SEO

Here we come to the mystical world of SEO. 

I have to admit that I had heard about ''SEO'' for a long time but I never knew what it meant until a couple months ago when I started learning more about Search Engine Optimization, or how easily can search engines find your website.

There are a few factors that can affect your website's SEO:

Keywords: Include Keywords that people are looking for but are also relevant to your website. It is important to focus on quality rather than spamming the website with the desired keywords.

Back-links: How many links lead to your site? This is a very important point too, and these links must be high quality links too, not just spam.

Site optimization: How long does it take to load? Is it easy to see in all screen sizes? What about mobile devices? All of this affects visitor experience in your site and how likely they are to return.

Be unique: Not only create original content; make that content so unique that your site stands out from the crowd.

Make it shareable: If you were a visitor, would you share what you found on Facebook or another social network? Make your content interesting, and make sure your URL's are simple and reflect what your content is about.

There are much more ideas to be applied on a site for SEO.

I recommend this guide.

And if you use Drupal you might want to take a look at the SEO Checklist Module

I still have a long way to go for my site. I'm learning and applying these things by trying and making mistakes.
My site (In Spanish): www.saliradentro.com

Ads, getting traffic and getting ready

The website (in Spanish) is taking shape, although I really want to make some major changes on it. I found some interesting Drupal distributions and modules that will allow me to do a complete makeover for my website and make it more like what I want it to be but I haven't had the time to do it. Another obstacle is that I don't want to lose what I already built doing an experiment that might or not work.

The solution: I am creating a local website using XAMPP to create a server and installed Drupal there, then I will create a sample of the website layout and features that I want and see how it works before doing it in my actual site. That way the process will be smoother and faster and I won't miss revenue and visits now that I'm about to start my Adwords campaign.

I am also happy to say that I just earned my first $0.10 from Adsense and I started having clicks on my affiliate ads! It's not a lot but it is an important milestone for me. I got this little traffic by creating a Facebook page about my website, inviting my friends and my wife's friends to like it and then posting links to the articles in my website.

This week I learned a lot about Adword ads. I had some experience creating Facebook ads campaigns for a couple business projects and this is quite a different system with a few things in common. With Adwords I choose the keywords I want to associate my ad to rather than purely demographic information. Adwords also provides a lot of feedback on the effectiveness of my ads and my Keywords through the ''quality score''

I am very excited about officially starting my Adwords campaign tomorrow. I also have a lot of ideas for articles and sections that I am about to create as well as a YouTube channel associated with my site and turn it into a whole online magazine.

Tips for Adwords Ads: http://www.addme.com/newsletters/issue269.htm

Getting started with Adwords ads: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704392?rd=2

Getting actually started

In the last few weeks I have learned about the different types of online business, how I can use Google's Keyword Planner to analyze different business ideas and decide which one is my best option at the moment. I also learned about the different tools that I have at my disposal. Now I am about to get actually started and build my first online business. 

I have decided to merge some business ideas, adapt it to my current situation and availability of resources and focus on creating content to attract visitors and refer them to other websites who offer compensation to affiliates. I have requested my wife's help because of her field of study in college. As I talked to my dad he brought up the fact that he already has hosting space available as a benefit from our internet supplier and that I could borrow it for a few months as I start the business and then move to a different hosting service when he needs it back and I have already kick-started the business; so, right now I'm looking at the hosting service he is offering me for free and the web building tools that are available with it.

Some tools that I want to share:

This is a top 10 list for hosting companies : http://www.top10hostinglist.com/

This is a course development course I purchased a couple months ago in Udemy and I'm trying to complete during my spare time: https://www.udemy.com/complete-web-developer-course/#/

When ideas are hard to come by

I am the kind of person who finds it very difficult to get started with things. Whenever I have to write an essay I struggle for days just thinking, looking at the paper and wondering how I could start. I have discovered that the best way to start is... starting. I start writing the first thoughts that come to my mind about the subject, my mind starts working and the rest of the essay is smooth and easy. However, the ''blank page phobia'' is still there every time I have to start a new assignment. 

I discovered in the last couple weeks that the same happens when I try other things, like starting a business in this case! However, this is the solution that I found:

I started keeping notes about problems that I found around me; everything! From the difficulty of keeping my desk clean to how to improve public parking lots.

Then I started with more specific business ideas. Even if the business sounds impossible or if it doesn't make sense at the beginning. I found that if I don't let those ideas develop I will never get to the good ideas.

Then, I realized that everything is possible with determination, knowledge, perseverance, and making your idea unique, like Seth Godin's purple cow on the side of the road.

For whoever finds this entrepreneurial journal:

I would like to share some resources that are helping me refine the business ideas I have chosen. The first one is about Affiliate marketing, or how you can earn money online by referring traffic to sites like Amazon.org or even Oakley sunglasses and earn money by the sales you generate. 

The second one is a presentation about lessons learned from the success of Dropbox and Xobni

http://adamsmith.cc/from-zero-to-a-million-users-dropbox-and-xobni-les

After watching this I really felt that I was able to do anything I wanted to accomplish!

Getting Started With Web Businesses

I had been thinking about starting a business on the web for a while but I really had no idea how to do it. I started trying to sell books through Facebook and looking for affiliates. I even bought advertising in Facebook in order to target a specific kind of customer without a lot of success.

This semester I have the opportunity of taking a class about creating web businesses. I'm in the second week of the class and it has been great! I was terrified at first because I actually need to create a real business during the class and I didn't think I would be able to do it, but the things that I have learned so far have helped me feel empowered and confident that I can actually succeed at this!

I have a lot of ideas in a list that I'm making and I'm doing a study in order to decide which idea to use for the business. One of them is what my wife and I have been planning to do for a while: A website that shares the best places and tips for tourists visiting central Mexico. I also want to create a business that I could manage with my dad. He just lost his job today and he tries to keep a calm expression but I can see that he is really sad. He is a computer engineer and has some projects he's been talking about for a while; now that he lost his job he wants to try them and I want to be able to help him with what I learn during this class.

One of the things that amazed me the most this week was how easy is it to use the tools from Google Adwords like the Keyword Planner. I will share a video of how it works!

Web Businesses

It's been a couple months since I wrote on this journal. Life has been hectic and I haven't been able to accomplish some of my goals on time but I'm getting there slowly.

I'm taking a web-business creation class in college right now. It is very challenging because... I actually need to create a web business during the class! This is the first week and I'm learning the basic business models on the web and getting some ideas of what I might do.

I found some very interesting material that applies not only to online businesses but to any person who wants to be an entrepreneur. First of all, this website that gave me ideas of how I can brainstorm business ideas! now I'm carrying my notebook and writing about every problem or difficulty I see in front of me.

http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org/brainstorming-business-ideas.html

Next, there's this video I watched as a part of the class that teaches an interesting concept: the magic box that generates money:

I'm not a great fan of those websites that sell information of how to make money online doing exactly what they are doing, but the concepts in the video are interesting and valid for any kind of business.


The last thing I wanted to record in this journal for today:

Last week I met with a High School friend. We are planning on starting a business on our free time. We are refining the idea and getting the plans ready so I won't share a lot of details since we want to be the first ones in our city to offer our product. I have some many things that I want to try that I don't know how I'm gonna fit them all in my schedule but it makes me feel very excited!