Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
The Week That Was: Feb 22 – Mar 06
Whoa! That’s two weeks!
Yes.
Between Olympics, workshops and a computer that finally went to its final reward in the sky there was no “Week That Was” last weekend.
Got my new computer – a snazzy looking black lacquer Toshiba job with more space in it than I know what to do with. I could no longer defrag my dear old laptop because space available was below 15% – this one has 4 times as much space on the hard drive. I know, over time that space will be filled too. Oh nooo…. I will move lots of stuff for storage to a cloud, or buy an external hard drive. Or both.
Do you name your inanimate objects? For example does your car have a name? Mine doesn’t. Several cars ago it did. It was given a name by my daughter. Her toys had names, she reasoned, so why wouldn’t a car. Yes. She still names her cars.
I name my computers. Do you believe in the power of the word? There has been a lot written about NLP (Nuero Linguistic Programming). My dearly departed laptop had a name, I called it Big Money. Perhaps my intentions weren’t clear. The idea was that with the use of the laptop the Big Money truck would drive UP to my driveway but what happened was that it drove AWAY from my driveway. I don’t regret it one bit though. The big money was spent on courses, so I chalk it up to education. My brand spanking new laptop is named Money Magnet. Do you think I did better this time?
So to the Weeks that Were – summary of posts published since my last weekly review. If you haven’t read the post in full these summaries give you a glimpse. If one catches your attention hop on over and read the whole meal deal. Comments are welcome and encouraged.
An Open Letter to Nathan Hangen – 22/02/10
I hang out at Nathan Hangen’s Blog. I buy his products, the latest one being Beyond Blogging and am a great admirer of his but a recent post on his blog got my hackles up so I put on my boxing gloves and gave him the old one two in an open letter. He was OK with it. To read what it was that got me in the ring with him and his reply, read the whole article which addresses blogging on blogging.
Blog Income To Go Under Knife – 23/02/10
At my regular Monday night Internet Marketing Mastermind meeting, I had this blog critiqued. There were lots of good suggestions. The recurring theme of the comments suggested that it looked, well, a bit too cluttered. I had already clued in to this and it was good to have my hunch confirmed. Readers are encouraged to send in more suggestions. Read the full Blog Income article.
Blog Income Month In Review: February 2010 01/03/10
Each month I review the results of this blog. My current push is to increase traffic as I believe that all else will fall in from there. Did I achieve my traffic goal for the month of February? Yes. Two valuable lessons learned which I think everyone can apply to their own blogging agenda. For the full report just log on to Blog Income Month in Review
Twitter and All That Social Media Stuff
Spent two jam packed days learning about the basics of Social media at Matt Astifan’s Workshop. We learned how to Twitter, all about Facebook and the importance of You Tube to internet marketing. Am I an expert now? Absolutely not. Read about my experience and why I plan to play pretty with Twitter and other social media sites,
Is Centralizing Your Internet Marketing Services The Best Option?
When buying your services for your internet marketing business is it better to bundle and buy from a single provider or should you spread out and buy independently? There are pros and cons for each. Weigh in with your preference in the comments section. Read full Centralizing Services article.
Alright! We’re up to date! Tomorrow: Sunday Morn Musings!
Blog Income Month in Review – February 2010
What a month! Where do I begin?
How about starting with the end? The Olympics.
The Olympics Closing Ceremony was on the last day of the month – yesterday. We in Vancouver had the distinct honor of hosting the world to the 2010 Winter Olympics. What an exhilarating experience that was! I have to admit that many a time I absented myself from my computer and spent the hours glued to the TV, watching as the best of the best squared off each other for that most desired of metals – gold!
There is so much I could write about these 17 days. As always I am amazed at the strikingly small difference between the finalist and the last – fractions of seconds. That would beg the question that perhaps this is just a crapshoot, that on any given day the last place athlete could just as easily be a first place finish. But then you need to look deeper – and when you look at the performance of each athlete at world class events leading up to the 0lympics, the results have typically been consistant across the board. Top three almost always place top three. It makes me think that the athletes have the same potential, their talent is outstanding – so what is it that makes the ultimate difference? That would make for a good topic for a Sunday Morn Musings … and perhaps it is something that we internet marketers could take a page from.
And speaking of which, there was no Sunday Morn Musings this week! Nor was there a The Week that Was. For that matter there were precious few posts in February (just 15) and only 2 in the last week!
