DAY 7Today is going to be like an all-day cocktail party, but you can go in your pajamas.
It’s time for shameless self-promotion — the online equivalent of schmoozing at a networking event.
The idea here is to find other people who are interested in your products and services. You want to help them and be friend them, but mostly you want them to help you
drive traffic to your Website, your HubPages hub, your Squidoo lens and your other pages.
Start by looking for the top-rated Squidoo entry for your niche. This means clicking on the keywords you cleverly selected, which should show up on the sidebar. You’ll be redirected to a ranked list of relevant entries.
Click on the first one and read it. Comment on the story, then invite them to check out your relevant lens or your profile page.
Each of the other sites has a similar comment system, so repeat this process at HubPages, 43things, etc.
You will be making new friends on these community news sites by throwing around your thoughtful and heartfelt praise. You will also boost traffic to your hubs and ultimately your Web site.
You don’t need to spend too much time on each response, but make sure your comment does not sound like generic comment spam. Really read the entries and respond accordingly.
Also, be careful where you post these comments. Most of the community Web sites have options for sending private messages to users or posting public comments below the article. Make sure you post your comments publicly. Comments are among the most widely read sections of Web 2.0 sites. This means a clever comment with an enticing link can bring even more readers to your site.
Spend about eight hours sending these comments. Then get ready to keep working.
What, you thought you got to kick back and wait for the money to roll in? Not likely. Tomorrow you’ll read the shampoo bottle part of my marketing plan.
For now, get some rest.
Shampoo, rinse, repeat
You think you’re done. You are wrong. Nothing is ever that easy. I gave you a weekly plan, but kind of like your shampoo instructions, I want you to repeat every step — four times.
Yep, this is going to take you one month. Every week for one month, you need to
start over, but with a little twist.
This time, open your Web site’s cpanel, look at awstats and see if Google has brought you any traffic. If so, it will tell you the keywords used to find your site. Are there enough searches every month to make it worth your while to target that keyword? When you search for the keyword on Google, where do you rank on the results list?
What are some other keywords you would like Web surfers to use in finding your site? Using our butter example, do we want “low fat butter alternative” to lead to our Web site? Would you like to target that? Does it get enough searches? What is your competition?
Once you find the answers, repeat the whole weeklong process again with a different keyword. Even if it happens to be a long-tailed keyword.
Just do it. You’re sure to see more hits at the end of each week.
Good luck and thank you for reading.
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DAYS 5 & 6Hope you are well rested. You didn’t stay up all night watching viral videos on your
social bookmarking sites, right? Good. We’ve got another full day of work.
The next step could take a while, even though I’ll explain it pretty fast.
You know those articles you collected for the
first day. We’re going to use them now while they’re fresh. If you didn’t collect a whole bunch, time to crank some out right now. If you did collect 100, it’s probably worth giving them each a quick read before using them. Reading them aloud is the best way to check for grammatical errors and clunky sentences that just don’t flow as well as you might like. Run spell check, too.
Ready? Good. Let’s start submitting those articles and building up your Web site and other hubs.
The next two days will be nothing but article submissions. Your goal is to submit three each day on your Web site and on each of your other hubs.
So paste three articles on your website.Then add three articles on HubPages.Got your next three articles? Put them on your Squidoo lens.
I think you know where I’m going with this. Put three articles on your Wordpress blog, another three on Blogger and three more on Wetpaint. Don’t forget 43things and Gather. So how about those other Web sites we found this week? You got it.
You’re going back in. The ping directories will take care of themselves (see, you already saved yourself hours of work). But Digg links won’t post themselves. Post some links to some of your articles at the social bookmarking sites. You went to the trouble of deciphering those psychedelic word verification images and creating your accounts.
You might as well use them.
I’ll also add an extra optional step. There are a bunch of article directories out there. I find they are not as effective as the Web 2.0 publishing sites we used on Day ONE or the bookmarking sites, but they will drive some traffic. I won’t go into them in detail here, but look to the last appendix of this article series for a good list of effective directory pages.
Get to posting, and I’ll see you the day after tomorrow. I know we won’t see each other tomorrow, but don’t cheat. You need to do the work. Don’t waste the day watching Britney Spears videos. I won’t always be here to keep an eye on you.
Until next time! See you around ;) ...
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Day 4This is only going to take an hour at most, but it will be an hour well spent.
This is my unique linking strategy, which you probably won’t see anywhere else.
All the sites you created this week are just loose hubs with nothing to connect them.
They all just point back to your Web site. That’s okay, but it would be even better if they were all linked together so they are all helping each other.
But you want to link these things in a very specific order. I will explain my reasoning at the end.
