New member: my first 7 days into IM

26 replies
After some reading here (just registered today), I was motivated to stop simply reading and start doing, by 2 threads more or less titled that way - yes, it took 2 nudges for me instead of just one.

I had already read some basics, decided my strongest "talent" (such as it is) lay in writing, and on a $0 dollar budget opted to start a blog in an evergreen niche that I'm both knowledgeable and interested in. Its a competitive niche, but even jumping into one that's competitive I figure the learning experience will be well worth the time spent in it, and can later channel this experience (and the knowledge gained) into potentially more profitable niches. In other words, I took the leap and am learning on the way. That was 7 days ago.

What I've done since:

- created unique content on my blog. I'm averaging one good article per day so far, which isn't much, but I'm tackling the steep IM learning curve while writing the content (and no, my niche is not IM related in anyway as I'm hardly qualified to go there).

- tweaked the layout here and there to make it more easy on the eyes and professional looking. And, in a similar vein, added things like a copyright notice and privacy page.

- added an affiliate. I chose Amazon as my first (and so far only) as I wasn't thrilled with what Clickbank offered for my niche, and its not Adsense ready yet.

- created an Answers account on Yahoo which I brought to level 2 so I could promote my page with a clickable link (I put this only in the "sources" field so as to avoid any appearance of spamming). This also keeps me in touch with my market, provides me some ideas for future articles, and creates a kind of "database" of my own content written there as articles, which I can later tap into and spin as content on my own site. I'll add that I put some thought and effort into my answers - I don't necessarily write multiple paragraphs, however I do write the answer with the goal of it being chosen "best answer."

- created an account on a well-trafficked forum that is related to my niche, allows blog/site linking, and also has a submission page for member blogs (a separate PR2 page), as a way to further promote my site.

- began hand-building back links from other blogs, with Do Follow enabled, using the free version of G-Lock Blog Finder. As these are hand built, I'm focusing on higher PR blogs that are related to my niche (ideally both, otherwise in that order of preference for now).

That's the brunt of my effort to date. Things to do still: add a list building widget, improve my on site SEO (my biggest knowledge gap/weakness), and spin my content to submit to article directories. Probably many other things as well, but those are the ones I've identified as priorities (while continuing to develop unique content).

I've seen a lot of references here to the easy derailment by the "bright shiny things" phenomena, so I intend to focus first on building this one site and learning as much as I can as I go, before I later consider other niches and sites.

BTW, I know I've used "blog" and "site" interchangeably - this is due to the fact that although it IS a blog (easiest to launch for one such as I whose biggest weakness is the technical stuff), I've managed to make it resemble more of a static type website, and look less "bloggish."

Comments/feedback/critique welcome. As an admitted newbie I hope you'll go easy on me though.
#blog design #content creation #days #member #new member introduction #promotion methods #seo
  • Profile picture of the author TroelsJepsen
    Welcome and congratulations on taking action. Most people need a lot more than 7 days before taking action if they ever do.

    If you have chosen a niche that has proven to be profitable and has your interest, it sounds like you are on the right track. I really believe that these two factors are vital in order to succeed.

    Best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author RLINKEN
      Originally Posted by TroelsJepsen View Post

      Welcome and congratulations on taking action. Most people need a lot more than 7 days before taking action if they ever do.

      If you have chosen a niche that has proven to be profitable and has your interest, it sounds like you are on the right track. I really believe that these two factors are vital in order to succeed.

      Best of luck

      AGREED! The fact that you are an action taker will make you successful... you have successfully done what 98% of the people who view this forum never will do. You made a plan, didn't second guess it, and put it to action... CONGRATULATIONS!
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve L
    Originally Posted by Spyder77 View Post

    After some reading here (just registered today), I was motivated to stop simply reading and start doing, by 2 threads more or less titled that way - yes, it took 2 nudges for me instead of just one.

    I had already read some basics, decided my strongest "talent" (such as it is) lay in writing, and on a $0 dollar budget opted to start a blog in an evergreen niche that I'm both knowledgeable and interested in. Its a competitive niche, but even jumping into one that's competitive I figure the learning experience will be well worth the time spent in it, and can later channel this experience (and the knowledge gained) into potentially more profitable niches. In other words, I took the leap and am learning on the way. That was 7 days ago.

