Like everyone else on the social web, I just read Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin. It’s a big book, not so much in number of pages, but in number of ideas.

One core theme is the idea of emotional labor — bringing more human feeling and connection to your work, some essential part of yourself that can’t be automated or outsourced.

It strikes me that this gets to one of the key distinctions between different models for doing business online.

No matter how you approach business, you’ve got to decide on a topic, and probably niche that down to a viable sub-topic.

So you might be in the fitness business or the beauty business or the writing business or the business business.

One approach has us doing some keyword research within our topic, creating enough good content to rank for those keyword phrases, and then applying a revenue strategy — maybe advertising, maybe an affiliate offer, maybe an ebook.

Simple enough.

The other approach has us creating a blog on the topic, doing a lot of soul searching to figure out our USP and/or our sub-topic, finding some readers who particularly resonate with our approach, understanding who we connect with (and being willing to scare off everyone else), and then making an offer (or series of offers) that bring in money.

The biggest difference isn’t how the revenue comes in, how our site is set up, how we approach SEO, or just where on the “long tail” our keywords are.

And contrary to what you might think, the difference isn’t in how much work we put in. Both approaches take a lot of work.

The difference is emotional labor.

The problem with paint-by-numbers

When you’re starting out, it’s tempting to look for a paint-by-numbers solution.

Something that tells you exactly where to start, what to do, and how to do it. Something that works a lot like a franchise, with a three-ring binder that explains what buttons to push.

The problem with push-button systems is that you can train a robot, or an ultra low-wage worker offshore, to push that button for you.

If the business’s genius resides in the system and not in you, what happens when someone comes along who can push the button 104% more efficiently than you can? Or who can push it at 97% of your cost?

My problem with paint-by-numbers systems isn’t that they lack creativity. My problem is that they’re risky. When you make yourself into a cog, by definition you make yourself replaceable.

Don’t be afraid to bring your best game

Emotional labor is about the part that’s outside the system.

It’s about the part that you can’t train a chimp to do. It’s about the part that wants your creativity, your strange ideas, your ADHD, your intersection of interests, your passion, your giving a damn, your hard thinking.

Simply put, it’s the love that you put into it.

You might pour a lot of emotional labor into maintaining a fantastic relationship with your readers and customers. Or you might pour that energy into making something that’s more useful, more user-friendly. Or you might pour it into developing a market position that no one’s seen before, that fills an old need in a new way.

You might pour it into “all of the above.”

Even if you’re following a system (and I think systems are tremendously useful), it’s when you get outside the system that you start to find real success.

By “success” I mean money, sure. But also satisfaction. The thrill (and terror) of saying, “Actually, I’m much too interesting and complex to be a cog. I’m a human being. Here’s how I help other human beings get what they want.”

Money can’t buy love, but can love buy money?

My favorite technique for competing in a hyper crowded niche?

Make yourself more useful or better-loved. Ideally, both.

Now you don’t have to put your personal life into your blog or business. Some people just aren’t comfortable doing that. They may want to protect their privacy, or it just may feel too awkward and embarrassing.

You get to decide. That’s why you started a business in the first place.

But if you think you might be comfortable putting a little more you into your brand, it can, frankly, be the shortest path between you and success. You don’t have to share every detail of your personal life (and please don’t tweet about the sandwich you’re having for lunch), but it’s very helpful to be a complex and individual human being.

Make a stronger connection. Care more. About your readers, about your customers, and about your own business. I don’t care if you have a four-hour work week or a hundred-hour one. I care about how much love you bring to the work when you get there.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and a co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe.

When choosing Long Tail Keywords to create content, you can use modifiers to find keyword phrases with Commercial Intent. This will help you find ways to reach the buyers in your market.

To find these buyers that are searching in your market, you simply include single keyword modifiers with your primary keywords when doing your keyword research.

Below are a list of modifiers, along with specific keyword phrase examples, which should generate even more ideas for you to test:

• buy
• purchase
• shop
• order

This helps you find long tail keyword phrases used by people who have an obvious intent to buy. Examples include:

- order flowers online for delivery (79)
- purchase old movies (430)
- buy movies online (104)
- buy mini muffin pans (3, 448)
- shop nascar (790)

The number out to the right is the approximate number of searches per day according to WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool.

Other modifiers I try include:

• shipping
• get
• online
• coupons
• deal
• delivery
• best
• comparison
• review

Again, some specific examples of keyword phrases using these qualifiers:

- hearing aid comparisons (671)
- free shipping on clothes (192)
- free shipping office supplies (81)
- digital slr camera reviews (235)
- who makes the best mp3 player (586)
- best way to get a software engineering degree online (118)
- delivery of wine as a gift (366)

As you can see, these keyword phrases are used by people who are searching online to help them with their buying decision. These are phrases with Commercial Intent (CI), and the phrases you should be targeting to make sales online.

Also See: The Products People Are Searching For Online

Informational Keyword Modifiers

I also use modifiers to find keyword phrases where people are searching for free information, which helps for creating link-building content and info products.

• free
• download
• tips
• how
• how to

Also See: Ideas for How-To Content and How-To Info Products Products

Using modifiers in your keyword research will help you come up with the specific content and products that your market is searching for online. Whether you are creating info products, building an email list with an informational opt-in incentive, or creating “money pages” as a merchant or an affiliate, these modifiers can help you bring in the most qualified visitors to your offers.

