Most of the time I catch myself telling my clients, “You need to do a better job finding a niche” but what really does that mean? Also, do they really understand what I am telling them. Lately I have not felt like most have been getting it.

Let me explain. Here is an example of what a client would tell me if they have not researched out a niche:

“I want to sell electronics on my website.”

Compare that with:

“Through proper keyword research and analysis (based on numbers from the search engines) I have decided to sell underwater digital cameras and accessories that go along with them.”

See the difference?

They are both wanting to sell electronics, but one has a specific audience and market and the other is going up against best buy and other major electronic stores (and shooting themselves in the foot) before they even begin. Another common question I get is: “Why would I just want to sell one product?” If you are selling underwater digital cameras instead of “electronics” you are not just going to be selling ONE product. You have all the different brands, accessories and underwater goods that go along. I am not saying just sell ONE type of underwater digital camera on your site. There is a big difference.

Most of the time when working with brand new clients it takes a while to understand the concept of a good niche. There is alot of misleading software out there as well that lead you away from really good niches. I say through proper keyword research and analysis - based on numbers that people are searching for (any keyword selector tool) as well as how many websites you are going up against (example in Google type: allintitle:keyword in the Google search) this is really the only “software” or tool you need….and common sense I guess. That is where the biggest problem comes I figure!

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Here is a picture of me with Aaron Wall of SEO Book at the Review Me booth:

I really would like to let everyone know just how cool Aaron really is. He is so down to earth and easy to talk to. In this picture he is at the Review Me booth (read a couple posts back, I blogged about it - review me post). They had the “review me guy” that was pretty cool going around to everyone. My camera was acting up or I would have posted a picture of it. But it was all good baiting by these marketing masterminds!

Aaron Wall is the man when it comes to SEO, but its really cool cause he asks questions and wants feedback too from his readers. We talked about his political rantings on his website as well. Personally I don’t mind, and it lets me know he is human. As long as he keeps giving us good SEO info he can rant about whatever he wants!

But seriously PubCon Las Vegas 2006 was really informative for the most part. (It was good to make some really cool connections and meet some really cool people!) That alone was worth it! But again, like SES NYC 06, I felt really good about where I am at with what I know, but I was able to learn some stuff that will be able to rock the house.

Here are some other PubCon Las Vegas 2006 photos:

Here Andy Melchior of Fast Cash on the Internet was caught off Guard in this picture I took of him getting down to the best BBQ in the west - Luciles. It was insaine eats and seriously I have never had better BBQ.

Who knew they had real flamingos at the Flamingo Hotel?

Here I am with the man Brandon Buttars

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Mostly all morning I was going around and visiting the expo’s and making some good contacts. I had a really good time chatting with Aaron Wall from SEO Book. He is a really down to earth guy and very easy to talk to. He also was asking me how I felt about his rants politically. I personally don’t mind because that is what a blog is all about. It puts a person behind the information and makes it easier to want to keep reading because you are really getting to know them.

11:35 Search Blog and Reporter Forum

(It was an open forum so this is from everyone - Aaron Wall, Mike McDonald, Barry Schwartz, Andy Beal, Lee Odden and the man Rand Fishkin

Main topics of the forum:

• Article links and if they matter? Where do the links end up? Are they archieved? Ways you can get them to be more dominant is to del.icio.us them (the actual URL where the article is posted) or Digg them.
• Be the FIRST to create a wikipedia about your business and topics.
• Seperate and know your audience - the web 2.0 and regular (older) web browsers.
• Think of top 10 lists that you can blog about (even if you have a boring topic) make it funny, or try to make someone mad for the controversy)
• You can Digg your own stories, but be careful and make sure they are worth Digging because they will be burried anyway.
• Mixing up articles for different crouds and groups of people.
• Leverage blogs and other bloggers to promote your stuff and start to establish relationships.
• Hire some other blogger in your field to be a guest writer.
• Remember a blog is a conversation so be personal and let the readers get to know you.
• Newsvine.com is great for article archives so use them.
• Complain about other companies services to get your blog noticed and get people linking to you based on that.
• ZoomInfo
• LinkedIn
• Reputation Management (reverse search engine optimziation) or Brand Management
• Make a corp Squido “about company” page for brand managment
• webmasterradio.com (search for seo rockstars)
• ning.com (a community for marketers) so find niche social sites to be a part of rather then a “big” myspace type site.
• facebook.com ( a new myspace social networking site)
• Wordpress plug in musts: “threaded comments” and “technorati” quick links are a must.
• marketingpilgram.com has a top 10 list of wordpress plug ins for marketers.

