iamremarkable competition - Liane Carmi

 

IMPORTANT: If You're Looking for a Flat Abs Diet...

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Flat Abs Diet - CLICK HERE
If you came here looking for a flat abs diet, you're looking for this page: CLICK HERE FOR FLAT ABS DIET INFORMATION..
This page is about the IMRemarkable niche competition.  You won't find any information here about flat abs, but you WILL find information about internet marketing.  If that floats your boat, read on.  Otherwise, find out about flat abs by clicking the link above.

Flat Abs Diet = Chosen Niche for IMRemarkable competition

Starting out my IMRemarkable competition today, Wednesday, July 8th.  That gives me exactly two days to do what others have had over a week to do.  I guess that's what happens when you go away on your honeymoon and ignore your inbox ;-)


So far, I've picked my niche from the 36 niche PDF.  I considered a few things - like yoga, which I am very knowledgeable about - and childhood education (I'm a teacher).  Finally decided to go with the flat abs diet, mostly because there's  a product on clickbank I really like that I believe will make this worthwhile.


(It's called "Truth About Abs").  


I went ahead and created a new Clickbank login.  


I also want to tie in some CPA offers.  I went ahead and joined eliteprofits, which has several high-converting, high-paying diet offers (mostly Acai stuff - really hot now).  The first one I'll promote is called "Acai Berry Elite."  It's a colon-cleanse that helps reduce bloating.  Seems perfect as an add-on for people who are interested in flat abs.  May add some others (depending on the type of traffic they accept).


Finally, to finish off my initial preparation, I went ahead and created tracking links for each of the products I'll market initially.  You can see the link if you hover over the two names above.  I used one of my domain names called "finallyexplained.com."  

My next step is keyword research.  More on that a bit later.  Also follow periodic updates on twitter (http://twitter.com/lianecarmi).  



Quick Overview (before I get too busy to update this!)

Here's a quick overview of the steps I'll be taking over the next two days:


1. keyword research - I'm going to find the best keyword phrases to use in order to market this using Howie's Apprentice System.  These keyword phrases will have a high number of monthly / daily searches, but will also be long enough (long-tailed keyword phrases) that I will be able to EASILY, QUICKLY take over the first page of Google with them.  
(I'll upload screen captures of my research).


2. web 2.0 promotions - this is the crazy part where I build a network of sites (using Howie's Apprentice Traffic System) for each long-tail keyword phrase.  This will include sites like squidoo & hubpages, as well as other blogs & social media sites.  Whatever ranks well on Google right now.  Actually, Howie just sent a PDF about that, so I'll probably focus on those sites to start with.  I'll also promote those sites using RSS, videos, bookmarks & articles.  
(I'll keep you updated on the sites themselves & provide you with links to them.  As they start to rank, I'll upload some screenshots as well).


3. PPC - this is not my forté, but it's definitely worth trying out if the offers convert well.  


That's it for now.  Will be updating again shortly.

Oh Silly Me - I forgot to tell you about myself!

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Liane (me!)
Okay, so first things first.  More details about this competition can be found at: http://www.imremarkable.com.

Next: about me!

I got into internet marketing last summer.  I'm a High School teacher, so I have summers off.  My wife (finacée at the time) wanted me to get a part-time job so that we could save up to buy a house.  I considered my options for a few days, but couldn't stomach getting paid $10-$15 per hour.  I was also especially afraid that I'd end up continuing to work part-time during the year.  It just didn't seem enjoyable.  Didn't seem interesting.  Wasn't what I wanted for myself.

So instead, I looked for ways to make money online.  Thinking back now, I wish I would have documented things - what I searched for, what I found...why I ended up buying one thing or another.  

What I've discovered recently is that there's a lot of great information out there.  Unfortunately, it doesn't make any sense if you're new - if there's no one around to show you what you're really supposed to be doing.  

So instead of getting some extra income, I SPENT some extra income buying ebooks, trying out payperclick...and wasted a lot of time with free offers and general (no, make that total) confusion.

Towards the end of my summer vacation, I came across someone's network marketing page.  Thinking back with my marketing glasses on, it was an amazing sales page.  Sucked me right in.  And I joined.  

