Niche site update November

Posted on 23.11.2011 by knowman

This post was originally a comment on Chris Ducker’s Niche Site Project Update on Virtual Business Lifestyle.

The data (last month in brackets):

Google ranking for primary keyword: 7 (10)
Number of site visitors: 201 (114)
Google AdSense: 0.17 e (0.56 e)
Alexa: 15,477,088 (15,499,237)

Things have been slowing down. Increase in rankings, yes, but relatively low. I have been busy with another online project of mine, which has taken energy from this one.

The truth is that building links, writing articles, spinning them, submitting to blogs etc. is quite boring! I said in the beginning that I’d be doing all by myself. I did, this far.

But…

10 minutes ago or so I bought a product from Chris and his new company to ease up my work. If I want this niche site to succeed or actually, see if it can be successful at all, I need to put some extra cash in it and get some more time for me to do other things: I outsourced. For the first time. We’ll see how it goes.

Btw. Users of Market Samurai have probably noticed this, but it seems that outsourcing is becoming the thing for November!. You sure launched your product at the right time, Chris!

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I’m on the first page of Google!

Posted on 14.10.2011 by knowman

This post was originally a comment on Chris Ducker’s Niche Site Project Update on Virtual Business Lifestyle.

This month’s report is gonna be short. I’m hurrying to get more things done on this… :)

The data (last month in brackets):

Google ranking for “magnetorheological”: 10 (117)
Number of site visitors: 114 (22)
Google AdSense: 0.56 e (0.14 e)
Alexa: 15,499,237 (20,847,313)

What I’ve been doing is article marketing and social bookmarking. Nothing else. I focused on those only and it’s paid off. Now I just need to do it more.

I was as high as no. 7 in Google earlier this week, but the ranking has dropped a bit. I think it could be because I’ve been backlinking for another, long-tail keyword lately. Or then it’s something else. However, it’s the second week (at least) that I’m on the top 10, so being there somewhat consistently really makes me smile.

However, still more traffic is needed and I do realize that it takes time to generate it, so I’m back at it right now. I might go actually modify Wikipedia for some high PR backlinks… ;) . I’m glad I can do it in Finnish in this subject since no other in the world is.

A question to just anyone (maybe Chris or Steve Wyman can answer): how do you find out about if Google has indexed your backlinks? I use Market Samurai and it uses Majestic SEO and Yahoo site explorer. Both of them show significantly less than they should.

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Passive Income Creation Update 5

Posted on 14.9.2011 by knowman

This post was originally a comment on Chris Ducker’s Niche Site Project Update onVirtual Business Lifestyle.

Hey Chris,

I’m stunned for all the success you’ve made! Congrats!

Here’s my report:

Google ranking for “magnetorheological”: 117 (144)

Number of site visitors: 22 (3)

Google AdSense: 0.14 e (0)

Alexa: 20,847,313 (21,000,707)

This month has been tough. First, my car broke down. Then I got sick. Then the kids got sick too. So I had to put aside almost one week’s work with the website. My 3G connection also stopped working in the commuter train (where I’m doing this as well).

Things I learned:

  1. Those things above are only bad excuses if I let them be on my way. They were slowing me down, but they won’t stop me. Heck, six months ago I heard the word “backlink” for the first time and here I am doing my first niche site!
  2. With my resources max 18-19 hours per week and learning to do it all by myself on the go, perfectionist temper does not help much, I’ve noticed.
  3. I begin to see more and more the benefits of outsourcing!

So, what I’ve been doing last month is On-site SEO (just enough to make it readable to the crawlers, nothing fancy) and legalese stuff to the page (privacy policy etc. This takes some time too if you haven’t done it before). Last week I started spinning articles and building the anchor layer according to Pat Flynn’s strategy.

This week I started building backlinks for the first anchor layer. However, Google seems to be rather slow on indexing my anchor sites: none of them is indexed yet (and apparently I’m not the only one here facing the same). I know I could just let them directly know about the anchor blogs, but l’m kinda curious to see what does the backlinking contribute to this.

So, thus far the Google rank has not been very stable, which I think is totally understandable with no backlinking sites indexed. I’m expecting that to change anytime now. But I have seen encouraging ranking in long tail keywords: “magnetorheological damper” has been in the top10 almost since the beginning.

Some of my first round anchor articles are still waiting for approval (ArticelAlley and iSnare). Friday is the day when it’s been 7 days since I posted in the last one. If they’re not approved by then, I guess I’ll have to contact them or try resubmitting. Has anyone else had issues with article approvals? Also my ArticleBlast account has not been approved yet, even though I registered last week. Problems with that directory, anyone?

By the way, some article directories may have changed their policies recently:

  • Buzzle does not have resource boxes anymore
  • Article Dashboard has a fee
  • HubPages don’t take spun articles

To do: lots and lots with traffic. And then some more stuff with traffic. Spinning, anchor layers, article mass submissions, social bookmarking. I know what to do, now I just have to do it. I think I’ll have to close my eyes for everything else for a few weeks.

