“Niche selection is definitely the hardest part. Would you say the niche you went with is one you are experienced with or an expert in? I went through their stuff recently too. The idea of pillar, staple, and response posts is interesting.
So you started in April and already getting traffic from google? That’s pretty good.” – Friend
It’s a niche I’m an expert in. But the writing can still be exhaustive. I’ve found that when I can afford to hire a writer, then I can just add in personalized blurbs about what I know and make the article more personal. Some of these writers are spot on…some, not so much.
I looked today and see search engine hits from Google, Bing and Yahoo but it is only a few referrals each. I’m hoping this means they’ll open the flood gates soon. – Me
June 13
I saw a major lag in traffic today so I thought I would share an idea I came up with that boosted them temporarily.
Since I have had good success with creating Memes in my niche what I did was put them all on one page on my website and create a meme gallery.
Then I went to my social media accounts and posted a quick blurb saying “I went back through the last year of my meme posts and gathered them all into one page on my website. If you need a good giggle, pay it a visit.” and then I linked to my page. On Reddit, I put another blurb below that saying if this is too close to self-promotion please delete. You don’t want to burn your bridge to social media groups.
I received over 100 unique visits in one hour from Facebook already. I do not think the mods have released my post on Reddit yet. Linkin is pointless for this kind of thing.
June 14
I’m on track to have my second highest page view day thanks to this dumb meme idea. What started out as a desperate attempt to drum up some traffic had done great. I clearly didn’t understand the value of memes. Now I how to figure out how to capitalize on memes better.
I’ve started making my obligatory 10 videos. I already had one made previously and am using that as #1. I made the second video this morning. I used my iPhone XS and the animal emoticon thing to mask my face. I did a 3-minute video on something that happens in my career field a lot since I’m blogging about my career field.
I made a thumbnail for the youtube post. Used the Slice iPhone app to crop, add text and sound effects. Uploaded it to youtube and embedded the youtube URL in a new page I created on my blog. When I posted to social media about my video, I linked to my site so I would get the pageview first, then hope they hit the second click to view the video. I still need 1000 subscribers to monetize my YT account so views there are not as critical. However, it is sending traffic to my YT channel so I added the words (Please Subscribe) in the title.
Not really getting much action on my Reddit or FB posts about this video. At least, nothing like yesterday’s post about a meme page. I ended up with 715 pageviews for that one. Come on organic traffic! I’m going to knock out the rest of my ten videos tomorrow and post them on YT. Then I should be about done. I’m waiting on one more post from iWriter and my 30 posts are done. Then it’s time to move on to niche site #2. I still haven’t thought of a topic yet.
Google and Organic Traffic
Google is certainly in no hurry to confirm I exist. Patience is a virtual….but hurry up already!
Bring on the Podcast!
I finally took the plunge and recorded my first podcast. While trolling a Facebook group for places to drop my niche links, I came across a radiographer telling terrific stories. Turns out, her job is a traveling radiographer in Hollywood. So she spends her days driving around Los Angeles taking xrays of Hollywood’s rich and famous.
I reached out to her on Facebook Messenger and told her I would love to share her stories on my podcast. I said other radiographers want to know more information about what it is like to be a traveling radiographer. She happily agreed and a date was set. Next Saturday morning at 10 am.
I’ve experimented with both Skype and Zoom for work conferences. I much rather work with Zoom. There is also a free service offered by Zoom. So I sent her a link to use that allowed her to join me for a chat using Zoom when the time came for our interview.
As a backup, I set my mini video camera nearby, facing me, and recorded the whole thing from a second angle. Zoom recorded our conversation just fine both audio and visual. I ended up with about 80 minutes worth of recording.
Zoom gives you both an audio file and video/audio file when you record. So here are the steps I took to cleaning up the podcast:
- Import the audio file into Audacity and edit out whatever you don’t want. Stutters, stammers, long pauses and things you may have said but decided after the fact that you shouldn’t use it. This reduces the size of your file before the next step.
- Run the edited file through Auphoic’s software. It will clean out all the background noise and even out the highs and lows. And it’s free! I got this tip from one of Jim’s early Income School videos before they were talking full-time about blogging.
- For $5/month you can get a Libsyn account. Libsyn will host the audio file for you and after you have uploaded your podcast, it gives you different links to choose from to place on your blog. These links include an audio player that you can customize. See examples of my podcasts here and here.
- Save your video file from Zoom for your Youtube channel. I haven’t posted mine yet because there was quite a bit of editing done to the audio version. Lots of first-time mistakes or clearing my throat and saying “UM” a lot.
- Use Audacity to create an Intro and Outtro for your podcast. This is a 10-30 second clip of some cool music and you introducing your podcast. If you listen to mine, you’ll hear an opening clip from a techno song that leads into a repeated riff of Van Halen.
- If you’re really savvy, you’ll figure out how to add advertisements in the Intro, Outtro, and middle of your podcast. I haven’t gotten that far yet.
- Last, send a link to the final version to your guest. I always tell them they get to hear it first before it goes live. If there is something they don’t like, I edit it to make them happy. You don’t want word getting out that you are a bad host.
- Note: I did try Skype for my second podcast and was greatly disappointed. The connectivity was horrible and I recorded from the exact same location. There were many places on the audio were my guest cut out for a few minutes. We would have to wait and start talking again. Stick with Zoom folks!
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