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Mar 18 2009
How to Get Traffic to your Website or Blog
In general there are two free sources of traffic online. These sources are broadly defined as Social traffic and Search Engine traffic. 99% of all newcomers online set up a blog or website and proceed to try and obtain social traffic. They do this simply because everyone else does it.
Social traffic consists of using social networks like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Entrecard, Forums and hundreds of other services that allow you to sign up and promote your site on them. These services are the backbone of what is known as Web 2.0 and has evolved into a newer version centered around Facebook, MySpace and the current craze - Twitter.
The general idea is to get out there and make friends online using these networks, draw them in to your site, wow them with your content and wait for the links to come pouring in from your adoring fans. As the links increase your traffic increases as more and more people find your site and in turn tell more people through the use of more links and one day you will become famous just like Darren Rowse of Problogger or failing personal fame you may still develop a hugely popular site like Engadget or the Huffington Post.
There is a certain appeal to all this - becoming popular has many advantages aside from the most obvious monetary considerations. Many people blog because they have something to say and just want an outlet for their views. Others dream of being a writer and use the net to publish their stories. Get your work out there and get discovered. Musicians and filmmakers use the net in the same way. Whatever your reason for starting a blog or website there will come a day when you say to yourself, “what is the point if no one is reading or watching or listening to my creative output?”
It is at that point that you will begin your quest to find traffic and invariably you will turn to the social networks. You will discover quite quickly that you can get social traffic fairly easily using Stumbleupon or even easier using Entrecard. Twitter might be the easiest of all. You will join forums and work at becoming an “authority” in your niche. You will make friends. They will send links. All will be wonderful… for a while.
Six months to a year down the road two things will happen - it always happens and it happens whether you have achieved a large readership or not. You wake up one day and realize that you are working like a dog and there is little to no benefit from all that work. Driving social traffic is a constant grind. If you stop posting, twittering, digging, stumbling, dropping entrecards, leaving comments on other blogs or any of the other daily chores needed to keep your name out there the traffic dries up. Moreover your health deteriorates and your friends and family are neglected as you spend hours and hours sitting in front of your computer single mindedly developing your brand. Even if you have managed to develope a few thousand RSS subscribers - something most beginners think of as a successful blogger - you will still ask yourself “is all this work worth it?”
Why? Because at some point everyone wants to be compensated for all that work. You may say now that you are just doing it because you like to “write” or you just need an outlet to release your opinions and I believe you. The problem is that you will not be satisfied just writing or opinionating if no one is reading your output. You will get sucked into the social traffic cycle and find out that it is work. And when you work that hard you will eventually want a monetary reward for it - in one form or another. Having 10,000 readers coming and reading just wont cut it if a book deal doesn’t materialize. Or you can’t make money from advertisers. Or JV (joint venture) offers don’t show up. No matter what your reason for blogging at some point you are going to want a reward for it and the more work you put into it the more return on time invested will be expected.
And that is the problem - you wont get a return from social traffic. They don’t spend money - they don’t click ads and the advertisers are no longer supplying inventory to social sites as that fact has become known. Today.com claims 10 million page views a month. That is fairly significant traffic. So why don’t we see the big advertisers on this site? Where are the finance/credit/bank advertisements? The auto company ads? The big brand names? What we see are ads for dating sites. And Adsense.
The advertisers are not coming to this domain in spite of the traffic. Today.com has had to find a means to monetize this site using affiliate marketing platforms which they are currently rolling out. Adsense does not perform well as the sub-domains are not targeted for premium CPC (cost per click) and are smart priced. They get pennies per click from adsense and the CTR is dismal at best. Today.com is a successful domain based on traffic but like many others online they have found out that all traffic is not equal. The majority of this domains traffic comes from social networks and social traffic does not convert well - meaning they can’t make much profit from it.
If you are reading this then chances are you have a site yourself and you spend a fair amount of time reading blogs and surfing the net. You are social traffic. When was the last time you bought something on a friends site? Or clicked on an Ad? You don’t do it often if at all and neither do all the other social bloggers and social network users. You are here to read. You are online looking for information and not looking to buy something.
Search engine traffic is quite different. Most people use the search engines - Google by far - when they need to find something. You don’t go to Today.com when you want tickets to a Broadway musical or are looking for a hotel in New York. You use Google. You have a purpose in mind and that usually entails buying something or at the least you need specific information about a specific thing. Search traffic is targeted and whether you are trying to make money online or just want readers, search traffic is the traffic you want because it consists of people looking specifically for what you are offering.
If you have a humor blog for no other reason than just to entertain then why not target people looking for humor blogs? The easiest way to do that is to rank number 1 in Google for the term “humor blog”. On average 2400 people a month will find your site. If you rank for more related keywords like “humorous photos”, “Humor writer”, “humor”, “funny pics”, “funny stories” etc then you will eventually have thousands of daily visitors to your site. And this is the best part - you can post when you want or not at all and the same traffic will show up every day. Moreover you will never have to spend 1 minute commenting on other blogs or stumbling or dropping entrecards or doing any of the other chores involved in social marketing. And the icing on the cake - your search traffic will click your ads. They will read your humorous post and because they found you while searching for humor they are likely going to click on those ads that point them to other humorous sites. They don’t care if they make you money or not - they are not bloggers. They are civilians looking for something and will click anything that leads them to their goal.
The process for obtaining search traffic is actually very simple but it does take work and most of all patience. It can also be done in conjunction with social traffic. The problem is 99% of bloggers only chase social traffic and completely shut the door on search traffic right from the get go. This doesn’t have to be and I will show you how to optimize for the search engines using some basic SEO techniques that will pay off hugely by the time you wane on social traffic. You can use social networks for immediate traffic while building your site for long term search traffic. If you don’t achieve search traffic then you will eventually burn out and all the social traffic in the world will not change that fact.
SEO Basics that must be used in order to drive search traffic to your blog are as follows;
You must use your keyword in your URL.
You must use your keyword in your Blog Title.
You must use your keywords in your Post Titles.
You must use your keywords and related terms in your post content.
You will get the best search results by only posting one post per page unless all your posts are related to the same keywords.
If using Adsense then always stick to one post per page.
