I think I messed up and wasted a year!

[pronstar]

Hi guys. I've been on BHW for ages trying to learn, but I think I must be a bit thick, I'm 56years old, that may have something to do with it I guess.

Anyway. Last March I wanted to get into domaining and made a right mess of that, reckon I wasted £800 doing everything wrong, so eventually I moved into blogging.

After trying to keep 6 blogs running on my own and getting nowhere fast I realised I'd have to concentrate on just one blog, at least until I learnt the basics.

Unfortunately I still can't seem to get anything right. I do all on the on-page SEO, write what I believe is quality content, write long tail keywords with low competition. The only stuff I can rank for are useless keywords it seems.

I've had adsense on my site for nearly a year and have made £3.64 ;-) in total.

I've recently added Amazon affiliate and not getting many clicks and zero sales.

my site has some backlinks I made but I really struggle interacting with people, just the thought of "reaching out" makes me want to puke lol

The site has some minimal metrics DA 18 PA 20.
I have a small social presence FB\Twitter\Pintrest\G+ but I don't get many shares or likes (only from my family if I beg)

Possibly the biggest mistake I have made is not being in a small enough niche, I can't even tell you what my niche is it's that broad, art\education\entertainment\fun, I purposely made it broad so I could write about virtually anything I wanted to, seemed like a good idea at the time.

I just think I should be doing a lot better than I am, but I can't for the life of me work it out and I was hoping for some pointers from you experienced guys, if you would be so kind.

I am aware that I shouldn't post my blog address on here as it looks like promotion so if anyone wants to have a look at my site please PM me.

I am willing to throw small-ish amounts of money on advertising to get the site going but I am wary after the money I lost being too brave as a domainer and learnt my lesson, any advice if facebook adverts would work or other advice to get genuine targeted traffic in?

I have tried several Fiverr gigs and all have been terrible for backlinks and seo and advice, you get what you pay for I guess. I contracted 10 articles to one person and first 3 they sent me my 1o year old grandson could of done better. Where can I get quality for a reasonable price anyone?

You can see why I don't post often, I'm a windbag.

Regards
Steve.

 

[MartysW0RLD]

The problem is that you have no plan, you need to have a clear vision in order to move towards it.

 

[Fragmaster]

Hi guys. I've been on BHW for ages trying to learn, but I think I must be a bit thick, I'm 56years old, that may have something to do with it I guess.

Anyway. Last March I wanted to get into domaining and made a right mess of that, reckon I wasted £800 doing everything wrong, so eventually I moved into blogging.

After trying to keep 6 blogs running on my own and getting nowhere fast I realised I'd have to concentrate on just one blog, at least until I learnt the basics.

Unfortunately I still can't seem to get anything right. I do all on the on-page SEO, write what I believe is quality content, write long tail keywords with low competition. The only stuff I can rank for are useless keywords it seems.

I've had adsense on my site for nearly a year and have made £3.64 ;-) in total.

I've recently added Amazon affiliate and not getting many clicks and zero sales.

my site has some backlinks I made but I really struggle interacting with people, just the thought of "reaching out" makes me want to puke lol

The site has some minimal metrics DA 18 PA 20.
I have a small social presence FB\Twitter\Pintrest\G+ but I don't get many shares or likes (only from my family if I beg)

Possibly the biggest mistake I have made is not being in a small enough niche, I can't even tell you what my niche is it's that broad, art\education\entertainment\fun, I purposely made it broad so I could write about virtually anything I wanted to, seemed like a good idea at the time.

I just think I should be doing a lot better than I am, but I can't for the life of me work it out and I was hoping for some pointers from you experienced guys, if you would be so kind.

I am aware that I shouldn't post my blog address on here as it looks like promotion so if anyone wants to have a look at my site please PM me.

I am willing to throw small-ish amounts of money on advertising to get the site going but I am wary after the money I lost being too brave as a domainer and learnt my lesson, any advice if facebook adverts would work or other advice to get genuine targeted traffic in?

I have tried several Fiverr gigs and all have been terrible for backlinks and seo and advice, you get what you pay for I guess. I contracted 10 articles to one person and first 3 they sent me my 1o year old grandson could of done better. Where can I get quality for a reasonable price anyone?

You can see why I don't post often, I'm a windbag.

Regards
Steve.

Use what you have more than most : experience . 56 years means you could be war veteran, someone with unique life story. For example, make a blog named war diary or something, tell your tale with vivid details nobody ever knew about, people would love to read, i would , and then toss in some products aside -> survivalist e-books, swiss knives , T-shirts . Adsense? its not working for you is it .

 

[Tunenchi]

Hey man, it's okay to take long. One hard truth I also learnt after a year of lurking on BHW and not making a dime; was if there is no money made, something is not done right. However, you may be targeting a small niche, or perhaps your competitors' analysis may need deeper evaluation. You can try iwriter premium writers for main site articles. Article forge may be a good option for automated blogging, besides the WordAi Turing spinner is also good for tier 1-2 content. Fiverr gigs are awesome if you set things right, and buy from different sellers. You can check out some recommended sellers of services, as long as you don't think it's self promotion.

