Jennifer Laycock has been running a great series, “Zero Cash, A Little Talent
& 30 Days” to see if she could set up a new business and turn a profit within a
month. I’ve eagerly read each installment about her new business, The Lactivist
Store, where she’s selling a range of merchandise for those who want to help
support breastfeeding. Jennifer’s finally hit some new installments that are
specifically of interest to search marketers. Here’s a rundown:
- Zero Cash,
A Little Talent and 30 Days – Day 1: This is the first installment of the
series and useful for anyone who wants the background to the project. - Jennifer Laycock @
Search Engine Guide: This lists all the stories that Jennifer has written
for Search Engine Guide, an easy way to read each installment of her 30 days
project in order. - Zero
Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days – Day 7 – MSN Plays Nice, Hosting is
Confusing and an Interesting Email Shows Up: Covers MSN being the first of
the major search engines to start sending her traffic. - Zero
Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days – Day 9 – Keyword Research, Chitika Mini
Malls and Writing Content: Covers her getting started with some search
term research, naming various tools. - Zero
Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days – Day 10 – Search Engine Marketing Goes
to Work and Affiliate Sales Pay Off: Covers Jennifer getting more into
search term research and doing a little targeting of news search engines. - Zero
Dollars, a Little Talent and 30 Days – Day 11 – Google Shares the Love, DNS
Issues Resolve and CafePress Lets Me Down: Covers her picking up traffic
on Google. But what about the Google “sandbox” that many feel prevents new
sites from ranking well? Jennifer notes that her store site is part of a more
established domain, so that might be helping her get past this.
While Jennifer started out with the store, she’s since gained a blog and a
web site. Overall, she now runs:
- The Lactivist: Her web site
that unites information from her store, her blog and has information about
milk banks.
Jennifer’s a long time milk bank donor, helping infants that benefit from
having mother’s milk. Until this summer when I heard of her doing this, I had
no idea milk banks even existed! The site helps explain the importance and
safety of such banks. - The Lactivist Blog: Her
blog where she’s posting information relating to breastfeeding. - The Lactivist Store:
Where her project began, a place where you can purchase t-shirts that promote
breastfeeding with humorous slogans.