Dreaming Passionately about Traffic Generation

jimmyharrell · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 08:55 AM

Okay it's official. Lisa I'm making you my official resource for "generating traffic". So when you write that book on traffic generation I want it. I have some statements, ideas, & questions so here goes:

First of all, I've known Lisa for quite sometime. Matter of fact we used to work together over at AA.com. "Scrabble was our game" lol. I remember when she started create a website(or about the time she was doing it). I looked at it and my initial response was "What is she doing that for?" What does she know about creating a website?". "All we do is post content on AA.com, and we've got a million questions on doing that" lol. I never told you that Lisa but that was my thought. So then I said "More power to her". Basically I thought b/c I was really passionate about "writing code" and learning all the latest and greatest programming languages from HTML to Java that I was more of an expert on Site Building. Then I go get the MBA to back it up more.. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy learning new languages (and the web in general) and always will probably be passionate about coding sites. It's what I love to do. However building kick azz sites and not knowing how to market them is another thing. I mean I do understand the basics (so I think) about submitting your sites to search engines, and keywords etc.I do have access to Mozillas various SEO plugins...But I never paid attention to the tools to help market the sites Like Adsense,Adwords, etc. Now I see another passion developing which is great and I believe will compliment my coding skills even more. I'll just sum that passion up in one word. E-Marketing. Learned a little about it in my Graduate program but you know how that goes. All they do is skim the surface. Then I find Lisa. Guess what?? Now I"m about to jump on all her material related to Marketing/Building a site. I'll probably just start at her HowToCreateawebsite.. along with this Forum.

Now last night I was sitting there thinking.. hmmm. Now Google is the biggest and most popular Search Engine out there along with Yahoo. They offer all these tools.... Bloggers, Forums etc. So If I'm going to blog and create a forum I'd better utilize every tool they have if I want to see traffic. Just a common sense conclusion I would think.. Right Lisa? Or am I wrong..

I am going to start bloggin and eventually have a forum. Now here is the thing though. As a Developer, I want to "build my own blog and forum on my domain" with "my own look and feel". That's part of the fun. But now I'm rethinking.. I know I don't have to re-invent the wheel here... and Google I believe already has blogger spots and forums available correct? (with the tools and tips to make them successful). I guess what I'm asking here Lisa is every blog/site you make and every forum you create is all part of Google's tools right? Or am I wrong? Do you use Godaddy etc? I mean my site is on Godaddy.. I like a host because then I'm not strictly kept to "cookie cutter templates" and I can build and develop my own stuff. Does Google Blogs and Forums allow you to apply your on look and feel to them as a developer? I mean can I change it up a bit but it still be on Google? i.e. can I code them myself?

Now Lisa, I like what you said in an article I read this morning on your site about "This ain't a get rich quick" program and you have to be passionate about what you're doing and put in the time. This is great because I definitely have the passsion and the work part probably won't seem like work b/c as I said it's a passion anyways. I'd love to build great quality blogs/sites/forums over time...Which is what it's all about. Enjoying what you're doing. I admit I'm fortunate that as a developer I do make an awesome income, however, I will always be working for da man to do it. I would like to eventually get where you are. Not so much finacially (b/c as I said I'm doing ok) but the freedom is appealing. To be able to walk away for a couple of months if need be and come back to an appealing residual. I don't ever see myself retiring as long as the web is around.

To wrap up b/c I could write all morning. I want two things going forward.

1. To continue to learn various programming languages and be on top of my game and write about what I learn to help others and provide useful links to tools and list awesome tips. Also to continue to develop kick azz sites from scratch using the latest and greatest programming laguages so I'll know what makes these sites run "under the hood".

2. To become a E-Marketing Guru to drive traffic to those sites.. This is where Lisa comes in. You're hired.

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 09:45 AM

So the truth comes out now, huh Jimmy!

Little did you know I was working on building a mini empire all this time.

First of all this is not a Google forum and using their tools has little to do with how you rank. I used GoDaddy and this forum was installed on my server by me. I bought it from www.vBulletin.com and installed it on my host. It's written in PHP but I didn't have to know any of that to get the forum running. I just simply edited the configuration.php file per the instructions and ftp'd the files up and Voila! - The forum is born.

Since you are a developer you will have no problems customizing the forum to your own design. I just decided to keep the forum "as is" because I am not into programming. So it's completely possible for you to install the forum on your host and then update the header/footer files to match your site's design. Many people do this.

Jimmy, it's great that you have the programming skills because you can do pretty much anything you want on your site. Now you just need to learn the marketing side. I always send people to www.selfpromotion.com It has a great overview for getting ranked in the major search engines.

