EzSEO Newsletter # 240
May 17, 2009 by Andy
In this issue:
1. Static v Dynamic Web Pages
2. Big Authority Sites or Smaller Mini-sites?
3. Dominating Google’s Top 10?
4. Some f.ree WordPress Templates
5. Secret Tool #2
Hi Again
This week I’d like to take a look at a couple of questions I get asked a lot. You’ll find them, and their answers in the first two sections of today’s newsletter. I’ll also update you with some more information on Michael Green’s Google 1st that I picked up while chatting with him this week.
For those that use WordPress, I have a free site template for you, and I’ll also tell you of a second secret tool I am developing.
– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –
1. Static v Dynamic Web Pages
– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –
I was listening to Michael Campbell’s latest podcast (www.dynamicmedia.com) where he talks about (amongst other things), WordPress templates and static pages.
It seems that a lot of people build WordPress sites in a very different manner to the way I do. Michael was asked about the best WordPress templates to build "static" pages for an affiliate site. After listening to the podcast I got the impression that most people think a static WordPress page means using a page instead of a post, and I actually don’t do it this way myself.
First, let me clarify what I mean by a static page so that we can be sure we are all talking about the same thing. I am sure WordPress users have coined the term "static page" to equate to "Wordpress page", but I don’t see it that way. Terms like this are often used by groups to mean something different from the original meaning (much like we use the term LSI to refer to themeing, whereas LSI is actually something a little more complex).
The definition of a static web page on Wikipedia is as follows:
"A static web page is a web page that always comprises the same information in response to all download requests from all users. Contrast with Dynamic web page".
Wikipedia also defines dynamic web pages as:
"..Content (text, images, form fields, etc.) on a web page can change, in response to different contexts or conditions."
Those are pretty much the definitions I use when referring to static pages or dynamic pages.
Let’s think about WordPress for a moment.
WordPress allows us to use pages or posts. You can read about the differences between pages and posts here:
WordPress Posts v WordPress Pages
For any page or post on a WordPress blog, does the content change for different visitors if they all visit the site at the same time? No, not unless you add in scripts that can change the content. Is it not the case then that pages and posts are both effectively "static"?
OK, continuing with the idea of pages and posts and affiliate sites, let me tell you how a lot of people build affiliate sites with WordPress, then I’ll tell you how I do it.
From some of the tutorials I have read, a lot of people use "pages" as the main pages on the site. These have a number of disadvantages for larger sites, but may be fine for smaller min-sites. They also have the added bonus of being able to use different templates for each page you create (if you want to). Posts on the other hand will all use the same template, but they do have the added bonus of being able to be categorized.
The way I build my own sites is as follows:
1. Pages are used for terms, disclaimer, privacy and about us.
2. Posts are used for everything else.
My main pages are actually the category pages of my posts, and I can define separate templates for every category page if I want. Confused? Well let me try to explain.
If you go to bloodsugardiabetic.com (that’s the site I built in my WordPress for Affiliate Sites Course over on improdigy.com), and look at the menu system across the top.
The first line of the menu system has Home, Glossary….. and so on".
The second line of the menu system has "Conditions & Disease….. etc, with each of these opening up a sub-menu.
Every item on this second menu leads to what I refer to as a main page. In fact, in WordPress terms, these are actually category pages.
Go on, click the menu "Diabetes Treatment -> Diabetes Diet".
You will arrive at one of my "main pages" which does a soft pre-sell on a Clickbank product.
With a typical WordPress site, this category page would change every time I created a new post in this category, with the new post at the top. However, I set my WordPress sites up so that what you see now (the pre-sell), will always be at the top of the page. Any new posts I add will be added to the list at the bottom of "More Diabetes Diet Articles".
If you have followed me so far, you are probably wondering why I do things this way, ie having "category pages" as main pages, instead of "Wordpress pages". Well there are a number of advantages.
Category pages show all related posts (have a look at that Diabetes Diet page). This way the main "post" at the top of the page is highly related to all of the other posts that this page links to. This method creates a "silo", with all related content filed together in the same directory on my site. All of the articles in the silo link to each other, reinforcing the theme of this silo – diabetes diet.
