Day 18 30DC - Ranked and Glad of it

I probably wouldn't have believed it possible if I hadn't seen it. Within a day of launching my page, I am ranked position #6 in Google search results for that keyword phrase! Here's the proof:








That's pretty amazing, and proof that the strategies and techniques that we are learning on the Thirty Day Challenge work a treat, as my friends from Oz would say.

Now it just remains to be seen how the traffic shakes out. I have Google Analytics embedded to capture those results.

Day 17 30DC - Time for Launch

I have been disciplined enough to keep pace with the training rather than running ahead, thinking I knew where I was going. For a go-getter like me, that is difficult. But it's just as well -- learning to follow a process or workflow is one way to ensure you learn exactly what is required. Wish my students realized this sometimes.

Today we've received the go ahead to launch our pages. The intent is to put some quality content on a page, utilize our keyword phrase, and include our affiliate link in case anyone wants to buy product. The key is to have a good site that will attract attention, and gratify the visitors who discover it.

Since mine is about a reasonably popular topic, and I have my own spin on it, this should work very well. The platform we are using for the pages is Tumblr, though any page would do. It will be interesting to see how this actually works.

Day 16 30DC - Start Your Engines!

Now it's time to rev up the engines that will propel us toward that first $10.00 made online, and perhaps much more. In addition to making sure we have a good niche -- low competition, adequate number of searches per day, a market that pays for product -- we find an affiliate program with a ready-made product to promote on our website as a test.

You might think that we should sell our own products on our sites. Well, yes. But that will come. Right now, before a product is even developed, it's important to crank up the traffic engine and ensure that people with an interest in the topic are finding the web page all right. The gauge of this is in the number of visitors you get, and whether any of them are interested enough in the topic to open their wallets and pay for a product in that niche.

Remember, we still haven't laid out one single penny on any of this so far. And we're not investing development time yet, either. We're taking something that is already successfully selling elsewhere, and offering it on our page as well. In effect, using a proven product, that already converts visitors into buyers. Through affiliate programs, you can begin to make money with other peoples' products before you have any of your own.

It's akin to selling on consignment. You showcase someone's product, and if it's bought, you get a percentage of that sale. You don't have to do anything other than display it and promote it. Since we are using free display and promotion mechanisms, it's a no-risk, no-cost option. My favorite kind.

Day 15 30DC - Playing in Traffic

Halfway through the Thirty Day Challenge, we have finally reached movement 2 of what Ed calls "A Magnificent Symphony in Four Parts". This part deals with traffic. The first, of course, was market research. If you think that 15 days preparation in a 30-day challenge is somewhat lopsided, you would be wrong. As previously mentioned, there is no skimping on the research and analysis phase if you want to maximize your efforts during development to have an error-free launch.

So maybe there's no such thing as "error-free" launches, but you can certainly reduce the risk. And that's what the Thirty Day Challenge is all about. Minimizing risk means ensuring that you have sufficient traffic to get enough potential buyers to your site that a reasonable percentage of them can be converted, and thus bring you the all important sale. Conversion and Product being the remaining parts of the symphony.

Having done the market research, I know that my niche choices meet or exceed the minimum criteria for number of searches per day. So I can be confident that if I have a top-ranking position in the search engines, I will be getting a certain number of people looking at my web page every day. The trick, of course, is to get to that high ranking position in a search.

Enter Web 2.0 and its social networking tools. By having other people notice, comment, tag, and refer your site, you get additional clout with Google and your page rank goes up. The more attention your site gets, the more searches it gets, and the higher it shows up on the hit list.

If you can get parts I and II right, III and IV are not going to be that difficult. As I tell my students, do what is hard, life is easy; do what is easy, life is hard. Let's make this as easy as possible.

Think About It

What would Google do?

All online business, e-commerce, and internet marketing is very much influenced by Google. Why? If you don't behave when you put up a website, Google will slap you. Really! Underhanded marketing techniques, inept SEO (search engine optimization) and ignorance of the way the web works all will get you ignored by Google, or at worst, banned.

So perhaps it's wise to remember who carries the big stick, and make them your friend.

Blogging for Business

Susan Payton of Egg Marketing recently invited me to participate in the week-long online forum for business blogging. All this week we will be talking about why blogs are an important tool for businesses today.

There are some businesses for which a blog is becoming a necessity, and it is an inexpensive way to promote your business on a daily basis. While it does not replace press releases and other forms of PR, it is an important Web 2.0 addition to these traditional ways of getting the word out about your products and services.

From a marketing standpoint, however, check out what Susan is doing with this online forum. It is an updated, online version of the old standby article type called a Roundup Article that we used to do for magazines and newspapers (and still do!).

