Let me start by saying, I hate Halloween. Perhaps because I grew up so poor, I always had to go as a ghost in a floral printed sheet. Not very cool or scary. I just do not get into it. Well tonight I am trying a fun idea. We always give out chocolate bars and this year I made 200 custom wrappers on the computer and put the web address to a very slow, all encompassed, BANS store. You know what I am talking about, it is the one you built after your iPod or xBox store. This one of mine is still one of the first versions of BANS. Ugly, but manages to get a sale every now and again and a negative 15 on the engagement scale. I thought it would be fun to see how much traffic I could drive to it, just by handing out candy bars. Should be fun to watch the stats tonight and Saturday.
Happy Halloween everyone, be safe and if you must drink, do not drive.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Hostgator Upgrades To Apache2
Let me start by saying that of all the host I use now and have used in the past, Hostgator is head and shoulders above the rest. They now have upgraded to Apache2 on all most all blocks of the servers. There is also a brand new cPanel look as well with great links to video tutorials included. Make sure to check ALL of your sites on Hostgator and be sure everything is running fine. Log into your cPanel and get acquainted with the changes so you will know your way around. If you are un happy with your current hosting, you should really look into giving Hostgator a try. You will absolutely love them.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
More Fun With LSI And Google
I have made a few post related to LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) and wanted to take it a step further to give you better idea of what Google will be looking for in relation to your on page content, related to your target keywords or phrases. LSI really just a simply term for synonym. Google is understanding more and more, what words are related to other words and their use.
In the past I have shown by using the search operator ~yourkeyword to find what Google considers LSI related to it. Now we can take it one step further by typing in:
~yourkeyword -keyword into Google. This looks for LSI related to yourkeyword and then removes all instances of yourkeyword from the results.
So let us take a look at it in action. We will use mp3 as an example:
~mp3 -mp3
If you look at through the first 3 pages of results, we can compile a list of words Google deems LSI related.
CD
music
songs
audio
If we were building a site about mp3s it would then make sense to include these words in the content. DUH! Sure it seems obvious, but we are using a vanilla example. Instead of keyword stuffing, merely mixing in these LSI related words will without a doubt let Google know what the page is about.
Here is another example:
~antique -antique
rare
Victorian
reproduction
classic
furniture
vintage
old
Getting the LSI picture now?
In the past I have shown by using the search operator ~yourkeyword to find what Google considers LSI related to it. Now we can take it one step further by typing in:
~yourkeyword -keyword into Google. This looks for LSI related to yourkeyword and then removes all instances of yourkeyword from the results.
So let us take a look at it in action. We will use mp3 as an example:
~mp3 -mp3
If you look at through the first 3 pages of results, we can compile a list of words Google deems LSI related.
CD
music
songs
audio
If we were building a site about mp3s it would then make sense to include these words in the content. DUH! Sure it seems obvious, but we are using a vanilla example. Instead of keyword stuffing, merely mixing in these LSI related words will without a doubt let Google know what the page is about.
Here is another example:
~antique -antique
rare
Victorian
reproduction
classic
furniture
vintage
old
Getting the LSI picture now?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Just Because You Can Buy Something Easily, Does Not Mean Others Can
I am a coffeeholic, not just a run of the mill coffeeholic, I am a full blown addict. When they cut me open (hopefully after I am dead), I will have rings, much like a tree. The milk years (0-1), the coffee years (2-12), the beer years (13-32) *born Catholic*, the gin years (33-34), more coffee years (35-?). I drink coffee from the time I wake up til the time I go to bed. I also use a sugar free caramel vanilla flavored creamer (pictured to the left) as well. I could snort or free base this stuff all day long.
To make a long story short. The major grocery chain, Albertsons, has been bought out by Publix. Both Publix and Wal-Mart do not carry this particular flavor of creamer that I so desperately need. This leaves me no choice to buy it online. MyBrands is the only place I can find that has it and I pay through the nose for it and have for a while. Do I care how much it cost? NO! I have to have it and they carry it.
The same goes with building niche sites and uncovering niches. Not everyone has access to the things so many people have at their fingertips. Do not let your own market dictate what you sell. There are buyers out there for everything, you just need them to find you and you find them.
Editors note: If you have this creamer in a local grocery store and want to make a few pennies or just wish to thank me for all of my great post on this blog. Please contact me for purchase and shipping arrangements.
Paralysis By Analysis
Ah, the search for the golden Google secret or the ONE deep dark secret no one ever mentions on gaining true success on the web. We all have done it, especially as newbies. The truth is, and I mean this seriously, the secret is just doing the work. Often times new BANS users are thwarted by using all their time searching for a secret, when in fact they sit on it. Paralysis By Analysis is the worst disease known to webmasters. They spend all day and night over analyzing everything, instead of adding a new paragraph of content or blog post. The truth is, you can learn proper SEO over time. Adding unique content or blog post weekly will crush everything. You can take a gray, out of the box, BANS store and add content to it daily and succeed. Everyone has different time schedules to dedicate to their niche store creations. I highly suggest researching and learning proper SEO, backlinking and Web 2.0 development, but do not let it consume you to the point that nothing is getting done on site. Niche store development is growing at a very fast rate, not just with BANS, but other affiliate store platforms as well. The only way to set yourself apart is by doing what many others fail to do, writing content. ANYONE can build a store, but not everyone can build a portal. Manage your time to learn all the little things that go along with web site creation, but never lose sight of actually working on the site itself. Do not be paralyzed by analyzing too much.
Monday, October 27, 2008
IE6 Transparent PNG Fix For New BANS Templates
OK, we have all seen the new BANS templates with the transparent PNG images that gives Internet Explorer 6 fits. There is a workaround or at least a livable fix I have found that at least makes the site look decent in IE6.
the fix home page can be found here.
Download this zip file to your harddrive.
Copy and paste the below code in front of the last </head> tag in your header.php file.
<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<script type="text/javascript" src="unitpngfix.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
Upload the unitpngfix.js file to the root of your site.
Upload the clear.gif image file to the images folder.
Reload your site in IE6 and see if you are now seeing color where once was clear. If you do not see that it is fixed, open the unitpngfix.js file in a text editor and make sure all the paths are correct. Make sure it points to the image folder and file that you uploaded the clear.gif image file to.
lastly you should urge all your friends, enemies, pastor, ex wives, mistresses and anyone else that they should upgrade from IE6 to IE8 or make the jump to Firefox. Coders are caring less and less about Internet Explorer 6 as it is a farce of a browser.
the fix home page can be found here.
Download this zip file to your harddrive.
Copy and paste the below code in front of the last </head> tag in your header.php file.
<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<script type="text/javascript" src="unitpngfix.js"></script>
<![endif]-->
Upload the unitpngfix.js file to the root of your site.
Upload the clear.gif image file to the images folder.
Reload your site in IE6 and see if you are now seeing color where once was clear. If you do not see that it is fixed, open the unitpngfix.js file in a text editor and make sure all the paths are correct. Make sure it points to the image folder and file that you uploaded the clear.gif image file to.
lastly you should urge all your friends, enemies, pastor, ex wives, mistresses and anyone else that they should upgrade from IE6 to IE8 or make the jump to Firefox. Coders are caring less and less about Internet Explorer 6 as it is a farce of a browser.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Google Text Only View
Many may have missed a newer feature that Google gives of sites that are indexed. You can now view the text version of how Google sees your site. This can be helpful in seeing what part of your site Google is reading first and what order the page is being read. To view this simply type in cache:yourdomainname.com into Google, then click the the "Text-only version" link on the right upper hand corner of the results page.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Pepperjam Store Builder Now Offers Dynamic & Flat File Formats
A few days ago , I posted about the new Pepperjam Store Builder release from Pepperjam. well now they have added the flat file CSV format to give a more flexible platform over the initial javasript release. Pepperjam Network now allows flat file affiliates to use Pepperjam Store Builder prior to downloading the product feeds. This now means an affiliate can mix and mash the product feeds, refine the feeds by keywords, and do a lot of the dirty work in the Store Builder before downloading the product feeds.
If you haven't already, you need to get signed up for Pepperjam now. It is free and easy and the products to choose from grow daily.
If you haven't already, you need to get signed up for Pepperjam now. It is free and easy and the products to choose from grow daily.
Youtube Videos For Content Ideas
Ah, the great YouTube. What a fantastic idea. Many of you think I am just going to say you should slap up a video in a Wordpress post and hit publish. Nope. I first want you to watch the video yourself. Hopefully you have found one related or semi related to your niche. Watch the video 3 times and then open up notepad or any other text editor and type out exactly what the video is about and includes. You will suprise yourself how easy the words flow out. Hopefully you were able to get at the very least 100 words out of it. The more the better. Now copy and paste that into a Wordpress post and include the video. Easytube Youtube Plugin makes adding Youtube videos to a blog post a breeze. Posting a video by itself is not nearly enough unless a catchy unmined keyword phrase is used. The power of on topic words in a blog post or any content for that matter is very underrated. I understand many of you struggle writing. If that is the case, just record yourself narrating what is going on in the video and then transcribe that to text. Problem solved.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Top 10 Wordpress Mistakes
It is so good to see a ton of BANS users getting on the train and doing Wordpress BANS integrations. However on quite a few that need help after purchase, I am seeing several of the same mistakes being made on the Wordpress side of things. These are not in any particular order of importance as I feel everyone of them is equally important as the next in building a SEO and user friendly BANS Wordpress site. While there are tons of plugins out there to make every task easier, starting with the basics and learning how to actually make Wordpress work for you in the basic form is very important.
Here are the top 10 mistakes I am seeing:
1. Improper Permalinks Setup - The default setup in Wordpress simply numbers the post in the url. Personally I prefer the month and name setting /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ over everything else, some will tell you to use a custom structure like /%postname%/ which is ok, but if you want to go safe, use the month and name setting.
2. Improper SEO setup - The All in One SEO plugin, even in it's default setting, will do wonders for you. Get the title of the post or page up front in the TITLE tag. This plugin is a necessity for every Wordpress blog.
3. Bad Use of Categories and Tags - I did a post on categories and tags a few days ago. Know the difference and how to properly use them.
