DMOZ, DMOZ WHAT DO YOU SAY?!

#3 is in DMOZ!!! More later....


Later is now. 9:49 PM.

I found out that #3 made it into DMOZ when I checked my stats and had received 2 visitors from the directory. The page I am on is a PR5 with a bunch of other links of course. I think the real benefit of being in DMOZ is the fact that your site shows up in other directories automatically. There are a multitude of smaller directories that take their results directly from DMOZ. Getting in there means you get into these smaller directories as well. I guess the word "stoked" would apply in this case=)

I did write a home theater article today but after 11.5 hours at work today, I was not in the mood to actually type it up and post. Plus the DMOZ thing got me excited and I started doing directory submissions for #3 in earnest. The way things are going, #3 will probably be the strongest of the three sites from the link exchanges I have been able to get. I haven't even submitted articles for it yet. The author is working on those now.

Speaking of directory submissions, I may create my own directory resource guide. One with directories I know to be worthwhile so that I have a quick and easy resource for submissions each time I create a new site.

Lazy Bug

I caught it. I'm having trouble staying focused and getting work done. Part of the problem is that I am working longer hours this week so that I can have Tuesday off. That and I plugged up my Xbox for the first time since January. Oh well, I can use a hiatus to keep from getting burned out.

My email link exchange campaign continues to provide results. It may also be the reason for the jump in page impressions the last few days. Broke $50 today but Adsense has been terrible the last few days. My traffic (at least page impressions) is up but the clicks aren't. It's frustrating to see my CTR plummet. Oh well.

My writer returned the first 2 articles out of the 30 article project today. I'm glad that I am not the one doing the content right now. As unmotivated as I am right now, there really wouldn't be much quality there. I did to a little php work to prepare for one of my merchants. It's not working as it should but I'll figure it out. On with the light lifting days.

Just Another Blog Entry

Not much to say as far as the sites go. The last two days I have done nothing on them. I am starting to get results from my link exchange email campaign. The cut and paste template I use works decently I guess.

#3 had 44 visitors today according to StatCounter. Of course this was inflated. GREATLY inflated. It was counting page views and came up with the 44. One interesting thing to note about it though, 2 of those visitors were DMOZ editors. 2 different editors looked at the site and view most of the pages, if not all of them. Here's to hoping that there will be good news on that front. It would be interesting to see if DMOZ really has a significant effect on SE rankings.

That's about it. I'm 90 cents from breaking $50 for the month. The last three days have been rough for Adsense. It's amazing how perceptions change. Last month I would have celebrated those earnings, this month I consider them to be low. I like progression.

New News

Being the slow individual that I am, I just figured out how to check the stats on an add-on domain when you can have more than one site with a host. #3 is indexed in all three major search engines and the spiders were all there last night. Seems to me that they probably discovered the site last weekend then. That is fast considering that there are only a couple inbound links to it. The spiders maybe becoming more efficient. Who knows. That's great though, I was expecting it to take much longer than this.

The new 30 article project is in the works for my author. We discussed it and home theater isn't her strong suit so that will remain in my arena. 30 articles for #2 and 3 will be great though, now all I have to concentrate on is home theater content and link exchanging. For #2 and 3, I have focused on link exchanging in the beginning rather than directories. I'm just speculating with no evidence to back me up but I doubt directory entries are weighed very heavily. Directories rarely seem to pass on PR and that is a major influence in getting people to link to you. They want PR and the more you have on your link page, the more people will want to link to you. That's not to say that I don't use the directories anymore, I do. They just aren't a priority. The directories will always be there and I can submit at anytime but boosting my PR is the key to getting more links. Directories just don't seem to do the job.

I haven't put much effort into checking out the newsletter route since I mentioned a while back. I talked to Jean-Rene and he says it costs him $19/month, I believe. I'm not sure but my host may have something. I will look into it.

The Business is chugging away with Adsense. I will probably break $50 for the month, almost a 170% improvement over last month. I want sales. Maybe it's just time that I need. I have the same level of traffic but my Adsense goes up each month. It could be the same with sales, I don't know. I don't like relying on Adsense completely, it should only be a supplement in my opinion. Too bad that's not the case for my sites yet.

Night Off

Upon the urging of a friend, I'm taking the night off. She says I work too much. I'd have to agree. If I'm not working for the State, then I am working for myself. I'm going to have some ice cream.