1. You want a link from HubPages to Squidoo.
2. Link from Squidoo to Wetpaint .
3. Wetpaint needs to link to Wordpress.
4. Link from Wordpress to Blogger .
5. In turn, Blogger should link to 43things.
6. Then place a link on 43things to Gather .
7. This is the last link. Can you guess where I want to link Gather? That’s right,
HubPages.
I know you’re thinking I wasted your precious hour, and this doesn’t seem to make
any sense. Please let me explain. The idea is to only link to one hub at a time. This
way, they make a full circle and help drive traffic to one another. However, they do
not seem to be full of spam and long lists of links. Trust me, this works well.
That’s it. You’re done. Go out for a beer or something. We did a great job today.
See you tomorrow.
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Welcome to the Cracked Code fast start traffic guide. I have put this step-by-step guide together so you would have a quick reference manual to refer to each time you begin your linking campaigns.
The image below provides a visual overview of how your linking campaigns should appear. In some cases, depending upon the competition for your keywords, it will only be necessary to link a couple of these sites to your main money sites.
Your main money sites are going to be your blog/landing page on your own domain and a Squidoo Lens.
Step 1
Your two main money sites are going to be your blog/landing page and Squidoo.
Create your content on these sites, observing the proper keyword density for your main keywords and be sure to include your keywords in the title headings.
Step 2
After you have created your content on these two main sites, create a linking campaign to them from Social Marker, a social bookmarking site.
Add 5 to 10 links a day, but only add 1 link from each social bookmarking site. Ensure you use proper keyword tags for your keywords.
For example, “product name,” “product name review,” “product comparisons,” etc.
Examples: “iPhone 3G,” “iPhone 3G Review,” and “iPhone 3G vs. Blackberry.”
The top 10 sites where you should bookmark your content are:
1. Digg
2. Feed Age
3. Propeller
4. Slide Share
5. Twitter
6. Furl.net
7. OYAX
8. Stumbleupon
9. Mixx
10. Clipmarks
Step 3
After each new post, you should ping your site at either PinGoat or Ping-O Matic.
Step 4
Add your sites to Zimbio and bookmark them at Humsurfer.
Step 5
Create a linking campaign from the following article directories:
• Ezine Articles
• Go Articles – Links are allowed in the body of your article.
• Ideamarketers – You can pay to have your article appear on the front page.
Step 6
Create additional product review sites at:
• Hubpages
• WordPress
• Blogger
• WikiDot
• Weebly
Step 7
Continue your linking campaign from the following high Google page rank sites:
• YouTube
• Wet Paint
• Windows Live Spaces
• Tumblr
• Google Groups
• My Space
• Live Journal
• Quizilla
• US Free Ads
• Craigs List
• Bumpzee
• Affiliates4u
• My Blog Log
If you follow this formula closely, you should see some results relatively quickly. Of course, you have to do the proper keyword research prior to doing any SEO campaign.
Go to Google and add your keywords in quotations (“product name”). If there are less than 20,000 competing sites, you should see some results in a matter of days.
If you have less than 10,000, competing sites that is even better. You can target keywords with more competition, but you will have to do more SEO work.
Just a warning, Google can be a little unpredictable at times so do not be surprised if you lose your top rankings from time to time.
Analyze the situation and try to determine if you have added too many links too quickly or whether you need to update your site with fresh keyword rich content.
If you are not seeing results then add more links from high Google, page rank sites with your keywords in the anchor text.
Until next time! See you around ;) ...
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Marketing Definition Cheat SheetAdSense: A service offered by
Google that allows ads to be displayed on a website. AdSense ads are associated with Google AdWords (defined below) and match the keywords and content of the website where they are hosted (called contextual advertising).
AdSense ads come in various sizes, can be in different locations on the page, and include formats such as text or graphical banners. When website visitors click on the ad, the AdSense Publisher receives a portion of the pay per click cost paid by Google AdWords advertisers.
AdWords: An online advertising service provided by Google that displays ads based on keywords selected by the advertiser. AdWords ads are displayed when they match a keyword search in Google. AdWords advertisers are charged a cost per click (based on popularity of the keyword) and can set daily maximum budgets.
Affiliate: An affiliate is someone who is associated with a company or product. After joining an affiliate program and sending traffic to that company or product that results in a sale, the affiliate will receive a share of the revenue. The company is able to associate the sale with the affiliate because of the unique URL used by the website visitors.
Autoresponder: As the name implies, an autoresponder is software that automatically sends and responds to email. When pre-programmed, an autoresponder can be used to reply to emails or to instantly send requested information such as a newsletter, etc.
