Learn how to optimize your website for Google

I have written about where to begin your SEO quest before. Getting the search engines to recognize that your post/article/website is about the topic that you intend that to be, is a science by itself. It is not too hard to start, but becomes considerably harder when you are competing against sites with good authority (e.g. bbc.com, moz.com), and hundreds or thousands of articles.

Going back to the topic of starting with SEO, it makes absolute sense to learn how Google sees it. Especially since Google has been acting as a representative of internet for a long time now. And, also the fact that more than 80% of the searches on internet are from Google.

So then, thanks to a now not remembered source, I found this “not quite new” document that is well written and takes you through all the internet search engine basics. As is the case with effective user documentation, this is not about the software itself but about how to make use of it more effectively to do whatever you want to do.

Although not as well documented from a completeness perspective as compared to the aforesaid moz guide, it makes for some more basic reading on the recommendations from the search engine leader. But do note a couple of things:

1. In a modern content management system or a blog (e.g. Drupal, Wordpress) a lot of these aspects are already taken care of. For example, title of the page is automatically set, the URLs can be made as friendly to the topic as possible, images are assigned descriptive/alternate text, and so on.
2. Many of the topics are of interest to people who are designing websites from scratch. I do not believe there is a sizable population who do that today, but it is interesting to know nevertheless

How to get the audience to unsubscribe to your emails?

I don’t know about you, but my internet marketing quest has taken me to places I did not think existed. As a result of all that I can proudly say that I know more negatives of the “standard/recommended way to market stuff over internet”, more ways to annoy people, and more ways of making your subscribers get away from you.
I have mentioned about email lists before. Not quite my preferred means of communication, but people seem to like it, some people click on emails rather than spend time on feeds or social media, people use emails many things things – hence using that channel cannot be wrong. I totally get it. But once you acquire subscribers, I don’t understand why some (otherwise smart) people go about alienating them.

courtesy: jean pierre gallot @ flickr

In my search to know and learn more about writing, content marketing and a bit of selling, I subscribed to emails from a lot of sites – more sites than what you can consider healthy. I was forced to subscribe to more than a few since the website owners seemed to think that email is the best and only communication channel. A few others promised thousands of dollars worth of goodies, others promised that I will achieve nirvana and so on. Though my preferred update channel is my feed, I still went about did that since I wanted to know why email marketing is considered one of the best channels ever and how apparently successful marketers do it. While in the process of going through that, I have collected some gems on what to do when you want to loose your subscribers – fast! Without further ado, let us get on with the list.

1. Have HTML emails, which try to put out some banners, images and the like while the user tries to read it. Who does not like a big fat, colourful email that seems to show the whole world?
2. Have generous ads in the emails. Users deserve ads
3. Try to generalize content and use language bordering on spam, so that:
• you can test spam filters in multiple email providers
• try to reach the spam folder safely so that users do not even come to know of the email
4. Have no context to what you are trying to sell. Oh yes, users are surely be overcoming with curiosity to go find out more
5. Before even knowing the user, start blasting some upsells. You have your sales funnel to watch and just cannot wait for the user to get comfortable. Upsell from the very first email, try to get them buy more even before trying out your first "product”. You never know whether they will come back
6. Pump up emails. Yes, users are going to be amazed by the email content generation machine that you have become
7. Make emails personal. Not personal as in “address me by first name”, but start narrating just how much you love your beautiful family as a technology update
8. Try to pass on an affiliate link or two for completely unrelated products - you want to try your luck just one more time

That is all there is to it folks. Do you have any good examples of what to do in emails to get your users hate you?
Before I sign off though, there are more than a couple of examples that are not following the above “proven” methods. I not only subscribe to them wholeheartedly, but the emails become a welcome read after the tiring work of going through the feeds of the day :)

• Emails from copyblogger. You don’t expect anything but the best from them
• Emails from viperchill. Thank you Glen!
• Emails from Pat Flynn of smartpassiveincome are lengthy but absolutely readable and full of information

Where to begin your SEO quest?

I have written about my frustration with internet marketing before. I started all wrong when I began my website (on a nice topic), a general blog later and expected a bit of traffic. When I look back, and consider that I am still learning, there are multiple glaring issues with the way I started up:

1. I did not focus enough on what business plan would be.
   For example technosanct.com is all about technology in the web space. There are posts related to how articles ought to be written, which technologies help, lesser content on mobile technologies and desktop. But the objective is clear -  this site is about focused writing on web development, technologies that help in creating content, and other tidbits intended for people who want to create something on the web. This was not quite the same with some other websites.