4. No XML Sitemap - Once again there is a great XML Sitemap Generator plugin to handle this.
5. No Privacy Policy - If you are going to run an ecommerce site of any kind, you better get use to adding a privacy policy on each and every site. One again the privacy policy plugin cures this.
6. HTML and CSS errors - Not all themes are created equal. Run your site through a validator and fix any major structure errors.
7. Blogrolls Linked to Unrelated Sites - You should be linking out to on topic or semi related sites. You dilute your niche credibility by linking to just anyone who will link to you.
8. No Database Backup - Get in the habit of backing up your database. Losing every post and page on a website is a sick feeling.
9. Not using Akismet - Time management is always crucial and not using a comment spam blocker will cost you precious time.
10. No Unique Content or Post - In order for Wordpress to show it's benefits you need to post to it and post to it as often as you can. This does not include content scrapers or copied articles. It must be yours, on topic and timely.
Here are the top 10 mistakes I am seeing:
1. Improper Permalinks Setup - The default setup in Wordpress simply numbers the post in the url. Personally I prefer the month and name setting /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ over everything else, some will tell you to use a custom structure like /%postname%/ which is ok, but if you want to go safe, use the month and name setting.
2. Improper SEO setup - The All in One SEO plugin, even in it's default setting, will do wonders for you. Get the title of the post or page up front in the TITLE tag. This plugin is a necessity for every Wordpress blog.
3. Bad Use of Categories and Tags - I did a post on categories and tags a few days ago. Know the difference and how to properly use them.
4. No XML Sitemap - Once again there is a great XML Sitemap Generator plugin to handle this.
5. No Privacy Policy - If you are going to run an ecommerce site of any kind, you better get use to adding a privacy policy on each and every site. One again the privacy policy plugin cures this.
6. HTML and CSS errors - Not all themes are created equal. Run your site through a validator and fix any major structure errors.
7. Blogrolls Linked to Unrelated Sites - You should be linking out to on topic or semi related sites. You dilute your niche credibility by linking to just anyone who will link to you.
8. No Database Backup - Get in the habit of backing up your database. Losing every post and page on a website is a sick feeling.
9. Not using Akismet - Time management is always crucial and not using a comment spam blocker will cost you precious time.
10. No Unique Content or Post - In order for Wordpress to show it's benefits you need to post to it and post to it as often as you can. This does not include content scrapers or copied articles. It must be yours, on topic and timely.
CaRP Wordpress Plugin For RSS Feeds
I have used the CaRP RSS to HTML Converter for quite a while. Also the CARP rss feed display feature gives the ability to show multiple RSS feeds and to cache them for longer times on heavy used pages. Now CARP has available a CARP Wordpress plugin the works in conjunction with CaRP RSS to HTML Converter. The CaRP WordPress plugin enables you to display RSS feeds, including Amazon.com affiliate feeds and YouTube feeds, in your WordPress posts and pages or in a Wordpress widget. The plugin uses CaRP to handle the RSS feed processing and display on pages.
The plugin comes with several templates and I made one myself to fit my needs. Below is a template that I use that shows only 5 headlines (titles only) and caches them for 60 minutes and opens the link in a new window.
<?php
/*
CaRP/WP Default Theme v1.0
Default theme for the CaRP/WP plugin for WordPress
Upload this file to your CaRP Themes Folder
*/
CarpConf('cborder','');
CarpConf('iorder','link');
CarpConf('maxitems',5);
CarpConf('cacheinterval',5);
CarpConf('linktarget',1);
return;
?>
To show feeds in a Wordpress post or page, you just post the below code.
[carpwp:feed{http://example.com/feed.rss}][/carpwp]
You can also aggregate multiple feeds together with the below code in a post or page.
[carpwp:aggregate{groupkey}]
feed={http://example.com/feed1.rss}
feed={http://example.com/feed2.rss}
feed={http://example.com/feed3.rss}
[/carpwp]
CaRP is very easy to install and the directions are very user friendly. They have been around forever and are cutting edge in feed processing.
The plugin comes with several templates and I made one myself to fit my needs. Below is a template that I use that shows only 5 headlines (titles only) and caches them for 60 minutes and opens the link in a new window.
<?php
/*
CaRP/WP Default Theme v1.0
Default theme for the CaRP/WP plugin for WordPress
Upload this file to your CaRP Themes Folder
*/
CarpConf('cborder','');
CarpConf('iorder','link');
CarpConf('maxitems',5);
CarpConf('cacheinterval',5);
CarpConf('linktarget',1);
return;
?>
To show feeds in a Wordpress post or page, you just post the below code.
[carpwp:feed{http://example.com/feed.rss}][/carpwp]
You can also aggregate multiple feeds together with the below code in a post or page.
[carpwp:aggregate{groupkey}]
feed={http://example.com/feed1.rss}
feed={http://example.com/feed2.rss}
feed={http://example.com/feed3.rss}
[/carpwp]
CaRP is very easy to install and the directions are very user friendly. They have been around forever and are cutting edge in feed processing.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
cPanel Guide Tutorials
Most of you are likely using a host such as Hostgator or another type host using cPanel. Sometimes it can be quite confusing on how to use some of the various features. Here is a great link to some cPanel Guide Tutorials that will hopefully clear up some questions and provide some documentation for you on the use of it. Here are some cPanel slide tutorials as well. They also have message board forums as well for those hard to find answers. make sure to bookmark the links for future use.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Pepperjam Store Builder Launched
Pepperjam announced today the official BETA launch of product feed technology in the form of a platform named Pepperjam Store Builder™, it is available exclusively through Pepperjam Network for FREE to all advertisers and affiliates.
Pepperjam Store Builder™ allows you to quickly compile Pepperjam Network product feeds to build product storefronts for your web site. You can link to specific products, create stores around dedicated product feeds, add to your existing site content or blog.
With Pepperjam Store Builder™ you have access to millions of products from hundreds of Pepperjam Network advertisers.
Tags, Categories and Wordpress, Oh My!
If you have been using Wordpress integrations with your BANS stores, you have probably seen the Tag and Category features. In this post, I hope to clarify each a little and when and how to use them.
Both should never share the same name. It is unwise to use the same word or phrase as both a tag and a category as both will generate the same Title tag on a page and could cause duplication penalties. Here is a breakdown of the usage of both tags and categories in Wordpress.
Categories should have unique names and can have longer worded names. Categories help visitors find categorized information on your site. Use categories just like the name suggest, as site post categories. You might have XYZ news, XYZ reviews, XYZ new products, XYZ recalls and etc.
Tags should be more specific names and should be short one or two word keywords. Tags help visitors find related specific information on your site and on other sites. Some tag examples would be Model#1234, Model#5678, Brand ABC, Brand DEF and etc.
I have learned the hard way on this and myself have created both tags and categories using the same name.
Both should never share the same name. It is unwise to use the same word or phrase as both a tag and a category as both will generate the same Title tag on a page and could cause duplication penalties. Here is a breakdown of the usage of both tags and categories in Wordpress.
Categories should have unique names and can have longer worded names. Categories help visitors find categorized information on your site. Use categories just like the name suggest, as site post categories. You might have XYZ news, XYZ reviews, XYZ new products, XYZ recalls and etc.
Tags should be more specific names and should be short one or two word keywords. Tags help visitors find related specific information on your site and on other sites. Some tag examples would be Model#1234, Model#5678, Brand ABC, Brand DEF and etc.
I have learned the hard way on this and myself have created both tags and categories using the same name.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
PHPZon Wordpress Amazon Plugin
Wade and the great people that brought you the PHPBay Wordpress plugin are now putting the final touches on the new PHPZon Wordpress plugin. This plugin produces Amazon product listings in the same fashion the PHPBay plugin does with eBay listings. There are still a few minor tweeks they are making, but let me tell you that this is a great plugin. I put a screenshot of a post I did on the left. If you do not already own PHPBay, I highly suggest you go get it and also PHPZon. These are MUST HAVE tools when building niche sites. Especially if you have graduated to the BANS/Wordpress integrations. Hats off to Wade and company for a great plugin as I am having a ton of fun playing with it and implementing it into some of my stores.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Spreading Out The Social Bookmark Love
Appearing natural when dealing with search engine optimization is huge. The more natural you appear, the better. I like to use the social bookmarking sites, especially for niche blog post, but the temptation to bookmark EVERY post in EVERY social bookmark site should be tempered. There are a multitude of social bookmark sites out there and more going live everyday. To appear more natural, I like to rotate through 5 different sites under different user names for every blog post. Remember that Google is getting smarter everyday. It is not natural for EVERY one of your blog post to show up on EVERY social bookmarking site. Especially within the same hour and the same username. 5 submissions does the trick and if the blog post is worthy of going viral or being posted by others on their favorite bookmark site, then the more natural it will be. For the most part, I have found bookmark traffic to be a bit lower in quality, mostly I just want the spider crawl and whatever backlink juice I can squeeze from it. Like I said in my Twitter traffic post, if you can get it in front of the niche related user, the better the traffic will be.
I like to keep a very simple excel file for each site that I document when and where I bookmark a blog post or content page. It is not hard to keep up with. Sometimes I will not bookmark every post, but if you rotate between different sites it is not a problem. Also by rotating, you will not give the impression of spamming.
The temptation to do everything in excess will always be around. Keeping the mindset of letting everything related to web promotion seem as natural as possible is key. Whether you are submitting to bookmark sites, link directories, article directories, press releases, blog commenting or just plain link trading, make sure the volume you are doing it at would be considered natural in timing.
I like to keep a very simple excel file for each site that I document when and where I bookmark a blog post or content page. It is not hard to keep up with. Sometimes I will not bookmark every post, but if you rotate between different sites it is not a problem. Also by rotating, you will not give the impression of spamming.
The temptation to do everything in excess will always be around. Keeping the mindset of letting everything related to web promotion seem as natural as possible is key. Whether you are submitting to bookmark sites, link directories, article directories, press releases, blog commenting or just plain link trading, make sure the volume you are doing it at would be considered natural in timing.
