Whizbox Internet Marketing

I have been progressing the I-Q site and have added longer motivational comment to the emails, every Monday.

Archives of these will now appear on the site, which should, eventually, be gobbled up by the search engines. I am also working on an “add a quote” feature.

Adverts in the emails have started producing results, in terms of click throughs and a sale or two. I will continue to test products, offerings and copy.
I have also started working on the next 2 sites for the challenge, but they are some way off being launched. I had hoped to get at least one into the wild before February, but don’t want to go off half cocked on it, so they will have to wait. One of these has been live with a brief wordpress set-up for a few months but Google resolutely refuses to include any pages (even though the spider visits).

Not that I am paranoid, but I fear that the domain (which has been previously owned) might have a ban of some form.

I find myself strangely inspired by Celebrity Big Brother which started in the UK last night.

It is the usual mixed bag of celebs taking part, with one exception. There is one nobody, an unknown. The catch is that she can only stay if she can convince the others she is
a real celeb.
And from what I saw last night, there is no reason why she shouldn’t pull this off.

Which got me thinking. In this online world we inhabit, there is no reason why a website should be limited in its ambitions, certainly not be knowledge on a subject, as this can be bought in or researched. Other skills can be learnt or bought as well (design, programming etc.).

So my monthly ambitions of $1,000 dollars could/should be on the low side. That said I need to start somewhere and grow from there, so the challenge still stands !

To kick this all off let me introduce the first competitor, www.inspired-quotes.info.

I have had the domain a while (well over a year), and a site on it for less time. I changed the design throughout December 2005, but need to add other features.

Total income in December was less than $5 (only $995 to go!) so this definitely scores on rule 2.

There is an existing mailing list which I want to develop and this is where I feel the largest income making opportunities lie.

Targets/To Do

• Increase mailing list population
• Add affiliate adverts to emails sent out (and track results)
• Add more diverse content to the site

In an attempt to realise more goals this year than in 2005, I am making this particular goal ‘public’ and open to the scrutiny of anyone who cares to drop by. In this way, I will be accountable to the effects of my progress (or lack of).

So what are the rules of this particular game?

1. Aim: To develop websites that will produce additional income streams equivalent to $1,000 per month, throughout the course of 2006. This is a target and ultimately should be exceeded!
2. These may be existing sites or domains, but should not be producing meaningful income when they join this project. - This will allow me to develop new ideas and progress/complete existing embryonic projects.
3. The number of sites involved can be as large or small as takes my fancy. - This is a project to develop long term, mostly passive, income streams.
4. I may or may not reveal the actual domains involved.

That’s about it really, except to say that I will update progress on the pages of this site, as and when.