I know I'm talking to myself especially since, when people do finally come to this site, the blog will be backwards, but, here I want to update on the status of the web site itself and then, soon, I hope, I'll update on the status of the finances in the family. If you're planning a site, the hardest thing seems to be getting traffic. I am trying to learn about it, but, the main thing is that with all the content in the world, it could languish in no person's land forever, if you don't promote your site. So, I have to. How have I been doing that? First of all, I am going into blog sites like "blinkbits" and "bloglines" and creating accounts. So, if you like the content on any of the pages, you can, as of today, add that to those two sites by pressing the buttons right to the side of this page. Apparently, if you do, it helps my site out, but I'm not sure how it works. Other than that, I've been actually "marketing" the site the way you would market anything else -- I tell people, friends, family, acquaintances, salespeople, anyone we think would get some value out of the site. Seems old-fashioned, but it has generated some people coming in to take a look. Finally, I've finally gotten the idea of the "carnival," and I will see how that works as I have submitted three separate articles (eliminating debt; Jim Cramer for beginners; and Taking Control Over Finances) to three different carnivals. Plus, "In the Beginning" for the carnival of the struggling bumbling newbies (see side if you fit that category). I hope that people will want to look at those articles and the whole site when they go into those carnivals (assuming my submissions are accepted).
Now, Google hung me up for a little while, but as of last night, which I believe is one week since I started this whole site, I came up in a search. So, it's like the Holy Grail -- in the Monty Python sense of the term, I got on Google Search. Actually, if you type the exact words "taking control over money" into Google Search, you do get my web site popping up first (as of today) -- don't steal it from me you site optimization people. Why is that? I suspect not many people put that exact terminology in when they search for ideas about money and finance. If I put those words in, I don't think I'd find myself for thousands of pages. But, nonetheless, indexing has got to be a sign that the words are being read by the little spiders that search the web, and, my site is coming up. If you are planning to try your own site on something you know, I have learned a lot, but Jon at http://www.successpart2.com knows much more than I do; he even offered a free e-book on site optimization on his website today. I downloaded it. Also, my affiliation with Quicken has led me to a free trial of a course on affiliates, which I won't site to here yet, and, I've been trying to get through as much of their advice as I can before my "free" trial is up and I have to start paying for the advice.
Also, even if you are trying to make money by the ads and whatever, you should focus on traffic rather than affiliations. I spent a whole day yesterday trying to affiliate with different companies and it was exhausting, tedious work. When I started this, I tried to affiliate with those companies whose products I use. I have no control over the adsense content, but, I can decide whether or not to link to other companies. I went straight away to a store that sells the file solutions filing system, the store that sells a lot of my office and school supplies, Quicken and Amazon. Those are products I use. A lot of these affiliations exist through some affiliate companies such as "linkshares" and "commission junction" and, I ended up getting accepted by both of them, Quicken, Amazon and Google's Adsense (which was quick and easy as was Quicken and Amazon). But within the c-j or linkshares, my applications are pending for links to places whose goods I am mentioning on the site. Or, in one case, I got rejected by the store that sells the file system that I recommend on the "Taking Control Over Finances" page. I hope they will change their mind, but, we'll see.
In any event, those sites, c-j and Linkshares, have lots of other advertisers that you can affiliate with. So, I started going through their lists, which led me to a couple of things I actually like, but, which, for the most part, was a big, fat, waste of my time. After a while (I'm embarrassed to say how long), the lightbulb went off and it became clear that I was indeed putting the proverbial cart before the horse. I need traffic for the affiliations to have any value to me or the advertisers. And, while it's great if the site makes some money, I don't want that to be my major concern.
So, I resolved not to spend my time looking at companies with whom I am not all that familiar to see if I want to be their ad spot -- I don't because the site has to stay true to its roots: being about what helps me and my family meet our financial goals. So, I'm back to my first practice: I'll look for the affiliation based on my use of products or sites, not by searching the ad sites.
And, since this is all new, I've been tinkering with the content, rather than blogging on new things that I've been doing with the finances. I really do want people to learn something and have a reason to come to this website and read the links I give, etc. So, right now, I'm playing with both design and content of my articles. Once an article goes into a carnival, I guess I'll have to leave it be and create a new article on that topic when I want to update it. I'm not sure how I'm going to work that out yet. So, I give myself until Monday to get the content that exists on here the way I want it -- after that, the content stays and new articles get added. That's why there's no update on our finances -- I've incorporated a lot of that stuff into the already existing pages.
And, based on some feedback I got, I went with a new design -- someone who looked at my site felt very conflicted about reading it when it was green and red and all kinds of colorful. So, I went muted. I'll try other designs as I move along. Also, if you are thinking of creating a web site, be careful what you copy from other "web pages." I started this site after already using another web software to create some of the content; however, that software did not allow me to put in any of my own or linked code. So, I ended up finally finding Sandvox, which is an excellent program for people like me -- inexperienced but with a lot to say. However, I didn't want to retype everything, so, some of the pages are oddly formatted. When I can, I'll redo them to the correct font or at least the same font on every page.
If you do get here somehow, please "drop a line my way." (Counting Crows: www.countingcrows.com)