This is what really started to change things for me.  For three months I stumbled around trying things, going through training, getting on conference calls.  I learned a lot, but didn't have much success.  Even when I did have success, I didn't know how to duplicate it.  I had zero business sense, zero networking sense, and zero marketing sense.  

And then I attended my company's conference.  This was in October of '08.  And I was introduced to several marketers.  One was Howie Schwartz.  

A few months later, someone sent me to one of Howie's opt-in pages.  I immediately signed up for Apprentice 2.  

In Apprentice 2, I had 5 amazing coaches leading me through what it REALLY meant to market online.  I learned things that most marketers with years of experience don't know.  And I finally got several very important things: confidence, knowledge, and both a broad and detailed understanding of how to market online.  

That's when things started to change.  Like, for example, I jumped on a new network marketing opportunity and managed to get 50 signups before the company ever launched.  I was competing with the big boys (and girls).

And I started making sales in my original network marketing / direct sales company.  

...and when Howie Schwartz, Jimmy Davis and Dennis Karganilla issued a Google marketing challenge?  I took MASSIVE action using what I had learned, and completely obliterated the competition.  

But I'm still nowhere near where I want to be, and the reason I think is because I want to do so much - and there are so many great things to do online.  Sometimes it's hard to choose - I tend to be indecisive.  That's why I appreciate this competition so much.  It gives me one thing to focus on - one thing to succeed in.  I can shut off distractions, ignore my inbox and get things done.  I can set goals and reach them.  

My goal here is to make one sale in the next two days.  And then to multiply that.  It can be done.  


...

So what have I learned so far?  I don't know if you're aware of this - it's something I think I learned while obtaining my teaching degree.  When you write, it's the process of getting your thoughts organized - figuring out what you really think.  Writing an essay is one way to learn, to figure things out.  

So in writing this, I discovered that the way for me to overcome my indecisiveness is to challenge myself.  Pick one thing - it doesn't really matter what - and go for it.  Pick a goal and try to reach it in a certain amount of time.  It's a rush, it's fun, and it brings results. 



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Related Searches for 'flat abs fast workout'

These are pictures that represent some of the searches I did on Google

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Google's Wonder Wheel
In my research, I used several different tools within Google to find long-tail keywords that I might want to use to promote my niche, the flat abs diet niche.  What you'll see are things like searching both broad and exact match, using Google suggest right from the search bar, and looking at Google's related search as well as the new wonder wheel.


After this, I spent just a few minutes on Google's external keyword search tool making sure that there were just enough searches with my base keywords to warrant going after them.  


Below are all the pictures; and below that is the process I went through with a simple text file as I was doing my research.

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broad match
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Google Suggest for 'flat abs diet'
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Google Suggest for 'flat abs'
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exact match

My Results with Google's External Keyword Tool

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Google External Keyword Tool
This picture shows the last step I took with my keyword research.  And below, I'm pasting the text document I worked off of, just so you can see my thought process.  Actually, I did look at a few other things.  Google now has extra options for search results, and some of them are for videos, or for more recent additions.  When I looked at that, I saw that videos were a very big deal (people want to learn how to get flat abs, and they want to see it NOW).  I also noticed that there were a LOT of recent articles and reviews and other sites related to the search terms.  This tells me that in this niche, it's important to be very consistent, and it may be hard at first to produce an "authority" site.  


What I'm trying to decide next is whether I want to have one central blog (i.e., something that can become an authority site), or if I just want to lead people to the affiliate / CPA links.  I've had good results before with an actual website, but I don't know if, with the time constraint (1 day to go) I have the time to really build something like that.  In fact, I think I'll just create all my links in GoTryThis and then update them later when (and if) I'm ready to create an authority site for myself, along with optins and autoresponders.


Here's what I wrote in my text file as I was doing the research this morning:


Flat Abs niche research:

flat abs 10.2 mil
 "flat abs" 280k not bad!

flat abs diet
 212k broad
 1.6m exact (weird weird!)

