Maximize Results

Optimize Your Blog: Part 2

In continuation of the series on how to opimize your blog, I want to cover a very important rule of thumb that all bloggers must know if they want to make money blogging. While some may not consider this a real “optimization” technique, it directly relates to HOW you should build a website or blog…if you want to make money with it.

For the most part, bloggers are scatterbrained.

This is O.K. if it’s your personal blog covering things relevant to you and your life. But if your goal is to build a website or blog that can generate income, let me provide you with a framework that successful bloggers follow.

Focus On One Thing

Every time I create a new site, I make sure the focus of that site: the content, the videos, the comments, everything is related to one topic. Instead of trying to make your site all things to all people (or worse yet, what you “think” people want to know about) find something that people are interested in (one topic) and build a website around it.

The internet affords people the luxury of finding specific groups of people who share common interests. People like to find specific answers to specific problems, and for this reason, your focus should be on creating tightly themed websites that are centered around one topic.

Example: To employ this “tightly themed” technique, it’s important that you make sure the topic in which your covering is not too broad. For example, don’t create a site centered around the general theme of “weight loss.” Instead, focus on one popular diet: South Beach, for instance. Become the expert for all things related to the South Beach Diet, and you (1) have an easier time writing content (2) attract a very targeted visitor that is first interested in information on the South Beach Diet but is ALSO interested in weight loss in general (the original much broader niche). If you want to create a site about “weight loss” don’t make it about the broad niche, find a specific subset within that niche and build a site (or sites) around that.

Have A Revenue Source Before You Create The Site

Continuing with the South Beach Diet example, before I would ever create a site around this topic, I would make sure I could first earn a commission for getting someone to:

1. Sign up for the diet
2. Do a desired action that generates revenue for me and is directly related to the South Beach Diet.

If you take away one thing from this article, get this: don’t create a site without first having a revenue generating action your future visitors can complete in place before you build the site. This may be earning a commission for selling a product, getting someone to signup for a trial, it could be anything. Just make sure it generates revenue for you, and it’s either selling the product your the “expert” about or is directly related to the topic.

This is the best way to build a website or blog that can make real money. Furthermore, you won’t start with the notion of, ‘I’m going to just start writing about [BLANK] and see where it takes me. Don’t waste your time going down that road.

Find a way to make a commission for selling a product or generating a lead, then build a niche site centered around this ONE thing. Like my economics teacher used to say, “Prior planning prevents poor performance.” Start with the end goal in mind, focus on one topic, then build your site.

Note: In Buying & Selling Websites we cover many other techniques related to what make successful websites, what types of sites are best to buy, and how you can get the most money for a site you want to sell.

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Do You Follow Rules Or Results

When the rubber hits the road, and you begin to put real effort into making money online with a blog, website, or affiliate business, do you follow rules or results?

Following Rules

The “rules” crowd likes to know every in and out, every nuance, tip, and strategy before they put any real effort into their project. It feels good, they would say, to read the “10 Tips For This,” and the “10 Strategies For That.” They typically suffer from paralysis of analysis and over analyze everything before they actually do anything. Does that sound like you? Do you suffer from following a rules mindset?

Taking it a step further, and when you really think about it, the rules mindset only gets you so far. Not only are “rules” what every average joe looks to follow when starting a blog, online business or the like, but by following the vast majority of people when it comes to making money online, you’ll end up with results the vast majority encounter: nothing.

It’s a sobering reality, but one you must be aware of. The point here is to make money online. That’s the end goal. To achieve it, let me suggest following the results driven strategy.

Following Results

Let me tell you a little story about me to help prove this point.

Over 4 years ago, I stumbled into internet marketing by doing what many of you have done in the past or did to make it to our site: search for how to make money online.

I was in college at the time, and since most college students are always looking for ways to make extra money, I decided the internet was a good place to start. Who wouldn’t want to work online and make money? 

Almost immediately, I discovered an ad with the headline “$300/Hr In College?”

I clicked the ad and was taken to a site where several work at home opportunities were reviewed (and ranked, or course) all so I could make money online (at least that’s what the site owner was saying). I was immediately intrigued by the idea, but my first question was, ‘Why would someone want to be nice enough to just share this information with me…what’s in it for them?’

Remember, at this time, I have no idea what internet marketing, blogs, or affiliate marketing is…I just started with the premise of searching on Google for how to make money online.

After browsing around the site for a while, I noticed that when I clicked on a recommendation, a new window would open, and for a split second a different URL would show in the browser before it finally resolved to the recommended website. It was so fast that I could only make out one letter at a time. After each click I would get a new letter that finally spelled out: C-L-I-C-K-B-A-N-K.

