Launching a new website – Days 21-30

Launching a new website is not as easy as some would have you think. This is the last article in a series of articles that covered the promotional strategies of the first 30 days in the launching of a new website. Time will help any new website get more traffic and this site is so new that it will have to go through some growing pains for the next four months. Patience is needed to develop and get these new sites to a profitable stage.

The last week of the month showed some solid traffic increases. The total visitors for the month was 1018. As a whole, that wasn’t too bad. Next year at this time, it will be interesting to compare the differences.

Using SEO elite, I checked for the number of backlinks and there were 22 backlinks. These backlinks were acquired by writing articles and making comments on other people’s websites.

I checked the main search engines to see how many pages were indexed with each engine. Google has indexed 104 pages. Yahoo has 38 pages. MSN has only one page indexed and I’m not sure how to get more pages indexed by them. I just found a link to submit sites to MSN: http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx so now I’ve submitted to that website. Alta Vista reported indexing 38 pages and All The Web has indexed 38 pages.

One strategy that I have added to this site is to add a blog. I think that WordPress blogs are very search engine friendly and I believe that adding content to it on a regular basis will be helpful.

I was able to get some help in making my website comply with the W3C, the web standards organization for all web pages. I have tried in the past to get compliant with that website, but my web skills were not good enough to understand how to change things to get into compliance. A friend of mine from the Philippines told me about a fellow named Taylor S. Ripley. He runs a web development and hosting site at http://www.turkreno.com/. I gave him a call and he was nice enough to walk me through correcting all the mistakes that were on my front page. He also helped me create a more useful sitemap and I have submitted that to the search engines.  He was so knowledgeable and helpful. I highly recommend him as a person to help you with your SEO efforts. It was so nice to meet someone that was so helpful.

So to wrap things up for this 30 Day Plan, I’d like to review the most valuable lessons that I learned during this time period.

1.  When developing a new site, submit a basic sitemap for at least part of your site to Google webmaster tools so you can start getting some traffic.

2.  When your site is completed, submit another sitemap to Google so that they will index all of your pages.

3.  Submit your new site to Yahoo, MSN, All The Web and Alta Vista.

4.  Begin the process of creating a sense of community by visiting other sites that relate to your topic and participate in their conversations on their blogs.

5. Write articles that relate to your product or website and make sure that they get distributed to a large number of directories.

6. Make sure your site is W3 Compliant.

7. Be patient and keep contributing to your site by making it better and offering people more resources and help.

8. Start trying something, anything. Some of what you do will work, and some things won’t. Doing something is better than just dreaming about it.

9. Realize that it takes time for your new project to become profitable and know that it is possible to get your sites profitable enough to support yourself.

10. Network with other people through http://www.meetup.com to find others in your community that are pursuing the same types of business.

I hope that part of this experience has helped you learn what you can do to get your sites started an on to profitability. Good luck with your projects!

Ebay’s Largest Store Owner

Have you ever wondered who owns the biggest ebay store? The powerseller, Buy, has 867,112 successful transactions and is listed on eBay as the largest store there. Upon further research through the help of Google Maps, you can see that the address listed for this seller is in California and is located in the buy.com building.

The powerseller, Buy,  is actually a  leading e-commerce company that has been in business over 10 years and has over 11 million customers.

They carry millions of products in categories ranging from sporting goods, computer hardware and software, cellular, electronics, movies, music, books and more.

At their website, they even list their most searched for items: 16GB Flash Drive, 1tB external hard drive, 32gb flash drive, Cordless phone, Ipod touch, Micro SD Card, USB flash drive, cordless phones, external hard drive, iphone, iphone 3g,iphone 3gs, ipod classic, ipod nano, micro sd,  microsd, netbook, netbooks, nintendo ds, ps3 refurbished,  sansa sd card, sdhc, slingbox, webcam, wii, wireless router,zune, zune hd.

The www.buy.com website is ranked by Alexa.com, a web monitoring site, as number 238 in the United States. The lowest numbers indicate the most popular sites. There are some bad reviews about this site on Alexa, but eBay seems to have nothing but positive feedback for them. Apparently their customer service is outsourced to India which causes problems for United States customers.

Buy.com has been listed by Internet Retailer as one of the top 100 retailers on the internet. Apparently the top 100 retailers are responsible for 55.3% of retail web sales.

Amazon.com is the leading retailer on the net with $19.2 billion dollars in sales. Internet retail selling is here to stay. People are becoming more and more comfortable ordering online. How comfortable are you with online ordering?

