I've got 2 sites, one is a news/article system site (custom CMS being made) and the other is a vBulletin forum with 2100 members and ~2,000 uniqies/day. Both sites are going to be fully integrated with each other. With that said, I've got $2000 to put into both of these sites for "heavy" PageRank building and work for branding online and bringing the user count on both sites up. My idea for this budget was to: Hire a vB Skinner (500-1000$) Link Building (PR4+ $250/month Links) AdWords Budgeting ($500) Directory Submission ($100) Clothing Promotion ($500-1000) [Depends on rest of budget] Listed from top priority to least. The vB skinner would redesign IronMass.com's forums and hopefully would reskin my 2nd site. I'm just wondering if anyone sees this as the best way to utilize the money while I have it (once-a-year sponsor renewal for $2800). I think that with a new skin, it'd create a "unique" feel and would make the site look a LOT prettier. Link building would bring up my page rank, and give me a hand in top search results. Since the term "bodybuilding" is a big one. AdWords - 'nuff said. Directories, again just trying to build PR and this is the *cheapest* and most effective for cost IMO. Bringing on a clothing line since it IS a bodybuilding community, tight-nit and a prior clothing sale went quite well. Adding more products and more Tshirts would be a big hit I think. Other than those 5 things I can't really think of what would help outstanding? I've thought about magazine advertising but that's WAY out of my league. 2 full page ads are the same cost as my years profit!
you seem to be on the right track. however, i don't think adwords is the right way to go to build a user base for any forum. u may want to re-assign that element.
Full page ads would be expensive, but they also sell them as 1/4 or 1/16 page ads also.. Might be something to look into
As a PR pro, I want to cry every time I hear people talk about spending money on so much advertising and not listing free / cheap "guerrilla" techniques. lol j/k I think you can do a lot more than you think, and I agree that Adwords might not be the most important thing for your goals. Take some time to chart out a real marketing plan, taking into consideration Marketing, advertising and PR all together, what you hope to accomplish with them, and do a little bit of research to find out how realistic it is. Magazine ads aren't a bad idea ... and you can certainly use smaller than full-page ads ... or better yet, go with smaller magazines (still get a decent reach, and a highly targeted audience with a fraction of the cost). I think the merchandising is a great idea for you to help develop better branding. But I really think you can get more creative than adwords. For instance, buying ads in newsletters from related sites can give you a huge reach for minimal cost compared to print advertising, and it's going directly to people who asked to see it. Invest in a decent prize and run a contest ... promote the heck out of it. Offer up a tip of the day, featured members, etc. ... anything that can change regularly and keep people coming back. Build partnerships with related companies (such as those that might donate things for contest prizes in exchange for promotion on your site in the form of a sponsorship). Sponsor events yourself in some way. The possibilities are endless, and I think a lot of website owners really miss out on a lot because they limit themselves. Think like a small business, not like a site. Better yet, think like the big guys. Who's the biggest company in your industry? How do they promote themselves? Scale it down to your level and give it a shot. Jenn
Id imagine the keywords for your chosen niche wouldnt be cheap in adwords. If your going to use adwords, id experiment a little bit with finding relatively cheap alternative keywords to the obvious biggies such as "bodybuilding".
For a niche like yours, ask your grandfather what he'll do in the old days if he have a community that talks about bodybuilding. Well, not everything can be done online. I think the best part is reaching out to your local communities and the best thing is do a brick and mortar world advertising campaign. a $2000 dollar is a lot to spend to, you can distribute flyers to body building centres and make a deal with local gym owners for a section in your forum. The opportunities to expand your site is endless and i believe that this can be done if you just select the right people to help you grow your site.
Using AdWords and targeting on keywords such as 'keyword + forum', 'keyword + chat' will bring you very targeted visitors. It won't be 1000s a day, but the CPC is a lot cheaper and you will have high conversions...
500$ permonth is too less for that big market on adwords. Your cpc will be very high for that kind of budget. I would suggest you to go in for magazine ads.,
Submit some body building articles and put good content on your site. Its free and its one of the best free seo techniques you can do.
That's what I've been doing with a $25 voucher I got from GoDaddy All the "keyword" + forum / chat are like $.30CPC, not that bad. That's what the 2nd site I'm opening is going to be, but submitting them to anywhere other than the website? ... such as?
That's one thing I plan to do actually ... I'm negotiating with the owner of an old forum which has lots of members with virtually zero activity, having that list of emails (all confirmed as valid emails) would do good with bringing more to my site.
Keep the content on your own site you're much better off... Don't submit them to others sites. Unless of course you can get good articles on major targeted body building sites, then its worth it. If you're going to go the article route its best to surround your site with the articles. It won’t necessarily help with backlinks (unless people link to the article), but it will help with targeted traffic to your website.
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Also look into Adwords alternatives. Test everything and you'll be able to find the best ROI. Adwords has a high volume but not always the best ROI.
I think adwords is the most cost effect way of getting the traffic. but how to keep the visitor depends on the site itself.