About Michael Brown

I'm Michael S. Brown, Internet Marketer, husband and father. I have been successful in business and marketing since 1998. In 2007 I took to the internet marketing world and have never looked back.

I love teaching people the knowledge that I have acquired and the ultimate boost to my ego is to see everyone I teach succeed in business. My goal is to make everyone who comes into contact with me as successful or even more successful than myself.

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Article Builder Review – Is It Worth The Price?

Posted on May 23, 2013 // 2 Comments

Get a $100 discount Click The Image Above

Today I am putting up my Article Builder review. This is a tool by Jon Leger and I have to say I am impressed by what you can do with it.

Through this review I will not only be sharing my feedback but I am going to give you a walk-through of how to use it plus I can give you a $100 discount if you choose to buy it through me.

My Article Builder Review Part I: The Basics

Article Builder allows you to create content without the need to do any research, pay for a writer or even wait for content. You can actually spit out dozens of articles in about 30 seconds and I’ll show you below.

So where does all of this content come from? Jon has the content written in bulk and then added into the tool (this is not private label rights, junk, these are human writte and edited articles). The tool can then re-write the content based on parameters you allow, and remaking the article into something that can be around 85% unique (you can always add a couple paragraphs of your own writing to make it even more unique). But, 85% unique is still very good.

Sounds complex? It’s really not.

It comes equipped currently with 109 categories to choose from. The reason I say “currently” is because more categories get added based on demand. So if several people are asking for a particular category Jon will have it created.

Here is a demo blog created with this tool. Keep in mind you can add a custom header, custom widgets, basically whatever you want. This demo is just bare bones. By the way that site ranks #1 for it’s keywords all on auto-pilot and I’ll get into that in a second.

Article Injection Feature:

Article injection allows you to automatically inject additional content into the article. This makes it more unique by adding tips or ideas to the article.

Here is what an article with tips looks like.

Here is a quick walk-through on how to create an article in less than 30 seconds.

Note: (through out the walk-through simply click images to enlarge)

A: Select "Build an Article"

That will take you into th article building page.

A: Select a category

B: Superspun options (if you don't know don't worry about it)

C: Input an optional keyord you want into the post

D: Select word count, up to 1000!

E: Select how many articles on the topic you want

F: Save the job if you want more of the same category later

G: Click "build article"

Next, you'll be presented with a couple of options.

A: Here is your article

B: You can post directly to your blog from here if you add your blog or…

C: You can download it and use the article anywhere you want

Pretty simple right? It's extremly easy to use and create with this.

Article Builder Review Part II: Advanced Features

Auto-Posting With Article Builder

So for this Article Builder review I want to show my favorite feature.

First you need to have a blog installed on your own hosting and you need to have one category created for your blog.

This feature allows you to setup posting jobs that automatically post to your blog and it takes only about 45 seconds to setup! Let me walk you through this below:

Here is a graphical Article Builder tutorial walk-through for auto-posting:

A: Click "blogs"

This will take you to the next page.

A: Click "Add Blog"

A: Fill in the required blog info and click "Add This Blog"

Done. Your blog is now added to the system. Hopefully you're enjoying the Article Builder review so far! Stay with me here.

Now let's create the auto-posting content schedule.

A: Click "Auto Posting"

A: Select your blog

B: Select a category

C: If you use superspun content select this, if not do not worry about it

D: Select article word count

E: Select word count limit. This is used if you want to set random word counts

F: Select how often you wat it to auto post to your blog

G: Select when you want it to stop posting. Or leave it at no-limit for unlimited

H: If you want to create aresource box you can do it here. I never use this. Select "Select Blog Posting Category"

A: Select your category from inside of your blog and click Finish.

A: You can now see your posting job is setup to run

That’s all there is to it! Now the blog will add posts on straight auto-pilot. You can add ads like Adsense to your blog or whatever type of ads you want. Using a plugin like ad-injection will let you automatically set ads into individual posts as well.

Unique Auto-Posting

Recently Jon added a new feature to this tool. It’s called Unique Auto Posting.

For this Article Builder review I wasn’t able to use it yet as it’s brand new, but here is what it does for you:

If you have an account over at Ineedarticles.com you can fund your account and have Article Builder automatically request writers write content for your blog. Upon writing, the articles will then be automatically posted onto your blog!

Sorry for the totally geek-out over here, but that is a huge time saver for anyone who is actively growing a blog. I am sure more features will be added to this portion of the tool as well. As soon as I test this feature out I’ll update this review with it. But, knowing Jon it’s going to be awesome.

Auto-Link Building With Article Builder

This feature sounds almost unbelievable but it’s a real thing. When you use the auto-post feature to make an auto-blog Article Builder actually queues a link building function that builds links for you automatically. What this means is, no link building is needed.

When I first saw this feature I thought it was total BS. So I created a blog using this feature to test.

Within a week I’ve hit #11 on Google and I fully expect to be top 10 for my keywords in another week or 2 and soon, #1.

Here is all I did.

Step 1: Used Keyword Canine to find a domain and grabbed an exact match domain for the keyword. I spent about 30 minutes doing this. If you don’t have Keyword Canine, Market Samurai will do, you can get a 12 day free drive of Market Samurai here.

Step 2: Bought the domain, installed it on my hosting.

Step 3: Installed WordPress and added a contact page and privacy policy page.

Step 4: Set up Auto-posting just like I showed you above. I also set it to post 1 new post per day. You can opt to post up to 10 new posts on your blog per day.

I plan to make several of these and monetize them all very soon.

So What Can You Do With Article Builder Outside Of Those Things?

For this Article Builder review I wanted to make a point to share with you how I use it. I not only use it to create blogs with but I use it for link building to my other money sites.

I wrote about how I used it to help get top 10 search engine ranks the other day. I essentially use it to create web 2.0 properties that link back to my sites and boost them up in search.

