[Amazon] Getting Serious About IM

collegeguys4 said:

Good luck on your journey.

What type of WordPress theme do you use?

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Typically free magazine themes. I think a simple site converts the best. On my most recent site I purchased a theme specifically for Amazon.

Very basic SEO all around today. Submitting sites to high PR directories and set up social accounts. Trying to take it slow on SEO as site 1 essentially starting over again, will slowly point existing web 2.0s towards it.

Site 1:

Already ranking nicely on Yahoo and Bing for the new KW in domain. Feeling good about this.
Designed new logo

Site 2:

A little movement on 1 KW, starting to appear in SERPs for Yahoo and Bing.

Site 3:

Added another article
Interlinked articles where relevant

Pinterest:

Not a whole lot to report, closing in on 1000 followers.

Good luck! Would love to see how this goes.

cooltoad125 said:

Good luck! Would love to see how this goes.

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Thanks! Stick around. I think this journey will be going for a while. Sometimes I wonder about updating less frequently, but I like posting daily because it gives me motivation to have something to share with you guys. Even if that something is small.

I was out of the house all day today, but was able to write and publish a 600 word article on Site 3 before leaving. Also received another article from my write to publish tomorrow.

NO BRAKES ON THIS TRAIN!

Update:

SERPS are slowly raising across the board. I've primarily been focused on getting site 3 to a 'content complete' stage which has been going well. Also went a little bit more aggressively on my Pinterest settings to see how it affects how many followers I gain overnight. I've been far too complacent with that being so easy to put on autopilot.

Site 1:

Slowly pointing existing web 2.0s at it and other links.

Site 2:

Received the physical product from that company to review! It's nice and I'll be able to really write a really good review on it.

Site 3:

Added an article to the site this morning from my writer, wrote another (short) one myself tonight. Amazing how fast you can throw up content when you are outsourcing at least half of it. Created two web 2.0s to start aging while I focus on content and will continue to set them up for at least a few days.

Following along buddy. I'm going through the same "phase" of my Amazon site and it's nice to see some motivation. Where did you find your writer, if you don't mind me asking? I'm looking to outsource some content writing at the moment, and would like to find a source for "review style" writers.

Care to share which Wordpress theme you purchased please ?
Is it mobile & iPad compatible ?

Windhelm said:

Following along buddy. I'm going through the same "phase" of my Amazon site and it's nice to see some motivation. Where did you find your writer, if you don't mind me asking? I'm looking to outsource some content writing at the moment, and would like to find a source for "review style" writers.

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Glad to hear it! Hekke?s guide here is excellent and what got me started. It applies to any freelancer website. I personally didn?t ask for a 300 word sample which was a bit risky, but here?s a couple of things I consider essential for finding a good one:

• Strictly native English speakers as mentioned in the guide.
• A real profile picture and name ? some people may have an English speaking location in their profile, but no real name or picture. This is a red flag for me.
• Pay them fairly once you know the quality is there and communicate with them well. Building a relationship is key for working on future projects.
• Trust your instincts when hiring and don't be afraid to look for someone else if the writing isn't what you want.

MisterF said:

Care to share which Wordpress theme you purchased please ?
Is it mobile & iPad compatible ?

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Sure, it?s Ultimate Azon which is totally responsive. You can do everything it does for free, but it definitely saves time with little on-page SEO things and structure. The only down-side to it is that it can look a little cookie-cutter if not customized well.

Subscribing for the crazy enthusiasm OP has as well as for self motivation. You inspire me, and for that, I thank you.

you inspire me bro ...keep on rockin

artemis42 said:

Subscribing for the crazy enthusiasm OP has as well as for self motivation. You inspire me, and for that, I thank you.

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antidajjal said:

you inspire me bro ...keep on rockin

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Thanks guys, I appreciate it! I figure if I want to get real results, I?m going to have to put in the work over a long period of time. It?s not enough to work hard on a site for two weeks which was what I did in the past. It?s time to step it up.

Site 1:

Pointed another existing web 2.0 at it. Also dropped a link on Reddit, which is great for indexing as well as getting VERY targeted viewers if done correctly.

Site 2:

I?ve not been doing any SEO work for this one to see how it will react in the SERPs from what I?ve done so far. The rankings are increasing!


Only one of those keywords is a really low monthly search, the rest are at least 100+. I?d include that, but I?m paranoid.

Site 3:

2 articles posted, 1 web 2.0 created. Just focusing on pointing some links at these web 2.0s to get them indexed. Site hasn?t shown up in the SERPs yet.

Pinterest:

While I?ve been gaining followers, traffic has not been increasing as it should. I see a few reasons for this:

• My top pins according to their analytics aren?t even my niche (related, but not it)
• Not enough boards
• Not enough followers in general
• Not watermarking enough pins

So there?s obviously an issue with connecting with the users in my niche. I created more boards, scraped high quality images from Tumblr and got to watermarking. I think I?ll be seeing a big increase if I do this at least while setting up around 5 - 10 more boards.

That?s it for today.

Update time!

Today I had some realizations about my productivity. I've been getting a ton of work done, but it's been spread out over the whole day when it could be condensed to 3-4 hours. I'm going to start following a set to-do list in order to streamline my tasks. I think it will make managing things much easier as I add more sites, and free up a lot of time that is otherwise spent all over the place.

Site 1:

Purchased a press release ($30). I think this is making a noticeable impact on site 2, and want to see if the same happens here. Also made a few blog comments.

