But that’s not all there is to Brad, which is why he’s so cool.  He’s a really successful serial entrepreneur, and – more to the point of THIS post – he’s also a really forward-thinking and skilled SEO specialist.

He recently posted this video on his blog, commentating on an interview Wired magazine did with a selection of Googles’ engineers.  It’s really good info!

It’s closed captioned, so you can play it at work with the sound off if you need to, and I’ve also transcribed it below the embed, so if you’d like to read it that way, you can.

TRANSCRIPTION: Some of you have probably heard me say that print medium is dead, and I’m a firm believer in that for the most part.  I don’t believe in newspapers, I’m not a big fan of magazines anymore.  I’m probably going to end up getting a Kindle or an iPad this year, so I’m not a big fan of printed medium, but I wanted to share with you one.

I still subscribe to a handful of magazines.  I refer to them as my “crapper content” because I read them on the toilet.  But…”Wired” magazine.  I’ve been getting this magazine for like…since, like, since the first issue came out I’ve been getting this magazine.  I don’t think I’ve ever missed an issue.

In face, one of the highlights of my business career was when they wrote one of my start-ups up in Wired, I was pretty excited.  That’s another story.

In this month’s issue, there’s a really big article about Google’s algorithm, and it’s called Inside the Box.  Here’s a bit of a cover page for it (shows centerfold art in magazine).  Anyway, I highly recommend you go pick this up, it’s this latest issue of Wired, there’s also a really good article in here about how money flows online.

But, I wanted to share with you a couple of things that I pulled out of this Google algorithm article, because it’s an interview with Google’s engineers, it’s not some guesswork article like most of the pieces that you find online,  when they talk about Google’s algorithm.  This is straight from the horse, so it’s good information.

The number one thing that I picked up from this is a prediction that I made last year, and if you follow my blog you will probably remember me making this prediction – that Google is going to start to lower link popularity ranking against social media presence.   So when your link is mentioned on Twitter by someone who has a lot of followers, whether it’s put through a shortener or not it’s irrelevant, it’s going to get more ranking on Google when that happens.

And Google knows the difference between automated Twitter accounts and bots and all that other kind of stuff, so if you think you’re gonna cheat the system early, forget it, they’re already ahead of the game.  So you need to make sure that you’re putting out really good content that people want to spread – the more you do that, the better you’re gonna do on Google.

The number two I’m gonna share with you out of this article, that I pulled out of this, is that – we have a lot of SEO clients that work with us, and one of the biggest struggles we’ve had to deal with over the last year or so is, you know, a client will call me and they’ll  say, “Why is it that I’m number 5 on my browser, but when I go to work, I’m number 2?”  And they’re getting all these different results.

Or, “I call my friend and I’m on page two, but I’m on page one, and why is that happening?”  And we used, you know, we used to guess.  “Well, we think it’s because you’re logged in and he’s not,” or “Because you’re pulling from a different data center that’s got a newer update or an older update than yours.”  And all these other things.

What I found out is, Google is constantly testing upwards of 200 integrations into their algorithm at any given time, so what they are doing is that they are using 60% of Google as the control group, it uses the standard algorithm, and at any given time 40% of the user base on Google, which could easily be you or me on any given day, is in a guinea pig test stage where our results are being calibrated or calculated against how long we stay on their website, and how quickly we click through, or how many times we re-enter a search to get to the right results.

And they are using all that data as a way to find out whether or not the new changes to the algorithm are worth propagating into their main database.

So, whenever you see a different result – and this is a really big thing for us, because now we finally know the answer – if you see a different result from your friend, or if you are a client of mine and you see a different result to what I see, it’s because one of us, or both of us, is a guinea pig on Google’s algorithm, and they’re testing some new search feature.

So, that’s a bit of an eye opener, for me anyway, to know that about Google.

It’s a four page article, there’s a lot more information.  I’m not going to share it all with you because I’m a firm believer in supporting good content.  Wired is a great magazine, I think you should pick it up.  So, that’s all I have to say about Google’s algorithm and Wired magazine.

