Many people who hear the acronym “SEO” aren’t quite clear what it is. If you’re wanting to learn more about what exactly SEO is and what it can do for you, read on. In this post I will cover the basics of SEO – from the ground up, making as few assumptions as possible about your computer and internet knowledge. Granted, if you’re hearing the acronym SEO, I’m going to guess you are somewhat savvy with working on a computer and the internet. Maybe you’re a new web or graphic designer, or maybe you’re a small business owner with a website. Or you might be someone researching internet marketing, and have discovered the importance of learning all about SEO.

SEO is pretty much what this website is all about (the “Rank Higher” part is, anyway!). The acronym ‘SEO’ stands for Search Engine Optimization, and before we even get into definitions of what that is, we probably should first clarify what a search engine is. A “search engine” is simply the search functionality you find with Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL, or whatever platform you choose to search on the internet. So when someone talks about a “search engine”, they just mean the search results you get if you enter a phrase or a word to search into Google, Bing, MSN (there are plenty of them!). Now I know we are getting extremely basic here for some of you, but I just want to be sure we have everyone covered in this post.

Definition of SEO

“SEO”, or “Search Engine Optimization” can be defined to mean making your website optimized in such a way that search engines such as Google or Bing can place your website higher in their search result listings. There are certain elements of any website that the search engines look for which flag your website as being particularly meaningful in relation to any search phrase people enter. So for example, if you were to go to Google and search for “used cars”, you end up with websites such as AutoTrader.com being first, UsedCars.com second, and others (this is what I get at the time of this writing). The question to ask is, why do those websites show up first, and not others? If you take that same search phrase and extend it just a bit, say for example, search for “used cars for sale” in Google, now you get UsedCars.com first, and AutoTrader.com second. So why UsedCars.com first this time around, with AutoTrader.com second? What changed? Basically this is what SEO is all about – taking certain search phrases and making your website optimized in such a way that you boost your own search result listing for that specific phrase.

How it’s helpful for you should be obvious. You want your own website to show up before others, so that someone else searching for a particular word or product or information will be more likely to click yours more than others. I mean, think about it – how often do you scroll through pages and pages of Google results looking for that perfect website? Most of will sometimes click through lots and lots of results, but most often, we click on something within the first page of results. And most of all, we click on very top 2 or 3 of results. It might surprise you to know that over 40% of clicks are on the website that is in the #1 spot. That’s a lot of clicks, at least more than the others, and this is where SEO comes in. SEO is the efforts you make with your website to get ranked in that prime #1 spot.

In another article, I will discuss getting started with specific, concrete steps you can take in optimizing your website for search engines. For now I hope I have covered the core basics explaining what SEO is. SEO is simply optimization of your website with the intent of ranking higher in Google, Yahoo, AOL, and other search engines.

If you have comments or questions, feel free to use the Comments form below, or send me an email with your specific question. Thanks for visiting! – Eric

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

What Is SEO?

Incoming search terms:

• how to show up higher on google used cars -adwords

The Google +1 Button

Today Google announced the official release of their Plus One button.  As a primer, if you didn’t know, adding +1 to your website is a quick, easy two-step process.

Step One

First, you need to add a javascript include file to your webpage:

Step Two

Next, add a special html tag wherever you want to place the button:

How To Add The +1 Script to Thesis Theme

The file you want to work with is the custom_functions.php file in Thesis. This file is located in /wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom/ folder. If you are not familiar with this file, or with custom functions at all for that matter, this is really very simple. Just copy and paste the following code into that file:

function plusone_script () { ?>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>
<?php }
add_action(‘wp_head’, ‘plusone_script’);

That’s it! Save the file and you can now add the special html tag anywhere within your page.

What I like to do is wrap the plusone tag in a special div with a unique ID. That way I can call the ID easily in my custom.css file. For example:

<div id="plus-one-btn"><g:plusone></g:plusone></div>

For more advanced configurations, visit Google’s help page on the Plus 1 button.

Feedback or questions are welcome in the comments section below.
Or, you can click on +1 right here to say thank you!

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

How To Add The Google +1 Button to Thesis Theme

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• google plus one thesis page
• google plus rank for site script
• plus one makes a site rank higher

Well I have cleaned up the blog, wiped away the dust and now you will find a brand new design.  To kick off the new look, I purchased Thesis theme for the blog, which I absolutely LOVE.  Thesis has a wonderful array of useful options and can make a wordpress website fully customizable.  Although I tried out a few free skins for Thesis, I opted to customize the design myself.  I have created a new logo… optimized the navigation menu to make it appealing and easy to use, I’ve added the About-Me picture in the sidebar, and generally tweaked everywhere I could throughout the site.

While I still have tweaks and improvements to be made, my next focus will be on creating killer content.  What this blog will focus on more than anything else will be on helping readers rank their websites higher in search engines and of course making some money online.  Because the truth is, there is a lot of money to be made over the internet.  But it seems that people get stuck on boosting their rankings which of course will increase their traffic and ultimately increase their online income.

So I really want to make this website as useful and helpful as possible.  I hope readers will push me to be the best and in turn I can push them to do their best!

