Taxes, Spending and Earning More Money Online

There's nothing like starting a post with the word taxes to drive you away from reading this faster than a rattlesnake right by your foot. Nonetheless, I had to start this post with something that came to mind as I was preparing my taxes this week (well, not really preparing - just hunting and gathering for the tax guy).

If you're like me you've probably found yourself spread across multiple marketing fronts online - from products, articles, affiliate work, blogs, seo, etc. As much fun as this can be (plus some work) you may have either forgotten or abandoned some of your work done in the past. This can get pretty easy when you get focused making money online with a new endeavor while giving in to some others that really didn't pan out.

What this comes down to in many ways is that you are probably spending too much money and could tighten you belt a little in 2010. Let's look at some of the core expenses and see where you might be able increase your profits with just a little effort.

Making Money Online with Daily Work

Continuing from yesterday I wanted to talk more about how the site, 'Make Money Online' was able to dominate that very same keyword phrase. If you felt the urge to examine Alan's site in detail you might have noticed one interesting feature - virtually daily posts centered around his core keyword phrases. What's even more amazing is that he used completely free methods to reach his goal! Astonishing!

Let's do some simple math on what he might be making right now from that site. Twelve medium ad spaces for $120 a month = $1440, two large banners for $300 a month, and text link for $180 a month = $1920 / month just in advertising alone. Using those numbers alone you can see that day to day focus can really pay off in a high performing niche. Plus, it shows that you don't have to have an expensive, fancy site to do this.

Build it Right to Learn How to Make Money Online

Ok, listen, don't make the same mistake that I did not that long ago. I built a fairly successful site a couple of years ago that was moving up in the Google rankings - I can't say it was one of my more carefully thought out sites, but, had a fair amount of content nonetheless.

You see, about a year ago I started to get very excited about keyword optimization by focusing more on my blog titles, headers and highlighted information. Thinking that I was helping my other site, I went in and altered all of the headers, meta tags, main page title, etc. Guess what? Google dropped my site like a rock out of their top listings. Ouch - that's one tough way to learn how to make money online!

After sitting back and pondering this a bit I realized that I had shot myself in the foot by over optimizing (and, really over thinking) the problem at hand. Google got it as well - my site had changed too much - thus the search king had to re-index it. Lesson learned (or, as the oddly say in England 'lesson learnt').

Today's web marketing lesson is all about building it right the first time - why keyword optimization must be a priority when you plan and prototype. Yes, you can change core keyword phrases along the way but, you must do it very gradually. That's really beside the point here.

What I want to stress to you is the need to start with good keyword research first - targeting your core keyword phrase and then all relevant variations on it. Let's take a great example that, I think, will show you how to approach this problem with some powerful ammunition for your own work.

If you've done some research online for sites devoted to earning money online - you may have noticed a site appear about 1-2 years ago for the search term 'make money online'. Go ahead and type it into Google without the quotes.

The #1 site is Alan Liew's Blogger site (yes, a Blogger site!) - here's a screenshot:



Now, if you pay special attention to his site you'll see that the keyword phrase 'make money online' is the predominate term on his site - from the main page and throughout his post titles and links. What's not quite so apparent is that all inbound links to his site are also titled 'Make Money Online' from forum posts to articles.

What Alan did right was focus immediately on the keyword phrase he desired to dominate and did it in about two years! Kudos to him and his perseverance - his example is a complete success in a massively competitive market (157,000,000 results).

This shows that staying the course with your keyword phrase is one of the most important steps to building your site. Be sure to use one of the keyword tools out there to find a phrase you want to market to and stick to it! If you keep diligent - you will succeed.

You're Not Making Any Money Online without Authority

Made you wonder, didn't I?? If you read my post from a couple of days ago you saw that I assigned you to do some research by typing in an example keyword phrase 'How to Make Money Online'. If you did what I asked you, you probably wondered what you should really be looking for that defines their site's success in the search engines. I bet you felt that slight pang of jealousy that your website isn't in that top 10 list (heck, I know I did).

Many of you have probably dropped some real dollars on some ebooks and read a thing or two about search engine optimization to guess that these sites have high quality backlinks from other sites that also rank well in the search engines. And, as we all know TRAFFIC = MONEY - so, everyone's goal is to get traffic. However, (and this is a BIG however) that is not necessarily the answer to getting top rankings in Google or Yahoo (and most recently - Bing). Bada Bing! Read that last line again.

