October 21st, 2009 | 
Author: I feel the urge for a new challenge again! This challenge is going to be me trying to get a brand new site indexed and ranked in Google’s top 10 for a few competitive keywords within 5 months from today.
“Big deal, I can do that already!” You might be saying, but here is the twist..
I will not…
- Use any form of article marketing to get backlinks.
- Do any form of blog commenting of any kind.
- Contact any web publishers asking for backlinks or exchanges.
- Use any linking schemes or backlink scripts of any kind.
- Use any blackhat techniques whatsoever.
In fact, this is going to be the extremist form of white hat promotion of a brand new site that anyone could imagine, it will be so white hat that Matt Cutts will be very proud of me!
I will be…
- Writing unique content for my site.
- Using video on my site.
- Using audio on my site.
- Using link bait in the form of giveaways on my site.
- Ensure that every piece of content on my site will be about creating a buzz in the niche I choose!
- Publicizing the content on my site using forums, newsgroups, press releases.
- Getting all my on page SEO spot on.. (Internal linking structure, usabilty pages, META stuff etc..)
Before anybody asks, there is absolutely no way that I will give out the URL of the site to anyone for the obvious reasons. In fact everything will be done with brand new hosting, pen names etc.. It will be untraceable for the super sleuths out there
I will be detailing every step I take here in this thread though and going into more detail on my 100 bucks challenge blog.
Here is a list of initial steps that I will be taking..
1. Locate a good, competitive niche.
2. Buy a brand new domain and new hosting for it.
3. Sign up to as many niche relevant forums, newsgroups, web 2.0 groups as possible (facebook, twitter etc).
4. Start posting regularly to those forums to build up a reputation.
5. Research the niche inside and out to determine biggest problems, anxieties, tips in fact everything that makes people crazy in that niche.
6. Create all forms of content around the buzzy topics.
7. Get analytics, webmaster tools etc all set up.
8. Submit to a few highly respected directories like DMOZ and Yahoo.
8. Start promoting my site in a non-spammy way on all the forums etc..
9. Write and release press releases.
10. Build a mailing list.
11. Try as many viral methods as possible.
12. Wash, rinse and repeat..
This is purely about letting the content on my site go viral and attain backlinks the natural way. This is about doing things the way Google would really approve of! As things start to develop then I am sure the plan will have to evolve and I am prepared for that.
My next post will be about the niche research that I will conduct.. Stay tuned! In that post I will detail how competitive the niche’s main keywords are and the criteria I used to find it.
There is a new keyword tool on the market.. Was that a collective “groan” that I heard? Okay, I know, I know.. There are already more than enough keyword tools on the market why do we need a new one? Well, this one is different…
This new tool is called Niche Horde and is created by Jonathan Leger. You may know of him from such products as 3waylinks, 1waylinks, WebComp analyst and Instant Article Wizard Pro to name but a few. Niche Horde is a tool that uses it’s customer’s computers to run a small and safe program in the background to trawl the Google Search Keyword tool to uncover literally millions of good niche keywords.
I don’t know of any keyword tool out there that can pull in so many niche keywords so quickly but that is just the start of it! As more and more people sign up to NicheHorde then the quicker and larger the database of keywords will be! That is pure genius if you ask me.
The other really cool feature in Niche Horde is the domain checker which will check to see if the exact match of a keyword is available as a .com, .net or .org which is priceless in terms of SEO for a new site. Anyway, enough of my jibber jabber, please watch this video of me using Niche Horde so you can see for yourself.
Niche Horde Review Part 1
Niche Horde Review Part 2
You can either visit the Niche Horde website directly to read more about it or if you feel inclined then you can go via my NicheHorde affiliate links on this page.
Probably one of the biggest challenges that any human in the modern world ever has to face, is staying motivated and focused on a plan of action. A plan of action that they hope will bring them eventually to some foreseen goal. Unfortunately for many this is one challenge that they never seem to be able to deal with. If you say yes to any of the following points then you probably have a problem with staying motivated..
- Do you always seem to give up on projects before they are finished?
- Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount and intensity of work involved in reaching your goals?
- Do you feel excited after seeing or reading something motivational only to feel that slowly ebb away after a few days?
- Does your head get turned easily by other opportunities when you are working on a project?
- Do you have trouble getting started on a plan of action even if you have the exact steps and blueprint in front of you?
- Do you tell yourself “I just need to learn about this & that before I can start my plan of action”?
If you said yes to all of those points, don’t worry you are very much not alone. In fact I don’t have any exact numbers and I am not a psychologist or anything but I would wager that over 90% of people will answer yes to most of those points. That is based on the amount of posts I read at various forums and also on emails I receive all the time.
The thing is, we all know that our lack of self motivation is the ONLY thing that stops us from achieving and reaching our own personal goals but that doesn’t mean that we know how to solve it. In fact, it seems, the more motivational articles we read and the more videos we see of people achieving personal success agaianst insurmountable odds the worse our own motivational problems seem to get. Please watch this video…
How do you feel after watching that? I bet you feel in awe and telling yourself that you can do it, you can be that person pushing through the limits of pain to reach your goal. That video is very inspirational and very alluring but how do you bottle that feeling of inspiration and sheer motivation so that you can use it whenver you need it? How can you stop yourself from that feeling of “I can’t do it”.. How? The answer for me is you have to stop trying to be motivated.. I know that sounds like a contradiction but it isn’t.
The thing is your internal dialogue starts questioning what you are doing and starts telling you that you will just fall flat on your arse so don’t bother following this plan of action because that is what you do, all the time.. right? Generally people that fail will unconciously listen to that dialogue all the time and no end of motivational videos can change that. However, the people who succeed with their goals can consciously hear that internal dialogue and know how to deal with it.
The whole point is, you have to be aware of the voices in your head that will try and stop you from reaching your goals because it means leaving your comfort zone, it means embarking on a new course that you have never been down before. I don’t mean this to sound schizophrenic or anything but we all have internal dialogues all the time. The trouble is, the more we TRY to be motivated the more unconcious we become about our negative thoughts. By confronting that negativity and knowing that it is there and by simply acknowledging that it exists and is there because it is fearful of leaving the comfort zone the we can deal with it.. Easily!
The next time you are about to try something challenging, try consciously listening for that negative voice in your head and acknowledge it. Then let your positivity flow and reassure yourself that although you may be leaving your comfort zone, there is nothing to be scared of and by following a plan of action and taking on challenges you will bring more pleasure and success than you could imagine.
Yesterday I told you to be aware that Google now have interest based advertising on their network and today I want to tell you about Google allowing 3rd party ads on the network.
Here is a video explaining what 3rd party ads are all about…
What Does It Mean For Adsense Publishers?
As Adsense publishers we might actually see some benefits from this change. With more ad networks competing for the same ad space on our sites then it is sure to increase the cost of that ad. However, how much of that extra income that Google will share with us is open to a lot of debate but as always, time will tell.
Opt Out
If you don’t want to receive 3rd party ads on your sites then you have the option to opt out in your account settings. If you decide you want to keep the default option of 3rd party ads then ensure that your privacy policy reflects this and you HAVE to include a section about using the DoubleClick cookie on your site. See a previous post on updating your privacy policy for info on this..
Some of you may or may not be aware that Google are about to introduce interest based advertising for their PPC network. It is important for you to realise how this will effect you both as a web publisher and also as a web searcher.
What is interest based advertising?
Interest based advertising is all about showing web searchers adverts based on their actual interests overall. For example, Joe Bloggs is interested in cycling, wind sufing, chess and tropical fish. Google will now show Joe Bloggs adverts on chess, tropical fish and wind surfing when he is visiting a site on car insurance.
Privacy Issues
There are many ad networks already that use interest based advertising and this form of advertising has always been controversial because it brings into question the web user’s privacy. To know what ads to show then the ad network need to know your interests. To know your interests they have to track what sites you are visiting. To achieve this they plant a cookie on your computer which tracks the sites you visit.
