If there’s one thing you should know about search engine optimization, it’s this – backlinks count (a lot!). So every time you complain why your ranking are so low or why you rarely get any search engine traffic, the obvious thing to blame is probably your relatively little backlink count.

More than just the number, the relevance and trustworthy-ness of your backlinks is taken into consideration. One backlink from, say, CNN weighs a thousand times more compares to those from spammy websites.

Taking this into consideration, we know face this problem – how do we really get quality backlinks?

The Google Alerts Trick

I’ve read this trick a long time ago from some SEO guru that I fail to remember now (I would’ve credited him if I still can). Anyway, the trick he taught me was indeed awesome. Via a few steps, he taught me how to tap the free features of Google itself to be able to get a headstart over backlinking campaign. And yes- no budget involved.

The Google Alerts trick simply works like this:

If you are building backlinks for a site, you obviously need to scout for relevant sites to begin with. Now this is the tricky part. There are literally millions of possible sites out there and filtering out priority sites to negotiate with is a big, big problem.

To make it easy, what you do is that you list the keywords of the site you’re campaigning for, and then from that list, input the keywords on your Google Alerts. Wait for Google to deliver alert emails in your items and presto. There you can directly get sites that are relevant and considered worthy of Google itself.

It’s like being able to personally consult that hegemonic search engine without breaking a sweat. Nifty trick don’t you think?

Plus More Tips on Backlinking

This trick will only work as long as you’re doing a regular (day-to-day for better results) backlink campaign. Because Google Alerts will forever send you notifications as long as you are subscribed to it, you need to make sure to habitually be able to do this. On the down side, this can be a time-consuming process, but anyway, get used to it. We all know quality SEO always takes time right?

Start learning fast... the right way

It’s obvious that this is my favorite topic – how to help newbies get on the right track. The trickiest part, as I’ve noticed, always concern about upgrading and/or improving expertise. Sure, everyone starts from basic. But if your learning rate is pretty steep, you won’t get anywhere great for a long time.

So shape up newbies, I’m gonna fire up pointers on how you can earn your stars the fastest (and surest of course) way possible!

Know the A-Listers in Your Niche

If you want to get spotted in the radar, and learn the things that you should definitely know, then your best bet will be to learn from the professionals in the niche. It’s fairly easy to spot them, they’re basically the most referenced or active guys. If not, you can easily Google for your niche keyword and look at the top ranking blogs. If that didn’t work, go to Guy Kawasaki’s www.AllTop.com and search the top list blogs of your niche.

Finding them is just the beginning. Following and being recognized is the hardest.

First of all, you need to follow these people because they matter (at least in your niche). Sure, you can ramble all you want that you’re the greatest thing that has ever happened in the internet, but if no one cares, then it’s pointless. Follow these people and learn from their ways. How they do it is the standard. If you want to rise, you have to either:

• Meet their quality or better yet
• Surpass their skill

Of course, getting recognized by them is a bit tricky to. And why do they need to recognize you? Simple. Because their opinion matter. And so does their social circle. Lingering around their blogs isn’t enough. Always remember to leave a mark. Comment, join anything that’s up, and better yet, correspond to these bloggers. Usually, they’d be busy to answer, but at least you’ve tried (hint: make sensible, response-worthy messages if you want replies).

Practice What You Preach

And this, my friends, is the usual shortcoming of many of us. We learn best if we practice it on our own. Not just for the sake of ethical reasons, but for us to keep the learning process on the go.

There was this one time when I tried to write a post about effective ways to improve site design. It’s logical of course for me to have tested those things in my blog first before writing about it. Now, as I published the post, I realized (both through re-reading and listening to comments), that there’s still possible ways to improve my site design. And this is where the real learning kicks in- the time when you re-formulate and improve for the better.

If you can’t practice what you preach, at least better be honest about it. For example, if you don’t really have an idea of programming (assuming you want to write about that), don’t pretend to know what you’re doing, you can be honest about it by airing out your questions at your post. Who says we only need to teach in blogs? Sometimes, it can be the best way to solicit possible solutions too. Now, isn’t that the thing that makes a healthy blog community? Two-way interaction.

Digest From Everywhere – As Much As You Can

Never, and I mean ever, stop learning. Visit new blogs every now and then, try something new. Think beyond the box.

