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Starting IM From Nothing

by savidge4
64 replies
I look over this forum and respond in almost all of the sub-forums that I can place a piece of my experience into. More often than not It's just reading about struggle - played out over and over and over. Look at this very sub Forum... A place when It first started I had hoped it would be a place of accountability and "Success" would over run "Failure". That simply is not the case. out of 54 Threads... 4 successes? ( am I missing some? )
  1. Michael Meaney YouTube Subscribers
  2. SuitUp with 300 days of Blogging
  3. HarrieB $1000 per month selling apps
  4. and Myself with the eBay Thread

The eBay thread ( https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...days-ebay.html ) I started, I wanted to demonstrate a method that could be used to start generating income fairly quickly. Pretty much suggesting anyone with $40 could turn that into a chunk of change - and that happened to be a 6 digit chunk of change in the end.

But I don't think that is what people in general want to do. Being stuck in a single location selling on eBay is indeed a great side hussle, but not a all glamorous. I think people are more interested in making money purely "ONLINE"

So I have thought about this - and honestly me starting just about anything in this realm is unfair. I have the knowledge and experience to build an affiliate site and have sales in a weeks time. I understand FOR ME - that is not difficult. But the reality is for MANY - something like that IS DIFFICULT.

I also understand that some of the greatest hurdles are picking a niche, understanding Brand, writing content, writing e-mail sales pitches etc etc etc.

So HOW can a guy like me with all this experience demonstrate a path that literally anyone should be able to follow? THIS is a question I have been asking myself - and others around me for over 6 months.

So here are my intentions. I am going to get a URL, Get Hosting, I am actually going to use a "Premium" wordpress theme ( and only because many do this - but I will share more on this at a later date ) and that will be about it. I am going to start with a budget of $200 USD that has to last the entire year.

My upfront costs I believe will be $121 to run this site for 1 years time. The GOAL will be to recoup the Total amount spent ( not to exceed $200 ) plus at a minimum double that number. and that will be the absolute minimum.

I am going to throw this out there that my brain is saying shoot for $10,000 in a years time. The issue with this is, I don't do things for money... Money is a by-product. I do what I enjoy doing - every day is a good day - and it sounds cliché and all but it is honestly the truth.

So how is this going to be different? I am going to do this by breaking every rule most here think is required to be successful. I basically want to create "Success" with both hands tied behind my back. There will be no Mailing list. I will NOT be niching down to a single topic. I will not spend a single dime on advertising. I will not spend a single dime on content creation - or anything associated to content. I will not plagiarize anything to include images etc. Everything will be CREATED, with the minimum of tools.

All of this will be done in an allotted 2 hours a day. And this is to REALLY drive home a point. you DO NOT have to focus any and all of your time into any one effort. I personally find greater amounts of production from doing 2 or 4 things in a day to change things up.

One of the topics that will be shared will be "Starting with eBay" - I am going to continue with my eBay journey ( here - well on its thread ) at the same time I will be doing this. The plan upfront is to rewrite much of the content from my eBay thread and liven it up with full images and greater detail.

Another topic will be Wordress and some coding tips and tricks and some other Wordpress oriented content.

I want to get into Education as a topic at some point. Might stretch into SEO and overall traffic generation. Will more than likely share some methods I use to onboard and close Offline clients. Just a host of topics - might even finally get a product or 2 out of me.. we will see. This entire site will be focused on the niche of ME ( this post was actually the catalyst for this - https://www.warriorforum.com/beginne...l#post11577367 )

So this is ME standing up to those words and I am going to demonstrate a whole lot of what you the reader read me preaching about.

Should be F U N!
#brand building #ebay #niche #starting #wordpress
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    this is hind-sight 20-20 in action. I am holding this post to later create like a table of contents to manage the information on this thread. ( wish I had thought of this on my eBay thread )

    BRAND https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...l#post11577662
    NICHE https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...l#post11578731
    HOW https://www.warriorforum.com/warrior...l#post11579882
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I basically want to create "Success" with both hands tied behind my back.

    That is brilliant! Seems every time I read about someone very successful online or as a product creator, etc....somewhere in the story it says 'unlike other marketers at the time' or 'ignoring the accepted practices others advocated'. If success online were as easy as following steps of other marketers - everyone would have money.



    THIS will be a thread worth watching. Bring it on!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    OMG! I have been hoping that you would do this. Mean that in a good way.
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  • Profile picture of the author cheese1688
    I am going to follow this thread for some inspiration! 2020 is yours!
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  • Profile picture of the author umc
    There are a couple people here that I've wanted to see start threads in here so badly. You did the one on eBay and I didn't see that coming. Now this one, and I'm super excited to see what you do. I wish others that talk the talk would come in and walk the walk a bit. You already help people by responding to posts. This is next level and so cool of you to do.
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    • Profile picture of the author cheese1688
      Originally Posted by umc View Post

      There are a couple people here that I've wanted to see start threads in here so badly. You did the one on eBay and I didn't see that coming. Now this one, and I'm super excited to see what you do. I wish others that talk the talk would come in and walk the walk a bit. You already help people by responding to posts. This is next level and so cool of you to do.
      This is why I appreciate this forum. No one is too big or too small for anyone else. Amazing vibe around here.
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  • Profile picture of the author makelucky1
    Follow this too...Hope your success
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Kinda wrestling with the chicken or the egg in terms of the first topic to cover here... Branding Or Niche. In the long run I place far more value on Brand - So I guess we start there.

    BRAND


    So what is Brand? its basically a name, design, symbol, or term that identifies ones self or business or products as different than those of others. "Coke" is a brand. "Pepsi" is a brand. You can easily identify one from the other from the logo, or the color of the packaging. Super easy concept - that can get complicated real fast.

    A good educational read on the topic is here: What Is A Brand? Brian ( the author ) is someone I read often.

    This discussion could go a whole lot of directions, but I am going to do my best in referencing the choice of "Brand" specifically as it pertains to an online presence in this post. Keep in mind at a future date - on this thread the discussion of brand will widen as we explore other aspects of brand.

    So there are kinda 3 lines of thought when naming a website. Your Name, Your Company Name, or a term that includes the Niche ( hence the chicken or the egg ) There are more than a few variables in determining what to use - the last option would literally be the last option as far as I am concerned

    Your Name: Not a big fan of using your name, and probably not for the reasons you might think. For me, names are not unique enough. There are more than a few "Savidge's" in the world and hitting Google up real quick there are just short of 1,000,000 competing pages.

    I am pretty sure there are not to many of those pages with any amount authority behind them and ranking well would be easy. However - starting out, there is really no need to even consider putting yourself behind an 8 ball. The Caveat for this is that there are times using your name for Brand just makes sense, just not seeing this project being one of those.

    Company Name: This is going to be close to what I will be using... I just not so randomly picked a term that is cool sounding - will resonate well - and should be easy to remember. Doing a quick search on Google there is a whole whopping ONE result - yes as in there is only 1 page that this terms is used.

    Niche Based: I would consider this NOT being an option. This creates no room for wiggle... or growth... or try, try again until you get it right.. Just an al around bad choice - and then add in the built in competition for ranking your site name alone - forget the content - just typing yousitename to see if it is indexed yet.

    I understand WHY most people do this. They think they are going to get an amount of SEO advantage by having the niche term in the URL. what they do not understand is that wordplusniche.com is no different than brand.com/niche. If anything the second choice is a "safer" bet because you are not going to be stacking the "Niche" term in the URL 2 and 3 and 4 times.

    And what happens when you A) Get bored of the idea. B) Cant think of any content to create. C) Aren't getting any traffic or sales and think it best to move on... You cant just change up what you are doing and move forward... you have to admit failure - get reminded of it when the Domain is up for renewal, and start the process all over again.

    So I suggest the 2nd option overall - A Company Name - or at the least just a term that does not have to relate to anything you are doing actually. You'll see in a week or so when I pull the veil.

    So once you have an idea of where you want to go with this its time to do some research. Is the URL available? Google the name you have in mind.. how many pages will you be competing with? and then there is looking at all of the social accounts to see what's available. Fortunately there is actually a tool for this: https://www.namecheck.com

    My choice actually has a few of the social media options taken, but none of the ones that I am interested in. Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, FaceBook, and LinkedIn are available. Both app store options are also available

    So the next part to "Brand' is the logo. I am VERY big on clean and simple. I prefer single color, and the color is usually black or white. Ideally I want it ( the logo ) to look good as a decal / sticker on a vehicle window - this is really my measure of a good logo or not. Would I be able to read and identify that logo at 70mph passing it on the freeway? Sounds a bit goofy, but it is a tall order to fill. Again in a week or so, you will see this.

    To reinforce a bit of this, the article I linked from Brian at Ignyte above... Do a Google search for "Ignyte" and then look at images - Yes there are other business' with the same name but his logo is super easy to spot vs the others ( his is the only single color logo found there ) - I don't make the rules, I am just good at following them.

    So I think that covers it. I am going to let this settle for a day or 2, to answer questions etc. and It will give me time to work on the site.

    Thanks for Reading!
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  • Profile picture of the author Reddevil007
    Following this thread closely as it's from one of my favourite forum members
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  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

    might even finally get a product or 2 out of me.. we will see. This entire site will be focused on the niche of ME ( this post was actually the catalyst for this - https://www.warriorforum.com/beginne...l#post11577367 )

    So this is ME standing up to those words and I am going to demonstrate a whole lot of what you the reader read me preaching about.

    Should be F U N!
    This part reminds me of what Gary Vee was posting on youtube this week. Telling people to focus on there personal journey and be in it for the long haul more than the $'s. Subscribed and upvoted this thread last night. Hope you have great luck with this path!
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by DWolfe View Post

      This part reminds me of what Gary Vee was posting on youtube this week. Telling people to focus on there personal journey and be in it for the long haul more than the $'s. Subscribed and upvoted this thread last night. Hope you have great luck with this path!
      I am a follower of Gary Vee, something I think is obvious when you read my last 2 years worth of work on this forum. One could argue the eBay thread was a result of Gary Vee, and in a way I would assume that it was. Gary Vee has become this point of validation for me... Kinda like hearing from someone else allows my little brain to say "See, you were doing it right" in a lot of ways.

      The "EASY ROAD" to content creation is a documenting style. If you look at threads like Michael Meaney's 10,000 Youtube subscribers thread or even my 30 days + eBay thread - We are documenting a process. You don't have to think about what to write next.. you simply share what has happened.

      Lets look at real life and how that can play out... right here on the Warrior Forum there is some guy ( Justin012 ) that has a thread in the Affiliate Database section. A simple 1 month Vegan challenge. Someone with an interest in this kind of thing could very easily buy that product.. create a blog and document the 30 days.

      Add in an Instagram account with images of the meals you eat for the 30 days and maybe sprinkle in some inspirational quotes here and there and follow Gary Vees $1.80 Instagram Strategy.

      Create a facebook page - depending on the person might even go so far as to do this on their personal account and share the journey and links to your website

      Throw In a Pinterest account to boot

      And all of this requires little to no thought about what content to create... and it puts you into the order of creating 10 to 15 pieces of content a day - which for more than most is mind blowing
      • A daily post on your website ( 1 piece )
      • 3 meals a day and a quote on Insta ( 4 pieces )
      • Facebook a Collage of your daily meals a post of how you are feeling, a link to your newest daily content, a post to the product page ( 3 or 4 pieces )
      • sharing some of the same images on Pinterest ( 4 to 6 pieces )

      Daily over 30 days - that's a ton of possible points of entry for someone to find, and read your content - and possibly create a conversion.

      Start getting motivated and pumped and create a Youtube video and some TikTok content and things just get sillier... and I FIRMLY believe this could be done in less than 2 hours a day.

      The issue is all of this sounds like to much work. BUT it is far less than people think. We are talking about creating a single post a day with 3 snap shots of food on a plate and a quick couple of creatives ( quotes on a colored background ) and then posting this stuff on the assorted platforms.

      Share YOU, its really that simple. No expectations needed - but have a method in place to "earn" and it will... come.

      So here is some real deal talk. If all I need is cash in my pocket... I cant say this loud enough - Go read my eBay thread - Follow that route. And I say this for one reason and one reason only - THE TRAFFIC IS ALREADY BUILT IN. You can go around the web and hear people complain about the fees and this and that... but honestly The fees are peanuts... its worth every penny knowing you can list stuff to sell and with no effort on your part BUYERS are going to look at your product.

      Shopify stores and blogs and squeeze pages and all this other stuff requires the work of Traffic. I just laid out above ( Vegan Challenge ) a valid template to getting that traffic... and I am even suggesting 2 hours a day should be all it takes.. but even 4 hours whatever it will get you income... but no where near the eBay route.

      @DWolfe Thanks for the comment and the upvote and support - your awesome!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
    Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


    So here are my intentions. I am going to get a URL, Get Hosting, I am actually going to use a "Premium" wordpress theme ( and only because many do this - but I will share more on this at a later date ) and that will be about it. I am going to start with a budget of $200 USD that has to last the entire year.

    My upfront costs I believe will be $121 to run this site for 1 years time. The GOAL will be to recoup the Total amount spent ( not to exceed $200 ) plus at a minimum double that number. and that will be the absolute minimum.

    I am going to throw this out there that my brain is saying shoot for $10,000 in a years time. The issue with this is, I don't do things for money... Money is a by-product. I do what I enjoy doing - every day is a good day - and it sounds cliché and all but it is honestly the truth.

    So how is this going to be different? I am going to do this by breaking every rule most here think is required to be successful. I basically want to create "Success" with both hands tied behind my back. There will be no Mailing list. I will NOT be niching down to a single topic. I will not spend a single dime on advertising. I will not spend a single dime on content creation - or anything associated to content. I will not plagiarize anything to include images etc. Everything will be CREATED, with the minimum of tools.

    This sounds like a great idea. Mostly because I nearly did the same thing last year - started a Wordpress blog and wrote 100 articles about something I really enjoy (with my own personal photos) without worrying about too many other things. I chose Wordpress because I had experience with it about 10 years ago, I enjoyed it and found it fairly easy to manage. However, I did not opt for a premium theme. I simply committed to three years of hosting, and that's it. Changing colors or certain things can be tricky and require coding, but everything else is fairly simple.

