A Newbies Journal - Help/Advice Welcome!

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Finner

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Nov 29, 2011
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Hi everyone,

I would probably be the true definition of a newbie, had never heard of SEO, how to drive traffic, pretty much anything. Never had heard of wordpress, backlinking etc.

It is my first post, but I have been reading voraciously every bit of information i can get my hands on. Fantastic resources on this site.

I had originally had been reading about affiliate market on another forum. I had always been interested in starting my own site, and seeing what was available in terms of ability to earn cash online.

I finally decided to dive in and have decided i'll post what i've done so far, and what i expect to do in the coming days, and hopefully i can get some thoughts and advice from other WFers.

Just as a basic idea of what i've done so far.

In October and most of November of this year i just did reading, learned terms, what they meant, what tools could be good,etc. Pretty much everything was new, i'd be reading an article, have no idea what something meant, and i'd have to go figure out what that meant.

Finally by the middle of November i had a VERY general idea of how IM worked, and how to get started.

November 25th to 29th - I started keyword research with market samurai (trial). Again its hard to know everything, i was unaware of what to look for, looking for commercial phrases, etc. I settled on a #1 KW that had:
- ~10000 phrase searches per month
- ~4000 exact searches per month
- competition (SEOC) was 19000 sites.

November 29th- I found a domain with a EMD + the word "you" that ended in .com. I registered the domain, purchased hosting, installed word press, and posted my first self written article (about 400 words).

November 30th - Tweaked site theme. Figured out what the hell plugins are. Installed plugins. Figured out how to work them, and what plugins were supposedly best.

December 1st - Signed up for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. Submitted sitemap. Submitted my site to a couple different directories, and did research, stuff like "how many tags are too many?", and "should i have one page or multiple pages". Basically stuff that devolves into opinion and as i think another thread on the forum said, basically let me procrastinate.

December 2nd and 3rd - Continued to research, had never heard of article spinning, backlinking strategies, page ranks etc. Looked at possible tools to use to improve efficiency. I eventually decided that it was far better for me to learn how to do things manually the first time (write articles, some initial backlinking etc. then to pay someone as i'd rather know how to do it, at least to start). No ranking on google as of yet.

December 4th- I am ranked 44th for my main keyword on Google, hurray! I write a second self written article, ~400 words again that ties into main keyword and a secondary keyword and post on site.

December 5th - More research on article directories, how to build good back links, competitive research. Began doing some manual backlinking on about 6 blogs, leaving high quality comments and submitted site to a couple more directories.

December 6th - Post another 500 word article on site, and write a secondary 600 word article related to site content and submit it to Ezine as i understood it is the best article directory from research. Site still holding at ~40

December 7th - Setup blogger account and squidoo account with related content. Write unique content articles (~300 words) for each with ~2/3 backlinks to main site from each. Do another 3/4 blog comments with anchor links. Site has disappeared from top 500 of google rankings

December 8th - Write another 500 word article for main site. Site is still gone from rankings. Am concerned.

December 9th - Read for hours about the fresh bounce that new sites get on google. Meanwhile Yahoo and Bing have ranked me 7th and 5th respectively for my number 1 KW, however no listing on google. No backlinks have been found by google as of yet.

December 12th - Site has reappeared on Google! I now sit substantially lower at 62 for #1 KW, however sit at 52 for #2 KW, a more competitive one. I still am at #5 and #7 on Yahoo and Bing. I post another 500 word unique article on main site.

December 13th - Read more about backlinking, trying to determine how to potentially raise rankings, not a lot of time. Ezine Article is approved, hopefully helps with ranking.

December 14th - Write another ~500 word article posted to main site. Struggling with the fact if i should spend $10 and buy some quality links to main site. Google has indexed a couple of the directory backlinks.

Basically as i sit right now the site is ranked:

#1 KW
Google - #74 and #335 exact / #134 and #309 phrase
Yahoo - #8
Bing - Disappeared

#2 KW
No phrase matches, Google #52, 159, 204 and 443 for exact.

#3 KW (Best commercial keyword by my guess)
#159 exact search on Google.

So i guess a couple questions and comments.

-Is it worth it to spend $10 and get some high quality back links to improve ranking?
-I don't have any META tags, are they important?
-I also don't think i have H1 or H2 tags. What are these?
-How important is content, the articles i write are good, but i wouldn't say they are incredible?
-I'm looking at Adsense as more of a tool to determine potential commercial opportunity, and will likely settle on AM. Is that good or bad?
-What is pinging and when i ping am i pinging my own URL or the URL of the site with the backlink?