Thankfully if this fills you with fear then Google say that they only track sites which are not sensitive and not medical sites etc.. However if you still don’t want Google to know what sites you are visiting then you can opt out altogether from interest based advertising. You can do that by visiting this page.
What Do I Need To Do As A Web Publisher?
In short, nothing really as it is mainly based on the preferences of the web user. However, you do have the option as Adsense publisher to switch Interest based advertising on or off under your account settings page in your Adsense account. Just go to My Account/Account Settings and you will see the option there.
What this will mean to you though and it is fairly fundamental is that your site will show ads that are not necessarily relevant to your site’s content anymore. Also, the ads that will be displayed will be relevant only to the web user visiting your site.
This will also affect the ads you see on your own site so don’t be suprised to see irrelevant ads when you visit your own site.
Is This Going To Be A Good Or Bad Thing For Us Web Publishers?
Time will tell how this affects our bottom line and whether it will result in higher click throughs. One interesting aspect is that you could have a site in the relatively unlucrative niche of tropical fish. A visitor to your site could be interested in mesothlioma and be shown very lucrative ads about mesothelioma on your site! However, the opposite might be true also..
This also could impact on the way we choose niches for our Adsense sites if the content is no longer as relevant to the ads shown. It might no longer be as important to pick expensive keywords. Of course conetnt based relevance is always going to be used for the ads shown as well so don’t throw the baby out of the bath water yet but just be aware of how this might change things for you.
To read more about interest based advertising then take a look at this..
It is not often that I promote a product openly on this blog like this but I would be doing you a diservice if I was not to bring to your attention that commission blueprint 2.0 is going to be closing it’s doors maybe for good by Wednesday morning. As I type this, that is less than 48 hours away..
For those who don’t know what Commission Blueprint 2.0 is all about then all I am going to say is that it is probably the best package of information and tools on making affiliate commissions that I have ever read, seen and used, it is quite simply awesome!
Anyway, before they shut the doors imminently there is a fantastic trial available for keyword blueprint and offer evaluator which are the two tools which form the bedrock of Commission Blueprint 2.0. You have absolutely nothing to lose by signing up and you can get an insight into the sheer power of Commission Blueprint 2.0. If you don’t sign up then you just might regret it forever…
Sign up here! – http://cashcowguidetoadsense.com/commissionblueprint2trial
I was asked a question via PM on the warrior forum which asked me how to make backlinking transparent in the yes of Google and whether the latest trendy link schemes like Angela’s backlinks, linkwheels etc are a good idea in Google’s eyes, here is what I wrote back below.
It’s a really good question and quite difficult to answer for certain. In Google’s world they would like to believe that all backlinks from site to site are there because those links add something to what the visitor is reading, listening to or watching.
A backlink is seen by Google as one website publisher giving a vote of confidence to another web publisher’s site, or page on that site at least. Obviously the higher the page rank of the site giving the backlink the more Google will trust that backlink because they believe in their puritanical world that any site with pages that have high page rank has a high page rank because of the trust Google has in them… Pheww… I hope that makes sense!
Anyway, as we all know as marketers, the temptation to find loopholes and manipulate Google’s algorithm is very tempting and the truth is, any link building scheme could be seen as trying to manipulate Google’s algorithm from Angela’s backlinks, 3 way links, paid for links, 2 way link schemes, linkwheels etc.. linkwheels are nothing new by the way they have been around for years. I used to know them as mininets. Many marketers would shoot me down in flames for daring to say that. There is a flip side to this though and that is that these techniques undoubtably do work. The real question is, will your site last in the indexes if you use these techniques? They might last forever but of course as we have all seen, they might not.
Does that mean therefore that we shouldn’t be involved in these sort of link building techniques? If you wanted to play it completely safe and go for the slow build by getting backlinks the natural way (other sites recommending yours) then it might take 10 years to get anywhere. The reality is that a little bit of everything is fine with the exception of 3 way links in my opinion. The problem I have with 3 way links is that they are so blatantly trying to deceive and are getting easier for Google to spot that I wouldn’t take the risk. Linkwheels do work and are more difficult for Google to spot. Angelas links do work also but I wouldn’t solely rely on them.