 Google suggest for flat abs diet:
 (modifiers with broad/exact in that order):
 for women 112k / 2 (good one)
 for men 98.2k / 1
 book 39.4k / 0
 women's health 80.3k / 0
 prevention 169k / 2
 recipes 70.8k / 0

flat abs fast has a lot of sponsored links
 468k broad match
 29.2k exact match.  Done deal!

flat abs fast plan
 265k broad
 4820 exact (BINGO!)
 with a good number of sponsored links

flat abs fast workout
 87.5k broad
 24.2k exact

 searches related to "flat abs fast workout" (which I like because it's related to the clickbank product I'll be promoting)

abs diet workout
 947k broad
 16.4k exact
 Some suggested modifiers (broad/exact match results)

plan 554k / 557
 routine 969k / 5
 dvd (not related to my offers...)
 for women 364k / 244
 schedule 1m / 4
 for women dvd 106k / 2
 plan for women 135k / 0

six pack abs workout
 LOTS of videos on this one.  And sponsored links.
 1.7m broad 
 70.7k exact.  Still too high.  But this one has more on the google suggest:
 (modifiers): (broad/exact match results)
 routine 155k / 3.1m (yes, the exact match has MORE than broad!  Wacky!  No ads.
 -s (workouts) 1.2m / 1.7m (again, more in exact match.  Including sponsored ads.
 program 292k / 1.4m (okay, now I'm confused.  Why are there more in exact??
 for women 445k / ZERO.  BINGO!
 at home 960k / ZERO.  
 women 306k / 1 (yep, just one)

There's also "Free," but that's not very useful for selling right now as I'm not setting up my own capture page or collecting leads yet.

keywords to use so far:

(now the question is which of these have the highest search volume...time for Google's external keyword tool!  See number of monthly searches after the phrase):

 flat abs diet for women
 flat abs diet for men
 flat abs diet book
 flat abs diet women's health
 flat abs diet recipes
 flat abs fast
 flat abs fast plan
 flat abs fast workout
 six pack abs workout for women
 six pack abs workout at home
 six pack abs workout women
 abs diet workout plan
 abs diet workout routine
 abs diet workout plan for women
 abs diet workout for women
 abs diet workout for women dvd
 abs diet workout schedule

 Okay, I'm starting to wonder - how is it possible for Google to show so many more results in exact match, in some cases?  

Next: a little wonder-wheel.  This is for the original term, flat abs diet.

lose weight abs - 1.55m / 2.5k (nice)
 sit ups abs - 526k / 1.12k (also nice - and I can see the psychology behind this one)
 six pack abs diet - 507k / 26.1k
 (which leads to: six pack abs workout routine - 152k / 32.7k)
 lose belly fat abs - 1.06m / 289 (looks good too)
 fat burning abs - 587k / 895 (also consider modifiers exercises & workout)
 workouts flat abs - 1.01m / 168 (good too)
 crunches flat abs - 153k / 15.6k (google suggest says flat STOMACH)
 crunches flat stomach - 216k / 195 (not bad)
 abs diet calories - hm...not sure I like calories, but what the heck: 5.14m / 140k (not a word I want to try for at first)

Update on the keywords I want to look at in Google's external keyword tool:
 lose weight abs
 sit ups abs
 six pack abs diet
 six pack abs workout routine
 lose belly fat abs
 fat burning abs
 workouts flat abs
 crunches flat abs
 crunches flat stomach
 flat abs diet for women
 flat abs diet for men
 flat abs diet book
 flat abs diet women's health
 flat abs diet recipes
 flat abs fast
 flat abs fast plan
 flat abs fast workout
 six pack abs workout for women
 six pack abs workout at home
 six pack abs workout women
 abs diet workout plan
 abs diet workout routine
 abs diet workout plan for women
 abs diet workout for women
 abs diet workout for women dvd
 abs diet workout schedule

 So now the question is, which of these have the highest number of searches in Google every month - and that will probably apply to the BASE keyword phrases more than anything - like "six pack abs," "abs diet workout," and "flat abs diet."

 six pack abs: 201k searches per month
 abs diet workout: about 4k searches per month
 flat abs diet: about 3k searches per month

 Time to put all this in an excel spreadsheet & pick my "appetizers" (the keyword phrases I'll begin with).


