A Newbie's Journey - $3000 in 120 days
- Thread starter nogenius
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My "software" page's site is a blog where I make posts periodically about certain screensavers that I have made so far. The blog is running the Prosense Wordpress theme, which is supposed to be a high CTR% Adsense theme.
Downloads per day range from 120 to 150 so far with about 70 screensavers submitted.
I monetize solely with Adsense and free-to-join affiliate offers - no Zango or other PPI whatsoever.
I get about 50 visits to the homepage per day, downloads range from 120 to 150 per day as stated previously.
I'm sure I could drive more traffic, it's just that the content I have written for my site is not that great, and I do not update the blog with new screensavers that often.
July 7, 2007
So many projects that I want to do, so little time. I'm trying hard not to fall into the trap of starting a bunch of projects and getting nowhere significant in any of them.
Goals achieved since last post
- Built out another site around an aff. marketing offer, SQUIRT'ed it, and then started a Google Adwords campaign for it.
- Got another conversion in my first campaign. 3 conversions total so far, ROI is a little lower than 2:1 right now, I think I could definitely take steps to increase the volume, and tweak adcopy both on the site and for Adwords. I've been a bit lazy with that.
- Tried out some different monetization strategies for the screensaver site, results aren't too great so far.
Goals for the coming week
- Build out a couple of niche sites using databases I have available, SQUIRT them for promotion and then monetize with Adsense or an affiliate marketing offer. To do this, I'll need to read up more on PHP.
- Try not to get too distracted with thoughts of alternate projects, the only other thing I should be focusing my time on other than the niche sites is maintaining/adding on more to my 2 PPC marketing campaigns.
I really hope I can build out the niche sites well, I have to admit I'm a bit intimidated by the PHP, but it's all good.
So many projects that I want to do, so little time. I'm trying hard not to fall into the trap of starting a bunch of projects and getting nowhere significant in any of them.
Goals achieved since last post
- Built out another site around an aff. marketing offer, SQUIRT'ed it, and then started a Google Adwords campaign for it.
- Got another conversion in my first campaign. 3 conversions total so far, ROI is a little lower than 2:1 right now, I think I could definitely take steps to increase the volume, and tweak adcopy both on the site and for Adwords. I've been a bit lazy with that.
- Tried out some different monetization strategies for the screensaver site, results aren't too great so far.
Goals for the coming week
- Build out a couple of niche sites using databases I have available, SQUIRT them for promotion and then monetize with Adsense or an affiliate marketing offer. To do this, I'll need to read up more on PHP.
- Try not to get too distracted with thoughts of alternate projects, the only other thing I should be focusing my time on other than the niche sites is maintaining/adding on more to my 2 PPC marketing campaigns.
I really hope I can build out the niche sites well, I have to admit I'm a bit intimidated by the PHP, but it's all good.
My "software" page's site is a blog where I make posts periodically about certain screensavers that I have made so far. The blog is running the Prosense Wordpress theme, which is supposed to be a high CTR% Adsense theme.
Downloads per day range from 120 to 150 so far with about 70 screensavers submitted.
I monetize solely with Adsense and free-to-join affiliate offers - no Zango or other PPI whatsoever.
If you did zango or another PPI with that, it would easily be $100 a day. Obviously though, that may be against your ethics, as it is for me. You need to find some way to get the two inline...maybe just a toolbar that the user agrees to or something.
I have a very profitable opt-in/opt-out toolbar that nogenius, or anyone here for that matter, can promote, given they have US traffic.
I'm hoping to start up a pay per install program once I've saved up enough bank to fund a small army of publishers.
Anyways, If anyone here is interested in getting in early I'll be more than happy to do revshare (we're talking a recurring rate on all revenue made by installs you get, that's huge compared to a one off payment per install). I'm very open to install methods as long as the EULA, or a link leading to it, is clearly displayed on the page the install takes place.
The toolbar is as clean as they come (no lame popups/data mining/hijacking/etc.) and can be bundled with basically anything. Bundling isn't necessary of course, I have promo tools that will work great with any media site.
If any of you are interested, feel free to PM me. I'll go over all the details and anything else you want to know.
I just registered at Wicked fire and was looking through some posts when I saw yours. $3k to me seems a fair target. My profit/loss sheet usually falls heavily on the loss side but I'm fairly new to all this so I'm always looking for tips/tricks to even the odds a bit! If I do half as well as you seem to be doing I'll be happy enough.
July 16, 2007
Thanks everyone for the 'good luck' wishes! I really appreciate all of the support.
Happenings since last post
- After letting my PPC campaigns run for awhile, I noticed for some reason, I started getting significantly more Adwords clicks, but significantly less clickthroughs to the merchant page. This could be due to some changes in the keyword list I had made, so I have paused the campaigns for now.
- Still tweaking the screensaver site in terms of monetization.
- Got a basic foundation on using regular expressions, have a basic code foundation for the niche sites I plan to make.
Goals for the coming days
- Stop being a fuckin' slacker.
- Get my first niche site up in about 3 - 4 days. I've heard they get much easier to create after the first few.
