Introductions Thread

Ryuzaki said:
@online_wizz, congrats on your success already. It sounds like your willingness to be meticulous is paying off. I'd venture to say you're already beating 80-90% of "SEO's" in terms of earnings. Most never make any money, just lose it.

Your plan sounds reasonable. You'll get a base of content up that you can then promote later. During that period of time where you just do outreach, save a handful of articles back so you can schedule them during that period so you don't have a huge dry spell where you don't publish at all.

You seem like you have a solid plan, and even plan to venture past just pure SEO in terms of promotion. There's not much to say other than good luck and I look forward to reading your case study thread. Just get 3 posts in and 3 likes and you'll be free to start that.
Click to expand...

Up to this point, I still haven't done any outreach. Only some quora answers, Pinterest, and Twitter, which has resulted in additional 20-50 views each day. I guess I could do some outreach now, as I have some base content, but I figure that a site with 100 articles is much easier to promote than a site with 30 articles.

So I'll just focus on content for now and while the new articles are aging, I'll do the outreach to boost up the rankings. I'm sure that I can rank on the first page with just long-form content and developed categories, however, these links from outreach will help me rank for medium competition articles, that I will start to target only at the end of 2019.

Thank you for the suggestion. During the outreach period, I actually plan on publishing new content. But this content will be made solely for outreach purposes. Up to May-June, I'm publishing money articles and supporting content related to these money articles.

I'm planning on doing several kinds of articles:
  • Controversial articles, that touch the emotions of my target audience. I'll leak them on Reddit, Fb groups, and Forums.
  • List posts, like "100 best blogs in xxx", and reach out to everyone mentioned in the list.
  • Some kind of post that gives awards to some brands. Like "XXX brand awards 2019: Best made xxx products in 2019", also with the intention to reach out to brands and notify that they're in the top spots. Maybe I could make fake accounts and leak to some forums on how "I totally disagree with how this brand is rated #1, it's garbage and broke on the first day!", e.t.c. Also, one of my larger competitors is doing awards each year, which has resulted in insane amounts of links from Wikipedia and other media outlets. Basically, 60% of their link profile is from these awards.
  • Informational articles with unique facts and infographics that have the potential to go viral or score links from larger media outlets. Of course, I'll reach out to those media outlets and offer them to use my article with infographics, charts, and data as a source.
  • I have an idea for a free tool related to my niche that I could make and share on my website. Not exactly an article, but it's new content nevertheless. I saw one of my competitors has a tool on their site, that's completely unrelated to our niche. Yet, he has gained tons of backlinks from it and it looks like it's working for him.
You know, the usual sneaky stuff to get attention.

Thank you for your support. Good luck to you as well on breaking out of the stagnation period of your site! (I follow your case studies)
 
StartingAgain said:
Does traffic leaking and social only give you traffic short term, or can you get enough of them that it becomes a steady, on-going source of traffic and conversions?
Click to expand...

My thought to add to this is that when I used to do more traffic leaking was when I was selling things that gave recurring income. Eg poker -- pre "Black Friday" affiliate deals. I could come up with some funny videos, leak traffic from popular poker forums etc, get people into my chat room, get them signed up to deals right away (direct from affil links in the article being leaked to) etc etc. Either one of those led to long term/permanent value from the leak even if the traffic only came for a short while.

That's because those affiliate deals paid recurring monthly revenue as long as the players played. Now it wasn't permanent ofc (the poker rooms got shut down... players go bust all the time... etc) but it was a 'growing baseline'. If I leaked 1,000 interested visitors/month and got say $100/month in recurring revenue each time (just round made up numbers), it grew each month as I kept the money from before.

I'd avoid investing a ton of time into leaking traffic to just sell one item unless you have a plan to capture those people for future value (retargeting, mailing lists, chat rooms, recurring revenue) but as long as you have a plan that's how you increase the long term value of short term traffic leaks.
 
I'd say you have a clear picture of the current game. It's really about getting enough momentum behind you to tackle huge keywords. Time, Posts, Links, Social Signals... Things you need to bust beyond 5 figures instead of being 3 and low 4 figures per site.

----

What has your link building looked like up to this point?

Great story and start. You have a plan, you take action, and you have a worthy goal of buying a home to drive towards. You will win. Just remember us little guys when you make it.
 
Samwise89 said:
What has your link building looked like up to this point?

Great story and start. You have a plan, you take action, and you have a worthy goal of buying a home to drive towards. You will win. Just remember us little guys when you make it.
Click to expand...

Up to this point I haven't actively built any links. I've been active on Pinterest and Twitter, which has resulted in around 2000 followers and 100k monthly viewers on Pinterest (impressions on my pins). Also, I've made a few blog comments and a few Quora answers. I'll do the groundwork when my site has around 100 pieces of content, which will start in June - May.

Thank you. Now it's just a matter of sticking to the plan and actually going through with it.
 
StartingAgain said:
Thanks for your input guys. I will definitely try traffic leaking when the site gets up and running with at least 30 pages.
Click to expand...