I did find out something interesting this morning before work. The Universal Template is well designed for Adsense. In its first month, #2 has a CTR that is six times that of the home theater site in its first month. I decided to compare HTAR's second month since the first was full of overhauls. The CTR of #2 is twice that of HTAR's in the second month. Comparing this month, it is almost 2 points above HTAR. People aren't lying when they say the Heatmap works. If you have a chance to design your next site around it, do so!

$100.47! BOOOM!

At some point during the day while I was at work, The Business broke $100 for the first time. I'm going to have some ice cream to celebrate. It feels good to finally be over the hump. I also broke my goal for average daily revenue that I missed last month. As of today I am 181% above last month's daily average. Good Stuff.

I wrote an article on the importance of remote controls in home theater. I also tried to do some more link exchanges for the home theater site. It is getting harder and harder to do though. I have pretty much run out of sites that have forms and have had to resort to emailing webmasters. This has returned few results in the past. I have created a link exchange template so that I can copy and paste it into the email.

$100.47
=)

Reformulated for Performance

Came home from work today after a rough day and went through my usual stat checking ritual. You can imagine my surprise when I found that #2 had 10 visitors today. This is up from the one or two that occasionally find their way there. All 10 were from MSN and one of my submitted articles. I checked and I am on the first page for 3 big keyword phrases. Whether this is a semi-permanent thing or if it will pull the Yahoo-new site shuffle remains to be seen. #2 put in 44% of my total revenue for the day. Not much in actual cash but it's a start. Hopefully these events are shades of things to come.

One thing worries me though. I rely FAR too heavily on MSN for my traffic. I can't seem to make any headway with Yahoo and Google is a pipedream right now.

Inspired by Bootstrappin' Burke's master plan, I have formulated a method of attack that will not only provide me with content but also the means to create newsletters for all three sites. I will start buying articles at a faster rate. If I devote that $150/month that I have been putting aside at each pay period, I could have enough articles to update each site twice a week. From these articles, I can create a monthly newsletter that would basically summarize the articles for the previous month and talk about other things if necessary. I've heard it said too many times that newsletters and email lists help sites weather shifts in the search engines. I can't afford to ignore creating a newsletter for much longer.

Another Short Update

Nothing really new since yesterday and my rant. I put in more link exchange requests for #3. It's been awhile but I am headed back to Link Metro to find potential sites. In the very least, all of them have link pages that I can siphon more potential link partners from. I need to do the same for HTAR and #2, they've been on the back burner long enough. I'm thinking that I will outsource some articles for those two, too. Be warned, once you start outsourcing it will be very difficult to go back to doing that same work yourself.

Adsense has been doing well for me this month. HTAR is pulling the other two along right now but every so often, #2 will contribute a little something to the cause. I am single digit dollar amount from the $100 threshold. With my daily average like it is now, I could even hit it by Saturday. Don't worry, you will know when it happens=) I may have to get a big spotlight and paint "$" on it like the Bat Signal, but you'll know.

Obligations

Well this weekend I didn't get much accomplished. I was able to get some link exchange requests for #3 out there. Two have been completed already. Thankfully, sites in this area are very much into the form link request. I don't really bother with the people who say, "Post my link and email me to get yours posted." Been burned too many times by people who are too lazy or lack the ethics to actually follow through. I also had my first two legitimate search engine visitors to #2 from MSN. I'm showing up on page 1 and 2 for the two phrases that were searched.

Disclaimer:
I'm about to go off so if you aren't in the mood for an editorial/rant, you should probably stop reading. You've been warned.

Sometimes (often times) I put more on my shoulders than I have any right to. I'm pissed off because I am helpless. I don't have the power to effect change in the world like I want. I can scream and shout, protest and vote and things don't go the way I want them to. Last night at 3 am some friends and I had an alcohol influenced conversation on the state of this country and it stuck with me when I got up today. There are so many things to choose from but I am going to talk about oil.

Our dependence on oil is the root of all evil. So many things would be for the better if we would just wean ourselves off of petroleum. The problem comes from the people in power; too many of them made their money from oil or have connections to people currently making their money from it. Rather than trying to find renewable forms of energy, you have insidious, corrupt individuals like Tom DeLay wanting to drill in Alaska. Why? Because his constituents are made up of major petroleum companies out of Houston. They have power, I don't.

