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Cosmo
Forums Member
Joined: 16 Jan 2008
Posts: 2
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#1 · Posted: 16 Jan 2008 21:24
Greetings fellow entrepreneurs,
I'm so glad this forum exists, because I feel so totally alone in my quest to make a living in the online world. That being said, I have been studying the PL course for about 2 months now and am getting more knowledgeable, but many questions have arisen which I hope someone can help me with.
One of my interests is music and guitar playing. I think ideas in the air don't mean much, so I will talk freely. If I'm researching niches under "guitar" I get fairly high search volume, and saturated advertiser competition. That's a good thing from what I know about adsense revenues being higher. If I do a search on Google for "guitar" it comes back with 222,000,000 hits! I would say that was an incredibly popular keyword. Now to add another term to "guitar" in the plnrc in search of a unique niche, I get low to moderate search volume and NO advertiser competition. That means that adsense ads on my blog and/or website aren't gonna be paying enough to make it worthwhile. Am I getting confused on this? I mean high search volume and high competition is great for adsense revenue, but how the heck do I get traffic to MY site with so many guitar-based sites?
Let's say I decided to set up a blog around a niche that had some search volume, but little-no ad competition. Not only would I have a hard time writing daily articles based on that tiny niche, but how would the adsense ads be relevant to the topic? I mean if it were the "Hungarian minor mode guitar excellence blog" what relevant adsense ads could there be to possibly generate income?
If I decided to go with a blog built around guitar study/lessons/theory, etc., like so many other sites, could I ever get it high enough in the search results to see any adsense revenue? It feels like a catch 22.
If I find a niche with search volume, it looks like I would have to exploit it with a potentially expensive Adwords campaign instead of Adsense, 'cause the low competition means low commissions. Yes or no?
I've got lots of time on my hands and I'm bursting with enthusiasm, but it's frustrating not to know how to proceed.
Can anybody help me get this clear in my head?
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pcwork
Forums Member
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Posts: 1637
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#2 · Posted: 17 Jan 2008 09:45
Select a subject you are interested in, check if the CPC is decent and try to increase your traffic.
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bobskuitar
Forums Member
Joined: 17 Jan 2008
Posts: 2
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#3 · Posted: 17 Jan 2008 15:12
how do I post a blog and inject adsense into it. I love guitars to but I'm new to all of this . Where do I begin.
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1166
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#4 · Posted: 17 Jan 2008 20:32
Hi Cosmo,
Welcome to the forum. Yes, it can be difficult to decide on a niche.
Based on your love of guitars, etc., that is definitely a good option for you. I understand your concern about how broad or how narrow to go, especially if you are considering adsense as your only form of income.
First of all, I would recommend that you keep your options open. Yes, you can use adsense, but you can also join related affiliate programs, too. You still won't have to "handle product" but you can earn commissions when people are directed from your site to the product or service they are looking for.
Okay, back to the niche. Yes, if you go as broad as "guitars" you will probably have trouble generating enough traffic. It is not impossible, but very difficult. It would be better to go a bit more narrow. You don't have to go as narrow as "Hungarian minor mode guitar excellence blog"  to get the traffic.
Of all those millions of sites you saw, they are most likely not optimized properly. If you learn to build a content rich site, you will get ranked pretty high up there. Look at my insurance site. It is only a few months old, but I have a pretty good Alexa ranking compared to all the millions of sites about insurance who are my competition. No, I'm not "winning" the traffic war yet, but I will eventually make it worth while. Right now I'm getting about 25-50 visitors a day in a niche that is way too broad.
If I continue to add content, and secure more links, I will eventually be getting 100, then 200, then 500 visitors a day, and so forth.
I certainly don't say that to recommend you try to win the battle for the "guitar" niche. I'm just saying, sometimes a bit broader is feasible if you are willing to put in the time and effort, and have lots of patience.
In your case, I would go a bit more narrow - maybe classical guitars or, as you mentioned, guitar lessons, or something along those lines. Whichever aspect you find most appealing to write about.
If you build a good content rich site, you will get free targeted traffic. You may not be #1 in Google for your main search term, but you can get to #1 in Google for a lot of lesser related search terms. Then once you have those people on your site, they will navigate around to perhaps your pages that have higher value clicks. Do you see what I mean?
Have I rambled too much? I sometimes do that. I hope I haven't confused you.
As a final word of advice, I suggest you look at SBI (SiteBuildIt) if you are not an experienced web builder and understand the ins and outs of SEO, etc. Their site building system is set up to take all the really tricky bits out of the equation for you. That's who I use, and everyone who knows me also knows I'm completely sold on them.
Let me know if I can be of help in future.
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Cosmo
Forums Member
Joined: 16 Jan 2008
Posts: 2
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#5 · Posted: 18 Jan 2008 16:17
Thank you happywife. I read a lot of your helpful posts on other topics and have decided to sign up with SBI to get things rolling. I will still study and absorb the PL information, but SBI looks like it will help me get things rolling faster. There is so much to learn with the PL stuff that I'm afraid I'll burn out and lose enthusiasm if it takes me months to figure out all the setup and SEO stuff. If I sign up with SBI through your link will you get a referral commission?