View Buy’s Ebay Listings

10 Tips For Making Money on Craigslist

By now you have probably heard of one of the nets’ most dominant classified ad websites; Craigslist. It makes no difference whether you are purchasing goods or selling goods, Craigslist is vital for any entrepreneur looking to make good money. First before you choose to surf the net and make money on Craigslist, you need to understand that there are a few critical guidelines to follow to help you become successful.

Why? If you don’t have the proper knowledge about Craigslist rules you might be blacklisted or banned. What am I going to share with you are the things you must know in order to learn how to make money on Craigslist and to use it in the right way.

Step 1 – Categories

You must advertise or sell items in the correct category. In case you don’t know, items posted on Craigslist are easily sorted by search engines and people surfing the net can view your listings when they are placed in the proper category.

Step 2 – Headlines

Create attractive headlines. This will be the main appeal of your ad and this will be the first thing that will attract the attention of your buyers. Write attention grabbing words and list a reasonable price for the items you are selling.

Step 3 – Use Photos

Post pictures. Listings that have pictures are easily getting noticed. Add as many pictures as possible to give the buyer a good understanding of what you have for sale. Pictures are worth 1000 words.

Step 4 – Respond Promptly

Don’t procrastinate your responses to inquiries. Respond to your inquiries as soon as possible. Remember that all inquiries are from potential buyers. Lastly be sure to follow up with your customers so that you can sell quickly.

Step 5 – Don’t Duplicate

Please don’t duplicate your ad. Craigslist can easily notice the same ad being posted multiple times and might consider it as a spam. You can be blacklisted permanently if you don’t stick with the guidelines.

Step 6 – Get Notified

Stay current with the new listing information you are interested in by using software such as AdNotifier.com. This program sends you automatic updates and messages every time a new ad is advertised in your category.

Step 7 – Resell Products

Purchase low cost items and resell them. This is so big since the resale industry is fast growing. If you have the skill for buying goods and reselling them at reasonable prices then Craigslist is a good match for your needs to start a business.

Step 8 – Use Links

You may create links in your ads. Like perhaps a link at eBay or your personal website easier to create access to your item. This will increase your chances for additional sales and possible upgrades.

Step 9 – Use HTML

Maximize the use of HTML in your ad to direct buyers to your link. This will help the buyer to get additional information about your products and services. Craigslist uses basic HTML which is not too difficult and can be learned at w3schools.com.

Step 10 – Use RSS Feeds

Use RSS feeds to stay current. When you find the search results that you are most interested in, scroll to the bottom of the page and in the right corner you will see the words RSS. Just click on that and you will get the link that you can bookmark to easily see what is current on that search. The nice thing about this is that you can see all of the ads in that category without opening up individual links.

Spend some time learning how Craigslist works. This means you’ll want to investigate what is selling in different parts of the world. Read other people’s ads and get some ideas of what you might want to do.

Of course nothing is easy at first. You need a lot of patience and hard work for your business you grow. I hope that these guidelines will help you with your money making endeavors.

Here are some good articles about Craigslist that you might enjoy.

• Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder Craigslist – Craig Newmark talks to us live at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in NYC about what’s up with Craigslist these days. Craig discusses why they started charging for rental ads in New York, how he fights spam listings and what his …
• Craigslist Vs eBay | I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… – I had a comment last week on one of my older posts about selling items on Craigslist asking me what I thought about Craigslist and …
• How to use Postlets to Improve Your Craigslist Posts – There are quite a few features that Postlets offers, some fee-based and some free. com does most of the work for you. However, in relation to my previous post, I’ll also show you how you can create the illusion of an embeded YouTube property video.
• Save Money on the Web – I’ve mentioned before that I’m a software engineer living in Silicon Valley. Such an occupation forces you to stay alert with all the technology advantages in.
• Subtraction.com: Our Craigslist – The cover story for the September 2009 issue of Wired takes a look at the current state of Craigslist and the challenges it faces as it continues to evolve. In a sidebar, the magazine’s amazing art director Scott Dadich invited several …

Cash in a Flash Book Review

Cash In a Flash is a new book written by Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of Chicken Soup For the Soul and Robert G. Allen, Author of Multiple Streams of Income. If you have ever wondered about what steps you need to take to make some incredible money, this is the book to read.

