Understanding Rich Sage Traffic and How it Originates

According to Google stats, this is where my traffic is coming from.  I’ll soon do a review of Google stats as it’s the easiest way to know from where and what type of searches your traffic is originating.

Today, the Google stats tell me the below details: 

• Referring Sites  — 73.49%
• Direct Traffic – 20.75%
• Search Engines — 5.76%

The referring sites are forums, blogs and directories where I’ve inserted info about the Rich Sage.  The direct traffic, I think is from my brand. People remember it and just type in or have bookmarked the URL.  Lastly, the searches are from mainly the three largest search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo.  I think the search engine sitemaps I’ve setup aide to a large extent that traffic.

The fastest growing type of traffic is from the searches and as you can see, they have no where to go but up.  But, this is an “egg or chicken” type of deal.  The problem is that I want search engine traffic, as I know that about 95% of ’surfing’ starts with a search.

However, how do you get the attention of search engines when you don’t have the attention of search engines? Chicken or egg first?

The answer is like we do in normal life.  Search engines are no different that you or me –they look for what the “eye” focuses on.  What do we focus on as humans?  We focus on interesting things.  As a young single guy, I focus on –well, mainly on one thing.  Fortunately, not all day long. I don’t manage to focus rather well on my work!

So, how do the search engines focus on things?  From experience I see FOUR things.  The first is content, the second is content,  and the third is content.  Lastly, the fourth is how popular that content is to the reader.

All the rest is basically mechanics.

So, these days I’ve been going about creating the content that’s of very high value.  I’ve also been going about making the links back to the content to show everyone -human and robot, that my content is valuable.

How else could a Rich Sage’s Wisdom be interpreted?

I’ll be back with more wisdom later in the day.

Rich Sage.

Rich Sage November Traffic Growth: From nothing to something… 

Another week just passed in my work marathon to build my visitor base to over 1,000 per day.  So far I’ve worked on linking to the site to articles, which I’ve talked about in previous posts.

How has all that work effected the visitor count? 

Well, I’ll let the picture tell the story.  Before I got started building this, the Rich Sage brand was already doing OK.  Nothing to jump up and down about. It was doing ok.

Now the traffic has taking off.

My focus until Chrismas is articles.  Just articles. Nothing more.  I am not good at writing yet.  I read that good article writers can “crank out” one about every 15 min.  I usually take 4 times that amount.

So what’s the solution?  Practice, practice and more practice.  I don’t believe in spinners and all kinds of “machine outputs” — I like to do things the old fashion way and do things right.

My goal is to write about 125 articles about the Rich Sage Brand, philosophy, wisdom and the Ad network that I’ve founded.  Then hand over to article writers, good article writers I might add, the portfolio and ask them to create around 10 to 20 “versions” of each article.  That should give me around 2,000 articles to spread over the Internet to keep building visitors.

My strategy to build visitors in “Phase Two” of my experiment?

• Good quality content
• Written using the A.I.D.A method of writing, I’ve talked about
• Creating nice clean content as the Rich Sage, for this site
• Lastly, spreading out my content, manually to the most popular article directories

Once I build this process to the right amount of content, I’ll move on to focus on advertising the contest and a Rich Sage Marketplace on this site.

Progress is quick, and I need to keep the momentum going!

Rich Sage.

Rich Sage List of Contest Registration Sites

I am sure there is some service out there that blast away to hundreds of sites a contest registration. In my case I tend not to like automated system that just “blast” everything from ads to registrations. Why? Just imagine, if you were running a blog, forum or some other site that builds content from users, would you like it when some automated BOT put content on your site?

Yup, if you don’t like it. Don’t do that to other. I am still an old fashion guy, and partly why I call myself the “Rich Sage”.

