Newbie (another i know!) introducing myself and looking for pointers/advice etc?

[rgh]

Hello everyone! I am going to apologise in advance as this is more than likely going to be a long post but stick with it if you can!

Thought i would come on here and introduce myself after finally joining as a member today! I have been lurking in the shadows (as a guest) for quite some time now as i have been picking lots of information up from you guys and also getting a feel for the trade which i am about to venture into in the very near future.

So, my story.... i bought a domain last year and was reasonably happy with it and was going to proceed with my ambition, but had an absolute hectic year including the birth of a new child, a house sale, a long and extremely complicated purchase of another house and the subsequent extensive renovation that it needed, this is while studying a degree in engineering that i am completing at present, oh and a full time job on top of all that!! So i put it all the plans on the backburner while i completed the above and now, thankfully i am in a position where i have a lot more time on my hands.

Why am i here then? well hopefully to gain some invaluable advice, to make good contacts in the industry (hopefully!) to work with and share ideas and experiences with other members, and most of all to try and hit the ground running! Im sure there sharks out there too, so i want to avoid any pitfalls and do things very much by the book as i am a decent person and intend to stay that way.

I have since bought a new dot co dot uk domain, which i like, and was also very surprised to get if im honest as it is one character away from the top ranking 'free bets' name on google, but you guys will find out in due course(dont know whether i should post it here or not?? should i?) . It is not active yet as it is in the process of being transferred from my current registrar to my hosting company and i am experimenting with new themes and i am happy with a particular one i have and work will start in the next week with adding content which i have pre written and saved on my computer.

Please bear in mind, i am brand new to this industry and have zero experience with websites etc, everything thus far that i have learned with regards to building websites is self taught and i am pretty much learning as i go along and most importantly know that i have much to learn and im open to any criticism/ feedback that you can advise or offer to me. I know very little with regard to SEO etc too at present.

So, as i am starting out if anyone could advise me of ANYTHING i should do/ avoid i would very much appreciate your comments.

Im not some faceless person and if anyone wants to add or speak to me at any time i have social media and im happy to speak to anyone on here.

Also i work weird shifts so if i dont respond ASAP i will endeavor to respond as and when is possible.

Thanks for reading this far if you have and look forward to working with you in the future

[chaumi]

I'd say the first thing (among many first things) is - make sure that you have a passion, or at least a deep interest, in the subject area(s) of the site.

It will take a lot of personal effort (unless you're paying someone to do it all or parts of it for you)...and most likely you won't see a fast financial return, so you'll need to keep at it and keep the focus even if it doesn't get short term results (and I mean even in terms of just getting visitors rather than actually making money).

Many of us will have had the experience of hitting on what seemed like a good idea, starting it off, and finding the drive (the actual interest in the subject) just wasn't strong enough to help keep the focus.

Beyond that, there is a ton of stuff to know, learn, or work on.

To go deeper, yes it will probably help any potential posters to have an appreciation of what you're targeting, and you may get more specific suggestions.

It won't do any harm to mention the name of the site here if you want (just don't hyperlink it, although you prob wouldn't be able to do that anyway with a low post count) - alternatively when you have a few pages up and running you can start a new thread asking for comments on how it's looking.

[edgarf76]

welcome to the forum, chamu is correct about passion. The best advice I think is to read through the sections like the seo section, social media. You will get a good idea about each topic and also see different opinions and facts. Research is a much in Internet marketing, when I first started I was working full time at another job. I read, and built my sites on breaks, and when I got home from work I went to work on my sites. Strategic persistence is key!

[DanHorvat]

More likely than not, through this process you'll find out exactly what's wrong with you and what is preventing you from striking rich. This thing is hard. Don't take it lightly or you'll be wasting your time.

If you want specific advice on any technical stuff you can always PM me.

[MichaelCorfman]

rgh,

Welcome to the GPWA. Since you indicate your location is England, I'd suggest that participating in the London Affiliate Conference would make a lot of sense. It takes place in London, from Saturday afternoon, 31 January 2015 to Monday, 2 February 2015. It's free to attend, so even if you can only come for part of the conference (say the weekend) I'd recommend it. Our page about the event is here:

www.gamingmeets.com/event/london-affiliate-conference-lac-2015/.

