Introductions Thread

[Tonyshm]

Hi @msa123

It's great to see a well-established DM veteran in the forum. Do you mind doing an AMA if your schedule allows it? If may I start: What are your favorite ways to promote a new website? Do you relly only on SEO?

Welcome to this great forum
Cheers!

 

[msa123]

Welcome, @msa123, a true veteran of the game! Are you saying that all 5 of your current sites are in the same vertical?

I've never tried it but I've often thought about building 3 of the exact same sites but make them look different. Each one would get the same keyword-focused articles (written differently of course). Just whatever I would do, I would do in three's. And see where that got me. If you could take the top 3 of all the SERPs, you'd really soak it up and truly dominate.

Sorry should have clarified. All my 5 sites are in different niches.

However, with one of my sites, it's been growing so well that I am doing mini-acquisitions of social profiles (i.e., Pinterest, Facebook groups, and smaller niche sites) to essentially grow it into a powerhouse media play. I've purchased recently two Facebook groups, Pinterest profile, and also doing ads on a existing Facebook group to grow my email list. It's been working well.

As for dominating the serp with many sites, it's in my long-term plan to do that if I can acquire another site in the same niche. I can just target the same keywords.

Hi @msa123

It's great to see a well-established DM veteran in the forum. Do you mind doing an AMA if your schedule allows it? If may I start: What are your favorite ways to promote a new website? Do you relly only on SEO?

Welcome to this great forum
Cheers!

Thanks!

I go MUCH more in-depth in my free newsletter that I host on the platform, Subtack. I do monthly case studies of all my sites and how I grow and then flip them. So doing detailed case studies and AMAs here may not fit my schedule as the newsletter takes a lot of time. I'm happy to quickly answer questions.

As for your questions:

What are your favorite ways to promote a new website?

I always focus on long-tail keywords first to drive up the traffic after acquisition. This is easy to do if you have the processes in place.

I then focus on email list development (if the niche allows, not all do), and social traffic. I have a VA that manges my Pinterest and Facebook channels to drive traffic. I personally handle email management as I am yet to find anyone I can trust to take care of that.

Do you relly only on SEO?

SEO will always drive the most traffic. However, I work VERY hard to diversify the traffic to essentially build a moat around my businesses.

 

[kizen]

Hi there, newbie affiliate here in BKK. Would love to meet others in the locality!

 

[Sutra]

Welcome. I live in Hua Hin. Are you temporarily in BKK or are you an expat?

Are you new to online marketing in general, or do you have experience but are new to the affiliate side? What brought you to BuSo?

 

[heman1320]

Hi I'm George. I'm trying to make the switch from ME to SEO specialist. I have been studying SEO for over 5 years now. I know it will be a pay cut in the beginning, but I'm hoping to do some affiliate work to make up the gap. So if you guys have any Junior SEO positions I'm all ears!!

​

Oh and I'm in AZ....lol

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome, George (@heman1320). Can you tell us what ME stands for? Mechanical Engineer?

You've been studying for 5 years, you say. Have you been building out projects in that time? If so, how did they do or how are they doing? Are they earning enough that they could replace your other income?

 

[heman1320]

@Ryuzaki Yes, Mech E. Sadly no I have not built out any project to income levels. I have mostly just been having fun with it. But I see the potential so that's why I'm going to make the switch hopefully at some point replace and more my income.

@mj22 I'll make sure to find and read that.

 

[Potatoe]

Enjoying SEO and having fun with it is a huge plus, I know people making literal fortunes from it that hate everything about it. Hold onto that fun because if you can do SEO and not hate your life, you're already ahead of a lot of people.

PS here's the Crash Course.

Welcome to the forum, feel free to reach out anytime if you need anything!

 

[Ryuzaki]

@heman1320, I'd highly recommend you don't quit your job until you've matched or gotten very close to matching your income from your job and you have at least 6 months of expenses saved back. I'm not trying to be preachy, and since you've been in the game at some level for 5 years you know how volatile SEO can be. If it was as simple as "quit my job and replace my income" you'd have done that already in the past 5 years. I'm just saying to tread carefully and think realistically, not too grandiose. If it was easy everyone would be winning at it.

 

[kizen]

Welcome. I live in Hua Hin. Are you temporarily in BKK or are you an expat?

