Getting over the Tumblr Slap!

Well what a weekend it has been. Ed and Co have given us all some amazing points of action to take with us after the challenge has finished and to polish those techniques and use them in our own particular styles. The thirty day challenge has become a victim of its own success!

I think that a little more forward planning by Ed could have stopped this from happening but hey - that is easy to say in hindsight. Of course I'm talking about the Tumblr Slap. By only showing us one platform to put our test sites on (Tumblr) the thousands of challenge clients turned up on their doorstep and opened at least two blog each (some had 10!). The traffic that this must have produced will probably have totally freaked out Tumblr staff who replied by deleting on mass most of the blogs we had carefully designed.

Personally, I found the Tumblr blog quality to be lacking to say the least. I spent about 6 hours creating my blogs and lucky for me; my site was one of the last to be deleted so I was able to back everything up including the affiliate links which were the most time consuming. I have already started another blog at "Wordpress.com" and I am using different content. Some of my group though didn't have the luxury of time to back anything up and were therefore frustrated at the waisted time. It's also not a nice thing to experience - having your site deleted because of a breach in the terms of service(TOC). It makes one feel like a criminal!

Ed also had alot to say today about the GIANT facebook tag teams which were set up to give us a huge leg up on to the WEB 2.0 platform. He suggests that there is no need to get more than 5 or 6 people to socialize your sites, that that would be enough.... Great advice Ed but it would have been better coming earlier in the challenge. There was even a large facebook list run in the forum which I became a member of. I think this whole afair could have been totally avoided.

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Day 13 & 14

Day 13 was really to set up bloglines to search the net for content relevant to our niche phrases and to write three articles for each of our 2 niches. ( We have already picked two niches from our original 7). To be honest I've been very busy and I am a little bit behind but I am determined to catch up tonight.

Today - day 14 Ed talked about affiliate programs and he visited Clickbank to find relevant products for our 2 niches. Then he went to Amazon which only pays out a small amount but the purpose of our affiliate connection is not to make loads of money but to test the market. If we can get people to part with money for our chosen niches using affiliate then the market is worth while looking at producing our own products. So in reality all this is is another test.

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Day 8 & 9

I missed a day writing the blog but I certainly didn't miss out watching the videos and listening to the podcast. Over the last two days we have only learned one more thing and this one thing really blows apart the previous 6 days research to some extent anyway. We were told to use Google trend again but this time we would compare our niche phrases with a phrase that Ed already knows the daily traffic for - this would give us an accurate display of exactly
how much traffic we should expect with our given niche phrases.

The phrase that Ed told us to use was "male yeast infection" which we were told has an average of 520 searches a day and if we compare this with our own phrases then we would get an accurate figure as to the amount of traffic we can expect for any given phrase. I found that this technique was far more reliable than Wordtracker because we had a known source. I also found that only one of my niches results matched Wordtracker results. I have 2 niche phrases
that seem to come tops and I will go with them. They are "free Photoshop actions" and “writing web site content" We will see how these words pan out over the next few weeks. I also did a bit of research with eBay and found similar results for the phrase "Photoshop actions" - I found out that this phrase hasn't many products in eBay and those it does have sell very well.

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Day 7

Yesterday I found out after I had written the blog that the videos I had described were in fact day 6, so today is day 7. The day started with a team meeting which was productive even though only 3 of us attended. I explained that I didn’t really know how to use twitter and Alek and Dare explained how to ‘follow’ people with it so that it becomes more productive. I managed to follow 4 of the team plus Ed & Dan but I am yet to see any benefit!

The videos today contained information on how to predict possible traffic for each of our niches. We had to input our keywords in to Wordtracker again but this time make a note of the first two search terms. These were then input into Google with inverted comas around them so the search was restricted just to terms containing the words exactly as written and not separated.

You will notice that I have replaced one of the niches; I did this after I did the search for the rest because I only had one niche with the recommended amount of web pages that Google found. The recommended amount of pages we were told was between 20,000 and 30,000. It was subjected that more would mean too much competition with our techniques and obviously too little would mean the market wasn’t robust enough for our attention.

Here are the results of the keyword search in Google for the
first and second search terms:

"Grumpy old men" = 366,000 most of these were from TV or film - "grumpy old men web site" = 8

"Toy soldiers” = 1,340,000 and "like toy soldiers" = 346,000

"Photoshop actions” = 344,000 and "free Photoshop actions" = 10,400 I saw the result of video marketing with YouTube for this term and a screen shot of the video was in Google’s list , it really stood out from the rest.

