If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Do you write articles?
No?
Are you interested in getting targeted, unique visitors… FREE?
Are you nuts?
Listen, if you hate to write, don’t do it. Get someone else to do it for you. Go to Elance.com and hire a writer, or in lieu of that go to a PLR (private label rights) site and buy some articles. Then, rewrite them. (You don’t want to use the same articles as other people may be using word for word. Duplicate content won’t do you one bit of good.)
But…
If you want to know the whole strategy, go to http://pats7secrets.com and pick up my free report on how to make article marketing work for you.
Check out “list building” at Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You’ll see Tellman’s sites at #1 on every page (and then, maybe twice or three times further down the page) in every search engine.
Do you send your newsletter out in HTML? If so, chances are that it landed in my “junk mail” folder. I use Outlook and it just decides that anything that has a whiff of marketing in it… PLONK!
Not only that, but it strips out the HTML and turns off the links.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of Outlook, but I need to use it for the scheduling. It’s how my company appointments are set up and such, and so I use it.
But think about this: If your HTML message lands in my junk mail folder, it better be something pretty incredible for me to want to mess with turning the HTML back on and getting the links to work. How many people do you think will?
I’m in the middle of a big project that’s going to totally rock for bloggers. I can’t say much about it, but what I can say is that I thought I had it nailed, and now, I’m starting all over. But that’s OK. You need to be flexible if you’re an Internet marketing person.
I just finished discussing this with an Overcome Everything client. She was afraid to start, to do something wrong, and then, have to start all over again. She had overwhelm blockage.
That can kill your business!
Don’t be so intense. If you make a mistake and have to do things over, so what? You’ve learned something–what NOT to do. That can be even more valuable than the other kind of learning because once you make a mistake, you’ll remember never to do it again.
It was like losing this blog. When that #@&# hacker wiped out my databases, I shrugged. What could I do? Cry? Stamp my feed? Go on a mission to find the jerk? Naw. I didn’t even whimper. You can’t let stuff like that get you down. It’s going to happen and you just have to roll with it. I just came here and started up a new blog.
But I’m having trouble with the template again. It looks great in Firefox, but in IE, it’s messed up, and I can’t seem to figure out how to fix it. I have to learn PHP. Seriously. I mean, I know how to manipulate it, but I can’t just flat out write it. I learned HTML. I’ll learn PHP, too. I can write articles and big research-intense books, why not?
And that’s the deal. Getting into this business is more like growing up. There are so many things you have to learn, and you can’t possibly learn it all at once, unless you’re NEO and have a cable plugged into the back of your head. Man, I’d love that. Just be like the super PHP person in 10 minutes. Very cool.
But you could be making money, if you’d just get started, right?
Anyway…
Back to the drawing board with a little extra knowledge under my belt. Is it worth it? Hell, yes!
You know how a matrix works, right? I mean, everything is interconnected. One part of the matrix goes out… the matrix doesn’t work right.
Well, SEO is a bit like that. On page factors are important, like the title and description META tags, and your keyword density on the page. Blocking the links you don’t want followed and such, and making sure your page is more content than code.
But you have lots of off page factors to consider, too. You can have a crappy site ranked, if you write articles about its niche. Articles carry a lot of weight, especially if you put them on your site because Google loves content. But you can also distribute articles and point them back to your site. You may get Google credit for it, and then again, maybe not. Putting them on other sites in your niche and pointing them back is very powerful, though.
And then, there’s blogging. Well.. it’s something I love to do and something you should watch out for. I have a really cool thing up my sleeve. You’ll have to wait and see.
And there’s linking back from directories.
And there’s lots of other stuff that go into the SEO matrix. It all works together to make your site rank. I’ve used all of them to get Tellman’s sites to the top for “list building” in all three major search engines. I’ve cut my teeth and now, we’re going for bigger game words. It’s really incredible how this system works.
For the higher competition, you just have to work a bit harder. Couldn’t have done it without StomperNet, I can assure you. What an incredible place! I’ve never seen such an awesome information portal, like ever, and I’ve been online 11 years and in business for the past 4. I can’t begin to explain how much I’ve learned.
