Combating Web Spam with TrustRank. Technical Report, Stanford University, 2004

Web spam pages use various techniques to achieve higher-than-deserved rankings in a search engine's results. While human experts can identify spam, it is too expensive to manually evaluate a large number of pages. Instead, we propose techniques to semi-automatically separate reputable, good pages from spam. We first select a small set of seed pages to be evaluated by an expert. Once we manually identify the reputable seed pages, we use the link structure of the web to discover other pages that are likely to be good. In this paper we discuss possible ways to implement the seed selection and the discovery of good pages. We present results of experiments run on the World Wide Web indexed by AltaVista and evaluate the performance of our techniques. Our results show that we can effectively filter out spam from a significant fraction of the web, based on a good seed set of less than 200 sites.

Original document http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/2004-17

I will try to explain in layman?s terms what this is all about.

First of all you will need to understand about hubs and authority sites in the eyes of Google. Sites and pages are clustered by Phrase and topic as part of the Google web mapping. Within these clusters Google will identify its current hubs and authorities. Hubs being sites that link out to many of the sites within that cluster, and authorities are the sites within that cluster that receive more links to it than the others.

Google will Have already manually have rated these sites with regard their content, the sites they link to and their trustworthiness.

A prime example would be the BBC. They have a strict set of guidelines that editors must adhere to with regard linking to sites on the web. They also have strict guidelines set in place and overseen by government appointed bodies. These seed sites will be given a trust factor which can then be carried (or voted) to other sites, (like page rank) through their links.

Most niche trusted sites will carry links to similar content, or links to links on similar content. E.G. Reuters might run a news line, which is picked up by the BBC who rewrite and cite the original Reuters report. CNN might cite the BBC version which is more developed. ALL these sites are interlinking, and all are trusted sites. They might all also link to a website that originally carried the white paper/ allegation/ content.

So let?s put it into practice.

I release a niche altruistic website that is well received. The news gets picked up by the BBC who link to it. Various other news sites pick up on it and also point links to my niche site. In time other charity and educational sites link to me, as well as church sites etc. Many of these sites will be either seed trusted sites or linked to by seed sites. The closer the site which links to me is to the seed site, the more TrustRank my altruism site will get, the further away the less.. By default, if my TrustRank hits a level (caused by numerous site that have inherited TrustRank from votes), I might well become a trusted hub myself, making links from my site very valuable (in terms of TrustRank not monetary, although this will also be the case, but no one will know the TrustRank to know the value)

If you want to see a crude version of trustrank in action then look at the voting system on a forum.

If someone with a red (negative) reputation votes for you (good or bad), it doesn't affect your reputation, because in the eyes of the system they are not trusted because others who ARE trusted have said so. While a vote (good or bad) from someone with many squares of reputation can lift you up on high, or condemn you to the fiery furnace, while votes from those with one or two squares of reputation will count, but not for much. This is a simplified form of TrustRank.

It is my belief that TrustRank will compound so that the sum of the whole will be greater than the parts. so if a site got links from a seed site it would be worth x, but a site with links from two seed sites could be x +y + compounded trust value.

Below is a graphical representation of how it might work, but I have for simplicity not added the compounding value, and have used round numbers. Google PageRank uses a whole number of 1 as a base for each page, and a ?voting value? of .85 of the PageRank value. (This being the result of the .15 dampening factor applied to all pages when determining the value of outbound links from a page).

http://www.umbrella-consultancy.co.uk/tr1.jpg (address of image)

That is my take on TrustRank. So the old adage of build quality content that people will want to link to, means more than ever now.

One last thing, in life there is balance, for every shard of light there is dark, for every white Stetson, there is a black one. If some sites ARE trusted, either by seed or approval of seed, then some will NOT be. It is therefore possible, that links from un-trusted (due to being TrustRank unknown) sites, might not get any link benefit to pass on? Just a theory.Old Welsh Guy is JC Edwards, a web marketer and SEO from the OK His blog is http://www.oldwelshguy.co.uk where you can find information and news on SEO and web marketing. He also owns http://www.web-design-wales.com and http://www.umbrella-consultancy.co.uk . You can find OWg moderating or posting on many forums around the web.

