erikbrodch

Backlinks have meaning but it defiantly isn't the only factor these days. In fact, I have pages on Google's top 10 that don't have a single backlinks. Here are a few things that matter:

1. How competitive is the keyword you are after. If you are targeting "long-tail" keywords - you should rank faster.

E-A-T:

2. The writer's Expertise in the domain (i.e. an MD will have better chances to rank in relevant medical search queries.

3. Authoritativeness is about the writers and the website’s reputations. If the writer and/or website have good reputations and have backlinks from relevant high-quality websites, they have authority.

4. The writer's and website's Trustworthiness - We trust the things we see. If there is no about page or no information about the writer, they are less trustworthy. If the content itself doesn’t include links to relevant sources, we tend not to trust it.

You can read more about E-A-T here - https://www.spectroomz.com/seo-eat-checker

5. User intent - does your article answer users' real intent? Type a certain search query on Google and see that the results are different than the exact keyword you entered. They have additions. These additions in the results are users real intent. Google knows where users who entered search query X ended their search and return those results eventually, even if they include additional keywords and are different from your original query.

6. Does your article have relevant outgoing links? Do you link to reliable sources?

7. Are the backlinks you get from reliable RELEVANT websites?

8. Is your content long-form or short form?

9. How people interact with your page - do they end the search there (great) or move to other sites? What's your bounce rate like? How is your CTR?

10. Is your search query YMYL related (Your Money Your Life)? If you'd want to rank for the "Covid Symptoms" phrase because you want to sell masks on your new Shopify store, I wouldn't bet on you getting to Google first page. This search query is "your life" related and Google gives significant emphasise on the site's reliability regardless of how many backlinks you have. You'd see MayoClinic there, WebMD, .Gov, Healthline and more.

There are many more factors, but I can tell you that while RELEVANT backlinks are important, especially from authoritative sites, it's not the only factor and I even don't treat it as the main factor.

Hope that helps!

Try Spectroomz which I founded. I teach autistic adults SEO and you can hire them. There are some great writers there - https://www.spectroomz.com/

I'm bootstrapping my startup. Sometimes there's a conflict between your "north star" - your main metric - to your need to generate income now.

Thanks, I’ll check research in Google scholar and take it from there. Thanks!

Thanks, I’ll check it out

I built Spectroomz (https://www.spectroomz.com/), a freelancing platform for autistic people, with no code.

The client submits a project via Typeform, gets an email confirmation using Zapier, and the project's details go to an Airtable base. Freelancers go through a similar process when they submit their details.

I have an "applicants", "submitted projects", and "active projects" tabs on the base.

When a project is submitted I email relevant freelancers the job description (this could be automated as well with Zapier, haven't got to it), who apply directly via email.

I just started (launched several weeks ago). These are good for the MVP phase, after which I'll have to build something.

This is from a post I wrote:

A few ways to 'find a problem':

1. Think about what’s broken in the industry you worked at or have expertise in. Make a list of all the things your previous employer lost money over (employees’ time is probably the most expensive resource). This list is essentially a list of potential companies. If for example, you were in the fashion industry, you might be able to come up with ways to solve the guesswork fashion brands need to do in order to keep up with the market trends.

2. Build something that solves a problem for you. Many companies started that way. Say you are trying to go on a keto diet, and you found a way that makes it easier. Chances are many other people would find it helpful and be willing to pay for it.

3. Research. You might know a specific demographic is experiencing several difficulties, but you don’t know exactly what’s the core problem. Start reading and writing about it. When I started Spectroomz I didn’t know it’s going to be a freelancing platform for autistic people. My son is autistic so I started researching on Reddit what would be his future biggest challenges. You can passively research (i.e. read), or do so actively (I actually posted that question on Reddit r/aspergers). Once I got a sense that one of the main challenges is employment, I started searching for more content on Google Scholar, corresponding and chatting with other autistics about it and more.

4. Important reading - Paul Graham wrote a great post on how to come up with startup ideas. http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

After you find the problem, talk to users as jppope said. In the blog post I share a format of how to talk to users which I simply summarized from a YC startup school lecture - https://spectroomz.typeform.com/to/HR5R10

If you have several ideas and want to assess what has most potential, you can use a startup evaluation tool I created (also following a YC startup school lecture) - https://spectroomz.typeform.com/to/imIL7z

Hope this helps.

80% of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed! In the next 10 years over 1M autistics will make the transition into adulthood (about 40%-60% with NO intellectual disability), only in the US. US autism costs are over US$ 268 BN annually, a big portion of it due to loss of productivity. Ever since my son was diagnosed (at age 3.5, he is now 4.5) I was researching what will his biggest challenges. Employment is a big one. I had two solutions in mind. The first one is helping companies become autistic-friendly (some companies are doing it) and by doing so increasing the employment rates. After long research, I wrote the lean guide to hire your first autistic employee (https://hackernoon.com/how-to-hire-your-first-autistic-emplo...), it even includes a Trello board. I reached out to hundreds of diversity and inclusion directors but very quickly noticed they don’t prioritize this high enough (I’m sure they want to, but they have other factors). In addition, I talked to many autistic adults who told me they wish they could work remotely. It will save them the difficulties they experience with the traditional hiring process (especially the interviews) + the socializing associated with meeting other employees every day, attending company events, etc. That leads me to my second solution, a freelancing platform for autistic people. I’m currently at startup school and just launching the MVP version, which is an autistic-friendly job/project posting process, a place to apply as a freelancer, a closed Facebook group for freelancers where I'll post jobs (also via email if you don't like FB), and Airtable to manage projects and applicants. If your company is open to take 1 or 2 freelancing projects (mainly writing, design or admin support, but any category works), it will be great if you’ll be early adopters. I’m here for questions.

