1. http://www.google.com/profiles/playboyp
Just the good stuff
|
How marketers are positioning products and services as being good for the brain
|
| Improving the performance of our brains has become a global endeavor, as scientists, doctors and nutritionists continue to find new ways to develop our mental capabilities. While the moral dilemma of whether it's appropriate to take "smart drugs" in competitive environments has been a hot topic in the media in recent years, the desire to improve our cognitive functions has not disappeared. As such, we're seeing more products and services being marketed as brain enhancers, with Omega-3s and other neurostimulants becoming as hot as antioxidants. Here are a few smart examples: |
 Brain Yogurt: Yogurt brands have been touting its stomach-soothing probiotics, but now they may be shifting their focus from the tummy to the head. While natural yogurt is high in the amino acid tyrosine, a neurostimulant, some yogurt companies are giving dairy cultures an Omega-3 boost that allows them to position their products as smart food. Thanks to Danone 's Cardivia, Canadians have been noshing on yogurt rich in Omega-3s for a few years now, and now we're starting to catch up in the States. Seen at food trade shows this year, Cloud Top frozen yogurt is being pushed as one of the first in its category to have Omega-3s. In order to keep up, think Pinkberry will start offering lectures alongside their soft-serve? |
 Brain Bread: Given their children's cutthroat academic competition, long school hours and overwhelming homework loads, parents are on the lookout for brain food like never before. Norwegian baked goods company Bakersrecently launched an Omega-3 fortified bread targeted to parents whose school-aged children brown bag it. While plenty of kids turn up their noses at the sight of a salmon filet, who would say no to a PB&J sandwich? Putting aside any worries that the kids' toast may reek of sashimi, Bakers claims that there is no fishy aftertaste. |
 Brain Yoga: Practitioners of Bikram have long boasted that careful execution of the hot yoga style's 26 postures sends freshly oxygenated blood to the brain, thus improving its function. The good news is that you no longer have to contort yourself in sauna-like temperatures to exercise your brain in tandem with your body. Yoga studios have long marketed themselves as spiritually good for the mind, but thanks to medical research proving that the practice of all yoga increases GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter) levels in the brain, places like Brooklyn's Body and Brain Wellness Center have begun promoting themselves as intelligence, as well as body, boosters. So, next time you think the price of a yoga class is too high, remember that it's no longer just an investment in a slammin' physique, but also maybe in your IQ score. |
Why do you in your articles, not to mention numerous online marketers and webmasters alike, avoid linking out to other websites? Do you feel you’re doing yourself a disservice by including outbound links to other websites and other articles? Do you fear that you will somehow lose your Google Page Rank by doing this? Or are you just too lazy?
Whenever I read articles on Triond, Bukisa, Xomba, and other publishing sites that operate in the same manner, I am amazed that people writing articles miss out on the most obvious links they could include in their articles to make them more interesting, to make following up on a theme more easy for the reader (which I consider common courtesy toward the reader who wants to know more), and to improve your Google Page Rank
Because, yes, outbound links may improve your ranking.
Some of you may believe that outbound links will add little if nothing to your ranking and that those links are inserted at the expense of inbound links. The arguments run along two lines: on one hand that outbound links drain your Google Page Rank (by somehow metaphysically jumping to other pages, I suppose); and on the other hand that the massive reciprocity of all those sites you linked to will result in enough inbound links to cause Google to think you’re using magical black hat techniques.
Neither of these arguments holds water.
First, outbound links do not somehow inexplicably cancel out the good that inbound links do to your articles. Let’s suppose that the Google Page Rank of Socyberty is at 4 and you are writing an article for that site containing external links. This will neither affect nor actually harm Socyberty’s Page Rank. It might help the PR of another site (for example Quazen), but not at the expense of Socyberty. The amount of Page Rank oxygen you’re blowing into a site you link to is equal to Socyberty’s PR divided by the number of outbound links on all Socyberty. The amount of oxygen going out is minimal as per link, as there are thousands in all the articles, but the sum of all oxygen going out is always equal to the total Page Rank; it can’t go into the negative, draining Page Rank out. What goes out to individual sites is marginal, but it is a little like positive karma. As with plants, the oxygen given off by a site is not harmful to its source.