2. Did not socialize enough.
   When search engine traffic is virtually non-existent and no responses, comments or income, it is really hard to keep on going for months. At that time it is really amazing what a few readers can do to encourage you to complete posts, and try to keep momentum going. I am thankful to at least two of them for their constant encouragement. But, this could have been more.
   The approach of “putting some content in and waiting for the readers” works, but takes a lot of time and persistence. This would have been a lot less painful if I had shared the website/post links on Facebook, Google+, Twitter pages for some immediate feedback from friends and colleagues.


3. Did not focus on what people are looking for.
   It is true that you write for yourself, but equally true that you want that message to be read or heard. So, it is really important to get a pulse on what people “want” to read on the topics that you want to write. There are hundreds and thousands of websites, and your content is subject to “needle in haystack” cliché.


4. No care for SEO.
   Search engines connect your content with people who locate the content.  Most of the people find your content only through search engines, and it is important to know what the search engine is looking for in the content. This is not to say that you have to “game” the search engines, but making it easy for them to understand what your content is about (so that they can present it to their users)

So, exactly where to begin your SEO quest?

I am happy to say that I realize this much, but have am a long way from attaining internet marketing nirvana. My education started with “get your income from internet” blogs, which may not be the right place to start but nevertheless gave me valuable information on what I was missing. However as I sifted through tonnes of information, the primary problems became quite apparent:

• I knew something (however small) about my topics, but not about how to outline that information to reach the audience (through search engines)
• Optimizing content (or creating content focused on) on what people are looking for

I overcame my distaste for moulding content for SEO due to the reason that as a writer I want the content to find the audience, and without the AI recognizing my content as worth-while that is never going to happen. I began following blogs/posts of “real” SEO experts and haunting sites that are focused on SEO. After going through tens of sites, I have realized that the best content is the most easy to miss.
Enter SEOmoz [or simply moz.com as it is known now].


The article (that also has a PDF for offline reading) starts from the basics and takes us through really good content that makes us aware of the “why” and “how” of going about becoming best friends with search engines. Unless I come up with something more informative, or presented with information in a more interesting way, I deem this article/post as the best place to start your quest on SEO.
Take a look or a re-look to come back all refreshed!

Why websites maintain email lists (and perform dark arts)?

We have touched upon the subject of email lists before. Though I regret not maintaining it, I do not do it for the continued reason that:

• I am lazy
• I do not think I have intelligent enough things to say that people want to read every week/fortnight/year

But with my enhanced ability to take BS, I do subscribe to a lot of email lists and have a really good conclusion on why websites (especially internet marketing websites) talk about email lists way more than blogs and forums. First the conclusion: maintaining email lists and pumping them information including product advice, affiliate links, and the likes are like people performing dark arts. Yes, more than a few people fall to the advice to earn some money, and fame to the practitioners. No, there are not a lot of people practicing dark arts for the good of humanity.

I will not harp on the goodness of email lists, that has been done before. But it is equally interesting on how email lists avoid the pitfalls and negatives while you are demonstrating your expertise in a public forum.

• Email lists are private. The reader either opens the email or no, the reader may click on the links or otherwise, and the reader may simply move the damn thing to spam. At the end of the day, this remains private. I am free to claim what I want to claim. I do not have to provide insights into how many returning readers actually come over to the website, what percentage of traffic is from email list subscribers, what percentage of readers are led by my other dark arts, and so on. This is crucial while I am trying to play the expert giving some 'gyan' to the lesser mortals
• Opinions are mostly kept private. Unless someone (like me) erupts in some forum or website, the email responses are private, and kept that way. Strong opinions on emails from the website are neatly sidelined. There is no way to discuss what is there in the list and whether this helps or harms the user. This is a one way water hose, the information from which has to be carefully cross examined elsewhere. Often (as in the case of internet marking software), BS is way way beyond what is reasonable. As a result you may not find any negative opinions for the first five pages of a search engine result. You have to really deep-dive in the topic, visit a lot of internet markets forums and find out by yourself
• You can share silly information and disguise it as a thorough professional quality work. People click on something that is "free for 10 days", "free only for the loyal subscribers of the lists", "free for idiots", look at something that has been rehashed and resold from a totally unrelated story and get satisfied for the day. This especially builds up the opinion provided the subscribers do not know what a feed reader is and do not know what is going on other than what has been provided in online/offline newspapers, Facebook and the great knowledge repository called Twitter. Read here for an example. I totally agree this is needless here (especially while I have singled out the website somewhere else before), but this was just to show the trend.

QuickSprout or not to sprout?