    I have a question about your strategy though: You hinted at shooting for $10,000 in a year, do you have a monetization strategy in place you have not mentioned, or is it up in the air?

    Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

    All of this will be done in an allotted 2 hours a day. And this is to REALLY drive home a point. you DO NOT have to focus any and all of your time into any one effort. I personally find greater amounts of production from doing 2 or 4 things in a day to change things up.
    This is where I get lost. I enjoy writing, but my brain (detail oriented) needs time to process what is coming out. I typically write over 1,000 words in an article and it probably takes two hours or more. Not to mention the photos I upload from my phone and add to the website, any research, social media sharing, link sharing, interacting on social media, proofreading, etc. Sometimes the better part of a day is spent this way.

    Doing all of this in two hours would be an extreme stretch for me, or would result in content that isn't that great. So I'm anxious to see how YOU accomplish that!
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      [quote=Dave Earley;11578452] I have a question about your strategy though: You hinted at shooting for $10,000 in a year, do you have a monetization strategy in place you have not mentioned, or is it up in the air?

      As of right now it is a bit in the air.. I do have 2 topics at present I am going to go for.. Both of which I have more than enough experience with and both that have a pretty sizable gap in terms of written / searchable content that provide answers. The monetizing is "there" kinda... maybe more than I think, but not so sure.. Ive got a year to work that out.

      On something like this I am literally going to worry less about the money and focus more on the content. For me.. this phase of the project is creating Wikipedia not for profit type content - In the long run it will be the content that brings the traffic and from there then I might think about monetizing.

      In this case in particular there are 2 pretty clear avenues of monetizing that will be present at "Launch" tho.

      Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

      Doing all of this in two hours would be an extreme stretch for me, or would result in content that isn't that great. So I'm anxious to see how YOU accomplish that!
      2 hours is going to be tight for sure. One topic not so blindly but the second I blindly I think walked into a gaping hole for sure - I think focusing on the blog content will drive a lot of traffic with topic #2.

      Have to keep in mind here THIS is exactly what I do for a living... so my efficiency is probably a bit heightened. I will try to share some of my workflow in this process to give you the reader some prospective on that. This response is what 250 words and its 5 minutes in LOL

      Thanks for the comments and questions!

      *** A question: Can I use your specific example ( your blog ) as an example of how to write content that would help with gaining readers? ***
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        Have to keep in mind here THIS is exactly what I do for a living... so my efficiency is probably a bit heightened. I will try to share some of my workflow in this process to give you the reader some prospective on that. This response is what 250 words and its 5 minutes in LOL
        That's good to know for two reasons - I had no idea what you do for a living, and I could use some coaching.

        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


        *** A question: Can I use your specific example ( your blog ) as an example of how to write content that would help with gaining readers? ***
        I'm confused. Is this directed at me, or everyone reading this thread as something to think about?
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

          I'm confused. Is this directed at me, or everyone reading this thread as something to think about?
          Directed at you LOL sorry, could have made that more clear.
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          • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
            Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

            Directed at you LOL sorry, could have made that more clear.
            Absolutely! I've been wanting feedback outside of the family for months. I should have just came here and asked for some a long time ago (not sure if there's a thread for that).

            So, I moved to San Antonio three years ago. Found out there are a ton of great things to do here which are also dog friendly. It's not quite as dog friendly as some of our neighbors YET, but there are options.

            We adopted a young pup named, Abbey, and quickly bonded on the hiking trails. I noticed we do not have much "good" information about hiking and dog friendly things in this area, especially considering it's right next to Texas Hill Country (which is amazing). I decided to create a website which provides as many details about these places as possible. Most of the places are parks, a few of the places are restaurants, and other articles are about things like equipment, exercise, questions and facts.

            I chose the name Places for Pups and the domain https://placesforpups.com

            I personally visit all of the places I write about and take photos. I try to provide as many details as possible because online reviews are typically generic and contradictory. Recently I've been trying my hand at short videos to see if those are more favorable to the articles. For now, I have included most of those on the home pages.

            I could continue, but I'll stop there unless you ask for more info.

            P.S. the most recent article is the "warning" article I mentioned writing on another thread after you provided some much needed advice. It's the only one not dealing with dog friendly things. Was planning on creating a landing page for my personal training service, as well as a FAQ and testimonial page...
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            • Profile picture of the author savidge4
              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              Absolutely! I've been wanting feedback outside of the family for months. I should have just came here and asked for some a long time ago (not sure if there's a thread for that).
              I would suggest your traffic issues are not Content issues, they are what is called in SEO, Structure Issues, Depth Issues, and Intent Issues.

              Right now your home page is structured more like a "Video" page than a gateway to a site full of awesome content.

              I would take a look at your Adventure page, and think about breaking that down into Category pages, then removing the "Adventure" page and replacing it with "Video" and "San Antonio Parks" and "Austin Parks" and "Restaurants" etc etc OR maybe better "San Antonio" and "Austin"and then breaking down from there "Parks" "Dog Parks" "Restaurants" etc etc

              A silly stat.. you have 7 seconds from the time a reader lands on a page for them to figure out if your page is worth the time to go further. Right now its not screaming "Live In San Antonio or Austin Texas and have a dog and want to know where to go and what to do?" - followed by "Hi, My name is X and my Dog Y and my wife live in X" Dogs, Parks, Restaurants, and Relatable.

              Each of your location based content pages... Location is 90% of your ideal readers INTENT. "Where can I walk my dog" ( in San Antonio Texas ) You are not flat out laying down the most basic... LOCATION - an easy fix:

              So a page like Lady Bird Lake, wouldn't it make sense to include a map of the location?

              Search "Lady Bird Lake"
              Click the map on the right side of the page
              Click the 3 line menu in the upper left
              Click "Share or Embed Map"

              I would suggest you are not ranking on certain pages because you just haven't filled in enough blanks for Google to really understand what it is your page is about - and LOCATION is probably your biggest hole, and then the overall UX experience could use some stream lining - you are kinda using a "site map" page as your primary means of navigation, and not your navigation if that makes sense.

              Doing this is sending non focused signals ( to Google ) as to the context and content on your site. Separating "San Antonio Tx" onto a page by itself compresses your contents CONTEXT, and matches to a users INTENT - overall better end user UX to top it off.
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              • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                I would suggest your traffic issues are not Content issues, they are what is called in SEO, Structure Issues, Depth Issues, and Intent Issues.

                Right now your home page is structured more like a "Video" page than a gateway to a site full of awesome content.

                I would take a look at your Adventure page, and think about breaking that down into Category pages, then removing the "Adventure" page and replacing it with "Video" and "San Antonio Parks" and "Austin Parks" and "Restaurants" etc etc OR maybe better "San Antonio" and "Austin"and then breaking down from there "Parks" "Dog Parks" "Restaurants" etc etc
                First of all, thank you very much. I expected to receive criticism from Reddit, but surprisingly only got a few praising comments. Yes, the home page is not structured. Originally it was the basic blog post page showing the last 10 posts. I dislike that. I also dislike the fact that Wordpress does not have a good way of forming an article directory (which is what the adventures page is).

                However, I don't send many people to the home page. Most people will arrive via a specific article. 75% of those will be using a mobile device, so the optimization (visually) is much less important in my opinion, in that regard. IF, you arrive to the homepage via mobile device, yes I can see that being slightly confusing. However, the menu is there. The videos I placed on the homepage as a test, and for the aesthetics. You have to admit it looks better than whatever the last 10 posts were. I'm aware there is room for improvement, thanks. I don't have specific plans for the homepage, but was considering the "service" page, as well as a FAQ page or article, and possibly a shop page with a couple of the items we frequently use on hikes.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                A silly stat.. you have 7 seconds from the time a reader lands on a page for them to figure out if your page is worth the time to go further.
                I've always felt like this was a misleading stat. Most people are not arriving on accident, waiting to decide whether or not to leave. They arrive via a link from the SE or social media, or somewhere because they wanted information( at least I do, and don't click on random links to see where they go). The only way I am leaving in less than 10 seconds is if there are too many ads, can't read the content because of background color, or noise is playing which I can't figure out how to turn off. Otherwise I stay and determine what the content is telling me.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                Right now its not screaming "Live In San Antonio or Austin Texas and have a dog and want to know where to go and what to do?" - followed by "Hi, My name is X and my Dog Y and my wife live in X" Dogs, Parks, Restaurants, and Relatable.
                Interesting. Making others want to move here was not what I was going for at all, but I like the way you think.

                Actually, I NEVER intended to limit the location. I WILL visit other locations and include those on the site. There are a few already from outside of Texas. I was also hoping others would share their "adventures" kind of like a social media site but not. I called it places for pups, not dog friendly places in San Antonio for a reason. This may be an SEO mistake, and if it is, I made it on purpose.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                Each of your location based content pages... Location is 90% of your ideal readers INTENT. "Where can I walk my dog" ( in San Antonio Texas ) You are not flat out laying down the most basic... LOCATION - an easy fix:

                So a page like Lady Bird Lake, wouldn't it make sense to include a map of the location?

                Search "Lady Bird Lake"
                Click the map on the right side of the page
                Click the 3 line menu in the upper left
                Click "Share or Embed Map"
                Are you saying a map is a limiting factor here? I assumed after reading people would type in the name of the place and follow the gps - this is why I don't list any addresses or map any locations. It seems easier to do under a google search. Plus I have a ton of photos to share and only so much space. A lot of the content is broken up with personal photos in most of the articles. Whether this is "good" or not, I don't know, but it was important to me. Also, most places I record the nearest intersection somewhere in the article, and how to arrive there.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                I would suggest you are not ranking on certain pages because you just haven't filled in enough blanks for Google to really understand what it is your page is about - and LOCATION is probably your biggest hole, and then the overall UX experience could use some stream lining - you are kinda using a "site map" page as your primary means of navigation, and not your navigation if that makes sense.

                Doing this is sending non focused signals ( to Google ) as to the context and content on your site. Separating "San Antonio Tx" onto a page by itself compresses your contents CONTEXT, and matches to a users INTENT - overall better end user UX to top it off.
                But...every article of a place contains that place within the title and key phrase. Google cannot figure that out? I assumed it was the title limiting me because I feel like I need to NAME the actual place within the title, whether or not it receives a fair amount of search traffic (don't want to be misleading, you know, or people will just click away if they feel it isn't relevant).

                A lot of the city parks just probably don't receive much search traffic, and of course, the city of San Antonio is at the top of the ranking for its parks whether they have detailed info on it or not. I also find TripAdvisor and BringFido to be competitive. They don't have as many details or photos, but they have the rankings.

                The article that SHOULD be ranking which is not is the ultimate guide to hiking in San Antonio. I spent a week on that big boy, not including all of the time my dog and I spent out hiking the parks. It contains about 4,500 words, and more details than all of the sites in the SE under the key phrase "hiking in San Antonio". However it does not rank. I completed it last summer. I also wrote another titled "best places to hike in San Antonio" and included 8 different situations several months later. That is currently at page 3 so far. BAFFLING!

                I'm assuming the ultimate guide was penalized for some reason? It has many internal links leading to other articles about parks listed in the guide, but so does wikipedia and some of those pages rank high. The plugin I'm using says the key phrase "hiking in San Antonio" was used 23 times, but it's not high in comparison to the word count. I have no idea what's causing the block.

                Anyway, thank you very much for taking the time to look at the site. I really do appreciate it. If you have 60 websites, then you are a great person from which to gain advice. I'm not sure where to go with the article directory. I knew it would eventually contain too many links and need to be broken up. Wordpress doesn't seem to have a good way to do that without placing a ton of categories under a drop down in the menu. I always have to formulate the article directory myself.

                May have to look at some of those other sites to see how they categorized (yelp, TripAdvisor...)? They seem to be nationwide, if not international. This is kind of what I was going for. EXCEPT, I don't have generic reviews like: John James Park has public restrooms - 5 stars! What!?
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                • Profile picture of the author savidge4
                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  Originally it was the basic blog post page showing the last 10 posts. I dislike that. I also dislike the fact that Wordpress does not have a good way of forming an article directory (which is what the adventures page is).
                  your right they don't... but in a way they do... its done more with navigation and the use of "Category Pages" - a decent example ( and these are hard to find btw ) is: https://austinot.com/

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  However, I don't send many people to the home page. Most people will arrive via a specific article.
                  And this is what I would say is the trap... it works because YOU are socially linking your visitors to the site, and it works... But in the realm of SEO - the homepage is the page on your site that "Should" carry the most "weight" and be linked in search more than not. So the dynamic changes considerably. Its also that structure dynamic that helps creates the better search engine listings.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  75% of those will be using a mobile device,
                  THIS is hyper critical and we will be back to this...

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  so the optimization (visually) is much less important in my opinion, in that regard. IF, you arrive to the homepage via mobile device, yes I can see that being slightly confusing. However, the menu is there. The videos I placed on the homepage as a test, and for the aesthetics.
                  Looks are one thing and the utilitarian aspect is something totally different. Goto my first labeled post here "BRAND" and the home page takes on a whole new ideal. I am currently doing work with a bike shop that specializes in Mtn Bikes. In many of the parks around here there are like boards at trail heads that you "could" pin a business card to - do you leave a link to a specific article or the homepage?

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  ( 7 seconds of opportunity ) I've always felt like this was a misleading stat. Most people are not arriving on accident, waiting to decide whether or not to leave. They arrive via a link from the SE or social media, or somewhere because they wanted information( at least I do, and don't click on random links to see where they go). The only way I am leaving in less than 10 seconds is if there are too many ads, can't read the content because of background color, or noise is playing which I can't figure out how to turn off. Otherwise I stay and determine what the content is telling me.
                  In CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ) and SEO there is a direct connect with the text that gets them to the site vs what they see immediately getting there. This simple match is make or break - and most people break on this one. In my years of doing this stuff I have seen far more than my share of pages with 5 second average view times.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  Actually, I NEVER intended to limit the location. I WILL visit other locations and include those on the site. There are a few already from outside of Texas. I was also hoping others would share their "adventures" kind of like a social media site but not. I called it places for pups, not dog friendly places in San Antonio for a reason. This may be an SEO mistake, and if it is, I made it on purpose.
                  I understand what you are saying here - and Im all about it... but writing about Austin, and San Antonio and Georgia, and Washington and clumping all of those together is diluting Context and Intent.

