It’s been a while since my last post.  What can I say?  I’ve been busy building the future of the internet… or at least trying.  I’ve got some pretty great stuff in the works - some that I can’t reveal yet, because it would invalidate the data I’m compiling, and some that I won’t reveal, because it could increase competition in the market I’m attempting to dominate.

Anyway, here are a few quick search-related tidbits that I’ve found interesting since my last post:

• An amazing 9 out of the top 13 terms that this blog was ranked for in the past week included the term “sex” in them.  Thankfully, most related to the actual topic discussed in my previous post Sex Sells - But Does It Sell This?  Some, however, were not.  Favorite non-related search term: sexy sex.  Indeed, that is the best kind of sex and certainly worth searching for, no?
• I need to proof-read more effectively, as I have found that I’m ranking (quite well) for a lot of typos… not exactly something to be insanely proud of… but it’s better than not ranking at all.
•  Oddly enough - YouTube doesn’t rank number 1 in Google for video or online video.  That strikes me as very bizarre.  Seriously, if a site ever deserved to rank number 1 for a term, it would be YouTube and “online video.”  Note that I wasn’t actually conducting a search for online video, nor was I attempting to rank for the term - it just occurred to me one day to check to see if YouTube held the top spot for the search term.
• I’ve been getting a TON of error 999 responses from Yahoo when doing backlink queries lately.  That company is falling apart.

I’m in the process of doing a few experiments right now to track traffic generation as well as SERP impact.  Final data is still a ways off, but I think we’ll see some interesting findings.  Also, on perfectly new domains, I’m seeing Google indexing (partial) in as little as 4 hours.

There are lots of different ways to make money online, some just add more value to the user-base than others.  Made for Adsense sites, affiliate shilling, mediocre content blogs, etc. (all lower value) aren’t going away - these will continue to be ways to make some money online.  But what about people who are after big money - I mean, REALLY BIG MONEY online?

Looking at the trends established by some other successful sites reveals a roadmap for success in the future.  These are the opportunities that I see as substantial future profit makers (and in some cases, areas where I’m pursuing site development):

• Hyper-localization
• Authority Video
• Traffic Siphoning

Hyper-localization

Part of the reason why I believe Google became ubiquitous in the search marketplace was that they understood and effectively responded to the public’s need for localized search.  They do a really good job of presenting local listings when you search for “location search term” (philadelphia attorney, for example), particularly with their integration of Google Maps.

If Google and Yahoo! recognize the importance of localization online, so should we.  The key, in my mind, is to create authority sites that provide content that is even more localized - instead of just supplying city information, we can push information down to the neighborhood level… and it’s not just creating hyper-localized link directories, because I think that’s actually a low value proposition.  Sites that make an effort to create really valuable, unique content will be rewarded.

People want to know about the areas where they live… or are going to live.  Create an authority site on a community, with unique content describing the area, video showcasing local hotspots, user-generated reviews of local businesses, etc. and the monetization potential will be phenomenal.  Your traffic will be so targeted that you will be able to charge premium rates to local businesses to advertise on a site of this nature, since advertisers won’t be paying for wasted traffic.

Authority Video

First off, when I talk about big ideas, big sites, I almost always come back to the concept of authority.  The video space, I believe, provides a prime example of why I’m so big on this concept.

YouTube dominates the video marketplace right now in terms of overall traffic.  But would I go to YouTube if I needed advice I could trust?  Is YouTube where I would expect to find a how-to guide on something technical?  Can I augment my education with YouTube videos?

Not really.  YouTube is great for entertainment.  If I want to see a guy get kicked in the junk, I’m going to YouTube.  If I want to track down a funny clip of Ravishing Rick Rude (my brother just sent me one such clip last week), YouTube is the only spot I’d think to look.  But it’s NOT a source for authority video.

There’s a great opportunity to make a name for yourself by creating informative content in nearly any niche.  Consider Gary Vaynerchuk as a prime example. Gary is the driving force behind winelibrary.tv - which is, in my mind, a prime example of an authority video site.  Gary has a collection of almost 450 videos detailing various wines.  I know next to nothing about wine (I don’t drink), but I can instantly see the value that Gary supplies to the worldwide wine community.  Gary has appeared on national television and just authored a book - think life is good for Gary V?  Know it.  Create expert video content in a niche and reap the rewards on a MAJOR level.

