Needless to say, I’m finding myself a little behind now in the program, but as much as i do not like it – i am still making progress each and every day and that is what matters.

The latest lesson entitled “Traffic Tornadoes” was really good, informative and motivational. As the name implies, the lesson was focused on… yep, you guessed it! methods used to help get web traffic to your site(s).

I am really looking forward to seeing what i do with these traffic methods.

So here we go – traffic generation – something i have not necessarily been too good at for the reason that it really is “work” and tedious repetitive work to boot!

The goal i have with this process is to get my feet wet, and trample on everything and anything i can do to get web traffic to my site myself. By doing so, and most importantly by analyzing the referring sources, i can determine where to focus my time and energy on based on the results I have received afterwards.

The 80 20 rule states this:

80% of your efforts will drive 20% of traffic
20% of efforts will drive 80% of traffic

So from what i gather from this, (assuming i understood correctly), your time should be broken down by:

Spending 20% of your time working on your content (blog posts, products, etc..)
Spending the other 80% promoting it or driving web traffic to it.

With that said – outsourcing any traffic generation methods that can easily be outsourced is my goal here, assuming that i can get it done for the right price and of course with minimal supervision required.

Now,

Traffic methods suggested by Alex to get web traffic:

Blogging

Oil Rig Hopping/ Review other internet traffic blogs

This means hopping from other related blogs and posting quality comments with a link back to yours.

Where and how to high traffic blogs…

Where?
http://www.winningtheweb.com/im-top-blogs/

How?
Type into google.. “<your niche> blogs” “<your niche> + blog”

Giveaways
Offering something for free to visitors who subscribe/join your mailing list.

Twitter
Twitter is a micro blogging service which you can use to build better relationships with.

You are allowed 140 chars/letters to a twitter post and any post you make on Twitter can be viewed by

anybody who is following you.

Think of Twitter as a text messaging service which allows you to send out messages to anybody on your contact list (people who are following you). Can you see the potential for traffic generation and more importantly business here if you have a large amount of people following you?

PS: you can follow me on twitter – http://www.twitter.com/colinpike

Youtube
Create and post your videos to youtube with links displayed inside your video.

Youtube links
Comment on other videos with a link back to your site.

Additional traffic methods I will be putting to use:

Building a Squidoo.com lens

Hubsites.com

Article promotion
Submitting articles to Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com and Articlecity.com.

RSS Submit
Another program which i bought which allows me to submit my blogs RSS feed to 65+ RSS Feed sites with a push of a button.

Yahoo answers
Visit Yahoo answers and start answering questions in your niche and leaving your url in your comment.

Optimize each post for SEO
I will be doing keyword research prior to posting any content on my blog. This will allow me to find a keyword phrase(s) that has good traffic and little competition that i can rank organically for. I can then take my chosen keyword phrase, insert it into my post title and optimize the post by inserting the keyword into the content.

Directory submission
Have the software packages Directory Submitter and Submiteaze for submitting my site to directories with.

These software programs basically semi-automate the submission process by taking you to the directories submission page and auto filling pre-defined profile information into required fields.

Put tell a friend form script on site

Search Engine Submission

Submit to Yahoo Site Explorer
Submit to Google Webmaster Tools

Alexa commenting
As the title implies – leaving comments/reviews on this site with a link back to your site.

Social Bookmarking your site/pages

digg.com
technorati.com/faves/
slashdot.org
furl.net
listable.com
propeller.com
flickr.com
searchles.com
socialogs.com
fluther.com
sk-rt.com
stumbleupon.com

You can also choose to use online tools that submit your bookmarks to numerous social bookmarking sites at once, such as:

Social Marker

In addition to this, i also have a plug in called Auto Social Poster on my blog which automatically bookmarks my posts to 20+ different social bookmarking sites.

Updating your Facebook Status after every Twitter post

Every Tweet you make in Twitter will automatically update your FB status, in turn driving more traffic to any link you include in your Tweets.

It kills two birds with one stone – saving you time.

To do this, add this application to your Facebook:

http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/

After adding the application to your FB, you’ll noticed a link button that says “Want Twitter to update your Facebook status? Click here”

Click it, and you’re done.

…

Although i do not know how i am going to go about recording everything i do in an organized fashion just yet, i can only assume that it will be setup in excel and i strongly suggest you do the same when setting up your plan for getting web traffic to your site.

There are tonnes of ways you can go about getting traffic to your web site, however this is a good starting point – don’t you think?

Managing one single project would not be so bad, but in my case i am not so fortunate – I am trying to manage multiple projects at once, 4 to be specific and although i know this is not a good thing to do as my focus really should be on one thing at a time to remain effective, i cannot stray from the other projects – all are important and essential.

What i would like to be able to do is have specific project records stored separately, but have my to do lists based on priority or by due date all run from the same location, but linked to the projects location to remain organized if this makes sense to anyone?

