SEO World:

Social Media, Web 2.0, Social Marketing, Social Search, Social Networking, Gadgets, Apps, Widgets, Ajax, Web Services, Open Social–what does this all mean for your online business in 2008?

From 2004-2007, I spent serious time in search engine optimization, product research, technical application development and online marketing (SEO, PPC, link building, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, landing pages, copywriting) and delivery. What I learned is that there really are no secrets, just hard, continuous work: changing, tracking, monitoring and not ever giving up, no matter how frustrating (yes it is!). This work has helped me immensely. I wrote about many aspects of this and more than 15 years of learning in the Ultimate Guide to SEO, coming out in the spring.

However, without the work of other people and the networks I belong to, I would not be where I am today. The headline of this post references research from a group of people that I consider to be leading the online marketing space. Not only have these people made a serious dent in the online marketplace themselves, but their goals are similar to mine: educate, and provide stellar information that you can use for yourself.

Therefore, a combination of all the strategies you’ve learned should be included in your internet-marketing and search-marketing work (which includes search engines). But do not miss out on the single most important aspect of growth online: the social medium.

Look at the stats on this traffic graph. Can you see how fast Facebook has risen in 2007? Look at the red line–this is compelling data.

The toughest part is not understanding the importance of this data. Rather, it’s understanding how to execute within this fast growing, social media space.

For example, if you are in the B2B space, how can you leverage and take part in this huge growth and future explosion? Is it only meant for B2C? For example, does the ad network in Facebook even matter to a corporate business, since most believe it’s only for kids and teens anyway?

You may have it all wrong, as I am learning as well.

I wrote an article on social search and social media optimization awhile back, updated for 2008–I felt the movement, but had really no clue.

The proof of 617 million people that may help navigate the online chaos in 2008 is found below.

Click to download and see the controversial, but proven, results.

It might make your strategy and thinking change drastically for 2008.

What can you learn from the CNN home page as it relates to “conversion”? (Defined as a visitor performing some action on a transactional or reference landing page).

The video below provides tons of detail about how you can increase conversion on your existing pages. It also makes you think about creative frameworks for new pages that you can (and should) develop and test.

Andy Jenkins (funny but experienced internet marketer seen in this video) explains how his company, through science and research, more than doubled conversion by making just a few changes on existing websites, and how their foveal view eye application impacts their landing page design work.

An example of what this may look like in one screenshot is depicted here:

They are advanced topics, but listen carefully, and the presentation will show you insider tips on optimizing your site for users.

Among the four secrets:

1. Learn how to increase action by a visitor, and fast;
2. Discover how white space should be applied on a page;
3. Find out what every other other page on the internet is measured by; and
4. Explore chunky grouping and how it can affect the eye’s fovea (as contrary to peripheral) view

Top earners making money online not only know that traffic is key to their business, but they understand that the secret to turning that traffic into a cost benefit from targeted traffic to conversion – is the *niche* they live in.

What is a niche?

Niche is defined as a focused, targetable portion of a market sector. You may be positioned to present products and services in a health-care sector for example, and your niche drill-down is specifically targeting seniors and assisted living services.

On the Internet, how can you find the niches for your marketplace – for FREE?

Step 1 – Use Google (power tool)
Click here to access the keyword tool without going through Google Adwords. Once there, make sure to select the 2nd tab – “Site-Related Keywords”.

Step 2 – Select area of interest (research)
I entered ‘http://finance.google.com’ as a targeted site, since I’m interested in that sector. Leave all checkboxes and settings as is for now.

Step 3 – Review keyword groups and properties (competiveness)
The results are showing keywords grouped by these top tier groupings/terms:
stock market (27), stock quote (4), stock trading (6), stock chart (1), stock (27), financial (6), finance (2), fund (5), Miscellaneous keywords (6)

What you want to look for is where you see the following:
a) healthy competition (almost full green bar)
b) solid search volume (at least 1/2 the green bar)
c) not ‘too generic’ a keyword (thinking long tail here)

‘Stock Market Software’ looks like an interesting niche keyword. Let’s use that.

Step 4 – Review bid pricing (Traffic/Pricing)
Change the “Choose columns to display” to include Avg Bid Position & Cost. That will allow the display to render updated info in the same tool, same screen. Set Max CPC to 10.00 or higher, to capture what the Max CPC might be for keywords in the list. Alternatively go to this tool and check keywords for traffic and pricing and geo targets. Enter the keywords using Phrase and Exact matching types (see descriptions next to the input panel). Use “” and [] to denote differences. Exclude Broad match at this time.

Review the results for many more keywords, and keep going back to Step 4 to discover more profitable keywords and traffic, clicks (daily) and overall ranges for bid position. Because of no performance history and other factors, these are only indicators, but good ones – directly from inside Google.

This detailed research should give you good insight to goldmine niche markets. If you can supply visitors with quality products and services via a compelling website and driving traffic to it, you are on your way.

P.S.
I didn’t take the ’stock market software’ keyword phrase to the next level, which includes more keyword research and drilldown + related phrases, but you get the drift… You may want to use this under-valued keyword tool to see good potential Adsense keywords, including trends (Google) for your keywords: Keywordcountry (great for Adsense)

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.