Continuing with the excitement over IPK, here’s my next update.
Around 5 hours ago, I checked to see where my Jumperoo site was on Google, and I found it half way down page 6 for the term “jumperoo”. I thought to myself “yeah, it’s early days” and then I opened up the IPK ‘On Page Search Engine Optimisation’ (OPSEO) critical check list just in case.
I noticed that, as careful as I’d been I’d missed a couple of things in my hurry to get the site up. (And I thought I’d been painstaking…) So I now VERY carefully checked it again, added a sitemap (d’oh! – how did I miss that), and added a bit more copy.
I’m still not totally satisfied I’ve got it all right, and I’ll check it again before I’m completely happy. And purely from an aesthetics point of view, I’d like to change the default banner, although I know it’s unimportant to make your site rank.
I’ve just checked Google again after dinner, and I’m now halfway down page 2.
Okay, I’m convinced. As Craig has said, the OPSEO is critical and can make the difference between a site that pays and a site that doesn’t.
But lets also not forget the back links using the correct anchor text, and I’m working on those too. That’s part of a longer term strategy to rank well for the site.
The way I see it, even though the big sites like Amazon and ToysRUs do well in the rankings, I don’t think they’ll do so well against the specific search terms that these IPK sites are being optimised for. Couple that with a raft of about 150 back links with anchor text that all say jumperoo, and I reckon I’ll get top spot in about 3-4 months, hopefully sooner. And of course my two secondary set of back links for my other search terms will help too.
Throughout the year residual income from the site will make it well worth it, as the Jumperoo seems to be a very popular product (getting 90,500 searches a month for the term jumperoo in the UK according to Google) and has had rave reviews on Amazon. I intend that all the toy sites I build through this coming year will be on page 1 position 1 for next Christmas. Especially as I’ll be carefully interlinking the related ones, and have them all pointing to a central site.
As well as the toy sites, I’ll also be using the all year round strategy and releasing sites for other products such as HD TVs etc.
So, no money made yet, but with me now sitting on page 2, I must be getting close.
One last thing. I’ve now installed a StatCounter traffic monitor on it so that I can see where traffic is coming from, what it’s doing once it’s on my site, and how quickly it gets funnelled off to Amazon.
If you don’t test, how can you make it better?
-Frank Haywood
P.S. If you haven’t already grabbed it, you can get IPK by going here and then entering promo code FHW777 to get it at $79 instead of $147.
Interesting results you’ve had so far Frank.
I’ve got my first 2 sites up, but I took a slightly different approach. I created a very nice header template in Photoshop, so I can customize it in literally a couple of minutes, for any niche. I also spent a little bit of time converting the example site into DreamWeaver so I can make sites quickly.
I also created a new product image block template that looks rather nice, I think.
All in all I spent about 10 times as much time doing that as I did actually getting the first site uploaded! But I’m ready to save time on every site after that, which is cool. I know I could have had 10 sites up in that time, but honestly for me it’s worth it to understand how to make the process more efficient for later.
Like you I have to revisit my OPSEO, but I don’t mind that because I learn by doing and now the design and copy is out of the way I can concentrate on the OPSEO techniques.
I’ll be using a similar link building strategy to you. I picked out a nice product for my 3rd site and there’s a lot of searches, very little competition. The competition there is is someone who’s doing IPK!! Even if I don’t get 1st position, as they have, a top 10 listing should produce some revenue.
I do think this is something that, ideally, should have been started at least 4-6 weeks earlier, but hey, better late than never, right?
Hi Amin,
I’ve actually been doing some of the same stuff as you. 🙂
Using Dreamweaver I turned all the html pages into php so I could easily add some scripts in there when the time was right, and I also turned the 3 embedded menus into separate .php files and then used php includes to get them to show.
That now means I can add a new page, paste the link into the menu(s) and have them automatically display on every page of my site without having to load up each page in turn.
I’ve also created a couple of generic images for the pages themselves in Photoshop, and the banner is my final point and I’ll be done with the standard site layout etc. Just like you, I’ll then be in a position to start churning the sites out rather than have to fiddle with them so much.
The only thing I want to do finally is create a spreadsheet with columns for each of the title tags, meta descriptions and keywords for each page so that I can make sure everything gets ticked off as I go. I want to make sure that once I’ve worked through a site that I never have to touch it again, or at least give it minimal attention.
And yeah, if only I’d got my hands on this in August, it would be so much easier now. But let’s look forward to the all year round strategy and of course to next Christmas when we’ll have a real strong head start like Craig has now.
Especially on the back links front. 😉
-Frank
Hey Frank,
I wish I had of had my head screwed on right the first time you told me about the IPK. I would already be rich ;). I almost have my first site finished and ready to publish. So I am only about a week behind you. I have to say this is the first package I have purchased that actually give a body something that is doable. Thanks for the tip and thanks for continuing to bug us about getting it. Thanks for the great Personal review and use of the product.
How many times do we get these “Gotta Get it Now!!!” deals from these “GURU” dudes that do not even know what the thing is they are peddling. Much less does it work or no.
Thanks again buddy. I love ya.
lol – I should have known you’d find a system to make this almost cookie cutter! I won’t compete with you to get the tutorial out on how to systematise this – I’m very slow on product creation!
I think too much!
And I don’t know if it helps with that lovely Adspurt link you have showing, but the linking strategy you have works and works well. I have the inside scoop on it and let’s just say it’s money well spent!
