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JOURNEY: Let the Work Begin - Holding Myself Accountable to Fulfilling My Dreams

by aliveder
60 replies
I want to see how far I can get if I actually DO THE WORK.

I am coming back after a multi-year hiatus to work on three projects that I started back in 2012, when I joined the digital marketing world.

I had great ideas, did a lot of work, but never had the discipline to stick with it. I had the "shiny object" syndrome, which had me running from product to product, from theory to theory.
Since then, I had set down my three websites and forgot about them. It is time to change this.

What is my goal?

Overarching Goals:
• To earn a minimum of $2,000 per month collected income from my two Adsense sites that will feed into my third product site.

Adsense Goal:
• Have a CTR of 4-5% on both sites
• Have at least 10k impressions per day across both sites

Product Goal:
• Sell at least 25 items per week

What is my deadline?
December 31st, 2018

Why am I doing this?
I work in DM in my day job; I love my job and the people I work with. But it is not my goal to move up the ladder, I can--but I simply do not want to. My true desire is to be financially and location free. I have plans to move to Mexico City come January 1st, and I want to make sure that I am making enough money to feel secure, as well as have my projects to keep my sane. I made a date, and I am going to change my life on this date.

How am I going to hold myself accountable?
I will post to this forum throughout my journey, sharing highs and lows, asking for advice, sharing my statistics, and my feelings. It is okay if nobody reads it, but it is proof that I actually tried. I can't say that I was afraid of failure, or that I lost this opportunity, or that I was lazy. There will be no "what ifs."

What do I consider success?
It is knowing that I actually tried my best, I went on this journey, and that I was active in going after my dreams. I am human, there will be hiccups, or I will go MIA for a tiny bit due to my constantly traveling back and forth from Mexico, but I will plug forward--especially when it gets hard and I want to run, or give up.
#accountable #begin #dreams #fulfilling #holding #journey #work
  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    Welcome back to the forum. First off good luck with your project. $2000 by December is a big goal. You are going to have to work very hard to get to that point. Do you have another source of income, if you move to Mexico in January if you do not reach that goal ?

    How much income are you relying on from Adsense. Putting most of your eggs in Google can put your income at risk. Adsense is not like it was when you joined here in 2012. The days of easy income from it are long gone. You may want to look into better ways to bring in money.

    Have you figured out what sort of products you are going to sell ? Have you came up with any plans or you just starting today ? The first few days of August is already gone and it is less than 6 months away. If you need help along the way come back and ask questions in this thread. Good Luck !
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by DWolfe View Post

      Welcome back to the forum. First off good luck with your project. $2000 by December is a big goal. You are going to have to work very hard to get to that point. Do you have another source of income, if you move to Mexico in January if you do not reach that goal ?

      How much income are you relying on from Adsense. Putting most of your eggs in Google can put your income at risk. Adsense is not like it was when you joined here in 2012. The days of easy income from it are long gone. You may want to look into better ways to bring in money.

      Have you figured out what sort of products you are going to sell ? Have you came up with any plans or you just starting today ? The first few days of August is already gone and it is less than 6 months away. If you need help along the way come back and ask questions in this thread. Good Luck !
      Thanks! In terms of my product, I am in the pregnancy and infertility niche. My websites have been around since 2012, and I am already on the first page of Google for a lot of high competition keywords, due to the fact that my content is pretty decent and I have over 200+ articles and 250k+ FB followers who are actively engaged with my content, even after all of these years! My only issue is ad positioning!

      Hmmm, what other networks do you recommend? Do you have any thoughts on ad positioning or ad types? I went forward and started using the Adsense Auto-Ads. Should I move away from that and use another format?

      In terms of my product, I have a product already created, I have the copy created. It is just I never got around to creating a site for it. I just need to review the product to make sure I am still happy with its presentation, then begin to work on building out a site for it.

      Across all of my social media networks, I have about 400k followers. I plan on revamping my Adsense sites, and using them to funnel people to my product page.
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      • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
        Originally Posted by aliveder View Post


        Hmmm, what other networks do you recommend? Do you have any thoughts on ad positioning or ad types? I went forward and started using the Adsense Auto-Ads. Should I move away from that and use another format?
        .
        First off that is great your site has been up awhile and has good content on it. 250 k followers is great ! You got half your battle won, since you are not starting from scratch.

        Since your putting adsense on the back burner you can continue to use. But take a Look at Amazon for a associate account Here is the link - https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ You may get better results. You can also open up a individual sellers account for your products beside your main site. Also take a look at commission junction they have a decent affiliate program. Just the only thing with these programs they have a small window to actually sell one of there products. Amazon should be a lot easier.
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        • Profile picture of the author aliveder
          Originally Posted by DWolfe View Post

          First off that is great your site has been up awhile and has good content on it. 250 k followers is great ! You got half your battle won, since you are not starting from scratch.

          Since your putting adsense on the back burner you can continue to use. But take a Look at Amazon for a associate account Here is the link - https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ You may get better results. You can also open up a individual sellers account for your products beside your main site. Also take a look at commission junction they have a decent affiliate program. Just the only thing with these programs they have a small window to actually sell one of there products. Amazon should be a lot easier.
          Thanks for the advice, I totally agree! I am actually an Amazon affiliate member since I started back in 2012.

          My ebook has recommendations for products, in which I have inserted my Amazon affiliate links. Since it has been so long, I have to review it to see if there are better product recommendations. Trying not to leave any money on that table!

          I think in the future, I can use the affiliate networks to promote products in the articles that I write and send out to my mailing and social lists.

          I think my biggest issue with the websites right now is just ad placement and which networks to actually use.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I'd reverse the list a bit - and put product sales before Adsense. Truth is, adsense income is not what it was in 2012. Focus on the traffic and product sales - and/or perhaps freelancing.



    I think your goal is reasonable as long as you have a good plan and FOLLOW it.



    $2k a month in 6 months is definitely doable - but may not be possible from adsense.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      I'd reverse the list a bit - and put product sales before Adsense. Truth is, adsense income is not what it was in 2012. Focus on the traffic and product sales - and/or perhaps freelancing.



