How A Broke Swede Started Earning Online

[michaelmosesson]

Hey, Fellas!

Thanks for taking an interest in my thread!

I'm Michael and I'm pretty new to this forum. As you may have already guessed, I'm Swedish so please either ignore or correct grammar mistakes I make (don't just complain about them )

When I first signed up and introduced myself I made a promise to start a journey thread. It got a little delayed, but here we finally are!

Currently I'm building a product site in an interior design sub-niche. I follow the steps in the Screw9-5 course by Jay Wessman.

As I've got no more money to spend on this project, whatsoever, I intend to go through this journey with having invested only in hosting and a domain.


Goal

My goal is simple. Get my main keyword ranked on the 1st page of Google.

The keyword is a bit more competitive than what was recommended in the course, but it's finally started to rank and is currently placed on page #13 in Google. (12,3m results, 33,1k searches/mth)


What's been going on so far?

The website was launched Feb 2nd, 2014 and in exactly one week it has been running for 2 months.

During this time I've managed to get 9 sales, which have resulted in a $10.14 commission from Amazon.


Current statistics

Main keyword rank: Page #13

Products on site: 12

Followers

• Twitter: 159
• Tumblr: 203
• Facebook: 44
• G+: 117
• Pinterest: 1,510

Ahrefs

As you can see, Ahrefs has only discovered 9 backlinks so far. I've placed a few more out there and it seems to be adding new ones every day now!

Full site analytics

Just for fun, can anyone guess the traffic source responsible for the spike on March 14th?

Organic search visitors


Amazon earnings



What's next?

I will be continuing building my following and backlinks on authority sites. I'm also developing some simple browser automation tools in Java and Selenium (highly recommended and FREE) to get rid of the repetitive tasks and let me focus on building more links.


Last thoughts

I've read that having a mix of dofollow/nofollow links makes my backlinks look more natural. However, it seems like there's no mention about it in the screw9-5 course. How much should I obsess about whether a link is dofollow or nofollow?

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,
Michael

 

[EymardSiojo]

Great man!!
Good luck with your journey.
You can do it bro!

 

[michaelmosesson]

Thanks man!

 

[azgold]

Sounds like you're off to a great start, congrats!

Re the links, I have started making all of mine nofollow, simply because I've been getting a lot of spam comments. Nofollows has stopped that but I have no idea of the correct way to handle this for the search engines. Maybe Jay will pop in and comment.

So, the spike on March 14th....Pinterest?

 

[michaelmosesson]

Thank you!

I'm sorry, but I think my question wasn't clear enough. What I'm wondering is how much I should obsess about whether my backlinks are nofollow/dofollow. By reading your answer, it seems like you explain how you go about with the links on your own site. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Regarding Pinterest, it is a good guess! However, the spike is actually from one single Reddit submission in a not too populated sub-reddit. (15k or so)
Both Reddit and Pinterest have been, by far, the best traffic generators for my niche site these two months.

Hopefully Google will match/dominate them soon!

 

[spook2992]

great thread and lots of detail. I will definitely be checking this on a regular basis!

 

[chingbit]

That's awesome man, also thanks for the tip on using Selenium. I never new of this so this will be a big help to me. Thanks and keep it up.

 

[EymardSiojo]

Just follow what the course says, don't think about dofollow and no follow for now. Its ok, you are doing well, when the right time comes,, you will know it naturally.

 

[michaelmosesson]

Alright, thanks man! I'll keep on building

For those taking an interest in this thread, the next update will be posted later today. Waiting for Amazon to update my stats

 

[michaelmosesson]

That's awesome man, also thanks for the tip on using Selenium. I never new of this so this will be a big help to me. Thanks and keep it up.

Awesome! Great to see that you find some value in what I'm posting.

Perhaps I'll make a post or two on coding using the Selenium library. In fact, I forgot to mention this, but there's an IDE for Firefox in which you can record your actions. The sequence of actions can then be converted into several different languages for additional and more advanced coding. It's super-cool!

