RSS Readers – 470+
Technorati Authority – 1,149
Technorati Rank – 2,135
Alexa Ranking – 139,xxx
Page Rank: PR5

Growth Assessment

July was a pretty slow month for me when it comes to driving in heavy traffic. Reasons are 1.) I didn’t get to post consistently and 2.) the contest by Market Leverage came in a little late.

However, I have managed to increase my RSS Subscribers by a hundred and Page Rank tremendously increased from 0 to 5!

August 2008 Goals

I will be focusing on my traffic this month if I could double it then that would be rad! A much more realistic Goal would be to reach 50,000 at the end of the month. Also, I will be working on a consistent increase in my RSS Subscribers as well.

August 2008 Plans

I have slowly started Monetizing the site, installed Google Adsense and will be making Sponsored Reviews and Posts. I will start doing Private Ad Sales as well and will be working on Affiliate Networking, if possible. Hopefully, I will be able to add an Income Report for August 08.

I will also be releasing the Free Ebook I have promised, I am currently working on it but even if its free, I want to take as much time as I can on it.. gathering data and formulating the strategies I have used into an easier step-by-step presentation.

I have also decided to reward Top Commentators, (calling out to those winners who have not claimed their prize yet) and the same incentive will be given this month.

WPTD’s Change of Direction

I have shared to all of you that I have plans of starting an Online Business. In fact, some of you may have noticed that I’m slow on replying emails (like mintspot). That’s because I have been dedicating a large portion of my time to it so that my partner and I will get to launch it as scheduled. All is good at the moment, in fact we picked out a cool domain name for it, yey!

Anyhow, this obviously means, I won’t be able to maximize WPTD at its full potential. Therefore, I have intentions of selling this site. I’ll set the starting bid at $5,000. (ooops!! Don’t react yet! :p, continue reading..)

No, I have not started any formal auction and have not listed this for sale just yet. I have however consulted Dan of DailyBlogTips and sought his advice and would like to thank him for his time and wisdom. I have had offers though and have exchanged emails with those who have shown interest. Which is why I have managed to post an initial bid based from their offers.

I am however hoping to keep this site a little longer so no listings will be made until I receive offers based on my starting bid, 3 interested bidders will have to mean that I put this site on sitepoint already (for formality and protection of buyer and seller). Why buy this now? Because, I will be monetizing the site already which means I will be able to sell this at $xx,xxx by then. So the starting bid is totally a steal! I am however willing to share my input on how you can re-brand this site and what are the possible income streams you can possibly start and make. It’s just roughly 4 months, you can totally re-brand this!

So let’s move on.. yes, I will continue to release more Free Themes for everyone but since I do not have a lot of time in my hands at the moment. I might try to contact Leland of Themelab if he’s interested to code the designs I have that I wish to release for free. Or anyone out there willing to collaborate with me?

That was a lot, right? Whew*

Update: (a reaction to all your comments).. Actually guys, it’s still after all “just a plan”. if you look closer I have mentioned that “I’m trying to hold on to it as much as I can“. Ever since I started, I have been transparent with my goals. I have a feeling, I can still do a lot more here on WPTD even if my hands are full already on my new project (it’s a challenge on my part). However, you must understand that I have worked hard on this site and I simply want WPTD to continue to grow. Thus, if it means letting the site go, then I will oblige but if it means 3 or more years of sticking to it..

now, wouldn’t that rock?

I do monitor my site’s growth.. the reason is that I want to know if I am headed at the right direction and if I have successfully followed my Goals. What is nice about this site is that.. right from the start, it has always exceeded my expectations. In fact, most of the time I am having a hard time catching up. But challenges like this keeps me on my feet and after all, that is always a good thing.

This site was online on April 13, 2008 and will be turning 2 months old next week.

April 2008
Unique Visitors = 3342
Number of Visits = 4280
Pages = 38910
Hits = 257389
RSS Subscribers: 150
Alexa Rank: 300,xxx

May 2008.
Average Daily Visits = 400
Unique Visitors = 8151
Number of Visits = 11508
Pages = 103644
Hits = 640031
RSS Subscribers: 275+
Alexa Rank: 190,xxx

Number of WordPress Theme Releases = 4 Themes

Goals for June 2008
Average Daily Visits = 500
RSS Subscribers = 350
Number of WordPress Theme Releases = 10 Themes

Lastly, I would like to inform you guys that I am currently looking for a “how-to” person that I could hire to provide Customer Support. I already have 3 people applying for the position but I simply want to make sure that I am going to hire someone that is friendly and helpful at the same time. I do know that I am not obliged to provide this service since I am not offering Premium Themes but I do feel guilty everytime somebody asks me how to customize or fix something on the theme. I am also uninstalling the forum and thought of a different and an easier way to handle and manage customer support. I will introduce him/her to everyone soon.. Hopefully, this will be a relief on my part so I can have more time focusing on my other projects and producing more Free Themes for you here, and indeed an advantage for all of you to finally have a buddy on here you can turn to, right?.. Lol.

By the way, I have finalized how we are going to pick winners for the Premium Themes Give-away Contest, more info on my next post.

However, I won’t deny that our goals are quite similar. I plan to offer as many Free WordPress Themes as I can and would love to run a similar “themes club” project later on than going for the usual route of selling Premium Themes. Other than that, I believe my personal identity isn’t important at all. My focus will remain on the BIG GOALS that I have set for this site and all the WordPress Themes I will be releasing for the WordPress Community.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who wished me well. As promised, I will be rockin’ and kickin’ again now that I feel better. I have an announcement to make this week, so stay tuned. Is it a fabulous contest? Am I giving away millions? or.. ahm.. uhmm… I am Small Potato? (ugh) .. What’s your guess?

I’m considering a gift for the entire family like a backyard wood swing set