|
Make sure to: a) write posts that are more than 300 words, 500-800 are ideal. b) use lots of really big, really lovely images. use the following formula: -rename the filename to something contextual "hennings-gold-medal-chipotle-cheddar-cheese.jpg" -put in both title and alt descriptions -use http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/ -set the wordpress default for image to 'file', not 'attachment page' http://wordpress.org/support/topic/make-image-attachments-default-link-to-original-image -use a lightbox (i like http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jquery-colorbox/) OR use something like: http://codecanyon.net/item/social-image-hover-for-wordpress/2270775 -share every image in pinterest (pin it from your blog post, so you get the backlink), also consider using instagram and 500px (find a workflow you like) (and of course every post shared to g+/fb/twitter) c) don't be afraid to link out to other awesome cheese resources in your posts, and don't nofollow those links. It'll increase your co-citation which is part of the quality metrics. d) use the brandname on the cheeses you're discussing like crazy, there are always lots of long-tail brand keyword searches
|
#
?
May 16, 2013 22:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 00:43 |
|
|
Thats some awesome advice, thanks  This is looking like it will be a fun project. Almost as much fun as tasting the cheese. Also I have a decent DSLR and tripod and I am working on making a photo whitebox so I can take my own pictures of the cheese. I assume its always best to use my own images for this kind of stuff to avoid ownership issues, right?
Stealthgerbil fucked around with this message at 23:37 on May 16, 2013 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2013 22:30
|
|
|
mcsuede posted:b) use lots of really big, really lovely images. use the following formula: I fear that this could lead to over optimization!
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2013 01:09
|
|
|
cartooncart posted:I fear that this could lead to over optimization! I didn't say name them all KEYWORD-KEYWORD-KEYWORD, Alt=KEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORD title=KEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORD did I? Contextually naming files, using titles and alts is proper markup and recommended by big G themselves for accessibility reasons. Not sure if you intended to include EWWW in that quote but all it does is losslessly compress your images to best practices (as recommended by Google's pagespeed scoring system). People get confused as to what 'over optimization means'. Over optimization penalties hit sites that stuff keywords and use the same keyword anchor text on every backlink/internal link, not sites that follow proper markup designed to make web browsing better for humans (titles and alts...) and do so contextually. mcsuede fucked around with this message at 19:17 on May 17, 2013 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2013 19:11
|
|
|
Stealthgerbil posted:Thats some awesome advice, thanks In general, yes. Lots of bloggers just use and credit images or buy stock images, but for a cheese blog, I'd take your own shots. That way you're totally in the clear and can do whatever you want with them, promotionally (500px & flickr come to mind as places this matters). Softbox your flash to get a nice even light on your shots and use a gray card to make color balancing really fast.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2013 19:18
|
|
|
mcsuede posted:I didn't say name them all KEYWORD-KEYWORD-KEYWORD, Alt=KEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORD title=KEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORDKEYWORD did I? I know that you didn't mean that. I'm saying that a lot of people might misunderstand what you mean by contextual and begin doing the standard crappy content tactic where: Title = keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword H1, H2, H3 = keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword all alts = keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword all img titles = keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword all internal link titles and anchor text to article= keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword There's a fine line between someone who understand contextual as being what the picture actually reflect and someone who understands it as being the keyword they're trying to get traffic from on this page. TLDR: In the future, I should put more effort into my posting if I'm going to start nit picking at good suggestions.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2013 20:42
|
|
|
Thanks to this thread I was inspired to start a blog and to also start seeing if I could grow the website into a business in and of itself. I've been needing a way to express myself. I've decided to focus on parrots for the most part but figure it will be a little bit of a mesh of everything that I enjoy doing and learning about. So, thanks for helping me get started and hopefully it will continue to go. If you want to check out the site, which is still very much starting up, check it out at https://parrotsalad.com.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2013 10:15
|
|
|
I asked this earlier in the thread, but does anyone know anything about CPM? My browser game is now getting a million page views a month, but a much lower relative unique user count, around 10,000 a month. I assume CPM would be the best way to do ads for it?
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2013 15:57
|
|
|
^^^^ Why not try getting posts/reviews up on gaming sites or even advertise on specific networks. It might be cheaper/more effective.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2013 03:52
|
|
|
I meant sell ad space. That said I've emailed a couple of sites that I think would want to review it, haven't got any responses unfortunately.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2013 14:06
|
|
|
Have you checked out buy sell ads yet?
