My New Blog

[jerryl]

Well in a thread a while back (I was having trouble getting wordpress installed, sorry karenmac) I said when I finally got the blog up and running I would tell everyone...so here it is www.cashblog-n.com It's nothing special, pretty ordinary actually. My main ambition online right now is to generate a income stream or two (or three or four, you know what I mean). The only reason I settled on the ProSense Theme is it's SEO characteristics and it's AdSense readiness.
Anyway, comments good or bad, it's all good.
Thanks for all your help,
Jerry

[Karen Mac]

Well good job on getting it up! Template seems to work well with what you are doing.

Dont ask me to comment on your content tho...lol... the better the content the better your ad results...

Karen

[jerryl]

Hi Karen Mac,
Please do comment on my content I want to hear what you have to say.
The best way to improve my abilities is to hear constructive criticism form internet veterans such as yourself, and learn from it!
Thanks,
Jerry

[Karen Mac]

Well your best content is in LINKS ELSEWHERE, not in anything youve said or done.. unless thats the plan to get them to click SOMEWHERE ELSE. You didnt post anything to keep me interested...like how much money you made today, or what you actually did to make money. Then i read something about creating 35 or 40 blogs... id be running right out of there...

While you might want them to click elsewhere for the money.. you need SOMETHING to get them to click to you in the first place

Karen

[jerryl]

Thanks Karen Mac,
I asked you to give it to me straight, and I guess you did.
Just FYI, I went to your website KMAC Enterprise, just to see some good content, and your site didn't load properly. I use Foxfire and since I think alot of people do, and you're in the business of web design, I thought you might like to know.
Jerry

[Karen Mac]

You need to add the flash addon...lots of sites have flash these days and its a flash menu.

Karen

[Sunchaser]

Jerry

I like your style of writing - I think you could take this far. Your blog sounds honest, earnest & entertaining.

There's endless stacks of 'money-making' blogs though - most not making any money. Blogs such as problogger, doshdosh and shoemoney have templates that really stand out, and engaging content because they really are making money.

I think the template looks a little plain as it is now. There's lots of adsense themes out there - and also adsense plugins. Or you can modify your theme to make it unique.

Yeah I choked when I saw the 35-40 blogs bit too. This kind of strategy might have worked some time back - but in a very saturated environment, I really think you'd be chasing your tail.

Trying to seo 40 sites, gain inbound links for them all, plus the upkeep and writing content for all of them - would be a massive undertaking.

I think a far better strategy is to concentrate on your cashblog'n site. Make it huge, give it a face (yours) and take others on your journey as you go about trying out different methods of making money. Be sure to include your mistakes, and to tell people what didn't work. People love to know about that kind of stuff - as long as it's honest and real.

[jerryl]

Thanks Sunchaser,
I appreciate the compliment.

I know the money making niche overflowing with sites, but after giving it much thought, I decided to go there anyway. I have an interest, no a passion, for that topic.

I, of course just got the blog up and running, but will work on customizing the theme in time. I figured getting some content to be the priority right now. The fact I don't know how to do the customization yet has a little something to do with it too.

The 30 or 40 blogs would actually be Mini-niche-blogs, just a page or two covering the topic well, and optimizes for, a set of long tail keywords such as "changing to oil in my car". You would of course have to get on the first page to realize any traffic. This could of course could become one of those mistakes which would give me something to blog about :o)

Putting most of my effort into CashBlog-n.com has always been my plan, I just want to experiment along the way.

FYI The whole Mini-niche-blog idea I got from a guy name Griz (I love that name) check his site out at Make Money for Beginners and let me know what you think.
Jerry

[jerryl]

PS I meant to add this above:
A little bragging if I may, I've gotten to page three in Google for "cash blog" in just a few weeks...so at least I'm doing something right with the SEO of my blog. Now "cash Blog" only gets 5000 to 6000 searches a month but what the hay, I'm not complaining!

[Karen Mac]

Yes but WHO is looking for cash BLOG? more are looking for how to make money online... so it does NO good to rank for something NOBODY looks for...so think again.