You mentioned to me in an email about the new version of Flash having the capability to add meta tags. That's great but meta tags are becoming less and less relevant as time goes on. They are important because they are used to display your description in the engines but in terms of getting you ranked they aren't very useful anymore.

Now it's all about quality links pointing back to you. You need to get hundreds of other developer sites to link to you using the keywords you target. That's the challenging part these days because how well you rank determines

Back in the day when I first started in 1998, I could load up my pages with meta tags, and repeat the keywords I wanted to target and in a couple of days I had a #1 rank in the popular engines (this was even before Google was around. I think InfoSeek and Excite were the hot engines then. Anyone remember them?)

But now it's a whole new ballgame! You need to really learn how to write and communicate and make your site appealing so people will want to bookmark it and return. You need tons of pages and your concept should be different than your competitors. So many people now are copying other people's content and trying to duplicate their ideas but they never get found because they don't have the backlinks (these are relevant links pointing to your site) so as far as Google is concerned your site is not popular enough... therefore you will have a hard time getting a decent rank.

So once you combine your programming skills with marketing. You will be good to go! You're half way there!

attackdepression · #3 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 10:08 AM

I'm dreaming too Jimmy, lol. I was just responding to a thread below this and gave a thumbs up to Make Your Content Sell. It's the same guy that developed Site Build It. It's free so I would recommend you get into that at http://mycps.sitesell.com It's really a good read if you are new to marketing online.

More reading, I know... but it's worth it.

My husband is a lot like you. He's a developer and is good at developing sites in almost any language. He laughs at the simplicity of my website but my site gets 100-150 visits per day after only a month. His sites look swift but they aren't search engine friendly and none of them get any traffic and it's been years since he developed them. He still thinks I don't know what I'm doing but I know he secretly hates that I get more traffic than him. LOL

jimmyharrell · #4 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 10:41 AM

Hmm okay I think I"m starting to see what you guys are saying. So for me it seems that the first thing I want to do is get a focus lol. But actually all kidding aside sometimes I think it's best to StartSimpleStupid. So I'm just going to start here with in this forum with what I want to do and I got a feeling that asking questions here is going to help me get my little venture started. So Here is what I'm wanting short term and long. First of all... let's go with Short Term.

Short Term

I want to start something up for Newbies to Coldfusion Development. So should I start a Forum or a Blog? Because something I'm realizing here being in this Forum is that every link that gets posted could be clicked on and thefore someone else is getting traffic from this forum. Know wonder people want to advertise on your site Lisa. All these darn referrals they're getting. But I know you're getting paid lol. So should I start a Forum or Blog? and.. Who do you suggest? Probably would be one of the first questions and answers that I post on my new Forum or Blog. Now don't bombard me with a bunch of links.. I just want to know the Forum or Blog answer and who you suggest and maybe a few reasons why? My next step would be to go to that source and sign up and set up. Hopefully it will be FREE. So I'm sure I'm looking at "cookie cutter" which is fine for now b/c the more I think about it, it's really all about content and if your users are finding your information useful and helpful. I mean I know look and feel is important but the tools and content that your site offers is probably important. Now the fact that I have a Godaddy account already and my site is up all ready is good. I guess I could create a subdomain off that or whatever... but what do you suggest Lisa? A totally separate domain or what?

Long Term

I'm starting with Coldfusion... b/c at the moment that's what I love the most. Now I do love Flash and Others and I think what I'll start doing to as I read all these tech books is just start with a Basic Word Doc with Q's and A's as I learn. I'll document those and some can become FAQ's or blog posts. Ya I like that. EVentually I"ll want a site for each programming language. One that's Coldfusion, Flash, HTML, etc. But all different sites. They can have links that go back and forth to each other. The ultimate site could be LearningProgrammingLanguages.com or something. (haven't thought of that yet) but I have to start with one. And that is coldfusion.

Last thing is that doing what I do many times for both short term and long.. I'll want to be able to have users of my forum upload example files if they have them as well as myself so that other users can download and try the examples or better yet load executable files they can download.

Okay I"m ready to start. As I go I"ll be asking for feedback etc.. But I think that this is the best approach. Personally Lisa, I don't want to sign up for any one else's newsletters or articles now that you know my idea except yours. Do you have a newsletter? I'm assuming you do with all the users of your sites, but I could be wrong. You are my source though and so unless you suggest or ppc or some other readers of this post suggest something that is a must, I probably won't read it. I have to take all one at a time so I'm ready.

jimmyharrell · #5 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 11:53 AM

You know what?? Maybe I don't have a focus. My Brain Hurts. I don't know. I mean when I built my site. I had a purpose or purposes.