Are you new to online marketing in general, or do you have experience but are new to the affiliate side? What brought you to BuSo?

I work in content marketing and run two niche websites on the side. A dead just start subreddit brought me to BuSo.

I've been in Bangkok for nine months or so, and I'm actually visiting Hua Hin this weekend!

 

[Concept]

Nice. One of my team lives in BKK. There's a good affiliate SEO community there apparently.

 

[heman1320]

Thank you... I get that completely. I know people in affiliate that never quit their day job but live completely debt free cause they just saved all the extra money. I'd like to have that and maybe step down responsibility at my day job.

 

[bernard]

Hey, I've also spent a lot of time in Bangkok. Lots of people working in SEO and affiliate marketing there for sure. There used to be a Meetup group for affiliate marketers, I don't know if it still exists.

 

[glamdring]

Hello everyone,

There's so much great content that I am trying to soak up from here already (thank you). Here are my goals right now:

I am working on a niche site that I plan to monetize via advertising. I had originally planned to try an Ad arbitrage method but quickly abandoned that in favor of generating organic traffic (make this a long term project).
My site is a on a fresh domain. I'm about 3 months into my journey but have been inspired to go bigger and better!

Here's to being a part of the community, I look forward to learning and hopefully being able to contribute along the way.

 

[Potatoe]

Hey @glamdring, welcome to Builder Society!

I'm curious why you couldn't test out arbitrage and organic traffic at the same time? I don't think it has to be one or the other.

You'll be waiting a while for the organic traffic to pick up, and any arbitrage you do can help you get to that organic traffic more quickly, not to mention gathering more data in the meantime and finding out which keywords are profitable, how you can keep your visitors more engaged if they're clicking away too quickly, and so on.

If social pages are part of the arbitrage at all, this can also help you build up an audience/fanbase, which will give you more of an initial boost for your organic traffic if you post it to your pages.

Even if the type of content you'd try to rank organically is totally different than the content you'd be promoting, doing both can still help build up your domain.

There might be awesome reasons for not doing what I've outlined above, but it's just some food for thought.

Good luck, looking forward to following your progress!

 

[glamdring]

Hey @glamdring, welcome to Builder Society!

I'm curious why you couldn't test out arbitrage and organic traffic at the same time? I don't think it has to be one or the other.

You'll be waiting a while for the organic traffic to pick up, and any arbitrage you do can help you get to that organic traffic more quickly, not to mention gathering more data in the meantime and finding out which keywords are profitable, how you can keep your visitors more engaged if they're clicking away too quickly, and so on.

If social pages are part of the arbitrage at all, this can also help you build up an audience/fanbase, which will give you more of an initial boost for your organic traffic if you post it to your pages.

Even if the type of content you'd try to rank organically is totally different than the content you'd be promoting, doing both can still help build up your domain.

There might be awesome reasons for not doing what I've outlined above, but it's just some food for thought.

Good luck, looking forward to following your progress!

These are all great points and to be honest I do continue to circle back to the ad arbitrage model in my mind (especially as the organic traffic is so little right now, it gets quite demotivating at times). My thought process currently -
I would rather be an expert in one area than a "jack of all trades, master of none". I am doing everything on the site of course, from the content and research all the way through to all the other areas, so I can't devote enough time required to to both areas.
The site content is pure (no gambling etc) but facebook can still decide on a whim to ban my advertising account for whatever reasons. It would also take time for me to ramp up and optimize campaigns on other advertising networks (Taboola etc). These require constant refining too.
And then on the other side, my idea is to eventually set up a header bidding DFP system which I would need to learn from scratch or outsource. Adsense already pays so little and I believe they frown upon Arbitrage methods - its not worth the risk.
At least organic, HOPEFULLY down the line I will have x amount of keywords or pages, content to show for my effort and then I can really optimize my ad setup.
I do dedicate time to my social channels which are bringing in some traffic too.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Hello, @glamdring, it is I, Orcist the goblin slayer. I too glow blue when Google manual reviewers are around.

I wouldn't bother setting up header bidding any time in the future until you're doing millions of pageviews a month. I looked into it and it was ridiculously complex and you'd still have to connect with all the exchanges. I happily pay 20% to 25% to a network to handle all that, plus bid optimization, plus speed optimization, fighting non-payments on the buyer side, etc... I'm not trying to do all that. If the difference was $20k a month or more then maybe. Otherwise I'd just focus on growing more to make up the difference.

