Introductions Thread

Hey all.

I guess I'll make a journey post once I'm allowed, but for now I'll say "hi" here!

Jumping in here feeling a little bit like I've outgrown a few of the subreddits where I see objectively bad and shallow advice on the regular.

The quality and accuracy over here from my time lurking is on another level, based on the things I do know. I just hope it's the same for the things I don't know!

Where I Want To Be

50,000 pageviews/month by the end of the year.

I built and sold an affiliate site a few years ago and exited. I've been in a rut since then but I'm back with fire.

The Niche

I found the niche I want to target.

There's basically one big player (but not super dominant, 40ish DA) and a bunch of little players. The big player is receiving 1.5m pageviews a month. They are making bank. Their content is of average quality.

The little players are fighting over ranks 2, 3, 4 and 5 with weak, third world written, factually incorrect, content.

Think small law firms that are convinced by their SEO Agency to set up a blog, that that Agency then outsources for 1c per word on Fiverr and publishes unedited.

Monetization

A lot of the content is info content. The big player is monetizing with ads, some affiliate (but it's relatively limited), and info-type products.

The smaller players are monetizing some with Ezoic, and a couple of manufacturers are using info pages to funnel people to their physical product stores.

The Plan

I've got my site structure set up and I'm planning to hit it sub category by sub category. To an extent I will play it by ear.

I started publishing at the end of November after spending too much time making the site look nice. I've got 17 articles up since then and am receiving around 70 pageviews a day.

I have around 10 articles left in the current silo before I move on.

This is not an affiliate heavy sub-niche, so I haven't any any income yet. I am planning to make the next "silo" one that's a bit more affiliate friendly so hopefully I can get some income coming in that I can reinvest in content.

I really don't want to turn on ads until I have a footing. And I also really want to avoid Ezoic at all costs. I'm still mulling my options in this area.

Current Focuses

Writing is exhausting so I'm hoping to get in the groove of outsourcing content over the next few months. I've already ordered some content from over on the marketplace. I'm also testing local students in my niche to see if that's a viable option. Starting slow.

One of the issues I have is the balance between quality and quantity. Every article I've published so far I can genuinely say is the best written and optimized article for it's keyword compared to what's on the first page of the SERPs. I have little doubt my posts will mostly be in the top 5 once the domain ages a bit.

But I spent way too much time on them, and
this isn't sustainable - I need to let my perfectionist tendencies go and be happy getting 80% of the way there. It's the only way I'm going to be able to ramp up article production. I'm working on it.

Building links is something I'll get to, but I really want some income produced first.

Anyway that's me for now. Hope to be able to contribute to discussion moving forward.
 
Hi,

I've been in this space for over a decade now.

I run an EdTech company which I'm scaling from just under £10k MRR to £100k MRR

I started all those years ago on forums just like these - and now, I return.

Looking forward to exploring
 
Hey everyone, long-time lurker here on BuSo and finally looking to contribute where I can.

I've been in the SEO space for a while now with a good amount of success with local clients and the occasional heartbreak...especially with the most recent update.

Looking forward to learning more from everyone here.
 
Hello!

Another lurker here. My name is Janis, and I am from Riga, Latvia.

I have been in IM from the days Squidoo and Hubpages were the Beez Neez.

I have had some success, a few five-figure months, a mid-five-figure exit, but now after the latest batch of G updates, I am learning how to make 1000 per month again. Actually, getting a factory job is starting to look like a viable way to pay the bills LOL

(Edit - grammar)
 
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Daquan said:
What's your site about? LOL just kidding.

Lesson 1: Never divulge your niche.
Lesson 2: Never share your site, especially not on a forum.

Welcome aboard the forum and the internet marketing game. I hope you have a tolerance for ups and downs.
Click to expand...
The situation gets tough when a friend of friend asks this at a gathering and they think I'm hiding something.
 
Hello all!

I've been doing SEO for about 14 years now, in a highly competitive insurance niche, and I live in Texas. Although I've been "in" for 14 years, I should be much further ahead than I am but now it's really time to dig in properly as the big dogs in my industry are acquiring agencies like mine left and right. So for 2023, I plan to absolutely knock it out of the park to get my EBITDA sky-high via SEO and MY YT channel, and I might even go through 2024 now that I have a clearer idea of what to do thanks to this forum and focusing 100% on this.