Amin
Hi Frank,
Well done on the page 2 listing. As you would well know, Google in other countries offers different results.
In Australia you are at the top of page 7, but that is probably not indicative of anything to serious. Besides, who is going to purchase a physical product in Aus from the UK :-). All the same, page 7 is a few weeks is a great start.
On Google US you are on around the middle of page 4!!!
All very impressive.
I am working on a few other projects right now but I will certainly be getting IPK later this year with the aim to capitalise on a number of seasonal peaks during 2009 and beyond.
Keep up the great work.
Geoff
Hello again Frank, this is not comment spam :-).
I just followed your UK link from the Aus Google site for the fun of it and to add one more hit in your stat counter (evil grin).
I am wondering what IPK says about the “buy now” link. I clicked on several links to read about the Jumperoo but they all took me to other pages on the site. It was difficult for me to find an outgoing link that allowed me to purchase the product.
Am I missing some critical point or should there be a purchase link on every page?
Geoff
Justin:
I’ve had a couple of people say they could see how excited and enthusiastic I was about IPK when I sent out my first email and wrote my first blog post about it. The reason was I could see straight away that this was something that made absolute sense, and more importantly was very clear cut and easy to do.
All you need is minimal web skills, but looking more closely last night I realised that Craig even has that covered with his videos on how to edit HTML and creating graphics with Photoshop and The GIMP.
(I don’t agree with how Craig is creating and saving his Photoshop graphics though – he saved the PSD as a PNG and then overwrote his master fully layered version with the flattened “save for web” PNG. Erk!)
Now that I’ve put it into action, and I can see that it’s working, it’s just a matter of systemising it and turning it into a sausage machine. Do the research, check it’s on Amazon, grab a relevant domain and set the site up.
It’s so simple anyone could understand this, even from scratch. And of course if you’re used to putting up sites, it’s a complete doddle.
All those hours I’ve spent fiddling and learning how to do stuff online are all paying off now. So it wasn’t a complete waste of time. 😉
Amin:
I want to get my wife doing this, so I need to make it as straight forward as possible. She’s smart and likes things to be clear and well thought out, and more importantly organised.
So… I need to get the whole thing systemised and made easy to use. I’ll share it all once I get there.
And yeah, I know the linking strategy works like crazy, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so confident it’s perfect to use with IPK. The way I see it, it will give people that use it a totally unfair advantage 😉 and Craig is going to have some real issues this year unless he does it too. I can easily see him being knocked off all his number 1 slots. Then he may regret releasing the information about IPK…
As an aside, I think IPK is easily the biggest thing since the 7DS.
Geoff:
Hey, thanks for that. Yep, it is impressive isn’t it? And so obvious when you stop to think about it, but sometimes it needs someone to have the patience to play with a method first to get to the point where they can see it working.
(I’m working on a couple of other experiments myself, only time will tell if I get the results I’m expecting. Some code is about to be written to make the experiments easier to run.)
The strategy with the “buy now” link is one that Craig uses himself. If you look at his sites, all the images on the sub-pages point to his main page, and generally they’re all the same image. The image on the home page is different to the rest and is an invitation to click and order.
I believe that what Craig has found works is to set lots of links within the sites themselves pointing to the home page, and if you look at the sub-page images, they all have relevant alt tags pointing to the home page which strengthens that page.
The idea is that whatever page a visitor may land on, they are always funneled to the home page, and there they click the link to take them out to Amazon.
If you put too many outgoing links, then you will weaken your own site. The idea is to create many links internally and as a few external links as possible. So one or two to relevant sites, plus your own central “aggregator” site should be all you need.
Finally, remember he says (and this is a BIG point), TEXT for Google, IMAGE for CASH! Meaning that words will make your site rank well – Google is handcuffed to words – but the images will make your visitors buy.
-Frank
Frank,
Just out of curiosity do you know anything about this site. I was rummaging around it the other day, but today it is totally a mess. Just wondering if it is yours or no and if it is did you know it is a dead horse the way it is?
http://www.top5christmas.com/kindle_wireless_book.php
http://kindlewirelessbook.com/index.html
Thanks for the IPK reduced price Frank.
I must say, though I would have been reluctant to part with the full price, it would have been worth it, Ipk looks that good.
I just wish I had found this a month earlier, my thoughts are that I may be too late for Christmas this year.
The method looks a lot like an old eBook I read by Michael Cambell called “Revenge of the MiniNet”. Ipk is however a lot more detailed and very well put together.
One thing I cannot find is advice on the use of Add on Domains.I.E.
Can we use Add on Domains or do we have to use a different Hosting package (from the same Host) for every Domain we register?
This will make a huge difference to the cost.
Comments please?
Best from Ken Trueman.
Hi Ken,
Yes, add-on domains are fine. In fact Craig says that all the sites he set up last year were on the same server, and despite the rumour in forums etc. about putting domains on different IP addresses, it makes absolutely no difference.
So if you get yourself a bunch of .info domains from GoDaddy for 99c each, and then put them all on your same hosting account, that should keep the price really low.
When they start paying you can move the .info sites to your favourite registrar – I prefer NameCheap as I love their admin interface.
-Frank
Justin:
No neither of those sites are mine. I keep coming across half done sites like this, as if whoever is working on them has either given up or can’t be bothered to do everything needed to make them pay.
Looking at the source of the pages, in this case it looks like it’s someone called Paul. 😉
But what a waste. A little more work and the site will start paying.
-Frank