Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Okay, so I’m browsing through the Warrior Forum this morning and I see a thread with the title, “Call the Internet Police! Domain Keyword Abuse!!” and I just had to open it up and take a look. Well, what I found was absolutely hysterical. There was this domain that somebody found that had to be one of the longest and most ridiculous domain names I’d ever seen. Something to do with cats, dogs, training, behavior, counseling, and a dog bakery. Yeah, don’t ask. Well, seeing this domain got me thinking. Why would this person want such a domain?

Well, I can think of one reason off the top of my head. You know how everybody talks about targeting long tail keywords? Well maybe this guy figured that by combining every single long tail keyword that he could think of into his domain name, he’ll get ALL the people who are actually looking up those keywords. I guess in a kind of twisted way it makes sense. But here’s the problem.

Most people, though not all, like to be able to remember the domains of places they go to so that they can just easily type them in. They also don’t like those domains to be too long so that they don’t have to type so much. Trust me, I have a couple of domain names that, though they would be considered perfectly acceptable, are probably longer than they should be. People are lazy and don’t want to do more than they have to… especially when it comes to typing in a URL.

So coming up with a name that is just ridiculously long is counterproductive to what you’re trying to do. Sure, you might get the curiosity seekers coming to your site to check out your long domain because it’s novel. But do you REALLY think that many of these people, if any at all, will turn into buyers? Maybe if you have some novelty item. Point is, you want to make your name as recognizable as possible. You don’t see Nike coming up with nike-is-the-greatest-sports-shoe-in-the-world-so-buy-one-and-just-do-it dot com, do you?

Picking a domain name is probably one of the most important things you will do. It will, aside from targeting certain keywords that you’re after, identify you for life. I for one don’t want to be known as the internet-marketer-who-has-ocd-and-just-cannot-get-away-from-his-computer dot com.

At least not yet.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Is your site sinking like a dead weight in the SERPs? Want to get your site to the TOP of the SERPs? Pick up Kurt Melvin’s Think Links. You can read my complete review of the product at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-think-links-for-seo.html

What is it with Internet marketers? You’d think the very first thing they’d learn to do is use a search engine. I mean how hard is it? I see how you guys use search engines and it’s a crying shame. Well, this article is going to teach you the RIGHT way to use them. If you’re curious as to what I have to share, you might want to read this.

First of all, you have to get away from this habit of using quotes when you search for something. Don’t you realize that that’s only going to help you find what you’re looking for a lot quicker? What’s the fun in that? Don’t you want the adventure of scouring through all those meaningless search results when you look up things like “how do I get cat poop off of my Stetson?” If you use quotes, you’re going to find your answer way to fast as there can’t be too many sites that are going to have that exact question. But without quotes, well, who knows what you’ll find? That’s the fun of searching without quotes. Be adventurous! Dare to live outside the box!

Secondly, when you use the search engines, you want to ignore all those results at the top and the right hand side. Don’t you realize that, one, those results are probably going to be the most relevant since those people are actually PAYING for those positions and two, you DO realize that those people ALL have something to sell to you. Do you REALLY think that you’re going to get to those sites and get the info that you need for FREE? I mean get real. You’re a marketer for crying out loud.

Finally, when you use the search engines you DON’T want to use just ONE. I mean what fun is that? You end up getting blasted with the same irrelevant results for every search you do because the search engine you decide to use doesn’t know a pea from a peanut. You MUST use ALL the search engines. That way you can get an idea of which one provides you with the MOST relevant results. Then, you can decide, depending on whether you want info quick or just want to get jerked around, which search engine you’re going to use for THAT particular search.

There you have it…my top three tips for using search engines.

Now aren’t you glad you read this article?

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Is your site sinking like a dead weight in the SERPs? Want to get your site to the TOP of the SERPs? Pick up Kurt Melvin’s Think Links. You can read my complete review of the product at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-think-links-for-seo.html.

