Newbie Question(s) so dumb, you're afraid to even ask!

[Astro]

Being that I have been listed all day as the newest member of the society, and like to take this opportunity to welcome myself to the community on your behalf. In response, I want to say "thank you very much", and I am really excited to be here. I am very diligently going through the 30-days you guys posted, and I can't wait to share my progress and learn and grow, and reach a point where I am teaching as much as I am continuing to learn. Coming to you with absolutely no experience at all with "the interweb", I have some BuilderSociety, there ARE no dumb questions! (F-yeah!!!) So, here goes a few:

"Really dumb" question #1: If I start a thread, how do I create sub-threads? Like, for example, This THREAD of really dumb questions, that aren't even about INTERNET MARKETING, but are literally about navigating this site and a message board could be my FAQ section for total idiots, (ok, newbies like me, whatever.) I attempted to SEARCH these questions before I asked them again. Hopefully I am not asking something I should be able to easily answer for myself.

"Really dumb question #2: If I read something I like, I see how I can comment on it, but how do I just "LIKE" something one of you other guys or girls wrote?

Really dumb question #3: Today is my first day here. I logged in this morning, did Day 1 of 30, I spent 6 HOURS ON THIS! Now, I'm prepping for tomorrow, but I wanted to peek back in and see what's happening. I was excited to see I got a second LIKE!!! (how'd they make that happen, see Q2 above), and I also see I have 1 message. How do I view my message?

LOL, I answered my own Question #3: "Messages" refers to how many messages I have posted. NOT how many people are trying to contact me.

 

[Potatoe]

There's a little "like" button at the bottom of each message that you can click to pass out likes. I'm not sure if it shows up for you immediately or if you have to get out of the new member "quarantine" first. If it's not showing up yet, just wait until you've posted a few messages and gotten a few likes and you should be good to go.

Not really sure what you mean by question 1.. The forum is divided into different sections, and you can post topics in each one, but you can't create new categories or anything like that, that's up to the admins. If that's not what you meant, just let me know and myself or someone else will do our best to help ya.

I would welcome you but you've already done that on my behalf

 

[Concept]

There are never any dumb questions my friend

 

[CCarter]

I actually think this is a great topic/thread to sticky for newbies. Anyone afraid to ask dumb questions can ask here and they won't get flamed.

1. There is no such thing as sub-threads.

2. You cannot like stuff until others have gotten you out of orientation (3 likes and 3 messages - one-liner message are considered junk and will get deleted). The best way is a decent intro and a sacrifice to the gods (hints: gifs are always great). If a quarantined newbie were able to like stuff potentially a group can come in here and manipulate likes to trying to elevate themselves out of orientation. It's a self-regulating system.

So liking a newbie's message is power and responsibility - use it more cautiously on newbies cause they could erode the quality we are harvesting.

3.

 

[turbin3]

You're off to a great start already Astro!

What leverageable strengths have you identified so far?

Now that the gears are turning, have any light bulb moments about how you might be able to exploit them?

Here's the more profound and difficult question:

QUICK! FIRST thing that comes to mind:

A weakness or deficiency you'll need to eliminate to begin your transcendence...

Could be a person, place, or thing

Don't worry, there's no wrong answers! It's still early, the guide is like drinking from a FIRE HOSE, and the answers will evolve as you progress. It's the process that matters.

 

[Astro]

There are never any dumb questions my friend

Thank you! Aaaand, you just answered my second question. It looks like I've reached the minimum threshold for of 3 likes / 3 comments, and now the LIKE button has appeared! (Learning new things every minute. I'm like a sponge, thirsting for knowledge.)

 

[Astro]

You're off to a great start already Astro!

What leverageable strengths have you identified so far?

Now that the gears are turning, have any light bulb moments about how you might be able to exploit them?

Here's the more profound and difficult question:

QUICK! FIRST thing that comes to mind:

Could be a person, place, or thing

Don't worry, there's no wrong answers! It's still early, the guide is like drinking from a FIRE HOSE, and the answers will evolve as you progress. It's the process that matters.

@turbin3 , You had some memorable quotes from Day1. I know I already like you. You ask me: What leverageable strengths have you identified so far? I will say that for everyone the answer to that is unique and that's the point (one of them) of Day1. I know nothing whatsoever about how any of this works, but I know that: I am a very organized and diligent learner. I know about committing to something and taking it from concept to reality. I work in the Production world, and I have some access to Ad agency people as well as an understanding of their process, and a decent understanding of marketing concepts in general. I also understand business, and impossible deadlines, and never accepting that "it can't be done."

