When we [...]]]> I haven’t been able to post in almost a week because I just returned last night from my first destination wedding.  A long time friend of mine got married in Akumal, Mexico about 75 minutes outside of Cancun.  It was beyond gorgeous there, but that’s not why I’m writing this post.

When we landed in Mexico, after we got our luggage and made it through customs, we had to wait for 6 other people that we were sharing a shuttle with to the wedding.  While we waited just outside the Tourist Information Center I noticed something very interesting.

The Tourist Information Center mainly consisted of several different rental car and shuttle services and a currency exchange center.  What caught my eye was the employees working at the shuttle services.

As new flights landed the employees on the right side of the hallway (shuttle services) would line up in single file and approach each family or group as they made it past customs, while the employees on the left side of the hallway (rental cars) were literally yelling at people to rent vehicles as they passed.

It felt kind of link being at a baseball game when the usher would check your ticket and take you to your seat and then the peanuts and beer guy would come around screaming “Peanuuuutss! Ice Cold Beer Here!”

Suddenly I started thinking how this scenario with people landing in the airport was oddly similar to visitors to a website.

Your Visitors are Stupid

Okay, they’re not really stupid…well, maybe some of them, but let me clarify.

Similar to someone visiting Mexico for the first time most visitors to your website have never been there.  It’s new to them.

They’ve visited other websites and they have a general understanding of site layouts, but visiting your website for the first time is like visiting a foreign country.  Unfortunately you can’t stand there waiting for each new visitor to ask them exactly what they’re looking for and then point them in the right direction.

Give Your Traffic What They Want…Immediately

Recently I was looking into the keyword “heart rate monitors.”  It seems like every person I know is becoming an avid runner, so I figured I’d look into products that people purchase for running.  Unfortunately it seems like internet marketers have taken over the running world, as nearly every product keyword I looked into had around 5 root domains in the top 10 that were clearly affiliate sites.

As I was looking through the Top 10 sites I noticed some very interesting site layouts.

Here’s the number one site for “heart rate monitor reviews.”  (This is a screenshot of everything above the fold on my laptop.)

It amazes me that this person took the time to get their site to number one and failed to consider anything else.

A few things that stood out to me:

• There is no logo, nothing to draw me in and make me feel like the site is legit
• There is no navigation bar (or a very small unhelpful one in the top right of the page)
• The sidebar font couldn’t stand out in a crowd of one

There is literally nothing on this page that makes me want to click through to another review.

Where is the Mexican yelling at me to purchase a heart rate monitor?

If you have people searching for reviews of heart rate monitors, guess what they want…REVIEWS OF HEART RATE MONITORS.

I would bet this site has a bounce rate over 80%, something that definitely doesn’t help you convert on traffic.

Here’s the number three site for “heart rate monitor reviews.”  (This is a screenshot of everything above the fold on my laptop.)

To me, this is a world of difference, and even though he’s in the number 3 spot, I wouldn’t be surprised if this site had higher Amazon revenues each month.

A few things that stood out to me:

• Custom logo (that makes me feel like a real company made the site)
• A navigation bar that gives the option for reviews, best heart rate monitors, brands, etc.
• A “popular posts” plugin in the sidebar, similar to the advanced recent posts widget I use
• A featured article utilizing copy such as, “Top 5 Best”

Those four things are your line of Mexicans waiting for tourists to pass through customs.

However, after clicking through on some of the posts on both of these sites I noticed the other issue I wanted to address…

Your Visitors Don’t Know What They Want

I previously talked about how to create quality content for your site, but sometimes quality content isn’t enough.

You need to tell your visitors exactly what to do, because in all honesty they don’t know what they want.

Like the Mexicans in the airport you need a call to action.

What exactly is a call to action?

I like to think of it in terms of clicking.  The goal of every post you make should be to get someone to click on something else.  But you don’t want them to just click on anything.

For an affiliate site you want your visitors to arrive on site, find what they’re looking for and then click through to the product they are most likely to buy.

