Introductions Thread

@PickleRick Heya, I hope you stick around and post 2 more messages to unlock the ability to send and receive DM's because I have a couple of questions for you pertaining to your niche. Cheers!
 
Hi all!

I'm Sarah and I've been involved in digital marketing, in some form, for over 20 years. I built my first site in 2017 (Geocities, anyone?). Back then, big, blinking affiliate banners were the thing. I actually made a few cents (no, really, a few cents) and was hooked

Over the years, I taught myself HTML/CSS and handful of PHP. Now learning Shopify's Liquid - or at least enough to change things myself when needed. I created several affiliate blogs and did ok, but never made more than a few hundred dollars a month.

I finally landed in ecommerce around 2005. And that's where I've stayed ever since. I have a successful site that is around 8 years old and is my full-time job these days. It's labor intensive though (I make jewelry) and I'd really love to start creating a business that's more passive in nature. So, I'm thinking about leaning back into blogging. This time, I'm considering coaching/consulting for small businesses. I know it's a crazy competitive space, so I don't know if I'm setting my sights too high; I guess time will tell.

Anyhoo - happy to be here! Looking forward to getting to know y'all.

Smith said:
Hi everyone, long-time BuSo lurker finally taking the time to post and get involved.

I’ve been in and out of the SEO/online space for two decades. Built my first e-commerce site in 2003 and like a lot of folks here I’ve dabbled in ads, affiliate, memberships, and info products. My current focus is on info and memberships in two unrelated YMYL niches.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I recently took one of my sites that had an 85% traffic hit after three subsequent Google updates and increased the traffic ~6.5x following CCarter’s Avalanche SEO strategy. The whole process took about 10 months, with 8 months of content creation resulting in over 1k new articles.

In this case, Avalanche wasn’t the only strategy used but I have no doubt that this contributed the vast majority of the gains. If anyone’s interested, I also completely restructured the internal linking, did a complete overhaul for E-A-T, and implemented a number of other changes. Link building started after about six months of Avalanche.

Looking forward to learning more from everyone and sharing where I can!
Click to expand...
Hey Smith!

I'm curious how you made out with the recent HCU update? I have a blog that was doing pretty well and was also built using the Avalanche technique. It's crashed and burned in the last 2 weeks; while interestingly, my ecomm site has gained a lot of steam (a trend I'm hearing from other site owners).

Trying to gauge if the Avalanche technique is still as useful in 2023.
 
Hi,

I am John I have been working in the internet marketing sector since 2003, I started out with some basic website building courses around 2001, then went on to learn SEO way back when the industry was a very different world to now.

Over the years have built and marketed many websites, managed very large budget PPC accounts and also optimised many websites to gain very respectable positions in some very competitive niches.

Recently stumbled on this website and thought it could come in useful.
 
Hi!

Background
What's up, guys. I'm J and I have been dabbling with Marketing and SEO for about 3 years now. I'm 29 yo.

I have a background in Engineering and Data Analysis, but grinding that 9-5 was soul-crushing to me, and even though I was making progress, I knew I wanted to build something for myself.

So I started learning and researching about marketing, making money online, and all that jazz. That's when I found BuSo too.

So at that time, I started getting freelance writing gigs on UpWork, and that was really the start of everything.

From there I started learning more about SEO and finally decided to create my own website (and even tried some print-on-demand at the time, lol).

I learned how to get a few clients here and there and quit my job working with data analysis in healthcare to hustle full-time.

Projects
Right now I'm working with 1 main client (awesome, little contact/emails/meetings, honest hourly rates, and flexibility). Other stuff pops up here and there too.

And I also have the website that I started everything with:

It was making $1500 a month before this recent Google update...

So I want to create a lab thread here soon about my journey to get back on track with this website, get my shit together, and just level up, honestly...

Demons
Fucking gambling and weed. Jesus fucking Christ, how much of my life I've wasted on these two things.

So many unfinished tasks, projects, etc...

I look at my progress, the money I'm making... Everything... And just thinking, what the fuck. I could be doing much better if I just get rid of the bullshit and get to work!

