So it turns out that if you build a website with some worthwhile content, you can get found on search engines! OMG, really?!? I know. You're all completely flabbergasted. I'd actually almost given up in my head on the site I'm referring to, having decided that the marketplace I chose was probably too crowded and that my information wasn't compelling/original enough. So low and behold, I checked analytics today (haven't checked for over a week), and the search engines picked up the site and actually served me some traffic. I've disabled the AdSense ads initially so that I can focus on a clean site and traffic building, and the traffic has been tiny, but so is the amount of content on the site. So basically, I guess the moral of the story is: build something you think could be useful for other people, do your best to get a couple of inbound links so you'll get indexed and make sure you use your SEO tactics. You'll get found. Step 2: - Put more content into the site - Let the traffic gradually increase - Turn AdSense on
The traffic was negligible compared to what is worthwhile for making money from. However, the site has only been online for less than two weeks, and I didn't get much chance to put content in, because I've started several projects and it turns out there are only 24 hours in a day. So. minimal content, but still got 15 organic (search engine results) visitors. So I figure if that can happen, then it's worth putting effort into this site and building the site up properly. At the very least it's a good test case to prove to myself that if you build it (properly, with a focus on quality, and without complete neglect for SEM techniques), they will come.
Compliments good quality is always repaid, just don't get surprised when one day your traffic will bounce and you find out that someone has shared your article with the others Ah yeah, i hate the fact that a day has 24 hours :/