Ive Hit the Wall

Without seeing your website, I would hazard a guess that your main problem is the focus of your first paragraph.

You learned how to research keywords, do on-site seo, and build your website in order to make Search Engines happy. Yet, you still can't seem to get to the next step...

The reason is that your website has been set up to make Software happy. Think about that one for a moment... You researched Keywords, did On-Site "Search Engine Optimization", and still you can't push to the next point.

Instead of focusing your attention on what the Search Engines want (Search Engines are Software, programs designed for a specific purpose, which is NOT purchasing your products), you should be focusing your attentions on what your target audience wants. What are their problems? How can you help them solve those problems? Where do those people go to ask questions about their problems, so you can go there and put your business directly in front of... Actual People!

Why not just go down to the local casino and throw your money down on the Keno table?

I know, let's put the fate of our businesses in the very fickle hands of a giant corporation that doesn't care if we live or die. Yea, yea, that's the ticket!

Here's a suggestion: Take control of your business and the traffic that visits your site...AKA - advertising.

I used to do the same thing as you. I had dozens (many dozen) websites that I threw in the water, kind of like a "net" and I was the "fishermen".

It worked well sometimes, I had a good mix of websites. Amazon sites, review sites, adsense sites, etc.

At the end of the day, this is very hard to scale up. To scale up, you need to buy traffic. The only question is, will buying traffic be profitable if you promote your site?

Maybe, maybe not.

In my opinion? You'd be much better off promoting your list first, and your website second.

That's now my primary focus, and enables me to centralize my work.

I think creating websites is still fun, but I think putting "people first" will be to your great benefit.

Hope this helps.

Alan,

So you've hit a wall after a few weeks of learning Internet marketing. I hate to break the news to you . . . but success rarely comes in a few short weeks. In this business, it takes most people some time (as in months) to get some traction, to get the ball rolling, and to begin to see some small successes.

Right now is a critical time. Are you going to get discouraged and give up, or just move to another niche or product and begin all over again? If you do, you will be headed down the same path as all the other failing marketers.

If you did your niche research well, you should already be dealing with a crowd of hungry people that want what you offer. If you have a high quality product (or you are an affiliate for one), you should be confident that you have something that will sell.

You say you know what your keywords are and that you have an above average web site. If so, you are well on your way to making money.

If your funnel and prospect email capture systems are set up well, you should be ready for the next step - driving traffic to your site. Don't be too concerned about where your site ranks in Google. That problem will heal itself over time (if you fill your site with original relevant content.)

If I were you, I would now focus on these things:
1) paid ads (could be solos to newsletters, Adsense, JV deals, or whatever works best in your niche). Watch how the top competitors in your niche are promoting their businesses - yes, spy on them!

2) write at least one 500-800 word relevant, original article that is loaded with value for your prospects and post it on your web site every day.

3) go where your prospects hangout (FB, Yahoo Groups, niche forums, etc, etc, etc) and become active in their conversations. Begin developing your brand and persona of authority in the niche. Try to get links to your email capture page in your sig file if allowed.

4) visit the top sites in your niche and offer to provide valuable content for free in the way of articles, guest blog posts, free reports they can send to their subscribers, etc, in return for a link back in your sig file. Direct competitors may not oblige, but there are sites in your niche that you don't compete with directly - and there are lots of them.

5) as your list grows, email them twice a week with outstanding content in the niche. For now, focus on the customer. Ask them what are their challenges, problems, desires that you might be able to help them overcome their obstacles.

6) create a white paper for beginners in the niche. I've done this with great success. (There are web sites dedicated to showing you how to do this) Over to give the white paper to site owners in the niche that you don't directly compete against (in what you offer). Make this a very high quality paper (like a generic introduction to the niche, or a niche basic guide - something that doesn't sell anything - you just want to instruct and offer grass roots authoritative information). Put your web site link at the end of the paper for those wanting more details and a free niche gift.

Alan, now is the time you must get creative, be patient, and get into the routine of daily Internet business execution. You will gain some needed traction if you focus on just doing these simple things every day.

The best to you,

Steve

It sounds to me like you are on the right track, and for that I applaud you! Most people don't even make it this far.

I encourage you not to be lazy. You know you need to SEO your website. This is the hard part. This is the part that separates the winners from the quitters. Put in the work. YouTube and the Warrior Forum have a wealth of resources on the topic. Be sure to take notes. Once you get ranked on page 1 of Google, you will know the steps you need to take for the next website. And once you start making money, you can outsource the work and have someone else do your SEO steps for you. Best of luck to you!

One thing I want to make clear, and that is please don't rely on Google for your success. If you get traffic from Google, that's great. But don't rely on it.

You should be the only one who determines how successful you will be. So instead of expending effort in off-page SEO like you mentioned, how about work on building a list? (You'll take care of traffic and backlinks at the same time.)

I didn't hear you mention anything about a list in your post.

I'll say it again because it's that important - you MUST have your own list if you want to take charge of your own success.

It took me 10 months of wrong turns before I made my first buck. I know the feeling but you should accept early on that thos isn't easy money.

In 2 months you want to give up?
Grab a course from one of the good IMers over here.
And get going.
All the best. Regards.

Just so you know, my blog is 2-3 months old, and I rank first page for a few long-tail keywords. I've done nothing to build backlinks (a few guest posts aside).

It's all in the KW research

Good luck!

2 weeks is a blink of an eye for SEO. Just put your head down, keep working and keep churning out sites, or adding onto those that you already have. Although no one would argue that SEO is easy, the one consistent trait for success that I have seen in this industry is being hardworking. If you work your ass off for 6 months to a year building quality websites, you WILL have some successes.

Here, let me help you guys: backlinks. All of this other crap means nothing.