Seoulistic.com is 1st Page on Google!

Google is the number 1 search engine in the world, and being on the first page for any popular keywords on google means really you’re doing a good job for SEO (search engine optimization, tactics for trying to get on the first page of google). In addition to solid technique, it also takes some time to get yourself on the first page of Google. And since Seoulistic.com has been around for a little over 6 months, I’ve been able to get on the first page of google for a number of important keywords and phrases.

My target audience is people coming to visit Seoul. And what do people traveling search for? Good restaurants! The number 1 Korean food people around the world know? Galbi! That’s why my very first post was the 10 most best galbi restaurants in Korea.

Search “best galbi restaurant in Seoul” and Seoulistic.com’s post is number 1 (it may be different according to where you’re located)! It even beat out the travel site juggernaut CNNGo.com. Holla!

Many people that travel to an unfamiliar place search for famous restaurants. So if you search for famous restaurants in Seoul, Seoulistic.com’s post on Seoul’s 10 Oldest (and Best!) Restaurants  comes out 3rd. That’s HUGE man… seriously.

But the one I am most proud of is my post on How to Get Free Wifi Anywhere in Korea. It grabbed the top spot on Google for even the really general search term “wifi in Korea.” And of course if you’re traveling to Korea and googling for “free wifi in Korea,” Seoulistic will come up first as well.

I have a number of other search terms related to my niche, and I rank on the first page for. But the site is still young and it’ll only get better. It just takes time. This is very, very encouraging. I’m bad ass, yo!

BTW, if you were traveling to Korea, what would you search for? Let me know so I can get the keywords and also help you out too!

Thanks everyone!!!! 😀

Thank You Everyone!

Thank you everyone! I asked for some help with some motivation, and so many people responded with comments, emails, and donations. I was really shocked to see a total of $480! Again, thank you everyone for all the great encouragements.

I was never going to stop working on Seoulistic.com. I was just looking for a little more motivation. And I definitely got it.

If you can still donate, that would be great! It would really help me keep motivated, and keep making good content!
If not, consider liking my facebook page, and Seoulistic.com’s facebook page. I’d appreciate your support! Thanks everyone!

Recording with Songa tomorrow. Wish us luck! 🙂

Funny Search Terms on Seoulistic.com

Seoulistic.com gets a lot of its traffic from google searches. But some of the keywords that are turning up are pretty hilarious. Here’s a few that I saw and thought “WTF?”

korean culture 2 guys cannot go movie

(wow, so specific!)

my korean friend hand feeds me

(3 people searched this lol)

do korean friends of the same sex kiss

(hmm………)

does eating chicken feets make you strong

(probably!)

is ice expensive in korea

(what kind of person needs to know this info? -_-)

emoticons sex

(uh……)

why dont the koren girls hug back?

(got your answer here homie!)

shitty apartment in korea

(cause that’s what you look for in an apt!)

how to get a korean body

(be Korean?)

koreans have weird teeth

(we do?)

koreans dont have a culture

(really??)

Interesting to see that people all over the world are searching weird stuff about Korea. My favorite is “my korean friend hand feeds me” lol! What’s yours? 😀

Korean Girls Are Crazy Shy with Strangers, But I Got the Ultimate Wingman

I had an idea for a seoulistic.com video: “What Korean girls think of foreigner guys.” So this past Saturday I went out to Coex to try to interview Korean girls about their thoughts on this. Here’s my initial tweet before I left:

I was planning on getting around 10-15 interviews. But after I tried close to 10 people, I realized quickly this wasn’t going to work. Even if I got 10% of people I asked to actually do the interview, that meant that I was going to have to ask at least 100 people to get my target number. And I wasn’t going to ask 100 people. Here’s the ensuing tweet:

I knew that Korean girls are ultra shy, but even more so when it comes to cameras. So I was prepared to be turned down. Whatever, right? Not like I was asking for their number or anything. It was just an interview. But man, it sucked a lot more than I thought. A lot of the Korean girls didn’t even say “no.” They just looked at me like a creep and walked away. Ouch!

But I’m not giving up. I’ve already made plans to go out again this Friday to try again. How is this time going to be any different you ask?

The Ultimate Wingman! 

I got an ultra cute and super friendly Korean female friend of mine to ask for me! That’s right: the ultimate wingman (brilliant, I know!). Even girls can’t resist the charm of cute girls. Readers of this blog know that cute girls are the solution to any problem I got! And for this one, I’ve got to fight fire with fire. I’m pretty confident this will work, and if it doesn’t, then that’s pretty much all I got. Cute girls FTW!

What Countries are Most Interested in Korea?

Just thought it would be fun to share who’s interested in Korea by taking a look at the stats from seoulistic.com.

Just a few quick random thoughts on these stats:

The US is because of Kpop?
Korea’s obvious. Seoulistic.com is mad helpful yo!
Singapore I heard Kpop and Kdramas are just mainstream, played in shopping malls and on primetime tv. Dang! True?
Malaysia? I have no idea why Korea’s popular! haha
Philippines, same as Singapore?

Curious! where are you guys from and why you’re interested in Korea/seoulistic.com?

Also, if you have any post suggestions, please let me know! I’m always looking for ideas 🙂

TalktomeinEnglish.com Behind the Scenes and Bloopers (NG)

I record [Real English] with the folks at TalktomeinEnglish.com every week. I thought it might be fun to show everyone a behind the scenes look at what goes during a recording session. Enjoy folks!