Being Honest With Yourself On Your Sites
Quite a few of you that read this blog daily, know how to properly build and optimize a store. The problem lies getting it all on the canvass all at one time. A ton of you love to cut corners as well. I admit it is an easy temptation. Whether it be meta tags, category naming or simple content creation, I have seen it all.
I get emailed all the time with request to look at sites and why they are not ranking. Quite often it is a glaring fact that a few corners have been cut. If you start being more honest with yourself on what your niche sites need, the better you will build them and the better chance you have right out of the gate. Yes I know it is tedious work to stare at the same store for a few days or weeks, but trust me when I say the rewards are well worth the work. I recently have been reworking older stores that were cut corners on and some needed complete overhauls. Many are starting to breathe again and start their climbs up the SERPS. It is a rewarding feeling when you take some older stores that normally just nickel and dime every month and get them to start producing a couple hundred dollars month. It is like finding money in the middle of the street.
Quite a few of you are in great niches, you know HOW and WHAT it takes to properly build and SEO a store, you are just not being honest with yourself on the finished product and perhaps have cut a few corners as well. You know how, you just need to do it.
I get emailed all the time with request to look at sites and why they are not ranking. Quite often it is a glaring fact that a few corners have been cut. If you start being more honest with yourself on what your niche sites need, the better you will build them and the better chance you have right out of the gate. Yes I know it is tedious work to stare at the same store for a few days or weeks, but trust me when I say the rewards are well worth the work. I recently have been reworking older stores that were cut corners on and some needed complete overhauls. Many are starting to breathe again and start their climbs up the SERPS. It is a rewarding feeling when you take some older stores that normally just nickel and dime every month and get them to start producing a couple hundred dollars month. It is like finding money in the middle of the street.
Quite a few of you are in great niches, you know HOW and WHAT it takes to properly build and SEO a store, you are just not being honest with yourself on the finished product and perhaps have cut a few corners as well. You know how, you just need to do it.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
A Few Good Links
Well I got a good bug going today. In between the trips to the bathroom, I thought I would post a couple of good links for you to bookmark.
SEO Tools
Internet Marketing Handbook
Both of these you will definitely want to bookmark.
Some good news today, is I am getting a ton of PHP code reading done today, which is a plus. The bad news is I am not getting a lot of web work I had planned for today done.
As the saying goes... SH!T Happens!
SEO Tools
Internet Marketing Handbook
Both of these you will definitely want to bookmark.
Some good news today, is I am getting a ton of PHP code reading done today, which is a plus. The bad news is I am not getting a lot of web work I had planned for today done.
As the saying goes... SH!T Happens!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Learning Basic HTML Will Help You
Right now I am learning PHP. I know some PHP and am what is called a PHP hack. I can decipher some code problems and hack pieces together and troubleshoot code, but I really do not fully know PHP like I should. Some of you really do not know HTML which is basic web page building code. Most of you and most new webmasters in general rely solely on WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors like is included in BANS. While the WYSIWYG editors are great for newbies, it does not mean you should not be studying up on your HTML. Learning HTML will help you decipher basic page building errors and make your designing skills much better as well.
I started building websites many many many many years ago and learned HTML before the WYSIWYG editors arrived or were affordable. I learned off of one free site. HTML Goodies. This site has been archived back to May 1997 and I swear it was online way before that. It has really evolved and the exercises are much easier. If you plan to make money online, you need to understand the basics of webpage building and it starts with HTML.
Now excuse me as I have a ton of reading to do myself. You can see what I am reading and learning below. It is 1010 pages and I am on page 48.
I started building websites many many many many years ago and learned HTML before the WYSIWYG editors arrived or were affordable. I learned off of one free site. HTML Goodies. This site has been archived back to May 1997 and I swear it was online way before that. It has really evolved and the exercises are much easier. If you plan to make money online, you need to understand the basics of webpage building and it starts with HTML.
Now excuse me as I have a ton of reading to do myself. You can see what I am reading and learning below. It is 1010 pages and I am on page 48.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Buying Links On Related Sites
Depending on your niche, you might find it lucrative to buy links or banner ads on other sites. There are a few things you want to look for before doing so.
First, is the site related to yours and are the visitors to that site your target audience? Would Google consider it a natural fit?
Second, Is the site willing to offer up traffic reports to help you do a cost analysis? If you spend $25.00 a month for 25 clicks, this is not going to be worth your while. Ideally you want each click to cost as low as possible as not every click to your site will convert. Look at your own sell through stats via EPN to get a good idea of how much a click through to eBay is worth.
Third, is the site you are wanting to advertise on a captured audience like a forum or a heavily commented on blog? This type of traffic is golden and can be engaged quite easily if your own site has great content.
Fourth, will the owner consider a month by month deal so as you are not locked into a bad deal?
Fifth, is the site blatantly selling these ads? If so, will he ensure your link has the nofollow tag as to not get you in trouble with attempting to buy page rank?
Buying links on related sites is a risky business deal regardless. I have some purchased ads do fantastic and are well worth the price, while others where just dogs. Knowing your own EPN stats and tracking the incoming purchased traffic will let you know in a hurry if it is indeed a lucrative deal. You could also just consider buying a site review in the form of a blog post or forum post to get a feel for that sites converting power, before leaping into a bigger commitment. Start small budget wise before moving up. Always and I can not express enough, always make sure the site or page you will be buying traffic on is related in some sorts and always ask for a nofollow tag if you are unsure if the site is a known link seller or a bad neighborhood.
First, is the site related to yours and are the visitors to that site your target audience? Would Google consider it a natural fit?
Second, Is the site willing to offer up traffic reports to help you do a cost analysis? If you spend $25.00 a month for 25 clicks, this is not going to be worth your while. Ideally you want each click to cost as low as possible as not every click to your site will convert. Look at your own sell through stats via EPN to get a good idea of how much a click through to eBay is worth.
Third, is the site you are wanting to advertise on a captured audience like a forum or a heavily commented on blog? This type of traffic is golden and can be engaged quite easily if your own site has great content.
Fourth, will the owner consider a month by month deal so as you are not locked into a bad deal?
Fifth, is the site blatantly selling these ads? If so, will he ensure your link has the nofollow tag as to not get you in trouble with attempting to buy page rank?
Buying links on related sites is a risky business deal regardless. I have some purchased ads do fantastic and are well worth the price, while others where just dogs. Knowing your own EPN stats and tracking the incoming purchased traffic will let you know in a hurry if it is indeed a lucrative deal. You could also just consider buying a site review in the form of a blog post or forum post to get a feel for that sites converting power, before leaping into a bigger commitment. Start small budget wise before moving up. Always and I can not express enough, always make sure the site or page you will be buying traffic on is related in some sorts and always ask for a nofollow tag if you are unsure if the site is a known link seller or a bad neighborhood.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Use Twitter To Gain Traffic
The first time I used Twitter, I really did not understand it. I merely thought it was another instant message platform that was faddish. I have stuck with it and learned more about it and its usefulness, especially in gaining targeted traffic. Not only have I used it effectively for this blog, but several other Wordpress BANS integrations of my own. One of my sites that I finally got around to converting over and posting on regularly blog wise, I increased traffic by 1000 plus unique hits in one week.
First of all there are a few tools that will help. First, sign up with a username related to your niche on Twitter. Secondly you will want to sign up for Twitterfeed and provide the URL for your blog's RSS feed, and how often it should post to your Twitter account. You will need an OpenID account as well. An OpenID is a standard account for providing a single sign on between web sites. You can register your an OpenID for free, or you may even be able to use your existing blog ID.
Next you will want to get in a regular habit of making some blog post. After about a week you can log into your Twitter account and search Twitter using your niche keywords or words related to your niche. You can also use this Twitter search feature as well, which searches their bio and interest. When you find a user that matches your search parameters, merely choose to follow the person. Make sure you fill out your own account info to include the URL to your niche site as well. After a few days, you just might be surprised how many people are following you back and you should see traffic coming in from your Twitter page.
Now this obviously will work better on some niches over other niches, but it is free and after the initial set up, your Twitter account will automatically post links to your blog post as you post them.
You can see my own Twitter page for this blog by clicking the link. Make sure to follow me as well. Good luck and happy Twittering.
First of all there are a few tools that will help. First, sign up with a username related to your niche on Twitter. Secondly you will want to sign up for Twitterfeed and provide the URL for your blog's RSS feed, and how often it should post to your Twitter account. You will need an OpenID account as well. An OpenID is a standard account for providing a single sign on between web sites. You can register your an OpenID for free, or you may even be able to use your existing blog ID.
Next you will want to get in a regular habit of making some blog post. After about a week you can log into your Twitter account and search Twitter using your niche keywords or words related to your niche. You can also use this Twitter search feature as well, which searches their bio and interest. When you find a user that matches your search parameters, merely choose to follow the person. Make sure you fill out your own account info to include the URL to your niche site as well. After a few days, you just might be surprised how many people are following you back and you should see traffic coming in from your Twitter page.
Now this obviously will work better on some niches over other niches, but it is free and after the initial set up, your Twitter account will automatically post links to your blog post as you post them.
You can see my own Twitter page for this blog by clicking the link. Make sure to follow me as well. Good luck and happy Twittering.
Creating Authority Micro Niche Sites Article
I was browsing some blogs this morning and came across a great blog post from Website Magazine that I thought would make for a great read for everyone. while not a new idea, it is a great piece of writing on it and a good read.
Big Rewards From Creating Authority Micro-Sites
Big Rewards From Creating Authority Micro-Sites
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Google Webmaster Videos
Yep... even more Google. On the Google Webmaster blog, there are some new Google videos well worth watching. I highly suggest giving them all a view. You will learn something.
Unlock Google With The Google Combination
Yep, I am fixated on Google for the last few days. More and more users are using Google everyday. While Yahoo and MSN continue to send quality traffic, I have found that Google search and organic traffic dwarf the others as far as quality goes. While getting into Google is not hard, ranking high in Google is indeed a challenge. The good news is that Google is getting better at telling you exactly what they want from you. When was the last time you crawled through Google yourself from a webmasters perspective? If you spend an hour actually looking at their link structure, the SEO, the page code, the meta tags, the url structure and the actual on page content itself, it will give you a better idea on how to build your own site. You can right click on any page and view the source code as well.