Okay, so you’re a blogger and you’re setting up your first blog and you’re looking for a theme. Essentially, you’re looking for something that looks good, at least to you. You weed through the WordPress themes directory spot something you like and install it. You’re done. But are you? Did you choose the right theme? For that matter, does it even matter? A lot of people seem to think it doesn’t. Well, this kind of thinking can land you in a lot of hot water. Themes DO matter…a lot. This article explains why.

Naturally, how a theme looks (good or bad) is, in a lot of ways, subjective. What one person may call a nice looking theme, another person might think looks like garbage. You’re never going to please everybody with your choice of theme. However, there is one thing you DO want to keep in mind when choosing a theme. You want it to fit with the topic of your blog as closely as possible. I’m going to give you an extreme example so that you understand what I mean.

Let’s say you have a blog on health related issues. Don’t you think that maybe you should use a theme that has health related designs on it? Maybe stock photos of doctors and/or nurses. Maybe some medical symbols. Maybe photos of natural herbs. You get the picture, right? Well, what would somebody think if they went to your “health” blog and saw balloons all over the place, or photos of tanks and cannons? They’d think that your blog was a joke.

Now I understand, the above is a very extreme example and I’d like to think that nobody is that dense as to put tanks and cannons on a blog about health. But trust me, I have seen some strange things. Point is, even subtle inconsistencies can turn off your target market. It doesn’t take much. If just one thing about the theme is off, such as the color (do you want a black theme for a health blog?) it can give visitors the wrong idea.

At the very least, you should go with a theme that is neutral so that it could go with anything. However, look itself is not all that makes up a theme.

Next, there is functionality. Let’s say you want your blog to have some nice Amazon ads on the sidebar. Well, you better pick a theme that has an Amazon widget or something compatible. If you want to display rotating banners, you better pick a theme with that kind of functionality. Again, themes are more than just look.

So when picking the theme for YOUR blog, make sure that it not only looks the part but that it has the functionality that YOU need to do the things that YOU want to do.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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I get a chuckle from some of the questions that get asked over at the Warrior Forum. It’s just so funny what people will buy into. Today’s offering is this one. “Is the standard squeeze page still effective?” If you’re a typical Internet marketer, you probably use one of these yourself. So you probably already know the answer…for you. Ah, but therein lies the rub. Confused? Well, sit back, relax, and read what I have to share on this subject. It isn’t what you think it’s going to be.

One of the things that I learned (and it took me a LONG time to learn it) is that there are no absolutes in this business. Every single day you hear proclamations by other marketers.

Long sales copy is dead.

Article marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be.

And the proclamations go on and on. You’d think that the sky opened up and some divine creature fell down from it revealing all the truths about Internet marketing. Well, the truth is, there ARE no truths. What works for John Doe may not work for you.

But why? Why is that so? Why is it that for John Doe, his squeeze pages perform like gangbusters and yet for you, they don’t do squat. I mean, either they work or they don’t…right?

Wrong!

There are many variables that go into the effectiveness of a squeeze page. The niche itself for starters. Some niches are more jaded and blind to squeeze pages. Other niches are afraid of them simply because they are so far removed from buying things online that they’re afraid to share their email address with you or anyone. They apparently never heard of junk email accounts.

The look of the squeeze page itself comes into play as far as effectiveness. Different niches will respond to different looks. You certainly can’t expect a squeeze page designed for rappers looking to get a record deal to perform as well with the same look targeted towards people who are looking to get out of debt. They’ll be running for the hills when they see all that glitz.

I learned a long time ago that absolutes will kill you. Anybody who says that one thing or another either works or doesn’t work ALL the time, is greatly misinformed. There is no such animal.

So, the answer to this question is simple.

Test and find out for yourself.

That is the ONLY way you’re going to know.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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There is no question that SEO is important unless you’re just going to spend all your time on paying for traffic. And even then, you want your pages to be as optimized as possible so that they are relevant enough to keep your PPC costs down. But how many people know if they’re up to their level of competition in the niche that they’re tackling? How do you find out? Well, this article is going to provide some simple, but effective tips for sizing up the competition to see if you can battle with the big boys.

