As promised, here is part 2 of my personal experience with the “Making Money With Wordpress” tutorial.  This tutorial is lodged in lesson 2 of the WAAP. It was a bit challenging to get myself to keep writing about lesson 2, since lesson 3 unlocked for me last night!  Before I work through the new module, I’m going to have to wade through the “getting started” section of the official Wordpress codex.  Eventually I have to be sure to learn the basics of the open source GIMP image editor, while brushing up on my copywriting skills.

Anyways, here are the bits from section 1.3 and up that jumped out at me, along with notes on particular points I’m going to research in more depth.  In the conclusion, I outline the road map I’ve designed for myself.  Please fell free to comment and let me know if you think my approach will work:

*One of the criteria search engines use to rank sites is the number and quality of incoming links.
*Search engines are clever, a one way link to your site is worth more than a two way link.  The link should be relevant to your content, and if it comes from a site with high PR (learn more about this!) its worth even more.  You can obtain relevant links using Article Submission and Social Bookmarking.  Module 1.3 has links to tutorials that cover these subjects.
*Getting these incoming links can be very profitable, I’ll need to spend a lot of time pursuing them.
*The “Getting Started” tutorial on article marketing is a good place to start looking for even more information.
*This module also offers a quick rundown of PPC traffic driving techniques.  This is a method I’m going to stay away from for now.  To start, I’ll concentrate on building my first Affiliate Marketing site, and using article marketing to target promising keywords and phrases.  I’ll make sure my targeted keywords match between my submitted articles and the pages they link to!
*Once I’ve got my basic operation started, I’ll also have to try some social marketing, using twitter and social networks.  First things first, build a site that can convert traffic from articles to sales.
*I originally wanted to create a static site, but this module has convinced me to include an active blog component.  I’ll use my RSS reader to come up with new post ideas, and do some lightweight journalistic aggregation peices.
*VERISTIS! REMEMBER TO GET AN AWEBER ACCOUNT!
*I’ll start off with affiliate marketing to try and monetize my static pages, and eventually use an ad network to try and make a few bucks off my blog.  The primary purpose of my site’s blog will to be attract traffic and search engines.
*I’m wary of adsense, I’ve tried it before on some of my early shots at blogging.  This time I’ll be sure to embed the ads in the body of my posts, which a blogging associate of mine says works.
*I’ll also want to try some graphical banner ads on my Wordpress site/blog.
*Learn about link cloaking, to make your clickbank affiliate links less obtrusive.
*Learn about CPA marketing when the time is right... and also about using funnel sites to build an email marketing list.
*Eventually, I’ll try and create my own product, which I can promote on my own site and using clickbank’s affiliate system.  I won’t do this until I’ve got the basics of my chosen marketing model clear.
*I’ll create my own formula for success, and then perfect it.

So I finally have a game plan!  I’m going to build a multi-page site, promoting 3-4 different products within my niche’s sub-niches.  I’ll use article marketing to drive traffic both to my homepage and my pre-sell pages.  Attached to this static site, I’ll maintain an active blog (something I’ve done before), to keep my site active, and attract a loyal following.  Once I get these components up and running, I’ll get into list building, with an attractive email-for-free report/how to guide offer.  All the while I’ll be sure to implement keyword research and SEO techniques.  I’ll also have to get a twitter account rolling, try social bookmarking for my best posts, and get some site-specific social networking accounts.

Whew!  Best get a handle on Wordpress fast.