Source: Business Goals

When you want to save time this new product that is launching Monday Feb 2 will be the answer you need. It was created by a legendary Internet market by the name of Jonathan Leger, you’ve probably heard of him. I personally use several of his products and they all outperform my expectations.

One of his most popular programs, 3-Way Links is one I have been using for several months. it is perfect for Niche sites and it will get your site indexed with high PR backlinks quickly.

His new program Answer Analyst will prove to be a time saver for anyone that uses article marketing to grow their business. You can use it as a stand alone program or with Instant Article Wizard Pro, another one of his programs I use. As a matter of fact, you could use all of these programs together and have a strong stable link building program that will not take all day to use.

I recommend looking at this program so you can see the benefits it holds. If you article market you will want to get it.

Answer Analyst

Stephen Meyer

============================================================
Secret Article Link Building Tactic
============================================================

Author: Iszuddin Ismail (kidino). Optindesign.Com

Alright, I’ve been testing this. I am not done yet but the
results so far have been promosing.

OK, here’s what this is about. Most of you know about Ezine
Articles, right? Well, it’s the most famous (maybe powerful)
article directory around.

Well, I am going to be sharing with a little secret tactic
that will get you huge amount of traffic, where we will be
taking advantage of …

[+] link building
[+] article directories
[+] social pages

First, let me tell you this. EzineArticles.com is so
powerful that you can see your articles get indexed on
Google almost immediately after your articles get approved.

That is fact #1…

So we will take advantage of that and try to boost our
article page on EzineArticles.com up to the first page. And
when it does, you bio at the end of the article will do the
rest of the work, by redirecting traffic to your site.

Oh yeah, depending on your article, you should be getting
tons of clicks on your article bio by having something like,
“Do you want to … (fill in the blank) … Click here for
… (another blank)…”

Here’s an example…

Do you want to learn how to build profitable membership
sites? Click here for your free 5-Step Membership Site
Creation Guide.

Iszuddin Ismail have been working full-time on the
Internet for the past three years. He helps other new
online enterpreneurs with the technical aspect of
Internet marketing.

Alright, now that you have a bio and an article, just submit
it to EzineArticles.com and wait for it to get approved.

When it does, here’s what you do. You know that it’s already
indexed by Google. Now is where the link-building starts.

You can create 5-10 variations of that article, or maybe
even write new ones, but it has to be related to the main
article on EzineArticles.com.

With those new articles, we are going build social pages,
and link back to your article on EzineArticles.com. But
there’s a special way of doing it…

All of the other social pages will link to your
EzineArticles.com and will also link to each other. The
trick is that no link is reciprocated, meaning, you don’t
link back to where you get links from…

Example… you create social pages on HubPages.com,
Squidoo.com, Blogspot.com, WordPress.com, etc… You can
even create a simple video and host them on YouTube.com,
Google Video, etc…

And from there, each of them links to your EzineArticles.com
but you don’t link back to where the link come from

WordPress.com –> EzineArticles.com
|
+-> Blogspot.com –> EzineArticles.com
|
+-> Squidoo.com –> EzineArticles.com
|
+-> HubPages.com –> EzineArticles.com
|
+-> YouTube.com –> EzineArticles.com

… and on, and on … as much as you can work on it. It
does not have to be in that order though. And the last one
can link back to the first one. Like in this example, your
YouTube.com can link back to your WordPress.com. Or if you
want to make it more random, you can link around and not
make a circle … Some pages can receive more incoming links
than others. But do plan you linking so that you can send
the Google spider to cover all of your social pages.

The example above, I am just trying to point out that you
should not reciprocate the incoming links.

The next thing to do is just link to one of your social page
using your own website. Google will then crawl from one page
to another and find the rest.

Give it a week or so before you see results.

Go ahead, try this and see if it works. Alright, don’t get
too ambitious and go for keywords like “weight loss” or
anything like that. You know that it’s too competitive. But
you can try specific keywords like “black pearl necklace”.

