It's not quality content or sharp marketing skills at all. It's all about buying links without getting banned. If a lyrics site is getting a PR 7 and ranking as good as youtube for any music related search, well, you think about it..
Content doesn't mean anything if you don't backlink, submit and post to all kinds of networks. You could have the greatest site in the world with Platinum Rate content... But it won't do anything at all if nobody knows about it.
Solution is, you give/sell what reader wants. Simple. If your reader didn't want your crap, then it's crap. If your reader want your crap, then it's gold.
Ageed!.....Here are some clarifications to other's comments. "Quality Content" is preached by those that need return visitors. The revenue model they are envisioning is one that monetizes the traffic with advertisements. (Think "blogging for dollars"). In this case, it is true, the content must be of high quality for people to think it is worthwhile to return and therefore increase the chance of monetizing them with ads. I also work with products that have just a 1 page microsite. The purpose of those sites is to get people to purchase a product. There is no need to get return visitors in this ecommerce model because revenue is not completely dependent on return visitors.(Think "late night infomericals") So, at the end of the day it is mostly about promotion. If content sites spent more time (and money) on promotion, they would need to spend less time on content. At the end of the day, they would still get traffic and make money on their advertisements. Like many businesses they are afraid to spend money upfront on advetising, so they rely on "bum marketing" which puts even greater pressure on the quality of content. COMPARISON: Do you really think McDonald's, the largest burger franchise in the world, makes the best hamburgers? No, they got that big by advertising! However, the little burger shack in the same town must have burgers that are twice as good to get people to come back to their restaurant if they don't advertise on the same scale as McDonalds.
Google doesn't prefer "shit", stop whining. The fact of the matter is that the people that are really banking are the ones that know how to mass install CMS's and auto-blog the crap out of them. Scaling is the name of the game. If you just have one site that you spend all day trying to perfect, you're not going to make any money.
not true, I have had good success with free marketing... not always & I don't know why I hit it, but when I did "oh boy" did I hit it!
YOU GUYS HAVE ALL GOT IT ALL WRONG. There's 3 Different kinds of sites that get FAMOUS: 1) Unique Sites that provide a Service or some secret Information that everyone or an existing community or new community DESIRES. 2) Quality Content Site that is indexed in Google and provides quality information over a VERY LONG PERIOD OF TIME and establishes a BRAND NAME. 3) A Heavily marketed site that serves crap that is professionally advertised and well funded. (they usually fail). Marketing is IRRELEVANT if you have excellent content OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME and you are establishing a brand name. Drudge Report is successful because it provided a UNIQUE service (Quick News) to an EXISTING community (Political Intellectuals), YEAAAAAAARS AGO. PlentyOfFish, the exact same thing. CNN.com <-- BRANDNAME and TV advertising. Take a look at my sig, these are sites that have brand names, good content, but are fairly new. Once they become old and continue to provide good content, they will become famous. Luckily, I don't have to do anything except contain a link in my sig for their owners. YouTube <-- Brand Name, Quality content, Over a period of time. Facebook <-- Unique Service, Brand Name, Over a period of time. Twitter <-- Unique Service...... DigitalPoint <-- Heavily Marketed, Unique Service, Over a loooooong period of time. If you miss certain components of these formulas, it won't get famous. The marketed sites usually fail unless they provide components of the other ones. If it's just heavily marketed it will fail. ExtenZe <--- This will fail, heavily marketed but people eventually learn its a scam. Free Marketing works. I don't pay for marketing (maybe because I don't really care or know what works and what doesn't)
This is what good marketing is all about. You can also use Coke and Pepsi as relevant examples. Why do they sell a lot more than the healthier drinks?
"build it and they will come"...this quote simply isn't the truth in the 21st century! It takes not just successful content, but good promotion and marketing as well.
quality content is what will tae a good website to become a very powerful one in the long term with the proper marketing. So the key in both cases good content or shit is to learn how to effectively market it thats the name of the game period.
I think if you can get to the stage of having your viewers say "check this out" to their friends, you've won.
Obviously, quality content is not the only thing your site should have. If you open the best restaurant in the remotest area, not many people will come. But if you make your restaurant popular by informing people about it, open a hotel, make it easier to reach, I am sure it will do great business. So, quality content along with SEO can do wonders for your site. And the addons mentioned here can refer to blogs, forums, etc.
That's absolutely retarded, I hate to break it to you. I make a healthy living online without paying a penny for traffic. Keyword research and optimization for strategic ranking brings free traffic - and targeted. This thread is all over the place, a lot of you guys are talking about single factors, when over all success is made up of several factors such as marketing, research, niche targeting, design, flow, accessibility etc...
Well, congrats to you. Not all doing free marketing are producing positive results. And yes, proper marketing is about finding the targeted market at the targeted place at the targeted time. It boils down to my favorite IM phrase - building a relevant connection. Whether it is paid, or free.
Really, TheAtHomeCouple? So, what is your definition of "healthy living," and what is your url that you are making this healthy living from?