Overall this was a great forum with tons of info and good to hear the top dogs out there are human and do shady SEO tactics sometimes for testing etc. Keep it real and do your best to provide good service and your blog, website will excel.

1:30 - 3:10 Purchasing Links:

Philippe Lang from LivePerson.com talked about much of nothing. Basically another pitch and commercial for his company.

Alex Bennert from Beyond Ink talked about a ton of great things including:

• Have a sight search utilities on the homepage.
• Check your log files for errors on pages
• create a custom 404 page with simple information like - contact, search and a homepage link
• Sites don’t convert because of lack of credibility (ie, contact us, names, departments, addresses etc)
• Re-insurance statements where people give sensitive information (privacy policy etc)
• People will not wait more then 8 seconds for a page to load.
• Make sure everything on site is consistant.

3:30 - 6:00 Search and Research on a Rail

Mostly talked about brand positioning and the “brand experience” and to be aware for what people need.  You could implement focus groups and interviews.  Also think about surveys and polls to create better information.  Most people when visiting your site wonder “what business are you in?” so make sure that is clear when they first visit you.  This was not a terribly “exciting” session, but mostly made me realize how important branding is.

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Ok, so technically its PubCon Day 3 (by 42 minutes - 12:42 am at the time of this post) but I am finally getting around toposting the happenings. Forgive me if things don’t make sense, because it is really late. Also I have been eating out all weeks (buffets) which leads me to the really bad heart burn I have right now.

Day 1

10:15 AM: SEO & Big Search:

• AOL Started of by talking about the importance of understanding traffic quality, and working with the right partners. AOL was basically just up there doing a big commercial for themselves and how they have perfectly re-invented themselves which I can’t believe there were many people in the building even listening to them or taking them serious.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing was talking about the importance of targeting the right keywords, which is so ironic because (most) every time I see a clients report from one of their “account specialist” peoples, and the lame ass job they have done setting up the campaign it bugs me to no end hearing this. They did talk about the importance of the value of a lifetime customer and made some good points as to figure out the size of the opportunity by subscription and referral (of course). They made some other good points though that alot of internet business owners miss out on which is executing and building SEO plans, and do active SEO audits. They made a great point when it comes to SEO being about trying and trying and then trying again.
• Google - Adam Lasnik (who was last on the menu) by far had the most actual content, rather then a commercial to promote themselves talked mostly about making the end user experience better. Here are some key highlights from Google:

1. S.N.A.C.C - they tried to get us to look at this as a “snack” … be more creative next time?
2. Speed - Speed of the site counts. 1/2 second matters if we will keep or lose the potential client.
3. Navigation - Know where the users are. Use anchor text rather then “click here” and make sure the visitors of your site know where they are and how to get back to where they started.. Give them a reason to want to bookmark and share your site and products with others.
4. Accessibility - have resonable URL length and reasonable naming of URL’s. Make sure they are consistant. Adam even joked about how Google is not even very good with this (is it adsense.google.com or google.com/adsense or the same with adwords….everyone laughed so hard cause its true!) Have useful tags on the pages.
5. Clarity - Links should be links so don’t try to hide them. He kept pointing out that they need to have underlines in them so the user knows that they are infact links. Also pointed out that links on the same page should not point to the same URL.
6. Comfort - MAKE THE TEXT EASY TO READ. Gave several examples and its true…it makes such a huge difference! Don’t have pages that jump around and don’t use italics!
7. Consistancy - This is where he brought in one more “C” Routine can be rewarded by Google.