Stay tuned folks, the dust has been swept away around here.  It’s time to get busy!!

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

Time to get busy!

Incoming search terms:

• www rankhighermakemoney com

Rank Higher Make Money now has a section called High PR Forums, which contains useful information about some of the High PR forums that can be used to create links.

Generally, High PR Forums are useful for developing SEO as you can often create a link on your account profile on the forum, or very often you can  have a decent link with keyword rich anchor text in the signature of these forums as you post responses.  Some forums also allow links right within the response itself.

I have found that some forums are more strict than others are when it comes to posting keyword rich links.  Depending on how heavily moderated the forum is, you should be able to get some nice backlinks from these forums.

Check out the High PR Forums page and let me know what you think in the comments below!

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

High PR Forums

Incoming search terms:

• high to make money from forums
• how make comments on high pr forums

Hey everyone, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Eric Hamm of Motivate Thyself have just published their ‘The Essential Motivational Handbook’.  I really recommend picking up a copy as these guys are well known for their excellent blogs on practical advice and wisdom.

Get Motivated Now!

Order The Motivational Handbook

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

Need to get motivated?

Hey everyone, just a quick note that I think many of you will appreciate – Rank Higher, Make Money! is now a CommentLuv and DoFollow blog. For those who are not familiar with this, it means if you leave a comment here, I will automatically provide a link back to your website’s latest post. *And* on top of that, the link back will have the “rel=’nofollow’” attribute removed from the link! Both these things combined can be extremely effective methods of promoting your own site and improving page rankings with search engines.

The specific plugins I’m using are:

CommentLuv – this plugin adds a specific link back to your own blog posting, depending on the website URL you enter in the comment form.

and

NoFollow Free – this plugin removes the nofollow attribute from your link.

So come on and get your CommentLuv with DoFollow linkage back!
- Eric

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

RHMM! is a CommentLuv and DoFollow Blog

Incoming search terms:

• money keywordluv

As promised, I would like to write about how I got this website up and running in under an hour. But let me preface this first by saying that I’m not writing this to show off and talk about how wonderful I am just because I started a website quickly. It really isn’t a big deal. However, those who may not be familiar with the process could benefit greatly from learning how it’s done. So the point to the post is to let you know just how truly simple and easy it is to get started. So if you have a good idea for a site, but are in unfamiliar waters when it comes to taking the first steps, let this be your mini-guide to getting a website started – the right way.

Domain Name

I got the domain name www.rankhighermakemoney.com from GoDaddy. It was actually only my second domain purchase with them – previously I used Yahoo but I don’t anymore due to an exorbitant increase in renewal fees. I found the process with GoDaddy to be very efficient and easy to use — and I won’t have to donate an organ just to renew the domain next year.

One thing that was awesome about GoDaddy was, you could set the name servers during the registration process itself — something that Yahoo was not able to do. What are name servers? Name servers are a special configuration you need to give your domain name. What they do is point the domain name in the direction of your web hosting company. So, while I can purchase my domain name with GoDaddy, I do not have to have web hosting with GoDaddy. The name servers set the domain to any host I want to use (In my case, I host with Total Choice Hosting).

But getting back to the subject of the registration process, with Yahoo I had to buy the domain first, then wait a bit for the domain to be ‘active’. Then, I had to login to their control panel, ‘unlock’ the domain, wait, then change the name servers, then lock the domain again (“Locking” a domain is basically a way to prevent unauthorized transfer of your domain name to someone else). With Yahoo, from the moment of purchasing a domain name, to the point I had the name servers set to my hosting account could take a matter of 30 minutes to an hour. That’s not so bad if you aren’t impatient like me. But I like immediate results, and that is what I got from GoDaddy.

Another great thing about GoDaddy is that you don’t have to ‘unlock’ your domain before changing name servers. You just update using their control panel and you’re done. I’d be willing to bet that GoDaddy isn’t the only domain registrar that provides the service. That being said, they do, and I appreciate it.

Web Hosting

Moving on, let’s talk about hosting. As I said, I host with Total Choice Hosting. I’ve been using them for about 5 years now, and I’ve been very happy with the service. Finding a good web host can be very difficult however. I worked for a web hosting company for a couple of years, and I know there is a big difference out there in terms of reliability, the quality of service you’re getting, ease of use, technical support, etc. Do your homework on this one! I do recommend Total Choice however, for a number of reasons.

Why I recommend Total Choice Hosting

1) I rarely experience any downtime with them. By downtime I mean -the site is not available on the internet, or it doesn’t connect due to a technical issue with Total Choice. In fact, in the 5 years I’ve been with them, I can only remember once that it happened, and it wasn’t for very long. Maybe 5-10 minutes. Now if you think that once is too many times, well ok – fine, you may have a point. But consider, it happens to the best of sites and hosting companies occasionally. Once maybe 6 months back or so, Amazon.com was down. So, not to excuse it or anything, just saying. It happens. With most web hosting companies, however, it happens a lot, and it happens much more frequently than once every 5 years.