    What I've done since:

    - created unique content on my blog. I'm averaging one good article per day so far, which isn't much, but I'm tackling the steep IM learning curve while writing the content (and no, my niche is not IM related in anyway as I'm hardly qualified to go there).

    - tweaked the layout here and there to make it more easy on the eyes and professional looking. And, in a similar vein, added things like a copyright notice and privacy page.

    - added an affiliate. I chose Amazon as my first (and so far only) as I wasn't thrilled with what Clickbank offered for my niche, and its not Adsense ready yet.

    - created an Answers account on Yahoo which I brought to level 2 so I could promote my page with a clickable link (I put this only in the "sources" field so as to avoid any appearance of spamming). This also keeps me in touch with my market, provides me some ideas for future articles, and creates a kind of "database" of my own content written there as articles, which I can later tap into and spin as content on my own site. I'll add that I put some thought and effort into my answers - I don't necessarily write multiple paragraphs, however I do write the answer with the goal of it being chosen "best answer."

    - created an account on a well-trafficked forum that is related to my niche, allows blog/site linking, and also has a submission page for member blogs (a separate PR2 page), as a way to further promote my site.

    - began hand-building back links from other blogs, with Do Follow enabled, using the free version of G-Lock Blog Finder. As these are hand built, I'm focusing on higher PR blogs that are related to my niche (ideally both, otherwise in that order of preference for now).

    That's the brunt of my effort to date. Things to do still: add a list building widget, improve my on site SEO (my biggest knowledge gap/weakness), and spin my content to submit to article directories. Probably many other things as well, but those are the ones I've identified as priorities (while continuing to develop unique content).

    I've seen a lot of references here to the easy derailment by the "bright shiny things" phenomena, so I intend to focus first on building this one site and learning as much as I can as I go, before I later consider other niches and sites.

    BTW, I know I've used "blog" and "site" interchangeably - this is due to the fact that although it IS a blog (easiest to launch for one such as I whose biggest weakness is the technical stuff), I've managed to make it resemble more of a static type website, and look less "bloggish."

    Comments/feedback/critique welcome. As an admitted newbie I hope you'll go easy on me though.
    Don't write off the blog format so quickly. The homepage is usually your #1 most visited page, and the page most come back to when they return to your site. If they do not see updated content immediately upon return, then they are way less likely to come back ever again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by Steve Longoria View Post

      Don't write off the blog format so quickly. The homepage is usually your #1 most visited page, and the page most come back to when they return to your site. If they do not see updated content immediately upon return, then they are way less likely to come back ever again.
      I probably should have written what I wrote on that a bit differently, as it wasn't intended as any kind of sleight toward blogs. I embrace the new content idea and retention it promotes. My articles are date headed, and I try to write at least one good article daily - when I've missed a day, I've compensated by writing two so that I'm maintaining a new article every day on average.

      What I originally meant in my first post, was that I've kept to a minimum the blogger template features that scream "blog" in the way the lay person often construes that meaning: that its a non-serious, amateur hour blog of one's daily musings about whatever strikes their fancy on any given day. To that end, I've done simple tweaks like changing the full date format to an abbreviated 7/25/11 type format, implemented labels, a page sidebar, and collapsed the nested tree format for displaying the previous post archive into a simple drop box. These are a few examples.

      I like the appeal of trying to create a captive audience that the blog format is well suited to; my goal on my own blog is to do this while also making it resemble in other ways a clean, well laid out and easy to navigate traditional website. In other words, I'm shooting for the happy medium that gives the best of both worlds, and most of my on site tweaking to date has been aimed at trying to create just that.
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  • Profile picture of the author JeffTonkin
    I agree with Steve.

    With the styles and themes for blogs you can get these days, you can make them look like a "normal" website quite easily.

    And no one wants to see the same homepage again and again.
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  • Profile picture of the author elijahcamp1
    Interesting strategy
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    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by elijahcamp1 View Post

      Interesting strategy
      I would love to know in which way. Whether that means I hit on doing something properly, or even if I haven't. If I haven't I can correct the mistake(s) now.

