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Search Engines

Teaching Sells – Authority Sites and Google Rankings

OK guys – this has been an interesting experiment regarding keyword authority and SEO – which was what I was playing with with my review Teaching Sells Does It Work?

I noticed recently that this site had become an “authority” site – to be honest I’d heard Grizz and others talk of authority sites before but I didn’t really understand the implications.  First off to discover if a site is  an authority site just google the site’s name or their main keywords – google “make money for beginners” and you will find this dubious site in #1 position:

authoritygrizzSo I have one of these pretty little listings too for my name and when I rank for something related vaguely to passive income online – I get the old double indexing with the second listing indented:

teaching-sells-20090827Once I post this update I suspect the 2nd indent will become this post – as it is sometimes its the tag page (that’s why you should NOT noindex your tag pages) but more often its a slight typo on the url which I noticed the instant I published and corrected – its not a 404 – the page redirects – to the correct url – I don’t understand it – but I don’t mind LOL.

The most clearest clue that you have authority though is quite easy – you go straight position #1 if you write a post on a relatively longtail long competition term  something like “teaching sells does it work” for example: I got the listing immediately and it stayed there, that’s with no link building on my part. Now would it have stayed there if Grizz – the ultimate “make money” authority blogger hadn’t linked to me? I don’t know – that’s the trouble with SEO experiments – you really can’t control all the variables as you would in the lab – and you certainly can’t control who links to you – but now I know I will almost certainly stay at #1 because of all those kind people who linked to me – thanks guys!

Now it gets more interesting – as you can see on that above screen shot, from yesterday BTW, I was also ranking third and sixth for an infobarrel and hubpage. What I was actually trying to experiment with was the often quoted concern that hubpages was losing its authority was true. Well AFAIK neither of the those articles have any backlinks (I didn’t link to them from this blog either) – so by themselves they ranked on the first page and stayed there. The infobarrel out ranked the hubpage consistently – but that was probably just because I had the long-tail exact match in the url of the infobarrel: teaching-sells-does-it-work while the hubpage I’d just called teaching-sells.

It got more interesting today though – I noticed that the hubpage had got up to third place – but the infobarrel was gone – in fact its deindexed (check by googling the exact url) – odd to say the least – as I say I certainly have done no link building on it. I suspect a glitch or possibly Google didn’t like the odd characters at the end of the url – which are probably computer speak  for “?” (you don’t have great control on infobarrel urls) – I do know in the past if I inadvertantly left a trailing “-” or “_” Google may refuse to index the page for a month or so.

So how do you make a blog an authority in your niche? Fairly simple really – google your keyword – and try to get links from any authority blogs that you  find on the first page.

  • Once you are an authority site you can outrank established sites by just having your keyword long-tail in the url.
  • Once you are an authority site you can outrank sites which have at least part of the long-tail keyword in their domain name e.g. teachingsells.com
  • Once you are an authority site you can outrank much, much larger sties which are also authority sites such as hubpages and infobarrel which have the keywords in the url.

Now while this  site definitly has authority is neither ranking well for my primary keyword (hint its not either Teaching Sells or Site Build It!) not does it have great PR – PR2 at the moment – it was PR3 until the Site Build It fiasco saw me got a ton of  relevant links.

I’m off to build me some more authority sites – in  a nice that might actually pay!

Categories
Paid Tools Rants Tools

Teaching Sells: Does it Work?

Lets get this out of the way right here – if you want a balanced, politically correct, weighed, grammatically perfect and well spelt review of CopyBlogger’s, Brian Clark’s Teaching Sells – you won’t find it here.  I am a blogger, not a lawyer,  I have no obligation to provide unbiased, balanced information all the time – and trust me I am pissed about this! Anyway there will be heaps of sycophantic reviews from those who are flogging the new version of Teaching Sells – about to be released for Fall semester – to counter my unbalanced and cyncial take on why teaching sells will not make you money – but will probably do quite well for Brian Clarke and his mates.

report-coverFor some reason I used to occasionally read Chris Brogan’s blog – and his post titled “Why I Will Promote Teaching Sells” – Google it I am fussy about what I link to from this blog – caught my eye. Why? “Teaching Sells” was what made me give up Internet Marketing back in 2007. It may not have been Brian Clark’s Teaching Sells programs -it might have been someone else’s knock off – I don’t really care because at the end of the day the concept is the same I think that  this is one of the MOST dishonest ways to make money online income from the dreams of other people.

