Another Journal - Suit Up

Progress

I submitted the site for peer review, didn't get much feedback in 48 hours but I expected very little uptake as they are more or less competition.

Ranking wise the fact sheet page reached 14 for broad match. Not bad considering it has had little link building to it.

So in an attempt to ramp the rankings of KW1 (and after watching the Panda Webinar)

I grabbed a FAQ plugin and transferred the FAQ pages information to the main page to give it a total of 3k words or so (above the avgAnother pretty graph).

To avoid dupe content issues I used the cannonical tag from the FAQ page to the main page. Hopefully it will pass on its ranking and PR3 goodness to the front page which now looks like:

- Shocking stat
- Authority Vid
- Sales patter with opt-in form
- About the service providers
- FAQ (collapsible to to look pretty and not take space)
- Opt-in

The report for KW2 came in this morning, preliminary checks looks good. KW2 in relation to KW1 just for information sake is WordKeyword2 so this should hopefully boost both KW's on to the map.

In regards to AuxDomain I commissioned the third project to target the mentioned longtail. It's sitting as pos 22 at the moment. So hopefully with the combination of the third project and the booster back from homepage links targeting, coupled with my daily comment link should get the longtail in the top 5 at the very least.

The LinkLaunder site is on track to get 10k+ hits a month and current growth rates (who said auto sites dont work) with 60% going to the text and 40% of the varied videos. Rev wise its trickling in a few cents a day but that was not the goal. It acquiring traffic and strength (though no PR but hey) and so it can build in the link power its passing on.

Income / Expenditure
Expenses: $1400
Income: $130 (paid) $20(pending)
Remaining Budget: $100
Income-Expense:-$1270

To do
- pad out FAQ further to capture Long Tail traffic and get relevant word count up higher.
- Get a peer review on linkedin via another related group
- 5 Comments a day atleast for longtail on AuxDomain
- Research Longtail KW's for AuxDomain and use them to pad out its copy from its 200 words!
- See if I can grab some trial blasts from a site or two to hit the LinkLaunder site to ramp up its front page juice
 


@wiredniko thanks for the motivation ;)

A quick update: the canonical page (my front page) has now shifted in the SERP and rankings are sitting:

KW1: 13 (Broad) 12 (Phrase)
KW2: 14 (Broad) 15 (Phrase)

I created a quick page as an offshoot for KW2 (KW2 can mean 2 things both service my contacts can cater for but the more profitable one has taken the lead on the front page and the secondary is now on this offshoot).

The initial page is about 600 words with some basic info and one opt-in sprinkled with encouragement to use the more profitable variation instead.

So far happy with results and hopefully the SEO campaign will keep at this and rank it front page. Not bad for a site about a month old.

I have higher hopes to hit top rankings with KW2 initially due to Wikipedia being no1 and my resource is MUCH better. KW1 top rankings are government based so that ranking may be more a pipe dream.

My todo list stands as per my last update.
 
I love reading such journals as it often give me a new perspective to things. Will be following your update Ace. Good luck with it.
 
@ felixgoh. When I first joined I did a search here for all journals to get ideas on how to best run my campaign, ideas on what works what doesnt and the small nuggets of gold the more experienced people left behind. Always brilliant.

Progress
My FT job is sucking up time and along with fasting my work time on this is barely a few hrs a week. My progress on this is stagnating a bit.

To fully justify my asking prices per lead and to prove I can get the figures (or at least have an indication of the figures I could get) I grabbed a £30 Adword voucher from below:

https://services.google.com/fb/forms/awukemailRM/

Once I have my account setup I will target it for the two main keywords and ensure in content advertisement is off as I want to focus on traffic purely from Google searches.

I am mapping out my main demographic based on the data I have access to and will try a targeted FB ad. Does anyone know of any vouchers I can grab to get this started ?

For final monetisation of this project I am debating 'leasing' the site to a national organisation who may find use of it. as a client to them would be worth Low £xxx while i would make low £xx per lead it may be a avenue they may want to explore.

My thoughts are let them brand the site etc. I hold domain, host site and work on optimization. (outsource this aspect to an organisation who does this). Giving me a truely hands off profit margin on this. Any thoughts?

