7 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
7 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Starting From Scratch - Need Advice

by OKFarmgirl
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey!

I started a website for my farm about a year ago. I didn't do much of anything with it. Recently, I decided that I needed to really ramp it up because our family is REALLY struggling. I work part-time, my husband is disabled, and I figure if I can make the Internet work for me, it makes sense to devote my time and energy to it. Here's what I'm doing and I'm hoping you can tell me if I'm going in the right direction and what else I need to work on. Thanks a million!

1. I have been working on adding new, keyword heavy (hopefully not too heavy) articles to the site with what I believe to be solid permalink naming. I have been promoting these articles three ways - on Twitter (I have only 30 followers, but that's since yesterday - I've already got one RT), on Facebook - I have a Fan page for our site and link articles to my friends, and finally, I have been submitting each page to Digg.com and SheToldMe.com for faster indexing and hopefully backlinks.

2. I have a few reciprocal links from and to related websites. Not too many, and I'm just putting them in my Links on the sidebar.

3. For the non-farm site, I've been doing the same things as far as submitting the articles to Digg and STM, but I've also been using the Google Keyword tool for ideas about good long tail keywords.

4. On my WP site, I'm using both Adsense and Amazon for monetizing. The Amazon stuff is very targeted, and on the farm site, I'm only using a carousel and an aStore link. On the media site, I've got a sidebar widget from Amazon that seems to not feed off the site at all. The Google ads are better, but I do get a decent amount of "pond" ads since "Pond" is part of our site name.

5. Other plugins I'm using are SEO All-in-One (I just installed that this morning, so I have no clue how it actually is going to work). Only Wire and and a Share button from visitors. I have a newsletter sign up (I have like one user I don't know personally) and a forum that's completely empty. I use XML Sitemap, have a privacy policy that I generated online, and SEO Rank Reporter.

6. I use Google Analytics and Adsense for reporting.

I think that's it so far. I do have accounts on a number of article database sites, and I'm thinking it would be worth my time to do a link wheel as was described in another thread.

This week, I earned $.69! Whoo hoo! I figure if I could get 100 of those a day, it'd supplement my part-time income and we'd be a heck of a lot more solvent. Of course, more than that would be ideal.

In a few years, once I finish school, I am hoping to create a web-based app that would be available for a yearly fee to customers. I wholeheartedly believe that it will support my family and my retirement if I can implement it the way I have it in my head. I want to get this site as popular as possible so that when the time comes to launch the product, I already have a slew of loyal visitors and heavy new traffic as well.

I really appreciate all of your posts throughout the forums - they are SO helpful! Any advice you have for me would be great. My sites are linked in my siggy.
#advice #new affiliate marketer #scratch #starting
  • Profile picture of the author OKFarmgirl
    Ooh, one more thing. I'm thinking as the garden season gets up and rolling, I'd like to start making how-to videos for gardeners and posting them on YouTube and then embedding them on my site. What think you?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3352148].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author OKFarmgirl
    So, am I just spinning my wheels, or am I just posting too early in the day?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3354756].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jerrywilhelm
      Here is a resource that will really get you a serious boost in the search engines
      This guy builds profile links in very high pagerank sites I have used him with great success. Sounds like your link building is fine but if you have the money you might try this

      1) Tabish Sajwani
      Company Name: The Sajwani's Seo Services
      Email: danishsajwani@gmail.com

      hope that helps
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3354855].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author OKFarmgirl
    Thanks for the reply!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3359170].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author JaySchmidt
      I looked at your farm site and it's very nice.

      Those amazon sidebar widgets convert very poorly. You're better off putting a text link to a relevent amazon page in an article.

      Find every local, relevent website and try to get a link from them. No need for scammy/spammy 'profile' links.

      Your articles are very good. I assume they're original. If you can keep that sort of article-writing up, you'll get good results in the long term.

      The only problem is, you're in a market that doesn't pay very much. Plus, it's seasonal. Most people who find articles of the sort you publish are after free info. You'll have to figure out a good way to take what some people call "freetards" and convert them to buyers.

      Another thing you might do when you have free time is to look for pointers and tips on how to write for the web. Your text is a bit dense and web readers don't like to stick around on sites that are not easily 'scannable'.

      I'd change the 'posted by admin' byline and use your own name (or your farm's name). It's good to brand yourself and helps if someone steals your content.

      Yes, you can get a ton of traffic from Youtube. But make sure you figure out how to drive traffic back to your site(s). Don't give all your good stuff to YouTube without getting something in return. As with most promotional activities, it's a balancing act.

      If you're not doing it already, you can always make money writing for other websites and services. Just don't compete with your own sites.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3359252].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author OKFarmgirl
        Thank you so much for the feedback! I completely agree with everything you said. I will definitely make some changes.

        Thank you for the compliment on my writing - yep, they're all my originals. You are right about them being pretty lengthy - I know it's not random-user friendly, but at the same time, I don't want to gloss over a topic that needs more detail. What to do? I also think changing out that Amazon link is a good idea. I may just convert it to an Adsense banner since. I thought it would pull relevant items, but I guess not.

        I have gleaned a few reciprocal links from other gardening related websites, and continue to seek out more. I have a Twitter account with a whopping 45 followers, but my account for my previous website (which was similar in format to eHow but with much higher ad share for the writer) and I've got 1000 followers there. I've been posting my articles on that account as well. I'm hoping to build my twitter account up. As far as seasonality, you're correct there too, EXCEPT that I've already had some traffic (and re-tweeting) from Australia. Since the info is pretty pertinent for gardeners everywhere, I'm hoping the searches are pretty constant throughout the year.

        I know the market doesn't pay much, however, I'm hoping that if I can write articles about items that do pay a bit more and that people wouldn't know what they looked like, I may get "what the heck is that?" clicks on the ads. I did an article on ear candling that fared pretty well that way.

        Thanks again for all of your help - I'm going to implement those changes now!

        Eileen
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3361038].message }}

Trending Topics