8 replies
Hi All,

Today I've finally pulled my finger out and have started on the wonderful world of article/bum marketing. I've been reading this forum for a while now, and have been following a lot of the conversations about the topic intently taking mental notes.

I have created a website with a Wordpress blog on it for the purpose of reviewing and selling eBooks. Last night I wrote my first review on a World of Warcraft gold guide, and today I wrote and submitted my first article to eZine Articles. (I figure it will take a few days for that to go through the process.)

I was hoping some of you Warriors could take a look at the site and let me know what you think would improve it. The URL is topebookreviews.com.

I understand that this being my first real effort, it's likely to be somewhat ka-ka, but I'm happy for any criticism that you might have regarding style, content, karma. I also blog about games, so don't worry, I've got a thick skin.
#advice #needed
  • Profile picture of the author paul65
    Hello,

    It looks like you are off to a very good start. Congrats. Good review article. The one thing I noticed is the Adsense ads on your blog. They are not really related to your topic. Now I have seen this in many cases and the ads may be very different for someone viewing in the UK vs. some viewing in the states.

    I am seeing ads such as project X and publishing ads. You may want to take advantage of your blog space where you have your Adsense with some more relevant stuff. Could be other eBooks or related products. Maybe even something that may add value to your niche.

    Your Adsense trouble may be coming from your blog title.

    perhaps instead of
    "Top EBook Reviews" Blog Desc "The Best ebook reviews of the best ebooks"

    You could place the keywords for your ebook in the blog title Example "Warcraft Millionaire Review" Then your blog description could be "Warcraft Millionaire Book Reviews"

    You should change your "About" and give a description of your blog with your keywords in the description.

    Hope this helps,

    Cheers and To Your Success

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author CSwrite
      Hey Ripsnorta2,

      In addition to Paul's great advice I would add that you could definitely take advantage of more WoW keywords in there. Even though the title of the book is Warcraft Millionaire, I would still use World in the title of your post. Sprinkle in a few WoWs before mentioning gold as well - that should get the Google adsense going more towards your niche. (also, you may want to consider the use of the word grinding a tad bit more in addition to farming, since a lot of the people in this niche will be looking for gold "grinding" guides)

      Well written review - btw - and the design is very clean. I might change one other thing and that would be the category - instead of video games I would use MMORPG Games, and maybe use that keyword a few times in your copy as well.

      Hope that helps!
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      • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
        Thanks Paul and CSwrite,

        those are some good tips. It's getting late now so I'll look into making those changes tomorrow. And Doh! Yes forgot the about page. Also now on my to do list.

        If anyone else has any suggestions, criticisms, or theories about the review at Top eBook Reviews I'd be happy to hear them. I figure at this stage a multitude of advisors will lead to wisdom, or something like that.
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        • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
          I've gone and made some of the suggested changes to the review.

          I chose not to implement a couple because they weren't necessarily in the direction I wanted to take the site. For instance changing the blog title to include Warcraft or Gold isn't really appropriate because I'll be adding reviews of non-gaming eBooks over time.

          I did change the post title, but I didn't change the permalink since I've already included it in an article I've submitted and didn't want to break the link. I also added the MMORPG Guide category as suggested, but left the original Video Games category as well. I also changed the text a bit to include more of the World of Warcraft keyphrase, but only where it made sense to do so.

          I've also added and fixed up the about page and have added a contact page. Wow. Lot's done.

          I'd be grateful if I could get some more Warriors to take a look at the site and, if you have any, give me some suggestions and ideas for improvement.

          I've also added the URL as a byline in my Sig. Hope that's okay.
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          • Profile picture of the author waken
            A very nice layout John but if I were you, I would put the home, about and contact link at the footer.

            And I think you have just too many links to the merchant site. I personally placed less than 3 links as the click conversion is better after reading the review than to click directly there. IMHO...
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            • Profile picture of the author Brad Spencer
              I think your site is pretty good, especially for a first effort! Cheers to you for that!

              Here are my suggestions (be careful about taking everything everyone says for truth...they are just suggestions...even mine

              1. Consider getting a header graphic created that is "stronger" and has some style to it...text isn't the greatest (better than nothing and your text header is one of the better ones)

              2. Try getting some ecovers and promote clickbank products on your sidebar...I'm not sure adsense is the best use of that real estate.

              3. Promote your RSS feed in a bigger way. People will subscribe if you give them an incentive. Incentive could be just getting an unbiased review of things. Review often= consistent traffic.

              I hope this helps you and gives you some thoughts.

              Bonus Tip: Check out Stumbleupon...I don't know if reviews do well on there but I could see it being a decent traffic generator.

              Cheers,

              Brad Spencer
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              • Profile picture of the author dwieder
                you know what, you are actually great for a newbie! your site is not like those starter's outputs. great job. but i suggest that you use stronger words that will strengthen the impact of it. google searchers will read the first line of the description and then will decide if they will view it, by having stronger words, you will end up being on the top. hope it helps.
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                • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
                  Thanks for the suggestions, and complements everyone.

                  I should set something straight though. This isn't quite my first site. I've got a gaming blog that I've been tweaking for the last couple of years and I'm also working on yet another blog. Hopefully live soon after I get Top eBook Reviews going.

                  @Waken - I've reduced the number of affiliate links. You're right about that. I thought it was too much when I first wrote it. There are now three text links and one in the image.

                  BTW, can I ask why you recommend moving the home/about/contact to the bottom of the page. Surely that's something you want to be easy to find.

                  @Brad - I agree in part about the RSS feed, but I was toying with the idea of getting an auto responder set up and emphasize an email subscription rather than the RSS.

                  An image. Hmmm. I'll have to think upon that for a bit.

                  In regards to Stumbleupon, are you suggesting using their advertising service or just their normal stumble functionality?

                  Also pardon my ignorance but I'm not sure what an ecover is. It sounds like the cover for an eBook, but I haven't heard that term before (or don't recall having heard it.)

                  @Dwieder - thanks for the complement. Are you refering to using stronger words in the review, or on the site generally?

                  Once again, thanks for your help guys.

                  Now I just have to wait for my articles to be approved.! 1.5 days and counting.
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