Have a question?  Use the contact form to let me know and I’ll add it to this page.


 


Did you pay anyone to build this website?


No.  This is a very basic site, I realize.  But it didn’t cost me a penny.  I built it using Joomla.  Joomla is an open source content management system (CMS) with a sophisticated web application framework.  Anyone can use it.  Just download the files, install it on your server and start building.


Are you writing all your own articles?


I write an article everyday.  It’s true that you can pay about $10 and get someone else to write your articles for you but I’ve committed to a $100 total budget and I’m sticking with the plan.  It takes me about 30 minutes to write the article and another 15 minutes to publish it on the internet.


Are you writing all the content on your website?


I wrote every single word on this site.  I add content every day and am always finding new things I want to add.  It’s a never-ending project and it’s only getting worse.  Especially now that I’m getting feedback from visitors, I’m finding more and more things I need to write.  I expect it will probably accelerate once this 100-day project comes to an end, taking the pressure off my daily to-do list.


Why are you over budget?


On day 29, I posted a Warrior Special Offer (WSO) on the Warrior Forum.  It cost $20 and pushed me over my $100 budget.  I didn’t run the WSO to support my 100-day project but the reality is that it DID increase my traffic so I felt I needed to include it in my disclosed expenses.  I do not think I’ll need to spend any more money until the end.


Is the project holding back your business?


Yes.  My self-imposed $100 budget is a major problem.  There are a number of other things I’d like to do – things that offer tremendous value but DO cost a little money - that I can’t do because it would throw me further over budget.  These other strategies would increase my traffic so I really can’t do anything until the project is over.  I’ll kick-start some of those other tactics early in 2008 and I can’t wait!


Have you used all of your allotted time?


No.  I’m very busy with other projects and have not spent all of my 100 daily minutes.  Not even close.  At the beginning, I was banking them hoping to make up the time later but that never seems to happen.  I would say on average that I’m spending about an hour each day.  If I had more time, I would spend it on the forums and on Yahoo answers.


Do you have an RSS feed for this project?


I built this website using Joomla.  It has an RSS option but it requires the page be listed on my homepage.  I don’t want this project page on my homepage and as a result, the RSS option doesn’t work properly.  If someone knows a work-around, please use the contact form to let me know.  Otherwise, visit my blog as an alternative.


What are you expecting within 100 days?


I really don’t know.  I’ve never attempted to generate website traffic in such a structured and public way before.  I also know the content of this project will be of interest to a different audience than past projects.  I’m hoping the social bookmarking phenomenon will start feeding the process but it will take some early success for it to become interesting from a social bookmarketing perspective.


What have you learned through this process?


Tactically, I’ve learned an enormous amount and I’ll detail much of that in the final report.  But more generally, I’ve learned something else.  Just like so many other aspects of our society, the vast majority of internet traffic goes to a tiny subset of websites.  With an average of just 50 unique visitors per day, I’m already in the top quarter million sites on the internet according to Alexa.  In other words, most sites get almost NO traffic while a few well-positioned sites get tens of thousands of visitors.  In a sense, it’s a division between the rich and the poor.


What will your “final results” report include?


The final report will have a complete breakdown of the traffic this website received and where it came from.  I’ll include how much came from article marketing (and specifically which article directories), posts on forums, my blog and social bookmarking.  Not only will I include the amount of traffic that came from each source but I’ll tell you when that traffic arrived.  This will probably be the most comprehensive report of its kind.  I’m taking the risks.  I’m the one doing the experiment in public.  And you can get all the insight for free.  Sign up for your free report and I should have it completed before New Years Eve.