"Paragliding" = 5,020,000 and "paragliding aerobatic vidieo" = 1!!!! Notice the spelling mistake - this was in Wordtracker too.

"Virtual assistant" = 1,020,000 and "virtual assistants" = 435,000

"Jet ski" = 2,400,000 and "jet skis" = 1,550,000

"Content writing" = 924,000 and for "writing content" = 721,000 then I tried "web content writing" first term Wordtracker gave "writing web site content" = 537 and then 2nd was "web content writing" = 68,000

I have decided to replace Jet Ski with web 2.0 marketing techniques because the market for Jet Ski is far too big.

“Web 2.0 marketing techniques” = 9 and “web 2.0 personal” = 11,000.

Ed said that this is only half the technique and the rest will be tomorrow. The en he said it will all make sense, it will blow you away!

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Monday Day 3?

On Friday afternoon we had a team meeting and I was advised by Alek that the niches I had first chosen weren't really niches but hobbies or huge markets in which the "big boys" spent millions on marketing. I have decided to rethink my niches and go for products and markets that are a little bit obscure. Darijen also sent me the 3D image for the eBook he has designed and we talked about making a Photoshop action to make book covers and box covers. He also suggested that we could use that as one of out niches - what a brilliant idea!

We are running a little bit late because of the enormous amount of data that is being requested from the challenge web site so today I managed to download Fridays training video and podcast. first video was about using YouTube and the various settings there. It's another way to plug any web site or product and of course when you have uploaded your video put the thumbs up for Stumble Upon and also Tag it for Del.isio.us...this adds the viral links of Web 2.0.

Ed also introduced us this site called word tracker the actual URL for the site is: http:freekeywords.wordtracker.com

This site has a good tool for finding KEYWORDS. He explained that we needed to put the seven niche markets we have chosen into the text box and press the hit me button. This tool tells you how many people search for the keyword every day on the web. he also talked about competitive analysis.

We also have the task of using Google to research our niche's, to see if there are any "real" people selling products and services for these niche's.

keyword results
1. Photoshop action ---------------------------- Total of 644 searches quite a few searches for 3D covers including DVD and Xbox covers. 58 searches for Photoshop covers
2. Web Content Writing------------------------ Total of 501 searches almost all had to do with people searching for tutorials or services providing content writing services.
3. Model soldiers-------------------------------- Total of 51 searches and for 'toy soldiers' there were 3,087. for 'war games' there was 4,940
4. Becoming a virtual assistant-----------------Total of 44 and for 'virtual assistant' there was 2,094

5. Grumpy old men-------------------------------Total of 256 most of the searches were for the TV series or the film.

6. Jet Ski's---------------------------------------- Total of 1,693 there was quite alot of searches for used jet ski's. for the words "jet ski" without the s there was 6,209. Quite a few for jet ski rentals.
7. para gliding take off places-------------------Total of 0. For just "para gliding" there was 18 searches. when I wrote 'paragliding' all one word there was 1,814 mainly places that offer it.

I have a feeling I know what the results are going to be in Google - I wonder if Google will show that jet skis for example will have the biggest business and at a guess, I would say that grumpy old men will have the least amount of businesses for it; if any at all. Well on the first page of Google for the search term grumpy old men (GOM) there was only one e-shop which specialized in gifts for grumpy old men. They also had a number of amusing articles articles like, the aircraft with strictly NO children allowed on board and another entitled 'bring back flogging'

With jet skis (JS) on the other hand, every single header was for some type of business such as: custom (JS), new (JS). magazines for them, holidays specializing in renting and tutoring etc - every kind of business you could imagine. It therefor is not such a niche as I had thought.

Photoshop actions - A funny thing happened here! The third header on the first page of Google was for a ecover action being sold at ebay - so off I went to eBay and bought the action for $1 Hmmm. I have seen a similar action for sale for $97 and I was considering purchasing this because of the video sales pitch that was on their site. I'm still sure there is a market for Photoshop action scripts it's just finding one that people want and that hasn't already been done yet. I have yet to try the action out. I'll try the other words out in Google and if there are any more surprises I will report back tomorrow.