2) Support is quick and efficient, and they always seem willing to go above and beyond the standard obligations. For example, they’ll give suggestions and pointers regarding matters that don’t actually have anything to do with Total Choice’s services. The thing is, every web developer that host sites somewhere will need some level of support here and there, and it can be important that you get help quickly.

3) Total Choice offers Cpanel and Fantastico. If you are not familiar with Cpanel and Fantastico – these are backend tools available to use with your websites that make life easier on you as a website developer. Cpanel has everything from file-management tools to statistics to email and database management. Fantastico offers an extremely simple interface for setting up and installing software such as WordPress, Joomla, E-commerce shopping carts, image galleries, polling software and more. With other web hosts, very often, you will have to install these types of things yourself, by FTP, running installation files, configuring permissions etc. Fantastico makes all this easy so that you just enter some basic information and you’re done in a couple of clicks.

So that’s enough of the sales pitch I think (I’m not making any referral money from posting this, by the way). I do want to make the point, however, on why finding a good web host is important, and why I personally recommend Total Choice. If you decide against them, fine with me, just be sure to do your homework.

Next steps

With this website, Rank Higher, Make Money!, GoDaddy had the name servers pointing to my web hosting account rather quickly. In about 10 minutes, the domain name itself was viewable online from a browser. That is pretty fast. During that time, I set things up on the hosting end. I have a reseller account with Total Choice, which gives me an administrative tool for configuring a new domain name on the account. Once that configuration is done (2 minutes at most), it’s just a matter of waiting for the name servers to be pointed. As I said, with GoDaddy, it took about 10 minutes.

Once that was done, I could move on to actually set up content for my site. I did this using Cpanel, and in just a few more minutes, I had run through the Fantastico process and installed WordPress as blogging software. So technically speaking here, I had a full website, up and running, in under 30 minutes. And that’s starting from the time I first purchased the domain name itself! Not bad at all. This doesn’t include installing various plugins to wordpress and other steps that I feel make it a complete site.

I hope there is something you can take away from the article. Stay tuned to RHMM for more! – Eric

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

How to start a website in under an hour

Hello and welcome.  

Who

I’m Eric and I’m a professional web developer living in Hampton Roads, Virginia. I’m also a blogger, an SEO expert, social media fan, and I’m here to help you get started ranking your websites higher in search engines like Google, and along with that, make money online.
I would like to kick off this first post to this website with a very simple question.

Do you want to make money with your website, or not?

What

If you don’t want to make money online, you’re in the wrong place. I would hope by the site name you might have picked up on that by now. If you do want to rank your site higher and make money, you’re definitely in the right place.

Why

I decided to create this site to teach readers how to rank their websites higher in search engines such as Google, and how to make money along the way.  I want to make things as simple and straightforward as possible for you, the reader.

This site is for people who want to get serious and get professional with their websites.  There *is* money to be made in the online world, and anyone can do it if they start taking their website(s) seriously.

How

See, the thing is, you can get serious and you can also have fun along the way.  It’s hard work some times, but look at me.  As I write this first post to this blog, it’s 9PM at night, I’ve been up since 6AM, worked 8 hours and since then have been putting this site together.  Why?  Because I realize there may be a need for a site like this that is utterly straightforward, as basic and plain-talking as possible, just a bare-bones, stripped-down, no-frills advice website on how YOU can put together a site and make money doing it.  With a little bit of guidance you can rank your site higher in Google, start making money, and like I said, have a little fun along the way!

When

The time to make things happen is now. I want readers who understand that. Tomorrow truly never comes. There is no more waiting! You can think and think about it all you want – nothing is going to happen until you get started, right here, right now.

My goal for you readers is so simple.  So simple, I’m giddy thinking about it.  I’m excited for you – really.  I want you to come here often and get inspired and start taking action with your own sites.  Or you’ll have a great idea for a brand-new site and just start making it happen.  So we’re back to my original question – do you want to make money with your website or not?

Start subscribing by RSS or by Email.   It’s completely free to do so.  The only requirement is a bit of time.   In return, my promise to you is to provide tons of useful, relevant, no-frills information on how to rank your site(s) higher, and start making money online.

Final Words

I created this site roughly 2 short hours ago.  Not just wrote the first post 2 hours ago.  Not just installed the blog software (WordPress) 2 hours ago.  I bought the domain rankhighermakemoney.com 2 hours ago.  In 15 minutes I had it set up on my reseller hosting account with Total Choice Hosting.  10 minutes after that I had WordPress installed.  20 minutes later I’ve uploaded a few plugins and tools to get started.  I took a 10 minute break and ate a bowl of ice cream.  The majority of the last 2 hours has been spent writing this first post.

I say this not to brag or to show off and talk about how wonderful and cool I am for making a site so quickly.  Nope. The reason I say this is to communicate just how ridiculously easy it is to make it happen.

In my next post (or two), I’ll specifically go through some of the lightning-fast steps it takes to get a brand new website up and running quickly.  See you then!

- Eric

© 2009 Rank Higher, Make Money!

Welcome to Rank Higher, Make Money!