I don't know where to start

15 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I just launched an online ministry and I thought sharing it with 100 friends on facebook would be enough to get it going. Boy was I wrong! I had 12 people view it that one day and none since (only been a few days).

So I am looking for a way to get traffic to it and quickly. I used to do SEO with other sites in the past through methods that were shot down by Google with the updates the last couple of years now. So I find myself not knowing what to do.

I have a $0 budget except to keep the host current. So I am turning here for help in getting traffic to it. I have time...but no money. Can anyone give me steps to take in order to make this work?

Here is the site by the way: An Online Church Ministry - Growing Christians - Reaching The Lost
#start
  • Profile picture of the author erikko
    Well if you got a little to no money, ll you can rely on is hard work and I mean it takes time and effort to do social, contacting people and spreading your word about your ministry. That's how traffic works and patience also plays a vital role. That means you are willing to wait for the results.
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    • Profile picture of the author jbearnolimits
      Originally Posted by erikko View Post

      Well if you got a little to no money, ll you can rely on is hard work and I mean it takes time and effort to do social, contacting people and spreading your word about your ministry. That's how traffic works and patience also plays a vital role. That means you are willing to wait for the results.
      I understand that it takes time and work. I just need a path to follow to get it moving. I am thinking I may have some kind of money within a few months to use for this but for now I just need to do what I can.
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  • Profile picture of the author sonjay
    Well.. you should be clear about what your purpose is, what your goals are.. all your efforts and marketing must be dictated by that purpose, and not the other way around.

    You want traffic, for what? What is it that you are offering?

    The ones who are able to stay in business, first offer solutions that a specific group of people seek, before they even "try out" if their passion is profitable. Just my honest observation, according to my own experiences.
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    • Profile picture of the author jbearnolimits
      Originally Posted by sonjay View Post

      Well.. you should be clear about what your purpose is, what your goals are.. all your efforts and marketing must be dictated by that purpose, and not the other way around.

      You want traffic, for what? What is it that you are offering?

      The ones who are able to stay in business, first offer solutions that a specific group of people seek, before they even "try out" if their passion is profitable. Just my honest observation, according to my own experiences.
      The purpose of the site it listed at the top right of every page.

      "Reaching the lost through teaching the saved how to be the church."

      That actually means a lot. It means the purpose of the site is to teach Christians how to walk in this world like Christ and reach people like He did.

      The ultimate goal is to have a strong emphases on small group Bible studies. I believe people need these forms of community since often for some reason or another they may be unable to have it through a "traditional" church setting.

      I also want to train Christians to help others become Christians and then start the cycle over again.

      So yeah...that is the goal and what I would like to offer. I just need to know how to get it in front of people.
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      • Profile picture of the author sonjay
        Originally Posted by jbearnolimits View Post

        The purpose of the site it listed at the top right of every page.

        "Reaching the lost through teaching the saved how to be the church."

        That actually means a lot. It means the purpose of the site is to teach Christians how to walk in this world like Christ and reach people like He did.

        The ultimate goal is to have a strong emphases on small group Bible studies. I believe people need these forms of community since often for some reason or another they may be unable to have it through a "traditional" church setting.

        I also want to train Christians to help others become Christians and then start the cycle over again.

        So yeah...that is the goal and what I would like to offer. I just need to know how to get it in front of people.
        No offense meant. I may really have similar or close "passion" as you.

        Check this: Couples for Christ (dot) me | CFC free email and digital resources!

        That website is mine.

        It has a clear audience: Christians who are affiliated or thinking about the global organization of Couples for Christ.

        And the teachings, plus experiences shared are only easily understood by those who have been invited or already starting their ministry as part of the group.

        This website is slowly being developed as a "repository" of reflections actually useful for those "just researching" about Christ or even people who may need "some sort of conversion" -- but as the "intent" is not clear if put this way, I have to capture an audience which will be able to benefit from the resources I provide, and pay it forward.

        Maybe later, this will spread. Maybe later, there will be more converts and enlightened's.

