Introductions Thread

Not sure, @Ryuzaki. Completely original content of 1,200 words min per article at a time when most were churning out 300-500 words, and we never did anything dodgy. Never paid for a link. A few guest blogging articles, but not much.

I don't know why it was hit. However, we never really liked the domain (it wouldn't pass a telephone test, was hard to remember, etc), and decided to 301 everything to another domain when the site had already lost a lot of traffic.

We've cleaned up the content so only the best is left, and are now working with about 30k visitors/month. But we hope to improve on that and regain some ground.
 
Hey guys, I am excited to be here. I came across this site after reading carters website. I am in my thirties and have been reading about web design and online marketing. A gamer most of my life, I always considered myself pretty savvy with computers with no formal training. After jerking around with WordPress for a year and bouncing around from idea to idea amidst the ever growing pile of SEO information, I finally got inspired to sit down and read through w3schools and took some courses on HTML and CSS.

TL&DR scroll to bottom


I have too many questions in my head, and between taking care of my dad who just suffered a stroke, I find myself at times just staring at my screen or getting distracted.

I have the creative cloud, muse, Dreamweaver and a bunch of tools to use, but I have been inundated with information scouring through all the hat forums. I have a general idea of what it is I want to accomplish and a domain, but I let my hosting expire with HostGator since I really don't have anything for my first "project" to put up.

The keyword research is driving me a little nutty, so many damn SEO tools out there. I can see how it is a hustle.

I don't want to install WordPress again, I am learning Linux and feel comfortable coding just CSS/HTML.. but there are some things that aren't clear to me. Do I need a CMS at all for static content???? Does it slow down page speed if I use bootstrap or a pre-made front-end framework? Should I even bother with SASS?

I like some of the googles material design templates, figured they would instill a sense of "trust" to the user.

I just want to do everything right, but I wonder if I am just wasting time with paralysis by analysis.

Should I keep learning SASS, then head on to javascript? I really wanted to learn Casper/phantomjs when I connected the dots... but I know enough now with HTML/CSS to just get a damn site up with ads on it... The general workflow....

Schema, Rich snippets... wtf is this amp HTML? All these <link="CDN"> and javascript make me feel like I need to learn Javascript but why....?

The pico cms... why not just use static HTML files and code each page? What's the benefit of the CMS?

Every page as I understand it should have keywords and be siloed specifically for what I hope to accomplish...
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TL&DR

I'm a new and confused, just finished learning HTML CSS, and am wondering what my next step should be. Any advice welcome!
 
Hey mate, Welcome.

My advice on the next step is to get started and in action. You can read everything in the world, but it won't make a different until you get in action.

Check out the Digital Crash Course. It's an awesome resource and a great start. Work through all the exercises at the start and get building. > share your progress on in the Laboratory.

This game is very much learn how you go.

Look forward to seeing you around the forum.

Nathan
 
Concept said:
Hey mate, Welcome.

My advice on the next step is to get started and in action. You can read everything in the world, but it won't make a different until you get in action.

Check out the Digital Crash Course. It's an awesome resource and a great start. Work through all the exercises at the start and get building. > share your progress on in the Laboratory.

This game is very much learn how you go.

Look forward to seeing you around the forum.

Nathan
Click to expand...

Thanks man will do. Just got Linux running on my other monitor was going to get to work. I have had a phoenix thing since last summer so I will take your avatar pic as a positive sign.
 
Welcome to the forum. Great questions here.

OTIS said:
Do I need a CMS at all for static content????
Click to expand...

Not at all. CMS's are for good for 2 groups of people:
  • Those that don't know diddly squat and need their hand held through everything
  • Big sites with lots of content and authors. It speeds up and organizes the workflow so you can hire or partner with non-tech experts that can write well, etc.
If a site is going to stay small or and not change often, static HTML/CSS is great. Toss in some PHP so you can load one header and footer and sidebar and you'll have a super fast site.

All the CMS does is give you a dashboard interface for working with a database and file storage system.

OTIS said:
Does it slow down page speed if I use bootstrap or a pre-made front-end framework?
Click to expand...

