Mid June 2011 Notes and List

Well, I haven't posted on My Notes and Lists in a while, which of course means I have neglected the main purpose of this blogsite, and of course this also means that I have notes and lists scattered all over the place again!

So, here is one of my latest "scatterings"

List and notes (11 points below) of what to do regards the freelance work Tony and I do, and also regards getting more traffic to our sites, in particular our main 1pic4twenty site right now, as 1pic4twenty is the site where we list the services we offer, and work is pretty quiet at the moment, so we certainly need more traffic to the services and prices pages of our site, so that more people can see how affordable we are, and hire us!

1.
I need to write and get 3 articles off to ServiceR8d as I write a weekly article for this site, for their Work From Home column. I only really need to write one article today and email it off today too, since the ServiceR8d email newsletter goes out tomorrow, but there's a good chance our Internet bandwidth allowance may run out before the end of the month because I failed to properly monitor usage in the first half of this month, and have allowed my boys far too much time on the Internet so far this month, without realising the penalties Tony and I would have to "pay."

The boys have been playing some online games and Zooty has taken to learning some magic tricks by watching YouTube videos about magic tricks. Zooty has also been watching some YouTube videos about learning to speak Italian. Tony and I have also spent some time watching YouTube videos, so no more YouTube for us for the rest of this month, and no Internet at all for the boys for the rest of this month.

We cannot really yet afford to up our monthly Internet bandwidth allowance, so we just have to be ultra careful the rest of this month, and then in future, monitor our usage more carefully and more frequently. This is why I need to get 3 articles off to ServiceR8d soon, so that the next two weeks' articles are already sent too, just in case we have no Internet towards the end of the month. ServiceR8d is a local (East London, South Africa) WordPress site, that Tony and I helped set up for the owner, and although I don't earn anything for writing the articles, I do get to include a link to our workfromhomeideas.co.za site at the bottom of each article, and this helps give us a little more local exposure. Due mostly to the newsletter ServiceR8d sends out weekly to over 4 000 subscribers (so far,) the site does get a fairly decent amount of traffic.

2.
I've added a "new" service to our 1pic4twenty.co.za site (email address hosting) and I need to add the link to it on all our other pages of services (over 20 pages/services)

3.
We've only recently nicely split up the services we offer into separate pages that give details and prices, but I need to still rewrite each of these pages a bit for better SEO (Search Engine Optimization,) as well as do better meta title, meta description, and meta keywords in the coding. Hopefully this extra SEO work will get our services and prices pages found a bit more on search engines like Google, and people visiting the pages will also see the list of services we offer, down the right hand side of each of these pages (and they all link to the appropriate page for more details and price information) - it's handy that many of the services we offer all sort of relate to each other, so somebody who finds one of our services and prices pages, may also need one of our other services listed down the side.

4.
Once done with 2. and 3. above, resubmit the site to search engines.

5.
Get a bit more exposure and possibly a few backlinks by commenting on South African blogs. Of course no spam, so browsing through many South african blogs to find content that I really want to leave nice comments on, can take quite a bit of time. I need to do this quite urgently in the hopes that Tony and I can generate some traffic to our sites and possibly get some orders for our services, but, essentially, this is also something that needs to be done on an ongoing basis, from time to time, forever.

6.
Prior to starting a new surge of commenting on South African blogs, I need to double check that some of our sites (to which I would leave a link to when I comment on blogs [my name automatically links to one of my sites when I fill in the details eg name and website address when I comment on other blogs]) mention the services we offer, or at least link to one or more of our services and prices pages.

7.
Do research and write some seo-optimized articles for an overseas client for one of his sites - we have been paid in advance some time ago, and there's no major rush for these articles, but we do need to get in all those hours we owe sometime, inbetween trying to market for some more local clients.

8.
Prepare and write etc our 3rd Work From Home Ideas newsletter, and get it sent off to our few subscribers.

9.
Get as many articles as possible written, and added to our own sites, whenever we get the chance!

10. Refresh our ads on the online free classifieds site, Vottle, and perhaps add a few more ads to Vottle, perhaps also add a few ads to some other online free classifieds sites.

11.
Get off the Internet now, and go return two dvds we watched last night, before midday. The two dvds we watched were Black Swan and The American.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2011

Niche Site Topics

I would like about another 20 sites, maybe more. I'm not talking about totally free sites like this Blogger blog where I don't even have to pay for hosting and domain registration. I'm talking about sites that are my own where I pay for a unique web address (register a domain) and where I pay for hosting.

That's two choices for me:

html/CSS site, which Tony and I can at least design ourselves, to save on the expense of hiring a designer, and the hassle of having to explain to the designer exactly how it is we want our sites to look - and, also, knowing how to design our own sites, we can make any alterations or add new pages ourselves.

