I've thought about posting this on here, what the ramifications could be, but there seems to be more upside than downside at this point. I just want something that will help me stay on track and since this community has helped me out, I thought, maybe this is one tiny way I could give back. Plus, I intend on not doing anything real shady when it comes to link building and trying to stick to white hat (why not? The competition is low). Since I don't have anything invested outside of my time and the competition is low, this would be a good project to post publicly. If it's a total bust, it's not too big of a deal, although I want it to succeed!
I thought about not posting it in the newbie section, but this is where most of the journal's go and most of the stuff posted here probably won't be all that helpful for people who have been in the game for a while. My background is mainly in ecommerce where I've been quite successful, affiliate marketing is a new game for me and local SEO is something I've never done.
The Project
lawncareok[dotarama]com
Competition: Very Low (Average CI: 34)
170 local exact match searches for my keyword of choice "lawn care oklahoma city"
Came Online: Saturday, August, 20, 2011
Motivation
I have a couple of other local affiliate projects coming down the pipeline. I came up with this one simply because my dad is getting older and really can't be doing lawn work. I thought it might be a good opportunity to trade leads for lawn care. This is kind of a reverse affiliate system... I don't really have anyone to sell the leads to at this point, but i'm sure if/when they start rolling out if they are good solid leads people will be interested in trading/paying for them.
If I can get a significant amount of the monthly traffic searching this keyword then I'm hoping I can get 2-3 leads per month. 2-3 leads for local businesses like lawn care companies is decent in my book.
My Plan
Obviously, first thing is just to get everything setup on the site properly. Right now I just finished developing the site. There really isn't much on-site SEO done, just the basic stuff. My goal is to get the site in Google Places and really push to rank the site locally.
The only problem I see my self having is getting my site initially accepted into Google Places. The only way I can get my site listed in Google Places and get it verified is to have Google naturally pick it up and verify via my phone number (a Skype Number). I'm unable to accept mail at that address.
Where I'm at Now
As mentioned above, the past couple of weeks I've just chipped away at getting the site designed and coded. I don't have any investment in the website at this point outside of the domain and hosting fees. My budget for this project is very low... I might increase it if there are problems helping Google understand what my website is about and for.
I only have one article up outside of my static content. So, I'm not very far along at this point. I hope you guys find this thread useful down the road though!
I thought about not posting it in the newbie section, but this is where most of the journal's go and most of the stuff posted here probably won't be all that helpful for people who have been in the game for a while. My background is mainly in ecommerce where I've been quite successful, affiliate marketing is a new game for me and local SEO is something I've never done.
The Project
lawncareok[dotarama]com
Competition: Very Low (Average CI: 34)
170 local exact match searches for my keyword of choice "lawn care oklahoma city"
Came Online: Saturday, August, 20, 2011
Motivation
I have a couple of other local affiliate projects coming down the pipeline. I came up with this one simply because my dad is getting older and really can't be doing lawn work. I thought it might be a good opportunity to trade leads for lawn care. This is kind of a reverse affiliate system... I don't really have anyone to sell the leads to at this point, but i'm sure if/when they start rolling out if they are good solid leads people will be interested in trading/paying for them.
If I can get a significant amount of the monthly traffic searching this keyword then I'm hoping I can get 2-3 leads per month. 2-3 leads for local businesses like lawn care companies is decent in my book.
My Plan
Obviously, first thing is just to get everything setup on the site properly. Right now I just finished developing the site. There really isn't much on-site SEO done, just the basic stuff. My goal is to get the site in Google Places and really push to rank the site locally.
The only problem I see my self having is getting my site initially accepted into Google Places. The only way I can get my site listed in Google Places and get it verified is to have Google naturally pick it up and verify via my phone number (a Skype Number). I'm unable to accept mail at that address.
Where I'm at Now
As mentioned above, the past couple of weeks I've just chipped away at getting the site designed and coded. I don't have any investment in the website at this point outside of the domain and hosting fees. My budget for this project is very low... I might increase it if there are problems helping Google understand what my website is about and for.
I only have one article up outside of my static content. So, I'm not very far along at this point. I hope you guys find this thread useful down the road though!