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Blog Writing 101: How To Satisfy Readers And Deliver Top 10 Google Rankings

by Paul Joseph July 21, 2011 Featured

My name is Ana Hoffman , and if I learned anything after many years of building an online empire, it’s this: the online business industry is a scary place. A place where many a mighty business owner has fallen. Including me. That’s right, I’ve had some online business flops in the past, until one day I realized that my business was only as good as the number of eyes that saw it on a daily basis. That’s why I started the Traffic Generation Cafe blog, focusing on various free traffic generation methods like search engine traffic, social media traffic, networking, as well as how to convert that traffic into subscribers and buyers. In six quick months, my blog grew to be an authority on traffic generation. My blog’s traffic (I was ranked under 15K on Alexa ), reader engagement, and sales showed me that I was on the right track. This might all seem foreign to you. Stick with me and it will soon become second nature. Now let’s get down to business. Content is the main driving force behind any blog’s success. That’s it? That’s the premise for my post? You bet. And if all of us already know that and are putting it into practice back on your blogs, then why are so many blogs still failing? Why are so many blogs not generating even measly amounts of traffic? Why are you here looking for answers or pearls of wisdom to take back to your business? Your content is the single most important driving force that will determine whether your readers stay, share, and convert into buyers or subscribers, period. But that’s not the only thing that matters. Your readers are the ones to determine if your content is up to par, but the search engines, Google in particular, are the ones to decide if your content is good enough to bring you those readers to begin with. So you see, our goal as bloggers should clearly be to always serve two masters: Google and our readers . I can already hear the objections coming in. Isn’t it an oxymoron, you say? Writing personable content that attracts human interest, brings about discussions, connects with the reader on a deep personal level and keyword-stuffed metric-based content that would rank highly on Google? I agree this used to be the case. However, in the new post-Panda world Google tells us louder and more clear than ever: it wants to serve its searchers the kind of content the searchers want to read – unique, beneficial, and productive. When Google sends you organic search engine traffic, it wants to make sure that the search engine visitors are happy with what they find on your blog and don’t come back to Google searching for the same query. Thus, you do your job of delivering superb content right and satisfy the searchers looking for answers, and Google will happily send you even more traffic. Turns out that serving two masters in this particular case goes hand in hand. Killing two birds with one stone – how much more efficient can it get? So let’s take a look at what specifically we, the bloggers, need to pay attention to when writing that new killer post of ours. I am basing my conclusions on this SEOmoz report on search engine ranking factors . If it isn’t the holy grail of search engine rankings and how to draw the most traffic from it, then it’s as close as we can ever get to it. Uniqueness Of Content This might’ve not been as strong of a factor in pre-Panda times. (If you need more information on what on earth I refer to as “ Panda Update “, here’s the most coherent resource on the subject: Finding more high-quality sites in search – and it’d better be since it comes from the official Google blog). According to the above-mentioned SEOmoz report, the collective opinion of 132 SEO experts polled assign the uniqueness of content across the whole site 89 points out of 100 . Unique content was the most original marketing tool back in the 1990s and it’s, once again, taking its well-deserved place as one of the most significant positive indicators of the quality of the entire site. While many bloggers continued to stand firm on the principle of consistently producing unique