A couple months ago I stated that I was not going to create my own backlinks.  That I would wait till others backlink to me.  I was not going to shame myself by tooting my own horn, by begging for backlinks.  I was going to wait patiently until others backlink to me – let the website speak for itself.  But guess what – nobody has backlinked to me.  Four months have passed since this website went live and in that time no backlinks.  Nobody has been impressed enough to link to this site.  Surprised?  So am I.

So with a paper bag on my head I must admit defeat.  If I want backlinks then I will have to create them myself.  Climb to the rooftop of the tallest building and shout, “look at me!”.  How humiliating.

How to Create Backlinks – Article Submission

Article submission is the easiest way to create quality one way backlinks.  I signed up on ezinearticles.com and wrote 3 articles.  In each article I summarize one of the pages on this website. 

My method is simple.  I read a page from this website and then close the window.  Then I open my word processor and rewrite what I just read.  Same main points but new words.  The article version is shorter and more to the point.  The articles need to be at least 250 words.  My articles tend to be around 400 words and take about 30 minutes to write.  It is easy to do because it is not new material.  Just a summary of key points from this website.   At the end of the article I place one link to this site and one link specifically to the page being summarized.

The backlinks from this method are great because they are one way backlinks.  They link to you with out you having to link back to them – Google loves that.  Also, when you create the backlink you can use the keywords of your choosing for the anchor text.  This is good because Google uses the anchor text of a backlink to figure out what your page is about.

Get Your New Webpages Indexed Faster

Besides backlinks, another advantage of articles submission is that you can get your own webpages indexed faster by Google.  Normally for this website it takes up to a week before a new page is indexed by Google.  But if I create an article and backlink to the new page then the page gets indexed in under a day.  Here is how it works:   

1. I create a new page on my website
2. I write an article summarizing the new page
3. At the bottom of the article I link to the new page
4. My article gets published. Since ezinearticles.com is a popular site Google indexes the article within a hour.
5. While indexing the article Google notices the link to my new page. Google discovers that the page is not indexed yet.
6. My new page gets flagged by Google for immediate indexing

Besides getting backlinks creating articles is a great way to get new pages indexed.  For an example of one of the articles and the backlink have a look at my article Do Guest Posts on Other Blogs Really Bring Traffic.

How to Create Backlinks – Guest Posts

Guest posts are harder then article posts.  Creating articles is easy because unless you really screw up and do not follow the rules your article will be published.  Guest posts are much more difficult because they have a very selective gatekeeper – the blog owner.  It is up to their discretion whether your post gets published.  If he stubbed his toe just before reading your email requesting a guest post and therefore in a bad mood you could be denied just because his toe hurts.

You spend a few hours creating the perfect guest post specifically designed for a specific blog.  You send it to the blog owner and wait.  A few days later you get a rejection email.  ‘Sorry, but at this time I am not taking guest posts’, translation: your post was denied.  Now you need to decide what to do with the post.  Do you put it on your own blog or do you alter it and submit to another blog?  Either way time is wasted and the post is tainted by the stench of rejection.

Fortunately this did not happen to me.  I created a guest post and submitted it.  Within a few days it was approved and published.

What a great backlink.  A one way backlink from a popular blog back to my website.  Does not get better then that.  It was a great success – a perfect backlink.  The only problem was that nobody agreed with my post.  Not a single comment agreed, even the blog owner stepped in and stated that he does not agree.  But that is just a technicality, not really important.  Nobody agrees, I am wrong, I do not know what I am talking about etc…but I got my backlink.  By the way, I still think I am right, everybody else is wrong. If you want to disagree with me then see my guest post Put Time Into Your Guest Posts.

Organic Search Traffic Is Improving

The first couple months this website had backlinks, but they were all natural backlinks.  I frequented forums and made comments on blogs.  I did this not to create backlinks but simply because I wanted to be involved in the forums and blogs.   The backlinks came naturally, they came as a result of me simply participating in my niche.

For the last month I have been actively generating backlinks via articles and guest posts.  Again I can only assume that this is why my organic search traffic is continuing to improve.  It is still a small number but improving.  It seams that backlinks do work.  It is humiliating and pride must be swallowed but creating backlinks is a must to improve your organic traffic.