Site 2:

Keywords are still dancing a bit which is a good sign. Will be writing a lengthy (at least 1k word) product review tomorrow.

Site 3:

A few blog comments to the site, as well as to web 2.0s for indexing. My Wordpress.com 2.0 seemed to index almost overnight and it was created last.
Added another article.

Realized that I've been leaving easy traffic on the table. I know that Twitter isn't high quality, but for a beginning website social is a great way to get some visitors. I was basically using Twitter for bookmarking purposes alone, revamped my profile and followed 100 niche related users. I will be doing this for at least a month as a test. Also scheduled a weeks worth of tweets using HootSuite, which is a great tool I may have to start using more if this turns out well for this site.

Pinterest:

My changes made an immediate difference yesterday. Tiny, but from getting 0 traffic to some I'll take it. Made another board today.

Clicks to Amazon were low, but that's to be expected for a while. What was actually pretty cool was seeing it come from three different sources. I have a feeling they will be MUCH higher a month from now.

salute to OP ...this is a huge success by far ...top notch thing

Strong work ethic, good sir. Curious to see how the press release works out for you. I thought about getting one, actually. This might be a newbie question, do you link to your homepage or an article url for a keyword you're targeting? This is a great thread...very inspiring.

buttfungus said:

salute to OP ...this is a huge success by far ...top notch thing

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Thanks! It?s far from a huge success at the moment, but I will take it there. Your name made me chuckle.

Windhelm said:

Strong work ethic, good sir. Curious to see how the press release works out for you. I thought about getting one, actually. This might be a newbie question, do you link to your homepage or an article url for a keyword you're targeting? This is a great thread...very inspiring.

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Appreciate it, thank you. Typically there?s a link to your home page and a few supplemental articles as well. That?s what the provider I use on here does, and I like it because it shares that link juice to all of them without getting spammy.

Another part to consider is what KW your home page is targeting and if is it ranking. I can?t imagine a press release NOT linking to the home page, but what I?m getting at is if your home page lacks a good (low competition) KW it probably won?t significantly change it. My second site is like that in the sense that the home page just serves as a hub for interlinking to other articles and doesn?t really rank as far as I know.

Using a to-do list was a massive boost to my productivity and saved me a ton of time. Highly recommend trying it.

It feels like the theme of this week is leveraging social media better by building an audience. Realistically it is going to take a long time for my sites to gain traction with SEO alone. However, it is a little labor intensive to try to do it for three websites so I am using Twitter as a basic test for one. I also post the same things on Facebook, but I am at a bit of a loss for how to gain real likes without paying for sponsored posts.

Site 1:

Pointed another web 2.0 at it


Site 2:

Wrote Product review


Site 3:

Updated web 2.0s with additional content (2 out of 3 still not indexed)
Followed users on Twitter


Pinterest:

Created another board. Pinterest users don't want a concise profile, they want a catalog of the niche to look through. So I'm going to give that to them! I had some boards that were more of a category so I am breaking those down for more boards. That means more keywords that I rank for as well.

Got a few clicks, but no sales. Only a matter of time.

The grind continues

I'm glad that site 3 is nearing completion on the content side. All of the sites need attention and polish, and I have the rest of the month before I start working on site 4 to give them some much needed polish. Both site 1 and 3 have yet to start ranking in Google despite starting to rank in Yahoo and Bing.

Site 1:

1. Submitted sitemap to webmaster tools
2. Changed theme back to original for speed. The new one I switched to was way slower, and bloated with plugins.

Site 3:

1. Submitted sitemap to webmaster tools.
2. Two web 2.0s that weren't indexed yesterday are now indexed, aww yeah.
3. Wrote product review.
4. Added a link from one web 2.0
5. Improved the home page a bit, making it more personal.
6. Followed users in the niche on Twitter. Haven't seen traffic from it yet, but it's only been a few days

Pinterest:

Determined to crack the code on this one. Followers are growing, just not at the pace I would like. Added another board as well as some products on my site to match it.

That's all for now!

Turns out big G likes sitemaps, go figure. Rankings vary from upper 40's to 100, overall very pleased for an overnight result in SEO

Really not a ton to report on individual sites now that I have streamlined my process, so I will probably not include the drilled down report as it's pretty boring writing the same thing on a daily basis. Press release for site 1 should be submitted, added more content to site 3. The Twitter/Facebook experiment continues as well.

I've been doing a lot of reading on Pinterest lately. Seems like every blogger has SOMETHING to say, but every now and then you find some quality tips that help. It seems like there's always something that can be done better. Traffic is still tiny, but increasing by around 25% each day.

Zero.

Clicks.

To Amazon.

That one had me a little bothered when I checked my stats this morning. I think I refreshed the page three times! It's a given thing that can happen when you have low traffic to your sites.

Right now I'm getting a small amount of visitors from social media as my sites are not yet ranking. Twitter is picking up a little bit.

Wrote a nice product review for site 3, as well as updated the home page's interlinking a bit. I thought I did that a while ago, whoops! Currently up to 16 pages of content on it, once it hits 20 I will consider it relatively complete as it is getting a little more tough to find things to write about. Not bad considering the site is only 8 or 9 days old.

Already starting to think about how I want to approach making site 4 I might not wait until next month to start it!

Glad to see you're still going strong. I hear you on the Amazon clicks, too! One day, I might get 50-60 clicks one day and the next day I might get 4. I can't wait to get some traffic coming in. I'm looking forward to see how fast you get ranking.