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Day 3

The challenge has been soooooo busy that Ed and his gang have had to triple capacity of the servers to cope with demand. He said today that they are delivering over a terabyte of data daily, which is incredible.

I haven't seen any videos or podcasts yet today because of the change in servers. I will post again later to keep you updated. My team had a meeting today at 12:00 BSM and even though I set the alarm on my phone I forgot to switch the ring tone on. (it was set to silent) so I missed the meeting. I normally work through the night and go to bed at between 4am and 5am. I did read what was said in the meeting though with the aid of Skype.

I am trying another new browser based application called "Technorati" which I think is a way to advertise your blog. I'll post more info on this later tonight when I have used it more. I am writing this post now so I am able to configure it.

I left a message of support to Ed because it seems that people have been moaning about things!!!! This really amazes me. I mean the challenge is the best marketing training on the web at the moment and it's completely free yet people still complain! They must be mad. If you see any code below it is to do with the new program>

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Day 2

Today saw a half hour podcast by Ed and four videos. The purpose of these was to get us all thinking about possible niche markets that we can do some initial market research on. We have been told to get 7 ideas or products that we think might be good sellers or that we can create something that will sell over the Internet.

I went to the city this afternoon and just happend to pop into W.H Smith's (A very large book store) and I noticed how many people were buying magazines. Magazines in the UK are not cheap either. The average price of a computer magazine is about £6. I also noted how many different subjects were on offer, some in the most unusual subjects; I wouldn't have thought would even have sold one or two but they must be making the publishers money or they wouldn't be on the shelves.

I wrote down some ideas in a note book of the topics that had a selection of different magazines attributed to them....I recorded the ones obviously more popular. These included - trains (not steam but mainly diesel) Boating, both motor boats and sail plus jet ski's. Wrestling - not a subject I am interested in at all but seemingly very popular.

When I returned I watched the Videos and got some more ideas. The 30DC site was so popular today I found it difficult to log on.

day 2

Today saw a half hour podcast by Ed and four videos. The purpose of these was to get us all thinking about possible niche markets that we can do some initial market research on. We have been told to get 7 ideas or products that we think might be good sellers or that we can create something that will sell over the Internet.

I went to the city this afternoon and just happend to pop into W.H Smith's (A very large book store) and I noticed how many people were buying magazines. Magazines in the UK are not cheap either. The average price of a computer magazine is about £6. I also noted how many different subjects were on offer, some in the most unusual subjects; I wouldn't have thought would even have sold one or two but they must be making the publishers money or they wouldn't be on the shelves.

I wrote down some ideas in a note book of the topics that had a selection of different magazines attributed to them....I recorded the ones obviously more popular. These included - trains (not steam but mainly diesel) Boating, both motor boats and sail plus jet ski's. Wrestling - not a subject I am interested in at all but seemingly very popular.

When I returned I watched the Videos and got some more ideas. The 30DC site was so popular today I found it difficult to log on.

Only 1 day to go

That's right in just a couple of hours from now it will be the start of the 30 Day challenge. I sent a message to ed Dale last night using Facebook. I asked him if it would be ok if I used the official logo in an eBook about the challenge and he replied with the message YES. great here is the logo just to give you a taste...

I've just installed the free image software for the PC called "Jing" it's pretty cool. It allows you to copy and share images and videos in seconds with anyone. It automatically uploads your files to a server and puts a link to these files on the clipboard. It saves so much time.

Oh yes one of the Team Europe members - Dare from Macedonia created a cool video promoting the challenge. have a look: Cool Video

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Last couple of days of pre-season.

Hi Folks

I have an eBook shop among other things on the net and recently I was given the challenge of writing my own eBook. I am currently half way through this and it is entitled "Web Hosting Secrets Revealed". During the writing of this - my first eBook, many other titles of books came into to mind, most of which can wait but there is one that can not wait. I decided what a good idea writing an eBook about the 30 day Challenge would be. What would I call such a book, I asked myself....well it has to be a diary and so the name of the forthcoming book is "A Diary of the 30 Day Challenge".

Instead of just writing notes to myself in private, I thought it would be better and in the spirit of the 30 day challenge if I created a blog about the book. Instead of notes, the diary will develop daily here. and any information or comments to my posts by you could mold the book.

If your a member of the 30 day challenge yourself this blog may improve your chances.