I've done great on Bing in the past, and made quite a good living off it. I'll continue to dominate there, but my goal this year is to go after every term out there I possibly can in terms of content (ala Avalanche). I'm so far behind on the curve on that that I really should be able to 10X my current traffic on Google at least, but hopefully much much more.

My goals are to get over 30K monthly visitors via organic search, and during our busy season that easily goes 5X. I look forward to continuing to learn from everyone here, as well as contributing if I can!
 
Hi all,

I started out over 10 years ago just building websites and landing pages for people, but over the years I evolved that into providing an enhanced marketing experience for businesses and consumers. That means instead of just "selling" people a website, now I aim to focus on their goals, their audience, customer acquisition, and their brand messaging, to see that they all align for a better user experience overall. This means looking at the sales funnel and user journey as a whole (is there even email marketing set up yet?) I also try to only work on projects I'm passionate about.

My aim is to evolve even further into CRO (conversion rate optimization). One reason is because the pay is a lot more appealing to earn a % of increased revenue vs just a flat fee. But the main reason is because I love numbers, I love analyzing, I love organizing (google sheets ♥), I love finding patterns, I love solving problems, and I find the human psychology of it all really fascinating, so its a natural fit. I do some odd job CRO work, but my 12 month (well now 11 month) goal is to start an agency focused specifically on performance CRO marketing, where things like web design and development are just supplements of that.

I've recently become really passionate about AI generated content, both written and art/graphics. I especially find AI content exciting because my experience with human writers has been less than fantastic. I find working with actual "writers" to be unreliable, annoying, and a waste of time, basically always a disappointment. I always end up doing way more work than I should have to. With AI written content I can invest way less time, and its a much better (and consistent) quality.

The main reason for joining this forum is because the mastermind behind this site is an absolute wizard, and I like being in the presence of wizards. I know there is going to be a lot of great info to absorb here.
 
I've worked in SEO for 10+ years, in both agency and freelance environments. Started out in the days of article syndication, directories etc.

Have since run my own sites for 5 or so years and made some very good money (multiple six-figure years) from affiliate marketing before the updates over the last year or two.

Have since pivoted but not quite reached the same levels of success just yet.

Followed the forum for a while but looking to get more involved.
 
I got into IM back in 2011 after college. I started learning from a website called Wealthy Affiliate. At that time, they taught the basics of internet marketing and affiliate marketing. There was a time when people were spamming ezinearticles. There was a woman called PotPieGirl who taught affiliate marketing on Squidoo. All of those tactics were rendered useless by Google Updates.

Then came Build My Rank and Linkvana. People were spamming that as well. I was one of them too. Went up to 10k/month using Build My Rank and Linkvana. Penguin hit and went down to a few thousand dollars/month.

Funny thing was, my content was far more valuable than anything out there. I got legitimate reviews from readers all over the world saying how helpful my content was. I decided to double down on helpful content and made new high quality websites. I gave up on the websites that were hit by Penguin. Did a bit of guest posting and started ranking again.

I've been making decent income online since then. But things are changing and you can't be complacent in IM. Gotta keep up with the latest. Builders society seems like a great place to stay updated. I wonder if there are people here from the times of Build My Rank and Linkvana.

To all the newbies here, the ups and downs are part of the business. It's important to keep a check on your mental health and spend time with your loved ones.

Cheers!!
 
Hi BuSo,

Similar to others who are sharing here, I'm a long time lurker, first time poster.

I got into SEO in 2017, as I had worked previously for various SV based start-ups who deployed SEO as a key marketing tactic, successfully. This was the initial spark to explore IM more deeply.

I've always had the desire to be an entrepreneur, so my first foray was building my own e-commerce business, leveraging SEO as a tactic (amongst others). It was mildly successful, but like anyone who tackles a project solo...I learned a TON.

Eventually, I discovered BuSo (likely from the JustStart subreddit). Since then, I've bought and sold a niche site, but have been working on my primary site now for about 2 years. I still have a lot to learn, but I love working and learning new things in this space.

I'm continuing to scale my main site (content, links, and other brand-building tactics) throughout 2023 and am hoping/planning for a big year and step forward in earnings.

I'm hopeful to be able to share some learnings here and there, wherever I can add a bit of value.

