Last summer, I decided to roll up my sleeves and throw myself in the trenches of online marketing. I started a website, funnyloveletters.com, a blog on real life sappy love letters. I figured with all the voyeurs in the world, the idea would instantly go viral. It kinda did, but there is still a long way to go and I learned a lot of lessons I thought I would share with other budding online entrepreneurs.

My journey started in summer 2010, I was working towards a Google Analytics and AdWords certificate. I was well versed with SEO, and I also knew how to set up a website. I heard about the Google Advertising program (Adsense) and I had a friend who said he made an income off of it, so I decided that it was time to put what I know to the test. I just needed an idea!

The idea of a website with sappy letters came to me a few years earlier when I got a huge 5 page love letter from a guy I barely knew. At first it was creepy, then sad, but then funny. Wouldn’t it be funnier if other people read it? But would they? And how would I start this website? How much time will it take? When will I see a return? It was going to be a little bit of work, so I needed some compelling evidence to see if it was worth the trouble.

I did some keyword research and found that “funny love letters” had a pretty high search volume on Google. It is now listed as having 2400 searches per month!

The domain funnyloveletters.com was available. Having the keywords in the domain would make it easier to get to the number one spot. I originally wanted a more fitting name, “sappyloveletters.com”, but there were barely any Google searches for sappy love letters. And this project was more SEO oriented.

I also used the website awkwardfamilyphotos.com as a model. They post up awkward family photos submitted by users. If people were willing to post up embarassing pictures of their families, they would surely post up embarassing letters of people they don’t like? According to alexa.com, awkwardfamilyphotos.com has an obscene amount of traffic. They also got mainstream media attention from CNN, Time Magazine, Huffington Post and even The View.

I was convinced! So I bought funnyloveletters.com, and got to work. I used a diary themed template with wordpress, then posted the five page love letter. Then waited. I got a few letters by asking friends and posting ads on craigslist. At first, it was slow, but now its picking up. I didn’t push the idea onto my personal network and didn’t advertise, because I wanted to see if a viral idea could stand on its own legs.

Reaction

A few people became obsessed with funnyloveletters. They would spend hours on it, and visit the website daily. Some of my visits were coming from Facebook, so I could see that people were telling others about the website. I knew I must be getting on the right track. It seemed like people were entertained by the letters, especially the ones in the “Angry Love Letters” category that were getting the most hits. I had someone email me once to say that the website was thereputic for her.

SEO

As I got more letters, more visits, more facebook “likes”, I was climbing up the Google charts. In just a few months, funnyloveletters.com became number one on Google for searches on “funny love letters”. It can also be found on the first page for searches on “love letters”. This is very important since I depend on Google, and only Google for all my traffic! And for all those self-claimed SEO’s who think its all about the back links, this website result proves otherwise! I had no back links for funnyloveletters.com whatsoever, other than a meagre mention on my personal blog. My hypothesis is that the website became number one because:

• the keywords were in the domain
• the bounce rate was very low
• people were sharing the website on social media networks
• because the ad to content ratio was low
• the website was regularly updated on a weekly basis
• the website had original content
• the website had a lot of content

Money

There is no money to be made off of Adsense, I made a total of $7.70 this year. That’s pretty low considering that I brought 15,082 visitors to see their ads! The online consensus seems to be that only 1% of visitors click on ads. So how does my friend make money off of Adsense? His network of websites combined has 120,000 visits PER DAY. He makes it a full time job to write blog posts. I don’t know if I want to commit more than a few hours per month.

The Future

For the website to continue its success, a lot of work needs to be done. It needs to be a full time job. To monetize this website, I need two things:

1. Sell merchandise

2. Get more visitors
To achieve this goal, I need to go the full nine yards with marketing. I have a massive to-do list to get through:

• FLL needs to rebrand
• get a new professional design
• set up an online store and products
• advertise
• beg journalists to cover the story
• beg the public for more letters!

It’s a bit overwhelming for just one person, but when I see the growing numbers, I think it just might be worth it! I can’t lose momentum now!