EzSEO Newsletter # 153

This week:

1. Creating Fat Content Course

2. CSS Mini-series Part X

3. Great little fr-ee “bookmarklet”

4. Adsense Keyword Research - where?

5. Why I don’t use KEI

6. Are your sites quality?

7. Competition data from Google or Yahoo?

8. Auto Weblaw Pro Details

9. Other Stuff.

Hi again.

I know its a little early, but I have spent most of the afternoon writing it, and just felt it was right to send it now. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a sleep in tomorrow :o)

I think this newsletter breaks the record for my longest ever.

What can I say, its been a busy week, and lots has happened.

Today’s newsletter has a great fre.ebie, plus loads of other stuff. Grab a coffee, and enjoy!

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1. Creating Fat Content Course
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Last week, I mentioned that I would probably be re-opening my Creating Fat Content Course for another 24 hour sale (like the one last October).

Well, there a number of people have signed up for more information, and this week, I’ll be sending all of those who expressed an interest, an update.

If you want to be notified of this course release (and it will only be for 24 hours again), please sign up at the Creating Fat Content site.

All those who have signed up, expect an email from me this week with more details on the course, when it will be released, how much, what is included, and a place where you can post your own questions.

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2. CSS Mini-series Part X
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This part of the course is now available as part of the CSS Tutorial PDF eBook.

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3. Great little fr-ee “bookmarklet”
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Some of you may remember an article I recommended a while ago by Marcin Lejman which showed a good way to research niche markets. You can see that article here.

You’ll notice at the top of that page a message from Marcin:

“Update February 15, 2007 - please see this bookmarklet, which will help you automate large part of the process described in this article. ”

The bookmarklet he mentions is a cool little tool. Visit any web site, and quickly get a list of keywords and their Adsense Cost per Click for phrases related to that page.

Click on the link Marcin provides to the Bookmarklet, and follow his instructions for installing.

I have to admit I had problems following his instructions for installing the bookmarklet. He told me that he uses Firefox, and those instructions are fine. However, for those of use using Internet Explorer, please do the following:

Where Marcin says:

“To use the bookmarklet, just drag this “Keywords” link to a toolbar in your browser. Then navigate to any page you like, click on the bookmarklet and wait for results (allow it at least 30 seconds).”

The word “Keywords” is a hyperlink.

Right click it, and select “Add to Favourites”.

Then whenever you are at a page you want to analyze, select the keywords item from your favourites, and the keywords and bid data will load after a few seconds (usually 20 - 30 seconds).

You can order the results by price, and even open up the phrases in a couple of other keyword tools.

Very cool Marcin. Thanks for sharing.

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4. Adsense Keyword Research - where?
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I have been playing with a keyword research tool this week, and I have to say, I am impressed. Its probably not a tool I would use for researching keywords in general, but when I want to create a new Adsense site, this service is hard to beat.

This tool is the most comprehensive keyword research tool I have seen for collecting PPC data. If you are creating websites for Adsense, then you need to check out this tool. You can read my review here.

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5. Why I don’t use KEI
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I had an email this week from someone who asked me why I chose to use supply and demand, rather than KEI when deciding the best keywords to optimize for. I thought some may be interested in my reply. I am sure it will spark some debate, so I have my flame-proof jacket on :O)

Here it is:

“Hi Don

Yes, KEI is a formula built from supply and demand - the exact same parameters I prefer to use individually.

Let me ask you a question.

If you had to write an article on one of the two phrases, which one would you pick and why:

Phrase 1 - “reviews eddie bauer elite car seat”
Phrase 2 - “eddie bauer cosco high back booster 22-859″

Both have a KEI of 25, so both should be equally profitable if you trust the KEI figure.

You see, my problem is that I just dont have enough information to answer that question. I want to see how many times each are searched for, and how much competition each phrase has.

As it happens, phrase 1 is searched for 3 times a day, phrase 2 is searched for 12 times a day. Sure, the competition of phrase 2 must be higher to mean they both have the same KEI, but the competition for phrase 2 is still only 16 compared to the phrase 1, single page competition.

To me, 16 pages to compete against, is not that much different to 1 page to compete against (because of the way SEO has evolved). It is no longer good enough to just include your phrase on a page and guarantee a top listing even if there is only one competing page.

Do the optimization right, and get the off-page optimization right, and there really isn’t a significant difference in those two competition figures. I would expect to be #1 for both if I tried, and they would both take a similar effort to achieve.

Now which phrase would I prefer to be #1 for? Well, the second one of course, as it gets 4 times as many searches a day as the other one. Without details of supply and demand, I could not have made that decision.

