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SEO Keyword Hell

By Mike and Molly

Feb192012

Hang on to your seats as we peel back the curtain to reveal the dark secrets behind how we’re mining Google to find the perfect term to bring the hoards to our new niche website.

There comes a time in every blogger’s life when they start thinking –  ”How the heck am I going to get more people to my site?”  Turns out it’s all about the SEO (search engine optimization) here in internet land.  Really the question is how can I get a good ranking in Google so that I’m at the top of the page when someone searches for something I’ve written about.

Oh, for those of you who are thinking, ‘Yawn…watching a video on SEO keyword research sounds  really  boring’ we are ready to prove you wrong.  Well, at the very least it’s only 4 minutes and if you don’t like it you can have your money back.

Molly:  We are STUNNING  people!

Mike:  Forgive Molly, she  just finished imagining she was presenting at a seminar on positive thinking.  » » »

We Are So F**Ked

By Mike and Molly

Feb102012

Well, the video will explain….

What is a niche site?

A site that is focused on one particular topic.  An example would be a site dedicated to lemon cupcakes.

Great links to check out the 411 on niche sites:

Sandy @ Yes I Am Cheap

Pat @ Smart Passive Income

Who competed in the  Niche Site Duel?

Sunil @ The Extra Money Blog

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 Like what you see here?  Spread the word to your friends and family!

Thanks!!!!

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Blog Update-January

By Mike and Molly

Feb32012

We’ve been writing Mike and Molly’s House for 5 months now.  We skipped reporting on December- the month went a little faster than expected.  How does that happen?  We have continued to grow which is always exciting.

Stats

Posts:  20!  Our goal is to write at least 20 each month.

Visitors: 3,519-out of those 2,374 were ‘unique’ visitors (AKA- new readers)

December we had 3,199 visitors and 2,058 were unique

Readership: 

Since December 1st (yes this is over two months) all of you helped us to go from:

88  Facebook fans to 123!

154  Twitter followers to 197!

131 subscribers to 176! (email and RSS)

Our Alexa ranking went from  188,454 (and 29,961 in the US) to 161,915 (and 28,270 in the US)

Are we making money?  No.  Have we tried in the last two months?  No.

Molly:  CRYSTAL!!  HELP US!!

Mike:   Yikes!  That was a li-ttle screechy.  Crystal from Budgeting in the Fun Stuff  will be taking over our advertising.  She’s our gal now! » » »

Are We Rich or Poor?

By Mike and Molly

Jan222012

This year Molly started to notice a shift in the girls’ perception towards our standard of living.  Even with the two of us out of work for most of 2011 our spending has changed very little compared to the previous year.  When we cut our expenses back by 50% a few years ago they perceived us as a family who had money but chose not to spend it.  There’s an interesting interview Molly did with the girls 2 years ago about their take on our cutting back on Molly On Money.  In the interview they talk about their initial fears but in the end they were happy that we did cut back and paid off our debt.

Lately we’ve heard them make comments to the effect that we are ‘poor’ and cannot afford to have a nice things like so-and-so’s car.  So let us repeat…how we spend our money now compared to when we had much larger incomes has not changed but somehow we’ve become ‘poor’. » » »

Teens & Toys

By Molly

Jan152012

My friend Juliette calls us the  ’Little House on the Prairie’ home.  I don’t think we are all that out there but I do realize most of our friends don’t have ‘butcher day’ at their house.  On the other side of the pendulum we (Mike and Pistol) love technology.  My Dad got Pistol started with her first desktop computer at the age of 2.  Yes, she had a nicer computer than me.  They both love to figure stuff out in their own ways on the computer while Dumpling and I put in our IT requests of what we would like. “More music on my iTunes, please.”