I've pretty much been a lazy bastard lately - I get to the computer and achieve almost nothing. Writing in this thread really helps though. I've also been reading some time management as well as personal development books, and those have increased my motivation.
I just have to stick to this niche site project. I gotta see those to completion.
Thanks everyone for the 'good luck' wishes! I really appreciate all of the support.
Happenings since last post
- After letting my PPC campaigns run for awhile, I noticed for some reason, I started getting significantly more Adwords clicks, but significantly less clickthroughs to the merchant page. This could be due to some changes in the keyword list I had made, so I have paused the campaigns for now.
- Still tweaking the screensaver site in terms of monetization.
- Got a basic foundation on using regular expressions, have a basic code foundation for the niche sites I plan to make.
Goals for the coming days
- Stop being a fuckin' slacker.
- Get my first niche site up in about 3 - 4 days. I've heard they get much easier to create after the first few.
I've pretty much been a lazy bastard lately - I get to the computer and achieve almost nothing. Writing in this thread really helps though. I've also been reading some time management as well as personal development books, and those have increased my motivation.
I just have to stick to this niche site project. I gotta see those to completion.
August 14, 2007
Long time since my last update, but at least my work ethic has improved significantly. smaxor's last comment actually really helped get me back on track.
Happenings since last post
- Put up 8 niche/database sites.
- Got a VPS from SLHost - highly recommend them to anyone looking to get one, support has been great so far.
- Developed a big interest in SEO (both whitehat and blackhat). Been reading through Blue Hat SEO as much as I can - truly a goldmine.
Goals for the coming days
- Put up 8 more niche/database sites by Aug 25 (approximately 1 per day).
- Improve my PHP programming skills by building a rollover site (mentioned in Blue Hat SEO's Power Indexing post). I want to be able to scrape websites too, so that goes well with that goal.
---
It's looking very unlikely that I'm going to hit my goal of $3,000 net profit in 120 days (which will be Aug. 25). When I first started, I must admit I had ridiculously unrealistic beliefs about the nature of internet marketing. I actually thought that with minimal programming and web site creation experience, and with little marketing and copywriting experience, that I would easily achieve the $3,000 in 120 days. My view of making money online is now much more realistic, and I know that shitloads of hard work is requisite.
But, looking back at my 1st post about 110 days ago, I have to say that I have learned a lot, and most importantly, I now have a strong direction.
I have a cohesive long-term moneymaking plan. I can see clearly and exactly what I need to do to generate revenue.
I start each day now by writing a few daily goals, each a small part of that goal. When I get distracted, I refer back to my goals, and do my best to achieve them everyday. I run into difficulties frequently due to my inexperience, but I exercise patience, diligence, and consistent action, and those problems eventually fade away.
I'll continue updating this thread whenever I have some time (even after the 120 day deadline has passed).
Long time since my last update, but at least my work ethic has improved significantly. smaxor's last comment actually really helped get me back on track.
Happenings since last post
- Put up 8 niche/database sites.
- Got a VPS from SLHost - highly recommend them to anyone looking to get one, support has been great so far.
- Developed a big interest in SEO (both whitehat and blackhat). Been reading through Blue Hat SEO as much as I can - truly a goldmine.
Goals for the coming days
- Put up 8 more niche/database sites by Aug 25 (approximately 1 per day).
- Improve my PHP programming skills by building a rollover site (mentioned in Blue Hat SEO's Power Indexing post). I want to be able to scrape websites too, so that goes well with that goal.
---
It's looking very unlikely that I'm going to hit my goal of $3,000 net profit in 120 days (which will be Aug. 25). When I first started, I must admit I had ridiculously unrealistic beliefs about the nature of internet marketing. I actually thought that with minimal programming and web site creation experience, and with little marketing and copywriting experience, that I would easily achieve the $3,000 in 120 days. My view of making money online is now much more realistic, and I know that shitloads of hard work is requisite.
But, looking back at my 1st post about 110 days ago, I have to say that I have learned a lot, and most importantly, I now have a strong direction.
I have a cohesive long-term moneymaking plan. I can see clearly and exactly what I need to do to generate revenue.
I start each day now by writing a few daily goals, each a small part of that goal. When I get distracted, I refer back to my goals, and do my best to achieve them everyday. I run into difficulties frequently due to my inexperience, but I exercise patience, diligence, and consistent action, and those problems eventually fade away.
I'll continue updating this thread whenever I have some time (even after the 120 day deadline has passed).
Thats awesome. Keep up the posts, Im following this.
When you say niche/database site, do you mean you generate a site by pulling stuff from a database?
For example if this was a dating site and you pull cities from a database and have a 'Find your city to meet local hookups' or something? or do you adlib content from the database? Like 'I was in, CITY and went to McDonalds.'
Good luck!
When you say niche/database site, do you mean you generate a site by pulling stuff from a database?
For example if this was a dating site and you pull cities from a database and have a 'Find your city to meet local hookups' or something? or do you adlib content from the database? Like 'I was in, CITY and went to McDonalds.'
Good luck!
Shit, your the first person Ive ever ran into online that knows MATLAB, I learned a bit of it in college and never heard anything about it since, even when I bring it up most people are like MATLAB????????
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