I.e. you can take the content that it creates and create:

Blogger Blogs
Documents For Doc Sharing Sites
Articles For Article Directories
Tumblr Blogs
Other Web 2.0 Properties

It will not only save time, it will save a ton of money if you had to pay someone to build these things for you. As you know link building is critical to rank your site and this tool will help you do all of that.

What I Would Like To See Before My Next Article Builder Review Is:

Look Article Builder is awesome but I am hoping that in the near future a couple tweaks can be made.

The ability to create web 2.0 properties on auto-pilot just like auto-blogs. I am not sure if this is possible but this would make this tool even better.

It would just simplify the power of this tool even more.

What You Can’t Do With Article Builder

Here are a couple of my suggestions of places of where not to use this and what NOT to do with it.

First, do not use it on Ezine Articles. They do not like anything less than 100% unique there. Trust me from first-hand experience; they will just ban your account at Ezine Articles. I had to wait a week to be reinstated.

Secondly, do not build Squidoo pages with it either. Squidoo can sometimes be a pain because I’ve had great lenses with 100% unique content get closed down. So if they will kill great lenses with 100% unique content they will do the same with only 80-85% unique content.

Final Thoughts: So Is Article Builder Any Good

Heck yea. I really like this tool and I really think Jon did an azmazng job gettingthis setup th right way.

So in my review of Article Builder I want to stress one thing. I am not saying that this should be the only writing you ever do. I am also not saying that writing your own content is truly dead. I think the best content is pure unique content just like what you’re reading now.

However, what I am saying is that you can use Article Builder to simply and speed up many tasks. In my case, I mainly use it for link building ad added extra content to my blogs. I know many other people who use Article Builder solely for the auto blogging purposes and other people who create a blog and write their own content but also have Article Builder post daily to their blogs.

All in all I give Article Builder an “A” grade and over time I believe it can truly be an A+ with the new additions plus possible future additions.

Grab your copy of Article Builder with a $100 Discount that you can only get through me.

Get a $100 Coupon Discount Here

Are you using this tool? Thoughts? Feedback? Questions? Have your own Article Builder review? Share!

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, General, Productivity Tips, Writing Tips //

45 Day Plan To Get A Top 10 Spot In The Search Engines

Posted on May 19, 2013 // 12 Comments

Ranking In Google and Bing The Smart Way

First, before I begin, this is my first blog post on here in 2 months. I apologize for that. I've been busy getting Niche Optimizer (in fact, this is a sample of the training we are putting in there) out and some various other goodies for you guys! I still think you're going to enjoy this one.

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to rank your site in Google in an extremely ethical way. You won’t need any expensive tools, but, it will take some work on your part.

The reason it will take work is because without spending money and outsourcing this, you’ll need to build a few social properties yourself. Of course, throughout I’ll show you some time saving tips and tools I recommend but as always, they are optional.

Since the old 2012 Google Updates I’ve had people ask if link building still matters. My answer: “Heck yes! It always will.”

There are quite a few reasons why it’s going to be a long time before Google and Bing stop looking at the importance of backlinks. I’ll get into all of the reasons at a different time, but, the day that links do not matter the Internet will probably be an entirely different beast.

One final thought before you start this process. This may seem like a tedious process but the results I have had are phenomenal. I constantly get my content to the top of Google and Bing with this method.

My Results:

I created 3 sites and promoted 3 sites with this method over the last 6 months as tester sites. All 3 ranked in the top 10 of Google and Bing In less than 45 days. Some bounced back out of the top 10 for a few days but all came back quickly.

This technique works and works well and it's something that I do not see going away.

All of the sites I tested this on are review style sites created with the ideas I use in The Review Formula.

All of the sites are making me money each month except one. The reason this particular site is not making money is because all of the items on it are $5000.00 and up and it's less than 35 days old currently. I only need to sell a couple of those products per year to feel good about it.

Let me quickly tell you about something that didn't work. On one site I built, I paid a company quite a bit of money to do some sortof linking building for me. However, it didn' work, it failed. They built the links way too quickly and didn't take the time to do exactly what I am showing you below. Sometimes paying for it just doesn't cut it. However, the other sites that all ranked in the top of the search were all done manually by me. That is darn good news for you.

This Is Nothing New But The Way You Approach It Is:

What I am going to show you today is how to use tiered linking and social linking to boost your ranks. In fact, a ton of people have written about this in the past and even more recently. However, I have my own spin on what I am doing and what is working for me.

It doesn’t involve anything shady but again, for some it may be time consuming. That being said, the payoff is worth the time! After all you want to rank in the search engines don’t you?

Pre-Build Step:

Find an exact match domain to build your website around (EMD). EMDs still rank well. If you can’t find a good EMD it will take slightly longer to rank in some cases. If you’re branding yourself away from an EMD that’s fine too.

Now, it’s important to note that you’ll want a variety on your anchor text for anywhere you leave your links. i.e. if the keywords you want to rank for are cat box filters you’ll want to use that about 20-40% of the time and pick some other random keywords that are somewhat related the other 60% of the time. If the search engines see that you have the same anchor text over and over and no variance they will see that that does not look natural.

Find a primary keyword phrase that has less than 4,000 search per month. Granted, it's possible to find great keyword phrases that have more than 4,000 but the odds go up the lower you go down. I typically aim for 800-4,000.

If you are having absolutely no luck coming up with keywords on your own you could consider being a member at NBK-Underground as well. I do the keyword research for you, weekly, and specifically the kind of keywords I am speaking of in this post.

Using a tool like Keyword Canine or Market Samurai can help you choose a niche that is less competitive. Keyword Canine even tells you how hard or easy the keyword will be to rank or by greenlighting great keywords and removing all o the guess work.

Step 1: Build Your Site

This one is pretty obvious, but you’ll need to have a website built before even worrying about link building. I also suggest letting your website sit for a few weeks before even adding links. In the early days (30-35 days) work on getting good content up. By the way in case you are struggling with good content, read this.

Make sure your webpages, including the home page are optimized correctly.

