Let’s start this section the same way as we did for The
Structure of Your Site, with the home page...
Your Theme-Based Content Site is made of a home page that gives the
“what’s in it for me” about your site. It elaborates on the VPP by expanding
upon
-
What specific and high-value information does your site deliver?
-
What is your unique positioning for this delivery (i.e., what is your angle
of approach)?
It accomplishes this while focusing on your Concept Keyword. What do I
mean? Well, like I said above, you have two audiences, your visitor and
your spider.
Choose your Specific Keywords from the Master Keyword List of high
profitability keywords that you developed during chapter 3 (and continue
to develop). Each of your Web pages will focus upon a Specific Keyword
to do double-duty
-
as the preselling topic for the page and
-
to rank highly with the engines
The term General Keywords refers to more generic words that are
associated with your Specific Keywords. You’ll never win the Search Engine
war for General Keywords by themselves, you don’t really want such nonspecific
traffic anyway.
But many people use word combos to search. They’ll enter a Specific
Keyword and also a General one. For example, a searcher might enter any
of
"penny stocks and investing”
“+penny stocks +investing”
“penny stocks investing”
“investing penny stocks.”
As I said, you’ll never win at the engines for the General Keyword investing,
there is just too much competition. In any event, even if you win, the
traffic is just too non-targeted to be interested in your specific niche.
But if you include the General Keyword investing in some of the major
parts of your Web page, you’ll do well when searchers use word combos.
And these are excellent, highly targeted visitors!
So blend some General Keywords with your Specific ones. You only need
to include them once or twice, you’re not trying to win the war for General
Keywords, just for the word combos. So no need to use them nearly as many
times as your Specific Keyword for that page.
This is definitely worth doing. Why? Let me repeat, word combos bring
excellent, highly targeted visitors. |
Your home page delivers the above content to your visitor. The other
pages of your site, your Keyword-Focused Content Pages, deliver content
about high profitability topics.
As you write each Web page, you focus upon using a single keyword slightly
more than your high school English teacher taught you was good English.
This is the keyword that you want the Search Engines to rank highly. We’ll
call this word the Specific Keyword from now on.
For your home page, the Specific Keyword is your Concept Keyword; “factory
outlet stores” in our example.
I mentioned that your home page establishes your VPP. In other words,
it answers what specific and high-value information you deliver, and it
develops your unique positioning, your unique angle of approach. That does
not mean that you should start like this
Welcome to Worldsbest- FashionFactory-outlet-stores.com, your
home for news and information about fashion outlets. I have spent a lot
of time searching for information and will be giving all the best of it
right here. |
No-o-o-o-o-o
Keep it fun, bright, intriguing! Bring out the appropriate emotions
for whatever your topic happens to be. For example
Ever been on the road, far from home, when what do you see? A
mall jammed with fashion outlet stores! Clothes outlets by the dozens.
Shoe discount stores. Tommy Hilfiger. Polo. Other big names, and some intriguing
ones you’ve never seen before.
Nirvana, right? The pulse quickens in anticipation.The wallet
tingles in fright!
Is that you? If so, welcome! You may be reading this at home,
but you’re on the road, a cyber-road to Outlet Heaven. |
Yes, you can write like that. Really, it’s a snap since you have lived
this stuff. First, just feel the emotions that you feel. What are they?
How do you feel? When do you feel them? You know this, right?
Now, put yourself into the skin of your reader. Put those emotions into
your visitor.
The few intro paragraphs above establish your VPP while quickening the
pulse of your reader. From here on in, you’ll deliver the benefits of your
site, you’ll answer the “what's in it for me” question that every visitor
asks when arriving at a site.
As you do this, you continue to work your Specific Keywords (and, to
a lesser degree, your General Keywords) in everywhere and often, but not
too often. Where, exactly?
-
TITLE tag
TITLE tag = WORLD’S BEST Fashion Factory Outlet Stores, The Cream of
Cyber Discount Fashions
-
Must contain your Specific Keyword at least once, no more than twice, and
with some kind of variation or synonym. Try to include your most important
General Keyword, too.
