In this video, you are going to be introduced to three WordPress SEO plugins that I use on a day to day basis, each one I recommend highly, and only after rigorous testing on my own portfolio. Enjoy!

Video Resources:

• Yoast WordPress SEO Plugins
• Yoast Analytics
• Pingback Optimizer (highly recommended!)

payments via PayPal Luke.

Silently, he is also responsible for my love of Affiliate Marketing, which although he is probably not all that aware of it, his quick eye helped me notice an opportunity some time ago that paid off big time.

As I said… an awesome guy.

Anyway… I’m not writing a post about Luke, I’m writing one about something that he stumbled across today, and like anything that Luke shares, it kind of spiraled from there and has become something much bigger.

After finding out that Google has given themselves the whole above the fold area for the keyword “Adwords”, I decided to Google my own name. You know, for ego’s sake and all that.

Here’s what I got.

Epic, right? So… as you can see, Google is unfolding more changes to search, where they seem to be rewarding those who are best at creating content for their nuche not just with profile images through authorship markup, plus the usual dual listings and/or sitelinks if you are lucky… but an entire above the fold section.

What this means is this. If you aren’t in the business of consistently creating great content in your space, the person that does wont just take the #1 spot, but they will completely force you off the most important part of page #1 in Google.

Huge news, I know. You are going to want to watch this space.

I’ll be following these changes as they happen, along with what also appears to be some erratic behavior with PageRank updates as of late. More soon…

Know your metrics and conversions before moving ahead too fast...

There is no hard and fast rule to anything in life. Saving for that house deposit, buying your first car, and even coming up with profitable keyword ideas. However, the main difference between the three is that it’s not that straight forward to test drive a keyword. You just have to earn it, and see how it performs, and adjust accordingly.

Here’s the problem. It can take a fair amount of time to rank highly in Google – it recently took me 3 months to take out a highly competitive phrase, however, at the end of the day, with all of the time that I spent writing articles, submitting them, paying for other services, spreading the word on social media, and so on, what says that a keyword is going to pay off well enough to pay off the time investment involved in winning it?

Sure, I’m pretty sure I could have ranked well within a few weeks, however… considering that I am in the business of doing things right (for long term value), I’m not going to spam out a ton of links real fast for the sake of a short term gain. Every time that I start building links, I do it with precision. I know what keyword ideas I am going to rank for, how I am going to do it right now, and in the future, for the future. Needless to say, with the time investment of planning this out and executing the plan, I absolutely MUST be 100% certain every single time without fail.

RE – my approach to link building and selecting profitable keyword ideas- Be slow, take time, and do it naturally. Every time I get asked about why it takes me so long to rank #1 in Google for a term, I give the same answer. Because good and sustainable results take time. Hard and fast is a dangerous approach to any kind of business, especially in the current climate where links only account for so much, where quality of content and so called “Author Rank” matter a whole lot more.

So… Lets Take Your Keyword Ideas For A Test Drive…

Call me strange, but I'd take one of these over a Ferarri any day...

Do you buy a car if you haven’t given it a test drive yet? Of course not. I recently bought a 1997 Magna TS (Or Diamante if you are from the USA), it was unregistered and unroadworthy. We took it for a test run first, and I had someone that lives with me (who happens to be a mechanic) check the car over. Turns out that there was only a small amount of work to be done on the car to get it roadworthy, all of which (including purchase price) would amount to less than half of the second hand selling price for the car – a massive arbitrage opportunity. At the same time, the car was in incredibly good condition with all major parts being in near brand new condition.

Approach the keyword ideas that you want to rank for in much the same way. Here’s my process:

Step One - Broaden your keyword ideas by looking in the Google Keyword Tool for other related phrases that may bring in searchers who will have a similar intent. I will generally broaden it out to around 20 or so phrases at this point, all with a decent amount of searches per month.

Step Two - I will narrow these keywords down in Market Samurai by double checking the traffic and competing pages in the keyword research module, and narrowing it down by removing your keyword ideas that have too low and too high competition. Once this is done, I will check the highest performing 5 – 10 keywords in the SEO competition module, and make a gut call on which ones I believe I can win in a reasonable amount of time.

