It has now been over a month since I started my test of 30 Minute Backlinks, a test I started on April 19, 2008. This has been an interesting test and I think enough time has passed for me to end this test and come to a conclusion.

First, though, I will share the most recent stats for each site:

Now that I have data I am going to break down this information to come to a conclusion about 30 Minute Backlinks. But first I will refresh your memories on what promotional methods I used.

How did I promote the toolbars I created?

When I created the toolbars I had several options for letting the various software directories know I had something they could list. Here are the methods I used:

Minimal Promotional Method = Doing nothing more than submitting the PAD file to the PAD file repository and letting the many software directories find my software on their own. If you purchased 30 Minute Backlinks you will learn all about this. I will not go into details as I don’t want to undermine the efforts Michelle MacPhearson did in creating her 30 Minute Backlinks.

Moderate Promotional Method = I used a software program that submits PAD files to about 30 software directories.

Maximum Promotional Method = I used a software program (this program was different from the one I used for moderate promotion) that submits PAD files to about 800 software directories.

Did the promotional method make a difference?

Here is a breakdown of each method:

Minimal Promotion - 56 backlinks, 49 site pages indexed in Google (I’m not sure how to determine how many pages my site has, but according to Google Webmaster Tools my sitemap has 34 URLs submitted).

Moderate Promotion - 53 backlinks, 95 site pages indexed in Google (per Google Webmaster Tools my sitemap has 201 URLs submitted).

Maximum Promotion - 581 backlinks, 23 site pages indexed in Google (per Google Webmaster Tools my sitemap has 106 URLs submitted).

Yes, I think the promotional method definitely made a difference. Clearly the site with the maximum promotion has the most backlinks. But, has it made a difference in how my niche stores are doing? I’ll look at some additional statistics to decide this.

Are the sites earning money?

Minimal Promotion - 63 unique visitors, 62 clicks, 25 bids, earned $9.06 (as of 05/27/2008)

Moderate Promotion - 18 unique visitors, 43 clicks, 15 bids, earned $7.72 (as of 05/27/2008)

Maximum Promotion - 33 unique visitors, 23 clicks, 0 bids, earned $0.00 (as of 05/27/2008)

Isn’t it interesting that the site that had the least promotion for the toolbar has the most unique visitors, clicks, bids, and affiliate earnings? Looking at these stats, it seems that the promotional method really didn’t matter. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if Google dislikes the large amount of backlinks the site that used maximum promotion and is punishing it.

Do I recommend PAD promotional tools?

No. I first started 30 Minute Backlinks around the time eBay changed their affiliate program from Commission Junction to EPN. At that time (early April, 2008) I created toolbars for two of my niche stores that are almost a year old. The first site I added it to is my best site, meaning it brings in my best commissions, and I used the maximum promotional method for this site. Almost immediately traffic disappeared from this site, and I wondered if it was because of the huge increase in backlinks or had something to do with the new EPN system.

The other site I added the toolbar to was one that also consistently brings in commissions, but for that one I did the minimal promotional method. The traffic for that site did not drop. In fact, it has increased, and become my second best site.

Based on this test and the two other sites I created toolbars for I have concluded that you do NOT need to purchase PAD promoting software. In fact, I think it may hurt your efforts to do so.

What are the sites I used for this test?

Now that I’ve concluded this test I will share with you the sites I used. I purposely chose created three sites that were as similar as possible, without being the same, so I could be as fair as possible with this test. As you will see, these sites are in niches that are rather saturated:

Minimal Promotional Method = Toys Boys Want

Moderate Promotional Method = Toys Girls Want

Maximum Promotional Method = Kids Want These Toys (gender neutral toys)

Do I recommend 30 Minute Backlinks?

Yes. These three stores are less than two months old and the only promotion I’ve done is to submit them to Google Webmaster Tools (something I do for every store I create), and create the toolbars and submit them to various software directories. Honestly, the revenues these stores have made in the one + month since starting this test is more than some of my other sites have made that are several months older.

Following the instructions in 30 Minute Backlinks to create toolbars is extremely easy. Once you’ve done a few you will be able to create them even quicker. I still haven’t had the time to create any of the other four tools Michelle discusses but hope to soon.