I get 85 MILLION plus search results for that on google, and you arent anywhere in the top 100

Karen

[jerryl]

On my computer I'm #31, I dropped a spot. I figured my chance of getting on the first page for keywords like make money online was non-existent. The keywords cash blog while only searched for 6000 times a month, at least gives me the chance of a first page appearance, and 6000 people looking at my listing is...well better than none.

[Karen Mac]

You wont get all 6000 clicks if you are number 31... maybe you might get 10
I just double checked... from my husbands computer with a different ip... no results in the first 11 pages for your blog

<edit> I would guess that the majority of those searches are done by other people with CASH BLOGS to see where they rank.

Karen

[Bethers]

OK, yes I see you - that's page 4 on Google. Now, you are saying that there are actually 5-6000 searches for that term per month? That surprises me. However, out of those searches, it's my guess that maybe 5- 10 of them might make it to page 4, if you're very lucky. The real feat now is going to be getting from page 4 to page 1 on that term. Then you might start seeing traffic from the term.

Good luck.

[jerryl]

That's funny Karen Mac!
Yeah, Bethers I know I have to get on page 1 or no good will come of it. I was surprised to be in the top 1000 actually, I used that url for months on a wordpress.com blog and don't think I got in the top 1000. I didn't worry at all about seo then though.
Hey Karen Mac maybe most of the searches this month was me looking eh.

[Karen Mac]

Well you can blame google.. it has about 6 servers now. Obviously they arent all on the same page.. but seriously.. that term is NOT the best term you should be wanting to be found for. Not joking at all here...seriously... if i was looking for how to make money online...cash blog isnt what id type in.

Karen

[Bethers]

I agree with Karen - and think you need to remember the average person and what THEY will be searching for - and I don't think it'll be cash blog - I'd be searching for that to learn how to make a cash blog, etc - and it wouldn't lead to me clicking anything that will make you money. What are the things on your site you'll be wanting them to click on? Those are the terms they'll be entering - to find those things - that will lead to clicks.

[Sunchaser]

Hey Jerry

I've read quite a few 'niche blog' systems. I tried a few different things when I started out (for two reasons. I had a family member very ill and my thought was that I was going to have to leave work to care for them, so I wanted some other income stream. Reason number two was to expand my knowledge of seo (although I work for a large media corporation and use seo everyday in my work, I wanted to see for myself what it's like starting out with a brand new website or blog. No head start.)

I'm still learning, and have learned quite a few things from the ladies here in this thread.

I ended up dumping everything except my business sites and the hobby site in my sig. The hobby site came about because I had a hard time at first trying to set up my first website, and tried a number of different hosts and site builders - and I wanted to make a basic resource for others, including kids.

I dumped the others because I didn't have as much passion for them, and it was a task to maintain them. But if you have a passion (and time!!) for a few different blogs - then yep why not try it. If nothing else - you'll learn a lot and also you can test which blog/s become most popular and concentrate more on them.

I totally understand you have a passion for the subject of your blog - it comes across in your writing. I don't think it's a problem at all going into a saturated area - I was just trying to say you have to stand out.

I rank in the top 10 in google for the key phrase I first built my 'make website' site upon, - it doesn't have a huge search volume and is a long-tail. And I have lots top 10 in yahoo and msn. I think you're on the right track going for long-tail phrases.
Something I've also found is that there are dozens of variations on a single phrase - and that alone can bring in hundreds of people a month. And - this can bring in people who do look at pages you want in the google top 10 (but can't because the competition is too stiff lol) - so it's indirect way of getting people to those pages.

In the case of your blog - even if you can't rank for any 'money-making' terms - you might have something related that is very popular - and people might be attracted to the posts on your money making adventures when they arrive on your site.

(I just looked up 'cash blog' on wordtracker - It isn't listed? The nearest search term was 'blog to earn cash' at an estimated 5 google searches per day. I see a lot of people trying to rank for it though - I'm mystified!
Aas said above, I don't think there'd be that many using that term.
I see you on page 4 there on google - there's a lot above you that isn't wonderful - I think you have an excellent chance of ranking well for it.)