Step Three - I will then run Adwords campaigns on my keyword ideas, spending as much as I need to get at least 300 – 500 clicks per keyword. Each campaign will run for 1 – 3 days, and at the end of the trial, I will run with whatever keyword has performed highest for me. In order to track sales, I will use the Easy WordPress Links plugin to use custom URL’s so I can track sales in whatever affiliate software the vendors that I am promoting are using.

Does that make sense? If not, don’t be afraid to ask below, and I will explain or create a video for you.

I mentioned in my previous post about the idea of getting stuck in the vicious creation cycle. This is one of the methods that I use to make sure that I am getting the most out of a page. That said, I want you to remember that when it comes to your pages making money, this really is much more than simply sending traffic to a page.

This really comes down to your ability to remember what it is that people are searching for, considering what kind of value you can deliver your visitors, and ultimately, the power of the recommendation that you make for an up sell.

That said, there really is only so much that I can teach here without doubling up on what my teachers and mentors have told and taught me already. One of the most skilled affiliate marketers that I know of, Andy Grand, teaches this in his course, and helped me learn as much as I do now.

In all sincerity, if what you read in the post really rings positive with you, then I highly recommend that you check out his highly affordable Affiliate Marketing course at www.SuperAffiliateGuy.com

So... who would you click on in this search result?

At the start of July this year, many people started noticing that there were a few pretty big changes happening in search. The number one most influential change being the inclusion of a profile image to the right of search results. I’d also like to make it very clear that I am not talking about the smaller avatars below results, as per some confusion on Twitter and Facebook this weekend about a breaking story from Google that actually broke a month ago.

Understandably, this is going to be a pretty drastic change, a real “Make Or Break” kind of change, and one that (luckily enough!) we can use to our advantage. For example – consider the impact that having an author profile image may have from a traffic generation standpoint.

Number one – it builds trust right where you are trying to attract visitors, and number two – it provides yet another avenue to attract followers to your social media profile, namely your Google or Google+ profile.

In all essence, a massive positive change that you can ALL use to your advantage right now by simply adding two link relationship tags to your blog.

Note - If you don’t or aren’t confident doing this yourself, click here to get me to do it for you.

The first of these tags is the rel=”author” tag. This tag is used only on a link to your “about” page on your blog. What this tag does is quite simple – it tells Google that this page is a page that is dedicated to the author, and is the most important page on your blog or website relating to the author. Quite simple, right?

The second of these tags is the rel=”me” tag. This tag should only ever be placed on your author page, and should only ever link to either a Google+ profile, or a standard Google profile. What this does is quite simple – it tells Google that the page that you are linking to is in fact the profile of the author. This is exactly where Google will pull its profile image from.

Now, I have created a video showing you how to make the appropriate changes to your blog so that you can potentially start seeing your profile image displayed beside your search results, but be aware – this is not something that just happens after you have done the work. Much like other listing upgrades in Google, this is on a case by case scenario, and either may or may not happen for you. That said, if you practice good SEO, and rank highly for specific keywords, then this will be a very important process for you to follow and implement right now (Seriously, put aside 10 minutes right now, this is that important!).

Video Resources:

The code to use in your functions.php file to enable to use of relationship tags in posts is as follows:

function yoast_allow_rel() {
	global $allowedtags;
	$allowedtags['a']['rel'] = array ();
}
add_action( 'wp_loaded', 'yoast_allow_rel' );

This post was heavily influenced by information given by Joost De Valk on his blog www.yoast.com – I give credit where it is due, and as an avid reader of his blog, I recommend his work to anyone who reads this blog. His original post on this topic can be found here.

And… don’t forget to test your blog with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool. If it doesn’t work, comment below, and I will see what advice I can offer.

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know, and remember to retweet this post or +1 it.

Cant Be Bothered Doing This Yourself?

That’s fine, not all of us know our stuff when it comes to coding and messing around with the inner workings of a WordPress blog, or a static HTML site.

Don’t want to do the work yourself? Click here to have Ryan do it for you.

There is no greater indication of the level of experience or expertise of an affiliate marketer than their choice of phrase that they choose to rank for. Think about that for a minute.

