CC9 -- Missandei

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With some delay, I wrote a new blog post (Amazon product review type). In the meantime I've refreshed some copywriting know how which helped me improve my blogging style.

Thanks to @builttodominate I got reminded some traffic rules and put MORE efforts promoting the blog post. This time I expect much more traffic than the previous times and why not a sale or two.

I feel first sale is close.
 
this is simply ridicoulous, according to her findings:
No emails, no nothing
http://amylynnandrews.com/amazon-associate-vilation/

"How they said it in legal jargon (and what we agreed to)
Amazon says in the Associates Program Participation Requirements (emphasis mine):


6. You will not engage in any promotional, marketing, or other advertising activities on behalf of us or our affiliates, or in connection with the Amazon Site or the Program, that are not expressly permitted under the Operating Agreement. For example, you will not engage in any promotional, marketing, or other advertising activities in any offline manner, including by using any of our or our affiliates’ trademarks or logos (including any Amazon Mark), any Content, or any Special Link in connection with an offline promotion or in any other offline manner (e.g., in any printed material, mailing, SMS, MMS, email or attachment to email, or other document, or any oral solicitation). Upon our request, you will provide us with written certification that you have complied with this Section 6. We will specify the form of, and content required in, that certification in our request. Any failure by you to provide the certification in accordance with our request will constitute a material breach of this Operating Agreement.

How they said it in real English
They put it more succinctly on this page:

It is not permitted to bookmark your links, send them in e-mails/newsletters, post in your Kindle books, or use them in any other offline manner.

How they said it in email
Then I emailed them to clarify. I linked to the above and asked them if it “applies to Amazon Associates links that I post on my blog, but then are sent via my RSS feed in an email to my blog subscribers?”

Summary: We cannot use Associate links in, emails, newsletters, RSS feeds or anything else that’s offline.

How they said it in a live chat
And then I chatted with them because it never hurts to ask multiple times. Here’s the summary of the conversation:

Associates links cannot be included in email, only on your website or blog. Not even in the emailed version of your RSS feed. Any product link in any email would be a violation. Amazon does not have a standard recommendation for bloggers in this instance. They simply want any Associates link you share to be on your site only.

And there you have it folks. Bummer.
"
 
It's just what it is. Thanks a lot! :smile: I'm on the safe side for now.

Meanwhile I've posted a new blog post. Wasn't Amazon review. Put more efforts on traffic leaking and promotion. I'll start putting more weight on traffic leaking, especially after I have 10 Amazon reviews.

I think the website has a good branding potential and I'm doing my research work to see what's the potential to start selling branded physical products.

This will open new channels for traffic leaking and actually new revenue streams itself.
 
Promoting the last blog post today + growing Twitter and Pinterest followers.
 
For the time that passed since last update I've:
  • started developing a second Twitter profile
  • further developed a Pinterest profile
  • continued relationship with a couple of bloggers for content related cooperation
  • worked on more scalable way of creating blog posts that went really well
  • added new traffic leaking prospects
  • commented on blogs
 
It's a big enough industry where I can easily extract good examples of products and people's works, and compile blog useful blog posts that I can market to target audiences.
 
Last update:
Today I published my next blog post - it took me more research time and probably it was a mistake to invest so much time into one piece of content. But I did it. I included some big industry names inside and now I have the opportunity to tweet with their Twitter profiles. It's a good material for reddit and a bunch of other places to leak from.

Last year I blew my adsense account, so now I'll have to count on other person's adsense account. Haven't invested time to organize it, will do this week.

The world is trying to take over me and if they continue teasing me, I'll be soon showing the right finger to everyone, working from a hut in the desert on a weak internet connection.
 
I've cleaned enough space for 1 well researched and generic blog post per week to
- promote
&
- traffic leak from

The next one is scheduled for tomorrow. It contains a good number of affiliate links and the products are good enough, so that everyone with few bucks and interest in the niche could buy them. At least 1% conversion rate is what I should expect when I start promoting it from tomorrow on.

I've borrowed some money to a friend of mine. He's good enough with writing and I'm planning to delegate him 4 other 800-1000 words blog posts.

