What about when you want results…NOW. Not next month…and not one week from now?

Since the money is in your relationship with a list, what about when you want to grow your list FASTER than ever before. Out goes PPC as it is expensive and it takes quite a bit of time to get a campaign optimized for great results. Out goes just the basic free giveaway for building a list. You have the enticement but not the marketing.

In comes the JV.

Whether it’s to make money with immediate sales or build a list, the QUICKEST way to profits is through some type of JV deal.

You find those in your market who ALREADY have your future subscribers and customers on their list. You come up with a deal or a value trade that is a triple win (the subscribers win, the JV partner wins, and you win). Then you run the deal.

It could be as simple as participating in a free teleconference. For example, one recent group teleconference I participated in added 300 subscribers in less than 24 hours at no cost whatsoever. If each of those subscribers is worth $1 a month to me, that is an extra $300 per month for my business for the one hour I spent on the call.

Or it can simply be creating a new product which you price at a low level such as $10 to $20. You give away 100% commissions and use software such as Rapid Action Profits to pay the affiliates immediately through Paypal. In this case, you wouldn’t just be building “free subscribers,” you’re adding BUYERS which are worth MUCH MORE MONEY to you.

I’ve put together a list of 7 QUICK JV List Building Strategies. I’ll be sharing them on a special teleconference call tomorrow at 2 PM Eastern (1 PM Central – and so on). That’s July the 7th.

You can register for the free call here…

Here is a quick list of some of the other teleconferences which will take place in this series on list building (please note that I don’t know all the speakers and can’t comment about what they will discuss).

- July 21st – Michael Savoie @ 2pm Eastern

- July 29th – Debra Thompson Roedl @3pm Eastern

- August 4th – Pat Marcello 6pm Eastern

- August 11th – Guido Nuusbaum -3pm Eastern

There is to be another list building call on July 14th but the speaker is still up for discussion at the moment by what Michael Kehinde told me.

You can register for the free call here…

In December 2008 Nick released Free Traffic System – free community where bloggers can build backlinks, get free content and push their sites to top pages in search engines. Because of the value provided, this community has grown to over 10,000 members in this short period!

This is Part 2 of the publication which was started here. We are explaining how to make sure that SEO companies do not cheat you and do exactly what you pay them for. In the first part of this publication we explained how exactly SEO companies can cheat you on keyword research. Now the time is to talk about other types of SEO services. In an upcoming 3rd part we’ll talk about the off-page part of optimization (link building).

I will mention here that I want to make sure you don’t understand the prices Nick mentions below. The big keys to SEO come not as much in the on-page optimization, but also in the off-page and the link building (which can be very time consuming). You’ll also notice he doesn’t list a price at all for “writing” of the page itself. This is where the most involvement is on the page.

I agree with Nick completely on the fact that it’s quick to do all the meta tags. If you’re being charged high fees for those elements, you’re being cheated. Plain and simple. And if those factors are ALL an SEO company does for you, they’re missing it BIG TIME.

Here’s Nick…

Onpage Optimization

Onpage optimization (also known as onsite optimization) is about making your web page fit specific standards that are encouraged by Google and other search engines. We will not go into all details of these standards. In a nutshell, they are simple – your page must be “readable” to the search engine bots, in nice simple code.

This is like feeding birds in the park: if you give them crumbs – they eat them with pleasure, but if you throw them bread that is wrapped up in paper and double wrapped up in something else – poor birds will go crazy trying to get to the food.

The same with search engines, if you build your site with the help of site constructors (also known as Content Management Systems or CMS) which wrap up your text into huge piles of clumsy programming code – then search engine bots will have big troubles trying to “read” and index your text.

That is why before we go to the nuances of onpage optimization, I would recommend you to ask your SEO companies what site engine/site constructor/content management system they are going to build your site. And – by the way – if the choice of site engine is in your hands from the very beginning, then make a wise choice so that your text is readable and the CMS has at least basic SEO features included.

My personal choice over the last years is WordPress. And Terry’s blog which you are reading right now is also built on WordPress. It does not mean that this is the only site engine that is OK for SEO, but more and more people choose WordPress today, because lots of SEO tools are automatically inserted into this site engine.

The Maximum Onpage SEO Package

For you to understand how not to get cheated on the onpage optimization with your site, it would be very helpful to have the list of “maximum onpage SEO package” – in other words to know what exactly can be done as part of onpage SEO on your site.

Here are a few elements we’re going to cover:

- meta title of page
- meta description of page
- meta keywords of page
- URL of the page
- text of the page (the body of the text – what you actually see when you read a page)

It is also important to know that parts of the text of the page – like headlines, subheadlines – are also wrapped into special codes. These codes give “hints” to the search engine robots “this is a headline in my text, it is important” or “this is a subheadline, it is also quite important” etc. This is done with the help of html code like H1, H2. You do not need to know these codes, but your SEO company should be using these tags when they build your page.

NOTE: Depending upon the site engine there might be additional elements for onpage optimization. For example, WordPress has tags and these tags can be very helpful in generating more traffic.

Make Sure to Use *Golden* Keywords in Onpage SEO!!

This is very important. Usually onpage SEO is done to make your page or site look more “adequate” for a specific keyword. That is why if you have one or several *golden* keywords researched for your niche (read more about *golden* keywords in Part 1 of this publication), then it is absolutely vital that you have at least one page optimized for the *golden* keyword.

In simple words it means that this *golden* keyword must be used throughout the page: in the URL of the page, in meta title and description, in the text itself, etc.
Surely do not overdo the optimization, it does not mean that every sentence of your text should have the *golden* keyword inside. Mentioning it 1-3 times in the text is fine.

But it is vital to use the *golden* keywords in onpage SEO, because you pay money to get these keywords found, and surely you need to capitalize on them.

Prices and Cheating

The typical catch that SEO services use is to sell you a less valuable job as a more valuable job. As there are no fixed standards on the market, you cannot appeal to any prices.

I would try to help you with the following. I will explain what exactly each job from the “maximum onpage SEO package” is about. And then you – with the help of the common sense – will be able to pre-estimate what price is ok for it and what is too much.

You will also see that the prices are quoted on a “per page” basis. It is done so, because each of the pages of your site needs special care. Surely today there are solutions that can clone one and the same meta title, description and other elements to all pages of your site. But this is not very good for the SEO, because search engines will see that all your pages have the same info, and it can look unnatural.

That is why it is really better if all pages of your site look a little different when it comes down the texts of meta title, meta description and the texts on the page. If you cannot afford it, then at least make sure that onpage SEO of the 2-3 pages on which you are focusing your attention do not get “cloned” on all other pages of your site – these 2-3 pages must have unique, hand-made onpage customization.

(*) meta title of the page

Meta title is the text that you see at the top of the browser, like shown on the screenshot

Meta title is very important for SEO, because it is not only shown in the browser, but also part of the meta title is shown in the search engine results, like this:

As you can see, meta title is not something that is seen only at the top of the browser window (where hardly any human being will focus attention on), but also in the search engine results. And this is important, because a meta title that is not attractive, a meta title that is not intriguing enough to make the surfer click the page is a waste of effort.

So, the work about meta title is a combination of SEO (putting your keywords into it) and copywriting (making your title appeal to the potential readers).

Price: $5 per one page – I think this is quite a fair price, but you can try to negotiate a discount if you order many pages and, perhaps, can even drop in to $4/page on big amount of pages.

(*) meta description of the page

You cannot see meta description anywhere in the page (only in the HTML code of the page), but description is visible on the search engine results. I am showing it here:

As you can see, meta description is also important not only for SEO, but also for attracting the attention of the potential readers, because a big portion of meta description is shown in the results of the search engine.
This means a nicely written intriguing description can help you to attract more readers. So, in an ideal version this is also a combination of SEO and copywriting.

Price: $5-10 per one page – as description is longer than meta title, you can hear the argument about increasing the price for it. And this is logical. But I assume that this is NOT SO MUCH text to be added; instead of one sentence like you have with meta title, this is about 2-3 sentences in the meta description. Plus, if you order a nice package, I am sure that you can negotiate the meta title + meta description to be done for $7 per page on nice volumes.

(*) meta keywords of the page

The importance of meta keywords for SEO is disputable, and you can hear that meta keywords are not really that important as they used to be years ago.

My personal experience shows this is true – meta keywords are getting less and less SEO value. But if you get them negotiated as a bonus to your onpage package – why not?

Price: my personal opinion is that this particular item of onpage optimization that needs to be fought for. If you want to get it as a nice bonus to your package and your SEO company is not against it, great. If they try to get some extra money for this very service, then I do not think it makes any sense to pay any additional more for it.

(*) URL of the page

With URLs it is very simple – it is great for SEO if your *golden* keywords are used in the URL of this page.

Search engine bots “read” the URL as well, and if you have a *golden* keyword mentioned in the URL – it can be an additional SEO boost that will help you to get a better position in search engine results for this very keyword.

NOTE: there is one technical nuance – not all site engines allow to put any keyword you want into the URL of a specific page. And this is a SEO disadvantage if you cannot do that. So, my recommendation to you – when you are choosing the content management system for your site – to make sure that your site constructor allows putting the keywords into the URL (like Wordpress).

Price: this job is pretty simple; basically it is just about putting the keyword in the URL and making it more or less readable, that is why I do not think that it is worth any additional money. It is much better if you can negotiate it to be as part of meta title and meta description pack – and all this can be done for up to $10 per page, especially if you hire them to do that for a nice number of pages.

(*) text of the page

This is the biggest textual part and that is why it has lots of variations.

First of all, you need to find out if YOU or the SEO service is going to create the text for this page. It is very important, because this can be the most expensive part of the onpage optimization.

