A couple months ago I stated that I was not going to create my own backlinks.  That I would wait till others backlink to me.  I was not going to shame myself by tooting my own horn, by begging for backlinks.  I was going to wait patiently until others backlink to me – let the website speak for itself.  But guess what – nobody has backlinked to me.  Four months have passed since this website went live and in that time no backlinks.  Nobody has been impressed enough to link to this site.  Surprised?  So am I.

So with a paper bag on my head I must admit defeat.  If I want backlinks then I will have to create them myself.  Climb to the rooftop of the tallest building and shout, “look at me!”.  How humiliating.

How to Create Backlinks – Article Submission

Article submission is the easiest way to create quality one way backlinks.  I signed up on ezinearticles.com and wrote 3 articles.  In each article I summarize one of the pages on this website. 

My method is simple.  I read a page from this website and then close the window.  Then I open my word processor and rewrite what I just read.  Same main points but new words.  The article version is shorter and more to the point.  The articles need to be at least 250 words.  My articles tend to be around 400 words and take about 30 minutes to write.  It is easy to do because it is not new material.  Just a summary of key points from this website.   At the end of the article I place one link to this site and one link specifically to the page being summarized.

The backlinks from this method are great because they are one way backlinks.  They link to you with out you having to link back to them – Google loves that.  Also, when you create the backlink you can use the keywords of your choosing for the anchor text.  This is good because Google uses the anchor text of a backlink to figure out what your page is about.

Get Your New Webpages Indexed Faster

Besides backlinks, another advantage of articles submission is that you can get your own webpages indexed faster by Google.  Normally for this website it takes up to a week before a new page is indexed by Google.  But if I create an article and backlink to the new page then the page gets indexed in under a day.  Here is how it works:   

1. I create a new page on my website
2. I write an article summarizing the new page
3. At the bottom of the article I link to the new page
4. My article gets published. Since ezinearticles.com is a popular site Google indexes the article within a hour.
5. While indexing the article Google notices the link to my new page. Google discovers that the page is not indexed yet.
6. My new page gets flagged by Google for immediate indexing

Besides getting backlinks creating articles is a great way to get new pages indexed.  For an example of one of the articles and the backlink have a look at my article Do Guest Posts on Other Blogs Really Bring Traffic.

How to Create Backlinks – Guest Posts

Guest posts are harder then article posts.  Creating articles is easy because unless you really screw up and do not follow the rules your article will be published.  Guest posts are much more difficult because they have a very selective gatekeeper – the blog owner.  It is up to their discretion whether your post gets published.  If he stubbed his toe just before reading your email requesting a guest post and therefore in a bad mood you could be denied just because his toe hurts.

You spend a few hours creating the perfect guest post specifically designed for a specific blog.  You send it to the blog owner and wait.  A few days later you get a rejection email.  ‘Sorry, but at this time I am not taking guest posts’, translation: your post was denied.  Now you need to decide what to do with the post.  Do you put it on your own blog or do you alter it and submit to another blog?  Either way time is wasted and the post is tainted by the stench of rejection.

Fortunately this did not happen to me.  I created a guest post and submitted it.  Within a few days it was approved and published.

What a great backlink.  A one way backlink from a popular blog back to my website.  Does not get better then that.  It was a great success – a perfect backlink.  The only problem was that nobody agreed with my post.  Not a single comment agreed, even the blog owner stepped in and stated that he does not agree.  But that is just a technicality, not really important.  Nobody agrees, I am wrong, I do not know what I am talking about etc…but I got my backlink.  By the way, I still think I am right, everybody else is wrong. If you want to disagree with me then see my guest post Put Time Into Your Guest Posts.

Organic Search Traffic Is Improving

The first couple months this website had backlinks, but they were all natural backlinks.  I frequented forums and made comments on blogs.  I did this not to create backlinks but simply because I wanted to be involved in the forums and blogs.   The backlinks came naturally, they came as a result of me simply participating in my niche.

For the last month I have been actively generating backlinks via articles and guest posts.  Again I can only assume that this is why my organic search traffic is continuing to improve.  It is still a small number but improving.  It seams that backlinks do work.  It is humiliating and pride must be swallowed but creating backlinks is a must to improve your organic traffic.

