I have chosen the term Payday Loans for a number of reasons.
It is a heavily searched term in the search engines which means that it could be profitable using Adsense or by selling ad space to payday loan companies who want to take advantage of the targeted traffic.
It is also a term that is not particularly relevant to my blog and while this is a no no in as far as Adsense is concerned I am experimenting to see if I can successfully pull off introducing an off topic niche into this blog. It may not work but if it does then the field is wide open for future keyword cherry picking.
Lastly it allows me to show my readers the step by step process I use to make money with my blogs. If you want to catch up you can read my previous posts on this topic;
Payday Loans
Payday Loans Review
Make Money with Payday Loans
Several readers have asked me about other marketer's techniques and I want to set something straight at the outset. My way of doing things is not the only way - there are other SEO methods out there and lot's of ebooks regarding Adsense. I am a trial and error type of person and while I have read other methods I find that most aren't kept up to date and in large part concentrate on short cuts. Short cuts are fine for short term projects and I will discuss this type of marketing in the future but for now I am interested in showing you how to create a steady long term income that works in the current search engine climate. Because I am always experimenting I find that my methods are always being tweaked and updated which keeps my blogs moving in the right direction without fear of running afoul of Google. Having said that, this current experiment could get me into trouble but I am a firm believer in taking things slow and being cautious - which is what todays post is about.
Knowing how to plan ahead and gauge your progress.
I'm just guessing but I bet 90% of all the blogs on the net are unplanned "off the top of the head" creations.
Most are not focused on any defined goal. The URL has nothing to do with the content, the blog title is usually a name or a general phrase ie. "My Lonely Life" and it has nothing to do with the content either. The content changes day to day and covers topics from one end of the spectrum to the other. The post titles don't reflect the post content and the content itself is not optimized for any particular keyword or topic. Did I miss anything?
I am aware that a lot of bloggers - certainly the majority are busy creating content that they think will interest people and they use lot's of snappy titles and tricks to lure traffic to the site - the Web 2.0 crowd. This has become the new dominant blogging scene and it is all geared to drawing traffic from the social networks in order to eventually become an A - Lister. Every day I read blogs that talk about which is better; Stumble Upon or Digg. Every day someone has a new way to gather hordes of traffic using these sites. When I read these blogs I always wait for someone to ask one important question. "What did you do with all that traffic?"
Appealing to the stumblers and diggers it seems most bloggers don't realize that they are only after traffic for traffic's sake. They don't have a plan on what to do with the visitors they do get. Visitors who usually just click in, click out and are never seen again. The general theory seems to be that this will lead to becoming recognized which in turn will lead to becoming an A-Lister. Why do they want to be an A-lister? I presume they think this will make them a lot of money or maybe they just want to be an A-lister for the sake of being an A-lister. If I had to guess I would say that most bloggers have at least considered the possibility of making money with their blog and true bloggers blogging only for the fun of it are a minority.
Here is the million dollar question - has anyone become an A-lister just from social traffic? All the ones I know of draw most of their traffic from search engines or at least they did until achieving enough notoriety to attract social traffic. What's more, they still need search engine traffic to make money from their sites. Someone has to click the ads they sell or no one will buy ads. Social network users don't click the ads - when was the last time you bought something on one of the A-listers sites? Did you even click an ad?
The point I am making is simple and all the Google haters out there will have to realize this sooner or later - you will not be successful online either as a marketer or as an A-lister without Google's traffic. Period.
If you know of anybody that makes money online who doesn't rely on search engine traffic to do it - please let me know.
I am not trying to dash your A-List dreams, just trying to outline the basic concepts of SEO that you can and should incorporate into your blog. To this end I have been explaining how to target the term "Payday Loan" using, so far, the most basic techniques that all optimized pages must have to rank well in the serp's.
These are;
Select a prime keyword or phrase as your ultimate target. Use that phrase or keyword in every post title that you can. Use it 2 to 3 times per hundred words of content. Always highlight it in the first paragraph a few times. Use it in the last paragraph as well.
Select a list of long tail keywords (related terms and phrases of the prime keyword) and use these terms liberally in your content.
Target each new post to a long tail and work at raising these related keywords towards the top of the serp's first. The more related keywords you target the higher your prime keyword will rank.
