Another Look at Affiliate Marketing

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I've had a struggle with the business marketing concept of affiliates. When I started the blog, on September 15, 2005, my idea of Internet marketing was to create my own products and services and sell them on the web.

My first taste of affiliate marketing came when I was researching tools for my work and to report to you about them. What I found was that the majority of sites with "tools" or "info" on the subject of monetizing your website were not the creators of those items - but they were simply marketing or representing products from another site.

Because of their shrewd SEO, I found their site before I found the original site. Does that make sense? For instance - let's say you're looking for the Nikon D80 camera. When you search for that on Google, the first few results are NOT Nikon.



Is affiliate marketing a bad business model?

I used to think that these fellows were the same as pesky circus midway peddlers trying to hawk their cheap wares by having us play a game of chance.

Well, I don't think that way anymore.

The business model is as old as the hills and we've all used it - from buying something at Kohl's to pumping a few gallons of gas. Most retailers are selling somebody else's goods. They didn't make the merchandise, but because they are savvy on distributing it - we can't knock 'em for that.

So I apologize to all the affiliate marketers I've offended. You're probably making more money than most and in an honest way.

With that said, I've been working closely with the group at Russell Brunson's Dot Com Domination in Boise, Idaho. I've followed Russell because he has learned a great deal about making money on the Internet, and he's willing to share it - much like I do here with my own findings.

And through my work with them, I've found that there is even less work involved and a higher payout for that work, than what I am currently doing.

Initially, I am working with marketing my own products. And I will be working with affiliates to help me sell those products.

Am I giving up monetizing content sites? Let's just say that I am getting it as automated as I can so I can continue my focus with this new found venture.

My first product has to do with the job search market. The website is The Resume Secret, and you can watch the progression as I add content. My product is a shocking report on what most people overlook when job hunting and is what has help land me all of my dream jobs.

In February, I'll be joining Russell in Salt Lake City with the 12 month millionaire seminar. It deals with direct marketing - another area I have little experience in - but am wide open and will be sharing details about that.

In the next few weeks, I will be upgrading my Dave Jackson website so I can post about my work and findings and will be creating a membership area where you and I can communicate and share great ideas. This will be worth joining since I've gotten most of my "brilliant" ideas from membership sites like this.

One great tip is all it takes, no?

So that's where we're at on this December 1st! I hope to put up the Christmas lights and such today - better get at it... it's already lunchtime.

Helio Makes for the Finish Line

One of my favorite programs on the telly is ABC's Dancing with the Stars. First, I love that it's live. That in itself is entertaining even if you've never working in the industry. Broadcasting anything live is exciting - well, almost anything.

And my favorite character this season is Helio Castroneves. Of course, my vote is with him because Brazil is my second country, but even still he wins me over with the way he applies his racing skills in practice and on the dance floor.

Now, I'm not that great a dancer. Worse, when I think they dance well on the program, I'm proven otherwise. And the inverse is true, too.

In all, I love seeing the way that once you have your formula for success, you can apply it to many different areas of your life. And the same holds true with what you are doing with your work on the Internet.

I will continue through the steps to day 90, then we'll take everything down and create a membership site where you will get even more of my inside tips. It will be like working in the garage with the Indy car. You will be able to see why and ask questions.

Tomorrow on to more work with your sites.

It's Raining Visitors

About six years ago my family and I were staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Rio. I brought my boogie boards from the States because there's a great boarding spot just to the left of the hotel. Around the Sheraton Rio there are these very old tropical almond trees. They are majestic and beautiful and a perfect tree next to the ocean. In fact, I've seen these trees all throughout the Caribbean and South America. They are hardy and large leafed. I thought they would do great next to the house in Florida for shade.

I took four seeds that lay on the ground around the trees at the Sheraton in Rio back from Brazil with me, smuggling them in my suitcase. When I arrived home, I planted all four seeds in a pot and waited.

To my surprise, all four germinated! I planted them on the south side of the house, just right for the summer sun.

Today I was out in the yard trimming some of the fast growth of plants here in the summer. I climbed up in the tropical almond to trim some branches. Out there for about 20 minutes it surprised me that when I came down it was raining.

Because of the size of the leaves, and because it wasn't raining that hard, I didn't know it was raining. I was busy with the trimming and didn't feel the drops.

Hey, it's not even a third-way through our project and already I am reaping the benefits of the traffic I'm creating by following the steps I've outlined here. And when you're working on all this, it is surprising that little by little traffic is coming by to check out your website.

It's important to keep working. You have the tools, you have the steps outlined for you. Get out there and keep trimming!

What Are Your Results So Far?

Okay, just taking a look at some of my metrics on the 4 sites to date. One of my sites, the one about acid reflux, http://www.vt88.com/, is doing poorly. I haven't received any queries from the search engines, even though the site is indexed.

But that doesn't mean diddley squat if you're in an area that's just really saturated.

I chose "acid reflux" to show you an example of a bad niche choice. This is a condition where when you get keywords, you'll need to dig a little deeper to find out if they can stand up to scrutiny. Acid reflux alone has a KEI of 456. That's awesome, but the competition (say - heavy hitters) is fierce!

Next, http://www.lxmart.com/ is doing well with the phrase "gold investments". This one was easy because right now there is a rush on gold. With China and India becoming more and more of economic powers, they want gold - and gold is hard to mine and find. The dollar isn't so strong either, so prices of gold are at all time highs. A few of the keywords I've focused on were showing right up there in the search engines (and we only started a few days ago). But right now they are not in the first few pages for search.

history of bullion market
gold industrial purposes
rules of buying gold
karat gold jewellry
californian gold jewellery
9 karats

This fluctuates and is to be expected when the site is new and has no reputation. When the articles I've created for the site start becoming distributed, the site's reputation will improve.

The next site, Three Best Dogs, is doing well. Here's a few URL's to show search results based on terms I'm focusing on:

the best miniature dog
mini dachshund tea cup
list of small dog breeds and thier characteristics
teacup breed of dogs that dont shed
ideal dog for single person

That's a few. You can see how well this site is doing. It's just going to grow. How this is different from acid reflux is based on some work I am doing. I've started compiling keyword lists on specific topics then running them through this psychological part and have found these work much better.

Lastly, http://www.abbey-properties.com/ is site 4. It is doing well. I'm including news stories, rewritten, of course, to make the site more appealing.

Take care and we'll have a new lesson later in the day.

Fastest Way to Get Into Google

Just a quick note - my site number 1, the one on acid reflux at vt88.com, has already been indexed by Google. The best way you can tell if your page is indexed, is to pick off the first sentence of the page/article, and look it up in Google search using quotes. Here's an example:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Day+after+day,+millions+worldwide+suffer+from+symptoms+caused+by+acid%22

Check out the Google cache and you'll see it was cached four days after I posted it. That's pretty good.

One of my secrets using Blogger type blogs is to make full use of the Labels for each post. These always give me more entries in Google search for a variety of topics. That is always good.

This is all to say that what we're doing here, if you're following my methods, will get your site in the search engines in little time and people will start coming to your pages.

Day Seven - Site Four

It's raining cats and dogs here and just a great time to get some work in. I've been showing you a scheduled way to put up a number of websites with great content and get them profitable for you by the end of the project.

Today we're at day seven and it's time for website number four. Have you thought about what you're going to create? It is easy to get articles - you just need to make sure they are rewritten to they are nothing like what is currently on the Internet. You can probably do a better job anyway.

Now you'll need five articles, so hope your fingers are rested and you're ready to go. We'll also need a full domain name and website to post the five articles to, so make sure you have that ready to go.

As far as articles, I have to stress again that you need to be thinking of something that many people search for, but where there's not a ton of content already written on that subject. And what is too much? Well, when you search, the results is how many pages that keyword appears on (of pages indexed in the search engine). So even though there are over a hundred thousand results - don't worry - you can quickly get near the top of the heap if there is not a lot of competition (millions of pages).

Take for instance a site I have on Immigration. I registered this domain long ago when a friend of mine from Brazil won the Green Card Lottery and brought his whole family to the United States. Today, I post to it almost everyday and it is well indexed and I already get a return on the site. And it's just going to grow!

How do I know? I am using the same formula that I'm using here. And you'll learn as the course goes on.

My website number four is about foreclosure. I didn't like the topic 100 percent, but I thought with the level of interest on this topic, I'm bound to get some of the traffic doing what I do.

Day Six - Site Number Three Complete

Today you should have site number three up and done and looking complete. I am happy to report, at least when I checked it, the Yahoo Publisher Network ads were working well on my third site about where to find good puppies. The problem with YPN ads is that because of their limited inventory, you won't have as many geo-targeted ads as Google. Back in 2006, YPN was for me, top notch. The ads running were relevant. You got good CTR because of this, and man, the payout was really good - sometimes $5 a click. Those days are gone for now, but the formula I am spelling out for you works well, too. The idea is that you're going to have enough content out in the search engines. I can't stress enough how important it is to be patient and not to cut short or modify the steps.

So today, go back over your three sites and make sure everything is working, links, ads, copy makes sense and looks great. It you want me to take a look at any of your sites, drop me an e-mail.

Tomorrow, get ready for website number four. We're going to get that fourth website up and running with fresh content not found anywhere else on the Internet.

It's Finally Here

Just a quick note which will make a bunch of people happy... We start the 90 day program on August 1st. This means if you start with that lesson, you should be making money with 90 days.

See you then.

No Time for Success

In the other room there's a Nintendo Wii working. Two young boys play tennis together. In my mind there's a battle around the usefulness of video games to the end user. My main stance is that they are a waste of time.

Slice it any way you want, there are only so many seconds in a day. I'm not going to concentrate on doing everything quickly. People that know me, know that I enjoy the journey. But they also know that I question every activity I do.

Here are four levels of "time". See where you fit:

Level One is merely existing. You just go through the motions because your dream died long ago. This is the hardest level to break out of.

Level Two you are aware of time, but you are not conscious of it. This is the person who spends lots of time surfing the web, watching TV, playing Wii - wasting time that isn't going to help you.

Most everyone is at One or Two.

Level Three is again, aware of time, and you're efficient with it. You work towards being effective. You spend little time with things that don't get you toward your goals.

Level Four is where you are aware of opportunity cost. You spend time doing one activity, but you lose time to do the other activity - so you must choose between the greater of the two.

And it's not only activities, but people, too.

This is tough medicine, but you can't be Mother Theresa. Be careful who you spend time with.

Ok, tough lesson here. But this is what separates the AdSense winners from the losers. Look at every activity you do during the day and log it - keep a journal - and ask yourself - Is this worth my time?

You notice I am not rushing through any of this. That's because when I write about the actual work - most will want to the work without understanding what it takes to make it happen.

AdSense Discipline

Out of all the keys to making web publishing work, this one is the one you need most. A frequent question asked is, Dave, how did you become so successful in the game. My answer is always the same: Discipline.

Few people are natural with it. Most people struggle with it.

A good explanation would be: That which keeps you going after all the motivation to do the action has disappeared.

I once asked good friend Chris Widener how he keeps writing his awesome newsletter and books. He told me that it took great discipline, but once he got into it - it came more routine. In other words, if you work against the voice inside that says sit on the couch and watch some more of the Travel Channel, you will get to the point where it becomes a part of you.

Discipline is simply a decision. It's an easy decision that is hard to carry out. You choose to do what you need to rather than not.

My kids often watch what I eat, because I have a condition called Celiac, where I cannot eat anything that has wheat gluten in it. And that's about everything. But, I am not wasting away... in fact, there's enough out there to keep me watching the scales.

But the temptation is always there. Pizza still smells great. So does warm bread. A nice bowl of cereal - yum... but, full of wheat.

So my kids tell me I must have a lot of discipline not to eat the pasta or bread. But I know what would happen if I neglected my condition. My health would quickly go downhill. Maybe even life-threatening.

What I want you to do is consider this business a choice. One that will eventually bring you health, financially. And that you must decide to be serious about it. Knowing that you can't partake of the table with wheat. You must accept that if you don't discipline yourself to do what it takes each day to make this work, that you're doomed for failure.

We'll be starting in earnest in a short time. Wax on, wax off. Discipline is needed. My scheduling sent to your e-mail address will help - but you must do the work.

I know you will.

What to Do, and When

My sister and her husband just left for Miami Airport. Tonight they fly to Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, to their work in the jungle. We talked this morning about poverty and crime in big cities. And we made mention of how we see it on TV, but if it's not affecting our street - it just doesn't matter. We're jaded.

The reason for this is we all have so much going on. Have you ever been so busy that at the end of the day you can't really write down what you did - there was just so much on your plate that it all ran together. Busy.

If you are aware that this happens to you, then you are a candidate for the remedy - a more focused life. A book that came out a few years ago had everyone thinking about living a life of purpose. We are here for a reason - so let's find out what that is and then develop a plan to carry that out.

My last post was about why we are here. Find your why and now find your focus to make it happen. Anyone that is at the top of their game will tell you focus is the main reason. High School Musical brought us the chant, "Keep your head in the game." That is so hard to do with all the distractions. We sort through what is more important to us.

After this quick course, I am considering starting another blog that simply gives my opinion on the differing home based business courses - especially AdWords/AdSense related. Since I receive around a dozen a week - that will keep me writing for a while. I am sure you get these, too. And if your here, you've probably purchased a $97 course or so, and then a week later found out there's an even "better" way to get traffic, place ads, make affiliate money... you name it.

That first course you bought started getting a little boring or downright tough, and you see the new course which states it practically "runs itself", so you buy that one.

At the end of the year, you're burned out and tell yourself it is impossible to make money on the Internet. You know, because you've done them all.

I know for a fact that if you would simply keep your head in the game and focus, you would make money - with any one of them.

We're wired this way, and there's no denying it. We want AdSense dollars now! We want fast food, quick fix pills, ultra high speed Internet... You get the picture. We have so much, but we still complain.

Because these things take time - these courses - we don't know which, for us, will work. I've seen so many courses that are just pure junk, and I'm sure you've seen the latest that every affiliate marketer is pushing - a party with the Rich Jerk at the Playboy Mansion. I almost cried when I saw John Reese pushing it. He made the bold statement that his earnings from the Internet were because of Christ (interview with Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula), so I "thought" that he was a Christian.

Okay, I'm off course here, and I'm talking about being focused - but that one is a burr under my saddle.

To say that all the programs out there work is foolish. They don't. And you'll have to sit through the whole nine yards to find yourself in failure. Knowledge is the only remedy. Who has been there before and can they give me an honest opinion?

Some say focus is two sided: having a good "crap" filter, and then sticking to a method that works - until you're successful. Of course that's not right. Crap filtering is part of good judgment which comes from experience. You're going to have to buy your share of crap and learn quickly to stay alive in this game.

Focus on the task and take it faithfully to fruition. Do this and you will win... provided your system is not... crap.

Lesson Two - Why

Things in nature are fascinating to watch. I was so tempted when I saw "Planet Earth" on DVD now at Costco - to buy the set, priced at $57, and treasure it in my collection. Why? Because critters, well, the wild variety, anyhow, are always working with a result in mind.

Animals, as my good friend Juvenal says, "just do it". They don't spend a lot of time analyzing. Remember that airline I mentioned yesterday? We had several floors of a large corporate building dedicated to "System Analysis." And even more space to "Yield Management." Number crunchers the bunch of 'em.

The wild kingdom is different. It's survival. They know exactly what they must do in order to make it through life. There's little time for R + R. God gave that to humans.

Knowing your end result is about having a vision, a mission statement that you are continuously working toward. It fascinates me how many started with nothing but a vision, and created greatness.

Ok, we don't need to have "greatness" as our destination, but, replacing your income, and having a home-based business is a nice starter point. It's freedom, friend. It empowers you with the choice to do what you will with your time and money. Start here.

The other day, while wakeboarding, I watched a fellow go through a routine that had him doing several extreme jumps and flips. In my mind, I wanted to do just that. But in my heart, I knew it would never happen unless I was specific about it.

What do I mean?

It's just like the person who wants to "go to Paris". It's a nice thought, but only that. You don't really want to go that bad. You haven't gotten specific about it. However, if you did - you'd probably do a little each day that would get you closer to your goal of Paris.

Zig Ziglar has a cool journal, where you write in it your to-do's, but also very specifically, you map out one thing you will do today that will get you closer to your goal. Remember, I talked about "action?" This is making it a reality.

So "specific" is being very clear about where you're going with the project, and what it will look like when you're done. For a trip to Paris, as example, a look at Hotwire, or other travel site, might give you an idea of how much tickets are. A look at an international apartment site will give you an idea of how much it's gonna cost you to live there. Get the idea?

But that's not all. We're not done here.

Denis Waitley who worked with Olympic athletes tells that they win the medal in their heads and in their hearts before they ever step out on the field. Wow - think of that! They mentally see themselves at the outcome - winners. So you must do the same in order for this to work at full efficiency.

Chris Widener, in his awesome book, The Angel Inside, tells how Michelangelo looked at the great slab of marble that was to become The David, and began chipping away at it. He saw that statue inside after many sculptors had rejected the stone as flawed and no good.

Just like Michelangelo, you need to know from the moment you start chipping away at this, what your outcome will be.

I love the GPS navigation in my car. I can punch in an address, and it gets plotted out for me. Wouldn't it be senseless for me to simply have the address on the dash and just start driving? So, the bottom line here, you must know your outcome and how you're going to get there.

Know why you are doing this. Why do you want to work? For the money? What will that bring? What will that replace?

The reason you need to know why is to keep you on track. Many a day will come when you don't want to do this tedious work. But when you know your why - it will help get you back on track.

What is Web 2.0?

As promised, the first steps will be out shortly so you can begin your work along with us on monetizing web sites with Google AdSense. But first, a short clip on what Web 2.0 has done and is doing. This is brilliant.

Watch How It's Done - Google AdSense Earnings

You don't have a list, like a lot of those jokers who advertise to buy their package. They got a following because one person who had a list, advertised to that list and thus created a new list... and so on. If there's a way to make a list quickly with a site and a little bit of traffic - I'd like to see it. It just doesn't happen... and therefore the list guys get richer from your $47 or $97 or $997, and you can't figure out how to make it work. Will they let you advertise to their list? Keep dreaming.

So, here's a little experiment that you can surely do, using a website, Google AdSense, some nice content, and some elbow grease... work. If this doesn't work, you're not putting in the work.

I don't expect to see life out of this for at least six months - but maybe we'll get lucky. In any event, this is how it's done and what has been making many a good living for a long time.

I suggest you subscribe and grab a coffee or tea and read up. My next posts will keep you linked on how you can really make money with AdSense.

Let's get started.

How the No Follow tag works

This one is simple. There is an HTML tag called "no follow" which is used with links and causes bots, such as the infamous Google Bot and any other crawler to "not follow" the link you use it with. For instance, you send me a link to your site, but I don't want a bot to think that I give your site any value, I'll put the "no follow" tag there, like this: a href="http://www.blogger.com/marcelosnicesite.com/greatpage.html" rel="nofollow"

Here's a great video on "nofollow" and how you can use it on your pages to increase Page Rank.

http://www.prprowler.com/no_follow_trick.htm

Let me know what you think of the PR Plug as well.

How Many Link Blocks Can I Have?

If you create websites specifically for displaying Google AdSense ads, listen up.

Google announced yesterday in their updated Policies, that if you are using their ads on your pages, your pages have to line up with their Landing Page Quality Guidelines. As I've preached, your pages must be of outstanding quality content and very easy to navigate. Anything less, and Google can pull the plug on your "partnership".

Next, they said we can have three link blocks on each page. That's great, because these links often add a lot of revenue on pages that have good content. Naturally, know that when people click the link, they're gone from your site.

Also note that links typically pay less than actual ads.

0x80070241 Error - Windows Vista Challenge

I'm typing this from a temporary install of Windows XP Professional, on my main PC, as I sit and look out on the rainy field. It's one of those dark days, off and on rain, much needed here. My daughter seems to be getting out of her piano lessons as her teacher and my wife are chatting about life in the living room.

And me, I've been stuck behind this keyboard since I purchased Windows Vista Upgrade on June 2nd. The beta copy I had of Vista expired once and for all on May 31, 2007. Thousands probably went through the same dilemma of downloading and upgrading, but mine was/is plagued by unforeseen problems.

First, about 15 days out, you get this pop up on Vista beta saying to back up your files because Windows will no longer work in XX amount of days, counting down to May 31. So, like I am told to, I run down to Costco, the local warehouse type store here in Naples, and buy one of those 30 count TDK DVD+R stacks so I can burn all my GB's of "stuff" for safe keeping.

Yet, every time "I" burned the DVD's, I would get to about number 12 or 13 and run into a horrible error - some sort of I/O or such; once a dreadful BSOD - blue screen of death. Really bad stuff if you're burning a set of 26 or so DVD's - as these guys are all linked. So when that happens, you have to toss out your 12 or so burned DVD's and start from number 1. That's okay. I am very patient. But this went on for three times. And I began to think that Microsoft doesn't really want you to back up, because it doesn't really work that well in the beta versions.

Next, I thought I'd buy a new hard drive. Who doesn't need more space? I certainly do. That's why I bought my fancy DVDRAM so I could dump all my huge files and movies to it and free my tiny 110 GB hard drive. I laugh. I remember on my first PC the hard drive was 20 MB's. Can you believe that? And I ran a BBS (bulletin board system) on it for a few years. I upgraded to a 40 MB hard drive. And it was a breakthrough when I finally had 2 GB's of space.

My "new" hard drive is a 500 GB Seagate SATA drive, from Best Buy, an electronics store, which I got for around $180.00. When I installed it, it became drive F: So when I performed the backup of all my files from my old XP Professional, it went to F: - and there it is, secure, as a Vista backup format. Next, I wanted a working Vista - so I went to Microsoft and found I could buy the Upgrade version for $260.00. Naturally, I wanted it on the brand new hard drive, which is F:, and Vista complied. However, that's when my problems started.

With the new Vista on F:, and the beta on C:, there was a problem. The beta on C: was activated with a beta license. When I booted up, I'd get a window with an option for a dual-boot. And they don't tell you, but the beta will operate for 2 hours at a stretch until August 27th, 2007. So you can still do a little work on it - just NOT enough time to download my new Windows Vista from Microsoft's store - 2.43 GB's! At least not with their "Digital Locker". But many things want to see the C: letter in their programs. F: just didn't cut it. So - I'm figuring out how I am going to make this all work.

Okay, this is getting really long and complicated, and let me just tell you that you will probably get the 0x80070241 error when upgrading your Vista. It's not the end of the world - but it feels like it. What maddens me is that Microsoft blames it on bad hardware, when in fact, no matter which way you slice it (install it), it can pop up.

The workaround is simple. Download your Window Vista files and install. Don't activate or even enter a license when asked. Just skip the step. You now have a 30 day trial version of Vista. This is fine and your "real" version can install over this.

You can force install Vista Upgrade version as a clean install - however, you cannot activate it with the license they give you. It won't work. What you'll need to do is get the 30 day trial going on your PC, then pop in your Vista DVD and "upgrade" from there. Then it will work, because you're not doing a clean install.

Now why would I write about this in a Internet business blog? Because I know you face these problems and when you do, you can benefit from some of the research I've done here. That crazy 0x80070241 error seems impossible to get around, but trust me, keep trying differing ways to install and it will work. And one solution that worked for me was using a tiny program called Vista Lite. This will allow you to recompile the files and send them to the install in a different form. Try it. It may work. http://www.vlite.net/

I'm not in the clear, yet... but now I know what will work. I am just waiting for the Digital Locker Assistant to finish so I can save my purchased Vista to a DVD.

Then, back to work.

Search Engine Fun and Facts

When I started using FidoNet for messaging back in the late 70's and early 80's, I was surprised how easy people forgot their niceness and were ofttimes brutal. Haven't you found that? Especially in forums! Woah, people can be downright mean.

If that happens to you, where damaging data is posted somewhere about you, there are things you can do. I recommend first asking the webmaster to remove the negative comment. Remember to not fall in the same trap and get all negative about the offending person. Explain the issue and many webmasters will oblige.

Find pages that talk well about you or your business and link to those from your website. This will give them strength and make them rise higher in the search rankings. Don't forget links from the social network sites.

Hop over to AboutUs.org and create an article about your site. If you're big enough, you can create an entry in Wikipedia, like I did for World Wide Mart. Wikis get listed when someone searches for that name. Make sure you don't spam the Wikis. WWM is a good example of a nice entry.

I'm often asked for testimonials on products that are used for business on the Internet. Feedback is one of the strongest supports for your product or website. If you get good feedback, tell the world about it. Use ConsumerReview.com, Epinions.com, or similar sites.

It's important to keep your website first in the search rankings. One of the best ways is to use smart linking which I talk about in great detail on this blog.

Let me know if you have any questions and we'll chat more soon.

Blueprint for a Web Based Business

It's a sunny day in Naples, Florida. We did our Saturday morning routine by having brunch down at the magnificent Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club right on the Gulf of Mexico.

From your table you can gaze out at the sea and take in the gulls flying effortlessly by, the beautiful sailboats that dot the horizon, or a few kids starting their first sand castles of the day.

This is a day I normally take off, but wanted to update you on how well the 90 day challenge is starting off. Actually, I'm changing the name. It runs over 90 days - but I want the title to be more specific to the course.

During one of our discussion sessions, I realized that most are focusing on too many things in an effort to have one thing float to the top as the money maker. And I'm not talking about multiple streams of income. I'm all for that.

I'm talking about trying PPC, Directory submits, link exchanges, ghostwriters, templates, PHP rewrites, the whole gamut. You can't focus on all these and do justice to any. We went over that and it's really a big mistake. Don't fall into this trap yourself, even if you are making marginal profits.

Another thing that came up was again in the area of focus. Most people found after the first few days that the program gets monotonous. And that's the reason that the field is so wide open for people who want to get into this market. Most drop off before payday. You must remain focused and that's why I believe this program is so great. You just do what you need to on that day and wait until tomorrow. But even if it is monotony, you still do it - knowing that if you stick to it, payoff will come.

Will everyone in the program make money? I believe so... but it's really up to what keywords they work with. I am doing my best to help them choose wisely. But remember, not every keyword is a winner. That's why we work with a dozen sites in the course.

Someone asked to sneak a site for people reading here to watch over time, and I've agreed to do that. Stay tuned.

The Ninety Day Challenge

I've decided to take a break from my online work to mentor 10 people for a period of 90 days in how to make a steady income using the Internet.

As you know, I make the bulk of my income from contextual ads placed on websites that are content rich. But many have asked how to get started doing this. And a few have said that the information on this site is over their heads.

So, what I will do is break it down, step by step, for you to easily follow how I create my websites and where I place my ads. We will take real time examples. You'll see how my pages get cached by Google. You'll find out what tools I use. All my secrets.

In order to keep the group small - so I can help each person individually, I've decided to limit it to ten.

Imagine finally getting the blueprint to how to make quality sites and monetize them so they keep making money for you. We'll go over how Google changes the rules, how old school doesn't work anymore.

I'm calling this the 90 Day Challenge. I'll be sharing more details in the next few days.

What Are Your Best Hosting Companies?

At first I had all of my sites at Yahoo Small Business. Then, when I noticed at Alexa that '95% of sites are faster than yours', well - I did some research. Netcraft.com was where I spent some time - and at the time, 1and1.com was pretty fast. I already had some accounts there, so I moved the Yahoo accounts over.

And that's worked out well until today - I'm getting 404 errors on many of my sites there. I called, using Skype, (because with 1and1 you'll sit on the phone for an hour before you get a live person), and the support girl told me that everyone is calling in. I thought it was funny, she used the words - "okay, to be honest with you..." Ha.

So right now I am doing a major upload to Yahoo. I still have the accounts there - never canceled them for ... well, for this reason. And it's coming up on 3 PM - which is the time I've chosen to change the DNS for my major accounts.

Hey, another fun URL at Netcraft is the hosting provider switching list. You can tell who's running away from their host. Rackforce and Rackshack hold the award. Check it out.

Gotta run... I am working on a report regarding the recent duplicate content penalty with Google. This was eye-opening, even for me - when I dug in. You'll be amazed.

So let me know who you use. I'm always interested in what is working for you.

Prince Keeps Us on Our Toes

In 1991, thousands of people gathered in Maracana Stadium for what was to become "Rock in Rio II". George Michael, Guns and Roses, Debby Gibson, Santana, and many, many more famous rock groups took to the stage January 18 - 27.

But one character kept in character as being the strangest act on the festival. If you've ever done any work with entertainers, you know they can have very crazy personalities. And Prince fit that description to a "T" (or is it ?)

My good friend Carlinhos of Sao Paulo, Brazil, was contracted by MTV to provide the sound mix for Rock in Rio II. Naturally, each band must do a sound check before they go live. These were while the event was closed. Carlinhos made everyone sound great.

When Princes' band ran through their sound check, everything was super. The first few bands went on and MTV had a sweet mix. However, when Prince finally came on stage (he delayed his "entry" by over an hour), his sound people had switched all the inputs to the feed to MTV.

Most sound engineers would take half of the set to figure out the inputs - drums, which were on input 5 through 11 are now scattered in the 18 - 23 range. Vocals were where the keyboards are. And so on.

Carlinhos had the mix nailed in a little under a minute and a half. He figured out which input was switched and quickly labeled it. It was a huge challenge, but Carlinhos was up to it.

Since I started on the Internet in the early 90's (I had my own FidoNet node through the 80's, and ran several BBS's), it is a chore to keep up with change. What used to be a great business model six months ago - today won't float. Many companies, mainly the search engines, are switching the mix - changing the rules. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes because they simply want to improve their game.

There are few models you can implement and just watch them make money. Most of contextual ad businesses take work keeping fresh content and making sure keywords are worthwhile. You can do that by reading blogs like this.

One discussion I had with a marketer recently revealed that his testing with Google showed the search engine literally changing every few hours. Indeed, it doesn't take too much to get penalized anymore. Copied content is probably the biggest sin. From the way I understand it, Google scans everyone's copy of this "new" content. Then it figures out who is the authority site and knights them the king and everyone else a fraud.

When this happens, Google will not return to your site for many moons. It pays to take the time to do it right the first time. If you are not using your own copy, make sure you have someone else write it for you originally.

What is a good way to do this?

Elance.com is one place to find good writers for less than you think. It doesn't pay to write your own sites as a business. You need to have others do that for you. Spend your time researching and developing new websites. Not spam sites - real meat and potato sites that people will enjoy reading.

Make sure in your game plan you have set aside time to learn continuously about your trade. It's important. How many hours do you spend learning the market, and do you think Google is really changing faster than before? Thoughts?

Thoughts on Wealth: Dave 101

Just a note about a new blog I am working on with my son, Kevin, one of the posts tells a little about me. Thoughts on Wealth: Dave 101

How Real is Click Fraud?

Both Google and Yahoo report they are spending small fortunes on click fraud, Click Forensics just updated their Click Fraud Index with the latest numbers from last quarter. And, the short end of it is that it's up almost a half a percentage point.

Around 3000 advertisers are tracked by Click Forensics - both large and small.

What are the fraudsters clicking on? High-priced terms. Makes sense. If you're going to be a crook, go after the big money. Takes the same amount of effort, no?

Top five PPC term costs were: retail, financial services, health and fitness, technology, and entertainment.

More details in Click Forensics's press release.

An Update on AdSense Wealth Empire

I received a couple of e-mails lately asking how my work with the AdSense Wealth Empire is going, so I thought I should give you a little update.

I am not at the level Roy and Maayan are at, but am heading that direction. There are some tips that I'd like to pass along to you that may help you get faster into the index, and keep you from Google's Supplemental Index.

You know, if you're treating your online work as a business, you must always be in "learning mode." In the past year, I've seen so many "AdSense" programs come down the pike that it made my head spin. A few were worth looking at; all deserved a few minutes of my time.

One that caught my eye was Joel Comm's AdSense Templates. I know I've been a little hard on Joel for promoting the picture block next to the ad block that eventually got nixed by Google, but he's been in the "same" game long enough to be respected. If you do anything online, you know it's hard to stay up with everything.

The templates Joel sold late last summer had something called HyperVRE in the code. These are PHP scripts that automatically rotate text and RSS feeds on your web page so that it is always showing fresh content. I think Matt Callen invented HyperVRE. I'm a big fan of Brad Callen's work - Matt's brother.

It's funny, but the same time I noticed many (say most) of my pages I created with AWE were already in the Supplemental Index. And, I received a feed from Jim Boykin's blog, where he once wrote about Google's Supplemental Index. Jim's blog led me to a post by "HalfDeck" on "Supplemental Listings". Wow - you gotta read that post from beginning to end.

What opened my eyes was the part about - Meta Tags. I even blogged about Meta Tags here on MonetizeThis. What I noticed about all of my AWE Meta Tags were that they were short... very short - Like: "Get great iPhone information here!"

Oh, man! I should have known better. All 50 pages zapped to Supplemental inferno!

So, make sure your Meta Tags are long! At least 100 words, I'd say.

Okay, next - I learned "why" Joel had all the rotating RSS and text on his HyperVRE templates. I mean, sure - that "looks" cool... but will it benefit readers and more importantly, my ranking in the search engines?

The inquisitive mind that I have, I started researching quality sites that used RSS feeds and how they fared in the search engines, specifically, Google. I was very impressed. Some sites that advertised an RSS feed using PHP even had a PR 7 - without that many backlinks. And, they were cached quickly. But my main question was did their pages end up in Google's Supplemental Index?

I sure couldn't find any.

One thing that really bugged the heck out of me was that Joel had promised a working version of HyperVRE in the AdSense Templates, which I bought, but, alas we only got the light version which doesn't do much of anything. You need the Gold version. Apparently, I wasn't the only one hot under the collar.

But I learned something. I needed the page to look fresh. And, this VRE stuff just reinforced that. I did take some code out of the light version that creates rotating text. This is good for use in your menus or nav area where you can have a little paragraph with "did you know" type of info. Looks nice.

A great script I found for rotating RSS feeds can be found at GoogleRank.com - and it's Free! And one of the best places for feeds I've found is MSN. When you work with their feeds there is none of the search html in the URL. It's the URL to the story so there isn't a way to tell you are using MSN.

Longer Meta Tags (and make "sure" that no two Meta Tags are alike - you must have a different keyword or key phrase in each one. AWE does this nicely.), and have good, current info on your pages.

Your homework is cut out for you; I know mine is.

AdSense Hypocrisy

I am sure Brute had a witty return to Caesar's "Et tu, Brute?" Something along the line, "No, Caesar... not ME!" And yet we know he was caught in the act of being, to Caesar, anyway, a hypocrite. He talked one thing, and yet, he was guilty of the same.

Since the beginning of web servers, we've always had the server logs, which tell where our traffic is coming from. Recently I found a few hits on one of my websites from a site called AdsBlackList. With a name like that - you want to check it out.

In a nutshell, AdsBlackList is a live database of what AdSense publishers who know of this site, consider to be MFA (Made for AdSense pages) advertisers. Typically, these advertisers are looking for the lowest paying click, so it makes sense that if you could, you'd want to blacklist them using the AdSense Competitive Ad Tool.

My site was flagged because the domain name contained the word "four". I'm sure you've seen the AdSense ads with fourtopsites or bestfoursites, etc. These sites contain little, if no content, and have a few blocks of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher ads on them. And many of these types use the AdWords program to drive traffic to their sites.

Everything sounds okay and makes sense until I stumbled on a thread in the Digital Point Forums that discusses the AdsBlackList service and how members are adding sites. So I decided to check out a few of the pages of these members - hoping to find great sites full of content and nothing obvious in the way of blatant ads all over the place.

Here's a few for your enjoyment:

http://environmentalchemistry.blogspot.com/
http://www.healthythings-online.com/
http://www.free-legal-formsonline.com/
http://www.lasereyesurgeryhelp.com/
http://www.freelinksdirectory.net/
http://happy-mind.blogspot.com/
http://www.healthtu.com/

It just hit me as hypocritical that these fellows (and a few gals) would post about doing away with MFA sites when most of their own sites are the very same thing. But I'm sure they would be like Brute and say, "not ME!"

Here's the problem with this sort of thinking.

First, you're assuming that Google does nothing but toss up relevant ads that fit your content and their network location. But there is much more in play.

• Google measures what other pages are on your site you are monetizing.
• Google measures what other pages you are monetizing across your "network" of sites.
• Google measures if the page you are monetizing is a good landing page, based on content, pictures (if you have or don't), tags, size of your description meta tag, inbound links and their quality.

And this is just the beginning.

It's dangerous to think that by blocking sites you'll fool Google into serving better paying ads. Remember that Google also owns the site where you are putting the competitive URL's - they know who you're trying to block.

So, what's the answer?

• Make sure the pages you are monetizing are quality pages, not apparent MFA pages.
• Make sure that if you get links, that you get them from within the content of another, similar site. What?! Yes, that's right - links from link farms or from high PR pages... such as those you see in the left or right hand column of a site, are pretty worthless. Google is looking for links from within a story about your site. For instance... say your site was about Bass Fishing Boats. If I made a link from this site to your site with a URL in the right column, you would get negligible power. However, if I made and entire post about how cool bass fishing is and that your site had the best selection of boats... well, that's a grand recommendation. The type Google "loves!"

Pass this along to a friend and begin to change your own sites this year and you'll see how traffic will rise and so will your Google revenue.

Google Indexing and Page Rank Update

Matt Cutts posted the latest on Google indexing and where page ranks stands. If you check your page rank in your Google Toolbar, you may see something different than before. But according to Matt, that won't affect your search rankings. The PR score has been there for awhile and is now being updated. Dave Naylor reports there may be an outage.

I wouldn't really put too much into PageRank scores. Many obsess with this. Many of mine went up, some stayed the same, some went down.

In the meantime, Google is sending the sites plenty of traffic and I continue to add great content and keep our linking reputation high. Several of my pages with PageRank don't rank in the search engine. These are those ones that show up after you click that infamous "If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included..." at the bottom.

That means your page is in the index, but not ranking.

However, it's strange to have PageRank results from three months ago (according to Matt) and have the SERP tell you a different story. Wish they would do some catch up.

You might have read HalfDeck's page about Supplemental Results and are doing all kinds of crazy stuff to get you out of the sandbox. Matt addresses this by trying to calm people saying pages in supplemental will still perform well in search. But even Matt has said that those pages in supplemental are "deemed less important" from a PageRank perspective. Cutts tells us that the bot will come by more often and give Google fresher results. It doesn't make me feel any better - sorry.

Supplemental is not good for search consumers. They have no clue if they are getting the best or parts or old outdated. What tier am I getting results from? Google index, or Supplemental index? And why not go with an expanded Google instead of this "experimental" approach as Google's Nate Taylor said it would be in 2003?

Why supplemental? Money. It's less expensive to search fewer pages.

If you're there, Matt McGee has a great article on how to break free.

A few days ago I reported on Google's new patent to sniff out duplicate content. I don't think you should worry that much because ranking poorly may be because of the "Google Sandbox" and dupe content becomes a scapegoat. Search Engine Roundtable addresses Google Fix for Duplicate Content and there's even a thread in WebmasterWorld I've been following with advice. More on Dupe Content Filter and a WMW thread with some advice from Google's Adam Lasnik.

There is a good video out from Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz interviewing Google's Vanessa Fox on these issues. Check out the new video on Social Network Marketing as well. Lot's of great stuff.

Keeping Up With CES

Just a quick note today to appreciate what Technology Evangelist is doing at CES this year - covering it in ways you couldn't because of the size of the show.

I couldn't make it this year, but already have plans for next year and will be broadcasting from the show. Hope you can join me.

Have you been?

Where to Find Great Backlinks

Back in August of last year, you may remember I was preaching the value of mining and using expired domains. Naturally, I told you this because, up to that point, for me - they were working. I even cited some examples. However, things have changed.

When reviewing my sites that use expired domain names versus the ones that depend on linking for strength, the linked sites always win. Why is this?

I believe, if you're expecting to get indexed in Google, that your expired domain that carried some page rank and back links, is flagged. It worked for the first few weeks, for me. But soon, the pages were de-indexed. So my advice is to find inbound links.

For me, the jury is still out on inbound links - mainly because the search engines don't go public on what won't work. But there are plenty of blogs out there, and SEO sites that have vast amounts of information.

My studies show that links from sub pages of other site have a little more value than links from a homepage. I mean, think about it - if it smells like a red flag... so links within content, from a content page of a site, linking to one of your inner pages (content), is probably the best link you can get.

So, how do we start? Well, there're a couple of page types I like. First, ask yourself what page on their site is most relevant to the page on the site I want a link to? And, how do I find that page?

In the Google you can search for (site:theirsite.com keyword phrase), to find that relevant page. You do know that relevance is a huge factor in linking. That's why I am not certain those free for all types of links work. Can they hurt? Maybe.

The second page I like is the one with the most "power". These are pages that have reputation - indexed, backlinked, page rank. How do you find these? Let's use Yahoo search.

Here's the syntax - (site:theirsite.com)

Yahoo is cool, because they list pages in their SERP in order of importance. That command may start Yahoo's Site Explorer. This shows the best backlinks on the top. These are the "power" pages.

The homepage is often not the best choice because your shooting for a link from their content to your site - not some simple link in the margin. Try to get the most powerful page when you're asking.

Your comments?

Google Granted Patent for Estimating Similarity

This one has been in the works for a few years, originally filed on December 31, 2001. Google's Moses Samson Charikar is listed as the inventor of a new method for estimating similarity between web pages and documents - designed to filter duplicate content.

Abstract

A similarity engine generates compact representations of objects called sketches. Sketches of different objects can be compared to determine the similarity between the two objects. The sketch for an object may be generated by creating a vector corresponding to the object, where each coordinate of the vector is associated with a corresponding weight. The weight associated with each coordinate in the vector is multiplied by a predetermined hashing vector to generate a product vector, and the product vectors are summed. The similarity engine may then generate a compact representation of the object based on the summed product vector.

This is designed to reduce the amount of redundant, or nearly redundant documents crawled and returned in response to a user's search query. The method will also dump sites determined to be substantial duplicators of content.