Brent Crouch - My Online Journal

Previous Post For This Project

There are hundreds maybe even thousands of different forums.  But for my purpose, I can divide forums into two different categories.  There are the forums that allow you to use a signature with backlinks and those that don’t.

For my purpose, I’m interested in finding forums related to my niche that allow backlinks.   In addition to allowing me to network with others interested in my subject matter, the backlinks will provide some SEO value to my project site.

I have the same policy with forum posting as I do with leaving blog comments.  I’ll never post on a forum for the sole purpose of getting a link.  If I can’t provide something useful to the conversation, then I will not post.  I do not post general and useless comments.  My goal is to provide additional content to the forum owner in exchange for the link to my site.  When done correctly, it is a win - win for everyone.

I’ve found ten forums related to my niche that allow backlinks in the signature.  I’ve signed up for all of them and will check in everyday to see if there is some way I can contribute.

Finding forums related to your niche should be pretty easy.  There are tens of thousands of forums that cover a wide variety of subject matters.  Here is a good list to start with.  Not all of these forums will allow backlinks, so be sure to check before signing up.

Huge List of Forums Powered by VBulletin

http://www.vbulletin.com/links.php

Forum Directorys

http://www.ajdee.com/pages/Forums/index.html

http://www.forumpromotion.co.uk/directory.php

Individual Forums

http://www.countycricketclubs.co.uk
http://www.buyingfirsttime.co.uk
http://www.TechnicalTalk.net
http://www.acorndomains.co.uk
http://www.davidcastle.org/BB
http://www.a4uforum.co.uk
http://www.startups.co.uk
http://www.obesitydiscussion.com
http://www.ls1tech.com
http://www.ls2.com
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/
http://forums.seroundtable.com/
http://www.v7n.com/forums/
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/
http://paymentprocessing.cc/
http://webhostingtalk.com/
http://namePros.com/
http://www.webdigity.com/
http://talk.iwebtool.com
http://www.lex224.com/forums/index.php
http://www.affiliateseeking.com/forums/
http://forums.seo.com/
http://www.worldofghosts.co.uk
http://www.extreme-mobile.com
http://www.games2web.com/forums/
http://www.submitexpress.com/bbs/
http://www getpaidforum com
http://www googlecommunity com
http://www.v7n.com/
http://www.istoritve.com
http://www.ozzu.com/
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/
http://forums.seroundtable.com/
http://www.forums.digitalpoint.com
http://www.frogengine.com/forum
http://www.burf.com/forum/
http://www.webproworld.com/
http://www.seoforum.ws
http://www.ewealth.com
http://www.enter-the-ether.com
http://www.searchen.com
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
http://www.namepros.com/
http://forums.slickdeals.net/
http://www.freewebmastersresource.com/forums/
http://forum.gnonline.net
http://www.work-from-home-ic.com
http://www.Robert-Burns.eu/forum/
http://forum.webdevcom.net/
http://forum.weblamp.net/
http://forums.instantposition.com/
http://forums.lilengine.com/
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/
http://resource-zone.com/forum/
http://seo.anthonyparsons.com/forum/
http://wowdirectory.com/bulletin/
http://www.akamarketing.com/webmaster-forums/
http://www.bandofgonzos.com/phpbb/index.php
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/
http://www.engineseeker.com/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi
http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/
http://www.greatnexus.com/forums/
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/
http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/
http://www.link-forum.com/
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/marketing-forum/
http://www.ozzu.com/
http://www.resellerboard.com/
http://www.searchen.com/forum/index.php
http://www.searchengineforums.com/
http://www.searchguild.com/
http://www.search-this.com/forums/
http://www.seochat.com/
http://www.seoelite.com/chat/index.php
http://www.seoforum.biz/
http://www.seo-forums.com/
http://www.seoguide.org/forums.php
http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/
http://www.seoproject.com/forum/
http://www.seozip.com/forums/
http://www.siteownersforums.com/
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/
http://www.textlinkbrokers.com/forum
http://www.top25web.com/bbs/index.php
http://www.webmaster-forums.net/
http://www.webmasters-forum.net/forums/index.php
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/
http://www.web-mastery.net/
http://www.webproworld.com/forum.php
http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/index.php
http://www.big-boards.com/
http://www.seomeeting.com/
http://www.aardvarksport.net/chat
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/
http://www.nameslot.com
http://www.domainnameforumz.com
http://www.businessforum.net
http://webmasters-meet.com/
http://www.v7n.com/forums/
http://www.googlecommunity.com/
http://www.webmaster-talk.com
http://www.experienceadvertising.com/forum
http://www.dynastygamers.net
http://Webicy.com - Webmaster Forum
http://www.honeymoontravels.org
http://www.ecofriendlygifts.org
http://www.entertainmentsource.org
http://www.indian-exporter.com
http://www.costmeticsurgery.org
http://www.bizpromotion.co.in
http://www.yorkshireforum.net/forums
http://www.9mb.com
http://forums.ukwebmasterworld.com/
http://www.online-it-support.co.uk/
http://forums.ukwebmasterworld.com