CCarter, Saturn, and Ryuzaki are members here that I really admire. Time to stop fucking around, as Saturn says.

Goals
This place helped me so much in my humble journey.

I now want to use this as an accountability platform and also a place to share and communicate more, because this online marketing stuff is quite lonely too.

Soon I'll create my lab thread on taking my site to the next level.
 
Hi all
  • Starting recently with internet marketing and business building in general. Looking forward to learning more from this community.
  • Working on some niche site in the legal, finance and parenting space
  • Really hoping to be cash flow positive and escaping the 9-5 grind with my projects! Also want to help people generally get the information they need without paying a lawyer a ton of money.

Excited to join you all!
 
MustLoveDogs72 said:
Hi all!

I'm Sarah and I've been involved in digital marketing, in some form, for over 20 years. I built my first site in 2017 (Geocities, anyone?). Back then, big, blinking affiliate banners were the thing. I actually made a few cents (no, really, a few cents) and was hooked

Over the years, I taught myself HTML/CSS and handful of PHP. Now learning Shopify's Liquid - or at least enough to change things myself when needed. I created several affiliate blogs and did ok, but never made more than a few hundred dollars a month.

I finally landed in ecommerce around 2005. And that's where I've stayed ever since. I have a successful site that is around 8 years old and is my full-time job these days. It's labor intensive though (I make jewelry) and I'd really love to start creating a business that's more passive in nature. So, I'm thinking about leaning back into blogging. This time, I'm considering coaching/consulting for small businesses. I know it's a crazy competitive space, so I don't know if I'm setting my sights too high; I guess time will tell.

Anyhoo - happy to be here! Looking forward to getting to know y'all.


Hey Smith!

I'm curious how you made out with the recent HCU update? I have a blog that was doing pretty well and was also built using the Avalanche technique. It's crashed and burned in the last 2 weeks; while interestingly, my ecomm site has gained a lot of steam (a trend I'm hearing from other site owners).

Trying to gauge if the Avalanche technique is still as useful in 2023.
Click to expand...
Hey Sarah!

That's cool!

Which social media platforms work best for you in this niche? Are you active in any?

I think my audience may enjoy your products, and I can think of a few angles to promote them. If you want to get in touch to discuss that :wink:
 
Hey everyone, have lurked BuSo using various forgotten logins over the years, and have seen my social posts being shared on here sometimes too. I figured it was time to join and start sharing directly :smile:

About me
My name is Luke, I've worked in SEO for over a decade, and I've done 'build in public' style projects for a few years across YouTube, Twitter, and places like r/JustStart.

Experience
I started as a jack-of-all-trades in-house SEO, PPC, email marketing, blog writing, press release spamming person in the days before Google Penguin rolled out. Whilst in that job I started my first YouTube channel, it was one of the worst channels you'd ever see in your entire life, but it managed to make $25,000+ in ad and affiliate revenue. The job was a horrible place to be and I walked out after 2 years with nowhere to go.

I started trying to get SEO clients, but quickly joined an agency and spent 2.5 years there. It was nice to go from having 10 different roles in 1 to just doing SEO, albeit for 7-8 clients at a time. Whilst in the job, in 2016, I started my first real niche site and it grew to a level that allowed me to quit agency life. I eventually sold the site for ~$200,000 in 2020, and overall profit whilst working on the site was probably around $400,000.

I've bounced from project to project since then, with the most notable one being a gaming site that I grew to a $42,000 month from ad revenue.

With Google repeatedly pounding the site, and with the gaming industry requiring so much work just to stay up-to-date, I realised this wasn't the business for me and have mostly downed tools - I have a YouTube channel with a full-time creator employed, but that's it. The site still earns a few thousand per month, but I'm ripping off the plaster on this one.

What I'm working on now
My next plan is to build a YouTube-focused business that makes money from services, products and my own content. Each area will have synergy but function independently.

I want to use content (video and some written content/website stuff too) to add fuel to the fire of my business, rather than content being the firewood that it's always been for me. I'm sick of relying on Google for direct revenue - I appreciate YouTube is going to be similar, but I plan to build in a way that doesn't rely on views from a single source to put food on the table.

