Spiderguts(Web Marketing Dubai and INDIA): Did You Fall Down ...

If you rely on Google for any significant website traffic, you?ve likely heard about their latest algorithm change, dubbed ?penguin.? This one blasted a huge number of well-ranked sites into virtual oblivion.

Today I?ll help you sort things out and share some easier, less stressful ways to get traffic and income online, so you don?t have to rely on the big G anymore.

OK, let?s talk a little about Penguin. Basically, it was Google?s latest algorithm update in the last week of April, 2012. It resulted in an extremely large number of blogs and sites plunging down the SERP?s.

Sites that were over-optimized for specific keyword phrases seem to have suffered the most from this latest algo update. If your site didn?t meet Google?s new standards for backlinking, content and keyword use, then you probably paid the price. If you want to read more details about Penguin including how it affected many people, hop on over to my old friend?Neil Shearing?s blog?for more of the ins and outs.

What?s my opinion of the whole thing?

Frankly, I?m starting to become less and less of a fan of Google. My attitude toward the big G started really shifting a few months ago. That?s when their?new page layout algo, essentially started penalizing sites containing what they considered to be too many ads above the fold. (This despite their own ad-heavy layout in many search results.)

To me it seems they have too much power to crush little businesses, literally overnight. That?s not a good thing in my opinion. I mean, it?s one thing if a small business is playing dirty with black-hat SEO, but it?s something altogether when someone is playing by the rules and guidelines set by Google itself, and getting caught in the crossfire anyway.

OK, that?s all I?ll say about the whole Google thing. That and the fact that I think that I?ll join the legions of others who are moving their search activity to Bing from now on. After this latest algo change at Google, many folks including me are finding that Bing is now delivering more relevant search results anyway.

I even heard someone say ?Bing It? instead of ?Google it? the other day at the supermarket checkout line. (Gosh, you know things have come full circle when a Microsoft owned property becomes the alternative choice ? I remember the days when everyone hated them!)

OK, so now that I got that off my chest, let?s talk a little about getting traffic and income without relying on Google ranking at all. Or any search engine for that matter.

If you read some of the comments at?Neil Shearing?s blog, you?ll understand why relying on Google for the bulk of your traffic can be such a huge mistake. Years of work wiped out overnight. Thousands of daily visitors gone in a matter of minutes.

So why oh why do so many people put all their eggs in the Google basket? My guess is that it ?seems? easier and cheaper than all the other traffic strategies. And sure, it?s nice to have a steady stream of traffic coming in for free. I?ve been there and loved it too. But I knew it would not last forever, so I made a commitment 10 years ago to never spend more than a few hours a month on SEO.

Instead, I focused on other traffic strategies, such as Strategic Alliances, and you should too. Getting traffic and income this way is far more reliable and far less stressful.

The Strategic Alliance Plan?

With every shake-up at Google comes an opportunity hardly anyone ever talks about. Think about this for a second. If many of the top ranked sites in your niche are pushed down the SERP?s overnight, they are obviously replaced with other sites and blogs. These newly top-ranked web property owners will see a sharp increase in traffic literally overnight. So much they may not know what to do with it. This is where you step in!

Take the list of keyword phrases you used when setting up your own site and search Google for one of these terms every day. Then contact the top 5 ranked sites for each keyword phrase and offer them something irresistible. (More on that in a minute.)

That?s 25 personal invitations going out every week. If you get even one or two favorable replies you?ll have a lot more traffic in a few weeks. Here?s how?

It?s all about the ?irresistible? proposition you offer. Here?s an example of what works so well it can change your life?

About 5 years ago when my own site was ranked number one at Google for the popular term ?Internet Marketing,? I received an email from someone who was trying to squeeze their way into my crowded niche. This person had created a nice video training series on clever list building techniques. He introduced himself and sent me a link to the training series, so I could verify the quality of the program.

Then he made me an irresistible offer.

He offered me a 100% commission on all sales if I would tell my readers about it. That was hard to pass up. In fact, I couldn?t do it. My readers needed training like that and I was given the chance to share it with them at a fair price, and in the process I could earn as much revenue as if I had created the training myself.

I promoted the product and hundreds of people bought it on my recommendation. I cashed a nice commission check and the smart marketer who approached me added hundreds of buyers to his database. He did this with a few dozen other marketers over the next year or so, offering anywhere from 70% to 100% commissions in the process.

He didn?t make a ton of profit that year, but the next year he hit pay dirt.

He released a new product to his newly formed and sizable list of proven buyers and his income shot well beyond six figures a year. In fact, for the next five or so years he sent recommendations for various products and services to these same buyers and won affiliate contest after affiliate contest. He raked in huge profits without relying on Google or any other search engine. In fact, I?ve never seen him talk about SEO even once in all the years I?ve known him.