Organic Traffic For This Website

Forget your pride, ignore your shame, humiliate yourself – create your own backlinks.  Go out there and brag about how great your are.  Because if you don’t then who, besides your mother, will?

About Revenue, Earnings, Money, About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, Actual Stats From The Website Used, Optimistic and Motivational, There is a HOW TO in the Post, What YOU Should Do

Aristotle accomplished a lot in his ancient Greek life.  He can be credited as one of the founding fathers of western thought.  He studied and made observations about morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.  In his free time he was a tutor of Alexander the Great.  A person like this is not common.  He has the ability to keep going and going – doing more and more.

How did he keep motivated?  What helped him get out of bed every morning and dive into his work?  Aristotle’s answer:

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.

Goals.  Man needs to set goals for himself.  Without goals there is no meaning – there is nothing to strive for.

My Goal – Make Money Online Website

Who am I to doubt Aristotle.  I must set goals.  This website was started willy-nilly.  It was built with the intent of just seeing what happens. But that is not the right approach.  I need something to strive for.  If it helped Aristotle become one of the greatest thinkers of all time, I am sure setting goals will help this website.

The main keywords for this website are: make,money,online,website.  My goal is to be one of the top five results in Google search for the term ‘make money online website‘.  When somebody types ‘make money online website‘ into Google I want to see this website appear in one of the top 5 spots.  Currently for this term this website is nowhere to be seen.  I checked as far back as the 500th result.  No luck – not there.

Know The Enemy (the competition)

Before I tackle this goal I need to know who I am fighting against.  Who are in the top 5 spots now?  The best way to beat them is to know who they are.  What have they done to get there.  By studying who they are I can adjust my strategy to either mimic what they did to get there or find a weak spot in their approach.  Find something that they are missing, or not doing, or doing poorly.  Once I know how they got to where they are then I can do what they are doing and add a little more – that extra push that puts me above them.

The nice thing about the ‘make money online’ niche is that it is about revealing what you do.  So most of the blogs and website are about how they got to where they are at.  So it is only a matter of going through their website and finding out what strategies they recommend for online success. 

I am going to focus on two of the top 5 holders, because they have very different strategies.  And they are very good writers – they do a good job explaining how they got to the top.

A Brick and Mortar Website

The top spot is currently held by 2createawebsite.com.  It is a really good ‘Make Money Online’ website.  The owner is Lisa.  Her website made it to the top in what can be called the traditional approach – time, quality content, and persistence.  She started making money online in 1998 and has stuck with it.  By constantly adding content and maintaining a presence on the Internet she has made it to the top.  Hard work and time.  Posting on forums, answering questions by readers, making comments on other blogs.  By helping others her name became known.  Slowing, but steadily she gained readers.  10 years later, it is paying off.  Now she has inspirational youtube videos and tutorials, a busy forum and a popular blog.  She has become an trusted authority in the field.  Her opinion is respected.  She does not hide her identity and is completely honest about everything she has to say. 

Her website is a rock.  It is well designed, clear and well written.  Quality material, a great personality, and high ranking.  She does everything by the book and there is little chance that her ranking will fall.  Her website is like amazon, or ebay.  A trusted and quality site.  Exactly what Google likes.  Google rewards her by placing her website at the top.

Understand and Exploit

The website at spot 4 is makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com.  This website is almost the complete opposite of the one above.  It is not pretty.  No flashing graphics, logos or pull down menus.  Actually is it a basic free blogspot blog.  Simple design – black text against a white background.  His posts are extremely long, something that your ’suppose’ to not do.  The owner is Grizzly.  He does not reveal his true identity.  All that is known is that he lives somewhere in Northern Canada.  His blog is only 3 years old.  He does not participate in forums and does not do any Internet marketing.

But he is in the 4th spot.  He is doing something right.  With his completely non-traditional approach he has manged to make it to the top.  How does he do it?

Grizzly knows how Google works.  He can think like Google.  He does not care about having a great website, or people thinking of him as an authority.  All he cares about is making money online.  So he focuses specifically on Google and does whatever necessary to make money with it.  The best way to describe it is that he understands the underlying principle of Google and exploits it.  He focuses in on the fundamental principles of Google and does whatever necessary to make money.  He knows how to force Google to put him at the top.