      I think your goal is reasonable as long as you have a good plan and FOLLOW it.



      $2k a month in 6 months is definitely doable - but may not be possible from adsense.
      Looking at it, I agree. I need to put Adsense on the backburner, and use my authority sites, who across all social media networks, have over 400k active followers to push forward my product pages.

      For me, all my products, everything is complete. I just need to tighten up my ad placement (I don't want to leave money on the table) and rekindle posting on my social media platforms--to show that my brand is still alive and kicking.

      My main goal should be to have a good product website, so that I can start pushing my product out.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Cool A

    One note:

    My true desire is to be financially and location free.

    As someone sitting in NYC now who's circled the globe as a digital nomad for the past 7 years, make that the goal. Not 2K a month.

    I never tossed and turned at night thinking about 3 K a month or 6 figures or any numbers. Only Scrooge McDuck does that. He's funny hehehe....but I did toss and turn dreaming what it'd feel like to wake up at a villa in the rice fields of Bali. Of course this dream came true for me because I focused on the feelings, not the things, goading me to do uncomfortable but fun and freeing things.

    Numbers are lifeless. You want the perceived feeling in the numbers, or perceived freedom in money. Step it up a little bit buddy; focus on your location independent life. See ya in NYC or Mexico City or wherever the winds take you

    Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      Cool A

      One note:

      My true desire is to be financially and location free.

      As someone sitting in NYC now who's circled the globe as a digital nomad for the past 7 years, make that the goal. Not 2K a month.

      I never tossed and turned at night thinking about 3 K a month or 6 figures or any numbers. Only Scrooge McDuck does that. He's funny hehehe....but I did toss and turn dreaming what it'd feel like to wake up at a villa in the rice fields of Bali. Of course this dream came true for me because I focused on the feelings, not the things, goading me to do uncomfortable but fun and freeing things.

      Numbers are lifeless. You want the perceived feeling in the numbers, or perceived freedom in money. Step it up a little bit buddy; focus on your location independent life. See ya in NYC or Mexico City or wherever the winds take you

      Ryan
      Thanks so much! I definitely see your point relating to mindset.

      Yes, my goal is to be financially and location free, independent of how much I earn monthly. Money is irrelevant if I can't move forward with my true desires and priorities.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Somewhere out there, there is a Google white paper on the subject of ad size and location. I was not able to find it real quick, but did find: https://steelhouse.com/creative/why-...-size-matters/ which has about the same information. The Google Whitepaper went into more statistical detail so it may be worth a search to track down.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Somewhere out there, there is a Google white paper on the subject of ad size and location. I was not able to find it real quick, but did find: https://steelhouse.com/creative/why-...-size-matters/ which has about the same information. The Google Whitepaper went into more statistical detail so it may be worth a search to track down.
      Thanks so much, I really appreciate you helping with the search and recommendation!

      I will try to track it down, as well as look into what advice other field experts are promoting.

      Wouldn't it be nice if there was just solid advice on where to place your ads with a guarantee that they will convert? But alas, there is not and there will be lots of testing.

      Question: How long do you run an a/b ad experiment before making a decision? 30 days?
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

        Question: How long do you run an a/b ad experiment before making a decision? 30 days?
        This is not a what do you do type of question. meaning like how long do you think? its a bit more scientific than that. You can insert the data here: https://www.optimizely.com/sample-size-calculator/ and it will give you an idea of how many impression it will take to reach " Signifigance " Its not necessarily about time, as it is about the number of impressions across the test pages

        you can also read this: https://help.optimizely.com/Analyze_...riment#minimum to get a better understanding of the process.

        Hope that Helps!
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        • Profile picture of the author aliveder
          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          This is not a what do you do type of question. meaning like how long do you think? its a bit more scientific than that. You can insert the data here: https://www.optimizely.com/sample-size-calculator/ and it will give you an idea of how many impression it will take to reach " Signifigance " Its not necessarily about time, as it is about the number of impressions across the test pages

          you can also read this: https://help.optimizely.com/Analyze_...riment#minimum to get a better understanding of the process.

          Hope that Helps!
          Thanks so much! A very good read.

          To me, at least, this is dense material that I will need to read over and over again to make sure it sticks!

          Next item on my "To Read" list, is ad placement research. Any suggestions on what has helped you personally would be deeply appreciated!
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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

            To me, at least, this is dense material that I will need to read over and over again to make sure it sticks!
            CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ) is pretty much full on geek mode LOL Oh an A/B test.. yeah sounds easy and in truth it is... but to actually get RESULTS at the end of the test... there is a bit more to it. Just remember its not how long the test is.. its how many ( impressions )

            Another article you can read... I did a guest post on my friends blog a while back ( https://incomebully.com/basic-guide-...-optimization/ ) something I want you to also look at is the ad placement on the page. In this article I do speak about doing 1000 per side testing and for quick and dirty testing it can be very effective. Especially when the gap is pretty large... There is also a question in the comments about running a short test twice and getting flipped results.. and what to do there.

            Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

            Any suggestions on what has helped you personally would be deeply appreciated!
            With blogs in general.. you want an amount of consistancy... so if you write content about Social media and you specifically write a piece about FaceBook, when someone goes to that page there is a specific interest.. Facebook. What I see a lot of, is people then linking to articles about twitter and Reddit and whatever else ( Social media in general ). The end user clicked specifically on a link for Facebook right? So wouldnt it make sense to have more links related to the same topic?

            Ads I think are very much the same on any given page they should be very focussed to corrolate with the content of the page. Content about facebook should offer some type of product related to the topic. IF you then lead your visitors to other pages about Facebook.. then again the same types of product ads should appear ( if not the exact same one )

            Mix the media of your ads. I would have.. I do have generally a sidebar banner more graphic in nature pushing whatever product. I will generally push a text type ad mid way through the content, in a hi-lighted box to identify it being seperate from the article. I then will have at the end some type of call to action - and sometime more than one.

            So with a blog, its about community right, so I have an author box asking for comments and the like. Depending on the purpose of the page I may link to a specific product within that same box ALWAYS ask to join your mailing list. Right below this I will run a graphic / text banner ad to match the side bar and mid content ad, and right below this links to further content based on context.