You know how they say that the road to hell is paved with intentions – and they do. My intentions were to post on Saturday and Sunday. Early Saturday morning my trusty albeit museum vintage laptop expired! Yup! It just died! Now I have to admit that this was not as sudden as I would like to believe, for several weeks now Dear Laptop had been giving me clues that it was not long for this world, and after four and half years of loyal service with no breakdowns or glitches of any sort it wasn’t just being capricious, its just that I was hoping that it could last another month or two – or miraculously six!
Have you ever spent a whole two days without internet? Addiction is one thing – but the falling behind in everything is another and most frustrating. The good thing is that I now have an awesome machine that is sooooo much faster, has lots more bells and whistles and my goodness! Have the prices of PC’s come down! I had a MAC as my next machine but with a difference of $2000 for the time being I thought that sum would be better put to use for marketing and earning shekels … another time cher MAC!
I have to say that I am grateful that Dear Old Laptop performed well during the two-day workshop I attended on Thursday and Friday. Matt Astifan from my Monday Night Internet Marketing Mastermind which I mentioned in my Power of Mastermind series put on an excellent workshop on social media (more about that in the future) otherwise I would have been up the proverbial creek!
One thing about brand new computers – it takes time to get used to the new programs, the idiosyncrocies if you will. On my old computer I had Gadwin for my printscreens. I downloaded it here so that I could include the screen shots of my February results. For some reason it isn’t working in the way it did – it captures everything including tool bars at the top and the sidebars. I am sure there is a way to capture only that which is relevant, but it will probably take time. So I’ll just give you the results below along with my comments.
#1. Traffic: Visits: 475 – up from 360 for January which is a healthy 36.89% . My goal is to increase traffic by 10% – 20% each month.
#2. Search engines delivered 5.68% of the traffic. You may recall in my January report that SE had fallen to below 1%! So the move up to almost 6% is encouraging.
#3. Alexa moved up from 404,842 to 307,910. I know that there are those who put little stock into Alexa rankings, but it is still a measure that is taken into account when the value of your website/blog is assessed – you can charge more for ads, you can sell your site/blog for more, and besides, I accepted Sam’s Alexa Challenge at Financial Samurai to reach a ranking of under 200K by July. Remember, with Alexa, the lower the number the better.
Lessons learned:
#1. Publish. Publish, Publish.
For blogs still trying to establish themselves, daily posts make a big difference in traffic. I have noticed that on the days that I have new content the visitors increase. Most successful bloggers do not scale back their publishing from daily until they are well established with the search engines and have amassed a good loyal following. Some stay with the dailies, think Darren Rowse of Problogger
#2. Carry Inventory
Have a stash of articles ready to publish for those times when other activities (Olympics) divert your attention from your business. Carlos Velez of Conscious Me wrote an excellent two part article over at Website In a Weekend – Benefits of Prewriting and he’s also thrown out a Prewriting Challenge.
What’s Up for March?
My focus continues on traffic – that will be a recurring theme not only for this quarter but for the year as a whole.
- Staying within the 20% growth per month, that would be 570 – so I’ll stretch that to 600+ in traffic
- Gee, wouldn’t it be great to reach the under 200K Alexa by end of March? Lets see how close I can get to that.
- Finally, definitely, increase frequency of posts, in February the trend was 1 for each two days – well if I can make that 1 per 1.5 days it would make a huge difference.
- Put into practice some of what I learned on social media at Matt’s workshop.
That’s it folks!
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
The Week That Was: Feb 14 – 21
Olympic fever has swept the city – never mind that we are having a record warm winter and snow had to be trucked in to one of the local city mountains where the snowboarding competitions were held. Downtown Vancouver has turned into one big party hosting visitors from all over the world. The hundred plus pavilions have lineups from here to there, cordoned off streets are jammed with revelers and everyone is having a rip roaring good time especially as Canada has brought home 4 golds so far making this the first Olympics that we have copped the elusive metal for the first time on home turf. Another week – I’ll definitely be spending more time enjoying.
Did get some blogging done. Here is the Review of the Week that Was , a summary of the the new posts published here since February 14.
