brittlesnc

I appreciate the comments...but for now I'm just going to keep doing what's been working for me...I dabbled in guest posting a couple of years ago and I just couldn't get it to work for me...not for the amount of effort I put into creating "unique" articles...

But then again I was in a different niche so maybe it will be more successful in this niche...I don't know...

As far as contacting the top ranking sites in Google I am doing that but I'm going way beyond the first page to look for syndication partners...

But it sounds like you're in an unusual but good situation in which your articles are ranking in Google on other people's sites...I believe that's not the norm...but it seems to be in your case...

However, another reason I'm leery is because of all this talk of negative SEO and anytime Google feels like shaking things up there's always collateral damage even for the guys who aren't doing anything "wrong"...

Not to mention a few of the publishers who are currently publishing my content...that discussed their traffic with me (which would be the lady who recently replied to my letter and 3 others) are only getting a little bit of their traffic from Google so they don't care what Google does...and like me view traffic from Google and other search engines as a bonus...

And the only other problem I have with search engine traffic is that like Alexa Smith has said many times before...and I've experienced this myself when I used to be into SEO...it's the worst converting traffic for me...and that's even when I was building lists with SEO traffic...

Might have been the niches I was in but that's why I'm in the minority of people who think search engine traffic isn't the end all be all...

It's a nice bonus and I'm not saying it doesn't convert it's just that it took a lot of that traffic for me to get conversions and that's even when I was building a list...it was a lot tougher when I wasn't building a list...although it could've just been that I sucked at conversions...:confused:

Anyway, that's why this time around if I get search engine traffic I view it as more of a bonus and not the main type of traffic I want to get...

But I see the appeal of what you're doing because you're guest posts are ranking well in Google so you're not only getting the search engine traffic but the traffic on that site that you guest posted on at the same time as well...kudos...

However, I'm just going to keep up what I'm doing...guest posting would just take up a lot of my time because I take my time with creating articles (and I don't know how I'd be able to keep up if I decided to be in multiple niches in the future) not including everything else I would have to do...create lists, test things/improve upon things, etc.

Plus it's not a given that I'd be as successful at ranking multiples of my own guest posts on other people's sites...

Although I do have a question: Are you doing SEO for your guest posts, is the site owner, or is it both of you doing SEO to your guest post?

But I'm glad that you pointed out ranking guest posts in Google...here I thought that guest posting had no sort of leverage and that if you wanted to keep getting traffic from the sites you guest posted on you had to keep supplying them with articles..."unique" articles at that...

Whereas with article syndication you could create 1 article and if you have 50 publishers interested in content from you could just distribute that 1 article to the 50 publishers as opposed to having to create 50 different articles...:rolleyes:

Maybe I'll give guest posting a try in the future when I can afford to outsource good articles but in the meantime I'll just keep building my network of article syndication partners...

And on a final note...you have to understand some things about MYOB...he's got a 15 year head start on me...he could basically be considered an expert at article syndication...I'm best case scenario a novice...and I'm pretty certain he's a lot smarter than I am lol. :p

My point is that of course he's going to have a 10% conversion rate...which I'm certain he still has even with some of the recent changes since 2011...and I'm positive that I'm making quite a few mistakes with how I'm doing things but the point of this challenge was for me to get started and focus on 1 thing...

And the good thing about getting started, focusing on 1 thing and working hard at it is that you get better and better at it...as opposed to jumping around doing different things or trying to do a bunch of things at once and not really getting better or even getting anywhere, i.e., a bunch of different traffic strategies and never really getting good at any of them...

Obviously some of the more experienced marketers can do a bunch of different things at once but even some of them only stick to 1 or 2 different methods at one time...

So for newbies and/or the inexperienced marketers I suggest making a plan which includes maybe 1 or 2 traffic strategies at the most...do those 1 or 2 methods of traffic generation for a little while (30 days at least of really giving those 1 or 2 methods your ALL)...

I think with HARD WORK and FOCUS you can make almost any traffic strategy work...obviously some traffic strategies work A LOT better than others but I'm certain people get the idea...

I probably should've mentioned researching different traffic strategies to find out which 1 a person thinks they'll have the best chance of being successful with...

Anyway, you do make a good point about approaching magazines and other print publications...but right now I don't feel that my writing is quite good enough for that just yet (improving the more I write though...and to be perfectly honest it's kind of a confidence issue with me)...and again I'm just going to focus on online outlets for now...

Again thanks for the posts and tips because they really are helpful to me and others as well...

My apologies for the extremely long post...

Luke Dennison

Wow great news about the mail! That could pay off big time if the site gets tonnes of traffic! Pays to be original! (thats not a joke about guest posting btw XD)

Earn $100+ Per Day (WSO)

danr62

Looks like things are going great for you. You're already over 1/3rd of you way to your goal and the first month hasn't ended yet (not counting the other thread).

If you keep finding new publishers and keep syndicating stuff to the publishers you have now you should be beyond $1500 before the challenge ends.

You could be well beyond that much sooner if the person you reached by snail mail delivers more traffic than the others.

brittlesnc

Another sale of product #1 bringing my grand total to $571 and my buyers' list to a total of 27 subscribers...

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 5 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 1 visitor to my site

- 3rd website = 0 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 11 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 13 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

And of the 42 visitors to my site today 5 subscribed...

As for what I accomplished...embarrassed to say not very much...just responded to a few emails I got from website owners who needed clarification or who were interested but wanted "unique" content...

With all the posts in this thread about guest blogging I thought it would be a good idea to make notes of the website owners who were interested but only if the content was "unique"...

So I spent some of the day sorting through emails and making a list of the website owners who were interested in "unique" content for future reference just in case I ever decided to do guest blogging...

Also, I received an email from another website owner I sent a letter to with writing samples via snail mail...however, the email was basically to decline my offer.

However, they did mention that they liked my writing and that they'd be willing to pay for any article writing services I may offer...meaning I'd be a paid writer for their site but wouldn't be able to link back to my own site...

So I basically sent an email back saying that at this time I don't offer article writing services but if I did in the future I would let them know...

And just as I figured might happen with the 12th new website owner...he placed my content on a newly created page as opposed to the homepage where it would have more visibility...hence the 0 visitors to my site...

But I can't complain because as it was he seemed reluctant to publish my content...maybe in the future when I have a better relationship with him I can maybe convince him to put my content on a part of his site that would be more visible to his site visitors...

