Storage Auctions

New Category Suggestions

Offline Travis

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New Category Suggestions
« on: December 05, 2012, 12:21:11 AM »
Does anyone has any suggestions for new categories on the forum?


Offline alloro

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2012, 02:57:24 AM »
New categories too, on top of the new topics being created almost every minute that's been going on around here lately? At this rate and in no time at all, no one is going to be able to find what they're looking for. IMO, keep it whittled down to the basic subjects.

Offline MovieMan

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2012, 09:14:27 AM »
New categories too, on top of the new topics being created almost every minute that's been going on around here lately? At this rate and in no time at all, no one is going to be able to find what they're looking for. IMO, keep it whittled down to the basic subjects.

The basics were covered LONG AGO, and Travis wants the forum to "grow" so it's growing.  If we had a line chart on the posts, membership, etc it would have an up/down appearance much like the stock market. Overall, I would say the biz and the forum has been "flat" for the last few months....I think at last the biz (and the forum) is leveling out; whether either of them will "flatline" remains to be seen. Smile.

Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2012, 09:33:23 AM »
Yeah, it has definitely flat lined. Lately, I have noticed a slight increase in business which is reflected here:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=storage%20auctions&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q

A few more months of SEO and we will be getting a lot more traffic and hopefully more contributors.

Offline MovieMan

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2012, 09:57:43 AM »
Here's one of the two charts shown in the link Travis posted. It's the more telling of the two. Yep, interest in storage auctions is on the wane.


Offline Cobia

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2012, 10:06:59 AM »
I'm thinking that the uptick in trends is do more to people wanting to find out about the new seasons of the TV shows and not necessarily about an increase in the business in general.

Somehow I think the interest in the TV shows is going to translate into an increase in auction attendence. Still too many people losing thier jobs and working low paying jobs who never gave this business a "shot" yet, so the new TV seasons may incourage them to do it.

Couple that with Christmas money & time off & tax rebate check season just around the corner, we all may have to deal with another wave of newbies. Good thing is I don't see how this wave could be worse then the Spring 2011 wave and the Spring 2012 wave.

I'm going out on a limb and predicting that if we can get through the tax season, then we will have smooth sailing again by June 2013 and the auction scene should look a lot more like it did in 2009. Unless there are huge numbers of layoffs of middle class and upper middle class workers this winter/spring.

Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2012, 11:07:44 AM »
I'm going out on a limb and predicting that if we can get through the tax season, then we will have smooth sailing again by June 2013 and the auction scene should look a lot more like it did in 2009.

I agree for the most part. However, I don't think it will ever be like it was.

Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2012, 11:32:30 AM »
I just noticed something odd. Look at the forum stats and the page views from yesterday and today. I'm not sure if that has something to do with us moving up in the search results or what. Yesterday, I did notice that the forum jumped 3 spots on Google from number 7 to number 4 for the search term "storage auction." We haven't had page views like this since September 2011.

Offline MovieMan

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2012, 12:57:01 PM »
Yesterday, I did notice that the forum jumped 3 spots on Google from number 7 to number 4 for the search term "storage auction."

I tried what you suggested at 10:50 a.m. Pacific time, today, December 5, 2012 and the forum came up at #12 spot. That included 3 paid spots at the top.

I'm sure the results vary from day to day and even by time of day within a day, but I am wondering if they also vary by WHERE the person requesting the search is from.

In other words, the paid spots at the top are probably oriented to the ip # or some such from the person placing the request.

You SEO types might be able to speak to this.

Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2012, 01:34:31 PM »
I tried what you suggested at 10:50 a.m. Pacific time, today, December 5, 2012 and the forum came up at #12 spot. That included 3 paid spots at the top.

Were you searching for storage auction or storage auctions? It makes a difference.


I'm sure the results vary from day to day and even by time of day within a day, but I am wondering if they also vary by WHERE the person requesting the search is from.

Absolutely they do. If I use a proxy to search for the term storage auctions, my Houston site/page shows up on the second page of Google. If someone in Houston searched for storage auctions, it appears #3 in the search results. Location is definitely a factor, even if you use private browsing. Other than the top 5 results, there is usually a lot of movement. Sites are getting crawled at different times, one site looses rank and another gains it. It's a never ending game of musical chairs until you become the top dog.

