Hello Folks. Haven't been around for a while, just been plugging away. This is really a question for the folks who've been doing this a while. I've been at it for a year and a half, and although, I expected it to be a slow but steady process, I can't help but ask now: how slow? So I've really put myself into creating a content rich site, built for SEO (to the best of my ablilities). My site so far is about eighty pages, I have a subscription box for growing my list (about 140 so far), I have a free report I've written and give away upon subscription. I send out a weekly newsletter, I post in forums, I social bookmark all my new material, I write targetted articles and post to four different ezine directories, I send out bonuses when people purchase (both my report and bonus are also designed for viral marketing), I have posted to directories and I update my site pretty regularly. Oh the other thing, at one point I was indexed in Google, and then I tried something else with my keywords and now I am not indexed with Google and I can't figure that one out either. Nor have I managed to get indexed with DMOZ. I use my own hosting providers traffic logs to monitor my traffic and I also use google analytics. Now according to my host logs, I have about 180 pages viewed a day, and according to my google analytics I have about 30 (on average) unique visitors a day. What I don't get, is that my traffic doesn't really seem to be growing very well. I would have thought the more I put out the more traffic I would gain. But it really doesn't seem to be going that way, and I can't figure it out. The other thing is, I am not selling a lot either. About once a week. I am so far selling affiliate stuff and I don't know if this is part of the problem or not? The whole thing just seems to have hit a plateau. I am confounded, I don't really know what to think. Its all a bit disheartening I must say. Any thoughts? This is my site by the way www.positivemindstates.com
Hi Birdgirl, I remember you and your site. Great to see you back again. Sorry you are distressed about your perceived lack of success. On the bright side of life, you have shown by your post here on the forum that you know your stuff well and you have carefully considered things. That's more than most can say so at least take heart in knowing you've done much of your homework properly A quick tip about your Adsense layout on your article pages. You'll do better if you set it up like Vishal has it. His layout is picture perfect. For the number of visitors, your number of sales per week is okay. It's at the absolute low end of what I would consider successful, but it is in fact adequate and reasonably normal. A few questions first: When was the site first indexed in Google? I need to know how long people have been able to find it on there. How many pages is it? How many pages do you add each week and how consistent have you been at doing it that way? How high exactly do you rank on your key phrases on Google - including which Google SERP and position on page? Are the phrases in fairly high demand? How did you determine this? What percentage of your traffic is strictly from Google? What are your other traffic sources? I can give you a little more input once I know the answers to these list items. Regards, ~Newbie Shield~
wow nice site! You've come a long way! How large is the market for what you are selling? Have you considered moving onto another website in a different niche? I'd suggest don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Hi birdgirl, Nice site! You have a niche that I'm personally very interested in (not as a niche, but the subject matter). I hope there is a broad enough market out there for you. Good luck!
It is quite normal to have a slump, hump, plateau or whatever you'd like to call it around your first year - give or take a few months. Strangely, when I renew my domain, I generally have gotten a jump in traffic that is like a step up to another level. From what I've read from other webmasters, that's quite normal. If you can just persevere over the hump, you'll be glad you did. As NS said, it sounds like you are doing the right things for long term success.
Interesting site! I'm curious to know the details of your log files but what I suggest is determine what direction you want to take with your site and focus on one direction. I say this because I see Amazon ads, affiliate banner, and a box asking for donation. Find out who are hitting your site and what are they looking for then give it to them. Look at the majority of your traffic. I'm guessing most people are from the UK? I'm asking that because your Amazon UK ads. If not I would do something about that. Are people coming to your site interested in reading about the subject or are they looking for of self-improvement products? If your objective is to have them buy something so the information you give them has to move them in that direction. Make recommendations along the way or even write a short review. Don't mix that with free stuff you're giving away unless the free stuff compliments what you're recommending and only comes as a bonus to buyers. If you are simply giving away information then consider other income channels such as selling advertising space. It's good to know how your site ranks, who goes to your site, how they got there and where they came from. All that is good but it won't tell you the performance of your marketing efforts and sales process. For that, you will need some sort of split-testing. Cater to people's desire... Mediation, Brain Entrainment, Positive Mind States, Thought Power, Mind Power....