Best,

p.s. You can use any number of keyword research tools. I use WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool, and simply keep it open in a new tab. I refer to it no less than a dozen times a day to find phrases when: starting a new forum thread, writing a blog post or article, creating an email newsletter, etc.

Dislosure: I am an affiliate for WordTracker. The link given above is a referral link, but the tool is 100% free – not a trial offer. I have been using the free tool for years with no requirements other than the occasional captcha screen.

Writing Content is one of the easiest things you have to do in your online business, and also one of the most difficult at the same time.

Anyone can write words and create content. But writing SEO Content that converts visitors into buyers does take a bit of skill & intuition.

It’s easy enough to write optimized content to get rankings & website traffic. But traffic alone doesn’t pay the bills. You want to write content that attracts buyers and makes sales…

“I’m researching keywords, writing content, getting backlinks, have some good rankings and I’m even getting traffic – but still no sales. Help!”

All Long Tail Keywords Are Not Created Equal

Long Tail Keyword Phrases are phrases with 3 or more words. In some of the broader niches, a 3-word phrase is barely considered “long tail”. The phrase will be a very specific search, compared to the usual broad searches.

So it’s less about the number (“3-5 words”) and more how specific the search is.

These more specific phrases convert at a higher rate than general search queries, because the searcher knows exactly what they want. Writing content or creating pages around these long tail keyword phrases gives you a better opportunity to create a strong message to market match.

Imagine the difference between creating a page for “shoes” and one for “jimmy choo bridal shoes”. Even though “shoes” gets a lot more searches, it’s too general to target. You have no idea what kind of shoes your website visitors want to buy.

To give you an example, I recently wrote a blog post for an 8-word long tail keyword phrase. The phrase is How Can I Promote My Website For Free? which gets approximately 235 searches a day according to WordTracker.

That blog post ranks in the top 10 on Google for that phrase.

Mission accomplished, right?

Commercial Keyword Phrases vs Informational Keyword Phrases

In the 8-word phrase I gave above as an example, there are two words that peg it as an informational search: how and free. The searcher is obviously looking for free information (credit card tucked firmly away in wallet).

Compare this to a phrase like “buy online advertising” (15 searches/day). Or “should I buy a website template” (30 searches/day). These searchers are trying to make a buying decision (credit card close by, if not in hand).

While it’s tempting to use long tail keywords with higher search volume, if your goal is to make sales then you want to target the commercial keyword phrases. And don’t let low search volume deter you – write the content once, and let it continue to work for you for years. It is worth it. If your target market is searching for it, you are doing them a disservice by not ‘responding’ to that query with content.

It’s not impossible to convert visitors who are looking for information, into buyers. But it is harder – and you’ll see a much lower conversion rate. When you are writing content specifically to promote a product or to make sales, you want to target and optimize for the commercial keyword phrases.

The main point is that you analyze the keyword phrases from the searcher’s perspective, and determine the intent of the search. What is it they are most likely looking for? Your goal as a content publisher is to offer them exactly that.

Using Informational Keyword Phrases

When writing SEO Content, you want to make use of both Informational and Commercial Keyword Phrases. You’ll focus on the latter for creating content that contains a strong call-to-action for a specific product or service. But info-searches have their place in your web content development plan as well.

It takes both types of content to fully serve your market.

Informational search queries can be used to create content or copy for:

• Opt-in Incentives (reports, guides, etc)
• Newsletter Titles
• Internal links for your “money pages”
• Articles for Article Marketing
• Forum Topics (for inbound links & networking)
• Squidoo Lenses

…etc. In addition to being a great source for content ideas that can generate quality inbound links, the info keyword phrases are good to use on a blog where you are trying to build a loyal readership or establish a reputation as a market leader.

But when it comes to making sales… target the keyword phrases that show obvious intent to buy.

This is really only a slight shift in mindset when you are doing keyword research. We’ve been taught to focus on the search volume, analyze the competition in the search results, and if it looks like an “easy rank” then create a page or blog post and get backlinks.

It’s easy enough to stay busy going through the motions and create keyword-optimized content that ranks well. But if you’re getting good search engine rankings, and you’re starting to get traffic to that content, and still not making sales – this (the intent of the search) may very well be the missing ingredient.

Continue to target your market through their queries for info, but use that content strategically to build up your “money pages”. And put a strong focus on creating commercial content for those in your market that are specifically searching for help in their buying decision.

We’ve actually discussed SEO Content & Long Tail Keywords before in great detail, but over the weekend at the NAMS Workshop I discovered it still wasn’t super clear for everyone. Understandable – it actually took me awhile to wrap my head around the concept as well. But boy did it ever make a difference!

Here are two recent posts on this topic that contain even more examples and ideas:

SEO Content | Affiliate Marketing Tips

I put together 4 downloads for those that wanted guides to work with after my presentation at NAMS. You’ll find both of those posts as PDF Files, along with 2 others, in the protected post. The password is “nams3″.

Study the tutorials & posts, look over your own keyword content strategy, and then let me know if you have any questions – you can leave a comment below. Include the link to your site in the comment field for your URL if you would like me to take a look as well.

