I recently mentioned Triberr in a post about SEO and Link Building and received a few emails from people asking about it effectiveness as a marketing tool.

My answer to this was simply that it has not been around long enough to tell for sure, but it does seem to have a huge amount of possibility. At the heart of Triberr is the concept of reach. That is, the bigger the number of people who are sent your message, the more potential you have to reach them.

Having said that, it really depends upon how the community uses it. If everyone ends up in one huge tribe, it may not be very effective.

Of course, there are many tools created to help people use Twitter to the best of its abilities. A few of them are:

• twiangulate.com can help you to determine who your best followers are.
• bufferapp.com can help you to schedule Tweets at the right times.
• dlvr.it can help you to distribute your content.
• friendorfollow.com can help you to know who is following you (paranoid?).
• followfridayhelper.com keeps track of who reTweeted your content, so you can thank them.

Over the past few years, Twitter has become one of the normal marketing tools used by all bloggers and Internet marketers. I say “all” because I do not believe that anyone doing anything that is social online today would or could get by without Twitter.

Twitter has become so popular amongst Internet marketers that it is pretty rare for many people to look at their Twitter “stream” any longer. More often, people look at filtered lists or use searches to see what is happening.

Side note: If you are really curious about Twitter, another great resource is Aaron Lee’s website. He also happens to be in one of the Tribes in which I am a member.

Due to Triberr creators Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo having recently put a ton of effort into adding value to the blogging community, the tool has been making strides recently. Its adoption by bloggers in particular seems to be as likely as their use of Twitter itself.

I had an opportunity to ask Dino Dogan a few questions about Triberr and its use in marketing.

Seems simple enough. But, how do you get the most out of it? Well, lucky for us, Dino made a video about how to maximize Triberr’s potential for you.

Of course, Triberr does not answer all of the needs related to using Twitter for Internet marketing. But, it does seem to be one of the best, most useful tools recently created.

Your Turn

Have you joined Triberr? What other tools do you use to increase your reach?

Why Triberr May Be The End of the Social Media Rainbow is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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I have been working on something new. It has been taking up so much of my time that I have been neglecting other things again. Most of my free time has been taken up with trying to determine if I want to move forward with this idea or not.

Well, that and working my day job, which is getting a tad scary lately.

Anyway, there are many times that you will see Internet marketers and bloggers suggesting that finding a niche that is ‘in demand’ is key to success. And that is probably true if you are looking for the fastest way to market some known product.

There really is no reason to market a product that no one wants, after all. But, what about those products that are not yet known?

Would someone do a Google search for something if they believed that it did not exist?

Probably not, so looking at existing demand is not always going to be the best first step. Companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple have created new products, revenue streams, and cultural expectations all because someone in each of those companies chose to look for something new.

Perhaps that new thing even solved an old problem. Perhaps most people did not even think it was a problem until someone said “hey, this sucks!”

When I was in grade school, saying that something “sucks” could have landed me in detention. But I am talking to you today about this because I noticed something that sucked. That is, I would never have started blogging had I not recognized something that I thought could be better.

Designing a keyword research tool, starting a community like Triberr, and creating a Gig on Fiverr.com are all things likely to have been done by people looking for a new way to do things, or perhaps a better way.

So, throw caution to the wind (one of my favorite cliches) and take a chance.

Make Something That YOU Love!

An Idea For A Better Way Of Life

You see ideas everywhere, and most of them are presented as a way to improve YOUR life. Or, you see ideas posing as being for the betterment of people. It does seem that many of them are really just a way to sell a product. Having been raised on steady diet of advertising media, many of us are getting a tad jaded and spiteful when it comes to being offered new things.

Even on this blog. I posted a while back about three email lists that I am happy to be on. There were many commentators who said things like “I have been on lists and it sucked! Most of them are just people wanting to sell you something.”

Well, I can’t argue there. That is, ultimately, the function of most email lists. That is not true of the list on this site, but I do build them on a few of my niche sites for the express purpose of selling.

But, I do think that the argument misses the point. There are many things that are not sold in order to hurt the purchaser. Specifically, the three lists I mentioned in that post were incredible examples where the list owner was NOT out to just get people’s money. There was real value in what they provide.

That is the point. In Internet marketing and in blogging, offering real value is everything. But, what if what you have to offer is not already looked upon as valuable?

So, What’s The Big Idea?

Really, it does not sound like much. Not even to me. And, I am not yet sure if it is legal.

That’s right. It could be that I have spent a couple of weeks worth of free time developing something that would hurt me if I actually executed it, and it has been worth every second.

But don’t worry. It would not hurt anyone, and it would not likely make me a millionaire. It would help so many people though. People who currently suffer because of communities and their inabilities to fit within them.

The idea is based on using the greed of consumers and businesses alike to benefit both of them. It aims at a better society and would not only benefit the users.

I don’t mean that my idea is another niche site, or a new platform, or even a new blog. There may be a blog at some point, but certainly, it will only be used for content delivery (i.e., no sales).

Sometimes you just need to work on something because you care about it.

A Little Bit Extra

Another thing that I looked into recently. Really, this is not directly related to the subject of this post, but it does describe another situation where I tried something when I only a vague idea of it’s potential.

I heard about Fiverr a while ago; probably 6 months or a year ago, actually. Yesterday I purchased a ‘Gig’ and today I started one of my own. I am offering to create social bookmarking accounts (about 90 of them) for 5 dollars. We’ll see if anyone likes the idea.

Have a great day!

Your Turn

Are you dreaming of something? Why not get started today?

Looking At Demand First Could Be Killing Your Business is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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Perhaps it is only because a Crosby Stills Nash song that I could not turn off was on a radio shortly ago, but I am feeling kind of reactionary…no, revolutionary today.

You may not be aware of it, or maybe you are.

I have a good friend who believes that blogging as a business is a waste of time. Actually, she believes that bloggers are just

“a bunch of whiny people who feel the need to tell the whole world about their problems even though they really have nothing to say and no one listening.”

My friend is certainly not the only person who feels this way. Shockingly, it seems that many bloggers think this way as well. I won’t name names here, but I have been noticing this in quite a few places recently.