Here are the 3 main calls to action that I utilize:

Buy Button.  This is one of the most popular calls to action because it’s the simplest.  You’ve got to figure out what works best for your sites though.  So, don’t just go around inserting buy buttons and thinking everything is going work out.

For me, most of my conversions come from a buy button at the end of a post.  I’m starting to test moving the button up towards the top of a post to replicate Amazon and other eCommerce stores, and am hopeful that my conversions will increase.

Contextual Link.  I’ve been testing this type of call to action more and more lately.  When you use a contextual link I’ve found it’s best to set it apart from the rest of your content.

Click here to get the Best Deal on the Garmin Forerunner 305

Request.  Simply ask your visitors to do something.

Don’t forget to sign up below and receive a copy of Niche Chaser; this is where all my site building begins!

Next time you’re in an airport or a store, or any place that you might spend money, look around and determine how they are converting on traffic.  What made you buy a product?  You might pick up a few tricks that you can implement on your own sites.

Unfortunately my [...]]]> This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend most of Saturday and Sunday working, grilling, and just sitting out on our new property.  It’s nothing fancy, just 6 acres of vacant land, but every time I step on that land I can’t help but just smile.  It’s absolutely amazing being out there.

Unfortunately my work (currently) is about 4 hours away from my property, so I really only get to see it about once a month (or less).  Lately though I’ve been driving across the coast with my wife about every other weekend.

That’s me grilling a couple burgers on my new grill rack.

This is Why I Work Hard

As I was sitting outside underneath the stars it really began to dawn on me that this is why I work 15 hours a day, and sometimes more.  My dreams are really quite simple.  I’d like to build my dream home (below) on my property and raise a family with my wife.

The Redwood

There are of course other things I’d like to do.  For instance I’d love to coach high school baseball, open a rock gym in my home town, attend Wimbledon or the French Open, become active in my community, and tons of other stuff.  To be honest though, that is just all bonus for me.

All Men of Action are Dreamers

I once read that “All men of action are dreamers.”  The more I think about that quote the more I think how great would it be if all dreamers were men of action?

Almost every single person I talk to about internet marketing got started because they had a dream.  The problem is that everyone has dreams, but not everyone takes action.

We’re around 45 days into the new year and I know a lot of you made some pretty bold plans for 2012.  But be honest, have you taken action?  Have you really and truly given everything you’ve got for the last 45 days to bring yourself closer to your dreams?

Personally I know that I can work harder.

While I haven’t been working as hard as I can, I also know that having tangible dreams will keep me focused, which leads me to another question for you.  Have you been honest about your dreams?

Are you willing to make sacrifices and take massive action?  If not then you don’t have dreams, you have wishes.  Unfortunately wishes very seldom come true.

I’m still hanging around on Bing and Yahoo, but [...]]]> I’m a couple days overdue for my monthly update of this case study, but I did grab the data on February 10th just to be accurate.  I hadn’t checked the rankings for this site since my last update and I almost wish I’d never checked them.

I’m still hanging around on Bing and Yahoo, but I’ve all but disappeared on Google and so has my traffic and sales.  I’m a little disappointed as I didn’t consider the keywords for this site to be very competitive and my content is pretty decent.  I was honestly hoping to be on page one for at least 1 of my primary keywords by Day 120, but I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer.

A Quick Recap

Before I get into the details, and in case you missed the beginning of this case study, here is a quick recap.

The Challenge

I am using nothing but Matt LaClear’s Page One or Bust article link drip feed service in attempt to hit Page 1 on Google.

You can find the previous posts on this case study below:

• Page One or Bust
• Page One or Bust 002: Yahoo and BING Say Hello!
• Page One or Bust 003: Google on the Horizon

A Disturbing Update

Each time I make this update I always check out the WSO page just to see if there are any comments from recent users on the service.  Though today I saw something I’ve never seen before.  The title of the WSO has changed and in addition a new “disclaimer” has been added to the top of the page.