 

[michaelmosesson]

Hey, Fellas!

Another week has passed and I've been quite busy with the website. Despite my main keyword problems (see in statistics below) I've managed to get a few more organic visitors and another sale.

What's been going on so far?

As mentioned above, I've managed to get another sale.

Also, it looks like I received plenty more click-throughs to Amazon, but less conversions. However, I don't dwell on that too much, as I believe many of those are Reddit visitors who are just checking the products out and then leave.

I've been focusing on trying to make my backlinks as powerful as possible (following/befriending/liking/commenting etc), rather than building many weak ones. It has resulted in a great deal of butt-ugly code as I've been making some custom tools to do some of these tasks (all but commenting) automagically for me on each website.


Current statistics

Main keyword rank: Completely dropped off Google's first 30 pages! Can anybody perhaps give me an insight whether this is normal or what I can do about it? I have added some anchor texts with the main keyword, but as far as I know I have not been over-doing it. As a matter of fact, I cannot see any anchor with my main keyword in ahrefs, could this be the problem? If so, should I just be patient or try adding a few more links focusing on the main keyword anchor texts?

Other keyword ranks: Many of my other keywords are climbing in Google. Many of them are dancing around on page 2-3 (one is really close to 1st), so it feels awesome!

Products on site: 12

Followers

• Twitter: 202 (+43)
• Tumblr: 241 (+38)
• Facebook: 45 (+1)
• G+: 124 (+7)
• Pinterest: 1,827 (+317)

Ahrefs

• URL Rank: 15 (+4)
• Ahrefs Domain Rank: 38 (+2)
• Backlinks: 26 (+17)
• Referring Domains: 10 (+3)

Site analytics since last update

Still having those Reddit spikes. These visitors don't seem to be all that interested to stay, so my bounce rate is awful. However, Reddit is a huge authority site, so it feels like it's worth it if I can get my links on there once in a while.

Organic search visitors since last update


Amazon earnings since last update

Somebody actually ordered something yesterday, and it was shipped today. Unfortunately I cannot see what was sold until tomorrow, so this is the only image I can show you right now.


What's next?

Link building, link building, link building....

I'll be adding some new products to make both Google and followers happy. Speaking of which, I'll also be trying to grow my following more than this week. When I listed my stats in this post I felt like I've been kind of slacking/forgetting (big no-no).

If I get the time, I'll also try to write a post or two on developing automation tools with Selenium. I'll be using Java, but the techniques are applicable in a few other languages as well.

Last thoughts

Is there anything you think that looks like I'm doing in the wrong way? Do I prioritize the wrong things or are my stats worse than expected? Please, feel free to tell me. I'd be forever grateful!


Thanks for reading!

Until next time,
Michael

 

[michaelmosesson]

Quick update: Okay, so I must be doing something right. One of my products is ranked at position #10 (FIRST PAGE!) for a keyword with 17,5m results and 210 searches. Awesome!!

 

[EymardSiojo]

BOOM!

That is a great boost when you see your pages ranking. What tracker are you using bro?

The main keyword appearing and disappearing in Serp is normal due to google dance.
Just keep building MANUAL links and posting new products

 

[michaelmosesson]

Awesome

I'm actually using a free android app called SERPmojo and it's working really great! I found it when looking for an alternative for the iPhone app Luke Kling recommends. (SEO Rank I think it's called, not sure though)

Anyway, SERPmojo's got indicators to show whether your rank has gone up or down since the last update, plus a ranking history to see how your KWs are doing in the long run.

I'm also checking SEMRush. However, only the overview as I don't have enough money for a tracking service subscription yet.

Do you recommend any other specific ranking tracker instead? If so, why that one specifically?

About the dance, yes I figured it was normal, but going from page 13 to drop off below page 30 seemed kind of strange. Oh well, it doesn't make me any less motivated, especially considering I got my first page 1 ranking

Thanks for answering, mate. I really appreciate the feedback I'm getting.

