niche super-site

Bringing Things Into Focus — New Post Frequency

by Mark E. Mason on April 8, 2008

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the problem of being a "Jack of All Trades and a Master of None." In that post, I talked about how challenging I found it to work on Internet Marketing (IM) part time. IM can be all-consuming. I complained in that post that I had not actually "finished" anything. That post was written at 32,000 feet over the pacific ocean on the way to Hong Kong and eventually to Singapore. I guess the air in the passenger cabin must have been thin, because in the same post where I was complaing about how busy I was, I also argued that I should buckle down and increase my post frequency. Go figure.

Garry Conn Warns of Blogger's Demise

Last night, Garry Conn brought all of this back into focus for me with his outstanding post entitled "Is Making Money Blogging Killing You?" In his post, Garry argues that blogging for dollars is a cut-throat competiton, and that it can totally consume you. He compares the blogging mindset to six-man chess, and argues that this 24-hour-a-day competitive lifestyle can impact your relationships, your health, and your mental state. I often say "Blogging Ate My Brain." I think that is what Garry is talking about. To make matters worse, I am not making money blogging. I am not trying to build a blogging empire. I have other plans, and the blog (which I love) is just a small part of the revenue strategy. So, why in the world do I want to redouble my blogging efforts? Answer -- I don't.

Really, Garry makes the strongest of two arguments for a reduced post frequency on MasonWorld.com. Garry's argument is that when you are building readership, you need to allow enough time for people to find your post. Based on my experience on this blog, that is at least two days. The other strong argument has to do with my long term business plan for my internet marketing hobby. Long term, I am interested in getting onto the information marketing end of the internet marketing business. Josh Spaulding warned in a post about information products last November that you need to be careful not to spend too much time blogging when your business plan tell you to work on other things. Read the Full Article →

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Niche Super-Site: Elvis Traffic Starting to Build

by Mark E. Mason on April 7, 2008

Last week, I updated you on my Niche Super-Site Project, History of Elvis. My strategy of going after long-tail keywords paid off, and I demonstrated a front page ranking for history of elvis using link directory submissions. (It is important to remember that there are links from this site to the Elvis site as well). This organic search engine ranking is starting to "pay off." In the last 30 days, most of the traffic to the site has come from search engines as seen below:

ScreenHunter 01 Apr. 07 13

It is interesting to note that 15 searches in the last 30 days came from AOL and MSN. I never pay attention to those engines, but I have heard it said that the people using AOL and MSN are generally less computer saavy and have higher conversion rates than their Google bretheren.

What are people searching for?

Read the Full Article →

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Niche Super-Site: Checking In On Elvis

by Mark E. Mason March 28, 2008

Several months ago, I started a case study of the Elvis Niche. I built a site, added content, and demonstrated that I could rank for a very long tail keyword with no competition. As I mentioned in that post, I felt like there was no stopping me after I ranked for “Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible [...]

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Make Money Online from Singapore

by Mark E. Mason March 19, 2008

Well, it’s early morning in Singapore. What a beautiful city. I woke up this morning to one of those confusing moments where you are not sure what city you are in, but you are positive you are not home. I hate that. Last night as I was leaving Hong Kong, I got a message from [...]

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Niche Super-Site: Plan for Building Traffic

by Mark E. Mason March 12, 2008

So much has been going on in the last few weeks. Most obviously, I was able to convince Garry Conn to redesign my blog and create this killer custom theme just form me. Garry is a great guy, and he knows a heck of a lot about niche IM. On top of that, he is [...]

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Caroline Middlebrook’s Stumble Email Course Contest

by Mark E. Mason March 7, 2008

I have mentioned how much I like Caroline Middlebrook’s blog before. Caroline’s eBook on building niche sites in WordPress inspired my current “Niche Super-Site case study.” It’s inspiring to watch her progress because she is doing what I want to do — having success making money on line without going down the “snake oil path.” [...]

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Niche Super-Site: A Visit from Garry Conn

by Mark E. Mason March 6, 2008

Wow! I left a voice mail for Garry Conn today on his site, asking him about my Elvis project, and got an amazingly helpful reply regarding the development of my niche site. What a nice guy. Check out his post about HistoryOfElvis.com. Garry’s blog is really great. He tells it like it is, so bring [...]

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Niche Super-Site: Testing the Long Tail Keyword (3)

by Mark E. Mason March 3, 2008

 Well, I did it. In a previous post, I declared my intent to test long tail keyword theory. Now, I proudly rank on the first page of Google for the highly competitive term “Elvis Aaron Presley Collectible Necktie.” What does this tell me? Look out “internet marketing” and “make money online.” Mark Mason is an [...]

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