Several Questions for the Group

I have several questions for the group.

I started a web site several months ago that pushes an affiliate
program involving driving. Since then my son turned 15 and wants to
drive. I have decided to write down all of the driving advice I can
think of and give it to him and put it up for free on my web site
hoping to attract other drivers and parents looking at the advice and
then possibly clicking through to the affiliate program.

The first question is should I keep the site as a driving school
affiliate site that offers driving tips and advice, or should I change
the site emphasis to be offering free driving advice with appropriate
plugs for the affiliate program?

By the way I know I can code it such that I can offer the same
material in both formats, but I don't always have the time to spend on
this. So I am looking for what will get me the most traffic.

Second "By the way", I know lots of traffic does not necessary convert
into lots of sales. A limited amount of buyers who buy can be better
than thousands of web visitors who don't. But I think I would be
better with lots of traffic.

Third "By the way", a friend of my son was killed in a completely
avoidable one car accident. So while I am interested in making money
from my site, I am just as interested in seriously promoting safe
driving. My goal for the site is to help kids and adults drive
better, and hopefully I can make some money at it. So I think lots of
traffic would accomplish this.

Regardless of the answer to question one, how do search engines, and I
guess the real questions is, how does Google, handle many topics on a
site? Or more specifically if my site emphasizes a driving program
and I offer free driving advice, or vice versa, does Google adjust
appropriately for smaller sites?

I know mega sites like About.com get listed well, but will Goggle do
the same for my site? Will it look at individual pages on small sites
or does it look at the site as a whole?

Third question, how do I handle multiple search words for the same
topic? For example these words all describe my affiliate school
subject: driving school, traffic school, ticket reduction, and so on.
How do you recommend approaching the problem of synonyms? Should I do
a page for each term, or pack them all on one page.

Same question for states. Since each state's laws are different,
there are different courses for each state with multiple terms for
each course. Do I need a page per state for each term, for example
Texas & alcohol and drug abuse, Texas DUI, Texas driving while
intoxicated, and the same for Florida, California, Virginia, etc?

For the fourth and final question: after reading this news group,
which by the way has given some great advice so thank you to all
posters, I would guess that Google penalizes a site or does not rank
pages well for having too many outgoing text links to other sites on
the same page. Yet when I do Google searches, I often find in the
first 100 returned pages web sites that are predominately made up of
links to other sites.

For example I was searching on camping the other day, and many of the
return pages in the first 100 were lists of campgrounds with links to
all of the campgrounds on the page. Similarly I have conducted other
searches with the same results. So this seems to refute the commonly
held notion that many links on a page is not the way to go.

My question is if my goal is more traffic to my site by people
searching on automotive terms, should I include page after page of
things like,

1. list of automotive sites

2. list of auto financing companies

3. list of auto safety sites

4. state and local web sites for DMV's

5. list of repair facilities in major towns, (not one I am looking
forward to doing as this could go on forever)

6. list of auto clubs

7. list of just about anything auto related?

Now I know content, content, content is the mantra, and I intend to
produce this. But you can not imagine how many times I have searched
on a subject like "George Washington" for my kids homework, only to
receive a page from Google that lists bridges in the NYC area, George
Washington Bridge being one of them, higher than a web site on George
Washington the father of the country.

So I wonder if sprinkling my site with lists of automotive related
topics might not also get my site listed higher in search results.

Thanks for any advice.

Al Frick
www.discountdrivingschool.com

I would suggest that you look at your site from a different angle.
Maybe look at it from the customer's point of view. If you optimize
your site for an ever changing search engine market, and customers get
there and your site is not useful, you have basically wasted a lot of
time and energy for nothing. However, if you take the reverse angle
and make your site customer friendly, you get visitors telling other
individuals about your site, other sites will want to link to you, and
lots of return visitors.

Unfortunately, there is really no short-cuts to long-term success in
this business, it takes a lot of thought, hard work, and a lot of
luck.


Kim Lauren
KaZaZZ! Search Engine
www.kazazz.com


AFrick <bscinc3000 (AT) Yahoo_NoSpam (DOT) com> wrote

I have several questions for the group.

I started a web site several months ago that pushes an affiliate
program involving driving. Since then my son turned 15 and wants to
drive. I have decided to write down all of the driving advice I can
think of and give it to him and put it up for free on my web site
hoping to attract other drivers and parents looking at the advice and
then possibly clicking through to the affiliate program.

The first question is should I keep the site as a driving school
affiliate site that offers driving tips and advice, or should I change
the site emphasis to be offering free driving advice with appropriate
plugs for the affiliate program?

By the way I know I can code it such that I can offer the same
material in both formats, but I don't always have the time to spend on
this. So I am looking for what will get me the most traffic.

