Resources Used:

Niche Questions pdf (let me know if not working, I am having some trouble getting it to load)

Google Keyword Tool

Yahoo Answers

Big-Boards

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

Anyway, the first video was about keyword research.  I was a bit dissapointed to find that the primary way they said to find good keywords to rank for was to do the quote search and the “intitle” search.

If you get under 50,000 results in quotes and under 10,000 results for intitle, it could be a good keyword is what was said.

And that was it.

So, as I was in the middle of creating my new site, I thought I would ditch my usual method of keyword research (found in this post and emphasizing looking at average page rank of the first 10 results) and give it a whirl.

These are the results I got…but first let me tell you about the new site I was building.

I got to thinking about how I could really add value.  And I mean REALLY add value to peoples lives.

Well, I thought about it for a while and realized how silly it is for me to try and market all the things I market – double chin exercises, guitar courses, anxiety treatments, registry repair software, boil treatments, emetophobia and on and on.

First, I don’t know squat about most of this stuff, so first I have to spend time learning.  And second, they don’t really get me all jazzed up to write about, so they get boring after a while.  And finally, am I REALLY trying to add value or make a buck selling e-books and miracle potions?

So, as amazingly stupid and simple as this sounds, I came up with the idea of doing something in the profession my offline business is in – accounting.  Not the most exciting, but I do it every day, I know it inside and out, and I truly get to help people solve problems.  And most important of all – I KNOW exactly what their problems are (this is crucial).

So I came up with www.learnquickbooksforfree.com.  I won’t go into the details of why this is a problem for business owners, but basically I recorded 14 videos on how to use Quickbooks.  It’s about 7-8 hours of video training, all completely free.  And I encourage people to email me with their questions.

I could not find free training like this anywhere online.  So, it really, truly adds value to people.

And its a simple opt-in list where I can build a relationship with my subscribers.  Check out this email I got from one subscriber about the site and the help I gave her:

Mat,

You are amazing.  I have gone to many sites and forums seeking an answer for this reimbursement issue, and I always seem to get confused and not really get my question answered.  You have explained my options below and I see it so clearly and it seems so simple.

I will be using option 1 which is easiest for me to do.  You have saved me a lot of time and frustration.  The greatest thing about this is that I feel confident and I am now very excited to continue to populate quickbooks with my information and see my final reports.  I wish you could understand what it means to users like us to find someone like you who is so knowledgeable, but more than that, is the fact that you are willing to share this information and devote your time for no cost, in today’s world.   You are truly amazing and different.

Happy 4th and I know that I will have another question soon.

Thanks again!

Is that awesome or what!!  That makes you feel good and is truly adding value to peoples lives.

So, thats my new site, and it is a simple Wordpress template I found free.  I paid $10 for the domain and spent time on the videos.  I plan on getting subscribers, building the relationship, and presenting offers on any one of the 1,000’s of business affiliate products out there (for example, a Stamps.com CPA offer pays $50 if they sign up for a 4 week trial!).

Now back to my keyword research fiasco.

My first keyphrase I chose was “free quickbooks training online” and here are some stats:

1.  Between 1,300-1,600 searches per month
2.  369,000 search results
3.  39,000 quote results
4.  157 intitle results with quotes

Should be a slam dunk, right?

Final data:

5.  Average page rank – 3.6 (yikes!)

So, I did 1 video, submitted to about 15 video sites, like Youtube and Metacafe.  I wrote one article and submitted to about 25 social sites and I have built maybe 40-50 backlinks to the site.

See if you can find me ANYWHERE in the regular search results. Good luck, I can’t be found on at least the 1st 5 pages.  Do it in quotes and I’m number 1, but people don’t search in quotes.

But I have 22 subscribers so far – and they literally have ALL come from Youtube.

I know, I know, one keyword can’t determine whether or not looking just at quotes and intitle is the best or not.  BUT, I’m telling you, you can’t always blindly trust a so called guru, and you have to know what works.

In the case of keyword research, look at average page rank – that will be the best indicator of if you will rank quickly and high or not (remember www.bamboopatioshades.com?  It’s still ranked number 1 and I have done NOTHING to it!).

And there is something to TRULY adding value.  For one, it makes you feel good, and two, you build trust MUCH, MUCH faster.  Think about it in your campaigns – are you really adding value or just trying to make a quick buck?

