Art Of Money

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I’ve been running an Art of Money monthly recap for the last few months with earnings etc, but it has been pretty consistent for the last couple months and July was no exception, so I figured I switch it up a bit and give more of a business update of what I’ve spent my time on for the month of July.

Continuous Learning

I am continuing my way through the Building Profitable Websites course at University 20/20. The module that I am currently studying is about building a website content blueprint using their market intelligence tools.

Once I got my hands on the Theme Zoom tool I had several revelations. For starters it was clear to me that it blew my previous keyword tool (Keyword Elite) out of the water because it measured keywords not only based on traffic and cost, but on relevancy.

In practical terms this takes keyword research to a new level, since the term “real estate agent” may be worth a lot more in context of a hot market in a big booming city, than it is in a small town.

The real purpose of a tool like this, and the education behind it, is to make a significant presence in a market, with the least amount of work possible.

Give me a million pages of quality content, and a million incoming links and I’ll dominate any market online, but I’m lazy, I want to own “make money online” for example with 50 articles and 100 incoming links. To accomplish that you need next generation research tools that allow you to identify and target the most profitable segments of a market.

That’s what Theme Zoom and University 20/20 are all about. This month I upgraded my Theme Zoom membership to the full meal deal, which sets me back $250 a month, which is a lot, but I’m constantly blown away by the data that their system provides.

Outsourcing Steps

I was able to take 2 significant steps towards overcoming my objections to outsourcing this month, which I consider a major accomplishment!

Blueprint Creation

As soon as I started playing with Theme Zoom I realized the potential of it, but it has a steep learning curve. On the sign up page it says “this tool is not for the beginner SEO” and they try and funnel beginners into the University 20/20 courses to use Theme Zoom Sampler and Lite versions.

I immediately saw that it was going to take me a while to get proficient, but I have at least two or three sites that could benefit from the creation of a content blueprint and, since they were older sites with established links and search engine trust, they would begin paying dividends right way.

So, I posted a notice on the Theme Zoom forums and hired a pro to create a blueprint for me. This way I get a 3 or 4 month head start and I a great example to follow for my projects.

Blog Writing

The best move I made in July though was to outsource the blogging on one of my older sites. The site is profitable, so now it is making money and growing in value without any direct involvement on my part.

I just headed over to Elance, posted a project request for a blogger, picked the best applicant and that was it. I wrote up a set of guidelines so that if (when) he leaves, it will be much easier to get a new writer up to speed.

The best part? He’s a way better blogger than I was in that topic (personal finance). In his first week one of his stories got linked up by the Wall Street Journal!

The cost? Not as much as I would of expected.

New Project

I started 2 new sites this month, one was more or less an online journal for my SEO notes. It is called “Topical SEO” which I thought was a cool name, one that I discovered via a happy accident.

I was trying to visit a site that I read regularly, Andy Hagan’s fantastic Tropical SEO livin’ the dream, and I typo-ed the URL as I entered it and ended up at topicalseo.com which I was surprised to find still available, so I grabbed it.

Sure enough the site does get good direct type-in traffic (meaning that it receives traffic without any incoming links or referrals from search engines. Domainers regularly target misspellings of popular sites and then put ads all over these typo sites. If you can find a bunch, it can be the ultimate online business), which means that I’m not the only poor typist trying to visit Andy.

I won’t be updating it daily or anything like that, more than likely in spurts as I learn something worthwhile. Right now it has mostly my Theme Zoom notes, so you can get an idea of what they are teaching, if you take a look.

Ninja Blog Setup Service

While I haven’t done any real promotion, I have opened my latest project, a free WordPress installation service, for business. I’ll be running some AdWords in the next week or so and I’m using it as a test project for my Theme Zoom and University 2020 learning, so we’ll see if I can dominate this market, based on the content blueprint that I create in my class.

Have a look, signup for my blogging tips and let me know any thoughts you may have. Here’s a concise breakdown of the blog install service.

That was a busy month, do you prefer this type of update to the facts about traffic and earnings?

Jon