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01-17-12 Newsletter: Google Changes, Social Engagement, R100k, and Consulting Offer

January 18, 2012 By 1 Comment

Hello!

Welcome to this ‘Part 2′ newsletter (I sent out a note before the weekend, since I was going to be out of town for a few days – this is the actual newsletter).

As mentioned, we will be sending out at least one newsletter per week, and promise you to keep it mostly, if not all, informational.

Today we’re going to look at some extremely significant Google changes – yep, more Google changes… – and what it means. We’ll also talk about some new, updated guidelines you can use with your various sites and ranking efforts. Finally, I’ll update you on ‘R100k’, and out efforts at a consulting offer. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsletters

11-22-11 Newsletter: New Video & SECockpit, Panda Tips, R100k Update, A100k Sites

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hello!

Welcome to another action-packed $100k Blueprint newsletter! In this issue, we’ll tell you about a new A100k & SECockpit video, give you some actionable Panda tips, and update you on R100k, the site builds that were ordered, and the last days of the SECockpit special offer.

 

A100k & SECockpit

For those who are unfamiliar with it, SECockpit is a revolutionary keyword tool that was recently released (more about it below). They’ve built the A100k Blueprint tasks & Action Plan right into the software, so that you can use SECockpit as a ‘dashboard’ for creating your Blueprint sites – doing everything from within the software. From your initial keyword research, through rankbuilding, it’s an incredible time saver – and virtually insures you’ll have a successful site.

The developers just finished a video showing you how you can integrate the A100K Blueprint with SECockpit and have all of the relevant tasks display inside your SECockpit dashboard.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsletters

SECockpit Keyword Research Webinar Replay

October 15, 2011 By 12 Comments

Many of you know that we consider keyword research to be the “key” to success – whether it’s with Adsense, or any other IM business.

Many of you also know, we consider SECockpit to be the absolute -best- keyword research tool available. We’ve worked with the developers of SECockpit since it was in Beta release. In fact, they’ve integrated our A100k Blueprint into the product!

We recently hosted a webinar on keyword research presented by Shane Melaugh, one of the sharpest guys in the business. You can watch a replay below. I promise you’ll get a lot of excellent info, and for those of you who don’t already have it, we’ve ‘twisted arms’ to get a special pricing deal on SECockpit. You’ll find out specifically why SECockpit is our “tool of choice”, and what it can do for you that you simply can’t do anywhere else. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Products & Tool Review, SEO & Ranking, Videos & Training, Webinars

10-5-11 – What’s Coming, Cool Tips, Panda Update…

October 6, 2011 By 2 Comments

Hello!

Welcome to this first October 100k Blueprint newsletter! We have a lot of good stuff for you – and nothing for sale! Below you’ll find updates on some updates, some tips on boosting traffic, and the latest in the ongoing “Panda” saga.

Updates

Some of you know we (finally!) released Version 2 of “Adsense $100k Blueprint” last week. There were a number of last-minute obstacles – of course – which put us about a week behind on everything, but it’s out, and the feedback has been tremendous! Thanks for you patience, and all who gave us feedback.updates

Along those lines, you can expect two additional documents within the next week: an “Upgrade Checklist” which will help you assess your current sites and list out things you need to consider and/or change in order to do well in this new post-”Panda” environment. While it’s written for Blueprint sites, it applies to, and can be used for any sites you have.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Newsletters

Google Webmaster Tools – Features & Setup

January 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

webmaster toolsGoogle Webmaster tools is a terrific free resource that allows you to get valuable information about how your website looks in the ‘eyes’ of Google.

If you haven’t already started taking advantage of WMT, get on it!

Here’s more about Webmaster Tools, along with a video at the bottom that shows you how to get your site setup.

Key Webmaster Tools Features

Find out how Google sees your site:  Verified site owners can see information about how Google crawls, indexes and ranks your site.

Analyze search data:  See how many people found your site in search results, and how many people clicked on it.

- We can use this data to optimize our page title’s and descriptions to maximize CTR.

Receive alerts in your inbox:  Google will tell you if they detect that your site has malware or generates errors.

- We’ve had sites that lost rankings after being hacked, and we were notified via Webmaster tools immediately.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Quickies, Videos & Training Tagged With: ,

How to Install WordPress Via Fantastico

January 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We now use WordPress for almost all of the new niche websites we create.  It’s fast and easy to setup, is extremely flexible in terms of configuration, and best of all, the search engines love it!

In the video below, we outline how you can use Fantastico to install and setup WordPress on your own server in minutes.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Quickies, Videos & Training, Wordpress Tagged With: ,

Niche Website Domain Name Selection Strategy

January 18, 2011 By 2 Comments

Did you know that there are upwards of 90,000 domain names registered each and every single day?

With these types of statistics, there’s no wonder why it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find ‘straight’ keyword domain names.