Google is set up plain and simple as to take the surfer exactly down a path they want to go. Shouldn't you lead your surfer along a similar path as well? If Google sets up their site a particular way, that should serve as a clear guide as to how they want yours to look as well.
Google aggregates news, so why not aggregate news on your niche site as well? I have mentioned a great RSS feed Wordpress plugin in the past that is very easy to setup and configure. A well thought out couple of RSS feeds related to your niche will easily engage readers to come to your site for the latest niche news. Tons of people do not even know how to set up a reader for themselves to track news and articles, so you can give them all they need in just one place.
Google offers image galleries. Why not offer your surfers pictures or images as well related to your niche? Or at least links to those images. People love to have an all inclusive place to get EVERYTHING they need in the fewest places they have to go to get it. You need to think of the broader scope of things when niche site building. Not just a store. Give the surfer a place to find EVERYTHING they need and they will return on a regular basis.
Often times we as webmasters fail to see the obvious in front of our faces. Google gives you the combination, now just go unlock the lock.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Hierarchy Link Navigation Explained
Linking properly in between site pages on your site helps the search engine bots better find, index and rate each and every page on your site. A good hierarchy linking structure not only ensures the SERPS find all your site pages, but also helps them understand the overall theme of your site as well.
A good practice is to link from your home page to all the major or top level categories on your site. It is now not advised to link to sub pages of your sites main categories. Instead you should link to those sub pages from the parent or main category page itself as they are related in category. In the structure of your links you should logically guide both the surfer and the SERPS from page to page in a hierarchical fashion. Your link structure should flow down from the top level main categories on down through your individual content and product pages. The best example of this can be seen in an out of the box BANS site with a main category number chosen in the setup and the navigation in the setup being set as closed. You can see how only top level links are shown and as you click one your next page will show only the sub category page links. This is now considered the best way to set the navigation links in any BANS store setup. This makes sense as it helps keep with the theme and gives clearer path to both SERP and surfer.
You should avoid the temptation to link from one internal page to another that is not directly related in nature. An example is you do not want a link on a page about "Dell laptops" linking to a page on "HP accessories". If you do this you will dilute your overall theme or niche. By linking from one page to another page you are in a ways telling the SERPS that the 2 pages are related. If they are not related, do not link them to each other. Gone are the days of being able to get to any page on on your site to any page on your site. While not OVERLY important, it is something that can indeed inch your internal pages ranking. If the surfer was to land on your home page, your links should be able to guide him to exactly where he wants to go through the main category listings. Just look at Google to see how they lead the surfer through hierarchical linking fashion.
A good practice is to link from your home page to all the major or top level categories on your site. It is now not advised to link to sub pages of your sites main categories. Instead you should link to those sub pages from the parent or main category page itself as they are related in category. In the structure of your links you should logically guide both the surfer and the SERPS from page to page in a hierarchical fashion. Your link structure should flow down from the top level main categories on down through your individual content and product pages. The best example of this can be seen in an out of the box BANS site with a main category number chosen in the setup and the navigation in the setup being set as closed. You can see how only top level links are shown and as you click one your next page will show only the sub category page links. This is now considered the best way to set the navigation links in any BANS store setup. This makes sense as it helps keep with the theme and gives clearer path to both SERP and surfer.
You should avoid the temptation to link from one internal page to another that is not directly related in nature. An example is you do not want a link on a page about "Dell laptops" linking to a page on "HP accessories". If you do this you will dilute your overall theme or niche. By linking from one page to another page you are in a ways telling the SERPS that the 2 pages are related. If they are not related, do not link them to each other. Gone are the days of being able to get to any page on on your site to any page on your site. While not OVERLY important, it is something that can indeed inch your internal pages ranking. If the surfer was to land on your home page, your links should be able to guide him to exactly where he wants to go through the main category listings. Just look at Google to see how they lead the surfer through hierarchical linking fashion.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Google Reconsideration Requests
Last week I did a post on what to do if Google has deindexed your site. I have had several emails since then from people wanting me to look at their sites and help them get reindexed in Google. First I did want to include some reading I forgot to attach in that post from the Google groups section. Susan Moskwa is a Webmaster Trends Analyst and has a lengthy Q&A post on reconsideration requests going on in the Google groups section. I highly suggest you read it as well and join in on getting your questions answered. As you can see, it is a lengthy process that can take some time, but by following my suggestions along with what you find in that thread, should give you a clearer picture on how Google reacts to these.
How Never Winning A School Spelling Bee Has Brought Me Traffic
I was, is, will always be poor speller. It just never was a very high priority on my list and the older I get, the more I forget how to spell some tricky words that I should know how to spell. I can't count the times I have searched for something on Google to get the main heading Did you mean: result staring at me. On the flip side of this I am not alone as sometimes when I write my own content, I just open up notepad and start banging away. Sometimes I run it through a spell checker, sometimes I do not. It has however brought visitors to my site via misspelled words. Now by no means do I suggest purposely writing something that only people from the South, like me, would understand, but I think you see the direction I am going. There are list of common misspelled words available, but my own stats have taught me much more about it. You might be surprised to find by that using the Google keyword tool with your keyword phrase attached with a misspelled word, what the results might bring. I now have been known to mix in a variation or two here and there on a content page. Sometimes purposely, sometimes not. Should you spend all your time on this? Absolutely not! Should you be on the look out for them while hunting keyword phrases to target? Absolutely. Has it brought traffic via the SERPS to some content pages I have? Sure has, and more than you would think.
It just goes to show that it does not matter what skoolen you have or what reedin and ritein skills you have, the enternets was made for a broad range of users.
It just goes to show that it does not matter what skoolen you have or what reedin and ritein skills you have, the enternets was made for a broad range of users.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Pay More Attention To Your Store Pages
I can not stress enough how important it is for you to pay close attention to your actual BANS store pages. If you are simply using default titles, metas and store listings and not adding unique content on those actual store pages, you are setting yourself up for problems. At the very least I stress 100 to 200 words of content on each of those pages and ALL the metas need to be addressed as well. I like to also limit the number of items shown as well. The default is 20 and I suggest 15 or less. I also like to use the search operators to better filter out what I am trying to sell on that page as well. Content is crucial throughout the WHOLE site, not just the individual content/article pages. With all of the BANS stores out there, you can bet you share a niche with other BANS users. The more you set yourself apart, the better the chance you rise above the rest and the better you look in the eyes of Google. A great litmus test is to in your mind remove the store listings from a page and ask yourself if that page could survive without them. Please, for your own well being, make this a priority.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Private Domain Name Registration Makes Sense & Cents
Since the early beginnings of Niche Store building, people are always sniffing out others niches to exploit. This is understandable and happens in other e-commerce as well. After about my first 20 stores I smartened up myself and started going the private registration way with Godaddy. Sure it cost a bit more, but I consider it part of my business expense and a smart business decision to boot. I also now have newer domains registered under my business name which will be incorporated soon as well. I am also in the process of going through all domains to privatize them as well as they come due registration wise. I see these snoopers in my stats weekly and three are indeed members of the BANS forum, which is not surprising knowing who they are. You can't really keep these people from doing what they do with exposed domains, but you can keep them away from privatized ones. Another thing I like to do with my niche store domains is to register them for three years at a time. It shows the SERPS you are serious about your business and are not a one year spammer. Time length of registration is a filter factor with some SERPS, especially Google. Godaddy gets a bad rap here in there, especially on their hosting, which I agree does stink. As far as being a domain name registrar, I have never had a problem with a single domain and I own tons of them. Right now Go Daddy has $7.49 .com sale going!
Regardless of where you do register your domain names, I highly advise you look into privatizing them and also registering them for longer terms. It makes good business sense and good business cents.
Regardless of where you do register your domain names, I highly advise you look into privatizing them and also registering them for longer terms. It makes good business sense and good business cents.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Google On Inbound Links
Just want to give another reminder that on the Google webmaster blog this week the topic covered is "links". It has been a great tutorial week with yesterday being devoted to inbound link strategies. Make sure to read the week worth of post and learn the right way from Google itself.
Google Deindexed Your BANS Store, Now What?
With a rash of fellow BANS users claiming they have been deindexed, I have had several emails asking what one should do to get back in the index. I thought I would address this on the blog today. I am actually trying to get a test site of mine deindexed myself so I can play around with some strategies myself.
First off, are you sure the site is deindexed?
1) Type "yourdomainname.com" and "www.yourdomainname.com" with the quotation marks into the search area of Google. If pages from your domain show up in the search results, then you are not deindexed.
2) Type site:yourdomainname.com and then site:yourdomainname.com into the search area for Google next. If results show up other than "…did not match any documents," then you are not deindexed.
If you run those few test and know at one time the site was indexed, but now it is not, it is not the end of the world.
Moving the whole site to a new domain is not the answer. You were deindexed for a reason and by moving the site to another domain is just putting a band aid on something that needs a tourniquet. Just because Google dropped you, does not mean the other SERPS have, so while working on getting back into Googles graces, you should still be adding backlinks and original content to help your rankings and traffic from other SERPS.
Getting Back In Google
The first thing is to go back and read what Google deems is an acceptable site per their guidelines. Yes you may have read it already, but read it again.
The second thing you want to do is thoroughly examine your robots.txt and .htaccess files. Is there anything in there that would be blocking Google and preventing you from getting spidered? I have seen instances where webmasters inadvertently were indeed blocking the Google bot.
If nothing jumps out with these quick checks then here are some things you can try that will not hurt in the long run and MAY help get you back in.
First block Google out of the site. Yes I said block them out. Just because Google has deindexed you, does not mean it stops crawling. Google hates being late to a fantastic party and like a nosey neighbor, always likes to know what is going on. To block Google only and prevent just the Googlebot from crawling your site for now, place the following code in your robots.txt file in your server root:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /
Secondly I highly advise shuffling the template or layout of your overall site. If that site is not converted to a BANS Wordpress integration, now might be a great time to do it, but it is not must mind you. You also want to look at every store category name, link text and meta tags for each page. Are these out of the box settings? More than likely it is and this HAS to be changed to unique names relative to your niche. Anything that is default after setup is a BIG no, no. Give the whole site a fresh coat of paint and a face lift. It will probably take a little while, but my plan involves blocking Google for at least 30 days, so take your time and do it right.
