Startup with real product - Need your help please

Hi everybody,

First of all, the BHW community is amazing, I have read a lot of smart people giving great advice here, thanks!

I have a unique situation: I've launched a real home fitness DVD product with a partner. We need to rank the ecommerce site for high-competition keywords (e.g. home exercise dvd, workout dvd for women, weight loss program, etc.). I'm a total SEO beginner so I really need your help with this. Since this is NOT a churn and burn website I cannot afford to do anything that could damage the site a few weeks/month down the line, so my questions are:

1) As a startup we have little cash, but we can spend about $500 a month on this. What would be your recommendations for ranking fast in a situation like this?
2) Would you go black, grey, or white hat for a site you want to keep for years as a legit business?
3) Can you recommend any services on the marketplace here that would help us rank quickly for high-competition keywords but are safer to use?

Thank you everybody in advance! You guys are great.

long term and quick ranking should rarely if ever be used in the same sentence, esp for high competition

Thanks for your thought, I appreciate it. Ok, so let me rephrase: even if it may take longer, what is the best strategy to start out with for a real product whose website cannot be hurt. Can you recommend any services? Thank you.

Good luck with your product. Obviously you need to go white hat, as for quickly, that's another story.
check out sales threads by t0mmy, Taktical, bluematter, BassTrackerBoats they probably can give you good advice.

Thanks TJnoodles, much appreciated. Which white hat services would you recommend? Would you consider T0mmy, Taktical, bluematter, and BassTrackerBoats white hat?

I wouldn't be able to recommend a particular service, I've been on this forum for months and these guys seem to be very knowledgeable as well as ethical. They probably all use a mix of W & B as they see fit, the real trick is figuring what will work for you, since your keywords are very competitive. Check out their posts, they've all shared a lot.

Can anybody else recommend a good grey or white hat service on these forums? Looking for safe but effective solutions. Thanks you!

While I do not have much SEO experience, I do recommend adding SSL to your website as this is now a ranking factor according to Google.

It is not about just services my friend. Your keywords competition level is EXTREMELY high. Your best bet is to take that $500, buy GSA. GSA is a backlink submitter tool and has many other features as well. Then invest in PPC(adwords), only around $50-$100. This is optional but I have generated a profit from investing that small of any amount. Not with competition like yours, but you understand. Buy or download Wicked Article Creator. Purchase The Best Spinner. Go to youtube, type "The Best Spinner Tutorials". There are tutorials for GSA on their websites BHW special page. This should get started. One last thing, always try and update your content. I am not guaranteeing you will rank, but I will say you will get close if you start with this. After this, you should/could purchase a few backlink packages from the BHW Marketplace.