From there I went back to Google and typed in Clickbank, found their site, and discovered that they were this marketplace for digital products. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together. The site I had visited was recommending products from the Clickbank marketplace, and each time a visitor made a purchase from one of his recommendations he was making money.

From that moment, I was immediately more interested in learning how to market products and services online than doing any of the “opportunities” listed on his website. I caught the internet marketing bug, and there was no looking back.

Now…I tell you this story only because discovering that site was not only my foray into building several internet businesses, it helped me learn from day 1 to follow the results mindset.

After I discovered this work at home review site, I did some more keyword searches and saw that this guy was everywhere. He had hundreds and thousands of ads up for thousands of keywords, and from what I could tell was getting a sizable amount of traffic to his website.

Now at this time, I had no idea of any sort of tool to calculate site traffic, there was no SpyFu or KeywordSpy to see which keywords he was bidding on…I had to do it the old fashioned way: trial and error.

Through another series of events (a long story) I discovered that this affiliate was in fact one of the largest affiliates for the product he was promoting, and when I put all those results together (thousands of ads/keywords, a top affiliate for the product he was promoting) I had my model.

When you find someone with proven results, the smart money models their success. I could have spent my time learning about the difference between web design strategies, onsite optimization techniques, and keyword density, OR I could simply use this website as a model (not to copy) for where to to start.

And that’ what I did. Thankfully, I was able to use that one website to learn the importance of a results driven focus. Something I feel has made all the difference in the world.

Here are some actionable things you can do today to start following results:

• Search for your desired keywords on Google and examine the top 10 results. How are their sites designed? How often are the keywords used? What type of language is used (casual, professional, personal)?
• Make a spread sheet or word document and write down characteristics of those sites and see which ones overlap (maybe 7 of the 10 sites for Keyword A use the same 2-panel style layout or the length of the article/content are all around 650 words).
• Be sure to take note of any Adwords ads you see often for your desired keywords. If there are lots of ads for one site, you should review their sales pitch, layout, etc because most likely they’re making good money AND they are paying for the traffic.

The key to the results mindset is to be aware. Be mindful of the successful websites in your niche or industry by following some of the tips above. Always remember that rules can be important, but results are what you want.

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Optimize Your Blog: Part 1

So you’ve got a blog. Now what?

In this series of posts I’ll be covering several strategies to maximize your blogs potential with proper optimization. How can you be both search engine and user friendly at the same time? It’s a tough balancing act at times, but if you really want to make money blogging, you must start with a properly optimized blog.

Display Your Keywords First And Often

Let’s use Blogging Experiment as an example. For almost 2 years now, BE has been a content driven resource teaching people how to make money. The topics include blogging, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and how to buy and sell websites. While the topics are varied, the general them is consistent: how to make money online.

For this reason, a list of popular keywords that BE wants to rank well for (and subsequently write content for) must be related to these keywords.

Currently, our site ranks well for a number of keywords related to the topics listed above, but as I started browsing through the site, I noticed a couple key areas where further optimization would help even more.

Starting with the navigation bar, I changed “Home” to “Make Money.” For those who don’t know, the anchor text (the phrase used to describe the link - in our example “Make Money”) is very important in search engine rankings. By keeping the word “Home” as the anchor text pointing back to your home page you are inadvertently telling the search engines that your home page is trying to rank for the phrase “Home.”

Because 99.9% of other websites just leave the word “Home” as the anchor text to your home page, you are now competing with virtually every other website online for the keyword “Home.”

Furthermore, in our example, the navigation bar is the first text our site displays. Not all sites have the navigation set up like this, but this makes it even more critical in our situation.

Those top links are the first introductions search engines have to our site after going through the title tag and meta description. For this reason, we want to make sure that they (the search engines) quickly realize what this site is about. By making “Make Money” our anchor text with the link back to our home page, we let the first on-site text be a very keyword rich phrase in which we want to rank.

If you want to use the word “Home,” at least try to fit in one of your targeted keywords somewhere close to the top.

The second part is to display your keywords often.

Remember, often doesn’t mean trying to keyword stuff every article or page with your targeted keywords. Instead, it simply means to be aware of the keywords in which you want to rank and use them strategically throughout your site. Consistency is the key here. Be aware of your targeted phrases and use them wisely.

Don’t Forget The Footer

Just as important as it is to have the search engine see your keyword phrase somewhere close to the top of your site, it’s equally important to include that same phrase, or even a little different variation of that phrase (what I recommend) at the bottom in your footer.

