Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Can we still write and Earn money working online. As Panda and Penguin really take their toll on the Affiliate Marketer.

As Google updates and releases penguin 2.0 lets take a look at how we are changing how we are working online. Can we still make an income writing online and being an affiliate?

Yes you can still make money working online.
But the rules have changed, ignore them and the changes and on your head be it.

Now after Panda, they let out the Penguins and to be honest I don't normally take much head of them, I just write the pages I want to write, and publish. I think if I need to be thinking about changes I must be doing something that is wrong? (does that make sense)

IF I keep to the search engines guidelines of building good, quality content, then I need not take interest in what these changes are, these changes are to benefit the searcher, and give people what they want.

The changes at the Platform Squidoo has changed with big consequences for many, leaving a tornado of near destruction to  many who have built their business model around Squidoo.
HUGE mistake, never build an income around 1 place. There is no point moaning shouting , screaming, the changes have been made they locked your work.  You had success, you built more, and more and more and more pages (so many that we then had a site that looked nothing better than a million cookie cutter lenses.
I mean how many pages can you have with a list of the same amazon products.....after some time they all start to look like one before it.


penguin, panda, seo
Available to Buy
And many ask "why has this happened" why was this allowed to happen? my goodness take some responsibility.  

The original goals of Squidoo is not The path Squidoo eventually took by letting and may I add with Quests encouraging us to create pages "SOLELY to send people to amazon, may have been a money maker in the beginning, and lots of people adopted the same or similar strategies after seeing others huge success.
I always had a reservation that if hundreds of these pages which were similar and started to  appear, then something had to give. People got greedy and made even more, then more came along and enjoyed the fringe benefits, and so the web was spun. growing even more and more.

After several week of research, and NOT finding much information to "cite" I have come to a very brave conclusion, Squidoo as you knew it is over. So please suck it up and lets move on.
I want to make another thing clear Squidoo and its future is however not OVER.  With the changes they have made the hard stance against the gamers, cheaters and spammers.
Just check out the forum and the cry of Help my lenses got locked. And many innocents are caught up in this too.
They followed what they saw or thought was popular.  I am amazed at the amount of "niche" accounts many have popped up with WOW, I did not know they and so many of them existed!

Seth Godin himself said if you are not willing to let it be known its you  and put your name to it, then that tells you something.

I have been gobsmacked at the scale of the secret niche accounts, from many.  I was going to set up niche accounts but gave up as I saw no point in them.
No wonder HQ are mad, and no wonder they have taken the steps they have.

I say well done and thank you.

With Penguin 2.0 with even more rollouts guaranteed to shake up the searches, certain types of pages are not welcome on line and at Squidoo and ARE coming under the umbrella of "doorway pages" - (doorway pages are solely created to entice/create as link bait visitors and searcher to their pages, to get YOUR visitor to click on the site where they can buy -   
you know the pages We pick a keyword - of something we want to sell we create that page to do it, they CANNOT buy on our pages, they need to  go to amazon. )
Even Squidoo is clearly saying
"If you have came to solely to promote an affiliate product" (that includes adding lots of amazon products via the Squidoo modules with no real rhyme or reason but to SELL SELL SELL) then we no longer want your content, or words to that effect.
They give us the tools, does not mean we need to use them all and stuff everything  in and the kitchen sink use the platform wisely, abuse it and your locked out.

There were a few "systems" put around where you could buy the how to of Squidoos. I never followed, something always held me back I just didn't agree in the system, that encouraged people to quickly put up pages to solely manipulate the system in place,  multiplied by 10,000+s, was always going to end badly for everyone.

I would also be looking at the extra "niche" accounts of many, and how they used those niche accounts to jump on the apparent successful bandwagon and manipulate the system. Churning out lower quality pages than they would have had on their "main account"?

It is OVER, get over it. Google and quite rightly Squidoo are putting their foot down. Many are saying "oh well I will just take my content else's where? WHAT....are you not listening to why these very strong measures are being put in place? 
I have spent most of the last few weeks, studying changes, studying what Google is saying.
If we create these doorway (affiliate pages) we will be penalized - the affiliate marketer as we knew it is dead!
Remember how we Chose a hot topic, keyword and create a page around it solely to get attention from a search engine to send you traffic to then send them to the product (via YOUR affiliate link, or the companies affiliate link)  - l Google got way smart and wont send to the middle man They want their searcher to go straight to the solution to  their problem in the FIRST click, not bounce around a few pages, that just p***es me off as a searcher, so I wonder what it does to my intended audience.

 My feeling is penguin has only just started.
Now if I go back  a few years of Squidoo where a sale was a "by-product" of people visiting your page, that's fine. me saying I have a sore back, I use this and this to help me! perfect.
or if you want to be able to do this, then you need this.