At the lower competition range, KEI just doesn’t do it for me.

What about phrases at the higher competition range?

Well, Wordtracker says that any KEI over 10 is a good one to optimize for, over 100 even better, and over 400 excellent.

So would a phrase with a KEI of 37.5 be one you would be interested in optimizing for? Sounds good, but what if I told you there were over 4 million competing pages?

That phrase is “free credit report”, and despite an apparently good KEI, I would not touch it, would you? Sure there are good rewards if you can get to #1, but there is a 99% chance you wont, no matter how hard you try.

You see, for me, there are two vital pieces of information missing - count and competition. I need to see both before I can decide if a phrase is worth targeting. I’ll look at the niche I am working in, and decide on the maximum amount of competition I think I can handle, and filter out just those phrases. I’ll then order my phrases with high demand at the top, and work my way down. To me, that is more logical, and KEI becomes unimportant.

Of course, with KRA, you could decide on a maximum competition figure, a minimum daily demand figure, and then order them by KEI if you preferred and work you way down the list then, but that would only be more beneficial if you felt you could not handle the upper competition levels you chose in the first place. If you assumed you could handle the competition, the KEI is irrelevant (since you dont need to factor in competition), and demand becomes the major factor.

OK, long winded, and you may not agree with me, but I have tried to explain why I dont like KEI. It just doesn’t show you the full picture. Its like watching a 3d movie with an eye patch on.

regards

Andy”

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6. Are your sites quality?
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Are you creating quality websites?

I think it is possible to answer this by considering one simple question:

“Do you think of a website as part of your business, or do you think of each website as a new business?”

Your thoughts??

I know some will say that they dont have enough time to treat each new site as a business, because they are creating 1 new site a week, or they have 250 sites already.

Well, if each of those “one new site a week” is making good m0ney, or those 250 sites are earning a HUGE full time income, then fine, but my point is they rarely do, because not enough time is spent creating and marketing them, and making the visitor-orientated.

Gone are the days when you can throw up a site in an hour with little or no unique content and expect it to make money.

Sorry, but websites that stick in the search engines, and thrive, take time and effort to build, and I would far rather have 5 quality sites, than 250 spammy ones.

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7. Competition data from Google or Yahoo?
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I have used Wordtracker for as long as I can remember to do my keyword research, but recently I have become more and more impressed with Nichebot.

However, my one big problem with Nichebot is the competition figures. If you don’t have a Google API key, then you have to use Yahoo for your competition, as Google just isn’t available. On top of this, the competition figures from Google seem to be a little unreliable (and not just from Nichebot). So, it got me thinking as to whether it really made a difference which search engine I used to calculate my keyword competition.

To test this, I chose 10 phrases at random, and looked at the levels of competition at the two engines.

NOTE: I am searching for competition by including the phrase in quotes.

A quick look at the graph shows that in general, competition quoted at yahoo is higher than at Google, especially for the higher competition phrases.

I did the same research with a few more, lower competition phrases, and here is the graph for that data.

You’ll notice that both graphs have exceptions to the rule, but in general, Yahoo competition is greater than Google for each phrase.

You’ll also notice that the graphs are generally the same shape, meaning that (apart from the exceptions) the relative competition of one phrase to another is largely consistent between the search engines.

e.g. the highest competition phrase at Yahoo is “web hosting”, which is also the highest at Google. The second highest competition at Yahoo is “digital camera”, and it is also the second highest at Google. In other words, despite the competition between the two engines differing, both engines largely order the phrases in the same order of competition.

There are a lot of exceptions to this, and our small data sample doesn’t reflect the true percentage, but I think I have seen enough to know that Yahoo is a viable alternative to finding competing pages for a phrase. In general, if competition is high at Yahoo, it is high at Google, and if competition is low at Yahoo, it is low at Google. With competition figures changing daily, they must be viewed at best as an estimate, so I think, that despite targeting Google with my optimization, I can rely on Yahoo competition figures to decide on the best phrases to chase.

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8. Auto Weblaw Pro Details
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Last week, I mentioned a great product to help you protect your online business by ensuring you have all the legal documents required of you.

I have since had a number of emails asking me if the package included documents for X, Y and Z, so I thought I would go through and list all of the letters that are included.

BTW, the documents are hosted online, which is actually a good thing, as they can be updated at source, so you always have the latest versions available. Also, their software means you can fill in the needed details (like you site, name etc), and the documents will be given to you with those details already inserted at the appropriate places.

