It has done exactly that as many sites have been sandboxed and are now AWOL from Google’s search engine results for a site’s desired keywords.

What this means is that website developers need to now pay more attention to other factors including the presentation of good unique and useful content. Other factors include:

As a web designer, you will now be asked to create a high quality, attractive site – that kind that you would want to share with your peers and friends. This is a tall order – but may provide an opportunity for those we are able to put together and maintain such a top notch site.

Below is an excellent video from Rank Fishkin of SEOmoz that helps explain Google’s Panda 2.2 update and what it means to you.

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If you’re working in a broad target market, make an effort to create even more targeted lists for even more specific topics. For example, if you are in the weight loss market, you might have a very general weight loss newsletter.

Although that newsletter will likely be very valuable to you and quite likely your largest list, you can still go further with your efforts and increase your conversions by getting specific.

If you offer products on “fat loss” and “post-natal weight loss”, create highly-targeted lists on those very topics as well. These lists can be put on auto-pilot with a pre-sequenced autoresponder where you load in a bunch of information and promotions. You can also send broadcasts to this list when the mood strikes you.

When you understand your target market’s specific weight loss (or other) problem, it is much easier to give them the highly-targeted information that they are looking for AND to offer them the products they are more likely to buy.

I mean REALLY get to know them. Here’s how:

• Pay attention to which links they click on in your emails (and track your links!). Whether they are clicking to read/view content, take a product recommendation or sign up for more information, pay attention.

• Take note of which types of products they are buying through your links. Note which products flop and which seem to get a lot of response.

• Invite them to submit feedback on your blog on a certain topic. The response you get can be incredibly valuable and give you insight into your readers.

• When your readers do comment on your blog, take the time to click through to their websites. See what they are talking about, what their problems are, what products they are buying. Do this on a regular basis and you’ll come to understand your typical audience even further.

• Survey Them: Now, I think surveys do have their place, but never rely on this alone. I think taking note of BEHAVIOR is far more powerful. When you create a survey, people get to answer how they THINK they will behave. Thing is, people often behave in ways that are very different from how they ACTUALLY behave.

When you do your research, report it in an honest way and that will solidify your reputation with your readers even further.

When you investigate a product, avoid coming back and telling your reader’s it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread…because not everybody eats the same kind of bread.
Sure, you might think the product is really terrific, but break it down for your readers and identify:

• Who the product is for (ex. beginner rose gardeners only).
• What problems you personally see the product solving.
• Any potential drawbacks of the product.

Don’t be afraid to share any negatives because that makes your promotion REAL. For example, you can tell them that the baby stroller you’re recommending doesn’t come with a drink holder, but the other features totally make up for it. Besides, an attachable drink holder can be purchased at very little extra cost.

Your readers will appreciate your promotions, especially when you take the time to research and review everything thoroughly. In fact, your readers will come to expect you to do a lot of the hard work for them…but don’t worry this work is profitable for you!
Recently, I told my subscribers about when I discovered this to be true about my own list. A while back, one subscriber, expressed this on a recent big launch of a product:

“’So and So’ didn’t email about it, so I didn’t bother to check it out.”

And in response to that a number of people chimed in to see they felt the same.

That’s a big, but very rewarding responsibility. My readers wait to see my opinion on something and they want to know what I recommend. Do the same for your readers.

If you want your list to accept and take action on your promotions, teach them to become accustomed to promotions.

In the privacy note below your subscription box, write something like: “We will only use your email address to communicate with your regarding [x]-related topics and offers.”

BAM – You’ve told them you’ll be giving them offers.

If you want, you can also remind them in your welcome email that you’ll be sending them offers. You can tell them how you like to review products on your reader’s behalf and alert them to any products that might be helpful or to stay away from.

Again – Now they know you’re going to send them promotions. They can unsubscribe right away if they’re not happy with that.

Then, most importantly, regularly send them offers so they expect them. Don’t hide behind the excuse, “I only have 100 people to my list so I haven’t sold anything to them yet?”

WHAT? Again, your list is made up INDIVIDUALS. Whether it is 100 individuals, 2398 individuals or 100,000 individuals, doesn’t matter. Every member of your list needs to be accustomed to the way you sell tell them.

Imagine, if you decided you were going to wait until you hit 1000 subscribers before you sent a promo. That means the first 999 people on your list will be receiving no promotions for a period of time. That is NOT how to train your list to expect promotions.

Do it from the beginning.

Here’s another easy way to get over the obstacle of being afraid to do pure promotional emails. Just email your list with content more often on a scheduled basis, so when you slip in regular promos…the amount of content they receive in comparison still prevails.

Remember, you don’t have to write big fancy ezines with all kinds of sections and departments, just short simple emails that provide good value to your readers. Basically, instead of bombarding them with a ton of information all at once, you’re now giving it to them in bite-sized chunks.

Okay okay, I know the timid email marketer is going to tell me that they don’t want to bombard their list with too much email and they’ll probably get complaints. Well – maybe some will complain, but you’d be surprised at how happy your list will be to hear from you when you deliver great quality.

Of course, you need to test out the volume of email your list can bear, but if you’re providing stellar stuff…I bet they’ll want to hear from you more often.

This is one of the biggest reasons I am not a big fan of the ezine format. When you give too much stuff, you dilute your message.

If you want your subscriber to take action on something, don’t distract them with other stuff. Now, I’d like to qualify my statement a bit:

I do believe in being informative in your promotions. If you’re selling an affiliate product, an honest evaluation of that product and information on how it helps is a good thing. For example, if you’re trying to sell a product that helps your readers lower their cholesterol, illustrating the benefits of a lower lever is absolutely relevant and important content.

I’m talking about the obstacle that many email marketers put in front of themselves when they want to sell and are too timid about it. It might look like this:

• Start email with recommendation for a potty training book and then because you’re afraid to offend anyone with your selling, you then include an article that teaches your readers how to curb their toddler’s temper tantrums.

WHOA! You just completely distracted your reader. They were thinking about potty training, but then you got them on the topic of tantrums. What the HECK did you do that for?

Here’s what you could do instead:

• Write an email that starts talking about the woes of potty training. Share your experiences and relate to the pain of your reader. Talk about the things you tried that just didn’t work. Then ease into writing about the product you’re recommending and tell them why it can make the difference they’re looking for. It’s as simple as that!

Your email writing efforts need not be complicated. In fact, in my experience they should be kept really quite SIMPLE. If you’re busting your butt trying to publish a full-blown weekly ezine, you should really consider giving yourself a break.

Think of it this way. People are busy and with few exceptions, experience email overload. Why load them up even more?

Keep your messages short, simple and focused on one thing at a time. This allows your readers to quickly absorb your message and decide whether or not to take action on your call to action.

Many people think that if they offer more content, more sections, etc… they are more likely to provide something that appeals to more subscribers. But from my experience (and from the reports of many others), MOST of your readers aren’t reading past the first section of your ezine anyway. The lower down the content appeared in my ezines, the less people took action on what I wanted them to do. Whether it was to a click a link for information or to buy a product, if the information wasn’t in the first section, the response just diminished. Why work so hard if nobody is paying attention?

Overall, you want your readers to be trained to respond to your calls to action. And if you’re just adding extra stuff hoping to capture a few extra people, I suggest cutting out the fat and putting more effort into that first section…and make it the only section of your newsletter.

TIP: Also note that the more links you provide in a newsletter, the less likely your reader is to take action on the link you REALLY want them to click. Stop distracting your reader from what you want them to do.