So without further delay, let’s get right into the stats, the screen shots and the challenges I faced throughout the month – as well as the many lessons I learned.  You guys and gals know I’m not a fan of bullshit people with bullshit screen shots and claims, so be assured that all earnings and screen shots are legit and no figures have been tampered with in any way shape or form.

Total Earnings Minus Paypal Fees

As you can see in the screen shot to the left, I had a total of $3566.79 in earnings, minus the Paypal fees.  Note**this total does not include a few Hostgator sign ups I had via my site flips. This total is also in US dollars, which is irrelevant to me.

Total Expenses

After subtracting my expenses from my earnings above, my new total of net earnings for April comes in at $2990.15 USD.  That equates to a total of $576.54 in expenses. This includes domain name purchases, content outsourcing, listing fees etc…

Total Subscribers Gained

Another contributing factor to my massive success was due to a list building element I’ve incorporated into my niche website business. I gained 26 new subscribers in April, all of which signed up via a link at the end of my auction copy – this brought repeat business. This was pretty sweet!

Here’s a little tidbit of information I thought you guys might like to know:  At the beginning of each month, and April in particular, I absolutely freak-the-fuck-out thinking to myself, “what the hell am I doing?” “what if this doesn’t work” “what if people don’t want my websites or services?” “what if it all ends today?” and at the ending of each month I come to realize that I earned more than I did the previously.

I’m sure I can compile several logical reasons as to why I go through this each month, but the reality of it is that I actually do know what I’m doing, and that there is a demand and huge market of webmasters, both experienced and flowering, who find my website packages and services very useful and economical.  Will realizing this prevent me from freaking out in the first week of May?  Probably not, lol.

Anyways – Here are the totals for the month regarding the actual amount of websites I built and sold:

• 15 sites developed/sold
• 5 sites developed privately
• 10 sites sold on Sitepoint
• 2 sites re-listed which didn’t sell initially
• 5 more private site builds for May (sweet!)
• $3546.02 in profit (Canadian Dollars)

So all in all, it looks like my site flip madness was a success!  Truthfully, I can only see this business model becoming more efficient and cost-effective.  Think about it… I sold my first website back in September, when I was broke and we had no money for groceries.  Now, 8 months later, I am making more money monthly then I did as an insurance broker, I am working from the comfort of my home – and I have more time for myself and my relationship with Veronica, my friends and family.

So I ask you this: What is holding you back?  Is it time?  Is it money?  Is it your own apprehension?

Whatever it is, I encourage you to sit back and evaluate your situation.  I encourage you to really shoot for the stars, stick with one business model and work it until it is a fine-tuned machine.  Will I be flipping websites forever?  Probably not.  Will I continue to kick ass online and take names?  Fuck yeah.

Whatever is holding you back, you need to identify it and come up with a sound plan to work around it and start to take the necessary leaps required to work from home and make money online.

Cheers,

Elijah

Click Here To Watch The Tutorial

The tutorial itself is around 30 minutes long – so be sure to turn the tv off and duct tape the kids to the toilet seat.  Grab a pen and paper and really let the info sink in.

I cover two of the more popular keyword research tools available online: Wordtracker and Google’s Keyword Tool.  Wordtracker as most of you know is a paid keyword service, which is around $300 for the year (less than $30 a month, and worth every penny!) and Google’s Keyword Tool is free (not as detailed results).

I hope this helps those of you who are still unsure about the process of researching keywords for your niche sites and affiliate campaigns, as well as uncover some neat facts for the few of you who might be more experienced.

Oh yeah, Wordtracker has a free 14 day trial so feel free to sign up and follow along!

Let me know if you guys have any questions!

Cheers,

Elijah

Each forum is a community, much like a blog, with it’s own lingo, rules and rituals.  People post threads and people comment.  People agree and disagree.  It is not unheard of to see digital debates continue for 60 comments amongst 10-20 people, and guess what?  Within these arguments and threads lays the true grit and concern of potential niche information seekers.

Start studying some threads and you’ll see what I mean…

To be perfectly honest, it’s almost ridiculous how receptive these forums can be – essentially you establish yourself as being a contributing member by posting useful comments, you then start posting a few threads which is no different than posting on your blog, and once you have around 100 posts (which includes comments and threads) you start marketing your own info products, services and techniques.

Once you’ve achieved the status of being reliable and providing value within the community, you can pretty much bank on the fact that when you post up a thread with your latest report, service or method that people will eat it up – and I’m not embellishing this one bit.  With the forum monkeys following your every  move, you can write a report that might take you 5 or 6 hours, post up a thread with some clever sales copy selling it for $7-10 and cash out several hundred dollars in a matter of days.  This is not a joke!

So where do I start?

