Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 2

Basic Concepts of Blogging

The goal of this exercise is to provide beginners with a solid foundation on which to build an online marketing business. Most of you are eager to DO something online but you just don't know where to start. As I mentioned in the first lesson, the best place to begin is with your own blog. Why? Simple... Blogs are free and they are an excellent way to learn the basics of online marketing without spending money to do it. Start with one blog and learn how to tweak it using SEO techniques that I will give you as we move along. Ultimately we want your blog indexed by Google. If you do this correctly, Google will eventually start sending traffic to your site. How long does this take? It depends on many factors but I have found that my main blogs have all been indexed within a few weeks and in one instance - 3 days. (the blog you are reading now)

Before moving on let's clarify a few terms so you have a better understanding of what we are trying to accomplish.

Indexing - This term refers to the search engines. Simply put - Do the search engines know that your site exists? If they do then you have been indexed. How can you tell? Just query the search engine using your URL address ie. http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com - if they find your site then you have been indexed. If it says that no page exists by that name then you aren't indexed.

There are many search engines but we are only interested in the top three; Google, Yahoo and MSN. These 3 engines account for 75% of all search engine queries carried out on any given day with Google processing the most queries by far. (50% estimate).

If you go to Google and type in a query - let's say "how do beginners make money online" - Google will look through all the pages it has indexed (read and recorded) from all the sites it continuously crawls on the Internet in order to present you with a list of the most relevant sites concerning your query.

The brains at Google have come up with algorithms that determine relevancy based on several factors, some we know about and some we don't. The factors we know of include things like page content, the age of a site, keywords, sheer volume of unique content, page rank and most importantly, relevant back links.

Let's look at these factors a bit more closely.

Page Content.

Google likes unique content. You will get indexed fast if you use original material on your blog. If you copy and paste content found elsewhere on the Internet you won't get indexed very fast and usually not at all. You can also get into copyright troubles doing this.

The age of a website or blog

The older the site the better. This is not crucial but Google will give older sites a higher preference over new sites simply to eliminate all the spam blogs and sites that are created daily from dominating its index. This can be overcome with the proper technique.

Keywords

The term keyword simply refers to what your topic is. If I wanted some info on Ugg boots, I would type in "Ugg Boots" on Google and it would present me with a list of sites related to Ugg Boots. Google uses keywords to generate its search. If you have a website or blog that discusses Ugg Boots and you have used this keyword enough times in your posts then Google will rightly assume that your website is about Ugg Boots. If you only used the keyword once while talking about Australian fashion then Google will probably not use your site in its list for Ugg Boots but may decide that your site is about Australian fashion instead.

Keywords are very important for getting your site listed in the proper category. If you are starting a blog that sells Ugg Boots then you had better make sure that the search engines know what your site is about. This is done by using your prime Keywords in your page titles, post titles and sprinkled a few times in your articles. Beware that using your keywords too many times will get you into trouble as Google will see your site as a spam blog and delete you from its index. The rule of thumb is that you don't want to use your keyword more than 2 or 3 times per one hundred words. (keyword density should not exceed 3-4% of your total article) This is very important.

Content Volume

The more pages you produce the better. Search engines like content - the more the merrier. If you keep adding pages to your blog or website, the search engines will crawl you regularly and your site will get listed more often when your keywords are queried. Why? Think of it this way. If you write just one article about a subject, how much info can you give in three or four hundred words. A bit but you will leave a lot of pertinent info out. Take Ugg Boots for example. My first article might discuss the history of Ugg Boots and where to buy them. This is fine and I may get listed whenever someone queries the following keywords; "Ugg", "Ugg Boots", "Ugg History", "Ugg Purchase". The problem is that I won't get listed if someone queries "Types of Ugg Boots" or "How to remove stains from Ugg Boots" or "Colours of Ugg Boots". Are you getting the picture. The more articles you write the more content you give the search engines to list your site under. If my site has a thousand pages on everything there is to know about Ugg boots then I guarantee I will get listed for every query made about Ugg boots. The more you get listed the greater your traffic will be and the more clicks your adsense ads will get.

Note: I have used the Ugg boot keyword so many times in this article that it will fool Google into thinking this post is about Ugg boots and it will get listed for that query - the unfortunate user will find out that this is really about making money online with blogs. My apologies to anybody who found this page while searching for boots.

Page Rank and Back Links

Update 2009 - Over the past few years Google has removed the weight it used to give to pages with high page rank. As a result page rank now has little to do with how well your site will rank for a targeted keyword. I have left this info on the page but it no longer is of much concern. I have dominated many keywords in the search engines with low PR sites and pages.