If using photos then your keywords should be used in the alt tags.
You must use html for the bulk of your pages content. (plain old text)
These simple little steps are all you need to do to optimize your site for the search engines. You will get indexed for your keywords and ranked well. How high you get ranked depends on the competition. If there is little competition you could achieve top ranking doing little else. (Many of you experience some Google traffic for long tail keywords. This is because you used a term in your content that has little competition and Google found your site when someone searched for that term - unfortunately these terms don’t often provide much traffic) If there is a lot of competition then you will need backlinks pointing to your site using your keyword in the anchored text of the link pointing to you. That is all that is required to dominate any keyword online. Simple yes. In practice the hard part will be obtaining all the anchored backlinks needed to dominate a competitive keyword but following my on-site advice will make this task much easier - especially if you use social networks.
Now let me demonstrate what I am talking about.
I mentioned “humor” a few paragraphs ago as a lead in for my example site. But first a pre-amble to fill you in.
It seems I ruffled a few feathers in a post on my main site a few weeks ago. I mentioned that the bloggers on Today.com were beginners and the reason was to point out that most of the bloggers on here are following a failed strategy. They are almost without exception chasing social traffic and will eventually quit blogging for all the reasons I mentioned above. They will work their butts off making a few dollars a day and burn out. Most will not even do the social chasing and will quit long before they make a few dollars a day. This isn’t any different here or with beginners who start a self hosted blog or use free domains like Blogger that can be fully monetized. The fact is most of the people blogging today will not be blogging in six months. They give it a go, fail to attract readers, fail to attract money or both and quit. I have seen this cycle for years and anyone that has lasted as long as a year knows this is true. We see it time and again. Very few people actually do the work - the majority of my readers have been reading my blogs for a year or two and still haven’t built a site. It is what it is.
I highlighted one blogger in particular in my post - not to bash her - but because she is one of the few on Today that has the work ethic to succeed. She has a “humorous Photo ” blog and drives the most traffic to her site of all the Today bloggers. She does it using social traffic and works her tail off to do it. She is the type of person who could succeed online with a little SEO knowledge. It is unfortunate that her reaction was quite negative.
Note: The screenshot of Melissa’s post on the forum has been removed as it was inappropriate of me to show it - the forum is private and hence the comments made are as well. - Griz
Tact is not my strong suit and those who know me have seen this kind of reaction before. The thing is you also know I am going to show Melissa how she can improve her traffic stats whether she wants to listen or not. Her site is the perfect example of what not to do in regards to search traffic and by illustrating the mistakes it will become clear to both her and others how some simple tweaks could make a huge difference in her long term success. If it’s any consolation to Melissa she should know I only “pick on” bloggers who have the talent to succeed - there is no point in highlighting those that don’t.
This post is long enough so I will demonstrate on-site SEO next post and illustrate exactly why you should follow my advice regarding keywords using both Melissa’s site and mine. The results will not leave you in doubt about how effective it is at building links and traffic.
For those who are members of Today.com you can follow Melissa’s forum thread here - Grizzly is a Douche Bag - I think they were about to tar and feather me last I checked. 
Cheers
Griz
Update: This post is continued at How to Get Traffic to your Website or Blog
Lol Grizz, love you you brought in the controversy. We are seeing a showdown between “bloggers” and “marketeers.” Hopefully, she’s learn something from the experience.
Ben K
Since your last post over at the other blog, I am sure many of your diehard followers are going to hang on to every word you breathe and they will scrutinize every word between the lines.
Some are still in awe, disgust, shock, disbelief and anger over your “1.5 million in 8 Days”. You are an inspiration to many and indignation to many more! LOL.
Luca,
Most bloggers use snippets on the home page - several blurbs for various posts that can be clicked using the “more” function in order to find the post page. In the next post I will show why this can confuse both the Adsense bot and the search bot when it comes to indexing your home page and in displaying the proper relevant ads.
Luke,
My wife is never upset because she is wrong - she gets upset because I mention it…
Ben K,
Everyone loves to be entertained - thought some of you might enjoy the torch and pitchfork crowd. Imagine if I had said something worse than calling them beginners? Lol.
Clueless,
One big advantage of search traffic - you don’t need a single reader to succeed online. If you piss someone off it doesn’t really matter - not so if you rely on social traffic… the indignant can nash their teeth all day long. What I do works and works well - shame some folks will cut their nose off to spite their face.
I agree Gary and will be showing why social traffic can be quite useful for link building provided people use some SEO to their advantage. Next post will explain this in detail.
Andy,
I take flak all the time for how I say things - no one ever seems to argue that what I say is wrong though - people prefer style over substance and if I was selling something I would probably work on my tact. I’m not so I don’t. It really is their loss and not mine.
Good point Frank and I’ve changed it to Free - you are right - traffic can be bought. An honest over site as I never even consider that. Perish the thought! Lol.
As for the PR0 - only a beginner would think that PR has anything to do with success online. I’m not sure she understands that the blog ranks on top of one of the most competitive niches online and PR has nothing to do with that. The blog is extremely successful based on any measure - traffic, earnings, RSS subscribers, keyword authority, comment counts etc. I’m surprised I didn’t get the “only noobs use a Blogspot blog” spiel as well.
Oh, how nice to waste some time reading the outpourings of a bunch of indignant people sounding off. Even better when they start quoting Chinese whispers…
Man you must be Satan personified to heap so many evil profanities on those poor innocent souls. What a load of absolute bollocks!
Lissie bravely stepped in with the voice of reason and they still didn’t listen. Bah, let ‘em eat cake if they want.
Hey Terry (honestway)
Nice to see you drop in. I stopped reading after the Douche bag comment but it sounds like things have progressed nicely.
Poor Lissie - I love her to bits but wouldn’t advise wading into a frothing horde of noobs on a mission. Seems we’ve seen this before ala the witch on blogcatalog. Lol. It is entertaining though… and for free! 
Griz .lol… suggestion for new site….www.pissonurcornflakes.today.com
Cool , I have new content for a post tomorrow. Bloggers that make cash vs Bloggers that don’t.
btw
Monthly Searches for:
Make Money Online 360,000
Be a famous Blogger 16
Nothing to see here, move along, move along……….