content, many took the easier way of jumping on the bandwagon of flavor-of-the-month promotion techniques, thus diluting the core principle that goes to the heart of blogging “ Thou shall not produce the kind of content thou wouldn’t want to read yourself “. What would one refer to as “ unique content “? What might be the characteristics both your readers and the search engines are looking to find on your site? In the broadest terms, it’s the kind of content not found on the multitude of other sites . If I see another post on “ 15 Ways to Get Facebook Fans ” or “ How to Guest Post “, I am going to scream. I am not saying you have to invent something new every time you write a post, but a new angle on the old tired topic is in order at the very least. Onsite Duplicate Content: When Google crawls your site and sees that two out of three pages are duplicates of the first one, they will drop those two pages from rankings and will assume your site has a lot less unique content to offer than it actually does. Read Duplicate Content Phantom: Don’t Be Duped, Be Informed for more information and fix whatever issues you might have on your blog. Advertising: Yes, the amount of advertising on your site does matter – both to Google and your readers. The larger your Adsense and other advertisement blocks are, the less space you devote to your content = the less unique content you’ll appear to have. That’s precisely why some sites suffered in Panda update – not because they didn’t have unique content, but because their content to advertising ratio was too low. Freshness Of Content Freshness of content on the site got 75 points out of 100 – the second most significant signal among non-keyword related on-page factors. This signal also happens to have a direct affect on how much traffic your website gets. Want to see your blog traffic double? Double the number of your posts . ( Disclosure: don’t hold me to the exact number. ) That’s exactly what I did at my Traffic Generation Cafe blog back in October and I saw for myself what wonders it did for my traffic generation. I, since then, decided to take a little summer break and cut down to posting only three – four times a week and watched my traffic take a hit. It makes sense, right? The more fresh posts you have, the more reason your readers will have to come back on a regular, even daily basis – provided that you are meeting the threshold of unique content on your site. So if you are currently posting two times per week, try to post at least four times; if you are posting four times, try to publish everyday. It might sound like a lot, but remember: your brain is a muscle and, with due practice, it’ll be spitting out the needed amount of posts in no time. Length Of Content Aha – here comes a surprising factor. It appears that the majority of the 132 SEO experts think that the longer your posts are , the better chance they have to rank higher , thus bringing you more search engine traffic. Length of content on the page got 57 out of 100 . Once again, it makes perfect sense. The longer the post is, the more potential value it will deliver to the readers. So what to do if your primary methods of communication with your readers include videos, audios, cartoons, infographs, etc.? Try to beef it up by including scripts, captions, and explanations. And no, it’s not a concession to Google and other search engines – you’ll be providing a valuable alternative to those readers who still prefer to… well, read. I know, I am one of them, and I always appreciate it when a video is followed by a script. Marketing Takeaway I hate cliches, and I am sure I am not alone on this one, but in this particular case I have to resort to the old and true “ Content is (still) king ” motto. Yes, we all know it, but now we also have reasons to actually do it. And in the end, wouldn’t it be a win-win situation for everybody? Stay tuned for my future posts where we will be discussing why your content is the cornerstone of social media sharing and link building, and how to improve it to get more of both. Ana Hoffman Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, business, content, internet, online, reader, search engines, search-engine, seo, small-business, traffic

