Comments on: Pulling Back the Curtain on One of My City .com Websites

By: Elliot

Elliot — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:00:17 +0000

@ Dennis

You’re asking the wrong guy, as I don’t really have much experience with this

I was lucky in that I posted something on the city’s Facebook page I created asking if anyone knew of a person looking for additional sales work. I got one of the leading sales guys from a local cable/Internet company who wanted to earn some extra income. He will be getting commission per sale, which will be greater if the person gets the local business to pay with Paypal subscription. We haven’t hammered out the final numbers. He will be working under an independent contractor’s agreement.

I think tax treatment will be the same as a freelancer, but I let my accountant worry about everything related to taxes.

By: Adi

Adi — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:59:50 +0000

@Dennis – Great questions. I wanted to ask a similar question the other day.

By: Dennis H.

Dennis H. — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:56:51 +0000

Elliot, I would be interested in hearing more about using a local sales representative, such as 1) How to locate? 2) Qualifications/background/experience? 3) Payment range/amount/%? 4) Tax treatment by IRS? 5) Anything else you think would be useful. You could also report how it works out as time goes along. Obviously you don’t have to give out exact figures, just ballpark as you did in the article or whatever you feel comfortable with. Thanks for all the information you’ve published so far, it will probably help me and others avoid costly mistakes.

Thanks, Dennis

By: Adi

Adi — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:26:52 +0000

@ Too Many Secrets

thanks for the link. i’ll have to check it out.

i have already invested few $$$ into this project and would like to launch it anyway. i want to see if i can make any money and then move to a different area.

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:23:19 +0000

I can also vouch for WP being fine for SEO – I have several sites on WP that rank very well, in fact I think Google may even prefer to rank WP above ‘static’ sites due to the fact they are easily updatable and often contain more ‘current’ information.

@Too Many Secrets
I hadn’t heard about Kelowna.com but just found a couple of articles referencing the closure of the news dept and returning it to a tourism website. It’s a shame – I was impressed when the site was launched and was really hoping they would see success.
Do you have any links you can share about this story?

By: Elliot

Elliot — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:03:08 +0000

@ CC

It’s quite possible it got caught in the spam filter. Morgan doesn’t seem like the type of guy that wouldn’t approve comments just because they aren’t in agreement with his.

Just as an FYI, DogWalker.com is also built on WordPress, and it ranks #1 in G&Y for dog walker, #5 in G for dog walkers, #1 in Y for dog walkers, #12 in G for dog walking, and #10 in Y for dog walking. All three terms are very competitive, especially on the local level.

Since moving Lowell.com to WordPress, my most important SERP rankings have improved.

By: CC

CC — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:00:50 +0000

I commented on Morgans post about wordpress citing several personal examples that proved his post was misinforming people. Guess what he did not post my blog comment but posted many others after it that praised his findings.

I run many sites that are rarely updated on wordpress and they retain there rankings just fine.

I am not sure of the validity of his blog after I saw his selective posting of only comments that praised him.

By: Too Many Secrets

Too Many Secrets — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:49:05 +0000

@Elliot, thanks for sharing!

@Adi, picking which cities to develop and what content to use is a tricky business. I’ve written about it here:

http://toomanysecrets.com/choose-domains-development/

- Richard

PS. We can’t all be lucky enough to own PalmSprings.com – sorry guys! Geo domain development is hard work and costly to maintain. Just look at recent news about Kelowna.com and SanDiego.com

By: Fred Mercaldo

Fred Mercaldo — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:23:34 +0000

Elliot…your reference to SanDiego.com should send a message to us all…that no matter how great a domain name is, various circumstances and conditions can lead to a failure. We must constantly monitor new techniques in order to properly monetize our assets. Our partnership on Burbank.com and our results will pretty much be public knowledge by years end as to our success; we take nothing for granted and believe that this work ethic, combined with experience and focus, will make this successful.
Regarding SanDiego.com though…it is a sad story…Mark Burgess is an intelligent and enterprising person…full of enthusiasm and commitment….I know Mark well, and I am proud to be a friend of his. I believe he will thrive in the future as he learns and grows…and again…all of us should take note that we need to do 110% every day to survive and succeed.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:10:36 +0000

@ Mark

I didn’t read Morgan’s post but will go and look for it in the morning. I appreciate the comment because it’s important to test everything, and even one small thing can lead to big issues. At the moment though, I am too far deep with WP to do anything

As an aside, DogWalker.com is built on WP and does quite well ranking for its important keywords.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:07:46 +0000

@Jacob @Elliot

Thanks Jacob. I was referring to the post Morgan recently made. Please know I am just trying to learn and when I read of differing opinions I ask.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:53:36 +0000

@Mark

WordPress powers some of the most popular static content sites on the internet. The post Morgan recently made on this subject was extremely uninformed, to say the least.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:22:44 +0000

@ Mark

Not entirely sure, but that’s something I will need to monitor. There are a number of popular and robust sites using WordPress without problems.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:21:24 +0000

Hi Elliot:

Great post.

Congrats on a great site.

One question though, do you have any thoughts on the notion that Google views WordPress platform sites as blogs? This could have serious consequences on ranking a robust site like yours.

Just curious,
Mark

By: Wufuquan

Wufuquan — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:31:57 +0000

Thank you for great post.
Btw, may I know the software used for built SanDiego.com ?

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:13:38 +0000

@ Aaron

It was SEO work, getting listed on Google News, networking with local organizations…etc. The primary keyword (Lowell) seems to be very competitive.

By: aaron

aaron — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:59:44 +0000

“It took a year to get traffic above 10,000 uniques a month.”

Is the traffic growth that you’ve experienced (and that you project for the future) largely due to better search engine rankings for your core keywords?

Thanks for sharing your example.

By: David J Castello

David J Castello — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:33:39 +0000

Needless to say, you’re doing it right, Elliot.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:32:16 +0000

@ Adi

Really depends on the traffic to the site. IMO, it’s tough to get good Google rankings on a simple directory, and businesses won’t pay for listings unless you give them a compelling reason to do so (lots of traffic).

It took a year to get traffic above 10,000 uniques a month.

By: Adi

Adi — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:29:29 +0000

Elliot,

What is your view on online business directories for small towns\cities? Do you believe they can be profitable without providing any other content than business listings?

I have a good domain for a small City and they still don’t have their own Business Directory. The Yellow Pages does cover the area but I believe it would be nice for the City to have their own directory.

Thanks,
Adi