This logic applies to internal links, too, and the link oxygen they carry between Socyberty’s pages.
Second, the argument that if you have outbound links resulting in a flood of reciprocal links will make Google think you’re using nefarious tactics has little truth to it, too. First of all, you should be linking out to sites that are relevant to your article’s theme. If you are very lucky, these sites might give you a back link in return, and that will only improve your ranking. If you’re linking to good, non-spam, non-link farm sites, reciprocal inbound links will not harm your Page Rank. The incoming karma is just as marginal as the one you give out, but all those bits and pieces will add up over time.
Make sure your outbound links don’t cause problems. Choose links that are relevant to your article, and keep the outbound links spread throughout the body of the article. Don’t build an interminable links’ list full of outbound links because such are not well received by Google.
If your article is considered a useful provider of content, the more high-quality and relevant outbound links will help you. While it may seem counter-intuitive to be giving other sites extra exposure, the truth is that you will profit from wisely chosen links. Apart from using inbound links (Socyberty to Socyberty, Bukisa to Bukisa, etc.), using outbound links (Socyberty to Quazen, Socyberty to Bukisa, etc.) will profit all concerned.
This is why you will find that my articles always contain links not only to my own articles that are relevant, but often to other writers’ articles and outside sources, if available, relevant, and worth reading.
The idea of making money online is attractive to many, primarily because of the benefits it offers. Two main incentives are motivational factors here: The lucrative potential of the internet as well as the personal freedom that comes with working without a fixed schedule or geographic location.
One doesn’t need to suffer through monotonous day jobs which offer poor returns for the time invested.
Indeed, why make $7 an hour selling coffee behind a counter when you can easily earn the same amount by spending 10 minutes to write an article on your blog?
Even if you’re not looking to work full-time at home, the internet offers a viable source of money which can help to supplement your regular income.
Cataloging the Different Ways to Make Money Online
A basic search on Google will reveal many ways to make money online and most of the websites listed in the search results pages all seem to focus on the same methods of making money.
I thought it’ll be a good idea to categorize and compile a list of the online money making methods available so that future visitors to Dosh Dosh will have a reference point which provides them with all information they need.
This list uses a rather broad categorization, which I believe covers most of the ways to make money online. More methods and examples of how to make money online will be added to this list, which can be considered a work in progress.
1. Set up a Blog or Website for ProfitThere are many different types of money making blogs which will help you to make money and you’ll need to pick a model that suits your interests, schedule and skill levels. A simple no frills blog will allow you to easily pull in at least several hundred dollars in a month through the use of paid blogging websites alone.
Apart from blogs, other websites can easily help you to generate passive income as well. These can range from e-commerce websites, social communities and information portals to basic landing pages for affiliate programs.
2. Learn about Affiliate Marketing and The Art of Selling
Affiliate marketing is a big and profitable industry that covers a wide spectrum of topics and fields. If you’ve got an interest in fitness, you can make money promoting fitness videos or courses. In terms of fashion wear, you can earn commissions by recommending friends to clothing or t-shirt companies with affiliate programs.
The amount of money you make depends on what you are selling. Done correctly, affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to make money from the web. Amazon, Commission Junction and ClickBank are three of the biggest affiliate marketplaces you can use if you’re branching out into affiliate marketing.
3. Start an Online Business
It isn’t difficult to start a business. It’s all about hiring the right people or having enough knowledge and connections within a specific industry. You should do some in depth research before you decide to settle on a specific niche for your business. Entrepreneur.com has a good collection of tips on how to start an online business.
4. Try Out Domaining and the Online Real Estate Trade
This practice is known as site flipping and can make you a tidy sum of money if you know how to build an attractive and profitable website. For a rough estimate of how much money you can earn from site flipping, check out the SitePoint Marketplace to browse through the collection of websites for sale.