After the site has been thoroughly face lifted, you need to concentrate on original content. Your original content. If you can't write or buy it, you are in the wrong business to begin with. You need no less then 30 new pages of content or blog post. They need to be at the very least 200 words or better and closely related to your niche or overall related articles. Remember that this will also help in Yahoo and MSN Live, so it is not waisted work. After each page of new content is added, make sure to social bookmark each individual page with 5 different social bookmarking sites. Try to rotate through a different 5 with each page of content. DO NOT go spamming each page or blog post on EACH & EVERY social bookmarking site out there.
After 30 days of blocking the Googlebot and assuming everything above has been done, remove the block you put in your robots.txt file. After doing so, go fill out the re inclusion request with Google. Let them know you have rebuilt the whole site to better conform with the Webmaster guidelines and ask if they will kindly reconsider including you back into their index.
Watch your stat logs for the Google bot crawler and hopefully within another 30 days your site will be back in the Google index. It can take longer, but in all honestly it should be a 60 day process.
First off, are you sure the site is deindexed?
1) Type "yourdomainname.com" and "www.yourdomainname.com" with the quotation marks into the search area of Google. If pages from your domain show up in the search results, then you are not deindexed.
2) Type site:yourdomainname.com and then site:yourdomainname.com into the search area for Google next. If results show up other than "…did not match any documents," then you are not deindexed.
If you run those few test and know at one time the site was indexed, but now it is not, it is not the end of the world.
Moving the whole site to a new domain is not the answer. You were deindexed for a reason and by moving the site to another domain is just putting a band aid on something that needs a tourniquet. Just because Google dropped you, does not mean the other SERPS have, so while working on getting back into Googles graces, you should still be adding backlinks and original content to help your rankings and traffic from other SERPS.
Getting Back In Google
The first thing is to go back and read what Google deems is an acceptable site per their guidelines. Yes you may have read it already, but read it again.
The second thing you want to do is thoroughly examine your robots.txt and .htaccess files. Is there anything in there that would be blocking Google and preventing you from getting spidered? I have seen instances where webmasters inadvertently were indeed blocking the Google bot.
If nothing jumps out with these quick checks then here are some things you can try that will not hurt in the long run and MAY help get you back in.
First block Google out of the site. Yes I said block them out. Just because Google has deindexed you, does not mean it stops crawling. Google hates being late to a fantastic party and like a nosey neighbor, always likes to know what is going on. To block Google only and prevent just the Googlebot from crawling your site for now, place the following code in your robots.txt file in your server root:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /
Secondly I highly advise shuffling the template or layout of your overall site. If that site is not converted to a BANS Wordpress integration, now might be a great time to do it, but it is not must mind you. You also want to look at every store category name, link text and meta tags for each page. Are these out of the box settings? More than likely it is and this HAS to be changed to unique names relative to your niche. Anything that is default after setup is a BIG no, no. Give the whole site a fresh coat of paint and a face lift. It will probably take a little while, but my plan involves blocking Google for at least 30 days, so take your time and do it right.
After the site has been thoroughly face lifted, you need to concentrate on original content. Your original content. If you can't write or buy it, you are in the wrong business to begin with. You need no less then 30 new pages of content or blog post. They need to be at the very least 200 words or better and closely related to your niche or overall related articles. Remember that this will also help in Yahoo and MSN Live, so it is not waisted work. After each page of new content is added, make sure to social bookmark each individual page with 5 different social bookmarking sites. Try to rotate through a different 5 with each page of content. DO NOT go spamming each page or blog post on EACH & EVERY social bookmarking site out there.
After 30 days of blocking the Googlebot and assuming everything above has been done, remove the block you put in your robots.txt file. After doing so, go fill out the re inclusion request with Google. Let them know you have rebuilt the whole site to better conform with the Webmaster guidelines and ask if they will kindly reconsider including you back into their index.
Watch your stat logs for the Google bot crawler and hopefully within another 30 days your site will be back in the Google index. It can take longer, but in all honestly it should be a 60 day process.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Heading Tags Explained
It is often debated that most of the search engines analyze the text inside the heading tags and use it in their ranking process. Most search engines assume that text that is important enough to put in heading tags is also relevant to that page's content. The H1 tag is by far the most important one as it describes the purpose of the whole website. Search engine spiders will use it to score that page's relevancy as well. Make it a more concise version of that page's TITLE tag and include important keywords in it. The sub headers scale down in importance relative to their header tag size, but they're still very useful and you should be sure you include keywords relevant to the page as well.
You should not use heading tags as only a way to format text size and boldness as they are not just about font size, SERPS use them to determine what text is the most important on the page. Knowing that the H1 tag is the most important one followed by H2, H3, H4 and the way down to H6 tag, then it only makes sense to only use one H1 on a single page. To put that in perspective, you can't tell the SERPS that you have multiple things that are MOST important on a page. Your H1 tag is usually the title or the tag line of your website and this tag is usually used in the header section of the website. So in retrospect, you should almost never use an H1 tag in your posts or pages content.
The hierarchy of your heading tags is important on site as well for proper website structure and W3C compliance. As an example, W3C says that a well formed site would have an:
H1
H2
H3
H2
H3
H4
But never
H1
H3
H2
You can clearly see that the second set of headings are out of rank and order? You need to decrease and increase tags in order and should not skip from an H1 tag to a H3 tag without putting an H2 in between the two.
You should not use heading tags as only a way to format text size and boldness as they are not just about font size, SERPS use them to determine what text is the most important on the page. Knowing that the H1 tag is the most important one followed by H2, H3, H4 and the way down to H6 tag, then it only makes sense to only use one H1 on a single page. To put that in perspective, you can't tell the SERPS that you have multiple things that are MOST important on a page. Your H1 tag is usually the title or the tag line of your website and this tag is usually used in the header section of the website. So in retrospect, you should almost never use an H1 tag in your posts or pages content.
The hierarchy of your heading tags is important on site as well for proper website structure and W3C compliance. As an example, W3C says that a well formed site would have an:
H1
H2
H3
H2
H3
H4
But never
H1
H3
H2
You can clearly see that the second set of headings are out of rank and order? You need to decrease and increase tags in order and should not skip from an H1 tag to a H3 tag without putting an H2 in between the two.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Getting Listed In Google Is A Privilege, Not A Right
Everyone likes to blame something these days, I see several people complain about either not getting sites indexed, or being de-indexed in Google. One fact that should be in your mind is that being listed in Google is a Privilege and not a right. Google can do as it pleases and you HAVE to like it. Nine times out of ten, it is the webmaster that has done something that goes against what Google wants in it's index. Google is great traffic and converts fantastically. Do not try to take shortcuts. Everything you do to promote your sites you should be comfortable explaining to Google face to face. Everyone wants the quick and easy, but I will tell you if you want longevity with your Niche Stores, you will follow the Google webmaster guidelines and take things slow and naturally. Google will not make or break you, but it sure does help one hell of a bunch. If Google told me to take 3 laps around my house before every blog post, my blog post would be slightly delayed everyday as I would certainly do it. Now of course that is an extreme statement (or is it?), but I think you get my drift.
When was the last time you thouroughly read what Google wants? Also the Google Webmaster blog should be read daily. Today there is a great post on creating outbound links that are Google friendly. In fact this week is Links Week from Google. I highly suggest you read and keep reading about what Google wants and expects from you as a webmaster and keep your Google privileges alive and well.
When was the last time you thouroughly read what Google wants? Also the Google Webmaster blog should be read daily. Today there is a great post on creating outbound links that are Google friendly. In fact this week is Links Week from Google. I highly suggest you read and keep reading about what Google wants and expects from you as a webmaster and keep your Google privileges alive and well.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sticktoitiveness: An Interview With Suzanne Franco
I remember back to earlier this year when a new poster joined the BANS forum by the screen name wahmsuzanne. Well that person ended up being Suzanne Franco. Suzanne always has asked great questions and ends every post with *SmiLes*! How could you not help her? I have seen her go through a few ups and downs, but one thing is for sure, Suzanne has Sticktoitiveness. Some people have it, some do not. She should serve as an example and inspiration to every newbie out there. Suzanne is now starting to see some good money on a regular basis and also has started blogging about her experiences on her blog Money Making Ideas. I thought it would be fun to interview her for my blog as I have always enjoyed helping her and conversing with her. Jump over and read her blog daily. So here we go. 10 questions with Suzanne. Thanks a bunch for taking time to answer these.
1. Who is Suzanne Franco?
I am a single mom to three amazing kids. They are the reason I work so hard to make money from home … I don’t want to miss a single thing in their lives. I was born and raised in Southern California and we relocated to the Texas Hill Country about 7 years ago. I enjoy playing tennis (I’ve played since I could walk LOL) and anything in or on the water … boating, wakeboarding, swimming, floating (it’s a Texas thing), the river and the beach.
2. What web background or knowledge did you have prior to finding BANS?
I’d say prior to finding BANS (in February) I had some decent experience with SEO and web promoting but I was (and still am) lacking some technical skills. I had a hard time understanding ftp, permissions, troubleshooting any type of error, with adding or changing themes, etc. Not only did I not understand any of this … it would stress me out completely I would become somewhat paralyzed. I would sometimes be afraid to do anything program related to my sites because I feared that something would go wrong.
I think (hope) I’m over the anxiety of dealing with some of the technical things that are involved with setting up and customizing my BANS stores. I’ve finally realized that I haven’t completely destroyed any of my sites so far and if something does go wrong … I can always ask for help. In fact, thanks again for all of the help you’ve personally given me with my BANS business and with the templates I purchased.
3. What led you to the BANS software?
I read about it on the Wealthy Affiliate forum.
4. What was the hardest part you found getting a BANS store going?
This hasn’t really been a huge problem for me because I enjoy the type of work involved: SEO, writing, building backlinks, involvement on forums, classified ads, Squidoo lenses, etc.