I thought i had this problem licked when i restructured last.

My idea was to create a single mind map which linked off to each project i was working on.

This main mind map would also have a to do listing where i could easily manage my priorities from, but this to do listing would also be somehow linked back to the projects mind map so everything was kept nice and tidy inside each and every project.

I am new to mind mapping so perhaps i have missed something along the way as i am really finding it difficult and much more timely that i had imagined.

If any of you would be so kind as to share any suggestions or tips on how you manage your workload(s), i would really appreciate it. Organization for me has always proved to be a big problem for me.

I have never only worked with one thing at any given time and i know i really need a good system in place otherwise i will suffer through the same struggles that left me stressing out last year.

Again, any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

In my upcoming posts i will be posting about my traffic generation plan, minor tweaks that i am currently working on with my blog as well as a complete visual overhaul that should be visible here in the very near future.

Stay tuned…

This year has been full of ups and downs for me, and while i have learned quite a bit this year, i have learned one very big lesson throughout the course of this year as I’ve found myself engulfed and feeling forced to sacrifice any social time i may otherwise have.

Let me first share what i am talking about more in detail:

I am involved in a partnership with a friend and we run a membership site. Basically we offer paying customers the ability to build back links to their sites and pages from a network of sites

we own.

We’ve done this to open the doors to better link building opportunities for ourselves first and foremost due to the model we’ve lined up, however the problem thus far has been handling a network that was continuing to grow each and every month.

What this means is that we built more sites every month.

While that task is really no problem at all, the problem lays in any change that needs to be made to sites within the network we own and there has been many throughout the course of the year.

What has to be done to one site in turn needs to be done to hundreds of others as well. For the most part I’ve spent the entire year maintaining the sites inside the network and it’s totally overwhelmed me and cut into any social time i used to have.

Could i have outsourced these tasks?

Ideally, yes. But my problem is trusting another person(s) enough to do these things for me and properly to boot. This is what i hope to change in the upcoming year though.

But back to the lesson I’ve learned here this year…

It’s better to ask for help and spend time working on things that will make money, rather than on tasks that run your business.

Does this make sense?

For example, look at it this way.

Working IN your business would include duties employees would otherwise do for you.

Working ON your business would include management, overseeing operations and just finding ways to grow your business.

After all, the whole reason why we do these things online is to open the doors to opportunity, not give us more work and responsibility right?

I hope that lesson can be a little time saver for those of you whom maybe have just started to get your feet wet.

Work ON your business… NOT IN your business!

Finally, to the real point of this small update.

I want to wish you all a happy and safe new year. With so much ahead of us, enjoy yourselves.

Prospero us times ahead for

us all in 2009!
Colin

I would encourage those of you who may need help with setting up and configuring your Wordpress blog to give this a read.  I have tried to keep it strict by focusing on just the key areas that you’ll need to be attentive

towards with Wordpress.

I’m not much of a writer, so i hope it’ll do it’s purpose just fine.

Appreciate any comments as always.

More to follow shortly…

Needless to say i am falling behind as a result these days and i am not happy about that! (fuel for the fire maybe? )

But, I have to say i am in no way surprised either. A good friend of mine always told me that my todo list will grow out of control when working on line and he was dead on with that statement.

It is hard to keep productive and focused when you are trying to work on too many things at once. Being sidetracked too often is enough to take the motivation right out from under your sails.

It’s very important to be organized, prioritized and focused on one thing at a time. I am practicing this as much as i can using Alex’s advice as i have spent the last two years especially totally engulfed in nothing but on line work relating to various projects that have forced me to sacrifice my social life (amongst other things).

I don’t want this trend to continue any longer.

If you can take anything from this small post, treat your on line business like a job. Do one thing at a time with the notion that you have absolutely “no choice” lodged in the back of your mind. So in other words – you won’t get paid unless you get the job done.

So having said that, i figured i would update you all with what i am currently working on for my blog now.

1. My Wordpress setup ebook which i have titled “BlogFu” is now completed and just needs to be formatted and packaged up nicely before it hits the shelves . If all goes well, it should be completed by the weeks end.
2. I will also be adding a resource section which will list the tools i have used to build my blog – from hosting all the way to organization tools. Basically anything i use along the way that i deem to be of use to you, the reader as i make my journey towards success through this coaching program.
3. I will also be writing an actual “About me” page to give readers and fellow students a better idea as to who i am.

Upon completion of my “BlogFu” ebook, i will work towards the module 4 lesson which talks about the real meat in my opinion – Traffic Generation!

I can’t wait! Traffic generation can be tough if you don’t know what you are doing, but as time passes, new tactics arise and i look forward to learning what will be taught in this section.

Without traffic to your site, you have nothing ultimately.