Organic Traffic For This Website

Forget your pride, ignore your shame, humiliate yourself – create your own backlinks.  Go out there and brag about how great your are.  Because if you don’t then who, besides your mother, will?

About Revenue, Earnings, Money, About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, Actual Stats From The Website Used, Optimistic and Motivational, There is a HOW TO in the Post, What YOU Should Do

Aristotle accomplished a lot in his ancient Greek life.  He can be credited as one of the founding fathers of western thought.  He studied and made observations about morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.  In his free time he was a tutor of Alexander the Great.  A person like this is not common.  He has the ability to keep going and going – doing more and more.

How did he keep motivated?  What helped him get out of bed every morning and dive into his work?  Aristotle’s answer:

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

Goals.  Man needs to set goals for himself.  Without goals there is no meaning – there is nothing to strive for.

My Goal – Make Money Online Website

Who am I to doubt Aristotle.  I must set goals.  This website was started willy-nilly.  It was built with the intent of just seeing what happens. But that is not the right approach.  I need something to strive for.  If it helped Aristotle become one of the greatest thinkers of all time, I am sure setting goals will help this website.

The main keywords for this website are: make,money,online,website.  My goal is to be one of the top five results in Google search for the term ‘make money online website‘.  When somebody types ‘make money online website‘ into Google I want to see this website appear in one of the top 5 spots.  Currently for this term this website is nowhere to be seen.  I checked as far back as the 500th result.  No luck – not there.

Know The Enemy (the competition)

Before I tackle this goal I need to know who I am fighting against.  Who are in the top 5 spots now?  The best way to beat them is to know who they are.  What have they done to get there.  By studying who they are I can adjust my strategy to either mimic what they did to get there or find a weak spot in their approach.  Find something that they are missing, or not doing, or doing poorly.  Once I know how they got to where they are then I can do what they are doing and add a little more – that extra push that puts me above them.

The nice thing about the ‘make money online’ niche is that it is about revealing what you do.  So most of the blogs and website are about how they got to where they are at.  So it is only a matter of going through their website and finding out what strategies they recommend for online success. 

I am going to focus on two of the top 5 holders, because they have very different strategies.  And they are very good writers – they do a good job explaining how they got to the top.

A Brick and Mortar Website

The top spot is currently held by 2createawebsite.com.  It is a really good ‘Make Money Online’ website.  The owner is Lisa.  Her website made it to the top in what can be called the traditional approach – time, quality content, and persistence.  She started making money online in 1998 and has stuck with it.  By constantly adding content and maintaining a presence on the Internet she has made it to the top.  Hard work and time.  Posting on forums, answering questions by readers, making comments on other blogs.  By helping others her name became known.  Slowing, but steadily she gained readers.  10 years later, it is paying off.  Now she has inspirational youtube videos and tutorials, a busy forum and a popular blog.  She has become an trusted authority in the field.  Her opinion is respected.  She does not hide her identity and is completely honest about everything she has to say. 

Her website is a rock.  It is well designed, clear and well written.  Quality material, a great personality, and high ranking.  She does everything by the book and there is little chance that her ranking will fall.  Her website is like amazon, or ebay.  A trusted and quality site.  Exactly what Google likes.  Google rewards her by placing her website at the top.

Understand and Exploit

The website at spot 4 is makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com.  This website is almost the complete opposite of the one above.  It is not pretty.  No flashing graphics, logos or pull down menus.  Actually is it a basic free blogspot blog.  Simple design – black text against a white background.  His posts are extremely long, something that your ’suppose’ to not do.  The owner is Grizzly.  He does not reveal his true identity.  All that is known is that he lives somewhere in Northern Canada.  His blog is only 3 years old.  He does not participate in forums and does not do any Internet marketing.

But he is in the 4th spot.  He is doing something right.  With his completely non-traditional approach he has manged to make it to the top.  How does he do it?

Grizzly knows how Google works.  He can think like Google.  He does not care about having a great website, or people thinking of him as an authority.  All he cares about is making money online.  So he focuses specifically on Google and does whatever necessary to make money with it.  The best way to describe it is that he understands the underlying principle of Google and exploits it.  He focuses in on the fundamental principles of Google and does whatever necessary to make money.  He knows how to force Google to put him at the top.