Second "By the way", I know lots of traffic does not necessary convert
into lots of sales. A limited amount of buyers who buy can be better
than thousands of web visitors who don't. But I think I would be
better with lots of traffic.

Third "By the way", a friend of my son was killed in a completely
avoidable one car accident. So while I am interested in making money
from my site, I am just as interested in seriously promoting safe
driving. My goal for the site is to help kids and adults drive
better, and hopefully I can make some money at it. So I think lots of
traffic would accomplish this.

Regardless of the answer to question one, how do search engines, and I
guess the real questions is, how does Google, handle many topics on a
site? Or more specifically if my site emphasizes a driving program
and I offer free driving advice, or vice versa, does Google adjust
appropriately for smaller sites?

I know mega sites like About.com get listed well, but will Goggle do
the same for my site? Will it look at individual pages on small sites
or does it look at the site as a whole?

Third question, how do I handle multiple search words for the same
topic? For example these words all describe my affiliate school
subject: driving school, traffic school, ticket reduction, and so on.
How do you recommend approaching the problem of synonyms? Should I do
a page for each term, or pack them all on one page.

Same question for states. Since each state's laws are different,
there are different courses for each state with multiple terms for
each course. Do I need a page per state for each term, for example
Texas & alcohol and drug abuse, Texas DUI, Texas driving while
intoxicated, and the same for Florida, California, Virginia, etc?

For the fourth and final question: after reading this news group,
which by the way has given some great advice so thank you to all
posters, I would guess that Google penalizes a site or does not rank
pages well for having too many outgoing text links to other sites on
the same page. Yet when I do Google searches, I often find in the
first 100 returned pages web sites that are predominately made up of
links to other sites.

For example I was searching on camping the other day, and many of the
return pages in the first 100 were lists of campgrounds with links to
all of the campgrounds on the page. Similarly I have conducted other
searches with the same results. So this seems to refute the commonly
held notion that many links on a page is not the way to go.

My question is if my goal is more traffic to my site by people
searching on automotive terms, should I include page after page of
things like,

1. list of automotive sites

2. list of auto financing companies

3. list of auto safety sites

4. state and local web sites for DMV's

5. list of repair facilities in major towns, (not one I am looking
forward to doing as this could go on forever)

6. list of auto clubs

7. list of just about anything auto related?

Now I know content, content, content is the mantra, and I intend to
produce this. But you can not imagine how many times I have searched
on a subject like "George Washington" for my kids homework, only to
receive a page from Google that lists bridges in the NYC area, George
Washington Bridge being one of them, higher than a web site on George
Washington the father of the country.

So I wonder if sprinkling my site with lists of automotive related
topics might not also get my site listed higher in search results.

Thanks for any advice.

Al Frick
www.discountdrivingschool.com

Thank you for your post, but your advice, as good as it is, does not
answer my questions.

Since this is a web site on search engines, I am looking for advice on
making choices. If I do something one way, does that help me or hurt
me in the se placement?

Your advice is always true of any web regardless of what a search
engine does.

Thanks again for posting.

Al

"AFrick" <bscinc3000 (AT) Yahoo_NoSpam (DOT) com> wrote

Thank you for your post, but your advice, as good as it is, does not
answer my questions.

Since this is a web site on search engines, I am looking for advice on
making choices. If I do something one way, does that help me or hurt
me in the se placement?

If you think that this is a web site you have an awful lot to learn
before you can get any advantage from anything you might learn here.

--
"The best proof of intelligent life in space is that it hasn't come
here."
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Imenat to say:

Since this is a newsgroup on "search engines"

Sorry for the error.

Al
www.discountdrivingschool.com

"Richard H Huelin" <allspamreported (AT) planefacts (DOT) co.uk> wrote

"AFrick" <bscinc3000 (AT) Yahoo_NoSpam (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:v8s42010e00884jtoj13huv3lf6fb2jlre (AT) 4ax (DOT) com...
Thank you for your post, but your advice, as good as it is, does not
answer my questions.

Since this is a web site on search engines, I am looking for advice on
making choices. If I do something one way, does that help me or hurt
me in the se placement?

If you think that this is a web site you have an awful lot to learn
before you can get any advantage from anything you might learn here.

--
"The best proof of intelligent life in space is that it hasn't come
here."
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Richard,

That was a bit rude and short. Since this is a "helpful" NG, why don't you
share with him some of the things you thought were at issue...and perhaps
how you would change it...some examples of your work perhaps.

Constructive criticism is good and desired here...snipes are not.

--
James Taylor
http://www.AICompany.com
http://www.SEO-highrankings.com

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 19:00:56 GMT, AFrick <bscinc3000 (AT) Yahoo_NoSpam (DOT) com>
wrote:

Imenat to say:

Since this is a newsgroup on "search engines"

Sorry for the error.

Al
www.discountdrivingschool.com

Evidently I can't type either.