10/3/2004 -Update.

Wow, I see I haven't updated this page for a year! That's because I just put my quick web site updates on the main page, I guess... Well, I am not about to repost all the web site stuff from the last year here, but I wanted to write up what I have discovered just recently with the sites...

Well, September is over and so is my record breaking monthly profits, I guess :-( (for now anyway... hopefully the sites will pick up again..) My website commissions were: July: $2,048, August: $2,123 and Sept: $1,819. September would have been WAY worse if it wasn't for my satellite site, which picked up the slack for the others (especially Contacts and Credit Cards). The satellite site just went crazy! but it seems to have slowed down now... I haven't had a sate TV sale for almost a week now...

What I have discovered is that my contact site (which was in the top 3) got dropped from Yahoo... I think this was a penalty, but I am not sure exactly why... I may have had too many links to my friend Freds contact site, making the SEs think that it was one person with 2 sites on the same subject and crossed linked for improved rankings... Anyway, I have talked to Fred about this (Fred is really knowledgeable about this stuff and a fantastic resource!) and I have removed my links to his site and he will be removing the links to my site... Another possibility is that I may have too many affiliate links... I plan to reduce these when I get a chance...

The other major problem is my credit card site. That site went from $454 in August to $130 in September. The interesting thing here is that I just did an analysis of the TRAFFIC and it was only down a little from the previous month... Credit cards are one product that seems to need to be maintained somewhat and I haven't done hardly any updates for months. One possibility is that my links (cards, rates, etc) are out of date and I am not getting commissions for the click throughs that I am getting... I will have to check into this one...

A Picture (or graph) is worth a thousand words... (or so...)

Well, I could write much more on this, but I guess I'll leave you with that little summary for now... One last thing that I am going to paste in some graphs from my sales charts... (I have reduced the quality to help the download speeds a little)

This one is profits only (no traffic stats) (left to right is Jul, Aug, Sep)

This next one is profits and traffic  NOTE: I have the months backwards on this one (from the norm) left to right is Sept, Aug, Jul... (I gotta fix that...) The sites (Left to right) are: Bi=Bikes, C=Contacts, B=Babies,P=Pets, S=SatTV,Cr=Credit Cards and the last S is Songwriters...

Later, Rob.

10/2/2003 -Quick Update.

I am really just adding links to all my pages for my new site www.101-CreditCards.com  , and I just realized that I haven't updated this one in quite a while (sorry). I have actually put up 2 sites since my last update. The Satellite TV site and now credit cards. I've already had 1 sale on the Satellite TV site (although it is not installed yet, so it doesn't officially count just yet).

I need to finish the credit card site links as well as doing some end of month updates and stuff, so I've got to keep this short. Here's one of my links to the credit card site (one of the official sales related lines): A prepaid Gift Credit Card makes a perfect gift for any occasion. Get a prepaid gift credit card online.

More later, when I get a moment (or need a little break...)

8/18/2003 - The BlackOut, The bike season, Next...

As I mentioned on "page 1", this last Friday and Saturday were terrible for web site sales. I made about $1.00 each day, after a really huge improvement in sales over the last month! The web site sales are generally irratic anyway but I have haven't had that bad of days for months now... Then it occured to me that this is EXACTLY the same days as the black out out east... Now, I'm sure that there are some regular customers that could not get on, but I also wonder how much of the other sites on the internet were affected... Like my affiliate merchants and tracking servers, etc... I am only speculating... but I wonder...

The bike season was really strong in July and the beginning of August, but I am seeing it slow down a little now... (I just hope that I at least get some small amount of sales in the off season...). Fortunately the Contacts site is picking up the slack. The contact lens site is now my most profitable site!

I just got back to my next site, which is Satellite TV... I have completed my keyword analysis, registered my domain name and am finishing the first product page tonight... I actually had a hard time with the graphic (the photo that I always have in the upper right). I did lots of fooling around with my photo packages but didn't really like any of the results so I just grabbed a dish picture from the net, made some minor mods and use a very small copy of it... Maybe I will get an inspiration (and better graphic) a little later...

By the way, I removed Yuppie as the pet page mascot (main graphic). Although her picture is meaningful to me, the quality just wasn't that great... and bidness is bidness... so I copied a nice calander picture that I had and have that one up there now... (I still got Jingle (our cat) on the cat related pages though! :-) )

Anyway my goal is to have the CORE of the main site up in the next week or 2 and finish the supporting pages in the following weeks... and then on to the next one!!!!

