Question about structure of website

[Venetian]

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I'm thinking about building a website that will provide information on a topic (with adsense ads on it), and then I would write articles for other sites as a guest contributor along with an anchor/direct link to my website in the end of the article, to drive traffic / increase rank in serps.

My problem is that, since my website provides information, if I make a good article as a contributor for other websites, what else is left to say on my website?

Let's say I would write about a topic such as 'student loans'. I could write about the benefits and provide some tips as a guest post on other websites, but then, what would I talk about in my website?

I think maybe this is more like a question of structure.

If I had an e-commerce website, or some kind of website that had a form for lead generation, then my strategy would be great, it would not be redundant, because I could write an article about the widgets I sell in my e-commerce store, or about the benefits of my loan and say 'if you would like this, go to mywebsite.com' or something like that, it would be a logical 'progression', like they read about it > get interested > go to my website to buy.

But with information it seems kind of weird because there's no 'progression'.

I feel like there's just so much to say about it, I think I can say everything there is to say about 'student loans' in 500-1000 words guest post... and then what will I talk about in my website? What would be the reason they go there? To read basically the same stuff they just read?

There must be a way of doing this that makes sense.

How would you do it?

Please let me know if I made my problem clear or if you would like me to explain better.

Thank you.

 

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[healthstatus]

If your guest post was about Student loans, then your site would have information on: how to apply for a student loan, where to apply, typical interest rates on student loans, when to repay student loans, types of student loans, reasons not to have a student loan, student loan alternatives, student loan forgiveness.

Even if you CAN say everything there is to say, don't. Your closing paragraph on your guest post will be along the lines of, This covers the basics of student loans, but you will need to consider application steps, interest rates, where to apply and more. We discuss in detail many of these at blahblah.com.

 

[Venetian]

Hi healthstatus,

Thank you very much. That's exactly it!

I would only ask, is there a way or thought process to generate those 'derivatives' on demand?

How did you come up with those?

 

[LightHouse]

Google suggest for starters. But if its something you know about, you should be able to brainstorm them or just read around, you see what people want to know about.

 

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[Venetian]

Thank you LightHouse.


There's another thing I would like to ask.

Since I'm targeting another non-english country outside the US, many terms have almost 10x or 20x less Google searches than in US.

Like 'personal loan' for example, it has 1500 searches per day. In the US, it has almost 30k.

With this in mind,

Should I focus on building a big portal, more generic in nature, where I talk about 'all loans' instead of a site where I talk about a specific loan?

 

[healthstatus]

Right now, big portals are better as far as Google is concerned. I think they are better because you have a lot of content your users can browse through. Some people like smaller niched sites. Whichever you choose, just do it well.

 

[Jean Paul]

Two things come to mind immediately:

1) Are you focusing on what you think you know or what you readers what to know?

If you are knowledgeable about personal loans that's one thing. To you a 500 word article may be good because it's loaded with information. To your reader it may be too much at one go: he may prefer if it was 5 articles each focusing on one aspect, breaking things down.

2) Why are you focusing on a market/business model that isn't promising you a lot of money?

First of all relying on Google traffic is dangerous. Then Adsense is not likely to pay out a whole of money considering the small number of searches. If you truly know your stuff you can probably create info products around it and make more money. A good info product will allow you to gain exposure from various sources, plus it will generate additional income streams for you.

 

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[hhhoang]

Lol I don't understand why anyone would wanna jump in this kind of website creation with relying adsense for income.. Google will just slap your site and you will lose everything. Haven't you heard of the recent Google slaps. Even BIG name Adsense bloggers got their adsense account banned when he was making like 10k a month off of it... That game is dangerous and Google has proven that they won't tolerate people who put up non sense sites with a bunch of spammy adsense ads on it.. The game has changed

 

[Venetian]

hhhoang,

When you live in a very small country like I do, there are certain businesses that simply doesn't worth the effort.

In the US, you have sites like amazon, or ebay with 100.000.000 registered users. That's 10x my entire country's population on a single website.

Such big numbers make businesses possible even in the most exquisite 'niches'.