Or I'm just going to have to hope that I get trickles of traffic from his site that over a long period of time will make it worthwhile to keep sending him content...but any traffic I get from his site I'll just consider a bonus...

As I stated before...I'm happy with every bit of traffic I can get from sites...because a trickle of traffic from several sites does add up...

However, I'm looking forward to tomorrow to see what kind of traffic I get from the other site owner that replied to my snail mail.

Moreover, my 12th and 13th articles have finally been indexed on my site so earlier tonight I sent out an email to my 12 publishers that included both articles...haven't heard back from any of them but I'm certain I will tomorrow...maybe not all of them but a few of them I think will be interested in at least 1 of my articles...

danr62

If you use Google Webmaster Tools you can quickly get stuff indexed by going to Crawl < Fetch as Google and entering the page URL in the box there. Then you hit the Fetch button and after a few moments it should say "Success" under the Fetch Status column. Next to that will be a button that says "Submit to index". Click that and your URL should be indexed in no time.

brittlesnc

Thanks again danr62!

I wasn't even aware of that...

I would hit the thanks button but it appears that I've run out of thanks for now...:rolleyes:

How long does it typically take to get the new post or page indexed?

brittlesnc

Hoping warrior Congrats sees this but I had a few more questions for him about his guest posting...

I had a chance to reread your post about what you're doing and the more I think about it the more your strategy intrigues me...I'm thinking of giving it a go in a month or 2 from now just to see what kind of results I can get after 1 or 2 months...

Hoping you will be willing to answer the questions below even though I was adamant about not wanting to try it...not only would the answers to those questions be helpful to me but other people who have read your post as well...

But my next questions are:

1. Are you doing SEO for your guest posts, is the site owner, or is it both of you doing SEO to your guest post?

2. Does this work for competitive keyword(s) or moderate to low competition keywords?

3. How do you determine which keyword phrases to go after? (Especially now that Google is starting to not show the numbers in the keyword tool/keyword planner unless you're an Adwords customer?)

4. In general, how much time, money and effort towards the SEO of the guest posts are needed?

5. Do you rank 1 guest post for multiple keywords?

6. Do you have to optimize your guest posts for keywords? And if so, does this effect the quality and style of your guest posts...meaning can you still write guest posts that are interesting and/or entertaining if you have to worry about writing for SEO in mind?

7. Do you find that it's easier for a guest post to rank when it's a page on an authority site or in your experience does it matter? Or is it that you only do guest posts on authority sites?

8. Where does the link from your guest post lead to on your site? A squeeze page? Your homepage? A different page on your site?

9. Could you further explain what you mean by the following comment you made in your post?

Also, do you mean that you have multiple pages on your site that try to sell to site visitors? (Might be a dumb question to ask but I'm confused by your statement about: "I look at the traffic of the page, and if it make sales. If it does then you can market that particular page to increase traffic.")

10. Do you still get a decent amount of traffic from the site that your guest post is on or because the guest post is it's own separate page and not on the homepage/main page that gets most of the traffic from the site's visitors?

Not certain if there is any real way to know/track what I'm asking in the question above because your traffic from the actual site and the search engine traffic as a result of the guest post ranking my be 1 in the same...

Also, if that site is getting the vast majority of it's traffic from the search engines I guess it doesn't matter...

11. In your post you implied that if your article is good it will be linked to and shared socially...from your experience how often does this happen to your guest posts? Sporadically? Regularly?

My apologies for all the questions...even the dumb questions...but I'm definitely seeing the potential of guest posting now that I realize there's more to it than just getting a site's existing traffic but traffic of the search engines as well (even though in the past it didn't always convert well for me)...

But the thing I like about your strategy is the leverage...because you can get search engine traffic AND traffic from visitors of that site as well who found the guest post via the site itself and not through the search engines...

There is the downside of having to create "unique" content as opposed to just creating 1 article or a few more articles and having them widely syndicated...plus I don't think that search engine traffic is all that great BUT if the SEO for these guest posts are minimal it sounds like it would be worth it...

The things I'm not crazy about when it comes to search engine traffic is that I don't think it's necessarily high quality traffic AND in the past it always required a lot of effort for me to get...but the quality of the traffic aside...if the SEO that needs to be done to these guest posts is minimal I wouldn't mind getting some search engine traffic...

And now I have to apologize for the length of this post...:p

danr62

It takes probably less than a minute.

overspool

Cool thread, I will watch and try to learn some things! FYI, you might have done this already but I was curious to run some numbers on the traffic stats you have provided. I know you started with a few sites and added more, so you have newer sites which haven’t had time to collect as much traffic. But it might still be useful in some form or fashion from a strategy standpoint (which sites to focus conversion efforts on).

Total Hits: 2288

Percentage of all traffic:

Site 1: 23% Site 2: 3% Site 3: 3% Site 4: 2% Site 5: 29% Site 6: 13% Site 7: 2% Site 8: 18% Site 9: 3% Site10: 3% Site 11: 2%

Sites 1, 5, 6, and 8 have accounted for 83% of all traffic. Sites 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 accounted for 17% combined.

Traffic peaked around mid-month and has slowly declined leading up to the past few days. Little tweaks or additions related to sites 1, 5, 6, and 8 could boost revenue.

Congrats

It all comes down to the 80/20 rule right? Great stats

Congrats

Thanks for your questions. You have very valid and good questions. Unfortunately I cannot answer them by my experience.

I have only a few articles that are producing me some stats. Actually I have not done any promotion in the form of guest posting. I posted some articles on some sites which is where I got my stats from. But, that doesn't mean it won't work. I guess it would work actually better using sites you find in Google.

As you already target sites in Google, I suppose they get traffic and have not much penalty in Google. So, to write an article for them should be ranking also (on average) higher than your own site. You can research this. And after that it's just a way of testing it out. And see what sticks and what not. Maybe you will find a few articles giving you traffic, then you can target those websites to write a few more articles and focus your attention on those that send you traffic.

My apologies if I came over like an expert. I am not. I seeing some results and going to try out this idea.

Sorry to highjack your thread. You're going good. Keep focusing what works! But of course you could try out a few things in between hehe

Good luck!

brittlesnc

I understand what you mean about the amount of traffic I'm getting from what sites but just keep in mind all I'm doing is emailing the EXACT same articles to these sites...it doesn't take much effort to do that...the hard part was getting them to say 'yes' to receiving articles that will be syndicated elsewhere in the first place...

