Posts by Martin09 The Joker
SEO TIPS and AFFILIATE ADVERTISING
Nominated Post 21 essential SEO tips and techniques
1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great Web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. Aaron Wall’s SEO Book, Jennifer Laycock’s Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin are three I’ve read and recommend.
5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com… Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.
9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Search Marketing or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta altogether if you’d like; it’s close to inconsequential. If you use it, put misspellings in there, and any related keywords that don’t appear on the page.
12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.
13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.
15. Build links intelligently. Submit your site to quality, trusted directories such as Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com…, Aviva, and Best of the web. Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area—the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too.
16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.
17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com… so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com….
18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com…, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.
20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google’s webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.
21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.
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Nominated Post All About Affiliate Advertising
Affiliate advertising (sometimes also referred to as affiliate marketing) is the term currently used to describe one type of program a web site typically sets up to allow other sites to advertise their products and/or services and to receive commissions in return.
Such programs are often open to almost anyone with a web site, newsletter, or other electronic means of running the affiliate program’s ads. Typically, the web site either creates an affiliate program Web page on its own site or contracts with an affiliate network to promote and run its affiliate program.
Either way, companies that create such programs develop various types of text and image advertisements, embed them with special tracking codes that allow them to know who sent them the traffic, and encourage affiliates to use these advertisements to promote their sites.
GET UP TO SPEED
Affiliate advertising is a concept that can seem a bit overwhelming, even after you have tried it for a while. The way to grasp the whole subject is to break it into components. Affiliate advertising can be best understood by defining its three basic components: affiliates, affiliate programs, and affiliate networks. Once you have a basic understanding of these elements, you’ll be able to start signing up for programs and creating your first accounts.
Who Are the Affiliates?
You are. Affiliates are entrepreneurs like you who are willing to advertise other web sites’ products and services for a commission. These affiliate commissions may be only a secondary revenue stream for some entrepreneurs whose primary online business is complemented by running relevant ads on some pages. For others, it may represent their primary revenue stream. Affiliates can use one of several models to conduct their affiliate advertising activities.
Personal and Business Web Sites.
Traditionally, affiliate marketers have placed advertisements on web sites they create themselves. These web sites may provide a product or service of their own, running a few ads in appropriate locations to create a little extra revenue.
In some cases these web sites might contain some type of content (news, blogs, etc.) to attract visitors, while relying entirely on advertisements to generate revenue. In either case, the key to the success of their affiliate advertising revenue stream is the ability not just to drive traffic to their site, but also to provide advertisements relevant to the content of the site that their visitors are likely to find inviting.
One of the most commonly seen types of ads today is not a traditional banner ad, but a dynamically generated ad that relates in some way to the Web page content near it. For instance, if you create a Web page about science and astronomy, or if you simply make a passing mention of telescopes in your blog, you can place an advertising code provided by Google AdSense on the page and it will dynamically serve up a mixture of ads, all related to your site in this case, astronomy.
E-publications.
Regular publications such as newsletters that are e-mailed to subscribers are effective ways to reach customers who have “opted in” to what you have to say by signing up. As there is no cost associated with sending an e-mail message beyond the time and effort put into writing it, these e-publications can be cost effective once you have built up a sizable list of subscribers, that is.
Newsletters can take time to prepare, and attracting and retaining subscribers can be a very tricky task. E-publications sent to active subscribers should not be confused with unwanted and unrequested junk e-mail. You should mail e-publications and newsletters only to users who request to be added as regular subscribers to the publication.
Free Software or Freeware.
An excellent source of revenue can be embedded affiliate ads in helpful programs that Web surfers can download for free.
A freeware program, which performs a service the user wants and needs, makes it clear that downloading the product will result in the display of occasional advertisements so that the service can remain free.
This should not be confused with the unscrupulous practice of embedding spyware, which may install itself uninvited or which may not explain the commercial aspects of software before it is downloaded.
Search Marketing.
My preferred method of advertising, and the only advertising method that will be covered in detail in this article, is search marketing.
Or, to be more specific, paid search marketing on a variety of paid search and content networks. Paid search refers to the practice of charging for the placement of ads in search results or on specific content-related web sites (remember AdSense?) a practice that makes search and content networks lots of money.
Most search marketers place ads on paid search and content networks such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. On MSN, as on other search and content networks, these paid ads appear both at the top and on the right-hand side of a page of search results.
These paid search advertisements are my bread and butter, and using them to generate wealth is the primary focus of this article. I have made millions of dollars already, and if you apply yourself, you just might make a few million for yourself.
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