Please review my site...

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if you would be able to review a site I put up about 3 months ago.

It's been a slow process, especially when you have a 2.5 year old and a new baby...:-)

This is the second blog I have ever created. I have learnt heaps from Lynns posts on ClickNewz and have incorporated it into this site, such as call to actions, sign offs etc.

The site is about 'Storage Shed Plans' and I have created articles all about building sheds etc...

The main thing I want to do is give people a non biased opinion of the shed plans that I have found, give them an honest review, so they then click on the affiliate links and purchase the plans.

I'm not too sure if I have done this too effectively though? The first post on the site is a 'sticky' post so it appears there all the time, as I am assuming that the people in this market really just want to find plans, they don't really want to learn all about sheds and building etc...although I have created a blog around the keywords to make sure that if people search for related longtail keyword phrases I have that covered.

I would also like your thoughts on my Video reviews of the 2 affiliate products I am promoting on the site... these can be found under the reviews link at the top of the page.

Also I'm not sure if I should make a squeeze page initially or a landing page with just my reviews, and then tack on the blog? I think maybe people seraching for shed plans just want to see what they can purchase, and not have to sift through a blog?

Also you will notice comments are turned off as i don't really want to create a community with this blog as I am not a professional shed builder and I go under a pen name on the site. I just want to help people find what they are looking for.

But then again perhaps activating comments would be a good idea???

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

There is just so much to learn and it's challenging to know whether one is on the right track.

My site is: http://www.storageshedplansguide.com

Thanks.:)

Hi,

Firstly, congrats on the new baby:)

My very first question- is the downloadable free ebook YOURS or are you promoting it for someone else? Are you using it to build your list?

Also, I would change up your logo- for a moment there I thought it might be a link to another part of the site- I didn't realize it was your logo!

Is it making you some $$ yet?

Good luck,

Ellen

I have to say that although this is not a product that would interest me right now, I really like your site. It is visually appealing and interesting. However, I would make it really clear how someone can opt-in to your email list. I don't see an opt-in box right on the site at the top and I think you really need one.

Hi Nathan, Ellen and AnnaLaura,

Thank you all for your feedback.

I'm actually considering selling this site now as I don't really feel passionate about it...it feels more like burden to me than a pleasurable one. Maybe that's becuase I haven't seen any results yet from it and I'm giving up too soon....???

Anyway Nathan, I thought i should leave the date stamp to make the site look current...when would it be a good idea to leave the date stamp on opposed to turning it off?

I'm a little confused as to why it took you so long to find out that Shed Plans Elite was what I wanted you to click on? It's in the PS footers on most posts....how could I be doing this more effectively? I thought an effective affiliate site was to recommend affiliate links to click on at the end of each post?

Also yes, there is a scroll bar on that page because it's an aframe store from Amazon and unfortunately I couldn't cutomize it to fit in the space on the page, as that was the smallest it could go. I may need to look for a different theme.

I'll be driving traffic through article marketing and forum threads...I haven't really done that as yet....unfortunately I can't really create trackbacks etc from other blogs as most of them are pretty bad in this niche, and they also seem to be promoting the same product as me...:-)

I am promoting primarily the Elite product, but I am also promoting another product as well depending on the post. The other product can be found on the review page. So I don't want to promote the elite product on every page.

Do you think my main page should be just an awesome landing page like a squeeze page, with a blog behind it?

Also I haven't created a opt in list yet, as i first wanted to see how much traffic I could get to the site without spending money on AWeber....I just don't have alot of money to spend at this point on the site.

Also with all the training i have done in IM, referring to Ellens question, i was told to have an H1 tage near the top of the page with the main keywords for the site, hence the H1 tag is 'Storage Shed Plans', as this will tell google that this is what the site is about and what keywords I want to rank for. So that makes the logo. I was also told the H1 tag is important for on page SEO on the index page.

But what I have seen on other sites is that some of you guys don't do this at all, but just have a graphic logo at the top of your pages. It just makes me think then that the most important part to rank well in Google is creating quality backlinks with the keyword in the anchor text that you are trying to rank for, and so you don't have to optimize your site over the top for the search engines to know what you are trying to rank for. Is this correct?