So, all this was done manually…

1. Contest Blogger: http://www.contestblogger.com/blog/ >> I like the site/entry because I could like my entire contest writeup on their forum.
2. Contest Hound:ContestHound.com Contest Directory: Sweepstakes and Contest Directory - free to enter contests and sweepstakes for the US, Canada and the world. Sign up for the Daily Contest Update to enter to win prizes just for being a subscriber. http://www.contesthound.com >>
3. Prize Blog: http://theprizeblog.com/ >> They have a paid and free inclusion. I made a free one. I may upgrade after looking at the traffic stats.
4. BLOG Contest: http://myblogcontest.com/ >> They have a site for a bunch of free stuff and prizes. I just made a regular entry, but again, when the traffic is good, I may purchase or advertise there with a paid spot.
5. LINK BAIT: http://www.thelinkbait.com/ >> Cool name and site. I posted again for free.
6. Contest Beat: http://www.contestbeat.com/ >> These guys seem to have a lot of contest details running. And a simple entry form. No sponsored options. I’ll check on that later.
7. BLOG Contests.NET http://blog-contests.net >> Was a nice clean site. Well designed. Worth a look to see a good blog site. I entered free.
8. ContestWinner.COM http://www.contestwinner.com >> This was an interesting entry, as I had to do it by email to the webmaster. Still a good one to do.
9. My BLOG Contests http://www.myblogcontests.com >> Calling it self the “Only non-evil contest blog, presents very clean information. The entry was short and easy. I guess that’s why it’s non-evil. I recommend it.
10. Contest Blog Cat http://www.contestblogcat.com >> Once again, the listing can be by email or a site comment. However, to make their work easier, I sent an email. The site airs a lot of contest details. A good place to get listed.
11. SubmitYourContest http://submityourcontest.com >> The Submit Your Site looked very serious for a contest site, but they seem to have a lot of details about contests. I hope my entry is accepted.
12. CONTESTER: http://contester.wordpress.com >>  Once gain, a simple site with contest details that I posted to. What was interesting was that this is a WordPress blog hosting at WordPress.Com.  Just a simple solution with a list of contests.

That rounded my quick list of sits that I posted to.  I’ll host a longer list of such sites as my membership grows via the biig.com directory, contest section.

Rich Sage

Rich Sage Business Building Update:  30 days to reach 1,000+ visitors per day

Well, my work marathon continues.  I started by registering my blog on a lot of sites and directories.  The list will be in the membership area.  I have around 24 days left… I think in the end it will be around 40 days — I will be taking a few days off, as I do *have a life* apart from this.

Then I hired someone to make a lot of posts on my behalf in blogs.  That was a mixed success, but it still created buzz and visitors.

Then, I started putting up articles in article directories.  That will be a continued effort for years!  Why?  It works.

The latest test was a very nice product where the registration system signed me up to 400+ directories.  I would never purchase such a product, but in this case the provider of the service sent a report where it was done, and actually provided screen shots of the service as it registered in 400+ directories.

Now my work continues as I spend most of the day registering at contest for the Rich Sage 2008 Make Money Online Contest.

Rich Sage

Rich Sage Main Monetizing Plan: Using the Maxsimo Network with Rich Sage Lessons

The Maxsimo Network is an Ad Network that has online properties that do everything from managing mailing lists to run text ads. The network also has off-line ad tools that use the Internet to manage operations. Combined, my goal is to build a company that benefits the 100 million small business users worldwide who want to build a local and global business with a small monthly ad budget.

Imagine an advertising system that delivers the traffic and online or offline growth that you need based on a FIXED COST AD(TM) model. In this ad model, Entrepreneurs can use various advertising tools while paying a fixed fee for all the traffic generated.

Often advertising systems are paid for “per action” and become very expensive. Consider pay-per-click advertising where the advertiser pays for every “click” of the mouse on the ad leading to a web site visitor. The solution is a membership based ad model and network that is ideal for the small and home-based businesses that want to prosper on and off the Internet while cutting costs.

At the heart of the network is a membership that provides vital advertising and marketing tools based on a low-cost monthly membership.

These tools, services and applications accomplish the following:

1> Business Portal managed by Representatives. (biig.com) This tool help’s build highly targeted traffic in several ways, including a key word based directory, key word based images that allow sponsors to advertise on high-traffic pages, and the ability of members to have fellow members critique their pages. Additionally, the tools that are part of the network help drive high-targeted visitors to your business online and “thru the door” of a building or your place of business!