Why else would so many posts focus on SEO tactics, and why else would there be so many comments on blogs that don’t even address the post they are placed in so strategically.

I admit that I have worked on SEO as a way to increase the traffic going this site and to my niche sites. And that strategy has, at times, included finding blog posts with relatively high PR to comment in on purpose. I have even written about these things on this blog.

But, is a blog only a business?

The Advantages That Blogs Have Over Other Media

Reading A Blog Is An Active…err…Activity

Whereas reading a book or watching the TV news tends to be a fairly one way conversation, blogging does not need to be that way. Most bloggers not on allow comments on their posts, but want to get them!

Think about this. Blogging is a social media, and a book is an old tree. A TV is generally a colorful window into many things that never happened (sometimes that even describes the news shows) and a blog is something that is happening now.

If you smile at me, I will understand
‘Cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.

You Can Learn Something New

There are blogs about pretty much everything you can think of. Better, there are people sharing their experiences about each of these topics. And, it does not take long to find a community of people with interests like yours; your place in the virtual world is not entirely different from your place in the real world.

I don’t need to list all of the different types of blogs that there are out there, I am sure. Google any old subject and you will surely find at least a few blogs that tell you more than what some corporate website will.

If I had ever been here before I would probably know just what to do
Don’t you?
If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel
I would probably know just how to deal
With all of you.

You Can Learn To Understand Someone Else

It really is amazing. In my day job, I have worked with people from places near and far. I sometimes speak to people from places as distant and different as Mexico, India, France, Pakistan, Bosnia, Zimbabwe, and West Virginia.

But since I started working on my Internet business, I have been able to communicate with people from very different parts of the world in a way that is more open, and more honest. There seems to be less pretense and more generosity.

There seems to be a common purpose amongst bloggers, despite the fact that many of us do compete against each other for visitors and page views.

Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

You Can Voice Your Opinion

Blogs are open and available for conversation and learning. Bloggers are free say anything they want to, and they might even find an audience for their thoughts. If there is a market for it, bloggers can even make a little money for their efforts.

But, there is a price that needs to be paid for all of this.

Blogging Is A Business

Through it all, the business of blogging is one that is beneficial to the readers and the writers alike. Often, these are the same people. Often, these people are related in some way.

There are many bloggers who write about photography and about weddings, and about blogging. Somehow, perhaps because it needs to be this way, these bloggers find themselves working together, at least indirectly.

So, if blogging is a business, then that must mean that business is social… No surprise there. I think that sales people have known this for many years.

Many sales people go to great lengths to build relationships with potential customers, and those relationships often end up becoming true friendships.

Your Turn

Do you think that blogging can be more than just business? What will you do today to make your community better?

The Case For Blogging As A Business is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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Like it or not, being a blogger and/or Internet marketer requires you to do some really boring things. One of my least favorite activities is building backlinks for SEO.

Luckily, there are a few tools and websites that can make getting high quality backlinks a breeze.

Tools For Automation

There are many tools you can use to gain backlinks to your webpages. But, there are only a few that are worth using.

Social Monkee

Funny name, awesome free tool. It allows you to create links to 25 different sites for a link of your choice each day. If you do this every day, you will have amassed about 750 backlinks each month. I use this nearly every day. To get a free account, just visit their site.

Bookmarking Demon

This is a paid software program that you need to download to use. But, don’t let that keep you from looking into it. I have been using it for a couple of months now, and I am really glad that I bought it.

BMD allows you to create accounts easily, to bookmark a boatload of links on a boatload of sites in a very short amount of time. I am currently using this to bookmark to about 70 social bookmarking sites. The real advantage of this software is that it helps you to stay organized and efficient. You can even schedule bookmarks and ping them as you please. You can check it out here.

IM Automator

IM Automator is the first tool that I ever used to make social bookmarking easier. You can use the free version forever, or if you try it and like it, you can opt for the paid subscription version. Currently, I am using the free version. If nothing else, it is one more tool for your online assault.

IM Automator allows you to submit 10 urls each day. These are submitted to a bunch of different sites over the period of time (1, 15, or 45 days) that you choose.

Onlywire

This is one of my least favorite tools, but it is still quite popular. It allows you to enter your link once and get links on 42 social networks (digg, facebook, posterous, etc.). Unlike IM Automator, you need to set up your own accounts to use this tool.

I tried this one out about six months ago and did not fall in love with it. It does work, though. You can choose to pay, or put a badge on your webpage to use the free version.

Social Marker

Social Marker is an ok alternative to a paid tool like Bookmarking Demon if you don’t want to pay for it.

Of course, it does have its limitations and can be frustrating to use. I used it for a while before taking the plunge and paying for a tool instead. My biggest complaint about it is that it would not always work, and when that happened, it got very confusing and time consuming.

Again, this tool requires you to set up all of your own account manually. Still, it is a great free tool.

Online Communities

This is what the web is all about. Building relationships with people provides us with just about all of the opportunities we find in life. Getting a better job, an education, a spouse, etc. are all related to how well we build relationships. The bottom line is that you need to be able to build relationships.

There are some exceptions, of course, but most of those people work for Microsoft.

Anyway, here just some of the awesome places on the Internet that you can meet people, learn more about the virtual world around you, and do some link bulding.

Blokube

Dev from technshare.com started a social voting site for Blogging, Marketing, SEO, etc. called blokube.

Link popularity is key on this site and you can’t get that without regularly visiting. That is, you want the links you have submitted to get to the front page for maximum visibility. I usually visit this on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Blog Engage

A guy named Brian built blog engage a while back. This is one of the most popular sites like this out there. It used to be invite only, but that seems to have changed. Well, I know that I have not invited anyone for a while anyway…

Like Blokube, you want your links to be popular on this site. That is, you want people to vote for your links so that you can get to the front page. That is where your links will get the most exposure.

Blog Interact

This is one of the newer blog bookmarking sites, and there are some things about it that are quite cool. Of course, link popularity is again key here to getting to the front page. Blog Interact was started by a guy named Bryan (seems like there is a trend here) and it looks promising.

