SEO is not dead, but it’s not healthy either!    

Your job as a content marketer is to give life to the old SEO practices, and get the best results from it.

Don’t be scared of Google updates. Embrace it. [tweet this]

Most people only research keywords because they want to rank their web pages in Google top 10.

But trust me, the most important part is profiting with your chosen term; making money and getting loyal customers.

If all you’re after is taking over the first page of Google, with no plans for converting such traffic into customers, this post is not for you. Go see your grandma…

On the other hand, if you’ve been searching for ways to generate profitable and easy-to-rank keywords, without going through the traditional hassles, this post is for you.

In fact, I thought about you when I was hitting hard on my keyboard.

Do you really need to target a specific keyword?

Well, there is no straight answer to this question. Because I’ve seen a lot of my content pages ranking in Google homepage, even though I didn’t target particular key terms.

I simply researched and wrote content that’s interesting, informative and valuable to the end-user (the target audience).

But there is a caveat here. The truth is, if you want to take responsibility and ensure that each content you write will performs well in Google and other search engines, I strongly recommend that you target a specific key term for your content.

When you’ve a keyword in mind and in the title, it’d help you to increase the conversion rates for your products and services.

One of the mistakes I made when I started this blog was writing articles in every topic, without a plan on how to profit with it.

It doesn’t matter what the article or video is about, make sure that it’s tailored to suit your product or service.

That’s why targeting a specific keyword is vital from the very beginning – Of course, as time goes by and you gain authority in your niche, you can just write a post out of experience and your instinct.

If you agree that targeting a particular keyword for your content is important, here are 6 simple ways to generate hot and easy-to-rank key terms right now:

1.      Target local search queries

This is pretty straight forward. I want you to also know that local search queries have the potential of generating hoards of targeted visitors to your website.

Remember, the essence of targeting these local searches is to produce quality and interesting content, dominate the first page of Google and sell your products. [Tweet this]

Sure, you may have other reasons for starting a business online, but mine is to build a strong brand and make a living.

You already have a lot of local search queries in your niche. But unfortunately, you’ve been neglecting them.

Local search queries are those keywords that have the name of the city or town or state as the prefix or suffix in any given search phrase.

Does that make sense? Here’s an example: Most potential buyers prefer to patronize companies in their own geographic location.

So when someone in New Jersey wants to buy a web hosting service, he or she would go to Google and search for “best web hosting in NJ” or “web hosting company New Jersey.”

If you’re a “freelance writer in California”, you could optimize your website content with that local search query and when a potential client searches for it in Google, your page will pop up. It’s easier to rank for local search terms because the competition is less.

Also, most of the people who target these terms don’t produce quality and SEO-friendly content on a continual basis. That’s your edge over them.

Extra nugget: Now that you know what local search terms looks like, you can easily use the Google keywords tool here to generate 10, 20 or even 100 of such phrases in record time.

2.      Dig into your seed keyword

A seed keyword is the opposite of a long-tail keyword. For instance, if you’re a social media expert and wants to rank for that term, you’ll need to dig more because of competition.

In other words, take a single or double keyword and reshuffle it. This way, Google keywords tool and other private tools can extract phrases that are easy-to-rank and contain qualifiers that have buyer insight in them.

So, how can you dig ‘seed keyword’ to generate better, long-tail and easy-to-rank key phrases? First, you need to identify what your seed word is.

When I’m building niche sites, the first thing I do is to find out if potential buyers are searching for the product name or the company that made it.

If you dig more into your seed term, e.g “content marketing tips,” you’ll be surprised by the results. That seed term will produce alternatives like:

• - Content marketing tips business
• - Website content marketing tips
• - Content marketing tips blog
• - Content marketing tips free
• - Content tips for marketing

Whatever your niche may be, don’t complain that all the right keywords have been taken by your competitors. Go the extra mile and dig deeper.

Dig into social media, SEO marketing, article writing, blog marketing and other seed keywords. I’m sure you’ll find a lot of profitable and hot terms that you can rank for easily.

3.      Use FAQ phrases   

FAQ is an acronym for frequently asked questions.

FAQ’s started as a list of answers to common questions that members of a particular group are asking.

Ecommerce and tutorial sites are typical examples of where you can find these common questions.

Answer sites like Yahoo! Answers and Quora are also great portals to find such key queries.

Interestingly, FAQ’s can make up a good list of profitable and easy-to-rank key terms.

If you can lay your hands on and use them on your content headline and body, it’d instantly boost your rankings.

And not only that, FAQ phrases are useful data because search engines use them to gauge the authority of a particular website. The truth is, search engines – Google is concerned about solving her users’ problems.

Google wants to rank content pages which are relevant and informative to the searcher (you and I).

Because when the searcher finds what he or she is looking for, they’d come back tomorrow and thereby clicking the sponsored ads (Adwords) on the right hand side as well as top and bottom left in Google.

If you run an ecommerce website or wants to rank for ecommerce related key phrases, here are lists of FAQs phrases to target. These are profitable keywords by the way:

• - Do you offer free shipping?
• - How do I use your shopping site?
• - Do you ship to Australia, Yes!
• - How do you calculate shopping cost?
• - Do I need to register before I can place an order?

Note: when targeting FAQs phrases, make sure that you’ve the right answers in place because it’s going to be a helpful buyer tool.

And if potential buyers are happy, they’d share your content, build social signals, link to your content and help drive targeted traffic to your website.

4.      Take advantage of branded keywords

Every content marketer has a goal, and I’m sure you’ve yours as well. But as you get along in your business, things might look tricky especially now that Google is throwing various darts and changing their algorithm.

Of course, they can backup their claims of building an engaged and rich search environment, but it’s not going to favor the upcoming website owners.

As an online entrepreneur, it’s your duty to stand in the shoulder of those BIG brands and profit.

Google and other search engines HAVE fallen in love with Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, CNN, INC. and a host of other brands including web 2.0 websites (squidoo.com, hubpages.com, blogger.com etc.)

Sure, these brand names might not be popular offline, but on the internet, they’re the leaders. The way to rank higher than your competitors is to take advantage of branded keywords.

I just discovered that Coca-Cola had done a lot of marketing research to help grow their profits. Find out here and here.

Now, you can harness that rich data to create awesome content, and give credit to Coca-Coca Company.

When this happens, it’s going to build an authority status, branded in a way that search engines would begin to regard your website or blog as the go-to resource for well-researched information.

If you’re new to internet marketing or lack the necessary skills to swim through the market, then you’ve to leverage on established brands.

After the death of Steve Jobs, Did you see how website owners used his brand intelligence to dominate Google? See here and here.

5.      Focus on Negative keywords

Do you want to be on top of search engines no matter the competition? Then start using ‘negative keywords.”

To a large extent, making money in life is not easy. This is one reason why people are so careful with their money.

When a particular product is making raves online, most people will never buy it until they conduct their own indepth research. I don’t belong to this group. Lol!

When someone searches for “product name + scam” or “is this product safe” or “product name side effects” or “your product name + complaints” – that person wants to spend wisely.

This potential customer wants to know if the product in question is scam or not. Because if any of the customers who purchased it initially wasn’t satisfied, there is bound to be complaints and negative reviews somewhere on the internet.

How can you get such negative keywords? Sure, you can use any of those keyword suggestion tools, but the string you’ll search for must contain any of these qualifiers e.g scam, complaints, safe, side effects etc.

At the moment, I’ve a niche blog that’s generating well over 100 daily organic visits and I’m targeting a negative key phrase.

But the important thing is that I’m making money from those hits. Negative key terms are profitable if you properly optimize your content and pages with them – but please don’t stuff or wear blackhat!

6.      Get long-tail with high search volume

Long-tail keywords are good and could rank faster than seed key terms. But most bloggers and internet marketers who target them don’t make decent income, because of low search volume.

