My plans to blog on here on a daily basis went completely to pot. I'm not going to offer any feeble excuses - I just kept forgetting, or didn't have anything interesting to write about.
Having signed up with an online marketing coaching program (see previous post), that, and other commitments have had to take priority. Part of the course involves setting up a blog and posting to it daily, so it kind of took the place of this one.
I am expecting the next installment of the course any minute now, but I suspect that I have already completed the tasks on it as I have been able to predict what is coming next.
I believe this installment will be about "monetizing" the blog with things like Google AdSense and maybe Clickbank products, which I have already done.
In the meantime, I have just released the latest version of Squeeze-U-Lator, which will now let you wrap ZIP files.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Does Google PageRank Mean Anything?
I once read that Google PageRank was fairly meaningless and had no bearing on a site's position in the search results. This came from Google itself.
A lot of online marketers and so-called SEO experts swear that it makes all the difference, especially when you have incoming links from high PR sites.
The question is, does it really have an effect? After all, the "Page" part of the name doesn't refer to web pages; it was named after Larry Page.
Furthermore, PageRank is only one factor in determining the position of a page in the search engine results page (SERP Rank). It is said that there are over 200 factors involved in calculating SERP Rank, so can PageRank have that much of an effect?
One of my blogs managed to reach Google PR3, and I was really pleased with that. But in the last couple of rounds of PR changes it fell to PR2 and now to PR1.
The strange thing is during that period and the few months before, I spent a lot of time ensuring that the blog had fresh, original content that was of value. Basically doing what Google recommend that you do.
And since its PR dropped to 1, it has had an increase in traffic from Google of around 68%.
So I'm still not convinced that PageRank makes a difference. And to be honest, if I'm getting 68% more traffic, I don't really care what its PageRank is.
A lot of online marketers and so-called SEO experts swear that it makes all the difference, especially when you have incoming links from high PR sites.
The question is, does it really have an effect? After all, the "Page" part of the name doesn't refer to web pages; it was named after Larry Page.
Furthermore, PageRank is only one factor in determining the position of a page in the search engine results page (SERP Rank). It is said that there are over 200 factors involved in calculating SERP Rank, so can PageRank have that much of an effect?
One of my blogs managed to reach Google PR3, and I was really pleased with that. But in the last couple of rounds of PR changes it fell to PR2 and now to PR1.
The strange thing is during that period and the few months before, I spent a lot of time ensuring that the blog had fresh, original content that was of value. Basically doing what Google recommend that you do.
And since its PR dropped to 1, it has had an increase in traffic from Google of around 68%.
So I'm still not convinced that PageRank makes a difference. And to be honest, if I'm getting 68% more traffic, I don't really care what its PageRank is.
Friday, July 08, 2011
Aghh! The Frustration!
Well I tried to find the time to do what I planned to do last night, but then I remembered that I needed to rearrange a lot of furniture to make up a room for some students who will be staying with us for a few weeks.
I got so involved with that, i completely forgot about a phone call I was to receive from John Thornhill at 8 o'clock.
And speaking of John Thornhill, I registered with his coaching course a week ago, so I am avidly awaiting the second of the 16 installments. Having said that, I kind of know what's involved in week 2, and I thnik I've probably done all the tasks already.
The coaching program has a forum, to which I contributed some posts yesterday, to help others who are struggling somewhat. I always like to help others that way, because they might be able to help me with something in return some time.
Traffic to my main site has increased and continues to remain at that higher level. As a result, I have seen a lot more hops on my Clickbank account as more people view products that I have linked to. Actual sales remain about the same, but this higher level of activity is surely going to bring in better results eventually.
What I need to do is identify some better products to promote, and I am considering writing some software to help me identify hot products in the Clickbank and Click2Sell marketplaces.
I see that as not only a useful tool for myself, but a product that other people might be interested in owning.
I got so involved with that, i completely forgot about a phone call I was to receive from John Thornhill at 8 o'clock.
And speaking of John Thornhill, I registered with his coaching course a week ago, so I am avidly awaiting the second of the 16 installments. Having said that, I kind of know what's involved in week 2, and I thnik I've probably done all the tasks already.
The coaching program has a forum, to which I contributed some posts yesterday, to help others who are struggling somewhat. I always like to help others that way, because they might be able to help me with something in return some time.
