Make Money Online with an Internet Business

How to Quickly Improve PR & Alexa

Friday, May 9, 2008

The 24 Hour Special/7 Day FREE Trial on my Blog Carnival Submission Service expires at 6PM EST today.

On May 6th, I looked up the PR & Alexa rank of all the blogs using my blog carnival submission service. I did this planning on tracking them over time. Yesterday, I went back and looked at the PR & Alexa rank again.

The PR & Alexa rank had improved almost across the board. The two PR exceptions were a PR3 & a PR4 blog that remained the same. And with only one exception, the Alexa rank had improved dramatically. That’s because there haven’t been any posts made to this particular blog in several weeks. If there’s one sure way to drop the Alexa rank of your blog, it’s not making regular posts.

Without giving the URLs to the blogs to protect privacy, here are some specific results over the past 2 months (Alexa rankings are rounded to the nearest 100):

Could your blog use a boost like these blogs have experienced? If you answered “yes”, you have until 6PM EST today to subscribe to my Blog Carnival Submission Service at less than half the regular price. I’m even giving your a FREE 7 day trial. Blog carnival submissions are a great way to put one-way link-building on autopilot.

Click Here Now to Improve the Rankings & Traffic to Your Blog - FREE 7 Day Trial

Tags: Websites, Monetization

Popularity: unranked [?]

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24 Hour Special: Free 7 Day Trial

Thursday, May 8, 2008

If you’re trying to rank high in the search engines, it’s all about links. Sure it helps to have the keyword in the URL and the title tag, but that isn’t nearly enough…especially for highly-competitive keywords. I’ve achieved first page rankings for several highly competitive search terms recently and building links over time was a major factor.

I use a multi-pronged approach to link building including article marketing and focusing on links using the keyword as anchor text. Blog carnival submissions have also been a major part of my link-building strategy. Submitting blog posts to blog carnivals has grown the number of links to my blog by hundreds, if not thousands of links, over the past year.

Don’t be so fast to discard the possibility of using blog carnivals if your site is not a blog either. I’ve recently employed a strategy that anyone can use…but instead of writing about it, I’ve created a short video that demonstrates this strategy. I understand you need to see proof that this works but on the other hand I’m not going to advertise my rankings for long so I’m taking this video down as soon as the 24 Hour Special ends. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

[24 Hour Special Expired…..Link Removed]

My blog carnival submission service normally sells for $100/month and another subscriber just signed up earlier today at that price so it’s definitely worth $100/month. For the next 24 Hours you can subscribe for only $47/month and I’ll even give you a 7 day free trial so you can see the results from the first week of blog carnival submissions.

[24 Hour Special Expired…..Link Removed]

This 24 Hour Special Expires at 6:00 PM EST on Friday May 9, 2008.

Tags: Create Your Own Products, Websites

Popularity: unranked [?]

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Do High Rankings Mean More Traffic?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Over the past few months, I’ve finally succeeded in ranking on the first page of the SE results for some very competitive search terms. If you’ve been reading my posts over the past few weeks you know what some of the terms are and I’ve shared exactly how I did it so I’m not going to rehash that again.

Some of these search terms have over 20 million results and one of them has 100 million results so it’s not like you can rank in the top 10 overnight and I didn’t. It’s taken about a year but now I know how to do it and I could repeat it. I don’t think it would take a year and I could rank highly for long-tail keywords quickly.

Before I took on the challenge of ranking for highly competitive search terms, I checked the traffic of those terms to make sure it would be worth the effort. The range was around 300 to 1,000+ searches per day for these terms so it appeared that ranking in the top 10 would drive plenty of traffic but that hasn’t turned out to be the case.

For example, one of the terms gets 300 G searches per day according to the SEO Book Keyword Tool but I only get about 15 visitors per day for that term…not exactly a flood of traffic. But on the bright side, I’m ranked highly for 3 search terms and I’ve noticed the number of people signing up for my notification list growing faster since I’ve been getting more search engine traffic so there definitely has been some benefit.