-
Up to 70, even 80 characters. Get your most important message in, right
at the beginning. If the engine cuts your title off at 60 characters in
its listing, you’ve still fired your big gun. Meanwhile, some engines will
show up to 90 or so characters.
-
Remember, the title appears as the link in Search Engine listings. It must
get the click, so make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading.
Getting your Title right for both your reader and engine is the single
most important thing you can do.
-
META keyword tag
META keyword tag = <META name= “KEYWORDS” content=”factory outlet
stores”>
-
Simple. The page is about “factory outlet stores.” Don’t dilute your META
tag with a million synonyms.
-
You could add a few General Keywords that people might add when they search
(“discounts, shopping”).
-
And consider adding a common synonym that has the a near-exact same meaning
(”outlet malls”).
-
if you do put more than one keyword in this META tag, separated by commas,
always put your most important one, the one that this page focuses upon,
first. Here’s an example of an expanded META keyword tag
<META name=“KEYWORDS” content=“factory outlet stores, outlet malls,
shopping, discounts, mall”>
-
META description tag
META description tag = <META name=“DESCRIPTION”
content=“Ever been on the road, far from home, when what do you see? A
mall jammed with fashion outlet stores! Nirvana, right? Welcome! Take this
cyber-offramp to “Outlet Heaven.”>
-
The META description is the other half of what searchers
see in the Search Engine’s listings. So, like the Title tag, make sure
it’s attractive, without being misleading. A gentle, good-natured tease,
like the above, will do well.
-
150-200 characters. Some engines cut off the title
listing at as little as 140 characters. So again, make sure you get your
#1 benefit statement up front. Remember, a benefit statement does not have
to be in your face.
-
Should contain your Specific Keyword at least once,
try twice if it fits and see how it ranks. Include one or two of your most
important General Keywords. Also, use common synonyms 2-3 times more (“outlet”
and “mall”). Synonyms will work better and better as engines become more
and more sophisticated. But your first priority is to place sufficient
focus on your Specific Keyword.
-
Remember, do not repeat the TITLE in this tag. The
reader will just see the same phrase twice in the Search Engine’s listing,
once in the title and once in the description. That’s wasting valuable
“word real estate.”
-
H1 and other header tags
H1 and other header tags = Fashion Outlet Stores
Nirvana
The headlines are more important than your regular
body copy. That’s true for both human readers and for the engines.
And remember this... some engines don’t use the
META description tag to form the second part of their listings (after the
Title) in their search results. In those cases, they will usually use the
first words on the page, which are
-
Your H1 tag (first headline), and
-
The first words in the body copy after that
Here are the key musts for your HI tag
-
Contains your Specific Keyword at least once. Try to include an important
General Keyword, too, different from the one you used in your Title.
-
No longer than 80 characters, 40 is better. Long headlines feel rather
hypey.
-
Helps to get the click, so make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading
-
Does not contain your Title. Otherwise, if the engine uses your H1 tag,
your listing and H1 tag will both say the same thing, needless repetition.
A good strategy: Take your META description tag and chop it into two pieces...
part for the headline and part for the opening paragraph of your body copy.
-
Body copy
Let’s see what our search result listing would look like for those
engines that don’t use the META description tag.
First the Title appears as a link:
WORLD'S BEST Fashion Factory Outlet Stores, The Cream of Cyber Discount
Fashions
This is followed by the H1 tag and the beginning of the body copy:
Fashion Outlet Stores Nirvana
Ever been on the road, far from home, when what do you see? A mall
jammed with fashion outlet stores!
That would pull me through to your page! So you see how important it is
to start your body copy strongly, as we did above. Now don’t blow it! overdeliver
great content in your body copy.
Your intro paragraphs establish your VPP while quickening the pulse
of your reader. After that, you’ll deliver the benefits of your site, you’ll
answer the what’s in it for me question that every visitor asks
when arriving at a site.