Now lets be upfront – I haven’t bought the course – in fact its not open at the moment -they are in the building the hype stage – Google off to “teaching sells” if you want to get on the presell list so far I only have the 25 page free report plus several other transcripts of examples from the earlier course (at least they aren’t pretending this is new).  I have submitted myself to endless spam updates which at the time of writing promise:

  • A bonus report about building quick and easy membership sites with licensed content.
  • A 20-Step Process Map to building an online training business.
  • An instructional video that reveals the solution to the “traffic dilemma” every online entrepreneur faces.
  • And a complete course listing of the entire Teaching Sells program.

I’ve seen enough know to, in my biased and personal opinion, warn you in VERY large letters – to stay the fuck away from Teaching Sells.  Oh unless you happen to already be a real-world acknowledged expert, preferably a published author – then you may be able to use it – so long as your niche has lots of willing buyers that is.

I must say reading the 25 page pre-sales pitch free report was informative.  I may not be able to sell teaching but I can recognise bullshite from 10 paces.  When  I first saw the version of this report they were using 2-years ago – I just felt uneasy and a bit “off” about the idea. Now I know exactly why it stinks to high heaven, guess I learnt something about bullshite detection in the last 2 years!

Now the first thing you will notice is the production quality of the 25-page free report – there are no typos and its got nice graphics. Try actually reading it though – that’s where it all goes downhill.  Apparently I work for Google (so does Vic, Grizz and Court – we are all Google slaves) -apparently its not a real business model to rely on Google for traffic, Google’s Adsense for income and well – Grizz takes in one step further and has the audacity to hardly make any money online at all using a FREE blogger (i.e. Google) blog – outrageous!

Apparently Teaching Sells will teach me a better way to get traffic – I can hardly wait for that bit – but I notice it wasn’t free traffic so PPC springs to mind… Or maybe I will get real lucky and Brian Clark will recognise my intelligence and make me a business partner (I am not making this up – its in the pitch as well!).  Yes it could be the joint-venture – you sell me your list and I’ll see your’s mine approach. Apparently you can’t make money by giving stuff away from money – hey Court – I hope you realise that you shouldn’t be giving away your content for $1 the first month! I hope you realise you aren’t making any money!

Apparently I don’t need a long-tail niche audience either (hell that might make me some money) – no instead I need a create my own tribe! Well much that love the 12.5 of you who regularly read this blog and occasionally make me money from my free content – we are doing no tribal meetings around here! We are not doing no sit-down kum-bay-yahs around the camp fire anytime soon around here people!

The thing that gets me most about the Teaching Sells hype this time is the blatant hypocrisy – after several pages of describing how most of the free content on the web is just not worth anything – and leaves people begging to pay money to join your membership site Teaching Sells cites how Steve Pavlina claims to have made $40,000 in one month from his free blog – by pushing his reader to a paid personal-development program which he didn’t even develop himself – yeah really ethical that, totally different from affiliate marketing! But its not advertising you know – its adding value LOL.
So with Teaching Sells you will learn that:

The big opportunity for you though, is in repurposing the vast amount of specialized text-based information into interactive, multimedia learning environments that result in recurring income and long-term customer relationships.

Lets just be crystal here – this is not about your customers making money – its about YOU making money from them… Otherwise known as hooking them up with the old membership model with the recurring charge on the credit card and making sure they don’t become self-sufficient ever too soon.