Grab 100 Low PR Daily Article Links For As Low As 34 Cents A Day! (Check Out Our Testimonials!))!!!)

Before you read on to learn how you can start racing towards a page one Google ranking for your site, check out what other Warriors are saying about our SEO kung fu fighting skills:

Disclaimer: Just because thousands of Warriors have grabbed page one rankings using our services does not mean you will. Under no circumstances are we guaranteeing any type of page one rankings from using our services. Please note that the majority of the testimonials that are listed below have all come as a result of our posting links on PR 0 and PR 1 sites. Please keep all that in mind as you read through our offer.

When I originally signed up for this service it was titled something along the lines of “Page One or Bust Article Drip Feed Service (Check Out Our Testimonials!)”.  I was always aware that I wasn’t buying a page one ranking per se, but this change to the sales page tells me that people are complaining their sites are not hitting page one.  Oh well…

Can Links Lie?

As you’ll see below there’s only been 2 links found in the past month when compared to last month’s report.

Links shown by ahrefs.com

While there were specific changes to the sales page, one that has remained is this “warning” by Matt.

Warning: Our drip feed links are rarely found and reported by the various backlink checking software currently on the market. So if you’re looking to pad your counts in whatever software program you are using this service is not for you. This service is only for folks looking to see their rankings increase.

I could care less what my backlink checking software shows, but the problem comes when links aren’t showing up AND rankings aren’t increasing.

February 10, 2012 Rankings Update

Here’s a quick screen shot of my rankings using the Rank Checker that comes with Long Tail Pro.

And what would this update be without my amazing excel graphs?

Google rankings as of 2/10/12 by Long Tail Pro

Summary

Just when I was getting excited that paying around $10 a month can get you to page one my site has dropped off into oblivion.  I’m going to add a bit of content, maybe 1 new review post each week for the next month and maybe even outsource a few longer articles with no affiliate links to see if that helps.

The site is still young at just about 4 months old, and it’s keywords are more or less holiday keywords, so it’s still got a bit of time to recover.  At this point only time will tell.

If case studies like this one are helpful be sure to check out my other case studies.  Also, if there is something in particular you’d like to see make sure you let me know by leaving a comment below or at my case studies hub and I’ll do my best to add it to the list.

Here’s a quick look at some of what happened in January.

Niche Rivalry.  [...]]]> There’s no better way to start the new year than with another record earnings month!  I’m a little disappointed with my work ethic for January, something I’ll get into in bit, but I can’t complain about the results.

January 2012 Recap

Here’s a quick look at some of what happened in January.

Highlights

Niche Rivalry.  I created a ton of content for my Niche Rivalry site, around 45 posts have been scheduled all the waythrough March.  I’ve also posted exactly how I’ve been building the site, so make sure you check them out.  Make sure to check out Jason’s progress, as he was actually the first one to make a sale.  I’d say getting your first sale a month in is pretty dang good!

I’ll be sharing a bit more about my link building strategy this month and I’m pretty excited about this site as I’m already on page 3 (with very little work) for a keyword that brings in around 1,000 searches a month.

My Wife Created Her First Site.  This is actually her third site, but the first two were from niches that I chose.  She wasn’t exactly thrilled with all the work that went into the first two sites, but now that she’s writing about something she likes her entire mindset has changed.

I Paid $27 to Join an Adsense Course.  Some people are probably wondering, “Why did he join an Adsense Course when he’s already making close to $1,000 per month with Adsense!”  The answer is simple: to learn.

Whatever you do you can’t stop learning and there isn’t a better way to learn than by doing.  The course I joined focuses on siloing, which is something I’ve always been curious about.  I know the basics, but I’d like to learn a lot more without having to spend the time to research it all.

This won’t be the last course I sign up for either.  I typically sign up for something new every couple months.  It’s one of the quickest ways to create some additional contacts within the industry and also discover new methods and information.

Goals

Here were my goals for January and exactly how I did.