You ask a harder question about weakness or deficiency I'll need to eliminate. I'm all over it! I've spent a year thinking about this stuff, and never done anything. But today, I did what I plan to do from this day forward: I TOOK ACTION! You guys inspired me to do it, and I did it. My mind has been on fire all day. Here's what I did:

• I went through DAY 1 of the 30-Day Digital Crash Course (Highly Recommended)
• I signed up with a new account.
• I activated a website that I bought for this exact reason the FIRST time I wanted to become an internet millionaire (but last time, I got discouraged and quit without doing anything or learning anything.)
• I came up with my username @Astro, and then created a "logo" of sorts to go with it.
• The logo btw (and this is important) was not easy to create (for me) So, an immediate corollary to the first lesson: TAKE ACTION! is BE RESOURCEFUL. I can't draw. I don't know how to use photoshop, I don't know the first thing about Wordpress, but I wanted to have a logo, so I went to this FANTASTIC WEBSITE that I'll tell you about (and I'm NOT selling anything) that I want to tell everyone about, because it seems to have a lot of answers. The website is called GOOGLE. There are other sites similar to it, but that's the best one. Want to figure out how to make a logo? Ask.
  
• So, now I have a name. I have a website. I have a logo. I wanted to paste an image in my post on this forum, but I didn't know how to get in on a URL. SO.... Google to the rescue once again. I figured it out.
  
• I also made a gigantic list of ideas for this new (ad)venture. That got me all worked up, and the more ideas I came up with, the more it led to even more ideas.

I am starting a blog to keep myself organized during these 30-days. I want to share it here, but I still have no clue how to format it, so STAY TUNED. I want to share everything there (And here), and really become a part of this community. Like I've said, I don't know ANYTHING or ANYONE except what I'm reading HERE, what I'm starting to figure out on my own, and who I am meeting here.
Ok, I tend to ramble - Especially when I'm tired. I need to go to sleep. I hope I met or exceeded your expectations with my reply. Tomorrow is DAY 2! Goodnight All.

There's a little "like" button at the bottom of each message that you can click to pass out likes. I'm not sure if it shows up for you immediately or if you have to get out of the new member "quarantine" first. If it's not showing up yet, just wait until you've posted a few messages and gotten a few likes and you should be good to go.

Not really sure what you mean by question 1.. The forum is divided into different sections, and you can post topics in each one, but you can't create new categories or anything like that, that's up to the admins. If that's not what you meant, just let me know and myself or someone else will do our best to help ya.

I would welcome you but you've already done that on my behalf

Thanks for nailing it! I get it now. My three questions have been answered. I can go ahead and cross that off the list!

I actually think this is a great topic/thread to sticky for newbies. Anyone afraid to ask dumb questions can ask here and they won't get flamed.

1. There is no such thing as sub-threads.

2. You cannot like stuff until others have gotten you out of orientation (3 likes and 3 messages - one-liner message are considered junk and will get deleted). The best way is a decent intro and a sacrifice to the gods (hints: gifs are always great). If a quarantined newbie were able to like stuff potentially a group can come in here and manipulate likes to trying to elevate themselves out of orientation. It's a self-regulating system.

So liking a newbie's message is power and responsibility - use it more cautiously on newbies cause they could erode the quality we are harvesting.

3.

Thank you! I already have sooo many other questions. Like, for example: I see the HTML here for including your question in my reply. The default leaves it in. Is that the protocol? *Oh, and BTW ~ Newbie no more! I am already in the clear. The like button showed up, and I'm feeling very accepted. Like Sally Fields said at the 1984 Academy Awards, "You like me! You really, really like me."

OK, the weakness then: There is a HUGE learning curve. I know NOTHING. That's pretty intimidating. I know the shortcuts are just that - bad people taking advantage of wide-eyed newbies like me. So, I'm intimidated by the amount of things I need to learn to really do this. HOW A PLAN TO OVERCOME THIS was what I talked about ad nauseam in my reply.

 

[CCarter]

The website is called GOOGLE.

