The Keyword Informer 9 – NicheBOT on MarketingProfs.com, Backlinks, Commenting and Baby Steps to Blogging…

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The Keyword Informer

Issue 9

Copyright 2007 Jim Morris and FTEI

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It’s been a while since our last regular newsletter as most of the recent communications have been private subscriber only specials. And it just isn’t a subscriber only special if it’s posted out in the public blog that anyone can see. And that is ONE of the really major benefits of being subscribed to The Keyword Informer.

This will continue the recent topic area we’ve been dwelling, which is all about “backlinks” as well as our recent introduction of resident expert on affiliate marketing and backlinks, Mr. James Martell.

And so why have I been preaching about backlinks, backlinks and more backlinks for over the past 3 years now?

Simple. Backlinks are those hyperlinks that point back to your own site or a target site you are building out. But more importantly, a backlink is a hyperlink that should utilize one of the keyword phrases in your list and be located on a website that you do not control, otherwise, outside your network of sites you control.

(Of course, for those who just recently joined us — it will seem to be only a recent thing I have been stressing, but I can assure I have been echoing this advice for quite some time… and I’m not about to quit!)

You see, when that hyperlink has one of your keyword phrases in it, the Search Engine robots pass right through the hyperlink, read it and that will count or get you some credit in the Search Engines Results to rank for that keyword. (Most often — innocent newbies include their company name in the hyperlink rather than their keyword phrase. But in all likelihood, an innocent newbie probably also doesn’t understand the power of keyword research and using those keywords in the hyperlinks or they wouldn’t make this mistake.)

Backlinks are, quite frankly, 50 times MORE important than how many times you repeat your keyword phrase on a web page or how many different ways you tweak your page. In fact, you could have a BLANK web page with one word of text on it, acquire a bunch of backlinks for a certain keyword phrase and eventually that one word webpage can rank for whatever keyword phrase you use in your backlinks (get enough backlinks for a particular keyword, that is).

Now this is obviously an exaggerated example, but you get the point I’m sure. It’s just to illustrate the incredible power of controlling content (and links) outside your site… in article directories, links exchanges and swapping content with other sites, creating a myspace and creating content with hyperlinks, a Squidoo lens, a social bookmarking account. (Don’t worry, if this stuff doesn’t sound familiar — we’ll be covering it very shortly.)

When you acquire backlinks to the site you are promoting, it allows you worry less about the USE of the actual keyword phrase on the web page. Instead, you can concentrate on the website copy on the page that sells a product or service so you can increase conversions in direct relation to what you are trying to get your web visitor to do.

Ultimately, and most importantly, backlinks using your best keyword phrases are exactly what makes Google believe your site is popular for that keyword phrase and eventually allow your site to rank for it.

When I say eventually — I mean that Google has a system some refer to as the “sandbox” — call it a time delay factor if you will. But depending on…

1. the age of your site,
2. number of inbound links your sites has from other popular sites on the topic,
3. how competitive the keyword phrase is on Google,
4. how smartly you went about acquiring the backlinks,
5. how fast you acquired them
6. is your website content growing and what is the rate of growth versus inbound link growth
7. and other various factors that Google will never tell us about their algorithm (and there’s no sense in guessing)…

Those factors — and I’m certain many more that are integrated into Google’s algorithm will measure and put a hold on your website for a certain keyword phrase. You may be wandering in a quandry like I have a number of times why Google won’t rank me for a certain keyword. And then, all of a sudden, one day when you’re not looking two months later, Google has graced you with a ranking in the top 20 for a particular keyword and you never even realized it until you went searching one day.

And that’s just the thing about this time delay factor that Google has in place for any keyword phrase you want to attempt to rank for.

It’s all put in place so brand new sites can’t take over the top positions within months when people have worked and bloodied their fingers for years promoting their sites that already have an established age factor and authority.

Many people come online looking to find a California Gold Rush, put a few weeks or a couple of months of work into something, get little or no results and then up and quit. Which is why I advise my clients, partners, students alike that when you saddle down a plan, you must commit to that plan and not waiver for at least 6 months.

