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Two questions, one of which I may have asked here before, so forgive me: Are free Wordpress themes really that bad? Is this Goon consensus? What's the best way to get pictures to use for articles? Like let's say I would want to write a blog about a tech topic, like Asus laptops or Apple products - random example. Where would I find pictures I could use? I can't just google them, right? They have to be stock? Edit: Also, should I start my blog out with monetization, or should I add it later?
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Jul 10, 2013 22:05
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I've found free Wordpress themes are either bad or not very user friendly. I like HTML5 boilerplate themes and stuff like that, which are usually free. You can strip the bad out of any theme with enough work though so if you like a look don't let it stop you from using the theme. You just gotta work it harder. The best way to get photos is to pay for them. You can probably get away with Googled images until you actually get enough traffic to make money attract attention to that sort of thing. Just slap some Google Adsense ads on there. You can do 3 per page and it's real simple until you get a real strategy going.
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Jul 11, 2013 03:00
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For images I use http://photopin.com/. They are CC, so free with attribution. It can take some digging to find good pictures, but they are on there.
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Jul 11, 2013 06:45
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Chadzok posted:I think a blog would work really well for marketing. Feature different users' bucket lists; budgeting advice; interview a dream interpreter; different methods of goal-setting - I am literally just going down your feature list and the blog topics are potentially endless. With decent, unique content (think lifehacker type stuff) you could be getting links from all over. Well, I went ahead and created my first blog entry for my site. Like you said there are a whole slew of topics to write about so I'm pretty excited about that. If anyone can lend a critique of my first blog entry I'd appreciate it. https://www.tracktacular.com/blog
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Jul 11, 2013 23:12
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The Swinemaster posted:For images I use http://photopin.com/. They are CC, so free with attribution. It can take some digging to find good pictures, but they are on there. Thanks, this is a great site. I just wonder if there is a better, more subtle way of attributing the photo than pasting their whole thing at the bottom of your post.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:29
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Doghouse posted:Two questions, one of which I may have asked here before, so forgive me: In addition to photopin, I also like http://foter.com and http://sxc.hu for stock photos. Free themes can be good and bad, it's just a crap shoot. I do like the free themes on http://www.newwpthemes.com for some sites but it's always something that you'll need to find one that fits your site's content and style.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:37
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Hey! After a year and change of reading various successful content-heavy travel, "lifestyle", and microbusiness blogs (AdvancedRiskology, Fluentin3months, ThePointsGuy, ManVsDebt, etc.), several months ago I realized "Hey, I can do that!" I sought out blogs that were focused more on the ins and outs of running a blog than reading one (copyblogger, problogger, HowIMakeMoneyBlogging, etc.), where I got the basics of collecting an audience and providing solutions and providing value to them, for some  , etc.Last week, I decided to seek out some GoonWisdom on the matter, and found more than a little bit of great advice here. As a result, my original plan has changed somewhat. Currently, I'm much more interested in Socratic Moron's method of running a PILE of blogs, that all make a small amount of money each. The inspiration was the quote "If you only have one job, you're only one day away from having NO job." - My short term (6 month) goal is to get to about $400/mo. to make up for the "looming on the horizon" loss of paid On Call time at my day job, then grow from there as I can. I've been running my personal blog for 12 years now (it's been WordPress for more years than I can remember), I've got my own hosting with cPanel. I'm comfortable with addon domains, and have a few set up already, some with super basic placeholder content, others never got past the idea stage (It was going to be offsite image hosting for CA after the demise of WaffleImages, but imgur is way better, it turns out. Imagine that!  ). I've got some ideas on further sites to set up, and I've been brainstorming content that I can create myself, drop a few dollars of my Day Job Salary onto people from Craigslist for some directed content, or potentially source from someplace like Repost.Us for a few of the sites where it might make sense. The bit that I haven't quite picked up from the thread yet is the actual process of getting the AdWords ads to display in the theme. I have two specific questions on that. 1) Am I looking specifically for themes that support AdWords, etc? Or am I going to select any them that happens to strike my fancy, and use an AdWords widget (or similar) to set the theme up for the ads? 2) Given that one of those two methods is preferable, what's the step-by-step for doing so? Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jul 17, 2013 |
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Jul 17, 2013 04:53
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I think you mean adsense. You can use adsense ad blocks anywhere on your site, so you don't necessarily need a theme based around it. They can help though, as they will have the proper sized columns, and easy plunk-in functionality. But you can get your code and put it anywhere. If you are comfortable with code, just slap a banner in your header and end-of-post. Likewise, a blank text widget can also be used to add a sidebar ad block. To get going, you need to sign up for adsense, then pick the appropriate sizes/colors. Then add the code.