Money spent so far:

Domain(1yr) + Hosting (1yr) = $45

Basically where do i go from here. I'm likely going to continue to add an article of 400-600 words every 2 to 3 days, but in terms of backlinking, it seeems like a large time delay. Would a $10 purchase of some high quality page backlinks help?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!
 


You need more links. $10 in links can only get you so far. Up the amount you're willing to spend and check out some of the link providers on this forum.
 
Any recommendations for a good provider, and how much to spend to make a difference in ranking? Ideally i don't need to be first page (yet) i just want to test the commercial viability of the traffic i receive.
 
OK, here we go.

-Is it worth it to spend $10 and get some high quality back links to improve ranking?

Yes.

-I don't have any META tags, are they important?

The opinions on these varies. The <title> is extremely important, and a description meta does not hurt. Ignore the rest.

-I also don't think i have H1 or H2 tags. What are these?

<H1>Is a headline of the first order, the most important headline.</H1>, all the other <Hx> tags follow in order. These are a great way to structure the text visually for the user and also make it easier for search engines to determine this structure semantically.

As a rule of thumb, you should only have one H1 headline. If you go below H3, you are doing it wrong.

-How important is content, the articles i write are good, but i wouldn't say they are incredible?

Good is often good enough.

-I'm looking at Adsense as more of a tool to determine potential commercial opportunity, and will likely settle on AM. Is that good or bad?

Diversify. Adsense can be used as a great income or as a filler. Never rely on one source of income.

::emp::
 
Today i signed up for google adsense (waiting for approval) Site has moved around a bit in rankings. My main domain does not seem to rank that well however my pages do.

For #1 KW i'm at
54 exact, 56 phrase (Each a different internal page)

Is it bad that my main domain does not seem to rank well, but the internal pages do much better?

Quick question regarding the backlinking services (thanks for advice BTW with that referral verdithaca), these services offer say 1000 backlinks. Doesn't it look very suspicious to have a 3 week old site with 5 or 6 backlinks currently indexed to suddenly have 1000?

Also when selecting a URL for the backlinking service you should select your "main" domain right? not a internal page?

Also is dripping better than a single blast?

Thanks again for any and all help. Much appreciated.
 
finner my recommendation to you is to set up you blog, choose a niche market you love, start blogging about it, start building your email list and find affiliate products for you to promote relating to your niche market.
 
Finner said:
For #1 KW i'm at
54 exact, 56 phrase (Each a different internal page)
Click to expand...

If that's just some ranking you ended up getting incidentally, cool. Good for you. If you chose to target that phrase as a main keyword, those numbers are retardedly low. That's less than one visitor per day at #1 spot. I mean, I guess it's cool if you get a $50 CPC.


Is it bad that my main domain does not seem to rank well, but the internal pages do much better?
Click to expand...

All depends on the terms you are talking about and the on-page seo on the domain and inners. You aren't providing enough info for any of us to say anything of value about it.

Quick question regarding the backlinking services (thanks for advice BTW with that referral verdithaca), these services offer say 1000 backlinks. Doesn't it look very suspicious to have a 3 week old site with 5 or 6 backlinks currently indexed to suddenly have 1000?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Sites go viral all the time. 1000 isn't too big of a deal and 3 weeks is a nice little age buffer. And it depends on the type of link. Social bookmarks is something I feel is safe to do early in big quantities. Things are meant to go viral in the social realm.

Learn about link velocity and PR juice and you'll start to figure some of this stuff out.^

Also when selecting a URL for the backlinking service you should select your "main" domain right? not a internal page?

Also is dripping better than a single blast?

Thanks again for any and all help. Much appreciated.
Click to expand...

You select the URL you want to send certain text anchors and PR Juice to. Rank what you wanna rank. It's all good. Dripping isn't always better than a blast. A blast can act just as a drip if you don't ping, because it takes google time to find the links. However, if it's all high PR links then google is likely to find them all pretty quickly. This is back to link velocity. Search about it.

Hollaaaa!
 
Just a note, when i'm posting the rankings (phrase/exact) thats my rank on google, not the number of searches users do for the keywords. So 54 exact, 56 phrase is my ranking on google for the keyword in quotes/not quotes.

The keyword #1 gets 4500 exact and 10000 broad searches per month, Keyword 2 about 2 times that, and keyword 3 about 30 times that.

For my update today, i added a privacy policy to my age as per googles adsense requirements, and wrote a 600 word unique article.

Waiting for google adsense to be approved prior to purchasing a backlinking service.

Meanwhile am adding the adsense boxes to different posts, with different boxes on each, so once i do begin to receive regular traffic, i can identify which has the largest click through ratio.

Appreciate the help Hobbster.
 
Just some updates from last couple days:

December 17th - I added another ~500 original article on the site, and purchased 150 social bookmarks on fiverr. Seller seemed reputable based on reviews,and delivered in under 20 hours, with report linking to each link.

