Blog or website, which is best for starters?

[genuwine4532]

I was wondering what you all think about BLOG (w/my own domain--NOT blogger) vs WEBSITE for starting out in affiliate marketing?

I have read differing opinions on the subject, most compelling is the fact that new Blogs do not get a lot of love from search engines.

Any input is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Linda Buquet]

"most compelling is the fact that new Blogs do not get a lot of love from search engines."

Nope it's just the opposite. Blogs get MUCH more love from search engines.
Lots of people these days use Wordpress instead of building a regular site.

Whether it's best for you I can't say but as far as search love, blogs win.

 

[positivecarry]

As someone who has some recent experience with this question I think I can add some relevant advice.

For your first site pick a topic to work on that you do not necessarily have your heart set on. If you are going to be working with a CMS,(like Wordpress), for the first time, you are going to make some mistakes, it's a given. And if your first site is one which you just have to absolutely get every last detail correct, or you're going to go nuts, then you're going to have an absolutely miserable time learning that CMS. It's better to learn from a mistake on a site that you don't care so much about, and say to yourself, ah, I'll have to remember not to do that again on my next site, then say to yourself OMG now my whole site is totally destroyed.

So find a niche that you still intend to make money from, but just not one that you intend to be your life's work. Starting out like this will make your life much more pleasant.

 

[genuwine4532]

Thank you

Thanks!
I know what you mean Positive Carry, I have downloaded 3 different Web build softwares so far and only 1 really doesn't drive me crazy.
Are you saying that Wordpress is a pain? Was that your point? I thought it was supposed to be so user friendly?

 

[genuwine4532]

Blog love

"most compelling is the fact that new Blogs do not get a lot of love from search engines."

Nope it's just the opposite. Blogs get MUCH more love from search engines.
Lots of people these days use Wordpress instead of building a regular site.

Whether it's best for you I can't say but as far as search love, blogs win.

That is great to know, thanks I trust this forums opinion more than anyone elses.

One more question, on a Blog, I know you post regularly and add new content, but you can still fill your site with lots of content BEFORE publishing right? Like lets say I have 10 articles on my blog when I publish as oppsed to starting with one and then adding each day. Does the question make sense? I just don't want people to come through and see very little content.

 

[positivecarry]

Wordpress has a true steep learning curve, just as everything else does that is worth learning. You need to put in some decent time to become proficient with it, however, the amount of time is considerably less than if you decide to code a website yourself. The website builders that you are experimenting with don't have the maintenance tools that wordpress does. I'd toss them aside and never think about them again, they will disappoint you in the long run.

Wordpress has the most complete user's manual of almost any product on the planet at wordpress.org. Go there, and read away for a week.... or two, and if you have questions come back here.

To your question about making posts and storing them, yes , you can draft posts and not publish them all until you are ready. But.. before you think about content, do you know how your going to monetize this site, and push traffic to it. Content is secondary, until you have laid out a monetization strategy. Unless... this is a hobby.

 

[genuwine4532]

Monetize site

Well, from all I have read and researched, I thought content is first and foremost most important at least in the sense that it is original and valuable to anticipated visitors.

But as far as monetizing, my plan was at first to just use Adsense and maybe just one or two relevant ADS from affiliates, like Amazon a-store feature, since they do not require a CJ account. I know with CJ and the other big affiliates sites they want to see traffic on your site before approval and they will cancel you if you have no sales in a 3 month period.

Then as traffic (God willing) becomes heavier I will add more and more affiliates and then far later maybe direct advertising.

I do not want to bombard a new site with a zillion things before I have any fans.

Does this make sense?

