I just finished up our taxes and we are getting back a bit more than we expected! I plan on spending a few bucks on the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework and web hosting by Hostgator. My plan is to migrate all my sites off Blogger and onto my own host.
Just think, after 4 years of talking about doing this, I am finally going to do it!
The Hot Dog Truck will most likely be the last site migrated, but I can see the move happening within the next two months.
I have been talking to different people about the best way to host my own sites and roughly 70% of the people I asked said I should go with the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework- a Wordpress based product that promises ease of installation and design. I have fiddled with Worpress in the past, but I never felt the need to move from Blogger. When I was at Affiliate Summit West in January I finally got some compelling answers as to why I should make the move. Without going into a lot of detail, the bottom line is Worpress sites have better SEO tools built in and the search engines love them.
I promise I will not turn into some Wordpress geek after making the move. I have always been a staunch supporter of Blogger (I even considered leaving THIS BLOG on Blogger due to the enormity of the site), but the tech heads in Vegas convinced me.
I will be sure to keep you posted!
Tax Time!
Blogging for Business
When I started this site, I thought I'd be blogging for business; business for my Hot Dog Truck that is. While I have had some customers who've found me from my site, most of my business is repeat word of mouth business or folks "just passing by." My Hot Dog Truck has had a good year, and so has my site.
When I started this site, I read everything I could about monetizing my blog and driving traffic to it. While I'm not amazon.com quite yet, I'm doing OK considering I knew nothing about SEO 8 months ago. Considering I started with zero cash, I'd say the whole blogging endeavor has been a resounding success! I have also had a lot of fun and met a bunch of new people while doing it.
The success of this site has led me to explore some other projects which I plan to focus on in the winter months when I plan to shut down the Hot Dog Truck. I have also been exploring developing some other products which I'd like to market online. We're also looking into selling some specialty computer items online as well.
When you get into product sales online, an SEO company may be an expiditious way of getting the word out to the internet search engines so product phrases will be linked to my site. While this can be done alone, as I've done with the Hot Dog Truck, it takes a lot of time. An SEO firm can speed things up considerably and this is especially important when you are sitting on product in a crowded marketplace. Getting people who are looking for info on a specific product to convert to buyers of the product is an important step. They have to want what you have, find you, be convince your product is the one they want and then buy it! Whether you want to sell relish or specialty computer mouses, doing a good job on the SEO for your site is tantamount for success.
If all goes well, I can spend a lot of time in Florida in the winter months running my websites and keeping away from the crummy New England winters. My folks live outside of Tampa and I could stay with them and run my sites in the sunshine. A little SEO Tampa Bay and my laptop and I'll be good to go!
SEO is the Way to Go
I have managed to make this site a Google page rank 4 in a very short amount of time. Webmastering is a hobby for me, but I'm starting to think of it as a viable occupation, at least a part time one. I have learned a lot about SEO in the past 6 months and have this site "above the fold" on the first Google and Yahoo search pages for phrases I want to be keyed to.
One way to get good search engine placement is through text links for phrases you want to be searched for. Google "hot dog truck" and you'll find this site. Link popularity for certain phrases helps build your search rank and makes it more likely you'll be found when people search the phrases you've built text links for. Link popularity is also a big factor in whether or not you are found high in the search engine placement.
I utilized everything I could with search engine optimization to get my page ranked higher. If I had the budget (which I don't) I'd definitely use a search engine optimization company. Using a search engine optimization company might also be a good way to go for people who don't have the time to do their own SEO.
SubmitaWebsite.com is a search engine optimization company
that can help you build massive amounts of text links so your search engine placement is higher.
I plan on selling some things online in the future and doing good SEO for my sites will be priority number ONE. If the income justifies outsourcing to a search engine optimization company, I'll gladly spend the dough!
Blogger's Affinity Group
I have been swirling an idea around in my head for weeks. I am experimenting with a new, organic means of generating traffic to my site and others. Check out the Bloggers Affinity Group and become part of the experiment!
