Nalogy Marketing is not necessarily affiliated with sites that may be linked to this site. Some links within this book may be affiliate links for products of services mentioned. Purchasing a product mentioned by using the links provided may result in a commission payment to us.
Nalogy Marketing is not necessarily affiliated with sites that may be linked to this site. Some links within this book may be affiliate links for products of services mentioned. Purchasing a product mentioned by using the links provided may result in a commission payment to us.
Nalogy Marketing is not necessarily affiliated with sites that may be linked to this site. Some links within this book may be affiliate links for products of services mentioned. Purchasing a product mentioned by using the links provided may result in a commission payment to us.
Comprehensive, Up-to-the-Minute; Panda & Penguin-compliant
The Time-Tested, Proven Course
for Building a 6-Figure Internet Business Adsense $100k Blueprint Version 3.0.pr http!!""".#dsense$00%Blueprint.&om Cop'right (0$( #nalog' )ar%eting, #ll *ights *eserved LEGAL Stuff we have to say: While we have made every effort to insure the accuracy and appropriate use of the information provided, the authors make no claims or warranties, express or implied, regarding anything contained herein. While all earnings and profit examples used herein are our actual results based on what is presented, we also can not make any guarantees of earnings or profits. We believe that if you follow our steps & recommendations diligently, that you will get the results suggested, however we make no promises, warranties, or assurances of any kind. Many factors determine success, and we can only account for some of them. The owner and author of this book is not necessarily affiliated with sites that may be linked to this site and is not responsible for their content. The linked sites are for your convenience only and you access them at your own risk. Links to other websites or references to products, services or publications other than those of nalogy Marketing, do not imply the endorsement or approval of such websites, products, services or publications. !n some cases, purchasing a product mentioned by using the links provided may result in a commission payment to us. "ertain names, graphics, logos, icons, designs, words, titles or phrases in this book may constitute trade names, trademarks or service marks of nalogy Marketing or of other entities. The display of trademarks on this website does not imply that a license of any kind has been granted. #ome links within this book may be affiliate links for products of services mentioned. #hould you click$through on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive compensation for that purchase. That%s how affiliate links work. !n no case is any link presented solely for the potential affiliate commission& products, services, and links are always and only used because we believe them to be beneficial, with the affiliate commission being a secondary consideration. ny unauthori'ed copying, downloading, re$transmission, or other copying of modification of trademarks and(or the contents herein may be a violation of federal common law trademark and(or copyright laws and could sub)ect the copier to legal action. The bottom line is this* the information herein represents our best efforts, but cannot and should not be construed as anything other than a suggested course of action that may or may not work for you. e put a lot of wor!, heart, and soul into this in order to help you succeed "y showing you how to copy e#actly our successful "usiness model$ e hope you ta!e advantage of it, "ut don%t a"use it$ e "elieve in &arma, and !now good things will happen to you if you follow our plan, and do right$ 'esides, we don%t want you getting hit "y a "us$ Table of Contents L+,L ........................................................................................................................................- #T.T /+.+..............................................................................................................................0 bout the 1lueprint.................................................................................................................2 34* The %1ackstory%.................................................................................................................5 6ew World 7rder...............................................................................................................89 1eyond The %1lueprint%..........................................................................................................89 3ersion 4....................................................................................................................................88 #:MM.;............................................................................................................................88 <ivot <oint 8 = 6iche & >eyword #election..........................................................................8- <ivot <oint - = .ankings & Traffic........................................................................................8- <ivot <oint 4 = "onversions..................................................................................................84 1uilding a 1usiness 7nline...................................................................................................8? <anda & <enguin, <enalties & <revention...........................................................................80 17:T @#+6#+....................................................................................................................85 #ummary...............................................................................................................................85 >eeping ;our ,oogle dsense ccount...............................................................................85 ,etting ,oogle dsense ccount......................................................................................-8 lternatives to dsense........................................................................................................-4 dsense A899k 1lueprint $ Without dsense ......................................................................-4 T/+ A899> 1L:+<.!6T <.7"+##........................................................................................-0 The 89$#tep <rocess............................................................................................................-0 #tep 8* "hoosing 1usiness Model.....................................................................................-2 1usiness Models..............................................................................................................-2 B"lassic 1lueprintB $ :pdated to 34..................................................................................-5 BLong$Tail 1lueprintB.........................................................................................................-5 Buthority /ub 1lueprintB..................................................................................................-C BTopical .evenue$#hare 1lueprintB..................................................................................49 Leveraging 7ur Mobile World...........................................................................................49 1ut !t%s #till ll bout TrafficD.............................................................................................48 #tep - $ "hoosing 6iche of Topic......................................................................................4- <anda ( <enguin 6ote......................................................................................................44 E!nformationalF vs Eproduct$centricF..................................................................................44 BModelingB and 3isitor <rofiling........................................................................................4G The "haracteristics of #earch Traffic...............................................................................4G Mental <rofiling.................................................................................................................4? 6iche .esearch 1rainstorming.............................................................................................40 EThe :sual #uspectsF.......................................................................................................40 6iche .esearch +xamples...................................................................................................42 6iche .esearch !dea ,enerators.........................................................................................42 The :ltimate !nternet Marketing .esource...........................................................................45 "hoosing ;our @omain.........................................................................................................45 TL@%s.....................................................................................................................................4C >+;W7.@ .+#+."/ ..........................................................................................................G9 The <resent Huture 7f >eyword .esearch..........................................................................G9 >eyword .esearch ,oals.....................................................................................................G9 >eyword "ompetition & "riteria 6ote...................................................................................G8 +ffective >eyword .esearch.................................................................................................G8 ,etting The ,old...................................................................................................................G- Wither The Wonder WheelI..................................................................................................G0 BWonder Wheel @eluxeB...................................................................................................?8 1asic and not$#o$1asic >eyword .esearch.........................................................................?4 Hree >eyword .esearch Tools vs. <aid >eyword .esearch Tools.......................................?G Hree >eyword .esearch Tools..............................................................................................?? Hree >eyword .esources.....................................................................................................?2 <aid >eyword .esearch Tools, or BTime 3s. MoneyB...........................................................?5 #+"ockpit.............................................................................................................................?5 Hew Words bout #earch 3olume and E.ankingF.............................................................?C Hew !M<7.T6T Words bout "ompetition....................................................................08 "ompetition for ,oogle .anking...........................................................................................08 Word bout E"lick <atternsF..............................................................................................08 Word bout <agerank........................................................................................................0- "ompetition...........................................................................................................................0G ..........................................................................................................................................00 #ome Last Words bout <agerank ......................................................................................00 H7LL7W ( 67H7LL7W.......................................................................................................02 "76T+6T.................................................................................................................................05 "ontent Marketing.................................................................................................................05 "ontent Juality.....................................................................................................................0C The 6ew .ules 7f "ontent .................................................................................................0C 7ptimi'ing 7ur "ontent .......................................................................................................28 "ontent, >eywords, and 7n$<age 7ptimi'ation ..................................................................28 Write !t 7urselves.................................................................................................................24 7utsourcing...........................................................................................................................2G <ublic @omain.......................................................................................................................22 <L........................................................................................................................................22 M71!L+.....................................................................................................................................25 dsense for Mobile...............................................................................................................25 T.HH!"...................................................................................................................................2C Traffic .evisited....................................................................................................................2C B#ite.ankB.............................................................................................................................58 .anking, <agerank, and E1acklinksF....................................................................................5- ETotal 1acklink 3alueF............................................................................................................5G Why .ankings "hange.........................................................................................................5G 1uilding 7ur 1acklinks..........................................................................................................5? Types of 1acklinks................................................................................................................5? #ocial 1ookmarking .........................................................................................................50 .##...................................................................................................................................5C <rivate 6etwork................................................................................................................C9 ,uest 1logging.................................................................................................................C8 rticles..............................................................................................................................C4 <ress .eleases.................................................................................................................C4 1log "ommenting.............................................................................................................CG Horums..............................................................................................................................C? 7ther 1acklink 7pportunities................................................................................................C? 1acklink utomation, 7utsourcing, and <aid Tools..............................................................C0 Word bout ELink 3elocityF............................................................................................C0 Word bout ELink @iversityF...........................................................................................C0 7<L $ E7ther <eople%s LinksF................................................................................................C2 START HERE Let me begin by saying EThank ;ouDF for purchasing Edsense A899k 1lueprintF. Hor those of you who want it, and make the effort, this will be a true life$changer for you. This course is designed to help you build your own long$term, sustainable A899k business. !t assumes very little knowledge or prior experience, goes over in detail everything you%ll need to know, and provides clear, step$by$step instructions. The course is designed for both BnewbiesB and BprosB. Hor those relatively new to !nternet Marketing and dsense, you%ll find clear, concise direction, and %digestible% explanations. We also know that many of you have a great deal of experience and knowledge already. Whatever level you're at, we strongly suggest you read this entire section. ( )ery *mportant +ote lthough the title of the course refers to BdsenseB, that has more to do with the course origins and where we applied those early efforts, rather than anything here that%s uniKue$ or applicable only to dsense. THIS IS PRI!RI"# ! C$%RS& T&!CHI'( H$W T$ !)& $'&# $'"I'&. !nternet Marketing has undergone profound change over the last 8-$85 months, much of it driven by ,oogle. @epending on your personal philosophy and %moral compass%, the sea$change that has occurred may feel good $ or not$so$good. The crux of it is this* the days of manipulation and BloopholeB internet marketing are gone, and with it, a certain segment of the industry as well. Hor those seeking Bsomething$for$nothingB or that Binstant !nternet millionsB dream where we %extract% profits without providing any value in return, these changes will not be welcome. 1ut for those willing to put forth the effort and do it BrightB, things have gotten considerably more straight$forward, predictable, and sustainable. Which brings us back to the point that this is a course for making money online, with dsense or by other means. !n other words, the tactics & strategies we%ll teach you can be applied )ust as effectively to affiliate marketing, e$commerce, product development & sales, etc. #+out The Blueprint +ote: Since this course grew out of our efforts to moneti,e (dsense, the various "usiness models - %'lueprints% - were developed and optimi,ed for (dsense$ 'ut as mentioned a"ove, these "usiness models are -ust as effective for other moneti,ation means, such as affiliate sales$ e have, and continue to use each for a variety of opportunities and moneti,ation methods - all very successfully$ Bdsense A899k 1lueprint $ 3ersion 4B Lreferred to simply as B899kB or )ust B34BM is divided into sections. +ach section begins with a summary of what the section covers, followed by the EmeatF of the section, and where appropriate, the #tep$by$#tep instructions. :nlike previous versions $ or for that matter, any other course we know of $ 34 provides four distinct business models, which we refer to here as B1lueprintsB. +ach is a fully$formed strategy for building a website & online business based on your ideas, niches, and opportunities. each will result in profitable dsense sites, but can also be used for different moneti'ation methods. 1ecause we use a very different approach from most of the %conventional wisdom%, it%s crucial that you read through each section and 1usiness Models before beginning. +ven if you think you know that section%s topic well, please read at least the summary first. t that point you will know whether it is something you can skip past or not. >eep in mind that what we are showing you is entirely based on actual, real-world experiences. 6one of this is theory, con)ecture, or stuff that %sounds like% it should work. These are methods that we have learned and refined by @7!6,, over a long period of time. dsense A899k 1lueprint turns dsense upside$down, and E"onventional WisdomF on it%s head. fter all, if you%ve been following %conventional wisdom% and are still reading this, it probably didn%t work for you, and you probably haven%t made the kind of money you%re looking for. #pecifically* E"onventional WisdomF says, %@on%t even bother with certain niches, they%re too hard(competitive(saturatedDF Those are EXACTLY the niches we show you how to take advantae of! "hy# $ecause that%s where the traffic volu&e and &oney are' E"onventional WisdomF says you can only expect to see ? cents and 89 cents per click with dsense. "e%re oin to show you how to et (), (*, and &ore + per click' E"onventional WisdomF says the only way to make anywhere near 0$figures with dsense is either to build 8999$page EuthorityF sites, or to create hundreds of EMicro 6icheF sites. We say* <hoooeyD We%ll show you how to make more with +"/ site then you would with a whole #L+W of Micro$earning sitesD !n fact, we%ll show you how to make build & money with both %small% and %large% efforts* smaller BTopicalB opportunity sites piggy$backing on Web -.9 platforms, and legitimate Buthority /ubsB. !f you%re ready to really %make it%, then you%re ready to read on. 1ut before ! %let you loose% on the 1lueprint, ! want to set a few things straight. Success * at lease in this case, re+uires a degree of hard wor, and co--it-ent. This is '$T a .get rich +uic,/ sche-e, or a .-agic bullet/ that you can fly through and e01ect good results. What this !# however, is a set of <.73+6 plans that if followed, will help you to build a legitimate, sustainable 0$figure income. dsense is a %numbers game%. /ow much you make is directly proportional to how much traffic you generate, what percentage of that traffic clicks on an ad Lyour "T.M, and how much you earn per ad click. <ut another way* *ncome . traffic # conversions # /PC 0/arnings Per Clic!1 What our 1lueprints will do is insure that EtrafficF, EconversionsF, and E+<"F are all high numbers. We%ll show you the EwhyF and EhowF, but ;7: have to put in the effort. We have striven to make this something virtually anyone can implement, but again, you have to actually @7 it. V3 The ,Ba&%stor', Edsense A899k 1lueprintF, or %899k%, has been around a while now. !n fact, it%s really Kuite old in !nternet yearsD LE!nternet yearsF are like %dog years% = except instead of 2 years for every 8 %normal% year, it%s more like -9 to 8M. Why are we braggingI !sn%t EoldF in !nternet Marketing parlance a %kiss$of$death%I fter all, blinking text on a web page is EoldF, but no one is bragging about using itD #ure enough, in that context it isn%t a very good thing. 1ut in this case, it is. Let me explain* The !nternet Marketing industry has always been one of rapid, massive change = new technologies, new strategies, etc. What worked yesterday may very well not work tomorrow = and certainly not next year, unless... it is able to adapt. %899k% was initially released in -989 Lthat would be EThe ;ear -999F in dog years, or Ethe sixtiesF in !nternet yearsM. !t was based on our own strategy for building dsense sites, a strategy that had taken over a year to develop. #tarting from %scratch% = throwing out Econventional wisdomF $ and figuring things out for ourselves, we proceeded to test everything we could, tweaking as we went along, optimi'ing ad configurations & placements, page layouts, improving "lick$Through .ates L%"T.