Internet Marketing | Zero To Hero Online | Matt's Progress

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As the discussions rumble on about whether internet marketing is the “Emperor’s New Clothes” ex-Navy man Matt Jones has taken up the baton, and is quietly working his way through the Money Gym
Membership Club Magic tuition videos, with a bit of coaching from me.

Read the first post here >>>
Read the second post here >>>

Read the third post here >>>
Read the fourth post here >>>
He’s agreed to post his progress in becoming a newbie internet zero, to internet marketing here in the comments here – so, over to you Matt!

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  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Week Ending Friday 27th June 2009

    “Twitter Ye Not” – Frankie Howerd.

    Sorry, but I’ll have to disagree with Frankie there. I can now Tweet you from the web, Tweet you using Twitter Tools from my blog, Tweet you from TweetDeck, and Tweet on your Twitterberry (is that right, Nicola?). Still need to hone my skills with hashtags, RT(?) etc. but I’m moving in the right direction. Twittertastic!

    I also have some ads for my blog page after I managed to eventually discover that Adsense needed to be activated using widgets (thanks Steve). I hope to install a forum plugin over the weekend and I also now have a new WordPress theme to play with, Thesis. I have made a few tweaks to it, but I can’t immediately see from the design options section how to start really giving it the look I want. I’m sure this is down to my ignorance as Thesis is said to be one of the best and most versatile themes available, and if I’ve learnt anything in the past few weeks, it’s that the answer is always hidden in there somewhere!

    I still aim to carry on working as hard as possible on the site during the next couple of weeks and see where it is up to then. I have made quite a lot of progress from scratch over nearly two months now, and I couldn’t have done it without the Membership Club Magic programme. Nicola has been very helpful too, keeping me on my toes and definitely helping me to move along faster. But, to be clear, the majority of the direction, instruction, and ideas is contained within the programme webinars and ‘how-to’ videos, so I would highly recommend it to anyone considering setting up a website along these lines.

    Having said all that, no site will be a success without you own commitment, ideas, and vision. I have had a couple of minor setbacks with my initial free offer idea, so that is taking longer than I’d hoped but I am waiting for some feedback on my third attempt now and I need to come up with another couple of ideas should that also not come off. I won’t stop until something is sorted! I also need to keep on top of my vision for the site and replace ideas that have already fallen by the wayside. My site traffic has been steady for the last couple of weeks, with a healthy mix of direct, search engine, and site referral traffic. Visit numbers are on course to increase this week.

    So, it’s just keep going really! Thanks to everyone who has been watching my progress on the google groups and via the Money Gym blog. You can now follow me on Twitter too (my new favourite thing!). My Twitter name is PortsmouthMatt.

    If you are reading this blog from outside my website, you can visit it at http://www.PortsmouthTillWeDie.com

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Monday 29th June 2009

    Starting to encounter more frustrations as I begin to need outside input for the site. I am still working on my initial free giveaway for example, but waiting for some replies and feedback.

    Progress is starting to slow as other things start getting in the way. I have to start a job in a couple of weeks and there is some preparation for that. So the rate of progress is about to slow but I will still be giving it as much effort as possible.

    Facebook is a massive source of frustration for me. I am still trying to get a proper fan page created with a link from my profile page. I must have created about five already, but then the photo won’t upload, or windows crashes. It takes me huge amounts of time to do anything with it, because I can’t understand how to navigate it properly and things start popping up from nowhere. This might be more a reflection of me than Facebook but I am just being honest! I don’t think there is any other way to get round this than to keep spending time on it until I am more familiar with it. I just feel frustrated and lost every time I am on it!

    On a positive note, my traffic has gone up this week after a steady couple of weeks so this, if nothing else, gives me the motivation to keep going.

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Tuesday 30th June 2009

    Made a bit of progress with Facebook today (I think!). Other commitments seem to be getting in the way at the moment with everything happening at once, and it is also hard at the moment to think of blog topics with the proposed takeover still not complete, and no matches to talk about.