And you’ll do it while blending in your keyword. You should not only
work “factory outlet stores” into your copy, but also common synonyms and
variations like “outlet stores” and “fashion outlets” and “fashion malls”
and “discount fashions” and “discount outlets” and “discount malls.”
And also work in General Keywords that would likely be associated with
your keyword (ex., shopping, shops, savings, discounts, etc.). If someone
searches with part or all of your Specific Keyword and one of these General
Keywords, you’ll have a good shot at being found. And you’ll have a high-quality,
interested and motivated visitor! Remember though, that synonyms and variations
should not reduce your main keyword (factory outlet stores) to near invisibility.
Establish your main keyword and then sprinkle in the synonyms and variations.
How long should a page be? As long as it needs to be, but no longer!
Don’t worry about what the Search Engines think about length, that’s only
important to your reader. One technical consideration: For technical reasons,
don’t make your page too long. Vector-based analysis could start to hurt
due to its compressions algorithms. Keep pages to a reasonable length and
you’ll be fine.
It makes no sense for an engine to score a short page any better than
a long one. If length is of any importance, it’s minor. As I said before,
use your Specific Keyword more than your high school teacher would have
liked, this keyword density is of some importance. And so is keyword prominence,
make it a point to use your Specific Keyword more heavily in the opening
two paragraphs (it must be in your opening sentence), and also in the closing
paragraph. And then, like a good chef, sprinkle throughout!
In general, it's a good idea to position your Specific Keyword near
the beginning of every piece of your HTML: Title, META description, headline,
body copy, etc.
Your scatter pattern should look like an hourglass, bigger (more frequent)
on the top and bottom, and less (but still present) in the middle of the
page. Change your approach somewhat from page to page. Experiment with
different numbers, frequencies and patterns of keywords until you find
what works best. Use common sense, and avoid abuse. Keep your content focused
to a single theme per page.
Do not, ever, get off-target. Keep each page focused on material
related to your keyword. Never, never, never introduce a second theme to
a page, no mixed messages. Each page focuses purely on its keyword topic.
And that goes for your site as well. The more you laser-beam on a single
theme, the better you’ll do with the Search Engines.
Now here’s the hard part, the body copy has to do double duty as a Search
Engine-optimizer and click-through- generator. While emphasizing your keywords,
you must build original, valuable information. Meet the needs of a visitor
who was searching for that keyword. This will convince the reader to clickthrough
on your links. Don’t make the page read badly, or all your efforts to get
your potential visitor this far will have been for nothing.
-
Link tags
We discussed the structure of your site above. Links create the tier
1-2-3 structure. And they belong in the flow of the copy. Text links must
flow naturally, and beautifully, with the content. Think of your links
as providing a service to your readers. You offer your links as recommendations
or tips or Top 3 as a service for your readers to see and use. So don’t
just save them for the end, where you impassively list them.
And it’s not just your readers who see the links. The engines do, too.
So include your Specific Keyword, and variations and synonyms thereof,
in visible, blue-underlined text in your links to your merchants.
What about your links to the next tier down? Don’t just say “Click
here.” Say “Click here for the best outlet malls, region by region.” The
word “outlet malls” in the link to your “outletmalls. html” page reinforces
“outlet-malls.html” for its Specific Keyword.
For that matter, even try to get your Specific Keywords included in
the text of INcoming links. For example, if you are link-exchanging, specify
that you would like “factory outlet stores” (or whatever the keyword of
your “receiving page” is) to be contained in the text of the link.
Every little bit helps you get the edge on your competition.
-
File name/domain name
Include your Specific Keyword in the filename of your html page. It
just might add a relevancy point or two with the engines. So if your Keyword-Focused
Content Page is that TIER 2 page about “outlet mall” that we discussed
earlier (“Top Factory Outlet Malls Where You Can Shop Via The Net”), let’s
name the file.
