EzSEO Newsletter # 218
September 13, 2008 by Andy
This week:
1. Social Media Warnings…
2. WordPress Tutorial – XII
3. Stomping Over the Internet Marketing World
4. Age of top 10 sites in Google
5. Wordtracker Issues – Nichebot a better option?
6. No Site? No excuse!!
Hi again
In today’s newsletter I have a warning about Wordtracker, news of one of the biggest bonus "give-aways" I have ever seen (and its a give-away on a fr..ee product!!), more WordPress tutorials, and more.
Let’s get on…
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1. Social Media Warnings…
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Do you rely heavily on social media sites for incoming links?
I know some people use them almost exclusively because they have been working so well. I have seen and heard enough over the years to realise there is no such thing as a fr.ee lunch, and social media sites is one of those apparent fr.ee lunches waiting to happen. The cost will only become apparent when the marketing landscape changes.
Diversifying your efforts when you are link building, or more importantly "relationship" building is very important. I wanted to write an article on how you should be using Social Media sites for the best long-term impact on your business, but I came across an excellent article that says pretty much everything I wanted to say. It’s written by astute marketer Lynn Terry. You can read her excellent article here:
http://www.clicknewz.com/1689/how-to-use-social-media-successfully/
At the top of that article is a link to another one of her excellent articles called "Social Media Marketing (A Warning)". That is an must read as well.
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2. WordPress Tutorial – XII
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Last week we looked at manual upgrade of WordPress.
This week I want to show you how easy it is to add "Widgets" to widget-enabled templates.
You can view this tutorial on the Affiliate Minder website, as well as any tutorials you may have missed.
When you get there, click the link on the right to "Wordpress Tutorials".
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3. Stomping Over the Internet Marketing World
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Last week I mentioned the great new SEO training DVD from the Stomper crowd. The "Stomping the Search Engines 2" training videos are excellent, and the Net Effect Magazine is equally good. Packed full of information on Internet Marketing & SEO, this magazine is written by the industries leading figures. If this course was for sale, I would still be recommending it. However, it’s not for sale, its FR.EE.
These guys seem intent on taking over the Internet Marketing World in the same way Google has done for the Internet search market. Last I heard, over 14,000 people had requested the fr.ee give away products.
The deal has just got even better with some exciting bonuses (if you already "ordered" your copy, don’t worry, you are still eligible for the new bonuses.
If you haven’t ordered yet, what’s stopping you? Its free , AND if you 0rder your copy before tomorrow (Monday 15th September), you can get all of the bonuses as well.
So what are the bonuses? Here is a list:
Howie Schwartz: Another StomperNet faculty member sweetens our deal with a collection of the "Best of" clips from every live presentation he?s done so far this year.
Plus, he got his friends at Miami Graphics to throw in $4000 worth of templates you can STEAL for your own business.
Mike Koenigs: Get the top secret "10?10×4 Video Marketing Money Magnet". Along with this never-before-released content creation formula (A $397 Value), you’ll ALSO get one month of the Traffic Geyser video distribution service with it (a $97 Value)! That?s nearly $500 worth of video marketing education and tools.
Jason Potash: One thing you’re going to need when you’re doing SEO is a source for links. We show you how to find your own, but why not jump-start your efforts with 30 days of membership to Traffic Kahuna.
Clayton Makepeace – This old-school direct marketer is world famous in print advertising circles. He?s taking that expertise to the web in a HUGE way, and he wants you to QUADRUPLE your business by giving you "The Quadruple Effect" report detailing this direct marketing secret weapon, and EXACTLY how to use it in your own business. This guy?s knowledge has generated $1.5 Billion in sales.
Jeff Johnson: Over 7 hours of SEO video training from the "Underground Training Lab". Some people paid as much as $5,000 to get this training live. People have paid $997 for the DVDs – you get the BEST 7 hours, 54 minutes, and 54 seconds.
Eben Pagan: Get "Advanced Persuasion and Copywriting Training" from one of the most successful sales copywriters and info marketers teaching today.