But it keeps growing, and my matrix of knowledge and the things we do keeps growing. I’m so lovin’ it!
Don’t think that just because you wrote one article that it will do much for your ranking in the SERPs (search engine resutls pages). You need to write at least 2-3 articles a week for it to really drive your system. You need to blog at least 2-3 times a week, if not every day. And you have to post to directories. All the cogs in your machine have to keep running.
SEO isn’t just finding keywords and writing tags. It’s HUGE.
I do several one-on-one consultations a week, and the biggest issue I hear is that people can’t build their lists fast enough. So, we go through all the particulars–opt-in box… EVERYwhere. Right? I mean on your blog, on your MySpace account, at Squidoo, wherever you’re allow to place it. Then, you have to drive traffic to those places, and it’s very, very slow.
The fastest way to get traffic and build a list is undoubtedly joint venturing with other people who have huge lists. But in lieu of that, you may want to consider co-registration.
Co-reg is when you advertise your newsletter, ezine, special report, or some other free bonus with that of other businesses. Depending on the service, it could be less than 5 others or it could be as many as 20. Check the service to be sure. The fewer, the better, because people choose what they want to subscribe to, and if you’re lost among a sea of other offers, you’d better have a kick-ass headline to make people look.
You will pay for this service in most instances, but free co-registration services are around. List Hero is one I use on my main site (http://ovweb.net), and it gets me several opt-ins a month. But it’s not as fast as services that you pay to use. Still it’s great if you’re doing this on a shoestring. Plus it’s run by my friend Brian Terry, who’s partners with Tellman in the business. Brian is awesome and is making improvements to the List Hero site all the time. It’s incredible for people just starting out.
Eric James’s List Builder Pro is my paid co-registration company of choice. I pay $57 for 250 subscribers a month. That means that they advertise my offer until that many people sign up for my list. It’s guaranteed, and what ends up happening is that you usually get more than 250 subscribers.
But…
There is one drawback.
If you’re an AWeber user, like I am, you’ll be disappointed to find that AWeber will not allow you to process co-registration leads. It’s against their terms of service. So, you will have to find another autoresponder for your co-reg leads. I use Smart Autoresponder, which is an adjunct to List Builder Pro, and it’s okay, but not nearly as advanced as AWeber. They give you no indication of what was delivered and what bounced as spam. I really dislike that about the service. And they keep no record of your broadcast messages at all. Once you’ve written it, it’s off and gone. AWeber is just far superior. Other folks I know use Icontact.com I’d like to recommend it, but have never used it and have no idea what it’s like. It’s just another suggestion for you to check out.
Co-registration leads also have to be trained to know you better. You need to write to them at least once a week. Give them things–information, free software leads, or whatever. Just be sure to deliver content that they’ll enjoy, and about every fourth message you can enter in a product that you’d like to sell. They don’t mind so much after you’ve made them friends.
You can find other paid co-reg services, too. You’ll just have to try them yourself. I haven’t used any but List Builder Pro for about a year now, and I’m quite happy with it. My list has grown enormously over the past 12 months. Tellman had something to do with that. It just never hit me until I met him how important a list is.
Duh, duh, and triple DUH.
A list is everything! If you don’t have a list, you don’t have your own group of people who trust you to recommend great products to them. You can’t joint venture with any other business owners because… what’s in it for them? If you don’t have a list or you have a very slow-growing puny list, think about co-registration. It could take your business to the next level.
I hate to be tedious, but here’s the deal: The Money Is In the List
I can’t believe you guys! I offer my incredible expertise–free. Just ask! And 53 of you went to the survey to ask a question and then, for some reason, didn’t. Bummer. I’d really love to help you.
But…
I do have a great question from a very smart person. Here’s what she wrote:
Hi! I’m enjoying your personality and writing style in your blog! Keep up the good work
See how smart she is? Thank you! There’s a tip jar… Naw. Just kidding.
