It’s all about the marketing
As I have mentioned numerous times in previous posts, I am a sitepoint forum addict. Every day domains and entire websites are sold, some for a few hundred, others for thousands. But what I have noticed is a trend. A trend of sites that appear for sale more so than others.
These are;
- Proxy browsing sites
- Image hosting
- Domain whois sites
- Webmaster tips/forums
- Hosting businesses
These types of sites are bought and sold weekly, but without a marketing plan the sites will end up unvisited and useless. There’s thousands of free image hosting sites out there, what will make yours stand out? Some will say Search Engine Optimization and link directories while others will say mass advertising via adwords or adbrite.
There’s a problem with both these options.
GOOD SEO requires sound knowledge of HTML, CSS and the web in general. It requires an understanding on how search engines work and the technologies they use. There are also thousands, maybe millions of other “image hosting” providers to compete with. SEO is number 1 priority.
The second option (advertising), simply requires funds. If you have the money great, you’re all set. Find a relevant adbrite site and bobs your uncle.
So what’s my point?
People need to stop looking at flashy domain names, sexy gradient looking websites and 2.0 technologies. We need to concentrate on aggressive marketing plans, advertising and unique and fun ways to promote websites.
With so many entrepreneurs, it’s the only way to make a buck around here.
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5 opinions for It’s all about the marketing
aaron wall
Feb 2, 2006 at 12:37 am
>GOOD SEO requires sound knowledge of HTML, CSS
There are probably only a few people in the world who sell more SEO books or ebooks than I do. I also rank on page 1 of Google for SEO. I would be a liar if I said I was an HTML or CSS expert
Your point about the same types of boring sites being created and sold over and over again without any real chance of success due to poor marketing is totally valid though.
Jamsi
Feb 2, 2006 at 12:57 am
I see your point, kind of. I think the word “expert” was used a little heavy in this context. You certainly need to know HTML and or a bit of CSS to get a clean coded website for the bots to gobble up. I guess if you only know a bit of HTML and know where and how to edit HTML pages to place your keywords .. well thats probably enough :)
aaron wall
Feb 2, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Most of my pages do not validate. Most of them do not even come close.
SEO was about getting bots to see the content in a certain way, but to me it seems like the rewards for most people are going to be far greater if they are conversational and just create boatloads of content on expensive topics and don’t worry about old hat mechanical optimizing. Social optimization seems to be far more effective right now for most people.
Where the validation of code matters a great deal is if you are a high end site designer, usability expert, or that sort of stuff. I also undermine my credibility or ease with which I get links by having a site that sells a product, looks fairly crappy (its just a $99 logo with color matched CSS and an advert for my ebook thrown in), covers a topic that is generally hated, full of spelling errors, and full of coding errors. But in spite of all the stuff I just listed I still do well.
I guess imho all you really need to make a living on the web now is a genuine interest and passion in a topic and possibly some unique marketing angle, as you stated above.
I don’t think that coding or traditional matters as much as it once did.
Mathew Patterson
Feb 5, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Validation of code matters when you want your sites to be uable by the widest possible audience, and you don’t want to have to redo every time internet explorer is updated or a cellphone browser takes off.
Having good clean html will make it even easier for search engines to gobble up your content - it is not hard to do and can only have benefits for real users and for robots.
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Feb 16, 2006 at 5:37 am
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