                  I get you are a "small" site, but if you look at the ways that larger sites are organized locations are separated - By state and then by location as an example. A large part of this is for the end user - and the other part is to create context based on surrounding content not only for the end user but the likes of Google or Bing.

                  Around here ( WF ) you will hear to focus on one topic... and there is an amount of validity to this. A person that does a search for say "how to facebook" has absolutely no interest in reading "how to Instagram", by virtue of intent ( what brought them to your site ) they would more than likely consume MORE Facebook content than jump over to Instagram content.

                  As much as we can rationalize this - Google understands this as well. What content has more value - A Facebook article that is linked to 3 other facebook articles OR A facebook article that is linked to a Pinterest article and a Instagram Article and a Reddit Article?

                  Same applies to your content a mass of content that includes Austin and San Antonio and Washington and Georgia vs a page that is categorized and links San Antonio content to San Antonio content with mention of there being a page with Austin content?

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  Are you saying a map is a limiting factor here? I assumed after reading people would type in the name of the place and follow the gps
                  Wont say limiting, but its not helping that you don't have it.

                  enter:
                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  75% of those will be using a mobile device,
                  think about this... doing a search on your phone for a place to walk your "Pup" and they pull up your article and on the bottom of the page is a map link - to go there right now - what are the chances of favoriting the page? ( holy cow check out all these other places DAMN MAN ) More and more THIS is how the internet is being used - and understanding this and applying "Intent" into our content creates a win win.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  this is why I don't list any addresses or map any locations. It seems easier to do under a google search. Plus I have a ton of photos to share and only so much space. A lot of the content is broken up with personal photos in most of the articles. Whether this is "good" or not, I don't know, but it was important to me. Also, most places I record the nearest intersection somewhere in the article, and how to arrive there.
                  So back to the Mtn Bike Store page we are developing... Content creation is being developed based on Mtn Bike Trails over anything and everything else. How best to serve the reader and potential client of his services and products. I have had the exact same conversations with this shop owner for over 8 months now.

                  "But how does this sell bikes?" he keeps asking - well the more they ride them and crash them, the faster they will be in here to A) get repairs and B) have to buy a new one. A bike being ridden around the 2 mile walk / bike path by the local school wont need either for a long time coming.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  But...every article of a place contains that place within the title and key phrase. Google cannot figure that out?
                  Part of the "handicap" in this thread is to blog about multiple topics. There is a level of difficulty that gets thrown in the mix when you do this. So its more about understanding what Google wants - and really what makes the end user happy. Content in Context to intent is that fine balance

                  in your case Austin and San Antonio is probably close enough... but throw in Georgia and Washington and your relevance compared to your competitors crumbles. Its not that Google cant figure it out, it HAS, and deems your content of less value than a site that keeps the content separated

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  I assumed it was the title limiting me because I feel like I need to NAME the actual place within the title, whether or not it receives a fair amount of search traffic (don't want to be misleading, you know, or people will just click away if they feel it isn't relevant).
                  One of the misgivings of wordpress is that the "Title" is also the URL. So not having it in the URL is ok, but not having it in either is not so ok. There are ways to change this - definitely something you can look up - unfortunately "Yoast" would be the easiest, but there are PHP coding methods that you can do this with.

                  As a side note - if you had "Categories" you would have URL's like site.com/Austin/lady-bird-lake and this would greatly help in your case.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  The article that SHOULD be ranking which is not is the ultimate guide to hiking in San Antonio. I spent a week on that big boy, not including all of the time my dog and I spent out hiking the parks. It contains about 4,500 words, and more details than all of the sites in the SE under the key phrase "hiking in San Antonio". However it does not rank. I completed it last summer. I also wrote another titled "best places to hike in San Antonio" and included 8 different situations several months later. That is currently at page 3 so far. BAFFLING!
                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  I'm assuming the ultimate guide was penalized for some reason?
                  Its important to remember that dealing with Google is actually dealing with MATH aka an "Algorithm" we are talking ONES and ZEROS. The easiest identifier of "Different" in math is a element or set of elements that are exceptions. Greater than or Less than what is seen as average is generally held back. with Google it is best to be a touch above average but by no means the best, because given the right set of averages "Best" can be seen as an exception. Because in todays SEO environment being real time as it were "Best" to gone happens regularly.

                  Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                  May have to look at some of those other sites to see how they categorized (yelp, TripAdvisor...)? They seem to be nationwide, if not international. This is kind of what I was going for. EXCEPT, I don't have generic reviews like: John James Park has public restrooms - 5 stars! What!?
                  I would be looking for "blogs" that have a structure over the likes of Yelp or TripAdvisor. They are custom coded pages that take on a life unto themselves and trying to replicate that with wordpress can get aggravating. So look for something you can emulate.

                  Not that its going to help you today, but this is the stuff right here that this thread will be about. This is the kind of stuff that is holding probably 95% of people back. By enlarge I believe most people on the IM path regularly are taking one step forward and three steps back - and thats just on content development. I can say this... but its not hard, its just learning kinda the 3 basic variables at play INTENT, CONTEXT, and CONTENT
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

    <snip>
    I'm confused. Is this directed at me, or everyone reading this thread as something to think about?
    Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

    Directed at you LOL sorry, could have made that more clear.
    Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

    <snip>
    I chose the name Places for Pups and the domain https://placesforpups.com
    That is a very good site. Kudos to you Dave.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by Jeffery View Post

      That is a very good site. Kudos to you Dave.
      Thank you, Jeffrey. My stats are terrible, but I believe it's a result of direct social media traffic. I feel like people using social media simply scroll through, read a sentence, look at a pic, watch a video, and so on. Expecting them to read 1,000 words on my site - probably expecting too much.

      It's just starting to get SE traffic on a select few articles. I have a BIG question about WHY a specific guide is not ranking AT ALL, but don't wanna hijack the thread here!!
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    NICHE

    This "Project" in general has been being discussed for a number of months now. My thread about eBay was fine and all, but content wise its just flat... The ability to share images etc would have made it "better" in my opinion. Something this journey will hopefully fix.

    Part of my internal struggle with a whole lot of things has been "sharing" a website or the like here - I obviously cant share a clients site, and my willingness to share a site that makes money is obviously not the best choice in the world.

    I have just come to the point where you can only say so much, and having the ability to SHOW you what I mean just kinda makes more sense. and let the posts right above this be testament to that. I could easily show the right way to most of this, but honestly going out and finding examples of "Right" are few and far between.

    So keeping that in mind... a great amount of thought has gone into what NICHE or NICHE's to enter. For the longest time I was thinking I was just going to pick a IM product on clickbank or something and go with that. I will be straight honest... picking something I absolutely probably would not believe in and try to sell it... Id rather vomit for a few hours straight.

    So I do have personal interests. In my free time I like to do woodworking and CNC stuff and 3-D printing you know tech type crafts and all. The problem I was going to run into with these was the time restraint. and on top of that, these are all areas that I can produce product and sell them on eBay and Etsy for profit ( ok I am already doing that ) so there really was no challenge there and obviously not something others could emulate and succeed.

    My ONE kinda failure with IM has been "WordPress" and its not that it was a "Failure" - I sold the site for a ton of money... but I was having a real hard time monetizing the damn thing - Had some youtube revenue, and some adsense revenue, but nothing spectacular... I have an ugly sweater affiliate site that made more than it was, and my effort vs reward ratio was way way way in favor of the Ugly Sweater site.

    So as I did before I am going to niche deep in wordpress with a specific theme. I have decided I will be using a free version of a premium theme that I will be promoting. The payout per conversion is only $15.00 ( something that didn't exist on the last try ) but between that and hosting to start it should get me on the right track.

    The second niche that I will be adding is eBay. I really want to redo my thread in a more visual manor that maybe bring the ideas and concepts across a bit better.

    I will add more as time goes still don't know what they will be.

    So why those 2? They are topics I KNOW... like writing for either is just short of as easy as breathing... so the overall time restraint for that aspect will be minimal.

    Which then leads me into the broader discussion of how anyone should pick a Niche... First and for most go with what you know... or do... like walking your dog in parks - The idea is actually BRILLIANT and proof to the point that I very honestly believe there can be money made from ANY interest.

    I would rather people look at the brand of television they are watching and sell THAT as an affiliate - because there is an amount of first hand knowledge to be shared... than peddling some product because it has good "numbers" and never buy it, and sucker people into a mailing list and all you can do is send e-mails that says "will you buy it today? Time is running out!" ( that is about an exact quote of an e-mail i got the other day btw )
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


      So as I did before I am going to niche deep in wordpress with a specific theme. I have decided I will be using a free version of a premium theme that I will be promoting. The payout per conversion is only $15.00 ( something that didn't exist on the last try ) but between that and hosting to start it should get me on the right track.
      I'm sorry, I missed the product. What is being converted? A premium theme? Wait, doesn't the premium theme have all the bells and whistles? How are you marketing the premium from the free version?? I believe I missed something. Isn't that like selling someone a Ferrari by showing them an Oldsmobile?

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      First and for most go with what you know... or do... like walking your dog in parks - The idea is actually BRILLIANT and proof to the point that I very honestly believe there can be money made from ANY interest.
      Hey, that's me!

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      I would rather people look at the brand of television they are watching and sell THAT as an affiliate - because there is an amount of first hand knowledge to be shared... than peddling some product because it has good "numbers" and never buy it, and sucker people into a mailing list and all you can do is send e-mails that says "will you buy it today? Time is running out!" ( that is about an exact quote of an e-mail i got the other day btw )
      AGREE! Mailing lists can serve many purposes. However, I always unsubscribe from those selling products, and have never bought from one. Not sure whose email address is such a gold mine, but it isn't mine!

      As far as selling a brand you already use, there is a greater level of comfort and confidence in that. It's all about putting your money where your mouth is. If you use it and can communicate why someone else should, people will respond to that. Amazon reviews are another example. Whether you liked or disliked a product, chances are you purchased it because there was proof it worked for someone like yourself. Although technically that is inadvertent and unrewarded selling.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

        I'm sorry, I missed the product. What is being converted? A premium theme? Wait, doesn't the premium theme have all the bells and whistles? How are you marketing the premium from the free version?? I believe I missed something. Isn't that like selling someone a Ferrari by showing them an Oldsmobile?
        Oldsmobile to Ferrari is a bit of a stretch.... Basic hand crank windows cloth seats and am fm radio vs fully loaded fully automatic with leather and Bose surround sound might be a better analogy.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Quick update...

    As much as this has been a project that has been talked about... once committing to it made it "real" so the last weeks time has been spent in pre launch activities - like looking for gaps in market etc. I currently have a list of over 40 Content titles / ideas. The site has been "loaded" and I will start the process of converting the blank slate over to not so blank.

    The build process is going to be held up a bit due to the fact that a majority of the initial content push is focused on how to transition from blank to not so blank.

    The ultimate goal here is to "Share" the sites URL. My logic is talking about something and actually seeing it are 2 different things - but I feel I will need like a 2 to 3 week window from the point of content creation to have a grasp on my keyword reach before I openly share this with "the world" as it were.

    If anyone thinks it is a good idea - for the sake of transparency - to have a 3rd party take a look at the site as it stands now - and moving forward before it becomes public, im down with that. Just let me know!

    Thanks for reading!
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Quick update...

      As much as this has been a project that has been talked about... once committing to it made it "real" so the last weeks time has been spent in pre launch activities - like looking for gaps in market etc. I currently have a list of over 40 Content titles / ideas. The site has been "loaded" and I will start the process of converting the blank slate over to not so blank.

      The build process is going to be held up a bit due to the fact that a majority of the initial content push is focused on how to transition from blank to not so blank.

      The ultimate goal here is to "Share" the sites URL. My logic is talking about something and actually seeing it are 2 different things - but I feel I will need like a 2 to 3 week window from the point of content creation to have a grasp on my keyword reach before I openly share this with "the world" as it were.

      If anyone thinks it is a good idea - for the sake of transparency - to have a 3rd party take a look at the site as it stands now - and moving forward before it becomes public, im down with that. Just let me know!

      Thanks for reading!

      I'd be happy to help in any way that I can.
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    • Profile picture of the author GordonJ
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Quick update...

      As much as this has been a project that has been talked about... once committing to it made it "real" so the last weeks time has been spent in pre launch activities - like looking for gaps in market etc. I currently have a list of over 40 Content titles / ideas. The site has been "loaded" and I will start the process of converting the blank slate over to not so blank.

      The build process is going to be held up a bit due to the fact that a majority of the initial content push is focused on how to transition from blank to not so blank.

      The ultimate goal here is to "Share" the sites URL. My logic is talking about something and actually seeing it are 2 different things - but I feel I will need like a 2 to 3 week window from the point of content creation to have a grasp on my keyword reach before I openly share this with "the world" as it were.

      If anyone thinks it is a good idea - for the sake of transparency - to have a 3rd party take a look at the site as it stands now - and moving forward before it becomes public, im down with that. Just let me know!

      Thanks for reading!
      Well, the thing is...you have a lot of stored knowledge and experience to cull from...so, what you are doing NOW, the groundwork, may be the very things which make it hard and difficult for someone less armed.

      Having a couple of extra eyes might help with what could be, the problem of your decisions made from your experience, so a WHY might help.

      So, if it is to be a step by step, with steps which are easily repeatable, then getting some questions NOW, perhaps would aide you in this initial foundation building.

      GordonJ
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by GordonJ View Post

        So, if it is to be a step by step, with steps which are easily repeatable, then getting some questions NOW, perhaps would aide you in this initial foundation building.
        HOW


        Yes.. the past week has had less to do with "Coding" or "Writing" and more about HOW I need to do those things ( code and write ) and WHEN.

        So the idea here is to create traffic with absolutely no funding ( aka Paid Ads ) Social is a fast method... But, SEO is faster. ( How often have you read that in the past month? ) And I will repeat that just to be sure every one understands I wrote that correctly... Social is fast, SEO is faster

        Enter the week of research. I have a very stead fast plan that allows NEWLY created websites with NEWLY created content to A) get rank and B) get traffic. saying that lets back up just a moment...