7/25/2003 - Bike Site is Doing Great!, The others are getting started... Adsense on Songwriter Site

I see that the last updates that I did here were around the last Google Dance... Well, here is how things have been shaking out on the old web sites... The Bike Site is doing fantastic! I have sold (PRE-sold really) well over $10,000 worth of bike stuff! I am #1 for the term "Bicycle Speedometer" and Bicycle Odometers", on page 1 for "kids bicycles", "online bicycle sales" and at least 15 other terms and I am also on page 3 for "Bicycle Accessories" a really good, sought after, term. I don't know when the season is going to slow down, but it is pretty profitable at the moment!

The other sites are getting started and bringing in some commissions. Contacts is second in profits followed by Pets and the Babies, although Babies gets more traffic and sales then pets. I had a couple of good pet sales (a sliding glass pet door and a cat bed) that were at 15% commission (Petsmart) and that is what kicked pets ahead of babies... The last week or so has been REALLY SLOW... (but like I say, the bike site is hanging in there). Rumor is, it slows down when everyone goes on vacation in July...

In other news, a lot of the affiliates are signing up for Google Adsense and raving about it. I've signed up, and got approved (not always easy) and placed some Adsense ads on the Songwriter Site. It is a pretty cool program. Google plugs in the sponsors and they are very relevant to your site traffic. They are also just text ads, not obnoxious flashing banners or anything like that. The nice part about Adsense is you get paid for clicks to the sponsors... not just for sales!!! I got my first click and made some money a few hours after adding Adsense to my site!

OK, I actually got some more bike pages to update...

Thanks for stopping by...

6/22/2003 - The BabySite is dancing too!!!

Just a quick update... the Baby site is partially listed in G now too!!! I say partially because Google appears to still be dancing... I am getting consistent traffic on all 4 of my best affilate sites now (and a little extra credit on the songwriter site).

I just did an analysis of the keywords that I got for the baby site and I am positioned really well for some fantastic keywords for this site! This is a very competative subject and it looks like I may have better keyword phrases than on all of my other sites... Only time will tell... even though my keyword positions come and go still, I am hoping to see some sales results this week...

The baby site is (or will be soon) in the number 1 position (page 1 position 1) for "carter's baby clothes" (plural, with the apos, without quotes) as well as 10 other really good keyword phrases. If you aren't really up on baby stuff (or keyword popularity) carter's baby clothes are really popular and this phrase is searched for a lot!

6/20/2003 - Google Dancing!!!

Finally! The Google Dance has begun!!! Actually I think it may pretty much be over now, although things could be a little flaky for a few more days...

Here are the results (related to my sites):

1) My Contact and Pets sites are now listed in Google!!! (after many months of waiting) My Pet site is ranked as a 2 and Contact site is a 3 (I would like to get these much better, but for now, at least they are listed and have some ranking.

2) The pagerank on my bike site is back and it is now a 3 (it was a 2) and I have gotten good positioning on some really good keywords and phrases! Traffic is way up and sales are way up!

Here's a little comparison of my active sites:

The Bikes site is still king for now (in profits and traffic) and has just gotten a huge boost in traffic. I rank pretty well on quite a few good terms, but the most impressive (IMHO) is "bicycle odometers". I am in position 1 on page 1!!! This is a great term... I have sold lots of odometers (ie cycle computers) already and now I am in position 1 for this and really high for speedometers, as well as some other good terms!

My best bike site sales so far have been Clothing, Bike Bags and Panniers (saddle bag style), Cycle computers and misc parts (chains, tires and tubes, pedals, etc.) and I just sold a kid bike trailer today (I was trying for that since I discovered that I got the #1 position for the term "bike trailors" (yes misspelled again...))

My Contact site is coming in as a strong second. In just a few days, I am starting to see almost as much traffic as on the bike site. I just got my first contact sale today! I was a little disappointed that I ranked low, or not at all, on many of the keywords that I tried for but I am on page 1 for the following terms:

free trial contacts, free color contacts, free colored contacts, cheap color contacts, accuvue contact lenses

... and page 2,3 and 4 for colored eye contacts, cheap colored contact lenses, acuvue contacts. The rest that I got are pages 6 through 10... :-(

The Pet site is in 3'rd place... I did get on page 1 for "cat perches" which is a very popular search term. as for the rest of the terms, I only got on pages 1,2 and 3 for sliding glass pet door, discount dog beds, pet medication online, veterinarian pet insurance, discount pet medication and discount pet meds...

I may have picked up some other good keywords that I am not aware of yet, but only time will tell (after I get more traffic and check my hosting service logs and stats...).

The Baby Site is mostly done but I still have some supporting pages left to do... I just found a Sh-load of info and stats on baby names and reformatted it for a bunch of supporting pages (you can check out Babys Names or the site map on that site...). The accidental sale... I already got one sale on the baby site, and it isn't even listed yet. It was just a silly VHS tape and I didn't make hardly anything on it... but I thought that it was interesting. I also have a few more merchants to add to this site (I just got approved for Disney... Not sure if they will do well online or not (but I'll find a nice place for them, I think... and we'll see).