It's like you said. You don't want to be a jack of all trades.

 

[glamdring]

Very true @Ryuzaki (or rather - Orcrist ha). I have heard the benefits of header bidding but let's concentrate on achieving the 98% first before thinking about the final 2.

 

[gordian]

Hi BuSo!

I hope everyone is healthy and safe in these totally normal times!

Lurker that's ready to get serious here. I'm a frontend developer which affords me a decent income, but I want to do better than decent and I'm tired of being a slave to a gazillion clients whilst still directly trading my time for money. I want to be able to take true time off without worrying about someone else's business.

I'm a very dedicated hard worker and I'm ready to improve my lot by taking action and building on the wisdom everyone here has to share. I also hope one day to be able to share some right back.

As a frontend developer, I know firsthand that my weaknesses include (1) excessive attention to frontend detail which often accompanies (2) a reluctance to delegate technical, menial, or repetitive tasks. That last one is tough and I think it has stood in the way of me being able to scale many of the moderate successes I've found.

I have dabbled in some online entrepreneurial ventures, but most were short lived and not especially profitable. I think with some mindfulness I can break that cycle.

I started a couple web shops some years ago—several that required physical inventory—and I soured on that very quickly. The physical space and high capital requirements are unappealing because I like to be location independent if at all possible. Plenty of clients and friends sell online and I routinely see them do 6 figures monthly, but their ROIs seem low compared to some of the case studies I've seen here and they are very location bound; even if they have killer staff who run things when they're away, they still depend on their physical hq in some form or another.

Then I tried dropshipping and found some minor success there, but I got sidetracked and didn't/couldn't scale when I probably should have. Also, customer service and returns suck, especially with unreliable/unpredictable supply chains.

I'm fortunate that my income has actually increased during the pandemic and I absolutely love that I can work anywhere. So I can comfortably invest in my and my family's future. I've evolved to believe that marketing sites relying 100% on display ads are the most reliable and surefire way to build solid wealth going forward without the woes of customer service, returns, and shipping delays.

So, I'd love to hear from anyone who made a similar transition from developer to successful marketer with little or no prior experience as I absorb all the truth serum I can handle whilst acting on it.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Glad you started posting, @gordian.

As a frontend developer, I know firsthand that my weaknesses include...

We're similar. I've built a ton of client websites from the ground up, not installing and tweaking some existing theme. It trains you to get invested into pixel-perfect mind states which are hard to let go of later. It's a must, as you already know, to delegate the easy crap. It won't be exactly like we would have done it but it'll be close enough and nobody else will know the difference.

I have dabbled in some online entrepreneurial ventures, but most were short lived and not especially profitable. I think with some mindfulness I can break that cycle.

I think this is good. You should be failing a lot and iterating through the entire process over and over. And yeah, for sure, like we talk about in the first day of the Crash Course, this is a game of personal psychology as much as it is anything else. Some of our failures are entirely because we couldn't get out of our own way. That post even talks about mindfulness or alludes to it.

The physical space and high capital requirements are unappealing

Yeah, I'm not into the whole "high volume, low ROI" thing that a lot of the eCommerce community does. I think of it as the Walmart approach. Massive volume, low ROI, but still massive profit if you can stomach it. There's smaller operations that can crush it just as good in terms of being a solopreneur or small team. The ROI I get would make any brick & mortar or eCommerce person cry. That doesn't mean I'm beating them on profit, either, though. But strictly from an ROI standpoint, there's much better options.

I've evolved to believe that marketing sites relying 100% on display ads are the most reliable and surefire way to build solid wealth going forward without the woes of customer service, returns, and shipping delays.

I've gone through the gamut of SEO-based projects, attracting traffic through other means, and paid channels. I've gone through it all with monetization methods too. I ultimately settled on display ads and affiliate commissions, which end up being about 80% / 20% of profit, respectively. I also have non-SEO projects too though, that can be much faster and bigger money initially.

So, I'd love to hear from anyone who made a similar transition from developer to successful marketer with little or no prior experience as I absorb all the truth serum I can handle whilst acting on it.

That's me. I don't like to develop much any more and only for my close associates who've integrated me into their workflows and expectations. An example of a recent site I did is WordAgents.com (they're on BuSo as users, too), if you're curious.

