What’s the most important strategy of getting your blog to the number 1 spot in both Google and Yahoo and keep all the search traffic to yourself? Definitely the ideal answer is proper keyword research and building authoritative backlinks.

In this blog post you will learn how I used Google Insight tool and press release service (webwire.com) to accelerate my Google rankings to top 4 within 3 days.

The use of Google Insight Tool was to generate highly profitable keyword with considerable search traffic and the purpose of using press release was to generate authoritative backlinks to my blog site.

How I nailed down the top 4 spot in Google within 3 days

The main reason why i decided to push my blog site to be on the top spot in Google and Yahoo, was to generate highly targeted long tail keyword with commercial intent.

The reason why I am advocating for long tail keyword, it’s because they can convert results into sales and hence generate more business for your service or product.

How did I use this strategy to be on top 4 spot in Google?

It’s simple and clear: I used both Google Keyword tool and Google insight Tool to generate narrower long tail keywords.

Below is a step by step procedure of what I did:

Step 1:

I went to Google Keyword tool and I started with the main keyword and I selected a narrower search term which had a global traffic of 300,000 monthly search volume. The niche I selected was ”Greek Yogurt” as below:

Step 2:

I took the narrower search term from step 1 and I put it on Google Insight tool. The results were as per below screen shot:

Some of the example of narrower keywords that I found were:

• Recipes with Greek yogurt (Monthly search 22,000)

• How to make Greek Yogurt (Monthly search 9,900)

• Greek Yogurt nutritional facts (Monthly search 4000)

Based from the above keyword analysis I managed to settle with recipes with Greek yogurt as my main keyword.

Link building strategy that accelerated my Google rankings

As we all know quality content and authoritative backlinks will make Google deliver results to your business. One of the strategies that I used to build high authoritative links was with the help of press release service.

I took 3 good months to learn how to write a press release that will be of high interest to the media and journalist. My first objective was to make sure that my blog site has all the required information such as high quality content, resources and links.

I wrote a powerful top notch news release that I distributed via press release service (webwire.com) and after 3 days my blog site sky rocketed to top 4 in Google and it was as a result of high quality links that I received from the press release service.

Below is a screenshot of the news release that was distributed with the help of webwire.com

After 3 days I managed to get the below results:

From the above results my blog site started to get more attention from the major search engine and other referral sites. If you plan early with the right mind set, i can really assure you that will achieve the same results that I did.

From my own experience, I really don’t think you need any Degree or Masters or any special software. The real truth is that you can follow the above simple steps and then replicate my results.

Do you have any results that you have achieved based on the above case study?

Google warned us in advance about its planned webspam algorithmn update (now known as “Penguin”) and site owners who ignored those warnings are now paying the price.

Many of the comments posted to Danny Sullivan’s post about the Penguin update verify search engine ranking downgrades and loss.

Here are just a few examples:

• “I just had a website that ranked on the first page for numerous rankings…. completely tank. One of the only websites that didn’t do comment spam in my SERPS. Didn’t do link exchanges. Now it’s gone.”
• “5 out of 11 of my sites have dropped into oblivion today.”
• “In one of my niches, of course, my site has disappeared.”
• “I have 2 sites that went missing ..they are MIA .. No where to be found in any key word !!”

While I feel for the truly innocent who get caught in the crossfire of Google’s algorithm changes, they will mostly likely regain their rankings — as has happened in the past. By the way, if your site was affected by the “Penguin” webspam algorithm update on April 24th, 2012, and you don’t think it should have been affected, you may submit a report to Google here.

But some not-so-innocent webmasters are stating that Google doesn’t “play fair” and blame Google for the possibility that they may have to seek offline employment or go on government assistance.

Oh, too bad, so sad.

Forgive my lack of empathy, but give me a break.

I’m sick of the whining and moaning that ensues when Google dumps Viagra, make money online, and diabetes web spam over-optimized sites. Google stated that only 3.1% of English language sites would be affected by this update, yet there’s way too much emphasis placed on spammers’ reactions to such changes.

