If you are still hanging with me, you know I’ve been working on my adsense website portfolio. I have got to tell you that having a plan and following it makes a big difference. When I get up each day, I know exactly what my goal is for the day. It’s not too much and I think it will prove to be not to little. All I have to do is one post and four backlinks. Ironically, it motivates me to do more. Because when I get done what I have decided I HAVE to do to succeed, I can then feel free to do more than that as well.
Take this site for example. I’ve been posting on it nearly every day since I started the plan. Maybe since Griz sent me some traffic, I felt a little pressure to do that. After all, I only had my one post on here when he did that. But, in talking about it each day, it provides some focus.
What I am finding to when it comes to the adsense websites, is that it’s not all that hard once you start doing it. When I first started, I would do the content, but not do any real backlinking. Mainly because I didn’t know what to do. Thanks to the Keyword Academy and Griz, I really understand that now. Once I started doing it, it’s really pretty easy to do.
The content though can be a struggle. I know on my financial site, I’ve been getting more involved and needed to provide a little more information in my last post. I had to stretch myself a little, because it is easy just to throw your keywords in there without any meaning. I’ve done that, and I think that it works. But, the search engines can tell by visitor behavior what the content is like on your site, so even though I don’t have to, I want to provide content that’s good as well.
Stretching yourself though is what this is about. Developing a work ethic when you are working by yourself is the toughest task that you have. There is no one to hold you accountable. It might be easier for me since I’ve been self employed for around 15 years now. There is a learning curve to working on your own. Eventually, you figure it out. The key is to try and improve each day and not to beat yourself up when you don’t live up to your expectations. The other suggestion I have is work privately. Don’t bother to tell anyone what you are doing. I know when I first started working on my own, it was tough enough by itself without having to deal with the negativity from others. Most people when faced with a challenge cave in to the pressure. And, in many cases, most people don’t really want you to succeed because then it puts more pressure on them to do better. Be your own person. Take everything you study and learn and make it your own. Don’t just copy.
So anyway, enough of the pep talk…
I was doing a little research for my next project (which is The Clickbank Startup) when I came across the idea of adsense ready websites and adsense website templates. If you are tempted to buy those, I wouldn’t waste your money. Take the time, to build your own sites and test them with your results. Most of the time, these types of packages are a waste of money and you’ll probably be disappointed. I know I was when I first started. Surprisingly, a lot of what you need to succeed is free except if you buy a domain name and hosting account. If you have a computer and an internet connection. YOU are in business.
I am also happy to report that I got my first real search visitor to this site after about 1600 page views. I don’t know if this will make an good google adsense website, but I am targeting everything in it just in case. No backlinks here although I have been getting blog rolls to this site. My plan for Thursday is:
- Make a post on my financial site
- Get four backlinks
- Make a post on my insurance site (I am an agent in case you wondered why I chose that)
- Get backlinks if I have time for the insurance site
- Get backlinks for search terms to my financial site
- Write a post about my clickbank project
In addition, I’ve been spending time trying to figure out how to keep track of link partners because I am garnering quite a collection. So, if I get time, I will work on that some more.
Go get’em!
UPDATE: I did get my required work done today although I put it off for most of the day. I wrote two posts here, one on my insurance site and one on my financial site. On my financial site, I got my four backlinks. It seems like forever before ezine articles get approved and one came through today and brought with it some traffic. Surprise of the day? I sold a clickbank product and earned $25 bucks.
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Keep up the good work!
Excellent report. And great on that CB sale too … the real secret is, you just have to do it … how many have been reading here for the past 1 or 2 weeks and have not yet done anything? Hmmm?
I was taken by this remark: “… But, the search engines can tell by visitor behavior what the content is like on your site … ”
This is one of those srguements that can’t always be proven … but is seldom mentioned by the ‘back links’ experts or especially the ‘buy my stuff’ gurus’. I hadn’t seen it written out as you did in a long time.
So, on a whim, I looked at Google Analytics and sorted my sites from the highest to the lowest in “Average Time on Site” and then by “Bounce Rate” (lowest to highest). The bounce rate is often known as the “they came, they saw, they puked” parameter.
Top three in both cases both contained my two most profitable sites. So, do the search engines really use visitor behavior as a ranking criteria? I can’t say for sure, but my bank account thinks so.
Following Vic’s approach from bloggerunleashed, I put an ad for a clickbank product about 2/3 into the left of my content. It took awhile but someone finally bought one. As far as content goes, all I know is good content can’t hurt you. I think what matters is you push for traffic socially and not organically through the search engines. It’s probably the traffic source more than anything.
Way to go! Keep going!