Actually, I learned to become a front-end dev and baby back-end dev at the same time I was learning SEO and other general and online marketing tactics. I can tell you that the latter is much more lucrative. If you build it (developer), they will not come without knowing about it (marketer). And it's not just about knowing about it, but how you tell them to know about it and what attitudes to have towards it. Of course, back it up with facts and honesty.

I combine both development skills and marketing skills now with great success, largely weighted towards big SEO projects. You can do it, too. Just don't make it complicated, because it's not. Stay out of your own way and get the work done and success is only a matter of time. Use marketing to have immediate success in the meantime. Do all of this at scale. That's the whole of the SEO game.

 

[Maudiggity]

Hey all,

Been doing aff. marketing with just the one site for the last 3.5 years alongside a professional 9 - 5. @CCarter would probably hate this, but I was happy to be earning $400 / mnth after my first year. Never even thought such a thing was possible...

Fast forward to Jan 2020 and I hit $7.5k / mnth. Then COVID hit, and I was in a niche that fucking blew up. March was 30k+. April was 40k+.

Then the May update took a big dump on me, and I lost 60% of my traffic almost overnight.

Had some ups and downs since then. The site has been dropping this last month and I think it's because I left it to sit for a while. I got complacent / burned out trying to work 14 hour days with 2 young kids. Didn't post a single thing for 6 weeks. I know: idiot.

Back into it now though. Last month was 16k+. With the traffic drop, projecting about 12.5k.

I've decided that I don't want to do the professional 9-5 anymore as it sucks balls, and during COVID I was working from home and it was great(ish). So, I'm taking a 6 month career break from my job (my org is pretty cool in that they allow 3 - 12 month career break to do other things, and the job is waiting for me when I get back - if I get back)

Anyhoo, just thought I'd share as my first post. Happy to be here.

 

[gordian]

Thank you so much for the replies @Ryuzaki!

Actually, I learned to become a front-end dev and baby back-end dev at the same time I was learning SEO and other general and online marketing tactics...

How did you originally begin to learn SEO and the sales techniques that helped you break free from development work/clients? I'd love to know about any resources in addition to the BuSo Crash Course!

An example of a recent site I did is WordAgents.com (they're on BuSo as users, too), if you're curious.

Outstanding site! Looks like the tech stack and sales funnel are both seriously dialed in. Do you also use their content writing services?

 

[Ryuzaki]

How did you originally begin to learn SEO and the sales techniques that helped you break free from development work/clients? I'd love to know about any resources in addition to the BuSo Crash Course!

I learned the basics the good old fashioned way, before the days of Skype chats and Facebook groups. I read forums and blogs, back when running an SEO blog was a trend and we'd run around leaving blog comments to each other. Those truly were the golden days. My RSS feed reader is in shambles now.

Not a bit of that information mattered, and a lot of it was wrong, as I discovered by actually building out my own projects. But it gave me testable hypotheses to aim at, nonetheless.

For me, a huge part of the process was not learning what to do, but learning what not to do. I also had to learn to stop seeing it as some ultra-sophisticated and complicated industry and accept that it's easy and boring for the most part.

Once all that happened, I was able to get out of my own way and my success rates went way up. I don't experiment any more or anything like that. I know exactly what to do and what I'm to be doing, and it's just a matter of doing it. Shedding off the nonsense gets you real focused, and that's a key to success, I think, in this game.

Outstanding site! Looks like the tech stack and sales funnel are both seriously dialed in. Do you also use their content writing services?

I do use them. I have multiple projects at various quality levels. For my highest quality site, they write everything that I don't write personally. As a matter of fact I need to blow the rest of my credit with them and reload the account. I know exactly what I need but I need to actually write a content brief for this order which has been the hurdle, finding time for that.

and during COVID I was working from home and it was great(ish).

The grass is always greener on the other side. I've had friends who've seen me working from home for over a decade now, all saying how great it must be to work from home, get up whenever you want, work whenever you want.

Then the coronavirus struck and they all started working from home and by the 2nd week they were all complaining about how horrible it is. I tried to tell them that everything they thought was a benefit was actually a curse brought upon by lack of self-discipline.

Sleeping late sounds great until you didn't manage to get all of your work done for the day. Working whenever you want sounds great until you need to work until the wee hours of the morning to finish up. Working in your jammies in bed sounds great until your self-image starts to collapse and your confidence in your looks and style takes a hit. Not to mention the lack of social interaction.