If you still are interested on learning, why not go beyond your niche and invest time in understanding another niche that can be related? Try designing, or internet marketing, or coding… the options are endless! I started out just learning the bricks of blogging. But I’ve grown so much from that by trying on new things. For example, you have no idea how much powerful it is to integrate seo, blogging and internet marketing together. It can (literally and figuratively) open a lot of opportunities.

There’s nothing that can improve and make you better than combining multi-disciplines into one mind. The result can be awesome. It can be a break-though. And who knows, it can even be the key to success that you’ve been trying to find for so long.

The web is a congested cyber jungle. Whenever someone is looking at your blog, the odds are he/she isn’t devoting full attention to you (never have, never will). While someone is reading (or skimming) through your posts, a lot of other websites and applications too are competing with that short attention. And unless you own Facebook, you probably have to make the make do with a 1-minute page view visit.

So now we have the problem – attention span.

Readers (hint: that’s us) don’t have much luxury when it comes to time, and certainly not when we’re online. But as people who run and go through lengths to write long, meaningful posts, we definitely want to make the most possible impact out of that short attention we’re bound to have.

Mercifully, I’ll drop by 3 ways on how to do this. Some of them might require drastic changes, others, well, they just take practice.

Rule Number 1: Be identified through proper branding.

Imagine yourself in a mall with lots of people gazing, walking around in circles. This is how web traffic sometimes feels like. Now, if you’re a salesman trying to convince people to buy a promo of some never-heard-of product, unless you got good convincing skills, no one would hardly take notice. However, say you’re a salesperson for a new fragrance from (say) Lacoste, chances are all you need to do is smile, call out a bit, and wait for the people to go to you.

The point is that a familiar identity grabs attention. And by familiarity I mean establishing a connection between the reader and your blog – this is where branding comes in.

It’s a broad stretch of topic in itself, but basically, you need to set up your image (from the seen and tangible ones like your logo, blog theme to the abstract concept of authority and trust).

Rule Number 2: Make it worth the visit – write quality posts.

Content is king. Content is king. Content is king. Repeat to self as many times until it’s etched at the back of your head. For first time visits, sure, looks (branding) matter a lot. But then the crucial step follows- give the readers a good reason to go back. And back for more.

Attention-grabbing content exists in a variety of forms- from controversial, to witty, to professional, to entertainment, to downright funny, to nsfw (not safe for work). Assess the niche you’re in and figure out what kind of attention-grabbing content your should work on.

Do note though that whatever kind of content that is, the point is that you have to communicate clearly and in such a language that is conversational. Write as if you’re talking directly to the person reading your content. Write as if you are speaking directly to a person.

Rule Number 3: Network With Your Readers

Always be reachable. Offer RSS feeds, build a list, and of course, develop your social networking strategy (have a Twitter and Facebook account that’s visible!). Did I mention to never forget a ‘contact me’ page?

The most important thing is to be able to create a line of communication so you can keep up with your visitors and look for more. Networking is by far the best and most efficient way to snowball your way to popularity.

Remember to always engage in the discussion (even if it isn’t about your blog). Make it a healthy relationship- spread other useful posts too while promoting your own. That and never ever forget to reciprocate.

Before I tell you how to exactly befriend the Virus of Exclusivity, I’m going to tell you what’s it all about in the first place.

Quick Example:

Think of say, online marketing. That’s a pretty congested and competitive niche. Thousands of people flock into it to fight for authority, dominance, and of course profits. But out of those people, only a recognizable few managed to stay on top.

Sure, those marketers maybe, the best, or the brightest, or the smartest guys on the face of the earth, but do you think that alone made them the big fishes in the vast ocean? Think about it.

Because honestly, there will always be brighter, smarter, bolder marketers out there. The only problem is that they’ve been excluded, even before they get the chance to make themselves big.

It’s the Virus of Exclusivity working in action.

Remember the lines, “the rich keeps getting richer”, “the famous keeps getting more famous” etcetera? That’s precisely the thing that’s happening. Those who have the existing machinery to operate get more chances for domination.

Call it snow-balling.
Call it momentum.
Call it domination.

The Virus of Exclusivity likes to keep resources, power, authority etc. limited to a small group (e.g. the richest nations have excessive wealth and the poor nations have really scarce budgets).

