new site strategy??

I started my first affiliate site 9 days ago (Mobile phones). I'm concentrating on writing as much original content in the form of reviews as I possibly can. I've written 8 (600 words plus) reviews so far and I'm aiming for 50 within the next few weeks. I've also added about 100 phones with tables of the best deals.

My strategy is content first, then maybe a bit of ppc and link building!! Is this the right strategy?? Writing these reviews is very time consuming and I don't want to get a month down the line and think I've just wasted my time??

This was a post in an earlier thread but I thought it was worth its own space!

 

Definetly focus on building the core content first - and don't rush it either! Focus on making the content as pleasing as possible to a visitor, includes a balanced use of keywords within your reviews and something unique about yourself and/or your website (why would people visit your website to read phone reviews?).

Content needs a quality link building program though to work it's magic. If your content is attractive, this will be much easier. Links bring search engine credibility and traffic - only a good thing I reckon!

It's a lucrative niche - keep it up!

 

Content is by far the most important task! So I think you will archive success in the next few weeks!
Where do you post your content might be important too! I would use Blog´s, Squidoo lenses and Hubpages, for example! Article directories are good too!
Another very effective marketing method is Video Marketing, it´s very simple by using ArticleVideoRobot, exspecialy if you have content already!

Another way are communities like MyBlogLog!

Take the best of your content and make a e-book with it, than you can offer it for free download, submit it to free E-book directories and so on. You should integrate the link to your site(s) and your affilate links, too!

Hope this will help you! You´re on the right way!!

 

Thanks to both great advice and good to know I'm going in the right direction!!!

 

Your articles can be around 250-400 words each. If it is more than 500 they may lose interest so you could double up your articles as they are more than 600 words at the minute.

I would leave ppc until the end. You can use link building with your articles. Submit your articles to several directories and build web 2.0 properties around them and blogs and have them all point to your site. Then bookmark everything!

 

Thanks. You have answered my next question. I read an article that said search engines looked down on content of less than 600 words. I'm good at snappy and amusing writing but that is often shorter works and I have found stretching to 600 makes the articles a little mundane and boring.

Thanks OLU much appreciated advice!

 

You can safely ignore that advice.

In addition to generating your own reviews, why not invite reviews from others too? For example, at the bottom of a particular review invite owners of the phone to submit their own. That way, your content grows without you having to do too much work (a blog's built-in comment function would provide this facility).

Properly structuring the content is quite important too. With a brand new site, it's the homepage that matters most for this. This article is a great introduction to SEO, and links to a number of useful resources (including a great article on link building).

I assume every review appears on its own page and includes a photo of the phone in question? If so, put the words 'Review of the ' followed by the make and model in the alt text of the photo.

Here's an ideal page format from an SEO perspective...

• Page URL includes the word review, make of phone, and model of phone (e.g. http://yourdomain.com/review/nokia-n97.html
• Page's HTML title includes the word review, make and model
• Page headline in H1 tags and again including above keywords
• Page meta keywords include the same keywords
• Page meta description brief and to the point. For example...
  An in-depth review of the Nokia N97 mobile phone. Summary: Excellent business phone, GPS, Bluetooth, Email, GPRS
  
• In all cases except the keywords tag - I am saying include the salient keywords in a natural sentence, and in context (i.e. so the keywords make sense in that sentence).
• If your target is North America use cellular, or use both cell and mobile if your focus is International
• Mention the main keywords in the first paragraph
• Set up a system that displays a quick description and direct link of the 3-5 most recently reviewed phones from your homepage
• Set up a system that links directly to reviews for the main competitors of the phone being reviewed on any given review page. Both this and the previous item should feature contextual links (see the above SEO article)

These tips will help search engines more easily understand what your site is about, and index you accordingly. The above SEO article will help you push your site up the rankings, and take advantage of all that great content.

One last tip - it's better to implement this content over a longer period of time (e.g. 3-6 months), than to have it appear suddenly between two visits from a search engine bot. "Slow and steady wins the race" definitely applies to SEO.

Let me know if you found this useful. And if you did, click here (and log into Facebook if necessary), and click the 'Become a Fan' button.

Regards
Wayne

 

i think your strategy is correct. Good content is the basic and you need it for further development. i read somewhere it is enough to have articles with about 250 words, longer articles are harder to index by search engines, but maybe it is just rumor

 

I seem to be saying thanks alot on this page, but seriously thanks. Wayne that was really helpful info, I'm now a fan and following your twitter page whilst setting my own up!

 

There is some valuable info on this topic. Good job guys.

 

In my case I had 20 articles 300 words each before I started selling products in my theme which also with relatable products sole later,. Eventually I learned I needed 500 word articles for my site as well as to summit to article directories. It has been slow but with my goal to make a good resourceful website more important than making money has resulted in making money.