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Jul 17, 2013 06:04
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Adsense has generic output sizes. Generally everyone puts banners at the top and bottom but the CRT is terrible. In content text ads are the thing right now. Temper expectations with making money on ads. Sure i make money but its a small amount. affiliate marketing is pretty decent too. currently I'm becoming more of a fan of situations where you product test/review. Like trying to get roasters to send me coffee and I write about it. Might want to consider angles like that too.
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Jul 18, 2013 02:02
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MasterControl posted:Adsense has generic output sizes. Generally everyone puts banners at the top and bottom but the CRT is terrible. If I can recapture 20 of the hours I'm spending dicking around on bullshit, and apply them to setting up additional sources of revenue, I should be doing OK for myself. 40 ventures that pull in $10/mo. doesn't seem to be a completely unreasonable 12-month goal - until I get to the point that I've got one venture that's pulling $400 for roughly the same effort, that is.
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Jul 18, 2013 02:38
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Totally. Just wanting to let you know other options about maximizing further.
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Jul 18, 2013 05:32
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Kafka Esq. fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Apr 26, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2013 15:04
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Kafka Esq. posted:...so I'm wondering: what is the best way to create an online store in tangible goods? "I have been successful making money one way, but that way isn't (working for me/making me happy/doesn't have the security it used to, etc) and I want to (diversify/do something completely different)". This is the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned Facebook, etc. http://www.seanogle.com/entrepreneurship/lifestyle-business-first-step Also, it might be worth $25 to join bootstrapperguild.com for a month. That site is dedicated to (super) small startup ideas, which is exactly where you want to start - a tiny pilot project to see if it's even worth getting into the space - because your competition seems to have quite a jump on you, and has found a successful niche to thrive in. There's also a $1 two week trial so you can check it out. The tools and the web experience are really the LEAST important part of this project. "WHY" is the question to start with. You have to know what the strategic goal is, what the risks are, and what the opportunity costs are (example: it might turn out to be MUCH more profitable to SELL the appliance store (perhaps to the competitor), and use the proceeds to fund starting another business altogether) before you forge ahead. You've essentially been given a directive to change the way the store does business, without necessarily changing the way the store does business. That's a tough road. They'd better be paying you some big bucks for this. If you actually have the pull with the bosses to change the way they do business, I'd also suggest the book Balanced Scorecards and Operational Dashboards with Microsoft Excel by Ron Person. At the very least, see if it's in your local bookstore, grab a coffee, and read the first couple of chapters. Balanced Scorecard management is all about identifying your strategic goals for the business, and then aligning the things you do on a daily basis to match those goals. Hit me up on G+ if you want to pick my brain more...
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Jul 18, 2013 15:28
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Kafka Esq. posted:what is the best way to create an online store in tangible goods? Look at exactly what your competitor is doing and do it better.
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Jul 18, 2013 15:33
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I finally got off my butt and got started on a niche site to hopefully monetize. I spent so much time reading this entire thread and going through countless blogs and podcasts it got to a point where I kept filling my head with overwhelming information and not actually doing anything with it. Hopefully the first step helps me get on my way. I spent a good amount of time doing keyword research and think I found a really good niche that will lend itself well to some Amazon Associate sales once it gets going. I have a long list of article possibilities already, with unique content possibilities and not just a bunch of product reviews only. Now I just have to write them all. But if I have a handful of original content written for the site launch, is it better to just have them all published on the site when it goes live and I start submitting to search engines, promoting the content, etc? Or should I start with a couple and then stagger publication over X amount of time, promoting as I go? (Keeping in mind I'll have some Amazon Affiliate stuff within those posts). Or does it matter when just starting out with no traffic? Also I know everyone is asking about themes, but the recommendations seem to skew toward AdSense-related, ie. Heatmap. Do themes like that work well for Amazon Affiliate-related niche sites as well? I see Thesis recommended a lot, not sure I want to shell out that much right away but if even for my purposes it really is miles ahead of other paid themes maybe I'll just go ahead and do it... Anyway here's hoping for some success! This thread has been an immense resource getting started. Maybe I'll post my site once I get it going for some goon critique 
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Jul 19, 2013 05:32
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Is there any point to doing a general site with products separated by category? Basically like gifts.com but smaller - or is that market so sewn up it's better to set up individual sites?