Why is that so? Because…

• It makes things easier to operate (the nucleus of a cell is small but it’s the most vital)
• It makes recognition a lot better (no one’s really popular if everyone is popular)
• It makes manipulation work (someone always needs the best possible advice)
• It centralizes action (the President is the leader. S/He commands. We follow)

How to Exactly Befriend the Virus of Exclusivity

It’s the biggest challenge into making the transition from being a follower to being the one that is followed. The odds are, the Virus of Exclusivity is always working against you. Remember, it’s main job is to keep the good things to a small number of people. That’s how the whole system practically works.

The trick? If you can’t beat it… befriend it. That’s the simple concept that I’ve learned.

There are three sure ways I know that could make you befriend the Virus of Exclusivity.

1. Be the first. The concept of exclusivity always starts with one single person initiating (or founding) the whole thing. You can’t be excluded if you’re the first to do it. Of course, if you’re currently competing in an over-crowded niche, the most likely method is to create a point of difference from others. Example, think of the guy who first created podcast and broke free from the traditional ‘writing to blog’ method.

2. Be the best. There’s a grey area of course. How do we exactly define being ‘the best’? To start with, it’s easier to refer to it as to your age of experience. How long have you been doing it? Being a consultant for 5 years means a lot to just being a consultant for a year. The second easy criterion is to brag about your ‘worthy’ achievements. What have you done that’s worth the accolades? If you can’t win by age of experience, win by achievements. It speaks stronger than any length of time.

3. Be popular. It doesn’t matter if you know it all. What matters is if a lot of people actually know that you know it all. Confusing but I hope you get the point. The same thing that it matters more to share your knowledge as to just keep it to yourself.

If you want to succeed, then let people know you are capable of doing it in the first place.

Personal Relfection

If you’re still not successful to this date, you might have wondered, what’s the thing standing between me and that coveted success (arguable arbitrary)? I tried to reflect on that basic question and came up with an answer – I called it the virus of exclusivity.

Everytime A-Listers of your niche gather together for one bang project, or for example whenever you try to reach up to a level but can’t, there’s a force of exclusion that always wants to keep you (and everyone else for that matter) at bay. That’s because power ony works if not everyone has it.

The point of this is tha either you have to make your own power (be the first) or step up on your game.

The best time is always now…

Stop wasting your time. If you want something done, do it now.

Think of blogging as a business. In fact, treat it like a business. No matter how little or big you invest in it, the point is to always make it grow for you to get the returns that you rightfully deserve.

And for that to happen, you must do something – a plan put into action.

Don’t Be a Free-Floater
“A free-floater is a person who just let the circumstances carry him…”

Literally. It’s like being in the middle of an ocean on a boat with no sail. Yes, you move and go to some direction, but it doesn’t take you where you want to be.

Free-floater bloggers spends their time with no particular direction in mind. They just blog constantly without thinking of the specific end result that they want to achieve. More dangerously, they don’t have any solid strategy on how to accomplish things.

Free-floaters waste a lot of valuable time. Instead of doing projects or creating products, they remain stagnant in their blogs. Whether you’re blogging for a month or a year, being a free-floater is something that you should completely avoid.

It’s just too much of a worthless, unproductive state.
Instead, Be a Schemer

“A schemer is a person who plans his desire outcome and acts upon it…”

Don’t be misled. I’m not just saying that you must have a just any plan. More than that, what you need is to have a workable and achievable plan.

For example, do you think your favorite bloggers write New Year’s Resolution post just for the sake of having one? No. It’s meant to tell you that a new year means a new plan. It tells you that they’re up to something… again.

Brilliant planning is always step number one. That’s an important lesson in starting success from the beginning.

Be a schemer. Come up with ways on how you’ll manage to increase your traffic, or your earnings, or whatever it is that you want to accomplish.

Simplified Steps of Scheming

One good skill of being a schemer is to be able to plan properly with the current conditions of your blog. Of course, it isn’t logical to plan for 1000 subscribers if you barely even have less than 10 registered in your feed chicklet. Again, it has to always meet an achievable target.

The steps blog planning is a systematic guide on how to formulate a good plan. It’s supposed to make your life easy so make sure to follow the levels carefully.

