EzSEO Newsletter # 34
Andy Williams ez SEO
ezseonews.com
Hi and a particularly warm welcome to the new subscribers this week.For anyone new to this newsletter I should point out that there is a subscribers bonus web page set up where you will find some reports I have written on various topics. The latest addition is my report on writing and using articles for better rankings. The address of this bonus page is found at the end of each newsletter you receive.
Secondly a quick apology for the problem with links in last weeks newsletter. As most of you know I switched over to a new mailing list provider and didn't read the instructions ;o) Hopefully this week I can get it right.
This week:
1. Who do you trust?
2. A couple of useful tools
3. Link Exchange Mini-series Part I
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1. Who do you trust?
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Last week I gave you a final reminder about the new Nicheology subscription site and mentioned that they were capping the membership at 1500. Once they have 1500 subscribers they wont let anyone else in (unless someone unsubscribes first). BTW they are also raising the price for new subscriptions to $49.97 on the 15th June.
highly recommends this site as a way of getting some of your own products to sell. However, after last weeks newsletter I got an e-mail from one of my newsletter subscribers (thanks Matt) that made me think. Matt said that he thought the 1500 cap was nothing but a marketing ploy and there was no way they would be capping the membership. This got me thinking about the subject of trust.
Many people have been burned by scam artists and people shovelling junk down their throats at every opportunity that trust has largely gone. How many newsletters have you subscribed to because the web page said it offered valuable information and tips, only to find that it was nothing more than one plug after another for some product or other? On the Internet people get educated by experience and that education makes them untrusting of other people. What makes our lack of trust even worse is the fact that we are not dealing with "real" people. We rarely get to meet the people behind the web sites, so why should we trust them? On top of all this we regularly hear on the news about people being scammed.
In todays world it is very important to only trust those people who have proved themselves to you. I have been working online now for a few years and have subscribed to lots and lots of newsletters. However, there is only a handful that I actually read, and that I feel offer me value as promised - the rest are deleted immediately. I am sure you do something similar.
From the e-mails I get I know that a lot of people find it hard to trust my claims on the sales page for my SEO Website Builder. I have read on some forums that my software spams the search engines, generates your content based on keywords you specify and all sorts of other rubbish. You know what? The people who write this stuff have never even used my software. With people spreading stuff like this around there is no wonder that trust is gone. Why do you think that Internet marketers put testimonials on their web sites? I added a new testimonial to my Sitebuilder website this week from a lady who posted on the SEO Website Builder members only forum. Here is the post in its entirety:
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"My name is Charlene and I've just finished my first site. I really took my time with it and it's paying off. This is my first successful venture into affiliate marketing. I have tried it in the past and the traffic and sales left much to be desired! SEO WSB is amazing. It's done exactly what it promised and more! I've hit the top 15 for approx 3/4 of my keywords and reached #1 or #2 for the remaining on Yahoo. I am indexed on Google but I'm pretty far down in the pile right now. It's early so I know I will get there soon.
Right now I have a conversion ratio of 10 - 15% and seem to be steadily making 2-3 sales per day with a pretty decent commission. I've just begun my 2nd site and I feel very good about it knowing that I will get traffic and sales instead of just checking out my stats every day hoping that someone in this world found my site! SEO WSB gets you found for free! I haven't done any pay-per-click, I did run 2 small ads while waiting to be spidered, but since then the flow of traffic has been steady and increases a bit every day.
I seem to be getting a bit more traffic and click through as I add more articles and reciprocal links.
Andy - I want to thank you for your guidance through all of this. I was pretty slow in getting started, taking time to really make sure I understood the manual and diving into keyword research. I made a Keyword Research Binder where I printed out and tabbed my Wordtracker results together with your Keyword Research Form and it's become my little book of gold! This thing is hilarious, it must be a few hundred pages of printed and written results but I believe it had a huge impact on the rankings I'm now seeing. Wordtracker is amazing, I owe you a big thank you not only for SEO WSB, but your information on WordTracker as well. All of the keyword tools have their place but WordTracker, in my opinion, is the best. Reciprocal linking is so easy with this software! I don't mean to keep repeating myself but every aspect of your software is so user friendly and well designed I honestly can't thank you enough.
I do not work outside the home. I have 4 boys ranging from 9 years old to 2 years old. I've worked on my site while they're in school, after they've gone to bed, etc. I've gotten much more done than I initially thought I would given the fact that I do have 4 sons just because SEO WSB makes everything so easy. I decided to give this a try because i can't work outside the home and I do need extra income. The way things are looking I can see a nice income in the future. I've already gotten 2 affiliate payments and I'm excited to see what will be coming in the mail once I have 10 or so sites running!!
Oh....Andy....I don't know if you remember this but in one of my first emails to you asking for help I mentioned something about my kids. I told you that 3 of them have a disability and I needed to make this work and be successful because my oldest wanted a trampoline and it wasn't in the budget. I know it sounds silly but it's the truth! I honestly started this because my first goal was to get my boys a nice trampoline with the safety netting. Looking back you had to think I was very strange telling you something like that. Well -- I just want to let you know that the kids did get their trampoline!!! It's goofy, I know, but I just had to let you know.