Like I've done multiple times in the past, I plan to share the journey in public including a Lab thread on here.

Goals
I want to pay off my mortgage (£275,000) in 3.5 years time but I never want to look at my views graph or chase quick money. Got a kid on the way and would love to live a calm, fulfilling life in future.

Obstacles
I've found my main obstacle is autism. Video content creation and talking with potential clients is incredibly draining for me, but hyperfocus means I just keep grinding - this messes me up mentally and physically. Fortunately my diagnosis has allowed me to realise this, so I just have to find a good balance of work on a daily and weekly basis.

Signing off
I don't know how to end this post. The end. Any questions? The end (again).
 
Hi Guys,

Happy to be here. After some weeks of lurking around I decided to give back to the community and I want to start it with my introduction. I am not a native English speaker, so bear with me for my grammatical errors.

My background
After finishing college I didn’t start to work in my field, rather I learned about web design and website programming because I found it much more fun than working in an office environment in the financial sector.
The turnpoint came in 2008 when I discovered some affiliate websites and I thought why not start my own.

I have started in the easiest niche: iGaming.

Fortunately I have chosen a sub niche and learnt a lot about SEO in the meantime and have put together my site and back then I could see traction with the site quite fast. I have built some great industry relationships too that still last.
The site was actively maintained till 2012 and then I just didn’t have time to update it. Commissions still came in.

Fast forward to 2020, after 3 kids and almost 8 years of maternity leave I decided I wanted to get back to do business and talk to grown-ups more often :tongue: So I got my feet wet in some Amazon KDP business that I can do in my spare time while playing logistics with the kids. It started to grow and I am happy to do it because I can use my designing skills, so my creative soul can get a little satisfaction. I have learned a lot about market research, buyer personas and marketing too by perfecting this business.

But the itch that I have a website from 2008 that is still getting some traffic despite being mobile-unfriendly big time, and also getting commissions from some aff programs made me think that I really want to resurrect it and see how I can breathe life into it again.

So here I am, learning a lot in the past couple of weeks about SEO in 2023, because it is not 2008 anymore, but it seems all the directions I took back then are true today as well (good content with a personal touch is still king).

Thanks for having me, I hope I can add to the community in return for the golden nuggets I have found here. :smile:
 
Hola,

I'm zbones, surprisingly a native speaker despite my grammatical errors.

Never done SEO personally but worked with some clients (I'm a CPA) that have done really well with it. So I know a bit but looking to expand my knowledge. I started an Etsy store last week and looking to move to my own website so looking for tips and tricks on what to do and stumbled upon this forum.

Looking forward to learning from everyone and excited to get a site going!
 
Hey BuSo, I'm Ryan from Indonesia, souteast Asia, was dealing with SEO adsense and online stuff, but lately being focus on my own store (herbs shop).
But trying to get back on those things in 2023, it's better to be late than never.

I hope this community will be able to help with that hope.

Thanks for having me.
 
Hey BuSo, Im Cyber. New to the place but old to the scenes.

Im currently working on a fashion site and has news section + store. As of last month the News section has been approved in google, bigpubhub and flipboard. I'd love to share my journey here. Its pretty much the start on this project.

As about my expertise. Im well versed in seo, ppc and email marketing.

Pretty excited to join BuSo. ❤️
 
Hey guys, I'm Mammoth a web developer from the UK.

While I want to start my own online business, I don't want to consult or start an agency as clients are too much of a headache so I'm here to see if I can learn marketing.
 
Hey Guys, New to buildersociety
One of CCarter's posts brought me here, expecting a fun rollercoaster ride here with this community!
 
Hey BuSo.

I'm Advait, from India.

Been a lurker on money Twitter and other "make money online" spaces for a few years now.

Finally decided to do something about it. I'm an agency-based SEO, so a niche site felt like the best bet.

Happy to be here!
 
Hi All,

I just stumbled across this community today and decided to join. I want to connect with like minded SEO professionals and developers. I have been building various products over the past decade (infocaptor).