Best,

p.s. Next we’ll discuss Keyword Qualifiers to help you identify and cater to the buyers in your niche. Subscribe below to receive email notification of this and more great tutorials that will help you take your online business to the next level:

Next in the Affiliate Marketing Tips series, is how to get traffic and make sales with your niche affiliate sites…

@TaylorMarek: How to get eyeballs and people to buy?

I could start out by giving you specific internet marketing strategies, and I’ll share a few of those with you too.

But the key is actually in how you approach the market. It’s not complicated, but it is unique to each market and to each type of niche affiliate site. I’ll share some methods that I use to create a winning marketing plan for any site…

Step One: Market Research

Market Research is not the same as Keyword Research. That is where it starts, but not where it ends. Keywords tell you two things – they tell you what people are searching for, and they tell you the depth of the market.

Let’s take a look at an example of that so you can see what I mean. We’ll go back to that french braid hairstyle example, and look at that next to quilting:

Comparing these two sets of results side by side, just from the first 20 keyword phrases you can see a major difference in the market depth. Obviously “quilt” is more broad than “french braid”, but even if you narrow that search down to “quilt patterns” you still get more than 10x the overall search volume.

You also want to look at variations of your primary keywords. In the case of “quilt” and “quilt patterns”, next I would look at the keyword phrases for “quilting”.

I realize these screenshots are small. Open WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool and type in the words/phrases to see the same results in true size.

There are 2 types of keyword phrases:
informational and commercial

Informational keyword phrases are searches for information – and usually for free information. Examples: “how to quilt” and “free quilt patterns”

Commercial keyword phrases are searches for products and represent potential buyers. Examples: “quilting magazines” and “quilting supplies”

Both types of keyword phrases are important to your overall marketing plan. Searches with commercial intent are used to create money pages with a specific recommendation and strong call-to-action.

Informational search terms are used to create free content that appeals to your target market, strategically leading them into your funnel and ultimately into a buying decision.

Commercial = immediate sale.
Informational = build rapport and work up to the sale.

The search volume, or the market depth, is important as this is how you are going to reach your market. It’s also how you are going to figure out the best ways to serve that market.

If you choose a micro-niche with very few keyword phrases to work with, even if those phrases have great search volume, you’re going to run out of creative ways to reach your market.

A niche with market depth and a wide variety of keyword phrases gives you many more opportunities to reach (and ultimately serve) that market.

Every single keyword phrase is an opportunity to meet and engage with your ideal customer. You use that keyword phrase to determine exactly what they want, and to deliver that one thing to them. Each keyword phrase should be considered a mini-marketing plan in your overall business strategy.

Going back to our quilting niche example, which has great market depth, you would analyze the keyword phrases and separate the informational searches from the commercial searches. The information phrases will be used to reach your market, and the commercial phrases will be used to make sales.

You want to ask yourself 4 questions:

- What are they looking for?
- Where are they looking for it?
- How can I enter that conversation?
- How can I best serve this market?

The obvious first step is to optimize each page of your affiliate site to rank well in the major search engines, so your ideal visitors can easily find you when they search those keyword phrases. See: Web Page Optimization (free tutorial & checklist).

You’ll use the keyword phrases to create content, and to frame your offer so that it appeals to your target market. If they are searching for “free quilt patterns” you give them that, and offer a new free pattern every month by email (build a list).

If they are searching for “quilting supplies” you recommend specific products they will need and the best places to order them online (via your affiliate links, of course).

A keyword phrase like “how to quilt” can be used to create a content page that leads into your pages on free patterns and supplies. This might be used on your site, or may be used as an article you submit to EzineArticles.com or publish on Squidoo.

You want to group all of the related “how to” keyword phrases and use those to create lead-in content to your how-to page on your own site. Not every piece of content has to be a monster essay either.

Those keyword phrases might be used in the subject line of a new thread on a niche forum, a short 500 word article you submit to article directories, used in an email subject line for a ‘quick tip’ message (that gets archived online), or used to open a discussion on Facebook or Twitter even.

The goal is to create various types of web content that strategically lead your visitor into your list, or to your money page. The email list will use a softer approach, building trust and rapport with your readers so that you become their go-to source for all things ‘quilting’ (replace with your niche, of course).

So the short answer to “how to get eyeballs and make sales” is this: know what they want, meet them where they are searching for it, deliver a specific targeted solution. Period.

That is marketing. Things like social bookmarking, article marketing, SEO, paid advertising – those are just methods to achieve your marketing plan. Most people mistake the methods for the marketing, and use the methods without a strategic marketing plan at all. Don’t make that mistake.

Marketing is about knowing and serving your market.

The methods are a means to do that.

So let’s talk methods real quick before we close. I’ll share some resources & tutorials with you as I’ve discussed most methods in great detail already:

• Choosing Keywords & Phrases
• How to Write A Product Review
• Twitter Marketing
• Creating Viral Short Reports
• Article Marketing For Beginners
• Forum Marketing: Signature Tip to Increase Clicks & Sales
• Blog Interviews & Guest Blogging
• One Way Link Building (7 Simple Ideas)
• Email Newsletter Ideas

I have tons more resources, so if you have any questions at all simply leave a comment below. I’d be happy to answer your questions, or point you to a free tutorial here at ClickNewz.

Best,

p.s. Enjoy this post? Subscribe below for more free Affiliate Marketing Tips

@TraciKnoppe: What are your deciding factors for any niche in deciding between a minisite, blog or ecommerce setup?