I read a book by Dave Ramsey awhile back and in the end he said it is the obligation of the just and good of the world to accumulate wealth. In doing so, the just gain power to effect change in the world; change that the unjust have monopolized for too long.

This quest of mine to become wealthy goes beyond the desire to live the life I want; the desire to have the things that I want. This is also about fulfilling this self-imposed obligation to try to effect positive change in the world around me. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I can take on the oil industry or anything like that but I do think that I can do some good somewhere, somehow. Even if it is something small it will be better than not doing anything at all. Like I said, I probably have no right to put that obligation on my shoulders but it's there and I'm going to run with it.

#3 is Live!

The air conditioner broke at the office again yesterday so instead of sitting in a 95 degree building for 8 1/2 hours, I took some sick leave. I spent the day writing an article for #2 and finishing up the final portions of #3. I officially have 3 websites now. I will spend a month or two just building content on these before moving on to #4 and #5 . #3 went up in record time. The combination of the Universal Template and outsourcing my content writing gave me a level of efficiency that is starting to approach what I am looking for. I will have to go back through the archive and find out what day I shifted focus over to #3 to find out just how long it took.

If feels good to have #3 up. The RSS, Adsense, interlinking pages, resource and add url pages are all up. I ran through the site quickly to fix any conspicuous problems but it's looking good. There was a background image that didn't look very good when it was repeated so I had to do some Photoshop doctoring there.

Inevitably, I will have that period of several days where I have no idea what to do. Especially now that all 3 are up and the Universal Template sites really don't need the overhauls that HTAR went through, I can foresee being lost in the void for a little bit. I guess the next months will be all content and traffic focused. Not sure I like that=) There's a thrill that goes with creating something. This website building is becoming addictive.

I can't wait until #2 and 3 start getting traffic. Like I said before, the Universal Template I created (and these two are based on) was made with the Google Heatmap in mind as well as the ad units that were reported to have the best results. It will be awhile for them to get to the level of HTAR though. They do not have my blog and those of a few other people to help boost them like the home theater site did/does. Only time will tell.

An interesting situation has come up. As many of you know, I submit articles for the inbound links and the traffic but I did not write most of the content for #3. While I bought the rights to all of them when I paid her, am I able to submit any of them to article directories? These are the questions.

More Accomplished

The home page and category pages are complete for #3. I didn't go through each page to check on interlinking possiblities. What is CMS, Nikki? Is it something you use?

#3 needs the resources page, add url page, RSS, and Adsense before it will be ready for traffic. Adsense shouldn't be a problem since I have already installed the SSI for it in most of the pages. I just have to go back to the early ones and make sure it's in there.

That's essentially all for tonight. Sorry to disappoint. I am going to start looking into starting a newsletter on one of the sites. People swear by it so maybe there's something to it. I am also going to diversify my Adwords account soon for more home theater related terms. This will bring in more traffic, hopefully. I added close to 300 words for cables and it had no effect because the terms were WAY too targeted. Other than that, it's the same old thing.

Damned Tired

I was able to upload all of the articles today. That was a beast. I still need to do the text for the category pages and home page. The site map is up to date though and all of the pages have at least been created. They may not have words, but they are all up. I will write the category pages and home page tomorrow. I will also go through the articles again to make sure there are no mistakes and change the wording here and there. There are also places that I want to create hyperlinks to interlink the pages. I'm hella tired.

I need less than a 20 dollar bill now in order to get a check for Adsense. Feels pretty good but it sheds light on something that I really haven't put much focus on lately. Traffic. Sure, all the things I do like link exchanges, SEO, and article submissions are round about ways of achieving traffic but this is starting to bother me. I will probably write this next statement off as just being the result of impatience and weariness before I go to sleep but I will say it anyway. The site is 3 or 4 months old (HTAR) and I am still getting the same amount of traffic as I did in it's first weeks of life. The sources of the traffic have changed but the amount has not. I have yet to break 40 visitors in a day if I remember correctly. Like I said, I could just be being impatient but it seems like I would be able to at least average 30-35 by now and not still be stuck at 25. What do you think?