Step 2: Create A Spreadsheet

Open up a spreadsheet using Excel or (free-Skydrive) and make a simple file that has 3 columns.

Column 1: URL

Column 2: Date Created

Column 3: Backlink Added Y/N

Each time you create one of the properties I’ll teach you about below you’ll add the URL on the site to the URL column and the date created on the Date column.

The backlink added area I’ll explain more about momentarily.

Creating this spreadsheet will keep you organized evey single step of the way.

Step 3: Create 5-6 Web 2.0 Sites

Next, you’ll want to create 5-6 web 2.0 properties. Don’t worry about adding backlinks on these pointing to your site right now. The big key is to create these and then create the content for these.

The topics do not need to be the exact same topic as your main niche but, they should be related. I.e. if you had a website about TVs you could easily create web 2.0 sites about office furniture or running a business that eventually link back. However, you wouldn’t want a web 2.0 site about cats linking back to your site about TVs.

So what are web 2.0 sites? Simple. They are sites like Squidoo, Tumblr, Blogger Blog, Live Journal, Wikispaces and Xanga just to name a few. Here is a great list of these types of sites.

For now select 5-6 to build a profile at. Then create 1 web 2.0 site on each one. Over the period of a week add 4-5 posts to each of these properties. Again, don’t worry about adding backlinks to your main site yet. In fact, do not even advertise anything on these sites, just get the content built.

By the way, hate writing content? Here are two easy ways to get content created for you.

#1: Article Builder: This tool will easily allow you to generate content with a few button clicks. You simply select the niche, select the word count and a couple other options and this tool spits out up to 85% unique content for you. You can also add as much too each article as you’d like to make it even more unique. However, do not use this content on Squidoo or Ezine Articles, it won’t pass. Oh, by the way, if you order through me you get a $100 discount! Grab Article Builder here and save $100!

#2: Iwriter: This place allows you to add a keyword to the database and have a member write it for you. I typically get content back within 2 hours of submission! You can create a free account and look around before paying for articles. I highly recommend this place.

Now over the next 10-20 days slowly add your backlink to your main site onto these sites. i.e. one week add your backlink to one of your properties and the next week add it to another web 2.0 property and so on.

After you add the backlink to it mark on your spreadsheet that the backlink has been added. This will prevent you from getting lost with what you’re doing.

Step 4: Create 5-6 Doc Sharing Accounts

First, what are doc sharing sites? Doc sharing sites are online places that allow you to share documents like PDFs, Power Point slide shows and Word documents. Better yet, they allow you the ability to add a link to these documents to link back to your website. Here’s the thing though most people won’t tell you about doc sharing sites. Most of the links you get from these are NO-Follow. However, there is a bigger key here, traffic.

Doc sharing sites, especially Slideshare rank extremely well in Google for long-tailed keyword phrases. So you can simply do some keyword research and find a few good long tailed keyword phrases to create titles with.

Then you create a document on your computer. The document could just be a series of slides or an article in a PDF or Word doc. Again, include the backlink to your site here.

The nice thing about doc sharing sites is you can use the same article on several different doc sharing sites. The most important part of the document, just like any webpage is the title. Use your long tailed keyword as your title of the document. Here and example of one of mine: How To Be An Expert Online.

Here is a nice list of Doc sharing sites. Pick 4-6 to create an account at and let’s move on.

Again, you can use Article Builder or Iwriter to create this content as well.

Step 5: Write 5-6 Articles

Next, you’ll want to create 5-6 articles that link back to your website. Then you’ll want to put 1 unique article in a unique directory. I.e. don’t use the same article in every article site.

Nothing more to say here, you know the article writing drill.

Here is a good list of article directories you can use.

Again, you can use Article Builder or Iwriter to create this content as well. However, one note to add here. Do not use Article Builder content on Ezine Articles, they will reject it. Your article has to be 100% unique to get accepted over there.

Step 6: 20 Blog Comments

Use a free tool like Drop My Link to find good sites to leave a comment on. Don’t worry if the links are do or no-follow, just find a few to add a comment too. Please make sure you add relevant comments that contribute to the topic at hand. Do not SPAM them.

So if you just want to use your first name or variation of your name on every blog comment you leave, that’s fine. Make sure the URL links back to your website.

Step 7: Press Releases

Write 1-3 press releases (for now). Press releases are still great for links and traffic. Create 1-3 and submit all of them to as many unique press release sites.

Here is a good list of press release sites.

Step 8: 1 Guest Post

Get a guest post spot somewhere. Can’t find a place to post a guest post? Go to Google and type “keywords” guest blog post and you’ll find places that accept them.

Make sure they will let you include a link to your website in the guest post. Treat this content like it’s your own and make it great and make it unique. Do no use spun content or a ghost writer for this.

Intermission: Everything we just built above in steps 3-8 is called a Tier 1 link. These links point directly to your money site or main site where you’ll make money at.

Step 9: Build links to your step 3-5 steps properties

Now the hardest part is over with. Trust me, I know what you’re thinking and it’s OK to think that this is a lot of work. But, the reward is raking better in search and most people will not go through all of these things to rank well, but you will.

The final step is to get some back links to your new tier 1 sites. Doing this will help index your backlinks and stimulate some link juice for your money site over time. But mainly we want to index the material.

These links can be simple links like blog comments (get a fiverr gig to do this for you), 1 way links, social bookmarks or by using a tool like Backlink Indexer to do it. It doesn’t take a lot of links, but you’ll need a few just to make sure. Again, pay someone else to do this for you as it’ll save you a ton on time. Fiverr is a great place to find people for $5 to do all of this for you.

This entire process should be spread out over a 30-35 day period and you should be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Just use your spreadsheet to check off the URLs that you have built backlinks to. Again, this will help keep you organized.

Here Is What You Should Have When Done:

This basically creates a linking tier that comes back to you that will help your site rank in Google.

The middle is your main site, the second ring is your tier 1 web 2.0 sites pointing back at our main site and tier 3 is all the other links pointing to your tier 1 sites.