            Depending on what the product it is you are wanting to push... you can change up the call to action the mid content text ad maybe about a piece of content that is a review. The sidebar and bottom banner maybe links to a more formal sales page type thing.

            If it is a product product ( IE Something from Amazon ) It should fit kinda effortlessly in your content, and here is a link to buy this at amazon. We / I / the blog makes a small portion of each sale and that helps us continue with offering the content we do.

            I do mix content for the sake of content heavily vs content for the sake of selling ( If you havent heard of it before a book: Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck explains the principles behind this )

            Kinda the bottom line is you will never receive, if you dont ask. But simply placing a link in no mans land for a product isnt going to do it either CREATING a call to action that persuades the reader to think they are helping you works very well.

            Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    Today was an interesting day. It was mostly filled with thinking and rethinking my strategy and prioritizing my tasks and goals.

    As recommended to me in the above posts, it is better to focus more on my product as opposed to earning from ads on my authority sites.

    I have an attractive site, with over 2k visits per day. My content is well-written and has been around for six years. While I have Adsense Auto-ads currently turned on, there are of course a hundred different other items to do if I want to improve both my ranking and my ad profitability.

    But SEO and Ad placement will go second. I need to plan on how to leverage my social following, currently at a combined 400k, to drive potential customers to my product.

    That said, my course of action:

    • Research and draw out plans of how I want my site to look like, and which layouts work best for monetization
    • Build out the site
    • Build out affiliate area
    • Place the product on Clickbank (Is there a better network?)
    • Market the product on my websites and through my social media networks

    The above is just a general course of action for this moment. It will, of course, be built out in a more detailed way and potentially change A LOT. It is dependent on advice provided and taken, as well as how things move forward for me. A lot can change, even in a day.

    For my websites I have installed the following. Let me know if anything is missing or should be removed:

    Theme:
    • AdMania by ThemeForest

    Plugins:
    • Contact Form 7
    • Monster Insights
    • Google Privacy Policy
    • JetPack
    • ManageWP Worker
    • Wordfence Security
    • WP Super Cache
    • Yoast SEO
    • MailChimp for Wordpress

    There are tons of other fancy plugins that I am eager to try. But I am trying to get away from the whole "shiny object" syndrome. Focus on what I need to maintain a website, and work on the implementation of my product.

    I had a tiny, tiny subscriber list of 137 people from one of the websites, and I re-setup a MailChimp form to start capturing leads. Especially if in the future I will be emailing people new articles and product promotions.

    But as I said again, this is all future plans. I want to make sure that I push my product out first.
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  • Profile picture of the author salsym
    Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

    I want to see how far I can get if I actually DO THE WORK.

    I am coming back after a multi-year hiatus to work on three projects that I started back in 2012, when I joined the digital marketing world.

    I had great ideas, did a lot of work, but never had the discipline to stick with it. I had the "shiny object" syndrome, which had me running from product to product, from theory to theory.
    Since then, I had set down my three websites and forgot about them. It is time to change this.

    What is my goal?

    Overarching Goals:
    • To earn a minimum of $2,000 per month collected income from my two Adsense sites that will feed into my third product site.

    Adsense Goal:
    • Have a CTR of 4-5% on both sites
    • Have at least 10k impressions per day across both sites

    Product Goal:
    • Sell at least 25 items per week

    What is my deadline?
    December 31st, 2018

    Why am I doing this?
    I work in DM in my day job; I love my job and the people I work with. But it is not my goal to move up the ladder, I can--but I simply do not want to. My true desire is to be financially and location free. I have plans to move to Mexico City come January 1st, and I want to make sure that I am making enough money to feel secure, as well as have my projects to keep my sane. I made a date, and I am going to change my life on this date.

    How am I going to hold myself accountable?
    I will post to this forum throughout my journey, sharing highs and lows, asking for advice, sharing my statistics, and my feelings. It is okay if nobody reads it, but it is proof that I actually tried. I can't say that I was afraid of failure, or that I lost this opportunity, or that I was lazy. There will be no "what ifs."

    What do I consider success?
    It is knowing that I actually tried my best, I went on this journey, and that I was active in going after my dreams. I am human, there will be hiccups, or I will go MIA for a tiny bit due to my constantly traveling back and forth from Mexico, but I will plug forward--especially when it gets hard and I want to run, or give up.
    All the best. Just a thought-- If you are able to generate $2000 / month on adsense within a few months, then with that kind of traffic you should be able to sell more than $10000 worth of products!!
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by salsym View Post

      All the best. Just a thought-- If you are able to generate $2000 / month on adsense within a few months, then with that kind of traffic you should be able to sell more than $10000 worth of products!!
      Thanks! I am thinking of 2k$ per month combined, ad revenue and the sale of my product.

      Originally Posted by Corban Yang View Post

      Do you have a blog post or something to follow your journey?
      I decided to post my journey on this thread. So that I can update everybody on my progress, as well as receive feedback! Hope you are in for the ride.

      Thanks!

      Originally Posted by dsimms View Post

      If you are serious about making money, then never consider Adsense or affiliate products ie: Amazon, why? because if you rely on another business in order to make money, then do not be surprised if they cut you loose one day, and you are left high and dry in Mexico city wondering what the hell happened.

      start your own business, sell your own products and services, not products and services from a business that you are not in control. If you sell products for someone else, then you do not have your own business, you are merely helping another business make money with the risk they can cut and run one day.

      Focus on branding first, if you find the right brand, then you do not need to waste time, money, and resources on trying to run 2-3 other sites which will only consume time, money, and more resources, and will take you 10-20 times longer to get anything going. focus on one site at a time, otherwise, you may have a very rough ride. I often run across sites that have high authority, and they often sell guest posts on their blog, and this is just one of the ways they subsidize their income, other sites that have lots of traffic may sell ad space by using buysellads, keep in mind, these sites started years ago, and some of them have been around 5-10 years....
      Thanks for your feedback. Yes, my two sites are six years old and are authority sites in their field, are ranked pretty well for high-competition keywords, and have a combined 400k social media followers that are still quite engaged on my channels, even though they have not been updated in some time. I am planning on using the two brands as traffic sources to push to my product, which is a book I have written on Infertility.