Sunday Morn Musings: Valentine’s, Gung Hay Fat Choy! The Smell of Gold – 14/02/10
A potpourri of topics: St. Valentine and valentines and China and Valentina (yes, me!) and the welcomeing of the year of the tiger, an animal that is lucky, vivid and incredibly brave. Talked about Chris Farstad a former Olympian and what he told us about athletes and how he figured that this year the Canadian athletes would fare far better and why … they have. Hop on over to Sunday Morn Musings and read the full article.
Affiliate Marketing: Write the Ad 15/02/10
This post takes you through a five step process of writing an attention grabbing ad that will have your visitors clicking and buying your affiliate products. Nothing like the sweet sound of a click to enrich your blog income bank account.
Affiliate Marketing: Plan Your Campaigns 18/02/10
The nine steps to a successful campaign – from inception to fulfillment including time lines and a little known marketing ploy that will take you from obscurity to success with direct financial benefits to you. The starting point for your passive income.
Yes, I did work on my own campaign to start March 01. This is the first time I will actually be promoting one of my affiliate products not just on an ad hoc basis, but according to a plan. I will establish my first “control”
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life.
Valentina
The Week That Was: Feb 07 – 13
What a week! The city positively crackled with excitement as sidewalks spilled over with visitors from all over the world here to attend the Olympics . Energy is high. Hopes and aspirations at levitation level. Whether you live in the city or the burbs its hard not to catch Olympic fever. Even though I crow with glee at the sight of blooming crocus, a slight drop in the temperature wouldn’t be all that bad – would do wonders for the mountains where the shushing events are taking place. Ironic that last year at this time we had record cold temperatures and gobs of snow on the peaks – well we do have gobs of snow on the peaks, just not the ones where the events are scheduled!
This was the last week of my Internet Marketing Bootcamp. Learned a bit more about Wordpress which I will be putting to use within the admin area of my Wordpress Direct program. Polished up a few things on this site and I just might start a site on Wordpress.org, just to put into practice the whole meal deal.
Participated in some Olympic revelry – planning on more over the next two weeks.
The week in review:
Musings On a Sunday Morn: Done? Never! 07/02/01
Carlos Velez posted a comment which prompted a rebuttal and I had a bit of fun on how dishes never get done! This was strictly off the cuff but apparently I hit on something somewhat accidentally: linking to comments! Full Musings on a Sunday Morn reading
Affiliate Marketing: Establishing a Control 11/02/10
What is a control? In its simplest form a control is that system, process or campaign that produces the desired result; in affiliate marketing that result is sales. The campaign that delivers the best sales results becomes the control. In this article I write on how to set up your first control.
The Mitts That Were Seen Around the World: 11/02/10
Went off topic – had a good time! Actually, what was not off topic was how “co-incidences” happen. I believe that “coincidences” are not accidental at all and had alluded to that in a previous article when I wrote about my friend and author Wendy Atkinson. Back to the mitts … read how the lowly mitten has become the fashion item of the season & more.
Coming up: This week nose to the grindstone – err… fingers to the keyboard. Setting up my affiliate marketing campaign so that I can establish a control for it. Target date is to have it up and running March 01.
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
On Silver and Gold and The Week That Was: Jan 31-Feb 06
Before I get into the week, I thought you might be interested in these photos I took just a few weeks ago.
Once a month on a Saturday afternoon a small group of us get together for a friendly game of Cashflow. Today was that Saturday. We have a good time, but more importantly we are learning the art of the deal. Our host is a master at the game, both on the board and on the real boardwalk doing the deal. Recently he and his wife bought some metal – silver metal. This is a photo of their stash.
This little bundle of silver, 412 oz to be exact, is worth $7799.16.
This second photo is a 1/20 of an oz gold coin and is worth $58.24. Just to give you an idea of the difference between silver and go
ld … if that stash of silver was gold, it would be worth $479,856.40
All prices are based on the price of each metal on the date of purchase net of fees.
Today we decided to make the game more interesting. Starting next month we’ll all throw in ten bucks. The winner will get a 1 oz silver coin. Overage stays in the pool to eventually fund an ingot, then a bar and perhaps eventually a brick. I think it’s a lot more fun than just cash. Eldorado anyone?
Now to the week at hand and the blog income life: there was lots of internet marketing stuff but not much blogging. The week began with the Monday Master Mind meeting, which now has a name: Internet Marketing MasterMind Group. In my MasterMind Series over at Dave Doolin’s I wrote about the formation of a third mind wherein things begin go move in a certain direction, without directing. This Monday I had such an experience. One of the members and I found out that we have a mutual connection – we are now talking about a strategic alliance.