No, unless they are bloated. These are CSS packages that keep you from having to redesign responsive grids, buttons, tables, lists... over and over again. I use one and my sites load in less than 300 ms on average. I like http://getskeleton.com and tie it into my own Wordpress themes.

Speed isn't something to worry about if you aren't making cash yet though. Nor is custom design work. You can use Wordpress, Drupal, and any other CMS and install a theme and get going immediately.

If the goal is to build sites that make money, then there's better things to worry about. We've had members here sell sites for over a million bucks on a regular old Wordpress theme.

OTIS said:
Should I even bother with SASS?
Click to expand...

I consider myself a front-end expert. I don't bother with CSS pre-processors. I see the benefit but the learning curve isn't worth it to me. If my CSS file has 20 extra bytes of size, I don't care because the task is done and I'm making money. This goes for big and small projects. Always focus on what's bringing in the dough and don't get caught up in the minutia of distraction. I learned all the front-end and some back-end stuff NOT by sitting down and studying but by confronting problems and finding the solutions as they came at me, not before.

OTIS said:
Schema, Rich snippets... wtf is this amp HTML? All these <link="CDN"> and javascript make me feel like I need to learn Javascript but why....?
Click to expand...

Nothing you need to worry about yet. AMP is going to be canceled due to lack of adoption eventually like 90% of Google's nonsense. Schema and all this... It's useful but in no way interferes with your ability to make money. I don't know Javascript or jQuery that well, but I use them both frequently. All you really need with any of these skills is to be able to know what you're looking at, find code snippets, and edit them to fit your needs. That's even for a lot of pro's. No beginner needs to know a language that well, especially for the type of sites you seem to be talking about with an SEO orientation.
 
Hey Guys longtime lurker, first time poster. I have to say that this forum is easily the best on the web for anything digital marketing, nothing but brass tacks and real experience here. Currently i'm a "theoretical digital marketer" - meaning that i while I can tell you all the best SEO tactics, I haven't quite most of them ... yet.

Which is why I've officially posted here... to get off my ass and actually start doing things, one step at a time.

Here's to the future
 
Welcome to the club! What kind of project are you thinking about working on?
 
I've been working with an insurance buddy of mine and built his site an did some SEO for his site, but I've barely cracked 30 hits a day - mostly because every time I want to do something i have to run it by him first (he has to protect his brand). My plan is to make my own brand and just feed him the leads, giving me the flexibility I need, while getting him the clients

Also, I do a lot of agency work, so I'm constantly working with clients who don't let me change their website or add content to their blogs, which usually leaves guest posting and broken link building for SEO.
 
Hey guys
Just a little bit about me.
I've started my online journey around 2010 and just failed miserably and quit after 1 year. I've spent quite a lot of money at that time buying a lot of courses & tools and just not taking enough actions.

I came back last December and have since built 3 amazon affiliate websites. I've earned any money yet.
Am now in the process of building my PBN network. But there's a lot of doubts about it and also worry about footprints and stuffs like that.

If anyone has done or is doing something similar, maybe we can discuss about it more when I leave the orientation phase?

Thanks everyone.
 
Hey - welcome to BuSo. I haven't played with PBNs myself, but I'm sure many people here have a lot of experience with that stuff.

Looking forward to seeing what you've got planned for the future. Also don't forget to check out the crash course if you haven't already, there's some real gold on there - no need to buy another course again, and it's all free!
 
Glad to have you on board. I know all about PBN's and am happy to discuss them. If you haven't been earning yet, that's going to be a costly way to only get you a part of the way there. There's a million ways to get high powered backlinks without all of the overhead. But definitely go for it since you've started. It's a good thing to learn (and get out of your system).

See you around the forum!
 
Steve Brownlie said:
Also don't forget to check out the crash course if you haven't already, there's some real gold on there - no need to buy another course again, and it's all free!
Click to expand...

Calling it gold is selling it a bit short I'd say, it's moree like a diamond mine right there especially for newcomers to the game.
 