Instead of physically getting the panel participants together, which would cost a fair bit if you had to gather people from all parts of the globe and put them up in a hotel, you pose the same questions to each person individually and then amalgamate the responses. The writing links each answer to the others in a way that sounds as if there is a true discussion going on.

This is the same technique you see (but don't notice) on the evening news, when the anchor is "interviewing" the foreign correspondent, who replied to a list of questions earlier. The video is sent back to the network and intercut with clips of the anchor asking the questions. "That's a good question, Lloyd, the people here are extremely concerned about their water quality."

This technique allows for "timeshifting" -- capturing information at one point in time and replaying it for effect at another point in time.

Gathering a panel of experts is always impressive, and adds an interesting dimension to your blog or article.

Day 14 30DC - Idol Rambling

The key to making money online is exactly the same as the key to making money offline (I know that's such a revelation). And that is knowing ahead of time what has the greatest chance of making money. Ed Dale (and others) have called this the American Idol approach. It's a great way to minimize risk and create a hungry market.

All of the Idol shows are superb at building up a following for the artist(s) and creating a pre-sold market for their CD releases. They know the winning artist will be successful at product sales because millions of people are voting for them. It's only a short hop from there to voting with their wallets by buying the winners' music.

Meanwhile, there's promotion and marketing going on in the background -- product licensing, images, blogs, and so on. Quite an amazing marketing machine that funds itself as it goes along. "Juggernaut" is the word for it.

In previous years' Thirty Day Challenges we've used a technique called "fly catching" which is to post a web page that is as compelling (sweet) as you can make it, and then open the windows (promote it with Pay Per Click advertising). The objective was to see how many flies (customers) would land on it and stick, meaning they'd like what they see and enter their e-mail contact info to get on your mailing list for future marketing.

Since people are a lot more discriminating than flies, it was very much a hit-and-miss approach.

This year, we are looking for those raving fans who are already consuming something as proven by our market research into our various niches. This is akin to having a very large group of people asking, "When's the next American Idol tryout?" The audience craves more, so it only makes sense to give it to them.

Makes marketing a whole lot more interesting, don't you think?

Day 13 30DC - Data Mining for Gold

Marketing guru and all around exceptional human being Gary Halbert used to talk about the Golden Nugget method. This is a way of being an expert at any subject in about 48 hours of work.

The technique, which you can use in analog or digital form, is to survey as many other publications or information sources as you can that are about your topic. Scan these sources for information that is unusual, interesting, or that somehow snags your attention. In other words, you are looking for anything noteworthy.

When you find such snippets or factoids, jot them down, either on a 3.5" file card as Halbert suggests, in a pocket paper notebook, or in a digital notebook, such as WordPad, Google Notebook, EasyNoter (love this, thanks Marlon!), or any text editor.

When you capture this information, be sure to note the source as well, so you can find it again or give proper credit later.

My own recommendation is to make some additional notes to yourself about the context or the interest factor of the information. Why did you think it was interesting? What made you say "Wow!"? Why is it particularly relevant to your topic?

Maybe your note is something like this: "Speed Reading [topic]: The Guardian Newspaper had a champion speed reader read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
so they could print an early review. She read the entire book in 47 minutes." http://books.guardian.co.uk/ [include source URL]

While that is fascinating, what made you write it down in relation to your topic? Those extra bits of info you attach to your note help your brain organize this material, and make it easier for you to use the snippet later when you need something to add to an article, blog or essay.

It aids the brain in correlating the information with what you already know, and helps your memory as well. In the parlance of accelerated learning, it's related to cognitive correlation, and emotional integration.

It's easy to become an expert at anything when you know how to take good notes.

Day 12 30DC - Painless Research

Market research is a huge, time-consuming effort for anyone who is doing it right. You need to be thorough, and you need to be focused. The Internet provides a huge repository of information, as well as a fast and easy way to gather data for your specific purposes.

A couple of caveats, however:

• Some information on the Internet is notoriously flawed.
  
• There are spoof sites masquerading as legitimate sites, usually in the political arena.
  
• When people post answers to questions in forums or elsewhere on the web, they sometimes post incorrect answers.
  
• Your results are only as good as your search paradigm.
  
• Information without context is suspect and needs to be cross-checked.
• Always validate your sources!

As long as you are aware of these limitations (and there are more, there isn't space for an exhaustive list), and adopt good research habits, you can get a lot of good information from the Internet faster than browsing the reference section of a physical library.

The Internet makes doing market research painless and quick. There are no more excuses for short-changing your research effort.