5. Participate in Get-Paid-to Websites
The benefit of get paid to websites is that you don’t need to have your own website or any personal skills at all. The downside is that there are a lot of get-paid-to scams around and finding websites that are legitimate can be fairly difficult. Scam.com is a forum you should visit to learn if the get-paid-to website you’re interested in actually pays its members.
There are also several Web 2.0 or social media websites out there that will pay you to participate in their community. This collection of social media websites usually operate via a revenue-sharing system, which allows you to earn a share of the overall ad revenue. How much you earn depends on how much your submitted article, video or image is viewed.
6. Find a Virtual Job or Make Use of Your Expertise
Most of these virtual jobs involve direct communication through electronic mediums like internet telephony, instant messengers and emails. Which means that all you need to get started is a home computer with an steady internet connection.
If you are an expert in a specific topic, you can offer consultation via websites like Jyve or Just Answers. Other skill or knowledge based vocations also include participation in online competitions in areas such as photography, writing, designing and even gaming.
7. Freelance and Work on a Contract Basis Online
Online marketplaces that you can use to offer your services include Guru.com and Elance. One of the best ways to find freelance jobs is to visit webmaster forums because webmasters usually require a variety of web-based services, which range from programming and content writing to design work.
If you’re focusing on writing and don’t own your own blog, you can still make some money by registering for websites which will pay for your content. Another alternative is get paid to write for other blogs either as a staff or guest writer.
8. Create Your Own Product and Sell it
If your specialty is images and photography, citizen journalism websites like Spymedia and Citizen Image will pay for your images. You can also try using Shutterstock, the most established and lucrative micro-stock photography website. Illustrators and videographers are also welcome at Shutterstock.
This also ties in with the concept of creating your online business, which will allow you to sell the products you create or own without resorting to a third party website which will usually take a commission of the sale.
9. Get Involved in the Online Retail Trade
Alternatively, you can specialize use site-specific methods of participating in the online retail trade. For example, Ebay dropshipping and arbitrage is a method whereby you’ll with offline retailers or exporters in other countries, or buy from one seller and sell to another.
Future Updates
In the future, each of the points listed on this list will have it’s own webpage with more in-depth information for each specific topic.
Hopefully, this article will serve as an helpful introduction for anyone looking for information concerning ways to make money on the internet.
Even more ways to make money online here
Visitors often visit websites and perform keyword searches in order to find the information they require. One way to make money from this often repeated user action is to display targeted advertisements on your search results pages.
Ideally, you want to monetize while adding value for your visitors and a means to achieve this aim is to use Google’s Adsense for Search, which places text-based ads next to your search results
Simply put, Google Custom Search Engine is a tool which allows visitors to search your website by using Google’s core search technology. This enables you to list search results according to the sites and pages you specify. According to Google, the Custom Search Engine also allows you to:
There are two main ways for visitors to experience your Custom Search Engine. One way is to direct them to a Google-hosted results page when they type in a search query and the second way is to integrate it by hosting the search results on a page within your website.
Currently I’m using Google’s Custom Search Engine for Dosh Dosh and you can see it on the top right hand corner of every page. Typing in a search query and clicking ‘search‘ will bring you to a search results page on the left, where the content section is currently located.
Here is an example of a search for ‘make money blogging‘. Note that the Adsense ads appear at the top (this is changeable) and the search results show up below it.
I am using Google custom search instead of the internal Wordpress search function because I feel that Google’s search results are far more relevant and precise. I also choose to use Custom Search because it allows me to make money from Adsense for Search, which allows you to monetize your search results pages with ads.
A look at my Adsense stats shows me that I’ve earned approximately $20 in this month. It’s not a lot of money at all but it is still an additional source of income, particularly if you are already running Adsense on your site.
Like the traditional Adsense units, how much you earn might vary depending on the ad placement and traffic levels. If you like Google’s search results but don’t feel the need to monetize, set up the custom search engine without advertisements.
