This is for those people with a brand new website who want to get thousands of hits per day and get to the top SERP spots by next week. From my own experience, I can tell you that the chances of getting these types of results even in a few months is slim to none. Why do I say that? A couple years ago I started a blog just for fun. No adsense ads or monetization whatsoever, it was an old school blog. I kept it up for about a year and then got sidetracked with other things. I came across this blog in my bookmarks recently and decided to revive it. I checked out the stats and to my suprise, the site has been averaging a few hundred unique hits per day for the past year without me even posting. About half of the traffic is from high SERPs and the other half is from referring sites. Even though it got a few thousand a day around when I gave it up, I still think hundreds a day is pretty good for not being updated in over a year. When I started the blog I wasn't into websites, SEO and all that stuff. But over the past year I have been reading up on everything related to SEO that I can find, especially here at DP lately, and it turns out I was doing SEO the right way before I even knew what it was. To get to the point, here's why I think this blog is still kicking: 1. I took the time to email similar sites and ask for link exchanges For every site that turned me down, about 2 said yes. I think the key to doing this is to write each email individually and talk to them like a person, don't just copy and paste a generic link exchange request. As it turns out, good backlinks really are SEO gold. 2. The blog was a subject I'm truly interested in This is important for a couple reasons. First, if it's a subject you really enjoy, you're probably going to post more often and with quality, original content. Having a lot of unique, quality content is great for getting unique, quality SERP placement in your niche. People also seem to gravitate toward websites that have a unique perspective. You can't get any of these results by copying/pasting content into a made-for-adsense site on a subject you really don't care about. People aren't stupid, they recognize blogs that genuinely care about their subject matter. 3. The site had plenty of time to grow This is the part you will probably hate the most, but it's true. To get good SE results and traffic, sites need time to grow and get their roots into the internet. Sure, you can get spurts of traffic through links and social bookmarking sites, but don't hold your breath for big, solid traffic. From my experience with websites, they need at least 6 months to a year to become established as a quality site before the traffic starts picking up. These are just a few observations and tips from my own personal experience. I've also read these tips and many more on DP, but I think they're worth repeating because they're all true. That's not to say you can't get booming traffic without following these general guidelines, but the cold fact is that the odds are stacked against new websites when it comes to SE placement and traffic in general. P.S. Did you notice everything I did was free? It's even hosted on blogger. So now, with an investment of 0 dollars that took just minutes a day to maintain, I have a site with decent traffic and a solid reader base to do with what I want.
While a lot of info here at DP is very uself people do post incorrect information, its down to you to sift through what works and what doesnt. Good work on your achievements. Keep at it.