Search Engine Optimization?
I’ve been reading up on my books regarding SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I’ve got lying around as well as some stuff up on the Internet about it and quite frankly, it all gives me a headache. In fact, I think that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been getting so many lately… truth be told, I want this chunk of Internet to be a place that’s attractive, just as much (and in some ways, understandably more-so) than the Porto Diao portal, but when you read up on so many variables and steps and whole sites dedicated to this bullshit then I can see how some people can become somewhat fanatical about this sort of thing. I guess it’s the same way I feel about Spider-Man and comic books in general. I’d jump into incomming traffic it that means that someone picks up a graphic novel and gives it a chance. Just like comic books, the Search Engine Optimization medium is one that’s so vast and complex it’d take a while to know just what’s what and who’s who… I only have a passive knowledge of the thing and it’s taking my brain for a ride. At least there’s promise in it’s core concept, and it’s one I genuinely like: if you continue to shell out quality content, people will come. Like in “The Field of Dreams,” sans field. Nor corn nor Kevin Costner.
These past few days I’ve been looking into ways of promoting not just Rob-Rivera.com but also PortoDiao.com and even though I have some great ideas (which as of this writing I admit I’ve been lazy about getting into them, something I’m desperately trying to correct out of sheer willpower) I have to depend on my love/hate relationship with Miss Internet here, and she likes to play hard. Like everything, It all narrows down to two playing fields in the Internet business market: the national scale and, of course, the international scale. Google doesn’t give a shit which one you’re playing in, so I shouldn’t worry about it… In a binge of curiosity/vanity I googled my name and I came up first and all over the place in Google’s search engine results (by the way, who would’ve thunk there’s a gourd artist named Robert Rivera as well? Also, a convicted murderer. Figures… Shit, dopplegangers sure get the fuck around)
As it turns out, web advertising is also beyond any normal blog’s reach. From what I keep reading, In order to even consider selling space in your website you need to have at least 100,000 (ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND, BITCHES) unique visitors per month. That’s insane for a blogger, unless they have valuable information or pretty much become an institution. Of course, there are exceptions (the one that comes to mind even though I don’t have numbers to back it up would be Tucker Max) but the whole M.O for getting ads by yourself seems to be counter-productive; as a result, the “experts” and forum dwellers suggest to stick to the advertising business model pioneered by Google and the one that adorns the pages of this site you’re at right now: Google AdSense. I don’t know. Adbrite also seems to be popular, since it’s just a matter of seeing which sites you should be advertising in and just buy some space in it. Sounds simple enough. It sure beats having to go the old-fashioned way of goign to places and beg them to put an ad on your site so you can get more visitors and the like… but I believe that sometimes, in special cases, it’s necessary. This is the part where I put Panama in the mix.
For one of the Porto Diao projects not out yet I’ve chosen to keep the ads local, and so far the response has been quite favorable; the “play smart” mentality of the Panamanian works for you, when yo have a friend who knows someone of power or a cousin or a sister or whatever… as long as we’re able to fill out ad slots and bring traffic to the site, anything is game. I know for a fact that if I were doing this by myself this thing would have less chances than a candle in the wind. Having that said, the concept of going to one of these sites that sell ad space for thousands of sites is very attractive: you can be done with your ad buying in 5 minutes. I’m a hair away from trying these out myself as soon as some gigs I have pending close and they give me some income. I’ll let you know if it worked.
Another thing, before I leave you be: I’d like to take this opportunity to point out something that I find very humbling and important to note. During my digging-in of this whole SEO thing, trying to get myself out there, I’ve recently made a habit out of checking out the stats of the page and I’m happy to say that I’ve got people coming in from the following countries: Canada, The United States, Mexico, Panama (naturally), Costa Rica, Argentina, The Nederlands, Germany, Japan and a bunch of .com and .net newsgroups and blog networks. I’d just like to say that it’s an honor to have you here, I hope you enjoy my ramblings and stories and please, keep coming back. Tell your friends! Either that Site Meter button is busted or the kickass, more-detailed stats page the server provides is outta whack… and I’ll believe my shit over some third party crap any day of the week. There’s still a lot more stuff to dig out of the stats page, so I’ll have a better idea soon of what the audience wants. I am a storyteller, and I like to entertain people I care about, so I’ll try my best to fit your reading needs without selling out like a bitch.
Originally posted 2006-07-18 10:02:25.
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