Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:48 am Post subject: Question for Allan on Martell's method
On your top 10 you say this about Martell's method
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My only criticism is that he's a little brief one one aspect ? researching and writing articles. I'd like to see more emphasis on building USEFUL sites rather than sites designed to be found in search engines.
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I just want to know how his method is different from your method of building useful sites.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5839 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:32 am Post subject:
I own a variety of affiliate-driven websites covering a range of industries. In appearance, the sites look a lot different.
However, they all have one factor in common. When we're creating them we always have the visitor's needs in mind. To me, that's hugely important for long-term success. We keep asking ourselves: "How can we make this site useful to our visitors?"
James has gradually changed his focus over the years and improved the quality of his articles, but many of the sites he has created look as though their main aim has been simply to build a site that gets found in search engines. They're usually not the sort of sites that people will bookmark or try to remember so they can return to them again.
As search engines get crammed with more and more junk, I think it's the sites that offer genuinely useful material that will rise to the top. _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Ok, I think I know what your trying to say. So instead of researching 50 phrases to build pages around (buy articles for) so they rank high in search engines it would just be better to write 50 pages around stuff that the visitor will find useful like how to build something, cure something, take care of something etc... in detail instead of a generic article that doesn't help the visitor out that much. I'm a little confused here so please tell me if I have it wrong.
So lets say I go out and build a soccer site using Martell's method. First I build my product pages (which i usually pay more for HIGH QUALITY articles for these pages that are helpful and useful). Then I research 50-100 profitable keyword phrases to build articles around which I only pay $4-$5 for each article around each phrase. Then link the articles to my site and then let the site do its thing (of course with other basic things like backlinks etc...)
Would this be considered somewhat of a useful site if not what would you have done different to make it more useful knowing that the site is around soccer.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5839 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 5:10 am Post subject:
ziggy wrote:
So instead of researching 50 phrases to build pages around (buy articles for) so they rank high in search engines it would just be better to write 50 pages around stuff that the visitor will find useful like how to build something, cure something, take care of something etc... in detail instead of a generic article that doesn't help the visitor out that much. I'm a little confused here so please tell me if I have it wrong.
Yes, write articles like the ones you suggest. However, it's essential that you to do keyword research and find phrases that people are typing into search engines and incorporate those phrases into your articles.
Don't be afraid to write a few good, useful articles which aren't targeted at particular phrases. They'll add depth and value to your site.
Quote:
Would this be considered somewhat of a useful site if not what would you have done different to make it more useful knowing that the site is around soccer.
I hardly know anything about soccer so I'm the wrong person to ask. I don't even know if soccer is a good topic for a website. I don't know how many soccer fans are looking for stuff to buy online.
Ideally, to achieve sales, you want to have in mind someone who is planning to buy a product and needs a bit of help deciding which particular product to buy. So I suppose you could have an article titled "How to choose the best soccer shoes" or "Why I use X Brand soccer shoes".
How to get fit for soccer (recommending a book or course), perhaps?
Alternatively, you might have in mind a potential visitor who has a problem to solve. Your article explains how the problem can be solved by using a particular product, which you've tried and love.
Articles on books that have helped you improve your soccer?
It's a useful site, but many of the articles on the site help the visitor decide what to buy. _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Oh ok, makes perfect sense now. Every page/article you have on your site is suppose to help the visitor make an informitive buying decision based on the helpful/useful article you've written up for them instead of having dozens of low quality articles that funnel traffic to your main product pages to make the sell.
AllanGardyne wrote:
it's essential that you to do keyword research and find phrases that people are typing into search engines and incorporate those phrases into your articles.
So would you write an article around a popular/competive keyword phrase and then sprinkle several related less competitive keyword phrases in the article while making it useful at the same time or is it better to just write up an article for each less competive keyword phrase (of course this is keeping the visitor in mind and making these articles useful)
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5839 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:15 am Post subject:
ziggy wrote:
Every page/article you have on your site is suppose to help the visitor make an informitive buying decision based on the helpful/useful article you've written up for them instead of having dozens of low quality articles that funnel traffic to your main product pages to make the sell.
Well, it doesn't need to be EVERY article. On a soccer site, for example, you might have a page that's purely that day's soccer scores, or profiles of players, or any information that might help attract repeat visitors.
You don't have to go overboard trying to make money with every page of your site. You may have some pages which are there purely because they provide useful information or because they help add to the site's credibility.
On the other hand, you don't want to make the mistake of building a site that is purely free, hobby-type information. Picture yourself taking the visitor by the hand and gently leading them in a certain direction - in a helpful way of course!
For example, on KeywordWorkshop.com we list all the free keyword research tools. We don't make money from that and in fact we probably lose some visitors to those sites, but we're making the site useful by providing information which our visitors want. Just don't go overboard providing free information which isn't monetized.
Quote:
So would you write an article around a popular/competive keyword phrase and then sprinkle several related less competitive keyword phrases in the article while making it useful at the same time or is it better to just write up an article for each less competive keyword phrase (of course this is keeping the visitor in mind and making these articles useful)
In most cases, it's more effective to target one phrase at a time, because you want that phrase in certain important places, such as in the title of your page, in the heading on the page and in a link or two on the page.
If you target several phrases at once, it's difficult to optimize a page fully. You weaken the impact of each phrase. You'll get traffic with those phrases only if they're extremely non-competitive.
However, you can sometimes combine two, three or even four keywords in one phrase. For example, the phrase "uk soccer books" targets "soccer", "uk soccer", "soccer books" and "uk soccer books".
If the phrase is non-competitive, you may even be found for "uk books". _________________ Allan Gardyne
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