%M, etc. We applied the same process and efforts to niche selection, keyword development, competition analysis = everything. 7ver time, we were able to achieve some extraordinary results, and repeat them. 7ver & over. The key phrase there is %repeat%. /aving developed a %system%, we were able to repeat our efforts, and see similar results. This was our E1lueprintF, and it worked. Much like the %1lueprint% for a house* a builder should expect the same result each time they build using the same 1lueprint. :nless... the conditions change. !f ! try to build my 4$story house according to my 1lueprint, but now instead of hard$packed earth, ! find !%m building on sand, my house isn%t going to %perform% the same. My last house may have stood firm, but now that !%m building on sand, ! find it%s sagging, sinking down... ...and this is what happened. The conditions changed. nd changed again. The conditions for ranking changed. The conditions for content changed. The conditions for program compliance changed. 1ut each time they changed, we were able to make commensurate changes in the 1lueprint. t least up until recently. 1y mid$-988, we had released %899k% 3ersion -, including many minor changes in the interim, but saw that %conditions% were changing in a much more profound way. Which is to say, ,oogle unleashed <anda, then <enguin, with some ma)or algorithm changes in the mix. <anda and <enguin were true game$changers, not )ust for dsense, but for !nternet Marketing as a whole. #uddenly, %conditions% changed in massive, instantaneous ways. The incremental changes to %conditions% we%d been accustomed to, and which could be addressed through similar incremental changes to tactics, were swept aside by huge %re$configurations% in the landscape. nd those %re$configurations% = <anda and <enguin $ reKuired a complete %re$thinking% of our 1lueprint. 1ut that was )ust as well& here is why* # -e" .orld /rder The changes emanating from ,oogle were destined to happen sooner or later. !nternet marketers had Epoisoned the wellF so$to$speak, reaching such epidemic proportions that it actually interfered with the ability to do searches and find information. 1ut that%s only half the story. While this was happening, the !nternet was undergoing it%s biggest, most far$reaching change since it began* the era of Mobile connectivity and the #ocial Web arrived, seemingly overnight. nd that .+LL; changed everythingD !nternet usage, behavior, and expectations all changed. The way people got online, the reasons for getting online, and their behaviors have all changed profoundly. s such, some of the thinking behind where, how, and why we build dsense sites needed to change. That%s a good thingD Be'ond The ,Blueprint, %899k% 3ersion 8 and 3ersion - revolved around a single, very specific model $ the %informational micro$niche% sites that were built from a keyword phrase group $ with a very specific strategy designed to target each keyword phrase individually, with a page devoted to each, and traffic generation focused on getting those pages ranked by accumulating backlinks. %899k% has been extremely successful = beyond our greatest expectations. Most of that is because we decided early on to pursue a strategy of developing only long$term, sustainable business models. The original %1lueprint% was based entirely on what we did for our own !M business. 1ut it wasn%t = and isn%t = the only thing we do for our !M business. s time went by, we found we were doing more and more sites %outside% that original model. nd as time by, we also found that more and more of our customers were looking to do different things. !n some cases, people applied the %899k% model to efforts other than dsense. !n other cases, we found people applying parts of %899k% to different types of dsense sites. nd so we decided to %expand% the 1lueprint, )ust as we had expanded our own business, and try to provide the wider range of tactics & strategies we had found successful for us, so that you, the customer, could benefit from them as well. Which brings us here, to the present, and Edsense A899k 1lueprintF 3ersion 4D %34% has two main concerns* how to develop website opportunities, and how to get those sites to perform well. Version 3 01))#*2 hat it is, how and why it wor!s Nust as with the previous versions, it isn%t necessary to know much about dsense in order to take advantage of this 1lueprint. !n fact, those of you who are new to !nternet Marketing have a distinct advantage* you won%t have to %unlearn% so many things, or struggle with breaking out of the E!nternet Marketing 8.9F mindset. Hor those of you already somewhat experienced in !nternet Marketing, we encourage you all the more to read through the main <@H carefully. ;ou will almost certainly find that some of the assumptions and information you have is incorrect, about dsense, and !nternet Marketing in general. More importantly, you will learn about dsense from a more strategic perspective. The new dsense A899k 1lueprint 3ersion 4 $ E34F $ provides a number of models, or individual %1lueprints%, from which you can build successful dsense sites. !n addition, it provides some underlying tactics & strategies for getting your sites ranked, and for getting other non$search free traffic. Edsense A899k 1lueprintF 3ersion - leveraged 4 %<ivot <oints% = niche & keyword selection, rankings & traffic, and conversions. %3ersion 4% also leverages these %<ivot <oints% = why mess with what worksI $ but in fundamentally different ways. The results, however, are eKually effective* we%re able to build revenue$generating dsense opportunities, across a range of business models and sites, reliably and consistently. This course is designed to show you how we do it, so that you can do it too. Pivot Point $ 3 -i&he 4 5e'"ord 0ele&tion We%ve always been about working in the big EevergreenF niches* Hinance, /ealth(Medicine, .eal +state, Legal, +ducation(Training, etc. We do this because they have a lot of traffic, and support %sub$niches% with plenty of traffic, and relatively moderate competition. Nust as our keyword research %powered% our success in 3ersion -, so it also plays a crucial part in our success now $ though in a somewhat different role. 3ersion 4 provides additional choices for building successful dsense sites, but all of them begin with 6iche & >eyword #election. 7ur %"lassic 1lueprint% model $ an updated version of the original website model $ targets %secondary% niches, developing a %keyword phrase group% for the chosen niche, then getting the website ranked for each of the keywords in the %keyword phrase group%. lternately, we%ll also show you how you can successfully target those Edon%t even tryF niche keywords using our %uthority 1lueprint%. !f you prefer a EwideF approach rather than a Edirect & targetedF approach, we%ll show you how to harness the huge pools of secondary, Blong tailB traffic = which is also very targeted traffic that provides very high "lick$Through .ates = with our %Long$tail 1lueprint%. We%ll also show you how to leverage Earea of interestF niches using our %Topical .evenue$ #hare% model, and in the process build a successful dsense business = without having to build any websitesD Pivot Point ( 3 *an%ings 4 Traffi& The next pivot point revolves around traffic = lots and lots of traffic. 7nce we have chosen our niche, depending on the model we%re pursuing, we%ll begin to develop our site.either small, tightly$integrated keyword phrase groupsO, or large keyword sets which will enable us to attract search engine traffic to our sites. ( +23/ ('2U3 S*3/'U*45*+6: A),,k was oriinally developed usin the "ordpress platfor&, soðin we carry forward to -ersion .! /n the oriinal versions, we &ade sure to say that if you weren%t fa&iliar with "ordpress, 0!!!don%t worry, we%ll show you 1exactly1 how we do it!2 "ith -ersion . we can add 0!!!we%ll also show you how to apply our tactics 3 strateies to non-"ordpress sites, and we%ll even show you how to succeed without buildin A4Y sites, "ordpress or otherwise'2 <ivot point - consists of our strategies & tactics for getting traffic = lots & lots of traffic $ to our sites. 7ne aspect involves our own refined #+7 formulas, tweaked & optimi'ed to work beautifully with <anda and <enguin. This includes our more %traditional% ranking ranking strategy, plus a new, more radical approach, also tested & proven, which offers very fast ranking in all but the most competitive areas, in order to Kuickly push our websites upwards until we have <age 8 rankings. +23/: We%ve spent months re$optimi'ing our ranking & traffic efforts, testing what still works, what no longer works, and what we need to do to get & hold those top rankings post$F<andaF and post$F<enguinF. !t should go without saying = though we%ll say it again = that )ust like every other part of this course Land everything else we publishM, our strategies are based entirely on our current, working efforts. 6o %theory% hereD With 3ersion 4 we also take a rather radical departure* we look at <ivot <oint - as something that shouldn%t = and doesn%t = rely solely on rankings, and provide you with everything you need to build strong, sustainable traffic separate and aside from rankings. Pivot Point 3 3 Conversions /ere we make a significant departure from our earlier strategies, by %matching% traffic to opportunity type. #aid another way, we%re able to get very high conversions by %going where the buyers are%, and as such presenting the %right% ads to the %right% people in the %right% places. The result is conversions that are routinely way beyond what is typical, even for EgoodF dsense implementationsD !n !side2 Reality Chec,3 5Taken fro& a blo post / wrote recently6 .Profitable !dsense Sites With 4ust $ne Page 5 Two Posts/ !%m in the business of making money online, and teaching others how to do it. big focus has long been dsense publishing. s such, ! routinely read a lot of content from other dsense experts. !%m eager to know what they know, possibly learn new tactics to improve my "T., or different strategies for choosing niches, or maybe pick up some alternate traffic sources ! may not be familiar with. Hor the same reasons, ! also buy other dsense courses, ebooks, etc. ! recently picked up a W#7 LEWarrior #pecial 7fferFM that promised to give me EThe 0$figure "ode to dsenseF or some such. !%m not sure why, perhaps it was the price = ! think it was A42, not a typical bargain$basement W#7. s with many similar guides, this one was really )ust a long description of a basic %formula%* choose a niche, do some keyword research to find a Ehigh volume, low competitionF keyword, register an +M@ LE+xact$Match @omainFM, and put up a Wordpress blog. What made this one stand out to me was the assertion that this guy had figured out the EcodeF $ which ! took to mean, Ehow to produce dsense sites that earn a lot of money, and don%t get smackedF. 1ut the thread on the W#7 sales page, in answer to the Kuestion Ehow long does it take and what do you need to build these sitesF, the author responded E4 pieces of content* one <age and two <ostsF. This was reiterated numerous times throughout the thread, so !%m sure ! didn%t misunderstand. 07ne 8ae and two 8osts2! 09-fiure Adsense code2 !%m sorry, but these are mutually$exclusive statements. The clear, plain truth = the reality = is that you cannot expect to be effective with dsense unless you also expect to produce Lor outsourceM at least %very good% content. nd if you want to add EsustainableF to that, then you really must expect that you will have to produce at least %very good% content that is actually reasonably useful. !n other words, you must build .+L sites. What do ! mean by ErealFI Juite simply, a site that is actually useful or worthwhile to real people. Building # Business /nline Too many people are focused on building an online business $ a very different notion from building a business online. !f your goal is to build an online business, you%re in luckD s an Bunadvertised bonusB, !%m including with this course a simple, H.++ course that will help you build an online business right nowD L! know what you%re thinking, Bwaitaminit... didn%t ! )ust buy a course on building an online businessIB ;ou may have, but this isn%t it. /owever, as mentioned, you%re in luck, because !%ve included one right here.M 7k, are you readyI /ere you go $ how to build an online business* #tep 8* ,et a cheap hosting account. ny one will do. #tep -* .egister a domain name. ny name will do. #tep 4* <ick an affiliate network. ny one will do. #tep G* <ick an affiliate product. ny one will do. #tep ?* /ead over to +'inearticles.com and grab a few articles related to your affiliate product. #tep 0* !nstall Wordpress, create a few posts using your +'inearticles.com articles, and sprinkle some affiliate links throughout. There $ you%ve built an online businessD 7k, ok... While that may sound funny, the unfortunate reality is, most people who try to make money online fail. nd one of the main reasons was )ust illustrated above. nyone can create an Bonline businessB. !t takes next$to$nothing to do* thousands do it every day. nd thousands fail every week. !%m sure you see where !%m going with this... an Bonline businessB is nothing more than an attempt to sell something online. "reating a real BbusinessB on the other hand, is a whole different animal. !t reKuires planning, and a plan, hopefully one that has a reasonable chance of success. !f you want to build an online business, there are plenty of courses, programs, etc. that will happily take your money. .emember, building a business online is not the same thing as building an online business. Panda 4 Penguin, Penalties 4 Prevention !f your website was performing reasonably well one day, and not the next day, it%s possible you were hit with a penalty, or were the %victim% of an update. ,oogle makes ongoing changes to how they operate, some fairly minor, some earth$ shakingly ma)or. <anda & <enguin are of the latter variety $ hugely disruptive. 1ut seeing a site drop off the map entirely doen%t mean it was due to either of those updates. There have been $ and will continue to be $ both minor and ma)or changes that can have profound impact on your sites as far as ,oogle ranking & traffic are concerned. !t%s beyond the scope of this course to go over every update, condition, change, and repair, but we will offer some guidelines to help keep you from harm* Hollow good %Webmaster ,uidelines%. That isn%t meant to be a silly remark. The truth is, most people who experience some penalties do so because they made a decision to cut corners or otherwise try and %game the system%. !f you do this, you should only expect to see some conseKuences sooner or later $ and ,oogle is getting pretty good at BsoonerB. The chief %offenders%I <aid links& automated, mass, or very$low$Kuality links& copied, scraped, or spun content. !n Heb -988, ,oogle released the first of the B<andaB updates. !t%s purpose was to impose some threshold for BKualityB and what it took to get top rankings. #ince then, <anda has been updated and re$run many times. +ach time, it is a bit more refined. The immediate and lasting impact has been this* low$Kuality content pages will no longer rank well. nd, low$Kuality content on one page will impact rankings for the entire site. little over one year later, ,oogle released the first B<enKuinB updates. Nust as B<andaB was intended to limit the ability of low$Kuality sites to rank, B<enguinB was intended to keep sites from ranking by manipulating the backlink profile. #aid another way, B<enguinB penali'es sites that use paid links, or high$volume, low$Kuality links in order to rank. nd like B<andaB, penalties are site$wide. :nlike B<andaB however, penalties can reach across sites and apply account$wide. This means that getting %busted% for paid links on one site can have implications for other sites with the same dsense account. nd again like B<andaB, B<enguinB continues to be refined and re$run. What do ! do if ! got hit by <anda or <enguinBI Hirst, you want to make sure whether or not that actually happened. <anda & <enguin aren%t the only reasons for a site to languish or disappear. To tell whether you%ve been hit by either update, you want to look at the dates they were run and see if they coincide with the dateLsM your siteLsM dropped, etc. /ere is a list of <anda dates through ugust -98-, care of Webmasterworld Horum Lhttp*((www.webmasterworld.com(google(G4G5-?G.htmM 8. <anda 8.9 Laka the Harmer :pdateM on Hebruary -G th -988 -. <anda -.9 on pril 88th -988. L<anda impacts all +nglish speaking countriesM 4. <anda -.8 on May Cth -988 or so G. <anda -.- on Nune 85th -988 or so. ?. <anda -.4 on around Nuly --nd -988. 0. <anda -.G in ugust -988L<anda goes internationalM 2. <anda -.? on #eptember -5 th -988 5. <anda -.?.8 on 7ctober C th -988 C. <anda -.?.- on 7ctober 84th -988 89. <anda -.?.4 on 7ctober 8C(-9th -988 88. <anda 4.8 on 6ovember 85th -988 8-. <anda 4.- on about Nanuary 8?th -98- 84. <anda 4.4 on about Hebruary -0th -98- 8G. <anda 4.G on March -4rd -98- 8?. <anda 4.? on pril 8Cth -98- 80. <anda 4.0 on pril -2th -98- 82. <anda 4.2 on Nune 5th -98- 85. <anda 4.5 on Nune -?th -98- 8C. <anda 4.C on Nuly -Gth -98- -9. <anda 4.C.8 on ugust -9th -98- <enguin dates through ugust -98-, care of Webmasterworld Horum Lhttp*((www.webmasterworld.com(google(45980CC.htmM 8. <enguin 8.9 on pril -Gth -98- -. <enguin 8.8 on May -0th -98- !f you%ve determined you were hit by these updates, the only things you can do is determine what the %violations% were, repair them, and wait for the next iteration to see if you%ve recovered. 7therwise, you%re only alternative is to re$build using a different domain. ABOUT ADSENSE 0ummar' dsense is ,oogle%s Econtextual advertisingF program that allows %publishers% = those with a website = to host ,oogle ads on those sites. These are the ubiKuitous ads you see all over the place = often text ads = that say Eds by ,oogleF. When someone clicks one of those ads, ,oogle charges the advertiser, and gives the publisher = you = a split. L!t used to be con)ecture )ust what that %split% was = most people assumed it was ?9P or less $ but in May -989 ,oogle revealed that they pay out 05P to the publisher. That%s pretty darn goodDM The reason dsense is called Econtextual advertisingF, and the reason dsense works so well, is that ,oogle examines the pages where it%s ads are appearing, figures out what the page is talking about, and places ads that are relevant to that page. With tens of thousands of advertisers and millions of ads, ,oogle is able do an uncanny )ob at placing super$relevant ads = most of the time. This is why people click on the ad. !f you%ve searched for a page talking about how to get into nursing school, and an ad appears saying E,et ;our 6ursing @egree HasterDF, there%s a good chance you are going to want to check it out. 5eeping 2our 6oogle #dsense #&&ount Whether you have an dsense account already, or will first be applying for one, the following information will help you keep your account in good stead and keep from getting banned. IP$RT!'T * R&!6 THIS2 hether you have an (dsense account already, or will first "e getting one, you must !eep something in the forefront of your thin!ing, always: +/)/7 52 (+839*+6 32 :/2P(75*;/ 82U7 (5S/+S/ (CC2U+3< 6ow in spite of what you might read on forums or marketing websites, ,oogle @7+# 67T boot people out of the dsense program for no reason. That said, they are 3+.; sensitive when it comes to dsense, and will err on the side of caution = meaning not your side $ if they discover any %monkey business%. !t%s important to reali'e that ,oogle earns the 3#T MN7.!T; of it%s 1!LL!76# of dollars in revenue from dwords advertisers = the people who are running the ads that will appear on your websites. The L#T thing they want is for advertisers to feel insecure about the integrity of the program, or that they aren%t getting every penny of their money%s worth. There is no reason to be paranoid = again, no one gets banned for no reason = but it%s important to understand the T7# LTerms of #erviceM for dsense, and adhere to them strictly. We have had our accounts for years, as has most others. Those that get banned tend to fall into one of a few categories* 0Click :raud2 $ This is )ust like it sounds, clicking on your own ads, or getting others to click on them. :h, don%t do this. nd reali'e that ,oogle is a pretty smart animal. ;ou aren%t going to fool them = not for long anyway = by having others click on your ads. 0Click Coercion2 $ This entails trying to entice or fool visitors into clicking on your ad. This has taken the form of everything from overtly saying E<lease help support this site by visiting our advertisersF, to the shadier, more subtle schemes such as placing ads so that they are clicked mistakenly. 0/ncentivi;ed Traffic2 7 dsense T7# are very clear = you cannot send %incentivi'ed traffic%% to a page with dsense on it. This includes %paid traffic% such as <ay <er "lick = <<" = as well as %traffic exchanges% where you sign up and everyone checks out each others pages. 0<:A =ites2 $ MH stands for EMade Hor dsenseF, and refers to sites with little or no content of value, sites created with the sole purpose of hosting ads. 1ut wait, isn%t that what we%re doing hereI Hortunately, no. We are creating high$value informational sites, websites intended to provide legitimate information to legitimate searchers. n example of a MH site would be one with worthless %scraped% or copied content, etc. !n other words, if the site has no real value, it might be considered MH. 0Copyrihted <aterial2 $ This should be self$explanatory. @on%t use content you don%t have rights to. 0Content -iolations2 - There are a handful of categories and types of content that will get you banned. These include publishing pornography, EhateF content, cheating(hacking aids, gambling$related content, offering for sale weapons, alcohol(tobacco(drugs, etc. *mportant +ote: >oole has beco&e increasinly willin to penali;e accounts on the basis of individual sites! /f you currently have %low-?uality% sites 5think autobloin, low-?uality content, etc!, or 0sinle-keyword-focused2 sites 5think 0>oole =niper2 sites, 0x-factor2 &icro- niche sites, etc!6, we advise you to re&ove Adsense fro& the&! /t si&ply isn%t worth the risk! $esides, if they haven%t already fallen off the &ap in ter&s of rankins, they will, as these are a pri&ary %taret% of the 08anda2 updates! (nother *mportant +ote: There is a reater deree of %cross-over% today than there once was, across sites, and across prora&s! This &eans that T7= violations or bans in one prora&, such as Adwords, can i&pact another prora& such as Adsense! As a eneral rule, we have found that failure to &aintain a %clean record% and %clean practices% across prora&s 3 websites can be an invitation to closer scrutiny, and possibly &ore! /n an increasinly &ore connected and inter-related /nternet, what we do with one website can and does i&pact our other websites@ this extends to anywhere our ABL%s &ay appear such as blo co&&ents! ( 7eally, 7eally *mportant +ote: /t is the eneral and overall position 3 philosophy of our business + and as such, of this course - that sinificant, sustainable success today re?uires a %lon-ter& approach% to business-buildin! That%s not to say we &ust hold on to our sites %lon-ter&%, or even pursue a particular business &odel %lon-ter&%! $ut the days of %hit 3 run% tactics are one, and in order for our strateies to work in a reliable, sustainable, and repeatable fashion, they &ust adhere to a few uidelinesC 52+%3: E&ploy short-ter& thinkin + loopholes, black- and ray-hat tactics, or other practices who%s purpose is %a&in the syste&%! Do anythin who%s full disclosure could Eeopardi;e your other efforts! 