Gyopokeith.com and Seoulistic.com Statistics

Everyone likes statistics. Me too. Somedays I just find myself not even really working and just kind of staring at my site stats. So I’m sharing it with all you lucky people that end up at this post. And of couse I’ll give you my semi-informed analysis (a total guess!).

Gyopokeith.com Stats

I’ve only done two videos, but they really brought some traffic to this site. Also of note, the blog posts other than videos that have gotten the most traffic are the ones about my dating exploits. Guess I gotta post more about dating in Korea! But that means I have to actually go on some more dates 😉

Seoulistic.com Stats

TalktomeinKorean.com has helped a lot. And 6,000 unique visitors in a month and a half isn’t bad at all! Just gotta keep doing it. That’s all 🙂

Help from TalktomeinKorean.com and Seouleats.com

The internet is a great place to collaborate, and I’m lucky enough to have found two great opportunities for collaboration.

TalktomeinKorean.com

For those that don’t know, talktomeinkorean.com is the premiere source to learn Korean. Nearly all of their content is free, and they’re run by fantastic people who have a passion for what they do. The head honcho is Hyunwoo Sun, a friend and former colleague of mine. I approached him earlier this year and asked if we could collaborate on something. You know, free work from me while I try to build my web presence and an audience for seoulistic.com. Now I have the opportunity to work with him and Kyeongeun Choi on TalktomeinEnglish.com. He and the crew have been super awesome by sharing my links, and a large chunk of my traffic is coming from Hyunwoo and company’s facebook shares. I am always so thankful to them :). More than anything, what’s really been helpful is the advice I’ve been getting in terms of video work. I’m still learning as I go, but since I have youtube samurais to work with, it’s been extremely helpful for me and my site.

Seouleats.com

The go-to restaurant review blog in Seoul. It’s been featured in magazines, TV shows, and all that other good stuff. Basically, it’s famous son. I saw that Daniel Gray (Mr. Seouleats) had guest contributors on seouleats.com, so I e-mailed. Eventually we got to meet, and now we’re collaborating together on some digital content. It’d be awesome for me to get a chance to work on some digital content with him before I get started on my own digital content. It’s basically practice. Before you know it, I’ll be pumping out digital goods faster than you can close your wallets!

Thanks again to talktomeinkorean.com and seouleats.com. Let me buy you some Dippin’ Dots Ice Cream, yo!

How Will I Make Money from Seoulistic.com?

I get this question a lot. People always seem to wonder how people make money from websites. Most people just assume it’s advertising. But in reality, advertising (google adsense) may be one of the hardest ways to make money. You’ve got to have A LOT of traffic to actually make a living off of a website that way. (You only get a couple of cents per click!) It’s good if you want to make a couple of extra bucks here or there, but unless you have 100,000+ visitors, it’s not really an option to turn it into a business.

There are a number of ways that I’m planning on monetizing the site, but the main option for me at the moment is to make digital products. This will initially come in the form of e-books. And eventually, I’d like to package them into a smartphone app (with in-app upgrades). I’d also like to expand to Korean language products. This is actually a lot of hard work, and it takes quite a bit of time to create professional quality products. But I also believe the reward is the greatest (no shipping/printing/production costs). I want to make it affordable enough so that everyone can make use of these guides. I believe in making it as cheap as possible, as long as I am fairly rewarded 🙂

My target audience is people visiting Korea or living in Korea. Here are a few e-books that I’m planning on writing:

– Insiders Guide to Myeongdong / Itaewon / Hongdae / etc.
– Ultimate Guide to Living in Korea (for newcomers)
– Cultural Guide for Exchange Students in Korea

Would you buy these for $5 a pop? If not, how much would you pay? What other kinds of e-books would you consider buying?

I spilled my guts on this one folks (as always :P). If you have any suggestions, help a brother out! 🙂

Shooting with Pros and Friends

As this was my first foray into video, I had no idea what I was doing in terms of filming or even preparing for it. And although I spent weeks preparing for this, I was still unprepared. Fortunately the talent and my friends were very helpful and understanding.

My Production Expert Friend – Jin Min

I mentioned that I was shooting on a facebook post, and a friend I know through my sister said she would be down to help. And I had no idea how much she would! Without any knowledge of the script, or any idea of what I was doing, she instantly made it a more professional production while keeping us all very comfortable. The talent seemed to be relived when she saw someone that actually knew what she was doing!

Jin Min produces videos for a living and collaborates with MtvK on interviews and other such videos. She’s a pro that’ll help bring some cred to your shoots. Check out her site and hit her up with some work offer peoples!

The Talent: Min Songa (민송아)

From my experience, hot girls in Korea (and more specifically girls in the entertainment industry) have what’s called “princess disease” (공주병: a term that basically means they’re full of themselves). So I was actually preparing myself to have to deal with a lot of complaining and judgmental looks. But Songa was extremely cool and understanding of my situation. She was a professional to the fullest. She kept her script with her at all times to keep herself prepared for the next scenes, and she took initiative to change outfits on her own without my direction.

I highly recommend her for any work. She’s not just a pretty face. She’s a professional with acting ability and emcee experience. She also speaks English with a British accent (score!). And on top of that, she’s cool :). Find out more about her at her personal cyworld page.

Personal Friends

Thanks to Howie and Arnold for doing all the little annoying things that only friends would do for free. 😉