What makes an article so good that they tell everyone they know?

Benefits of reading this post:

• Links, people talk = rankings
• Reputation – People like you = sales
• Viral Tell A Friend Traffic

Why bother writing “Content for search engines?”

When’s the last time a search engine ever bought anything from you? Even if they did, ironically when’s the last time it worked?!? If users don’t find it valuable they don’t link to it, they don’t tell their friends, they don’t bookmark it or do anything at all! They just feel mis-lead and quickly go to a site with more value and more material that they *DO* find useful.

The critical parts of a “useful” article.

Honesty – I don’t just mean telling the truth and not lying (although that’s important) but sounding sincere and trustable. Telling personal anecdotes and giving real life examples. This is one key reason that Youtube does so well… I mean how can you not trust someone on a camera doing what they do right in front if you, you can see their face, their honesty, it’s all there!

Tips – Including tips and useful advice (even stuff that seems incredibly simple) that could help others  in some small way, sharing your insight and wisdom – or a tip you found somewhere else. The best kind of tips aren’t just the advice but also hands on WALKTHRUS with photos, etc or at least step-by-step.

New Information – Covering a topic everyone wants to hear about that you know something about or that you have the time to better research than others do. It’s super easy to dig up information and further expand on a fresh news topic or software bug, or guru launch or whatever’s going on in your industry and add your spin to it.

Pictures, Charts, Video – Some of the juiciest posts I’ve ever read, bookmarked, shared and practically yelled and screamed about had all kinds of visual resources helping make the information not so bland, I mean really the more images and examples (even if they’re just off a stock photo site) are very beneficial to making content feel interesting and valuable.

Humans – Oh yes, them too. Interviewing experts, asking expert’s opinions, interviewing by email, getting an audio, phone or in-person interview, any way that you can get some additional advice on a topic and round that out into a story or solve a problem with that information that your searchers are looking for.

Compilation – Find all the sources around the web talking about a certain topic and state their point’s of view and state your source (you don’t have to link back to them, just mention where you got the info) I did that same thing in my article about Google Caffeine. Yeah, sure it took a bit of time, but I truly believe that I had – on that day – the best Caffeine article there was on the internet covering what we know about the topic at this point. I haven’t researched it quite as thoroughly as I had then, so I can’t confidently say the same now… But it *WAS* that darn good.

Keywords – Yes, you must base your article, writeup or blog post on KEYWORDS you must do keyword research and discover what it is that people are searching for and base your topic on that, even (if you have time) go as far as to write directly about a specific phrase with little competition… BUT – yep there is a but – consider all the other phrases in the list and other sub-areas that those folks wanted to know about. Try not to get SEO paralysis in that you’re only writing for the search engines… Remember, search engine spiders don’t have credit cards.

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Envision this article on your website that has:

• A list of resources from other sources using the compilation method
• A interview with someone
• Fresh news OR your take on fresh news and some backgrounder
• An Honest review or experience you had
• A juicy tip you discovered
• Pictures, charts, video or a diagram of some kind

Remember the last time you requested a link?

“Here’s a page I want you to link to… I’m selling something, but it’s REALLY good!”

Yeah – right! And they linked to you, didn’t they? NOT!

And now…

“Here’s a page that’s really valuable, and I think your readers will find it very useful and entertaining”

What do you think the response to THAT would be? Exactly…

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Stop! Are you about to write an article because of some keyword you found on a keyword tool? If you are, and you’re basing it off just ONE keyword tool and not considering all related words, consider this…

We offer a service for $29.95USD where we examine 3 keyword sources, mash all the data together giving you a complete bird’s eye view organized by search volume and number of words…  You KNOW that Google doesn’t give you ALL the search phrases for your niche when you ask, neither do the other engines, but with results from all 3 COMBINED, you can’t lose.

Free Sample – Click the Excel Image to see what our keyword reports look like.