If SEO service is writing the text for you, then the best type of text you can get is a unique text. Surely this unique text costs a lot. For example, one piece of unique text of 450 words can cost you starting from $15 to more – it all depends upon the niche and how many pages you are ordering. And if this is done by a professional copywriter, then of course the price will be much higher (but so would the results once visitors get to the page).

There is one typical catch that can be used about unique text, SEO services can try to sell you rewritten text as unique. There is nothing bad about rewritten text, but the price for it is not as high as for the unique text. That is why if you decided to buy unique text, make sure to use services like copyscape.com for checking the uniqueness of the text. There for 5 cents (in their paid membership) you can check the uniqueness of any text and be sure that you get what you paid for.

But, once again, unique text is not obligatory. If you cannot afford to pay for it or to write it yourself, hire SEO service to rewrite the text. There are lots of PLR (private label rights) packages with articles that allow to have been rewritten, without any legal problems, and SEO services typically have lots of these PLR packages available. One rewritten article (400-450 words inside) should cost around $10 – this is quite a fair price.

Also ask SEO service if they will put H1, H2 and other HTML mark up code in the text on your pages. This job is not obligatory and even without it your text (provided it has at least one *golden* keyword inside) is already helping you. Still, if a SEO service can do that marking of the text with proper codes – this can be an extra SEO boost to the quality of your text in the eyes of search engines. I do not think that this job can cost more than $5 per page, because usually it is about just putting a code here, a code there, and it can take 2 minutes.

Price: I am not giving any exact prices here, because you see that the choice is huge here – articles can be unique or rewritten or given by you; the HTML marking of the text can be done, but not necessarily. Too many options. But I gave you hints about how much each of the jobs can cost.

For more details about offpage optimization (link building) and how to keep SEO services from cheating you on this part of SEO – wait for the upcoming Part 3 of this publication and stay tuned to Terry Dean’s blog.

Other times it’s to your benefit to learn a profit booster you can use ANYTIME.

That’s what I’m going to share today.

Here’s the phrase you need to learn.

“What else?”

Here’s how we’re going to apply it all throughout our website.

You put up a squeeze page to get people to subscribe to your list. On the next page many people simply say thank you for subscribing and they tell you to check your email to confirm and receive the free gift you promised.

“What else can you do here?”

Add a special offer here. It could be a discount or some other bonus. After someone subscribes, say thank you for subscribing, but also tell them here is a special we only make available to new subscribers. Depending on what you’re offering, you may produce a 5% to 20% sales rate on this page (lower ticket items such as $50 or less).

I’ve also found an extra benefit to doing this here. If you can get the first sale quickly from a new subscriber, you’re going to find they’re worth much more to you in the long-term as well. They’re not just a freebie seeker at this point. They’re a buyer. Huge difference between those two classifications.

Even better if you can get a 2nd sale from them…

After they buy this first product, what else?

You can do an immediate upsell after they purchase (you could continue this through multiple upsells but you will find quickly there is a point where it is too much in one spot). You also will want to put an offer on the thank you/download page after they purchase this first product.

What if you currently only have one product? Then that’s where you can review or recommend an affiliate product.

Let’s look at another application. You’ve done 6 follow-up email messages in your series. “What else can you add?” You can build an almost unlimited email sequence out (I quite a few clients with more than 1 year’s worth of follow-up messages in at least one of their autoresponders).

Below is a video from Dave Hamilton. He was originally a winner when I ran a contest for my Internet Lifestyle Retirement System. Here is the review he sent in for the product.

Note how when he followed one of the suggestions from the course (the thank you page offer), he achieved a 40% sales rate from his visitors. Wow Dave! He must have used a very good offer. Listen up to what he has to say…

By the way, you can check out the course here…

Yet one makes money while the other just spins their wheels. Why? Here is a short video where I talk about the difference and the importance of content which is uniquely yours.

“No one person or place has all the answers. So you find the “experts” to get your info. Then one contradicts the other on certain info and so you look somewhere else. Which adds to the ADD I’ve already suffering from. It’s a vicious cycle. Who do you trust?”

If you’re looking for ANYONE (and I do mean anyone including me) to give you all the answers, you’re already coming at it from the wrong angle. “Experts” are of course going to give different info and even contradict one another because they are each unique individuals. They have developed systems which work for them and their online business.

What works for one may not work for another. For example, I tested a video landing page that autoplayed. It worked great for me. A client I have in a professional market tested autoplaying on his video and it decreased his response. Do autoplay videos increase conversion or hurt conversion? You have to test it (test results so far indicate the more likely your customer is in an office or public environment the less likely autoplay will work for them).

I’ve said many times that I failed my way to success online. I found everything that didn’t work…and simply stumbled upon the best parts to keep using.

The ONLY way to get “all the answers” is to test in your market. Even then I’ve been doing this for more than 13 years and I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know anyone who does. I do know though if you try to combine 5 different systems from 5 different gurus you’ll simply end up with a MESS.

