Thread: $100 Per Month Case Study

I only use /%postname%/ and never had any problems.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

@Bogart - Strange that using Wordpress to set a page for your static home page is acting funny. Steps I'm using to do so are:
1 - Log-in
2 - Click settings
3 - Click Reading
4 - Under the "Front Page Displays" section at the top of the page, select "A static Page."
5 - Click the down arrow and choose the page to display as the site's home page.
6 - Click Save Changes

I had the same problem. I using the WP Sticky Plugin fouund here: PHP � Programming � Portfolio | lesterchan.net and using redirection to 301 redirect http://thesite.xxx/stuff/ to http://thesite.xxx to avoid duplicate content issues.

WordPress is good and free. But it is more a blogging software than a content management system. It takes a lot of time to set up a site and intergrate the adsense.

ClickBump Engine is popular for publishers building a lot of sites.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

While we're on the Wordpress configuration topic. For permalink structure (select "Settings" then "Permalinks" for those new to Wordpress), I'm using:
/%postname%.html
for my custom permalink structure.

Prior to shifting to this convention, I have used:
Year/Month/Post Name/ (selectable from the menu)
and on one-two sites:
/%postname%/

Anyone have any thoughts on what to / not to use here??

/%postname%/ is what I use as well.

/%postname%.html is for when you convert a html site to wordpress. So, you keep the same page name structure.

Originally Posted by bogart

For some reason, the static home page won't work for me.

When WordPress first added this feature there was a bug where two URLs were created (home page and the actual page), but they fixed that a while ago. You might be doing something wrong when you set it up because I use this feature most of the time when I build a business site for a client. It has worked well for perhaps the last year or two.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Anyone have any thoughts on what to / not to use here??

I only use /%postname%/ on any new sites. IMHO, the method that should be avoided is the use of the category in the post permalink.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

When WordPress first added this feature there was a bug where two URLs were created (home page and the actual page), but they fixed that a while ago. You might be doing something wrong when you set it up because I use this feature most of the time when I build a business site for a client. It has worked well for perhaps the last year or two.

I guessing that there could be an issue 1) when setting posts to 1 to display on the homepage or 2) that it only works with pages and not posts.

Originally Posted by bogart

For some reason, the static home page won't work for me.

This had happened to me to when the theme had a 'home' in it and i created another 'home' page. Can't remember the exact details but the solution was to change 'home' in the theme to something else so that it wasn't conflicting anymore.

12/16 Update
Ok, so here we go:
Plugins Installed:
Akismet
All in One SEO Pack
Google XML Sitemaps
Jetpack
Wordpress Theme:
Theme Used: Atahualpa
Like I stated before, I went with a theme that I probably use too much, but based on my workload (not involving this case study), it is acceptable risk to me to use this theme again (for now). I have gotten sucked into dorking around with themes for hours at a time before, and wanted to avoid that this time. Atahualpa is nice in that you can dork around a lot in the setup of the site in the configuration back-end for the theme. I have gone with a double right sidebar for now, though I may combine this to just one right sidebar as the site gets traffic. For now, Recent posts and categories are in the inner right sidebar, and 1 160 x 600 Adsense advertistment in the right.

Content:
- Main page of content expanded from 500 to 850 words.
- Keyword research for “top 3” articles and next 17 completed
I used a combination of Wordtracker and the Google Keywords tool. Neither is perfect IMO, but roughly for exact match searches for the “Top 3” we’re looking at:
KW 1 – 33,100
KW 2 – 22,100
KW 3 – 15,000
- Content for KW 1 and KW 2 is posted. Approximately 900 words each. 1 Image included for KW2, 2 images for KW1. KW 3 content to get up tonight.
- Contracted 15 articles to be written.

Monetization:
Site was not monetized until earlier today. Have incorporated the following ads:
1 x (160 x 600) large tower in the far right column. For whatever reason, the right column converts better for me on sports sites than the left column. This theme lets you do one, both, or double on either side.
1 x (728 x 15) Link Unit just beneath the “File Menu” section of the site.
1 x Large Square at the top left of the content and pages.
1 x Large Square at the bottom left of the content and pages.
As we discussed earlier in the post, I chose to go the route of not using a plugin to incorporate the Adsense for this site.

For the Right column, I just copy + pasted the ad into a Text widget and done.

For the Link Unit for this theme, I modified:
Index.php (Main Index Template), after the Header declarations, but before:
<?php bfa_next_previous_page_links('Top');
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post();

For new folks, the key is determining where your content is posted (ie the_post()) and putting the unit in a location ahead of this but after your site header.

For the large Adsense Squares:
The top left kind of kicked my butt til I stopped being lazy and actually looked up the HTML/PHP to wrap text around the Ad (like an image) so it wasn’t alone and unafraid by itself above the content.
<p class="alignleft" style="text-align: left; margin: 8px; float: left;"> Did the trick for me with a closing </p> after the Adsense block of code.

For the bottom block, I included after the post footer (theme unique I think here).
The bottom line if you are not a code editing person, is that you should:
1 – Make a copy of any PHP file before you start hacking on it
2 – Experiment. You can put plain text in (don’t break up PHP lines of code if you can help it) to get an idea of where your edits are going to show up on the theme.