Banner ad: A banner ad is a type of advertising online that links to the advertiser’s website. The intention of the banner ad is to have the visitor click on the ad (called “click through”) so that they will be automatically taken to the advertised website where they will learn more information that may lead them to purchase the product or service advertised.
Blog: Also referred to as a weblog, a blog is a frequently updated, online journal about a topic. Most blogs display the newest entry at the top of the page and are categorized (called tags) by subject. In addition, many blogs provide links to other blogs and websites, and some blogs allows readers to post comments of their own.
Copywriting: Copywriting is using words in a particular writing style in order to advertise to and inform people about a product, service, person, or company. The intent of copywriting is to induce the reader to take action that will eventually result in a sale.
Domain name: This is a name that refers to a particular website (e.g. “google.com”) and are used instead of an IP address (unique number assigned to a computer or device).
Double opt-In: Double opt-in is also referred to confirmed opt-in. This is a term used to signify that a subscriber has signed up to receive some sort of information and has responded to an email asking them to confirm their subscription.
Email marketing campaigns: Using email in a manner similar to direct mail to communicate messages and solicit business. When individuals provide their name and email address in order to receive some information from a website, these prospective customer names are collected for future email marketing campaigns. The purpose of email marketing campaigns is to attract new customers and maintain or develop customer relationships and customer loyalty.
Forums: Forums can be thought of as an electronic version of a bulletin board, where users can post information and discuss various topics. Forums can become virtual communities and include newsgroups, message boards, discussion boards, etc. Forums are usually related to a specific topic and discussions are shown grouped together by subtopics (threaded discussions)
FTP: FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is the standard format for transferring files over the Internet. To transfer files with FTP you will need to use a software program, often available on the Internet for free, called a client.
GIF or .gif: GIF stands for graphics interchange format, which is a graphic file format used to display images on the Internet. GIF images are usually compressed, use limited colors, and are often used for screen shots and charts.
HTML: HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is a type of computer language (called markup language) used to determine the appearance of information on web pages. Using pairs of what is known as tags and angle brackets, information is formatted to display a particular way.
Internet Marketing: Internet marketing is a low cost (or free) way to market a product or service to a wide audience over the internet and through email. Internet or online marketing tends to be directed at a specific audience, usually based on keyword searches. Again, the goal of internet marketing is to send traffic to a particular website that will provide information, a service, or a product.
JPG or JPEG: Is a compression method for photographs and is a widely used file format for images on the Internet. This term can be used as a noun to refer to a picture with a .jpg or .jpeg file extension.
Joint Venture (JV): A joint venture occurs when businesses or individuals join together to achieve a goal. In Internet marketing terms a JV could mean that people are, working together to create a product or service or one person is promoting another person’s product to their mailing list.
Keyword: A word or phrase used in a search engine to look for particular internet sites. Web sites are indexed based on their keywords.
Keyword Research: Keyword research is the process of finding out what terms are frequently searched for by potential customers and which will result in the highest return on investment (such as advertising). There are many online tools that help to develop potentially profitable keywords.
Link: Also known as a hypertext link, a link provides a connection to another piece of information when a user clicks on a particular object or a word. Links are the web part of the World Wide Web and are related to how Google ranks websites.
Meta Tags: Meta tags contain coding information related to a webpage. This information includes keywords and descriptions that are used by search engines when the website is indexed.
Niche (Niche Marketing): A niche is a precise section of the potential customer market that shows an interest in a particular good or service. Niche marketing is the practice of catering to the needs of this select market.
PDF: PDF is the short form for Portable Document Format. This is a file format used by various Adobe software programs. PDF’s are commonly used for ebooks because the formatting of a document can be captured to ensure that the PDF document will display the same on all computers.
Plugin or Plug-in: An external program that enhances software programs or web browsers. Some common plugins are designed to alter or improve graphics or audio files such as Flash or Real Player.
Podcast: A podcast is an audio or video recording that can be streamed or downloaded from the internet. This multimedia broadcast received its name because of the popularity of downloading the recordings to iPods.
Ping: Ping stands for Packet Inter-Network Groper, which is a test to make sure that a website is working and to find out the server’s response time.
PPC (Pay Per Click): As the term implies, an advertiser of a product or service pays each time someone clicks on their ad. PPC advertisement costs vary and determined by bids made by the advertisers.
RSS and RSS Feeds: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format that allows new content of blogs, videos, audio, etc., to be updated automatically. Instead of checking a variety of website for new information, internet users can subscribe to RSS feeds so that new information is automatically sent to them. RSS feeds require the subscriber to use RSS reader software (available free from Google Reader).
Search Engine: A search engine uses a web crawler to catalogues websites to prove the best match to a query.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is an internet marketing strategy that attempts to rank high in the results of search engines and therefore increase traffic to the website. This process includes the use of targeted keywords in the website’s content, tags and meta tags.