The other choice is a WordPress.org site (not the totally free .com WordPress sites, where you don't get your own domain name, but where you rather just use a free theme from WordPress.org (there are over 1 000 to choose from)) and then get a domain registered and hosted, so that I have a unique domain name, rather than one that ends in /wordpress.com

Eg I would rather have myownsite.co.za than myownsite/wordpress.com (as that second one doesn't really seem like my own site since there are tons of sites on the Internet that end in /wordpress/com - and those are hosted on wordpress.com, so not even my own host etc.)

Free Blogger blogs (like this one; the address ends in blogspot.com - see this site's/page's URL address right at the top of your computer screen in your browser bar) and free wordpress.com sites are great and many people use them - I have some Blogger blogs - this one and a few others, but I prefer to mostly have my own unique domain name for my sites.

So,

if I get, say, ten new sites up soon (as well as domain registration and hosting) which should I use? html/CSS site or WordPress site, or a bit of both?

Because Tony and I can design html/CSS sites, and because the hosting package for an html/CSS site can be slighlty cheaper than the larger hosting package needed for a WordPress site, it seems that the obvious choice should be the html/CSS type of site.

BUT, my plan with some new niche sites, is to add new pages of content to them whenever I get the chance, and to display Google Adsense ads on them, to generate a bit of a passive income from them. It is easier and quicker to add new pages of content to a WordPress site than it is to add new pages of content to an html/CSS site.

The hosting is not that much more, either, so I think WordPress should be the choice if I add 20 or so new sites to my collection.

Then, what will the topics of my new niche sites be?

I cannot afford to get domains registered for them all at once, and to start hosting packages for them all at once, so I'll start with just 2 or 3 new niche sites, then add more a month later, and more another month later. It's quite addictive, getting new sites, but not free, so hopefully I don't start thinking of too many new niche site topics by the time I have the 20 new ones set up.

I'm not sure which will be the first 2 or 3 I choose to get set up (getting the others later), but these niche site topics below are likely to be in the 20.

A site about using WordPress, offering tips etc too

A recipe site - possibly just one sort of topic, like just puddings, just starters, just braai recipes etc - so maybe more than one site for recipes

A site where South Africans can advertise for free

A site about anything to do with the garden, and gardening

A site about photography

A site about horoscopes, strange occurrences, the future etc

A site offering writing style and grammar tips

A site about running and walking (competitively, health, shoes, getting and keeping fit etc)

A girly type site offering tips and info to tweens, teenagers, and young women - fashion, make-up, friends tips etc etc

Animals - tips, facts etc about wild animals, pet animals - so perhaps two sites then

A Christmas and Easter site - or perhaps two sites, then - gift ideas, craft ideas, history, facts, food, traditions

A site about security in South Africa

A fiction or creative writing site

A party ideas site

A craft ideas and how to make various crafts site

A site that covers a variety of topics all on one site

A site about places to stay in South Africa, what to do and see in South Africa - perhaps two or more sites - staying in the city, staying in the countryside, staying at the seaside, hiking, things to do, things to see

Houses, homes and interior decor

Movies - info, reviews, info about actors and actresses

The beach - sun sea sand activities ocean fish whatever!

Now, each of these can actually be split into further topics, meaning more sites. Hm.

Why not just one big site covering everything I want to write about?

Google Adsense ads generally seem to display ads that link to sites that have similar content to the site that they appear on, but it seems to be that even more appropriate ads display when the ads are on a site that covers just one topic (a niche site.)

Also, should my sites start getting lots of traffic, some people may want to advertise on my sites, and are more likely to do so if all the topics on the site relate to their line of business.

I am aware that some topics, even though niche, may overlap, for example Chrsitmas and Easter may include some craft ideas for making your own Christmas tree ornaments, and that's a craft idea that could also possibly appear in the crafts idea site, or even in the houses, homes, interior decor site, or party ideas site but I can link to these articles from the similar sites or articles, making that link stronger than if it was from a site that does not have similar content.

I can also still perhaps create a few more totally free Blogger blogs (totally free other than time, having a computer and Internet connection), that each probably cover a similar topic to one that is on one of the new WordPress sites, and can link to that Blogger site from the appropriate WordPress site or two, and also link to some of the WordPress sites on some of the Blogger blogs.

Having lots of sites means lots of opportunity to more easily create links from sites that I know have similar content, and not just on the side of the page, or only on one page, but nicely with anchor text within some of the articles too.

It's fun, all this site creation and linking - plus while I'm having fun with it, I earn a passive income from the ads on the sites. Cool.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2011

Articles to Write

I have a list of articles I need or want to write, in my head, as well as all over my notebooks. Getting these articles - their titles or the ideas - listed here should help me be a little more organized about writing these articles.

I'm forever thinking of new articles to write, then either don't jot them down, or jot them down all over the place. It will be nice to have just one list of articles to refer to. For now, anyway. When I think of more articles I should or could write, I'll make a new list. I'll probably make that new list of articles even before I've written all the ones I mention here, but displaying my lists and notes here on My Notes and Lists is certainly going to help me at least FEEL a little more organized.