Other Blog Voting Sites

Of course, it does not end there. There are BlogCatalog, MMO, SERPd, and a bunch more. If you have not already, check these sites out. It would not be a good idea to use all of them, but find some you like an visit regularly.

Blog commenting

This is probably my favorite way to create backlinks. Really, the best part of it is that taking part in the online community allows me to find new blogs and to meet new people. I talked a little bit about part of my commenting strategy a few posts back.

In general, blog commenting works, but there is one thing that adds a special something. The CommentLuv WordPress plugin is probably old news, but if you have not added it to your blog and joined their community, you are missing out.

Other Backlink Opportunities

RSS and Directory listings

There are countless directories and RSS aggregator sites that are crawled by the search engines. One easy way to build some more authority is to get noticed on the best of these. One RSS site is Alltop. Directories, such as dmoz, have appeared to be looked upon well by the serps. This is probably because, in the case of dmoz, human people (as opposed to the other kind… I can’t believe that no one has stopped me from writing like this yet) research every site submitted for inclusion in their directory.

I put together a PDF with a copy of this post and a list nearly 300 of the best RSS and Directory sites. You can download it (for FREE) by pressing the button below.

Anyway, these types of sites are great for getting noticed, so go get some backlinks!

There are link building services that will do hundreds of RSS and/or directory submissions for you, and the amazing thing is that it is fairly cheap. If you head over to key2seo.com or ODesk (after commenting, of course ), you can find someone to do this for between 10 and 35 dollars.

Don’t Forget To Ping

So, now that you have some backlinks created, you need to ensure that Google knows about them. So, you need to ‘ping’ them. If you are using wordpress, this is as simple as pressing post for the most part.

But, I use the “cbnet Ping Optimizer 2.3.3″ plugin to help me to keep from spamming the search engines. Plus, I added a bunch of services to help the search engines notice each new post. Also, Bookmarking Demon will do pinging for you.

If you want a list of services, Alex posted a pretty good list of them a while back in his post about Google PageRank.

Also, Alex recently mentioned a tool that I had not heard of – pingfarm. It looks pretty good, so check it out!

Of course, link building services will do this for you. But, it is good to do this with any links you build through any of the above methods.

Social Media

Triberr

Social media is rarely included in this topic. I just found this website recently, so though it does not really fit in the topic easily, it is an incredible idea so I want to mention it here.

Triberr is an invite only website where tribe members automatically share each other’s blog posts on Twitter. It does not give you backlinks, but it does help you to network and to get retweets.

It works via RSS, so every time you post to your website, everyone in your tribe will retweet your link to it. The tribe I stared is called “IceBlueTribe” (of course). I am looking for people to be part of it, so click on the link above and tell me when you are ready!

Anyone who joins my tribe will get at least 2 visits each week from me. I comment and bookmark (digg, delicious, stumbleupon, etc.) any good posts. Let me know if you want an invitation.

I also joined Danny Brown’s tribe (Bloggerific), which is fairly new as well and includes a great group of people (Brankica, Ingrid, Aaron Lee, and Sarah Robinson).

Bonus

Here are a few more that I have seen mentioned elsewhere:

DropMyLink

This tool can be used to find .edu and .gov sites to comment on. My results have been quite mixed when using this, but it is worth taking a quick look every now and again.

Free Link Checker

If you want to check your links, you can use this tool. It is from scrapebox, and works quite nicely. The best part is that it is easy to use.

Your Turn

What do you think of these sites and tools? Do you know of any other great places to get links?

SEO and Link Building – Where To Get Backlinks Today is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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I am a creature of habit, but I also tend to forget things. So, I often end up doing things for forgotten reasons.

Does that make sense? I am not actually sure…

Anyway, in my day job I manage a group of intelligent, but distrustful, people who continually ask the question ‘why’ over and over again.

Truly, it does become irritating. Imagine working with a bunch of five year olds with ADHD who are all smarter than you.

That’s right. The type of people who consider chess a sport and computers a logical extension of their own brains. I am often surprised by the complaints that they come up with.

People, after all, are unpredictable.

Except for me; I know that I am forgetful. You could say that, like most working people today, I have a tendency to over-book myself. The combination of these two things leave me exposed to the risk of not knowing what the heck I am doing at any point during the day.

The hardest part of it is that I don’t only have a day job. Like most of the people reading this right now, I am working towards having my own business in addition to my day job. It is tiring, and can be very difficult to keep up.

So, I keep lists.

This post is about five specific lists that I keep with me all day long. I refer to them often, and when I am making decisions, they help me to stay focused and stress free, and they help me to use my time the right way.

The lists are:

1. My Current Projects

One of the most important things you can do to enable yourself to be as productive as you can be (avoid getting burned out) is to somehow keep track of your priorities.

For me, that means the ability to be aware of everything I am working on at a point in time. So, one of the pieces of paper I keep includes just that – my list of current projects and their relative priority.

The beauty of this is that when I am trying to decide what to do next, the paper tells me to do what is important, no what I feel like doing at that point in time. This is great for me as I usually just want to do whatever is easiest.

2. Keywords I Want To Rank For

Everyone knows that keywords are Google’s raw materials. The search engine uses them to help searchers find the information they want.

So, I have decided upon some keywords that I want to rank for and I keep the most important of them on a piece of paper. That way, when I am working on my link building, planning for future posts, working on article marketing, or any of the other things that are included in my strategy, I can simply look at my list to pick out a keyword.

Mostly, for blogging, I use this for keyword luv comments and for posts that I am writing. This list is updated every Sunday, and is rarely the same two weeks in a row.

3. Post Ideas

This list is a no-brainer for bloggers. If I don’t keep a list like this somewhere, I know that I could easily forget some of my best post ideas. But, post ideas for blogs are not all that I have on this list.

This list also includes some of my strategy. It is kind of like a link planner and looks something like this:

idea | keyword to rank | keyword to link | link target

The great thing about this list is that I write it in pencil, so I can change it at any time. And, seeing all of the links that I have planned can help me to come up with new blogging topics (pretty nice, I think).