Meaning that it's worth it to email them even if all I get is a trickle of traffic...it takes me a minute or 2 to send each 1 of them an article...would be even less time if I sent the article to all of them at once or just opted them into Aweber to receive my emails at once (which I might do in the very distant future when I get a lot of publishers in the many different niches I intend to pursue in the future)...

Moreover, I don't know what traffic is responsible for what number of subscribers...for all I know the sites that generate 17% of my traffic might be responsible for 1/3 of the subscribers I'm getting (I honestly don't know how to track that)...it's unlikely but you never know...

Anyway, the big take away is that I'm happy with sites that will bring in traffic regardless of the amount of traffic they bring in...would I like for each individual site to bring in loads of traffic...sure...but realistically that won't happen for every site...

But as long as that traffic that's coming from those sites to my site is targeted and will subscribe...I'll take the traffic...it's really not difficult or that time consuming to send each site owner an article that they will either use or not use (it's up to them)...

As I said before...I'll take trickles of traffic from several sources because it does add up...and it's really not any extra work...if it does get to be too much work to send out the articles I can just automate it with Aweber...but for now it's not necessary...I only have a total of 13 publishers for now (1 has published my article for the first time on their site today...will post the result of that tonight ).

However, if I was doing guest blogging I would probably feel differently because that does take a lot more effort...if I had 13 publishers and I had to provide "unique" content to all of them but only 4 of the 13 were giving me the bulk of my traffic...then I'd have to reconsider providing content to the other 9...

brittlesnc

I really appreciate you coming back and responding to my post with all the questions above...

Let us know how your testing goes...in this thread or a thread of your own...personally I don't mind a little "thread hijacking" as long as it's helpful and it's not being done to promote someone's signature...:p

And in the future I might try your method of ranking guest posts in Google provided that it doesn't take a ton of time and money...SEO can be a bit time consuming and expensive depending on how it's done...don't know how it would be done in the case of a guest post on someone else's site...

danr62

If you use Google Analytics you can track which of your traffic sources are converting, but you are right in that you would still want to continue sending your articles to all of these publishers anyway since it barely costs any extra time and they all bring in some traffic.

brittlesnc

Exactly how would I be able to track where each subscriber I get to opt-in is from using Google Analytics?

And is there a way to not only know which site resulted in opt-ins but what exact article on these sites resulted in opt-ins using Google Analytics?

I know I could probably find out by doing a Google search but I just want to know the basics and then I'll try to find out the details by reading about it at Google's site or by doing a Google search...

Thanks again danr62 you've been extremely helpful...

danr62

You would set up your "Thank You Page" that people hit after opting in as a Goal in Analytics.

This will show you where your conversions are coming from, including the exact page that referred the visitor to your site, which pages on your site they visited before converting, and all kinds of other crazy stats.

For instance, I know that traffic from one of my publishers has about 15% opt in rates, and two of those articles are opting it at 25% and 29%.

I also know that even though EZA doesn't bring me much traffic, the traffic I do get from there converts at about 12%.

ToryBorysewicz

OP I think to come back and to continuously update us members is commendable. You are doing a good job and I give you 2 thumbs up! I will be following your progress. All the best to you!

brittlesnc

I made 2 sales of product #1 today for a total of $36 in commissions today and a grand total of $607...and now I have 29 subscribers on my buyers' list.

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 7 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 6 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 2 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 23 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 1 visitor to my site

- 8th website = 8 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 16 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 9 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 1 visitor to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website (new website that I reached out to via snail mail) = 179 visitors to my site

And of the 258 visitors to my site today 23 subscribed...

As for what I accomplished today...nothing really...I spent my time answering a few PMs...spent way too much time looking around the WF...and I answered a few emails as well...so unfortunately I didn't get anything accomplished today...

Furthermore, as it stands this was the breakdown for the response I got to sending my 12th and 13th articles to my 13 publishers:

- 1st website owner said he's interested in both my 12th and 13th articles...

- 2nd website owner is interested in both articles and already published my 12th article today...

- 3rd website owner hasn't gotten back to me...

- 4th website owner is interested in my 12th article but won't publish it til tomorrow...

- 5th website owner is interested in both articles, and went ahead and published my 13th article today...and will publish my 12th article on Tuesday...

- 6th website owner is interested in my 13th article and will publish it tomorrow...

- 7th website owner I got no response from nor did they publish either of my articles...

- 8th website owner is interested in both but didn't say when they'd publish...

- 9th website owner published my 12th article without replying back...don't know if they're using my 13th article or not...

- 10th website owner didn't reply...

- 11th website owner will publish my 12th article but is uninterested in my 13th article...

- 12th website owner didn't get back to me...

- 13th website owner said she's also interested in my 12th article and will use that as well as the 6 articles that she will be using...so for the next 6 days after today she will be using 1 of my articles per day on her site...

Moreover, I got a reply back from a website owner that I've emailed a few times and he's interested in using 4 of my articles (including my 12th article that I emailed him today after we batted emails back and forth with each other)...

This website owner was 1 that I had emailed starting almost a month ago (he was uninterested in using my content) and who I'd emailed on 2 other occasions afterwards (the most recent being a couple of days ago) but he never replied to the 2 follow-up emails I sent...but quite a bit has changed for him in a month I guess...

We batted emails back and forth about the niche and online business in general (with him doing the bulk of the "chatting" but I'm beginning to see that building rapport is essentially part of the building a relationship part of article syndication ) and it seems he's willing to try me out (or should I say my content) starting Monday...

So he'll be my 14th publisher.

brittlesnc

Thanks for the information and the support. I will definitely make time in the next few days to figure out how to set it up...

I'm not certain if I'll be posting the stats of what each individual website and what each particular article on each of those websites brings me in terms of subscribers because it would be a bit more time consuming when I do my daily updates which for me can take anywhere from 20 minutes upward to an hour depending on the day's events as it is...add this to the mix and it would be even more time consuming...

That and I think that it would detract a bit from my point that all targeted traffic is beneficial even if it's trickle that doesn't necessarily lead to a ton of subscribers right away...

And as warrior JohnMcCabe has stated on a few occasions...just because a site starts out with a little bit of traffic (or in my case a little traffic is sent to my site from a site) doesn't mean that in the future that the site won't get more traffic (or in my case that the site won't bring more traffic on a daily basis in the future)...

