Popularity: 9% [?]

I totally appreciate your feedback on how to stop my fan site from bouncing around the search engine rankings like a yo-yo.  It’s been a bit frustrating to see the stats go up and get butterflies in the stomach because I think I’m doing something right… only to see it completely crash - apparently not too many people love this fan site on the weekends.  Google doesn’t seem to like it much on the weekends either.  I’m hoping to see it come back this week - which would play into the whole dynamic/pattern I’m seeing with this fan site.

As I was skimming through my RSS feeds, ProBlogger had some interesting tips for working on a new site - what would you do sort of thing - which plays greatly into my fan site, since it’s still really new.   First step is to work on the SEO - get the meta tags, H1’s, etc all in line.  Then work on content.  Secondly work on getting links from sites/blogs that are in the same niche as myself.

It seems so logical and straightforward doesn’t it?

But when I’m setting this in motion, it isn’t that easy.  So I asked you… and I have to thank you for the great feedback I got for the question I asked.   Vido had a great suggestion - and one that I’d been pondering in regards to my fan site is that I might have put all my eggs in one basket.  So when the crunch comes - I’m feeling it hardcore.  If I was able to get a few more baskets (working on articles, submitting posts to other blogs and forums, different avenues of income) that I wouldn’t be hurting quite so much when the Google machine decides not to like my site much.

Pidea also suggested that I work on my backlinks.  I honestly have to say that I’ve been pretty slack with that in the last week or so.  I guess I need to find sites that are similar to mine - in the same fan base and promote the crap out of my site.  I’m thinking that instead of just the basic “here’s my homepage” link that I diversify that as well and have links from various sites - linking to various internal pages to my fan site.  Kind of break it up and it looks a bit more natural rather than such a focus on my main page?  Just an idea…

Stu has mentioned a cool plugin to try out for SEO - it’s an all in one SEO tool.  I’ve downloaded it and I’m going to be trying it out.  Anything to help the SEO along - I’m game.  Thanks so much Stu!

Now I’ve been really leary of bouncing into all this social networking stuff - and honestly it might be hurting my site, because I haven’t been.  Shobber offered up things like Stumbleupon, to increase my traffic.   My question to that is - I know by adding articles to things like stumbleupon, digg, technorati - that traffic can increase, but it seems so temporary.  Maybe I’m doing that part wrong?  Or is that the point, short bursts of traffic to get people to find the site and if they like it, it would be up to them to come back and add the RSS feed, etc?

I have to say with all the feedback that I got - I am actually thinking that “yes” I’m going in the right direction - and that this ebb and flow comes with the territory - and why am I finding this all out now - 2 years into the whole affiliate marketing adventure.  Honestly I’ve been lazy about putting things in motion and learning about them - head on.  I’ve built sites and let them go - never doing much with the follow-through.  This project is different.  I’m going to see it through as far as I can and learn as much as I can here to apply it to other projects that I’ve been thinking about - or have up and running, that need a lot of SEO / link love.

Oh … it’s going to get busy around here!  LOL.

Popularity: 4% [?]

My fan site has been riding the rollercoaster of Google Love and Hate for the past month.  In my last go around with my Fan Site things were marvvy.  Absolutely no problems - and I was starting to think that I finally knew what was going on and how to do better with the site.

Now I’m not too sure.

Again.

See the fan site has taken ANOTHER turn down the slipper slope to nowheresville.  I don’t know if it’s just the weekends that are killing the site, but I’m having one hell of a week.  Earlier this week I tipped the visitor scale of 160 unique visitors.  Yesterday I had a hellish day of 28 unique visitors.  This past week was awesome - visitor numbers were going up and I was blogging about the latest goings on with the fan site topic.  It was heaven.  Now I’m not sure what’s going on.  Nothing has change with the site - but my numbers have tanked.  Maybe I’m feeling the pinch because my numbers are low (but were going up) and now they’re not…

I checked DigitalPoint numbers and I’ve fallen off the Google charts with a number of my keywords.  Now here’s my SEO question to you… do I need to blog about these keywords very often to keep them fresh in the search engines?  Why am I showing up one day with these keywords and then the next day they’re gone?  Google doesn’t change the algorithm that often do they?  Is this because the site is new and I’ve got to hussle my butt and start getting more backlinks to various pages in the site?

