CC9 - The Wilde Card

[Politico]

Wussup Wussup,

Just finished reading the intro threads so far - good luck everybody.

a) Quick intro about themselves

I've been into IM since about 2009. Stumbled onto it actually with the first version of this very site I'm using for the experiment. Learned about SEO (because I wanted traffic to that old site), started freelancing, moved to an agency - quit because working for other people is the worst shit on the planet - and went back to private consulting.

So I've basically been Google's bitch for the last 6 years.

b) The general niche they are in

Arts/Entertainment E-commerce (site is monetized with affiliate products, and my own products)

c) The overall goal of the traffic leak experiment

Hoping to hit 1000 targeted visitors a day spread across the main monetized pages to the site WITHOUT the use of search engine traffic. To sustain a 5-figure level of monthly gross income from the site through affiliate commissions and product/service sales. To grow a list of 100,000 targeted REAL subscribers/followers (email + social media).

d) What they plan to gain out of it

Other than makin that paper without having to rely on Google and that #SEP? I know that whether this project succeeds or fails I'm gonna be a MUCH better marketer because of it. And that's what I really want, because that in itself is gonna lead to that successful pursuit of paper.

e) Amount of time they plan on dedicating a week

This site is important to me so I'm hoping to give it at least 20-25 hours per week on the actual traffic leaking, but I've got clients to take care of and other SEO projects that will need attention. Ima do my best tho. Also time needs to be put into the product side of this business.

f) Optional traffic numbers OR percentage increases (example got 1000 visitors today OR (saw 200% increase in traffic today - if yesterday was 500 ppl)

Site has ZERO traffic right now.

g) Personal overall goals they want to achieve

This site (which has gone through several re-brands/versions) is really important to me. And I hope to make some version of it a big part of my income. Of course this is an experiment, and if it doesn't work out, I'll try again. But like I mentioned above, this whole experiement is going to make me a better marketer..

That's my ultimate goal - to increase my ability to drive targeted traffic and convert sales

h) Where they currently are at with this project

The site has been built and sitting aging for a few months. It was put together according to CCarter's big brand checklist. I have not added affiliate links to some review pages but will do that right away. Products/services are currently available to purchase on the site.

Lets do this....

 

[vinnypolston]

"I'm gonna be a MUCH better marketer because of it."
^this

That's exactly how I'm looking at it. I'm going to succeed on this project... but because of the time and effort put in we'll both be much better marketers in general. Excited to follow along and see how far you take this!

 

[Politico]

Excited to follow along and see how far you take this!

Same here my dude - all us learning from each other will be a good thing

 

[CCarter]

My Official Take:

I know this niche very well. It is extremely targeted but has a massive userbase. The audience is great for traffic leaking just due to the demo. There are tons of places which can be utilized since the niche has a huge potential audience, and can be subtly traffic leaked without complaint.

I'm not too happy with some of the placements for social, since it can lead to traffic going away from the site. I'm not a big fan of social proofing in certain styles, especially when the last tweet is from 130 days ago. Trolling some trolls or celebrities on twitter, or just riding the coattails might make sense. I've got a story about one such owner of a product in this niche.

As always there are some permission based marketing opportunities which can be utilized, I'm even thinking of custom landers if not a news section for this niche.

One thing I will say is there will always be opportunities in this niche, and the cream of the crop will always be the newbies that want to get into this. Newbie guides are going to be a must to keep the interest. hmmm even a twitter rss feed of hashtags and adding more famous hashtags can generate some good traffic.

 

[CCarter]

The site has to become a newbie center/resource place. Maybe eventually a forum can be added.

 

[Politico]

Dope ass ideas Carter, thanks for the initial input. Its crazy that you know the niche well - that's perfect. Would love to hear the story you got.

The newbie resources are definitely a must and I've got some stuff to kick that off - for both sets of audiences (ebook, video) and I'm gonna make some more.

I'll look at moving the social stuff, and get back on updating the social media with some content curation to start. I'm thinking of making a lander for the ebook (currently on Amazon) as a free report to get the visitors email.

Not sure what you mean by adding more famous hashtags, but I'll re-visit the social stuff and see where I can find some opportunities!

 

[Politico]

Update 1: Revisiting The Big-Brand Checklist

Ok, so the first thing I did this week was re-read the original Traffic Leaks thread just to get my mind right, and catch up on the rest of the CC9 threads and see where everyone's at. I already see I'm fallin behind so I gotta get my ass in gear.

