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                       WEB MARKETING EZINE
                 The Human Face of Web Marketing
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May 15th., 2002            Issue #190              ISSN 1444-2027


Contents
--------

1. Sponsor's Message
2. First Word
3. Tips, Tools, News and Views

- How To Get 100,000 FREE Hits
- Hidden Links Revealed
- A Professional Logo For $25?
- A Tale Of Two Surveys
- Free Training Course of The Week: Search Engine Masters
- E-Commerce Term Of The Week: Keyword

4. A Touch of Humor: He Gave 110% To His Employer
5. Classified Ads
6. Free Training Courses
7. Feature Article: An Ingenious Way To Use Wordtracker
8. Our Companion Ezine 
9. Administrivia

Visit our companion website at http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com

Want to read this online? For your convenience, the Current Issue 
of WME is posted each week at the WME website. Just visit 
http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com/currentissue.shtml


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1. Sponsor's Message
=================================================================

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2. First Word
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Hi All!

This week's issue is almost a Search Engine Special. That's
because we've just uploaded a wealth of information for you on
this vital subject. If you'd like some SE Training, you'll love
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/searchengines/setraining.shtml
where we have everything from free email courses to 3-day 
Seminars. If you'd like to do some serious reading on the SE 
field, then you can revel in over 20 new articles we've put at
http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com/searchengines/searticles.shtml

Our Feature Article, E-Commerce Term Of the Week, Free Training
Course Of the Week and a couple of our items all follow the SE
theme. I'm sure that the time that you take to look around will
be time well spent!

Till next week, have a good one!

John


Thought For the Week:

"Nothing happens by accident in the world of computers, the net 
and customer response. There is always a reason for what happens,
and that reason is YOU."
- Ken Evoy

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3. Tips, Tools, News and Views
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How To Get 100,000 FREE Hits
----------------------------

Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines are multiplying like rabbits.
They're keen to get your business, so there are a lot of deals 
on offer.

Ralph Tegtmeier is well-known in the SEO (Search Engine 
Optimization) as 'fantomMaster', and he's always keen to give
his customers and readers an edge. In a valuable article called
'How to Get 100K Unique Search Engine Hits For Free', Ralph 
lists nearly 40 PPC's that will give you free credits to trial
their product- credits from as little as $5, to as much as $100.
If you can buy clicks at 1 cent each, that's a LOT of clicks!

I can't guarantee that Ralph's list is completely up-to-date,
only that it's well worth a good look. Find this article 
amongst over 20 Search Engine Submission and Optimization
articles that have just gone up on the WME site. You can find 
the full list of articles at 
http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com/searchengines/searticles.shtml


Hidden Links Revealed
---------------------

Last week, we mentioned the clever way Michael Wong used a site
map one one site to link to his other websites. It was a clever 
idea, and it's working well for him with the search engines by 
increasing both the number of links (each site links to all the
others), but also with link relevancy (all the sites are on 
related subjects). It reminded me of another, similar technique
used by another clever webmaster, who shall remain nameless.

At the bottom of each page on his site, the webmaster had a 
standard copyright statement. Standard, that is, until you
moved your mouse over the words, or looked at the HTML. If you
did either, you would find just how clever he was. 

He had a series of websites which were pretty much un-related. 
Putting visible links to each of the other sites wouldn't make 
much sense to a visitor, but he still wanted the links coming 
into each site. His answer? Make each of the words in his 
copyright statement a link- each one to a different site! 

What a clever idea! Keep reading WME, and we'll keep giving you
the good ideas. You can visit Michael's website at

http://www.webmarketingezine.com/cgi-bin/a/t.cgi?mw

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A Professional Logo For $25?
----------------------------

Branding a business or personality is important, and graphics 
such as logos are an integral part of Branding. You can use one
logo in so many different places- website, email header, business
card, letterhead, signs, flags, price tickets, you name it! The
one problem is that a good logo normally costs good bucks.