Launch 1 Adsense Site.  Not Completed.  It’s pretty sad that I couldn’t make the time to launch one new site.

Improve 1 Adsense Site.  Completed.  I didn’t build any new adsense sites, but my income went up considerably.  I actually outsourced some link building to 2 of my existing sites for $57.  While I did see some improvements, I’m not sure the service is worth the cost.  I’ll probably give it another month.

Choose 1 New Niche.  Completed.  It’s my first “tech” niche so I’m interested to see how it turns out.  I haven’t heard a lot of great things about going after a technology niche.

Refocus.  Not Completed.  I’m not happy with my focus levels.  As I mentioned last month I’m still wasting probably 1-2 hours a day. That’s horrible.  That will stop this month.  Period.

Income Breakdown

Google Adsense Earnings

• TOTAL: $906.48
• Last Month: $771.95
• Difference: + 134.53
  

Amazon Associates Earnings

• TOTAL: $1,152.98
  
• Last Month: $586.50
• Difference: + 566.48
  

Affiliate Earnings

• TOTAL: $11.60
• Last Month: $88.48
• Difference: (76.88)
  

DECEMBER 2011 TOTAL: $2,071.06

• Last Month: $1,446.93
  
• Difference: + 624.13
  

Earnings Summary

Last month I said I’d be happy if January was as successful as December.  Well, as you can see January was a lot more successful than December.  Most of the increase came from one of my Amazon sites that I finally got to Rank #1 on Google for my primary keyword.  In addition to that keyword I’m all over Page 1 for probably 50 other keywords.  I’m actually kind of worried about this because there are some results where I own 3 of the top 5 spots.  I’ll just have to wait and see if I can hang on to all those top spots.

Another thing I want to note is that I feel like I didn’t work as hard in December and January as I did in August thru November.  With that said I think most of my efforts from my first 4 months are paying off now, which means I need to get my act together if I expect to keep moving forward in the coming months.

My Goals for February 2012

Launch 1 Adsense Site.  This continues to be a standard monthly goal.

Create 1 Kindle Book.  I want to work on diversifying my income a bit more and Kindle Books seem like the way to go.  I actually have 1 fiction book around 80% complete, so I may try to publish that book as well as 1 non-fiction book.  But for now if I can just get one of them up I’ll be happy.

Talk to My Accountant About an LLC.  Since I’ll be sending my tax information to my accountant this month, I figured it would be a good time to get his recommendations on how to handle my new income.  I’ll be sure to report back what he tells me.

Look into Selling a Site.  I’m highly considering selling one of my top earning Adsense sites.  At the very least I want to look into the possibility.  Why?  I just really don’t like the site and would rather reinvest the money and focus on something else.

Refocus.  Last month I said I wanted to refocus, but I didn’t create any actionable steps to do that.  So here’s what I’m going to do this month:

• Write 3 Build My Rank or Post Runner articles everyday before I doanything else.
• Create 1 Web 2.0 property before going to sleep every night.
• Check the forums and blogs I like to read once before I go to bed and no more than that.

If I can just do those 3 things I think I’ll improve twofold.  I have no problem writing content for my site, so I didn’t mention that as it will come naturally.

A Little Bit of Motivation

This month’s motivation comes from the movie Hardball.  I feel like often times most people quit before they even get started, and it makes me wonder what the difference would have been if they would have just shown up.  You would be absolutely amazed at the difference in your success if you were to just sit down each and every day and go to work instead of worrying about if you’re doing everything right.

Quote of the Month

“One of the most important things in life is showing up, and I’m blown away with your ability to show up.”

- Conor O’Neill (Keanu Reeves)

A Quick Favor

Last month I created my first ever Facebook page.  I would love it if you guys gave me a “Like”, if of course, you actually like Chasing Pace

So, how did the new year start for you?  Be sure to leave a comment below and let me know how 2012 is going!

