SEARCH ENGINES

For an Internet researcher the first great tool is the general, Internet-wide search engine. The largest ones encompass huge amounts of data (Google at last count indexed over four billion pages, but even that isn't the entire Web or even, it is speculated, the majority of the Web). They're also your ticket to finding more general search engines and useful information collections. So as an Internet researcher the first element you must know is the general search engine. There are two that I consider major and a bunch of minor ones. They can be divided into two broad categories: full-text search engines and searchable subject indexes. Full-Text Engines Full-text engines are those search engines that try to index the entire content of a Web page. (They don't always do it because many search engines limit how much of a page they'll index. Google, for example, will only index the first 101K of a page no matter how large the page is.) That includes the title, URL, and page content. Google and Teoma are examples of full-text engines. Searchable Subject Indexes Searchable subject indexes make no attempt to index the content of a site. Instead, the name and URL of a site—and usually some kind of brief description—are included in a set of categories. Mixing It Up Now, here's the tricky part. Google, a full-text search engine, has a searchable subject component called Google Directory. Yahoo, a searchable subject index, has the option to search a full-text engine. (Yahoo's directory results are from their searchable subject index, while their full-text search matches are called Web results and come from their own full-text search engine.) But primarily, Google is known as a full-text engine and Yahoo is known as a searchable subject index. Why Have Two Kinds? Why have two kinds of search engines anyway? What is each one good for? Full-text search engines are good when you're searching for very distinct types of information—for example, quotes, song lyrics, addresses, less-famous people, lesser-known places, or complicated queries. Searchable subject indexes do not contain enough information about Web pages to answer these kinds of queries. On the other hand, the limitations of searchable subject indexes make them very useful for more general searching—when you're trying to find information on New York, for example. Or George Washington. Or other general topics. Sometimes going through a searchable subject index finds you enough material that you can then get more specific information from a full-text engine. The two types of search engines work harmoniously together—provided you know which one to use first. What They All Have in Common: Search Defaults Despite the fact that they're searching very different things, both types of search engines have one thing in common: their search default. This is important, so pay attention. When you enter a multiple-word query into a search engine and don't enter any search modifiers (like AND or NOT), the search engine has to decide how to treat your query. Broadly speaking, the search engine can do one of two things. It can decide to search so that of your search words must be included in any results—in this case it's defaulting to AND. Or it can decide to search so that any of your search words must appear in a document for it to appear in search results. In that case it's defaulting to OR. The first most important thing to know about a search engine is whether it's a full-text engine or a searchable subject index. The second most important thing to know is whether the search engine defaults to AND or OR. If it defaults to AND, you should be more thoughtful about your query words, because all query words you choose must appear in a Web page before you'll get results. If it defaults to OR, you should be sure to put + signs in front of terms that must be included in your search. You can also try to search more for phrases. How can you tell if something defaults to AND or OR? Do a search with a very odd set of words—say elderberry chiropractic snowblower brick. If you get no results (or just a few results), you're searching an engine that defaults to AND. If you get lots of results, you've found an engine that defaults to OR.

Marketing Formats & Formulas

Formats

The information, if proven successful, could be repackaged into…

• Audio
• Video
• Reports
• PLRs
• Master Rights

Yes, all of those are OBVIOUS. It makes you want to throw-up since that list is nothing more than what you would get in a free mini-course. However, the average marketer is making the process linear. They are following the plan, but not multiplying it.

Don’t stay linear, be multi-linear, so you can produce in all directions.

If you’re going to go to all the trouble to create these traffic munching sites, then multiply the results of your effort once you find out what works.

Formulas

Here what match formulas look like:

Closure Property of Addition
Sum (or difference) of 2 real numbers equals a real number

Additive Identity
a + 0 = a
Additive Inverse
a + (-a) = 0
Associative of Addition
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)
Commutative of Addition
a + b = b + a
Definition of Subtraction
a - b = a + (-b)

Heck, if math nerds can use formulas, why can’t we??

Once you discover the recipe that works for you, write it down. Be like Coca-Cola with your business. I broke that rule with the Google example above, but it’s so obvious, no big deal.

So the formula for the Google Video is:

Video + Google + Keyword Link = Target Traffic

Now then, once you have a base formula, tweak it. Sometimes you will come up with a Dr. Pepper and sometimes a New Coke.

Here’s a variation of the original formula:

Ezine Article Link + Google Vid + Keyword Link – Target Traffic

With that formula you’re testing to see if more people will visit a video than a webpage. You could have one article that lands on your site and one that lands at Google video.

Of course you may just want to put the video on one webpage and traditional content on another and test against the two from article based traffic.

