Just Why is SEO So Damn Hard?And What You Can Do About It! – Part I

by Leslie Rohde

If you’ve been doing SEO for a while, you might remember the “good ol’ days” when getting top ranking was easy. Wow, was that ever fun. Doesn’t it seem a lot harder today? Yeah, and it is too, but why? Better still … what do we do about it?

It is said that if we do not understand history then we will be damned to repeat it, so in Part 1 of this three part series, let’s take a look at what has changed these last few years and how these changes have made ranking more difficult. This will set us up to understand what has to be done today to command top rank in the major search engines.

GEOMETRIC GROWTH

Reported Index Size Jun 2000 1 billion Dec 2001 3 billion Jan 2004 4.3 billion Nov 2004 8 billion latest est. 12-14 billion

Remember when businesses did not have web sites? That was not very long ago. Now pretty much every commercial vehicle has a domain name plastered across it. Doing business on the web truly has made it to the mainstream which was not true even just 5 years ago. This alone has created a huge increase in the number of websites in the index.

And then there is that Adsense thing. Just in case you are not familiar with it, the Google Adsense program allows web sites to place Google advertising on their site and share in the advertising revenue when visitors click the Google ads. This makes for a trivial way to monetize website traffic, so of course, in nearly no time at all about a billion (give or take) websites were launched with the sole purpose of attracting visitors to click Google Adsense advertising. This gave rise to the expression the “Made for Adsense” (MFA) website.

The net impact on the Google index can be understood to some extent by just looking at the number of pages indexed.

Even if nothing else changed in SEO in the last few years, from just these numbers alone we should expect ranking to be about three times as difficult today as compared to a few years ago. But the “business of search” itself has changed too, making top ranking more difficult still.

MOVING THE FOLD

Remember when Google had no paid ads? Now look at it! When Google first started selling advertising space, there were a maximum of two sponsored links and there was often only one actually taken. Today Google will show as many as three (Yahoo! will show four!) and Google results pages have sprouted a bunch of other stuff as well.

The screen shot here shows three paid ads; a result from my own computer because I have Google Desktop installed; and the #1 listing shows the expanded result. This kind of advertising-heavy display has become more common of late. In other cases you might find local search results that take even more space.

The result? It’s no longer enough to be in the top 10, or even the top 5 results. Almost all clicks go to the top 2 or 3 because all the rest have been moved below “the fold” – the point where the user has to scroll to see the rest of the page.

And this all feeds on itself. Because there is now way more competition for a reduced number of high value spots, more businesses are simply buying the sponsored positions, making the need to do so even more common!

By itself, the movement of the fold line has had the net effect of making SEO three to five times more difficult.

THE SEO ARMS RACE

Like it or not, business is a competition, and search engine ranking doubly so. For you to get top ranking means that someone else doesn’t, which they will likely not be very happy about, so they’ll try to take it back … and so will the next guy … and the next guy … and the next.

At some point, some smart guy or gal figures out how to “game the system” and for a short time is unbeatable – right up to the point that other people figure out his secret. And then the cycle repeats. I’ve been doing this for 7 years and it shows no sign of slowing down. If anything, it’s getting worse, and I’m partly to blame.

As ranking gets ever more competitive and complex, web masters find equally tricky techniques to gain an edge. In any competition, especially where money is the reward, people will always come up with new and better ways to win the game. As time goes on, this makes it progressively more and more difficult for new people to enter the marketplace because the seasoned competitors have developed so much more specialized knowledge.

This is not unique to search marketing, but is a natural process that is true in all business, and geo-politics as well – it is what us cold-war kids called “the arms race”.

And the stature of some of today’s players in search marketing is a real and valid concern as well. Who of us can afford to compete with companies with search budgets of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars? As more and more large companies become aware of and educated about search marketing, the opportunities for smaller players might become restricted.

So with each passing year, the competition increases, the existing players tend to be better funded and the knowledge and expertise required to be successful grows larger. No wonder SEO is harder today and unavoidably these trends will lead to more and more web business failures.

BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS…

This is actually the best time in the history of the Internet to get started in search marketing!