Step 1: Identify the Goal

Always start with the question “What do I want?” rather than “What can I do?” or “How will I do it?” It could be a problem, a weakness in your blog, an area that you want to improve, or probably a project that you want to accomplish. It could be anything.

The point is that it should be the output or the end-product that you want to achieve.

Step 2: Collect All Possible Solutions

Two is better than one. Anything at all is better than just one.
It’s not enough that you settle for a single method. As they say, don’t put all your eggs in just one basket.

There could be thousands of approaches to a single goal. For example, if you want to raise your traffic, your sure bet would be Search Engine Optimization. But, you can’t go wrong either if you do social media, guest posting, email marketing, article marketing and even advertising.

But let’s be more definite. By “all possible solutions”, I mean all solutions within your hand’s reach. Say if you have low funds, advertising should be crossed out on the list. Instead, focus more on other things that promises to have the commensurate, or even better results.

Step 3: Set the ‘How’

After listing all possible solutions, it’s time to make the goal a reality.
Set the ‘how’ or the process that you would do. These includes:

• identifying the priority.
• breaking down the process into mini-components
• creating a routine workflow

Identifying the priority. If you have a long list of possible solutions, it’s best to rank all your solutions according to their level of priority. That way, you’ll know where to best channel your efforts.

Breaking down into mini-components. If the solution is too big or general, make the process more concrete by identifying it’s mini-components.

Example: say ‘be more active in social-networking’. You can break it down by
a. joining 2+ new social-networking sites
b. writing a post about social-networking and plugging your accounts
c. organizing a contest for your new friends/followers
d. updating your status and/or bookmarks at least thrice a day
e. adding at least five new friends/followers a day

Create a routine workflow. This makes you to be more committed by actually allocating a specific time-frame in your working hours. It could be as easy as just a 30-minute workflow a day. The important note is that you have to constantly set reminders to yourself. Put it in your planner or cell calendar or whatever it is that you use to organize your schedule.

Step 4: Target the ‘When’

‘Being a schemer always means getting things done.

“People that lack focus usually have a hard time finishing what they started…”
-Daniel Scocco
Founder of DailyBlogTips & OnlineProfits

Focus accomplishes things. For every goal you set, or project that you start, you should always be focused and committed to the end result. The point of having a deadline therefore is to have something constantly push you into taking action.… and more importantly… to stop wasting time.

No man is an island- definitely not here in the internet.

If you’ve just set out your journey to online domination (well at least that’s the goal), the very first crucial step to survival is to find others who can help you push farther.

But wait, before you think this is another one of those nonsense tips around building online relationships, I’m promising to you right now that in here is where I’m laying out genuine and proven ways to amass your social circle. Of course legitimate means that is.

Have the Guts to Start the Conversation

Right now, if you’re feeling like a small, miniscule fish in a very, very big pond, well don’t worry- everyone starts right there. The rule of the game is simple- you need to have guts to get the attention of the biggies.

When I started blogging for example, aside from writing and tweaking on my own blog, I didn’t really know what to do. Sure I followed the A-Listers of that time, but for the first few months, I was just there, a newbie blogger lurking around behind counter page views. I didn’t leave any much of a traceable mark. Of course that’s a very big mistake.

Here in the internet, you have to realize that opportunity is always right at the screen in front of you. It’s just a matter of clicking and/or typing the right things isn’t it?

But I won’t just stop there; in fact, I’m going to enumerate a couple of good ways that’ll help you get started:

1. Engage actively in good blog post discussions
And yes, I’m talking about blog commenting. Now, there’s tons and tons of blog posts that you can comment on, but for good strategy’s sake, focus on the blogs that attracts readers (especially quality readers and not just the usual spammers).

This technique worked a lot for me for two reasons:
• Focusing on good, quality posts also means that learning from the best ideas around the net. It develops your critical thinking, especially if you listen out to equally critical responses. If you want to talk like a pro, listen to people who talk pro.
• Secondly, isn’t it obvious? It brings back traffic and great exposure

2. Join promotional schemes
My favorite trick is to always say yes whenever I’m asked to sponsor a contest. Most of the time, it doesn’t even have to be in the form of monetary sponsorship, you can just sponsor basic things like premium ads or sponsored reviews (hint: stuff that has zero costs to you). Then at the same time, you even reap benefits. There are so many examples of promotional schemes (may it be directly in blogs or in social media accounts). You just need to keep your eyes wide open and be alert at every possible opportunity.

