CC9 - Jimmy

[bamafan]

Just wanted to say thanks and looking forward to learning and helping anyone I can!

a) Quick intro about themselves


I have a background as a blue collar worker so this world of IM is relatively new to me. I had a son 15 months ago and that really changed my life. I was a guy that still had a flip phone, could barely text, could check email and barely scan the web when my wife and I found out we were pregnant.


I’ve been successful offline but didn’t want my boy to have to work as hard as I have (physically). I knew if I could learn IM/SEO I could teach him and he’d enter the world one step ahead of most. That is why I am currently working online (part-time now) with the goal of eventually having the ability to go full-time. Nothing motivates a person like a child!



b) The general niche they are in


Sports/Health - Information site


c) The overall goal of the traffic leak experiment


My overall goal is to gain the skills and knowledge to be able to drive traffic to my site (or a new site) at will. I will set a goal of a 1,000 visitors a day (avg) by month 3. My overall goal is to increase that over the long haul by acquiring skills that will allow me to break free of SEO. I look at this as the start of a long journey.


d) What they plan to gain out of it


As mentioned above it is my goal to be able to learn skills that will benefit me long after this is over. I learned a long time ago that any business venture I start is a marathon and not a sprint. I will look at this the same way.


e) Amount of time they plan on dedicating a week


I will put a minimum of 10 hours a week but in all likelihood it will be closer to 30-40 depending on the week. I own a couple of offline businesses so I have some flexibility but sometimes I’m required to work on them so the weeks I’m working hard offline the online will take a backseat. I will work at least 10 hours though.


f) Optional traffic numbers OR percentage increases (example got 1000 visitors today OR (saw 200% increase in traffic today - if yesterday was 500 ppl)


I recently did a small traffic leak experiment to see if I could do anything. The site is currently getting about 20 visitors a day. My little experiment raised those numbers to about 80 a day for a few days. Really looking forward to expanding on this.


g) Personal overall goals they want to achieve


As stated above it is just to acquire skills. I’m also interested in helping anyone else that I can. I know what it is like to start out on business endeavours and find that often times helping others eventually motivates me in the long run. Sort of a win-win.


h) Where they currently are at with this project


The site is roughly 6 months old. I had the site built for me and then tweaked and added a bunch of articles and played around with a few things on site. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to any graphics or coding but am looking forward to gaining experience in those areas as well.


Thanks for the opportunity.

 

[vinnypolston]

@bamafan, excited to see how you come along on this. There is a lot to learn but if you're willing to put in the time than I'm sure you'll get there. You're right on that though. Having a kid changes your perspectives 100% (I have two amazing daughters). If you need help in the graphics/general maintenance area I'd be glad to give you some pointers. PM me if you do.

Congrats on being one of the CC9!!

 

[RadiantDarkness]

My buddy finally surfaces!

Really happy that you get to focus on this while your offline businesses grow...

Sell that shit and move down here... I've got your office waiting.

Shoot me a text this week and let's talk about your site too

Might be able to help you find a couple more as well that may help spark more targets that Carter and the gang can expand upon.

 

[bamafan]

My buddy finally surfaces!

Really happy that you get to focus on this while your offline businesses grow...

Sell that shit and move down here... I've got your office waiting.

Shoot me a text this week and let's talk about your site too

Might be able to help you find a couple more as well that may help spark more targets that Carter and the gang can expand upon.

Sounds great man. Been meaning to get with you but had to finish up a couple things offline. That time of year! I might need your help understanding this internet lingo. You know... like usual

 

[CCarter]

My Official Take:

Site is designed well. There are some small details I notice that should be updated to take it to the next level, full online magazine feel.

I'd like to see more photos in the article posts themselves.

Funneling is a bit off, since it's just categorize. I want to explore diving a bit more deeper into the categories, with newbie instructional guides, and quick tip help for people getting new to the niche. I guess what I'm saying is I'm not seeing a clear mission statement or overall focus once people get to the site. I understand it's informative but a call to action is still critical, whether it's just collecting an audience for future marketing. I do see the newsletter in the sidebar, but that's not going to get far.