While writing this article, I found out that SEOmoz had a similar post on how to perform the same steps. I’ve decided to use my own commentary instead, as some readers have been asking me how I set up the google search box on Dosh Dosh.
There have also been some changes (additional features) within Google’s Custom Search function so this will be a more current post on this topic.
Here are the exact steps needed to successfully set up and integrate Google’s custom search engine into your website. This will teach you how to make the search results show up within a designated page on your site.
1. Create a Webpage for Custom Search
Start first by creating a web page on your domain for the search results page. If you are on Wordpress, simply click on ‘Write’ and then select ‘Write Page’. Name the page by using ‘Search results’ or something similar as the Page title.
Leave the text box blank and publish or save the page. Note down the URL for the webpage as you will need to use it later.
Visit the Google Custom Search Engine homepage and click on the ‘create a custom search engine‘ tab. After which, fill in the name of your search engine, along with the keywords. Be sure to select the ‘Only sites I select‘ option and then list your site URL in the Sites to Search box.
Also remember to select ‘Show Ads on results pages‘ if you intend to run ads.
3. Determine the Look and Feel for Your Search Engine
After you’ve created your search engine, go to your control panel and click on the Look and Feel link. This is where you will able to determine the branding style for your search box, along with the style of the search results page.
Choose the right colors so that the results pages fit your overall design.
You can also choose to add a logo to the Google hosted results page but in this case, it won’t be necessary as you are hosting the search results on your own site.
4. Set up Adsense for SearchIf you want to make money from your custom search engine, you’ll have to set up Adsense for search by clicking on the ‘Make Money‘ navigational link and connecting custom search with your Google Adsense account.
If you already have an Adsense account, simply check the appropriate box and then type in the email, zip code, phone and location details associated with it.
Simply do this by typing in a name for your custom channel. For example, I’ve used ‘Dosh Dosh Custom Search‘ as my channel name. This means that the same name will show up in my Adsense Dashboard reports as well.
After you’ve completed the above steps, its time to insert the code on your blog. Go to the ‘Code‘ section of the control panel and select the iframe option.
The new Overlay option will allow the search results to show up in a nifty Ajax-style overlay but unfortunately only the first 8 search results are displayed and you cannot make money through Adsense for Search.
Only consider the overlay option if you are not planning to run ads. After choosing the hosting option, specify the search results details by inserting the URL where you want the results to appear. This would be the page you’ve created in step one.
Then scroll down to the second half of the page to grab the search box code. Take the first code you see and place it where you want your search box to appear. After which, copy the search results code in the lower frame and place it where you want the search results to appear.
Which means you’ll have to paste it on the new page you’ve created.
For Wordpress blogs, simply open up your new page, insert the code in the empty text box and publish.
After completing all the steps above, you should have Google Custom Search set up perfectly for your website. One possible drawback I think of when using ads on the search results pages is that users will click away from your website.
I don’t think this is really that big a problem because users who actively use your website to search for a specific items are people that are interested in your opinion or content. I would believe that these visitors would return to your site eventually.
An easy solution to this would be to run no ads at all. The choice is yours.
Every website has a bunch of web pages which get more search traffic than others. These pages are constantly visited daily by new visitors, people who have never seen the site in question before. I call these ‘money pages’ because they are a reliable source of immediate and future income.
But they’re not just ‘money’ because they bring in revenue: they are one of the easiest ways to grow your audience without much work. If you learn how to optimize these money pages (its not hard to do), you’ll really improve your website in so many ways. More revenue, more members, more influence and authority. Doesn’t that sound good?
We’re always focused on creating new content and getting new visitors to these new pages that we forget about what’s going on in other parts of our website.
This is tailored towards content publishers and bloggers but the main strategies here apply to other site types as well, you just need to find the right tools to do it. So lets get started.
There are many things you can do to money pages, in order to make them better or more profitable. It’s important to decide the extent of your work according to your goals and resources. How much time do you want to spend and what’s most important to you? Do you want a bigger readership? Or are you just concerned with increasing your daily revenue?