Then there is the Internet Marketing Bootcamp. Of course there was homework which took some time and effort. I am putting up another blog on the Wordpress platform but this time without the benefit of Wordpress Direct. I want to have a better understanding of the underpinnings of Wordpress and I thought that putting something up from scratch would be a useful exercise. It is – if somewhat painful.
Friday was a full day with my monthly Smart Thinking MasterMind Group. This coming week I will post some of the things that I took away from this day that can apply to the online world. During the time that we devote to “masterminding” members with their business, I took the opportunity to have my Blog Income Life turned inside out. I was pleasantly surprised that marketing wise it is on track based on traffic, conversions, and sales. When the numbers are crunched the ratios are decent after all. Whew! I also got some good feedback on how to fine tune some areas.
New Posts This Week:
Musings on a Sunday Morn …On Money, Elitism & Olympics: 31/01/10
With the Olympics on our doorstep I took the morning to express my thoughts and in that way pose a reply to those who are the perpetual complainers on monies being spent, on elitist athletes and why the Olympics. I like to see people rise to the top of their game
Month in Review – January 2010: 01/02/10
Traffic increase by 78.22% over last. First time on Google page one for keyword phrase “Blog Income”. WooHoo! Sam over at Financial Samurai has thrown down the gauntlet (or whatever it is that samurais wear) to members of his community to get their blogs to an Alexa ranking of under 200K : Creating Power Friends: Samurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge
Meet My Friend – Author Wendy Atkinson 02/02/10
What’s the point of owning a blog if you can’t occasionally bring out the pompoms and cheer on with a big Sis Boom Ba! for your chum? Meet Wendy Atkinson, brand new published author and imaginateure (I think I just made up a word) extraordinaire. Read the post and then hop on over to Amazon for your own copy of Law of Attraction A Fable: Mr. Moon & Friends’ Simplified Blueprint to Health, Wealth and Happiness
Till next time …
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
Month in Review – January 2010
Did you hear that whishing sound? That was January, the first month of a new decade rushing by! How is your year so far? Are you on pace for your goals? Personal, career and blog?
First day of a new month. That means a review of the month that was. This has been a busy month and a lot got done. One of the main objectives for 2010 is to grow traffic on Blog Income. Traffic increase is goal one for 1Q. I go for a monthly increase of 10% – 20%. When the numbers are scant to begin that is not exactly a stretch. I have chosen this rate of increase for two reasons:
1. I read in one of Darren Rowse’s posts that that is how he began. I like to follow in the footsteps of success.
2. I am creating a mindset and therefore a pattern for results. As traffic increases the 10% – 20% will be tougher, but by then it will be a pattern that my brain is set for and will inform my actions accordingly.
So, how did January stack up? I am pleased to say that it was a good start to a good year.
#1. Google Analytics Traffic up by 78.22% = reached 360 visits
#2. .One of my goals for this year was to be on page 1 of Google for the keywords “blog income.” I can now cross that one off. This was a June 30 goal. I gave myself that much time because I was so far down in position and found that it had wide and wild swings – now that may happen again, but it seems to have settled in on page one for several days now. Here is an excerpt from my post of September 28 which explains why I chose “blog income” as the keyword phrase that I wanted to dominate.
Blog Income is already a crowded playing field as I expected it to be. Needless to say Blog Income was not available as a domain so I added the word “life”. The two key deciding factors were the two figures:
SEOT = 91
SEOC = 39,200
I learned at 30 Day Challenge to go for a niche (read that keywords) that has more than 80 SEOT and 30,000 SEOC (OK… this one is higher). I have been peppering my posts with other keywords and now have to decide which is the next one that I want to get on page one for. (Blogger to Wordpress full article. Whichever one it is it will be far more competitive than Blog Income.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONTH
- Played host to Mike Paetzold for a week as he published 5 guest posts here on his “Blog Tour”
- Played guest blogger at Dave Doolin’s Website In A Weekend with four posts on MasterMinds
- Published 18 posts
Sam over at Financial Samurai has thrown down the gauntlet (or whatever it is that samurais wear) for his community to get their blog to an Alexa of below 200K by June 30. I started the year with an Alexa of 504,964 and ended January with 409,922. I know it gets tougher and tougher as you approach the 200K mark, but I am confident that 200K will be toppled … of course, there are some awesome bloggers in that community that will be brandishing their “katana” with impunity to get to that benchmark! I have no katana, which is a samurai sword … maybe I should become a ninja (oh yes, isn’t there a course on Ninja Online Tactics … did not buy that one)
WHAT’S UP FOR FEBRUARY?