2> Global Discount Card Platform. (maxsimo.com) The global discount card provides merchants with a way to reach our members at a fixed monthly cost. The merchant can also pass some of the savings that they see to our members. The network helps online and offline merchants reach a highly targeted, local or global base of customers at a very small cost.

3> Mailing List Building & Sending E-Mail Gateway: (SendMy.INFO) Send My Info is our mailing list gateway that accomplishes two very important objectives. Firstly, most Internet users are reluctant to subscribe to e-mail lists because their e-mail address can get “hijacked” and sold, rented, shared, etc. Before the subscriber realizes it, their e-mail address is spread to hundreds of mailing lists. Our network protects every address by showing the editors of our mailing list gateway ONLY the summary of their subscribers. Editors CANNOT see individual e-mail addresses. Subscribers can use the system with confidence, increasing the subscriber base.

4> Join, Manage and Promote any Referral Business: (AffiliateMINT.com) Our Affiliate Network allows Members to insert any business, referral, affiliate, network type business into the system. Furthermore, the traffic from the network promotes every business and shows the users how they can “monetize” their site traffic. As a Member you can use this part of the network to promote any type of Affiliate Program at a fixed cost.

5> Custom Content Publishing System (CPS) (via ADMIN & ArticleMINT.com) These properties publish press releases, articles and full page ads to a network of corporate sites and third-party web sites based on categories. The CPS turns every article, every press releases and every full page ad into a unique piece of content that the search engines catalog and use to show relevant searches. The result is that our CPS users see highly targeted visitors who are searching for exactly what they are selling! In fact, most like you are reading this because of such a placement.

6> Custom ADMIN area for users and Affiliates to use the tools. This part of the network will take a leap with our next update when software for PC and MAC will allow the local control of the ad network right from the desk top. Sales of new customers are easy as sending them a link to trail software they then download or setting up your website to “give away” our software to Entrepreneurs.

7> Banner, Text and Video/Flash Advertising Management (ROBObanner.com) The ROBOBanner property allows anyone to manage a banner campaign on the network.

Summary: The goal of the ad network is to supply customer software that’s very easy to use for the small business, in their own language while providing merchants a way to greatly reduce the costs of online and off line advertising when compared with current leaders in the business. The network will be managed by the Affiliates’ and since they have a stake in it’s success, they will help maintain the network. Everytime they perform an action, they get FREE advertising in addition to earning great commissions.

To join the program for FREE, just follow this link. >>

Rich Sage

Rich Sage Traffic Update: Every Visitor Matters

I am just two weeks into my traffic building strategy and the results are outstanding. After many months of setting up the site and various other tests and trials, I finally got to work on traffic building.

So far (two weeks into it) I am seeing a 300% increase in traffic, and for the first time, I am confident that i’ll reach my 1,000+ visitor average before Christmas.

So, who do I tell about the Rich Sage? Everyone. I like the idea. I like what the Sage has to say. So, I tell everyone. Everyone at each Thanksgiving meal. Everyone that I meet. It seems like I have two discussions these days: Rich Sage & Dr. Ron Paul (2008 American Presidential candidate, Statesman). And I’ll stop before I sound like Dr. Seuss.

Does all this effort work? You bet. My next move is to pass out t-shirts and all kinds of stuff in the real world. Virtually, the contest that I’ve outlined.

The question that I ask myself is simple: At the end of the day, what do you do to build traffic? My answer is everything. So, I’ve built links, posted all kinds of articles, registered at every directory I could find… The list keeps going. Is it worth it? You bet.

What’s next? Just more of the same. I’ll keep going. The only thing that I am behind on are Google videos. Which I am doing now. I know that the results have not showed up on Alexa or the Google PR (PageRank) ranking. But, those take a while to update their databases. I am sure I’ll crack a top Alexa ranking and make a good Google PR.

Time will tell.

