Make Big Money Thinking Small

By paulb On September 18, 2010Under Marketing, Other Make Money Online Tips

This article is guest posted by Paul B.

Everyone seems to want to be the big fish in the big pond these days when it comes to both website traffic and subscribers to their blog. Don’t get me wrong I love looking at my stats page too and I’m no stranger to hitting the F5 key repeatedly hoping that my feed count has gone up. However I’ve learnt over time (the hard way) that its quality and not quantity that really matters when it comes to making real money on the net.

To give you an idea of just how much you can make from so little I’ll give you an example. I have a small blog in the travel sector that never gets more than 50 visitors a day yet consistently makes over $400 a month. To some of you this will sound impossible but when you understand the mechanics of what’s actually happening it’s quite simple. To help prove my case ill list a few essential rules for creating this type of site.

1) The traffic you get to this site must be looking to buy.You will know this if they find your site by typing a buying keyword into Google such as “discount vacations in Colorado”. The fact that they are adding a price modifier such as “discount/cheap/luxury” means this visitor is really thinking about making a purchase, if they find your site using a buying keyword then affiliate commission won’t be far away.

2) I mentioned the phrase “discount vacations in Colorado” above and I really wasn’t joking about building a site around something so specific. You see if a query is very specific it means the person searching for it knows exactly what they want and in most cases they need very little selling to seal the deal. In the marketing industry this is known as the “long tail” which really just another way of saying an obscure or abstract term.

3) Understanding volume is very important when it comes to the long tail. You see many people look down on these terms/phrases in the industry because of the low volume but this is one of main reasons the long tail works so well. Because everyone else is ignoring such a specific but still high value term there can often be very low or in some cases no competition at all. That doesn’t mean there won’t be sites on the net out there that have a page or two on the phrase but because you are going to build a whole site around the term who do you think Google is going to choose?

4) My last essential rule is probably one of the most important but one that many people have as an after-thought. While Google adsense is great for a one size fits all solution it will rarely earn you the most money from your traffic. Instead find a big site who is actually selling this product or service in large volume (so they know what they are doing and know how to convert traffic into sales). Once you’ve signed up to their affiliate program you want to get something from them that you can integrate into your site to help convert your traffic.

Remember everyone ignores banner ads now but something interactive like a search of products or a carousel of latest offers will attract people’s eyes. Also don’t be afraid to put it somewhere prominent on your site, I mean don’t go crazy and have it the full size of your page but somewhere near the top should be fine. Essentially you want it to be the first thing they see and because it’s exactly want they are looking for a sale won’t be far away. They get the product they need and you get the commission for finding it for them, everybody wins!

I don’t want to give the impression that everything I’ve listed is all you need to make some quick and easy money from the Google/website combo. You need some luck in picking the right niche at the right time and also some hard work in promoting the site and building content. However if I can do it I really believe anyone can. Trust me that there is money out there for the little guy if you look in the right places. Until next time, PB.

PB has started a new blog helping internet marketers come up with some great ideas to earn money online easily from home. There’s lots of free advice for both veterans of internet marketing and newbie’s alike.

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Up-sell, Down-sell and Cross-sell: Do You Know What They Mean?

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MLM vs. Affiliate Marketing

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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In the following video, I go on an almost 15 minute rant against MLM (FHTM in particular).

These guys have the audacity to call their business model ‘relationship marketing’, when in fact what folks are doing is destroying relationships with their friends, family and neighbours while trying to recoup hefty investments in this so-called business opportunity.

For your $300 initial investment plus $70 every month thereafter, you get a cookie-cutter site that Google hates and will slap with a duplicate content penalty. Where’s the relationship in THAT?

In the video, I also show how MOST of the reps are making no money at all, based on FHTM’s own income disclosure statement.

The crux of the matter is that you don’t need to put out big bucks to start a business, especially online.

The model is called affiliate marketing, and for a tiny fraction of what you would invest in an MLM opportunity, you can have a real website and you don’t have to pay to promote REAL name brands.

