[Video] Planning & Preparing for Success Online

I am by no means a standard for success (I have many flaws that need fixed), but this 5 minute and 25 second video highlights some of the things I did right that helped me do well on the web.

I am off to the blogging conference tomorrow, so no videos for a few days, but please let me know what you think of this one. If you will be at the Blog World Expo I am speaking there Tuesday about SEO. Feel free to stop by and say hi. :)

  • Register Domains Early & Often: As soon as you have a good idea go register the related domain. The registration and re-registration fee is negligible compared to the potential rewards of executing on a good idea.
  • Built At Least a Few Links: Search engines and web users have a limited number of ways to gauge trust and credibility. Setting up at least a basic site and building a few links for it costs next to nothing compared to the potential rewards of owning a good idea. Throw out a shingle, get it a few links, sit on it for a year and come back to it.
  • Ride Successful Trends: You don't have to be first, but it doesn't hurt to be. Also look to duplicate some of the best ideas from the past, while looking for ways to modernize them.
  • Reinvest in Your Best Channels: If something is a success reinvest in improving the design, the layout, and the offering. If you are beyond self sustaining you are not far from making relatively large profits. A few months of learning, testing, and tracking can lead to a ten fold increase in income.
  • Don't Wait Until Tomorrow: Google is mapping out your psychological flaws. Tomorrow the web is going to be dirtier and more competitive. Skipping one hour of work today might mean 3 hours of work next year or 12 hours of work the following year.
Published: November 6, 2007 by Aaron Wall in marketing videos

Comments

omarinho
November 6, 2007 - 3:44pm

Thanks for the video. Very informative and useful.
"Built At Least a Few Links: Search engines and web users have a limited number of ways to gauge trust and credibility..." I hope you post a video about link building soon Aaron.

November 6, 2007 - 6:31pm

I have a bunch of link topics lined up...its just a matter of time before I create a few more videos about links.

jbspartners
November 6, 2007 - 8:21pm

Following your expressed intent of putting up a mini site to sort of stake your claim, what are the disadvantages of instead parking your domain at Fabulous or another parking page provider and earning a few dollars while you wait? The money is not the primary motivator, but parking is a lot easier to do.

bloggingmaster
November 6, 2007 - 8:57pm

Aaron, is there anything close to a link building road map in any of your posts?. Google has already slapped two of my blogs, dead sure it's because of this whole thing of recyprocal linking.

November 7, 2007 - 12:59am

Hi JBSpartners
I think site age (as in how long has it had at least some real content and a few trusted links) is a core component to relevancy algorithms in some of the major search engines.

Some sites rank in Google with almost no quality links, based primarily on site age.

November 7, 2007 - 1:05am

Hi Bloggingmaster
I like the Yahoo directory and a few niche related links. You really do not need many links to get that whole age clock thing going...at least not currently.

jbspartners
November 7, 2007 - 1:26am

Aaron, I am trying to get a better understanding whether parking will do the job, or I need to unpark the sites and put up a quick wordpress blog with some content. I, of course, find it easier to leave them parked.

Is the site age clock ticking on parked pages? Is it not ticking because there is no real content on parked pages?

November 7, 2007 - 6:26am

No real content and no trusted inbound links = age clock not ticking.

Hock
November 7, 2007 - 5:24am

Great tips, especially the one about riding the trends. From time to time, I go back also and look at some of my older successful campaigns to see how I can apply them to other niches.

What's the best way to get links for a brand new site these days since Google is frowning upon paid links?

November 7, 2007 - 6:25am

Google is not frowning on paid links. Some of their engineers launched a public relations / public deception campaign to try to get people to stop buying links. The reason they find such a campaign necessary is because paid links are so effective.

The relevancy algorithms love paid links. Some of the engineers do not. So simply do not buy links that are simply sold as PageRank passing links, especially if they carry the footprints of obvious bought links. Buy links that are associated with an editorial review or links that come indirectly through purchasing other stuff (sponsoring events, donating stuff, etc).

Colbs
November 7, 2007 - 4:17pm

I used to be worried that I did not know enough because I did not have a 4 year marketing or business degree when starting my own business. That is why I attend Aaron Wall's private marketing Collage, no fees, no tests, and no diploma. The only requirement is NO spamming. If I am not mistaken. In 2008 I will begin attending seo based convensions around the nation and will be looking forward to saying hi.

I have been real curious about buying paid links, I have donated to a good cause recently with out knowing that I was getting a link and I did it was kinda nice. Definitly going to look into sponsership. I continue to get people wanting to do reciprical linking with my sites but I have not accepted an offer for reciprical linking in over 6 months. Do you think reciprical linking is totally extinct? I still have a few reciprical linking pages on my site and am curious if I should remove them completely.

What about reciprical content based links? Do they compair to inbound in any way?

November 7, 2007 - 7:57pm

I don't think reciprocal linking is totally dead, just that in most cases a need for it may indicate a weakness in marketing approach and brand development. Most sites willing to trade links without meeting you or knowing you are not worth trading with.

If you find a few of the good ones though they can be worth the effort.

Colbs
November 8, 2007 - 3:09pm

Thank you. I know of a few in my industry.

frankinwell
November 8, 2007 - 4:58am

Thanks for creating this site. It's a good resource of practical stuff for webmasters. Very helpful. On the topic, a relatively large site with extensive specialized content tends to do well, maybe because of overall authority. On the other hand, a domain that was recently transfered, like brain.com, takes longer to build up.

danielak
November 8, 2007 - 7:35am

Hi,
I need a help/advice/explanation. My site has a PR5 well optimized with all relevant parameters that google likes.
But even with that PR5 I have no traffic to my site.
Can anybody give me advice what the problem is?

Thanks in advance
Daniela

November 8, 2007 - 8:45am

Hi Daniela
It is hard to give that sort of advice without sometimes doing an hour or more of research, but I might make a video for what to do.

Off the start track using analytics if you are getting any traffic from Google. If you believe your site is clean sign up for Google Webmaster Central and see what information they will give you about your site in there.

Also if you have anything unclean (heavy link reciprocation, auto-generated content, duplicate content, etc) you might want to try to remove that and give Google about a month to react.

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