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Previous Post For This Project

I spent the day bookmarking articles on my project site. This is something I have neglected to do until now. In the future, I plan to bookmark my articles as I add them to my site.

This post isn’t intended to give you all the benefits of social bookmarking. If that is what you are looking for, then read this post at Beyond Caffeine. My post will give you a site worth using that will make bookmarking your sites quick and painless.

Social Marker is an excellent site that automates many of the tasks required to bookmark your site. It took me about 10 minutes to submit my latest post to 18 of the top bookmarking site. Best of all, it is free.

In addition to the free service, Social Marker also offers a variety of bookmarking and directory submission offers starting at only $10.

So if you aren’t taking the time to bookmark your sites, now there is no excuse.

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Click Images for Full Size Pic

If you like doing laps in the swimming pool, you might want to stock up on the energy drinks before diving in to this one.

It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons of water.

Yesterday the Guinness Book of Records named the vast pool beside the sea in Chile as the biggest in the world.

But if you fancy splashing out on one of your own - and you have the space to accommodate it - then beware: This one took five years to build, cost nearly 1 billion and the annual maintenance bill will be 2 million.

The man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to the San Alfonso del Mar Resort at Algarrobo, on Chile’s southern coast, since it opened last month.

Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.

It dwarfs the world’s second biggest pool, the Orthlieb - nicknamed the Big Splash - in Morocco, which is a mere 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. An Olympic size pool measures some 50 yards by 25 yards.

Chile’s monster pool uses a computer- controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other.

The sun warms the water to 26c, nine degrees warmer than the adjoining sea.

Chilean biochemist Fernando Fischmann, whose Crystal Lagoons Corporation designed the pool, said advanced engineering meant his company could build “an impressive artificial paradise” even in inhospitable areas.

“As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean.”

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Previous Post For This Project

Most SEO experts will tell you, on site optimization is important, but it is only a small part in determining how your site ranks.  90 - 95% of your rankings are determined by off page factors such as backlinks and anchor text.

I’ve been building backlinks to my project site by networking with related blogs and participating in the comments.  I’ve built some links doing this, but a lot of blogs use the nofollow tag, so there isn’t any “link juice” flowing to my project site.  Reciprocal links no longer have the effect they once did, so how can a new site get good quality links?

There has been a lot of controversy about paid links.  Google a.k.a. “The Paid Links Police” has been openly targeting sites that buy or sell links.  Personally, I’m willing to risk it.

One of the big link brokers is Text Link Ads.  You can choose links from their inventory of sites and pay a monthly fee that ranges from ten dollars to  several hundred dollars.   The problem with this option is once you stop paying, the links disappear.

I think a much better option is paid blog reviews.  There are several brokers that link bloggers with advertisers.  I found Blogvertise the best in terms of selection and price.  I had to be approved as a “Power User” in order to view their inventory of blogs.  Once I submitted my application for”Power User” status, I was approved within 2 hours.