I have one store that is huge (over 450 pages – too big for my taste BTW) and I’ve had the most trouble getting that one going. It indexed right away and then went down to zero pages … and then to one page. Slowly the pages showed back up in Google but I’ve never been able to get the search traffic that I seem to get from my other stores. I feel I’ve done a good job with the SEO but I don’t focus on the promotion work like I should.
5. When did you know that BANS really works?
Truthfully ~ Not until about July or August (about 5-6 months after I started). I started getting steady traffic and went from a couple hundred dollars in profit to over $500. Then in September I exceeded my goal of $800 … bringing in $822.
6. What was your lowest point in your early stages with BANS?
Well, within a 1-2 month period of my getting started eBay (and BANS) went through a lot of changes. The CJ program was dissolved and eBay moved operations in-house, we had a BANS version upgrade, several eBay category changes, PepperJam arrived on the scene, and the BANS site and forum went through a complete overhaul.
This might not have been a problem for someone with a lot of programming experience but for someone like me who is not very techie it was completely overwhelming. I had all kinds of problems completing the upgrades on my stores and I guess I felt silly showing up to the forums all flustered and upset so I tried to fix the errors myself. This was not very smart. There are a lot of very nice and helpful people on the BANS forums and I eventually swallowed my pride and got some help.
What I didn’t know at the time was that most all of the problems I’d had were due to crummy web hosting. When I would ftp the files over … not everything would transfer resulting in missing files. I actually just about quit (you probably remember that “post” LOL) and I’m so glad I stuck with it (and got new hosting!).
7. Have you done any Wordpress BANS integrations and if so how are they doing?
Yes. I’ve done two new stores using your WP on root theme and I just love it! These stores both indexed immediately and are doing very well in the search engines.
I feel so much better about having the blog on the front end and then having the store integrated. We all know that Google loves WordPress blogs and for me this just reconfirms that. The blog format also encourages me to update the content on a more regular basis. There was also a recent decision by eZine Articles to reject articles that link to a page with auction links. I’ve seen several BANS folks reporting success submitting the blog pages attached to their BANS stores.
The other thing that’s great is that I can do a blog post on something related to my niche that I wouldn’t have necessarily created a whole store page for. An example of this would be I did a blog post on some Halloween jewelry on my niche jewelry site. I wouldn’t have added a store page for those items but instead I was able to use eBay tools/widgets to add some auction links in my blog post.
8. Do you remember the moment when the light came on for you about niche site building?
I think the light came on for me the very minute I saw the traffic in analytics and the clicks and bids in my eBay stats. LOL
9. What single thing would you tell every newbie or person who is struggling in the early stage of niche store building?
Well, this is not a get-rich-quick business and the longer you stick with it the more successful you will be. I personally believe in doing a very thorough job on each and every store … as opposed to busting out dozens of stores that don’t produce.
Learn all you can about keyword research and about SEO and put a lot of thought into each and every page of your store. For me … I prefer quality over quantity for sure.
10. Where do you see yourself one year from today?
I hope to continue building up my portfolio of BANS stores. I think I’m comfortable putting up a new store every couple of months. I have 5 stores now so I’d like to have about a dozen or so successful stores by then.
I am also starting to realize the importance of diversifying my online income streams. I would like my BANS business to be one of several ways that I make money online. I’m going to continue with my other existing businesses, I will continue to add quality content to my blog, I will learn as much as I can about affiliate marketing, I will continue with (and grow) my GPT (get paid to) income, and I’d also like to learn about building some PopShop sites. I think it’s important that we don’t put all of our eggs in one basket.
One year from now I’d like to be making a full-time income online (at least $60,000) … and I hope to still enjoy what I do for a living.
1. Who is Suzanne Franco?
I am a single mom to three amazing kids. They are the reason I work so hard to make money from home … I don’t want to miss a single thing in their lives. I was born and raised in Southern California and we relocated to the Texas Hill Country about 7 years ago. I enjoy playing tennis (I’ve played since I could walk LOL) and anything in or on the water … boating, wakeboarding, swimming, floating (it’s a Texas thing), the river and the beach.
2. What web background or knowledge did you have prior to finding BANS?
I’d say prior to finding BANS (in February) I had some decent experience with SEO and web promoting but I was (and still am) lacking some technical skills. I had a hard time understanding ftp, permissions, troubleshooting any type of error, with adding or changing themes, etc. Not only did I not understand any of this … it would stress me out completely I would become somewhat paralyzed. I would sometimes be afraid to do anything program related to my sites because I feared that something would go wrong.
I think (hope) I’m over the anxiety of dealing with some of the technical things that are involved with setting up and customizing my BANS stores. I’ve finally realized that I haven’t completely destroyed any of my sites so far and if something does go wrong … I can always ask for help. In fact, thanks again for all of the help you’ve personally given me with my BANS business and with the templates I purchased.
3. What led you to the BANS software?
I read about it on the Wealthy Affiliate forum.
4. What was the hardest part you found getting a BANS store going?
This hasn’t really been a huge problem for me because I enjoy the type of work involved: SEO, writing, building backlinks, involvement on forums, classified ads, Squidoo lenses, etc.
I have one store that is huge (over 450 pages – too big for my taste BTW) and I’ve had the most trouble getting that one going. It indexed right away and then went down to zero pages … and then to one page. Slowly the pages showed back up in Google but I’ve never been able to get the search traffic that I seem to get from my other stores. I feel I’ve done a good job with the SEO but I don’t focus on the promotion work like I should.
5. When did you know that BANS really works?
Truthfully ~ Not until about July or August (about 5-6 months after I started). I started getting steady traffic and went from a couple hundred dollars in profit to over $500. Then in September I exceeded my goal of $800 … bringing in $822.
6. What was your lowest point in your early stages with BANS?
Well, within a 1-2 month period of my getting started eBay (and BANS) went through a lot of changes. The CJ program was dissolved and eBay moved operations in-house, we had a BANS version upgrade, several eBay category changes, PepperJam arrived on the scene, and the BANS site and forum went through a complete overhaul.
This might not have been a problem for someone with a lot of programming experience but for someone like me who is not very techie it was completely overwhelming. I had all kinds of problems completing the upgrades on my stores and I guess I felt silly showing up to the forums all flustered and upset so I tried to fix the errors myself. This was not very smart. There are a lot of very nice and helpful people on the BANS forums and I eventually swallowed my pride and got some help.
What I didn’t know at the time was that most all of the problems I’d had were due to crummy web hosting. When I would ftp the files over … not everything would transfer resulting in missing files. I actually just about quit (you probably remember that “post” LOL) and I’m so glad I stuck with it (and got new hosting!).
7. Have you done any Wordpress BANS integrations and if so how are they doing?
Yes. I’ve done two new stores using your WP on root theme and I just love it! These stores both indexed immediately and are doing very well in the search engines.
I feel so much better about having the blog on the front end and then having the store integrated. We all know that Google loves WordPress blogs and for me this just reconfirms that. The blog format also encourages me to update the content on a more regular basis. There was also a recent decision by eZine Articles to reject articles that link to a page with auction links. I’ve seen several BANS folks reporting success submitting the blog pages attached to their BANS stores.
The other thing that’s great is that I can do a blog post on something related to my niche that I wouldn’t have necessarily created a whole store page for. An example of this would be I did a blog post on some Halloween jewelry on my niche jewelry site. I wouldn’t have added a store page for those items but instead I was able to use eBay tools/widgets to add some auction links in my blog post.
8. Do you remember the moment when the light came on for you about niche site building?
I think the light came on for me the very minute I saw the traffic in analytics and the clicks and bids in my eBay stats. LOL
9. What single thing would you tell every newbie or person who is struggling in the early stage of niche store building?
Well, this is not a get-rich-quick business and the longer you stick with it the more successful you will be. I personally believe in doing a very thorough job on each and every store … as opposed to busting out dozens of stores that don’t produce.
Learn all you can about keyword research and about SEO and put a lot of thought into each and every page of your store. For me … I prefer quality over quantity for sure.
10. Where do you see yourself one year from today?
I hope to continue building up my portfolio of BANS stores. I think I’m comfortable putting up a new store every couple of months. I have 5 stores now so I’d like to have about a dozen or so successful stores by then.
I am also starting to realize the importance of diversifying my online income streams. I would like my BANS business to be one of several ways that I make money online. I’m going to continue with my other existing businesses, I will continue to add quality content to my blog, I will learn as much as I can about affiliate marketing, I will continue with (and grow) my GPT (get paid to) income, and I’d also like to learn about building some PopShop sites. I think it’s important that we don’t put all of our eggs in one basket.
One year from now I’d like to be making a full-time income online (at least $60,000) … and I hope to still enjoy what I do for a living.
Monday, October 6, 2008
EBay stock at 6-year low on acquisitions, job cut news
Thought I would post the latest news on eBay, their stock and job cut news. This is not good news for the auction giant and will hopefully serve as a wake up call. Ebay has also agreed to buy Bill Me Later and the deal is expected to be completed by year-end.
Some links...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/10/06/daily11.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0637521720081006
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/06/technology/ebay-bill-me.fortune/?postversion=2008100614
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hs6MOE8654Dx7HXF9jCctyCwm8xAD93L62CO0
Both Google and Amazon are said to be courting eBay's sellers and its 71 million unique visitors every month. Google is testing the display of "shopping results" within regular search results that with a single click redirect people to merchants' sites instead of to eBay. Amazon is charging sellers a flat $40 monthly fee to list an unlimited number of items and grants many of them the right to send goods using its wildly popular free shipping service, Amazon Prime. In July it launched a checkout system to rival PayPal.
Some links...