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2013 15:00
|
|
|
The link in the op to the recommended plug ins either isn't working or I don't know what I am looking for. I scoured through all of the pages of the thread and picked out the plug ins that people mentioned, is there anything else at this point that is a must have? Also I am going to try and use one install of WordPress to rebuild a website that was using joomla before, any recommendations for plug ins for a site that will be mostly categorized data, an image gallery, reviews, and a glossary, but using the front page as a news blog?
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2013 17:30
|
|
|
My travel site's traffic has taken a dive over the past week. Hopefully this is a seasonal thing since is about planning travel to Europe (and most people are actually traveling at this time). My traffic exploded in May so it is a bit disheartening to see it drop this month. I guess I need to work on producing content to bring visitors all year long.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2013 17:45
|
|
|
I got contacted for the first time about an advertiser wanting to pay to have content on my site and I was wondering if anyone could shed some like. They want one content related article, they'll write, to be on my site (travel blog), for one year and have offered (first offer) to pay $80. The links in the article will be for a casino site. My blog https://www.whereswil.com is pretty new and this is the first opportunity I've gotten to make money through it and I was wondering what risk is involved (this is against google policy) and what would be a good amount to request as a counter offer. Additionally, If anyone has a chance to look at my site and give me any tips or suggestions, that would be appreciated. (It's a little unpolished as I work while traveling with an underpowered netbook)
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 01:35
|
|
|
Onta vasa posted:My blog https://www.whereswil.com is pretty new and this is the first opportunity I've gotten to make money through it and I was wondering what risk is involved (this is against google policy) and what would be a good amount to request as a counter offer. The least risky would be to ask them if you can mark it specifically as an advertorial/sponsored post and put their link as no-follow. This is totally within Google's policies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmlsfSqmOw). They will most likely not accept this. I'd take a deeper look at the site they want you to link to. Does it make sense within your content? Is there site sketchy in any way? Does their backlink profile scream spam or other unethical techniques? If you say yes to any of these, I'd suggest not doing it, but I doubt you'll get the whole site sand-boxed for only 1 bad link... Looking over your site, $80 is pretty good for the stats you currently have. Yet, they are a casino site. I'd ask for $200 and tell them that you usually try to avoid gambling, porn and pharma, because those are the hotbeds for spammy link building tactics.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 05:00
|
|
|
cartooncart posted:The least risky would be to ask them if you can mark it specifically as an advertorial/sponsored post and put their link as no-follow. This is totally within Google's policies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmlsfSqmOw). They will most likely not accept this. Thanks for the info! You've been really helpful. Do you have any resources you can suggest when evaluating a site's backlink profile or signs to look out for?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2013 06:21
|
|
|
How closely should I follow the rule in the main post about researching AdWords for Approx. CPC over $1? I'm finding plenty of nice sized monthly searches with low competition, but the CPC might be more around 70-90 cents.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2013 17:07
|
|
|
Revol posted:How closely should I follow the rule in the main post about researching AdWords for Approx. CPC over $1? I'm finding plenty of nice sized monthly searches with low competition, but the CPC might be more around 70-90 cents. It's not set in stone. If you find some good keywords that you can rank go for it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2013 17:38
|
|
|
I've also been considering aspects of a keyboard/subject that might not be readily apparent by looking at SEO starts and CPC and so on. For example, it seems to me like 'geek' keywords would be at an automatic disadvantage, because more often, the kind of traffic the blog would recieve would be from more knowledgeable Internet browsers who are using plugins like Adblock. They also may be certain kinds of users who avoid clicking ads more than others. Are these valid concerns? And speaking of, are there ad networks that are able to avoid getting hit by Adblock and the like?