Staying focused: Traffic increase by 20% = 432 so I’ll make that 450. It’s a short month … amazing what a difference 3 days can make …nevertheless, the stretch is 500 plus.
I also need to work on my SE. A few months ago I zigged in the backend – the admin area, and lost links etc. and my SE plummeted to below 1% – gulp! Now when I look at the actual number that come in via SE, it is not far behind what it used to be. My referral stats have really gone up. I read somewhere that a perfect pie chart is equal parts of 1/3. Being as that the world is not perfect … I don’t think I’ll be seeing that any time soon, nor is it a big item with me.
I have noticed that as I keep pushing myself, my concentration is improving as is my output, not just here on this blog, but in my other businesses as well. This is a neat game. I like it.
Enroute to reaching that number I am sure there will be other highlights that I will be able to share with you at month end. I wish the same for you. In the meantime please visit often – the door is always open here and your comments are most welcome.
To Your Blog Income Success!
Valentina
The Week That Was: Jan 24 – 30
Strange week fraught with frustrations. I think that frustration is the biggest time thief because it is the most difficult to tame. Frustration takes your mind off the business at hand and takes it to the crisis at hand.
Related article: Avoid Time Thieves
This week the thief stole a lot.
It started out with nothing more than an annoyance and escalated into full blown anger. When all … well almost all that “annoyance” has yet to be fixed… so when almost all was handled I sat down and mentally went over the events of the week. I like to do this with a cup of hot tea and some good classic music playing in the background – can be classical or classic rock. There seems to be something in each of those two genres that gets my brain chugging along, putting things in order in a calm and logical way. Eventually the brain and I agree … get on with the present.
One of the best antidotes to feelings of time frittered away is to sit down with notepad and pen and write out all the things that went right. This is something I do routinely anyway, but when I am down in the dumps because things just haven’t gone my way, it is amazingly therapeutic. So as I review the week that was, I find that there is enough to call it a good week.
Here is a summary of The Week That Was: January 24- 30
As with last week, the highlight of this week were my final installments of the MasterMind Series on Dave Doolin’s Website in a Weekend. Writing the series stretched me in more ways than one.
First I made a commitment and its amazing how procrastination is suddenly not even an issue. I don’t give commitments lightly, so it got me off my keester and got me writing.
Second I promised a series, or rather “shingled” articles, so they had to flow one into the other with seamless grace (eehhh… don’t know how graceful or seamless the result is). I had to push myself and I can tell you that the feeling of having completed something at which you have to put in some extra effort is very rewarding.
Third. I met some really neat people over at Dave’s. That’s a cool and smart group that hangs out there and some of them came over here as commenters. Thank you.
Guesting is a great experience. I recommend it to every blogger and if you can muster it up, write up a set of shingles!
You may be interested in the MasterMind Series:
MasterMind Power I: How 5 Boys Achieved Unparalled Success.
MasterMind Power Part II: Napoleon Hill – Father of the MasterMind
MasterMind Power III: The 5 Ws Of a Successful Mastermind Group.
MasterMind Power IV: Some MasterMind Examples
SUMMARY OF BLOG INCOME POSTS FOR THE WEEK THAT WAS!
Sunday Morn Musing - Of Books and Bookshelves and & More Reading Stuff 24/01/10
Sunday January 24: I emphasize the date, you’ll see why further down. Posted my first Sunday Morn Musings The idea that on Sunday mornings I will write about whatever it is that resides in my mind at the time, it may or may not have something to do with internet marketing. Last Sunday it was about books and libraries in your home.
Today as I was doing my blog rounds, I happened on Jeffrey’s Bloggers Market , my first visit there ever. Jeffrey just started Sunday Morning Post, the first was published on, wait for it, drum roll please:
Sunday January 24!
Coincidence? Serendipity? Naaah. Great minds think alike!
Read the full article
What should you have in your internet marketing tool box especially now that you are flirting with Affiliate Marketing. Some you already know about, others, such as link cloaking may surprise you. Fill up your toolbox with these items.
