Attacking On-Site Articles

When planning out my articles on my sites, I like to not only use the Google keyword tool, but answer sites like Answers and Yahoo Answers. I will start with my base keyword or phrase and drill down from there. I am looking for the questions people are asking in my niche. I will compile a small list of other keyword phrases and go back to Google Keyword tool and see if I can find a hole in the niche with limited competition. I also will search for related smaller searched phrases as well to include in the article to enable me to attack other organic searches.

Another method is to search article directories like Ezinearticles and Goarticles and find articles already on the subject and see if I can pick up any phrases I might have missed as well. Often times these articles can be attacked from a different direction and I can use them as research fodder for my own articles. Once I know what phrases to attack and then set out to write my 400-500 word article or if outsourcing, I form up my list of needs for my writers. This will take a little work for sure, but the research pays off with good quality surfers for my niche.

Bahoo Or Ying? How This Affects You!

If you have not heard by now, Yahoo and Microsoft have teamed up with one another web search wise. Both will still be separate sites, but in short, Microsoft will now power Yahoo search while Yahoo will handle the premium search advertisers. Bing will be the algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo.

So what does this all mean? Basically, if you are ranking well already in Bing, you are probably on the right track. If you rank better in Yahoo than Bing, you might have some worries. Yahoo is still very manipulative from an SEO standpoint whereas Bing is improving. While it may take some time for Bing algorithm to get implemented into Yahoo, you should probably start learning more about how sites are ranking in Bing.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Site Explorer offered by Yahoo. It is a great tool to use to find out who is linking to who. You can rest assure that something will come out to replace it. Might be third party, might be something run by Bing. Jury is still out on that.

All in all both Google and the new Ying or Bahoo want to return the most relative result to the surfer. If you build sites that fill needs and answer the surfers needs, you will survive. Continue to work on quality backlinks and build sites others will want to link to and all should be well.

For a much deeper look at this, there is a great post today on SEOMoz by Rand Fishkin that breaks this down much further than I can. all in all, I am not to worried about and if you are building sites the right way, you should sleep well also.

The Description Meta Tag Is For Descriptions

That title is about as simple as I can put it. I also like to call the description meta tag, my selling tag. Picture it as a 160 character Twitter post. Describe and sell the surfer on what they will find on that particular page. If it is the home page, tell them what they will find on the entire site. If you are reviewing and selling XWZ brown widgets on a page, form it up in the description.

Now just using the description tag does not guarantee ranking higher, in fact, the search engines seem to be moving farther away from it as a ranking factor. Many pages, especially with Wordpress rank well without the description meta tag even being included. The SERPS have been pulling the most relevant text from the page to show under the listing in most cases for a while, but it is good to have that tag filled out for returned searches that DO find it as the best match and most relevant text. The search engines have been ignoring the meta keyword tag for a while, but I still fill it out as well, it takes 3 seconds to do.

Have a good look at your current description meta tags on your sites. Is every page DESCRIBING and selling what is on that page? Great descriptions may entice a surfer to click your link in the search results instead of your competitors ranked a few spots ahead of you. Just because it is losing it's relevance for ranking, does not mean it is a useless tag. Any edge you may get is an edge regardless of how small it may be.

Commission Junction Form Buttons Fun

I have been working with integrating in some Commission Junction product links into some of BANS sites on pages that I have exact product matches for. At the same time I just want to give the surfer an option other than eBay without cluttering up the page. Lately this form buttons I have been making have been converting quite nicely. I merely strip down the HTML links given in the "Get Links" portion in for certain product in the CJ admin section.

Below is the code it gives me:

<form method="get" action="http://www.dpbolvw.net/interactive" target="_top">
<table border="0" width="600" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="10%"><img src="http://us-preview.ebooks.com/previews/000/000300/000300287/000300287-sml-1.jpg" border="0" alt="How to Make Money Online with eBay, Yahoo!, and Google"/></td>
<td valign="top" >
<p><b><font size="4">How to Make Money Online with eBay, Yahoo!, and Google</font></b></p>
<p><font size="2">Groundbreaking strategies for reaching millions of customers online and boosting traffic, sales, and profits This full-color, seminar-in-a-book presents a proven plan for maximizing your online profits by leveraging the top three services: eBay, Yahoo! and Google. You?lllearn to: expand an existing eBay business to reach millions of targeted buyers; Open a Yahoo! store to build a thriving direct-to-customer business; and send more customers to their online retail business with improved search engine placement and targeted adword buys using Google. How to Make Money Online with eBay,Yahoo!, and Google explains how to use cross-merchandising and integration strategies to promote sales and manage inventory across multiple sales channels.</font></p>
<hr>
<input type="hidden" name="pid" value="0000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="aid" value="00000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="cjsku" value="000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="http://www.ebooks.com/cj.asp?IID=300287"/>
<input type="submit" value="Buy"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

<img src="http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-2811192-10281551" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

I strip out everything except for the form tags and input tags and change the "Buy" value to whatever I want it to be. This makes for an unobtrusive ad of sorts.