The great part is that he does not keep it a secret.  If you read all his long well written posts, he reveals exactly how he does it.  You need to read a little between the lines – but it is there.  And his proof is not in words, but in results.  Do a search for ‘make money online’ and there he is – on the top.  He knows what he is doing.

How Am I Going To Get To The Top?

It is not going to be easy.  Both of the above examples are smart people.  Masters in their art.  They have completely different approaches, but both successful. 

My approach will be to learn from both.  Not to copy their approaches exactly, but to combine the two.  To mix the two approaches into a new hybrid approach.  Have a traditional website – brick and mortar, well built, organized and pleasing to the eye; patiently become a authority in the field and gain people’s trust.  But also not ignore what Grizzly has to say,  his approach is untraditional but cannot be dismissed.

Hopefully, by taking bits and pieces from the people at the top.  Combining it in a new way and creating something new, I can acheive my goal and become a member of the Top 5 club for ‘make money online website’.

To find out how this post will help me towards my goal please see post How to Make Money With Jesus.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, There is a HOW TO in the Post, What YOU Should Do

Lets assume that you just started a site, or are planning to.  You are looking for advice and ideas.  The first instinct is to do a search on Google for your niche.  Click on the top results and have a look at what others are doing.

This website’s niche is making money online.  There are about 5 big players for this niche.  Websites and blogs that get thousands of visitors a day.  They are an outstanding success.  Make lots of money.  The Walmart, Mircrosoft, and Kellogs of the make money online niche.

All of them give advice on how to make money online.  They give tips about website design, what to sell, how to write, basically they answer the question: how to have a successful website.  They can do this because they have authority – their website is successful.  Do what they do, follow their advice.  It worked for them so it will work for you.

Wrong.

True – they know what they are doing.  They did all the right things.  The proof is their success.  If your goal is to have a website exactly like theirs then follow their advice.  Design it like their website, write like they write, post when they post.  Follow their advice and end up with a website very similar to theirs.  It will identical in all aspects except for one – the most important one.  Your website  will not be a success. 

The fundamental flaw in doing what the successful websites do is that you are setting yourself up to compete against the best.

Following Advice Of The Successful Leads To Failure

Lets say its the year 1300.  You live in a bustling medieval city.  And you are sick and tired of your day job – there is no point in plowing the local prince’s field.  You want to go into business for yourself.

You wander around town in your woolen tunic with hands clasped behind back, looking for business ideas.  You come across the city market.  Little stalls selling assortments of goods.  Mmmmm, maybe I should open up a stall.  But what would I sell, how will I sell it?  You look around for the busiest stall. 

Careful not to step in donkey shit, you make your way through the maze of stalls.  Most of them have one or two people haggling over trinkets.  No big money there.  Then suddenly you see it.  A stall with a lineup.  At least 20 people waiting in line, all of them happy and waiting eagerly to make a purchase.  The owner is gleaming as the money moves from the customer’s hand to his.  You have found a successful stall.  The sign above the stall reads, “Prowalkers – The best and biggest walking sticks in the city”.  The plan is to wait for the end of the day and seek advise from this great business man.

Hello, my name is Fergus.  I am tired of my day job.  I want to be successful like you.  What advise can you give me.  Being a kind and patient man the business man goes into a long lecture about what makes his business successful.    He tells you how to build the stall, how the merchandise should be arranged, how to advertise, and most importantly  – always smile at the customer and ask them to come back.  You thank the man for all the great advise.  Skipping home your main concern is whether to have the house re mudded or to buy a new apple cart once the silver coins start rolling in.

The next few weeks are busy.  Following the advise of the business man you set up your stall.  You are very pleased.  It looks almost identical.  The design is the same, the layout is exactly how he recommended.  He sells 9 foot tall walking sticks, you sell 9 foot tall walking sticks. 

Monday morning…the grand opening.  You wake up early and rush to the market, setup your stall, and wait eagerly for the masses.  The only worry is whether there will be enough room in front of the stall for all the hordes of people lining up.  Probably not.  But you console yourself by realizing that if they squish together then at least 30 people can stand in line.   The church bell dongs and the market opens.