52: $uild your sites and businesses usin positive, sustainable practices! $uild sites 5and businesses6 that add value in so&e &anner + and where value is concerned, %&ore% definitely is %better%! 7/M/M'/7: The internet has infinite possibilities, infinite potential!!!! and infinite &e&ory! (dding (dsense 3o 8our Sites There%s nothing wrong with launching your sites with dsense already placed $ all of our sites launch with dsense $ providing your site is in compliance. ,oogle does not have a policy on this. /owever, if you choose to launch a site with only %partial content% $ meaning you put your site online and allow it to get indexed before it%s finished $ we suggest 67T adding in dsense until you have all your initial content in place. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !f you follow our guidelines and don%t engage in %bad practices%, you do not have to worry about getting banned. !f you take your business seriously, and we hope you do, you would be wise to actually read the T7# and <rogram <olicies themselves. ;ou can find them here* 6oogle (dsense 3erms of Service: https:==www$google$com=adsense=locali,ed-terms 6oogle (dsense Program Policies 0a good summary of what you can%t do1: https:==www$google$com=adsense=support="in=answer$py>hl.en&answer.?@A@B 6etting # 6oogle #dsense #&&ount !f you don%t yet have an dsense account, @7 67T )ust run over to ,oogle and fill out their application. While it used to be both Kuick & easy for almost any website to Kualify, ,oogle has gotten stricter. ,enerally, if you are going to use one of your own domains LwebsitesM, it should be at least 0 months old, and have at least 89 pages of high$Kuality content. The website should not be participating in or promoting any %Kuestionable% activities such gambling, porn, etc., nor should it have any other contextual advertising on it. With a Kuality website that%s at least 0 months old, your chances of getting approved are very good. !f you don%t have a website, or one that is over 0 months old, etc., or want a Kuicker & easier way to get approved, you can use either 1logger = ,oogle%s blogging platform, also known as 1logspot = or /ubpages. ! prefer /ubpages as it seems to have a somewhat higher success rate. +23/: "e recently re-tested this ðod! / created a new Fubpaes account for &y wife + who also had no Adsense account + in a non-co&&ercial niche 5%personal health 3 self-help%6! "e outsourced G hih-?uality articles fro& Textbroker, 9*,-H*, words, usin their hihest 0*- star2 Iuality Level! The Fub was %launched% with 9 articles, and we applied for Adsense throuh the Fub at the sa&e ti&e! "e received %conditional% approval al&ost i&&ediately, and were fully approved in less than ), days! Thouh the ðod below suests creatin a nu&ber of Fubs first, we were able to et approval Eust with one! The procedure outlined below provides the hihest likelihood for acceptance! :sing /ubpages* ;ou will want to create G$? Kuality %/ubs% first. The easiest and Kuickest way is to simply come up with G$? topics, and outsource or write -$4 good$Kuality articles for each. <ublish your /ubs and wait for them to be live and indexed. Make one of your /ubs stronger& this will be the /ub you use to apply with. Hor this /ub, you%ll want at least ?$0 high$Kuality, long articles Lmin. 0?9 wordsM, and include at least one ;outube video. 7nce your /ubs are running, go into Effiliate #ettingsF under EMy ccountF. ;ou%ll see a %sign up% button next to the ,oogle dsense entry. ;ou should get your account approved within a week or two. :sing 1logger* To use 1logger, you%ll do essentially the same thing, except you%ll want to create at least 5$89 posts for each blog. These can be relatively small -?9$4?9 word posts, )ust make sure they are of high Kuality. gain, make sure to make one of your 1logger blogs stronger = min. ?$0 high$Kuality, long articles Lmin. 0?9 wordsM, and include at least one ;outube video. 7nce you%ve done this, simply click the EMoneti'eF link from your 1logger dashboard using your %stronger% blog. >eep in mind, dsense account applications are reviewed and approved by a person. The key to getting approval is to have legitimately decent sites = blogs or /ubs = so that the person reviewing your application sees reasonably worthwhile sites with Kuality content. #lternatives To #dsense dsense is the most popular contextual advertising programs on the internet. :nfortunately, many people have lost their dsense accounts for one reason or another. !t is hard to compare ,oogleQs ad program to any other programs because the alternatives since none of them have the depth & breadth of advertisers or ad inventory. /owever other programs have features and usage terms that ,oogle does not have, and in some cases can be as good or better. /ere is a listing of current alternatives to dsense* http*((899kresources.com(alternatives$ google$adsense( #dsense 7$00% Blueprint - .ithout #dsense #harp$eyed readers will have seen the big red text box in the very beginning of this <@H stating the goals of this course* to make money online. nother paragraph in that big red text box bears repeating* "hich brins us back to the point that this is a course for &akin &oney online, with Adsense or by other &eans! /n other words, the tactics 3 strateies we%ll teach you can be applied Eust as effectively to affiliate &arketin, e-co&&erce, product develop&ent 3 sales, etc! 2ne more time: C$$$with (dsense or "y other means$C What other means are we talking aboutI !t almost doesn%t matter. 1ack in the early 3ersion 8 days, there was a big difference in what you did if you were trying to build a successful dsense site versus what you did for, say, an affiliate sales site. That%s no longer the case. #ure, optimi'ation for dsense differs LsomewhatM from optimi'ation for direct sales, or opt$ ins, etc., but today it%s about building successful topical websites. @o that, and you can moneti'e it almost any way you choose. The point !%m making here is this* everything in this course applies eKually to affiliate sales, lead generation, e$commerce, or dsense. !f you%ve lost your dsense account, or for whatever reason don%t want to use dsense, you%ll still need to build a strong, viable website. Whatever your choice, follow the course and you%ll succeed in your goal of making money onlineD THE $100K BLUEPRINT PROCESS This section provides an overview of the process we use to come up with ideas, turn them into opportunities, and leverage them to make money. Though the process is relatively straightforward, it%s based on a deep understanding of a lot of factors, how they work and interact, and awareness of the ever$changing Brules of the gameB. The actual step$by$step blueprint for each business model is pretty straightforward. !f you follow the steps properly, then you%ll get the expected results. 1ut the better you understand what%s behind each step, and how it works, the better your results will be. ;ou%ll also be in a better position to make changes and modifications to suit your own ideas and circumstances. famous golfer use to say B,olf is certainly a game of luck& but the more ! practice, the luckier ! getB. +ven though each site or 1usiness Model uses essentially the same set of steps Lniche research, content, etcM, how those steps are approached & implemented can vary significantly. Hor example, the keyword research will be done differently for the BLong$Tail 1lueprintB than it will for the B"lassical 1lueprintB, and so on. DDD Eor this reason, * strongly recommend that you go through the information in all of the initial sections, "efore s!ipping to a particular 'lueprint and "eginning there$ The $0-0tep Pro&ess 899k follows a 89$step process& it is a process we developed for our own %in$house% efforts and it works across all of our business models. !n other words, this is how we develop our own sites. The %flow% is as follows* 8. "hoose a 1usiness Model -. 6iche .esearch $ "hoose a 6iche or Topic 4. >eyword .esearch $ "hoose >eywords or >eyword <hrase ,roup G. "hoose ( .egister <latform or @omain 6ame ?. !nstall Wordpress ( "onfigure <latform 0. "reate ( 7utsource "ontent 2. Launch #ite 5. <romotion = 1uild Traffic C. Track <rogress 89. Lather, rinse, repeat +ach 1usiness Model differs somewhat in implementation. B#tep 8B below summari'es each of the 1usiness Models. #ince each business model implements the 89$#tep process slightly differently, you%ll follow the 1lueprint for the 1usiness Model you decide to pursue. 7f course you can pursue more than one, but we strongly suggest you do them one at a time, rather than try to implement multiple 1usiness Models simultaneously. 0tep $ Choosing # Business )odel 8usiness odels +ote: "e have so&eti&es used the ter& 0business &odel2 synony&ously with 0&oneti;ation ðod2, as in 0!!! usin either Adsense or affiliate sales as your "usiness model!!!2! /n this case however, we%re usin %business &odels% to refer to the different types of Adsense site strateies we o over in this course! This is your first ste1, choosing the business -odel you'll 1ursue for your initial effort. We've 1rovided 8lue1rints for 9 different !dsense business -odels: read through the entire section before -a,ing your choice. !n the original Edsense A899k 1lueprintF, we described a very specific model for building an dsense business* building multiple sites based on a single Ewebsite blueprintF. We had developed a %1lueprint% for creating strong, high$performance EinformationalF niche sites that you could implement over & over, reliably & repeatably, to create a 0$figure dsense business. 7ne key concern at the time was to design the course such that anyone = at any experience level = could follow the steps we outlined, and achieve the same predictable results. We also purposely limited the scope of the course to insure we maintained that predictability. #ince we released the first version however, the internet marketing environment has changed radically = and we%ve changed our own dsense business along with it. We also listened to our customers, and heard a freKuent appeal* E#how us how to succeed with dsense beyond the original %899k% website modelF. nd so we re$designed the course from the ground up, not )ust accommodating the changes in the !M environment, but also accommodating those who asked for %more%. To develop 34, we took all our current in$house website strategies and turned each into it%s own E1usiness ModelB. !n essence, we distilled each of our fourstep$by$step 1lueprints that will give you the same reliably repeatable results we get, and that you can build a business around. ;Classic 8lue1rint; 7 %1dated to <= The original %1lueprint% still works well, and we%ve updated it to reflect the changes we%ve made in our own efforts $ and insure we stay clear on the %safe side% of <anda and <enguinD With the %"lassic dsense 1lueprint% you%ll pick a %secondary% niche to build your site around. ;ou%ll choose a %primary% keyword phrase that describes the %secondary% niche you%ve picked = what your site is about. Hrom there, you%ll build a keyword phrase group = a group of relevant keyword phrases that would logically fit %under% your primary keyword phrase, acting as %items% under the %category% of your primary keyword phrase. s an example, we built a site in the health care ( nursing niche, using the secondary or Esub nicheF of %nursing school%. 7ur %primary% keyword phrase = the phrase that described what our site was to be about $ was Enursing school programsF. Hrom there we developed our %keyword phrase group% = the %items% that would fit under our primary keyword phrase* these are essentially8$page %sub$sections%. Hor our E6ursing #chool <rogramsF website, these included E1est 6ursing #choolsF, E6ursing #chool .eKuirementsF, E6ursing @egreesF, and more. 7nce the niche & primary keyword phrase, and additional keyword phrases are selected, it becomes a straight$forward matter of adding in the content, and getting each of the keyword phrases ranked on <age 8. ;"ong7Tail 8lue1rint; s ,oogle made it more difficult to gain top rankings for more competitive terms, we put a lot of effort into %de$coding% the algorithm updates and new functions LE<andaF & E<enguinFM. 1etween our own experimentation, and what we gleaned from other Webmasters and #+7%s, we were able to figure out key ranking factors & considerations, and can confidently rank for almost any non$ultra$competitive keywords, providing we%re willing to put in the effort< 1ut a funny thing happened along the way* we noticed that under certain circumstances = namely when we %optimi'ed% around %primary% keyword phrases a certain way, we would consistently fail to reach top rankings for those %primary% keywords... but would be %rewarded% by ,oogle for our efforts with a T76 of %long$tail% trafficD We played around with this until we had a reliably repeatable %blueprint% to make this happen = and our ELong$Tail 1lueprintF was bornD The particulars involve optimi'ing our content, page, and links to %bias% those %primary% terms, something that looks a lot like the no$longer$working %traditional% optimi'ation that we used to use to rank for specific terms. With this model, our efforts result in ranking for numerous %long$tail% keywords, which have the overall potential to exceed the traffic we would get had we instead ranked for those %primary% termsD +23/: 3his 'lueprint also provides a good strategy for %resurrecting% older (AFF! 'lueprint sites that you may have "uilt "ut weren%t a"le to ma!e perform$ ;!uthority Hub 8lue1rint; There are few things as exciting = and rewardingD $ as getting top <age 8 ranking for strong, primary keywords. 1ut the methods that used to work simply don%t anymore. ,oogle%s E<andaF & E<enguinF updates, and numerous algorithm changes, have all but rendered those tactics useless. Hortunately, there is another way to achieve top rankings, and it effectively bypasses most if not all of the Eold schoolF optimi'ation$and$incremental$link$building tactics that worked so well for so long Lbut fail entirely nowM. This business model is a true EuthorityF model* using some aggressive %authority$building% tactics like high$<agerank ,uest 1logging, we bypass many of the programmatic filters that ,oogle employs to sift the Ewheat from the chaffF in terms of deciding who is legitimately %worthy% Lread* Ehigh enough Kuality & authorityFM for top rankings. The main focus is to establish an Euthority /ubF by Kuickly gaining very$strong backlinks via high$<agerank article placements, and combining these with some aggressive #ocial uthority 1uilding. The result is a Eleap$froggingF of the %usual% Lold$schoolM tedious link$building and s l o w Loften neverM incremental rank$climbing process that can instead place us within %spitting distance% of those top <age 8 positions Kuickly and %authoritatively%D ;To1ical Revenue7Share 8lue1rint; This might also be called the EWeb -.9 1lueprintF since it%s based on using Web -.9 platforms like #Kuidoo and /ubpages to build our dsense business. #ometimes we have an idea, area of experience, interest, or expertise, area of interest, etc., that we know people would be interested in, but is either too competitive, too overdone, too narrow, etc. to )ustify a full$on website development effort = but that none$the$less still represents a good idea and opportunity. !n other words, a good idea that for some reason or other we )ust can%t )ustify the time & effort it would otherwise reKuire. With our %Topical .evenue$#hare% model, we%ll take advantage of the inherent authority & ranking advantages that #Kuidoo Lenses, /ubpages, and other similar Web -.9 platforms have, to develop sites that will rank Kuickly & well = but also takes advantage of the massive, beautifully self$Kualified traffic that these platforms already haveD "everaging $ur obile World long with these specific %business models%, we%re going to spend some time going over the huge new opportunities presented by the mushrooming mobile market = specifically, how to take advantage of the new & different usage patterns and user profiles that have already created monstrous opportunities for building an dsense businessD !11lying '8est Practices' We%ve designed this course to provide you with step$by$step 1lueprints that you can follow to build an dsense business similar to ours. +ach has been tested to insure that !f you follow the 1lueprints diligently, you will have predictable results. !f you already have dsense sites that were built using different strategies, particularly if they%re not performing as well as you would like, we%ve %distilled% some B1est <racticesB $ tactics from the various 1usiness Models $ that you can apply to existing sites. These tactics & strategies are )ust as effective for affiliate marketing, product sales, and other business models as they are for dsense. ;ou can, and should, apply them wherever your websites aren%t seeing the performance you would like. 8ut It's Still !ll !bout Traffic3 Whether you%re pursuing one of these %business models%, or already have efforts underway = sites that you%ve already invested time & effort into = the name of the game is still traffic L or at least Etargeted trafficFM. s such, we%ll be going over many %other% Lnon$searchM free traffic generation techniKues, so that whatever you%re doing, you%ll be able to do it even better by boosting the number of Kualified visitors LEcustomersFM that come to your site. These will include a host of different traffic sources & methods, ranging document sharing sites to %video marketing%, many of which may be entirely new = or at least untried = methods for you. 0tep ( - Choosing # -i&he /f Topi& We can%t really do much of anything until we come up with an idea or topic to pursue. !n the original d#ense 1lueprint, the business model drove the niche research and dictated the types of opportunities we would choose from. This was because we were pursuing a very specific strategy, using very specific tactics that were optimi'ed for a very specific type of site. 1ecause we knew exactly what we%re trying to accomplish $ <age 8 rankings for a carefully$chosen set of keywords $ we limited the types of opportunities we would pursue to ones that would work best with those tactics. With 34, we no longer have those constraints. !f we choose to pursue the original B"lassic 1lueprintB, however, it will again drive our niche and keyword research. Hortunately, it%s been extremely well optimi'ed over a great deal of time, and updated along the way so that it works beautifully. 1ut now we can consider a much wider range of ideas and opportunities. When it comes to targeting niches in the !nternet Marketing world, one school of thought is to target EeasyF niches or topics = super$ speciali'ed areas that won%t have a lot of competition. These include very narrow niches, for example B#how$@og 1reedingF. While this sort of niche is bound to have less competition = and hence be easier to rank well for = than )ust E@ogsF or even B#how @ogsB, it%s also by definition going to have far less traffic, fewer ads, and probably fewer high$paying, targeted ads. nother example is the Eproduct$centricF niche, such as Miter Table #aws, or <ool 3acuum "leaners Lboth of these being actual niches ! pursued, Kuickly building small revenue$ generating sites, then flipping them for a few thousand bucks )ust months laterM. This model was further refined & populari'ed by Nohn .obinson, LBR$factorB on the Warrior HorumM in his Bdsense MastersB course, and by ,eorge 1rown in his wildly$successful B,oogle #niperB course. 1rown%s B,oogle #niperB tweaked the model even further, targeting only specific, individual product phrases like E#ony ??$inch L"@ T3F. The problem with both narrow$niche focus and Eproduct$centricF targeting is this* though they may be easier to rank for, they )ust won%t support A899(day sites $ at least not with dsense. #o you would need a L7T of them = and that is )ust waaaaay too much work as far as !%m concerned. The amount of work necessary to rank 1lueprint$type sites is not proportionately One of the great attractions of Internet Marketing for me personally has been the sense that any idea or interest had the potential to make money online; that nearly anything could be 'translated' into an online business of some sort and the belief that it !as !ithin my means to 'pull it off'" re#uiring only the patience $ perse%erance to learn the 'system'& higher for the higher payouts. #o why focus on low$dollar, low$traffic$volume sitesI s it happens, it became a moot point* ,oogle Kuickly put an end to these Bsingle$keyword$ focusedB sites by identifying their %signature% or %footprint%, and systematically penali'ing or de$ indexing them. Panda > Penguin 'ote 7ne of the %targets% of ,oogle%s updates were, and are the Esingle$keyword$focusedF sites. These are the once$ubiKuitous Ex$factorF micro$niche sites, or the E,oogle #niperF websites mentioned above. They are the very definition of Esingle$keyword$focusedF sites = websites that are primarily an effort at getting a <age 8 ranking for a specific keyword or phrase. These sites present an easy $ and particularly familiar $ BsignatureB or BfootprintB for ,oogle, since they all followed a very specific %ranking optimi'ation% checklist. Most of us are familiar with these hyper$optimi'ed sites, and could probably recite from memory the %checklist%* chosen keyword as +M@ LB+xact$Match @omainBM, as the %meta$title%, in the %meta$ description%, in %meta$keywords%, in %/8% tags, and appearing in the first sentence of the first paragraph of the page content, the first sentence of the last paragraph, and %x% number of times in between. !n other words, you could almost tell these sites $ and the keyword they were optimi'ing for $ )ust by glancing at themD !f you have any of these sites, you might have seen them drop or get de$indexed. !f they haven%t yet, they probably will be. The days of these Esingle$keyword$focusedF sites are over. !n targeting them, ,oogle is trying to emphasi'e %topical% sites rather than those build around a single phrase.