Yes, if your long-tail keyword has only ’20’ global monthly searches and mine have ‘2000’ global monthly searches, I’ll generate more buyer leads and make more money than you’ll ever make. Why?

It’s because my long-tail key term has a high search volume. Since these types of key terms are easier to rank in Google within the span of 30 – 90 days, it’s better to target the ones that are searched frequently.

To rank a long-tail search term that gets 33 global searches monthly, you’ll need to write quality content, interlink the pages, build social signals and off-page links.

Funny enough, you also need the same amount of backlinks and social signals to rank a long-tail key term that receives over 1000 global monthly searches.

Here is what I mean:

Assuming that after a keyword research you did, you came up with these two search queries:

• - Small business web designer —- 300 monthly searches
• - Website design for small business —- 1900 monthly searches

If the first phrase is competing against 12,000 web pages in Google, and the second is competing against 12,500 web pages in Google, which one would you target in your content?

The second phrase (12,500 competitors) would yield better results for you over time in terms of how much you’ll earn and the leads you’ll generate.

So, keep targeting long-tail keywords that have high search volume, because over time you’ll build up an authority & high-traffic website.

Keyword research takeaway

Did you know that I actually discovered these 6 keyword research strategies in 2012.

And ever since, this blog and my other niche sites are growing rapidly in areas of organic traffic, email subscribers, conversions and income.

Stop struggling against your competitors. Learn how to do keyword research like a pro and begin to dominate Google top 10 quickly, no matter what Panda and Penguin is throwing at you.

What is your best strategy for generating profitable and easy-to-rank keywords?

And if you’ve challenges pertaining to this topic, please leave it in the comment below. I’ll answer all your SEO-related questions and help push your website to the top. See you ahead!

Top right Image Credit: Seeforlife

Affiliate marketing is a reliable way for content marketers to make extra income online.

And it might surprise you to know that most super affiliates have poor blogging sense?

In other words, the people who succeed in the affiliate business might miss it in blogging.

But there is a reason why it’s happening and in this post, I want to highlight the seven major reasons.

If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you’d want to increase your income, build a better business and join the league of the internet’s millionaires.

Well, the reasons below have their own fixes and if you can take action on each, your success is guaranteed.

The right time to start making impact with your blog, and earning affiliate income is right now. Let’s explore the reasons why you’re still stuck behind and how to pull the trigger:

1.      Flimsy wishes.

According to the Encarta Dictionary, the word “flimsy” simply means not strong: weak and too easily broken.

If your wishes are backed up by a plan and you take action on them, there is nothing that can stop you from achieving success online.

Bloggers who fail to realize their financial goals through affiliate marketing have weak plans. Or better yet, they don’t have plans at all. How pathetic?

They only wished things turned out right for them. When someone walks up to you and says, “I wish I made $2000 in commission this month!” Guess what?

That person had neglected that money will always answer to VALUE. And since he or she doesn’t have any offer that can brings value to the target audience, money can’t come. Stop making excuses. Stop wishing and start doing what it takes to actually earn the commissions.

2.      No investment into your business.

Another vital reason why most bloggers are stuck in the dungeon of “no commission” is because they’ve not mastered the art of investing wisely.

Investing is not only for Wall Street Experts. It’s not for Warren Buffet or Donald Trump. It’s for you, too.

If your ultimate goal is to make money online, by promoting other people’s product, then set a budget each month for your business. You’ve to invest in a good autoresponder service.

What about a good hosting package. If you’re like me that own multiple niche sites, then you also need to invest in good themes.

There is no free meal anywhere and I’m glad that Corbett had advocated on investment practices on several of his posts.

Can you make money as an affiliate without investing any money? Of course you can – but you should be ready to WAIT and WORK your butts off.

3.      Poor marketing practices

The era of build it and they will come is far gone. Yes, it used to work in the past. You register an exact match domain name, install wordpress and add content.

Within 72 hours, Google spider would index and start ranking your web pages – because the number of websites and blogs available at the time was limited. Today, over 160,000 new wordpress blogs are launched every day. Wow!

So, you need to work extra smart. Yes, working hard is good and could enhance your chances of making money online, but you’ve to adjust your marketing practices.

Today, you only have to concentrate on marketing strategies that truly works. If you find out that guest blogging is working for you the most, invest more funds into it and dominate that niche.

If email marketing is producing good results for you, scale it up and add more subscribers to your database, then start building relationships before recommending any product or offer.

Even if you’ve to be everywhere, according to Pat Flynn, make sure that you’re on the right places that can bring you closer to making more money.

4.      Not willing to learn

One of the qualities of successful affiliate marketers is that they’re open to correction. They’re also willing to learn. Are you?

They spend money to buy products that can increase their knowledgebase. Most of the time, super affiliates spend huge amounts of money to attend conferences and seminars across the world.

Yes, they can afford it. But that’s not the reason why they invest so much money and time into their business.

The ultimate reason is because they are willing to learn. If you’re a blogger and you think that you’re the “tree of knowledge,” failure is already at the corner.

There are so many things you don’t know yet. Other successful people have gone ahead of you – you’ve to pay to learn from them. As you go about blogging, don’t lock your mind from learning. Don’t be arrogant.

This year, make it a duty to listen to premium podcasts. Buy hard copy books, not digital books. Discipline yourself and study them. If you ever desire the internet lifestyle where you’re in control of your life, you must be willing to learn today.

5.      Not selling through backend     

You’ve to sell affiliate products through backend. I want to give you a personal homework.

I want you to ask any successful affiliate marketer how they got to where they are financially.

You’ll be surprised that 95% of the responses you’ll get will be hinged on backend sales.

In 2012, I joined to promote an affiliate program where the product owner was paying out a full 100% commission.

To me, I thought this marketer was insane! How could a normal human being reward me in such a manner – he’s got bills to pay, I questioned.

The truth of the matter is that the REAL profit is on the backend. With my story, the product owner was more concerned about generating targeted leads and then building a strong relationship that could translate into BIG ticket sales.

As a blogger, don’t just promote any new hype out there. Carefully study the sales funnel so that you can make more commission when the customer decides to buy into the recurring programs.

Don’t just promote one-off programs. Look for those with backend products and plunge yourself into it.

6.      Social media addiction

I know the feeling of getting a retweet, a facebook like or someone just subscribed to your feed.

It can be motivating at times, but is that TRULY the real deal when you want to make money online?

Social media addiction can cripple your success rate online.

If you want to succeed BIG time online as an affiliate marketer, then you MUST minimize the amount of time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even Google+.

Those are shadows. The real essence of marketing is to connect with ideal customers, and convince them in a subtle manner to buy from you one time, and repeatedly thereafter.

The question to ask is: does marketing on twitter and Pinterest bring me leads? Remove all sentimental answers and just face reality.

For me, I prefer to write epic guest posts that truly answers questions. And I like redirecting prospects to my landing page where they can learn more about me.

Embrace social media marketing, but don’t be addicted to it. Remember, you’ve a business to build and affiliate products to push to those who truly need them.

7.       Low, untargeted traffic

The final piece of puzzle that stops 87% of bloggers from earning decent affiliate income is low, untargeted traffic. Web traffic is the lifeblood of every successful website.

No matter what niche you’ve chosen or your passion – without the right people visiting and taking interest in what you’ve to offer, you’ll make a whopping $0.00 by month end.

One thing I’ve discovered is that you CAN make more sales sending affiliate offers to few, but targeted traffic, than thousands of generic visitors.

I’ve a micro niche site in the health niche that receives less than 50 visitors a day, from search engines, but I still earn $400 – $700 monthly.

There is no magic bullet to it. Aim for targeted traffic; the ideal customers who are desperately looking for the product you’re promoting.