For æons (well, only a decade or so really), we have been taught about how to find good phrases that people are searching for when they are ready to buy and so on and so forth, but is there more to this than what meets the eye?

Lets make this quick…

One of the most popular methods that I know of (at least, the most visible method), and see being flogged  shamelessly left right and center is the typical affiliate review and bonus model. This is where you pick a product name, and attatch a modifyer to the end of the domain that insinuates that someone is ready to buy.

For example: The SEO Method Review

That keyword was the first campaign that I ran on this blog. I ranked #1 for it for a few months, at which point I was overtaken by someone, not because I didnt try, but because sales died off. The buzz was gone, not enough people were buying in order to warrant me competing for that phrase anymore.

Hard lesson learned. 90% of what I do now is with the intended end result being some form of passive profits. That’s just how I roll. Needeless to say, this was the day that I learned that all products have a lifespan, and whilst it might be somewhat reasonable to generate a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in short bursts, its just not good practice if this is your dominant method.

That is, unless you want to actualy spend some time NOT working at some point…

I’ve been there and done that, and have frequently ended up being quite pissed off at myself when the profits dry up considering the time spent on the task.

That said, I do occasionally work on product names plus modifyers in my spare 10% of time, but that is knowing that the product has a life span.

I will mention however that many people can pull in excess of 4 – 5 figures from one product launch by ranking for a review baesd phrase, so by all means dont throw this method out the window. I refer to it as being a “Christmas Bonus” method, and I only ever use it in conjunction with other methods that results in passive profits such as email marketing. However, on its own, it is certainly not a smart game to play. From a search perspective, don’t rely on it as your sole method by any means.

Instead… Ask Yourself Something…

“What have people always been asking?”

Before the iPhone existed, did people not ask what the best cell/mobile phone was? Sure they did, but they sure as hell had no idea what the iPhone was. Even after the iPhone is dead and buried, will people still want to know what the best cell phone is? Of course they will.

All that you need to do is tell them, and present them with an affiliate link.

Consider working this mentality into the way that you select a keyword that you want to rank for. If you want to market a product, great! Feel free to use the Christmas Bonus method, but at the same time consider what the product does for people, and focus on finding out what questions people are asking that can bring them to the solution that you can deliver.

Make sense? If not, hit me up and I will be happy to help.

What I can promise you is that if you have the capability of writing a good story, detailing the problem, a solution, and then an easier solution (all taught exceptionally well in ARM 2.0 by the way), that you will see more passive profits than your typical run of the mill, “me too” style marketing that everyone else is doing.

Be original for gods sake. It will make you more in the long run.

P.S. If you liked this post, you might want to grab my free audio on building web assets at the top of the sidebar. Its my gift to you.

But, how big a problem is this really? Well, to get to the bottom of this, we need to look at what used to work. Lets look at the standard dumbed down approach to article marketing that is now, in very large part, innefective on its own.

What Used To Work?

The standard approach to article marketing used to start with an article being submitted to Ezine Articles, with a link back to your website in the footer of the article. Most people would use straight anchor text here, focusing on their target keyword, however, as Google has now slapped Ezine, those of us who primarily used Ezine Articles for this purpose have been slapped in two ways. Number one, our articles will not rank easily at all in organic search anymore, and two, it is reported that links from Ezine are now carrying less weight than they used to.

This also lead to Ezine Articles proposing to NoFollow all article links, which was quickly overturned after an angry community response.

The next step in the chain would involve submitting either the same content, or a spun version of that content to Web 2.0 content farms such as Squidoo and HubPages. Although most of these content farms NoFollowed links by default, Google has seen that there is a huge amount of content that is just not of a high enough standard on these networks, and has also made it extremely hard to rank these pages on their own.

Another step that some would take would be to submit to blog networks. I still use this method myself, however, I am extremely careful as to which networks that I choose, as those that are set up on limited IP adresses are just way too easy for Google to spot. The networks that I use are on a combination of community donated websites, and websites set up by the service themselves that are on a series of different IP adresses, thus, making it more difficult for Google to spot them.

What I have just mentioned is the basics of Article Marketing. You can go more in depth, but for the purpose of this write up, I’m not here to teach you how to do this stuff. I am here to let you know how worried you should be, so I am not going to go too in depth with the process. For the moment however, here’s what you will need to be aware of.