Income / Expenditure
Expenses: $1400
Income: $130 (paid) $25(pending)
Remaining Budget: $100
Income-Expense:-$1270

To do
- pad out FAQ further to capture Long Tail traffic and get relevant word count up higher.
- Get a peer review on linkedin via another related group
- 5 Comments a day atleast for longtail on AuxDomain
- Research Longtail KW's for AuxDomain and use them to pad out its copy from its 200 words!
- See if I can grab some trial blasts from a site or two to hit the LinkLaunder site to ramp up its front page juice
- install Heatmap via WP or otherwise (tried a few plugins didnt work so will go manual install)
- Setup adwords campaign for the keywords to double check my figures and get a view of conversion rates.
- Setup FB campaign
- Review Copy on MainDomain and add information to FAQ where appropriate.
 
Been pondering the leasing option a bit more since the last update it seems the best option to me. Hands off, can outsource SEO (been discussing with the person doing my off-site SEO if he would be interested) and probably hire a CRO as well to make it look like a good package.

They can provide monthly reports (white label) which I can forward on with my own logo etc. Est. Cost for SEO/CRO is 2k a month. If I can lease it for 3k would be sweet!

Work and expense wise very little work has been done, did a bit of tweaking and monitored traffic.

Since my last update, 40 visits via SE, 10.40mins avg on site with a 57% bounce rate and 72% exit.

So stat wise still cant tell quite yet, but looks promising. Unfortunately no leads yet.

Expense end homepage link renewal though Evo seems to be awol, tried emailing him as well with a query but no reply.

Rankings
KW1: 9 (Broad) 7 (Phrase)
KW2: 12 (Broad) 13 (Phrase)

Indication of KW 2 below, KW 1 is significantly less (1500 a month)though laser targeted. Oddly though SerpIQ doesn't play nice with UK listings (they are different form what MS give me both in traffic numbers and top 10).

poa1.JPG

Income / Expenditure
Expenses: $1450
Income: $130 (paid) $35(pending)
Remaining Budget: $50
Income-Expense:-$1320

To do
- Get a peer review on linkedin via another related group
- 5 Comments a day atleast for longtail on AuxDomain
- Research Longtail KW's for AuxDomain and use them to pad out its copy from its 200 words!
- See if I can grab some trial blasts from a site or two to hit the LinkLaunder site to ramp up its front page juice
- install Heatmap via WP or otherwise (tried a few plugins didnt work so will go manual install)
- Setup adwords campaign for the keywords to double check my figures and get a view of conversion rates.
- Setup FB campaign
- Review Copy on MainDomain and add information to FAQ where appropriate.
 
Progress

Been a while since my last update due to a whole load of busyness but here's a rundown:

- Got a peer review in linkedin and copy amended.
- Adwords was setup 1000 impressions 3 clicks and I forgot about it so will have to redo that soon.
- Reviewed Copy on MainDomain and added information to FAQ.
- Setup 'thank you' page and goal tracking in analytic for MainDomain
- Got 3 Local Lead buyers interested and one National Firm
- Got a lead (yaaay) though 0.5% conversion rate, negotiated 15% of invoice amount which would be a minimum of £50-£60
- Travis/Evo has been away so chasing him to get the homepage link booster pack to the AuxDomains Longtail KW (which now ranks 17 broad and Phrase).
- Got the reports to say AuxDomain Longtail KW work is complete (hope for a rise / ROI soon )

Rankings

MainDomain

KW1: 8 (Broad) 8 (Phrase)
KW2: 40 (Broad) 14 (Phrase)

KW1 - Webmaster showed I got 1500 impression over the month for the exact KW so thats nice :)
KW2 - This has dropped in the last few days with dramatic demise I hope it bounces back up.

AuxDomain

Main KW: 73, 83 (27,28) - Worried about this -50ish drop. Happened around same time KW2 went down on MainDomain. (panda?)

Longtail KW: 17,15 (15,14) - this has been steady, should go up this month hopefully.

Income / Expenditure

Expenses: $1520
Income: $130 (paid) $55(pending) (15% of Invoice pending)
Remaining Budget: $-20
Income-Expense:-$1390

To do

- Comment to build longtail on AuxDomain (using list here once a week)
- Ditto with KW1 on MainDomain
- Setup mailing list option to capture "information hunters" coming to MainDomain and setup a series / use "freepack" to capture. - also give pack to LeadOptIn's as a bonus.
- Setup a blog section on MainDomain and add a few case studies etc in to capture long tail traffic and funnel back to front page.
- Research Longtail KW's for AuxDomain and use them to pad out its copy from its 200 words!
- See if I can grab some trial blasts from a site or two to hit the LinkLaunder site to ramp up its front page juice
- install Heatmap via WP or otherwise (tried a few plugins didnt work so will go manual install)
- Setup FB campaign
- Update MainDomain with new copy based on points in Ca$hvertising

As always any hints tips feedback appreciated
 
Ah it has been a while!