First, you need to get rid of the notion that online forums are intimidating and uninviting – this is the furthest thing from the truth.  Yes, if you’re an idiot and post up a thread asking the community to TELL you their profitable niches, you will get your ass fried in a heart beat, and believe me, it will happen so fast and so fierce that you’ll end up in a corner, sucking your thumb in fetal position.

With that being said, here are some tips to help you get started:

• Choose your user name wisely – Just like you would with a domain name, you don’t want to have a user name that says “noob” or “masturbation magician” because as time passes and you become more reputable, your name will not change.  Choose a name that represents you strength, personality and or brand.  You can find me on most forums as TheAtHomeCouple – genius, right?
• Complete your forum profile – Most online forums provide a “profile” section where you can put a little blurb about yourself, a picture, choose your avatar, and add your social bookmarking/networking/website links.  Do not overlook the power of your forum profile – when you post comments that are useful, leave a controversial comment, or outright assassinate someones credibility like a ninja in the midnight  mist, people WILL check your profile to leave you a private message or find out how the heck YOU are.
• You must have a signature link – For those of you who are not familiar, and signature link in a forum is no different than a signature link in your personal email.  When you leave a comment or post a new thread, there will be a section below the content to provide a url (or several) of your choice.  You want to include any links or sites that you are promoting because people will click your sig link, and it is a back link to your site.  Tip:  If you have recently launched a product, report, or your services within the forum, include a link to that thread within your signature file with a catchy anchor text i.e. Find out how to make $100 a day within 3 weeks!  Internal traffic funneling my friends!
• Rules and lingo – Interaction is the heart and soul of every successful online forum.  When you are new, take the time to read the forum rules and browse the threads for a few days making note of any lingo – because each forum has its own language.
• Comments are king – Once you feel comfortable, start to leave useful comments on threads that you enjoyed.  Do not be one of those “great thread!” people because I guarantee that you will get lost in the shuffle with zero impact.  Speak your mind.  If something fucking sucks, believe it or not, you need to leave a comment saying that it fucking sucks, and explain why.  Forums are a lot less formal than blogs and discussion groups, so don’t be afraid to say what you feel even it it means putting someone on blast.  If you found the thread resourceful, then thank them for taking the time out to share the info with you, let them know what you liked about it, and what your plans are.  On the same note, if you found the thread resourceful, but felt that they left out some vital information or steps, don’t hesitate to fill in the blanks for the rest of the readers to benefit from – this is a great way to build your rep as someone who is full of useful info!

Please, for the love of all things good, don’t brush off niche related forums as being a waste of time, because if you do you will be missing out on an opportunity to set yourself apart, earn reputation and generate some good revenue to add to your business model.  Visit Google, and type in your niche/keyword+forum and you will find an endless list of communities for you to join.  Start off small, posting 5 comments a day.  After a few weeks you will have a solid foundation, and the position to start marketing yourself and your products to the community.

I’m going to be releasing a few secret ninja reports on a few IM forums in the next month or so, and will keep you guys updated on the progress, and the success!

Cheers,

Elijah

Now that we know why article marketing works, and what the key factors are to writing an article that will perform, it’s time to touch on one of the most important elements to this technique – Article Distribution.  If you don’t know where to get your article published, or how to turn those clicks into subscribers, then it won’t matter how well you know your market or how much keyword research you do – your results will not be as spectacular as we know they can be.

How many different ways can I publish my articles online?

The first and most common way of publishing articles online would be to submit your articles to high traffic, high ranking article directories.  This has proven to be an effective medium time and time again, and a technique that many a bum marketer have exercised for two reasons – it costs nothing, and article directories get crawled often which means your submissions will get indexed very quickly.  I strongly believe that there are people who make a living simply writing how-to style articles and submitting them to high traffic directories, with an affiliate offer redirect in the resource/author box.

The key to making this technique work for you is you have to treat every directory as an individual medium and test accordingly.  Each directory will perform differently from the next because they attract different visitors – while one article may convert great on Directory A, it doesn’t mean it will perform well on Directory B or C.  This same rule applies to your resource/author box – you might get more clicks on Directory A when you have your “about me” blurb before the “call to action” section, whereas in Directory B it’s the complete opposite.  Making money online is all about testing, and article marketing is no different.

***Tip – Don’t be afraid to display your personality within the resource box.  Being funny and quirky has always worked well for me and I’ve surprised myself quite a few times when I’ve gone completely off the wall and thought “people aren’t going to take me seriously” and then the article ended up getting a pleasing amount of clicks to my offer.  Be fearless and unique and you’ll be rewarded.