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2013 22:25
|
|
|
I'm having a contest on Facebook to pick out a name for my personal/business/car sales website. Basically I know lots of people that don't want to deal with my co-workers and don't want to call in to the store and leave me kudos, etc. Track my sales, schedule and inventory. Here's a link. I'd love feedback. I'm looking for a Name and catch phrase. I'm giving away $200 to Best Buy or St. Louis Cardinal Baseball Tickets (or any other team if you're not from Missouri, etc) http://bit.ly/140c3xg (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2013 03:29
|
|
|
I'm looking to expand my writing portfolio to include some SEO-optimized content. If anyone would like me to ghostwrite an article or two for their blog please send me a PM and we'll see if we can work something out. I am volunteering to do this and do not expect any compensation. For what it's worth, I am professional technical writer but my portfolio is lacking SEO-centric work. I produce web content for my friend's not-for-profit, but it really isn't what employers want for internet marketing/copywriting/content creation positions. Forbidden Kiss fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Jun 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2013 03:36
|
|
|
Nayt posted:I'm having a contest on Facebook to pick out a name for my personal/business/car sales website. Basically I know lots of people that don't want to deal with my co-workers and don't want to call in to the store and leave me kudos, etc. Track my sales, schedule and inventory. Nice way to farm likes from this forum.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2013 06:41
|
|
|
I'm having a difficult time finding subject matter for a blog, for several reasons. The first is obvious, I need to find something that is going to be fertile for exploitation. But when I struggle with that, I then struggle with the other problem: finding other subjects that I can tackle personally. I'm curious how everyone here chose their blog subject. Skip the part where you were happy with high CPC and average searches. Let's talk about why you're on this subject personally. Is it a subject you are really passionate about? Is it a subject you feel you are knowledgeable about? There was a link to an article on smartpassiveincome.com in the main thread, and I'm starting to find what this guy says to be very interesting. A large part of his content was following the creation of a new 'niche' site from scratch. He ended up choosing 'security guard training' because it was ripe. But he explains that he doesn't have any knowledge or passion on the subject. (He even says that not being knowledgable about the subject helped him. It allowed him to research everything, and then present the information to the customer while coming from the same side as the customer themself.) Edit: Also, the first post makes mention to search keywords using [Exact] option. What is the importance of this? Don't we want to consider more vague keywords along with the exact? Revol fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jun 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2013 16:20
|
|
|
quote:Is it a subject you are really passionate about? Is it a subject you feel you are knowledgeable about? It has got to be this. Nothing worse than getting to a site that slapped up generic poo poo just to get SEO rank. Sort of like Google ranked sites were a couple years ago. Those sites do not stay ranked long. It's got to be something you're almost spergy about or someone else will beat you to it. You don't need to be an expert but you need to be willing to learn a lot.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2013 17:36
|
|
|
Revol posted:I'm having a difficult time finding subject matter for a blog, for several reasons. The first is obvious, I need to find something that is going to be fertile for exploitation. But when I struggle with that, I then struggle with the other problem: finding other subjects that I can tackle personally. Pat is starting up Niche Site Duel 2.0 right now, if you want to get in on it. The original Duel is rather out of date now in the post-animals seo world.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2013 17:13
|
|
|
mcsuede posted:Pat is starting up Niche Site Duel 2.0 right now, if you want to get in on it. The original Duel is rather out of date now in the post-animals seo world. Yeah, I'm definitely going to be following along. It's too late to actually submit to join in. I wouldn't have anyways, I'm too new and fresh on this, and coming into the game late as it is.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2013 19:28
|
|
|
Forbidden Kiss posted:I'm looking to expand my writing portfolio to include some SEO-optimized content. If anyone would like me to ghostwrite an article or two for their blog please send me a PM and we'll see if we can work something out. I am volunteering to do this and do not expect any compensation. I took up Forbidden Kiss on this, and they did a great job. They had no problem having their post shared here, and this gives me a chance to pimp my site too: https://slumberwise.com/sleep-better/the-eerie-blue-glow-sleep-deprivation/ I don't know if Forbidden Kiss plans to offer more free or paid copy, but I would definitely take them up on it again. I was worried at first that someone offering 'SEO copy' would give me unreadable keyword-crammed stuff, but this is up-to-date and magazine quality.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 17:50
|
|
|
The Swinemaster posted:I took up Forbidden Kiss on this, and they did a great job. They had no problem having their post shared here, and this gives me a chance to pimp my site too: Thanks for the opportunity and kind words. I'm still interested in putting together some work for another site or two. Send me a PM or post here if this interests you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 21:14
|
|
|
I'm struggling to understand why so much importance seems to be placed on building a niche blog around one exact keyword phrase. Why does it have to be exact? Don't I need to consider that people might get to my site from similar keywords as well? It seems to me like this is all centered around buying a domain built around that exact keyword. But is that a must? Another thing I'm seeing here is that, if you want to do a focus on something like Amazon affiliate, you want to pick a product that has a higher cost. For example, if I make a website about digital comics, I'd have to get it to sell a LOT of comics through affilaition. But if I made a website about media center PCs, just a few sales are going to make more of a difference. One common idea I keep coming to is a review site of some kind, that can then use affiliate links. But the problem with the kind of product that you would want to sell through affiliates, is the cost in reviewing them. It's sorta like the chicken and the egg. Sometime has to come first. If I wrote a blog that reviewed DSLR cameras, I'd need to buy these cameras. But I won't be able to buy these cameras until that blog is making a lot of money. But for that blog to be making a lot of money, I need to be buying cameras for the reviews. Edit: Hrm. I may have found my keyword.