Signature File: A signature file appears at the end of your email and can include your name, address, phone number, a link to a webpage, or provides some type of additional information.
Source Code: A source code is a type of computer language used in a website. The common code is HTML but to see the source code of a particular page, choose “view” from the menu bar, then select “view source.”
Tags: Tags are keywords determined by the content creator that describe the information and help it to be found by search engines.
Tracking: It is important to track the effects of advertising, PPC advertising, SEO technique, copywriting, etc., to ensure they are increasing sales and to determine which method is most effective.
URL: A Uniform Resource Locater (URL) specifies the location of a resource on the World Wide Web. For example www.google.com is a URL.
Viral: A term used to imply that something has become well known by being passed from person to person through word of mouth or by an electronic means.
Web 2.0: Web 2.0 refers to another platform of the World Wide Web that has become more advanced and includes social networking sites, online communities, blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, etc. The term refers to how individuals are using the web more so than technology advancements.
Web Hosting: In order to have a website on the World Wide Web, you will need to be associated with a company that provide web-hosting services. The web hosting company essentially provides you with storage space on their server, which is connected to the internet.
Wiki: By using Wiki server software, users are able to add, delete or edit a web page’s content through any web browser. Wiki’s are popular with online communities because they are based on trust.
Zip File: A zip file is a file that has been compressed using the Windows Zip format. The advantage of a zip file is that because it has been compressed, it makes for faster downloads. To make a zip file usable again, you need to unzip the file using a program such as WinZip (free program).
Until next time! See you around ;) ...
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Internet Marketers, here's your Daily PlannerThe purpose of the daily planner is to keep you focused on your three primary goals:
1. Creating content and new sites
2. Generating traffic
3. Building your mailing list
Dedicate a minimum of 15 minutes a day to each of these areas. Write down your three primary goals for each day and then follow them up with action.
An example would be:
Monday:
1. Create a Squidoo review lens.
2. Bookmark your lens at 5 to 10 social bookmarking sites.
3. Link from your Squidoo lens to your main site.
Tuesday:
1. Create a new blog entry for your niche.
2. Add a Twitter post with a link to your blog.
3. Provide visitors with a related free offer on your blog to encourage them to opt-in.
Copy and paste this daily planner page bellow and print out a few copies. Use them to keep you focused and on track. Once your goals are clearly defined, it will be easier for you to make the best use of your time. Hard to get started ? Maybe this post will help you achieve your goals - 7 Days to Crush your Competition ;)
DAILY PLANNER
Monday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Tuesday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Wednesday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Thursday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Friday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Saturday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Sunday
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
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DAY 3It’s time for another busy workday (is the coffee on?), but this should be even more fun. Remember when you first launched your business? You called and e-mailed all your friends, who all thought you were cool and brilliant. Today is going to be kind of like that, except with thousands of strangers who are about to become your new fans.
We’re still not going to need those articles you cranked out on
Day ONE. It wouldn’t hurt to keep writing more articles if you think of new ideas, though. You’ll need them to update those Day ONE pages later this week, which in turn updates those
RSS feeds that are pinging all over the Internet.
Today is all about
social bookmarking, and social bookmarking is fun. Dozens of social bookmarking sites have popped up in the last few years. They all basically provide a forum for people to post links to Web sites, news articles and videos they like. You like your Web site, and all these other pages you created in the past two days, right? So post the links. There’s nothing wrong with bragging about your own content on these bookmarking sites.
You might be looking at the statistics for these sites and decide to just sign up for the three most popular pages. Bad idea. Even if Technorati gets only half as many hits as Digg, there are still thousands of folks who prefer Technorati and would never see your links on Digg. I went to the trouble of listing all the sites in this post, and you should go to the trouble of listing all your pages at all these sites.
Also, you might want to read the celebrity gossip and watch the viral videos other users posted on these sites. Don’t do that. You have work to do. Wait until you “clock out” at the end of the day. You’ll still have plenty of time for Britney Spears and sleeping kittens.
Let’s get started. Again, all these links will be listed in the back of this serial post, along with
statistics for each site. You’ll want to use these links because some of these sites aren’t standard .com pages.
Start with Digg
Digg pretty much invented the idea of linking to sites and voting for them. So get in on the action. Sign up for an account. Give yourself a clever username and a password you’ll remember. You can even create a little icon for yourself, such as a photo of a stick of butter (or maybe a picture related to whatever product or service you actually sell). Now you want to bookmark your sites — not just your Web site, but also your HubPages hub, your Squidoo lens and all the others.