3. Yes, forums still work
Actually, if you go to forums like the Digital Point Forums and the Warrior Forums, you can even testify how forum interaction brings in so many advantages. The best part is that you can usually find experts cuddled up in a section (usually the premium spots) and freely ask for advice (which they’d happily give). Target old, well-known forums. They’re usually the hub of the activity and in cases concerning pros, forums are usually the best places where transactions are done. Just remember the golden rule though: never spam.

4. The contact form box is there for a reason
The best way still is to directly message someone you’re interested to get to know more (professionally speaking). Like what I’ve said, the contact box is there for a reason. I personally feel this is much better than just trying to build an image by being a loyal commentator or something like that. Messaging people directly is a good way of showing you’re serious and you’re willing to take the conversation to a higher notch.

If you’re using gmail, the best part is to even add them as your chat buddies. You might have nothing to say for now, but in the future, I bet you’ll have something in mind. Actually, through chat (or through constant email contact), I’ve established lots of joint ventures or sometimes even found clients. It might sound old school, but trust me, it really works.

So all in all, these are the methods I’ve used (and still continues to do so) to build my social circle. While this may sound a cliché to many, but that doesn’t mean that these things doesn’t work (in fact, they really do). So unless you want to stay obscured an unknown to the blogosphere, I suggest you start working your way to get known… and fast.

Rummaging through my ‘blogging folder’, I found this interesting free report by Michel Fortin of the Success Doctor, Inc. The title of this report is quite controversial – about the death of sales letter. If you still haven’t read (or heard about it), then you’re surely missing out a lot.

The Death of Sales Letter has been released sometime around 2007. With the title itself, you can just imagine the kind of hullabaloo it caused in the industry especially to copywriters, internet marketers (who heavily relies on good copies) and even SEO practitioners that optimize sales letters and landing pages.

Who is Micheal Fortin?

As Michel puts it, he is “a copywriter”. But apparently, this kind of description needs to be attributed to the people he works for, namely; John Reese, Frank Kern, Kirt Christensen, Armand Morin, Shawn Casey and Stephen Pierce- simply the biggest names in the internet marketing industry. And if you don’t even know any of them, you’re living under a very, very big rock.

The guy’s a well known professional among the league of top-notch copywriters. You. Should. Know. Him. Go to www.michelfortin.com

The report actually started with a sort of briefing about web 2.0. But let’s skip that part and go straight to the juice of the story…

Is the Sales Letter Really Dead?

And this was the biggest controversy of all. Well actually, that’s the biggest misconception about this report. The truth is, no, it doesn’t really talk about sales letter being dead per se (because that would be impossible for obvious reasons). What Michel was pointing out the old overused (and abused) style in writing copies – long letters with big bold red texts and frequent uses of catch phrases like ‘one time, limited offers etc.’. In a way, the title helped it to be a viral free report even if it has mislead some of its readers (well at least on the up side, this has advanced the cause of improving the copywriting industry)

In this report, he pointed out that the practiced and widespread kind of sleazy writing to entice possible buyers have in fact developed adverse effects. People started to veer and avoid from these kinds of marketing. The common observation is that from numerous times of exposure to copies like these, people are figuring a sense of a ‘marketer’s trap’ via too-good-to-be-true (and sometimes exaggerated) claims.

The Keyword of the Story: Interactivity

Of course this doesn’t mean that Michel conclusion is about people who are tired of being consumers, the moral of the story is that actually, that people at the end of the day still want to consume but not in a way that we force or lure them to.

Businesses of the traditional copywriting used to believe that they know what people want, when in fact, they are alienating consumers from their own preference– interaction. Michel describes how web 2.0 transformed us from mere readers of static web page texts into people who quench for interaction (a sense of 2-way communication). Certainly, the rise of social media, applications, and so many things that provides unlimited communication has been a catalyst for this kind of behavior.

To add to that, Michel also describes a phenomenon called the “ping factor” wherein the common internet user are faced with millions of website options and countless of competing distractions (from mail, to chat, to many kinds of notifications of various accounts etc.). This kind of multi-tasking invariably pushes humans to be efficient time-wise. For copywriters to be specific, this only means that the ones long copies (sales letters) are losing its effectiveness because it simply takes too much time, thus, it was observed how shorter, more straight-to-the-point copies started to get better results.