If I was using a WordPress Page for this diabetes diet "page", it would not be in the same folder on my site as the related articles, and I am not even sure I could automatically add related posts to the page with any accuracy.
As I add new content to a category, that category grows the number of pages in the silo, which increases the links to other related pages, thereby increasing the rankings of those pages.
I hope you have followed my explanation. If not I can always record a video for next week explaining in a little more detail how my site structure works.
As always, I am interested in your thoughts on this, so please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this page.
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2. Big Authority Sites or Smaller Mini-sites?
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A lot of people are wondering what the best type of site is to build – large authority sites or smaller mini-sites.
My personal preference is still to build larger authority sites. Some of the reasons I like to do this are as follows:
1 You are seen as an authority on the subject by your visitors. Authority = Trust.
2. With more pages your site will have more Page Rank. Each page adds to the PR of the site, but also you are likely to attract more links from other sites because there is a wider variety of information on the site.
3. With higher Page Rank (from #2 above), you have a better ability to rank any page on your site highly in Google.
4. When you add pages to the site, the site is seen as being updated regularly, so spiders come back more frequently and pages get indexed faster. Think how this compares to mini-sites that may rarely get updated.
There are probably a lot more advantages that you can think of. With all of this being said, unless you adopt a strictly white hat approach to building sites and creating content, there is one big disadvantage.
Disadvantages:
1. If you are publishing poor quality content, linking indiscriminately to other sites in link exchanges, or in fact anything that is a little "black hat", you run the risk of getting the site penalized, and you lose everything. Single authority site = All of your eggs in one basket.
2. Some would say that the time taken to create an authority site is a disadvantage, but I don’t see it this way. There is no fixed schedule here, and you can add pages as and when you have time. Building one large authority site on contact lenses would take the same time as building 10 mini-sites covering the whole spectrum of contact lens products.
Some people prefer to create mini-sites. Mini-sites were probably made popular by Phil Wiley several years ago in his Mini-Sites Profits eBook, and the more rapid approach is very compelling for many who want to see results fast.
Michael Campbell is a great supporter of the mini-sites model, and has developed his own system called Goobert.
Goobert is a strange name for a system, especially when you read the Urban Dictionary meanings of the word:
I can assure you though that Michael Campbell is neither of those two definitions 
In Michael’s own testing of his system he can get "up to 400 visitors per day in less than a month working only 20 minutes per day."
He states that Goobert is "The fastest way to get risk-free traffic and start making money with affiliate programs within hours. Guaranteed".
I use many of the tactics Michael outlines in Goobert on my own authority style sites, and they do work (and work well). Michael doesn’t seem to sell Goobert on its own – it comes as a bonus here:
The podcast is fantastic in its own right, and worth every cent, but Goobert will really knock your socks off! Come on Michael, release it as a stand alone product and increase the price a little – its far too cheap 
– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –
3. Dominating Google’s Top 10?
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Last week I told you about a new product that Michael Green is coming out with. This product promises to show you how to dominate the top 10 results in Google. I had a chat with Michael earlier this week to find out a bit more information.
Michael swore me to secrecy on a lot of what we discussed, but I do have some other details.
The methods involved target long tail phrases. As I mentioned last week, long tail phrases are actually better converting phrases, so this is a good thing. There is no point getting thousands a visitors a day for phrases that don’t convert!
What Michael does is follow a systematic approach, creating content and adding it to his secret list of "resources". You’ll probably note that I am being a little secretive here – that’s intentional as Michael does not want me to give too much away.
One question I know a lot of people have is whether or not the domination of the top 10 is with your own web pages or pages on other sites.
Think logically about this. Do you think that Google will rank 7 or 8 pages on your own site all for the same keyword phrase? They just don’t do it for obvious reasons (any site that has 7 or 8 pages optimised around the same long tail phrase are almost certainly a spam site). That should be enough to tell you that some of that domination is on other sites that support your own main site.