Ultimately, I might distill the formula to this:

Keyword (google or overture tools) + Traffic Avenue (ezine articles, usfreeads) + Format (video, pdf, website, mp3) + Link = Target Traffic

You should have dozens of those types of little formulas. They are not hard to develop. All you do is take your specific element (overture, ezine articles) and make it generic (keyword tool, avenue, etc.) Then tie a combination of the elements to a desired result (traffic, sales, signups)

Formulas let you cook the same way every time. As one of my business partners stole from someone, “Never do anything great once. Do it time and time again.”

Once you have your formulas you can repeat great time and again!

RSS Tips

Determine what formats that you want your RSS Feed or Blog content to be readable in. The more formats that you offer the better. I would recommend, RSS 2.0, Atom or FeedBurners “SmartFeed”. If you are using Blogger it automatically creates an Atom Feed Validate your feeds By going to www.feedvalidator.org Display the RSS feed subscribe buttons on your Blog or Website Homepage in a prominent area, either at the top of the page or in the right hand column. Put a link under your feed buttons that explains what a feed is and how to use the feed. There will be readers that don’t know what these buttons do and how to use them. Update your feed frequently with new content when appropriate. Make sure that you “ping” the RSS & Blog directories after every time that you update your RSS feed (any time you make a new post). You can do this at www.pingomatic.com Promote your RSS News feeds in your newsletter, on your website homepage, with press releases, to your email database list, etc. Submit your feeds to the major feed directories. Check that your feeds are valid at least once a month. Also verify that the feed is correct any time it is updated.

Get Found Online Using Blogs

What is a blog? A blog, or weblog, is a website that allows for regularly posted content or articles.

• Blogging is Inbound Marketing
• Blogging helps with SEO
• Blogging helps with social news and networking sites
• Blogging is permission centric

The conversation has already started, it’s time that you’re aware of it and develop a strategy for engaging in it and using it for marketing How To STEP 1: Read • Search for other blogs in your industry using Technorati.com or BlogSearch.Google.com. • Read and subscribe to blogs via RSS or email – RSS allows users to subscribe anonymously and consume content however they want. STEP 2: Comment • Contribute to the conversation via a comment. • Increase the value of the article – share an example, add a point, add a useful link, disagree, ask a question. • Why? • Engage in the community • Get noticed by other bloggers and blog readers • Get links back to your blog STEP 3: Write • Find the right blog software for you. • Blog functionality: Make sure to use your own business URL (blog.mycompany.com), not a sub- domain of someone else’s URL (myblog.typepad.com) – most blog software allows you to do this. Also your blog software should allow for email and RSS subscriptions as well as integration with social media sites. • Analytics functionality: To truly measure the success of your blog, your software should allow you to report on email and RSS subscribers over time, measure visitors and leads generated, and track search engine keyword rank over time and compared to competitors. • Support and expertise: If you are new to blogging, you may want your software provider to provide technical support, education and marketing expertise on how to succeed with your blog. • Draw in readers with your blog article titles.

• Funny: “GoDaddy’s 16-Step Checkout: Brainless Marketing At Its Finest?”
• Enticing: “12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like AnExpert”
• SEO: “Free Advertising on Google”

• On frequency: General rule of thumb is to blog at least weekly to maintain steady readership and continue your SEO efforts. Blog topic ideas:

• List of 5 ideas, trends, or thoughts
• Publish a list of links
• Take a recent experience and share it
• Answer questions you received recently
• Comment on other blog articles
• Turn a press release into a blog article

Promote your blog:

• Email friends and family
• Replace email newsletter with blog
• Trade guest articles with similar blogger
• Promote on social media sites: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, LinkedIn

STEP 4: Measure & Analyze • Track number of blog visitors and subscribers, SEO rankings, Technorati blog rank. • Measure real business results: number of visitors, leads, and customers generated by your blog.

The Niche Finding Process

This is a huge question that comes up all the time in the affiliate marketing and black hat forums I frequent. “How do I find niches?” Beginners find this particularly difficult and it really doesn’t need to be. For bottom feeding niches, people would like to just have niches handed to them. The problem with that is that if 10 other people jump into your niche and do things correctly, your income just got murdered. Thus the importance of being able to find your own niches to exploit. As you will agree once finished with this sections, nothing could be easier. Brainstorming Niches Once you’ve done this enough times, you’ll probably be able to gather more niches in an hour than you can use in a month. Here is my favorite method for brainstorming niches: Google Adwords Sandbox Tool The first thing I do is head on over to www.Amazon.com or the Yahoo or DMOZ directory. Or I search Google to come up with a directory that is related to a wide niche. If you have a Google Adwords Account, and you should, you will find a ledger called “tools”: Open it up, select “keyword tool” and then select the “site related keyword”. Enter a portal type website in the box and press “find more keywords.” You can also access this tool here.