Taking time to build a foundation for the future
Like so many who come into this business with little knowledge of website details, no real experience with blogging regularly, and absolutely no knowledge about affiliate marketing, I get bogged down once in a while. Fortunately, I have the experience of others in WA to inform me. I know it requires some time to step back and think about building a business before I can move forward again.
I have reached the point in the training (Course 3, Lessons 3-5) where we are told to join an affiliate network, join a couple independent affiliate programs, join Amazon, and place a few affiliate links on our website. Unfortunately, nothing I have written to this point has ranked high enough to draw traffic, so I need more content associated with "low-hanging fruit" keywords before these affiliate links will be worth anything.
Shortly after I joined WA I read a question in the forum asking whether they should add affiliate links. That person was essentially where I am today. The wise response was to add more posts, more content, until they got traffic moving through their site.
So that's what I am doing - adding content. Learning to write better posts. Concentrating on building out my site to gain some traffic.
If you relate to this then step back and assess your progress. Recognize that there is a lot to learn and enough time to gain experience.
Take time to build the foundation of your website so it can carry you further into the future of your business.
Recent Comments
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Allyn, I'm right behind you. If you need more content I'm going to need more content. I had a feeling that was going to be the case.
Keep up the good work.
I think some people rush into the monetizing and wonder why they're not making money. You have to draw people to your site first -- that means content, content, content. You're doing it right. ~Debbi
My "foundation" still has a few cracks in it. I can't seem to find out if I'm getting traffic or not. I'm where you are and found the programs and even signed up. Just keep getting sidetracked with going back and forth to see what I missed ( and I didn't even skip anything)! Good luck with the content etc... Here I am sidetracked again!
Ha! I can relate to the back and forth. Have you gotten to the Google Webmaster Tools yet? When you get to that lesson, you'll have a program that can tell you about your traffic ... well, if you can understand all the information (which I'm still trying to figure out). The funniest thing to me is that my highest ranking keyword is NOT one that I focused on. In fact, I can't even find where I have it in any of my posts or pages.
At this point, if I hear the word "Google" connected to anything else for a while, I'll run away and join the circus! Just got done, not too long ago, with the authorship, only to find out that it's sort of optional. Drove me nuts all this morning! Some things just don't make sense! Keywords are one of them. All seems pretty much hit or miss. Good Luck hope to catch up soon >: )
I am having a hard time getting a firm grasp on the Google SEO process. I have read multiple times that it can/does take 3-6 months to establish your website in the Google rankings. So, it is uncertain to me when just starting out, if you are not seeing any movement in the Google pages....is this Google "messing" with you so to speak...or is the content sort of crappy? It is hard to discern. I think the approach remains the same which is to continue to attack the low competitive words and post valuable content and continue to build out your site. This is the lesson being taught by WA. I am following that path.
Yes, you are absolutely right in doing that. I agree with your assessment. I feel like you do - am I not writing very well or is my content just not that relevant (could be!) or is Google waiting for me to establish myself (most likely). We all just need to keep going, one post at a time.
I am having the same thoughts. I go to some of these pages that are ranked 1 to 5 on any of a variety of Google sorts that I do, and I look at the content. I say to myself...out loud...(one of the benfits of working alone at home)..."self" what do they have that you don't have? And I am waiting for the Little guy behind the Green curtain to come up with some clever answer...like a Certificate of completion of the WA Training Course which will get YOU PAGE 1 Ranking EVERY TIME.....but that has not happened yet. So I keep slogging away.
I did post a nice article about the 1927 Ryder Cup and Walter Hagen today...had a long tail key word of Walter Hagen and the (if you can believe that) with a QSR of 112 and estimated searches of of 4000. Should get some traffic on this puppy with the Ryder cup going on all weekend....
I followed the steps, too, and got several affiliate programs. I was lucky in that I already had Amazon from a prior blog someone built for me. It wasn't my doing, but I still had it. Amazon doesn't pay much, but I think some of the others saw that I had Amazon and Adsense ads on my pages. Some days, I get really overwhelmed trying to track down the total coordination of all this stuff!
That was a good stroke of luck for you. It's so easy to look at other people's websites and get a bit anxious to have mine look like theirs. It will get there!
I followed the steps and did add affiliate links. I got refused for Amazon initially till I had more content. I'm really only just starting to understand how it all works! :)
That's interesting! I didn't figure Amazon to be the one that would expect more content than others. Good to know, though.
You're right - content and low hanging fruit is the consensus. It's where I'm at also. The temptation Is to skip ahead, but it would probably just work against me.
Great tips! I can relate to this. I was just working on course 3 lesson 4 been stuck on it a few days. But just needed to review what I already learned! I am a slow learner these days. So I just go back and review. Then I realize I need to have better content with those low hanging fruit keywords!
I thought I knew more about this type of stuff than I did. 27 years in the computer industry, but this is quite different. I'm finding myself to be a bit slower at learning now-days also.
Don't feel bad I'm an InfoSec guy who has spent plenty of time behind the keyboard and this is foreign to me. It is quite different. Behind the Google SEO, domain names and link backs this is marketing and advertising, not tech.
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Great post, Allyn. I am right beside you. Working on past posts. Generating new ones. Thought I was alone everyone seems to be doing so great. Thank you for the post and shared story.
Thanks. I'm finding there are a lot of us who get to the affiliate link part in Course 3 and find we don't have enough content. As a result, I have heard from a good number of individuals who are now simply trying to develop content. Keep moving forward!
Great. Just hearing that has improved my outlook. I thought at first man I am just not getting this. I feel better now. Thank you.