Ed Dale: Get 1 FREE month of membership to the "Immediate Edge" membership program . Learn advanced NEW marketing strategies AS THEY ARE DISCOVERED – before ANYONE else.
Brad Callen: The creator of many of the most widely used traffic generation tools ever used offers you his "Article Submitter Gold" Software.
Trey Smith: Get your copy of this Never-sold-before launch automation software! Auto-Launcher 2: Create automated launches using your existing email list. Create automatic countdown and sales pages that run completely on autopilot.
Shawn Casey: Learn the Secret Affiliate Story – super-affiliate strategies Shawn Casey and Tellman Knudson used to win a Ferrari AND make the most sales for a recent mega-launch
Yanik Silver: Get TWO Special Private Reports from Yanik?s "Underground Secret Society" Newsletter, PLUS an additional unannounced SECRET bonus.
Mike Filsaime: Another bonus not for sale ANYWHERE – Get the presentation of the "7 Figure Code" Launch Case Study – The Step by step blueprint used to generate $1 Million in sales in just a week!
Paul Colligan: You get the "New Media UberPack" Webinar Series – 6 pre-recorded webinars from a StomperNet faculty member on how to use the power of Web 2.0 to gain an exponentially growing source of leads + one LIVE webinar "The New Media Mindset" with Paul IN PERSON.
Jeff Mulligan: Gives you FOUR "Best of" Quickie Profit Lessons – implement these conversion boosting tricks (they take less than an hour) and start making more m0ney from your website.
Jeff Walker: The guy behind the "Product Launch" concept – has never sold ANYTHING of his for less than $999. You get a teleseminar series on how to execute launches successfully in your niche markets PLUS, learn how to become the "guru" of your own niche – it?s EASY with Jeff?s secret methods.
Rich Schefren: "Guru to the Gurus" – Rich wants you to have Exclusive Trial Membership to his "Business Growth System" for only $1 – AND StomperNet will REBATE your $1! So you get to try the same business growth coaching program that Brad Fallon, Mike Filsaime, Joel Comm and MORE have taken and revolutionized their businesses.
WARNING: Some of those bonuses in my opinion are NOT bonuses, they are trial memberships to programs. These are the types of bonuses I would avoid like the plague, because they aren’t really bonuses are they? They are just attempts to get you to sign up for their program. If you are not interested in these, do read any small print before handing over your credit card details!!
On a cooler note, some of these bonuses are not available anywhere (they simply are not for sale). I can see a few that I am excited about.
However, bottom line is that even without these bonuses, the Stomping course and Net magazine are well worth getting. If you haven’t already taken them up on this offer, get it before Tomorrow (15th September) because after that I am told the bonuses will go.
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4. Age of top 10 sites in Google
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Last week, I looked at the average page length of those pages that ranked in the top 10 for the following phrases: RGP contact lens, bbq plans & heart rate monitor.
I thought it would be fun to look at another factor that many "gurus" say are important – the age of your site. What I did here is simply run the same Google queries, and check the average age of the sites in the top 10.
Here are the results:
RGP contact lens – average age of site: 8.9 years
bbq plans – average age of site: 5.8 years
heart rate monitor – average age of site: 8.3 years
That all looks quite convincing doesn’t it? The older sites rank better?
HOLD ON A MINUTE.
Think about this for a minute.
Are older sites given an advantage, or is it just that the older sites have other qualities that help them rank well. What about qualities that are related to age? Think about natural link building as an example. Over time, you expect quality sites to acquire more inbound links. That means quality sites that are older will have had more time to attract links, and maybe that is why they are doing so well.
In the top 10, you certainly see younger sites. My personal belief is that older sites may have a slight advantage, simply because Google will assume that older sites are not "throw-away" sites created by spammers. If a site has been around for 10 years, its a good bet that its a quality site. Poor sites would have performed poorly, and been dumped by the webmasters.
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5. Wordtracker Issues – Nichebot a better option?