You can even ride on popular product launches are target the
specific product name. You may want to add a “review” at the
end of the product name.

And hey, you don’t even need your own website for this. You
can create your main offer page at blogspot.com and direct
the traffic from EzineArticles.com there…

RESOURCE:
Iszuddin Ismail (kidino) OptinDesign.Com

I think you’ll find this strategy one of the best for getting quick PR and back links,
Stephen Meyer

Twelve differences between those who dream and those who act:

1-Wanna-be’s obsess about ideas. Entrepreneurs obsess about implementation.

2-Wanna-be’s want more web traffic. Enrepreneurs focus on sales conversion.

3-Wanna-be’s focus on positive thinking. Entrepreneurs plan for multiple
contingencies.

4-Wanna-be’s want to get on TV and get “famous.” Entrepreneurs build their
list.

5-Wanna-be’s seek a perfect plan. Entrepreneurs execute and adjust the plan
later.

6-Wanna-be’s wait for their lucky break. Entrepreneurs engineer four, five,
six plans and execute them in tandem, wagering that at least one plan will
get traction.

7-Wanna-be’s fear looking stupid in front of their friends. Entrepreneurs
willingly risk making fools of themselves, knowing that long-term success is
a good trade for short-term loss of dignity.

8-Wanna-be’s shield their precious ideas from harsh reality, postponing the
verdict of success or failure until ’someday.’ Entrepreneurs expose their
ideas to cold reality as soon as reasonably possible.

9-Wanna-be’s put off practicing basketball until they’ve got Air Jordans.
Entrepreneurs practice barefoot behind the garage.

10-Wanna-be’s believe what they’re told, believe their own assumptions.
Entrepreneurs do original research and determine what paths have been
already trod.

11-Wanna-be’s believe they can do anything. Entrepreneurs do what they’re
gifted for and delegate the rest.

12-Wanna-be’s think about the world in terms of COULD and SHOULD.
Entrepreneurs think in terms of IS and CAN BE.

Are you still wondering about the How’s or are you diving in Headfirst. Even if you aren’t doing it the right way just so long as you are doing it you can make money, making money by accident is better than not making money any day of the week.

Perry Marshall’s 5 Day Adwords Course by email can show you how it’s done and how profitable it can be.

An article on your hard disk is worth nothing. An article on a single website is usually worth a bit more, but not that much. An article on hundreds of sites, all pointing to your money site, now that’s worth something.

When you’ve written an article you can submit them to the article sites in the normal way, but you can also allow other people to put them on their sites. You may want to take some time to look around for good quality sites, and then offer to let them use your articles on their site together with your byline. When you add your article to other peoples’ sites you’re getting free advertising on quality sites in your niche. Not every site will take an article, of course, but you’ll never know unless you try and you might be surprised how many webmasters are happy to take quality content.

This will also help get you listed in the search engines because you will have a one-way link and in most cases you can control the ‘anchor text’ used. That means you can use a highly targeted keyword phrase to point to your site. It’s one of the finest ways to get good rankings for a particular search phrase and that’s a powerful way to make money. Just be sure to check out the sites you’re contacting to see if they have a high rank and are listed in the search engines. Plenty of hits don’t hurt, either!

For you and the other site owner this is a win-win situation. They get quality content and you get free 1 way backlinks. If you spend some time every day looking for quality sites to offer your articles to it won’t be long before you’ll get traffic from their site and from the search engines. Your site will rise in the search engine ranks as your links grow. Getting a first page position on Google isn’t impossible, but it does take a little work. The more effort you put into this technique the better you can do.

1 way backlinks are actually a vital part of any good SEO campaign. Unfortunately Google has an annoying habit of constantly changing how they rank websites. So, these days, it’s critical to get high quality, 1-way links to your website. As well as writing articles, blog commenting and social networking there are link services which can make the process easier.

Reciprocal linking used to be a popular - and successful - technique to get rankings, but reciprocal linking isn’t anywhere near as effective as it once was. If you’re like most people the problem is that it’s hard to figure out how to get enough 1 way links without doing a huge amount of work. Jon Leger has introduced a tool that solves the problem.