Instead of living in fear of Google algorithm changes, online business owners should seek out positive reports — and there are plenty of positive reports related to the Penguin update, including:

• “I went to my analytics and did a quick search of traffic over the period from April 23-27 and saw my stats go up after Penguin. More traffic, coming from more places. My ranking in Google is stagnant at #4, but has gone up in Yahoo, Aol etc. Has anyone else seen positive signs from this Penguin update?”
• “one of my sites is up 20-30%…”
• “I’ll wait and behold, and start to arrive at any conclusion in a month or two. First of all, none of my sites dropped outta’ index. Second, being patient is natural for buddhists. Third, being an IT worker, I’ve never seen anything of that scale working well at the moment of release and later on. And I don’t really think I’m ever going to, to be frank)”
• “my total search traffic hasn’t changed”

I too have seen a traffic increase in the past week on most of my primary sites, as is usually the case when an Google puts out an algorithm update.

Here’s a Google Analytics screenshot from one site to which no posts have been made for well over a week and no traffic sent from email blasts. Daily traffic variations remain completely normal and new visitor ratio is virtually the same.

After almost 15 years online, I must conclude that’s because I’ve consistently played by the rules. I do NOT do SEO other than naturally including important keywords in my post titles and text, i.e. I do NOT use silly formulas that may work today, won’t work tomorrow and will get me bounced from the index.

It’s Google’s game, therefore Google makes the rules.

Webmasters who want to rely primarily on free traffic from Google should know and follow Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Here are a few more recommendations:

1. Don’t buy links
2. Don’t allow links from low-quality sites and networks
3. Don’t get sucked into buying SEO services that promise a #1 listing
4. Don’t waste your money on crap tutorials that promise to teach you how to get #1 listings in Google

In other words, don’t waste your time on SEO – become a real business that provides real value to real people.

Has Penguin affected your site? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

P.S. Thanks to Stan Shebs and Wikipedia for the beautiful penguin pic.

It’s a simple truth…

Some newsletters seem to attract readers like bees to honey – whilst others seem to struggle to find a marketplace of accepting and interested subscribers. But why?

What’s the big difference between success and failure when it comes to publishing your own newsletter? And what should you aim to do, if your goal is to build an army of loyal subscribers?

For the first time ever, acknowledged newsletter expert, Michael Green, reveals his top five hints for creating your own winning newsletter or Ezine publication.

#1. CONTENT

If you edit a newsletter and think you can muddle through without top quality content, then think again!

Let’s look at it this way. With so many newsletter titles out there today – especially on the web – the choice for readers is almost endless.

Your audience is more subtly aware of the quality of your editorial, articles and content, than you may think.

So don’t skimp when it comes to finding top quality contributions for your publication. It should be obvious, but great content matters, perhaps more than ever before.

#2. STYLE

Great newsletters all have one thing in common. They display style and personality.

Wait a minute…can a newsletter really have a personality?

You bet. In fact, it must have a personality, or it’s simply doomed to fail!

Your readers *really* need to appreciate what your publication is all about. Which perspective are you approaching your subject from? Are you light-hearted or serious? Do you display the traits that can foster trust from your readership?

Don’t leave your readers in any doubt about your market position.

Display style and personality in every issue and be sure to allow your readers to share in your spirit.

#3. FREQUENCY

A big difference between newsletters that get read, and those that get trashed, is that the good ones are nearly always published to a regular schedule which is advertised in advance and understood by their readerships.

So determine a publishing schedule, let it be known, and rigidly stick to it.

If you want others to take your newsletter or Ezine seriously, then you need to work your way into your readerships routine.

A regular publishing timetable helps you to achieve this goal and so “frequency” is an important feature in achieving success for your newsletter.

But remember, frequency doesn’t mean that you have to commit to publishing every day or every week. It just means that you need to set a schedule that is fully predictable for your readers.

That could just as easily be quarterly.

#4. CREDIBILITY

Stop and think about any newsletter that you personally happen to read on a regular basis. Now ask yourself: “What is it that really makes me read this newsletter?”

The answer is invariably that you believe what’s written in it.

That’s right. Newsletters that you like, all have a high “credibility factor”.

So be cautious about just allowing anyone to be a guest article author. Check ‘em out first, be comfortable that the knowledge that they are imparting is really first-class.

One bad article published in YOUR newsletter or Ezine could destroy YOUR credibility with a reader forever. So thoroughly vet everything you publish.

#5. INTEGRITY

Perhaps the most important factor in establishing your newsletter as a trusted source, is your ability to create real integrity for your publication.

What does this mean?

Well you’ve probably read newsletters, particularly those on the web, which forever seem to be pushing some new resource right in your face. And you know straightaway that there’s obviously something in this for the editor.

Actually, they’re probably pushing an affiliate program or some kind of joint-venture.

Nothing wrong with that of course. But try to avoid turning your entire newsletter or Ezine into one long relentless advertising pitch.

