A Step Closer

Last week, I came across a new product. New to me, at least. It’s called WordPress Affiliate Guide (also called WP Affiliate Guide or WPAG for short — and that’s not an affiliate link).

The product claims to help someone build an affiliate website using WordPress and does it ever deliver. I had no problems buying this product because I’ve purchased products from Teli in the past and never had a problem. In fact, it’s always been a pleasure. My questions get answered, even the stupid ones.

Since I’ve been using WordPress for a while, some of the beginning information was basic to me. (It goes over how to install WordPress and some basic locations for settings and stuff, which I already knew.) But where it shined for me was the little nuggets like how to remove the word ‘category’ from the links when someone’s viewing a product category. Yea, you can find that kind of info online for free, but for someone who doesn’t even know to look for it, that’s a damn good tip.

It also had a nice step by step blueprint to follow from start to finish. A complete checklist that you can print off and follow as you go along. I didn’t even need to watch the videos (I’m not a big fan of videos personally) to understand what she was saying. I just printed the ebook and had it next to me while I worked.

And since it’s now officially been 31 days, I happily downloaded all the bonus items she has up and some of them are kickass. Not too long ago, the Simple Link Manager plugin (it’s a light version, but it still more than gets the job done) and the WordPress Datafeed Import script (again, a light version, but still great) were both uploaded.

Another great thing about the WordPress Affiliate Guide is that it’s flexible. It doesn’t lock you into one click here, click there formula. When you feel comfortable enough, it teaches you enough to start experimenting and playing around with different styles of affiliate sites.

For only $35, it’s definitely worth the money. You get a lot more information than some of these reports selling for $97.

Now I gotta get on my review of the Simple Link Manager plugin, which I’m totally in love with, too. I already have the full script that I use for my static sites, but the plugin is awesome for my WordPress powered sites.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it, but it’s amazing what you don’t accomplish when you can’t control your mind. I’ve already discussed getting myself focused, but it’s easier said than done.

My office looks like a tornado hit it. Seriously. I keep telling myself that I’ll get around to organizing, purging, simplifying, but it seems that day will never arrive. Not only is my office disturbing my mental well-being, the outside obligations are starting to get to me. It’s has nothing, almost, to do with business — it’s all family. Luckily, that’s scheduled to sort itself out come next week.

One thing this family obligation has shown me, however, is that I need to have a better system for myself and I need to stick with it. Clear boundaries and clear working start and end times are absolutely necessary — two things I never really had before.

All of that out in the open, I have some serious re-thinking to do. My goal, right now, is to simplify my life. My office is overrun and it needs to be controlled, plus I need to get rid of all those documents that serve no purpose other than taking up space. Personally, I believe I use this disorganization as an excuse not to work on my success — in other words, self-sabotage.

The list needs to be re-evaluated and re-prioritized:

• Clean and organize my office. A structure and system that works for me needs to be developed.
• Lifestyle and values re-evaluation. It’s time I really nailed down what’s important to me, what will make me happy to my core, and clearly define my value system so I can live my life in accordance.
• Finish my ebook product and a few other projects that have gone the way of the back-burner.
• Domain control. It’s time to sell, develop, or let the ones not in use expire.

Broken down, it seems plain as day. Now, let’s pray I can accomplish it. I know I can, I’m just anxious.

This blog needs some serious sprucing up. There are dead links all around, I need to update the software, and there is so much I want to do. Below is my rough to-do list for the blog over the next couple of months (basically, this post is serving as my back-up brain because I may not remember it all with everything else that needs remembering).

• Fix the dead links. Prior to using the link manager software, I was manually creating the PHP redirect files for links. When I moved hosting, those files were all lost and now I need to work on getting them all set up in the link manager and updating the links throughout the blog.
• Install some helpful plugins. The net has been chugging along just fine without me, and some of the plugins I’m using are simply outdated or not in use at all. The main plugin I want to get set up here is the SimpleTags plugin so I can tag my posts and the WP-Shortstat plugin so I can get quick overviews of my stats.
• Move the newsletter. I’ve been handling the newsletter/site updates in house and frankly, I don’t need yet another thing to manage by myself, so I’ll be moving the system over to the Aweber service.
• Reorganize, restructure, and redesign. Personally, I enjoy the design here, but it’s dated. I want to make the site more user friendly, easy to navigate, and easy on the eyes while still expressing my personal style.
• Upgrade (and get back the missing comments). I need to upgrade WordPress to the latest version because it has some awesome feature improvements that I can’t want to test drive. Also, I need to dig out my own back up so I can get back, at least some, of the comments I accidentally deleted.

There’s probably more I need to add to the list, but the above is all I can think of at the moment.

I truly haven’t kept up with the blogging here for the past year because, to be frank, I lost interest. Not that I lost interest in bettering myself or my online business in general, simply writing about it.

