Alive!!

Still here, still plodding on, but refreshed with renewed enthusiasm for social media. I have been making a few changes lately as I have been slowly introducing myself to 'Twitter' - actually I can see the point of it now, and am inspired to make some big changes. I am going to re-do may main site at 'Livewyre.NET' and finally transfer it all onto a Wordpress theme - being threatening to do it for years, still not got round to it.. However, that does present me with a slight problem because the old HTML (Dreamweaver) site sits on the root folder of my multiple hosting plan, along with other folder that contain all the other domains that I have. I really need to neaten up this arrangement, so that all my add-on domains are in one folder rather than added to the main root as if they were merely sub-domains. I don't HAVE to do this, but if I'm going to stick Wordpress in the root folder, I think it will be of benefit if I tidy everything up a bit first..
I think I have put some domains in the 'add-on' directory, and others are just lying about - there are also some 'dead' wordpress experiments 'lying' around that should really be put out of their misery...so..

STEP ONE: Sort out how Twitter is going to help me.. DONE
STEP TWO: Sort out my host server so it is a bit more stream-lined
STEP THREE: move all of Livewyre.NET over to a Wordpress Theme
STEP FOUR: Promote my newly presented and heavily updated Livewyre.NET posts on Twitter and watch the traffic come pouring in...

I want to tie stuff into my other blogs and Facebook too (grasping the nettle now, teeth gritted ... here we go!) and I really believe a bit of concerted effort can see my traffic increase in bucket loads, giving me a better platform for earnings in the future...and you can see all the updates right here on my first ever rickety old blogspot blog...

SEO made simple

Having recently 'published' a series on SEO on of my other blogs (admittedly, I should have done it on this one, but I needed content over there..), I recently discovered a really well-written free ebook on the subject, provided by Marcus Miller at Bowler Hat Solutions. 17 pages of valuable SEO information available in exchange for your email address is not a bad deal at all... Marcus also provides free information on how to plan a website, in fact the Bowler Hat Solutions site is geared up with all sorts of good free information for web-site builders.

As it turns out, providing good information is one of his key strategies, and his site certainly does just that.

So, once you have read my series on SEO (and possibly the one on getting organic traffic...), I recommend that you also download a copy of the guide by Marcus. Acting on these relatively simple hints and tips is sure to have a positive affect on any project you may be involved in.

New Website Launch

I have been working on a new site for a little while - a project that I have had at the back of my mind for quite a long time. The main idea behind the site to is to build and host cheap websites for local businesses, and maybe even branching further afield... I am calling it WebSiteTastic - I tried for domains like webtastic etc.. but this was the only one available, however it turns out that this URL has some previous history, so there are already some existing backlinks....

Of course, I am making use of my new unlimited hosting package which allows me to add new sites onto my existing server at no extra cost. Whilst I have pages in place being 'spidered' and indexed, I am planning to move this project to a Wordpress platform as soon as possible. My new hosting package allows me to create as many WP sites as I like, and WP designs are considerably better than my efforts with Dreamweaver.

Building clients sites in Wordpress also makes a lot of sense as it will allow the client to be in a position to access and edit their own content via the WP admin pages.

New Hosting Service is tops...

I am very pleased with my new hosting service, and have written about it here...
I am now paying a one-off fee to host all my sites on one service, and can add more domains for free. The package hosts unlimited domains and subdomains, unlimited databases and just about does anything you would require. The hosting is a secure service, so I am now using Filezilla (free) to FTP my files, as it has the required security settings.
It is also almost exactly a year since I started my SEO project and can report the folowing:
Contextual advert earnings: £28.44
Affiliates via eBay (paid): £5.00
Affiliates via eBay(pending):£12.00
Which makes a total of about £45, and a profit of £20 taking into account hosting costs. Of course, next year, my hosting costs are covered by my new package, and I will just have to pay for domain registration which is going to be about £3.50 for the year.
I also hope to use my new hosting package to put up some more related sites which should help to grow vistors and clicks. I am happy to report that I am getting regular clicks although they have been fairly low-paying.
To sign off on this year of the SEO experiment, I would say in conclusion that the effort has not been rewarded sufficiently in monetary terms, but if this continues to be a more or less passive earner next year, then the return will start to look a bit more worth-while. In terms of the learning process, I am pleased to report that discovering the key to getting a very specific keyword right to the top of Google searches has been invaluable. I have also learned that eBay affiliates can be worthwhile, my previous experience with them has not been particularly fruitful.
The learning process continues and hope to be able to put some of the lessons into practice in the coming year.

On Yer Bike!

My very first experience on a motorbike was on holiday in Greece, me and my two friends were very quickly made aware of just how tricky it was to handle a motorbike when you have very little experience (especially over sand dunes!)

I am proud to report that I was the only one of the three of us that escaped the first day without any sort of injury caused by lack of experience handing a motorcycle, although I am not saying that I didn't lose control... This was my first introduction to just how dangerous biking can be, yet with good training and plenty of experience, biking can be fun, convenient and save you a lot of money.

Nevertheless there could well be times when even the most competent of bikers will have to fill out motorbike accident claims, or even more serious...motorbike injury claims, in which case you will need to think about having a reputable claims service like ClaimantLaw.co.uk. ClaimantLaw will also look after your injury claims, which in most cases are caused by other road users. I can vouch for their expertise and they operate on a 'no win, no fee' basis and will fund the claim themselves.

I found it enourmously helpful whilst going through a very recent claim to have a service that handles all the different elements of the claim, and has one single point of conact to keep you up to date with developments.

Latest earnings report

Beyond Break-Even
For my simple SEO project, I am well beyond the break-even point of £25 now with a few months left to run.
Contextual Ads: £21.59
eBay partnership: £7.75
Total_________£29.34
Now, I am quite aware that a profit of £4 is not going to make me rich, but the purpose of the project is to see if a number of these sites can be built up to give a reasonable income, and so far the project is on-track. Once I have established cheaper hosting, then more of the turnover will become profit, turnover will hopefully grow a little and, once the project becomes part of a 'group' (all being within the same niche), the hope is that the sites being linked will give them vital relevant back-links that will appeal to Google.

Earnings update

My secret SEO project...
Has no PageRank
....yet is ranked No.1 in Google UK searches and No.3 in global searches for it's main key phrase.
I have now earned £19.16 in contextual adverts, and £7.39 from eBay partnership, so I have covered my initial outlay for hosting and have a few more months in which to turn a profit (I think I started in May 2009)
I have still not got added into BING searches which is a bit of a pain, but there doesn't seem to be much that I can do about it...
I am truly pleased that this project has broken even and will be even more delighted to move it to a free server later in the year making it far more profitable. I don't suppose it will ever yield much more than £50 per annum even with a fair wind behind it, but I am assuming that if I build some similar niche sites that all link together, I can generate a few hundred pounds. Once the project is completed, it will just sit there making small amounts of money for me, and I can move on to other projects...
I never expected this to be hugely profitable, but I am interested in how all these things work, so the experience at least is invaluable. I hope to produce future projects which will draw on all this experience, each time hopefully the projects will generate further income.