This is another piece of bad advice, so go away. If you intend to stay on, do not believe all that is written here. The original content authors on the mentioned website and related affiliates make a tonne of money, have big-time followers and fans, and are highly successful. I am too small to matter and you can safely disregard the content here. If you are wondering, this is my disclaimer :)

I have mentioned about my liking for the proven ways of internet marketing before. I continue to pursue that interest, partly due to my interest in creating content that I may have an audience for (one day in the not so future, provided there is no skynet). But quicksprout.com did take the cake when I was trying to get it to someone else.

To be fair, the landing page for the website is a really good URL analysis tool.

But what got me really interested was a referral for the course materials from other site. This brought me to this page.

For more than 1.5 MB the page goes on over 39 pages to establish and re-establish one fact - get QuickSprout Traffic System Pro, a product that can help you make whatever you are doing in the internet better than current. All the interesting facets mentioned in my earlier post are here and then some. Start with clear typography, shiny images, good feedback from existing customers and follow it up with clear call to action at least 4 times to buy the product at a fraction of the price that big corporations pay. Nothing wrong with all that - been there, seen that elsewhere, but what got me to write this post was this. When I browsed till the end, I get the following page:

This rattled up me a bit. Not to blame the page - again clear call to action and everything to incentivise action in a few hours. And, not that I was going to buy all the materials that can make me some good money and popularize this "not so good", "D rated" (both at the time of this post) website of mine. I was just overcome with emotion for the poor jerks who would have said "you had me at 'income-boosting'", and went ahead with the purchase of the goodies. 

I still have a way lot of things to learn folks, but I can never learn how to give discounts on my 'expertise' at the nick of time. Or may be I will do sometime in the future - stay tuned.

Do not trust all experts and their tools on internet marketing

Well, I kind of think what I am trying to do here. technosanct was a blog built for some knowledge sharing - the small amounts of which I gain when looking out for solutions for my problems, but equally important - I wanted to check how affiliate marketing (the real mindless ones too) work and whether with my writing skills I have some kind of future somewhere in the near term. So, content here not only includes whatever I find useful for internet, technology and blogging that I come across on my own, but also material I source from my hours of deliberate browsing of the internet to check what others are doing, whether it cuts down on time/money, gains me 100k fans or more. This includes getting advice from bloggers who have apparently been successful, or really successful, or on the verge of being successful. Some of this advice is free, some of them paid and a lot of them promise tools to bring me out of current misery. Sadly search engines or people do not want to go to people who did not quite make it after a lot of writing, key word researching and after some money spent on the experts/expert materials/the like. So as a upcoming (gulp!) blogger, I am lending a hand and giving out advice - get some real advice on internet marketing. All for free, and without scary, shiny buttons in the way. And oh, all in text on this post (and a few others) with no plans to ebookify or podcastify the content.

courtesy: designseoblog

What I discovered in my quest in the past 2-3 months (which does not make me an expert whatsoever) are these:

• Experts in Internet Marketing always link to other experts, not all naturally and not in the way that comes in the way as advertisement. It may be a nudge to the other blogs/websites, materials that others provide and this expert has decided to use, or how beautiful the relationship between those two experts are. The conversation through linking and back linking made me dizzy sometimes, and I am sure the expertise of all involved (except myself) grew several folds in the meantime
• Most of this linking is big time affiliate marketing. If you spend more than 6 hours researching for how to get better keywords for your lame blog, you are going to be amazed at what people can do, how beautiful the websites look (images, typography and all), and how easy actually getting a fan following is. Well, you are reminded from time to time that this is all hard work, but overall quality of life is astounding to say the least
• Expert websites are big landing pages with clear (bold, CLEAR, colorful, shiny) call to action. This call to action is something that you want to buy, to watch videos, subscribe to email lists, and the like
• The number of ways in which most experts like to help commoners like myself became worrisome. The sheer knowledge propagated through blogs, ebooks, videos, podcasts, knowledge articles, guest posting is mind boggling. After two months of this, I am sure I am finding a pattern somewhere here. But I am not sure whether I am a better person as promised by all the knowledge (may be I am since I raise this question?). If there are too many experts, will not the expertise wane? Or do they follow the adage "share knowledge to gain knowledge"? 

One thing I learnt for sure though, I may try all I want but will not reach this level of expertise needed for making a living out of internet marketing. I will try to remain small (back-end blogger for some more time), not invest (yet) in Genesys framework, or teach others on how to do internet marketing :). (This should be apparent by the above post, but thought of reinforcing the message anyway).

If you are wondering about what to do now there is no advice here at this time. Be cautious about your approach, how much money and time you invest in, and be wary of the experts and their tools.

PS: If you are an expert mentioned above, please do not be offended - I was talking about the other 90% who make the internet a scary place.