Enter GotLogos. T o cut a long story short, they'll design a
logo especially for you, for the very reasonable sum of $25. A
quick look at their website certainly shows a lot of good design.
You can see for yourself at http://www.gotlogos.com


A Tale Of Two Surveys
---------------------

We keep taking more surveys. We keep publishing more surveys.
We keep writing more articles about surveys. Businesses keep
paying for surveys. It reminds me a little of the Simon and
Garfunkle line from Sounds of Silence- about "people hearing 
without listening"...

A recent survey, published by Opt-In News, told us something
about customers preferences. The survey "found that 62% of 
respondents say they prefer text-based e-mail advertisements 
whereas just 35% say the same about HTML..." Got that?

Meanwhile, in another part of town...data from another Opt-In
News survey "indicated that 61% of marketers were planning to use
HTML e-mail marketing for the holiday season whereas just 34% 
planned to use text..." 

The prosecution rests. 

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Free Training Course of The Week: Search Engine Masters Course
--------------------------------------------------------------

Last week, we brought you Dennis Gaskill's 'Search Engine 
Optimization Strategies' course. This week, we'll stick with the
search engine theme, and feature another free email training
course on the subject. 

Sumantra Roy's business, 1stSearchRanking, is dedicated to 
helping clients achieve high rankings in search engines and 
directories. 1stSearchRanking offers a range of valuable
commercial packages, but you can pick Sumantra's brain for free, 
through the excellent 'Search Engine Masters Course'. Visit
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/searchengines/setraining.shtml
to find this course, and much more SE Training.
(Disclosure: I am a 1stSearchRanking affiliate.) 


E-Commerce Term Of The Week: Keyword
------------------------------------ 

The word (or words) a user types in when presented with a 
search box (for example the box in front of where it says "Look
It Up" near the upper right-hand corner on the homepage of 
NetLingo). On a search engine, for example, a keyword is the 
term or phrase that you type in to begin an online search. 

The term keyword also appears in a meta tag as part of the HTML
code on a Web site. Keywords are the series of words which follow
this tag, and often comprise a long list of terms in order to 
help the search engines readily identify and better index the Web
site.

-Source: http://www.netlingo.com Visit the site, then be sure to
check out their new book, 'NetLingo -The Internet Dictionary'.

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4. A Touch of Humor
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He Gave 110% To His Employer
----------------------------

Wally's resume sounded great, and his personal committment to
give "110%" to his work won him the job.

It was only later that the employer realised how Wally gave the
"110%"...

14% on Monday
25% on Tuesday
42% on Wednesday
22% on Thursday, and
7% on Friday

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5. Classified Ads
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WOMEN! THIS LIST IS FOR YOU! THE BALANCED WOMAN! Send a blank 
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Read about your business's future at: 
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Article Announce - The Free Writer & Publisher Connection 
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6. Free Training Courses
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Increase your knowledge; hone your skills; improve your results!
Take advantage of some of the finest FREE training courses on the
Web by visiting our Free Training Course listing at;
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/freetrainingcourses.shtml

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7. Feature Article
=================================================================


An Ingenious Way To Use Wordtracker...That's Actually Easier Too!
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By Robin Nobles

If you're in the search engine industry, or if you're a Web 
designer or Webmaster, it's an almost sure thing that you've 
heard of, and probably used, Wordtracker 
(http://www.wordtracker.com).

But, for those who may not know about Wordtracker, let's back up
for a minute.

What exactly is Wordtracker, and why is it so important?

Most search engine optimizers would agree that one of the most 
important things you can do for your Web site is to target the 
right keywords. If you target the wrong keywords, you may get 
scores of traffic but no conversions to sales, or no traffic 
whatsoever. Either is disastrous for an online business.

Before Wordtracker, it was up to the search engine marketer, or 
the client, to choose the right keywords for the site. We also 
had GoTo's Search Term Suggestion Tool, which was one of our 
only sources for keyword help at that time.

Then Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) entered the 
picture. With Wordtracker, you can plug in some keywords, and the
Web-based service will give you ideas for additional keywords 
that might work for your business. Not only that, but the service
will also tell you how competitive those keywords are (how many 
other Web pages have been optimized with those keywords in mind)
and how many people have actually searched for those keywords in 
the past 24 hours at each of the major engines.