The great part is that he does not keep it a secret.  If you read all his long well written posts, he reveals exactly how he does it.  You need to read a little between the lines – but it is there.  And his proof is not in words, but in results.  Do a search for ‘make money online’ and there he is – on the top.  He knows what he is doing.

How Am I Going To Get To The Top?

It is not going to be easy.  Both of the above examples are smart people.  Masters in their art.  They have completely different approaches, but both successful. 

My approach will be to learn from both.  Not to copy their approaches exactly, but to combine the two.  To mix the two approaches into a new hybrid approach.  Have a traditional website – brick and mortar, well built, organized and pleasing to the eye; patiently become a authority in the field and gain people’s trust.  But also not ignore what Grizzly has to say,  his approach is untraditional but cannot be dismissed.

Hopefully, by taking bits and pieces from the people at the top.  Combining it in a new way and creating something new, I can acheive my goal and become a member of the Top 5 club for ‘make money online website’.

To find out how this post will help me towards my goal please see post How to Make Money With Jesus.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, There is a HOW TO in the Post, What YOU Should Do

A few years ago I owned and operated a data transcription company.  It provided the service of copying old and outdated 9-track tapes to CD.  It was a small company with only 4 employees and a few machines.  But it had big clients.  The tapes contained seismic data which oil companies used to determine whether there is oil in the ground.  Clients included Shell, Exxon and BP.  These clients did not come easy.  It was a year before any of them even picked up the phone.

A typical phone call:

Me:  Hello, this is Roman . Can I speak to Mr. Smith (the data manager).
Secretary of Mr. Smith:  Can I tell him what it is regarding.
Me:  I represent TMT – a data transcription company. I want to discuss with Mr. Smith data transcription services we provide that I believe he would be interested in.
Secretary:   Just a moment please…
[2 minutes later]
Secretary:  Unfortunately Mr. Smith is in a meeting. Can you please give me your contact information and he will call you back.

I give my contact information and waited for a phone call that would never come.  Variations of this happened everyday, many times a day, for the first year.

Running your own business has many perks.  You have heard them all before.  Be your own boss, work whenever you want to, pay yourself what you deserve, profits go in your pocket.  These are the positive virtues.  But there is a major aspect of owning your own business that is usually left out.  Relentless, unbashful, almost arrogant self promotion.  Trying to convince complete strangers that you are what they need.  That only you provide a special service they cannot get anywhere else.  You are special.  Use me – I am the best.

As an employee you rarely need to promote.  You simply turn dials, punch keys and pull levers.  You do not need to persuade anybody that you work for the best damn company in the world.

But if you own your own business  you constantly need to convince people that your company is the best.  And indirectly, since you own the company, you are the best.  When you finally break past the secretary and have the attention of a manager the selling begins.  Hello Mr. Smith, let me list the ways why I am the best, why you need me, why only I can provide what your need.

Self promotion makes you feel dirty inside.  Because you know it is not true.  The competition is very similar to you.  Basically the same service, the same product, the same prices.  Actually you are aware of faults in your business.  You see it from the inside.  Half the machines are in dire need of repair and the service level needs improvement.  But that is not what you tell the potential client.  To the potential client you paint the perfect picture – every brush stroke a work of genius.

A Webmaster Must Self Promote Website

Being a webmaster is like being a owner and operator of a company.  Not only do you have to make sure the website is running, you also have to promote it.  As you can infer from the above I cannot stand self promotion.  I hate it. I would never walk down main street in a red shirt with big white text stating: “I am the best – you need me”

But it has to be done.  Promoting your website requires convincing people to visit your website.  In a forum post you answer a question and then at the end of the answer you have to write: By the way, I have a great post about this topic – click here to read it.  Or you send out emails to subscribers stating how you have found some amazing information that they need to know about – visit my website for more details.  You make a comment on a blog: Great post, I make a similar point on my blog – click here to see.

Always promoting.  Me, me, me.  Everybody look at me.

