I was reading a post from Aaron Wall’s Blog yesterday that gave me a unique search engine marketing idea and I would like to share my thoughts (thanks Aaron). You see, Text Link Ads has created a tool showing websites what links (potentially) would be worth ( $$ money wise $$ -based on the current market ) if they were to sell some real estate from thier pages … Also, showing you information on where placing the ad could effect the money you get. Its called a text link ads calculator (go ahead and play with it — don’t know how realistic it is, but its fun to play with!)

I was thinking about being able to use the tool for marketing purposes. Let me explain: This tool shows you how much money you could charge (another website) for a link. This kind of information could be huge when trying to find good sites to get links from. For example if you go to www.uscity.net and put thier addy in this tool, the current price for a link of thier homepage (up top) could cost you $297 for a single page-single link for one month. A site-wide link (up top) would run you $342 a month. You compare that to a new directory I just found http://www.thalesdirectory.com that will cost you $18 for a site-wide link. Do you see where I am going with this? Its telling you which one would pack a more powerful punch! (Yes, its the one that is worth $342) if you were lucky enough to talk them into a text link…

Some sites may not know the power they have, and credibility with search engines. What you can do is find a “normal” non-text link, seo-ed site that packs a powerful dollar punch like the $342 example above (so you know the search engines love em) and contact them and offer them $25 - $50 if they put a link to you. (Obviously you would make sure they allow anchor text) Its money well spent if it could help you climb the rankings for certain key-phrases. Much cheaper and easier the free and paid directories as well.

I have not gone and tried any of this … like I said I was just thinking about it after hearing about this new calculator tool. A single site-wide link on the top level of my site (in the content) could be worth $69 a link. So, 10 of these could be worth $690/month residual montly income on this one site alone. If I were to actually do that on my homepage I would probably opt for selling one person a link for $500 a month as to not take away from the power of that link. (or would I want to whore my site out)

I got a kick out of this tool cause if you put in a site like Google just to see what it would run (for fun) it says stuff like “ha ha very funny” and “fuh get about it” … In other words no chance in hell of ever getting a link from certain websites… Anyway check it out it could be informative AND fun!

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As a brand new internet business just starting out, there are so many things stacked against you its not funny. For example you have a brand new domain name (you probably only registered it for a year), no links, no page rank, nothing! How do you intend of getting the search engines to know who you are? Here’s a suggestion:

Create a Blog.

Any brand new website should create a blog that is maintained atleast 5 days a week and multiple posts daily (if possible). When doing this you are creating content that the search engine spiders are longing for. it also gives the spiders reasons to keep coming back to your site. They are looking for the most relevant site that provides good unique content. If you can focus on writting posts and articles related to the main keywords you want to be found for … you will start to be found for them. You will see traffic and rankings kick in pretty quickly. Alot quicker then if you did not do this–thats for sure!

Most product sites do not have the kind of content that changes alot. This could be a reason they have a hard time gaining better rankings on the major engines. Thats why creating a blog is the perfect idea for brand new site. You can provide useful information, reviews, other people commenting about your products (good or bad) … testimonials believe it or not can be one of the biggest factors of articles getting found.

You may have to get creative at times (when thinking about what to write on), but if all else fails start writting reviews about your products. Nobody knows your product better then you (hopefully). Just remember that keeping an updated and fresh blog will help any site especially if they are brand new get indexed faster, crawled more often and achieve higher rankings.

Places I use for blogging software, and free blog space:

1. www.wordpress.org
2. www.blogger.com

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I have to blog about this to get it off my chest.  There are people that should not be allowed use the internet, or for that matter be allowed to breed (ok that was harsh-so I take it back).  These are the same kind of people that for some reason think they can run an internet business; heres why I think this …

• They don’t know the difference between a search box and address bar.
• They just bought a computer yesterday… (do you really think you can understand how to run an INTERNET business?)
• They don’t know what a browser is.
• They think Earthlink, AOL, NetZero or other ISPs are thier browsers.
• They think that internet explorer is THE INTERNET.
• They think that HTML is a acronym for HOTMAIL
• They don’t know the difference between firefox and explorer.
• They don’t know what the cursor is.
• They don’t know what multiple browsers are.
• They don’t know how to copy and paste.
• When you say mouse…they say (in a panic) “WHERE?”
• If it takes you 20 minutes to type in a website address.
• They fear of shutting down thier computer cause they don’t know how to turn it on.
• They think booting a computer is kicking it hard with the work boots.
• They won’t open an attachment (not because they fear a virus) but because they don’t know how!
• They don’t know the difference between dial-up, DSL or cable.
• The library computer does not count as yours!