Here are a list of things you can do for your money pages:
Open up the web analytics program you’re using for your website. There should be a section which reveals which pages have the highest unique views per month. Extract the urls for the top 10 pages and put them somewhere for easy access. Or bookmark them on your browser. If you don’t currently use an analytics tool, I recommend setting up Google Analytics.
How many pages you choose to optimize really depends on your website and preference. If you have a lot of webpages that get solid traffic, you can do more. If you don’t have many pages that get web traffic, then you have a lesser amount to work with. I like to focus on the top 10 because if its a manageable amount of work for an acceptable returns on investment.
My personal guideline is to only work on pages with a minimum of 200 unique views everyday. It’s a basic number that’s good for some decent conversions. Adjust this figure to something you can work with, if your website is new or gets less overall traffic.
The point to remember is that not every page is hot. The goal is not to optimize every single web page you have. There has to be a limit. So learn to prioritize and work only on the pages that are currently receiving the most traffic to your website.
Visitor search queries reveal what people are looking for and what they want to get from your web page. It tells you what information they expect and is a way to understand their desires or needs. Many are ready to pay for a solution or subscribe to get knowledge in their inbox.
Better relevance = better conversions. It’s that simple. By making your website as relevant as possible to search queries, you’re making visitors more likely to stick around, opt-in or buy. Users are going to click away if they find that your web page doesn’t fulfill their info needs. So the first step is closely examine your money pages in relation to search traffic terms.
My goal is to include every search query in my money page. Every question typed into search engines by visitors who access my site must be answered. One very easy and quick way to do this is to add a simple FAQ to the page to address the visitor’s specific needs. Just phrase the same exact search query as a question. Then write an answer which responds to it.
Another method for search query relevance is to create new content and insert it into the money page. It’s important to edit your pages so that it doesn’t display content that is simply outdated or useless. You’re not going to presell anyone with stuff like that. It won’t work.
Either rewrite the entire money page or include update notes specifying new information and linking to other pages on your website with newer content. Whenever new information or changes occur, go back into the money page to make necessary adjustments. This is one reason why I asked you to keep those 10 URLs bookmarked or easily accessible.
Note that by increasing your money page’s relevance and informational value, you are also increasing its linkability: People are more likely to link to it because it is a detailed and useful reference page on the topic. Whenever possible, I try to fashion my money pages on blogs after Wikipedia in terms of comprehensiveness.
While you can monetize your money page and capture leads at the same time, I find it better to optimize for one goal instead of trying to achieve both. Because when it comes to monetization, captured leads are usually a good source for long term income anyway.
There are formats for each goal (monetize or lead capture) and you’ll get better results if you either choose to monetize fully or go all out to hook your visitors by making them sign up or subscribe to your website. If you put up too many well blended ads, the visitor can easily click away instead of subscribing to your newsletter, so either pick one goal or balance both.
Let’s talk about monetization first. This is easy if you’re using ad networks like Google Adsense. Go to your money page and insert an additional ad unit, blend it well with your content and make sure that its quite visible while not being too obtrusive.
A well placed Adsense unit can really increase your overall daily income. I’ve seen a jump of more than $20 a day for a site that I own when I took the time to test and optimize a few money pages. While you may have default ads already on every page of your site (sidebars, header etc), these may not be truly optimized for a money page.
Money pages need to be treated differently from the other pages on your website. They’re the ones that bring a lot of visitors (big sample size) so you can really use this opportunity to test the profitability of specific ad schemes. You can even remove the default ads specifically for this page so you have more room to experiment.
Other ways to monetize include the use of commission-based affiliate programs which range from digital products to established eCommerce retailers like Amazon.com. Clickbank is a digital product marketplace you can use. Sign up, search through the marketplace for a product, grab your affiliate link, insert it on your money page.
You can also try CPA networks with relevant pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale programs. Commonly used CPA networks are Market Leverage, Max Bounty, NeverBlue, PepperJam, Copeac, Azoogle and Hydra Network, among many others. Affiliate programs can work well but remember to keep them related to your content.
