DIRECT MARKETING SERVICES | FREELANCE COPYWRITER|| COPYWRITING SAMPLES | HIRE THIS COPYWRITER | INTERNET MARKETING BLOG

October 25, 2007

What's Next?

Ideally, I'd split my time between adding content to my site and trying to drive traffic to it. Unfortunately, having more than one thing on my to-do-list leaves me going around in circles and not knowing where to start.

I think this may be the point that I'm most likely to give up.

It's not a lack of ideas, but too many ideas that bothers me. Picking one and moving forward on it is the trick.

I installed a counter so I can get an idea about the traffic to my site. I'm thinking maybe try to get some traffic first...

And I checked on copyright laws for recipies. It appears I can collect recipies and post them on my site without worrying about copyright infringement.

I had an artist friend who said you have to change about 30% of a picture in order to call it "yours". Gee, 30% of a lemon merange pie... what is that? A pie without crust? Maybe we could substitute Oreo cookies for the merange? Or maybe graham cracker crumbs for flour? We absolutely CAN NOT substitute the lemons...

LOL...

I'm glad to know I don't have to be THAT creative to get some content up on my site!

I think I will divide my time by days rather than hours. One day on traffic, then one day on content. That way I can benefit from staying focused without neglecting either thing.

---

 

October 24, 2007

Taking a Breather...

Sometimes I think a person should just take a break and review what they have accomplished.

Besides that, I figure there will be more readers later on who are feeling a little lost because the Baking With Lemons site they are looking at is not the one that I'm writing about today. So I got a quick screenshot of the site as it exists today... about a week old:

I'm feeling extraordinarily proud of my new site... it's the best darn "under construction" page I've seen!!

What makes it so good?

First of all, it doesn't look like all the other under construction sites with hard-hats and animated construction crews. And I like being different...

It also has just a little bit of content for visitors. Not much, a few quotes, a video, and a couple of ways to spend money. Enough of what the site is going to be that they might decide to come back again.

Okay, I confess, it's the video... I think the video is cute and some people might find that enough reason to bookmark the site or send the URL to a friend.

Which brings me to my main point:

Content is King

The number one best thing you can do for your site is to make sure there is a reason for your visitors to visit. And that reason is content.

It may be information. Most sites focus on information, and most books I've read preach about how the Internet is there for information.

I think they are wrong.

The Internet exists for entertainment. As a recovering geek, I hate to admit that. I want to jump on the bandwagon and say it's all about research...

But I keep noticing things like mySpace and youTube.

These are not informative sites.

They are there for entertainment.

And they are some of the most popular, most visited, most valuable Internet real estate out there. So when you are designing your site, keep that in mind. Give your visitors something they can enjoy... and something they will want to talk about or get their friends to see.

Try to think a little less "encylopedia" and a little more "amusement park".

My running totals are still:

Income: $0.00
Expenses: $3.19
Bottom Line: - $3.19

P.S. No babies were actually hurt in the filming of that video...

 

---

October 23, 2007

How to Make Money Selling Lemons...

So I invited a couple friends to check out my new website... and one of them asks, "but how can you make money from lemons?"

It's basic economics... buy low, sell high. If I was Walmart I would negotiated a contract to buy lemons at 25 cents a piece, then sell them at 30 cents a piece. After that it's all about how many people you can get to come and buy your lemons.

So how does that relate to a web page?

I have two ways to make money from my lemon site in place now. (Well, one is there... and the other one will be added today.)

The first is an ebook. I went to Clickbank and searched for products related to baking or lemons. Unfortunately, there are no lemon products on Clickbank. But there was a book about baking cakes.

So I signed up as an affiliate. You only have to do this once no matter how many products you find that relate to your site...as long as you remember your username!

Then I copied the link code for this book onto my site. Now, anytime one of my site visitors decides to buy this book about baking cakes... I get a commission on the sale.

The other big money maker is Google AdSense. I signed up yesterday, but didn't get approved until this morning. So I still have to get that code added to my web page.

In this case, I will get paid a few cents whenever anyone clicks on an ad that Google displays on my page.