Rich Sage

Rich Sage Blog Adds Dedicated Contest Page

I’ve come to a conclusion that building traffic and popularity means that I’ll need to run a contest for much of the time I am a blogger. So, I’ve added a dedicated Rich Sage Contest page to display the latest contest details, prizes, etc. The actual page is here.

Now I’ll invite everyone that’s communicated with me in the past weeks and months with products to offer a place in my contest.

How can I enter the contest?
The contest winners will be drawn from the lists of:

• Members (free) — Press Here to become a  member >>. Members entering the contest get a 50 free bonus entries.
• Mailing List Subscribers (free) — Subscribe via Here. (See Update List Area)
• Those Who Post a Review (free) –See review directions here. Then you’ll need to let me know that you’ve made a review via this contact page.  Lastly, when you write a review, I’ll add many more chances for you to win, as I’ve described here.

This is what I’ll say to them & the benefit:

—-

Rich Sage 2008 Contest Note

The Rich Sage 2008 Make Money Online Contest is an excellent way for you to gain outstanding exposure for your product, services and/or online application.

The contest will be heavily promoted using pay-per-click advertising to articles and the traffic that’s been built through the search engines.

The prizes are substantial already and will continue to grow as I invite service providers such as you to participate. The prizes will given away in “Complimenting Packages” to winners that I draw from subscribers to my mailing list.

Not only will the link to your sales page, product page, website, etc. provide a one-way link, it will also funnel a great number of visitor who will be interested in your products or services.

Please get in touch with me via this URL and present your Prizes to the Rich Sage Readers.

Here is what I’ll need to know:

1. The Name of the Prize
2. The Name of the Site or Business Offering the Prize
3. The Description of the Prize & Retail Value
4. Lastly, the URL where the readers or contest participants can get more information

Please provide the above information via the support url (above) and I’ll post your prize in my list of Prize Contributors here.

Success,

Rich Sage

—

ONE CONCLUDING NOTE: I’ll evaluate each prize that you offer to make sure that it has an intrinsic value to my readers and members. Please don’t try to list things that you’re giving away or worse. That will make me look bad and you look even worse. If the value is not clear, I may need more information or frankly, I’ll not think twice and delete your request. That would not be a good way to for you to work with “The Sage”.

Rich Sage

Rich Sage Contest Ideas & Administration

I spent a good part of the day getting ideas together for the RichSage first ever contest. Seems like contests are alive and well in the blog arena.  It appears that everyone is doing a few of them.

I think of it as the old “Drop a business card in a box” idea. Just about every restaurant had one of these in the 80’s in Columbus, Ohio, where you’d drop in your business card to win a cruise or business gift or a free something.

In my case the award is a grand prize of a Rich Sage Affiliate account that’s earning $5,000 per month for a year, to a third prize of an account earning $750 per month for a year.  It looks like I can gather a lot of other prizes as well, since the reader list continues to grow rapidly.

Some of the contest ideas:

• Open it up to third party prizes –all types of products that benefit online Entrepreneurs.
• Setup the rules, have a page with a list of prizes, which I am doing now.
• Award incentives or extra points to those who do more to win.
• Find an assistant to help administer the contest.
• Start the contest when the mailing list reaches 10,000 OR 02/04/2008 — an interesting event or date

Start of the setup phase will begin on the 3rd of December when I remove the button for the 50 Gifts on the blog and add the contest page with prizes and rules.

One of the most important aspects that I need to make clear is that there is *nothing* that someone needs to purchase to enter the contest.  Entry is as simple as a signup to a mailing list.

I’ll return in the coming days to the contest as things get ready to “going live”.

Rich Sage

Step by Step Approach to Business Building

It’s nearly the end of the year and to focus on the “Master Plan” I have for the Rich Sage, I need to outline a few ideas. My objective is to create a site that focuses on making money online, a membership that explains to people HOW to build a business online, and building a membership network. Included in the network is the small business membership, which is the main monetizing model.

I’ve already added a few other advertisers and recently updated the “Advertiser” tab with a few ad products. I put the ads at only 10% to 20% of the amount charged by a few competitors. I can increase those rates a few times a year as the traffic grows.

