If you read Progress Report 1, you’ll know that the blog I set up for this case study is Cheap Electricity Options.

To recap, Week 1 of the blog development involved keyword research and identifying if the niche wasn’t too competitive and that there were enough products for it to advertise. Week 1 closed with the installation of the blog, selecting a theme and adding a home page and article. The blog is set up to use a static home page. So now to week 2:

Week 2:

If you’ve taken a look at Cheap Electricity Options, you probably noticed that there are no ads on the site and no affiliate links. That’s because I’m seasoning the site for the first month. By that I mean that new content will be posted to the blog every 2-3 days so that the search engines will see that it’s an active site and, when they spider it, they’ll see it’s a content-driven site providing real information for visitors and not an affiliate or ad-driven site trying to get money out of visitors.
Read the rest of this entry »

At the end of my review of the Autoblog Blueprint course earlier this month, I mentioned that I might do a case study on one of the blogs I build using the techniques and methodologies laid out in the course. So that’s what I’m beginning here.

[Save $70 (47%) on the Auto Blog Blueprint with this coupon code: 72FC4A8B84]

Here’s what I did in the first week of setting up a new blog:

Week 1:

1. Pick a niche: I have some interest in the Green Energy / Alternative Energy / Renewable Energy niche so I did some keyword research using Market Samurai to see how competitive the niche is and if it would be worth devoting some time to.

2. Keyword Research Part: I don’t just build a single large list of all the keywords I find for a niche. I use Market Samurai to check the competition for different keywords. That competition is measured by the PageRank of a site, how many backlinks it has, where those backlinks come from and how good a job the site’s webmaster has done with SEO. While the niche is somewhat competitive, using Market Samurai’s keyword competition tools showed that I could probably shoehorn a domain into the Google page 1 results for several keywords given a bit of time. If a large enough list of keywords comes out of this selection process, then I proceed to Step 2 of keyword research. With the green energy niche, there were enough keywords.
Read the rest of this entry »

[Update: August 17th: Greg Jacobs' "The Assassination target" launched today. Copies were expected to sell out in about 5 days. However, demand has apparently far outstripped what was anticipated and the doors are expected to close within 24 hours. That's quite phenomenal for a $1997 product! So the question is: am I buying this product? No. That's not because I think badly of the product, think it's over-priced or any such reason. I simply don't have the time available to follow another course as I'm already invested in Alex Jeffreys marketing course and Mike Johnson's Autoblog Blueprint course. The Assassination might be the course for you, so check out the video on the sales page.]

I just received word from Greg Jacobs that he’s launching a new training course called The Assassination on August 17th. It teaches how to create a product and launch it, starting from nothing and ending up with a viable product.

Beyond that, the only info I have is this short blurb on the course:

The Assassination is an 8 week webinar coaching program that will take participants through the course materials to ensure success.

By the end of these 8 weeks they will have created and launched their own product.

This takes students from the beginning, starting with nothing, to creating a complete product, sales letter, website, running a launch and creating a sustainable long term income.

We also provide them with the tools they need; members receive lifetime access to The Assassins Guild (an online networking platform to build their team). They also receive lifetime access to FusionHQ – revolutionary software allowing people to build their online business from a centralized platform – no coding required, even a non-techie can do it.

[Update August 12: Save $70 (47%) on the Auto Blog Blueprint with this coupon code: 72FC4A8B84]

The Run-Up to Auto Blog Blueprint

I first came across the concept of autoblogging back in November 2009. Basically, all it means is that your blog runs on autopilot, pulling content from different sources and publishing it on a schedule you set up. Most such systems run on Wordpress, utilizing a range of different commercial plugins. Some of these plugins pull and publish content on a schedule; others create a number of future-dated posts, based on keyword lists, that Wordpress publishes when that post’s future date becomes “today”.

The system I came across late last year was WordPress Mage. This is a full autoblogging system based on Wordpress. It also comes as a set of Wordpress plugins for those who prefer to install their own Wordpress blogs. Training is provided on how to build and market blogs using the system. Blogs can be monetized in a number of ways (Adsense, Clickbank, eBay, Overstock, Amazon and LinkShare) and you can always add other affiliate image ads and links to blogs as well.

I built a few blogs with it and decided to buy a couple of plugins to better display eBay listings (phpBay Pro and Auction2Post) and a plugin to turn Amazon product listings (along with customer reviews) into blog posts (ReviewAZON). Becoming more familiar with the software, I was able to make my sites look better. The Wordpress Mage ethos is to build sites quickly, keep building and hope that some of them “stick” and take off. The training also advocates putting 50+ eBay listings on a page above any content.