Blog Income Under Attack from Cyber Gremlins 28/01/10
A sneak preview of some of the things that led to frustration and lost time. Here too another blogger, Caroline Middlebrook is mired in frustration as she encounters some techie type issues. What can I say except that my stars must be aligned with the right bloggers! Avoid these pitfalls.
In two weeks’ time Vancouver will be proudly hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Got me thinking though and somehow the dots connected to blogging, internet marketing and “launches.”See if it makes any sense to you. The full Olympics and Internet Marketing article.
Gotta scoot on out … Toastmasters Training – I’ve been told that George Clooney is going to be the mystery guest trainer …. WOOHOO! Yeah, right!
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
The Week That Was: Jan 17-23
A week flies by so fast I often feel that I got nothing done, especially when I look at all the items I had on my “to do” list! Do you ever feel that way? I find that a good antidote is to go review the week and highlight all the things that did get done. Guaranteed you’ll feel better about your time – I know I do. I also recommend that you not only highlight but double underline that which took you closer to your goal, focus on it and capitalize on it. On that note I have got some good highlights to share with you about this week that was:
- Highlight of the week for me was “guesting” at Dave Doolin’s Website In A Weekend blog. Dave invited me to submit an article or two on MasterMinds. I submitted a mini-series – what Dave terms as “shingling” your articles, yes, new term for me too! This is my first “guest” gig and I am so honored to be on Dave’s blog. You can read the articles:
How 5 Boys Achieved Unparalleled Success
A story is told of a handful of pals who achieved extraordinary success in their lives. With the telling and retelling, the origin is somewhat hazy, but it is supposedly based on true life and while the details may be a bit scant, the concept is powerful. … read full story
Napoleon Hill Father of MasterMind
In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill outlines 13 principles that his 29 years of research defined as common to every successful person. One of those principles was the Power of the Master Mind which he defined as: “Coordination of knowledge and effort in a spirit of harmony between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose.” … read full article
Two more articles are scheduled for Jan 25 and 27. Be sure to hop on over to Dave’s and read them, or better yet, subscribe to Website In A Weekend’s RSS feed.
Articles published at Blog Income Life:
Golden Nuggets for Your Blog Income – 18/01/10
A very special THANK YOU to Mike Paetzold for guesting here at Blog Income Life for the past week. The series gave me some golden nuggets and exposed areas where I can certainly do some tweaking. Below are some things that I took away … read full article.
Blog Income Org Chart – 19/01/10
Expand your thinking and your blog income. It’s time to think beyond just a blog. If you have not already incorporated yourself as a business, you will definitely want to do so as your online earnings grow. I like to see things and thought it would be fun to put up an org chart of what my internet marketing business looks like….read full article and see the chart
Five Basic Steps to Start Your Affiliate Marketing: 21/01/10
What is so powerful about affiliate marketing is that you do not need to have a product of your own. You profit by someone else’s research, development, production and fulfillment. All you need to do is promote and convert your promotion into sales. In other words you get to make money without the worry, stress and up front costs of developing a product. … read full article
As to those items that were left undone … I think that I tend to put too many on my list. I read somewhere that it is best to scale down the number and complete them, that way the mind is being programmed for completion rather than partial completion. Habits are being formed. Done is better than almost done ……..hmmm… article brewing there.
And now for something a little bit different – starting tomorrow there will be a new feature to this blog “Musings on a Sunday Morn” … Once upon a time I started a blog which I titled Four O’Clock Thursdays. The blog had no purpose other than to write on whatever it was that captured the mind at, well four o’clock on Thursdays. After a few posts the time allotted was given a different job and the postings disappeared. I miss writing that blog and thought that Sunday morning would a good time for those musings. Now, I don’t promise a “musing” every Sunday … but do drop by on Sunday morns – or any morn for that matter, the door is always open at Blog Income Life!
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
Blog Income Life December Review
December they say is a dead zone for blogging, and particularly so the week between Christmas and New Year’s. With that in mind I am quite pleased that on review Blog Income met its main goal for the month.
The goal for December was 200 visitors – DONE and bettered by 8. What was interesting about December is that the traffic by and large was very even. The search engine percentage however plummeted to an embarrassing 2%. I had previously noticed a month over month decline in search engine results and mentioned it in my reviews. Earlier this week I posted on bad links. My friend who found the bad links in the categories section thinks that this may have a strong bearing on the downward search engine results. Now it seems I also have some dead Contact Us, TOS and Privacy pages so those need to addressed. I’m thinking that this may have happened when I changed templates. Hopefully once all the links are live and pages are up, this statistic will improve.
