My baby steps to creating a 'proper' content site to monitise.

[JJMcClure]

I agree and it's pointless to try to monetize a content site when traffic is low anyway. Build your audience first and then monetize later. Focus on building quality content and getting it out there for as long as needed. Sometimes years.

That's the plan. So far I've only really been Tweeting and Digging and yesterday I posted an article on Reddit which generated a disproportionate amount of traffic, gonna try it again and see if that happens again.

I'm looking forward to when there's a enough new content to start engaging with the blogging community.

EDIT: Now I'm actually getting a bit of traffic the Analytics stats are becoming meaningful. I noticed that I have a 69% bounce rate and that's not good because whilst all the blog posts might be on the home page (and I should probably truncate those) there's a whole bunch of stuff in the top nav bar that most people must be failing to notice.

So I've moved the top nav from right at the top of the page to underneath the banner image. That should make them more obvious and hopefully get people clicking through to them.

[succor]

... yesterday I posted an article on Reddit which generated a disproportionate amount of traffic, gonna try it again and see if that happens again.

I'm apologize but I don't understand what happened. Please explain in a little bit more detail.

So I've moved the top nav from right at the top of the page to underneath the banner image. That should make them more obvious and hopefully get people clicking through to them.

Yes, under the banner is my preference from an aesthetic point of view. I would be interested to see what happens to your bounce rate after the move. I would hope it improves.

[JJMcClure]

I'm apologize but I don't understand what happened. Please explain in a little bit more detail.



.

I installed a social media widget on the site which enables people to share an article on Reddit or Stumbleon, or similar. I used it to post an article to Reddit and got a surprising amount of traffic. I've submitted two more since then and it hasn't happened again but the article in question has also had 27 Facebook shares so far which given the small amount of traffic this site is getting at the moment is pretty remarkable.

I think it's because of the subject matter, so that's an interesting lesson. Perhaps I should be targeting issues which are not only current in environmental terms but somehow tie into popular subjects.

[Kay]

JJ, I've been following this thread with great interest but I'm not sure I'm understanding it all.

The initial goal is to get some decent traffic and establish a reputation in the niche.

I like the idea of establishing a reputation. If you can achieve that, then you could even become the bod that the BBC trundles out every time they want a sound-bite from someone in the niche. You obviously have the credentials to do it.

It's this focus on traffic I don't quite 'get'. Sure, you need traffic in the first place to convert, but a lot of traffic is just a waste of bandwidth. I could create a traffic spike today by using Stumble Upon or similar. But it wouldn't do me any good (in monetary terms).

I'm also curious to know whether you're following a recipe for making money online or if you're drawing on your own experience and making it up as you go along. Personally, I prefer the latter because what worked for someone else years ago won't necessarily work for you or anyone else today.

How did you create your plan of action?

[JJMcClure]

I'm also curious to know whether you're following a recipe for making money online or if you're drawing on your own experience and making it up as you go along. Personally, I prefer the latter because what worked for someone else years ago won't necessarily work for you or anyone else today.

How did you create your plan of action?

I'm making it up as I go along based on what I've picked up over the years and I don't really have a plan of action except to slowly build up a 'presence' by viral means. As much as anything it's an experiment to see what does and doesn't work and get some actual experience of driving traffic, something I've never really done except through SEO and I'm trying to stay away from that for this site. I don't want to rely on search engine traffic.

It's forcing me to use facebook and Twitter and all the other social media sites and that's good experience.

So, my plan is that I'm hoping that people will follow the site. I started this thread partly for people like myself to see what happens and partly in case anyone who has done this before can offer advice.

(I hadn't forgotten your kind offer by the way, I'm dragging my heels because it reminded me that I planned to add a quiz to the site at some point so people can score how environmentally unfriendly they are and creating that has proved a little more challenging than expected.)

EDIT: When there's enough content on my site, I plan to start engaging with other blogs in the niche and expect that to pay dividends.

[bwelford]

It's this focus on traffic I don't quite 'get'. Sure, you need traffic in the first place to convert, but a lot of traffic is just a waste of bandwidth. I could create a traffic spike today by using Stumble Upon or similar. But it wouldn't do me any good (in monetary terms).

Traffic in its own right can hardly ever be bad. It's that old trick of getting everyone to look at something. What is everyone staring at? The visibility of the crowd may give others a reason for checking out the content.

[Clinton]

There are always other ways to monetise traffic even if visitors don't click on ads.

There are direct benefits like CPM ads. There are indirect benefits like an improved Alexa rank (which translates into advertisers being willing to pay more to advertise on your site). If your newsletter offer is attractive enough, some might sign up for your newsletter.

I'm sure there are other ways, but I don't have time for a longer post today.

[Kay]

Traffic in its own right can hardly ever be bad.

I wasn't saying that traffic is bad, it was more a case of saying not all traffic is good. I have more to say on the subject but I'll start a new thread rather than derailing JJ's one about his new site.

[mpcovcd]

Great thread so far! Kay if I'm understanding properly JJ is looking to get volumes of targeted search traffic, that differs vastly than just pushing traffic to your site from stumbleupon and inflating numbers.

[Kay]

Yes, it is a very interesting thread. I'm glad JJ started it.

However, your understanding and mine are different.

Great thread so far! Kay if I'm understanding properly JJ is looking to get volumes of targeted search traffic, that differs vastly than just pushing traffic to your site from stumbleupon and inflating numbers.

It didn't look to me as though JJ was going for SE traffic. See post #25.

I don't want to rely on search engine traffic.

Anyway, I started a new thread about the traffic side of it as it would be best to keep this one for JJ's case study.
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