Now, this technique does not substitute good content. I cannot stress that enough. You must still create great content at your main site (money site) that people want to read. If you have junk on your main site then no one is going to buy from you anyway.

Finishing Up

What should you do if this does not get you to page 1?

Add more properties into your tier to grow your rankings. This means get more links to your website! You can start the process over and even build an entirely new tier set of links coming back to you if needed.

Keep in mind you can use different properties than I used in this example and the most important aspect is to have a variety. It's always better to have more links from different websites than it is a bunch of links from the same website. I know I mentioned this already and I sound like a broken record but let that sink in!

Make sure that your main site has good content on it, sound familiar? The last thing you want to do is lose sales due to poor content. If you're reviewing an appliance cover all the questions people have on that product.

Finally, if you need help, ask!

Enjoy your rankings.

Have you tried this technique before? Used a different variation? Have something that is working for you? Have questions? Share below.

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Increasing Traffic, Keyword Research, Niche Research //

How To Write A Good Blog Post With These 5 Simple Tips

Posted on March 14, 2013 // 2 Comments

What do you do when you're not a writer and you want to create a good blog post?

Panic, give up, not try?

Absolutely not, you simply need to put some thought into it.

First of all we can all write we just need to make the most of what we've got to work with. Not all of us have college degrees, majors in journalism or even have a clue on how to write a book, let alone a blog post.

If you need some proof you can simply contact my old high school composition teacher and he'll tell you just how -NOT- awesome I was in high school at writing. Heck, I don't even consider myself good/great at it now.

But, that doesn't stop the material from being great stuff to ingest for my readers and students.

So if you're questioning yourself; fear not, I have a simply solution for writing a great blog post and you won't need any of the stuff mentioned above except for your brain and the ability to type.

As you know this topic has been on my mind alot recently as I discussed writing good content here, mentioned writing good content to show you are an expert here and now I'm putting together this nearly 1900 word blog post on it now. Do you think I am trying to give you a message? Your audience will love it and the search engines will too.

Let's get started.

Step 1: Research Your Posting Topic

You'll want to research your topic and know what you're writing about when you get started. Make sure to only use trusted sources when researching your material for the best results. Places like Wikipedia and Wiki How are generally good, but do not rule out checking into your local library (Huh!? Those still exist eh?)

If it's already a subject you know a great deal about; you may not need to do any additional research. Just make sure the information you decide to share is up-to-date.

Check to see what your peers in the industry are doing as well. If someone has already written about your subject check to see what pieces of information they left out or could be improved upon. Do not copy their ideas or write something so similar that it's pointless, but, always think; improvement.

Step 2: Create An Outline Before Writing Your Post

Do you remember way back in school when teachers would make us write those insanely boring outlines before writing our research papers? It turns out doing that is actually helpful (who knew) when writing a good blog post too!

If you have notes or just have things stored up in your brain; create an outline with the information before writing. Use Microsoft Word, Notepad, Open Office (free), Sky Drive (free) or Google Drive (free) to create it with.

Here's a partial example of minefor this post you're reading:

Notice I simply bold the section headers and in this case I use them as steps. You do not have to use them as steps though. You could just use them as new paragraphs or simply new sentences instead.

Save all your links in your outline as well. This way you can simply insert them in your post with ease. Trust me doing it this way will save you time when you're constructing your blog post. This will help you also hold your train of thought while you turn your outline into the real blog post.

Step 3: Use Images (Gather Now)

I love images. It turns out most readers love images too. We love image charts, example pictures and even sometimes just stock shots to help break up the post into more digestible pieces.

Images also create shareable content for media. This means you can share your images all over Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, Twitter or any other social media platform. That means extra traffic from your followers/fans/friends with little to no added effort.

I prefer to collect my images while I am working on the outline. This is because I typically have an image idea to match the writing while I am working on the outline. If you are using Google Drive or Sky Drive just save the images there for when you're done with the post or simply save them to a folder on your hard drive.

Use Snag It, Windows Snipping Tool or something like Pixlr to illustrate your images if needed. I prefer Snag It since I own it, but if you don't want to spend the money on it, Pixlr will do. If you need stock photos Fotolia or iStock Photo will do what you need.

Step 4: Create Your Blog Post From The Outline

Now you're going to take your outline and images and write a good blog post at your blog.

First, use your bolded bullet points as section headers, new paragraphs or page break points. These should be your main topics. The additional bullets should be new sentences under your bolded bullet points.

You'll notice above that one of my bolded bullet points is "Create Your Blog Post From The Outline." I took that directly from my outline, bolded it and all the additional sentences are structured rom the supporting bullets (woot-woot!).

Write your post in one of the places I mentioned in step 2 before you copy and paste it into your blog. This will give you a closer eye on your spelling and grammar checks (if you're anything like me you'll need them).

Make sure to space your paragraphs out. I use a rule that keeps me to mostly 3 sentences per paragraph. Yes, I know it's not proper but, it makes the text easier to read for the reader. Look, you're not writing a medical journal here, grammar and spelling are important but spacing and perfect paragraph structure is not as-much-so.

If you have too many sentences in your paragraphs it makes it harder for your readers to read (especially on mobile devices). Having giant chunks of text will cause people to lose their place or simply quit reading.

Spell Checking and Grammar

I hate bringing this up because, again, my grammar and spelling are not the best and this leaves me open for some awesome comments below. However, even if you're unlike me and need no help on your grammar and spelling, it's good to limit mistakes as much as possible. Use the spell check button for prevention purposes.

Re-Read Your Post Before Publishing

Want to make sure your post becomes good or even great? Re-read it first before hitting that publish button. Make sure it sounds good and isn't tough to read. I went back through some of my old work and cringed because it was so hard to read.

Make sure you also reference your own work in your posts. If you have additional posts that you have written that will help your audience or supplement their learning, link to it in your posts. Not only will this help keep people on your site longer, it will show you're an expert in your topic.