I’ve read a lot of newsletters that start out well for a couple of issues, but then descend into one long sales spiel by the third edition.

So follow the FIVE GOLDEN RULES of newsletter success and you’ll soon turn your own publication into a newsletter that gets READ, not one of the many that gets instantly TRASHED upon arrival.

Good luck with your newsletter or Ezine.

Michael Green has created an award-winning toolkit for budding newsletter editors everywhere. His “How To Write A Newsletter” toolkit is crammed full of copyright free articles, newsletter templates and a complete “How To” editors manual. Check it out right now.

Food content is a great traffic generator and if you’ve been into Pinterest lately, you alredy know that food images draw a lot of attention.

Here is a gigantic PLR bundle with 200 recipes that can help you capitalize on all of that interest.

Plus, there are 160 images of food too, which will make illustrating your food content so much easier.

The whole package is only $25, making it super easy to start publishing food content and photos. But it’s available only for a short while, so you’d better get yours now.

BTW, The pic is of me eating my favorite food – Pho – at the Sheraton in Saigon… for BREAKFAST. The Vietnamese people have it SO right!!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Coming with new and unique ideas to write about can be a challenge. However, there are some things you can do to help you not only come with great ideas, but to also help you write about them. Follow these tips for creating content that is both outstanding and compelling.

No matter what you are writing about, keeping your readers in mind while doing so is important. This is especially true when you are writing a specific topic that relates to certain people. For example, think about the people that love gardening when you are exploring the benefits of hydroponics gardening. In fact, you might find your words come much easier when you have a targeted audience in mind.

Be direct and to the point in your writing. Most people never read an entire article. The first few paragraphs are read and the rest is generally scanned for outstanding and important information. By getting to the point in fewer words, you can get more information in and across to your readers.

When you start thinking about excessive words, you might consider the number of adjectives you use in your work. While adjectives do have a place in your writing, being there too much is unacceptable. This goes back to simply getting to the point without fluffing it up. How you write reflects a part of you, so avoid beating around your main topic and tell readers what they want to know.

One great reason many people never read through a complete article is because it becomes boring. However, think about the article that relays important information while also telling a story. The writing you do that contain interesting facts and a story line suddenly becomes writing that is not so boring.

The writing that is most appealing is the writing that is well rounded and to the point. While making your point, be sure to remain informal and friendly. The best content becomes unattractive when it sounds like it was written by a computer program or robot. Making yourself a real person is an important part of all the writing you do.

Brainstorming for new ideas can certainly be challenging. Take the time to read all you can about topics you want to write about. Ask your friends and family members about any ideas they might come up with. Read other content about the topics you are thinking about for ideas about what to write. Get outdoors and take a walk. You might be surprised how getting away from the desk for break with help to refresh your creative thinking.

Honing your writing skills takes you writing a great deal every day. By doing so, you begin to see the little faults in your work you never noticed were there before. Check out the information online as well about tips and tricks to creating content on a regular and profitable basis. Writing is skill you must practice. Making the changes to your style can mean the difference between your being excellent or mediocre.

Back in February, I challenged myself to blog everyday at 101Date.com and posted the results here.

After a month-long break, it’s time to engage in another challenge.

This month, I will:

1. Post every day to at least one of my sites (here on NPT, WindingWay, 101Date.com and RosalindGardner.com)
2. Walk for 2 hours a day (1 hour if I do an hour of yard work).
3. Drink NO beer.

The objectives should be obvious. Make more money and lose more (some) weight.

So, who’s in? Or, what is your challenge for the month of April 2012?

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Yes, barely 3 months into a year in which I vowed that all my posts would be positive, I find myself in the unfortunate position of having to share some bad news with you.

It’s what I call the “Merchant Bait and Switch” and it works like this:

• Merchant gets you interested in a product.
• You sign up for their program.
• Loving the product, you promote it in good faith.
• You discover (if you are lucky) that your affiliate links no longer produce commissions.

Fortunately, this is a relatively rare occurrence.

However, if you learn that you’ve driven thousands of visitors to a site without the hope of being paid what you are due — you might be somewhat teed off.

Especially if you learn that one merchant has done it not once, but TWICE.

Sadly, that’s the story behind my dealings with Affmeter.

When I started to promote their product, they were using one payment processor with an affiliate program.

Sometime later (read years), I discovered they’d switched to Clickbank.