1WayLinks is an SEO tool that helps you generate up to 750 (yes, 750!) 1 way links to your websites every month. The links can go to inner pages, home pages, subdomains, even directly to affiliate promotion links. Using the links to spread some ‘juice’ around the various pages of your sites is a great way to increase your overall site positioning. There’s even a way to deal with any potential duplicate content issues.

With 1WayLinks you can spin your post by creating a few variations. The system will multiply the variations into dozens of unique posts for you. Depending on how much effort you put into the spinning process you can have 100% unique content on every blog that picks up the post. That’s a great way to maximize the benefits of your efforts.

Does 1WayLinks work? Simple answer, yes. I’ve seen my own linked pages climb the search engine rankings after using 1WayLinks. You just have to be sure to:

• Target the right keywords, such as the long tail keywords. Primary keywords like GOLF are going to be too hard to compete with
• Spin your post and make sure you benefit from lots of unique versions of your post
• Don’t go mad and post all 750 links to 1 site in one go. It looks reall spammy
• Don’t repeat the exact same links 3 times in your post. You’ll just be wasting some of the link juice.

If you’d like more information about the linking system, just visit 1WayLinks

Related posts

• Tips for writing a better article: Bum Marketing - Part 11
• Bum Marketing Part 6
• Bum Marketing Part 2
• Bum Marketing Part 1
• Instant Article Wizard Pro 2.0

Source: Jon Leger

If one person says that there is no gold in efforts to increase website traffic then he is a fool.  To

increase website traffic is to open your sites to many opportunities, and getting new readers is only just one of the benefits.

One very important rule to remember about web traffic and sales is the chances of selling the product or service is directly proportional to the level of targeted and qualified traffic to the site. The larger the increase in website traffic in your site, then the higher the chance that your services and products will sell.

But to increase website traffic in order to boost the business and the sales is easier said than done. There are some things that need to be remembered in order to increase website traffic. You cannot get this kind of traffic without splurging your time, energy and your hard earned money.

What is Targeted and Qualified Website Traffic?

When you are trying to increase website traffic, you don’t want just anyone coming to your site. After all, you are trying to increase website traffic so that you can increase sales.

In order to increase sales you are going to want to find people that are looking for what you are offering. You can do this by targeting specific keywords that your customers might be typing in about your product.

For example, if you were running a website on how to drive traffic, you could target people that are searching PPC Traffic, SEO Traffic, how to drive traffic.

You wouldn’t really want to have your traffic coming from an auto-mechanics website. So when you are trying to increase website traffic you want to make sure you are targeting people looking for information you offer.

What is qualified traffic?

This term can be used in many ways, but the way I’ve heard it used most is that a “qualified” visitor is one that has taken extra effort to reach your page.

They have given you an email for more information on your topic so that you can email them again in the

future when you’ve posted more valuable content to your website. It is very important to turn visitors into qualified visitors so that you have a list of people interested in your topic. You can also get qualified visitors if you partner with another website that already has a list of people interested in your topic.

This is probably the best way to increase your website traffic and increase sales because you know those people have signed up for the list because they wanted more information on that topic.

There are many ways to increase web traffic and at the same time increase your business visibility online. These things need to be read, researched, evaluated and implemented in order to determine and see the one method that will bring in the best results to increase website traffic.

One tried and tested way to increase website traffic is through search engine optimization. When your site is optimized, you can expect that yours services or your products will be best positioned in search engines like Google.

When a phrase or a keyword related to your business is searched on Google, Google will list you in the search results. If you have optimized your content correctly you will get a higher listing in Google. Your goal is to get on the front page of Google for keywords related to your website.

If you have the financial muscle, then you can increase website traffic with a pay per click campaign. Pay-per-click allows you to advertise on the right side of the search engine every time one of your keywords is searched.

When a user reads your ad and click on it the visitor will be directed to your website. There are a number of PPC advertising services out there and it is upon you to choose the one that can help you increase website traffic.

Another way to increase website traffic is to increase the amount of sites linking to your site. This is called backlinks. The number of sites that link to you is a good measure of how popular your site is and an indicator as well on how well your business will do.