 I feel as though all in this group can go forward and move along with h this, the ones who solely are setting up pages  (AND I have seen MANY still being published.)  with collecting their favourite items on Squidoo adding a little bit of fluff, ARE in real trouble, not jus ton Squidoo but anywhere....
TO move forward, I am NOT and will not be creating any more "niche" style sales lenses. NO matter how I dress it up, It is still a "doorway" page, It does not matter WHERE you publish it - It is a Doorway page.
 
Unless you are offering real solutions where people are spending time on YOUR page (bounce rate is going to factor way high in this new way forward. ( remember we used to try to get them to our pages and off to amazon?)  Well guess what we are doing ourselves zero favours.....(In fact Squidoo newest brain power IS to have the amazon module below the intro! - What is Google against and going after "doorway pages.....all they are giving a visitor is the option to quickly LEAVE their site, signalling to Google they never actually found what they were looking for BUT could get there even quicker to cut out the middle man which is you/Squidoo......
Working on the internet I have seen 3 major shifts in how we work, yet the fundamentals are all the same. Unique Useful information.
IF I create a page my reader finds the answer to their search query on my page then  I lead them onto the product to buy. That's fine. In fact its more than fine its wonderful.

In fact take a look a this page How Do I get Files and Pictures off my old PC? (this link will open in a new window)

Can you guess what I sell?  Why does Google STILL send me lots of lovely traffic?

I have taken a common problem, and given a step by step solution, and the solution entails buying a simple gadget.  THESE types of pages are what you should be making. IF you want to survive working online.
If I list the best wall art or to use an example like the infamous Shower curtain lens, (which I cannot link to as it has now been locked (all available from amazon or another online store ) guess what the search  engine is Going to skip ME and send them straight to them, and in the process I will receive a black mark against me as they WILL see me as a creator of doorway pages.

As we move into Penguin 2.0 I also believe Google is looking at writers using Google Authorship as a key to how YOU will be ranked.

It will not matter where I write, eventually it will be who I am, am I a trusted source of information, am I a known writer in my niche.

Key Notes for SEO moving forward online creating a sustainable income working online.
  1.  Google Authorship - Get yourself set up and link  all your work together.
  2. If you have lost work think  seriously about moving it to another platform? Whether it is your own hosted blog or someone else's platform.
  3. Create pages that are informative think quality content, your first thought should not be what you want to sell. This should be a by product of your page.
  4. Be mindful of keyword density (this is a biggy for me)
  5. Write useful pages that ARE going to be shared, bookmarked, and talked about.
example: even if you are writing about an author and his "books" be careful how many times you use the word "book".

How are you going to move forward

That's it simple. Write good quality pages. If your aim is to solely direct your visitors to a sale then your time is over.

If you are still a little fuzzy about creating pages, and what types consider reading this page, by a relatively new Squid Nikon Mocro lens For Novices

But it gives personal content, photos, and why I should buy or why I need the product on the page.

This is the way forward.













 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Should I delete a Lens? How can I help a Failing web page....

Never, ever delete a lens and this is why...
SEO-Keyword research- never delete a lens

So now you want to know how to help your failing web Page.

I cannot take credit for this, I learned how to work out how to SEO optimise my pages, from a great on line friend @Thrivingmom on squidoo and I love to share her fantastic tips of how to check HOW does Google See your Page?
and then we can start to work out why our lens is failing and how we can fix it.

Keyword Research
Good Quality original content
Backlinks

all contribute towards a great page.

but if your lens is failing then we need to know how to fix it

I am going to send you over to Thriving moms post,
STEP 1: why is my lens failing because it is so easy you will want to go straight away and check all your pages!


and have a great look around as you will also find Thrivingmom shares her tips freely and great advice especially the post about STEP 2: Using your Keywords throughout your post, and how to do it easily!

Use the Step 1, Step 2 process on a failing lens/ web/ blog / post
your keywords more focused= your page being more focused.

Good SEO does not need to be complicated.

You can see more of thrivingmoms work on squidoo




Thursday, August 4, 2011

FREE- Squidoo Help eBook

If you are looking for a FREE how to Squidoo Guide, then this little gem is just what you need.
I have always had this Guide on my computer Learn Squidoo - Step by Step and I am so happy to tell you a group of lensmasters have been working hard to re-vamp it!

I would like to point you to the new updated Step-by-step Guide to Squidoo, that will give you resources, such as the best keyword research tools, and of course what to do with your pages once you have published them.
Includes a fantastic current list of directories as used by most of us and proven to help, your articles.

It is written by a very well established group of lensmasters, known around the community for creating quality pages. And most of all achieving success on Squidoo.