Thank you everyone for all your responses. Will do my best here to answer all your questions. First to answer you Newbie Shield: A few questions first: Q When was the site first indexed in Google? I need to know how long people have been able to find it on there. I am not really sure, sometime late last year if I recall properly. Now it is not indexed and I think it migh be because I might have inadvertenly stuffed my meta tags with keywords. After I did that, things went down. Q How many pages is it? 62 so far. I also have a few pages that are redirects so that you don't see the affiliate link. QHow many pages do you add each week and how consistent have you been at doing it that way? Well I've slowed down lately. Used to be at least one a week, now I am publishing more articles as it seemed I wasn't gaining by adding more to the site? Q How high exactly do you rank on your key phrases on Google - including which Google SERP and position on page? I get onto the third page with some phrases in about fifth place. Are the phrases in fairly high demand? How did you determine this? I think this might be a week point. When I choose this niche it was when I was first learning and still getting to grips with keyword and finding viable markets. In fact, I feel I still am. What percentage of your traffic is strictly from Google? 36% from Google, with a total of 48% being from all search engines. What are your other traffic sources? Niche directory listings, forums, direct, ezine articles, blogging, facebook, and syndicated articles from what I can tell. Regarding the placement of Vishal's adsense, not sure where I can view this? Hope this helps. To answer you Makemoneyonline: I have started another site, but just. I am thinking, as you have suggested, to move on from this one. The other idea I had was to convert it into a ten page site and use the rest of the content for articles and postings to drive traffic to it, since DMOZ and Google don't seem interested in indexing it. I think there is quite a bit of competition in this niche and I don't believe the market is that big to get a share? To answer you 040107 Actually most of my traffic are not from the UK, mostly it is from the States, Australia, Canada, India, UK and a bit of Europe. You had mentioned if it is not from the UK, you'd do something about that. Please explain. Another thing I am not sure how to find out exactly is who is coming to my site. I can tell a bit where they are coming from, but who? It is a mystery to me, haven't figured this part out. How do I do that? Regarding the binaural recordings link, do you mean the entrainment recordings link? The link that you are directed to when you click on the brainwave image? If so, you think it better if I send directly to the affiliate site? Like I'd mentioned, I am thinking of reconfiguring this site to make it smaller and to concentrate on one thing, and use the other stuff for other things, and there is also the possibility of consolidating it with some other stuff I've written and make it into an ebook. Anyway, I need to get some wind in my sails with this, cause its feeling a bit motionless in the water. Thank you once again one and all for taking the time, and being so supportive. Birdgirl
I use www.statcounter.com to see who is going to my website. It tells you the keywords that they used, where they are coming from, etc. Its really good, you just have to install a piece of code onto your pages and it will begin tracking.
040107, That was excellent input. I was going to mention some similar stuff but you more than covered it. Way to go, you really know your stuff! birdgirl, I looked at the source code for your home page. Right below the ending head tag, you have two opening body tags. The first one - the one with the color code - is open. There is no closing greater than sign (right facing arrow) is missing. Just happened to notice it. To 040107's excellent feedback, I might add that you have your informational approach down well. But, consider going beyond that to make your site kinda mystical. While info is great for sites that focus on facts such as medical sites and Information Technology sites, it would be better in your case to add a little flavor beyond the info feel of the site. You might add a little color to your writing style - especially since it is about meditation type stuff. Don't go overboard, but make your writing an experience in itself. As it stands, though it is good in a factual kind of way, it isn't really very magical or compelling. For example, on your home page you refer to your domain as a "site". It would be better if you called it a "Virtual Landscape" or similar. Okay, that isn't all that great either, but it's better than "site". You should come up with your own special name for it. Just tweak a few sentences here and there on each page but don't get too carried away since you aren't quite telling a bedtime story to a child As 040107 suggested, focusing on benefits and your own personal experience with your products would make a world of difference. That should help with reputation, stickiness, return visitors, and conversions. I also noticed that you are trying to rank for too many keywords on your individual pages - at least on your home page. I don't have time to check the other pages. Limit yourself to a max of three keyword phrases per page. I saw that you are trying to rank for phrases that have very high competition. It may take more than two years to rank well for phrases such as: mind power, meditation, manifesting, thought power, and subconscious. Even brain entrainment