TOPIC: My new site

Well, I'm trying to build my new site. It's the first time I've ever tried something like this. I find myself struggling, but I'm making progress... inch by inch.

When I log out and look at what I've done, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm dissappointed.

It's difficult to build something that you don't know how to build when you don't know what is do-able and what is not.

I like my present site and would not mind having my new site look at least as good... maybe different and certainly better, but for sure not less "nice."

I would love to see what is possible, not that I'm wanting to copy anyone, but if I knew what my limits were and what is possible, I at least would be able to say..."I want to do this, I want to do that...."

If any of you would allow me, I would love to check out what you have done so I could get a few ideas.

The site I am building is eifsinspectionsnewyork.com

My present site that I plan on replacing is inspectmyproperty.com

I would appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Steve Turetsky

Here's a list of a few of the guys sites off the top of my head. When you're working with a blank theme like you are, there's going to be more work to do than to use one of our themes that are premade.  A few of the sites below are using the blank theme you are.

www.sehomeinspections.com
www.owlhomeinspections.com
www.homeinspectorinnorthdakota.com
www.arrowepi.com
www.wisemanhomeinspections.com
www.chicagohomeinspection.info
www.tennesseeinspector.com
www.americanjoe.net/

There's about 35 other testers right now working on their sites as well

My new site ( www.DaytonThermalInspection.com ) has surpassed my site of 4 years in Google search ranking for the phrases "Dayton thermal inspection" and "Dayton infrared inspection" !!!!  And I haven't even submitted the site yet!

I purchased the domain on 3/04/08 and subscribed to Dominic's web hosting on the very same evening. Now only 22 days later with intermittent (minimal work) on my site it outranks my original site!!!  I know that the ranking will be bouncing quite a bit, but I am simply at a loss for words at how fast the site was picked up and ranked for relevancy!

Dominic is 'da man!!!!

Although the site editor is a bit different than what I'm used to, I found it pretty easy to get the hang of.  My advice to others is to simply start experimenting with all of these GREAT options that Dominic provides with this web hosting.  I'm not one to ask a lot of questions unless I really get stuck.  If I can rank my site in a couple of weeks with all the helpful posts here and the tutorials, then so can everyone else!!!

I find it easier to write my content in MS Word with all the formatting and then cut and paste to the site.  Works pretty slick and I also have the benefit of spell and grammar check.  This also gives you a backup in the slim chance you accidentally delete a page.  You'll have it back up in a couple of clicks.

Thanks Dominic for EVERYTHING you do!

Thanks for the post and good advice to others about word! It can defintely make it easier at times to see things in Word. Most of the options in the editor should be similar but a few are the same. If you use firefox and the google toolbar then misspelled words will be underlined which is helpful.

Good luck wit your site. We need to start a link swapping thread here in the SEO board. I just thought about that.

Dominic