It’s Not What You Publish, It’s What You Don’t

July 26th, 2010

I haven’t wrote a blog post on here for a very long time and an advantage of not doing so, has provided me with the opportunity to look at other blogs and see how they are operating. From looking at other blogs there was one common theme which ran across all of them, and this common theme even extends to larger sites such as, some new organizations.

Let me explain.

Blogs and News Organizations were excluding certain specific content positions from their websites in comparison to other sites  which are viewed as its competition and this is allowing them to develop an identity.

For instance, ProfitBaron does not pump out posts which are telling you that there is a new version of Wordpress, or there’s a new employee at Facebook because, there are thousands and thousands of other sites out there that will tell you exactly the same thing.

Whilst, its virtually impossible to be completely original in every single piece of content you write because, every good blogger repeats themselves – even on purpose sometimes – because, repeating ourselves is a natural part of how our minds work with and remember ideas. However, by controlling what is content is being published then you are allowing yourself to influence how you want to be perceived.

For instance, Robert Scoble loves to post content on Silicon Valley Startups such as FlipBoard because, he’s interested in them and likes to help them out by telling everyone about them and Louis Gray loves to post content on startups as well such as Supertrackr because like Robert he’s really interested in Startups and they are both early adopters.

The above examples do not really mention who Louis and Robert are in full detail and I recommend you finding more about them but for all intended purposes of this post, that is a small part of who they are.

Remember, if you avoid publishing certain content then you are influencing how you want to be perceived and this makes huge strives in how you are perceived in your niche/industry.

How To Find Long Tail Keywords

September 17th, 2009

This is part 2 of how to get more search engine traffic which tells you helps you find find long tail keywords to get more traffic from search engines. You can read part 1 here.

There are four methods which I have tried to find long tail keywords each having their advantages and disadvantages and I will explain each of these methods along with some advantages and disadvantages so you can decide which one is the best method for you.

Method 1. Keyword Analytic and Tracking Programs

I order to use a keyword analytic/tracking programme you will need to place a few lines of code into your site, so they can recommended long-tail keywords specifically related to your website.

Having tried a few keyword analytic/tracking programmes for myself, I found several problems with the ones I used. Firstly, if the website is new they are useless as they won’t be able to provide any long tail keyword suggestions due to you not getting any traffic from the search engines. Moreover, if you are getting some search engine traffic and the site is new then you will also receive the suggestions slowly which is annoying as you can’t plan to develop content in advance which match these keywords.  Secondly, on the other side of the spectrum if you have a website which receives a considerable amount of search traffic, they give you too many suggestions and on several occasions provided far too many to implement. Moreover,  if you decide you would like to filter and select specific keywords off the lists provided be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time with these programmes as the user interface is poor which makes it really hard to group, sort and tag keywords according to your priorities. Finally, they don’t provide a search volume measure for the long tail keywords they suggest which again means you will have to spend time using a search volume analyzer to find out which long tail keywords you should prioritize.

Method 2. Monitor Internal Searches

I haven’t tracked them on Profit Baron yet to create content maybe I should although, I have used this method on other websites I own/have owned and by monitoring what keyword phrases users are searching for on your website this allows you to create create content directly related to what they are searching for.

Method 3. Analyse Your Competition

This is an awesome method because, the competitor has already done the hard part for you – finding the long tail keywords and all you need to do is discover what those are. I believe that there are only two ways they’re the only ones I know to find what your competitors keywords are which is by visiting their website and analysing it by viewing their page source to find their title, meta tags and back links. However, this approach can take a significant amount of time but the benefit is that the research is detailed and you will understand your competition in much greater detail. The other method is a faster approach and this is by using a keyword parsing tool.

Note: This method depends on your websites rank in search engines, its link profile, on-site optimisation etc to ensure that you have a better chance of ranking better than your competition in the search engines.

Method 4.  Develop Natural Long Tail Keywords

This is the easiest and simplest way to develop long tail keywords as it requires little to no research at all. This is because, all you have to do is update your website with new content regularly or more frequently by adding new pages and core keyword-friendly content. The key is frequency because, being more frequent allows you to increase your visibility in the search engines and in turn will help to increase search engine traffic.