Ideally, your goal is to choose a keyword phrase that doesn't 
have a huge amount of competition but that (hopefully) a large 
number of people are searching for. This is where the KEI comes 
in. KEI, which stands for Keyword Effectiveness Index, refers to
the number of times a keyword has appeared in Wordtracker's data
compared with the number of competing Web pages, which points to
which keywords would be most effective for your search engine 
marketing campaign. 

In other words, the higher the KEI, the more popular your keyword
phrases are, and the less competition they have. According to 
Wordtracker, a "good" keyword to target is one that has a KEI of 
around 100, but an "excellent" keyword to target has a KEI of 
over 400. 

Okay, enough of the background into Wordtracker. Most of you 
probably already know all of that. In fact, your path through 
Wordtracker most likely looks very similar to mine.

The "old" way to use Wordtracker

In the past, I have always started at Keyword Universe, or maybe 
at Keyword Projects. From there, I work my way through the 
system. Does it work? Yes, very effectively. Is it time 
consuming? Yep.

But, let's look at an easier, and even more effective, way to 
use Wordtracker. And with this alternate way, you're actually 
considering keyword phrases based on your target audience.

Introducing John Alexander

To write this article, I interviewed John Alexander, an 
authority of Wordtracker who has spent countless hours working 
through each of the features and developing his own unique 
strategy. 

As means of introduction, John is a professional search engine 
optimizer with Beyond-SEO (http://www.beyond-seo.com) and a 
trainer of onsite search engine marketing workshops through 
Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

Besides using Wordtracker to find keywords, John actually uses 
the service to target an audience's surfing behavior. Once he 
determines the surfing behavior, he can use that knowledge to 
target those who are most likely to purchase his clients' 
products or services.

Unlike most of us, John doesn't get "stuck" in Keyword Universe 
to where the system does all the thinking for him. Instead, he 
begins at Comprehensive Search (found under the Multiple Search 
heading).

He explains, "Where you'll find most of your 'revelations' or 
'insights' is in the Comprehensive Search feature of Wordtracker.
Try entering one part of a search phrase and letting 
Comprehensive Search figure out the best 'full use' of the 
phrase."

Let's look at an example

John has a client who sells baby furniture and products online, 
so he needed to find the target audience for baby furniture. 
Putting his creative mind at work, he started thinking about who
would want to buy baby beds and strollers. Not people with 
newborns - after all, they already own all of the furniture they 
need. The true audience for his client is soon to become parents,
grandparents, etc.

His next step was to use Comprehensive Search to try to determine
what his target audience is looking for. John typed in "baby," 
and he found some very interesting results. 

People searching for the word "baby" were searching for keyword 
phrases like "baby names," "Baby Names," "Baby Boy Names," and so
forth.

Bingo! He had the angle he needed to get traffic to the site. 
Rather than concentrating on the actual product he was trying to 
sell, he thought of a way to pull in traffic through a different
window. After all, what will his target audience be looking for 
on the Internet? Ideas for names for their new babies!

John adds, "Keep in mind that this angle is also based on the 
fact that babies are always on the way, around the world, day 
after day, which creates an extremely unique market for certain 
products. Understand the advantages of identifying people's 
behavior, and you'll never look at keyword research quite the 
same."

After he has captured the visitors at his site, he can easily 
slide in the fact that the site is also selling baby products 
and furniture. He's gotten them to the site, which is step #1; 
they are his target audience, which is step #2; and with 
compelling content, he can increase the site's conversion rate 
to go along with the increase in traffic.

How did John proceed? He created a page that focused on the 
meanings of baby names.

Keep in mind that the page he created has value and unique 
content. He didn't just toss together a page, simply for the 
sake of getting a top ranking. Instead, he worked hard to find 
links all over the Web to sites that offer the meaning of baby 
names. His page offers tremendous value to the search engine and
users as a one-stop resource for finding links to the meanings of
baby names. Then, in strategically placed spots on the page, he 
subtly added pictures of his client's products with links to 
related pages.

