Steven Brady

I’ve started a little promotion through my Facebook Fan Pages.  Thus far it’s more of an experiment than anything, as I’m not sure how to go about proper Facebook marketing.  However, I did find a tool after a little Googling called NetworkedBlogs.  It’s a Facebook application that will take your blog feed’s RSS and post entries to your fan page or to your own wall.  It seems pretty nice thus far, and makes it so I don’t have to go add links every time I add a post to my WordPress blogs.  Definitely worth looking at.

I’ve included links to my pages so you can see what they look like …

Weight Loss Steve
Facebook Fan Page
NetworkedBlogs

Android App Review
Facebook Fan Page
NetworkedBlogs

February was an OK month, but I was certainly hoping for better growth.  I’ve expanded my Twitter strategies (as mentioned in previous posts) and it’s helped with traffic and Target Followers signups.

Site Hits
Every single site showed improvement.  From 0.33% to 113.5%.  Nexus One News had 3,300 hits. That was the highest.

Amazon
No growth.  However, end of March and early April I expect to see growth.  Why?  The Nexus One will officially be available for Verizon Wireless, so I’m expecting more wireless accessory sales.
Earnings: $21.33

Google Adsense
Definitely growth. Not as much as I’d hoped for, but definitely on the right track.
Earnings: $15.11

Sponsored Tweets
Same as last month.  It’s kinda depressing. I want to get 20,000 followers on some account so I can make better money.
Earnings: $4.00

Target Followers
First month owning a free site with paid features.  Three paying VIP members.
Earnings: $12.00

Other
Clickbank, Hostgator, WP Robot, WP Video Tube, and anything else that I might have signed up for and tried to promote this month didn’t succeed. Now using CBproAds on sites, and definitely had some clicks, but no sales.
Earnings: $0.00

Total
Total February 2010 Earnings: $52.44
Year-to-Date: $87.84

I had to purchase the Target Followers software and domain, so there were expenses this month, but things were certainly looking up.  Just not too much to say about it this month. Just going to keep working at it.

On all of my sites, since the day I started, I had Google Adsense.  While it’s not generating that much revenue right now, it’s bringing in a few cents a day.  Since then I’ve added CBProAds advertising to some of my websites.  By signing up you can create ad campaigns that allow you tailor fit ClickBank categories to your sites.  No need to go through, one by one, picking out ads to promote.  Just add your ClickBank ID and have a run at it.

Right now I’m testing it, using the free version.  With the free version only 50% of the ads displayed have my own ID.  The other 50% have the CBProAds ID.  Until I can prove that it’s a profitable system, I won’t be purchasing.

In the last 10 days I’ve had 434 ad impressions, and 1 click.  0 sales.  However, as traffic increases to my sites, so should clicks.  Here’s hoping!

If you choose to sign up, please use my affiliate link:

I’ve noticed that I get much more traffic to my sites when I tweet their URLs regularly.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  However, Twitter terms of service prevent sites from starting up that allow completely automated tweeting.  And some days I just don’t have time, between work and everything I do outside of work, to make sure that enough tweets were scheduled with cotweet. That’s why I came up with my own solution.  I made a bash script that pulls random tweets from a text file and pushes them out using the command line client twidge. I create this last night, but got errors today.  After that this morning I made a new version of the client, then even another version of it.

So, as of right now I have made Tweet Cruise Control available.  I’m giving away 100 copies free.  Head on over to the site if you’d like to pick it up.  After that I’m not sure if I will charge or not.

I started a new blog called Weight Loss Steve.  I joined a Biggest Loser contest at work, and I’m trying to lose weight using the Fat Burning Furnace system.  Head on over to the site to follow my progress. Of course, also have a Twitter and a Facebook Fan Page setup.

Well, January proved to be a little bit better than I expected (being my very first month) but not nearly as much as I’d like to be making monthly. That said, I’m not complaining, as I have a great mentor, an understanding wife, and I’m working hard this month at pushing some new sites and products.