Update
Thought I will give an update on were I'm at.
Recently landed my first local seo client. So doing quite good considering I'm working 10 - 20h per week on the client, and making 1.5x the average wage in my country. Now it's a good time to start a project on my own, as I have money to live and some to spend on a project, and not spending 40h a week working a 9 to 5.
 
This is a great thread, congratulations on your successful start to life as a self-employed entrepreneurial type @Klayne.

That kind of ability to analyse feedback and adapt your plans quickly is something that will stand you in great stead as you move forward.

Looking forward to seeing your case study thread and new project :smile:
 
Hi guys,

A little introduction to myself, I've been doing online marketing for a while now, but never took it serious.

I've started when I was 16 (I'm 22 now) with YouTube videos and ranking my videos to showcase my game montages / skills (I'm not even kidding, that was my only motive back then). I didn't even know that was considered marketing back then. Looking back now, some of my videos are still up there for certain searches on YouTube.

I got into social media marketing when started college (a web designer) and made some side money ($10 - $50 / day) with Tumblr + Pinterest. I still have a Instagram account that I grew to 13k, but never could monetize it.

Only recently have I learned about SEO (2014). I've ranked one site to first page in the meditation niche, I thought it would have made me lots of money via Adsense but it never took off. I ranked it with PBNs and GSA blasts. I feel like it SEO was easier back then vs now and kind of regret learning web development / programming.

I have some experience in scraping domains and using them to build a PBN, not the best, as I still scrape some crappy domains now, and other more blackhat style methods.

Currently working on a local niche site that will be sending leads to a CPA offer that I found for my niche in my country (Canada and payday niche). Monthly searches are anywhere from 100 - 500 but I'm starting to doubt if this website will generate me any cash that's worth it.

Hope to learn lots here and one day new comers here!
 
You're right that SEO is becoming more and more difficult to manipulate. Google's Penguin filter really changed the game and got rid of (I'd venture to say...) 75% of spammers and hobbyists.

I know spammers who absolutely slayed it in the past, bought nice homes and cars, started families, and never felt the pressure to mature along with the industry. Now they are desperately trying to convince everyone else that spamming is still the easy street, not because it is, but because they want to sell shovels to the gold miners instead of mining for gold themselves.

I was building authority sites back then and becoming greedy and ruining them with backlink spam. I too have regrets. I should have just gone into full spam mode and made a ton of money.

However, my current authority sites are insanely amazing and will make me more than I ever would have spamming. All of that time I spent learning development and programming was well worth it. Now I'm positioned to survive in an industry that is cutting off heads left and right. You paid the real entry price of learning what really matters, while everyone using off the shelf spam software are struggling to make their literal first dollars online.

100-500 searches a month isn't much. Figure the #1 result in the SERPs get 50% of the clicks. You're talking about 50-250 visitors a month. If you can convert them at 3%, you're talking about 1.5-7.5 conversions a month. Multiply that by the value of a conversion. And that's IF you can rank #1 in Payday, which is pretty stiff competition with people who won't lose sleep over aiming some negative SEO your way.

I'd never build a site based around one or even 5 keywords any more. I don't even build based on micro-niches or broad niches. I'm all about the vertical now, because the longer you stick in there the bigger and stronger your entire site becomes. Then ranking becomes a cakewalk. At that point you're in a race with the other big dogs with who can publish and market faster. And no matter who wins, everyones eating real good because while someone's focused a year of their life trying to rank a set of keywords, all you have to do is click "publish" and take it all away.

That's how I look at things currently. I hope it offers another perspective for you to consider.

Welcome to the club! Glad to have you and especially thank you for your solid introduction.
 
Ryuzaki said:
100-500 searches a month isn't much. Figure the #1 result in the SERPs get 50% of the clicks. You're talking about 50-250 visitors a month. If you can convert them at 3%, you're talking about 1.5-7.5 conversions a month. Multiply that by the value of a conversion. And that's IF you can rank #1 in Payday, which is pretty stiff competition with people who won't lose sleep over aiming some negative SEO your way.
Click to expand...

The only thing I have to add here is that you can't take those 100-500 as 'golden' as people type such weird stuff into Google. Something that traffic estimation tools give you 10/month as search traffic for can easily be worth 1,000 visits to you, even if you don't get top 2... just because people are typing in so many weird variations. I have three clients, and one of my own sites in that position right now. Your page will rank for things you didn't even think of sometimes.
 
