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Over at SEOmoz, randfish has posted an in-depth (long!) article on Search Engine Ranking Factors. It’s a massive article broken down into table data representing a lot of factors that impact website search engine rankings. Along with each factor are some nice icons indicating how suspect each factor is - whether the consensus of SEO experts agree that the factor contributes to rankings or not. Due to the subjectivity of the whole SEO industry it’s important to display disclaimer-style indicators like this and never take any theories as fact until you have tested them yourself and experienced results as proof.

Mr randfish didn’t create the list all by himself, he invited 12 other SEO professionals to cast their vote and the result is a reasonably comprehensive list of SEO techniques you can study and manipulate on your own websites. Note that the article is technical so make sure you are up to date with all your SEO abbreviations before reading. Included are some good explanations of each term but you may find yourself overwhelmed if you try to digest it all in one sitting. I suggest perhaps printing it out as a reference or reading it over time and learning the material so it triggers when you are developing your next website.

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Download the MP3 [ 55 Minutes - 10 MB]

This Entrepreneur’s Journey podcast features an Internet business discussion with Michael Pollock who blogs at Small Business Branding. Michael and I have known each other for a few months now, well “known” in the sense that we have Skype conversations but have never met in person since he is in the USA and I am in Australia.

Michael and I completed a discussion on the topic of Internet business. Here are the show notes (a fancy name for a list of the topics we talked about in chronological order).

1. Flipping websites for profit
2. Making money from websites using advertising such as AdSense, including the importance of a keyword niche and Darren Rowse the Problogger.
3. Sitepoint website marketplace and website evaluation.
4. Making money through affiliate programs using ClickBank and the Googlecash online marketing method (using AdWords to sell affiliate products without having your own website).
5. Blogs networks
6. A little about Yaro and Michael and their Internet businesses

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***Update***

BONUS - I’ve just recorded a 10 minute companion podcast recording to go with this article. The podcast will only be sent to people that subscribe to the mailing list (it comes 24 hours after you subscribe), it will not be released on this blog. You can sign-up at the end of this article.

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If you know anything about online marketing you know that an email list is probably the most important ingredient for success. Your email list is your list of prospects, people that are interested in what you offer, and some of them will hopefully one day become your customers.

The email list is a powerful marketing tool because it’s targeted. The process of signing up subscribers to the list should qualify your members as relevant prospects. What you offer therefore is very important because it impacts on the type of people that will subscribe to your list and how many will subscribe.

There is no magic formula for what you should offer for subscribing to a list and as with all marketing you should test to find out what works best. One of the most common methods, especially early on in the email marketing days, is the newsletter format. Periodically, usually once or twice a month, you send out an interesting newsletter to your subscribers. The content could be a single article or a collection of relevant news, articles and resources.

In the more recent history of email marketing the free report or e-course giveaway has been a common enticement to get visitors to sign-up to a list. This format is part of the early stage of what is called an online marketing funnel - a systematized process of collecting suspects, turning them into prospects, then customers then repeat customers. The report or e-course serves to give away some free information, valuable information, that demonstrates your skills and expertise as a teaser of what your full products or services offer, which are upsold to the email list automatically using autoresponders after the e-course or report has been delivered.

Another method to build a list is offering summaries of the content you already produce or other people produce, providing website links to the full articles. In this case the email list serves as a reminder to bring people back to the website so they don’t have to check in everyday. This method is often used by website owners that generate income from advertising. The email list brings readers back to the site to read the articles, increasing page impressions and hopefully click through rates and revenues.

Having an email list can also be a pseudo bookmarking tool. You may not offer any regular content for your list and simply call it a members list stating that you will send out announcements to the list whenever you launch something new, write a good article or come across something that readers would also like to read. This method allows readers to keep in touch without the list owner having to commit to producing anything on a regular basis. It’s simply a notification list when something of interest comes up that allows members to keep tabs on you and your website without checking in everyday.

Building An Email List - Follow My Case Study

If you are reading this article from the Entrepreneur’s Journey website you will no doubt see the big fat subscribe box at the top of the site and yes, you guessed it, I’m building a list. This is the first time I have attempted to build an email list on the topic of Internet business as all my previous lists have been related to my other businesses. I figured that most of my readers are interested in online marketing hence the process of building an email list would be a very interesting case study.

The Entrepreneur’s Journey email list is going to be my master list for all things related to this blog and my online business activities. As you can see at the moment I have positioned the list as a method for subscribers to keep up to date with the articles I write on this blog. I will be sending out a notification to the list immediately after I post one of my large instructional or commentary articles. I will not be sending notification to the list for every post made to this blog, only for the big articles I write (if you read my blog often enough you will know what I mean by the *big* articles), not the news pieces or small articles.