I realize that is counter-intuitive given all the bad news I just laid on you, but the bad news ignores the opportunity.

The economic rewards that come from effective search marketing today are simply huge and getting bigger at a rate that out-paces the increase in either competition or complexity by a wide margin. Sure, the “good ol’ days” were great and the ranking was easy, but the profits were nothing! Nothing compared to the level of success achievable today.

Right now, today, will in some future year be regarded as “the sweet spot”. In part 2, I’ll show you how and why this is true and how you can, and should!, position yourself to take advantage of it while it lasts.

Creating Multiple Streams of Affiliate Marketing Income

Your Ad Here

Have you ever heard or read the phrase “multiple streams of income” before? Do you know what this phrase means? For many businessmen, creating multiple streams of income online or offline is one way of securing themselves as well as their businesses in the future. They also believe that it can also save them from the so-called famine effect in the business industry. Once you are engaged in affiliate marketing business, it is advisable if you have multiple streams of affiliate marketing income so that if one of those income streams vanished, it will not upset you the way losing your sole stream would. If you depend on just one source of income and this single stream has been downsized or has lain off, you’ll surely find yourself bankrupted and hopeless. Try to ask the most successful online entrepreneurs, and you’ll discover that they have established multiple streams of online income.

There is a businessman that said and attested that the very first step you must take in creating multiple streams of income is to assess or evaluate your resources. Start by assessing yourself first. Jot down your answers to the following questions: What are the talents, abilities, strength and gears that you possess? Are you gifted with excellent and creative writing skills? Can you do well at sales? Are you good in communicating with people? Are you born with an artistic skill or unique ability that other people don’t have? Through this, you can determine the kind of business where can possibly excel.

Next, look around and write down you assets and physical resources such as computer, color printer, scanner, digital camera, cell phone, CD or DVD burner. Write these all down because it can be used as a resource. Consider also your friends and family. Find out what do they possess that you have access to. Remember that no man is an island. You can use the talents, abilities, knowledge and resources of everyone you know.

That’s basically the initial step if you want to create multiple income streams. But if you’re already a webmaster or a site owner, you definitely have an edge. Why don’t you join affiliate marketing business to help you gain extra income out of your own website?

Being involved in affiliate marketing is one of the most desirable ways to make multiple sources of income. It is because affiliate marketing programs come in various shapes and forms. There are a large number of affiliate marketing programs that you can sign on with and start gaining bucks right away. In affiliate marketing, you can make money by promoting and reselling your affiliate products and by recruiting new affiliates. What’s good about this is that you can find widest array of training materials that can enhance your marketing abilities. In affiliate marketing, you can be sure that there are genuine products to promote and sell and there is real income to make.

Either part time or full time, being an affiliate marketer is an excellent way to create multiple income streams by means of promoting products and services from web merchants. Here, you can get affiliate commission without investing big bucks in making your own product and without worrying about book keeping, customer support and ecommerce. All you have to do is to promote and resell the products and services in your site and pass on potential customer’s the merchant’s site.

In affiliate marketing, it is advisable to promote more merchants in your site so that your visitors will have variety of destinations to choose from. Using multiple merchants in the same site or niche means only one thing – you have multiple streams of affiliate income. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business strategy because this is one of the best ways to protect your business and expanding your horizons. Through this, you can be assured that you won’t experience crisis if ever one of your web merchants closed his/her program.

However, you should choose only those affiliate programs that interest you so that you can effectively advertise and promote them. Don’t ever be tempted into signing up for numerous affiliate programs in the hope that one of them will bring income. Select wisely and don’t be engaged in selling products you know nothing about. Go with the stuff that jives with your enthusiasm; your passion can capture your client by the nose and guide him/her to your affiliate link.

You should also work hard to make your multiple streams of income more stable. You can do this by embracing some strategies and tactics and by developing within yourself, some traits that can help you become successful in any kind of business such as patience, persistence and thirst for knowledge.

