David says: I’m having a problem that I suspect many marketers share. Quite simply … SEO or just buy the traffic. I noticed that you switched to SEO because you like the passive income component. But when I consider ALL the work and ongoing moving parts to SEO .. visions of the hamster on a treadmill appear in place of couch potato cash. Have you noticed that there is always something new to do … now it’s Google+ ect. and “more to do” is surly on it’s way.
It’s reached the point where it’s mind numbing.
I’m thinking about “less to do” sites with physical products … Amazon and other merchants. And adding a PPC campaign instead of using social media and constantly toiling away building links and writing articles.
Is there an easy way to get sites like this to rank while profiting with some paid traffic? Your opinion on this dilemma .. SEO vs PAID traffic or both would be much appreciated.
The term "couch potato cash" made me smile. 😀 One of the reasons I stopped doing pay-per-click advertising heavily was the fact that it was constantly changing, and required active monitoring.
My personal experience was with Google Adwords, and I can tell you firsthand that it took up a lot more of my time than my organic online marketing strategy does now. In addition to actively monitoring each campaign there was split testing, updates & new policies (aka "slaps"), etc, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
Not to mention that the ad rates have gone up dramatically over the years, as has the level of competition, and you can easily lose your shirt overnight if you're not keeping a close eye on things.
Pay Per Click Advertising is still a great online marketing strategy mind you, it's just not passive or "set it and forget it". This is just my personal opinion based on my personal experience - and personal preference. I did quite well with my Adwords campaigns back in the day, but there was nothing "couch potato" about it (lol). I was constantly monitoring and managing and tweaking my campaigns.
I had tons of time invested in my campaigns by the time I got them running smoothly, where they required less attention. And guess what? Google made a policy change that dramatically affected my campaigns. Tanked everything I had built up, in fact. Not that I was doing anything wrong (or "blackhat"), simply that the rules changed. And I wasn't willing to stay on THAT hamster wheel.
Start over? No thanks. 😛
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm bashing PPC or Adwords, because I'm not. I simply want to give you a detailed answer, and explanation as to why I made the switch to SEO and organic marketing strategies.
Specifically because there's no way I would go on an unplugged vacation, or take 14+ hour flights to Australia and back, with PPC Campaigns running.
That doesn't mean I won't run the occasional pay-per-click campaign, just that I don't use it as my primary marketing strategy.
Ideal Online Marketing Strategy
You mentioned writing content, getting backlinks and social media - basically an Organic Marketing Strategy - as a more time intensive alternative to PPC. I would disagree with that, and for a few reasons:
- Outsourcing PPC is expensive
- Outsourcing content development is cheap
- PPC is just as time intensive, if not more, in my experience
- PPC requires MORE ongoing monitoring & maintenance
- Social Media is more FUN than testing ad campaigns 🙂
- A proper organic marketing strategy can take off on it's own
That last point is actually the most important of them all. Done right you will have other people (your market) doing your social media & link building for you. They will share, like, vote up and link to your content and spread it exponentially.
With any new website, no matter which online marketing strategy you choose, there is going to be a substantial investment of time needed to get it off the ground.
Ideally you will use a variety of marketing strategies, but it's not necessary to use paid advertising. I've managed to take my new site to profit, with a couple dozen first page rankings and active social media channels, all in under 90 days and with zero invested - outside of hosting, which is covered by profits.
I did that, too, in about an hour a day plus 2-3 hours on Saturday mornings. I can only imagine what I could have accomplished in that niche working it full time.
The thing is, it's actually been FUN. Unlike tweaking ads, I'm actually out there meeting people and having conversations. And as a result they are inviting me to guest blog (links), sharing my updates, linking to my posts, etc.
If you dislike link building and social media, the key is to build a community where they do those things for you. Or the majority of it anyway. I focus on creating great content, and providing the tools to easily share that content.
As for content, like I said earlier that can easily be outsourced. There are also many ways to make it easier, such as inviting guest bloggers to post and doing interviews (where all you write are the questions).
Once your content ranks well in the major search engines, even more people will find it - and share it or link to it. Rankings bring in a constant source of highly targeted free traffic. And THAT is why I love it. Because even when I am on an unplugged vacation, or a long flight overseas, my sites are getting traffic and making sales - hands off.
Unlike PPC, over time an organic marketing strategy will take on it's own steam and it will take very little work to manage or maintain.
The only real key being high quality share-worthy content. And even that doesn't have to be as difficult as it might sound...
I hope that answers your question, and clears up any confusion. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and everyone's thoughts on this topic.
What online marketing strategy do YOU prefer - and why?
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Hey David,
I agree with Lynn, I've been more than frustrated with Google Adwords. I did use them successfully a few years ago. They were wonderful until they changed the rules for sales pages and a few other things, not to mention Google isn't very responsive on how to improve things.
I've had much better luck with SEO, but I also like it. However, to make SEO or social marketing work it has to start with writing useful content that people appreciate, and that's probably the toughest part.
I'd recommend doing a little of both advertising and SEO. If you want your sites to rank well you have to do at least some basic SEO.