Cash In a Flash is cleverly written as two books in one. The left side of all the pages in the book is an instructional theory type of writing and the right side of all the pages in the book is a well written story of a group of people who actually put their recipe of making money into practice. Complete with drama, real life experiences and WOW stories, this part of the book is able to hold your attention as well as any CSI television show or NCIS show.

While reading the book, I kept track of some of the best things that were said and some of the most inspirational quotes. I am listing them here for your benefit, but I would highly recommend that you read the book for yourself.

32 Inspiriational Quotes From Cash In a Flash

1. For you to achieve your dreams, your dreams must be more real than your fears.

2. Money comes and goes in life, but spiritual enlightenment and self awareness last forever.

3. If you really want something, you’ll find a way. If you really don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

4. Do you feel encouraged, empowered and uplifted? Or do you feel discouraged disabled and beaten down?

5. The mind works best when it is asked questions.

6. The universe expands at the level of the requests and questions that you ask.

7. Money is energy which is why they call it currency.

8. The faster you notice the good, the more pain free you’ll be.

9. Always look for the immediate benefit camouflaged inside of every experience of life.

10. Positive thinking gets positive results that pay positively.

11. What could I learn that would transform those challenging events into valuable lessons?

12. Why would God love me enough to give me this growth experience?

13. Start with the consciousness that there is always enough and you’ll find enough.

14. Ideas start as fiction, become theory, and are then melded into fact.

15. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill

16. Focus on your blessings and your blessings will expand.

17. What has happened does not define what will happen.

18. Sometimes in life you need to get lost to find your way.

19. Why would anyone want to send you money?

20. If you had to create something in the next 90 minutes that could be generating cash in the next 90 days, what would it be?

21. You always want to think of new ways to monetize the popularity of your website traffic.

22. The universe is a friendly place and abundance is available for everyone no matter what you might think.

23. No one mind is complete until working in harmonic purposeful relationships with others.

24. To become a great person, entrepreneur, leader, artist speaker or author, you must have a dream team.

25. TEAM stands for together everyone achieves miracles.

26. How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself. – Norman Vincent Peale

27. Our problems are the doorways to our solutions.

28. My problems make me stonger, wiser and more courageous.

29. The future of moneymaking is simplicity, outsourcing, innovation, diversifying and constantly building passive, recurring revenue so you are in control.

30. Of all the products you could sell, information is the ultimate product.

31. You can’t sell what you aren’t proud of. – Gary Halbert

32. Your ultimate want must be so burning, so important, of such a high priority that nothing distracts you from it.

These are just some of the inspirational quotes I liked, but you may be more attracted to the actual recipe of how to create fast cash. So many examples are given that your mind will be restless thinking about what your next money making strategy is going to be. You will find that one of the benefits of reading the book is that you will have a new outlook on life. One with renewed hope and confirmation that you are a capable person able to accomplish amazing things in life.

What are you waiting for? Find out how you can enjoy the entire book – Cash In A Flash!

Blog World Expo 2009 – John Chow Challenge

John Chow has challenged me to give him reasons why I should be chosen to receive a pass to attend Blog World Expo 2009. He probably doesn’t remember meeting me at the last Blog World Expo in 2008, so I have included my extremely unflattering photograph with him. Learn about this challenge at JohnChow.com

Last year at the Blog World Expo 2008, I was totally inspired by all the talks given by the Fab Five – four of whom are shown in the photograph below (Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Darren Rouse and John Chow). Notice that ShoeMoney is not in the photograph shown. He must have been off networking.

Anyway, I learned so many things at the conference that helped me with my business plans and I will always be grateful for that.  I don’t really like to reveal numbers about my income levels, but since last year in September, my affiliate income has increased by 660%. My blog traffic is now getting 14,444 unique hits a month and I can live on my affiliate earnings. I owe a lot of this success to the great information that I received from the Fab Five at the Blog World Expo 08.

I was also recently invited to attend the Shareasale ThinkTank that is going to be held in Newport Beach, California.  Without the training that I received at the conference, I never would have been successful enough to be invited to attend. So I thank you Fab Five again. Should you consider me to receive a pass to the conference I would be so grateful. I look forward to learning much more about being successful on the Internet.

Launching a new website – days 14-21

This article is a continuation of a 30 day plan to launch a new website offering personal checks. The goal of the plan was to do something every day to promote the site and see what kind of traffic we’d get. Unfortunately on August 8, the site went into the Google sandbox and none of the pages that were being listed with top positions in Google were being listed anymore. The site is still in the sandbox unfortunately. It’s not hard to tell when your site is in the sandbox because your pages won’t pull up for the search terms they were originally pulling up for.