So, You Want More Search Engine Traffic?

September 16th, 2009

I believe that the best cheapest way to receive high quality targeted traffic is via a search engine, and by having the amount of traffic coming from the search engine increased is great for any business. This is because, due to the increase in search engine traffic you will receive a bigger audience which could result in profits rising in the long term via sales, referrals, advertising etc.

In order to discover how to bring more search engine traffic to your website you need to understand the Long Tail theory and how to apply this theory.  If you’re not interested too lazy to read the Wikipedia link then basically long tail keywords are multi-phrase search queries which are far more targeted than a main keyword topic as they specifically are targeted to information a user is looking for. In order words, by targeting low-volume search queries rather then dominating the major ones you will receive more traffic to your website!

For instance let’s say that the main keyword is “Business” then you would have the following long tail keywords:

  • How to start a business
  • How to write a business plan
  • The benefits of getting a business mentor

The examples listed above are what real users are searching for and by optimising your website to target these long tail keywords by creating content for them then you are likely to get far more traffic then if you ranked for “Business”.

Firstly by adopting this method, you will receive higher conversions as visitors are already likely to purchase or convert on affiliate programs or recommendations as their search was more specific to the offer you are offering.

Secondly, the monetization potential is increased because, these visitors are highly targeted which means they are more likely to click an ads or subscribe to your site etc which means your audience size has increased and allows additional product sales in the long run.

Moreover, long tail keywords are easier to rank as you are likely to face ‘weaker’ competition as the larger sites are keener on targeting the main keywords.

Finally you are going to receive more website visitors as you will have more pages indexed by the search engines and this results in increased visibility which equals search engine traffic.

In the next post I will explain how to find long tail keywords.

Update: The second part can be read here – How To Find Long Tail Keywords

Why Quitting Should Be Effortless For Your Users

August 28th, 2009

Whilst I don’t have any intention of deleting my Facebook account, if  I decided I’d like to delete my account then I should be able to delete it quickly along with all the data.

The problem with on Facebook it requires users to do the hard work. That is because, they encourage users to “deactivate” their account and the only way to be certain that your account along with all the data is removed from Facebook is to delete every single picture, comment and personal information from your profile and save the changes, and then email their customer service (who unlike Twitter actually get back to you) and ask for your account to be removed – then just in case they have disabled it, wait a couple of days and try to login, if a message pops up offering to reactive your account then you should email them again ;) – if the message doesn’t pop up your Facebook account has been successfully removed.

However, I believe that the way Facebook are approaching user deletion is wrong, they should be able to delete effortlessly.

Update: Facebook have since changed the way the delete your account.

Let me explain from a generic perspective.

I believe that any company requires clear cut signals to tell them if they’re going in the right direction. Which is why I believe a company along with trying to generate revenue from its users (or even trying to get them to pay for services/features) needs to get the things which users don’t like about their product or service so they can learn faster.

Which means that the company is going to acquire more data and we all know what data means value. The value in this sense is to the company because, these failures (which is essentially what they are since users don’t like X or Y about their service) can teach them something about the market and can be corrected by the company either by terminating the particular feature, improving it etc.

This then creates a continuous loop as there is more data which facilitates the company to learn more about the market so they can make better decisions which of course leads to a better product or service. As a result the option to allow quitting on your service/product is important as it collects data and if you don’t allow quitting on your product or service then you are only going to be collecting positive data and ignoring negative data or to put a value on it 50% of the data.

Remember by collecting only half of the data then you’ll only be able to paint half the picture. Personally I’d rather be able to paint the full picture so I can assess the situation and ensure my company is heading in the right direction which is why allowing effortless quitting of your service is vital as you can collect data which facilitates you to meet the needs of the market and allows you to develop products which the market require which generates more revenue in the long-run.

