PROGRESS THREAD: GymJunkie (36Pounds.com)

[Gymjunkie]

Cheers everyone! I decided to start a thread to keep notes how my blog's progress goes and maybe get some advice from others

First, this is a blog for skinny guys who want to gain muscle. I created it to share info with other skinny guys on my path to gaining muscle and help them get buff too (not to look like huge walking walls though). It is more then 2 months old now.

2 months stats:

Visits per day: 103,45
Uniques: 5292
Total visits: 6414
Bounce Rate: 58 percent
Pageviews per visit: 2,68
Total pageviews: 17163
Returning Visitors: 1091 (17 percent)

A week after I have decrease in traffic, because of less marketing in forums, no new guest posts on other blogs Which sucks. Right before this drop I had a nice spike of traffic from Stumble Upon, had new records on those days but now it's gone.

I am writing a free guide on Nutrition that will, I hope, go viral and bring in more traffic for some time and it will add to my blog's trustability.

Long term Goals of a blog:

1.Get 50000 visits a month by the first birthday of the blog
2. Create a great system(training, nutritional, motivational knowledge) for helping visitors to gain muscle - write a great ebook!
3. Build a trusted brand
4. Most importantly, help 1000 guys go from skinny to buff (1000 thank you emails)
5. Start paid online coaching


Short term goals:

1. Finish the Nutrition Guide to give out for free
2. Achieve 150 visits per day at the end of 3rd month of blog (14th of July)
3. Get a nice theme for a blog for free

That's it for now...

 

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[Gymjunkie]

A small set back - I was supposed to finish writing the free guide on nutrition but realized I need to do more research and have to delay it for two weeks. I'm sure my visitors will be mad.. Made a list of articles and books to read about nutrition that I have to read, this gonna take some time...

I had another weak traffic day, not even 100 visits and sucks balls...

 

[maximus20895]

so what is your main concern now? How are you getting traffic? Have you made your site SEO friendly?

 

[maximus20895]

To be honest, I would upload another theme. the theme now is very dark and depressing looking.

check my old blog on this at buildingstrongmuscles.com

 

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[Gymjunkie]

To be honest, I would upload another theme. the theme now is very dark and depressing looking.

check my old blog on this at buildingstrongmuscles.com

Some people will like it some wont. For now it is staying, but I already have chosen a next theme, just need to make a few graphics first...

As for main concern, now it is getting guest posts on blog for men that would bring good traffic and backlinks. And change my hosting (but I have no money).

You still work with that blog? Or moved on to other project?

 

[LightHouse]

The general idea would be to not change out the theme like you would your clothes, get a theme made exactly how you want it and get it up ASAP and keep it that way. that will be your comfort zone for your readers.

Your traffic will fluctuate, just keep producing new interesting content and you wont need to worry about that.

 

[LightHouse]

OK i got a second to look here as it finally loaded. PLease do not be offended as i am very direct when i look at a web site:

1. Scrap the templete, it does not have the feeling of a muscle gaining tips site it feels like a home improvement site. your feel has to match your content.

2. Once you do that make some CSS changes to improve the readability of the site.

3. If you are hosting those images, optimize their size so they load faster

4. Match the adsense ad background color to whatever background they are sitting on, have one text links about the posts as well. also match the link color to that of the color of the links on your blog. this way they look like normal links on your blog and guess what.. more people click them.

5. Get a header image or logo that i can remember, that way when im sitting around drowning in my tears of sorrow from being so small the image of your blog pops up in my head and i re-visit your site.

those are a few starters. get going and make some money!

 

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[kurtyordy]

couple thoughts-

it took way to long to load.

the adsense is to far down on the page if you want to get clicks. If you are getting clicks, it means that the content higher up on the page was not compelling enough for me to click.

If I was your target, (skinny guys trying to bulk up instead of fat guys trying to bulk down) I would probably not return just because of the load time.

 

[Gymjunkie]

Wow... thanx a lot guys!

The hosting is really hurting ...damn.. not sure how will I be able to get a new host but I will try..

As for AdSense, I might get it a bit higher but it's not my main goal to monetize through it. I rarely get clicks so I think content is good enough...

 

[RealOG]

I flipped through your site and one thing I believe it is missing is photos. Do you have any before and afters of you? How about some readers who took your advice? Maybe some free photos from Flickr?

Most bodybuilding enthusiasts are focused on appearance, and it is hard to cater to those folks without some images.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

I flipped through your site and one thing I believe it is missing is photos. Do you have any before and afters of you? How about some readers who took your advice? Maybe some free photos from Flickr?

Most bodybuilding enthusiasts are focused on appearance, and it is hard to cater to those folks without some images.

Yeah, I limit the pictures since the blog takes forever to load already. Usually I like to have one picture in each post at least. Once I move it to better servers I will add pictures
Thanx

 

[maximus20895]

I don't update that site at all anymore.

What host do you have. It is taking me a long time for it the load as well.

Have you picked keywords? Just post some of your content on social sites. digg, stumbleupon etc..

What SEO plugins do you have?

 

[Gymjunkie]

I don't update that site at all anymore.

What host do you have. It is taking me a long time for it the load as well.

Have you picked keywords? Just post some of your content on social sites. digg, stumbleupon etc..

What SEO plugins do you have?

I have All-in-One-SEO-Pack plug in...

I did submit posts to Digg and SU but it didn't work, so I stopped, but then recently I got a nice spike of traffic from SU for two days...
My site is hosted on a small hosting company from my native country (not USA)...