is moderately tough to rank for but your site may be just old enough and have enough PR and content to do well with that one. You might optimize for that alone on your home page. It's okay to use the other phrases on sub pages but don't expect to rank for them for a long time - if ever. I'd use them within a long tail on your sub pages rather than alone. If you change your meta title tags or even your meta description tags, Google will likely push you way down in the results or put you in the sandbox. That may be something you will have to live with if it happens and it may be worth it. Google does this so we don't get carried away with gaming the system via constant on page SEO tweaks. I'm all in favor of Google doing it this way. Lesson is to get it right by doing enough proper research the first time around. You've got back links and domain age going so I'm not sure that it would be worth it to migrate your stuff to a different domain. Then again, if you do decide to migrate, you'll have to rewrite everything or you won't get indexed since your current site is credited by Google as the original source. Furthermore, if you should migrate and you want to use related domain names and a related title for your home page, you might consider something like: Peaceful Mind, Meditation Mind, Positive Vibes, Staying Positive. All of these have low competition and reasonable traffic potential if you can get listed high. Add a little magic to your descriptions while you're at it or you won't draw nearly as many visitors as you are able. I'll respond a bit to your most recent reply: Again, you're doing reasonably well for how long you've had your site up and for how many viewable pages you have. I'd consider doing a similar website with similar (but rewritten) pages on a new domain. Don't just cut/paste because you won't get indexed. Then again you might just tweak your existing domain. A page a week is fairly good. I'd consistently do at least two pages a week at minimum. If you have read your books and used your products, you're visitors will sense this because you will be able to speak from the heart and your authority will also naturally shine through much of your writing. You can also continue to learn from sites similar to yours. This will also give you ideas for new pages. Know your topics well and continue in your learning. Only write articles for your very best pages and stick to the very best directories, forums, 2.0 sites such as Squidoo, Hub Pages, and the most popular blogs. True Webmasters who know how much is involved with being a webmaster know they don't have time to mess with additional article sites. There are a gazillion things to do ever day. Make your efforts count! Don't spread yourself too thin. Third page of results is sorta good but you want to be on the first page and eventually within the top three for key phrases on at least some of your pages. That will help tremendously with your traffic. Your SE traffic percentage in comparison to other traffic sources is excellent! Vishal's Adsense is here on this forum. Can you see it? The best part is the three to four ads right near the top in a horizontal line. I bet they perform well. He also has a few other spots. Can you please clarify one of your statements? You said "I also have a few pages that are redirects so that you don't see the affiliate link." What do you mean by this? Again, though it's frustrating to be in your situation, you have learned a great deal and have demonstrated that you know quite a bit. Try to be happy about that rather than getting too caught up in problems and having to do it over. Would you mind telling folks how important it is to understand the fundamentals well to avoid unnecessary difficulties? Everyone seems overly tempted to put the cart before the horse when it should be the other way around. Good fundamentals, proper research, and playing around with free hosting for a while to get some experience is a must in my book or we end up full of regrets. A few comments about your personal difficulties in this matter would help a lot of people and save them from troubles Let me say it one last time - you know a lot more than you might think. I have a lot of confidence in you. Try not to get too bummed out and good luck with fixing your current site and with developing your new site. Now that you know more about keyword research and meta tags, you'll do much better. You have a nice layout. The colors are attractive. Just add a little personality to your writing - a little flavor in addition to straight facts. Read 040107's input once more. It's full of valuable stuff. Glad that you're off to a fresh start with you new domain. Good luck! ~Newbie Shield~
Thank you once again Newbie Shield for all the time and effort you took to write and share your knowledge. And thank you makemoneyonline for your recommendation. Having received such a supportive response has been very helpful, I understand a little bit better again, and feel a little resurgence of enthusiasm. There is so much to know. And I am getting a better sense of how long it takes for things to get recognised by the search engines. If you would please Newbie Shield, there are a few things I would be grateful if you would clarify as follows: RE: Keywords "I'd use them within a long tail on your sub pages rather than alone." By a long tail, do you mean a list of keywords in the meta tag? I am a little confused. I thought that it is best to only put three in at most? RE: If you change your meta title tags or even your meta description tags, Google will likely push you way