      In a nutshell, all I did was take the advice given here to 'stop waiting and start DOING.' Then I started.

      I had read various threads here beforehand, so I wasn't jumping in completely blind. Yet in the act of doing it - without all of the answers up front - I've learned more over the past week than I had the week before, when I had the mindset that I should know the answers up front; or else risk wasting time doing something doomed to fail.

      Beyond determining that my niche was evergreen, competitive, and could be marketed to, I chose it mainly out of interest in the subject, and also that I was knowledgeable on it going in. That last part was significant for me, as I'd realized already that in being new to IM, I'd have a steep learning curve starting out that I'd have to work with along the way. Knowing the subject matter up front meant one less hurdle to deal with.

      I'm not even sure yet that I can make money on the niche. The only thing I'm sure of, is that I'm learning so much along the way that is easily recycled later on into another niche, that when the time comes to broaden my focus I'll be able to devote a lot more time to researching that niche. This will be a luxury I don't have now as I won't have to reinvent the wheel along the way.

      Pre-existing knowledge won't be as big a factor, either, since I'm not going to have to tackle so many different subject areas that have nothing to do with writing content for that niche (like how to do on site SEO, build back links, generate and direct traffic, create and tweak a site from a random template, etc).

      I put 0$ into the site, and will not invest any money into it other than whatever money its generated itself - and then only if I believe I can make it back on that site (with interest).

      If it doesn't make a cent, I still view it as a win, in that I've gained from it the knowledge and experience that came from building and optimizing it, and which I can then better channel into a more carefully researched niche. In the event it makes some income, but not at a level that seems worth re-investing into it, then I'll hang onto those coins and use them toward building the next site.

      Meantime, I'm learning a lot here and have a guinea pig site to test and apply that knowledge on. I've also gained some intrinsic reward from the feedback on Yahoo Answers from the comments from those I've helped (my niche is health related) in my efforts to funnel my initial traffic from there to my own site (where I can hopefully retain them and create conversions from it in the process).
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      • Profile picture of the author azmanar
        Originally Posted by Spyder77 View Post

        I would love to know in which way. Whether that means I hit on doing something properly, or even if I haven't. If I haven't I can correct the mistake(s) now.
        Hi,

        What you're doing is fine already. Don't let comments skew your thoughts and direction.

        Align yourself with SEO knowledge so as to develop the value of your site in the long term. Use Social Bookmarking and Social Media for backlinks.

        It is important to track your site performance. So link your site to Google Analytics.

        Build-up more original content for your site. Add some images relevant to your articles. Then embed rich media into each article as well.

        Create videos summarizing each article you wrote. At least 1 minute or so in presentation format. Then, upload to YouTube. Place the same text summary in the YouTube description. Place your site url right at the beginning of the description box : http://yoursite.com . Add maximum 5 or 6 tags relevant to your video. Embed the video on your post or page.

        Then grab some nice relevant articles from Ezines ( along with their resource boxes ). Add them into a category called "Useful Articles" or something alike. Do short video comments of those articles and upload to YouTube. And point them back to your site. Embed the video on your post or page.

        Make sure your Opt-in Form has high visibility by placing it at the top of the right side bar of your blog.

        Monetize with Adsense early by positioning them at HOT SPOTS in your posts and pages. 3 spots the most.

        PING your site to attract SE spiders. Use Pingler or Pingomatic. You'll get the posts and pages indexed in SE pretty quickly.

        Then, register with Squidoo and Hubpages. Add your original articles and videos into them.

        Finally, Twit 1 article link each day to your followers for old articles. And Twit every time you add new article. Announce in FB.

        Register your site with Alexa. This is for back-link purpose only. Will also attract some attention from SE.

        With the strategy I propose, you could even get PR3 or PR4 already in a couple of months. PR => Authority. Means your site is in Google's priority list and may even demand good value for Media Buys. And can flip it with a good price later on.

        Or maintain it as your anchor site to showcase your abilities and expand opportunities.

        Good Luck !
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        • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
          Thanks y'all for the friendly welcoming and words of encouragement!