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/10/06/daily11.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0637521720081006
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/06/technology/ebay-bill-me.fortune/?postversion=2008100614
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hs6MOE8654Dx7HXF9jCctyCwm8xAD93L62CO0
Both Google and Amazon are said to be courting eBay's sellers and its 71 million unique visitors every month. Google is testing the display of "shopping results" within regular search results that with a single click redirect people to merchants' sites instead of to eBay. Amazon is charging sellers a flat $40 monthly fee to list an unlimited number of items and grants many of them the right to send goods using its wildly popular free shipping service, Amazon Prime. In July it launched a checkout system to rival PayPal.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Finding Your Server Path And PHP Settings
More than once I will be working on coding or fixing others BANS sites, I run into different type servers that utilize the path to the files different. A good simple code for this and to see what other PHP info is on the server, you can use the code below:
<?php
phpinfo ();
?>
Just copy it into a notepad file and save as serverinfo.php and upload it to whatever directory you are looking for the path info on. Then call it in a browser with http://www.yourdomainname.com/folderyouuploadeditto/serverinfo.php
It will also tell you a slew of other info as well without having to break and login into your cPanel or hunting elsewhere. You never know when you will need it, but it does come in handy.
<?php
phpinfo ();
?>
Just copy it into a notepad file and save as serverinfo.php and upload it to whatever directory you are looking for the path info on. Then call it in a browser with http://www.yourdomainname.com/folderyouuploadeditto/serverinfo.php
It will also tell you a slew of other info as well without having to break and login into your cPanel or hunting elsewhere. You never know when you will need it, but it does come in handy.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Effective SEO Strategies For Writing Blog Posts
Your main goal for running a blog is to make money, and for the long term success of your blog you need to concentrate on getting as many high ranking blog posts in the search engines as you can.
To start out with your blog will not have very many backlinks or page rank to help escalate your posts into high ranking positions. The main task is to target keyword phrases which have little or no competition in the search engines. One main drawback is that these keywords are unlikely to attract very much traffic, and so you have to focus on writing posts which target many various keyword phrases.
The single most important search engine optimization tip to use when you are writing a blog post is to choose a primary keyword phrase and then add as many related words and phrases as possible.
Keyword density is not something you should worry about. Rather than stuffing your blog post with your chosen primary keyword phrase, you should use words which have the same meaning (also known as synonyms) and add related type phrases (or secondary keyword phrases). The days of creating a single blog post for each keyword phrase are gone.
You can use the WordTracker free trial to find keywords which you have researched (i.e. they are searched for regularly, but have little or no competition). Once you have identified useable keywords, use the Google Keyword tool to find related type phrases which Google relates with your main keywords. Enter your main keyword into the "Enter one keyword or phrase per line: " text box. Make sure the "Use synonyms" check box is ticked and then click "Get keyword ideas".
The Google Keywords tool will then show a list of keywords that it thinks are similar to your main keyword. Save these keywords in either a text format or as a .csv file which you can open using a spreadsheet like Excel. Go through each keyword phrase and delete those that have no relevance to the blog post you intend to write.
When you write your blog post you need to include as many of these related keywords as you possibly can, but make sure your post has a logical flow to it and your included phrases makes sense to the reader. You should write post for your readers first - make your post informative and a breeze to read.
Include your primary keyword phrase in your blog post title, but make sure the post content closely resembles your chosen title. You should also include your primary keyword phrase once or twice in the blog post content, and include the other related phrases you have settled on, for example, if your main keyword phrase is "increase website traffic" and the Google Keywords tool returned these related phrases below:
-improve website ranking
-top website traffic
-get website traffic
-targeted website traffic
-guaranteed website traffic
-your website traffic
Here is how you could use them in your blog post title:
Dramatically Increase Website Traffic and Improve Website Ranking with These Top Website Traffic Tips
In your post you would refererence all the keyword phrases once or twice and back them up with even more related phrases, for example: website traffic -> website hits -> unique hits -> site traffic. Don't keep repeating the exact same phrase over and over in your blog post content.
If you have written other blog posts which also targeted some of the similar secondary phrases, link to them using the secondary keyword phrase as the anchor link text. Linking to related themed posts benefits your blog readers because they can find more info, but it also gives your posts a SEO boost from the internal "in context" linking.
One very important point to keep in mind is that 30% to 40% of all search engine searches are one time long tail phrases which the search engines do not have any matching results to display. The actual results shown will be the pages which the search engines deem are the closest match. When writing your blog posts take this into consideration and make as many variations as you can of the keyword phrases you are targeting.
Pay close attention to your blog post slug as WordPress uses this to create a file name for each post. Make sure the primary keyword phrase is near the start of the slug. By default, WordPress uses the blog post title as the post slug, but it removes the apostrophes, quotation marks, and other characters.
For example, using the title in the "increase website traffic" example, WordPress would automatically name the blog post slug:
dramatically-increase-website-traffic-and-improve-website-ranking-with-these -top-website-traffic-tips
To write a new blog post slug, simply rewrite it with hyphens between each word, for example:
increase-website-traffic-improve-ranking-top-promotion-tips
Make sure you change your blog post slug BEFORE you publish the blog post, and don't include unneeded words like a, the, but, my, with etc. Changing your blog post slug after you have published it may cause problems with the posts permalinks and result in a 404 File Not Found error.
To start out with your blog will not have very many backlinks or page rank to help escalate your posts into high ranking positions. The main task is to target keyword phrases which have little or no competition in the search engines. One main drawback is that these keywords are unlikely to attract very much traffic, and so you have to focus on writing posts which target many various keyword phrases.
The single most important search engine optimization tip to use when you are writing a blog post is to choose a primary keyword phrase and then add as many related words and phrases as possible.
Keyword density is not something you should worry about. Rather than stuffing your blog post with your chosen primary keyword phrase, you should use words which have the same meaning (also known as synonyms) and add related type phrases (or secondary keyword phrases). The days of creating a single blog post for each keyword phrase are gone.
You can use the WordTracker free trial to find keywords which you have researched (i.e. they are searched for regularly, but have little or no competition). Once you have identified useable keywords, use the Google Keyword tool to find related type phrases which Google relates with your main keywords. Enter your main keyword into the "Enter one keyword or phrase per line: " text box. Make sure the "Use synonyms" check box is ticked and then click "Get keyword ideas".
The Google Keywords tool will then show a list of keywords that it thinks are similar to your main keyword. Save these keywords in either a text format or as a .csv file which you can open using a spreadsheet like Excel. Go through each keyword phrase and delete those that have no relevance to the blog post you intend to write.
When you write your blog post you need to include as many of these related keywords as you possibly can, but make sure your post has a logical flow to it and your included phrases makes sense to the reader. You should write post for your readers first - make your post informative and a breeze to read.
Include your primary keyword phrase in your blog post title, but make sure the post content closely resembles your chosen title. You should also include your primary keyword phrase once or twice in the blog post content, and include the other related phrases you have settled on, for example, if your main keyword phrase is "increase website traffic" and the Google Keywords tool returned these related phrases below:
-improve website ranking
-top website traffic
-get website traffic
-targeted website traffic
-guaranteed website traffic
-your website traffic
Here is how you could use them in your blog post title:
Dramatically Increase Website Traffic and Improve Website Ranking with These Top Website Traffic Tips
In your post you would refererence all the keyword phrases once or twice and back them up with even more related phrases, for example: website traffic -> website hits -> unique hits -> site traffic. Don't keep repeating the exact same phrase over and over in your blog post content.
If you have written other blog posts which also targeted some of the similar secondary phrases, link to them using the secondary keyword phrase as the anchor link text. Linking to related themed posts benefits your blog readers because they can find more info, but it also gives your posts a SEO boost from the internal "in context" linking.
One very important point to keep in mind is that 30% to 40% of all search engine searches are one time long tail phrases which the search engines do not have any matching results to display. The actual results shown will be the pages which the search engines deem are the closest match. When writing your blog posts take this into consideration and make as many variations as you can of the keyword phrases you are targeting.
Pay close attention to your blog post slug as WordPress uses this to create a file name for each post. Make sure the primary keyword phrase is near the start of the slug. By default, WordPress uses the blog post title as the post slug, but it removes the apostrophes, quotation marks, and other characters.
For example, using the title in the "increase website traffic" example, WordPress would automatically name the blog post slug:
dramatically-increase-website-traffic-and-improve-website-ranking-with-these -top-website-traffic-tips
To write a new blog post slug, simply rewrite it with hyphens between each word, for example:
increase-website-traffic-improve-ranking-top-promotion-tips
Make sure you change your blog post slug BEFORE you publish the blog post, and don't include unneeded words like a, the, but, my, with etc. Changing your blog post slug after you have published it may cause problems with the posts permalinks and result in a 404 File Not Found error.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Nicheing Small While Selling Large
I have found myself doing a bunch of custom Wordpress BANS templates for customers as of late and it seems several are getting the right idea on their newer sites and it is good to see. It is OK to niche small and sell large as long as it is related. An example would be if you had a niche site about Bloodhound dogs. Your content and blog postings would of course be primarily about the Bloodhound breed with stories, training, history, videos and photos of Bloodhounds. Now it only makes sense to sell items other than just Bloodhound items. Dogs items and accessories are a pretty large category and by focusing in on just one breed in content will better engage customers and perhaps result in repeat customers to your dog store. Google would expect this items as well as it would be latent symantic related. Do not be afraid to niche small and sell large and always ask yourself if Google would think the items are related to what your nicheing about.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
October Category Changes On Tap For Ebay
I wanted to alert everyone to some important eBay category number changes for the month of October. Make sure to check your BANS stores if you sell in these categories.
Wordpress Forum Message Board Plugin
If you have a couple of niche sites that you have converted to the BANS Wordpress templates, there might be time when you want to build a community with a forum and message board. I have been playing with a few forum Wordpress plugins for a while and found that Simple Press Forum plugin is the best one out there to fit my needs. It installs very easily and has a ton of features as well. Below is a list of features from the site:
* Supports WordPress version 2.04 to the latest 2.5.1
* Fully integrated with WordPress user registrations and logins
* Installs on WordPress MU
* Creates ‘pretty/seo friendly’ permalinks
* Underpinned by a powerful user and permission system
* Can create private forums
* Forums can be ‘Members Only’ or can allow for Guests
* Private Messaging system
* Admins can allow for post moderation (approval)
* Build in Search tool
* Fully customisable skins and icons
* Most rendering functions are ‘pluggable’
* Member Profile updating and can change own passwords
* Supports Page Password
* Choice of Editors (TinyMCE or QuickTag)
* Options Signatures, Signature Image, Avatars, and Rankings
* A variery of Template Tags - recent posts etc
* Progammable Hooks for user extension
* Optional Spam Prevention tools
* Optional Cookies to track Guests and Members
* Fully Localised for language support
* Optional and various RSS feeds and email subscription to topics
* Various display options to suit your needs and theme
* An Admin toolset to perform many tasks from within the forum itself
* Blog Posts and Forum Topics can be linked
* Support for the Democracy Polls plugin
* Support for the Gravatars 2 plugin
* Forum Statistics - incuding who is online
* Complete uninstall/removal option
Running a great forum is not easy and I would not go installing this on each and every site you own. Try it on one you can spend the most time on and understand how to manage a forum properly while at the same time how to moderate it as well. I run and moderate a few forums myself and it can become a job the more members you get.