From all this, I’m beginning to thing that paid traffic (PPC, banners, etc.) might be the way to go for several reasons. First, it doesn’t take weeks or months to get the traffic. Second, you aren’t subject to changes in the search engine algorithms to wipe out your traffic. Third, since you get the traffic faster, you can test & improve the conversion ratios faster. What’s wrong with paying $1 for traffic if you make $1.10, $1.30, or even $2? Nothing. What do you think about SE traffic vs paid traffic?

Tags: Copywriting, Online Business

Popularity: unranked [?]

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How to Build a Profitable Internet Business

Friday, May 2, 2008

Continuing with the survey results, here are few more responses to the question “What do you like least about the blog?” with my comments.

Response: Reiterating a clear set of steps to build a profitable business. Revealing the results of your own sales and business efforts (to establish credibility so people can be sure it’s not a case of the blind leading the blind).

Comment: I’ve been reiterating a clear set of steps to build a profitable Internet business for over a year now. The formula is at the top of this blog: Website + Traffic + Monetization = Make Money Online. The specific details depend on your personal preferences and goals. For me the best model has been:

1. Website (Create this blog)
2. + Traffic (Post frequently & promote the blog to build traffic)
3. + Monetization (Create products and make special offers to readers)

That’s exactly the model that’s been prominently displayed on this blog since day 1. I follow the model myself and I’ve been posting about those three steps for over a year. It works…period. You can easily find dozens of others using the same model, but it takes time & effort.

My opinion is that too many people profess to want to build an Internet business but then aren’t willing to put in the time & effort to make it happen. The answer is very simple but they keep looking for shortcuts that don’t exist. You’re never going to find a “magic button” you can push that will magically make money online. The best thing to do is just get started today. You’ll learn what works best for you and what doesn’t work so well. Can I be any more clear than that?

If you want to follow that model, here’s how to do it:

1. Create a Blog

You can use my online video course that shows you “How to Create a Personalized WordPress Blog in Minutes”

2. Build Trafic

I covered this in the last post but here it is again -

Here’s exactly what I’m using to build rankings and traffic:

1) Blog Carnival Submissions
2) Article Marketing
3) One Way Links with Keyword as anchor text (3 Way Links & Linktator2)

Does these methods really work? Check out the G results for “internet business”. The results change frequently but it’s a very competitive search term. I’m usually on the first page of results.

3. Monetize the Traffic

I have 2 courses for product creation. You can get a copy of “How to Create a DVD” at cost (less than $10) for joining my list (although I think I’m going to change that soon), and I also have a course that shows you “How to Quickly Create an Online Video Information Product.”

This is not the only model for building an Internet business. I don’t believe one size fits all like some people seem to believe. There are dozens of models to follow. The one I present might not be the right one for you. I leave that for you to decide.

Response: I bought a bunch of products from you and then about a week later you were practically giving them away. I know these 24 hour specials are popular but I think you should offer rebates to people who have recently purchased the products at a higher price. I love what I purchased and at the time I was happy about the price but now I feel like a chump. I know this doesn’t really make sense but that’s how I feel. I can tell you that I will be very hesitant about purchasing from you again.

Comment: I can understand how you feel. Timing is everthing. I like to test different offers, prices, etc. to see what works. Without knowing the specifics I have no idea how different the prices were but I can’t imagine they were drastically different because I don’t recall changing them all that much. From my perspective, it’s not practical to offer rebates. It would be a hassle to keep track of all that. All products come with a money-back guarantee.

Response: Less emphasis on the items you have for sale. I realize you need to make a living … tell me once what you have for sale. For instance, you had two back to back posts, “March Madness Special Ends Soon” and “March Madness 24 Hour Special” - didn’t need to hear it twice.

Comment: Another example of not being able to please everyone all the time. I can understand your point but I have noticed that a post announcing that a special ends soon often results in more sales. By the way, referring back the the first response, that tactic reveals the results of my own sales efforts (to establish credibility so people can be sure it’s not a case of the blind leading the blind).

Thanks again for all the responses.

Tags: Video Products, Copywriting

Popularity: 22% [?]