Use keywords and only keywords in your tags - prime and long tails.
This is basic SEO and has the effect of telling Google exactly what your pages are about.
Once you have posted your articles pay attention to your stats - specifically tracking the keywords people use to find your site. Keep a list of these keywords and use them in future posts or even go back and include them in prior ones. This will increase your index ranking for each of the terms.
This has confused a few people so I will show you what I am talking about using my Payday Loan posts.
The first Payday Loan post was a fishing expedition. I wrote a long rambling post that used all the main keywords for my target. I then sat back and waited for the first visitor to find my site using a payday loan related keyword. It wasn't long before Google sent me someone who had typed in the term "cashadvancelinkdirectory.com" and I quickly checked Google to find where I ranked for this term. It was 3 and still is. As each day passed a few more visitors showed up and I noted the keywords used and the ranking of each. I then wrote a new post and included all of the terms Google had sent me traffic for. The point of doing this is to reinforce those terms as relevant to my site and as this relevancy increases Google sends me even more long tail relevant keywords. Slowly and steadily I will incorporate all of the newest terms into my posts as well which will lead to getting more terms and so on...
This is the initial list of related keywords for Payday Loan that visitors had entered into Google's search box and where my blog ranked for each term in the result's pages.
payday loan industry competition - rank was 20
cashadvancelinkdirectory.com - rank was 3
make money online with payday loans - rank was 4 and 5
make money with payday loans - rank was 3
emergency cash - loan - rank was 110
pay day loan reviews - rank was 16
loan money online - rank was 26
how much does payday loans make - rank was 4
Since then I have added the following;
payday loan traffic ranked 8
payday loans + marketing ranked 17
marketing for payday loans ranked 5
make money payday loans ranked 5
i need a loan to make money ranked 10
how to make money with payday loans ranked 4 (first Yahoo visitor)
how to create your own online payday loan business ranked 2
keyword ideas payday loan ranked 1
reviews on payday day loans ranked 26
I have since entered all these terms into SEO Elite in order to track the rankings. In the chart below you can see each term and how the rankings move - up or down according to Google. (Click image to enlarge)
Most of these terms will never bring me much traffic but that's not what I am after. I simply want to make my site relevant for Payday loans in general and I do this by adding as much relevant content as possible. Normally I would be doing this on a blog set up for the target and would be posting lengthy articles covering every aspect of loans that I could think of. Because I am trying to incorporate payday loan relevancy into an existing non-related blog I will have to move slower and I do this by simply building up long tail phrases over a longer period of time.
The chart above is important not so much for showing me my rankings but for showing me how Google is ranking me. I will explain the difference in a minute but first the initial chart readings.
The first thing to notice is that I am not ranked at all for "Loans" and "Cash Loans Online". I added these to the list as one is the parent keyword of my prime keyword - "Loans" and the other is a highly searched related term - "Cash Loans Online". If I succeed with payday loans then I should begin to rank for these two terms as well and they will be future targets if I do. Just planning ahead.
The next thing of interest is that I am being ranked for my prime keyword - "Payday Loans". This is good news so soon in my quest. It tells me that Google has accepted my blog as being at least somewhat relevant to the term. Keep in mind that the keyword I have chosen is commonly referred to as one of the red flag keywords - terms that set off spam filters far and wide. It is a high paying adsense keyword and as such it attracts spammers trying to cash in on it. Usually Google will flag you instantly and never index your posts if it suspects that you are a spam site. Google has decided that I am not and I now have a huge lead on the spammers.
You will also notice that I went from a rank of over 200 for Payday Loans and I have climbed 49 spots in a few days without doing anything more than using the term in my post titles and content - a practice I am repeating in this post. I have not chased down any backlinks yet.
This increase in ranking tells me that I should have a legitimate shot at success.
You will also notice that I am slowly getting more traffic for more terms. This is directly related to the fact that as Google accepts your relevancy for one term it in effect boosts your relevancy for all the nearest related terms which in turn means ranking for more terms. It becomes a snowball rolling down hill. The more terms you rank for - the more terms you will get to rank for.
I said the chart was helpful for tracking my rankings and it is but the real story is that it shows me exactly how Google has me pigeon holed at the minute. If you look at the terms I have been ranked for you will notice 3 distinct levels of relevancy.
