Hi
Gang,
Thanks for
being here, I value every one of you
and truly hope that you become successful online!
I'm using
a new format for these newsletters, it seems more personal
this way.
A reminder,
to get your updates of "Starting Smart!" without
worrying about email
filters, get yourself a myYahoo! page.
To add "Starting Smart!"
RSS feed to your myYahoo! page, simply click the button
below.
Of course, you'll need a myYahoo!
page to add the "Starting Smart!" feed.
To get a myYahoo! page, go
to http://my.yahoo.com/
and make your page by clicking "sign up". It’s
a great way to have all of your interest topics on one
screen that you can access and keep updated with daily.
====
Traffic the
'natural' way...
Much has
been made about search engine optimization, traffic, how
to get traffic, how to advertise using Adwords and PPC,
etc. If you've been a student of Internet Marketing for
any length of time, you know that targeted traffic can
be the lifeblood of your business assuming all the other
portions of a good web site are up well to convert visitors
into customers.
I'm
relatively old school when it comes to just about anything,
but I am not afraid of finding better ways to do things.
From the beginning, I stayed away from a full blown PPC
and Adwords campaign because I was leery of provider (Google,
Overture, etc.) changes, policy shifts, and the cost that
can add up quickly when you play with PPC.
In
fact, I get a notice just about ever month from Overture
saying I need to get more clicks to get to the $20 minimum
per month! Now that's conservative huh? Yes, I do have
an Overture account and I do have a Adwords account, but
they are minimal and are only targeted at a few keywords.
I don't spend much money on PPC, just enough to fill in
on the keywords where I don't have page 1 SERP listings.
My focus
has been on good old fashioned nuts and bolts search engine
optimization for free and targeted traffic from the search
engines. And, I must admit, I feel fortunate that it has
worked well for me. As it happens, it turns out that my
'organic' traffic strategy while staying away from a detailed
PPC campaign was a good move.
Google (and
the other SE's) want only one thing:
Relevant content to the term searched for.
Yeah, I
know you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition,
roll with it, humor me.
Relevant
content, that's it...there's nothing secret about it,
no secondary or alternate agenda, just relevant content
to what the user wants to see. And, I submit to you that
this will absolutely never change for any reason
whatsoever.
I could be
wrong but follow my logic here.
* User goes
to search engine to find something.
* User gets relevant content.
* User comes back again to the search engine.
* Search engine can sell advertisement to merchants because
merchant knows users will find what user wants.
* What user wants is what merchant sells.
That's it,
end of story. Simple, effective, streamlined and old school
nuts and bolts all the way. So, if you believe what I
am telling you and my thinking is right, the most important
thing that you can do besides set up all other components
to a well converting web site, is to get schooled on good
SEO so you can get targeted free traffic from the SE's.
Here's further
proof Google and SE's want what's best for the user -
the new
policy about Adwords advertising.
Google's policy changed -
now not more than 1 affiliate can promote the same product
on the same set of results for the same keyword.
This is a huge change
for some people who banked on affiliate sales through
Adwords clicks. For some affiliate marketers, it matters
not.
The people built there entire
business around a model using Adwords who can't compete
with savvy marketers may have to find alternative methods.
And, for the organic SEO
guy like me, it doesn't matter to me...I still get over
250 unique targeted visitors per day to my other niche
web site. 90% of those visits come from search engine
optimization and the belief that the SE's will always
want the most relevant results for their users. So, while
I do care about policy changes and watch for algorithm
changes, I don't change my SEO strategy much. I know I
will always market via the search engines the way the
search engines want me to market - for
relevant results.
This is a comfortable feeling
and its re-assuring to know that the main principles of
SEO that are truly basic and somewhat simple, will be
the mainstay of SEO and targeted traffic for my sites.
So, how do you learn? Whew,
lots of options there, my humble advice is read everything
free that you can possibly find on the SEO forums.
After seemingly endless reading
and reviewing SEO reports, books, and manuals, I found
out that principles for SEO remain constant.
There's 2 factors that matter,
'on page' and 'off page' factors. Each of these factor
classes have sub components to them but they aren't hard
to learn. I urge you to learn these factors so you can
get enough free and targeted traffic to be comfortable.
Brad Fallon, known for his
1 year $ Million Dollar Wedding Favors Online Store,
is a SEO expert who has a team of engineers who study
SEO all day long, its kind of a think tank. Brad has managed
to be # 1 for the term 'wedding favors' on MSN, Yahoo
and Google which is quite a feat.
Wordtracker
says the term "wedding favors" gets searched
for over 5400 times per day. If you have ever targeted
a keyword you know how heavy that # really
is, seemingly impossible to hit #1.
Can
you imagine how much traffic Brad's getting per day?!
Whew, quite a lot.
Brad offers
a FREE 7 part e-course which is enlightening...he also
offers a FREE listen to his audio interview...you have
nothing to lose, there's no cost and you can educate yourself
on SEO which you know is important.
Click
here --> Best
Organic Traffic Tool
My aim is
to get you to fully understand the importance of SEO and
learn just how simple it really can be once you know how.
Aside from developing my own products (eBooks) and doing
research on a hot market, SEO has been the most important
portion of my online education...it has produced the best
results for the buck! Of course, that 'buck' is zero,
it only costs me time.
Once again,
thanks for being here, your membership to this e-zine
is what matters most to me as an Internet marketer.
"The Regular
Guy"
Karl Augustine
P.S. Webmasters:
If your site is complementary
sites to 9 Mistakes Online and would like to exchange
links, please go to the "Add URL"
link at the bottom of all pages of this site. I'll be
happy to exchange links with you. Thanks.
Give me feedback. Go to
Feedback
and post a comment.
Please, feel free to ask
questions, let me know what you'd like to learn, or just
give a general comment about this edition (or any other
edition) of "Starting Smart!"
| Webmasters:
Feel free to publish
any article that I have written to your web site.
To get a list of articles
that are "publishable",
click below - new browser
Karl's
Articles You Can Publish |
Get
your Viral Tools Here
Viral marketing
does work!
Get your 2
free re-brandable books and increase traffic to your website
and make money at the same time. It only takes a couple
of minutes!
Give these books
away as free gifts to your list.
To get both
re-brandable versions of the mini version of "9 Deadly
Mistakes..." send a blank email to:
brand9
@ getresponse.com with no spaces
of course :)
