Bootstrapper Notes

New Squidoo Lens and other news

A couple of days ago I set up a lens to promote my new dog questions site over a Squidoo.  This was something I had never done before, and it is very interesting.  With just a couple of days of work, I am already in the top 50 in my category.  I have even had a couple of visitors come to my site thru the lens.

My articles that I posted on Ezinearticles are also bringing in a few visitors a day.  A few of the articles have been posted on sites, and have been indexed by Google as well - building up the back links!

The biggest news of all is that I currently have 24 pages indexed by Google, and traffic is starting to flow.  Googlebot is all over the site everday - which is a very good sign.

I have also found a list of RSS directories, and have started working my way thru the list submitting my feed.

Creating my own list

I have decided to make my own addition to my first JM style site.  Last week I signed up for the 30 day trial over at Aweber.  Aweber provides a top notch autoresponder/newsletter service.  It is not free after the first 30 days, but I see why, it is absolutely amazing!

So I created a "special report" for the site that is free if you sign up to receive it.  Aweber creates different kinds of pop-ups and in-line sign up forms.  I created a java pop-up, so it is almost unblockable by most browsers.  I have it set to pop in immediately.  Each visitor will only be exposed to it one time per day.

I have had the form running for 24 hours and have not had a sign up yet, but that is okay.  I figure I will run it for 25 days and then see if I want to keep it up.

I have also added several new pages to this site pushing some of the Clickbank products that relate to my niche.

This site if my best performing site, and I would really like to build it up, it has lots of potential.  I will keep you posted on the progress.

Link Building Tools - Part One

I have been working the last week or so on creating a system to continually build incoming links to not only my affiliate content sites, but also my 4 ecommerce sites.  Today I thought I would share the first of two tools that I have purchased to maximize my time in doing this mundane task.

The first tool in my arsenal is Reciprocal Manager.  This tool is one of the scripts I am sure you have seen that basically allow you to build a link directory.  I have tried free ones, but I ended up purchasing this one simply because it is head and shoulders above the free ones I tried. 

Reciprocal Manager completely automates the process for adding links to your site.  Visitors can simply fill in a form to add their site.  The cool thing is that they must first put your link on their site, because when they hit submit, the software checks their site to be sure you link is on it.  Once a user makes a submission, it is not live on my site until I review and approve it.

There is a complete administration backend where you control everything.  It is really awesome!

I get two or three emails a day from Value Exchange, I am going to start simply replying to them with the link where they can add my their site to my directory.

I am only going to accept "on-topic" sites for exchanges, so this is not going to turn into some mega-directory that accepts any and all exchanges.  I can also easily add LinkMetro requests thru the admin interface.

So far I have it installed and fully functional on just one of my sites.  The rest will be easy to add the script to, now that I have it figured out.  It is a simple install, so don't worry about that.  PLUS, I can add it to unlimited domains - I own it completely.  There is also a forum if you run into problems.

Okay, so now that I have the site interface figured out the next step was to figure out how to get people to start exchanging links with me.  Stay tuned for Part two of this series where I will share with you the tool I am using to find potential link partners.

I am playing in the yard!

Yes folks, it appears that at least for yesterday and today, Google has allowed me to play somewhere other than the sandbox with my first JM Style site!

I typically get one referral from Google about every other day.  Yesterday 10% of my traffic was from Google!

Now to just keep getting new incoming links and building up my PR.  I am making a couple of purchases that will greatly speed the process of getting good link exchanges with minimal effort.  I will share more when I get everything up and running.

I hate to get to excited, who knows if it will stick, but initial reports look great!  It sure does feel good to be out of the sand!! :)

First Lead in the bag...

Last night I got my Adwords campaign kicked off.  I put about 300 keywords into the campaign - using "keyword" and [keyword]. 

I started getting impressions last night, and by this evening I had about 193 impressions - AND one click.  Well guess what?  That one click converted into a lead!  We will see if it converts - I only get paid if the lead converts, but that is when the recurring commissions kick in and it is very profitable.

So bring on the clicks AND leads!!! :)

The plan is coming together

I am putting the finishing touches on my newest site.  I purchased a beautiful template from Golden Pinecone, to build this site with.

While it is not a JM style site, these templates work perfectly for what I want to do with this site.

I also purchased ArticleMiner after reading the good review by BJ.  Right now I am doing the initial download of all the content.  I am going to add tons of these articles to this site to get it started.  Article Miner has some unique things that will make it easy to add this content over time.  I know they are all reprints, but I am going to do some things to the pages to make them as unique as possible.

I am also going to create a "landing page" with will be a very direct marketing style page with my lead form on it.  I will send all PPC traffic to this page.

So I am slowly putting my plan together for this project, and I am excited for the change of pace.

Okay - Its not that different

Okay, so I guess I made this new direction sound really mysterious in my previous post.  In reality it is not that different from affiliate marketing.

Basically it is a lead generation site, with recurring revenues on accepted leads.  The thing that is really interesting to me is that the payouts and the target market could make it possible to do some small scale off-line marketing.  I will definately be experimenting with that possibility.

Eventually I hope to set-up my own affiliate program for this site as well - don't worry I will keep you posted.

Changing Course

Okay, I am officially changing course for a little bit.  I have 4 content sites that each have over 100 pages - now I am going to try a different approach.

I am going to try something completely different, and in a very competitive niche.  I am simply tired of doing these pure content sites - and I want a new challenge that has the ability to make tons of cold hard cash.

I will report back later when I announce the launch of my new site.  In case your wondering, yes I will still be creating lots of unique content.  The cool thing about this next project is the ability to also drive traffic thru off-line advertising.

It will be an interesting adventure - and I will keep you informed.

Interlinking Pages

Tonight I spent about 1 1/2 hours working on site #4.  I noticed that on site #2 and #3 all the pages that are not linked from the home page or product pages are showing up as "supplemental results" on Google.

So I decided to put three "related articles" links at the bottom of each of the articles pages.  I am hoping that this will keep this issue from happening, since all the pages are interlinked.

I will let you know in about 3 months once Google gets my pages indexed. :)

I am off right now to submit articles to two more distribution sites - for site #4.

Article Submission Started for #4

I started submitting two articles for site #4 to the article directories tonight.  I got the articles submitted to two sites, before the "low battery" lit up on my laptop.

I figure this is a good reason to stop for tonight, and simply veg.  I worked late last night on my sites, and I am tired.

More submissions tomorrow night - I need to get those spiders hungry, so they eat up my site!