As you can see, instead of using the phrase “Make Money” like we used in the navigation bar, this time we used another target keyword: “make money online.”

We want the search engines to see that our site, more specifically our home page since that’s where the links point, are directly related to each other. The next step is to make sure that your content actually reflects information related to those key phrases. Meaning: don’t just pick your best two keywords, put them in your header and footer then talk about completely unrelated topics on your site.

That’s not what this is about.

Optimization by it’s definition is to modify a system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. Taking the time to do these little “detail” things are what separate the mediocre sites from the ones who actually make money. Granted, optimization will not necessarily put money in your pockets directly, but a better optimized site means more traffic which ultimately means more money.

These tips work great with optimizing wordpress, other blog platforms, or any website in general.

Blogging In An Economic Downturn

It doesn’t take very long to be reminded about the challenges our economy faces.

We’ve all heard the stories, and we’re all most likely feeling the realties of this current recession in one way or another. As I was thinking this week about the state of our economy, my mind immediately shifted to the internet (it usually does) and how this could affect those looking to make money blogging.

Since no one needs more reminders of the challenges this economy faces, I’d like to start off my first post by sharing why I think this is the BEST time to be blogging followed by a few things to consider.

It’s All About Timing

In the two most recent recessions (1990-91 and 2001), business starts had been falling until the year the recession began - but then took off again the following year. Paul Kedrosky from the Kauffman Foundation summed it up very well when he said:

Companies that are created in a bad economic period are more disposed to succeed. These entrepreneurs are the few, the proud, and the crazy. They tend to be highly motivated and can work on a shoestring budget.

There is no better time than the present to start that blog or web business. Do you already have one? Focus your efforts to grow it bigger. This is one of the few businesses with relatively no downside and almost limitless potential.

Let’s face it, we’re not talking about spending $250K to open a Subway. What business can you start for less then a $100 that has so much potential?

There’s not many. Actually, there’s not ANY that come to mind.

The internet affords you the opportunity to build a viable, revenue generating business for next to nothing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog or a full blown e-commerce website. No longer is it a question of the big vs. small but rather the fast vs. slow.

If You Want To Make Money, Start A Business Not A Hobby

Is the reason you’re starting a blog because you have this burning passion to talk about (fill in the blank), or is it because you want to make money? 

If it’s the latter, then your focus should be on what people want to know, not what you care to share.

So many people make the mistake of trying to force feed their interests and passions to others when that’s really the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

When you walk into McDonalds, they don’t tell you want you want, they ask you. Think of blogging the same way. Find out what people are looking for, and simply answer their questions. Don’t treat your blogging business as your personal preferences, opinions, and ideals (unless that’s the point of the blog), focus instead on common questions people have. For those looking to start a blog, here are some common questions people ask:

• How can I lose weight fast?
• What are different parenting techniques?
• Where is the best place to find cheap airfare?
• How can I make money online? (BloggingExperiment.com)

The point is this. (1) Have a clear focus to your site. Don’t try to be all things to all people. That’s the very nature of why blogs are so popular. People can find other people who have very specific skills or knowledge about a topic that they wish to acquire. (2) Treat it like a business. If your looking to make money from your web business (blog, e-commerce site, etc) treat it like a business. Set measurable goals and objectives, have someone else hold you accountable, and know your end goals before you begin. (3) Don’t let the gloom and doom keep you down. There is no time like the present.

On a personal note, I realize we haven’t been “properly introduced,” yet so in the next couple of days I’ll be posting a bio so you can know a little more about me. In the mean time, I  just wanted to share this one little thought as it’s been on my mind for the past few days.

Talk to you soon,

Kyle

Entertain or Educate - What Is Best?

I’ve been doing some thinking lately (I know it’s dangerous)…

Looking back at all of our businesses over the last 5 years, plus the 100’s of websites I’ve consulted with or studied, it seems like most sites fall into one of two categories.

The first is where the website’s purpose is to educate the reader.

This can include things like teaching valuable lessons, giving outstanding advice to people in their market, sharing things that most people don’t know about, etc.

This is basically the model I chose when I took over the BloggingExperiment blog a couple months ago. Since taking over the site, the traffic level remains pretty steady compared to when we bought it. The RSS subscribers has increased slightly. Income has increased significantly. BUT, the site hasn’t taken off to the equivalent of an A-List Blog…

My initial thought was, people NEED to learn how to make money online, and I was determined to teach people what I knew.

I’m not saying this model is flawed, but it may not be the best option if you want a super popular website.