If you want to share something else with someone that will help them or entertain them and you don't have anything written on that subject yourself, don't be afraid to link to it. I used to believe this was a good way to get people to leave your site but over the last couple of years I realized that sharing is much better and you'll make your audience happier at the same time.

The Blog Post Title

Create your blog post last. While you can simply use the keyword phrase you want to rank for as the title I personally like turning it into more of a headline that people want to read.

Let me give you an example. Instead of just titling this post "How To Write A Good Blog Post" I decided to turn it into "How To Write A Good Blog Post With These 5 Simple Tips."

I did this for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that it just made more sense. I looked and saw I had 5 easy to follow tips or steps. This seems more exact and targeted as if to say; "Hey, I'm going to teach you this easily and in a short period of time!"

If you have your post finished but you're struggling to give it a cool headline visit the fine marketers over at The Fool. They are in the stock market business but they are masters at creating eye catching headlines. Just take a peek at a few of theirs and your head will be swimming with ideas afterwards.

I also think the team over at Gawker does a great job with headlines.

Also you're not taking away from your keywords in your title by adding to it (see my tips for easy keyword research here).

Second, it stands out over all the other sites out there who mention the same topic. Anyway can use the same exact keyword phrase as you in the title but chances are slim, possible, but slim that they'll use he exact same additions you add to your title.

Step 5: (Optional) – Add Video To Your Post Whenever Possible

Video, just like images are a great way to break up a post and add a different shareable media element for your audience. This will likely help hold your audience’s attention longer which in turn could get them to see your ads more.

All you need to do is shoot a video with your video recorder and put it on YouTube. From YouTube you can easily embed your video on your website. This will not only save you on bandwidth (cost=$0) but will also get you traffic from the Video sites themselves. See how Justin Lewis and I are using video from our Podcast/Videocasts here.

Hate being on video? Do simple screen recording using Power Point and record the screen with Camtasia or Jing (free – in 5 minute clips) instead. Then upload them to YouTube and embed as described previously.

Video can also be shared just like images all over the place, including every social bookmarking site and even Pinterest (yep, not just images there).

In conclusion start making your posts good and not just good, great. By simply changing what you do a little bit each time you’ll grow, your posts will get better and your audience will connect with you more.

I challenge you to try the above outline method today and see how you feel when you’re done. At first you might think it’s going to take more time, but, when you work from your outline it goes much faster than you think.

Final Recap Of The Above Method

Research your topic
Create an outline/include any links
Gather your images
Write the post based off the outline
Optionally create and add a video

I’ll leave you with this. Would you rather put up a 300 word article that gets you 1 sale per month or a 1000 or more word beautifully crafted unique post that you won’t find anywhere else; that also brings you a lifetime of sales?

As I grow in this business it’s clear to me and the choice isn’t even close.

What methods are you using for your post crafting? Doing something you like better? Questions? Comments? Like the idea? Tell me.

Here is the video format where I talk about the topics in this post:

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Productivity Tips, Writing Tips // Tagged: blog post writing tips, how to write a good blog post, write a good blog post

Put A Power Point Presentation On Your Website Or Blog Post In 3 Easy Steps

Posted on March 12, 2013 // 3 Comments

Often when you think about content for your website you don’t think about a Power Point presentation.

However, I am going to show you a quick tutorial for how to add a Power Point slide presentation to your website. I am also going to show you how to do this for free, even if you do not currently have Power Point or even a PC.

Before I get into this; what are the benefits of having a small presentation on your site?

#1. Content Variation

It breaks up the monotony of the atypical article content most of us use. Just like how images, videos, and info-graphics add a new element to your website, so will presentations.

Having a variety of content on you website will get your audience to engage more and stay on your website longer and become a returning visitor. This leads to more opportunity to see your ads and buy something from you.

#2. Say More With Less

Power Point can make it easy for us to bullet benefits of certain product promotions. I.e. if you’re running a review site you could create small presentations on the good and bad of each product. Not only will it stand out for your visitor, it looks nice and provides an easy way to draw attention to the sale.

These do not have to be massive write-ups just a slide of bullets with brief explanations.

If you hate writing it can sometimes be a huge time saver. I’m not advocating that this should be your only content, but, more of a supplement.

O.K. let’s get started.

Step 1: Get Power Point

First, you need Power Point. But, if you don’t have Windows or you’re running a Mac you’re not out of luck. Microsoft’s Skydrive will let you do this for free. I’ve been doing some cool stuff with Skydrive recently and it earns two thumbs up from me.

Next, create a Power Point slide presentation. Below you can see a demo of one a mine:

How Can I Be An Expert? from michaelsbrown

As you’ll notice Power Point doesn’t need a ton of slides to be educational and you can add images to help illustrate your points even easier. Often times I spend a couple dollars on images at Fotolia.com when I need something.

After you create your Power Point slide just save it to your computer in a location that you will not lose it at.

Step #2: Get Slide Share (2 minutes)

There is a cool site called Slide Share that will allow you to share your new presentation anywhere that will allow it, including your website. Sign up for free here. Be sure to go through the few steps they require for setting up an account.

Next, upload your Power Point presentation. Below I show you how to do this step by step.

Step #3: Add & Embed Your Presentation

(NOTE: Click To Enlarge Any Images)

A. Click upload

A. Select upload, again.

A. Find your Power Point slide and select open

A. Fill out all the info. Make the title descriptive and use long tailed keywords. Slide Share slides show up in the search engines like crazy.

B. Click save changes.

A. Right click and copy your embed code.

A. Log into your dashboard, create a new post or use an existing one. Then select the HTML tab on writing area of your post. Next, paste the code where you want the presentation to prepare.

Done! Now you can save your post and check to see how it looks.

Final Notes and Tips

With Power Point you can insert links, including affiliate links.

When you upload your presentation to Slide Share it will find these links and they are also clickable.

You will get traffic from Slide Share itself!