.Infor-ational/ vs .1roduct7centric/ We define Eproduct$centricF as having to do with specific products, product types or categories, physical goods, etc. ;ou know, productsD +xamples are L"@ T3%s, @og ,rooming #upplies, /< Laser "artridges, etc. <roduct$centric websites are great for e$commerce and affiliate marketing, but typically not so great for dsense. E!nformationalF sites on the other hand, are )ust as their name implies = about providing information. +xamples are schools(training, personal finance, medical, health issues & information, real estate, etc. While many consider these the Edon%t even think about trying to do itF niches, these are <.+"!#+L; the niches that we show you how to target with the 1lueprint. The reasonI They have the volume, and the %right% payoutsD ;odeling; and <isitor Profiling /n &arketin, this is a concept known as J&odelinJ! This is essentially what we%re talkin about, creatin a &odel that is representative of searchers, visitors, buyers! $y &odelin the people perfor&in these functions or fillin these roles, we are better able to opti&i;e our efforts! $ut instead of J&odelinJ, we use the ter& JprofilinJ! What ever business model we pursue, we are probably going to have a mix of search traffic and referral traffic. 3isitors will get to our site, either from a search that brings up our site, or by following a link or mention on another site. >nowing where our visitors are coming from, will help us improve our site by tailoring it to the visitors, we%re attracting, and their reasons for coming there. The Characteristics of Search Traffic There are a number of reasons people search online, but most fall into two general categories. +ither they are trying to look up a specific %thing% = a product or product review, movie show time, business address, etc., or they are looking for information such as how to do something, what is something, what is something about, what happens if, what do ! do about, etc. While these may be the same person at different times, they have very different characteristics in the moment. nd if they%re mobile, their characteristics are again different. +on-(dsense Sites> ,enerally speaking, we tend to favor BinformationalB sites. 1ut we do have Kuite a few Bproduct$centricB sites in our portfolio. The Buthority /ubB model and the BTopical .ev$#hareB model lend themselves very well to Bproduct$centricB opportunities, and are what we use when developing these types of opportunities. t the time of this writing, we%re generating approximately -?P of our revenue from sites moneti'ed primarily through affiliate sales. We want to understand, and target specific Bsearch intentB. ental Profiling 7nce we decide on a niche but before we build a site, we try to create a Emental profileF of potential visitors = who might they be, what are they trying to accomplish, etc. The reason for this is so we can Ereality$testF the website* if this person does a search and clicks on our website, will they feel like they are in the %right% placeI !n other words, does the website provide a good %answer% to the searchI !f so, we have a good chance of getting them to click on an ad. !f the website doesn%t immediately look and feel like an answer to their search, they will leave. Juickly. lternately, if they arrived by following a link in a tweet, or from a Hacebook page, will our site meet their expectationsI s an example, for our 6ursing #chool <rograms website, the Emental profileF we created is of a person, usually single, probably 85$-5 years old, predominantly female. #he is either thinking about what career to enter, is considering nursing, and wants to know more about what is involved, how long it takes, how much they earn, etc. When that searcher lands on that site, they will feel like they got a %good% search result. We have %captured% them, and based on <ivot <oint 4 L"onversionsM, a large percentage of them are going to click on an ad. /ow effective is this Emental profileF exerciseI +xtremely. We know this by examining our %bounce rate% Lthe percentage of visitors that split KuicklyM and our "T. or "lick Through .ate Lthe percentage that clicks on an adM. Hor that site, we routinely saw "T.%s of up to ?9P, and single$digit %bounce rates%D -i&he *esear&h Brainstorming .The %sual Sus1ects/ 899k typically targets sub$niches within Top$Level %%informational% niches. #ome of the %usual suspects% are* Hinance personal finance credit(credit repair, investing insurance +ducation(training vocational training trades, medical, paralegal, etc. adult education college careers degree programs, study prep, entrance exams private school /ealth(medicine alternative medicine rehabilitation nutrition exercise weight loss .elationships @ating relationship advice marriage Choosing your %target% niche is largely a matter of choice, however it%s a crucial step$ Most importantly, decide on your 'usiness Model '/E27/ choosing your niche< Unless you are going to implement the C(uthority 9u"C 'lueprint, you%ll want to avoid the very competitive niches or %su"-niches%$ 7ne way to begin with a %Top Level% informational niche. We discussed some of the %usual suspects% above, but it is where we go within these that is important. Hor example, we have a lot of sites in the %education(training% niche. 7ne real success example is 6ursing #chool <rograms. ! found this niche by starting my research with Evocational trainingF, Eadult educationF and Eschool programsF. 9*+3: 3hese are still wide open niches$ mong the niches ! came up with while doing %broad reach% research were 6ursing #chool, "ulinary #chool, <aralegal, and many more. Hrom there, ! used those %seed% keywords to drill down and find my core keyword phrase group. Hor instance, while searching on E6ursing #choolF, ! found both E6ursing #chool <rogramsF, and E"ertified 6ursing ssistantF. #earching those terms, ! came up with the actual core keyword phrase group used for those sites. s another example, we have a lot of sites within the %finance% niche. These include credit, insurance, and investing. While poking around using !nsurance as a Top$Level niche, ! tried uto !nsurance, and came across "alifornia uto !nsurance. -i&he *esear&h 89amples '$T&2 &?!P"&S R&$<&6 @R$ PR&7R&"&!S& <&RSI$' s far as specific choice goes, you might want to think along the lines of something that interests you personally, perhaps something you have direct experience in, etc. 6either of those things are necessary, but it might make it a bit more interesting for you. 7n the other hand, you might choose an area you%re not familiar with but curious about. ! have learned a great deal, about a lot of things, as a result of targeting the topic. 1etween your keyword research, article writing or proofing outsourced articles, etc., you will find yourself becoming a %mini$expert% in that areaD -i&he *esear&h Idea 6enerators !f you are having trouble choosing a niche, or simply want to expand your number and range of choices, here are some E!dea ,eneratorsF, links and resources to inspire new ideas for niche research, products, services, and markets. #ou can find our entire collection of niche research idea generators on our Resources blog at2 htt12>>ABB,resources.co-> '$T&2 &?!P"&S R&$<&6 @R$ PR&7R&"&!S& <&RSI$' The Ultimate Internet Marketing Resource We have created one of the most extensive internet marketing resources on the web, our BA899k .esources 1logB. We did this initially so that we can continually add and update lists & resources in our courses, however it%s grown into a massive listing of free resources covering every aspect of online marketing. 7n the %.esources% blog we have all these, and many other %brainstorming% and %niche research% links, tools, etc. The blog can be found at2 htt12>>ABB,resources.co- ;ou%ll also find links to every type of tool, list, and listing. ;ou%ll find it to be a hugely valuable resource for all of your internet marketing resources going forward. Choosing 2our :omain 7nce upon a time, you could purchase an +M@ LB+xact$Match @omainB nameM and be virtually assured of Kuick, high ranking in all but the most competitive niches. Hor reasons that seem obvious, ,oogle gave domain names tremendous weight. fter all, it%s a good bet that Bnursing)obs.comB has what it takes to rank high for a search of Bnursing )obsB. 1ut of course this was Kuickly abused to absurdity, and ,oogle demoted the almost$magical ability of +M@%s to boost rankings. !n fact, due entirely to the fact that most +M@%s were almost a guaranteed part of Brank manipulationB efforts, they have become %red flags%, often now triggering a manual review of the whole website. +M@%s can still provide a ranking boost, not to mention the obvious benefit of clearly indicating the focus of the site. 1ut all really good +M@%s are long gone. #tretching things will not benefit you. >eep in mind that an +M@ would only apply to that specific phrase anyway. !n most instances, you are better served either with a descriptive$but$not$exact domain name, or an easy$to$remember name, or a catchy brandable name. Hor our example Bnursing )obsB website, rather than try to force something like Bfindingthebestnursing)obstoday.comB, you would be far better off with any of these* B6ursingWork'.comB BTheWorking6urse.comB or even B6ightengaleCC.comB T;:,s ,oogle has said for years that it treats TL@%s LBTop Level @omainsB $ .com, .net, .org, etcM no differently from each other. Nust the same, typical <age 8 #+.<s tend to be occupied almost exclusively by .com, .net, and .org. @oes this mean we should avoid .info or other TL@%sI We have many .info sites that rank well. 1ut knowing what we know, we would not choose anything but a .com if possible, and definitely not anything other than the %1ig 4% it we were creating a new site. We register new sites for - years, but if money is tight, register for one. #hould you %hide% registration informationI 6ot if you%re trying to build a long$term business. 3erification and ccountability are a part of "redibility, and are increasingly important, as is uthority. nd today that means valid, public registration info. !s it a %must%I <robably not. What we can tell you is that we%ve experimented with virtually everything. 7ur sites routinely perform extremely well, reach profitability Kuickly, and maintain their performance. s the saying goes* B!f you want what we have, then do what we doB. !t really is that simple. KEYWORD RESEARCH The Present Future /f 5e'"ord *esear&h My how times have changedD !t used to be that keyword research was %,round Sero%, the foundation for all !nternet marketing. We even alluded to it%s significance in the earlier versions of this course, stating Bour keyword research is the %fuel% that powers our success.B That was because the !nternet, and all user behavior, revolved around words and phrases. !t%s how we navigated, using words and phrases to search, how ,oogle and other search engines organi'ed, categori'ed, and ranked everything, and how everything was linked together. 1ut much has changed. The !nternet has evolved from a task$oriented network linked by words, to a social web connected through words, pictures, and relationships. +ven more significantly, keyword focus and optimi'ation is increasingly used by ,oogle as a negative ranking signal. !t can hurt your rankings, or worse. 7n top of that, ,oogle no longer provides all the keyword information that we%ve grown accustomed to, making it significantly harder to do some things we used to take for granted, like seeing all of the keywords that drove traffic to our site. We still do a lot of keyword research. !n some cases still, the success of our pro)ect does still depend on how well we do our keyword research. We also use it for si'ing a market or opportunity, as part of our competitive analysis, to look for new traffic opportunities, etc. 1ut in many cases its role has changed. Hor our BLong$TailB 1lueprint, for instance, our keyword research focus is on expanding rather than narrowing our keyword choices. We%ve also learned that effective keyword research must include some %out$of$the$box% thinking, and executing. 5e'"ord *esear&h 6oals When we say B>eyword researchB, what we usually mean is Bkeyword opportunity researchB $ finding Luncovering, discoveringM a keyword, then determining it%s Bsi'eB Lsearch volumeM, BdifficultyB LcompetitionM and(or BvalueB L+<" %click value%, or Bcommercial valueBM. These are the basic Bkeyword opportunityB goals* /arnings $ looking up the +<" LB+arnings per "lickB or %click value%M of a given keyword, or possibly some calculation like the Bcommercial valueB, meaning how much it might be worth to rank on <age 8 for a given keyword Lthis is usually some arbitrary assessment of how many Bkeyword$labeledB products might be sold with a <age 8 ranking. Hor example, Biphone ?B would likely have a Bcommercial valueB far beyond it%s +<"M. )olume $ determining how many searches are done for a given keyword in order to calculate how much traffic we might expect to see with a <age 8 ranking. 7an!ing $ this is really %competition%, trying to determine how hard it might be to rank on <age 8 for a given keyword, and will usually entail another somewhat arbitrary evaluation like B#7"B LB#trength of "ompetitonBM, or even a meaningless measure like Bnumber of competing pagesB. 1eyond Kuantifying & Kualifying $ si'ing, evaluating, and valuing $ keyword research is often part of our our niche idea or topic research $ using keyword research as an Bidea generatorB or Bidea stimulatorB. Hinally, there is B>eyword ,enerationB $ searching for keywords. We do this to find additional Bkeyword opportunitiesB $ either words or phrases that we intend to target individually, or Bkeyword listsB $ keywords that we intend on targeting as groups, categories, and the like. The 1usiness Model we choose will dictate what our specific keyword research goals are $ whether we%re looking for specific keywords to target for ranking, generating keywords to attract long$tail traffic, etc.
