eCa$hTalk

It’s a known fact.  The search engines like good, original content - and for the most part, large sites.  So, as you build your rankings, you will want to keep track of how many pages on your site that are indexed in Google.  This is actually, a very simple process.  You can check it out in Webmaster Central.

Or, you can simply go to the Google command line and enter site:www.[name of your site] .com .  You will get the total number of pages.  For example, I did a query on MommyAdvisor , one of my sites.  I have 18,100 pages indexed in Google.

From there, go to the bottom of the results and click on the last page of the results.  It is my own personal belief that any of your pages that are not presented after that page - it is a darn good chance that they are in the supplemental index.  Now, if you know what I am talking about, you are saying, "but, I thought that Google abandoned the supplemental index ".  Officially, yes, but, I still believe that their is some distinction in place for less significant pages.  And, if you are seeing that a considerable number of your pages cannot be seen, it is time to build some links.  Look, the supplemental index did not go away… Google just made it harder to find those pages.

In finding link partners, one of the things that you may want to know is … how much traffic is that site getting? Not that this is the end-all in finding potential sites to link to you … but, knowing about traffic may allude to bigger issues, such as what their trust rank is.

But, if you are just trying to discover someone’s traffic, there are a few sources that you should take a look at:

• Alexa - This site has become completely unreliable over the years. I find that the numbers are frequently off. Alexa numbers are largely based on who has downloaded the Alexa toolbar. I would certainly look at Alexa if I am trying to find out how much traffic someone is getting. But, I would not rely on this information.
• Compete - I have found Compete.com to be the most reliable source for determining a site’s traffic. Compete has a paid service, but you can get quite a bit for free - probably, everything that you need. However, it is still not completely reliable. If I need to find a site’s traffic, here is what I do. I average Compete numbers with …
• Quantcast - Quantcast is a great site filled with information on numerous websites. They actually have a pixel that you can place on your site, and they can give you some very detailed and amazing demographic information on your visitors - if you have the pixel.

So, for me, personally, if I am trying to determine a site’s traffic, I look at Alexa, and I average the results from Quantcast and Compete. Bottom line.

Each day that goes by, Google gets a bit more sophisticated. And, five years ago, you could call someone up and just say, “hey, bud, we have cool sites. Let’s swap some links.” Not so anymore. Getting link juice from others is still possible. But, it just requires a little more originality.

You can still get link juice by “triangulating” your links. Let me throw in this little diagram to explain what I am talking about.

It is a well-known fact that Google is getting “smarter” about reciprocal linking. What worked just a few years ago does not work today. Contrary to what some might say, reciprocal linking will not hurt you. It just will not give you the bang it used to. In fact, it probably will do very little for you - if at all.

Instead of wasting your time with reciprocal relationships that do not work, invest your time in good directory strategies, or triangulate your link building relationships. I would recommend that you become very involved in your niche. That is the mistake that I feel a lot of people make. I have been guilty of this. You want to do too much at one time. You scatter your fire - when, in reality, you should probably focus on one area, build relationships with site owners, and invest time in working with people who you can establish link building relationships with. Then, you can triangulate your links. Instead of saying, “hey, I’ll link to you if you link to me”, instead say “I have site X, it will link to you. You, in turn, link to my other site Y.”

And, the more sites you can include in this the better. In reality, we should talk about another point. So, perhaps instead of a triangle, we should be talking about a square. This should be beyond a triangle. Because the more sites that are involved with this link exchange, the more likely it will be that Google will not lessen the power of these links. But, as I said, this involves getting involved within a niche and even having multiple sites in that niche. Who says you have to scatter your fire over many niches? Get good at one area, build relationships in that niche, and start your little empire from there.

As a Business Development Director for a .com company, I am constantly having to locate phone numbers for a face-less web. Some website owners are easy to find. They post their phone numbers on their site on
a “Contact Us” page. Too bad that is not the case for most smaller sites.

If you have tried to find a site owner to establish a partnership or a link exchange, you feel that pain of what I am talking about. Well, I have a little methodology that I work through in finding someone on the web. And, though it is not full-proof, it can certainly lessen the pain associated with finding website owners.

Here’s the process:

1. Go to the site itself. Sure, most site owners don’t want to be badgered on the phone by ramdom people who found them on the web. But, they still might place that phone number in a “Privacy Policy” or within the website’s “Terms & Conditions”. And, if not, you may be able to get a mailing address or name that you can use to do a Reverse Lookup, via Whitepages.com.
2. Go to AboutUs.org. About Us is an outstanding directory of site information. I would say that 60% of the time, I can get a phone number through Aboutus. It’s a gold mine of information. Not only can you find contact information, but, most of the time you can find some very good general information on what the site is.
3. Go to Whois.net. Most people know about this. Whois retains a record of the domain owner (though not nearly always accurate). And, it is a good resource. But, I place it #3 because I find the previous ways to find people to be much better. Many times, through Whois, you will find outdated information (thought it is supposed to be constantly updated). And, you will also find simply proxies - and not the actual site owners. But, it can still be a valuable resources, if the first two means failed.
4. Whitepages.com. If you have a clue on a city/state, you can enter that name here and get a good phone number.
5. Search on Google. Go back to the Terms & Conditions and find the name of that site’s business entity. Search for the [name of the business] + [LLC/Corp/LLP, etc.]. If you are actually dealing with a business entity, it amazes me just how many times that you will not be able to find a phone number for the site, but, you will be able to find a phone number for that business entity.
6. Use “site:[insert website name] phone]”. Place this query in the command line of Google. This will search all the pages on a particular domain and look for “phone”. You can also use “contact” or if you happen to know an area code for the site, substitute that in for “phone”.
7. And, next, the biggest pain in the a#$ - the Secretary of State records for a particular state. Let’s say that you know where the site is … and none of the other ways can help … then, I would go to the site entity’s Secretary of State’s website … look in the “corporations” registration section. And, there, you may have a very good chance of finding that number.
8. Linkedin - Right, I know what you are saying… but, not everyone is on Linkedin. Exactly. That is why this is last. But, I have had some success in finding site owners using Linkedin, too.