The  only question I have for Teaching Sells – and the only reason I signed up for the spam list priority notification list was I am curious as to how much they think they can package this old course for. Old – yes that’s right – in fact there is an interesting review of the 2007 version of the course from Friar’s Review of Brian Clark’s Teaching Sells that time around it was $97 for the special price for the first 3 months – and then recurring after that – ( a little point not made that obvious in the 6 point print at the bottom of the page in lightest gray font apparently) – this time I’m figuring they will adding at least a one to the front – or maybe they will go for the currently fashionable $1997 price …

Bottom line if you really think you are already an expert on something that people are really dying to spend money on and you want to take the time to set up an interactive learning experience forum and can’t be bothered finding out how to do it yourself (or paying someone to) – then this course may be for you.

If you are like the other 99.9% of us who don’t have a useful skill to teach online, can’t, for example, teach us how to make paella online then you will probably figure out real fast that you either learn how to fake it until you make, build your wealth on other people’s shattered dreams, or just possibly, learn how to make money online without ripping anyone off.

Bugger I have a nice little set of non-controversial posts half written for this week, and some affiliate crap to push on my unsuspecting readers as well – oh well blog has reverted to its original purpose – me telling the world what I think! Seriously do your self a huge favour run a mile from Teaching Sells regardless of which of the A-listers is promoting it – you do realise that is how you make your money right – being in bed with the right people commenting on the right blogs and getting in well with the right people – you are seriously stuffed if you are hanging around here!

Categories
Online Business Passive Income

Online Income and Work Life Balance

I took the weekend off – I drove 300km and checked out the golf course at Augusta, went whale watching, ate too much, drank too much local red wine.

Golf Course Augusta
Golf Course, Augusta

Did I login? Did I check my email? Did I approve comments? Did I check in with clients that it was OK to take the weekend off – no to all of those above. You see I used to have a J.O.B (Just Over Broke) – I used to have to apply for leave or arrange not to be on-call to go away for the weekend. I don’t do that anymore. Instead, I put an “out of office reply” on my main email account and disconnected.

It wasn’t that hard for me – I must admit taking breaks and travelling is what’s important to me. Yes sure I’d like to make a zillion dollars a week – but only if I can still take off every month or so for a holiday! Although I now have a lot of American friends online, I still don’t understand the need to work 24/7 – if you are desperate to pay the bills sure – but for those who aren’t? To be honest if a client doesn’t want you to go away for a couple of days – do you need the client?

Why is that so hard for some people to just take off and let their online life go on without them?  I think there are two issues: one is cultural and one is about self-confidence. I come from a culture which consider a four-week holiday a bare minimum and two-months a reasonable break. I know many Americans have never taken more than 10 days annual leave.  To me that is a completely incomprehensible concept. It takes me 2 weeks just to forget about the job I hated and then I settled down to being on holiday! I certainly trained several workplaces to get by without me for 6 to 8 week periods – and no I don’t mean call me if you have a problem – I never holiday within cellphone or email range!  I presume its harder if employers are used to having employees around 50 weeks a year.

So when I decided to start making an online living I certainly had no intention of building an income which needed me to  baby-sit it 24/7 like some idiot boss!

The second reason I believe that people have trouble going on holiday and off line is around self confidence. I know people who live the location independent lifestyle – they are sometimes out of contact – does it hurt their business ? Maybe – the clients who want them available 24/7 may not like it that you chose to hop on a 24 flight. Who cares? Do you really need that client? I have lost jobs over the years because I was female, because I was a foreigner, in time I realised I was better off without them. Its the same with an online client who wants you available at their beck and call – its not how it works around here – and because this is my business I make up the rules – and I suggest you do to.

So before you become a slave to your online business I suggest you look at the big picture. Is this a business that is going to need you online 24/7 – how easy will it be for your to delegate and grow the business? Can you develop something that you work on, not in? Make sure you are building a lifestyle that’s better than the one you’ve got!

Oh you don’t recognise Augusta’s golf course? Course details about 5km out of town – at the top of the hill, a great 360 view of the Indian and Southern Oceans. Green fees: $15 on an honour system, golf carts recommended, blacks not greens around the holes, kangaroos a hazard, beware snakes in the bush. And as far as I know Tiger Woods has never played their though its possible that other soon-to-be famous golfer Grizz Brears may want to take a second look at it – you see Augusta is in Western Australia, not just Georgia!

