SEO World:

I’m working on a project where not only on-page (html/content) and off-page (links) factors are key to success (traffic in this case), but also crucial is generating more or less a rising buzz factor. Buzz by definition is like the “jungle-telegraph” model–where people start talking about something and naturally share among their friends and social networks.

Just this morning, I heard about the new Papaya Dance, the “next Macarena” (Note: currently, only about 300,000 pages are returned in Google in that search–this will grow).

The idea that generating buzz or natural sharing is easier now than ever may be true from a technology standpoint–just see this screenshot (from 10e20):

… but solid content–quality, that is–with maybe a slight bit of controversy, a fun factor or simply informational pieces–still is just as important. You must learn to use it all.

One place to start your social buzz trek: Learn some related (to your business) tools at go2web20. 

Last week, I read a marketing letter from Perry Marshall, a “guru” online marketer with a big following. His well-known Free 5-Day Adwords (aff) course has kick-started many businesses online.

In this letter, a guy asked “how to make money online?”, “is making money online really possible?”, and “I have tried everything (including many MLM programs) - but it doesn’t seem to work”. Sounds like another frustrated and most likely scammed victim of “money making secrets revealed” programs to me…

If you are asking similar questions, then it may be time to read what follows. (Notice: What follows may be somewhat technical, but you can learn too).

The owner of the money making website, is not formally educated in the United States, and not well versed in the American/English culture and language, but managed to go from nothing to over $10,000 dollars in a very short period.

After reading this post, decide on what goals & objectives exist for you. Think about what can I offer (content/message-wise), then put a monthly number next to it. For example, you may want to earn $200/month to start. Be realistic, and build over time. Of course, none of the below works without traffic to your site. Read my blog and articles on Entrepreneur Online for more on how to do that.

Before downloading the whitepaper, review top 10 ways ways to earn money online:

1. Blog networks - join with other more prominent blogs to write entries or swap posts/articles - for money and/or visibility.
2. Adsense (if done right) is the first place to start for making money online, often followed by BlogAds.
3. Joining affiliate programs can be a good choice, and many are using Amazon, ClickBank & Commission Junction.
4. Business Blog Writing - Make yourself available as a writer, and get people to hire you to write business blogs. Sign up for Elance to start.
5. Use Google’s BlogSearch and find other blogs similar to your niche and study them. See what advertising exists, content and themes.
6. Check often and read copyblogger and problogger and learn from others who are doing well making money with blogs.
7. Consider joining blog carnivals - find out more here. (I haven’t actually tried this, but it seems really cool. See an example.)
8. Pay per click Chitika eMiniMalls ads - you’ll see them on many professional blogs.
9. Get yourself a domain and host it with a reputable firm (Godaddy.com). Blogger.com may be fine for a while, but not for serious online business.
10. Track all activities on your blog from Analytics (google, feedburner, getclicky - all free) and user behavior via crazyegg.com (heatmaps)

The key to remember is that unlike the poor soul in the email to Perry, you must realize that as you move from an “outsider” (newbie) to an “insider” (authority) - it is continuous learning, implementation and testing of your online systems that will get you the bigger dollars and opportunities.

While affiliate marketing may be for you - information products via clickbank.com for example, you should consider developing a specialized niche for yourself, creating a product or service that is not “common” and that you are passionate about. Try to differentiate enough in your niche to where you create “insider” mentality and information for yourself. People will follow and don’t rely on others to do it for you.

As a quick example, no more than a year ago, I was creating detailed analysis for businesses online for less than a thousand dollars. These enhanced analyses now range anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 onetime, depending on detail/options.

You can download the entire complimentary paper by signing up here, or download it directly here (1.8mg PDF).

P.S.

Recently, websites (yes, blogs too) have come into question by Google. They re-ranked pages/sites based on bought links that seemed “spammy”. Make sure your content has something to say, provides good quality content and don’t “overdo” anything and keep your link building in check and naturally.

The golden ticket to higher search engine rankings, are many-fold, as described in my articles on Entrepreneur, and as you are seeing in my blog posts on seoworld.

However, there is one secret technique that can be used to further build your presence in search engines, and specifically Google. It is a quality way to generate traffic and improve the search quality indicator for your site - it’s called .edu backlinks. (Note: .edu & .gov links are good because of the assumed PageRank and Quality of those neighborhoods, not because of the extension. Also, check to see if backlinks have ‘nofollow’ which will impact pagerank juice, but still bring traffic).

The number of links back to your site are important, as is the anchor text that describes the link/page to your site, but introducing a mix of links from highly trusted domains is extremely crucial.

How can you get these trusted backlinks?

Load up your favorite browser and search engine (Google) - and enter the below into the searchbox, and I’ll explain each one.

The key is to find blogs that owners within the (.edu) educational websites provide outside /public access to. You may find some blogs that will still only allow approved authors, but the below shows a way to open it up. Please note/important: This is intended for quality content contribution and discussion only.  Submit if you have something to say, and that is useful, and related to the topic at hand.

Step 1 - locate the sites and blogs
site:.edu inurl:blog  (enter this, and watch Google results - you are on your way)

Step 2 - filter for posting possibility
“post a comment” (add this after ‘blog’ (and a space) and filter for posting )

Step 3 - clarify intent
-”comments closed” (make sure to include the hyphen too)

Step 4 - remove walls:
-”you must be logged in” (do not include the blogs that require log ins)

Step 5 - restriction & filtering:
“your keyword(s) here” (add your keyword or phrases to limit and show themes)

That’s it!

Tip: Use Roboform - to handle all your logins and lighten your workload for filling out forms.

Lastly, it not just about links - you’ll also get traffic from these links - and combined with backlinks “juice”, it’s a highly valued exercise, for users as well as search engines.

As always, testing is the key - the landscape changes so often - what works this week, may need modification the following, etc - you know the drill…