John explains, "Don't ever trick your audience or they will 
simply never buy. Give them exactly what they are looking for 
right up front. In this example, I created a page that offers 
baby names and the meanings of baby names, and I subtly offered a
few product listings or links to my client's storefront. It is 
essential that you always provide content related to their search
first, and then offer links to appropriate products within your 
client's site."

The bottom line?

How did John's strategy work out for his client? The baby names 
page alone pulls in an additional 500 unique visitors of 
extremely targeted traffic each month. 

John adds, "I cannot give you the percentage in terms of the 
exact increase in sales, but I can tell you that the client has 
been very pleased with the results."

Remember that this is just one page that John added to the site. 

He explains, "Had I really wanted to pull out all the stops, I 
could have created several entry pages around this one theme. 
For example, targeting keyword phrases such as: 'most popular 
baby names,' etc. You could also build the content right into 
the site and extend it through all of the races: 
� Spanish baby names 
� Italian baby names 
� Jewish baby name 
� French baby names"

Now, let's look at a "new" way to use Wordtracker, John's step
-by-step approach:

To write this article, I came up with a real-life example and I 
started at step #1, just like you will do with your own site.

Let's say that your client sells aromatherapy supplies over the 
Internet. Your first step is to try to determine the target 
audience. Who would be buying aromatherapy supplies? One target 
audience would be people with stress in their lives who want to 
use aromatherapy as a way of relaxing. So, let's try that angle 
and see what we come up with.

�Go to Comprehensive Search at Wordtracker and type in "relaxation." Click Proceed. 

�Scroll toward the bottom of the page and click on "Check 
boxes off."

�Scroll back to the top, and look at the various choices. 
Remember that the "Predict" column is the predicted traffic you 
could expect to get for each of those keyword choices from all 
of the major engines and directories in one day.

�Begin marking keyword ideas, all the while thinking of a 
strategy to pull in traffic for your client's site through the 
target audience.

�Scroll back to the bottom of the page and click on "Option 2: 
Competitive Search." 

�Choose MSN and Google, since those two engines have the 
potential of bringing in a lot of traffic to most Web sites. Of
course, you can choose any two engines or directories that you'd
like. Click Proceed.

�What did we find? "Relaxation" and associated words were not 
good choices, because the KEI in comparison to the projected 
traffic was too low. Targeting those keywords just wouldn't have
been worth the effort for such a low amount of traffic. Keep in 
mind that this is a real-life example, so this is certainly 
something that could happen to you when doing this strategy 
yourself.

�So, we went back to the drawing board and tried "aromatherapy."
Again, not a good example. 

�Then, we tried "massage." After all, aromatherapy oils are used
when giving massages, and people who are interested in massages 
would be a perfect target audience for aromatherapy supplies.

�After studying the Wordtracker results for the MSN and Google 
search engines for words that include "massage," we picked the 
third result, "Techniques of Massage," because it's an excellent 
and appropriate angle for our client. The #1 result in MSN has a 
KEI of 3696, but it wouldn't work with our client's site. You 
have to be sure to choose keyword phrases that are appropriate 
for your particular client's site.

At MSN, "Techniques of Massage" has a KEI of 255. Within a 24
-hour period, if your site was placed well in the MSN engine, you
could expect to get 90 visitors from MSN alone. What is your 
competition? 1954. 

"Techniques of Massage" in Google has a KEI of 900, 165 potential
visitors through Google alone in a 24-hour period, and 
competition of only 555.

Remember that a "good" KEI is anything over 100, and an 
"excellent" KEI is anything over 400.

Let's be honest here. You could manage a top 10 for this keyword 
phrase with your eyes closed (and your computer turned off).

So, for our aromatherapy client, we could create a page on the 
various techniques of massage, including (of course) her oils 
and aromatherapy products. We would spend time on the page and 
give it true value to both the engines and the target audience.
And, we would subtly add graphics and link text that points to 
the client's products in various areas of the page.