5e'"ord Competition 4 Criteria -ote !n earlier versions of the course, everything revolved around finding, and ranking for, individual keywords. With the exception of the B"lassic 1lueprintB and to a lesser degree the Buthority /ub 1lueprintB, that%s no longer the case. nd so we%ve taken the keyword competition and selection criteria info, and moved it to the 1lueprints that target individual keywords. 8ffe&tive 5e'"ord *esear&h !n the following sections, we%ll look at some free and paid keyword research tools. 1ut before we do, let%s consider some ideas & techniKues that are ".!T!"L to +HH+"T!3+ keyword research. What exactly do we mean by BeffectiveB keyword researchI Well, we @76%T mean finding those elusive Bgold nuggetsB $ keywords with Bhigh volume and low competitionB $ though there%s nothing wrong with that ...&M What we mean when we say BeffectiveB keyword research is knowing how to search BtangentiallyB for related$but$semantically$dissimilar Lrelated but differentM keywords, how to BexplodeB our keywords into %long$tail% keyword lists, and perhaps most importantly, how to how to find the keywords that everyone else !#6%T finding. !t%s Bfinding the keywords that everyone else !#6%T findingB that is perhaps most crucial aspect of BeffectiveB keyword research $ or at least it%s the most <.7H!T1L+ crucial aspect. We call it B,etting The ,oldB. 6etting The 6old classic problem with keyword research, and niche research, is this* when everyone is using the same tools, everyone is working off the same results. This problem get%s even tougher when everyone is also using the same techniKues, and the same ideas about how to do keyword research. Whichever 1lueprint or 1usiness Model were using, and for that matter across much of our !nternet marketing, the B,oldB is in the untapped niches, the keywords that others don%t find, the things that people search for every day that aren%t revealed by using the usual tools in the usual ways. With most keyword research tools, words are connected semantically by language. !n other words, they%re not connected by meaning and there is no nuance. search for a term such as Blose weight,B will start to illustrate the problem. ,oogle%s keyword tool shows us plenty of terms that are connected linguistically. 1ut even doing a basic search on the term shows us keywords, phrases, entire niches and ideas that are not revealed* excessive weight, obesity, diabetes, eating disorders, foods not to eat, etc. etc. If you're a '$100k (esults)' member" or *ust happen to keep up !ith the 'ne!s' as far as +oogle and search at large is concerned" you may ha%e heard about +oogle's ',no!ledge +raph' -http.//goo&gl/O010c2 or '3ntity 4earch' -http.//goo&gl/5db0k2& In a 'selecti%e' nutshell" it's a mo%e a!ay from information being semantically linked -as in 'te0tmatched'" or linked by !ords in the same !ay that causes the 'problems' in key!ord research mentioned abo%e2" to being meaning and relationship mat&hed. In other !ords" the !ay !e actually think" learn" understand" and associate& 6he ideas behind the ',no!ledge +raph' and '3ntity 4earch' are the same ideas that are the key to that most%aluable 'effecti%e' key!ord research. researching based on meaning and relationships" rather than simple semantic 'te0t matching'& /ow do we get around thatI ,oogle%s keyword tool gives us some options to begin. We can select a particular keyword. That%s returned, and then have it search further on that term, as well as some other types of iterations. We used to call this Bdeep diggingB. 1ut that still leaves the vast ma)ority of terms, phrases, and ideas hidden and undiscovered. nd truly, that%s where the gold is. ! can%t suggest strongly enough that you spend some time on the resources blog, and play around with some of the keyword and niche idea generators, etc. nd !%ll tell you from plenty of experience, it takes playing around with some of these tools and applications, pairing them together, using the results from one as the input for another, etc. before you really start to become adept at finding the things that others don%t. nd one more time, finding the things that others don%t mean to getting the gold. To illustrate this idea one more time $ it%s that important $ try this* Keywords that =F7" A8 on =EB8s, but aren%t :7A4D usin standard keyword research "onsider a search for vocational trainin, career trainin, professional develop&ent, or thousands of other niche 3 keyword ter&s 3 phrases. /ere%s what you won%t find* <roducts related to those niches that don%t use those words <eople and personalities related to the niche or words #lang terms used within those industries and areas of interest Titles of courses, books or products that are prominent within these niches were areas. 7ne more easy to visuali'e example* Bclassical musicB. ;ou won%t find much in the way of* "omposers "lassical music ensembles or groups Hamous classical music arrangers or musicians 6ames of songs or sheet music !nstruments used for or associated with the genre ! hate the term Bthinking outside the boxB. !t%s one of those phrases that has been overused to the point of deafness. 'ut the truth is Cthin!ing outside the "o#C is how we get the gold$ .ither The .onder .heel< 7nce upon a time, ,oogle had a T+..!H!" tool called BThe Wonder WheelB. !t%s purpose was to provide a semi$graphical Bkeyword mapB, displaying keywords linked by M+6!6, and .+LT!76#/!<, rather than by semantic text$matching. With it, you could instantly uncover some of those valuable %hidden% keywords $ the ones connected by meaning & relationship. What%s important to note about The Wonder Wheel was not the %graphical representation% $ you could do the same graphical interface on their standard keyword tool $ but rather the %engine%. The engine was the database and database rules that housed the keywords. !t was essentially a duplicate of their enormous dwords ,>WT LB,oogle >eyword ToolBM keyword database $ but with different %rules% for how all the keywords %connected% together. Hortunately, ,oogle has BresurrectedB The Wonder Wheel $ or at least it%s %engine%. !t now resides, ironically, within their %standard% ,>WT. !t%s now called the B"ontextual Targeting ToolB, and it has some features even The Wonder Wheel didn%t have $ though you%ll have to forego the very$helpful graphical interface. L;ou can, however, find similarly$interfaced tools elsewhere, as mentioned later on.M Let%s take it for a %spin% using our old standby, B6ursingB* 1y clicking on the T next to a phrase, we open up a new set of phrases derived from that term. !n this case, opening up BnursesB gives us BsalaryB among other results. 6ote that BsalaryB is not semantically related to BnursesB. +ach of these choices is now further BexplodedB, or expanded, similar to the graphical branching of the wonder wheel. +xploding this further using the result B@ifferent TypesB, we see we are now getting words and phrases connected by meaning and relationship rather than Btext matchB. !f we click on Bview predicted placementsB, we can then take <age 8 websites, and use T/+M as further input into the keyword tool, letting it extract a whole new set and range of keyword phrases. This becomes an %iterative process% that can net you many of those excellent keywords that aren%t found otherwise, as well as forming the basis of tremendous, right$on$the$money exploded long$tail keyword listsD ;Wonder Wheel 6elu0e; To see how powerful this sort of meaning$ and relationship$based researching can be, hop over to the B3isual ThesaurausB Lhttp*(( www.visualthesaurus.com( M. LThough a paid tool, you can get a free trial, and access a limited version at thesauraus.com Lhttp*((www.thesauraus.com(M 1y providing a Btree & branchB structure, you can easily drill down through meaning & relationship connections visually. simple search using BnursesB uncovers directly & indirectly related areas & topics, alternative phrases & meanings, and additional avenues to explore, expand, and explode* 'asic (nd +ot-So-'asic &eyword 7esearch We know that Bthinking outside the boxB is how we crucial if we want to discover ideas, keywords, niches, trends, or anything else that hasn%t been beaten to death by marketers already. We illustrated one of the ma)or shortcomings of %basic% keyword research using ,oogles >eyword Tool, the data source for many of the keyword tools in use. 1ut for many of our needs, we still have to do that BbasicB keyword research* finding BseedB keywords, developing keyword lists, si'ing markets, and checking competition. Nust as importantly, and still true even today, using and becoming competent with one or more keyword research tools is essential to internet marketing success. Hor much of that we can pick from a range of free or paid keyword research tools >eyword research tools are notoriously flaky and inaccurate when it comes to search volume. #o why do we use themI Well, for one thing, we have to have so&e basis for choosing our keywords. #econdly, the only alternative is to run <<" = <ay <er "lick = campaigns for each keyword, and count the number of impressions there are. +ven then it won%t be 899P, and it%s obviously not a viable way to test more than a handful of keyword phrases. nd that%s not even considering cost. Eree &eyword 7esearch 3ools )s$ Paid &eyword 7esearch 3ools (s has "een noted elsewhere, one of our %design goals% for %(AFF!% has "een to produce a course which anyone can follow to achieve serious, sustaina"le income, *392U3 9()*+6 32 *+)/S3 (+839*+6 EU739/7 0other than the cost for domain name & hosting1$ 3o that end, we write the instructions and test the course using only free tools$ Eortunately, there is such a wide array of free tools, apps, and resources that we can do virtually anything necessary$ 0e encourage you to e#plore the vast array of tools & resources - for !eyword research and every other aspect of "uilding a "usiness and ma!ing money online - that we have assem"led on our %7esources% "log: http:==AFF!resources$com1 With all the choices available, the Kuestion becomes which tool to useI #ome people use only ,oogle%s own keyword tool. The arguments are it%s free = a good argumentD $ and that since it%s ,oogle, one would think !t would be accurate. fter all, who would know better what people are searching and how oftenI :nfortunately, while definitely free, it has rampant inaccuracies. !t should also be noted that ,oogle provides search volume %levels%, not actual numbers. Kuick perusal of ,oogle%s keyword tool will make this evident* you see rounded numbers, such as 8-99, -G99, 4099, 85999, etc. ,oogle is cagey about data = in fact, they are extremely cagey about a L7T of things. Hor instance, if you set your site up with Webmaster Tools, ,oogle used to show all the backlinks it discovers. Nust recently, they have moved away from even that concession, showing )ust a EsamplingF of these links. The reason for this %caginess% is simple, and understandable. ,oogle must maintain the integrity of their database. !f someone were to know, for instance, exactly how they calculated <agerank, Juality #core, etc., it would be a small step to reverse$engineer and %game% the system. This already happens to a great degree = after all, ,oogle has to balance providing information crucial to advertisers & webmasters, with keeping it )ust obscure enough to make it difficult to %decode%. That said, we do use ,oogle%s keyword tool. /owever = and this is a 3+.; important point = we don%t rely on it solely. !n fact, whenever we have a group of keyword %candidates%, we AL"AY= cross-check the& with at least one other tool before co&&ittin. !f the two numbers are wildly different, we will probably skip that keyword. Free 5e'"ord *esear&h Tools s ,oogle often does with their software and tools, they have continued to improve the Kuality and capability of their keyword tool. !t now provides some excellent functionality that would be hard to duplicate with other tools, and offers some terrific conveniences as well. +verything you would need to do in this course in terms of keyword research can be done with free tools, beginning with ,oogle%s ,>WT. 1eyond ,>WT, there are a number of very good keyword research tools and applications out there. !f you want to go the %Hree% route, you will do well with Market #amurai. Market #amurai is a very good, multi$function tool. While parts of it are not free, the keyword research module !# free. M# is good for both researching keyword phrases, and checking volume. *MP273(+3 +23/: Many of the !eyword research tools get their data from 6oogle, so in theory, the ones that do should all give you the same results$ lternately, you can begin with either ,oogle%s keyword tool, or Wordtracker%s free keyword tool Lboth shown belowM. When it comes time to cross$check, you can either run your keyword candidates through both and compare, or use #+71ook%s free keyword tool, which displays results from ,oogle and Wordtracker side$by$side Lalong with ;ahoo and 1ingM. #+71ook%s free keyword tool is an excellent resource for verifying your info to avoid costly mistakes* Free 5e'"ord *esour&es !n previous versions of this Land otherM courses, we provided listings of suggested or recommended resources throughout the course manuals. #ince listings and links come & go, update & change, etc., we opted to move all listings online so that we can readily update & maintain them, insuring that you always have the best and most current options. ;ou will find the internet%s most extensive, current, and valuable listing of free keyword research resources $ and much, much more $ on our free B.esourcesB blog* 8ou can find it at: http:==AFF!resources$com Paid 5e'"ord *esear&h Tools, /r =Time Vs. )one'= e often get as!ed the Guestion, Cwith all the Guality free tools, why would you pay for something that you could do with free resources>C$ *t%s a similar argument to the %free versus paid% traffic argument$ ith the e#ception that there are in fact some advanced features that are not availa"le with free !eyword tools - nota"ly functions that rely on paid data"ases to perform, such as S/Coc!pit%s competitive analysis - it comes down to this: hen we first start out, we have much more 3*M/ than M2+/8$ (s we progress, that eGuation should shift, eventually leaving us with plenty of M2+/8 "ut never too much 3*M/$ *n other words, 3*M/ "ecomes more scarce, and hence more valua"le, than M2+/8$ hen we reach that threshold, it ma!es sense to spend money wherever we can %trade% it for time$ *n some cases, paid tools are faster=easier=etc$, letting us trade M2+/8 for 3*M/$ 7ne of the benefits of the %<aid% tools is that they generally go beyond listing keywords and search volume. Most importantly, the all provide some measure of how %competitive% the keywords are, meaning how hard it might be to rank well for each keyword. 7nce again, these are notoriously flaky and inaccurate, however they can save time by highlighting those that are obviously not worth pursuing. That said, ! have found keywords that have been hugely worthwhile, but were shown by the tool to be Etoo competitiveF. !f you invest in one or more of these tools, it pays to understand how they go about determining competitiveness. 08Co&%pit 7f the paid tools, we recommend one %hands$down%. !t%s not )ust the best of the paid tools, it%s in a class by itself. !t%s what we use & rely on for virtually LL of our keyword research and competitive analysis. !t is also the only tool that has !6T+,.T+@ B899>B .!,/T !6T7 T/+ T77LD Though it is by monthly subscription, rather than a single purchase, don%t let that put you off. !f you are doing any of this stuff in a serious way, this is one of the best investments you can make. !f you can afford it, get it. !f you can%t, make it your first investment once you%re generating revenue. !t will make you money, and will make you money that no other tool can. #+"ockpit is hands$down the best keyword research tool on the market, for any price. We%ve arranged for a special trial offer. ;ou can check it out here* htt12>>adsenseABB,blue1rint.co->resources>sec> # Fe" .ords #+out 0ear&h Volume #nd >*an%ing? When we talk about terms like ErankingF, E<age 8F, E#+.<sF L#earch +ngine .esults pageM, we have to understand one very important concept. Websites don%t rank, only pages, or individual :.L%s do. nd ranking is only in relation to the search being done. !t is a mis$statement to say, EMy site finally reached the first page in ,oogle.F Hirst, it must be in relation to a search, so EMy site finally reached the first page in ,oogle for the phrase 08araleal Trainin2 would be more accurate. #econd, it isn%t the site that has a ranking position, but a specific page. nd so, my site on <aralegal "ertification might have a page devoted to E<aralegal TrainingF, and that page might rank on <age 8 for that phrase, but it is that specific page, not the site itself. !n many cases, it is the homepage that ranks for a given search phrase, but even then, it is the home page itself that is ranking, not the site. This is why, when we are trying to rank for a specific keyword, we target specific, individual keyword phrases. Hor our B"lassic 1lueprintB, we always $ and only $ target one keyword phrase per page of our website. 7ur aim with the B"lassic 1lueprintB is to create a %topical% website that has 8 %target% page for each of our selected keyword phrases, and then focus our ranking efforts on getting each of those individual pages ranked for their respective keyword phrases. 67T+* #ince it%s E<andaF updates, ,oogle has said that individual pages of a website can impact the ranking of other pages. nd so while it is still true to say Epages rank, not websitesF, we now must take into account our website as a whole. !n other words, this means that Elow$KualityF pages can lower your rankings on other pages. ( Eew *MP273(+3 ords ("out Competition Competition today is much different than it used to "e, on many levels$ hen we tal!ed a"out %competition% in the past, we were tal!ing a"out it in relation to ran!ing in 6oogle$ 3oday, %competition% is Ccompetition for visitorsC and Ccompetition for attentionC rather than -ust Ccompetition for 6oogle ran!ingC$ Competition For 6oogle *an%ing Horget everything you may have heard. E6umber of resultsF doesn%t matter at all. #earching with EKuotesF is irrelevant. #earch operators such as EallinanchorF, EallintitleF, etc., by themselves are meaningless. T/+ 76L; T/!6, T/T MTT+.# !# W/7 #/7W# :< 76 <,+ 8 W/+6 ;7: @7 1.7@$MT"/ #+."/ Lmeaning a plain, ordinary searchM. E6umber of competing pages..F is meaningless. There are only ever 89 Ecompeting pagesF, those on <age 8. That is who you%re competing with. This is what real people do, and what they see. They type in their search = no Kuotes, no brackets. nd that first page that comes up is all that matters. ;ou have to EbeatF some of them in order to make it to <age 8. # .ord #+out >Cli&% Patterns? This would be a good time to talk about Eclick patternsF. !n nearly all searches = though there are some types of searches that are exceptions = the U8 listing gets the greatest percentage of clicks. /ow muchI s much as half, or ?9P $ sometimes more. #pots U- and U4 generally split the next -?P. !n other words, the Top 4 listings will get 2?P of the traffic. The remaining 2 listings will get most of the rest, in decreasing percentages. This means that if we aren%t able to reach say the Top ?, we don%t even have a shot at most of the traffic. This is another reason why we target these higher$ volume niches and keywords. ,enerally speaking though, we need to be able to EbeatF or displace someone on that first page of search results. #o how do we )udge the competitionI The two main metrics we are going to look at are <agerank, and backlinks. 1ut let%s pause for a moment and make sure we understand ranking and backlinks. # .ord #+out Pageran% )H +23/: Competitive analysis, ran!ing, and "ac!lin!s are all things that have evolved significantly since we released )ersion A of this course$ e still considered competition the same way - whomever was on Page A - "ut how we evaluated their relative strength has changed$ Specifically, we don%t rely as heavily -ust on Pageran! and "ac!lin!s - "ut they are still the two most significant %mar!ers%, and this is still the "est method for evaluating competition$ Most importantly, we consider C3otal 'ac!lin! )alueC to "e a function of the general num"er and strength of the lin!ing domains - how many "etter-than-poor domains lin! to a site, how strong the %"est% domains lin!ing to it are, and how strong the %"est% lin! is from those top lin!ing domains$ Eor those with interest, we%ve left in some of the information a"out how Pageran! and "ac!lin!s wor! and are calculated$ E<agerankF is something thought up by Larry <age and #ergei 1rin, the co$founders of ,oogle. !t is = or was, anyway = the basis for ,oogle%s search engine. They thought that they could create a %better% search engine through the use of <agerank. #o what exactly is <agerankI Well, stepping backwards for a moment, let%s look at the Ehow & whyF of search engines. The goal of search engines is to index all the pages on the internet, and then %rank% or grade them, in order to provide the EbestF answer to a given search. !n other words, !f ! grade all the pages out there, then when you type in Ewhat is the best nursing schoolF, ! can go through my database and list the pages the answer that Kuestion, in order of best$to$worst. 