        As I said this is under development, but I am aware of what my purpose and goals are, narrowing to a specific group of people with similar experiences and motives.

        Actually, I will even create a free program for them, specially those business owners and managers, so they will find a way to expand their businesses via learning Internet Marketing.. designed eventually to have enough money to not to worry about money, and consequently be able to render more time and resources to ministry work.

        I hope this is something you have reflected upon. I didn't mean you haven't, only it is not very clear why you want SEO in the first place.
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        • Profile picture of the author jbearnolimits
          Originally Posted by sonjay View Post

          I hope this is something you have reflected upon. I didn't mean you haven't, only it is not very clear why you want SEO in the first place.
          Thanks, I haven't taken offence. I know I have a hard time focusing on one thing because I know I personally have a one track mind.

          That may not make sense at first but when you have a one track mind you tend to believe you can only focus on one thing forever. There is no option for expanding in the future. So I end up focusing on all of the vision at one time thinking that since the vision has many parts I will need to do it all at once.

          But I do see what is being said here and want to thank everyone. It is always a good idea to get someone else's thoughts to refine your own.

          So here is my long range plans and I will try to focus on one at a time.
          1. I would like to first focus on training Christians in how to be more like Christ. I believe this can be done through helping them know the Bible more. Thus the focus is going to be on Bible studies and small groups. The preaching videos I have planned actually focus on this heavily anyway.
          2. I would like to reach out to those who are not Christians. I want to do this through sharing the truth through evangelistic videos and by encouraging Christians to invite others to the site where they will see these.
          I don't know if that is clear focused or not but if not please help me to narrow it down. What I believe right now is that I need to focus on the first step and then learn how to transition to incorporate the second later.

          So if anyone has suggestions on how to do this now that (I believe) I have narrowed the focus please help. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author anismizi
    After reading your situation, I will suggest you to perform some SEO techniques for your site. At this stage you have to do it yourself as you don't have budget. You can google to know more about SEO
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  • Profile picture of the author AlyseS
    I've looked at your site a bit and like someone else said, I think you need to really drill down what your purpose is and who your audience is.

    Before you start doing SEO:
    You need to have one main purpose and one main audience who will be receptive to that purpose (at least initially). If your purpose is to help people who already Christian to be better models of Christ, so they can then recruit more Christians, then that needs to be extremely clear on the homepage.

    I think you're falling into the trap of trying to do a little bit of everything or too many things at once instead of focusing on existing Christians and helping them to be better role models and leaders.

    For example, this is the first line of text from your homepage:

    "If you want to get closer to God or just find out about Him altogether this is where you can find help."

    This is reaching out to any and everyone including people who aren't Christians already, and it doesn't clearly express that this site is about creating better Christians. It seems like the site is about recruiting new people to the faith.

    The problem is you're trying recruit new Christians AND turn the newbies into Christian leaders AND attract existing Christians AND turn them in Christian leaders, you should pick one group to target to start with.

    Is your main focus to recruit new Christians and building your own following?
    OR
    Is your main focus to help/teach existing Christians to build their own followings and create their own communities (and in turn build your own following of Christian leaders)?

    There's a huge difference in how you would approach those 2 things, so you need to decide, and if it's both then you need to clearly separate those 2 objectives on your website. You can't talk to these 2 different groups at once or you'll lose them all.

    Focusing on creating better Christians/Christian leaders: Everything would be about helping, training and teaching people who are already Christians to be better examples in their day-to-day lives and then teaching them to become leaders of their own Christian communities, brands etc with an emphasis on small Bible studies like you said.

    You'd be doing leadership workshops, showing them how to create and run their own Bible studies etc

    Once you've gotten clear about who you're talking to/targeting and why, then look up the 2014 SEO and start implementing some of the long term SEO strategies.

    Videos and social media would help you a lot with your reach. Why is your youtube video not listed? I went to Online Church Services - Worship Through Song And Preaching and then viewed that video on youtube and it's not listed, so only people that find it on your site will ever see it.

