David vs. Goliath - The SERPs challenge continues!

So I've been an active reader on here and other SEO boards for awhile now, and I've been employing the techniques learned here to my site. The problem I'm facing is that our site has only been around for just over a year, and the big players in our field have been around forever (and seem to have a limitless advertising budget). I've been using the co-op network since December, but because of my low ranking in Google, my weight is still languishing around the 1K mark. I've been dilligently getting inbound links from other sites (many high PR sites as well), but Google hasn't seemed to catch wind of this yet. (However I've jumped from oblivion to #37 in Yahoo, so it's obviously working)

My question is, how can I compete with these guys? Just look at the following stats (site names removed for anonymity) and see if you can come up with any suggestions:

Rank - PR - Date of Inception - Yahoo BL - Google BL - MSN BL
1. - 5 - 12-1996 208 - 26 - 276
2. 7 - 06-1998 - 157000 - 5470 - 17720
3. 6 - 10-1999 - 29600 - 1950 - 17506
4. 6 - 05-2001 - 318000 - 3440 - 10097
5. 7 - 06-2003 - 64700 - 312 - 1519
6. 5 - 02-1998 - 17900 - 818 - 6082
7. 6 - 07-1998 - 887 - 347 - 411

Me: 2 - 1-2004 - 513 - 26 - 828

Now the #1 site may seem strange given it's low # of links, but it's domain name is the search term. I realize I should target other keywords, but believe it or not, they've got a lock on most of those as well. This is my business, and I'm losing a TON of money by not capitalizing on our Internet sales, so I'm open to any and all suggestions you guys might have. Thanks!

 

i've looked at tickets ... you have to realize that there is huuge $ in tickets.

you buy tickets for $30 ... sell them for $150 3 days before the game ... it fits into a $ .35 cent envelope ... it's a dream biz if you can get the clicks.

 

that said .... those stats are doable IMO. you need massive coop weight. get creative.

 

Best Bet....
But an already established website for the hits and feed the credit to your ticket site!

Problem solved....well, almost
KG

 

If only the business was as easy as you make it out to be. We incur additional costs to get tickets much of the time, often can't sell them at all and have to eat the costs, and we ship everything FedEx which costs roughly $10/mailer. Not to mention the fees we pay to the state for licensing, being bonded, etc.. And then there's the salary for our staff, software costs, advertising, the storefront, etc.

I wouldn't recommend anyone getting into this business.. If you want to get into the biz, do it as an affiliate for an established broker. Let them deal with the headache and just collect your commission. (I'm in the process of setting up an affiliate program currently, 7% of every sale goes to the referrer, not bad when the average sale is $300!)

 

I think you may have just answered your own question...

- Michael

 

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but what about the SERPs? The affiliate program is good for business no doubt, but I have this website that I've invested a ton of time into that barely sees any traffic.

 

ah ... event inventory.

that's problem #1. my last client dealt with this ... you need to get that information onto your site .... in any way that you can. even if it means finding another service. i've spoken to them in the past and they mentioned something about XML feeds. that would help make it your content.

besides more content for serps ... it's more content for coop.

 

ps - i have a friend making $ hand over first selling tickets on Ebay ... don't know it it's partial BS ... but he seems to like jsut placing all his seats there.

do you actually own your own seats? or do you just sell others seats?