For those who sometimes doubt hard work and the benefits of SEO, here's a little story that I would like to share. Last year I had started a website, and used it as a mechanism to pressure the local government to take action on a particular matter. Traffic peaked on the site to around 300 visitors a month, even with massive media coverage (TV, Radio, Print). I had neglected the domain, as my fight with the government had all but ended. In December, I decided to ressurect the domain and start a new project with it. The site was averaging about 25 visitors a month up until then. I built my site, and crafted a set of keywords around this niche which I felt could provide some excellent CTR & earnings from adsense. With little effort I raised the traffic to the site to 132 visitors in January, which I wasn't satisified with. I kept plugging away, optimizing, building content, keeping my vision focused. Traffic in February went to 214 unique visitors, nothing great, but this was a start considering I went from basically 0 to this in 2 monts. March, traffic was up again to 385 unique visitors a month and I started noticing that a bulk of the traffic was keying in on a few of my selected key words. With more fresh content, and even more dedication, I have seen my April traffic rise to over 940 unique visitors so far in April. I have no doubt that I will probably reach close to 1,500 - 2,000 visitors this month, totally unique, with nothing more than hard work and dedication. Plus, in searches some of my keywords are showing up on Page 1 of search results, some even in the number 1 spot!!!! For those that doubt the effort, SEO does work. Oh ya, the CTR is about what I had expected and the keywords are paying some hefty dividends to me! It's nice to see clicks valued in the $xx.xx range on occasion, but consistently stay at the $x.xx range.
I totally agree..I just made a chart of organic google hits here at work. It started at 202 in September 2007, and March's results were at 715. Not bad, considering the extremely narrow niche this company is in, and the very few searches it gets per day.
Sounds like another site made entirely to promote their adsense ads and get clicks; nothing special please move along.
Actually, you are so very wrong. It's not a made for adsense site, but I did monetize the site. Have a look at many of the major sites that are out now, you will see Adsense ads on a majority of them now? Why's that? Does it take away their credibility because they run advertising and adsense on them? I'm not going to deny having the adsense component in the back of my mind, but when it comes to providing relevant content, great articles and breaking news from several commercial news feeds, I don't see how this is "made for adsense". The adsense money simply goes back into paying for more things for the site.
You don't need to defend yourself, but the title of your thread was "Working Hard Pays Dividends" which can easily make one think your in this for the money. Many of my sites don't have any ads on them at all; I pay for their operations via other sites and my SEO services; plus they give a nice tax break as a loss in profit.
So, If I had said "Working Hard puts icing on the cake", you would have thought that I was a baker then as well? I was just trying to indicate that SEO does pay off. I've only been truly using the skills that I've learned here for these last few months, and like you, alot of my sites have no ads on them either, and alot of the costs is bourne by my consulting company when it comes to my bandwidth, server usage etc ... But when I was recommended to come to this forum, I was told it was the best place to learn tips & tricks to improve your money making ability online. I guess there are some people here that have other motives!
Both are true. • There are those here with motives other than income. For example, I have a nonprofit website. • But I'm a strong believer in free-market capitalism. So I commend you for your hard work and desire to make an income through diligent labor. That would be the case for most DPers, and I say more power to them! (Especially the white-hat webmasters )
Jim, Thanks for the words of encouragement. My question to you though, how did you know I was wearing a white hat? There's alot to be said for hard work, which is exactly the point that I was trying to make. Success in SEO isn't going to be instantaneous. However, the work required does pay off. To take a site from 25 visitors to what I project will be 1500 - 2000 in such a short time is good (or at least I think it is) considering that i've only truly learned about SEO during that same period, is worth the effort that was put into it. I've been over 25 years in the consulting business and have used punch cards and paper tape in some of my projects. Windows was something that was used to give us fresh air and I remember getting Windows Version 1.0 with one of my computers and throwing in a desk only to sell it on ebay later on. But, learning here on DP about SEO and reading, experimenting, following some great tips, learning by my mistakes, I can see how this all comes together. It's a great arsenal that will become valuable in my consulting company. Now if I can just pass on this knowledge to my employees. I may have to hire an SEO person and promote a new service!