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View Full Version : My second muse is in action right now.


jazzdrive3
09-07-2007, 05:31 PM
My first muse so far (selling framed sports photos and collectibles (http://www.eyeontheballimages.com)) has been a bust. No sales in 2 months of being up. I have a conversion of 0%, with nothing obvious that is scaring people away.

The only bright spot is that I learned a lot while doing SEO and my site currently ranks on the first page of google for many of my keywords. And I'm told that the holiday season is where the market really picks up for sports collectibles, so I'll leave it up for at least that long.

But it did give me motivation to create two more muses. One is still in production, but the first one is a blog about Christianity and Economics (http://www.newlibertycreation.com).

I was inspired to create the blog by John Chow's free e-book on how to make money on blogging. And since I'm interested in Christianity, government, and economics, and the relationships between the three, it seemed natural to base the blog on them. You have to be passionate about what you write about.

It's been up for a little over two weeks, and I've been pleased by the growth so far. I have an average of 10 RSS subscribers reading it every day, which is great starting off. My pie-in-the-sky goal is to reach 1,000 RSS subscribers in just two months.

Ambitious, yes. Impossible, maybe. But we'll see. Please check it out and let me know what you think. And if you find any value, please consider subscribing to the full RSS feed, or through email. I'd love to have you as a reader.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to sell ad space. And I hope to be making $1000 per month off of it with another month or so of work in building traffic and selling direct ads.

So far I've made a whopping $1.02 off of Adsense!

luv2trvl1
09-07-2007, 08:07 PM
Hi Jazz,
Thanks for posting an update. I was wondering how you were doing?

Considering the minimal costs in keeping your 1st muse going from now through the holidays, that makes sense. I have to believe you will see your sales pick up in Nov/Dec. You have a great looking, professional site there!Much better than most of us could have done with a first attempt, especially sorting out the drop shipping bit as well.

Your next muse also sounds like good starting point that many of us can learn from. Please continue to post periodic updates as it comes together. I will check it out...

All the best!

jazzdrive3
09-07-2007, 08:13 PM
The holiday sales is a direct tip from my drop shipper. They've been doing it for over 10 years, and almost all of their customers make 50% of their revenue during the holidays.

Plus, after the first, word of mouth and additional organic traffic should steadily increase.

luv2trvl1
09-08-2007, 03:40 AM
Ok Jazz, lets get some more customers to Muse #1...

I know you are not hot on ebay as a place to sell your products, but look at it as a research site, a marketing tool, a way to introduce Muse #1 to a bunch of potental customers.

For starters, have you ever looked at ebay's "hot items" report for your slice of the world. For example, in the "Sports Mem, Cards and Fan Shop" category of the report for the month of August, I see autographed items from the WNBA are in the "Super Hot" grouping. This means a heck of a lot of people searched on "Autographs - Basketball - WNBA" as key words. I checked your web site and couldn't find any WNBA items? Also in Super Hot, Souvenir items (maybe framed photos?) from the MLB All Star Game, again another miss on your site. Point is, maybe ebay can help guide your inventory and featured items selections.

Consider, listing/selling a handful of items from your current inventory, or some related items not on your site, via ebay. Set up a small ebay store and with every customer interaction, make sure they have Muse #1's web address. In your ebay store, you can create an "about me" page and direct customers back to Muse #1 website. Use ebay to introduce your muse to a slice of the market, that doesn't use google to find their favorite items, but always start/end? their search with ebay.

Think of ebay as a method to get a better/quicker foothold in the marketplace as well as establish muse #1's name more broadly.

Just a suggestion...

laniers
09-09-2007, 02:26 AM
I agree eBay may be worth a try. The audience is huge and you'd surprised how much exposure you can get from there. I see the potential of the Christian financial site but I think the real income source would be providing related products to sell. Write an ebook, offer downloadable planners etc. The beauty part is these products are all digital so no inventory, instant access to buyers, etc. The perfect muse product. Good luck