4. Improvements To Make To Existing Assets

This could include this website, one of my niche websites, or any of the Web2.0 sites that I have posted articles to. It has become obvious to me that I tend to not notice problems after seeing them a few times, so I keep this list updated.

When I have time to work on my sites, I refer to this list and knock out whatever I can in that time. I redesigned this site not so long ago (screenshot of the old look here), and used only the notes on this piece of paper to plan all of the changes.

It works well for Web2.0 as well. I have a few Squidoo lenses that really need to be updated. I know what updates need to be made and why – they are all detailed on this list. So, next time I have an hour or two I will be able to make a better decision about where I put my time.

5. Who I Want To Get To Know

This is probably the most important list I have. I know that some of you are thinking – “what about your post ideas or your list of projects?”

Well, to be fair, all five listed here are essential for me to stay focused and to continue to improve my sites. But, when I look at the long term benefits of each of these lists, relationship building is by far the most important.

In my opinion, seeking out people with whom you have things in common has many of the same benefits as it does in the real world. For example, when I have a question, I know that there are at least a few people that I can email or reach out to on Skype.

These relationships could end up in joint ventures or just friendships in the future. Either way, I will be happy about it.

This list contains the following information:

person | twitter id | websites URL

Conclusion

These five lists have helped me more than I can express here. Just from the point of view of keeping my sanity while trying to accomplish more than I have any business to, these lists have kept me organized.

Making decisions is part of a normal day, and having the information you need to make the best decisions close by is essential.

Again, in this post I mentioned relationship building. If you want to contact me, you can do so by using either Twitter or Skype. Let me know what I can do for you.

What Do You Think?

What kind of information do you find that you need easy access to when you are planning?

5 Pieces Of Paper You Should Keep In Your Pocket is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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I was going to write about something different today, but a couple of questions were asked in the keyword seed list post.

One of them was from the great Robert Dempsey from itinerantentrepreneur.com. He asked “How are you determining if a potential niche could be profitable?”

I love this question, but the answer really depends upon a number of things. Well, there is one main thing and then a bunch of other, smaller things. The big one is:

Are you willing to spend money to find a profitable niche?

If your answer is yes, then testing with AdWords is one very common way to try things out. Find a keyword that you think is a buyer keyword (more on that below) and pay Google for clicks on that keyword.

If you do this, your ad will be placed in the sidebar for searches on your keyword. Many people do this for several keywords at one time to see which of them perform the best, then target that keyword as the main one for their profitable niche site.

It might sound simple to just do this and make millions, right? Well, that has not been my experience. Actually, I like to say “no” to the question at hand as I am really quite cheap.

Talking About Traffic Generation Already?

Well, yeah. Without enough targeted traffic, it does not matter how nice your site is, or how well you write copy.

Good traffic + Good presentation = Good sales.

So, I will be mentioning traffic here and there throughout this post. Generating enough traffic to make sales is a big part of the ‘is it profitable or not’ equation for markets, niches, and keywords.

Side note: Not quite ironically, targeted traffic plus (relatively) low competition seems to be the reason that “traffic generation” is one of the biggest growing Internet Marketing niche markets around right now.

If you answer no, then the need for just enough targeted organic traffic to make some sales is required. This is where you want to be – getting just enough traffic to accomplish your goals. But before we get carried away, we need to find a market.

Find A Profitable Market

There are tons of opinions out there about the best way to find a profitable market. Most of them include one or more of the following:

• Start with what you know (or are interested in learning)
• Look at Google trends
• Watch Social Media outlets like Twitter
• Do keyword research
• Look at blog directories
• Look at the magazines listed on Amazon

But, this seems to be missing the point. All of these (except the first) will tell you if people are writing about something, and possibly searching for it as well. But they won’t tell you if people are buying (i.e., if you are going to find a profitable niche topic). Having said that, your knowledge, trends, social media, keyword research, etc. CAN have a measurable effect on how many sales you make.

One huge mistake you can make right now is to go to a site like Google Trends and choose to sell whatever is in the top 10.

Actually, as I am writing this, #7 is libya and #8 is lybia. Oddly, “how to spell Libya” is not in the top ten.

Anyway, don’t get me wrong. Using these as starting points to find a market does make sense. But, using them is only one small part of your research.

Find Profitable Niche Topics

Ok, I am going to explain what I do to break down markets that are likely to be profitable so that I can find a profitable niche.

We know that markets are made up of one or more groups of people who have something very specific in common. Perhaps it is that they like Water Polo, or that they all have won the lottery.

Finding a niche topic is fairly easy. Water Polo players are likely interested in the latest news about water polo balls, swim suits, and swimmer’s ear drops. Lottery winners are probably interested in investments and ways to keep their family from killing them (it is a tough world, isn’t it?).

You want to think about the market’s interests first as Google’s data can not truly be validated and because much of the reason that people will click your link has to do with how you present it (i.e., what you are using for anchor text). You and I could both try to market a product. But one of us will make decisions that creates more sales. That has less to do with historical data than it does current decisions of design and user intention.

Finding Buyer Keywords

For as much flack as Google Instant took when it was introduced, I believe that it is one of the most helpful tools in the quest to find a profitable niche market. People buy stuff to solve problems and Google provides search for people to find what they need.

Ha. Sorry, I need to stop. That last sentence is like saying that news organizations work hard to provide the facts of current events and don’t spin the facts to please their audience.

Anyway, it makes sense that there could be keywords or parts of keywords that can be used to find buyers in any niche. A few ways of doing this come to my mind:

1. Think about motivation. What is it that is motivating someone to want to buy whatever it is that you are thinking about selling? Do some keyword research and see if you can find a few phrases that look like they are motivated by something. In our example, someone’s computer may be running out of power after only a short time. So, our seed for out keyword research could be “replace Thinkpad battery”.
2. Buyer and review. Pick a single product and use Google’s keyword tool. If there are people searching for a specific product models, then it is likely that at least some of them are looking to buy. If you can find these “buy” or “review” in the results and there is low enough competition, then you may soon find a profitable niche.
3. Find a highly searched or talked about model number or manufacturer name. This one is not so much fun, but there are many marketers who use this strategy to create their sites. You can find these on forums and by looking at the popular products pages of Amazon, ebaY, etc. For our example, we will limit our research to batteries for the R51.
4. Type a seed into Google Instant. I won’t show this as part of the example, but it is often a good way to find other keyword seeds, and sometimes other niches.

