Welcome to part three of this three part series on SEO tools and resources. In the last two articles we discussed the variety of Firefox extensions used for SEO as well as an assortment of other free or affordable SEO tools. In this article we’ll discuss some of the resources you’ll want to access on a regular basis to keep up to date and informed on the goings-on in the search engine and SEO realm.

We’re doing to cover a few different types of resources below and I’m going to try to keep this article to a reasonable length so let’s begin …

Media

when there’s a breaking story or you want an expert opinion on a subject, a good first place to hit is the media sources in that industry. The SEO industry is no different and there are some amazing albeit often unconventional media sources. Some of my favorite are:

Webmaster Radio

Webmaster Radio is an Internet-based radio station with some great programing ranging from affiliate marketing to PPC to organic optimization and much more. With shows hosted by experts in their fields from Danny Sullivan (Search news) to Dave Szetela (PPC) you’ll solid information that is well-sounded. I’d list my favorite shows however what I like may be different than you and what I need to know may be different than what you need to know so look through their programming and either listen through your work day as I often do or download the podcasts for later listening.

WebProNews

WebProNews offers up-to-the-minute information on virtually every event. They have reporters writing constantly and have other scoring SEO blogs and other news sources, compiling the information in one place for easy access. They also have great articles by third-party writers and a very active readership that is proactive in their commenting. Definitely near the top of my go-to list when I’m looking for news and current feedback.

Addme

This site is difficult to classify as it fits into a couple categories but I decided to include under media as that’s my primary use. They include tools, resources, a directory and much more on their site. My primary use of this site is for the articles and newsletter.

Search Engine Watch

No list of SEO resources would be complete without including Search Engine Watch. This site is the one that started it all. Search Engine Watch provides everything from fantastic articles to breaking news to search engine stats and an awesome forum. A definite bookmark.

Blogs

As with many industries – blogs are a great way to keep informed on the latest goings-on in the SEO realm. The trick, however, is figuring out which blogs are worth reading and which authors are truly knowledgeable. Over the years I’ve read many blogs and to be honest – I still do. Below are some of the key blogs I reference on a regular basis.

SEO Book Blog

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has an excellent blog worth reading on a regular basis. I have yet to visit his blog and not find some tid-bit of information that was worth reading either because of the information itself or because often he’s just entertaining. Another to add to your weekly reading list.

Matt Cutts Blog

It’s nice to get it from the horse’s mouth. For those who don’t know – Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Webspam team. He blogs about Google, technology and occasionally his cat. One has to read what he writes knowing that he’s a Google employee and as such can’t really give away the farm BUT he gives tons of great advice, insight and tips. The perk being – this time you don’t have to ask if following his advice will get you banned.

SEO By The Sea

Bill Slawski (the author) focuses his attentions on the more technical side of things with tales of patents, algorithmic possibilities, statistics and functionalities. For many, his would be one of the more dry blogs if not for his gift with words and ability to make even the most bland of subject, palatable. You don’t need to visit his blog daily but adding it to your weekly journey through the web is recommended.

SEOmoz Blog

What blog list would be complete without the inclusion of the SEOmoz blog. Rand Fishkin and crew keep their visitors up-to-date of some great research, news and SEO tips. From opinion pieces to months-long whitepapers you’ll find useful information. Again – not necessary to visit every day but a weekly pass is always worthwhile.

Forums

Forums are a great place to gather information, especially on current events such as ranking updates. That said, reading forums can be a risky thing. Almost anyone can join a forum and post their thoughts. While this format allows us to capture a wide range of information and knowledge – it also results in less qualified people giving advice as well. So while I recommend reading forums – I also recommend taking things with a grain of salt – at least until you figure out who’s who.

SEO Chat Forums

The SEO chat forums are easily one of the largest and most popular of the SEO forums. They cover a HUGE array of issues from Google to social media to Alexa rankings to (hold your hats) Ask Jeeves (that’s right – the forum’s been around for THAT long). Users worth noting are rustybrick, fathom, and randfish.

DigitalPoint Forums

DigitalPoint also is an ancient forum (2000 – ancient by web standards at least). They cover a wide range of topics from SEO to PPC to affiliate programs. Some users worth noting there are shoemoney, daven, and of course digitalpoint. A great place to ask your questions. Heavily visited and they have a ranking system for their users so you can get a decent feel as to whether they’re reliable.

