I am totally new to mastering my own websites but I put together a business plan to create 4 or 5 niche market wordpress blogs (obvioulsy on topics I am very familiar with). I am doing this as a "side job". I have a full time day job. I am only into the first week of my first blog and I am producing 1 article a day, which isn't alot. I also set aside time to experiment with the site as far as ad placement, familiarizing myself with the different ad networks, design tweaks, etc...This first site ultimately will be one of my "main" sites, but right now I am still experimenting with it while maintaining a professional and serious feel to the outside observer. I know I have absolutely no visitors and my plan before I move on to the 2nd blog is to have 30-40 articles published on the first one and a good grasp of marketing and networking. But my question is, when is it time to bring people to the site (not friends or relatives either)? Even just for a learning epxerience. Is it ok to reach out to other sites with similiar interests and let them know I am a new site and feel free to come and take a look etc. etc... Any suggestions?
Hello, Yeah i think its a good idea to let everyone see the site and even give feedback to you about it. Maybe somthing needs to be changed and you don't even know. I think its great to get all kinds of feedback on a site. Make you feel good when someone tells you it looks great!
Start Social bookmarking. It's the best way to gain a temporary burst of traffic some of which can convert into daily visitors if your content is interesting enough. When you stop promoting your site while updating it, it's not worth the updation. You certainly need to work on both simultaneously for better results.
Once the site is functioning and it is working properly I would begin marketing it immediately through all the free traffic generating strategies. You can then begin to evaluate the effectiveness of the site. There are really only two keys to a successful web business 1) generating traffic to the site and 2) converting visitors to customers. There are all different kinds of approaches to accomplish these two things and you will have to work at determining what works best for you and what you are trying to accomplish through your web business
I agree with the others here. You should get people to have a look at your site - and yes even approach other sites in your niche asking for their comments - the hardest thing when you are starting online is to get past the idea that the whole thing has to be "perfect" before you promote it. If you encourage people to visit your site while you are in the building phase you will get feedback on how the site can be improved (if it needs it) before you have spent a whole lot of time loading it with content. You could even put a little poll or survey on your site and offer people a free gift if they give you their feedback. If you combine this with an autoresponder then you will also have started your list building process which will really help your future business. All the best with this Lisa
Yeah, get started as soon as possible. Basically, as soon as you have any content worth looking at, on your site. I also recommend that you pick one traffic source or traffic generation method and stick with that until you've really mastered it. Trying to go after a ton of different sources all at once usually doesn't yield great results.
Shane, when you say pick one traffic source - since I am new to websites and blogging, I am not sure how to pick one and master it? What are some traffic sources? Do you mean if I use social boomarking then I should JUST use social bookmarking until I understand the ins and outs of it?
Yes, definitely go ahead and start getting some traffic now. It won't be tons of traffic at first and will give you a good chance to start getting some feedback. I also wanted to second what lisaoliver said about setting up an autoresponder and starting to build a list. While you are in learning and experimenting mode, this is probably one of the most profitable things you can incorporate for the long run. Good luck!
Always good to have other opinions. When your ready to show them your ready to show them! There's always room to improve in a site, but don't lose focus in getting traffics.
You should be getting people to view your website as soon as possible, you can change things that aren't working afterwords. Content, content, content. Links, links, links.
Yes, there are both paid and free services that let you put an sign-up box on your website to collect email addresses from visitors and then email them as a group. Typically you create a few preliminary messages that people receive in a series once they sign up, for example a "thank you for signing up" message, a brief introduction type message, and so on. These messages are queued up and the autoresponder sends them on a predetermined schedule automatically for you once someone joins your list. An autoresponder can also be used to send a mass mailing to everyone on your list at one time. The key is to start building a list of people interested in your site that you can easily email and stay in contact with.