When  referring to ‘straight’ keyword domain names, we mean those that contain only your main keyword phrase with no additional words (www.yourkeywordphrase.com for example).

Although not as powerful as it once was, having the main keyword phrase that your website is trying to rank for within your domain name can make your home page quite a bit easier to rank.

So what to do if the ‘straight’ keyword version of your domain name is already take?

Fortunately there are a number of alternatives, and below we outline the domain name selection strategy that we use when setting up our niche websites.

Hyphenated Domains

This is your first alternative if a ‘straight’ keyword domain name can’t be had.

Example:  www.california-auto-insurance.com

At that point, there are a few choices. Generally, using ‘just’ your targeted keywords is preferable to having ‘extra’ words or letters, hence the hyphen suggestion. In my experience, using up to two hyphens has worked well, three being the maximum that we would be willing to go.

There is some legacy ‘lore’ that SE’s devalued hyphenated domain names, but by all accounts it was only Yahoo that did this, and no longer does (the reasoning was that a lot of spammers did ‘churn & burn’ domains as “keyword1-keyword2-keyword3″, etc.).

Domains with Additional Words

There are a couple of options when it comes to adding additional words the main keyword in your domain name.

One option is to use ‘stop words’ in your domain. ‘Stop words’ is generally used to refer to the words that SE’s filter out.  Those include:  “the”, “for”, “with”, “and”, “by”, “a”, “an”, “in”, “of”, “on”, “are”, “be”, “if”, “into”, “which”

The goal is to bolster your ranking efforts on your primary keyword phrase. Having a ‘pure’ keyword phrase domain name will give you the most ‘bang for the buck’. That’s why I suggest hyphens rather than additional words.

Another option is to use an additional word, either at the beginning or end of your main keyword phrase.  Suffixes are better than prefixes, since weighting decreases from left to right.

Examples:

  1. Suffix version – www.californiaautoinsurancezone.com (preferred)
  2. Prefix version – www.cheapcaliforniaautoinsurance.com

What About Non-keyword Domain Names?

As for using a non-keyword domain name, you can certainly do that. I have sites that do terrifically well and don’t have any relevant keywords in the domain name. However, if I’m creating a new site, I want to ‘stack the deck’ in my favor as much as possible.

Domain Name Selection Recap

To summarize, use the following criteria when choosing your domain name:

  1. Full keyword in domain
  2. Keyword with hyphens (preferably no more than 2)
  3. Keywords with additional word (suffix preferred)

Please share you domain selection strategies by leaving a comment below…

Filed Under: Quickies, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: ,

Content is King – Now Here’s How to Get it…

January 17, 2011 By 1 Comment

Content is the core of what we do with the Blueprint. It’s the ‘life blood’ of our sites. “Content is King”, the Internet is built on content. The moon and stars revolve around… Well, you get the idea.

Some of like to write. Some of us like to write but aren’t very good at it, or write very slowly. Regardless, we need to go beyond just straight writing ourselves, if not now, then in the future.

Fortunately, there are a lot of avenues for content.

I outsource a lot of content. One of the places I frequent is Freelancer.com. There are plenty of writers for hire there, and I’ve ended up with some excellent long-term writer relationships.

Another ‘favorite’ of mine is Text Broker. The big benefits there are that you can choose from quality levels at different prices, and usually get your projects back in as little as 12 hours, sometimes even less.

Another fav is Amazon Mechanical Turk. This is easily the lowest-cost, but the most work in terms of diligently checking the results. I’ve often had to go through 3, 4, or more submissions to end up with one keeper. Still, if you’re on a budget, it can’t be beat.

In addition to outsourcing – and often in conjunction – I do a lot of spinning. I didn’t use to, but since The Best Spinner came along, I find myself doing more and more. The program is simply terrific.

Another good source for content is the public domain. Though many think ‘old books’ when they think public domain, there is actually tons of ‘not old’ material available – books, articles, reports, manuscripts, etc. One absolutely phenomenal source – more than one really – is the US federal government. By law, everything the federal government creates that isn’t classified is automatically in the public domain (the other exception is material that is contracted out to private concerns).

I created the bulk of a large website and product using primarily government reports & articles (I eventually flipped the site & product): http://www.gasforlessmoney.com/. Here’s the product pitch page – if you scroll down and take a look at what’s included, you’ll see that in addition to the main ebook, most of it is fed public domain stuff, some re-packaged: http://www.gasforlessmoney.com/UltimateGuide.html

There are a number of content networks that you can sign up with – usually for free – that will send you ‘original’ content. Unique Article Wizard (affiliate link) allows you to sign up as a publisher for free, specify keywords / topics you’re interested in, and they email you a ton of articles every day. These are UAW ‘spins’, so they are ‘semi-original’. I’ve used those articles as content for my Web 2.0 backlinking sites. Brad Callen’s SEOLinkvine.com is another, though I have to say the majority of the articles are unusable. Even with UAW you have to pick & choose, but there are plenty that are very usable.