The first thing I checked out was site speed. Every time I create a site I always do it according to CCarter's original Big Brand Checklist. But after re-testing this site I see that I was far from it (at least under the hood) with this site.

Site Speed:

Those stats are for the homepage which has the most shiny shit. The site is a wordpress site with a fancy ass theme that seems to be pretty heavy. I hope I can trim down the theme/plugins/etc to speed up the site and implement proper caching, etc.

It's hosted on a VPS with Known Host so hosting should be alright for now. I don't know shit about coding (only very basic html/css) so I'm in the same boat as at least one other CC9...

What to Do:

• Remove unnecessary plugins
• implement minifying/caching
• optimize images with kraken.io
• Look at hiring coder to validate the site's code

On-Site Stuff
The on-site elements are 75% there. I have most of the necessary pages on the site, but could add a couple more. I will be taking Carters advice on the social side of things.

My main call to action is pretty clear, but I need to implement the secondary one. Most of my social proofing, authority logos and testimonials will have to come later as the product gets more widely picked up by my target audience. I will be specifically targeting big names in the industry with free products to help with this too.

Won't be implementing micro-data/schema at this point because like Carter said, it's not make-or-break for us.

I have my first newbie how-to guide ready to go (64 page ebook - professionally designed, written by me targeted at complete beginners and intermediate-level prospects in my niche), that I'm going to paraphrase as a blog-post and offer as a free download for an email signup.

I want to look at making a high-converting lander specifically to drive email sign-ups from this free e-book as well. And of course, I wanna keep content as fresh as possible so I'll be writing new blog posts weekly at least.

I also have the social stuff setup and a few instructional videos on YouTube from a while back (from my first attempt at creating a brand in this niche). The videos are all still relevant and have great info for my target audience. I'll probably drip these out as blog posts too, or implement them into the FAQ page.

What to Do:

• Add FAQ page targeted at newbies' most basic questions about niche
• Create Lander + Blog Post for first newbie guide (incentivized giveaway)
• Remove Twitter Timeline and replace with in-site search + nicely designed opt-in form (secondary CTA)
• Create 3 new blog posts weekly about news/tips/related info/etc.

Traffic Leaking
I know were not at this part yet, but since everyone else is doin it.. what the hell.

Like I mentioned I tried to break into this niche online early on (before my IM career). So I've still got accounts on forums/communities/social properties where my target audience congregates. I've collected them and updated them and am starting to get back into them.

Some have died, and new ones popped up so another thing I'm gonna do is join in these communities and interact - no traffic leaking yet. Just laying the foundation.

What-To-Do:

• Daily interaction on existing forums/blogs
• Find new communities to take part in
• Schedule weekly social drip of news/tips/curated content
• Buy fake followers for the look
• Get targeted followers through paid channels or interaction

That's a quick update for me to get everything I need to do down on paper. I'm going to be working through this stuff right away. I'll update when it's all done. I hope to have as much as possible done by the weekend (probably a bit optimistic on my part), and of course the on-going shit will go on forever.

 

[Calamari]

A good theme will validate or come very close without a coder. That might be an easier and much faster solution.

 

[Politico]

A good theme will validate or come very close without a coder. That might be an easier and much faster solution.

Yea you might be right Calamari, I am kinda attached to my theme, like the way it looks, but I might have to bite the bullet. I'ma see how fast I can get it doing tweaks and then as a last resort switch themes too.

 

[Politico]

Update 1.25

Ok, so I did a few page speed tweaks. It's amazing the things that can bring down page load time Here's a summary of what I was seeing if anyone cares (Using Pingdom):

Deactivated Unnecessary Plugins
- Perf Grade: 83, 124 Requests, 4.25s, 3.2mb

Removed Google Fonts, turned off unnecessary theme options
- Perf Grade: 75, 107 Requests, 1.97s, 2.2mb

Ran Images Through Kraken.io (this didn't do much so I manually edited images)
- Perf Grade: 73, 107 requests, 2.14s, 2.1mb

Manually Edited Images, Removed Blog Post featured images from Homepage + added CloudFlare
- Perf Grade: 74, 99 requests, 2.76s, 1.5mb

Added Manual Caching/Minifying plugins instead of using CloudFlare to do this
- Perf Grade: 82, 79 requests, 2.36s, 1.2mb

Removed homepage YouTube Video + SoundCloud Embed
- Perf Grade: 86, 34 requests, 1.89s, 585.8kb

Removed Separate Minify Plugin (Used W3TCache to minify instead)
- Perf Grade: 82, 35 requests, 1.49s, 520.1kb

And here's where things are at overall:

This is pretty much as far as I can take it.

