Posts Tagged ‘Wordpress’
Taking baby steps forward
So far, I’ve taken itty bitty steps forwards utilizing my plan of action that I talked about previously.
I built my niche minisite targeting some keywords within the pregnancy niche. I chose those keywords because of my own personal experience. I figured it would be a lot easier to get my feet wet if I was actually knowledgeable and interested in the topic.
Because the targeted keywords are in the pregnancy niche, I designed a simple pink WordPress theme that would be clean and easy on the eye. There are no heavy graphics. I wanted the theme to load quickly. A grungy theme would not work well ;)
Since the domain I purchased from Godaddy was live within minutes of purchase, I was able to upload and install the WordPress script as well as upload and start up the minimal plugins needed.
For me, designing the theme, install the script (I upload the script to my hosting and add the database username and password myself. I don’t Use Fantastico), and getting the plugins started are the easy part. It’s thinking of keywords and writing several different articles about the keywords that I find hard, if not boring and tedious work.
I spent the 2nd day of this project writing up 3 different articles, each targeting one specific keyword. The title of each article included the keyword and I made sure to sprinkle the keyword throughout the article.
When I’m not focusing on specifically writing to grab traffic through articles, I can write seemingly forever. 600-1000 words would be a cinch. But when I have to focus on grabbing traffic, I get writer’s block. It’s a struggle to write an article worth 400 words.
I put my main article on the first page of the site. I did not use the posting feature. Instead I used the page feature and posted each article to its own page. This made my site look more like a regular site than a blog.
Once all articles were up, I added 3 different ways for monetizing the site: Adsense integrated into the articles, as well as Ebay ads and affiliate links in the sidebar.
I haven’t been heavily promoting the site as I’m very new to traffic generation. I’ve read up on the many different types of traffic generation and took notes. So far I’ve submitted articles to Ezine and a few other article directories (I now have a basic plus account with Ezine. Aiming for platinum status), I pinged the site at pingoat.net, I used Onlywire.com for social bookmarking the site, and I’ve used USFreeAds.com to post an ad regarding the site. I purchased a monthly subscription with the classifieds ad site so that I can post unlimited ads.
Traffic generation options that I haven’t utilized but am considering are forum posting (I’m iffy about this because I’m not big on setting up accounts at many different forums to discuss a topic I don’t know much if anything about), submitting to RSS feed directories, blog commenting, and submitting to press release sites.
Those methods above are all free methods. I don’t have money to pay for ppc or offline ads so that’s out of the question.
So far, the traffic to the site has been minimal. But what can I expect when I’ve only got 3 articles written and only 2 of them have been submitted?
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Tags: Article Marketing, method, traffic, Wordpress | 
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Plan of Action
For many years I’ve dabbled a little here… a little there… read a lot, researched even more ’till I felt like my eyeballs would bleed. I’m a researcher. I can’t help it. Unfortunately, that’s led me to a place called information overload. This causes me to absolutely nothing.
Recently, I decided that my main focus was going to be building and flipping minisites. It allows me to use my abilities: graphics, web design, and writing. My husband thinks it’s a good idea. He said it’s the first real plan I’ve come up with that has a good possibility of making me some money.
I’ve been waiting for the moderators of the War Room to accept my thread. It’s the one where I offer up a free pack of WordPress themes for the members. Unfortunately, they have yet to accept it. I sent for help in their support area and was told that it can actually take up to 4 weeks for my thread to be accepted. Holy cow! 4 weeks?!? I hate waiting.
I finally decided that waiting around for my thread to get accepted was a waste of time.
I spent most of yesterday gathering up all the ebooks I had on finding niches, building minisites, writing articles, and flipping sites and read them all. I took notes and condensed everything down to a few pages that I’m going to print out.
I finally finished my note-taking this morning. I’ve read and reread everything. I had to take action.
I started to get nervous as I purchased a domain that will collect emails from people interested in buying my websites, as well as a domain to create my first minisite. I’m on a very limited budget of $200. I was able to find a coupon online to use which knocked down the cost of my Godaddy domains from $20 to $15.
Since I’m on a limited budget, I’m using the free Bravenet mailing list. Once I start making steady money, I will switch over to Aweber.
I created a simple black theme for my main site and uploaded it. I had to go through the motions of adding the 2 new domains to my hostgator account, creating databases for both, as well as email addresses. I then uploaded and installed WordPress (an awesome free blogging platform that is widely used) onto both domains. I have to install the necessary plugins on the site I’m going to flip.
It’s been slow going not because I’m a novice at all this (I’ve been a webmaster since 1999), but because I’m nervous and don’t want to fail. I’m scared shitless.
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Tags: building sites, flipping, nervous, scared, Themes, War Room, Wordpress |
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Themes, Templates, Minisites and More
Spent a lot of time reading threads in the War Room as well as the Warrior Forum as a whole. Learned a lot. I still am as I have so much more to learn.
I decided yesterday that I needed to give back to the members of the War Room. So I buckled down and designed 10 WordPress themes. They all have a clean design to them. Nothing fancy or ugly.
I’m seriously putting myself out there for fellow members to see and judge my work. It’s not going to be the best they’ve ever seen, I’m sure. But it took a lot just for me to press that post button to reach out to the community. We’ll see how it goes. Moderators still have to approve my thread.