In case you want to join the challenge, go check out Chris Ducker’s Virtual Business Lifestyle blog!

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Niche Site Project Update, part 4

Posted on 12.8.2011 by knowman

This post was originally a comment on Chris Ducker’s Niche Site Project Update on Virtual Business Lifestyle.

Hey,

Sounds great, Chris! My site is progressing a little slower than yours (or most of the others), but I don’t mind. I’m doing  everything myself and on purpose: I keep record of what I do so that if this works out well enough, I know which parts of the process I enjoy the most and which I want to outsource and what to expect (roughly) from the potential future VAs.

Anyway, here are the data:

Google Search Position for primary keyword: 144 according to Position Checker Tool. I guess you could find it out with Google Webmaster Tools, but I signed in only today so haven’t had the time to learn it.

Number of Site Visitors: 3

Google AdSense Earnings: 0

Alexa Rank: 21,000,707 (increased from 27,854,467!)

Number of Content Pages: 13.

Summary of activities:

July

I bought a domain, installed WordPress and started creating content. It is basically the most useful stuff of my Master’s thesis modified in a form that can be easily understood also by someone who hasn’t got much experience on damper technology and by someone who wishes to apply the information onto another application. But to be honest, some of the content is kind of geeky and clearly for engineers, physicists or others with experience on the field. In order to really get the most out of my solution, you must understand some mathematics and physics. It limits the audience, but not too much I hope.

What really surprised me, was that someone already has found my site, commented on one article and even asked for a recommendation for where to buy a certain kind of magnetorheological damper! Even though the site is very much unfinished! This encourages me to continue and it shows that at least there are some people who consider the content useful.

August

Just  yesterday I updated the page last time and I think all the main content is now there. I’m not going to produce much more on the core topic itself for now (maybe months later). This week I selected the theme (Twenty Ten, tweaked it a little. Looks a bit boring but clean. Works for me now), designed the header and inserted AdSense ads on the places I wanted them. Sounds only little, but considered the amount of time taken to surf the net for different how-to’s and tutorials, it took a whole 8-hour day. I realize that the graphic design is something you can put hours and hours to and it would never get fully ready. You just have to cut it off at some point.

Also yesterday I received an SEO analysis on my site from David Sinick and Tom Lambert. I have yet to read it, but I consider it a major help and hope putting their stuff to practice will give a boost to the traffic. However, I want to wait until I get some traffic “on my own”, so that I can see the difference. As an engineer, I’ve been trained to always make measurements that can be compared. So far the traffic is minimum, but I’m not concerned about this yet: I’m starting with serious SEO only later this month.

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Producing Niche Site Content and Getting a Domain

Posted on 1.8.2011 by knowman

This post is part in the series of my Niche Site Project posts (parts 1, 2).

I have been busy lately with life offline. In July me and my wife Jarna bought a flat, moved with our kids into a new town (and in the new appartment) and have been trying to put things in place with two extremely lively persons who want constant attention. I had a 2-week summer holiday from my work, which means I spent all days at a sandbox with my older son Leo. The weather was tropical all the time, which is very unusual in Finland, but I didn’t complain and neither did he!

Today it’s time to get back in business. Since the last post on my niche site, I have been able to produce something, but only a little to the page. I bought a domain (from Bluehost), installed WordPress and started creating content. It is basically the most useful stuff of my thesis modified in a form that can be easily understood also by someone who hasn’t got much experience on damper technology and by someone who wishes to apply the information onto another application. But to be honest, some of the content is kind of geeky and clearly for engineers, physicists or others with experience on the field. In order to really get the most out of my solution, you must understand some mathematics and physics. The topics are for instance:

  • How to Apply Groundhook Control Law
  • How to Find Disturbing Vibration Frequencies
  • Controlling Semi-Active Magnetorheological Damper with Groundhook Algorithm
  • Power Electronics and Current Control of Magnetorheological Damper

None of the headlines is yet optimized so they might change on the way.

What really surprised me, was that someone already has found my site, commented on one article and even asked for a recommendation for where to buy a certain kind of magnetorheological damper! Even though the site is very much unfinished! This encourages me to continue and it shows that at least there are some people who consider the content useful.

This week I’m going to carry on finishing the site (right after I get my home office up and running). I have checked a couple of WordPress themes, but noticed that it is not a very good idea to choose the theme before having produced all the essential content. Some of the articles contain mathematical formulas written in LATEX (I was so happy when I found out that WP supports LATEX tags), and they don’t show so well in all themes. So, thus far I use Twenty eleven, but am very likely to change it when all (or most of) the content is ready.

I expect to start with the SEO and monetizing stuff somewhere this month and that’s the part I’m really waiting for, because it’s the new thing that I have never done before. But until then, I must focus on the killer content. That’s what everything else relies on.

In case you want to join the challenge, go check out Chris Ducker’s Virtual Business Lifestyle blog!

-Miikka

Update: If someone reading this is a Finn (I suspect someone is) and wants to get started on building websites, take a look at this video I made a few months ago. It will guide you through the necessary steps in just 5 minutes.

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