Wait till your brain makes the connection that people you are trying to market to might also visit the GOOGLE to get answers to problems and want to find websites that talk about potential solutions. You eventually want your website ranking in those query list results (SERPs). Welcome to the first trap: "SEO". It is a trap, because if you are not careful you can spend 100% of your time focusing on that one website when there are also hundreds of thousands of other websites that can also send you traffic.

Welcome to the game.

 

[Astro]

Thank you @Ryuzaki for DAY 2: Choosing Niche and Vertical. It's good advice. I'm excited to add market research (Day 3) to it. (I may not get strait to Day 3 until I think a little more on Day 2, but we'll see. I have a research plan that I will take into the weekend. I want to learn the functions of the main building blocks of the web. I don't need to become a developer, but I should have a grasp on what HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP all do. On the SEO front, I suppose I will pick up more as I go deeper, but I was just reading and picking up the most basic terms like OBL, MFA, EMD (again, if you haven't already checked it out, this GOOGLE is pretty amazing. It seems like they are really onto something.) Yesterday, it took me FOREVER to get a domain, host it, point the servers, install WordPress, and create a blog. The good news is, I could do all that again today in about 10-15 mins. Today, I'm frustrated by getting WordPress to do what I want, but these are the growing pains. I'm sure in a week, I'll knock down that wall as well.

I want to explore some of the Freelance opportunities. I want to learn about the different angles and approaches, like eCommerce or affiliate marketing, or whatever. Maybe I focus on a niche, or maybe I focus on monetizing along any niche that will have me. There's SO MUCH! But, I feel very satisfied that my thinking has been opened up to all these new possibilities. I need to rest my brain for a few hours and then get back to this tomorrow. ANYONE who happens to read this, I would be thrilled and honored if you would share your thoughts.

 

[Roshen]

Hi @Astro thank you so much for creating this post! I can relate to your experience because I'm a total noob myself and trying to dig my way out of the hole of ignorance I'm in ^^
I have a domain, website and I am creating content. Still no clue on SEO but trying to funnel traffic through other sources while I keep learning and improve my site. One day at the time!

 

[Astro]

Hi @Roshen! Thanks. I am going through the 30-day crash course. I had to push pause for a second, but I'll be back soon. We can keep each other accountable...

 

[Prabhat]

Great thread to start Astro, all this while i had the same question in my mind too. I am a total noob with matters related to websites and online businesses. Your list of really dumb questions here opened new arenas of knowledge gaining to me. :-D

And, oh yes, the crash course here is great! I came across to know about this website from one post on SM and consider myself very lucky to have done so. This seems to me a very great platform to learn the tricks of the trade. All thanks to the founders!

 

[Astro]

My access is probably rescinded. I came it HOT, HOT, HOT, but then I had to take a bunch of freelance work to pay the bills, etc. THEN, I got slapped with a bunch of other drama (business and personal) on top of it... BUT, like Arnold used to say, "I'll Be Back." Looking towards mid-March to make a fresh contribution. Feels good to log in!

 

[Dean]

My stupid question - now that I have more complete access to the site, should I just continue asking questions here, or do I move them to Board Room? Maybe Board Room is more advanced and easy questions should be here?

 

[CCarter]

My stupid question - now that I have more complete access to the site, should I just continue asking questions here, or do I move them to Board Room? Maybe Board Room is more advanced and easy questions should be here?

It's best to leave the totally newbie questions here and more advanced ones in the board room. The staff here is very active and will move threads around accordingly if deemed necessary, so you don't have to worry much about it.

 

[joek07]

As a noob here working on an ecommerce site, this is a great thread helping with the basics.

My bit of a question if its ok to shout out here - the site has only been up around 12 weeks, I've been writing keyworded blog posts, commenting on other blogs, put details on decent directories, paid for an inc.com profile that I was told gave a good link, just purchased a link from grindtime, a PR release from PBNButler and also used iverr social signals.

My question is if I have obviously only a few backlinks is it worth something like the Fried Spam yet - would it have any results for me? Or could someone please recommend whats next that will help slowly nudge up the serps? Or maybe just keep what I'm doing for now with the blog posts and once I have some more authority then move up a gear?
I'm sure there are others at a similar point so any advice would be appreciated!

 

[JasonSc]

If the project is a longterm authority site you should avoid any sort of Spam. If you start spamming your own site there is a good chance it will get a penalty and will never be found again in the Serps.