Ok, hold all of your preconceptions about SEO because you're probably submitting articles, adding entries to link directories, creating profiles in social sites, etc. etc. - i.e. - wasting valuable time! There is one secret I'm going to spill - and that is your site's authority!

By authority I mean that the content you've provided in your site or blog has relevant meaning and important to human eyes based on your key topic. Guess what? Google is trying to view your site the same way with human glasses - and, guess what - they're not rose colored.

What you might be thinking is that Google is judging your site based on the number and popularity of sites linking back to you. True, somewhat - but, there are a boatload of PhDs at Google trying to make it read your site like a human - yes, a human. That means reading from top to bottom, left to right, scanning and determining if the content has relevance (remember that term - it is important) and authority to the topic at hand - that is, your web page.

So what does that really mean? If you think about this it is about the perception the search engines have of your content demonstrating that you have the appropriate knowledge of the topic or niche. That is why you'll see sites with a significant amount of detailed content focused on specific keywords ranking high.

Recently, however, I have discovered sites that rank in page 1 of Google that do not have many backlinks, and, those backlinks are not highly ranked. I was literally floored when I found this. Why would these sites get high rank for the search term?

In one example I found a site ranked #4 of 1.4M results that had 6 pages with 717, 755, 519, 211, 373 and 12 words in each page respectively. The pages spoke directly to the main topic (page 1) and associated topics in pages 2-5 with page 6 being a contact page. It had 28 backlinks with all being simple web directories, whois and alexa rank. Pretty simple - but, it was authoritative. It reads well, has the main topic as the page title and subtopics / subheadings with content.

What this demonstrates is that getting ranked high in Google may not be as hard as you think - just as long as you build your pages in a human readable, authoritative manner. Want a great example? Just take a look at how Wikipedia is structured and you'll get a clue on what you need to do (more on this later). There's no telling how long it will take Google to get you to a high position - be patient - you should be able to build niche sites that capitalize on this and make money easier than before.

Do you Really Want to Learn How to Make Money Online?

Well, an interesting start to this blog entry, huh? How to make money online? Yes, yes - everyone is out there pitching money making ideas. But, I have to start this with my noticeable absence from blogging - why no posts - what's happening in this year?

The real secret here is that I've gone deep into research and education . What do I mean by that? Over the last 8 months I made a pact with myself - walk away, dust off all of those internet marketing ebooks I've purchased over the last 4 years, go heads down and hunt for every possible tip I can find - add to that some serious online research specifically on successful SEO and Email list techniques.

Well, I can honestly say that I've picked up even more from the online research of successful sites than the library of ebooks (most have the same information) that I now own (at my current count, 27)- but, both have convinced me of some certain rules of success. Frankly, the basic rules of online success are easier than you think.

But the first rule I want to stress to you, the reader, is that making money online comes down to your mindset - yes, you! One of the biggest scams out there today is the mass of top marketers selling products to beginner marketers over and over until they walk away with millions. You say 'Hey! I want to do that!'. Well, I've got news for you - they've got a huge advantage - they've got money to repackage and sell you again using top copywriters and product packaging. Not to mention they have your psychology in mind - the hungry beginner; ready to conquer the world of online marketing and make millions!

Where they have the advantage is that only a very small percentage of the population will buy something, and, an even smaller percentage will have the ongoing motivation to keep doing it. So, back to that first rule - you have to change yourself first! You have to prove that you can do the day to day work (yes, I'm going to say it is work!) to succeed. Writing little tweets on Twitter is easy, creating a Blog is a bit harder, building a decent website is even more work, and writing a successful ebook or valuable, deep content is very hard!

So, I ask you - 'do you really want to make money online?' Or, from the seasoned internet marketer's viewpoint - 'do you really want to invest yourself into an industry that takes hard work, dedication, education and long term commitment?' Notice that the marketers don't ask you this question - because most of you will run to the hills!

Look, I don't want to scare you - but to be truthful. My best success online has come for daily commitment - that's where I've earned big dollars. My worst examples online have been quick-hit profits that promised immediate gratification and success.