Griz,
Thanks for your great material. I have got a lot from your sites : information, understanding, inspiration and a belief that I can do it.
I am impressed by the good feeling that people have towards you - both from the ones who leave comments on your sites and from your peers.
Good on ya, mate! You seem to be a man I can trust with this.
Also thanks to you comment posters - you seem to be a group of alert, dynamic and positive folk. Good luck to you all! I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and have got useful information from you.
I am completely new to this. I plan to set up my first site - a blog as you suggest, Griz - in a few days time.
Also I will now follow only your beginners’ lessons until I get to know how to do things well. I have enjoyed looking at different sites on making money, but now I want to have just a very narrow focus on doing the first steps very well. Well begun is half done!
Question : Will it be easy for me to transfer a Blogger blog (all content, links, pics. etc.) to a new web site that I might own in the future? I’ve read some horror stories about this, even when using a redirect page for directing site visitors from an old site to a new one.
Question : Should I leave comments on the latest page of this site?
Question : Is it possible to place your answers next to the relevant comment? This makes for easier finding and reading.
Thanks again to you all.
Good luck.
Afon
PS : I tried to post this on your beginners’ site (Blogger)- but it hasn’t appeared. So I tried here.
Griz 1 - 18.3.09
Ah yes, the debacle with the infamous Madame X… what an absolute wheeze that little episode turned out to be LMAO!!
You have to hand it to them, the social brigade love to wallow in their own self importance and righteousness. Blessed be the Lord ahhhmen!
I’m shootin’ you an email btw…
I did my part to keep the bashing going over there on the thread now that I am a clueless Today.com blogger too.
Bruce
Griz,
Yes, you have something to offer. You inspired anger because of the way you assumed I knew nothing about SEO or how to make money in general. It takes time for google to pick up your keywords and in the meantime most of us use social networking until google searches pick up.
I can assure you that I am getting plenty of google traffic right now and it steadily increases every day as google continues to pick up the tags I’ve added to the photos I’ve uploaded.
Could I be more successful?
Who cares? I have a real job that makes me much more per hour than blogging ever will.
Wow-if she only knew how lucky she was to have someone like you to lead her in the right direction. I thought it was quite ironic that she referred to *US* as lemmings. Hopefully she’ll swallow her pride and accept your offer to help. If not, well that’s TOTALLY her loss.
During the past couple of months I’ve established quite a nice network of sites just by following the simple advice you provide as well as Mark and Court over at the Keyword Academy. I’ve accomplished more since January than I have the past couple years online. Hooray for Google and backlinks! It’s all you need!
You can’t help those who don’t want to be helped. Getting traffic that converts to money is simple. You follow Griz’s advice. Buy a few helpful programs here and there (Keyword Elite, LV, Blog Content Wizard). Write down a general outline so you actually have a goal. Stop wasting time reading so much once you “get” how this is done. Lastly, get off your ass and start making the farms and blogs.
Everyday. Do it.
I have been quietly following Griz’s “how to get search engine traffic” strategies on my own (I’ve been around a bit in the Shed…a couple months ago) and there is no doubt Griz knows “how to get traffic to your website or blog” in the most effective, simple ways possible. Build the blogs and your backlinks…and the search engine traffic will come. Build it and they will come. LOL
The funny thing is, all this has been explained by Griz and other people who comment on his blogs. Many times. All the skepticism literally cracks me up. The proof is in the numbers (money numbers, search engine traffic numbers, the number of blogs) - and Griz has the proof AND the numbers.
Work smarter. Not harder.
And one more thing: The bottom line to all this is, if you want to simply be a social blogger you’d better not quit your day job because you will be flat broke. You won’t get any search engine traffic despite all that Stumbling and Digging that wastes away many peoples’ days.
I know I just repeated what Griz said, but well…. I wanted to give the Google bot a little snack. Let the search engine traffic roll in! LOL!
Janet
Well- You can’t please everybody. Why host a bitchfest(as in bitching) just to complain about someone? Oh well sucks to be them
Griz,
I guess I must be immune to your jabs. I did not see you as ripping into the gal here on Today. I thought you used her as a great example as how you can use social media and alt tags with photos to make money online. Guess I missed the part of you being disrespectful to her or anyone here. I’ll have to go back and reread the post again and see you as being mean spirited.
I agree there is a place for social traffic and what you are able to build with it. Even though you did not go searching for that social traffic, your make money online blog has turned into that. Plus we all gather at other social places to help each other. Having a group of like minded friends is very important in this business as we do have the ability to help each other make money online. I don’t worry about these kind of friends as they are all very trustworthy. It was through you and Vic that my business is finally starting to take shape.
I am so pleased today for your information. My 3 year old blog is finally starting to rank for some terms in the serps. I am even on the same page with you on some very loooong loooong tail keywords.
I am pumped! I only have 7 more years to go before this domain expires. Maybe by then I will make some money with this.
Heck I just learned about alt tags and how to do them. Now I need to go back and put my keywords in them instead of what the picture was about.
How to make money online with adsense by being a douchebag.
Seriously though, a lot of directory/forum/article site owners are douchebags. Deleting my links but keeping the content I post. Damn douchebags.
Griz, great info as usual. Question, in your last post you mentioned the following:
“Next post I will talk about how to set up a site, how to structure your posts, how to use adsense on the site and how to get people to click on your ads without violating Google’s terms of service.”
Or was this covered above in this post under “SEO Basics”?
@Jeremy: yeahhhh, SiteBuildIt! (don’t forget the exclamation mark). I got suckered into that one in August last year, spun my wheels for several months, found Griz’s beginners blog on December 24, got a pro-rated refund on SBI! on January 1, and never looked back. To their credit, the SBI people were gracious about giving me my money back, which I turned around and spent on SEO tools. What ticks me off isn’t the money I lost, but god, the time.
SBI is interesting because their members do get decent SERP traffic if they follow the “program” (which never, ever says in 10 words what it can say in a hundred). It runs you through a leased version of WordTracker to find keywords, traffic, and their secret formula for evaluating a keyword’s efficiency index when choosing a niche. The site template forces you to use good on-page SEO, and they prod you to build hundreds of pages of content. For less competitive niches, that’s enough to get you a few thousand visitors a month.