This is a great question, as there are different options for creating niche affiliate sites.

A mini-site has various definitions, from the small 5-10 page website to the landing page or squeeze page style affiliate site.

A blog is of course content-based. You can also use WordPress or other blogging platforms to create squeeze pages or more traditional looking websites. But the platform is irrelevant. A blog is a blog. A landing page created with WordPress is still a landing page.

An ecommerce-style affiliate site looks very much like an online store, except that you deep link to the merchant’s product detail/checkout page instead of linking to your own shopping cart…

Which type of affiliate site should you create?

The type or style of affiliate site you create is going to depend on several factors. Your market, your choice of keyword phrases, the type of product you are promoting, and how you reach your market – meaning your marketing strategy.

Ecommerce-style Affiliate Site

This style of site is used for promoting a line of products within a specific niche, usually from multiple merchants. An example would be an affiliate site on exercise equipment, or kitchen appliances.

Pages are optimized for specific product types and specific product names. These keyword phrases have commercial intent, and the searcher is looking for purchasing options, reviews, comparisons, the best merchant to buy from online, etc.

In addition to product listings with images and descriptions, this style of affiliate site would also include content pages to help the visitor make a more informed buying decision.

Affiliate Blog

A blog is basically the same as the traditional content-based site, with the added features of visitor interaction. The goal is to establish yourself as an expert on that topic, and build a loyal readership in your niche.

Posts are optimized for informational keyword phrases, and the content is written to answer those queries and follow-up with a specific call-to-action. This method takes the target market from searching for info to choosing a solution.

If your niche has a good combination of informational keywords, and keywords with commercial intent (product names, etc), you might consider adding a blog to your ecommerce-style site to capitalize on both.

Affiliate Mini-Site

A mini-site is a smaller website, arguably anywhere between 3 and 20 pages total. This type of site can be created using the WordPress platform, or traditional HTML.

The affiliate usually has no interest in creating a name for themselves in the niche, but rather to send the visitor from the page to the merchant as quickly as possible (ie high bounce rate, very little personal interaction).

This style of site is generally used in small niches that do not have much market depth. For example, a website on the topic of wheatgrass juicers. Your content will consist of product comparisons and reviews, choosing between manual and electric, and perhaps a few of the best recipes to be used with that product.

Affiliate Squeeze Page

The squeeze page method is used to build a niche mailing list for the purpose of email marketing. This style affiliate site consists of only a few pages, with the main page offering an incentive that the visitor must request via email.

It is most often used to capitalize on informational searches, and then gradually bring them to a buying decision.

You might use an audio interview with the merchant, a case study on the product, a how-to guide on a topic that requires product purchase, etc. You can then follow up with the subscribers and build a relationship via email, recommending specific products related to that topic.

You can use an autoresponder series to automate the process, making this style of promotion more passive than blogging and interacting with blog readers.

Combinations

Many of these models can be used together in various combinations. The most important factor in your decision about which style to use is what will work best in your particular niche – or with the keyword phrases you target.

In an informational market for example, you might use a blog to become known in your niche and then also offer a squeeze page and free download to funnel those visitors into your mailing list.

You want to research your market, and consider the available keyword phrases in that niche, and consider what you can create to best serve that particular market.

Next we’ll discuss the use of pen names with niche affiliate sites…

Best,

p.s. I’ll be presenting at the Niche Affiliate Marketing workshop in Atlanta this January. There are still a few seats left if you’re interested in joining us! If you can’t make it to a live event, but would still love to learn niche affiliate marketing, check out my overview of Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook.

Not all inbound links are the same. Some links will get indexed more quickly than others, and some will carry more weight towards your Link Reputation and rankings than others.

When it comes to your link building strategy, you want to focus on the quality of your backlinks over
just the quantity or number of links you can get.

The first thing we’ll look at is how to define quality and which types of links carry more weight than others (and why), and then we’ll look at ways you can easily get those quality inbound links pointing to your pages…

The Quality of a Link

In addition to the quality of each individual backlink, your links are graded as a whole. This is why effective link building requires a variety of link types, and sources for inbound links. You are building a network, a navigation system, and that network of links and connections will be judged- not just on a link by link basis.

Factors that go into scoring the quality of a backlink include:

• Anchor Text
  Your anchor text should define the page you’re linking to, and should be the same or relevant to the keyword phrases you used to optimize that page. Anchor text is simply the text that is hyperlinked to your URL.

• Relevance of Linked Pages
  Two pages that are linked together should be related, or relevant to each other. The goal is to interlink related content across the web, with purpose.

• Link Location
  Links within the content area of a page carry more weight than links in static areas such as the navigation, sidebar, footer, etc. A contextual link is the highest quality link placement you can get on a page.

• Number of Outbound Links
  The total number of links on the page affect how much weight, or link juice, each outgoing link will receive. A link on a page with fewer outbound links will carry more weight. It will result in a higher click-through rate (CTR) as well, since there are fewer choices for visitors to click.

• Their Inbound Links
  If the page link to you has a good number of high quality inbound links, this will give your link on their page more weight. Seek out quality web pages with solid link structure for link placement.

• Follow/NoFollow
  While I subscribe to the rule of thinking that you should obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted (human) traffic to your page… for the purpose of obtaining the highest quality inbound links, you’ll want to get a good number of links that do not have the NoFollow attribute.