By going through this process, I am able to locate 85-90% of the site owners on the web. Happy hunting!

Lately, I have stumbled across a concept in on online marketing that I have heard before. At the time, I didn’t see a whole lot of value in it. Yet, now, I realize its importance. And, I am talking about the power of a “related” query in Google. You can see in the picture, I have done a “related” query in Google for an affiliate site of mine, www.mommyadvisor.com.

Given the constantly expanding size of the web, I believe that Google is looking for a way to get sites “grouped” together. Go ahead and try a “related” query. You can do this by going to Google. Then, type “related:”, followed by “www.[insert site].com”. If you are looking around and seeing sites compared to yours that have good Trust rank, you are probably in good shape. If you see a bunch of sites that look like spam communities, well, it is time to get some better links to improve your Trust Rank. E.g., go to DMOZ, Business.com, BOTW, etc..

Also, the related query is a great source for link building. For example, for each site that shows up for a related query, I am probably looking at a good source of links for my site. Some of these sites could be good targets for a recriprocal or triangular link building strategy - perhaps, all of them.

Similarly, do a related query on your competitors. See the guy who is ranking #1 for your “model airplane” niche? Guess what, he is probably a good example for your site. Do a related query for him and approach his relational links about getting links to your site. Because, if he is #1 for that term, you probably want to be a part of his community. And, you can’t get in a community without moving into the neighborhood. And, a good way to get in the neighborhood is to get links from those relational sites.

I admit… I picked up a few tricks from “The Rich Jerk“…
but, just a few. There really aren’t many good things I can say about
this particular e-book. It is really, more or less, a hodge-podge of
get rich quick schemes and short-term traffic tactics. For example, it
discusses white hat strategies but also “how to cloak”. Are you kidding
me? Also, who wrote this thing? Look, if an author will not even claim credit for something he writes, it probably isn’t that good. That is, certainly, the case here.

And, the worst part of it is that it really doesn’t delve into
anything deeply. So, it is a cursory view of a lot of things that
should be treated with a greater degree of time. In some ways, I think
you will be worse off by reading this e-book.

Here are the main chapters in the book:

• Creating an affiliate website that sells like crazy.

In this chapter, he walks through the different affiliate networks (Clickbank, CJ). But, he also mentions BeFree. I’ll give them a shot, along with Linkshare. Then, there is another (ClickxChange, ClixGalore, and a few more) that I am not familiar with.

He gets into writing sales letters. His tips in this area are certainly nothing that you couldn’t find for free elsewhere… instill hope, cause a sense of urgency. Blah, blah, and blah. I have always found that the key to a good sales letter is modeling yours after the pros. Frank Kern has just recently completed a successful product launch. I saved those e-mails. I would go look at those sales letters. Very good. The key is to look at who is doing well and to model them. It is that simple. See what they are doing, find a good one, and replicate it.

But, I will say that the jerk’s Hope, Urgency Authority, Unbiased, and Fear tactics are good. But, they aren’t mind-blowing… and certainly nothing you could not get through some good modeling.

The jerk also discusses the idea of offering rebates - since most people never actually take the time to ask for their money back. A good tactic. One that I like - since I am a huge believer of market economics. And, in this case you are competing on price.

Getting paid for leads… now here is an approach that most people don’t think about. There are number of pay per lead networks out there like Commission Junction.

• Unique Search Engine PPC Strategies that kill the competition

The author suggests using Google Adwords and Yahoo to drive site traffic. But, frankly, he oversimplifies how easy SEM really is. Actually, he includes practically no informative information on Adwords that you could not find on even the most basic SEM blog. If you want to learn SEM, I would highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. This is a complete course from A-to-Z and not the joke in “The Rich Jerk”. This advice this book gives is, well, Adwords malpractice.

• SEO Strategies

For SEO, The Rich Jerk tells you that you should get links from “government pages”. Well, laddie freakin’ duh… I think that most people knew that. Now, how do you do that, again? Once again… short on details. Heavy on ideas.

Oh, and this e-book also advocates that you buy links. Not a really good idea in today’s web. I am sure I will get into a good discussion of link buying at some point.

The Jerk has a nice list of directories that one should get in: 01webdirectory.com,abilogic,bigall,ezillion, and the majors like Business.com, Gimpsy, Go Guides, and of course, DMOZ. I actually like this part of the book. Look, it is very important to get listed in good directories. Some say it is not as important as it used to be. I disagree. I think it is more important now than ever.

• Selling your own informational product
• Buying wholesale and selling on eBay
• Websites you can make profitable right now
• Other online ventures to consider
• Supplemental info for beginners
• Quality Products/Services I Highly Recommend
  

For the most part, I feel that “The Rich Jerk” was an attempt to just make money. It really is not a comprehensive guide to what one needs to compete online. And, at $10, it might be worth it - if you are an online marketing novice. But, it will not give you a comprehensive treatment of online marketing, in general.