But their advice for monetizing that content is noobus maximus. All kinds of BS about pursuing your passion and the money will follow if you provide quality content, the usual. Never a word up front that “some niches just don’t monetize well” (I found that little gem in the forums directed to a woman had built a 300-page site and was making $50 a month). When SBI’s owner proclaimed “the death of SEO,” I knew I had had enough–I just hadn’t found where to go yet.
The said thing about social blogging is that most sane people (other than code geeks) would rather do anything for relaxation except sit in front of a computer. If I’m not getting paid to burn my eyeballs and ignore my friends, what’s the point?
Is she kidding? PR 0? Who cares!!??? Adsense checks pay the bills, and I don’t doubt you absolutely destroy her. Page rank, my goodness.
It’s sometimes very difficult for people, that are finding a small measure of success, to realize when criticism is constructive and genuine.
Maybe if Melissa gets over herself, and uses the work ethic you’ve acknowledged and praised, she’ll take your advice and make some serious cash. Forget the revenue sharing thingy!
Great Stuff
Jim
Why can’t some people just be social bloggers and not want to make all kinds of money?
I’ve read his blog too, and decided that this is not what I wanted to do. I understand the concepts, the use of SEO, backlinks, etc., etc., I’m just not interested right now.
The reason I became so upset was because of the assumption that I didn’t know how to “do it right” and with just a little help “I could do it so much better”. I just don’t care enough about a hobby to make it more profitable.
I blog for fun and there’s no hidden agenda. Most of my “winnings” or traffic money I donate.
Griz,
This is a test post. I’ve tried to post before. Let’s see if this works. More to follow if it succeeds!
Griz,
Thanks for your great material. I have got a lot from your sites : information, understanding, inspiration and a belief that I can do it.
I am impressed by the good feeling that people have towards you - both from the ones who leave comments on your sites and from your peers.
Good on ya, mate! You seem to be a man I can trust with this.
Also thanks to you comment posters - you seem to be a group of alert, dynamic and positive folk. Good luck to you all! I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and have got useful information from you.
I am completely new to this. I plan to set up my first site - a blog as you suggest, Griz - in a few days time.
Also I will now follow only your beginners’ lessons until I get to know how to do things well. I have enjoyed looking at different sites on making money, but now I want to have just a very narrow focus on doing the first steps very well. Well begun is half done!
Question : Will it be easy for me to transfer a Blogger blog (all content, links, pics. etc.) to a new web site that I might own in the future? I’ve read some horror stories about this, even when using a redirect page for directing site visitors from an old site to a new one.
Question : Should I leave comments on the latest page of this site?
Question : Is it possible to place your answers next to the relevant comment? This makes for easier finding and reading.
Thanks again to you all.
Good luck.
Afon
Griz 1 - 19.3.09
Hi Lissie: I read your review of SBI and you’ve nailed it. I’d love to see you follow in Griz’s footsteps on this, if you know what I mean. I’ll try to help you out :-), ’cause I have a real distaste for BS.
You can get your domain back from SBI but I think it costs money. The one I have parked with them hasn’t expired yet, so I’ve slacked on finding out. When I canceled, they told me I could but were evasive as to how I would go about doing it.
SBI’s forums are loaded with people who are frustrated because their traffic levels are in the four or five figure range but their income is zero. Their sample sites all have a PR5 backlink from SBI! which can’t be hurting their SERP ranking even if the link isn’t keyword anchored.
@Jeremy: my traffic is right where yours is. I don’t even care right now–I know from past experience that if I don’t put lots of content on my sites and get some backlinks while G is bouncing them around in the SERPs, they’re headed for the sandbox.
Dissention is great for traffic.
Thanks!
Hi Griz,
I an anxiously waiting for you to weigh in on the new adsense interest based targeting and whether or not you recommend/plan to opt out on your sites. It appears to go against your model of crafting content to trigger specific ads, when the ads shown will be based on the visitor’s history and not your content.
Any thoughts?
Greg
Hi Griz,
I was lost for the a week after my initial project failed / or you can say I gave up. (I guess my competition were to strong and I am not in the same league or maybe I did not plan well).
So after reading about your post on 1.5 million traffic for 3 celebrity centre events, it proved that it is possible to rank in page 1 of search engine in a short period of time and monetized from it. You have proved that with targeted keyword and correctly predicting search trend are very important and crucial to succeed in MMO.
After some soul searching last week, I have found myself back energized working on the SEO again but now I am going to strive for the Money Making Online keywords but I know I will nont stand a chance if the keywords are in English. So I guess I might has a chance with local language, after googling the several target keywords. the Keyword that I am targeting has the number of backlinks which can be overtake (I think) and do not have lots of backlink with the targeted keyword. I think I can beat that.
This is my plan and I really welcome advices from anyone to help me to improve my SEO skills. My objective is to get anyone of the of the 4 main blog (the targeted keywords in the domain) that I have created to first page or RANK # ONE for my targeted keywords by 31 Mar 2009 (not sure whether can make it but will try my very best). Then optimised is for adsense for all the targeted keywords, hopefully my persistance will prevail and I can have all the targeted keywords on First Page or even better Rank # ONE. I am using the Divide and Conquer method, to
Going back to the frame work or lesson Griz has teach us in the above post an also SEO Optimization Lesson 1,2,3,4.
First I did some research using Adword Tool on the targeted keywords for the search traffic volume and bid amount. This is to ensure that I am not working on useless non-value keywords (my opinion). I have identified several keywords to be targeted.
Then proceed with the process of On Page and Off Page Optimazation.
Being optimitsic, I think I stand a chance for one of the keyword. The other keywords might stand a chance as well or they can be used as link farm later which is relevent to the topic.
On page optimization:
You must use your keyword in your URL.
The selected keywords were used as ULR. The plan is to create 4 sites with URLs for the targeted of 6 main keywords. The URL are combinations of 2 keywords. These URLs will be used as backlinkro each others.