No need to wait until 30. Just 5 or so pages is enough as long as they are all relevant to the page you're trying to get traffic to.
 
Greeting from Europe!

I saw so many comrades from the WickedFire. Account created but only reading other member posts until now. I want to start some Adsense/Media.net income journal, and this is the best place where I can get suggestions, ideas, and critics.

I keep my intro short, and want to say "Hi" again in WF style like good old time:

[removed]

P.S. Should I send PM to Grindstone for approval?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just wanted to drop in and check up on how you're doing, but also to say "respect" to you! I jumped out of affiliate life for a good few years and am now at the point of jumping back in full time. In part because it's always been my first love, but also out of a real necessity. Illness in my family is making balancing a busy client roster next to impossible and so I need something with the flexibility affiliate marketing has always given me. The motivation is there, but the reason why I need to get this to work again is a heavy weight on the shoulders. This thread really got me full of beans and so I just want to say a big thanks!
 
...only kidding.

These forum introductions can be a bit awkward and unfortunately I'm not all that remarkable. I'm just another former hardcore blackhat IM'er who has made a good living from exploiting Google in various ways. Unfortunately (for me) as they got better at closing their weaknesses, my income in the last two years became so unreliable that after 13 years on the dark side, I had to turn back to WH ways and build a legit business dammit!

This place came highly recommended, and I rather like what I have seen so far, looking forward to participating!
 
Welcome to the forum!

Google can be hard on us, but shame on the one that gives up. ;-)

What are you doing now days in regards to IM?
 
Imgal said:
Just wanted to drop in and check up on how you're doing, but also to say "respect" to you! I jumped out of affiliate life for a good few years and am now at the point of jumping back in full time. In part because it's always been my first love, but also out of a real necessity. Illness in my family is making balancing a busy client roster next to impossible and so I need something with the flexibility affiliate marketing has always given me. The motivation is there, but the reason why I need to get this to work again is a heavy weight on the shoulders. This thread really got me full of beans and so I just want to say a big thanks!
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks.
I've created a lab thread, where I will post updates about my journey. Make sure to check it out. :wink:
Were you successfull in AM before? If you start now, you can still catch me up and compete.
 
online_wizz said:
Hey, thanks.
I've created a lab thread, where I will post updates about my journey. Make sure to check it out. :wink:
Were you successfull in AM before? If you start now, you can still catch me up and compete.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I made a good old living out of it for 5+ years! A lot has changed, but the basics don't change so I'm fired up and I LOVE a good bit of healthy competition so you're on!
 
Imgal said:
Yeah, I made a good old living out of it for 5+ years! A lot has changed, but the basics don't change so I'm fired up and I LOVE a good bit of healthy competition so you're on!
Click to expand...
I'll hold you to that. Good luck and may the race begin!
 
Hello!

First things first, this forum is great. I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon it before now.

I first got interested in making money online as a teenager, but not until 2 years ago did I take the plunge into the world of website ownership. I made a review site on sex toys (the idea being that people would much rather shop for such things online, as opposed to going to an actual shop).

It made exactly $44 on Shareasale, and then I let it die. My content was weak, my marketing strategy was non-existent, and my niche already had some huge players in the game (not saying that that's a reason to step away. I could just not compete or improve on their work as much as I thought I could)

Since then I've been reading a lot about affiliate marketing. Always preparing and never taking action, and I want to change that. I want to have confidence in my writing, I want to have control over my financial situation, I want to provide a solution to peoples problems.

My strengths:

1. Patience
2. Always willing to learn
3. Conveying my ideas in simple terms (or at least I like to think that)
4. Not afraid to admit when I'm wrong

My weaknesses:

1. ADHD (not a huge problem anymore, but I would lie if I said it didn't affect me in some ways)
2. Time management
3. Confidence (in my writing/decision making)
4. Sometimes concepts don't click for me as easily as I feel they should.

Can I do it this time? I fucking hope so. I need to make a change, and I need to start now. Otherwise, I'll get left behind having never achieved any of the things I dream of.

Now:

I'm a persistent motherfucker. I used to be fat, I lost weight. I didn't like the way I looked after the weight loss, so I started going to the gym 6 times pr. week.

If I can do those things, I sure as fuck hope that I can make a living through affiliate marketing. My current plan is to start selling articles on Fiverr/Upwork (what would be a reasonable price point? considering that English is not my native language and that my writing is mediocre at best)

I will do that for a while until I have the money to start working on my own site. While doing this I will, of course, continue to research my vertical and plan out articles.

I have already read the crash course and I intend on reading it again, taking better notes this time.

Looking forward to hearing you guys' input on my strategy.
 
Do you need the money from writing articles right now? If not, then you're just delaying your path to bigger money that isn't tied to your time. You'll be trading your time building up other people's websites instead of building your own.
 
I would say that I do. My financial situation at the moment doesn't allow me to spend a lot of money on getting my own site up and running. That could of course just be my fear and doubt speaking, but my bank account does have a say in the matter as well.

