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3 minutes
It has been a while since I wrote about my million dollar case study. To be honest with you all, a lot has been happening in my life and not much has been happening on the site. There’s a lot going on with both my business life (the websites I run) and my personal life (my location / relationships).
As I have big goals for this life I’m living, I have decided that I’m going to settle down for 12 months in one location: Cape Town. I know the place well and it offers me an excellent standard of living for the money that I make. This will allow me to focus on my goals with ViperChill and my affiliate sites, and ultimately reach my next goal — making sure my siblings don’t have to work.
If you don’t know anything about the million dollar case study, then I recommend you start here. I am aiming to build an affiliate site that makes $30,000 profit per month, that I could theoretically sell for $1m (although I’ll probably keep it).
I’ve already written about how I purchased a $550 domain for the project, and now it’s time for the next installment. As a quick reminder to those of you who want to follow along, my plan to make money is by ranking in Google for a certain keyphrase and getting search engine traffic to the site. From there, I hope to sell a relevant product to that audience.
The most important part of this whole project is going to be ranking for my keyphrase, but I will write about my strategy for that in a later post. First, I want to talk about my CMS and Content situation.
Content Management System
There are thousands of ways to build websites. You can learn to use software like Dreamweaver, you can use an online site builder, or you can use notepad and code HTML in a text editor (which is exactly how I started out). An alternative, and a solution I prefer, is to use a free CMS like Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla.
For my affiliate website, I’m using WordPress. It has thousands of custom designs out there to choose from, it’s easy to tweak, and the interface makes it very easy to add new website pages. Quite simply: WordPress is the best solution for my needs, so that’s what I’m going with.
The structure of the site, for now, is very ordinary. The homepage is optimised around my main keyphrase, but it simply shows blog posts that are related to the niche. There are also the typical links to about, contact, and privacy pages.
The aim is to keep the site looking like this until it starts to rank in Google. Because we’re trying to rank for such a competitive phrase, I want to the site to pass any manual review that it may receive. Once the site has rankings for some of the keyphrases I’m targeting, then we’ll start promoting a related product (either our own, or as an affiliate).
The Content
The content on the site right now is mostly news related. It is all unique and being written by someone I’m paying $5 per article (this is a high quality, american-based female writer). I don’t want to reveal my exact niche just yet, but to give you an example of the content being posted, let’s just say that if I was promoting a Forex (foreign exchange) product, then my blog would be covering forex related industry news.
Right now we’re just pumping out quality, unique content around 4 times per week. I have owned the domain since early December, but up until recently I noticed the site was still not indexed in Google. I did some searching around, head scratching, and confused facial expressions before realising I had the ‘block search engines’ option checked in WordPress settings.
It turns out that if you install WordPress via some one-click solution, that is the default these days. I have no idea why. Hopefully this hasn’t set me back too much and the site will start to appear in Google in the next few days.
What I’m Doing Now
I’m enjoying my last few days in Amsterdam before I either go to Thailand for three weeks or enjoy a euro-trip with one of my best friends. From there I will go back to Cape Town, hopefully find an awesome apartment, and get into full work mode.
I will be working harder than I’ve ever worked in my life this year and I expect that to result in both massive value for you guys here, and income for me via the many projects I’m working on.
For now, I’ve hired someone to work on the SEO for my $1m site. It’s going to take around 4-5 months to see any returns in my opinion, so I would rather have someone else watching over it. This person is someone I’ve worked with before and they know what they’re doing, so my biggest project is in good hands.
If you have any questions about the case study, feel free to drop me a question in the comments below. The next few months will just be spent continuing to add fresh content to the site and building links via various sources.
P.S. My example affiliate website I reveal in Cloud Living made over $400 last week (check its Google rankings for proof). I know that saying this is probably going to set me up for a lot more competition, but I’m just showing that my method really does work. I can’t wait to help more of you quit your day jobs.
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I had the “block search engines” option enabled on one of my affiliate blogs too. It caused me a lot of stress for a couple of weeks. I just couldn’t understand why Google was playing hard ball with my site.