The terms that Google has ranked me high for are all quite relevant to my blog. I am telling people how to market and make money off of payday loans or at least the term.
The terms Google has ranked me 2 - 4 pages deep are terms that Google hasn't quite decided if I am totally relevant for yet. And they are right. I have used the term "Payday Loan Review" in my posts but I haven't really done a review of any payday loan companies or systems. I shouldn't rank on the front page for this and Google is able to figure this out. The algorithm is really quite amazing in a lot of ways.
Google is also accurate about the terms in which I rank out in the netherworld - "emergency cash loan", "I need a loan to make money" and "payday loans". I don't give out loans and Google knows it. My task will be to convince Google to put me on the front page for my term in spite of this. I will have to convince Google that a review or informational post deserves top billing along with the actual payday loan companies.
A note about Red Flag Keywords
I mentioned earlier that I would normally start a new blog if I wanted to target a new niche or keyword not related to any of my existing sites. If you are following along then I suggest you start a new blog and target a niche of your choice. The main reason I am experimenting with this niche on this blog is because it is increasingly difficult to target Red Flag keywords on sites devoted to the terms. If you want to target legal/law related keywords you had better be a law office. If you go after mortgage and loan traffic then you had better be a financial institution. If it's insurance related then you had better be selling insurance. If you can't show instant relevancy to Google then you won't get out of the water.
If you are picking a niche please stay away from all the spam keywords. Not because I don't want the competition but because you need to learn how to do this with a niche you can dominate before tackling one that I know will lead most of you to failure. I have no assurance that I will succeed so don't waste your time on keywords that will be almost impossible to succeed with. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go after highly competitive keywords - I always do as that is where the money is. Competition doesn't scare me and if you take my advice to heart and do what I do it won't scare you either. The more competitive the keyword the better just stay away from the spam keywords - you don't want to lose your Adsense account.
To reinforce this point I want to show you something which will also explain why I am going slow in my campaign for Payday Loans.
The moment you get involved with spam keywords you attract all the spammers. I mentioned in a recent post that one of the current methods that spammers are using to game Google is to scrape content off of legitimate sites and post links back to the source - they do this in order to get a trackback link returned to them. They are taking advantage of the fact that most bogs have yet to add the no-follow to trackbacks. In effect they are stealing PR from high ranking blogs.
No sooner did I post my first article on Payday Loans than I started receiving links from spammers. To date I have had 28 links to my first post. See the screenshot below.
Normally I wouldn't mind 28 new links all perfectly optimized for my post (notice the anchor text in BOLD) but not when they come from bad neighborhoods. If you try and go to most of these sites you will be re-directed to a different site. Spammers cloak their money sites and present Google one URL while actual clicks are sent elsewhere. I was worried about all these links showing up so fast and still am. I have no-follow on my comments and on Bloggers version of trackbacks - the "sites linking" widget. Hopefully this is enough to convince Google that I am not linking to them and that I shouldn't be punished for others linking to me. Remember that Google doesn't usually blame you for incoming links - you really can't control who links to you. You only get penalized for links leaving your site. This is why the people hurt most by the recent Google slap were the one's posting the paid reviews and not the one's buying the reviews.
Each post I have written has recieved a number of these spam links and for that reason I am going slow and have been reluctant to start adding my own links. Linking has to look natural - a few at first and then increasing over time with a variety of keywords used in the anchor text. Too many links too fast and all using the same anchor text will get you on the Google Bomb radar and as John Chow found out - this ain't a good thing.
Alright this has been long enough but as you can see I am making progress as far as targeting Payday Loans and I am seeing a little more traffic each day for related terms. Some of that traffic will start clicking the ads I have on the pages if they haven't already and I should slowly see an increase in my Adsense earnings. You will notice that I haven't done anything that you can't duplicate easily on your own blog. I will keep you posted on my results as this progresses.
Till next time,
Grizzly
Update Below
Follow along with me step by step as I show you how I pick a target and then optimize my blog in order to make money with Adsense.
I outline my "Payday Loans" experiment in sequential order below.
Payday Loans
Payday Loans Review
Payday Loans and Adsense
Payday Loans - Adsense Update
Payday Loans Update
- Griz
Post a Comment