Tweet This Post

That grabbed my attention because of course its true.  You don’t want your kids to be sick, and life is much easier when they are healthy.  And God forbid you feed them something unhealthy so they get sick or malnourished!

This got me thinking about an old slogan for Jiff Peanut Butter.  This is showing my age I guess, but the slogan on the commercials and all the print used to say “Choosy moms choose Jiff.” Have you heard this before?

I remember as a kid this being plastered everywhere to where it was virtually branded on your brain.

And if you were a mom, it made you think, “Well, I’m choosy about what I feed my kids.  I don’t want to just give them any old food.  I probably should give them Jiff!”  Maybe not just like that, but you get the point.

You see, I have NEVER liked the headlines people use in Internet Marketing.

Things like, “Discover How I Made $50,376.48 In My Sleep In 2 Hours!” or crap like that.  It’s too spammy and I hate when people advocate using headlines like that because in my opinion it’s almost like you are preying on peoples emotions.

But if you break down the above examples I gave for Apple Jacks and Jiff, what are they really doing?  Are they also preying on peoples emotions, but in a more subtle way?

Here is the way I think about them – 1) they are attention grabbing because they touch a nerve with something most people already think about themselves (keeping their kids healthy, not just putting any ‘ol junky food into their kids), and 2) people reading the headlines have to agree with the statements otherwise they would be “bad parents.”

I am no psychologist (but I love psychology), but my guess is that if the headline states something they CAN’T disagree with and implies what just about every parent wants (to be a good parent), then the copy below it ties in the product and BINGO, they now associate the food with being a good parent.  Make sense?

It’s brilliant in its simplicity.

So, how can we use this type of knowledge to become better Internet marketers?

I think first you have to know and understand your prospects deepest and darkest fear, belief and/or desire about a given ailment or problem they have.  Then you have to state the obvious in your headline, something they cannot disagree with.

Finally, in your copy, you have to tie in your product as the perfect solution to reinforce their beliefs.

I am doing this off the top of my head, but let’s say we take anxiety as an example.  I know for a fact that people who suffer from anxiety believe that life would be better if they did not have anxiety and they look for “cures” to their disorder.  So, maybe the headline could somewhat copy the Apple Jacks example:

“Life Is Better When You Are Cured of Anxiety And Panic Attacks…”

Or…

“Life Is Fuller When You Are Cured Of Anxiety And Panic Attacks…”

Or…

“Life Is Full Of Opportunity When You Are Cured Of Anxiety And Panic Attacks.”

Like I said, these are just off the top of my head and I plan on testing some of them in my campaigns.

But I like it better than the same old “See How I Cured My Anxiety In 5 Minutes!!!” kind of garbage.

Do you think it would be more effective, less effective?  Is it as attention grabbing as the spammy headlines?  What would make it more attention grabbing?  Is it also “preying” on peoples emotions?

I’d love to hear your feedback.

Tweet This Post

“Your advise and tips are priceless! You have given us more value from your posts than many of those $97 ebooks on affiliate marketing and we thank you so much!

We have a few questions please:

1. Do you still avoid using DocStoc when posting content?
2. Angela backlinks are extremely powerful and have helped us get on page one of Google. Is it absolutely necessary to rewrite an article 10 times and submit them everywhere if you are already on page 1? Can we just use her backlinks for all of our keywords and save time?
3. Your Wordpress themes are very impressive. Where do you find all of these themes? Are they free or paid? Or are these supplied to you from Affiliate Genie?

Thank you so much for your help.”

OK, here goes, in order –

1. No, I have not posted to docstoc in a while only because they kill your links. It gets some great rankings, but it just makes me angry when I see that I get 600 views and maybe 5 click throughs (because they would have to cut and paste the URL to their browser).

I am getting some really good rankings from articlesbase.com and ezinearticles, but I am also getting some great rankings and traffic from scribd.com, yudu.com and calameo.com – these are the primary ones I am using.

2.  Angelas backlinks are powerful, I love them!  It’s not necessary to rewrite an article 10 times to get on Page 1, BUT let’s say you do that and hold 5 of the top 10 spots on Page 1 with different rewritten versions – you have a much better chance of getting the click and the sale this way.  So, while its not necessary, it helps long term.