I split the 150 into 3 groups, so 50 each targeting my 3 main KWs. Hopefully that makes sense. Will look at adding more potentially based on results. As of right now it doesn't look as if google has crawled any of these links (as i assume they would show on webmaster tools)

I will likely continue to add 2 or 3 articles per week and hopefully i see some results.

As of today for my 3 main keywords i rank in google search results:

Keyword #1
57th in broad position
55th in phrase position

Keyword #2
107th in broad position
45 in phrase position

Keyword #3
159th broad position
83rd phrase position

Once the backlinks are indexed hopefully i see a move!
 
skip the fiverr bullshit and get the SBB in the link i provided earlier. if you're worried you can drip feed them over several days/weeks.

just be sure to diversify your anchor text. guarantee you'll move significantly with just that service alone.

then start to work on moving up ranks by getting different type of links, usually contextual and high PR links will do it.
 
You are doing an awesome job so far, keep it up!

Im about as new at this as you are, but you seem to know a lot more than I do. Where did you do all your readings aside from this site? Still a bit unsure about a lot of the terms & where to start.

Best of luck!
 
Fuzzface - Thanks for the kind words, its definitely been a learning process. Pretty much i picked it up as I go. I did tons of reading prior, but i think the biggest thing is to jump in and actually figure it out on the go. You can read night and day about all sorts of tools and techniques, but just doing the research, setting up the domain, researching plugins for SEO for word press etc. is invaluable.

Wickedfire has been essentially my main resource, and google the other. I did some reading on "the challenge" website, didn't love it, but they have great videos regarding specific tasks, and Market Samura (The 30 trial) has been fantastic for my initial keyword research and tracking my ranking and competition.

This in the end is my first site, i'm very much unaware of best themes, if a 1 page sales copy site vs a blog is the best way to go, how to optimize the site for search results or what.

To date i've only received 1 visitor from organic searches. I've received another 26 or so from the social bookmarks, but it still seems as if google has not noticed these backlinks.

As an update:

December 20th - Adsense was approved, and i also signed up for amazon affiliate marketing to market at least the 1 product i have so far reviewed.

One question i have, all my posts have adsense code in them, and the ads appear when viewing the individual posts, but on my main page which shows my last 10 posts, only the first post shows the ads, the remainder just show the boxes as they did prior to adsense being approved. Any reason for that?

I'm leaning towards ordering the package that verdeithaca mentioned, however as google still has not indexed the 150 from the weekend (or perhaps they have and its not in webmaster tools yet) i'm unsure if i should wait or not. I'm also concerned about cost before determining if the site will convert enough visitors to either click or purchase.

One other thing is according to google analytics, my site average visit is like 8 seconds. The content is well written but i suppose the sample size is small so i should wait.

Also according to webmaster tools i've had over 600 impressions (of course many are from me) but only 1 or 2 actual visitors. That seems low, but perhaps its due to my ranking.

As an update to my current rankings in google for broad/phrase searches for my keywords i'm ranked as following:

Keyword #1
49/54

Keyword #2
79/82

Keyword #3 (high commercial potential)
Unranked/190

Keyword #4 (newly ranking on this one...very high commercial includes "buy ______"
Unranked/84

I'm still unsure where to go from here. Leaning towards buying the service mentioned, but may wait another 2 or 3 days to determine what fiverr package had on ranking. I'll likely post another article in the next 2 or 3 days.
 
I would uninstall google analytic - change it for Web Analytics in Real Time | Clicky - one site is free - that's all you need right now.

Another note from the n00b (i am learning too :) ) - original unique content belongs on your site, not somebody else's, therefore ezine and squidoo - spin somebody else's content

Note ++ - red virus or SBB are the shit for bookmarks and are de facto standard start for emds on this forum. You can xrumer blast them later or live them like they are - up to you, but you can do them first week without too much worry.
 
I am in the same boat you are! I'm going to start one of these threads soon too, but I wanted to wait until I had a few days worth of info to post.

I've had the same thing happen, numbers in google analytics are extremely lower (4 people to my new website) than my webmaster counts.

Also, when I search for my keyword phrase in incognito window, I have very good rankings, (#4 google, #2 yahoo, #2 bing) but when I checked it with pageranking.com it said I had a rank of 0....

Question: I'm at the same stage you are at in building my website. Would you like to do a joint newb thread or I can start my own thread. Could be cool to work simultaneously with someone and make a super-thread :)
 
Vegashobo - Is there a reason i wouldn't want Google Analyics linked to my account? Is it more likely that purchasing back links is likely to be "caught?"

drgirlfriend - You are welcome to post in here, and share your journal.

