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Pete
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:46 pm
Post subject: Not sure what to do
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Hi guys.
Right, to cut to the chase I don't really know what to do now to improve my traffic. It is general fairly low (av 50 vistors per days last month). I've just read that affiliate masters course thing, and it has given me a few ideas, but also raised a few concerns.
My site isn't really very "niche". In fact its completely the opposite - it tries to cover sports betting (I only really know about football, and have limited knowledge about some of the other sports) and casino gambling. So that's a bit of a worry!
I not entirely convinced by this niche stuff (someone has to be top for keywords like gambling, betting, and casino - and if I got that its happy days!!), but I do see some merit to it.
So I have come up with several options for going forward:
1. Build more content, a sitemap, and get more links and go for a mixture of niche keywords and general keywords like "gambling" and "betting". I could also re-write elements or articles and the html code to improve its search engine optimisation. Add a newsletter too.
2. Split the site with Betting-on-the net.com as domain name for football betting site, and create a separate new site and name for the casino gambling. Use niche keywords for both sites. Will these sites be niche enough to win a decent in the search engines?
3. "Go niche" - Start with a site purely on one casino game like poker.
To be honest I'm not too keen on option 3. I think opinion 2 is a possibility. Option 1 is my hope I can get away with a bit of tinkering. I think option 2 is probably the best option.
I will have to do a bit of wholesale renovation on the site when I have some time to do so (maybe July/August time after I finish exams and the football season re-starts) as it has browser problems, so if I do option 2 it will be then.
I just don't fancy starting again, but thinking that I may have too.
Hit me with your ideas.
Cheers
Pete
http://www.betting-on-the-net.com |
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Debs
Joined:
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4296
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 10:12 pm
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The first thing you need to do is research keyphrases to find out if they are able to be profitable in terms of traffic. If you don't have an SBi site, then I suggest wordtracker. A one day use is only about $7 US and you actually get more than 24 hours out of it.
If you can find profitable phrases, then option 1 or 2 can be done. If you were to go for a football betting site, I would call it that, not "betting on the net." Keep your domain focused to what it covers.
If you don't research the other types of betting, and casinos, if you can't write intelligently about them, the visitors will know and they won't hang around. Either stick with what you know, or learn what you don't 
You need to research whether a niche is profitable, including what kind of competition you have, and whether you can beat them in the rankings. The Affiliate Masters course can help with that, and Wordtracker.
One of the SBi sites owned by a poster on here is just a poker site, they did a great job with it, and last I heard it was making money. So don't rule out "niche" just because you think it isn't profitable. The big traffic sites now focused and dominated based on the money they could spend, and getting in early. You may not have that luxury, that's why niche sites are good for small people like us. We can carve our piece of the pie, instead of trying to take over the entire pie, a much easier proposition, believe me!
Hope this helps some,
Debs
_________________
Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!" |
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Pete
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 6:50 pm
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Cheers for the advice. I do actually have good knowledge on casino stuff (I have quite a few related pages and had several casinos offering me their affiliate program). The sports stuff (other than football) I'm a bit weaker on but I'm working on it. My main problem is quality traffic generation.
I will perserve with option 1 for now as I don't have the time for mass renovation at the moment. I have been doing a bit of research and have a few questions:
1. Am I better to restrict the number of keywords to maybe 2 or 3 per page? Should I duplicate keywords on differenct pages?
2. I don't have any title or header tags, are these important?
3. How do I give more empathsis on my keywords/pharses other than include them several types? Should I be making them bold, and including them a the text in a link.
4. Does including a section of text higher up the html source code make it more important?
I'm sure you guys all know the answers.
Thanks for your help.
Pete
www.betting-on-the-net.com |
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edburdo
Joined:
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 6:57 pm
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OK. Here are some answers. I don't know them all.
First, there are several good free ebooks out there to help you out. Try reading a few of those. Many of these items are covered in the books.
Generally, each page should be targeted to one single keyphrase.
You can use Bold and Italics to give keywords more relevance.
Title and H (header) tags are important, and should contain your keyword.
Usually the higher up the page, the more relevant the keyword. But don't spam the keyword, or you could get penalized.
I suggest reading the SBI Action Guide. You can download it w/out buying SBI. Just google for it. It has a great wealth of information.
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Eric D. Burdo
They Made $6,513 a day With Clickbank Doing This... |
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blakekr
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 7:54 pm
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A question that's occured to me about sites like yours is how on earth you promote them.
I think the guy who has the poker site relies on PPC traffic -- if I remember right, and if things haven't changed. He's still making good money, he said.
SEO and traffic improvement seem much, much harder for these 'gray area' sites (by that I mean gambling or pharmaceutical or things that some people object to). Because as Seth recently pointed out, a key way of getting backlinks and PR is writing articles, but the content banks aren't really suited to articles on gray-area topics, you know? And I'm sure it's harder to get backlinks too.
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- blake
Day Job Killer -- an ebook I actually bought, actually read and actually liked. |
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Guest
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:52 pm
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Hi
Thanks for the answers and advice Edburdo. I'm doing research into niche keywords but there seems to be several million, or hundreds of thousands of sites in google for each keyword (36.5M for casino, but comes with a reward of just short of a 1M searches per Overture - happy days if you can hit no 1 there!!).
