What is the secret of your success?

What about blogging? which one is better, blogging or just static site ?

 

Free webhosting is a waste of time. Webhosting comes dirt cheap nowadays. Invest in your image.

 

Wow! I read this whole thread and now I know the secret to life...........

 

How long did it take?

 

Roll me up a doobie!

 

It took 2 days - I wrote the answer down somewhere and misplaced it ....Opps!

 

It does not matter for search engine ranking or traffic. Even if you have free web hosting, it is always better to have your own domain name at least.

Some free web hosts have their adSense accounts suspended... If you use their domain (as a subdomain or a folder with your name), your AdSense account may be at stake.

Anyways, web hosting is also quite cheap. I know of a web host who gives 5GB webspace with 50GB/m bandwidth for about 30USD per year! It is really a worth investment.

AdSense makes you money and it is better you invest some back into it this way...

 

Wow, I have to say that I do appreciate all the generosity that exists at this site. In the early days of the internet (1995-1997) I developed what I would now categorize as crap websites and never found success with them, in part I would have to admit, because resources like DP were not around yet for me to gain wisdom from. Because I redirected my entrepreneurial activities in more profitible ventures at that time, I would consider myself a newbie since many of the development tools that exist now (php, css, xml) were not yet readily available and I'm learning all over again. Thank you all for your willingness to share.

 

Come on, back in the 90's you didn't seo forums. It was very easy. Things began to change around 1999, by 2001 we definitely needed forums like this

 

So much competion these days. Lots of saturation. Everyone wants to get rich of the web and get rich QUICK. Getting rich on the web is a process and even then the vast majority of people fial to make much money online.

Im sure if you had kept your crap 1997 websites you would be pulling in mad traffic fomr tons of backlinks and stuff..lol

 

Welcome back IamNed. That's a good point! A lot of backlinks would be of great use...

 

Very true.
A lot of back links would help getting hits.

 

I feel old -- in internet terms. I opened my oldest website in May of 1995 -- based on an eSoft TDBS powered bulletin board I started in 1991 or 1992. I immediately started posting content to USENET to attract attention. In those days it had to be actual content. If it looked like marketing, you would be ignored. At some point prior to 1999 we stopped using USENET.

I also worked hard at getting links on other, relevent websites. Without that no one would find you. As the first search engines emerged -- in a pre-Google world -- we worked to get included in those and in the few directories which were around.

It was not long before the first discussions about optimising for search engines and directories emerged -- with an emphasis on META tags.

Being a news site, we were also early adopters of RSS, cell phone formats, and offering javascript-based headline services to other websites.

All that has helped sustain traffic over the years. But, we became complacent about marketing and traffic started to fade as our original supporters started to retire and/or move on to new careers. We are now fighting back and doing the tough work of trying to attract interest to new websites and new online ventures.

Not much has changed, except that today when you try to attract interest to your website, your email address ends up being given to spammers. There are also more malicious people on the internet today, with the result you need to worry about attacks on your website.

 

I guess I'm old too then! I started 94-95. Used Usenet entirely for traffic until 2004. Only then did I seriously target search engines. Before that I was of the opinion ses traffic converted poorly, in fact I still hold that opinion, but feel we need to go after every thing.

I still use Usenet, and it still converts better then ses traffic. Example, 300 unique hits from Usenet converts in to more sales then 2000 unique hits from ses. The only exception is adwords, which converts a lot better then regular serps, but still not as good as Usenet.

The bad news, Usenet is not as easy as it use to be. To get 300 uniques today, you need to make a lot more posts!

Links convert a little better then ses, but no where near as well as Usenet.

I think the key to links is to avoid any link farm schemes and go after quality links instead!

I see SEO in general shifting more towards marketing and less dependency on the top 3 ses.

Most of my fiends who started biz online when I did are gone! The key to my survival, and I suppose the same for others who have survived, is the ability to change with the times, keep an open mind, and try many different marketing techniques!

When you've been doing biz on line as long as we have, you see many changes, things never stay the same, and you need to adapt to the changes or slowly disappear in to obscurity.

I see a new shift in the works!

 

Is making 50,000 a year considered successful?

 

50,000 whats? If you had 50,000 of them, would you consider yourself successful? That's a question only you can really answer for yourself.

 

You know, that's possibly true if I had also adapted my sites with the times. I'm older and hopefuly wiser this time around...

 

azn - it would greatly depend on your location and currency.

 

My secret? Hmm...

None. I'm not making money as of yet. Keyword: yet

 

Well, unless otherwise mentioned, it must be $$$ in this forum