Share Your Developed Business(s), Goals, Ambitions, Etc.

[hopkism]

This thread was inspired in large part by the absence of threads in this forum. We have domain names and we have creativity. Why not create businesses and employ ourselves? Why don't we critique and offer advice to the other users businesses?

Business: Youthful Investor

Goals: Develop an investing blog that targets twenty something readers and potential investors.

Ambitions for the Future: Expand beyond just a blog and discover ways to introduce a product or service that readers will buy.

Success: Helped give myself better respect in resume building and networking.

First page rankings in Google for several keywords and specific posts.

Weaknesses: Making money but not profitable yet. I have been told it takes on average about 5-8 months for most blogs to be profitable.

Not catching on as viral yet.

Another problem I have had is underestimating the amount of time it takes to blog regularly. I have been only able to post once or twice a week due to other constraints.

Biggest Surprise: Facebook has been the slowest and least successful of social media to catch on. Another thing has been how difficult it has been to integrate affiliate marketing properly. The balance is difficult.


Join me in listing your business and sharing some of your ups and downs.

 

[matt_bodis]

What is the blog about?

 

[enlytend]

Another problem I have had is underestimating the amount of time it takes to blog regularly. I have been only able to post once or twice a week due to other constraints.

Time constraints and time management are a big problem for ANY business. There are only so many hours in a day.

Have you tried taking a weekend to write a bunch of blog posts on "evergreen" topics in advance? Then you can release them over the course of the next several weeks (or save them for when you don't have time to blog.)

2 posts a week is not a bad number to shoot for (unless you're doing a news/current events type blog.) If you try to force yourself to write when you don't have time, quality will suffer (as will your readers!) Once your blog attains some critical mass, you may be able to attract guest bloggers.

The other thing is (if you're not doing this already) learning to MANAGE the time you have. For most of us, its the little 2-3 minute distractions that do the most damage . If you can "schedule" those distractions to certain time(s) of your day and stick to your schedule you'll find time you never knew you had.

Quick affiliate marketing tip: I see the affiliate ads you have on your blog. Instead of just posting banners, why not blog about them (can be something about that product, OR just write about that type of service/product) and include text links in your blog posts?

Why not create businesses and employ ourselves?

PS - I did exactly that several years ago, following a corporate merger/mass layoff. It's not easy and it's not for everyone, but I guarantee you there's never a dull moment!

 

[hopkism]

Time constraints and time management are a big problem for ANY business. There are only so many hours in a day.

Have you tried taking a weekend to write a bunch of blog posts on "evergreen" topics in advance? Then you can release them over the course of the next several weeks (or save them for when you don't have time to blog.)

2 posts a week is not a bad number to shoot for (unless you're doing a news/current events type blog.) If you try to force yourself to write when you don't have time, quality will suffer (as will your readers!) Once your blog attains some critical mass, you may be able to attract guest bloggers.

The other thing is (if you're not doing this already) learning to MANAGE the time you have. For most of us, its the little 2-3 minute distractions that do the most damage . If you can "schedule" those distractions to certain time(s) of your day and stick to your schedule you'll find time you never knew you had.

Quick affiliate marketing tip: I see the affiliate ads you have on your blog. Instead of just posting banners, why not blog about them (can be something about that product, OR just write about that type of service/product) and include text links in your blog posts?


PS - I did exactly that several years ago, following a corporate merger/mass layoff. It's not easy and it's not for everyone, but I guarantee you there's never a dull moment!

Thanks for the tips. I really appreciate these. In the little time since originally writing this post a lot has changed. I am now PR2 and getting far more and consistent daily unique visitors - most of them from Google keywords.

You are right about article writing. I have taken a far better approach to it. On the weekend when I am highly motivated I can put together several really great articles and just put them in as I like. Signing up for a guest blogging service has saved so much time as well and allowed a lot more traffic to my blog. I have actually had to turn away potential writers. 3 days a week is comfortable now.

I am going to stick with affiliate marketing now. Adsense is not very attractive and I want to maintain some professionalism to this site. Besides that the website was declined when I first applied. Not sure if it is worth it now.
You are right though, some text link ads will be quite helpful too I think.

Now I am just working on trying to get a further reach in traffic. Search has been working well and social media has been slow to take off besides StumbleUpon.

 

[enlytend]

Promoting affiliate merchants with text links and supporting content nearly always has better results than banners, especially on a content site. Last time you read someone's blog did you click around on the ads or read the posts? Affiliate marketing is all about the pre-sell.

 

[Quanta-HIS]

Thanks for sharing with us. That is really nice feel after reading your goal, ambition and success in life.

 

[sdessensm]

Hey! I think social media marketing is the latest buzz in the online business world. In fact, it has become one of the online platforms which can be easily accessed. In fact, it is quite easy to spread your corporate messages to a large number of people through social networks. Social media networks are extensively used today to post, and repost comments. They have helped me get positive results for my business. Why don't you opt for social media marketing and see whether you achieve your business goal?

 

[applywelfare.com]

when I saw you guys ambition,I have to think about myself.what should I do?

thanks

 

[michael55555]

I just want to develop income streams in a way so that I can be location independent.

 

[juliamedlton]

How i make my blog success in Google? I have many blogs but when i do SEO on these blogs its ranking decreases in Google. but when i do nothing it ranking increases.

 

[Hammersome]

Keep it simple, folks!

Get a hungry niche , build wordpress site, sell ebook, get traffic with adwords and count the money. That is all needed to make money online. If you cannot do it I can help - just pm me

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 PM ----------

Duplicate content? Fake backlinks? Just do the right thi g, man ! hard to treak G these days but ranking is easyer as 4 hours for new blog post to top 5 page 1. If you want to mnow more , send me a pm.

How i make my blog success in Google? I have many blogs but when i do SEO on these blogs its ranking decreases in Google. but when i do nothing it ranking increases.

 

[dezinerite]

Thanks for sharing your business and experience with us. Here's mine:

Business: Web services - both locally (offline) and online. I am also a webmaster.

Goals: Develop more websites and find the time to properly market them all.

Ambitions for the Future: Develop a large network of websites that help educate and serves different niches, so that each website in the network plays a positive role in the development of the web industry.

Success: My balance online each month is a profit and not a loss...I suppose that's a good thing.

Weaknesses: Very little time to market online because I'm always spending time developing or writing. Is it worth hiring someone to do part of my work? No idea. It's hard to find someone who will do the job well.

I also find time management very challenging. I really need to know how to figure out how to maximize my time. Perhaps there's more than just 24 hours in a day?

Oh, and I also lack the ability to monetize my sites. So sometimes I undersell due to desperation, which is a great weakness. Underselling is idiotic, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Biggest Surprise: Everything that seems to work for everyone doesn't seem to work for me. Everyone's indulged in affiliate marketing and have had positive results. My earnings through affiliate marketing (i.e. selling an actual product, not Adsense): $0. I just don't get it.

 

[ProSence]

My goal is simple..

Earning money from search engine marketing.

Optimizing competitive keywords, but I'm still in learning phase.