That’s kind of like pulling 5 recipes out of your cookbook and trying to mix them all together. Please don’t invite me over for dinner the day you try that.

My advice is to subscribe to a dozen people’s lists.

1. Now unsubscribe from anyone who only sends you ads and never provides any free content.
2. Look for more “honest” results. Now unsubscribe from everyone who is constantly telling you how easy it is to become a millionaire online.

We’ve now probably eliminated 7 or 8 of the lists you were on. For your final steps:

3. Look for people where you identify with their teaching style. You understand them and what they’re saying.
4. Find a model you want to commit time and effort to. If you’re not willing to honestly WORK hard for the next 3 to 6 months on this system, don’t waste your time.
5. Now focus and do it. Turn off all the other noise (I always tell clients not to buy anything you won’t use within the next week).

Now you have an option of what to pick and go after. I don’t know a single successful person who buys “everything” out there all the time and tries to listen to a multitude of sources. I can almost hear the objection now, “But if I only go after one system for the next 3 months, I’m not learning everything.”

No one said you had to learn everything. This isn’t college. There isn’t a professor about to give you an “F” next week. You have to simply learn a system you can follow!

Here’s something I’ve never really heard anyone talk about. After coaching many clients, I’ve found many clients THRIVE once they find the right connection for them. What do I mean when I say this?

I’m not going to name any names but let me give you a few “general examples” from actual clients. I had a client who produced several digital information products. No matter what we did in promotion they would just do OK. They never “thrived” in this business model even though it is one of my favorite models. The moment they decided to “consult” with others about the basics of their internet business (such as getting autoresponders and websites up), they immediately thrived. They hit their grove.

I’ve seen another client who had this with joint ventures. When doing joint ventures and recruiting affiliates, they did well. They made money. But it’s only when they drill in and focus on Adwords that they do extremely well (it fits their personality). Because they know they can make money with jvs they often waste their time here if I don’t watch them and keep them on track.

A third client claimed he was “burned out” even though his business was making more money than ever before. Knowing his situation I knew the real answer was he was getting bored because everything just worked smoothly. He needed a new challenge so we added a couple of things he has never done before to his schedule.

What works for one person is not a guaranteed fix for everyone else. That’s why I often publish “list” posts. When I publish a list of 21 Ways to Add More Subscribers, should you run out and do all of them next week? NO. You simply should pick and choose the right ones that fit you and your business.

If you tried to put all the strategies in place, you’d go insane. Or you’d simply run around in circles like the mouse trying to get the cheese.

I could call this post the “The Beginner’s Hamster Wheel” if I wanted Because that is what it is often like for beginners online. They chase expert #1 for a while, buy a bunch of products, and then move on to guru #2.

Let’s make this clear. You shouldn’t be looking to experts to give you ALL the answers. They simply point the path to take.

That’s all I can really do for you through an information product. I point out the path and then I warn about some of the dangerous I faced. “Look out for that alligator in the pond!”

That’s what I do in my products. If you’re looking for a good serious of blueprints for starting your online business, I’d recommend checking out The Truthprints which are available here…

Will they give you ALL the answers? Nope. Some answers in YOUR NICHE will only be found by testing. My product simply points the way and gives you a good foundation for getting there. Will you run into problems? Probably. Murphy’s Law is alive and well in technology.

When I buy a map, I don’t always expect everything to go smoothly on the way to my end location. On our way down to Florida we had a flat tire…and several other problems. Construction held us up for hours. It wasn’t the map’s fault. But we EVENTUALLY got to the destination. It’s the same with your business. There will be problems. There will be issues. And things won’t always go as planned.

Just keep moving and testing till you reach your destination. Get OFF the hamster wheel though of buying all the new product launches. You won’t get anywhere by going in circles!

Below are 5 articles I feel do this. I’ll include a little more information and my view on each of the article included.

Complete Ping List For Blogs

Greg Nemer did some serious research to find a large ping list you can copy and paste in to Wordpress. The ping list is simply a list of places your blog will notify whenever you post a new article. I have asked him a questino about the article and he assured me he did some very serious research and testing to make sure to give you the best list possible.

In addition he shows you how to copy and paste this new ping list into your Wordpress setup. And he recommends a plug-in as well to make sure your blog doesn’t send out a ping when you simply update an article. Most complete post I’ve seen on the subject.

69 Ways to Build Backlinks

The Kidblogger is now at the ripe old age of 16. He put together an impressive list of 69 ways to build backlinks to your site. As we all know, a key element of ranking well on the search engines is the quality and quantity of your incoming links.

He covers the normal linkbait concepts and Web 2.0 lists. But he also adds quite a number of unique ideas to help you produce more links to your sites. Very good post to print out and use.

