They say in real estate its all about the location when buying or selling a home. The same rules applies in the online digital world. The best location is of course on page 1. Are you tired of the lip service from the so called experts? Do you want straight talk on how to rank your website?

My article will focus on keyword selection, domain names, niche marketing strategies and why it makes all the difference, some tools to use . . . → Continue Reading]]>

This is a guest post by Darrell of about-internetmarketing.com

They say in real estate its all about the location when buying or selling a home. The same rules applies in the online digital world. The best location is of course on page 1. Are you tired of the lip service from the so called experts? Do you want straight talk on how to rank your website?

My article will focus on keyword selection, domain names, niche marketing strategies and why it makes all the difference, some tools to use to leverage your productivity and the most important part – building back links to rank. OK, maybe you were thinking I was going to reveal some far out wild methods to ranking? Nope, its really understanding, and I mean understanding the basics, that will ultimately allow you to achieve success.

What does Google want?

Google wants to see the most relevant information on page 1. Their advertisers and customers want the best information showing up for them. Nobody wants to look through 10 pages of internet search results. It’s like real estate. The people with the best views and location, get the most for their homes. Why should it be any different online? The simple answer, its not and those on page 1 get the best results or should I say, make the most money.

Authority Sites Defined

The ultimate authority sites are those typically found on page 1. Now, there are a couple of different types of authority sites that I need to go over. Big mega sites will normally have dozens or even hundreds of pages of content on their sites. Whereas, niche sites typically have 5 or 10 pages of content that is laser targeted on some long tail keywords. The reality is, I have seem a number of niche sites dominate page 1 of the search engines. Its just a matter of deciding on how you want to build and develop your authority site.

Keywords – The Foundation to Making Money

This is where your bread and butter is guys. Get this part wrong, you will be working for the man for the next 30 or 40 years. Seriously, keyword research is the foundation to making money online. Too often, people just gloss over this part and go right away for the most competitive terms like, home based business or travel. Do yourself a favor and don’t worry right now about the big keywords. You need to be going after long tail keywords first and foremost. I am not saying you should never, but there’s a lot of low lying fruit (keywords) to pick up right now, that will allow you to rank more quickly, rather than waiting 1 or 2 years.

Niche Marketing Approaches – The Next Generation

In my view, its best to focus on niche markets for long tail keywords with very low competition. You can start your search here, Google’s keyword tool. Start at your main keyword and then drill down until you find a long tail key phrase that you like. This next part is where many will miss a huge opportunity. You want to keep drilling down further, by taking this long tail phrase and entering that in G’s keyword search field. That gives you the bottom end of your search results. Then its a matter of looking over the monthly results and determining how far up the keyword results you should go. In other words, you are working from the bottom up.

My suggestion is approximately 1k to 10k in searches per month. This is just an estimation. You will ultimately have to test it out and see what’s best for you. That may not be a lot of searches, but the goal here is to get some low terms ranking on page 1 and working your way up. After awhile, your site starts to gain trust rank with Google and the other search engines. Its the equivalent of building a home. You need a strong foundation first, before you build the actual house.

Additionally, when picking keywords, you need to check the organic results on Google, to see how much competition there actually is. To get the actual results, you can place quotes around your keyword phrase. You want to actually see both results. Your search term with and without quotes around it. What I am looking at this point, is to try and find articles on page 1 for the results. That gives me a good indicator that I should be able to rank for that keyword of choice in a shorter period of time. It also depends on how many back links, but I will discuss that further down in the article.

The Significance of Choosing the Right Domain Name

I will be brief here and to the point. It is a better option when possible, to try and get your domain name with your keyword phrase in it. You don’t have to and there are plenty of websites ranking on page 1 without their keyword phrase in the domain. For low competitive terms, by having your keyword in the domain, you might actually rank more quickly. It’s one more SEO tip to give you that extra little push from an SEO perspective. If a domain name is not available, try putting the word “about” or dashes in between your name of choice. I have picked up great domain names by adding this little technique.

If you have some funds available, you can always try buying aged domains from a domain registration company. Aged domains are a big deal and they will typically rank more quickly, than new sites because there is trust already established by the fact, the website is a couple of years old or more.