OK... I guess that's the main news on the update for now...

As I said before, the profits are still pretty skimpy at the moment, but they are getting better and I am starting to see more potential. I am encouraged and hopeful at the moment... (although it can be a little bit of a rollercoaster ride...)

6/15/2003 - Google Dance

Wow, it's been a while since I did a "web site story" update... There has been quite a bit going on in some ways (and then again, not much going on in other ways). The biggest news is the Google Dance that has been going on for months now...

What is the Google dance? You may ask... Well, it is a term used for when Google updates it's index (database(s)) and/or programs.

Why do I care about the dance? Well, you probably don't... unless you are a webmaster and/or have a web based business that has been hurt by the recent updates... (like mine... fortunately mine is still small stuff, but it has taken a hit and it has kept all of my new sites from being listed in Google for months now!

So there you have the short version... Google has messed up my bike site and I have lost my 1'st page ranking on many of my best words and phrases (temporarily, hopefully) and my other 3 new sites still have yet to be listed with Google!

This is not just someting that is happening to me... This is happening to lots of people and as near as I can tell Google hasn't done a complete and decent update since March...

On the good news side, I have been monitoring my web site logs and I have seen that the Google spider (aka: Googlebot) has visited (spidered) all 3 of my new sites now... (Pets, Contacts and Babies). What this will likely mean is that when the Google index is finally updated, I should have all 3 new sites listed and will really have a good idea about how my new business will be doing... until then... All I can do is wait... and keep cranking out new sites and pages!

The original rumor on the street is that there could be an update in mid June... Unfortunately, I also just saw an article recently that suggested that the next udate may not happen until the end of July :-( :-( :-( I don't think anyone (outside of Google) really knows when it will really happen. This is one of the most frustrating (and risky) parts of this type of business... but I am still very confident and hopeful... at this point though there is a large amount of blind faith...

Also on the good news side, at least I still have the bike site (wounded but still producing) and the songwriting site generating sales and commissions. :-) :-)... It is a still very skimpy amount of commissions... but it has been consistent and it provides good hope for the future!

I still have about 10 supporting pages to do for the baby site... but the main pages along with my approved merchants are out there and it can generate income, just as soon as I start getting some decent traffic... :-)

5/17/2003 - Small Cha-CHINGs... but pretty consistent...

I have sold (or more appropriately "helped to sell") over $1,300.00 in bikes and accessories now (and a few songwriting books)! Unfortunately the commissions on most of the bike sites are pretty low (around 5%) so I must do much better. If I could just double what the bike site is doing, then 30 sites would be a pretty good start. (I already have 3 with good potential and the songwriter site (which was really just a warm up really and I don't expect much from it)).

It is interesting and kind of fun (to me anyway) to monitor what is selling and what isn't and to try to write better sales copy to direct people to where you want them to go. My most profitable bike sites (Performance and Nashbar) on LinkShare (one of my affilate networks), report that actual line items that are sold. I have sold quite a few Cycle Computers, some inner tubes, quite a bit of bicycle clothing, car racks, a helmet, lock and one bike... Some of the places don't report the items that you sell... just the sales amount and commission...

Recording equipment at Musicians Friend (or anything there) has been a total bust! I have sent hundreds of potential buyers there without a single sale! I dunno, maybe songwriters are just really cheap (I know I am :-) )

I am getting faster (and better, I think) at getting these sites up (writing the sales copy, researching the topics and keywords, etc.) but it still takes quite a while for each site and I don't know how long I can hold out before I give in and do a "nit-wit" job... As you can probably tell, I am not very confident about IT or programming work in general anymore (especially with my accidental slip in current programming skills :-( :-) (time to re-invent again)).

I have been monitoring Google and my friend Fred's Satelitte TV and Battery sites look like they will be ranked in Google very soon, unfortunately, I haven't seen my pet site get picked up yet. I know that the spider visited pets in April, but hasn't been back yet this month... the wait is very frustrating!

OK, back to work... catch ya all later...

4/17/2003 - Cha-CHING! (continued from page one)

The bike sale from WalMart was a Huffy 26" womens comfort bike. I suspect that the customer hit my Comfort and Hybrid Bikes page (since I am on page 1 of Google for "hybrid bicycles" (and on page 7 for "comfort bikes")), clicked through on one of the WalMart bike links and then just followed the WalMart links to the Huffy bikes (I checked this out and it is real easy to do)...