Traffic to my main site has increased and continues to remain at that higher level. As a result, I have seen a lot more hops on my Clickbank account as more people view products that I have linked to. Actual sales remain about the same, but this higher level of activity is surely going to bring in better results eventually.
What I need to do is identify some better products to promote, and I am considering writing some software to help me identify hot products in the Clickbank and Click2Sell marketplaces.
I see that as not only a useful tool for myself, but a product that other people might be interested in owning.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Back on Track!
Ah! I remembered to post on this blog today - that's 2 days in a row. It's because I decided to get myself organised, and set up a routine. However, it's easy to break a routine, so there's no telling how long this will last.
What have I done today?
As I tend to write this blog at lunch time, I'm using "today" to mean "in the last 24 hours".
I planned to get my software product modifications done, but failed. I was just too tired. That's the problem with having a day-job as well as an online business. The Day-job gets in the way.
I wrote a review of a product being sold on Clickbank and published it on one of my blogs - one that deals specifically with Clickbank and other affiliate marketing.
By the way, since I started posting at least once a week to that blog, traffic has increased by 2.5 times. In fact today I got the same amount of traffic that I was getting before, but in the first 2 hours of the day.
I had another two ideas for software products. I made quick notes of them, but really need to write down full specifications for them.
I thought of an excellent marketing strategy for one of my associates. He has developed some software aimed at musicians, including a free demo version. I suggested that he approaches some of the music magazines and offer his software for inclusion on the cover disc that comes free with the magazine.
The software has been "Squeezulated", so that it needs Registration. This means that anyone who wants to run the software will have to sign up to his mailing list. I wouldn't mind getting a large number of the readership of a magazine subscribing to my mailing lists. That's what I would call laser-targeted sign-ups.
What Am I Planning To Do Today?
Hopefully, I'll be able to get my software product finished and issued.
I also plan to write some specifications for the software products that I thought of yesterday.
What have I done today?
As I tend to write this blog at lunch time, I'm using "today" to mean "in the last 24 hours".
I planned to get my software product modifications done, but failed. I was just too tired. That's the problem with having a day-job as well as an online business. The Day-job gets in the way.
I wrote a review of a product being sold on Clickbank and published it on one of my blogs - one that deals specifically with Clickbank and other affiliate marketing.
By the way, since I started posting at least once a week to that blog, traffic has increased by 2.5 times. In fact today I got the same amount of traffic that I was getting before, but in the first 2 hours of the day.
I had another two ideas for software products. I made quick notes of them, but really need to write down full specifications for them.
I thought of an excellent marketing strategy for one of my associates. He has developed some software aimed at musicians, including a free demo version. I suggested that he approaches some of the music magazines and offer his software for inclusion on the cover disc that comes free with the magazine.
The software has been "Squeezulated", so that it needs Registration. This means that anyone who wants to run the software will have to sign up to his mailing list. I wouldn't mind getting a large number of the readership of a magazine subscribing to my mailing lists. That's what I would call laser-targeted sign-ups.
What Am I Planning To Do Today?
Hopefully, I'll be able to get my software product finished and issued.
I also plan to write some specifications for the software products that I thought of yesterday.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and men...
So much for the idea of keeping a daily blog of how I'm doing in my online business. Failed after the first day.
This is mainly due to family pressure - I hardly got the chance to sit down at my PC over the weekend, so I didn't really have much to write about.
I see this as a good thing though - I enjoy the time with my family - I just wish I had more of it (time, that is!).
This is the beginning of Day 6, but as it's only just started, we'll call it my Day 5 report.
As I said, very little happened over the weekend (Days 2 and 3), except for a small AdSense income - about enough to buy a large cup of coffee. I have actually reduced my use of AdSense over the past year as the amount you get paid is quite poor, so I see anything that I get as a bit of a bonus nowadays.
On Day 4 (Monday), I spent quite a lot of time viewing videos and reading ebooks about various online marketing techniques. Most of them were items that I'd acquired some time ago, but never got around to studying. Some, I had read or viewed before, but reading them or watching them again several months later has been beneficial. It's easy to miss something the first time around - especially in a video.
On Day 5 (Yesterday), I registered a new domain, www.philrogersonline.com, which I shall be using as part of the course I registered on last week (see previous post).