Page rank is closely associated with back links. To separate the wheat from the chaff Google has devised a page ranking system that it uses to determine how important your pages are. For example, if you followed the first lesson then you have now created a blog on Googles' Blogspot.com. At present you only have one post on it and it should resemble the post I left on my new blog Blogger Basics for Beginners. It is highly unlikely that Google has found your blog yet but if it has then you would be indexed for whatever topic you picked. Someone looking for your post using Google search would likely find your site listed a couple of hundred pages deep in the search listings. This is effectively like not being listed at all. I have had traffic come to my sites from as deep as six or seven pages back in the Google listings but most people will not search more than the first two or three pages. Ideally you want to be on the first page to get the most traffic. To get on the first page you need, above all else, back links. Only the sites that Google deems as highly relevant get on the first page.

Let me explain this further.

Every site is ranked between 0 and 10. The higher the number the more important your site is. If your site is a 10 then I guarantee your site will be listed on the first page and no doubt in the top position. Currently the new blog you set up has a ranking of 0 (zero). Content and the age of your site will gain you some ranking over time. If you do nothing else but post unique content then you might get a ranking of 2 in a year from now, possibly sooner. A ranking of 2 will not get you much traffic. How can you speed up your ranking? Simple... get back links and get lots of them.

Back Links

What are back links? They are links placed on other websites or blogs or forums or directories that connect people to your site. In other words they are click-able links that point back at your site (called hypertext). The theory is that the more sites that have links pointing back at your site the more important your site must be. This makes sense. If other sites are sending traffic to your site then you must be some kind of authority for your niche or topic. As a result Google will give you a higher page rank because of your importance. With a higher page rank your site will then get listed higher in the searches.

There are some rules to this however. The back links that count must be relevant to your topic. If your site is about "Dog Grooming" then links from pet sites and animal care sites are great. If you have links from a site like mine then Google will ignore the links because my site is in no way relevant to dog grooming.

The page rank of the sites giving you links is very important. If you get 1 hundred links from pet stores to your dog grooming site but all the incoming links are from sites with o page rank then you might get a ranking of 1 or 2. If you get half a dozen links from relevant sites that have a page ranks of 5 or higher then you will end up being ranked a 4 or 5. If you can get a link from a page rank 7 or higher you will vault up the rankings quickly and the age of your site will not matter.

Note: You can get thousands of links from sites that have no relevance to your site and this won't help you much. I mention this to caution you against using link exchanges or link farms. These types of links worked in the past but no longer as Google ignores them. By the way if Google catches you linking to sites that are not relevant to your site you will be penalized and lose ranking. This is how link exchanges work - people buy or sell links to anyone else regardless of relevancy. Stay clear of this.

One last thing. You will gain more from one way links. Lots of sites that are relevant to your site will trade links with you. They link to you and you link to them. This is called a two way link. Don't bother as this won't help you much. The exception would be if the other site has a high page rank. In this case go ahead but in reality high page rank sites only want links from other high ranking sites. They will not link to you unless there is an advantage for them. One way links are the best because Google sees them as a confirmation of your importance, ie. other sites think you important enough to give you a link without getting one in return.

The good news is that it is easy to get lots of relevant backlinks. I will get back to this shortly.

The Google Sandbox

One more - one last thing... You may or may not of heard about the sandbox effect. When it comes to Google nobody really knows the whole story on how they tweak their system. One of the most confusing programs they employ is the sandbox a system that keeps your site off the charts for a indeterminate period of time. This is in order to stop spam sites from getting listed fast. A new site may sit in the sandbox for 6 months collecting quality backlinks and lots of unique content and still not get listed in the searches. Then one day you find Google suddenly recognizes all the back links and content and bumps your site way up the charts.

I have several good sites that have been in the sandbox for several months now. This is normal and I have learned to be patient and use the time to get good backlinks and keep adding content. The confusing part is that this particular blog you are reading spent zero time in the sandbox. Google indexed this site in 3 days and has credited me with 135 backlinks already. This has meant traffic has been coming from the search engines since practically day one. I still don't have a ranking yet (all the backlinks are from O page rank sites) and yet my keywords are being placed on the first few pages of the listings. This blows me away as this blog is less than two months old and I am already high in the listings for certain keywords. I should mention that Yahoo and MSN has me even higher. (it's normal to get listed in Yahoo and MSN long before you get any listings in Google).

I mention this because I know what I did different in this blog and my guess is that Google approves and has rewarded my efforts. This is the same technique that I am going to teach you.

I received an email asking how much I was going to charge for these lessons. Apparently the fellow thought I was going to give away a few tidbits to get you all hooked and then hit you up for money before I gave you the really good stuff. Don't worry - there is no fee and there won't be one. Spreading this knowledge around doesn't hurt my business at all and to be honest these lessons will make great content for my blog.

OK, that's a lot of background and we haven't got around to today's lesson. Actually it's pretty simple but you will have to make yourselves do it. Write an article about your Blog's subject matter and post it.