Haha.
It’s one of those things that is really annoying, but feels great to figure out.
– Glen
Hey Glen,
Good to hear your progress in the case study/”potential business”.
About the Google Indexing problem, you don’t need to worry much. Its not much of a problem. I started a blog few months ago and the same thing happened to me. I had no clue what was happening and Tad (seo2.0.onreact.com) told me what could be the problem and it turned out that the privacy settings was set to “Don’t show in search engines”, just like yours.
I changed and after a few days, it got back to normal. Now my pages are indexed in Google. So this shouldn’t be a problem. On a side note, I wonder why these one-click installs make that as default option when they clearly know that bloggers love search engine traffic.
Good luck with the case study.
– Ramkarthik
Hi Glen,
Enjoy your trip to Thailand/Europe and especially going back to one of the most beautiful town in this world (Cape Town).
I just purchased your Cloud Living book and will start reading and applying it this week.
Cheers, Richard
Very interested to see where this goes. The idea of bunkering down and focusing on one single project for a year is very enticing. If I were in your shoes I would definitely give it a shot. Unfortunately with a wife and new kid that isn’t an option for me exactly but I find ways.
Interesting post Glen thanks and it’ll be good to follow how it goes. Being someone who spends time living in both the UK and Cape Town, it’s good to hear you’re making your return there! I can understand entirely why you’re choosing to base yourself there since, despite news of prices going up pre-World Cup, living costs are manageable, and it can’t be beaten in terms of lifestyle. Planning to go back soon too with a view to perhaps moving back for a longer period for a while – great place for location-independent workers!
All the best to you and enjoy Thailand!
Tamsin@nudgeme
Good luck buddy! Just wanted to tell you that the search engine block doesn’t come by default on one click installs. After creating your one click install, you are taken to the wordpress login page where it asks you the name of your blog and if you want to be searchable. By default, it is on OFF, aka make my site searchable. You must have ticked the wrong checkbox by accident.
Thanks man.
Just ran Fantastico now and that is definitely not an option…
I’ve used Fantastico a few times in the past and it’s not been an issue. Just tried a Simple Scripts install last night and that went smooth as well, but just in case i’ll check all the sites I’ve setup recently π Thanks for the heads up.
Have fun on your break, can’t wait to hear more when you get back and into the work.
Glen – I sent you an email with a few questions. I hope you can respond..
Indeed I will.
(Although I prefer comments). π
Glen,
I wish you the best of luck and I really hope you succeed with your ultimate goal of supporting your siblings. In my opinion there’s nothing more honorable than supporting ones family.
One piece of advice I would give you is to keep a private journal of what you’re doing not just online, but offline as well (if you’re not already). Go back and write everything in detail you can remember from the time you were 16 through present (including your thoughts, motivations, the trips, parties, women, moves, personal growth and anything else you can think of…) And keep journaling until you’re 26… Then publish a hard copy book, something to the effect of “My journey to becoming an Internet multi-millionaire in by the age of 26…” Just a thought…
Already on it.
And I’m actually serious π
The book will be called Project Nightclub. And I’ll publish it as soon as I buy my first club. It’s what I want (a club + to write a book), and I think it will make a great business / success story.
Thanks for your support!
Ah man Glen, thanks! I just read your post and figured out why my blog wasn’t being picked up by Google >:(
I think I’ll go back and re-read Cloud Living and have a friend fread it too. Love this $1m case study!
Hey Moon,
Glad my misfortune helped quite a few people here!
Thanks for your comments, as always.
Mmm. So you never see this screen after running Fantastico?
http://www.barryhand.ie/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/wordpress-install.gif
Note that this image is not from me. Just found it on google images. It’s the first thing I see after
running my one click install when going to my newly installed
blog.
@SebastienPage
Nope. That is the old page they used to use about 1-2 years ago.
Maybe my version is a lot newer.