With both of these "income streams" the trick is to get people to come to the site so that a few of them will click on my links and/or buy the products advertised. But getting people to visit your website is another topic, and I promised to keep it to one thing per day.

Both programs are free to add to your website, so my running totals are still:

Expenses: $3.19

Income: $0.00

Bottom Line: - $3.19

P.S. Another friend asked me about Civ III ... it's a computer game. An old computer game now. There's actually a Civ IV, but since version 3 slows down my computer enough, I decided not to upgrade. It's a game about world domination... and let me tell you, it feels good to rule an empire.

---

October 22, 2007

Beginner Mistakes

I really intended to blog daily, but....

It was my birthday... and then it was the weekend. And I was depressed about my birthday.

So I spent the entire weekend playing Civ III and taking out my frustrations by practicing a little genocide.

That's why I didn't update this blog. That's also why I didn't do ANYTHING at all to work on my business.

Big mistake number 1: Don't take action, and make a lot of excuses for why you didn't.

Big mistake number 2: Give up because you are behind schedule.

Okay, I made the first mistake, but I don't need to make the second one. I'm back... and I've got a web page up at my new site: www.bakingwithlemons.info. It's nothing much yet. I have 3 pages. On the first I confess I know nothing about lemons or baking. The other two have quotes: lemon quotes, and baking quotes.

I also have a link from this page, and sooner or later Google, and maybe some of the other search engines will pick up on the fact this site exists. It seems to take about 2-4 weeks this way. That's quicker than submitting your link to the search engine which takes 4-6 weeks... if they decide to list your site at all.

I also got to talk to an SEO expert at the bootcamp last week and she told me that you will get higher rankings if the search engines find you this way instead of submiting your page. In fact, she said that you get penalized because only porn and spam sites even use the submit feature.

I was suprised to hear THAT. I've gotten listed that way before and none of the sites I submitted were spam or porn. But it does take longer...

So what if you don't have a web page that is already listed to put your link on? Do you know someone with a website or blog that's listed who will do you a favor and mention your site? Or do you belong to any online forums where you can sign your name with a link?

If I didn't have this page I would be looking for forums on baking, lemons, or maybe cooking. I'd join the forum and post a question or an answer. For the best results I'd try to post once or twice a day.

I hope you can see how easy this would be if you picked a subject you were actually interested in... in fact, if you are already on a forum then you might pick that topic for your business idea. Besides making tons of money, combining work and play is the general idea...

Big Mistake #3: Picking a lame topic.

I confess, I did this on purpose. The forums I am already on have to do with copywriting and Internet marketing. I feel like there is already too much competition in these areas, but I've gotten so obsessed with these subjects I can't even remember what ELSE do I like to do!

So I decided to adopt the Baking with Lemons cause as my own.

I don't recommend that course of action. Choose a topic you enjoy. And try to make sure you aren't the only one who likes it... a little marketing research can go a long way. I'd talk about that more, but this post is already way too long.

I promise to post shorter posts more often from here on out...

My total expenses so far: $3.19.

Income: $0.

Bottom Line: - $3.19

 

---

October 18, 2007

I'm home from bootcamp and just recovering from the jet lag.

Bootcamp? The Early to Rise Info-Marketer's 2007 Bootcamp.

The big thing I got from bootcamp was that people who succeed in Internet Marketing are those that TAKE ACTION. So here I am, starting to take action by creating this blog.

I have a dozen ideas about things I might be able to sell online to make money, but I'm not using any of those here. I'm going to use a lame idea I got from bootcamp instead.

I figure if I can make THIS lame idea work... then anyone can make any idea work.

(It was supposed to be a joke, after all...)

But I'm not the only one who decided to turn the joke into a real business. It seems that I'm not even the FIRST. Darn it!

So, what do you think? Is there room online for two people to make a fortune by "Baking With Lemons"?

I was too slow to get the .com version, so I saved a few bucks by registering www.bakingwithlemons.info instead.

My total expenses so far: $3.19.

Income: $0.

Bottom Line: I'm out 3 bucks...