What You Need To Be Aware Of

If you create an article at Ezine Articles, or any other content farm for that matter, there is a very high chance that one of two things is going to happen. Number one being that the article will not rank well in Google. There’s that avenue completely gone. Number two, there may or may not be less weight passed from links. I would honestly see that there is a higher chance that there may be a higher degredation in the value of a link, more than the 10 − 15% as stated by Google recently, due to the fact that a site may have been identified as a content farm. This is completely unconfirmed, but I would definitely keep this possibility in consideration.

Google is a smart little demon. Google knows what you do to manipulate the search results, and don’t even think for a minute that you are not manipulating the search results. That is exactly what it is. Whether you are using white hat or black hat methods, you are attempting to modify the result shown when a user searches for a term in Google, so that you show up higher than anyone else.

Whilst Google does not hate SEO guys, they are mindful as to the techniques that people are using to rank particular pages, and are more in the loop with certain methods of SEO than you yourself are. Its fact.

Here’s the thing. In order to survive, you need to have the ability to adapt to change well before change has even begun. Especially in SEO.

The specific method of SEO that I use is quite diverse. I use a combination of article marketing, with other methods that get a combination of high and low value links from non article based sources. I will not disclose my exact method here today, however, I will say that it is Google Slap proof, and I am not afraid to say it. It would take Google to slap at least 5 or 6 different link sources at once, which would drastically affect search for the worse. This is my strategy, and this is how you should be thinking.

The key above all else here is that there are so many more traffic generating methods that Google actually likes.

Here’s What I Have Long Practiced

Never focus on one link type. This is plain and simple suicide. Head over to the always funny Digital Point Forums and try and find one person who is asking for NoFollow links. I tried for some time to convince people like these that this is bad news, and today, they are suffering. Seriously, be diverse and consider what would look natural to Google.

Imagine this. If you went to the supermarket, and filled your trolley with 150 individual cans of Pepsi, and the person behind you did an ordinary shop, who is going to stand out to the cashier? Google is smart, and Google can spot unusual things too.

At the same time, don’t just target high PageRank links. Go for diversity. Again, this comes down to the supermarket analogy that I used above, don’t do anything that may make Google take a second look at you. It’s perfectly OK to slowly build PageRank on your backlinks, but for the love of god, please do not search for a quick 20 − 30 PR6 backlinks, as you will most likely be slapped.

When using Anchor text, dont just use the same keyword over and over again. If your keyword is “Basketball Training”, don’t always use that text as your backlink. Use a combination of the raw keyword, plus use some modifiers, plus most important, don’t be afraid to use the URL to your website as the anchor text from time to time.

Again… this is the Supermarket analogy. Look as natural as possible.

At the same time, remember that Google knows an article directory from a blog from a static HTML website. If you have 900 links coming from an article directory, and only a small number coming from blogs and other static websites, then really… you are going to have to become more diverse. It is as simple as that.

The backlink building method that I use targets a variety of website types with a variety of PageRank and a variety of anchor text as well. It is as natural as it can possibly be, and very hard to spot in the eyes of Google. Not to say that I am slap proof, it will happen, but because of the diversity of my method, it means that any impact will be minimal.

Above all else, never ever fail to acknowledge the positive impact of consistently adding new, fresh, and up to date relevant content to your website or blog. Google loves webistes that add content regularly, and if you do this frequently, and do it the right way (just check out my Traffic Generation Challenge post to see how), then you will see that sometimes, SEO is something that can take care of itself. To an extent of course.

So, Should You Be Worried?

So, should you be worried or shouldn’t you? I’ll tell you straight up. I am not worried, not even in the slightest. If anything, I have a challenge ahead of me, but as far as how well my websites are ranking, I have noticed not even the slightest decline at all.

Why? Because I developed my process so that I can be future proof in the case that Google decides to slap any one of the methods that I use.

So, the moral to this post? Be prepared for change, because when it happens, it has the capacity to cripple you if you have not prepared yourself for it.

NOTE - Please share this post so that your friends can know what to expect

I feel extremely passionate about this one. Ezine Articles for some time now has been a great place for people like you and me to submit high quality articles, and in return, we are able to receive backlinks for our efforts. Those backlinks have always been crawlable.

