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

Improving my ads, analyzing with Analytics and seeing some progress

Very slowly but very surely, my business project is getting up there.

My wife and I went out on the weekend to get more pictures of some places I wanted to write articles about and we ended up visiting 7 different free museums in downtown Mexico City that afternoon alone. There were a lot of museums we didn't have time to visit since we were very tired after that but now I have lots of pictures and experiences to write about.

I installed Google Analytics in my site using the Google Analytics Drupal module. It's amazing how much information I can obtain with it and I have been using it to improve my site. I especially liked being able to see the bounce rate to see how effective my landing page is after visitors get there as a result from my Adwords campaign.

I am also working on a new version of my site trying out different Drupal distributions and themes before I make changes in the actual website. 

I also started my Adwords campaign. At first I was having a very high bounce rate as I was sending visitors to my home page, but I found much better results as I created more specific ads that lead to specific sections of my site, especially to the ones that are better connected to products from my affiliate networks.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453976?hl=en

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6080602?rd=1

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

My First Web Business

These last couple of weeks have been some of the most intense of my life. I have been working over time and doing some important projects, the most important one being my web based business.

I had a steep learning curve with Drupal, but now I'm so glad that I chose it not only for the satisfaction of achieving something challenging but also because now that I have installed and customized all the modules that I need and built the ''back bone'' for my website, adding new content will be really easy; I will just have to type it, give it format and Drupal will publish it right where I need it automatically. 

This has been a great experience so far, and next week will be even better as I launch my Adwords campaign and see the website actually working. 

I have found very nice Affiliate Networks and I have applied to them as well as to Adsense. I also got a lot of insight from Affiliate Marketing and Adsense forums with people who have more experience. Now I'm just waiting for my application for several of those programs to be completed and start placing my ads or links in an intelligent way. 

I am also excited about creating new content. I hadn't realized that I like photography! I am looking forward to going out with my wife, visiting places and writing articles about it using my own pictures and experiences. 

So, here it is! This is my very first website: www.saliradentro.com

It is written in Spanish.

Work in Progress

Working on my website

So, I decided to start building my website using Drupal. When I first started doing it I was overwhelmed at how difficult and complicated Drupal looked. But everything is going well. 

I've also been trying to apply what I learned about web design from this great article: https://www.webwiz.co.uk/kb/website-design/ and translating that into the website model that I have in my mind. 

I have also been looking for affiliate networks to use with my web-business and I have found some very interesting options; I'm just concerned about the logistics with the payments, but it doesn't seem too complicated. 

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!