Blog Experiment #2: Creating/Promoting 50 Post Blog - You Join Too

Hello All,

Well, Blog Experiment #1 didn't quite work out the way I wanted. Although I didn't reach my goal, I still learned a few lessons. You can read more about it here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=980479


On to new business....

This is just an experiment. I have a fulltime workload that takes up most of my time, but I just love testing out ideas and theories firsthand.

I am going to do things differently than I did with the first experiment. Instead of trying to exploit a tiny micro niche, I am going after one of the mega niches.

In doing my research on blogs, I kept reading over and over again about the importance of posting daily and having a blog with a lot of content. I'm biased toward long tail keywords, so I'm going to combine it all into a two phase blog experiment.

Phase 1: To build a 50 post blog on a specific niche (with original content)
Phase 2: To promote blog on a weekly basis, while maintaining the daily posting (long term objective goal is to get 500 visitors per day)

Phase 1 is going to be all about creating something worthy of promoting. Too often, it seems like people (myself included) try to make money right from the very beginning. The problem is that too much focus gets placed on marketing, and content creation (for the blog) suffers. I don't expect to make any money during Phase 1 (although I probably will).

I also wanted the phase 1 goal be something that I have control over. It's great to make earning $25 per day a goal. But there are so many factors involved in that, much of which I have little control over.

But by making the goal publishing 50 blog posts, I put all the control in my hands. I either make it happen, or I don't.

Phase 2 is when I start marketing the blog. I will still continue to daily postings, but I will also start using article marketing, link building, and other strategies to start getting people to the blog, and raise its rankings in the SERPs.


For this experiment, I will be using your standard free blog at Blogger.com. Yes, I know that I could do better using Wordpress and hosting it on my own servers. And I do those things. But for this experiment, I'm using Blogger.com.

The niche I am focusing on is the loan and debt mega niche.

Now, I chose this niche for two reasons. Firstly, its an "expensive" niche. Meaning, that Adsense clicks and Pay Per Leads programs tend to pay well.

And second, and more importantly, I have experience and passion for the niche. I spent 2.5 years as a real estate agent, plus another 7 in the mortgage industry.

To write about something every day, I know that it has to be something that I know well and that I like writing about. This factor is much more important than getting paid more per click. In order for this experiment to succeed for me, it has to be something I won't get bored of after a few days.

Yes, I know that this is a giant niche to target. But I am going to go after the low hanging fruit (long tail keyword phrases).

One Really Important Thing I Want To Say Before Getting Too Far:

I am going to document my steps along the way. So you can sit back and read about my successes and failures. But, I also encourage you to join me. Start your own blog. Follow my plan. Add your own twists. And learn (and hopefully make money) along the way.

Choose your niche carefully. It has to be something that you can write about daily.

So let's get started:

Phase 1 Actions:

1. Start blog on Blogger. Set it up in the beginning to make money.
2. Come up with list of 50 long tail keyword phases (high demand/low competition)
3. Come up with list of 10 affiliate/per per lead programs.
4. Write and publish 50 keyword-rich posts to blog (at least one daily, but no more than 5 daily)

My deadline is going to be 30-45 days from today. By writing 1-2 posts per day, I should be right on target.

Phase 2 Actions:

1. Continue writing posts each day.
2. Write and submit one article per week to Ezinearticles.com.
3. Write and submit one article per week to top ten article directories.
4. Write one forum thread in related niche forum per week.
5. Write one blog comment in related niche blog per week.
6. Submit blog to ten blog directories.
7. Submit blog rss feed to ten rss feed directories.
8. Submit post to Digg and Stumbleupon.

Although I am not going to focus on marketing in Phase 1, I am going to set up the "profit channels" from day one. Why? Because it will be easier to do it this way then to try and update 50 blog posts.

I am going to generate income from two sources: Google Adsense and pay per lead programs. Now, if you are particpating in this blog experiment, you might use different profit channels depends on your blog's niche. These are just two options that will work for my specific niche.

