First site up and looking to continue!
A little backstory: I'm 18 and starting college in the fall. Like every kid my age I want to move out, but even between the 2 jobs i have right now I Might be able to afford rent and only rent making it impractical to move out. So here I am trying to make a little extra. My goal is by this time next year to be able to pull 2k a month. Whether this is realistic or not im not sure, but it helps to have a goal to work towards.
Here is what I have so far:
I did the 30 day challenge thing, I heard it was good for first timers so i tried it out. I did research and built a website. I have some backlinks built to the site, and a few articles posted linknig to the site. Google adwords said it gets 780 exact searches a month. Right now I'm ranked second on google for an exact match and get about 2-3 visitors a day. So, whats the next step in helping to improve my traffic? Should i just keep up articles and backlinking and maybe create a page on other sites, or is there something else, or should i scrap this site altogether and move on.
Another issue I have is the blog like design of my site. During the Challenge they suggested I use wordpress to direct to create my site, and while easy to use I feel like I don't have much control over my site. I want it to look more like an actual site and less like a blog. It might just be me, but I feel like going to an actual site gives more credibility to the creator than a blog does. Is there anything out there that can help me do this? I have a pretty decent understanding of HTML and have designed a few sites in the past. Nothing really extravagant, but enough to fit my vision of the site I want.
Lastly, I also run a small business of Ebay. I visit local thrift stores and resell cheap items I pick up there. I make a bit off this, but want to expand to my own storefront and try to eliminate ebay's fees and deal with just paypal. I'm thinking of using the packing slip in my ebay sales to help market my site, but I can see a lack of traffic to fully support this. I don''t really know the best way to go about this so any help is appreciated.
Here is what I have so far:
I did the 30 day challenge thing, I heard it was good for first timers so i tried it out. I did research and built a website. I have some backlinks built to the site, and a few articles posted linknig to the site. Google adwords said it gets 780 exact searches a month. Right now I'm ranked second on google for an exact match and get about 2-3 visitors a day. So, whats the next step in helping to improve my traffic? Should i just keep up articles and backlinking and maybe create a page on other sites, or is there something else, or should i scrap this site altogether and move on.
Another issue I have is the blog like design of my site. During the Challenge they suggested I use wordpress to direct to create my site, and while easy to use I feel like I don't have much control over my site. I want it to look more like an actual site and less like a blog. It might just be me, but I feel like going to an actual site gives more credibility to the creator than a blog does. Is there anything out there that can help me do this? I have a pretty decent understanding of HTML and have designed a few sites in the past. Nothing really extravagant, but enough to fit my vision of the site I want.
Lastly, I also run a small business of Ebay. I visit local thrift stores and resell cheap items I pick up there. I make a bit off this, but want to expand to my own storefront and try to eliminate ebay's fees and deal with just paypal. I'm thinking of using the packing slip in my ebay sales to help market my site, but I can see a lack of traffic to fully support this. I don''t really know the best way to go about this so any help is appreciated.
Right Now. What a wonderful time to start!