If you decide to purchase 30 Minute Backlinks I strongly suggest you make toolbars that will actually benefit people. In other words, make your toolbar something people will actually want to use. You never know when people will find it useful and actually use it.

Rochelle

21 niche stores in four days.

That’s what I just finished doing. I made 21 Build A Niche Stores (BANS) over the past four days. Whew!

Now, you may be asking why I did this. Good question! Starting in September of 2007 I began purchasing domain URLs with the purpose of building niche stores on them. I ended up collecting almost 30 such URLs. But I didn’t build a thing on them. I parked them and left them alone.

These URLs were whim purchases. I did zero research before I bought them. I just thought they sounded good. But the more I learned about BANS the more I came to realize these weren’t good domain names. They were too broad. Now that I know what I’m doing I’ve come to realize that I much prefer a narrow niche than a broad one.

So I ignored these URLs. The thing is, they wouldn’t leave me alone. They gnawed at the back of my mind. They taunted me for wasting money on them and then letting them collect dust.

Unable to take their taunts anymore I decided to suck it up and make something of them. And that’s just what I’ve been doing. Never did I think I could whip out multiple niche stores in a single day but I did. And, boy, it feels good to have given them proper homes! They are happy little URLs now.

Truth be told, they aren’t very good niche stores, at least not all. Some may end up making me decent money but most of the URLs I probably won’t renew when their anniversaries roll around. Better, though, to make some money than none.

They have little to no content, and most will stay that way. Some I rather like and will continue to develop them further, but mostly they are done.

And with that, I am taking a much-needed break from building niche stores. I promised my husband that when I finished with these URLs that I would organize my computer room (believe me, it desperately needs it!), as well as other parts of the house that I’ve been neglecting.

The one thing I learned from this (other than that I can crank out BANS sites if I really want to) is that I will buy URLs when I am ready to create niche stores, not before. And no more impulse URL purchases!

Rochelle

If you have the ability and the means then consider treating yourself to an upgrade in your internet connection. I did and the difference is unbelievable!

For the past few years I have had cable internet connection. Lately the speed of this connection has been bugging me at how slow it takes to create BANS sites so I checked into getting a higher speed. In my case, I ended up paying less for a better plan because I have an internet account, digital phone, and cable account all from the same company. The person I spoke with found a plan that increased my internet speed while lowering my price (lesson learned - I should have called them two years ago to make sure I had the best deal but didn’t think about it).

My new plan is the turbo plan with RoadRunner. After getting the increase in speed I didn’t really notice a difference. Turns out, I was using a wireless router that had g technology and it wasn’t able to fully handle the increase in speed. (Also turns out the wiring to my house is very outdated and it, too, couldn’t handle the increase in speed, but I didn’t find that out until yesterday.)

So, I made the decision to upgrade our wireless router to the new n technology. If you make this decision be aware that it is still new and there are still bugs to work out. I did research and got the D-Link Extreme DIR-655 and, so far, it works great.

After following the installation instructions I couldn’t get it to connect. I spent over two hours with D-Link’s tech support, and was sent from one technician to another to another until I reached their highest technician. No one could figure out the problem. The last guy I spoke with thought maybe the router was defective and suggested I exchange it for another one.

Just before ending the conversation with highest level tech guy I asked him if I needed to reset my cable modem. He said, "No." As soon as the call was ended I did just that. I figured I had nothing to lose and this has worked for me in the past when I’ve had internet connectivity problems.

Well, what do you know? It worked! For the record, I also had a Local Area Internet Connection that I had previously disabled (it bugged me to see the inactive icon in my taskbar and disabling it was the only way I could figure out to remove it) and I had forgotten that I needed to activate this before I could connect my computer directly to the cable modem. I figured that out on my own, too. Take that, highest level tech guy!

It makes me cringe to think of all that time wasted but in the end I got the new router installed and it worked like a dream that first night. Before I added the new router I tested the speed of my internet connection at www.speedtest.net and found the download speed was ~1000 kb/s. After installing the new n router the speed was up to ~2500 kb/s. Woohoo! It was more than doubled and I could sure tell a difference.