***You must use your keyword in your Blog Title***
This step has been done. Blog title is with the targeted combination of keywords. For example: Title: Make Money Online (Keywords: Make Money, Money Online & Make Money Online)
***You must use your keywords in your Post Titles***
Keyword are used in the blog title. e.g SEO Lesson 1, SEO for the weak , SEO for the blind (for the keyword SEO)
***You must use your keywords and related terms in your post content***
The content in a post contain at least 3% of keyword/s. About 1-3 keyword in 100 words. Then I will also include all the others long tail keywords from MMO branch to ensure the google ad come up with the correct advertisement. What I am going to do is that all my blog consist of all the MMO keywords but the density for each targeted keywords will depend on on the keyword in the URL. If the URL for www.makemoneyonline.com, the keywords for make money, money online & make money online will be higher (3% - 5%) but longtail keywords such as SEO, Affiliate Marketing and etc… will have lower density.
***You will get the best search results by only posting one post per page unless all your posts are related to the same keywords***
Yes. the sites will build to have 1 post only with link to other posting through link list.
***If using Adsense then always stick to one post per page***
Adsense will be at the top of the sites and side bar.
***If using photos then your keywords should be used in the alt tags***
Any photos will be name with the keywords in it.
***You must use html for the bulk of your pages content. (plain old text)***
Nothing to add here.
Off page optimization:
This will be my biggest challenge, is there anyway to get quality backlink and also get it fast? Coz getting the correct backlinks from the correct/relevant sites are important and I know I can find some in form Griz’s Link Resources.
I need more advices /ideas in the backlinks process. Anyone can give advice so that I can avoid spending times in the wrong places looking for backlinks.
Anyone willing to give me helping hand by giving me some backlinks?
I am so sorry that my post is so long. I hope my persistence will pay off this time.
Bk… have you thought about your own humor site?
April,
Adding Adsense back on your sites will not cause a problem down the road.
There is nothing wrong with working on several sites targeting multiple niches at the same time - as long as you have the energy to pull it off. It is usually easier for beginners to concentrate on just one niche in the beginning until they learn the do’s and don’ts. If you target several niches then you tend to make the same mistakes on all the sites and it is more work fixing them all later. One advantage with multiple niches is that you will quickly learn that one blueprint doesn’t work across the board and you will learn how to tweak different sites according to the niche. The basics are the same - the specifics rarely are.
If you held page 1 for a month and then disappeared you have just experienced the Google dance. Without anchored backlinks it is normal to rank well for a while based on the algorithms’ penchant for new content but you eventually fall back in the serp’s as more new content over takes you. Building anchored backlinks will stop this from happening and you will eventually hold or improve your rankings on a more permanent basis.
Thanks April - your questions were not silly at all.
Good luck
I started talking in an old forum I hadn’t been to for years. Now I remember why I stopped going to that site. They are genuine douche bags. The moderators actually think they are better than other people. That’s classic douche bag style to me.
Grizz and the folks on this blog are definitely not douche bags.
Aman,
I checked out your site and I may use it myself - I’m a crappy Guitar player with Zero talent and have been proving that to my friends for 30 years now! lol
The site is laid out well from an SEO perspective but you could use more content as the use of videos needs to be compensated with a bit more (read - a lot more) keyword rich text. The bot can’t index you for video content. You alternate between a video post and a text post but the video posts have almost no text content. You might also want to consider adding “Guitar Lesson” to each post title ie. “Guitar Lesson - Quarter Notes & Eight Notes”.
Your lack of traffic is probably due to two reasons - competition and a lack of anchored backlinks. You can increase long tail traffic by simply adding a lot more relevant text to the site. Your main keywords will require a fair number of anchored backlinks before you see much traffic for them.
Afon,
The horror stories are true about transferring a blogger blog over to a self hosted site - or they were last time I tried which was ages ago. If any of my techie friends can contradict this given all the recent updates to blogger please chime in. My advice is to simply use the blogger blog to learn and if you are successful don’t move it (mine do just fine on blogger) just start a new WP site using the Blogger blog to help it along and then duplicate your success on WP. You will end up with two successful sites and then time for number 3 and so on. I always say - don’t just be in a niche - dominate it.
“Question : Should I leave comments on the latest page of this site?” - It helps as that is where my attention is at any given time.
“Question : Is it possible to place your answers next to the relevant comment? This makes for easier finding and reading.” - Unfortunately Today.com is using an old version of wordpress and the comment platform doesn’t have nesting capabilities which sucks. I hate this comment platform as much as you do - although I am used to it as Blogger is just as bad.
(Blogger may have ate your comment - it does that from time to time. Sorry about that - the almighty Google can build the best search engine in the world but can’t create a decent comment widget. Go figure.)
Terry,
I got your e-mail and replied - let me know if it didn’t show up.
Madam x… ah yes, fond memories. Lol.
Sorry I had to rant since I just checked that board and realized the same douche bags are running things. I wish bad SEO on them, they’re too shitty to deserve to succeed at monetizing that site. Judging by there lack of backlinks I just might get my wish. I think I want to start a blog in that niche just to prove there not all that.
Bruce,
Lol. You are a sucker for punishment. lol
Did I get your Today blog added to my Today.com Friends Page? If not let me know.
Archie,
Thanks for the props and good luck with those 8 sites. I hope they make up for lost time.
“The “A listers” are out of my reader those blogs are entertainment not education.” - so true.
Jeremy,
The sandbox can last as long as it takes to convince G that your site is legit. The quickest way out is to remove monetization, add lots of original relevant content and build anchored backlinks. Obtaining an authority backlink or two is the quickest exit method but tough to find.
I don’t think you are sandboxed though - you are indexed and showing a number of links. Your real problem is that you picked a really competitive niche and are going to need some serious backlinks to rank well long term in the Financial niche.
I should also mention that G flags most of the start ups in that niche as it attracts the spammers due to the high CPC ads. This is why I tell people to avoid using adsense until you have authority and ranking for your main keywords. (Adding Adsense from day one makes it look less legit - ie. you aren’t a financial consultant offering advice but rather a splogger trying to cash in with adsense) I’m not saying you are - just explaining how the algo reads sites in the spam niches. You really have to be legit to rank well in the flagged niches these days.
Buying aged domains has some benefits and I suggest you see Terry at the The Honest Way site and pick his brain on the subject. He is far more knowledgeable about what to look for and how to avoid the mistakes than I am. Don’t be shy - he is a great guy and likes to help folks out.