$29.95 – Order a keyword report right now! Just tell us the keyword phrase and you should expect your report within 1-3 business days (1 business day in most cases, but it’s important to be realistic if we’re busy…)

Before you read anything more – let me say that the course of my life has allowed me to offer this to you now completely free – where in the past I may have gone on to put something on clickbank and sell it for a ton of money. This material would easily sell for $20-40USD, but it’s completely free.

It’s an export of my brains to paper, a strategy that has personally given me hundreds of dollars in revenue and thousands of hits. Properly optimized this exact strategy followed as I explain it could produce you much more than it did me for a number of reasons I won’t get into here.

I had this happen twice, by accident!
I wrote a darn good article on purpose, but did a few things that accidentally gained it immediate attention and in some cases world wide press attention.
(Click the image for a full size copy)

This is a map I drew on a piece of a paper on my desk a few minutes ago, note my amazing artistic talent (Just kidding…) but regardless, if you let my drawing abilities get in your way, you’ll miss this. This map in itself probably has a value in the thousands, but let me break it down for simple folks – step by step so it can be easily understood.

Step 1. Ensure your ‘article repository’ is topic optimized

Basically, what I mean by this is make sure you group your subjects and topics that you cover on your website in a logical order and a logical link pattern on your website, blog or whatever you use to store all your articles online. Ensure they start with a main subject like “house building” and then below that it may cover roofs, structure, foundation etc.. under structure… You might cover screws, drywall, studs etc.

Make sure your site uses a proper URL structure.

I simply mean that it should be http://www.yoursite.com/post-title/ (IN wordpress that’s done by setting your permalink structure to %posttitle% or similar). This way an article’s title might actually be http://www.sermonadvice.com/sermon-on-the-amount/ for example.

Step 2. Setup your article or page for SEO and Viral Success!

There are a number of key elements that are so important to ensuring the page gets a ton of traffic that they are almost more important than the content itself! In fact, in some ways they really are. Things like having an exciting title that explains the benefit of reading it in the first place. Ensuring that title also has a keyword phrase that does get searched for using keyword tools.

Keeping The Humans Happy…

Yeah, they matter too.. Search engines are great, but it’s the humans that link back to stuff! I’m continuging to learn this the hard way, that it’s actually the humans that matter a little more than what Google MSN & Yahoo think. How do we keep them happy? Easy! Keep them entertained and educated with really nice pictures and really interesting materials. When humans find stuff that’s really interesting, really entertaining or educational and they find it super helpful… keyword being super .. They want to pass it on to friends, although some folks aren’t as tech savvy as others… and some are just lazy.. so having sharing buttons on the blog is super important! My favorite tool for that is SexyBookmarks, yeah – i know the name sounds nasty, but it’s totally safe for work and they look brilliant. I also think that the Tweetmeme button (I drew one in the top right of my fake page there) is a great tool.. There are also hacks to make tweetmeme faster too if you find that a problem. I don’t though.

I also mention adding page translation (Support other languages, and also other language search queries! More traffic!) and of course how important it is to have an email address collection box. I’ve always called them “Insurance” because they basically mean if SEO becomes competitive and Pay per click gets too expensive, you’ve always got your list to market to.

Step 3. Get your juicy content out there!

So, up till now all I’ve mentioned is “on page” strategy, nothing about getting your word out there. This isn’t Field of Dreams… “if you build it, they will come”. Fact is i’ve had some content i’ve written that i’d place a $1000 bet it’s the best there is on the internet about that topic, but Google doesn’t care! Google’s a machine with no ability to tell what’s good and what’s not, it leaves that part to the humans (Dumb silly Google!). Sad, what do we know? (kidding!). Anyway…

Get your juicy article talked about! Some markets (like internet marketing and computer topics) that’s easy! Nerds love to share nerdy stuff, so we’ve created lots of nerd link sharing sites, your industry may be different. So you might have to do different things to get your stuff to the masses, but here’s an overall gyst:

• Post on forums and mention your page..
  (if your page really is an article with juicy helpful stuff you won’t get in trouble for posting it… If it sells stuff you will get in trouble).
• Email and comment on blogs
  Interact with the owners and let them know about the killer resource you just wrote. If it’s that good, they’ll link to it too.
• Press Release – Journalists are always looking for new stories
• Relavent news sites – even they want in on this stuff
• Article sites – don’t do 200 of them, but a handful helps a bit
• Universities – Get some .edu links by telling students studying your industry about the article…
  Maybe they’ll click the share on facebook button on your article!
• RSS submission tools get the message to the search spiders if your article is on a blog.
• Socialmarker.com will post to all the social news sites free
• Reddit.com is easier to get the first page on than Digg is, but can help get you ON digg in the first place.
• Email friends, and other people in the industry about your new juice!
• Yahoo answers, I bet your article (if it’s really that good!) answers someone’s question out there!
• Pay Per Click – Yes, it costs money, but getting more people to an article with those share buttons could get it shared more..
  For a few pennies per click, couldn’t you use more email addresses and viewers and exposure? I Sure could!

If this article gave you a new idea, a new insight or helped in *any* way, please… do the right thing…

Click one of the share buttons below……

Can you really trust the online marketers who peddle “hope”?

With the conviction of James Arthur Ray still fresh as the trail of his victims lay in our eyes and being smeared in our faces by local media, you have to wonder. Can you really trust the “Gurus” who peddle hope in little golden boxes at thousands of dollars per download?

This has been a crazy year for well known internet marketers all over the United States with Perry Belcher’s issues, Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins and all kinds of wild things going on!

I remember a time when the “Gurus” were good people. I mean, 99% of those who claimed to be successful, rich and living amazing lives, really were.

A Christian and extremely ethical guy like me finds it difficult to recommend a website that’s filled with swearing, discusting humor and unforgivable NOT safe for work humor… But if you can imagine a statement like, that I submit to those with the stomach, open-ness and profane ignored… The Salty Droid….

When I first stumbled across this site, as mentioned by Ryan Healy in some of his “Exposing the Guru” posts, I have to say that I was really shocked by the attitude and information presented. I immediately ignore and *instantly* loose respect for anyone who swears both in person or in public. It’s just not acceptable (Yes, I’m in that camp…). That’s why I just can’t have any respect for a guy like Tony Robbins anymore. The guy has impressive energy and skill and motivational abilities, but his mouth – needs soap!

Anyway… I have to say that much of the information at The Salty Droid can be verified. It’s obviously a slanted one-sided view of the entire situation, but it’s equally interesting…

The big question is, who can you really trust?

Let me stretch out on a limb and make some bold statements that could easily offend and bother people…

#1. If it sounds too good to be true, it is…

#2. If it sounds easy, it’s probably not (without a ton of background knowledge on the topic)

#3. If you just got started in online marketing, you have at least a year (maybe more) of learning before profit is a discussable topic.

#4. Gone are the days when pictures with Gurus = Trust. Ignore that.

#5. Pretty much anyone who’s sales angle is “financial freedom” – “Work in your underpants”  – “retire in your 20s” or “automated cash” can make an excellent toilet tissue for your water closet <wink>. I’ve started unsubscribing from any Guru/Newsletter or company that promises GARBAGE like this.

#6. Social proof is power. Search Twitter, Search Facebook, Search Forums and groups and read all you can about someone before making a big purchase.

#7. Stay focused on your goals **AND** the direction you’ve chosen to achieve that goal.

-          If you said you were going to make your living thru affiliate marketing – do that.

-          If it was via selling a service – do that.

-          If it was selling an ebook, cdrom or download – do that.

But whatever you do, don’t deviate or chase money or ways of making money or strategies, or other people’s ideas!!

RANT OFF..

When I worked with Corey Rudl, and eventually Derek Gehl at The Internet Marketing Center in Vancouver B.C., I recall many times when ethics prevailed. The company and Of course Corey & Derek were highly ethical people and never promoted anything that didn’t work, or truly couldn’t help people. It was a culture I’ve never seen before – and never seen again. It was truly amazing and exciting and I actually couldn’t wait to get to work each day.