    My traffic has gone up by a third this week, so I hope that’s a trend that continues!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Wednesday 1st July 2009

    Today really focused my mind on what I need to achieve in the next week or so. I spoke to Nicola today, and she very kindly told me how well I was doing, and it gave me the confidence to really accept that my website and I (I do actually feel like I am maried to it, by the way) are ready to receive members. Despite all my whinging about Facebook, I have actually mamaged to create a fan page which has a link from my personal profile page, and a link to the website. I can also post messages on the fan page by mobile phone, and link to individual blog posts. I can also post to Facebook from Twitter and from Digg, so I am not doing too badly. My traffic is now pushing 100 visists a week with a healthy number of both new and returning visitors, so as I said, I am ready to welcome members.

    My initial free offer is coming along and I hope to be ready with it in the next week. I am still pursuing a number of avenues with this in case one breaks down, but even if it doesn’t, I still then have extra content for the site once people join.

  • http://www.themoneygym.com NicolaCairncross

    Yes, it’s all too easy to look at where you still have to go, rather than how much you have achieved, isn’t it?

    I’m very pleased with your consistent progress, and you ARE still just “following the bloody instructions” which is great.

    I’m delighted to tell you that your new blog has ALREADY been ranked by Google with a Pagerank of 1/10.

    Well done Matt and just keep going! Remember, the beauty of working online is that, if you are clever, you only ever need to do most of the work once and it will make you an income for ever.

    My boy doing good!
    Nicola

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Thursday 2nd July 2009

    I now have the idea for the initial free gift as my main focus. Most of it, I can do myself, so I am hoping it will be done next week.

    Blogging is becoming harder as there is less and less to say about the prospective takeover, players we have bought etc. But it does give an opportunity to widen focus a little bit!

    One full week at this to go, so I hope to achieve something within that time, namely begin to build up a mailing list. I am just about to go away for the weekend with my family for a wedding, and I think that’s probably just what we all need at the moment. I didn’t have anything prepared for Friday so it will probably be catch up time on Sunday!

  • http://www.themoneygym.com NicolaCairncross

    Matt,

    Just remember that there was a Portsmouth Football Club before this takeover.

    When we originally spoke, you were keen to cover many other things namely

    1. The history of the club
    2. Feature previous players and personalities of the place
    3. A “Where Are They Now?” section

    Enjoy your wedding!
    Cheers
    Nicola

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Week Ending Friday 3rd July 2009

    A week where everything became much simpler in the world of http://www.PortsmouthTillWeDie.com, and just at the right time. I am now spending more time on preparing to start a job, so although progress on the site will slow, it is the time and effort I have thrown at trying to progress through the Membership Club Magic programme as quickly as possible over the last two or three weeks that has enabled me to get to this position before my other commitments increase.

    I just need to try and get my initial free offer up and running next week to start my mailing list. Once I have the mailing list, I can start trying to put some of my other ideas into action. I now have a social networking presence which I am happy with for now, and I have the Thesis theme installed which will enable me to customise it at some point. Traffic is progressing OK, so everything is in place to move it forward in the next couple of weeks.

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Monday 6th July 2009

    OK, my initial free gift offer is going to be a Portsmouth video wall of You Tube clips showing classic moments. I was going to just do one but Nicola suggested 10! Guess I need to start thinking bigger! I hope to have it available this week. Will let you know when it is there and what kind of response I get!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Tuesday 7th July 2009

    After a couple of days of trawling You Tube to find the most suitable clips, I have decided on the final line up of ten for my free video wall. Now I need to get involved in some code type stuff to get a nice grid onto a website page! But Nicola from the Money Gym has given me a steer so at least I have a rough idea of what I’m supposed to be doing!

    Been blogging about Portsmouth’s double Championship winning team of the late 1940s for the last couple of days, which has kind of made me wish i had been watching football in the era of regular crowds of 40 and 50 thousand!

    There is still some work to do in terms of the Membership Club Magic guide, for example getting forum set up properly and creating a sales page, but first things first.

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Wednesday 8th July 2009

    WordPress had a bad day at the office today! It wouldn’t let me into my blog all day, so I couldn’t get on with anything! As I said to Nicola from the Money Gym, my solution to these problems is to have a cup of tea and try again later or try again tomorrow. She did teach me a few little troubleshooting tricks like trying a different browser and shutting down and then reactivating plugins, but no joy.