Steve Brownlie said:
Hey - welcome to the forums. Looking forward to hearing more about what you're up to.
Click to expand...

Steve Brownlie said:
The only thing I have to add here is that you can't take those 100-500 as 'golden' as people type such weird stuff into Google. Something that traffic estimation tools give you 10/month as search traffic for can easily be worth 1,000 visits to you, even if you don't get top 2... just because people are typing in so many weird variations. I have three clients, and one of my own sites in that position right now. Your page will rank for things you didn't even think of sometimes.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome Steve Brownlie!

Judging from the responses from this thread, I'm going to look into another venture, luckily I didn't invest a lot of time / resources into this venture. The foundations of the website isn't very good either.

I believe you when you say that sometimes 10 searches / month brings in more. I've seen some posts on different forums where this holds true. I don't want to take a chance like that in a niche where I don't care about.

Ryuzaki said:
You're right that SEO is becoming more and more difficult to manipulate. Google's Penguin filter really changed the game and got rid of (I'd venture to say...) 75% of spammers and hobbyists.

I know spammers who absolutely slayed it in the past, bought nice homes and cars, started families, and never felt the pressure to mature along with the industry. Now they are desperately trying to convince everyone else that spamming is still the easy street, not because it is, but because they want to sell shovels to the gold miners instead of mining for gold themselves.

I was building authority sites back then and becoming greedy and ruining them with backlink spam. I too have regrets. I should have just gone into full spam mode and made a ton of money.

However, my current authority sites are insanely amazing and will make me more than I ever would have spamming. All of that time I spent learning development and programming was well worth it. Now I'm positioned to survive in an industry that is cutting off heads left and right. You paid the real entry price of learning what really matters, while everyone using off the shelf spam software are struggling to make their literal first dollars online.

100-500 searches a month isn't much. Figure the #1 result in the SERPs get 50% of the clicks. You're talking about 50-250 visitors a month. If you can convert them at 3%, you're talking about 1.5-7.5 conversions a month. Multiply that by the value of a conversion. And that's IF you can rank #1 in Payday, which is pretty stiff competition with people who won't lose sleep over aiming some negative SEO your way.

I'd never build a site based around one or even 5 keywords any more. I don't even build based on micro-niches or broad niches. I'm all about the vertical now, because the longer you stick in there the bigger and stronger your entire site becomes. Then ranking becomes a cakewalk. At that point you're in a race with the other big dogs with who can publish and market faster. And no matter who wins, everyones eating real good because while someone's focused a year of their life trying to rank a set of keywords, all you have to do is click "publish" and take it all away.

That's how I look at things currently. I hope it offers another perspective for you to consider.

Welcome to the club! Glad to have you and especially thank you for your solid introduction.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome Ryuzaki!

It's bitter sweet hearing that SEO is getting harder. My spamming days are long over and now I'm focusing more on PBNs, they seem to be the most cost effective method for me right now. Hopefully one day I'll be able to test other methods.

When you put it that way about my current plan, I don't think I'll be hitting #1 spot for my keywords anytime soon, and there really isn't much room for my website to grow. I picked a EDM and it's very niche.

All in all, my perspective on what I should do has changed and for the better. I feel like I was stuck in a cycle of finding a set of keywords, build a mini site, and rank them. While this might work some people, it didn't work for me.

I'm reading the "Digital Strategy Course" (currently reading Day 2) and I'm planning taking on a vertical like you mentioned. Hardest part is figuring out what kind of niche I want to get started in.
 
mcjc4 said:
I'm focusing more on PBNs, they seem to be the most cost effective method for me right now.
Click to expand...
Outreach can be far more cost effective. Had campaigns I've ran over hundreds of prospects come back at less than $20 per link. From real, niche relevant sites that aren't just trashy networks. Bonus: They actually send you traffic.
Sure that's maybe an outlier, but getting a link under $50 on average is going to be very very possible.

