The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Learning SEO

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
I have an idea that I'm willing to commit to but before I do, I feel one of the key skills I should look at is SEO. I'm trying to find out how best to learn about it so that if even if my idea fails. I can still use it for my next attempt.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

HarrySA129

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
67%
Jan 23, 2018
6
4
41
London
I think many people are now leaning towards google Ads now
 

NaPal

Done > Perfect
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
112%
Apr 16, 2012
229
256
USA
Several on here have stated that SEO is dead, and paid advertising is the sweet spot right now. Food for thought...
 

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
Several on here have stated that SEO is dead, and paid advertising is the sweet spot right now. Food for thought...

Well, the reason I'm asking is that I know that I'm a person that uses an AdBlocker and I assume most people do as well. Mostly because I find YouTube ads to be intrusive and that it really isn't harming the creators any more than YouTube itself likes to do.

I'll definitely keep that thought in my head regardless. Thank You.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

NaPal

Done > Perfect
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
112%
Apr 16, 2012
229
256
USA
Well, the reason I'm asking is that I know that I'm a person that uses an AdBlocker and I assume most people do as well. Mostly because I find YouTube ads to be intrusive and that it really isn't harming the creators any more than YouTube itself likes to do.

I'll definitely keep that thought in my head regardless. Thank You.
I would say, don't assume most people do anything. Let the market tell you this in terms of $$$.

My slowlane job is in the tech industry, and I don't know a single person using an adblocker (other than default packaged ones with Chrome, AV, etc.)

You are not most people, you are taking action ;)
 

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
I would say, don't assume most people do anything. Let the market tell you this in terms of $$$.

My slowlane job is in the tech industry, and I don't know a single person using an adblocker (other than default packaged ones with Chrome, AV, etc.)

You are not most people, you are taking action ;)

One more question, Harry mentioned, like you, using Google Ads is best. Is this AdWords or Keywords Planner or are they one in the same and I've missed something?
 

NaPal

Done > Perfect
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
112%
Apr 16, 2012
229
256
USA
One more question, Harry mentioned, like you, using Google Ads is best. Is this AdWords or Keywords Planner or are they one in the same and I've missed something?
I have no experience with this, but I beleive we are both talking about Adwords.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Eleven

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
174%
Jul 18, 2012
19
33
Portland, Oregon
SEO is definitely not "dead." But it does take a ton of work to be successful. Not trying to brag here, but I grew my last company's SEO website traffic over 20x (to 700,000 monthly sessions) over the course of 2 years. SEO traffic drove over $8 million in revenue last year. But that took a ton of expertise, planning, and resources.

In any case, the moz Beginner's guide to SEO mentioned above is awesome. For more advanced strategies, I recommend checking out Brian Dean at Backlinko. He covers just about every topic related to SEO in-depth on his site, though it's not exactly organized into a guide.

If you have any other more specific questions, I'm happy to answer.
 

minivanman

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
265%
Mar 16, 2017
1,722
4,562
54
DFW
I've had kind of a stupid day so maybe I'm just not getting it but are you wanting to do your own SEO for your own business or are you wanting to learn it to do for others?

If it's your own business, what type of business?
 

Evil_Jester

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
192%
May 25, 2015
263
504
31
Dallas, TX
SEO is definitely not "dead." But it does take a ton of work to be successful. Not trying to brag here, but I grew my last company's SEO website traffic over 20x (to 700,000 monthly sessions) over the course of 2 years. SEO traffic drove over $8 million in revenue last year. But that took a ton of expertise, planning, and resources.
Dead as in, making new random website and trying to make affiliate money within months -- that's dead. But yeah, if you have a pre-existing brick and mortar company with a lot of customers...then SEO is a good idea to focus on to beat the local competition for example.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

A. Rodriguez

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
111%
Jan 5, 2018
72
80
23
Nigeria
SEO is definitely not "dead." But it does take a ton of work to be successful. Not trying to brag here, but I grew my last company's SEO website traffic over 20x (to 700,000 monthly sessions) over the course of 2 years. SEO traffic drove over $8 million in revenue last year. But that took a ton of expertise, planning, and resources.

