The term ‘Blog’ is the short term for the phrase ‘Web Log’, and it describes a certain type of website surfacing across the internet for the last several years.
This type of website is called a Blog, and what separates a Blog from other websites is the HIGHLY interactive nature of the website.
A New Social and Business Trend!
Free and Easy to create!
It blows me away as to how EASY it is to create a blog. In the past the ONLY way to get a website up and running was to employ the resources of a hosting service provider, as well as acquiring a marketable domain name.
Every website needs space, just like every file needs space on your computer’s hard drive. The difference is while you are the only person accessing your file on your hard drive, a hosting company must provide the space for your website to be seen and accessed by any person around the world 24 hours a day,7 days a week, 365 days a year!
Think of a hosting company as a parking lot, with different websites ‘parked’ in the different parking spaces. Of course, you are paying for the use of the ‘parking space’ on a monthly basis.
Blogging for Optimal Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Did you know that another EXTREMELY POWERFUL benefit in utilizing a blog for traffic generation involves the connection between keyword-rich, content-based blogs and attaining high rankings in search engines? Obviously getting your website to the top spot of a frequently searched keyword or key phrase will result in massive targeted traffic for your website on a daily basis!
But in the past, the challenge was that large companies with deep pockets would spend whatever it took in hiring Search Engine Optimization specialists to attain top spots in major search engines. So the little guys did not have much of a chance in attaining high rankings for popular searches…..
That is until now!!!
Lately we’ve seen a large influx of the ‘little guys’ getting top rankings for popular searches, even RANKING HIGHER than the ‘big guys’! And what’s more, the websites that attain these high rankings are NOT their main marketing sites…but instead THEIR BLOG SITES!!!
Which leads me to: ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL STRATEGIES TO USE IN DRIVING MASSIVE TARGETED TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE FOR FREE…
BLOGS!
Yes it’s finally happening as we speak. Little guys like you and me are finally acquiring the top spots for popular searches using their BLOG sites. It’s just a matter of setting your blog correctly for optimal search engine placement.
Up until recently, another challenge was that even if you used high quality Search Engine Optimization techniques, it would take several months to just get indexed. However with Blogs, people have been attaining top rankings within a few weeks or so – even days!
The Ultimate Blog Strategy
So you have a website…..and you’re trying to get it ranked high in the search engines. Why not use the power of blogs to get your main blog indexed with the major Search Engines more quickly
MEMORIZE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH
‘I will promote my new search-engine-friendly blog in the search engines INSTEAD of my main marketing site……THEN as the search engines send traffic to my blog, this new traffic will click on links that will redirect them to my main marketing or company website.
Make Your Blog Search-Engine-Friendly...
Your blog should have the following 3 main attributes in order to get ranked high in a popular keyword search, and to make sure it is search-engine-friendly as well:
1) Your blog should be Keyword Rich!
In other words you should do everything possible to put your main search engine keyword in the actual title of your blog, the description, the headline, as well as thoughout the entire content of your blog.
2) Your blog should have Relevant Content!
Obviously you should do what you can to stay within the boundaries of common sense. Don’t just create a useless blog chocked full of keywords with no relevant content! This is a surefire way to get your websites banned from search engines altogether. Remember search engines work EVERY DAY to improve their services! So don’t get caught up in the game of cat-and-mouse by trying to ‘fool’ the search engines into top rankings. Be professional!
3) Your blog should include frequently updated RSS feeds on other websites such as My Yahoo, MSN Home pages, and Google Home pages. A TREMENDOUS amount of people use their own customized ‘Home Pages’ to refer to daily as they look for the latest news, weather reports, stock quotes, sports scores, etc.
An RSS Feed (Really Simple Syndication) is a feature that automatically alerts a tremendous amount of other websites of an update to your blog – EVERY SINGLE TIME!
The best way to explain RSS Feeds is simply to make a comparison. Every time you want to remember a certain new website that you come across, you simply bookmark it right? Webmaster’s LOVE it when you bookmark their site because they know that they’ve accomplished a lot when a person decides to keep their website for future reference.
However the main problem is other than through the use of email, you really have no way of alerting the person who bookmarked your site of any new developments to your site’s products and/or services. Everybody knows that email marketing is already a very challenging beast altogether.