One problem is that the .com, .net and .org domains for this keyword are taken. Is it really important to have the domain mirror the exact keyword? If so, do I want to go for a .us? Do I want to throw in dashes to see if I can find something that way? I've bought the domain. It's a .com, but I had to add the prefix 'simple'. Which, while making it a four word domain name, I think will work well, as the word 'simple' does work for what I am trying to do with the content I want to write. Revol fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2013 22:03
|
|
|
Revol posted:One problem is that the .com, .net and .org domains for this keyword are taken. Is it really important to have the domain mirror the exact keyword? If so, do I want to go for a .us? Do I want to throw in dashes to see if I can find something that way? Nah, it isn't as important these days as Google is trying to move away from the benefit that this once gave.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2013 16:47
|
|
|
The OP was written over a year ago and since then Google has had two major search engine changes, so a lot of the advice in there is slightly outdated. Revol posted:I'm struggling to understand why so much importance seems to be placed on building a niche blog around one exact keyword phrase Like Long John Power already said, Google has definitely de-emphasized exact keyword domain names, so those are not necessary at all. However I still think it's important to focus on a single, or at least a very small set of related keywords. It just makes it easier to start ranking if you focus on one thing. Revol posted:Another thing I'm seeing here is that, if you want to do a focus on something like Amazon affiliate, you want to pick a product that has a higher cost. Yes and no. How often are people going to buy a PC after reading your review? Not very often, a it's a large purchase. How often are people going to buy a comic after reading your review? A comic can be an impulse purchase. The cheaper products do have smaller margins, but they also tend to have a higher amount of purchases. Bottom line is, you should pick what you're more passionate about. No matter what the margins are, it's always easier to sustain a blog about something you really enjoy. If the comic thing isn't working, you can always go back and review PCs later.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2013 13:49
|
|
|
I've written six articles so far (which I have not SOE optimized yet), with 29 more article topic ideas waiting. I think I might want to add a few more articles before I launch, but that said, I think I'm ready to begin the site work for a launch. I've got my domain, hosting, and Wordpress installed with a few plugins. I think I'm really stuck on the problem of what Wordpress theme I want to use. I want something that is SOE optimized. At the same time, though I read an article somewhere that talked about how SOE optimization through a theme is a mistake, and that it should be handled by a plugin. Beyond that, I want a plugin that I pay for so I can hide the fact that I'm using a Wordpress plugin on my site. [url=http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/resources/[/url]Pat's recommendation of the THESIS theme[/url] is good, but I just don't think I want to be investing $100 on this website until I can see it can make money for me. Edit: I just bought this theme for $25. And... it's been twenty minutes now, and they haven't given me a download link. This is promising. sim posted:The OP was written over a year ago and since then Google has had two major search engine changes, so a lot of the advice in there is slightly outdated. What blog do I want to add to my RSS feed to watch news like this? Revol fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jun 30, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2013 20:53
|
|
|
I've been building a website over the past couple years to help me organize disjointed things in one place (tasks, dreams, recipes, books, etc). Because the site is essentially composed of a bunch of small tracking applications, I've found it very difficult to market traditionally. I think that blogging might be the best way to promote awareness of the site since there are a multitude of topics I could write about. I would really appreciate any high level advice on what kind of strategy to pursue since I am very new to the concept of blogging, and less so with doing it as a marketing tool. I'd prefer not to advertise but encourage people to sign up for the site instead. A couple of quick question off the bat, is it an issue if I integrate the blog into the site itself (/blog) rather than a separate wordpress site? It would be much easier and faster for me to build it myself. Does it sound like a good strategy for bringing traffic assuming the blog content is useful? Should I maybe focus on each tracker separately and try to find blog topics related to it? Again this is all new to me so I'd really appreciate any guidance. If you are curious the site is https://www.tracktacular.com
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2013 14:26
|
|
|