Like us other webmasters are always looking/trying to increase the traffic to their site...so a site that gets a low amount of traffic may get a lot more in 3 months time, 6 months, and a year's time...

Luke Dennison

Christ almighty what a result! Should expect a few more sales after those subscribers! I wonder how many visitors the 13th publisher will continue to bring you daily. A few more of those and you're laughing!

Earn $100+ Per Day (WSO)

brittlesnc

Yep!

I'm thinking the way forward would be to start sending snail mail to the sites I really really want to have my content published on...meaning the sites that I can tell obviously get a good amount of traffic...I know it's subjective and the only way to really know is to see their traffic logs and/or analytics...

However, the way her site is set up (or I should say her large blog) my article(s) wouldn't stay on the "first page" but for maybe a few days...so traffic in the very beginning will be really good but come down quite a bit after a week or 2...

I'll still take the burst of traffic though...it's fine by me because I'm building up my list.

I'm going to have to work on both my autoresponder series because both are performing under the 10% sales conversion rate I was aiming for (initially anyway because I'm hoping to get both list sales conversion rates to at least 20% over time)...

I currently have 400+ subscribers on my freebie list (this included at 1 point the people who are now on my buyers' list but doesn't include a few of the unsubscribes I've had)...

And to date I've only made 30 sales of product #1 (1 person for some reason didn't subscribe to my buyers' list which is why I have 29 subscribers on that list instead of 30)...so as of now I'm at about a little bit under a 7% sales conversion rate of product #1 to my freebie list...

As for my buyers' list I'm at about 3.5% but I expected this sales conversion rate to be lower for a few reasons:

1. The price of product #2 (the product I promote to my buyers' list) is $147...so the jump in price from $27 on product #1 to $147 for product #2 is a fairly big jump...

2. I don't think that my autoresponder series for my buyers' list is as good as for my freebie list believe it or not...

However, I do have a better open rate for my buyers' list than my freebie list...might be because there are not as many on the buyers' list as there are on the freebie list...would need more subscribers on my buyers' list I think to draw any meaningful conclusions...

3. I have my doubts about whether product #2 is necessarily a good fit for my buyers' list...initially I thought it was...but this low conversion rate might be my subscribers on my buyers' list way of saying that product #2 is not for them...

In the near future I think I'm going to do a survey and just ask my subscribers if they think product #2 would be helpful to them, and why or why not?

Again need more subscribers on my buyers' list I think to draw any meaningful conclusions...

All-and-all I think I'm doing okay to start but I hope to definitely improve on what I've started.

I'm not certain what's up with me and the long posts but I always start 1 with the intention of keeping it short and it never works out lol. :p

Congrats

Wow, very nice! Hitting over 250 visitors a day and two sales. Congratulations! Are seeing those $100 days coming to you soon already??

janocolorado

Wow!!! You are doing really great!!! Well, except when you "spent way too much time looking around the WF"

I'm wondering why do you exclude your freebie list from your promotion of product #2. Maybe, some of them didn't really like your first product but will like this one. I've read somewhere in this forum (maybe @AlexaSmith) saying her >$100 products sell better than the cheaper ones. Perhaps, the email sent to the freebie list should differ from the one you are sending to your buyer's list.

danr62

Congrats!

Also, I meant to ask you a while ago but I forgot...

Are you using Wordpress? If so, do you have a theme that has an opt in form at the top of each page? The only themes I'm finding only have a spot for that on the homepage, not every page, except for FlexSqueeze I think but it's ugly and expensive.

yukon

You can add an optin form that will show on every single page of a wordpress site by editing the header.php theme template file. Look for <body> tag & add the optin form code one line below that HTML tag. Backup your theme first.

danr62

I could do that...but I'm not that great at styling stuff so I was hoping to find something already put together.

brittlesnc

I hope those consistent $100 days are coming my way too!

Plus I don't necessarily expect to hit 250 visitors on a daily basis consistently but it would be nice.


I promote product #1 to the freebie list because it's the lesser priced "introduction product" that is important for my subscribers to help them get the result they want...

I don't promote product #2 to them because I know that they need product #1 first in order for product #2 to even make sense to them in using it for their particular problem(s)...

And I think what Alexa said was that products that are $100+ sell better for her BUT that she uses cheaper front end products to first build the trust and confidence of subscribers in her more expensive recommendations...


Yes, I'm using WP and I am using a theme that only has a spot for the opt-in at the top of the homepage...

The homepage with the opt-in at the top is the page ALL my articles on my publishers' sites link to...

It should be noted that this works well because more than 90% of my subscribers opted onto my list from the opt-in at the top of the homepage...whereas the remaining subscribers opted onto my list from the opt-in form located in the right sidebar that is site-wide...

And the reason why those other approximately 10% of subscribers opted onto my list from the sidebar opt-in form is probably because they were exploring other pages on my site before opting in...

Luke Dennison

Are you using Genesis theme? If not wold be cool if you told us the theme, without giving anything about your site away.

Also, how many days are you ahead in your Autoresponder series? For example. If i subscribed to your list today, and you then stopped adding messages, how many days in te future would it be until i stopped receiving messages.

Earn $100+ Per Day (WSO)

brittlesnc

I hear you danr62...I'm not good at that type of stuff either...but Yukon would be the guy to ask if you ever had questions about that sort of thing.

Might be something I might consider but I think the way I have it set up now works just fine...

What I really want to work on in the future is maybe the appearance of my site that I point my freebie list subscribers to...especially my opt-in form at the top of the homepage...my site overall looks a bit "amateurish" at the moment...but it's getting the job done for now...

Worth reminding people that I actually have 2 sites...and that I really didn't take my time with the appearance of either site (the site for my freebie list and the site for my buyers' list) like I should've...especially the site for the freebie list...

In the future I hope to not only make the sites look nicer but maybe consolidate it down to really 1 domain...the main domain being for my freebie list and creating a subdomain of that main domain that would be for my buyers' list...

I'm considering doing it that way in the future because I want to brand the main domain but at the same time have a separate area of the site that would be for my buyers' list without having to have a site on a completely different domain...

brittlesnc

Nope...not using Genesis theme. Believe it or not I'm using a free WP theme.

Really knowing my theme wouldn't do you any good...you should pick a theme based on your niche and/or the feel you want your site to have OR think about the demographic you're trying to target and what they'd expect your site to look like...

So if you're in a professional niche and/or you want your site to have a professional "feel" go with a WP theme that you believe reflects that...