The Critical Component – Building Back Links

Ranking your website is about having back links. If anyone tells you otherwise, they don’t know what they are talking about. One way links are the back bone to rank well in the SERP’s. Backlinks will be a combination of external and internal. You might be thinking, why am I mentioning internal links? Its because you need a proper optimized website for the search engines. It means linking some of your internal web pages to other pages in your site. For example, to pass some link juice from your articles, link them back to your home page. Now, don’t go over board and link all of them to the home page. But a few links here and there can help you.

Of course, the bulk need to be coming from outside of your website. That means, you will want to have as many external links pointing back toward your web site. How many links should you have? I can’t say because it depends on the competition. Keep getting back links until you get page 1. When you submit articles and point your links back to your website, make sure you are pointing back to internal pages and articles within your site. In fact, I would suggest about 80% of your linking should go towards internal pages. 20% can point to the home page.

Not all back links are created equal. You will see people submitting articles to all kinds of different directories that have little weight with the search engines. Take some time and look for the right type to post your content to. The bottom line to ranking, the more high quality back-links you’ve get, the higher in the SERP’s that you’ll go.

Back Links – How and Where to Get Them

To get one-way links, well at least quality ones, you’ll need to write a variety of content and submit to the top 10 or 20 article directories. Google the term, “top article directories” and you will get lots of choices. Make sure they are “dofollow” as well. Many people are caught off guard when they find out some of their favorite places are in fact nofollow. That means Google won’t follow your link and you get zip link juice. I don’t waste my time with places like that. There are hundreds of high quality places to post content to.

Some people ask me, what are the best places to submit your information to? I will always submit my content to places like Idea Marketers, Goarticles and of course my favorite, Ezine Articles. Once I’ve submitted between 5 to 10 articles at each place, I move to other top tier directories by doing a Google search.

I have found that there is a law of diminishing returns. Google and the other search engines will only give so much SEO link juice credit. Other popular ways to get some additional back links is by making comments at forums and Blogs. I have found most of those links over time will disappear because its too easy to game the system using software to submit comments. I am not saying there is no value, but if you make comments at other people’s websites, please add value to the conversation and not something like, “hey great information.” I always delete those comments because its just spam to me.

One good strategy that most people miss out on, but is highly effective, is to do guest posting at other high ranking websites. Many website owners are opening up their websites because its a win-win situation.

Silo Structures and LSI – Advanced Linking Methods

If you want to get more advanced into link structures, you can look up the term Silo Structured Website on Google and see how you can structure your website for even more link juice power. Most people are not familiar with this term, but its been around for awhile. Keep in mind, if you are following a silo structure, you need to include LSI (latent semantic indexing) as well for best results. Basically it means that for your keyword term, there will be related terms in your keyword category. You don’t have to follow this methodology and can keep it simple and still do very well in the search engine ranking game.

How to Get More SEO Juice from Each Article

The reality today, its become a very competitive market place to rank on page 1. The problem for many people is first, just trying to write good quality content and second, trying to find the time to re-write that content to place at other article directories. If you want to leverage your time more effectively and reduce your workload, then you may want to check out article spinners.

Well, that wraps up this monster post of mine today. I hope you have a better understanding of what it requires to develop an authority site. Your place to begin is good keyword research and analysis, drilling down to find those niche markets with little competition, choosing a domain name, and the significance of creating one-way links. At the end of the day, it really comes down to putting in the work.

To learn more about how I maximize my article marketing efforts and get more back links for each article,

Click Here: Article Rewriter

1. Windows Live Writer (Windows)

This free application is made just for bloggers and it allows them to see their posts just as they will appear on their Windows Live blog before they are actually published. Multiple blogs can be managed with Windows Live Writer and some of its features include the ability to add and edit photographs and . . . → Continue Reading]]> Bloggers have many tools available to them to not only make their posts eye-catching, but to also attract new readership to their sites. Below are ten applications that not only make blogs more alluring but also make the process of posting much more efficient.

1. Windows Live Writer (Windows)

This free application is made just for bloggers and it allows them to see their posts just as they will appear on their Windows Live blog before they are actually published. Multiple blogs can be managed with Windows Live Writer and some of its features include the ability to add and edit photographs and video, create headings, specialized fonts, background colors and images, margins, borders, and block quotes.