Oh - I should say...as far as learning things as I go: I think next time I'll start logging things in excel right away.  It's a bit of a time-waster to copy the information over...




How I used excel and Google for my keyword research

Here's a little video that explains my process with Google universal search, excel and the Google External Keyword Tool. .

What is Local Search Volume in the Google Exernal Keyword Tool?

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what is LOCAL search volume
In the video I was a little confused about local and global search volume.  So I asked Google ;-).  I just learned that "local" search volume means search volume in the US, in English.  Global is all over Google, in other countries too.  In some cases it makes more sense to use the Global search volume (after all, the words are in English, so who cares where someone typed them?) but in the case of CPA, it would be more interesting for me to look at the local search volume, since some CPA offers are only for US customers.  

My Chosen "Appetizers" (first keyword phrases I'll go after)

So after doing some very simple free keyword research, I've chosen the following 5 keyword phrases to start with.  These are the keyword phrases I'll build web 2.0 sites for and will promote starting out.  


"lose belly fat abs" - this is a KILLER keyword phrase.  Exact match, there are only 289 sites, but 880 people search for this exact phrase in Google every single month!  Now, I know I can get at least one website to the first page of Google...which sort of means that the competition is really 10 sites - not 289 - for 880 searches per month.  That averages out to just under 30 searches per day...and if searchers click on my site 1 time out of 10...that gives me 3 clicks per day (that's if I only have ONE site on the first page of Google).  The only problem there will be getting conversions, and that's as simple and scientific as split-testing.  


"fat burning abs" - this is another great phrase.  Exact match shows 895 sites - but the local search volume for June is 3600!  Using the same calculations (one site on the top 10)  that comes out to 12 clicks per day!


"workouts flat abs" is good because it has 168 sites exact match and a search volume of 480, but "flat abs workout" is even better with 564 pages exact and a 2400 search volume!


"crunches flat stomach" has 195 exact match, 390 search volume (June local).


There are more, but these are the best I've found so far.

Now, in the past, I've done this manually - but I've recently discovered a new tool called SEnuke.  Last night, I went ahead and signed up for the 7 day free trial for SEnuke, only to find out that their software was PC-based, and I needed either a PC or parallels and a copy of Windows on my machine.  I've been meaning to purchase a cheapo PC for some of my marketing needs lately anyway, so I went ahead and searched craigslist.  Found three great laptops at a good price, and contacted the sellers.  If all goes well, I'll have one by tonight (ever heard of the $20 problem that kept a business from moving forward?  In this case it's more like a $400-500 problem, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to move forward!).  I estimate that if I do all the properties on my own, it will take me approximately 4 hours per keyword phrase.  That includes writing an article & spinning it, creating a series of web 2.0 sites, creating a video cloud, bookmark cloud and article cloud...and a few other top secret things ;-).  With SEnuke, I believe the process will be shortened to about 1 hour per keyword phrase at first - and then even less as I get used to the tool.  Dustin Bow, my Apprentice manager, does about 10 keyword phrases in 2 hours with SEnuke...


But I can't just sit here doing NOTHING.  So while I wait for some responses from craigslist, I'm going to watch the SEnuke videos to make sure that as SOON as I get my laptop I'll be able to start churning out the 2.0 sites.  


And if it takes longer than that, I'll just get started doing things the old-fashioned way :-)



Computer Shopping

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Mont as a Zombie
Well, after a short conversation with my VERY PC-literate brother-in-law Mont, I'm heading out to Best Buy to pick up a $450 Toshiba laptop.  He thought it would be a much better idea to get a new computer.  Actually, he recommended two very good (and very inexpensive) computers at the Best Buy outlet, but since I've been procrastinating, and I need the computer yesterday...


When I get back I'll start using my SEnuke trial.  I'll update you on the results.  

The Mac Commercial Was Right...

It's true.  PCs really DON'T come ready to rock right out of the box.  My new Toshiba Satellite ($449, $481 with tax) needs updates and all sorts of other "stuff."  The sickly white guy at the Geek Squad kept trying to sell me their $39 cleanup to make my computer "run faster."  He said I could uninstall Norton, and a variety of other trial software that comes with it...but it wouldn't get rid of things deep in the registry...and he wasn't comfortable telling me what those things were because I could do some serious damage to the operating system.  Something like that.