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I’m Not as Bad As Others

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Continuing with the survey results I started to share Monday. Here are several responses to the question “What do you like least?”. First of all, thank for the candid responses. Constructive criticism can be helpful. Second of all, I learned a long time ago that I’m never going to please everyone. It’s best to be myself and let the everything else fall into place.

Here are a some responses in no particular order with my comments:

Response: “Unfortunately you seem to be just another “how to make cash site” but you aren’t as bad as others IMO since you engage your viewers and offer them something in return”

Comment: Thank you, glad to know I’m not as bad as others.

Response: “It doesn’t seem to have a lot of info on social marketing”

Comment: Up to this point, I have not used much social marketing. I’m not an expert on everything and I don’t pretend to know everything. Since I don’t use social bookmarking sites and don’t get much traffic from them, I don’t see a reason to make a post about using them so I can sound smart. Lots of other people seem to use them and there is a lot of information on other sites and blogs. I’m not ignoring social bookmarking though, I’m looking at a few ways to build links and drive traffic with them.

In January I experimented with social bookmarking in a post titled “Top 3 Reasons New Year’s Resolutions are For Losers”. I got hundreds of visitors a day from Stumble Upon for a few weeks but it wasn’t quality traffic. They didn’t stay long and they didn’t sign up for my list.

I like to stick with what works: article marketing, blog carnival submissions, and building one-way links with the keyword as anchor text all work and especially when you use all three of them simultaneously.

Here’s exactly what I’m using to build rankings and traffic:

1) Blog Carnival Submissions
2) Article Marketing
3) One Way Links with Keyword as anchor text (3 Way Links & Linktator2)

Response: long posts about sports teams I have never heard of

Comment: I realize this is not a sports blog but it is part of my personality. I’m a recovering sportsaholic. In my youth, I watched way too much sports on TV…not so much anymore. But I do still pay attention to what’s going on and watch a few of my favorite teams. I’ve always tied some kind of marketing or success lesson into those types of posts and I don’t think I’ve made more than 5 of them in the past year.

This is the perfect example of how you can’t please everyone. Many people like the fact that I try to inject some of my personality into my posts and this is part of it…but some people don’t like those posts. I can’t please everyone all the time.

Look for more responses & comments in my next post.

Tags: Blogs, Traffic

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Survey Says…

Monday, April 28, 2008

I wasn’t really planning on taking last week off but I did. I was in NY for my brother’s wedding last weekend. After that I took a few days to drive to Indiana stopping to see a few friends on the way and I never got around to making a post. I was intending to share the results of the survey I did a few weeks ago. I’ll do that this week.

The first question was “How did you hear about the CyberCashology blog”? The responses were roughly 75% from other blogs & 25% from search engines. I should have asked which search term but I didn’t. One of the responses indicated they searched on “kunaki review” and I have written about Kunaki a few times.

The next question asked how often you prefer new posts. About 10% prefer posts 7 days per week. Roughly 40% prefer posts every weekeday. And the winner was 3 posts per week at about 50%. I’ve been posting 3 times per week since January and that is my preference too so I think I’ll keep it there.

“What do you like most?” was the next question. The most popular answer was useful tips. Some others were personality, candor, honesty, sincerity, & personal updates. So I’ll try to provide more tips & injecting my personality into posts.

The next two questions asked “What do you like least?” & “What topics would you like to see covered more?” There were enough suggestions & opinions in the responses to those questions for another post or two so I’ll reveal those answers in the near future.

Tags: Video Products, Testing & Tracking

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Stupid Business Owners

Friday, April 18, 2008

I was watching Jay Leno the other night as I sometimes do and in his monologue he told a joke about a stupid criminal. This guy tried to rob an auto repair shop but the mechanic told him the manager was the only one who knew the combination to the safe and the manager was out to lunch.

So this stupid criminal gives the mechanic his cell phone number and tells the mechanic to call him when the manager returns so he can come back and rob the shop. The criminal got a call when the manager returned and of course the police were there to arrest him when he showed up to steal the money. Can you believe it?