Probably the first thing you want to look at is the site itself. What better way to know what you’re up against than to look it straight in the face? Take a look at how many indexed pages they have. See what keywords they’re tackling. Take a look at their site design. Naturally, you want to see what all this work has done for their ranking. If you want to beat them, you’re going to have to be better than them.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have seen some God awful looking sites at the top of the SERPs. You’d really have to wonder how they got there. Well, there is more to a ranking than just looks and content. Unfortunately, and until Google starts to give this less weight, backlinks play a big part in the ranking picture. A sight with a lot of backlinks, in Google’s mind, is a site that is popular with other sites online. As a marketer, you know that this isn’t really true. But that’s the flaw in Google’s algorithm. Hopefully, one day, they’ll change it. But until they do, backlinks are important.

Another thing you have to look at is how much they’re actually paying for advertising. By paying for advertising, they’re getting more visitors to their site. In turn, as time goes on, those visitors bring their pages up the ranks. If they’re spending a lot of money, can you compete with them? I’ve seen sites spending thousands of dollars a day in PPC costs. Most beginning Internet marketers simply cannot compete with them.

Point is, sometimes you have to pick your battles. If you find you’re looking to get into a niche that is dominated by sites with high PR, tons of backlinks and an ad spend that would make the US debt look tiny in comparison, you might want to reconsider and get into something else. I’m not saying that they can’t be beaten. What I am saying is that it’s going to take a lot of work.

So take a look at your competition and figure out what YOU have to do in order to give THEM a run for their money.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Is your site sinking like a dead weight in the SERPs? Want to get your site to the TOP of the SERPs? Pick up Kurt Melvin’s Think Links. You can read my complete review of the product at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-think-links-for-seo.html

I’ve seen marketers make stupid statements before but the other day, over at the Warrior Forum, I saw what was probably the stupidest statement ever. I am talking about relevant backlinks. The person who started the thread claims that the only backlinks that are relevant to your site are ones that come from sites that are in the same niche. In other words, if you have a site on home repair, the only backlinks that are relevant are the ones that come from other home repair sites. If you believe that, I have some land to sell you…cheap.

Okay, let’s clear this issue up once and for all because this is the biggest bunch of malarkey I have ever heard in my life. Probably the best way to illustrate my point why ALL backlinks are relevant (though some are more relevant than others) is with an example. I hope this example paints a very clear picture for you.

Let’s say, for argument sake that you have a site that sells hard to find trading cards. I’m talking about cards from old TV shows like Combat, Batman and so on. You’ve got tons of these, all in mint condition. People who are card collectors absolutely LOVE your site. Some of them love it so much that they actually rave about it on their blogs. But wait a minute. What kind of blogs do these people have?

Well, seeing that these are just regular folks (not marketers) it turns out that they have blogs that have all sorts of content on them such as needlepoint tips, entertainment watches, photos of cats and dogs and just about anything you can think of that has NOTHING to do with collectible trading cards. In fact, there are no backlinks to your site from any site that sells trading cards. Why? Because the last thing they want to do is promote the competition.

So you have all these backlinks from sites that have nothing to do with trading cards and these backlinks, along with the fact that you have some great content on your site, shoot you right up to number one on Google’s hit parade. So tell me. Are these backlinks NOT relevant?

Sure, it would be great if you could get some backlinks from authority sites in your niche. But just because you don’t doesn’t mean that the ones you DO have are meaningless, worthless or whatever the person at the forum is claiming.

Okay, point made? Any backlink that you can get is going to help you with your site ranking as long as it’s not one from a site that has been sandboxed by Google for being in a bad neighborhood, spamming or whatever the reason is.

Hope this clears up this ridiculous issue once and for all.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Is your site sinking like a dead weight in the SERPs? Want to get your site to the TOP of the SERPs? Pick up Kurt Melvin’s Think Links. You can read my complete review of the product at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-think-links-for-seo.html

I’m beginning to think that Internet marketers want to sit back on their couch and have an automated robot do their marketing for them. If they could have that robot also bring them a drink with a straw, that would be great too. Yes, there is no doubt about it…Internet marketers are getting fat and lazy. Yes, this is a rant that you’re about to read. So you’ve been warned.