John gave another example

He says, "If you're selling 'digital cameras,' don't optimize 
for 'digital cameras.' Did you know that everyone is searching 
for 'Digital Cameras Review'? Build a page offering reviews of 
digital cameras, which has a KEI that just blew me away." 

Another effective strategy: Top Reports

Besides Comprehensive Search, John also likes to look at the 
top reports for high performance keywords or topics that are 
related to his client.

John explains, "I'll review the Long Term Reports, which are 
the top 1000 keywords over the past 24 hours. Then, I cut and 
paste any topics related to my client into Comprehensive Search
to get streams of currently 'hot topics.' I define a hot topic 
as a popular topic in high demand, which may also have lists of 
related keywords phrases also in high demand."

What happens if you can't find a hot topic that relates to your 
site in the top 1000? 

John answers, "Many people do not know that Wordtracker offers 
extensive top word reports beyond the database. All you have to 
do is ask, and they'll sell you: 

� The Top 20,000 words $ 99 
� The Top 100,000 words $ 500 
� The Top 500,000 words $2000" 

Additional suggestions

�When John goes to Comprehensive Search, he doesn't put in a huge
list of keyword phrases. He types in one single word, then lets 
Comprehensive Search do the rest. This allows him to come up with
ideas and angles that he would have never considered before.

�Like John, spend a lot of time thinking of your target audience.
Who are you trying to sell the products or services to? There may
be several target audiences, as in the case of our aromatherapy 
example. If so, go after keyword choices to target each of those
audiences.

�Don't be afraid to let your creativity take hold. If your first 
few choices don't work, continue trying. Using Comprehensive 
Search, it doesn't take long to go back through the system with a
different keyword idea. Keep going back until you find a 
possibility that might work for your site or the site of a 
client.

�Be sure to give the surfer what they're looking for when they 
choose your site from the search results. If you promised them 
"techniques of massage," then be sure to give them good, solid 
content in that area, including related links. Weave your 
products and services throughout the page as you can. But, don't
ever try to trick a surfer.

�If you get stuck and just can't find a keyword phrase with a 
high KEI and a low level of competition that will work for you, 
take a slightly different approach. Instead of trying to bring in
a large amount of traffic through one single window, try creating
several windows and bring in a little traffic through each one. 
Though more time consuming, this strategy can be equally 
effective in the long run.

�If you aren't already a member of Wordtracker 
(http://www.wordtracker.com), sign up for the free trial and test
the system out for yourself. Pricing is very reasonable, 
depending on your needs. For example, you can use the service for
a week for $19.94, and many other plans are available. 

The bottom line is this: if you are serious about your Web site, 
you've got to be serious about keyword choice. If you're serious 
about keyword choice, Wordtracker is a "must have" service for 
you.

- Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Robin Nobles is the Director of Training of the Academy of Web 
Specialists (http://www.academywebspecialists.com), where she has
trained several thousand people in her online courses in search 
engine marketing strategies (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). 
She also teaches 3-day "hands on" search engine marketing 
workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine 
Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com), and she has 
written three books that can be ordered through Amazon and other 
bookstores.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

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8. Our Companion Ezine: A Better Life:ItsYourFuture!
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======================= ITS YOUR FUTURE! ========================
Enjoy Humor, Inspiration, Romance, Fitness, Nutrition & Personal
Finance- all aimed at helping YOU to take control of YOUR future!
Subscribe FREE by sending a blank email to:
mailto:[email protected]
=========== BE HAPPY BE HEALTHY LIVE LONG & PROSPER ===========

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9. Administrivia
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This publication was designed to provide accurate and 
authoritative information with regard to the subject matter.
Subscribers are sent this free weekly e-zine with the 
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professional assistance is required, we advise seeking the 
services of a competent professional.

John Payne does not accept any responsibility for any 
liabilities resulting from any claims in articles or
advertisements published in WME, or the actions of the parties 
involved.

This publication is for informational purposes only.


Copyright:
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� Copyright 2000-2002 John Payne All rights reserved.
Web Marketing Ezine may only be redistributed in its unedited
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Web Marketing Ezine is published by John Payne 
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