As you may or may not be aware, there have been changes in the Google Algorithm that affect so called “Content Farms”, and as a result, many good high quality content websites have suffered, even if unfairly.

For example, eHow, being a website that has for quite some time, answered many random questions that I have, is facing a 60% reduction in traffic due to these changes. Are they a content farm? You be the judge.

Anyway, Ezine Articles has been the latest victim, which has sparked an announcement from the CEO about a course of action that they will be taking. You can read the article here (this link is crawlable by the way).

So, whilst most changes are for the good, the one change that I (and I am sure most SEO guys would agree) believe is for the bad. That change involves the adding of the NoFollow attribute to all links in an article, whether it be the body, or the resource box.

What confuses me about this situation is that quite recently, Google have spoken about the NoFollow attribute. Matt Cutts in particular, in his own words has openly stated that Google actually prefers webmasters to be open with their links, as this allows a larger discovery of where links are leading to. This also avoids any suspicion of PageRank sculpting, and so on.

So, after adding a NoFollow attribute to their articles be seen as an exersise to build PageRank as to perform better in the search engines? If it is, I can tell them that it will not work.

in fact, the only way that they could ever accumulate PageRank on a website is if they had no links at all, as PageRank is lost whether you link out with a Follow or NoFollow attribute link. Again, this is openly clarified information by Google.

Here’s my prediction. As it stands, I would suggest that the percentage of articles that are submitted to Ezine are for some kind of SEO benefit would be quite high. Not just that, but the numbers of premium members as well, who pay to be able to track the performance of their articles and more.

If Ezine really gave a damn about their website ranking well, it would continue as normal, moderating much better as to ensure that content is of a high standard. If anything at all, rewarding those who stay on Ezine Articles long enough to become a platinum member, with NoFollow links.

But that is just an idea.

Overall, I would see a massive decline in the number of articles being submitted, as there is no real reward at all for these articles. I would see a massive decline in their premium membership subscriptions, and well… with a website full of 200,000 articles or more that arent performing well in the search engines, I can only assume that the end will not be good.

My suggestion to Ezine Articles (even though I know this will not be heard) is that they simply provide Google with what they want. Good high quality fresh content with links that are crawlable. Even if they limit this to those who have earned that badge, I firmly believe that the best thing for Ezine is to allow links to be crawled.

UPDATE – It would appear that Ezine has backed down from their use of the NoFollow attribute, and has struck out the announcement on their official blog.

What does this mean? Who knows. It could be much the same as usual, or possibly even using NoFollow on all articles submitted by those who have not reached a specific user class, who knows.

What I do know is that this is a step in the right direction, and props to Ezine Articles for doing what is best, not just for their users, but for themselves.

Get this – around 80% of most of the backlinks that people will generate using traditional methods, not involving the use of a backlink indexer, simply are never indexed. Why is this so important? Simple. Because if the major search engines don’t know about the existence of any of your links, well… you’re simply not going to get any love from the search engines. If your backlink indexing sucks, then your ranking will plateau, and you will see a fairly large (and most likely growing) number of backlinks that are going to sit there in the black void that is the non indexed portion of the web.

It’s a lonely place to be, we all know that. The only thing worse is getting minimal bang for buck from your SEO work. Nothing worse than sitting below the fold on page one, and having no special ninja moves to catapault you a few positions higher.

Here’s the thing. I’m not afraid to say it either. I’m no stranger to the #1 position in Google. I know how to get there, and I know how to stay there. I’m not talking about ranking just pages on my blog either. I’m talking about content all over the web ranking for profitable keywords that attract pin point laser targeted visitors.

Now, let me tell you something straight, and I really want you to listen to this.

What I told you in the opening paragraph of this post – it is the #1 reason why most people never even reach the #1 position in Google. I’m not kidding when I say that. The fact that I was not using a backlink indexer of some kind was the sole reason why why, for at least a year, I failed to rank in the search engines anywhere above the third position.

Believe me, I tried everything, but no matter what I did, my competition was always getting a much better index rate with their keywords.

So, How Can You Get A Better Index Rate?