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Jul 19, 2013 07:57
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warheadr posted:But if I have a handful of original content written for the site launch, is it better to just have them all published on the site when it goes live and I start submitting to search engines, promoting the content, etc? Or should I start with a couple and then stagger publication over X amount of time, promoting as I go? (Keeping in mind I'll have some Amazon Affiliate stuff within those posts). Or does it matter when just starting out with no traffic? I generally will launch a website with 20-50 articles, and then will add 1-7 new articles every week. It varies based on the type of website, potential income and potential quantity of content. If you can think of over 1,000 articles easily for your website for example, are confident if it ranks you can make good money, and have the time - I'd launch with 50 articles and aim to add 1 new article per day. If you're more testing the waters and unsure - or if it's a limited niche in terms of content or if you just don't have the time - bare minimum for me would be 20 articles at launch, then 1-2 new articles per week. In regard to design - it depends on what you are promoting. Personally I'd go with the Wordpress default theme initially and just focus on content. Too many people get caught up early on in the design stage, ad placement etc. Once you're actually getting visitors - THEN you can start thinking "Okay how do I make the most money off these people?".
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Jul 19, 2013 14:34
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SuBeCo posted:Is there any point to doing a general site with products separated by category? Basically like gifts.com but smaller - or is that market so sewn up it's better to set up individual sites? I'd say it depends on your experience. If you're really good at what you do and are 100% confident in your abilities when it comes to SEO, Conversions etc then sure go for it. But I think by posting this you're probably not at that stage yet. I'd focus on individual sites for now. If you WERE going to go for the broader site - I'd recommend coming up with something unique. Something different to sites like Gifts.com. Something that none of those sites have that YOU have that make your site a valuable resource.
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Jul 19, 2013 14:37
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warheadr posted:Also I know everyone is asking about themes, but the recommendations seem to skew toward AdSense-related, ie. Heatmap. Do themes like that work well for Amazon Affiliate-related niche sites as well? I see Thesis recommended a lot, not sure I want to shell out that much right away but if even for my purposes it really is miles ahead of other paid themes maybe I'll just go ahead and do it... I use Heatmaptheme's "Authority Review Blog" theme with the Amazon Product-in-post plugin, seems to work well. If you can find a decent theme you like with a good Amazon plugin, that'll get you about 80% of the way there.
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Jul 19, 2013 19:04
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Kafka Esq. posted:I've been given a project by old employers that is really attractive but making me sweat because I'm simply not familiar with this stuff yet. I don't know if this is the best place for it, but I need some help, and the OP was really great for a start. If you're just needing an online store with a digital marketing strategy as well start with the store. Shopify is hilariously easy to get going.
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Jul 20, 2013 00:29
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Kafka Esq. fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Apr 26, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2013 14:12
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Does anybody else feel like the OP needs updating?
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Jul 20, 2013 16:33
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Zero Gravitas posted:Does anybody else feel like the OP needs updating? Half the links to folks' blogs are dead, at the very least. There is a lot of information further down in the thread that could be fished up from the depths to the OP, as well.
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Jul 20, 2013 19:44
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What the heck, adsense turned me down and won't tell me why. First I applied when I only had one post and they told me I should wait until I have more content and then reapply. So I put the blog together and had like 9 posts, and the whole sidebar done, etc. And it looks totally fine. It's a tech blog. What gives?!
Doghouse fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 00:39
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Anyone with a shopping cart recommendations for wordpress? Looking to sell a download someone can purchase right off my home page. Just looking for something basic where they would have access to the download.