Summary of My Profitable Niche Search Process

1. Pick a market. This can be random as I have done for illustration, or through hours of doing Internet searches to learn about a particular group of people.
2. Find good seed keywords. This is what I wrote about last week. Basically, what does this market want to know about or buy? Use the seeds to create a keyword list. This is your starting point.
3. Check your keywords with Google’s keyword tool. This is by no means perfect, but check your keywords’ profit per click and cost of paid traffic. Chances are, if other people are willing to pay for clicks on these keywords, you might be able to make some money in that niche.
4. Look for products in Amazon, Clickbank, etc. Look for >$100 or for a product that you think there would be a large market for. And, make sure that the products are things that you would not mind getting via the mail, or digitally. If you find enough winners, you may be on to something.
5. Do keyword research for products from 4. Especially look for “buy <product>” and “<product> review. Add these to you keyword seed list.
6. Categorize your keywords. Is this one that you would use to buy something or just to find info? No research for this one; just use your brain.
7. Build your site and generate some traffic.

The Bottom Line: Finding the best way to use keywords that are not too hard to rank for can be difficult, but it is the key to enabling you to accomplish your goals.

So, what are you sitting there for?

I would love some feedback on this post, but after that, crack open Market Samurai and get to work!

Bonus – Here is a pdf with this article and a list of keywords that can be used in your research to find good buyer keywords, which could help you to find a very profitable niche.

Have a great day.

What do you think?

• What steps do you take to determine if your next niche will be profitable?
• Do you believe that there is a bullet proof method to find a profitable niche?

7 Steps to Find Profitable Niche Topics And Generate Passive Income is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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I am working towards achieving a goal of having more than five different types of income streams all making over a certain dollar amount by year’s end. As part of this, I have been researching a new niche every week for the past few months.

This past week was particularly fun, mostly because I found a micro niche that may be just what I need before moving on to the next income generation type that I intend to try.

Included in the method I am currently working on is the use of Amazon niche sites. BTW – I recommended joining Alex Whalley’s email list a while back. I highly recommend joining his list to anyone interested in affiliate marketing in general.

Anyway, as part of doing this weekly research, I have been picking broad markets and looking for the smaller, but profitable, niches that are not getting the attention they deserve. Finding markets is easy. Off the top of my head, here are ten of them:

• saleboaters
• skateboarders
• singers
• songwriters
• sales people
• sushi chefs
• restaurant owners
• food critics
• medical doctors
• jewelers

But, doing word association and categorizing groups of interests of people is only the very beginning.

The Hard Part of Niche Site Building

In my experience, one of the hardest things for people to get working properly is keyword research. It is not that they have a hard time using keyword analysis tools, or that they don’t understand their subject or market (though that is REALLY important too).

It is that they start their research with the wrong keyword seeds.

Keyword Seed List

There is a huge difference between keyword research for an existing site and keyword research for a new website. When I perform my keyword research for a new site, I like to start with some common sense.

Well, and some tools.

1. Amazon

This one is a no-brainer. Go to Amazon and look for something you believe that your target market is interested in. Then, read the reviews. You will find an amazing amount of useful information in the user reviews. Interests, lingo, other product ideas, conversation about what is worth spending money on, etc. Really, pick a good product and give it a half hour. You will learn quite a bit with this method.

And, to the point of this post, you will find some great keyword phrases that can be used for your keyword seed list. These seeds in the Google keyword research tool and/or Market Samurai to find the right keywords. But, I am getting ahead of myself. We need a bigger list of keyword seeds.

2. Qirina

The Qirinia keyword tool is not like the others. Really, it is not really for keyword analysis. But, it does allow you to enter a keyword and find some sites that have keywords that you may want to use as a starting point for your research. And, it shows the keywords to you. Very useful.

3. ebaY

Using ebaY to find keyword seeds is similar to using Amazon. Reading product descriptions written by real people (i.e., not marketers) can help you to find the words that people use in conversations, and therefore, are more likely to write in search engines.

Plus, you might find that part for the rusty 1963 Camaro in your garage that your wife keeps insisting is worthless, but you just know that someday you will get it put together and be able to drive past your old best friend’s house and laugh because he just never had the guts to take on such a project and that evil wife of his will be so upset that she broke up with you in high school so she could go to the prom with that jerk Alex who eventually….

Well, you get the idea.

4. Forums and Blogs

Still the most useful way to learn about a niche is to go out and talk to people about it. A faster way is to go read forums and blogs. Watch for words and phrases that seem meaningful. Those are your starting point for the perfect keyword seed list.

5. Naughty Emails

I recently wrote a bit about comment spam. Some people really hate it, but I have come to enjoy those naughty little messages. You get the spammer’s keyword and url. Follow that through as part of your research, and you could uncover all of the easy stuff. Fun, right?

6. Web Searches

Maybe this one is obvious, but when you are working to build the best keyword seed list you can, it can be helpful to go Google your market then look at the results on the first page. Not only that, but for each of the ten, you should look at the source (right click, view page source).

Find something that looks like the below and steal those keywords to use in your seed list.

<meta name=”keywords” content=”camaro tires,high performance tires,forgotten dreams” />

7. Google’s keyword tool

This one is obvious, but incredibly helpful nonetheless. I like to use it with a keyword and one or more of the websites I found with Qirina. This really helps you to narrow your research a bit, and to build a better seed list.

8. Bonus – Google’s Wonder Wheel

This is one of my favorite tools, and it has been written about almost as much as forums have for purposes of Internet marketing. But, I have a feeling it is being used less. In my experience, it makes quick keyword research for long-tail terms a breeze, and is quite fun to use.

