Founder and Site Admin at www.worsecreditcardprocessors.com

[MerchantProtect]

Hello to everyone, my real name is Lucas and I never really thought that I would venture out into a forum like this, but here I am.

I currently have multiple projects in design stage and operate a business built with my own two hands brokering electronics; but Information About Processors With Poor Reputations (http://www.worsecreditcardprocessors.com) is up and running and is different from anything that I have ever done. I am interested in getting advice on how to grow this site and I am not looking to spam or try to "DRUM" up business through this forum; because for me there is no cash register to ring with this site.

I set it up as a resource to educate small and medium sized business owners about credit card processors who have developed "Poor" industry reputations. All information published via the site and blog are fact based and verifiable and includes background information about commonly complained about "tactics" used by these companies to entice business owners to do business with them.

My background in short is that I was involved as an inside sales rep for the first company in the industry to be sued by the FTC and I watched the aftermath unfold. In January of this year through a chain of events I discovered that the leadership from the company I worked for had been transplanted into what I refer to as "SEED" companies started after the FTC suit was settled.

Anyway, you can visit the site and get more information. Because of my background, knowledge, and abilities I have devoted the site which I also call WCCP for short to raising "Merchant Awareness".

So in summary, I have a niche market site, currently averaging about 700 hits a month on the blog and closer to 1,000 on the website; but I know I have barely scratched the surface. Currently I am doing my own marketing on a shoe string (free) budget along with SEO work. If anyone would be willing to share ideas on how to grow the "footprint" of the site I am open.

Like I said, I make my $$$ in other areas but I am hoping to continue to grow this "project" without investing heavily since it is in fact a free resource.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to email me anytime at ld.nelson@att.net

(If you do look at the site I apologize for the mess; I am currently going through and making any link that would normally take you away from the site open in new tabs; so some open new tabs and others do not -- this should be finished by the end of day tomorrow)

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Lucas. I suppose many of us never thought we'd be posting to forums at first, but here we are. :)

I think you'll find a lot of us here are doing marketing and seo on a shoestring. Plenty of us bootstrapped our way to where we are today. No need to apologize for your site. I didn't check each and every page, but I didn't notice any mess on the pages I did look at.

Looking forward to chatting and thanks for joining the community.

[MerchantProtect]

I hesitated about posting in an open forum; because of the nature of my site I was concerned that someone would think I was simply trying to "Promote" the site; when in actuality I am hoping to gain insight on how to grow it.

Just like many I found a niche that hits home with me; don't get me wrong; if there came a point in time where I could see revenue without jeopardizing the nature of providing a free resource then I will without a doubt be open; but I do not want to make it a site crowded with advertisements and take away from the real reason why it's there.

It's been up for about 3 months and I am happy with some of the numbers I am seeing from a traffic stand point, but I can't help but feel like there is so much more I can do with it.

Thank you again for the warm welcome as I was hesitant to post; but I am glad that I did and I look forward to hearing feedback and suggestions from members of the forum.

~Lucas

[vangogh]

Understandable. It's to mention your site in your introduction. It's part of who you are after all. Now if you were to keep linking to your site in every post that would be another story. Of course you can and should add a signature to your profile with a link back to the site. If you don't know how just let me know and I'll walk you through. It's pretty simple. You can see what mine looks like below.

I'm sure there are things you can do to improve the traffic you're getting. Every site can do things to improve. You'll find a lot of that is making a change here and a change there. Consistent and incremental improvement is often the best way to improve a site and traffic into the site.

Feel free to ask any questions you have. This thread probably isn't the best place since it's more for us to welcome you, but feel free to start new threads with questions or just join in to any of the ongoing conversations.

[tylerhutchinson]

Nice to meet you. If you want any help on any part of marketing your business please post and I am sure we will all help.

[Georgias Gifts]

Greetings from another "newbie".

ggg