60 Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula

Michel Fortin posted this 10 part 60 minute fast copywriting formula from Dean Jackson. It’s very easy to “struggle” over your sales copy and take what seems like forever to write it. This down and dirty quick writing formula can help you get the rough draft written.

Then you simply go back to the rough draft to edit and improve on it. Editing copy is SO MUCH EASIER than writing it from the beginning.

Debt is Slavery

I know what it is like to be in debt. When I first started my internet business in 1996 I was up to my eyeballs in debt. I had creditors calling all the time. They suggested you borrow from someone else to pay them. They threatened. They even called my family members to tell them how in debt I was (which is illegal by the way). It was a nightmare. So I KNOW “Debt is slavery.”

This post is actually a book review, but it contains 10 important principles about money. One of the core ones I believe fully is, “Money Buys Freedom.” With money you have options and can live the Internet Lifestyle we talk about so much here.

The 5 Things People Really Buy

You know you’ve found a good explanation on a subject once you say, “Is it really that simple?” You will look at this post and think that very question. He shares 5 reasons people buy…which cover the majority of purchases anyone will ever make from you online.

It’s easy to write articles that are overcomplicated. Finally, someone makes this subject very simple.

I’m not going to labor the point here as I’ve covered it at other times, but surveys are vital to making sure you provide exactly what your audience is looking for.

For example, since I was specifically looking for feedback of what to create in a coaching program, I will use the information provided to me in the survey I did this past week. I’ll combine that information with the personal knowledge I have working directly with clients. I’ll also look back at how products and services sold.

In other words, I don’t rely just on the survey, but it becomes a part of the decision making process along with live interviews of clients (the ones who’ve been in my coaching) and previous sales (real results). Many times the open ended questions of a survey can even give you the frustrations your market is experiencing…along with the exact wording to write in response to it at times.

I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my survey over the past week. You did an excellent job and provided a lot of useful information to me. I’ll include some portions below, while I keep a few details for myself at this time (I will be listening to the answers and don’t want to reveal too much about the service I’ll create out of it yet).

Some participants provided VERY DETAILED answers of what they’re most looking for and the experiences they’ve add in other coaching programs/workshops. THANK YOU. I appreciate it.

So what’s the shocker in the survey?

For me, it was the answer to the question, “What is your favorite type of training product?”

Here are the response percentages:

Online Video – 33.1%
eBook – 15.1%
Print Book – 12.2%
Membership Site – 11.5%
Audio – 10.8%
DVD – 9.4%
Live Workshop – 5.0%
Teleconference – 2.9%

For my audience, NOTICE how much more popular online video is compared to all the other options. It’s twice as popular as eBook, and more than 3 times as popular as DVDs. I expected online video to win, but not to win by this much. And I didn’t expect the teleconferences to be this low on the response either.

If you add eBooks and physical books together you get close to the popularity of online video. But if we did that we should also add DVDs in with online video. Pushing the video format way ahead again.

I’ve often talked about how some people like written material, others audio, others video, and still others the live component. With my audience they like video best. Second is written material. Audio is 3rd down the list. Last are the live events.

I need to combine the above statements along with the answers to “What type of contact would you be most interested in for a coaching program?”

Multiple selections were allowed so the numbers don’t add up to 100% here.

The winner here…”PDF Lessons with Assignments” received 63.8% of the vote. Second place was very close with 51.1% as prerecorded video training. Live webinars were 34% so prerecorded was preferred but you can see just how popular video was here again.

Email support was much more popular than any type of one-on-one phone coaching. In fact, group teleconferences were preferred to one-on-one phone coaching. Good news for me as phone coaching is the most time intensive and it was not what most people were looking for.

Least popular was a one-on-one full day meeting in person, but it surprised me again that it came in at 11.3%. This would be a higher ticket type of service and I can see that more than 10% of my audience is actually interested in it (and I’ve never offered anything like this before).

Note: Here is a point to mention with surveys. It would be easy to misinterpret this answer and say “People aren’t interested in this.” It was the least popular, but OF COURSE it is less popular. Immediately you know it is going to cost more than the other formats. And with 11.3% possibly interested in it, that is something that could be included from time to time as a higher ticket service. If everyone voted this most popular, there is no way I’d be willing to do this service with that many clients, but if there is a core element who wants it…it becomes a possibility.

Another surprise occurred for me in the “coaching subjects” section. I thought “list building” would be the winner, but it came in 2nd place. The winner was going from small profits to 6 or 7 figures. Obviously for MY AUDIENCE, many of them have made a few sales…and want to go to a higher income level.

Last place was another surprise because I was actually considering it as a possibility for a coaching program. “Earning your First Profits as an Affiliate” was dead last here. While a few were interested in getting started in affiliate marketing, it had the least popularity on the survey. This saved me from making a possible mistake in going that direction.

Open Ended Questions

Often the open ended questions are the ones which reveal the real wants and frustrations in the market.

