Thread: Sup bro's? What do you all need help with?

A quick tip I've learned from working with some really smart guys is(And this is not meant to come off negatively at all merely helpful... I've committed this same thing many times!)

When asking for advice...anything: be concise! Figure out one or two questions that will give you the most benefit and go with them.

Cheers,
Zach

Thanx doc, best thread in 2012.

Quick Question:

I've been running a site for two months now and I'm getting stuck deciding where to spend money on SEO.

I don't have a large budget and don't want to throw money away.

I'm currently doing the following free methods of SEO on my own:

-Facebook
-Twitter
-Digg
-Stumbleupon
-Blog commenting
-Forum Involvement

I don't want to do PPC because it can get out of control really quickly and I don't have an unlimited budget, but I do want my target keywords to move up.

Any advice or direction would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by BusinessStories

Quick Question:

I've been running a site for two months now and I'm getting stuck deciding where to spend money on SEO.

I don't have a large budget and don't want to throw money away.

I'm currently doing the following free methods of SEO on my own:

-Facebook
-Twitter
-Digg
-Stumbleupon
-Blog commenting
-Forum Involvement

I don't want to do PPC because it can get out of control really quickly and I don't have an unlimited budget, but I do want my target keywords to move up.

Any advice or direction would be appreciated.

What kind of site is it? I.e. what type of traffic would you benefit most from getting?

The site features interviews with entrepreneurs - the end goal is to give people a window into what it means to start your own business.

I'd like to eventually offer courses or an ebook with a complication of stories.

The kind of traffic I'd really benefit from is anyone looking to start their own company or become an entrepreneur.

It sounds like SEO isn't going to benefit you as much as social media and link bait would. Just like mixergy and the rise to the top, most people find those through looking at other site with similar topics. I found the rise to the top on itunes when i was looking for mixergy's podcasts. Syndication will also help you here and drive traffic back to your site. I have never googled for things like that. Once people start becoming your fan, links will flow in and good links at that.

Also I would be talking to other writers and bloggers that are looking for content to talk about, if your site is worthy, they will talk about it.

Thanks, do you have any tips for successfully getting guest blogging gigs?

Originally Posted by BusinessStories

Thanks, do you have any tips for successfully getting guest blogging gigs?

Yup, talk to bloggers in your niche/cross niche. It's really that simple, there are always people behind the blogs. So just like if you wanted to speak at someones event somewhere, talk to who is running it and tell them what you are trying to accomplish. Hit as many as you can, be sincere and offer value to them or their userbase in way of content or whatever.

How can affiliate marketing help a social network grow (we dont sell anything)

Great thread everyone thanks for the great info.

Ok Lighthouse, can you give me some tips for a e-commerce store. I want to use a Wordpress theme, since It would be easy to setup and setup the plugins. My question is it better to drop ship or wholesale product. Also is it better to focus on one product such as green flower pots or focus on flower pots etc. Thanks Roc

Originally Posted by cliqflip

How can affiliate marketing help a social network grow (we dont sell anything)

I dont what to steal this thread from LightHouse but... I couldn't resist

Since joining a social network is free you can get a lot more people to sign up for it than a paid item. So maybe for every user that signs up you could give your affiliate $1 and if they are signing up more than 50 users a month or something it could be $2 or 3.

Originally Posted by Jacob Scholes

Since joining a social network is free you can get a lot more people to sign up for it than a paid item. So maybe for every user that signs up you could give your affiliate $1 and if they are signing up more than 50 users a month or something it could be $2 or 3.

^^ Probably a great way to lose a lot of money fast.

People would game the system, easily creating hundreds / thousands of fake accounts per day with bots.

I didn't think about that. Good point.

Ok how about offering already registered users to share it with their friends and if a friend registers then they get something that you offer in the social network i.e. coins in Facebook games.

Recently I have been learning how to write great copy. From what I have understood, writing casual and a with a bit of fun is the best way to go. But would this be too much?:
In the business I am building, the logo is all under-case. So I have been thinking of making everything in my website under-case to sort of brand it a bit. Do you think this is too weird and would put too many people off or would it be a nice branding element?
Also my business can allow a bit more fun than normal (I think it does).

Originally Posted by Jacob Scholes

In the business I am building, the logo is all under-case. So I have been thinking of making everything in my website under-case to sort of brand it a bit. Do you think this is too weird and would put too many people off or would it be a nice branding element?

I think it depends on how much text you have on the site. If you have a photo gallery site with an under-case logo and an under-case motto and a bunch of pictures, that's okay. However, I think that any site with text consisting of two sentences or more should be upper-case. if i continue writing this paragraph in lower-case, it's going to get really annoying really quickly. it just looks unprofessional when all of the text is lower-case. i mean, facebook's logo is lower-case, but their site features standard capitalization. i would just stick with standard text if i were you. see what i mean?

Originally Posted by cliqflip

How can affiliate marketing help a social network grow (we dont sell anything)

Why did you decide on affiliate marketing as a means of promotion over other avenues? It does not seem to fit well to a social network. What draw does your social network have the people are going to want to log in all the time?

Originally Posted by Trevor Kuntz

I think it depends on how much text you have on the site. If you have a photo gallery site with an under-case logo and an under-case motto and a bunch of pictures, that's okay. However, I think that any site with text consisting of two sentences or more should be upper-case. if i continue writing this paragraph in lower-case, it's going to get really annoying really quickly. it just looks unprofessional when all of the text is lower-case. i mean, facebook's logo is lower-case, but their site features standard capitalization. i would just stick with standard text if i were you. see what i mean?

I agree the web is about readability. Having all your text in lower case is a surefire way to make people exit whatever you wrote. Having a brand-able style is a much, but user experience(UX) is a #1 priority in all sites. If people can't use your site or read it easily, they will find another site that they can use.

As an alternative, You can have the category titles, or other structural image text be lower case for branding purposes.

Back in 2000, when people didn't know anything about internet marketing, how did they get started when there wasn't a lot of info around? I see a lot of guys who claim to be gurus of certain money making methods such as lead generation and media buying and my curiosity just eats me out to learn how they did it and they are able to charge so much money to teach you their methods.