Quotes appeal to us on a variety of levels. They are short, they are pithy – they are bite size philosophical truisms that hit our souls quickly and incisively.

so, if you’re having a tough time sticking it out, or getting to that next level, take a look at some of my favorite success quotes:

Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves. – Larry King

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill

Failure is success if we learn from it. – Malcolm Forbes

Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure. – Earl Wilson

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. – David Brinkley

Adversity, and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless. – Scott Hamilton

The man who has done his level best…is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure. – B. C. Forbes

Success demands singleness of purpose. – Vince Lombardi

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes. – Benjamin Disraeli

Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown. – Ross Perot

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. – John Foster Dulles

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. – Theodore Roosevelt

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. – Dale Carnegie

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – Bill Cosby

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. – Margaret Thatcher

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. – Goethe

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. – Dale Carnegie

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. – Oscar Wilde

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – George S. Patton

I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it. – Jonathan Winters

Success is not a destination. It’s a journey. – Zig Ziglar

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship. – Louisa May Alcott

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it. – Elbert Hubbard

Success is dependent on effort. – Sophocles

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. – Abraham Lincoln

Action is the foundational key to all success. – Pablo Picasso

Success is that old ABC – ability, breaks, and courage. – Charles Luckman

If you want to achieve things in life, you’ve just got to do them, and if you’re talented and smart, you’ll succeed. – Juliana Hatfield

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. – George Edward Woodberry

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. – Dale Carnegie

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. – Booker T. Washington

Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction. – Al Bernstein

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. – Albert Einstein

The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. – Irving Berlin

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. – William Feather

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other. – Erma Bombeck

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. – Ayn Rand

Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. – Arnold H. Glasow

There is only one success-to be able to spend your life in your own way. – Christopher Morley

Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time. – Arnold H. Glasow

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents. – Salvador Dali

In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time. – Anthony J. D’Angelo

If you are going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchill

Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good. – Joe Paterno

Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. – David Frost

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. – Bill Cosby

Action is the foundational key to all successs. – Anthony Robbins

Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it. – Sam Ewing

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it. – Elbert Hubbard

He debunks the rumor, lets us know what’s up with his career, incorporates one of his famous buddies (a social marketing technique known as “social proof”), makes it funny, and squeezes it all into two and half minutes!

Damn!  If this guy was a marketer, he’d be the best marketer ever!

If you’re looking to make money on Twitter, I know you are interested in avoiding these pitfalls with your account.  You don’t want to irritate other people and alienate them rather than engage them!

Luckily, you don’t have to.

The key to making money on Twitter without spamming is to really engage people.  First of all, the best way to get someone’s attention with your Twitter account is not to follow them.  I know that’s the common wisdom, but it’s pretty played out, so it’s not that effective anymore.

Rather, it’s best to be creative!

My favorite way of engaging people is to answer their niche-related questions.  You can do this by going to http://search.twitter.com and typing in your niche, then a space, then a question mark.  This will bring up a list of niche-related questions people have tweeted.  You can then answer them, thus establishing yourself as an expert in your niche and gaining a loyal following at the same time!

This is just one tip.  There are a lot more strategies that can automate parts of processes and make you a LOT of money, and they can be found in Kelly Verge’s The Tweeder Method.

I LOVE this method.  It teaches you how to market on Twitter in a way that is unobtrusive and welcome – and best of all, once it’s set up, it’s completely hands-off!

It teaches you how to figure out what you should promote on Twitter – what exactly people are looking for on Twitter and how to find the people that are looking for it.  It also teaches you how to locate people on Twitter who are truly in a buying mindset, how to connect with them in a way that is helpful and welcome, and lastly – THE BEST PART! – how to automate it entirely using only free tools.  There was even a video update recently showing the new “Tweeder 2.0″ method that Kelly is using now.

I use The Tweeder Method myself.  To give you an idea – I spent about a day setting it up (six or seven hours), and now – with the new 2.0 improvements – ZERO time maintaining it!  I have 7 accounts, or “modules” as Kelly calls them.  I earn between $400 and $500 a month, almost entirely hands-free.  I am currently in the process of scaling my operation.  But, even at this level, it basically pays for all my article writing each month, and that’s awesome!

If you’ve been thinking Twitter seems like a goldmine, but you just don’t know how to get started, CLICK HERE to check out Kelly’s course.   It really is super-cool. 

So one of my offline clients is a record label that is sponsoring a REALLY cool contest right now to promote the debut solo release of one of their artists, Jd Webb.  As part of my job, I’m promoting the contest with social media, and to all kinds of places where music fans hang out, but it occurred to me how easily an internet marketing person could absolutely DOMINATE , so I thought I’d spread the love here, too.