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Tags: minisites, templates, Themes, War Room, Warrior Forum, Wordpress |
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Pimp My Flip
I decided to type up the review as I’m reading the content. You can visit the site I bought the package from here. It essentially teaches you how to build and develop a WordPress (free blogging script) site and then sell it for a profit.
After buying the package, I was led to the download page. Once everything was downloaded, I was left with folders that included the ebook, videos, and some plugins. So far, so good.
The first folder I looked at was labeled as the intro. I figured it would make sense to start there. I watched the first video which explained how the author got the idea for Pimp My Flip. Then he continues a basic intro about site flipping. Next he briefly touches on the topics that he discusses in his guide. I noticed that the author talks slowly, clearly, and pauses. I’ve seen many videos where the person talks rapidly and I’d have to replay part of it more than once to understand what the person was saying.
I know there are videos to watch in the other folders but I decided to forego them and read the guide instead. On first glance, I must say that the ebook was professionally done. And yes, it is in PDF format =D. The ebook starts with a brief intro about the author as well as a few links to his own sites. Then there is a copyright notice and a nicely laid out table of contents. The ebook seems packed with a lot of info. The 6 topics are broken down further into sub-topics. Note that the ebook is 74 pages long. The main topics include how to choose a domain name, how to customize the WordPress blog templates, a section on plugins (I love WordPress plugins btw), how to create custom content, how to add other types of content to the blog, and live examples.
In the domain section, Kitwana (the author) discusses some good tips about choosing domains. He also points out some places (including screenshots) that I never heard of where you can go to get ideas for domain names. He did give a warning about using such sites that I didn’t even know about. Good tip to be aware of!
In the next section, Kitwana talks about themes. I’ve used WordPress on a number of sites for many years. Since I’ve always been a person who has to customize everything, I was thrilled about the countless places where I can get free WordPress themes. But in my own personal experience, I learned that not all templates are coded the same. When I first started poking around in the template code years ago, I was quite overwhelmed. I didn’t know anything except the basic html that I learned at my tech school. Some templates are very basic and others are very complex. Some people who code and design their templates have messy, hard-to-read code. I also found templates that had very clean, well-organized code. They even labeled each section of code.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to design templates for my own purposes as well as sell them to the public. But as much as I’d like to learn how to code my own templates, I don’t have the luxury of time on my side. While reading Kitwana’s ebook, I Googled wordpress theme generator and found a couple free ones. However, none of them seem to match the paid software that he mentions in his book. The cost isn’t steep. Pretty reasonable I think. I downloaded the trial version and will more than likely go pay for the full version. The author even suggests an idea on how to make the software pay for itself.
Having an eye-catching header for your blog is important, especially when you’re trying to sell your site. Kitwana suggested a free software that will help the graphically-challenged user create good looking headers. I’m a graphic designer myself but I can always use ideas. He also points out a tutorial for those willing to venture into using graphics software like Photoshop, also a favorite of mine.
I’m only on page 33 of the ebook and I really like it so far. It’s easy to read and Kitwana took the time to point out several very useful links to resources that will greatly help the novice site flipper. He uses screenshots which is great for us visual learners ;).
The next section discusses plugins. Since I’m a plugin freak, I figured I wouldn’t learn anything new. After all, I’m all about mods, enhancements, and customization. I may not know anything about coding my plugins, but I’m very comfortable with searching for, installing, and using them. Surprisingly enough, I did learn about some plugins that I never heard of before. Since WordPress is extremely popular and easy to use, there have been countless free as well as premium (paid) plugins out there that greatly enhance WordPress. It’s a great platform. The plugins that Kitwana discusses in his ebook are separated into 3 categories: under the hood, look and feel, and money makers. I won’t list them here. You’d have to buy the ebook. I found several that I’m not currently using. He talks about each one and offers a direct link to where you can find said plugins. I will definitely be researching them and comparing them to other similar plugins. I always like to keep my options open.
The next section covers content. Ever heard of the cliche “Content is King!”? Well, aparently in most cases, it’s true. Writing has always come naturally for me but being a stay at home mom who homeschools her kids doesn’t allow me much time to sit down and write a ton of different articles on various niche topics. Kitwana talks about different places that you can purchase your PLR content. I’ve always been a big fan of PLR. I’ve never actually used it yet but I know the importance and usefulness of it. The list of readily accessible places he talks about has some that I’m familiar and others that I’m not. Like I said, it’s good to have options. Kitwana also goes into depth about other things that you can add to your WordPress site to make it content-rich.
What I found to be very useful was the fact that Kitwana laid out his website creation process in list-form. Then he explains each step in further detail. I bought a lot of ebooks and how to make money packages online over the past 5 years, and I would have to say that 98% of them fail to give clearly defined steps. The stuff I read in the past was filled with junk, theories, and useless information.
I’ve now come to the end of the ebook. Since it’s now 12:24 am, I’m exhausted. It would not have taken me so long to finish a 74 page ebook if I wasn’t such a big multi-tasker. Not to mention the fact that I stay home to raise my kids.
My recommendation: I give this book an A+++! It’s jam-packed with extremely useful information. Kitwana did an excellent job showing the absolute newbie (me) the ropes when it comes to getting my feet wet with site flipping via WordPress. I know there are several other ebooks out there that also discuss flipping sites and eventually I’ll buy them too. Even Kitwana says that it never hurts to buy ebooks and extract information from them to learn different methods of making money on the net.
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Tags: ebook, Site Flipping, Wordpress |
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The only place where I buy my domains