 

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[maximus20895]

What do you mean they didn't work???

 

[Gymjunkie]

What do you mean they didn't work???

I wouldn't get more Digs or Stumbles and therefore no traffic.

 

[jportz]

Tim Ferriss just released some info on his next book titled

From Rapid Fat Loss to Strongmen: A Guide to Becoming Superhuman

Maybe post about it? See if you can get a share in some of the traffic this will surely generate


I also suggest you check out getting-high-google-page-ranking-backlinks

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Tim Ferriss just released some info on his next book titled

From Rapid Fat Loss to Strongmen: A Guide to Becoming Superhuman

Maybe post about it? See if you can get a share in some of the traffic this will surely generate


I also suggest you check out getting-high-google-page-ranking-backlinks

Speed for you my friend

Thanx, I will check them both out!

 

[maximus20895]

I wouldn't get more Digs or Stumbles and therefore no traffic.

So you just give up trying? Every bit helps, believe me. You also get backlinks which helps greatly as well. Eventually they will show up on google too..

 

[Gymjunkie]

So you just give up trying? Every bit helps, believe me. You also get backlinks which helps greatly as well. Eventually they will show up on google too..

I just focus on writing it, if people like the content then they will share it (some already did)...

 

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[biophase]

Can't get the site to load at all right now.

Update: It loaded, but damn it took forever. Like others have said. Get a new template, make it bright, use a white background, get an image at the top. But most of all...

Get new hosting!! It's not expensive, $10/mo at the most. Move your adsense ads up and it will easily pay for your hosting if you are getting 100 hits a day. Invest something into the site.

 

[Gymjunkie]

Ok, update for today:

Got two guest posts at once on two sites. One was pending for a few weeks and one happened real fast. I'm in a good mood, hope these will bring good traffic and people will stick around..

 

[kidgas]

Don't know how long it was taking before, but I put a stopwatch to it and it took about 10 seconds to load. I agree that the template looks kind of dark and is somewhat difficult for my eyes to read.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Don't know how long it was taking before, but I put a stopwatch to it and it took about 10 seconds to load. I agree that the template looks kind of dark and is somewhat difficult for my eyes to read.

You even took a stop watch?
Thanx, I doubt there is a theme that everyone likes, I am looking for a theme design help.

 

[jportz]

I was poking round your site purely just to see if there was any advice I could provide as a fastlane member, not actually caring much about body building.. Until I came across your before and after pictures - wow I'm very impressed!

That alone, has motivated me to follow your blog. My recommendation (as well as change hosting!) is to put those pictures with a "X months" caption on your home page. In my opinion, nothing will be as effective at provoking the interest of your target market.

 

[Gymjunkie]

I was poking round your site purely just to see if there was any advice I could provide as a fastlane member, not actually caring much about body building.. Until I came across your before and after pictures - wow I'm very impressed!

That alone, has motivated me to follow your blog. My recommendation (as well as change hosting!) is to put those pictures with a "X months" caption on your home page. In my opinion, nothing will be as effective at provoking the interest of your target market.

Thank you! I appreciate your opinion Glad my blog and me inspires some people!!! YEAH!!

It's nice idea, I will definitely think about putting pics on the main page.

Speed+

 

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[Gymjunkie]

I am getting a bit confused with what to do with the blog in the future, how to monetize it, what strategy to choose so I will rant out here...

For now, I think I will do this:

1. Finish writing Nutrition guide and give it away for free
2. Then a bit later start free online coaching for not more then 10 people to test out the market, if there is need for it and to see how the thing actually work and learn about it.
3. Write a complete ebook/training system and then start selling it
4. Then start online coaching for money if there is such a need


Hope this works!

 

[maximus20895]

Are you going to use clinkbank? I would advise that and be an affiliate in it as well. You could add hoplinks in you free ebook. That way if people buy a recommended product you will get some profit for the sale.

I would also recoment an autoresponder so you will have the customers at all times. Go to getresponse.com or aweber.com and get one. Then set it up so when people sign up you will give them a link to your free ebook. They get the free ebook and you get a potential customer for life. You could also set up a weekly letter to them and from time to time mention a product via the autoresponder.

 

[Gymjunkie]

Are you going to use clinkbank? I would advise that and be an affiliate in it as well. You could add hoplinks in you free ebook. That way if people buy a recommended product you will get some profit for the sale.

I would also recoment an autoresponder so you will have the customers at all times. Go to getresponse.com or aweber.com and get one. Then set it up so when people sign up you will give them a link to your free ebook. They get the free ebook and you get a potential customer for life. You could also set up a weekly letter to them and from time to time mention a product via the autoresponder.

I am definitely getting autoresponder a bit later when I will have money for it. As for Clickbank, I doubt it.

 

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[maximus20895]

So how are you going to make money? I would get a free autoresponder right now at getresponse.com then you can buy theres later down the road. They are also updating TONS of new features. It will be available in less than a month. I STRONGLY suggest you make people sign up in order for them to get your free ebook. Ask ANY internet marketer and they will tell you that an Autoresponder is the key to a successful blog.

 

[Gymjunkie]

So how are you going to make money? I would get a free autoresponder right now at getresponse.com then you can buy theres later down the road. They are also updating TONS of new features. It will be available in less than a month. I STRONGLY suggest you make people sign up in order for them to get your free ebook. Ask ANY internet marketer and they will tell you that an Autoresponder is the key to a successful blog.

Getresponse.com is free? Cool. I'm gonna use it then.