On a Mac?  If I don't want it, I delete it.  That simple.  No hidden software and crap to deal with.  Nothing to bog down your computer - including trial software that nobody wants.  


Anyway, here's a video of the new computer...

Dead Pixel and 2+ hours of setup

Okay...so it takes about 2 1/2 hours to set up a new PC.  AND...there's a friggin' dead pixel RIGHT in the middle of the screen.  I'm trying to figure out if I want to bring it back in to Best Buy - maybe Saturday, once the competition is over?  No time for that stuff now - gotta crank out some 2.0 properties.  When I do bring it back & exchange it, I'll let them do all those software removals / registry cleaning / whatever it is they need to do.  It's true, PCs are just not user friendly.  But back to the real meat & potatoes - the flat abs diet niche.  

Look for an update soon as I try out SEnuke for the first time ever!

SEnuke and bedtime thoughts

Just spent a few hours trying out SEnuke.  

Before even watching any of the videos, I went ahead and created over 60 video, rss, social bookmarking, article directory and social networking site logins in a matter of 20 minutes.  It would have been much faster if I had watched the instruction video first (it shows how to do more things at once!).  

Then I spent about an hour watching half of the instructional how-to videos in the backoffice.  It's getting late, so I'll have to finish tomorrow & then try it out with my 5 chosen keywords.  It's going to be interesting.  Using this type of software also makes me feel like outsourcing is much more possible.  Previously when I mapped out all the things that needed to be done, I came up with the need for about 3 outsourcers.  This reduces it to...well...one for now :-)  

So what about the IMRemarkable competition?  Well, temporarily my progress has been delayed by the learning of a new program...I mean, the five hours I spent setting up the PC, doing SEnuke training, and trying things out could have been used to create a whole web of 2.0 sites - for at least 2 or 3 keywords...but in the long run, I really think it's going to save me loads of time.  My goal is still for one sale tomorrow, and it's still possible.  See you in the morning!

Competition Analysis

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Competition Analysis (main term)
I was just looking through Howie's latest PDF, and noticed I hadn't blogged about my competition analysis.  Basically, for every keyword I go after, I take a look at the Google results to see how easy or difficult it might be to get on that first page.  Because Howie's traffic methods are so powerful, I don't worry about this much - but here's an example of the main keyword phrase - "flat abs diet."  


If you remember, "flat abs diet" yesterday had 213,000 in broad match, and 1.6 million results for exact match.  I thought that was kind of weird, so I checked again today, and while the broad match results remained the same, exact match went to 11,900 results.  That makes a lot more sense!  Yesterday, I was using Safari to browse.  Today?  Firefox.  Go figure!  So when I'm doing keyword research, I'll be doing it exclusively on Firefox from now on.  How did I find the error?  I was looking for alexa rankings and seo information, which I get from plugins I have installed on Firefox.    I might have to take a second look at those other keywords I thought had strange results...


So anyway, in this graphic is the basic, broad match search for "flat abs diet."  The top site, in red, is an article site - which nice, fresh articles can overtake pretty easily.  It's actually written by the person who owns the site which I've enclosed in green - personalizednutrition.com.  That's one crusty, old site.  Should be easy to overtake.  The other green site, myndytv.com, has already removed whatever article this link refers to.  Another crawl of the Google bots & it's gone!


In purple are the authority sites.  These have very good alexa rankings, and it might be hard to kick them off of the first page.  In yellow is the affiliate product I'm promoting - truthaboutabs.  Good stuff!  Finally, in orange is an interesting site - looks like it allows you to log in & write reviews, make lists...looks like a good site to explore for marketing.  It's called "thisnext.com."  


Now before we end this analysis - there's also PPC (paid advertising on the right side).  I've circled in yellow an ad for the affiliate offer I'm promoting.  He has two listings on that page (one organic, one paid).  There are also a good number of other ads - BUT - not a huge amount; there's nowhere to click for more sponsored ads, which tells me that maybe, just maybe, I can bid very very very low and still be on page one of paid advertising - position 8.    

Guess Who's on Page 1? 

