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Is starting a new website and implementing SEO even worth it these days?

by IM Lover
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
H Warriors

I used to have a lot of websites that were ranked pretty high back in the day. Wow I just made myself sound old, let me rephrase it. Going back about 4 years I had websites and managed to rank them up with good old fashioned fresh content and some link building.

These days what with all of these updates by Google, I see threads such as 1. http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...e-changed.html 2. http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...king-gone.html and it makes me shudder to think about the time wasted on implementing the SEO.

I make a good living currently with CPA and other stuff, however I always wanted to try out Adsense websites and what not. But, I ask myself is it worth the hassle of putting in the time, only for Google to make an update and destroy all of my hard work.

What do you think, it is REALLY worth it?....
#days #implementing #seo #starting #website #worth
  • Profile picture of the author nik0
    Banned
    Unless you have your own private network I think it's not worth it to start Adsense or Amazon affiliate sites anymore as the ROI would be pretty poor, add up that Google doesn't really like affiliate sites so in worse case you even get slapped and have not enough time to make your money back.

    Or you really have to be a star in niche and kw selection.

    Also nowadays it's not only about back links, times that you could put up a simple few page site seems to be over so the cost ratio of content is a lot higher then it used to be.

    Sure there is still money to make online but I would go for Commission Junction deals or some sort of CPA as they pay out much higher percentages.
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    • Profile picture of the author IM Lover
      Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

      Unless you have your own private network I think it's not worth it to start Adsense or Amazon affiliate sites anymore as the ROI would be pretty poor, add up that Google doesn't really like affiliate sites so in worse case you even get slapped and have not enough time to make your money back.

      Or you really have to be a star in niche and kw selection.

      Also nowadays it's not only about back links, times that you could put up a simple few page site seems to be over so the cost ratio of content is a lot higher then it used to be.

      Sure there is still money to make online but I would go for Commission Junction deals or some sort of CPA as they pay out much higher percentages.
      Good valid points there to consider thank you, I personally get my traffic from YouTube, it's free and targeted so I cant complain. I just want to try something new out really, thanks for your feedback and what not.

      Cheers
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

      Unless you have your own private network I think it's not worth it to start Adsense or Amazon affiliate sites anymore as the ROI would be pretty poor, add up that Google doesn't really like affiliate sites so in worse case you even get slapped and have not enough time to make your money back.

      Or you really have to be a star in niche and kw selection.

      Also nowadays it's not only about back links, times that you could put up a simple few page site seems to be over so the cost ratio of content is a lot higher then it used to be.

      Sure there is still money to make online but I would go for Commission Junction deals or some sort of CPA as they pay out much higher percentages.

      The thing is there's still a lot of money to be made, even If you never get traffic from the SERPs. The amount of traffic in niche forums is massive, look at this single IM niche forum, traffic is huge. Now look around the web at all the other similar IM niche forums.

      I still SEO like there's no tomorrow but I've never let the SERPs be my only traffic source, that would be a bad idea IMO considering I know where the niche traffic hangs out (niche forums).

      There's a reason your here selling links (not being negative), you know for a fact that this IM forum has a lot of targeted IM traffic, same goes with every non-IM niche, most have multiple niche forums full of traffic.

      There's no reason to not start an Adsense, Amazon, CPA, etc... site in 2013, as long as advertisers & shoppers are spending money, there will always be a middle man making money.

      If someone want's to earn money online, they'll make it happen. SEO is defiantly not dead for affiliate traffic. Like I said earlier, I wouldn't depend on SEO as my only traffic source (never have, never will).
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      • Profile picture of the author Optimist Cam
        Your thinking about it the wrong way. Yes seo can bring huge amounts of traffic, but is very risky with googles constant changes.

        The thing you need to do is think about about website development as a marketer would do it. You know what you niche is so ask yourself:
        Who can benefit from my content? Who are they? What information do they need that I can provide? Use that information to create articles that will be valuable to any reader that goes to your site.