What matters, and what Google looks at:

• Page Rank
• Integration
• Tree like structure
• Simple Pages
• Same Domain Name (no need for multiple domains with the same content)
• 301’s (yes, I know…we HAVE talked about this before) ITS NOT NEW PEOPLE!!!!
• Cheating (how Google even cheats every once in a while)

Major factors pointed out were good quality content on one domain is better then all kinds of different domains. Make the user happy. If you can focus your sites on making the user happy rather then the search engines then you are on the right track.

Google did get asked about the so called “sandbox” that is in place. Adam did a really good job dodging the question, but again, like I have always known he talked about a “filter” and to not get discouraged because with good content that is rich and unique you will be rewarded. Also he pointed out to make sure and research the best possible niche you can, and doint that correctly can really help you get out of the sandbox quicker.. (duh)

I know I might have hinted I was gonna post about everything (and that was my intent tonight) but I am really tired and going to bed! Hope all this made sense. Also, I got to meet Aaron Wall from SEO book and he was asking me some pretty cool questions we will get to on day two’s posting! (Link Baiting I know - I am a marketer!)

OK (Next Day and back to posting about Day 1:

1:30 - 2:45 Link & SEO Dev Site Review Forum

Linking -

Sugarrae.com - Getting started talking about links main topics:

• How does the link firm you are using develop links?
• Do they use automated programs?
• What type of links are they getting you?  (One ways,reciprocal,link exchange etc)
• Make sure to utilize networks and ask questions when it comes to linking.
• Reciprocal linking is bad is a myth because it all depends on who you are reciprocal linking with.
• Come up with a template for linking.  3-4 sentances max
• Phone people up and start asking for links.  (build relationships)
• Make sure you have clear expectations and that you are asking for links to benefit the users and you are not thinking about the search engines.
• Bottom line is its the ranking of the page that matters and not the PR.

LinksManager - Many different names for link exchange, but its all basically the same thing and you are looking for the same end result.  Here are a few of the main topics of discussion:

• maintain editorial standars.
• link with only related businesses (no link farms with thousands of unrelated links)
• link for users and not search engine ranking.
• link to people you have established relationships with.
• People Like Matt Cutts from Google and Jeremy Z from Yahoo! have never told us not to link.
• Find sites with editorial discression (this is huge when it comes to linking because its not a “for sure” or unconditional link.)
• Find sites that have (often) updated content. (bloggers)
• linklets
• linkblogs
• publish links anyway you want (in blogs, articles etc.)
• reciprocal linking (if done right) can cut down on PPC fraud.
• competition is reciprocal linking - don’t forget that.
• look for sites with quality traffic

Roger Montii (aka martinibuser)  Probably the best discussion on link building out of all presenters.  Main topics discussed:

• Relevence
• Look for link parters that don’t mention page rank requirements
• No ads for non related sites
• look for the year long purchases for buying links

Take advantage of all opportunities to find better partners, and look for websites that offer things such as “site of the month” where you can get them to do a write up and link back to you.  Also look for websites with good newsletters that you could possibly get on.  Also he talked about potential of links from video’s on Google Video and You Tube.

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Been out an about here in beautiful Las Vegas meeting with a few people from PubCon here and there and am getting excited for the event to begin tomarrow.  Its late tonight, and after a long drive down I am about 20 bucks up (if you don’t count all the crap I ate.)

I will be updating everyone about the happenings of the biggest SEO Conference of the year throughout the next couple od days.  For now, sorry for the lite post…I’m off to bed!

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Only read this if you ware wanting to learn the steps to success for a legitimate home based business.

Legitimate Home Based Business (click to read more)

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My Personal Review of ReviewMe.com

SEO Giant Aaron Wall has done it again with what is likely to be a huge community based (I know I hate the term now too) web 2.0 powerhouse site. In my opinion Review Me has the potential to be as big as Del.icio.us, Digg or any of the other more popular social networks, and will soon be a must in any internet marketers SMO (Social Media Optimaztion) marketing plan.

Why am I so pumped up about this site?