          Originally Posted by azmanar

          Hi,

          What you're doing is fine already. Don't let comments skew your thoughts and direction.

          Align yourself with SEO knowledge so as to develop the value of your site in the long term. Use Social Bookmarking and Social Media for backlinks.

          It is important to track your site performance. So link your site to Google Analytics.
          I have Analytics setup and working (took a bit of trial and error) and learning SEO is one of my major focuses right now. I have meta tags setup and verified as working (used Google keywords to choose less competitive keywords for a better shot at ranking on some niche related searches), and have SEO Quake setup to check keyword density. This a gray area as I'm still uncertain what keyword density is best to shoot for. So far I'm leaning toward 3 from what I've read.

          My articles are initially written for humans (no thought toward G at that stage) but I'm in the process of editing older entries to reword them a bit toward SEO and keyword density (without compromising quality of content).

          Build-up more original content for your site. Add some images relevant to your articles. Then embed rich media into each article as well.

          Create videos summarizing each article you wrote. At least 1 minute or so in presentation format. Then, upload to YouTube. Place the same text summary in the YouTube description...

          ... Place your site url right at the beginning of the description box Add maximum 5 or 6 tags relevant to your video. Embed the video on your post or page.
          Some really good suggestions here (I had to edit the quote to remove the sample link idea you suggested due to my post count being too low to post any links yet). I hadn't thought of the video angle. Images in my articles (even if only 1 image where that suffices) is another project in the works that I'm editing older articles to introduce them into and have the mindset now to continue the practice going forward. I realized their value after I'd written half a dozen articles, and in looking at my site after, realized how bland and unappealing paragraphs of pure text looked by itself.

          I'm currently looking for Public Domain images and a free image host to link them to (I'm using blogger which has no built in image storage ability that I'm aware of). I posted my last fresh article yesterday and new ones are on hold until I complete this process (I think it should be doable within a day or two and therefore won't disrupt my regular posting habits).

          Then grab some nice relevant articles from Ezines ( along with their resource boxes ). Add them into a category called "Useful Articles" or something alike. Do short video comments of those articles and upload to YouTube. And point them back to your site. Embed the video on your post or page.
          This is another fantastic suggestion and also something I hadn't thought to do - I'd realized the value of spinning contents for article directories and including a back link to my site, but hadn't realized how I could also do the reverse: use Ezines to add content to my site.

          Make sure your Opt-in Form has high visibility by placing it at the top of the right side bar of your blog.
          The Opt-in Form is one of the projects on the 'things to do' list still. Blogger has a gadget called follow by E-mail, but after looking into it further I passed on it as it doesn't allow you to build the valuable e-mail list which is kind of the whole point. When I come back to this again (very soon) I'm thinking I'll label it something along the lines of 'subscribe by e-mail' and maybe offer some kind of free candy as an enticement; I'm weighing the benefits and possible drawbacks of this last element and am on the fence right now as whether or not to do this. The opt-in idea itself I'm all for without reservation - its just a matter of getting to it after I've crossed off some of the more pressing things on the 'to do' list.

          Monetize with Adsense early by positioning them at HOT SPOTS in your posts and pages. 3 spots the most.
          More good advice, and when I created the blog it was with Adsense in mind as the method to monetize it. I've since read things like G will only accept blogs, or sites, that have been aged 6 months and some other stuff indicating they've become really picky about granting Adsense accounts. Not sure how much truth there is to any of that (being owned by G, blogger is constantly pushing Adsense on me) but I've held off until I learn more and am more confident it'll be accepted in the program. Meantime I'm monetizing as an Amazon affiliate as their program was easy to get approved for and has lots of products to choose from that tie in well with my niche. Adsense is still the holy grail from my POV, though.

          PING your site to attract SE spiders. Use Pingler or Pingomatic. You'll get the posts and pages indexed in SE pretty quickly.
          Another good tip. I recently stumbled on Pingomatic and have started using it.

          Then, register with Squidoo and Hubpages. Add your original articles and videos into them.
          These are two of the directories I'm looking at spinning my content for, and maybe also supplementing it with some unique niche related content as another means to drive traffic.