These off-site pages have two main roles:
1. To rank well on their own and divert traffic that arrives at that page to a page of your choice (usually on your own site). In fact you could even send people directly to affiliate merchants from some of these page if you wanted.
2. To provide more incoming links to the page(s) on your own site so that your own page starts creeping up the rankings as well.
Michael went on to show me several phrases that he attacked using his system – it went something like this:
"Andy, type in …….. at Google, without quotes"
"OK Michael I am there".
"Look at positions 4 & 6"
"OK, not bad, but that isn’t really very impressive, is it?"
"4 & 6 are the only pages in the top 10 that are not mine".
The system undoubtedly works, and works well.
I have only seen an outline so far of the system but it was enough to convince me to buy a copy (no, I didn’t ask Michael for a fr.eebie).
I am hoping to have another chat with Michael this week, so if you want to ask any specific questions, please leave a comment at the end of this newsletter.
I’ll update you on his answers next week.
The actual product wont be released until the end of this month, but when it is released, Michael will probably be increasing the price. If you want to lock in your copy at the pre-release price, you need to go here now:
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4. Some f.ree WordPress Templates
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I have been playing with Artisteer this week, and decided to create a fr.ee WordPress template that you can have. Use it as you want, and feel free to edit it.
You can download the template here:
Here is a screenshot showing you what the template looks like:
When you install the template, look under the Appearance menu and select "footer". You can define your own footer links there.
This template took me about three minutes to create using this software:
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5. Secret Tool #2
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I told you recently about a new secret tool I am developing – well its no secret now 
)
That of course was my new Web Content Studio (webcontentstudio.com). Development of that is going well, and I am actually using it now for writing my own content. A release date is still some way off though as there are a number of bugs still in the software, and I am still adding new features. One of the latest features will probably make your jaw drop – but I’m not telling you what that is. If you want to find out, you’ll need to subscribe to my Twitter feed at:
I’ll be notifying my "followers" this week with a video of two cool new features in Web Content Studio.
I am also planning to release the first details of another new tool I am developing. I’ll give you a clue – it has to do with merchant datafeeds. This one is a special project I am working on for my own use, but I do intend to release a limited number of copies to my followers on Twitter who want one (on a strictly first come first served basis). Again, if you want news of that, here is the link to follow me on Twitter:
Just a note on my use of Twitter. I know a lot of people post several times a day, and I find that quite annoying. I actually only post to Twitter once a week when my newsletter is released, plus the odd occasion when I have something genuinely useful to show you (like my two new secret tools).
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:
For older newsletters, you will need to visit the old archives at:
Have a great week!
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I’ve just looked at my WordPress dashboard and you can create a main page and then any other pages you build you have an option to file them under the main page (if you want to).
Doesn’t that achieve the same result (and is maybe easier) as what you are doing with the main category page and then posting articles under that category?
This is taken from WordPress when adding a new page: “You can arrange your pages in hierarchies, for example you could have an ?About? page that has ?Life Story? and ?My Dog? pages under it. There are no limits to how deeply nested you can make pages.”
I am skeptical of google1st this seems like a bum marketing strategy at a very high price. Is there more to it.
How exactly do you get a category page to always show a specific post at the top? Did you need to tweak the WordPress code or is there another way of doing this, such as a plugin?
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the interesting information regarding Michael Green’s Google top 10. I believe they are perhaps similar to some techniques reviewed by Jeff Johnson, leverage web 2.0 authority sites, video and article syndication. Getting authority sites to drive traffic to our site by their own ranking and also getting link juice from them to rank our own sites.
My question is :
1. If we are focused on local markets with geo TLDs, would the techniques still work well?
2. How much competition can this method outrank? Or how long tail should it be? Are there any rough guidelines, e.g 3 word phrases would likely work well, or e.g when the top 5 competitors have <1000 backlinks, etc?
