Another Thirty Day Challenge (number 4) has come to an end, so how did I do?

On the plus side, I followed and finished all the training and enjoyed using the new tools and learning an excellent strategy for researching and testing markets (and finding micro-niches).

On the downside, I didn’t put enough time and effort into creating enough content and backlinks, so I didn’t get enough traffic to fully test my niches or make my dollar.

In the end I put up 4 micro-niche sites in 2 niches (yes, I probably overstretched myself again – when will I ever learn?). The last of these sites only attracted my focus 2 days ago when I realised it was number 3 in Google for phrase match and didn’t even have any content on it (good ole Wordpress Direct).

This site and the other that ranked quickly just don’t appear to be getting the traffic in those positions, and the other 2 sites haven’t ranked high enough yet.

They did prove an interesting point that I had already been conscious of but wanted to test further. As long as all the other criteria are right in the market research, keyword phrases with more than 2 words seem to rank quicker and better than phrases with just 2 words.

Also, the lower the competition the better. That may seen obvious but sometimes it’s worth dropping the expected traffic numbers in order to find a lot more phrases with low competition, that you can use to create a number of blogs or web pages to draw traffic for a much more competitive niche. I would rather have 3 sites ranking at the top of Google for their keywords with only 30-40 visitors per day than 1 site that only ranks at number 4 and so only receives a small fraction of the expected 140 visitors each day. Your analytics will then provide you with more good keywords you can use and you can build more traffic from there. Once you have tested the niche with the longer tail keywords you can always target a better traffic phrase with more competition, knowing that the extra time and effort to get it ranked will be profitable.

The most important part of the Challenge for me is that it has set me up with a strategy for taking my old domains and tired sites that see little input from me, and building them up using more focussed keywords (found using Market Samurai). I have already set up a bunch of domains each on separate hosting (within my Hostgator reseller account) and started to use Wordpress Direct on them. The aim is to get good rankings on some long tail keywords, start to build up traffic, and either sell them or leverage the eventual good PR and age.

Talking to Ed Dale in London yesterday about this strategy, he said this is something the Immediate Edge will also be focusing on in the coming months – showing exactly how to employ this effectively. Hooray! I had already planned to use some of the great Edge strategies that were not covered in the Thirty Day Challenge to improve my rankings and traffic on the Challenge sites and my new projects (if you are wondering whether the Immediate Edge is right for you, they have a $1 trial at the moment and I will be giving you my honest review of the program later today).

On a separate note, being a moderator on the Thirty Day Challenge forum this August (as well as for the past year) has been a tough but rewarding job and I love doing it.

Major props to: Ed Dale, Dan Raine (you didn’t see much of him but he was always there behind the scenes), Robert Somerville (for the training and overall organisation and concepts), Super Moderator Caro, Nez, Asbjorn, Paul, Collette, Kenny, the guys at Noble Samurai for the Market Samurai tool, the Wordpress Direct team, all the other moderators, those who helped on the forums just because they like the community, God, the Academy, my mother, my dog Jenny who was the best childhood pet a person could want, and anyone else I have forgotten….

That’s not really the end for the Thirty Day Challenge for this year. The main August challenge may be over, but the forum continues and anyone can take the training at any time they want, so I hope to see you there.

We’re halfway through the Thirty Day Challenge and it’s time for an update on mine (and the Challenge’s) progress.

In brief, so far the Challenge has involved:

• Researching good keyword phrases using Market Samurai to find one that has more than 80 visitors a day when you have the top phrase in Google and less than 30,000 competing pages (phrase match)

• Analysing the top 10 sites for that keyword phrase in Google and seeing whether there is an opening for a well-optimised site with some good backlinks

• Setting up a Wordpress blog (using Wordpress Direct) that is highly optimised for the keyword phrase

• Adding an affiliate link to a relevant product to test the market

• Helping the search engines find the blog by submitting the first (and any subsequent) blog post to a number of social bookmarking/networking/media sites, such as DIGG, Propeller, Twitter and Delicious.