      My first step is to make sure that these websites are presentable and visitors are enjoying the experience. My second step is to build out the website for the product and funnel people there. While I don't want to leave money on the table and do want to put ads on the site, it is not my primary focus--as recommended to me by other readers on the thread. Same as your advice!

      I am looking into different templates for the product website. I want it to be an informative site, easily organized and pleasing to the eye. Nothing spammy, like sites of old, but actually creating a nice user experience. Sites like the below are my inspiration, but I heavily lack the technical skill to create something of my own. Does anybody have recommendations for templates? Or things that worked for them?


      I am 90% done with my two authority sites, mostly working on site speed. I will place the ads, and run tests--which will take time. So in the meantime, I will be working on reviving my social media channel and building out the product site.

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ) is pretty much full on geek mode LOL Oh an A/B test.. yeah sounds easy and in truth it is... but to actually get RESULTS at the end of the test... there is a bit more to it. Just remember its not how long the test is.. its how many ( impressions )

      Another article you can read... I did a guest post on my friends blog a while back ( https://incomebully.com/basic-guide-...-optimization/ ) something I want you to also look at is the ad placement on the page. In this article I do speak about doing 1000 per side testing and for quick and dirty testing it can be very effective. Especially when the gap is pretty large... There is also a question in the comments about running a short test twice and getting flipped results.. and what to do there.



      With blogs in general.. you want an amount of consistancy... so if you write content about Social media and you specifically write a piece about FaceBook, when someone goes to that page there is a specific interest.. Facebook. What I see a lot of, is people then linking to articles about twitter and Reddit and whatever else ( Social media in general ). The end user clicked specifically on a link for Facebook right? So wouldnt it make sense to have more links related to the same topic?

      Ads I think are very much the same on any given page they should be very focussed to corrolate with the content of the page. Content about facebook should offer some type of product related to the topic. IF you then lead your visitors to other pages about Facebook.. then again the same types of product ads should appear ( if not the exact same one )

      Mix the media of your ads. I would have.. I do have generally a sidebar banner more graphic in nature pushing whatever product. I will generally push a text type ad mid way through the content, in a hi-lighted box to identify it being seperate from the article. I then will have at the end some type of call to action - and sometime more than one.

      So with a blog, its about community right, so I have an author box asking for comments and the like. Depending on the purpose of the page I may link to a specific product within that same box ALWAYS ask to join your mailing list. Right below this I will run a graphic / text banner ad to match the side bar and mid content ad, and right below this links to further content based on context.

      Depending on what the product it is you are wanting to push... you can change up the call to action the mid content text ad maybe about a piece of content that is a review. The sidebar and bottom banner maybe links to a more formal sales page type thing.

      If it is a product product ( IE Something from Amazon ) It should fit kinda effortlessly in your content, and here is a link to buy this at amazon. We / I / the blog makes a small portion of each sale and that helps us continue with offering the content we do.

      I do mix content for the sake of content heavily vs content for the sake of selling ( If you havent heard of it before a book: Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck explains the principles behind this )

      Kinda the bottom line is you will never receive, if you dont ask. But simply placing a link in no mans land for a product isnt going to do it either CREATING a call to action that persuades the reader to think they are helping you works very well.

      Hope that Helps!
      WOWZA! You are a wealth of information, and I have to reread your posts multiple times to further process everything. Thank you again for taking the time to guide me, I deeply appreciate it and take your suggestions to heart.

      I will totally be taking your advice, especially about the impressions and the interlinking of content and product push. As a marketing professional during the daylight hours, I completely understand how you need to take every opportunity, every piece of available space that a consumer's gaze meets, to provide them with information they need. You searched for "best ergonomic setup," you reach my content page providing the information, your gaze shift a tad and you already see an ad for a top-rated ergonomic keyboard, you have affiliate links in the body of the text for items that you suggest to be the best. Generally, filling-up the space with helpful information that benefits the consumer and will benefit you as well.

      Let me know if you ever have a minute to review my sites (when they are closer to being finished, so I actually have something to show.) Your keen eye would be deeply appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author Corban Yang
    Do you have a blog post or something to follow your journey?
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  • Profile picture of the author dsimms
    If you are serious about making money, then never consider Adsense or affiliate products ie: Amazon, why? because if you rely on another business in order to make money, then do not be surprised if they cut you loose one day, and you are left high and dry in Mexico city wondering what the hell happened.

    start your own business, sell your own products and services, not products and services from a business that you are not in control. If you sell products for someone else, then you do not have your own business, you are merely helping another business make money with the risk they can cut and run one day.

    Focus on branding first, if you find the right brand, then you do not need to waste time, money, and resources on trying to run 2-3 other sites which will only consume time, money, and more resources, and will take you 10-20 times longer to get anything going. focus on one site at a time, otherwise, you may have a very rough ride. I often run across sites that have high authority, and they often sell guest posts on their blog, and this is just one of the ways they subsidize their income, other sites that have lots of traffic may sell ad space by using buysellads, keep in mind, these sites started years ago, and some of them have been around 5-10 years....
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel1000
    Hey, nice one for jumping back onto your own dreams.

    I just wanted to echo the sentiment that products may be the better route as opposed to ad sales. If you're already getting enough traffic and have such a large audience then you'll see a much better return for your time.

    On another note, I noticed you didn't mention building a mailing list. Is there any plan for that?
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by Daniel1000 View Post

      Hey, nice one for jumping back onto your own dreams.

      I just wanted to echo the sentiment that products may be the better route as opposed to ad sales. If you're already getting enough traffic and have such a large audience then you'll see a much better return for your time.

      On another note, I noticed you didn't mention building a mailing list. Is there any plan for that?
      Hi there, I already spoke about product plan focus and mailing lists in my above threads. Thanks for the input, always appreciated!