An an update from the last couple days:

December 21st - I added an additional article of unique content (~400 words). I also then realized the reason my ads were not showing is that you are limited to a maximum of 3 adsense ads per page, and i have 2/3 per post, with full post showing on the main site.

I changed my posts so only the first paragraph/few sentences show (usually with a photo) with a "Read more" link going to the page, and placed only 3 ads on my main page. I also added the sidebar template on my main page to each of my other pages as well as to each individual post page. Basically i cleaned it up a bit.

I received my second organic search visitor (hurray!)

The night of the 21st my rankings went up substantially (potentially from the fiverr 150 social bookmarks, although they are still not showing in webmaster tools as backlinks)

For night of 21st my top rankings (broad/phrase) were:

Keyword #1
18/24

Keyword #2
32/25

Keyword #3
34/29

Keyword #4
37/250

Keep in my mind i have many other pages ranking in top 200 for search results but these are just my top results.

Today however when i checked my rankings I've disappeared for phrase search on my #1 keyword (have a second page ranking 98th), and dropped in most other rankings (in some case minor, a few spots, in others significantly, either disappearing all together or 20/30 spots)

Going Forward:
Will likely add another article today or tomorrow geared towards my #3/#4 keywords.

Have decided based on reviews i will order a SBB as recommended above dripped over 3 weeks, however I am considering holding off as my keywords have some potential to do well as they could be part of a New Years Resolution (in a minor way). As the bump in rankings from the SBB occurs relatively quickly (from what i've read in the reviews) , i'm considering ordering on maybe the 28th or so to take advantage of that.

Questions:

Does having google webmaster tools/analytics increase the likelyhood of being sandboxed or de indexed if purchasing back links?

Does webmaster tools accurately reflect what Google shows as backlinking to my site?

Why are my site rankings so bipolar? Jumping 100 spots, or 30 spots, then disappearing the next day.

Any thoughts on best time to order the SBB? After the SBB (Say 3 weeks) should i be looking at adding some high PR blog backlinks? From what i've read on link velocity, you want to be adding links consistently.

As always thanks for any and all help. Always informative and appreciated.
 
Ok, a few things to note here....

1) Read all the posts in the Enlightened Member section. There are a ton of awesome case studies going on that answer just about all the questions you have been asking. Enlightened Members - WickedFire - Affiliate Marketing Forum - Internet Marketing Webmaster SEO Forum

2) You're not going to get penalized for buying 1000 links. You'll get penalized for 100,000 links, maybe. Also, just because you purchase 1000 links doesn't mean that they are getting indexed right away. Yes, the links may be active immediately, but Google will count them slowly over time. Get your SBB package now.

3) This may be argued a bit, but the only match that counts is exact match. Don't worry about the others. If you're doing well with the exact match keyword, then you should be doing well with the others. Also, there really isn't anyway to optimize specifically for phrase or broad match.

4) Start getting other links. Buy a 1000 directory submission package. Create about 50 article directory links and point shittier links at them (think xrumer/scrapebox).

5) Build out some really good web 2.0 sites. Think squidoo and hubpages. Make these QUALITY. Optimizing pictures and videos from youtube. Multiple headings with kw's, etc.

6) Learn your onsite SEO guidelines. Keyword should be present in title tag, h1 tag, h2 tag, h3 tag, img alt tag, meta description, em tag, and strong tag. While widely argued, try to keep your keyword density around 1%-2% of your content length. Onsite SEO is not an option. It is necessity. Airtight onsite seo + an emd can more often than not rank you higher than you are right now - with minimal links.
 
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7) Research different plugins for adsense. Try to find one that will rotate ads to different positions on your site/posts/pages. Keep track of which position and ad sizes are performing the best. Once you have a good cross section of data, you can do one of two things. 1) Permanently place the best ad in the best position. 2) Look at the ads that are being displayed by Google and advertise for them directly. Acctually, do both of these.....or none. Test and see what works for you.

8) Don't be paranoid about Google. They know everything about your site whether or not you're using their products. Try to work with them instead of against the grain and you shouldn't have any problems.

9) Your rankings are 'bipolar' because your site is relatively new. Google is trying to determine the relevance of your content and find out where your site really belongs in the rankings. This "Google Dance" will start to settle once you have a good link profile going on that can compete with the first page.

10) Do competitive research. Look at what sites are ranking top 10 for your keyword. What types of links do they have pointing to their site? How can you get those same links? How are they monetizing their site? With Adsense? With CPA offers? Are they building a list? Do they have an exit pop? Is their content quality or trash? What secondary keywords are they going after? What does their site structure look like?.....You want to get on the first page so that you get traffic and make money. So, at first, copy the strategies of your competition. Then, take over your competition by doing it better.
 
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