2. AdesClrPicker (Windows)

Appearance is important which is why bloggers love AdesClrPicker, an application that makes it easy and fast to add color to blog posts as well as advertisements. Users can automatically add colors from a floating menu and create a personalized color library. You can also easily modify colors to your liking by adjusting the hues, saturation, and brightness. AdesClrPicker is small in size, can store ten captured colors in its memory, and is free.

3. Snagit (Windows)

This applications provides a simple way to capture images, video, and text exactly as you see it on your computer screen. You can then edit images and use the Snagit Studio to customize the shots. Bloggers love this app because it enables them to illustrate their points without the need for readers to click on a link. Earlier versions can be downloaded for free.

4. Tweetdeck (Windows, Linux & Mac OS X)

Spreading the word about your blog is essential and Twitter is one of the best tools out there today to attract new readers. Tweetdeck is an application that makes your Twitter experience much more efficient, simple, and fast.

5. Digsby (Windows, Linux & Mac OS X)

Connect with all of your IM and social networking contacts all through this application that happens to be available for free. Not only can you keep up to date with everything on Twitter, Facebook, and other popular networking sites, but you can also manage all of your email accounts and have one buddy list for all of your IM accounts no matter what service they are on.

6. Flickr (Windows)

A blog with only text may not hold the attention of visitors for very long. Adding interesting and relevant imagery is a great way to create instant appeal. This application shows images that are freely available for use under the Creative Commons license, but you should must check that you aren’t using images protected under copyright. Keep it in mind that you’re expected to attribute the image to its creator with a link to their profile on Flickr.

7. Notepad++ (Windows)

Bloggers frequently use this free text editor to tweak the design of their theme. One of the major benefits, apart from its price tag, is the ability to auto-highlight code for a variety of programming languages. Notepadd++ offers syntax highlighting that can be defined by the user as well as syntax folding along with multi-document and mulit-view features and the ever-useful auto-completion. Users can drag and drop code, and also record and play back macros.

8. Mozilla Firefox (Windows, Linux & Mac OS X)

This free web browser is great for bloggers because there are so many ways to customize it with plugins. Not only will it meet your exact needs, it will have a look that is all your own. Firefox is super fast, offers private browsing, has anti-phishing and anti-malware protection, and one-click book marking. If you’re always browsing the web for stories to report, then Firefox is definitely recommended.

9. Feeddermon Feed Reader (Windows)

This is a popular feed reader for bloggers that allows users to read news even when the internet is down. It organizes feeds easily and access pages quickly with links that open a built-in browser.

10. RSS Bandit (Windows)

Read multiple blogs and sites from just one interface with this advanced feed reader application. IRSS Bandit is free and works right from your desktop. Direct synchronization gives it the ability to work with Google Reader and NewsGator Online.

From creating a blog that has appeal to a wide readership to promoting it through the most effective channels, these applications are essential for dynamic bloggers. Not only are they fun to use, they also assure that blog authors have access to the most up-to-date technology and information.

Written by Tom Walker, a web designer and writer from the UK working for an online supplier of Epson Stylus Photo inks. Check out CreativeCloud for more of his writing on advertising, art and design.

For today, I want to discuss about the quality of links that we are getting and are about to get. Backlink building doesn’t end up in just getting a backlink from the site. We should also look at the quality of the links that we are getting. If you notice, there are websites that rarely updates, and too few backlinks yet they get a good . . . → Continue Reading]]> Apologies for being too late with my new update, I have been very busy with my job as a part of an SEO group doing new extensive projects that requires a hell lot of work!

For today, I want to discuss about the quality of links that we are getting and are about to get. Backlink building doesn’t end up in just getting a backlink from the site. We should also look at the quality of the links that we are getting. If you notice, there are websites that rarely updates, and too few backlinks yet they get a good PR and traffic. This is because the quality of the backlinks that they are getting is high.

I will share this lesson that I heard from as SEO webinar that I attended which targeted the quality of links.

Content Inlinks – HIGH quality – Articles/contents that attracts links from other site or referring the article. Anchor or mentions from other articles.

Link Trades – MODERATE – Partnerships, Link Exchanges (blogroll to blogroll)

Paid Links – LOW – Links on the sidebars or blogrolls. This can be high if related to site but can be devalued or penalized if not.

Link Reclamation – HIGH – If link source finds broken links, it re-points to active and valuable pages.

