While this email is mostly about website speed I came across an intriguing set of videos a few days ago regarding how to create your own WSO
and webinars for $1000 paydays. Even if you've never thought about creating your own product you might want to read the section at the bottom of this email for why I think many of you could take advantage of this particular opportunity. But, first, I wanted to talk about a subject that has come up several times in my coaching sessions the past few months and that is site speed and rankings. It started with a question from a student who wanted to
find a social sharing plug-in that wasn't so slow to load. The plug-in she (and I) had been using was causing a drag on her site response time. I told her I'd been hunting for a better social plug-in for awhile myself and had started testing one called Social Wheel but hadn't had a chance to do much with it yet. This student jumped right on it - put it on her site AND tested the site response time. Unlike the other plug-in she and I had been using, this one did NOT slow down her site. Not only that but Social Wheel uses slick animation and graphics to show your share buttons for Pinterest, Facebook and a host of other sites. It's non-intrusive (depending on your settings) and yet, at the same time, very hard for visitors to miss!You can see it in action on my PinFabulous site here: Fivetoplist.com. Just start scrolling down the page and you'll see a yellow box peek out from the left side of the screen. if you hover over that box 3 social buttons will come out allowing my visitors to share my post on Facebook, Google+ and
Pinterest. The plug-in has a ton of settings to pick from including animation type, the style for the center icon, different social site icons, the color of the center icon, position of the icon, etc.
It might not work well with some themes but by playing around with the different options I was able to create a look I like for that site. I've also tested the site response time and, sure enough, it does not slow down the site at all.
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How to Test Your Site's Response Time
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Site speed is considered a factor that Google takes into consideration when ranking pages in search results. See point #6 in this article which lists improving site speed as one way of improving your rankings
without having to build links (that alone should get your attention!): http://moz.com/blog/google-traffic-linksWe've got to make sure that we're leveraging the foundation of our sites to help with our rankings - not harm them - and making your site respond more quickly (meaning visitors don't have to wait for pages to load or to move from one page of your site to another) can be done using some FREE plug-ins (if you use WordPress).First, test your site's speed using both of these
tools:I use both because they offer slightly different information and Pingdom lets you select settings such as choosing a server location closest to you for the test. Run your home page and a couple of inner posts or pages through the tools a couple of times each to get an average. GTMetrix also has a free plug-in you can install on your site so you can run speed tests from inside your Wordpress dashboard. |
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Simple Site Response Time Fixes
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At a minimum I recommend using the following FREE plug-ins to speed up site response times:
- W3 Total Cache by Frederick Townes
This online tutorial will walk you through a basic settings configuration for W3 Total Cache: http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-w3-total-cache-for-beginners/. Just take it slow because there are a LOT of settings and you'll want to test out how your theme responds with each section you change.Then test your site speed again after installation and - hopefully - you'll see your site responds more quickly than it did before. You can also deactivate one plug-in at a time to see how they're
impacting your site performance and look for comparable ones to replace any that might be impacting your response times. When you run the GTMetrix site speed report it will show you a list of additional improvement you could make for further site speed enhancements.
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$1000 Days - in Under a Month!
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Have you ever considered creating your own product (like an ebook) and selling it on the WarriorForum as a WSO but then thought "What the heck would I write about?!" (Better yet - "Who would want to hear what I had to say?")
I thought that very same thing once. In fact, I was PETRIFIED when I launched my first WSO (yikes...that was THREE years ago!)However, I bit the bullet and have produced 22 ebooks with total sales of 17,300 in three years. In my spare time. (Erica, you're so funny - what spare time?!)When I launched my first one I had no clue what I was doing. I just mangled my way through the steps but now that I've done it I know that there are a lot of YOU out there who could do the same AND you'd be surprised what you could write about. Trevor Emdon has been a member of
the WarriorForum since 2007 and he just started creating his own products a few months ago. He felt much the same way I did but then he did something with that experience and turned it into a product to help others create their own products step by step.His material is entirely video based (ugh - I know) however I listened to every video and I could have listened to him talk all day. (Maybe it's the British
accent - we Americans - well, at least me - think anyone with a British accent is immediately entertaining and smart.) There are lots of how-to WSO guides out there but Trevor took a unique approach. He is a coach and a writer (and funny) and in the videos his talent as a coach shines through. He's incredibly motivating, upbeat, encouraging AND he laid out a very simple idea for a product that anyone
could do - a case study. He walks you through ideas for products, shows you how to create the sales page on the forum, how to set the product up on WarriorPlus and JVZoo and then how to take it a step further with free resources for a webinar (and, again, he's so encouraging that you just know you can do it once you've listened to him) so that you can
leverage that into more clients and sales.
When I launched my first product I didn't have a list, I didn't have any affiliates, and I hadn't really networked much on the forum. What I had was really a case study - my own experience building an Amazon site. If I can do it you can, too.
If you've been looking for some information on
how to create your very first product check out Trevor's Grand Cash Supremo. I assure you his videos will get your creative juices flowing. |
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Follow Me to $2000/Month from ONE Amazon Site
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I'm setting myself a challenge and invite you to follow along! Inside the Online Business Insider forum I started a thread called "Let's Build an Amazon Review Site". In that thread I've documented every step I took to build a new review site. I've shared the link to that site
in the thread on the forum.Without any link building other than Google+, Twitter, and Facebook, every one of the seven reviews on the site is ranking on the first page of Google for "[product name] review" and even for just the product name in some cases. The site is making money every month - about $150 and growing. However, I've
set a personal goal to get that site to $2000/month in the next 4 months. If you'd like to follow along please join me in the forum. You can get the discounted WarriorForum rate through this link: http://extremereviewer.com/joinericastone. See you there!Sincerely,Erica Stoneerica@extremereviewer.com |
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