First things first – don’t slow down with your backlink building efforts. That is paramount. Oh, and if you dont know how to build links already, that’s OK, because I have something for you.

I’ll get to that in a few minutes though…

First, check out the video below to see how this all works. (Opens in a new window)

As a part of your backlink building efforts, you need to focus on an easy way to shoot some links to your backlinks so that they can be indexed. Sounds confusing, right? If the search engines cant find your links, how are you going to find them all, especially if you are relying on services and networks to build them for you.

Let me let you in on a little “insider tip“.

Built into WordPress is a great little feature that notifies you whenever someone links to your site. You may know them as those annoying little notifications that you get that look like comments but arent, right?

Well, they are kind of important. They are called Pingbacks, and by practicing good backlink indexing habits, you will be able to use these pingbacks in order to get your backlinks indexed.

The plugin that I use is called Pingback Optimizer, and If you want to see a massive return rate on the amount of time that you spend building links, I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy for yourself at www.pingbackoptimizer.com

So, What About That Promise That I Made?

I didn’t forget! Now, I know that most people know a little SEO, or maybe they want to expand their horizons a little.

I’m going to help you out.

As I use Pingback Optimizer myself, and have seen a huge increase in backlinks across my entire portfolio since using it, I’m going to show you how I build links.

Remember when I said at the start of this post that I am not a stranger to the #1 position in Google? I’m going to show you how I got to that #1 position.

But you have to take a leap first. Grab yourself a copy of Pingback Optimizer from this URL, and send me your receipt number using this form, and I will send you free access to my SEO training video.

I mean, I’m in the business of selling websites. That’s my thing, but what most people dont really get about selling websites is that in order to do really well, you need to do a variety of things. Number one. Know what your market wants. Number two. Give them what they want. Number three. Make money. Number four. Rinse, refine and repeat. In doing so, youre going to need to call on a good number of your skills, SEO being just one of them.

But… the question begs, with all of these changes, is SEO still relevant anymore, or are us SEO guys just not adapting to change, thus by means of building those one way backlinks and PageRank, digging our own grave? I visit the forums, I listen to what people have to say on Twitter and Facebook (follow my awesome FB page here!), and I can assure you that this is the opinion of many people.

So lets cut to the chase. The new changes in Google mean that they are going to give much more preference to websites that contain high quality content that is not copied or just plain and simple spam. We all could have guessed that was coming, right? I mean, is that not the job that Google is charged with in the first place? Does this mean that SEO is dead? Not by a long shot. You’ve just gotta write unique content is all. Good high quality unique content. Just like I am doing right now, although I am sure that the “high quality” aspect is debatable… and lets not forget some good high quality backlinks too. No suprises in this equation I can assure you. That said, SEO is just one piece of the puzzle.

Let me put it to you this way. For the better part of the last year, I have been refining my SEO skills, and consistently adapting to my environment, finding out what works and what doesn’t. SEO is not complicated, so I don’t overcomplicate it with a series of complex mindmapped processes, and links from sources that the search engines couldnt give half a monkeys you-know-what about. Here’s my equation. If it works, awesome! If it doesn’t, then lets not mention it again, and only work on refining what works so that I can get a much better result out of the time I spend doing it. Get it indexed. Get it ranked. Level the playing field and give Google what it wants. Rinse and repeat. Simple. Not complicated, just simple.

Many people dont do this. Many people follow the route that I did back in late 2009. Learn a process, beat it to death, over complicate it, and continually use the same strategies that everyone else is now using because it was bleeding edge at the time that you learned it so it’s gotta work forever, right? And if it doesn’t, then lets just slip that issue under the rug because we have spent so much time complicating things and developing these massively complicated systems that will take just as much time to revise as they did to implement in the first place, and then only realize how much adaptation really matters six months down the track when our business is flat on its face. Oh, and don’t forget to mention that not even halfway through this process, the creator of that method is hard at work behind the scenes creating a 2.0 version of that very method because they actually do adapt to change and test until they find out what works and what doesnt work. Not that the original method sucked, it was and still is awesome, even to todays standards, the idea here is that in terms of traffic generation, SEO is just one piece of the puzzle that needs to be developed in a way that doesnt just work, but has room to grow and refine every single day, and this is exactly how it has been for quite some time. Everything changes, everything grows, it is just a simple law of this universe that we live in.