Earlier I mentioned optimizing your presentation just like you would a blog post because it can be found in the search engines. Well, from links in your presentation you can guide people your way. See my demo above.

Video can be added to your presentation as well right inside Slide Share’s dashboard. I’ll let you experiment with this feature yourself, but, it’s a good place to get view on your Youtube videos as well.

These presentations can be easily shared on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well.

Thoughts? Using this tactic? Planning to use it? Hate it? Love it? Have questions? Let’s chat below.

*Power Point logo is property of Microsoft.

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Productivity Tips, Writing Tips // Tagged: add power point, power poin to website, power point slides

How To Do Keyword Research For Your Blog / Website And What To Do With Them

Posted on March 8, 2013 // 2 Comments

If you want to start a blog/website you'll need to do keyword research to find relevant terms that you want to be found for in the search engines.

When you are a newcomer to the online world and looking to get your blog set up so you can build an online income for yourself; you’ll need to understand what keywords are and how to find them.

First, What Are Keywords?

Before you can understand keyword research you need to understand what keywords are. Keywords are simply words or phrases that people search for on the Internet in search engines like Bing and Google.

Actionable Example:

Go to Google.com and type in “Dog Food” without the quotes.

Notice that search results are displayed based on what you typed in?

So people search for keywords in the search engines and results are then displayed.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is very simple when you understand the purpose. You want to find words and phrases that are relevant for your industry or niche. The reason (again) is because you want people to be able to find your website in the search engines when they search for a particular set of keywords.

To find these words and phrases (again, keywords) you need to do keyword research. So what are you specifically looking for during keyword research?

Well, you’re looking for what people want.

Example:

If someone types in “dog food” into a search engine we know they are looking for “dog food” but what exactly do they want?

Do they want information about dog food?

Do they want to buy dog food?

Do they want to know what dog food brands exist?

Do they want to know the ingredients of dog food?

That’s where keyword research comes in handy! If we can see what people are searching for we can have a better idea of what they want and then we can give it to them.

We can find phrases which are called “Long Tailed Keywords” that can help us understand more about what people are searching for.

What Is A Long Tailed Keyword?

Simple. It’s a series of 3 or more words that give us a more accurate description of what people want.

Examples Of A Long Tailed Keywords

Where To Buy Dog Food
Dog Food Brands
Buy Dog Food Online
Shop For Organic Dog Food

Notice that the keywords above are much more descriptive than “dog food?” This gives us a more accurate idea of what the potential visitor to your website is looking for.

So How Do You Do Keyword Research?

Luckily there are free tools and paid tools that can help us with this. The first tool I suggest learning how to use is the free Google Adwords External Search Tool. It’s simple to use and will help you figure out how often people are searching for specific online terms.

Please note: Keep in mind all tools provide an ESTIMATE only. None of them are perfect and at times it’s possible for them to be slightly off. But, being close is good enough for now. Later in the keyword research demonstration I’ll show you how to look a bit deeper and figure out how to find things that might be slightly under the radar.

Before you start doing keyword research you need to have a particular niche in mind that you’re interested in. Need help with that? See my choosing a niche tutorial.

Quick Tutorial:

#1. Fire up the Google Adwords Tool with me

You’ll come to a screen that looks like this: (Click Image To Enlarge).

A. Set the filter on the side to "Exact Match."

B. Type in your keyword or phrase you'd like to investigate

C. Check this box as it will make sure all the words are closely related to your search

D. Click search

Next, you'll see results be pulled up in the tool. (Again, Click To Enlarge).

A. In this column you'll keywords that relate to the original topic

B. Ignore this for now. This simply shows competition for people who are paying to advertise with Google. You're not doing that.

C. This column shows how many times this keyword is searched monthly in Google (on average). Keep in mind it's an estimate and chaces are the searches are actually higher.

D. This is for local searches. You don't need this column.

If you want to see how to analyze your competition in the search engines you’ll need to use video #2 here.

Now you want to find a primary keyword phrase. A primary keyword phrase is a phrase or topic that you want to build your website around.

Action: Spend as long as you need finding your primary keyword phrase and move on only after you’ve found it.

After you’ve found a primary keyword phrase you now have the main topic your blog is going to focus on.

Whether it’s a small niche style site like “Grooming your dog” or a broader topic like “staying healthy” it’s up to you.

Keep in mind that broader niche markets are harder to break into at first; but are more rewarding over time. But, when you see competition abound it means that there is some serious money in that niche market.

So my personal suggestion if it's your very first blog, start with a long tailed keyword for your niche market when you are brand new to all of this; then attempt to tackle the larger niche markets when you have your feet wet and are making money in smaller niche markets first.

Once you are sure what your primary keyword phrase is you can now setup your blog. If you’re worried about competition check out my advanced easier keyword research area where I show you a tool that will help you do that. If you need help setting up your first blog I created a video to make it easier for you.

Great job!

Keyword Research Part II: Additional Keywords To Grow Your Site

After your blog is setup you need to do more keyword research so that you can start creating blog posts about your particular topic.

There are a few ways to figure out what to write about in your industry. The first thing I suggest you do is to look at what other blogs and websites in your industry are writing about. This can help give you a better idea of what to write about. Before you can create content though, you'll need topics to write bout.

Actionable Task:

Go visit 5 other blogs/websites in your niche and write down 10 topics they are writing about.

To find other blogs simply search for your primary keywords in a search engine use Bing or Google.

Next, you need to do a bit more keyword research. Now you need take each of those topics that you wrote down and do some more research.

Actionable Task:

This can be done using the Google Adwords Tool again.

I.e. if one of the topics you wrote down was grilling salmon; you would enter that into the box on the Google Adwords tool.

(Click Image To Enlarge)

Below you’ll see a new list of keywords that shows up.

A). Find long tailed keywords (3 or more words together) that are fitting for your niche

B). Check the monthly searches. It doesn’t really matter how many searches the phrase has. Even if the phrase only had 100 searches per month you could still use it. Obviously the more searches the better for getting more traffic to your website. However, typically, the more searches, the harder the competition when trying to rank your site in the search engines.