        Then think about the types of places you can reach them online. Search engines are only one traffic source and you are limiting your income and financial stability by relying on it alone. Make sure your sites have onpage seo and try to rank for your targeted keywords, but use other traffic sources too.

        Niche forums can bring you a lot of traffic. You could also take advantage of the websites that already have lots of traffic by doing guestblogging for blogs in a closely related niche (make sure they are not direct competitors). Places like Twitter have people interested in your chosen niche, as does facebook and other social media sites.

        Find a youtube channel that has a lot of subscribers in your niche and do video reponses or create a JV with them. There are so many other ways to get traffic other than google.
        Have a look at alexa to see the top websites in the world. See if you can use any of them to get targeted traffic to your site.
        Once you have your list of traffic sources, you just need to develop a strategy to put it into action.

        If any google updates flunk other websites your traffic will hardly be affected.
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      • Profile picture of the author nik0
        Banned
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        The thing is there's still a lot of money to be made, even If you never get traffic from the SERPs. The amount of traffic in niche forums is massive, look at this single IM niche forum, traffic is huge. Now look around the web at all the other similar IM niche forums.

        I still SEO like there's no tomorrow but I've never let the SERPs be my only traffic source, that would be a bad idea IMO considering I know where the niche traffic hangs out (niche forums).

        There's a reason your here selling links (not being negative), you know for a fact that this IM forum has a lot of targeted IM traffic, same goes with every non-IM niche, most have multiple niche forums full of traffic.
        Forum niche traffic is gold indeed and doesn't even have to cost money as posting with your sig link is free. I noticed that since I started to post a lot less the last couple months that the sales from new customers took quite a dip. So yeah you can almost make your job out of posting at IM forums if you have something to sell.

        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        There's no reason to not start an Adsense, Amazon, CPA, etc... site in 2013, as long as advertisers & shoppers are spending money, there will always be a middle man making money.

        If someone want's to earn money online, they'll make it happen. SEO is defiantly not dead for affiliate traffic. Like I said earlier, I wouldn't depend on SEO as my only traffic source (never have, never will).
        Of course, but what I specifically mean is that if you have to outsource the link building that it can get quite expensive and the typical Adsense/Amazon site is not or hardly making that money back cause Adsense & Amazon pay out so poor. If I get an electrician or real estate client that I can rank at page 1 for 100 bucks a month and sure the amount of searches is real slow but if they get a few clients a month from that then they already made their money back big time.

        To back my statement a little bit up with data, for what it's worth, when I started to sell back links here about a year ago, my customers ratio of affiliate/adsense sites vs real sites was like 90/10. Right now the ratio changed to about 20/80. Sure people got scared and tons got penalized but still.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shout Out Digital
    These days it is hard to rank websites and you must follow white hat rules. In order to get a website ranking using white hat means a lot of manual time on forums, writing blog posts and carrying out general PR on the web to help endorse your website. This means if you were to do a website, it will be time consuming and I highly recommend having a website related to something you enjoy so you wont get bored in forums or blogging, instead you enjoy it and want to keep doing it. Please also note, SEO today takes time so be patient.
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  • Profile picture of the author vtotheyouknow
    You can still rank niche websites if the keywords are low competition enough but if you have the time and money to invest and you want to make Adsense an income stream, building out a high quality authority site would be your best bet.
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  • Profile picture of the author minimalseo
    SEO is relevant, and necessary to content driven sites, as also business sites - that's just to respond to the title of your post

    For Affliliate sites, I would rather go with PPC & PPV. They are akin to 100m races run everyday in my view, and any and immediate advantage makes a difference to your immediate returns. Ofcourse every day is a new race, and your success or failure previous day will have no bearing on your performance today.

