AJ is Always Juggling

Life online is constantly evolving and it is hard to keep up with changes and new ideas. It is so tempting to get sucked in to every new site that comes along and before you know it, you are spending all your time discussing what you should be doing, rather than doing it.

This summer it will be four years since I first started writing online and I have made huge progress. This progress is not as fast as it should have been, because yes, I confess – I network too much. I spend too much time writing for the benefit of others and it has to stop.

What I call my “productive time” needs to increase and I have been heartened by the fact that the time I do spend for “me” is becoming more profitable. I am learning to take the keyword research I do,  use it to get traffic and now my conversions to sales are also on the increase.

It’s also so obvious that much of income generation is a numbers game. The more keyword optimised and unique content you publish, the more you will earn. And I no longer pay much attention to the actual monetary value of any products I promote. If it is relevant to what I am publishing and people are looking for it, then a few cents here and there soon builds up.

I am also pleased that I am gradually making more sales on sites other than Amazon. I never want to be too dependent on one site for income, whether it be an Affiliate Site or a Publishing site.

Much of my current affiliate income continues to come from The Hunger Games and, although I am now considering new niches to add to my affiliate armour, I continue to publish pages in that niche. With a new film based on the second book in The Hunger Games Trilogy, Catching Fire soon to go into production, chances are that the third book, Mockingjay, will also make it the big screen. This will all help to keep the merchandise popular for a few years yet!

My newest Hunger Games pages are:

Rue TShirt
Mockingjay Review
Katniss Clothing
Gale From The Hunger Games
Books by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games Toys
Hunger Games Collectables

And I still have more planned

The people with whom I network know that I will never discuss my exact earnings, but March has been so good for me that I don’t mind discussing percentages. Even before the final figures for March appear on my Amazon account, I already know that my earnings are up 200% over February.

Much of this is due to my newest niche: The Hunger Games.

Thorough keyword research has allowed me to find myself a nice little spot in a very competitive niche and I was even getting visits and making sales within 24 hours of publishing and I had no backlinks whatsoever.

The keyword research is not only useful for getting traffic, it is also great for identifying related topics about which I ca write. My latest offerings are:

Hunger Games Hoodie

Rue’s Lullaby

OK, so it is March 28, the next sort of holiday on the calendar is April 01st – April Fool’s Day. Time to publish some April Fool’s pages on Wizzley, Squidoo or Hubpages, right? Wrong. It’s too late, well too late for 2012 anyway.

You can go ahead and publish, but the pages probably won’t do anything in time for this year – but they will be well established for 2013.

Planning ahead is crucial for you to be able to build traffic, so at this time of year you should be thinking ahead to May and June. June is great, because there’s Mother’s Day and then Father’s Day. July is great for the 4th July.

Mind you I really excelled myself with one of the new pages I recently published in my Hunger Games niche: Hunger Games Gifts and Stocking Stuffers – hopefully that will be well established for the Christmas Shopping Season.

It’s the same with The Hunger Games Calendar. It is not exactly the Calendar Buying Season, but by the time the 2013 Hunger Games Calendars start arriving on Amazon in August/September time, this lens should also have built up some authority.

I am hoping that another page Hunger Games Bags will be one of those “evergreen” pages that will do well all year round.

The internet is full of people with opposing views. Many can make their cases clearly and politely, without resorting to name calling or accusations. Others, in an apparent attempt to reassure and persuade people to their point of view, end up by losing the moral high ground when they resort to slap-downs.

In the last three days I have been called an anal cow and accused of stirring up a tempest in a teacup. There has also been a reference to people who would rather stir up controversy and keep an argument going, than listen to others that I rather suspect was aimed at me too.

I AM listening to others points of views, in many cases I respect them, but I don’t have to agree with them, particularly if they claim they are not violating copyright by pinning image son Pinterest. Yes, in some case they are not, but in many instances they are and in my view, nothing excuses it.

Being called an anal cow actually amused me no end. A stickler for good grammar, I could not resist responding to “Your an anal cow and your lenses should be boycotted” with:

“You need to correct your grammar. What you should have posted is “You’re an anal cow” rather than “Your an anal cow”!

So what did I do, to attract this sort of attention?

Well I have been making my own little stand against Pinterest. I published two pages, which make it quite clear how I feel:

Pinterest? No thanks not Pinterested

and

Please Do Not Pin My Images on Pinterest

I have what for me are very valid reasons for not wanting my Images posted on Pinterest, as I explain on Pinterest? No thanks not Pinterested. I am within my rights to say no one has permission to post my image son Pinterest.

So why on earth should it upset other people so much? Ah well….

My recent experience with a newly published page on Squidoo would seem to be testimony in support of the opinion held by those who keep up with what Google is up to, that Backlinking is getting less important these days. Just 23 hours ago I published a new page on Squidoo: The Hunger Games TShirt. Within hours it was getting Google traffic and it had made a sale.

The Hunger Games is a huge niche. It is probably the biggest niche I have tried to “crack”, but with consistent sales over the majority of my Hunger Games pages, it looks like I am competing.

So how do I manage to compete?