That’s why I love search engine traffic. It’s the best form of targeted traffic ever. With less than 1000 visitors per month, you can still smile to the bank if the traffic is targeted.

Are you an affiliate marketer?

When I looked around, I found out that most people started blogging, with the intention of adding affiliate banners to their sidebar. And after that, they do nothing other than add new content regularly and expect miracles to happen.

This is only but a pipe dream. And it’s not content marketing

That’s not how Super Affiliates are made. In fact, six-figure affiliate earners don’t give a damn about blogging per se, but more on generating the right kind of leads and making sales.

Use the fixes in this post to boost your affiliate income today.

Do you find it easy to difficult to earn decent affiliate income, despite all your hard work? Drop me a clear comment below – I’ll address it.

You can’t imagine what this post is about!   

But it’s important that you stop whatever you’re doing right now and read through this page.

Content marketing is the buzzword right now, but it almost crippled my business.

As a matter of fact, my fans and family call me a content marketer, because I believed in it. And I still do.

I’ve never written a controversial article ever since I started this blog.

Maybe this one is going to change the way you do your blogging and content writing. I want to begin by asking a question:

Why is everyone talking about content marketing?

Yes, virtually every blogger I know sings praises to it. We’ve all read somewhere, in a book or listened to podcasts that content marketing is powerful. Correct?

What I discovered is that you might be talking and writing about it, even without knowing what it’s about.

I’ve written several posts that raises the bar for so-called content marketers. But recently, I called myself to order to really examine the practice and the results I was getting.

You see, there are several myths about writing quality content and Google had always explained the various factors that can aid your rankings. Quality content is just one of those factors. Relevant links and social signals are also vital.

If you’re the type who follows the crowd to sing praises of a particular marketing system, you’ve to stop and study the metrics yourself.

What you need as an internet entrepreneur is results. You need a community that trust and believe in what you’ve to offer.

You don’t want to labor in vain, and at the end of the day have nothing tangible to show forth. So, stop following the crowd and let’s concentrate on the juicy part.

What really is content marketing?

In order to make this post simple and straight to the point, I’m not going to borrow my definition of this term from any so-called expert. So, in the basic form, content marketing simply means:

1. Picking a niche
2. Identifying the needs in that niche
3. Creating content that can address the needs
4. Creating and selling products and services to meet the needs
5. Building relationships that can bring repeat customers
6. Being consistent and honest

Now, these 6 points should become your pivot when you’re doing any marketing online. It doesn’t matter what name you call it, you’ve to stick to this. This also applies to pay per click advertisers and even media buying experts.

The concept of marketing has never changed and it will continue to address a particular niche.

I’m yet to find any reasonable internet marketer who advertises his “SEO e-book” to the audience who wants to buy jewelry and digital cameras. It’d be ridiculous.

I know that most bloggers who advice their readers to embrace content marketing may have a different definition to what I’ve laid out in the six points.

Some may claim that building relationship comes first, before selling a product. But there is a problem with that strategy and I want you to learn from my mistake.

Caution: Content marketing almost crippled my business    

source: greg

In the second quarter of 2012, I discovered the immense potential in content marketing and decided to give it a shot.

I was told that when you consistently create quality content, that your audience would grow and your business, too.

Of course, it was true.

I started off researching, creating and updating this blog on a regular basis, and before I know what was happening, the number of comments on my recent posts increased.

I also paid for a professional blog redesign which you’re seeing right now.

As a freelance writer, I needed clients at all cost. Prior to 2012, I was actively involved in guest blogging and reaching out to my target audience.

But when I fully embraced content marketing – with the myth that when I have built an active blog, that prospective clients are going to find me easily, but that was when failure quietly crept in.

This happened in 2012 and for 3 straight months, not even a single prospect hired me. Yes, I got few contacts, but those aren’t serious entrepreneurs with money to invest into content creation and guest blogging services. What really happened?

I didn’t focus on the “marketing” side

Content + marketing = profit.

No matter what you do online, even if your content is better than everyone else’s you MUST focus your attention on marketing. You must continue to reach out and don’t rely on prospects to find you.

If they find you either via search engines, social media or word of mouth – rejoice and reap the rewards. But before they do, go find them yourself.

Bear in mind that when you remove “marketing” from content, you no longer have the powerful system to grow your business. You’re merely writing and updating your blog, which is what so many bloggers do.

Like I said earlier, I still believe in content marketing. But my misconception about it almost wrecked my business.

Each time I stop marketing my writing services and driving traffic to my niche sites, my sales and income dropped significantly. I had earlier thought that writing epic content is enough to make a blogger successful – but the reverse is the case.

Don’t believe those who say you can’t succeed online without quality content. They’re lying to you.

Recently, I interviewed 5 super affiliates who make over $10,000 monthly and asked what their keys were – to my utmost surprise, none of them were actively involved in content creation.

They’re more concerned about generating targeted leads and converting those leads into customers. It doesn’t matter how they go about it, but they’re making good money online – and creating valuable products continually.

Which prison has content marketing gotten you into?   

If I’m not mistaking, I know that this buzz “content marketing” must have imprisoned you, whether directly or indirectly. You might not realize it.

But if you don’t care about marketing anymore, you don’t care about meeting new people daily, who can add to the success of your business, you’ve been deceived.

Don’t take my word for it. But when was the last time you reached out to your target audience and asked them to try the product you’re selling?

If you’re marketing online, you need to pay bills. You’ve got web hosting bills to pay. What about email autoresponder services?

And by the way, content marketing has also brought about failures in email marketing (more on this later).

Build it and they’ll come is a phrase that’s killing businesses online. That’s why I love shopping sites. They don’t just build it and expect you to come – they reach out to you wherever you are via TV advertising, internet adverting, email adverting etc.

Truth be told, marketing can be defined as finding out where your target audience hangs out and going there to meet them with your product. You can’t expect them to meet you, because they’re Kings.

They’re your asset and from henceforth, change your mind set about internet marketing and start to do crazy marketing. Yes, I just said it, and you can quote me on that.

Why an email list might not work for you

Another aspect of internet marketing that’s so crucial is email list building and relationship marketing. You and I know that the inbox is the most active portal, and free from distractions.

The inbox is better than a facebook wall or page. It’s more targeted than marketing on twitter and could produce results if you do it correctly.

Nevertheless, I see a lot of content marketers making deadly mistakes. Just because some other successful content marketer isn’t selling any product to his list, doesn’t make you the same. Don’t just copy and replicate. Find your own style.

If you’ve a good and helpful product for your subscribers, don’t feel intimidated or insecure to recommend the product.

It could be an affiliate program that you’ve used and found interesting. You’ve got to sell to your list or they’d develop this impression that you’re a free-monger.

I know that Pat Flynn of Smartpassiveincome.com doesn’t sell any product to his list. But that’s because he already makes a lot of money from affiliate marketing and his niche sites.

He’s a super affiliate and earns passive income from web hosting and email autoresponder service. He might not sell through his list, but nonetheless, he does sell through his active blog and resource page.

Whoever told you that content marketing is all about building an email list and never selling products to them has deceived you!

Actually, I was deceived and throughout 2012, I didn’t sell a single product to my list, which made every one of my subscribers to stop opening or reading my emails. I’m damn serious – they didn’t take me to be a serious person. And truly, I wasn’t at the time.

I didn’t know where I got the advice from, but I was literally sending only latest posts to a list of 800+ in 2012. Please tell me, is this effective marketing?

By the time I sent an affiliate program that had helped me in the past, not even a single subscriber clicked to check it out, let alone buy into it.

I want to beg you right now to stop collecting leads if you’ve no intentions of selling any product or service to them.

It’d be a total waste of money on autoresponder service if all you do is collate email leads and forget about subscribers and their needs.