3. It appears that about 3 hrs is required for 1 pg (1 KW), so to dominate say 20 pages would take ~60 hrs?
4. How long is the anticipate wait for Google to throw all the rankings?
Thanks,
Andy
Thanks, Andy, for just WRITING how you set up WP sites, instead of referring us to yet another video to watch and try to take enough notes to avoid having to watch it again. I’m probably the only person who feels this way, judging by the popularity of videos, but I consider most of them a real hindrance to the efficient learning of new material. Maybe the inability to read and comprehend is one of the benefits of our current education systems.
Hi Andy,
Regarding pages on a wordpress blog…
Can you clarify the difference between a
“category” page
and a “wordpress” page
in terms of their creation.
Thanks
Michael
Andy,
I also forgot to ask, what it the template you used in your diabetes blog – almost the same 3 column format as your EZSEO blog. I like the simplicity and the positioning of video etc…
And how many widgets do you have?
Thanks
Michael
Thanks for all the great information, Andy. I love your wordpress knowledge and how well you communicate it. Nice template for a few minuted time – I think anybody would take that.
I have heard of Goobert, but have not tried it. I’m also a fan of Michael Campbell’s work – matter of fact he is where I first heard of you.
Good day to you.
Anthony Shelton
Hi Andy,
I have 30+ WP blogs, but I don’t know how you did what you did with bloodsugardiabetic.com, as far as the Category pages set the way they are.
You mentioned you might do a video if we asked, so I’m begging, er…asking for that very video
Thanks for all the great info you share!
Hi Andy,
Here’s my question for Michael about his Google-1st toolkit:
The toolkit probably works best for long tail keywords right? Because not only are they easier to target (due to relatively lower competitions); they probably convert higher too. So, does the toolkit teach the keyword research? In other words, does it teach us how to find the long tail keywords that we should target?
Thanks!
Franklin.
Bravo, Lane! IMHO, the popularity of video tutorials springs directly from:
1. the fact that it’s easier to throw together a loosely-structured video than write an understandable manual…
2. the lack of ability to read for comprehension. It’s the Adult Attention Deficit Syndrome in action…
I doubt that anyone can really watch a 5 or 10 minute tutorial and come away with any serious procedural knowledge without taking copious notes. Why should we have to go through that? Give us the transcript/manual/report in the first place!
“I hope you have followed my explanation. If not I can always
record a video for next week explaining in a little more detail how
my site structure works.”
Thank you, Andy. Personally, I really prefer video with clearly spoken or accompanying written instructions. Would you please show us what you wrote about in this article and how you went about doing it?
I would be interested in seeing a video on your method of setting up a site structure in WordPress. Main pages vs posts has always confused me. And I have had trouble understanding WP Categories.
Thanks in advance
Hi Andy
?I hope you have followed my explanation. If not I can always
record a video for next week explaining in a little more detail how
my site structure works.?
It would be great if you could create a video for this topic. The simpler the better
All the best.
Thanks for your informative posts. The Web Content Studio software looks promising.
I’d like to suggest you consider offering this software free to your current subscribers which will turn into testimonials and future affiliates.
“However, I set my WordPress sites up so that what you
see now (the pre-sell), will always be at the top of the page. Any
new posts I add will be added to the list at the bottom of “More
Diabetes Diet Articles”.
Sounds good, but how do you do that, exactly? I guess if it’s more complicated than just selecting a particular option then a video would be handy
Many thanks
OK, let me try to answer some of these questions in the order they are posted. I’ll leave out any Google 1st questions until I have spoken with Michael later this week.
Mark – Pages have a number of limitations (see the link to the article on pages v posts), so they are not as suitable. Its not so much the structure of the parent child relationship that is important, its the way you can use that relationship in cross-linking related content. I am sure you could emulate what I have done with posts, but it would be a lot more work updating. Since I developed my system, WordPress has changed a lot and I have not kept up to date with “pages” as they have never been important to me. However, last time I looked, WordPress pages could not be assigned to a category, or given tags (two things that help with the overall SEO of the site). Simple tags can help solve this problem, but other problems do exist. Plugins that help with cross-linking of related content (similar posts) are designed to work with posts, not pages meaning even more work. Another issue in the past is that pages do not appear in the RSS feeds on the site, something I want for my content. It would be an interesting exercise when I have more time to try to develop a site using pages instead of posts just to see how many problems I encountered trying to setup my sites using the structure I use, as well as automating the important stuff like internal linking.