I did a WP 2.9.1 install last week and I still got the same screen with a very slightly different wording. I use Fantastico via DreamHost. Might be slightly different then. Oh well. At least now you know how to fix this issue.
You are very determined, Seb. π
Determined! That’s exactly how my fiancee calls me when I’m very picky about little details. Yes, I guess I’m determined π
But hey, I’ll stop here on that matter. Promised!
Now another issue… I subscribed to the comments on this post. I’ve received several comments reply by email but when I visit your site I only see 2 comments posted (same from my iPhone). I think it’s kinda strange. I assume you run WP-cache or WP-supercache but they usually don’t give that kind of issue. Might be worth looking into it. My 2 cents for the night. Damn, that’s about 8 cents I gave on this post today, haha.
@SebastienPage
Hi Seb,
Did the comments have actual content? And you just didn’t see them on the site…?
If you could forward me an example to hq AT viperchill.com I would appreciate it.
I love watching case studies like this. Thanks for sharing Glen. Hopefully, my own case study is as successful as yours π
It can be, if you’re willing to work.
I expect big things from you this year Jacob!
Hey Glen,
Pretty cool to see a guy your age ‘work it out’, most people never manage!
Like your stuff and wanted to agree with you about WordPress, I too messed about learning a lot of code (which is I admit useful for tweaking!) before ‘giving in’ and worshiping at the WordPress altar. After learning the basics, what a platform! Awesome and it will carry you wherever you need to go on the web.
Good luck on your projects in Cape Town, cool place to kick it!
Stay well
Hey Ian,
Welcome to the comments!
I completely agree. Thanks for your support!
Hi Glen.
Got your email update today so naturally read your post. Your a star, I went straight to my wordpress dashboard and lo and behold there it was NO SEARCH ENGINES! Thanks man.
By the way, i’m using your old template for a Speakers Club Website. I fancy changing to WordPress soon for ease of updating. If you ever update your blog post about facing your fear please could you mention the site as were despreate for new members. http://www.tynesidespeakersclub.co.uk Sorry if this is spammy.
Good luck in Cape Town
Chris
I had that same problem, with WordPress being set to block search engines as a standard, with one of my earlier sites. It’s really weird to even have such a setting (or is there some purpose I don’t understand?), let alone use it as a standard setting.
Interesting to see you’re outsourcing some (most?) of the work. Haven’t done that yet, but I guess it’s one of the best ways to leverage time.
Cheers,
Shane
Thailand: If you come to Thailand, feel free to send me an email. I have a web application here and am working on developing a desktop trading application as well.
Fascinating stuff! I’ll enjoy reading this journey. I wish you all the luck. Great blog by the way, you’re an inspiration to us all.
Hey Glen,
I really like following your 1 million project. Some great tips you gave also, thanks for that. I do have question and I don’t know if you are willing to share that information. (You can email me if you prefer). You wrote that you have outsourced the SEO for your new site. To who or what company did you outsource?
Keep up the good work Glen!
Hi Richard,
I outsourced the work to a friend of mine who won’t be working on any projects.
If you want to get someone to do the same, I simply have this person doing link building each month for the website. I know all about the on-site stuff so I can implement all of that myself.
– Glen
That was meant to say *Won’t be working on any more projects”
Too bad he is not taking other projects. Thanks for the info, I appreciate it!
Excellent post π Glad to hear you are staying in Cape Town soon – my city of choice as well.
I have recently started a business, and also have a blog that covers my experiences. Maybe we can meet up some time and chat?
Yep yep.
Already lots of people I have to meet but I’m sure we can sort something out π
I’ll keep an eye on your project. I’m sure that your determination and know-how will pay off. All the best with it.
You know me too well, Anne ;).
Thanks for your support!
Glen,
Like Richard, I was wondering more about the outsourcing SEO. What do you have done, who do you work with, how much does it cost etc?
If you prefer send me an email but I’d love to hear more about it.
Love this series and the blog!
Thanks,
Hey Adam,
I will be doing a whole post on the process so look out for that.