Its a necessary evil.  Most likely your post is not the best, your website is not the best.  The visitor does not need it.  Without your website the world would not end.  But that is beside the point.  To increase your traffic you need to self promote.  Convince people to visit your website.  Make yourself look better then you really are.  Comb your hair, tuck in your shirt, smile and to anybody who will listen say: I look good don’t I – come visit my site.

The good news is that the dirtiest type of self promotion must only be done at the beginning.  At the beginning nobody knows who you are and what your peddling.  But as time goes on and the word spreads you can tone down the self promotion.  Others will promote your website for you.  They will link to your website, they will tell their friends.  They will say: look at this guy – he is the best.

Unfortunately I am still at the beginning.  Still self promoting.  Everybody look at me.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, What YOU Should Do

The first few months of being a webmaster are challenging. Especially psychologically. All new webmasters should be ready to deal with the following:

Silence

You pluck away for hours creating new content.  After reading it and re-reading it, adding sentences and deleting others.  Making sure every sentence flows gracefully from one to the next.  Creating perfection.  Finally it is done, your Saturday is spent, but it is done.  You post your creation online and wait. 

Nothing.  No comments.  No emails.  Like it was never written.  Like it does not exist.  Silence.  The tumbleweed rolling through a ghost town kind of silence.  The time spent trying to please the masses was for nothing.  There is nobody out there.  Like Robinson Caruso writing a beautiful story, putting it into a bottle, and throwing it out to sea.

As a new webmaster do not expect praise or feedback for your work.  Expect nothing.  Write it, post it, and then write another one. 

Zero

For the first few months expect to see a lot of the number 0.  Especially when it comes to revenue.  With so few visitors to your site, most of the time your revenue will be zero. 

Normally this means that once a day you are disappointed by seeing 0.  But you will see it more then once a day.  You will see it at least 10 times a day.  Because every free moment you have will be spent checking your revenue.  Waiting for the coffee to brew…good time to check the revenue.  A commercial on TV…good time to check the revenue.  Three o’clock in the morning coming out of the bathroom and walking past the computer…good time to check the revenue.

You will come to despise the zero.  Its size, font and color will be ingrained in your head.   $0.00.  As the revenue page is loading you will have a slight emotional high.  The expectation that maybe this time it will be some other number.  But the page loads and there it is.  $0.00.  You close the window and sigh.  For a   fleeting moment you consider the possibility that a mistake has been made.  Maybe the servers are not refreshing and the value is not being updated.  But your energy is drained – you do not care enough to do anything about it.  Acceptance comes at last – it is true. $0.00.  30 minutes later the process starts all over again.

The Unknown

Normally when you perform a task successfully the feedback is immediate.  The boss gives you a raise.  The teacher puts a big A on the test.  The dinner guests compliment your spicy spaghetti.  A website is different.  For the first few months you get no indication whether the website is good or not.  You think it is good – that is why you visit it so much.  But the real test is whether other people think it is good.  At the beginning there is no way to tell. 

For months you build with no feedback.  Similar to building a prototype machine.  Spend lots of time designing and assembling.  No way to test whether it will work.  You have to build it first.   Day in and day out you faithfully work on the prototype. Hoping that when it is complete it works.    Only then will you discover whether all that work was worth it or not.  If in the end  it works then it was time well spent.  If not, then you have to acknowledge that is was a waste of time.

Thomas Edison had the same problem.  He had no idea whether a filament exists that enables a light bulb to burn for days.  He just hoped there was.  His only option was to try as many different filaments as possible.  After trying the 500th filament he was no closer to the answer then he was after the 2nd filament.   No indication if he was on the right track or even if success is possible.  Days, weeks, months passed and he was no closer to finding out whether a filament exists.  No feedback.  Only the hope that one day he will find a working filament drove him to continue.

A webmaster must work the same way.  Not knowing whether what is being attempted will work.  Whether the website will become a success or not.  A webmaster’s motivation must simply be the hope that it will work. 
       

You Have No Idea What You Are Talking About

To have a informative website you need to know what your are doing.  You need to be a authority in the field.  But you are not.  You cannot be.  You just started your website.  Only when the website is a success and only after a few years can you claim to be an expert.  It is a catch-22.  You need to know what you are doing to become a success, but only by succeeding can you know what you are doing.