9. Bonus 2 – Wordtracker Keyword Questions

This is one of my favorite tools. Wordtracker’s tool (here) is not perfect, but it is great for coming up with ideas. And sometimes, there are a few phrases you can use to put your quest for the perfect keyword list in high gear.

These are all great tools, but one fact remains.

All Keywords Are Not Created Equal

This is beyond the concept of keyword seed lists, but when you are going through your list of keywords and looking up the competition for each, you will notice that some appear to be just impossible to rank highly for. But don’t give up. You can rank for those keywords, just not yet.

The great thing about keywords in general is that they can be used for linking, blog post ideas, and about a billion other things. They are a resource that can only be limited by one’s imagination.

Words, What Are They Good For?

There are several different categories of keywords, and these categories are not the same for everyone. Perhaps an illustration would help here.

Bobby has an e-store that sells watches. His business has been online for several years and some of his pages rank very high on Google for keywords that are specific to the products for sale on his website.

In this case, Bobby is ranking for some longer tail keywords, and it may be time for him to step it up and and start actively pursuing some of the harder keywords for his site. Presumably, he has been ranking for some of the harder ones already, just not on his site. So, he should start shifting his focus from those other places to his own site.

Sue has a blog about architecture where she sells a few ebooks to help people learn about historical architecture located in different places in the world. Hers is a new site which is not ranking high in the search engines for any long-tail keyword terms.

Sue seems to be off to a good start, but if she tries to rank for some of the harder keywords, she is going to be spinning her proverbial wheels. Instead, she could try ranking for some of those medium competition on some web 2.0 sites and link to her blog from there. Then, she should focus on long tail keywords on her site. It does take some time, but eventually, she could have a true authority site.

Coming Attractions

In the near future, I am going to be publishing the first of a series of ebooks that illustrate these concepts in action through the icebluebanana mail list (see the top of the sidebar).

Your Turn

How do you find keyword seeds or new ideas for your niches or blog posts?

photo credit: pictour_this

7 Ways To Grow A Keyword Seed List For Your Niche Site Garden is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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There are so many things that people need to balance in their daily lives. As bloggers, we share a few very frustrating needs.

One of the most commonly taught ways to increase blog traffic is to comment on other people’s posts and use relevant keywords, and it works.

Of course, much of the time, the traffic you drive to your site by doing this is made up of largely of people who’s main reason for visiting is to leave a comment and drive traffic to their site.

In effect, the traffic being received is not always made up of the type of reader that the blogger really wants.

Website Promotion By Commenting Example

Let’s say I wrote blog posts with a goal to increase blog traffic, as an affiliate, to a site that sells bowling gloves.

I may write comments on other bowling sites, blogs about gloves, or even sites about traffic generation. But, are the authors/visitors of those sites really the people who are likely to click on my affiliate links?

Maybe they will be. But, it is far from perfect. Many Internet Marketers start out by building as many links as they can, targeted or not. And that can be useful, but is very time consuming.

Sure, there are benefits to commenting beyond simply driving traffic to your website in the short term. Improving SEO and building relationships are two huge long-term benefits.

Three Rules for Awesome Blog Commenting

There are three rules, well, guidelines that I follow for commenting. I have come to use this method due to a number of factors, but the biggest is that I believe that this has helped me to increase the amount of traffic to my blog.

• I comment on blogs that are written by someone with whom I would like to develop a relationship. To me, this is the most important thing. Blogging is a social media, and I try to spend most of my time working on the things that I really think are worth it. Working to increase blog traffic is important, but you can’t do that alone.
• When I can, I choose blogs which have a slightly higher PR than mine. This is not alway needed, and certainly, I do not limit my comments to blogs with higher PR (I am not that snobby ), but I do look for these on occasion.
• Finally, I always comment on blogs that I believe will continue to get better, more popular, and make me happier. Don’t waste your time developing relationships with people who will be gone in six months. Unfortunately, there are many bloggers who will be. And when they are gone, so is your relationship and a few of your backlinks.

How Many Comments Are Enough?

No doubt about it, leaving awesome comments on other blogs is a great way to increase blog traffic. Especially if you are commenting on highly read blog posts.

But what happens when you end up spending too much time writing comments and not enough time writing blog posts?

Low sales.

And, what if the traffic you are getting from those other blogs does not convert?

Again, low sales.

Does that mean you should stop socializing?

At least for me, there are more reasons to comment on blogs than just improving your SEO. I don’t think that there is a need to stop commenting on blogs that won’t immediately benefit you. Think about all that you would be missing.

So, what we need here is some balance.

Ways to balance promotion with socialization

Thinking about your goals and your needs are the only way to start working out a way to build balance into your Internet business. Here are three things that I think about when I am considering my strategy:

Don’t Do It All For The Money

In the third item above, I mentioned that commenting should make me happier. That is the real goal here. After all, people don’t want money for the sake of having it. Well, unless they are jerks.

Rather, people want money so that they can feel more secure, buy their loved ones more safety, and to be able to do a little less when they choose.

Make A Few Friends Before You Make Many

Blogging is a social media, and often people getting into it with an interest to make money online push to be popular with everyone without actually developing a relationship.

This is not a way to increase blog traffic, and tends to just annoy bloggers who have been around for a while. It is best finding one or two friends at first, then work to meet a few more people over a longer period of time.

I have been focused on the wrong things at times too, so this is an area that I will be working to improve over the next few weeks. I know of a few bloggers who I would like to work with in the future, and I will be reaching out to them.

But, only a few people at a time.

Be Generous

Don’t just comment. Answer questions where you can and work to develop your brand into something that other people would want to be involved with.

Leave awesome comments and enjoy what the other people are writing. Find a way to make it useful to you and to your readers in as many ways as possible.

Conclusion

Nobody will like you just because you make a bunch of money (or claim to). Show some real generosity and your traffic will increase.

Most of all, have fun and become part of the community.

Have a great week!

Your Turn

What are you doing to improve your community, on and off of your blog?

weird handshake photo credit: BaylorBear78

Three Rules for Awesome Blog Commenting To Increase Blog Traffic is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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There are a ton of blogs that I visit each week. Sometimes I comment, and sometimes I have nothing to add really. Most of the time (lately) I don’t do much other than read a post or two and be on my way to somewhere else. Often that is because I do most of my blog hopping in between other things in my daily life.