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Who Mentored Ben?

I’ve had numerous mentors that have helped shape and define my life and career.

One of the most influential is the late Ben Feldman(1912-1993).

Most people would think of Ben as a successful insurance salesman.

Allow me, dear reader, to tell you a little about him. And what he taught me.

Ben was one of the most prolific salespeople in world history.

Here are a few of his accomplishments:

He lived and worked in a small town, East Liverpool, Ohio.

As a single agent working alone, he personally outsold many entire insurance companies. His total sales for New York Life Insurance Company were $1,800,000,000 (that’s One Billion Eight Hundred Million!) from 1942 until his death in 1993.

To this date, he still holds the world record for the most products (by value) by a salesman in a career.

In a single day he sold $20,000,000 (TwentyMillion Dollars!).

His annual commission totals exceeded $1,000,000 per year.

Ben had a somewhat eccentric personality (self- confessed.) He had a gift in talking with people and helping them understand the value of life insurance. And proper financial planning for their families.

When once asked how he could sell such enormous quantities of an intangible product such as life

insurance, Ben responded: “I do not sell life insurance. Instead I sell a red wagon and a pop gun for daddy’s little boy.

A dress or new doll for daddy’s little girl.

I sell a college education for Mary.

I sell food for the kitchen table.

I sell fuel, oil and light.

I sell homes where children play happily in the front yard. And flowers bloom brightly in the back yard.

I sell self-respect to old men. But I sell it to them when they are young.

Life insurance is the most tangible form of economic security yet devised by man.”

Toward the end of his career, Mr. Feldman would often take two armed bodyguards and duffel bags containing $1,000,000 in cash on important appointments.

After presenting his prospects with the sight of the million dollars, he would hand them a $100 bill. This was to help them understand they could purchase the benefit of a million dollar policy for a very small sum.

** What Ben Feldman taught me about success **

* Love your product. Ben believed deeply in life insurance and bought a million-dollar policy as soon as he started out and later much more.

* Asking clients questions and actively listening to the answers is even more important than talking.

* With some creative thinking, you alone can position yourself favorably in any business of your choosing.

* Being an eccentric individual is often a great virtue in life and in business.

* Go the extra mile. Making one more telephone call and/or just one more appointment each day results in far greater success each year.

* His use of power phrases helped me a lot with drafting headlines. For example, a typical prospect’s objection to Ben’s presentation of a large policy to pay estate taxes was, “My accountant and lawyer are helping me with that.”

Ben’s typical response was, “Your accountant and your lawyer compute your tax bill. They will be very accurate and complete in their work. But I am the one who will bring the check for a million dollars to your widow.”

* Dramatizing your benefits always helps produce far greater sales as it touches the real hot button–your emotions.

* You don’t have to be handsome or beautiful to be successful. Ben was a short, bald, roly-poly human being. You wouldn’t be overly impressed by him in a crowded room. But through his sincerity, personality and sense of humor, he endeared himself to nearly everyone he ever met.

* While it can be a big asset, you don’t have to be a great public speaker to be a success. Naturally very shy, when Ben was asked to speak publicly he didn’t stand on the stage. He stood behind the curtain. He had too much stage fright to face the audience!

Every entrepreneur can gain enormously valuable tips about success from Ben Feldman. To discover more about Ben, here are a few books which could help you:

– “Creative Selling: The World’s Greatest Life Insurance Salesman Answers Your Questions” by Ben Feldman

– “Creative Selling for the 1990’s” by Ben Feldman

– “The Feldman Method” by Andrew H. Thomson

What is your reaction to Ben’s approach to business? Do any of Ben Feldman’s success lessons resonate with you?

