As this site continues to be my big petri dish to  experiment with  what does make money, what doesn’t this is the next chapter:

I’m taking a week off.

No, I’m not going to be slacking on beach somewhere or off to disney world. But I’ve realized that creating the content is half the battle. My readership is  few and far between, and well, I’d like to change that.  It’s great that I know I’m broke and that I’m now the top resource for pink kitty litter boxes but litter boxes aren’t going to get me out of debt faster

What will? Getting in the search engines for debt related search terms, which would result in more eyeballs and  more clicks on ads, or allow me to  promote other stuff. Be sure, my goal with this site is  two fold: sure, it’s fun, but I also want  (or need) this site to become a source of income over time. I’d love this website to be the reason I got out of debt.  It would be so ironic that my writing about debt would get me out of debt.

Remember that  movie? Field of dreams? “Build it, and they will come” . Well…maybe, but you need to promote yourself too, and that’s what I plan on doing this coming week. I’m going to post  articles on other sites. Why? Because that’s how you get links. The other site you post on gets a free article. You get a link back to your site – or a backlink  - and backlinks are the name of the game. The internet is just one big popularity contest – he who has the most (relevant) links – wins.

The sites with the most links  (and age)  and trust  get the most traffic, but I can’t keep up with posts here every day, do all the other stuff  I’m doing (I’ve created five other new websites this week, btw) and promote this  site too. I’ve done some testing with some other sites and I think If  I make some effort on promotion, as opposed to content  the payoff could be huge…or at very least positive. I don’t think I could have less visitors to this site if I tried.

The benefit of my efforts would result in targeted traffic to this site about getting out of debt, debt freedom or even pink litter boxes.  Traffic from the search engines  is what I’m after. I could care less about twitter and facebook  traffic as people with searches want to have a problem solved.  If I can get the search traffic, then I can turn the traffic into money. Money that goes towards the debt load. I’m way behind on my $40/day I need to get out of debt by  my ending date, and I’m  at least 100 days into it, and have enough countent to start with. Now I need the search engines to know I exist, and that’s my plan  this week.

I won’t be applying any sneaky tricks as they aren’t long lasting. I’ll just be writing and writing and writing about debt or credit cards.

Example topics might be:

How to get out of debt (like I have any idea)

Ten zero interest credit cards for canadians

Ten places to get great coupons for groceries.

and so on…

One reason I’m doing this is that I’m starting to see some search traffic  for my more boring posts such as the bank of montreal posts, but I’m competing with much stronger sites, even the banks themselves so I need to focus on the links as much as the content  and until today I’ve been focused on the content, but not the promotion.

A story:

Back in my youth, I graduated from school and realized there’s not a lot of job openings for photojournalists. So I had a friend  that made signs and I thought I could do that. So I jumped through all the hoops and managed to get a loan from the feds for a student entrepreneur loan.

I bought the shiny new computer, sign maker  and rented  a shop for my sign shop and as this was my first serious business, I paid for a yellow pages ad. The problem was the yellow pages ad didn’t  come out  for six months yet – if you remember the phone books only came out once a year.

So for the first six months of my new business. Nothing. I couldn’t make  a sign sale if  my life depended on it.  All you heard were crickets. Then  as soon as the yellow page ad was published  - my phone starting ringing off the hook. At one time, I had  a month or so of backlog of work I was so busy.  The other benefit was I started to get referrals from more established sign shops. I was a small one man show, and the bigger shops don’t have the time sometimes for bargain hunters. But as I was smaller , I  was willing to negotiate. I had a loan to pay off.

Not only did the yellow pages ad pay for itself but I got know in the Hamilton Area signmaker community which opened more doors  - all with that little yellow pages ad.

And, the internet is just one big yellow pages ad, and I need to get this website in the there. As it stands, right now I have a teeny tiny text listing on the internet. I want the big four color display ad.

To get that ad I can do one of two things.

1. Buy it. But I’d be spending money I don’t have to do so, so I don’t think that’s a good idea.

2. Work for it.  Get links from other sites – just like the referrals from the other sign shops, the search engines count your referrals, and if everybody  in town says oh ya – Jim is THE guy  when it comes to being in debt you can bet that the search engines will recommend me first, as their reputation depends on it too. Would you visit  the search engines if they recommended a site about pink litter boxes when you were searching for ways to get out of debt? You’d never come back. Search engines rate each website in part, based on how many referrals they have from other sites.

It sounds simple, and it is, but it’s hard work  and you don’t see the results instantly, which is just the same as the yellow pages. You buy the ad six months before it runs, and  climbing the ranks in the search engines is the same.

See you next week!