Below is the stripped down version:

<form method="get" action="http://www.jdoqocy.com/interactive" target="_blank">
<input type="hidden" name="pid" value="0000000">
<input type="hidden" name="aid" value="00000000">
<input type="hidden" name="cjsku" value="000000">
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="http://www.ebooks.com/cj.asp?IID=139648">
<input type="submit" value="Check Price On eBooks.com">
</form>

And here is the finished button:

5 Tips For Buying Original Content From Services

If you are extremely gifted at writing your own original content and have all the time in the world, this post is not for you. If you are one of the niche site builders who needs to outsource original content for your site, you may want to read on. I have used many sources for buying content over the years, including Need An Article, Text Broker and several other independent writers. Here are some tips on getting exactly what you want for your sites from these services.

Know Exactly What You Are Needing - Merely giving a subject, product name or model is not enough. You need to let the writers know EXACTLY the format you are looking for. I often times will write a few myself, just to give the author an idea of what I am looking for. If you can not write it, find an example elsewhere on the web from another site to submit to the service. The more detailed you can be, the more likely you will get back what you are looking for. Never leave it to the writers discretion. It is your site, not theirs.

Provide Sources Of Information - Not all writers can write on just anything. The less they have to look for sources of quality information related to a topic or product, the better and more factual the content will be. The faster the turn around as well. Try to pre-research everything for the writer and send them links when you can.

Do Not Be Afraid To Reject Or Ask For Rewrites - Many new content purchasers are afraid to decline or ask for rewrites. Remember that your are the customer. Run it through a spell checker and Copyscape type service before accepting.

Experiment With Different Writers - Some writers are better at articles and some are better at product descriptions. Do not be afraid of trying out a few different writers to find a few that meet your needs.

Nail Down Your Favorites - I have six writers through various services that I now know meet all of my needs. Once you find a good one, keep them and keep them busy. Praise them on excellent work if the service has a feedback option. Great original content writers are out there. They are gold when you find a few that meet your needs. They are like geese that lay golden eggs.

If you follow these 5 tips above, you will not only save yourself a ton of time, but you will be getting the best return on your money and time. I still write a ton of articles myself as I have more time than most, but on newer sites that need product descriptions, I will farm them out in a heartbeat.

How Navigable Is Your Site?

I have been revamping some older sites to make them more navigable mainly for the surfer, but also for the search engines. I am also integrating landing pages on sites that previously did not have them. This is covered a little bit in the new BANS guide, but a great example of a landing page is here.

The page is tailored around Nike Forged Golf Irons and easy for the surfer to get exactly where they are wanting to go with the fewest amount of clicks. Should the surfer be generically looking for non specific Nike Forged Golf Irons and where to land on this page, they now have 3 easy choices to better suit what they are looking for. The navigation on the right sidebar will easily let them switch to another landing page as well by brand. You do not have to link from every page on your site to every page on you site. The surfer and the search engines do not want this. They want a clear and easy navigable path without thinking. By creating an easier navigable site, they have also added 16 additional pages of content, so to speak and created 16 more doors into the site as well. So check your sites navigability and add landing pages where you can. It indeed helps all the way around.

Saturday Around The Web July 25th

Happy Saturday to everyone. Here is my weekly segment of interesting things I bookmarked from this past week. Sorry so late today, my nap ran longer than expected. Saturday is when I catch my body up from burning the candle at all 3 ends. Enjoy this weeks links.

Twitcam is a free service to posts your streaming video description and link to Twitter for all your followers to see. While streaming, you can chat with your viewers via Twitter right from your broadcast page. There is no sign up and no software required and it is 100% free. All you need is a web cam.

While we are on video, Wez Pyke has a great post on how to make the perfect screencast. He includes some links to free software to use as well.

Nicholas Carlson and Kamelia Angelova have a great chart on how people share content on the web via social networks.

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger gives proof how SEO helped his forum just by using the VBSEO plugin for his VBulletin powered forum.

Wondering how to promote ClickBank products? Here is a free ClickBank case study guide I came across.

Finally, Chris Garrett has some great traffic tips in four post on his forum. Worth a read.

Forgot to add Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation. this link is probably the best one today.