Anyway, I’d like to get a higher ranking under the category of stress relief and/or relaxation. I’ve included such words in my meta tags and phrases….as well as creating a blog. By the way, when I linked my Wordpress blog to my website, they took down my entire blog, saying that I went against their blogging “etiquette” and made me take all third party links out of my blog…so now, it’s not driving traffic as efficiently without those convenient links. You can check out both: http://www.hypno-freedom.com and http://www.hypnofreedom.wordpress.com. Thank you! ~RebeccaS
So, cool. Rebecca just got 2 one-way links pointing back to her sites for asking me a question. That can help you rank! The more one-way links you get, the better Google will like you.
But…
WordPress.com will give you the smackdown for using your blog for commercial reasons. It’s right in their terms of service, but if you’re like me, you probably skimmed over them and just missed that part. It’s there, though, because I checked it for someone else who presented the same problem about a week ago. Bummer. I hate to tell you this, but…
What you need to do, Rebecca, is to get your blog onto your own server and then, you can do any old thing you want with it. Copy your posts in the old blog and just upload them to the new one. You may be able to get a file from WordPress.com to do that, but not having an account there, I really don’t know. Just check before you shut that blog down. At worst, you’ll have to copy the entries and paste them into a text program like WordPad, TextPad, or even Note Tab.
But setting up the new WordPress.org blog is super simple, if you get hosting that has cPanel with Fantastico. I and several other marketers I know use HostGator. You get a LOT for just $9.99 a month. There’s a cheaper option, but if you’re serious about your online business, you really get a lot more for about $3 extra a month.
Anyway, when you get your hosting account set up, you’ll need to transfer your domain name to HostGator’s name servers. It’s a very simple process. HostGator will send you a welcome email with their name servers included and you just go to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, or whomever you use) and change them. (You may know this stuff already, but I want to be sure that folks who don’t know it get it, too, so forgive me for being rather elemental.)
Then, go into your cPanel control panel at your HostGator account. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see “Fantastico Deluxe.” When you click on that, you’ll see a bunch of databases you can install with a click of a button, one of them being a WordPress blog.
Your http://www.hypno-freedom.com site is very cool, BTW. I really like the look of it. But, I’m afraid you may lose some traction with your blog because you can’t keep that wordpress.com domain name.
But that’s OK!
If your website is on a different server and you link back from your new HostGator blog (providing you’re not already on HostGator for your website), you’ll have another one-way link pointing back to your website.
In every post you write, use one of your keywords to a density of around 2% and hyperlink it back to your website. That will be anchor text that tells the search engines, Ohhh… that site must be about stress or relaxation because this blog says so. It will also be a “vote” for your site. The more one-way links pointing back to your site, the better. More “votes,” more page rank and more search engine traction.
Does that help and make sense? If not, let me know and I’ll go into further explanation.
And good luck!
Two more things:
All of this is outlined in Tellman’s List Building Club. There are videos that explain all of this step-by-step, which is really cool. Plus, you can get a free trial right now at http://listbuildingpower.net. Check it out, if you need the added help.
And…
To get more traffic to your blog, join Blog Rush. (You can see the widget in my sidebar.) Put a widget on your own blog’s sidebar and you get traffic from people seeing your headlines on other blogs. It’s really cool, and it’s free. Plus, the more people you sign up, the more traffic you’ll get and it’s a new program, so… now’s the time to jump while the iron’s hot! http://easyseotricks.com/BR-920
But how cool is it to be part of that? I mean, we aren’t going to let search tell us what’s good and what’s bad. We’re going to decide for ourselves. Maybe that’s how the Internet should always have been–a big popularity contest.
But then again, what about all those valuable sites that might not be at the top of the food chain? I have a really great writing site, but it gets little traffic. Writers, especially children’s writers, would love it. But nobody knows about it because I don’t push it like I do my other websites. I haven’t updated it in a while, but it does have some dynamic content that changes all the time. I mean, it’s a good site.
Who knows? Nobody. Who would know if social bookmarking took over Google? Maybe a bunch of writers, but probably not. That site would be no better or worse off than it is right now. There are lots of sites like that, so… in the grand scheme of things, you probably have a better chance of your site being ranked by Google.
