November 2012 Traffic Level Reports: What Happened at SEOSherpas

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Every month I recap what has happened at SEOSherpas, from website traffic to domain sales to all posts in-between.

I do this because I want to have full transparency with my readers who are learning how to make a living online, as well as for my clients, so they know exactly who they are hiring (and why they should hire me).

Sorry that I didn’t produce any high quality content last month on SEOSherpas. Q1 and Q4 are busiest for client work and I’ve been throwing myself into a lot of new contracts and projects lately. Add in a pregnant wife and Thanksgiving and that’s a recipe for zero content.

That aside, I have a great article in the works teaching you how to effectively run a Facebook Fangate/Likegate contest and increase Facebook activity for your brand. And it’s all from personal experience with Outdoor Equipment’s recent initiative. Can’t wait to share the data!

I’ll be focusing on producing at least 1 article per week for SEOSherpas moving forward. It’s a delicate balance, because I don’t write here just for the sake of writing — I’d rather produce one stellar article a month than 7-8 mediocre ones. But I know 4 kick ass articles a month is realistic. So stay tuned!

November was a great month in the books for SEOSherpas. The Panda update at the end of November greatly helped a number of my sites. Glacier saw a bump of nearly 40% in organic traffic post update. It’s since receded slightly, but it’s nice being on the positive end of an algo update/refresh.

Domain names were flying off the shelves, and I’ll get into more detail below.

OK – Now onto specifics…

What Happened in November at SEOSherpas

• We completed 95% of a new website for a Jacksonville counseling center. The remaining details should be finished this week. It’s for my mother-in-law, a very savvy business woman and a great mentor (brownie points, anyone?).
• OutdoorEquipment is growing far more slowly than I anticipated with regards to organic traffic. The reason is clear and I’ll elaborate on that in a later post. I also launched a Facebook advertising campaign and that’s going incredibly well. More details later this month…
• While launching my Facebook campaign, I found a great designer via elance (affiliate link), who I also hired to design a cool badge for Outdoor Equipment. I’m now using it as an embeddable content marketing strategy for my Weekend Warrior section (you can see it in action here).
• Outdoor Equipment also made its first 2 affiliate sales! Woohoo! Those little wins and first dollars made on a website are really helpful to keep you motivated. It only amounted to $30, but you have to start somewhere.
• We’re beginning a massive site audit for a company that sells crossfit jump ropes. I love doing site audits for established websites as it can turn around their business in a heartbeat.
• Signed on two, 6 month SEO contracts for great clients that I’m very excited to be working with.

Posts From November

Below is a round-up of all posts made in November:

• Disjointed Friday Morning Ramblings: 5 Gems of Advice for Epreneurs
• Thank You For Your Support

Traffic Level Breakdown

Below is the traffic breakdown for a number of my websites, including the percentage increase. This is a screenshot directly from Google Analytics taken on December 1st. I’ve blacked out a few websites that I haven’t disclosed and don’t want disclosed for a number of reasons. Thank you for your understanding.

A few notes on the traffic levels:

• Bicycle Touring Guide – A slight drop of 2.71%. Since the Panda refresh, there has been a significant climb. Overall, it’s trending sideways.
• Outdoor Equipment – An increase of 8.34%. That growth is a mix of social media, organic and direct navigation traffic.
• AllBestBinoculars - An increase of 57.16%. HUGE. AWESOME. Lovin’ it. There are a few factors at play here. First is the marketing campaign I launched a few months ago. Links take a while for their love to work their magic. Second is seasonality. This is the busiest season for the site. Third is the recent Panda refresh, which greatly helped.
• AllArtCareers – An increase of 16.63%. Whatever. It’s so far down and gone that I don’t care anymore.
• Camping Tent Reviews - Another drop of 24% this time around. At least it still makes some decent money.
• Criminology Degree – A drop of 7.24%. See Art Careers.
• Fulfilled Homemaking – An increase of 16.23%. We really need to figure out a strategy for this site and execute on it. It’s very well received.
• Glacier – A drop of 4.31%. Nothing to worry about, especially since the recent Panda refresh greatly helped it.
• SEOSherpas – A drop of 48.73%. Considering a lot of the traffic here is from Domaining.com, when I don’t write, I don’t get traffic
• Snowboarding – Now this is interesting. I’ve done nothing to this site. Absolutely zero since adding content. Yet it’s getting over 400 uniques per day. Going to keep running this experiment and see where it goes.

Domaining Updates

After not selling a single domain name in October, I more than made up for it in November. I purchased a number of good domain names, too, that I’m excited to begin marketing this month. In total, I spent $1,431,16 on domain names in November (the most I’ve ever spent in a single month) while sold $5,150 worth (the second most I’ve ever sold in a month).

Here’s the breakdown (with the exception of a publicly disclosed sale via GoDaddy, all other domain names have been withheld out of respect for the buyers):

• WeddingVideo.org – Bought for $300 in August 2011. Sold for $1,500 via GoDaddy premium listings. I didn’t realize the price was set so low. My spreadsheet had it listed at $2,500. Oh, well. Live and learn. After GoDaddy’s 30% fee, I walked away with $750 in profit.
• 3 word, GEO .com (AdjectiveNounNoun.com) – Bought for $69 in April 2012, sold for $2,000.
• 2 word, GEO.com (AdjectiveNoun.com) – Bought for $42.67 in October 2012, sold for $500.
• 2 word, GEO.com (AdjectiveNoun.com) – Bought for $69 in October 2012, sold for $1,800.
• 3 word, GEO.com (AdjectiveNounNoun.com) – Bought for $24.16 in November 2012 , sold for $850.

I’ll take it. I have a lot of great domain names to market this month, so I’m excited to get to work! My virtual assistant who I hired through elance back in July has already compiled a high quality marketing list for 3 of my recent purchases and I’ll be reaching out to them early this week via email and phone calls.

November Round Up

November was a great month for SEOSherpas. Any month where my traffic gets a boost from an algorithm, I sign on new clients that I’m very excited to work with, and I sell a handful of domain names is a successful month in my eyes.

My number one goal for November was to fill out every section of OutdoorEquipment.com and launch a gieaway to promote its growth on Facebook. I’ve executed on both of those with great success.

My number one goal for December - Write more on SEOSherpas and begin marketing OutdoorEquipment.com to other websites in the outdoor niche in a similar way to my strategy outlined here.

What’s your biggest goal for December? And did you meet your November goal? Share in the comments!

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Yup! That's me. Perry Rosenbloom. And I'm smiling because I know you're going to succeed online, too... especially if you sign up for my newsletter right below...