Chapter 8 - SEARCH ENGINES (PART 2)

It would be nice to get a link on Amazon.com wouldn’t it?

I said that there were two methods to improve your ranking. Here’s the second…

OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE.

What does that mean exactly?

It means you should do everything possible to make your site search-engine-friendly. Imagine it like a courtship process. You want the pretty girl/good-looking guy to pick YOU. What do you do?

Do you dress like a slob and ignore him/her, or do you smarten up and pay attention?

If you want that search engine to take notice of you, you’ve got to make an effort. You’ve got to make yourself seen and heard.

That means you have to make sure your site is ‘keyword rich’ (if you want your site to be found by people who enter the word ‘money’ as a search criteria, you need to make sure that the word ‘money’ is mentioned a good deal on your pages.)

You also need good titles for your pages, the right number of key words, key phrases and lots of other stuff.

There are three ways you can do this…the hard way, the easier way, or the very easy way.

The hard way…

You can manually submit your site to the search engines. (Popular myth says that the search engines will find you. Baloney! If you want the date – you’ve got to go looking for it.)

Manual submission is akin to mixing your cake ingredients with a knife. It’s possible but neither efficient nor effective.

The easier way…

There’s a great tool called Web Position Gold that will mix your ingredients for you and leave you to pour them into the mould and put them in the oven.

Web Position Gold is the recognized leader in this field. There are other search-engine submitters, but none of them come anywhere near Web Position Gold for effectiveness.

All search engines are different. Teams of highly qualified nerdy types slave late into the night dreaming up new, far-fetched algorithms to calculate where a web site should rank. What can help your ranking for one search engine can harm it for another.

Also, the nerdy types are savvy to the fact that, every time they dream up another unimaginable method of ranking a site’s popularity, up jumps Wally Web Site and finds a way to change his site to rank in the top ten.

So the nerds are a little bit temperamental if they think anyone knows what they’re up to. They remain a highly secretive lot.
What that means is that there are not only different needs to rank well with different search engines, there are also changing needs because of the changing nerds.

This means that, if you’re mixing your ingredients by hand, by the time you’re ready to put the cake in the oven, someone has changed the recipe.

Web position Gold is constantly updated software. As the anti-nerd nerds of Web Position Gold get wind of a new algorithm, they enter it into their model and let you get a fix on the new way of doing things.

It tells you exactly which keywords are the most effective for your type of content. It tells you how many times they should appear on your pages, and where. It tells you how and when to submit (and does the submission for you).

It will probably make you a cup of coffee if you ask it.

If you’ve ever wondered how the same site keeps appearing in the top two or three on a search criteria, you can be fairly sure that they’re using Web Position Gold to optimize their site.

And guess what?

Web Position Gold will even visit the top-ranking sites, find out what they’re doing to get their top positions, and copy their formula to give you the same success.

Sneaky eh?

Remember, if you hit the dizzy heights of “top ten” in any of the major search engines, you will be able to sit back and watch your site counter spin out of control. Without any doubt, this is the easiest, cheapest way to get traffic to you site. It’s also the most contested method, so success means combining hard work and patience.

The very easy way…

There’s a tool similar to Web Position Gold that will automate this process of submission and optimization, even to the extent of building gateway pages for you and uploading them to your site.

This tool is called Search Engine Blaster and it will submit your domain to 600,000 search engines, directories and classified ad sites – automatically.

(Pause to let that sink in.)

Not only that; if you tell it your key words and phrases, it will build and submit gateway pages onto your site. These are keyword-rich pages that your visitors never get to see, but which are ‘viewed’ by the search engines in their quest for search links.

Search Engine Blaster allows you to list your business, products, or services on over 600,000 search engines, targeted directories, free classified ad sites, top sites, and online malls Automatically--Every Day! 100% Unattended.

It's a marketing machine on steroids!

This is automation taken to the furthest degree. A truly excellent tool for the busy netrepreneur.

Let me put this to you quite simply…

Search engine tactics are hard to learn and the rules change all the time. You put meta tags in your pages, add keywords, and then submit them to the major search engines. And then you wait.... And you wait… Nothing happens.

So hand it over to Search Engine Blaster. Let it optimize your pages and submit them – and keep submitting them – and give yourself time to get on with other stuff.

What? You're telling me not to work daily on my site so that it will be in the top twenty of search engines. Are you nuts?

Maybe!

But what I am saying is that most individuals, in my opinion, spend way too much time trying to optimize their sites so that they will rank high in the search engines.

The time they spend doing this could be better spent elsewhere. So, if the task can be automated, why not automate it?

Neither Web Position Gold nor Search Engine Blaster are free. Nevertheless, both are worth investing in if you are serious about getting traffic to your site.