I know that I’m speaking to someone out there – this is serious.

I know that you can get other benefits apart from selling products to your list, but the ultimate goal of building a list and all the relationship processes is to make money. If you’ve a contrary opinion, leave a comment below…

Moving forward into effective content marketing

The only way to get results; drive quality traffic and earn a living online as an internet marketer is to offer value to your target audience.

The value has to begin with a thorough research on the keywords people are using to locate you. See how I pick high-traffic keywords.

Once that is done, you can start creating ‘rich’ content. But this content must align with the products and services you’ve for your audience.

If you’re a freelance writer like I am, you should concentrate on creating content that would interest prospective clients, not fellow bloggers. 97% of your blogger friends have no intention or plan of hiring you. All the content they need, they can create.

So, don’t write to please fellow blogger or friends. Write to persuade website owners, entrepreneurs and people who can work with you.

Don’t just wake up each morning to write articles and expect miracles to happen. It doesn’t work that way.

You must be able to address a particular problem that your audience is facing. If possible, limit the number of articles you write for your own website/blog and focus on reaching out to those who can buy what you’re selling.

The question is, what exactly are you selling? Take it from me. If you’re not selling any product or service, content marketing isn’t going to yield results for you.

I don’t care what you’ve read from any so-called content expert; you MUST offer something for sale or go broke.

Start early to train your readers and subscribers

If you’re building a list like every other website owner/blogger, and you already have readers who love what you’re doing, start to train them now. Before it gets too late.

I mean, don’t create the impression that you’ve nothing to sell, because over time, they’re going to see you like that. And when you eventually recommend an affiliate offer or add a banner to your blog sidebar, no one would click it.

You’ve accustomed their minds to only see Free Stuffs. And now, to get their hard earned money, you’ve to work extra hard. Be ready to lose subscribers and readers when you sell a product to them – but that’s fine.

Each time I send a newsletter to my list, asking them to buy a particular product or invest in a program, I get people who unsubscribe and complain.

Well, good riddance to bad rubbish – and I don’t even need those subscribers in the first place. It was a mistake to have them join my list. Sorry, I’m too harsh. It’s one of the qualities of a content marketer. Lol!

Whatever you do online, focus on building relationships that can bring you sales and money.

I don’t care what you’ve been taught in the past, most of those so-called experts are earning $10k – $100k per month. They can counsel you to NOT sell till you’ve built an active audience.

Don’t do that. Start selling in your own small way. Even if you don’t have 1000 readers yet, let the 50 active readers understand that you’re a businessperson.

You want to help them with free quality and helpful content, and at the same time, you want to stay in business.

Have I touched your heart?

I’ve one goal of writing this post – to give you a wake-up call right now. Content marketing when misunderstood can wreck the way you do business online.

Before I started reading a lot of articles and digital materials on this buzzword, I was doing well because I reached out to my target audience easily. The only difference between traditional advertising and content marketing is the format.

Traditional advertisers may not necessarily have a deep knowledge about their ideal customers, but content marketers do. When you’re using helpful content to persuade people, it must be subtle and devoid of hype.

Don’t be deceived, most internet marketing firms still don’t believe in content marketing as a term. They prefer to call it inbound marketing or relationship marketing. That doesn’t matter. What matters is…

Marketing is the “core”

Always give marketing the topmost priority in your online business.

To grow your website and blog to the point where it sustains itself and you, you’ve to give adequate time to effective marketing.

Start reaching out. If you’ve a budget, invest in press release distribution to generate more targeted leads.

Use press release distribution and PPC advertising. Create videos and podcasts. Harness your energy into building a website that truly delivers value.

Above all, have a product or service to sell. That’s the only way to make content marketing yield results for you.

No matter the amount of traffic your website gets on a daily basis, if you fail to monetize effectively, you’d still be broke. And that’s not content marketing. Or is it?

Do you think that content marketing is the best way to bring targeted leads to your website? Please drop me a valuable comment below. I’m eager to read your thoughts. See you at the top!

Top right image source: Robert

Creating blog content may see like child’s work to anyone who has never written professionally.

Working under the pressure to create meaningful, interesting, original and unique content every few days might not be easy.

But it is achievable!

Because you’ve to remember that it has to meet the requirements of the theme of your blog.

And the expectations of your audience and critics and the dreaded keywords that you need to weave into them can be a real inspiration killer.

It isn’t very surprising that most blog writers suffer from writers’ block every now and then.

However, getting over it isn’t really rocket science and you too can keep writers’ block at bay by following these easy to remember tips.

1.     Brainstorm with family and friends

When you have all but run out of idea for your blog, the best thing you could do is to have a nice hangout with family and friends and just ask them to criticize your work and your blog.

Since simply asking people to help you would appear too needy and many people might not be inclined to have a work related talk with you. However, asking them to critique your blog would throw out fresher ideas to spin posts around.

2.     Look out for comments on industry news and info

Websites and blogs that have info about your industry’s news could be a great way to create fresh new content.

However, instead of simply covering a story that has been covered umpteen times around the net, you can read through the comments that others have given to these news items and allow them to spark passion in you.

3.     Read and watch the news

Creating posts about things that have been happening around you in the world could be a great way to bring in fresh readers while giving your regulars a greater sense of familiarity with your blog.

Remember not to get too political with your opinions or many of your loyal readers might be put off your blog for good.

4.     Interview a client or a fellow blogger

Want to create something relevant to your industry and blog but don’t want to rehash the things that are already on your blog?

Then you could always go old school and post an interview with a fellow bloggers or an industry expert to spice things up.

5.     Review books and other blogs

When you really don’t have productivity left in yourself, you could always review the work of someone else.

Reviewing other blogs or books is a great way to create something fresh for your own blog. Plus, this also lets you see what the competition is doing.

6.     Present case studies

Having maintained a blog for a while would give you enough experience of tackling problems.

You could always turn these into case studies, add info graphics and other media to and make it a real treat for your readers.

7.     Create info graphics and video blogs

If you don’t feel like writing any more, you can simply create info graphics or video blogs to help you present your creativity to the audience.

8.     Use the National Office of Statistics website to create something racy

When you are really stuck for inspiration, just go to the National Office of Statistics website and look for stats and figures on your lone of work. You could jot down the most provocative ones and write a post about it.

9.     Accept valuable guest posts

Guest posts are all the rage these days as they help blogs get friendly with other blogs and build relationships with their competitors, clients and even the audience.

You can consider accepting guest posts or even ask someone you trust to write one for you.

10.    Showcase your expertise with how to posts

Once you have been on the blog scene for a while, you know enough about your industry to be something of an expert on current trends etc. a great way to turn this knowledge into posts is to write a collection of how to posts.

11.    Put together a “10 best” list

The best thing that you could possibly do when you’re really stuck by writers’ block is to create a “10 best” list.

Stick to the themes that your blog covers and you would find plenty of material to create many weeks’ worth of posts. Then you can revisit all of them and create a 10 best list out of them as well.

12.    Journo it

When you are really sapped for inspiration and just don’t know what to write about, you could blog about an industry event that you are going to or have been to.

This lends a human touch to your blog and allows people to see the personality behind the words.

13.    Create checklists

Checklists are a great way to condense your know how into a user friendly format.

Whether you write about wedding planning, child care, automobiles or even SEO content creation, checklists could be audience drawing posts that you could create out of the knowledge that is already in your head!

14.    Write about a controversial topic

Everyone loves a good scandal. And thanks to the internet, sharing your opinion on one could be a great way to find a great way to talk about and write with passion.

Of course, you would need to remember not to get too personal or offensive with your content.

If you want to be safe, you can always share a bunch of opinions that others have offered on the subject and make a post like “this is what’s being said about ___”

15.    Write weekly industry round up

These would generally include news bits about events, launches and new products related to the industry your blog covers.