Your correspondent,

Ted Nicholas

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This article appears courtesy of THE SUCCESS

MARGIN, the Internet’s most valuable success and

marketing e-zine. For a complimentary

subscription, visit http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=H2yiJ&m=1ctUX52G2it2_H&b=ibAZsckVt3BtF4W1Kp4vxg”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Want more proven marketing success tips

free? For a limited time you can access

all past articles by clicking on:

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=H2yiJ&m=1ctUX52G2it2_H&b=80QY3n.XG8P1q2g1cnFemg

Source: Ben Feldman

You’ve probably heard that Clickbank is an incredible resources for marketers that are interested in beginning information or affiliate marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a solid road map in front of you, the process of making money through this form of marketing can seem confusing at best. Keep these things in mind when beginning your campaigns to promote Clickbank products and you might just find that you are one step ahead of the competition.

Launch One Campaign at a Time

No matter what you’ve heard or how bad your case of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) may be; it is best to focus on creating and beginning one campaign at a time. This way you get to give undivided attention to the planning and growing of your campaign. Once it’s off and running you can begin turning your focus to other campaigns or seeking other products to promote.

Promote Heavily at First but Revisit in the Future

Too many times affiliate marketers come out with guns blazing until a campaign begins to experience some degree of success and then move on to the next project abandoning the first campaign completely. While it’s a good idea to promote heavily in the beginning, it is also strongly advised that you go back and do follow up things to promote your campaign regularly for as long as you are seeing some results from these efforts.

Use Multiple Platforms to Promote Products

There are many wonderful products available in the Clickbank marketplace and more than a few methods you can utilize to promote them. Some of the platforms you might want to consider for the promotion of Clickbank products include the following: niche websites, blogs, forum and message board signature lines, Squidoo lenses, and article marketing (be sure to read the fine print with article marketing websites so that you are familiar with their policies on product promotion).

Cross Promote Clickbank Products when Possible

There are plenty of opportunities, especially when you have a specialty niche, to cross promote Clickbank products. There are a few ways you can do this. You can compare and contrast, rate products, critique products, and offer products that complement one another to those on your email lists, who visit your blogs, or frequent your Squidoo lens.

Do these things and you should see results from your Clickbank campaigns much more quickly than if you go in without a plan for promotion or goals for the future.

Source: Clickbank

To make money online many people jump right in before they are properly prepared. You know that to be a rocket scientist, a doctor, a brick layer, a construction worker, an office worker, a teacher there are prerequisites, things you must learn, before you can be successful, you don’t just jump right in unprepared.

The same applies to the Internet marketing industry even though there are unsavory people out there who’d have you believe it’s a “Walk in the Park” and requires no more than the belief that you can just do it.

Maverick Money Makers, #1 Top Online Mentoring Club

And I’ll have to admit, it is a walk in the park compared to what you have to put up with in the working world punching a clock being a subordinate to someone who does not have your interests in mind, but there are still rules you have to follow and pitfalls you must avoid to actually make Internet marketing work for you.

Most people will not make a dime online and yet there are others who will make more in one month than most people make in a whole year. Why is that?

My answer begins with the age-old chicken or egg question, “what comes first the chicken or the egg”? Personally I vote for, well never mind, each argument you or I make comes back to the same old conclusion - I have no clue and I don’t think many of us do either.

But one thing I do have a clue about and know for sure is that to make money online you must first have Passion for the company products and/or service of any Internet business from which you expect to make money.

Passion in this sense simply means that you’ve researched and like the company and products or services. It is then that you translate that like (or Passion) into the education, excitement and work that usually accompany Passion.

I will have to say that many online entrepreneurs are so good at what they do that they ignore passion because they can sell anything. But I’m concerned about those of you who are not so knowledgeable at working an online business successfully.

Now, I’m not trying to make anyone believe that Passion is the only thing necessary. Because to be successful you must also have a good website, good marketing, widespread advertising, company support, effective keywords, and etc. Those things are often learned from the company you join - but sidestep Passion and you reduce your chances for success dramatically.

It therefore follows that, if you have no Passion for the company and the products and services provided by that company, again, you won’t attempt to do the work you are being taught.

Internet marketing work is typically not all that difficult or time consuming but it does take motivation caused by Passion to get you off and running with a sustained effort so that you won’t stumble.

You have a great resource in the Internet search engines to search about the Internet Marketing industry for business opportunities, USE IT!