By the end of the day you are in tears.  You sold only one walking stick and that was to the village idiot.  Weeks pass with little change.  Your stall receives very little traffic.  And the few that do visit already have a 9 foot tall walking stick.  Where did you get that you ask.  Proudly the man looks at his walking stick and replies, from Prowalkers of course.  He has been around for years, has the best walking sticks – everybody buys their sticks from him.

Two weeks later you are back in the fields digging up the princes potatoes. 

Do Not Follow The Successful

When your are starting off, it is very tempting to look at the successful site and do as they do.  This is a mistake.  By doing what they are doing, by following their advice, your site will be similar to theirs.  And that puts you at a major disadvantage.  Because then you have to compete against them.

The best way to use the successful sites is to try to find something that they are not doing.  Do something that they never mention.  Or best yet, do something that they recommend against doing.  Since everybody will follow the advice and not do it,  you will be the only one doing it.  While everybody is thinking about how to improve the horse carriage you will be creating the Model T.

The greatest opportunities and surprises are down paths least traveled.  Paths which start with a warning sign, “Danger, path unexplored – enter at own risk”.

What YOU Expect vs Reality, What YOU Should Do

A few years ago I owned and operated a data transcription company.  It provided the service of copying old and outdated 9-track tapes to CD.  It was a small company with only 4 employees and a few machines.  But it had big clients.  The tapes contained seismic data which oil companies used to determine whether there is oil in the ground.  Clients included Shell, Exxon and BP.  These clients did not come easy.  It was a year before any of them even picked up the phone.

A typical phone call:

Me:  Hello, this is Roman . Can I speak to Mr. Smith (the data manager).
Secretary of Mr. Smith:  Can I tell him what it is regarding.
Me:  I represent TMT – a data transcription company. I want to discuss with Mr. Smith data transcription services we provide that I believe he would be interested in.
Secretary:   Just a moment please…
[2 minutes later]
Secretary:  Unfortunately Mr. Smith is in a meeting. Can you please give me your contact information and he will call you back.

I give my contact information and waited for a phone call that would never come.  Variations of this happened everyday, many times a day, for the first year.

Running your own business has many perks.  You have heard them all before.  Be your own boss, work whenever you want to, pay yourself what you deserve, profits go in your pocket.  These are the positive virtues.  But there is a major aspect of owning your own business that is usually left out.  Relentless, unbashful, almost arrogant self promotion.  Trying to convince complete strangers that you are what they need.  That only you provide a special service they cannot get anywhere else.  You are special.  Use me – I am the best.

As an employee you rarely need to promote.  You simply turn dials, punch keys and pull levers.  You do not need to persuade anybody that you work for the best damn company in the world.

But if you own your own business  you constantly need to convince people that your company is the best.  And indirectly, since you own the company, you are the best.  When you finally break past the secretary and have the attention of a manager the selling begins.  Hello Mr. Smith, let me list the ways why I am the best, why you need me, why only I can provide what your need.

Self promotion makes you feel dirty inside.  Because you know it is not true.  The competition is very similar to you.  Basically the same service, the same product, the same prices.  Actually you are aware of faults in your business.  You see it from the inside.  Half the machines are in dire need of repair and the service level needs improvement.  But that is not what you tell the potential client.  To the potential client you paint the perfect picture – every brush stroke a work of genius.

A Webmaster Must Self Promote Website

Being a webmaster is like being a owner and operator of a company.  Not only do you have to make sure the website is running, you also have to promote it.  As you can infer from the above I cannot stand self promotion.  I hate it. I would never walk down main street in a red shirt with big white text stating: “I am the best – you need me”

But it has to be done.  Promoting your website requires convincing people to visit your website.  In a forum post you answer a question and then at the end of the answer you have to write: By the way, I have a great post about this topic – click here to read it.  Or you send out emails to subscribers stating how you have found some amazing information that they need to know about – visit my website for more details.  You make a comment on a blog: Great post, I make a similar point on my blog – click here to see.

Always promoting.  Me, me, me.  Everybody look at me.

Its a necessary evil.  Most likely your post is not the best, your website is not the best.  The visitor does not need it.  Without your website the world would not end.  But that is beside the point.  To increase your traffic you need to self promote.  Convince people to visit your website.  Make yourself look better then you really are.  Comb your hair, tuck in your shirt, smile and to anybody who will listen say: I look good don’t I – come visit my site.