Site Stats

Visits: 500
AVG Time: 2:16
AVG Page 1.56
Bounce: 60%
Conversion rate: 0.2%(well below the targeted 3%)

Site Work

I am still working on Pillar posts for a few KW's and have converted the whole site to use HTTPS and put up a logo to showcase security.

KW Rankings

KW | Exact Searches Per day| Rank

KW1 | 595 | #14
KW2 | 178 | #4
KW3 | 178 | #11
KW4 | 118 | Unranked (Pillar being written)
KW5 | 79 | Unranked (it tanked this month but was in top 10 before)
KW6 | 29 | Variation of above
KW7 | 29 | #12
KW8 | 24 | #24
KW9 | 13 | #18 (related to 5 and 6)


SEO Work Remark

Nanofuse's "phallanx" I was disappointing in, it was a chunk of my money and it caused more headache with negative results then was work it.

Currently using Andrew's Super Article Marketing at £45 a month and it is working brilliantly.

Income/ Expenditure

Period till date

Income: £300
Balance: -£1600 (rounded up)

To Do

- Complete pillar post for KW4
- Complete pillar post to support KW2 variation
- Using Andrews Spun Article base make them to PDF's and submit places listed : PDF Traffic Generation: How to Tap into the Untapped
- Contact this guy Conversion Rate Optimization | Increase Your Conversion Rates | Improve Your Conversion Rates (via Loueys Journal) and see what he says about upping conversion rate.

To Ponder

So far Lead to Client rate has been 100%, they give name, add and tel number with email optional. I have also added a phone number (via jetvirtual) who charge £1 per message taken + a monthly fee. So one lead will pay its costs and then some.

The problem is no one is using the number! (its been 2 weeks) how can I get people to call in if not fill in the form?

I was thinking possibly a pop-up after a min or so (clicktale shows the people who stick around for that long and visit 2-3 pages are more likely to convert) which asks them to fill in the form.

Another option i'm considering is a "branded" information packs free to download powered by aweber single opt-in. Though I think this maybe loads of work for leads that are just of "information hunters". ie will be hard to convert to clients.

Lastly I am running a test for "meet my partners", this will showcase one partner and get it to rank for "service local area" variations.

It has been two weeks and "service london" it is ranking at number 7, though with 2 exact searches a day not to confident on conversions.

However I am thinking of asking my "partners" if they wish to have such a page and charge them to make the page will the leads routed through a
specific form / number to attract commission on them OR charge a lump for the page and no commission.

As always feedback is very welcome and if you feel you can help me with my conversion rate problem please PM me!
 
Update

- Pillar Post for #KW4 first draft is complete. Will be working on padding it out and adding more information to it + contact form by end of week.
- Another on topic article published. Still aiming to do one update a week (500 words minimum of good related content).
- Move High PR links to KW1 and kw3 from side project about a week ago.

KW Rankings

KW | Exact Searches Per day| Rank

KW1 | 595 | #10
KW2 | 178 | #3
KW3 | 178 | #9
KW4 | 118 | Unranked (Pillar being written)
KW5 | 79 | Unranked (it tanked this month but was in top 10 before)
KW6 | 29 | Variation of above
KW7 | 29 | #12
KW8 | 24 | #24
KW9 | 13 | #12 (related to 5 and 6)

nice jumps still no conversions :(

To Do

- Complete pillar post to support KW2 variation
- Using Andrews Spun Article base make them to PDF's and submit places listed : PDF Traffic Generation: How to Tap into the Untapped

To Ponder

- still as above post! -

Also the "filler site" is now getting some "sweet" traffic.

HTUCE.jpg

I've thrown adsense on it but it is making pennys...barely..In Nov I tried a free opt-in newletter to get emails to send "free game downloads" but 90+ hops no conversions.

The "niche" is a how to guide on how to use a popular cheat program. one large article + automation to bring in longtail rankings are so so but I do not want to work on them unless the site shows some ROI.

Any suggestions on how to monetise for mainly kids looking for free gaming related info?
 
KW's are doing the up up down down (left right...) and teasing me with the miniscule traffic jumps.

Looking in to alternate traffic sources with minimal expenditure (waaay over budget and leads are a bit to slow). I came across this thread:

http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/144393-can-i-affiliate-market-like.html

I looked up my biggest competitor and they give 30% though have an avg value of about £35 per "customer" so about a tenner per customer.

I was thinking joining share a sale and doing a similar setup.