Furthermore, if the demographics of your niche are middle aged men then obviously you don't want to pick a hot pink theme that would be better suited for a site targeting preteen girls...

I think you get the idea...

But basically don't make picking a theme a bigger deal than it has to be...I didn't...and because I didn't really have the budget for a premium theme when I started I had no choice but to go with a free WP theme...which in my opinion turned out just fine...

I'm not saying what I typed above is the "best" advice but I think that it's decent advice for someone just starting and who shouldn't let picking a theme trip them up...

I know it's not the exact advice you wanted to hear but I think it's better than using the same theme as me...I'm targeting health conscious women so I picked a theme that reflected that as much as possible for the choices of free WP themes I had...

I'm not thrilled with the theme I chose but I "felt" it was better than the other free options...

Again my apologies if it wasn't the answer you were expecting...

Almost forgot to answer your 2nd question...

If you were to subscribe to my list and I stopped today it would probably go for roughly 160 days out...with the exception of the first 3 (message with the download link and 2 additional messages) my messages are spaced 4 days apart...

brittlesnc

Good news today and some potentially really big news as well...

I made 3 sales of product #1 today for a total of $54 in commissions today and a grand total of $661...and now I have 32 subscribers on my buyers' list...

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 31 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 4 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 0 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 9 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 16 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 11 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 4 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 10 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 12 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 5 visitors to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website = 254 visitors to my site

And of the 356 visitors to my site today 34 subscribed...

Website owners #1, #4, #6, #11, and #13 published 1 of my articles today on their site...

As for what I accomplished today...I emailed 20 website owners (took a bit of time to find 20)...and I created 2 new autoresponder messages for both my subscribers' lists...

Anyway, for the potentially BIG news...

I got another response from a website owner that I contacted via snail mail...

The response was basically to tell me that they weren't interested in using my content on their website (because they want "unique" content and don't want "duplicate" content as they put it)...however, they would like to use some of my articles for their online newsletter that according to the little stat counter on their site has 30K+ subscribers!

This website owner initially wanted to use 6 of my articles but I emailed them with my 12th and 13th articles so now they want to use 8 total!

They'll be using my 8 articles in an "8-part series" in which they use 1 article in their online newsletter per week...their online newsletter is a weekly newsletter that is sent out every Tuesday to their subscribers...

Plus they archive old "editions" of their newsletter on a separate subdomain that they link to from each new "edition" of the newsletter that they put out...so it's possible I could get traffic in the future from subscribers that missed the newsletters my content was in by them checking out the archives...

We batted a few emails back and forth and I found out that the reason it took them so long to get back to me is that the mail had to be forwarded to the website owner's new address and that my mail kind of got put to the side/lost in the shuffle for a little while until today...

Also, I mentioned to her that I tried contacting the site beforehand via email on 2 occasions but didn't get a response...she doesn't really know what happened with that...she explained that she has a few "employees" that could've gotten the emails and ignored them...it could've gone to spam and gotten deleted...she honestly doesn't remember/know...

Consequently, this online newsletter isn't directly related to my niche but it kinda sorta "compliments" the niche in a way...so I'm not expecting a TON of traffic but a good amount just the same...

Plus I don't know what this newsletter's open rate is nor how responsive it's subscribers are but if the activity and comments on the site are anything to go by I'm guessing that the subscribers are pretty responsive.

So they will be publishing 1 of my articles starting on Tuesday and will do that for the other 7 articles every Tuesday thereafter!

As a result of this unexpected surprise I spent some time today going back over some of the sites that I've contacted in the past, in particular sites in which the website owner wanted "unique" content or who were concerned about "duplicate" content, to see if they have a newsletter/opt-in and I made a note of the sites that did so I could contact them...

I only got through some of the sites I've contacted (I think at this point I've contacted 900+ sites but I haven't really been keeping track)...and I'm thinking maybe I should create a new email account so that I can sign up for newsletters/opt-in to lists so I can get a feel for the content they send their subscribers and if mine would be a fit...

I'm leaning toward not doing this because it would be a bit time consuming not to mention that even though I may not think my content would fit/be usable the site owner might have a difference of opinion so I shouldn't limit myself...that and again it would be time consuming to analyze each email newsletter sent...

However, this has definitely opened up another opportunity that was actually staring me in the face the whole time...in fact, warriors like Alexa Smith, myob, JohnMcCabe, travlinguy, etc. have commented that they oftentimes get better results from online newsletters than they do websites/blogs...can't wait to see the results I get...

Likewise, targeting online newsletters kind of bypasses the excuse of the website owner being concerned about "duplicate" content and to maybe a lesser extent the "unique" content they want for their website...unless they also want "unique" content for their online newsletter...

Very excited to see what kind of results I get!

So many things on the current agenda that I need to do not to mention things I need to do in the future...I'm a bit overwhelmed but happy and excited at the same time...and now I'm starting to see why it's hard to be successful as a "1-man show"...between content for my site, subscribers and publishers; tracking as much as possible; making improvements; etc. it's tough...

However, if I keep getting good results I'll be up for the challenge.

Last, tomorrow I'll be out for most of the day visiting with friends and doing a few things...I'll still post but just be forewarned I won't have really gotten anything done for the day...

Apologies for a really long and rambling post but I just type it as it pops into my head...and I do a quick once over to check for mistakes but then it gets posted right after. :p

mason1

this is very interesting...good work!

brittlesnc

I made 2 sales today that total $36 and that brings my grand total to $697...and I now have 34 subscribers on my buyers' list...

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 23 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 2 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 1 visitor to my site

- 4th website = 6 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 12 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 14 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 7 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 9 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website = 266 visitors to my site

And of the 347 visitors to my site today 36 subscribed...

I was out for most of the day and night so I didn't get anything done...so nothing to report there...

Website owner #13 published another 1 of my articles today...2 down, 5 more articles to go...

Luke Dennison

That buyers list is growing so hopefully you get a few more sales of porduct 2 soon

Earn $100+ Per Day (WSO)

brittlesnc

I made 3 sales today for a total of $54 in commissions bringing my grand total to $751...and I now have 37 subscribers on my buyers' list...

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 21 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 3 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 0 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 4 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 15 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 11 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 2 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 5 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 6 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 1 visitor to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website = 304 visitors to my site

And of the 372 visitors to my site today 39 subscribed...