Twitter is another really popular site
You can’t even really look at Twitter without signing up, so there should be fewer distractions on this site — at least until you have an account. This page will also test your concise writing skills. Every posting, or “tweet,” should have less than 140 characters, spaces and punctuation included, or roughly the length of this sentence.
So link all your pages with short tweets.
Next, start linking at Yahoo Buzz
The advantage of linking at this site is obvious. Yahoo is hugely popular, and Yahoo Buzz is one of the most popular components. Millions of people are finding out what’s cool through Yahoo Buzz. If you want them to think your butter is cool, link to all your pages on this site.
Do the same at Technorati
The open-source Technorati Web site ranks popular blogs, so it’s a good place to link your blog sites and not directly compete for attention with viral videos and traditional news stories. Go ahead and post to all your pages here. Your Blogger and Wordpress sites may be more successful, but it won’t hurt to plug the other ones.
Now go to StumbleUpon
This site isn’t nearly as popular as it once was, but it still claims more than one million visitors per month. eBay thought these visitors were worth $75 million when the auction site bought StumbleUpon in 2007.
It has a unique recommendation engine, which points users toward links based on ratings of previous pages. You know the drill. Post your links here.
Now hit up Delicious
Yahoo owns Delicious, too, and the site is easier to find now that it removed a bunch of goofy periods from its old name, del.icio.us. So post all your links here.
It’s Kaboodle time
I know. You’re already thinking “I’m bored. I’ve linked to enough sites.” But each one has an important niche that will drive more hits to your Web site. Kaboodle focuses on shopping. Instead of jabbering about viral videos, Kaboodle users talk up their favorite stores and products. Don’t you want them to talk about your products?
Reddit? Link it
Reddit is like Digg with an attached coffee shop. Users post links to content, then they like to discuss all the links. Go grab a cuppa Reddit.
Mixx up your links
This site is named for the Mixx of social bookmarking, social networking and blogging. Post your links here.
Slide over to Slashdot
Slashdot is much like the others, but more focused on technology. Want geeks to find your site? Use Slashdot.
Link away at Clipmarks
Clipmarks is like a highlighter for the Internet, letting you “clip” just pieces of Web content and post them to the site. If you have a couple of really good lines about butter, post them here. This will drive people to your full pages at least as effectively as those long, clunky links.
Next, try Diigo
Diigo is like social bookmarking with a really big closet. You can store full Web pages in your Diigo account, and you can still read the whole page even if the original content is removed. The unique feature probably means it will grow in popularity, so it will be worthwhile to have your content posted on it.
Make news at Newsvine
As the name suggests, this site is focused on news, so be careful with your links. Don’t expect a product plug to get high ratings on Newsvine. Make sure the descriptions with your links talk about the latest development in your industry. For example, a new type of fat-free vegetable oil has just been invented, so tell everyone how this affects your butter.
Hit up Faves.com
Formerly known as BlueDot, Faves is organized by topic rather than raw popularity or your own social network. For you, that means butter fans can find your content faster. So post your links here, Enter the Dzone — maybe.
OK, so not everyone is going to want to link here. Dzone is narrowly focused on news for software developers. So our butter links would have a hard time getting any traction, but if you are working in the technology sector, link away. The narrow focus of the site can’t help but improve your rankings.
Blinklist your links
Blinklist advertises itself as iTunes for Web pages, but it’s more like a user-friendly favorites list that you share with your friends. Go ahead and link to all your pages here.
Simpy your links
Simpy is an older open-source service that integrates well with other applications and services. Again, it’s worth putting all your links on this site.
And FINALLY, use Blogmarks
Blogmarks created an alternative feed service similar to RSS, but it’s otherwise similar to Delicious and the other sites you have worked on today. Still, it can’t hurt to get your content on as many platforms as possible. Link it all here.
If you’re doing this right, you have spent most of the day posting your links and writing summaries.
Be back tomorrow. Same time, same place :-)
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DAY 2Hi all !!! :-)
Hope you slept well and put on another pot of coffee. We've got another fun, busy day ahead of us. Today we get to have some real fun. Yeah, I cannot wait. Put away the rest of those articles. We don't need them today.
Today is all about building up links to our
web 2.0 gateways.
Let us start by launching the massive pinging cycle. What the heck does that mean,
right? Okay, ping is an established term for sending an information packet across a
network to either test a connection or gauge network speed. Similarly, blogging sites
send pings to servers that generate lists of blog updates and new blog material.
Remember those sites we visited when you read the first post - 7 Days to Crush your Competition - Day 1 ? I hope you remember your passwords.
We're going back, and pinging these pages to generate more traffic (with the goal of
generating more traffic to your own Web site, obviously).