The prize is a trip to LA from anywhere in the continental US, two nights in an LA hotel, and VIP treatment at Jd’s CD release party.  The CD release party is on the rooftop at the Oviatt in Downtown LA – the view is un-freaking-believable.  There are also going to be a fair number of celebs there.  For instance, Jd is the songwriter and main vocalist for Days of Our Lives, so there are going to be numerous members of the Days cast and production team in attendance.  For starters.

Anyway – the contest is being handled through his street team, and it’s points based.  You need to get 5000 points by August 20 to win.  If more than one person gets to 5000 by August 20, the person with the most points wins.  There are also three runners-up prizes with point minimums of 4000, 3500, and 3000, respectively -  and they get special edition iPods (a Touch for 1st runner up, a Classic for 2nd runner up, and a Nano for 3rd runner up) that are engraved with Jd’s signature and pre-loaded with his debut CD The Introduction.

Lastly, ANYONE that gets to 3000 points regardless of their standing in the competition will get VIP treatment at the relase party – meaning, a reserved table spot, free drinks, and a time during the evening where Jd comes over and hangs out with you individually.

Here’s the list of things you can do to get points -

http://jdwebb.fanrising.com/objectives.php

One thing that’s not added on that list yet is: 10 points for Tweeting about Jd, plus an additional 10 points for every 100 followers you have, up to 200 points.

At any rate, if you look at that list, like I said – an internet marketer could EASILY dominate this thing by posting some articles, some links, driving some traffic…it could be cake for the right person.

And, hey, even though you’re not getting paid in cold hard cash, if using your affiliate marketing skills to get flown out to LA and meet some celebs is something you’re into, it could be cool.

Good luck!

*melanie

Well, the answer to the first question is a resounding YES!  As to the second, there are many ways.  First of all, let’s get over the whole “Twitter redirects links and adds no follow.”  Yes, that’s true, but it doesn’t mean we can’t use Twitter for SEO, there are a few methods that can be implemented to wild success.

First, just because Twitter itself no follows your link doesn’t mean anyone who syndicates your feed will.  This is where the whole “be interesting, be follow-worthy” thing comes in.  Make your feed WORTH syndicating!  Therefore, when you tweet a link, it will get published (with a 301 permanent redirect if it’s been shortened) on all the sites that have syndicated you.

Next, remember that, even though it may seem as if the “big T” has been taken over by celebs, it is still largely the playground of bloggers and social media addicts…er…i mean…EXPERTS!    If you post links to really good content, it’s almost a biological imperative for these folks to share it.  And not only by retweeting it, either – many of them will blog about it and throw you a link in the process.

Lastly – and this is my favorite – don’t forget that Twitter ITSELF has a lot of power in the search engines.  Twitter SEO value is HUGE.  Are you a Bum Marketer who is frustrated with Ezine Articles shutting you down or taking forever to approve your articles?  Or possibly you’re frustrated because every time you search a “golden” Bum keyword there’s already an Ezine Article on the front page?

Try this – create a Twitter profile based on the keyword.  Use a shortened version as the address, use the keyword itself as the name, and then write keyword optimized text, including a call to action, as your “Bio.”  Include your link in the “Website” box.  Put in a default photo (respecting copyright!), and change the default theme.  Last, put in five to ten tweets on the subject – little tips, hints, or pieces of trivia.  Remember, it’s not the same as an article.  It’s bite size pieces of information.  Include your link in some of the tweets, but not all.

Throw some backlinks at that puppy and see what happens!  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The great thing about this method is that it doesn’t have to stop there.  You can ALSO gather targeted traffic directly from Twitter, and continue to communicate with your group as it grows.   Try to do THAT with an article, why don’tcha?

To learn more about marketing on Twitter, and taking it to the next level in a “Fill It and Forget It” kind of way, check out Kelly Verge’s The Tweeder Method.   I LOVE this method.  Much like the tip I described above, it teaches you how to market on Twitter in a way that’s not the normal “Gather a huge following and then spam your links at them! But make sure you include a bunch of tweets about what you’re eating for dinner in between the spam so it doesn’t look spammy!” that everyone and their brother is pushing.

