help and advice for newbies and people who need a kick up the backside in 2009

[EnkPress]

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- Costs to put up a site:
Approx £7 to reg a .co.uk / .org.uk / .me.uk domain for two years.
Approx £20 to host a basic site for a year.

Ok, not too bad. I've also gone and had a look around at hosting companies, and a couple of good ones I saw were 1&1 and (based on Smingle's recommendations) Fasthost as they give 6 months free on the reseller account. The only thing I'm worried about with Fasthost is that if, at the end of 6 months, the websites aren't recouping in £50 a month what kinds of difficulties I'll face trying to change to a different, cheaper host. I'm keeping my sights set low for now

Big thanks for those links on website design and links, those're really useful.

I have found one domain name that is in an area I am interested in and enjoy as a hobby - it had 18,000 exact match searches in January so nothing huge, but I reckon my knowledge of it and enthusiasm for it would make this a great test-bed to get a feel for how this all works with. Then once that's up and running, I'll start looking at some other niches with the aim of actually making some money on 'em.

I will keep an eye on this thread too for any more gems that Smingle puts up

[babrees]

O I've also gone and had a look around at hosting companies, and a couple of good ones I saw were 1&1 and (based on Smingle's recommendations) Fasthost as they give 6 months free on the reseller account. The only thing I'm worried about with Fasthost is that if, at the end of 6 months, the websites aren't recouping in £50 a month what kinds of difficulties I'll face trying to change to a different, cheaper host. I'm keeping my sights set low for now

hmm, I have heard too many bad things about 1&1 and fasthosts to try them. I do know a couple of people who have never had probs, but there are far more that do. A few years ago I went to sign up with 1&1, I live in the sticks and they didn't have my address on their computer for signing up - I rang them and they told me I would have to put in somebody else's address!! Needless to say I didn't sign with them.

I now have a vps with EUKhosts. Have had a couple of hiccups and they have just had to move me to a different server, but on the whole I am happy with them.

If anybody wants some hosting I have some space on my vps that I would be willing to rent out.

[wesmozart]

Just to say I agree with Babrees - I'm with Eukhost.com and they are generally excellent with good 'live chat' support etc. As for 1and1 ...they may have proved to be a good service for some, but not me. They've been an absolute nightmare - too many problems to mention here. I moved a load of domains away from them two years ago and they still keep billing me for renewal of them!
On the advice of a few people on this forum I joined up with daily.co.uk a few weeks ago just for buying domains. They've been brilliant - their site is really slick and user-friendly and they took on board loads of domains from 1and1 and another registrar for me with no fuss at all.

Wes

[bedazzledaz]

hmm, I have heard too many bad things about 1&1 and fasthosts to try them. I do know a couple of people who have never had probs, but there are far more that do.

I'm one of those that has used 1&1 for years without a problem, I disagree with the statement about far more people have problems, people don't write about things when they work fine, that's why it seems that way

[submantom]

I disagree with the statement about far more people have problems, people don't write about things when they work fine, that's why it seems that way

You're right - it's that old saying that if you have a good experience you tell 1 person, have a bad experience and tell 10.

However, I think you need to look a little further than this. Sure, every company experiences problems that affect their customers and we would be naive to think any hosting provider would be 100% perfect all of the time. For me, the difference between the good and the bad is how they sort out the problems.

There are too many reports of some hosting providers not even responding to complaints and requests for help - they are the ones I would look to avoid.

[vanilla]

Enkpress,

The link below should help if you intend to use Wordpress. I'd whole heartedly using Wordpress as a CMS if you're a bit lacking with XHTML/CSS. The articles in the link provided go through how to set up a website with analytics, make use of Wordpress built in functions and how to add on SEO practices to each of your pages.

How I SEO my WordPress Blog - A Beginners Guide | How To Solutions

Hope that helps.

[TheRutlandAffiliate]

I've just switched to eUKhost and have been very impressed with their customer service. The live chat is very good, sometimes the phrasing of the answers takes a little interpretation, but they answer every question quickly and always get the job done.