This is how things are going - slowly, but sustainable.

I'm waiting for a new card from the bank, so I can finally get a new Adsense account.

As for developing the social profiles - mostly Pinterest and Twitter and less Facebook and Tumblr - I have collected a good database of niche sites with interesting blog to Tweet and Pin from. This time I'll use Bufferap instead of Hootsuite, because it allows me to attach pictures.
 
Last night I published the 2nd blog post for the week. Productivity has increased. Traffic leaking skills were increased. I have a better feeling of what's working.

I really enjoyed what other guys are posting on BS recently. It's a genuine pleasure to be in such company.

Edit:
Hey, just wrote and posted a new blog post. The 3rd this week. It much shorter than the avg. 1000 words I publish every Tuesday recently, but it has its own small traffic leak potential and place on the website.
 
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Next update:
I was having a long walk earlier today when suddenly struck my mind.

I need to give strength to my brand and create something unique. I need to give a better reasons to my readers to follow up.

So, what I did is I wrote and published the first post of its kind build around an interesting industry related story.

What's the special about it?

Well, simple Neo!

62146997.jpg


To make the things more exciting and wall sticky I'll take the main role in this story and do some exciting action which I'll be revealing as new blog post updates.

Goal: to help my target audience think out of the box when it's required to gain success on their professional career.

It's only a test, but if I attract some extraordinary amounts of traffic, I'll continue.

Edit: I've made an edit to make the update easier for understanding.

Edit 2: This test went wrong... unfortunately. I stopped working in this direction.
 
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Last few days i'm posting new content every day. This gives me more chances to leak. I'm missing a traffic leaking calendar. That's one of the other goals for the week.
 
Today I fixed a major issue with my newsletter. I removed my free report and replaced it with an opt in box offering the best content for the week. This should be the better option at least for now. The report was giving very tiny value.

Summary for this week:
- 4 new blog posts
- I found myself more confident when creating and repurposing content
- Alexa traffic rank jumped with a couple of millions
- Fixed a newsletter issue.

Can't wait to start embedding Adsense where appropriate.
I'm still lacking on a fully functional traffic leaking calendar and this is the main focus I have for the new week. I may post less new contend by I just need to create this calendar.
 
Next update: (this is probably the last one within the CC9 thread. We are moving my 2nd project to the Lab)

- I got close to 1k followers on Twitter and no new content last week.
- This week I've published 1 blog post.
- Finally got the new debit card, now I'll be able to insert Adsense where appropriate

There's a lot of sense in what @CCarter mentions in his last update regarding why he update his journal rarely.

I have the same reasons.

It was a nice format.

Again:
  • A lot of new knowledge obtained
  • A lot of fun
  • ... and few tears
I'll answer few more questions a bit later. My next post should be added.
 
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Final update before this thread is frozen and I move back to the regular forum:

- What did I learn ?
  • I learned how can I drive more traffic to the places I need. There was a lot of psychology and exposing in the right way. My perception of what marketing is has changed.

- How's my project doing now?

- Ripley, I heard you've met that alien before. What did you do?
- I died.

  • My original CC9 project failed. It was a mix of team mistakes, task delegation failures and other misconceptions. Enough said, I just jumped to my next project, without even asking for permission.. :smile: I may take a look at my progress in the new thread (a link should exist soon).

- Any regrets or things you would do differently?
  • I wish I had more time to invest. What distracted me was that I had to start a regular job.
  • I wish I was better in selling to the other members of the team what the actual importance of traffic leaking is.
  • If I had the chance to repeat the same journey I would be more brave and consistent in my traffic leaking attempts
  • Be more aggressive in gaining traffic and leads through Twitter
  • Create a genuine content on our website (which actually didn't happen - the biggest failure for which I feel ashamed when even thinking about it)

- What worked the best for you?
  • Most of the results I got came from Reddit and Imgur

- Have you applied what you've learned into your next project if you started something new?
  • Absolutely YES - I even started then mention next project within the CC9.
I appreciate the time all the guys spent on my development as a marketer, especially the hosts from BuSo and CCarter.

CCarter: "No one lost - either you won or you learned."
 
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