Hi guys.

This is a follow-up to “Link-Juice And Pagerank“, posted at the start of last month.

Some ClubBloggers have gotten a little excited about geography.  And understandably so.

Why and how does the main Google site serve-up particular results for one user in the UK, one user in the US and one user in Italy?

Most of those who spend a lot of time on SEO will get this.  Others who don’t may struggle.  Those in the last bracket who have done a little work on the topic, and particularly those who’ve used AdWords, will get a little caught-up in obsessing about IP addresses.

However, whilst the IP address (which most of you know is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of the ‘net) does play a part, here (particularly with country-specific domains such as .co.uk), it is by far from being the only element. And you really do need to know more than that to properly optimize your blog/page.

Before we get to those other elements, let’s dwell a while longer on the top-level domain. In particularly, on “.com” domains.

Above, we mention the UK and Italy as geographic areas aside from the US. Well, quite a lot of people don’t realise that a “.com” domain hosted in the UK will typically be seen by Google as a UK site. Yes, you guessed it, a “.com” in Italy, an Italian site. This is despite the “.com” universal domain extension.

So, lesson number one here is that, depending on what geographical audience you wish to target, and this really is at the heart of top-level targeted traffic, then look to host locally to your audience.

Lesson number two is that the location of your inbound links (yes, we all know how much Google loves those) is also very important to the issue of geographical audience.  In a similar manner to “get hosted in the jurisdiction you wish to target”, you should get your link juice from the target geographical area.  Yes, it really does matter.

So, you say:  ”c’mon CB, my site’s international, not linked to UK, USA, Italy, Luxembourg”.  Well, fine.  A lot are (you’re not unusual:) ).  In that case, your links should be balanced, geographically.  Yes, it’s all about relevance, at least in the eyes of Google.  Is your site relevant to that Italian searcher?  Or that guy in London?

There are other lessons to learn whilst on the topic of geography, but we won’t obsess about those in detail, here.  They do, however, deserve a passing mention…..  We have seen some poor SEO operators advise on translation of a site into another language (e.g., you started in the US, you now want to target Turkey, too, and want a language-friendly Turkish site) but they forget translation of important elements like meta titles in the code, for example.  C’mon guys.  Get a grip.

We’ll come back to this overall topic again, as we’ve been asked to (and of course we always do what we’re told) but also mainly because it’s objectively really important.

Before dashing, we can’t over-estimate the importance of using Google’s Webmaster Tools properly.  Have a look and let us have your comments, thoughts, moanings if you have any.

Well, this is new.  For us, anyway!

A bunch of people have emailed ClubBlogger over the last year (increasingly over the last few months) to ask if they could suggest topics or even write guest articles. Up ’til now, we’ve not moved on this, because there are, after all, only 27 hours in a day.

Ok.  ’Nuff said.  If you want to write, write!  The gauntlet is now, formally, laid down (back into the deep language again, sorry – it’s the new coffee).

It might just be a new topic that you want to kick around.  Something you’d like to share with the community.  It might be something related to something you do and want to through it out there.  It might be something you already write about but want our guys to check it out.

It’s up to you. We have a couple of new guys on board already.

What we won’t do is just accept random stuff. It has to be useful and relevant to our community – it goes without saying.  You don’t think you can hit that hurdle, look somewhere else.  But we are excited about this and will work on it with you… who needs time to eat, anyway?

Just to be clear: this isn’t just asking for more comments. It’s a chance to join a new community of writers. We have a certain ‘twist’ We’re only interested in speaking with a few select people about this right now.

If you’d like to mull over a couple of ideas or try to kick things off, do it here. You may be new to blogging. You may be new to business. It’s a jungle out there. Or, indeed, you may have lived in the jungle for years and know all of the animals on a first name basis. Either way, let’s chop it up.

There’s a concept called “friendtors” in the Valley in California. Not mentors, but similar. You get it. And no-one sits in the “receiving seat” very long… they quickly become those sharing the information and putting the arm round the shoulder of others. The web world, particularly the blogosphere, is fast as it gets in this respect. It’s why it’s as lovely as it is

Speak soon. cb

(Firstly, apologies for the lack of recent posting. The “wheels fell off” our server and the backup wasn’t, er, backed-up properly. Hmm. It’s a long story!!)

This post ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’.  It touches on the relatively low returns from AdSense and, importantly for many of you, provides insights into the world of an entrepreneur who is looking to decapitate AdSense!! In particular the last bit sounds UNBELIEVABLE … read on, though, and you’ll get to the details of Widget Ad Generator.

As an AdSense advertiser (we are, and know that many of you are), you receive a percentage of the amount paid by advertisers for each click on an ad. Unlike other networks, Google doesn’t state what that percentage is. It varies and, in all honesty, it generally isn’t a bad share.