One of two things typically happens.  Either one, visitors are clicking through to your affiliate links, but you’re not getting any sales, or two, no one is [...]]]>

So you just built out this incredible affiliate site, you’re moving your way up the rankings, traffic is increasing, and everything is great.  Except one thing…you’re not converting.

One of two things typically happens.  Either one, visitors are clicking through to your affiliate links, but you’re not getting any sales, or two, no one is clicking anything at all.  Well, today I want to address case number two.

There’s literally hundreds of factors you could test across your site, but often times people don’t want to put forth the energy to run these tests.  Why?  Because they appear complicated and time consuming.  I know the feeling, trust me.  The truth is though, if you’re not testing, you’re not trying.

So, I’m going to keep it simple and just discuss 3 easy tests that have a great possibility to help increase conversion.

Note: these are tests that I typically perform on my Amazon sites, though they could also be used for other affiliate sites.

What is Split Testing?

Normally when people talk about testing a site for conversion they are referring to split testing.  Split testing is essentially creating 2 different page layouts (or other changes) and sending 50% of your traffic to each page and then determining which change created the highest conversion rate.

I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely certain how people do split testing the “proper” way.  I believe there is some type of software (perhaps a plugin) that allows you to direct traffic to different pages at the same time.  Really though, I could care less how it works.  I like to keep things simple, so here’s how I do it.

When I want to test something I make the change on the page and let it sit for a certain time period.  Usually it’s about 2 weeks, sometimes longer if I feel like I’m not getting enough data.  After that time is up then I make another change and let it sit for the same time period.   Then I compare the data and make whatever changes I need to make.  Simple as that.

Obviously my way takes twice as long, but it works all the same.

When Should You Test?

Every time someone answers this question they talk about traffic levels.  “You should have X (insert completely made up number) unique visitors per day before you begin testing.”  That just doesn’t make sense to me.

I like to think of testing in terms of dollars.

For instance, if I have a site that is selling a product for a profit of $100 per sale and I’m getting 25 visitors per day, but only converting on 1 of those visitors then it’s definitely worth my time to start testing even though I’m getting less than 1,000 visitors a month.  Why?  Because the price per conversion is huge (in my opinion).  Converting on just 1 more person per day would equate to $3,000 per month.

In the end it’s purely subjective.  The point is that you need to decide when you think it is right to test.  Personally, once I get a site to around $100 per month I’ll begin to test if my conversion is less than 10%.  Those are just numbers I’ve made up based on experience.  If you’re looking for some real data on conversion rates then check out this article that discusses an industry average of 2% – 3%.

Keep in mind that the less data you have the more inaccurate your results are likely to be.  So, while I don’t like to base my testing around traffic numbers, sometimes you’ll need higher traffic numbers to get decent results, or you’ll end up testing for months.

What Should You Test?

Really it depends on your site.  Lately I’ve been doing most of my testing on my Amazon sites.  Last month I was hitting around 7% – 8% conversion rate.  That’s not horrible, but I’d love to hit 10%.  So, I began testing.  I’ve got some results to share with you now, and some others I’ll be sharing in a future post (which I think you’ll like).

With that said, here’s what I’ve been testing.

Link Type and Location

All links are not created equal.  If you’re not using multiple Tracking IDs on a single site then you’re doing it wrong.  I believe Amazon Associates allows you to set up 100 Tracking IDs, and even if you hit that number you can request for more.  So, there’s no reason not to have several Tracking IDs per site (if not more).

Here’s the 5 Tracking IDs I typically set up per site:

• Top Contextual.  This is simply an in-text link in the first paragraph of the post.
• Body Contextual.  Another in-text link, but this time about mid way down the post.
• Bottom Contextual.  This is simply an in-text link in the last paragraph of the post.
• Image. An image link.
• Buy Button.  Amazon Buy Button.

Which type of link or location of link is best?  It changes for nearly every niche.  I’ve got sites where 90% of my conversions come from an Amazon Buy Button, while other sites only get in-text clicks.