My blog has a very simple layout. I tried for a few days to find a decent three column blogger template. But I just got tired of looking and am using one of the plain blog templates that Blogger provides.

I did find a free header graphic that matched my niche, and was able to add some text to it. Not too bad, if I say so myself.

There is just going to be one Adsense wide vertical skyscraper going down the right side of the blog. I am also going to end each blog post with a half banner/large button for a relevant pay per lead program.

As far as Adsense, many of the keywords I was looking up on Spyfu.com gave me results of greater than $1 per click. That works for me.

The pay per lead programs pay anywhere from $2-$15 per lead (and sometimes the lead can be as simple as filling out a form to get a free quote).

So where am I at:

I have my blog all set up to go. I have 2-4 PPL programs I know that I will promote. I still need to come up with good long tail keyword phrases.

I'm not going to come up with all 50 in one sitting (nor should you). I am going to start off with about ten, so I can start adding posts today.

As always, I'll keep you guys posted.

Best wishes,

Joe

P.S. If you want to participate and document your own progress, by all means do so. The more the merrier.

 

I know you've been working hard on the sites that you've created, but I'll tell you straightforward -- if you want to be competitive in the loan and debt niche, you need an actual budget allotted to marketing & advertising. "Bum marketing" methods will not get you very far in a niche that's hawked on by countless big dogs. You have to be willing to spend some cash to stick your head out from the rest.

I hope you make it, though. I'd really like to see someone from DP attempt to go from $0 to something decent and actually make the goal. Hasn't happened yet...

 

waiting for your result. Hope you succeed

 

Hi...

I totally appreciate your concern in me trying such a competitive niche. But bum marketing strategies have worked for me in other tough niches like weight loss and online dating. I've got to try and see for myself. That's just how I am, I guess.

But let's say that I get through phase 1 of this experiment and create a blog in this competitive niche consisting of 50 original posts that are targeting certain popular keyword phrases.

Do you see the value there? I just don't see a downside to this experiment, for me or others.

But I guess time will tell. I'll definitely keep you posted.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

I have decded not to add a statcounter to my blog as I go through Phase 1. When I do, I end up checking it unncessarily through out the day. So I will start by stats official at the beginning of Phase 2 (once I have 50 posts published).

Now, since I will have Adsense installed since day 1, I will still have an idea of any traffic I'm getting. But I don't want to worry about traffic until after the blog is "complete."

Joe

 

well, im subscribed.........

would love to be a witness of another experiment of yours.Hopefully would learn something along the way

best of luck

 

Yes sounds another great plan, look forward to updates on your success.

 

Ok, I just published my first post. It was focused around a long tail keyword phrase that gets 1000+ daily searches, and less than 100 competing webpages. [Note: after my last experiment, I take all stats with a grain of salt]

It was just over 400 words, keyword-rich, informative, and gave me a perfect opportunity to promote two different pay per lead publishers. Not bad for the first post.

Best wishes,

Joe

Posts Written: 1
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 2%

 

Good luck on your adventure.

 

Good luck Joe! I'm Subscribed. I'll attempted to follow in your steps when I get some extra time on my hands.

 

It's not great... but give it a try and see what happens

 

Another update:

I just published another post to my experiment blog. I wrote it around a keyword phrase that gets 300+ daily searches, and has just 25 competing webpages.

What I am doing is writing the post about the long tail keyword, and then place a large pay per lead button at the end of the post. I actually try to "lead" the reader to investigating the PPL offer further.

I'll give you an example:

There is a pay per lead company that pays about $5-$14 to have website visitors fill out an online form to get a free glucose meter. So I would write a post, and guide the reader into realize how important it is to have a glucose meter (and it is important, especially if you have diabetes). I then show them the offer for the free glucose meter.

I'm using the same technique with this blog.