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Jul 24, 2013 01:35
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Mr.Trifecta posted:Anyone with a shopping cart recommendations for wordpress? Looking to sell a download someone can purchase right off my home page. Just looking for something basic where they would have access to the download. A friend of mine uses wp estore and likes it. Fairly straightforward plugin.
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Jul 24, 2013 01:52
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I was just listening to a podcast the other day and they were interviewing this guy who apparently had a lot of success as an Amazon affiliate. He said something interesting, which is that he saw almost no sales from widgets. The majority of his sales were from links inside his posts. In other words, he would post a link to a product on amazon that matched what he was talking about. Pretty interesting, although it kind of seems a bit shady. But I guess it's really not. Kind of like when radio hosts do those spoken ads. He said that people seem to trust and be more drawn to something personally written by the author, rather than something that is clearly an ad.
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Jul 24, 2013 16:24
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In a lot of the researching about Amazon Affiliate sites I did I often found that people said the same thing. Apparently text links within the regular content work better than standalone widgets. Also linking a photo of the product because people like clicking photos. It's those giant widget boxes and "Buy Now" buttons and stuff that, as far as the research I've done, don't convert quite as well as just regular ol' links in the article. EDIT: just don't cloak those text links. Amazon doesn't like that and apparently will shut you down.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:23
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Doghouse posted:I was just listening to a podcast the other day and they were interviewing this guy who apparently had a lot of success as an Amazon affiliate. He said something interesting, which is that he saw almost no sales from widgets. The majority of his sales were from links inside his posts. In other words, he would post a link to a product on amazon that matched what he was talking about. Pretty interesting, although it kind of seems a bit shady. But I guess it's really not. Kind of like when radio hosts do those spoken ads. He said that people seem to trust and be more drawn to something personally written by the author, rather than something that is clearly an ad. Maybe it's not so shady if you get it integrated with your content properly. I can easily see why reviewing a book and then putting an affiliate link in would get more sales than a sidebar ad.
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Jul 24, 2013 20:48
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Doghouse posted:I was just listening to a podcast the other day and they were interviewing this guy who apparently had a lot of success as an Amazon affiliate. He said something interesting, which is that he saw almost no sales from widgets. The majority of his sales were from links inside his posts. In other words, he would post a link to a product on amazon that matched what he was talking about. Pretty interesting, although it kind of seems a bit shady. But I guess it's really not. Kind of like when radio hosts do those spoken ads. He said that people seem to trust and be more drawn to something personally written by the author, rather than something that is clearly an ad. This is what I do and it works pretty well. The widgets suck — don't waste your time on them.
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Jul 25, 2013 04:35
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Amazon provides linking codes and it's own URL shortener service for doing exactly as you describe. I'm not sure what you find shady about it. There are tons of blogs who's sole income comes from reviewing products from Amazon and adding affiliate links.
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Jul 25, 2013 06:13
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FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffff I just got around to trying to set up an Amazon Affiliate Account. ...I live in Colorado. quote:Do you live in one of the ‘banned states’ where Amazon won’t let you become their affiliate? These currently include: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It’s not your fault – you didn’t make the stupid tax law that tries to gather more sales tax revenue from online sales, but now you’re being punished. You bet your rear end I'm going to take this up with my legislators. I'm a goddamn up and coming small businessman.
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Jul 26, 2013 07:27
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California actually repealed their tax law and is off that blacklist now, but unfortunately for you all those other states remain on it.
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Jul 26, 2013 08:31
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I have some questions about Adsense. My wife's website got denied for lack of content on a site that is over 5 years old, is at the top of the results for certain search terms, and has a lot of static content. There are also forums, which were busy but are dropping off, and a blog which she has been updating occasionally (and recently much more often) for the last year. What gives? My main concern is that front page is just a welcome page with links to other parts of the site, and the blog and forums are subdomains of the site we applied under. Any ideas? Site is https://www.momswithra.org
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Jul 26, 2013 15:13
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SubjectVerbObject posted:I have some questions about Adsense. My wife's website got denied for lack of content on a site that is over 5 years old, is at the top of the results for certain search terms, and has a lot of static content. There are also forums, which were busy but are dropping off, and a blog which she has been updating occasionally (and recently much more often) for the last year. What gives? It's Difficult to tell. I really have no clue, I've never been denied but the page might look bad? You really don't need those links at the bottom so your words to links ratio might be bad? That would be my only guess.