Alternatively, you can promote your own products on your money page by including a short pitch for it and linking to a proper sales page. Or you can try to sell your visitors away from the money page by getting them to first subscribe to an email list. This brings us to the next step.
The goal is to capture not just the email of the visitor but his/her permission to allow you to reach them away from your website. For some of you, you want visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed so they’ll continue to read your content or hopefully participate on your site.
Many set up email lists and auto-responders with the aim of eventually monetizing by selling their own products or recommending those of JV partners. Their aim here is to get users to opt-in to receive newsletters or special offers. The same goes for online retail stores.
Good email marketing providers are Aweber and GetResponse, both of which charge a monthly fee that you should be able to earn back easily. There are free alternatives available but you’ll often lose out in terms of features. If this doesn’t bother you, you could try starting with any of the free email software or plugins available.
To optimize a money page to capture leads, you’ll need to do some offer customization. Look at what content/product is on the page and create a specific offer that’s relevant to it. Provide an incentive for someone to sign up: perhaps a free digital product with related or more in-depth information. Or simply the promise of future discounts or special product offers.
To get into the mind of the visitor and understand what entices them, you’ll need to go back to the search queries you’re getting. If someone is interested in ‘what causes wrinkles’, you’ll know they’ll be interested in an ebook on natural anti-aging remedies. Do up a free guide and offer it to them only if they register as a member or sign up to your email list.
How about lead capture for communities and membership sites? Apart from providing incentives you can use teasers. Restrict visitor actions by only allowing them to view a limited amount of content or interact in a limited fashion. This limit will be removed when a user registers with your community. These are methods commonly practiced by paid membership sites, forums and social media sites to entice signups.
Now that you’ve optimized your money pages for maximum conversions, you can also send over visitors from other pages of your site. You’ve already done the work to make the pages incredibly relevant and usable, they shouldn’t just be seen by search engine visitors.
If your money pages are related, by sure to interlink each one so that each visitor is funneled to another optimized page. This not only improves your bounce rate but makes sure that each visitor is given two opportunities to convert if they aren’t persuaded the first time around.
Another method is to use a script to autolink specific anchor keywords or phrases on your entire site to the specific web page. This helps with SEO and is very easy way to get more eyes on your money page. If you’re using Wordpress, try the Internal Link Building plugin or the SEO Smart Links plugin. Both help to auto-link keywords on every page of your blog. There are quite a few similar plugins out there but these two work well for me.
If you’re a blogger producing content daily, endeavor to link to the money pages whenever it’s pertinent to your post because you’re driving traffic to pages that will perform well. Alternate the links to each money page so your audience won’t get sick of seeing them all the time.
There is an alternative way to highlight your money pages: Group the ones about a similar topic together and list them all in a reference page, which will funnel traffic out to different locations. Instead of linking to each individual money page, you can just link or promote the reference page, which will then direct the visitors you get to each money page simultaneously.
A simple example of this is DoshDosh's reference page on social media marketing, which collects both money pages and less visited pages together under a specific theme. There’s also the option of creating special banner ads or images to link to either your money page or the reference page, it doesn’t always have to be promoted in the form of a link within content.
This is the final step in the process and should always come after you’ve optimized your money pages for maximum results and set up a method to promote it internally on your site. After you’ve done all that, it’s time to look at boosting a major factor for earning more money: your website’s ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is an optional step because if you’re getting a lot of visitors, you’re should already be ranking quite well. But if you’re on the second page of Google or not yet in the top 3 queries for a keyword/phrase that is sending you a good amount of traffic, why not bump it up and get even more visitors per day?
You’ve already got your list of top money pages based on search queries. Now you should find what these pages are ranking for, which is something you can easily discover through your stats trackers. If you’re already using it, Google Webmaster Central is a free tool that shows you the top 20 search queries visitors use to reach your site.