I wouldn't have it any different but it takes a lot of willpower to stay on track in a world of infinite distractions (the internet) with nobody but yourself directing your actions and holding you accountable. Unlike a day job, if you dick around all day, you will see an impact in your earnings, whether it's immediate or lack of growth 6 months down the road.

Didn't post a single thing for 6 weeks. I know: idiot.

Anyways, your story sounds awesome and is still going great. Unless it's a Google News site or something I really doubt not posting for 6 weeks hurt it. I know a lot of people that May Core Update really hurt. You can start in our algo discussion thread here on this post and read downwards and see that it generated the most discussion here than any other update recently, with some similar sentiments to yours.

You have a real winner on your hands obviously. I'd be going HAM on it every single day from here on out. If it hit $30k again I'd possibly be thinking about liquidating it for a million bucks. The tax man will have his just due, but you'd still be sitting pretty.

 

[GNews]

Keep it up. Def some great numbers you're doing. Def a good reason to quit hwen you've found a path to making $40k a month.

Affiliate site or what?

Have you changed your mindset now?

Instead of 14 hours work days.. DELEGATE Tasks. Lose a little profit to begin increase your production potential.

1) Hire people to write/work

2) Are you thinking about issues that will come up in future? Losses.. that way you can be prepared and hit the ground running. New highs come with new lows.

3) Can you repeat the model with help?

 

[Maudiggity]

Sounds like a promising site. Is it affiliate based?

Hey thanks man - I actually found BuSo because someone posted a link to your AMA! That was great stuff to read - I have so many questions about your approach to building your sites, but obviously couldn't respond cause I'm still a newcomer.

To answer your question - yes, it's primarily monetized via affiliate programs, but I also have display ads (mediavine) which are a nice little addition.

The grass is always greener on the other side. I've had friends who've seen me working from home for over a decade now, all saying how great it must be to work from home, get up whenever you want, work whenever you want.

Then the coronavirus struck and they all started working from home and by the 2nd week they were all complaining about how horrible it is.

Definitely good points. I've been working from home since March and while I found it tough in the beginning it was because I didn't have a proper home office set up (company sent us home without any notice - was working at my dining table for weeks) and my family were hugely distracting. I found my routine after while though - I burnt out because I was trying to work on the website in the early morning, then on my 9-5 for normal business hours, then on my website in the evening (after family time, working out, putting kids to bed, etc.).

The website also generously bought me a pretty nice set up. Proper office furniture and dual monitors on a nice desktop makes a big difference.

I tried to tell them that everything they thought was a benefit was actually a curse brought upon by lack of self-discipline.

I'm hungry and I want this site to kick ass so bad. In the end, I won't know if I've got it in me until I try, right? If it falls flat I can always go back to working for the man I suppose.

I wouldn't have it any different but it takes a lot of willpower to stay on track in a world of infinite distractions (the internet) with nobody but yourself directing your actions and holding you accountable. Unlike a day job, if you dick around all day, you will see an impact in your earnings, whether it's immediate or lack of growth 6 months down the road.

Very good points; it's something I've been thinking about a lot and how I can ensure I stay hungry. Honestly, I don't think lack of willpower is my issue, but rather spinning my wheels trying to completely understand what I'm doing (and not doing anything) or procrastinating on things that aren't high priorities. That said, until May this year, my site went from strength to strength, and I surprised even myself at how much work I put into it. Again, won't know until I try.

Anyways, your story sounds awesome and is still going great. Unless it's a Google News site or something I really doubt not posting for 6 weeks hurt it. I know a lot of people that May Core Update really hurt. You can start in our algo discussion thread here on this post and read downwards and see that it generated the most discussion here than any other update recently, with some similar sentiments to yours.

Nah, not a Google News site. Good to know that it probably wasn't the lack of posting. But frustrating because, as usual, I'm left wondering what the fuck is causing both my ups and downs.

You have a real winner on your hands obviously. I'd be going HAM on it every single day from here on out.

That's the plan. Can I ask why you would recommend selling it? A part of me thinks it has a lot further to grow than 30k. Another part of me says Google could take it all from you in an instant, so take the money and start again on something less reliant on one source of traffic. Are you thinking along the same lines?