In any case, the moz Beginner's guide to SEO mentioned above is awesome. For more advanced strategies, I recommend checking out Brian Dean at Backlinko. He covers just about every topic related to SEO in-depth on his site, though it's not exactly organized into a guide.

If you have any other more specific questions, I'm happy to answer.
How can I rank a new blog in the scholarship and job niche? The site monetization strategy is Adsense. And how can i boost my adsense income. Thanks
 

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
I've had kind of a stupid day so maybe I'm just not getting it but are you wanting to do your own SEO for your own business or are you wanting to learn it to do for others?

If it's your own business, what type of business?

Well, I assume, again, that most of my traffic will come directly from search queries and while I managed to find an idea that I don't think many people have looked to yet, I still want a guarantee of traffic.

As of what type of business, it's a marketplace and I'm afraid that's all I can say. Apologies.
 
Last edited:

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
Dead as in, making new random website and trying to make affiliate money within months -- that's dead. But yeah, if you have a pre-existing brick and mortar company with a lot of customers...then SEO is a good idea to focus on to beat the local competition for example.

Well my idea is more online than brick and mortar so I think that maybe it isn't the best idea to ignore SEO.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Eleven

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
174%
Jul 18, 2012
19
33
Portland, Oregon
How can I rank a new blog in the scholarship and job niche? The site monetization strategy is Adsense. And how can i boost my adsense income. Thanks

No matter what type of SEO you're going to try to do, it still comes down to getting links to some degree (though maybe less so for local SEO, which I'm less familiar with). Yes, there are a lot of factors that go into SEO, but links are still #1.

For something like you're describing, I'd find a way to leverage getting links from universities and companies. If you do it right many universities will link from their sites to your scholarship site to make it easy for students to apply. This is likely going to involve emailing dozens/hundreds of universities about your site.

At my company we actually created a scholarship with the goal of getting links this way. A bit different in that we were offering a scholarship and not just a listing, but similar principle.

Here's another solid guide on this: Link Building for SEO: The Definitive Guide (2018)
 

ApparentHorizon

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
301%
Apr 1, 2016
942
2,836
Greenville, SC
I have an idea that I'm willing to commit to but before I do, I feel one of the key skills I should look at is SEO. I'm trying to find out how best to learn about it so that if even if my idea fails. I can still use it for my next attempt.
How can I rank a new blog in the scholarship and job niche? The site monetization strategy is Adsense. And how can i boost my adsense income. Thanks

Adsense is a terrible way to make money as a main source of income.

In replying to both of you, If you focus on 1 source too much, you're at the mercy of Google. We just went through this roughly 5 years ago with Panda, Hummingbird, Mobilegeddon, etc., where people lost 50k/mo SEO-AdSense empires overnight. Don't repeat history.

Look up Google's past algorithmic updates. Including the most recent one, Maccabees. These will tell you more about what search engines expect, than any guide ever will.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
Adsense is a terrible way to make money as a main source of income.

In replying to both of you, If you focus on 1 source too much, you're at the mercy of Google. We just went through this roughly 5 years ago with Panda, Hummingbird, Mobilegeddon, etc., where people lost 50k/mo SEO-AdSense empires overnight. Don't repeat history.

Look up Google's past algorithmic updates. Including the most recent one, Maccabees. These will tell you more about what search engines expect, than any guide ever will.

I assume that Panda, Hummingbird, and Mobilegeddon are previous updates, correct? I'll take the advice of not diversifying the marketing angle though, much appreciated.
 

Lord Heraldor

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
58%
Jan 2, 2018
12
7
32
NJ, USA
So you're putting your eggs in one basket you know nothing about?

I don't understand, I asked for confirmation on what the names meant and that I appreciate the advice of doing the opposite of sticking with one strategy.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Longshot

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
80%
Aug 17, 2012
5
4
Several on here have stated that SEO is dead, and paid advertising is the sweet spot right now. Food for thought...

Yeah, FB ads are really popular--especially for local businesses. This seem to be challenging, though, as FB is constantly changing their rules/algorithm. Has anyone here done FB ads as a local agency? If so, has it been profitable?
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top