The girls are both 13yrs old now.  Gone to the wasteside (Editors note from Mike:  unintentional Mollyism) are dolls, scooters, bouncy balls and dress up (unless we are talking the occasional fashion show in my clothes!).  Nowadays they want clothing and technology.  They have whittled their desires down to the essentials.  For two years both girls got the newest iPod nanos (they were gifts).  Last year they both wanted iTouches.  I’m the parent who says, ‘Why do you need that?’  Mike, on the other hand, is a technology enabler.  I’m outnumbered.  What they ended up doing this time was rather clever.  With the help of Mike (I’m yelling in the background, ’11 and 12 year old children don’t need iTouches!’) (Editors note from Mike: No she wasn’t, she was squealing with 8 other ladies in the living room because she was hosting “trashy book club” night.) they sold their iPods online and then bought refurbished iTouches, again, online.  They used some of their savings to make up the difference between their sales revenue and the cost of the iTouches. » » »

Feet To the Fire- November

By Mike and Molly

Dec12011

With November behind us we’ve just wrapped up our 3rd month with ‘Mike and Molly’s House’.  That leaves us 3 more months to build the blog full time.  We do want to make some income from the blog so we are using this time to focus on building it up as fast as possible.  Come March we will need to bring in other income to cover our expenses so we don’t need to dip into our savings.  One thing that keeps us focused on our goal of creating income from our blog is to report on our goals.

Molly:  I’m well aware making a living as a blogger is a bit of a pipe dream.  It’s tough and only the very few make it.  But…I want to be one of them!!!!  I love writing, researching and coming up with projects for this blog.  I don’t want to have it as a side job I want it as the job!  I also can’t help feeling like I’ve been here before.  Trying to make it big as a dance choreographer and than later trying our hand in building spec houses.  Why can’t we pick something where we actually have a chance at making a living? (whine…)

Mike:  Hon, I think you’re feeling the stress because we’re at the half way point and we really feel the clock ticking.  On the other hand it does feel like we’ve been here before.  » » »

Money, Expenses and a Corrupted File

By Molly

Nov202011

On Molly On Money I would occasionally update my readers on our spending.  We track our expenses in Quicken and post updates on our whiteboard in the kitchen.  I like sharing the information.  I feel it keeps our spending in the foreground rather than letting it slide into the background.  I mean come on, where your money goes tells a story about you.  It’s interesting!

So…have you noticed we have no updates here?  Well, we don’t because I haven’t tracked our spending since the beginning of June. (Hello guilt and shame come sit down next to me on the couch.  How have we been?) It’s not because I haven’t wanted to it’s because I’ve become dependent on a piece of software called Quicken. » » »

Feet to the Fire- October

By Mike and Molly

Oct312011

We’ve just finished our second month at Mike and Molly’s House- WHOOT! WHOOT!  We’re starting to get our blog groove on and are enjoying it even more than we expected. Writing articles for the blog has become a motivator for us to go out into the world, discover new things and tell you all about it.

Molly:  We both tend to be homebodies.  Because we want to explore Santa Fe with new eyes it’s been a really cool experience to go out and document what’s out there.  We’ve met more new people in the last few months than our entire history in Santa Fe!

Mike: It seems like everywhere we turn there’s a new post waiting to happen.

Molly:  And to think we were worried about having enough content!  The challenge has become to find enough time to write a post.  I’m not complaining- we want to include everything; an interesting story, quality photos and let’s just throw in a video while we’re at it! » » »

My Sewing Machine is a Wormhole into Another Dimension

By Mike

Sep272011

Today we are participating in First Gen American’s Coffee Talk writer’s challenge.  The challenge today is to use a household item as a metaphor in a blog post that teaches a life or personal finance lesson.  Note that this is a post from Molly’s perspective but written by Mike.

Molly's fabrics swatches

When I (Molly) start a project it typically begins with this thought:  ”I’m going to save so much money by making this- new set of curtains, seasonally appropriate bedspread, little black dress… rather than buying it at the store.”  Picture me receiving a gold start for my thrifty ways.

I start out with the best intentions. » » »

It’s Really Very Simple…Really

By Molly

Sep252011

Spending within your means is really very simple (and yet so dang hard to do.)  There is nothing complicated about getting and keeping your financial house in order.  It’s straightforward, simple and doesn’t contain a convoluted formula.

Spend less than you take in!

Yep, that’s it, people!

I’m done with this post!

Mike:  No you’re not…

Dang! » » »

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