Here are my top 10 Reasons why ReviewMe.com will be the next social media giant:

1. Free website consulting - The community of users will review your site and give feedback. Anyone in the consulting industry knows you can’t put a price tag on that.
2. You get paid - You get paid to review sites.
3. Writing Reviews adds great content to your blog - When you write a review and post it, you are adding such valuable unique content to your site and that will always help you! So even if you don’t get paid for the review of a site (and I am still not quite sure exactly how all that is going to work out) you still are adding great value to your readers in the form of information.
4. Free exposure - When you get a review about your site posted on another blog think about the traffic potential!
5. You will gain more knowledge - Not everything I have come across during my time in the internet business world has been all “peachy” but everything I have crossed paths with has helped me learn. Take the good and bad from every site out there, and grow from it.
6. ReviewMe.com is not misleading in any form - Any paid reviews done you must let your readers know that it is a paid or sponsored review. (Now is as good of time as any to let my readers know that YES, this is a paid review. And all of these opinions are mine based on almost 10 years of internet marketing experience.
7. Generous payouts - If you are reviewing a site worth $60 the payout will be $30. I think that is more then fair for the time to review a site. Also par to the course from what I have seen with ad paying programs such as Adsense and YPN (Yahoo Publisher Network).
8. Not all sites are accepted - This one in my opinion is huge! Just for fun when signing up I tried to submit another blog I have recently been heading up (knowing full well it has no back links or time under its belt) and it was rejected due to those facts and a few others I am sure, but just knowing ReviewMe.com only accepts somewhat decent sites is a plus.
9. I need help - I know that I do not know everything. I have never claimed to know everything. I created this blog to help those with things I do know about search engine optimization, and share the things I have done that has helped me build a pretty little successful (small) empire of internet businesses. Even with that said, I have so much room for improvement! This site will provide the feedback I need to become even more successful … AND ITS FREE! Again, I really hope you see the value of this.
10. It was created by Aaron Wall - The list of reads on my list everyday include Matt Cutts, Randfish, Shoemoney, Eric Ward, but still by far the source I go back to most often for updating information in the SEO world is Aaron Wall. Thanks for creating this site!

Some “naysayers” out there who will probably read my review of ReviewMe.com will probably be thinking I am trying to kiss Aaron’s backside and score brownie points, but that is not the case. I have always called it like I see it. I have to give props the the people that provide me the most useful information, and thats that!

Again, remember this is a paid review and all opinions are mine!

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As PubCon 2006 in Vegas approaches, I have less time to post and the postings will be light until about Tuesday, then look out! Here are my top 10 reasons I am excited for Pubcon 2006 (not in any specific order)

1. Vegas Baby!
2. Eric Ward
3. Aaron Wall
4. Shoemoney
5. Matt Cutts
6. Randfish
7. Danny Sullivan
8. The pictures I will be taking
9. Getting away from the Cold Salt Lake City area!
10. Buffets

I also am glad its Pubcon and not SES, which I think is going to be so much better! I have never gone to a Pubcon before, but I have attended an SES in the past, and as stated in the past the only thing worth it was Eric Ward.

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Im not going to post recycled directory submission info, it has definately been beaten to death. The following will be info on what to do once you get to a directory to ensure you are getting the best link possible.

We all know that google likes relevant links, meaning links that come from other sites that Google recognizes as being related to the topic of your site. That doesn’t mean that the entire site has to be related to your topic, rather a page on that site being related to your topic. Look at Wikipedia for example what is the topical category of Wikipedia? Anything and everything, each page being related to it’s own individual topic. With that in mind it is possible to find pages inside of directories that are related to your site and that will help you in your link building efforts.

Whenever you start linkbuilding you need to have your keywords and anchor text in mind, this will help you get the best bang from your link. Then you want to go to the directory and do a search in the search bar for your keywords.

I have a lot of travel sites and one of our biggest clients is going after words like Hawaii Vacation(s) and Hawaii Vacation Package(s), if I was looking for a relevant category to select for their inclusion then I would search those words plus words like, Hawaii Travel, Hawaii Tour(s), if it was hard to find anything I would go all the way down to Hawaii. If there wasn’t regional categories in the directory then I would start with Travel and work my way towards something like vacation packages, activities or another sub category similar to that.

