Following up with another short update on progress of the case study site after one month in action. The updates will start to space out further and further apart from here, but wanted to put a quick update in on the one month numbers.

Search Engine Rankings:
In Google it is still sitting at #9, Yahoo still at #2, and now in Bing it is down at #84.

Google Analytics snapshots (one month):

195 Visits, 454 Pageviews, 2.33 Pages/Visit, 64.62% Bounce Rate, 00:01:51 Avg. Time on Site, 91.79% New Visits

These differences between Yahoo and Bing search rankings are strange and with the ongoing integration of Bing search results into Yahoo they provide some cause for concern about the search engine traffic potential from the non-Google side. Determining the factors driving the substantial ranking differences and how to reconcile them if Bing has more influence on Yahoo than the other way around will be significant and may foreshadow a new challenge for webmasters if these anecdotal results hold true across other sites.

As mentioned above, this will likely be the last update on the case study site for a while as it has now been walked through the building process, the initial first couple weeks, and now the first month here. There will be some additional work on the actual site itself coming up from me, but no plans for regular posts on it here unless something changes. I think it has served its purpose as a training tool and a content generator and now some other content areas will be explored here. I hope you have enjoyed it.

With this post, we will close out the 30 post series on building a niche website starting from ground zero and ending with a functioning and fully built website. As we moved through this series a lot of ground has been covered and a lot of information has been shared. Here is to the hope that your startup site is already starting to see some good solid traffic and that backlinks are being built!

The final post closes with a couple of solid tips. One that can add to the revenue streams of a site and another that can help build traffic and backlinks.

Adding an advertising page that lets people know that you will consider taking ads on the site as direct placements is a way to put that idea in front of potential advertisers who may not have otherwise contacted you. Having the Contact page and Contact Form plugin installed as recommended earlier in the series does give potential advertisers a way to contact you without a separate page, but listing it separately can give it more exposure. In addition, if you choose to do this, you can go ahead and list desired pricing for different types of ads (text, banner, sidebar) and for follow versus nofollow, etc. If your traffic warrants it, then traffic numbers can even be added here. This approach won’t be for everyone, but for some sites, this page could help bring in advertisers who otherwise wouldn’t think about advertising with you directly.

Getting user generated content in the form of either guest postings or picture and video submissions can help to add some solid original content to your site while helping to engage with your user base. You can offer a link back to someone’s webpage when they provide a guest post on your site and this is a straight up win-win for both users. One person gets some good original content and the other person gets a link. This is basically what article directories do, but on a larger scale.

This approach can also be carried out with other sites in your niche if you want to do so. If it isn’t necessarily a direct competitor site, then you could contact the owner and ask if they wanted to write a post for your blog (or you could offer to write one for theirs).

Other user generated content can come in the form of pictures or video. If your site has a gallery area or otherwise uses images and video, then a call for user submissions may get you something to add to the galleries.

User generated content in the form of posts, pictures, video or any form can be a help to a site as it provides new content while engaging the readers of the site and giving a sense of community. It may also help in social media and bookmarking traffic as the users who have submitted content share with their friends and contacts, and if they are website owners themselves with their readers.

Use these final two tips to put the finishing touches on your website strategy.

I hope you have enjoyed these tips as well as all of the others in this series.

And that closes out the series of posts on building a website from an official standpoint. On an unofficial basis the plan will be to give occasional periodic update posts on rankings, traffic, links, progress, and anything in general that helps flesh out this series and provides validation or lessons learned for the reader of this site. Happy website building and internet business building and best of luck in your online endeavors.

Building an email list through an opt in form on your website is a tried and true principle of internet marketing taught by almost everyone as a method to use in growing your brand and adding monetization to a site. An email list can be used to send information about your site’s updates, send a newsletter, and market to by affiliate offers or in email advertisements. It can increase the “stickiness” of your site and keep users coming back for more.

Aweber is considered to be the premier internet mailing list program. It has a lot of the features that are desired in a mailing software including building the forms and code needed to add to your site as well as templates for different types of mails and newsletters.

With the autoresponder features of a mailing list management program like Aweber, it can be configured so that new subscribers receive preset emails after they sign up in the order and days apart that you set. This is in addition to any on demand emails you would like to send to your list.

This type of opt in and email functionality is often used to offer a special report, free mini ebook, or a several part tips or training course that offers a good free incentive for signing up. This way both parties gain value. The user gets some valuable content that can help them in the search for information they were looking for, and the website owner gets a subscriber to their email list that can potentially become a long term reader and customer.

