Review Of The SEO Book Training Program

What do I think about Aaron Wall’s SEO Book?

I have been meaning to review Aaron Wall’s SEO book ever since I interviewed Aaron last year. I am finally getting around to it.

First of all I want to say it’s REALLY, REALLY loaded with information! His ebook had over 300 pages and his training program has more information than his ebook ever had.

The SEO Book training program covers A LOT more than just Search Engine Optimization. In addition to SEO, the SEO Book covers:

• Copywriting


• Social Marketing


• Website Usability


• Website Monetization


• Blogging


• and more!

Aaron uses a combination of articles and videos to teach you how to rank high in the Search engines. He also teaches you just about everything imaginable about marketing a product or service.

Not only that, but the SEO Book has a private online community where you can ask and answer questions of both Aaron and other members of his program. The community really blew me away. I have been a member of many paid online communities and none of them were as good as the one that Aaron runs. The most amazing thing to me about the community is how active Aaron is in it. The last time I checked Aaron Wall had 2,799 posts (16.26 posts per day). If you want to get direct advice from Aaron then you should sign up soon, because I just don’t see how Aaron can continue to be so active on his forum and continue to take on new members. It doesn’t seem like a very scalable business model to me.

Anyway, if you are new to online marketing or you want a great place to learn about online marketing (especially SEO) then I recommend that you click here to join the SEO Book Training Program. It is one of the best deals on the Internet for beginners to learn how to make money online.

How Not To Ask For A Link Exchange

Last week I got what I considered to be a hilarious request for a blogroll link exchange. In case you want to know how NOT to ask me for a link exchange, here is the email I was sent the other day (name of said person and sites have been removed):

Hi {find name of blogger and put here},

I am writing on behalf of the blog team at xxxxxxx, which runs the popular xxxxxxx Marketing blog.

We are hand picking a few really great blogs to add to our blog roll. If you’re interested in having your blog recommended on xxxxxx blog, please consider adding our blog to yours.

The name of our blog is xxxxxxxx.

Thanks!

I often get requests for links that I think are form letters. However, in this case it was an obvious form letter. I was laughing out loud when I read the line:

“We are hand picking a few really great blogs”

Really??? Hand picking???

If you ever handpick a blog to exchange links with, don’t start your email with:

Hi {find name of blogger and put here},

It kind of gives the impression that you weren’t exactly handpicking my blog.

P.S. My name is George.

5 Advantages Of Becoming A Guest Blogger

Guest Post by Matthew Tutt

You have just created one of the best blogs that the Internet has ever seen. But now what?

How do you expect to get anyone to notice this site?

It may well be the best site ever created, or it may contain the meaning of life somewhere on the page, but can you expect anyone to notice it in the first place?

This is one of the trickiest obstacles to overcome when you first set up your own website or blog. You can’t expect instant search engine traffic or get good SERPS for your site because it is still brand new. Unless your domain name is one which is randomly typed by Internet users, you can’t really expect to get any kind of traffic at all.

One of the best and easiest ways of getting your site (and yourself) noticed on the Internet is by becoming a guest blogger. This is simply when you have some kind of a deal in place with another already well-established blog and you agree to write interesting, related articles in return for a link back to your own blog or website. The blog owner is getting free (hopefully) unique content and you are receiving free publicity for your own blog. Everyone is happy.

Here Are Some Of The Many Advantages Of Becoming A Guest Blogger:

1. You Can Get Your Website/Blog Noticed For Free Nearly Instantly
   It costs you nothing to write an article, but will obviously involve a little bit of your time. This should be time well spent though, and guest blogging probably gives more advantages to your site/blog then by paying for some kind of advertisements. Also once you have written the article and have submitted it to the blog it is ready to go live on the site (might take a few hours for the blog owner to check it through and then submit it). This means that you can get almost instant traffic to your own site/blog.
2. You Can Tap Into Related Markets
   Say you had a blog which contained dog training advice. You wouldn’t then find a blog about financial advice and ask to become a guest blogger. Why would the readers of the financial advice blog want to read your articles about teaching your dog how to stop biting people? You should find a blog which is in the same niche as your own blog/site, and then ask to become a guest blogger. Then the articles that you create will be of interest to the blog readers, who in turn will be much more likely to visit your website as it is related to the same subject, which is obviously of interest to the reader.
3. Show Off Your Skills And Mark Your Authority On A Subject
   Perhaps you feel you are highly talented at writing on your blog, or perhaps you are highly knowledgeable of a specific topic. This is all very well, but if no-one goes to your site then no-one will ever notice you. This is why guest blogging is an excellent way of showing off your skills or your authority on a subject. As a guest blogger you are instantly in touch with the readers of a blog, so you now have a direct chance of impressing the readers of that blog – who should appreciate your work, and may in turn feel inclined to visit your own blog/site.
4. Free Backlinks For SEO Purposes
   If you are guest blogging on a site which as a good PageRank and which has good SERPS, you will be gaining some powerful backlinks to your own site. As a guest blogger you should be allowed to place a few links back to your site/blog from within the blog-post you have written, and the search engines will see these links and this will hopefully improve your search engine position. A higher position in the search engines will obviously result in more visitors to your pages.
5. Improve Your Writing Skills
   Although many people may not really care about their own writing skills, it is still an important aspect of guest blogging. As a guest blogger you will get (hopefully) a few chances of impressing the visitors of that blog, so you have to make your blog posts interesting and exciting. If your writing is poorly constructed or boring to read then chances are no-one is going to bother taking a look at your blog/site. You should adapt and improve your writing when it comes to guest blogging as you will only have a limited space in which to show off your skills, and if you don’t impress then you won’t gain much from becoming a guest blogger.

