Quicker & better search engine functionality and more savvy users continue to drive the trend of using longer keyword search phrases. A growing proportion of search phrases contain 5, 6 or more words. 

What this means is that that people are increasingly searching with more specific service, goods or information related phrases rather than simpler generic terms. For the ’smaller’ site owner offering a product, service or comparison tool (who isn’t already operating in a very tightly defined ‘niche’) this presents an opportunity to focus on these less competetive key phrases.

It is highly probable that people who type in more specific keywords are more likely to know what they are after - i.e. chances are they are looking for a specific item/service and are more likely to be a prospective buyer/customer rather than someone who is just browsing on generic terms.

Trying to compete with the big players on generic terms is going to see you languishing in the back-end of search results. Let them fight it out over the big phrases, and let the casual browsers go to those sites. Focus some effort on more specific and longer key phrases - the people finding you will be a lot more likely to convert.

A few simple steps to implement this approach:

1) Decide on a candidate list of potential multiple-word search terms that people may use for your site, based on the product/service you sell and the target audience.

2) Use any historical stats you have (e.g. from Analytics, stats or any Affiliate tracking tools you may have access to) to see the kind of search terms that have brought the kind of traffic you want to your site in the past (i.e. conversions).

3) Use the SEOBook Keyword search tool or similar (Google, WordTracker etc) to see search volumes for the phrases you have identified (and potentially throw up more candidates) from past search data.

4) Trim down and customise your list to suit. Keywords/phrases with results in the hundreds/thousands are  likely to be pretty much covered already. Longer phrases at the lower end of the results are potential candidates for your ‘long key phrase’ experiment (as long as they are still relevant to your site and audience). Always bear in mind that even if a phrase yields just a handful of searches, hits on your site using those terms are likely to show a good conversion ratio, so low-volume phrases shouldn’t be ignored.

5) Finalise your list, based on the results from the steps above, and SEO tweak your site/landing page/content accordingly. Where appropriate, use brand & model names and features.

6) Monitor, assess, review and repeat as required….this is important as the exact pattern of longer search phrases will change more frequently than straight generic terms and will be influenced by trends, current events etc. Using highly focussed key phrases to draw traffic to your site requires regular monitoring and tweaking to ensure that you stay relevant to the popular search terms of the moment. Use your agility to stay ahead of the game.

 
You should still SEO for your generic terms and phrases of course - treat these longer phrase tactics as an additional weapon in your SEO/traffic arsenal. Any existing generic type traffic you get will still be there, and although the volume of extra traffic actually driven to your site by the longer terms may seem small these extra visitors are much more likely to be of a high-quality.

It’s true of course that being on Page 1 for something that no-one searches for is of little benefit in itself, but I’m not talking about getting traffic just for the sake of it - what we’re trying to do here is driving quality traffic to your site. Highly specific and targeted multi-word key phrases will allow you to get a higher ranking than in your generic terms AND attract the kind of visitors you want most.

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A site that caught my eye a few days ago is TextAdMarket.com - they’ve got a nice angle on providing a hybrid CPD-PPC ad solution.

For those of you don’t know the term, CPD (Cost Per Day) is a type of paid-advertising where (strangely enough) the Publisher gets paid for each full day that they carry an Advertiser’s ad on their site. There aren’t too many CPD providers around but there has been more talk about them lately, as they have the potential to offer a regular and known income stream without having to tie-in to any long term deals.

Background

TextAdMarket started out as a CPD ‘marketplace’, where Publishers could showcase their sites/ad-slots and advertisers can bid for those slots for an agreed period of time. Publisher’s can join up for free, and advertising ‘credits’ can be purchased in amounts as low as $20. TextAdMarket provides the mechanism for bidding, the embed code to use and various monitoring facilities.

The site went live in May 2008 and to date (23rd July) just over 300 Publishers/Advertisers have signed up.

CPD/PPC

One of the potential drawbacks with such a system is that ‘unused’ ad-slots can remain empty on sites, so the guys at TextAdMarket came up with a novel twist by also allowing PPC ads to be run whenever a CPD slot is not being used. Obviously these PPC ads are just paid ‘per click’ but all revenue goes into the same account.

Publishers can opt to sell their ad slots at a fixed price, or have their ad prices rise and fall on a nightly basis, based on ad popularity and other factors.

TextAdMarket say that they work on a fixed commission of 20%, regardless of the type of advert being carried.

This all seems like a good approach to me - I’m certainly going to sign up and try it out on a few of my sites (from both a publisher and advertiser perspective).

Conclusion

It’s early days yet of course, and the site’s success will hinge on the take-up rates, and also on the quality and breadth of advertising available. However, I think it’s certainly worth a closer look and the guys deserve some encouragement and exposure for bringing a pretty novel idea to the market.