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What Successful Internet Marketers Know (But You Don’t?)

by Paul Joseph July 6, 2011 Featured

Last week, I shared with you in part one of the series, how a personal consulting client of mine, Tom, was struggling with “analysis paralysis”, and that the fear of doing something wrong in his online business endeavors resulted in him doing nothing. My suggestion was that just starting to do something is often the hardest thing, but it is better than doing nothing . And we really just need to make a start . Be sure to read part one before continuing to read this article. Part 1: How To Beat Procrastination When You Don’t Know What To Do Next The concept that everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can learn and modify as you go along, was a big relief for Tom. But it appeared that this was not Tom’s only problem as I was soon to discover from the series of questions he started asking me. Do link wheels work? What will happen in the next Google update? Will [insert name] software still be as effective in the next Google update? Is blog commenting still valuable for backlinks? Does email marketing still work? When I started talking to Tom about a proper business strategy, I could sense some boredom with his glazed over look. You see to some people a proper business strategy may not sound “ sexy ” enough. In fact, it may sound too straightforward for some people to think that it is the answer. Tom kept pushing me for “ the secret ” so I finally gave it to him. The Secret To Online Business Success I told Tom to focus on delivering great information , helping people solve their problems and establishing proper relationships with your readers to the point where they really value and respect your opinions. Nothing too fancy. No trickery or exploiting a loophole I found in Google’s algorithm, or a piece of software that “blasts” thousands of blog comments, and no sinister way of convincing people to buy stuff. And this is the big difference between a business strategy and tactics . A business strategy is the bigger picture of what you want to accomplish with your business. I look at it as the things that never go out of fashion. If you follow the above mentioned business strategy, you don’t need to worry about the latest Google algorithm update, linkwheels or if email marketing is dead. You are building a proper sustainable business. You have a long term strategy and I think a lot of Internet marketers are missing that aspect. Tactic can be the things you use to accomplish the strategy. They are short term and can chop and change. They can be important, and using good tactics can certainly help, but without the framework of a business strategy they are useless. If you know what is working now, then sure go ahead and employ some of those tactics. Use them knowing very well that you may need to use something else in the future, but that it is just a means to an end of your bigger goal. It is very easy to get caught up in the next “new thing”. Especially in the Internet marketing space. A lot of “new things” and a lot of products marketed in the Internet marketing space are concerned with tactics. Small little things that may work for a while or push button software that promises thousands of dollars. And I think this lack of strategy is why many people fail in their Internet marketing attempts, a focus or obsession with tactics when there is no bigger framework or business strategy. A common scenario for many an internet marketer could go something like this: Read about a new tactic that promises the world (what a bargain at $37) Purchase new tactical product Implement new tactic and find out that the results are less than what was promised Give up or get distracted by the next new tactic Hands up if that sounds familiar? When I first got involved in Internet marketing, I used to spend a good majority of my time on forums . And while I am an advocate of learning, I must admit it is very easy to get distracted by the next “shiny object” that promises to stuff my pockets full of cash with no effort on my part. And I admit that is how I used to look at my online businesses. Like a “quick cash scheme” type of thing. Not that I ever did anything dishonest, but it was more my mindset towards them, my attitude and energy I put into them. You would never run an offline business like that. You would always have a strategy and bigger picture goal . But for some reason we may not apply this type of thinking to our online businesses. Everything changed when I started to look at my online efforts as proper businesses . When I decided I wanted to have a more sustainable business model, establish proper relationships with my clients, be a respected “authority” in my reader’s eyes for that certain niche and have repeat customers. If you put in the effort to buy a domain name, set up a website, write content, create a product or promote someone else’s, and set up an autoresponder series, then why not start looking at your website as a proper business and not some get rich quick scheme? I am not saying you can’t get rich quickly with a proper business, I am just saying why not also aim for some sustainability . By the end of our consultation I think I may have made some progress with Tom. It took some reassuring that I had not held back any “secrets” to online success though. The Take Home Message The two lessons to take away from these past two posts are firstly “get doing”. That may mean buying a domain name to get started on your online business or creating a product to sell online. There is never a better time than now, seriously you have so much to gain and really nothing to lose. Don’t waste another week or even a day wondering, “What if I…?”. Just do it . And secondly aim big with your online business. Have an idea of exactly what you want it to achieve, set proper business goals and have a proper business strategy in place. With a strong business framework you don’t have to be overly concerned with tactics. Leevi Romanik Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, clients, mindset, online, reader, young

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Market Saturation: Is It Too Late For You To Make Money Online?