‘Nuff said. Watch the video and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

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Make Money Helping Local Businesses Start a Blog

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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You already know how to install a blog.

You also know which plugins to use to make it functional and how to make it look great with a pretty professional WordPress theme.

You know which pages are must-haves on any blog.

AND you understand the benefits of blogging in terms of getting free traffic, as well as how to use PPC at the local level to reduce advertising costs.

So, why not make money using your knowledge to help businesses in your local area either set up a new blog, or improve an existing web site?

Surely, you’ve come across a few local businesses that could benefit greatly from your blogging knowledge.

I run across awful local business sites all the time.

For example, most of the small resort, motel and private RV park/campground sites I find when doing travel research are just downright ugly. Most of them look like they were designed in 1997 and haven’t been updated since.

Here are two examples…

Typical errors that you find on these sites include:

Fonts and font colors used are either too big, too small, bolded throughout, completely inappropriate or just plain awful. Site navigation is terrible or non-existent, and I refuse to hunt and peck to find either the current rate sheet or a map to the place.Sometimes the pictures do the venue absolutely no justice and probably chase potential visitors away.No thought is given to capturing free traffic through SEO. “Welcome” in H1 isn’t going to bring visitors to XYZ Lodge in ABC county. There is insufficient information posted. Simply placing the words ‘fishing licences’ at the bottom of a page with no link doesn’t tell me anything about what fishing licence I might need to fish in that area, or where to get a fishing licence if I want one.

Those are just a few examples of how these local businesses need help.

Now here’s an example of a resort site that was done right, and it IS a blog.

The blog is attactive and gives visitors all the information they might need, including a number of ways to contact the owners for more information.

Think about it.

How hard would it be to approach a local business and tell them that you can help them get MORE business by helping them improve their online presence?

Use your knowledge about blogging and blog design to make extra money helping local businesses improve their sites or put a blog online.

Interested?

Learn HOW to set up your freelance business as a blog designer / installer / builder, join Affiliate Blogger PRO and see the Grow Your Business section.

You’ll find instructions on how to set up your business blog, how to price your offering and how to market to local businesses.

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How To Use Images To Improve Your SEO

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Wearing Green

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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Just updated my video proof that there is money to be made as an affiliate marketer video. Includes shots of my checks, Clickbank & Paypal accounts (from July and August 2010) in real time.

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Making Pennies Is Just As Hard As Making Millions With AdSense

By Michael Fridman On September 4, 2010Under Featured, Monetization Strategies

This article is guest posted by Michael Fridman.

What makes you think you’re able get wealthy?

This must be an unpleasant question. Most people would answer: “because I’m smart, and I am willing to work hard.” Are you one of those people? If this is your way of thinking, it’s not hard to guess how much you’re getting from Adsense. It’s got to be below thirty dollars a day, huh?

I discovered that being “smart” and willing to work hard is exactly what will NOT make you rich. See, wealthy people are not hard workers. Rich people are aware that the most valuable thing is time, so they do not trade their time. If you’re ready to work 24h a day, it means that you don’t consider your time valuable. Consequently, you end up having no time to think and become poor, no matter how much time you spend working.

Be Lazy

Yes, wealthy people often happen to be lazy. But they don’t stare at TV all day long at the TV, trust me. Instead, they spend time thinking about how to make others do what they need to get done. Poor people are hard workers, whereas wealthy people are hard thinkers. Rich people don’t work for their money. Instead, they make money work for them. If you are willing to spend a lot of time working on your success with Adsense, you are going to loose a lot of time and will never make BIG money. It is because there are just 24 hours available to you every day. Even if you’re crazy enough to work twenty hours, that’s not enough to get wealthy. Respect your time and don’t sell it. Don’t become a freelance self-employed smart laborer. It is impossible to be an internet marketer, webmaster, content writer, search engine optimization specialist at the same time. It takes lots of experience and learning to become a pro at each of those fields. Furthermore, you will end up not having enough time to do all those tasks on a regular basis. Don’t even attempt to do this.