        So I saw a fellow warrior had a link in his site in his signature... I clicked ( I look ata lot of peoples signatures ), I was immediately enamored with the theme he was using. I looked it up, liked even more what I saw and immediately bought the Full Version with unlimited site licensing. This theme went into my companies full production repertoire 3 days later.

        The Premium theme is that good... enter this project, and I started with the notion of using the premium theme and after some research ( I will get into in a minute ) I decided using the free version made more sense... Then I downloaded it... I thought my fellow Warrior had stripped the theme back - super clean - nice... but no he didn't strip it, the free version is STRIPPED - its a total train wreck compared to the full version. Really my worst nightmare kinda - It will all work out in the end and I NOW have a better understanding of the GAP.

        So back to the stead fast plan. We are talking about SEO... we are talking about writing content that Google will find of interest and RANK our content and hopefully well. "Just start writing" they say... absolute and total BS

        Writing to write is a waste of time... you will ultimately be writing till the cows come home - and many a content creator will tell you.. "THEY (the cows ) NEVER COME HOME". IF you are totally in it to win it and have your wonderful visualization board thang going on and 4 yrs later you start to get traction - GOOD FOR YOU - but honestly it doesn't have to be that way.

        So there are literally 2 variables we need to think about; A single Page's score in relation to Google, and the Site score as a whole in relation to Google. Some might label these things as PA ( Page Authority ) and DA ( Domain Authority ). Our Pages ability to "Score" well with Google is non existent... new site, new content, no history what so ever, no backlinks, NOTHING in our favor. So we need to rely on our sites overall score.

        BUT, there is a catch 22 in all of this... no content pages "Scoring" your Site score will not increase... And I just said we have NOTHING in our favor. A saying I throw around from time to time "If you cant reach the heights you are striving for, you may need to get a ladder" So the question is then asked what is the Ladder?

        The solution is creating content that targets long tail terms in context to your overall sites context and by virtue of less competition create positive rank placement. If you go and do a Google search, you will see in the upper left right below the on page navigation ( News, Images, etc ) the number of results a search contains.

        If you for example are looking up "Xbox One" that number sits at about 985,000,000 total results and then do a search for "how to connect xbox one controller to pc with wireless adapter" and see the number of results are about 6,600,000 The overall possibility of creating content that will get page 1 rank for the second option becomes more plausible.

        6 Million sites is still to great a number... but when you are dealing with Local markets like a "Bike Shop" and the options may only be 4 "Local" listings

        So my specific example is going to be "<Name of theme> Theme" as probably the keyword with the most competition ( 692,000 ) So I want to go deeper, "<Name of theme> Theme <insert keyword>" and we drop ( 424,000 ) and a step further "<Name of theme> Theme < identifier> <insert keyword>" and we drop into the ( 290,000 ) range and there is honestly NO "exact" matches across a whole spectrum of Identifier + keyword terms.

        So the FIRST pieces of content I want to create need to target "Identifier + keyword terms" little to no competition ( in this case NO competition ) to see positive RANK results.

        5 and 6 and 10 Positive rank results right off the get, and what happens? Google sees you put out 5 pieces already that have top 3 SERP rank... what will happen to the next piece? it stands a chance to rank, not because of the Page itself... but the consistency of ranking content site wide ( Site Score ).

        I am going to be very honest here, I am not a very big "Tools" guy when it comes to SEO... using Google Adwords to find HOT keywords is borderline silly. Without looking I will bet ( because there is no content to show there is interest ) that Google adwords would score my search terms as ZERO's

        How is that borderline Silly? The FREE version of the theme is downloaded 250 (+/- ) times a day 1700 times a week, 6800 times a month, and 81,000 times in a year... at $15 a conversion and "Success" at its most modest level being $400 suggests I need to have a total of 27 conversions. THIS is from a SINGLE point of monetization - and the reality is the not so modest $10,000 number seems achievable - again with this SINGLE point of monetization.

        Understanding to start, its NOT about 3000 visitors per day but 10 a week, and creating the content that get rank to build apon to over time have the ability to get to the 3000 per day.

        Hope that Helps!
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        • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          HOW


          So the idea here is to create traffic with absolutely no funding ( aka Paid Ads ) Social is a fast method... But, SEO is faster. ( How often have you read that in the past month? ) And I will repeat that just to be sure every one understands I wrote that correctly... Social is fast, SEO is faster
          How is that possible when you can share a post and gain direct traffic immediately, while the SE can take months to move the same post up in the rankings?

          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post



          So I saw a fellow warrior had a link in his site in his signature... I clicked ( I look ata lot of peoples signatures ), I was immediately enamored with the theme he was using.
          10 years ago each person and their brother had 1 - 3 links in the sig box, but these days many have an empty sig. Is this frowned upon now, or even penalizing to the site being linked?

          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


          Writing to write is a waste of time...
          Debatable. Often I find that it's good to practice for skill sharpening, brainstorming, and other reasons. However, if we are referring to reaching the top of page one in the SE and selling a product then I see your point.

          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          new site, new content, no history what so ever, no backlinks, NOTHING in our favor. So we need to rely on our sites overall score.
          Are all new sites treated equally by google, and does there exist a "trust" period which any site must pass??

          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


          So my specific example is going to be "<Name of theme> Theme" as probably the keyword with the most competition ( 692,000 ) So I want to go deeper, "<Name of theme> Theme <insert keyword>" and we drop ( 424,000 ) and a step further "<Name of theme> Theme < identifier> <insert keyword>" and we drop into the ( 290,000 ) range and there is honestly NO "exact" matches across a whole spectrum of Identifier + keyword terms.
          So you located a phrase nearly 300,000 people are searching for, used the phrase in the search bar, and there was no "answer" on the first page?

          For some searches I feel like the top results are still manipulated these days. It's also possible that there ARE posts about a key phrase floating around out there, but they are NOT ranking. I know this from personal experience because my guide is in that situation. So I'm anxious to hear what would cause that to happen.
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          • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            10 years ago each person and their brother had 1 - 3 links in the sig box, but these days many have an empty sig. Is this frowned upon now, or even penalizing to the site being linked?
            The signature rules have changed here since 10 years ago. Text lines have been limited to 2 lines. You may stumble across old signatures in members who know longer post here or more or less post sporadically Banner types are different see below.

            Part of the Current Signature requirements

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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            How is that possible when you can share a post and gain direct traffic immediately, while the SE can take months to move the same post up in the rankings?
            Everything being equal with starting a new site... Site has no content and social media has no content - what exactly am I sharing on Social Media? So the question then is how much content has to be on the site before you start your Social Media efforts? I will say something like as little as 10 pieces of content... but when I am developing a Affiliate site I am looking for more in the 30 to 40 range.

            My initial content push on this site in specific will not lend it self well to Social Media. I will specifically be writing content on a ONE specific theme. Being so tight in terms of target, dropping content in say a WordPress group on Facebook M A Y be traffic, but by no means TARGETTED traffic. Something I and others say over and over "Not all traffic is created equally"

            The better than assumption here is in the effort of creating 10 pieces of content that is specifically targeting a known hole in terms of wanted / needed content will create a targeted stream of traffic quickly using SEO.

            But, you say "SEO can take months to move the same post up in the rankings". And I would reply "only if you are targeting terms that are beyond the site / pages ability in terms of score to rank for the term."

            My ultimate goal here is to bridge the easy to rank WordPress theme content over to the harder terms to target - eBay. eBay content will not appear till I think article 20 or so ( I don't have my content list in front of me at the moment )

            A huge chunk of this process is understanding what will rank with little to no effort - because there is little to no competition vs what content will need some amount of authority behind it before ranking will be possible. THIS is what separates writing to write vs writing systematically - knowing what to write and when.

            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            10 years ago each person and their brother had 1 - 3 links in the sig box, but these days many have an empty sig. Is this frowned upon now, or even penalizing to the site being linked?
            The links coming from here (WF) are No-Follow, and with all of the changes Google has made there should be no influence good or bad in terms of SEO. That being said, I do question the ability of a certain variable with creating content on one site and then linking even if no follow to another. I actually plan on doing a case study to see what the exact effects may be - and remain a bit secretive on the variable until then.

            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            Debatable. Often I find that it's good to practice for skill sharpening, brainstorming, and other reasons. However, if we are referring to reaching the top of page one in the SE and selling a product then I see your point.
            Writing to write to get better at writing - please all day long if you can. Writing just to write because you feel you need to create content for your site without a specific plan in place - it wont hurt any - but 99% of the time it wont help.

            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            Are all new sites treated equally by google, and does there exist a "trust" period which any site must pass??
            I would say Yes they are all created equal - I work with the mind set that having a new site is actually a -1 in terms of ability to rank vs pages that have been around. Where does the -1 get removed / the moniker of "New" get removed, not so sure, but I believe it has to do with the creation of content that ranks "Well".

            I have heard the story over and over and over again "I was writing content and never got passed page 3 in the Serps... 3 years later all the sudden my traffic and rank started to increase." My suspicion on this is they finally wrote a piece of content that hit into a hole as I am describing here - pulled themselves from the "-1 club" and out of the blue they are off to the races.

            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            So you located a phrase nearly 300,000 people are searching for, used the phrase in the search bar, and there was no "answer" on the first page?
            First, Second, Third, Fifth - Keyword research doesn't end on page one.. you need to really see the whole picture... and In doing this you start to get an idea of specific players in your space. These are the sites you should be looking at to understand how to model your USP ( Unique Selling Perspective ) so it is truly UNIQUE - and not just like everyone elses.

            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            For some searches I feel like the top results are still manipulated these days. It's also possible that there ARE posts about a key phrase floating around out there, but they are NOT ranking. I know this from personal experience because my guide is in that situation. So I'm anxious to hear what would cause that to happen.
            "BRAND" carries an amount of weight in Search results. You simply are not going to write a piece of content about "Pepsi" and get any kind of rank - mid sentence on that I did a bit of "research" and found "PepsiCo" doesn't rank for the term "Pepsi Challenge" - but that was the only term I could think of and find where that was the case.

            In your case specifically I can tell you your biggest hang up is 2 and maybe 3 things. Site depth is probably the primary reason - and this directly relates to the need to separate your content in a better frame of context.

            So what do I mean by "Site Depth"? Right now your Site is the home page and a singe link to all of your content

            Your Site:
            • Main Page
            • All Topics Page

            Ideal Structure might look like:
            • Main Page
            • Categories
            • Sub Categories
            • Content

            And then you get some screw ball like myself developing depth and it might look like:
            • Main Page
            • Categories
            • Sub Categories
            • Content
            • Sales Pages
            • Location Based island Pages

            Site depth is an indicator of "Authority" - or at least that is the assumption. You specifically are competing against big name authority sites - and your current structure is hurting more than helping. You may like the easy access to the content ( and I am with you with that ) but you are now playing a game and not following the rules. The rule maker ( Google ) says DEPTH, you should be asking how deep? and making it so vs self inflicted sabotage. Sounds harsh - I am sorry, but that is truly where you are at.
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            • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
              Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


              A huge chunk of this process is understanding what will rank with little to no effort - because there is little to no competition vs what content will need some amount of authority behind it before ranking will be possible. THIS is what separates writing to write vs writing systematically - knowing what to write and when.
              Focus on that which takes minimal work - good point.

              Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

              I would say Yes they are all created equal - I work with the mind set that having a new site is actually a -1 in terms of ability to rank vs pages that have been around. Where does the -1 get removed / the moniker of "New" get removed, not so sure, but I believe it has to do with the creation of content that ranks "Well".
              The site you are working on now may be a good example of this (I could probably test it with mine which is less than a year, but not brand new). Let's say you (brand new site) create only one piece of content which is arguably "superior" to those on page one for a specific key phrase. Does it get bumped right up to page one for that key phrase immediately after being indexed, or does it fester way down in the rankings for a few days, weeks, or months simply because the site is new?


              Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

              I have heard the story over and over and over again "I was writing content and never got passed page 3 in the Serps... 3 years later all the sudden my traffic and rank started to increase." My suspicion on this is they finally wrote a piece of content that hit into a hole as I am describing here - pulled themselves from the "-1 club" and out of the blue they are off to the races.
              I see what you are saying. So, most people write what they want to write about, or what they believe others want to know about, and one day "accidentally" run into a topic or two which were "easier" targets. So people attribute a certain amount of success to "being around for awhile", when in reality they found the "right" topic and it could have provided similar success at an earlier point in time.

              Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


              And then you get some screw ball like myself developing depth and it might look like:
              • Main Page
              • Categories
              • Sub Categories
              • Content
              • Sales Pages
              • Location Based island Pages

              Site depth is an indicator of "Authority" - or at least that is the assumption. You specifically are competing against big name authority sites - and your current structure is hurting more than helping. You may like the easy access to the content ( and I am with you with that ) but you are now playing a game and not following the rules. The rule maker ( Google ) says DEPTH, you should be asking how deep? and making it so vs self inflicted sabotage. Sounds harsh - I am sorry, but that is truly where you are at.
              Yes, I'll admit I'm stuck in the article directory mindset from back in the day. I like being able to find everything, and if others wanted to go poking around they could find everything too. Whereas, WP doesn't have that option to begin with so I simply created it.

              In the beginning, I didn't care if google liked it or not. I needed it to be there, even though I knew it would grow so large it would have to be restructured. That is the reason why the category doesn't show up in the url - I knew many of those could change and that would break any backlinks (plus I wanted shorter backlinks).

              I will dwell on your list of depth. I'm having a hard time picturing it in WP because using the menu all I can basically do is assign one thing under another thing, and that just creates a bunch of drop downs. If I use a widget hardly anyone will see it because 80% of traffic is using mobile right now. I am working on a services page, and possibly a shop page where I can promote a few of the items we actually use outdoors.
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              • Profile picture of the author savidge4
                Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                Focus on that which takes minimal work - good point.
                I want to make this point... This is not "Easy" as in the lazy way..it is actually the opposite. THIS takes work and I would say a bit of practice. I have been doing this long enough - more than long enough, that I can get into SERPS and see this stuff pretty fast, and THEN understand what type of data I need to look for to justify targeting this.