Moh. Ali Albar
I rewrite this article of E-book “TheTrafficJam™ Formula” by Graham Hamer

Chapter 8 - SEARCH ENGINES (PART 1)

A TOPIC that could, and often has, filled complete books on its own, is the topic of Search Engines.

In case you’re just emerging from a twenty-year hermitage in a dark cave on a deserted island with no phones, no radio, television, newspaper… here’s a very brief definition of a search engine.

When you open up Explorer or Netscape or whatever browser you’re using, you are able to type a word or a phrase in the title bar.

A search engine then runs off to match your word or phrase with as many web sites as it can find. After a moment, your screen rebuilds to show about 10 sites that (hopefully) contain something relevant to your search criteria.

You click on the first one and your browser takes you there.

What does that tell you about search engines?

It tells you that the 999,990 sites that were NOT on the first page of the search results don’t stand a chance. It tells you that, if you rank number one on the word or phrase of your choice, you are quite likely going to get a lot of hits.

And, since hits=$$$, THAT’S why it’s important to try and get high search engine ranking.

We already covered the fact that search engines prefer sites with lots of links from other sites, but there are many other criteria too, and that’s what we need to look at now.

There are thousands of search engines on the Web. Most (if not all) of them exist because they charge for advertising space. Many now also sell their top positions for any particular search word (keyword).

In a couple of years, it is unlikely that any search engines will be free. They are all quickly heading towards the ‘pay-per-click’ system, and the top ranked sites are the ones that pay the most per click.

And here’s secret #1 about search engines…

There are, in fact, just EIGHT major search engines that hold the massive databases that determine position. If you can get a good ranking in one of the eight major engines, you will automatically rank well in over 200 others.

The criteria used by search engines to rank a site well or otherwise are secrets that are closely guarded by the search-engine owners.

Some people claim to have cracked the secret of the algorithms used by the search engines, but it is generally accepted that each engine uses its own logic.

The only way you’re going to do well in all of them is to create pages that are optimized for one particular engine, and we’ll be taking that idea a little further in a moment.

Meanwhile, more than 80 million people a day launch their surfing from a search engine.

That’s a LOT of people.

Now you understand why, if you have a top ten ranking, the traffic is simply going to flood into your site.

Unfortunately, getting a top ten ranking is like winning Olympic Gold... unless, of course, you own a site that specializes in some obscure topic. In which case it shouldn’t be too difficult to get to the top of the rankings.

For most of us, it’s a logistical nightmare.

There are two recognized methods to improve your ranking.

The first one, we’ve already discussed, which is to have links to your site from other sites. In other words, the more web sites that are linking to YOUR site, the more popular your site becomes in the search engines.

So far, we’ve looked closely at using Internet Success Spider to capture web site e-mail addresses then bulk-mailing the site owners to propose a link swap.

There are, though, other ways to have links back to your site. If you’re working your way through 10,000hits, you will possibly already be discovering them.

1. There are affiliates who place a link on their site so they can send prospective purchasers to your site.

2. There are FFA pages, which you’ll be learning about as you proceed through MPAM

3. Banner exchanges also will produce links from other sites. (Another part of the MPAM program).

4. Viral Marketing, which also features on MPAM

Any way you can imagine that will create a link to your site will help you to improve your search engine ranking.

If you’ve been to Neil Shearing’s site (Scam Free Zone) already, you’ll be aware that one of his products is the e-book "Yahoo Exposed" which shows how you can get a number one ranking for a particular keyword on Yahoo.

It demonstrates that there ARE known algorithms which can be used to ‘beat the search engine at its own game’.

Banner Exchanges, on the other hand, are one of the least effective ways of advertising. (How often do YOU click on a banner?). At least they produce another link to your site, and that’s always a good thing.

And here’s another silly little feature of search engines… The more popular the site is that your link is on, the more your own site will climb. They are nothing if not fickle, these search engines.

Moh. Ali Albar
I rewrite this article of E-book “TheTrafficJam™ Formula” by Graham Hamer

Typical newsgroup posting:

Subject:
Stop buying e-books. It’s stupid!

Body:
Have you noticed how these e-books on Internet business marketing cost an absolute bomb?

I saw one the other day and the guy wanted almost $100 for it. It’s ridiculous! I’m not against these people earning a living, but $100 is outrageous.

If you’re interested, there’s a members-only site that is GIVING away loads of these top-end marketing books. I don’t know how they do it, and I don’t much care, but I now cut the money-grabbers out of the loop.

I’d be happy to tell you where to go if you want. I got fed up spending loads of money and these
people seem to have most of the top titles (plus some I’d never heard of.)