* Supports WordPress version 2.04 to the latest 2.5.1
* Fully integrated with WordPress user registrations and logins
* Installs on WordPress MU
* Creates ‘pretty/seo friendly’ permalinks
* Underpinned by a powerful user and permission system
* Can create private forums
* Forums can be ‘Members Only’ or can allow for Guests
* Private Messaging system
* Admins can allow for post moderation (approval)
* Build in Search tool
* Fully customisable skins and icons
* Most rendering functions are ‘pluggable’
* Member Profile updating and can change own passwords
* Supports Page Password
* Choice of Editors (TinyMCE or QuickTag)
* Options Signatures, Signature Image, Avatars, and Rankings
* A variery of Template Tags - recent posts etc
* Progammable Hooks for user extension
* Optional Spam Prevention tools
* Optional Cookies to track Guests and Members
* Fully Localised for language support
* Optional and various RSS feeds and email subscription to topics
* Various display options to suit your needs and theme
* An Admin toolset to perform many tasks from within the forum itself
* Blog Posts and Forum Topics can be linked
* Support for the Democracy Polls plugin
* Support for the Gravatars 2 plugin
* Forum Statistics - incuding who is online
* Complete uninstall/removal option
Running a great forum is not easy and I would not go installing this on each and every site you own. Try it on one you can spend the most time on and understand how to manage a forum properly while at the same time how to moderate it as well. I run and moderate a few forums myself and it can become a job the more members you get.
Are Surfers Buying What You Are Selling?
OK, You are getting conversions via EPN, but just how engaging are you with what you are trying to sell? Sure it is nice the cookie gets dropped and follows the surfer around and you get credit for everything that surfer purchases, but did that surfer buy in your niche? I like extra sales as much as the next person, but you really out to be in the 80% range to be properly engaging the surfer. (The 80% number is based on my own stats) I have about 20% of my sales that are not even closely related to the niche door the surfer walked through, but around 80% of the people that walk through a particular niche door I have open, buy in that niche or very close to it. If you are not in this ballpark, I highly suggest looking at what you are doing and where your traffic is coming from and what they are searching for. By properly engaging them that way, you are more likely to get a return buyer if they found an item in your niche that they indeed were searching for. Returning shoppers are considered very engaged.
I reference back to a tool I have mentioned before from my fellow BANS forum moderator, Sonjay. She has a great EPN reporting tool that you can even upload to your own server to see EXACTLY what people are buying and how closely related it is to what you are aiming to sell. Everyone should have a copy of this and use it to keep track of sales. For slower stores, just use it 2-3 times a month for larger date ranges to get a clearer picture of your percent.
What is your percent of closely sold items related to your niche?
I reference back to a tool I have mentioned before from my fellow BANS forum moderator, Sonjay. She has a great EPN reporting tool that you can even upload to your own server to see EXACTLY what people are buying and how closely related it is to what you are aiming to sell. Everyone should have a copy of this and use it to keep track of sales. For slower stores, just use it 2-3 times a month for larger date ranges to get a clearer picture of your percent.
What is your percent of closely sold items related to your niche?
Stop Fighting It And Start Writing It
Unique original content, yes I am back harping on it again. People email me with their sites daily asking what they are doing wrong and 8 times out of 10 the glaring fact is the site is thin. No content or the content they have is pulled from wiki or an article directory.
Folks I fought this for the longest time and cost myself precious time in the process. You have to have content on your site and it MUST be original. You can continue to fight this or you can finally stop fighting it and get with the program. You can easily use Need An Article or hire a writer from Digital Point or various other writer forums or services or even write it yourself.
On top of blogging here, I blog at least 5 other sites of mine a day on rotation. When I want full, on topic articles, I either write them myself or use Need An Article. It depends on my knowledge of the subject and my time allotment.
If you continue to use auto content creators, splogger mechanisms or article spinners, you are only hurting yourself. I have been there and done that. The sooner you stop fighting the fact that not having unique original content is the way to go, the sooner you will start seeing the results in your stats and conversions. Even if you had to 10 dollars an article for 10 great articles, that is only 100 dollars investment and that will return itself back to you easily. Organic search results from the SERPS is a powerful thing and unique content can grab its share of it.
Stop Fighting It and Start Writing It!!!
Folks I fought this for the longest time and cost myself precious time in the process. You have to have content on your site and it MUST be original. You can continue to fight this or you can finally stop fighting it and get with the program. You can easily use Need An Article or hire a writer from Digital Point or various other writer forums or services or even write it yourself.
On top of blogging here, I blog at least 5 other sites of mine a day on rotation. When I want full, on topic articles, I either write them myself or use Need An Article. It depends on my knowledge of the subject and my time allotment.
If you continue to use auto content creators, splogger mechanisms or article spinners, you are only hurting yourself. I have been there and done that. The sooner you stop fighting the fact that not having unique original content is the way to go, the sooner you will start seeing the results in your stats and conversions. Even if you had to 10 dollars an article for 10 great articles, that is only 100 dollars investment and that will return itself back to you easily. Organic search results from the SERPS is a powerful thing and unique content can grab its share of it.
Stop Fighting It and Start Writing It!!!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Free Meta Tag Analyzer Tool
As many know I am a big fan of the free instant position tool and have mentioned it in a ton of previous post. I have come across another great meta tag analyzer tool to my liking that passes the mustard as well. The tool analyzes every meta tag of a designated page and offers suggestions to improve them. It looks at the length and relevancy of the title, description and keyword meta tags. The tool also looks at the size and load times of the page as well. Make sure to add this one to your bookmarks and use it regularly.
Update On The Pepperjam Netshops Partnership And Popshops
In my earlier post today I referenced the Pepperjam and Netshops partnership. I called both Melissa from Pepperjam and Sara from Netshops with a few questions.
The datafeeds for the Netshops stores are in the process of being converted over for Pepperjam users, also they are working on also partnering these feeds up with the Popshops program as well. This will enable the use of the Popshops Wordpress plugin which will be very beneficial to all.
My biggest suggestion would be to get signed up for Pepperjam now, so you are ready. Netshops is also in talks with adding several more stores as well. I will keep you updated on all this as it happens.
The datafeeds for the Netshops stores are in the process of being converted over for Pepperjam users, also they are working on also partnering these feeds up with the Popshops program as well. This will enable the use of the Popshops Wordpress plugin which will be very beneficial to all.
My biggest suggestion would be to get signed up for Pepperjam now, so you are ready. Netshops is also in talks with adding several more stores as well. I will keep you updated on all this as it happens.
Luck Is A Dividend Of Sweat
The great, late, McDonalds guru, Ray Kroc, was once quoted saying:
"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."
Never have truer words been spoken in relation to successful niche store and site building. The more you put into it, the more you will reap. You will make your share of mistakes, I know I surely have in the past in building stores the wrong way. You MUST keep at it and keep learning the little dos and don't s along the way. It is all a process, from your very first store on. Do not expect to just build a site without any content and it reward you. You have to put in the extra work. Do extensive keyword research, fatten up that site with content and keep a rigid backlinking program going.
I am often asked by private message and email if a regular BANS site can produce a healthy income. The answer is yes, depending on the niche of course. You do not have to have Wordpress integrated in or even have a blog attached as long as you are adding content. Does Wordpress integration help? Absolutely, but consider it a tool like everything else. I like to say that integrating Wordpress with BANS is like adding a huge souped up 351 Cleveland engine into a 1969 Mustang Mach I that came with a Windsor engine. There was nothing wrong with Windsor engine and the car still ran great, but NOW it runs and sounds much better and is even faster.
The point you need to get across in your head is that it does work either way, but it takes sweat, patience and some trial and error. Keep on sweating and the luck will follow along with the earnings.
Pepperjam Announces Exclusive Partnership With Netshops
From the press release: This is a HUGE announcement in my honest opinion.
Pepperjam Network has announced the successful launch of well over 100 niche retail affiliate programs through an exclusive partnership with NetShops, an Internet Retailer Hot 100 company.
NetShops has leveraged the power of the Internet to create a unique group of specialty stores. The online retailer owns and operates more than 100 stores, each focusing on a specific niche. For example, Hammocks.com sells just hammocks, WorldGlobes.com sells globes and DayBeds.com sells daybeds.
In 2006, Inc. magazine named NetShops the 13th fastest-growing company in America. It's also No. 120 on Internet Retailer magazine's Top 500 list. To date, NetShops stores have served more than 1 million customers.
To generate links and pepperjamADS for any or all NetShops merchants, as well as hundreds of other top affiliate programs and lead generation offers please visit www.pepperjamnetwork.com
Pepperjam Network has announced the successful launch of well over 100 niche retail affiliate programs through an exclusive partnership with NetShops, an Internet Retailer Hot 100 company.
NetShops has leveraged the power of the Internet to create a unique group of specialty stores. The online retailer owns and operates more than 100 stores, each focusing on a specific niche. For example, Hammocks.com sells just hammocks, WorldGlobes.com sells globes and DayBeds.com sells daybeds.
In 2006, Inc. magazine named NetShops the 13th fastest-growing company in America. It's also No. 120 on Internet Retailer magazine's Top 500 list. To date, NetShops stores have served more than 1 million customers.
To generate links and pepperjamADS for any or all NetShops merchants, as well as hundreds of other top affiliate programs and lead generation offers please visit www.pepperjamnetwork.com
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