I recommend Pingoat for the job, and I have the link back on the “Web 2.0 sites” appendix page.
There are several other similar services out there, including autopinger.com,
pingomatic.com and pingmyblog.com. All of them are really simple. You can add
the RSS feeds for your blogs, hubs, lenses and other pages to dozens of directories
with one click. Just copy (control-C. You knew that, right?) the address for your
feed, then paste (control-V, of course) it at the ping site. All the directories will be automatically notified every time you update. Cool, huh?
One more definition for dummies: RSS stands for real simple syndication, and
offers a basic, standardized format for compiling new content. Your RSS feed is the
easiest way to list updates on all your sites, and the best page to ping.
OK, enough background. Let's do this thing.
First, go back to HubPages.
On your HubPages hub, you will notice your author account has an RSS feed option
in that little box on the right side of your profile page. Well, you want to ping that feed. Also, every time you click on a keyword on the sidebar, you will see an RSS feed icon next to the keyword at the top of the page. Ping that feed, too. This will generate traffic for other people's posts, too, but that's OK. Traffic on other pages doesn't reduce the traffic to yours.
Remember your Squidoo page? Of course you do. Who can forget that silly name?
Go back there.
Much like HubPages, you'll see easy options for pinging your Squidoo lens content.
Your lens has a sidebar with a whole bunch of stuff, including ads and related
topics. What you care about right now is the RSS feed icon listed with all the social
networking sites under “bookmark and share.” Click on that link, then ping the RSS page.
Hit your Wordpress blog(s).
You know the drill. Look for that little yellow RSS feed logo. Copy and paste the
link into your pinging site of choice.
Likewise all your Web 2.0 Web sites should have a place to ping your feed. If they
don’t, you can always ping your URL.
Now all the search engines see your content waving its little virtual arms and
shouting "HEY I'm over here, look at me and check out what I can do."
You get the idea. After all that pinging, I like to take a break.
That was a quick day of work, right? Just copy and paste a dozen times and you're
good to go. So give that control key a break. Have some fun watching a movie or
something.
Go to sleep and I'll see you tomorrow.
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I will start by giving you some valuable advice you probably have never heard, something the gurus have been telling you not to do. When you start your Web site and you put in your keywords, DO NOT USE COMMAS (unlike this sentence). Some of you think I am crazy right now and want to close this post, but please stay with me. In a competitive niche, you want to pick up as many long-tailed keywords as possible. One way of doing that is to not have commas. With that said, let's begin.
I am assuming you already have a Web site running, so let's go ahead and
get some traffic on your site. This is a proven method that works, but don't get mad if you aren't generating thousands of hits on the first day. Expect to wait at least a month to see solid results. With that said, let us begin with our sample niche, butter.
First we are going to need about 100 unique articles to get started — all on butter.
You know, salted, unsalted, organic, additives, what have you. You can work on these stories yourself or outsource them on
www.getafreelancer.com or other similar Web sites. You can find freelance writers who will crank out these articles for about $1 per story. I am assuming you already have some content on your Web site. If you don't, post one of the articles on butter and churn interest (pun intended) in your site.
DAY ONE
The first day includes a lot of linking and posting, so check out the “Web 2.0 sites” appendix page for links to all these sites.
First, open a Squidoo account
Unless you're building your Web site from a cave, you know Squidoo is a hugely popular community Web site. Create a new account on the site. Use your company name or Web site in your user name and you'll help folks remember your clever name. Now create a Lens on butter and use your keyword (butter) in the title. Use one of your 100 articles for content. Add a link to your site in the article using an anchor text linked to your target keyword. Then add some modules (they're like blog widgets — you'll understand when you're on Squidoo). It doesn’t really matter which modules you use. Publish it and move on.
Now create a HubPages account
You have created a Web site. You won't have trouble signing up for all these userfriendly online publishing sites. HubPages is another popular one that has the added advantage of revenue opportunities for your articles. It's not much, though, and that's not your concern right now. You need to worry about getting traffic and business on your own site, not collecting pennies from someone else's page. After you've got your memorable user name, use one of your articles and place your link somewhere in the middle of the content. Only one site link. NO MORE. Hit publish and let it run. Then forget about it for now.
Build a Wordpress blog
Wordpress is a very popular blogging site that gets great Google rankings. The site hosts blogs for CNN, Fox News and Time magazine, so you'll be in prestigious company. But first you have to create an account. Once you have a user name, you can create several linked blogs. For now, let's just make one. Use one of the articles as the first post in your new blog. Place another article in the blog and remember to put an anchor text somewhere in each article linking the keyword (butter) with your site. An interesting reading would be the best wordpress plugins.