This is the largest iGaming affiliate conference in the world, and while there are other affiliate conferences, all the others will be much further away for you. If you do attend the conference, be sure to stop by the GPWA booth and say hello.

Michael

[rgh]

Thanks for your replies. Chaumi and edgar, i agree with what you say, i know there is a lot to learn and the only way i can do it is by giving it a go i guess. I know that its highly unlikely that this is a get rich quick scheme unless you have something absolutely unique and i do have some good ideas going forward but need to get my head around the basics first. There is no doubt in my mind that some of you guys here will possibly know more now than what i will ever know about this industry,so its good to be in a place where people can give valued opinions.

DanHorvat thanks for the advice and very kind of you to say i can drop a PM too, what do you specialise in if you dont mind me asking?

Michael, thanks for the invite and i have seen the conference is on and i would love to go....but firstly (here comes the excuse book again ) i live in the far north of england,a long way from london unfortunately. More importantly if i am honest, i genuinely feel that i would be waaaaay out of my depth! Im not saying that i dont want to go-quite the opposite in fact, rather that i think my head would be spinning and i would be out of my comfort zone. I have no doubt i would pick up some great contacts but i genuinely feel i have to get at least this first website off the ground before attending a conference to do with this industry, i would feel a bit of a fraudster by attending this years! haha. That said, this time next year i will be most definitely up for it.....if the invites still stands!

[Gamer]

Welcome rgh!
Hope you enjoy being member of this unique and crazy community.

"...including the birth of a new child, a house sale..."
That's too much as for one year! How you can stand such hectic life!
Don't go for a second child! Take some break and do some care about your domain, please.

[sweetbet]

Welcome to GPWA. You've certainly come to the right place to learn as much as you can, and to see what it takes to succeed in this tough business. There are plenty of knowledgeable and experienced people here who are happy to give you advice, but the best advice that I can give you for now is to browse through the threads here and learn as much as you can about this industry.

[chaumi]

Some more stuff that might help...

Go to quicksprout dot com

Ignore the landing page, click on 'blog' top left

Scroll down a few inches past the photo of the owner/author Neil Patel till you get to the section titled 'guides'. Read them all if you can find the time. They will all come in useful at some point, and it would do no harm to read them all up front before you do anything else.

You'll find this info in different guises in many places, some of it better elsewhere, some slightly different. But these guides are (IMO) some of the easiest to follow, logically presented, and detailed that are available.

Building a (successful) site is not just about 'building a site'.

It's about knowing your subject, showing you know your subject through your site, writing about it in an accurate, readable, and informative way, presenting your subject in a way that satisfies the needs of any visitors, maybe presenting it in a clever way that no one else is doing, knowing who your visitors are or might be, understanding what makes them want to read a page or click on an offer, knowing how to present an offer/presenting offers in a way that entices them to click...etc etc etc etc etc.

The guides will help you on the path to developing something that meets those requirements. You'll find similar info elsewhere, some better, some much worse, some actually misleading, some with different viewpoints. But this stuff is (IMO) some of the most easy to follow - but detailed - info you'll find all in one place.


A caution...if you go into this and build a site/page or pages like hundreds of other ' latest free bets offers'... you'll most likely find it very hard to make any headway against competitors who have a long head start (and a number of them will be on this forum). Not impossible, but hard. At the very least you'll need to do it equally as well as the competition, ideally better than the competition, or maybe differently than the competition. Alternatively you'll need to be able to leverage traffic sources in a way that others don't, or carve out your own piece of the pie cleverly.

None of this last paragraph is intended to put you off - but better to be prepared with knowledge about the effort it will take, and where you might be wanting to look for aspects that others may not have picked up on yet or where there is better potential to get in and take your cut.

[marise]

I wish you all the luck with becoming successful! Work hard, take it serious, and your results will be serious too.

[rgh]

Thanks guys! I actually posted a thanks individually to the first few people who replied last night and it said my post was pending and needed approval? so just trying again with a short one before i post (another!) long post.

[marise]

Maybe you posted them too fast after each other and the site may have put them to the moderators? In any case, thank you for telling. Hopefully we'll see your answers too.