If you like the advertising idea you don't have to use Google Adwords, there's Yahoo, ezine advertising (which if fairly affordable) and Facebook.
I haven't yet tried FB but if you do give it a try, I'd be interested in how it worked out for you 😉
It only makes sense to optimize your content as you write it. It doesn't take much time at all, and becomes second nature after awhile. See: Keyword Strategy for more on that.
Content Marketing is great because it lives on and on and on - unlike ads, which stop when you stop paying for them. 😉
After literally losing my shirt overnight (as in woke up the next morning after an experiment to find I'd left the bid at $10 and content network on so I lost all my savings) with Adwords, I took to SEO with a vengeance. Best choice I made. SEO work is cumulative, so work I did 5 years ago is still reaping rewards. Love it. Thanks for helping me remember, Lynn
Thanks for giving us a "no bull" break down of your experience with PPC Lynn.
I know first hand that if you deal in "information", Adwords is one tough cookie.
My opinion is that they pretty much want hardgoods and brick and mortars only advertising with it.
That's fine, because that just encourages us to rank naturally...;)
Thanks Mr. Google...;)
Great post, Lynn.
Mark
The best thing you can do is to not focus on one online marketing strategy alone. Apply SEO, write quality content, use social networking. It's a lot of work, but it'll be worth it.
My favorite online marketing strategy by far is writing fresh content. I know this is the part that lots of people like to outsource but it's what I enjoy the most! Thankfully, it's also what brings in the most traffic.
I have never had enough guts to do PPC. I am happy with SEO and social marketing & like you and other people have said, I actually enjoy doing it.
Lynn,
I have been on the other side of this fence from you for a long time. I have done organic traffic almost my whole career (about 5+ years. My experiences with PPC have let me know that I am just not good at it.
I bought a couple of books and have tried tracking a couple campaigns over the years and the best I have done is breakeven + (sometimes even losing money) to spite my best efforts.
At least if you screw up SEO you can go back and fix it later and all you have wasted is your time. There is no putting the genie back in the bottle if you totally screw the pooch with PPC.
(Though I am sure it is great for those of you with more skills than I have in that area)
-Steve
Great information! Thanks for sharing this.
My traffic is also 99% organic from search engines, article directories, and guest blog posts. I too tried PPC with mixed results. I think PPC works for local businesses and testing, but due to increasing costs per click, it's more difficult.
What I've learned is that larger sites tend to rank new posts better. So, build a larger site and in time you'll have less backlinking to do for search engine ranking. Moreover, you'll attract more natural links. Of course the counter argument is not to place all your eggs in one basket. I have a few projects going, but focus on building larger sites unless I have a specific purpose for a smaller site.
I've promoted many products over the last year. A few of them converted well. What I do when I discover a high-converting product is promote it to death. I go for every keyword for that product and write tons of content. It took promoting a few duds to find the nuggets, but now I have about 10 products or so that convert nicely. I focus my backlinking to the posts that promote the better sellers.
PPC is also good for testing if you need a quick influx of traffic. If you wish to test the conversion of a product, do some PPC. You might lose some money, but you'll find out if it converts and if it doesn't you'll save time and can move on.
At the end of the day, find some products that sell well in your niche, and keep on writing content promoting those products. Get creative with your pre-selling and try different techniques. The more affiliate links you publish, and the more traffic you get, the more commissions you'll earn. It's not an overnight process, but it works in time.
David,
I have never tried any paid advertising but have wonderful results with organic traffic. My husband and I created a website from scratch (it's less than 3 years old) and we are very happy with our traffic. Like Lynn says - organic traffic does not require constant attention like a CPC campaign does.
Maybe it's a matter of looking at how you are optimizing your content (Lynn has some excellent tips) and make it better so that you get improved organic results. Like Lynn says, it lives on and on. Unlike an ad which requires care and feeding from your wallet. My best to you!
I think organic SEO better for Online marketing strategy, quality traffic with high conversion than PPC models like adwords or others. thanks 😀
This is a great discussion. I submitted a post last night but I'm not sure if it went through .. no "waiting for approval" displayed ect. This is with another browser to see what happens. If this gets through I'll post it again.
I would love to agree….but im not going to!
( great coversation piece though!)
Whilst it 'seems' attractive to get traffic for free etc… In the most cases the quality of that traffic is poor!
Adwords is scary because ethe vast majority dont understand the nuances of marketing. They put there proverbial toe in the water set up a campaign and switch it on, only to be beaten to a pulp….
Poor keyword selection
Search, Partner AND Content all in the same campaign
Broad keyword targeting ( they go fo everything )
Crap AD's ( i mean ad singular ! )
No negative keywords added ( triggering useless impressions )
And the list goes on and on and on…
Stupid is as stupid does….
Your argument that you would not leave a campaign running while on a long haul flight isn't very strong Lynne ( i still love you though ) as you would only need to monitor your campaign closlely when for example:-
Your running a broad campaign in a highly trafficked market. If your running search query reports regularly, before long you will have a long list of keywords that have generated impressions with no clicks…. Make a copy of those and add them as negative's……voila!