Staying on the conservative Darren Rowse plan of 10% – 20% traffic growth per month the goal for January is 250. I’m going to stretch it to 300.
I did have a bit of an income in December – even Adsense delivered a smidgeon and an affiliate sale. As mentioned in my last review however, I have decided for the time being to put the earnings aside and concentrate on traffic. One thing at a time. When that gets good, then the next one.
A reader who had downloaded my ABC’s of Blogging for Money wrote way back in September
“Absolutely Great !!!!!
I have just finished reading your ABC's..........
I believe your book is the best and easiest to understand of all the info books on this subject that I have ever read over the past couple of years or so.” RD, Kitchener ON.
That same reader was very disappointed when the results for September were posted a few days later. Blogging is simple, but it is not easy. When I started this blog I had no idea where it would take me. I am not a guru, not even an expert (yet); what I am is an apprentice. My ABC’s e.book was borne of information gleaned from taking courses, this blog is borne of experience and gained knowledge and the desire to share and to learn.
Let’s grow and live an Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
Blog Income Life: November Results
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. I celebrate Christmas – two of them. My ancestral heritage is Russian. The Russian Orthodox Church never switched over from the Julian to the Gregorian, so Christmas falls on January 07! How cool is that? This is a month of many celebrations, and whether you celebrate Christmas or something else, I want to begin by wishing each and everyone who comes here, joyous celebrations, goodwill and blessings for you and your loved ones.
It is the first of the month which means a review of the month past for Blog Income Life. My goals for the month of November were:
1. Increase traffic by 20%+ (I’m following Darren Rowse’s formula here.
2. Get back on to earning some dollars.
3. Spend less time checking my daily stats.
Let’s look at the traffic first:
Last month’s visitors = 130
Target: 20% increase = 156
Actual results = 158
Just squeaked in! In actual fact it is probably more like 15% growth seeing as last month’s stats did not include the first 5 days of the month! I know this is anemic compared to many newbies who are getting that and more PER DAY. I am a great fan of Darren Rowse’s (is there anyone who isn’t), and I read with great interest that he focused on growing his blog traffic by 10% – 20% per month. I am also a great believer in building momentum. On that note I will be trying something in the new year that is meant to increase the traffic significantly – 200 per day by end of QI of 2010 is the big stretch.
Search engines stats fell from 15.38% to 8.3%. I ascribe this to my letting up on my focusing on the keyword that I am fighting to get on page one for. I am of two minds here. Everything I have learned stresses the importance of optimizing your posts with the main keyword and sprinkling others here and here. I feel that to do so for every post is somewhat artificial. Yes, I want more search engine traffic, I also want to write in a non-forced style. I think that my readers are intelligent enough to be able to tell the difference. My readers are my guests. Foremost in my mind is to treat them as welcome guests. This probably comes with experience – write keyword optimized posts and make it flow in the most natural of ways.
Income: Alas, none to report from this blog. As mentioned before my performing blogs are my stable of doggie sites — even Adsense is delivering. But I did have an awesome day – my first ever $1000 day! This was in one of my other businesses. What I loved about this experience is that it is now in my system. Once experienced it’s in your DNA. I look forward to many more $1000 days in 2010.
Checking Daily Stats: Done! The temptation, especially at the beginning was hard to overcome. Eventually I just got fed up with myself in wasting time checking stats on my various sites. I figured that I was wasting at least an hour. Now, I check the stats in the mornings – it gives me a sense on what I need to concentrate on for the day and make adjustments to the plan I wrote the night before if needed – and leave them alone for the day. Yes, sometimes I still sneak a peak before the end of day, but that too is declining.
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What is December to look like? I realize now that focusing on income is premature for this blog. I am going to concentrate on other factors and as these improve, I believe the income will too. I will concentrate on that area that I have a greater control over and that is traffic. I am also working through the Secret Affiliate Weapon course and implementing the steps along the way but then I am not anticipating results until QI of 2010. So for December:
1. Traffic: 20% increase = 190. Up the ante to 200
2. Add a subscription/email registration plugin and a “Tweet Me” button too!
Here’s to an Awesome Blog Income Life!
Valentina
Writing for an Awesome Blog Income Life … and yummy cheese!