Now an ‘RSS Feed’ is best thought of as an ‘online bookmark’ of sorts. General bookmarks reside in your ‘Favorite’s folder usually only accessible from your particular computer. But RSS Feeds reside on the person’s main personal homepage (i.e. My Yahoo, MSN, or Google Home Page).
As I mentioned above, I have used homepages such as ‘My Yahoo’ as one of my sources of important information on a daily basis whether it’s the financial markets, stock quotes, world and local news, the latest sports scores, movie listings, daily humor, and even the weather. This information is usually set up through the My Yahoo Setup page with the information pulling from Yahoo’s network of websites.
Here’s a question to pose for you: Can you imagine finding a way to place YOUR LINK on someone’s My Yahoo page? Or better yet, on a tremendous amount of people’s My Yahoo pages?
Now it’s possible using RSS Feed technology. When a person develops a website, they can learn to place a small ‘subscribe me’ button on it. So whenever a visitor clicks on that button, they are instructed on how to add your website link to their My Yahoo Page (or whatever reader they decide to use i.e. Google, MSN, even their personal email inboxes!).
In addition, whenever you update your site with new content, a person will be able to see an updated link directing to your new content from their personal My Yahoo page…AUTOMATICALLY!
Can you imagine the tremendous effect that this has on your link popularity?! Ok, on to the first step!
Choose your first Blog provider!
1) Blogger is the Google-owned blog provider that has literally skyrocketed the success of the entire blog industry. It’s completely free, convenient, and easy to use encompassing a tremendous amount of useful features.
The interface is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. You can even change the look, feel and visual aspect of your Blogger blog quickly to create different styles.
Google also gives you the option of monetizing your Blogger blog by making it very easy for you to place AdSense ads on your blog. This creates a nice traffic portal for related sites, adding some extra streams of income to your current internet marketing portfolio.
2) TypePad is a nice alternative to Blogger due to its enhanced features and ‘stylish’ look and feel. In addition TypePad has partnered with the internet phone call provider to provide ‘SkypeCase’ – which allows TypePad Bloggers to hold live interactive ‘discussions’! Even though there entails a small monthly cost involved, this feature alone may be worth researching for possible uses in your internet business.
3) WordPress is a free blog provider that has achieved a tremendous amount of success. It’s geared a bit more towards the ‘advanced’ blog user, however it’s customization and broad range of features makes it a blog of choice for almost anyone.
Wordpress has partnered with photoslide plugin ‘Flickr’, which has taken the online community by storm. Flickr provides a nice interface to display and share your photos online.
These combined features make it a very powerful blog suite for use for internet marketers and the general populace alike.
You’ll find that setting up your first blog is amazingly simple. If a 16-year old can do it for fun, why can’t you do it for your internet business?
As always the first step is to simply setup your login ID and password.
The second step is to create the ‘Name’ of your blog. Remember relevance is key when it comes getting top rankings in the search engines, so try and use a name that is directly related to the product, industry or service that you are promoting.
Promote your product or service!
Remember the whole point of your blog is to drive traffic FROM your blog TO your website that promotes your offer.
So your next step is to provide a call to action to your blog visitors by directing and encouraging them to click on your link directing them straight to your opt-in page and/or main marketing website.
Make sure that this link is easy to find quickly – whether you use a banner ad or a simple text link, it’s completely up to you. Always provide your links in multiple locations throughout your blog. This way your visitors will be able to direct themselves to your website from almost any portion of your blog.
Include Google Adsense ads to Monetize your blog!
Almost done! As mentioned before your next step is to monetize your blog by adding Google AdSense Ads.
How does Adsense work?
When Google places relevant AdSense ads on your blog, or any of your websites for that matter, EVERY TIME a visitor happens to click on one of those ads Google pays you a commission!
Talk about easy money! All you have to do is have your visitors click on those ads, and all of a sudden you’re seeing extra income streams coming in to your bank account!
Adding Google AdSense ads to your blog is easy to do using Google’s Blogger, it’s just a matter of following the step-by-step process listed here:
First log in, then you’ll see your blog listed on the right (this is called logging in to your ‘Dashboard’).