However list members will enjoy a lot more than just links to my articles. It will be a launch list, so subscribers will be the first to know exactly what I am up to regarding the launch of my online business projects, they will receive my information products first (I’ll be distributing my free whitepaper e-book to the list in the near future) and will also be the first to know about my e-courses or special articles and websites that I produce. Basically it will be the master list for anyone interested in the content I produce teaching and discussing online marketing and Internet business.

Market Testing

I’m going to be as transparent as I can be regarding this case study. Since you will likely be a participant if you join my list, as well as an observer if you follow this case study, it will allow you to gain a unique insight into the list building process from both sides of the fence.

As I stated above, at the moment the list is pitched as a means to keep track of my big blog articles. This will be a test to see how many subscribers can be attracted with this angle. I will also test nearly every method I mentioned at the start of this article to attract new subscribers. The focus will always be aimed at attracting people wanting education and information on Internet business and online marketing but I will test out different sign-up methods.

My e-book whitepaper on Internet business is almost finished. Once it is ready I will use it as a free giveaway for people that subscribe to the list. The same thing will happen with a free e-course I will probably have ready early next year. I’ll also have limited offers on special podcast audio recordings, article packages and other free content. I’ll place sign-up boxes on other websites, and some will focus only on getting sign-ups using techniques like the namesqueeze and micro sites (landing pages only).

It will be an ongoing process that I hope will help me to establish an email list of at least 1000 targeted prospects within 12 months, maybe more if things go well. I’ll report back the milestones to this blog from time to time but for the moment if you want to get in on the action there is only one thing you need to do - subscribe!

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If you spend any amount of time reading blogs you probably have come across a blog network. Prime examples include 9rules (Entrepreneur’s Journey is a member), the largest and arguably most famous Weblogs, Inc and the recently launched b5Media.

I won’t go into the definition of a blog network because quite frankly no one really knows and everyone has an opinion of what it should be. The only key ingredients are blogs, a blog network has to have blogs. These blogs are networked together somehow, either by an umbrella brand or a payment structure or a traffic referral system or whatever, and you have a blog network. It’s all about multiple authors creating content on multiple blogs for the good of the people (the readers), building something greater than the sum of its parts.

With the recent big ticket ($25 million) sale of Weblogs, Inc to AOL the monetary potential of a blog network was highlighted. Anything with the word “blog” in it has become hot property. Frankly though, blogs are only just going mainstream and it’s early enough days that opportunities abound in the blogosphere.

Looking at blog networks as a potential business opportunity is mouth watering for a web entrepreneur. The typical valuation measurements are the same as for standard websites, traffic and profits (sometimes revenue for newer businesses and future potential will always play a part in evaluation). Weblogs, Inc pulled $25 million because it had both significant traffic and significant revenues (they haven’t disclosed profits). A budding entrepreneur looking to cash in on blogs should look to the same metrics - traffic and profits - and at the moment, traffic comes from good content and profits usually comes from advertising.

If you look at the current blog network marketplace it is far from crowded. Yes a new network appears to launch every other day lately (and some close just as quickly) but only a few are truly large and/or bring in significant revenues. The opportunity to create a new blog network is definitely there as long as you follow the golden rule in business, niche your market in order to differentiate yourself from the competition.

At the moment most of the largest blog networks are loose collections of good solid blogs on a range of topics. Weblogs, Inc is a complete hodge-podge of different blogs, a media network focusing on quantity to reach as many different markets as possible. 9rules and b5Media also do not discriminate and look to take in or create blogs on almost any topic. The generalised media blog network format is well served and moving into this market would be more difficult.

A much smarter strategy would be to bring together bloggers around a single industry or topic area. The competition in most areas simply doesn’t exist yet. There may be individual blogs on almost any topic you can think of, but there are no coordinated blog network hubs broken down by niches. An entrepreneur could choose a lucrative demographic and either bring together or purchase the current blogs covering that area into a new network or start from scratch, hire bloggers and start brand new blogs for a brand new network.

Dane Carlson of the Business Opportunities Weblog has started doing just that. His niche is business opportunities. He already has a great popular blog that brings in a lot of readers every day. His network is up to four blogs now having brought in some friends to blog on similar topics, including work at home opportunities and MLM opportunities. If he keeps adding more solid blogs his network may become the authority for business related blogging. With enough traffic the advertising revenue will continue to soar and who knows, an AOL sized company may come knocking on his door with a big wad of cash.

To offer a hypothetical example let’s take the home housewife demographic. The audience watches Oprah, reads gossip magazines and probably cares a lot about fashion and beauty. I’m a budding entrepreneur so I’m going to build a blog network around this niche. I’ll gather blogs on topics like shoes, clothing, celebrity gossip, self esteem and makeup. I might look around the blogosphere and see how many independent blogs already exist in this niche. I’ll consider buying or hiring these blogs and bring them into the network. I might raise some capital and put up some ‘Bloggers Wanted’ notices to hire some new writers to pay to produce daily content. I’ll build up the blogs over time, keep the niche nice and tight and focused so we attract a certain type of audience (good for advertising click through rates) and build up revenues. After 12 months I will have an asset, bringing in good revenues and piles of traffic, ripe for a buyout.