If you are using firefox when doing this open each respective category page in a new tab so they are all organized in your browser. You then wan’t to go to each category page and compare them to find the best one for your site.

The quickest way to find the best relevance in my opinion is to take the name of the directory plus your most important keyword and do a google search, botw “hawaii vacations” This is for botw.org an (absolute must for directory submissions) plus my main keyword. You will see the number one result is botw.org/top/Regional/United_States/Hawaii/Travel_and_Tourism/ so according to Google that is the most relevant category page for my ideal keyword. Most of the time that is the page you will want. The next biggest thing to look at and that would lead you to possibly stop conisdering this page is how many links are going out on it. How many other sites are already listed in that category, if there are 100 on the page with a little number at the bottom that says next and so on, you may want to look for another page. There more links going out the less effect that page will have on your site. I would take a pr 3 page that has four links on it 1,000 times over compared to a pr 6 page that has 200 links on it. I would take a pr 0 page that has 1 or no links on it over the others as well, as long as it is getting cached regularly.

Checking the cache of the page is important if you can’t find anything by doing the google search listed above, you need to be checking to make sure that the page you are going to submit to is indexed in Google and is getting updated regularly. I use the firefox extension by SEOpen this allows you to select the check Google cache in a drop down on your toolbar of whatever page you are on. If the page shows up no cache, or url not found why would you want to be listed in it. A lot of people will pay a submission fee only to get listed in a page that is not indexed. If Google doesn’t have that page in its index then it doesn’t have your link in it either and your not getting any love from that link. If you are debating between multiple category pages, look mostly at the amount of links going out, but if one was last updated in Feb 04 and the other Oct 06 you will most likely want to go with the Oct page as it is getting indexed better for whatever reason.

You also want to make sure that the page is not in the supplemental index, you can do this by using the index tab in the seopen toolbar and it will show the index of the page and if the page is in the supp index or not. Supp index isn’t going to get you any link love either.

Some of you may think this is way too much effort for a directory link as most of the time they barely help you if at all, if you use the seopen toolbar and firefox tab browsing it only takes seconds and that way you make sure you can squeeze whatever link love possible out of that directory. This is also to go along with that fact that you should use these methods on 100 or less quality diretories instead of 1,000 low quality directories. You will get more action from 30 directories done this way than 1,000 submitted semi automatically to whatever category possible. If you are actually going to pay for a directoy why would you submit blindly to it.

Resources:

A quality directory is one that doesn’t sell sitewide or ROS links in its footer or navs, one that doesn’t allow casinos or porn or any other spammy topic. PR isn’t the golden rule but if there is a good flow of PR that means that there is good site structure and it is easy for the engines to index. Also check the index of the directory, I have seen people posting in forums to come and pay for a one way link in their directory, Ill go check it out and check the index and there is no subpages indexed at all and it is a year old site. That isn’t going to help you. A directory that requires a reciprocal link is more than likely viewed as a link farm by Google and you don’t need to waste your time with that. Usually the best quality indicator is if the link is going to be human reviewed. Also site age is good most old direcotries are the best ones.

Directories I swear by:

BOTW.org

Goguiges.org

SBD.Bcentral.com - Use multi link to help with deep links

Dir.Yahoo.com - This is a must

Incrawler.com

Joeant.com

Abilogic.com, Abifind.com - Use the multi link to help with deep link

Uncoverthenet.com - Use Multi Link to help with deep link

There are more you can find them at sites like

seocompany.ca

info.vilesilencer.com

addurl.nu

We Build Pages

*This can also be followed when looking to evalute links you may purchase, why purchase a link that is not indexed, or that is a supplemental page, or has 400 links on it.

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Just wanted to share another really great website to get more exposure to your blog. For $1.99 you can submit your blog URL and RSS Feed to most of the major blog sites. They use to have a free service which worked well until spammers got a hold of them (as you can see on their website). Only a buck 99. Thats not gonna break anyone!

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