I've gotten a hankering to start another website -- detailing the best, top-selling products online in 2009 and beyond -- and I thought it would be great to finally build up a post and detail the process I go thru to start a new website and get traffic to it.
#1 Choose an excellent domain name...
by doing a bulk domain name search on GoDaddy.com against well-searched for terms. I love using GoDaddy's bulk domain name registration that lets you dump in up to 500 domain name possibilities, then strips out the ones that are taken and leaves you with the ones that are free. Get long lists of popular search terms to dump in there by extracting csv file lists of search terms based on a word you type into Seo Book Keyword Suggestion Tool, like I did here with "sell" 0r Google Adwords Keyword Tool or WordTracker or whatever your favorite keyword tool place is.
#2 Buy the domain name...
...once you've done your domain-name research, and chosen something kinda pithy that works well with your gut, isn't full of Google stop words, and hopeful contains some great keywords that automatically gets you some searches naturally -- like my domain name WatchFreeEpisodes.com did before I got it banned from Google.
Since I already use DreamHost.com for my web hosting, I buy my domain names thru them -- because I like using Go Daddy for research, but then giving my money to Dream Host.
#3 Install the Content Management Software...
I love using DreamHost.com for this purpose the most, because their one-click installs makes it so easy to install WordPress.org -- my preferred CMS, and the only one I've used beside blogger -- on my new domains.
DreamHost.com also offers easy installation of other stuff called Gallery, ZenCart, PhpGedView, OpenX, Pligg, dotProject, Moodle, Joomla, phpbb, MediaWiki, WebCalendar, Advanced Poll,Trac --but I've never used anything other than WordPress.org.
#4 Choose your website layout/theme...
The website layout or theme is more than just a pretty design -- though some of those professional themes you can buy are really pretty, I've yet to purchase one yet. The WordPress website themes also play into how much traffic your website could ultimately based on how SEO'd they are.
Since I like free themes, my latest favorite is Corpvox WordPress Theme by Daily Blog Tips, and that's been working well for me. Once I make the move and buy a professional theme, I let you know which one of those is my favorite.
#5 Before your first post... get the right post url settings and SEO plugin...
by making sure your post urls will contain the words of your post titles and not just crazy numbers that mean nothing to Google. In WordPress.org sites, you can do this by going under Settings, Permalinks, selecting Custom Structure and putting /%postname%/%post_id%/ in the blank field.
And a great plugin to immediately install is All-in-One SEO Pack which you can enable and put little characters in front of like I have in the above pic -- just click to enlarge -- so that your posts will stand out in Google Serps (use this tip at your own risk).
#6 Write your first posts...
...and try to SEO them off the bat -- that's if you're not going to purchase SEM ads like via Google Adwords or have some other brilliant plan to get your website noticed like Stuff White People Like by just creating kind of content that eventually gets noticed, you've gotta rely on SEO to bring some people to you.
Write nice, long, content-rich posts about whatever you want -- and hopefully they include the search terms you're focusing on throughout the post title and article.
#7 Verify and submit your new website to these places -- AND SET YOUR CRAWL RATE HIGHER ON GOOGLE:
The next step is to start verifying your website with Google and Yahoo, and submitting it to different places online to tell the Internet world it's there:
- Add the site to Google Webmaster Tools and verify easily by adding the meta tag they give you to your new website's header file (and while you're in there, set your crawl rate higher than Google recommends. Click on your website name, Site Configuration, Settings -- and when Google lets you, move that switch higher so the bots can crawl your site more often once it gets indexed. This doesn't work for Blogger blogs.)
- Add your URL to Google
- Add your new URL to Yahoo and make sure your website shows a green checked mark after you authenticate the website with Yahoo by putting the meta tag they give you in your website's header file
- Submit your site to Bing
- Go to Digg.com and submit a post or two on there -- I've gotten new websites indexed in Google in less than 12 hours this way
Keep writing lots and lots of SEO'd content. Follow Google Trends if your website is more news-based and topical.
If it's a more product-based website, you can follow Amazon's best-seller lists to find out what the hot trends are, including their movers and shakers lists and newly released hot-selling lists to see what people are buying.
Or do both -- products, hot news -- and whatever you like, whatever floats your web boat that you want to keep writing for a long time. And lots of it.
#9 Build links to your website to get better ranking...but don't get banned by Google
This is one tip I could do better at myself: Getting links backs to your own new website to try and get better ranking for a term you want. For example, if your website is all about the new PS3 Slim, try and get links with that or varying anchor texts back to your website. But don't overdo it all in one day, says Onlinearnings.com, because you don't want Google to bomb you for Google bombing a certain term, like they did John Chow when he had all those people link to him with the term "make money online".
Try submitting free press releases
Write articles for AssociatedContent.com and link back to your site
Try American Chronicle
Try Examiner.com
Try all the article directories you can find.
#10 Monetize
If your goal is to make money off all your hard work, monetize your new website. Click on the link above with my latest online earnings posted to see which program I use to make money off my websites.
#11 Add Tracking Code to Study How You Get Your Hits -- and Learn How to Get More...
Don't forget to add tracking code to your new website's footer file -- both real-time tracking like StatCounter.com that I love, and tracking that lets you know over the long haul what your most popular posts are, like Google Analytics.
Comments
I really need to get under the skin of Wordpress more and see what can be done. Also never heard of the CMS tool you referenced so I will be sure to look out for it.
Thanks
I know some people are big into buying existing domain names, like sometimes you'll put in a possible domain name thru GoDaddy.com and find out that the domain name is $2,000 or whatever for sale.
And JustDropped.com lists domain names for sale from other people. But I haven't gone that route, because I've never researched the history of a domain (whether or not it's been banned, etc.) but I know domaining is big.
I just buy domain names that sit right with my gut, and that will probably get some natural search rankings once I build it up with good content, prayer and a link-building campaign.
That's why I just bought Top Selling Online and am starting to build it up.
I know I wrote an article earlier this year about the top selling products online and that garnered pretty good interest and evergreen traffic, so I knew it's a topic people would be interested in.
It takes research and gut-checks and looking into the trends coupled with what you think you might want to write about for a while and stick with.
And if you don't, so be it. I've let dot coms go after I lost interest in updating them.
Thanks and GBU Paula
Just post affiliate links- for e.g. waordpress themes pay 50 - 40 per cent for sales.
Even if you are not using theme, just recommed someone goes to Unique blogs Designs. If anyone buys that is $75 to you. That is what John Chow does ruthlessly.
Great article by the way.
I'm having so much fun writing for and making money with Examiner.com right now, I've been totally focused there:
▷▷▷▷▷▷▷How Much Does Examiner.com Pay Writers? $500 for One Guy in 2 Days, Some Examiners Make $8,000 Per Month - Not a Scam or Hoax | PAULA NEAL MOONEY