So, just what is the big deal about Web 2.0?
Does it bring tons of traffic? Yes, indeed, it brings some. It especially brings other bloggers, which is cool. I think bloggers are pretty cool people.
But you know what’s the best thing about Web 2.0?
It’s just fun.
You get to meet people who you’d never have met otherwise. I have like 120 friends on MySpace, but I have no idea who most of them are. I’ve made a couple of good friends who write to me often, and that’s cool. I enjoy hearing from them. So, be my friend and sign up for my newsletter there. You’ll love it.
And then, there’s FaceBook. I was on Friendsters when it first opened way back around 2001 or 2002, so I’ve been ahead of the curve here. LOL I figured I didn’t need FaceBook because I already had MySpace. Wrong. I was dragged into it by Tellman, and you know, it’s a lot of fun. (I just spent twenty minutes there rating movies and answering a quiz about the 1950’s version of Treasure Island on which I scored dismally.) I have some really cool friends there and I was able to put my books on my site and even write reviews of them. (Of course, they were all glowing reviews. LOL Naw. I just told a little about the person in the book.)
But I can throw sheep at people, buy people drinks or just super poke them. It’s totally silly and I love it.
If you’re on FaceBook, come and be my friend. I’ll definitely send a Starbucks’ your way. (That’s a FaceBook Starbucks’.) I wish it were that easy to get Starbucks. Really, I’m a frappacino junkie. I had to go to SA (Starbucks Anonymous) for a while because I gained 3 frickin’ pounds from Starbucks’ mocha frappacinos, double blended.
That’s the LAST thing I need.
Anyway, if you haven’t checked out FaceBook, have some fun online. If you work as hard as I do, you definitely deserve it.
Well, if you’re a blogger, you already know that blogging rules, right? I mean, it’s the perfect milieu for me, as a writer. I can spill my guts. I can edify. I can pontificate. Well, that just makes writers drool.
But blogging is also a traffic generation tool. Send traffic to your product from your blog by linking to a keyword that’s important to your website. So, if I chose search engine optimization, for instance, and linked it to my Easy SEO Tricks site (which I’ve just started to play with and plan way more great SEO stuff for in the future), I’d get two benefits.
First, the people who saw that link might click on it to see what else I had to say about SEO. Bingo. Traffic generation.
The second benefit is from a one-way link pointing back to my Easy SEO Tricks website. Google loves one-way links. The more you have, the more votes your site has, and the higher it rises in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
But here’s the thing…
You have to get traffic to your blog to use it for getting traffic to your website. Blogs are spidered more easily because they’re mainly text. So, they usually get into search results more quickly than websites. That’s a plus. But, if your blog is new, that may not happen right away.
There is such a thing as the Google Sandbox, where all new websites are time tested. Because Google wants the best results for its searchers, it doesn’t really like fly-by-nights. Buying your domain for 2 years, instead of one, is really a plus. But what Google often does is to make a site prove itself before giving it any search engine traction. You’ll show up in Yahoo and MSN long before seeing anything in Google…
Usually. That’s not always true.
I just built a site for an old friend, who knows nothing about the Internet, but he knows a LOT about geometry and wrote a book that’s out of this world. I’d love to see him do well with it because he’s a retired engineer, but he still needs to supplement his retirement income by tutoring. Anyway, this book (physical & downloadable) contains every geometrical figure know to man, with every fact about them laid out. I mean, it’s really cool, right. (You can see it at http://geometryillustrated.com ) A great reference for geometry worksheet completion and geometry quizzes. And yes, I just linked back to give him some traction.
But here’s the cool thing… I have him on page 2 for one keyword and at the top of page 3 for the other. That’s some SEO magic. I’m not sure how long the site will stay ranked in the SERPs because it is brand new, but I’m crossing my fingers. The point being–it CAN be done, if you know what to do.
Keep reading for more on getting traffic to your blog with a few sweet tricks in future posts…
