There are a lot of things that go into being a dominant investor relations, stock promotion, stock community and stock related site. A lot of people think a big email list is the primary reason… There are some correct assumptions about these heavyweights and a lot of assumptions that are not correct when looking at who is doing well and making money and who is not and are struggling. Once you realize what the magic potion is, you can achieve a great deal with your own site, make it more valuable and make more money…
Let’s look at our first heavyweight: QualityStocks.net
QualityStocks.net has a staff of talented people that know what they are doing; and they have been working at it for years. Their desire has been fulfilled to be a dominant player by working not only hard, but smart too. The folks at QualityStocks.net know that it is important to have a commanding web presence.
Website Score: 99.3, they have a blog (which means they have new content all the time which is attractive and scores points with search engines). Over the years they have amassed nearly 7600 pages on their site. But here is the most important stat: QualityStocks.net has 5,655 inbound links.
Most IR and promotional entities don’t realize the importance and value of inbound links for their website.
Finally, their Alexa Rank is 207,750 which puts them ahead of most other stock related sites on the web. So where does this high rank come from? Again, I will go back to inbound links. The more inbound links you have, the higher your site ranks – which means it gets more traffic and as a result, even more inbound links. QualityStocks.net also uses news releases and social media to drive traffic to their site as well. But, they do not blast out news releases all day, every day like some sites; they don’t have to. QualityStocks.net traffic is also driven by being a content rich site.
Everything I have discussed above is what is known as organic marketing. Things like advertising and Pay-per-Click (PPC) are very short term and expensive solutions that do not provide lasting benefits. This is not to say that those with deep pockets cannot get results through advertising and PPC though…
Though BeaconEquity.com is not considered a stock promotional entity in the traditional sense, they do have the highest website grade of any of the sites I have found: 99.6. They even have a couple of onsite SEO issues that if fixed, they could conceivably score 100. BE is a community based platform with a lot of participation and has a very savvy management team. BeaconEquity has an Alexa Rank of 136,412 which puts them right near, if not at the top of the heap when it comes to micro and small cap sites. BE has 4,095 inbound links and is active on social media platforms as well.
Here is where I think BE excels: They allow users to be contributors and publish articles on their site; what a concept! This is how BE adds value to the users of their site. At the same time, the contributors are building content for BE; it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Users of websites feel valued if they can contribute. This is why SeekingAlpha is so successful on a huge scale and why BE is so successful at the small and micro cap level. Aside from being a popular platform BE issues press releases, is active in social media and clearly understands the value of a platform on today’s web.
As the name implies, PennyStockPickAlert is an email alert service. They do have financial news feeds on the site but this site is all about signing up for their alert service. While there is no real original content on the site, the owners are getting what they want though. PennyStockPickAlert is ranked #262.967 on Alexa making it one of the highest ranked sites on the web… Bear in mind, there are over 21 BILLION websites on the net.
How do they rank so high? News Releases… PennyStockPickAlert uses multiple news services to disseminate news on stocks. They have been so successful with this that they have accumulated over 12,000 inbound links. So you see, inbound links are important no matter how you get them. While PPC and Advertising provide temporary links to your site, if the money runs out, you are done. News releases build organic and long-lasting links that last for months and in most cases, years.
hototc has a staggering 20,000+ inbound links to their site. They enjoy a huge reputation within the micro and small cap community. They also do PPC and lots of advertising on high traffic sites. hototc is primarily an alert service for micro cap traders and they certainly accomplish their objectives with an Alexa Rank of 249,612 and a website score of 96.
What is the common thread with these three sites? Their Alexa Rankings are high but what else? INBOUND LINKS. If you do not accumulate inbound links to your site, you will never enjoy the success that these sites do if that is what you aspire to.
Another consideration is that of the four entities covered here, there are 3 different business models at work. There are several ways to become a dominant player in small and micro cap stocks but the path to that success is through traffic to your website. Without website traffic (which in itself generates more traffic), it doesn’t matter how good your ideas are.
I find it interesting that people “trash” promotional sites and entities. If you read closely, people have much more of a problem with the amount of money that the sites above make and not the business they are in… There is no doubt that the owners of these sites worked their butts off to build their online and business presence. Rather than envy them, why not go to work on your own plan to compete with them? You can, you just have to decide to do it.
There are many ways to build your site’s presence on the Internet, generate more traffic and increase the value of your site.