SitePoint Forums

There are a variety of reasons I like SitePoint and I own a number of their books. Their forums focus on design and development (not SEO) but every SEO needs resources on the design and development side.

Newsletters & Other Resources

Of course there are other resources that every SEO or webmaster needs to be able to get their hands on. Here they are:

Google Webmaster Guidelines

These are the guidelines set out by Google telling you what you can and can’t do and what tactics to look out for. Worth a look over periodically as the do change from time-to-time. If you’re heading into the forums for advice you’ll definitely want to gander at the guidelines first to make sure that if you get lead astray – at least you’ll know what can get you banned or penalized first.

Sphinn

A social media site for SEO. Here you’ll find user-submitted stories on a wide array of Internet Marketing topics. Obviously the quality and relevancy of the stories ranges from brilliant to utter crud but the cream usually rises to the top with good stories hitting page one. That said – an occasional peek at specific threads often reveals some hidden gems.

Search Engine Land Newsletter

Perhaps I should have included this in the media section above as it’s a fine site unto itself but it was the newsletter component that I find most helpful and so I have decided to place it here. Sign up for their newsletter and you’ll get daily notification as to when some of the major search engine events happen and some solid advice as to what it means for you.

High Rankings Newsletter

Jill over at High Rankings puts out a solid newsletter where she provides tips and advice including replies to visitor questions. While I may disagree with some of her points from time to time (the same can likely be said for more of the resources noted and I’m sure others can say the same about my writings and opinions) I’ve never seen her provide bad advice – my advice just might be different from time-to-time.

Conclusion

Obviously there are a ton more tools and resources available. In this series of articles I’ve tried to include those that apply to the broadest spectrum of people and that are the most helpful. I highly recommend hunting for your own – especially if you’ve got issues that you can’t find help for here.

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You can’t start a profitable affiliate marketing business until you find out exactly who you are marketing to. Finding a niche is the first in several steps that will allow you to start a reliable stream of online income.

If you’re stuck at the starting gate when it comes to find a niche, here are three ways to find the right niche – including the pros and cons of each.

Method # 1- Picking a niche that you already know a lot about.

When you select a niche that you are already closely familiar with, you will be able to identify immediately what type of content you need to create, how you need to approach the marketing and where you need to do further research.

This can save you a lot of time when you are searching for affiliate products. You’ll know instantly what type of information that your market is likely to want and you narrow down your affiliate product choices without spending a lot of time on niche research.

Additionally, if you decide to create your own product to pre-sell the affiliate marketing product, you’ll instantly know how to create it. On the downside, the topics that you may be familiar with might not be profitable or in demand.

Method #2 – Pick a niche that you are passionate about.

If you go with the passion method of picking a niche, you’ll enjoy the process of marketing to this niche. A topic you are passionate about it one that you may or may not already be knowledgeable about.

You may just have a passion for learning about it. With a niche you are passionate about, you’ll be more motivated to work on your affiliate business.
Consistent work is the key to success, so enjoying your work is important to keeping consistency. It will also be easier to write passionately about the topic if you are passionate about learning about it.

You’ll be excited to do the work involved in creating a promotional pre-selling product or a website. However, just like with a topic you know about, you may find that the product that you are promoting due to your passion is not very profitable.

Method #3 – Pick a niche that is high in demand

Finding a market that already has a high demand is a smart way to get into affiliate marketing. If the topic already has a great deal of interest and demand, you’ll be more likely to make sales and have profitable affiliate marketing promotions.

The main drawback is that high in demand topics have a lot of competition, but don’t let this discourage you. You’ll be able to make an impact in the market if you keep at it.

There is a hidden fourth method for choosing a niche – finding a niche that is a combination of all three. When you select a product that is something you know about, something you’re passionate about and something that is already high in demand you’ll get the benefits of all of these methods.

Next, Discover Here More Ways To Find Niches For Your Online Business… And Then Watch This FREE 26 Step-By-Step VIDEO Course

One of the best marketers I have come across is Walt Disney and he used 5 simple strategies that anyone can employ. It’s about consistency, a good plan, and then practice to make it perfect.

Marketing is essentially all about the four P’s: Product, Promotion, Price and Placement. With the right product, placed in front of the right visitor at the right time, promoted in the right way and offered at the right price you are guaranteed success.