If you have something to add or questions to ask, feel free to put it in the comment section below. Thanks for reading and keep coming back for more

I have already linked out to bloggers that helped me including . . . → Continue Reading]]> I have been thinking about a contest in this blog for a long time, maybe a top commentator contest, It’s a common strategy for bloggers to increase readership and increase comments, but I don’t have that enormous traffic yet that I can start with. Maybe there’s 4 or 5 commentators but it’s not yet enough, so I was thinking maybe a backlink for those who comments in this blog. But not every commentator, of course there should be a reason for me to give them a backlink.

I have already linked out to bloggers that helped me including Alan Mater, Simon, Toan, Sire, Mitch and Lee Ka Hoong. The very reason why I linked out to them is that their comments are very informative, very helpful and fills out the things that I forgot to mention in my articles.

So simply, I will link back to those bloggers who gave help and that’s it. Even though I don’t know you yet, as long as you helped me and the other readers, you deserve a gratitude for doing that. Because you know, not every blogger does that. There are also bloggers who doesn’t help other bloggers because they are afraid to be competed which I think is not healthy as a blogger.

So what do you think? Will it increase readership and comments?

A comment from Lee Ka Hoong of MyBlog2Day opened this topic which I am really thankful because it’s an additional helpful information that I should mention on that post. Well, it’s not too late for an update right? (lol)

Here is goes…

Using a keyword on your domain is good if you want to target specific audience or a larger . . . → Continue Reading]]> In my previous post “A Simple Tip for Choosing a Domain Name“, I mentioned ways on how to choose a domain name. I actually forgot to mention Branding, in which this tip is not applicable in some ways.

A comment from Lee Ka Hoong of MyBlog2Day opened this topic which I am really thankful because it’s an additional helpful information that I should mention on that post. Well, it’s not too late for an update right? (lol)

Here is goes…

Using a keyword on your domain is good if you want to target specific audience or a larger traffic from people with the interest of the niche that you are blogging about.

But if you want to brand your blog, like what Lee said, it’s better to use unique domain names. Branding, simply making you popular from that word. Example, you are popular when it comes to health tips from a domain name www.dailyfreshies.com. You are not using the keyword that relates to the health niche but you are popular when it comes to health or any related topics when it comes to health.

There are popular bloggers who use the “Branding” strategy like Yaro Starak and John Chow.

When it comes to traffic and SEO, you don’t have to worry that you will not get the amount of traffic that you’ve been wanting. Like what every bloggers say, patience, eventually you’ll get known with that niche and you’ll get the traffic maybe doubled from a keyword domain name

And don’t forget to check out Lee’s article of “5 Ways To Build Your Brand Effectively”

Here’s a glimpse of his article: Blogging becomes very famous and popular on the web, number of blog used to be increased everyday and there is thousands or million blogs on the blogopshere.

Follow these  simple tips that will help you choose the right word/s for your domain:

Blogging, online jobs, Internet Marketing, those are the most popular online money maker but it’s not blogging alone, or online jobs alone and limiting yourself with it will help you make money online. There are some things that needs to be done first before you can make money with it.

Check out these . . . → Continue Reading]]> Making money online is getting popular nowadays. It plays around the ears of many when they know they can make even more money while staying at home, but it doesn’t mean making money online is easy knowing that you are staying at home only.

Blogging, online jobs, Internet Marketing, those are the most popular online money maker but it’s not blogging alone, or online jobs alone and limiting yourself with it will help you make money online. There are some things that needs to be done first before you can make money with it.

Check out these sources, they can help you make even more money online.

Things You MUST Do To Make Money Online – by Alan Mater. Read this article before starting off on making money online.

Here’s a glimpse of his article: “Going off from what I wrote yesterday about why you will never make money online, I thought I’d provide some advice on what you can do to ensure that you DO make money online.“

5 Ways to Make Money through Online Jobs – by Toan Nguyen Minh. A young blogger who makes good money online.

Here’s a glimpse of his article: “Technological advancements and plenty of opportunities lurking around on the internet for grabs have made out a rush of people who are willing to sit at their systems and try their hand in making money online.“

So what do you think? Do you have more sources to add? feel free to comment and put some links of important sources.

Thanks for reading and keep coming back for more