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The August Niche Blueprint was held up because Wordtracker is not returning reliable competition data. I first noticed the problem around 25th August, and did report it, but have not heard back yet that the problem is fixed.
If you have been using Wordtracker in the last couple of weeks, check competition data. Order your data with highest competition at the top, and look at the keywords. Are there some there that are reported as high competition when you think that the phrase would probably have zero competition? check them. You will probably find that the phrase actually does have zero competing pages, yet Wordtracker report competition in the hundreds of thousands.
Hopefully Wordtracker will sort this soon, as for me personally, it is unuseable until this is fixed. If you find the same problem, contact WordPress support with examples to help them track down the bug.
OK, back to Niche Blueprints. I managed to get my competition data by importing my keyword list into Nichebot for my Blueprint database. A similar problem happened a year or so ago, and again Nichebot was the one place I found that was correctly reporting competition, so hat’s off to Jim Morris for that. If you are looking for a reliable keyword research service, Nichebot is currently offering a $1 trial.
For those interested in the Niche Blueprint, it will be ready this week. I’ll send out notifications to everyone on the Niche Blueprint notification list. You can sign up for that here, and also get a demo blueprint to see what they are all about:
http://www.niche-blueprints.com/
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6. No Site? No excuse!!
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Ever since I started this newsletter (15th October 2003 was the very first issue) I have wondered about the motives of people who subscribe.
I initially thought that most people on my list would be newbie webmasters wanting to learn how to optimize their site and get good rankings.
Over the last few years, I have run polls and surveys to find out what YOU want to read about. One thing I wasn’t prepared for was seeing that a large percentage of people who read my newsletter have never had their own website.
Why?
I really don’t know.
I have asked though…
The kind of answers I hear when I ask this usually start off with "I work long hours….", or "I don’t know how to ….".
The great thing about an online affiliate (or adsense) business is that you can learn as you go AND work when you have some time. There are no rigid schedule or deadlines.
Full time job? Well start a website part-time.
When I was planning my new course on using WordPress for Affiliate Sites, I wanted to address these two objections to starting a website.
1. I don’t have time…. The course is designed to be done in 2 hours per week.
2. I don’t know how to (insert anything related to Internet Marketing or site building here)….
The course takes you in baby steps through the entire process. Screenshots, videos and PDF manuals guide you through every step or absolutely everything you have to do.
If you have problems with anything, there’s a forum where you can talk to me, or others following the same course.
You wont suffer information overload since you get 4 modules per month delivered roughly every 7-8 days. Check off the action plan points as you complete each module, and you’ll be ready for the next module.
Everything from researching a niche, to building and promoting your site is covered.
The course uses WordPress (which is fre.e) as the tool for site building (that’s the same tool I am using to build my http://affiliate-minder.com website), so there is no expensive site building tool to buy.
The idea of the course is to show you every step I take as I build a real affiliate site, and with the videos, you’ll get to see everything I do.
I cannot say exactly how long my course lasts, because I am still creating it (as a kind of live experiment). Those on the course have seen me get a brand new domain, and are now watching me as I build the site.
I have a total of 4 months planned, but things change so it may be a little shorter or a little longer. However, at 4 months, the entire cost of this course is less than a very popular site building tool used by many affiliates…
The entire course is downloadable, meaning you get to keep the entire course, videos, mind maps and tutorials on your own home computer. Once you complete the course, you’ll have a complete blueprint for any future site you want to build. Each module comes with an action plan that will keep you focused and on task.
If you don’t have a website, why not? This course is being created for those who want to see how I build affiliate websites, and then use my methods to create your own sites.
You can read more about this course here:
Why not sign up and start the course today! You’ll be joining around 130 others from around the world who are at varying stages of the course.
No Site? No Excuse!!
Well, that’s it for this 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:
Have a great week!
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Hi Andy
Yes I would really like to have The “Stomping the Search Engines 2. But they charge more than $30 just to send the DVD! I have had DVD’s sent from the USA for only $5. Something odd here.
Regards
Bob