I’m sure some of you are thinking “what do I put in the resource box?” or “how do I know if my call to action is good enough?”  It’s important to include information about yourself within the resource box because you want to be known as a professional or expert within your niche.  List any relevant credentials you may have as well as where you’re from and your professional status.  To put it simply, your call to action should do nothing more than tell the reader what to do next.  Below is an example of a resource box I might use:

“Elijah Vieau is an accomplished Music Producer and Composer from Toronto, Canada.  He is the founder of Basement Theory Productions, where he provides development and consulting services to independent recording artists across the globe.

Head on over to www.Virgostratus.com to hear a free sample of his latest groundbreaking album.

Also, quickly visit www.MrBlueReviews.com to download his free report “Music Marketing On Crack” that shows you how to market and sell albums online using the viral power of social networking.”

***Tip – When it comes to your call to action please try and avoid the “if you would like more information on this topic please feel free to visit www.yoursitehere.com” method.  This is article suicide.  It does not sound confident or convicting.  To me this type of call to action sounds like it belongs in a pamphlet giving information on the Ryan Phelps Foundation for Android Swimmers.

But Elijah, which article directories are the best to use?

I hate to say it, but “the best” is completely subjective.  All I can tell you is that there are 3-5 top directories which most successful internet marketers use because of their page rank and traffic, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t find success with a smaller more targeted article directory.  If you want to scope out this route just type into Goolge Your Niche+Article Directory and you will find results for smaller niche directories that you can add to your submission list.  Below I have listed my personal top 7 list of high traffic article directories that I currently use – in no particular order:

1. www.EzineArticles.com
2. www.GoArticles.com
3. www.IdeaMarketers.com
4. www.ArticleDashboard.com
5. www.ArticleCity.com
6. www.SearchWarp.com
7. www.MagPortal.com

I also found a great resource listing the top 50 article directories by traffic/page rank here.  It was last updated on August 17th, 2008.

Originally I had planned to cover Article Distribution and Monetization Methods in one post, but it seems there was so much content that I will have to add a part 4 to my Traffic Techniques Series – so in my next post/video I will discuss the various ways you can monetize your traffic from the article directories to maximize your efforts and hopefully build your list and put some money in the good ‘ol Paypal account.

Cheers,

Elijah

This is the second video in my Traffic Techniques series.  In this video I touch on my 5 key points to a successful article, and those points are as follows:

1. Your article must address a problem or issue
2. Do not sell within the content of your article
3. Effective use of keywords and key phrases
4. Using a “call to action” within your resource/author box
5. Proper Grammar.  No spelling mistakes allowed.

I plan to delve into article distribution and monetary tactics within the next video, If you guys have any concerns or specific areas you have questions on – please let me know in the comments below.  There might possibly by a 4th part to my article marketing series, but ultimately that depends on the feedback and how much I can fit effectively into the next video.

Cheers,

Elijah

I first read about SocialMarker.com back in late June on DatMoney.com, which was around the time Veronica and I were conceptualizing this blog, and I knew at some point I wanted to try out a mass bookmarking service of some kind because we all know how time consuming it is to keep up with all these toolbars, usernames and passwords all in the name of blog traffic.  So over the last month I’ve been dabbling with SocialMarker.com and seeing whether or not half of these social bookmarking sites are worth my time, or just another means of feeding social addiction.  So what do I think?

SocialMarker.com kicks some serious ass!

The most time riddling aspect of using a service like this is setting up the accounts – but who really needs to use all 100+ social bookmarking sites to benefit from the potential traffic and backlink juice?  If you need some help getting started, or are a little overwhelmed by the whole shebang, follow these steps below and you should be on your way:

1. Go to SocialMarker.com and set up your account.  If you have questions, click here to find your answers.
2. Decide which social bookmarking services you would like to use, aside from the ones you already belong to.  I suggest starting off with 10-20 sites and work your way up as you become more comfortable with mass bookmarking.
3. Click and drag the button they provide into your browser toolbar.  When you want to blast a site to all your bookmarking services, select the text and click the SocialMarker button to pre-populate and submit.  Super easy!
4. If you looking for an all-in-one bookmarking plugin for WordPress, they’ve also taken care of that as well.  Just copy and paste the code they provide into your WordPress template and you’re good to go.

TheAtHomeCouple.com has been up and active for roughly a month and we’ve already had over 500 unique visitors, 10 subscribers via RSS, and new friends passing by every single week.  SocialMarker is one of the main reasons why we are doing so well so early on and if you’re really serious about your blog, and already use social bookmarking and social networking as means of promotion and traffic, than this is for you.

If any of you already use it, I’d love to hear some feedback.

Cheers,

Elijah

Article marketing has always been one of my favorite ways to get free targeted traffic to a blog or affiliate website, and all though the majority of people who use this method have no idea what they are doing, it’s really not that complicated.

This video ended up being longer than I anticipated – as I started to rant and jabber – but I promise the next 2 videos will be more focused, and full of secrets and techniques that I’ve learned over the last 8 months of Internet marketing on a low budget.