This is a strategy that works in virtually any niche, in fact it is untapped in most niches and ripe for a smart marketer to step in.

But the real secret is to form alliances with MORE than just top ranked sites. While approaching top ranked web property owners, especially after a Google shake-up is a great start, you need to expand your thinking.

Start searching for the leaders in your niche and contacting a half dozen of them, every day as well. Heck, you took the time to put together an irresistible offer, why not approach other well known publishers in your niche.

Specifically, find all the largest email list owners, you know, the publishers of email newsletters that lots of people in your market like to read. Get to know them by dropping them an email or two and thanking them for all their great info. Offer them an article or two of your own they can publish anytime they?re in a pinch for content. Guest blog for them. After getting to know them a little, tell them about your new product and the 100% commissions they can earn. Believe me when I tell you that these alliances can last a lifetime.

(By the way, if you think you can?t use this strategy because you have no product, stop making excuses. There are ways to get your own product complete in a day or two, including repackagingprivate label products?or compiling articles written by yourself or a ghost writer, into a new ebook for sale.)

I?ve Been Doing This For More Than A Decade, And Here?s Why It Works?

Just like that person I described above, I?ve built my business on strategic alliances as well. My search engine ranking at nearly all my websites has been marginal at best for more than a decade now.

This strategy works simply because at the core of this strategy is something every successful business has ? a customer list. (Something missing from many web businesses built on search engine traffic alone.)

My customer and subscriber lists and the lists of my strategic partners have carried my business for some 15 years now. It?s no accident.

I send my subscribers newsletters with helpful information, like this one you are reading now. I send gifts to my subscribers to increase loyalty. I recommend products and services via affiliate links, and I offer my own products and services to my subscribers.

Once you own a list you can leverage it further by trading mailings with other list owners in your niche or a similar niche. This is where it gets really exciting. Because this grows your list even larger, and generates windfall commission days you can?t get with other free forms of traffic including search engines. Plus, it helps your readers even more by sharing the best and most current solutions available to them.

Now I can already hear many people thinking, ?List building takes time, I need to make money now!?

The thing is, if you start building your own list now, your eventual payoff will be much more substantial than any quick fix strategy you could try today. All you need to get started with list building is a web-based list management tool that helps you grow, manage, broadcast and get emails through to your list. In my opinion,?Aweber?is the best at all of those tasks.

I have used many in the past, and none compare. Lots of marketers say it is too expensive, but it only gets costly as your list grows large, and by then you?ll likely be making plenty of money to afford it anyway.

I won?t go into details of using Aweber itself, there are plenty of?Aweber training videos?at their site to teach you autoresponder setup and how to use their service. What I want to talk about instead are some important implementation strategies.

First of all, most people miss the boat with Aweber and other related services. They create an opt-in form, put it in one place on their site and then plan to broadcast to subscribers after their list grows. This is NOT how a smart web property owner uses email marketing.

Here are the steps that smart marketers take?

Step 2:?Write a series of email messages for your follow up campaign.

This is the step way too many people skip altogether, but I consider it the most important step of all! Remember, email marketing means growing relationships one at a time. You do that with email follow ups that build rapport with subscribers by offering them helpful tips, asking them to email you back if they have questions, and only very occasionally sending them to an affiliate link or other monetized link that earns you money. Skip this step at your own peril.

Step 3:?Strategically place your Aweber signup form at your web property in multiple locations.

Once your list is set up and your follow up campaign is in place, it?s time to start getting subscribers. If you are a WordPress user there are lots of free plugins that can help you place your opt-in forms in all the right places at your web property. Or, if you want to save time, consider buying the premium plugin called ?WPSubscribers.? It is regularly maintained and will undoubtedly increase the speed of your list growth.

Note: You don?t have to give away an ebook to get subscribers. You can simply offer a ?Get Updates? button along with why they should get on your list. If in your short ?pitch? you hit on all their emotional triggers and the reasons why they likely came to your web property in the first place, you?ll get signups.

Step 4:?Start forming alliances with others in your niche as I described above. Put together a product for sale and offer partners a 100% commission like I outlined earlier. You?ll sacrifice some small profits now for huge profits later.

Remember, a responsive email list with lots of buyers will be a solid foundation that your business can stand on for years to come. You could literally take away all your search engine traffic, but if you have a responsive list, your business could still survive.

Think about that for a minute and hopefully you?ll see the importance of not relying on search engines for all your traffic. Why not get started forming strategic alliances and building your own email list(s) right away. Who knows, when the next major shake up at Google comes you may be able to shrug it off completely.

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Article by Jim Daniels. Jim?s made his living online since 1996 with affiliate marketing and info-products. To read more of his insights, get his complimentary BizWeb eGazette at:http://www.bizweb2000.com

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