What I didn’t know at the time is that Wordpress Mage is very resource intensive and having more than a couple of such blogs on a standard webhosting account (e.g. on Hostgator), results in more than your fair share of server resources being used. In my case, Hostgator suspended my account for overuse of resources, which meant I had to find another webhost who could meets the blogs’ needs.  I kept two blogs on Hostgator and moved the rest to Webhost4SEO. It was then that another problem raised its ugly head – the Wordpress Missed Schedule Posts problem.

I wasn’t heavily promoting the blogs and the upshot was that they weren’t making money. Indeed, they were costing money due to the amount of time being put into them. I also  had a lot of hosting issues that have meant that the blogs were offline for periods at a time. So that’s where the Autoblog Blueprint comes in…

Read the rest of this entry »

After almost a week of being offline due to webhosting problems, WebBiz KnowledgeBase is finally back online. So why did it take a week? Surely it should just have been a matter of changing nameservers and migrating the blog from one webhost to another. Easy, right? Nope! It should be a relatively simple thing to do but things are never as easy as you expect…

Why The Blog Needed To Be Moved

Ok, the first question I hear you ask is “Why did you need to move the blog at all?”. Well, it wasn’t something I decided to do on a whim, just to see if I could do it. Originally, this blog was on a Webhost4SEO shared hosting account. I had other blogs on that account too, but those were blogs built using Wordpress Mage. As I’ve come to realise, that particular set of plugins is a resource hog but more on that later.

Anyway, webbizkb.com is my prime blog and it’s the one I worry most about and the one I always want to have up and running. The other blogs on the shared hosting account were chewing up the server resources and every so often the server had a heart attack and keeled over. All sites offline as a result. At the time, neither I nor the webhosting company knew what the cause was but an errant Wordpress plugin looked to be the likely culprit. As the blogs grew in size, the server keeled over more often. And webbizkb.com was down for hours, sometimes a day, at a time. And at other times, the site was very slow to load. Not good. And that prompted me to look around for alternative hosting…

Read the rest of this entry »

I was poking around checking some affiliate links today when I came across some offers on quality internet marketing products. I’ve no idea how long these offers will last so use your on judgement.

First up is Market Samurai, a top-notch keyword research tool. If you build websites for profit or you’re looking for keywords to do article marketing on, then this is a superb tool. It pulls keywords from Google and provides a range of tools for analyzing those keywords for relevancy to your niche, checking the competition (and strength of that competition), hoe much traffic those keywords get and whether they’re profitable or not. There are numerous way to find out more about your competition so you can decide if a niche is worth going into or if it’s just too competetive. If you’re stuck for an affiliate program to match your selected niche, it will provide a list of suitable programs for you and will advise you on the best offers to promote. It will even find content for you. Use the above link to save 35% on the regular price for the software.

Next is Keyword Elite 2.0. Another top-notch keyword research tool. While it doesn’t have the same set of tools as Market Samurai, it does pull keywords from other sources as well as Google, so keywords come from other search engines and may not be used as search terms in Google. This gives you a wider range of keywords. The software itself provides SEO insights, quickly allows you to determine if your keywords will target buyers or window shoppers, find high CPA offers, uncover niches and sub niches pretty much on demand. Normally selling for $297, Keyword Elite 2.0 is currently on offer for $97.

Then there’s Auto Blog Blueprint 2.0 which is a course that teaches you how to build successful autoblogs (it’s easy to build unsuccessful blogs; building a successful one takes more care and effort). This is unquestionably the best autoblogging course available. It’s techniques and methodologies can be applied to regular blogs as well to help them do better in the search engines. If you don’t know what an auto blog is, it’s a blog that has content added to it automatically on autopilot. Normally $147, you can get the course for $97 using this exclusive coupon: BEC006C89A. The course is updated frequently (at no additional cost) and consists of a mixture of text pages (like an online ebook) and a series of videos. There’s also a forum for members.

If you do article marketing or are looking for content for your websites, you could do a lot worse than Article Underground. Each month, you get 400 high traffic, low competition, exact keyword phrase optimized articles of at least 400 words. They also have a network of 44 high quality blogs (plus over 80 more member contributed announcements blogs too!), covering broad & specific niches and general topics where you can promote your own sites and pages (i.e. instant quality backlinks). There’s also a load of special reports, tutorials & videos available to members. Membership is normally $97 per month, but using the above link, you can get a year’s membership for $399 (equivalent to $33.25 per month – a saving of 66%).

Lastly, $7 Deals have reduce the prices on all their video sets to $7 (they normally only sell video sets for $7 for a week before permanently raising the price). Video set range from SEO techniques to article marketing, working with Camtasia to creating brandable reports, and other internet marketing related topics.