Arik

If you have time to create your assets then SEO would be a good idea, specifically the "skyscraper method" - https://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique

I recently used it and I'm starting to see results.

The major issue it takes time. Hope I helped.

Currently at YC's startup school, trying to solve the unemployment and underemployment problem autistic and Aspergers people experience. Currently validating assumptions and it looks like a freelancing platform for autistic people is the most promising direction. Started accepting application from potential autistic people: https://www.spectroomz.com/work-from-home

sure, good luck

see if you can find something here p: nebraska

https://www.facebook.com/crowdfundingbot/

Earn.com did that, but since acquired by coinbase

Mimoona.co.il (local Israeli platform launched in 2012). Getting free access to software in that nature is something people are used to getting for free. I wouldn’t put my efforts on such campaign since it requires lots of time commitment. Spend that time on building the software. Just my 2c

I think you shouldn’t go in that ally. If you are looking for reward based crowdfunding campaign than you don’t really have anything to give. If you are looking to give equity it’s too early. Generally, software crowdfunding campaigns don’t do well on platforms like Kickstarter or indiegogo. I founded a crowdfunding platform and helped around 5000 campaigns.

Hi, 1. Not a developer so please forgive any tech mistakes; 2. I looked on ahrefs on some of the keywords you mentioned and some more (e.g. "how to query redis with sql") - there are some searches but very limited (I would say up to 300-400/month in the US total). That's not a lot, but I don't know if it's the beginning of a trend or the end of it (devs can say that). 3. Regardless, I understand you do have users (when I say a user I mean retained users). If so, you need to talk to them, understand exactly what problem you are solving them. You can incentivize them with gift-cards or just sweet-talk your way to have a phone call with them; That's the most important thing. 4. Once you are on the call, do everything to understand what problem are you solving them + what they want you to add to the product. 5. That's the process. I did it with a social app in which I texted any user who did a meaningful action. It wasn't fun, but that's the way to do that. Get them to talk to you. Hope that helps.

In that sense I agree, we can all be influencers, but that’s more like a referral program and not an influencer imho. I wrote about my experience here, I think it sums up my view https://www.polidoesntcare.com/blog/thoughts-on-influencers-... However, I do have some ideas on how to make it more efficient with ecommerce

I write about autism and employment https://www.spectroomz.com/ and very interested in the domain (would love to talk about this specific topic of moving to leadership)

I don't think it's stalking. As mentioned, it's anon'; In addition, $ isn't always the KPI you are looking at. If, for example, you want to see what source of traffic brings the most retained users in order to invest your marketing budget in the right place? Totally legit IMHO.

these can help: https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/213747963-Ap...

https://docs.branch.io/deep-linked-ads/apple-mobile-tracking...

Who is your target market? If for example it’s students then you can post a job on websites like WayUp, look for interns to help you spread the word. There is a fee on such websites but you do get interns plus people who are interested in your product to try it in the process. If your target market is actors for example then you can do similar things in casting websites...get the idea?

I think you can relatively get a good indication if you are honest with yourself. Try using this idea evaluation tool I created (based on YC's partner lecture): https://www.polidoesntcare.com/blog/the-startup-idea-evaluat...

very interesting, thanks! Been trying to connect the Twitter connector but for some reason, I get: "Sign in with Google temporarily disabled for this app". btw, I don't agree influencers' marketing is a great tactic (at least for a startup), but that's for a different discussion.

Previously I used free pr (it's not free because you invest your time) successfully, but wouldn't do it today. If you are with this project in the long run, I would do SEO (use tools like ahrefs): Find content that is relevant to your domain, look at sites who linked to that content and reach out to them offering them to link to your product or relevant blog post. FB, Insta, Reddit, HN, PH etc. are all places you can post your product once or twice. If you are testing the demand for your product, that might be enough (as long as your target market sees it). But if you are here for more than just testing, SEO is key imho. Good luck!

IndieHackers would be a good place to post. Obviously it depends on your tactics (for each one there are different tools), but ahrefs, mixmax, typeform, zapier, squarespace are relevant to several of them. I share here different posts with different tactics + the tools I use in each one, might help you: https://www.polidoesntcare.com/

I actually thought about Trello for family issues. With two kids it feels like managing a startup. Did you mean something in that nature?

I have heard good things about substack. In terms of starting to collect subscribers, I would create one useful guide or other pieces of content that people in this industry are (very) interested in and offer full access if they subscribe to your newsletter. It might annoy people that they must subscribe to get full access, so you can use a more gentle (but less effective) option and that is showing a popup in which you offer them to get a future relevant post (mention the title in the popup) once it's published. You can do some sort of an interactive post in which they get feedback on their entries via email (I created one for evaluating your startup idea). And never, never ever spam people. Oh, to find relevant content people are interested in try ahrefs (paid, but a great research tool).

Happy to help (and discuss the article).

I'll start by saying social is extremely exciting to do. I also agree there is a need for a FB alternative. But before you start, I'd highly recommend (can't stress it enough) reading this: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service. It's the best read I found on social. I wish we had read it before trying to compete TikTok :)

Haa... Was thinking about something else