Make sure you grab the feed :).
– Glen
I recently used a guy who offers risk free SEO. Meaning, I didn’t have to pay him until I already saw my keyword in the first page of Google. He does a great job. I’m going to be a reseller for his services as soon as I get my new site up.
Glen, I hope you give your blog readers VIP access that nightclub when it opens!
Of course Tony,
I’ve added you to the guest list.
Hey Glen
great goal – respect. But I guess you must work full time to achieve this goal, don’t you??
I have too much going on to every give one project my full-time attention. This is one of the main reasons I have hired someone to take care of the SEO.
I much prefer the research and strategy aspects of this business.
Ummm… where do you hire someone to write an article for $5?
Seems a little on the cheap side.
Joe
http://forums.digitalpoint.com
I give my writers titles and descriptions for each article so they can literally write 2 within about 50 minutes ($10+ per hour).
– Glen
You can find cheap writers on Elance or other sites like it that will work for $5 and under an article. I am a freelance content writer and am always dealing with these people who low ball their prices. Throw in outsourced Indians and it becomes hard to make a buck sometimes!
Another winning article. Have you thought about putting together all the content about the $1m site case study into a book or e-book?
Jonathon
I will probably give it all away in a free eBook, if / when I succeed.
– Glen
Sounds interesting. I’d love to know who your targetted buyers are. From what I tell all the big spenders online are in the US, in particular California… Is that your major target market I wonder? I hope they’re young… male… Just guessing:)
It took me weeks to figure out that my sites url’s were blocked by the “one click solution install” For novices, this can be a frustrating experience, however, even with this obstacle, content rules, and if you have enough content and the robots are indexing it, then it CAN be overcome to a point. I like your thinking.
Glen,
Firstly i’d just like to say I’m loving the value you have to offer! Secondly, you said that
“The aim is to keep the site looking like this until it starts to rank in Google. Because weβre trying to rank for such a competitive phrase, I want the site to pass any manual review that it may receive.”
Is this they best way to rank a site that is new? Add one new article every day and create backlinks? How long does it take to pass manual review? Is this done because google don’t like affiliates linking to products on other websites?
Thanks,
Gehsi.
To be honest Gehsi, I don’t know much about how the manual review works, but I believe it is in place.
Tens of thousands (or millions?) of new websites come online everyday, so there’s no way a human system could go through all of that. Unless your niche is very large or your doing some very shady things, I don’t think you have to worry.
Waiting for detail result. All the Best!
Warm Regards,
Azad Shaikh (The Internet Geek)
I appreciate the suggestions above on getting a freelancer. I have a new site where I need more content popped out, hopefully I can find someone with some actual background on the topic who will be able to develop some quality content so I can focus on other areas. $5 an article is reasonable. While I kind of feel bad about it being a low-ball offer, that is market economics – and hopefully someone willing to do this has a day job or is a student. $5 is better than nothing.
Im absolutely drawn in by this case study and a side effect is that im also learning a lot of things I did not know. Thanks for all the time and energy you devote to informing and entertaining us glen.
i think it is not enough to rank your project on the first positions in search results for some keywords to built a 1 million dollar site … what you need is fastzination … content that is interessting for your user … otherwise your user come one time and never again … in this case your blog is 1 thousend dollars high but not more … i am follow your blogposts and we will see how it works … for some feedback contact me …
Hello Glen, I recently decided to start my own affiliate site, before I read this post. I was going to make a one page site, and see about doing some SEO and link building. I didn’t think about using WordPress for the CMS, however I think that may not be a bad idea.
But my question to you is about the articles/content you are pumping into the site. Are you articles well well put together with extensive information, with a considerable length? Or, are they not as detailed? Any little details about the content would be helpful. I just want to get an idea, of what I should expect to do if I follow you’re model you are outlining here.
Hi Glen,
Do you mind sharing, what do you pay for SEO services? Is there a company that you recommend to us? And what is a good price that we should anticipate paying?
Thanks so much!
Jenny