There is no downside to using 1 post per page from an SEO perspective - yes I recommend it over multiple posts. Always.
I forgot to ask the other question (sorry),
* Should I add my url keywords to EACH title post? Thanks!
Rita
Griz
What do you think about webseo dot org as suggested by ‘the honest way’ ? any advice you can give us?
myln
Hey Griz, a couple questions have cropped up during my SEO journey.
#1. How many 2nd tier “support” blogs do you recommend to back your money site in a niche. Any rule of thumb here. I know if you are sniping a keyword with little competition? I’m trying to have about 10 support blogs per semi competive keyword longtail (keywords that get say 20-30k people a month). Now, I know this will very…in something like make money niche, you may need dozens or hundreds of support blogs, but other less competitive niches, maybe less? The plan is have my legit support sites become authority ones over time, then their 1 way links to my money site/s will really have some juice.
#2. How many posts should each “support” blog have? I’m aiming for 5-10 posts, but it’s really exhausting me, having a money site (of which I want to put around 30 posts), then 10 support sites with 10 posts on each.
#3. And, any rule of thumb how many support blogs/articles you should have for the suport blogs. I’ve decided to use spun content/duplicates and other questionable material as the third tier. I was aiming to have 10 of these type blogs, for each secondary blog i have in a niche.
#4. Any rule of thumb about how many outgoing links I should have in each support blog post? I generally have 2 links per post (sometimes 3-4) of about 500-1000 words. The links all go to my money sites or link partners. Any weigh in on this here?
#5. I really want to get as many different niche sites out there in the shortest amount of time. I feel that getting them out there now means they will grow with time — it will also be a good way to “fish” out niches. I have a good deal of origional content coming to me to use to create these niches. For my new niche sites, what do you think? Either 24 niches with 5 origional posts or 12 niches with 10 posts. Each will be a “money site”. I’ll have to work on getting supporting sites later.
Thanks!!!
Ben K
Griz,
For a few days I read everything you wrote and every comment on your sites. Then I realized there was nothing new. Now I pop in every week or so, do a quick skim and pop out. I’d rather spend that reading time writing. You’re not losing anything from me not reading your sites any more because I never intended to buy anything and I don’t click ads on your site.
Honestly, I think that by not thouroughly reading your sites I’m offering you a compliment. It shows that I’ve learned from your basic, easy to implement plan. In a few months my earnings have gone from about $20/month to $150/month. I already had a dozen related sites up and running so I had a pretty good head start. Not tremendous earnings, but enough to bring my overly understanding wife out to dinner. If my earnings keep growing at this rate I should have significant income in a year or so.
I don’t think your post about “Green” Today bloggers was rude in any way, even if kind of explains me. Keep up the good work. The only praise that really matters comes in the form of paychecks.
Dave
Oh, I almost forgot. If your earnings slow down I might be able to help you get a 2nd Mortgage. Let me know.
Hey Griz,
I have a follow up question that BooBoo answered in another thread. A week or so ago I installed Statcounter. I’ve only had two peopl click on a Google ad in that time. The first exit link via a google ad was clicked by a visitor from Austria. Adsense didn’t give me credit for the click. BooBoo explained that clicking the arrows in the Adsense unit counts as an exit link but gets no credit as a click.
But now yesterday the same thing happened, this time with a visitor from Greece. It seems unlikely that the only two visitors to click on a Google ad in the last few days clicked on the arrows and not an ad.
Both searches ended up on a completely relevant page on my blog.
Do foreign ad clicks count?
Hey,
Maybe you should show Today.com how to rank for “freelance writing jobs”.
Looks like they optimized their regisration page, and nicely keyword stuffed it…..but maybe no one has told them about gathering links…:0
I bet all their anchors say “today.com”
Hahahahahahaha…
I actually have a humor site that had fallen into this pit - I’ve gotten 4000+ hits a day from SU before…but I’m much happier with the 150 people a day that come by and earn me a few dollars. You just gave me some ideas on what I could do to make it more though
My biggest problem with it is I let it get too off topic trying to feed that social networking monster of “post consistently”.
People can say you’re a fake all they want to, but if they did what I did a few months ago and started reading your blog they’d be seeing nice checks from Google every month. I’ve done the math, if my blog was on here and got identical traffic I wouldn’t have earned even half of what it gets on its own
Hi Griz,
as you know, I work mainly in different niches from most people here. And these are pretty difficult to gain any type of ‘trust’ in Google’s eyes.
In this case, social traffic does help me. If I have a good bunch of people subscribing to my RSS feed, and a few thousand ’stumbles’, Google tends to look on my blogs much more favourably
Then I can really get on with the real offsite SEO work (onsite has already been done).
I haven’t read all the comments yet, so I don’t know whether your reference to html pages has hit home, but that is also golden.
Looking forward to the next post
“Bk… have you thought about your own humor site? :-)”
Nah, I’m just a smart ass.
Lissie deserves a medal for digging the trenches and taking fire. I’m gonna give her a one way link for courage. Contact me Lissie . Ben
I wanted to let Lissie know how to get in touch with me so that I could give her a one way link from a PR3 site but Today.com didn’t allow me to edit my last comment.
Lissie. Go to Griz’s ugly blog. You can find me there. Ben
Griz~
I have a plain/stupid question, but I would like to know what YOU personally do:
With all of these websites and different “friends” accounts, etc. do you use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of all of the passwords/names/login and web addresses? I’m just starting out and I only spend my researching time on your sites but I’m already getting overwhelmed with my few accounts.
Would you be willing to show us (without your personal info included) what you use?
Question on Backlinks:
I’ve posted some stuff on Reddit and Stumbleupon. Are those links nofollow and worthless?
I went to add a comment on the forum, but it was closed. Bummer, it would have been fun.
Just wanted to ad some info. Grizz focuses a lot on Google, and rightly so, the amount they can send is tremendous when you get a good keyword ranking.
But I was looking at some competitive and semi-competitive terms. One of my sites is in the Top 10 on MSN. Now MSN sends a lot less traffic, but if you get the URL/Title/H1 and content right, you can often rank well there first. I also know that in time, I’ll rank well in Google.