      Originally Posted by Jessica Ambos View Post

      Good luck with your endeavor. Many people have gone through detours in their goals and made their way back on track and some I'm sad to say have made a complete stop either refusing to move forward, found a better goal or made it to the goal itself. At the end of the day, it is all about what is going to be good for you. It doesn't matter what other people think. Go for it!
      I completely agree! My skillset is mainly project management and planning. That is why I was able to build out a product and sites and content many years ago, but never had the discipline to actually move forward with anything.

      Now that many years have passed, and my dream and/goal has still stayed the same, in addition to my discipline muscle growing, I have the determination to see this through.

      I do have bouts of anxiety and fear that this will completely and utterly fail, no matter how much I try to revive it, and that this dream will die. But I know that I will get up and move forward onto another venture with a different outlook and more determination!

      Thanks so much for your support!
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

    I am looking into different templates for the product website.
    Have you looked at woocommerce storefront? The basic structure you like is already there. There is also a lot of tutorials with this that allow you to configure what you want a bit more. The price point is rather nice - FREE lol.

    The other option is the Divi theme... there is some upfront cost but the in dash page creation is kinda nice

    Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

    Let me know if you ever have a minute to review my sites (when they are closer to being finished, so I actually have something to show.) Your keen eye would be deeply appreciated!
    just PM me when you think you are ready I will be more than happy to look
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  • Profile picture of the author Jessica Ambos
    Good luck with your endeavor. Many people have gone through detours in their goals and made their way back on track and some I'm sad to say have made a complete stop either refusing to move forward, found a better goal or made it to the goal itself. At the end of the day, it is all about what is going to be good for you. It doesn't matter what other people think. Go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashanzeroxster
    Hey,
    First of all Good Luck with your project. I think you're in a good niche with good fan following. I definitely recommend you start an e-commerce store around your niche. That's an easy way to achieve $5000 per month feet. I know some people started with little or no knowledge/social following in the maternity niche and achieved success. I definitely recommend you to check e-commerce out.


    I have no part to play in this. Just a friend stopping by to wish Good Luck
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  • Profile picture of the author luciesmazanska
    Wow nice thread I will watch it!
    I still don't understand why are you still rely on AdSense earnings

    You can do so many things to earn money instead of AdSense earnings
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  • Profile picture of the author anitha shree
    You have posted a nice post.
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  • Profile picture of the author thereikid
    great goals they are focused on a vision and very specific and have a timeline and a plan. All you gotta do is keep going!
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  • Profile picture of the author Trends Vacuum
    thanks!....
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  • Profile picture of the author parrshop
    Interesting, I will continue your journey
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  • Profile picture of the author markunderdahl
    Originally Posted by aliveder View Post

    I want to see how far I can get if I actually DO THE WORK.

    I am coming back after a multi-year hiatus to work on three projects that I started back in 2012, when I joined the digital marketing world.

    I had great ideas, did a lot of work, but never had the discipline to stick with it. I had the "shiny object" syndrome, which had me running from product to product, from theory to theory.
    Since then, I had set down my three websites and forgot about them. It is time to change this.

    What is my goal?

    Overarching Goals:
    • To earn a minimum of $2,000 per month collected income from my two Adsense sites that will feed into my third product site.

    Adsense Goal:
    • Have a CTR of 4-5% on both sites
    • Have at least 10k impressions per day across both sites

    Product Goal:
    • Sell at least 25 items per week

    What is my deadline?
    December 31st, 2018

    Why am I doing this?
    I work in DM in my day job; I love my job and the people I work with. But it is not my goal to move up the ladder, I can--but I simply do not want to. My true desire is to be financially and location free. I have plans to move to Mexico City come January 1st, and I want to make sure that I am making enough money to feel secure, as well as have my projects to keep my sane. I made a date, and I am going to change my life on this date.

    How am I going to hold myself accountable?
    I will post to this forum throughout my journey, sharing highs and lows, asking for advice, sharing my statistics, and my feelings. It is okay if nobody reads it, but it is proof that I actually tried. I can't say that I was afraid of failure, or that I lost this opportunity, or that I was lazy. There will be no "what ifs."

    What do I consider success?
    It is knowing that I actually tried my best, I went on this journey, and that I was active in going after my dreams. I am human, there will be hiccups, or I will go MIA for a tiny bit due to my constantly traveling back and forth from Mexico, but I will plug forward--especially when it gets hard and I want to run, or give up.
    I've gone through what you have on several occasions, and I'm in the middle of a comeback. So I respect you for having the courage to try again.

    I am sort of a caregiver to my wife, who had a stroke and endures other health issues. I left my full-time job to be there for her, and I landed freelance work for a content mill. After 4 months they started mysteriously flaking out on me, and by the 5th month, they dropped completely off the radar.

    Just prior to that, I began putting my own business together. It's been a month now, and I'm writing ebooks, I have a website, and I'm hustling daily to promote everything. Earnings are yet to come, but I'm at a critical point where I have quit in the past. This time I'm pushing through.

    A piece of advice...keep your mindset strong. Family and friends, as is the case with many of mine, will not be supportive. They don't understand it. They think you're nuts and making foolish financial decisions. They're well-meaning, but they just don't get it.

    Press on, fellow Warrior.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by markunderdahl View Post

      I've gone through what you have on several occasions, and I'm in the middle of a comeback. So I respect you for having the courage to try again.

      I am sort of a caregiver to my wife, who had a stroke and endures other health issues. I left my full-time job to be there for her, and I landed freelance work for a content mill. After 4 months they started mysteriously flaking out on me, and by the 5th month, they dropped completely off the radar.

      Just prior to that, I began putting my own business together. It's been a month now, and I'm writing ebooks, I have a website, and I'm hustling daily to promote everything. Earnings are yet to come, but I'm at a critical point where I have quit in the past. This time I'm pushing through.

      A piece of advice...keep your mindset strong. Family and friends, as is the case with many of mine, will not be supportive. They don't understand it. They think you're nuts and making foolish financial decisions. They're well-meaning, but they just don't get it.

      Press on, fellow Warrior.
      Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story and thank you for your kind words. Yes, a lot of people don't understand, or have a mindset centered around the corporate ladder and earning money the "traditional" way. But now IM/DM is becoming the norm. We are just the early adopters!!