I will be posting about this as soon as i can along with what i will be doing to generate traffic and what i have already been doing in upcoming posts… Stay tuned!

Traffic is probably the biggest obstacle you’ll need to overcome before you are prepared for success and the best part about what is set to transpire here is that all traffic you’ll receive from this idea of Garry’s will be targeted – meaning those people who click on your link to visit your blog through his newsletter will be looking to find out what you are up to or what you may be offering on your blog. In addition to this, you’ll only need to do the work once and you are completely set up for as long as your links remain active in his edition.

It really does not get any easier than this – Virally generated traffic!

This is a great opportunity for students to get more exposure to their blogs through his newsletter – which mind you would be a great resource to personally have as well, so subscribe to his newsletter. The bottom line here is that i suggest you all head over to his blog and read more to get a better picture about this concept:

Get a slice of the 1 MILLION up for grabs

In a non-related update:

The Wordpress eBook i have been working on this past week has now is just about ready for it’s final touches and proofing. The draft has been completed to my satisfaction and it’ s looking good.

Should be ready real soon.

The only real obstacle i am facing so far should in turn be the easiest and is figuring out what exactly i want to name

the damned thing! If any of you have any suggestions, fire’em over!

With that said, i’ve decided to put my experiences/knowledge on paper so to speak and share it you, the readers.

Although it’s not set in stone – at this stage the guide is focusing more on the following areas:

1. Installing your blog in 5minutes or less
2. Blog themes – what you should be looking for
3. Plugins that i use and what they are used for
4. Uploading your theme, activating and configuring theme options
5. Plugin activation and configuration
6. The WP Settings that i personally use
7. Other configuration suggestions
8. Final notes

At this stage I’ve created most of the rough draft and so far it’s weighing in at a nice hefty 27 pages!, but i do hope to cut this down dramatically and focus this guide towards more of a step by step blueprint with the least focus on filler content and fluff!.

The main goal after all is to give you a step by step guide that you’ll be able to use to setup and configure your blog like i would in less than 30 minutes.

I am really looking forward to completing this!

If you have any things you would like to see present in this guide, please leave a comment and i will consider.

Creating a huge list on a blogroll just is not a very good idea for a few reasons. When a web site’s page begins to contain an excessive amount of links, it begins to give a site a spam appearance… which is often frowned upon by search engines.

I’ve created a page branching off the main page which is reserved exclusively for member blogs.

You’ll notice this link at the top entitled ‘friends’.

If you are a student and would like to add your blog to this listing – fill out the form on the friends page and submit.

I will review each site prior to adding listings.

We’ve all heard the saying … “the most important thing you can do right now is to take action!” right? It is so true. With so many distractions on the Internet, your profiting ability will always suffer so long as distractions exist around you. I am not sure where i heard this, but they say that for every distraction causes a lapse of 11 minutes in time that is lost before before you are back on track.

It is pretty easy to see where your time can go.

Forward to basics as it has been referred to involves familiarizing yourself with a proven business mentality and most importantly treating your online business as such.

So how can you do this?

This is actually quite a simple thing but oftentimes difficult to implementing.

• Work on one thing at a time. Do not juggle tasks.
• Neatly organize your work!
  Routing Number WHITE CROWN FCU

  A great way for you to do this is by creating and using mind maps.

• Eliminate the unproductive things when you are working on productive tasks. Only do email once or twice daily. Close it otherwise.

A very good way to help lay out where your time is spent

online on a daily basis is to ( as silly it as may sound ) keep records of everything you do online and how much time is spent. You can then later look at this information and cut back in areas where you are wasting time.

There is also a very nice tool online called Rescue Time that helps you with this: http://www.rescuetime.com

This lesson has been wonderful for me. Task managing is not easy for me when your todo list grows more and more each and every day.

Needless to say, i am impressed with the knowledge i have gained this week and i can honestly say that already i can see results in my productivity after implementing just a few of Alex’s suggestions and i would strongly suggest those who may be struggling themselves consider a different approach to their business operations.

Up next – Putting my Profit Pulling Platform online…

A mentor or a go-to person in other words.

When you have bought as many money making products and systems as i have and only experienced minimal success – you begin to wonder where along the line you went wrong!

In these days, guidance from a mentor can really determine whether or not you are successful or not online.

This is exactly where i am today and is the reason why i have put up this blog.

To keep a journal so-to-speak of my latest endeavor in a brand new coaching program that was just launched by a gentleman by the name of Alex Jeffreys.

I am very excited to be one of the few who have got into this coaching program as it sold out quickly!

Alex is just an average joe with a great passion and drive to succeed online. His story can be found online so i won’t go into much detail other than this guy earns well over 20k a month now and that success can be attributed to being personally mentored by a couple of the biggest names in the IM field… Mike Filsaime and Rich Schefren.

Stay tuned as i will be reporting my progress as i make my way through the mentoring program.