The course tutor has not revealed what we will be doing with the domain, although he has hinted that it will be a blog (yet another to maintain!). Whenever I register a domain, even when I'm not ready to use it yet, I usually install Wordpress on it and make a post on it. That way, it gets pinged to the blog directories and starts to get indexed by Google etc a lot more quickly. This new domain has been no exception and it now contains a simple WP blog.
I have noticed that traffic from the search ehngines to one of my sites, CB Intuition, has increased considerably (at least 50%) since I started posting new content on it at least once a week. It just goes to show that keeping your site fresh with new content really does have a positive effect. The site appears at #20 in Google for the simple keyword Clickbank, which I'm quite pleased with. It ranks higher for combinations of other keywords plus Clickbank.
What am I Planning to Do Today?
My top priority is to finish a couple of changes to my software, Squeeze-u-lator, and release the latest version.
Have I made any money today (in the last few days)?
Yes. I had some clicks on AdSense.
This is mainly due to family pressure - I hardly got the chance to sit down at my PC over the weekend, so I didn't really have much to write about.
I see this as a good thing though - I enjoy the time with my family - I just wish I had more of it (time, that is!).
This is the beginning of Day 6, but as it's only just started, we'll call it my Day 5 report.
As I said, very little happened over the weekend (Days 2 and 3), except for a small AdSense income - about enough to buy a large cup of coffee. I have actually reduced my use of AdSense over the past year as the amount you get paid is quite poor, so I see anything that I get as a bit of a bonus nowadays.
On Day 4 (Monday), I spent quite a lot of time viewing videos and reading ebooks about various online marketing techniques. Most of them were items that I'd acquired some time ago, but never got around to studying. Some, I had read or viewed before, but reading them or watching them again several months later has been beneficial. It's easy to miss something the first time around - especially in a video.
On Day 5 (Yesterday), I registered a new domain, www.philrogersonline.com, which I shall be using as part of the course I registered on last week (see previous post).
The course tutor has not revealed what we will be doing with the domain, although he has hinted that it will be a blog (yet another to maintain!). Whenever I register a domain, even when I'm not ready to use it yet, I usually install Wordpress on it and make a post on it. That way, it gets pinged to the blog directories and starts to get indexed by Google etc a lot more quickly. This new domain has been no exception and it now contains a simple WP blog.
I have noticed that traffic from the search ehngines to one of my sites, CB Intuition, has increased considerably (at least 50%) since I started posting new content on it at least once a week. It just goes to show that keeping your site fresh with new content really does have a positive effect. The site appears at #20 in Google for the simple keyword Clickbank, which I'm quite pleased with. It ranks higher for combinations of other keywords plus Clickbank.
What am I Planning to Do Today?
My top priority is to finish a couple of changes to my software, Squeeze-u-lator, and release the latest version.
Have I made any money today (in the last few days)?
Yes. I had some clicks on AdSense.
Friday, July 01, 2011
A Month in the Online Life of Phil Rogers - Day 1
A new month and a new plan. Let's hope I can keep it up!
I have decided to go back to the original idea of blogging (web logging) and keep a daily log of everything I do online for the month of July 2011. If I can get into the habit of posting, and maintain the momentum, I might even keep it going into August, September etc.
So here we are on Day 1.
What have I done today?
I started this series on this blog.
I signed up for a 16-week course on Online Marketing. It starts off for absolute beginners, so the week 1 material is really quite trivial for me. It's quite good to be reminded of the basics though.
I read one of the hundreds of ebooks that has been gathering virtual dust on my hard drive.
What am I planning to do today?
I have a few software projects on the go. There's one which I need to improve slightly and release before we do a big marketing push on it. I reckon that's going to take up a couple of evenings work.
Have I made any money today?
Not yet, but we're only half way through the day.
I have decided to go back to the original idea of blogging (web logging) and keep a daily log of everything I do online for the month of July 2011. If I can get into the habit of posting, and maintain the momentum, I might even keep it going into August, September etc.
So here we are on Day 1.
What have I done today?
I started this series on this blog.
I signed up for a 16-week course on Online Marketing. It starts off for absolute beginners, so the week 1 material is really quite trivial for me. It's quite good to be reminded of the basics though.
I read one of the hundreds of ebooks that has been gathering virtual dust on my hard drive.
What am I planning to do today?
I have a few software projects on the go. There's one which I need to improve slightly and release before we do a big marketing push on it. I reckon that's going to take up a couple of evenings work.
Have I made any money today?
Not yet, but we're only half way through the day.
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