claaarky - 2:31 pm on Jul 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

Some great advice here. I don't think Google sees it as brands and non-brands, it just sees sites in terms of user metrics. Websites people like and trust most (which tend to be big brands, household names) have better user metrics than unknown sites because people already know and trust them.

As most people here have already said, the answer is to do what any bricks and mortar company would do if they wanted to become a household name. I doubt that's possible with 15-25k though.