I really could go on, but I won’t … It just amazes me that someone who can’t even run a computer (or has never been on the internet) thinks he/she can actually succeed with an internet business. 

Now I don’t profess to know everything cause I don’t, but you will never catch me in an OR … I am not a Doctor nor ever will be, no matter how much Greys Anatomy I watch!

People can learn I agree, but if you just bought a computer, take a year or so to really learn how to use the computer, and then think about starting an internet business.

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As a search engine marketer you must stay up to date with the trends and what is going on in the “online community” … Whats hot, whats not … we all remember the dot bomb era of the late 90s right?  Well I have been keeping my eye on a few companies that have been doing it right for the past few years (some newer) and I want to talk about them and how they can help your traffic, search engine rankings and possibly sales.  In some cases they have launched other sites just by being members of the communities.

• YUB
• CRAIGSLIST
• FACEBOOK
• WIKIPEDIA
• MYSPACE
• FLICKR
• ITUNES

YUB — a shopping community site.  At Yub you can network with other people to find the rewiews on products you always use, and find the best deals on those products thanks to the affiliate relationship that YUB has set up with the major companies.  A great place to get a network of people and get them trusting the things you like and recommend.  You can sell your products as well, and when you have a community of people surrounding you it makes it easier to use this site as a marketing tool.

CRAIGSLIST - Find anything you want on this site including a job.  It is free to sell most products, or real estate.  When you are tired of competing against the billions of people that use ebay, this is a great source to get your product to people in your area.  If you are not selling the products you have on your website on craigslist then you are missing out on a big piece of the market.

FACEBOOK - More specific and targeted, as this is a college networking/socializing site.  A great place to get a community of people that trust you and eventually get your products to them through word of mouth.  Sites like YOUTUBE have got thier jump start from communities like this.  So if you have a website that fits with the college croud it could be a good idea to get it in somehow.

WIKIPEDIA - Whatever you are looking for you will find it on Wikipedia.  A great source for anyone looking to gain more internet rankings and traffic.  You can write and submit articles to the community of Wikipedia.  You need to make sure you are providing good neutral information that will be informative to most if not all reading.  These kind of sites require that you be a good community memeber and do not spam with crap.  If you become a good contributor it will help your website rankings, and traffic from the millions that use Wikipedia everyday.

MYSPACE - A great networking site for almost any reasons.  I recently did a post on marketing through MySpace, but there is a lot of potential traffic that can come through a site that reaches so many different kinds of people every single day.  You can also promote your own websites through your profile and give yourself anchor-text for the words that you need better rankings on.  You can also promote things through your “community” of people.  Everyone knows that recommendations work better when they come from people that you trust.

FLICKR - A great community to share photos with.  Get your product photos on these sites and anchor tag them up with keywords leading to your site.  Most people don’t take advantage of image optimization, but you can get good traffic from people doing image searches.  Also if you are hosting your images on a popular site like FLICKR, and reference them on your website it could be a good optimization tool since your images are being hosted on a high page rank site.

ITUNES - You may be saying to yourself, “How can a music store help me with search engines?”  Something that has taken over lately with the digital world of I-pods and I-tunes, is pod-casting.  You can record your own pod-casts and upload them to I-tunes and get more followers that way.  You must have good information for this to really work, so don’t think you can just put anything up and it will work.

There are many sites out there that could help, but these are a few of the ones that I feel need to be taken advantage of immediately.  Not to mention they keep getting hotter, and could be a good stock to invest in! In any of these sites it is a must to be a good community member.  The thing that gripes me the most about MySpace is all the spam that can come along with it.  So in order for people to take you serious, you need to practice good community behavior and contribute any time you can.

