There’s less than three days left of my current blog auction and honestly, there have only been about four serious bidders who I have been chatting with and answering any questions they have. Though, one of them pulled out recently, which is fine. It was actually a friend of mine telling me that I should keep the site because I’ll probably benefit from DatMoney in the long run.

Like I said, if it doesn’t meet the reserve price, I will not sell DatMoney. It’s just as simple as that. Though, it seems as though I have a few people really interested. But let’s say I’m not holding my breath.

I was also having a few discussions with people and a lot of them brought up the fact that I spent money on the auction. I believe I spent about 50 dollars, give or take a few dollars on it. Everyone mentioned that it’d be money wasted if I didn’t sell the site. But in actuality, even if I don’t sell the site, you can look at it like I just paid for advertising.

According to my Google Analytics, I received about 339 visitors just based on the auction. So, if I spent $50, I got a pretty good click-per-cost ratio. For each visitor that I received, it cost be about $0.15. Let’s say if I were to advertise on a medium/big sized blog in a similar niche, I can tell you that the click-per-cost ratio wouldn’t be as good.

Usually, it’d be a little higher in cost. Probably someone in the $0.20-$0.40 range if the blog is pretty good.

For some of you guys that have been loyal to me for the entire time DatMoney has been around, don’t you worry. I actually started a new blog as a backup so you guys can still hangout with me even if I sold this blog. And I promise I’ll give good advice on that blog as well… though, it’ll be a little more personal as well. I may talk about some foods and crap I eat… but shhh… don’t tell anyone!

Anyways, we’ll see what happens in less than three days!

This is a guest post written by Bruce Hopkins of No Nonsense Internet Marketing. He has been a good friend and very knowledgeable in the online business. He’s also the one that made $2k in one day from my $100/day post.

Everyone is always interested in building the readership of their blogs. After all in the blogging world more is always better, correct? You need more subscribers, you need more visitors and pages views. This is normally all most bloggers worry about, but could there be more?

If you have done any type of Affiliate marketing where you built landing pages to promote a product then I’m sure you have heard about testing various landing pages even if you have not never actually performed any tests. But why does this same practice not apply to bloggers?

Don’t we all want conversions too? I’m sure if you are running a blog on any niche you have a method for your readers to subscribe to your feed. Perhaps you even have an option for allowing people to subscribe to an email list whether its the Feedburner list or Aweber ( you should really be using Aweber for this and not Feedburner, but that’s another post). The bottom line is you want people to stick around and read more of your content.

Perhaps you promote affiliate programs on your blog so you also want people occasionally purchase a product through one of your links. The more the better, correct? Well I’ll agree and disagree with you. I will agree that you want more conversions; in fact, that is the only thing that really matters at the end of the day if your goal is to make a little money from your blogging endeavors. If you have some other sort of goal, then this post is not really for you.

So how can we test a blog? Its hard to do split tests since the visitor funnel is not easy to control. The visitor could come from a variety of sources so split testing is a little harder. Its not impossible if you know a little PHP and can do an if statement. Perhaps I’ll write that up later as it will get a lot more technical than I want to present here. You don’t really need any technical skills for what I’m taking about.

If you want more subscribers then tweak how you get them. Try asking for them. Many people use the “What Would Seth Godin do” plugin on their blogs and it has been proven to increase the amount of people who subscribe, but its not enough alone. If you really want to improve this area of your blog, then figure out what your readers want and need. If a section of your readers find a specific blog post or yours through a particular search term then shouldn’t you provide them with a little extra something to get them to stick around.

For example: Lets say you have a blog on dog training and in that blog you have a single search term that has good position in the SE’s. You analyze the term and realize it is bringing you traffic for “How to Train your dog to sit”. Its apparent the person who typed in this phrase wants to teach their dog to sit and in the bigger picture is interested in training their dog. You could put an affiliate link in your post hoping some of the people would buy from you and this is definitely something you would want to do, but at the same time you could super charge this and convert that visitor into a subscriber if you gave them a little extra incentive.

You could put together a little ebook on “How to Train a Dog to Sit” and offer it to the visitor in exchange for their email address. This is a win-win situation as the visitor will get extra information and you will get a new subscriber who is definitely interested in your dog training tips. If you build a relationship with these people then you will develop a highly responsive list which can earn you money for years to come. You could even segment these people into different lists according to their interest, but for that you need to be using Aweber or one of the other email list management applications.

There are multiple ways to accomplish this task if you start analyzing your site with a testing mentality. Jay has done this with his 100 dollar a day Adsense post. He asked people, maybe you, to subscribe to see the post. Then every once in another post he will refer back to the original. People may not have read the original but they are definitely interested in reading it, so they subscribe. Its a win-win, the visitor gets something they want and Jay gets another subscriber.

Now at this time you may be saying but I can’t write an ebook. I don’t know how. Big deal, you know how to write a blog post and sometimes that is enough. If you do need an eBook to entice the visitor and don’t want to write it then just head on over to http://www.master-resale-rights.com/catalog/PLR_eBooks-75-1.html and buy one for a couple of bucks. Edit it to make it unique to your audience and then give it away( well as long as the rights allow it).

This will only take you a few minutes to set up and you have improved the usefulness of your blog immensely from this one little tweak.

Now what would happen if you analyzed all your best search terms and changed each post to give the reader a little something extra. Would it not seem logical that these actions would help grow your blog?

Of course search terms are not the only place you should be looking. Try to think like a random reader, what would make you want to stick around and subscribe to a blog. Think of those things and then modify your design to meet those needs. Try out things. Move your subscribe icon to another location on the page and see if your subscriber count goes up. Add multiple methods to subscribe. Ask the visitor at the end of every post. If you test the placement and color of your subscribe button, over time you will understand what works best for your readership. If you understand what the visitor wants and then give it to them you will not be able to stop your conversion factors from improving.

