I balance the two. SEO is more of a long term strategy for me, PPC a short term… among other marketing strategies like JVs (although I have seriously cut back on them).
Sometimes PPC is actually a good way to get traffic until the Search Engine traffic does finally barrel in…
AND you don’t always have to wait 3 months. With the proper niche research and some luck, you can draw traffic in days… Once your site is crawled regularly, you can put a page up and be indexed within a day.
I don’t think SEO is a waste of time unless you don’t plan on being in this game for a long time. I plan on being here in 5-10 years. So I’ll be patient.
SEO is a tough game no matter how you look at it. You can be at the top of the SERPs one month and drop out the next… I’ve seen people who have held number one positions for years and suddenly disappear all together.
It’s a dangerous thing having 100% of your efforts in one area and depending on one form of advertising… diversification is a good thing.
SEO and PPC aren’t even the only way to market online… some people do neither and make a ton of money.
Really… There is no predicting Search Engine’s… they will always mess with your head. Sandbox or no sandbox. The algos always changing… Their index is updated frequently. Google’s PR is always in flux…
After the last major update there was a lot of talk if there is even a randomization factor involved now… maybe even certain industries being treated differently… Outbound links becoming a factor also.
What I experienced could have easily been something I did… It’s the closest thing to a Sandbox I’ve had. One day I have 50 keywords ranked high the next day they disappear. 2 months later I see visitors from those keywords back in my logs and sure enough they came back…
SEO has changed a lot since the beginning of last year. It is not as predictable as it once was. A webmaster would be a fool to rely on Google for 100% of their revenue. I’ve seen it happen… huge revenue generating websites dropping out of the SERPs completely… what a rush that has to be!
LET ME be honest. Like I said. The sandbox could have been something I did or some random shift in the index… who knows… I can’t explain it so I call it a sandbox… but I’m always tweaking my sites… and most importantly:
I’m always trying to get new one way links pointing to my sites. Either by means of article submissions, directory submissions, social bookmarking, blog comments, article/content submission to sites like Digg.com and lots of other things… Links are still an important factor in your rankings.
Some new webmasters think if they follow the book they should find themselves at the top of the SERPs… when they don’t, they automatically call it a “sandbox” if they can’t figure it out…
Reality is… it might be that there are 10,000 websites that were there first with more inbound links and experience. You have to earn your spot…
Bottom line. Sandbox seems to occur, but it will only occur for crowded markets… you need to work much harder than in a niche market with no competition… If there is no competition and your site is relevant, it will certainly rank well… That’s why keyword selection is so important. Choose the wrong keywords and you will get ranked nowhere, choose the right keywords and you’ll find your site on top of the SERPs a few weeks later…
Until recently, if a new IM eBook came out, and I placed it on my website… you simply had to do a search for the title and there I had been… but I am not focusing on ebooks and courses anymore. I want to help you to get your first websites up and running – that’s where I personally find more satisfaction in.
I’ve been on page one or two for e.g. the phrase “Automated Cash Formula” ever since I placed a review on my site about it (5 months ago…)… It was instant because my site is being crawled daily and in the beginning, there was hardly any competition for that phrase…
PPC? Sound familiar…
SEO? (Search Engine Optimization) not to discourage…
It’s not my intention to discourage anyone from practicing SEO – I probably made it sound very difficult. It’s not as long as you’re staying away from the hyper competitive niches. Choose a niche in which your site could really help other people and where not all the SEOs (Search Engine Optimizers) hang out and you’ll rank well quickly because other people will be linking to your great content.
SEO is certainly an incredible way to get free traffic – and lots of it. Any free traffic is good traffic…
I make money with the traffic. Absolutely… it’s interesting to see a commission show up for something odd… then look at your logs and see someone had landed on a page you weren’t promoting with anything.
… Someone just did a search on Google.
You just have to be smart and spread your risk by using other traffic generation strategies as well… just in case your SEO efforts are NOT paying off.
I am a fan of SEO, probably because like you, i am in for the long haul.
SEO is not difficult, it is just time and effort intensive.
The other thing to point out about SEO is it is and has to be an ongoing process. You don’t do some SEO and then you are done. It is something that you need to maintain with continual activity.
Comparing SEO to PPC.
PPC is great in that it gets you immediate traffic. But you have to pay for every click that you get
But SEO is king for recurrect effects. If you get a number one spot, that spot works for you over and over and over again
Webmaster
On Page Search Engine Optimization
For me, if you really want to boost your quality traffic and sales, go for the ppc it really consumes your time than doing some seo stuffs. But still optimizing one’s website is the best way because once you do the efforts to the last, you will never worry about traffic once you ranked your site through search engines.