    On this occasion, my more scientific approach seems to have worked, as I am writing this on Thursday morning and everything seems fine!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Thursday 9th July 2009

    Houston we have lift-off! My video wall is almost there. I just have to make sure now that the right things happen and the right pages appear when people (hopefully) click to see it.

    I may see some of the Money Gym crowd this weekend in London, and I am also hoping to have a look at some more tarffic generation tricks over the next few days. Sarah Cairncross looks to have posted an interesting Tweet about Facebook fan pages.

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Week Ending Friday 10th July 2009

    It’s been a busy week for me, but more with other things than the website. However, some of the week was spent trawling You Tube for some interesting Portsmouth clips to put together in a Portsmouth You Tube Video Wall, which I think is now hopefully up and running!

    I say ‘I think’ because Nicola offered to tweak it slightly for me at the end. I had it all working correctly at one stage then got a bit ambitious and tried to alter one of the messages, and them couldn’t remember how to get it back to working order! Meanwhile I was supposed to be packing for a weekend away. As I write this I am due to be leaving in half an hour, and I am sure the frantic packing will result in a trip to the shops, as it did last week to buy boxer shorts and socks (oops!). There are just too many Christenings and Weddings around at the moment!

    I am not sure how much I will be able to acieve next week as the time I can spend on this is about to be limited, but I will obviously be looking to see whether people like my clips!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Thursday 16th July 2009

    Not much to say today, I’m afraid, but more than I have managed this week! I am back after an enforced short layoff, and just thought I would let you all know that I am still alive! I am planning to spend the next couple of days just getting back into the groove, but time will be a lot harder to find from now on! One of my first jobs will be to finish the presentation of my video wall, not least by adding a short written explanation to each clip. Nice to be back!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Wednesday 22nd July 2009

    Back to blogging daily hopefully from now on! Unfortunately my time is now much more strictly rationed so I’m looking to adopt a new regime of working the development of the site in a weekly 3-4 hour chunk (plus what I can chip away at whilst blogging).. My blogs are going to have to be shorter and quicker to write too. I still can’t solve the problem of being too immersed in the subject whilst I am writing!

    This means my updates are probably going to go to weekly now as well. I’ll let you know whether I am managing to stick to the schedule!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Internet Marketing Journey – Week Ending 26th July 2009

    I am reverting to weekly updates from now on as development of the site will now mainly be done in one weekend session. I will still be blogging every day, and chipping away at developing the site along the way when I can.

    There wasn’t much time today, so I have made a start on getting the video wall looking as I want it (with explanatory comments etc) but I got a bit stuck on the formatting!

    It is probably the wrong time to say this as there has been no time for the new routine to take effect yet, but at the moment I feel that I have lost all the momentum I built up over the last couple of months. Traffic has reduced during the last couple of weeks when there has been little attention to the site (not surprised by that, but somehow I still feel disappointed!). Also, no-one has yet signed up to receive the video wall. So, being completely honest, I feel quite despondent about the future of the site at the moment! However, part of me does feel that this is the completely wrong time to be saying this, so it will not stop me carrying on. It’s just that I’m not able to build up as much momentum as I could before. A definite case of life getting in the way!

  • http://www.portsmouthtillwedie.com Matt Jones

    Making Money Online – Week Ending 9th August 2009

    Sorry for the absence of an update last week. I was quite ill, and also in the middle of a bit of turbulent time in terms of my short term future. Unfortuately, things didn’t turn out as I wanted, but that’s life I suppose, especially this year! However, I already I feel this may have been a blessing in disguise and things are certainly more settled now than they were. In essence, I can get on with my day to day life now knowing where I am headed. Money will be very tight in the near future, but the long term prospects are good, especially if I can get the website generating income too!

    Today I reconfigured some plugins and set up a back up facility for the website files, began the application process for the Sagepay merchant account that is critical to the operation of the site, and finishing touches to the free Video Wall. During the week, when I am blogging, I need to get a handle again on where the site is in terms of visitor numbers, and concentrate on making sure that this is maximised in order to increase the number of people signing up to the video wall. The main priority in terms of the development of facilities available on the site is to install the forum capability. The site has not had attention during the last three or four weeks, but this is hopefully the point from which it will begin to progress again, albeit more slowly. Hopefully, Nicola Cairncross from The Money Gym will start receiving a few more emails from me again!

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