Off-Site Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a pretty big topic: its hard to cover everything that needs to be done so I’m going to simplify it into one fool proof method of improving your search engine rank for Google. This is something that is unanimously agreed upon by everyone.
All you need to do is get links from other sites, especially with the specific anchor text you are trying to rank for. But not just from anywhere. You want links from quality, relevant websites.
Let’s see what Google itself says about ranking:
Sites’ positions in our search results are determined based on a number of factors designed to provide end-users with helpful, accurate search results. In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.
One more. From Google’s warning on link schemes:
Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity.
It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest.
Links matter a lot because Google’s algorithm is set up to use the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance. High quality links boost the trust, relevance and authority of your web page. This is somewhat the same for search engines like Yahoo or Live.
Ideally, the best type of links you can get are from the websites that are already ranking well for the keyword or phrase you are targeting. But these links might not be easy to acquire, since you’re likely to be viewed as a competitor and a threat.
So, what I personally like to do is to do some research on the people ranking for your keyword/phrase on the first two pages. Dig into their backinks by using something like Yahoo Site Explorer and find out who is linking to them. Try to get those same links if possible and even more quality links that your competitors don’t have.
There are many ways to build links, some are blackhat and others are more compliant with search engine guidelines. I favor the strategy of creating valuable services, tools and content in order to attract links from bloggers. It’s stable and works extremely well for every niche out there.
If your money page is optimized for relevance and is high on informational value, it is already a potential link magnet. So here’s something you can do immediately. Send email pitches about your money page to relevant blogs. If you contact 1,000 blogs, you might easily get 50 to 100 extra links (or more), which may be enough for you to outrank other websites. Sometimes all you need to do is to get the word out.
And there are many other ways. Article directories. Blog/web directories. Social bookmarking websites. Social news sites. Social media communities (Flickr, Youtube etc). Contests. Link exchanges. Blog comments and carnivals. Donations/sponsorships. Forums. Press Releases.
On-Site Search Engine Optimization
On top on link building, another aspect of ranking better is on-site search optimization, whereby you make your webpage compatible with search engine requirements and the specific search query you’re targeting. Google’s webmaster guidelines, Yahoo’s Webmaster Resources and Live Search’s Webmaster Center has a list of the most basic stuff you should be doing and ways for you to track your site in their search engines.
Basic pointers for on-site optimization involves having a good site architecture, where pages with similar themes are grouped together with a focus on great navigation and usability for visitors. On site-optimization also involves having your targeted keywords in the title tags and an appealing meta-description, which may affect SERP clickthrough rates. For the WP users out there, you might find this excellent guide to Wordpress SEO useful.
Other on-site factors include keyword density, which is the number of times a keyword appears compared to the total number of words in a page. And latent semantic indexing (LSI), which examines a page in relation to groups of associated words/terms used within it.
I wouldn’t worry too much about latent semantic indexing and perhaps even keyword density because a content heavy page is likely to include the associated terms and keywords naturally, because of its depth. The main point to note is to maintain a tight focus on your chosen topic and not divert too much from it in your content.
And then there’s the controversial topic of PageRank Sculpting: using the nofollow tag on internal site links to optimize the strength of specific pages, thereby enabling them to rank better in search engines. Perhaps a useful tactic, although one that isn’t quite necessary. Any possible success here partly depends on how knowledgeable you are with SEO.
On-site optimization isn’t a difficult process, as long as you have a good site architecture set up from the start and follow search-engine guidelines. The hard part is really the task of getting people with relevant/quality websites to link to your money pages.
These are the fundamental factors involved in optimizing your money pages. After completing the first step of finding your money pages, you don’t need to work on the other steps in a sequence. As I’ve said earlier, it depends on your goals. Personally, I go through all six steps when I’m looking at money pages that receive a substantial amount of daily web traffic.
The good thing about money pages is that once you optimize them, you can just leave them alone for a while. If you’re busy every day, you might want to spend an hour during the weekend on your money pages. Or just assign them to a colleague or a member of your staff. Set aside some time to optimize them and you’ll definitely see the results.