The site can be found at http://www.TextAdMarket.com

Ben at TextAdMarket has also kindly offered an ‘opening special’ coupon code - for an extra 10% ad credit on all purchases until September 30th. Code: “10-GRANDOPEN”

This has not been a paid or commissioned review - just a service I came across that might be worth a punt. I’m not endorsing or making any claims for the site, nor am I getting any fee for this. Just saying it’s probably worth checking out.

I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this type of service, and feedback from anyone who signs up either as an Advertiser or a Publisher.

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Google trend figures show that the term ‘SEO’ is now becoming consistently more popular than ‘PPC’ in the major Western, English-speaking markets such as the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

For the last few years of the ‘boom’ economy, ‘PPC’ has generally had the upper-hand over ‘SEO’ as a search term, but the last few month’s figures show a steady reversal in fortunes, with ‘SEO’ gaining ground, overtaking and recently building a lead over ‘PPC’. The actual proportions vary from market to market but the pattern seems to be there.

This could be a reflection of the tougher economic times in the ‘Western’ markets, and an associated tightening of wallets. ‘PPC’ is going to be the first to feel the pinch because it’s more of a luxury item than bread-and-butter SEO. Consequently, more businesses are having to adjust to the reality that the slow-burn and long-tail business of GOOD SEO is always going to be reap dividends in the long term, even if you don’t get the ‘bang’ of a PPC campaign.

PPC is a ‘target’ traffic booster that is good for individual campaigns but of course it’s effect is generally short-lived and in the current financial circumstances PPC can be the first thing to be put on the back burner.

I had a quick look around at different regions and the same trends didn’t seem to be reflected in markets such as China and India, which seems to confirm the ‘recession/cutback’ idea - but there is every chance that China in particular will follow suit if their economy starts to overheat.

Just another reminder (if one was needed) that PPC and campaigns have their value in the right time and place, but content and quality SEO still rules the roost.

Comments welcome.

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quick post - I came across this recently updated bunch of ideas and hints - thought you might like to take a few minutes to look at it:

http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/articles/101-google-website-optimizer-tips/

cheers
Dave

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I was randomly browsing the most subscribed to YouTube channels last night and just thought how much cash they could make. I know a lot of them do, especially Smosh.

Well, I’m assuming Smosh do anyway. Considering the fact that their channel has had over 12 MILLION views and has a nice banner right at the top of the page linked to their site, which has AdSense on it and a dedicated store full of novelty / brand t-shirts.

Smosh have done extremely well. Especially considering, in my opinion that they’re not really very funny lol. But their new videos are very well made, I’ve only seen a couple but they originally shot to YouTube fame with the infamous Pokemon Theme Tune video (original has been taken down).

I don’t think that all the YouTube ‘celebrities’ maximize the advantages of their YouTube fame for business purposes like Smosh have though. A lot of these guys / gals could really launch some interesting stuff right off the bat, link and talk about it in a new video and receive Instant awareness.

There’s also endless possibilities for branding and novelty items galore. And you may think ‘I wouldn’t buy any of it’ just as I do. But there are plenty of people that are bizarre enough to want it. These guys could make some serious cash

If you haven’t even attempted at probing the YouTube fame factor yet. I’d advise you to give it a go. You don’t have to act like an idiot or an obsessive to be a YouTube celeb or more respectively, have a channel with a lot of subscribers. You can of course build up a huge channel based upon countless TV shows or music videos etc. but I wouldn’t advise this for business purposes as it’s only a matter of time before the copyright holders make a claim against you to get the videos taken down.

On that subject though, of the copyright claims issue. I actually had a large company recently allow me to keep videos up that I’ve uploaded. The videos are all songs from a certain, big music artist and the copyright holders made a claim but gave permission for me to keep the videos up providing that they could advertise on the video pages. All the videos have the URL of my related site in them. So I thought it was pretty cool of the company to let that fly.

I think this is much more sensible on their part as well. As apposed to taking the stand some copyright holders do which is to demand it all be taken down. Which I think is the equivalent of trying to fight a bear with a pillow. They’re absolutely and postively outnumbered on a mass scale. As soon as they take something down, someone else puts it back up. So I’m glad some monster companies are seeing that they pretty much can’t win and the smart thing to do is just to try and make revenue from it by allowing it.

I can understand copyright holders being annoyed about people ripping their content though. I would be annoyed. But, realistically, big, big shows and music artists etc. just need to accept that it’s going to happen and there’s not much they can do about it. Period. As soon as they think of a way to stop it, there’s already been 10 new ways to get it.