I'm looking forward to learning more as I go and I'm happy to be a part of this forum. Thank to all of you!
All the best,
Charlene "
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Charlene has e-mailed me since I posted this as a testimonial on the sales page of my website to tell me that she has received a lot of e-mail from people.
Many are thank you messages and people asking her to help them with their own sites but a lot are along the lines of:
"How do we know you are a real person?" and "Show us your website to prove it"
I have told Charlene what I tell everyone to do in these circumstances - tell these people that it does not matter whether they believe she is for real or not (let face it, she did not post this on the forum for me to use as a testimonial, just to share her experiences with others), and never give away your URL unless you want to see your site copied. It is a shame that today we find it so difficult to believe in people because we have been conditioned to not trust. Stories like this do happen to real people.
Incidentally I have removed her e-mail address from the testimonial on my sales page to save her from any more e-mails.
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2. A couple of useful tools
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This last week or so I have been playing around with a couple of new tools. In the past I have recommended a web browser called Crazy Browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer. In fact I loved crazy browser so much that I only ever used IE for PR checking. Well, I have uninstalled Crazy Browser from my laptop in favor of another browser called MyIE2 (http://www.myie2.com/). This browser has a tabbed interface like my beloved Crazy Browser, but also a lot more. I wont go into details but if you are looking for a free alternative to IE, do check this one out.
Now, while I was using MyIE2 I found out about a browser plug-in that works in IE or MyIE2 called Net Snippets. This plug in allows you to capture text and images off web sites you are browsing and call them up later offline. Now, while this tool could be used for "evil", I think it is just about the best research tool available for online marketers building quality content sites. It is so easy to research topics by just copying bits from different web sites so that you build up a wealth of information on the topic you are researching. I like this tool a lot. Net Snippets website is at: http://www.netsnippets.com/
Finally, not a tool but certainly a useful web page for webmasters. This search engine not only returns Google results, it also returns the PR for those results. Check it out at:
http://www.webmasterbrain.com/prog/search
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3. Link Exchange Mini-series Part I
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To survive in the modern search engine, a site needs to have links from other sites. As you surf the Internet you will see web pages that have a "Link to Us" or "Link Partners" link on the home page. These webmasters are building their rankings through reciprocal link exchanges with other webmasters.
What is a reciprocal link?
A reciprocal link is where two webmasters swap links. Webmaster A puts a link on his site to webmaster B's site, and Webmaster B puts a link on her site to webmaster A's site.
If you are fairly new to building web sites you might wonder why this is so important. As I see it there are a few reasons:
* You can get traffic from sources other than the search engines. If your search engine rankings drop, having links to your site from a lot of other web sites will bring in extra visitors from those sites. Now the best way of getting a lot of extra visitors in this way is by writing articles (so go to the subscriber bonus page and pick up my free Article writing course).
* Each link to your site should give your site a PR boost. There are occasions where webmaster use tricks to prevent this PR leakage from their site and this is one thing that you should check when swapping links. One such technique is dynamic linking which I wont go into here. If anyone wants to learn this technique and how to use it to get better search engine rankings I suggest you pick up a copy of Michael Campbell's Revenge of the Mininet book It comes with a report by link guru Leslie Rohde explaining how to use dynamic linking properly.
* Each link to your site (except those mentioned in the last point) will transfer "reputation" to your web page. If an incoming link to your site uses the phrase "purple widget", then the search engines are going to assume your site is about purple widgets. The more links to your site that use the link text purple widget, the better your reputation and the higher your page will rank.
* Linking to sites that you believe are of interest to your visitors makes your site more valuable in the eyes of your visitors. They are more likely to come back or bookmark your site if they feel that it offers them the information they need - either on your site or on your link partners site. Your site can be a convenient starting point for their search for information.
Hopefully you agree that these points are important enough to make a links page compulsory. It is true that getting links to your site can often be the biggest chore of all especially on a new site with no PR - no one wants to link to you. Incidentally, my wife has just completed a web site about pregnancy. If anyone has a web site about pregnancy or babies (must be related to either of these topics) and wants to exchange links with a new PR 0 site, e-mail me ;o)
In the next few newsletters we will look at ways to minimize the pain of building links.
You should make a commitment to building links TODAY. If you have not already done so, create a links page on your site. Link to it from your homepage so that it is easily found and you will be surprised how often other webmasters will contact you to exchange links. Make it even easier by providing the linking code on your website so that webmasters can cut & paste your link on their site. If you look at my own links page here:
http://ezseonews.com/link-partners.htm
You can see the form at the bottom of the page making it very easy for webmasters to send me their details as well as the link text they should use on their site. I get several requests a week to exchange links, but as you will see in the next few newsletters, it is not always a good idea to link to everyone who asks.
Hope you enjoyed this issue. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at the address below.
Have a great week!
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if you want it. That's extra free traffic for your site as well as an incoming link to your site.
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