How long does it take? The plight of a start-up...

[MonkeyBones]

I've set up a website which has been running for 3 months now, I spent a small fortune on getting it programmed and designed just the way I wanted - and now I'm suffering the start-up depression that my site isn't converting.

I tried the PPC route - it lead to a tonne of traffic with no paying conversions and a fat bill.

Now I'm trying the SEO route and have started the following:
1. Affilliate scheme - I'm setting up an in-house system that's hopefully going to drive traffic - but where do I market it?
2. SEO - we're redesigning the layout to be more dynamic and SE friendly with all the advice from this forum!
3. PR buffering - I'm purchasing advertising space on higher ranking & related sites to try and bolster my inbound links.
4. DMOZ - yup, I threw the prayer in hoping DMOZ will pick up the site...
5. Directory Submissions - while my budget allows.
Is there anything else I can do? Am I being too paranoid and expecting too much? How long does it take for a start-up to turn a penny???

Any advice would be helpfull - I've already taken loads from this forum, it's been an immense help, but now I need to know if there's anything else I could do to make that traffic come my way? (Perhaps an incantation to the Google-Gods??)

Cheers,

M.

[rctoyhouse]

Hey,

I'm in the exact same boat as you. We've launched our website about 2 1/2 months ago, and it's been a struggle to get conversion. We did PPC a few days ago, generated over 150 clicks, but not 1 single conversion.

I'm going to try to do an intense link exchange/ manual directory submission, and hopefully that will boost our popularity ranking.

[incrediblehelp]

Have you guys thought about hiring a marketing expert?

[MikeinFlorida]

Hi MonkeyBones: I like your attitude but me thinks that you are a young one! It takes a while on the web to get going even if you do everything right. And man has Incredible got it right above! Think about hiring a marketing expert! SEO is the cornerstone of this industry and learning it yourself or hiring someone else to do it for you at a high rate because the best cost will take your site a long way.

The failure rate is incredibly high in this industry but you seem to have the "positive" attitude to make things happen. After just 3 months -- well that's just a good little start. Even with the right seo it will take a long while to really get the search engines to get picking your site up in mass and then after that it takes most a while longer to see conversions. There really aren't too many fast starters in this bizz. Just a lot of very competitive people who are all trying to do the same thing at once-- grab the highest rankings and make their site stand out to be a success. Good luck to you! And by the way-- what's your site?

[MonkeyBones]

Hi MonkeyBones: I like your attitude but me thinks that you are a young one! It takes a while on the web to get going even if you do everything right. And man has Incredible got it right above! Think about hiring a marketing expert! SEO is the cornerstone of this industry and learning it yourself or hiring someone else to do it for you at a high rate because the best cost will take your site a long way....

Hi Mike - the site is Eurofreelancer.com (http://www.eurofreelancer.com), It's going through an overhaul next week to get some new functions on the site and some much needed SEO updates.

Maybe you're right - I should hire a marketing expert to handle the marketing of the site, so here's the next question:
1. Whom should I be looking at?
2. What kind of prices should I be expecting?
Anybody had good experiences or want to recommend a good firm/expert?

Thanks guys,

M

[incrediblehelp]

MonkeyBones please post your question in this section and you might get a better response:

Freelance Work Needed/For Hire (http://www.webproworld.com/viewforum.php?f=52)

[lamico]

Monkeybones, your site doesn't appear to have basic optimization such as descriptive title tags, page descriptions, keywords.

Your incoming links and page rank are good for a newbie.
http://www.eurofreelancer.com
Current Rankings:
PageRank: 3/10
Alexa Rank: 832,307

Incoming Google Links: 694
Incoming Yahoo Links: 1,160
Incoming MSN Links: 531
Incoming Alexa Links: 0
Overall Incoming Links: 2,385

But your page description is a mess:
Title: Eurofreelancer
Description: home Contact Us About Us choose language Buyers Freelancers FAQ Top Ranked Users Browse Projects Username: Password: Register What is Custom Web Design Programming Are you looking for Custom Web Design or Custom Programming With...

You need help targeting your audience and defining your site.

Lou Amico
Marketing and Communications that Make Sense (http://www.lamanagementco.com)