I know, because this is the story of my business between December 2009 to around April 2010. What changed? I learned that SEO is just one piece of the puzzle.

For the past few weeks, I have been digging my heels into Facebook PPC. My normal way of learning something new is to give it a try, and fail at least a handful of times first, and then seek the right advice to help get me on the right track. I wouldnt clasify myself as an expert at Facebook PPC by any means, however, the conversion rate, not just in click throughs, but in conversions to sales when visitors land on my page is nothing short of incredible.

Here’s the thing. I invested a very modest $50 into one campaign. Talk about risk management. Now, the kind of traffic for the audience that I was targeting was estimated to cost around $1 per click, so I had settled on the idea that I had to convert pretty hard to break even. Each sale to me was worth 50$, so I was hoping for at least one sale to prove that this stuff worked, and lets not forget that it would be nice to break even.

Three days later, and $540 in sales done with a remaining $35 in my budget, and as an added bonus, my CPC was rounded down to around 40 cents per click. Not bad at all. Why did this work?

It was targeted. It was targeted extremely well. Just like SEO, but minus the link building. Plus I got lucky and the sales page converted like mad. But, that is another story for a rainy day. (its 40c here, and sweltering)

A user in the search engine is qualified, why? Because they are actively searching for what you can deliver them.

A user on Facebook is qualified, why? Because they have spoken out and said that they like what you have to offer them.

Lets look at this from a few different angles.

A person who has liked your fan page on Facebook is qualified, why? Because they have found you, connected with you, and are ready to listen to what you have to say.

Someone who has signed up to your mailing list to get your free report is qualified, why? Because you have connected with them by giving them something for free, and in most cases, they want to learn more.

Getting the drift yet?

Traffic is not just about SEO. It is about knowing how many pieces are still in play, and knowing which ones you can influence at the right time.

The amount of variables at play here are infinite, and you can be as imaginative as you like. I know I am. I have a 200 page book, my “not so little black book“, full of hand drawn mindmaps and diagrams of the various concepts and combinations that I have tested, or am yet to test. Why do I do this? Because things WILL change, and I am preparing for change now rather than later on when everyone else has beaten me to the punch. My number one goal? To find my market and deliver them to my content. Simple. Whether that involves SEO, PPC, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube video search engine optimization, Email Marketing, Offline Marketing, whatever, that is my goal, and I have many ways that I can and will do it, because regardless of how the search engines perform, I am prepared.

This is the key point of this post. Sure, Google has changed. So be it, it happens and it WILL happen again. Learn it, and find out how it can work for you. Just don’t forget that there is a massive amount of opportunity out there for generating traffic. Some are evergreen, others not so much. The choice is yours. The opportunities are endless.

David Jenyns said it really well at his SEO Method 2.0 workshop (look out for the DVD’s, they are coming soon). I cant remember the exact quote, but it went something along the lines of this. “It is comparible to career suicide to rely on only one source of income“.

The exact same principal applies to traffic generation. Wherever you can get it, go and get it, because there is a good chance that your competition will not be utilizing the same opportunities that you have up your sleeve. If you play your cards right that is, and understand that SEO is not the end of everything.

So, lets put it this way.

SEO is not dead by any means. It is just another extremely effective method at your disposal amongst all the noise.

To finish this up, I just wanted to give a big heads up about the course that I used to learn Facebook PPC after I had done my testing. It is available on SitePoint, Facebook Ads 101 by Jen Sheehan. No affiliate links, just go check it out. Its gold.

If you would kindly allow me to “get my geek on” for a moment, I shall explain the problem for you. See, many people just like yourself, use similar methods to what I do. Article Directories, Blog Networks, (Trade Secret Removed), (Trade Secret 2 removed), and so on. What’s the problem here?

The problem is that the search engines are not psychic. Backlink indexing does not occur automatically!

CASE AND EXAMPLE – you generate a handful of links from, lets say, a blog network. You are going to be receiving a ton of links from other blogs.

