Diary of a Newbie: Starting (Almost) from Scratch

[vellex]

Hey everyone,

It's about time I started a thread of my own, not counting the introduction. And what better way than documenting my journey as a beginner who never set up a profitable website and wouldn't know how to set up a paid campaign? I'm sure it will be an interesting read with a blend of A-HA moments and self-doubt. Though I'd rather see more of the former.

More importantly, I can be a terrible procrastinator whenever I don't feel enough pressure to complete something. I believe writing about my activities will help me stay accountable because the community is expecting an interesting journey and I don't want to disappoint.

Well then, let's get started...

Baseline:

One niche site is set up (Wordpress, plug-ins, content, on-site SEO) and ready for promotion. The site targets 3 keywords that receive a total of approximately 29,940 searches per month.

My profile on AffiliateFix is incomplete. I am seriously considering uploading an avatar, but I'll probably wait for my sexy AffiliateFix.com hoody to arrive before taking a nice picture.

Hopes and Dreams:

My 2014 goal is to get to $1,500 per month by the end of June, so the same goal applies for this thread. How many sites I end up owning or how many paid campaigns I start is not relevant as long as that number is reached.

Methods:

Starting out with SEO. Will transition to paid traffic at one point, but I currently resist the idea of investing money to make money because I used to have a gambling problem and don't want to end up chasing losses. I'll reconsider paid traffic later.

 

[vukasini]

This really sounds fun. I wish you the best with it. However, I think that $1500 is a little to much for a newbie in the first months.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is huge potential in your niche but I still doubt that there will be that amount of money so fast.

 

[azgold]

You don't sound like you don't know what you're doing. $1500 in six months is ambitious, especially without advertising but anything is possible and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Your careful treading will allow you to know what's going on and to learn methodically, I think. Although, I'm something of a newbie myself but that's how it seems to me.

Best of luck on your journey!

 

[vellex]

Thank you for your best wishes! Even though I myself understand the goal is rather ambitious and have self-doubts. But like I said, I work best when under pressure, so I have no choice other than to "put my money where my mouth is" and make the best of it now that it's public.

This really sounds fun. I wish you the best with it. However, I think that $1500 is a little to much for a newbie in the first months.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is huge potential in your niche but I still doubt that there will be that amount of money so fast.

Yeah, I had so much fun today I forgot to eat... I believe there is potential in the niche, but my idea is to remain flexible and unattached so that I can focus on something else if it doesn't work.

You don't sound like you don't know what you're doing. $1500 in six months is ambitious, especially without advertising but anything is possible and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Your careful treading will allow you to know what's going on and to learn methodically, I think. Although, I'm something of a newbie myself but that's how it seems to me.

Best of luck on your journey!

Exactly, I have no idea how to make money online. Of course, I did my homework and know how IM works in theory, but practice is a different thing.

I already mentioned that I plan on transitioning to advertising at some point, but I think I need to practice self-control and cultivate an objective mindset before trying out campaigns. Nothing kills your life like obsessively chasing losses.

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Thanks again for your wishes, I will need all the luck I can get! I might do an update on today's progress, but my stomach is demanding food at the moment and my eyes are demanding rest, and they are right to do so.

 

[vellex]

What's Happening:

I overestimated my recovery and it's not fun working with a sore throat, blowing my nose every 5 minutes, and running to the bathroom every time I need to hock a loogie. But I still managed to get some work done.

I even had to moderate some comments because the spam bots were quick to catch on to the site, so the WP No Bot Question is the newest plugin added to the site. But it was a fun experience, especially because one of them even insulted me! Who the hell programs comment spam bots to insult people? I laughed even harder when I realized that the comment which criticized my writing was actually posted on an image. It was hilarious.

But more importantly, I remembered to install analytics and start using SEO software to track my rankings because it would kind of suck to end up with no data to report later.

I am using G analytics, but I heard people criticizing it for censoring keywords visitors use to find the site. So if anyone knows a better alternative, I would appreciate your suggestions.

For tracking the rankings, I originally thought about simply spying on myself using SEMRush, but I gave up that idea when I saw they don't report Yahoo results. So now I'm using Traffic Travis because it seems like a very competent tool for the price tag FREE. If anyone has other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

 

[K]

Check out the app SEO Ranking - I heard it was good from Luke and downloaded it - now I check most morning on my phone where my sites are ranked.

Good luck and keep at it...and get better soon man!

 

[Cavalier07]

Check out the app SEO Ranking - I heard it was good from Luke and downloaded it - now I check most morning on my phone where my sites are ranked.

Good luck and keep at it...and get better soon man!

SEO Ranking is it iphone andriod or both got any links sounds good

 

[K]

SEO Rankings - iPhone App for tracking SEO Rankings

..........

 

[nice2share]

Very big income for the newbies, anyway, it is possible if you have received a real human traffic in your website from a search engine. And if your site will have Adsense, CPA, and other monetizations. Thanks for sharing.

 

[vellex]

What's Happening:

Well, I can tell by my caffeine cravings that my health is back. But I am still on therapy to eliminate the persistent cough, so no caffeine allowed until the end of the week, which makes existence quite difficult at times.

As for my online journey, I am mostly learning to be patient. In addition to serious caffeine deficits, I am suppressing the desire to blast a million backlinks to the site to have it ranking fast (and for a limited time). Instead, I am building backlinks manually at the rate of 1/day on average.

I'm also getting familiar with social media and slowly starting to acquire an audience. Even had one visitor coming through a link, though he bounced quickly. I am building a social media growth timeline in Excel and will post it here so that you can see the pace of development for the site.

Otherwise, the project is still in its infancy, so it's about as exciting as watching grass grow. Though I am happy that all major search engines indexed the site, I am looking forward to seeing the site actually rank on one of them.

 

[michaelmosesson]

I'm curious, how are things coming along? Are you still hanging in there?

The social media timeline sounds interesting. Taken from my own experience; the more organized you can be, the better

I hope you managed to keep your cool and waited Google out. Would like to see your progress on this!

 

[vellex]

I'm curious, how are things coming along? Are you still hanging in there?

The social media timeline sounds interesting. Taken from my own experience; the more organized you can be, the better

I hope you managed to keep your cool and waited Google out. Would like to see your progress on this!

Barely getting along because of the high amount of work this time of the year. February through June is always a busy time of the year for me, so I have just enough free time to eat, sleep, and throw in some social events so that I don't cripple my social life and become a recluse.

I dropped the idea for the timeline once I realized that what I actually want to measure is the rankings on search engines and traffic. Social media is great and all, but its purpose is to assist me in the long-term goals (getting ranked and making some sales).

Speaking of search engine rankings, SEMRush is telling me that I am ranking for 91 keywords in Google US. The keywords are distributed between positions 5 and 20.

I'll discuss traffic next time when I get more data. I forgot to place Google Analytics on the site again after changing the theme, which is a big no-no because I now have only two-days worth of data. On the bright side, 37 people (unique visitors) have visited the site in the previous 48 hours, and I am curious to see how the traffic trend continues to behave in the following week.

BTW, as I'm too busy at the moment, I thought about outsourcing link building. Any recommendations?

I am aware of the SEOClerks marketplace, which has really attractive and at the same time suspiciously low prices. Did anyone order services from the sellers there and were you satisfied with the results?

 

[newlxx]

This one is going to be tough.
Good Luck