I don’t even know where to begin with the laziness that I’ve seen. The most recent examples are the ones where marketers come to Internet marketing forums and ask questions that, on the surface, appear to be simple enough to find with just a little bit of search engine research. Sure enough, the one question I saw today over at the Warrior Forum, I got an answer in about 30 seconds just from typing the question into the search box. Are people so lazy that they can’t even do that?

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Laziness isn’t just about research. It’s about work too. For example, you tell somebody that all they have to do is write one article a day for their niche and after a month they should have enough content to shoot them to the top of the SERPs and you’d think that they’d have no trouble doing this. Then, 30 days later, you ask them how they did and you find out that they wrote four articles. That’s right…four articles in 30 days. That’s about one article a week. What were they doing the other six days?

Then of course you have site design. Now let’s face it, today, you don’t have to be an HTML expert to put up a site. With things like WordPress, you can have a functioning site in a matter of hours. So if you tell somebody to have a site up by the end of the week with at least SOME content on it, don’t you think that should be easy enough to do? But then the end of the week comes and the person hasn’t even picked out a domain for their niche. Why? Beats me if I know why.

If you think people are lazy and don’t want to work, take a look at the lines for the lottery each week. Those are people who are looking to spend the rest of their lives on some deserted island drinking rum and cola or whatever their drink of choice is. And if the lottery lines don’t do it for you, how about all the emails I get from people who ask me “Is this going to be a lot of work?”

Let me save you a lot of trouble if you’re wondering if making a living online takes work. It does. If that’s a dirty four letter word for you, do yourself a favor…make sure you get a winning ticket.

You’re going to need it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Do you know what I love about marketers? I love how they absolutely can butcher some terms to death. SEO and SEM are two examples. Many beginners use these interchangeably as if they meant the same thing. However, they are not the same. So, in order to clear up some of the confusion, this article is going to first explain the difference between the two and then offer some tips on each. I am sure you will find this informative and hopefully, keep you from talking about one thing when you really mean the other.

Let’s start with SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. This actually refers to the practice of using on and off page tactics to get your site ranked higher on the SERPs. On page tactics would be the use of keywords, anchor text, meta tags and so on, in order to get your site ranked. Off page tactics would be writing articles, getting backlinks, using video and other web 2.0 properties to get your site ranked higher on the SERPs. In a nutshell, that’s SEO.

Okay, so then what exactly is SEM? SEM is using paid marketing in order to get more traffic to your site. This could mean using things like Google Adwords or even Yahoo’s or MSN’s pay per click services. Essentially, you are using paid search engine listings in order to get traffic. It has nothing to do with your actual organic placement in the SERPs. In fact, your site can be on page 100 organically. But if you bid high enough on keywords, you could be listed first in the paid listings. So as you can see, the two work together but one is not dependent on the other.

As for tips, let’s start with SEO first. If you’re on a tight budget, as many beginning marketers are, this is the way you want to go. You can actually get a good ranking without ever having to spend a dime on advertising. By optimizing your site as best as you can, writing articles, submitting press releases, making videos, bookmarking and getting backlinks, you can easily conquer even the toughest niches. If money is tight and time is not a problem, this is the way to go.

However, if time is at a premium and money is no object, then there is no quicker way to get traffic than through SEM. A paid ad that appears at the top of the paid listings can bring you hundreds of visitors a day IF the demand for those keywords is there. As I said, you can be on page 100 organically and it won’t matter. However, IF you are going to go the SEM route, you want to make sure that you get a solid education on pay per click marketing before you tackle this beast. Many marketers have lost their shirts going the SEM route because they didn’t know what they were doing.