          Finally, Twit 1 article link each day to your followers for old articles. And Twit every time you add new article. Announce in FB.
          Social media and using it for marketing is another weakness that its on the 'to do list' to shore up and begin implementing. Good advice there too.

          Register your site with Alexa. This is for back-link purpose only. Will also attract some attention from SE.
          Another good tip I hadn't thought of. I manually submitted my blog to half a dozen free blog catalogs too. As they all required a reciprocal link for the free listing, I realize I'm not going to get much, or any, SE value from those submissions but decided the potential exposure was still enough incentive to make it worth doing. None of them required any kind of banner or anything similarly distracting, just a simple back link or small button. To avoid the 'pimp' look, I created a links side bar called 'Resources for bloggers' and listed the back links underneath.

          With the strategy I propose, you could even get PR3 or PR4 already in a couple of months. PR => Authority. Means your site is in Google's priority list and may even demand good value for Media Buys. And can flip it with a good price later on.

          Or maintain it as your anchor site to showcase your abilities and expand opportunities.

          Good Luck !
          Your advice is gold, and those last two ideas on how to generate additional value from the site, beyond what I'm learning along the way, in the event that it isn't generating justifiable profit level a year or so down the road (or trending in a direction that indicates it will with more time) is a keeper. Its another incentive to keep going with it whether the revenue comes in or not.

          You've given me so many good ideas to implement, along with a big motivator to keep going, that I've bookmarked this page to keep coming back to, just as a reference for the advice you've given here. Thank you!
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  • Profile picture of the author petevamp
    Welcome and congratulations on taking action. I am assuming that you are currently using a free blogging platform like blogger or wordpress. Remember though you are going to be really limited to everything you can do with these types of sites. So your first purchase should be to get a domain and some hosting as soon as possible. Then you have more control over everything and can get a better understanding of everything.
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    • Profile picture of the author Henry White
      Taking action is so fundamental, it's hard for me to grasp why/how so many seem to miss it entirely.

      Welcome and congratulations, Spyder77!

      That learning curve is a problem only when you're standing still and focused on it rather than looking for the crucial first-step to take! As Robert Ringer said, 'Nothing happens until somebody moves.'
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  • Profile picture of the author MelissaDaisy99
    Thanks you for the post.
    Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author KMEByrne
    Welcome,
    I wish you the best of luck! this business is highly addictive once you get going and have a process. Be sure to secure your blogs or else you will lose them! like i did!
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  • Profile picture of the author cryst
    Thats Really nice to hear that a new person is really a new media .. really u have a great future ..... keep going !!!!!1
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  • Profile picture of the author louiefrias
    Wow! Youve done a lot in a short span which means...you're motivated...

    IM Newbies should consider what Willie Crawford has to
    offer and it's always good. He'll be launching
    Wednesday, June 29th on his BlogTalk Radio channel
    which you can access
    at:Willie Crawford Teaches REAL Internet Marketing Online Radio by Willie Crawford | Blog Talk Radio

    To see some of the free stuff, click this link:
    The Clickbank Lifestyle
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
    Well done! You've achieved so much in the first week of IM! You should feel very accomplished.

    Now, the thing I would recommend doing is signing up for a PPC network. It doesn't have to be Adsense if your website is not Adsense ready, however, there are plenty of other networks around! PPC, is the real deal, people do click on ads, whereas people don't like to buy products/spend money. Trust me, I've been through this, you'll need a PPC network because unless you have a lot of traffic, people won't buy the affiliate products you offer them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by Ben Gordon View Post

      Well done! You've achieved so much in the first week of IM! You should feel very accomplished.

      Now, the thing I would recommend doing is signing up for a PPC network. It doesn't have to be Adsense if your website is not Adsense ready, however, there are plenty of other networks around! PPC, is the real deal, people do click on ads, whereas people don't like to buy products/spend money. Trust me, I've been through this, you'll need a PPC network because unless you have a lot of traffic, people won't buy the affiliate products you offer them.
      Thanks for the encouragement as well as the advice on PPC!

