Basic Newbie Questions

I have been reading this board and you are geniuses

[Lilliabeth]

I've started a site about my hobby, widgets and widget-collecting. Antique widgets are purchased usually on Ebay or offline. New widgets can be bought at ebay, or there are a few online small retailers, or at major department stores. I want to make my site fair well for ads for other things widget collectors like. How can I make that happen? Do you have any other content-related advice that you would be willing to share with me?

Also, since I am early in the site creation process, what should I be doing layout-wise?

[Hobbs]

A recent thread here discusses your first question well:
[webmasterworld.com...]

As for layout it is too site specific, can't help you there, but look up the heat map.

>geniuses

flattery will get you very far, I foresee a great future for you Lilliabeth ;-)

[OptiRex]

what should I be doing layout-wise?

Apart from reviewing the heat map construct in CSS so that you can perform site wide changes at a stroke rather than having to upload all new pages.

[Khensu]

>geniuses

Made me open the thread!

Welcome to WW.

[FlipFlops]

Welcome aboard, Lilliabeth! Starting out is an easy step in that you're bound to make some mistakes and quickly learn from from. Above all else, and I'm sure many others here would agree, learning from your past mistakes and moving forward with an open mind is key to anyone's sucess.

The easiest way to make a living now, or so I'm told, is to continue to generate quality content and offer your site to others who you feel are of your targeted demographic.

For example, you could look into trade shows or events where your favorite widget collector's may be -- and print out some business cards and ask them many questions about their success. Just a thought, but asking those who have been successful before you in the same market is often an easy way to get the ball rolling.

Best of luck!

[dibbern2]

Questions about things like layout frequently lead to multiple answers. For instance, you might come up with two ways to present your headlines (or any other component), and you like them both.

I'd encourage you to try both( or three, or whatever) and keep good records. In a short time. you'll discover whats best and what's not so good, using a metric like page views, or AdSense revenue, etc.

Tracking your past and using it to guide your decisions in the future will go a long way to making you successful with AS. Always be open to try something new, and don't be afraid to drop or change something that doesn't perform up to your goal.

Best of luck.

[andrewshim]

geniuses

pay close attention to Hobbs, Opti and Khensu. What they say really make (Ad)sense... (most of the time ;) )

welcome Aboard WebmasterWorld!

[Bddmed]

Lillia is a member since 2003!

In this thread she got her first welcome:
[webmasterworld.com...]

On-topic:
Look at other sites about your widgets and take a look with the AdSense preview tool to see if there is enough ad inventory.

[Lilliabeth]

Thanks everyone! Not only geniuses, but pleasant, too!

I have been around WW quite some time, but this is my first time to enter Adsense.