Simply click on your blog link and you will be redirected to your blog’s Back Office page.
Now click on TEMPLATE, then click on ADSENSE.
Now follow the instructions to set up your Google Adsense account! Congratulations, within a day or so, you will start seeing Google’s AdSense ads on your blog!
Set up your first RSS Feeds for added Link Popularity!
Your next step is to establish and increase your Link Popularity using RSS FEEDS.
But first let’s define the terms: LINK POPULARITY and RSS FEEDS.
1) Link Popularity is the term in the Internet Marketing industry that describes the number of websites and links that are directly linking to YOUR website. The higher your link popularity, the more the search engines will ‘like’ your website. Below is an online tool that you could use to gauge the link popularity of your website compared to others. You’ll notice that the more popular websites have incredibly high link popularities. But don’t let that discourage you, remember these websites had to start somewhere too!
Simply enter the website addresses for which you want to compare the Link Popularity.
As per this Link Popularity tool, the websites ranked toward the bottom of your results are the ‘behemoth’ websites. Your goal is to get as close as you can to these sites. But believe it or not, you could create a tremendous amount of income and profits WITHOUT having to be in this category – even halfway is an accomplishment!
Now that you know how to check and compare your link popularity, let’s talk about how to increase your link popularity.
As mentioned above RSS feeds provide an incredible opportunity to establish and increase your link popularity. EVERY TIME someone adds your site to their homepages, you just increased your link popularity!
2) Now let’s further define the term RSS FEED.
RSS stands for (Really Simple Syndication)
An RSS FEED is a special website address that is automatically assigned and attached to your blog. More importantly it is the address that you are going to use whenever you want someone to subscribe to your RSS feed.
So in order to move onto the next step, you have to locate your RSS FEED ‘URL’.
In other words go to your newly created Blog right now, and at the end of the website address of your blog, simply add this extension:
/atom.xml
If you ever forget this, Google’s blogger allows you to locate your RSS Feed URL by following their step-by-step process listed here:
First log in, then you’ll see your blog listed (this is called logging in to your ‘Dashboard’).
Simply click on your blog link and you will be redirected to your blog’s back office page.
Now click on SETTINGS, then click on SITE FEED.
A few fields down staring right at you will be your first RSS FEED URL!
Wait, you’re not done yet!
Remember you want to set up an easy way for your visitors to add your RSS Feed to THEIR respective home pages (My Yahoo, My MSN, MyGmail, etc.). The main way that bloggers use to accomplish this is through the use of their RSS Feed buttons.
I know you’ve seen these little buttons before otherwise known as ‘chicklets’ .
When you follow the instructions in the above link, you’ll have these little ‘chicklet buttons’ on your blog as well.
Whenever a prospect decides to click on these little buttons, they will be automatically subscribed to your RSS feed.
Guess what? You just increased your link popularity! Now on to the final step!
Content Content Content!
So far you’ve set up your blog, included simple redirection links to your main websites, monetized your site by including Google AdSense ads, and added your RSS feeds.
Now it’s time to get into the ‘meat’ of your blog – which is providing high quality relevant content to your website visitors.
However you are NOT going to be a typical blogger.
You are now an Internet Marketer using blogs as a portal to your main marketing websites, so your goal is to use Blogs to achieve high rankings on the search engines for a particular keyword or keyphrase.
Your goal is to provide content that is targeting a keyword or keyphrase that is being searched at least a few hundred times a day.
It’s time to do some research. This important research is going to make or break you as an internet marketer.
Locate and Research your Main Keyphrase for market domination!
Create a list of keywords or keyphrases that you would like to dominate, and narrow the list down using the above tool by targeting 1 or 2 keywords or keyphrases that get at least a few hundred queries a day.
Once you narrow your list down to 1 or 2 keywords or keyphrases, your next step is to optimize your blog with content that is directly related to this keyword or keyphrase.
Remember what you are trying to accomplish is to provide highly optimized keyword-rich articles on your blog. This way when you submit your site to Google to be ‘crawled’ using the ‘addurl’ below, you are now leaps and bounds ahead of the competition and WELL on your way to achieving top rankings in Google for your keyword or keyphrase!