So, you create a handful of these posts, and after a few days, you start scratching your head wondering why that other spammy looking site is still ranking above yours in the search engines. You open up Market Samurai, and you can see that your backlink count has not increased at all. When you build links, backlink indexing just is not occurring at all. You wonder why this is…

The answer really is quite simple here. The problem is that these properties often are poorly maintained, and don’t quite have an Ezine Articles effect where backlinks indexing occurs fast by way of being attached to a reputable domain. In most cases, the pages that you earn backlinks from are not even indexed in Google, so what does this mean? This means that a large portion of your efforts (again, 50 – 75% from my calculations) are done in vain, with no end pay off.

You know, I have heard this story countless times over and over again. I have seen people crack it when they get memberships to some of the most expensive blog and link networks online becuase they see exactly the same thing happen to them. So much effort with little return. Here’s a hint – It’s not the blog networks fault! Its your backlink indexing!

Let me ask you a quick, and highly predictable question.

“If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it….”

…I think you get the gist.

Here’s the thing. A website never will, and never can index itself without a little help. This means that regardless of how much work you are actually doing to increase your backlink indexing rate, you’re only going to a large number of your backlinking efforts go down the drain. Sad but true story, I know.

I want to let you in on a little secret that has seen me get around an increase of 200% in my backlink indexing though. Check out the screenshot below to see what I mean. Click the image to make it bigger.

This screenshot is of my Market Samurai Rank Tracker, when I pull up the data for the pages on this very blog that you are looking at today, that make me an income. Each of these pages can easily generate me between 300 – $500 per month. As you can see, I have had no problems at all in generating backlinks to those pages, and have had no problems at all ranking them highly in the search engines.

These aren’t your run of the mill keywords either. They are mid-high competition keywords.

Some are still yet to rank #1, but hey.. the income is good so far. I can only go uphill from here, but you can see here that my backlink indexing rate is quite substantial.

6 months ago, this very blog that you are reading only had around 500 – 600 backlinks. I have not slowed down, or sped up in my linking efforts either. So, why the increase?

You see, WordPress, apart from being a great blogging platform, it has some pretty nifty built in features that I have used to my advantage for the sake of good backlink indexing. Features that can be exploited for the greater good. Lets take Pingbacks for example. You know, those random comments that we tend to get more of than real comments, and we delete them out whenever we get them.

Check this video out to see how important PingBacks really are.

Does this low rate of backlink indexing ring any bells for you? Think about how much of your effort is going to waste, especially with the long hours that you work. (at least I know I did!)

The solution to this problem is a plugin called Pingback Optimizer (get your copy here).

Here’s How It Boosts Your Backlink Indexing

Pingback Optimizer creates an RSS feed using all of the pingbacks that your WordPress blogs receive, and sends them out to RSS directories. As the RSS directories get a lot of attention from Google, this means that the search engine spiders have a clear path to the pages that are linking to yours, thus, increasing your backlink indexing quite substancially.

Consider it as being your personal assistant that manually seeks out all links pointing to your page, and making sure that Google knows that they exist. Check out how it increases your backlink indexing here.

The Results Speak For Themselves

Again, not changing a single method in my approach to SEO, not speeding up or slowing down, I was able to turn 500 – 600 backlinks into 4000 within a few short months just by focusing on my backlink indexing. This has, undoubtedly, turned me into a serious contender in the markets that I compete in. Its my “10 Ton Hammer” so to speak. Just check out the screenshot above to confirm it with yourself that this actually works.

That said, my method of SEO is quite unique in its own right. So I want to offer you a bonus just to make sure that you are getting the best possible results from Pingback Optimizer.

Here’s The Thing…

In general, I am not the kind of guy who likes to make a recommendation for any old product. Yes, I earn commissions for sales, that said, I have a responsibility to you to make sure that if you take my recommendation, that you will get the very results that I talk about on this page.

Having said that, If you buy Pingback Optimizer today, using any of the links on this page, use the contact me page on this blog to send me a your receipt number, and I will send you a free video teaching you the very method that I use to build links to my websites and increase my backlink indexing, in particular, how to dominate above the fold, all whilst using Pingback Optimizer in order to increase your backlink indexing rate substantially.

Just grab Pingback Optimizer from this link (or click the banner above), then send me a your receipt number, and I will send it through to you right away.