However, I do subscribe to a bunch of email lists. Admittedly, this is because I am extraordinarily lazy. But, there are benefits to this (the lists, not the laziness).

For one thing, I get about 50 emails each day on my blackberry, which makes me feel wanted. Self-esteem is so important, and seeing a new message sent especially for me every 1.2 minutes is quite nice. Yes, I am joking.

Of course, all email lists are not the same. I will be writing about this quite a bit more in the future, but lets just say that there are a few really awful lists out there that made me opt out very quickly after having signed up.

Anyway, through all of this, I have learned about Internet business, ways to make money online, Twitter, fishing, and the dietary needs of kittens (truly, I don’t know how I ended up on that one).

Even better, I have found a few amazing people and resources. Today I want to share three of them with you.

BTW – All three of these guys are incredibly nice and respectable people. I highly recommend you check out their blogs immediately, send them a Tweet, or donate money to the charity of your choice in their names.

Amazon Niche Sites

Alex Whalley

Alex’s Build/Rank/Profit slogan is catchy. Plus, he has some incredibly good ideas.

I tried my hand a while back with building Amazon niche sites as a way to make money online, but could not really make it work. Sure, it was easier to get fancy pictures and to find content ideas. But, the low rate of compensation and my lack of ability to beat the competition forced me to move onto other things that were working.

Looking back on that experience now, I know at least a few of the mistakes I made were easily avoidable. Of course, at the time, I had no real guidance. I was just trying what I thought might work.

Alex is here to save you from a fate such as mine (well, maybe fate is the wrong word – I did eventually get that site going). He offers some great, step by step advice in a weekly email column to get you going in the right direction.

Alex will make you want to stand up and say “bloody brilliant, mate” or some such thing.

A Trilogy of Income Potential

Steve Scott

Steve is not one of those Internet Marketing ‘gurus’. He wants you to be successful. Well, I think he does anyway.

Recently, he published an incredible ebook describing three of the best ways to make money online.

The best part is that Steve is someone you can trust. He has made his living with online businesses for years, and appears to want to help other people to do the same. His ebook not only goes into detail about a few ways to make money online, but also gives some pointed commentary on the realities of Internet marketing.

Really, that may be the most important part of this ebook to people who are new to Internet Marketing as a way to make money online. Plus, it is over 80 pages long, so it will keep you busy for a while.

Even if you only have a passing interest in building your own business online, this is really a great introduction to some of most basic business models and concepts used in online marketing today.

Do You Suffer From Blog Anxiety?

Rich Wallace

Rich has a solution to a common, but not always talked about blogging problem.

Once you are deep into your new business ideas, you may find that you are getting distracted. Perhaps you are feeling tense or overly concerned about specific aspects of your business model.

According to Rich, he is not a “medical doctor, a psychotherapist, a counselor, a miracle worker or a sugar coater.” But, he has some perspective for you. There is no reason for you to worry any longer.

Rich has a way with words, and tells a personal, and incredibly interesting story about…well, blog anxiety. This is something that I think we can all relate to, and Rich does a masterful job not just telling you about his experience, but also how he found a way to feel better.

If you have been following along the past couple of weeks, you may know that I have been finding flaws in my own design. Rich’s ebook was a welcome distraction and a useful tool for me.

Further Reading

I spoke with Alex about keyword research.

I spoke with Steve about niche ideas.

I spoke with Rich about blogging objectives.

Your Turn

Have you found an email list that you are really glad that you signed up for?

photo credit: List

Ways to Make Money Are In The List is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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Learning anything can be frustrating. Learning how to lose is worse.

I just watched the Super Bowl, and it was quite a game. Though the team I had hoped would win did not, it was a good game. Unsurprisingly, the Black Eyed Peas were awful. Fergi did her best to show that she is incapable of doing anything but the worst Axel Rose impersonation ever. And, the Peas, well, they don’t really do much, so I am not sure why I bothered watching.

Since the game ended poorly (yes, I said it) and the Peas were pathetic (yes, I said that too), lets talk about the commercials.

The best one was the Best Buy commercial where Ozzy Osbourne acts confused and Justin Bieber gets made fun of. Really, who would not love that.

Anyway, Eminem was in two annoyingly bad commercials, and he was not in the minority. Most of the commercials lacked the creativity and humor of previous years’. Of course, there were some worse things going on, some of which were not even seen by the general public.

The Worst Mascot Ever?

If you are not familiar with the character in the picture below, you are really not missing out. In the seedy underbelly of American Football history, there is a mascot who is so disliked, it hardly seems a good idea to call him a mascot at all. His name is Steely McBeam, and many people from Pittsburgh hate him, and most people from everywhere else don’t know about him.

The introduction of Steely was a marketing disaster. Pittsburgh is generally a very friendly city in my experience, but Steely seems to have struck a rather negative cord with its population. It appears that the idea was to have a mascot who would appeal to kids. Perhaps he did appeal to a few kids, but Steely does not really appeal to anyone else.

Prior to Steely, there was another mascot named Stevie Steeler. Actually, in between them there was an unofficial mascot, who may have had a name; I don’t really know.

Mascots, apparently, are not something to be taken lightly. But, does that mean that Steely should give up?

When Is It Time To Hit The Power Button?

I had a few things go wrong this weekend myself. Last week I worked on setting up a site for a product in a niche that I thought I could utterly dominate. Unfortunately for me, I had missed something. Not a huge thing, but it got me thinking that maybe I should not enter the niche after all.

It was a simple mistake. When I registered my URL, I made a spelling error.

A few dollars spent somehow made me want to give up. But why? It wasn’t that much money, and my idea still seemed good. A few seconds of self doubt turned into a mishmash of concern and confusion and I really did not even know why.

It did not last long, but it was frustrating.

Starting a small business involves taking many chances, and they are not exactly spread far apart in time.

There may be times when you need to just move forward. Just give up on something that you thought would work, but upon further inspection seems unlikely to. For me, this was not that day (sounds kind of like Lord of the Rings, right? Lord of the banana…).