Sometimes this all just seems so confusing as to what to do and what not to do.

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Brian

"I'm actually considering selling this site now as I don't really feel passionate about it...it feels more like burden to me than a pleasurable one. Maybe that's because I haven't seen any results yet from it and I'm giving up too soon....???"

Yup! I agree with you. You are giving up too soon.

If you hop around from this to that you'll still be hopping in a few years time...

This site looks very good to me and if I can be interested in sheds you have done a brilliant job.

One detail - H1 tags don't matter much any more. The problem with most advice you read about SEO is that it is years out of date and plain wrong.

Where to get good quality SEO?

Right here at Lynn Terry's blog

And if you want personal help from a superaffilaite like Lynn consider joining her Mastermind group in the Elite Forum.

BTW you said you were puzzled that people did not realise that you wanted them to join your eliete program because you had it in all the footers...

The point is that your readers may not get down to the footer.

Good luck and keep going!

Alex

Thanks for the advice Alex..you have inspired me to stick with it...:-)

I've done training in IM, and I have read alot, and I just seem to be getting more confused the more I read and learn :)

Can I just clarify a few things:

1) You set up a site in a particular niche targeted around a main keyword phrase? Therefore the home page needs to be optimized for the keyword phrase. eg. Meta tags, description etc...

2) In order to rank in Google for that main keyword phrase, you need to create banklinks pointing to that main index page by using anchor text with those main keywords? Also you should vary the anchor text so it looks natural eg?: "storage shed plans" "wood storagte shed plans" "free storage shed plans"?

3) You should also create a post title with that main keyword phrase and possibly create backlinks to just that page as well as the main index page using the above links?

4) You should also target longtail keyword phrases by putting those phrases in the title of the post and creating content around those longtail keyword phrases. If you want to rank for those in the search engines, you need to create backlinks to those individual posts using the exact anchor text of the long tail keyword phrase?

5) Should I in every post put a graphic of the affiliate product I am trying to promote, so people will then know what I am trying to get them to click on, as well as putting a call to action in the footer of each post? is this overkill?

6) Should every post be geared to getting people to click on an affiliate product that I am promoting? Can it be a different affiliate products or is it best to stick to 1 or 2 products? (the reason i ask this is because I see Rosiland Gardners Roamsters site sell alot of different products).

In a nutshell, is SEO creating posts on keywords that people are looking for, and then promoting those posts by using the keywords as links through various marketing means such as article marketing, forum discussions etc...so then Google can rank you accordingly in the SERPs?


Am i on the right track here???? If someone could answer all of my questions, I would be soooooooooo happy....:-) This could also help heaps of other people reading this forum post.

Cheers.....:-)

Brian

I think what you have written above is a good description of the process of SEO promotion of your site.

Not every post on your blog should too salesy - a blog is a blog and not a sales page, so it can have discussions, book reviews, news items etc

Subscribe to http://www.clicknewz.com/ and you'll see what I mean

A lot of people here in the forum are planning their next year and it may help you get some perspective if you do some similar planning

All The Best

Alex

Nathan -

Just found your blog and RT'd your quote. :)
http://twitter.com/NicoleDean/status/6584275212

I can see why your mom thinks you're a celebrity. You're kinda cool!
N

You're right on target, Brian ;)

And don't give up - you've invested too much to ditch the site now!

I do like to put images in each post, and those images should be made clickable with the link. You want to mention the affiliate link a few times within the page/post - clickable images, within the content, and as the call to action at the end as well.

Your question on informational searches... you'll enjoy this discussion on that:
http://www.clicknewz.com/2174/affili...traffic-sales/

I noticed you have Google Ads on the site. This promotes your competition and takes your visitors away from YOUR offer. I would remove it. I rare put Adsense on an affiliate site.

It's time to start link-building and promoting. Get some rankings and traffic, and you'll fall in love with this project all over again!