How I Design and Develop a New Site
You certainly wouldn’t know it by looking around this blog (which is just a super simple/basic/boring premium theme I bought after about 4 minutes of looking around), but I’m actually a fairly competent designer.
No, seriously.
It is after all what I started out doing in the first place back in 1997 just for fun and then for a handful of paying clients over the next couple of years. It’s really what lead me to doing everything else I do these days in the first place.
In fact, stuff I’ve designed has actually been mentioned on a couple of big design blogs (smashingmagazine.com, for example), which is always pretty cool.
And in all this time, I can honestly say that the design and development process really hasn’t changed much for me at all. It’s still the same 5 steps.
What 5 steps? These 5 steps: Continue reading this post »
Never Apologize Or Give Excuses For Not Blogging
Seriously, never apologize or give excuses for not blogging. It’s useless, it provides no value to your readers, and no matter how important you think you are, nobody actually gives a shit why you haven’t posted as often as you usually do.
Unless of course your “excuse” is relevant to the topic of your blog. That would be the one possible exception.
Let me clarify… Continue reading this post »
How to Register the Perfect Domain Name
Alright. I know my niche, I know my audience, and I know my competitors. The actual creation of this new site is ready to begin.
First up? This bad boy needs a domain name.
In my 10+ years of playing with the internet for a living, the naming process always proves to be one of the key parts of the eventual success of every one of my sites.
That’s not at all to say that these sites would have been doomed to fail if I ended up with a less than perfect domain name.
It’s just to say that, if you do end up with the perfect domain name, the odds of your site being a success increase big time and the work required to make it happen becomes a little easier.
And yeah, I have the first hand experience to back that up.
For this reason, the naming process for me always begins with one very specific goal in mind: to get this shit as perfect as possible.
How? Like this… Continue reading this post »
Evaluating My New Niche, Audience, Competition & Earning Potential
I spent a bunch of time over the last couple of days getting to know the niche I’m about to enter. I actually know it pretty well to begin with, as this new site of mine revolves around something I’ve had an interest in for a while.
However, everything I already know about this niche comes from the perspective of the visitor, the user, the customer.
Now I’m looking at it from the perspective of someone who will HAVE the visitors, the users and the customers.
There’s a big difference there, and it’s worth noting.
So, here’s what I know so far… Continue reading this post »
Welcome to The Successful Site Experiment
Rather than come up with a cool code name for the site that is now at the top of my to-do list, I decided to instead name the ongoing series of posts that will come from it.
In this series of posts, I will take you guys through exactly what I’m thinking, exactly what I’m doing, exactly how I’m doing it, exactly why I’m doing it, and of course everything that happens as a result of it all.
I’m calling it The Successful Site Experiment.
And it starts… now. Continue reading this post »
The First Step of Internet Domination: A Code Name
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m about to start talking a lot about a new project I’m going to be working on over the next few weeks/months/however long it takes.
Basically, I have an idea for a site, and I’m going to create it, market it, and if all goes well… profit from it. And like I said, I’m going to share the entire process with you right here.
The thing is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, constantly referring to it as “that new site I’m working on” is pretty fucking lame.
So, I need a code name.
Pretty please leave your code name suggestions in the comments and I’ll pick the best one (or just the one that sucks the least).
Whoever ends up suggesting the code name I use will win!
Win what? I don’t know… something at some point in the future. If I keep this up long enough, I’m sure I’ll eventually end up with cool stuff to give away, or maybe even my own product of some kind, who knows. Whatever it is, you’ll be the first person on my list of people to give free stuff to.
So get on your mark, get set… code name!!!!
It’s Happening Again
Honestly, I don’t know what it is about me and this time of the year.
I think it could be the weather, because here in NY it’s almost beginning to switch from super hot to comfortably cool.
It may also be that my brain has been pre-programmed to switch to some other gear around this time due to the many years of school starting back up about now.
Then again, it could all just be a crazy coincidence.
Whatever it is, I always seem to end up doing some big time significant things around this time of the year. Some of the many examples:
- You know that case study post I did about how to increase traffic to a new site or blog? Take a look at those traffic stats and pay attention to what month they start at. Yup, the very end of September through October and November.
- You know that post I did about how I increased Adsense revenue from $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month? Nothing in that post actually has a date on it, but it was on October 31st that I first started messing around with the stuff that would go on to cause that increase. I remember literally running back and forth from the computer (to play with Adsense) to the door (to give out candy).
- My very first (real) site – the one that pretty much single-handedly started everything for me and basically put me on the path to where I’m at now – originally started on some shitty free host in 1999. I then redesigned it, moved it to a real host, and registered a domain name for it in 2001. That domain name’s registration date? September 1st, 2001.
Like I said, there’s something wacky about the 3 month span of September, October and November that leads to me starting things that end up being pretty significant in hindsight.
And now, sure enough… it’s happening again. Continue reading this post »
3 Reasons People Unsubscribe From My Email List
So a site of mine has an email list with about 35,000 subscribers.
That’s not super crazy huge, but it’s a pretty nice size. It’s actually a really nice size when you consider that I don’t really promote it at all beyond having a simple text box with something like “enter your email address to subscribe” written under it in my sidebar.
Anyway, I host this email list with AWeber (go ahead, click it… it’s not an affiliate link). In case you’re interested, anything I am doing or will ever do involving email marketing will always be done with AWeber.
They’re the shit.
One of the many things I love about AWeber is that they have this comment box on their unsubscribe page. So, when someone decides to unsubscribe from my email list, they have the option of leaving comments explaining their reason for unsubscribing.
Despite this being optional, I find that most unsubscribers do it anyway.
I think my unsubscribe rate is pretty low, which is a good thing, but I must admit… I get a sort of perverse feeling of excitement out of seeing someone unsubscribe because I know there’s a really good chance they left comments telling me why.
And I just love reading those comments. Continue reading this post »
10 Guest Posting DOs and DON’Ts for Maximum Success
(This is Part 4 of my series “The Guest Post: The Ultimate Guide To Guest Blogging.” To become a total guest posting badass, be sure to read the entire series.)
Welcome to the 4th and final part of this guest posting series. If you’ve been playing along at home, you’ve already learned just about everything you will ever need to know about guest posting.
All that’s left to learn now are some final tips for getting as much out of this as you possibly can. I’m talking MaXiMuM GueST PoSTiNG SuCCeSS!!!
And hey, what a coincidence, I’m going to explain exactly that in the convenient form of a list of “DOs” and “DON’Ts.”
And it’s going to start right… about… now. Continue reading this post »
How to Write a Guest Post and Get it Published
(This is Part 3 of my series “The Guest Post: The Ultimate Guide To Guest Blogging.” To become a total guest posting badass, be sure to read the entire series.)
In Part 1 of this series, you learned why guest posting is a super terrific way of marketing your blog and probably realized that you should do it.
In Part 2 you learned how to find the perfect blog(s) to guest post on.
And now, in Part 3, you’re going to learn how to write a successful guest post and actually get it published on the blog you’d like to get it published on.
Away we go… Continue reading this post »