Getting organic FREE top search engine listings (on the left side column) is not a quick slam in the park — it takes patience. I won’t kid ya.

I’m sharing this time frame of 6 months because that’s what I did when I first started NicheBOT back in May 2004 and it carried me through the first dark months of nothing into steadily growing traffic. A true commitment will not faulter.

Make sure it’s a strong commitment like you might have to family, to your children, to your soul mate, whoever. Make it strong and it will carry you through.

I’m sure any sane, online business owner would agree that the constant acquisition of backlinks are a vital importance to the continuing success of a site’s online presence.

When NicheBOT started out, getting backlinks was the only thing I concentrated on and all that hard work I began over three years ago is still paying off… today! Residually!

How do I know it’s paying off?

I know I’ve said this before, but… The FREE organic search engine website traffic coming into NicheBOT outsells the entire affiliate task force 3 to 1. Not bad for free advertising, wouldn’t you agree?;)

Quite frankly — it’s been assessed by a number of people. But the amount of FREE organic search engine traffic NicheBOT receives on a daily basis would cost another site owner doing Pay-Per-Click nearly $1000-$1500 a day for all the new visitors we bring in. And there are not too many people I know who can afford that kind of advertising budget. Do you?

And get this. All this extra traffic we get is all from website promotion efforts we did a couple years ago… all due to BACKLINKS!

Okay — now that I’ve driven that point home on backlinks… let’s move onto some specific techniques.

This newsletter has four very powerful underlying tones.

1. Provide an Excellent Product or Service — Get Free Publicity
2. Blogging Baby Steps by TJ McCue
3. Get More Backlinks by Blog Commenting… Properly
4. Top Market Research Resources You Should Know About (if you don’t already)

This edition actually WROTE itself in the last couple weeks. So let’s get straight to it…

1. Provide an Excellent Product or Service — Get Free Publicity

You really don’t know who your future customers are, so you want to always make sure everyone’s first impression of your site is a good one.

Quite often, I rummage around the net and I see sites that are scantily put together and some parts just not finished with blank pages gathering dust. And then I ask myself, why does this person have a link from somewhere that led to an incomplete site… ???

This may not only mean double-checking or triple-checking links to manuals, videos, and get all the loose ends to broken links all wrapped up, but have someone else with a fresh pair of eyes check things over and review them for you.

I think we are all susceptible to it. I’ve done it myself and I thank people when they report bugs, broken links etc. I make sure to get any bugs or broken links fixed before someone else has the same problem.

My concern is also for the NEXT person who opens up that link to a PDF that is no longer there. Ouch! That can really make a bad impression and ultimately make someone choose NOT to continue being your customer. All this stuff I share with you is all from personal experience and lessons learned.

Treat your customers like gold and they will continue to treat your updates, emails and content with the utmost respect.

And the reward can ultimately occur as it did with NicheBOT.

TJ McCue, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, among other places, recently published an article on Marketing Profs home page (a couple weeks ago) that cited NicheBOT as one of the starting points of the article.

After publishing the article, TJ contacted me to let me know how impressed he was with NicheBOT, the videos, and the comprehensive materials and onsite help that is available.

What this goes to show you is that when you do something right, the right people will eventually acknowledge you for it and report it. You just never know when. Which is why you need to make sure the process and systems in the product or service you deliver is completely polished.

And there truly is nothing like getting some free publicity on a site that has over 281,000 marketing professionals.

So what article am I talking about that TJ McCure wrote?

Well, the answer to that question leads us to the next topic, which is…

2. Baby Steps to Blogging by TJ McCue

MarketingProfs.com recently published an article by The Wall Street Journal writer, TJ McCue, entitled “Blogging Baby Steps: How to Join the Conversation Without Starting Your Own.”

And it just so happens to be a really great article about how people with blogs — who may not know what to write about just yet — can get their feete with by commenting on other people’s blogs first. A truly great suggestion. (In other words, it’s a great way to begin to develop some accumen in the topic you are wanting to blog about by leaving comments on other’s blogs.)