I’m currently doing a study on my top site using 3 of the 5 Tracking IDs above.  I’m going to let the test go for a month or two and then I’ll report back my findings so you guys can see for yourself.

Link Color and Weight

I recently increased my conversion rate on one site by changing my text links to bold and red, previously plain and blue.  Sometimes it’s that simple.  I’ve been having a lot of luck with some shade of red text links lately (a change I’ll be making at Chasing Pace in the near future).  I’m not sure why this is.  It may just be that it sets the link apart from the text a little better on my sites.  Either way it’s a 5 minute change for a pretty nice increase in income.

Here’s a little bit of code that may help get you started.  It could be slightly different for your site depending on your theme.

#content .post p a {
border-bottom:1px dotted;
font-weight:bold;
color: #C00000;
}

That’s the actual code that I used on my site for Niche Rivalry (except a different color), which is for the Catalyst Theme.

Buttons

If you’re looking to increase conversion this may be the place you want to start, especially if you’re already using buttons on your site.

As it turns out bigger is better.  You may have seen the Magic Buy Button before, and while it looks down right ugly there’s a reason that massive 300 pixel button is plastered all over affiliate sites.  It converts.

It may not make sense to use a button like this on an Amazon site, but that doesn’t mean you can’t test the size of some of the Amazon buttons that already exist.  If you’re not convinced that something as simple as changing around your button size can work, just check out this article on How to Increase Your Earnings by Pat Flynn.

Final Thoughts

You’ll be surprised what a little bit of testing can do, especially for a site that is making a considerable amount each month and just needs a little bit of tweaking.  However, if your site looks like garbage don’t expect some dramatic results from changing the link color.  Garbage is garbage no matter how much testing you do.  In addition here’s 2 more quick tips that I always follow:

• If you’re going to start creating some conversion tests on your site make sure you only make one change at a time (unless you’re familiar with multivariate testing).
• Whatever you do keep it simple.

That’s it for me.  What about you guys?  Have you seen any improvements to your sites from specific tests?  Any simple tests that you like to use that I didn’t mention here?  Make sure to leave a comment below and let me know.

I spent the last couple weeks doing some research and writing a bit of content, so I figured now would be a pretty good time to discuss my content strategy.  I’ve written around 15 articles to date and while writing about kitchen gadgets hasn’t been incredibly difficult I’m not very pleased with my content [...]]]>

I spent the last couple weeks doing some research and writing a bit of content, so I figured now would be a pretty good time to discuss my content strategy.  I’ve written around 15 articles to date and while writing about kitchen gadgets hasn’t been incredibly difficult I’m not very pleased with my content to date.  Unfortunately that’s just part of breaking in to a new niche; it takes a little bit of time to find the right groove.

On one of my first Amazon sites I actually went back and rewrote around 25 posts because they just weren’t up to par.  It’s not a fun process, but sometimes that’s just part of it.

Content is King

I have no idea where this saying came from, but I believe it to be 100% true.  Content is king and always will be.  That’s not to say that you can’t throw up a few crappy pages of content, rank it and make some money.  You surely can, and I still make some money off very thin sites.  But it would be nothing short of naive to believe sites like that will last.  Everything you put on your site should be high quality and that’s exactly my intention for The Cool Kitchen.

How to Write Like a Panda

I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t here the phrase “Panda Update.”  If you don’t know much about Google’s Panda Update you can read more here, but there’s really only one thing you need to know: the Panda Update addressed quality.

There are all sorts of on site metrics to measure quality, but it really all starts with your content.  The question becomes what is quality content and how do you create it?  Or, how exactly do you write like a Panda?

(Quick disclaimer.  The content strategy I’m going to discuss pertains to every type of site, but you’re going to see a bit of a slant towards a product oriented site because that’s what The Cool Kitchen is.)

Write Like an Expert

This seems to be one of the most common hurdles for people.  A question I’m starting to see plastered all over the place is, “How can I create quality content about something I don’t know much about?”  I hate to be obvious here, but the only way to write about a subject you don’t know a lot about is to…wait for it…spend time researching that subject.

