Let it not be forgotten that this site is all about traffic. It is my experiment to see if I can drive qualified traffic to my website and to see how long it will take. Therefore, I thought that I would take a look at my webstats to see where I stood and I noticed that I had not received any search engine traffic. I then took a quick peak on Google and noticed that my site has not even been indexed yet. I am a little frustrated about this finding because I have already had the domain for a few years now and it was an expired domain name so I had expected it to at least be indexed in Google. Until I get the site indexed I can forget any traffic coming straight from Google.

This little dilemma could set me back some valuable time. Now, I have to take the time to figure out why the site is not indexed and fix the problem. This could take more than a few weeks to get the site indexed and the fact that it has been around this long without being indexed scares me a little too. Maybe there is some weird unknown thing that is causing the problem and I will never get it indexed, but that is probably just my paranoia talking.

I also want to mention that I am getting a little used to writing my posts with my iPhone, I know it is not as quick as my laptop but it is somewhat relaxing because I can take my iPhone anywhere and save my post in my local drafts and upload it whenever I wish.

Well, I geuss that’s all for now.

A while back I learned of  a neat trick. Rather than try to create your own content you could get a list of domain names that were about to expire and find one amongst them that actually used to be something. There are all kinds of ways to do some checking on other domain names but basically I just look for names that have a lot of backlinks connected to them.

When I first learned of the expired domain trick, I used to go to a site called snapcheck.com. This used to be a free site but has since started charging $50 per month for the service. Another site that I have heard of that is supposed to be quite poular is freshdrop.net and they only charge $40 per month. I have checked them both out and definately prefer snapcheck.com they had a much easier and understandable navigation that I really enjoyed.

As I mentioned, the reason I would subscribe to these sites is to find a domain name that is about to become available that used to have traffic. In all I think that I may have purchased 3 or 4 domain names from these services. I purchased 1 winner that consistantly nets $20 to $30 per month in ad revenue, 1 with mediocre results (maybe $4 or $5) per month, and a couple of duds (this domain name was one of them) that never really produced much of anything.

My feelings about the whole experience is that I truly do enjoy finding a nice little gem every once in a while, but I have never made as much off of any of these domains as I have from my own personal names that I started myself and applies some good SEO to the site.

My ultimate goal would be to purchase a quality domain that already has traffic and start an actual blog with new fresh content, that would probably pay the best. The problem with choosing an expiring domain is that you can’t really choose the niche so you end up with a domain name focussed on a weird subject that you don’t have any interest in. Good luck adding frsh content to these sites in the future.

This website is coming together nicely. I have the initial layout and style chosen, I have the niche specified, and I am even keeping up with fresh content. From a Search Engine Marketers point of view, I think that I am off to a good start. My concern now is, how am I going to get more traffic and how much work will it take? I know the basics of SEO and all that I ever think of when I take on a new SEO project is how much time it will take to do it properly. My only rule (at least for this site) is that I am looking to bring qualified traffic to this website. To keep up with my goal, the only way that I can think of to drive qualified traffic is through good old fashioned Search Engine Optimization. If nothing else, a good SEO campaign requires time and effort.

One thing that I have noticed is that applying good SEO tactics into my site isn’t that hard, it’s just time consuming. I read somebodies advice online once that said that you should be able to pump out 50 articles per day without too much trouble. My experience has been that I find it very painful just to get through one article per day let alone 50. The thought alone scares me, trying to write several 300 to 800 word articles on a daily basis. Who can do that?

Now, I will tell you what motivated me. I have several websites and I have learned a good deal from all of these websites. I think the most important thing that I have learned is that Internet traffic does not just come out of nowhere. It may, at times, depending on the domain name, get infrequent spikes in traffic. But to get a choice domain name these days that will actually provide you with free traffic with no effort? These days it will cost you and cost you a lot.

Gone are the days when you could put up a new site, add a few keywords and meta tags, and wallah traffic would appear. Now, even the savviest of web experts have a tough time finding that sweet spot that will give a large payout for just a little effort.

I am in this because I have seen for myself how a $7 domain name can turn into a steady income of about $20 to $200 per month per site and this is just off Google ads alone. I have heard way better stories from others that are involved with all kinds of other affiliate programs. The only think that I can see that I lack is the ability to come up with the fresh content that will drive the traffic to my sites.

Another reason I started this site was to provide me a training ground to motivate myself to write. Post number 3, that’s a record for me.

You will notice that I created this site (this time) in WordPress. Also, rather than reinvent the wheel I decided to go with a free WordPress template that I found online. So, to answer my own question if WordPress is really that good. I have to start by saying it is pretty nice having so many quality free options available.

Part of the reason I chose WordPress to run this site is because I have heard so many good things about it from an SEO perspective. I have read many posts online about people raving about the quality of site that the have put out with WordPress. Normally I use standard HTML and PHP and I do all of the designing and maintaining myself. WordPress incorporates all of the available Web 2.0 technologies right in the package, and whatever is not included is available via a plugin.

From a web design point of view I sometimes find WordPress a little cumbersome. There are so many pieces to some of these templates that I can sometimes get very lost just trying to make a few minor adjustments to an exsisting template. This time I chose a template that I hope will be able to grow with me without too much tweeking.

There seem to be a lot of options available within WordPress to really get your site working right. I really enjoy the fact that I can easily add and subtract options from my site and I think that Google enjoys the updates and the fresh toys that can be added and deleted without too much effort. Actually, I kind of take that back. Google just loves sites that are constantly updated with fresh content, Wordpress just makes it easy to add that fresh content to your site. Unfortunately, it is the fresh content that is the hard part to come up with, but I have seen first hand what fresh content can do for the traffic of a website so I am presently all for it.

So I guess my overall opinion is that WordPress (so far) really is that good and I do plan to give it my best shot.

As my first entry into this blog I am sorry to report that I am typing away on my iPhone trying to get this in. My current setup is less than stellar because I have to type in what I call “portrait” mode. The application that I am using to get this in does not display the keyboard in landscape mode so I have to trudge along this way.

Anyway, I will start this by declaring my purpose for creating this blog. I consider myself an Internet entrepreneur and I am always coming up with new ways to earn a little extra income on the side. The major downside that I have discovered is that in order to make ANY kind of income online you need to provide relevant content that will both drive traffic to your site and sell a product at the same time. When you first hear the term “content is king”, you don’t really think that it can be that difficult writing info down into a blog. But when you actually try doing it, it’s a whole other story. Over the years I have made an attempt at creating several blogs but have never had much success with any of them, primarily due to my inability to sit down and actually write my own original content. That leads to one of the reasons that I created this blog in particular. I have decided that if I need to create original content on a regular basis I may as well try it on a subject that I have an interest in, and that would be, making money online.

I have a lot of experience at earning an online income but the whole nature of the Internet is constantly changing so this requires a consistent effort on my part to keep up with the times. I am hoping that this blog will actually inspire me to get going.

Until next time…