Don't stop reading! Here's my motivational side - what's really missing is that anyone can do this! Yes, even the most inexperience newbie can be successful. Patience and daily work is the key - it is going to take some time. But, if you stay motivated, stay focused, set long term goals (say, over the next 12 months), establish your business ( Internet Marketing 101: Business Before Web ), you will start to see some dollars coming in.

With that said, I have an assignment for you. I want you to type this phrase into Google - "How to Make Money Online" (192M results without quotes and 2.1M with quotes) and specifically look at the top 10 results. If you haven't noticed - about 2 or 3 of the results are blogs. Go to those blogs and look at their archive history - how long have they been blogging? Take a look at their content - what is unique? Note down why you think they're successful -based on content, keywords, dialog, even subtle psychology. I guarantee this will be a better education for you than any ebook.

Google Cash Detective 2 - A Review

Every once in a while I receive an offer that I'm so sure is going to work that I jump in immediately to get in early and test the waters. Recently, I did just that with Chris Carpenter's 'Google Cash Detective 2'.

I really should back up a bit before talking about my results. For some reason Google Adwords and I don't get along. I'm not sure why but for whatever reason I've spent way more than I've ever earned using Adwords. You can name the campaign type - I've done it - literally losing thousands of dollars over the last 6 years (thankfully I've made much more without Adwords).

Given that, when the email came to try out 'Google Cash Detective 2' I decide to take the leap again. After reviewing how it worked I was convinced that this was going to be my blitzkrieg to profits on Adwords once and for all!

So what is 'Google Cash Detective 2'? Basically, Chris has found a way to measure/score the top Adwords ads and their corresponding keywords by time duration. In other words, if an Adwords ad has been in a top position on Google for many months, then it must imply that the advertiser was willing to keep paying for that position - the assumption here is that he or she is making a profit on those ads.

Now add into that the keyword phrases used - you now know what ads and keywords are doing the best (at least that is the theory). Chris creates a scoring system that shows you specifically the ad you should clone for any affiliate products (most likely, Clickbank ebooks).

A great idea in my mind, GCD2 really seemed to be something to look at. So, I signed up and immediately found 2 profitable niches to try out that were targeting high gravity Clickbank books. I jumped in creating Adwords ads for both using the top keyword phrases shown in GCD2.

Well, long story short - I *FAILED* again with Adwords. My cloned ads ran for a number of days with many hits but absolutely no sales at all. Yes, nothing! Ouch - that cost me hundreds of dollars yet again.

I'm sorry to say that if you really want to learn how to make money online, then, I can't recommend this product unless you have a lot of cash to spare - hundreds of dollars. Maybe you'll find the right niche and ad clone to turn a profit - but, as always, if you're playing with Google Adwords - BEWARE! You can lose a lot of money.

You Know the Economy is Bad When...

Yes, I am alive and kicking. These have been some of the strangest times for any profession including Internet Marketers. Back in January when I was finishing up Step 7 of building an affiliate site I took a step back. It wasn't because I didn't want to keep writing - but, that I started to notice something unusual about the lists of core marketers that I follow closely.

When opening my personal email I started to see more and more quick hit messages from marketers both big and small. At first I thought it was an anomaly but started seeing a pattern emerging. Marketers were starting to get desperate. How so? Every email was shifting to quick hit affiliate links for products - 'hey, take a look at....', 'I don't know if you've seen this yet...', 'he's just lowered his amazing product to only...'

You get the picture - the market is bad - people are scrambling. I've noticed it myself - product sales are down, ad revenue is WAY down, etc. The goal of promoting quick hit affiliate products is to sell your email list as fast as possible to generate revenue. Hopefully, this side income can supplement any downturn in their own products. But, it is coming too often to the point that every email now is a cross-sell and I'm tired of that.

Now, I'm not a fan of pushing more and more products to my list unless I'm truly excited about what I see out there. With the downturn I started looking for something new and different that might make what you and I do a bit easier. Sometime in the beginning of Feb. I found it - a simple, new idea that I can work into an easy side product and tool.

So, making a long story short - I've been working on my idea for a couple of months now and will talk about it soon. Meanwhile, I've also been working hard on a new guru's set of tutorials that have helped me immensely. More to come on that.

My advice for this time right now is to focus completely on a single product - your own. Write lots of content, get that email list going - and push yourself every day! Don't dawdle on affiliate sites, ads, and other experiments. To make money online in this time requires deep dedication to your idea.