These posts don’t need to be 500 word ramblings about a single product or event and you can easily cover the smaller news bits that you couldn’t include in your blog on their own and put them together into a single post.

About The Author - Alia is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, traveling and reading books. She contributes on Christian Weems

How do you sell a product online?   

In order to get you charged up for this post, I want to clarify a fact here.

Because many people online think that SELLING is EVIL, but these same people shop every now and then offline.

The important thing to remember about content marketing is that YOU must sell a product, if you ever want to make money online. Period!

How would you see a blogger who always complain that he or she isn’t making any money online – and you discovered he didn’t monetize properly. Or, he didn’t even monetize at all.

Content marketing has been perceived as building relationships with prospective customers, but it’s not enough.

Yes, quote me anywhere. You’ve got to sell a product or go look for a job!

When you’ve relationships with target audience, you’ve got to sell your products and services to them or they’d switch over to another website where the real selling takes place – because they want their problems to be solved.

And oftentimes, ‘free tips’ will not suffice.

Marketing Vs Sales

Two days ago, one of my clients called me and asked a very simple question. “What is the difference between marketing and sales?” He asked.

Even though I knew the answer to his question, I was a bit disturbed.

Because I couldn’t find the right words to express my answer for him – but with confidence, I replied: marketing is all about identifying the needs and challenges of your ideal customers, and finding ways to reach them with your products/services which has the appropriate answer.

On the other hand, sales simply can be defined as offering your product/service to those perfect customers and closing the sale – getting paid.

Do you make THIS mistake?

In content marketing, bloggers and content creators work tirelessly day in and day out to promote their websites.

They write guest posts, interact with their facebook fans, update their twitter followers, use pay per click advertising, distribute their content and are active on discussion boards and blog directories.

But in all these activities, most marketers DON’T sell a thing, or they don’t know how to sell and make money for themselves. Each time I think about it, it makes me want to puke.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you’d agree with me that I don’t hard-sell or push you into buying any product. I simply write epic content that can help you GET hold of your content marketing purpose.

Does it mean that I don’t make money online to live my life? Of course not – I still do make money, but I use a different strategy. I sell my writing services to prospective clients and that’s how I make my money. See my offer page here.

Although, I’ll be launching my e-book this year, and that’d be another source of passive income for me – while helping you achieve your content marketing objectives.

Quick fix: If you’re not making enough money from your blogging and internet marketing hard work, it might be that you’ve be wasting your time on MARKETING: identifying and building relationships with prospects and have neglected SELLING.

Right now, you’ve got to stop and start from scratch – because the end product of effective content marketing is that you sell a product or service and smile to the bank.

Did you enjoy this part? Now, let me show you the 9 strategies to sell effectively and build stronger connections with your target audience. Are you ready?

1.      Define your product/service

While marketing emphasizes on consumer needs and finding out how desperate they need solutions that work, selling stands out on its own. In that, the FOCUS is on the product or service which you want to sell.

There comes a time in your business as a content marketer when you’ll begin to FOCUS on the product you have in store for your target audience. You’ll need to define its purpose and send the message across.

How did you monetize your blog?

Is it with affiliate banners, or your own digital product? Whatever it is, don’t see it that way.

When someone who may or may not need your product asks about your business, don’t tell them you’ve an e-book or software per se. Of course you do, but it’d be hard to convince them.

Tell them what that e-book or product will do for them. Think about the answer they’d get by reading the e-book or using your software. That’s your selling point.

That’s the true definition of your product. For instance, I’m a freelance writer, but I don’t sell freelance writing. Instead, I help my clients and prospects to drive targeted traffic through content marketing.

With this definition, winning the hearts of a new prospect is sure – and retaining the old ones is more certain. What do you think?

2.      Listen and take action

Source: intuit

So you’re serious about selling “that” product or service without annoying your target audience? Well, it’s possible and it begins with you listening to what your prospects are saying.

Through guest blogging, social media marketing, video marketing, podcasts and other means of distributing quality content online, you’ve been able to define your audience. You understand their challenges now – you want to truly help.

Now, don’t stop at that, start listening to them – because their needs are going to change over time.

I’ve been an active guest blogger for more than 2 years, but I’ve since slowed down. Because I’ve discovered that majority of blog readers no longer responds to guest posts, as they used to.

These days, the focus should be on your own blog and building that strong relationships with people, who already like, believe and trust in your wealth of knowledge. When you visit forums, don’t just rant and contribute to the noise.

Listen attentively. Identify a need and begin to align your product to meet that need. Listen and take action immediately, because CHANGE is bound to happen, if you waste any time.

3.      Build a customer care business

The only business that’s going succeed in today’s competitive market is a “customer care business.”

Wait a second, does it mean that every internet marketer must set up a business that bears that name? Give me a break – you should know better than that.

When I say customer care business, what it means is that you MUST be willing to answer questions that your customers and prospects are asking.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you’ve to be very careful with the products you recommend to your audience. Because if anything, and I mean anything goes wrong, you’d be held responsible. As an affiliate, you’re not totally free.

Remember, content marketing is a long-term business. And if you’re not ready to stand tall with your buyers and prospects, your business is going to collapse even before you realize it.

Affiliate marketing is a fantastic business model, but don’t go overboard just because you need to make quick money.

Take your time to study the product. If you’ve not used the offer before, don’t make claims that you’ve – that’s a dent on your self-image and nothing can erase it.

People are not buying your product because they’re scared of losing their money, and losing you.

In a nut shell, will your business still be there when your customers and target audience runs into muddy waters? Think long-term and you’ll be able to sell more and earn more.

4.      Keep in touch with first timers

Studies have shown that you need to expose your product at least 7 times to a potential customer before they can buy or make the final decision. In order to complete a sale, always keep in touch with these people.

When someone visits your website for the first time, you should have a way to capture their personal details. Now, this is not the typical list building where you’re collecting leads and bombarding subscribers with offers.

Here’s how it works: If you’ve an e-book that can help prospects “build a strong brand” for instance, it’s wise that you should give away free chapters of the e-book in exchange for their personal email addresses.

When this happens, the list you’ve is not the newsletter type, but a premium list. You’ll need to follow up, give a strong reason why your product is what they need at this point in time.

And don’t forget to lead them to your sales page or store. Make it easy for prospects to place orders.

Giving away free chapters of your e-book at no cost is marketing, but recommending the complete product through your list is more IMPORTANT – it’s called SELLING.

5.      Connect with a strong story

Storytelling is often talked about as a powerful tool for selling. But how many internet marketers actually use it to complete the sale?

Two months ago, I purchased an e-book and after reading it, I was able to earn more from my writing business. My hourly rate increased from $75 to $100 and my clients were happy about my decision.

Now, when I shared my true story before recommending the same e-book to my loyal readers, I deeply connected with people – through that strong story. I sold more of the e-book within 48 hours.

The story is strong because I’ve been struggling to raise my rate for a long time, but had no real success. I shared my struggles and how I eventually found solace with that single book – in the 5^th chapter actually.

No matter what you’re selling on your website or blog, always tell a story to connect, build the friendship and call to action. It’s going to skyrocket your sales, guaranteed!

6.      Use remarketing to sell more

Remarketing is a common term in PPC advertising.

When someone visits your website and clicks on an ad and for one reason or the other, the person didn’t buy, subscribe or even click to know what more you’ve in store, you can use that data to boost your sale.

There are several reasons why people would come to your site, fall in love with your product and decide not to buy.

You should understand that spending money online is risky. If you’re not careful, you might lose more money, than you spent.

I might be wrong, but I’ve been billed for services I didn’t request for. Of course, on the store, I was told that a one-time payment was all that’s needed.