Traffic Siphoning

Here’s a concept that I think has a ton of potential and is actually pretty easy to execute.  It’s basically a play off of something that took off in the 80s with 1-800 numbers.  Somebody acquires a great, memorable 1-800 number, 1-800-PAINTER, for example.  Then, they market the number through radio ads, newspaper, whatever, and siphon the phone calls off to painting companies that want the leads.  They charge the painters a pretty decent chunk of change for funneling the leads over (way more than they paid in advertising cost) and profit nicely for limited work.

The same potential exists for folks with some SEO skill.  Rank a site for some very specific buying terms that people will search for, then farm that traffic out.  You can do this by running a generic page that talks about the qualifications of all of the companies who are under the your-site.com banner, and automatically rotate leads from a contact form.  You could also actually setup a 1-800 number for the website and run the same call funneling that has been used for several decades.

Part of the beauty of this concept is that it creates a pretty easy sales situation for you going forward.  Your traffic is tracked and so are calls to your 1-800 number.  Pitching it becomes, “How would you like your share of x targeted online lead submissions, and y phone calls?  It costs you only z dollars.”  And trust me, ranking for a lot of specific buying terms is EASY.

I almost can’t contain my excitement! At my day job, I run the interactive department for an ad agency. Recently, we’ve started to do a lot of stuff with video production for websites… which I’m all about. I think video content does so much to increase the interactive nature of a well-produced website.

So, today I received approval to upgrade our editing capabilities to Final Cut Studio 2, from an older version of Final Cut Pro. I’m most excited about the ability to work in Apple ProRes 422, and I’m also excited to get my hands on Motion 3. Can’t wait to get started!

My wife makes me watch American Idol… every week… even when I’m out of town on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. So, since I’m forced to watch it (completely against my will, mind you) I figured I might as well see what lessons the show can teach us about blogging (writing this in between frantic dials to vote for David Archuletta).

Nobody likes a copycat

Hardly a week goes by on American Idol where Simon doesn’t blast someone for sounding like a karaoke version of the original song. Idol contestants can’t just show up and deliver the original arrangement and phrasing of a song and expect to be praised - they have to supply their own unique interpretation on the song in order to impress the judges.

And so it is with blogging. You can’t offer the same tired take on a topic and expect to develop an adoring (or at least RSS-subscribing) audience. If your potential readers wanted to hear what Shoemoney, or John Chow, or (fill in the name of your favorite blogging superstar), they’d read their blogs. They’ve come to your site to get YOUR unique take on a topic. Don’t disappoint them by trying to be someone else.

Be original and good - original by itself can be pretty darn bad.

The antithesis of the copycat, however, can be even worse… by a country mile. On tonight’s episode of American Idol, David Cook sang a rock rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” (phenomenal song, as an aside). It was a unique arrangement that really worked, according to the judges. Just a week prior, Kristy Lee Cook completely bastardized “Eight Days a Week,” by the Beatles. It was an original rendition to say the least… because no one in their right mind would ever arrange such a trainwreck of a song.

Just because you take a different style or approach to topics than mainstream blogs in your niche doesn’t mean that you will be successful. You could well end up as the really fast, awkward, country-version of your niche. Not a good place to be. Strive to be unique, but not too original.

Stay Relevant

Another frequent plea from the judges is for the contestants to “make it relevant,” particularly when the contestants are singing songs from previous decades (mostly 50s-60s era stuff). Singers can take a song that’s from a different period and give it a comfortable, modern feel.

When we blog, we can address topics that fall outside of our standard offering, so long as we “make it relevant” by tying it into our subject area. This post, for example, draws from the entertainment world to illustrate principles relevant to my audience. If this post were just about my favorite Idol performance last night, it wouldn’t have the same appeal as it presently does… and you do find this post incredibly appealing and enlightening, right? (wink, wink - diggs, stumbles, and comments are welcome indicators as such).

What was Good in Week 1 Might Not Be in Week 6

One of the things I find interesting in the critiques is that every year, you’ll have contestants who perform very consistently from week to week… and almost without fail, the judges tire of these performers. You see, as the contest moves forward, the expectations increase.

You may not realize it, but it’s the same with blogging. As the internet becomes flooded with more and more competition for the attention of would-be readers, the caliber of content required to inform and entertain these posters increases. Beyond that, the old phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” applies as well. We should constantly strive to improve our writing. Be more engaging, entertaining, and enlightening - your readers will reward you handsomely for improving your skills.

