I'm currently working with several clients at the moment, they all vary with budget and all have brand new websites. Even though their sites look great and some of them are spending over $1,000 a month on "pay per click" adverts. They have been very disappointed with the results from the advertisements.
Getting Off The Ground Can Take 1,000 Days!...
If I was honest and told every new website owner that it may take 1,000 days to get off the ground they would not be pleased. The truth is that to get true momentum this is probably an accurate number of days for a website to get referrals automatically and have that solid network of people. In my experience the first year was very slow, the second year I had some great days attracting over 5,000 visitors on some occasions but it is only until now that I have really seen the benefit in sticking it out and building solid links and connections around the world.
Too Big Too Fail
For me I had the target of 100 links. This was not reciprocal links but one way links pointing towards my site. In other words I made sure that my website was "Too Big Too Fail". After I hit my target, I started to get naturally links, some links would link straight to a guest post, making that link stronger and some just linked my site from the work they have seen flying around online.
Leverage Is The Key
If you have spent time researching online business then you will learn that it's pretty simple. The difficult part is ignoring all the distractions and each step of the way you leverage what you know and the people you meet.
"Leverage What You Know And The People You Meet"
So for instance the guest post I wrote for Darren Rowse on Problogger.net helped me to get a spot on John Chow's blog which then led me to ClickBank's blog and also here at E-Junkie. If someone said back in August 2008 I'd be linked by all these top bloggers and sites I'd probably laugh and say no chance, but it all happened one step at a time and getting off the ground was much much slower than I thought it would be.
How can you get off the ground a bit easier?
My biggest recommendation would be to get a coach, there are a lot of them out there because it is a very appealing job. If you can get a coach find out how much will it cost exactly and how many hours they will be committing to get your site off the ground.
Here's another informative article by David Edwards: Freelancers Don't Have To Feel Like 'A Sitting Duck'.
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Where can you find a coach, though? I've found a ton of courses that teach you the stuff, but obviously they're not fine-tuned for a specific person, and most of them left out critical pieces here and there. I've been looking for about two months now, and I only see to be able to find people who tell me "their coaching days are behind them." =(
Wow, 100 inbound links feels like a pretty ambitious target when you're starting from scratch. I applaud your success, though: It appears that the effort has certainly been worth your while.
You mentioned guest posting as a key component to your strategy, and I agree wholeheartedly that it would be worth pursuing. The trick is breaking through the mental red-tape that prevents people from doing a first guest post. As you've said, though, once you've got your foot in the door more opportunities will appear.
Wow, 100 inbound links feels like a pretty ambitious target when you're starting from scratch. I applaud your success, though: It appears that the effort has certainly been worth your while.
You mentioned guest posting as a key component to your strategy, and I agree wholeheartedly that it would be worth pursuing. The trick is breaking through the mental red-tape that prevents people from doing a first guest post. As you've said, though, once you've got your foot in the door more opportunities will appear.
You're welcome to send me an email... ;]
1,000+ links is easy, it's the first 100 that's the toughest, because your site is unknown . Keep going though!... ;]