The big advantage of using paid blog reviews versus text link ads is cost.  With most text link ads, you have to pay a monthly fee to keep the link active.  With blog reviews, you pay a one time fee and your link stays active as long as the blog is active.

I was able to pick up reviews for my project site from 9 blogs, including 2 pr6 blogs, for only $44.  In my opinion, $44 for 9 permanent links is a great deal!  These same links would easily cost me $200 - $300 a month from a text link broker.

A piece of advice, if you decide to purchase paid links, then be selective.  Buy links from blogs that are closely related to your site.  Make sure the blog is writing quality reviews and isn’t writing reviews for shady sites like gambling or pornography.

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I’ve always been interested in expired domain names.  With a little bit of luck, it seems like a great way to get a domain that already has links and is past the sandbox stage.  The problem is finding these domains and the process required to purchase one.

I’ve always regarded the process as confusing.  There were tons of software tools available, but none that I found terribly impressive.  Besides that, most of them required some type of monthly subscription.

The other day a friend of mine recommended I checkout a site called Fresh Drop.  This site has been a treasure trove of for finding expired domain names.  You can sort domains by Page Rank, Dmoz Listing, Yahoo Backlinks, age, and many other factors.  At the time I am writing this post, there are several PR5 domains for sale for only $5!

I’ve picked up two very good domain names related to one of my project sites.  I probably will not spend the time developing the new domains, but since they are related to one of my current sites, I’ll simply use a 301 redirect to pick up several hundred backlinks with related anchor text.

As I learn more and more about expired domains, I am sure this site will come in handy.  This site is definitely worthy of bookmarking.

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Previous Post For This Project

I’m on day 7 of this SEO project. SEO work is tough for me. I’m the guy that wanted it done yesterday and doesn’t mind working 20 hours a day to make it happen. I don’t want results tomorrow. I want them now!

SEO doesn’t work that way. A lot of the changes I have made to my project site have been small. There isn’t much for me to do except monitor, watch, and wait. SEO work is really a test of my patience.

I’m determined to do something each and every day for the next 30 days to make my project site rank better. My domain is already 1 year old, so I shouldn’t have any sandbox issues to worry about. I’m confident at the end of 30 days, my site will be showing on the radar for at least some of my targeted keywords.

When I started this project, I wanted to find a well known SEO expert to spend 6 - 8 hours pointing me in the right direction in exchange for $2,500 - $3,500. One of the experts I contacted was Dan Thies. Like every SEO expert I contacted, Dan wasn’t interested in my few thousand dollars. I figure these guys either figure me for a tire kicker that doesn’t really plan to pay for anything, or they make so much money from their mastery of SEO that a few thousand dollars is chump change to them. My guess is it is the latter.

Dan did take the time to look at my project sites and wrote this response.

Brent, these look like a bunch of 12-page web sites. Each individual piece of content might seem OK, but none of these sites is much of a resource in itself. Look at the search terms you’re targeting, look at the first page of search results, and check out how many pages each site has indexed.

Dan

Dan’s comment left me with a major question. Is it possible to rank a 12 page website if you are selective with the keywords you are targeting and have some good backlinks? I don’t know the answer to this question. I suspect that in some cases it is, but Dan’s comment leaves me believing that it could be a difficult task.

While Dan’s comments were short, they have led me to two major changes I am going to be incorporating into my project site.

1. I don’t want to have content written just for the purpose of targeting a keyword. My goal is to provide the searcher with the information they are looking for. For instance, if you were targeting the phrase “buy an ipod”, would it make sense to send the searcher to a page that simply included a basic article, but didn’t actually offer ipods for sale? Or would it make better sense to send the searcher to page where they could purchase an ipod and / or provided reviews and prices for other sites that sold them? The answer to this question is obvious.

I think I have been so caught up in picking out keywords that I considered easy to rank for that I missed the big picture. I’ve considered it acceptable to send searchers to a page that included an article with my list of on page optimization factors without taking the time to stop and ask the question, “Am I giving my visitors what they are searching for?”