And the Blogging Baby Steps article truly is a great lead-in to getting your feet wet with blogging if you just don’t know where to start out. If you are new to blogging or are stuck, I highly recommend you read and absorb the article.

Sometimes the best thing to do when you don’t want to start the conversion is to just join it, like TJ says.

As I said, this issue of The Keyword Informer actually wrote itself because…. before I was informed about the article in Marketing Profs, I already had it on my regular schedule to do blog commenting on a weekly basis. You see, I have a bunch of different keyword phrases on my list that I use while I’m commenting. I am also on at least 30-50 different marketer’s mailing lists so I get a warning as soon as any marketer makes a post on his/her blog.

(POWER TIP: If you’re on some mailing lists for authoritative blogs in your industry and are fast enough on the timing of commenting on more popular blogs up near the top of the post, you can even get some extra residual traffic from all the others who visit the post and read the comments near the top. Of course, it pays to make your comment interesting to provoke someone enough to click on the link in your post and visit your site to find out what you’re all about.)

If you are still new to blogging, I highly recommend that you read TJ’s article. Very helpful!

       3. Get More Backlinks by Blog Commenting… Properly

Before NicheBOT ever found out about the article on MarketingProfs.com, I was already on the trail of blog commenting and have a perfect LIVE example of a proper blog comment you can learn from (unless you are already an expert like myself).

Being on a number of mailing lists as I mentioned above, I received an email from Rob Taylor of Megastep International.

Rob is a very creative marketer and I admire his marketing techniques and avidly open his emails following links to watch his crafty Camtasia videos.

Well, he ended up sending me an email about Market Research Resources (which leads into the fourth undertone of this newsletter) and I ended up opening and reading his email (just my good fortune).

And that brings us to our last topic which will blend with the topic of blog commenting properly.

4. Top Market Research Resources You Should Know About

So when I received the email from Rob about his Top Market Research Resources, I had to go check it out and see if he had THE ONE market research resrouce on the list that I just recently learned about at The System Seminar.

Here’s the blog post Rob’s email referred to for his Top market Research Resources.

Now, I immediately read the post and did not see the resource I recently learned about, so I made a comment as quick as I could (because I knew other people would be trying to get their comment near the top).

Rather than filling out the form to comment with my name, I used my keyword instead for the post and put my name in the body of the post. (Now, some may consider this a blog spamming technique — but as long as you provide value in the post and you are on topic, it is acceptable as far as I’m concerned. I also usually put my NAME in the body of the post, not in the NAME slot of the blog commenting form.)

I will then input the URL of my site or internal page that I want the link pointing to. When combined with the keyword phrase placed in the name field, that link back to NicheBOT will have a specific keyword (from a list of keywords) that I am targeting.

If you look at the post above (besides the great resources quoted), and then look further down at the comments, you’ll see how I targeted the keyword phrase and the specific URL the link goes to.

This is one backlink I created with about 10 minutes worth of work.

Then — after I commented, the author of the blog commented back which gave me a chance to write another comment. I’m also able to use a different keyword phrase and even point to an internal page that was different from the URL used in the first comment. (Repeating the same URL on the same blog post with different keyword phrases will degrade the one backlink credit you may receive, thus wasting your time with the entire process.)

So now this approximately 20 minutes invested now gives me the chance to get 2 backlink credits in the search engines for 2 particular keyword phrases (and keyword combinations within each phrase) on a blog that is directly on topic with NicheBOT. And once Rob’s blog matures and becomes an authority in the eyes of Google and other engines, the backlink I seeded on his site will eventually turn into a higher powered backlink carrying more weight based on the particular keyword phrase I used.

I’d say the time invested was well worth it from the two backlinks acquired and the extra visitors who came to NicheBOT from viewing my comments on the blog.