If you use the signup form below to signup for Aweber’s test drive email campaign you will get a series of emails from Aweber which will answer questions and objections about Aweber, and why they should be the ones to manage your email marketing. This is a signup box with Aweber’s email list. Neither the case study site nor this site at the present time of posting this have an opt in added, in seeming direct violation of one of the commandments of internet marketing. That is something that is planned to happen in the future, but at present hasn’t been added yet. If you don’t want to signup for the email campaign from Aweber just yet, you can visit their site and look around first by clicking here.

And coming up is final post 30 with closing comments for now on building your website.

With the last post in the series some methods for monetization were discussed. At this point in the process of launching a site, the site is built, indexed, has some links, some search results, and is probably getting some traffic. After the last post, maybe you added one or more of the monetization strategies discussed and are hoping to see some clicks, commissions, or sales. So now, at this point, what happens next with the site?

One question needs to be answered first that determines the detailed answer to that question. Is this the end of your updating of this site except for maybe one or two posts a year? Have you said what was needed and made a nice resource site? If so, then maybe you don’t plan to do much except monitor the site in Analytics and Webmaster tools to keep an eye on it and monitor and test your monetization results for optimization. There is nothing wrong with this. As the site ages and gains more authority it will just set on autopilot and (hopefully) gain more traffic. Maybe one or two posts a year help keep it fresh, but mostly maintenance free. A lot of smaller sites in more static niches can fall into this category.

However, if this is going to be a site that has more future potential or is in a topic you are interested in, then you will want to post to it more regularly (multiple times a week or month) and keep the content fresh and the traffic increasing. If the site has a lot of untapped potential left then this is a good strategy.

If you are going to continue updating it, then a recommendation is to go ahead and lay out that plan so it doesn’t get lost as you move to building the next site. Go ahead and write down traffic plans, any ideas for great posts, any seasonal ideas (Halloween/Christmas/Holiday articles), basically any suggestions that come to mind to avoid any future writer’s block. Keep this a running list so that ideas can be added in the future. Keep in mind that to build a site that is considered authoritative in the future and gets good page rank (PR) then growing the site past 6-12 posts total is going to be needed, so adding to the content regularly is needed if that is a goal with the site.

I believe that the case study site has that potential as there is a large fan base (of which I am a member) and a lot of new content adding strategies. I think that there is a lot of opportunity for social media and bookmarking traffic as well as organic search results. There should be lots of items on Amazon and Ebay that can appeal to readers of that site as well as possible offers from Commission Junction partners.

With great content possibilities in text, pictures, and videos as well as some seasonal things that could help with traffic (Halloween costumes, Christmas gifts from Amazon, multiple conventions that are of interest through the year, etc) this site seems like a good one to grow. Largely untried at this point, I have some ideas for posts that can get some good social bookmark traffic and backlinks as well. Once there is a decent base of traffic, it is likely some user generated content can be added to the site in guest posting or picture and video submissions. I think there is good potential for a solid long term site.

As things continue to add to the case study site, periodic updates will be posted here as well, but not in the detail that has been in the series so far.

Next up is a post about opt in’s and building an email list.

Up until this point, everything in this series has been about building the infrastructure of a website, adding top quality content, and how to get traffic, links, and search engine rankings. Nothing about monetization yet. That is because without those things it is unlikely that a monetization strategy would matter because no one would find your website without them, and even if they did there would be nothing there to keep them around and coming back for more. This is why the series has focused on the things that will build up a good quality website which is the basis for building any future business and traffic on.

But now at this point with a good website that is probably starting to see some visitors and some search results it is time to start thinking about how to add some income streams to the site. There are several ways to go about doing this, and some of the top ones, especially to get started with, are listed below.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is the advertising arm of Google. By signing up as an Adsense member you will be allowed to display ads on your site for Google publishers and be compensated each time a user clicks an ad served up on your site. Google is one of several advertising partners available to use, but is a major player and is relatively easy to sign up for. If you have your Google account like discussed earlier in the series then head over and sign up.

It is worth mentioning that you should pay close attention to Google’s rules on how many ad units can be on a page as well as their website guidelines to make sure that you don’t violate their policies and get banned. Some key guidelines to follow are: never click on your own ads or encourage others to do so, have a good contact email address listed so Google can contact you with any problems, and stay in compliance with all Google recommendations including quality guidelines and their requirement to have a privacy policy published on any site serving up their ads.