Rather, it teaches you how to figure out what you should promote on Twitter – and it’s not the same lame CPA offers that spammers are pushing, I assure you!  It teaches you how to locate people on Twitter who are truly in a buying mindset, how to connect with them in a way that is helpful and welcome, and lastly – THE BEST PART! – how to automate a lot of it using free tools.

I use The Tweeder Method myself.  To give you an idea – I spent about a day setting it up (six or seven hours), and spend about 20 minutes a week maintaining it.  I have 7 accounts, or “modules” as Kelly calls them.  I earn between $400 and $500 a month, almost entirely hands-free.  I could easily scale it, and I plan to do that with outsourcing, I just need to set aside the time to do the research.  But, even at this level, it basically pays for all my article writing each month, and that’s awesome!

If you’ve been thinking Twitter seems like a goldmine, but you just don’t know how to get started, CLICK HERE to check out Kelly’s book.   It really is super-cool. 

*melanie

One of the biggest challenges in niche marketing is getting targeted traffic to your site.  Your site can be beautiful and your offers enticing, but if no eyes ever fall on them, then you will not make any money.  Therefore, it’s advantageous to you to have your site ranking high and pulling targeted eyeballs!  It translates directly into cash in your pocket.

So, how do you accomplish that?  Keep in mind, this isn’t going to be an advanced search engine optimization tutorial, but rather a basic breakdown of the broad principals of SEO.  The search engines look at two main factors when deciding where your page should rank in the results for a term.  One is how relevant the content is.  Therefore, you should use the phrase you are looking to rank for in the title, in the first sentence of your content, and the somewhere in the last paragraph.  It’s not very scientific, but for long-tail keywords, it will do the job.

The second thing the search engines judge, and this is where the do follow backlinks come in, is the popularity of the page in the larger internet community.   Google looks at each link toward the page as a “vote” for that page.  However, it’s not a democracy – each vote is not counted equally.  No, they are weighted according to several factors.  The first is whether or not the link employs the No Follow Attribute.  What this means is the link is constructed in such a way as to instruct the search engine algorithm not to follow it for purposes of passing Page Rank or popularity.  The goal is to get links to your page that DO NOT employ the No Follow Attribute – AKA, Do Follow Backlinks.  And the higher the page rank of the source of those links are, the better – both the main rank of the site and the internal link of the page itself help.

Well, the honest answer is – I don’t know.  I know that sounds crazy for me to say, but it’s the truth.

Think about the movie City Slickers.  There was a critical scene where Jack Palance’s character tells Billy Crystal’s character that the secret to life is “just one thing.”  When Billy Crystal’s character asks what that is,  Jack Palance’s character tells him that’s what he needs to figure out.

Now, niche marketing is not QUITE that dramatic.   There’s not ONE true secret.   However, the similarity is that there are many avenues and ways to go about profiting from niches, and you yourself need to figure out what’s best for you.

Here are four strategies that have been profitable for me when attacking a niche.  Hopefully one of them will appeal to you!

1) Create a landing page that drives traffic to a CPA offer. This is a simple one, landing pages generally only need to be just that – a page.  You can also have them professionally designed fairly cheaply.  I would suggest finding an outsourcer that will do a pack for you in broad niches – financial, weight loss, etc. – and have them design them in such a way that you don’t need to do any HTML editing to use them different campaigns, you just change out the text.  This works wonders!

2) Build a targeted and responsive list.  For this, you will need a squeeze page. This is somewhat like a landing page, except the objective is not to drive the traffic to a CPA form, but instead to gather those leads yourself.  Ideally, you will have an autoresponder series already in place that will promote products in your niches, interspersed with valuable solid content.  This is one of the most profitable ways to monetize a niche.

3) Build a content site that utilizes context ads. This is especially useful for sites that don’t have strong related affiliate products or CPA offers.  Many times niches that revolve around local services won’t have anything to directly promote, per se, but the Adsense clicks will be sky high!

4) Sell affiliate products directly. Sometimes, let’s not kid ourselves, you need quick cash.  This is when you might want to consider creating so-called “parasite” pages (icky name, profitable concept!) that promote your direct affiliate link.  These would be pages on properties such as Squidoo, Hubpages, YouTube, Ezine Articles, etc. that contain direct links to products.  There are definite downsides to this.  For instance, you’re forced to build links to properties you don’t own, never a great long-term SEO strategy.  Next, many affiliate programs don’t allow you to link from pages you don’t own outright, so read your programs terms before going nuts on Squidoo.