I believe these are the factors that are contributing:

• The pages are being published on Squidoo – a platform that Google likes and the very fact that the pages are on Squidoo seems to give them a “boost”
• I do careful keyword research and analysis on the majority of pages I publish – particularly those where I am writing in a “hot topic”
• I write unique content

Yes, I also backlink, but my recent experience is starting to make me think that sometimes backlinks just do not matter. I am not ready to take a chance and really test my theory yet. We know that Google likes new pages and seems to reward them with a boost, but I will still add at least 10 backlinks to each page I publish. Then I will wait and see what happens. If traffic stalls, then I will add more backlinks.

Another page I published a couple of days ago: Hunger Games Gifts and Stocking Stuffers has not shot out of the starting blocks at a sprint like the other page. But this is a page with Gift Giving at Christmas in mind, so there’s no hurry. However, I am starting to backlink this page and we will watch and see what happens.

I for one will not mourn the passing of the need to Backlink. I would much rather do my keyword research, publish and then move on, relying on the keywords and the conternt to do the “Google promotion” for me. But despite what has just happened with The Hunger Games TShirt, I will continue to Backlink at least for the time being and then watch developments.

Following on from my last post about why I am Not Pinterested, I did a broadcast on Blog Talk Radio last week and such was the interest I promised listeners that I would summarise what I said and publish it for those who wanted to read through. I was going to blog about it, but I had so much information I decided to make a Squidoo page about it instead: Pinterest? No thanks, not Pinterested.

The information was aimed mainly at Squidoo members, but it does apply to anyone who is publishing and pinning. However, I was amazed when I checked my Stats to doscover that I am getting Google traffic as well as Squidoo traffic.

You can find out everything I have to say about the Pros and Cons of Pinterest at Pinterest? No thanks, not Pinterested.

The thing about publishing on Squidoo is that you need to understand how Squidoo Page Rank works, as well as understanding about SEO.

The Squidoo “Lensrank Algorithm” that determines how successful pages are within the Squidoo site has never been published, but experienced Squidoo members can tell you what is generally considered, even if we do not know exactly what weighting is given to the various factors that combine to rank the pages.

Some of these factors include artificial boosts, such as:

• How often a page is updated
• Blessings from Squidoo Angels – basically a thumbs up from people who have the power to boost or “ding” a page
• Affiliate sales using the Squidoo modules for Amazon, eBay and Cafe Press – you split the commission with Squidoo
• Clickouts to other sites
• Squidoo “likes” from other Squidoo members

Other Page Rank factors include what you would expect, such as amount of traffic from Google and the other search engines. Squidoo pays members depending on Squidoo page rank, so the better the page rank, the more you can earn.

Page rank takes no account of any affiliate sales made using direct affiliate links, that bypass the Squidoo Sales Modules.

For someone like me, trying to conduct an experiment on the efficacy of Jaaxy, a new keyword research tool, it has been important to measure the success of external traffic and resist the temptation to network on Squidoo to take advantage of the artificial lens rank boosts. And this is the reason I have not promoted my niche account within my networks on Squidoo and Facebook.

So far I have published:

Hot Pink Shoes

Pink Dell Laptop

Pink Diaper Bag

Pink Coach Purse

Pink Kitchen Stuff

Pink Apron

Pink Play Kitchen

Pink Lap Top Bags

Pink Planners

Pink Laptop Computer

Pink Sleeping Bag

Pink Tote Bags

Pink Kitchenaid Mixer

Pink Sapphire Engagement Rings

Pink Diamond Rings

However, I have to admit it is frustrating knowing that the Squidoo ranking of these pages would definitely benefit from some visits from Squidoo members, while I wait for them to build authority on Google.

On my main Squidoo Account I have published:

The Hunger Games Apparel

Hunger Games Posters

Summary: Catching Fire

Where Can I Get A Mockingjay Pin?

Hunger Games UK

These pages are doing very well and some have shot up the Squidoo Rankings and if they maintain that level, will not only generate affiliate income, they will also make money from Squidoo payouts.

In addition to the Hunger Games Pages, I have also published Salt and Pepper Shoes – this is at the suggestion of my eldest daughter who is a great fan of these shoe designs. Fab and funky, they are also very affordable.

So far, the pages published using keywords identified by the free Google Keyword Research Tool are outperforming the keywords selected using Jaaxy, but it is too early to draw any conclusions.

One of my goals for Squidoo in 2012 is to increase my overall income by 25% compared to my income for 2011. To do that I have published pages at a faster rate and made them more focussed by narrowing the niche.

I know that through keyword research I can get traffic, but I need possibly less traffic but traffic that is more targeted. As a result I have made the following pages:

Pages published on Squidoo so far in 2012:

Bullying Help

Music for Hunger Games

The Hunger Games Games

The Hunger Games Review

The Hunger Games Shirts

Hunger Games Clothes

The Cast: Hunger Games

All pages made in the hope of making more sales.

However, I did publish one very personla page: Goodbye Dad

One of my goals for 2012 is to build up my portfolio on Wizzley and reach 50 pages by the end of March. I have 15 top go, so I am not sure i will do it.

So far, in 2012 I have published:

Home Made Skincare

Home Made Foot Soak

Natural Cleaning Recipes

Bullying Signs
Bullying of Gays

What is Cyber Bullying?

Bully, Bullied, Bystander

Bully Diary

WarHorse Review

Dreamboats and Petticoats

Medge Kindle Covers

Going Green Ideas

Some of these pages have been “repurposed” from Blogs I am in the process of deleting and a couple have been brought across from Hubpages.

Adsense revenue from Wizzley is increasing and I have seen a few sales on Amazon, so all in all quite a good start to the year.