Put these 5 strategies into action, and watch the results:

1) Sell more to existing customers… especially while they are HOT!

What is noticeable about visiting any Disney operation and you will be offered the opportunity to buy additional products and services you are continuously offered other products and services. Once you are through that main entrance you are constantly marketed to with products, upgrades, special offers. Guess who spends the most money? Someone who is really enjoying themselves and Disney really exploit that by making sure their customers are satisfied and very happy.

Your easiest sell is to someone who has already bought from you so you must have a back-end sale that you can make immediately while they are hot to buy.

2) Expand Your Marketplace

When you have a winning formula export it, because that’s what successfully Disney did. They expanded from their US base worldwide with Disney attractions in the UK, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong and increased their marketplace and expanded their brand worldwide.

You too can easily expand your existing products by exploring other niches. For example; a guide to profiting from DVD sales might be originally aimed at product developers and entrepreneurs, but it could quite easily be rebranded to sell it to camcorder users. Or you might use that original DVD idea to enter another market such as training consultants and show them how they can leverage each training course they deliver by videoing it.

3) Continuous Promotion

You need to use many different strategies to constantly keep your brand in front of your customers. This is exactly what the Disney corporation do and they have a marketing plan that’s designed to keep their brand and message in front of audiences all over the world.

You will regularly see promotions on TV, in print, and on the Internet plus they also use the power of affiliate marketing in their joint promotions with Virgin Atlantic. To make your business the best you need to take every opportunity to continuously promote to give yourself maximum leverage.

What can you do to ensure every week you’re sending out a marketing message? Plan how you’ll place ads, submit articles, run press releases, improve search engine rank or offer incentives and then follow through. When you start to continuously promote you’ll see rapid results.

4) Always Improve and Add to your Offerings

Disney is always renovating, growing, building, expanding and improving at their theme and these regular improvements draw back repeat visitors, as well as impress new visitors… but just like McDonalds, they want your experience to be the same, time and time again… ensuring that you and your family come back and spend again.

It is a complete marketing cycle from the parks to the cinemas to DVD’s and themed toys and games. If Disney failed to continuously add and improve their profits would suffer and it’s a lesson you can learn from.

Developing and growing a business is about constantly improving what you offer and creating new products. Your product portfolio should constantly be reviewed and updated with new or better product that offers the possibility of recurring income.

5) Tracking Business

Disney knows exactly when its parks are busy and when they are slow because they track the numbers and they plan their marketing and promotions accordingly. Every business goes through a slow patch, the successful ones like Disney put a new promotion in place to improve sales.

You can carry out each of the previous four strategies, but this one is the key: you must have the numbers, and be able to track them. You should be focused on tracking the visitors to your site by knowing if you are getting enough traffic, how long they stay, what they look like, how they find you.

These are all key questions you must have the answers to. Then you can work out your conversion levels because knowing that will allow you to sell more by increasing your conversion, test different offerings, compare different landing pages… the list goes on and on.

Follow these five strategies that Disney apply week in, week out and see your business get that magic touch.

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 5
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

The word “overhead” is not a favorite among those who run businesses of any kind.  Nobody likes the expenses of operating a business.  And nobody really talks about them much when it comes to promoting all of the “money-making” products and services online.

But, don’t kid yourself, there’s a lot of overhead.

That brings me to the fifth reason why I love affiliate marketing…

  ** You don’t need a big budget to make it work **

Do you have any idea how much money is spent running an internet business? There are monthly fees for…

* Autoresponders
* Hosting
* Management
* Advertising
* Scripts
* Much more

There are regular fees for…

* Licensing
* Outsourcing
* Support
* Customer Service
* Maintenance
* Development
* Recruting
* Much more
 
It’s not uncommon to spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in operational costs — which is fine if you’ve been in business a while and are making the bucks. However, if you’re a newcomer, it can be taxing on your budget!

     SIDEBAR:  I paid one girl over $30,000 last year
     just to oversee one small part of my business.
     No one talks much about it, but there ARE a lot
     of expenses involved before you get to the
     “bottom line” of profit.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need a big budget to make it work! You can simply use a variety of free and low-cost marketing methods to generate clicks to your affiliate link.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need a big budget to make it work.

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Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire“, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!
Visit “Affiliatenaire” here!

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