Learn from Feedback

While Simon has developed a reputation as a mean judge, he generally tells the truth to people. You need to lose weight, you pick bad songs, stop dancing like an idiot. Some contestants listen and improve as a result. Some argue and continue to make the same errors… until they get kicked off the show.

We have the same opportunity as bloggers. Most feedback that people give is intended to be for our benefit. They tell us where we are deficient so that we can improve, not to make us feel foolish. If we understand that feedback / criticism is really an opportunity to better deliver content that meets our audience’s expectations, we’d be silly not to take it to heart.

Looks Matter

Two words: Clay Aiken. Every year, Idol has contestants who go through complete fashion transformations, and as they improve their look and style, their popularity improves. I know it’s superficial, but after all, a popstar is supposed to look a certain way, right?

… and a top-rate blog is supposed to look a certain way too. It shouldn’t be sloppy and disheveled, and it should have a certain sense of style about it (says the guy with a very plain-looking blog. I know - I’m redesigning it this week). While substance can certainly triumph over style, or lack thereof, why make the pathway to success any more difficult than it needs to be. Look good and deliver great content.

Be Gracious

Last week, Simon took David Cook to task after his performance by telling him, “I don’t think that was as good as you think it was.” You could just tell that Simon derived some particular joy in bringing Cook back to earth. People generally don’t like cockiness. Accept praise graciously (genuinely) and you’ll find that it will continue to find its way back to you.

… but not TOO gracious

As I’ve heard it said, “no matter how thin you slice the bologna, it always has two sides.” This case is no different. The only thing I personally despise more than an arrogant prick, is an arrogant prick pretending to be exceedingly gracious. It’s incredibly transparent. The quintessential example of faux grace comes from a previous season of American Idol - Melinda Dolittle. After murdering a song on stage, looking like a confident, seasoned performer, Melinda would then pretend like she was previously possessed and had no clue of how great her performance was when the judges would praise her. Obnoxious to the nth degree.

Connecting with the Audience Counts Too

It’s not just the stage performances on American Idol that get people to vote - the interviews, the video clips, even the way someone smiles or their interaction with the camera can impact how the audience feels about a contestant. The show isn’t a competition about who can sing the best - it’s about what good singer can capture people’s hearts.

Success in blogging isn’t always tied to who writes the most informative or innovative post. It’s not about who has the prettiest blog or the best plugins either. It’s primarily about connecting with your readers. Granted, many of these other things factor into that, but that’s the total goal and we should never lose sight of it. Connecting with the audience equals votes for the Idol contestants. For a blogger, it equals satisfaction, or profits, or whatever personal reward you tie to your blogging.

Past Performances Will Only Carry You So Far

Finally, perhaps my favorite lesson from American Idol - past greatness can carry a performer for a while, but eventually, you have to make good on that initial promise. David Archuletta is the prime example of excellence carrying a performer through a bad week. David, after several weeks of exceptional performances, was a judge and fan favorite. Then he went out and forgot the words to his song, and generally gave a poor performance. Still, he got a free pass based on his previous exceptional work.

The same was true of American Idol’s first season runner-up, Justin Guarini. His early performances brought Paula to tears (in fairness, this may have just been a reaction to earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere for space cadet Abdul), but he never regained his form and was surpassed by Kelly Clarkson.

Sometimes it might not seem that this is true in blogging, but it is. Sure, some big names live off their previous glory and still rake in big money (John Chow, for example), but they are the rare exception to the rule. Further, who’s to say that they wouldn’t be doing exponentially better if they continued to strive for excellence in their writing?

So there you have it - 10 Lessons about Blogging from American Idol. Sadly, I feel as though in writing this article, I’ve made it far too apparent that my wife does very minimal arm twisting to get me to watch this show. A small price to pay if it causes you to think a little more critically about how you blog - I know writing this post has helped me to clarify the direction in which I want to take this blog.

As always, I’m happy to hear your thoughts - did I miss any lessons?

Sex sells, right?  It’s one of the universally recognized axioms of advertising… but at some point it becomes comical.  Some things just aren’t sexy and don’t benefit from an effort to “sexify” them.  Prime example:

SEOhosting.com has this fairly hot number on the front page of their website, accompanied by the completely unrelated text, “As low as $4.35 per c-class.”  What?

If you’re going to interject sex into a completely sexless environment, it has to be done with comedy.  The Carl’s Jr. advertisement featuring Paris Hilton worked because it was so completely ridiculous.  SEOhosting falls far short of that standard however, and ends up just looking silly.