Revenue generation is dependent on various things:

• Page views/day
• Price paid by the advertiser (the AdWords advertiser) for each click
• The nature/type of the site’s content
• Of course, the number of people who click!

If you only generate a few hundred page views a day, you won’t necessarily receive a tiny amount. Actually, light traffic sites can and does generate big revenue if the topic which they cover on the site is niche, resulting in dedicated viewers and high click-through of ads. However, the issue is that, despite this, you’re not going to give up the day job on the revenues you make unless your traffic is decent and you’re very well positioned in the market… Not that we’re giving away our revenue

Using AdSense, therefore, for most people “How much will I make” is a “how long’s a piece of string?” type question. There are no limits. People have and do generate very large monthly income by using AdSense. But most don’t. The vast majority don’t.

We use AdSense, as I say.  However, we’re seriously considering other options, having looked at the new strategy created by Todd Thompson, the CEO of a company in Colorado. Todd has created a tool called the “Widget Ad Generator”, a great piece of innovation in the world of the internet.

The principle behind Todd’s product, which has been endorsed by the heads of various ‘net companies, is that “you just don’t need to rely on AdSense”. Simple, eh? Er, we weren’t convinced…

But it’s a good idea. And it’s based on the bedrock of affiliate marketing (we all know where the web would be without it!).

Widget Ad Generator is an easy-to-use tool which we (and probably you) won’t want to do without. Whilst there may be other ways of getting from A to B on this particular journey, the widget makes it seamless. And simple. And fast.

If you go here you can see for yourself.  Be warned – it’s a bit “salesy” (!) but when you get through it, you’ll realize the principles and the essence of this product are sound – it works. Google, look out!

As always, bye for now.

Many have asked us to say more about Twitter. We don’t need asking too many times!

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages.  People write short updates, often called “tweets”  of 140 characters or fewer.  These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.

All you need to use Twitter is an internet connection or a mobile phone. Once you’re in, type your first update into the web box.  To get an idea of what other people are saying or doing on Twitter, check out Twitter search to see what Twitter’s all about.  You can search by keyword or just check out the trending topics to what’s hot on Twitter right now.

When you create an account, you can search for people by name or user name, import friends from other networks, or invite friends via email.  If you don’t want to do that, follow some of the people Twitter suggests. Once you’ve found your friends, follow them to start getting their updates.

Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates.   When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear in your Twitter home page.  New messages are added to your home page as people post them, so you always get the updates in real time.  When you log in, you can see what the latest updates are.  Twitter offers other ways to follow people too: you can get updates from certain people on your phone!

After you click the follow button on someone’s profile, you’re following them.  The follow button will change to a box that says “Following” with a drop down option to remove a person if you want to. If you’ve registered your phone with Twitter, you can set up text preferences for a person as well.  See a list of people you’re following by clicking on the ‘following’ link on your profile or your home page’s sidebar.

Twitter sends you an email when someone new follows you.  Set up your email preferences to notify you when you have a new follower.  The followers link on your profile page or home page’s sidebar will also tell you how many followers you have.

Twitter offers many ways to post updates: from the web in the update box, from your phone,  from your mobile web browser using m.twitter.com, or from any third party application made by the talented folks who’ve utilized Twitter’s API.

Can you put my Twitter updates on your blog?

Yep! Put a Twitter badge on your blog, website, MySpace… anything that accepts Javascript or HTML.  You can even customize your Twitter badge to match!

Thanks to twitter.com – check out their help resources for more information!

Effective, legal, effective email marketing is always permission-based. If not, it is called spam.

If you didn’t sign up for it, you think of it as spam – we’ve all experienced this. So why would anyone feel differently about messages you send them if they didn’t sign up for them?

Communicating, and marketing, via email requires a positive relationship. All messages swapped are opportunities to either strengthen or weaken that relationship.  To enhance the relationship, always make sure the content is relevant, useful, and interesting to the readers. You can hardly achieve this if they didn’t want to receive the messages in the first place!

Having and growing a big list of people who don’t want or read your emails gives you no advantage and is a waste of your time. Even if email is ‘free’, your time is certainly not.

You should appreciate and expect that a proportion of manually added email addresses will subsequently unsubscribe. Interestingly, if they do not, expect few of them to ever open your messages!  Remember this: even when someone deletes a message without opening it, they still see who it’s “From”. They are still exposed to your brand. The only take-home message they get is that you keep emailing them even though they don’t want you to! This is 100% actively detrimental to the reputation you have and to the relationship you’re trying to build.

If you’re not sure your approach is the right one, it’s probably not. Remember this, too!