[HomeCreditor]

NEXT ONE :

cheapperfumes / org / uk

I would politely ask for a backlink from whoever buys the domain pointing to www / underwear / co / uk (replace the / with .) and using the anchor text "underwear"

1. cheap perfumes gets an average of 6,600 exact match searches a month

2. with a 40% ctr from serps and ONLY 2% conversion rate with an average commision value of just £3, you could make approx £158.40 a month from the serps alone.

3. There are currently 8 sponsored ads with the average cpc at £1.46 for the words "cheap perfumes"

More to follow tommorow if they are required ?

This was one of the initial posts.

Hi Complete an utter newbie here (never heard of SEO until about two weeks ago :cry)

Now, almost understand the exact match (does it need to be exact beacuase it is niche)

Understand the CTR, Conversion Rate and how to work out approx earnings per month.

I don't understand why the sponsored ads are listed (is it to say 'you don't need to spend this money, cos if you SEO the site right, it is unneccessary, or am I way off)

Also, is anyone making money out of their new sites (or is it early days)

Thanks to Smingle for this thread (have read it, re-read it, and re-read it again )

Ade

[gadget]

Secondly, I notice a few people mentioning that they check for 'dropped domains' (once that others have let expire) every day - is there somewhere specific that you check or is it a case of just searching through domains that you've previously made a note are due to expire.

The best drop catching services are from..

Pool.com
SnapNames.com
NameJet.com

Once someone decides they don't want to re-register a domain, it goes through several stages before it is released.

I've used all 3 of these and found them all to be effective and inexpensive.

[TheRutlandAffiliate]

The best drop catching services are from..

Pool.com
SnapNames.com
NameJet.com

Once someone decides they don't want to re-register a domain, it goes through several stages before it is released.

I've used all 3 of these and found them all to be effective and inexpensive.

Thanks very much for your response - I'll take a look.

Best wishes

[max99]

This was one of the initial posts.

Hi Complete an utter newbie here (never heard of SEO until about two weeks ago :cry)

Now, almost understand the exact match (does it need to be exact beacuase it is niche)

Understand the CTR, Conversion Rate and how to work out approx earnings per month.

I don't understand why the sponsored ads are listed (is it to say 'you don't need to spend this money, cos if you SEO the site right, it is unneccessary, or am I way off)

Also, is anyone making money out of their new sites (or is it early days)

Thanks to Smingle for this thread (have read it, re-read it, and re-read it again )

Ade

Exact just means that as its niche you only focus on one main term. i.e pink shoes, rather than lots of shoe terms.

Sponsored ads just shows if lots people are paying to advertise on the term, so if it has lots of competition. if its valuable etc

[HomeCreditor]

[QUOTE=gadget;454382]
As far as conversion is concerned, that's down to years of experience in those sectors.

So your 18,000 search volume would result in 7,200 (40%) visitors to your site if you were number one and then 1%-5% of those (72 to 360) would pass through to the merchant .. of which 2%-? (1+) may result in a sale of £x

/QUOTE]

I am trying to be practical here. So, I Build my site with SEO in mind, get it to number one through great SEO, and then get no sales (conversions) because it is down to years of experience?!?!

Hmm, I don't want to require ' years of experience', I want to make money now!

To be honest, I am a newbie, but I would prefer that gadget keeps his advice to himself!! No disrespect.

I have seen a few of gadgets comments where it makes no sense whatsoever.

Can we keep this thread to newbies (and people who need a kick) please?

No offence Gadget, but you seem to be a person who would look at my disfunctional car, before you have to refer it to a specialist.

If you are getting deeper into it, go onto the main forum.

Can we keep this thread to the specialist please (ie Smingle)

Ade

[BigSexy]

**Still anxiously waiting for the off-site SEO guide by Smingle...** :drool

[hairycornflakes]

iv got a bunch of domains with trademarks in the url.

i know they could come and sue me if they wanted to, but the way i see it is im selling their product so why would they mind?

hc

[sabian1982]

**Still anxiously waiting for the off-site SEO guide by Smingle...** :drool

He's a tad busy working out where to put everything in his new mansion!

I wonder if his computer was the first thing he unpacked, or is that just the type of person i am