OK, here is a list of all the documents included in this package:

Affiliate Agreements
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* Affiliate Agreement If You Use Click Bank As Your Payment Processor
* Affiliate Agreement- Long Form
* Affiliate Agreement With Standard Terms

Collaboration Agreements
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* Consulting Agreement Where You Hire an Independent Contractor to Provide Consulting Services To Your Company
* Agreement When You Hire A Copywriter- Formal
* Agreement When You Hire A Copywriter- Informal
* Agreement When Two or More People Create An Intellectual Work
* Joint Venture Agreement

Copyright Documents
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* Assignment Of Copyright Ownership From One Person To Another
* Document Granting Permission To Copy Your Articles
* Letter To Internet Service Provider Advising Them That One Of Their Customers Is Violating Your Copyright

Miscellaneous Documents
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* General Disclaimer That Goes At The Bottom Of An Email
* Information Product License Agreement For Use When Selling Information Products
* Resource Box That Says Your Article May Be Distributed Freely
* Resource Box That Warns A Prospect That Results Of A Program May Vary
* Earnings and Forward Looking Statements Disclaimers

Newsletter Documents
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* Advertising Disclaimer
* Disclaimer At The Beginning Of Your Newsletter
* Disclaimer To Accompany A Solo Ad
* General Disclaimer That Goes At The Bottom Of An Email
* Letter To Subscribers Telling Them How To Make Sure Your Newsletter Does Not Get Spam Filtered

Non-Disclosure Forms
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* Mutual Non-Disclosure Where Both Parties Are Disclosing Confidential Information To The Other
* Independent Contractor Promises Not To Disclose Confidential Information
* Non-Disclosure Where One Party Is Disclosing Information To The Other Party

Privacy Policies
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* Children’s Privacy Policy
* Comprehensive Privacy Policy
* Privacy Policy For Sites Displaying Either TRUSTe or BBBOnLine Seals
* Simple Privacy Policy

Software License Agreements
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* End User Software License Agreement For Deliverable Software
* End User Software License Agreement For Downloadable Software

Software Development Agreements
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* Software Development Agreement- You Pay The Developer Only After The Software Is Delivered And Developer Owns The Rights
* Software Development Agreement- You Pay The Developer Only After The Software Is Delivered And You Own The Rights
* Software Development Agreement- Payment In Instalments And Developer Owns The Rights
* Software Development Agreement- Payment In Instalments And You Own The Rights

Terms of Use Agreements
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* Website Forum Use Agreement
* Website Subscriber Agreement
* Friendly, Plain Language and Comprehensive Website Terms Of Use
* Website Terms Of Use-Fun Version
* Website Terms Of Use-Long Form
* Website Terms Of Use-Short Form

Trademark Agreements
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* Assignment Of Trademark Ownership From One Person To Another
* Grant Of Right To Exclusive Use Of Trademark

If you are interested in this package, please go to:

http://ezseonews.com/awlp

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9. Other Stuff
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Keyword Research Videos
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Last week I mentioned the keyword research videos I had released, as a fr.ee 8 day course. I have had some great feedback on those, so if you missed them, you can still sign up for them here.

SEO Website Builder
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Anyone who has visited the sales page of SEO Website Builder recently will know that I have taken the product off the market. The reason is simple. SEO Website Builder version 2 is a far superior product, using up-to-date methods for optimizing web sites. While the old SEO Website Builder was still effective (as long as content was good enough), the new version gives you better tools for the job, and builds the sites in a slightly different manner. Anyone thinking about buying this tool can sign up for notification of the v2 release. I expect to have an announcement within a week or two, and those on this list will be offered a great deal on the package.

Niche Blueprints
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I expect to have the February niche blueprint finished this week. It is the most demanding niche I have ever attempted, and my first choice of “credit cards” was just not ticking the boxes, so I have narrowed my research to a related sub-niche. This blueprint is going to be something special, but I must warn you, its not for the lighthearted. If you want notifications of its release, sign up at Niche Blueprints.

Well, that’s it for another issue. If you want to read the recent issues of this newsletter, you can read them online at my blog:

http://ezseonews.com/blog/index.php

For older newsletters, you will need to visit the old archives at:

http://ezseonews.com/archives

Have a great week!

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The contents of this newsletter is copyright 2007 Andrew Williams. If you want to republish any of the articles, you must get permission from the author.

This newsletter disclaims all responsibility for the advertising copy or the product advertised. You cannot rely on the fact that the newsletter has examined the product or recommends or endorses the product, unless it clearly says that it has, when you make your decision whether or not to purchase the product or interact with the advertiser. You are advised to do your own investigation before buying. Additionally, this newsletter may accept articles that we do not write or investigate the accuracy of and for which we may receive direct or indirect benefit or compensation. We specifically disclaim any responsibility for the content of such copy.

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