Relationships built on trust will last, whereas those built on spam are bound to fail. If you think someone might like to be on your email list, always invite them to sign up and let them decide.

For a free CD about nailed-on effective marketing, click here.

There have been a lot of studies into the correlation between domain registration length and successful Search Engine Optimization – particularly for those that are in Google top 10 for any competitive terms.

It has been theorized that the longer the registration length, the more trusted the domain to Google.

You know why? It shows you are serious about your business. Business owners that registered their domain for a longer time are mostly serious owners and have good long term plan for their domains.

It make sense that throwaway or spammy domains are registered for a short time because the spammers do not have serious funding. It is common sense that any long term plans in attempting to spam search engines will not work because of algorithm continuous improvement. This makes domain registration length of spammy domains very short (generally, at most 2 years).

Despite being aware of this, MOST DO NOT KNOW that the top 10 ranking domains for any competitive terms in Google are registered on the average of 10 years! It has been randomly sampled.

So, if you are seriously into long term ranking, register your domain for around 10 years. Stats say it shows high probability of 1st page ranking.

Of course, bear in mind that the length of registration itself does not mean your domain will rank because of relevance. You still need a lot of SEO work for this. Hand-in-hand with a long registration period, sites must provide compelling services and make themselves helpful to visitors. These are vital ingredients for long term Google ranking success and any good SEO specialist will emphasize this time and time again.

We will be revisiting this topic in more detail. I’d really like to hear your thoughts in the meantime, plus any specific experience of the topic.

To kill any blog, just stop posting to it!  Whatever the reason, whether pace of life, other projects or lack of enthusiasm. None of us like to think about these things, but if you want a successful blog, you must!

Everyone experiences similar issues in the world of blogging.  Learn from them and move on.

Keep it vibrant, keep it interesting and keep it useful.

HERE ARE MY 5 TOP TIPS:

1. Why not try something NEW. What we find helpful in lifting posting back up is to open the door to something new. Try topic you’ve not looked at before, start some kind of project or competition, start a series of posts or write in a different style or voice – sometimes doing something ‘new’ can not only give you energy but your readers also.

2. Just like ‘conventional’ writers, bloggers suffer from ‘blocking’ – bloggers block, if you like.  A great tip is to try a new blogging environment. Why not leave the house to do some blogging. If you’re not able to actually take your mac/pc out of the house (you don’t have a laptop) then grab a notebook and head out with that to brainstorm topics, write or do some planning of your blog. Go to the park. The cafe. Wherever you enjoy.

3. Set REALISTIC goals and deadlines. Be clear with yourself as to targets and goals, but don’t be too ambitious. Set yourself some achievable goals to get yourself going again. Perhaps your goal will be simply to post once this next week. Then after that, post twice, three times… your own pace but a targeted pace. If you’re simply feeling apathy, try writing shorter posts. Why not break down the topic into something more bite sized? It will probably read better and you’ll appreciate it more.

4. Set rewards/incentives. Some people respond well to this – set yourself a few rewards that you’ll give yourself when you reach certain milestones.

5. Convert something from your daily life into a post. Personal life experience interests readers and it will interest you. Why not video yourself doing something, record a conversation, use an email interaction etc. So many things that you do each day are potentially very powerful, great content for your blog – the key is to be aware of them and find a way to collect and use them.

Very, very importantly, read this but don’t let it distract you from the task at hand. Go for it. I know you can. You know you can.  It’s in there – let it out!  Good luck, but most of all enjoy and let it flow.

Many Internet marketers don’t go the extra step to legalize their business and get the appropriate licensing. Some people may see this as a huge hassle and an extra expense. When they choose not to do so, they put themselves personally at risk. Now, every Internet marketer may not find it necessary to license their business. If an individual just makes a few extra bucks online, then it may not be worth the hassle, time or money. However, if an individual is earning a lot of money, then they may want to consider getting all of the appropriate business licenses and incorporating their company.

Being incorporated and operating as a business, allows individuals to protect their personal assets. If an individual provides a service and something goes wrong, they cannot be sued personally if they are doing business through a corporation. This can be a very important step in protecting one’s family, their money and their other assets.

It is also beneficial because it helps you keep your personal and professional lives separate. When you really treat your business like a business, then you need to a get a separate bank account, keep separate records and credit cards. Individuals who don’t separate their business from their personal affairs may find things getting very muddled. It will be hard to tell where the income is actually coming from.

