I must be dead

[tek95969]

My blog that is. Whatever I'm doing it must be wrong. I've had my blogs going for awhile now, submitted them, posted articles etc. but no matter, I am literally nowhere in Google or Yahoo. :eek:
Something must be wrong. Either that or the areas I've chosen are really super competitive. Either way I should be 'somewhere' in there. Even as far back as pg.15!
Can someone please throw me a tidbit of advice?
I'm currently in the middle of Dan Thies's book Fast Start and have learned a great deal so far, but the light still hasn't come on.
HELP:confused:

[StephenT]

can you give us a link to your blog?

[Lynn Terry]

Welcome Tek :)

Give us a link - we'll take a look!

[angienewton]

Would love to help if you could share your link!

Welcome to SSWT.

[tek95969]

Sorry I left that piece of the puzzle out. Lame of me.
I have two blogs I've been working on - one on WPD and one on blogger. both have issues.

Weight Loss 4 Vegans (http://weightloss4vegans.traffic4pros.com)

Vintage Cookbook Collectors Blog (http://nostalgicheirlooms.blogspot.com/)

Thank you all for your kind support. People like you inspire me to keep plugging away in this confusing world of IM :)

Phil

[carlos123]

I stopped by to give you my condolences but glad to hear that you are still alive LOL.

Carlos

[angienewton]

Hi Phil,
I'm very excited to read your weight loss 4 vegans blog.

So you have done keyword research correct? And it looks like you're using some keyword phrases possibly but I wonder if the traffic4pros in your link is not helping you in the search engine's. It's really best to have your own domain and hosting so it would look like weightloss4vegans . com instead of the current domain.

I'm just talking out loud here but I think that could possibly be an issue. Hope someone can help with input on that. It looks like you're doing good with content. I'll be happy to help you with keyword research if you need the help. I'm very intrigued by some aspects of the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.

Chat soon!

[kdbbiz]

When I was reviewing things, I was thinking the same thing. When I first started out I used the free sites like freewebs.com and used the sub domains but I kind of had the same problem.

If you still are tight for cash and can't really afford monthly hosting, the next step I took was to join services like http://www.000webhost.com/, you need to purchase your domain name($7-$15), you can even get a .info like a couple of my sites are if your site is information oriented which it seems to be(check mine in my sig and you will see, mine is a book club-selling books and tutorials so it relates to a .info) .info you can get for only $1.99 at a lot of sites such as cheapdomainnames.com

But once you have your own domain name, sign up for the free hosting at 000webhost.com and don't forget to change the nameservers. But it does make a difference I think.

[tek95969]

Thanks Angie1
Your story blew me away, that's so awesome what you have accomplished. You really changed your life and it shows. Congrats!
As for my site, thanks for the input. I have done some keyword research and have been using Market Samurai (paid version) for this, although I'm still getting the hang of it.
I started the blog as part of the 30DC last year and was all that was available for a free account. It was a trial and I haven't gotten around to making the jump to my own host. I've looked into Hostgator as an option but am open to suggestions. At this stage I'm willing to invest a little if it will help in the long run.
This forum itself is also going to help. It's people like you and Lynn who inspire me to keep plugging away at this.
Thanks again,

Phil

[carlos123]

.info you can get for only $1.99 at a lot of sites such as cheapdomainnames.com


Was that some kind of limited time special or similar kdbbiz? The prices there now indicate that the price for an .info domain is now a whopping $12.95.

Carlos

PS. My apologies for calling you kdbbiz...I can't recall if you told me your name before :(

[angienewton]

Phil,
Thank you for your kind words!

Yes, I would definitely do the hosting and Host Gator (http://www.angienewton.com/hostgator.html) is who I use. Great hosting company and Lynn recommends them too.

I would like to get Market Samauri at some point but right now I'm just using the free keyword research at Wordtracker.

Gotta get to the gym, I'll check in later!

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for sharing your links - and your name :)

.info domains - Because these are often cheap, they are bought in bulk by spammers. Matt Cutts made some comments on these being filtered out of Google results awhile back. You should do your research on that, and also read this article (http://www.seobook.com/google-temporarily-purges-info-domain-names) by Aaron Wall.

It is also common recommendation to get your domain and hosting from separate companies. A registrar is not a host (don't host with GoDaddy) and a host is not a registrar. I could go into all of the reasons - but do a little research. There are a lot of horror stories on that.

I use GoDaddy to register domain names. Your domain is going to cost you around $10. I use HostGator for hosting, which allows multiple domains/sites/blogs on the one account for only $9.95/month. I also have a coupon code for HostGator to get your first month free - so you can start an online business (or website) for only $10 upfront and less than $10/month.

HostGator: http://www.clicknewz.com/hostgator.htm
Coupon Code: "wordpress" (without quotes)

blogger/wpd - I am not a fan of WordpressDirect, and in fact it's a very controversial program. Even if you are using it correctly, and not using any of their advertised content/marketing features, you stand to get caught in the clean sweep. See: http://www.clicknewz.com/1837/no-real-shortcuts/ (my thoughts on wpd).

Also see: http://www.clicknewz.com/782/blogger-vs-wordpress/

Now would be a good time to get things set up correctly, before you get too many backlinks or invest any more time & energy where you are.

Having your own top level domain (.com) WILL make a difference.