It’s hard to believe people can be that stupid…but sometimes business owners can be just as stupid and I’m not excluding myself. Business owners sometimes do stupid things like failing to test and improve conversions, failing to offer an upsell, failing to provide prompt & courteous customer support (good luck getting repeat sales if you fall into that category), and lots of other simple things.

The sad part is that stupid (or maybe lazy is a better word) business owners are robbing themselves blind and they probably don’t even realize it. They could be making more money with minimal extra effort. It doesn’t take long to set up a split-test and customer support can be outsourced.

So the next time you hear a comedian telling a joke about stupid people, go ahead and laugh if it’s funny. But take a minute and consider everything you’re doing (or not doing). We all do stupid things from time to time and there’s no time like the present to find solutions to challenges.

Tags: Article Marketing, Testing & Tracking

Popularity: 32% [?]

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How Do You Face Obstacles?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

If you’re going to be successful, you’re going to have to overcome obstacles….lots of them. The simple fact is that everyone faces obstacles and challenges everyday. The major difference is that successful people persevere and find ways to overcome the obstacles while those who aren’t so successful use these obstacles as excuses for not succeeding.

I’m no different than anyone else. I have obstacles to overcome too. For example, an opportunity has come up recently which I won’t elaborate on at this time but the “perfect storm” of circumstances including the timing, the weather, and my travel schedule has arisen to make a simple task full of challenges.

I’ve been in Phoenix for almost the past four months. I specifically chose someplace warm because I hate snow and cold weather. It seems without exception bad things happen when it snows and I’ve had a not-so-subtle reminder in the past few days. I need to receive a Fed Ex package with an assignment and reply to it by Monday April 21. On the surface, it seems very simple doesn’t it? It hasn’t worked out that way.

First of all this is the week of my brother’s wedding and I’ve known I would be driving across the country most of the week for probably 6 months. Secondly, I make a conscious effort not to be anywhere there is even a remote chance of a blizzard until May when I feel safe Spring has sprung. I made a rare exception this week to drive through Minnesota to pick up my uncle for the ride to New York so he could attend his nephew’s wedding and see his children.

Literally while I was on the road, this opportunity came up. I was a day away from Minnesota (or so I thought) and planning to be there through the weekend leaving early Monday morning so it seemed simple enough to have the package delivered to Minnesota where I could work on it over the weekend. It was sent Fed Ex overnight delivery on Thursday to arrive Friday.

Of course the blizzard hit Thursday & Friday. I drove through it for two days. It was absolutely miserable. I saw at least 3 jacknifed Fed Ex trucks on the interstates. Of course the package did not arrive Friday. It wasn’t delivered on Saturday either. Not knowing when (or even if) the package would be delivered on Monday, I left at 6 AM just like I had planned. Of course the package arrived about 10:15 AM Monday morning.

So now I’m scrambling to have the package delivered again to New York. It ought to arrive by Friday or Saturday…but it should have arrived in Minnesota last Friday or Saturday too so who knows. And how much time do you figure I’ll have to focus on the task with all the wedding chaos? I only have a vague idea of what the task is because I don’t have the package yet.

It would have been simple to handle this at any time during the previous 4 months while I was in Phoenix. And it would have been simple to handle this next week or probably for the next several weeks. But it all had to happen this week when I’m driving literally across the country to my brother’s wedding and throw in a freak April blizzard on the way.

Why? Who knows and who cares? It doesn’t matter. It’s a complete waste of time to wonder why or why me? That’s what losers do. They would use all these obstacles as excuses. I’ll just deal with it and do the best that I can. The reality is that I was able to get my deadline extended to Wednesday April 23rd and if the package arrives this weekend that should be plenty of time.

Don’t get bogged down in the details of this particular situation. The bigger picture is that everyone faces their own challanges on a daily basis. It would be stupid to think you’re the only one with obstacles to overcome. We don’t have much control over when opportunities arise. We can only pounce on those opportunities quickly before they disappear despite any and all challenges that arise. Good luck overcoming your obstacles.

Tags: Testing & Tracking, Success

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Are You Making an Offer?