1ut how do ! determine which pages are EbestFI hhh... the Million @ollar Juestion = actually, the 1illion @ollar JuestionD What <age and 1rin came up with = while still in college $ was this notion that the internet itself can decide which pages are %best%. Their brilliant idea was this* the more people LpagesM that EtalkedF about a particular page, the more popular it is, and hence the EbetterF and more relevant it%s likely to be. /ow do you know who is %talking% about a particular pageI 1y seeing who is linking to that page. !f a website has a link LbacklinkM to a particular page somewhere, that is considered a EvoteF for that page. 7ver time, the EbetterF pages will attract more attention, hence get more EvotesF i.e. more links. They distilled this idea into a mathematical formula, and named it E<agerankF. Hor those of you with a masochistically curious bent, here is the original <agerank formula* <.LM V L8$dM T dL<.Lt8M("Lt8M T ... T <.LtnM("LtnMM 1ased on this idea, ,oogle was born. To this day, ,oogle still provides the EbestF search results overall. :nfortunately, <agerank as it was originally envisioned, is relatively easy to %game%. #ince a web page was essentially ranked by how many inbound links are out there, one could go out and create a ba'illion pages with a ba'illion links in order to get their page to the top of the rankings. !n a never$ending struggle to maintain the integrity of it%s database, ,oogle continually tweaks it%s formula to combat manipulation. !t%s done this primarily by EweightingF links. !nstead of links all having the same vote, different links could have %stronger% votes. This is accomplished by calculating a value for each link& the higher the value, the stronger the vote that link conveys. #ome of these factors include the <agerank of the site where the link is, the age of the site where the link is, how high up or close to the beginning of the page the link is, and many others, all intended to give a relative %strength% value to each link. 7ver time, the formula has evolved to where it is today. 1y most knowledgeable estimates, there are approximately 899 variables now being taken into account in calculating <agerank. Much like "oca$"ola%s recipe, the <agerank formula is a very closely$guarded secret. fter all, if someone knew exactly what factors are used and how, it would relatively easy to figure out how to manipulate pages. This is what modern #+7 = #earch +ngine 7ptimi'ation = is all about. Trying to understand how ,oogle ranks pages, and then applying that knowledge to give pages an advantage in ranking. There are )ust a few more tidbits we should be aware of regarding <agerank. Hirst, it%s well known that the value of a link is based on the relative strength of the page it sits on. s mentioned above, that %relative strength% is determined by a number of factors that include the the <agerank of that page itself, how many outbound links it has, and the %Trust% and %uthority% of the page it sits on. s such, all links are definitely not eKual. #econd, <agerank is a moving target = it is constantly being recalculated and updated. We use a browser plugin to see the <agerank of pages Lmore on that in the Wordpress sectionM, but it )ust shows a %snapshot% of <agerank, what it was for a moment in time. ,oogle %exports% that value only once every few months. #o when we see E<agerank ?F for a page, we can only know that it was a <agerank ? at that moment. 1ut it%s the best we have& actual <agerank can change every day Lthis again is ,oogle%s way of obscuring the data to make it harder to %reverse engineer%. !f ,oogle showed a %live% <agerank indicator, webmasters would instantly begin testing to see exactly what changes made the <agerank number go upM. Third, <agerank is a ElogarithmicF value = it goes up in a curve, not a straight line. This means that <.4 isn%t )ust a little more than <.-, but more than twice as much. !t also means that it takes a lot more additional <agerank for a page to move up to the next <agerank level that it did to move up from the previous <agerank level. Competition )H +23/: 2nce again, much has changed since we "egan considering %competition%$ 3he !ey factors today are two-fold: how %strong% the page we%re trying to "eat is overall, and how %strong% it is for the !eywords we%re trying to ran! for$ 7emem"er that a page or site might "e very %strong% overall, yet not "e very strong *+ 7/4(3*2+ 32 ( SP/C*E*C &/8275$ .emember that we are looking at <age 8 results of our keyword phrase search in order to determine how strong the competition is, so as to decide whether it%s a keyword phrase worth pursuing. The two things we look at on those Top 89 pages are <agerank, and backlinks. #ome of the keyword tools provide this information, some do not. !n that case, we need to visit the page itself. With our browser plugins L.esources sectionM, we can Kuickly determine the <agerank and number of backlinks our competition has. #ince we know different backlinks can have different values, we have to mentally )uggle both of these factors. What ! do is go to the ? th or 0 th listing first. fter all, if these appear hard to beat, there%s no sense going any further. #ometimes = often, actually = the Top couple of listings may be extremely strong, while the ones )ust below those aren%t. This lets me see if ! have a chance of reaching at least U? or U0. /ow strong is too strongI !f the pages around U?$U0 have <agerank over G, !%ll probably move on to my next keyword candidate. !f they are <.G or lower, !%ll check the number of backlinks. !f there are not more than a couple hundred = less than 499 = then it%s starting to look good. !deally, you want to see pages with little <agerank L<.$8M and less than a few hundred backlinks at those positions. !f ! see this, ! know ! can easily outrank a page at that position. nd once you start getting into the %right% mindset in terms of niches and keyword phrases, you%ll find this is the case more often than not. .eali'e that while a page may have a lot of backlinks, if they%re all %internal links% Lcoming from that same domainM, or they are all low$value backlinks, then it is within reach. The <agerank number will help me estimate the overall strength of those backlinks. "onversely, if the page has relatively few backlinks = less than 899 = but a high <agerank, it a safe bet there are some very strong backlinks. gain, what we want to see is relatively low <agerank and not more than a couple of hundred backlinks around <osition U?. !f you check a few keyword candidates, and see that all the pages on <age 8 are very strong, don%t get discouraged. There are hundreds of thousands of excellent keyword phrases out there. 7ften in the beginning, we shoot too high, looking at keyword phrases that )ust aren%t worth going after. 7nce you hit on a few that have great Ecompetitive outlookF, you%ll begin to %feel% the differences. <retty soon, your mind will start to %tune% itself better, and you will almost sub$consiously recogni'e the worthwhile candidates for those that aren%t before you even check. That%s when your whiteboards will start to fill up as you seemingly %stumble% across one great keyword phrase after another. Some 4ast ords ("out Pageran! There are people who say B<agerank doesn%t matterB. The reality is, it does matter when we%re trying to boost our total backlink value. WhyI 1ecause part of the value of a given backlink comes from how much <agerank it conveys. nd that is a function of the <agerank of the page where the backlink resides. Hor example, all other things being eKual, a backlink residing on a <.$? page adds considerably more backlink value than a backlink from a <.$- page. >eep in mind, <agerank is not a static value, it changes, ebbs and flows. The <. you see on your browser, or at a <agerank checker, is the value that it had at the last BupdateB. ,oogle %exports% the <. values once every few months. site that shows a <.$4 may not actually be a <.$4. The only thing that shows is that when ,oogle did the last BupdateB, it was a <.$4. Like rankings, <agerank is fluid. That being said, there is no way to know the actual <. of a page other than on the day ,oogle exports that info. 1ut it%s Ball we haveB and can be at least a relative indicator. <agerank, as the name implies, is assigned per pae, not per site. <ages from a given site can, and often do have different <. values. :sually, the homepage, which is usually the oldest, most optimi'ed, and has the most backlinks, is the highest, but this isn%t always the case. s such, a backlink from a B<.$G siteB often doesn%t convey the backlink value of a <.$G page. !f the actual page the link is on isn%t a <.$G, than that%s not the value passed. #till, a backlink on an inner page of a site who%s homepage is a <.$G is usually stronger than the backlink on an inner page of a site who%s homepage is a <.$-. E2442 = +2E2442 The B6oHollowB tag was created by ,oogle Lother search engines don%t consider itM for webmasters to tell their crawler not to %follow% a link on a page. !t also discounted the passing of the page%s <. through that link. "urrently, a link that is tagged B6oHollowB does not pass <. value to the link. That does not mean that backlink has no value $ it does $ it means however that it%s value is relatively low. While Matt "utts at ,oogle says they%re moving towards ignoring B6oHollowB tags, they haven%t yet, at least where passing <agerank is concerned. What this means for ranking is that B6oHollowB links are low$value backlinks, regardless of where they are. F/4TC /f you want to know whether a link is 04o:ollow2, you can use the =earch=tatus browser pluin! =i&ply riht-click on the =earch=tatus button, and select 0Fihliht 4o:ollow Links2! CONTENT Content drives the Internet. Almost everything we do to create our sites, generate traffic, and make money online involves content In earlier versions of A100k, when we used the term "Content", we were talking about written content - tet. !his was because we were Adsense site that used tet eclusively. "ith #$, we%ve e&anded the range of website ty&es we can build, and aren%t limited solely to tet.. 'ut even more im&ortantly, websites today must have strong, mied-media content to com&ete. And then there is the issue of "content marketing". !his is a term that went from obscurity to a commonly used &hrase on the Internet. !hough not develo&ed online, the conce&t of "content marketing" has been widely ado&ted in Internet marketing. And as we%ll see later, for very good reason. (o what are we talking about here when we say "content") "e%re referring to the content for our websites, and content that will use for &romotion and traffic building. "hatever the &ur&ose, the most im&ortant consideration in content is *uality. +ot only for the articles or &osts that make u& our website, but anywhere that we use content. "hat do we mean by *uality) "e mean originality or uni*ueness, suitability to its &ur&ose, im&act, and in the case of written content, we mean grammatical and ty&ogra&hical correctness, length - we%re really talking about every as&ect of our content. Content )ar%eting And since it%s a fundamental underlying strategy in everything we do, and with every business model, let%s talk for a minute about "content marketing". !hough you may have heard otherwise, it%s really a very sim&le, almost self-defining conce&t. At its most basic, it means "marketing" through the use of "content". ,or our &ur&ose, one of the best definitions comes from 'rian Clark and his terrific content marketing site, co&y blogger- "Content marketing" means creating and using valuable free content to attract and convert &ros&ects into customers, and customers into re&eat buyers. !he ty&e of content you share is closely related to what you sell. in other words, you are educating &eo&le so that they know, like and trust you enough to do business with you." (aid another way, content marketing is using really good, relevant content, to get &eo&le%s attention, get them to your site, and get them to convert. Content used to be, what we used to fill u& the s&aces in between ads. !oday, it has to be the core of what our sites are, a differentiators, and a strong com&etitive advantage. Content @ualit' "ith the first "/anda" u&date in ,ebruary 0011, *uality concerns have become much more significant. "e can no longer get away with &oorly written, s&un, or scra&ed content, minimum length &osts and articles, etc., and e&ect to see good results. and not getting good results is no longer the biggest conse*uence- ranking &enalties, the indeing, and losing our Ad(ense account are not unrealistic conse*uences of bad content. ,ortunately, we don%t need to have a college degree in grammar or 1nglish literature to have *uality content. !here are a number of ways we can come u& with our content- we can write it ourselves, outsource or &ay someone else to create it, solicit %guest% content, curate eisting content, use /ublic 2omain, or re- write /34.. The -e" *ules /f Content !he &ur&oses for our content vary, but whatever te &ur&ose, we want it to &erform that &ur&ose well. 5oogle%s 6/anda7 u&date marked the beginning of swee&ing changes in the world of content. 63ow *uality7 content is increasingly disa&&earing, by force or by choice. "hatever our content ob8ectives are, we need to &ut an em&hasis on 6*uality7. 'ut what eactly defines 6*uality7) ,or written content, it%s a fairly sim&le *uestion to answer. follow these guidelines, and you%ll be on the %right% side of 6*uality7- Length. ,or content we want to rank 9 articles for article marketing, "eb 0.0 sites that we%re using as our target &latform, and of course our own websites, we want a minimum of :00 words &er article or &ost. If it is a target or main article, bum& that to ;:0 words at least. If it%s sim&ly for backlinking i.e. "eb 0.0 6feeder site7 &osts, we can get away with <00 words. Grammar. +o &lay here 9 all articles must be 100= grammatically correct, and that mean >ero ty&o%s as well. Originality and Uniqueness. 2on%t use scra&ed or co&ied content, &eriod. 2on%t use s&un content. 2on%t use unaltered /34. that one was easy, right) Keywords - Don't. Avoid 6keyword stuffing7 in any manner, meaning filling your content with more than a few instances of any &articular keyword, &acking in every &ossible variation of targeted keywords, or re&eating keywords or &hrases across across meta-tags ?title, @1, descri&tion, etcA. Keywords - Do. Bse variations, synonyms, alternate meanings, etc. 3ook for ways to vary references. Content Quality. 2o not use &oorly written filler or fluff articles 9 you know the kind, generally written by someone with no knowledge of the sub8ect, or with little gras& of the language. All articles, &osts, etc., CB(! be worth reading- informative or entertaining or thought-&rovoking or enlightening, etc. s part of their E<andaF announcements, ,oogle had provided some %baseline% Kuestions you can ask to help you determine if you met the bar. Consider them seriously. ,or all of your content. If you can%t answer yes to all of them, don%t use that content. Does the content offer so&e oriinal perspective or opinion, oriinal reportin, oriinal analysis# Does it soundLfeel like it was written by so&eone who really knows the topic# Does it look or feel like it was sloppily or hastily edited# Does it co&pare well to the content on the sites currently in the top rankins# /f you follow these basic uidelines, your content will acco&plish what you want it to' 7ur content is very important, whatever we%re doing. Hor this 1lueprint, it takes on an additional %burden%* we want to work M7#T of our long$tail keywords from our keyword research into our content. ! say M7#T because $ ama'ingly $ you%ll find you start ranking for keywords that aren%t even explicit in your contentD Hor instance, if the topic is BnursingB, and you have content covering many or most of the keywords & phrases, you%ll start to rank for %iterative% phrases or %implied% phrases $ combinations that don%t actually appear as$is, but who%s components do. !f our content talks about Bregistered nursingB, Bregistered nursesB, and Bnursing careersB, with enough content and other ranking signals, we will eventually rank for Bregistered nursing )obsB +3+6 !H T/T </.#+ 6+3+. <<+.# +R"TL;D. The key here is simply %good% writing, combined with knowledge of the topic, or access to writing resources like a dictionary, thesaurus, etc. Content Eocus The most important consideration is %"ontent Hocus% $ by which we mean 67T %>eyword Hocus%. ;our content M:#T be written by focusing on the topic you are writing about, with the effort applied to being descriptive, using variations, synonyms, alternative phrases, alternative meanings, etc., and 67T focused on the keyword. Whether we create our own content or outsource it, and whichever 1lueprint we follow, here are the M:#T#* ll website content M:#T be 899P original, and 899P grammatically correct& 67 %spun% content& 67 %scraped% or copied content gain, when developing content for this 1lueprint, we want our articles to be based on topics within our niche, rather than based on specific keyword phrases. /ptimiAing /ur Content !n earlier versions of the course, this was a big section. !t isn%t any longer. WhyI 1ecause Bcontent optimi'ationB no longer works. We used to optimi'e our content in order to manipulate ,oogle for rankings. This no longer works. 7ne of the most significant %fall$outs% from the E<andaF updates is that almost the entire ranking %landscape% has changed, beginning with content. nd it isn%t )ust about an article or page& %low$Kuality% content anywhere on your site can hurt your ranking efforts everywhere. !f we want to manipulate ,oogle for rankings with our content, there is a new, Bcutting$edgeB tactic* well$written, focused content. This doesn%t mean we don%t include our primary keyword phrase in the title of our article, for instance. We do. 1ut that%s because this would occur naturally in well$written, focused content. nd that really is the key to Bcontent optimi'ationB. !nclude appropriate keywords where it would be appropriate to include them* in the title of an article talking about the sub)ect of that keyword. nything beyond that, and the determining factor must to be BappropriatenessB. !t%s appropriate to use a target keyword in the title when the contents revolves around that keyword. Content, 5e'"ords, #nd /n-Page /ptimiAation The Bconventional wisdomB for ranking pages $ on$page optimi'ation for #+7 $ has long been a formula of placing your target keywords or phrases as follows* !n your Title tag !n your article title !n /8 tags !n your @escription tags !n your >eyword tags !n the first sentence of the first paragraph !n the first sentence of your last paragraph %x% times in the body of your content !n fact, this was the %formula% we used in earlier versions of this course. WhyI 1ecause it worked. 1ut as we pointed out earlier, that%s past tense now $ not only doesn%t it work, it can and often will result in a ranking Bglass ceiling, or worse, a penalty. nd with the advent of <anda, that page penalty can now become a site penalty, penali'ing pages that wouldn%t otherwise have problems. #o exactly how do we go about optimi'ing a page for a chosen keyword or phraseI We make it the focus of the content $ )ust not literally. We would still want to maximi'e focus by using a target keyword phrase in a page an(or article title, but let the relevance & focus of the content do the rest of the )ob. ,oogle recogni'es synonyms. They can match phrases with alternate words & phrases. They use %historic session data% $ billions of previous searches, graded by whether searchers stayed on their chosen result, or returned to the search page $ to infer BintentB. !n other words, ,oogle can, and does assume %implicit% meaning. nd so we don%t have to rely on giving ,oogle %hints% as to what we should be deemed relevant for, or what we should be ranked for, since they now recogni'e that as %intent% of another kind* manipulation. .rite It /urselves Hor many of us, this presents both a problem and a solution. Writing our own content can be the Kuickest and(or most accessible way to go, since we don%t have to pay someone, rely on and wait for someone, etc. 7n the other hand, many of us aren%t comfortable writing, or find it to be difficult and very time consuming. There are a number of ways however that we can %improve% this situation. 7bviously, the content we need is going to vary depending on what we need it for. E!nformationalF articles are different from EreviewsF, which may be different from keyword$ based Web -.9 posts, which may be different from product pre$sell content, or an auto$ responder series, etc. (oogle Can 6oogle 7ead y ind !f your focus and meaning are clear, you can rank for phrases that .+6%T +3+6 76 ;7:. <,+D We have many sites with many pages that rank $ intentionally $ for phrases that never appear on the page. widely$published search example helps to illustrate the extent to which ,oogle can, and will infer implicit intent $ what they think you want or mean* Bh. h. greggB is a mid$si'ed electronics & %big box% retailer with -99T stores in the +astern and #outhern :.