Watch the video until the very end as I do hit some great tips, and I also have a special guest stop by for some final words – you won’t believe who I paid to come over and share his ultra money making secrets.  So get used to seeing my ugly mug because I am using these videos as an experiment with the effectiveness of video marketing as well as providing you guys with some great content at the same time.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Elijah

1. Commenting on Related Blogs – I can’t stress the importance of this method.  Will being active in the blogging community bring you hoards of traffic and make you a ton of money by itself?  Not unless you spend 16 hours a day doing so.  Listen, when I say commenting I don’t mean “hey great post, have a nice weekend” or “that chick with the three thumbs is hot” but unique, quirky and resourceful comments which clearly state your thoughts and display your involvement.  This method is the fastest and easiest way to get traffic to a new blog – just stick within your niche, and be consistent.  Not sure where to start?  Visit Google and type in “Your Keyword+Blog” for example “Vinyl Records+Blog”.  Pick 3-5 niche related blogs, visit them daily, become known in the community and make connections.  Strive to be a top commentator!
2. Article Marketing – This can be the most tedious method of generating traffic, especially if you’re lazy, but let me tell you something – it works! The trick with article marketing is you want to keep away from submitting your blog posts as articles because Google no-likey and will slap your ass for duplicate content.  What I usually do is take 1 out of every 5 posts and instead of posting it to my blog I will rewrite it 2 or 3 times and submit it to the major article directories.  Start with these to get the ball rolling EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, IdeaMarketers.com, ArticleDashboard.com and ArticleCity.com.  There are also sites like AssociatedContent.com who will pay you for the traffic your article receives.  Remember, BE RESOURCEFUL! No garbage content.  If you can find 150 articles on the same topic, then put a spin on it or write about something different in your niche.
3. Keyword Research – This should have been first in my opinion, but I am not listing these techniques based on importance.  When it comes to organic traffic – meaning the natural traffic sent to your blog from search engines – it all boils down to keywords, your competition and knowing what people are searching for.  Here’s an example: I have a blog in the organic gardening niche and after doing some basic keyword research I’ve found that the keyphrase “Indoor Organic Tomatoes” has high demand with little competition (which is what we’re looking for).  What I would then do is write a 3 part series on my blog spread over a week with the keyphrase being used in the title and throughout the posts.  I’ll use the keyphrase in my tags, meta description, and create a new category or sub if one doesn’t exist titled “Indoor Organic Tomatoes”.  See where I’m going with this? I could also write 2 to 3 articles using my keyphrase like “How To Grow Indoor Organic Tomatoes” or “Top 5 Reasons To Grow Indoor Organic Tomatoes” and submit them to the article directories I listed above with my blog address in the author/resource box.  Piece of cake!
4. Naming Your Image Files Correctly – This is becoming more and more important with the likes of the Google Images directory.  If you use pictures and images in your blog posts you want to make sure they are named appropriately using relevant keywords and phrases.  Within WordPress there are ready-made plugins that will make this process a breeze – I recommend using SEO Friendly Images by Vladimir Prelovac.  This plugin will give you the power to control every aspect of your pictures and images with respects to search engine optimization and how the images on your blog are indexed.  Using the organic tomatoes example, I would save the image as indoor-organic-tomatoes.jpg, and within the alt text section of the plugin put the post title.  Naming your images accordingly will ensure that they are indexed by all the major search engines, and when someone is looking for an image, your blog will pop up on the search results.
5. Social Bookmarking and Social Networking Sites – I’ve already began posting about the importance, and possible challenges with relation to social networking sites like Twitter, Digg, Myspace etc… But truth be told, these services can provide serious amounts of traffic very quickly if utilized correctly.  I think it’s safe to assume that most people reading this post have either a Facebook or Myspace account currently active, or both, in any case take some time and set up accounts for your blog.  Add pictures of yourself, give a little introduction and immediately start to add friends who have similar interest by using the search functions within the sites.  Another secret way to find your niche markets within these sites is to search within the groups – Myspace in particular has over 65,000 groups already niched out and ready for your love.  Scope out these groups and start adding people to your profile, leave comments, post threads and have your blog address in your signatures and all over your profile pages.  It’s ridiculous how fast you can get traffic to a site using services like this.  If you’re not too familiar with using the power of Myspace and social networking sites to generate traffic I highly recommend picking up a copy of Ryan Moran’s SpaceBankers program.

More traffic techniques to come!  The original title to this post was 17 Traffic Techniques For New Bloggers but I had to cut it short as it’s 2:15 a.m. and my eyes are slowly shutting.  I promise I will be getting into more detail with regards to building traffic, keyword research and overall techniques to get your blog or website off the ground and running.

Cheers,

Elijah