The second path people take with their sites is to primarily entertain their readers.

I was listening to an interview Frank Kern did a while back where he gave this example. I can’t remember the exact way he stated it, but it was something like this:

“People are painfully bored in their lives and they are desperate for entertainment…your job with your website should be 15% content, 85% entertainment” (something to that effect anyway)

Then he gave this example:

He said “close your eyes for 10 seconds, and think of 4 things you learned in college. Next, close your eyes for 10 seconds and think of 4 characters from the tv show Seinfeld”.

Sure enough, Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer came to my mind MUCH faster than anything I learned in college. In fact, not one single thing came to mind when I thought about what I learned in college.

The difference?

Entertainment is more enjoyable and easier to remember than even the best education or training.

Is this the reason why JohnChow and Shoemoney are two of the most popular blogs in the make money online niche? Probably so. Do they always give out the best content? Not even close…

So, what direction are you taking your website or blog?

Are you so focused on educational content that even though you have incredibly valuable stuff to share, it’s just not catching on because you are “not entertaining enough”?

That’s why celebrity gossip is so popular, as well as reality TV, soap operas and Youtube. Entertainment trumps true content every time, but is it a more profitable direction to take your business?

Which do you think is best?

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Your Customers Are Busy Too

What is the most valuable part of your life? It’s the only thing in the world that is limited…

TIME

This is something most marketers and internet business owners forget about.

Of course we know OUR time is valuable, but we tend to forget that our customers and readers have limited time as well.

Especially in the future, when there will be 10 times as many things to distract us in a day compared to our crazy busy schedules today.

I predict there will be a major shift in how marketers and internet business owners operate in the near future.

When you think about it using common sense, it’s pretty obvious.

Example #1

Would you rather purchase a huge 22 DVD, 1000 page manual mega training course or a condensed “no fluff” 1 DVD, 50 page guide?

Personally, when I see those mega courses being sold for $2,000, my first thought it “how am I going to find time to go through all this stuff”. Sadly, this is exactly what happens most of the time.  People get excited about the opportunity to learn what the course teaches, but when it arrives, the customer gets overwhelmed and may never even open the box!

I know the purpose of having those huge courses is to “increase the perceived value” by making people think they are getting more for their money. I’m sure this little trick does work for most people in the market. To me as a marketer however, I know MOST of those DVDs are going to be fluff and a complete waste of time.

There is nothing worse that trying to learn from someone who waffles around for 30 minutes telling stories about their dog, rather than just getting to the point of the lesson.

Example #2

Blog posts are another thing to keep in mind. I hear a lot about how you need to make in-depth blog posts for them to be considered a valuable contribution, and that you need to make posts every single day or people will stop following you.

This is something I’m trying to get over myself!

From this point on, I’m going to work really hard to shorten my blog posts AND only keep the most valuable information in the post. I know your time is limited and you don’t have time to read long posts from 30 different bloggers.

I’m also going to change my posting frequency to about 3-4 posts per week. If you have time to read this blog (or any blog) 7 days a week, then you are taking away from your time to make money online. Not saying I don’t want you here or that I don’t think you should read this blog, but I do appreciate your time and I want you to be successful online. If I can help you save a little bit of time and help you put that time into your own business, I’ll be happy.

YOU DON’T MAKE MONEY READING A BUNCH OF BLOGS EVERYDAY!

I know that doesn’t make sense for a blogger to say that, but it’s true. It’s important that you spend most of your time working on your own business. I’d recommend only reading your favorite 4-5 blogs (this one and 3 others, ha!), and only dedicate 20-30 minutes per day total to blog reading/commenting. If you can do this, I guarantee you will make more money online than you are right now.

I’m taking this exact strategy with my How To Buy & Sell Websites class I’m teaching in a couple weeks. The lessons are going to be intentionally short and to the point.  Most of the videos will be about 5-10 minutes each, and ONLY contain valuable content worth its weight in gold. Each lesson will have bullet points explaining what content is shared in each video so customers and jump to exactly what they want to learn.

Sure, it will be more work on my end, but my customers will appreciate the fact that they don’t have to sit through hours and hours of long videos. I won’t be rambling on about nonsense just to make the class “look bigger”.

When you are working on your business, please make sure you consider how valuable your customers’ time is as well. If you are writing a 7 day mini email course for an autoresponder, don’t just write a bunch of fluff to fill up the emails.  Make sure you write solid, to the point, and valuable information.  Your customers will appreciate that much more than 20 pages of nonsense.

I know your time is valuable so I’ll wrap up this post now…