The traffic from MSN is just as likely to click an add as one from Google.
Blog on.
Hei Griz. I’m just curios about two things with all this things:
- I saw that there are two types of ranking good sites: the ones that have anchored links and got a little/more autority on that keyword/domain and the ones that got no autority on that domain but they got autority on their “main” domain and because of that they rank good whetever they are ranking for, if no one else builds autority for a certain domain and get anchored backlinks.
- I saw that the PR does not really matter when we are talking about keyword based search and not the branding. I saw that pr 2 for example can really outrank PR 7 because that PR 7 does not have anchored backlinks altough it if has the right content/title and the keyword in the link/domain.
- the age has some value? I saw that there are big site with a few keywords that have 10-12 year and there are many sites with a lot of keywords, perhaps non-autoritive that don’t outrank that sites.
Hi Grizz,
I have been reading all your blogs studying how you do things and noticed that you have been using mybloglog for links for this blog (unlike your other blogs where you mostly use your networks).
I was wondering, if its ok with you, if you could explain a little bit on this new aspect of your system?
Thanks!
Griz, or anyone that might know.
I have a diagram HERE.
It is 2 different linking strategies. I don’t know the answer but I sure would like some opinions.
The reason I ask is I saw a #1 ranking site with a very weird linking structure but G was obviously liking it.
I was trying to wrap my tiny little spec of grayish matter around the purpose for this site(MMAW) “building authority for another keyword at another site”.
The answer may reveal itself in the diagram?
BK
Diagram is here http://www.beginners.today.com
Free home biz ads for douchebags and Obgyn.Win Win Have fun today @TODAY. cheers Buzzirk
Hi Griz, thanks for the awesome info as always!
This question is for anyone who can answer:
I created a bloglicio.us blog a week ago and it is still not indexed by Google, Yahoo, or MSN. So far I have only created, a privacy page, an about page, and 2 posts. I also submitted an article with kw-anchored backlinks to a few different article directories (I know, I need to pick up the pace, it’s just been a crazy week with other stuff going on).
Is it normal not to be indexed at all in any of the 3 major SE’s by now? I would imagine my niche is ‘flagged’ because the CPC’s are high, but I didn’t think Yahoo and MSN ’sandboxed’ new sites/blogs.
Thanks for any help!
Hi Janetra, thanks for responding. This is worrying me a bit….I wonder if the issue is with bloglicio.us itself? Maybe the SE’s don’t like it? I hope that’s not the case since I really like bloglicio.us and find it very user-friendly. May I ask if your niche(s) have high CPC’s and might be flagged?
Griz, if you have any thoughts about this I would appreciate your input!
Thanks to both of you!
Grizz - another longtime MMO blog reader posting first time here. My sincere thanks to you for the wealth of knowledge you share.
When are you going to write about smart pricing? I have been holding off my question on that topic, but could not resist posting it today. My bread ‘n butter site has been smart priced. I removed all other non performing sites from Adsense account 3 weeks ago, but still getting smart priced. There was no content changes made in the recent part either. I am clueless as to how to get rid of smart pricing. What do you suggest?
-krupesh
Griz,
I am clueless, but will attempt to make what use I can of your advice. Please feel free to smack me down in public anytime you see fit.
Thanx for the posting.
OOHHH, that thread in the forum was getting nasty before it was shut down. I still don’t understand why the reaction was to intense. The comments you made were mild ad most. In other forums, that OP would have been ripped to shreds in an instant. Oh well, back to talking about making money with adsense
TomG.
Great post. –Rhonda
www.compyell.today.com
Can someone answer a Noob question for me? Actually A few.
I’m working on link building so I’m using SEO elite to see links on some competing sites. It shows a Pr3 site with mostly internal links and a couple of PR1 links– that can’t be where their getting all of their link juice from can it- I mean from a PR1?. I also noticed when I check links on my site it shows links from yahoo but says I have none according to google or msn. Does that mean google thinks I don’t have any links and is ranking me accordingly? Links that I know I have are not showing up.
Am I using the wrong settings or something because it looks like I’m not seeing the whole link picture -for any sites. I’ve checked the google, msn and yahoo boxes. I also set my search results to about five hundred but I’m still not seeing everything. I’m really starting to wonder if I’m doing my links all wrong.\ since they aren’t showing up.
Thanks for the help guys.
Christy/skitzarella
PR also depends on site age. But your competitors site must have few more links the tool is not picking up; it is rare that one or 2 links will get you PR3 even after accounting for site age.
On your second question, Google and MSN backlinks do not show all the links, only Yahoo does that. Google shows only a sample of relevant links on SERP, but if you use Google Webmaster Tools, you will get better accuracy.
Krupesh
Hi Janetra,
No, my bloglicio.us blog still has not been indexed either
Thank you so much for telling me about 000webhost–I think I might just try moving there. I like bloglicio.us but I can’t afford to wait forever to get indexed.
Frank,
Lol… gee I guess I should just quit huh? Zillions they say…
Thanks for the non-link!
Krupesh & Lorecee,
Thanks for the Info.
I think I’ll try what you suggested.
“If it’s any consolation to Melissa she should know I only “pick on” bloggers who have the talent to succeed”
Griz, I just found you thanks to Lis’ recent fun that started with http://lissowerbutts.com/site-build-it-scam-review/
I haven’t read all of the comments yet, but surely I can’t be the first to say, feel free to pick on me!!!
looking forward to reading more of your advice (and thanks, Lis!)
Hi Griz , most if not all of what you’ve said is true. I recently started blogging myself and am tearing my hair out trying hard to understand how to build a steady traffic flow to my site. For me I want to make money as well as impart knowledge. But more than ever I find that I really want to get my word out there, monetizing is secondary for me.
Its a constant struggle, well for me anyway and quite frustrating. Perhaps I don’t put as much time and effort in. I personally prefer search traffic as opposed to social traffic. I don’t have tons of friends and much prefer strangers than friends coming on to view my work as they tend to be far more critical than someone who doesn’t know me and even if they (strangers) critique its easier to take.