As you can see just one topic can have several keywords. Grilled salmon showed me 100 results. If you want to dig deeper and find more keywords outside of Google’s keyword tool you’ll need to do some advanced research using a tool.

Because each topic you investigate will show at least 100 results you can turn a few topics into hundreds of posts for your site. The object isn’t to do all this at once! However, for now just pick out a few choice phrases based on each topic.

You should now have a main or primary keyword phrase and at least 10 additional long-tailed keyword phrases in which to build your website around. You can go ahead and save and export or write down all the keywords you’re interested in.

You will create a post around each of your keywords you just found. However, do this one at a time and create content for each post as you go. If you’ve never created content go read this post first and if you’ve never created a post and need help please take my 12 video step by step training course first here.

Anytime you need to do keyword research I suggest using the above tutorial and when you’re ready to advance your research a little further check out my advanced research using the Market Samurai keyword tool.

You can go ahead and stop here for now or you can continue on to a little more advanced stuff on keyword research.

Keyword Research Part III: Additional Phrases That Inform & Help You Sell Stuff

Buyer Keywords

Some keywords have a potential to make you more money than others. We call these types of keywords “buyer or buying keyword phrases.”

These phrases show a buying intent from the person searching for them. I suggest having some of these on your website if possible.

Here is a list of potential buyer keywords:

Purchase
Order
Buy
Buying
Review
Ratings
Cheap
Cheapest
Best Price
Deal
Sale

Top 10 (any top 10, 5 etc)

Essentially what people do is they type these phrases into the search engine with the usual intent to buy. i.e. “buy organic dog food online.”

Is there any question what the person searching this online wants to do when they type in that phrase?

Obviously, make sure every page on your website is optimized or the keywords you want that particular page to rank for. If you are unsure how to do this my friend Justin Lewis has a nice write up on that topic here.

What about the terms reviews and ratings though? Why is that a big deal?

People turn to the Internet to look for deals and reviews of products online before they make a purchase. In fact, according to Neilson Net Ratings 70% of all people trust anonymous reviews over radio and T.V. advertising. Pretty shocking isn’t it?

Let’s examine this further.

Let’s say someone wanted to know what the top recommended organic dog food brands are. They might open up their web browser and go to Bing or Google and type “organic dog food reviews.”

Why would they want reviews on organic dog food? In this case it’s typically to find out what the best brands are and make a purchase.

As a website owner this is where you can take advantage of this. You can create pages/posts on your website based around those types of keywords and rank them in the search engines.

The traffic you’ll get from this will be targeted traffic with a buying intent in mind. If the webpage your visitor arrives at has advertisements or your affiliate link included they are more likely to make a purchase through you.

This doesn’t mean that other keywords won’t make you money; because they will. However, we can unequivocally state that when someone types in a buying keyword; we know that most of the time their intent is to purchase something.

Factual Or Informative Keywords

Factual and informative keywords have some very distinct uses. Here are a few of their uses:

Establishes you as an expert in your field
Builds trust with your visitor (trust can lead to sales)
Teaches or informs your visitor (this may lead to a buying decision)
Supports the other pages/posts on your website

Here is a list of factual or informative keywords:

Facts
Information
About
Research on
How it works
How to (easily can lead to sales if you teach and recommend through these keywords)

The above list is just a few. I am sure there are far more possibilities in this keyword area.

This type of keyword is important to use on your website because it will show your visitor that you know what you’re talking about, build trust by establishing you as an expert and ultimately support all the other information on your website.

Having these types of keywords on your website also make it easy to reference your own writing. I.e. in this write-up you’re reading now about keywords you’ll notice I reference several of my other informative posts within.

Let me show you a practical use. Imagine you have a website about “organic dog food.” A visitor comes to your website and is reading a review you’ve created about a particular organic dog food blend. In the review you reference another post that you wrote called “facts about organic dog food ingredients” where you’re supporting why you recommend that someone buys this brand of dog food from your affiliate link.

The post is used to steer people away from harmful ingredients and brands that might hurt their pet. Now, imagine yourself as a potential customer reading that; you’ll likely buy for a number of reasons:

Facts were presented; building trust
You don’t want the other brand that may hurt your dog
After reading the facts it’s convenient to buy

So you can see just having supporting material on your website can help influence buyers even though it’s not a buying keyword.

In conclusion it’s ideal to use both buying keywords and factual/informative keywords on your website for the best results. Keywords are critical for your website to be found in the search engines and without doing it you’ll basically be diving into a topic blindly and hoping for the best.

You can find more training here and also you can join one of my courses here and here. Enjoy and if you have any questions, ask below!

Filed Under: Keyword Research // Tagged: keyword, Keyword Research

17 Ways To Find Niche Website Ideas

Posted on February 27, 2013 // 22 Comments

Sorry I’ve been a bit slow on putting out new posts here recently. I’ve been busy getting NOW-U hoping with Justin Lewis as well as the killer Podcast series and of course taking care of the family.

Note: I will also showcase this post on my online money making tutorial series.

Today I want to share with you some great ways to find a niche market. Sometimes finding a great niche feels like wrestling with a bear. Trust me it's hard to win against the bear.

When it comes to making money online you need a niche and you'll need some niche website ideas, or at least an idea of where to start looking. The problem is many people want to make money online but, they do not want to spend time finding a niche market to get into.

Below I’ll show you several ways to find one easily and beat the niche eating bear.

Magazines

Like to read magazines? Good, you can easily find a niche this way. You don’t need to buy one to figure out a niche though. Heck, you won’t even need to look past the cover either, just go to your local supermarket or drugstore and browse the headlines.

Another place? Check out the magazine section on Amazon or magazines.com. Again, there is no need to buy one there are thousands of niche markets staring you in the face on the cover.