It’s been a while since I updated this blog with my progress in Alex Jeffreys marketing course. It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon and I have a bit of time to spare, so here’s what I’ve been up to during the course…

The core of Alex’s course is to build a list. I’m involved in a few online enterprises (writing software, building and maintaining websites, testing the waters with autoblogs, looking after customers, etc.), so I’ve had less time than I’d have liked to devote to Alex’s course. So my timetable has slipped over the last couple of weeks (a minor health scare and a short stint in hospital didn’t help either).

Putting The Course Into Action

The idea behind building any list is that you give away a product to a visitor providing they sign up to your list. As part of Alex’s course, he gave his students a product to give away in order to help in building their lists. It’s the Easy Cash Webinar (you may have heard of it by now). I’ve done a little bit of promotion on this but not as much as I should have and, consequently, I haven’t built much of a list here. The webinar is pretty much the first module from the Marketing With Alex 3.0 course and gives a good grounding in how you should approach running a business online. Everything stems from using that mindset.
Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the dust raised by Google’s May Day algorithm update (now frequently referred to as the “Mayday” update due to the consternation it’s caused) is beginning to settle, one thing is for certain: the change is here to stay. So rather than moaning about it, it’s better to spend your time seeing if you can improve your sites so that they’re more in line with what Google now thinks is important for a site’s rank.

Related Post: Starting My Journey With Alex Jeffreys
Related Post: Why Using Google Analytics Is A Bad Idea

One factor that appears to now have a greater effect on page ranking is the page’s bounce rate…
Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever been faced with the problem of having to change affiliate links on your blog? Maybe the folks looking after the affiliate program changed their link format and won’t support the old format (it happens), or maybe you’d prefer to swap a link out for a link to a better product. This isn’t a problem if you only have a couple of links that need changing, but what do you do if you have a load of affiliate links distributed across your posts? Well, there is a simple way to replace links that doesn’t require a lot of time and editing, so here’s what to do:

Changing Links Throughout a Blog:

1. Download the search & replace Wordpress plugin
2. Upload the plugin to your blog and active it
3. Go the the Search & Replace option in your Settings list
4. Tick the content box
5. Put your old link (as used on your pages) into the Replace box
6. Put your replacement link in the With box
7. Click the Go button

If replacement numbers look high, it’s because replacements are also done in drafts, trash and revision posts.

Return to Home Page

It’s quite a while since I bought myself a gadget. My trusty old Dell Axim PDA finally gave up the ghost and I also needed a new MP3 player. PDA’s seem to have been subsumed into cellphones over the last few years, so it seemed that the best upgrade/replacement path was to opt for a smartphone.

Apple’s iPhone gets rave reviews, but there have been a lot of complaints recently about their draconian control over what apps are allowed onto the iPhone platform. I’ve been hearing that apps that currently available are actually being removed from the marketplace because Apple deems them unsuitable for whatever reason they deem appropriate. It’s that old monopolistic ethic at work again…”It’s our way or the highway; you’re either with us or against us.” (imagine the only place you could buy books published by HarperCollins was their designated store).

I prefer platforms where such strict controls aren’t in place which is one reason I never strayed into Apple Mac territory when developing software applications. Now I’ve never used a Mac, don’t know anyone who’s owned one or who’s ever written software for one. I’ve only seen them up close in high-street stores and didn’t like what I saw (design-wise). Nothing about Apple’s products has ever enticed me (in fact, they just put me off).

The iPhone does look good though but it’s expensive and, from what I can see, you need to be tied into a contract to use one. Not for me. Things have moved on now since the iPhone was first introduced and it’s revolutionary interface isn’t that revolutionary any more.

So, since I wanted an unlocked (sim-free) phone that would double as a PDA/MP3/Video player, I looked around at what was available. A friend brought the HTC Desire to my attention as he’d just bought one. I guess I fell in love with it ‘cos I went out and bought one! I found the cheapest offer on Pixmania (€469/£399) but cheaper prices might be available on eBay.

It’s a lovely piece of kit. The screen is fantastic – AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) – crisp, bright, 480×800 pixels, easily read in daylight and doesn’t suffer contrast drops when seen at an angle.

The HTC Desire has a built-in MP3 player and video player (though it only plays MP4 files, so AVI’s and other video formats have to be converted for playing). It will sync with my Outlook calendar and contacts, can be connected to my PC as an external drive, can piggyback on my wi-fi connection for surfing the web, has a digital compass and GPS, and on and on. In other words, it’s a techie’s dream.

So, this is a phone I own (I’m not tied into a contract with it) which will probably get used more as a PDA than a phone. There are many places to get software for the phone. The iPhone has seniority here, but the HTC cellphone’s are proving to be very popular and getting great reviews and that means more and more apps will become available for the phone over the coming months.