I still believe the best way of building links are to do good article marketing, non-spammy blog commenting, submissions to good directories DMOZ etc.., Genuine link exchanges, press releases, persuading trusted sites to post your content on their sites. The bottom line is, that there has to be a reason for the backlink to exist to be transparent in Google’s eyes. Social bookmarking is also fine, so long as you don’t overdo it and mix it up with other people’s sites as well.
A backlink from an article placed in article directories is transparent because you wrote that article and the backlink from that article to your site is there for further reading. Blog commenting is transparent because you have added something to that discussion on that blog and to confirm your interest in that subject you can show them your site in return as a backlink. DMOZ and other quality directories is there as a simple directory to show relevant sites on various subjects. Press releases are there for easy access to newsworthy stories and the backlinks are there for people to read about the source of the news story.
I hope you understand my point, the link has to have a reason to exist to be transparent and valid in Google’s eyes. This opinion of mine is not popular among many people and the are many who can say the have been doing 3 way linking and various other link schemes over the years and have seen great success from doing it. I don’t doubt that, but for every person who has success you will find someone else that sees their site disapear from the SERPS overnight. It is a risk, and one that you should make your own decision over.
Just a quick and interesting update for you guys.. All my attention has been on Google up to now until the other day when I saw quite a bit of traffic coming to all my low hanging fruit type domains. When I checked my analytics I noticed that all of this traffic was coming from bing.com and also a bit from Yahoo!
This was quite a suprise for me and demonstrates that perhaps bing are a bit more receptive to the backlinks given by UAW.. The traffic isn’t as much as I could expect from Google in fact it probably half the amount of traffic that I would expect from a page on page 1 of Google. However it is all good stuff really and sort of an unexpected bonus!
Out of the 5 “low hanging fruit” domains they are all ranked on either page 1 or 2 of bing and are still not doing anything in Google. The 5 more competitive domains are still languishing in both Google and Bing not getting any traffic except from a few obscure long tail keywords.
Well it’s been over a month since I started this test and I have to say the results so far have become less than encouraging…
For all 5 of the low hanging fruit domains only 1 of them is still in Google top 10 for their target keywords and the rest have dropped to nowhere or so deep that it doesn’t really matter. For the 5 domains that targeted the more competitive keyword phrases, well they are nowhere to be seen in Google at all! All domains are still indexed however and I am wondering whether they are all sandboxed for getting to many links to quickly.
I am disapointed overall and was hoping for a lot better results from using UAW. Maybe, I used it all wrong and should have slowed the rate of posts and that might have kept the sites under the radar a bit. However my gut instinct is that the quality of the backlinks are not up to scratch with very little PR. I also wonder whether Google are onto the sites that UAW use for backlinks.
I will keep these domains going but have stopped all Unique article wizard projects and I will report of any progress both good and bad over the coming months!
Well it has been over three weeks since I started this UAW challenge and I have some very mixed results so far. Out of the 5 low hanging fruit niches that I built a project on they are all indexed and 3 of them are on page 1 of Google for their target keyword phrases which is pretty good and the other two sites are still languishing below position 100 on Google. Both Yahoo and Bing are pretty slow at indexing at all but for a couple of the domains Yahoo are ranking on page 2 for their target keyword phrases. On Bing I have yet to see any appear within the top 10 pages.
Of the 5 more competitive domains that I have used UAW projects on, all 5 got indexed within 3 days of starting the projects. However, none of them have yet to break into the top 100 positions on Google yet for their target keyword phrases. I did start these projects later however and they are competitive keyword phrases that I am going for so I guess it could be early days.
One worry that I have about UAW is the quality of the sites and directories that the articles get published on. Not many of them have any decent PR (above 2) and I wonder if Google may be aware of the places that UAW post to. This is all speculation on my part and overall I guess the results are mildly encouraging so far.
I will update as and when I see any progress on indexing and ultimately traffic.