• PageRank
  I put this at the bottom of the list intentionally. What most people know as PageRank is really only Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) and is not actual PageRank. That said, it’s common practice to use the toolbar to get inbound links from pages with “more green” or higher PageRank. A good rule of thumb is to avoid pages with a greyed out PageRank bar (which means the page has been penalized).

Considering every single one of these factors for every inbound link you are considering can be incredibly time consuming. It can also be very rewarding, in regards to search engine optimization.

You still need a variety of link types and link sources though. A good question to ask yourself, before placing or requesting a link, is: Does this link add value to the page? Real value. People value. If so, add link.

Patience & Aging

Link Building is not a one-day task. Even if you could get all of the inbound links you need in one sitting, they wouldn’t all count right away. It takes time for your links to be found and indexed, so a little patience is required in the overall process.

Link Building is a gradual and ongoing task. You want to build your backlinks over time, and the value of those links will grow over time as well. An “aged link”, or a link that has been there for awhile, carries more weight than a brand new link.

This appears natural to the search engines versus big shots of inbound links all at once, and then nothing new for months. Or 100 new inbound links this month, that disappear at the end of the month. Google knows the difference between a link that lasts a month or two (a purchased link) and a permanent, quality inbound link.

Regarding how long it can take for your inbound links to be found and indexed, or to show up in Yahoo’s backlinks, that depends on how frequently the page (where your link is) gets spidered or crawled by the major search engines.

Tip: You can tell how recently Google has visited and cached a web page by clicking the “Cached” link beside the listing in the Google search results.

How to Get Quality Inbound Links

Given all these details, you can boil your task down to getting inbound links within the content area of a related quality web page. Ideally without the NoFollow attribute, and using your Primary Keyword Phrase as the anchor text.

How’s that for simplifying it?

Some of the easiest ways to obtain these types of high quality links include: Guest Blogging, Article Marketing, Testimonials, Interviews and Cross Blog Conversations.

Another idea, a bit more difficult to achieve, is “Link Bait” – or having something so interesting that people share it, blog about it, and link to it around the web.

We’ll discuss each of these options in more detail, along with even more link building strategies and creative ideas for getting high quality backlinks, in upcoming posts in this series. Stay tuned!

Best,

p.s. If you subscribe below you’ll receive an email every Monday with the weekly archive from ClickNewz. You’ll also have the option to subscribe to daily updates, and receive notification about hot new topics as they are published:

An effective link building campaign requires one major ingredient: variation.

If you are getting backlinks for the purpose of higher rankings in the major search engines, then you need a variety of links from a variety of source types.

The goal is to get organic, natural backlinks. The kind that both visitors and search engines love most. The kind that happen naturally on their own, but that you must also push along a bit for proper content marketing…

A common mistake that bloggers and webmasters make when promoting their content is to stick to one type of link-building only. Some do mainly article marketing, others prefer social bookmarking, some blog commenting, etc.

But ideally you’ll want a variety of links, coming from a variety of source types – with variation in the anchor text of the links as well.

It’s unnatural, and therefore appears spammy, to get 100 new backlinks all from social bookmarking sites only, and all with the exact same anchor text. This is likely to send up a red flag, and do more harm than good to your seo strategy.

This is not effective link building. It’s similar to running for a political office, and visiting all of the voting booths yourself… to cast votes for yourself.

An effective link building campaign is one that appears more like a natural buzz. Google counts links to your site as ‘votes’ for your content, and they are most interested in what other sites/people have to say about it than what you say.

In order to create that natural appearance for your inbound links, you use variation. You’ll want to get links from blog posts, blog comments, social bookmarking sites, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, web pages, press releases (if appropriate), article directories, niche directories, discussion forums, etc.

You’ll want a variety of anchor text in those links as well. This is best achieved by using longtail keyword phrases, or by using more than one keyword phrase that is relevant to the content on that page.

The advantage to using variation in your anchor text is that not only do your links appear more natural, which means they’ll carry more weight with the major search engines, but you can achieve top rankings for more than one search phrase.

For example, I have one web page that ranks in the Top 3 for three different keyword phrases. I make sales from that page every single week (and some weeks, every day). This is due to using the three different phrases as the anchor text, and switching it up each time I get a new link to that page.

You can create an effective link building campaign by kick-starting the buzz, and with great content you’ll end up with many more natural backlinks in addition to those you create yourself.

This is not something you want to do for every single web page or blog post, but it’s well worth it for those pillar articles – or those pages/post you most want to rank well in the major search engines.

An effective link building strategy might include:

• Create internal links from related pages on your blog/site
• Tweet the link and ask for feedback
• Publish the link on your Facebook profile or page
• If a blog post, create pingbacks to related blog posts
• Comment on related blog posts, using your specific link in the URL field
• Published a related YouTube video, include the hyperlink in the description field
• Add the link to your niche discussion forum profiles
• Include the link in your forum signature on niche forums
• Submit relevant articles to article directories with the link in the byline
• Submit a press release (if appropriate for your content piece)
• Write guest blog posts on niche blogs, with the link in your signature
• Engage in Cross Blog Conversations with other bloggers on the topic
• Include the link with 5-10 other related links on a social bookmarking list
• If the link is to the main page, add it to niche directories
• If the link is to the main page of a blog, also add it to blog/RSS directories

If you have a really good piece of content, these strategies will kick-start a natural buzz and new unsolicited links from a variety of sources. People may find and like your content and then stumble, tweet, bookmark, or blog about your link. And that’s exactly what you want.