Every day, I was on the phone with clients and customers helping them build their online businesses and it was truly a dream come true. I met with other gurus while working there on the phone and in person. In fact, I remember when IM Gurus were truly *ONLY* known by other IM Gurus and not by their customers so much…

There was a time when Customers and sales made the GURU. Today, a Guru decides he’s going to sell IM garbage and becomes a GURU on his own. Corey, became a guru by selling kit car books and eventually thru the sales of the book Car Tips Revealed and of course, selling Ferrari Emblems and other such car gadgetry.

Still, earned reputations!

I dare gurus to show significant proof that they’ve actually sold products outside the internet marketing niche! Most certainly before I felt qualified to start posting tips, I constantly wrote ebooks like Classified Car Tips, Training Cats Easily, Removing Smoke, and others. I wrote a book on writing great newsletters, and then eventually moved into a few internet marketing products like unstoppablekeywords.com and such.

Anyways.. Interesting how this industry’s evolving. At this moment I’d say there’s very few IM products out there that are truly worth recommending so if you *ever* see me post on any (which there aren’t many I do) I’d strongly recommend buying them, as my word is the only thing I have.

It’s obvious that consumers see things differently than an educated online marketer, web developer or novice computer user see things. There’s no secrecy there. But, sometimes when you’re at wits end, or need a refresher – something to change up the usual, try looking at your pages from the customer view.

If you’ve been executing some form of online marketing for as long as I have, you know that’s not easy… But I have a few strategies that could help you in that regard…

#1. Buying Industry Magazines.

The other nite, I was at Safeway (A local grocery store) and picked up a copy of a novice computer magazine… It was relatively expensive, thick and loaded with newbie tips that I didn’t need to read, but what I saw sparked some SEO ideas, so I figured it was worth the investment. I think I see that completely differently than some. I can say that spending $16.99 on a brand new idea that could get me an avalanche of new website visitors is well worth the spend!

But, besides the SEO sparks and flames the magazine had other benefits. It gave me an insight to how the novice computer consumer sees the online marketing industry, the writing and blogging industry and a much more simplistic view. Such a refresher and really makes it easy to start writing to those folks on your sites.

FACT: The average person who will visit your site will have a grade 8 reading level.

#2. Your Internal View Of Others…

Huh? Yeah I know, it’s a weird thing to say, but stay with me here for a minute. One time I was super bored on the Vancouver SkyTrain (commuter train), on the way home. I was reviewing the salescopy for one of my ebooks and I thought to myself, what would my mother-in-law think of this copy?

Background: (She’s a senior who has no computer knowledge, and probably wouldn’t buy things online) but I know her well enough that I could just see what she would say in the back of my head, in fact nearly every answer she would give picking it apart.

I wrote down every objection she would have like wildfire, probably lighting my pen on fire right there! She gave me tons of ideas, and I didn’t even ACTUALLY ask her!!

#3. Cruel Comments From Your Friends

Hopefully, your friends like you! If they do, they won’t say anything mean or nasty about your website… They won’t be honest to your face, and if they’re not, they’re really no help to an honest feedback campaign, now are they?! BUT… print a copy of your website (or show them your screen) one day and ask them… “Get a load of this guy’s site…” OR  ”I’m thinking of investing in these guys..” and see what kind of feedback they provide then!

#4. Reading Reviews Of Similar Sites

There’s tools like Zing (some tool from the miracle whip manufacturers) and xmarks and a ton of other social tools like mcafee’s site advisor that let you see real world reviews of what other people think of related sites, they can be of use…  as well as “domain.com forum” in Google to see what others are saying about that domain…

#5. If Your Having An Off Day..

Ironically the way I started writing this post.. I saw myself looking at a landing page I just developed for a partnership deal I just signed, and I could see what a customer was thinking. It was a de-cafinated moment… A litteral mind-haze, but still! It was facinating and I realized I could easily figure out all these neat ways of getting back there.. But if you don’t feel yourself one day, go look at your website – see if you can jump out of your skin. Would you buy your own stuff? Would you subscribe? Why not!!

Cheers!
Daniel J Deyette