The full URL, therefore, would be http://www.Worldsbest-FashionFactory-
outlet-stores.com/ outlet-malls.html The only exception to this, of course,
would be your home page. The home page must be named “index.html” but that’s
OK. We already have its Specific Keyword included in the domain name, because
it is your Concept Keyword!
-
Image ALT tag and name of image
This is probably the least important, but what the heck. Name one or
two of the graphics on each page after that page’s keyword focus. For example...
outletmalls. gif. And make its ALT tag “outlet malls,” too. Ask a techie,
if this is a bit complicated.
OK, that’s basically how to put together a high-value content page that
hits both key points.
Deliver valuable content to your readers
AND
tasty content to your spiders.
|
We concentrated on the home page, but the approach is the same for the
TIER 2 and TIER 3 Keyword-Focused Content Pages. While the home page, of
course, focuses upon the fundamental Concept Keyword, the other pages each
focus upon one of the HIGH-PROFITABILITY keywords that your master keyword
list has identified.
Ultimately, you create Keyword-Focused Content Pages that
-
fit with your Site Concept and VPP
-
have a good supply/demand ratio
-
that you enjoy writing about.
Each page wraps a high-value topic around each Specific Keyword, following
the guidelines outlined above.
QUESTION:
How is this different from gateways or doorway pages?
ANSWER:
Tons of people use trick sites called gateways or doorways. In general,
these are low-value pages that score well with the engines but fail to
deliver good content. They may get the visitors, but they don't get the
click through, the purchase, the repeat visit, or much money.
Some use better content, so do better. Still, they use tricks like “invisible
links” to lead the spiders through a site. I know. I used to do it quite
successfully. Tricks, though, die a painful death. And they usually have
poor side effects (like visitor disdain and engine bans). And then you
have to start all over.
Your site, on the other hand, will both overdeliver great content and
play fair with the engines. It will lead the spider just as reliably through
your site. By planning your site out in advance, visible links do just
as good a job, and will never fade in effectiveness. Actually, there’s
no way that I would call your fashion site a “gateway” site. You’re building
a true content-driven site. And you’re simply writing it to maximize your
chances of being ranked highly by Search Engines. You’re selecting content
on the basis of its profitability.
Important notice: |
Gateways simply try to pull the engines. Put a page in front
of the visitor. Most have little or no value content. Even if they have
content, they don’t tie all together into a theme. They are built backwards,
basically, thinking about how to fool the engines. |
You are creating real content, not spider bait! That’s a big difference.
It yields a huge, long-term advantage over doorways.
QUESTION:
What is the future for Search Engines?
ANSWER:
Dr. Ken Evoy says:
In Make
Your Site Sell! (first edition), I “slammed” my own Phase II Gateway
Sites since their pages were really nothing more than billboards.
Yes, they provided a bit of content. And no, they did not fool
anyone. So they were ethically OK. But still, the content was low “copy-and-paste”
quality for many of the pages. And the SEs were bound to object to “being
stuffed.”
And, in fact, these kinds of gateways are losing their effectiveness.
I also talked about how Phase III Keyword-Focused Content Pages
were the way to go. Each page was individually written for a certain keyword,
much like above. But the pages did not necessarily all tie together into
a theme. As we’ll see in a moment, this is a powerful step forward.
Meanwhile, though, while Phase III gateways are effective, it
is not so easy to
-
create the site and write the pages optimally
-
submit the site to the right Search Engines and according to their
policies
-
track the rankings at the Search Engines
-
make changes as necessary
-
follow traffic and click through rates
And that’s where the idea for Site
Build It! was born. To create a technology that makes all techie
stuff disappear and that allows people to focus purely on content. And
to tie all that content into the wave of the future... themes. |
How do I know themes are the wave of the future?
Instinctively, it makes sense. If you work with the engines, and construct
your site and pages in such a way that they score you well, how could it
not do well? Some serious SE guys have weighed in. These guys are on the
cutting edge of Search Engine analysis.