Of course I’m not going to list all the responses here. One of the core answers that come up constantly was about the fact there is too much information overload online. Close to 70% of the participants mentioned either information overload, too many product launches, focus, or not knowing what to do each day.

Many respondents talked about how complicated it was to find a good market for them to work in. This means that getting started and choosing the right market is a major sticking point for beginners.

In the question on other coaching programs, many people gave me highly detailed information even talking about specific programs they had been a member of. Let me show you an example of one that DOESN’T talk about someone else’s program (although it does praise one of my products).

“Workshops are great on the moment but it’s quite difficult to act upon it. I think One on one coaching is the best and that’s what I need to take off. The best experience I’ve had on-line learning was learning graphic design through pdf lessons and video then doing the assignments on time. I was not allowed to continue without doing the assignments. Then I had my assignments checked by a professional. It gave me confidence and finished my course on time. Most marketing type of e-learning leave people alone. Most people never practice what they learn. Getting feedback from an experienced marketer would help increasing confidence by achieving success through small steps. Thanks for the opportunity to ask for my opinion in this survey. I bought TRUTH-PRINTS recently and I can say that it’s the first time I listen to an audio marketing product many times !! Thanks for providing authenticity and value.”

This response was chosen because you can very specific suggestions were given about a program they liked. And of course they praised http://www.thetruthprints.com!

As I said I had many responses that were quite detailed like this. I just didn’t want to publicly show any of the ones that mentioned someone else’s coaching program/workshop by name (many did which of course helps me as well because I can understand where their response is coming from).

I have great customers…and they’re willing to jump in and provide information when I ask for help. Thank you again.

As you know I offer internet business coaching to help you earn more, work less, and enjoy life.

For the past year, my program has been full almost constantly. I get a cancellation now and then, but those slots are immediately taken by the email waiting list I have on the coaching page.

This means I’ve turned down many more clients than I’ve taken on over the past 10 months or so. One of my goals for the second half of this year is to change the coaching so I can help more clients get their businesses running online and improve the profits of their existing ones.

To do this is going to require a change in the format of how I do the coaching. Going forward I’m going to put together “coaching groups” and “coaching eclasses” designed to accomplish a specific goal in your business.

My current style of “open coaching” will only be available to those who already have profitable web businesses. After seeing the results of a couple of dozen clients, I can see how those who have businesses making money online and want to go to the next level make progress so much faster in this coaching model. They often increase profits by 25%, 50%, or even several hundred percent (a couple of clients have jumped by 5 to 10 times profits in just a few months).

Those who are brand new starting out do not see results this quick generally. Instead they need more hand holding and VERY SPECIFIC assignments to keep moving…the kind of assignments which work well in coaching groups (with homework and support on the assignments). I know this is what they need because I’ve done these types of groups very successfully in the past.

As I’m making this change I’m curious to see what is most important to you. What type of products and coaching do you need? What roadblocks are occurring in your business? Where do you need the most help?

The survey is now closed…

Anyone who fills out the survey will receive an audio interview Tim Gary did with me on “7 Keys to Online Profits.” This is one audio where I went indepth into the MINDSET issues that are holding many people back from success online. This covers the core trait you must have to succeed online. In addition, I talk about how to deal with fear and procrastination. We also talk about how to make progress toward your goals every single day.

This mp3 audio is your gift just for taking the time to fill out the survey…and letting me know exactly where you need the most help in your internet business.

The survey is now closed…

How about being able to charge higher fees?

What about an open door to free publicity?

Most business owners want all the above, but they don’t know how to get it.

The solution is simple. Write a book.

“Are you an author?”

If anyone asks you that question, they’re not expecting you to respond with all the ebooks you’ve written, the audios you’ve recorded, or your DVDs. They’re asking you if you’re written a physical print book they can carry off with them.

There is something about being an author that you can’t match with ebooks, audios, or DVDs. In fact I often ask people what’s the easiest way to be perceived as an expert on your topic.

It’s simple. Write the book. As soon as you have a book on the topic, you’re seen as the expert. Even if nobody ever reads the book, they still see you as the expert because you wrote it.

I’ve already published a couple of books, and I’m working on my next one this summer.

The question is, when will you do your first book?

First of all, let’s cover who SHOULDN’T write a book. Obviously it’s not for everyone.

First of all, DON’T write a book if you expect to become wealthy just selling your little book to the world. The authors who make a good living just from selling their books are few and far between. I definitely don’t! Not even close. For me, books are just a little stream of income.

They generate leads. They add more credibility to my business. But I’m glad I don’t have to live on the income generated from them!

This leads us to the second type of person who shouldn’t write a book. I would NOT write a book if you don’t have anything else to sell. You’re going to find the time invested in writing and promoting your book will not bring in a good hourly rate.

For those of us who have a successful business, if we relied on the book income alone, we would be losing money every minute we’re promoting our books.

So who should write a book? Well, if you’re an information producer, it’s an obvious front end lead generator. You write and promote your front end book to generate leads for all your other items (ebooks, audios, DVDs, coaching, etc.).