Be stupid

Rich people don’t regard themselves as clever. As a rule, they have quite unclear idea about the market they are in. But they use help of well trained advisers; they hire the top specialists who execute all the job for them. Note, if you consider yourself smart, you begin to believe that you are able to do everything yourself. That’s not the way to get rich. Those who became successful at Adsense work in teams. That is what you must do too.

Don’t confuse job with business

Lots of people don’t know the difference between job and business. To illustrate this, let’s say you’ve designed a high traffic blog that earns thirty dollars a day, for which you write two posts daily. Is it a good business? No, it’s not. That’s a pretty poor job. So, what’s a real business then? Business is a SYSTEM that can be left any time, so that it grows and makes you more and more money whether you’re in or not. That is the main difference between a great blog and Ebay. Or, a single hamburger stand and McDonald’s. Now you can realize why wealthy people don’t sell their time: the truth is, getting paid for your time is the worst use of it. However, if you spend time on designing an autonomous system (asset), it will be paying off as long as you live. In other words, if you’ve spent 1 hour working on the system, you will be getting paid for as many hours as you can live. If you’ve spent 1 hour at the job, you will get paid once. That hour will have no positive financial influence on your future.

Stop saving. Invest!

Poor people usually spend  their time and energy on not spending money. Whereas wealthy people focus on multiplying their money. Note saving money is a very old idea that might have worked 30 years ago, but doesn’t work anymore. If you keep your cash in your wallet or bank, the value of it goes down very fast because of the inflation. So, it is important to keep your money working for you, and it’s even more important to play it smart. If you do not know about investing, hire a financial adviser. At the early stage of your Adsense career it is important to invest money in the internet marketing. Spend some money on links and advertisement space that will burst the traffic to your website, and hence, earnings.

A lot of people who have just started their business online are often very naive to think that they can earn a lot of money without having to spend any money. This is not possible, unless you decide to be a self-employed worker who is ready to work for free, hoping to start earning thirty bucks a day at some point in the future. Do you know how much time you need to spend to learn and implement all those skills that are required to earn $30 a day? If you try to calculate how much you’ve earned and how many hours you have spent on creating your online “business” over one year, you will be surprised to find out that you’ve been working hard earning like one buck per hour. Crazy, isn’t?

So you want to get rich soon, and don’t even consider spending a couple of $$$ to get yourself a team? It is not very serious. If you want to get wealthy, you need to be spending some money on a regular basis. You need to pay for internet marketing, professionally written content, search engine optimization services, etc. If you play it smart, it will make you rich. If not, learn your lesson and try again.

What if I don’t have any cash?

Is it what you are thinking? That is the way poor people think, and you can’t do that if you want things to change. Even if you don’t have money, you still can do lots of things to put those ideas into life. How? Here’s just a bunch of thoughts to inspire you:

Write a business plan. It must not be very detailed. Anyone can do it. If you do not have a clue how to do it, hire someone, or learn it – this skill will bring you a lot of money in the future, therefore it is totally worth the time.Send the business plan to potential investors. If your plan makes sense, you will find an investor sooner or later. If you don’t, it means your idea is bad, and that’s how you find out that you need to create a better idea. If the idea is good and the business plan makes sense, it is very easy to find an investor. The challenging part is negotiating the contract, not attracting investor.Apply for a loan – if you do not get enough money from investors, you can apply for a loan at your bank. If your credit history is decent, you have good chances to get a loan.Offer your team some part of your earnings. This way you can create a dedicated team of people who honestly believe in the success of your project. Those employers are very important, since they are aware that it is up to them whether you succeed as a team, or not. Such team is way more active than a group that gets paid per hours.

Try to generate more ideas! Trust me, you are capable of generating much more ideas that will make you rich.