Now create a Blogger site
Second verse same as the first. Blogger is another blogging biggie, and the site is owned by Google. Use one of the articles as your first blog post. Unlike some of the publishing sites, there is no minimum number of words for a blog post. You can post blog entries that are just quick one-liners about new features or products on your Web site. Once again, also use an anchor text linking your keyword to your site.
Next, build a Wetpaint page
Wetpaint may not be as much of a household name as some of these other sites, but it's a popular service that lets anyone quickly create their own Web site. Anyhow, you know the drill. Article, anchor text, butter, you get the picture. See, you are smarter already.
Gather and 43things are another pair of good sites for posting some of your articles.
Gather bills itself as a grown-up version of Facebook, where users post links to pages that interest them (hint, hint). 43things lists goals, with links to relevant content for each one, so you'll need to tweak your content to suit this format. Don't forget to link your keyword (butter) to your Web site.
Until tomorrow for DAY 2 ! See you around ;)
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PART 2 - Understanding Your Target AudienceOk, now that we have a niche, it’s time to figure out the psychographics of your target market.
According to Dictionary.com, psychographics means “the use of demographics to determine the attitudes and tastes of a particular segment of a population, as in marketing studies.”
In simpler terms, it means looking deeper into your niche market, so you can serve them better by customizing your products.
Answer a few questions… but I warn you not to answer them too quickly. This takes a lot of thought and consideration to do correctly.
Question: Who would like to buy what you have to offer?
Don't just say ‘Women’. That is a gender identification, not a target market. All women are not alike. They have a wide variety of lifestyles, values and interests.
Don't just say ‘Golfers’. That identifies a group of people who partake of a sporting activity but it’s not a target market. Among golfers there are huge differences. Are you targeting the ever so often golfer with a cheap tips video or are you targeting the lifestyle golfer who travels regularly to play in competitions.
Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals”
Question: Why is he/she interested in what you have to sell?
Don’t say ‘She will like it because she is a Mom’ because there are no products that ‘all moms’ are interested in. (Unless it’s an Artificial Intelligence Housekeeper and I think even then you’d get a few naysayers.)
Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals” will want to secure this product because it contains the tricks and skill builders they need to attract their first clients.’
Question: What stage of life is she in?
• Young & Single
• Young & Married
• Young Motherhood
• Middle Motherhood
• Late Motherhood
• Empty Nest
• Older & Single
• Older & Married
These stages of life are important factors in identifying a target market. How you choose to communicate with your potential clients, you will need to take this information into consideration.
What motivates a young married woman isn’t going to motivate an empty nester.
For example, if you want to reach young singles you’ll probably want to use graphics and promotional materials that look trendy and highly relative or popular to modern day media.
On the other hand, to reach older married people you will choose a more traditional style and convey a stability that will resonate with older consumers.
Question: How much money does he/she have to spend?
• Frugal
• Average
• Upper Middle Class
• Wealthy
Financial income brackets are one of the most important issues in choosing and communicating with your target market.
The financially strapped customer will be attracted to messages that imply that they’re getting a great value or saving money.
Wealthy customers will be more interested in hearing that your product is made of the best ingredients and created for distinctive tastes.
Some individuals will only be interested in products that clearly demonstrate that they’re cheaper than everything else. They’re so driven by their tight budget or their personal commitment to frugality that they’ll choose one product over another on price point alone.
And in the other extreme, there are consumers who will purposefully choose the most expensive service provider on principle. Maybe even just to be able to say that they hired the priciest ‘most exclusive’ provider – or perhaps because they believe that the higher cost surely means that they’ll get the best quality. (Which may or may not always be the case!)
For some, impressions are everything.
Can you see how it would be literally impossible to create one sales message that rings true with all markets?
Well, that's it for this section. Now you should have your niche and understand who it is you're targeting. Next we're moving on to setting up a website and finding ways to monetize it. I'll write about that soon, so for now - GET BRAINSTORMING!
Until next time ...
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Nearly every day someone posts a new thread on some forums I participate that looks something like this...
Originally Posted by Anonymous:
Im a complete newbie to the whole make money online thing. Could you please tell me how you make money online? Can you teach me?
So I've decided to create a no B.S. lot of posts which detail a simple system to make money which WILL work if you implement it. It's not a get rich quick scheme or a quick fix solution. It's a proper system which thousands of people use every day to earn a full time income.
It's called
Niche Marketing and I'm sure you've all heard it before.
The information detailed in this series are all part of the system and specify the exact process you need to go through in order to start profiting from these tiny Niche Markets.
So...
PART 1 - Finding A Niche
The first step to creating your Niche Empire is to find some profitable niches.
When selling a product, a lot of people make the mistake of developing their product first, and then trying to find a market for it.