The issue is When I pass the lead on I have to wait a few weeks (maybe even a few months) until I get payment due to how the industry works. So I have to options.

Pay 30% of what I get (will mean £10is for the aff) WHEN I get it or pay a smaller amount just for leads.

The problem with just leads would be the extra headache involved is weeding the crappy leads that will show up which could cost me buyers.

The second question, my conversion rate at the moment is about 0.2% WAAY of my 3% goal. Heck I'd be happy with 1% as it would mean monthly expenses paid (Hosting / Andrew - Article / Travis - Homepage links) and 60%ish profit.

So the question is do I focus on conversion before I look for alternate (non-se) traffic?


If there is any CRO persona round who could lend a hand for perhaps a % themselves or because you'd like to help please PM me.
 
KW rankings still doing the one two dance. I've decided to try and improve conversions rate before looking into affiliate. No point buying / getting traffic if it doesn't convert that well.

Last Pillar post is final touches (a nice big big K behemoth) then all major KW's covered.

I've also decided not to do the article run this month and instead in jan do Andrew's Social package to add some variety in links. So SEO wise next month will be the odd comment links and keeping an eye on Yahoo Answers and jumping in where I can.

CRO

I have Setup https://www.olark.com/ (Live help chat) using their free plan to see how it effects conversions. If it works i'll grab the basic plan for $15 a month with SSL. (Saw it on Guerilla site and looked good!).

I have it set to "open" after 120 seconds with a prompt to leave details / call the phone number. Will change it to the free phone one once it is ready.

My next step after getting the last Pillar Page complete is to professionalize the theme a bit. Not going to really split test this as comments garnered from feedback that is the general consensus.

as always to the odd people who may read this thread, feedback appreciated.
 
Another update.


Rankings are have slipped for kw 2 down to 6 though I expected this to happen as the top 4 are .gov sites and the other a HUGE charity with more link juice at their post then I can shake a stick at the moment. Otherwise all other holding stead and traffic building to 40+ a day now (from 10 a day 12 weeks ago!)

Did a 12 week review on traffic vs conversion (got another recently) and times each conversion by the minimum value.

est 1700 traffic from all sources * £1xx est = each visitor is worth about £0.09*, I compared this with the adwords value for my top 3 kws and was told to expect about 100 clicks at about £0.80* each.

This does not necessarily mean their conversion rates are better, as they are the direct service providers their margins are a lot higher but even with a higher % counted in (based on average service cost) I get a visitor value of about £0.40.

So in a bid to improve my conversions I've had a look at their landers salient points and got some feedback from members here and have a rough plan on how to edit my "home page lander".

to get my visitor value up so each of them is worth about £0.80 I will have to get my conversions up to 2% from 0.2%.

I've trawled through the case studies on adhustler.com / conversionvoodoo.com / conversion-rate-experts.com and marketingexperiments.com and decided to stick with "straight up info sell" (Generating Leads For Complex Sales | Ad Hustler)


1) The Straight Up Info Sell: You design a landing page that has all of the information about the bike including the price and really anything that the prospect would want to know about buying it. You include a contact form and phone number and hope the price is competitive enough to generate a lead. If you actually DO have a killer price compared to the competition, this tends to do well.
Click to expand...

End of Quarter 2

So 6 months after this site started with a grand total of 43hrs (rounded) spent on it, it stands at negative equity at - £1658.37.

I had anticipated that at the 2nd quarter I would be at a stage where it would start paying of it monthly expenses by it self and if the current trend continues it should accomplish this in the coming quarter with ease.

If I do manage to get the conversion rates up as was in my plan for the third quarter (though I thought it would be from 1% to 2%) I should be in profit by the end of the quarter.

A bit of help

If any one know of a good theme for lead gen? or flexible enough to add a contact form and phone number to the header? (pref free!)

Thanks for any silent readers I have but please leave a comment and help me out ;)
 
Hey mate,

Conversion rate optimisation is a bitch. Especially as there aren't many people out there who're willing to touch you if you're not making over $500k a year.

As you know, I'm in the same boat. Maybe we could hook up over skype and share what we've got. Seeing as we're in a similar position, it might be worth while.

PM me if you want my skype details.

If not, go fuck yourself. I was only kidding. :-)

Is the 1% to 2% conversion rate you're chasing the conversion rate from visitor to sales or visitor to opt in?


L.
 
Hey Louey,

Shot you a PM, yep CRO is a pain, thinking I know the basics so better start learning some CRO.