Sorry, no big secrets here.  If you want to become an expert in a field you actually have to spend time becoming an expert.  Until then you just have to fake it until you make it.

Here’s 5 types of sources I typically go to for information:

1. Manufacturer’s website
2. Competitor’s website
3. The store
4. Third party reviews
5. Amazon reviews (I try not to use this if possible)

Create Unique Content

Let me clarify something real quick.  Original content is not the same as unique content.  As an example, everything in this post that I’m writing is 100% unique.  No where on the internet, or for that matter anywhere else, will you find what I’m writing.  However, it’s unlikely that all my ideas and thoughts are completely original.  If you were to check out SEOmoz or any other SEO or MMO blogs you’ll likely find content that is somewhat similar.  The important thing is that it’s not the same.

Put unique content above the fold.

Keep Affiliate Links to a Minimum

I don’t have a lot of data on this, it’s more or less just how I feel about it.  Personally I try to create at least 40-50% of my content with no affiliate links.  For some niches it’s harder than others.  Take a quick look at my current navbar:

Even though the site is about “kitchen gadgets”, you can see I’ve created some categories for additional support content.  I’ll use this support content to link back to other reviews  on my site without any affiliate links, or to link out to other authority sites.

In addition, I try to keep my affiliate links within the content to a minimum as well.  In the past I’ve had success with 3 affiliate links in a post: (1) picture, (1) in context, (1) buy button.  I won’t be using a buy button for this site, instead I’m going to try something like “Click here for the best deal.”  We’ll see how it goes.

Write for the Reader

User experience.  User experience.  User experience.  Get used to those words because they are extremely important.

Here’s 4 things you can do to increase user experience:

1. Answer their questions.  During your research phase determine your demographic and what they really want to know about the product, then write about it.  Don’t just be a source for information, be THE source.
2. Utilize great media.  Your reader is no longer in the store where they can pick up an item and turn it every which way.  Use pictures, preferably ones you’ve taken (though that’s not always possible), and video (check out Animoto) when applicable.  I have a friend that has increased conversion simply by going to the store and taking a video of a toy with an iPhone.  Sometimes things as simple as Excel charts work great too.  Here’s a neat little tool for creating graphs and charts.
3. Make the information readily available.  Your site should be clean and simple.  I have no idea what the statistics are, but I imagine you have about 5 to 10 seconds (probably less) to keep someone on your site once they click through.  If they can’t find the information they want in that time, they’re gone.
4. Relate to the reader.  Lists and images are great, but one thing that keeps a reader coming back is their ability to relate with you.  Put a face behind your blog and a story.  If you can, weave in a little bit of story into your posts.  It doesn’t have to be every post, but a little bit can go a long way.

Write for Google

Unfortunately if you want to rank well, you’ll need to keep the search engines in mind when creating your content.  Don’t bother with trying to maintain a keyword density of 1-2% or anything like that, but here are a few on page factors I typically try and follow:

• Get your keyword in the post title
• Get your keyword in at least 1 H2 or H3 tag
• Try to underline or bold your keyword once in the article (as long as it doesn’t look hokey)
• Put your keywords in your image alt text
• Utilize multiple variations (long tail) of your keyword throughout your article (as long as it makes sense)

I haven’t covered everything, but if you can adhere to the above and really dish out some quality content you’ll be putting yourself in a position to create an amazing site.

My Content Strategy for Niche Rivalry

Now that you know how to write like a Panda, I figured I’d take a few minutes and discuss some of the specifics of my content strategy for the Niche Rivalry.

Originally my plan wasn’t to try and necessarily rank my home page for “kitchen gadgets”.  But the more research I do the more I believe it will be possible (in time) to rank for that term.  I also stumbled upon the term “cool kitchen gadgets”, hence the name The Cool Kitchen.  So, I will be making it a point to try and mention “kitchen gadgets” and “cool kitchen gadgets” where it makes sense in my content.

