This is a long term strategy to make $$$ ……….

From a friend, So here it goes…

The following will build a successful site in 1 years time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

A) Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/ tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

B) Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want "google.com" and not "mykeyword.com" . Keyword domains are out – branding and name recognition are in – big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of "goto.com" becomes "Overture.com" and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

C) Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them – there is little reason to have them that I can see – they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).

Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like "best viewed" or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself – simple is retro cool – simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until "something happens" in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

D) Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can – I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya – that bites – it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

E) Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

F) Density, position, yada…
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it  Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

G) Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

H) Insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

I) Put it Online.
Don’t go with virtual hosting – go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is "crawlable" by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main "topic index" pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a "nothing" site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

J) Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part – forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right – submit and forget.

K) Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter – you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24x7x365 in real time.

L) Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

M) Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

N) Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing – or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links – move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you – they will – eventually they will.

O) Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much "bloggin" type personal stuff and look more for "article" topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of "web speak" that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks – short sentences – lots of dashes – something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any "fades of the day" or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Q) Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

R) Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from "affiliate fades" that insert content on to your site.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view "your content", they are coming to your site looking for "their content". Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

T) Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

U) Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about "oranges", but your referrals are all about "orange citrus fruit", then you can get busy building articles around "citrus" and "fruit" instead of the generic "oranges".
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed – listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

V) Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site "Z" is coming out with product "A" at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now – those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

W) Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction – not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you "in the loop" of your keyword sector.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Y) Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet.

Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to "do something" with.

The biggest hidden SECRET is taking ACTION…

What you do today will change your tomorrow. I hope this post is useful and help you start to make a living from the internet.

I believe this is probably the blueprint that most people are actually seeking and will work for most marketing endeavors, here goes:

Targeted Traffic + Great Offer = $$$

This is the very simple blueprint but guess what, it works!

So how do we get targeted traffic?

Im sure you have read all the information possible about getting traffic from 100′s of different sources and the truth is that you only need to be KIND OF good with around 2 sources.

Here’s what you need to do:

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GETTING TRAFFIC
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Write 3 articles per day, ending up with 50+ articles all with varying anchor text (long tail keywords) and I generated alot of traffic just from these, I believe this is the best method when your just starting a new website and entering a new niche, you can become an expert, you build natural direct traffic that is pre-sold, you build authority in the niche and in the search engines and best of all, your articles get picked up by other sites which means your links actually grow over time WITHOUT you needing to do anything.

I only submitted to ezinearticles and originally I sent them to a squeeze page and collected email address, this was cool as I was getting lots of traffic and building my list, but guess what, list building is pointless unless you have cash flow!

The more people that see your offer the more likelly they are to buy it, put the sales letter up the front where it will get the most eyeballs, you can add the squeeze page when you know people actually want to buy your stuff.

I also have some previous experience with SEO, now I love free search traffic, its about as targeted as you can get if you find the right keywords, you see people who are searching are ACTIVELY seeking your product, anyways to learn SEO I recommend that you download and watch the stompernet CD’s, the red,blue, gold and purple pack, get ‘em, take a day off and learn it, take notes and implement the ideas as quick as humanly possible.

Lets say you get great at SEO and you decide to go for a term like "dog training", this traffic is great because it will build your list and you will get authority status BUT FOR CASH FLOW IT SUCKS!

There are 3 types of keywords:

a) info seekers (HD Televisions)
b) comparison/pricing (42" HD Televisions)
c) buyers (Samsung 42" HD Television with Wall Bracket)

Im sure you can see above just what im talking about, now the trick for this is to aim your site at high traffic terms (weird huh?) most people would say this was the worst way but I actually think its the best way, here’s why:

If you dominate for a broad phrase the search engines tend to rank you higher for long tail terms almost AUTOMATICALLY, this is especially the case in non-competitive niches, its like they cant find anything relivant so they just assume your the closest match and rank you at the top, this is great because we can get some traffic to the site and find out our buying keywords ($$$).

So how do we find those? Get traffic and install google analytics.

I then stick up an order form or a basic opt in box or something where I can set up a goal and measure the interest and track what keywords converted, if your just testing you can set up a landing page that says:

"Hey are you interested in buying {product xyz}? If so just hit the button below"

Then set up google analytics and set up a goal to track what conversion rate you get and which keywords converted, I see to many people trying to launch huge sales letters and spending so much money on adwords to build a list BUT THEY DONT KNOW IF THESE PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY BUY SOMETHING!