    Make your videos public, so you can attract people to your message.

    I hope that gives you something to think about and helps you figure out what to do next....
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  • Profile picture of the author ConsultJoseph
    Alyses and sonjay are both correct. Find the a SPECIFIC purpose for the site and eventually build on that. When the traffic/membership increase, serve the next step.

    If you're looking for traffic from Christians, I believe they hang out here:

    1. Forums
    2. Social Media (pretty active)
    3. Social Media groups

    Find the forums where the most number of Christians hang out. Get yourself involved in Christian group conversations and so forth. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself where you would usually hang out online.

    Obviously, there are already lots and lots of information already available for Christian online. There are whole ministries dedicated for that. What allows you to be different from others? The answer usually is to offer what they others don't have. Thus, I believe in order for this ministry to succeed, you have to nail down the goal of the sites as well as the audience research.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbearnolimits
    I just wanted to let you guys know that I changed the home page a little bit. Does this seem more focused?
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    Social Media sites are the best ways to boost your traffic as you don't SPAM. Make a good-looking page to attract more people!
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  • Profile picture of the author carcin0genic
    Youtube... for ranking purposes there's nothing faster, cheaper, or easier not to mention they rank in Google as well since they own Youtube.

    Thousands of spammy backlinks from fiverr won't hurt your video and you don't need views or a strong channel either.

    Proper on-site SEO of the video itself and either bookmarking on something like SocialAdr or backlink campaigns from fiverr can have you atop most keywords.

    I have a video I haven't touched in 5 months at the top of my keyword doing what I mentioned above.

    -Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author jbearnolimits
      Originally Posted by carcin0genic View Post

      Youtube... for ranking purposes there's nothing faster, cheaper, or easier not to mention they rank in Google as well since they own Youtube.

      Thousands of spammy backlinks from fiverr won't hurt your video and you don't need views or a strong channel either.

      Proper on-site SEO of the video itself and either bookmarking on something like SocialAdr or backlink campaigns from fiverr can have you atop most keywords.

      I have a video I haven't touched in 5 months at the top of my keyword doing what I mentioned above.

      -Mike
      I sent you a PM. I was wondering how you go about on-site SEO of the video itself? I do like this idea and just want to know a little more about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    I know what went wrong with your initial outreach. You were marketing to people who weren't interested and on a site that's not good for selling anything. I'm assuming they're from US so it's very likely that they've already bought into a similar service. Replacing their current one is a hassle, and will take months if not years. Many are reasonably happy with their current one, and their current group will apply peer pressure to those who want to switch or even wander too far from the flock.

    You're also selling sort of an 3rd party upgrade to their current subscription. That sounds like a good idea to me. If you can find the right crowd the leadership angle could sell very well.

    When it comes to SEO I think this is going to be quite hard. Internet is saturated with articles from this genre. "Christian leadership" feels like a recurring topic, with authoritative sites talking about the same thing. I'd try to find a personal voice and get fans (regular visitors / subscribers) from social media. If you can create good YouTube content that could be a good channel for you.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author promo87
    Banned
    Originally Posted by jbearnolimits View Post

    I just launched an online ministry and I thought sharing it with 100 friends on facebook would be enough to get it going. Boy was I wrong! I had 12 people view it that one day and none since (only been a few days).

    So I am looking for a way to get traffic to it and quickly. I used to do SEO with other sites in the past through methods that were shot down by Google with the updates the last couple of years now. So I find myself not knowing what to do.

    I have a $0 budget except to keep the host current. So I am turning here for help in getting traffic to it. I have time...but no money. Can anyone give me steps to take in order to make this work?

    Here is the site by the way: An Online Church Ministry - Growing Christians - Reaching The Lost
    Well, so you have zero budget means now you need to totally rely on the organic traffic. what you need to do is you need to try and rank your site over the search engines. It can be done by gaining backlinks by participating over the forum. You can also participate over the yahoo Q/A's based over your niche .... try promoting yourself over the social media like you are doing previously.
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