I don’t want to mention a site name here, but if you want, you can e-mail me at: yourname@yourdomain and I’ll send it to you. (Just send me a blank e-mail, or put “books” or something in the title. I’ll know what you mean.)

Best….
Notice that I have now got their e-mail address. I know they’ve not yet opted in to my e-zine, but I can now follow up with them privately (NOT in the newsgroup).

So here’s the trick…

Pay attention!

All the postings I make to newsgroups are done using an e-mail account that is reserved ONLY for newsgroup messages. My Mailloop auto-responder is trained to check that mailbox and automatically respond with a follow-up note.

When the Newsgroup members e-mail me for details (and it’s irrelevant what the subject heading of their note is), my Mailloop sends a short, but powerful second message. Again, write like a satisfied customer, not a seller.

Tell them how negative that problem was to you and it still is for most people. People like to see that they are not alone. When others have the same problems, they feel part of a big family. It’s the way to touch them emotionally. They immediately begin to build confidence in you and what you have to say.

Continue by telling them the wonderful solution you have found to solve the problem.

This time, present the benefits they can gain.

Also remember that the fear of loss is more powerful than the desire to gain, so you can briefly explain that their problem might get worse if they do nothing to solve it.

Here’s how my return letter would look…

Subject:
Your e-mail about e-books

Body:
Hi,

Thanks for e-mailing me about those books. I guess, like me and a lot of other folk, you’re
fed up seeing the stupid price tags on some of these publications.

I mean, $100 is crazy, isn’t it. I don’t know how people afford it. Like I said, I discovered a members-only web site that was giving the stuff away, which seems a bit strange but who cares. As long as I get free books out of it, I don’t care how they do it.

All the books are genuine. They’re not forgeries or anything. I don’t think it’s dishonest, but I don’t know how long they’ll stay in business if they’re giving it all. I grabbed the books quick while the going was good. (I’ve got dozens of them now).

Anyway, like I say, the site is members-only, so you have to opt-in to their free newsletter (which is quite good, by the way). You’ll find the sign-in page at http://www.topprofits.info/opt-in.html. You get a choice of about five free books just for subscribing.

The other thing I forgot to say in the newsgroup posting was that this site also gives another free book at least every month through their newsletter. Sometimes it’s even weekly.

Hope it lasts a bit longer yet, I’m saving a load of money.

Anyway, good luck. Hope this info was useful.

Blah……

Notice the style… it’s not exactly textbook English. But then, how many of us write correct English in a quick e-mail?

I gave some FREE information about the solution to their problem. I revealed just enough to prick the curiosity, and I planted a small seed of fear that the site might not be around for long, so best act now. That simply helps to stop them procrastinating.

To maximize the impact, publish the newsgroup letter in all the related newsgroups. Maximum 8 related newsgroups per week. More than that will be considered spamming (yes, it’s possible
to spam a newsgroup). If you spam, not only will your message be removed, but also it’s quite likely to get you banned from the group.

In fact, I would strongly suggest you just publish your letter to one group a day. It’ll take just about five minutes and, if it’s done right, can be time well spent. If you want to push this method of generating e-zine subscriptions (which will boost your Web site traffic), you can post DIFFERENT letters to related newsgroups each day.

For example, the same day that I posted the example above to group 1, I could post a letter to group 2 about how to write good e-zine articles, and then aim them to my free book site again so they can download an e-book on the subject.

Meanwhile, I can post to group 3 about how to get traffic flowing to their site, and aim them to the same place so they can download THIS book.

At each opportunity I would tell them that I discovered this source of great books by subscribing to the TopProfits Newsletter.

Lateral thinking!

If your intention was simply to get your correspondent to visit your web site, you’ll be pleased to know that Mailloop will have automatically saved their e-mail address to a file and you can mail that person again later with another “solution”.

Stay in touch with them (automatically) and let them know that YOU are the expert on their chosen subject.

So, what do you think? Is it ethical or not?

I’m personally a little uneasy with planting letters into groups of fellow travelers. On the other hand, if you really DO solve a problem for them, where’s the harm?

At least I know that I really AM giving away free e-books. And I know, too, that if they subscribe to my Newsletter, there’s a darn good chance they’ll stay subscribed and enjoy the articles and books.

Here’s what you need to concentrate on RIGHT NOW…

1.Go to your e-mail program and check out the Newsgroups. See what groups you can find that fit with your own sphere of interest.

2.Read some of the articles, to get a ‘feel’ for the group.

3.Think up a headline (the SUBJECT of the note) that will catch the readers’ attention

4.Write an interesting article that will spark their curiosity and prompt them to contact you.

5.Design your response, and remember … DON’T SPAM and DON’T SELL.

In a Newsgroup you must help people, not sell people.

