Could use some marketing advice

Less than a month ago I took my new site live: www.alexkrige.com
So far I have had some success getting it listed in google, the articles are ranking high up in the SERPs and I am very pleased with the progress.
Social networking sites have been a good source of traffic thus-far. Most of the articles don't get much attention but a few have been pretty popular and brought in good traffic.

Still not much income as you can imagine, it's a new site with no PR and no niche direction, and adsense/kontera still aren't targeting the content as well as I would like tho I know this will change in time. my idea is to let it evolve in time to see which topics I should be concentrating on and move in those directions, I have not spent any money on marketing but I think I'm ready to invest a little in the site, but my budget is small.

My number one goal at present is content, right now I have only two writers. Myself (I'm not a good writer, im a tech) and one other person, I got a 3rd writer on board last week but he had a bad car accident and is laid up atm. I have the possibility of a 4th writer who is actually a professional journalist, the editor of a news paper in a major American city. So I think the prospects are looking up. I have offered the potential writers revenue sharing in the site via adsense and other forms of media that I hope will come later. Surprising was not a known concept to any of them, and the opportunity to post their ideas with anonymity was also intriguing...

Anyway, you got the idea of what it is I am trying to do.

1. So what do you think would be a good way to market this site?
2. Do you think I should ad or change anything about it?
3. What are some good ways (other than the obvious "good content") to build reader loyalty?

I have a few ideas I am working on ATM, it's just the technical issues that have to be worked out, but that's my problem.

 

G'day There, welcome to DP.

I thought i would offer you some advice, from experience and advice that has been passed onto me.

First of all, participating in forums like this is a great way to learn. There is a wealth of information available, if you have the time to dig through it and find what you are looking for.

DP is also great for networking, talking to people. In general, you get as much out of forums as you put into them. If you see it as an easy way to promote your site, and you just blaytantly promote your site, people will take no notice. But if you spend time getting to know people, help answer their questions if you know the answer, then people will have more time for you.

Also, you need to try and participate a bit more so that you can get your link in your signature. Just posting about rubbish is not a good way to go, take the time and put in the effort and you will be repayed tenfold.

Everytime you make a post, someone will see your link. Your link will also be picked up by search engines.

Another tip is to stick at at no matter what you do. Some people give up because they can't see quick progress. Just stick at it and plug away. Dont give up.

Monitor your traffic, try and work out where the majority of your traffic is coming from. If you find that your traffic is coming from a link on a particular website, try and get a link placed on a similar website. From a search engine point of view it is partly to do with how many links you have, but when it comes to people stumbling across your site, it all comes down to where your links are placed. Focus on strategically placing them, rather then placing them anywhere.

Try to use as many commercial sites as possible. Can you place something on Ebay to give you Exposure. are you using myspace, are you using facebook. Can you put anything on youtube etc.

I hope that this information is useful to you and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers