Dear fellow Web Writer,

Do you get edgy when you look at a box or a pile of things you need to follow through on? I do. Or, I did — just the other day. But, not for the reason you’d think. I was putting towels away in our bathroom and glanced at a big box full of papers and folders. (The box has been living in the bathroom since I decided to clean out my office so I could upgrade the furniture.) I don’t even know what’s in the box. I vaguely remember designating it “the place to store important documents that eventually need to be filed,” but that was at least a year and a half ago. I haven’t touched it since. NOTE: See The Complete Reality Blog Here So it occurred to me, now that I’m getting organized and moving forward, that it’s about time I tackle the box. The thought made me instantly edgy, but not because I find filing dull. Rather, it’s because 1) I think I’m better off not knowing what’s in the box since I’m sure to find something I should have taken care of months ago, and 2) If I don’t have my box as my fall-back to-do item, what on earth will I do instead?

What’s Your Office Security Blanket?

Basically, I realized the box was like a security blanket. If I always have a box I need to sort or a pile of things to file, I’m saved from tackling potentially daunting writing projects. I hadn’t realized how often I use clutter as a speed bump till I emptied out my office in anticipation of my new furniture. I ended up relocating several different bags and bins of various sizes,

Floundering Around Adds Up

The seed for my transformation took shape about a year ago, when I put up my first business website. I wanted to include samples of my work on the pages, so I started off by Googling the names of some of the professionals for whom I’d written marketing materials. As I navigated to the websites of these past clients, I was delighted over and over again to see my copy pasted up there for the world to read. And, when I actually sat down to look at the finished result of each project, I was surprised at how many clients I had written copy for over the past several months. The same thing happened when I turned to the website of a larger client and searched out the content I’d written. I ended up counting over 300 SEO articles, 100 SEO blogs, copies of a few e-newsletters, two e-books, and even a few marketing videos — all of which were my work. When I sat down and listed all these projects together, I was surprised at the amount of content I’d created. I excitedly bellowed at hubby Craig to come see my list. When he arrived, I said something like, “Whoa, can you believe all this stuff? It almost looks like I’m a real writer!” Craig gave me a quizzical look, cocked his head, and said, “Um, you are a real writer.” “Yeah, but seeing all my copy formatted and laid out like this makes it look so good!” He frowned. “Mindy, you are good. Get over yourself.” And with that, he walked away and left me just a little flabbergasted.

Self-Indulgent Anti-Confidence

That day, Craig handed me yet another brilliant realization about a challenge common to freelancers. Here’s what I figure. As writers, trying to swim upstream in an unsystematic industry, it’s very easy to hold on to the excuse that we’re not good enough or haven’t learned enough yet to be recognized as professionals. It’s also very easy to pat ourselves

First, a disclaimer. I am by no means an SEO expert. To really learn about SEO and SEO copywriting, you’ll want to get your hands on Heather Lloyd-Martin’s excellent training on the subject. She knows the field of SEO inside and out.

What follows comes from my experience of getting high rankings for my primary keywords.

Category Names

You’ll want to identify blog categories that use the right “Trigger Words” for your website visitor. Trigger words are the phrases that hook your visitor because it’s exactly what he or she is looking for.

For example, if you want a driver for your HP Laserjet 4600 printer, you’ll go to the HP website and click on any link that has the word “drivers.” Then, you’ll look for “Laserjet” and subsequently the model number.

Similarly, if you want to know how to get your dog to stop barking, you’ll do a search for “how to get my dog to stop barking” and will look for the trigger word “barking” or “stop barking” on the web page.

Because your navigation bar and/or sidebar typically include links to the various article categories you’ve defined, you want those category names to include the appropriate trigger words when possible.

Cute or clever category names don’t work well because the visitor has no idea what you mean. Same for category names that are too general, such as “Products” or “Services.” For example, if you look at the categories on the Wealthy Web Writer website, you’ll see that we tried to add trigger words, such as “Getting Clients” and “Getting Started.”

As you can see, there’s a balancing act between identifying category names that are “search engine friendly” and names that include trigger words. Ideally, you’ll have it both ways. However, if I have to choose, I’ll take trigger words over SEO for the category names.

A Few Words About the “Long Tail”

You may have heard about “Long Tail Keyword” phrases.

Here’s an example of a general keyword phrase: “dog training“

A long tail keyword phrase related to the above might be: “how to teach my dog not to beg“

Long tail keyword phrases are more specific, less competitive, and also have fewer searches performed than the general keyword phrases. Thus, there are advantages and disadvantages to optimizing a website or blog posts for long tail keyword phrases.

My theory on keyword research is to focus on your primary keyword phrases in the beginning and add long tail keyword phrases over time. I’ll explain how this works in a second.

I’ve heard various stories about how and why the concept of the long tail became popular. The most common is that it stemmed from research Amazon did on their sales. They found that the bulk of their profits came, not from the best sellers, but from all the thousands of other books they sold in smaller quantities.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Once word got out, all the search engine and internet marketing gurus started touting the long tail, and keyword tools began producing gobs of long tail keyword phrases for you to use.

The problem with all the hubbub over long tails is that Amazon has about 16 million books (pages) available, and an equal number of searches done daily for these books.

You and I don’t have that luxury, which is why I prefer to use the old tried and true 80/20 rule: 80% of my profit will come from 20% of my website visitors. The long tail approach has you doing it the other way.

When you’re just starting out, you want traffic. The best source of search engine traffic for your new site will be keywords that fall in between “general” and “long tail.”

That is, when it comes to the number of searches, these keyword phrases aren’t at the top of the pile, and they’re not at the bottom. Going back to our dog training example, you might find it easier to rank for “dog training tips” than for “dog training.” It’s not quite “long tail,”, but it’s going to be less competitive than “dog training” and have more searches than “how to teach my dog not to beg.”

The good news is that you can easily incorporate long tail keywords into your overall strategy, but not by making them the focus of your keyword strategy.

Here’s the idea in summary, and then I’ll get into the details:

1. Determine three to five top “category” keyword phrases, and then one to three primary keyword phrases for each of those categories.

I’ll convert my “category” or top level keyword phrases into the appropriate trigger words, and then identify the top keyword phrases that I’ll focus on for each of these categories.

To clarify: the category name includes the trigger words that will get the reader to click on the link. They are not necessarily the same as your top keyword phrase on which you’ll focus your writing. Then, you identify up to three primary keyword phrases for each category that are in between general and long tail.

These are the keyword phrases for which you’d like your site to rank in the top 10 on a search.

2. Compile a list of “semantically-related” long tail keyword phrases for each of the primary keyword phrases. For example, if my primary keyword phrase is “dog training tips,” then my longer list might include:

Teaching a dog to sit
Training a dog to stop barking
How to teach a dog to heel

Notice that these keyword phrases may or may not have the primary keyword phrase embedded. They are all “related” to the primary keyword phrase. You might even extend this to include keyword phrases like:

Healthy dog treats
How do I reward my dog

In the video, I’ll show you how you can find these keyword phrases.

3. Rank the keyword phrases according to number of searches per month and competition. Your ideal keyword phrases will get sufficient traffic and won’t have strong competition. Again, I’ll show you how to do this in the video.

I want to rank my keyword phrases so that I can focus on the areas where I have the best chance of getting onto the first page of Google, and so that I get sufficient traffic to make my time and energy worthwhile.

Right now we’re just focused on getting the keyword phrases. Don’t worry yet about how to use them effectively in your blog posts – I’ll get to that in a later module.

The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Tools

In the video, I focus on using the free keyword tools, and I also show you one special trick I like to use with one of my favorite paid tools.

There are some great keyword tools available, and I highly recommend purchasing one if you’re planning on creating more than one money-making website. Most of the keyword tools with which I’m familiar are designed for affiliate marketers who use Google Adwords to drive traffic to their sites.

Since I’m not using AdWords, I only use one or two components of those tools.

If you want to learn more about the basics of keyword research, here are two good (free) sources:

SEOBook. They’ve been around for years, and are acknowledged as SEO experts. I recommend you install their SEO Toolbar. I talk more about it in the video.

Keyword Elite University. They have excellent video tutorials, mostly geared toward users of their keyword tool (which I use). You can still learn quite a bit from their tutorials, even without owning the software.

Plus, John Wood provides a great list of 10 search engine tools on the Wealthy Web Writer site.

Links to other places mentioned in the video tutorial are:

Google. You know this one.

Google Keyword Research Tool.

Alexa

Compete

Quantcast

Useful Plugins and Toolbars

You’ll want to install these toolbars and plugins for your Firefox Browser (they can be disabled later):

• SEO Toolbar
• SEM Tools Toolbar
• Keyword Spy Plugin for Firefox

Keyword Research Process

It’s great to have a list of free keyword research tools, and even better to have one of the paid services or tools. But how do you actually use these tools effectively to get your category and keyword list?

Back to the long tail keywords for a second. Over time, you’ll be using Google Analytics to see what keyword terms visitors are actually using to find your site. If you see some promising terms, you’ll add them to your list and provide content using those terms specifically.

So, here’s what you do (watch the video to see me do this):

Phase 1. Compile a long list of keywords, separated into related groups.

Step 1. Start with a little brainstorming.

What do you think would be the most likely or common keyword phrases people might use for your niche? Create a spreadsheet where you have one tab for each “group.”

Step 2. Using standard Google Search, start typing in each keyword phrase.

Google will suddenly display a list of other possible search phrases. These will either be searches you’ve done recently or searches others have done. You’ll be surprised at what comes up.

Add each suggested phrase to your spreadsheet. Google shows them for a reason.

Step 3. Then, search for your primary keyword phrases.

3.a. Use Google’s Wonder Wheel to find related phrases

On the top left of the page you’ll see “other options” with a “+” sign. Click on this link to expand the other options panel. Scroll down (under “Standard View” and click on “Wonder Wheel“). You’ll see the wonder wheel appear with eight branches, each showing a related keyword phrase.

Add the appropriate keyword phrases to your list, and if one of the suggested phrases doesn’t fit under your primary keyword, create a new tab in your spreadsheet for a new group.

You can click on one of the spokes in the wheel to expand that keyword phrase to phrases related to it. Go as deep as necessary to increase your groups and keyword phrases.

Now, close the “Other Options” tab and look at the results page. What you’ll do now will help you both with your keyword research and tell you a bit more about your target market and competition.

3.b. What keywords are advertisers using?

If you installed the Keyword Spy Firefox Plugin, you’ll see links under each search result and every ad on the right. You can click on these links to get more keyword phrase ideas. The cool thing is that Keyword Spy also tells you a bit about the competition and the search volume for these keyword phrases. You can easily disable or uninstall this plugin when you’re done with your research.

3.c. What keywords are your main competitors using?

You can use Keyword Spy again to see keywords for the top 10 search results. You can also use the SEOBook Toolbar and the SEM Tools toolbar to find even more related keywords. These toolbars are extensive, so I won’t go into all the features here.

What I will often do is spy on my competition. I’ll scan the search engine results first to see how many of the competitors are true competitors (they’re selling the same thing as I’m selling). If not, then I’ll know that I’ve got an even better shot at hitting the top 10!

I’ll click on the link to a competitor’s site and look at their home page. If they look like a legitimate competitor, then I’ll do more in-depth research.

The SEOBook Toolbar has a useful tool called “SEO XRay” that will give you a quick snapshot of how well that website is optimized.

Even better, I’ll go to Alexa (with SEOBook Toolbar, click on

Date: March 26th Time: 3:00PM (Eastern Time) Presenter: Johnny B. Truant The past year has been an exciting one for Johnny Truant. A year ago, he hadn’t made a penny online. Today, he’s doing pretty well, and has started seeing a few five-figure months in his business. Johnny went from a virtual unknown to a rising star on popular sites like Copyblogger and their new spinoff, The Third Tribe. How did he do it? He didn’t sell his soul to Google … Johnny isn’t a super affiliate … And he’s made only a few dollars with AdSense. Johnny simply put it all out there. He created a likeable persona and established himself as something of an expert in online marketing and money-making websites. While Johnny isn’t a writer, one of the things we can do as writers is to learn how others differentiate themselves, stand above the crowd, and get seen and heard in a hyper-busy online world. Sid Smith will talk with Johnny about his story. We’ll discuss what worked for him, and what didn’t. We’ll discover how he managed to throw away the chains of “supposed to” and simply have fun on the way to building a profitable business. Whether you’re trying to build a name for yourself as a B2B copywriter, or launching your first money-making website, this lively conversation will certainly give you a few brilliant ideas that you can apply immediately to your own business. In this teleseminar, you’ll also learn:

• The two factors Johnny believes have been most critical to his success …
• Why “being yourself” will make you more money than trying to emulate your favorite guru …
• How to quickly create your own products so that you make more money and sell more of your services …
• How to make a good living online without building a massive email list …
• The specific steps Johnny takes each month to keep increasing his income online …
• And the three steps you should take this week to start building your own profitable web business.

Come armed with your questions. If you’ve been

• It’s a proven model I know works and that can generate maximum conversions and sales with less traffic. Leave a client to their own devices, they’re going to attempt to pay you the least amount of fees possible by recommending the smallest project possible, even if it means poor results. This system flips that on its head, gets them better results by providing a proven template, and lets you charge a higher fee for doing so.
• It’s almost as easy to write multiple pieces of copy for a client as it is to write a single piece of copy. You gain efficiency when you’re writing multiple pieces of copy that build on, stem from, and are adaptations of each other.
• It can be customized for almost any client in almost any industry. I do most of my work with publishers and event promoters, and it definitely works for them. I’ve also implemented this in the high-tech field, including for web hosting and computer training customers. And, I’ve seen it done in dozens of different industries with similar success. (The implementation may change, but the deep structure is what gives this so much power.)

So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty … The “Seduction Marketing” Online Selling System I’ve written off-and-on about a process I call Seduction Marketing. Simply put, Seduction Marketing is a proven process for effortlessly guiding a prospect from the point where they have no knowledge of your offer all the way up through the point where they make a purchase. It’s a low-resistance system that:

• Grabs the attention of qualified prospects
• Makes them raise their hands and show interest in an easy, non-committal way
• Builds trust and desire through educating while persuading
• And finally, spurs action and gets them to pull out their wallet and pay you money

Here are the components of a Seduction Marketing system:

• Traffic generators, such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, banner ads, articles, emails, etc.
• A compelling landing page with a free information offer to get people to opt-in and give you permission to follow-up with them in exchange for the information you’re giving away
• The free information itself, for example, a special report, trial software, online video, etc.
• A series of sequential autoresponders to build engagement and drive readers to the sales letter
• The online sales letter or conversion page

It’s a simple enough system, and remarkably effective. All you have to do is build on this blueprint, and implement. Three Specific Examples I’ll show you three specific examples of how to apply this in very different situations, to get your juices flowing. It will also ensure you understand the basic model so you can begin offering it to your clients. We’ll start knowing only the client type, product, and the traffic source to be used to attract prospects. Then, I’ll break down quickly what a Seduction Marketing system may look like based on those parameters. CLIENT: Software maker PRODUCT: Software for making useful graphics for business presentations and documents TRAFFIC SOURCE: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads There will be two core pieces to this project. First, the online sales letter to sell the product itself. Second, a short

Date: March 18th 2010 Time: 12:00 EST (9:00AM PST) Topic: Using Video to get Clients (Part 3 of 3) Speaker: Jessica Kizorek In session two, Jessica showed you how to create quality videos with a $200 camera and a little re-arranging of your space. It’s not difficult, and it doesn’t require a lot of special equipment or rehearsing. Just sit in front of your camera and record a couple of minutes of your best stuff. What then? Do you …

• Post your video to YouTube?
• Put it on your blog?
• Use software to upload the video to every video site in the known universe?

If you’re going to take the time to create a video, and especially if you’re going to put your on face in the video, you want your effort to be worth something. In session three of this three-part series, Jessica’s going to reveal her best-kept secrets on:

1. How to write scripts that keep the viewer engaged from start to finish …
2. Where to post your videos to get premium viewing time by the right people …
3. How to title and describe your video to build interest, get ranked by the search engines, and drive traffic to your website …
4. How to promote your videos to the widest possible audience with minimal cost and effort.

Plus … Jessica will provide live critiques of new videos created by Wealthy Web Writer members!

Before attending this Webinar, you may find it helpful to review parts one and two of this series: Part one: Why Online Video can be your ticket to success this year Part two:  How to create videos for the web Note: If you can’t make the live event don’t worry! The playback will automatically be added to the website after March 18th.