It is recommended to not include Google ads on any so called made for Adsense sites (low quality one or two page sites that don’t have much content for example) or any low quality site as Google has been known to ban Adsense accounts of users using their ads on sites such as this.

Also worth mentioning, I have seen in personal anecdotal experience that adding Adsense to a site too early can have a negative impact on a site’s ranking in search engines. It doesn’t seem to be officially acknowledged anywhere, but it makes some sense as Google will want to try to ensure that spam sites aren’t allowed to get quick rankings then start earning Adsense dollars. As I said, this is some anecdotal evidence only, but if anyone has a similar experience it would be interesting to hear about in the comments.

Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is the affiliate arm of Amazon.com. By signing up to become an affiliate, you will be able to add text and image links back to products on Amazon that your website readers may be interested in. If they click over to Amazon and make a purchase, then you can get a percentage of the order as commission for the referral. Approval for Amazon’s affiliate program is usually quick and easy.

Ebay Partner Network

The EPN (Ebay Partner Network) is Ebay’s affiliate program. Using this program allows you to add text or image links to Ebay auctions and you can be compensated by users who click over and bid on or buy the products. EPN pays out on a per click basis, not on a commission basis. It can be difficult to get approved for EPN compared to other programs. It is recommended to apply only once a website is fully created with some good content.

Clickbank

Clickbank is the most commonly known information product (ebooks) affiliate program on the web. Signing up with Clickbank is quick and easy and you can get an affiliate link to place on your website very quickly. Clickbank is a marketplace for people who list their information products for sale through their website. These products are all also available for selling as an affiliate and you will get a commission for each product based on what is listed in its description. If you are a creator of information products, you can list your product here and make it available for others to market for you for a share of the sales value.

Commission Junction

Commission Junction (CJ) is another affiliate program that includes lots of companies with lots of different products and offers for sale. CJ includes different payment structures including commissions for product click-throughs followed by sales as well as cost per action programs where compensation is gained when someone signs up for something (a free trail for example) or performs a similar action.

Summary

There are a lot of other monetization possibilities including other advertisers and other affiliate programs in addition to selling your own ad space and your own products or services, but this should give you options to evaluate and consider for use on your website.

Remember the user experience when placing offers or ads and make sure that they don’t override the content. After all of the work to build a quality site it could be ruined as a ton of different monetization strategies could make the site look too much like one of those spammy sites we have all run across and ignored.

Next up in the series is making a decision about the future direction of the site and some future planning discussion.

In addition to allowing post and page comments from the readers of a site, an additional way to drive user engagement and community building can be to include a forum on your site or as an enhancement to your site.

By adding a forum, the website becomes an interactive community where readers can log in and not only comment on existing posts, but add their own content, questions, and answer as well. If a forum takes off on your site it will help build up its credibility and will make it more likely that the forum users will return.

One way to add a forum is with SMF (Simple Machines Forum) which if you are using Hostgator as discussed earlier in this series will be available to install via Fantastico and the SMF link on the left side of your screen much like when Wordpress was installed earlier.

If adding a forum in this manner, it will ask where to install it, and if it is going to be an add on to an existing site then adding a /forums directory after your domain name is a good suggestion. Setup a username and pass as requested and then add the forum via the Fantastico install. Forums can be a little harder to get used to and manage than a Wordpress site, but can add value to a site as mentioned above. However, they can be hard to get going as at first the forum will be empty and have no posts or active users. Expect it to take some time to get an active forum going. Making a serious go at creating a forum may be more appropriate once a site is drawing steady traffic or if the webmaster is prepared to put in a lot of initial time while it builds a solid audience.

Another plugin based method with Wordpress is to use Taaki forums. Available to install as a plugin, this forum method looks promising. Allowing a forum style that is more integrated into the Wordpress site structure this plugin has some good features and since it goes into the Wordpress install it is manageable via the Wordpress admin area like other plugins. This may be preferable to someone who wants to stay in Wordpress to manage the entire site.

Now that we have covered adding a forum as a possible feature of your website, the next post up is monetization methods.

Listing your website or blog in directories can be a way to build backlinks and some traffic although with a lot of directories the traffic can be secondary to the link building.