Tom – Sticky Posts plugin.
Michael – A category page is a page that WordPress creates to hold all of the content within a given category. Usually these categorty pages show all of the posts in the category, though you can modify the category.php (or archive.php) template to just show an excerpt if you prefer. I have taken it to extremes on my site by showing the first article in full, followed by just a link and excerpt of every other post in the category. A WordPress page is just a page of content that you create. See the article I link to on pages v posts above. The templates I use are the Studiopress templates (http://ezseonews.com/revo2), and I rarley use widgets – one the bloodsugardiabetic site I am only using one – a tag cloud.
To all those requesting a video, I’ll create one for next weeks newsletter, though I wont be showing you how to do all of the magic (as that is part of the content of my WFAS course), but I can show you how it all works by posting an article to the site and showing you how the category page handles it, as well as the rest of the site.
Ryan – nice try
Hello Andy!
Are you using wp static page or wp post to create the home page?
It seems you have two types of layout, one for homepage and one for category page.
wordpress pages does allow one to subcategorize, ie if you create a wordpress page on pay per click, you can create another page maybe called Google Adwords and sub it under the pay per click page. it would still have the effect of silo as per what andy mentioned using category pages. Andy, yes?
Daniel – Homepage is made up of sections that draw their info from categories I have defined. This is typical of Studiopress templates.
SEO Guy – read my other comment above in response to Mark’s query which was the same as yours.
thanks Andy for sharing
not everyone will be using Studiopress
in that case, what if we are using wp static page for homepage to create the different layout? will this affect our seo?
Hi Andy,
As always, I enjoy reading and looking forward to your weekly info. However, there is one thing that I really wish you did differently and that is, since I have archived loads and loads of your letters to refer back to for various reasons, and to reread certain tutorials and tips, it’s a big hassle to have to go through so many to find the one or ones I wish to reread because you only title your newsletters by numbers.
Now for instance the handful of other expert marketers whom I also receive valuable info on a weekly basis, they ALL title their emails with what the content is about, thus making it sooooooo much easier to refer back to, as it only takes looking at the title and then I know what that particular newsletter or email was about, rather than having to open and closing scores and scores of your newsletters to hopefully find the one that I needed to get certain info. Would you ever consider switching to another format to make referencing your letters more easy and manageable ? Thanks! Mark
Mark – the problem I would have with titling newsletters differently is that each newsletter usually contains 4-6 sections. I could not create a short “title” for the newsletter and include everything. It is far better to rely on search engines to find the information. You can come to this blog and use its search facility, or if you have the stuff on your computer, use your computers built in search (or a third party search tool like Google’s desktop search). I haven’t tested this, but I would also think that delivery and opening rates would be lower if I changed the title as people would not know what the email was.
Daniel – more and more third parties are creating imaginative templates with “Studiopress Style” homepages. ALternatively you could learn a little PHP and hack the home.php template of your chosen template so that it appears more like Studiopress. The reason why it is so good form a visitor and a search engine point of view is that you can have links to different sections on your site (by category) all appearing on your homepage in short excerpts. This can make it easier for visitors to find stuff, as well as increase links to important pages on your site.
I was thinking about creating a tutorial to show people how to do this, and wondered whether there would be a market for it.
Hi Andy,
I have the same or similiar questions as Jeremy, Andy (Singapore Online Florish) and Franklin. I am very interested in Google -1st but would like to see your reply to the aforementioned individuals questions.
Thanking you in advance for a prompt reply.
5/24
Andy,
Thanks for the post on static vs. dynamic pages. It cleared up a lot of confusion for me on converting a static html site to wordpress. I read your newsletters regularly but somehow the conversion process was not clear to me until this post.
Marshall,Editor
http://www.fly-fishing-colorado.com