AMS case study: Week 6

This past week totally rocked for me in the development of my web site. I feel I accomplished so much and that many things were finally clicking in my head. I also feel so much more comfortable working with the back end of my site, knowing where everything is and able to go to where I want quickly because I have a total grasp of the different areas of the WordPress dashboard.

One of the things I had fun with was tweaking the CSS stylesheet (cascading style sheets that contain the code which translates into what we see on the front end). Something I've done for simplification was to make a code "cheat sheet" of the formats that Laura provided in the course and then taped it by my computer for easy reference.

I have to tell you that I continue to love, love, love the details the Affiliate Marketing Schoolbook delves into regarding web site optimization - especially what Laura calls "The H1 Conundrum" in Lesson 35. Before this lesson, I was having a hard time understanding the total concept of the different "H" tags. I know, it seems it should be so easy to grasp - but for whatever reason, I couldn't get it, hahaha. Maybe, for me anyway, easy things are hard for me and harder things are easier for me. Whatever the case, I was happy to finally understand it after Lesson 35!

I also began doing more research about my niche. Additionally, I went into my computer bookmarks and a file folder of hard-copy magazine articles that I've been saving for the past eight months for information. Before I even knew that I would ever be taking this course, learning affiliate marketing and choosing a niche, I was researching my topic for my own personal use. I then created outlines from my research material and created some content from those outlines.

Another thing I did was if I wasn't near my computer or if I was on the road, if a few sentences or a paragraph popped into my head I would record my thoughts on my handy dandy little tape recorder and then transcribe it. You may remember Laura's comments from a few weeks ago when she made a suggestion to record your ideas on a tape recorder. What’s really cool is I found that my writing “voice” in some of my earlier writing actually sounded a lot like how it comes across through my recordings!

For more content ideas, it was interesting to learn about the concept of Private Label Rights Content (PLR) if you're ever in a pinch (and have a little bit o' cash).

Throughout this course as I've mentioned before, there are assignments to complete. This week my assignments included writing and publishing some posts for my web site. I’ve partially completed the assignments in that I've written posts; however, I haven’t published them yet because I’m not quite ready for them to be on display.

There was also an assignment to insert one photo and one related video. I've inserted a photo onto my site; however, I haven’t been able to decide on a video yet related to one of my written posts. (Hopefully my teacher “Mrs. Burke" won’t mark my “grade” down too much!)

The last thing I have to share with you for this week is that I've just installed Google Webmaster Tools on my site. I'm eager to start playing around with it and learning all about what can be done with it in Lesson 36!

Until next time.....
- Kelli

Laura's comments:

Kelli's site is looking good, don't you agree? She has made a lot of progress. Here's a screenshot of how it looks at this point in case you are reading this well after the fact:

I think it's great that she's not afraid to mess around in the CSS a little. It can be intimidating, but as long as you save a copy of it in a different document before you dig in, you can play around and learn how it affects the look of your site without worrying that you're going to screw everything up. You can always paste the original code back in and start from square one again.

I like Kelli's idea of keeping a file folder of info related to her niche, even though she started it long before she knew she was going to be doing affiliate marketing. When you're stumped for something to write about, that folder will come in handy!

Recording her thoughts as they arise is a great idea too; sometimes brainstorms don't happen at a time when you can immediately sit down at the computer and execute them. So jotting them down or speaking them into a digital or tape recorder—or even your cell phone—will help you remember that great idea later.

So does Kelli geti a "time-out" in the corner for not adding the video yet? Nah. She's doing an excellent job on this case study, so we'll give her a break!