Besides that, I need money right now. And while affiliate marketing can be a profitable business, It's not as immediate a profit as selling services would be. But I will reconsider writing for others because as you say, It's delaying my own venture.


I'm just not sure if my money troubles can wait the 6 months it will take to get the site making money (if it makes any at all)

Very appreciative of your input!
 
A domain shouldn't cost you but about $10 a year, and you can get going on a single-site shared hosting plan for probably $3 a month.

But yeah, I hear you. Needing money NOW means you should definitely get that stressor off of you. You could write content but when it comes time to write content for your own site after the work day is over you may be too brain dead.

You may do better to get a traditional day job so you'll have the mental energy to work on your own project before and after.

Best of luck with it. We're here to help you every step of the way.
 
That should be doable. But man, I just feel that there's so much I don't know, if that makes any sense?

And yeah, I get what you're saying. The burnout is very real, and can come very suddenly. I need to fight that. I'm currently on sick leave from my education due to anxiety problems (working on them) which is one of the reasons a "real" job isn't really in the cards right now.

Very happy to hear that help can be found here! I have a lot of questions, and i'm sure I'll have more once the site gets going.


(how do I like peoples replies?)
 
  • Like
Reactions: TGZ
Can't you just get some neetbux aka welfare in your country?

Consider it "startup help" from the government.

A student loan?

Honestly, I don't think you can make enough from Fiverr to live on right away, unless you live in a poor country. There's a whole lot you said nothing about, your age for one. There's needing money, as in having to feed a family, and there's "needing" money as in being young and thinking that you need some stuff. In reality, you need a place to sleep and food on your table, both of which can be had very cheap if you're young and healthy.

Your english is really good and you can communicate with emotion and interest. I'd leverage that. You can do translation on Fiverr if need be, but I suggest you figure out a way to get working on websites instead.

n6p2op said:
(how do I like peoples replies?)
Click to expand...

I don't think you can until some post limit is reached.
 
I am getting welfare now, but it's not a whole lot. (I know many people are less fortunate, and I am of course very happy to get anything at all)

I live in Denmark, which is a haven for government benefits. I am young (21) and as you ver correctly put it, I don't "need" the money. However, I do need it if we're looking at it from a "pay all of my expenses myself" angle.

You're right. I want to do the fiverr gig because it's safe, and allows me to work on other peoples terms instead of trusting my own. That's a mental thing that I need to conquer, and I can't do that without taking action and doing some good old exposure therapy.

I'm planning on starting a site in the health/fitness vertical (using the knowledge I have accumulated through both weight loss, and weightlifting) The only experience I have with this is writing content for the SERPs (badly, if I may add) so it should be interesting to see what I can achieve with traffic leaks and good content.

Thanks guys, this was the kick i needed.
 
Weight loss is pretty difficult, particularly in a small market. You need to have your own product to sell too, but if you succeed, it's an evergreen. Just saying, go into it with a goal of selling your own product, be it vidoes, recipes, supplements etc. I mean, you can sell some protein and whatever too.

You'll find all the info you need in the Digital Strategy Course. Just be aware, you'll likely have to wait 6-12 months to make real money. I have a "follow along" thread in the Laboratory section. I went from 0 last year this time, to 4K last month this year. I did have previous experience. My goal is 10K same time next year. And I'm old compared to you. Think about how much money you could be making in 4 years and you'd only be 25! Oh my, I'd like a chance to do 21 to 25 over again and not waste my time studying something I hated.

I'll just say, don't waste your time selling articles on Fiverr if you're 21. Get some kind of fun, outdoors or social job for spare cash (nontaxed). Drive Uber, ride a food service, do grunt work outdoors in the summer. Shouldn't be too difficult to a low living wage. Don't waste your youth on Fiverr, plenty of time for that later.

If you're still around posting in a month, I'll drop you some tips in private message about small language market stuff, which I think will apply to you being in Denmark.
 
Weight loss is difficult for sure but I don't intend to focus on that, at least not in the beginning. My idea would be to target long tail keywords such as "best resistance bands for glute exercises" and branch out from there. Though there is a good chance I could add info/physical products later on. Be it private label supplements, recipe books, tips and tricks, whatever.


And you're right! I'm lucky that I make some money as a musician, but these are the slowest months for gigs. So I definitely get out, and luckily I'm also fortunate enough to be able to make money that way.
Uber and food delivery doesn't exist here, so that's out of the question.


And that would be awesome! I did initially consider launching this site in Denmark. What turned me away from doing so is that the market is so much smaller, and we don't have an amazon equivelant over here that people trust and respect nearly as much. I fear that I would be fighting bigger authorities for smaller breadcrumbs.
 
If you've persisted through the weight loss and muscle toning, you've definitely gained some/enough knowledge to put together a site to sell your own product or I'm sure theres plenty of affiliate links for those sort of things that you could push until you figure out how to build your own products.

Yes, there's tons of them out there but I think that might be your best shot in creating a business that you could make money in. Not to mention, it shouldn't be that hard to write about it if you've gained enough to be successful with it yourself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back