If I build it, will they come?
 

I have been taking the time to evaluate my financial goals on various levels. Part of my plan moving into the future will include building web based businesses. My plan is to build 1 or 2 solid business models that focus on providing services on one site, and products on the second. I also intend to invest a percentage of the profits I earn from these websites on micro niche sites. These will be sites that earn $100 or $200 a month, but won't require a large amount of resources to maintain.

I am in the process of doing the research for the niche sites, but I believe I know what my primary website businesses will be. Before I invest my money and launch my business, I want to develop a clearly defined plan for accomplishing the goal I have for each of these websites. This leads me to the point where I am developing a marketing strategy for the websites. I don't want to use PPC and I am willing to put off profits for a few months in order to build a solid foundation that drives traffic long term.

I obviously began doing my research into SEO and the proper techniques for getting ranked in the search engines. I found myself on Wikipedia at one point and I found this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization. It provides a great history of search engine ranking which could have passed as a dissertation for someone in college. It does cover various techniques that can be used in order to improve how a website ranks.

I also found a number of services and websites that offer services for ranking in the search engines. I looked at a significant number of different programs available and came across a variety of different information and services that are offered. I found some sites that offer libraries of information on the topic of ranking in the search engines, and I found others that provided fantastic podcasts on the topic, as well.

So here is where you guys come in. Have any of you ever used a company like this before? I believe that providing useful, valuable, and quality content is essential for my success. How much should I outsource for my content, and how much should I write myself? Are there things related to SEO that I should be doing myself and not outsourcing, as well?

A tale of caution...
 

Hi Bryan,

Sounds like you could have a good plan...

I just want to share a true story - as a warning!

A couple of friends of mine had a couple profitable websites. They created content for their websites, and on their websites, they had downloadable games via affiliate links. (That is, they didn't own the games - but these games were provided by another company, and my friends sold the games as affiliates.) If people went to their website and bought the games, they made a profit.

They drove virtually all the traffic to their website via search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, one of them (the wife) became an expert in SEO - she also wrote the written content, while the husband did the graphics.

They made enough money from these websites to make a decent living - not extravagant, but comfortable.

Then... some time in 2012... everything collapsed!

The "traffic" to their websites virtually disappeared!

No traffic meant... no sales.

No sales meant... no income.

No income meant... they had to find jobs!

What happened?

It was called "Google Panda." (Or more specifically, one of the Google Panda updates...)

Whenever Google changes its search algorithm, people give it a name (the same way they name hurricanes). The change in the Google algorithm which occurred on Feb 2011 was called "Google Panda," and there were further updates after that in 2012...

(I suspect my friends were probably affected by Google Panda's "over-optimization penalty" update in 2012...)

Because of the change in Google's algorithm, all the SEO they had done, suddenly was no longer effective! They still haven't been able to get it back to the "heights" they had reached earlier...

The lesson here is not that I'm saying don't use SEO... However, the lesson, I believe, here is not to make your whole business dependent ONLY on SEO!

It's okay to have SEO as one component of your marketing of your websites. However, I think using SEO as the ONLY form of marketing you do is tempting potential disaster... Because, if you rely ONLY on SEO, then the next Google algorithm change could potentially wipe you out!

So... Use SEO (it can be a good source of free potential customers)... But I would recommend not to rely exclusively on it, alone...

Best wishes!

Dien

Re: If I build it, will they come?
 

Great response, Dien.

Re: If I build it, will they come?
 

Thanks, Robert!

It was sad to see this happen to my friends - it was a real blow to them. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Best wishes,

Dien