Before Covid, I had started development on a SEO tool (CrawlSpider Site Monitor) . I finished part of it and released as a plugin but did not do much marketing. Then my focus shifted to ecommerce. I am back to software development and resuming work on the tool that I originally had intended to build. My goal is to build a very good Auto Internal Link builder plugin ( CrawlSpider).

My main focus is marketing and lay out the complete plan for success. Wish me luck!

-NJ
 
Hey Everyone, I'm Parsa and I have been working as a SEO Specialist for a while.

I'm also a Computer Engineer with keen eye to details and problems at hand, and also enthusiastic about psychology and marketing concepts.

I'm here to learn and make meaningful connections hopefully leveling up my knowledge.
 
- Hi, I am new to this forum. You can call me "Iceman" which is an alias, not my actual name.
- I am a lawyer by qualification who switched to digital marketing about an year ago because I wanted to learn more about marketing so I can apply the knowledge to my own business someday.
- I have been working in marketing for about an year now and worked in various Content Creation, SEO and Content Management Role.
- I currently work for a SaaS start-up (Formester) as inbound marketer. I am seeking some guidance and feedback about my current marketing efforts because so far I have only worked with small teams so I do not have a lot of networking.
 
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Hello, my name is Waqas, and I have been involved in digital marketing for the past 10 years. I recently discovered buildersociety.com, and I'm here to both learn and provide assistance.
 
Hi! I'm Bobby - been in the digital marketing and web development space for about 10 years now.
Recently ventured into starting some businesses and looking to learn from the people here :smile:
 
Hi! I'm Aaki and I'm a software engineer by training but a business administrator by profession.

The reason I'm here is to learn about affiliate marketing for my new website. Especially on how to navigate the HCU and EEAT updates. I was referred here by Kyle Roof in one of his interviews
 
Hi all, for the purpose of this forum I’m Robyn based in the UK and in my late 20’s. Been learning a lot of internet marketing over the years and have been relatively successful in building sites getting them up to profit and then flipping them.

Currently working on a big seo heist targeting a site with high vanity stats thousands of pages and potentially a poop ton of ad revenue.

Go big or go home. It’s time to create a legacy that outlives me so why not do it doing fun.

I am not adverse to a few black hat tactics but nothing to shady (especially if you want to flip)

Probably like most I heard of this place via Kyle and the avalanche method.
 
Hi, Ecel here and just looking for good information on affiliate marketing and internet marketing in general. There are some great guides here and hope to learn and contribute.
 
Hi Builders, I am Chandra and I have been running a couple of content projects for a while now but not profitable. My goal is to provide value to my audience and create authoritative websites the right way.
Sometimes we think we know everything but eventually we realize that we know very little and that our efforts yield no results. I will try to contribute whatever I can and learn with you all masters.
 
Almost 30 days in, 60 more days left to my visa.
Just wanted to share my journey. I'm determined as hell.
33 year old guy. Graduated from college at 28 (was in the military).
Worked at Amazon for a year and a half in San Francisco, my mental health was semi-crushed from downtown SF and lack of purpose at work.

They say you only make a change when you're sitting in a dark room holding your head in your heads with no fucking clue what's about to happen. That's where I'm at right now.

I hastily put together an LLC and website offering marketing services (link removed), and have freelancers compiling a spreadsheet with the contact details of business owners who only have .business.site websites powered by Google (they're being shut down next month). Hoping to snag a good handful of clients to build websites for, and potentially upsell them on recurring subscription services such as paid advertising (I don't know Google Ads, but I'll do everything in my power to learn what I can from Isaac Rudansky within a minimal amount of time and be a master at setting up campaigns if I have to. Or outsource)

I intend on having that cash be the lifeline for other endeavors of mine, and to extend my runway so I don't have to go back and work at the factory.

I don't want to operate entirely in the dark. I need to share my process. I need to share my journey, and have a community where people can tell me if I'm about to make a big mistake. Or maybe I don't need anybody to tell me anything because everyone is speaking from their own biases - they may have failed where I will succeed.

In any case, I'm going through the 30 day crash course to refresh my memory and fill in the gaps.
Here is to day 1.
 
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