2. Dan was right about the number of pages on my site. When I take a look at the number of pages indexed by sites that are ranking for my keywords, most have considerably more than 12 pages. The range is pretty broad, but a good average for my niche is 200 indexed pages. Adding USEFUL content is next on my list of things to do for my project site.

I spent some time this afternoon looking at other related sites and thinking about what information would be useful for a visitor searching for keywords related to this niche. I didn’t give any consideration to the number of monthly searches or competitors. Matter of fact, I didn’t even single out any keywords or phrases. I simply made my decision based solely on what information would someone interested in this niche find useful.

I’ve come up with ideas for 50 additional pages of content to add to my project site. I’ve already got one of my writers working on it and expect to have it on the site by next weekend. This is content that is being written for the searcher and not the search engines. I’m very anxious to see what type of results I get.  As always, I’ll keep you posted.

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The PPC traffic I have been sending to my blog has given me a good idea of which products for my niche convert the best.   There is one product I have been promoting that has really good conversions.  I sent an email to the product owner and asked for an interview that I could include on my site.  I received a return email with a cell number and short note that said, “Call me”.

I spoke to the product owner for nearly an hour today.  I was unaware until today, that in addition to the one product I have been promoting, she has several others all related to the same niche.   I’m very anxious to start listing these products and testing conversions.

She is also going to give me access to an autoresponder series that I can rebrand and offer to my visitors.  Currently, I don’t have an email list for my site.  If there is one thing I’ve learned from selling physical products, that is you can’t be successful selling to one time visitors.  To be successful, you have to build a list and keep your visitors coming back.  I hope to have my site ready for signing up email subscribers in a few days.

One very important thing I’ve learned today, if you are having success promoting a product, contact the product owner.  They are in the best position to provide feedback, make you aware of other related products, and provide additional tools that may not be available to their other affiliates.

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I spent a few hours today using Fast Blog Finder to find blogs related to my project site. I was able to find several posts that I felt I could add to the discussion. I left comments with anchor text that targeted my keywords and linked back to my project site. In all, I was able to find 25 - 30 blogs to leave comments on.

Let me say, I’m not interested in leaving spam in hopes of getting a few links. My rule of thumb, if I am not willing to check the “subscribe to comments box” and follow up with the discussion, I will not leave a comment.

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Previous Yahoo Directory Update

Google - It wasn’t a good week for my Google rankings. I’ve given back the gains I made last week. With this weeks adjustment, my net rankings increase / decrease for Google since my Yahoo Directory submission are flat.

Yahoo - Yahoo has been a real disappointment. If any search engine gave weight to a Yahoo Directory Submission, I would think it would be Yahoo. That doesn’t appear to be the case. While most of my keywords increased in ranking this week, I still haven’t made up the huge losses from last week. Overall, my Yahoo rankings are down considerably since my Yahoo Directory Submission.

MSN - It was a good week for my MSN rankings. I moved up a total of 10 rankings and picked up two number one spots.

I ran this report with Web CEO Ranking Checker. (Affiliate Link - Read this before you consider buying it.)

Click Image to Enlarge

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One of my readers, Forest Parks, mentioned how much he liked Micro Niche Finder for reasearching long tail keywords. I personally don’t use MNF, but was interested in learning more about it. I asked Forest if he would author a guest post on MNF and he graciously accepted. Take it away Forest.

———–

Hi, my name is Forest of The Random Forest and Brent has very kindly allowed me to write a guest post related to Micro Niche Finder, my choice piece of software for finding under served long tail keywords even in a saturated market.

I am a blogger, just recently turned full time and by no means an expert in making money online or search engine optimization, but I am starting to see great success in using Long Tail Keywords to pull visitors to my blogs.

In this post I hope to explain Micro Niche Finder (MNF, from now on ), give you real examples and show you why I think this piece of software is essential to anyone serious about finding top spots in their niche.

So what is this MNF thing exactly?