Moh. Ali Albar
I rewrite this article of E-book “TheTrafficJam™ Formula” by Graham Hamer

Newsgroups can provide you with a great source...

Newsgroups can provide you with a great source of subscribers to your e-zine

And your e-zine is going to provide you with a life-long source of friends an income.

Let’s look a little closer at how this works…

You can either

a.Participate in discussions by reading and answering questions people have published.

b.Not participate in discussions, but publish related information using an attention-getting subject title.

Option a) will eat up too much of your time. Option b) must be treated VERY carefully.

You must NEVER publish an advertisement or a sales letter in a newsgroup. It is forbidden and will get you banned. Newsgroups exist to help people, not to sell to people

However, if you’re as subtle as a black cat with woolly slippers on a dark night, you’ll find that newsgroup members are generally very receptive, because they don't think they are being sold to.

If you can both help and inform people, then do it. And while you give away your free information, remember to talk about benefits. Tell them your solution to a common problem. Naturally, there will be occasions where you would not be able to tell them the solution to their problem without indicating where to go to find the answer. But stay subtle. Don’t push it.

Be a black cat!

Write a brief newsletter about a topic that’s related to the content of your site. Invite them to visit a web page to get more details.

You can simply say that you’ve found an interesting “solution to a problem” Talk about benefits, benefits and benefits. Then tell them you’ve created your own personal web page, which they’re free to visit at http://www.yourdomain.com, where all this precious information is available to them. “It just isn’t possible to expose everything in this newsletter.”

Whatever happens, DO NOT APPEAR TO BE SELLING ANYTHING.

In fact --- DON’T sell anything.

BENEFITS, BENEFITS, BENEFITS.

Which tactic, of course, makes it easy for you to promote your newsletter.

You will need to dream up your own benefits, but for me, I simply point out that it’s FREE, that there are loads of top quality e-books, FREE. That the site where they can opt-in to it is at http://www.topprofits.info/opt-in.html and that, at the same time, they can pick up FIVE FREE BOOKS.

Now tell me what I’m selling?

I’ve told the truth, 100%

I’m asking nothing and giving everything.

BENEFITS, BNEFITS, BENEFITS.

As I explained earlier, you must have in mind to help people, not to sell to people. In newsgroups, this is especially important.

If you’re going to post to a newsgroup, you need to create a very strong headline. You have just FIVE words to tickle their curiosity and get them to open the article. “Please join my regular newsletter” is not going to spark a rush to the opt-in page.

“Private site gives free books” is more likely to get a response. Or “Free books are a reality”

If you want to make the readers stop on YOUR article from the thousands that are submitted – innovative. Then, be creative and talk about a great benefit or a solution to a problem.

BENEFITS, BNEFITS, BENEFITS.

When the subject of a newsgroup message captivates attention, it is not unusual to see that newsletter downloaded by hundreds of people in the course of a day.

Here’s how I go about it…

Moh. Ali Albar
I rewrite this article of E-book “TheTrafficJam™ Formula” by Graham Hamer

Chapter 7 - NEWSGROUP MARKETING

A NEWSGROUP is a group of people who share news on a particular topic of mutual interest.

At the last count, there were almost 50,000 different newsgroups covering just about every subject you can imagine. Almost every ISP will offer you links to a variety of Newsgroups.

If you use Microsoft Outlook Express just click on the Newsgroups link and take a look at what’s there.

The message format is identical to a normal e-mail message with, subject line (Headlines of the news), ‘from’ field (who has written the news), date field and size of the article.

Newsgroup members choose from the titles and read those that seem interesting (so the title is VERY important). From there, they can interact in just the same way as standard e-mail (links etc).

You can ask for, and offer, help or information.

You can subscribe to your favorite newsgroups by clicking on ‘subscribe’ (that’s fairly obvious, I guess). Once you are a member (a subscriber), you can read and publish news.

Okay, that’s the background.

So how can you use newsgroups to get web traffic?

PATIENTLY, is the answer.

Newsgroup membership is NOT an instant answer to site traffic. In fact, many would tell you it’s not a way at all and to some extent I’m inclined to agree with that philosophy.

However, I’ve read other traffic “gurus” (don’t you just hate that word?) claiming that this is a “great source of fresh traffic”. Yeah?

I guess we must be living on different planets!

You may, over time, gain some sales by using newsgroups. In that respect, I believe that their uses (as regards attracting Website traffic) are very limited and therefore not worth too much of your time.

However, there is one REALLY useful opportunity that you can gain from this source. It’s one that our “guru” friends don’t seem to have thought about – but one that is part of the natural synergy of my formula.

Moh. Ali Albar
I rewrite this article of E-book “TheTrafficJam™ Formula” by Graham Hamer