down in the results or put you in the sandbox. That may be something you will have to live with if it happens and it may be worth it. I never realised this. I thought Google liked to see changes / updates happening? So if I ever change my meta tags, I lose my ranking. Could this be why I am no longer indexed? Will Google re-index me eventually? "in the sand box" Why might it be worth it? If more searchers find me? But how so, won't I be lower in the rankings, therefore harder to find? RE: Then again, if you do decide to migrate, you'll have to rewrite everything or you won't get indexed since your current site is credited by Google as the original source. What I was thinking of doing was to take a bunch of the pages down from the original site and putting them somewhere else. But, if I a understand you correctly, Google still won't index the new site because of where the content came from, even if it no longer exists there? RE: "I also have a few pages that are redirects so that you don't see the affiliate link." What do you mean by this? When they click on the link to the affiliate site, it looks like it is going to a page within my site (if you look at the browser status bar). It does, but you never see it, because it immediately redirects to the affiliate link. RE: A few comments about your personal difficulties in this matter would help a lot of people and save them from troubles. Not to be off putting ... but where to begin.... I came into this, with the expectation that it might take about three years to really see it working. I started a year and a half ago, but strictly speaking I've only really been dedicated for about a year and even then not full time - though its getting closer. I think, probably like most, when I got into this, I thought it was going to be a bit of work, but once done, relativley 'easy' money would flow. Of course everything is easy, once you know how, but knowing how, that is the hard, time consuming, part. I never realised what I was getting into when I decided to do this. Learning how to market and earn a living online requires a gutsy kind of commitment. You can't stop learning or you're left behind. You have to be patient - very patient and persistent, persistent, persistent, you have to be disciplined and prepared to make mistakes. You have to be willing to try and try again. When I first started out, I went through all the Profit Lance material and did all of the excercises. I had the advantage of knowing how to put a website together and how to publish it. I thought I was ready. I did do research on keywords, went through all the steps, but I think, at least for me, learning to identify the best keywords, and understanding how to use them for the best result takes time. I'm still learing how to pick a good market. As well as doing keyword research, I based my market choice on a strong interest, something that I knew I wouldn't grow tired of and could produce enough content for. The down side is, its not a big market from what I can tell, and there is a lot of competition relative to its size. As for doing things in the right order, for example not putting adsense on the site straight away, give it a couple of months, I did this, and I did get indexed with Google. But I'm not indexed now, because (I think) I stuffed my meta tags with too many keywords. Why did I do this, you might be asking? I was sent a link to a site of a woman who has high traffic and has been doing this for about the same time as me. She worked for Amazon prior to this, so I thought she must know a few good things about internet marketing that I didn't. I looked at her source and saw that she had about fifty words or more in her meta tags, and she had laid it out in a different way, so I basically copied what she did, and waited. And what happened was my traffic went way down as did my sales, and of course I discovered I was no longer indexed with Google either. So I changed everything back, and it has taken about two months to get my traffic back to where it was. This is one example of learning from a mistake. Ouch! I have records of my sales to observe their patterns, and I can see that sales are increasing. I think this is good to do, because sometimes what you think is happening is not what is happening. Not until I created a record of all my sales, did I realise they are growing, albeit slowly. Originally my positivemindstates.com site was to be a content site. But now I am reconsidering. The site has turned into a kind of umbrella site that explores different aspects and techniques of positive mental reconditioning and so has naturally grown to have different inter related subsections. I am now thinking of trying a different approach and taking all that I have in the positive mind states site and reparcelling it into smaller subject specific sites with related products. I am even thinking of taking the material and making it into an ebook with its own dedicated site. I was thinking that the positive mind states site could serve as a one page mini hub for all the other sites and this way, I could direct traffic from it. But from what Newbie Sheild has shared, I might not be able to do this, if Google won't recognise my content ...? Yet another dilemma. Anyway this is the result of my efforts so far. It might seem like I did not plan it sufficiently. Its really been a learning project and so came about in an organic sort of a way. It has some measure of success, now I am trying to figure out how to make it have more, while at the same time freeing myself to develop other things. I think it is good advice from makemoneyonline to diversify one's online portfolio. This next time around, the odds are in my favour that I will do better again. And again, I want to say a mighty Thank You to all of you who have posted a reply to this thread and been so supportive, I realise having a little bit more understanding can make a big difference. To all those who are a year behind me. Take the long view on the long tail, its a bit of a ride, but when you know how, its extremely satisfying. I am not there yet, but I can tell you, its sweet when I do make the sale. Birdgirl