I’m not sure?   Any insight as to why I’m this crazy SEO rollercoaster would be so greatly appreciated!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Here’s a quickie for you about the fan site I built back at the beginning of May. I sat there and lamented over the thought that I’d landed my site right into the sandbox. Only to realize I’ve not been put there “quite yet”… and I think the reason for the slow down was the long weekend (ah, Memorial Day) and maybe a glitch between DigitalPoint and Google - which all happened on that weekend.

Why do I say that? Because as of today I’ve beat last month’s unique visitors

… and it’s not even the end of the day I’m kind of happy about that. It means all that keyword research was worth it. I mean, if your new at affiliate marketing or working on websites - or if you’re an old hand at it, sometimes going right back to the basics. I’ve always hated working on keyword research and backlinks - it’s just BORING. But you know, I’ve spent a little time every couple of days working on articles. I’ve not been busting my butt, slogging it out - I’ve been working on this site because I like too. What a revelation is that. And you know, the numbers - so far - are showing that this extra bit of work, it’s worth it.

So Empress… tell me about the money you’re raking in because of your increase in visitors. Well, I’ll tell you. I’m doing better with Adsense. Actually the past few days have been the best results that I’ve ever had running Adsense. Seriously. I know that there are probably better ways to monetize the site that will bring in more money… but for now my experiment leaves me with Adsense and so far it’s good and getting better as my payouts go.

So in just 7 days … I’ve done very well for my fan site - I base this purely on my own past experiences with Google Adsense, and it’s been dismal. Every 4 months - if I’m lucky. If I can stick to the keyword development and working on backlinks (which isn’t so easy, when I’m trying to do it for free and not have to pay for the deal - because I currently don’t have a budget for that. Ahhhhhh….. *minor breakdown… I’m alright!*

Alexa has finally given me some ranking too - I’m burning up the charts with 8,448,860 - whoo hoo!

But it’s looking pretty rosey as far as the fan site goes right now - and I hope talking about it doesn’t jinx the run of luck I’ve been having.

I heard from SponsoredReviews - an advertiser rejected my review. I even went cheap to do the deal. Maybe they didn’t see the site as a good fit. I don’t know, I was going for reviews that I think would have a pretty good audience here. But what the hell - there are 8 more on the list that I’m waiting to hear from. So screw ‘em.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I haven’t really been working on anything new lately. I’ve been letting a lot of domain names go - if I’ve not worked on them in a year… they’re gone. I just don’t think there is enough time in the day currently to build and build and build - and then not put in enough time developing the SEO part of it to see these sites achieve some traffic and momentum to make me a couple of dollars. No matter if the domains are a couple years old. I can’t hang on to them.

It’s just feeling like a money pit.

I’ve been working on my fan site on and off and I’ve just realized that I’m not completely in the sandbox. I’ve been bouncing all over the place with the numbers this past week - and for the past couple of days *knock on wood* my numbers have steadily increased in both keyword positions and traffic to the site. Almost 100 visits for the past 2 days. Not bad for being just shy of a month old. So I’m not sure I ever hit the sandbox… but damn that was depressing! I love the site, and even though I did mention a while back that I might eventually sell it… at this point, I’m leaving things the way they are. I’ve been tweaking the index page to make it a bit more interactive and interesting… I’ve got a ways to go - but it’s getting there.

I now have to kick it up a knotch with my music site. Project #2 on the list of things I need to do. It’s making me money at the moment - I’ve gone such a long time where it was so hard to monetize. I’m still not sure how to do it… but I’ve lucked out so far with Text Link Ads - they’ve been an awesome revenue generator for me. For June I’m going to be making over $100 with them for the first time WHOOO HOOO!  So I’m thinking I need to start pushing more content through my music site… and keep people interested in advertising there.

I’m still thinking of what to do next - do I buy an existing site… develop a domain that I’ve had floating around for a while… do I start a brand spanking new site?  Oohhhh the possibilities.  (Also just how much work do I want to put into my next project… LOL.)

Keep you posted!

Popularity: 10% [?]