Categories
Rants

Online Income and Dancesport

OK that title got you to click through because a) you don’t know what dancesport is and/or b) you are not sure what the connection with online income and Dancesport is.

So just to clarify – dancesport is competitive ballroom dance and no there is absolutely no way you can earn online income with it – its what I spend my online income on!

It does however fit well with earning an income online because it gets me up off my backside which would be a lot bigger than it is if I didn’t dance about 5 nights a week!

Just to clarify I’m the blond in blue and my partner Paul is the one who bankrolls my lifestyle as well as being my dance partner and this is my very first attempt at a youtube video!

Comments are welcome and YES we know the rhumba is out of time!

BTW if  you double click the video below it will open up on youtube and then you can make it a bit bigger!

Categories
Online Business Passive Income

Making Money with An Online Gold Rush

I had to explain my business to my accountant recently having finally made some online income to declare! Its been a while since I tried to explain my business to someone who, although they had their own website and is very computer literate, really had no idea what I was talking about.  The thing is that people think because the Internet has only be around for 40 years and Google for less than 10 years, maybe making money online is all different and there has never been a moment like this in history before – well I beg to differ  – there is nothing new under the sun and understanding history is certainly useful in avoiding the mistakes others have made.

Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, Victoria
Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, Victoria

The Internet Marketing is like a gold rush people – Klondike, Otago, Victoria, doesn’t matter which country: gold is found, some people make money, many don’t, some companies are made others die, and society changes forever.

For those of you are not familiar with history: gold rushes brought incredible wealth it a few and incredible hard work and death to many more – and I am a firm believer that understanding history can sometimes stop you repeating it.  Your average or typical gold rush goes something like this:

  1. Gold is found – the early prospectors try to keep it quiet but news comes out and the rush is on. Men abandon their families and start walking to the gold fields. Well at least you only have to walk to your nearest broadband connection these days! But try explaining to your spouse that your “playing online” is a serious business – they will think you mad or worse. My partner asked me the other day how many people make a living full-time online – I really have no answer but I suspect very, very few do, doing what I do.
  2. Many start digging the fields – backbreaking work, they go broke, the get sick, they die. Many of those diggers on the fields had been professionals they had never panned for gold in their lives – its hard and dangerous work. There is more skill than is apparent at first glance but basically its hard work, the tough survive. 95% of Internet Marketers give up before they make a $100 – I just made that statistic up, but its probably accurate. There is more skill required than is apparent at first glance but basically its hard work, sluicing a few pans of gold won’t make you a fortune, nor will your first website. Fortunately you don’t generally die working online though many  people do seem to have issues with weight gain and loneliness.
  3. Some of the people who nearly made a strike or made a small strike but didn’t make enough to retire they move sideways and  start to make a comfortable living by selling booze, picks and pans to the miners. A lot of booze was watered-down and some of the picks were of poor quality… The entire “A-list” blogger phenomenon are the the publicans and the suppliers of the gold fields – they sound like they have useful stuff to sell but there’s is not the business model you want to follow if you want to be the one to strike it rich.  How many pubs can one town support (well quite a few from the Australian gold rush towns I may be pushing the analogy a bit here!)
  4. A very, very few of the miners found wealth beyond belief, they built a fine house (a long way from the gold fields), had a family and lived happily ever after.  Most of them did not publish a book on how to make money on the goldfields.  The people who make serious money online you never heard of  -they don’t run blogs for sure!

Well most of them don’t write blogs – but one or two do… So if you really want to know how to make money blogging follow this link on how not to be a better blogger.

The gold rushes were a huge social disruption – they turned society upside down, they substantially changed the way society was forever. They created new towns, the Victorian gold rush stopped deportation to Australia forever. The wealth of Melbourne gave it some of the first municipal  public transport and electric light in the world.