birdgirl: RE: Keywords "I'd use them within a long tail on your sub pages rather than alone." By a long tail, do you mean a list of keywords in the meta tag? I am a little confused. I thought that it is best to only put three in at most? Hi Birdgirl, Beginning of Clarification: I mean to use long tails for every area rather than highly competitive single word or two word phrases - to have an easier time ranking higher. Yes, I wouldn't put more than three in either the meta keyword tag, meta title tag, or any single heading. Some folks make the mistake of over stuffing these areas and trying to rank for too many phrases on a given page. Three is the max I would recommend but you might consider only trying for one phrase until you rank high with it before you add one or two more. birdgirl: RE: If you change your meta title tags or even your meta description tags, Google will likely push you way down in the results or put you in the sandbox. That may be something you will have to live with if it happens and it may be worth it. I never realised this. I thought Google liked to see changes / updates happening? So if I ever change my meta tags, I lose my ranking. Could this be why I am no longer indexed? Will Google re-index me eventually? "in the sand box" Why might it be worth it? If more searchers find me? But how so, won't I be lower in the rankings, therefore harder to find? Sandboxing is an anti-spam measure that Google uses because so many try to over-game the system. Yes, Google like fresh content but when you change your meta tags, especially the meta title tags, you get reevaluated (sandboxed for indexing evaluation). It can even happen if you change body text. I'm saying not to panic if you do it and find yourself sandboxed since that is to be expected. Update a page only if you really need to else folks won't see you in the SERPs for a time. Though Google "ignores" meta keyword tags for the most part, including a ton of these tags on any given page is viewed as spammy and may result in a penalty - perhaps even a sandboxing. I wouldn't use more than three. In and out of the sandbox is part of the game and nothing to worry about. To pull yourself out, you create back links from new articles off site...a Squidoo lens, a piece at Ezine Articles, where ever. Essentially, "fresh content" means new pages rather than changes to existing pages. That's what Google likes to see. birdgirl: RE: Then again, if you do decide to migrate, you'll have to rewrite everything or you won't get indexed since your current site is credited by Google as the original source. What I was thinking of doing was to take a bunch of the pages down from the original site and putting them somewhere else. But, if I a understand you correctly, Google still won't index the new site because of where the content came from, even if it no longer exists there? Correct. It would be duplicate content and only the original source gets credited with authorship. I suggest leaving your pages on the original site. You can rewrite them if you wish to place similar pages on your new site. Just don't copy/paste them or simply migrate them as is or you won't get them indexed again. Anything less than transparent, especially if it is deceptive, is highly subject to penalization by Google. This includes "tricky" redirects. I recommend against this practice. You do what ever you want. If you do enough of these, you may get sandboxed indefinitely. End of Clarification. Feedback on your experience: Outstanding story! That will certainly help a lot of folks avoid costly errors and to head in the right direction. Your personal experience is full of priceless advice and I am grateful that you took the time to share it with the community. You are at a level where I can actually provide specific help rather than to just tell you to study the fundamentals. I spent so much time on you because I know you have been working very hard and try to figure out things for yourself. I am happy to help those who make a strong effort and who have tried very hard on their own before asking for help. I felt the same way at all four of my colleges and I frequently helped those who tried as you have. You're doing exceptionally well and things will work out for you because of you great attitude and hard work. Keep on your path. I'm glad that everything is coming together so nicely for you and you really deserve to succeed. Let me know if you have any other difficulties and I will be glad to help out. I'm rooting for you! ~Newbie Shield~
Newbie Shield, Great stuff! Birdgirl... You may want to change the Amazon ad to Amazon.com instead of Amazon.uk.co to cater to the biggest group of your site visitors who are from the US and not the UK. Your redirect link is coded wrong so it will never redirect to the merchant's page. Instead users will be redirect to a 404 Error page on your site. The link is at the top on the index page.... Control Your Brainwave Frequencies You're missing two forward "//" slashes after the "http:" in the meta-refresh code.
