Please let me whine for a minute...

[marlene_s]

[karenh]

[marlene_s]

[Baggs]

[Lynn Terry]

I agree with Kayla, the site is very nice!

I assume you are optimizing for the phrase "work at home" or "work at home jobs"? I imagine those would be extremely competitive. Have you considered alternate phrases, such as:

work at home opportunities
free work at home jobs
legitimate work at home
work from home
work from home jobs
work at home part time
online jobs
telecommuting jobs
freelance writing jobs
freelance jobs

There are others... but that might spark some ideas. Some of them get less searches - some of them might be as competitive as the search terms you are currently working with - but its worth doing a bit of research to see if you can obtain a top ten, or even a top five, listing for another phrase... which would be much more beneficial than being on the 17th page for a phrase that receives a hundred more searches/day (for example)...

Tip > Make the description in your Signature here at the forum so that it is clickable text Using your keywords in your backward links (links to your site from other web pages) will increase your Link Reputation!

[flensborg]

Hi Marlene,

Keep up the spirit - I too almost quit my Growth Focus website when I began looking around and found tons of nicely designed websites covering similar topics as my site.

I didn't quit, and I'm glad I put aside those temporary thoughts about not being able to compete with 'the big guys'.

Currently the only page I can see in Google is your homepage, so when your other pages are included in the index you should get more traffic.

[copybybryan]

[Lynn Terry]

[ChristyK]

[marlene_s]

Oh my goodness everyone...Thank you so very much for the vote of confidence and kind words. I appreciate it more than y'all will ever know!

Lynn, I will definitely start working on those keywords - I was so anxious just to get everything up and running that I haven't really been paying as much attention to SEO as I should. The bulk of my traffic is coming from Google and Overture (my husband gave me $200 for PPC campaign money as a birthday present!)

Thanks again, and I'll keep you posted!

~Marlene~

[mommy_cafe]

Hi Marlene,

I just finished looking at your website and WOW! What an amazing site! It's so well organized and the job postings you have on there are great..ones I haven't seen on other boards.

I'm getting ready to launch my web site The Mommy Cafe and I'll be having a work from home resource section. If you are interested I would LOVE to have a link on my site to yours for my visitors.

If you're at all intersted please send me an email!

Take care and keep up the great work..it'll start paying off soon

Cindy

[Rose]

Bryan, I also have 2 baby web sites and between the 2 of them they MIGHT make $50 - $150 per month and they have been online for several months now (coming up on a year this summer).

I think the reason that sales are so low is that it's very easy for people to walk into a store to get baby products. They're products that are readily available anywhere.

People searching online for baby stuff are most likely looking for free articles and advice, and ideas on decorating a baby's room, rather than actually buying online.

What I've finally come to the conclusion about is that the key to making money on the Internet is to promote things that aren't readily available at a local store. And if using affiliate programs, you need to find ones that pay out a decent sum - at least $15 - $20 or more for each sale.

[copybybryan]

[Rose]

Bryan,

You could try salvaging it. Find something uniquely related to babies that you can't just buy in a store or that wouldn't be carried by many stores, but could be a good niche product for online buyers. Forget what "Wal-Mart" sells. Look for high-end, quality products that Wal-Mart just wouldn't normally carry.

OR just concentrate on one of your categories, for example Baby Bedding:

Designer Baby Bedding
Disney Baby Bedding
Custom Baby Bedding

OR another idea could be Baby Carriers:

Bjorn Baby Carriers
Baby Sling Carriers
Backpack Baby Carriers

I think I just sparked some ideas to salvage my own sites

For example, I sell an ebook on my wedding site that gives couples ideas on how to have a Medieval wedding. It's not something you can just walk into a bridal boutique and pick up. There's only one other book on the market (through amazon and her personal site) that sells this type of book (both in print and ebook format). So it's a niche I grabbed. Now, sales are okay and my wedding site as a whole pulls in a decent amount finally, however Medieval weddings isn't a "large" niche either.

I think the key to it all is to build several "niche" sites so that you always have income coming in from somewhere. Basically, 10 sites that make $100/month each = $1000. Of course, I expect a site to bring in more than that per month, but it's an example. However, you have to make those sites automated, so that you aren't spending hours and hours dealing with it either. Being chained to your computer isn't considered "freedom", which is why people work from home in the first place

Anyway, I hope this sparks some ideas on what you could do with the site. Lord knows, I've redesigned a few of my sites a few times already.

[flensborg]