Cheers!
Vic
 
Hi everyone, I'm Charles, and I discovered Internet marketing in 2011 via wealthyaffiliate.com. I signed up for a paid membership, built my first site on WordPress.com, and got my first freelance writing job through the Wealthy Affiliate forum.

Since then I've been building niche sites, writing online, following and reading several internet marketing blogs and forums, and trying to make a living online.

I've also been lurking on here for about a year and discovered Builder Society through a thread on Black Hat World on the topic of hiding PBNs from SEO tools.

They shared a htaccess code for hiding PBNs and attributed it to CCarter. I hadn't come across that username on the Black Hat World forum, so I Googled it and ended up on Builder Society.

In my last job I worked as a virtual assistant creating and managing Airbnb and Vrbo listings and responding to guest reviews for a property management company. Yeah, that's right, I'm currently jobless.

Glad to be here!
 
Hi everybody,

Neo here, a long time lurker in Buso...So it's time to share my journey !

First, thanks you for this very very qualitative forum.
Maintained quality content forum during these years is an authentic exploit !

Me in few words :
  • 36 yo from an european country
  • 8 years in digital marketing world as independant with SMB and local business (webdesign, SEO, consulting...)
  • since 2 years full oriented on SEO :
  • 20% time on SEO consulting for 80% of my revenus (in 2022)
  • 80% time on my personal SEO project for 20% of revenus (in 2022)
  • Goal 2023 : develop my personal SEO project to split revenu in 50/50 between my personal SEO project and SEO consulting to pay the bills^^
  • Tomorrow : 80% revenu with personal SEO project and 20% consulting with good clients :-)

My principal personal project "full SEO" :

  • 12/2021 : start a niche blog in my local langage (error 1), with a local domain extension (error 2)
  • Actions in 2022 (~12 months) : writing myself 153 informative posts
  • Monetization : Ads with Ezoic in month 7 and Mediavine in month 11
  • Results after ~12 months : 350$/m in 12/2022 for 70 000 sessions/m
  • So a very good RPM between 4 and 5$ !! :-D

Some learnings ont the way :
  • Audience is everything (localisation) : USA/UK/CAN RPM are x3 or x4 superior to my local country in EU.
  • ...and niche too : my niche is not a lucrative niche
So I'm "in between" :
  • conserve my actual website and minimize work on it (20%) AND start a new website(80%) from 0 with ENG langage (audience) and a lucrative niche
  • 100% continue to develop my actual website with translation (actually in progress to /en/ , /es/...)
Happy to share and discuss about your (and my) SEO stories ! :cool:

Neo
PS : sorry for my bad english from EU ! ;-)
 
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Hi All,

New member and finding a tonne of value in these forums already. I'm new to Builder Society, but been in digital marketing for 12 odd years now. Started out building websites for a few ££ to now running my own agency in the UK, mainly focused on SEO & Content marketing.

Bumps are the road are commonplace, but still here, learning and improving.

Looking forward to contributing where I can.
 
Howdy y'all, I'm Elvis. I've been at this since building my first website in 2001. Back in the days when we were "webmasters" and everything was lumped into "make money online." Oh how I miss those gurus! (Just kidding!) My true fond memory was of webmaster forums like WickedFire, DigitalPoint, SitePoint, etc. I really miss them and that's why I'm so excited to get started in BuSo.

I love to create new projects, grow organic search traffic, and get paid. Most of my career was freelance or running my own business, but these days I'm enjoying going in-house in digital marketing roles in SEO, SEM, and analytics.

Looking forward to sharing and learning everything from the nuts and bolts of SEO to career progression for digital marketers. Thanks for having me.
 
Hi everyone,
Alex here from Romania, started my online career as a domainer in 2007 but soon after I started building my first sites (2008 April).

Back then I mainly focused on minisites and actively asking for (free) backlinks. Had over 100 websites, but 70% of my income comes from one larger site these days.

I am looking to focus more on 1-2 projects rather than updating 70 sites or so (my current portfolio). I can't let them go as they still produce income for very little work but I know what I should do, I just can't let them go.

Anyway, with 15 years behind my back, I experienced everything, used to work for a US-based SEO agency as well and do have three clients as well currently but I try to shift my focus towards niche sites 100% this year.

Looking forward to contribute here
 
Hi, I have been reading your threads for several years now and have learned a lot!

Now I've finally decided to write here, I would like to ask some questions, answer other users with what I may know, etc...