1. To have an online portfolio of my work. (Done)

2. Build a web presence(Not Done)

3. Place for Family and Friends to see the latest photos of my daughter( Done sort of)

4. Employers can come and Search my resume (Done)

5. Show off my skills (always ongoing)

Now I'd like to have more business but the truth is I'm already busy at work all day lol. Not like I'm not getting paid well. Is money the root of all evil? hehe.

Naw, I think that now that I'm moving along as a developer that I would like to have a successful online business or business model.. so what Lisa and others have done is appealing.

I would like to somehow grow my current site, but, I want to do it by giving back to the community. I'm an Adobe Head. I love everything Adobe. They have great products. Now I'd like a successful blog and Forum for Developers. Primarily Adobe Coldfusion,Flash,Photoshop,Fireworks,AIR, and Flex Developers. That would be cool. I'd like to be able to provide examples and answer questions and basically have developers (primarily new developers) jumping to my site for references, tools, etc.

I do want to give back to the developer community in a positive way, but at the same time I want to make $$ doing it on my own time. That's the ultimate goal. But I don't know where to start except with Coldfusion and I want that to be a part of jimmyharrell.com. That's it really. So maybe a blog and a forum and just let it grow on it's on over the years. I mean a good example of what I'm trying to do is something like http://www.forta.com . This is the site of Ben Forta.

He's a Coldfusion Guru. My Hero. He has books, blog, forum, He's pretty popular. So popular most developers just search for Ben Forta on the web. That's kinda how I want to be to the community. I'm not writing books though, but I do want to share knowledge. This is why I was originally thinking about Blogging. Ideas anyone?

Last but not least, I do plan on using Lisa as my primary source,however, I don't want to not take knowlege from others who have already replied to some of my post and who are only trying to share knowledge that they think is useful so I apologize guys if you feel alienated. Right now I just want to be a sponge and get feedback but I don't want to be Stuck on Webbabble 247 cuz I'd never get anything done. This is addicting I must say. But I do have to pace myself.

webdev · #6 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 05:44 PM

jimmyharrell,

you're not alone. Many of us have the same conflicts. That's what made me create the "too many idea too little time" thraed and write my frustrations.

There is so much i wanted to do. Build a large web presence. But if you're am individual running on small budget or no budget with little to no time, it will take time. You will go through every road block possible.

It's like a cycle i think. First you start off with too many things in your head. You wanna do this..you wanna do that. But really, its impossible. Its good to have a focus but now you will start narrowing your focus which means you're making improvement and getting ahead.

Quote:

I love everything Adobe. They have great products. Now I'd like a successful blog and Forum for Developers. Primarily Adobe Coldfusion,Flash,Photoshop,Fireworks,AIR, and Flex Developers.

This is a good start. Narrow your focus on something you know a lot about and passionate about.

2 months ago when i came to this forum i was lost. Previously, i had made a clone web application like digg.com which is number 100 site in the net thinking that my site will be successful like the people who built digg.com. But i was so wrong. Making web presence on internet isn't as easy. I would say it's the most difficult part.

Now, i'm focusing my attention on building a content rich site. But i didn't just pick some random theme for my website. I picked a theme which I know of. I'm PHP Web Developer and have learned a lot about web application development and PHP though my own projects and work. So i thought it makes sense to build a content site focused around PHP and web development.

You mentioned you have knowledge in Adobe products. That's great because Adobe has so many products which almost everyone uses everyday. I use adobe reader a lot. I'm alway looking for converting pdf documents to word or vise versa.

You can built your website around these products offering tips, tricks, guides and tutorials on how to use these products.

And slowing see your site built up and gain traffic.

I must warn you that before you jump into building your tutorial site, thinking about how want your site to look like say 2 years from now when it is popular. This will give you an idea of where to start

Hope this helps. Good luck with your stuff.

jimmyharrell · #7 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 06:20 PM

Hey thanks Web Dev, I think I hear ya so I'll probably be taking a lot of this advice. you're right probably Narrow it down to CF to start and then go. You said you're a PHP guy. I'm looking to learn a little bit more about it too. I know it's open source (wtg) and most phpr's go with MySQL cuz it's free too so I wanted to see your site but when I clicked on ya there was no information. What's your site?

webdev · #8 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 08:20 PM

what sort of information are you looking for? May be i can point you to some other source.

when you said you didn't find any information? did you mean you got errors on my site? I hope it is work fine for you because i can see it fine.

My site is only 2 months old so its doesn't cover mysql yet. You can go through the PHP Beginner section. It covers the basic to get your started

But are you looking to install mysql and PHP on your machine?

jimmyharrell · #9 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 09:20 PM

No I meant I couldn't find a link to your site in your sig. What is it? Actually right now I"m looking to convert Two tables from SQL Server to My SQL. Is there a tool to do this? A free tool?

lisa · #10 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmyharrell

Short Term

I want to start something up for Newbies to Coldfusion Development. So should I start a Forum or a Blog?