 

[pronstar]

Thanks for your comment Frag.
Well, I have written my memoirs believe it or not and I have them out in Kindle this month. I haven't been in a war [fortunately] but my younger life was fraught with crime, prison, addictions etc and make a fairly interesting read, I think. Of course no sales as yet lol.

Yes adsense makes no sense on my site, I even had an ebay tower rotating ad in my sidebar for nearly a year without making a penny hoho.
I got 600 clicks on an affilate hosting advert but not a single sale. I just don't get it

Use what you have more than most : experience . 56 years means you could be war veteran, someone with unique life story. For example, make a blog named war diary or something, tell your tale with vivid details nobody ever knew about, people would love to read, i would , and then toss in some products aside -> survivalist e-books, swiss knives , T-shirts . Adsense? its not working for you is it .

 

[GreyWolf]

I think you pretty much nailed your main problem when you described your niche as too general. Wow, "art\education\entertainment\fun", broad is an understatement.

In a way you're right that a broad niche for a blog gives you ability to write on pretty much anything that interests you, but the other side of that is that you're competition is pretty much everyone. My suggestion would be to just start tightening up the topics you're blogging about.

The suggestions Fragmaster made are worth thinking about. I'm about the same age as you and so can imagine you have quite a bit of experience on a wide range of topics. I wouldn't abandon the general art and entertainment niche since you've already been building the site for a while, but just tighten up your focus a little so that you're blog has some focus.

 

[pronstar]

Hey man, it's okay to take long. One hard truth I also learnt after a year of lurking on BHW and not making a dime; was if there is no money made, something is not done right. However, you may be targeting a small niche, or perhaps your competitors' analysis may need deeper evaluation. You can try iwriter premium writers for main site articles. Article forge may be a good option for automated blogging, besides the WordAi Turing spinner is also good for tier 1-2 content. Fiverr gigs are awesome if you set things right, and buy from different sellers. You can check out some recommended sellers of services, as long as you don't think it's self promotion.

Hi Tune thanks for taking the time to reply.
Yes something is wrong that's for sure. My niche is too wide rather than small as I think I explained [poorly]
As for spinning content, I find I end up re writing it in the end anyway, I've never seen any decent spun content yet, though I have an open mind but not so open wallet nowadays

 

[pronstar]

The problem is that you have no plan, you need to have a clear vision in order to move towards it.

Hi Marty
You are totally right of course, I'm considering restarting everything from scratch and taking my time to do it right from the start. My usual way of doing things is, oh that's a good idea, buy a domain, start writing articles ...and then start thinking about what can I sell, how to get visitors etc.
cheers

 

[pronstar]

I think you pretty much nailed your main problem when you described your niche as too general. Wow, "art\education\entertainment\fun", broad is an understatement.

In a way you're right that a broad niche for a blog gives you ability to write on pretty much anything that interests you, but the other side of that is that you're competition is pretty much everyone. My suggestion would be to just start tightening up the topics you're blogging about.

The suggestions Fragmaster made are worth thinking about. I'm about the same age as you and so can imagine you have quite a bit of experience on a wide range of topics. I wouldn't abandon the general art and entertainment niche since you've already been building the site for a while, but just tighten up your focus a little so that you're blog has some focus.

Hi Greywolf thanks for your advice.
The site did start out as an Amazing True Stories type of thing but I found really interesting content ideas thin on the ground, which surprised me, I thought it would be easy, maybe next time I'll learn to research better first. That's why I broadened the scope of the site.

I was wondering this: I have 1 particular post which outdoes all the others together, I rank 8th for it, I remember reading somewhere that to get any real authority I would need to write several other posts on the same subject, is this correct, does anyone know?

cheers me dears,

 

[SoccerLover]

Nothing is wasted unless and until you learn something from it.

How about creating a Micro Niche Adsense Site?
It will give you good amount for $ and the targeting would be easy too.
You can checkout the guy called as keywordspot (on bhw), he can give free keyword report
If he won't ping me, I'll give it up for u.

 

[bigbrothers]

Hi Marty
You are totally right of course, I'm considering restarting everything from scratch and taking my time to do it right from the start. My usual way of doing things is, oh that's a good idea, buy a domain, start writing articles ...and then start thinking about what can I sell, how to get visitors etc.
cheers

No problem, you can restart the things. But, you should have a plan to work out the things well.

Slow and steady, wins the race!

Best Wishes - BB

 

[pronstar]

Nothing is wasted unless and until you learn something from it.

How about creating a Micro Niche Adsense Site?
It will give you good amount for $ and the targeting would be easy too.
You can checkout the guy called as keywordspot (on bhw), he can give free keyword report
If he won't ping me, I'll give it up for u.