It's kind of fun to track this stuff (especially with the first sale). I have been watching my traffic pretty carefully to see how people find my site (which keywords they use (if any)) and what pages they enter my site on. Then, I have been putting more effort into the sales copy and product offerings on those specific pages :-). I kind of blasted my first 3 sites up (songwriting, bikes and digital cameras (which I am dropping)) quick and dirty like, before I knew what I was doing (or should I say before I know what I know now) and now I am back tracking and improving these initial sites now that I see the traffic patterns...

I am keeping my songwriter site, because it fits well with my other music sites and I have a big interest in this subject, but I don't think it has a lot of potential for sales (songwriters (like me) are cheap, and besides what do they buy?). I think the bicycle site has some potential and I can continue to improve this one as I go along but I really think that my pet site has the most potential so far... but it will be a while before it even gets any traffic...

4/15/2003 - This Just In...

While, I was checking out my bike site keywords I forgot to check my songwriter site (until I was looking at my web site stats with my web hosting service). I got some good songwriter keywords, especially for the products that I include on this site... In many cases I was trying for song writing as 2 words (and got em)...

It looks like I am getting over 150 visitors per day for the bike and songwriter site (combined).

4/13/2003 - Welcome to the Affiliate Web Site News!

Well, I actually have to keep my debut issue of this page brief, since I have a lot of "real" web site work to be doing...

The big news for this weekend is that Google just went through an update and most of my sites got listed and ranked (by Google) in addition to showing up for a bunch of pretty good keywords and phrases!

I have learned quite a bit since I started doing this type of thing and I actually believe that my Pet Site ( www.pet-supplies-online-resource.com ) has the best chances of high rankings and profitable sales, since I used a proven system for this one, but my Bicycle Site ( www.About-Bicycles.com ) seems to have done pretty well in the last Google update and does have some potential.

First a little Google Info for ya: I really don't have time right now to write this up in detail, but here is a breif description of some Google stuff and Google rankings:

1) Google is THE most important search engine to be listed in and ranked well with.

2) In addition to optimizing pages for keywords and phrases, you need to try to get a higher internal Google ranking to be higher on the list for the keywords that you are trying for...

3) Google has a toolbar that you can attach to your MS IE browser that shows the Google (internal) ranking for every page that you go to on the internet.

Ok, now that you know that... My Song Puppy site has a pretty consistent Google ranking of "3" (not too bad). When I put my SongwritersHelper site up it was also ranked as a "3", my PageMouse site (abandoned) was ranked at "2" and a very interesting thing is that the old family page site (yes, THIS SITE) was ranked at "5", which is pretty decent in Google.

An interesting thing about this is that I instructed the Google spider (all spiders and robots actually) NOT to list the family page in it's listing, but it still got a "5" ranking!

(SideBar: OK this is getting longer than I expected... It sure is easy to avoid work :-) )

OK back to this weeks update...

• My SongwritersHelper site got upgraded from a "3" to a "4"!
• My About-Bicycles site got listed (and ranked at a "2") and I got on the first page or so for many of the keywords that I was trying for (and some good ones that I didn't try for by accident)!
• ...And even my About-Digital-Cameras site (that has been on hold pending further analysis) got listed (although it was ranked at "0"... I haven't really included much on this site yet...).

(SideBar: So much for a brief debut :-) )

Can you spell? Is it Mountain or Mountian? OK, most people know the right way, but I know that I have misspelled(sp?) it many times myself (especially when I was writing up the lyrics for Mountain Rock). Well based on my keyword analysis, a lot of other people mis-spell it too! For example, in Overture is says that people searched for mountain bike 1786644 times in February... but they also searched for mountian bike 2362 times.

OK, the point here is that I did target mountian bikes and I am on page ONE of Google for it (position 10) and this is getting me some pretty good traffic... Yes, I am quite aware that I have mis-spelled it many times! JJJJJ

(SideBar: Aren't you glad I put this on a new page?!? (I really needed an outlet to write this stuff... :-) )

Alright, here's a little summary of the bicycle keyword phrases that I got on Google and that are now getting me some traffic on my bicycle site... (my next big task is converting this traffic to sales):

This is just some of the better words and phrases that I got for my bicycle site:

As of April 13, 2003
* All rankings subject to change without notification (it's a moving target, so they will change, of course. I am just hoping that the ones that I want change for the better :-)

Go ahead.. try em... In Google or Yahoo! or AOL (since Google pretty much drives Yahoo and AOL) You may need to put the phrases inside quotes for Yahoo or AOL...

OK, that should be good for my brief update for now!!!

Stop by again soon... (when I write a more detailed article! :-) :-) )

If you have an interest in any of this stuff and have questions or would like to know more, just let me know...

(these are really just my own personal, casual updates here... not a major SE or affiliate training course)

The Affiliate Web Sites:

Accesses: