Sun - May 13, 2007

Do You Know Who You're Linking To? - IMS #123


Want to see who your main competitors are linking to? How about finding some new linking partners. Try out MSN's Link From Domain tool.

Just go to MSN Live Search ==> http://www.live.com and type this command:

linkfromdomain:yoursite.com

(Leave out the www in front of the domain name and replace yoursite.com with the domain name you want to check.)

Use it to check your Wordpress sites, especially if you bought templates from a stranger or found them around the web. They might be cracked and letting a spammer inside. Some people have found hundreds of unauthorized outbound links.

It's also handy for finding link rot... sites that you linked to in the past, that are now out of business. Worse yet, they went out of business, let the domain name expire, and it was picked up by an... ahem, "industry" that you wouldn't normally link to.

Oh, one more thing. You can sorta use it to check for reciprocal links. Just add in a secondary bit of text on the same search query like this:

linkfromdomain:yoursite.com site:othersite.com

Try both commands at MSN's www.live.com and you may be in for a surprise or two.

Posted at 02:42 PM    

Two Goodies From the Article Underground - IMS #123


Some people keep giving an abundance of content to their subscribers and the community. Mike Liebner of the Article Underground is just such a person.

First there are two videos. In them you'll learn the top 20 linking secrets. Mike says that you'll need to close the door and concentrate, as it can have a huge impact on the success of your business.

==> http://www.articleunderground.com/multimedia/20/

The second goodie is a keyword density tool. It was intended for Article Underground members only. But Mike, being the nice generous guy he is, has decided to share it with all of you as well.

Just enter any url that you want to check in the top field. (You can leave the rest blank.) Click submit and get a full detailed report. You'll see at a glance the exact keyword density of individual words and phrases contained on your page, and get all the meta tag data as well.

==> http://www.articleunderground.com/webmaster/keyword-density-tool.html

If you'd like a video tutorial on how to use the keyword density tool, Mike has provided one for you here:

==> http://www.articleunderground.com/multimedia/keywordtool/

Posted at 02:39 PM    

Sat - April 21, 2007

The Definitive Directory Submission List - IMS #122


Jerry West has just updated his directory list. If you are an SEO Revolution subscriber you already have it on your hard drive.

I'm a big fan of submitting to directories and rely on this list. It's always a good idea, to submit new sites and pay the fee. Especially if the directory passes a healthy dose of PageRank, and it's been around a few years. That way, the Trust is immediately passed to the new site and the Sandbox effect is minimized.

There are nearly 500 directories on the list. Only three directories received an A listing. Nine received a B. All the rests were C+ and lower.

According to Jerry, "Over 68 hours of staff time went into updating and verifying the information. About 200 more hours went into testing the passing of PageRank. We went through each directory individually, and made the top 70 or so part of the PR test."

"Here are some features of the list: PageRank of the home page. PageRank of sub pages. Does the directory pass PageRank. Directory Type. Any fees are listed and the time frames they cover."

"We also gave a grade to the top directories based on factors such as: PageRank pass through, Traffic, Sub Page PageRank, Navigation, Design, Ease of Use, Number of Years the Directory has existed, etc."

Now here's something really useful... The directory known as Starting Point (stpt.com) was given an A- finishing in the top three. I'm going add submitting to it, to my "to do" list for each new site I create. Others like Jayde barely passed. Bizweb flunked out. Needless to say I won't be wasting time on those anymore.

I've given you one gem, but you'll need to subscribe to Jerry's SEO newsletter to get the full list. It's certainly the most comprehensive and throughly tested list that I've ever seen.

Subscribe to Jerry West's SEO Revolution Newsletter ==> http://www.cdzn.com/jwr

Posted at 04:15 PM    

Mon - March 19, 2007

Snagging Links from PR6 and Higher Sites - IMS #120


Being the owner of a PR6 site, I can tell you that it gets spidered every day. Any page I link to with this site, gets found right away, and usually appears in the top search results within days. That's the power of having a high PR site link to you.

The downside is, most places would charge you an arm and a leg for that link. But what if you could get several links from PR 5 and 6 sites, for less than 100 dollars per month?

You can get as many links as you want, from the Article Underground's announcement network of blogs. There are over 25 of them to choose from.

Yes, you still get 400 articles per month. Yes, the membership is worth it, even if you don't use the additional content.

And get this... Just the other day, one of the blogs achieved a PR7. Imagine getting links from that site to yours. Now you can... And chances are, you'll be spidered in less than a day.

Join the Underground ==> http://www.cdzn.com/au

Posted at 07:23 PM    

Thu - March 1, 2007

Should I Use Absolute or Relative URLs?


Michael, Im trying to implement a butterfly strategy from your Revenge of the Mininet ebook. I have two questions if you could please enlighten me.

When linking together the home pages should I use domain.com or an absolute link like domain.com/index.html? And... is it still smart to form a wheel when linking together the domains? I was thinking to maybe NOT link together the last and first domains of the Mininet. ~ Goran

Hello Goran. Think of the diagrams as just a guideline, or a recipe. They are not an exact blueprint with millimeters of tolerance. Get in there and explore. Create your own flair and enjoy the process.

An eclectic linking strategy is always best. Submit some sites to directories, others to blogs and search engines. Try to make it look as organic as possible, and not forced, contrived, or rigid.

When linking to the home page, from another domain, it's ok to link straight to the domain name. You don't need to add the index.html suffix. However, that is the only time I don't use absolute links.

Every other time I link to anything, be it a graphic or a page, I always use the exact location, or absolute url. I never use relative urls. SEO expert Jerry West, found that using absolute urls increased spiderability by nearly 30% in his tests.

(That's just a tidbit. You'll get dozens of similar tips when you subscribe to Jerry West's SEO Revolution newsletter. And if you practice SEO, you simply cannot afford to be without this inside information... because he tests everything!)

So the moral of the story is, if you want more of your site to get found and stick in the index, use absolute urls for everything.

Posted at 12:32 PM    

Roadmap to The Future of SEO


First of all, thank you for your Revenge of the Mininet ebook. Your generosity, as usual, is something I hold in very high regard. As this book is now 4 years old, do all the points still apply in 2007? Thank you! ~ Joe

Yes, Joe. The concept of Revenge is still a valid one. It's growing more important every day.

The Revenge linking strategies are used as the foundation of SEO, by many companies that offer optimization services. In Leslie Rohde's accompanying contribution "Dynamic Linking," he shows - by doing the math - the reasons why Mininets are so effective.

The only real changes would be not worrying so much about domain name privacy. Mininets are so low key and under the radar these days, that you can pretty much create them out in the open.

The other major change of course is the nofollow attribute. Instead of having to use Javascript, or CSS, it is possible to use rel=nofollow to achieve the same results.

But do reread the forward to Revenge. Nothing is more important than linking to related sites and having them link to you. That's exactly what Mininets do. In addition, with the advent of LSI, thematic site building has become all the more important.

It's almost as if Revenge of the Mininet, provided a roadmap to the future of web site optimization. The future is still catching up to Revenge. By the time it arrives, you'll already be there.

(Readers of this Blog can download Revenge and other internet marketing ebooks on the Goodies Page.)

Posted at 12:01 PM    

Thu - December 14, 2006

How Often Do Mininets Need Updating?


I have a question about your 5-10 page minisites, that you link together in a mininet. Do you update them monthly to keep them fresh for the search engines, or is this not required? ~ Wesley

Very good question. Once my sites are created and they're slowly creeping up the rankings, usually they end up in a top five spot and get "parked" there. Unless someone really knows what they're doing, it's almost impossible for anyone to bump me from the top spots.

(Sometimes there are unforeseen circumstances that force me to make changes. Sometimes the affiliate program will shut down, or move, or use a different management company. Then I have to make changes, at least to the affiliate links.)

After that, I only make slight modifications to the pages. Perhaps once a year or so. But I do try to get at least one new incoming link per week, to at least one of the sites in the mininet. This could come from a search directory, blog, or another web property that I own.

With my large Authority sites for AdSense revenue, they are in competitive categories. So yes, I add Article Underground content to these sites, three or four times per week.

It's the opposite for the affiliate revenue mininets though. Since we focus on niches with little competition, we can just set up the sites and let em' run. Then when you have time, create another minisite on a related topic and link it into the ring.

As long as we have search engines, and they reward you for linking to related topics, the mininet strategy will continue to work extremely well.

Posted at 03:37 PM    

Wed - December 6, 2006

The True Value of Incoming Links


I am considering joining Article Underground, but I do not need the articles. Maybe they should consider another level of membership, for those who only require the use of the announcement blogs.

Do you believe AU is worth the monthly fee just for the announcement blogs alone? I value your views on this more than most. ~ AC

Ultimately its a call that you'll have to make yourself. Value is something that is perceived. Logic can rarely justify it... but I'll try.

If you go to a brokerage and try to buy links, a PR4 link might cost you $25 per month. A PR5 link more like $50 per month. So the links from the AU, may be worth it, just based on that info.

If you add 20 new pages to your site per month, that's 20 fresh incoming links from the Underground. But if you announce those new pages to five of the blogs, that's 100 incoming links. With the Underground membership at $97 per month, that's less than a dollar per link.

And unlike buying links from a brokerage, your links don't come down the moment you stop paying for them. The links from the Underground get archived to a static web page, providing permanent PageRank and link popularity.

That said, with my own experiment, repeated posting to a small group of four blogs, took my fifth blog, the target of the links, from relative obscurity, to a PR4. Then others started finding out about my little blog and started linking to it. The result is a PR5.

I didn't do my test using the AU blogs, but I'm fairly confident the end result would be similar. Besides, if you don't like it, you can always bail out after a couple of months.

As for access to the Underground blogs without the articles, I spoke to Mike Liebner yesterday, and he said yes, it's in the works. I'll be sure to let you know, as soon as it's ready.

But in the mean time, start getting fresh incoming links to your pages, using the Article Underground. It's fast, effective and well worth the money.

Are You Ready to Join the Underground Network? ==> http://www.cdzn.com/au

Posted at 11:54 AM    

Tue - December 5, 2006

Stacking Multiple Mininets on One Host


I've been reading your Revenge of the Mininet, but I don't have several hosting companies. What method works best for when you have multiple sites on one host? ~ Dale

Don't link your sites together, or at least not more than a couple of times. It's natural to link at least once to your other sites, especially if they are on similar topics. But that's it.

You don't want to go and create an entire neighborhood of sites that are linking together, especially if they are on the same host. It's really easy for the search engines to filter out sites on the same C class block.

Yahoo and MSN are especially good at it. Yahoo uses it as part of their ranking algo. Google on the other hand, doesn't seem to care as much.

This has lead some people to believe that building mininets on subdomains is a good idea. I'm not recommending it. But some people claim great success with this method.

I have multiple sites hosted on one IP, but they are used for different purposes. Some have sales letters, some have landing pages and PPC tests. A couple are large AdSense article sites, but none of my mininets are hosted there.

For the mininet to be effective, you need separate hosts. But there is a little trick... you can stack your mininets by hosting say... five rings on five different hosts, but the rings never actually link to each other.

So server A hosts site 1 of each mininet. Server B hosts site 2 for each mininet, and so on. But the trick is to never to let any of the A or B hosted sites to link to each other along vertical lines.

A - B - C -D
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
1 - 2 - 3 - 4

It's cuts way down on hosting costs, but it's not totally fool-proof. It can be reverse engineered.

Anyone with the right tools could see all the sites sharing the same IP address. It's not readily apparent though, as the sites don't link together and are on different topics. Only deep digging in the whois info could reveal any kind of relationship between the sites.

I wouldn't worry too much about it though. Put up useful sites with good info. Sell products through affiliate programs in a fair and ethical manner... and no one really has the right to complain.

Posted at 04:58 PM    

Sat - December 2, 2006

Are Dynamic Linking and Nofollow the Same?


Is Dynamic Linking the same as the nofollow tag, so you don't reduce PageRank on your pages when linking internally? What is the benefit of using Dynamic Linking instead of nofollow?

Leslie Rohde invented Dynamic Linking after seeing my diagrams in Revenge of the Mininet. The nofollow tag came along two years later.

Yes, DL and nofollow achieve the same end result. They both control how and where the search engines can crawl, not just internally on your own site, it also applies to links leaving your site. They also preserve and concentrate link popularity and PageRank.

In short, pages make PageRank. Links spread it. Nofollow and Dynamic Links will not spread PR, whereas regular links do.

Purists prefer Dynamic Linking, as it cannot be detected (search engines don't execute code) and it's under your control. The nofollow attribute on the other hand, is easier to apply.

The only downside of nofollow is that you don't own it. It was created by MSN, Yahoo and Google... and they certainly can take it away. Not that they will anytime soon. But they could.

The whole idea of using nofollow - at least for SEO purposes - is to link smart. To spread that sweet Link Juice, to the leading revenue pages on your site, and to prevent PR from bleeding off your site.

You can read all about Dynamic Linking in an ebook - of the same name - by Leslie Rohde. It's available on the Revenge of the Mininet download page.

Also, look for a special PDF report from me in the next few days on how to do this. It's the second half of the Keyword Marketing minicourse.

Posted at 01:44 PM    

Mon - November 13, 2006

Playing Monopoly for Real - IMS #108


Do you remember playing Monopoly the board game? With its little green houses and red hotels.

Do you remember collecting rent from people who landed on your property. Do not pass go... and all that? It came to me in a flash today, that building financial freedom on the web is a lot like that.

In Monopoly, you start the game with only a little money. You land on properties and decide to buy them, if you can afford them. Eventually you add houses to your properties and then hotels.

Most people start online with little money and buy a property. They get a domain name and hosting. Eventually they start to develop the property by adding web pages, or "houses" to the property.

If you eventually have 100 pages, it's like owning a hotel in the game. It costs more to get, but you collect a lot more when people land on it. They click on your AdSense ads, and buy more from your affiliate links.

In the game, if you own all the properties of a color-group, you collect double the rent when someone lands on any property in that group.

The web is similar, if you dominate a niche with related sites that are linked together. You double your chances that someone will buy something from at least one of your web properties.

The more I think about it, the more I realize, that playing the game of Monopoly is a lot like building a web monopoly... except you're not doing it for "Monopoly money" you're doing it for real.

Either way it takes a commitment. Monopoly can take hours to play. Building a web monopoly is no different, but the objective is similar...

"To become the wealthiest player through buying, renting and selling of property."

So let me ask you, are you tired of working for someone else? Are you tired of dressing for work and the commute. Are you fed up with the office politics, the boss and the clients? Are you ready for a change?

But are you truly and deeply committed to that change, from the bottom of your heart?

If you are truly ready, I welcome you to come along. The trail has been blazed. There's even some breadcrumbs for you to follow...

I'm talking about Revenge of the Mininet and Clickin' it Rich. The worst thing you can do is let them sit on your hard drive.

If you're truly tired of the rat race, and ready for change, it's time to close that chapter of your life. It's time start playing a new game of web site monopoly.

Start with just one property and who knows... Maybe soon you'll be the wealthiest player in the game.

We'll chat again soon,

Michael

P.S.

If setting up Mininets is not for you, my friend Paul Smithson has just created an alternative. It's a complete online business.

It's like a franchise. It's all set up and ready to go. You don't need any special skills. It comes with multiple revenue steams. And it involves one of the most popular and fastest growing segments of the web.

If you want to learn more... If you are truly committed to change and having a better life... If you want a Complete Online Business Solution... The rest is up to you.

Paul has made it simple and affordable. You can own a complete online business. All you need to do is click your mouse button and sign up for the priority notification list...

Get a Complete Online Business Franchise ==> http://www.cdzn.com/bae

Posted at 01:35 PM    

Wed - October 25, 2006

Are Mininets Still Effective? What About the Future?


Question: I am looking for a strategy to boost the rankings of all my sites, in particular a hub site which contains my salesletter. Would you say that a mininet is a good way to do this? Are mininets as effective as ever? And above all what does the future hold?

We know that Google is constantly working to weed out these "synthetic networks" as well as other strategies. Do you have any reason to believe, that they might soon be able to find and penalize, a five-node mininet pointing to a hub?

Answer: Yes, Mininets are more effective than ever. It's the foundation that many SEO companies use. It's been cloned as online real estate, feeder nets, spokes and nodes, plus many other renditions. It works because it has to. There's nothing on the internet more important than sites that link to related topics.

So yes, your hub or Central site, can get a real boost from a Mininet. But what's important, is to do your keyword research first. Find the holes where there's lots of traffic but few competing pages.

Keyword Research ==> http://www.nichebotclassic.com

(Look for an announcement soon, as NicheBOT 2.0 is in beta. It makes niche discovery a lot easier with less work. Plus they've added a whole whack of new research tools.)

As for the future of the Mininet, thousands of people will continue to use them for selling consumer goods through affiliate programs. And I wouldn't worry about the search engines paying much attention to the Mininet strategy.

With all the scraper sites, blog spam, auto posting, link selling, trash contextual ad sites... Mininets are way under the radar.

Besides, it just makes good business sense. Why put every topic, make and model, on one site, when you could have five to ten related sites, with each site focused on a particular sub-topic.

A Mininet is also faster to set up than a large Authority site. Not only is it faster to set up, it's quicker to start earning income. (And I'm not talking AdSense nickels and dimes... I mean real money.)

As each minisite gets finished it can go "live" in the search engines and start generating revenue. Then as your other minisites get finished, you can link them into the existing network.

The only downside is that affiliate programs take maintenance and AdSense does not. The affiliate program may change the way it links, switch networks, go out of business, stop selling products that you're promoting... so many things can happen.

With AdSense, once the site is finished, it's relatively maintenance free. If someone stops advertising, there's almost always another ad ready to take its place. Google will serve it up with no effort on my part.

With all that said though... the future of affiliate marketing is bright. It really can earn up to 10 times more, than a site that focuses on contextual ads as its revenue source.

Follow the advice in Revenge of the Mininet, and it's hard to go wrong. If you focus on makes and model numbers, and other "low hanging" keywords, your income might start surprising you sooner than expected.

Posted at 04:44 PM    

Tue - October 24, 2006

Can I Use Blogs in My Mininet?


Question: May I ask you for some advice please? I have been reading your Revenge of the Mininet. My question is, to promote your main site with say 4 different sites, can you do that with blogs and/or subdomains or do you need to use 5 different domains?

Answer: Yes, you can use blogs to promote your central site. The type of web property doesn't really matter. Neither does the quality of the hosting. The important thing is to feed your central site the link popularity and traffic.

I would stay away from blogger.com blogs, as Google has a nasty habit of shutting them off for no reason. (Their Bot decides to toast you and you're gone.) So it's better to use a blog on your own hosting account.

If you use subdomains, Google doesn't really care. MSN will reward you at this time. Yahoo can filter them out using their web map filter for relevancy.

So the technology clearly exists to filter out artificial linking structures on subdomains. However, only one major engine has chosen to implement it at this time.

Posted at 09:17 PM    





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