      I've realized that Amazon is going to be a side revenue generator at best, and have since opted in to a clickbank niche related affiliate offer - but right now only as a possibility (I'm singed up for his news letter). I'm reading everything he sends me and weighing it, but ultimately its going to hinge on whether or not its a product I believe in, and later I'll have to answer that question before I go all in and promote it.

      I'm in one of the chronic pain niches in health and well being, and its topped for quack products only by the "get rich today and with no effort" IM niche Since my marketing strategy is based around establishing my site as authoritative and developing a trust relationship with my readers, I won't promote an affiliate marketing product that doesn't deliver and risks compromising the trust relationship that I'm trying to build now.

      PPC could be a good way for me to go, but I'll have to look into it a bit later. After doing a couple paid projects for another warrior on his site, I'm in the process of completing my end of trade with him that will net me several decent PR back links from different sites he owns; and at the same time I'm also wrapping up a tweaking project on my site.

      Meantime traffic to my site is still a trickle, although the trickle is increasing, as is the on page time, while my bounce rate is starting to come down too. With those projects done I should be well positioned to implement a PPC system.
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  • Profile picture of the author Isaiah Jackson
    Welcome to the forum and good job on your first 7 days you got a lot of work done congrats
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    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by Isaiah Jackson View Post

      Welcome to the forum and good job on your first 7 days you got a lot of work done congrats
      It was thanks to a couple threads on getting started now, one of which was titled along the lines of 'It doesn't have to be PERFECT, you just need to start it.' As I have perfectionist tendencies that tend to work against me sometimes, that was my own call to action: prior to reading it I'd spent about a week trying to sort out, in my mind, all of the IM realated and site building questions first - which got me nowhere other than on a treadmill that led to each answer leading to further questions to look into. Rinse and repeat - it was a dead end spiral.

      I honestly didn't learn squat until I started DOING instead of just being a passive spectator who was sitting on the side lines, and watching the game to try and learn it without ever throwing a pass. Doesn't work.

      Now the learning process has truly begun and I can honestly say that I am learning because I'm implementing the knowledge into a tangible form. Its a little harder but its rewarding - even though there is no 50k/day pay day in site, nor even a $500/day one.

      I believe that in creating, learning along the way as new obstacles need to be overcome and new ideas implemented, that the pay day will come. I simply haven't put a time line on it, and realize that its directly proportional to the work I put into it (the "get rich now" shortcuts remind me of the 3 am infomercials that were the rage in the late 90s, and I put about as much stock into them).
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  • Profile picture of the author JV Warrior
    Originally Posted by Spyder77 View Post

    What I've done since:

    - created unique content on my blog. I'm averaging one good article per day so far, which isn't much, but I'm tackling the steep IM learning curve while writing the content (and no, my niche is not IM related in anyway as I'm hardly qualified to go there).

    - tweaked the layout here and there to make it more easy on the eyes and professional looking. And, in a similar vein, added things like a copyright notice and privacy page.

    - added an affiliate. I chose Amazon as my first (and so far only) as I wasn't thrilled with what Clickbank offered for my niche, and its not Adsense ready yet.

    - created an Answers account on Yahoo which I brought to level 2 so I could promote my page with a clickable link (I put this only in the "sources" field so as to avoid any appearance of spamming). This also keeps me in touch with my market, provides me some ideas for future articles, and creates a kind of "database" of my own content written there as articles, which I can later tap into and spin as content on my own site. I'll add that I put some thought and effort into my answers - I don't necessarily write multiple paragraphs, however I do write the answer with the goal of it being chosen "best answer."

    - created an account on a well-trafficked forum that is related to my niche, allows blog/site linking, and also has a submission page for member blogs (a separate PR2 page), as a way to further promote my site.

    - began hand-building back links from other blogs, with Do Follow enabled, using the free version of G-Lock Blog Finder. As these are hand built, I'm focusing on higher PR blogs that are related to my niche (ideally both, otherwise in that order of preference for now).

    That's the brunt of my effort to date. Things to do still: add a list building widget, improve my on site SEO (my biggest knowledge gap/weakness), and spin my content to submit to article directories. Probably many other things as well, but those are the ones I've identified as priorities (while continuing to develop unique content).