Just recently getting into the whole business of online business - I'm starting out by creating 3 SEO optimised websites for 3 businesses that I already have running on the ground. I'm outsourcing most of it via eLance - anyone have any recommendations for freelancers they've worked with? I've picked the team for one of the sites but I'm still shopping around to get the other two built. I'll probably also end up hiring other freelancers to do SEO stuff, although most of it nowadays seems to be content (which I will do myself) I'm not real knowledgable on backlinking or any other methods. Just for fun (maybe) I've been doing a bit of keyword research with LongTail, sticking with local ideas around Sydney. I've found a few.. one big one centred around a keyword that it seems has been overlooked by a not-small not-really-niche industry. The way the NicheDuel2.0 and other successful sites seem to be headed is more about creating large online resources that don't currently exist, but that people are searching for. I seem to have possibly stumbled on to an idea around this which I'm pretty sure could be monitised but I'm unsure how to proceed. Pat seems to first get some industry response (his food trucks idea) but I'm worried that if this idea does have potential, someone will do it much quicker and with far more competence than me. I'm not really sure what question I'm asking here but.. anyone here got success or horror stories that started out like this?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 08:12
|
|
|
Revol posted:What blog do I want to add to my RSS feed to watch news like this? The guys at Empire Flippers keep a close eye on Google at all times. Blog and podcast are both worth paying attention to. I think a blog would work really well for marketing. Feature different users' bucket lists; budgeting advice; interview a dream interpreter; different methods of goal-setting - I am literally just going down your feature list and the blog topics are potentially endless. With decent, unique content (think lifehacker type stuff) you could be getting links from all over. I think (not an expert) for SEO purposes it would be best to integrate a blog on the homepage of your existing site. Site looks great, by the way. Cool product too. Thought about turning it into an app? Chadzok fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Jul 2, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 10:22
|
|
|
Thanks chad, I created a mobile version of the site but can't justify the cost of making apps for specific platforms yet. So I'm glad you agree that there are a lot of potential topics. It also makes it a little difficult to focus, is the goal to consider each section a micro blog with different strategies and topics? For example, try to find niche topics/keywords for dreams and market those blog entries with specific strategies?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2013 14:01
|
|
|
I'm getting my blog ready for launch, with six articles. I'm looking at SEO now, and I'm not sure how to optimize it for myself. Specifically, per article. I'm writing a blog that are 'tips' for a subject, so each article is a new 'tip'. For example, let's say the keyword this blog is attacking is 'bodybuilding tips'. So every article is a different kind of tip, or advice. But this is the only keyword I have, really. It's the only way that people are going to be searching towards me. The specific tip for each article, none of them have keywords that get any kind of search results. Each article gets pretty specific about one topic. Most of these topics can be collected under one category. Okay, maybe each category can have a keyword to focus on. Eh, I'm losing myself here. Honestly, it's hard to say what my problem is without giving away my main keyword, or the subject of the site. It's not that I don't trust you guys. It's that there are a few people on this site who would give me a metric ton of poo poo for writing about this subject, and I don't want to have to deal with that. Not until I can get some kind of result with the site to back me up. Anyways. I guess what I'm asking is, should I worry that much about attacking a different keyword on every article I write? What if it isn't possible? Does every article I write need to have an good SEO keyword hook?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 00:44
|
|
|
Is this your first site? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about optimizing. Generating lots of good content is more important than optimizing each article. They don't have to each focus on a separate keyword. On Wordpress, I use the "WordPress SEO" plugin to optimize posts for specific keywords.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 14:17
|
|
|
sim posted:Is this your first site? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about optimizing. Generating lots of good content is more important than optimizing each article. They don't have to each focus on a separate keyword. On Wordpress, I use the "WordPress SEO" plugin to optimize posts for specific keywords. Yeah, that's the plugin I'm using. I get caught up because when editing a post, it outlines where you're failing in SEO, in big red letters. Oh no!
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 14:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 00:43 |
|
|
Revol posted:Yeah, that's the plugin I'm using. I get caught up because when editing a post, it outlines where you're failing in SEO, in big red letters. Oh no! Keep a couple of things in mind. One, a big percentage of searches on a given topic per day are going to never have been searched before. Upwards of 25 percent. So if you're writing good in depth articles with unique content, you'll grab these long tails. Next, seo is not a substitute for quality. Focus on making good, valuable content and people will like it, share it, and link it. Obviously feel free to game certain articles towards certain kw niches but if you create good content, it's never a waste of time.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2013 17:09
|
|