What I like to do is get a piece of content out there, ping it, social bookmark it and submit its RSS feed, then build maybe 10-20 links to it and let it simmer for a week or so, then check the rankings.  While I am letting it simmer, I move on to either 1) the same keyword but rewritten article (and go through the whole ping, social bookmark, RSS and links) OR 2) my next keyword with the same process.

After it simmers, if I am not ranking, I take the same piece of content (the 1st one), and go through the process again, then let it simmer, etc.  And I just keep cycling through my keywords this way.

It can get confusing and you have to keep it all in a spreadsheet or something, but it makes you get content out there continuously – and the more you have typically the better.

3.  Some are from Affiliate Genie and some are free Wordpress themes.  I have never paid for a Wordpress theme.  There are just too many free ones out there.  And to be honest, I have no favorite sites I use for free ones, I typically do a Google search for the theme of my site + “free Wordpress theme.”  I think with the bamboo one I did a search for “bamboo free wordpress theme” and “asian free wordpress theme.”  I probably looked at about 15 of them before I chose that one.

Bamboo Patio Shades is a free wordpress theme and so are www.verticalburst.com, www.transformyourchild.net, and www.boilremedies.com – some other sites I have done.

I use Affiliate Genie for www.learnelectricguitaronline.net and a new one I just put together at www.anxietymanagementhelp.com – yes, I am telling you my niches, but I don’t really care because 1) it helps you out and 2) they are pretty well entrenched (also, if you check out the anxiety one you can see a video of ME talking about anxiety – don’t make too much fun of me!)

I started using Affiliate Genie about a three months ago and am really liking it because I can put up sites quickly and they are geared towards affiliate marketers.  They also have a lot of Wordpress functionality built into them so the search engines are ranking them pretty quickly.

And yes, these are affiliate links in this post for Affiliate Genie because its something I feel I can wholeheartedly recommend – and it helps me keep all of this stuff free!

Anyway, I didn’t mean for this to get long-winded.  I hope it helps and if you have any other questions, please let me know.

Tweet This Post

There is not a whole lot to say about it other than I continue to post content, ping, submit feeds and build backlinks to the site.  All the things that I have shown you in the video posts.

And that seems to be the “mystery” of internet marketing strangely enough.  Many, many people seem to think it is this sexy, get rich quick scheme where you use some secret methods to get traffic and make a ton of money.

When in reality, it is a business that takes time to flourish and grow.  For this guitar site, I now know that 1) it sells and 2) there is traffic.  So, from here, I add additional keywords, test headlines, videos, products, etc., or maybe start a list.  But what I am ultimately doing is methodically building a piece of real estate on the web that will provide me passive income for many, many years to come.

So, I continue to build it a little bit, every single day.  Then, as a month, 3 months, or a year goes by, I have so much frickin’ authority on this site that I will dominate my search terms, guaranteed.

Right now I am on the 1st page for the name of 2 products in this niche and one of my search terms.  Think about a year from now how many search terms I will dominate for!

This contrasts starkly to how I did IM when I started.  The routine was – find a niche, find some keywords, build a Squidoo lens, write some articles and wait for a sale.  Make no sales, get discouraged and move on to another niche.  And I would repeat this process over and over – I have A TON of content online, unfortunately it’s in A TON of DIFFERENT niches and DIFFERENT sites.

Focus, focus, focus on one or two niches, get the foundation built, and then build a frickin skyscraper.  Outsource the link building once you are making some sales and start on the next one.  You will not only make some money, but you will probably make a lot of it.

As time goes by I’ll keep you posted, but for now I am continuing the same boring stuff and starting some new sites in different niches.

Continue building…

P.S. – I am working on a video right now on what to do if you are struggling to make any sales.  It kind of goes contrary to what most people teach in IM when you start out, but it can be 1) a lot less time consuming, 2) be 1,000 times less competitive and 3) you can see sales much quicker.

Stay tuned.

Tweet This Post

Also, the sale was not even the main product I am promoting!  Hmmm.

So, from here I will keep promoting just like I have been except add in some new keywords to target, just as I was planning on doing anyway.

One sale means nothing really, but I still get a thrill when I get them, especially in a niche I have never gone into.  And I am not concerned that I didn’t get a sale of the main product I was promoting – if this happens some more I may change the main product to the one that is selling.