Thank you 040107 I appreciate your feedback. What I don't understand is your comment regarding the redirect page: "Control Your Brainwave Frequencies". I've looked at the code and don't see the missing // also it does take me to the correct page. Perhaps I am misunderstanding? Appreciate you taking the time to help. Birdgirl
Hey Birdgirl: I'd like to offer a little suggestion... Check if there's any hot selling product in your niche? You can search it from:- Amazon best seller eBay Pulse Or your niche forum then... write genuine review of this product, then SEO' the product names. If it is a hot product, there will be people who is actively seeking for related reviews. If you write a decent review, they will buy from your link. On the other hand... If you find that a hot product is lower than your expection, you can still write the review. Explain that why you don't recommend it, and endorse another product which you think is the best alternative (with your aff link , of course This should get some creative juices flowing...
Thank you so much everyone. I am truly touched by your comments Newbie Shield. Because of all the time and effort you have all taken to answer my post, I feel like I have made some very good progress on the learning curve. I have in fact gone back to Profit Lance and reread a lot of stuff, particularly the part about Keywords and I would highly recommend to anyone who is still relatively new, a bit disheartened or frustrated to go over the material again. I found I got a whole lot more out of it again and I feel a lot more confident about finding niches and making some money. Of course I realise it will take time, but I expect to see some results a bit faster again because I understand so much more. I think I was at the point where you either stick it out, or give up and thanks to all the help on this forum it has made me rethink things and to figure out how to work smarter at it. For all of you who are new to this, I think it is important to realise that this game takes time to get good at. Mike says it himself, we all hit walls sometimes, but just keep going. Eventually one has to figure it out. Will report back next year. Wishing you all a happy and more prosperous one.
Hi BirdGirl, You're welcome and I'm glad that you are back into it full-force. I'm also glad that you've hit a new level of understanding. birdgirl: I think I was at the point where you either stick it out, or give up and thanks to all the help on this forum it has made me rethink things and to figure out how to work smarter at it. For all of you who are new to this, I think it is important to realise that this game takes time to get good at. Mike says it himself, we all hit walls sometimes, but just keep going. Eventually one has to figure it out. I'd say that's very perceptive and that you've given some good tips. A Happy and prosperous New Year to you as well, ~Newbie Shield~
Birdgirl, If it's working for you then it's fine but... I'm using Firefox and it's not redirecting. Because of the missing colon, it's bringing up http://www.positivemindstates.com/cgraycelt.isis77.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=36916052 When I use IExplorer, it redirects but to a 404 error page on the merchant's site. So either way, you're screwed. Unless users are able to see the sales page, you're probably won't make any sales. Good luck!
040107 040107: You're missing two forward "//" slashes after the "http:" in the meta-refresh code. Found it. Thank You. I don't quite get why I was still getting the page - cleared my cache, but still got it? I was a bit confused, only after I reread your post more carefully did I realise it was the refresh meta tag. Anyway, I've fixed it now and it seems to be working. If you wouldn't mind, would you please see if it is working for you now too? By the way, how were you able to tell it was in the refresh code in the redirect page? Everytime I click on that link I never get a chance to see it, or check out the code. Oh, maybe it was different for you, because it didn't work, you could see it? Bit of a mystery why I did get it. Best, Birdgirl