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Jul 26, 2013 18:36
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That site is frighteningly out of date. The site code appears to have been created over a decade ago and you're running forum software that hasn't been updated in 4 years and is probably full of thousands of security holes. It's just not a very good looking site. I bet if you were to update your forums software, convert the site to a wordpress/drupal CMS and throw in plenty of images and more visually appealing content you'd be accepted. EDIT: Archive.org is saying the site has changed 10 times in the last 5 years and the text on the forum page has notes from 2006 and 2007. I'm not sure how often the site content is updated but it looks abandoned to me. FCKGW fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Jul 26, 2013 |
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Jul 26, 2013 18:47
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FCKGW posted:That site is frighteningly out of date. The site code appears to have been created over a decade ago and you're running forum software that hasn't been updated in 4 years and is probably full of thousands of security holes. It's just not a very good looking site. And that is the problem. We have a wordpress blog on a subdomain, but Adsense says to give the top level domain. We still would like the site up, as there is relevant information that comes up high on search results. The big issue is my wife (and I to some extent) are not web designers and really don't have the time and skills to do a complete overhaul on what is basically a hobby site. Would we be better off having the blog on it's own domain? Would Adsense really reject for content if the page looked bad? Is look and feel more important than content? Edit: Does content have to be updated regularly? I have a friend that has a couple of static pages with car information that hasn't changed in years that he runs Adsense on. They have a lot of sites linking to them and no outbound links though. A large portion of our site is advice pages with advice that is still valid and does not need updating. SubjectVerbObject fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jul 26, 2013 |
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Jul 26, 2013 19:09
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SubjectVerbObject posted:And that is the problem. We have a wordpress blog on a subdomain, but Adsense says to give the top level domain. We still would like the site up, as there is relevant information that comes up high on search results. The big issue is my wife (and I to some extent) are not web designers and really don't have the time and skills to do a complete overhaul on what is basically a hobby site. Would we be better off having the blog on it's own domain? Your site looks really terrible, but it sounds like you have a good community, and (honestly) it looks to me like you have a real opportunity (with some "drinking from a firehose" and some hard work) to move this site from a little hobby site you spend money on to something that could potentially make you some money, instead. But there's a lot of hard work to be put in. PRO * You have a memorable domain name. * You have history * You have a (smallish) community built already, though it sounds like it's dwindling a bit through neglect. CON * Terrible page layout * Color scheme by someone who's Colorblind, Living in a Geocities world, REALLY loves 'salmon', or some combination of those. * Stale looking content. * All the juicy good bits are hiding behind an atrocious, outdated front page. * Ancient, security-hole ridden forum software - that you have to click TWICE to actually get to the forums, and then (holy crap) they open in a new friggin' tab. I've been thinking about this overnight, and I'd like to discuss it with you more at length than a post would permit, actually. Drop me an email at JabsTheGoon at the google mail place, would you?
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Jul 27, 2013 20:15
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Kenny Rogers posted:Tough Love, right? Yeah. So here is the deal. That site is old, and we may just let it sit there. We have a blog attached to the site, and we use Facebook for the comments, and are getting increasing discussion and views on both. At this point, we may do the following: Stop using our forums, as there is more movement on Facebook now. This would reduce a lot of administrative overhead, as we spend a bit of time trying to stay one step of the spammers. We would keept the forums up but stop new accounts or posting and direct everything to facebook. Keep the website up, but let it be there as a resource. Our main goal with the website would be to get the traffice moved to the blog and facebook. We would like to monetize the blog. Would it be better to get it's own domain? Is there a way to make things acceptable to Adsense without redesigning the entire site?
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Jul 29, 2013 16:30
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Facebook is for engagement, forums are much better for seo. I'd keep the forums going if you can. Keep everything on the same domain. There are many more ways than adsense to monetize a blog, the best is affiliate marketing. Adsense can be great but until you've got a good quality score and great traffic it isn't the key to riches.
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Jul 29, 2013 16:48
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