Right, so let's get started.

1)
On my Make Money Writing Online site:

One of the first new articles I can add to my Make Money Writing Online site can be an article about what people can write about. Sometimes writers, or perhaps beginner writers in particular, struggle to think about what they can write about. I'll give tips on what they can write about, and will of course also link to this article to show them that just creating a list or notes on "things to do" is, in fact, also writing!

Another article for my Make Money Writing Online site, that I've been meaning to write for a while now, is one about how I earn some money selling articles on Constant Content, and how others can too.

I also want to write an article about choosing how to organize your day or week when it comes to writing online. An online writer needs to decide if they want to do all that is entailed in writing online as they write and publish each article online, or if they want to spend one day writing all day, the next day submitting those articles to online writing sites (or publishing them on their own sites), and linking to their articles from other sites or advertising those articles in any way they can, and a third day spending time within the community of writing sites, commenting on other people's articles on those writing sites, as well as just reading articles anywhere on the Internet that can give them further ideas for new topics to write about as well as learning any tricks of the trade or methods of further improving their writing earnings. There will often be some overlapping, especially regards day 2 and 3, and I should write about that too.

I can also browse the Internet and search for some sites that help with improving writing and grammar skills, and list these sites, with a brief description of each, in one article, to help writers easily find sites that can help them improve their writing skills, and, in turn, their earnings.

Another article I want to write for Make Money Writing Online is an overview of some of the writing sites I belong to, and what I feel are the pros and cons of each, so people can weigh up which ones they'd like to join (if they don't want to join them all.)

2)
On my Work From Home Ideas site:

Well, I'd like to write as much as possible for Work From Home Ideas. I'm pleased with my Adsense earnings from this site. The site costs me about R200 per year (just domain registration yearly renewal and yearly site hosting, as Tony and I designed the site ourselves and add our own content), so that's roughly R16.50 per month, and the site has made me about R300 per month over the last 4 months (from Adsense). There are not yet too many articles on Work From Home Ideas, so I know I can increase that monthly passive income by adding many new articles to the site, and, of course, also by promoting all the articles more by linking to them from other sites more.

So, what to write about for the site?

Browsing through the Internet, looking at other work from home ideas or craft ideas helps give me ideas, and I need to do that more often, and jot down all the ideas that pop into my head - yeah, probably in my notebook, and I really must get used to learning to jot down my ideas here on My Notes and Lists instead!

3)
On my Make Money Use Internet site:

Well, this one is quite easy too. I just need to write about how to make money using the Internet which is what I am doing, so I can basically just describe what it is I do, the steps involved, how much I earn, offer tips or reviews on different methods of making money on the Internet. I just need to write more, not forgetting even small details, that may help beginners when they're starting out to write online or make money using the Internet.

4)
My Teresa Schultz site:

Hm, I've neglected this one quite a bit. I really need to do more writing on Teresa Schultz! The problem comes in when I feel I have covered most topics on my other sites, and then I can't decide what to add to Teresa Schultz! I think I need to consider writing more about me - perhaps stories from my youth, whatever! Maybe even a bit of fiction too, since I did used to enjoy writing fiction quite a bit, and would like to renew that love. Also, because none of my other exisitng sites really deal with fiction too much, so why not on Teresa Schultz, then?

5)
My East London Photographs and Wild Ramblings is also an easy one, and I've been really slack with it. It simply entails taking some photos in and around East London, in South Africa, sort of whenever Tony and I are out and about, loading them to the site, and writing a bit about them, not too much writing either.

6) and more!
Then there's still a few other sites of mine as well as the online writing sites I belong to - so articles needed there too.

Hm, lots of article writing to be done (or any kind of writing, not just informative article writing) but at least, writing this, I've just done one!

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2011

My Notes and Lists

Yeah, yet another site. I can't help myself. I like websites and blogs, and I like having a few of them.

I also like working from home as a freelancer, doing work like web design, photo editing, on-page SEO, Internet research, writing and more!

And of course I enjoy blogging and making money online too.

Now along with the above likes, as well as having a great boyfriend Tony, and two great sons, I like to take notes and make lists to keep myself semi-organized. I say semi-organized as I don't really do a good job of it. I lose papers I've written on, or I struggle to remember on which page of my notebooks I wrote something important, and get frustrated trying to find the notes or list.

So, My Notes and Lists emerges here.

One of the first things on my to do list related to this site is to go through the 5 and a half A5 size notebooks I've filled over the last three years, and see what I'd like to include here, on My Notes and Lists.

So I guess My Notes and Lists will also serve as a sort of diary.

I look forward to being able to locate my various notes and lists more easily.

Many of my notes and lists are about making money online or from home, so hopefully this blog will not only help me, but will help others too.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2011