Of course, the process should be reversed.
First, find a market that spends money, then find out what they want and give it to them.
Deciding on what product or service you will promote in a niche market should be based on a simple principle. There should be a demand for your product or service. You want to offer something that people actually need, something that will make their lives better, make them feel better physically, make them look better, or help them solve a problem.
The process I go through when looking for new niches to enter is as follows.
For starters, I'm always aware of trends and current events in the real world. I read several newspapers each day, many magazines, both general and niche-specific, I watch the news, I listen to the radio. Occasionally something that I hear or read will stick with me. I may jot down some notes, or draw a diagram to help me remember it. Sometimes I'll call my phones voice mail and leave myself a message.
But at some point I'll have several broad ideas to research. I want to look deeper. And I want to make sure there is a good market for them before I even think about creating a product.
To begin with, I check out the hottest search trends at Google's Hot Trends. At this point I am just looking for ideas.
If I see that a particular topic is hot, I’ll make a note of it and look at more targeted sub-niches later on at more specialized sites (which I’ll show you in just a minute!).
The Lycos Top 50 is another site, like Google's Hot Trends, where I will review the latest trends and look for hot topics to explore further. I will also look at Yahoo! Buzz for ideas as well.
The eBay Pulse site is a great place to start looking at sub-niches. What I will do is select the category first (using the topics I’ve gathered from looking at the previous sites), then look for profitable sub-niches by then selecting a sub-category.
The best chance for success is if I am as specific as possible with my niche selection. In the example below, I don’t want to sell to the “crafts” niche.I want to sell to grandmothers who enjoy giving their latch rug hooking gifts to their families and friends. Whatever. You get the idea.
Also, I’ll always check the largest stores as well to see what they’re selling. There has to be a reason they are the largest stores. They must be doing something right.
TIP: eBay also puts out a PDF report of their hottest categories each month, available at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf.
Now that I have some potential sub-niches to work with, I want to see how much of a market there is there.
Just because a sub-niche is popular doesn’t mean people spend money on it.
Amazon is a great place to see what currently exists for any given sub-niche.
Chances are, the more books there are written on that subject, the more that market spends on those topics.
For example:
First I specify “Books” to search. Then I enter my niche, in this case “crafts.”
Uh oh. There are WAY too many books returned. This niche is not targeted enough. It is too “mainstream.”
Much better! There are possibilities here.
We now suspect the following:
1) This sub-niche may be targeted enough.
2) This sub-niche may spend money.
Once you have an idea of which niche you want to target, it’s time to determine its profitability. For this, you would have to use the tools found at:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Or…
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Simply type in the idea you have in mind, and press the submit button. You will then be presented with a list of keywords and key phrases that are related to the subject you have entered. Each keyword or key phrase would have an indication of the number of searches that they have gathered from search engine users. The number of searches made for a particular keyword or key phrase is a good barometer of the demand. You’d want at least 5,000 searches for your main keyword.
Here are several other sites you can use to get niche ideas:
Nichebot - http://www.nichebot.com
Shopping.com Top Searches – http://www2.hopping.com/top_searches
AOL Hot Searches - http://hot.aol.com/hot/hot
Google Groups - http://groups.google.com
Craig's List - http://www.craigslist.com
elicious Popular - http://del.icio.us/popular<
Dig - http://www.digg.com
Google Catalogs - http://catalogs.google.com
Google Suggest – http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Technorati - http://www.technorati.com
lso, I'll do several targeted searches in both Google and Yahoo (for example, on the subject of "hobbies").
And of course I will always Google my keywords and check out the competition in the Adwords ads. In this case I pay special attention to the ads that sell information products (or services like mine if I’m selling a service).
Some of the ads will be irrelevant as far as competition goes.
Ok, the next thing I'll do is check how many magazines there are on the subject of my chosen niche.
Ok, the next thing I'll do is check how many magazines there are on the subject of my chosen niche.
There are two places I go online for that:
Magazines.com - http://www.magazines.com
and
Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/599858/
At each site, I search by category to find the magazines in my niche.
Obviously the more the better, up to a point.
For example, golf has a lot of magazines, but it's not a good niche by itself. It needs to be more targeted. But in that case I can always get more targeted sub-niche ideas within that topic by looking at the types of magazines for that topic.
The next thing to do to find out more about a niche is to visit the forums. By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about you can search the Internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems. Gather the information about the topic. Do some spy work.
Ok. By now you should have found a profitable niche market.
There are plenty of sites I use for research in addition to the ones above, but they are usually niche specific. These sites will help you to research practically any niche market effectively. Once you have this process down, you’ll be able to do this very quickly.
See you around :-) !!!
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