Abbreviated it sounds like a team of cartoon superheros or a cheap DIY store. MNF is just as entertaining and practical as these two things merged. When you first load it up, it’s very addictive.

I think the best way to explain it is to show and talk through an example.

Just say you are looking into the term “false teeth” for a new blog post, a niche website or whatever you may need keywords for.

So let’s start by seeing what we get when we enter “false teeth” into MNF.

You get a whole list of related keywords. From here you can find out more information about each specific keyword and work out if it is any good to use. After searching for “false teeth” I picked the keywords that interested me and found out more information about each one.

I have ordered my results in order of search count.

I’ll explain what each column means below:

OK… but what does it all mean?

• Search count - This refers to the amount of searches seen in Google per month.
• Broad Match Count - This shows the amount of results if you search the term in Google.
• Exact Phrase Count - Shows the amount of exact search matches in Google.
• Ad Cost - The cost of placing an Adwords PPC ad.
• SOC (Strength of Competition) - Measured between 1 and 100. The lower the better, MNF shows a traffic light system so we can judge each words usage.

I find a good way to pick keywords is to concentrate on the highest search count and the lowest exact phrase count combination. Make sure the SOC is always green and the broad match is not too much higher than 100,000-150,000.

Related to “false teeth” I would look into using the following Keywords:

searchtermdentures false teeth fake real looking teeth who invented false teeth george washington’s false teeth george washington’s wooden teeth making dentures how to make your own false teeth price of denture ancient dentistry theatrical teeth denture stories best dentures types of dentures how to whiten dentures average cost of dental implants

search120 450 90 90 90 600 90 90 240 450 90 2850 960 180 120

exactmatch3500 48 302 4040 1190 7640 3 9 1680 1580 240 1230 9900 180 905

soc0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 8 3 0 9 3 0 0

Now you have a great list of keywords you could make use of these to hopefully get onto the front page of Google. You could either create a niche site and write an article about each one of these keywords, using each one as the title. However I have had better success by writing one article and creating a title using a 3 to 7 Long Tail keyword and then adding all the best related keywords as tags. All of this will be indexed by Google and create many leads into your one article.

The keyword “false teeth” has not been fully researched and already you can see a way that you could be bringing over a thousand new visits to your site per month. Further investigation may just un-earth that Gold mine term.

This is just one quick way to use MNF but I am sure that you can already see it’s possible usages. You can click on each keyword and get a whole range of new options including a new search based on that keyword (called, Narrow Dig), a Google product search, a search for affiliate products, unlicensed articles to use on your sites and much more.

In this instance I would do a narrow dig on “dental implants” and get even more great keywords, as it has a monthly search of 137,190 in Google.

A few other MNF bells and whistles

• MNF gives you the ability to search using country specific versions of Google so you can target specific markets.
• The Hot Trends option allows you to see and investigate further recent Google Hot Trends so that you can get ideas for new content.
• The Brainstorm option allows you to get a random search of keywords to investigate further. Great for days when you have no idea what to write about!

Some of my real life examples:

My post Lion Hugging Woman currently sits at number 4 in Google for that search term. When I wrote the post the Google Search count was 180 per month. Not very high but I also get a lot of hits from combinations and similar keywords.

Puff Pastry Filling Recipe was written when that search term had 660 monthly searches. It now ranks at number 9 in the Google search for the term.

A search term that I wish to keep secret gets me 50-150 hits a day and is searched around 40,000 times a month. It sits at number 3 in Google and it’s Digg page sits at number 5. The site is currently idol. These are the gems that you need to hunt for. Fill a site with these and you will have a lot of traffic.

How to purchase and more information:

If you are interested in purchases Micro Niche Finder 3 then you can click my affiliate link here: www.micronichetool.com. After you fill in your details for the free videos you will be given the option to purchase for$67 and includes free updates for life.

Micro Niche Finder 3 is fully guaranteed by a 60 day money back offer, so you have absolutely nothing to lose.

Please leave your questions and comments and I will be happy to reply or give any more details.

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