The good news is that the dirtiest type of self promotion must only be done at the beginning.  At the beginning nobody knows who you are and what your peddling.  But as time goes on and the word spreads you can tone down the self promotion.  Others will promote your website for you.  They will link to your website, they will tell their friends.  They will say: look at this guy – he is the best.

Unfortunately I am still at the beginning.  Still self promoting.  Everybody look at me.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, What YOU Should Do

So you have decided to create a website.  One of the first things you have to do is register a domain name.  Instantly your brain begins to conjure up names.  Your main thought is that it has to be a cool name.  It has to look good on the front page of the New York Times and it has to sound natural when  President Obama mentions it. 

But there are many other factors to consider when deciding on a domain name.  The most important one – the possible show stopper, is whether it is already taken by someone else.  It is great to go on a walk and gaze at the clouds for inspiration.  But if someone has already taken the name then even a domain name whispered into your ear by an angel is useless.  To check whether a domain name is taken go to the website whois.net and do a search.

Is The Domain Name Too Long

So you have decided on a name and have confirmed that it is available.  The next question you have to ask yourself is whether the name is too long or too short.  It seams like a simple question, but it is not.  Domain names can be anywhere from 1 character long to 67 characters long.  1 is too short and 67 is too long.  But what if your domain name is somewhere in between?  Is it too long or too short?

Is The Domain Name Too Long For…Somebody To Remember It?

There is a common claim about websites with names longer then 10 letters.  The argument is that if someone tells you a long domain name, lets say at a cocktail party, you will not be able to remember it when you get home. This is true.  The morning after the party the domain name will be long forgotten.  But so will will scene where you slapped the bartender for refusing to give you the whole bottle. 

Domain names are usually not exchanged verbally at social functions.  They are transfered digitally.  Just like phone numbers.  Initially phone numbers were created with 7 digits  because it is the most that a human can remember.  That mattered 10 years ago.  But it no longer applies.  Our phones store the phone numbers.  I can remember my home phone numbers from 10 years ago, but have no idea what my current cell number is.  If someone wants it then I send it to them through the phone.  They receive it and log it as my name.  They have no idea what my cell number is either.

Normally you come across domain names on the Internet.  Either you click a link on a website or you click the link that your buddy sends you in an email. If you like it you add it to your favorites.  In the favorites folder it is stored as the title of the website – not the domain name.  Most of the websites I frequent I have no idea what the domain name is.  Because I do not need to.   My bookmark know the domain name – I just need to know the name of the site.

I have never had to remember a domain name, because nobody has every told me a domain name.   I cannot remember anybody every telling me a domain name.   Well, maybe they did, but I forgot what it is.

Is The Domain Name Too Long For…Somebody To Type Into The Address Bar?

The argument is that if the name is too long then people will not want to type it into the address bar.  Too much work.  But I ask:  who type domain names into the address bar?  Few if any.  It is just not done.  Either they arrive to your site via a click on a link, through search, or bookmark.  Rarely by typing the name in the address bar.  Even a site like boingboing.net – the most popular blog on the Internet is hard to find using the domain address.  Because the extension is .net not .com.  So you type boingboing.com – that does not work.  Then you type boing-boing.com – that does not work.  Finally you do a search on google for boing boing and it appears as the first site.  Clicking on the link you make a personal vow never to use the address bar again.

What Are Long Domain Names Good For?

Long domain names are great for search engines.  If you have a website about a ranch that offers donkey back trail rides.  A domain name like donkeybacktrailrides.com is a lot better then donkride.com.  With long domain names you can put most of your keywords into the name.  Google and other search engines like this.  Because if a domain name has the keywords in it than your website has something to do with those keywords.  For Google,  donkeybacktrailrides means that your website is about donkeys and trail rides.  An domain name like donkback means nothing to google.  Long domain names increase your chances of ranking high on search results. Which means that long domain names increase your traffic.

What is more important – an intoxicated party goer remembering your domain name or increasing your traffic?  I perfer traffic, which is why this website has a long domain name with four keywords in it.

Want your own domain name?  See how to register domain name.

What YOU Should Do