Viral Marketing With Video

My friend, Ryan Shamus, just wrote a great post about using video to get viral traffic to your website or blog. Ryan goes into a lot of detail about the various ways you can use video to make more money. Ryan covers things like:

• How to use YouTube to bring traffic to your website


• How to create and edit your own viral videos


• Ways to make a video viral


• Video software tools to use


• and much more.

You can check out his post by clicking here.

Easter Egg Hunt

Before the weekend comes I wanted to let you know about this creative contest that Caroline Middlebrook is running on her blog.

This weekend Caroline is running a contest to find hidden easter eggs on her site. The more eggs you find the more entries you get into her contest. Ten winners will be receiving a free copy of her upcoming ebook on driving Stumbleupon traffic to your site.

Click here to learn all the details of her contest.

The 10 Best Ways To Increase Blog Traffic

I wrote a list of 101 ways to get traffic to your blog a while back. I decided to narrow that list down to the ten best ways I have found to get traffic to my blogs.

The 10 Best Ways To Increase Blog Traffic:

1. SEO
   Without a doubt SEO has been my favorite way to get traffic to my blogs. The Google algorithm loves blogs, which makes SEO a very good way to get traffic to your blog.


2. Commenting
   Leaving comments on blogs in related niches is a great way to get new targeted traffic to your blog. It is also an excellent way to build relationships with other bloggers which leads me to number 3…


3. Networking
   Networking is possibly the single most important skill for making big money online. It is also a great way to build traffic to your blog.


4. Word Of Mouth
   Simply tell your friends and family about your blog and/or specific posts on your blog. You will be surprised by how much traffic that can generate.


5. Linkbait
   Create posts that are designed to grab people’s attention. Controversial posts are often associated with linkbait, but there are plenty of other ways to create linkbait. 101 lists make for good linkbait and so do posts that are out of the ordinary in some way.


6. Link Out
   Link liberally to other blogs in your posts. Many bloggers keep track of incoming links to their blog and will come check out your blog when you link to them. This can also help you get comments.


7. Stumbleupon
   I am a big fan of using stumbleupon for getting traffic to your blog. If you haven’t signed up for it you should. Stumbleupon is this blogs third best traffic source, behind retuning visitors, and Google.


8. List Posts
   I have found that posts with lists (like this one) generate more traffic to your blog. They tend to get bookmarked and voted on more on social sites. The more list posts you write the more traffic you will get.


9. Blog Memes
   Create a blog meme and tag other bloggers. Participating in blog memes has definitely increased my blog traffic. One blog meme in particular really helped this blog out and I never even participated in it.


10. Quality Content
    Quality content is the key to keep people coming back for more. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will come back regularly to read your posts. Having regular readers is a great way to increase blog traffic.

Those are the ten best ways I have found to get traffic to my blogs. What are your favorite ways to get traffic to your blog?

SEO Training Program From Aaron Wall

I have been ill all week with the creeping crud, but one thing I did want to mention before the weekend is that Aaron Wall of the SEO Book has changed his business model and is now selling a monthly membership for access to his SEO knowledge.

I was half way through writing a review of the SEO Book when Aaron sent the notice about this change. Given how good Aaron’s book is, I am sure that membership in The SEO Book Training Program will be well worthwhile. I plan on signing up for it and doing a review of it sometime in the next few months. In the meantime, you can click here to go check out The SEO Book Training Program for yourself.

Use StumbleUpon For Quick And Easy Traffic

I have experimented with a LOT of social networking sites and Stumbleupon is my absolute favorite social networking site for driving traffic to my blog.