My English is not very good, I apologize for that. I am from EU.

I've been working as a SEO consultant for about 7 years. Mostly with clients, but also with my own projects. These I want to improve and enhance them, this year I plan to work on new niches and I have several ideas to give a boost to the ones I already have.

Greetings to all!
 
Hey guys, been an entrepreneur ever since I was a kid...and internet marketing/SEO specific since 2007. Full time since 2010
Glad to be here...too much garbage and fluff out there...and I can already tell this forum cuts thru all that.
Thanks
 
From Google to Youtube to Reddit to buildersociety, seeking alternative and independent sources of income has brought me here. Absolutely new to this space.
I've just started BuSo crash course. Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes.
 
Hey! Came from blackhatworld and now want to learn more about SEO, marketing, and content writing.

Also want to buy content and links from people here :smile:
 
Hello, I’m Olly, based in the UK. I used to work on digital marketing ‘back in the day’, which was 2006 to 2014. Since then, I’ve trained as a developer, I spend my time primarily working on back-end projects and my favourite language to use on a day-to-day basis is Java.

I started digital marketing because the hotel I was working at the time wasn't making any use of its online presence. They had a very basic website, but they had practically zero traffic. They thought they had online booking set up, but in reality, they had only signed up with Expedia. I learned digital marketing on the job. I improved their ranking to a credible level and also got them signed up for every major online booking channel, last minute, hotels.com, etc etc. As well as this, I worked alongside another company to build a custom CRM that intertwined the booking channels and our internal software.

Since then I worked for a digital marketing agency before heading back to university to study computer science.

At the moment, I am working on a side project Locksmith business with my friend, who is the locksmith himself. I am looking for tips to help improve our new UK wide business website.

I found Builder Society when researching the Avalanche Technique in an effort to understand the current state of SEO. I’ve stuck around because this place seems to be a treasure trove of helpful information and people. It has become rare nowadays to find a solid community forum online, so I am happy to be here.
 
Hey everyone, I'm new to working digitally, my best friend helped me land a job for SEO specialist at a website and taught me all the basics of SEO, and told me to join this community. Hoping to see more success in the future with my SEO!
 
I have recently decided down this journey of making money online. i have created a blog and facebook community in order to help people feel safe and not targeted when trying to access useful information. Then i randomly discovered this society that i am excited to explore and learn from. So far i've spent about $1000 on this marketing stuff to include 2 classes and the rest are ad costs and i think i've finally figured out what i will be putting my heart and soul into.

I kept reading and watching videos and EVERYONE was saying that you need to sell knowledge.

i understood the concept but i had no idea what i would sell! the first idea i had was making a tutorial on how to create holiday wreaths haha (i haven't throw that idea out yet) but then it occurred to me that in my legit profession i am considered a unicorn. i've never met another person that knows the exact information and skills that i know. so i've decided to create a youtube channel that advertises this particular set of skills and gives enough usefull information to make people want more. then i will offer a course to learn all of the different aspects of what i have learned from experience. after all experience cant be taught but it can be learned from :smile:

so, here's to me and my new idea!
 
Hello everyone -

I'm a kindergarten teacher from Hawaii and have been working on this project for 2 years. But, the experimenting stage started some time before that. I had no experience in IM/SEO, copy, or web design before this, but started learning them to improve the project. It's been…a trip. The references might be extra, but it's just what the journey feels like.

Before 2022: Left the Shire starry-eyed. We're going on an adventure, Frodo! Settled with wordpress. I'm glad I didn't go with wix/squarespace/weebly. That was probably the only thing I got right at the start.

Summer 2022: You don't know what you don't know
A few posts started ranking on the first page. Discovered the existence of google search console & seo, which is late but better than never.

Made the following changes: cdn + responsive images, cache, added schema (this was working beautifully but recently it stopped showing in the rich snippets testing tool), added alt text, tried to rewrite titles with better copy, added keywords but overused the primary keywords in paragraphs, etc, kind of added internal links but not correctly (do follow on all links including affiliate). I wish I knew things earlier but hindsight seems to be 2020.