                I didn't just say there are gaps in the SERPS on certain terms, I then came in and laid down the MATH that suggests that the question ( search terms we are looking at ) is indeed being asked, and there is no content meeting those needs.

                Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                The site you are working on now may be a good example of this (I could probably test it with mine which is less than a year, but not brand new). Let's say you (brand new site) create only one piece of content which is arguably "superior" to those on page one for a specific key phrase. Does it get bumped right up to page one for that key phrase immediately after being indexed, or does it fester way down in the rankings for a few days, weeks, or months simply because the site is new?
                This is the part of this that is the most confusing... I can only rank content from a new site that has one of 2 variables. A) It has minimal competition or B) The Question the search result would be answering is not directly being answered.. and again not just on page 1 but 2 and 4 and 5 - I mean literally not being answered.

                Figuring this out takes an amount of time.. but usually when you find ONE instance, you can easily from that point find others - and in this case specifically there is an entire rift of terms that have not had content that Answers pretty common questions.

                Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                I see what you are saying. So, most people write what they want to write about, or what they believe others want to know about, and one day "accidentally" run into a topic or two which were "easier" targets. So people attribute a certain amount of success to "being around for awhile", when in reality they found the "right" topic and it could have provided similar success at an earlier point in time.
                This is exactly true. SEO in general has a bad name because most that "Try" it.. and many that proclaim to do it... are only focusing on pieces of the overall spectrum of SEO. More often than not with SEO the talk is centered around the site is built the content is written how do I increase Rank. Or in some cases I am writing content and need to implement this this and that strategy to make the content rank.

                We see very little on the DISCOVERY process of exactly what content to write. and when we do it has more to do with traffic count than anything else. Focusing on terms that will create more traffic vs terms with a less overall footprint that will create "Targeted" traffic that will actually CONVERT is all but lost in most if not short of all SEO discussions.

                Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                Yes, I'll admit I'm stuck in the article directory mindset from back in the day. I like being able to find everything, and if others wanted to go poking around they could find everything too. Whereas, WP doesn't have that option to begin with so I simply created it.
                They do, its called "Categories". IE Austin or San Antonio and then you would create Sub-Categories like Restaurants and Parks. If you watch this real quick:

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=971q...ature=youtu.be

                The MOST important take-away here is how .com/Austin/Parks/name-of-park will maximize a searchers trust in clicking your link. And specifically in your case it will be injected very needed keywords. I don't make the rules - I just know what the rules are to better play the game
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                • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
                  Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                  I want to make this point... This is not "Easy" as in the lazy way..it is actually the opposite. THIS takes work and I would say a bit of practice. I have been doing this long enough - more than long enough, that I can get into SERPS and see this stuff pretty fast, and THEN understand what type of data I need to look for to justify targeting this.
                  Gotcha. Yeah, poor choice of words on my part. I learned many things about affiliate marketing and blogging over ten years ago when I first arrived at WF. I was slightly successful with Adsense on a couple of sites, but let that go after a couple of years. Went back to finish my education and all that.

                  Things have changed, but I remember the hours of work involved researching, learning, writing, socializing, and site building. My niche these days is far smaller in my opinion, and personally valuable. However, it seemed like it took much longer to pop up in the SE.
                  Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post



                  Figuring this out takes an amount of time.. but usually when you find ONE instance, you can easily from that point find others - and in this case specifically there is an entire rift of terms that have not had content that Answers pretty common questions.
                  Interesting. I will take note of that for when I am doing my searching...

                  Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                  This is exactly true. SEO in general has a bad name because most that "Try" it.. and many that proclaim to do it... are only focusing on pieces of the overall spectrum of SEO. More often than not with SEO the talk is centered around the site is built the content is written how do I increase Rank. Or in some cases I am writing content and need to implement this this and that strategy to make the content rank.

                  We see very little on the DISCOVERY process of exactly what content to write. and when we do it has more to do with traffic count than anything else. Focusing on terms that will create more traffic vs terms with a less overall footprint that will create "Targeted" traffic that will actually CONVERT is all but lost in most if not short of all SEO discussions.
                  Any studies on approximately how many people use this "backwards" strategy of writing first, and then figuring out how to rank second? I'm guilty of this myself, it's no lie. A lot of my writing is about a specific place though so I feel I'm already at a disadvantage.

                  Once I used a different approach because I had a title in mind before leaving a specific park. It was very "spooky" even though it was a hot and sunny day here. I called it the "Spookiest Place to Hike in San Antonio" instead of naming the place in the title. Shared it on Reddit and had over 1,000 views in a couple days time.

                  Is it going to come up in the SE a lot. Nah, but there's a sense of mystery there and a unique title. Seems a bit like clickbait, but it definitely was not. So, sometimes the title works very well without the keyword research and all that. I wanted to share the story of "that" place and an eye catching title seemed like the best way. Most of my writing does not work that way though lol, so back to the research department.


                  Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                  They do, its called "Categories". IE Austin or San Antonio and then you would create Sub-Categories like Restaurants and Parks.
                  Not what I mean. I was referring to being able to see everything in one place. I understand the categories and what you are saying. However, most people are not going to do a thorough evaluation of a website to find more stuff. Clicking four links, or drop down menus to get to a specific place is a lot more navigation.


                  Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                  The MOST important take-away here is how .com/Austin/Parks/name-of-park will maximize a searchers trust in clicking your link. And specifically in your case it will be injected very needed keywords. I don't make the rules - I just know what the rules are to better play the game
                  Gotcha. I will be adding "depth" very soon, and will pay attention to where things move in the SE.

                  Side question - Is it detrimental to use pretty links, or link shortening when sharing a link? Does google recognize it as the exact same link, or is it suspicious of it?
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                  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
                    Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                    Any studies on approximately how many people use this "backwards" strategy of writing first, and then figuring out how to rank second?
                    I know you have searched the web over and over... you tell me how many times you have read this. Probably never is my guess...so NO there are no case studies.

                    So here is the deal.. people are all invested in tools... SEMrush or Frog or Adwords. ALL of this in terms of keyword search is dependent on Google Adword data. THE DATA IS FLAWED. Think about this..you want to determine what terms are used by traffic coming to your site.. does Google display all of it? the answer is NO. So wouldn't rational thinking suggest that looking for terms to target Google would not show all of the data?

                    I have since looked at the adwords data - just because ( not something I ever do to make this clear ) and the search terms I will be going after are ZERO's. What is one of the first things you do when you get a new theme? you go and search CSS code to personalize the theme correct? Add the step of identifying possible traffic flow IE The number of downloads per day - I NOW have a far greater understanding of possible traffic flow. Google says "0" and MARKET data says 200+ per day no?

                    Using Data to make decisions... your decision will only be as good as the data you have collected to make that decision. MARKET data is not something you read about in regards SEO... SEO is about traffic they say... but when the idea is to convert that traffic SEO becomes far more refined. Going in and researching market, and demographics GREATLY refines who and what you will target - and that is then reflected in the terms that you will target with SEO.


                    Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

                    I'm guilty of this myself, it's no lie. A lot of my writing is about a specific place though so I feel I'm already at a disadvantage.
                    THIS is the exact opposite of a disadvantage - THIS is the ultimate goal that most people do not reach. YOU are so refined and so targeted that the only traffic you should get is specifically the traffic you can HELP, and that would have interest in what it is you have to share. THIS is specifically the key to online success - and in general the exact opposite of what most marketers / SEO specialist do.
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                    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
                      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


                      So here is the deal.. people are all invested in tools... SEMrush or Frog or Adwords. ALL of this in terms of keyword search is dependent on Google Adword data. THE DATA IS FLAWED. Think about this..you want to determine what terms are used by traffic coming to your site.. does Google display all of it? the answer is NO. So wouldn't rational thinking suggest that looking for terms to target Google would not show all of the data?


                      THIS is the exact opposite of a disadvantage - THIS is the ultimate goal that most people do not reach. YOU are so refined and so targeted that the only traffic you should get is specifically the traffic you can HELP, and that would have interest in what it is you have to share. THIS is specifically the key to online success - and in general the exact opposite of what most marketers / SEO specialist do.

                      I am CONVINCED that not only the data is flawed, but Google is penalizing pages which use some types of SEO advice.

                      Yes, my topics are incredibly refined. Many should show up on, or near page one for their locations. I often focus on the location as the "key phrase" and internally link to nearby places. However, it seems the articles which have LESS key phrases and links (including backlinks) tend to show up closer to, or on page one. Where are the other articles with "adequate" key phrases and links? Um, not ranking for their key phrases.

                      Do you find any of this to be true with your 60 plus websites?

                      What is your plan for your newest site regarding SEO?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Eske
    From selling solar panels online to doing the local marketing (when it was the craze),
    web design, seo, etc, etc

    Success has come in many forms for me and I'm excited to hear that internet marketing and overall online systems still work to this day!

    It will be about value and traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Celyn Davis
    Every time i feel good when someone turns into a warrior. Learning only comes from practicing. I am motivated savidge4 seeing you're doing a great job. Its always a hurdles picking a niche, to understand Brand, writing niche content, writing e-mail sales pitches etc, but this is how we turned into a warrior.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by Celyn Davis View Post

      Every time i feel good when someone turns into a warrior. Learning only comes from practicing. I am motivated savidge4 seeing you're doing a great job. Its always a hurdles picking a niche, to understand Brand, writing niche content, writing e-mail sales pitches etc, but this is how we turned into a warrior.
      People are still posting garbage on forums in this day and age? You got banned after a single post?? Girl, bye.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    An Update

    I have been fighting a Cold that will not go away... I have been to the doctor more in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 10 years of my life easy.

    On top of that we ( West Virginia ) have had optimal pre build season weather to break ground on 2 projects I am working on - It has been the right amount of cold to push dirt around without it turning to mud, but not so cold you are dealing with frozen earth. So standing in sub freezing temps for 10 hours at a crack has not been helping any.

    I am taking yesterday and tomorrow off from any activity what so ever and then Friday and Saturday I have a business meeting I have to get to about 5 hours away... so on Sunday I will get back on track here and start knocking things out.

    Hope you all understand, Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      An Update

      I have been fighting a Cold that will not go away... I have been to the doctor more in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 10 years of my life easy.

      On top of that we ( West Virginia ) have had optimal pre build season weather to break ground on 2 projects I am working on - It has been the right amount of cold to push dirt around without it turning to mud, but not so cold you are dealing with frozen earth. So standing in sub freezing temps for 10 hours at a crack has not been helping any.

      I am taking yesterday and tomorrow off from any activity what so ever and then Friday and Saturday I have a business meeting I have to get to about 5 hours away... so on Sunday I will get back on track here and start knocking things out.

      Hope you all understand, Thanks!
      I was wondering, but I hope you get well soon, man!

      It's warm where I live now, but I am originally from Chicagoland, so I can empathize with cold and windy weather.

      Let us know when your online work continues. Get well!!
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    An Update

    I am going to throw this project on hold for the time being - somewhere from a few days to a week or so. I first and for most am a business owner and a father of a son and have a wife. Given the current situation that is kinda laying out in front of us in the States at the current time, All of my efforts have been ( in the last couple of days ) and will be to ensure the safety and well being of those around me.

    I am pretty sure everyone will understand!

    Thanks for reading - and in the meantime if I get board I will work on the site LOL - its really hard for me to sit and do nothing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      An Update

      I am going to throw this project on hold for the time being - somewhere from a few days to a week or so. I first and for most am a business owner and a father of a son and have a wife. Given the current situation that is kinda laying out in front of us in the States at the current time, All of my efforts have been ( in the last couple of days ) and will be to ensure the safety and well being of those around me.

      I am pretty sure everyone will understand!
      Absolutely. You do what you gotta do, man.

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Thanks for reading - and in the meantime if I get board I will work on the site LOL - its really hard for me to sit and do nothing.
      It's really hard for me to do that, OR sit and do something lol. I do NOT need tighter hamstrings and abs. I prefer movement.

      I had to take a break for a couple days as well, although not for the same reasons. I've been working on my pages and all the categorical restructuring. It's been incredibly frustrating and upsetting. It creates more work, and then I find all kinds of other things which need to be addressed like adding internal links, removing archive pages from the SE, improving terrible page load speeds and figuring out why a specific page doesn't appear to get indexed.

      Each of which are much less enjoyable compared to content creation and social sharing, which I cannot do if I'm engaged in the other stuff. However, I was surprised to find that google's speed tool gave my Ultimate Guide a 9/100 on mobile, which may or may not be why it has such a poor rank. I "smush" images, use caching and have begun "sweeping" of the databases. Speed is not much improved. I may have to remove some images, add a table of contents and/or pagination, or break it apart into two separate guides - one for visitors and the other for residents.

      Anyway, I took a break and hiked the entire San Antonio Riverwalk with my dog. It's an easy hike, but it runs 15 miles through the city, for those not familiar with it. I haven't created an article or video yet, but did share a photo on Reddit - specifically the SA subreddit. I've always gotten much more interaction on that site compared to any other (IG, FB, Pin, etc.). Of course, it's not based on friends and follows. Thousands may see your post without being in your "tribe" or whatever they're calling it these days. So, I guess I learned I need to concentrate more on that site specifically by being a valuable resource in my niche.

      Oh, I also learned that even though the local grocery stores (HEB) are being ransacked, life was going on as usual along the Riverwalk. People were touring the Missions, biking the Riverwalk, dining downtown, hanging out in the modernized areas, posing for photos, or also walking their dog along the river like me. I could write about it, but I'm still on website cleanup duty...

      End rant. Good luck in your various locations people, and stay well!
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

        I've been working on my pages and all the categorical restructuring. It's been incredibly frustrating and upsetting. It creates more work, and then I find all kinds of other things which need to be addressed like adding internal links, removing archive pages from the SE, improving terrible page load speeds and figuring out why a specific page doesn't appear to get indexed.
        Structure in terms of SEO and how to implement a working UI ( User interface ) that creates a more than workable UX ( User Experience ) is hard enough for most to implement starting fresh let alone going back later and having to do it.

        I would say that more than a good portion of my "Success" has been having the ability to see beyond NOW and seeing into the future. How things I do in the NOW will effect things later.

        With this site I am creating I will be developing stages of content... start with Building Domain ability, and then progressing into a more financially viable aspect of the same vertical. NOW is going to be centralized around a specific themes content and as it progresses it will focus more on developing an online business using WordPress and other platforms as well.

        So the end goal ( short term 1 year end goal ) is to migrate to eBay content where there is a better likelihood of greater income flow... but NOW, as much as there are traffic gaps, there is no short term financial opportunities. I can start with $15 a conversion in selling a theme upgrade.. develop Domain ability, and then transition to a broader WordPress world, and then transition again to using the website as a base, and expanding platforms to both sell and draw traffic.

        The whole idea of slam bam thank you ma'am selling off the get is where you will see the 99% fail rates. PATIENCE.. and BUILDING value wins in the long run, I would say wins Almost if not ALL of the time. It doesn't matter what the cost of what you are selling is... it matters what the value before presenting the offer is ( if that makes sense )

        In the long run for you, the pain and agony will be worth while... just think what you are doing, I do on a daily basis LOL - and I enjoy it - Oh the Humanity!!!! LOL
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        • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


          So the end goal ( short term 1 year end goal ) is to migrate to eBay content where there is a better likelihood of greater income flow...
          Does most of your marketing revolve around eBay? I used it a ton (mostly as a buyer) about a decade ago, but more recently have only used eBay to get something I couldn't find anywhere else. It seems like there would be much less going on in eBay these days with other companies which feed our I-need-it-now lifestyles. Is this not the case?

          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          In the long run for you, the pain and agony will be worth while... just think what you are doing, I do on a daily basis LOL - and I enjoy it - Oh the Humanity!!!! LOL
          It's not that the pain and agony will be worth it. It's more like, I won't remember them so much, so they won't have great relevance.

          Well, I don't envy you, lol. In fact, I installed two new valves today for one of my sinks. The bloody things never fail to leak for me after install. I end up spending a lot of time correcting leaks on what seems like a perfectly good install. Yeah, my website kind of feels like that about now.
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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

            Does most of your marketing revolve around eBay? I used it a ton (mostly as a buyer) about a decade ago, but more recently have only used eBay to get something I couldn't find anywhere else. It seems like there would be much less going on in eBay these days with other companies which feed our I-need-it-now lifestyles. Is this not the case?
            In terms of time about 1/6 of my day more or less. My wife plays on number of platforms... having this aspect of business in house for a guy that sells other peoples stuff either from their sites directly or with the help of a platform like eBay or Amazon or Etsy its a super added bonus to be in those market spaces and selling, to optimize the performance of my clients.

            eBay has its place as does Etsy and Amazon. "Hand Crafts" sell far better on Etsy than the other 2. eBay is good for older collectibles and such - and auto parts and things of that nature. Amazon is good for BRAND and BRAND only and The idea of selling "Used" anything on Amazon is really not an option.

            Seller support across the 3 platforms is another consideration... on Amazon for the most part there is none.. the customer is always right and that's the end of that. Ebay there is a fine line of flexibility and the customer being right. Etsy is on the line of once its shipped its no longer your problem kind of thing.

            Again they all have their places.. My least favorite is Amazon - but sourcing "Quantity" is far easier than sourcing one offs

            The majority of my day is spent supplying services to small business' Websites, SEO CRO, Large format printing. Vinyl lettering, printing etc. I also have a branch of my business that does Satellite TV and Internet installs and service. I also have gotten into real estate IE buying low, rehabbing, and renting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Eske
    Very simple,

    Get a domain name
    Get hosting
    Promote an affiliate product or your product
    And keep promoting it to drive visitors to the site, eventually someone will purchase through your site, and now you have a profit making website. The very simple way of explaining of starting with nothing in IM
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
      Originally Posted by Jordan Eske View Post

      Very simple,

      Get a domain name
      Get hosting
      Promote an affiliate product or your product
      And keep promoting it to drive visitors to the site, eventually someone will purchase through your site, and now you have a profit making website. The very simple way of explaining of starting with nothing in IM
      That's not exactly a "profit-making website" if you take into account what was paid for domain and hosting, as well as the time or money that goes into "promotion". No one goes through that much hassle to sell a single product. There is far more involved, and much more to be said about the methods of promotion. How, and what you promote is an important factor. It needs to be something people want or need, and easily accessible.

      Let's say I want to sell, The Iliad. Should I purchase a random hosting package, order a domain called "buymybookdotcom", then purchase facebook ads to promote the book? No! You missed the whole part about doing research and learning from people who have successfully done something similar.

      Has it really been that simple for you? I rather doubt it.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by Jordan Eske View Post

      keep promoting it to drive visitors to the site, eventually someone will purchase
      This is the part I have an issue with... this is what everyone says, simply because they don't know differently...

      I WILL share "differently" I will share HOW to promote correctly - and how to develop a site from the get go that will do a bunch of this work for you. one could say it is the Smarter not Harder method to starting a site and creating sales.

      This has been the absolute worst time to start a thread like this. My life professionally and personally is completely consumed. 3 hours of 5th grade homework is not help any either LOL

      I have not forgotten this - I will get there I promise!
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


        I WILL share "differently" I will share HOW to promote correctly - and how to develop a site from the get go that will do a bunch of this work for you. one could say it is the Smarter not Harder method to starting a site and creating sales.
        That's great because I am terrible at promoting myself (it is known) and probably take the harder routes most often.

        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        This has been the absolute worst time to start a thread like this.
        I disagree! It's exactly the type of thread I need. For instance, I created that service page which is basically just a really awesome resume, but my trouble is gathering a following, getting a link or two from a well ranking website in my niche and so on - you know, promotion.

        So seeing someone else take those steps is practically essential. Everybody knows and shares basic elements of marketing a website, but not many are willing to go through the exact steps. I mean, not for free. I'm sure there are a thousand ebooks about it.

        Also, sometimes people tell you a lot of stuff which worked for them, but it doesn't exactly apply to your situation. I'm just hearing now that maybe I cannot rank on page one with an ultimate guide because all of the other pages ranking are short blurbs (which google seems to prefer in this topic). It seems pretty unfair. I mean, how does google know if any one person is going to find it more-or-less helpful? It's not a living entity which is capable of thought, although people prefer to talk about it like it is.

        Anyway, I continue to fight that battle. I know such a guide is useful because people say so. Can it beat out a bunch of "best places" posts which lack greatly in detail? Eh, we'll see.
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

          That's great because I am terrible at promoting myself (it is known) and probably take the harder routes most often.



          I disagree! It's exactly the type of thread I need. For instance, I created that service page which is basically just a really awesome resume, but my trouble is gathering a following, getting a link or two from a well ranking website in my niche and so on - you know, promotion.

          So seeing someone else take those steps is practically essential. Everybody knows and shares basic elements of marketing a website, but not many are willing to go through the exact steps. I mean, not for free. I'm sure there are a thousand ebooks about it.

          Also, sometimes people tell you a lot of stuff which worked for them, but it doesn't exactly apply to your situation. I'm just hearing now that maybe I cannot rank on page one with an ultimate guide because all of the other pages ranking are short blurbs (which google seems to prefer in this topic). It seems pretty unfair. I mean, how does google know if any one person is going to find it more-or-less helpful? It's not a living entity which is capable of thought, although people prefer to talk about it like it is.

          Anyway, I continue to fight that battle. I know such a guide is useful because people say so. Can it beat out a bunch of "best places" posts which lack greatly in detail? Eh, we'll see.
          Its not a great time because unlike many business' mine has grown as in just about doubled ( in terms of people working ) since this craziness started. Which in my case is GREAT because it is helping defer the costs of the people I have sitting at home being paid, because they are classified as non essencial work. LOL

          Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

          I mean, how does google know if any one person is going to find it more-or-less helpful? It's not a living entity which is capable of thought, although people prefer to talk about it like it is
          Starting here because this is just classic. I about fell out of my seat reading this. Im sure its not as funny for you as it is for me... but just wait until you have to hear what I am going to say LOL.

          First of all it really is not an IT or a HE or a SHE.. its closer to a THEM. In my office reference to "Hummingbird" is often used. Hummingbird is kind of the center cog of all the pieces that determine what gets displayed.

          And I know as in know for sure know you are reading this and thinking I have lost my mind... But, Google search is probably the most AI ( human like ) interaction we can deal with on a daily basis. To better understand what the results look like when you type in a search you have to understand what is going on.

          So if we type something like "Pretzels" We can see there is a recipe band on the top, a Wikipedia box on the right a local 3 pack listing a bit down there are videos and popular products.. and then "Types of Bread" is in there. There is a lot going on. All of these elements I have just mentioned have their own Algorithm and Hummingbird puts them all in place.

          Change the term ever so slightly to "Fresh Pretzels" and the SERP page now looks completely different. Look how local elements became real important. On my page the addition of takeout and delivery options are new on the page. Its not that THEY have a brain - THEY understand intent based on the words and the billions of searches before you. Classic AI.

          So why do people refer to Ms. Hummingbird as if it / they were living and breathing? because it is probably as close to living and breathing without lungs as you can get. LOL

          The BIGGEST probably least talked about aspect of SEO is INTENT. To start off here I will talk about the INTENT of the site I will be building for this, and then I will get into some specifics of your site.

          So I have laid out 3 topics overall. They are WordPress, The WordPress Theme, and eBay. ALL 3 of these will be the INTENT used to drive traffic, BUT they are not what will define the intent overall of the site. My site will be more about how to make money online. Shifting my overall intent into the smaller more obtainable sections of intent is by far easier.

          SO how does this apply to your site? ( going to be honest here, don't hate me for it ) YOU are missing INTENT - and I will tell you what you should be focusing on in a minute. an "Ultimate Guide" would be a great piece to offer as a freeby if you are wanting to increase your mailing list. NOT such a great idea if you are looking to develop traffic. I am going to be honest here and say that Traffic really should not be a concern for you... as in you should have more of it than you know what to do with.

          I believe this is something I have said to you before... you should really be writing reviews of each of the parks and restaurants as just that Parks and Restaurants, with links to the articles about your experience with your dog.

          When someone types "<insert park name here>" what is the intent? Go and type this in Google and see what the result is. You should see a box over on the right with park specifics, and then you will see SERP results to include pictures.

          Why would some one on a phone search a park? The answer is because they are going there - as in RIGHT NOW going there.

          ( Because I am a site developer... in my local area I see a Facebook page for each local park... I see some city written material etc. I KNOW you see the same type of things ( maybe not the facebook - This is something we did with the city a few years ago ) )

          So I typed "Brackenridge Park" and there is a Wikipedia listing in the top 10 as in at #5. I see they the park specifically ( the city I will assume ) has a site, and then there is a city gov site listing in there. The Wikipedia listing tells me that it should be super easy to get a page listed in there - like easy easy.

          so 2 pieces of content.. the Park itself - big park lots of content - break down each of the attractions Zoo, Tea Gardens, Golf etc... include a link for each on directions to get to that specific attraction. On the top of this page you will want to have a link something to the effect of "Interested in taking your dog for a walk in Brackenridge Park? - click here" and this leads to your 2nd piece of content... the dog friendly piece. I know there is a "Bark Park" there describe that insert a directions link - and then go further with your article of the path you took and photos etc

          I would almost bet.. I could create a piece of content for that park on your website that would stand a chance at outranking the City's pages - because they have USER flaws. Because in the end it will be INTENT that wins the day.

          So I will ask again: Why would some one on a phone search a park? The answer is because they are going there - as in RIGHT NOW going there. If you goto their "Park Destinations page ( something I would replicate ) do you see "Directions" to the front door of any of these places? uh NO

          So right now you are thinking... but I have a site about dogs... Parks and Restaurants that I can take my dog you say. ok fine... but how many people actually search "dog friendly park" on their phone? probably not to many. How many search "<insert park name>" probably way more...and then to give a directions option as in "click" and start route kind of interaction... uh Ms. Hummingbird loves sh-t like that.

          Good ranking begets good ranking. look at the broader "less defined" intent and answer that, and rank far better with your more refined intent based content IE Pet Friendly parks and Restaurants.

          Hope that Helps!
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          • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
            Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


            First of all it really is not an IT or a HE or a SHE.. its closer to a THEM. In my office reference to "Hummingbird" is often used. Hummingbird is kind of the center cog of all the pieces that determine what gets displayed.

            And I know as in know for sure know you are reading this and thinking I have lost my mind... But, Google search is probably the most AI ( human like ) interaction we can deal with on a daily basis. To better understand what the results look like when you type in a search you have to understand what is going on.

            So if we type something like "Pretzels" We can see there is a recipe band on the top, a Wikipedia box on the right a local 3 pack listing a bit down there are videos and popular products.. and then "Types of Bread" is in there. There is a lot going on. All of these elements I have just mentioned have their own Algorithm and Hummingbird puts them all in place.

            Change the term ever so slightly to "Fresh Pretzels" and the SERP page now looks completely different. Look how local elements became real important. On my page the addition of takeout and delivery options are new on the page. Its not that THEY have a brain - THEY understand intent based on the words and the billions of searches before you. Classic AI.

            So why do people refer to Ms. Hummingbird as if it / they were living and breathing? because it is probably as close to living and breathing without lungs as you can get. LOL
            But it's not though! I consistently get results where it seems to have just threw my words together and pulled up results with those words which don't always answer what I'm looking for. Now, maybe it's doing that because MOST people find those results relevant, but I often have problems with what it is "selling" me. Sometimes I even run into pages from the top ten which have hardly any content at all! What? Perhaps I just happen to search for things which aren't there, but I doubt that is the case. It's more likely higher DM is boosting poor content. Pretty unfair and contradictory to search intent.

            Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post


            SO how does this apply to your site? ( going to be honest here, don't hate me for it ) YOU are missing INTENT - and I will tell you what you should be focusing on in a minute. an "Ultimate Guide" would be a great piece to offer as a freeby if you are wanting to increase your mailing list. NOT such a great idea if you are looking to develop traffic. I am going to be honest here and say that Traffic really should not be a concern for you... as in you should have more of it than you know what to do with.

            I believe this is something I have said to you before... you should really be writing reviews of each of the parks and restaurants as just that Parks and Restaurants, with links to the articles about your experience with your dog.

            When someone types "<insert park name here>" what is the intent? Go and type this in Google and see what the result is. You should see a box over on the right with park specifics, and then you will see SERP results to include pictures.

            Why would some one on a phone search a park? The answer is because they are going there - as in RIGHT NOW going there.
            I search the name to find its location, yes, but I also want to know what it's like, does it have a history, is it dog friendly AND is it worth visiting. Basic reviews share none of these things for the most part, at least not in the amount of detail I prefer. So, I do it myself.

            I'm confused about what you mentioned about reviews: create a review and link to the experience? BUT the experience is the review and vice versa. I don't get where you are going with this.

            I made a slight breakthrough with google though and had to share it.

            I FINALLY figured out the block, or penalty as it were. It seems my complimentary article was competing too closely with my primary guide for its topic. I revised the title, but did not have to change too much content because it was not optimized for the guides topic. It was simply supposed to compliment it. To the guide (during the week) I had also added content, changed some photos, reworded headings, removed the internal links to smaller articles AND (you'll love this one) added external navigational links to google maps for every single park listed.

            Once I revised the smaller articles title and prompted google to re-index from the search console, both articles appeared for their topics. Neither on page one, unfortunately, but baby steps must be made. Next, something very bizarre happened.

            I re-activated the pretty links plug-in which had been non-active all week. I'm not using it for affiliate links or anything bad so I assumed it was not problematic. However, once I did that the guide disappeared from the search results and my smaller article reappeared FOR THE OLD TITLE. Consequently, I deleted the plugin because it's obviously affecting my rankings even though I'm not using it for anything underhanded.

            What's happening now? The guide appears in the results. Great! The complimentary article appears in two different searches with two different titles (same url). WHAT!? Its new title shows up in one search and its old title is now also showing up in its old position. Something is seriously going wrong here.

            Anyway, I received your message and will reach out to you soon. Just wanted to share the bizarre nature of the great and powerful google. Also anxious to see how your new site does...
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            • Profile picture of the author savidge4
              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              But it's not though! I consistently get results where it seems to have just threw my words together and pulled up results with those words which don't always answer what I'm looking for. Now, maybe it's doing that because MOST people find those results relevant, but I often have problems with what it is "selling" me. Sometimes I even run into pages from the top ten which have hardly any content at all! What? Perhaps I just happen to search for things which aren't there, but I doubt that is the case. It's more likely higher DM is boosting poor content. Pretty unfair and contradictory to search intent.
              Are there bad eggs in the listings? and the answer is sure... Are there pages that hit on many points of intent and just don't happen to tap into yours... and I would be inclined to say this is probably more the case.

              An example I use with some regularity... Goto Google and look up "Wedding" and look at what the top 5 pages have to offer. Chances are better than good the content will be thin at best and will be links to "Wedding dress" and "cost of wedding" etc THIS is what I call intent based content... Taking a wide subject and by intent redirecting the traffic within your site vs back to Google.

              I am sure you have read about "Bounce" meaning a page that is clicked on, and then clicked away from. Bounce by itself is this ambiguous number that by definition means something but truly does not relate in any way shape or form to how it effects rank on Google. And YES it does effect rank on Google. BUT its only the bounce that originates from a click on Google search, lands on a page and then goes back to the same google search and another link is pressed.

              I would argue that a Google instigated bounce that returns to Google and then a new search query is typed is not as "Damning" as a user clicking another link in the original search results. I would suggest this becomes a process of understanding Intent is not met and then refined... resulting ranking pages over time become as I have described above thin on content but better funneling the traffic to avoid a bounce. Make sense?

              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              I'm confused about what you mentioned about reviews: create a review and link to the experience? BUT the experience is the review and vice versa. I don't get where you are going with this.
              When dealing with local based search the rules change a bit ( maybe a lot is a better term LOL ). If you type a term such as "City Park" into Google... I will better than assume you will see results that are related to your current location over anything else, correct? Now lets search "City Park that I can walk my dog" and sh-t hits the fan.

              So how do you over come this? You give Google what is DOES KNOW, City Parks, and redirect intent to what you KNOW, City Parks that I can walk my dog.

              So the theory played out here is developing a string of "Island Pages" Look up what this means in terms of SEO... and then read: https://incomebully.com/local-seo-tu...icate-content/ When reading this understand your content would NOT BE duplicate.. but the information applies to "Parks" and setting geographic ties to content in the same manor as it does cities.

              You "visible" site structure remains the same and you may drop a link in your About Us and Contact Us page to this subset of your site that is simply about parks and restaurants. These pages will link within themselves and up to your primary content... but never should you have a link other than the 2 suggested spots dropping down to them.


              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              I FINALLY figured out the block, or penalty as it were. It seems my complimentary article was competing too closely with my primary guide for its topic. I revised the title, but did not have to change too much content because it was not optimized for the guides topic. It was simply supposed to compliment it. To the guide (during the week) I had also added content, changed some photos, reworded headings, removed the internal links to smaller articles AND (you'll love this one) added external navigational links to google maps for every single park listed.
              I might suggest placing the linkage to the "smaller" articles back in - as long as it is sharing more information. In the same breath you want to link the smaller articles to the bigger one

              Look at this: https://support.google.com/maps/answ...op&hl=en&oco=1 and take your map additions to the next level and include "Directions" vs just a map. So maybe display a map and then have a directions link. And this is something I would do on every single page that is written about a location on your site. THIS helps Ms. Hummingbird better understand that your content is location based and about dogs pets friendly.

              Again look at the example above "City Park" vs "City park that I can walk my dog" GEOGRAPHY is by far the most critical element. Its what separates "Local Search" from "Organic Search"

              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              I re-activated the pretty links plug-in which had been non-active all week. I'm not using it for affiliate links or anything bad so I assumed it was not problematic. However, once I did that the guide disappeared from the search results and my smaller article reappeared FOR THE OLD TITLE. Consequently, I deleted the plugin because it's obviously affecting my rankings even though I'm not using it for anything underhanded.
              Google plays a numbers game... 60% seems to be the magic number for Google. If a product reaches 60% saturation they will keep it and invest more... If pretty links is used "wrong" 60% of the time, they simply identify its use and deny it. I personally have never understood the need to "Hide Links" who gives a rats tail? Google can see where its coming from and going anyways.. your not hiding anything from them... its just Stupid ( says I )

              Originally Posted by Dave Earley View Post

              What's happening now? The guide appears in the results. Great! The complimentary article appears in two different searches with two different titles (same url). WHAT!? Its new title shows up in one search and its old title is now also showing up in its old position. Something is seriously going wrong here.
              As fairly instant as SEO and its efforts have gotten there are still things that take an amount of time. This will correct itself in due time. When I first started SEO back in the late 90's Google would scan sections of the internet at a time. So changes to SERPS occurred maybe once every 6 months or so... people are impatient now? LOL I just laugh. They also say that it takes forever to rank... Not if you know what you are doing LOL You saw results just short of instantly... IF you knew exactly what might be holding you back, you could make changes and see the results in hours to a day or so - I would try adding back the internal linking as a start.
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              • Profile picture of the author Dave Earley
                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                Are there bad eggs in the listings? and the answer is sure... Are there pages that hit on many points of intent and just don't happen to tap into yours... and I would be inclined to say this is probably more the case....
                THIS is what I call intent based content... Taking a wide subject and by intent redirecting the traffic within your site vs back to Google.
                Make sense?
                Uh, yes. I understand most people want to funnel people through their own site especially if there is a landing page, or something like that. In my case, would that mean landing on a park page, and then internally linking to other pages which stem from it? Why not just have it all on the first page?

                You said there are probably pages which do not tap into my interest. Definitely. However, there are also unrelated results mixed in. You maybe get different results, but I type in "San Antonio Mountain" and the 4th result is a San Antonio Mag article about parks (the same one which gets the top stop for MANY different searches in my niche). They used the phrase "horseback and mountain bikes pass by" and got skyrocketed ahead of at least 10 other articles with the key phrase in the title AND article. When in fact, it has nothing to do with what I am looking for.

                This happens to me all the time. I am constantly going beyond page one or back to retry the search, and I generally use more words than 3. Sometimes I'll type in an entire question to try and get a better response. "What should I have in my robot.txt", and I get articles talking about what a robots.txt is, how to access it, 1 or 2 things you can include, etc. We as information gatherers are forced to actually think about how to phrase something in order to get the results we are looking for. Most people are not going to do this. Sometimes it bums me out because I have some decent information to share, but people are going to get the "best" places from this magazine site, or the video that news site recently posted, etc.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                When dealing with local based search the rules change a bit ( maybe a lot is a better term LOL ). If you type a term such as "City Park" into Google... I will better than assume you will see results that are related to your current location over anything else, correct? Now lets search "City Park that I can walk my dog" and sh-t hits the fan.

                So how do you over come this? You give Google what is DOES KNOW, City Parks, and redirect intent to what you KNOW, City Parks that I can walk my dog.

                So the theory played out here is developing a string of "Island Pages" Look up what this means in terms of SEO... and then read: https://incomebully.com/local-seo-tu...icate-content/ When reading this understand your content would NOT BE duplicate.. but the information applies to "Parks" and setting geographic ties to content in the same manor as it does cities.

                You "visible" site structure remains the same and you may drop a link in your About Us and Contact Us page to this subset of your site that is simply about parks and restaurants. These pages will link within themselves and up to your primary content... but never should you have a link other than the 2 suggested spots dropping down to them.
                Again, I search for "island pages" and google gives me pictures of island. I search "island pages for seo" and I get a bunch of companies which market SEO. I type in "using island pages for Wordpress" and I get themes for Wordpress. Google doesn't know what I am looking for and I don't know what the "magic" phrase is to get the results I am looking for. I'm gonna have to call you on that one because I'm still not sure how the pages relate to my site and why multiple pages are better than one page with multiple uses.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                I might suggest placing the linkage to the "smaller" articles back in - as long as it is sharing more information. In the same breath you want to link the smaller articles to the bigger one
                I'm planning on doing that. It was just part of the troubleshooting phase so I could tell if google thought I had too many links on one page. Most of my content points to the guide as it stands, so I wanted to make sure it was clear which page "I want" to rank for hiking in my area. Google did not seem to know.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                Look at this: https://support.google.com/maps/answ...op&hl=en&oco=1 and take your map additions to the next level and include "Directions" vs just a map. So maybe display a map and then have a directions link. And this is something I would do on every single page that is written about a location on your site. THIS helps Ms. Hummingbird better understand that your content is location based and about dogs pets friendly.

                Again look at the example above "City Park" vs "City park that I can walk my dog" GEOGRAPHY is by far the most critical element. Its what separates "Local Search" from "Organic Search"
                Okay, I get that, but my guide has over 30 parks listed inside. I cannot add 30 something maps, it's overwhelming. I either need to link through the address, or embed one giant map which shows all the locations (not sure if that is possible).

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                Google plays a numbers game... 60% seems to be the magic number for Google. If a product reaches 60% saturation they will keep it and invest more... If pretty links is used "wrong" 60% of the time, they simply identify its use and deny it. I personally have never understood the need to "Hide Links" who gives a rats tail? Google can see where its coming from and going anyways.. your not hiding anything from them... its just Stupid ( says I )
                It's not for google. I think many people use it so we don't see an affiliate link prior to clicking the link. I was simply going to use it to create short links I could easily remember and share on social media and blogs and stuff. I only had a few links out there which were shortened, but it turned out to be an invisible penalty apparently. What's interesting though, the guide would rank for "keyword", "location", plus "guide", but not anything excluding the "guide" in the search. Now, it suddenly ranks without "guide" after I did all of that troubleshooting.

                Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

                As fairly instant as SEO and its efforts have gotten there are still things that take an amount of time. This will correct itself in due time. When I first started SEO back in the late 90's Google would scan sections of the internet at a time. So changes to SERPS occurred maybe once every 6 months or so... people are impatient now? LOL I just laugh. They also say that it takes forever to rank... Not if you know what you are doing LOL You saw results just short of instantly... IF you knew exactly what might be holding you back, you could make changes and see the results in hours to a day or so - I would try adding back the internal linking as a start.
                Or I could get a backlink from San Antonio Mag and be number 2 right behind them (input eye roll here).
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        • Profile picture of the author socialentry
          Banned
          Hi, I play a Japanese mobile gacha game that has a small but hardcore following in the West. I'm thinking of making a fan site for it and I was wondering if I could ask for advice/do a sanity check?

          There is one main fan website which acts somewhat like a hub to the game. It acts as an encyclopedia, complete with stats on the cards, drop probabilities et al.. It is very complete, but there is one part that is a bit lacklustre:

          They have strategy guides for biweekly events,but the problem is that, for harder content, their strategies often hinges on having very rare cards which by definition doesn't represent the majority of players. So I hope to fill that that niche within a niche.

          Assuming the devs aren't lying, advertising alone + subscriptions is enough to support a team of around dozen fulltime employees for said site so there is at least some money in it for what is a very small niche.

          So my questions: #1.Right now I'm planning a phased rollout mostly because each feature takes time to implement (read:I write spaghetti code) and I have to be wise about it. Also, the search space of the game is bigger then chess, and I have hardware that's... not great for the task so I have to cherry pick a particular aspect of the game to work on.

          What would be a good way to gauge if what I decide to work on a particular day is a good feature or not?

          #2.should I approach the bigger website for a partnership in some way? If so, what would be the best way to do it?

          #3 to what extent can I get away with an ugly website in 2021?
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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by socialentry View Post

            Hi, I play a Japanese mobile gacha game that has a small but hardcore following in the West. I'm thinking of making a fan site for it and I was wondering if I could ask for advice/do a sanity check?

            There is one main fan website which acts somewhat like a hub to the game. It acts as an encyclopedia, complete with stats on the cards, drop probabilities et al.. It is very complete, but there is one part that is a bit lacklustre:

            They have strategy guides for biweekly events,but the problem is that, for harder content, their strategies often hinges on having very rare cards which by definition doesn't represent the majority of players. So I hope to fill that that niche within a niche.