Back to the original discussion point. I think you should really have a go at using YouTube to your advantage. They supposedly reckon by 2010 that ‘the Internet will break’ given the excessive bandwidth use of things like YouTube and BBC’s iPlayer straining networks that can’t keep up. Apparently YouTube used as much bandwidth in 2007 as the entire Internet did in 2000! that’s pretty crazy. Plus, like Internet marketing, becoming big on YouTube is getting harder.

Unless you make a complete circus show video and fluke a few million views, it takes a lot of effort. Unless you’re extremely talented at something of course.

I’m not doing too bad with my magic channel. I was doing card magic before Internet marketing, I started at about 11. I have so far only done 17 half ass videos but still managed to get 622 subscribers so far. Note, I haven’t uploaded a video in over 6 months yet the subscribers keep coming.

Just shows if you’re good at something, you will naturally gain exposure. And I’m not being big headed lol but I know I’m good at card magic, a lot better naturally than I am at Internet marketing anyway.

You can check out my mentioned YouTube channel here.

Honestly, the best way to get a lot of subscribers that will keep coming back for more, is to upload something unique. Obviously. But when I say unique, I don’t mean you doing stupid faces, I mean like a talent. If you can sing… sing.

As it happens I can do a lot of card magic so I experimented with that. And found the subscribers to be very instant and I really should get back to growing that, as I’ve just let it dry up and never really put much effort into it. Which is silly as it’s the one thing I’m actually talented at and can challenge a lot in the field of yet I have done little with it.

Anyway, once you get the subscribers and are getting nice instant views when you upload new videos. You can even start placing AdSense ads next to your video. If you have an AdSense account you can now submit videos for consideration in your account, once/if approved, relevant AdSense ads will then be displayed. Pretty nice considering the height of statistical viewing power you can reach overtime.

There really is a lot of cash to be made on and in the name of YouTube. Exploit it’s social awareness, broad age and nationality range and do your best to use it for business advantages… it’s such a lucrative marketing tool if used in the right way.

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1. Advertise on Already Popular Blogs.

An advertising spot on a popular or authoritative blog within your niche can help gain targeted awareness of your brand/blog as well as giving you an obvious boost in traffic. Direct advertising isn’t always that effective unless it’s clever marketing or the site or blog that you’re advertising on is… huge. So try and make ads that move away from generic stereotype and cliche so that they will stand out from others and catch the eye.

2. Write Outstanding Content

The most effective way to get return traffic is obviously, by writing great content. Getting traffic to your blog is half the battle, the main goal should be to get people coming back to your blog over and over again. Trying to get more subscribers should be the no.1 aim for your blog. Making money with it should be secondary, because without a readership, there is no one to market to. You can afford to lose some readers with advertising if you have a static and stable readership, but if you have average or poor content and your blog is covered in Adsense ads… you will just get visitors coming and going like clockwork and will gain no stability. Write to the best of your ability to avoid this.

3. Brand Your Blog

Branding your blog helps establish you much more as an authority or at least a more trustworthy source. It gives you and your blog an identity to associate with. An image. A visual representation of what you want to communicate with your blog, or at least a class logo to catch the eye! brand your blog with a professional image or representation to help establish it more seriously in the blogesphere and to separate yourself from generic blogs.

4. Be Provocative

Now when I say be provocative. I don’t necessarily mean bad mouth people or be over controversial to provoke arguments. Although that is one way! but what I mean is. Leave room for discussion. Provoke your readers into wanting to comment and input their own opinions by a) not covering every single aspect in a post and b) actually giving an opinion. If you don’t input an actual opinion, your posts become static and non-provocative. If people don’t have anything to question or disagree with then your just another blog pumping out bland viewpoints with no real input or opinion. Give YOUR viewpoint on things to provoke other people to give theirs.

5. Submit Your Best Work to Social News Sites

Social news sites like Digg can help generate huge traffic to your blog if a post goes big. It’s not the easiest thing to get big on Digg anymore because of the absolute flood of people submitting such a vast range of things all the time. It’s hard to provide something fresh. Something that hasn’t been done a thousand times over. Especially in a niche like Internet marketing, with pop culture and gaming it’s not so hard. It’s just about being the first to break a good story. Submissions about Half Life 3 get huge because people can’t wait for it so they salvage any info they can on it. But to come back to Internet marketing, so much has been repeatedly said on the same shit; over and over. It’s hard to provide something interesting enough to get dugg by the masses. But none the less, submit any of your good stuff. Because you never know!

