and several have declined. Anyway.. today, I decided to reorganize my document for it to be easier for me to navigate my way around the websites I have sent to; the ones who have accepted/declined etc. I now find I'll be able to be more productive without so much clutter, which brings me to my next point. I decided to do some calculations of my email statistics for mainly my own benefit, but also for those interested in what I've actually done and achieved. Total emails sent: 766 (not including resends - that would be over 1000) Total Articles Declined: 202 Total Articles Accepted: 51 Total Non-Responses: 480 This means I have a response rate of roughly 37%, which isn't too bad, I think. Although my analytic results don't necessarily correlate, it shows that something is working. I just need to make a sale.

28th Jun 2014, 07:43 AM	#168
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 70 I didn't do a huge amount today. I added two more emails to the sequence up to 80 days (which puts me nearly 2 weeks ahead of the schedule). I have also sent 11 new emails - hoping to get some responses! I am considering sending a third email to those who have not gotten back to me; at least starting to send them, anyway. That being said, it's nearly 500 emails to send so I'm in no rush. It would be a weeks worth of work at the minimum.

29th Jun 2014, 07:11 AM	#169
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 71 Today I really didn't do anything - again. I have been 'swamped' with other commitments (school, family) so decided that nothing was going to be done today. That being said - I have managed to get 6 more subscribers today, and one unsubscriber; bringing my total number of subscribers to 53. In other news, I have holidays coming up for two weeks, which means I am able to dedicate at least one week to working full-time online. The other week I might work only part time and do some school assignments.

1st Jul 2014, 08:17 AM	#170
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 72 & 73 Yesterday I sent out 11 new emails (and did not much else). Today, I resent around 30 emails (third email) and around 10 second emails. I have already had a few responses, although none have accepted (some are undecided). I currently have 55 subscribers; not getting many clicks though.

3rd Jul 2014, 02:47 AM	#171
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 74 & 75 I haven't had time to do anything the last two days as a result of school. Tomorrow I begin holidays, and will make up for the lost time.

3rd Jul 2014, 08:28 PM	#172
Joe Stewart Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Sunny Oasis, USA Posts: 646 Thanks: 993 Thanked 512 Times in 341 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: I'm still around, too. I haven't done much this week myself because I haven't been feeling well and had to focus on my offline business. That being said, I have my helper writing 5 unique articles for submission as guest posts over the next few weeks to one particular site. I normally wouldn't consider it, but this site is very interactive, very big and is getting several social media shares on its articles. It's taken my helper longer than I anticipated to get them written, but I have to admit that the topics are tough! These aren't your usual keyword research type of articles. It's kind of a pain and I definitely wouldn't have agreed to it if I hadn't research the site myself. I'm also going to start emailing newsletters very soon, though it may be after June 14th before I can start helping. Long story. I'll spare everyone. I just wanted to chime in, offer some support and let you know that I'm still with ya'! Joe
	My New "Share All" Blog Is Coming Soon! Online & Offline Marketing, More! http://www.UnCENTSored.com

5th Jul 2014, 06:34 AM	#173
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Good to hear, Joe! DAY 76 & 77 Yesterday I only sent out 10 emails and did nothing with the rest of my time. However, I have been talking with Alexa, and wondering why I have yet to make a sale given I have over 50 subscribers. She said she would expect me to have around 27 sales, which is clearly not the case. Today I decided to go through my Autoresponder series and it turns out my first product offer was set to "off" for some reason. After being in contact with support, it has been sent to the technical team.. so it could very well be the reason I haven't had much success (keep in mind I did not set it to off, and that there were 3 which were off). I also sent out 10 more emails today, and wrote another article (yay!). The article is just over 1000 words, and I hope to send it out on Monday or Tuesday. Lastly - a mystery website has published my article and has already given me 9 unique members visit my website. The "read more" link is a direct link to my website, which is obviously good for my audience. I still wonder if it was a website I sent which decided to publish it on another website?

6th Jul 2014, 08:08 AM	#174
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 78 I currently have 59 subscribers (3 over night). Still no sales, unfortunately. Today I sent out around 20 new emails. Tomorrow I plan to send out more new emails, and then begin sending out emails to older websites.