So, am I the only one who sees this as ludicrous?  What other rules apply to the “sex sells” approach?

Opening my email today, I saw that Register.com wants to give me a free domain name  Awfully nice of them, isn’t it?  Here’s the email image (scaled down 50%) below:

So, why does Register.com want to give away domain names?  Surely in the week that they present this special deal, a lot of people will take them up on the offer - they’re going to lose a ton of money, right?

Wrong.  They’re going to make a lot of money by giving away domains.  In fact, the practice is nearly an industry standard for hosting companies.  The domain is a loss leader.  Register.com stands to lose about $7 for every domain they give away.  Fortunately for them, a domain by itself has very minimal value to the customer who receives it.  To realize the value of the give-away, the user needs to acquire hosting for that domain… and at Register.com’s rates, that’s a pretty profitable venture.

The keys to an effective loss leader are:

• The initial product given away has minimal cost to the individual making the offer.
• The gift product necessitates the need of another service, which is substantially more valuable to the offering individual.
• The gift product is a one-time cost.  Additional purchased services are recurring in nature.
• The offer is presented in a unique manner with a time condition.

This last point is key to consider - Register.com is presenting the free domain in a drastically different way than competing domain registrars and hosting companies.  Many companies say: “Purchase hosting from us (roughly $100 per year cost) and receive a domain ($7 value) free of charge.”  The consumer sees: spend $100 to get $7.  Not such a great deal.

As a consumer, seeing: “Here, this is free.  No strings attached,” is much more enticing.  Only after taking advantage of the offer will most people realize that it’s a “batteries not included” approach… and most won’t even care.  They’ll be so thrilled to have received something for free that they’ll be more willing to spend the money on hosting without giving it much thought (or comparing costs).  The psychology of the offer is important.

Loss leaders are a powerful way to pull in potential future customers.  Consider that the approach employed by Register.com could easily extend to everyday bloggers (and is successfully utilized by some).  Create a useful product (ebook, software plugin, novelty item) that can be developed and replicated at a low cost and GIVE IT AWAY… but make sure you can tie it to something that will generate profit for you.

Maybe you give away an ebook that shares significant business advice, and use that as a leader for consulting services.  Designers can give away custom designed themes for Wordpress, as a way to promote their unique template creation service, or they can promote theme installation and modification support for a fee - the possibilities are limitless.

Clicks don’t pay the rent on your office, the salaries of your employees, or any other business expenses. Plain and simple: clicks ain’t sh*t.

Customers – real, live, paying customers drive your business. So stop paying per click online and start paying per customer by running an OPTIMIZED search engine marketing campaign. Make every click = a customer.

• Pay Less for Each Click
  • Write copy in your ad and on your landing page that results in a better Quality Score, which in turn decreases the cost of running your ads.
  • Use ad copy to qualify your customer, reducing inappropriate clicks
  • Use negative keywords to prevent clicks that WON’T convert
• Split Test Everything
  • Don’t just track which ad headlines produce a better click-through-rate. Track which headlines produce more leads or customers for your business.
  • Enhance your conversions by split testing landing pages. Split test the following elements within your LPs:
    • Design – where are you placing your conversion links, does a 2 column or 3 column layout yield better results, what header size should you use, what creative elements should be used?
    • Content – how much verbiage should be included? How hard should you sell?
    • Acquisition Method – does providing the client with a form, an email address, a phone number, or a combination of the above create better result.
• Even if they don’t buy, get their info and keep marketing to them

Over the course of the next several weeks, I’ll be covering the details on how to make progress toward achieving each of these goals in your PPC campaigns, so you can start paying per customer, not per click.

Until my house sells, allowing me to move closer to work, I have a lengthy daily commute. During my drives to and from the office, I keep myself entertained by listening to talk radio.

There’s actually a very strong parallel between talk radio and blogging, and it turns out there’s a lot we can learn about blogging by listening to some of the most successful talk radio hosts.