Site Hits
We know the percentages really don’t mean a thing, as this was the first full month with the new sites and tracking, but otherwise, the numbers show promise for the visitors for the website.  Here is the Piwik screenshot for the month of January.

Amazon
I’ve had seemingly good numbers with Amazon affiliate sales.  I’m happy about this month, and I’m excited to see future growth.
Earnings: $22.78

Google Adsense
Well, I’m not sure how some sites seem to use this as their primary means of income, as I’m not overly impressed.  However, it did generate a bit of revenue, so better than nothing.
Earnings: $8.62

Sponsored Tweets
I charge $1 per Tweet on Sponsored Tweets, and I had four offers, accepted four offers, and spammed my friends with four ads.
Earnings: $4.00

Other
Clickbank, Hostgator, WP Robot, WP Video Tube, and anything else that I might have signed up for and tried to promote this month didn’t succeed.
Earnings: $0.00

Total
Total January 2010 Earnings: $35.40

Of course this wasn’t profit, as I’ve purchased domains, software, and hosting.  I’m rather negative for January, but this certainly helps to recoup my losses.  Here’s to doubling that in February!

So, a little while back when I first started trying to market using Twitter, I joined some train sites. They were very spammy, and I ended up changing my passwords. However, I thought they were still a good idea, albeit not targeted whatsoever. That’s when I had the idea to started a targeted train, where there were communities that one could join in certain areas.

First, I bought myself Twoo Twoo, a popular and inexpensive train script by BNCApps. I toyed with it in a development environment until I could find the perfect name. That’s when I got myself TargetFollowers.com. I’ve since spent all night setting up the script, databases, and the new Twitter account.

The site is now live, however I will wait until tomorrow to start pushing it (to make sure DNS propogates).

However, anyone that joins the site (under ANY or ALL communities) by January 31 and then comments here and tells me their Twitter name and the communities they joined, they’ll get one FREE month VIP membership to the site!

Communities: Lounge (for everyone), Foodies, Marketing, Music, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, Republican, Democrat, Atheist, and Technology. Once the site picks up, I will certainly add more.

Learn how to use Microsoft® Commerce Server 2002, Microsoft Content Management Server 2002, and Microsoft Application Center to build a comprehensive, secure e-commerce solution.

(more…)

No description for this product could be found, but have a look over at Amazon for reviews and other information.

Best Smartphone Software

Well, a couple weeks ago I went into the decision to run a VPS over shared hosting. While I still stick by that decision 100%, there can be some hitches that one should be aware of. First, I get inexpensive hosting because I purchase a basic, UNMANAGED package. That means my VPS is my business, and I support it myself. This is good for someone like me that knows Linux rather well, but bad for individuals with no experience at the command line or securing your box.

But sometimes even those that work with Linux professionally need some assistance. As the traffic increases to my sites, Apache has been crashing more and more. And it’s not just Apache. ispCP Omega and postfix have been crashing as well. I setup monit to take care of restarting the services, but monit was also stopping mysteriously. I finally gave in and sent an E-mail to a good friend that knows much more about Linux/UNIX/Solaris/BSD administration than I could ever hope to learn. Once he woke up (being on the other side of the world), he made himself some coffee and got cracking.

Turns out that one of the ispCP Omega processes was consuming all of my memory, and processes were being killed to make my system responsive again. The downside is these are the processes required for my business to run. Without them it’s $15/month and craptons of work hours down the drain. We seem to be over the majority of the issues, and the next release of the software will have the process patched to help stop these issues.

The bottom line is, sometimes commercially supported is better, both for hosting/VPS, and for the software that runs systems as a whole (cPanel vs. ispCP Omega). I will not be changing my installation anytime soon. It’s inexpensive, and for the most part, I can support it myself. But, if you’re making the money, and can afford a supported system, it’s only in your best interest. Downtime will only prevent money from making it to your wallet.

All of this being said, I do apologize for any downtime, and I hope you stick around and continue reading, as there is much more to come. And thanks, Mike!