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1166
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#6 · Posted: 18 Jan 2008 19:19
Yes, I would.  And I'd be very, very pleased. 
I promise you will love SBI. My best piece of advice is this - Tune out everything else for a little while and just follow the Action Guide. The distractions online are one of the greatest hindrances I think.
You will proceed much quicker with SBI because they already have everything "set up" for you. You just follow their instructions.
By the way, even though they have a fantastic forum at SBI with people much farther advanced than I am, I'm still always willing to help if you get stuck. (If I know the answer - ha ha). Once you are signed up, I'll give you my personal email so that you can ask questions directly without turning this forum into an SBI forum. Vishal might not be too pleased.
All the best. I'm excited for you. I just activated my third site yesterday, so I'm actually excited for both of us!
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jerzstyle00
Forums Member
Joined: 10 Jan 2008
Posts: 6
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#7 · Posted: 19 Jan 2008 14:02
happywife,
Isn't $300 bucks alittle costly for building your own website through SBI? I used godaddy.com a year ago and paid like $120 which included the software to help you build your site.
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wealthymarket
Forums Member
Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 59
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#8 · Posted: 19 Jan 2008 17:19
Honestly, if you're looking to set up a free website like what you're talking about, it may not hurt to go to blogger.com. It's VERY easy, the layout is clean, and everything is non-code oriented...oh, and free. lol Best place to start a blog for free if you ask me. Owned by Google...so I'm sure that they will spider it nicely for you.
PS Spidering simply means that they reach out to other sites and suck them up...thus increasing your ranking with the search engine. The higher you are in the search engine, the more hits you receive. Just my 2 cents.
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1166
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#9 · Posted: 19 Jan 2008 21:36
Quoting: jerzstyle00 Isn't $300 bucks alittle costly for building your own website through SBI? I used godaddy.com a year ago and paid like $120 which included the software to help you build your site.
If all you were getting was the same as what is provided by godaddy then yes, it would be costly. But SBI is a lot more than that.
You get the standard domain and hosting, of course, but you also get a step by step Action Guide, both written and video. You get fantastic brainstorming tools (incorporates wordtracker and others) for your keyword research, autoresponders, automatic search engine submissions for each new page built, an analyzer that checks each page before you submit it to be sure it is SEO'd properly (tells you how to fix it if it isn't), informs you automatically if you have any broken links, thorough tracking information, automatic content blogger when each page is added, etc.
I'm sure there is more that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head. I guess the best proof is in the pudding. Most SBI sites are in the top 1% of the Alexa ranked sites.
With only that $120 package you mentioned, without any additional tools, informational books, etc., how much free traffic do you get each day/month to that site you mentioned? For someone new to the online world of web building, it is very, very difficult to accomplish with a "normal" web package what you can accomplish with SBI.
Of course, SBI isn't for everyone. If you already know how to do all that needs to be done and you already have the tools to do it, then perhaps you wouldn't need SBI. I didn't know ANYTHING and definitely needed them. I am very happy with the value for dollar I received. I think I got a bargain!
And that is my 2 cents.
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moneyforgreene
Forums Member
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 60
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#10 · Posted: 20 Jan 2008 17:10
Cosmo - I hope you signed up through happywife! She knows what she's talking about. I started with PL but when it got to actually building a website, I was lost. I signed up for SBI and now I am on the right track! There is now a hand-holding plan to direct our enthusiasm!
jerzstyle00 - as happywife said, yes, it is more expensive than godaddy or others, but you get SO MUCH more for your money. I looked at going through another webhosting provider and am so glad I didn't. I've only been on board for a little over 2 weeks, but I have learned so much and the tools they provide are priceless. The other hosting companies didn't have this kind of support. If a person is experienced though, perhaps they would feel ok going the less expensive route.
happywife - thank you! I'm moving along nicely! And with confidence!
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1166
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#11 · Posted: 20 Jan 2008 17:17
Quoting: moneyforgreene happywife - thank you! I'm moving along nicely! And with confidence!
You're quite welcome. I am so happy for you. I know how good if feels to be able to forge ahead with some confidence that you are definitely on the right track and can actually understand and follow the instruction you are being given.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing your site when you are ready to "unveil" it.
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educa
Forums Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2008
Posts: 3
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#12 · Posted: 18 Apr 2008 01:21
Hi,
Im new to this site. Im wondering how you attach a website for advertising. Your chocolate product is nice too.
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1166
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#13 · Posted: 18 Apr 2008 01:55
educa: Im wondering how you attach a website for advertising.
I'm not sure what you mean by your question. Are you asking how you build a website to use for advertising? Or are you asking about putting your website in your signature ? Or something different?
If it's the first, I use SBI to build my sites, including the chocolate one (thanks for the kind words).
If it's the signature your asking about, just go up to the top and click on the link for your profile. You can create/edit your signature there and it will automatically be added to your posts.
If you have a different question, please clarify and we will try to explain.
Angie
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