Mid-July Wrap Up
Actually, I was just going to recap details of how the website flipping contest is going, but The Affiliate Post beat me to the punch. Instead I’ll just wing it and do a quick run down of why I’ve been a ghost, both here and on chats (where I typically talk too much).
So, here’s what’s going on…
GO GREEN LIFESTYLE (SITE FLIP CONTEST):
The other contestants have given me kudos on the content and layout for Go Green (thanks guys!) but I fear I’m way behind on traffic and subscribers which is a big part of aquiring points in the contest. Considering the site and domain is brand new and I jumped on the idea without any research, I’m fairly happy with how it’s going. After 15 days, these are my stats:
- I think I’m pushing about 500 unique visitors
- I think it was 106 backlinks when I checked today
- Been getting daily organic traffic (albeit small amounts) from Google, MSN, and Yahoo
- I’ve managed to aquire quite a few dofollow links on relative sites that are PR3 - PR5
I know for a fact that Frugal Forest is way ahead of me in traffic, and pretty sure a couple others are too.
If this was just a regular project I started, I’d be ok with those stats, but since I’m trying to kick other people’s asses within a 30 day period, then it’s a bit of a let down knowing I’m behind.
Oh well, anything can happen in another 2 weeks and I won’t quit!
When these all go up for sale, I might actually bid. I’ve grown to like a couple of them quite a bit, and they have great potential to be future money makers.
SELLING A SITE ON SITEPOINT:
This is just one of the many quick projects that are trial and error for me. I wanted to test this relationship ebook (as an affiliate) and also test a concept I recently read about tweaking Adwords. So, I tried it out and made a few sales, but I’m not interested in taking this particular one further, so I put it up on SitePoint. There’s three days left if you want to buy yourself a cheap site to add to your arsenal.
SUITEJ.COM:
As I mentioned in another post about 10 days ago (ahem, is that correct, AP?) I don’t like the layout here, but I plan to actually use this regularly starting at some point this summer so I’ve already begun to rearrange things. It’ll look somewhat the same except my head will be smaller and the sidebar will be friendlier. Oh, there’ll be blog posts too.
MORE BLOGS:
I currently have 2 niche blogs I’m building that I plan to keep long term and are interests of mine. For those of you who don’t know, I’m new to blogging but not to making money online. I also have a couple small ones already in the works that are planned to build and sell (similar to our contest blogs). In the same regard, I’m always hunting small domains/sites to either build or to buy/sell quickly.
MAINTENANCE:
Like many of you, I have a few things that bring in passive and semi-passive income that we don’t talk about in detail for fear of copycats and evildoers. I spend time maintaining those.
EDUCATION:
My Google Reader is getting to be off the charts. I’m a sponge and would rather lose sleep than miss out on learning something new about internet marketing, or other subjects that might help myself, my family, and/or my business.
WORK FOR FRIENDS:
Recently this has begun to subside, but I occasionally do stuff for friends which I like to lump into “creative help” because it can be anything from tweaking code they messed up to designing some simple graphics, to
having them pay me for tshirt ideas (What’s up Joe!?).
MY GOAL:
As stated in my about me page, I’m just trying to explore and achieve (and that applies to every aspect of my life). I’ve been making a decent living online for a long time, but it’s been always changing and there’s been quite a few ups and downs over the years. I don’t take anything for granted but I’m looking to go from silver to gold, and I’m more than willing to work overtime for it.
The exciting part is most of what I do now is “new”, and I’m meeting so many cool people who are just genuinely willing to help out. It’s awesome!
Now, please visit GoGreenLifestyle and subscribe ’cause I need the points!
Cheers!
Jay
Free Caffeine And Website Flipping
No sleep last night and way too much work to do! Most of you that are coming here know me on some level, and are even local (Vancouver), so I gotta plug my buddy’s new coffee shop in Langley. It’s called The Mocha Room on Fraser Hwy. Go there! He hooked me up with free Americanos this morning ’cause he could tell my eyes were burning and it was plain to see that I probably didn’t have the energy to pull my wallet out of my pants.
I really needed the boost because aside from trying to build a few projects at once, I’ve also entered that site flipping contest over at Site Flip University. I rushed on the idea, and the niche was too broad for my liking, but it’s all I could do if I wanted to jump in on the deadline. I thought I’d enter the contest with a site about Going Green since I’ve already been looking into ideas on how I can be more enironmentally friendly lately (Yes, I drive a 2008 SUV, but I’ll make up for it by changing 47 other things!).