I checked with Page Speed Optimizer at WebsiteOptimization.com and I'm still showing way too many unnecessary objects loading. I'm still seeing multiple css files, js files and fonts being called by the theme.

And the theme is calling up a lot of image requests. I might try combine into a CSS sprite (ive done this once before but it took forever, and don't think I could do it here), but wondering if it'll really be worth it.

I've also got an html5 embed above the fold that is necessary - can't be removed. I know this is adding a bunch of http requests and increasing the filesize/loadtime.

Anyone here (possibly in the CC9) that would be willing to help me take this page speed optimization the rest of the way?

Will be back hopefully tomorrow with another update on the rest of the shit I said I'd do...

 

[Calamari]

How much faster do you want to get?

After a certain point it's not worth it. You're there.

 

[MoneyStalker]

Above 90% is good no need to do extra work only if you want to make it perfect !

 

[CCarter]

Your site is good now, I wouldn't take it further. I don't like the removal of the images from the blog featured on the homepage though. I'd rather see more images then text with this kind of site.

 

[RiverStyx]

lol wussup wussup, lets team up and find a good coder to fix our sites!

Seriously man, I need a coder too. I'm not too bad at coding but I'm,not too good either! I don't even mind paying real money its just hard to find someone.

 

[Politico]

How much faster do you want to get?

After a certain point it's not worth it. You're there.

Above 90% is good no need to do extra work only if you want to make it perfect !

Your site is good now, I wouldn't take it further. I don't like the removal of the images from the blog featured on the homepage though. I'd rather see more images then text with this kind of site.

Oh yea? Ok cool. I wanted to try to get as close to 20 requests, 2 seconds and 200kb as I could. But if yall say this is good enough then fuck it I'm on to the next one. But...

Carter - I agree with you - so re-added the homepage featured blog post images, and here's where the site's at now:

Should I just leave it like this or try doing some more to get back up to what it was?

Seriously man, I need a coder too. I'm not too bad at coding but I'm,not too good either! I don't even mind paying real money its just hard to find someone.

Yup I kno man its hard to find good help

 

[CCarter]

The images only increased the loading time by .15 secs - that more then a fair trade off for the user experience. There are more important things to concentrate on, we've hot the diminishing return point here.

 

[Politico]

Update 1.5:

OK, so I've done some more setup and am almost ready to get into traffic leaking.

Here's what I've completed so far:

• Scheduled Social Media Posts for 1 wk
• Purchased 1500 FB Likes, 255 G+ Circles, 2200 Twitter Followers from Fiverr
• Wrote a 1000 word blog post about the free "newbie guide" ebook giveaway
• Setup an Opt-In Squeeze Page for the eBook
• Added an Opt-In form to the homepage of the site (offering same ebook)
• Started a FAQ Page

Some things I'm thinking about

• May subscribe to buffer again to queue up social media posts since it's easier than using HootSuite to schedule all your posts manually
• I will start adding real, targeted followers to my social accts soon, buying likes is just for the aesthetic
• I will keep adding to the FAQ page as I come up with more questions, etc.
• I will probably buy a short/catchy domain name to use as a redirect to the opt-in squeeze page. I can use this for watermarks, etc.
• I still need to work on content - some of the product reviews are straight from a cheap writing service, they probably won't convert highly. I'll work on shaping up all the revenue generating content continually over the next couple weeks as we move through Traffic Leaks Bootcamp
• I'm using Hybrid Connect to generate my opt-in forms and it's adding quite a bit towards page size. I may need to revisit this soon to get it loading fast again. I'm getting numbers all over the place. Sometimes 1s, sometimes 4 seconds, sometimes 8 seconds+. Here's the current stats I got randomly:

Stuff I Need To Do ASAP:

• Write/Set up an autoresponder series (5-7 emails) for my mailing list
• Collect popular HashTags that can be used for social media posting
• Find FB groups that can be used for posting
• Rewrite content on key pages (optimized for conversions)
• Start working on product side of things
• Maybe set up a pinterest and instagram account

That's it for now, if anyone wants to chime in with suggestions about site load time/size, or anything else feel free.

 

[MetaData]

I don't mean to single you out because you're not the only one doing it, but I'm kind of concerned with these fake FB likes that people are buying for appearances. This is about traffic, right? You can get real likes for a cent or two each, that will actually interact with your posts and help grow your reach as opposed to fake ones that will stunt your page's reach from the get-go. I know it's a common practice to start off with fake ones, but it's never made sense to me when real ones are only a little bit more expensive and they'll actually like, share, and click.