There are so many blogs in the blogosphere and so many blogs on marketing. One day, I sat down and wondered to myself, “Self, what exactly is it that my blog brings to the blogosphere that isn’t already there?” The answer I received was one I didn’t care to hear.

So, this blog became dormant…up until now. Over the past year, I’ve experienced some significant ups and downs, successes and failures. I figure, what I can bring to the business/internet marketing blogosphere that isn’t already here is a true and honest voice.

Yes, there are a few great blogs out there that don’t sugar coat anything, but for the most part, everyone is trying to sell you something regardless of whether it’s a good product or not.

You will not find that here. I plan to outline what I do, what I use, and give honest reviews of the products I purchase. In the interest of disclosure, I do plan to use my affiliate links whenever applicable, but being an affiliate of a product certainly won’t skew my opinions — if it’s ****, I’ll say so (with my affiliate link) and if it’s not ****, I’ll also say so (with my affiliate link). What you do with my reviews is completely up to you.

I also think this blog is getting a little raggedy, so some aesthetic and backend changes will be going on over the next month or two. Unfortunately, I can’t dedicate an entire day to fixing up this site, so it will need to be done little by little until it’s where it needs to be. What matters is that it still works, right?

Now, let’s get down to business.

Well, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve last updated this blog, but I’ve been busy (which is a good thing). I’ve actually done quite a few things lately:

- I purchased the SEO WSB software which I’ve been using to build up a couple larger content sites
- I’ve been using an great bit of software to help me write my articles (I can’t disclose too much about it…yet)
- I’ve actually altered my game plan a little bit as I actually started to develop my websites

This has paid off for me in more ways than just finances, but I’ll start with the finances first. The new site I just set up steadily brings in $2 per day in Adsense revenue alone (which is definitely a great accomplishment for its short life on the web so far), and my affiliate commissions are steadily increasing.

I haven’t met my challenge’s $100 per day goal as yet, but my sites are well on their way.

I mentioned that this project was about more than just money for me. In this short period of time, I’ve learned to look at the extended picture - i.e. the big picture. The sites that I’m starting today will ultimately end up paying for my retirement in a few years - yes, you heard me right…”few” years.

The more care and dedication you put into something, the more you will get out of it in the long run. Because of this, I’ve decided to put a great deal of care and dedication to each of the sites that I’m putting up on the web and all the content will be originally written by myself. I don’t mind spending the extra time now and delaying my gratification.

I remember a question that Aaron Wall asked a while back on his blog -I can’t remember his exact wording, but it was along the lines of - if you had to show your site to a Google representative, would you be embarrassed? That got me thinking, and to be quite honest - I want to be proud of every single site I put onto the web. I do that same courtesy for each of my clients, why wouldn’t I do the same for myself.

And just because your site is thought out and well crafted doesn’t mean it can’t be monetized . That’s it for the quick update, now it’s back to work for a few more hours before I hit the sack. I’ll definitely try and keep everyone in the loop a little more often.

I always thought of the sandbox as something that “happened to other people” and not me, until today.

My affiliate site appears to have been sandboxed by Google and it’s very disconcerting to say the least. I now know and understand what those web masters go through when they check to see if their site’s been indexed in Google only to find it hasn’t. Then scamper to check in Yahoo! and MSN only to find that it has. After that, a web master doesn’t really know what else to think.

I decided to do a little bit of research on the domain name I purchased (on a whim and it simply seemed like a good choice at the time) and turns out it was previously owned. The big clue should have been when a good chunk of my referrals were coming from the yellow pages website.

Google bot loves crawling my site, but it seems like I’ll have to wait in Google limbo until it’s all fixed up. I’m not sure whether I should contact Google and ask them if there’s something particularly wrong with this website - it’s no different structurally than any of my other websites (which were all crawled and indexed in under a week), so other than the domain name being previously owned.

It is still a little odd to me that Google would sandbox my affiliate site because of being previously owned - it’s been more than 2 years as far I can tell. And this website (www.astepcloser.com) was previously owned too, but it’s still indexed and doing well in Google. Guess this is a wait and see game.

The good news is, I’m getting a TON of traffic from Yahoo! and some trickles from MSN. Yahoo! is now my new best friend .

I didn’t focus on the $100 per day project today. Instead focused on my long neglected affiliate based website. I gave my clients the boot for the day and decided that I was going to do something for myself since I was hinging on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I signed up with a new affiliate program over the weekend (my last one discontinued their affiliate programs), added 32 new pages of content, and made a few tweaks to the template and layout.

I’m feeling a renewed vigor for this particular affiliate website because I got the approval notice from the new affiliate - yay. And this affiliate allows me to create links directly to individual products (aka smart links).

I was totally starting to feel bummed for a minute because I hadn’t heard anything for so long from the previous affiliate program I applied to (they didn’t even bother to contact me and let me know they discontinued their program, I had to contact them).