Check out this post: https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/day-20-outreach-better-than-most-professionals.1381/
 
Prentzz said:
Outreach can be far more cost effective. Had campaigns I've ran over hundreds of prospects come back at less than $20 per link. From real, niche relevant sites that aren't just trashy networks. Bonus: They actually send you traffic.
Sure that's maybe an outlier, but getting a link under $50 on average is going to be very very possible.

Check out this post: https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/day-20-outreach-better-than-most-professionals.1381/
Click to expand...

That's a great thread! I used to think outreach would cost $xxx - $xxxx for a single link, but I only thought of outreach for big websites like Huffington Post, Venturebeat, and etc.

As I read more threads on this forum, it's slowly changing my perspective of internet marketing / SEO.
 
Hi y'all!

I've seen some fantastic results show up in the SERPs, and I've now taken the plunge and registered my own account. Hopefully I can also add some great advice!

A brief background, I've been working in web dev since the dark ages of the internet, moved to consulting about 10 years ago, then started my own online businesses, and have been making modest amounts of money with affiliate marketing in the last couple of years, mostly via organic SEO - although I'm keen to hop on the FB train sooner rather than later.

Right now, all of my affiliate stuff is based around things I personally know quite well, such as hosting, dev tools and so on.

Happy to help with any tech stuff, the marketing insights I've picked up along the way, and hopefully not come across as too much of an ass while doing so :smile:
 
Prentzz said:
Outreach can be far more cost effective. Had campaigns I've ran over hundreds of prospects come back at less than $20 per link. From real, niche relevant sites that aren't just trashy networks. Bonus: They actually send you traffic.
Sure that's maybe an outlier, but getting a link under $50 on average is going to be very very possible.

Check out this post: https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/day-20-outreach-better-than-most-professionals.1381/
Click to expand...

$20 one time or recurring? I've had SEOs reach out and offer annually recurring payments for a link, or as they called it "a text ad", not sure if that's typically how that goes though.
 
We've got some guys doing well not only building fan pages for repeat traffic but buying ads for conversions as well. You've found the right place! I too need to hop on the FB gravy train, even with them screwing over fan pages more and more, there's still ROI and social signals to be had.

Welcome to the club, glad to see more and more veterans climbing aboard!
 
Hey man, thanks for welcoming me :-D

I've been devouring the Crash Course threads - maybe with an eye on the FB stuff - and guides mentioning remarketing via FB pixel seem like absolute gold! I've just set up some tracking on FB's side, we shall see!

Off the top of your head, do you - or anyone else - have any quick links to discussions re: landing pages for FB vs. collecting emails, and then marketing to them? Otherwise looks like I'll need to do some further searching and/or start spending money and reporting my own findings.
 
Hey All!

Just a standard Intro post. I stumbled upon BuSo while reading through some random SEO/Marketing Forums, someone had linked to the Day 6 guide on the Digital Strat Course. That led me to skim through most of the course in a evening. The information was well presented and it made sense... I've been reading through various SEO forums and BuSo seems like it has the most helpful and least 'sales pitchy' community.

So what brings me to look at SEO/Marketing sites... a few years ago I had read about SEO and kind of played around with it... tried my hand at making a Niche Site, I was lazy with it and it never really gained any traction. I did however play around with some Amazon Affiliate codes, posting them randomly here and there... then I had totally forgotten about them. A few days ago I noticed that I had a check from amazon. It was an 'eureka' moment... I had made $100 by posting like 10 links 2 years ago and forgetting about it.

That brings me to the now.... if I can make really small amount of money by literally doing nothing... I could probably make a lot more money by actually doing something. In the short term, I'd like to build a few sites and get my feet wet... lets see if I can make any type of moneys. Mid term goals would be to build those sites to something that can replace my wifes income. Longer term would be to replace my income, and end game would be to retire to some place nice without any financial worries.

I've been reading and trying to learn as much as possible... It seems overwhelming.. but it's time to act. I've registered a Domain Name... and in the process of setting up a Wordpress site.

I'd like to thank the community here for providing a blueprint and being a great resource. I'm excited to start my journey.. and I know you guys will be great resources along the way!

-Finges
 
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