Same for Twitter, really, it doesn't take long to follow a bunch of people who are interested in your niche but at least with fake Twitter followers you aren't working against an algo like you are with FB (Yet...). There are a whole bunch of factors that decide how many people FB will decide to show your content to, and I can only imagine that fake likes are going to hurt that reach in one way or another. Pretty sure that a company running massive-scale experiments to alter the moods of the world's population, is also pretty good at spotting a like-farm. Whether they care or not is a whole other discussion (Lower free reach for you = more space in people's walls for paid reach...)

*Speculation zone*
Let's say you have 1500 fake likes on FB, and 500 real ones. When you post something good to FB and it reaches a lot of people, FB will start to think "Hey, this person posts good content..." which should help your future posts to reach a larger % of your page, too. When you're already limiting yourself to only a maximum of 25% of the already-shrinking reach that FB gives you, that just seems to me like shooting yourself in the foot? Also if you want to boost some of your posts that have viral potential, are you going to be paying to boost those posts to a bunch of fake accounts? (I'm not exactly sure and haven't tested this personally since I always just start my pages with real likes, so that's why this is in the speculation zone...)
*/Speculation zone*

 

[Politico]

Damn @MetaData - good fuckin points. Thanks for sharin g your speculation cuz I hadn't really thought about that but is true. I know FB engagement without paying is horrible, and you're right, now I'm going to have to pay for reach and half my reach (or more) will be to fake followers which is useless.

I'll admit I do it for the aesthetic to jump start a site and make it look a little bigger than it actually is. But I might just stop now. Twitter may be a diff story, but def no more fake likes on FB.

I've already received my fb/twitter likes/follows - I'm thinking I should just remove the ones from FB.

 

[ModernMarketeer]

I'm in the same boat as you @Politico where I've bought Twitter followers to pump up the numbers although I plan on paying to promote the FB page once it's seeded with content.

I'm not sure how you've found the fake twitter followers to be so far but I've found them to be really helpful with attracting more established profiles (and even a few 'superstar' verified profiles).

It'll be interesting to see how many actually stick over time.

 

[Kevin]

Yo Politico,

Don't use Hybrid Connect, it's outdated. Use Thrive Content Builder, it can do page-level optins. It's made by the same people. They keep up with Thrive and are constantly adding new stuff, whereas Hybrid Connect not so much. Already converted a few BuSo people that I knew from other places to Thrive, it's been a huge reason why a few of my sites have improved page metrics (time on site, bounce, conversions). PM me if you want to talk more about it (I don't work for Thrive I just #$%^ing love it).

 

[Kevin]

Also, don't buy fake Facebook followers, it will fuck your shit up analytics wise and if you ever want to build lookalike audiences for Facebook ads, you'll likely be building a lookalike Turkish / Indonesian audience that will convert at negative percentages.

@MetaData your 'speculation zone' is beyond correct and can even be taken further when you consider paid likes' effect on paid FB advertising.

 

[lyannastark]

Well **** me. I already bought them lol. What can I do now?? That is the question!

 

[Calamari]

Maybe you made a mistake but it's not the end of the world. You'll be fine in the long run.

I can't even tell you how many things I have messed up to get where I am.

 

[Politico]

I'm in the same boat as you @Politico where I've bought Twitter followers to pump up the numbers although I plan on paying to promote the FB page once it's seeded with content.

I'm not sure how you've found the fake twitter followers to be so far but I've found them to be really helpful with attracting more established profiles (and even a few 'superstar' verified profiles).

It'll be interesting to see how many actually stick over time.

Well **** me. I already bought them lol. What can I do now?? That is the question!

Yea Ima jus grow it organically at this point - @ModernMarketeer at what number of followers do you find it helps with attracting those super profiles?

@lyannastark Im basically just going into my fb page like and removing them manually - its a bitch

Yo Politico,

Don't use Hybrid Connect, it's outdated. Use Thrive Content Builder, it can do page-level optins. It's made by the same people. They keep up with Thrive and are constantly adding new stuff, whereas Hybrid Connect not so much. Already converted a few BuSo people that I knew from other places to Thrive, it's been a huge reason why a few of my sites have improved page metrics (time on site, bounce, conversions). PM me if you want to talk more about it (I don't work for Thrive I just #$%^ing love it).

@Kevin thanks for the suggestion. Im not really liking hybrid connect that much the more I use it. I was thinking of switching to Opt-In Monster but will look at TCB a bit more to