Ralph Tegtmeier, from fantomaster.com, puts out a newsletter, FantomNews.
It’s full of challenging, cutting edge info about SEs, spiders, etc. Here’s
what he says in a recent issue
However, this basically linear approach is gradually changing
now: as mathematical linguistics and automatic content recognition technology
progresses, the major search engines are shifting their focus towards "theme"
biased algorithms that do not rely on analysis of individual web pages
anymore but, rather, will evaluate whole web sites to determine their topical
focus or "theme" and its relevance in relation to users' search requests.
Ralph Tegtmeier |
So he’s not the most accessible read. But it all boils down to theme
based sites.
Ammon Johns, The Dark Knight wrote a brilliant article
on theming.
Note this paragraph
What themes should do is make sites with more content about a
subject rank higher than any single page site can do, no matter how well
optimized. Vertical Theme analysis should greatly reduce irrelevant results,
and will virtually eliminate those doorways where a few irrelevant keywords
are thrown into the mix just because they are popular words. For those
of us who want to attract qualified leads for sales, themes are generally
a good thing.
Ammon Johns |
Bingo! Theme-based sites will be the perfect affiliate tool.
Finally, Michael Campbell is less academic, he concentrates on practical
applications of the theory to build sites that pull traffic. I can actually
understand what he says sometimes! Like the other experts, he talks about
how the SEs will become very theme-focused.
He goes on to discuss concepts like “term vector databases” and “page
vectors”. Major technological changes are coming over the near future.
Those with old-fashioned gateways will be swept aside as the irrelevant
billboards that they are. But those with theme-focused content sites will
be singing.
I’ll skip the tech stuff, because all this is built into layman-understandable
online help in Site Build It!. But here are some of Michael’s important
ideas and conclusions
-
Name your web site purpose in two words. Can you do it? What is your
web site theme? Two words, three max. Themes are the new big winner in
long-term search engine positioning.
-
What's a theme? It's all about narrowing the focus of your site,
and the links to, and from your site, down to one keyword phrase, and alterations
of that one phrase. You want to leave NO DOUBT, to the search engine, what
your web site is about, in two or at the most, three or four key words.
-
if you have and entertainment section on your web site and a business
section on your web site, you should in theory, split the topics into separate
web sites. Otherwise your site may not to get listed at all if you are
not closer to any one category than another.
-
What's really scary is the next wave of compression. It will be set
up to eliminate redundancy "across" vectors. Translated this means, the
removal of nearly identical pages for slightly different keyword phrases.
The days of copying and pasting keywords in and out of an html template,
for similar keyword phrases, may soon be over.
-
Terms (keywords) are collected and weighted within the document and
corpus (collection) of documents. This means that keyword density will
continue to be important not only on each page, but across your entire
site.
-
Bottom line... Pick one topic and stick with it. If you need to focus
on another topic, put it on another web site.
-
How much time do we have? Well, based on the history of things like
link popularity, click counting and PageRank, new stuff gets implemented
fairly quickly. Usually within 3 to 6 months. And some these new technologies
are already in place on a couple of search engines.
Michael
Campbell |
The experts have spoken, emphasizing two crucial points
-
Site
Build It! is perfectly timed. Don’t worry if all the above seems
very complex. Part of Site Build It!'s job is to make all that invisible
to you. The big point is theme-based sites will be the way for affiliates
to succeed over the next few years, starting right now!
-
All those spammy, self-replicating, duplicated gateways will be compressed
into nothingness. In a preview of things to come, a couple of major companies
have seen their sites dropped from AltaVista for this very reason.
Ultimately, people with passion who produce themed sites with their own,
original content, produced from their own brains, will win. And that’s
the way it should be.
Mastering the Search Engines is getting more and more complicated.
But if you love a good technical challenge, here are a few more resources
that I would recommend
As I said, if you enjoy the challenge, these are excellent resources, as
are the ones quoted above.
But if you just want to write great content that meets the needs of
searchers and engines, with all the technology working behind the scenes,
hidden from you.
Site
Build It! |
QUESTION:
What does Michael mean when he says ‘ ... if you have and entertainment
section on your web site and a business section on your web site, you should
in theory, split the topics into separate web sites. Otherwise your site
may not to get listed at all if you are not closer to any one category
than another.’?
ANSWER:
That’s a critical paragraph. Engines will focus on themes more and
more. If your site is about “factory outlet stores,” it’s fine to use all
the variations and synonyms that we discuss above. It all reinforces the
main theme. But If you add a section that starts talking about Saks Fifth
Avenue and other highend retailers, you start to water down your site.
The more off-theme your content, the greater the risk.
Focus on your theme and stick to it. That’s why an ideal site is 50-70
pages, no more. That should just about cover any niche. After that, your
time will be more profitably spent by building the next content site on
your mini-portal list.
QUESTION:
What about design? How important is it?
ANSWER:
Not as important as most folks think. Sure it’s important not to use
18 garish colors and spinning dojiggies. But take a look at these highly
successful content sites
A clean and welcoming look and feel is a good start. A half-decent logo
is a nice plus. Make it fast and easy to navigate. Then get out of your
own way and let your words do the talking.
QUESTION:
Can I follow this approach on a free Web hosting service?
ANSWER:
Absolutely. But remember that success is much more than just putting
up a site. Free sites have two huge strikes against them, they’re treated
with disdain by both the visitor and the engines.
Let’s talk about humans first. When I notice that a site’s URL is at
a free hosting service, I don’t bother clicking to visit. If I have a special
reason, I might go, but I arrive at a free site with doubts. Most folks
harbor the same kind of bias.
And what about the engines? Free sites don’t get treated with much respect
by the Search Engine spiders, and Below zero respect by the directories
like Yahoo!.
Here’s what Danny Sullivan, the most well-known Search Engine guru on
the Net, had to say about free hosts, in a past issue of the Search
Engine Update
... get your own site, under your own domain, rather than doing
it within Tripod.com or any place offering "free" home pages. Sites offering
free home pages are often looked upon with suspicion by search engines,
because search engine spammers also make use of them. It's like sharing
a house with bad roommates. Move out, get your own house, and you'll probably
do better with search engines. |
Even better, I feel, is Site
Build It! Why? Because it delivers a solid, simple approach that
removes all the complexity and technology away from view. Site Build It!'s
through-the-browser SiteBuilder makes it so easy to build a site. It removes
all the technical difficulties. You end up with a site that is a powerful
traffic-builder and customer-converter.
Low cost, but since it's a totally normal site, it has all the credibility
of an expensive, ISP-based site. Create as many pages as you like, no HTML
or FTP knowledge is necessary! The SiteBuilder includes
-
Page Creation and Editing
flexible, yet easy to use
-
Analyze-It!
takes the guesswork out of tweaking or improving a page in order to
rank higher with Search Engine
-
Look and Feel Selector (including
logo creator)
choose from a wide variety of styles, then create your logo or create
your own custom look!
-
Link Library
store any link to any affiliate program, and use it at the drop of
a pull-down
-
Graphic Library
upload your own images for use on your Web pages
-
Tracker Library
create and store special tracking links for your off-site promotions
(more on this in chapter 10)
-
Site Navigation Options
modifiable per your desire
-
Online help
shows you exactly, step by step, how to build a site that delivers
great content and that ranks high with the Search Engines!
But Site Build It! goes way beyond the call of duty. Its InfoCenter
provides
-
Traffic Stats
automated and easy-to-interpret need to know data about your visitors
-
Click IN Tracker
with breakdown stats that allow you to track the effectiveness of special
promotions
-
Click Through Tracker
with breakdown stats that allow you to track all your outgoing links
(Click analysis service alone costs over $19 per month elsewhere.)
-
Automatic Search Engine Submission
happens whenever you build or edit a page, or if the Search Engines
have not visited within a reasonable time. Submissions are done exactly
as if they were done by your own hand. They are performed exactly the way
each engine likes to receive them; not too often, not too many, etc. (Some
submission services cost $10 per month.)
-
Search Engine & Keyword Reports
when your pages were last submitted, spidered, and listed, including
how well they rank. (Reports like this can cost you $20 per month elsewhere.)
-
Directory HQ
all you need for getting listed in the major directories.
-
Pay-per-click HQ
all you need for winning the pay-per-click wars.
And of course, the Site Build It! Manager tool makes the Master Keyword
List child's play. It even does the demand, supply and breakout windows
for you automatically, turning hours of work into minutes, as it builds
and researches your Master Keyword List. (This service would cost you $18
per month, significantly more for extra domains, elsewhere, for less functionality.)
And there's more and more ways to build traffic: e-commerce capability,
affiliate program- builder, ability to do mailouts, all are coming in the
very near future!
Site
Build It! |
Even on the Net, there's no such thing as truly free. Think about it,
a company has to make money to survive. One way or another, hidden or not,
it costs you. But the low credibility of free sites costs you way too much.
Your time. If engines don’t spider you, or if customers don’t respect it,
or if advertising lures your customers away and hurts the sales-effectiveness
of your site, you’re wasting your time. And that’s way more valuable than
$20 per month to host your own site. You must, must put a value on your
time if you want to succeed. All successful people will tell you that time
is their most precious commodity.
A non-free site with your own domain is a prerequisite to build credibility
with your readers and with the Search Engines. So find a good Web hosting
service and put up a real site. For the $20 or so per month, it’s worth
it.
QUESTION:
Many experts seem to be trying to convince folks not to market marketing
programs. Rather, they should build sites of passion, write about what
they know, and then marry that to profitable affiliate programs. Doesn’t
that leave SiteSell.com, that you're recommending so highly, out in the
cold?
ANSWER:
No, not at all.
True, experts are saying don't setup web marketing sites, and I agree.
One thing the Net does not need is another Web marketing site! But here’s
a neat little twist for you to think about. You think that only consumers
search for “fashion model” or “fashion designer” or “fashion design”??
Of course, not!
Quoting from Dr. Ken Evoy, the developer of SiteSell:
When I was marketing my first product, PennyGold (penny stock
investing software), I must have done thousands and thousands of searches
on “penny stocks”... all on the major engines.
Why did I do that? Because I wanted to see how PennyGold was doing
on these engines, and I wanted to see who was beating me! And in fact,
that’s exactly how I found lots of competitors!
Come back in time with me, to when I was just starting out with
my penny stock software.
Let’s say that, when I was doing my searches for “penny stocks,”
you had already created a Theme-Based Content Site that was all about aggressive
forms of investing... “theaggressiveinvestor.com.”
After doing your demand and supply research, let’s say, too, that
you had dedicated one of your site’s pages to “penny stocks.” You wrote
it to provide high-value content and to also appeal to the Search Engines.
What would have happened?...
I’d still be golfing today! Here’s why...
I surely would have found your page sooner or later, likely several
times, on one or more of the engines. Really, there’s no magic involved.
After all, you simply followed the basic principles of how to please the
Search Engines.
This is not rocket science. Nor is it spam -- you have simply
created good content that is of high-value to me, your potential visitor
who was searching for your info, and that the engines have ranked highly.
So I would have found you listed in the engines’ search results pages,
no doubt about it. And...
If you had written a compelling title and description, I would
have certainly clicked to your page. If your content about aggressive forms
of investing was high-value, and if you recommended Make Your Site SELL!
as a wonderful book that would help me succeed in my PennyGold business
venture on the Net, guess what?...
Sure! I would have bought Make Your Site Sell!. And that way,
I wouldn’'t have had to write it... or the newly expanded second edition,
Make
Your Site Sell! 2002. And I’d still be golfing! |
You can do exactly the same thing. Except do it for a topic that you
know and love like “fashion.”
If you write a wonderful page about “fashion design,” lots of merchants
will find your page. After reading your excellent content about fashion
design, you lead into a recommendation about SiteSell.com products, especially
So not only does your fashion-passion site generate income for you by sending
fashion consumers to a select group of fashion merchants, you can also
send fashion merchants to sitesell.com, creating an additional income stream!
For example, first, you write your content. This content must deliver
good “information value” about fashion design. Since this is your area
of expertise, that’s a snap. Your content closes by leading to in-context
text links (those caught using banners will have a detention!) for merchants
and consumers
For fashion merchants
Do you teach fashion design? Or are you a designer looking to sell
your fashion designs on the Web? I’m pleased to tell you about the very
best resource of its kind, at any price, about how to sell on the Web.
It’s a book called Make Your Site SELL! 2002 -- at under USD$30, it’s far
better than products costing 10 times as much.
Click here for more information
For fashion consumers
Are you looking for a top-notch school of fashion design?
(Please e-mail us if you feel that your fashion school or college belongs
in the directory.)
|
This is just an example, but I hope you get the idea. You’ve created
multiple streams of income, from both merchants and consumers, in an area
that you love and know about and in an area that is not nearly as competitive
as Web marketing (where so many people seem to congregate).
Still not convinced?
You still think that you can build a bigger business by targeting Web
masters and others who are specifically interested in Web marketing? No,
really – you’ll do far better by working your niche of passion. So many
people get sucked into the web marketing game. They get interested. They
read a lot. Pretty soon they figure that they’re experts and that they
can sell what they know. Well, they are good, but Web marketing info is
a jam-packed highly competitive arena. And you’re competing against pros,
many of whom are extremely good at writing to please Search Engines.
Here’s just one simple indicator of the ultra-high level of competition.
If you look up “e-commerce” in AltaVista, you’ll find 983,905 possible
competitors (probably many more by the time you read this!); there were
only 167,192 for the word “fashion.” Not only is there much more competition,
believe me... the competition is tougher.
Still doubt me? Go to Overture.
Look up both “e-commerce” and “fashion.” See where it says Cost to
advertise at the end of each listing? See how much the #1 spot costs
$5.29 for “e-commerce”
$0.78 for “fashion”
(amounts will be higher by the time you read this).
Since these amounts are bid by the companies, it’s another indication of
how hot an area is. Finally, look at the kinds of companies on the first
page for each of these terms. Seriously, you’ll do far better competing
against “fashion” merchants than e-commerce pros.
That's why you should not be intimidated when you see that you have
21,307 competitors for the word “fashion designer.” Most of them very likely
don’t know very much about ranking high at the Search Engines.
A second reason why you’re better off when you focus on a special “concept
niche”...
There are tons of fashion-related merchants who’d love MYSS! 2002. And
you’d have them all to yourself! What do I mean? Well, people looking for
Web-selling information have quite likely already heard about it. But only
fashion-related industries market to these people, they’re all dying for
a great source of Net-selling information, you can provide that.
The niche concept site is a flexible strategy that anyone can do. Bend
it and twist it -- add your own ideas. You really will do a great job with
this.
Every now and then, Allan Gardyne focuses on successful affiliates.
You can review his back
issues for the success stories.
He gives several examples of high-earning affiliates. One way or another,
they all follow the “fashion” strategy outlined in this chapter. However,
each has their own little twist and add-on strategies.
Here’s the bottom line. Every single success story has focused on a
niche that the affiliate knows and loves, finance, insurance, children,
etc. That’s the fastest road for you, too.
And while you are on this road, if I can have just a small piece of
your attention, I’d be most delighted. The WIN-WIN 5 Pillar Affiliate Program
treats affiliates well financially, and provides them with outstanding
tools, support, and education. I’d love to have you as a partner-in-sales.
To
register |