Learn Squidoo - Step by Step
Written by : Lakeerieartist, BevsPaper Aj2008

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

How to cash in on Hot Topics - Creating a great "sales" page

I did indeed tell you I am going to share secrets with you, but I dont think I can share secrets with you, unless I explain how these "secrets" work. It does wind me up those wonderful tutorials that say do this this and this, and you will be sucessful, But maybe they only give you how to find keywords, okay so once you have your keywords what then do you do.

I love writing and especially creative writing, however as yourselves and I know, these do not make big sales, So I try to have a balance, my more serious pages, and then there are my product review pages "sales pages" and I dont mind having them mixed in with my work, as I believe it helps build a good solid reputable foundation, and readers like that. i only ever do product reviews about things that I can or have used, and have indeed found useful, or suggest products that help me. I have found these more successful when I put in a personal recommendation . 

So you make product review pages, and still cant sell a thing. Sometimes we can even over complicate things....and make it more difficult than we should.

So I am going to take you through the full process, from starting with an idea. To publishing, and to maximising publicity.
Many of people online want to know how to make sales, what is the secret? We all strive to make that sale. We get so worked up about keyword research and where to post our pages for marketing so the search engines find us that sometimes we just look past eactly what people are looking for and end up makeing it "too technical" that our page focus disappears. We end up with no sales, and wonder why our customer who is looking for that item get bored and clicks to another page.
What about the "I will not bother doing that as there are already pages out there" ....how many timesw have you thought, "wish I had done that" and moved onto find your next topic? Well the page I am going to share with you today, is indeed one that I was actually reluctant to make, due to the amount of other related pages out there, however a chance day out made me change my mind as I spotted something, stopped to take a picture, and then I spoke to the owner, who had come out to ask why I was taking a picture? and they told me how hard a job they had "finding" the Decorations.

So I am going to reveal a page, that made sales in 2weeks, and actually still makes the odd sale today, even though the event is over.

So what hot topic did I jump on? The Royal Wedding of Course.
Now this was a local pub of ours, and when we passed it I could not resist stopping and taking a photo. It was so over the Top for a little country pub, we thought it hysterical. I knew the owner who came out to chat with me, and told me how hard it had been to eventually find the decorations online.

 As I went on my way home I saw many signs out for Royal Wedding Garden parties. I went onto Amazon who I am an affiliate from. And yes there indeed after a bit of searching I found the most outragous banners flags, party masks.
So
I created a page, now these were indeed ofr the UK market, however I also knew Amazon.com US had these items, so I also put a "text" link onto this page, for my US customers. (this is very important to note, as you will find out why later!)

I knew this was going to be a hot topic, and all the available URLS were already snapped up, and I decided NOT to look at my competition, as this can put pressure on your sometimes, (this is okay to do this for a hot Topic, but not recommended for a longer term page that you will work on and tweak)
So I grabbed the best URL, which was Garden Party Decorations....

This was more for fun. I wrote my introduction, with no keyword investigation, no traffic analysis, nothing....I was just writing a page about my mum having a Garden Party for the Royal wedding and I was in charge of finding the Garden decoration. This was indeed true.

I included silly Face Masks of the Royal couple,  Cake toppers, flags, banners....totally over the top.
i published this, posted in the SquidU forum to give the community a laugh, and left it.

So lets re-cap, No keyword research, No promotion, No backlinks apart from SquidU. Google traffic started within 12 hours, and never stopped, over 2 weeks you can see nearly 1,000 visitors.
 
This is a screen shot of my monthly traffic for April/May, this is what i would accept as fantastic results for a "hot topic" considering it was a page that just is made to cover a significant event.
  So how did I get traffic, what "marketing did i do to get traffic to my lens. To see this


Google Traffic 1st week 456


Now I did not post the lens on FB, or twitter, what I did was posted the picture of my local pub, as my friends all socialise there, and just said "have you seen what they have done to the local pub?" and put a link to my lens on the end, and just said, check out the cardboard cutouts of Wills and Kate,  this caught like wild fire, and even ended up being printed out by my brothers friend in australia for their office picture board!

but what was even more exciting to see was what happened over at amazon, I had used a "TEXT" link only for US customers.  And this is what I saw from April 1 to May

 Here is Amazon US Affiliates which I set up tracking individual tracking IDs useful for seeing what on page does sell and what does not, so I could monitor, I did not expect this at all considering everything on the page was for UK. Bearing in mind I only included a TET link to the US I sold $528.41 making $31.07, and I dont particularly like boasting and I do not see the point in it, or i would have included the stats for UK...I am sure you can imagine yourself that this was indeed a very worthwhile, hour, and the promotion side of it was fun, or so which I took out of my day to put this page together in. ...lol...because we were talking about a picture, not a "sales" page. My friend did indeed Buy her garden decorations from my page, but I never knew that until after the event, when she uploaded her garden picture onto FB too, saying it was my fault, I made her do it.    With no research, just a photo of something that was funny, and thought it would make a good page, but this photo I took, was what brought in my traffic, I posted on several sites that you could upload funny pictures, like redgage and included my link. (by the way sign up to redgage, and post interesting photos and links and you can make some extra money, may not be a lot but just let it mount up!
This picture is what got shared, not my page.