The Case Against URL Shorteners

August 19th, 2009

Personally I hate URL shorteners and it is not because they’re are so many of them…

2 Short.Url (2su.de), 2Zeus, 3.ly, 9mp, a.gd, abbr, arm.in, a.nf, bit.ly, bloat.me, Buk.me, BurnURL, Chilp.it, cli.gs, clk.my, Clop.in, DiggBar, ff.im, Fly2.ws, fon.gs, Foxy URL, FWD4.me, g4.ms, gl.am, Good.ly, Gurl.es, hex.io, Hurl.no, idek.net, irt.me, is.gd, J2j.de, kissa.be!, Kisa.Ch, kl.am, krz.ch, Kore.us, Kots.Nu, ktzros, Lincr, LinksPreadeR (l.pr), LinxFix, LNK.by, lt.tl, lurl.no, Metamark (xrl.us), migre.me, micURL, min2me, MinURL, Moourl, MyURL.in, nd url, Pendek.in, Pic.gd, PiURL, Plurl, pnt.me, POPrl, pt2.me, Puke.It, qr.cx, Qurl, qux.in, r.im, RDE.me, redir.ec, RIMS, rnk.me, RubyURL, Safe.mn, Sai.ly, SFU.ca, shorl, Short.ie, short.to, shortn.me, Shrtn, Shw.me, Smallr.net, SMFU, Snipie, SnipURL (sn.im), snkr.me, song.ly, srnk.net, StumbleUpon (su.pr), TightURL, TimesURL, tini.us, Tiny.cc, TinyURL, to.ly, to.vg, tr.im, tra.kz, tsort.us, tweet.me, Tweetburner (twurl.nl), Twip.us, Twirl.at, twtr.us (tw6.us), u.nu, UiopMe, ur.ly, URL.AG, URL.ie, URL (un)faker, urlBorg, urlShort (ooqx.com), urlShort (u.mavrev.com), urlzen, Virl, vl.am, VTC, XORTR (xrt.me), XR.com, xrl.in, X.vu, xxsurl.deZ.PE, Zi.pe, ZipMyURL, ZZ.GD

…and those are only the one’s which I have recently interacted with.

I hate the fact that I am forced to use them – with the main ones that I am forced to use being ff.im and bit.ly although ff.im links are only generated when sending FriendFeed data to Twitter so that doesn’t really bother me.

For example, if I go to Twitter and post a link it is automatically converted to a bit.ly link don’t get me wrong bit.ly is a really cool service especially the  “+” feature and the same happens when I click on a link from Twitter it is generally a bit.ly link (unless someone created it manually or used a service such as awe.sm like Techcrunch do) which means that we are basically adding an extra layer to the system.

However this isn’t the major problem with URL Shorteners.

Let me explain.

The Internet was designed in a way which meant that there wasn’t a single point of failure which could easily break large parts of the web. URL shorteners can cause this single point of failure because, a regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver and the publisher’s DNS server and website whilst a URL shortener adds an additional layer which acts like a third DNS resolver and if a problem occurs with the URL shortener then you can’t access the ‘real’ hyperlink which causes a single point of failure.

Additionally this extra layer means that it’s going to take time to get you to the link due to additional DNS lookups and server hits.

Expanding on this single point of failure theme, URL shorteners become middlemen sitting between the link and its original destination. This is one of my biggest concerns which I have previously expressed and which has been highlighted recently by the media with the fact that Tr.im decided it was going to close down although it has since decided to go “open-source” and remain open as the third-party could decide that a link which you shorten violates its Terms Of Service and delete it. Moreover, the URL shortener which is now the key to getting to the original link could experience downtimeaccidentally erase the database, forget to renew its domain, get hacked, disappear or change the way its url shortener works which means instead of sending you directly to the original link it sends you to a page on their site which contains the original link on.

Consequently, there is the usability aspect of using a URL Shortener which is highlighted on Twitter.com itself as you can’t tell where the link will take you (although you can tell on Twitter Search). However, FriendFeed does expand the url which helps to prevent phishing but many sites are like Twitter and do not expand the shortened URL.