I hope these ideas have given you some food for thought when developing strategies to attack your niches.  Remember – there is money to be made out there.  It’s not important that you have the perfect plan.  It’s more important that you have ANY plan – and that you take action!

When we do keyword research, we know that we’re supposed to be mentally balancing the amount of traffic a keyword gets with how competitive it is to rank for that keyword.  A term does us no good if we can’t rank for it, obviously.  But, by the same token, it’s pretty pointless to rank for a term that receives almost no traffic.  So there needs to be a balance struck between the two.

Keyword Effectiveness Index, or KEI for short, is a mathematical formula quantifies that balance in a numerical way.

The formula balances the amount of monthly searches for a term (represented by P for Popularity) and the amount of results returned for the term (represented by C for competitiveness).

Here is the formula for KEI:

KEI = P^2/C

Of course, KEI is merely one factor to consider when deciding whether to attempt to rank for a particular term, but it is the generally accepted wisdom that any KEI score above 40 indicates that a term would be effective.

I hope this explanation of KEI has cleared things up!

*melanie

PS – I’d love it if you signed up for NicheChick below – every day you’ll get a brand new niche idea, complete with keyword research that includes KEI!  It also includes monthly searches, and results returned when searching two ways (allintitle and “quotes) – not to mention estimated Cost Per Click!  This makes it a winner for people who develop content sites that they monetize with Adsense.   But if affiliate marketing is your thing, we gotcha covered there, too.   You will also receive a suggested affiliate program to promote, AND links to four different related and active web communities – a forum, a Google group, a Yahoo group, and a Myspace group.

One of the most often asked questions by internet marketers, both new and experienced, is – “How do I find new niche markets?” There is much written about online places to locate new hot markets – Google Trend, Amazon and eBay hot items, Froogle, etc. However, although these online techniques can reveal amazing niches, they are not how I have found ANY of my most profitable niches.

Here’s how I DID find them. I paid attention to the life going on around me.

Let me explain. What is a “niche market” anyway? It’s a group of people who are interested in a certain thing and who search it out on Google. I think the key part of that sentence is “group of people.” Marketers often focus on the “numbers” of a niche and ignore the people factor. When you look at the number of searches a keyword gets per month, I think it’s important to keep in mind that each of those numbers each represent a real person who sits down at their computer, is curious about something, and types it into Google, looking for information.

Since niche markets are composed of real people living their everyday lives, it stands to reason that you can glean some great niches from real people and real (non-internet) things that you see everyday. Here are five of my favorites:

1) Magazines - Magazines have their finger on the pulse of what their target market is currently interested in, and what they are becoming interested in. If you see a group of articles, or even one interesting article, that catches your eye in a magazine, chances are there’s a market for that subject. Magazines would go out of print if they didn’t consistently put out articles that appealed to their target market.

2) Newspapers – For more timely and up and coming niches, turn to newspapers. Newspapers have their finger on the pulse of what, not just a particular niche demographic is interested in, but the whole world! New breakthroughs, entertainment new, technological advances, as well as interesting cultural happenings will all be reported through newspapers. There are niches to be mined there.

3) Movies – Many niches relate to interests and hobbies. Pay attention to unusual interests, job, or hobbies that characters have in movies. Pay attention when they talk to one another. If something has been included in a movie or a television show, chances are it is because it resonates with a large enough segment of the population to be interesting.

4) Conversations - When you talk to the people in your life, listen to what they talk about with a marketer’s ear.  Are they thinking of moving to a new city?  Did they just get a dog?  Do they have a medical issue they’ve been searching for answers about?  Are they trying to solve a problem with their finances or around the house?  If they are, chances are good that others are trying to solve the same problem.

5) JUST ASK! – If all else fails, strike up conversations with brand new people that you meet – at the coffee shop, in the grocery store, in line at the post office!  Ask people about their lives and their interests.  You would be surprised how eager people are to talk about themselves and their passions.

It’s a good idea to carry around a pocket notebook and a pen around with you to jot down all of the new ideas that will be flooding into your brain so that you can do specific keyword research later!

Here’s a fun challenge – do this for a few days and post in the comments how many new niches you were able to come up with!  I bet it will be more than you think!

*melanie