About the author: Michael Fridman is a successful entrepreneur. He created a number of profitable internet businesses and now is willing to teach you how to become rich by creating internet assets and generating passive income online. To learn more, visit his blog “Monetize Site“

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Wise Women of the Web Event

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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I just wanted to let you know about the Wise Women of the Web event which is scheduled to start on August 30th.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime FREE teleseminar series with an absolutely amazing line-up of some of the internet’s most famous women and I have been absolutely honored to be counted among them!

For anyone that is a small business or solo entrepreneur-no matter what your area of expertise – you really must tune into this series. Instead of being a re-hash of information you have heard a zillion times, you will get tons of actionable, original, creative tips to start moving your online presence forward starting TODAY.

Here are some of the topics:

Establishing the right mindset to achieve more success than you could imagine possibleLeveraging radio so you can grow your list, get more clients and position yourself as an expertAchieving a six-figure income in four short months with FREE marketingTapping into the power of the huge, ever-growing Hispanic marketTransforming your website into a powerhouse branding and marketing machineTaking full advantage of your social media tools through some great creative tips and tricksMaking your blog ROCK so you can make more money and attract lots of new clientsHiring a virtual assistant to free your time and set your business alightTaking your networking or multi-level marketing program to new heightsUsing community marketing to explode your online presenceTransforming your lackluster Face book Fan Page into a fantastic, entertaining and profitable business tool

Oh, and by the way, just because this event contains an amazing line-up of female speakers does not mean this is a Women-Only event! All you men out there are warmly welcomed to join and benefit!

Your choice is simple. Don’t sign up and miss out on the event of the year. Or sign up and benefit from the advice of some of the most famous women online.

I look forward to seeing you there.

P.S. The best part is that all the original content contained in this innovative is YOURS FOR FREE. Just sign up and then come and listen to the calls.

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That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google Listings

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Cheap Shoes Leaves a Comment

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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Gee, blog commenters these days have some really strange names.

Like who would think to name their kid “seo strategies“, “plumbing fixtures” or “cheap shoes“?

Seriously, you gotta wonder what some folks are thinking when they post comments like this to a business opportunities / Internet marketing blog like NetProfits Today:

First of all, the NPT blog is about Internet and affiliate marketing, so WHY would a knowledgeable blog commenter use a name like “weddings” or “buy LCD TV” to try and attract traffic to their site?

Uh, they wouldn’t.

It’s unlikely that “cheap shoes” will get their comment approved on professional blogs.

Business bloggers immediately see that “cheap shoes” is probably a spammer or a complete newbie who has wasted money on a bad training course. And it makes me feel sad when “cheap shoes” actually does leave a good comment, but they’ve contravened my blog commenting policy so I can’t approve their comment.

The policy specifically states that “‘nice post, thanks’ type comments from “Buy LCD TV” posters will be marked as spam, so it is in your best interest to contribute to the conversation as a real person, if you are looking for some link love.”

I have no desire to reward  cheap traffic seekers who contribute nothing of value.

Even if the comment does get approved, it’s too much of a crap shoot to hope that people who are interested in doing business online might also be planning a wedding or in the market for a new TV.

So, if you want traffic to a site about weddings, go post a comment on a site where the topic is about weddings.

Having said all that, a real affiliate marketer can drive traffic to their wedding site from a blog about affiliate marketing, but they have to be smart about it.

“Smart” means:

Building credibility by contributing value to the conversation. If your site is about weddings and the post is about traffic strategies, share an experience related to the topic and invite folks to look at a relevant page on your blog.Using your real name or a pen name. Not just a first name either. You gain additional credibility for your blog comment by including your real FULL name. Even something like Super Affiliate Wendy W. is more likely to encourage visits than “cheap shoes”.Having a Gravatar. Want even more credibility? Get a gravatar to show alongside your thoughful comment.

All that said, remember that you want traffic that stays on your site.

The fellow who pops by “acia berry wonders” from a bizop blog won’t help your bounce rate if he only sticks around for a half a second.

So take the time to post real comments using your real name and point to content on your site of real value to your visitors.