Lastly, just remember the adage that says “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” So that if one of them is lost, you can still have some to make omelets. And what do these eggs have to do with multiple streams of affiliate income? Well, it goes without saying that the more streams of income you possess, the bigger and better your money lake becomes.

Take action today.To your success!

Andy

Naked Short Stock Sales – Part 2

Millions of shares of stock are being sold that may not exist. How? Through an obscure trading strategy known as naked short selling. Bloomberg Television’s Special Report hosted by Mike Schneider explains what the strategy is, how it’s executed, which companies are targets, and what the SEC is trying to do to control it.

Naked Short Stock Sales – Part 1

Millions of shares of stock are being sold that may not exist. How? Through an obscure trading strategy known as naked short selling. Bloomberg Television’s Special Report hosted by Mike Schneider explains what the strategy is, how it’s executed, which companies are targets, and what the SEC is trying to do to control it.

Google’s 2Q Profit up 28 Percent

Google earned $925.1 million, or $2.93 per share, during the three months ended in June. That compared with net income of $721.1 million, or $2.33 per share, at the same time last year.Revenue for the period totaled $3.87 billion, a 58 percent increase from $2.46 billion at the same time last year.

If not for costs associated with employee stock compensation, Google said it would have earned $3.56 per share. That figure missed the average analyst estimate of $3.59 per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

After subtracting commissions paid to its advertising partners, Google’s revenue was $2.72 billion — about $40 million above analyst projections.

But the quarter’s bottom line raised concerns that the rapid growth propelling Google’s lofty stock price is slowing more dramatically than analysts thought.

Google stock getting punished by investors in after hour trading..

CALIFORNIA – An Even Bigger Economic Powerhouse according to Kiplinger CA Report

Here is an awesome message from my friend Paul Tucson about the opportuities we have in California.

HERE’S LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:  People often ask me why I tell them to invest in prime, developable land in the future growth areas of California and what makes me so sure?  The answer is always simple:  Just use the trends, forecast, and daily information that is in the news and use this with what has historically happened in the past along with proven planning guidelines and tools used to prepare for the future such as the State, County, and City’s General Plan and zoning maps.  By using population forecast by the state’s planning agency, Southern California Association of Governments and the federal government’s Bureau of Census.  In addition, you can study major transportation agency plans by Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation and Caltrans (California Transportation Department).  These are just a few of the many details that needs to be tracked and considered and then implemented in my “landbanking” strategy.

 

I was in a real estate conference yesterday learning about a new retirement strategy that was implemented just last year 2006 about Self-directed Real Estate Solo Roth 401k plans and I realize that most CPAs and Financial Planners/advisors don’t even know about this nor do have they incorporated it into their business.   What a shame because this strategy along with “landbanking” as the investment vehicle coupled with a self-directed real estate Roth IRA (for individual workers) and a Solo Roth 401k plan (for entrepreuners/small business owners) is the most powerful wealth-building strategy that exist today that can help secure someone’s financial future in the next 10 years.

 

However, as I sat in the back during the introductions of the attendees, I realize that a certain number of people there promoted landbanking as well.  It’s a great idea until I ask about where they are landbanking.  Quickly I find out what I suspected all along:  They are selling land just to sell land – they are selling CHEAP land.  What’s the difference between CHEAP LAND vs. PRIME, DEVELOPABLE LAND?  In the future, it’s millions of dollars.  The key is that “land that’s not developable and is not in path of major population and job growth IS NOT worth much in the future”.  You want to buy land that you know will be developable in the future because IT IS ALREADY ZONED for future housing, commercial and industrial development projects.  How can you ensure this?  By looking to make sure that the land is in the CITY LIMITS or their SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (LAND THAT WILL BE ANNEXED INTO THE CITY LIMITS IN THE FUTURE AS THEY GROW) and then checking in the city’s GENERAL PLAN MAP for zoning.