by Paul Joseph June 3, 2011 Featured

The concept of making money online through websites and blogs is no longer new, but only to those that have been exposed to this industry for some time now. The last time I checked, there are somewhere around five websites and blogs created every two minutes , which equates to millions more with each passing year. Google has been around since the nineties and the web is ultra saturated today, so it must be true that the train has left the platform, and it is too late for you to seize the lost opportunity to make money online – right? Absolutely not. The facts remain the facts, and there is no denying that, but the good news is that for the vast majority of humans that live on this planet, the internet, and thus making money online is still an “industry” in its infancy. I am a practical example of this statement. I have several niche websites in all kinds of niche markets, which are all making very good money for me on a passive and residual basis . That said, for those of us who are exposed to the internet in a way not many others are (from an income generation perspective that is), many of us may initially feel that the web is super saturated with blogs and websites that teach us internet marketing and how to make money online. Because of this saturation, it is natural for many aspiring webpreneurs to have doubts and second thoughts of making money online, often thinking that there must be tons of others who are doing the same thing. As a reminder, we (the ones who think of the internet from an income generation perspective) have a slightly skewed view of the broader macrocosm. Truth is, the majority of people, who are web surfers, do not view the web as an income generating platform. These hundreds of millions of web surfers still have a need to be fulfilled, and the internet is the best channel available today in terms of reach, ease of entry and low cost experimentation for an aspiring entrepreneur to fulfill that need. The Key To Success With Online Business Given the (what seems like) apparent saturation in the online space, the simplest key to success in my experience has been to stray away from the “make money online” and “internet marketing” niche. You will find one guru after another preaching the next best hidden secret, which does not exist. Rather, spend your time pursuing a niche where you can successfully fill in a void in the marketplace. “But Sunil, you have a blog on entrepreneurship and personal finance that teaches how to make money online as well.” That statement is true, but my blog is not my bread and butter. In fact, I am brand new to blogging and thus my blog is merely an experiment that makes me less than a couple hundred bucks a month. It totally sucks from a profitability perspective. “What a failure,” you might think? Not necessarily, because income is not the motive behind my blog, at least not right now. My blog is a journal recollecting my accomplishments, failures, experiences in entrepreneurship and lessons learned throughout the processes and my overall journey. It is also a place where I can rant and rave openly and freely, while entertaining and helping others at the same time. So how do I make the bulk of my money online? I created 16 profitable niche websites and an ecommerce website, which I sold back in 2007 for $250,000 before I started my Extra Money Blog . I did exactly as I propose in this article – I stayed AWAY from the make money online niche. Consider this: My blog generates the least traffic of all my websites, as well as the least amount of income. My highest traffic generating and most profitable websites have nothing to do with making money online. My website on Rotator Cuff Exercises is one such example. Have a look at this screenshot showing revenues from book sales: I know these numbers are not monster figures by any means, but they represent a consistent stream of income from a niche that has nothing to do with making money online. Add to that the advertisement revenue generated from ads that look like this: . . . and commissions from sales of affiliate products that my visitors purchase either directly from the website or from a recommendation proposed to them through the free newsletter series (also boxed in red in the image above). Also consider the fact that this is a niche website that was built with a fixed number of hours (no ongoing work involved). Because the website provides value, and is built on a “set it and forget it” business model platform, I can leave it alone and still profit from it over time. The website also has several methods of monetization incorporated into it, and as traffic further grows over time, several more are on my “to do” list. For example, I am starting to get offers for private placement ads. I am contemplating implementing a discussion forum where people can share stories, resources and help each other in the process, thus further increasing traffic. I am also contemplating including a paid directory of qualified practitioners who can help those who are suffering from rotator cuff pain. As you can imagine, the possibilities to make money online from just one niche website are endless. Differentiation Factors To Beat Saturation You must be thinking that rotator cuff treatment is also a super saturated niche. You are absolutely correct. It is, but not nearly as much as the internet marketing or make money online niche. That said, there are some things you can do to differentiate your website and value proposition from the rest. For example, you can write the content of your website from a fresh, practical and first-hand perspective. You can write in active voice and talk to your reader, rather than at the reader. This allows you, the author, to build a relationship with your reader. There are many commercial websites out there that are built just to sell sell sell. A fresh perspective in my experience is always welcomed by web surfers. Offer a free incentive such as a free tips newsletter to further build and hone relationships with your readers. When your readers like you, trust you and are warmed up to you (a tactic called pre selling), you can soft sell them products and services that they will gladly pay for. Your individual style itself can be your unique proposition that earns you a place in a saturated environment. People want relate-ability, people want to connect to you as an individual, so don’t be afraid to try this new approach if you haven’t yet. The success of these methods mentioned is predicated on your ability to effectively execute search engine optimization, as well as internet marketing strategies that help give your website or blog a place on search engine rankings. Though it is advisable to learn how to execute these, you can easily outsource this work in today’s environment. Concluding Thoughts Saturation is relative to time . The web is certainly more saturated today compared to yesterday, and will be tomorrow compared to today. The bottom line is that as saturated as the online space looks, there is still a ton of opportunity for webpreneurs to make money online. The folks that visit my rotator cuff therapy website know nothing about making money online, nor are they interested. They do know how to use the internet, however, to search for answers to their questions. They clearly have a need. So as long as you fulfill a need, financial success should follow providing you execute adequately and appropriately. The internet is just another channel to do business in the modern day, and fortunately for people like you and I, it allows us to operate globally at a cost next to nothing. Get out there and let the market dictate your direction. There is absolutely no doubt that you can still make money online despite the apparent saturation of websites and blogs on the internet. Do you agree or disagree? What are the biggest barriers to entry today? What is stopping you from capturing a piece of that profit pie? Sunil Still Making Money Online Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: article, experience, internet, internet marketing, make money online, online, online-business, reader, search-engine, thoughts, young

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