Lastly, there is Dragon Naturally Speaking (affiliate link) speech-to-text. I’m not going to go too far into it as I’m saving it for a full review, but I can comfortably say Dragon is a game-changer. Providing you get a good mic and take a little time to train it, the accuracy is phenomenal. All of a sudden, you can produce massive amounts of content, quickly & easily. I couldn’t live without it, it’s that good.

Filed Under: Quickies, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: , ,

How To Distinguish ‘Informational Keywords’

January 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Choosing the right keyword phrases can mean the difference between the success and failure of your website.  Not only is it important to chose keywords that you can realistically rank for, it’s also important to choose keywords that will convert.

One of the most common keyword related questions we are asked is:

“How do I distinguish informational keywords?”

One answer is to look at what *isn’t* an “informational” search in this context: looking for information about a ‘thing’ i.e. where to purchase something, pricing, reviews, etc.

Although “cheap car insurance” is both a ‘thing’ (insurance policy), and a ‘price’ (cheap), the nature of the question is informational. A good ‘test’ is to ask yourself, is that search intended to get more information about something (how can I get cheap insurance, what can I do to lower my insurance rates, etc.), or a price/buy button/location, etc.

Another ‘test’ you can do is consider what a ‘good’ answer might look like: would a page listing prices and places look like a better result, or a page providing information about the search be a better result.

If you look at the nav menu keyword topics on the California Auto site, you’ll see the difference – even though it is targeted at many similar phrases such as those you mentioned: http://www.californiaautoinsurancezone.com

Lastly, you will begin to develop some intuition as to whether a particular ‘questionable’ keyword phrase will work well as an ‘informational’ target.

We begin everything with our brainstorming & niche research. That’s were we come up with some ‘primary’ keyword phrase candidates. After we pick the niche we want to consider, we do some basic, ‘top level’ (quick & dirty) keyword research. From that, we find our main keyword phrase. We then use *that* as the basis for further keyword research.

We want all the keyword phrases to be thematically related – hence that whole “umbrella phrase” notion. Whatever that ‘seed’ was, we’re using it as the starting point for further keyword research. What we’re *not* doing is looking for any keyword phrases that just happen to meet our min. criteria. We’re looking for *related* keyword phrases.

Lets take as an example “Nursing School”.

Using that as the ‘seed’ for further keyword research, we might come across keyword phrases such as “online registered nursing degree”. Though it has the word “nursing” in it, what’s even more important is that it’s thematically related to “nursing school”.

Every site should have a central ‘theme’ to it. Among many other benefits, this insures that all our content is somewhat related, which also allows us to make sure our target keyword phrases are worked into the content.

Filed Under: Quickies, SEO & Ranking Tagged With:

Google’s ‘New’ Keyword Tool

January 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve been around a bit, you’ve probably heard – or seen – that Google has ‘revamped’ their keyword tool.

Among other things, it’s wreaked havoc with many of the other tools that use Google’s database as they’ve had to re-code their programs significantly. In addition, the numbers are different…

Wait a minute – how can the numbers be different? Isn’t it still the same keywords, the same number of people searching, etc…?

A snapshot of Google's latest keyword research tool interface.

In fact, they ARE different. Here’s the ‘lowdown’ on Google’s ‘new’ keyword tool:

You may not know this, but Google actually ‘powers’ many search engines besides Google.com. This is called their ‘Search Partner Network’. Sites like AOL use a version of Google’s search engine as their own. Then there are all the other country-specific Google databases.

As a result, Google’s data is based on information from multiple sources. In the past – the ‘old’ keyword tool – the information Google gave us about search volume was based on the search activity of all their search engines. This tended to ‘overstate’ the totals (‘overstate’ is an understatement lol!).

The ‘new’ keyword tool provides search volume data based solely on searches done through Google.com. As a result, the numbers are lower – and more accurate.

All of us – well, many of us anyway – have found keywords that looked great in terms of search volume, only to find that traffic didn’t bear out the data.

Now we can have a little more faith in the numbers. I say ‘a little’ because the numbers still aren’t extremely accurate. In fact, just doing a query will clue you in – there are no ‘real’ numbers like 1545, just ‘thresholds’ i.e. 1200, 2400, 3000, etc. The reality is, none of the keyword tools are entirely accurate. The only way to get a true & accurate measure of search volume is to run an Adwords campaign on the keywords in question, with an unlimited budget, and see how many impressions occur.

What does all this mean for us? Well nothing really changes strategy-wise, but hopefully there will be fewer ‘false gems’, etc. And you should still be cross-checking your results before committing.

I should mention that Micro Niche Finder, Market Samurai, and Traffic Travis, among others, all use that same data set from Google.

Filed Under: Adsense, PPC & Paid Traffic, Products & Tool Review, Quickies, SEO & Ranking Tagged With: , ,
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