Well, I told Jay I would do a single blog post, but this one is going to get really long if I continue. I guess I’ll have to do another one on the email subscriber box. but I will leave one thought with you on this area. Which has a better connotation “Subscribe to our list” or “Join our team”? Which would you be more apt to enter your email address into? This is a new tip of mine and I just changed it on my site a week or two ago, but since I got rid of the Subscribe and list words around my subscription box, my opt in conversions have nearly quadrupled. There may be something to this testing and understanding your visitors.

For more of Bruce’s ramblings check out his No Nonsense Internet Marketing Blog

A lot of you guys expressed your opinions on my blog sale that is up for auction but I wanted to address a few things for those of you guys that are slightly concerned and don’t want me to sell. I will not sell DatMoney if the reserve price is not met.

Just because I put DatMoney up for auction, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will sell. I have a few potential buyers that had discussions with me privately but that doesn’t mean they will officially buy. Especially since I have a set price in mind and if I don’t manage to get that, I feel as though there’s no point for me selling the blog.

As you guys are aware by now, the main reason why I’m even selling is the fact that I need financial reinsurance just incase anything happens from my day job. But if the sale doesn’t give me that financial reinsurance, then there’s no point in selling, is there?

Plus, I’m a little hesitate on selling it to begin with.

Also, a lot of people are hesitate that the new buyer will change so many things and maybe not bring great content to this blog. But the few potential buyers that expressed interest, well, they already have blogs and have been working online for quite sometime. So, although the writing style may be different, the content, especially the helpful ones, should still be there.

Personally, I was never that fond of my writing style but if you guys enjoy it, that’s all that matters to me. I mean, there’s a reason why you guys are still around, huh?

But I would just like to say this again, I will not sell DatMoney if the reserve price is not met. And if it doesn’t sell, I’m just going to have to work 10 times harder on it. Though, it’ll be tough because of the time constraint.  But everything happens for a reason and if it doesn’t sell, I guess DatMoney was meant to stay with me to make money.

Anyways, I hope you guys don’t unsubscribe or leave me just yet. I may not even leave you guys at all. Though, the auction lasts for 7-8 more days so you never know what will happen… we’ll see soon enough!

Side Note: I’ll still be working online so I’ll still be around to help out if the blog does sell.  I’ll let you know my details if DatMoney gets sold.

Honestly, I didn’t want to put DatMoney up for sale but a few things have come up recently. I figured I’d address the issue because a few of you guys have contacted me on instant messenger about this already.

You can check out the auction at Flippa right now if you want. I only listed it for 14 days because I’m in a time crunch.

So, Why Am I Selling DatMoney?

Not exactly my first choice. And I know you guys have probably heard that from every single online entrepreneur that has put their site up for sale. But for me, the main reason is the fact that my day job isn’t going as well as I would have hoped so I’m trying to cover my tracks as a backup plan. If I can sell DatMoney, the money will cover me for a while.

Of course, I’m hoping it will sell for the reserve or BIN because if it doesn’t, I may have to reconsider simply because 1) I just don’t want to sell it and 2) there’s no point of selling it if the money doesn’t cover me for the next few months.

In addition, if I do end up leaving my job, I’ll have to take some time to figure out what I will be doing with my life. Maybe apply for some new jobs. Maybe work harder on my online business. Maybe do illegal things on the street. Haha… okay, that last one isn’t an option for me. But I’ll probably have less time to dedicate to DatMoney.

Anyone Interested or Know Someone Who’d be Interested?

Some people will agree or disagree with my prices. And I know everyone has their story behind what it should and shouldn’t be. But I value my site and I know the potential it has. Matter of fact, my best from this blog alone was probably like $1,000. So, if you multiply that by the standard 10x, that’s still less than the BIN.

But does anyone know someone who’d be interested in taking over DatMoney? Of course, I’d be willing to help out as much as they would need until they get situated and comfortable.

You can see the various ways that I’ve made money from DatMoney at the auction. Though, I didn’t include every single aspect, I was just trying to show the potential just based off of a few examples.

If someone helps me sell the blog at the BIN price, I will give you 2.5% of the price. That may not sound like a lot but I’ll be giving you the 2.5% that the buyer would be paying. If it sells for the BIN, you’d get over $200.

Anyways, I’m getting pretty sad just talking about it. Don’t worry, I’m going to try to get as many things done before and if the site sells. And yes, that includes an eBook, getting out all the passwords, etc, etc.

And don’t get sad just yet, I may not even sell the site if it doesn’t hit the reserve.

There are plenty of ways on how to make money with Twitter and I know of a bunch. Though, some of them you have to watch out for because you may be considered a spammer and get your account deleted. And that’s a big no no.

A lot of people automatically assume that you need lots of followers to make money with Twitter but in actuality, you can still make money without any followers. Of course, it’ll be a lot easier if you have thousands and thousands of followers… but we’ll get to that in a second.

Make Money with No Followers

Wait, no followers? Yes, indeed. This isn’t my idea but a friend told me and should be how to do it and it seems to work fine. Though, don’t overdo because you will get banned just like my friend. Basically, you can do this one of two ways; the somewhat ethical and then there’s the somewhat unethical… that may or may not get you banned from Twitter.

The ethical way is to simply Tweet about the trending topics and make sure to include the specific tag. For instance, “#topchef” was on the trending topics list when I wrote this. You would just have to include that within your Tweet with a link to your post/site that relates to that topic.

Now if you go to the unethical part of it, there are a few things that can be done. With the knowledge above, you can create like 20 accounts and set them all up to send out Tweets automatically. Then you would do the same type of Tweet in all of them while including the trending topic tag “#topchef“.

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