Creating a new website - any pointers?

I am planning a new website/blog, i am going to base it on the same niche as my main site - but I am specialising in a particular area within that niche.

The reason being that I want a sub site that I can link to my main site from, and also as I want to try some of the things I have learned here, and also some of the services offered

So far a have just ordered domain, I think I am going to use wordpress as that seems to be what alot of people use here (my main site runs on cmsms).
I am going to write a few articles and prob also pay for some articles (if anyone can recommend a good service please do!).
I am going to run the site from another host so it's not on the same ip as my main site - is that a good idea?

Anyway, that's as far as iv got so far, I just wondered if anyone would offer any pointers so I don't go down the wrong route - id like to know the mains things I should do, things I should watch out for, good services to use for a new domain - for article writing and for link building/promotion. And anything else - basically my goal is a successful site and some traffic and or pr that I can send to my main site!! Also might run adsense on there.

Im not looking for a quick buck as such, just something new to work on.

Seriously? No one has any advice?

What do you possibly want us to tell you that isn't on this forum?

Well, just thought people might know some stuff that I dont, I am an avid reader (and poster) on this forum, but it is a forum, which means rather than just being a read-only interface, its a place for discussion, as such I thought I would let people know what Im planning to do (inspired purely by this forum) and I thought people might have some tips - I dont want to be spoon fed by any means, I have my own idea and I am happy to get stuck in - there are a few services I have seen that I want to try out.

I just thought like how many posts/articles I need to get started, how many links I should build/purchase and how quickly - should I let the site ages a bit first - dont want a walkthrough, I just dont want to make a stupid mistake, then post back here when Im in trouble and for someone to say, well you really shouldnt have done that...

davids355 said:

Well, just thought people might know some stuff that I dont, I am an avid reader (and poster) on this forum, but it is a forum, which means rather than just being a read-only interface, its a place for discussion, as such I thought I would let people know what Im planning to do (inspired purely by this forum) and I thought people might have some tips - I dont want to be spoon fed by any means, I have my own idea and I am happy to get stuck in - there are a few services I have seen that I want to try out.

I just thought like how many posts/articles I need to get started, how many links I should build/purchase and how quickly - should I let the site ages a bit first - dont want a walkthrough, I just dont want to make a stupid mistake, then post back here when Im in trouble and for someone to say, well you really shouldnt have done that...

Click to expand...

Just build links consistently everyday. Theres no real # to how many to build a day. You can start building it as soon as you register the domain name.

Either way, you learn from your mistakes. You need to do it first and test out anything your trying since everyone will have mixed results

Thanks, I am used to manual link building - have done that on my main site (Was PR5 but down to PR4 since update ), but I notice that alot of the services offer here are for like thousands of links, I just wondered if I build links on that scale whether it would look suspicious to G if the domain is only say 1 week old and it suddenly has thousands of links?

Also article service was one of the major things - As I said I have a subject area and I think I can come up with a list of topics to cover, but wondering if I could outsource the articles - FYI the site is in the tech/investing genre.

The reason being that I want a sub site that I can link to my main site from

Click to expand...

If the main reason you are making a subsite is to get a backlink to your main site... well, that just is not an efficient use of your time.
There are better ways to get more valuable backlinks. Also, even with your new site on a different IP, most likely it's registered using the same owner info?
So the backlink you would get from this isn't likely to carry tons of weight anyway (interlinking between your own sites is noted and mostly discarded by G's algo).

On the other hand, if your goal is (and it should be) to get a second site in the top ten for a particular term, then you need to do what you would for any site.
Try to make the second site not built the same way as the first (using a different CMS, like you said you would, is a great idea, and for this purpose a different IP is also a good idea). Offer a different type of information on the same topic. A different perspective: pointed to a different target audience, or information that is more personal opinion (this would be suitable for a blog)

Get your on-site SEO in order, and then start the backlinking...
Use a method that mixes a lot of different link types...

For do-it-yourself backlinking I like this thread:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...lueprint-senuke-amr-bmd-xrumer-scrapebox.html

Or purchase a package of mixed services from this site, for full service backlinking I like these:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...ch-engine-optimization-coupons-available.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...some-search-engine-optimization-packages.html

The most important things in backlinking these days is:
consistancy - keep the links coming on a regular basis
variety - try not to let any 1 kind of link be more than 25% of your backlinks

For anything more specific than this, I would have to know something about how difficult the niche is, and what sorts of sites you are competing with...

best of luck

wondering if I could outsource the articles

Click to expand...

... of course you can outsource the writing!
just make sure that you are getting 100% original writing and nothing spun

Thanks alot agente - just what I was after!
It is to further my main site, but you make a good point and yes I do want to make another successful site! To be honest, the main reason is that I want to try out some stuff I have learned here, but I don't want to do it on my main site because I dOnt know what I'm doing and I don't want to mess it up!

Also, getting bored at mo and need a new project!!

Actually I think my two accounts are registered in different names and addresses - main site registered to my dads company and secondary site registered to me personally.

Thanks for the rest of your advice as well, I think I'm ok with the Seo - normally I make sure all coding is valid and neat (I know people say that doesn't matter), make sure everything is in the right order - h1, h2, etc, use title, meta, alt tags etc. Anything else?
Then il create sitemap, submit to google for indexing etc.

I will read through the posts you have flagged up.

I am sticking with wordpress as you suggested - file structure all uploaded ready, just waiting for the domain to go live.

As for your questions, main site is in investing sector, sub site is going to be investing in technology - it's going to delve into current technological buzz areas (like cloud computing for example) and highlight good investments within those areas.

I would really like to get into keyword research and trying to target some niche areas (have had a little go of Market Samuri which looks really cool), but will get to that gradually as I think that's a big area to learn about.

As for outsourcing, would you recommend any services? Am I likely to find any providers that specialise in my area?

Once again thanks for the tips - really appreciate it.

Hi,
I had written you a long elaborate post the other day and then my internet connect went down just before I sent it, and I lost it...

So, let'e see...

It looks like you are on the righttrack really anyway.
Neat coding does count.
Google used to use ratio of code to content as a ranking factor. I am not sure they do that anymore (at least, it's not as important as it once was), but I think the idea that the code should be neat is a lasting lesson. And of course, page speed does count these days.

The writing is going to be a bit more difficult for you, given that your topic is pretty technical and you have to be more careful about giving out bad advice when you are in the finance sector (it's not like you are recommending which pirate costume someone should buy )
You should probably stick with better quality freelancers, I would try odesk for a writing with experience in finance topics. Otherwise, college students may be a good option for you, if you live near a college (one with a degree in finance or similar).

For the keyword research, semrush is my current fav. I used to love market samurai, but I can barely get it to run anymore I use MNF also, and it's fine, but mostly I use a combo of semrush, keywordspy, spyfu and seoquake+Google Global extension in Chrome.

Best of luck!

Picking up on the idea of using college students. I've had some luck getting MBA students to do projects for me for my business as part of their class.

I'm wondering if you might apply the same principle to content for your web site?

It cost me next to nothing ~$100 and I got this 42 page market research project. You may have to rewrite some of the content but much of the grunt work would be done for you.

Just a thought if you live near a college.

Agente808 I've done that so many times! Every time I write a long post now, select all, copy (just in case)

Thanks for the tips, this is a joint project with my dad and he is in finance sector so we can write the content - but it's still hard work which is why we want to hire it out.

Student idea sounds excellent I am going to look into that.