There are thousands and thousands of directories that are on the web. Finding a directory for your niche can be done by Google searching for your topic or keywords plus the word directory. A list of some quality general directories is a good future post idea, but for now we are only discussing what they are and how to use them, with the exception of one specific directory which is the big daddy of them all.

In general a directory is just a site that has categories and then allows for submission of a link back to your site. There are general directories and topic directories. They can also be free or paid. Be aware that some free directories will want a link back to their site and that some directories are full of spam sites. It is always a good idea to take a look around the site before submitting your site to a directory.

A lot of the better directories will have someone at least take a look at your site, and some of them require a blog to have been around a certain number of months or have a regular posting frequency to be listed. Like all of the other linking strategies, using directories will require some investment of time and energy to see progress. It is a little bit harder in my opinion than some of the other link strategies, but can result in what is considered a higher quality link (if there is such a thing?!) if getting into the better moderated directories.

It is time to mention the directory that is the top dog of directories. That is DMOZ and it is without a doubt the premier directory at the present time. It is a free submission directory, and each submission is moderated by a human being who is a volunteer for DMOZ. It is a notorious piece of web lore about how long it can take to be approved for inclusion in DMOZ, and some sites never are. Even though it can be a long shot or take a long time, the possible advantages of being in DMOZ are worth making a submission request.

Take note of the DMOZ submission guidelines
and follow them when submitting your site. Make sure to list your site in the right category and comply with all of their other requests to help aid in an approval.

It may seem strange since it takes so long to get approved and may not happen anyway, but because of the potential benefits I only submit a site once it is either fully built, or if it is going to be regularly updated, once it has some substantial content. Having a good site with good content should aid in DMOZ approval.

Getting into DMOZ can be so important because many search engines, directories, and other websites use the DMOZ database as an index/database and getting a site into DMOZ means getting that site in those as well. Being listed in DMOZ gives some significant juice to a site and should be a big win for linking and traffic.

The next post i the series is about adding a forum to your website.

In an earlier post we discussed article marketing in general and specifically using Ezinearticles. We wanted to focus on them first because of their size and consensus rank as the most important article directory for article marketing.

So, at this point, if you have submitted an article to Ezinearticles hopefully it is approved by now and it is live with a link to your site in the resource box. If not, then the suggestion is to wait until it is before sending it in to any of these other sites.

There are dozens of other article directories to submit to, but some of the most popular after Ezinarticles are Goarticles, Articledashboard, and Articlesbase. Similar to the social bookmarking, go ahead and start off with these, and then more can be found later. Another great future post idea.

In general, at each of these article directories you will need to register for a free account in order to be able to submit articles. You will need to read their submission guidelines as well since they will be different from each other as well as from Ezinearticles. Some of the other directories allow more liberal use of links than ezine does with either more links, more anchor text, or links in the article itself.

There are two schools of thought on submission to multiple article directories with the same article. One is that most of the smaller directories aren’t going to get much search engine love anyway, so their real value is the backlink and any possible direct traffic from the article directory user. For those of this opinion, no or very few changes are made to the article between site submissions. The other side contends that to avoid duplicate content and try to get more search love for your articles that they should each be modified somewhat from each other by using synonyms, different phrasing, reordering, and similar to make each article appear different. It seems like the jury is out there as each side has good points.

As mentioned above, when making submissions, I like to wait until my article is published on ezine before submitting to other sites, but after that I will submit to these sites listed to start getting the article out there and being republished through the article directory feed to get traffic and backlinks.

Next up is a traffic post about using directories to drive traffic.

Much of what was just posted about blog commenting also applies to the strategy known as forum commenting. With forum commenting, you go to a forum related to your topic and post questions, answers, posts, or replies and leave a link in your signature block and/or profile back to your website.

As mentioned with blog commenting, pick a relevant forum and add a good post with value to a reader. A good answer or interesting post will make it more likely for a reader to click through to your site.

When looking for forums to comment on, you can do a Google search for your keyword plus the word “forums”, or do a regular Google search and click the link in the left side of the page for “discussions.” This will usually list some good forum links with discussions about your target keywords.

While maybe not quite a forum, adding answers to Yahoo Answers is another way to comment and get traffic and a link that is worth mentioning in this post.

This one is a little shorter than the others due to some similarities and crossover with the previous post in blog commenting, but both can be valuable strategies that will reach different audiences.

Next up is more about article marketing. Basically what to do after ezinearticles.