Not that I want to invite competition, but the website I made is http://www.learnelectricguitaronline.net.

It’s a simple “review” style site made with Affiliate Genie (which makes the whole process extremely easy by the way).  I started off targeting a few keywords, like “learn electric guitar online,” “learn to play the electric guitar,” and “learn to play electric guitar.”

But I stopped targeting these and targeted product names ONLY, like Jamplay, Guitartricks, Elmore and Jamorama.  I also added  extensions to these keywords like “review,” “reviews,” “lessons,” “scam.”  You get the idea.

Then I did exactly what I have been explaining on this blog in THIS POST by getting my content out there and building links.  I use SENUKE to save time and automate the process, but all of this can be done by hand.

Otherwise, that’s it.  It’s not rocket science.  To me it’s a numbers game – you find a hungry crowd, find an affiliate product, build a blog or a site, drive traffic, and you will make sales.

Does it happen overnight?  Sometimes yes, but it’s rare.  It takes time, patience and work, but you can make it happen.

I will keep you updated on how this site grows and progresses, but I plan on continuing to spread content and links so that it becomes a nice little passive income generator for me.

And I am also working on some cool stuff I will be posting here in the coming weeks on new ways of building links as well as how you can make a ton of money in little goldmine niches that literally no one goes after.

Tweet This Post

Not too long ago, i was in the same spot.  I got so frustrated with this business that I actually put up a website called isuckatinternetmarketing.com!  It was my ranting and raving about how I am terrible at this business and how much I hated it and all the guru’s in it.

Looking back, it was kind of funny and stupid at the same time.

2 things turned it around for me though. The first was a phone call from across the world from Australia (I live in the US) from a guru named James Schramko.  He talked to me about what I was doing, what to change and what to do going forward.  I feel that I owe a lot to him for helping me get on the right path.

And what an incredible gesture on his part to call me at 2AM his time across the world to help me out.  If there is ever a true gentleman, it’s him.  Thanks James.

The second thing that turned it around for me, which if you don’t learn to harness it you WILL fail, is focus.

Now, I am about ADD as it gets.  I own an offline business, a few online businesses, have 4 kids all under 8 years old, a wife, a dog, cat and a few fish.  To say I have a few things going on is an understatement.

So, when I started online, I jumped around from one thing to the next, trying every new shiny thing that popped out of the woodwork.  I was seduced by every sales letter promising that I could make $2,834.57 in 10 minutes if I just did “this” or “that.”

And I bought in and did “this” and “that” for a week or so then would jump to the next “answer” to make my riches.  I swear I must have tried 100 different ways to make money online.  You know how much money I made?

About $2,000 total.

You know how much I spent on books, courses, software, etc?

About $6,000 total!

Hmmm, not sure about you, but to me that looks like a business that won’t survive very long!

So, after I spoke to James, I decided to take a break for a few months.  I shut off Internet Marketing and put it out of my head.  I stopped going to any and all forums or blogs.  I cancelled all my memberships except for one.

I simply shut it all off and spent more time with my family.

What I realized during my time off was that I was making it way too hard.  Online business really is just like offline business.

In my offline business I provide way more value to my clients than they pay for and while we only do a few things, we do them extremely well – we overdeliver and focus on just a couple of things.  I could not imagine how fast we would be out of business if we jumped around to one thing after another week after week!

Online is no different.  Focus on one or two projects at a time and you will make money, I can virtually guarantee it.

Lack of focus on one method, strategy, niche or website, especially when you are starting out, will cause you to get frustrated and fail.  Trust me, I’ve been there.

A question I get a lot is “OK great, I know I need to focus, but how do I know when to stop focusing on a certain niche or product?”

It’s a tough question because there are a lot of variables, but my rule of thumb is that if I get 100 click thrus to the merchant and I have no sales, something is wrong with my message, the vendor sales page or the product itself.  It warrants further research.

If I get 200 click thrus and no sales, I usually move on to something else.  I just ditch it and move on.  It’s hard to do this, especially after you have worked so hard on that project.  But its part of the business – you’ll have more misses than hits.

So, if you take one thing out of this post, it is to stay focused on your goals for a particular project and don’t get distracted.  If you need to, stay out of forums and resist reading about all the “new” strategies.

Once you learn to harness the power of focus, the sky really is the limit to how much you can earn in this business!

Tweet This Post