            Assuming the devs aren't lying, advertising alone + subscriptions is enough to support a team of around dozen fulltime employees for said site so there is at least some money in it for what is a very small niche.

            So my questions: #1.Right now I'm planning a phased rollout mostly because each feature takes time to implement (read:I write spaghetti code) and I have to be wise about it. Also, the search space of the game is bigger then chess, and I have hardware that's... not great for the task so I have to cherry pick a particular aspect of the game to work on.

            What would be a good way to gauge if what I decide to work on a particular day is a good feature or not?

            #2.should I approach the bigger website for a partnership in some way? If so, what would be the best way to do it?

            #3 to what extent can I get away with an ugly website in 2021?
            I would say that "Wiki's" by default are "Ugly" so that would be the least of my concern. Form follows function right? so worry far less about that. In terms of a target... outside looking in, A Beginners guide to... seems like a more than logical target. If the idea is developing and showcasing strategies that utilize more common cards - be default your target is "beginners" BUT, I will guess as in with most games understanding the potential of common cards is often a huge advantage even after getting "Rare' cards later as you progress.

            Work flow... your starting out... you will have "good" days and "bad" days, but as long as you are having DAYS - that is all that matters. ( make sense? ) developing a new platform as you are suggesting is simply the day in and day out addition to the bigger picture. Some of the things you may add may be total bombs and others will be huge success'. Its the learning to identify one from the other and building from that, that is the key.

            So to start I would prioritize based on the beginners analogy... watch some videos on how to play "Hearts" or how to play "Spades" or how to play "Uno" ( extremely dumbed down versions of strategy card games ) and see how the more advanced strategies are introduced. Outline a simple path.. you need to know this first, then this, then that, than the other... and just start working down the list and fill in as you go. again good and bad days, but as long as you are adding to the collective you are headed in the right direction.

            I would not be looking to partner with the other site. My personal thought process would be to head in the direction of being of such value that they ( the other site ) would want to buy you out - just how my brain works.

            Hope that answered it all... if not ask away!
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        • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
          Have you been switch to Ebay paying you directly ? About the beginning of the year Ebay took over handling payments and deposit it.

          Where Paypal use to have the money available and you could use a portion for shipping and just add to your Paypal account. Now Ebay handles everything and deposits the money directly in to your bank account. Yet to ship you still need to use Paypal to handle shipping costs.
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          You can earn 10% average annual returns on your investments - https://app.groundfloor.us/r/m2aa7b
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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by DWolfe View Post

            Have you been switch to Ebay paying you directly ? About the beginning of the year Ebay took over handling payments and deposit it.

            Where Paypal use to have the money available and you could use a portion for shipping and just add to your Paypal account. Now Ebay handles everything and deposits the money directly in to your bank account. Yet to ship you still need to use Paypal to handle shipping costs.
            I switched to "Managed Payments" a while back. I have my payments set for "Tuesday" and shipping cost is pulled from my balance. You can access this by going to your sellers hub and then look for the "Payments" tab.

            I want to say somewhere that the option to do this ( use available managed fees) to pay for the shipping was an option somewhere.. but I am unable to find it. I might call customer support and ask how to do this and maybe share your answer? on maybe the eBay thread? LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author tomirae
    I am looking forward when you are able to resume this thread. I really appreciate your insight and guidance.
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  • Profile picture of the author VirtualVeena
    Will be following this for sure.
    Regards
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    Achchaa
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  • Profile picture of the author tnob
    Bro, just finished reading this thread. Incredible. So many insights. Thank you.

    1) Where are you at with this website?? Any updates?

    2) I have seen you say several times "share YOU". First of all, I understand the concept of "don't do it to make money, do it bc you enjoy it". Secondly, I am wanting to start in IM to have supplemental income, Not get rich quick, Not life changing income. Thirdly, I want to build something that I can sell (obvi would be nice to sell for lots, but again not looking to get rich quick).

    My ONE kinda failure with IM has been "WordPress" and its not that it was a "Failure" - I sold the site for a ton of money... but I was having a real hard time monetizing the damn thing - Had some youtube revenue, and some adsense revenue, but nothing spectacular
    This site you mention selling for a ton of money, was that a site that was based on something specific about you? Like did it have your name and personal experiences, did the "About Us" have you all over it?

    I think my real question is, if I want to sell a site, it seems like basing the site on my own personal experiences would not be sellable to a future purchaser, what say you?
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by tnob View Post

      Bro, just finished reading this thread. Incredible. So many insights. Thank you.

      1) Where are you at with this website?? Any updates?
      Based on what happened in the last year the project was put on hold. My person business in the past year has grown in multiple directions at in some cases a staggering rate. There has simply not been enough time in the day to do all of the things I want to do. This is just not one of those projects I can delegate - I mean I could, but it wouldn't be the same if that makes sense?

      I WANT to get back on track with this... It actually weighs heavy on my mind. During the last year would have been the BEST time to place the things I will demonstrate into motion. Interestingly the last year there has been a shift in the "market" and I think anyone that deals with online sales of any kind may be able to attest to this shift in the dynamic. So in a sense all things happen for a reason, and what I may have said a year ago may have been valid today, but not as valid as moving forward after the shift and sharing the information.

      So again I do very much intend to move forward with the project, its just a matter of me finding the time. Getting my son through this year of home school will likely be a lift in time for me to do this.

      Originally Posted by tnob View Post

      2) I have seen you say several times "share YOU". First of all, I understand the concept of "don't do it to make money, do it bc you enjoy it". Secondly, I am wanting to start in IM to have supplemental income, Not get rich quick, Not life changing income. Thirdly, I want to build something that I can sell (obvi would be nice to sell for lots, but again not looking to get rich quick).
      There are 2 birds here and you hold one stone - I would suggest you cant have both... I will go a step further and suggest you dont want both. Think about this for a moment... Creativity can create money... Money will never create creativity.

      I personally am a "developer" I specifically build business' or websites ( for clients ) or startups or anything else I do with the specific intent of building and selling. You do this by developing BRAND over YOU. In a nutshell its growing a business based upon "We" vs "Me" It sounds easy, but in practice probably not so easy. I would START with a ME centric build to understand the process before venturing to a WE centric build.

      One of the things I do within my organization is build out affiliate sites based on interest of the people that work with me. Be it the people in my deliver aspect or my satellite aspect or my web aspect or my ebay or printing or whatever ever I am doing... ( the list is long ). Everyone has at least 1 or 2 sites that they are "responsible" for and these sites are very "Me" centric The thinking behind this is that this is the step between ME ME ME and how BRAND operates as WE WE WE.

      My Primary business is web development. At the end of the year this is the portion of my business that produces the most income. EVERYONE from the bottom to the top regardless of "job" through this exercise understands what ultimately pays the bills, and how exactly it works - THIS is Brand, with a better than healthy dose of positive work culture. As a side note all of the proceeds for the year of all of the "employee" sites is collected and distributed as a bonus - EQUALLY

      Originally Posted by tnob View Post

      This site you mention selling for a ton of money, was that a site that was based on something specific about you? Like did it have your name and personal experiences, did the "About Us" have you all over it?
      The site in question was bought by Expedia to get as close to specific as possible. It wasnt so much the site itself it was the back end that ran the site - booking hotels specifically and the digital connection between those with the rooms ( hotels ) and the clients ( those looking for rooms ). Meaning hotels could go into the site and adjust rates and available rooms to fit their needs vs the set contract or allocation of rooms that was present at the time.

      The About Us was all about BRAND and had nothing to do with me or the other 4 partners in the venture. Once we got structurally serious I think there was mention to the "CEO" and maybe the media agent and that was probably as personal as it got.

      Originally Posted by tnob View Post

      I think my real question is, if I want to sell a site, it seems like basing the site on my own personal experiences would not be sellable to a future purchaser, what say you?
      Lets take this a couple of steps deeper. When developing a site there are 2 major considerations that need to be looked at. There is the "buyers profile/voice", and the "sellers profile/voice". Buyers profile/voice is understand specifically who you are selling to, where they hang out and the language they use. 20 somethings use a totally different vocabulary than say a 40 year old. YOU as the seller need to match your "voice" to match.

      And it really doesnt stop there, you need a number of voices - especially in todays environment. You need without question a Male voice and a Female voice. Depending on what you are selling you may need a more liberal voice or for a lack of a better term a more patriotic voice. You may want a more subtle southern charm approach vs a more aggressive northern style.

      These are things that the majority of marketers fall on by accident. Simply by the style of "YOU" you are including and excluding a great number of people based on how you communicate.

      These things change primarily based on platform. when we sell physical goods, how a description reads on Amazon will be different than the same product on eBay, or Facebook, or Etsy, or Instagram.

      As I am writing this I had the thought of needing a real world example of this. The name Mattew Woodard (.co.uk) came immediately to mind. The guy is based in the UK, He is a SEO specialist and has some pretty decent content. What brought this guy to mind is his e-mail marketing efforts... its actually one worth following. Once you have read some of his material, you can without question identify the articles HE has written vs the ones that were written for him ( the voice changes ) What gets REAL interesting because he does a monthly round up, is you can see how HIS pitches outsell the outsourced ones.

      So understanding some of the dynamics lets now maybe answer the question at hand... what say I? If over the course of a couple of months you can develop a site that is producing $100 a week ( $5200 a year ) WHY?!?!?! would you sell that for $2000 or less?

      Sustainability and wealth is not built on selling $2000 sites 3 or 4 times a year. Build out 2 $100 a week sites ( $10400 a year vs $6000 or $8000 ) and you are already ahead of the game. Go check out Andrew Hansen at digitalworth .com - get on that mailing list ( again another great example of e-mail marketing ) and see how he might answer this question. Spoiler alert - he wouldnt sell sites.

      I will say this, I DO sell sites... BUT they are sites that are poor performing, or for whatever reason the person that was creating the content ( the voice ) is no longer doing so and the replacement voice flopped.

      To kind of bring this all full circle... You want to start with YOU... you have to understand the process, and you dont have to fake anything - I will say this and I will assume you will agree - you can READ honesty and sincerity. You can SEE it on YouTube or Instagram. "Fake it until you make it" simply does not work - Creativity can create money... Money will never create creativity.

      Hope that answers the questions!
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      • Profile picture of the author tnob
        There has simply not been enough time in the day to do all of the things I want to do. This is just not one of those projects I can delegate
        For sure totally understand, and definitely would not be the same if you delegated it.

        Interestingly the last year there has been a shift in the "market"...
        Very curious what you mean by "shift in the market". I know that there has been an obvious, observable shift in online sales and traffic from brick and motor, is that what you mean?

        ...what I may have said a year ago may have been valid today, but not as valid as moving forward after the shift and sharing the information
        Also, what do you mean about the validity of what you said a year ago being different? Is that regarding optimizing for SERPs?

        One of the things I do within my organization is build out affiliate sites based on interest of the people that work with me. Be it the people in my deliver aspect or my satellite aspect or my web aspect or my ebay or printing or whatever ever I am doing... ( the list is long ). Everyone has at least 1 or 2 sites that they are "responsible" for and these sites are very "Me" centric The thinking behind this is that this is the step between ME ME ME and how BRAND operates as WE WE WE.

        My Primary business is web development. At the end of the year this is the portion of my business that produces the most income. EVERYONE from the bottom to the top regardless of "job" through this exercise understands what ultimately pays the bills, and how exactly it works - THIS is Brand, with a better than healthy dose of positive work culture. As a side note all of the proceeds for the year of all of the "employee" sites is collected and distributed as a bonus - EQUALLY
        I like a lot about this. So cool to empower others while creating a unified vision.

        As I am writing this I had the thought of needing a real world example of this. The name Mattew Woodard (.co.uk) came immediately to mind.
        I will follow Matthew and see if I can pick up what you mean. I wonder, are you saying that his personal content brings in $$$$ while his outsourced content brings in $$ or $$$? If so, I am okay with generating a few less sheckels to delegate that out.

        So understanding some of the dynamics lets now maybe answer the question at hand... what say I? If over the course of a couple of months you can develop a site that is producing $100 a week ( $5200 a year ) WHY?!?!?! would you sell that for $2000 or less?
        To clarify, my goal would be more like building up a website over several years that is producing ~$120k/year and selling it for a multiple of its Net Income, at least ~$120K sales price. To go a step further, my goal would be to own an affiliate site that is promoting the products of an eComm site I own, and in a few years (however long it takes, 2-5 years), bundle them and sell (for ~$500k-$1M). To go another step further, I want to buy an affiliate site and buy an eComm site in a similar niche (combined initial value ~$500k-$1M), grow them together and build a portfolio that way.

        I was thinking that it would be harder, but maybe wiser to start small and just build those sites on my own, learning the ropes as I go, and then scale as I go that way. I am not opposed to just jumping straight to the acquisitions level right off the get (as you say). But I am not sure if that would be too large a learning curve, and if I would be relying too much on other people's methods (people that I would hire to run the sites), rather than my own abilities as an owner. Does that make sense?

        I will say this, I DO sell sites... BUT they are sites that are poor performing, or for whatever reason the person that was creating the content ( the voice ) is no longer doing so and the replacement voice flopped.
        Please DM me your name so that I don't buy one of these websites from you lolol!

        To kind of bring this all full circle... You want to start with YOU... you have to understand the process, and you dont have to fake anything - I will say this and I will assume you will agree - you can READ honesty and sincerity. You can SEE it on YouTube or Instagram. "Fake it until you make it" simply does not work - Creativity can create money... Money will never create creativity.
        If you cannot tell already, I am really new to this online business world. Though I have been paying attention for years, "tried" to start a few online businesses, gone thru a few guru programs years ago, It is only now that I have the time, money, and drive to go at it full throttle. So I am trying to figure out what is the best and most efficient use of my time, money, and energy. Is it getting into the weeds and really learning from the ground up? Or is it finding someone/something that is already working and leveraging that.

        I am stepping out of my comfort zone here and going through this thought process on the forum. So, I truly appreciate all that you have already said, and all that others say on WF to help me and others like me. I am also assuming/hoping that others will have a similar path as me who this could help as well.
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