Stumbling articles is pretty easy when you install the toolbar on your browser. It takes a lot less effort to get more traffic than other social networking sites. You don’t have to be a “top” stumbler to get tons of traffic from it and it doesn’t take a lot of time to be involved in the community.

So as not to re-invent the wheel I thought I would share some of the better guides I have read about using Stumbleupon for driving traffic to your blog or site.

My friend Maki wrote a really nice guide about using Stumbleupon. I recommend you check it out by clicking here.

Another friend of mine, John Wesley became a top stumbler early on and wrote about how he managed to do it. I think that you can follow his advice and become a top poster for quite a few social networking sites. In fact, I have friends using similar tactics to become top members of other social networking sites.

Search Engine Land wrote a good basic guide on getting traffic with StumbleUpon called 5 Tactics For Driving Traffic From StumbleUpon.

Terry Dean did some experiments with Stumbleupon traffic that you might be interested in and wrote a nice 7 step guide on using StumbleUpon for traffic.

I am sure you can find other information on how great StumbleUpon is for driving traffic to your site. If you aren’t already using StumbleUpon for traffic, then I strongly suggest you go try it out. You can even check out my profile and add me as a friend, by clicking here.

How Web 2.0 Can Ruin Your Life And What To Do About It

Ok, so web 2.0 can’t, in and of itself, ruin your life but…

Web 2.0 has created an online environment that is designed to make us spend more and more time online, which in turn can ruin your life.

Spending A Majority Of Your Free Time Online Is Not Healthy

Errr… isn’t this a blog about making money ONLINE?

Well, yes but…

You can’t spend all your time online and then find time to exercise. You can’t spend all your time online AND cultivate a relationship with your kids. You can’t spend all your time online AND strengthen the relationship with your spouse and/or find a spouse. You can’t spend all your time online AND have a relationship with God. You can’t spend all your time online AND …. (you fill in the blanks)....

You need to have balance and spending too much time making “friends” online can make you unbalanced.

That said, Web 2.0 has it’s good points. As an Internet marketer, leveraging web 2.0 sites can be a great way to make money online, but it does have a cost.

What I Learned In 2007 About Marketing With Web 2.0

I spent a great deal of time in 2007 building online relationships using web 2.0. I would never want to give up the friendships I have made, BUT…

It hurt my off-line relationships with God, with my wife, with my kids, and it also hurt my health. It wasn’t just spending time with Web 2.0 that hurt me but also spending time reading email 10+ times a day. In 2007 I spent WAY too much time checking email. In 2008 I am going to significantly decrease the amount of time I spend experimenting with web 2.0 sites and on other activities like reading email. It’s just not worth it!

But Isn’t Web 2.0 The Best Way To Get Traffic Online?

Yes and No…

Leveraging Web 2.0 is one way to get good traffic to your site, however it is not the only way to get good traffic online. There are many other ways to increase your website traffic that can be just as effective as Web 2.0. In fact, you NEVER want to rely on only ONE form of traffic generation for ALL of your website traffic!. This is so important I am going to say it again:

You NEVER want to rely on ONE form of traffic generation for ALL of your website traffic!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you should give up on Web 2.0. What I am saying is that Web 2.0 and other advancements in technology are making it increasingly easier to lose focus on what is important. What I am saying is that spending too much time on surfing the web, making web 2.0 connections, voting on your favorite sites, etc. can ruin your life.

So, what can you do to keep Web 2.0 From Ruining Your Life?

Here are three ways to prevent Web 2.0 from adversely affecting your life:

1. Schedule Your Online Time
   Make sure you always have enough time for the most important things in your life by setting aside a certain amount of time each day that you can be online. First set aside time for the most important things in your life, like spending time with your spouse, kids, etc. Then with the remaining time set a schedule for your online time. Doing this will make you realize just how much time you are wasting on tasks that have no bearing to your emotional, financial, mental, and spiritual well being.

   As Internet marketers, it is important that we schedule our time wisely. There is something called the 80/20 rule that you need to keep in mind when you make a schedule. The 80-20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle, the principle of factor sparsity, and the law of the vital few) basically says that, for most events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. In online business this translates to statements like “80 percent of your profits comes from 20 percent of your customers”, and “20 percent of your efforts results in 80 percent of your profits”. Your goal is to schedule as much of your time as possible on that “20 percent” that creates the real profits in your business. Scheduling time to work on the things that actually make you more money is crucial to your success. With Web 2.0 it is easy to focus on the “social” aspects of being online and spend VERY little time actually working on things that make you money.