Let’s take a professional speaker. Who do you think is going to get higher paying speaking engagements…the author or the non-author (all other things being equal)? The author is. You’re the EXPERT because you have a book.

If you have ANY type of service business, you need a book. For example, let’s say you’re a real estate agent. Who do you think would get the listing if agent A was the normal agent while agent B also wrote the book, “How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar in Today’s Economy?”

It again comes back to that credibility and perceived expertise. The author immediately receives more of both.

What if you’re not a writer? In fact, you hate writing. That doesn’t matter. It is not a reason to sit on the sidelines missing out on all the benefits of being an author. Even non-writers can get their book written and published quickly.

That’s the subject I’m covering in the June issue of the Monthly Mentor Club. On Wednesday the 10th at 9 AM Eastern Time I’m sending out this month’s issue to all my subscribers. It covers a complete step-by-step system to help even non-writers get their first book written and published…instantly increasing their credibility, boosting their prices, and becoming a target for publicity.

Join the Monthly Mentor Club here…

In this issue I cover:

- How to create your book strategy (the end goal of your book and how it increases your sales from everything else you offer).

- 2 Methods of quickly and easily outlining your book.

- 3 Strategies even NON-writers can use to produce an excellent business building book.

- 3 Ways to give yourself a little kick in the butt to get the book done this week (these 3 strategies could be used for other projects as well).

- How to brainstorm and PROVE you have a winning title before you publish the book.

- A discussion on the top print-on-demand publishers and how to choose the right one for your book today (depending on your goals).

A book can be used to increase the profits of anyone in business today. This issue covers step-by-step how to create the ideas, write the outline, produce the book, and get it published.

And of course you get a load of bonuses just for giving it a try…

Join the Monthly Mentor Club here…

In December 2008 Nick released Free Traffic System – free community where bloggers can build backlinks, get free content and push their sites to top pages in search engines. Because of the value provided, this community has grown to over 10,000 members in this short period!

Here’s Nick…

Today the owners of online businesses are even more serious about their fight for the targeted visitors. That is why they resort to the help of SEO companies whose job is to push a site to the top positions in search engines, and thus generate targeted traffic for their clients.

Though there is no global conspiracy about SEO services trying to cheat you, still you must be practical and understand that there is always a high probability of many SEO services to do a low value job and sell it to you as a high value job.

But if you are armed with proper knowledge about WHAT EXACTLY stands behind each type of SEO job in the overall package, it will be a lot more difficult to cheat you and sell you a lesser value as a higher value. That is why in this situation it is obvious that…

Your Knowledge = Maximum Effect from the Money You Pay for SEO

So, this 2-part article has the aim to explain you:
(1) What types of SEO jobs can be sold by SEO services
(2) What exactly is each job about
(3) How it should be done properly
(4) How SEO services can dodge to do it at the best level (still charging you for a top quality level).

Let’s Start with the List of Standard SEO Jobs.

Typically SEO companies offer the following services:
- keyword research
- onpage optimization (or onsite optimization)
- offpage optimization (usually link building)

These services can be sold separately or in one package. Surely it is better if you get all the parts of the SEO puzzle together and have all these services done – because, for example, keyword research is nothing without link building.

But that does not mean you need to hire one company to do all that. For example, if you see that company A has great prices for keyword research, and company B has a better price for link building, then nothing can stop you from paying company A for the research of the great keywords, and then use the keywords found by company A for link building at company B.

So, let’s get back discussing typical SEO services, how they should be done and how SEO companies can try to cheat their clients.

(1) Keyword Research – Quality Standards and Typical Traps

The aim of the keyword research is to give you the keywords for which your site should get page 1 in search engines, receive targeted traffic and convert into profits.

(a) What will be used as a source of information about keywords.

Surely SEO services are not taking from the sky the information about how many times a specific keyword is searched every day/month. They take this info from other services, and this is where you can get into problems.

Who can show you the best information about how many times keyword “make money” or “weight loss” was searched last month? Surely top search engines, like Google or Yahoo.

Unfortunately some SEO services up to now keep using minor search engines as their source of statistics about searches. And this is a problem for you, because tiny search engines do not represent the real picture of search demand. It’s the same to going to a local grocery store in your neighborhood, asking 10 people about their tastes for some specific product and then assuming that the GLOBAL response to the product is going to be the same.

So, if some minor meta search engine shows that “make money” is being searched 2 times more than “save money”, this does not mean that the true picture of global search demand is like this. Only the majors can show you the real info.

That is why my personal advice you is the following – demand that SEO service uses official Google keyword tool when researching keywords for you.

Once again, this is my personal opinion, but this opinion is backed up by years of experience and simple logics – “Who can show better results for the search demand? Who sees a bigger picture? Top search engine of the world – Google!” If the research is done on the Google tool, you will see a bigger picture of interest for specific keywords, and this is important for your business.