Google algo has gotten smarter about spam. You use to be able to spam your way to page 1, but times have changed. I don't want totally discount spam, but if you are planning building a viable business, then I would avoid it totally.

Build a couple of highly engaging content pieces and then promote them to build links. See @Steve Brownlie content out reach post here.

 

[joek07]

It is longterm. Thanks for the info - I'm trying to build a solid foundation but sometimes its hard not to get an itchy trigger finger!

 

[turbin3]

Being that it's a long-term/brand site, focus on creating on-site content and establishing off-site relationships. I hate to say it but, there's nothing too esoteric or unique about it. It's all about that grind, and figuring out how to exploit your competitors' weaknesses to your advantage. Things like, how are they not fulfilling some of their prospects needs, how they're not answering some of their prospects' questions, etc. Match and exceed.

Save the spam for sites you don't care about burning up.

 

[joek07]

Thanks again for the info. I've been packing up sample boxes to ship out to bloggers and influencers in my niche to see what they think. I haven't asked for anything except their thoughts so hopefully will start the building of relationships and see what potential from there. I make sure I'm answering questions on reddit and will start on quora along with keeping up commenting thoughtfully on others' blogs.
I'm going to reach out for help with content - would you all go with placing an ad on upwork? Its in the home decor niche.

 

[MindFullness]

I have a possibly dumb question.

I've noticed that a lot of home pages rank for keywords even though the keyword doesn't appear on the page, title or even as an anchor text. Why is that?

 

[JasonSc]

It could be a couple of reasons.

Google has gotten really smart about Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).

Take for a example you own a Car Dealership. Basically, the word "car" is the same as automobile, auto (in context) etc. So you don't need "Car Dealership" and "Automobile Dealership" to appear on the page to rank for both. In most cases.

Also, the overall theme of the site helps. Continuing on with car dealership: If you have a bunch of pages listing cars for sale, a service page, financing page, basically all the pages you would expect when visiting a car dealership this creates a theme about your website. While typically only 1 page ranks in the SERP your entire site creates a theme of what the site is about.

2 other things might contribute to this. The anchor text of incoming links can help push or punish a page based on the anchor text which links to your page. One really powerful link with the right anchor text could make a page rank. Example. Your car dealership just won some local award from the biggest news paper in the city. The newspaper publishes an article about your dealership and they link to you with the anchor text "best car dealership in Springfield". Most likely your site will climb in the SERPs for "best car dealership in Springfield" as well as an LSI terms.

The internal anchor text of the site also can push a page higher. This is basically the same as external links, but there is a little more latitude about your anchor text ratio.

 

[Jeteye]

Dumb question #213: My first local client has a horrible site, with 8 pages and a paragraph on each page, in a competitive medical niche. It looks horribly thin. All they want right now are FB ads to drive traffic. I feel that all we would be doing is wasting ad budget by doing anything before at least having a few well-written pages of content and maybe a lead magnet or two. Am I wrong in my thinking?

I think that any paid traffic needs something to give them reason to stick around on your site after visiting. Otherwise, you'll just see them land on the site, look around, and then leave because you haven't provided any value.

So the question is does it matter how thick or thin your site is if you are paying for traffic?

Also do you know of any good resources for learning client SEO/marketing?

 

[JasonSc]

Ok, I have been playing around on Reddit to understand the platform and also see what my target audience likes. I had a post (other person content) make it to the front page.

I got a message inviting me to /r/EternityClub/.

What the hell is it? Is there any value to it? I didn't see any.

And a follow-up question. My Post got a little over 16K upvotes, but I only got 5500 karma points. What gives?

 

[Ryuzaki]

/r/EternityClub/.

It's botted to invite any account that submits a post that makes it to the front page or r/all. Congrats!

There's no benefit. They just post silly crap to each other and mass upvote each other. There's daily themes like "Post what's in your pocket!"

My Post got a little over 16K upvotes, but I only got 5500 karma points. What gives?

Strange. They've introduced changes to the algorithm lately but I didn't catch that one yet. I've not paid enough attention but usually the number of upvotes shown was the result of Upvotes minus Downvotes. Now they seem to have other types of dampening and blurring going on. It doesn't seem sinister. They've been adding massive number of fake upvotes and downvotes into the equation (more and more as you climb higher and higher) to help dampen a posts ability to stay on top for too long. Last time I noticed, it didn't reflect in the number of upvotes though.