It’s common knowledge that Wordpress is built with SEO in mind, especially if you turn on permalinks.  The title tag can be automatically optimized for search engines, and the URLs produced are also search engine friendly.  This SEO friendliness was a big factor when deciding how I was going to build my second MySpace resource site (MSRS), ShoutPix.com And I’m happy to say, so far it’s paid off.There are two major sources of traffic for MSR sites.  The first is straight from MySpace; when someone posts one of your graphics, which links back to your site.  The second is from search engines.  I would argue that the second type of traffic is better, because getting found through the search engines means that more of your graphics get posted, which in turn leads to more of the first type of traffic.

Leading up to Valentine’s Day, you can imagine the amount of “valentine’s graphics” searches that are made.  In anticipation of this, I posted a bunch of valentines graphics during the first half of February, posting a few a day, and waiting to see what would happen.  I hoped that because of the proximity to Valentine’s Day, a few of my pages would rank higher in the search results due to the google honeymoon.  And that is basically what happened.  In the three days from the 12th to the 14th traffic increased 965% from the search engines.  To be clear, it wasn’t due to showing up high for any particular searches, but for just showing up for the long tail of valentine’s graphics searches - more than 3/4 of the hits were single hits from different search phrases.  Moral of the story?  Make sure you use permalink in WP, and keep in mind what search trends you want to target in the near future.

It’s been quite a while since I clued you guys in, so here it is.  It’s time for a good old fashioned progress report!

To do this right, we have to go back to april of last year, when I decided to freelance as a web developer in order to pay the bills.  The whole “entrepreneurship” thing was not moving as quickly as I needed it to, and I was running low on cash.  So I figured freelancing would pay the bills and allow me the freedom to continue working on my own project.  Great.  Right?

Wrong!

I designed and put up Kokua Design, I designed a couple of sites for free, and I proceeded to hawk my newly minted portfolio all over Craigslist.  Well, let me tell you, the whole client acquisition thing was a little harder than I expected.  I did land a few projects, but it required hours of advertising, and emailing, and writing up quotes, and phone conversations, and even face-to-face meetings.  When was I going to find time to design?  And to work on my own projects??

I proceeded to eke out a living this way for most of 2006, and learned quite a bit in the process.  php, color theory, css, design theory, usability… But the most important thing that I learned is that freelance web design is a full-time business.  To do it right, I had to spend 50-60 hours a week minding all parts of the business.  So when was I going to have time to work on my entrepreneurial projects?

I did manage to make a little time for them so in mid 2006, I launched Kokua Web.  By then, I had refined my idea about what kind of business I wanted to run on the web.  I wanted to be a website publisher, a la iFroggy Network.  That way, I could satisfy my inborn need to always be starting new projects, while still keeping them all under one same umbrella.
So I ended 2006 deep in thought (as I usually do) and decided that since freelance design was too time-consuming, I needed a part-time job to cover my bills and living expenses but still leave time for Kokua Web.

I’m happy to report that after much searching, I found exactly the job I was looking for, through an old college friend of course.  (Thanks John!) Three days a week I will be the web developer for a small consulting group right here in Culver City, and the rest of my time is mine to devote to Kokua Web (and my girlfriend).

So expect to see some changes here over the coming months.  With time available to work on the business and without the psychic drain of worrying about the bills I intend for things to move along at a brisk pace.

And I hope that you guys will keep me on track.

Disclaimer: All history is revisionist, and the above post makes it sound like I planned things out neatly.  Far from it!  In the interest of brevity, I didn’t include the countless hours spent in indecision, the time spent chasing dead ends, and the occasional stroke of luck. 

Early last year I was approached via email by Brice of themoneyblogs.com, and thinking that it was a valuable, MindPetals-style network that would help to improve my exposure and traffic numbers I agreed to join.  Well, after a few months I didn’t see any results.  They were republishing my full feed and all I got in return was one tiny link buried deep within their site.  So I sent them an email to get my account and feed removed and thought nothing more of it.

Until this morning, when I read a post on Blogtrepreneur about themoneyblogs.com scraping his feed and not returning his email.  So on a hunch, I checked the site and sure enough they’re still publishing my full feed as well.

And since that is the case, I’m hoping someone will notice when this post shows up on their site. Brice, can you please remove my feed and all my content from themoneyblogs.com, and while you’re at it, do the same for Adnan from Blogtrepreneur?  Thanks!