Your research should uncover a company that you like and have confidence in. It should be solid, founded on great principles, and easy to understand with great products and services that are sell-able for which you can have Passion. If you don’t find it move on,
You can find the right opportunity containing the attributes identified above.

Comments like, well, that one sounds good and the compensation plan is excellent so I guess I’ll start that business - does not sound like a decision based on anything near Passion. And remember when you hear that an Internet “guru” does that, don’t be tempted, because as I said earlier they are experienced and can sell just about anything, without being Passionate about the company products and services.

Note: By the way it’s your goal to get to the point where you can sell about anything online. That end skill and goal is a worthy one indeed.

Remember, there are other steps you must make before you step into Internet Marketing but if you don’t first find the right company products and services to be passionate about, all of those other steps may just cause you a lot of frustration instead of bringing you great success.

Not being Passionate about a company and products and services that has market proof that it will sell is a pitfall you simply must avoid.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Maverick Money Makers is a private
society that will teach you how to
build a six-figure a month business
on the internet.

If you want to make money online,

Maverick Money Makers, #1 Top Online Mentoring Club

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

According to the research firm HitWise, Google had almost 72% market share for search in October 2008. With that kind of market share, it's understandable that everybody is focused on ranking in Google more than any other search engine. I certainly have been for the last couple of years.

Yahoo, on the other hand, held less than 18% of market share in that same time period. If that doesn't sound like enough of a percentage to bother putting a lot of time into, don't fret. As it turns out, the single most effective method you can use to improve your position in Yahoo will also help your rankings in Google.

I discovered what it takes for ranking in Yahoo on accident. I had a certain site in the 3WayLinks.net network that made it to page two of Google for its keywords — but no further. I analyzed the competition and knew I would have to get more than 250 links to the site in order to get it on page one, so I put a post in 1WayLinks.net to get more links to it.

Time passed, the post spread across the 1WayLinks network, and sure enough, the site went to about #4 / #5 for its keywords in Google. I was quite pleased.

However, when looking over my traffic logs, I noticed I was getting a lot of traffic from Yahoo as well. I was surprised, and checked out the keywords. I was delighted to see that my site held the #1 ranking in Yahoo for the same keywords the site was ranking for in Google! This despite the fact that it never ranked anywhere in the top 100 in Yahoo before.

This prompted me to do more testing. I put other sites into 1WayLinks.net and watched them rise to top spots in Google and Yahoo.

After doing some research, I discovered what was causing the great Yahoo rankings: in-context links.

In-context links are links that are put in the middle of a paragraph of text, such as the link in the first paragraph of this blog post. This is opposed to the "links page" form of linking, where the link is actually disconnected from the text which describes it (if there is any). Navigation links fall under the second style, too.

Google appears to treat both in-context and "links page" style links pretty much the same. At least, the "links page" links are counted and applied in Google far more than Yahoo! appears to count them.

Since 1WayLinks makes it easy to get in-context links (also called "editorial links") to your pages, it makes it a lot easier to get ranked in Yahoo as well as in Google. It's a real win-win.

It also seems to be a lot easier to get to #1 in Yahoo using 1WayLinks.net, which is important, since sometimes just being on page one isn't enough to get a lot of traffic from some keywords. In fact, since ranking #1 can result in almost 7 times as much traffic as ranking #3, having a top ranking in Yahoo can actually bring more traffic than having a very good ranking in Google for the same keywords despite the market share difference. I am, in fact, getting more traffic from my #1 Yahoo ranking than my #4 / #5 Google ranking on that one site.

So if you're trying to rank in Yahoo, make sure you're getting solid in-context links — it makes all the difference in the world.

One other thing to note that seems to help greatly in Yahoo (and Google) is having an exact-match domain name. I wrote a post about this and how it can help you rank in Google back in July. It turns out the same is true with Yahoo.

(In case you don't know, an exact-match domain name is a domain name that exactly matches the keywords you want to rank for. For instance, if you want to rank for "small green widgets", then you want to own smallgreenwidgets.com or smallgreenwidgets.net or smallgreenwidgets.org. I've tested .com and .org in Yahoo to great effect.)

Please post your thoughts and questions in a comment below.

Source: Blog