Need websavy advice

[jon carman]

I dont know how big of a score this is, but I just bought the domain
africancichlids.co

Is this going to help me in websearches if I make a small webpage and link it back to riftfish.com

do you see this of being of any value in the future, will .co take off or just a fad.

Main question, did I make a good buy? Africancichlids.com is for sale for $28000

[davidtcb1]

I'd think you did well. And paid what? $10 for it? I knew some guys in college that just sat around and thought of good domain names and bought them for dirt cheap if they were available. They have sold several for some pretty swell profit. If you could get the site to get high enough on google searches, I think you'd get a lot of traffic back to your existing site.

[AlanM]

I think it can be a good move for you. The person searching doesn't care what the extension is. $28k asking price probably means the .com version won't get much traffic in the near future. The more your site is hit, the more it will rise to the top of the search engines.

[jon carman]

Gotcha. I have a lot of pics in the works, just labeling sci and common name take forever.

[fishguy]

Finally something in this forum I actually know something about! I manage a web hosting and development group that hosts more than 1300 websites for financial institutions. We've got 140 websites in development right now (business is good!). I've been involved in domain purchase negotiations, and we sell search optimization searches, too.
I do think you're going to run into a lot of people that read the ".co" as ".com" and then think your site is down. That could be a bit of an issue until .co become more common. I would keep both domains and have one point to the other. (BTW, the ".co" really stands for Columbia, not "Company". It is growing in popularity due to the scarcity of decent .com names, and with help from godaddy's push for using it.)
As for getting search engine hits, Stoney is telling you like it is. The whole reason Google left the other search engines in its wake is because it looked at how many other sites actually reference a site to decide what sites are important and relevant versus the ones that play the best search engine keyword games. So the best thing you can do to get up the search engine charts is to get others to link to you. But first create a site people will get value out of coming to. Then spread the word! Forum posts will help like Stoney said. I think members of this club can help, too. I could, for example, create a new thread or add you to a retailer review thread on some of the fish forums and give you a thumbs up. Other members could chime in, too.
Join all those forums yourself and include a link in your signature page to your site, then post about your fish know-how and not your site. ( I have a link to the MCAA in my signature page in aquatic-photography.com.com, for example, to try to help promote the club). Every post you make will generate a link that the search engines will see without getting everyone on the forum PO'ed that you're just promoting yourself.
Find related businesses on-line and link to each other (like bamaplants.com maybe?). Find bloggers and ask them to check you out and write something about you. Create a facebook page and a twitter account and use them. Get people to like your page on facebook (do you have a FB page?, I will like it right now! Others members would, too, I'm sure).
When your site is built, use one of the SEO software tools to analyze your site and then make updates to help do things search engines are looking for when they crawl your site. I looked up a free one real quick to show you what I mean - www.traffictravis.com/. I haven't used this one, this is just an example of what I am talking about.
I've seen pics of your fishroom, and I would promote the hell out of that. It is so well done - it shows you are serious and not some guy with 10 tanks in his basement. Also do your photos right. Pay attention to optimizing them for the web and picking shots that really show off your setup and your fish. If your website shows care and concern for quality go into it, people will naturally feel you will have quality fish, too. And guys like me that look for any excuse to get their camera out would love to come spend some time help taking photos of your stock. Or I've got a macro lens you can borrow.
One of the great things about being a member in a club like this is that you get to meet people from different walks of life with different experiences that can maybe help you out one day. You just never know. So if I can be of any help, don't be shy about asking.

[mototech745 Mike]

I like both facebook pages and also posted. I Like it when someone teaches the teacher. I am glad someone can help Jon out because like many others he has helped me out many times. I try to get as many fish as I can from him. I am running out of room. My new plan is just flood the house and live with the fish. Jon thank you for all your help

[davidtcb1]

Great information Fishguy.

[jon carman]

I am planning on stepping my game up, I guess the time is now. Thanks for the great info. I got the .co as a 5 year plan. I was hoping to just give a brief african care description and link it back to riftfish.com. I have riftfish.com, riftvalleyexotics.com, musiccitycichlids.com, and the africancichlids.co. Should I make each of these individual pages and reference my main page, or just link them all so if you type one it will auto send you to the main domain?

If .co takes off in the future, I was planning on making that a main page someday, but until then focus on riftfish

[fishguy]

I'd suggest that rather than do a page with a link to your main site, point the domain to a page on your main site. The difference is hoping someone will make the extra click to go to your main site vs making sure they get there in the first place.
But that's just one guy's opinion. A nice thing about having so many domains is you can experiment. You could set some up each way and review your site stats to see which works more effectively to drive traffic. Definitely spend the time to regularly review your stats to see how your visitors find you and what pages they do and don't visit.
Another thought is to strive to become a recognized expert in your field. Your experience and knowledge makes you a rare commodity. And that has value. By giving away good advice as web content, you'll build extra credibility while getting additional visitors who are looking for information rather than to purchase. Eventually lots of em will come back with their wallets open.

[jon carman]

Thanks, in this market right now, I don't think I could move stuff on aquabid unless I gave the fish away and included free shipping. I have generated a few sales there, but it has never been for what I am selling. I just need to keep putting stuff on there and sending them back to my website.

I for sure need to hit cichlid-forum more. I used to be very active there before I started this forum. Then I just kind of enjoyed helping people here more. There are more than enough experts on the cichlid forum. I just need to make short one line post with my website tagged.

[fuzzylogic]

2 cents

IMO Jon I think you should definitely keep up with the aquabid auctions even if you only broke even just for the visibility. I would argue that anyone who seeks out cichlids has been to that site before. I would however suggest that you mix up the way you do the auctions. Wording, verbage, etc Yours for some reason or the few I've seen always seem to confuse me. Now I may be a little slow but I think if you just searched what was selling on the site, then offered a slightly better deal (even if its 2 to 5 bucks) with better pictures then you would do fine. I also think offering free shipping and just include it in the overall price but have free shipping in the description could work in your favor.


I love Cichlid-Forum as well and thats a great idea, but I think I would also pop in on aquariacentral.com. I know for a fact there are many cichlid lovers active there and I also know most threads talk about daves fish and aquabid. We all you you can beat both of those sites on pricing and match or exceed in quality. Aquariacentral is huge (100,000 members) and if you successfully ship to a few folks there. your name and site will spread like wildfire. I wouldn't pop in and out though. I would probably chime in on all threads cichlid related but thats just me.

[fuzzylogic]

Jan 10, 2012 8:28:46 GMT -6 @stoneyredneck said:

I would point all the domains to the same webpage as well. I don't really see any sense in spreading the hits out unless you have plans to separate these into separate entities at some point.

Agreed and I would run with riftfish.com

[jon carman]

I am working on my aquabid set up. My problem is that the way I post it vs the way it publishes is completely different. I will make the .co an informative site that will give general care instructions I don't know what to do with musiccitycichlids, I get a lot of local hits off that.

I need to quit doing impulse things and sit down and think out an overall plan. Between work, my sons school, basketball, and keeping fish tanks half way clean, I am running out time to do the marketing needed. Right now it is all word of mouth and random web hits.

[Jess Puff]

Maybe you need a marketing partner...

[jon carman]

I need to get a part time job at publix and go all in on fish. My wife wont let me.