Thread: Weight Loss Blog Case Study

Lead capture through an e-book and using the blogesphere to cultivate target is a good idea. Especially when you consider that search engine traffic is not what it used to be.

I moved the boilerplate pages to the footer (privacy policy etc.), and added some more "pages":

Videos - related videos that I think people will like (trying to avoid marketer uploaded videos)
Products - a table of Amazon product links, plus my explanation of how I found the product useful
Progress - goals + measurements + weekly progress updates
References - links to sources of information that I based my opinions on (plus embedded videos)

Currently I'm stacking my full posts up on the home page to give a large amount of content on the home page rather than having post snippets. It will be interesting to experiment between snippets, latest full post + snippets and full posts later in regard to SEO.

Only 3 posts so far, but I think that they should be interesting to read for my target market, and I am not posting too frequently.

Traffic up to 35-42 uniques daily.

I commented on only 2 other blogs so far, and mentioned my blog to Facebook friends.

One tactic for getting readers would be to find other bloggers doing the same kind of thing as me and hook up in the blog rolls (as friends).

1 post a week is good. Otherwise you may run out of steam. I suggest writing a couple of posts and keeping them in reserve. This way you can continue to update on a weekly basis using the reserve posts even if you are to get busy.

The second suggestion that I have is to add 336x280 adsense ads into the posts using this code inserted into the main page in the loop.

This will insert ads into the first two posts. You can change it to three if you have no adsense in the sidebar.

You will need to put the adsense code into a file named ad1.php

Code:

<?php  if ($wp_query->current_post < 2) { ?><div style="display:block;float:left;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;"> 
<?php include("adsense_ad1.php"); ?>	
</div>
<?php } ?>

@Andy,
One q I had for someone else starting new was on main page strategies. I didn't know if you were sticking to the rolling blog post or were going to go to excerpts at some point? I haven't done this method for a full launch before, so just didn't know what you were thinking.
I normally make one long page to set as the home page or do the excerpt thing (or a variation based on the theme) so was curious.
Nice work! On your egg post...I'm in western France right now...eggs are crazy expensive for some reason at the grocery (and we are in the countryside!). Don't know if late December is just bad for eggs here or if its the economy since my last trip in the summer.

J

I suspect that it may be best for SEO to have excerpts so that the articles may rank better on their own pages. Also, visitors going to the home page from blog posts may be more likely to respond to the Ads. I'm not too worried until I have more traffic and content to experiment with.

p.s. I've no idea what eggs cost, my wife buys them LOL. Free-range is apparently expensive. You should probably eat Escargot in France instead.

Originally Posted by Andy101

I suspect that it may be best for SEO to have excerpts so that the articles may rank better on their own pages. Also, visitors going to the home page from blog posts may be more likely to respond to the Ads. I'm not too worried until I have more traffic and content to experiment with.

Yeah. With 10 posts on the homepage, the vistor gets lost and you are less likely to convert the traffic.


However, when you show the full posts it increases the content to ad ratio.


Perhaps, show 2 full posts and the rest excerpts.

Originally Posted by Andy101

p.s. I've no idea what eggs cost, my wife buys them LOL. Free-range is apparently expensive. You should probably eat Escargot in France instead.

South of the border, you get the eggs from your free-range chickens in the backyard.


According to the lagringasblogicito the cost of an egg is 15 cents.

There are some photos to check out on my blog now: Photos

Originally Posted by Andy101

There are some photos to check out on my blog now: Photos

Nice touch with the photos. Can you add a description for each photo? I think that will help you SEO-wise.

BTW, plenty of eggs! I like them hard-boiled.

Nice touch with the photos. Can you add a description for each photo? I think that will help you SEO-wise.

BTW, plenty of eggs! I like them hard-boiled.

I did what you suggested.

I guess it does seem like I am over-dosing on eggs, but I do eat a lot of other foods. Today I got to my lowest weight in many years: 88.2 kgs (I had to double-check the scales to be sure), so maybe I have the makings of the "egg diet" here? But I think that I was a bit de-hydrated. I cycled to the swimming pool but it was closed. And I jogged in the snow.

Tomorrow, I may re-attempt to get into the pool when it is open, and try out HIIT swimming.

Originally Posted by Andy101

I did what you suggested.

I guess it does seem like I am over-dosing on eggs, but I do eat a lot of other foods. Today I got to my lowest weight in many years: 88.2 kgs (I had to double-check the scales to be sure), so maybe I have the makings of the "egg diet" here? But I think that I was a bit de-hydrated. I cycled to the swimming pool but it was closed. And I jogged in the snow.

Tomorrow, I may re-attempt to get into the pool when it is open, and try out HIIT swimming.

Looks good! One more suggestion, replace the default photo in the header.