Sooner or later using this strategy your left with just the keywords that actually get clicks…. Of course then it's down to conversion…so while we are on that subject:-
A google searcher has far more commercial intent than somebody floating around on Facebook! ( lets forget the 'make money online brigade' ) If you have a problem you go to google….not Facebook! And if it's particularly embarrassing the, anonymity factor of google is much more attractive than asking your facebook friends if they have a cure for genital warts!…..
On that same topic ( sorry for the horrible example) if your advertising on google and you sell 'solutions' ,pardon the pun, you need to write an ad that targets that issue like it was a personal response from a favorite uncle…..
After clicking on your ad you take them to a page that is all about THAT specific issue and what they need to do next…. Not some 'Home' page where they have to spend 5 minutes or possibly have to 'call' you…. They wont bother and will leave your site…..
Finally… Sorry for the rant!, if you haven't run the paid stuff BEFORE you go for SEO… How the hell do you know which keywords to optimize for? Your readers may be completely surprised to find that some of the big keywords in everymarket offer the worst conversions!
In conclusion it's my humble opinion, that people can 'like' doing s.e.o. blog posting or whatever but thats because it gives them a feeling that they are actually doing something, when in fact they are just 'marking time' ( marching on the spot ) as we called it in the Army.
Mark
LOL Mark - I love your humor. You make a lot of great points, but some of them we'll just have to agree to disagree. To each his own.
I'm quite good at targeting commercial keyword phrases with SEO, and know what to do with informational keyword phrases as well. And it's no argument that setting up a PPC campaign is work, and requires monitoring. Sure you can get it "on a roll" where it requires less - assuming Google doesn't change policies on you or something.
The bottom line is that I make a good living *without* pay per click advertising, and I don't have the desire to dig back into it like I did before. That's all. It was a pretty honest answer to a very genuine question - based on a previous post I wrote about my Organic Marketing methods.
I will always recommend SEO as it is cheap as compared to PPC.I have got good organic traffic through organic search by creating natural links for my site and writing quality contents.
Organic SEO is good and has a lot of perks and Pay-per-click when done correctly can generate a good amount of traffic in a fraction of the time to build up an organic keyword. I would have to say that both involves effort in both internet marketing strategies, it falls down to what is your passion. Some love to split-test and monitor CTR and CPL, others enjoy the social aspects of things and get themselves involved with the community through social media.
That said, I believe a good balance between a solid PPC campaign and link-building campaign is key.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Lynn. SEO is an investment where you do it once and it pays you back forever. Writing content and SEO is the way.
Lynn as usual you have given very good advice.Thank you for reminding us.
I too had the experience with Google Adwords before I had any idea what it really even was. I just thought that I could put up a campaign and the money would start rolling in.
It is almost like a gambling habit because it can be easy to think if I just change this I will be OK. But guess what I just spent more money and made $0.
As a late starter in this IM world, and still very much a newbie, I take heart that SEO, article marketing and other free traffic sources are still viable ways to go.
My only regret for my first site is that the niche I chose is very competitive and keywords hard to rank.
I will have to keep posting until Google takes more notice.
Are you focusing on longtail keyword phrases? That's definitely the way to go. That and Social Media - even in competitive markets.
"I’ve managed to take my new site to profit, with a couple dozen first page rankings and active social media channels, all in under 90 days and with zero invested – outside of hosting, which is covered by profits."
What was your new site about?
Hi Paul,
My new site is TravelingLowCarb.com You can read about it here:
http://www.clicknewz.com/2917/case-study-new-niche-site/
I just checked out your new niche site and it looks beautiful. I've been having trouble creating beautiful niche sites. I wish I can create one as beautiful as yours.
Amazing Post!!!!!!!
Nice Topic to be discussed.............
Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the end people should use what they feel it suits them best. As long as they know the pros and cons and accept all of them.
I definitely have to say SEO is the way to go for me. I started several blogs and a huge work from home website several years back, and rarely have time to update them today due to my writing schedule. Still, those sites bring in substantial income every month, and I don't have to worry about monitoring ad performance, cost, etc. Great post!
I agree that paid search advertising is a very expensive form of marketing in the long term if your business has to rely on this form of advertising solely. However, PPC and Organic Search can be used as different strategies depending on the product and timing of your intended product and services promotion. Organic search is a lot harder to control, whereas PPC is easier to manage in regards to the return on investment. SEO is also slower in the implementation so we're finding that a lot of our clients use PPC to tie them over until their organic rankings kick in or to boost a particular period in the year. Good post though, thanks for sharing
PPC is like most other things in life -- the more you do it, the better you get at it.
It's easy to start small and build up over time without risking much money.
A major advantage of PPC is targeting key pages on a site with the best ROI, especially if heavy competition makes it difficult to get good results with SEO.
I liken SEO to be very similar to Public Relations in a lot of ways, Lynn. As the world becomes more and more saturated by advertising, consumers are beginning to reject it more than ever in exchange for information they trust which they've found 'on their own.' Both SEO and PR put information in the PATH of users, without force-feeding it to them. The difference between acceptance and rejection is in the delivery and SEO is a magnificent way to serve it all up!