Get your sites indexed faster and gain higher search engine rankings in the long run with a great blog commenting strategy that works. Blog Comment Demon software and ebook package will help you find one-way quality related links to your sites, without spamming. Start increasing your Adsense income, affiliate commissions and sell more products, with Blog Comment Demon.

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Regsiter Now for Affiliate Summit West 2011

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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Registration is now open for Affiliate Summit West 2011, taking place January 9-11, 2011 at the Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV.

Prices are as follows:

Silver Pass ($99)Gold Pass ($279)Platinum Pass ($879)Diamond Pass ($1,879)

Keynote speakers include:

Drew Eric Whitman, internationally renowned advertising trainer who specializes in teaching the psychology behind the response, and;Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media marketing and branding agency in Silicon Valley.

Get more details about the Affiliate Sumit conference now.

And watch these clips from the last Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas.

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Wash on a Monday

Written by Rosalind Gardner  

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You’ve probably heard of the old housewives’ system for managing housework and other chores.

It went like this:

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.

That routine helped those women stay organized and focused on their chores so that they could get everything done — and they had a LOT to do!

As bloggers, we too have many different things to accomplish, and although I typically hate the thought of following a schedule, I do find it helpful to have some sort of plan to help me stay focused and on task.

Take blog post writing for example.

I prefer to write two or more blog posts in a sitting to queue up for later delivery. The day of the week and time of day I write depends primarily on the time of year. In the winter, I write first thing in the morning; while in the summer I like to write in mid-afternoon when it’s too hot to be outside. I also like to group article topics by season and will start working on my Christmas season posts as early as July.

Granted, that doesn’t look much like a daily writing schedule, but it works for me.

Create your own schedule.

Consider what works for you and your current schedule. Here are some points to ponder as you create your own blogging routine.

At what time of day do you feel most alert and motivated? That’s probably the best time to write articles.On which day of the week do you have the most time to write?Does your job allow you time during the day to write? This can be a great escape from the drudgery of work too!Do you work nights? I used to write my best University essays while on midnight shifts.Can your partner take the kids to a weekly class to free up time for you to write?

Figure out what schedule suits you best and set that day and time to write.

You should also consider that the day you publish your articles will be busier than others with reader responses to your post, so make sure you can set some time aside for comment moderation on those days. The days you publish are also good days to comment on other blogs with links to your new post.

Provided you don’t work in the online business opportunites market which is rife with weekly product launches and ‘extra’ writing, you should schedule a separate session for product research and review writing. You can do this bi-weekly or even monthly when you have sufficient products to promote on your site.

Avoid distractions.

I tend to be easily distracted, so I’ve set things up to make sure that I’m not (usually) interrupted when I write.

I go into my office prepared to write, so I bring a beverage  and clean my desk of paperwork that might change my focus. I refrain from checking my email, Google Reader and other sites by keeping programs and browser windows closed. I prefer a quiet room for writing, so I’ll shut my office door and/or the windows depending on the noise levels inside and out.

My affiliate managers know that I prefer to be contacted by email – not phone. If the phone does ring while I’m writing, I just don’t answer it.

Make your schedule and your environment as distraction-free as possible to minimize work interruptions.

Now commit to your blogging schedule.

You won’t need to work your schedule for too long before you notice that your workload becomes both easier and more fluid.

The key to getting to the point where it is easy is committing to your plan.

For example, when you know that you’re going to sit down between 9AM and 11AM every Tuesday to write a few blog posts, you’ll start thinking about your topic ideas and article flow well in advance. Maybe you’ll jot down a few ideas  on paper or create a rough draft on your blog when you have a few spare minutes during the previous week. In that way, you’re already prepared to write and you can get the job done faster.

Once the writing gets easier and faster, you might also be inclined to write more posts which always makes the search engines happier and more productive on your behalf.

Try working a blogging schedule for even just a month and see how good you feel about what you’ve accomplished in terms of content creation and increased revenues!

Don’t feel that you have the self-discipline to set a schedule?