Anyway as I’m still learning the ropes of this whole blogging craze I sometimes feel like just throwing in the towel, but I don’t because I know I still have much more to share with my target audience / readers if they can find me
. My blog is for first time moms and the link is http://first-time-mom-baby.blogspot.com/ could you take a look and be honest and tell me what I’m doing wrong. Thanks
@Lorecee
I got noob answer
I believe it was mentioned before that the CPC is about 25% of the PPC.
I have over 26 entries and i just realized the reason why i have no activity is because I am not activated. Yeah i can log in and write entries but my account being activated is a whole different can of worms. So odd……… Now i am scared if and when they activate my account I might loose all my entries
OK Mr. I’m asking you to head over and check out my blog… How should I go about marketing myself to build traffic?
I am not Grizz but I have been over-analysing this for ages so here’s my 2c worth…
@Dineane glad you found Grizz! Remember to sleep between reading sessions!
@xoreoa - do you want readers or do you want to make money? Be honest - if you want readers and fame keep the day job and have fun - and take the ads off - they will just annoy your readers. If you want money then focus on ONE monetisation Adsense or affiliates -only one. And make sure you visitors are not distracted by you words - ie they shouldn’t actually be useful, entertaining or answer the question! The layout is fine - but your Adsense placement is woeful - if you go that way you want one foccused post per page - a lot more words and the ad placement that Griz has talked about on the ugly blog (blogspot one) BTW to me the niche seems to have potential - lots of searches and not too much competition - but you only have a couple of do follow links (from articles youve submitted) and none of them are properly anchored - just the url
@Brent
I’m in the pet niche also, I’m building sites now. We will have to setup some link exchanges, help each other out.
Hey BK, lets do this then. email me at beezo44@hotmail.com
Thanks Lis - seems rocket feels I should take the time to answer him rather than him doing any work. He could have read the post you linked to or he could have gone all out and read the SEO Terms page which clearly explains what both a keyword is and an anchored keyword. I’m so sorry rocket that I didn’t know you would be reading this post “only” or I would have added the definition of “keywords” yet a third time to this blog. Please forgive me - I wouldn’t want you to do any work at all. That just wouldn’t be right. After all it is your right to do nothing and my pleasure to be at your beck and call. Anything else?
Tracey LOL.
The nerve of me not to post the complete guide to everything a person needs to know or learn in one single post - preferably in a hundred words or less…
Wow,
My skin is much thicker.
Feel free Griz to look at my site, and give some advise.
You can call me whatever you want, I swear! noob, sock puppet, country bumpkin, douch, whatever!
Just give me some advice!
Reading your blogs has made me money! Thank you so much.
With a little more work I might be getting regular checks from the big G.
Your blog has been reviewed on Review Me Today
Your review:Make money with Adsense
Keep writing and I will keep reading!
Griz says “After all it is your right to do nothing and my pleasure to be at your beck and call. Anything else?”
Yes actually, there is something else. I would like a cup of coffee. Fetch!
It must get tiring Griz, answering the same old questions in every post you’ve made the past couple years!
One of us should really just make a comprehensive F&Q of your information and people can just point the newbies to it for reference. It seems that most people don’t bother to do any reading…most of the major information people need is out there, somewhere on your blogs. They just need to spend time and effort. It’s amazing how rude some of these people can be…
However, I’m becoming more and more convinced that people just want a quick means to make money without doing the associated work. Maybe I should creat a MMO site to cater to these people, let’s call it “Make Money Online Without Working” shall we
Looking forward to your next post — they are always a gold mine of information.
Oh an just a couple questions (haha). For support blogs linking to the money sites…is there a rule of thumb about how many “posts” you should include? I’ve heard 5-10 from some people, but I thought I’d get your opinion on it. And, it it advisable to make a lot of these support blogs (say 5-10) for every niche you are in? And (last one!), I assume for some niches, It makes more sense to go with a website template rather than a blog format?
Thanks!
LOL - make money without working and without thinking is what most want I think jjasc - for free, with a money back guarantee - and within the next 24 hours while I sleep!
Lissie
Very well put and oh, so true. On eHow I have over a million views but way less clicks, because most of the views come from my “friends” and they aren’t buying.
Hey Griz, I just want to say thanks for all the great info you’ve provided here & on your other sites. I’ve been lurking around for a while, although I haven’t commented much yet. I’ve found this site to be especially helpful, since it’s all laid out from the beginning. I’m about to launch a new project based on your info & that on Court’s blog, & have just spent the weekend reading & taking notes - I’ve learned a huge amount, even though I’m not a total beginner - wish I’d found you earlier in my IM ‘career’!
I have a question about Linkvana, which I’m thinking of joining at some point soon - is it ok to use it to link to your main money site, or should it only be used to link to supporting sites? I noticed that you mentioned LV on your main blog & said that you have a private forum where you discuss that type of thing - would it be ok for me to join?
thanks again : )
First time reaer of your blog and I must say a did enjoy this article. I am relatively new to blogginga nd did my actual first full month this past march. I am not in to social trafficking so I am relying to on search engines , if you can or want to I would apreciate some pointers on how I can do so effectively. My site is www.musicmesa.today.com check it out if you get the chance and if you can tell me if there is anything I can do to help out my site. I do not want to stop blogging but I would like to increase the amount of people that read my blog
Thanks in advance and keep up the good work
Guys. Grizz is pretty busy. Your probably won’t get a reply. He gets thousands of emails…
However, the information you need is ALL here. Read all the posts on this blog. Read all the comments. Go to his make money for beginners posts. Start from the beginning. Read every post. Read all the comments. Go to his makemoneyonlinegrizz.com site and do the same thing.
All the questions are right there. You just have to spend the time (yes, it will take a good day, maybe more of reading) to do so. You guys read a single post and get confused because there is so much background knowledge you need to know first. It’s like seeing someone use a calculus equation to solve a real world problem. Then you sit down to try and use the formula yourself, but realize you don’t have the background knowledge needed to put it all in context. Get that background knowledge…read ALL of his posts and comments!
BenK
Don’t become a too frequent reader. LOL. You will get frustrated like I do because Griz only posts about once a month or less
I think he is just trying to get people to go to work instead of reading all the time. And also, why post if you don’t have to.