I have considered pay per click advertising but not really got round to researching or experimenting with it yet. In terms of backlinks, that is easy - most related casino sites will give you a reciprocal link, some even have forms on their site for that very purpose! They also have directories full of other similar sites (so you don't get much traffic from them), but at least it helps with ranking in google (supposedly). I haven't got a clue where I am in google for any search term (but its a long way down!!!). Hence thinking a bit more about search engine optimising for less competitive keywords (I've given up on the no 1 on casino keyword in google dream). There are so many sites those who have millions of backlines that its difficult to get any sort of footing on the search engines.
Pete
http://www.betting-on-the-net.com |
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Debs
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 10:18 pm
Post subject:
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| Quote: | | 1. Am I better to restrict the number of keywords to maybe 2 or 3 per page? Should I duplicate keywords on differenct pages? |
Absolutely, one primary, 2 secondary and make it keyphrases not keywords. Use wordtracker to drill down to keyphrases that aren't high competition, they exist you just have to find them.
| Quote: | | 2. I don't have any title or header tags, are these important? |
Absolutely, meta tags are very important. You need the Title,description, keyword tags. Not all SE's use them all, but you cover your bases by having all 3, and right after the <head> code, and in that order too.
| Quote: | | 3. How do I give more empathsis on my keywords/pharses other than include them several types? Should I be making them bold, and including them a the text in a link. |
Use your keyphrase in bold once, italics once, in a link up to 2 times, make sure you have <h1> <h2> etc. tags, at least one <h1> tag on each page that has your keyphrase ... don't use all the <h> tags, just one or two.
| Quote: | | 4. Does including a section of text higher up the html source code make it more important? |
It makes it easier on the SE's to index and find the relevancy of your site.
Debs
_________________
Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!" |
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blakekr
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 10:24 pm
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I'm definitely no expert, but my understanding is that as a brand-new site in a very, very competitive area like gambling, if you want to compete on search engine traffic you need to hire an SEO firm, and they need to have a stable of very-high-PR sites they can point to yours.
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- blake
Day Job Killer -- an ebook I actually bought, actually read and actually liked. |
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Debs
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 10:34 pm
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blake, if you want to be first for the top terms, I would have to agree
But, you can still target the lower traffic terms and do well. Which is really what niche is all about.
Debs
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Andre
Joined:
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:18 am
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Its a good idea to join the GPWA(Gambling Portal Web Masters Association). I think their url is GPWA.NET. Once you join you can trade links with the other web masters.
I have been involved with Casinos since 98, and to tell you the truth never made as much as i could have. The webmaster of www.casinoprophet.com is quite an infamous individual and is a multi-millionaire from his basic site.
I had a couple of lucky breaks in the beginning but never re-invested much of my profits back into marketing my site. If only I had applied myself back then i could be sitting on my own Island somewhere sipping cocktails on the beach.
Good luck with your site. |
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 7:48 am
Post subject:
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| Quote: | | I've given up on the no 1 on casino keyword in google dream |
Good. It was a bit like dreaming to be the world's fastest runner. You might have achieved that goal, but not until you'd put in a huge amount of hard work.
If you set yourself a more modest goal, such as being the world's fastest runner in the veterans class, you'd have a much more achievable goal.
I've found it helpful if you set yourself easy goals to start with, so that you get a sense of achievement quickly when you succeed. Then you can set yourself a slightly harder goal...
For example, you could start by aiming to be No.1 for a really obscure betting term, and then another not-quite-so-obscure betting term, and so on.
I wonder if "sports betting site" is obscure enough to start with? According to a search I did at http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/ 366 people searched for it at Overture last month.
When I started out on the Internet, all I was seeking was a sort of "survival" income that would give me plenty of time to read books and walk on the beach. At that time, I never imagined I'd eventually own a business which employed people.
Start with small goals and grow.
Hope that helps.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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Charlie
Joined:
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UK
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:44 am
Post subject:
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| AllanGardyne wrote: | | Quote: | | I've given up on the no 1 on casino keyword in google dream |
Good. It was a bit like dreaming to be the world's fastest runner. You might have achieved that goal, but not until you'd put in a huge amount of hard work. |
More like a huge amount of work for a team of people who have sold their souls and are more than prepared to employ all the black arts they learned in return.
You would need to employ what many people consider dirty tricks - no doubt including frequent changes to domains and hosting arrangements as the powers that be caught up with you.
| Quote: | | When I started out on the Internet, all I was seeking was a sort of "survival" income that would give me plenty of time to read books and walk on the beach. At that time, I never imagined I'd eventually own a business which employed people. |
Oh dear. That's almost exactly what I think. This is more dangerous than I thought...
What went wrong? 
Cheers,
Charlie.
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:48 am
Post subject:
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| Charlie wrote: | | What went wrong? |
The business just sort of, well... grew. It developed a life of its own.
I've found that if you're smart or lucky enough to choose the right niche, people write about your site, so more people see it, and then more people write about it...
So you start getting requests for interviews for ebooks and newsletters, which encourages more people to mention you... and pretty soon you have an ever-expanding business.
One very important factor is choosing a fast-growing niche to start with. Then you can grow with it.
Perhaps someone smarter can me can analyze all the factors that are needed to make a business snowball.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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Larry Chamberlain
Joined:
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