Yet, despite the fact that I’d done beta testing for them to help them improve their product AND then given them a great testimonial after they’d made the changes to develop a great product — no one ever notified me of the change.

The last time I checked, my testimonial was still on their homepage (although I expect it to disappear shortly after this article is posted).

So, what did I do?

I contacted Firuze Okten Gokce, the owner (whom I knew personally from conversations over the phone and at industry conferences), to tell her that I think she’s committed a major faux pas in terms of fairness to her affiliates. I then change my links over to the new Clickbank links.

When I next met her at an industry conference, neither of us mentioned the incident and life went on.

Duh. me.

Considerable time passed and one day I’m reviewing all my affiliate links again and guess what I notice?

The Clickbank link to her product works, but when you go to the order form from the merchant page — the processor is NOT Clickbank.

Not only THAT, but the affiliate signup page on her site still gives you Clickbank links.

Here’s the video I took to show what happened.

I’d like to say this was an honest mistake, however, in this case, I know better.

The owner of this company started in this industry as an affiliate, and as an affiliate, she’d have known better. At least you’d think she’d have the integrity to contact her best affiliates to let them know of the changes… but no.

And, to prove I was a super promoter of her product, just search “Affmeter” on Google. My 4 year-old review (January 2008) still comes up 3rd in the listings. Granted – what a waste. Gotta wonder how much she owes me. I assume it is a LOT. (The listing in 2nd place doesn’t even have a link to their site… weird).

Anyway, fool me once, shame on you — fool me twice, shame on me — and I should have kept a much better eye on this bad actor.

On the brighter side, it looks like Affmeter recently went out of business, which I’m sure has nothing to do with the software – which was great – but really, really bad karma on the part of its owner.

I wish I could say this was the only time I’ve seen this happen, but it’s not.

Over the years, I’ve soused out a number of links to programs and products that had been terminated and the links redirected to totally different products. The links still worked so you won’t get a broken link error notice like you would if they were a Commission Junction merchant.

In most cases, they are Clickbank merchants of products that are no longer viable (out-of-date or violated Clickbank’s terms of service) and their affiliate links redirect to a landing page with an email opt-in form.

Hopefully in the future, Clickbank will contact every affiliate who ever sold a specific product to advise them of changes to the product or terminations of the product.

Most recently, my affiliate links to Bizzites redirected to a Chinese Bee Pollen site.

Fortunately, the owner of the company had warned me that he was selling the company and that he didn’t know what they new owners would do with it — so when a subscriber informed me that the links were being re-directed, I wasn’t as surprised as I might have been otherwise.

The point is — keep an eye on your affiliate promotions. Don’t just check to see that they redirect to the merchant site, but make sure you are getting credit for the sales as well, i.e. check the order page.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

This is a true story about a very smart marketer who approached me to promote his Internet Marketing product.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I rarely promote products in the Internet Marketing and business opportunities categories, simply for the sake of promotion.

I also loathe the product launch bandwagon — where all the so-called ‘guru’ IMers promote a brand-new product at the same time. I avoid them like the plague. (Having said that, I did just recently find and promote a product that was in the midst of a launch — unbeknowst to me until I received a notice that I’d won a prize. Weird.)

Anyway, my rule of thumb is to promote only those products which I would buy and use to conduct my own online business… and being a bit of a spendthrift (cheap-o), it’s unusual for me to want to buy any of the over-hyped products that I see being marketed, no matter how hard the JV manager tries to get me on board a launch.

In my experience, many of the ‘new’ techniques touted in information products were used successfully by their developers but are on the way out either due to overuse or black hattery that Google eventually disallowed.

Back to my story about the smartest JV request ever…

So, I hop on the phone one morning with a client who ordered a consultation.

As a pre-condition of the contract, I never look at their sites before we get on the phone to talk. That way they get my unvarnished reaction — a critical view of their offer.

Surprisingly, the gentleman immediately asked me to view a video and read his sales page.

I groaned inwardly when I realized that he was selling a product geared to the online business crowd. However, as I’d been paid $499 to review and critique his site, I shrugged the feeling off and went to work watching, reading and making notes.

At the end of my review, I told him what I’d liked, disliked and made recommendations for change — all of which he apparently noted.

I then asked him if the product really worked as promised.

He immediately gave me access and after reviewing the product, I told him how impressed I was with the quality.

From what I’d seen, he was obviously not some flash-in-the-pan operator, but a genuine human being who wanted to share with others who could benefit from his knowledge.

He got my unvarnished take on that perspective too.