How Do I Choose What to Write About?

I’ve been keeping it as simple as possible.  I spent around 4 hours the other day searching through Amazon and other sites and created a list of about 100 products, just based on products I thought were cool.  Right now I’m just choosing them from that list at random, doing some long tail keyword research and some competition analysis and then trying my best to write a high quality post using the guidelines above.

Here’s a screenshot of how I use Niche Chaser (sign up below to get your copy!) to form keyword groups.  I’ll then try to focus creating the content with these keywords in mind, though I don’t force in keywords.

My Content Goals for the First 60 Days

My sites that I’ve created a lot of consistent content for early on have always done better than those that I haven’t.  So my goal for the first 60 days is to write 45 posts and schedule them to publish every other day.  I may spread out the last 15 to every 3rd day.  After that I’ll likely try to post once a week.

At first the majority, if not all, of my posts will just be product reviews.  My main reason for doing this is I’m still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the niche.  It’s a lot easier to find some cool kitchen gadgets and toss up a review than it is to write support posts (at least for me).  Once I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on things I’ll start to mix in more and more posts that don’t contain affiliate links.

So, what do you guys think so far?

Don’t forget to sign up below and receive a copy of Niche Chaser; this is where all my site building begins!

Other Posts in the Niche Rivalry Series

• Niche Rivalry: The Rivalry Begins (12/21/11)
• Niche Rivalry 002: Finding Seed Keywords the Easy Way (12/29/11)
• Niche Rivalry 003: Revealing the Niche (1/2/12)
• Niche Rivalry 004: Site Setup (1/9/12)
• Niche Rivalry 005: How to Write Like a Panda (1/19/12)

If you happened to miss the beginning of this Page One or Bust Case Study then you can find it Another 30 days has passed and it’s time to do a little reporting.  As you’ll read below my site has started to make its way through the Google SERPs. Woohoo!

If you happened to miss the beginning of this Page One or Bust Case Study then you can find it here, where I showed you search results and competition data for the site.

The Challenge

I am using nothing but Matt LaClear’s Page One or Bust article link drip feed service in attempt to hit Page 1 on Google.

How Many Links Does 100 a Day Really Get You?

I haven’t checked the number of indexed links until now.  I know from reading the thread at the Warrior Forum that a lot of people complain how few of these links are actually indexed.  To be honest I could care less if a single link ever gets indexed as long as the site ends up on page 1, but that’s just me.  Regardless here’s a quick snapshot of the number of links that ahrefs shows.

Links shown by ahrefs.com

As you can see I’m only showing 12 links, whereas 100 links have been sent at this site for about 90 days, for about 9000 total links.  So only 0.1% of the links are actually showing up.

January 10, 2012 Rankings Update

I’ve been a little bit lazy with this site unfortunately, and haven’t added any content in the past month.  The site is full of product reviews about something that I’m not that interested in. so it’s been kind of hard to get motivated.

Bing

Bing stayed pretty consistent, and all keywords improved slightly with 2 of them showing up on page 1.

Bing rankings as of 1/10/12 by Rank Checker

Google

As you can see below I finally got some decent movement in Google.  One of my keywords is as high as 22, while the rest are in the low 30s.  Unfortunately not much traffic increase.  Probably won’t see any traffic increase until page 1.

Google rankings as of 1/10/12 by Rank Checker

Summary

Even though I saw a pretty big jump in Google my earnings haven’t much increased.  This site is still in the $10 per month range.  I’m not really sure the potential of this site, but I guess that’s not much of a concern as this case study is all about hitting page 1.

I’m going to try and publish around 1 article a week for the next month, if not a couple more than that.  My biggest results have come when I’ve consistently published while also consistently building links, so we’ll see what happens.

I haven’t been putting a whole lot of data into this case study other than a quick rankings update each month, so if there is something else you’d like to see please let me know.  The next update will be February 10, 2012.