Here are 5 things I’ve learned about blogging from talk radio:

• You don’t always need new material - just new callers
  Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman are both wildly popular financial gurus with talk shows (both on radio and television) and a very limited set of talking points.Every show consists of the following advice: Spend less than you make, work 2 jobs if you must in order to pay off your debt, don’t buy extravagant things you can’t afford. Despite the repetitive advice, people love to listen, because they love to hear the success stories and failures, and they like to see how the advice applies to others.Likewise with blogging - Shoemoney could post about how various advertising formats have worked on his sites daily and people would gladly come back for more.
• Being controversial is frequently better than being smart (or right)
  If you’ve ever taken a minute to listen to political talk radio, you’ll surely understand that the goal of many popular radio personalities is to excite their audience, not to accurately inform them.I’m not suggesting that we should slander anyone or try to offer inaccurate information, but if you can put a fun / controversial spin on your content, it will attract more attention.
• Let your audience do some of the talking
  Talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck could easily fill their entire shows with their own monologues… but that wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as engaging the audience, now would it?The same goes with your blog - afford your audience the chance to reply and reward them for doing so. It’s the reason many blogs (this one included) utilize Top Commentator plugins (or set comments to do-follow). Start the conversation and ask your readers to continue it.
• It matters how you say it
  Bad talk radio is REALLY bad. Good talk radio is really entertaining. The big difference? Rarely is it how knowledgeable a host is. More likely, it’s how the content is delivered. How confident is the host when making a point?Does Rush Limbaugh ever meekly make a point? No. Rush delivers everything as if he is THE authority on it. This emboldens people who agree with him and antagonizes those who disagree. Like him or hate him, he elicits a response from people.Do the same with your writing - if you think it’s worth writing, you should be able to write it with confidence. Anything you have to offer up meekly shouldn’t make it out in public.
• Tell people how great you are every now and then
  Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn a bit… maybe not as much as Rush (Excellence in Broadcasting network?), but if you have something worth crowing about, proudly announce it… and then use it to illustrate a point (this last part isn’t from talk radio, but it’s still worthwhile). People won’t mind your bragging if it’s used to help them some way.

So what have I missed? What else can talk radio teach us about blogging? Lines are open - comment below.

In fairness, the yellow pages aren’t dead yet… but they’re definitely on life support, thanks to Google and other major search engines fine-tuning their search results and offering paid placement.

If you’ve purchased advertising in the yellow pages for your business but aren’t advertising online, you run the risk of having your business die alongside this struggling medium.

Here are 5 reasons the rise of online advertising means the death of yellow pages:

• Online advertising provides more information to the potential customer than a small piece of yellow paper can provide.

• Online advertising presents more “trustworthy” results first, not just putting the business with the deepest pockets in prime position. Consumers perceive search results to be less impartial than directory advertisements.

• Online advertising makes it easy to see the results – reporting shows how many people saw your ad, clicked on it, and contacted you or purchased your products or services.

• Online advertising accommodates ALL budgets. You can’t choose to run your ad in only a fourth of the directories being published. Online, you can cost by reducing your exposure.

• Online advertising does not require lengthy commitments. Yellow page advertising offers no way to discontinue advertising until a new directory is published. Failing advertisements are extremely costly in a print directory – not so online.

Major search engines still offer the benefit of being directive media, like yellow pages – people who search for your keyword are known to be interested in your product or service. They are highly likely to purchase your product or service… if you are seen.

I need to start off by saying I’m not a huge proponent of Made for Adsense sites (MFA)… so: “I’m not a huge proponent of Made for Adsense sites.”  There, I said it.

Now, with that out of the way, MFA is still a very effective and EASY way to make money online.  I’m not trying to run an MFA empire - I’d rather build sites that provide some value to the user than slap together a few hundred Mad for Adsense sites and rake in the cash.  Personal preference.  Still, for the sake of experimenting, I went ahead and built a completely MFA site a few months ago, pointed a few links at it (well under 100, most as forum signatures) and left it to its own devices.

What amazes me is that when I check my adsense data, this site is ALWAYS performing well.  We’re talking CTR between 30-70%, depending on the month.  Granted, it gets limited traffic, but even in a slow traffic month, where it received just under 30 page impressions, it still produced around $10.  Keep in mind, this site took 10 minutes for me to make, and it hasn’t been promoted at ALL.

The funny thing for me was watching my wife react to the MFA site after it was built.  Working in web development, it’s easy to forget how the average web user views a site.  When I set my wife loose on the rough design of the site (I place JPEGs of adsense blocks on a page before my code gets dropped in) she immediately went after the adsense links.  This made it increasingly clear to me why people have been abusing adsense for years:

10 minutes of work = $150 per year (or lots more if you actually promote the site), in perpetuity.

For me, my conscience won’t allow me put any more of these types of sites online… but I surely understand now why others do.