She's an Overachiever

My writer contacted me and let me know that she's finished with the 10 articles, two days ahead of my estimate and six days ahead of the deadline. While at work, I decided that I will go for another 30 articles for #3. I had said that I would not pay $5/article again in one of the comments the other day but I have to take that back. She did well and it wouldn't be right of me to pay her less. This particular author will be the one I go to for #3. I already talked to her about the bigger project, we will see if she accepts. That will put #3 at 46 articles in its first 2-3 weeks of life. That is almost as many as HTAR. Good stuff. I will use other authors for HTAR and #2 and pay them less since this is content that I can do well myself.

I was able to write another article for #3 myself but it really isn't as good as my writer's. I need to work on the home page, category pages, and resource page before the site is ready to go live.

I have my PHP book. It was really dirty and the cover was cut when I got it so I will be sending it back to Amazon and getting a new one. PHP is far more difficult than HTML. I remember why I hate programming so much. I'm not sure when I will get the PHP page for #2 up but I will need to do so soon. That page will be the main money maker for #2, possibly even The Business.

Where's Yahoo?

It's been weeks since I was ranked in Yahoo. Right now, all of my SE traffic comes from MSN and Adwords. I don't know what happened in the last Yahoo update but it completely blew the home theater site out of the water. If I could only get back in there, my site would probably average between 50 and 60 visitors a day. Sigh, alas.

My author will be finished with the articles by Wednesday by my estimation. That will mean #3 will be live shortly thereafter. I will spend a month or two just adding content to my three sites before preparing for my final 2 for the year. If things continue with HTAR (home theater site) and start to pick up with #2, I will be getting an Adsense check every month. This will probably start to take place by October. Once The Business is making $200/month, I will stop making the $150/month contribution from my pay check. It will officially be standing on it's own two feet.

Try This Out

I was in the Webmaster World forum when I picked up this tip. If you are running Adsense on your sites, go into the competitive ad filter and put in ebay.com and dealtime.com. The guy who made the post said that his revenue improved because those two have many ads that are low paying and sometimes aren't relevant to the page they are displayed on. I did this and my daily revenue has doubled and tripled over the earnings that I had been achieving previously while amount of traffic has remained the same. Here's the problem: I know I made the changes this previous week but uncharacteristically, I did not take note of what day. So I don't know for sure if there is a direct correlation between the change I made and my revenue or if this is just a fluke. If you test this out, let me know how it goes.

My author just finished article #6. I have not yet reviewed it. This writer hiring stuff is great though. In fact, I may start monthly newsletters for my sites now that someone else can do the writing. We will see.

Lil' Inspiration

I was planning on today being another light weight day of link exchanging for the home theater site and #2 but I was over at Nikki's blog and I read her entry about writing 10 million articles in a day. I decided that if Nikki could write 10 million (only a slight exaggeration) then I could do one. So I did. Wrote a new article for #2. Its not a long one but I've been keeping my articles short for the new sites. The home theater site is geared toward people like me who want to know every single detail about a subject and love reading a long article. #2 and 3 are geared toward everyone else who just want their info quick and easy. It will be interesting to see if that has any effect on their success.

The last three days have been great for Adsense. In fact, I just got back from my shower and my earnings had doubled in the time that I was getting springtime fresh. Still haven't hit the 4 buck mark in a day this month but I am several dollars ahead of where I was last month at this time.

I am anxiously awaiting the articles from my author. Those 10 articles will put #3 at the 15 article mark with all sections having at least 2 article. That means it'll be ready to go live!

Headaches and Titles Don't Mix

I spent today trying to get more links for the home theater site. As many home theater sites as there are out there, most are merchants without links pages. It is a hunt to find sites that actually do link exchanges. Even when I find them, if they have a link to their email rather than a form for exchanging links I have little hope of accomplishing anything. There is a group of sites that I got kicked out of months ago for not following the directions that I resubmitted to today. Hopefully they have forgotten me and put my link back up=)

#2 made it's first bit of revenue today, just under 50 cents from Adsense. Just need to get more traffic. There is a thing going on right now with sites in it's niche where they host each other's articles. I don't know exactly how it works but it looks like a great traffic generator and a way to start making contacts with people in this area. Good stuff.

My author finished the first 2 articles for #3 that I hired her for. With the exception of 2 changes, they looked pretty good. She approached each from angles that I would never have thought about. This hiring authors thing is great. I need these sites to start making more money so that I can hire more authors. Like I said, every dollar, quarter, nickel, dime and penny will be reinvested into The Business for at least one year. This will buy a lot of content and Adwords traffic. Brings a smile to my face.