6. Email Your Best Work to Other Bloggers

I had never really done email marketing before this blog. I did quite a big push not too long ago which I also posted about. I think email marketing can be really effective if done right, you need to market to the right people and be persistent but I think it can pay off. Don’t be annoying about it by emailing bloggers every day or week with your work but you could try a realistic email marketing schedule of once a month. Just contact some top bloggers or authoritative bloggers in your niche every now and then. As long as your emails aren’t spammy or demanding then I don’t see why they would mind. I don’t mind it if I receive articles from people. As long as it’s decent content, it’s no harm. So set aside some time, get some contacts rounded up and start some email marketing for your blog!

7. Have an Eye Catching Design

There are so many boring and generic blogs around using the same free templates or standard layouts. Having an eye catching design separates you, aesthetically at least, from these blogs. Blogs that stand out, get readers. Blogs that stand out, get comments. Blogs that stand out… make money. Help your blog stand out by getting a professional design. You can either:

- Get a free template and edit it to suit your style.
- Pay a designer to create a unique one from scratch.
- Design your own template, from scratch.

Either way, you should aim at having a blog design that people look at and think “I would like this on my blog” it’s designs like that which increase revenue and return traffic. It also adds a lot to the perception of your professionalism.

8. Use Images in Your Posts

A very well known mini-booster in traffic. But it can be a bigger booster if tapped into correctly. Putting images in your posts works on two levels to bring you traffic and to keep traffic interested in your posts. Firstly it helps the generic appeal of your posts, images that catch the eye will invoke a reaction from a reader, giving them the opportunity to read on. Original art is the best, if you can design; you should create some nice images of your own to make your posts even more unique. Secondly, images will bring traffic from image searches if tagged and optimized. Try and use images whenever you can to enhance your posts.

9. Interview Well Known Bloggers

By interviewing well known bloggers, you give your readers a peak into the mind of a successful blogger. In effect: giving them a peak into the secret of success. Getting well known bloggers to do an interview for your blog isn’t always the easiest task, but can be done. Just approach them, no matter how big; they are only human. They’re not celebrities or scholars, they just have a popular blog! it’s nothing to be afraid of. Don’t be afraid of rejection because it will happen, in more areas than not. But just approach whoever you want to get honestly and abruptly and ask them. So far for Internet Babel I have interviewed: Shoemoney, John Chow and John Cow. How did I get them? I asked. And the Shoemoney and John Chow interviews provided a nice little surge of traffic at the time.

10. Be Fresh

Posting non-stop opinion and news on popular topics is almost a surefire way to gain traction, in terms of the content. But sometimes it can pay to be a bit more unique and creative. Constantly writing about topics people are always talking about, on a broad level probably will bring you consistent traffic, but sooner or later your blog will become a second rate news filter. There are already huge news sites where people can check news and what not, as well as Google News. Now if you’re giving an individual perspective on some news, I think that’s fine. But always remember to be creative with what you post, look at other blogs and do things that they aren’t. Be fresh and creative and reap the rewards.

11. Find a Niche and Stick to it

Some bloggers can diverse a bit too much sometimes. If your blog is about sewing… write about sewing and hammer the niche to death! however tedious you may tend to think non-stop on-topic blogging may come to some. That’s what you should be aiming for! an absolute authority blog, by slowly slipping into other topics with your niche blog, you end up spreading yourself thin. Slowly becoming confused about what you really want your blog to say or be about. If you have a niche blog, hammer it. Stick it out and you will begin to love writing about that defined topic more and more, it’ll become a writing obsession. But a good one!

12. Post Regularly

Obviously, posing regularly is the backdrop to great content. The content needs to be great but posting regularly is a feat within itself. After a while, due to lack of results - most bloggers just give up. Thus their blog slowly but surely dies. Make sure you post regularly to stop this from happening to your blog! even if you feel writers block is present, try and get something of some relevance out. Rack your brains to come out with more content because content wins but regular content rules.

13. Don’t Post too Much

As a sort of ironic contradiction to the above point, posting too much I think can also have a negative effect. Try and post regularly but not so much as to the point of overloading your readers with so much information that they don’t have time to read it. I have trouble keeping up with some popular blogs posting 2, 3, 4 times a day. I’d say 4 a day should be a realistic limit, anything above that and I think people will just get sick of plowing through it all. Provide your great content in doses not overdoses.

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Over the last 2 days I’ve received about an extra 300 - 500 uniques from StumbleUpon.

Not from submitting myself, maybe some people must of stumbled some of my articles.

StumbleUpon really can be a very decent traffic source if used correctly.

Read my StumbleUpon Case Study here

Edit:

Wow. StumbleUpon traffic just keeps on coming, it’s been going up by the hundreds so far.

I’ve had about an extra 500 uniques today alone from it.

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