Amazon

I just mentioned Amazon for finding a niche market above, but, this time I don’t mean by browsing the magazines. What you can do instead is simply browse the Amazon categories. From there you can simply “niche down” which means to find smaller niche markets inside the overall market category.

If you’re looking for a popular niche Amazon will flat out tell you what they are. Go to Amazon’s top seller’s page. You’re welcome J

eBay

eBay is an old classic; but it still works. They even have an affiliate program if you’d like to promote eBay products too. Back in the day we used to use an area called eBay pulse. Pulse is gone but now we have eBay Popular.

This area shows the most popular products by category and is a great way to scope out a new niche market for yourself.

Friends & Family

I love this method because it’s one of the easiest ways to find what is currently trending. One of my first niche markets was a toy niche and I scored big with it. The way I decided on that niche was one of the members of my family was playing with the toy that I decided to build the niche around.

If we listen to what people are telling us they are using within our own families we can uncover boundless niche markets.

T.V. Shows

T.V. shows themselves can be niche markets. Look at what the folks over at Buddy TV do. That site is massive now.

The best thing to do is get into the show as a fan and get in at the ground level rather than 5 years into it. It’ also best to start off small and focus on one niche in this industry rather than 50 different T.V. shows at once.

Hobbies Into Niche Markets

An easy one, but it works. Your hobbies can be easy niche markets to get involved in. You don’t generally need to research the topics in your hobby because you’re probably already extremely knowledgeable.

Being knowledgeable in a market makes it easy to write good content and come up with ideas.

If you absolutely must watch T.V. make it count. Watch what commercials pop up and there’s a good chance you can snag one of the ideas as a niche. But, what I suggest doing is watching what problems the commercial solves and that’s the niche you should get into, not the product itself. I.e. if you see a commercial for a product that solves allergy problems, your niche could be allergy relief. Easy enough?

Nightly News

In 2009 I jumped on a trend just by paying attention to the nightly news. I know, it’s boring and the news is usually depressing but sometimes you can get a nice niche idea.

I am not going to discuss the niche but it’s a problem that was all over the news in 2009 and I was able to take that issue and build a website out of it. The good part is that since it was a new trend, competition was minimal.

I’ll take the easy score anytime!

Social Events

These can be trendy, yearly or brand new. But, this works with events that have media coverage like The Super Bowl, The Oscars, Grammy Awards and any other type of event like that.

You can simply build a fan-site around it and even build some cool Fan pages associated with them to drive traffic. The social traffic alone is worth it.

Google Trends

Google trends is great because you can type in any keyword in the box and research how it’s trending. The more popular the trend is the more traffic that niche could generate. Of course, you’ll want to look at historical trends Google gives you as well to help you determine its long term value.

YouTube & Social Sites

Pinterest, Facebook, MySpace and anything similar fall into this category as well. You can browse these sites to see what is trending and popular. You can then build a niche around these ideas. Not a whole lot more to say for finding niche markets this way.

End Goals

One way to think of a niche is to think of an ultimate goal. I like to start by saying “I want to” and you simply fill in the blank. So you might say “I want to lose weight” or “I want to get bigger biceps.” The beauty of this type of thinking is that if you want something, there is a solution.

Solution style niches are great because if you can answer your visitor’s questions and give them what they want you can make some good money. This can work in determining nearly any niche. You can even start by stating things that you want for yourself. Face it; if you want something, other people do too.

Skill

Do you have a particular skill already? You have a great place to start your niche then! This could be an old skill that you don’t use much anymore or it could be a skill you’ve used all of your life.

Just like hobbies we can use our skill sets to our advantage because we have knowledge on the subject. It takes far less research when you already know a lot about the subject.

Work or Ex-Work

Just like a hobby and skill current or ex-work is always a good place to get niche idea from. Of course, if you hate what you do or used to do you might not want to go into that niche. I.e. I would never create a website teaching people how to be good retail managers (run for your life).

Reading Books

Readers can rejoice in the fact that all the time behind the book isn’t for nothing. You can get into a niche based on a book topic or based on the actually books themselves. Some people love to read and do book reviews as a living (like this site).

Of course, you can gather a wealth of ideas from non-fiction books as well. Just browse the titles in Amazon’s book section for ideas.

Online Communities Like Forums

Just like social sites online forum area great place to find ideas for a niche. One of the easiest ways it so simply look at the question topics that are being posted. I.e. if you’re on a cooking forum and someone asks how to make good southern fried food, you’ve just found a niche in “southern fried cooking.”

You can simply go to Bing and type in “niche idea forum” so if you were interested in finding niche ideas for cats go to Bing and type in “cat forums.”

Then search for cat questions on the forum you decide to look at and you can find hundreds of niche markets there. Just remember, if someone is asking, there is a demand.

Tools & Programs

Finally, you can use a tool that can help you. One of the easiest is Keyword Canine because it has a section called “Niches” you simply open the segment up and it comes up with a bunch of niche suggestions. It even shows you how easy or hard the competition is. Check out my review above.

This is the only tool I own that is still on the market that does this but I recommend it. It of course does a dozen other awesome things too; the niche option is just a plus. I also use that as well as Market Samurai for research.

I also offer Niche Blitzkrieg Underground where I give my students there weekly niches. It’s a great place if you need a big boost getting off the ground. I’ll be adding more videos in there soon as well.

Finding Your Niche – Closing

In the end make niche research fun. Don’t beat yourself up to find one right this second. Put some thought into it and make it amusing for yourself.

The choice for your first niche doesn’t have to be your last; but make it something you want to be involved in. You know what I call a niche that you do not want to be in that feels like a chore?

Work! ….and work sucks.

On my final note; you are not limited to just these 17 ways to find a niche market. There are hundreds of additional ways to find one you like and this is just a small sampling.

Thoughts? Comments? Still struggling to find niche website ideas on your own?

If you have additional ways to find a niche; please share with us below, because it will help others who are struggling with this topic.

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Niche Research // Tagged: 17 ways to find a niche, finding a niche, finding a niche market, how to find a niche