#. 1ased on Bsession dataB $ other searches done before & after during the same session, whether searchers stayed or hit the %back% button, etc. $ ,oogle knew that many people searching for Bhhgreg siteB were searching for the Bh. h. greggB stores in con)unction with things like laptops, T3s, and printers. 1ut lots more people who searched for laptops, 3), and printers did so in con-unction with C'est 'uyC. #o when people searched for Whhgregg siteX, ,oogle ranked hhregg.com first, "ut ran!ed "est"uy$com second. This illustration is easy to understand, but ,oogle is now applying these and other signals to go well beyond word$ or synonym$matching to understand intent, to the degree that exact keywords don%t even have to appear on a page in order to rank for them. !n a recent interview, Matt "utts confirmed this, saying* BF>eyphrases donQt have to be in their original form. We do a lot of synonyms work so that we can find good pages that donIt happen to use the same words as the user typed.F Lemphasis addedM The first thing we want to do is get very clear on what exactly we need. !n most cases it will be self$evident. !f it isn%t, or there are many options, it helps to use an evaluation step = what is it we want to accomplish with a particular pieceI 7nce we know what we want, we can look for Kuality examples that we can use as a basis for our own piece. +ote: if you have trou"le coming up with ideas, or get Jwriters "loc!K, there is an entire section on %*deas & 'rainstorming% on our free %7esources% "log$ !t%s Ethe sincerest form of flatteryF $ article directories are excellent resources for material. 1y looking up something similar, we can see what the %most popular% or %most viewed% articles are, and use those as a template or outline, since we already know they %work%. !t isn%t necessary to %re$invent the wheel% even when we%re writing our content ourselves. rticles from article directories and <L. material can provide the basis for our own content, either by re$writing it, or using it as an outline. n easy way to accomplish this is to summari'e each paragraph into one line, list them in order, then go ahead and write a new paragraph based on each one$line summary. /utsour&ing There are essentially two avenues to outsource content* freelance writers, and article writing services. Hreelance writers can be found on any of the %freelance% websites such as Hreelancer Lhttp*((www.freelancer.com(M, +lance Lhttp*((www.elance.com(M, and 7desk Lhttp*((www.odesk.com(M, as well as through forums like Warrior Horum Lhttp*((www.warriorforum.com(M, or classifieds sites such as "raigslist under %writing gigs% or similar sections. rticle writing services such as Textbrokers Lhttp*((www.textbrokers.com(M provide more$or$ less on$demand writers = you submit a reKuest, and it gets distributed to a writer who then writes the article. nother alternative is ma'on Mechanical Turk Lhttp*((www.mturk.com(M This website lets you specify %/its% = )obs = and how much you are willing to pay for them. The %/its% are then disseminated to %Workers% = usually third$world freelancers. ;ou can post article %/its% for A8, and you will get plenty of takers. The only caveat though = and it%s a big one = is that you will invariably get some of the %Workers% plagiari'ing existing content, or passing off badly$spun garbage. ;ou do get to review and either accept or decline on every %/it% so you won%t get shafted, as long as you make sure to check each piece. The Kuickest, easiest way to check articles for originality is ,oogle. Horget "opyscape. Nust copy a couple of sentences, and search ,oogle for them in Kuotes. ;ou%ll instantly see if it is original or not. 6ote* ma'on Mechanical Turk can also be a good source for article spinning and linkbuilding. Pu+li& :omain <ublic @omain refers to material in the %public domain%, which means it can be used by anybody, in any way, for anything. :nlike E<rivate Label .ightsF LE<L.FM, there are no restrictions on <@ material. Without going into a whole lecture on public domain, it essentially comes through two avenues* material for which copyrights have expired, or material which is %born% into the public domain. While most of us think of <@ as %old% stuff, there is plenty of not$so$old, and brand$ new material. ,enerally, anything created prior to 8C-4 is automatically in the public domain, and anything from 8C-4 to 8C25 who%s copyrights weren%t renewed, is in the public domain. !n addition, all federal government material that isn%t either aM classified, or bM produced by non$government contractors, is %born% into the public domain, as the federal government is prohibited from holding copyrights. This means tons of up$to$the$minute reports, papers, images, etc., from a slew of government agencies such as +<, 6#, "@", 6!/, various consumer agencies, etc. Chec, the .Resources/ blog for lin,s to 1ublic do-ain -aterial you can use. P;* <L. stands for E<rivate Label .ightsF, and refers to content that you can use, change, rewrite, etc., and treat as %your own%. When you buy <L. content, you are essentially buying the rights to do anything you want with it. The benefits of <L. are that you get professionally written content that you can either use as$ is, or as the basis for creating uniKue content, thereby saving time & effort in writing and researching. 7ne caveat with <L. is that in most cases, many people are purchasing the same content. s such, you want to make sure to change, or re$write it substantially, making it uniKue %original% content. !M<7.T6T 67T+* We no longer advocate spinning $ ,oogle can discern it in many cases, and regardless, it too often fails the %Juality% bar. Chec, the .Resources/ blog for lin,s to P"R sources. OBILE Mobile provides one of the great opportunities any of us will ever see in !nternet marketing. While it is beyond the scope of this course to do )ustice to Mobile Marketing, it%s a huge factor for dsense publishers. Without going through all the numbers, facts, and figures, suffice it to say that dsense BperformsB better on Mobile than anywhere else. #dsense For )o+ile Hirst, as an dsense publisher, you%ll automatically display ads on mobile devices, providing your site is %mobile% ready. :sing our B34 #uperThemeB, you will automatically be %mobile% ready, since it uses something called B.esponsive @esignB. This simply means it tells ,oogle it%s %mobile optimi'ed%, and automatically re$si'es your site for best display on any given device. /7W+3+., there are some common$sense guidelines if you want to take advantage of the mobile market* 37!@ difficult or complex navigation 37!@ small buttons or small text 37!@ crowded design or layout choices dsense performs best with regard to mobile on sites that mobile users typically access. These include travel sites, local businesses, news & information, events, and shopping ( consumer e$commerce. We will be releasing BMobile A899k 1lueprintB in the fall of -98-. This will provide specific 1lueprints for building a business around, or leveraging mobile marketing. TRA!!IC /n so&e respects, traffic is all that &atters! After all, without visitors, you have no one to convert into revenue! 7n the other hand, traffic in-and-of-itself isn%t the answer to anythin - one &illion visitors in the G-to-)G ae roup won%t do anythin for your site about ho&eowner insurance! 3raffic 7evisited <erhaps the most common woe among internet marketers is Bnot enough trafficB. Many of us consider BtrafficB to be the %missing link% to our success* if we had enough traffic, everything else would somehow work itself out. !t even overshadows our keyword research ob)ectives* if we could only find that %golden% keyword $ the one with huge search volume and little competition $ or at least somehow hit that Top #pot for one of those high$volume keywords, we%d have so much traffic coming to our site, everything else would somehow work itself out. We%re as guilty as anyone in pandering to this idea $ prior versions of this course focused on BtrafficB. #o, what%s the problemI The problem is that BtrafficB isn%t the answer to anything, and a flood of it won%t make your website or business successful. 7n the other hand, BbuyersB can, and will. B1ut...B, you might say, B...! don%t sell anythingD nd besides, isn%t this an AD=E4=E course, not an EC7<<EBCE courseIB 1y BbuyersB ! don%t necessarily mean Bpeople who buy thingsB. ! mean Bvisitors who are Kualified conversion candidatesB. #aid another way, BbuyersB are* Bvisitors who are interested in the topic of your site, and can be motivated to buy from you, provide their email address, or click an adB. B7k, ! get it..B you reply. B1ut aren%t we %splitting hairs% hereI ! mean, of course we want people who are going to 1:; something, or whatever else you said... but it%s still %traffic%, or at least %Kualified traffic%, rightI There, that%s it $ BKualified trafficB is what we wantDB ;es, BKualified trafficB is another way to say it. 1ut what we find is that the pursuit of BKualified trafficB often ends up simply being the pursuit of BtrafficB with a little bit of BKualifiedB thrown in. /aving said all that, we%re going to work on Btraffic generationB, not Bbuyer generationB. 1ut keeping that goal of BKualified buyer trafficB in mind will help us reali'e that traffic )ust for the sake of traffic is wasted effort. nother consideration is that many of the %non$paid% methods for going after %buyers% exclusively reKuires a great deal of effort and isn%t scalable. 1ack at /eadKuarters Lthat would be nalogy Marketing World /eadKuarters, otherwise known as... %the office%M, we%ve been working more and more with paid traffic. Hree traffic is nice, but it will not scale beyond a certain point, and typically has a reKuired Btime$to$volumeB ratio. When we have more money than time, buying traffic becomes the 76L; way to go. /f we had to distill A),,k into M %parts% or obEectives, it would be 5)6 buildin a stron, ?uality site, and 5M6 ettin ?ualified visitors to the site! <uch of our keyword phrase roup selection has been done with an eye towards achievable 8ae ) positionin, and now virtually everythin else oin forward is eared towards reachin and lockin-in those positions! 1efore we get into specific steps, ! want to go over a few more important concepts regarding ranking, <agerank, and 1acklinks. Traffic, <romotion, and the #ocial Web Today, we simply must take the #ocial Web into account if we intend on building a long$term, sustainable internet marketing business. nd it is in traffic & promotion where it has the greatest impact. <eople are %social animals%, always have been. 1ut it%s only recently that the !nternet has evolved to the point that it%s begun to reflect this. That evolution continues, and at a freightening pace. !n fact, !%ll make a prediction* Hrom both a user perspective, and a markets perspective, a B#ocial WebB will be a much more accurate description than anything else within the next 4$? years. What%s more, within that same period, from a marketers perspective, virtually +3+.;T/!6, will have changed* how we market, what we market, how we build sites, what we build, and how users behave. Hinally, this* every tactic & strategy that works today will at the least have to evolve significantly over the next few years, or they will not work. !n other words, if you don%t %stay current%, you will have nothing, and nothing to fall back on. =0ite*an%= /ow we rank in ,oogle, and how they treat us in other ways, is determined by a number of factors, but can be grouped into two %functions%. These are often referred to $ incompletely as we%ll see shortly $ as Boff$page factorsB and Bon$page factorsB* 8M B7ff$page factorsB $ This is our overall backlink profile, which is the sum of all our backlinks, each of which has a particular value Lwhich in turn is based on the backlink profile of the sites they come from, etc.M. We refer to this total value of incoming backlinks by our own phrase, BTotal 1acklink 3alueB. -M B7n$page factorsB $ This is usually thought of as a combination of our optimi'ation efforts for a given search phrase or keyword. While the Boff$page factorsB description above is fairly accurate, the Bon$page factorsB description is not. We already know that where we rank depends entirely on the search in Kuestion $ there is no Bstatic rankingB. The same page may rank on <age 8 for one phrase, yet not be in the top 899 for a different phrase. This is largely determined by how relevant the content of the page & site are, and how %focused% the backlinks are $ meaning how relevant the sites are where the links sit, and how relevant the anchor text and surrounding text are. 1ut it isn%t )ust the Bon$page factorsB of our content on the page plus backlinks that determines the rest. !t%s increasingly our domain authority, our %Trust .ank%, our relevance, our credibility, and to a lesser degree the history, age, and other factors. We%ve taken to using another phrase we coined to %encapsulate% most of the %non$off$page, factors, B#ite.ankB. B#ite.ankB is meant to provide a rough 9$89 approximation of a site%s relative strength, intended to mean how well a site will Bsi'e upB separate from Boff$page factorsB. /ere%s how we%re LcurrentlyM LapproximatelyM calculating B#ite.ankB* B.H1 & HocusB V 9$4 pts. This is the sites self$ Lor BinternalM relevance, meaning how targeted & focused a site is, and how well it fulfills it%s B.H1B. B.H1B stands for B.eason Hor 1eingB, what the site is about. The %narrower% a site%s focus and B.H1B, the better $ to some degree. Hor example, a site about BdogsB with an B.H1B of B site about dogs for people interested in dogsB can only be very focused if it%s a very large site, 6@ covers most or all ma)or areas$of$ interest about dogs. +ven still, unless it%s a Wikipedia$style site with the domain name Bdogs.comB, that would be a poor B.H1B. 7n the other hand, a site about Bdog trainingB with a B.H1B of B site about training dogsB can be much smaller and be very focused. /owever a site about Bdog trainingB that either doesn%t talk about eKuipment for dog training, for instance, or about training older dogs, is somewhat missing the mark. 1ut a site about Bpuppy trainingB wouldn%t need to talk about %all% dog training. s a reference, our old "6 Training site would get the max. 4 points for B.H1 HocusB. B"ontent & JualityB V 9$4 pts. This is simply the Kuality of the content, and how well it serves it%s B.H1B. Too little content, copied(scraped(spun content, poor Kuality content, all insure a 9$ 8 point here. - to 4 points come with Bhigh$KualityB that covers well the sites B.H1B. !f a Kualified visitor could leave the site and say Breally good information& ! learned somethingB Lor Bwas entertainedB, etcM, 6@ it fully covered the sites B.H1B, 4 points. "6 Training would get either - or 4 points there. Buthority & TrustB V 9$4 pts. ,ranted, some of the ButhorityB and BTrustB basis comes from who is linking to you, you can gain a measure of a site%s %independent% Buthority & TrustB by looking at the site. @oes the information seem authoritativeI TrustworthyI @oes it seem %scammy%, or primarly focused on separating you from your walletI @oes the site link to sites that are uthoritiesI "6 Training would get -$4 points here. B7therB V 9$8 pt. "onsiderations like age L? yrs or older aces this oneM, extraordinary design, or navigation, etc., "6 Training gets a 'ero here. Total B#ite.ankB for "6 Training would be appx. 2 to C. ll this means is that, all other things being eKual, it would do %better% against a site with a lower B#ite.ankB. lternately, it would rank better against a site with higher BTotal 1acklink 3alueB but a B#ite.ankB below 2. We don%t do it for every site or every occasion, but where we%re looking at competitive situations, or other %high$value% decisions and want to make a more intentional decision, we%ll do a %Kuick & dirty% B#ite.ankB evaluation. 7an!ing, Pageran!, (nd J'ac!lin!sK e no longer focus e#clusively on free traffic from 6oogle, and you shouldn%t either$ 9owever, for some of us - some sites, some "usiness models - search traffic is the primary focus$ hat follows is information to help understand how ran!ing on 6oogle wor!s$ Eor more information on the %!eyword ran!ing search traffic% model, see the CClassic 'lueprintC$ /ow we rank in ,oogle is based on two functions* our B#ite.ankB Loverall strength of our siteM and our site%s relevancy to the search being done, plus our BTotal 1acklink 3alueB $ the total value of our incoming links. backlink is simply a link pointing to our page from another page that is reconi;ed by the search enine Lnot all backlinks are %found% $ those that aren%t, add no backlink value. lso, ,oogle increasingly de$values low$Kuality links, in some cases down to 'eroM. 1eyond the site itself = meaning the on$page optimi'ation of our content, etc. $ ranking will largely be based on who has the %strongest% backlinking = a combination of the numbers of backlinks, and the %strength% of each of those links. "e refer to this as 0Total $acklink -alue2! 6ext, it%s important to remember that the term BrankingB by itself doesn%t mean much, sort of like the term BcolorB. Bankin is always in relation to a keyword or phrase. #tatements like Branking in the U8 spotB or B/ow do ! get my site on the first pageIB by themselves are meaningless. search engine database is %relative% $ there%s no set or %fixed% order of 8st, -nd, 4rd, etc. !t%s not a table like a spreadsheet. Where a particular page sits in the database, or E#+.<sF L#earch +ngine .esults <agesM, is only in relation to a particular search, meaning a keyword or phrase typed into the search box. nd as we discussed earlier, "ebsites aren%t listed in the #+.<#, individual paes of a website are. Where we rank in the #+.<# is one specific %ordering% or listing of the database for a specific keyword or phrase. That%s why a page might rank U4 for Bred bikini bottomB and U8G8 for Bbikini bottomB. #ame database, same pages, but a different ordering of it for different search Kueries. 7an!ing for a !eyword=phrase comes down to optimi,ing our page for thse !eywords=phrases, then gaining more J3otal 'ac!lin! )alueK than the sites we%re trying to "eat, which are the sites currently on Page A for each specific !eyword$ !n order to improve a page%s rankings, we want to optimi'e the page itself, and we want to build it%s total Bbacklink valueB. The value of each backlink is determined by where it is, and the link itself. Hor the link itself, using our %target% keyword(phrase as the anchor text Lthe clickable partM gives it the highest value = for that particular phrase. The amount of %backlink value% it gives us for ranking purposes is then based on where it appears on the page Lhigher up is betterM, the %strength% of the page it%s on Lit%s <agerank, trustrank, authority, ageM, and the context, or relevancy of that page to our keyword(phrase. s mentioned above, using our target keyword phrase as the anchor text for a backlink will insure it focuses all of it%s %backlink value% towards that targeted keyword. /7W+3+., one of the significant E<andaF changes is that ,oogle now does a %deeper% analysis of a sites backlinks, and as a result, having all links use the same anchor text can be problematic. s a general rule, you want no more than a Kuarter to a third L-?P$44PM of the backlinks for a given target keyword phrase to use that exact keyword as anchor text. :se variations for the balance. Hor example, if a target keyword phrase is Edog trainingF, you might use Ecanine trainingF, Etraining a dogF, Epuppy trainingF and Etraining of dogsF for some of your anchor text. The idea is to %mimic% what would happen if those links developed EnaturallyF $ not every instance would be identical. J3otal 'ac!lin! )alueK 7nce our site is built, it comes down to building B#ite.ankB, and %importance% which is essentially %backlink value%. 1acklink value is the number of backlinks times the %strength% of each backlink Lwhatever <. it%s passing, it%s trustrank, and authorityM. !n otherwords, ETotal 1acklink 3alueF is the addition of each backlink%s value combined together. !n order to boost our rankings once our page is optimi'ed, we have to increase it%s overall ETotal 1acklink 3alueF so that it is higher than those pages currently ahead of us. !f we%re trying to boost our rankings for keywords we%re not as well optimi'ed for, we%ll need that much more backlink value. hy 7an!ings Change LThis applies primarily to ,oogle& each search engine uses somewhat different criteria and valuesM. The goal of a search engine is to display the most relevant pages, in order of %importance%, for a given search Kuery. When a search is entered, the database produces a list of relevant results and orders them. The order is determined by a number of factors including on$page values, <agerank, backlinks, %trustrank%, and authority. When a page is first indexed, ,oogle does an initial %approximation%. 