But at end of the month, I got an alert that my credit card was billed for the month. I fixed some immediately, but others took me time to address.

Now – back to remarketing. When a prospect comes to you and asks for a quote or requests for free chapters of your e-book (or book), don’t let them alone at this point.

Already, they’ve shown strong interest in your product or offer. If you didn’t get a sale initially, follow up after 2 days with a better offer. Ask the prospect why he or she is still reluctant to complete the order.

Give reasons why they need to buy now – use curiosity and strong benefits. Don’t use hype or tricks.

Be yourself. Build deep connections with a short story and call to action. Remarketing works and I’m still experimenting with it. Keep reading this blog and subscribe to my list for updates.

7.      Sell value – it works better

When I first started blogging and eventually became a content marketer, I was making a terrible mistake. It doesn’t matter what you’re promoting online, don’t follow the crowd or you’d fail woefully.

In a nut shell, sell VALUE. What can your product do for people, if they decide to buy now?

Why is it so important to buy from you, while there are thousands of other bloggers and content marketers selling similar or better products than you are? Prospects and customers are looking for “what’s in it for me.”

Forget the title you’ve tagged yourself, a freelance writer, a business coach, a professional blogger, a social media expert or what have you.

Those titles will never get you sales or increase your earnings online. Instead, focus on what you do with that title and your sales would skyrocket.

For example: if you’re web developer, tell prospects that you design websites that can generate qualified leads, load faster and engage people – so as to bring more profit for them. Now, that’s real value and you’ll be on top of your game.

8.      Confidently ask prospects to buy   

I believe in earning the trust of my target audience.

But my college life changed my perspective about marketing. Keep reading…

One of my lecturers at the time clearly told me that some prospects will never buy what you’re selling, no matter how much trust and believe they’ve for you.

Most of these prospects are unwise. They can’t make decisions on their own. They need you to tell them what to do and they’d do it right away.

Most people have money to invest in good and professional wordpress theme, but their website looks awkward. Now, what do you call that?

As a content marketer with a purpose and a value to sell, always confidently ask prospects to buy your product. The worst they can do is to unsubscribe from your email list or say NO.

If your business is client-based, don’t be shy or scared to ask potential customers to at least try your service. Just do it or you’d be broke and complain and whine.

Even if you’ve to reduce the price of your products and services in order to win that initial sale and customer, go ahead and do it.

Most of the time, the first sale is always TOO difficult to get. But after that, it’d be a lot easier to influence and get repeat sales from the same customer who was hitherto stubborn.

I’ve to leave you now to contribute your comment, but take this last sales strategy…

9.      Eliminate the fear of losing money

It’s vital that you crown your customers and prospects Kings, because they are the ASSET you’ve for your business.

Earlier, I said that consumers are TOO careful when they want to buy any product online. They’re afraid of losing money. I’m afraid too, what about you?

What you must do in order to win their hearts and get more money from them, is to give a strong reason to buy.

And if they don’t like the content or the benefits you offer them, you will easily refund their money – at least, within a stipulated time frame.

Secondly, use testimonials from real people (please don’t manipulate) to show that the “value” you offer in your product and service is working for other people.

Ideally, each testimonial must have a personal photo or a real website to back up your claims.

Once you can eliminate fear of losing money, you’d sell more products and offer clients what they need, while earning what you’re really worth.

It gets even better

I’ve never been afraid to approach a client and offer my writing services. Maybe because I was born with that gift, or what do you think?

Trust me; it takes confidence to make a living online.

Selling is like getting married to a lady or gentleman who doesn’t speak or understand your language. How are you going to inspire, learn from each other, cherish and love that person for the rest of your life?

Through effective content marketing, you can enjoy PEOPLE and help them solve their problems easily. But having a product or service to sell on your website is a MUST.

Do you find it easy to sell your product/service online? Could you please highlight your points in the comment below – I wish to address them one by one. Thank you. See you ahead!

If you want more traffic and pageviews, read on…  

Did you ever feel discouraged that your latest post didn’t receive thousands of reads from real people?

Please consider this formula:

Quality traffic + valuable product = online success.

From the formula above, you need to understand that no other factor is as important as driving targeted traffic to your content & website.

Most of the time, the ultimate problem that website owners face isn’t lack of quality content, but their inability to reach the right audience at the appropriate time.

If you’re struggling to grow your website or blog, this post is for you. Please read it, think about the 10 ways listed and pick the ones that interest you the most.

I want to show you how to use a single post to get massive traffic. In the mean time, let’s not forget that traffic without a valuable product is a waste.

Every content marketer must own or promote one type of product or the other. Let’s quickly run through the top 10 ways to increase your traffic easily, to/with a single content. Shall we?

1.      First: write epic content

What is epic content?

It’s important to know how to write it, because that’s the first thing which you must do if you want to drive more traffic.

No amount of promotion in the world is going to help you, if you content is mediocre or the same thing as what every blogger has. Start by identifying the problems your ideal customers and readers are facing.

Do you think that they need urgent solutions? Or is the problem manageable?

If they can manage their problems, you can manage your business as well by staying away from such a problem.

Instead, look for a pressing need, research extensively and write content that can inspire your ideal prospect to take action.

The first way to get more visitors to your content and engage them is through epic content. I’ve written about it in the past, but it’s worth reiterating here. Keep reading…

2.      Build a foundation

Let’s assume that you’ve written a good article and wants thousands of people to read it, you’ll now go ahead and map out your clear steps. That’s the foundation of every successful blog.

The action you’re going to take to reach your first 100 views and how you can up those views to 500 and 1000 in 30 days or less.

The foundation is where you specify exactly what you’re going to do to push the single content forward. Remember, the purpose of this post is to help you propagate just “ONE” of your content and get the right eyeballs to actually read it.

The title of the post you intend to promote must be attractive. If after writing the epic content, you discovered that the title isn’t catchy, powerful or enticing, go back and rewrite it before getting promoting it offsite.

According to TED Nicholas, 73% of buying decision is made at the point of the headline.

In other words, the title of content is what determines whether or not you’d get clicks, conversion or engagement. Write 3 – 5 separate titles which are suitable for your epic post. Afterward, select the best and start promoting the content.

Do you want more traffic to your content pages? See this SEO tool.

3.      Have a clear navigation

The first two ways explained above are the TAP ROOT SYSTEM for driving traffic to your website, through a single content.

Now you need to look into your navigation. Since you want more views for a single post or article, you’ll need to showcase it clearly; where people can easily find it.

If you have a blog, add the post page to your menu navigation bar. If the content appears on the same menu with your “home, about page, contact page etc.” it’d be deemed relevant and topmost by search engine spiders, and people alike.

Because the menu bar contains pages that form the foundation of a wordpress site. If you’re skilled at CSS, change the color of your menu, especially the “content page” that you want people to access easily. Use an attractive color like Red, Pink, Orange or Magenta to make it stand out.

The instant you’re able to differentiate that “single” post page from your home, about page and other pages, the more pageviews, and conversions you’d get.

4.      Connect with power users   

Power users are individual bloggers; internet and content marketers who have build strong engagement with their blogs.

You already know because they’re the ones who make six to seven figures annually.

If you’re convinced that you’ve written an article, created a video or recorded a podcast that can benefit their audience, let them know about it. Don’t be a coward!

Don’t just ask power users to share or cite your content and send you free traffic.

It will never work like that. What you must do is recognize that these power users are busy, but very determined to add value to their communities. They need quality and epic content continually.

They might not have the required time to always research and write valuable content, that’s where your content come in.

Kindly highlight the benefits in the content you’re promoting. Ideally, interview power users and when you post the article, ask them to share it. You’ll drive more traffic to your single post.

5.      Enter the conversion

How do you get into the heat of conversion with your single post?