Terrible Weekend

I honestly can't think of a single good thing that happened this weekend. I didn't feel like posting this weekend, and I still don't but I will anyway.

Wrote an article for the home theater site about home theater amplifiers today. I will be trying to redo my Value Exchange entry for #2. I did it almost 2 weeks ago and still have heard nothing from them.

Hired my author yesterday. She said that the 10 articles would be about 300+ words in length and they would be ready in about 10 days. They are all for #3.

Reordered my PHP book, should be here Friday.

Added some more articles to #2 and #3. Solidified the structure for #3.

I know there are other things that I did but I just can't think of what they are. Mark asked me this weekend if I ever get fed up with doing this affiliate stuff. Hell yes. It happens a lot. It is the reason most people don't make it in affiliate marketing. They let the times that they get fed up stop them. Don't let that happen to you and I will not let it happen to me either. Deal?

2 for 2 for 3

This is the second day in a row that I have pulled 2 articles off for #3. Feels pretty good. I'm waiting to do the category pages until I have written the articles this time around. This will let me write a better overview and get better results from visitors. That was about all I did for the sites today but I'm happy with my two articles.

Now for the real stuff. Tomorrow it happens. I have opened my account at Rentacoder and tomorrow I make my first project available for bids. Scary stuff. Terrifying stuff, actually. It must be done. I just can't do all of this on my own with the speed and volume that I would like across 3 websites. I need help. Despite the fact that it isn't my money being spent but The Business's money, I am still more than a little apprehensive about the whole thing. First time jitters. It's just like anything else, have to get over it and get the job done. Tomorrow it happens. Stay tuned...things are about to get interesting.

[Update 10:27 PM: F-it! Did it tonight. My project is out there waiting to be approved and posted on their site.]

Back to Action!

Wrote and published the first two articles for #3 today. At 3:30 am this morning, a condenser essentially shattered in the a/c system at work. It got to about 85 degrees before they let us go home at 12. I used that time to write these articles and take a nap (naps are good, leave me alone). This was just one of those things. I was using the fact that I didn't know anything on the subject as a way to stall and put off writing. I finally just forced myself to work and 2 articles were the result. If I can pull 1-2 articles per day, I could actually have #3 traffic ready by the 15th. I have a very important graduation to attend the 12th and the 13th will be shot from partying the night before so the earliest would be that Monday. Doubtful but we're talking hypotheticals here, people. Indulge me.

After #3 is up, I'm going to take a month or 2 to get the first 3 sites bulked up. Corn-fed even! Yes...beasts in their respective niches. Predatorily devouring all competition. And I will sit back, cackling madly....

Directories for #2

I spent most of the latter part of the night submitting #2 to various directories, it's tedious work. I was able to submit to 10 manually and a few through SelfPromotion.com. Using my spreadsheet, I can keep track of where I've submitted to and when. Pretty handy when you come across a good directory and want to remember it for your other sites.

I ordered my PHP book from Amazon. As hard as I tried, there's something about trying to learn from text on a computer. I just can't do it, it kills me. So the book should be here Friday or Monday.

Need to start doing research for #3. I'll do some tonight and possibly write an article tomorrow.

I was able to start my keyword list for #2 today. I also found a tool that cuts down on the time it takes to do the punctuations in Adwords. It'll shave hours off for anyone who does ppc.

That's all for now.

1st 5 Pages Up for #3

That's right, after what seemed like would end up being a useless night I was able to get the first 5 pages up on #3. No articles mind you, but pages nonetheless. The universal template is awesome. I was telling Tara that if I knew more on the subject and really put in work everyday, I could have this one live by the 13th. Blazin' fast. That's from nothing but a template and header to a fledgling content site in 2 weeks. That's pretty good in my opinion. I know there are those of you that can have a full site in a weekend but I'm not quite there yet. Once I get some writers maybe...

Not much else to say. Testing Adlinks on the home theater site to see if they do any better. Today has been a terrible day for Adsense so it maybe a while before I can give you a definitive on how good it is.

MSN stopped by #2 yesterday so I should be getting indexed there soon. The sooner the better. MSN is my major source of traffic for the home theater site. I can definitely use some of that on #2.