For you code masters out there, I did not feel like mucking around adding my Adsense to CSS and such, so yes, if I upgrade this theme, I must redo these additions. Maybe once its making a few more pennies than $100 a month! (if we get there)….
For the Adsense Square colors: I used the default and changed the URL color from green to black. My site is a white background, so the default colors otherwise work for me.

What’s Next?
Web 2.0 ordered to point to the main page along with AMR blasts to this.
PR 3 Sitewide link in the same niche posted today.
Finish the 3rd priority article tonight.
Create FaceBook Fan Page and syndicate the blog content to the Page.
Setup the Auto post Page updates to Twitter
If not ranking yet on the “Top 3” or “Big 3” after Facebook happens, I’ll do some additional social bookmarking to those articles.

Continue with the plan stated in the first post. So far, so good.

What I Need to Watch:
Too many “Bright Ideas”…stick to the plan!
Link velocity. I have been filtered before on sites…that is no fun! Though I know some folks say to “Embrace the filter, blast the filter, if you escape the filter you will be stronger…” (aka Sandbox). That gives me high blood pressure though, so we’ll see if we can avoid it!

That’s it for now. More updates as I have them. Thanks for the feedback and info on all of the other matters so far as well!

---------- Post added at 09:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:06 AM ----------

Originally Posted by bogart

I guessing that there could be an issue 1) when setting posts to 1 to display on the homepage or 2) that it only works with pages and not posts.

Yeah, whenever I have tried to do this with a "Sticky" post or other scheme, it has just not gone cleanly for me. I use the page method now for new sites.

Originally Posted by bogart

It takes a lot of time to set up a site and intergrate the adsense.

Hi,

Setting up adsense can be done in seconds with this plug-in WordPress › Easy AdSense Lite � WordPress Plugins

Hope that helps

Sami

I think that with issues of "Link velocity", it may attract a human revue, but if your site contains good content, then it should not be affected IMO.

WordPress 3.3 has a permalinks option as standard now of /%postname%/

Watch out with Adsense plugins, they must not generate the code (for example, have a field to enter your ID), you have to cut and paste the Ad Unit code exactly as it appears in your account according to Terms of Use, so the text widget is a good way to go.

Originally Posted by bogart

2) that it only works with pages and not posts.

I have only used it with a Page and it does work well with that.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

What I Need to Watch:
Too many “Bright Ideas”…stick to the plan!
Link velocity. I have been filtered before on sites…that is no fun! Though I know some folks say to “Embrace the filter, blast the filter, if you escape the filter you will be stronger…” (aka Sandbox). That gives me high blood pressure though, so we’ll see if we can avoid it!

You should not be concerned about link velocity unless you plan to blast a thousand links at the site that all use the same hyperlink text. I usually start with 5 or 10 good quality links during the first week to get the site indexed and just keep building links as you find opportunities. As long as the link building looks natural, the filters probably will not snag the site.

Originally Posted by Andy101

Watch out with Adsense plugins, they must not generate the code (for example, have a field to enter your ID), you have to cut and paste the Ad Unit code exactly as it appears in your account according to Terms of Use, so the text widget is a good way to go.

I am still using the old AdSense cut-and-paste code on most of my sites. I ran into a problem about two years ago where most of my sites that were using the newer code stopped accruing clicks. The clicks resumed when I plugged in the old code. That may have been another temporary Google glitch that they will never acknowledge.

12/21 Update
Ok, so here we go:
Facebook Page – Up
Twitter Syndication – Complete
Facebook Syndication – Complete (I’m actually automatically syndicating to Facebook then auto-posting that to Twitter).
Total Number of Articles Posted: 18
Total Number of New Articles Ordered: 10

What I’ve Done:
Proceeding on the content development plan. All 18 articles are > 500 words. Average length is 800, longest is > 1100 words
Facebook Fan Page Creation – Done. One off post in addition to auto article syndication using Networked Blogs (found through Facebook Search). Then syndicated this feed to a sports Twitter account that I have with about 1,200 followers.
Ordered Web 2.0’s for the first 18 articles (and next 6-8 topics0
Ordered Article Marketing Robot blasts to the Web 2.0’s (when the Web 2.0’s are complete)
Ordered 10 x new posts

Search Engine Lessons:
Bing and Yahoo picked up the main content same day as posting.
Once I started syndicating to Facebook, Google started indexing content on the same day. Note, don’t know if this is just accidental or because of the Facebook page.

Current Site Traffic Report:
KW 1 – Ranking #12 as of right now, today (not logged into google accounts, going to google.com/ncr)
KW 2 – Ranking #65
KW 3 - Raking #10
Overall happy with the rankings for the "Top 3" and others since I've really not done any linkbuilding yet (waiting on the Web 2.0 orders, etc to come in).

Current Site Income Report:
$3.79 (From 12/17 to 12/20) from Adsense, eCPM is hovering just under $20…I expect this to settle out at a figure of > $5 and < $10