2023: You don't know what you don't know (an ongoing theme)
Discovered the existence of BUSO! It was like finding spice flowing through every page. Good spice. Suddenly it was a whole new world..a new fantastic point of view.
So I scooped that spice up and sprinkled it all over the project (macro site changes): changed the about page to try and mimic meridathdotsdash & wiki, added an author snippet below every post (even though it's just one author), added an experience/product reviews section in the author page but it probably needs its own editorial guidelines page, changed affiliates from do follow to sponsored, changed link color to google blue, added links/categories in the footer, etc After these changes, there was a boost in the March update.

Current Action: Updating Each Post (micro site changes)
Posts not updated yet have text justified, not left aligned, walls of text not broken up, there are no h2s,h3s,h4s at all. If there was, it was to style the page (which was a big mistake). To fix this, I realized every page needed to be rewritten so there was structure.

Currently rewriting with the following changes: putting 5 relevant internal links at the bottom & relevant internal links in paragraphs (do follow), adding h2h3h4s with secondary keywords related to the page, only using the primary keyword in locations stated in the buso course, using LSIS, NLPS, & synonyms, using I/we "in my experience" eeat language, left align paragraphs, trying to read Seth Godin and this forum to minimize the "you don't know what you don't know" and improve understanding etc. Pages aren't updated perfectly, but they're improvements from before based on what I see on GSC.

Fixing all the mistakes is taking longer than expected.

The plan was to try and fix all of them before the next Google update. But ha that did not happen. That son of a gun is already on the loose roaring through the serps! It feels like when Pippin pushed the helmet in the well (uh oh mistake). And is now rushing to dodge hoards of orcs and the behemoth update Google released from its dungeon. I'm running faster than Shadowfax to fix things before During's Bane starts roaring at my door.

Reflections
I've not been able to make the progress I wanted to (feel like I'm not doing things fast enough or well enough), so I've had to temper my expectations. It's like arriving at Rivendell then realizing you must haul your ass up to the highest mountain of Mordor. The other thing is you don't know how to wield a shield and sword. Or you know you're not wielding it right.

It's not like a 9-5 where the path is pretty straight. It's super windy, and full of detours when you thought you were going straight. I've had to relook at my map. Taking things step by step has helped avoid feeling overwhelmed. Eye on the prize!

Goals in Progress
1) Fix & rewrite already written pages: primarily fix on-page seo & structure (aka adding headings and keywords according to the course, adding bullet points, using lsis, nlps, improve readability, internal links, rewrites). I've been using random threads on this forum for direction.
2) Reach 200 pages => topical authority on the sub-niche (google seems to be lessoning its weight on topical authority though)
3) Be faster at taking & editing original photos => to increase EEAT & increase the number of supporting posts. Started this already but as Google shifts from topical authority to EEAT I'll spend more time on this. On original images, I've also put a brand-friendly low-key watermark (maybe bonus points from Google raters?). When I get the hot mess project together I'm going to start using images in socials. I'd just like to reach a certain number of articles first so they start aging like the finest Port Wine from Dionysus' cellar.
4) Improve CTR => rewrite titles meta descs

Are there changes you folks make as google makes shifts due to the influx of ai content?

Why join
There's a lot of woowoo and woowoo gurus on Seo blogs and reddit. Can't with that. I'm telling you no more going in circles in the swampy dead marshes. I'm here to keep the spice flowing and learn how to wield sting. To climb the highest mountains of Mordor and throw the ring into the fire. To fight the good fight and defeat any Nazgul that comes my way.

On another note, thank you to the moderators and active community members here. Contributors have been writing detailed, thoughtful questions and feedback for years. It was, in a lot of ways, like stumbling upon Earandrel's star and seeing the path lit up ahead on what needed to be planned and executed. Anyways, best of luck to everyone's journey. Looking forward to building alongside fellow builders and seeing your shires flourish. It's not an instantaneous journey but it's the slow blade that penetrates the shield.

"Knowledge is an unending adventure on the edge of uncertainty."
"We are birds who, though we may spit up blood, will go on flying beyond that morning, on and on."
 
Éowyn said:
It feels like when Pippin pushed the helmet in the well (uh oh mistake).
Click to expand...
The fool of a took... maybe he'll throw himself in next time and rid us of his stupidity.

Thanks for the hefty introduction and timeline on your adventure there and back again. You've accumulated a lot of actionable information and can see how putting it to work already led to an uplift in traffic in the March update. Getting your existing content up to snuff with optimized headers and title tags and all that will make a big difference over time too. Everything you're doing sounds good to me, and you're doing it in the right orders too (macro before micro).
 
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