Aside from that, I’ve become an Adsense tracking fiend. I’ve broken the tracking down as follows:

1. Week
2. Channel name (i.e. the website)
3. CTR (click through rate)
4. Page Impressions (Total/Average)
5. Clicks (Total/Average)
6. Earnings (Total/Average)
7. Notes

I track the results weekly and note the ad format I’m using or changes I made. This way, I am able to see at a glance where I am with my Adsense earnings and quickly see what’s working on what sites and what’s not. So far, my most recent change has yielded a 2.7% increase in my click through rate - yay.

When I’m not so lazy, I may turn my spreadsheet into a PDF for download with a few more notes.

Earlier, I talked about the importance of getting yourself educated. Now that I’ve finished reading (or well, semi-finished), it’s time to actually apply what I’ve learned to some real world examples.

Personally, this can be the scariest part because it will mark whether or not you experience success. But some times you just have to buck up and dive in feet first without questioning it. If you start questioning everything, you may run into analysis paralysis and we all know how dangerous that can be.

I’ve not had much time to work on my $100 per day project due to some prior obligations and some other issues, but I have managed to do something (and that’s always the biggest hurdle). I finished setting up one of my 3 pre-researched mini content sites.

I toyed with the idea of using WordPress as the content management system as Nadav suggested (a good suggestion by the way), however, I decided for what I wanted to accomplish - WordPress proved to have too steep a time requirement. What I wanted to accomplish was very simple and it was a wise decision, for me, to develop the website locally using a Dreamweaver template.

1. I have complete control of the layout. I know you can customize WP, but it would take more time to figure out the ins and outs of getting WP to look the way you want while still being fully functional - at least without learning PHP or hiring someone to do it for you. Remember, I’m cheap.

2. I have static pages. For this particular project, I’d rather have the static pages than having the pages generated on the fly.

Best advice: look closely at your project’s needs, then look at the tools at your disposal and then decide which would best fit your needs.

So, I know you’re all pretty anxious for some results so, here goes. Since my first project will be Adsense powered, I used some of the techniques found in the Adsense Secrets Revealed guide.

The site has been up for 2 days. I just checked my Adsense account this morning and boy was I blown away at what I saw! I have an average click through rate of 5.4% and I’m well on my way to earning back the domain registration fee of that website in less than a month .

The traffic came solely from the 3 link exchanges I did (I haven’t actually started marketing the site yet). I will be applying a few more changes to the site over the next week and I want to add at least 25 more pages of content and then I’ll start my traffic campaign (I haven’t found a book or program yet, but I’m hoping I will find one by then).

Total marketing cost so far: $0

A good education pays.

Last night, I touched on the fact that I won’t be accepting any new consulting clients. The fact of the matter is, when I work as a consultant for other people, I am still am employee. Although the business is mine, I work from home, and I can set my hours - I am still a slave to deadlines and the whim of my clients.

Remember that old saying “in order for things to change, you must change“? Because I want to start establishing true financial and personal freedom, things need to change in my current life and way of operating. Basically, I’m changing.

As of yesterday, I stopped accepting new clients and will not be until June 1, 2005. I will continue to work with past and current clients while still being selective within that pool.

My consultancy has definitely blossomed, enough so that I am literally turning clients away. It feels wonderful to be able to pick and choose who I will work with, but recently, I’ve been so busy I don’t have much time to work on my own projects - the projects which will allow me to enjoy true financial and emotional freedom.

I have saved enough money to allow myself to pay my bills while having a little extra padding for incidentals. I will establish at least 5 passive income websites by my June 1 deadline. The websites don’t need to be huge cash cows overnight, but I want them to establish a foothold in their respective niches.

By this time next year, I will be taking new clients only because I want to, not because I have to.

It seems that I’ve been MIA for a few weeks and this blog has been a little neglected. Well, that has changed and I have returned.

I became super duper busy over the past few weeks and wasn’t able to update as much as I would have liked. I’ve decided that I am shifting my focus to my online business for the next 2 months. I’ve decided I will not be accepting any new consulting clients (however, I will still make appointments and schedule my previous/current clients if necessary).

This site has also received a make over - I’ve love to hear any opinions on the design and layout, so don’t be shy - leave a comment or send me an email (star-at-astepcloser-dot-com).

I’ve upgraded to WordPress 1.5 (very nice, I’ll write a review on that in the next couple of weeks). I’ve also added Google AdSense. I know the main purpose of this blog is not to generate money, which is why the ads will only be visible if you’re referred from search engines or another site - and they will only be visible on individual entries.

I will be creating another section that outlines the goals, purpose, and caveats of this blog later on next week (or hopefully sooner). For now, know that the #1 goal of this blog is not to pimp out services or products - so I’ll try to keep all that to a minimum here.

If you’re a regular, you may notice things being moved around, that is because the site’s not *truly* finished yet. There are still a number of things I would like to add to the site and will be making the time to do that over the next 3 - 4 months.

Since it’s very late, I’m going to call it an evening and I’ll finish this update in the morning.