2. Focus, Focus, Focus
   Web 2.0 is not all bad. After experimenting with social networks, you should find 1 or 2 (maybe 3 or 4) that you really want to focus on and forget about the other ones. When you focus on 1 or 2 social sites for marketing purposes you can become an expert at using those 1 or 2 sites for getting traffic to your sites. If you don’t focus on 1 or 2 sites, you will wind up spreading yourself too thin and not being able to make a big impact using any of them. Not focusing on 1 or 2 Web 2.0 sites for marketing purposes can be a total waste of your time.
3. Step Away From The Computer
   Like I mentioned in step 1 you need to schedule time to spend off the computer. Just like you should schedule your online time, you should schedule time to do the things that are important to you. Otherwise you might rationalize spending more and more time online.

   Take a step away from the computer and live your life. Do the things you enjoy, spend time with your family and friends. Don’t sacrifice a REAL life for an online one.

Final Thoughts

Would you rather have the most friends on MySpace or have a good marriage? Would you rather have the largest community on MyBlogLog or have a great relationship with your kids? Would you prefer to be a top rated Digger or have an online business that pays your bills?

If you spend too much time experimenting with all of the latest and greatest social networks you will find yourself spending WAY more time online in 2008 while making less money than you did in 2007. I don’t know about you, but I want to make more money online while working less, not less money online while working more.

Spending time using Web 2.0 to promote your business, make friends, and have fun can be very good, but spending TOO MUCH time in the Web 2.0 world can ruin your life and be bad for your business.

Free Blog Mastermind Lesson - Check It Out Soon Because…

Yaro Starak has announced that on Monday December 10th he is going to be closing the doors on the blog mastermind program for a while. In anticipation of this closure, he has released a free lesson from the program called “Marketing Through Conversations”. Marketing through conversation is something I have been focusing a lot of my attention on this year, and it has been extremely helpful. In fact, I believe it has been laying the groundwork for an extremely successful 2008. This free lesson is very valuable. You should click here to go check it out.

After you check it out, come back and let me know what you think of it?

Internet Marketing Tips From The Web 11/30/2007

It’s been a few weeks since I have done a post like this. I have been swamped trying to balance family life, work, business, etc. Anyway, these are some of the more interesting posts I read this week:

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
I started realizing this at the end of last year. The more quality connections you make in your niche, the easier it is to succeed. I have made some real quality connections over the past year, and I am very glad I did. Not only because of how it can help my business, but also because I have met some really good people in the process.

Are You Using the Right Content Development Strategy for Your Website?
This is an excellent post about developing content that grabs people’s attention. Maki has done a great job of that and it’s one of the main reasons he has had such phenomenal success in a short period of time.

Read it Later Firefox Plugin
Chris wrote about an excellent new plug-in for firefox. It is something that will come in handy.

Best 101 Lists
Very interesting list of 101 lists. She included my 101 FREE Ways To Increase Your Blog Traffic. It must have taken a long time to get through them all.

Lastly, I wanted to mention a very interesting post from Wendy.

The Home Business Industry Needs to Realize it’s Not 1999 Anymore
Wendy’s article really made me think. I am not on the same page as Wendy because I am not getting rid of my Adsense ads. However, I am considering it. Does having adsense on your site, imply that you endorse the products that are listed in the ad units? I don’t think so, but do my visitors?

I do agree with her and I only promote affiliates products that I believe will really help. What do you think, do you agree with her?

Anyway, that’s it for now…

Internet Marketing Tips From Around The Web 10/5/2007

Here are some good articles I read this week that I thought you would enjoy:

Get Your Guest-Posts Here
Chris Garrett is offering guest posts for some of us who link to his blog. Chris is such a great writer, I highly recommend that if you have a blog you go check out his post.

New Blog Design – What Do You Think?
Chris also has a new blog design. I like the direction he went with it, what do you think?

Exploiting Passion for Profit
Aaron Wall has also changed up his site a little. I like the changes he has made. Anyway, his post about passion is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. In his post, Aaron gives what I consider to be some great advice that will help you make more money online.

23 Ways To Differentiate Your Blog & Transform It Into A Full-Fledged Website
This was a good list of ways to convert your blog into a website. More and more bloggers are heading this direction. (found via Wendy).

Top 25 Web Design Blogs
My friend, Daniel, made a list of the top 25 web design blogs. Since I enjoy web design, I plan on checking these out soon.

How to start blogging in 5.401 words
Marco Richter wrote a really nice beginners guide on how to start blogging.

The Top Five Online Business Killers
Normally I wouldn’t link to a post on my own blog in my “Internet marketing tips” post, but I just wanted to point out Ryan’s first post as a co-author on this blog. It’s a really good read, go check it out.

That’s it for this week’s reading…

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