For more ways to make money online click here
One way to get more search engine traffic is to optimize your website for Google Image Search, a tool which allows users to easily find images by typing in specific search terms, phrases and keywords.
Many people utilize Google Image search to find images for a wide variety of topics, which can range from pictures of cars to celebrities and furniture.
Images can not only make your website visually attractive: they can help you to gain more daily search engine traffic.
Highly relevant image results show up at the top of Google’s search results page when one searches for specific topics. Getting listed in this prime position can possibly send a great deal of traffic to your website.
Google Image Search optimization is not a difficult process and only requires that you pay attention to how you label and use your images within the regular framework of your website. A lot of image optimization involves basic search optimization factors such as the inclusion of relevant keywords in the content, title and meta tags.
All of the articles I’ve read on the topic of Google Images optimization seem to be in common agreement and they offer similar suggestions, although a few of them do highlight some different methods of utilizing Google Image Search.
I’ve made a full list of all the methods I’ve come across so that all of you can have an accessible reference point, should you decide to use Google Images as a method to drive more traffic to your website.
Also added are a few points of my own, specifically dealing with how targeting specific image topics and integrating them within your webpages can help to attract a great deal more traffic through Google images.
Depending on your niche and images used, you’ll be able to attract a great deal of extra visitors easily with very little additional work. I highly recommending putting at least a few of these points into practice on your own website.
Here is the list of Google image optimization tips in full:
1. Insert keywords into your Alt Text.
Here’s an example: <img src="filename.gif" alt="Alt description goes here">
2. Name your Images with Descriptive Titles.
3. Use relevant text around your images.
4. Use Adsense to assess overall content relevance.
Change your content until the Adsense units reflect the keywords you want to target. In my opinion, this is not only applies to Google images but is a generally helpful method as it improves your overall latent semantic indexing score and makes your site appear more relevant to Google for targeted key phrases or words.
5. Optimize Your Title and Meta tags.
6. Use anchor text keywords in links to images.
7. Use Internal and Social Site Tags for your Images
8. Use Broad Categories of Images to Get a Larger Audience
9. Make Your Image folder accessible to search engines
10. Re-upload your pictures to maintain search freshness
11. Make your Google Images Standards-compliant.
12. Enable Google Image Search in Webmaster Central.
13. Try out Google Image Labeler.
14. Use Javascript to prevent framing of your webpages
15. HotLink Images from Google Search
Most of the images in the top row are hotlinked and actually rank better than the original image source. You should probably note that hotlinking is frowned upon by most webmasters because it leeches their bandwidth, not to mention that you might be violating copyrights as well.
An alternative method of hotlinking is to hotlink Google’s cache itself. This short tutorial gives clear indication of how to do it but this method only allows you to use thumbnails, not to mention that some webmasters have reported seeing no results after trying this method.
16. Use Image Sizing to Target a Search Term.
17. Use Images about ‘Hot’ Topics.
18. Create a separate page and link to the page and image
I have not personally tried this but some have claimed that it helps both the regular search rank as well as the Image Search rank. See this page for the method in full.
19. Monitor the Number of Google Images Indexed
The easiest way to do this is to use a site search operator. For example, here is a list of images indexed on Boing Boing. Simply change boingboing.net to your url: http://images.google.com/images?q=site:boingboing.net
Converting Google Image Search Visitors
Getting traffic from Google Image Search is very nice but you’ll need some way of converting them into a customer or future reader. This can be quite difficult because visitors are likely to click away if after they find the image.
Here are some conversion tactics you can use:
Try Experimenting with Google Image Search..
I’ve recently gotten a decent number of hits for a image which was experiencing seasonal surge in search queries for a specific term and I’m sure that the list of tips above will help you to get some extra traffic from Google Images as well.
You can start by first trying out a few images in your webpages or new blog posts to see if you actually get some traffic from it. Remember to monitor traffic through your stats package and tweak for optimum results.
1. http://www.google.com/profiles/playboyp
Theme created for Posterous by Obox