Then check out Brian Tracy’s “No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline”.

Learn how to apply Self-Discipline to: Goal Setting; Time Management; Health Habits; Relationships; Sales; Business Operations; Physical Fitness; Personal Development; Negotiating; Communications; Character Development; and many other areas.

With Brian’s training, you’ll accomplish more in a month than most people accomplish in a year and take complete control of your life.

So, do you have a blogging schedule or a strategy that you to stay motivated as a blogger? Please share your tips and ideas with us in a comment below.

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SEO Blogging Tips: How To Rank Well Without Losing Readers

By Shaun Connell On August 15, 2010Under Featured, Search Engine Optimization

This article is guest posted by Shaun Connell.

I’ve been professionally blogging for a little over a year now. In June of 2009, I was working full-time on my blogs for the first time. Whenever people ask me what the key to me going full-time was, I always give them the same answer: passive search engine traffic.

Search engine traffic is, for the most part, consistent and passive. Once you get about a thousand visitors per day, you’ll get about a thousand visitors per day. Every day. Whether you post or not. Search traffic is also valuable traffic — searchers are more likely to click advertisements, buy products, subscribe to newsletters — they’re more likely to make money.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a common myth in internet marketing and blogging circles that implies that you have to choose between making your readers happy and making Google send more traffic your way. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are a few ways to increase search traffic without ticking off your readers.

User-Friendly Ways to Increase Search TrafficKeyword Titles. My favorite method for writing titles is to put the keyword at first, and then a normal title afterwards. For example, this post is called “.” The obvious first two words are keyword titles. Doing this means the keyword is still in the title first thing, and yet the title is still easy to read.Link Building. Link building is the crux of search traffic. If you have a lot of links, you’ll have a lot of search traffic. It’s unavoidable. And your readers will never notice it. Try to manually build at least 5 links per week through article marketing and guest post writing. It’ll pay off in the end, I promise.Internal Linking. Internal linking is probably one of the most underused SEO tactics by bloggers. If you have a few pages you’re trying to get ranked on Google, link to them constantly in your own pages. I have a set of nearly 10 posts on every one of my websites that I link to from most of my new posts. This insures that Google and other search engines realize those are the most important and desirable posts on the website — giving them more authority. There are plugins that make internal linking almost automatic.SEO-Friendly Sidebar. Your sidebar is an important place to link to your most important SEO pages. Have a special widget that links to your most important articles, and use only keywords for the links. This helps with internal linking, and insures that every page links to the important pages.Search-Only Ads. While this isn’t technically a tactic for getting search traffic, it’s certainly a tactic for monetizing search traffic better. Find a way to make advertisements show only for search-engine visitors — this means you don’t upset your regular readers with too many ads, and can still profit from the easily monetized search traffic. Have your cake and eat it too.A 6-Month Case Study

I decided to launch a case study to see how fast I could get a website to the top of search rankings for a competitive keyword without sacrificing the user experience of the blog. I registered a domain about gold coins (the most popular way to buy gold for small-time/private investors) and began to follow the steps listed above.

I uploaded an article every day that targeted a keyword. I made the content user-friendly. I did the SEO-friendly sidebar, internal linking, and consistently built at least 3 real links every day. That was it. Nothing else.

Within six months the website ranks top 10 results on Google for “gold coins” — an extremely competitive topic that takes on almost every gold dealer in the nation, including hundred-million dollar companies. The site is also on page 3 of Google for just the keyword “gold”, which is effectually taking on every major investing, financial, economic, and news site on the Internet — almost every major money-related website has a section on their site about gold.

But the rankings didn’t happen because of any “guru” powers or “secrets” or any complicated positive-thinking philosophy. It happened because I followed the simple SEO blogging tips above. Content, internal linking, links = success. It’s literally that simple.

What other SEO blogging tips do you have to share?

About the Author: Shaun Connell is a full-time blogger and runs over 6 blogs, including a financial planning blog where he teaches readers everything from getting out of debt to learning how to make money online.

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