Neither. LOL I would start a site on your niche first. Others may argue that a blog is better but I still think the search engines are more friendly toward websites. Although if your blog gets extremely popular and heavily hit by other programmers then it can drive you traffic. I still say start with your site first and you are right... it's really all about content.

These days to get traffic it's really only about 2 things...

1) Content
2) Link Popularity

And if your content is not unique or does not turn heads then you'll never get the link popularity.

You want to come up with a site concept that will blow other ColdFusion (or whatever topic you choose) out of the water. Try not to make it like the others out there. You need to create something that will stand out. And like Webdev said, try to think ahead. That's one thing I did NOT do and I wish I had done that because I find myself constantly looking to update/redesign and change my layout.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmyharrell

Lisa, I don't want to sign up for any one else's newsletters or articles now that you know my idea except yours. Do you have a newsletter? I'm assuming you do with all the users of your sites, but I could be wrong.

No newsletter believe it or not. I had one but wasn't getting the results I wanted so I discontinued it. I have so many projects I'm working on I just haven't had time to take on another task at the moment. I still have 2 books I need to finish. Just not enough time in the day sometimes.

Sign up for Allan Gardyne's newsletter at www.associateprograms.com Better still go to his site and read his tutorials on basic affiliate marketing. Been following him since 1998 and it's the only newsletter I read religiously and actually open right away when I receive it.

He taught me how to write for the Web, sell, etc. I don't know where I'd be without him and Ken Evoy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmyharrell

All these darn referrals they're getting. But I know you're getting paid lol.

I actually earn most of my money reselling for GoDaddy, AdSense and a few other affiliate programs. I don't make a lot from advertisers... maybe a couple of hundred per month and I just added that to my monetization portfolio in April.

But definitely start with your site first and add the blog as an addition. Then when you blog about topics, link back to articles on your site. The blog will actually help give your site some link popularity points with the search engines. Once the traffic begins to trickle in then consider a forum. Never try to launch a forum with under 1,000 visits per day. It will be hard to get folks to get traffic unless your niche is extremely narrow and you have very loyal visitors.

jimmyharrell · #11 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 07:25 AM

OK great. This is the best news I've heard thus far. Ok I will get the two news letters that you suggest. Now I just found out yesterday that with Godaddy I have blog and forum tools already. So I can just start my blog on my site and my forum which will help my site grow. Best of all the domain will still be part of my original site name. However I did find out with Godaddy if I want their free forum and blog tools that I have be running on Linux instead of Windows server and that If I am running on a Linux server that I have to use MySQL instead of SQ L Server since SQL Server is a Microsoft product. Hence the reason I need to do the data migration from SQL Server to MySQL so this is why I was asking Webev about a Free Data Migration Tool. I might actually start a new topic on that for Newbies who are using Godaddy for Site Hosting. Ya I'll start that today b/c that's very useful information for users who are looking for Blog and Forum Tools on Godaddy. It's part of their Metropolis package with comes free if you have Deluxe Shared Hosting which I do. Only cost me about 175 to start.

On another note lisa I have a question. So when you have a Forum does the content that your users post count as "content" on your site? If so this should also help drive traffic or create "link popularity" I would think?

webdev · #12 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 08:00 AM

jimmyharrell,

here you go. This page explains how to migrate your ms sql db to mysql. look for MSSQL2MYSQL on the page.

http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/...microsoft.html

Quote:

No I meant I couldn't find a link to your site in your sig.

Its the "Learn PHP" link in sig. Do you see it?

webdev

jimmyharrell · #13 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 08:55 AM

Duh.. you have three links in your sig. My bad (i must be delirious). Ya I ran across this link last night. It's the first on google if i'm not mistaken. I've heard from a few though that there is a tool that will do it for you and it's pretty straightforward. know of any?

webdev · #14 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 09:05 AM

I never had to deal with database migration between two different engines. But this is a good topic for a tutorial. I will let you know when i come across any free tool. For now you can go through this list and see if there is any that appeal to you.

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0....nvert&tag=srch

attackdepression · #15 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 10:46 AM

I was reading in another forum about a guy who never paid a cent for any traffic. He built his traffic (I think he gets like 2,000 visits per day now) by posting in forums related to his niche. Not by spamming and link dropping but by simply chatting with other members, answering questions and his sig file just started drawing traffic.

That's why I like posting in forums, especially ones like this because the URLs for the threads are search engine friendly. Having a link to your site in your sig file does get noticed by the engines. I don't think it has as much of an impact as it did years ago but every little bit helps.

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