In my country, the largest 'ebay style' website has less than 500.000 registered users.

If you try to sell anything there, you will wait a lot of time before you sell anything. There's just no volume to make a significant business out of it.

This is also true for almost everything online here - blogs, ebooks, lead generation, etc - the market is too small, there aren't that many searches for anything to make a significant business out of it.


So I had to find bigger markets outside of Portugal, mainly Brazil which is 20x+ larger.

I can't run an e-commerce website efficiently on Brazil living in Portugal.

I have to sell something digital, like advertising or leads.

That's why I'm going in with a blog or a website.

It's something I can operate in Brazil remotely from Portugal.

Hopefully I make enough money from it to move there and do e-commerce.

 

[PatrickP]

So if you are selling something digital why are you restricting it to Brazil?

You said how much bigger the market is in the US.

 

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[Venetian]

Good question PatrickP,

You're right, US is a much bigger market, but:

- English is the most spoken language on earth ( Mandarin is the most spoken NATIVE language on earth ). Portuguese is the 6th.

- U.S. population is around 300,000,000 and Brazil has about 200,000,000

So you have 100x or 1000x less competition because of the language barrier for essentially 2/3 of the demand.

 

[PatrickP]

ah ok got ya!

Thank you for the explanation!

 

[Venetian]

You're welcome PatrickP,

At least that's how I see it.

Looking at the numbers makes sense, but I might be overestimating the number of people connected to the internet in Brazil.

 

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[Jean Paul]

Venetian, the language thing doesn't make a difference. I sell digital stuff online - mostly to people in the US. I have never been there.

The thing is you are acting on assumptions (and hope) not on hard facts and figures. The main reason why you are finding trouble is you haven't defined who your market is, and VALUE means to them.

Once you've got that, you can figure out how you can best reach them, and of course how much money you can expect to make.

You are looking at your geographical location as a limitation, or even a relevant factor. At this point it's not. What matters is WHO is going to buy from you and WHAT are you going to SELL to them.

 

[mayana]

I can't run an e-commerce website efficiently on Brazil living in Portugal.

I bet it could be done. Or, you can have some downloadable product to sell (like an e-book about student loans, for example).

 

[Venetian]

Hi Jean Paul,

It depends. When you are dealing with physical merchandise, then your location is a limitation because it increases the transportation cost and erodes your competitive advantage.

What kind of digital products are you selling? ebooks / software / games ?



ntapia,

I can see it being possible having people there, handling stock, fulfillment and shipping.

But I'm not at a point to be able to make such an investment and develop the whole infrastructure just yet.

My obvious option is to sell digital stuff - advertising, leads, ebooks, software, games... that I would be able to sell anywhere, without leaving Portugal.

I've been thinking about this a lot,

But the ideas I had so far don't qualify under the "scale" commandment or require more money to develop than I'm currently comfortable spending just to 'give it a shot' purely on gut feeling.

 

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[Jean Paul]

No, your physical location is not a limitation thanks to the Internet - even for physical goods. You don't have to have your products manufactured in the country where you are. Plus, many companies manufacture say in China and sell in the United States for instance.

There are so many options for shipping - you're talking about reduced profits when it's not yet clear how the profits will come, and how much profits are at stake. You really believe and Adsense site will bring you profits faster than selling physical goods?

The thing is you are acting on assumptions. You have to figure out who you want to sell to FIRST. Your market. What perceived need are you going to serve?

Stop focusing on logistics right now - decide where the money is first.

It appears you're worried about start up capital (that's what I'm reading between the lines). Put that aside for 1 hour at least.

Take your foot off the brake and really allow yourself to think in terms of real money.

Finally, you have to take a risk. You are very likely to 'lose' some time and money at several points. It's just part of the game. You can't win a fight without getting punched a few times as well.

If you stay so protective of the little you have, you will lose it anyway, and will find it hard to get more. Relax man, it's just money!

P.S. Your competitive advantage is first and foremost how you are perceived by the target market. Then of course you ability to outspend the competition also comes in. However, you can also be the most expensive option on the market and still be the leader. So don't think for one minute than being cheaper always means having an advantage.