New site on blog platform, looking for opinions.

[Harold Mansfield]

I promise this is the last one for a while.
Backstory- I originally used my name (domain) for my political opinion blog, but I decided there may be a better use for it, so I merely put together kind of a portal of all sites and programs that I currently promote. (easier for me as well)

The theory is to promote one site that I can have in my article bio's and sigs around the net, instead of multiple, and deciding which one to put where.

So anyway, any opinions are welcome.

HaroldMansfield.com (http://www.haroldmansfield.com)

[billbenson]

You stay busy eborg. Interestingly I'm working on a political opinion blog kinda site. Its intention is to be pretty controversial. I find what you are doing quite interesting.

I'll take a look at your site when I get a little more time (it's almost 2am and tomorrow is a school day).

Out of curiousity, what's your overall strategy? You appear to be putting up quite a few affilitate sites. How much do you feel you can make per site a year down the road and how many do you feel you can reasonable manage?

If its none I my business, I can respect that answer as well :) I just find what you are doing interesting.

Me, I'm interested in converting over to the affiliate route as I'm really tired of being trapped as a one man show sales guy to a computer and telephone for 12 hours a day. I don't mind working 12 hours, I hate it when the phone rings and all of a sudden I have a ton of work I have to get out yesterday. One phone call could be a months income and I have to be in front of a computer to answer the clients questions. I can't forward it to a cell. I'm trapped in my own house. I hate it. </rant>

[vangogh]

The site looks good. I'm wondering how easy it will be to promote the one site though when the content appeals to so many different markets. I would think it would be easier to market the individual sites since you can be more targeted even if it does mean promoting more than one site.

[Harold Mansfield]

You stay busy eborg. Interestingly I'm working on a political opinion blog kinda site. Its intention is to be pretty controversial. I find what you are doing quite interesting.

I'll take a look at your site when I get a little more time (it's almost 2am and tomorrow is a school day).

Out of curiousity, what's your overall strategy? You appear to be putting up quite a few affilitate sites. How much do you feel you can make per site a year down the road and how many do you feel you can reasonable manage?

If its none I my business, I can respect that answer as well :) I just find what you are doing interesting.

Me, I'm interested in converting over to the affiliate route as I'm really tired of being trapped as a one man show sales guy to a computer and telephone for 12 hours a day. I don't mind working 12 hours, I hate it when the phone rings and all of a sudden I have a ton of work I have to get out yesterday. One phone call could be a months income and I have to be in front of a computer to answer the clients questions. I can't forward it to a cell. I'm trapped in my own house. I hate it. </rant>


The site looks good. I'm wondering how easy it will be to promote the one site though when the content appeals to so many different markets. I would think it would be easier to market the individual sites since you can be more targeted even if it does mean promoting more than one site.

You seem to both have a grasp on my problem to concentrate on each site individually.
You are correct, they all require different methods, the reasoning behind it is to have a central location for a sig link in my articles bio's since article marketing and blogging are what I am doing right now.

Also, I needed to move The Mansfield Herald (was haroldmansfield.com) to a different domain, which proved to have been a great decision over the weekend, topping 10,000 U's and picked up some great links from some major political players, and front page on many bookmarking sites.

I don't plan on marketing the site as a whole. Each one has it's own (proposed) method.
It cost me nothing but time to put them together, since I already paid for everything else, for some I couldn't pass on the domain that was available, so it was more a case of "get it now" and put some content on it, until i can get around to the marketing part.

Right now I am actively promoting 4 sites. 2 products, and 2 blogs.

There is no doubt that I over indulged in niche products, but they all have great potential and some are originals.

It will be a systematic process of one by one, but with shopping season fastly approaching, there were a few that I just had to have now, and I will promote the ones that have the best advantage immediately. Some are waiting for certain times of the year when they do better, ie: weight loss does better just after the holidays, and thru spring.

There is a method to my madness, although it does appear to be madness at the moment:)

To answer your question about What am I expecting within a year ? I do have a number that I believe is attainable per site.
I am not looking for big numbers on each, but quality, targeted traffic that is ready to buy.

Generalized traffic does nothing for me. Rather have 100 or less visitors a day, and one person buys, than 500 a day, and hoping for adsense revenue.

Also ..the blogs that have the traffic are feeding the others....still figuring out what works better where.

[Harold Mansfield]

You stay busy eborg. Interestingly I'm working on a political opinion blog kinda site. Its intention is to be pretty controversial. I find what you are doing quite interesting.

To answer that...it is the most fun I have (the political blog). Finally got some good nods from some good sites this week.
Fark, CNN, 2 news stations in Alaska, Pop URL's, Some Great Stumbles, Barack Obama.com, and various other political blogs and sites.