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A quick post - I found a tool I’d like to share!

Something every small internet (or big) business owner needs to be aware of is thier “return on investment” Wikipedia talks about ROI in these terms:

In marketing, the notion of “return on investment” is an increasingly important topic for Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) who needs to find ways to justify the high investments made across a broad range of marketing AND sales activities.

In Search Engine Marketing Pay Per Click listings are often what people are most concerned about when it comes to cost per click and what the return will be. It is very important to know how much each sale is costing you to make sure you are playing in the green (ahead) and not in the red (behind).

I found a great PPC ROI calculator that is useful for any internet business owner no matter the size. I just wanted to share this tool and help people realize the importance of getting grips on what they are spending, and making sure they are not losing money when it comes to SEM.

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A great question was asked a few weeks ago and I feel its time to talk about it again.  (BY THE WAY) I love getting emails with SEO related questions.  Please feel free to email me any questions that you have matsiltala (at) gmail.com.  I can’t promise when I will get to them, but I do love answering as many of your SEO or SEM questions as possible.

How many directories should I be submitting to at one time?

A good question for any small internet business owner just learning about search engine optimization.  With so many programs offering to submit to over 100,000 search engines (plus) every month and blah blah (getting you in Google over night or in 48 hours bull) you kind of get lost what is Kosher don’t you?  You start to wonder what could be considered spammy and what is legit. 

Here is my take on it.  I try to come on slow and steady with all of my sites.  I realize that I am not going to be found for the more general keywords overnight, but thats ok since I am not going after those words.  I am going after the more targeted words that I have researched out and analyzed, and know that I will get good rankings for with a few good quality links.  With link building its more important to get quality people linking to you then 100,000 worthless people that are unrelated linking to you.  Granted people do it and it gets results, but eventually will get you blacklisted on Google and you never want that. 

Think about this business being long term investment.  You would rather do it right and make 2 grand a month for life, then 10 grand for only two months… (see the difference?)

If we are talking about just regular good old fashion free directory submission I would try to take on 25 a week (or so).  I really don’t believe doing more then that hurts you, it just makes sure that you are not getting burned out, and are doing it correctly.  What hurts you is if over night somehow (through a link farm or other spammy methods) you can get 100k links pointing to you.  This might create some unwanted attention.

Just remember link building takes time and is not something that can be accomplished in one weekend alone.  Its marketing.  Think about it.  You dont pay for one radio ad (in an offline business) and hope that brings you all the traffic you need.  You continue to market, and that is exactly what you are doing with this strategy of directory submission.

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I got asked a really good question yesterday regarding SEO and Sales Copy type sites.  Funny, I have never been asked this question, but thinking about it, its such a great question I had to talk about it.

Can search engine optimization be implemented on a sales copy website?

Yes, is the simple answer … if its done correctly.  Most people think of sales copy type sites as one (long) page sites that no one ever really reads or gets all the way through.  For the most part what I have seen, they are correct.  Those kind of sites are the hard ones to optimize.  Mainly because the one-pagers have no sub-pages to deep link to. 

What can be done?

A great solution is to expand your thinking and what you are offering on the website.  Think about services that go along with your ebook.  Think about useful information, or articles that can be added to other pages.  You may be able to compile a list of “Frequently Asked Questions” that you get about the book all the time that could help potential buyers.

Building up a site with good content is essential in getting good natural rankings, and you will not be able to accomplish it (naturally) with just a sales copy one pager.  All the same rules apply about keyword research and analysis, and using the correct words on the correct pages.  You must get a really good understanding of what people are searching for in regards to your ebook/services and go after them.  You need to find the very targeted words that will convert and not be general. 

A great example of a sales copy site that is almost perfectly optimized is one on “saving marriage” which can be found here http://www.keepyourmarriage.com … You can see the implementation of so many different things related to thier ebook, and great content on each page with different useful keywords targeted.  They know thier audience and who will convert the best, so they need to use the words that will have the highest conversion based on what they will actually be able to get a ranking for.  Again, the only way this can be done is proper keyword research and analysis.