All the best to you, Eymard!

 

[EymardSiojo]

I am using this, free for 50 search terms. https://proranktracker.com/
Check it out.

 

[michaelmosesson]

It's looking neat! Thanks, mate!

 

[michaelmosesson]

Alright guys, this is gonna be a short update since I'm currently not at home. I'm on a painfully slow connection and uploading screenshots and getting all the statistics is quite unrealistic right now. There'll be a better update as soon as I get home, though.

I've been searching for targeted forums to build links on. Been looking for footprints of forums which allow me to add links in my profile. (I've mentioned I love reading Jay's stuff, right?). Found plenty and hopefully they will help my rankings big-time in the coming weeks.

As for my rankings, my main keyword has been up on #91 but it's dropped off again. Most of my other keywords are dancing around 2nd and 3rd page and I hope to see some increase there in a week or two as well.

The site has brought in another 3 sales (all in this month), which means that the site currently has earned me a total of $12.02.

Because of my slow connection I will this week work mostly on adding new products since browsing around the web is a hair-pulling experience. If there's anything more specific from the stats you'd like to know, give me a comment and I'll get it. This tiny update should however cover the essentials.

See you soon,
Michael

 

[michaelmosesson]

Hey, Fellas

I'm sorry for the late update. As mentioned in an earlier post, I've been on a slower connection and uploading screenshots from there is a total pain in the neck. I'm glad to announce that I'm back home and got a more detailed update ready for you! So here we go...

What's been going on so far?

I've managed to get a few more sales. Nothing significant, though.

My main keyword has sort of started to get ranked. Why I'm writing sort of is because in my Android app (SERPMojo) my main keyword is at pos #56, while it's nowhere to be found in pro rank tracker. I guess one of them uses US Google while the other one uses Google NCR.

Managed to break the 2k followers barrier on Pinterest. Awesome

Like previous updates, I've been building backlinks at every second possible. Also, there are two new products added to the website.


Current statistics

Main keyword rank: #56 / Not ranked at all (read above)

Other keyword ranks: Still dancing around page 2-3, but a lot more of them are doing so right now. One of them has started to bounce between page 1-2, which feels great.

Products on site: 14 (+2)

Followers

• Twitter: 291 (+89)
• Tumblr: 297 (+56)
• Facebook: 47 (+2)
• G+: 137 (+13)
• Pinterest: 2,126 (+299)

Ahrefs

• URL Rank: 18 (+3)
• Ahrefs Domain Rank: 38 (+0)
• Backlinks: 125 (+99)
• Referring Domains: 15 (+5)

Site analytics since last update

Not many visitors, but the organic part is picking up quite nicely.

Organic search visitors since last update



Amazon earnings since last update

Not many sales this month. If only those d-mn keywords could start climbing a little faster....

Total Amazon earnings


What's next?

I'll be celebrating Easter and won't have much time for the site in a few days. However, when I finally do get the chance to do something with it, I'll be focusing more on building a following on the major social networks. I know I've written this before, but ended up creating backlinks instead. It feels like having a following sharing my stuff will help a lot, especially now after building links for a while and see how long it actually takes to get even just a few quality backlinks.

Last thoughts

I've asked this question previously, and perhaps it was too soon to tell back then, but is there anything off with my results. Should I be seeing better results after these 2½ months? Any input is welcome!


Thanks for reading!

Until next time,
Michael

 

[K]

Nice update man, check out: http://www.affiliatefix.com/f13/how-post-images-correctly-6684/

Also are you using Jays follow for follow method?

 

[michaelmosesson]

Nice update man, check out: http://www.affiliatefix.com/f13/how-post-images-correctly-6684/

Also are you using Jays follow for follow method?

Thanks for the video. I'll post images like that from now on. I always thought the images sorted themselves, but I now realize you or somebody else fixed them for me. Thanks a lot!

The follow for follow method. What method would that be? I follow people and get a few followers back. I'm not sure if this is what you mean, though. Appreciate you asking the question!