As for what I accomplished today...I sent out emails to website owners with opt-ins/online newsletters that I've contacted in the past who have either said they wanted "unique" content or who cited "duplicate" content as the reason for saying 'no' to using my content on their site...

No replies thus far...

I even emailed the website owners who are already using my content on their sites to see if they'd also be interested in using my content in their email marketing...the ones who did email marketing anyway...they declined because they either wanted to use their own content in emails or because they reasoned that they were already using my content on their site...

Furthermore, as far as what I accomplished today, I created 3 new messages for both my subscribers' lists...

On a sour note, I had to contact a website owner for putting 1 of my articles from Ezinearticles on their site without including the "resource box" that included a link back to my site...

I basically said that I appreciate them wanting to use my content but that TOS of Ezinearticles requires that they use the article in it's entirety or that they would have to remove the article...

So hopefully they include the resource box by Tuesday at the latest or I'm going to send another email to them saying that I will send a DMCA take down notice to their hosting company...

I'm going to have to read up on how issuing a DMCA take down notice works here on the WF and by searching Google...I've never done it before so I'm not exactly certain of how to word it and how it should be done...

That's why my email to the website owner today was meant to give them a chance to do the right thing and either include my resource box OR remove my content from their site...if they don't they're going to get issued a DMCA take down notice and eventually their hosting company if they don't comply...again going to have to read up on how it works...

Moreover, I replied to a few emails from subscribers/site visitors...which is a fairly new experience for me because in the past I never really made myself all that available/accessible to subscribers/site visitors...so it's a new experience but so far not an unpleasant 1...


Can't wait for tomorrow to see what traffic I get from my new 14th website owner...and then on Tuesday to see what kind of traffic I get from the website owner whose going to be using my content in his weekly online newsletter that has 30K+ subscribers.

Forgot to mention: Website owner #13 published 1 of my articles today...3 down, 4 to go...probably didn't have to mention it as I already stated that she will be doing so on a daily basis until she has used all my articles that she was interested in...but I figured I'd mention it as a reminder...:p

brittlesnc

Really good news on the sales fronts...I made 4 sales of product #1 and 1 sale of product #2 today for a total of $139 in commissions today and a grand total of $890...and I now have 41 subscribers on my buyers' list...

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 41 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 8 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 7 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 5 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 12 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 8 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 32 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 5 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website = 437 visitors to my site

- 14th website (new publisher who went on the anti-Google rant lol) = 24 visitors to my site

And of the 558 visitors to my site today 49 subscribed...

Furthermore, website owners #1, #2, #3, #8, #13, and for the first time #14 all published 1 of my articles on their site today...

So with website owner #13 they've used 4 of my articles and have 3 left that they'll use...and for website owner #14 they used 1 of my articles today for the first time and have 3 left as well that they'd like to use...

I almost for got the website owner that I assigned as website owner #14...because yesterday I mentioned that the website owner that was going to use my articles in their online newsletter was going to be website owner #14 when in reality they're going to be website owner #15 lol...:p

This is starting to get a little bit confusing BUT it's extremely satisfying and exciting what's been happening...

As for what I accomplished today...I emailed more website owners that I've contacted in the past who have opt-ins/online newsletters who also expressed interest in my site but didn't use it because they wanted "unique" content or were concerned about "duplicate" content...

Also, I created 2 new messages for both my subscribers' lists and I started on 10 new letters with my writing samples and a link back to my Ezinearticles "porfolio" for website owners I'm very interested in having use my content but I didn't get a chance to stick them in the mail today.

Plus I answered a couple of emails from subscribers/site visitors...

This may be a premature assumption on my part (not very experienced with answering emails from potential customers) but I'm thinking that the more site visitors and subscribers I get in the future, the more emails I'm going to get from them as a result...didn't factor that into the equation as far as what I need to do to run/manage my "online business"...

I wonder how other affiliate marketers manage email support across several sites and/or niches?

On a sour note, I had a website owner reply to my request about using my content in their online newsletter instead and the person just basically went off on me in the email saying that they don't want anymore emails from me and if they get another 1 asking me about using their content that they'll report me for spamming...

So that wasn't pleasant and I've made a VERY prominent note to myself not to contact that person again...in fact it's going to be my 'Do Not Contact' list...

Initially I was very taken aback by the email response because I looked back at my "records" and I've contacted the person a total of 4 times (including the most recent email) since mid-September and they were spaced out emails and not back-to-back...

The first 3 were to ask about using my content on their site...they replied to the 1st email but not the 2 afterwards...and then this last email they replied to...

So I'm still going to do what I've always done...contact and recontact website owners I've contacted in the past until they tell me NOT to contact them (like the person did today)...BUT I'll do it with the understanding that I may from time-to-time get annoyed/angry response like that...

And that if they say NOT to contact them anymore that they're going to go on my 'Do Not Contact' list...:p

So for anyone trying/doing what I'm doing please be aware that you can possibly be reported for "spamming"...I think it more than likely won't happen and if it does it will only be once or twice but please be aware of the possibility...

Likewise, that's another good reason why for initial contact and until they agree to use your content DO NOT use Aweber or any other email marketing solution you use to contact them...I have a separate Yahoo account I'm using to contact these website owners so I don't get in trouble with Aweber or lose my main Yahoo account that I've had for 7+ years...

In fact, even when I send the website owners who have agreed to using my content some articles I still use the Yahoo account...but if I were to ever get a lot of publishers who wanted to use my articles then I would use Aweber to send articles to them regularly...

And I'm still thinking that I'd ask their permission to be opted in although I think warrior myob just puts his publishers in his autoresponder series to receive his articles without asking them...he does it out of necessity though because he has A LOT of publishers across many niches otherwise it would be unmanageable...

Other than this 1 incident my day was excellent.

And an update on the website that used 1 of my articles on their site without including my resource box...this afternoon I noticed they removed my article from their site...so actually the DMCA wasn't even necessary like I thought it would be...

It's worth mentioning that a few autoblogs have picked up an article or 2 of mine from Ezinearticles over the last several weeks...but I don't count those autoblogs because:

1. It's obvious the sites are autoblogs and not a legit site trying to use my content...

2. I don't get any traffic from them...

3. They include a link back to the Ezinearticles version of the article but believe it or not they also keep my resource box intact...and this is the MAIN reason why I don't email them requesting that they take down my article...they still include my resource box...so no harm no foul but I don't count them among my list of legit publishers...