Really, that day is rare. But, worrying and self doubt can be destructive. Today is a good day to begin again. Tonight the Steelers learned to lose. But they will still work hard to win next year, as I will work hard to make this business work.

Who knows, perhaps Fergi will work on her intonation. Stranger things have happened.

Your Turn

Have minor setbacks caused you to rethink your plans?

photo credit 1: iChaz

photo credit 2: daveynin

Super Bowl Commercials And Learning To Lose is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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Everyone knows that SPAM is bad, right?

It is annoying and a huge time waster for anyone who is trying to get things done. Only after countless hours of deleting unwanted emails or fake comments, you can finally get back to what you want to do.

But what would you say if I told you that I love SPAM? What would you say if I told you that I have used SPAM to find niche ideas?

Email spam

Ok, so the most commonly known version of SPAM seems to be the emails that include stock tips, offer you cheap prescription drugs, or an offer from someone in a far-off land who has $50,000,000 for you if you send him $5,000 first. Seems like a good deal, right?

Emails from these sordid, nasty people will not improve your life or help you to find a way to make money online. But, they are funny (sometimes). And, you can learn about some of the crazy money making ideas that mean people have.

Comment spam

I recently turned off the GASP plugin. Mostly, I turned it off because I was thinking that it might be confusing for visitors wanting to comment.

But, when I turned it off, I turned Akismet (SPAM filter) back on. And what I found was amazing. The comments that I had been avoiding or just deleting were mostly junk, but a few were a glimpse into what other people are doing for niche websites.

The best part was that their URLs were included with their keywords. How much easier could it be to get started doing some research?

So, I took a look at the keywords and the URLs included in the SPAM messages, whipped open Market Samurai, and took a look at each niche site and their competition. Not surprisingly, I found two niches that were not too difficult to get into. Even better, I found how they were getting (many of) their links, other keywords to rank for, and some products that could be sold.

Here are some examples. I blurred the URLs as I don’t really want to help spammers. But, just allow you SPAM filter to capture a few and you can do much the same as I described above.

Twitter Follower spam

Another thing I do sometimes (you know, in my spare time) is to look through Twitter followers of other people.

I don’t do it to find more followers, though that is not a bad way to get started. Rather, I look for patterns (yes, I am nosy).

For example, take a look at these. I won’t say who’s followers these are, but this is either someone being funny or perhaps they are working on their stalking technique. You can be the judge.

Then they started to get creative by mentioning other animals they enjoy killing.

Then they decided to go back to fishing.

Oddly, the day before I took the above screen shot, this person’s profile looked like this –

Bio: I was like a daredevil, it gives me happiness when I go to some forest and hunt animals.

Clearly, there is some kind of fishing spam on Twitter conspiracy.

The great thing about these followers is that they all appear to be fairly new, and have about the same number of followers. The profiles for these Twitter “users” don’t currently have any URLs shown, but I would not be surprised if they do in the near future.

Of course, I did Google a couple of these, followed a couple of links, and found more people with names like the above (firstName_lastName).

I suppose that won’t help me to find a niche, but it is fun to watch what people are doing online. I know that I will be.

Your Turn

Have you found any good uses for SPAM?

photo credit 1: WordRidden

Finding Niche Ideas and Why I Love Naughty Emails is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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Sometimes you just know it is not going to be a good day. That is not to say you won’t be able to make it better.

But, I think it is important to admit, some days just don’t turn out as well as others.

Bad days suck, and it is often comforting to talk to a friend about your situation. You might even think that it will help you to find balance in your life. Unfortunately, the place you work is often not a place where you will find such a friend. No matter how much you want to.

If you work in an office or building with other people around, you know that there are times when it is hard to keep it all in. If you work online, you know that it can be hard to keep from typing words that have only four letters, especially in forums and blog comments.

Sometimes we just disagree.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are a few people out there who refuse keep their insanity in check, and that sucks for the rest of us.

There are ways to keep your self from getting promoted, and there are even more ways to make people hate you.

So, here is my advice based on five taboo activities that I witnessed just this week (at the office and online).

#1: Stop yelling at your husband on the phone.

While you are at it, be nice to your credit card company’s customer service department and your car dealership too. In fact, if you really want to prevent people from thinking you are a complete and total nut, just stop making personal calls from you desk. You have a cell phone for a reason. Take a walk and make the call.

#2: Stop telling people how smart you are.

No one will judge you based upon your boasting. Instead, they will judge you based upon the fact that you were boasting. Nine times out of ten, people only work hard at making others believe something if it is not true.

Also, no one cares if you are smart or not. They only care that you are able to do what you say you can do, and that you are not a jerk. It really is that simple, dummy.

#3: Don’t tell your boss about your marital problems.

This one is huge if you work in an office. Your boss does not care. In fact, no one does. Find a friend to call about it, or call your mom. Also, see point #1.

Of course, if you work for yourself, it is ok to blog about them. But, don’t do it on your roller skating niche blog.

#4: Don’t email your boss about any violent actions you are thinking of performing.

I am really not sure how to make this more simple. Stop being a jerk.

And, if you have a website, never post threats. Aside from being illegal, you would just be posting proof that you don’t get along with other people. Don’t bloggers already have enough of a bad image?

#5: Take your meds.

I know that it is a drag to need to take seven pills every day. I know that they make you feel less of who you are. But, if you are an asshole, take the pills. You need them.

And, if you are rolling up your underwear so your friends can take pictures of you showing that your forgot your meds today, well, just stay away from me.

Bonus: Just do some work.

Instead of getting caught up in all of the craziness, why not just work on something that will make your life better. Find ways to take advantage of any resource that is available to you and then do it.

If your employer offers tuition reimbursement, or you have found someone to write a guest post for, do it.

Then you can have a good day.

Your Turn

What do you think other people can do to help to cover up their crazy?

Creepy dogs photo credit: djg0333

Moron photo credit: Hairy.Jacques

5 Ways to Cover Up The Crazy and Make Friends At Work and Online is a post from: icebluebanana.com

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