Fortunately the fact is that you do not need to know what you are doing.  You only need to appear like you know what you are doing.  All that matters is the audience believing that you have authority in your field.  It is an illusion that is not too difficult to produce.  Do your research and the audience can be convinced with ease.  Nobody will know that most of your information is coming from books and not your head. 

The real problem is that you actually do not know what you are doing.  This causes a confidence issue.  It is hard to wake up every morning with confidence in your efforts when you yourself know the truth – that you have no idea what you are doing.  Doubts begin to form about whether your website can work.  “How can I be a success, if I do know what I am talking about?”

The answer is that for all things new – for all things that where created first – like your website, the first person had no idea what they where doing either.  They were just bumbling along, making guesses, trying things.  But all along appearing to everybody else like the expert.  All creators need to sell the appearance of confidence and knowledge about their product.  And then if it works, and the product becomes a success, they become the true expert.  Just like your website.  When it becomes a success, after many years of writing about the topic and discussion, you too will be an expert.

About Revenue, Earnings, Money, About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, Bitter and Pessimistic When I Wrote this, What YOU Expect vs Reality

Your website has been up for a few months.  The initial excitement has worn off.  But still, every morning you wake up and head straight for the computer.  Open browser, favorites, traffic stats.  Seeing basically the same number that has greeted you every morning for the last couple weeks, you head for the shower.  There your tears wash down the drain.  At least that is how my mornings go.

This website has been hovering around 50 visitors a day for the last couple weeks.  A gray cloud is beginning to form above my head.

As of February 22, 2009 the traffic for the last 30 days:

As you can see there have been good days and bad days.  But no discernable upward trend. It hovers around 50.  The two spikes are from the two times that the website was listed on reddit.com.  But the spikes are lightning bolts.  Exciting while it is happening but gone in a flash.

Looking at the graph it appears that the website is not progressing.  There is no upward trend.  I want an upward trend.  I need a ray of sunshine to peek through the gray clouds.

So I created a graph that has an upward trend.  I call it the Extrapolated Traffic Graph.  It takes traffic from recent time periods and extrapolates what the total traffic would of been had the traffic always been what it is now.  (Feel free to re-read that last sentence. Sorry, but I can not improve it).  The time periods start from the most recent and narrowest time frame and move to the past with increasing time frames.

It is best explained with the actual graph.  Here is the Extrapolated Traffic Graph for February 22, 2009.

See – an upward trend.  To help understand how the graph works it is best to view it as an answer to the question: What would the total traffic be if all the past daily traffic was the same as the daily traffic for the last # days?

For the last 4 days traffic was 319 visitors.  Take the number of visitors (319) and divide by the number of days (4).  You get 80 visitors per day.  The website has been up for 53 days.  Multiply the visitors per day (80) by total days live (53) and you have extrapolated total traffic of 4240 visitors.  Now compare that against your actual total visitors.  Extrapolated 4240 compared to actual 2206.  Vwola – the website is progressing nicely.

Keep doing this for all the different time periods and you get a nice uptrend graph.

The reason it works is because the website is progressing.  The problem with the normal traffic graph is that the progress is hard to see.  The progress gets lost in the noise.  One day traffic is high, then 3 days in a row it is low.  These 3 days make it look like you are loosing ground.  But you are not.  You are still better off then you were a month ago.  And that is the point.  The magic in the Extrapolated Traffic Graph is that is gives more weight to traffic closer to the present.  For new websites the present is always better then the past.

The Extrapolated Traffic Graph is not misleading.  This website’s traffic is progressing.  It has to be.  Everyday I add more content.  I visit forums and leave thought provoking posts.  I submit the website to directories.  I make jaw dropping comments on other blogs.  It all adds up.  The website is better then it use to be. But the standard traffic graph just does not show it.  Extrapolate present traffic, compare it against actual traffic, and the progress becomes clearly visible.

If you are at the beginning stages of your website then I recommend you plot your own Extrapolated Traffic Graph.  Print it out and hang it on the wall.  Then every time dark clouds begin to form – have a look at your up trending graph.  Save the tears till your really need them.  Like when even the extrapolated graph trends down.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, Actual Stats From The Website Used, Optimistic and Motivational, There is a HOW TO in the Post