On to your blogs... they both look great! Nice work there with the themes and the topics. My first step was to analyze the backlinks (inbound links) for each of your domains. Oddly, I got a strange result for http://weightloss4vegans.traffic4pros.com - on both the subdomain and the root domain (traffic4pros.com). Yahoo didn't seem to recognize either. How new are those, and do you indeed have any backlinks pointing to either?

On the vintage cookbook site, I see 2 backlinks that come from outside your own site/domain:

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fnostalgicheirlooms.blogspot. com&bwm=i&bwmo=d&bwmf=u

You need a lot more inbound links to compete.

On another note, the subdomain on google is "nostalgicheirlooms" which doesn't really connect with "vintage cookbooks". I would recommend a more relevant domain name.

There's a start for you - back to you, Phil! :)

[tek95969]

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for taking the time to lend a hand. Your comments all made perfect sense and helped to clear up some things for me. The only reason I got going on WPD was it was suggested on the 30DC, which I did back in January. I decided back then that I would spend more time trying to get a little extra income going to help my impending retirement. I'm not a complete newbie to the web, however, having sold on ebay for quite awhile (my wife's art) and also on etsy.com (have six stores we do selling various stuff). We also have a site hosted on Pappashop - Vintagefunk Designs (http://www.nancyhunt-bartek.com) where all the techy stuff was done. We even bought the webdesign from a lady we met on ebay.
I just this year decided to make a serious attempt at the affiliate marketing and after a friend turned me on to the 30day I thought I was on my way. WRONG. Then came the informational overload that you referred to in another post. The endless pitches and newsletters, webinars, ebooks, make $4000 a day etc. etc. Your mantra of FOCUS hit home hard. So after struggling with this for so long I decided to step back and take stock of what I have now, what I should keep spending time on, and what to put on the shelf for down the road.
This forum is the main thing I'll be doing right now. To hopefully get what I've got started already going in the right direction and to meet even more fabulous people like yourself and others here, who will take the time to help. This is what inspires me to keep at it.
I have heard your name all over the place and when I finally found out about Clicknewz it was kind of an awakening.
OK I've gushed enough - thanks again Lynn,
I'll keep you updated on my progress and lord knows I'll be posting a question or two.

your newest fan
Phil

[Lynn Terry]

You're most welcome.

Very kind words and a high compliment to my work - Thank you!

Post anytime. I'll keep an eye out for your questions ;)

[carlos123]

On the technical side of things Phil...if you ever need help with some aspect of PHP, HTML, MySQL, or CSS feel free to PM me (or post on the forum here and if you don't get much input PM to let me know that you posted a question and I will go see if I can help). I cannot promise that I will have time to neccessarily drop what I am doing to help you out but when I have a spare minute or two I would be happy to help you if I can.

Carlos

[carlos123]

...I use HostGator for hosting, which allows multiple domains/sites/blogs on the one account for only $9.95/month. I also have a coupon code for HostGator to get your first month free - so you can start an online business (or website) for only $10 upfront and less than $10/month.

HostGator: http://www.clicknewz.com/hostgator.htm
Coupon Code: "wordpress" (without quotes)


Lynn...I am just curious...is that coupon code for just your use or is that for use by any affiliate of Hostgator who wants to give away one month of free hosting?

I am asking because I just made my first $50 affiliate commission from Hostgator a few days ago and have been wondering if there is some way to increase the incentive for my clients or others to go to Hostgator. The offer of one month of free hosting might sweeten the pot even more alongside my recommendation.

There are a couple of things about Hostgator I don't particularly like but there are effective workarounds for what I don't like so it's not too bad. And they do have a good deal in that one can host as many domains as one wants under their one account.

By the way...how did you end up with an affiliate link that is off your main domain as opposed to being a directory off the hostgator site? Is that because you are so big that hostgator set that up just for you? My Hostgator affiliate link looks nothing like yours.

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

LOL, it's because I created an html redirect... :)

Log in to your affiliate account for coupon codes & options!

[carlos123]

Hmm...I've never used an HTML redirect before...

You mean something like this...

Your link to http://www.clicknewz.com/hostgator.htm actually goes to a page like so...



<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=http://secure.hostgator.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=someid"></HEAD>
</HTML>


Where someid is your actual Hostgator affiliate ID.

I always use Apache mod_rewrite to do my redirects but I can see where in a case like this that would be like using a tank to drive down the street and get a loaf of bread LOL.

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

Yup, like that - there's a way to do it with php too, but I stick with simple old HTML.

[carlos123]

Interesting.

Hmm...I think I will stick to my tank (since I don't have to fiddle with multiple pages to do redirects and can do all my redirects through one site wide .htaccess file).

But thanks for sharing your approach Lynn. I like your openness about how you do things.

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

The htaccess file is a fine method (there's 3 ways to do anything as you know). But remember to always keep an updated backup of your htaccess file when using that method. That way if you lose your hosting or something nuts, you won't be scrambling to fix dead affiliate links all over the place. An obvious point as you should back up ALL files, but that one is often forgotten in the process...

[carlos123]

...remember to always keep an updated backup of your htaccess file when using that method. That way if you lose your hosting or something nuts, you won't be scrambling to fix dead affiliate links all over the place. An obvious point as you should back up ALL files, but that one is often forgotten in the process...

An excellent point Lynn. One should backup everything on multiple media!

I always back up my .htaccess files since I develop everything locally on my computer (before I upload changes to my host) and normally keep multiple backups of all directories locally for every site I have or develop for clients.

Thanks for reminding us all of the importance of backups Lynn!

Carlos