Lots of luck!

[Sunchaser]

I just went to read the site you asked me to look at. I like it - though why is he on blogspot and not his own domain?
He's got a definite personality and is very readable.

There's a strategy not talked about there. You can have a great CTR of 10-20% with one good site - which is the same as having a CTR of 1-5% on a few lesser sites. (with a lot less work!!!) :) :)

[jerryl]

Thank you for all your input everyone, all valid points. I came real close to changing the name to money-blogging.com, even bought the name, but as you can see by this thread http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/dom...main-name.html I'm technically challenged! I also was scared off by the competition for those keywords.
I've read it's been proven if you are #1 for a term 40&#37; of the searchers will go to your website.

Anyway I thought if I could get to number 1 for a search term even a sad one like cash blog I would learn alot and enjoy a victory in my seo efforts even though it's a small one.
It's not set in stone of course and I may change things.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts,
Jerry

[Sunchaser]

Just one more post before I meander off on my way...

Am I understanding from your post above that you're not using the domain 'money-blogging.com' because you don't think you can rank for the term 'money blogging' ??

Sorry if I'm not understanding you correctly.

I don't believe there's an advantage in regards to google to having your key search term in your domain name (except that it may have an advantage if people use this term as anchor text when they link to your blog. And also, the terms will be in bold in the search results which might induce people to click on you)

You could call your blog anything and still be successful for your chosen key terms.

[jerryl]

I've read that it does help to have your keywords in your url here's another post from Griz here where he talks about how he chooses his keywords. I can see my thinking was perhaps a bit flawed, but that's one reason I come on this forum-to learn, and of course to interact with some really nice people!
I do realize a single post can show up #1 for your targeted keyword, but I just wanted to see if I could hit #1 for the whole blog.

[Karen Mac]

Well you can.. and you can hit easily for terms that no one looks for.. but.. you want well rounded terms that people actually USE... Your NAME can play a role but its only ONE role in the scheme of things.. And I wasnt trying to DAMAGE you .. just point out that you CAN do much better...and you dont want to try at this point for just a single keyword.. but keyword phrases...

I learn new stuff and get new ideas every single day...none of us outgrow the need to learn and keep up with whats on the internet

Karen

[jerryl]

Don't worry Karen I don't feel "DAMAGED" by anything you've said. I agree it's a learning experience, and of course trying to cater to google is always a guessing game. But we'll keep at it and enjoy any successes along the way.
Jerry

[Bethers]

One more comment here - it's not about trying to cater to Google or any of the se's. Yes, you want to consider them - but if you CATER to the people you want to have come to your site - then you'll be doing what's necessary for the se's, too. At least if you do it in the right ways.

As to name - as Karen said, that's only one criteria out of hundreds. Any one criteria can be removed and you can still be successful - so pick ONE name and stick with it - and then build the site to be what it needs to be for the audience you have in mind.

[jerryl]

Thanks Bethers, you, Karen and Sunchaser are right on, of course. I will need to target "more searched for" keywords and too write for my visitors and not just the se's, (I've really always done that anyway).

Trying to rank for cash blog has been an interesting experiment if nothing else (this morning I'm on page one on my computer by the way).

Thanks for all your insights and sharing your knowlege with me-I've learned alot!
Jerry

[Sunchaser]

Yep, the name being 'one criteria out of hundreds' is a better way of putting it.

If I was looking for children's clipart and there was a website named childrensclipart then it would seem very relevant. And Google and the other search engines do of course take note of domain names. (even though you don't need to have keywords in your domain name to rank well)

Once when looking for clipart I came across a site that was called something like kidsfunclipart (can't quite recall the name) and it was a porn site!! You would really hope that site didn't come up if a kid searched for the keywords in the domain name. You'd really hope all the other criteria came into play (which it does.)
(and yes, I did report this site)