(b) *Golden* keywords vs all other keywords.

Ideal keyword research is about finding *golden* keywords for you. *Golden* keywords is not an official term, this is how I personally call them and these are the keywords which have:

- nice and stable search demand every month
- moderate link building competition

Why is that so important to have keywords with nice demand and lower competition? Because with these keywords you can get to page 1 faster and get traffic faster.

But finding this type of keywords is about extra efforts (manual efforts), that is why SEO service can try to give you one of the 2 bad options which are a lot simpler for them.

Option #1 – Keywords with high search demand AND high link building competition. They can tell you “Look how many people search for that keyword! Just imagine how much traffic you gonna get if you receive top position for this keyword!!”

What they do not say is that you need to do a HUGE link building job to get page 1 for difficult keyword. Dozens of thousands of backlinks, or even hundreds of thousands. This will take much time (if you are doing link building yourself) or big money (if you are paying for link).

By the way, as many SEO services also do the link building, it is in their interest to hook you for the tough keywords, because then you will need to pay them very big money for link building.

Option #2 – Keywords with small search demand AND small link building competition. Though it looks that this option is more fair, still this is also a SEO trick.

Yes, for the keywords with small link building competition you get page 1 (provided you do link building properly) a lot faster. And psychologically a client feels great “Wow, I am page 1! Let’s celebrate – time for a party!”

But then you see that the traffic is really small, and it was almost pointless to build backlinks for that tiny number of searches.

Now you understand why the *golden keywords* – with nice stable search demand and low link building competition – are the only ones really worth paying for. All the rest is not playing into your favor.

By the way, I have been talking a lot about link building competition. For those who do not know how to check it – this is simple.

Type into Google search field inanchor:”your keyword here”, like on the screenshot below:

In this example I was searching how many sites are building backlinks for “make money online”, and you can see that Google shows 13,900,000 web pages which are fighting for this very keywords and build backlinks for it.

My personal experience shows that if the number of sites which fight for the keyword is under 1,000, then this competition is really doable within quite a short period of time. Surely my Free Traffic System clients have been taking even a lot tougher keywords, but with tougher keywords you must be prepared for serious link building.

It is not bad if keyword research also offers some stats about intitle (which explains how many pages have a keyword in their title) or exact match (which shows pages having the phrase somewhere on the page, with exact quote to your search). But these factors are not decisive with link building, that is why demand that you see inanchor info for any of the keywords you get, and intitle or exact match are not that important.

(c) How many keywords you will get and of what quality.

Another thing you should ask before paying for keyword research is how many keywords you will get.

BUT, don’t let them lure you into the game of fancy numbers. They can tell you “150 keywords per niche” and this seems to be great.

However this has great number of 150 words has nothing to do with quality. They will simply use the general word from your niche (for example, “gardening”), then they will run Google tool to show all keywords it sees for this niche (usually up to 150 words, but can be more) and will add some stats, like maybe inanchor.

First of all, this keyword research job with 150 words that I described above is automatic. SEO service can charge you $100+ for such a list in every niche, but in reality they are using automatic solutions which you can buy for several dozens of dollars and use lifetime.

So SEO service can try to sell this automatic job which is done by a 3rd party solution as their own handmade job. And you will need to pay $100 or more per each niche. Just imagine how much money you can lose from your pocket.

And – this is very important – this has nothing to do with spotting real *golden* keywords for you. Having even the list of 1,000 keywords, without direct pointing to the *golden* keywords is of almost no practical value for you.

You should have at least 2-3 *golden*keywords being explicitly indicated as a result of the keyword research work.

(d) Sorting out the crazy keywords from the list.

This is a very peculiar subject of keyword research. The problem is that even the best keyword research tools, like Google adwords tool or others, from time to time show keywords in a strange way – with wrong grammar and/or lack of sense.

Yes, people in the Internet do not always care about grammar when searching for something, and Google tool has the right to show it. Still, for the unexplainable reason Google keyword tool and many other tools show very strange searches that are not likely to be done by real people. No matter how bad their grammar is.

Professional keyword researchers should always sort out their list and take these “crazy” keywords out of the list. Otherwise, by mistake, you can focus your link building efforts on one of these keywords and waste your time and money.

Make sure you ask your keyword research service to take away these crazy keywords from your list.

Summary.

Keyword research plays a vital role in your SEO, because this is where everything about SEO starts. If you pick the right keywords and boost them up with nice link building and onpage optimization – you will get great traffic. If you get bad keywords – all your SEO efforts can get wasted.

Now that you know what stands behind a quality keyword research, you know what to ask before paying the money.

The rest of the tips in the upcoming publication on Terry Dean’s blog.

In the Part 2 of this publication you will read how to make sure SEO services give you maximum quality with onpage optimization and offpage optimization (link building).

Till then, make sure you check out the 10,000 member community at Free Traffic System.