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Doing OK - but doing nothing! Advice for a noob?

by jigsawtrading
12 replies
Hi All

I came across this forum pretty much by accident.

I have an internet based business already and it's doing fairly well. We sell software from our site but it's also considered a bit of an 'authority site' in our field. Mostly because We have free educational resources on there.

Most of the traffic has been built the hard way - more like a traditional bricks & mortars business would -partnering with people in the same industry, doing webinars and slogging it out.

What we don't do is any SEO, backlinks, list building, adwords - nothing basically. I have a friend in the SEO business but they seem to be very much focused on the site itself, the blog and the YouTube channel.

This site has opened my eyes a but to a whole host of other things that can be done to drive traffic to the site. I guess the challenge for me as a new visitor is to figure out which will have the highest impact and focus on those things first. The other challenge is to separate things that are for people who want to make a revenue from pure internet marketing as opposed to me who wants to use it just to drive traffic to my site.

Anyway - I apologize in advance for all the dumb questions I am about to post to this site. Any advice people have would be most welcome.

Cheers

Pete
#advice #noob
  • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
    Do you do any advertising or article syndication? If not those are possible avenues.

    Search your niche plus "advertise here." and you might find some good ad spots available. You can also check out sites like buysellads.com for possible placements.

    I would suggest staying away from Adwords unless you or your staff can take the time to study it in depth, or hire a reputable management company.

    Adwords is like playing 3-D chess against 100 oponents at the same time and they are constantly changing the rules three days before they let anyone know ~ Perry Marshall
    l
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    • Profile picture of the author jigsawtrading
      Originally Posted by RogueOne View Post

      Do you do any advertising or article syndication? If not those are possible avenues.

      Search your niche plus "advertise here." and you might find some good ad spots available. You can also check out sites like buysellads.com for possible placements.

      I would suggest staying away from Adwords unless you or your staff can take the time to study it in depth, or hire a reputable management company.

      l
      Thanks for taking time to post RogueOne.

      We are starting a banner ad campaign on Jan 1st in a fairly high profile industry specific forum. Other than that, no advertising at all.

      We have done articles but until now I wasn't aware of article syndication - so that's another thing for us to look at. We were looking at putting some articles in trade magazines and we can create good enough content for that.

      I guess one of the things I am wondering about is the generic/specific aspect of internet marketing. At a specific level, focused articles on an industry site make the most sense potentially in terms of getting quality clicks back. On the other hand an article on a high ranking generic site with a back-links will help from an SEO perspective, so that also seems a good idea.

      The mystery is what is best - stay industry specific or focus on getting high ranking backlinks from all encompassing/generic article sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author whysoserious
    Now a days, Guest blogging is a great way to get lots of traffic to your website. One of the best thing about guest blogging is 'Exposure'. Try to find websites in your niche that allows guest post. Use google "Your keyword + guest post". Use twitter, facebook fan pages, google+, pinterest, youtube videos...All of these free traffic sources can drive loads of traffic to your website.

    Targeted traffic = Sales = money

    Never dive into PPC or paid traffic world unless you know how things works there. Best of luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author jigsawtrading
      Originally Posted by whysoserious View Post

      Now a days, Guest blogging is a great way to get lots of traffic to your website. One of the best thing about guest blogging is 'Exposure'. Try to find websites in your niche that allows guest post. Use google "Your keyword + guest post". Use twitter, facebook fan pages, google+, pinterest, youtube videos...All of these free traffic sources can drive loads of traffic to your website.

      Targeted traffic = Sales = money

      Never dive into PPC or paid traffic world unless you know how things works there. Best of luck!
      Thanks for the reply.

      I do blog but again, never really thought about blogging on a partner site. It sounds so obvious now I feel somewhat dumb for not thinking about it myself.

      Obviously, I can reciprocate on my own blog too. That would have the added benefit of people not getting bored of reading my stuff only!
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    • Profile picture of the author markaumen
      I'll be searching my niche for guest post opportunities today. Thanks for this tip from another newbie....
      Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    Welcome to the forum :-)

    Content is always going to be the way forward and also Youtube is something that should not be ignired...

    People have suggested guest blog posting but to be honest I am holding back on that at the moment as I think google's next update is going to stamp all over that...

    PPC is a quick easy and providing you test can be very very powerful :-)

    Good luck and dont worry about dumb questions

    Danny

    PS dont trust everything you read on here a lot of it is chinese whispers and a lot posters are full of BS
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    • Profile picture of the author jigsawtrading
      Originally Posted by Danny Cutts View Post

      Welcome to the forum :-)

      Content is always going to be the way forward and also Youtube is something that should not be ignired...

      People have suggested guest blog posting but to be honest I am holding back on that at the moment as I think google's next update is going to stamp all over that...

      PPC is a quick easy and providing you test can be very very powerful :-)

      Good luck and dont worry about dumb questions

      Danny

      PS dont trust everything you read on here a lot of it is chinese whispers and a lot posters are full of BS
      Thanks Danny!

      I hear what you say about the Chinese whispers - goes for any internet forum - especially in the day trading industry!
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        OK you sell software. What is the first thing people want to know, once they buy software? How to use it! How to, and youtube, go hand in hand. It becomes an instant benefit to your exiting customers. It becomes a benefit for your potential customers. It extends your "Authority" in the industry. To me, it is a no brainer.

        Ok you don't SEO. First learn the wonders of youtube SEO, its not that hard to do. Second, Find a mid to long tail keyword phrase you want to target. (Short tail keyword example "Widget" Mid tail: "Oak wood widget" Long tail: "Oak wood widget with red spots" Build a page JUST FOR THAT. create 2 inbound links ( links from other pages on YOUR site ) to that page. Ensure the link ALT tag's of those 2 links is your selected keyword term. Wait 2 to 3 weeks check google ranking. Wash, rinse, repeat.

        I think most people get so caught up in SEO'ing their entire site, that they may damage what they already have. Just start with ONE page and go from there. No the payoff is not quick, but the end results are worth the wait.

        Another way to look at this; you SEO your whole site and it messes up your page ranking then what? you SEO a single page, and you don't get it quite right, well you tried... make adjustments, wait and see if you get better results. Nothing is lost, and through a trial and error type education, long term results will be better.

        Once you are confident you know what you are doing, you can then go into your existing pages, use Google Analytics, see where advances can be made, and make the changes.

        ( Putting my self in front of the firing squad ) Doing existing site SEO any other way, is plain out right stupid! Especially, if it something you have never done before. Long and steady wins the race every time.

        Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author markaumen
    Hey Jigsawtrading,
    Great post. Your questions are helping me too. I just learned something new about guest posts which I will implement on two sites I am working on. Thanks. I'm looking forward to being more active here on this site.
    Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author Mack
    Have you considered creating an affiliate program for your software? This way you have other people working on bringing you traffic, and you don't pay for said traffic until you make a sale. You can check out JVZoo
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  • Profile picture of the author doubledailyincome
    i would have to agree with AffMack, i would look into starting an affiliate program to have them drive traffic to the site. i would also learn everything you can about SEO and driving traffic through back links and PBN's to your site, free traffic is my favorite price.
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    • Profile picture of the author jigsawtrading
      Originally Posted by doubledailyincome View Post

      i would have to agree with AffMack, i would look into starting an affiliate program to have them drive traffic to the site. i would also learn everything you can about SEO and driving traffic through back links and PBN's to your site, free traffic is my favorite price.
      One of the concerns with this is reputation management.

      Our industry is full of people selling "get rich quick" dreams and my concern is that the affiliates would miss-sell the product.

      It's not a bad plan but I fear losing control of how it is sold could kill our solid rep.
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