Keeping your business separate and acting as a business entity is very beneficial when it comes to tax time. If you have an incorporated business with a separate bank account and different credit cards, it is much easier to figure out how much money you spent on advertising or supplies. You also can figure out your income easier. This really helps what is time to pay your taxes. It will be easier to file. It also gives you an opportunity to see just how well business has performed. Did you make a profit? Was there a loss? If you have business and you incurred a loss in a particular year, this will benefit you come tax time. However, if your loss is grouped and with your other income, you may actually end up making money, when you add your income from other sources. Subsequently, you will end up paying a lot more in taxes then necessary.

In many cases, it’s a good idea for individuals to follow the proper channels in order to make their online business official and legal. This may include incorporating the business or making sure that it is licensed within the state and city that it is operated in. This can help individuals protect their personal assets, keep their finances separate and will also make things much easier when it comes time to file for taxes.

Online business is now a common concept and it is here to stay in the business world. Even those who had been running their businesses in a traditional way are now forced to change their present mind set. Well, many of us have already been familiar with the online line business concept. But one also one needs to know about how to protect its online business in the right way. The tips are as follows:

1. Create your own backups for your websites and databases:

A lot of online business owners over look this point. They don’t find it necessary to take backups. They think that it is the job of the web hosting company to provide back up services and that it is their duty to be able to restore files with ease. Well, it is partly right to think in that way. However, what happens if on a particular day, if something goes wrong from the web hosting companies end?

What if due to some major server issues, the web hosting companies may not be in a position to restore your file? Who is to be blamed in such a situation? Are they truly accountable for this unwanted event? What if you would have your own back up, whereby you could have solved this issue from your end? It is important to also have your own website backups for tackling emergency issues. Also, databases are considered to be key components to keep many types of sites running. For example: blogs, forums, ecommerce, software etc.

Backups can also be done on a periodic basis from within your control panel or by using low cost software that makes the entire process automated. You can simply download the concerned backups to your hard drive. You can also create many copies and keep those backups in a place which is safe enough.

1. Use a multiple web hosting service:

We are all aware of the famous saying; “Never put all your eggs in one basket” This above statement is applicable to your online business. It is unsafe to use just one web hosting company for your web hosting, domain register or other services that are a critical piece of your business, you will then mess your business in return. I don’t think you want to take that chance, isn’t it? You must be aware of the consequences which can take place in case something happen to that one website service which you are entirely depending upon. Just check if it’s the right option to have one or more web hosting plans for your online business.

1. Have your business documented :

It is wise to document every aspect of your business. If something unfortunate happens to you, then you can get your business rolling through some other person who can refer the documented business method and run the business smoothly in your absence.

1. Entrust your outsourced work to multiple outsourced workers:

If you outsource your entire business work to just one vendor, then there is danger of providing too much information about how your business operates. Avoid having just one outsourced worker. Always, compartmentalize the entire portion of your business work and distribute it to multiple outsourced workers. By using the strategy, you are preventing a particular person to know exactly how your entire business works.

Productive and motivated affiliates can make you a lot of money. Best of all, it only requires an upfront investment from you. After that, it is completely free advertising. If you provide your affiliates with a few good tools, some direction, combined with a great product and sales letter and you can sit back and let your affiliates do all of the heavy lifting.

Some individuals have become wealthy by building a well equipped affiliate force. Below, we will discuss how to ensure that your affiliates have everything that they need to help you make more money. Be sure that they are equipped with graphics, the best places to advertise and how to be successful as an affiliate. If you do these things, they will be much more motivated to spend time promoting your product. The more motivated they are, the more that they will sell and the more money you will make.

Below are some tips to help you build your affiliate force:

Create a Special Page: Create a page that is specifically for your affiliates. This page should include everything that they need to successfully promote your product.

Create Graphics: Pay a little money and have banners and ebook covers made. It will make it much easier for your affiliates to promote your product.

Give Direction: Some affiliate marketers, especially if they are just starting out, may not know where to begin. Give them direction by creating adverts for them, providing advice on the best ways to advertise. Be sure to explain to them free ways to advertise as well, so that don’t feel like they are taking a risk.

Provide Keywords: Many of your affiliates will want to use pay-per-click to advertise. This would be a good time to suggest that they either purchase keyword researching tools or show them where they can do this research for free. Note, the less money that they have to spend promoting your product, the better. Give them a few good keywords to start off, but encourage and teach them to do their own research.

Provide Advertising Leads: If you know of any places to advertise that convert well, pass this information on to your affiliates. Remember, the more money they make, you make, so share, share, share!

Write Articles & Sample Adverts: Create a few pay-per-click, ezine and email advertisements that your affiliates can use. Also create a few sample articles and press releases that they can modify for their own use.

If you give your affiliates everything they need to sell your product, they will more apt to take action. There are thousands of other affiliate programs that they can choose from. Make yours an attractive one to promote. Your affiliates will be happy and your bank account will be much fatter!