All this is fine while the VC money is going into Web2.0 operations. They will advertise. However, when the stock market takes a good correction (as it’s doing now) or trends to a recession and VC money dries up, the ad spending will go WAY DOWN. I don’t want to make the same mistake as AOL that bet the company on ad spending before Google days.

I’ll take a more conservative plan and have several monetizing channels.

I’ll now outline my plan:

• At this time I am link building in several places, including directories, article sites and blogs. These are one-way links coming back to the Rich Sage. These links bring visitors, and arouse the search engine to send more visitors.
• My next step is to create a contest -Next quarter or perhaps, by the end of the year. I’ll give away 4 websites that are connected to a Rich Sage Affiliate Program (Maxsimo Network) that produce an income from $750/month to $5,000/month. So, the grand ($5k/month), first ($2.5k/month), second ($1.5k/month) and third ($0.75k/month) prizes will be offered sometime starting in spring of 2008. I’ll award them over 4 months, when the mailing list is around 10,000 subscribers.
• Each subscriber will equal ONE entry. When I draw one of the prizes, I’ll extract the list, add bonus contest entries and pick the winner using a computer program or a simple Excel file.
• Everyone reviewing the Rich Sage Blog and/or Membership area or the NEXT Super Stock Site will get:

1. Blog: 100 Entries added
2. Member Area: 150 Entries added
3. NEXT Super Stock: 200 Entries added
4. All three: 500 Entries added

By doing #4 from above, a Contestant can have 500 more entries in the contest.

The above points are added when someone creates a review for the Rich Sage, as I’ve detailed here or NEXT Super Stock >>

2008 Rich Sage Make Money Online Contest

I’ve got the prizes lined up. I got an idea on how I’ll administer the contest and pick the winner. The element that is left is how I’ll promote it, and the Contest Rules, which are perhaps, the most important.

For the contest promotion, I’ll follow the same “game plan”…

• Articles
• Press Releases
• YouTube Video (soon!)
• A few forums (Dec.)
• Several Contest Site Ads (Jan. 08, thru the quarter)

I’ll discuss all these elements as I finish the finer details on the contest.

Getting back to my step by step business building theme…

My plan is to achieve the steps of getting from 1,000 to 10,000+ visitors per day. To reach those numbers, I have a series of STEPS that I’ll follow. The first of which was link exchanging and reviews, then the articles, which I am in the middle of doing now. When that is going nicely I’ll find others to do both tasks and focus on the next element: the contest. I’ll let you know how all of it goes!

Rich Sage

Check Your Site Position on Google by Key Word or Phrase

Today I ran into the Google Position Tool which checks your web sites’ position on Google by key word or phrase.  There’s not much to tell about it. Just follow this link and see for yourself where you rank.

Of course, I then checked the status of “Rich Sage” and that came up one.  I  hope it’ll stay there as my business model/plan is to keep advertising & business building offline.  Interestingly, people who learn about Rich Sage in the real world don’t just enter “www.richsage.com” into the browser.  Most often they’ll go to Google and search the name.

Then I used the Ventio tool to search two competitors –I searched Shoemoney and JohnChow, who are basically working with a similar business plan.  To my surprise, the major key words they are using don’t even put them in the TOP 100 of any of the results.  Well, with one exception –for make money online, I think John Chow’s quarry returned a “60″ at Ventio.

Then I searched my site for the term “making money online” and it came in at “278″ and “make money online” came in at “400″ something.

Obviously, the two other blogs that I follow –Shoemoney and JohnChow don’t really worrry about this ranking.  Shoemoney didn’t even show up in several searches.

I know that both of these bloggers don’t worry about how much traffic the search engines are sending their way to the blog site because they have so many links that generate traffic.  People linking back to the two sites have taken a viral nature, and that keeps fueling their visitors.

At this time, my work is to get to that point.  Some of the elements I’ll complete this weekend to make much of that happen.  I think one of the most important will be to create a contest.  I started writing about one. However, now it’s time to “release” the contest and start working on promoting it.

Success, Rich Sage