That's probably where I should restart soccer. I had some "success", relatively speaking with a post on a serial killer, which I found only mildly interesting, but there does seem to be a lot of interest in that subject (bit worrying really, can't be healthy can it?) and plenty of books\dvds to sell on it, though would that be enough I wonder?

I will try to find keywordspot later as I have been up all night scratching my head ;-)

 

[verilix]

Just don't let it discourage you. Do your research beforehand, find a topic you can write about, and hit it hard. Write 100 word articles, 500 word articles, 2000 word articles. Bring the site to life, while working on advertising through social media and other popular blogs in your niche (or even mildly related to something you've written about).

 

[Tunenchi]

Hi Tune thanks for taking the time to reply.
Yes something is wrong that's for sure. My niche is too wide rather than small as I think I explained [poorly]
As for spinning content, I find I end up re writing it in the end anyway, I've never seen any decent spun content yet, though I have an open mind but not so open wallet nowadays

I will be more than happy to give you access to my own WordAi Turing spinner panel. This way you can see how it works.

 

[Stitches and Burns]

You're still young. 1 year is nothing.

I wasted 8 years in college and never even graduated. Think about that.

As long as you're chasing your dreams, nothing is wasted.

 

[rorro]

Hi guys. I've been on BHW for ages trying to learn, but I think I must be a bit thick, I'm 56years old, that may have something to do with it I guess.

Anyway. Last March I wanted to get into domaining and made a right mess of that, reckon I wasted £800 doing everything wrong, so eventually I moved into blogging.

After trying to keep 6 blogs running on my own and getting nowhere fast I realised I'd have to concentrate on just one blog, at least until I learnt the basics.

Unfortunately I still can't seem to get anything right. I do all on the on-page SEO, write what I believe is quality content, write long tail keywords with low competition. The only stuff I can rank for are useless keywords it seems.

I've had adsense on my site for nearly a year and have made £3.64 ;-) in total.

I've recently added Amazon affiliate and not getting many clicks and zero sales.

my site has some backlinks I made but I really struggle interacting with people, just the thought of "reaching out" makes me want to puke lol

The site has some minimal metrics DA 18 PA 20.
I have a small social presence FB\Twitter\Pintrest\G+ but I don't get many shares or likes (only from my family if I beg)

Possibly the biggest mistake I have made is not being in a small enough niche, I can't even tell you what my niche is it's that broad, art\education\entertainment\fun, I purposely made it broad so I could write about virtually anything I wanted to, seemed like a good idea at the time.

I just think I should be doing a lot better than I am, but I can't for the life of me work it out and I was hoping for some pointers from you experienced guys, if you would be so kind.

I am aware that I shouldn't post my blog address on here as it looks like promotion so if anyone wants to have a look at my site please PM me.

I am willing to throw small-ish amounts of money on advertising to get the site going but I am wary after the money I lost being too brave as a domainer and learnt my lesson, any advice if facebook adverts would work or other advice to get genuine targeted traffic in?

I have tried several Fiverr gigs and all have been terrible for backlinks and seo and advice, you get what you pay for I guess. I contracted 10 articles to one person and first 3 they sent me my 1o year old grandson could of done better. Where can I get quality for a reasonable price anyone?

You can see why I don't post often, I'm a windbag.

Regards
Steve.

At least you are doing one thing right - taking action.

So many of those people (around 30%) joining BHW want to make money instantly that they can't be bothered to even read the entire thread and keep asking the same question.

Another 45% busy reading and trying every trick but nothing works for them because they got no plan. They see one new method, they try. They have no patience to wait for the fruit of their labour.

The remaining 25% made up from 20% BST seller trying to make money from the above 2 groups and the last 5 % silently making money and doubling their earning every day.


I am not sure which group you belong to but I myself tend to look things positively. I like the fact that you are 56 and still working hard and trying things out. Lots of those 26, 36 years old out there still busy playing their dota, doing nothing substantial.

 

[RuthSam]

I would not say you wasted a year.. Actually you did not because you took action and now you learned how to do things wrong. I think you are ready to take the next step to do things rigt. It takes some time to learn all of this if you never have been into IM before.

 

[Jerring]

When you say social media is it just manual work your doing there? Have you tried using something to automate it? Like massplanner, or some other software. That has helped me atleast to reach out to more people in my niche

 

[buzz]

You are at the same age like my dad, and he really had problems to use a PC, to scan or print things or even attach documents to an email. Why don't you create a website where you explain seniors how to use a PC?

 

[Conor]

I'll admit upfront, I didn't read your whole post OP. I got the gist of it though, and I see a couple of things wrong with your approach:

1. You're starting too big. It's great to have huge goals, but you need to work your way up to achieving them. There are steps that need to be taken. Start with a small blog and expand from there.

2. You're too hard on yourself. I'm a strong believer in positive thinking. If you're always telling yourself "I'm a moron and I can't do anything", you'll eventually start to believe that crap. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do IM. You just need to be confident in your capacity as a human to learn from your mistakes.

I'd say just learn from your mistakes and move on. We've all wasted money in one way or another, just let it go and try again