Sure, this is work – particularly in the beginning. But once you identify your best sources you’ll find that it becomes faster and easier with time. You’ll have a list of blogs in your RSS Reader, a list of niche forums you’re engaged with, etc. And you can also outsource the tasks once you get a working strategy in place.

The variation in anchor text and sources is incredibly important for effective link building. Never dismiss a linking opportunity due to PageRank, Nofollow attribute, lack of option to include anchor text, etc. You need these to offset your highly optimized links… to avoid the dreaded “over-optimization” (ie: search engine manipulation, spam).

Best,

Previous Posts in the Link Building Series:
Web Page Optimization
Link Building 101

Before we get started with the new Link Building Series this week, I want to make sure everyone understands basic web page optimization.

While link-building plays a big part in getting top search engine rankings, what you do on the page is going to dramatically influence your CTR (click-through rate) and your conversion rate. So – first things first…

Web Page Optimization Begins With Keyword Selection

The first step is to choose the keyword phrase you most want your page to rank well for in the major search engines. Each page of your site, or blog post, will be optimized for a relevant keyword phrase.

The main page is optimized for your most general keyword phrase, the categories slightly more specific keyword phrases, and your pages/posts should be optimized for very specific keyword phrases – called long tail keyword phrases.

Long Tail keyword phrases are phrases with 3 or more words.

Let me give you a quick visual example of how this would be set up on a website about nail art. Your first step is to use your favorite keyword research tool and type in the phrase “nail art”. You can use WordTracker’s free keyword suggestion tool:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

• Home/Main Page
  - Nail Art
• Categories/Navigation
  - Nail Art Designs
  - Freehand Nail Art
  - Nail Art Supplies
• Pages/Posts
  - acrylic nail art designs
  - professional nail art supplies
  - nail art step by step

That’s a very basic example, and it will vary with niches and keyword depth, but the goal is to start general and then get more and more specific as you get deeper into your site.

Note: While long tail keyword phrases generally have less search volume, they bring in a more targeted visitor and result in much higher conversion rates. Longtail keyword phrases also contain variations of shorter keyword phrases.

To give you an example one of my blog posts is optimized for starting a free online business, but also ranks well for the shorter phrase: free online business.

As that example implies, you can optimize a web page for more than one keyword phrase. I choose a Primary Keyword Phrase (the phrase I most want my page or post to rank well for) and also choose a secondary keyword phrase (or two). We’ll get into this more during the Link-Building series.

Web Page Optimization 101

Now that you have selected your keyword phrases, it’s time to optimize your pages. There are 7 places on your page where you want to include your Primary Keyword Phrase on each individual web page:

• File Name
• Title Tag
• Text Header
• Sub-Headings
• Within Content
• Within the Meta Description tag
• Anchor Text of Incoming Links

I’ll often name my images with my Primary Keyword Phrase as well, if relevant, but that’s as much keeping my images organized for which post they go to as it is “image optimization”.

I don’t pay attention to things like keyword density, keyword proximity, or any other fancy SEO terms. I simply use my Primary Keyword Phrase in each of those places, and a few times within the actual content. Usually in the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and maybe once more somewhere in the middle (a couple of times on longer posts/pages). That’s it. Keep it simple

Web Page Optimization for Blogs

Optimizing blogs is very similar to optimizing web pages. I don’t use any fancy plug-ins to achieve this on my own blog. This post actually stands as a visual example where you can see all 7 elements listed above.

Even though you are viewing this blog post in your browser, I’ll point out each of the elements here so you can get a better feel for how it is done. This post is optimized for the phrase “web page optimization” – a low volume phrase (around 9 searches a day, or 3,285/year).

With a blog, the title of the post also becomes the Title Tag or page title as well as the Text Header. As you can see, I’ve used the phrase in both the title and the file name:

If you look at the top of your browser, you’ll see the post title is in the Title Bar and you’ll also see it as the text header above the post. You’ll also see that I used the Primary Keyword Phrase in the sub-headings throughout the post:

Once you publish a blog post, the post title is also used as the Anchor Text for internal links throughout your blog – specifically to your post, from your archive listings. Your post titles will often contain additional words, diluting the keyword phrase in that Anchor Text. With this post, the additional word is “checklist”.

So my blog will create internal links to this post like this:
Web Page Optimization Checklist instead of Web Page Optimization (preferred).

This is where our link-building strategy will help, which we’ll focus on next.

How do on-page factors affect CTR & Conversions?

Ahh yes – I almost forgot to come back around and explain that.

Before anyone ever arrives on your web page, they run across your link – either in the search results or on another website. What they see in the search results is your Title Tag and your URL. Or if they find your link on a web page and hover over it, they see the Anchor Text and the URL.

Example:

What you say in those few words will determine whether they click on your link or not. A compelling title may grab their attention in the search results. Or a descriptive file name may encourage them to click through to read the topic.

As for increasing your conversions, that’s all in selecting the right keyword phrase. You want a very strong message to market match between your keywords and your content. Meaning your phrase defines what they can expect.

With this post, the phrase “web page optimization” very clearly defines what a visitor will find when they click through. This will increase your chance of gaining a new subscriber or making a sale (ie increase your conversion rate) – versus the other option: they click the back button.

