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December 2008, First Progress Report

Posted on 03. Jan, 2009 by Derrick.

Ok. . I have been meaning to do this report a while ago, but now that a whole month has passed, I thought I would do a complete month report on what results I have achieved and how much time and money I have invested so far:

Web Traffic Statistics

So first up are the statistics: below is the google analytics for the month of December. Bear in mind this current Blog was only established on the 21st December (prior to that I was using my personal domain name) so really it is for the first 10 days and over christmas. Click on the image to open into a full size image:

Just over 100 Visits - So nothing amazing there (Yet) - and haven’t reached my initial target of 1000 visitors.

But what have I actually achieved in this time?

1. Got my head around wordpress and an understanding of how to set up a word press blog
2. Learnt about some of the best ways to get traffic and started using them.
3. Started to get to know some of the other students!

Capital Invested:

1. Alex Jeffreys‘ Coaching Program : US$497
2. Domain Names : US7.69
3. Aweber Autoresponder Account : US$19/Month
4. Screencapture Software US$89.00
5. WebHosting US$24.95

Total Costs Accrued : $637.64

Time Invested

Total Time :  87 Hours (Approximately 2 Weeks full time)

So what are the takeaways.  Looking at the time breakdown, I definitely probably shouldn’t have spent so much time working on the look and feel of the blog itself, and spent a bit more time on traffic generation strategies.  I think that would be the main takeaway, focus more on the things that will make the biggest impact on my blog.

Also I’ve been rather picky with the look of my site. . you may notice the site changing quite a bit as I find the right look for it, to the left is  a screen shot of how it looked before.  .any comments thoughts and suggestions would be most appreciated.  The reason i’ve changed from that theme, is because I was told by other students, they thought it looked too comical and not serious enough - what do you think?

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The 3 Steps To Making Money Online - The Road Ahead. . .

Posted on 27. Dec, 2008 by Derrick.

Ok, I have to admit its been difficult to get to the blog this week, with Christmas and all, and right now I’m also doing a bit of spring cleaning, and getting ready for 2009.  Anyways, before I review and summarise the Key Traffic Generating ideas I’ll be deploying. . I thought  I would quickly outline the business model of making money online as I understand it and the considerations one needs to take into account before embarking on this worthy venture  Here are the THREE Stages as I see it:

1. A Web presence - so this basically involves getting yourself some cyberspace.  some web real estate.  And just like buying real estate, it can seem very complicated and can be time consuming if you don’t know what you are doing.  I plan to put a guide together of all the steps you need to take to get some of this cyberspace for your very own: Here is a basic outline below:
   1. Come up with a domain name and buy it
   2. Subscribe to some ’server space’ to host your website / blog.  This is essentially a computer that has some of its hard drive allocated for your website / blog and is ALWAYS connected to the internet, so that anyone can access your website/blog at anytime
   3. Create your website / blog using the relevant software
   4. Customise the look and feel of your website & Optimise the functionality (eg having an area to display your 5 most recent posts)
   5. Create original and informative / entertaining content that people want to read and learn about.
2. Drive Targeted Traffic to your website
   1. This will be the subject of my next post - I’ll be discussing what are some of the most effective ways of driving quality targeted traffic to your website.
3. Monetize Your Traffic
   1. This means you need to have products and services that you can either sell, or recommend relating to the main subject of your website / blog.
   2. If do intend to sell your own products, you need to have a platform / system in place to accept orders and payments and fulfillment of your products / services.

And that’s it!. . As a concept quite simple, but in practice? well, we shall see!  In my next post I’ll be sharing the key points from Alex Jeffreys‘ last Module : Social Media Money - which covered the role of new social media like Facebook, myspace and twitter in the world of ecommerce / internet marketing.

Dont’ forget, if there’s anything particular you have a question about, or want to know, please leave a comment below, so I can make sure (or at least attempt) to give or find the answers for you!

Stay Tuned!

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