At that point, he pointedly asked me if I would be willing to promote, and gee… guess what I said??

Heck, yeah!!

After he made the changes I recommended to the salespage, I promoted his product and we both made out like bandits, with an almost-zero percent refund rate.

Overall, his $499 consultation was a worthwhile investment, and represented only a tiny outlay compared with his eventual earnings.

Just to be straight, I’m NOT saying that everyone should invest 500 hundred bucks in a consultation with me to get their product promoted.

What I do suggest however is that you think outside the box when marketing a new product. Ask yourself a few questions, such as:

1. Who, in your industry, will give you honest feedback?
2. Who will be your best advocate?
3. Am I willing to implement the changes they recommend?

When you figure that out, approach that person and ask for their assessment of your product and pitch.

If they like what they see – ask them for the JV.

Back at the beginning of February, I announced that I was going to challenge myself to post an article each day to my dating review site, 101Date.com — a site that had been sadly neglected in terms of content publishing for a very long time.

Well, here’s what happened over the month with my blogging challenge.

To produce the content, I:

• Created 6 new articles
• Resused 2 old articles
• Re-used 2 polls, created 6 new polls
• Used 2 merchant articles
• Used 3 press releases / news articles
• Used 2 posts generated by a shopping plugin
• Used 3 PLR articles

And contrary to my original plan, I used no spun articles.

Did I post every day of the month?

If you added the numbers above together, you know the answer is “NO”.

My general excuse is that my brain was addled by allergies here in Arizona, and somehow I missed publishing on the 11th, 26th and 29th. For the last day of the month, I totally forgot it was a leap year.

To make up for the leap day ommission, I posted on March 1st.

Were the results benefical?

According to my Aweber stats, the overall results were mixed. Readership declined by almost 2% over the month. On the other hand, subscriber complaints declined from .12% from the original broadcast on the 1st of February to a mere .04% by the last broadcast.

My take on that was that “they’re getting to know me again” and “it’s GOOD to cull the non-responsive”, especially when one pays for each subscriber!

Traffic Generation results were very positive.

Increases / decreases from month-to-month were as follows:

• 12.05% increase in visitors
• 10.47% increase in unique visitors
• 5.81% decrease in pageviews
• 5.57% increase in time on site
• 19.68% decrease in the Bounce Rate
• 2.71% increase in New Visits

Overall REAL Results

The best results by far, however, were in terms of affiliate commission gains.

I more than doubled my average monthly earnings from the site.

Woohoo!

What did I learn?

Creating a challenge for oneself is good for increasing both productivity and earnings.

It makes you much more aware of how people respond to what you publish, and to produce more of that to which they respond positively.

Not only that, but the positive results energize you to do more of the same!

I also asked you to join me in the challenge and a few of you responded.

So… how did your February blogging challenge work out for you? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve heard all the buzz about social media sites.

You’ve probably heard the fairytale-like stories of people who used social media to grow their company and their bottom line exponentially. The reason that these stories sound too good to be true is because, in most cases, they are. Social media is a great tool for small businesses to use, but it is not the final solution that will guarantee huge quarterly profits and healthy annual growth. There are a few things that companies should remember when utilizing social media.

The Human Element

People are most likely to buy from other human beings, not some robot with a status update and a profile picture. What I mean by this is that if you are going to utilize networks like Facebook or Twitter, the person who is managing your company’s account should be a great communicator. They should be engaging and interesting. Customers want to know that there is actually a human on the other end of the account so find someone with charisma to manage your social media campaigns.

How Much Is Too Much?

Be sure that you do not spread your social media manager too thin. One of the most damaging things that any company’s social media channels can go through is lack of consistent updating. Ideally you will want a few interesting informative posts on your channels each day. If you have two or three people handling the accounts, you can probably get involved on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. If you only have one person working in social media, you will want to focus your efforts on one or two channels. Identify which demographics you’re targeting and plan your focus accordingly. If you’re looking to recruit new talent, you’ll probably want to be on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’re looking to push products to young people, MySpace and Facebook might serve you better.

Shake Hands

The final thing to remember about social media is that it does not replace the old fashioned business of making real life relationships. Social media is a great way to start relationships and continue to grow them but make every effort to attend chamber of commerce meetings, meet with colleagues in person and talk to veterans of your business. There is nothing like sitting face to face with someone and talking about the business, family, life or any other topic.

People are most likely to buy from someone they know and it is easiest to get to know people when you can look them in the eye.