Your site should be promoted once you have it set up properly and you should consider your site as being promoted from your first article submission if you are doing it correctly. Remember that a successful monetized Blog takes time, effort and consistency. Would suggest that you take a detailed look at your approach. If you are blogging through Wordpress, for long term success, make sure you are using a .org site instead of a .com. Make sure you have a good hosting site - HostGator is a good option. Once you have your blog template installed, determine your central focus. From there, you'll want to start adding content to your site that is relevant to your central focus. In every article that you create and syndicate (Onlywire is a good option for syndication), make sure it is interesting informative content. The content should be relevant to your central theme, and in most cases, should include a call to action. In other words, if the reader likes what they've read, here's a link to a product or another section of your blog that will give them either more information, or an affiliate product of yours that will help them to implement what was covered in the article. For major campaigns, make sure that you have a lead capture placement in place for collecting names and email addresses. The long term success to any blogging campaign is building a list in order to have large amounts of people to market to on a consistent basis. Aweber is a good option for creating these lead capture boxes. Make sure your blog is not cluttered and littered with affiliate links. Your first page should be inviting, streamlined and focused on the central theme. Any affiliate links should be subtle, passive and not a distraction from what people can learn from digging deeper into your content. If the main focus of your blog is xxx, make sure that any affiliate links that you have are directly related to xxx. You can find interesting products related to your central theme at ClickBank and PayDotCom. In summary, narrow the focus of your blog. Set up a front page with an attractive theme telling people what to expect. Write and syndicate content related to your main focus. Tie affiliate offers to your articles, videos, etc. Have these same affiliate links available on your blog in an attractive format. Once you have done this for a couple of months, continue to tweak your page and your offers and never put out blah content. If it's interesting, informative and impactful, people will respond. As you get more proficient, you will want to move into creating more impactful content. This is done by creating a presentation in a PDF format that you can give away to people, both your current list and in forums like this one. The give away should be provided only after people enter in their name and email into one of your capture boxes. Free products are such a great way to build a list of followers. If you are creative over the next few months, you can create several free how-to products that you've created through extensive research, and offer in many different places on the web. Do that, and in no time you will create a following in the hundreds and if savvy enough, in the thousands. Just remember, no one is going to visit your site just to make a purchase. Site first, content second, more content third with affiliate links, free offers fourth with a lead capture page, rinse and repeat. You income will come from sales offers made to your list. Move with a purpose and commit yourself to the project. Keep asking questions. Learn as much as you can. Do your research and you'll do well. Greg Tucker
Hey Quatto, You should start promoting your content immediately. Each post is an individual piece of content which could be valuable to someone. 1. Use a Socialbookmarking service, like OnlyWire, to quickly bookmark each post on at least 5 to 10 social bookmarking sites. 2. Submit your blogs RSS feed to one or more RSS Submission sites. I personally use a program called RSSBot to do this. 3. Since you are going to the trouble to create quality, professional content, you might want to consider putting it on EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticlesBase with links pointing back to your blog. You can use the same content as your blog posts, but always put it on your blog first, then EzineArticles. After EZA approves, then submit to the other two. Do not point the links to the same article on your blog, but to another relevant post. Just those 3 steps will help you start getting backlinks and getting indexed on the search engines. If you wish to expand your efforts, then create videos using the same content, push them out with TubeMogul to 5 to 10 video sites. Make sure a link goes in the description area which points to your blog, and include your website address as an overlay title in the video. The reason you need to start getting visitors now is because you cannot test your sales funnel without adequate traffic. You need at least a couple hundred unique visitors for each change to give you an accurate idea if your ad placement changes, copy, or offers are making any difference. Other people have already told you this, but getting an autoresponder service like Aweber, GetResponse, IMNicaMail, or any other professional service can be very important. By using a squeeze page to collect email addresses you can send out relevant news in emails, send new product offerings, and make more money. Many visitors to your blog will only visit once, but if you collect their email address you can contact them many times. You will likely need to have a good free offering to entice people to sign-up for your list. Getting 30 to 40 articles published first is a total waste of your time. You need to be getting feedback on whether your keywords, message, and offers are working long before then, so you can make adjustments. Sounds like you are working on a great plan and set of ideas. Just tweak them a little and you will be off and running.
Basic tip for your start - start commenting other blogs from your niche, that's how you'll get some visitors to your blog and backlinks to it.
Hi! It is better to start promotion with defining your target audience and target segments - so you can choose the appropriate means and channels for successful promotion.