Well, more like 10 months, but we won’t split hairs…
Over the last ten months I have been on a bit of a self imposed mission – one to find out if there are actually any reports or membership sites that actually offer genuine help to someone who is starting out in the industry, or who has some experience but no results with internet marketing. My findings? Well read on and I will let you know.
Firstly, the plethora of $7 reports that are being produced. I cannot comment on the level of experience that the authors of these products have, but in my own experience a $7 report buys exactly that. $7 worth of information.
If you walked into a top class restaurant with only $7, what would you expect on your plate? That is assuming they let you spend your hard earned cash. A scoop of mashed potato and a carrot? A slice of meat? You certainly wouldn’t be tucking in to their dish of the day, that’s a given.
So why do people sell information for $7? The simple fact is $7 isn’t a lot for most people. Most people can afford to lose $7, in much the same way as buying a large Starbucks coffee, or a supersized BK flame grilled burger. But unlike the feeling of satisfaction you get from sipping your coffee, or chowing down on your burger, a $7 info product can leave you feeling a bit hollow. Like, “where did that $7 go?”
Most $7 reports can be figured out from the sales pitch. And from the sales pitch, most of the information can be found for free if you are prepared to work to find it.
My highly scientific findings (paying $7 for a bunch of reports) leads me to the conclusion that if I want to sit at the big boys table, and enjoy a proper meal, I am going to have to pay big boy prices.
As a side note, I will say that not all the reports I bought were rehashed blog/forum posts, but the vast majority would, in my opinion, sit quite happily in that bracket, and I would be quite a few $$ better off if I had chosen not to buy them.
In my next post, I’ll go on to my ’secondly’ point…
Stay tuned!
Filed under Affiliate Marketing, Thinking Out Loud by 
Have you been submitting your articles on a regular basis to promote your site?
Yes?
Are they getting plenty of views every day?
No?
This is a common story. Article marketing is becoming ultra competitive, and for this reason I now use article submissions purely for their backlink value. That’s not to say I write shoddy stuff! My content is always as good as I can make it, just in case someone actually reads it and clicks through to my site, but getting your article seen in the first place can be a laborious task.
One way I try to increase my page views is to borrow other authors success. It’s pretty simple, and works really well on Ezine Articles (EA) particularly. So if you don’t have an account, head over there after you have read this and open one – it is free. There is a link at the bottom of this post.
So, how do you borrow from a successful article? Follow these steps and you will find out…
In EA, do a search for the keyword/phrase you are going to write about. This will bring up a list of related articles. Genius!
Now just click on the first article that appears in that list. That article is first because it is optimised correctly in EzineArticles view for that search.
Right click in the body of the article and select ‘view page source’. This will open up another window/tab and display a bunch of html code. All you are interested in is the bit at the top that says ‘keywords’.
Now you can either copy and paste these into your article, or select the ones you think will benefit your article most. Just remember to add YOUR keyword first in your article set up.
What you should see in the future is that your article will begin to increase in the Ezine searches. This might take a few weeks as generally more established posts are seen more favourably.
If you try this method each time you submit an article, you will be putting yourself at an advantage, and ‘borrowing’ from other articles that are currently successful.
Visit EzineArticles here.
Filed under Article Marketing by
When I first heard about press releases, and using them to promote my websites, I pretty much discarded the idea straight away because I thought it was just something that the big companies use. I thought it was a commercial tool that was aimed at those who could afford to pay big bucks for fancy marketing companies to copy write amazing pieces to promote and advertise their clients wares.
That was until I read a quite cheap report I picked up which explained exactly what the methodology is behind using press release sites to promote your site.
Here is the jist…
Basically, yes, there are super important press companies that compile short text articles for their PAYING clients. These get put out on their websites within the relevant categories, and the people who subscribe to these sites can read about the services of relevant companies.
BUT.
There are some sites that do not require subscriptions. These same sites also allow you to post your own press releases. At no cost. And here is the best part…
In effect, they are very much like article directories, with one significant difference. If you are using article submission as part of your link building strategy (which I hope you are) you will know that each of your articles has to be different. Well unique actually to get the best results. Because of the nature of a press release – you want the world to know about a specific thing/post/idea/service/product – it doesn’t really matter if your press release to 2, 5, 10 or any amount of press release sites is the same! You are trying to get a specific message out, and you need it to be common to as many visitors as possible.
If you were to submit to 10 article directories, you need to rewrite (or spin) your content 10 times and then submit. With press release sites, you write your release once, and that is all you submit. Better still, you don’t have to make it 500 words long. 200 words will do, and then you put in the link to the rest of your new post/page on your site.
Sound good? It gets better…
These press release sites are trawled by other sites that aggregate current news on particular topics or markets. So when they find your 10 press releases (which typically takes a few days), they add them to their data bases. Including your link.
It is possible for your 10 releases to appear in up to 2000 aggregated feeds. And while not all of these will provide you with a backlink, the majority will. And those that don’t will at least be another access point to your site.
You can repeat this process as many times as you wish, for any site.
In a few days I will provide you with a list of around 20 press release sites that you can use over and over.
Stay tuned and make sure you add this to your linking strategy.
Filed under Backlinks, Press Release by
So I have been banging away at the laptop for quite some time now. My results have been varied, and the websites I have produced have made me happy, but not always the search engines.
I take my own advice, and I build links daily to my sites – not all of them everyday, but some links to something I own. It’s a long process, but done correctly, using the techniques I have outlined in this blog, plus some others I will share with you over time, I have managed to top the ranks for one of my keywords.
The site itself is about 7 months old. I have been linking to it since it was created.
The keyword it is optimised for has around 10,000 searches per month, and the competition is about 500k pages, broad match.
I am now in position 1 for that keyword.
What that means is in theory, I will receive about 40% of the search volume at my site – you can check that data if you wish (via Google searches, Yahoo and Bing are all gravy).
A theoretical 4000 hits per month. Not bad.
A conversion rate of 1.5%. That is 60 sales per month. Getting better.
My commission on a simple ClickBank product? $33 per sale. I’m sure you can work out the turnover on that one phrase.
Fingers crossed that it will turn out like that!
Oh – and did I mention that is for ONE KEYWORD, on ONE SITE? I am ranking in the search results for a bunch of other keywords that have lower traffic and lower competition, I just wanted to make the point that keyphrases that have a medium-ish difficulty level to compete against can be achievable.
The reason for this post is to give you guys who might be struggling a bit of hope. Internet Marketing does take a bit of work, and those who say otherwise are not being honest. Internet Marketing also requires time. Going in with your eyes open, and understanding that you will not make an instant fortune overnight is a good thing.
The strategies I talk about do work. How well they work depends on you.
To your success.
Filed under Search Engine Ranking by
