Realistic beginner goals?

[Insight]

Hey everyone,

I have very little money to start, so I figured I'd go the bum marketing/SEO route rather than launch a PPC campaign. I basically have nothing but a $120 bill each month for health insurance (right out of school + living with parents ftw), so if I make $4/day I'd be for the most part financially independent (provided my parents don't kick me right out into the snow).

I also have extensive prior experience with web design, programming, photoshop, etc, so I don't have much to learn there. What I really need is to zero in on the marketing stuff.

Is $4/day doing just SEO a realistic short-term goal (1-2 months) for a beginner, assuming I do things right, still make some mistakes, etc? Or is SEO the sort of thing that you'll need to do for a longass time to see any reward?

Also I read through like half of nickycakes' guide before I realized it was PPC-oriented. I've been lurking on this board for like a month now trying to wrap my head around the SEO thing and I have learned a lot, but are there any nickycakes-esque utter noob retard guides for SEO as well?

Cliffs:
- $4 a month is all that I need to have all of my financial needs met
- I have tons of programming, web design, and photoshop experience
- How realistic is $4 a month as a short term (1-2 months) goal doing SEO?
- Does the SEO version of Nickycakes guide exist?

Thanks. I'm ready to dive headfirst into this, but I want to make sure I'm not approaching this from a retard standpoint.

 

[webetricky]

I have a similar background to yours but I am making a little money online now (very little) and I don't think you will be able to make much (if anything) from SEO in that time frame. The reason being that SEO takes time. Not just time to do the actual work, but also time to see the results. Then, once you do see some results (i.e., sites / pages you have links on are being indexed) you will probably get sandboxed (which just happened to me for the first time...fml) which from what I've read usually lasts around 6 months. Even if this doesn't happen you will probably fuck up your first few sites or attempts (best way to learn is try and make mistakes) but let's assume that doesn't happen either and you still have the problem that you don't know shit about marketing so you can probably safely assume that your CTR and conversion rate will be horrendous.

That said you could probably do $4 / day if you build a lot and work hard. Working hard seems to be the problem most of the lame brains who want to make money online run into. I am not trying to paint you a grim shitty picture but this is what I perceive to be the truth. Now the background in computers and such is going to be a big benefit over all these noobs who can't figure out how to install wordpress and what not. You would probably make your $4 / day goal faster freelancing web design and programming work on various forums and such. Check out the BST section here to see what's what, also its a good place to figure out what kind of shit you should be doing to get your websites going.

The guide you're looking for is bluehatseo.com's SEO empire. There's a lot of diff. opinions on SEO so take everything with a grain of salt.

 

[tiltjunkie]

The best seo training I've ever seen is at thekeywordacademy.com

 

[pileofcrap]

I think that's entirely realistic. You already have a heads up, according to you, with a good development background. You just can't fuck around. Pick a good niche, write those damn articles, and earn that money! I would monetize every possible revenue source I could too.

 

[yamahoto]

My first try at Facebook Ads CPC cost me 30$ and i got leads for 4$ < FAIL

It's yesterday and I'm still a fail.. but I'll keep trying until I know a good recipe

 

[farking]

Your biggest asset is your web development background.

Consider either finding someone for a trade (your web dev services for SEO education), or just do web dev on the side to earn some extra money. And invest that money in your SEO efforts.

SEO does take time, especially if you're planning to do it yourself with no budget versus outsourcing some of the tasks or buying the right software.

PM me with your skype if you want to chat.

 

[somebody]

Is $4/day doing just SEO a realistic short-term goal (1-2 months) for a beginner, assuming I do things right, still make some mistakes, etc? Or is SEO the sort of thing that you'll need to do for a longass time to see any reward?

No goal is too low, you have to start somewhere.
Your goal can be easily achieved with Adsense as the sole revenue stream.

- I have tons of programming, web design, and photoshop experience

That will help you, definitely. Use Wordpress if you already know it. If not, build a plain vanilla site.

- Does the SEO version of Nickycakes guide exist?

There are many guides available online. However, considering your goal, do not read.
Use tools, and get started.

1. Find a niche where per click cost is high. Use Google Keyword Tool for this.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2. Once you decide on a niche, find some low competition long tail keywords
using the same tool. They should have enough search volume. For your goal,
look for 1000 searches per month phrase match or 500-700 searches
per month exact match.
For finding out competition strength, analyze the top 3 results and see their backlinks
and PR. Do not spend too much time on one keyword.

3. Build a site and include disclaimer, privacy, about us, terms and conditions,
contact us, etc. Make sure that there is enough interlinking between pages
(if you use Wordpress, it will take care of this).

4. Start writing content based on your keywords, as many as you can everyday.
Before writing, read this:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

5. Build links using this:
The Link Building Cookbook
(Many of the links are outdated, but it will be useful, considering your goal).
In addition to this, build links from the major social sites regularly.

6. If competition is too low, you will see results immediately. Otherwise, it will take
a while. But do not stop creating content.

Some tips:
Write about something which you love.
Sites based on products and services get high CPC for content network.
Consider setting your goal -> at least 10 * your current goal.

As is the case with me, I don't remember what I have written just now, and do not have the patience to read it again. So, if you find anything weird, apply common sense.

 

[Raiman]

I also have extensive prior experience with web design, programming, photoshop, etc, so I don't have much to learn there. What I really need is to zero in on the marketing stuff.

If you have a strong web design background and can build websites from scratch. You could probably make more money taking on freelance web design projects and then use that to money to fund your attempt at affiliate marketing.

If you have a portfolio PM me a link and I might be able to hook you up with some work.