They were a huge chance for people to make money – people who had never had a chance before.  Most people didn’t take the chance – they sat on the side-lines and worried about whether the gold fields were really a way to make money. Once the gold field became established they figured that they had missed the opportunity and stayed home. There are gold mines in Bendigo to this day – 140 years after the initial rush.

A lot of companies disappeared – they failed to realize the opportunity that the gold rush offered – some banks went broke because they didn’t open a branch in the new towns springing up to support the gold fields.  I think that many of today’s newspapers are the equivalent of those short-sighted banks – will newspapers survive? How will they compete with new citizen journalism websites?

Some people dug for a day or two but they didn’t strike it rich and so they packed up and left – or got a job at the pub – selling the watered-down beer. They told everyone who would listen that you couldn’t really make money with this new fangled gold thingy!

Some people got burned – they bought the poor-quality shovels, they noticed they couldn’t move as much dirt as their competitors down the road – the smart ones reinvested in their business and bought better shovels.

Some people dug for gold in the wrong place – they dug and dug and found nothing – until one day! Some people made money on day one, some took 6 months or 6 years, the ones that stuck at it generally did make at least a living at it.

I’m a geologist – I’ve worked in exploration – I can tell you there is nothing quite like the thrill of finding gold or whatever mineral you are looking for. Even today where its all automated, GPSed and computerised there is still a thrill of the chase.

I used to find looking for keywords boring and frustrating – but then I started making money from those same keywords – now I find them absolutely fascinating – mostly the topics I write about are really boring – but I never get bored with watching  the money come in…Gold panning is still back-breaking work I prefer the online alternative…

Categories
Making Money Online Online Business Passive Income

How To Make Over $2000 Online

I have been on and off doing full-time Internet Marketing as a way to make a full time living since Oct 2007. As recently as March I made a total of $144 from Adsense and affiliates, April was the first month I made the $100 Adsense payout within a month. In July 2009 I made $1500 from Adsense and Affiliates (what I can passive income) – with my freelance work my income came in at $2800 for the month. Where I’m from, New Zealand, that is about the same sort of money that a junior teacher would be earning – not bad if I do say so myself.

I dunno what full-time income is your part of the world but my definition has always been about US$1000/week – what I could make if I could get a job as a Business Analyst, Test Manager again.  I am not there yet – but in March I was ready to quit – now I feel like I’m close to success -my partner finally thinks there is something to this online lark – and I know that once you have the momentum its so much easier to build on it.

The Secret to Making $2000 / Month Online?

Simple self-belief – up until March I wasn’t prepared to believe that I personally could make serious cash online. I wanted it to happen first – then I’d believe it. It doesn’t work like that –  I’m not sure why – but I guess if part of your brain still thinks you really should go and get a real job then your actions really not reflect your potential.

My problem was that I have never been a business owner, I couldn’t sell or market and I thought entrepreneurs were losers who couldn’t compromise long enough to get a job (well I was right about that :lol: ). I’ve never known anyone in the real world that has the mind-set of going out and taking serious risks and building your own business.

I really didn’t believe that I could make money – so I didn’t – now this is not ‘The Secret” bullshite – believing in money flowing to you doesn’t work – you need a plan and to take action. For me until I really, if not believed that it would happen, couldn’t think of anything better to do, I didn’t take enough action – and that’s the real secret to making money online – massive action.

Step Two Take Massive Action to Earn Income Online

Carnavon Gorge, Queensland, Australia
Carnavon Gorge, Queensland, Australia

Or at least do something! I talked about taking massive action to make money online recently but the whole Niche Devil controversy kinda sums it up quite nicely. There are those arguing on the sidelines as to whether or not it will work, and then there are those for whom its working.

Some stuff works some doesn’t. Nothing works for ever, the techniques that worked 6 years ago don’t work now. There are short-cuts to finding out what works thanks to services such as The KeyWord Academy – but basically at the end of the day doing the work and monitoring the results will teach you more than just thinking about it!

Now go and build some sites!