Monday, April 14, 2008

I’ve heard one of the biggest mistakes made online is not making an offer on your sales page and another is not asking for the order. I’ve only heard this…not really noticed it much. Most of the sales pages I visit make an offer and ask for an order although sometimes the offer is not very clear. Are you making these mistakes?

The thoughts about offers and orders occurred to me as I was driving through a freak winter storm on my way to Minnesota. On the bright side, it served as a not so subtle reminder of why I hate snow. The weather has added an extra day to an already long drive. Highways (including long stretches of US Interstates) aren’t plowed and barely passable. It’s like driving on unpaved roads and there were more cars in the medians and jack knifed semi-trucks than I could count. Luckily I wasn’t one of them but there’s nothing anybody can do about the weather and that’s not the point.

I will normally just drive straight through but due to the road conditions I’ve stayed at 2 motels on the way. At both places I decided to stop there were several national chains and hardly any of them are making an offer…unless you consider the sign an offer. All I wanted was cable so I could watch the Masters and high-speed Internet. It would also be nice to know the price of a one-night stay.

Not a single one of these national chains made an offer with all three of those things. Some offered a price. Some offered high-speed Internet. Some offered cable. But none of them clearly offered all three so I was left to guess. I wasn’t about to drive around to all of them and ask so I just picked one based on the incomplete offer one of them made and that’s where I stayed.

One morning I woke up at 5 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep so I clicked on the TV to check out the weather and found an endless stream of infomercials. I actually like to watch infomercials occasionally because they are masters of direct marketing. It’s kind of like a sales letter that comes to life. If you listen, they use a lot of the same words & phrases you’ll find in written sales letters.

One guy had invented some contraption that would save me hundreds of dollars on dry cleaning among other things. I wasn’t interested but he was going to knock off one of my 29.95 payments, send me 3 bonuses, and upgrade me to express shipping if ordered now. He even put a phone number up on the screen and told me to call it right now. That’s the TV equivalent of a big bold clickable order link that says “Click Here Now to Order.”

See the big difference? The infomercial guy gave me several reasons to order now and told me exactly how to do it. I just didn’t happen to be interested in his offer. On the other hand, I had a choice of about 6 motels to stay at and none of them stood out and gave me reasons to buy. They all used the same mediocre marketing. I bet one of them lost my business because they didn’t make it crystal clear what they were offering. Don’t make that mistake.

Tags: Article Marketing, Domain Names

Popularity: 29% [?]

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The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy

Thursday, April 10, 2008

A few weeks ago, Ed Rivis released his book “The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy .” I like Ed’s blog and read it weekly so naturally I ordered the book during his special offer and I finished reading it last week. It’s just over 200 pages and it’s very easy to read…especially if you understand most of the web and information business jargon like landing pages, back-end, etc.

Ed must be a bit modest because he told me I didn’t need to read it and I probably already knew most of what was in it. To a certain extent he was right, but I did learn a few things and it was worth reading. The book also does a great job of laying out a clear strategy on how to use the Internet to increase your business.

Mostly I learned about a few free tools I’d never heard of like BrowserShots.org which shows you how your site looks in different browser windows. That’s a lot simpler than firing up several browsers. There were also a few others I hadn’t heard of but I can’t remember them off the top of my head.

If you’re looking for a straightforward web marketing strategy, this book is for you just as the title says. It’s not just about making money online. It’s more about how to use the Internet as part of a larger business model incorporating offline tactics too. Considering Ed is a consultant, this books is a great advertisement of his expertise and clearly establishes him as an expert.

Ed sent me two copies of the book but I don’t have one to give away. I sent the extra copy to James Lee because he sent me a book about AdWords a few weeks ago. That’s reciprocity at work.

Tags: Article Marketing, Success

Popularity: 27% [?]

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How to Quickly Improve PR & Alexa

24 Hour Special: Free 7 Day Trial

Do High Rankings Mean More Traffic?

How to Build a Profitable Internet Business

I’m Not as Bad As Others

Survey Says…

Stupid Business Owners

How Do You Face Obstacles?

Are You Making an Offer?

The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy

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