      We all hit a point when the work becomes a tad tedious, or our resolve is wavering--but as you said, "This time, I'm pushing through."

      Thanks again and I wish you luck on your journey and my best wishes to your wife.
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  • Profile picture of the author sebastya
    Right there with you OP
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  • Profile picture of the author ClaudiaStagner
    Good luck with your endeavor. A lot of people have gone through detours within their goals and forced their way back track and some I'm sad to say have left a complete stop either refusing to proceed, found a much better goal or made it to the target . At the conclusion of the day, it's all about what will be good for you. It doesn't matter what other people think. Go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnarcher
    Ali,

    A great thread. I'm in the same boat, though not as far as you are in your journey this time.

    Here are my thoughts reading your portions of the thread.

    1. Work on refining your product starting NOW. Pull out a few ideas to put into your magnet for listbuilding.

    2. Set a launch date. I would suggest 30 days out. It creates a sense of urgency for yourself. I did a launch in about 10 days about 10 years ago.

    3. 250k FOLLOWERS??? That's awesome. You have your 2nd product right there. Start preselling your product today. To tweak what you've already put together, do an ASK campaign directed to your followers. You could say something like "I'm launching this product and want to make sure I've covered all the bases. What are your biggest questions?"

    4. Create a backend. Mastermind, Interview Series. SOMETHING

    You can do this. Keep up the Great work you've already started.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by Johnarcher View Post

      Ali,

      A great thread. I'm in the same boat, though not as far as you are in your journey this time.

      Here are my thoughts reading your portions of the thread.

      1. Work on refining your product starting NOW. Pull out a few ideas to put into your magnet for listbuilding.

      2. Set a launch date. I would suggest 30 days out. It creates a sense of urgency for yourself. I did a launch in about 10 days about 10 years ago.

      3. 250k FOLLOWERS??? That's awesome. You have your 2nd product right there. Start preselling your product today. To tweak what you've already put together, do an ASK campaign directed to your followers. You could say something like "I'm launching this product and want to make sure I've covered all the bases. What are your biggest questions?"

      4. Create a backend. Mastermind, Interview Series. SOMETHING

      You can do this. Keep up the Great work you've already started.
      Thanks so much! I completely agree with creating a sense of urgency for myself and being held accountable.

      So here it is...

      I WILL RELEASE MY PRODUCT ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2018.

      I think the preselling factor is a great idea. Especially when I can crowdsource my ideas from people who's are already interested in pregnancy/infertility and are aware of the brand.

      I think creating an interview series is an amazing idea. I already have an idea for the videos and who I would engage.

      What are your thoughts on having the video series as part of the sales page for my product? To provide more authority, and have the videos present on the infertility and pregnancy sites as well? I think seeing professionals speak about it with add klout to my brand
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  • Profile picture of the author LuiggiC
    @aliveder I hope you make it. Best wishes for you!
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  • Profile picture of the author SmartClicks
    Hi there,
    Goal setting is definitely a good way to help keep you accountable so big kudos on setting you goals. $2000 by December is realistic and I have no doubt you can get there if you put your mind to it.
    Have you considered getting an accountability partner, preferably someone going through the same experience so you both can help keep each other on track.

    Kudos again for the big move, I look forward to reading about your progress
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by SmartClicks View Post

      Hi there,
      Goal setting is definitely a good way to help keep you accountable so big kudos on setting you goals. $2000 by December is realistic and I have no doubt you can get there if you put your mind to it.
      Have you considered getting an accountability partner, preferably someone going through the same experience so you both can help keep each other on track.

      Kudos again for the big move, I look forward to reading about your progress
      Thanks so much! Yes, to accountability partners. I used to lead a mastermind group, but I have strayed in the past few weeks and have begun to post my journey here.

      The reason being that I want to have an accountability partner that is going through the same experience as me, and we have more appropriate advice and knowledge to provide each other.

      Do you have any advice on how to find an appropriate accountability buddy i the IM space that is working on a product launch as well?
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  • Profile picture of the author amuro
    Hi Aliveder,

    I admire your determination to continue and stay focused on what you set out to do.

    I also have 3 main projects as in my blog, my info product and Christmas And New Year Gifts e-commerce store primarily focused on Amazon affiliate marketing.

    Even though I have tons of smaller niche sites prior to that.

    May I suggest besides posting to this forum regularly, you might also want to be active on social media in particular Facebook, Twitter and Youtube which I see most successful marketers doing right now?
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by amuro View Post

      Hi Aliveder,

      I admire your determination to continue and stay focused on what you set out to do.

      I also have 3 main projects as in my blog, my info product and Christmas And New Year Gifts e-commerce store primarily focused on Amazon affiliate marketing.

      Even though I have tons of smaller niche sites prior to that.

      May I suggest besides posting to this forum regularly, you might also want to be active on social media in particular Facebook, Twitter and Youtube which I see most successful marketers doing right now?
      Thanks so much Amuro! Can you tell me more about why I should post to youtube/FB/twitter etc.? I see the perspective if a person wants to be an influencer or get/provide advice. Are there any other reasons? Do you have any FB groups that would be appropriate to share my journey?

      Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author Oliver Pitt
    Wow, nice to hear your plans. It's great that you have a to-do list but the only thing which should be concerned with is the focus. I have 9 hours of shift and even I run a blog and have similar kind of goals as you have in term of finance but I am not able to allocate time for that. I wish that things will move as you have planned so best of luck. God Bless
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      Originally Posted by Oliver Pitt View Post

      Wow, nice to hear your plans. It's great that you have a to-do list but the only thing which should be concerned with is the focus. I have 9 hours of shift and even I run a blog and have similar kind of goals as you have in term of finance but I am not able to allocate time for that. I wish that things will move as you have planned so best of luck. God Bless
      Completely agree with the focus!

      I have:

      -day job
      -2 side clients
      -mandatory travel 4 days a week every 2 weeks
      -2+ hour commute round trip daily for work
      -Spanish lessons daily
      -exercise

      I can go on and on, but I am trying to allocate focus and energy and time to this project in any way possible.