In other words, the paid spots at the top are probably oriented to the ip # or some such from the person placing the request.

Yes, Adwords advertisers set location boundaries on their ads. For example, StorageUnitAuctionList runs storage auction ads throughout the United States, whereas I target my ads to the 5 largest cities in Texas. The top 3 advertisements aren't considered part of the search engine rankings. The 1st natural listing would be the number one placement. If you use a specific city in the search term, for example "Houston Storage Auctions," your location is less relevant.

You SEO types might be able to speak to this.

Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2012, 01:59:03 PM »
category suggestions

what did you get today
should be a decent topic whether bought at auction picked found etc , we come across all sorts of odd crap during our daily lives it might be nice to see some of it

a subsection on the ebay section for new rule changes , it seems like no one really reads the crap they send you every so often and theres really many things that a seller should be made aware of



Offline MovieMan

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2012, 02:12:13 PM »
Were you searching for storage auction or storage auctions? It makes a difference.


I searched just as you did for the words 'storage auction'. It wouldn't have made sense to do otherwise.

I also mentioned the top 3 were paid spots, so 12 minus 3 made storageauctionforums.xxx come up as #9 when I searched it.

My overall point was that this kind of analysis seems a bit unreliable considering the other variables you mentioned in your post above. I think you have mentioned more reliable analysis engines in other posts.


Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2012, 03:35:44 PM »
Yeah, there are several rank checking tools out there that look for placement in the 3 major search engines. All of this really doesn't matter until we get the forum in the top 5 for all relevant search terms.

Offline MovieMan

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #13 on: December 05, 2012, 06:06:04 PM »
Yeah, there are several rank checking tool out there that look for placement in the 3 major search engines. All of this really doesn't matter until we get the forum in the top 5 for all relevant search terms.

Interesting stuff. I checked auctionzip.xxx using a free checking tool and they get a 6 out of 10 on Google. I looked at some others too that relate to storage auctions and they ranged from 0 out of 10 to 4 out of 10.

Just goes to show it takes a lot of work to get a website recognized by the masses.


Offline Travis

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Re: New Category Suggestions
« Reply #14 on: December 05, 2012, 06:34:15 PM »
Just goes to show it takes a lot of work to get a website recognized by the masses.

Yeah, it can be a lot of work depending on whether your targeting local or national keywords. The forums main competitors for traffic are (in this order) AuctionZip, Storage Treasures, Storage Unit Auction List, American Auctioneers, CubeSmart, & Califorinia Storage Auction News. There are also a handful of news and article sites that move in and out of the top ten, but they usually don't last very long.

The truth is, this forum has the potential to outrank all of these sites. The problem is, these other sites have been working on their SEO for the last 2 years or longer, whereas the forum has had no SEO at all. As a matter of fact, up until I took over, the keywords that were listed on the forum were the same keywords that came with the template. SMF, Forum, Index, etc. Pretty embarrassing. Another thing, other than AuctionZip, the forum is the only other site in this group that has a DMOZ listing.

This is just an estimate but I would say that the forum will rank #3 for all relevant keywords in the next 6 months. It will be tough to outrank Auctionzip and Storage Treasures because AuctionZip has over a million backlinks and storage treasures has around 200K. The forum has a little over a thousand, most of which have originated in the last 30 days. 

The good thing about the forum is, Google loves content. I believe that this website has more storage auction related content than any other website in the world. Although AuctionZip has a lot of overall "auction" content, it pales in comparison in "storage auction" content. Storage Treasures has a lot of low quality pages with only a few lines of text, that's because it lists the name address and phone number for every storage facility in the country. StorageUnitAuctionList isn't half bad. If you're interested in saving some money of a subscription to their service, you can use this Storage Unit Auction List coupon code.

Anyway, only time will tell. I have short term goals set and the forum is already exceeding my expectations. Let's pick this thread back up in February to analyze the progress.

Alexa 283, Storage Auctions #12.


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