Recommended Reading:

What I have given you here is a basic overview of web page optimization. For a more in-depth understanding of SEO I highly recommend that you download (and read!) SEO Fast Start, a free search engine optimization guide by Dan Thies.

Grab it while it’s free!

Best,

p.s. Also see my tutorial on writing SEO Content that outlines how to choose the best keywords & phrases for individual blog posts or web pages.

Stay tuned – this Link Building series is going to be fun

To continue the series on web content writing, I want to share some of my personal tips & resources with you.

These are particularly helpful for creating that endless flow of web content for your sites, blogs, articles and even emails or short reports.

I’ll start by giving you a list of great places to find hot topics in your niche to inspire high quality web content.

Writing topics that will attract visitors and build a strong readership is not rocket science. In fact, if you pay attention your target market will even tell you exactly what they want you to write…

Sources For Web Content Ideas:

• Your first choice should always be keywords & phrases that you find through keyword research. Writing seo content, or content that is optimized for specific search terms, will help you reach your ideal visitors when they are in the process of searching for solutions – when they are most likely to subscribe or buy.

• Search niche forums for hot topics when you’re looking for content ideas. Take notice of threads with the most views or the most replies. Most forum software is set up to show you these numbers at a glance while scrolling through the topics. Threads with the most replies sparked a discussion or raised more questions. Threads with a lot of views but no replies obviously had an interesting title, but perhaps didn’t deliver. Both are usually good topics to consider writing about.

• Watch for news or stories that surface that will be of interest to your market, or that you can write about with a slant that relates to your topic. Subscribe to Google Alerts with specific keyword phrases, scan traditional media such as magazines and television, search YouTube for new and interesting videos, etc. This type of content is great for niche blogs, along with your thoughts or opinions on the topic. (example)

• If you blog, your comment section can be a great source for new web content. Especially when people leave you questions, or dive deeper into the topic. This gives you the opportunity to write a second “Part 2″ blog post, and then offer the link to that post as a reply to their comment. The comments on other popular blogs in your niche is also a great source. Search Technorati or Google Blog Search for specific topics, and scan through the comments for questions or comments that inspire new content ideas.

• Share websites, blogs or resources in your niche that your readers would enjoy. If you sell running shoes, you could create a directory of marathons. If you promote financial calculators, you could review the top Finance magazines. Consider any other products, services or resources that your target market needs or would appreciate and use that as a source for new web content.

• Other blogs in your niche are also a great source for new content ideas. You can share a list of blog posts by various authors on the same topic, or take one good blog post and expand on that topic with a different angle on your own blog. If you publish this on a blog, linking to the other blog(s) will usually result in a trackback there which is also a great way to get targeted traffic.

• If you are an Affiliate check in with your merchants frequently for sales, special offers, coupon codes or new products. These are always a good thing to announce on your blog or website, or send out to your mailing list.

• Search Twitter at http://search.twitter.com with your topical keywords and scan through the conversations. Find out what people are saying, asking or talking about. When you get in tune with how your target market feels about a topic, it helps you write web content they’ll be most likely to read and share.

Also See: 5 Types of Web Content That Readers Love!

I hope these web content writing tips & resources proved helpful for you, and sparked some new ideas you can use to create fresh content for your blog or website. These are the same ideas and resources that I use every single day across my own blogs and websites.

Best,

p.s. My next post will feature specific resources that I use myself in developing fresh, new web content. Subscribe below to get updates if you’d like to receive email notification about new posts here on ClickNewz…

Yesterday, during our live webinar, Rosalind Gardner and I discussed creating websites for people – not search engines. What this means is that websites should be designed for the human visitor: provide solutions, easy to read, easy to navigate.

This is in contrast to designing around shady search engine tactics that promise server-crushing traffic, but in the end don’t engage human visitors or result in decent conversion rates – and can ultimately get you delisted from the major search engines altogether.

The search engines prefer visitor-friendly sites. Human searchers are their target market, and their goal is to provide them with ideal results.

Does this mean you shouldn’t write SEO Content? Not at all! In fact, choosing keywords & phrases very strategically will help you strike that balance between search engines and human visitors.

In this quick tutorial, I’ll show you exactly how I do that…

Writing SEO Content begins with choosing keywords & phrases. Your target market (human visitors) will reveal exactly what they’re looking for by typing keywords and phrases into the major search engines. Tools like WordTracker allow you to analyze the popular keyword phrases and their search volume:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

That link will open in a new window, or a new tab. I keep it open in a separate tab all the time, and refer to it a dozen times a day or more. There are a number of keyword research tools and software programs you can use, and most are fine, but I find this free WordTracker tool to be simple and fast…

As an example, let’s say you have a website all about bass guitars. You type in bass guitar into the field at WordTracker, and see these results:

This is a nice little micro-niche, don’t you think?

Looking over this list, we are choosing keywords & phrases that might inspire some good ideas for SEO Content. Any of these phrases will make for great pages on your niche website, but we’ll assume you already have a website and you’re looking for creative ideas for providing something new & valuable to your visitors.

The image above does not show the whole list you will see at WordTracker, but as I scanned down through those results a word stood out to me: chart. If we add that to our keyword search, we see these results:

A quick search on Google shows a good number of pages, images and even PDF files for bass guitar charts. This might immediately put most people off, but it’s also an opportunity. Your target market is stuck wading through all of those options, so one idea is to help them out and write a blog post series reviewing the available charts and pointing out the best charts to use.