As far as traffic, I have a whole bookmark file of stuff. The usual digg, delicious and article submission sites. I belong to Hub Pages and have lots of fans. Then there is Blog Carnival.
I often comment on several blogs and forums (including my town has a local forum where I can spread the word to people who know me) that will allow me to link to them. I also have a long list of press release type sites that will take submissions and announcements.
AND I am planning to put a big banner on the back of my car window,

 

[positivecarry]

Content is of course needed to keep visitors on your site, but it is really all about traffic and finding visitors who are in a buying mood. That's why PPC marketers make 1,000s/day, that is, because they are tapping into people who are in a buying mood. They get right to the person who types buy diet pills into the search engine. The only way to do that without PPC is with some advanced seo tactics or pushing boat loads of traffic to your site with other methods(most of which are illegal) and hoping that a % of the visitors are in a buying mood.

Content is great of course, but if people can't find you, it means nothing. I am trying to help , so don't take offense if I sound rude. It is all about balancing content and traffic. But when you first start out, you most likely will not have anything fresh to add to the internet, so you just want to get your affiliate links in as many faces as you can. I could just install a wordpress blog, and only put a banner on it with not one word of text and start pumping traffic to it and I will get sales. Traffic should be understood before you develop the content.

 

[genuwine4532]

Quick Blogcast

I see that wordpress works best with certain hosts, but unfortunately not mine, GoDaddy is all ready my host, do you have any experience with their builder, Quick Blogcast?

 

[positivecarry]

All your traffic generation methods are highly niche dependent. Forums are the best way to make immediate sales in a niche that isn't saturated. The article marketing is SEO and will take time unless you sell something obscure that just happens to have a high commissions. The banner on the car is the best thing. Look into using advanced search commands to find people in forums who have problems in your niche area.

 

[genuwine4532]

Thank you

I never take offense to any feedback, I am here to learn.
I hope that the last two months I've spent on this subject and at least 50% of it has been SEO has prepared me enough.
Somehow I get the feeling that Ill never know till I actually try and be able to tweak my results.
What in your opinion are the KEYS to SEO?

 

[positivecarry]

Backlinks/Anchor text

 

[genuwine4532]

Adwords

PPC such as Adwords, Yahoo and MSN was also on my list.

Do you think this is essential and most important?

 

[positivecarry]

Now it is, if your niche is saturated though, it's not going to work out for you unless you have a good amount of cash to run tests and build you stats on the ads. Thats why true niche marketing is so important in this landscape. If you have some obscure niche, the clicks might be .05, and if you presell your visitors the ROI will be extremely high. Its all about time, and PPC in a small niche will start to work immediately.

 

[genuwine4532]

Small Niche?

Everything you say makes perfect sense.
Is there such a thing as a small niche? I don't think there is a subject on the net that has not been done and redone a million times over.

This is the general philosophy that I was going with: Provide something original, informative and personalized service add in good SEO and they will come and they will comeback. IS THAT STUPID?

 

[positivecarry]

That is what is suppose to happen, in theory, but that takes a lot of work and the work may not pay off. The best way to sell in today's market is to find a small niche and use the forum posting and other free and almost free traffic methods to push an audience to your website. In saturated niches, these methods are not as effective, because of course everyone is doing it. Speaking to the niche comment: All niches are not saturated, it's an impossibility. There may be search results for a word, but 99% of the time those results aren't selling.

 

[genuwine4532]

Niche saturation

So what you are saying is just because you get 4 million search results for a certain niche keyword, 99% aren't selling? Because? the website suks or the marketing suks or content suks? o

 

[positivecarry]

More like what I am saying is you need to look for keywords that don't have 4 million searches. You need to look for ways into a market that others don't exploit. If you don't have hungry buyers, its all about getting in their head with your product and suggesting the purchase.

 

[genuwine4532]

Ok

Ok I understand what you are saying. Let's say that your niche is very over saturated is there no hope?
Should you just let that one go and look for something else that is less tapped, even if that something is completely not in your knowledge base? But you can learn and research the topic.

 

[positivecarry]

Exactly. Drop your niche if it is over saturated. It is not impossible to make sales, but it will either take tons of time or $, or both. So you start small and then branch out.