It all came over night...averaging over 1000 a day since last Thursday, up from basically nothing.

Even had Rush Limbaugh leave me a comment and call me an a** !

I highly recommend it:)

[billbenson]

Even had Rush Limbaugh leave me a comment and call me an a** !

I highly recommend it:)

Well then here you go egorg:

RUSH-LIMBAUGH-THINKS-IM-AN-A**.COM is available! :)

kind of a long domain, but memorable!!

[vangogh]

If Rush thinks your an a** you must be doing something right. Those are some pretty nice sites sending links and traffic by the way.

That's not too many sites to promote, though I can understand why you want to have one site to promote with sig links, etc. I've been getting more entrepreneurial this year so I can create several revenue streams and have projects to develop in between client work.

This forum is naturally one project. I'm also working on a WordPress theme system. For now those two are filling up the extra time. I'd also like to develop a handful of sites that can serve more as passive income. I don't expect a lot of money from those, but the idea is to spend a couple of weeks researching a topic so I can put up some decent content and then work to promote it and monetize it.

The only cost other than the time will be the domain name since I now have access to hosting that won't cost me anything additional for an extra site.

While more sites means more sites to promote I think it's doable a little here and there. Some of the sites aren't expected to be big earners. More the kind of site where the major work is done over a few weeks and then the site can mostly sit and bring in a little each month. When I have time I'll work to promote them to increase what they're bringing in. Should any start to do better than expected I can focus more on it.

[Harold Mansfield]

I actually had no intentions of having so many at once without fully getting each going individually, but when opportunity for domains (and .com's at that ) come that fit into a niche that I have been looking into, you can't let it go . A reasonably decent .com is hard to come by today for reg fee.

Once you have the domain, then it's, "well let me put something on it so I can get it indexed and linked up", and the next thing you know.....you're behind the eight ball.

[vangogh]

I completely understand. I wasn't looking to run a forum, but the opportunity presented itself and here we are. I think many people miss out on things, because they aren't look for or aren't aware of the opportunities around them. Opportunities don't always arrive on your schedule. They arrive when they arrive and if you can put yourself in the position you can capitalize on them. If not then someone else will.

[Harold Mansfield]

Update:
Decided that I didn't want that site on my "name", so I registered a new one and am redesigning it. (I really wasn't happy with it at all).

I am going for simplicity this time, and also as I said, just to have a base with everything on it, and also try to narrow things down to just a couple of emails, with a central contact on every site.

Not much content yet, but you can get the general idea, any opinions on the redesign would be helpful .

Thanks.

4th Internet Media Group (http://www.4thinternet.com)

FYI : I chose "4th" because I am one (named after GGF, GF, and Father) and it was available :))

[greenoak]

way to go eborg...your style is so interesting im not suprised....
for here, i like your old signature lots better...i wouldnt want to add another step to get to a known site....
i would keep it more simple and have people find you the way they already have.... i found the new site confusing....like a hurdle...no names...
could music and politics be under the same umbrella? if i was inthe mood to explore music i wouldnt be thinking about politics..and the title is totally obscure.... good for you maybe but maybe not relevant to others...... hopefully the new site wouldnt be the main portal to the 2 other sites...
i dont get the idea probably..
i would save that domain for the next big idea you get..... ..ann

[vangogh]

The design itself is clean and easy to navigate. I won't say it's the most exicting design I've ever seen, but it looks good. I'd like to see a little more color in it. Maybe have some of he headings be a color other than black.

Like you said there's not much content yet, but if I'm understanding right this site is really meant to be a central hub to promote the other sites and to have one central place of contact.. You should be able to make that work.

[Harold Mansfield]

The design itself is clean and easy to navigate. I won't say it's the most exicting design I've ever seen, but it looks good. I'd like to see a little more color in it. Maybe have some of he headings be a color other than black.


I agree, but I just can't see where, or what other color would fit other than black and blue. I tried to make the images work as color splashes.

I'll be tweaking it all week end to fill in the content, maybe I'll come up with something.

So far I got the feed finally working right on the "Live feeds" page, and a few promotional video's in the box on the bottom.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[vangogh]

Even if the headings were blue it would probably help. You could try different blues and go with a monochromatic scheme. Try a color scheme chooser (http://www.colorsontheweb.com/thecolorwizard.asp) to help find colors that go well together.

[Harold Mansfield]

Try a color scheme chooser (http://www.colorsontheweb.com/thecolorwizard.asp) to help find colors that go well together.

Thanks. That is a very needed, and appreciated suggestion.

[vangogh]

Glad to help. Color scheme choosers are an easy way to find colors that will work well together. And know you don't have to change too much on the site. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of splashes of color. Make your h1 headings one color and your h2 headings another and your site becomes that much more colorful.