Jentrepreneur

My Online Business Goals for 2008

This year is coming to a close, and it’s time to re-think some business strategies and projects, and make plans for online business in 2008. While I have additional business goals (mostly revolving around print writing), here are some of my goals for next year revolving around my sites, digital products, and services:

1. Re-launch AudioXposure.com (my indie music webzine) - It’s been stale for a little over a year now I believe. It never monetized well. Well other sites started earning significantly, I let this one slide. But it was my first site, I love the niche, and I want to give it another go. It’s being moved to Wordpress sometime before the Spring (content’s already on the system on a subdomain). I’m also adding a forum and directory (which will replace my current indie music directory at IndieGuru.com). I’m also going back to managing it completely independently, at least in the beginning while I work out the kinks. I’m pushing this re-launch, as I’m also hoping to focus on another indie-music-related publishing project or two, and move more back to my music publicity work through my PR firm.

2. Change the BizAmmo.com theme - This isn’t a terribly high priority, but I’d like to get this moved probably to one of Brian Gardner’s themes (probably Revolution News). I want to revive the dead forum attached to this site, add a business directory, and finally finish up the small business ideas collection (I may release a limited set online and compile the rest into an e-book). This site is my highest earner, but becoming a chore and a place I really don’t enjoy posting to. I’m hoping that by freshening it up a bit, I’ll regain some of my passion for the project.

3. Post more regularly to my PR blog - This blog (NakedPR.com) often has my highest monthly traffic, because I write a good number of highly controversial posts there. It’s more of my “playground” than a serious business endeavor, but I’d like to find ways to better monetize it (it’s not unusual to get $1.00 + Adsense clicks here, but the audience isn’t the type that clicks ads often). While I don’t expect it to ever be a big income-generator (and that’s not the goal), it would be nice if it were earning at least enough to justify spending more time on it (and away from my development projects).

4. Redesign my business site and add a blog - My biz site (jhmattern.com) is also being moved to wordpress on another theme by Brian Gardner (Revolution Theme). I’m planning to add a more instructive PR blog here, and keep NakedPR for the controversial posts that amuse me.

5. Launch my E-book for authors - The e-book is a 90-day pre-launch publicity plan to help authors of books or e-books build pre-launch buzz prior to release. If it goes over well, I’ll be releasing a second version targeting webmasters about launching a site or blog.

6. Pull my first e-book off the market - My Press Releases Made Easy e-book will be pulled off the market once its replacement is underway. I’m expanding it, adding case studies and additional templates, and more. I also won’t make the mistake of offering resell rights on the expanded version, and will likely use affiliates to market it.

7. Overhaul my deep link article directory - This directory was the first of its kind (deep linking only to articles around the Web), and I still feel strongly that it has a lot of potential. However, the name, FreeDeepLinks.com hurts it with users looking for articles. I’ll be moving it to InfoLovers.com (I think that’s right) sometime in 2008, upgrading the directory script, and changing the design.

8. Re-launch CreativeSelfPromotion.com - This blog will be a lead-up to a book I’m planning to pitch to publishers hopefully before the end of the year.

There are quite a few more goals, but those are the ones at the top of my mind right now. As I complete them, I’ll post about and work towards others.

What are some of your online business goals for 2008?

Posted in Jenn's Work | 3 Comments »

Affiliate Marketing Update - December 3, 2007

It’s been exactly a week since I began promoting a specific affiliate product (The Six Figure Freelancer e-book) through ClickBank. I’d promoted one or two affiliates quite some time ago, but never with reviews or much attention drawn to them, so this is my first “real” attempt at affiliate marketing as an income stream for my sites.

I set a goal of ten affiliate sales for The Six Figure Freelancer during my first month. It’s not much for most people, but it would be enough to convince me to look into additional products to promote on my various sites. As of now, I have four sales, so the goal is looking pretty good. The first two sales came over the first two days of promoting the e-book, and the second two sales came on December 1st.

Here’s what I’ve done to promote the product so far (which pays $23.25 per sale):

• I added a text link to the top of my writing forums.
• I added an image ad to the sidebar of my freelance writing blog (the e-book is specifically targeting freelance writers).
• I wrote a review and published it to my freelance writing blog.
• I created a Squidoo lens (where I first posted the review actually) on Six Figure Freelancing - I added plenty of useful information there for freelance writers wanting to earn more, and didn’t just use it to advertise the product.
• I added a text link to my business blog in a sidebar above the fold (as a part of my plan to replace private advertisers with affiliate ads to prepare for a major theme overhaul where I won’t have room for as many private ads).
• I’ve included the affiliate link on this blog in my updates.
• I’ve included a text link referral in my email newsletter template that goes out with each newsletter from my freelance writing blog.

I think that was it so far. It really didn’t take very long to do, and has so far earned me over $90 (not much, but also not bad considering those earnings will likely continue for at least a little while with no more than two hours’ work).

As for what I can do to improve that, the biggest would be to work on increasing traffic to that blog. It’s not a high traffic blog by any means. I do need to start targeting a few keywords better for SEO, and I need to get myself posting a bit more frequently there again. Traffic was at its best when I posted daily, and ideally I’d like to get to the point of posting there twice a day.

If I do move on and promote another product, I’d likely find something for my book marketing blog next. I may even decide to do that sooner than the one-month mark, but I haven’t decided on anything yet.

So that’s the one-week update. So far I do have to say I’m happy with the results given the amount of time and energy put in.

EDIT: As of December 5th, I’ve made my fifth affiliate sale of this product, and have hit half of my monthly goal (ten sales) in just over a week. So as of now, it’s looking pretty likely that I’ll be expanding on my affiliate promotions in the new year with additional products and on additional sites and blogs.

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