If you have a mailing list for your site (and you should), you could send them a download link to the best chart and also a link to your series of chart reviews. Would they appreciate that and look forward to future emails from you? You betcha!

A mailing list manager like Aweber will archive your newsletter issues or broadcast emails, which will also get indexed and show up in search results. Here’s an example of one that I found on Google. That’s an easy way to create relevant backlinks to your content pages.

That’s just one idea of choosing keywords & phrases, and then leveraging the competition to create your own unique and valuable SEO Content.

Obviously free charts are not a commercial search, or the type of content you can easily monetize. If it were me, I would provide great value in the reviews and selections and then encourage visitors to subscribe to my blog or newsletter for more great resources. You might even provide a short report (a PDF file) listing the 10 best bass guitar charts as a bonus for those who subscribe. Great matching call-to-action!

Now let’s look at keyword searches with more of a commercial intent.

Scanning through our keyword list again, I’m choosing keywords & phrases that show an intent to buy. One such phrase is “bass guitar accessories”. One look at the Google search results shows that this phrase is pretty competitive. Without doing any major competition analysis, you can easily see that there are a lot of sponsored listings and well-optimized results:

Competition? Good! This means you can write up a nice little blog post, optimized for “bass guitar accessories” and expect decent payout on strategically placed Adsense. While it may take you awhile to compete in the actual search results for this phrase, established bloggers or website owners would do well to send a note to their list with a link to this post, using the title: Best Deals on Bass Guitar Accessories.

You could also use this in article marketing, writing SEO Content titled “Buying Bass Guitar Accessories Online” and linking back to your page or post. It would also make a great signature link in guitar or musician forums, of course.

Now if you actually sell bass guitars and accessories on your own website, this is not the best approach. Obviously that would work well for someone with a niche community or content website. So next we’ll imagine that you have an affiliate site that promotes these physical products.

So You Want To Sell Products?

The best way to sell products online through SEO Content is by using longtail keyword phrases. Longtail phrases are keyword phrases with 3 words or more. In these phrases, your target market is telling you very specifically what they would like to buy. That being the case, these longtail keyworde phrases result in a much higher conversion rate than general search terms.

Scrolling back through my original keyword list for “bass guitar” I find the word “beginner” in the mix. I decide to explore that a bit, so I click on it to see the results with that word included:

Hmm. There are only 47 searches total on this topic, and only 22 searches for the main phrase “bass guitar for beginners”. I guess it’s not really worth creating a blog post or a web page for that phrase. Right?

Wrong!

A quick look at the Google search results for this phrase shows that it is not at all competitive. The top search result only has 11 inbound links outside of it’s own domain, and another of the top 10 results only has ONE backlink (and it is an internal link from their own domain at that), and there is even one link in the results that goes to a placeholder page.

Bottom line: It would be VERY easy to rank in the top 10 on Google for the phrase “bass guitar for beginners” (yes, without quotes).

While it’s true that phrase is only searched approximately 22 times a day, that means that it is searched more than 600 times a month – or close to 8,000 times a year. Would you like 8,000 opportunities to sell a bass guitar with an easy top ranking? Would it be worth a couple of hours working on a nice piece of SEO Content for your site or blog to be in this position? Of course!

Most of your competitors are fighting for top placement with broader keyword searches, or more competitive keyword phrases. Choosing keywords & phrases that are less competitive and more specific not only make for easier rankings, but they also convert better for you!

What about the other phrases in that list, with only 1-8 searches a day? Again, it’s worth 10 minutes or even 2 hours of your time to write the SEO Content once, and let it work for you forever.

All you have to do is invest a little time upfront (or outsource the writing, even) and that little piece of content could trickle traffic in for years.

Using Keyword Qualifiers in your Keyword Research

I like to have a little fun with my keyword research, and try adding various qualifiers to the phrases to see what I come up with. They will vary between niches, but some of my favorite “keyword qualifiers” are: buy, order, get, find, products, download, deal, best, reviews, compare – just to name a few.

By the way, “bass guitar reviews” is another phrase that is not very competitive in the top 10 Google search results.

Speaking of qualifiers, like the word “buy”, did you know there are over 1,500 searches a day for… buy mini muffin pans? And did you also know that the #1 organic result for that phrase (without quotes) is an article on articlebase.com? Yeah… I’m serious. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself.

Let’s say you want to sell designer handbags. Take a look at these keyword results:

If I were choosing keywords & phrases to optimize my page, I would choose #3: “buy womens designer handbags online”. Talk about qualifying their intent! Cha-ching! That is one beautiful 5-word longtail keyword phrase.

And guess what? The #1 organic result on Google… only has ONE inbound link (excluding their own internal links). The #2 result is a blogger blog with less than 15 inbound links (total).

See? It’s Easy!

Writing web content your visitors will love is not rocket science. It’s all about choosing keywords & phrases that match what you offer, to the people who are searching for it.

Creating properly optimized SEO Content will make both search engines and visitors happy, and will turn your blog or website into a passive profit generator.

Best,

p.s. Like this SEO Content tutorial? Subscribe below for more great tips & tutorials in the ongoing Web Content Writing series.