The rules

Try for about 400 words. (Longer is also good but not necessary)
Use your Keywords a couple of times throughout the whole article.
Use your Keyword in the Blog Post Title
Use your Keyword in the first sentence.
Use your Keyword in the final sentence.
Try and Put your Keyword in Bold type at least once in the article - a sub headline is a good way to do this.
Put your link in the link field so that the post links back to your site.

Your link is http://yourblog.blogspot.com - replace "yourblog" with your sites url name.

Post your article on your Blog.

After you have finished on your Blog go to GoArticles.com

Select Submit/Edit An Article

Fill out the info to join GoArticles.com (It's free) and then I want you to re-write your article leaving all your keywords the same but use synonyms for all the rest of the main words. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing as the original word. ie. "New" is a synonym for "Original". (Sorry if I am insulting your intelligence but some people won't know this)

I'm asking you to do this so that you have two articles that say the same thing but are written differently. You will post the second article on GoArticles.com. (It's easy to do and the site explains how)

Note: After posting the first lesson on blogging I posted a second article at GoArticles - to see how different the two posts are you can see the second article here Beginner Basics for Making Money Online Using Blogs

If Google finds duplicate articles they will not index the pages that the articles are on. (This is the theory at least but isn't quite true - a story for another day) This way you will get your blog indexed. The GoArticle posting is what will get you those free and easy backlinks I was talking about earlier. I will explain more about this in the next lesson.

Before posting the second article I have to show you how to embed your sites backlink in the first sentence of the article. I will explain the reasons for this next lesson, for now just follow my instructions as this is very important.

Example. Let's say your keyword is "dog grooming".

Your Blog Post Title should be just "Dog Grooming". The less extra words the better. You could add more keywords though... like "Make Money Dog Grooming" or "Dog Grooming for Profit"

Your Sub Heading should be something like "Everything you need to know about Dog Grooming". Remember to put this in bold print in your blog post. (GoArticles will not let you make it bold.)

Your final sentence in the article would be something like, "Thanks for visiting my Dog Grooming site".

And now the important sentence... the first sentence would be like this...

"If you think dog grooming is hard then please read this article."

I will now show you how to put your sites link where you typed "dog grooming" (this is only for the GoArticles post - not for your blog post.) You can see what I mean in the first sentence of my GoArticles post here Beginner Basics for Making Money Online Using Blogs


<*a href="http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/">dog grooming <*/a> (replace dog grooming with your keyword and "makemoneyforbeginners" with your sites url name)

This is the code to make a hypertext link - the two * should be removed as I had to put them in as spaces for you to read this code. With out the * you would see this dog grooming If you hover over the link you will see the backlink pointing to makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com in your browser window.

Highlight the entire block of code, copy it and paste it after highlighting the keyword in your first sentence. The final sentence will look like this;

"If you think dog grooming is hard then please read this article."

You have now put a backlink into your article that will point back to your site from whatever sites end up downloading your article and posting it as content on their sites.

Note: GoArticles has an authors box that allows you to put a backlink to your site in it. When people publish your article on their site they are required to post the whole article and your Author Bio (containing your link) as well. Sadly a lot of sites will just post the first few lines of your article and tell their readers that they can find the rest of your article at Goarticles.com by using a link that says "More, click here". This effectively cuts out your backlink in the author's bio which is located at the end of your article. By putting your link in the first line of text they can't eliminate your back link if they don't publish your whole article.

If you haven't figured it out yet, this is how you will get lots of backlinks to your site - one way backlinks, the best kind! You will be surprised how many times others will use your articles as content on their sites. (you can see how many times my articles have been downloaded here... GoArticles Top Authors - I'm number 7 last I checked.) People don't want to create their own and are happy to download someone else's work. Keep in mind that you will be downloaded more often if you have picked a popular niche. If you are still writing about "pre-Cambrian rock formations" you may not get any downloads.

Another Note: The sites using your article will likely not get the page indexed as Google will hit them for duplicate content. You won't have to worry because the GoArticles post is different from your Blog post. While your competition is busy not being indexed using your article you will be getting indexed because of your unique content. Your competition actually helps you by giving you backlinks while you hurt them by giving them duplicate content. Imagine there were only ten sites on the net that competed for dog grooming. Your site uses unique content and you supply the other 9 sites with duplicate content embedded with backlinks to your site. What would Google see? They would rank you at the top as the authority because all the other sites are pointing at you.

Obviously you will never get all the competition pointing to you but out of every 1 million competitors for every keyword I bet 99% use duplicate content which is how the 1% that use unique content get listed on the first few pages. Out of a million competing sites you really only have 50 to 100 real rivals, others that know what they are doing and are working on their rankings. You just have to out perform these sites to get top ranking. Stick with me and I will show you how.

That's enough for today, my fingers are tired.

Tune in again for lesson three of Make Money Using Blogs

(notice how I snuck my Keywords into the last line - and bold to boot)

Later folks.


You can find the remainder of these lessons below;