So what have we learned, sometimes capatilizing on a "Hot Topic" is very worth while. I hear so many times, "oh I didn't do that as someone else has", well do it differently, 
Sometimes taking an alternative route to promotion, finding a funny photo and sharing it, works better than "promoting" yourlink, I must admit I hate promoting my links or my work via FB or twitter to my friends and family, but this was different and fun. 

I do recommend keywords research, and never normally make a page without it, but sometimes just writing about it can work too.
Don't be held back, if you have an idea write about it, I was going to write about the Royal Wedding but put it off as I saw so many wonderful pages dedicated to it already, wonder how much I would have made if I had just made the page when I first thought about it. 

Hot Topics is a great way to cash in on the here and now, and I do like these pages, usually easy to put together, and okay won't last long but work alongside your other pages as you build them up. And you are Making money online. This is the disheartning part of working online, you are making Quality pages, but people who are going to "buy" want to find what they are specifically looking for there and then, and have their credit card in their hands, waiting to "find" their product. We just need to Show them where it is and how they can buy it. 

Do you know how to find hot topics?
The best way for keeping your finger on the pulse is Google Hot Trends
Some I would not touch with a barge pole, however you can watch and see how things start to appear, especially films, realitly TV shows, (you will get a few weekes out of them!) and up and coming pop stars/actors....who will have a continuing career. 
If you read this and found it interesting I would appreciate your feedback, Did this post help you through some frustrations of not making sales, or is there anything else I can explain to you about making sales with  "Hot Topics"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do belive there is always someone to thank for my knowledge, and have played a part in my success, now...a lot of to and fro about PotpieGirl but I did indeed buy her One Week Marketing, and this is where I got a "foundation" to niche marketing, I am a learner, I need to learn all the ins and out, yes there was information that I found useless, and there was information I found priceless. I belive in learning the knowledge, and in fact I still to this day recieve her emails, so people find it irritating, I don't I read every one of them, this lady is a successful online marketer doing eactly what you and I want to  do too, so Of course I read them , I may not click on her links, but if it interests me then I will. There may just be something that clicks for me, like jumping on the "Hot Topic Trends" Yes these guys make money from selling their secrets, but sometimes, they give you that little nugget of information that makes it click.










Friday, May 27, 2011

Introduction to A Work at home Mom

When I decided to try my hand at working online to make additional income for my family. I had no former computer knowledge, I could switch it on and that was about it.

I have now been "working online" for over 2 years, and looking back there are many things I wish I had known when I started writing online.
Keywords
SEO
Backlinks
Images and how to use them properly.
How to Pick a niche
How to make Sales
Writing Article to Drive Traffic to your site.

Nobody tells you that information...in fact many want to charge for secrets for their ebook that tells you how to indeed make millions overnight, my view is run as fast as you can from these. I have included links to some of my best and most popular articles about these subjects, for your information, just remember to come back.

I have indeed learned my craft from many successful online marketers, and followed their findings closely. the Internet is not confusing, it is all the confusing information out there that's the trouble.

Over the years, I have been luck and built up a successful reputation for article writing, product reviews, and creative writing.  Taking part in online communities, and writing Guest Blog posts.

The purpose of this blog moms Work at home blog, is to give share that success and give you the same opportunity I have had, to take your interests, passions and ideas, and be able to write about them, any one can do that,  so how do you make money from your writing?

There are many ways, from Article writing to having your own website, or freelance writing.

I hope not to only inspire you to try working from home, but also to help motivate, as it can indeed be a lonely journey at times, until you start to build up your online network.


Please note, all comments on this Blog will allow 1 "dofollow" from the Authors link. So I encourage you to leave a message, and a link back to your site. Tell me who you are, how you got here, what is it you are planing to do working online...etc All comments are moderated
I like to help support and encourage my fellow work at home moms and dads.
Don't worry about understanding dofollow links just now, but bear in mind creating links to your site is very worthwhile, just post an introduction to yourself and include your blog or website URL. I will also like to feature other networkers examples of how they have found success online too. So if I come accross something I find useful you have written about I shall let you know and write a review for you.

this post has been edited to ADD THIS -PAGE 1 of GOOGLE  Within 50 minutes, using my all ethical, (no Blackhat) Marketing Techniques.

What do you think of that, I can't believe it!
Lisa