As you can see from the graph  the site is going through ups and downs in traffic. Most visible is the drastic decrease in traffic on August 8. There is a steady increase, but this is not due to getting out of the sandbox, it is due to some promotion efforts through a company I hired to help.

Originally, I planned not to spend any money during this first thirty day period, but I caved in after the drop in traffic. I hired a company that helped me with this website and asked them to do the same thing for my new site. If you are interested in knowing who they are and what they do, be sure to email me.

The goal is to get between 500 and 700 visitors per day. At that point, the site will be pulling in some decent income.

Sites can be in the sandbox for three to six months so the plan now is to build high authority back links which means getting the site listed in different directories.

The plan now is to:
1. Add quality content to the site through a blog.

2. Work on increasing the number of inbound links (quality links not just any old link).

3. Tweak and improve the SEO quality of your site.

4. Write articles.
So you should be seeing some changes coming soon to the site which will include a Wordpress Blog.

Again, the biggest mistake made with this site was to wait until the entire site was done before submitting the site to Google. So if you are working on a new site, be sure and get at least a few pages presentable with a sitemap and submit it. Hopefully that will shorten your stay in the sandbox.

Launching a new web site – days 11, 12, 13

Well, unfortunately I believe that my new site is officially in the “sandbox” which is Google’s way of controlling sites.

At Webconf.com the Google sandbox is explained in detail.

It’s never easy for newcomers to enter a market and there are barriers of different kinds. For newcomers to the world of search engines, the barrier is called a sandbox – your site stays there until it gets mature enough to be allowed to the Top Positions club. Although there is no direct confirmation of the existence of a sandbox, Google employees have implied it and SEO experts have seen in practice that new sites, no matter how well optimized, don’t rank high on Google, while on MSN and Yahoo they catch quickly. For Google, the jailing in the sandbox for new sites with new domains is on average 6 months, although it can vary from less than a month to over 8 months.

There are hurdles to overcome, just because the site is new. It might have been helpful to have submitted a few pages to Google when I first got the site going so that it would have time to get out of the sandbox.

Cpanel Stats are:

01 Aug 2009 29
02 Aug 2009 26
03 Aug 2009 36
04 Aug 2009 43
05 Aug 2009 67
06 Aug 2009 35
07 Aug 2009 50
08 Aug 2009 11
09 Aug 2009 11
10 Aug 2009 24
11 Aug 2009 9
12 Aug 2009 12

You’ll notice the drastic drop in visitors due to the sandbox effect. It’s very frustrating to go through these growing pains. My goal is to get back into the “top position’s club.”

Incentives Increase Profits

During this staggering economy, businesses are brainstorming for ideas that will result in sales. They are looking for ways that will help their business grow instead of head in the direction of failure. A business idea to help head in the path of success is to offer incentives to your current clients or incentives to lure new ones in. These ideas that will help increase your profits include offering coupons, referral rewards and points to use toward future purchases.

The first way you can encourage consumers to spend more within your company is to offer coupons. Buyers are looking for the best deals they can spend their money on. Coupons can be distributed to current clients through an email and can be used to draw people in to make purchases. A great way to promote these coupons to entice people to spend is to advertise them through means of social networks. Posting a link to your website with a coupon code offers exclusivity to those who are part of that network. This also drives traffic to your website which is generally good for brand exposure and profit.

Another inexpensive practice is to allow your current consumers to assist with your company’s marketing with referral rewards. An award of $10 for any person someone refers who spends $50 or more can result in high profits. This will persuade your current shoppers to outsource to their networks to build these referral rewards so they can receive the discount off their next purchase. This keeps the current consumer spending their money as well as the people who they have told your business about.

Handing out a compensation of points to a buyer makes them feel like they are getting a deal for what they have purchased. Different point levels for store discounts will encourage clients to purchase more to gain the excitement of working towards something that will be discounted. This also gives them the feeling of reassurance that their money is being well spent. Just think of popular points programs like Air Miles; many people will shop where they know these are offered.

These three types of incentives are inexpensive ways to get the buyers of today to start and continue spending money with your company. They will also help you stay competitive, while running a successful online business.

Article Source: By Karl Kleimeyer

Karl Kleimeyer is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. Karl and his team have assisted hundreds of people in generating profits that exceed $250K or more in their first year. For more information and to contact Karl, visit: http://ForeverWealthNHealthCreation.com

Next Page »