7th Jul 2014, 06:32 AM	#175
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: DAY 79 I now have 61 subscribers and still no sales. Today, I sent around 20-30 new emails, 57 third emails, and about 10 second emails. In addition, I sent my new article to all those who have previously published my article(s), and so far one has responded.

7th Jul 2014, 11:03 PM	#176
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Guys, My hardrive has crashed and it appears that I have lost all my files, including my emailing websites, to all my software, games, movies, etc. Unfortunately I did not backup my files, which was my fault. Currently I am scanning through my hardrive partition, and it is detecting my files, but whether or not I'll be able to recover them will be the next problem. As a result, I have decided that if I can't recover the documents, I will move on to a new niche as clearly this one is showing no results; three~ months of working every day with nothing to show for it really does suck. If I manage to recover the files, then I will go another 3-4 weeks of working with this niche to see results. There's no point in continuing if I can't make any money. I will still update this thread with my new niche, or even start a new one. I have a feeling I know what niche I want to head into. I genuinely only consider this niche a 'practice' niche as it's the first time I have ever tried to make money online. Now I'm more familiar with what to expect and what to do, I believe the next niche I head into will bring me more luck. Moreover, I will still keep this niche just in case my luck starts to change. I can't see myself sending many more new emails as I have probably sent around 800 and only have 61 subscribers to show for it.

9th Jul 2014, 07:41 AM	#179
andrewm HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 142 Thanks: 189 Thanked 52 Times in 39 Posts Blog Entries: 3	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Alast, Thanks again for posting your progress. It may very well have been your offer being off that contributed to you not making any sales. Even if no sales were made, at least you have even more experience now with Article Syndication . Andrew

10th Jul 2014, 12:20 PM	#180
nicebiz Nicebiz Join Date: 2008 Location: Sunny Singapore. Posts: 220 Thanks: 21 Thanked 23 Times in 23 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Hi Alast To me, at least you hv tried yr best and now you know what to do next. ;-) Also, you dare to try and challenge yourself which many of us do not even dare to take risk and do something new. Keep up yr good work ... and never give up. The good thing is, now if I need someone to do a whiteboard animation, I know who to look for. ;-) Cheers!
	LED Lighting & Control - LED Light Manufacturer LED Downlight Singapore

14th Aug 2014, 05:53 AM	#181
Joe Stewart Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Sunny Oasis, USA Posts: 646 Thanks: 993 Thanked 512 Times in 341 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Hi Alast, I hope you're still working at this but if not, I wish you well. I recently had my helper stop focusing on blog syndication for awhile and start focusing on newsletters instead. That way I can get larger bursts of traffic when my articles are published and can test my funnel faster. I'll eventually start the blog syndication again, too, but I really need to see some results and I think the newsletters will build my list faster. I hope to see you back soon. Joe
	My New "Share All" Blog Is Coming Soon! Online & Offline Marketing, More! http://www.UnCENTSored.com

14th Aug 2014, 07:09 AM	#182
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Hi Joe, I have recently started in a new niche, and have sent around 100 emails over the last two weeks. I have had three articles published, but no results yet. I chose not to make a new thread in case it turned into another failure (really hope this works). I think the reason my last niche didn't work was because the traffic wasn't entirely targeted, maybe. I might keep this thread updated once in a while with this new niche (just not daily). Alast

14th Aug 2014, 11:26 AM	#183
andrewm HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 142 Thanks: 189 Thanked 52 Times in 39 Posts Blog Entries: 3	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Alast, I am continuing to wacth this thread also. All the best in the new niche. Andrew

30th Aug 2014, 09:06 PM	#184
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: Just to update: I now have 4 articles on my new website, and am currently writing the 5th. I have sent over 200 emails to separate websites, and have 6~ agree to publish my article (3-4 have already done - no real results, unfortunately). I'm dissecting Google with the specific niche related searches, and it's progressively becoming harder and harder to find results that aren't loosely related to my niche.

2nd Dec 2014, 08:32 AM	#185
Alast Daniel War Room Member Join Date: 2013 Location: Australia Posts: 437 Thanks: 232 Thanked 145 Times in 106 Posts	Re: Article Syndication Challenge Share on: I know this is an "old" thread, but I have to share my news: It only took 10 months, but I did it. This is the first month in my new niche, and after the learning curve and complete disasters... I can finally sleep happily.