1ecause many of the more %costly% calculations aren%t figured in yet, a well$optimi'ed site can often place well for it%s %targeted% keyword(phrase when it%s first indexed. Within some period, usually a few days to a few weeks, a more thorough valuation is done. t this point, that well$optimi'ed page, that doesn%t yet have much else going for it, drops significantly. This is often referred to as part of the B,oogle danceB. 7ver the next period, backlinks start to be found, perhaps more are being added, and the page will often begin to creep back upwards. 7f course this is an oversimplification& ,oogle%s algorithms are very sophisticated and complex. !t%s believed there are approximately -99 factors that are calculated $ some that add to a page%s %importance%, some that subtract. 'uilding 2ur 'ac!lin!s Hor our Buthority /ub 1lueprintB, we focus much of our efforts on securing very$high$value backlinks. Hor the other 1lueprints, we want to focus our link$building efforts on getting %Kuality% links, not %Kuantity% links. 1elow is a listing of some sources & methods for getting %decent% backlinks. !n general, you should spend no more than 49$09 minutes per day once you reach that point. 7f course, you can put in more effort to push things further and faster, however there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. What we list and advocate is a low$impact, well$proven stragegy that will get good results. nother alternative is to outsource all of the content and traffic steps& this allows you to scale everything up. ;ou can use this info to give to a 3irtual ssistant or out$ sourcer. .ecently, there has been a trend towards outsourcing much or all of the backlinking efforts, and an entire %cottage industry% has been created based on backlinking tools and resources. The reason, of course, is that backlinks essentially determines how well we rank, and so there is increased interest in simply paying to have it done, and having it done Kuicker than we might be able to do it ourselves manually. While we are strong believers in outsourcing, we also feel it is important to go through this entire process at least once yourself. This will provide invaluable understanding and insight into the Ewhat and howF of this business. 3ypes 2f 'ac!lin!s 1acklinks = specifically how they are evaluated, and their strength = have been a significant focus of the recent ,oogle updates. #ome types or sources of backlinks have diminished greatly in value = meaning their %strength%. t the same time, ,oogle has made clear that too many of the %wrong% links can actually hurt you. Hor instance, getting hundreds of Elow$KualityF blog comment links, or hundreds of Elow$KualityF profile links, etc. There are many types and ways to gain backlinks. Where backlinks & ranking are concerned, 34 focuses on a few different types of backlinking* Web -.9 websites, press releases, articles & %guest blogging%, #ocial Media and #ocial 1ookmarking sites, forums, blog comments, and .## feeds. We also provide tactics for securing very$high$value backlinks through Buthority <ostingB, a set of tactics for getting %guest posts% on high$value pages. !f this sounds like a lot, don%t fret. fter the initial %push%, you won%t have to spend more than 49$09 minutes per site each day. nd in return for that effort, you will of course get your 0$ figure incomeD With the recent updates, link relevance and link %position% have become much more significant. Link relevance generally refers to how well %matched% the content surrounding the link is Lthe page, article, blog post or comment, etc. where the link appearsM to what it links to = your site. !t used to be that Eany link was a good linkF but that%s becoming increasingly less true. +ven more important now is link %position% = specifically where the link appears. The most valuable place a link can be is within the body of the content on the page, called Ein$contentF or EeditorialF links. The reason is that a link within the actual content is almost certainly going to be a stronger, more realistic %vote% for the site it links to, which is the whole basis for using backlinks to determine ranking in the first place. Links that appear in a blog comment, a link list or EblogrollF, in a separate sidebar area, etc., are considerably %weaker% in terms of how much value they give us. There are two other important factors concerning backlinking that ! want to mention. The first is Elink velocityF. This is the rate at which backlinks are created. !t is important not to create too many backlinks too Kuickly = though if you follow the 1lueprint, you won%t have to worry about that = and ELink @iversityF. Link diversity refers to where the backlinks are coming from. /aving all our backlinks coming from a narrow range of places gives us a low link diversity. Low link diversity is bad. !deally, we want our links to be coming from a diverse range and type of sites. ,oogle will give diminishing value to links that come from the same place. The 89 th backlink coming from +'inearticles, for instance, or any particular domain or !< address, etc., will have far less value than the first one. #imilarly, having only #ocial 1ookmarking backlinks, or only %profile% backlinks would not be a good thing. Social 8oo,-ar,ing #ocial bookmarking sites use to be ,oogle %darlings%, but as many of these things do = like Web -.9 sites used to be $ they lose some of their %power% over time, often because they are discovered to have significant %ranking power% and are then very Kuickly abused. #till, they offer good, diverse backlinks. We get these links by %bookmarking% our pages at these sites. ,iven their value however, it%s important to use one of the automated #ocial 1ookmarking tools that are available. Manually creating individual bookmarks would be more time$consuming than it is worth, and after all, the whole point of this is to create high$value sites relatively Kuickly and easily. n important note about creating #ocial 1ookmark entries* on all of these sites, you enter the :.L or page you are bookmarking, a title, and tags and(or descriptions. 3he title you enter will usually "ecome the clic!a"le hyperlin! for the U74 L in other words, the anchor te#t for that lin!$ (s such, you want to ma!e sure to follow the guidelines for anchor te#t - not more than BM-??N C/#act-MatchC$ #ocialMarker is a good, free #1 utility, and we recommend it if you want to go the %free% route. lternately, we use and can recommend !ncansoft%s #ocial1ot and 1ookmarking @emon. 1oth programs do the )ob. nother good option is 7nlyWire. There is a %free% option that reKuires you to put their button & link on your website, but the paid version is only about 89 bucks per month. ! should note that ! used to be a big fan of 7nlywire, when they first came out. /owever, the company was bought out by another organi'ation that has not done a very good )ob at managing the tool, updates, etc. s a result, we%ve moved away from 7nlywire, but know some are still getting good results. RSS E.##F stands for E.eally #imple #yndicationF. !t%s both a format, and a method for updating and distributing content. E.## sitesF allow us to submit our E.## feedF, and have it listed & distributed. Without getting too deep into the mechanics, all we need is the .## %feed% :.L of our site to submit to some of these services. !t%s a one$shot deal, once it%s submitted the first time, we don%t have to worry about it. ;ou can submit your .## feed manually, or by using a program like .##1ot = inexpensive and very effective. !f you want to do it manually, simply grab your .## feed and submit it to these sites* Heedagg Heedage !cerocket 1logarama 1log.com 1log"atalog Heedest.com -.##.com HeedsHarm.com .ssHeeds.com HeedsGall.com .##micro.com HeedHury.com ,oldenHeed.com 1log@igger.com .##Heeds.com Private 'etwor, The highest$value backlinks are Ein$contentF or EeditorialF backlinks = links that are in the body of the content. This is one of the ways we can get these high$value Ein$contentF links, since we control the content. These Web -.9 sites will be EfeederF or EsupportF sites, used for creating backlinks. Web -.9 sites help to add link diversity, and often have higher backlinking value than #ocial 1ookmarking sites. ;ou will want to build a E<rivate 6etworkF of these sites, which will in turn begin to %age% and develop more ranking value. With these sites under your control, you can use them to create links %on demand%. !M<7.T6T* ;ou M:#T include other %out$bound% links on these sites. /aving only links to one site will usually lead to them being devalued. /ere is a list of strong Web -.9 sites you can use, taken from our :LT!MT+ !M Toolchest. #imply go to the site and create a new account* http*((sKuidoo.com http*((weebly.com http*((wordpress.com http*((live)ournal.com http*((bravenet.com http*((www.wetpaint.com http*((www.wikispaces.com http*((hubpages.com "heck out our E.esourcesF site for the best, most current listings. (uest 8logging +23/: 6uest 'logging is currently our Cmethod of choiceC for "ac!lin!ing$ *n addition to Cguest "loggingC, we use C(uthority PostingC for "uilding very-high-value "ac!lin!s$ 3his is simply Cguest "loggingC on high-value sites$ 3he C7an! :umpingC P5E provides terrific tips, tactics, and resources for 6uest 'logging$ 3he C(uthority 9u" 'lueprintC provides more information as well$ With the changes in how backlinks are evaluated, the most valuable links are Ein$contentF, and more valuable the higher the %authority% of the page it%s on. 7ne of the very best ways to get the very best links is via ,uest 1logging = providing Kuality articles = blog posts = to strong, relevant blogs in your niche. This allows you to have a link either in the body of the text, or at the top or bottom of the article. !t%s also relatively easy to do = after all, every blog needs good content. ;ou can use Technorati Lhttp*((www.technorati.com(M to find countless blogs in your niche, and related niches. #imply contact the blog owner, and tell him you%d like to provide Kuality posts. #ome will say no, many will welcome it. ;ou must make sure, however, that what you send is of very high Kuality. #pend some time familiari'ing yourself with their blog so that you can see what topics, style of writing, etc., is currently on the blog. The %key% to successful ,uest 1logging as a strategy is to develop a E6etwork of 1logsF. s you find relevant or related blogs in your niche, you want to develop a %relationship% so that you can use them on an ongoing basis. "reate a list of 89$-9 blogs that you can use = blogs that you can provide content for = and keep track of what they%re doing, talking about, etc. ;ou can easily track them via Twitter, their .## feed, or set up a ,oogle lerts for them. That way you can spend a couple of minutes each day checking out what they%re posting about, and in turn develop good, on$topic content for them to post. The best resource for finding ,uest 1logging and uthority <osting opportunities is our %.esources% blog Lhttp*((899kresources.com(M under B,uest 1loggingB. ;ou can also search ,oogle for opportunities. @ere are some eact 5oogle searches you can use to find sites- Eguest bloggers wantedF ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ Bguest blogger wantedB ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ Eguest bloggersF ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ Eguest bloggerF ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ Eguest postF ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ Eguest postsF ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ ;7:. >+;W7.@ /+.+ inurl* guest post ;our actual searches might look like these* guest bloggers wanted parenting Eguest bloggers wantedF parenting Eguest bloggersF parenting Eguest bloggerF parenting Eguest postF parenting Eguest postsF parenting parenting inurl*guest post !rticles Many of the top rticle @irectories were %hit% by the E<andaF update, and lost rankings for much of their content. /owever the problem wasn%t the rticle @irectories per se, but the low$ Kuality content. They are still worthwhile for backlink building, provided you are giving them high$Kuality content. We gain backlinks with articles by submitting them to article directories. !n addition to the link from the article directory website, some will end up being %syndicated%, meaning webmasters will re$publish them on their own sites, giving us additional links. The recent ,oogle updates makes diverse, Ein$contentF links considerably more important. :W is one of the most cost$effective ways to get diverse, Ein$contentF links. +ach of the article directories allows you to create a Eresource boxF at the end of the article. This is where you put your link. Lnote* some of the article directories allow links within the body of the articleM. 7nce upon a time, you could syndicate your content = put it on your website, then leverage it further by submitting it to an article directory. Those days are over. 7ne area that will become increasingly tighter is the area of Eduplicate contentF. 7ne of the primary drivers to the massive changes at ,oogle is duplicate content. !t will have increasingly less value, and will actually begin to hurt you. 1acklinks from dup content should be avoided. Press Releases <ress releases are essentially advertisements dressed up as news stories, and as such allow you to %sculpt% your %pitch% to a great extent. s with article marketing, the headline is the key to getting them read and syndicated or distributed. nd while similar in some respects to article marketing, press releases should be focused on announcements and newsworthiness, rather than the %informational% focus for article marketing. The key to using press releases for generating traffic is in understanding what they are used for. press release is %picked up% by general news and topical sites. n editor or webmaster looks to press releases to provide content, and as such will be more likely to do so if it feels interesting, new, and(or relevant. ;ou don%t necessarily have to have a %new% announcement to send out a press release. ;ou can generate %news% simply through positioning* Ecme%s 1etter @iet ddresses @ieting @ilemmaF Ecme%s 1etter @iet Working Where 7ther @iets HailF E@ieters Hinding cme%s 1etter @iet <rovides Hast, #afe .esultsB Make sure to check out the <ress .elease resources on our %.esources% blog. 8log Co--enting +23/: 2+48 comment on OU(4*38 '426S, with *+3/44*6/+3, OU(4*38 C2MM/+3S< 1log commenting is )ust what it sounds like = creating a %comment% on someone else%s blog. !n this case, when creating your comment, you are reKuired to provide your name, email, and website. The website you provide becomes the backlink on the comment. 1log commenting can be especially strong because you can almost always find 'illions of blogs to comment on, and you get extremely good link diversity. There are a few Wordpress plugins that are in fairly wide use that make blog commenting even better, by allowing you to specify the keywords you want linked. These are E"ommentLuvF and E>eywordLuvF. ;ou can find hundreds of these blogs by using specific searches in ,oogle for their %signature%. To find >eywordLuv blogs, go to ,oogle and use this search string* y)eyword 5 .titleC/This site uses )eyword"uv/; or y)eyword 5 .titleC/'a-eD#our)eywords/; To locate blogs with >eywordLuv enabled in a particular niche, replace BMy>eywordB with your own keywords. To find "ommentLuv blogs, use same method but with this search string* y)eyword 5 .titleC/Co--ent"uv &nabled/;. nother of our really powerful %#ecret Weapons% is "omment >ahuna = and it% freeD "omment >ahuna is a very slick program that will go out and find blogs that you can comment on, and automate the process of doing the comments themselves. ;ou can get "omment >ahuna here* http*((commentkahuna.com( @oru-s +23/: 2+48 pursue OU(4*38 E27UMS, posting 2+48 *+3/44*6/+3, OU(4*38 C2MM/+3S< Horum links, like blog comment links, can hurt your Ebacklink profileF if you over$use them, they can also be very worthwhile since a forum can be very relevant as well. Look for forums that are at least somewhat related or relevant to your niche. Most forums allow you to create a link in your forum %sig% or signature. ;ou simply )oin or create an account at the forum, and in your account setup or control panel, create your signature w( link. Many forums also have %profile% areas where you can include a link, and some even allow forum members to create their own blogs on the forum. There are actually an astonishing number of forums, across an incredible range of topics and interests. ;ou can search ,oogle, or go to a site like 1ig 1oards which lists thousands of forums* http*((www.big$boards.com( 7/P/(3/5: *mportant note a"out "log comments, forum comments, etc: "e%ve all seen blos with senseless or obviously irrelevant co&&ents! This is called 0co&&ent spa&2! /f you are oin to use blo co&&entin, foru&s, etc!, to ain backlinks, you <A=T &ake value- added co&&ents! /n the past, %worthless% co&&ents were deleted as a worst-case! Today however, they can %poison% your 0backlink profile2 and hurt you! 2ther 'ac!lin! 2pportunities #+"T!76 T7 1+ :<@T+@ 'ac!lin! (utomation, 2utsourcing, (nd Paid 3ools #ince backlinking is so important to our rankings, and something we have control over, we are going to talk about some of the ways we can enhance our efforts. 1ecause of its importance, an entire cottage industry has grown up around backlinking. There or outsourcers and services that will do your back when >ing for you, networks of websites with automated back linking that you can )oin, and software programs or tools that will multiply your efforts. ! Word !bout ."in, <elocity/ ELink 3elocityF is the rate at which back links are added or created. #ince our search engine position is based largely on our total 1ack link value, there might be an inclination to run out and get as many back links as possible, as Kuickly as possible. :nfortunately, that has the potential to do more harm than good. Though ,oogle uses the measure of backlinking to determine where to rank a site, they recogni'e that this can easily lead to gaming the system by those willing or able to simply plaster a ba'illion backlinks out there. s such they have built into the system some mechanisms to determine whether the backlinks are legitimate votes, or EmanufacturedF.When ,oogle sees patterns of backlinks that appear unnatural, they can disregard those links, devalue them, or even penali'e the site they link to. Many EprofessionalsF will also say backlinking should look EnaturalF, and not be too sudden or spiky. 1ut what is an EunnaturalF backlinking patternI That%s tough to say, because different types of sites might have very different = and legitimate = backlinking patterns. Hor instance, a site talking about something that suddenly gains significant popularity i.e. ma)or news items, trends, events, etc., may legitimately see a very spiky, rapid growth in backlinks. What we can say from experience is that you don%t want a brand$new site to have thousands of backlinks all of a sudden. ,enerally, you want to start relatively slowly, and build up over time. The key word there is ErelativelyF. !f you follow our suggestions and get a few do'en diverse links per week, your %Link 3elocity% will be ideal. ;our site will start to move up steadily, and continue to do so. 7nce you reach <age 8, you%ll switch to Emaintenance modeF, where you only need to add a few new backlinks each week to maintain your position. ! Word !bout ."in, 6iversity/ Nust as too many sudden backlinks can be counter$productive, having all our backlinks from a small number of sources is something we want to avoid. While this isn%t likely to hurt us, it isn%t likely to help us too much either. nd there are few things as frustrating as spending the time and effort on something that isn%t effective. s such, we want to strive for Elink diversityF. #pecifically, we want links from different sites, on different !< addresses. #ome of this will be automatic = when we use a tool like #ocial Marker, we are getting backlinks across a number of different #ocial 1ookmarking sites. 1ut we don%t want to rely on )ust #ocial 1ookmarking sites. #imilarly, multiple links from the same domain or !< address will have diminishing value. #ubmitting articles to a single article directory like +'inearticles, has limited benefit. Hor those of you with many websites that are considering using them to bolster your backlinking efforts, if those sites are all on a shared hosting accounts, they will have the same !< address = meaning those links will not have the value they might if the sites were %spread out%. 2P4 - J2ther People%s 4in!sK 7ne of the great benefits of working online is the incredible ease with which we can do all sorts of competitive research. Specifically, it%s a "ree,e to see where our competitors L those Page A entries L are getting their "ac!lin!s$ Many of the tools mentioned already will provide this information: 3raffic 3ravis, Micro+iche Einder, Mar!et Samurai$ 3he site%s occupying the Page A positions you are going after will undou"tedly reveal "ac!lin!ing opportunities that you can duplicate$ 3heir lin!s helped them get to where they are, where you%re trying to get to$ 8ou can only help your efforts "y getting the same or similar lin!s$