There you have it. The difference between SEO and SEM and some tips on using them both. Hopefully, you found this information useful.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Is your site sinking like a dead weight in the SERPs? Want to get your site to the TOP of the SERPs? Pick up Kurt Melvin’s Think Links. You can read my complete review of the product at http://stevewagenheim.com/blog/internet-marketing/review-of-think-links-for-seo.html

Okay, let me start off by saying that I really don’t like pointless hypothetical questions. WordPress DOES exist. You might as well ask what if the Internet, computers or even electricity didn’t exist. The point is, it does exist so hypothetical questions involving things of that nature are really kind of pointless. However, for the sake of argument, since this question WAS brought up at the Warrior Forum, I’m going to provide an answer that is a little less sarcastic than the one I gave there.

For the purposes of answering this question, we’re actually going to assume that all similar platforms to WordPress, such as Blogger and Joomla, also don’t exist. In other words, the only way to get any kind of site online is to code it the old fashioned way…with HTML and some PHP if need be. Remember, we want to have the same functionality as these CMS sites. Okay, are we clear there? Good…let’s continue.

So, we’ve decided that the only thing to do is write some code. But what if you’re not a coder? What if you know nothing about HTML or PHP or any of that stuff? You know what you want to do. You want a site where you can add content to it via some sort of input system and have that content automatically added to the site and formatted correctly. Each post would therefore have to be saved to a database so that the site is not static.

Well, you have two choices. Choice number one is to hire somebody to create the site for you. You’d probably go to Elance or some other freelancing site and look for a coder. You’d have the site custom made just for you. That’s choice one. However, choice two is what I would do. And this is why I’m a marketer.

I would think to myself that if I want something like this, there’d have to be other marketers who would also want a CMS system. So I would have a system created for me to sell to others. Or, I’d do what the WordPress people did…give it away for nothing. Trust me, these people still make their money…plenty of it.

Point is, where something doesn’t exist, the ideas are always there. The thing that separates the successful from the unsuccessful marketers is implementing these ideas. Think of something you want, see if it’s available and if not, create it and sell it. If you sit down and think about all the things YOU would like as a marketer, I am sure you’d find plenty that YOU could create yourself, even if you have to hire somebody to do it.

So, if WordPress didn’t exist, life would go on.

And eventually, WordPress, or something similar, WOULD exist.

It’s just a matter of time and a thinking mind.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

Well, It’s finally gotten to the point where I’ve just about had enough. It seems that the only thing marketers want to do is complain. Okay, not all marketers, but quite a few of them. Every single day that I go to the Warrior Forum, I see somebody complaining about something…long sales copy, video, marketplaces, and on and on and on. The list is endless. So the question I want to ask you today is a simple one. Do you want to complain or make money? Not sure? Then you might want to read this article.

Let me start off by saying that what you’re complaining about doesn’t matter. It can be anything at all. Complaining in and of itself is a waste of time. Why? Simple. It accomplishes nothing. You can complain about marketing tactics all you like. Nobody cares and nobody is going to listen to you. The smart marketer is going to test the things he does and will use the things that test well…whether or not YOU like those tactics. So your complaints will be falling on deaf ears.

Other than letting off steam, complaining serves no purpose as far as making money. So, we’re going to stop complaining…right? Well, yes and no. What we’re going to do is look at things that we might not like and see how we can make them better ourselves. See, the truth is, if you have a problem with a certain marketing tactic, there is a very good chance that other people have the same problem.

For example, one trend that seems to be ticking off a lot of people is video without the controls. This way, if somebody wants to watch the video, they have to watch it all the way through without stopping. Seems a lot of people don’t like this. So, what I would do, if I was a smart marketer, is test out some videos that DO have controls and see how well they perform as far as conversion. Maybe you’re right. Maybe videos with controls DO work better. But you’re never going to know unless you test it.

Point is, take the things that bother you and see if you can improve on them. You might be surprised to find out that you are actually in the majority on certain things. But just sitting around and complaining about them is unproductive. If you want to make money, take your complaints and work out a solution to them.

You might be surprised by the results.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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