My “Secret” SEO Toolkit

September 23, 2009

Recently – I’ve been pushing out some sites that are doing very well in the search engines (and doing it very quickly). Now, while I can’t give away EVERY secret for this, I can let you know some of the tools I’m using to make this happen.

We’d all like to think that we can manage on our own without any help – and, eventually, maybe you can. But, if you want to move quickly – and get your site out there and ranking (or make some drastic improvements to your site) it helps to have several tools at hand to make life a bit easier.  The beauty of it is, none of these things are all that expensive, and they aren’t garbage “Secret SEO Software” that will rip you off for  a couple hundred bucks. Each of these tools has paid for itself in time saved and results.

Be forewarned though – you still have to put in some work to make things happen here, but this is a really good start. Here’s the cocktail I’ve used to get to the top 5 in several competitive categories:

Shoemoney PPC/SEO Tools.  Hands down the best deal in intensive niche research. Jeremy is letting you try this out for $3.95…so it’s cost effective way to test it out.

Thesis Wordpress Theme. Wordpress is the best blog engine out there, and Thesis is the best way to leverage it. I credit the super-SEO readiness of this theme with about 60% of my recent success. Watch the video and see for yourself.

Nichebot Keyword Research. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s the best value.  Lots of ways to generate more, and better, keywords for SEO and PPC.

Cheap/Awesome Hosting Services – Hostgator has provided me with incredible customer service – and more importantly, has a push button Wordpress Installer that is second to none. You can’t beat $4/month for high-quality hosting.

Lastly, you want to makes sure that you get active in Google Webmaster Tools – it’s great intelligence for further optimization, and is a huge benefit in getting your entire site indexed.

(disclosure – I should tell you that if you purchase any of these products, I’ll be paid a small affiliate fee.  If you’re not cool with that, just take the affiliate code out of the link…I’d recommend them anyway, because we’re friends)

Just get it started already.

September 23, 2009

I’m a planner.  In a big way.  I’m also a perfectionist. This makes launching new affiliate campaigns difficult (client campaigns have deadlines, so that makes it easy). I want everything to be 100% before it goes out.  On one note, that makes a lot of sense – I have no intention of throwing a thousand bucks away on a product/offer that isn’t going to work.

On the other hand – this often leads to lots of potential money making projects left to die “on the vine.”

So, how do you force yourself into action?

Well, if you’re a business owner, you set goals and create a system to make yourself accountable for them. If you happen to be an Internet marketing geek whose most regular work day contact is with his dog, you blog about it.  Nothing sets you up for success like the risk of abject public humiliation.

So – what is my goal? It’s pretty simple – I have $2,000 to use over the next 6 weeks. I have to turn that into $3,000 in 6 weeks, using absolutely nothing that is currently in existence.  (I’m making a small exception for a couple sites that already exist, but aren’t generating revenue, as those are the stimulus for this whole idea).

Let me break it down – no campaigns are set up, no SEO foundation has been built for these sites…with the exception of already having a couple domain names purchased, and a glimmer of a plan – I’m starting from scratch.

I have to choose my next steps carefully – more importantly, I have to move forward – no way I reach that goal from scratch without making some big time progress early on.

By the way – did I mention I’m getting married next week? HA.

I’ll update my progress here – several posts describing more in depth what I’m doing will be protected…so you’ll need to join 7xo Academy to get access to those.  (see the signup box in the upper right?)

Affordable Direct Mail Printing Services

September 21, 2009

People go on and on about online – and that’s fine.  I do it too.  5 years ago, online marketing was killing direct mail in terms of ROI.  These days – as Google Adwords get more expensive, and printing services get cheaper, direct mail is making a comeback!

There’s a lot to be said for the effectiveness of mailing a postcard to potential customers.  In fact, for many smaller businesses, this can be a LOT more effective than online advertising.

I strongly suggest you give it a try – the offer on the right hand side of this page lets you get 100 free postcards to test out – how can you beat that?!?!