Now I can't wait for tomorrow to see the kind of results I get with the new publisher (website owner #15) who is going to use my articles in their weekly online newsletter to his 30K+ subscribers...

How Do U Do

Hi brittlesnc,

While this site won't tell you the total amount of traffic, you can use it to see what sites receive the most social shares. Maybe you find it useful in determining what sites to send snail mail to. You can also find someone's most shared content. Which would be a useful Subject title when contacting prospective publishers to get them to read your email. Since it's their most popular article, maybe you'll have a higher open rate when initially contacting them.

socialcrawlytics.com

If you don't mind me asking, what do you include in your snail mail? Hand written envelope, 2 of your best/most relevant articles, and handwritten/typed cover letter/query letter?

I'm enjoying your thread. Here's to your continued success.

brittlesnc

Thanks for the tip about using their most popular article as the subject line for emails...I'll be careful with that 1 though...don't want to mislead them with the subject line...probably not a good way to start...

It's worth testing though to see what kind of response I get...might give a try...I'll have to give it some serious thought...

As for what I send concerning snail mail...it's a handwritten manila envelope containing a cover letter that basically says what I like about their site (butters them up a bit but I keep it short), and that mentions I have articles that they might be interested in using on their site...

And that I've included 3 samples of my work (obviously the 3 articles I feel are either the best OR the best suited for their particular site) that they can use on their site also mentioning that if they'd like to see all the articles I have available for use/publishing that they can check out my "online portfolio" and I give them my Ezinearticles link...

My advice is to take your time with the wording of the cover letter...and that my way might not be the best way...part of the reason why I may have only gotten 3 to respond out of 10 is because maybe "buttering" them up was a bad idea and maybe getting straight to the point may have been better...

I'm going to try the straightforward approach in this next batch of 10...although honestly doing it in batches of 10 is more than likely not enough to draw any serious conclusions...a batch of 100 would be idea but I don't have that many website owners that I feel the need to send snail mail to...

Plus there's probably a bit of luck involved...don't know how to explain/elaborate on that point other than to say that I was lucky that these particular website owners were receptive to my mail considering how "amateurish" I probably sounded...

With a more professional and sophisticated niche and/or website my letters may have been ignored...so consider the niche and the particular site your contacting and create your letters accordingly...the more professional the site the more professional the letter needs to sound/be if that makes sense...

Moreover, going forward I'm also going to mention that they can use my articles for their online newsletter (if it applies in that website owners particular case, i.e., they have an opt-in) and/or as content for their site...

Congrats

Wowww.. awesome news Brittany!! I'm really happy for you and thanks for sharing your journey with us.

Congrats

I have also a question..

Do you sell your product directly on your website or only in your auto responder? And do you promote your product right away in the first message you send out?

I wonder because as it seems you make more sales when you have got traffic.

And another question.. Did you already do a email broadcast?

brittlesnc

I have a review of the product that I'm promoting on the site...the autoresponder series encourages subscribers to read/re-read the review of the product...

I don't promote the product in the 1st message, however, at the end of the free report they get for subscribing there is a link to the review page for the product that I gently encourage them to take a look at/read...

I don't do email broadcasts...

yukon

Looks like site#13 is the jackpot for traffic. Will be interesting to see If that traffic flow continues from that one article/URL or If the traffic has a drastic drop off when that one article rolls off their homepage. Does site#13 update their home page very often? I guess it's a regular blog setup?

brittlesnc

Yep...I'm expecting a drastic drop of traffic from site #13 after a week or so because of my articles rolling off the homepage...but I'll take the traffic for now...and in another week or so I can offer up another article...no guarantees she'll be interested in the article but at some point she'll probably accept another article from me...

yukon

How old is the date on the next article that will roll off the home page, does the site update with new content very often?

If you time it right you might be able to keep your content on their home page, as soon as one article gets ready to drop off, send them a new article (bump).

mohammedkaram

Great work here, i hope you made 15000$, god bless you and bless for all of our work.

brittlesnc

The date of the next article that's going to roll off the home page is Friday, October 31st...and the site updates with content on a daily basis...

However, the amount of content added from day to day is not very consistent...1 day she adds 1 article the next she could add upwards of 6 new articles...like I said before it's a women's general health and beauty blog basically so there is a diversity of many different topics...

Also, I really don't like the layout/structure of the site...her blog's homepage has like 10 posts of full length articles (not even teasers) including pictures...so the site loads fairly slow...and I think her site doesn't provide a very good user experience...

But despite all of that the blog is seemingly successful...which is evident by the traffic I'm getting to my own site from her site...

The big thing going for the site is the interesting content that's on the site...some of it is actually very good if your a woman whose into topics about health and beauty...I think the only reason why she took my content is because she wants her blog updated daily with new content...

The articles I created aren't nearly as good as some of the other content on her site...but apparently it's good enough...:p

For now I'm probably going to stick to creating 2-3 articles new articles per month...I like to take my time with creating the content plus if I had to crank out more articles than that I don't think they'd be all that good...and I'd probably have more bouts of writer's block than I already do...:p

I like what I'm doing for now because it takes the pressure off of me having to constantly create articles...believe me...constantly creating content for my autoresponder series is sometimes a struggle...

PLUS creating a brand new page on my sites for almost each message in both autoresponder series is time consuming and tough enough as it is...though sometimes from the newly created autoresponder message I'll just link to a page that's on my site already without creating a new page for the site...

But I have a link back to my sites in ALL the messages in both my autoresponder series to get subscribers accustomed to clicking links I provide AND to get them accustomed to going back to my site time and time again...

Apologies for rambling and going so off topic at the end...

yukon

I guess If they're inconsistent about updating their home page that's impossible to always keep your article on the home page. Once or twice a month should still be a decent amount of traffic.

Looks like your earnings average is on target to go over your goal, that's good.

brittlesnc

I made 5 sales of product #1 today for a total of $90 in commissions and a grand total of $980...and I now have 46 subscribers on my buyers' list.

Today's stats:

- 1st website = 37 visitors to my site

- 2nd website = 6 visitors to my site

- 3rd website = 9 visitors to my site

- 4th website = 4 visitors to my site

- 5th website = 28 visitors to my site

- 6th website = 5 visitors to my site

- 7th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 8th website = 29 visitors to my site

- 9th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 10th website = 3 visitors to my site

- 11th website = 1 visitor to my site

- 12th website = 0 visitors to my site

- 13th website = 463 visitors to my site

- 14th website = 36 visitors to my site

- 15th website (using my articles in their weekly online newsletter) = 594 visitors to my site

And of the 1218 visitors to my site today 81 subscribed...