      I try to burn the midnight oil at times, but I get soooo tired the next day and it almost feels counter productive.

      Do you have any tips on how your prioritize and how you stay focused?
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    Took a brief break as I was in Mexico City enjoying life and relaxing from the culmination of my day job, exercise, side business and general exhaustion that I have been feeling lately. BUT, I was still thinking and strategizing and prioritizing.

    +++

    Since changing the layout for my pregnancy website, I have seen an increase in ad clicks and visitors, and a decrease in bounce rate. I feel comfortable with this trajectory. This is all from the ads on the home page and the sticky side ads on posts. My biggest issue with the site right now is load speed. 80% of the USA still uses 3G, and I know my site is crawling when the vast majority visit, hence an impact on the bounce rate.

    +++

    Today I have:
    • Posted ads within posts (as readers are reading the article and that is where their eyes are the majority of the time).
    • Optimized layout for mobile (According to GA, 85+% of my visitors are reading my site using a mobile device).

    To Do for my Pregnancy & Infertility websites:
    • Create dedicated emails for my pregnancy and infertility sites.
    • Unlinked my social media accounts so that I would have more control over what is posted and where.
    • Update my pregnancy and infertility social media platforms with the correct information and correct emails.
    • Find a way to improve the speed of which my site loads, to get it 3 seconds or under. I believe my biggest issue right now is images. Even though I have downloaded a cache plugin.
    • Install "Revive Old Post," which is a plugin that takes an old post and posts it to your social media account, automatically, and daily. While I understand the benefits of platforms like Hootsuite to schedule and post, I am not in the throes of planning my social media campaigns, and honestly, just want to cycle through all the posts I have, which should last me 4 months.
    • Install "Revive Network," which allows me to automatically share content from other websites in the pregnancy and infertility niche, so I am not just pushing my own content constantly. I believe that it will help me gain followers, allowing me to market to a larger circle, as well as improve my branding.

    +++

    As stated, I want this site to be as presentable as possible, as it will be my main source of traffic and clout for when I launch my project. Additionally, I want to invest time into basic automation for social media right now, so that I can reengage my followers.

    +++

    My goals for my product, on which I will be working on this weekend:
    • Decide on a layout theme for my product site (I think I am moving toward Orfeo or Hestia, as they provide a one page, responsive theme with drag and drop qualities, and I like how they can have video as a background, which I plan to use, and have transparent and dedicated support)
    • Reread my ebook to make sure I am happy with the content
    • Update all Amazon product affiliate links within the ebook
    • Update the images within the ebook
    • Begin to work on filling out the website with copy
    • Hire a graphic designer to create a new logo, maybe involve 99designs? Have the logo be altered to fit all the social media profile sizes, as well as my website headers, etc.
    • Hire a graphic designer to create new ebook covers.
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  • Profile picture of the author affmarketer101
    4-5% in CTR - I think it's too high CTR. Not sure with other people, but my CTR is less than just ~2%.
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  • Profile picture of the author anitha shree
    Up to what extent you have reached your goal now?
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  • Profile picture of the author Wawriterslife
    It's not what you do, and how hard you work. It's how you do it that makes a difference in the outcome of your efforts
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    I really wanted to focus on my page load speed. I ran a lot of tests, and honestly, had a lot of questions about what was being recommended to me. Google speed tests were giving me a grade of "F," and stating my load speed was 13 seconds. My GA told me the average page load time was 26 seconds. I know that is a huge issue that needed to be addressed asap.

    For example, how can I push traffic to the website if people are abandoning it due to long load time? It is counter-intuitive.

    I ended up downloading:
    • reSmush.it
    • Autoptimize
    • Cache Enabler

    My speed decreased!:

    ORIGINAL:

    Fully Loaded Time: 6.5s
    Total Page Size: 2.87MB
    Requests: 96

    DIRECTLY AFTER INSTALLATION OF PLUGINS:

    Fully Loaded Time: 3.1s
    Total Page Size: 1.45MB
    Requests: 67

    I still need to improve my mobile speed, especially since the majority of my users are coming from mobile, but that is something I will take care of later on.

    Also, I have noticed that the page load tests on different websites give me different results, that is okay. That is something to figure out on another day when it deeply matters and I have more time to dedicate to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    I have experienced a very difficult setback. Apparently, due to the fact that I had not logged into the pregnancy site's Facebook page in a few years, when I tried to login--FB security blocked me because they could not verify who I was. I have lodged multiple reports, but FB has not responded to me in a week.

    I was forced to leave my 250k FB followers behind, and start a new page. This broke my heart, 7 years of accumulating followers organically, and all of it gone. I now have to start from scratch.

    What I have done so far below:

    For my websites:
    • Created email accounts for my pregnancy and infertility sites
    • Unlinked my social media accounts and updated the email on all accounts
    • Installed and configured a theme for my infertility site
    • Created a social media strategy
    • Connected all of my accounts to Buffer
    • Attached all images to pregnancy site
    • Chose and attached all images to my infertility site
    • Created branded shortlinks for 200 articles on my pregnancy and infertility sites
    • Found 28 RSS feeds in the pregnancy and infertility niches
    • Created an UpWork job ad for branding assets for my pregnancy and infertility sites

    For my product:
    • Chose and installed a theme (Hestia + elementor)
    • Created an UpWork job ad for branding and ebook layout for all 6 books
    • Created an UpWork job ad for website layout/theme customization
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulLanders
    this is a really good goal and I hope that you will succeed, but be prepared for the fact that you will have to work very much.
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    Thanks for the updates.


    On the Facebook thing - us old timers (2011-2012) learnt not to rely on 3rd parties. Many of us were making a fortune from HubPages and Squidoo. Then our pages were unpublished overnight and our income tanked. DO NOT rely on 3rd parties.


    I would leave Facebook and develop your own forum. In fact I have uninstalled Facebook and I'm waiting for the masses to do the same. It will happen - teens don't use it and old timers like me love independent forums.
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    Update!