In order to optimize your content to be search engine friendly, you should include your keyphrase in the title, in the first few sentences of your articles, and finally at the end of your articles as well. In addition, try to include the keyphrase several times in the body of the article as well. (Just avoid abusing this, believe me the search engines will be aware of this!)
Remember in order to attain a high ranking in the search engines for your particular keyword or keyphrase, you MUST have RELEVANT HIGH QUALITY content! When the search engines say ‘relevant’, what they are referring to is how closely your website content relates to your keyword or keyphrase.
Unfortunately, too many unscrupulous internet marketers try and ‘trick’ the system by providing IRRELEVANT content on their websites.
Why do they do this?
In early search engine days, unscrupulous internet marketers would purchase as many keywords and keyphrases as possible to ‘trick’ visitors into clicking onto their website. These ‘marketers’ would hope that the visitor would look at their offer even though the content has nothing to do with the keyword or keyphrase!
Fortunately search engines caught on to this activity very quickly, and subsequently took measures to prevent instances of this from ever happening again.
Nowadays search engines have enforced strict guidelines as to the ‘relevancy’ of your website content as compared to the keywords and keyphrases that you bid on.
Create a Sitemap!
What is a sitemap? A sitemap is a very useful portion of a webpage that allows the visitor to locate specific areas of the page quickly and easily.
As you can see Ebay has a very robust sitemap - it is broken down into 5 distinct sections, including several clearly marked subsections.
In addition each item is easily linked to its specific location on the Ebay website. As you can imagine, most people aren’t aware of the existence of sitemaps for most websites. However sitemaps make it easier for anybody in locating a specific section or item on the actual website.
GOOGLE LOVES WEBSITES THAT HAVE SITEMAPS!!
Why does Google cater to websites that have sitemaps? Google employs ‘crawlers’ or ‘spiders’ that dissect your site for content relevancy. The VERY FIRST thing that these crawlers look for is the existence of a sitemap – this makes it easier for the crawler to index your site, as well as review your content for relevancy.
This is not to say that you could not attain the top rankings of an organic seach engine query without a sitemap – it’s definitely a possibility. However since it literally takes only a few minutes to place a simple sitemap on your website – also free of charge, why not do it? Below is the link for the Google Sitemaps tool, my suggestion is to invest 5 minutes and add a sitemap to your website right now!
Remember, the existence of a sitemap is crucial to getting indexed quickly, so go ahead and take care of it now – your online sales may skyrocket as a result!
Below is Google’s link for walking you through the process of implementing a sitemap on your websites. I’ve found the process very simple and quick, so go ahead and create your sitemaps right now!
Your goal is to ‘get your site indexed’ - this means that Google has listed your site in their large database of websites! In order to get your site indexed, your next step is to inform Google. Now that your first blog is set up to generate prospects and earn income, click below to ‘inform’ google about your site.
Guess what?
If YOU tell Google about your site versus just waiting for Google to crawl your site when they get around to it, you just saved yourself months and months of waiting!
Use Pingomatic to inform the other search engines as well. This will force the search engines to send their web crawling spiders to come check out your blog... THIS GETS YOU ON THE SEARCH ENGINES FASTER!
After you have successfully completed ALL the steps outlined above, CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully implemented your first ‘Blog and Ping’ campaign! This technique is one of the MOST POWERFUL techniques that you can use to drive massive amounts of targeted traffic to your website – FOR FREE! This strategy is starting to get more and more popular with savvy internet marketers alike, so do everything you can to take FULL advantage of this technique as soon as possible!
Enjoy!
We have covered a tremendous amount of information on the subject of blogs haven’t we? I sincerely hope you can capitalize on the VALUABLE information that you just learned about the pure power of a blog in your traffic generation efforts. These few pages might be some of the most important few pages you read in your internet marketing career! But of course nothing happens unless you take action.
If you get ANYTHING out of this it should be to take action, setup your first Blog and to use it to your advantage. Remember to ENJOY your blog and HAVE FUN!
Your Action Step for driving massive amounts of targeted traffic to your website using Blogs TODAY!
Log on to www.Blogger.com right now and setup your first Blog.
It will literally take you 5 minutes - if 16 year olds can do it, so can you!