Here is my my competition in the contest (with a few possibly not listed that are late to get started — I’m not sure)
I’ve always been had a competitive spirit (except I can’t mix booze and Scrabble. I get out of hand!) and this has lit a fire under my ass to step up my game in the (building and) flipping department of internet marketing.
So, visit all the guys above, but if you only have time to visit one today, Go Green, cause we’re judged, in part, on traffic stats.
Want A Real Bad Example Of Blog Navigation Layout?
Unfortunately, you’re looking at it.
When I first created this blog, I wanted to whip up a blog layout using the caricature of me, and since I was using this free wordpress theme, I wanted to customize it a bit so it didn’t look exactly like everyone else who’s using it.
I didn’t get around to finishing the details, partly because I had a few ideas for layout that included content that I didn’t have yet, but now it’s bothering me enough to change it.
For some reason, I’ve always had a problem being satisfied with a “personal” site of my own, but this one is just breaking too many simple navigation rules. There’s a few other small things that are bugging me as well, so it has to be fixed asap.
At least I have the subscribe links in a good place, but I’m really wasting that top space where I could have the nav or something else that served purpose instead of just my head in the clouds.
As if that wasn’t enough, I have part of my navigation on the bottom left and part on the top right. Obviously, the caffeine wasn’t working the night I had the vision of how people will navigate my blog.
So, I’m deciding on a whether to rework this layout or just customize a new theme. I do know that I’ll still use the same color scheme (I’m a green freak), use my caricature, and try not to damage anybody’s eyes by sending them in opposite directions as soon as they arrive.
If you have any tips on how to rework the basic look of how it is now, while creating a more user-friendly nav, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Website Flipping
Where have I been? I get frustrated when I visit blogs and the first post in over 2 months is a weak attempt at an explanation and/or excuse for laziness, so I won’t bore you with the details, except to say that I was anything but lazy during the hiatus.
On to website flipping! As I’ve been exploring different avenues of internet marketing over the past several months, one of the areas I am getting the most enjoyment out of is website flipping. I’ve had a successful track record so far with the majority of the small deals I have made. Most have made profit in the hundreds with a couple making me thousands in a short period of time.
For example, I purchased one site for $350 and ended up making a total profit of approximately $3k with minimal work. Within less than a week, I basically redesigned the site, added some basic SEO and did a bit of link building. I started getting sales and a month later, sold the site for 12x the monthly profit.
So how do I do that every week? Or every day even? Well, I’m glad you asked! I’m about to find out by entering a site flipping contest over at SiteFlipU. The contest runs 30 days while Bryan Clark, the site flipper extraordinaire, walks you through the entire process of a build and flip. Unfortunately, I only stumbled across the contest a few days ago, so I have to rush to get prepared, but I’m looking forward to the competition! They seem like a great bunch of guys and it’ll be fun to learn something along the way. Wish me luck!
Wordpress Rockstar Premium Theme Package
Have you ever purchased a Wordpress Premium theme? If not, have you thought about it? If you have, then you may want to familiarize yourself with the self-proclaimed, Wordpress Rockstar! His name is Adii and he has designed premium Wordpress themes that outclass the majority of Wordpress themes that are available online today.
If you are unfamiliar with the term, a theme that has been released as Premium almost always comes with a price tag. Adii’s premium themes are targeted towards the serious blogger who is willing to invest in a professionally coded theme to add a higher level of sophistication to their blog, without breaking the bank.
Adii’s themes rival any that are available, including (but not limited to) features such as:
- Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments
- Author Profiles & Archives
- Featured news section
- Video Panel (for use with Flash videos)
- Navigation Dropdown Menu’s
- Sidebar Tabbed Box
- 2 different homepage layouts (featured section)
- Widgetized sidebars
- Integrated Banner Ad Management (easily switch this on / off)
- Integrated Flickr & Feedburner
Typically, a single license for one of Adii’s themes would sell for $99.95 and if you wanted to purchase a developer’s license in order to use one theme on several domains, that would run you $249.95.
What kind of deal can you get if you want to take advantage of using all of Adii’s themes?
Well, to everyone’s delight, Adii has created an all-inclusive developer’s package that allows you to purchase all 7 themes for one price at only $499.95. You are free to all 7 themes on as many sites as you wish. This is a steal for a set of very high quality themes!
In addition to this exciting news, Adii also has listed a contest where he is giving away one of these new developer packages for free! You know you want it! I do!
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