Michael | 100k Blueprint

Keyword Ranking – What Doesn’t Work, What Does, and How To Do It

January 10, 2012 By Michael 7 Comments

For as long as Google has been around, marketers and webmasters have been trying to rank for specific keywords. Before Google, most search engines mixed ‘real’ (organic) and ‘sponsored’ (paid) results, and it was easier to rank by simply buying a position. Regardless, the available traffic – the number of searches and amount of commerce – was still relatively low.

Once we reached the point where significant sums could be made by targeting individual keywords & phrases, the ‘game’ was on. In the “early days”, when the sophistication of search was considerably lower, it was possible to gain top rankings through simple tactics such as keyword stuffing. As search evolved, the effort required evolved with it.

Since the value of a top listing can be huge, and grows along with the general growth of internet usage, a whole cottage industry of keyword ranking has grown up in the internet marketing industry. Along with various keyword and website tools, products such as George Brown’s “Google Sniper” and “Google Sniper 2″, and John James Robinson’s (‘xfactor’) “Micro Niche Adsense Course” exploited these opportunities with courses in how to build and rank these ‘single-keyword-focused’ sites “quickly & easily”.

It Had To Happen: Disruptive Correction, and the Death Of Internet Marketing

December 19, 2011 By Michael 58 Comments

If you are involved in Internet Marketing, your world is about to change, in a profound and massive way.

There have already been some huge changes, or “shifts” in the Internet Marketing space this past year – chief among them Google’s “Panda” updates, but many others such as the Federal Trade Commission bans.

As big as they are, however, they’re just the “tip” of what’s about to happen. Everything – really, everything – is about to change. I don’t mean an algorithm change / update, or a TOS change, I mean everything.

And not just at Google.

What follows is a report I wrote entitled “Disruptive Correction, and the Death Of Internet Marketing”. It describes and explains what is undoubtedly the most significant change in internet marketing since the field began, the death of “Internet Marketing 1.0″

The Post-”Panda” Internet Marketing Article On Article Marketing

December 6, 2011 By Michael 10 Comments

Article marketing is still one of the quickest, easiest, and surest means to generate traffic. While article marketing is used extensively for link building, it is also a tremendous source of very targeted traffic. With as little as one article, we can begin generating quality, targeted traffic almost immediately. Taking it a step further however, article marketing can be one of the strongest, long-term traffic strategies there are.

Anyone who has perused the various Internet marketing forums has probably seen numerous threads proclaiming the “death of article marketing”. Fortunately this couldn’t be further from the truth. What is true however, is that the days of profiting from low-quality, poorly researched articles are long gone.

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Filed Under: Content, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: article marketing, content, panda, ranking, SEO, traffic

The New Rules For Content Quality

December 3, 2011 By Michael 2 Comments

Whether you’ve been making money online for a while, or are just starting out, one truth that holds for every business model and strategy is the old maxim “content is king”. In fact, it’s truer today than it’s ever been – and with deeper implications.

The purpose for our content may vary – articles for article marketing, website content, Web 2.0 posts as a platform, or for linkbuilding, etc. – but whatever the purpose, we need our content to get indexed in order for it to ‘work’. In some cases, we want it not just to get indexed, but to rank well.

Beginning in Feb. 2011, Google’s ongoing “Panda” updates imposed some sweeping changes on the world of content. “Low quality” content is increasingly disappearing, being de-indexed or not indexed in the first place, and at best, struggling to rank well.

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Filed Under: Content, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: content, keyword research, panda, rankings, SEO, spinning

R.I.P. Steve Jobs; What’s Not Coming Next

October 7, 2011 By Michael Leave a Comment

By now you’ve probably heard that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday, October 5th, just 56 years old. He’d been struggling with cancer, and had stepped down from his role at Apple just weeks ago, saying that his health no longer allowed him to perform his job adequately.

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been in “the industry” as it was being born, and for living through those astonishing first years. It’s hard to imagine that there will be another period as world-changing as this was, either in my lifetime, or at any time. The “computer & communications” industry – evolving concurrently as the evolution of the integrated circuit & digital technology, the personal computer, and the internet – profoundly changed the world we live in.

One of the few “center points” of it all was Steve Jobs.

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Filed Under: Business Tagged With: apple, apple computer, apple II, innovation, iphone, ipod, itunes, steve jobs

The “New World” of Internet Marketing: Where’s It All Going?

October 4, 2011 By Michael Leave a Comment

A few years ago, I read a report by Internet Marketing legend John Reese about the future of IM. In it, he talked about how the industry was reaching that shift from the “early adopters” to the larger, more mainstream world at large. His premise was that IM would become more competitive, with higher barriers to entry, and as such those in developing nations would begin to have the edge.

When the costs begin to rise, those who can profit by earning $100 from 40 hours of work will start edging out the “easy money” crowd who can’t compete on that scale.

That report changed how I viewed the industry profoundly. Most significantly, I began to consider the longer-term changes and trends – what they might be, and what effect they might have.

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Filed Under: Business, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: farmer update, google, internet marketing, panda update, ranking, SEO

Adsense $100k Blueprint “Version 2″ Is Here… Almost!

September 21, 2011 By Michael 4 Comments

It’ hard for me to believe, but it’s been almost exactly one year since we released “Adsense $100k Blueprint“! It’s become one of the most well-respected & reviewed, highest-success courses on the market (http://www.warriorforum.com/internet-marketing-product-reviews-ratings/292295-100k-adsense-revenue-blueprint.html).

Well, a lot has changed in a year! Who knew Google would unleash their most wide-ranging and significant ranking algorithm updates ever? In truth, many of us ‘knew’ it. We may not have known the specifics such as when, and whether it was coming in one (or two) big updates, but anyone who is in the internet marketing or site building business recognized that too many search results were being “polluted” (Google’s term…) by ‘fake’ review sites, single-keyword-focused affiliate sites, garbage MFA (“Made For Adsense”) sites.

Choosing A Niche, Part 1

September 19, 2011 By Michael 2 Comments

I get the awesome opportunity to do a lot of presentations & webinars. Most of them are in support of one of our “$100k Blueprint” courses, and go over some ‘common’ concepts and information. We always end with a Q & A session – plus the webinar application allows attendees to post questions during the presentation. As a result, we get an invaluable perspective on what marketers are thinking, where their uncertainties are, and what aspects of the business they feel least certain about.

Invariably, niche and keyword research top the list of things internet marketers want to do ‘better’.

Niche marketing is at the heart of virtually all of our making money online efforts. Whether we’re building Adsense sites, email opt-in lists, or affiliate marketing sites, everything revolves around a niche. Choose the niche properly, and everything else moves forward smoothly. Choose poorly, and no amount of effort is going to result in optimized returns.