• Commenting on relevant blog and forum posts with the url of blog included in the signature or blog comment

• Using highly optimised Web2.0 sites to create quality backlinks to the main blog

This is not a lesson in Affiliate Marketing but a free and easy method for testing a market. With just 17 days of effort we should start to see traffic coming to our blogs and soon be able to judge whether any of these visitors are buyers.

My Own Thirty Day Challenge

So far, I have targeted two different niches. One is a completely brand new one, and the other is a niche that is practically new (I started a personal blog on this topic recently for some friends and then discovered that there were some excellent keyword phrases within it).

Site one was picked up very quickly by Google but is not ranking very high (maintaining a position around the 31-35 mark). Site 2 took nearly a week to be listed by Google but is now around the 10-12 position for phrase match.

It may not sound too impressive, but considering I have yet to actually catch up with the challenge and create any web pages on Web2.0 properties like Squidoo and Hubpages, this is pretty good going. I have only done some social bookmarking, rss submission and one or two blog comments (I haven’t posted to Squidoo or FriendFeed because I don’t want to reveal my niches). I probably wouldn’t have even managed all the social bookmarking if it wasn’t for the new Traffic Android tool I have been using, which makes it extremely easy to social bookmark more naturally and organically (read my review of Traffic Android on my Audible Marketing blog).

Why am I behind with the Challenge?

Partly because of keeping up with my moderator duties at the Thirty Day Challenge Forums (the forums have been incredibly busy this year) but also because of friends visiting and having to go away for a wedding. Also, I am doing quite a bit of writing outside of the challenge, so the extra writing involved to create all the required content is just more time at the keyboard.

Plus, I’ll be honest and say that researching markets on Market Samurai has become a new favorite pastime – it would take me years to follow the 30DC process for all the keywords I have researched but I keep looking anyway.

I’m not too panicked, though. I shall have a writing blitz over the next few days (I already dictated some ideas and notes to myself on the motorway today) and start setting up some more web pages.

What do I hope to achieve from the Challenge?

At the moment, it is too soon to say. If Niche One proves profitable I will probably keep it as an affiliate site and build up more blogs like it, but with the potential of creating a more general authority blog on the topic. Niche Two has more possibilities for an information product (or a variety of information products).

One decision I made early on, before the challenge even began, was that I was going to target higher priced products in my testing. I would rather sell a $2000 affiliate product than a $27 one. The effort and numbers required in traffic to make that sale are probably the same but the affiliate payout will be much better. So, if I can find a successful niche where visitors are going to buy a high ticket item (or at least 1 in 200 visitors to the money page are going to buy) I can make a much bigger chunk of change even at only 4-6% commission (that’s $80+ for most sales in these niches compared to $15).

In the case of both of these niches I would probably continue to manage them myself if they prove successful (but outsource much of the content). However, I am intrigued by Allison Reynolds’ business model of building blogs using this method, make them profitable and then sell them. When I have tested these markets and proved I can use this process to make money, I fully intend to pursue that line of thinking (check out Allison’s blog – she’s an incredibly intelligent woman and fellow IM Geek Girl).

So, that’s the challenge so far. Stay tuned for more.

Is there such a thing as the best Internet Marketing course? Should we be striving to find the ultimate course and ultimate teacher?

As is always going to be the case when a big online event like the Thirty Day Challenge happens, the criticisms and misconceptions begin to fly. It happens to all the big name marketers when they launch a product or do something new. It happens in the offline world as well. Successful people will always have critics. Individuals will always have their opponents.

Some things I’ve heard others say about the Thirty Day Challenge so far:

• They are just teaching affiliate marketing

• They are just teaching social networking

• They have given this tool away for participants to use but there are other tools that do the same thing

• They are teaching people to create spammy blogs

• They are not giving everything away for free – look there are affiliate links on their website!