You know that your content is going to benefit majority of those in that conversation – but you don’t know how to get in front of them. The first thing to do is find out where this conversation is happening.

In other words, identify where your ideal customers and potential readers are hanging out day in and day out.

If you wait for them to come to you, it may never happen. Serious conversations are happening on Twitter, discussion boards and other niche targeted forums.

Introduce yourself as someone who really wants to help the community members in your own special way.

Don’t spam forums with your links & anchor texts, but be active and you’ll reap the rewards. Answer questions & threads that are related to ‘single’ content and refer readers to your URL.

6.      Captivate your audience

Who is your audience?

Well, they’re those people; blog readers and visitors who need what you’re selling, or the type of content you’ve written.

For instance, if your website is about printing and graphic designs, then your target audience will be those who want to print books, business cards, customize materials and authors.

For me, my target audience is anyone who runs a website and wants to drive more targeted traffic, build a loyal audience and sell their products without hype or B.S. And that’s the true essence of content marketing.

Using basic persuasion techniques to lead potential buyers down the sales funnel and converting them. Now that you know who your audience is, it’s time to captivate them.

Find out what they need right now, either by asking them questions in your post, or going through the comments they left on your recent post.

Answer their questions clearly and position your share buttons where they can find it.

If the content interests them, they’d share it with other people and who knows, you might generate 100+ visitors from a single tweet. So, how do you build interest?

7.      Intensify their desire

Whose desire are you going to intensify? Bear in mind that engaging people is quite different from building the desire in them.

Most websites and blogs actually are engaging, but the readers most times don’t find the latest posts and articles persuasive enough.

I believe that copywriting has a lot to do in helping you build interest in the hearts of your target audience. When a prospective customer visits your website, he or she would have a lot of questions running through their minds and you must answer those questions.

“Why should I stay and read your post instead of your competitors’?

The problem with content marketing is that there are thousands of articles and blogs already. You’ll need to do an extra job to be able to stand out from the crowd. Give your target audience the strongest reason why they should stay a little longer in your website.

Ask thought-provoking questions and you’ll get a lot of response and tweets. These are social signals which Google and other search engines love.

8.      Become fresh in SERPs    

What do SERPs mean?

Before I answer that question, I need you to understand that search engine traffic is the most targeted form of traffic you can ever get.

Because when someone types and searches for a specific key phrase in Google, that person is already presold either through TV commercials, internet banners, word of mouth, twitter, PPC or media advertising.

The user who is searching for “market samurai” isn’t a total novice to this keyword software. And Google knows that their search database can only be useful if they showcase only relevant pages from a website.

So, SERPs is an acronym for search engine result pages. You see, 95% of the time, Google would only show the exact page that contains the keyword and information you’re searching for – not the homepage.

Google could only show the homepage if that’s the only page that’s index-able and SEO-friendly.

To drive more traffic to your single post, add more SEO juice to it. Use all-in-one-seo pack to add relevant Meta Tags: keywords and description.

It’s better to ask questions in your “description tag” so that when your page appears in Google, people would actually click it.

Build internal links to your “single” content and you’d increase your pageviews & traffic easily.

9.      Remove unnecessary steps

At this juncture, you need to remove unnecessary steps from your “single” post.

You want the right people to share, cite and help promote your content, don’t make it difficult. Minimize the number of out-going links on your post.

Because this is going to send your readers to other blogs, which you may not know the capacity of the owner; in terms of how skilled they’re in converting your referrals to ardent readers and customers.

There is nothing wrong with linking out, but don’t go overboard.

And if you must link out, ensure that the external page opens in a new window or tab. This way, your “single” post would still be read and shared.

But here’s the deal, when you ask people to click a link that you don’t own, there is every tendency that your own content will be abandoned.

You can’t ask them to visit your competitor’s website, and at the same time, ask for a tweet or Google+ share. It’s not going to work that way.

Eliminate all the obstacles that can stand on the way and help your target audience share your posts easily. You’ll generate more targeted traffic by being simple and flexible [tweet this].

10.  Use a twisted comment   

You and I know that guest blogging is important.

In this blogging era where the competition is stiff, how do you get in front of your target audience easily.

Because most high-traffic blogs don’t accept guest posts again.

In fact, problogger no longer accepts guest articles from every blogger out there.

If you’re a new blogger, how are you going to survive in this world, where the criteria for getting published in a top blog is high and most times, you can’t reach it with your limited knowledge.

Drive traffic with twisted comments

I’ve discovered a powerful method. It’s called, “twisted comment.” I’m sure you haven’t heard about it before, right? Anyways, it’s simple and could produce 50 – 100 visitors a day for you.

First, identify the blog where you “would” have loved to guest blog. Now let’s agree that you can’t get published there for any reason – what else can you do.

Subscribe to their email list so that you can get updates on new posts. Personally, I’ve subscribed to 3 top blogs and they’re all sending me free traffic daily, through my ‘twisted’ comments.’

After subscribing, you’ll get notified each time a new post is published.

Now, quickly visit the blog, read through the content and make sure you understand what the author is trying to say. Please read the content twice, because it vital that you get the gist.

Don’t strive to be the first commenter, it doesn’t matter when you’re using my “twisted comment” strategy to drive high traffic. But if you’re the first, that would be better.

Now, go ahead, leave a comment that’s lengthy. I mean, your comment should be 200 – 300 words, but this time, tailor it to what the author have written in his post.

Ask questions, share your insights and even share a short story. Remember, the blog in question is high-traffic, but doesn’t accept guest post from strangers. But now, you’ve your guest post, but in a different way.

Make your comment stand out 

Image Source: reliablepayroll

The goal is to make your comment better than every other comment in the list.

Even if your comment appears on the 10 or 50^th position, if it’s lengthy (200 words +) and valuable, you’re going to create a strong buzz around your comment and increase your click-through rates.

Remember, you want more targeted traffic to a particular content on your blog. In your comment, use an anchor text that’s relevant to the topic of the post and link to your content URL.

If you can use “twisted comment” on 3 high-traffic blogs, you’ll not only drive 1000+ visitors to your SINGLE post and website weekly, but also, build strong backlinks to your pages.

What else can you do?

If you follow these 10 ways, you can rest assured that within 30 days, the traffic coming to your website through that single post would increase.

When I used this method in 2012, I generated 2062 readers in 3 days and 372 joined my email list. But for this to work, your content must be above the par. It must be epic and keep the reader awake at midnight.

A word of caution: This post didn’t teach you how to drive free traffic to your website per se, but how to promote a single content on your blog and increase its views and engagement.

Do you ever get plan your content before writing it, in other to ensure it drives traffic for you? Please leave a “twisted comment” below and you’ll gain more traffic. You’re Awesome!

So you need high-traffic on your website?    

Well, there is no magic secret to driving traffic to any website.

The rule of thumb is to carefully pick your keywords, optimize properly and have rich content to back it up.

If you’ve been following my niche site challenge which I started on the 12^th of February, 2013 – then dominating Google search engine wouldn’t be much of a hassle for you anymore.

If I succeeded in ranking 3 niches sites in Google first page within 30 days, you too can. Or what do you say?

Without using tricks or the so-called blackhat SEO techniques, I want to show you how to actually drive organic traffic, even if your website is new. I mean brand new.

You can apply my SEO tips to a 2-month old or 2-year website. Its age doesn’t count in this post.

It doesn’t matter whether you run a wordpress blog or a static website, once you can pick viable key terms and press the right buttons; you’d enjoy richer traffic almost all the time.

This post isn’t going to be 4000 words. It’s shorter but valuable. Read it religiously and leave me a comment.

It’s time to pick the right keywords and dominate Google top 10 – don’t be scared of Panda or EMDs updates – you’re an entrepreneur (decision maker).