    I've seen a lot of references here to the easy derailment by the "bright shiny things" phenomena, so I intend to focus first on building this one site and learning as much as I can as I go, before I later consider other niches and sites.

    BTW, I know I've used "blog" and "site" interchangeably - this is due to the fact that although it IS a blog (easiest to launch for one such as I whose biggest weakness is the technical stuff), I've managed to make it resemble more of a static type website, and look less "bloggish."

    Comments/feedback/critique welcome. As an admitted newbie I hope you'll go easy on me though.

    Action is the only way forward.
    This is my first post on the forum, and I thought it was a good one to be a part of. When you follow up and take action on the things you learn, you begin a whole new journey.

    New skills will be learned and new paths will be formed from the action you have already taken. Without those original steps, you will never "arrive" anywhere.

    Thank you for sharing your post and steps. It is an inspiration to us all to continue to walk toward the dream.

    My actions for today have moved me one step closer to my goals, if I just complained about all the things that dont work, I would move further away, and thats just not productive.

    Lizel
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  • Profile picture of the author harrymcclaire
    1st 7 days and u done so much..

    that is amazing.

    when i started out i didnt do anything..

    i was waiting for money to drop. hahah!

    dont blame me, blame those clickbank products!

    and i quote " push button, easy, fast, imagine ..... , can do this even if your are new, no experience needed." etc etc.

    and all the imagine this imagine that.
    internet marketing is not all about imagining is about doing!

    haha.

    great work kid... i mean guy..
    Signature
    Photo Proof of results
    979 clicks, 177 sign ups, 2 sales
    = $133.08 of CB commissions!
    Within 1st day of blast!
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  • Profile picture of the author idk007
    off to a good start. I never suggest you use SENuke or any of that off the bat.Its best to learn by doing it by hand. In my experience, Ive done better building stuff manually than gettting a trillion links via some link building software. It helps down the line but if your fresh, id suggest not to do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    Welcome and congratulations on your work so far! Trust me when I say that just by taking decisive action you're ahead of most of the people who get into the IM game.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lori Kelly
      Welcome Spyder77. Your post and the information on this thread is very helpful. You are on the road to success. Good luck!
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      Learn Website Tips, How to Do Keyword Research, & How to Write Killer Content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Maggs
    Hey Spyder77,

    You certainly have it wrapped, good on you! You're focused, taking action and doing all the right things, I really think you will do well.

    created an Answers account on Yahoo which I brought to level 2 so I could promote my page with a clickable link (I put this only in the "sources" field so as to avoid any appearance of spamming).
    Watch that matey, I had a Yahoo Answers account with a great rep, I never posted links in my posts, only ever in the resource box with a useful answer.Just watch out because the scammers on there will report you, if you are on their turf.

    All the best to you

    Rob
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    • Profile picture of the author Spyder77
      Originally Posted by Rob Maggs View Post

      Hey Spyder77,

      You certainly have it wrapped, good on you! You're focused, taking action and doing all the right things, I really think you will do well.



      Watch that matey, I had a Yahoo Answers account with a great rep, I never posted links in my posts, only ever in the resource box with a useful answer.Just watch out because the scammers on there will report you, if you are on their turf.

      All the best to you

      Rob
      Thanks for the encouragement and heads up on Yahoo. With more traffic coming in from other sources (no SE traffic yet, it looks to be from my reciprocal link exchanges and back linking on other blocks), I've been gradually tapering off my Yahoo activity and this is enough of a nudge to put my time elsewhere now.

      I got a lot of good feedback in the comments from the askers who chose my answer, and it was a good way to get some initial traffic and put me in touch with the needs of my niche - and I got some incentive to write a lot of well thought out, short articles as answers that are potential sources of ideas and for my own blog, and to spin for directory submissions.

      But I also noticed the same couple users posting really poorly written answers (almost impossible to decipher) that looked cut & paste and often didn't even address the main point(s) of the question that was asked. The one thing they had in common was that they were all pushing homeopathic remedies with what looked like an affiliate link directly to the product itself. :rolleyes:

      It served me well during my start up phase, but I have more productive site related projects and ideas on the go now, and in the queue, that its time now to move away from Answers completely and spend my time focusing on the other stuff.
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