All these statements can be confusing for people just starting out on their Internet journey and can lead them to doubt what they are learning and who they are learning from. How can they possibly judge which course is best? If you are one of those people facing confusion, it’s worth noting that:

1. Some people criticise a process without first getting all the facts and then following the process through to completion i.e. testing the process to see if it works
2. Many people online become very defensive about their own process and tools for marketing. Instead of observing what others are doing from an analytical standpoint they immediately see it as a criticism of their own methods.
3. It’s easy to criticise the leading names in Internet Marketing, and through creating controversy they draw more people to their own blogs and websites.
4. Any big name on the Internet is going to face criticism, especially when they launch a new product. It happens offline as well. Famous authors, directors, actors all face strong scrutiny when they release something new, and much of it is far from complimentary.
5. People can’t see that free is actually free. They look for a catch. They have to point out what’s in it for the person giving stuff away. They even have to criticise the giver for doing it.

I would like to suggest that people bear these points in mind when following the Thirty Day Challenge (or any Internet Marketing process for that matter):

• There’s more than one way to skin a cat! Meaning, there is more than one way to create an online business. People have succeeded creating businesses online using many different methods, so no one method is necessarily best

• If you start following a process (in this case the Thirty Day Challenge) you are most likely to succeed if you pursue it through to its conclusion. Giving up halfway through because you can’t see the outcome, or switching to another process because someone else slammed the current one or made a great case for their process being better is not an effective use of you time and efforts. Have a little faith and follow the process exactly. If it doesn’t work for you then you can move on (in this case after only a month of your time)

• Personalities clash online and offline. You may not warm to a particular teacher and/or their methods but that doesn’t mean they are wrong and does not give you or someone else the right to flame them. If you truly believe you have been ripped off then follow the appropriate legal path. Trying to discredit them online is beneath you and serves no purpose except to make you unhappy. Your energy would be better spent becoming successful yourself.

• Trust that the process you are following has been tested and proven. I can’t speak for all online marketers and I do believe you have to be discerning in your choices, but I know that the Thirty Day Challenge system has been tested over and over again by the lab to ensure it works. And they have the added difficulty of finding a process that will work for thousands of people all using the same tools and methods at exactly the same time. Most Internet Marketers are only teaching their method to a fraction of those people.

• Show gratitude to the people who give their time and a lot of energy to try and teach you new things. Not everyone has an ulterior motive. No, they wouldn’t be Internet Marketing “gurus” if they didn’t make a good living out of it (that is true) but many of them only choose to teach their methods because they have a desire to help others. The Ed Dales, Dan Raines, Jeff Walkers and Jason Moffatts of this world all know how to make a lot of money online, and would probably make even more money if they focussed solely on non-Internet Marketing products – that’s how they became the experts in the first place. But something compels them to share their knowledge and success with others. I may sound naive to some of you – and I know that many people start teaching “making money online” because they think there is a fast buck to be made – but if a person is an established online marketer and has been at the top of their profession for some time and others hold them in high regard, then there is probably a good reason for that.

• We’re all human. Some people we will like, some we will find annoying, abrasive or arrogant (got to love alliteration). Some people will not warm to you and your style either. When I was a radio presenter I used to have people criticise me all the time – not everyone liked my style, what I said or the way I said it. But I also had enough people (thankfully) who loved listening to me. You can never please all of the people all of the time.

• The great thing about the Internet (and radio) is you can shut out the people you don’t like. If you don’t like their Twitters, their constant promotions by email or their Facebook invites then you just turn them off/block them/stop following them. If you decide you don’t like their personality and would rather not learn from them, you never have to deal with the again. Just walk away (figuratively, of course).

In terms of the Thirty Day Challenge specifically, I hate people criticising what Ed and Dan do. They are two of the finest and most giving people I have ever met, but I understand that other people have their own opinions and experiences. However, I will defend them to the hilt if someone makes a slur on their character or suggests that they are not as honest and transparent as they make out.

I could go into great detail responding to those earlier comments but I can’t be bothered! There are too many other things to be doing right now and it just demeans me and my time to enter into petty arguments. I simply suggest they (and you) follow the training through in full before passing judgement, and if you have any questions, concerns or comments you can join us on the forum to air them (I’ll try to be polite).