It paints a rosy picture doesn’t it. I admit it won’t necessarily be easy. You may find that the advertising dollars never make profits after you pay for bloggers. This could be because you chose a niche with poor click through prices or no advertisers. You might have trouble establishing traffic to your blogs. You might never get bought out because the whole blog craze dies down by the time you have built your asset. There are no guarantees in entrepreneurship but success is only rewarded to those that take a chance.

Those bloggers currently operating a popular blog are in particular sitting on a potential goldmine growth strategy by expanding their single site into a network. By leveraging the traffic and audience of an already established blog, new blogs can be introduced and enjoy an instant audience to build from. If word of mouth and viral blog networking are good to you your new blogs will grow quickly. The current blog networks often succeed off the backs of one or two significant linchpin blogs (for example Engadget for Weblogs, Inc) that form the backbone of the network and bring in significant advertising revenue and exposure for the entire network.

I have a feeling that blogs and blogging are here to stay. I suspect our future may be filled with blog networks that essentially perform a similar role to current media distribution channels. No longer will we look to the big syndicated news sources, instead blogs will provide the most up to date information and interesting content. Ironically though many bloggers may just end up being paid employees of blog networks and their content and blogs owned by the big syndicated news sources anyway. In that case not much will have changed, you just may not need a journalism degree to get paid to write about your favourite topics.

As an entrepreneur or even just a person with a passion for a topic, a great business opportunity exists right now. There will never be this time again, a time when blogging is new and blog networks are even newer. If you stake your claim today your blog network may become the authority source for information on your niche and it might even make you a millionaire too.

Yaro Starak
Entrepreneur

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No doubt if you subscribe to a mailing list from one of the high profile online marketers such as Yanik Silver, John Reese, or as in my case, Jason Potash, you will know about a conference call that recently occurred. Heck you might have even heard about it from one of their affiliates, referral friends or networks, or as I like to call ‘em - “underlings” (I wear that badge with honour!) - this thing was probably circulated like crazy to many email lists.

Just in case you didn’t hear about it though I’ll be happy to let you in. The topic was a concept known as Social Proof and was hosted by Jeff Walker. Jeff was kind enough to gather six of his closest buddies who just happen to be six of the most successful online marketers around. You pump one of these guy’s names into a search engine and they are are all over the place, and rightly so, they are making millions online and so you would expect they have a reasonable web presence.

Jeff’s call didn’t focus on anything beyond asking the experts how they have used Social Proof in their past marketing efforts. Before listening to this call I wasn’t exactly sure what the term meant. After listening to the entire 2.5+ hours of it I now understand it a lot better. I’ve been familiar with and have used the concept for a long time, I’ve just never heard it labelled “Social Proof”. The call was very good. Hearing some of the examples triggered many ideas in my mind for new ways to utilize Social Proof for my own current and future projects.

In a nutshell here is my take on defining social proof as I understand it:

Social Proof

Social Proof is all about human nature and conditioning. As humans we do things based on what other humans do. We are more likely to make a decision or take an action when we have seen proof that someone else has also made the same decision. The choice becomes that much easier when we realise people “just like us” (similar demographics) have made the choice too. When it comes to marketing social proof is a powerful concept because, as a marketer, if we can demonstrate to prospects that other people, just like them, have made the decision to buy they are more likely to make a purchase. It’s as if other buyers give permission to prospects to make the choice to buy, consciously and subconsciously.

Now of course there is a lot more to it and if you want some fantastic practical examples take some time and listen to the conference call. There is no direct sales pitch in the call, which is nice, but obviously Jeff didn’t organise this thing for nothing. He has a new product teaching how to utilize Social Proof coming out soon, and it just wouldn’t be right if someone teaching social proof didn’t make use of it to help sell his product. The phone call is part of social proofing for his new product.

The phone call is good value. It’s long, but the conversation passes through six different marketing experts and lots of different examples so I stayed interested as I listened on my morning walks. I suggest you have a pen and paper ready, I didn’t and I regret it now, there was a lot of stimulation in the call and you will have ideas to write down, I guarantee it.

To get access to the phone call you can head to Jeff’s blog entry The recording of the Social Proof call where you will have to enter your name and email to get the links to the two part MP3 download. Tell them Yaro sent you! (and no, this is not an affiliate link, I’m recommending this because I found it valuable and think you will too…social proof in action yet again).

*UPDATE*

I just heard back from Jeff and he has made the MP3 downloads available again just for us! (well sort of anyway). If you go through the registration process you should have access to both the PDF and the MP3s so whether you learn better through audio or reading your needs are met.

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