Then, Monday morning, it stopped working like a dream and my connection was as slow as it had been with my g router. Huh? I called tech support again, and was told that every computer connected to the wireless router needed to have an n adapter. Otherwise, because the router is backwards compatible, if it finds a g adapter (which three of our four computers had because the guy at Best Buy didn’t tell me any of this) then it will slow down the internet speed for all computers to the lowest speed. The reason it had worked faster the night before is because my computer, which has an n adapter, was the only one connected to the wireless router. That next morning my husband’s computer, using a g adapter, was also connecting and this slowed down the router’s connection.

So I went out and bought n adapters for all the systems. While back at Best Buy I mentioned to the guy who was helping me what my new connection speed was. He said that had to be wrong, that it should be over 10,000 kb/s, not 2500. What? It was going to get even better? I couldn’t imagine.

I went home with my new purchases, called RoadRunner, went through a battery of tests, only to have them conclude something was wrong. A technician came over yesterday and fixed the problem (I needed a new cable modem and some outside wiring is bad). After he did whatever he did my speed is now ~15,000 kb/s. That’s an improvement of 14,000 kb/s!! And I had been happy with 2500 kb/s (ah, ignorance is bliss).

Regarding the adapters I bought, I think I’m going to take them all back. Seems my connection was so bad before the tech guy did his magic that I was running slow for the past few years but never knew it. I’ve tested the speed of our computers with the new n adapter and with the old g adapter and the difference is negligible.

Long story short, if you can, make the upgrade. You won’t believe the difference in time saved when creating new pages. But make sure you test your speed so you know it is where it should be. And you may not need to purchase new adapters as your current ones may work just fine, but you may need a new router.

Rochelle

There are some really easy ways to make mistakes when creating niche stores. I’ve done most of these myself. Some of what I’m going to write about here has been mentioned in another post but I’m rewriting it now and expanding on it because I fear that some of you may be making the same mistakes without even realizing it.

BTW, I’m using a new program to create the images I use in my instructions. Thank you, Uncle Carl, for tipping me off to this program. I love it!

Common Mistake: Leaving spaces in URL name
What this mistake looks like:
What this mistake does:
	Leaving spaces in your URL causes strange characters to show up in your browsers URL bar:
How to correct this mistake:
	Remove the spaces.
Severity of this mistake:
	Minor. This will not prevent your page from being seen.
Common Mistake: Leaving URL name blank
What this mistake looks like:
What this mistake does:
	This will prevent your new page from being seen.
How to correct this mistake:
	Name your page’s URL, making sure there are no spaces.
Severity of this mistake:
	Severe, as unnamed URLs are not seen.
Common Mistake: Not changing the meta tags for the Home page
What this mistake looks like:
What this mistake does:
	Leaving the Home page meta tags at the default settings means that when your page shows up in search engine results people seeing your site’s information title and description will have no idea what your site is about and they won’t click on it. In other words, you won’t get visitors to your site.
	This is what people will see in search engine results when your site’s home page is shown that is using the default meta tags:
How to correct this mistake:
	Click the ‘Content’ tab in your site’s Admin and click the ‘home’ link. Change the default settings to unique content that describes what your site is about and why people should visit it.
Severity of this mistake:
	Severe.
Common Mistake: Not adding a privacy policy
What this mistake looks like:
	There is nothing to show as your site won’t have a privacy policy.
What this mistake does:
	Not having a privacy policy can lower your rankings in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Now that eBay has taken control of their affiliate program you are no longer required to have a privacy policy, but there are still good reasons to have one.
	First, having a privacy policy makes your site look more professional, both to visitors and to search engines. Search engines will possibly increase your site’s ranking simply because you have.
	Second, if you display Google AdSense ads then you are required to have a privacy policy and not having one can get you kicked out of Google AdSense.
How to correct this mistake:
	Follow my instructions on how to add a privacy policy to your site.
Severity of this mistake:
	Moderate to severe.
Common Mistake: Not adding your affiliate code
What this mistake looks like:
What this mistake does:
	Not adding your eBay affiliate ID means you won’t earn any commissions for your site if visitors win bids or make purchases. Why? Because you don’t have any affiliate information to go with the cookie that visitors get when they click to eBay from your store.
How to correct this mistake:
	Click the ‘Setup’ tab in your site’s Admin and add your eBay affiliate ID in the ‘Campaign ID’ section.
Severity of this mistake:
	Severe.
.

Rochelle