Innovation, Interaction, Experience, Efficiency

As I see it, that’s the root principles by which Michel Fortin wrote his report. Being almost 2 decades old in the industry (internet at it’s baby stage), you can very well experience through his words how fast and powerful the internet has evolved to what it is now.

In effect, this has also spurred a kind of change towards or time perception and capacity to consume. We want to do more in less time and we still want to buy, though we need better ways to be convinced in a more human, emotional fashion.

Reading The Death of Sales Letter just blows you away. It wouldn’t even take an hour tops to finish everything but the kind of information (or at least perception) shared by Michel is priceless to the current situation and approaches in various fields in the internet.

This review doesn’t even cover its awesomeness.

So therefore, I suggest you read it by yourself. Download The Death of Sales Letter by Michel Fortin

Frustrations in SEO

It’s easy to spot the weakness of traditional SEO- it focused too much on trying to crack the system rather than work with it.

If you’re not familiar how Google, for example, gives split-second results to your every keyword inquiry, the method is actually more science than the infamous “I am feeling lucky” button.

As you know (I’m assuming because you read this blog), every search engine formulates and guards their own secret algorithms that determines the relevance and weight of your web pages relative to various search queries (or keywords). Those algorithms are so complex they involve all kinds of metrics from your obvious traffic count, to RSS subscribers, and yes, even as trivial as the site speed of your site (don’t panic though Matt Cutts clarified that’s just a teeny-tiny part).

Traditional SEO is so keen on figuring out the best way to crack the system. A year or two ago, I’ve even heard of seo specialists whose job are to crack down those algorithms in hopes of advancing the ranks of their client sites.

Well, is there any need in the first place to run after those algorithms?

If you’re an seo newbie, or even if you’re a specialist yourself, my take is this- don’t kill yourself trying to.

For two simple reasons:

1. Algorithms constantly and unpredictably change. You can never keep the pace up with the system engineers that are monitoring operations 24/7 and are frequently revising every section of their magic equation to make their results better than ever.
2. You have to remember that search engines, in the first place, are not villains here. They are never against you. Unless of course you violet their Webmasters Terms and Conditions (see Google’s for example) directly like buying links and sending fake traffic. Don’t take it against the bots if your site isn’t that visible. The system is purely meritocratic after all- you are most likely to deserve whatever your spot is (whether it’s rank one or in some position on the 9th page).

The Most Repeated SEO Mistake

…is to be traditional. If you still think there’s a secret backdoor somewhere, if you still think you can through a big budget and set up a team of specialists to run after the algorithms, if you still think you’re on a contest to beat the bots… then might as well forget about it.

Reevaluate your main purpose. Actually, if you think about it, your goal isn’t as different as the search engines’ goal- to be able to deliver the most relevant and reliant information for human benefit.

Now, wouldn’t it be much better if you go along search engines? Your answer should be yes, and for that, you should definitely keep tabs on what SEOCopyblogger is going to post from now on

Write for humans

People always think that SEO is all about being a suck-up for search engines in order for them to rank you well in the search engine results page. Well it doesn’t work that way. At least not anymore.

Search engines are machines. They’re a set of codes created and piloted by search engineers. In the end, they only follow the logic and reasoning of human beings. And in the end, human beings only consider what is human to be a win.

What does that mean?

Meaning if you write your article in order for it to be seen as good by search engines, it won’t work for you. No – it’s gonna seem like a suck-up article to them. What’s more is that real human beings will think you’re a moron coz your article is stuffed with keywords and makes little sense.

Will you be searchable? Probably yes. But if your  content is useless, no one’s gonna link to it.

And links are vital to search engine rankings.

Links make up a very big chunk of the factors affecting search engine results rankings. So you’d want links. And how do you get the best links? By letting people link to you. And people will only link to you if you have something great and remarkable to say.

So what’s the point?

The point is, write your stuff for humans. Don’t think about keywords. Don’t think about outbound links. Don’t think about anything regarding SEO. Just write. Think about the people who’s gonna read it. In the end, it’s them who will matter.