We have to answer "Why would a person bookmark this?" That's the question that's on my mind at the moment. We can't go wrong with newbie guides and intros, but even making videos can take it to a whole new level.

There is still the question mark of what's the focus, in further discussions we'll get into this, so everything has an overall message - if I maybe missing it. The potential in traffic is huge, so we won't lack a place to generate traffic from, just had to have a core message for them to walk away with if that makes sense.

 

[bamafan]

My Official Take:

Site is designed well. There are some small details I notice that should be updated to take it to the next level, full online magazine feel.

I'd like to see more photos in the article posts themselves.

Funneling is a bit off, since it's just categorize. I want to explore diving a bit more deeper into the categories, with newbie instructional guides, and quick tip help for people getting new to the niche. I guess what I'm saying is I'm not seeing a clear mission statement or overall focus once people get to the site. I understand it's informative but a call to action is still critical, whether it's just collecting an audience for future marketing. I do see the newsletter in the sidebar, but that's not going to get far.

We have to answer "Why would a person bookmark this?" That's the question that's on my mind at the moment. We can't go wrong with newbie guides and intros, but even making videos can take it to a whole new level.

There is still the question mark of what's the focus, in further discussions we'll get into this, so everything has an overall message - if I maybe missing it. The potential in traffic is huge, so we won't lack a place to generate traffic from, just had to have a core message for them to walk away with if that makes sense.

It totally makes sense and is absolutely something I'm looking forward to discussing. I haven't made any changes in a while because I'm not sure what to do.

Really looking forward to it.

 

[bamafan]

Ok. Just wanted to give a quick update. I'm been extremely busy with work. However, last night and this morning I was able to start working on some images and getting them optimized using Carter's recommendation. Unfortunately, every image on my site is also too big so I need to work on them as well.

I'm pretty slow at this stuff but getting faster.

The game plan for tonight and this weekend is to research the htaccess code Carter gave in his post so I understand what it does to my site. Again, I'm brutal with code so it may take a bit like everything else I do online. Learning as we go.

I do have 15 or so available hours this weekend so hopefully I'm able to make some noticeable progress on the site.

 

[bamafan]

I'm slowly chugging along. I've gotten about 50 images resized but have to upload them to the site now. I tried to play around with the site speed following the advice Carter gave in the big brand refresher but as I mentioned before, I'm bad with coding. I figured this is something I can come back to and will probably always be working on. I've registered at a couple forums but am looking to see if there is a better way to find the appropriate forums. I probably won't spend much time on this until I'm able to talk with Carter/EMP because I'm sure they know a better way than I do.

The plan for the next few days is a follows:
1. Get the pics uploaded to their article.
2. Start the newbie guides for my categories... Probably need to discuss this as well as I know Carter mentioned doing something different with my Cats so I don't want to spend time on things I may have to change.
3. I need to work on my CTA but I'm not sure exactly how to go about this.

Will update when I get some things done.

 

[bamafan]

Ok. It's safe to say that I'm slow. I've added a few of the pics I've gotten and still have more to do. While doing so I realized just how bad some of the formatting is on some of the articles. I've had quite a bit of reorganizing and proof reading. This has taken longer than I anticipated. Not a huge deal though because the CTA, newbie guides, and categorization I need to discuss further to make sure I'm headed in the right direction.

I have a few hours left today and won't work tomorrow, Wednesday or Thursday as I have busy days.

Sorry for the boring updates but I don't have anything really worth sharing other than the boring stuff.

 

[bamafan]

Just a quick update. Sent the three trolls and three traffic leak examples. Waiting to get feedback. Been extremely busy with dull time business but will have most of next week completely free so should be able to get all caught up.

 

[bamafan]

Another boring update but wanted to try and stay on schedule as much as possible. Nothing exciting to report except that I've been focused on the exercises assigned and have everything submitted and have positive feedback on everything to this point. Looking forward to moving ahead and sharing.

 

[bamafan]

Just wanted to drop a quick note. I've recently sent over some questions to Carter about some site layout stuff to better help my bounce rate. Which is terrible. I have high quality articles but I'm not sure my navigation is the way it should be. Or I'm not sure how to keep people on the pages longer. I will update once I start the new assignments and/or get feedback on the couple questions.