If you are still on the search for the Holy Grail – the best Internet Marketing course ever – then I’ll let you in on the secret. The best Internet Marketing course is…..the one you finish and take action on.

One of the things I have been really looking forward to doing on this new blog is talking about my experiences with the Thirty Day Challenge.

Every year for four years, Ed Dale has provided free training for people to learn about creating a business online. At first he provided that training with Frank Kern, and now he works with Dan Raine (along with a whole host of behind-the-scenes folk and experts).

The first Thirty Day Challenge in 2005 had around 1000 participants. It has been increasing every year, and this year more people joined on the first day of the challenge than had taken part in the previous 3 combined (and there were already thousands who enrolled during pre-season).

Naturally, it can be difficult to teach a method of online marketing that thousands of people can follow which doesn’t involve them having to spend money. Last year, so many people tried to create Tumblr blogs following Ed’s instruction that Tumblr shut them all down, believing they were spam.

Every year the Thirty Day Challenge seems to pull something out of the bag that astonishes even the veteran marketers. In fact, even those of us who are members of Dan and Ed’s Immediate Edge membership site are usually surprised by at least a few things they deliver in training. It came as no surprise that the GTrends method of market research they showed in 2007 was being taught by other marketers 6 months later.

This year is shaping up to be the most astounding yet. Ed and Dan have a great team and have managed to bring exclusive access to a brand new piece of software that shaves hours off the keyword research process. Market Samurai is the ultimate market research tool – not only does it suggest numerous keywords based on the LSI of the top web pages, it also tells you:

• how much natural traffic you could expect (if you reach the number one spot in Google)

• how much Adwords traffic you could expect (and what you should expect to pay for it)

• how many competing web pages there are for that keyword phrase

• and the approximate OCI (likelihood that someone searching for the phrase is an actual buyer and not just browsing)

And that’s just a section of the software. Each part is being added as we reach that stage of the training, but already we have the Market Research section which tells you what the top websites are for your keyword phrase and what on page and off page elements they are using that might hinder your chances of reaching a top position in Google (or, what elements they aren’t using that your could use to dominate that keyword). This is the best and quickest judge yet of whether it is worth pursuing a keyword phrase.

Today they rolled out the article research component, enabling us to search for relevant articles and blog posts optimized for that keyword phrase and analyse their age, backlinks, index count and more.

And we’re only on Day 5!

Previous years, much of this market research has either been impossible or extremely time consuming. In the first two years we had to use Google Adwords to test a niche. We paid out money just to gather leads and find out what the market wanted. Then we created the product and sold it to them (and unfortunately at this point could discover that it wasn’t a buying market).

But it’s more important than just 30 days of fun and new experiences. It is teaching a method of creating an online business that will last far beyond this month or year. Some of the techniques may be different each year but the overall objective remains the same.

This year, more than ever before, I am focussed on making this work for me. In previous years I have always put my heart and soul into the challenge and even created a product that sold quite well and led me to a new hobby and passion. But, as I mentioned in my previous post, my offline career was always there as my primary concern and income, and at the moment that is no longer the case.

My posts here about the Thirty Day Challenge will not be a step-by-step breakdown of the process but rather what I am learning from the experience. If you’re interested then they will always be posted in the category Thirty Day Challenge so you can find all the relevant posts by clicking on that over on the right of the screen. Or better still, add me to your rss reader for instant updates as soon as I post.

And if you are also doing the Challenge then I wish you every success and would love for you to share your experiences in the comments section.

Oh, and apparently tomorrow (or today as it is now in the UK) is the best day of all – I can’t imagine how it can get any better. You can imagine why it is so exciting to be a part of the Thirty Day Challenge.

Lisa

P.S. You can still sign up and follow the training over at Thirty Day Challenge. If you’re really keen you can still finish within the 30 days, but the training will still be there after August and you can take it at your own pace if you prefer.