However, the traffic from website #15 was shown in my analytics as direct traffic and didn't reference website #15 as the source of traffic...and that's because the visitors as a result of website owner #15 were coming to my site from the link in the online newsletter...

My point is that I'm probably going to need to have a way to track links inside of online newsletters that use my content for their online newsletters so I can know which newsletter is bringing me what amount of traffic...

Right now it's not necessary because it's only 1 online newsletter using my content so it's safe to assume that this big jump in direct traffic is a result of website #15...

Furthermore, website owners #5, #13, #14, and for the first time #15 all published my articles today...

So with website owner #13 they've used 5 articles and have 2 left that they'll use...for website owner #14 they've used 2 articles and have 2 left...and website owner #15 has used 1 article and has 7 left but each article will be used every Tuesday...

As for what I accomplished today...it wasn't much...I mailed the 10 envelopes today...created 1 new message for both subscribers' lists...

Also, I got some replies from website owners I've emailed over the last few days about using my content in their emails to their subscribers...none of them were interested except 1 but she wanted "unique" content for her online newsletter lol...:p

I thought that I'd be able to escape the "unique" content 'rule' since the content would be published in an 'email newsletter' and not content published on their website but that was not the case here...

So I replied that at this time I syndicate my content but in the future that I may be interested in providing exclusive content and if so that I'd let them know...and I thanked them for their interest in getting content for me...

However, she was curious about how 'syndicated' content worked so we batted back a few emails back and forth about what 'article syndication' was, how it worked, etc....she was very surprised that anyone would be interested in content published elsewhere being on their website...

I explained to her that there aren't very many who are interested in using 'syndicated' content but there are a few who gladly will take it and I gave her some reasons why...she still didn't change her stance on wanting 'unique' content but that's fine...not going to "push" someone to use my syndicated content if they really don't want to or are hesitant to do so...

Anyway, I put her on my list of website owners who are interested in 'unique' content...so maybe in the future if I decide to do some guest blogging I can refer to this list of websites and pick and choose the sites I think would be very beneficial to guest blog on...

So I didn't accomplish very much today but still a very good day for traffic, subscribers, and most importantly sales...

Currently I'm debating with myself on whether to keep up with the daily updates once I hit $1500 since it's looking like I'll reach $1500 before December 1st...or should I just keep going until December 1st gets here?

Haven't quite made up my mind on that...but I'm likely going to keep posting til December 1st...

In the beginning of starting this 2nd challenge I never thought I'd even have to consider whether to stop or keep going with the daily update posts because I thought that either I wasn't going to hit the goal OR that I'd barely hit the $1500 goal by the deadline of December 1st...

But it became pretty clear about a week or so ago that if I kept up at the pace I was going that I'd hit my $1500 goal early...which is obviously a good thing...

How Do U Do

Hey brittlesnc,

Love the thread, I haven't started contacting publishers yet. But this is the business model that I'll be using. And I'll will be starting it in the coming weeks and have based my strategy on the same "3-6 know it alls" as you do too. Obviously I have gaps to fill, which is why I'm active in your thread. And I greatly thank you for starting it.

As for your quote above, I think you're missing my point here with the other strategy. Let's use TPW's post #13 as an example (found below). The idea is for you to use the "title in the open" as a conversation starter only (Bill Platt strategy #13), and not as a misleading title opener strategy to stick your content in at the end of the email.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...live-well.html

First off, as full disclosure. I don't know your exact process of contacting publishers, and how in depth you go with discussing everything with them. But out of your approximate 900 publisher outreaches, lets say you upped your opt in rate to 10%, or that you already have 90 publishers in your network.

Meanwhile, it seems Bill may have gone way further than either of us would think of going by writing articles exactly as his publishers demanded per his post in #13 in the link above. Anyway, he had a 70% success rate, which seems to speak for itself.

Like most things in life. Most things fall in between two extremes. So lets use a conversion rate of 30%. But since Bill's way tends to be a bit more time consuming, lets say we could only reach 300 publishers. If you were to use socialcrawlytics.com to quickly grab their most popular article, then send them an email b/c everyone else already emails them about the same article. Maybe your chances of getting a response increases. Maybe not, I don't know for sure. It's just an idea (socialcrawlytics) that provides you another short cut for this content syndication strategy. And one that I have not tested. Anyway, the following could be possible.

Email Chain
1-Find a site's most shared article at a high traffic site, then email that site thanking and only talking about that article.

2-Receive response back.

3-Continue discussion if necessary, and then follow up with a question about the sites user base and the type of traffic the site targets or generally comprises.

4-Receive response back.

5-Continue discussion if necessary, and then follow up with a question about the sites editorial policy.

6-By this time you should have established a trust or relationship. Let them see your best 2-3 articles that would best interest their traffic if they accepted outside publishers.

Full Disclosure, I can't test this myself yet. So, I'm hoping that I can set up a system to convince you into doing some of my dirty work before I start.

I know that MYOB just jumps right in with presenting an article upon first contact. But it seems that he has a lot of pull and maybe the answer lies somewhere in between? :confused:

Feel free to disagree, but best of luck going forward. To your continued success...

brittlesnc

@ How Do U Do...

It's definitely something worth trying with website owners I have yet to contact...might be a bit too late with website owners I've contacted in the past, especially the ones I've contacted multiple times asking if they'd be interested in using my content because they'd probably see right through what I was doing...that is if they remember me emailing them...:p

And after reading tpw's post it gave me the impression that he would do this with sites that "mattered" to him...so my guess is this approach is about targeting authority and/or high traffic sites in ones own particular niche...

Which is good because trying to do this with 900+ websites would be a bit time consuming for my tastes...especially for less authoritative and low traffic sites...although a few of those smaller and less authoritative sites could have the potential to become authoritative and high traffic sites so for that reason it might be worth it to contact the low traffic sites...

Anyway, it's something I'll probably do for the new website owners I contact and not so much the ones I've contacted thus far...if and when I do it during this challenge I'll definitely post how it goes in this thread...

Will definitely be trial and error on my part because thus far I've been pretty direct with website owners...but as everyone keeps pointing out I've gotten a pretty lousy "conversion rate" of about 1%...so if this could even result in a boost to 5% of website owners saying 'yes' to syndicating my content I would be happy...