    'Adsense' sites? Then that's essentially content driven sites - and there are plenty of other ad networks, and plenty of ways to monetize when you get hands-free traffic. But that's entering the realm of building authority sites - akin to running a marathon in my view, takes long term, sustained effort to keep yourself relevant in the race for incremental advantage at every lap. If the content and value you provide is your inherent skill in the running, SEO is your running boots here. Worth it? Yes sir!
    Signature

    "Be water, my friend" - Bruce Lee

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  • Profile picture of the author IM Lover
    Hi Guys

    The main point to my original post was to highlight, just how bad SEO has changed, this is based on how fast your website can be affected by these big changes Google are making. I don't need advice myself on how to SEO, I already understand the basics and what not as mentioned I have owned many ranked websites before.

    I woke up and thought it would be nice to make some new websites, then I read over the threads I posted above in the original post, with people having their ranks taken away even know they only implemented natural SEO etc...

    This thread is mostly just to discuss that, not to teach SEO or anything.

    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author expcontent
    I think the key point to take away from Google's recent algorithm changes is that the type of SEO that many people have practiced historically, with low quality links, spun or poor quality content, and blog comment spam, just isn't going to cut it anymore. YES, it will probably rank in the short term, but what's the point in investing your money (and more importantly, your time) in a website that's only going to rank for 1-2 months?

    I know a lot of people (some of whom I work with as a service provider) who have had websites ranking for high-traffic keywords since 2007 with no loss of traffic from any of the latest Google updates. They don't have any secret formula for keeping their sites up high in the SERPS, only common sense. High quality links, strong content, and none of the spammy stuff that characterized short-term SEO will keep your site ranking.

    If you want SEO to live up to its reputation as a 'long term' traffic source, you need to think about your SEO campaigns as a long-term process. If you rank quickly, you'll probably lose that ranking just as fast when the next algorithm update comes out.
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    • Profile picture of the author IM Lover
      Originally Posted by expcontent View Post

      I think the key point to take away from Google's recent algorithm changes is that the type of SEO that many people have practiced historically, with low quality links, spun or poor quality content, and blog comment spam, just isn't going to cut it anymore. YES, it will probably rank in the short term, but what's the point in investing your money (and more importantly, your time) in a website that's only going to rank for 1-2 months?

      I know a lot of people (some of whom I work with as a service provider) who have had websites ranking for high-traffic keywords since 2007 with no loss of traffic from any of the latest Google updates. They don't have any secret formula for keeping their sites up high in the SERPS, only common sense. High quality links, strong content, and none of the spammy stuff that characterized short-term SEO will keep your site ranking.

      If you want SEO to live up to its reputation as a 'long term' traffic source, you need to think about your SEO campaigns as a long-term process. If you rank quickly, you'll probably lose that ranking just as fast when the next algorithm update comes out.
      I could not agree more with you actually, so just manually back link build, add fresh content and don't spam your website. Do this, then you will see good long term results rather than short term.

      Good point!
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  • Profile picture of the author online only
    It's doable, but you have to know what you do.. I agree with nik0, high pr private network seems to be the only way to get top rankings on google. Another way is to contact with REAL seo guys and make a decent "deal". It's completely worthless to lurk around the fiverr or use the backlinking services that cost you $10...

    Tbh, I have already quit SEO and moved to PPC and PPV. To be more clear, I have tripled my income since then.. But, it's not easy, it takes a lot of testing and requires a PRETTY decent budget.
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    • Profile picture of the author IM Lover
      Originally Posted by online only View Post

      It's doable, but you have to know what you do.. I agree with nik0, high pr private network seems to be the only way to get top rankings on google. Another way is to contact with REAL seo guys and make a decent "deal". It's completely worthless to lurk around the fiverr or use the backlinking services that cost you $10...

      Tbh, I have already quit SEO and moved to PPC and PPV. To be more clear, I have tripled my income since then.. But, it's not easy, it takes a lot of testing and requires a PRETTY decent budget.
      I tried my hand at PPC for about a day, got bored, moved on to CPA and have stuck with that now mostly. The PPV is not something I have tried/look into just yet.
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