I’ve often found this easiest way to answer any question is just ask directly, forget surveys, forget opt ins, just have ONE question, the response rate is higher and you will get a faster feel for the market place.

So here is the summary of what you need to do:

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SUMMARY OF TRAFFIC-GETTING
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Write lots of articles for ezinearticles.com, 1 per day for 30 days would be fine.

Learn SEO by watching stompernet CD’s (red, blue, yellow, purple)

Install google analytics, make a landing page with just ONE question on it (HINT: Would you buy product (XYZ) today for [PRICE]?)

Monitor conversion rates and get converting keywords.

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CREATING A GREAT OFFER
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A great offer can be the difference between a dead business and a thriving one (and I learned that the hard way), I initially ran a half price offer when I started to get some traffic and it did pretty well, It was just an order form and I billed them when I completed the work.

Then it got to sucessfull so I thought id change the offer around, I created a survey and the last question was about what kind of price the customer would expect to pay, they said a really low number so to test it I created a buy now button that was for that price and they would pay upfront, the result was shockingly bad, 1 conversion in 500 website visitors, I know for a fact that this was NOT due to rubbish traffic as my offer was working when I just had the order form up (and no buy now button).

Sometimes what people say and what they do are simply NOT congruent, they give logical answers instead of actual ones, price point is an example, when asking the customer what price they expected to pay they quoted a low price because they all wanted a cheap deal, when infact I know this was a total BS answer and I know that BECAUSE I TESTED AND GOT THE ACTUAL DATA.

The next thing id recommend is that you implement feedback loops, get to know the buying triggers and questions that you market place has, I mean really dig deep, your competition has probably NEVER done this but you need to if you want to suceed.

Just implement a small survey or even just one question every week or month, run it for 100 responses and take a look at the feedback, im sure you will find it facinating to read what actual visitors are saying.

One example you might do is under the buy now button or order form you should ask "If your still hesistant about purchasing today could you please tell me why?" I mean its such a simple idea but that data is GOLD, if I can find out why someone isnt buying from me then I can correct that problem and get more sales!

I think we often just ASSUME we know what people will do when they get to our website, we know what to do so they MUST know, however you cant just assume with these things, you have to test and get some feedback from the market, ask them so many damn questions over time that you could write a book about them as a "herd".

You should know why they buy, you should know how they buy, you should know what other products they want to buy, you should know what thier budget it, you should know how they found your site, you should know what they eat for damn breakfast!

Get as much data as possible on them by asking quick one question surveys, then all you do is take the feedback you get, find the trends and common issues and work them into your sales letter, pretty easy!

As for the offer you should test differnet ways to get the sale but I find the best one is giving them a chunk of the product and telling them to pay when happy, this is good for the service based industry, info products you can give away and tell them you will bill them 30 days later, membership sites give them a free 30 day trial, physical products you can do 3 easy payments with 30 day free trial or whatever.

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SUMMARY OF GREAT OFFERS
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Test different ways of getting conversions (30 day trial, bill me later, free shipping, 3 easy payments)

Put your offer where the most traffic is (homepage is preferable)

Focus on sales, nothing else matters but cash flow unless you are making BIG money.

DO lots of ONE QUESTION surveys and just ASK people directly what you want them to answer, you never know unless you ask!

Gather together the feedback and find commen problems in the marketplace then just work them into a sales letter and address each issue.

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IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE, DO THIS:
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Install Google Analytics, monitor results and note down BUYING keyphrases, build links for those phrases and build out web 2.0 properties and dominate the entire page for your buying terms.

Implement ONE question surveys, what is your biggest question that you want to ask your website visitors?

ASK THAT QUESTION DIRECTLY.

Thats it, thats pretty much all you need to know.

Forget everything else and just focus on building THESE areas, seriously dont waste your time with anything else, its not important, you can be a great copywriter, ad tweaker, seo’er, carpet cleaner, fitness trainer, list builder…WHATEVER, but if you dont have any cash flow and sales and you dont know your marketplace and converting keywords then you aint gunna last long!

Go make some money.