 

QUESTION:  From my last e-mail, in the Antelope Valley in North Los Angeles County, they have plans to build 5 Wal-mart Supercenters.  And in the Victor Valley area of San Bernardino County, they have plans to build 6 Wal-mart Supercenters.  What if you bought a 5-acre piece of land 1/2 mile from where they are planning to build one of these Wal-mart Supercenters – would this have been a good move?   I think so and thank you because I just found out yesterday that one of the locations that Wal-mart is planning to build is 1/2 mile away from my 5-acre parcel that I bought 7 years ago.  Surely, the price of my land will at least quadruple once this major shopping center 1/2 mile away gets built with the Wal-mart Supercenter as the anchor retailer.  Was this lucky?  Sure but even in the beginnning, me and my partners knew that this 5 acre was in a great future location.  Most importantly, we acted on it and bought it and paid a premium price knowing that it’s in a future growth area according to the City of Lancaster’s General Plan map (after studying all of the approved and planned major housing subdivisions planned for the surrounding area).  The rest is “lucky” as some may call it. 

 

As a current Planning Commissioner for the City of Corona for the past 5 years, I have learned a lot about the value of prime, developable “DIRT” in a booming city.  In Corona, those who own prime, developable ”DIRT” are sitting on a ”GOLDMINE”.   I like to say that every other Monday, when our Planning Commission meets to go over development items to approve, I make millionaires of landowners.  How?  Each time a project gets approved for rezoning, subdividing and development, it makes a landowner of these PRIME, DEVELOPABLE land very wealthy because it turns their land to million dollar estate homes, industrial warehouse buildings, shopping centers and hotels.    Landbanking the right way (BY BUYING PRIME, DEVELOPABLE LAND ONLY) can make a BIG difference on whether you can RETIRE RICH AND RETIRE EARLY or not retire at all.

 

My advice for people that I consult with is to START SAVING & INVESTING if they’re not doing anything, if they are investing “TO STOP INVESTING NOT TO LOSE  (i.e., their 401ks, CDs, mutual funds and annuities) and instead having the courage to INVEST TO WIN and WIN BIG.  Knowing all of these current trends that is poised to build the next power region of Southern California, now is not the time to be afraid to make your move but to find the courage to secure a better financial future for you and your family – I’m doing it for mine.

 

Think Big & Win,

High Desert must plan for 30,000 units by 2008

By Ryan Orr

If Adelanto, Apple Valley, Victorville and Hesperia don’t collectively plan to add 30,000 housing units by 2014, they could lose their housing certification, subsequently losing the chance to get any state or federal transportation funds.

The Regional Housing Needs Assessment was released last week for the planning period of 2006 to 2014.

The report acknowledged the future construction need of 707,219 units in all 187 cities and six counties that make up the Southern California Association of Governments.

Each city must submit plans for meeting the goals by June 30, 2008, to comply with California state law and remain eligible for state transportation funds.

Measure N, which passed in Apple Valley in June 2006 set a guidline of two houses per acre in Apple Valley.

The measure also left general plan amendments in the hands of the Apple Valley Town Council that can make the necessary zoning changes to comply with the regional housing needs. If measure N didn’t pass, each amendment would go to a vote of the people.

If it wasn’t for the passage of Measure N, the town could have lost its housing certification, said Councilman Tim Jasper.

“The people did the right thing,” he added.

The housing needs report breaks down the construction needs of each city into four different income groups. The needs were assessed based on the population numbers from the 2000 census.

Hesperia will have to plan for the most units in the Victor Valley at 9,094 including 2,135 units for very low-income households. One unit doesn’t have to be an actual house, it can be an apartment or townhouse.

Apple Valley must submit plans for 3,887 units; Victorville must plan for 8,618 units; and Adelanto must plan for 8,422 units. All needs are for the planning period between 2006 and 2014. The next assessment won’t be done until 2013.

“Zoning practices are very significant in determining those demands,” said Carlos Rodriguez, director of public affairs at the Building Industry Association, Baldy View chapter.

“We urge all cities to comply with the state guidelines so that we can work with local governments to provide a place for families to live in the Victor Valley,” Rodriguez added.

Ryan Orr may be reached at 951-6277 or rorr@vvdailypress.com.

 

 

 

Article #2

The Kiplinger California

Trends in Business, Government and Real Estate

July 18, 2007 Monthly Newsletter

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