Here is a list of ideas to build up a sales copy site:

• Articles related to what you are selling
• Press done on your site (or related to your site)
• FAQ
• About Us (people want to know who you really are)
• Other ebooks
• Other services
• Forms to fill out and be contacted later
• References
• Site Map

There are so many things that can be added to sales copy sites to help the optimization along, but keep in mind what you are tyring to do is build good content for the readers so they have as much useful information as possible.  In turn, the search engines will eat it up and the rankings will come.

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Some people may not have a problem with this kind of stuff, but I do. I really do not like to have to carry around a USB storage device, or for that matter make the keys in my pocket any fatter by adding a keychain storage device. Well I found a pretty cool solution. Now these kind of sites are not new, but I have not found one yet that offers what this one does.

What is it?

http://www.thinkfree.com

Its a free online storage place, that gives you a whopping 1 GB of storage space. You can create word, excel and create a ton of different kind of documents with it. You can share them with family, friends, co-workers or whoever you want to give access to. You can add documents to your blogs with ease (works with all the major blog software or sites), or add photos using flickr … Oh and don’t forget you get a GIG of free storage space! (Did I mention that)

No more worrying about forgetting the USB device, or losing it (or in my case destroying it on accident). You have access to all of your documents and important files as long as you have an internet connection. It’s just a good solution I thought might be handy to people who work online all the time (like I do), and go back and forth from computer to computer.

I usually am not the one to promote things unless I think its worth it, but this place is pretty dang cool considering all you get and what it costs you to get it…(free)

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In the world of Search Engine Marketing and Optimization you can get lost. Everyday you receive an email from a company claiming they can get you to the top of the search engines in as “little as 48 hours” etc. How do you sift through the legit stuff and the people that just want to take your money. Its easy, start with the basics and go from there.

Here’s how: When I say start with the basics, I really do mean basics. Most internet business owners do not have a clue when it comes to how search engines work. They don’t realize how they will be found, or for that matter don’t even have a clue when it comes to keyword research and analysis (or that they even need to do it).

Start off by making sure people are even searching for what you have to offer. There are many keyword research tools out there for keyword research like the one we offer here at 97thfloor, or the keyword selector tool from Yahoo! Once you find out that people are looking for what you have to offer, go and look at how many people you are going up against. Once you find more targeted keywords to go after you have the basic information you need to start building content for your website, as well as what you will use for all the “meta” and other various tags that your onsite optimization will need.

Here’s a checklist:

1. Make sure people are looking for what you have to offer.
2. Keyword research and analysis
3. Come up with a list of keywords related to what you are selling.
4. Narrow down that list to top 20 based on how targeted, and how many searches.
5. Make sure you are not going up against 30 million other people on Google.
6. Start writting content based on keywords.
7. Start filling in the blanks of the meta and various tags of your site.

Its easy to overlook the simple things, thats why its best to get into the basics now and again. Start off slow and you will grow and get rewarded in the long run for doing things the right way.

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How can you get around (and avoid altogether) the spammy blogs that are floating at the top of the search engine results?  I am tired of all of the blogs out there that appear to be legit, and receive good rankings on the search engines, but when clicked on it takes to to a spammy Viagra ads, or worse a porn site.

Here is a great idea if you like finding blogs related to what you are doing. Only use places such as Google Blog Search (beta) or Pingoat.  These places sift through the Spam Blogs or (Splogs as referred to) by only allowing legitimate blogs in.  As with anything there is a chance that some bad ones can slip in, but for the most part you find much better results then just doing a regular search on Google for a blog.

It can be hard to compete with these kind of bad sites out there cause of places like MySpace where so many people use them for spam purposes, so just avoid them altogether.  These sites can be great places to socialize and network, but some spammers can use them for evil purposes and fill up our SERP’s with wothless sites.

If you have a blog, and want it to be found, or if you are looking for blogs to learn more make sure you find them from a legitimate source.  Google Blog Search for example will pick up automatically if your blog software automatically feeds it in any format.  Places like Pingoat you will need to submit for approval.

Blogs are great for both your website, and for learning more in your field, but just be careful you are not feeding these “Splogs” and giving them the edge.  Lets give the edge back to the good users by using the right resources.

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