Step one: Pick branded keywords for better rankings

I struggled to rank my content pages in Google for 3 years. And the reason was because I didn’t know how Google search engine works.

Listen to this: Google and other search engines respect AUTHORITY. Even before Google Panda was released back in the day, authority sites have always been at the top when you search for any keyword.

And if your website/blog is featured on any of those authority portals, you’ll not only drive quality traffic, but also improve your rankings easily. True or false?

I discovered how to pick branded keywords and phrases when I was building my niche sites.

The truth is that 85% of internet marketing, health, entertainment, lifestyle, political, family and all other niches are highly competitive.

If your website falls within any of these niches, where every site owner is struggling to occupy the #1 – #10 positions in Google, then you REALLY need to adjust your strategy. Or you’d fail woefully.

Instead of competing with other website owners and thousands of bloggers to drive traffic, go out of your way and start using branded keywords.

How brandable keywords drives traffic

Find out which famous companies or personalities are in your niche.

Afterward, start taking advantage of those brands (identity) because 10s of thousands of searchable key terms are contained in them. So if your niche is internet marketing, research the professionals and their websites.

For instance: we’ve Darren Rowse (problogger), Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan), Brain Clark (copyblogger), Matt Cutts (mattcutts), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Danny Sullivan (searchengineland) and so on.

What about Coca-Cola, CNN, BBC, Disneyland or the latest Movies that are making raves in US and across the globe?

As a content marketer, there is no excuse for failure whatsoever.

Because you’ve the entire world and top brands at your fingertip and you could capitalize on their popularity and the preferential treatment that search engines give to them – to rich free traffic and gain backlinks.

Disclaimer: Make sure that when you’re using any of these top brands, you read their terms so that you’ll not directly or indirectly violate their usage policy.

Like I said earlier, Google may not necessarily have keywords and phrases that are related to these brand names. But every single day, ideal customers search for them.

They desire to know how these companies are fairing and what their strategies are.

So, you could easily use the brand keyword in your title.

In 2012, I wrote a post titled: “Coca Cola Marketing Strategy.” Did you see how I creatively used the brand name to explain the strategic aspect of marketing?

Using branded keywords on your title

Here are examples of articles topics. Feel free to copy any of them or create yours:

1.       What CNN Instant News Updates Thought Me about Blogging

2.       How Chris Brogan Used Social Media To Build A Strong Brand

3.       Brain Clark Reveals The Top 10 Content Marketing Strategy

Better yet, interview these industry experts – add their name to your post title and few times within the content.

You’d be on the safe side, if you use these branded keywords on your content. Google isn’t going to penalize you for over-optimization, because they’re yet to store the terms in their database.

Google would send you rich and free traffic if your website is deemed authoritative. But if your blog is new or still growing, there is no better way to get authority status than to leverage on those who have good records with Google.

Step two: Pick and Target wireframe keywords

Image Funnel Source: cmswire

The second step to picking high-traffic keywords is what I termed “wireframe.” It’s been one of my proven content marketing strategies that always produce results (good rankings and traffic).

The way it works is that you’ll first determine all the article topics which you’ll write and how you’ll get readers and target audience to follow through that funnel.

In other words, Google is looking for websites that has a pattern in its content delivery. If your blog is about social media marketing, then you ought to write a whole lot of articles and distribute rich content in that market.

To actually inspire Google spider to crawl and send you targeted traffic, pick wireframe keywords and address every sub-topic around it.

Meanwhile, the primary keyword is what you MUST add juice to and strengthens so that over time, Google will rank it higher than its competitors.

Here’s the concept behind wireframe keywords:

Let’s use “social media strategy” as our primary keyword. At this point, don’t be scared of other result pages that are already ranking higher than yours.  BTW: See social media strategy in 8 steps here.

Yes, I know that as I write this post, “social media strategy” has well over 50 Million competing web pages in Google alone (I searched with quotes).

The goal of choosing a wireframe key term is to lead a funnel by addressing every sub-topic that’s tied around the primary term.

So, here’s what I’d do and within 6 months, I’m guaranteed a top ranking in Google, no matter what Google Panda or Penguin is saying. I’d write a detailed article of about 1000+ words and embed a video or presentation to give it extra flavor and value.

I’ll use the primary term on the title and few times within the content – don’t worry about keyword density, it doesn’t work any longer. But just be careful not to stuff or overdo the act.

In your content, solve problems the big sites like Mashable, Techcrunch and other top social media sites failed to address.

In other words, target the long tail phrases. Publish your content. Go out and leave valuable comment on relevant blogs (whether do or nofollow). The goal is to have relevant links pointing to your new post.

If you do this, within 48 hours, Google spider would crawl and index your content. Now, go ahead and write another relevant article and submit as a guest post. Link to the content page you want to rank in Google top 10.

Add juice to your keyword in-house

This is very straightforward. The easiest way to optimize on-page is to write relevant posts that are related to the one you want to rank, and then use editorial links (within the content) to linkback.

Make sure the anchor text doesn’t appear like spam or over-optimized.

You already know that the wireframe keywords are actually stored by Google in their database.

So, any form of tricks or over-optimization could be penalized. If you were considering “branded keywords” like in the first example, you’d be on the safer side.

If the first article or video on your blog is titled “social media strategy in 5 steps,” Then subsequent articles MUST be titled in a similar manner.

Take a look at these article topic templates: Feel free to use as you please.

1. What is your social media strategy?
2. Social media strategy for beginners
3. Top 7 social media strategies that work
4. Is there a better social media strategy?

And just like the branded keywords in step one, you can interview a social media expert and have their content published on your blog.

Then, link to the first post, which has the primary keyword you want to rank in Google top 10.

Ensure that you link to your post naturally. Don’t try to trick Google spider because you’d regret ever conceiving that idea in the first place.

Now you should know that Google spider is like a toddler that needs to be spoon-fed regularly with the right meal – quality content that’s driven by well-placed keywords.

Most importantly, when you pick wireframe key terms which would dominate Google first page gradually, using the SEO strategies as explained here; please make sure that the keyword has a high search volume.

This is vital to your success, which of course will not happen overnight. When I used wireframe keyword strategy, I was able to rank my content pages within 3 months. But I worked really hard to make it come through.

So, with this strategy, you don’t have to be scared of high competition. Just make sure that the wireframe keyword is hot. It should have 10,000 – 1,000,000 searches monthly from the global scene.

How much targeted traffic do you think you’d drive to your blog when your webpage starts ranking in the Google top 10 for such a hot keyword? It’s incredible, right?

You can earn your traffic

I’ve explained the 2 steps I use when picking high-traffic keywords for my content. This is exactly what I do for my clients and it’s resulted in thousands of monthly targeted traffic and sales.

Content marketing has taught me a very BIG lesson – to always give the best information out all the time.

Because the rewards of GIVING would bounce back 100-fold. Are you really giving VALUE to your target audience? Or you’re desperate for some cool cash?

The real truth about branded keywords in step one and wireframe keywords in step two, is that over time, you’ll no longer struggle to attract organic traffic.

Because you’ve employed Google-friendly techniques in optimizing your content pages. And Google would have no other choice than to reward you with rich, targeted and free organic traffic.

Just like passive income, where you work hard today in order to reap the rewards tomorrow, 95% hands-free, automated traffic also exist when you follow the two steps as laid out here.

Keyword takeaway

The essence of keyword research is to read the minds of your ideal customers and target audience.

When you’re out there hanging out with friends, listen attentively to the words they use and how they structure their tenses. See how desperate they’re when it comes to topics they hold dear to their hearts.

The bottom line is to create content that’s tailored to people’s questions and their innermost motives.

Go pick some branded and wireframe keywords and start dominating Google top 10 – for more traffic and high rankings.

How do you pick profitable and high-traffic keywords? Please share your comment below and air your view. Thank you!