    Social Media Strategy

    • Create Shortlink via rebrandly. Use short links for posting on my social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr
    • Use Buffer to manage my social media networks for my pregnancy and infertility sites, manually manage Tumblr
    • Post pregnancy/infertility post 2 times per day
    • Use Buffer RSS to cross post the same posts on the pregnancy/infertility platforms
    • Use the Buffer RSS feed to pull content from my favorite feeds, posting 2 per day


    For my product:

    • Reread all of my ebooks to make sure there are no mistakes in the text
    • Went through and validated/updated amazon affiliate links throughout the ebooks
    • Having all of my eBook covers and interior layouts designed
    • Designer is creating a concept for my product site


    I am getting 3-5% CTR for my content sites daily, which is a huge win! I am still having huge issues with speed--something I will be looking into later.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fabricio Guerrero
      Wow wishing you all the best. Very insipiring and useful this thread and I hope to continue watching your progress.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      All three websites are done and launched!! WOOT WOOT!

      It has been a long time coming, but it has happened.

      I am now:
      • Finalizing and connecting the sales funnel for my product site;
      • Working with my graphic designer to create bespoke images for the website;
      • Working on SEO audit for the content sites; and
      • Launching a 30 day social media post campaign using Buffer.

      I am slowly getting over my fear of failure. If this doesn't work out, fine--but I will not stop plugging away at this. I feel it in my bones that this will go well, I just need to keep building and working and trying new strategies, after exhausting my current ones.

      I have made the below sales goals for December:
      • Make 50 sales (upsells included);
      • Have an Adsense CTR of 5%; and
      • 500 visitors per day on my content websites.
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    • Profile picture of the author aliveder
      My two content websites are complete!
      My product website is complete! I used Gumroad as my payment processor, and used Google Optimize to do A/B testing.

      I have completed everything that I could on my side.

      My product will be advertised on FB, due to the fact that I have a large audience there and there and the demographic that I am targeting is very active on Facebook. I will also be using Bing Ads, because I had a great experience with them in the past, and felt that Google Ads burned through too much money too quickly.

      I have hired a person on UpWork for setting up and optimizing my ads n these two networks. As well as optimizing placement of Adsense, and unique ad campaigns on my two content websites for my product.

      Additionally, I am working with a person for SEO. He will be handling all the technical aspects, while I will be handling content and experience.

      We will know if my business, my product will sell starting the first week of February.

      My ad person will also be adding video tracking on my product website to see how visitors interact with the site, to further optimize the sales page and experience.

      Due to a limited budget, and wanting to see at least some ROI before investing more, there needs to be some sort of move towards profitability, even if it is small.
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    • Profile picture of the author zenmn
      Oh this is exciting to watch!

      Thank-you ...

      -z
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    • Profile picture of the author agmccall
      Hey Aliveder

      how are things going, have not read anything new in over a month

      al
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    Well, I ended up missing my September 15 launch date--and that is okay. I realized that my biggest issue was analysis paralysis and not being able to make a decision and stick with it.

    So in the last few weeks since I have written, I have:
    • Achieved 400+ followers per week on my social media channels;
    • Found an amazing graphic designer to customize the covers as well as the interior layout of all my ebooks
    • Found an amazing web developer to design my product sales site
    • Found an amazing graphic designer for rebranding of my content sites
    • I have built out my sales funnel for my product
    • Achieved an average 5% CTR on Adsense on my content sites
    • Created a social media content strategy

    Due to the fact that I found graphic designers and web developers that are talented and are able to execute my vision, and who aren't charging me an arms and a leg, they are a bit slower with the timeline. Which honestly, is fine by me. It allows me to think things through and make sure that I am happy with the way things are progressing.

    Things that I have left to do:
    • Receive and review all of my ebooks
    • Write the copy for the download and thank you pages
    • Hire a web developer to design and implement a new layout for my two content sites on the Astra theme
    • Receive and review the finished product site
    • Schedule all of my social media posts per my social media strategy

    I told myself that as long as I keep moving forward, being active in the creation of my products, then that is fine. I don't need to work at lightning speed, especially since a lot of my timeline depends on others. While I could pay extra money and get these sites done, I would rather be mindful with my budget.

    I am proud of myself with the progress that I have made, and the fact that I am learning more about hiring, project management, people management, and implementation of a vision. It is slow going, but at least it is going. I have been consistent, and will continue honing this discipline.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndreiMorariu
    aliveder thank you for sharing your journey with us, it's very inspirational and motivating.

    Congratulations for building such a big audience. In my opinion if you designed your sales funnel properly and begin to send your audience through that funnel you will make well over 2k/month. Grateful to see the journey of a future 6/7 figure earner! Keep crushing it!
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  • Profile picture of the author mynicheforum
    Just do it, set your goal, action!!
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    So where am I now?

    I have finished the sales website and the sales funnel for my product--super happy with that.

    My two content sites are in the process of being revamped and are looking awesome--super happy with that.

    While I wait, I want to focus on whether or not I should use ClickBank, and if I should even use affiliates.

    I have great traffic sources and I am still going to be using PPC tactics of my own. Are affiliates mandatory for a product to be a success?

    So many questions!
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  • Profile picture of the author aliveder
    When using freelancers on new projects, I have learned that usually the first time I hire for a new project field I have a bad experience. Even though my interviewing has improved, as well as being able to filter out poor quality candidates and improve my communication skills, I still have bad experiences. But I look at it all as a learning experience.

    I had a bad experience with my Advertising PPC hire. He essentially was the project manager, to be it loosely, and had poorly communicated to his team mates what was required. It was a long winded process where I kept receiving extremely poor quality work, questioned asked were ignored, I was deceived and when I confronted him I was told "let's put this past us."

    Thankfully, I used this time to test out a few other candidates and got a lot of insight and good advice.
    I am starting a new hire and I feel confident that this experience will be better, even if marginally.

    I also understand that my sales page may end up being real crap that doesn't convert, but I will be using HotJar, which allows me to do video recordings of interactions as well as record heatmaps of visitors. This will allow my PPC and my developer hires to review and make appropriate changes.

    While I am moving slow, I am moving and that is all that matters to me at this moment.
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