In regards to conversions, but rate from lead to sale closure has been 100% mainly because I have tried to answer all questions I can on the site itself. So my aim is to get x% same quality leads.

I dont have an opt-in set up yet as im focusing on covering the pillar articles and just channel them through my freephone / contact form. I dont feel an opt-in would suit this service really, though do plan to test that assumption down the line a bit.
 
So, the main revenue generation for your website is the leads - how much money are you making per lead?
 
Hi Amanda,

It depends on what the client is invoiced by the provider I get a % of that.

From the leads so far its mid £xx. Though in my projections I estimated 10% would be £xxx.
 
New Year update

Hope everyone had a good new years, and if your still reading this here's an update.

I had a look at my top competitor pages that I have been tracking...i.e people that were ranking top 20 before and had been in the industry for longer.

I have found that 80% of the non-gov / "business" sites, that were capturing leads for themselves have amended their homepage / layout and even content to be similar to my own. ...I'm slightly flattered but mostly peeved as I havent made my ROI yet.

Though this shows i'm at the top of this curve in this niche and hopefully can start maximising on that.

Last 2 weeks 2nd kw holding steady at #6 but the primary went off for a dance:

MicroSiteMasters - View Keyword Info

(ps MSM awesome tool)

Progress made:

- A LinkedIn Group created on topic and fro it already made a "partner" who wrote a nice 1k article and is providing a link back to the site for having a brochure up for a related service which I will get commission for if clients are referred from the site. = WIN

- 2 more Pillar articles added, leaves 1 topic remaining more or less and all "static" articles complete.

- A post a week scheduled for next few months + news pieces will mean multiple a week. +1 freshness

- Added a banner with a number on top and added "why us" with "trust seals" above the fold. SO far seen it increase time spent on site and pages viewed but not conversion yet.

KW Rankings

KW | Exact Searches Per day| Rank

KW1 | 595 | #13
KW2 | 178 | #6
KW3 | 178 | #12

So traffic has gone back form 50 a day to 10ish

To Do

- Compete last pillar
- Redo "form" with CRO Best Practices (Add Free / Arrow etc) (Increasing Lead Capture by 27% – A Conversion Optimization Case Study | Unbounce)
- Grab Andrews Social Supremacy Social Media Supremacy - Social Media Service by Marketer's Center mid Jan to see if a boost can be done on KW1 and 3

Balance

Throw in an adsense payment and my balance on this project (with payment for 3 leads pending):

- £1644.25
(+14.12)

On the upward trend :)
 
Holy fook shit!!!! dang google update!!

But let us rewind a bit and start logically.

- A "partner" decided to, after my help, he wanted to break off and become a competitor. "borrowed" layout content etc and now is ranking 1st page for KW 2 (9th pos).

- Google on the 5th of Feb killed by rankings for KW1 and 3 and KW 2 went to post 2x.

- 4 leads despite the traffic downturn.

Update

Since then however i've not sat idle despite working 7 days a week since last update.

- Kept LinkedIn and FB pages updated with linsk back to site

- Andrews SM is now underway with some "click here" etc put in to make my KW-centric links more diluted.

- Started another small campaign on aux KW's and let's see that how goes.

- Freephone number setup and lead are finally at 3%!!! :D - quality wise they are a bit less than the email submit but can be weeded out.

- Started a partnership with a related site who wasn't covering my topic for cross referral - my article there should go live next week.

- Got a link in the Guardian Newspaper (in the comments but yep :))

- Got a link in the Telegraph Newspaper (in the comments but yep :))

- Setup TweetOld Post so it regularly tweets an old page etc.

- Contacted top 20 related sites and asked them to "review" my site and link if they can.

- A local organisation who could be a very good source of leads has contacted via the site and may result in a seminar there on the topic and very good lead source.

KW Rankings

KW | Exact Searches Per day| Rank

KW1 | 595 | #N/A
KW2 | 178 | #19
KW3 | 178 | #N/A


To Do

- Redo "form" with CRO Best Practices (Add Free / Arrow etc as above)
- Setup a Tweet Buffer that tweets a FAQ and link to the site. (i.e. add social signals).

Balance

Payment for 2 Lead Pending and 2 Leads being chased

- £1721.95

(-77.77)

Considering monthly expenses (including new phone line and virtual assistant to answer calls) are almost £170 I think it slowly but surely getting there.

I'm hopping that despite the rankings not coming back after a week, the social signals will bump them back up (bottom half of top 10 are sub-par pages imo)and can result in 20 leads by end of end of Feb and with 80% converting (as per trend at moment) will mean high £xxx.
 
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