So let’s review the proper steps for blog commenting… properly:

1. Set yourself aside 30 – 60 minutes by putting a reminder in Microsoft Outlook to ding you with a reminder to get this task done. If you don’t set up a reminder system, trust me, time will not be made for this. So use a calendar reminder system to train, guide and form your new habit.
2. Find authority blogs and blogs that appear to be high traffic blogs using a search engine like Google’s Blog Search. You can check the estimated traffic ranking of a site at Alexa.com to see how high their traffic ranking is. (Alexa traffic rank is not scientific as they only measure traffic to sites of people that have their toolbar, so treat it as an estimate, yet better than just guessing.)
3. Sign up to get notifed by email from these blog owners in your industry or niche market when they post to their blog. It may be necessary for you to subscribe to blogs using an RSS Feed Reader. If you have no clue what that is, you can use an email program like Mozilla Thunderbird as I use for my email handling and subscribing to RSS feeds.
4. When you get blog alerts by email, check out the blog as soon as you can and discover if you can add something new and interesting to the conversation. This must be done by hand and by a human and should not be attempted to be accomplished by using a robot. And those blog commenting spamming scripts won’t help either because they won’t be able to actually ADD VALUE to the post itself. You must treat each post uniquely, and you will get the resulting reward of a wholesome backlink.
5. Use your keyword phrase in the “NAME” field of the blog commenting form (or you could alternatively create a hyperlink within the body of your blog post using the HTML code to construct a hyperlink). The latter way is more advanced, but recommended.
6. Put the URL of your site in the URL field — but as a tip, always try to target an internal page of your site that contains the keyword phrase ONPAGE. It’ll will make the BACKLINK that much more powerful when you have your keyword phrase in the hyperlink is pointing to a web page that has a matching title tag and small mentions of the keyword phrase throughout the page.
7. If you comment more than once on a blog post, use a different keyword phrase and a different URL to direct the Search Engine spiders. Otherwise, using the same URL on the same blog post will degrade any keyword phrases used altogether. As I always say — mix it up and make it look different every time. (If the Search Engines want it to look organic, then why not make it appear that way to them?)

Heck you can even start by leaving a comment that adds value to this post along with your keyword phrase. But again, I wish to stress about adding value to the existing discussion.

If you do the math and do this once a day on two to three different blogs, five days a week for a year, you should have quite a stable of backlinks (approximately 1300) to your website from AUTHORITATIVE blogs or blog type sites. And if you already know the topic of the website you promote, how hard is it to get into a conversation with others on the net, especially on a blog?

Get dirty and dig in.

So now you have yet another weapon and a way to get MORE backlinks to your site and it does not cost you a dime — just time and a little creative thought.

Look — this stuff doesn’t take a lot of money if you want to do it cheap.  You can even have someone else doing the grunt work of finding the authoritative blogs in your industry. A few months of hard work at blog commenting and you could easily control a good number of 3 to 4 word keyword phrases in your industry/market. Some may say, “A few months?!” Yeah — it takes time to gain traction and develop a rhythm and get one MAJOR ball rolling. And like anything you really want to get good at, it takes practice and developing a good habit you truly feel wonderful about.

Got blog comments? 
 5.   Much More To Come with a Faster Pace

With the end of the year fast approaching, we are going to be kicking things into overdrive with content, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our email. (Not sure how you can miss it.)

Coming up next, I will have a couple of super special VIP offers for you to get 2 Power Backlinks for ZILCHO (I’ve never done this before), 1 Way to Power Up Your Marketing Mindset, Some Video Lessons on Deep Linking to Your Website for some serious search engine power and then finally, onto Social Bookmarking and Social Networking with the Queen of Squidoo.

The Queen of Who? Yeah — I know — that’s why I said stay tuned!

Also — a special issue coming up about the important of “Marketing Awareness” and my Three Take Aways from the System Seminar that have been actually applied to NicheBOT in our own marketing. I’ll reveal all that and more.

You really do NOT want to miss what is coming up because it is absolutely going to blow your mind.

So hold onto your hat… we’re going for a ride… Full Throttle style!

Until next time, I’m your host.

Best wishes for success,

Jim Morris, President/CEO

NicheBOT — “Finds exactly what people search for”

A Full Throttle Enterprises, Inc. Company