Best wishes,

Joe

Posts Published: 2
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 4%

 

Hello All,

I just a PM from someone curious to what tools I am using to determine the daily search amount for my keywords, and the estimated profit per click I will get from Adsense. Here's my response to him:

Hi...

No problem in answering your questions.

I use the following free keyword research tool to come up with my daily search numbers:

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php

Now (if you haven't read my first blog experiment), I don't see the numbers as gospel. They can be wrong at times. I just use it to get an estimation of daily demand.

As for knowing how much I'll get per Adsense click, I use the tool at http://www.spyfu.com. This also tells me how many advertisers there are, as well as giving me more ideas for different keywords to use.

Again, I use the numbers I get from both of these tools to give me a better estimation of what to expect.

Best wishes,

Joe

 

Update:

I just finished publishing my third post on my blog. The long tail keyword I targeted gets 556 daily searches, and only has 31 competing pages.

I can't wait until I start getting traffic. I have done a really good job (for the first three posts anyway) of incorporating a pay per lead program as a solution to the topic I am writing about.

I'm not "selling" the programs directly. I just talk about a problem in the niche, talk about a potential solution, and then immediately provide them with the ability to find out more information about the possible solution (which also happens to be a pay per lead program).

I have also added a second block of Adsense. My posts tend to be 400+ words (and typically include graphics), and so they are rather long. The top of the blog looks fine, but there is a lot of empty space on the sides from about the middle of the post on.

So I added a second wide vertical skyscraper on top of the first one (along the right side of the page). More for aesthetic reasons than anything else.

Best wises,

Joe

Posts Published: 3
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 6%

 

keep up the good work, I cant wait to see how it goes

 

I think in some of my projects i end up focusing too much on the traffic volumes (although that is obv very important) and not enough on the goal in hand.

I like how you have clearly defined your goals from the get-go and will be doing them regardless of what comes your way..

Good luck with it all, and i look forward to reading your updates.

Scott

 

You have just started doing what I was thinking of starting doing soon.
In fact a guy called Josh Spaulding wrote an eBook which looks good - its an ebook on how to create $5 dollar mini sites by targeting 5 long tail phrases.
Essentially it looks like you are doing exaclty what he does except you are doing it on a ten times larger scale.

For that I say: Kudos, and Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the all the kind words of support. It's not an ego-thing. It motivates me to know that I have placed my plan out here in the public, and people are watching to see what I do. Keeps me accountable.

So thanks again, guys.

Update:

Just completed my fourth post to this new blog. I wrote this post around a question in the financial niche that gets just over 155 daily searches, and has about 1250 competing pages.

One of my tasks was to compile a list of 50 long tail keyword phrases that I thought would successfully bring me traffic. To get started, I did an initial list of 10 LTKWs. From those ten, I have written post for the best four of them.

I am going to spend a little time tonight coming up with 10 new keyword phrases (I am pretty sure that I can find more). I will write posts around the best ones, and repeat the process again.

I didn't expect myself to sit down and come up with all 50 at one time. I started with 10 because I just wanted to get some posts published (instead stalling while I try and come up with 50 at once). Its working out really well this way.

I was planning on keeping the posts short (between 150-200 words long), so that I could write them up quicker. However, my posts are averaging about 450 words, with nothing less than 396 words. Funny how it works out that way. That's why its important to choose a niche that you can easily write about.

Best wises,

Joe

Posts Published: 4
Posts Needed: 50
Percentage of Phase 1 Complete: 8%

 

I reallylike this. You take a lot of action on this. I am sure you'll at least make money with this. because you're right: Bum Marketing methods DO work in highly competative niches. I personally use them all the time with great success. Or better said:

It has yet to fail on me .

I bet that if this works out, you'll give some people out there, who aren't making any real money yet and don't have masive capital to invest, to actually try making money using free methods too. Hope it does, anyway.

Goodluck!

 

hope you succeed ...Goodluck