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Flat Abs Diet - Guess Who is in Position 9?
I had to show you this because I think it's hilarious.  So whenever I look at the competition, I like to also search exact match.  What I've found in the past is that things that fair well in exact match eventually will move up into the broad match rankings - as other sites fall off & as demand for the keyword increases (you can see an example of this on my blog, http://www.yourwebprosperity.com/ - search for articles on "dk is a street performer."


So when you look at the search for flat abs diet in exact match - that's with quotes around it - guess who's in position nine?  Yep, me.  It says, "Simple Free Keyword Research for IMRemarkable Competition: flat..."

It's actually my youtube video that's been placed on someone's diet blog (automatically I assume, since my video has NOTHING to do with dieting).  Shows you how viral Youtube can be.  

Now, would anyone looking for flat abs diet click on it?  Probably not.  But it goes to show how powerful this particular site is.  Promoting something?  Use YouTube!  

Also of interest are the two ezinearticles listed in positions six and seven.  Ezinearticles has ALWAYS brought me page one rankings for absolutely anything - and their backlinks are killer.

Okay...on to a little PPC research, which I've never done before.  Should be interesting!  Check back soon, I'm updating constantly!

Oh - there may be a break in my blog posts between 13:00 and 15:00 EDT, as I'm taking my zombie brother-in-law (picture above) to the dentist for surgery.  I think I'll bring some materials with me to see if he's interested in a little online marketing :-) :-) :-) (the dentist, not the zombie).  


Title.

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Flat abs diet seems to have a lot of competition in PPC.  I find that strange, since there were only 7 paid advertisers when I looked (and even when I refreshed the search).  The only thing I can think of is that some of the competition only goes for specific geographic regions (a local gym?) or that some prefer to advertise only at certain times of the day (when do people feel fat, usually?)  

When I hover over the little green bar - it says "very high advertiser competition," and the CPC (cost per click) is shown as $1.15 - which can be high depending on conversions.  Now, my clickbank affiliate product has at least a 32% conversion rate.  I know this because the latest update on clickbank says he's INCREASED conversions by 32% on the front end - which means it's actually more than that - but to be safe, let's say 32%.  So one in three people landing on that site will purchase, which by the way is a $10.82 commission.  So if three clicks costs less than $4, and the payout is more than 10 dollars, it makes complete sense to use this phrase to advertise on PPC.  Except for one thing.  I don't think I can send people on PPC directly to my affiliate link.  Which means I'd have to have an in-between page, which is very likely to REDUCE conversions.  


The solution?  Two choices.  Choice one: do it backwards.  It makes more sense to do your research on PPC and then hit the organic search when you find the best converting terms.  Instead, I'll go right for organic search.  Hit as many keywords as possible, and optimize my landing pages until I feel comfortable enough to throw money at it and know that it will convert.  
Choice two: go for the long tail in adwords!  If you look at the picture, the addition of just one word brings the competition down to almost nil - and the CPC to five cents.  So advertising on PPC for "flat abs diet and" could score a good amount of hits.  Worth a shot!


Still, I haven't figured out exactly what kind of site to send people to on PPC.  Again, I'm pretty sure you can't just put in affiliate links - and that includes redirects.  So what kind of page could I create that both Google AND people would like, that could easily send people to my affiliate link?  A blog, maybe?  A nice story?  


I'll keep this question in the back of my mind as I continue to work.  If you have any suggestions, please @reply to me at http://twitter.com/lianecarmi (my twitter)

Why Not?

If you've been following this blog, you may notice that I just recently added a new module up top with my affiliate link for the product I'm promoting.  Why would I do that?  Well, I guess writing about flat abs all the time made this page show up in exact match for "flat abs diet," which means that eventually, someone looking for a flat abs diet might find it - even though I'm really talking about internet marketing.  So...I'd hate for people to get here and get frustrated (have you ever clicked on a link, only to discover it wasn't AT ALL what you were looking for?).  That module / link is for people who want flat abs ;-).  The rest of this blog is for you!

Time to Build Some Content!

Some things never change :-).  Before I can create a ridiculous amount of Web 2.0 sites, I need to write some content.  What I like about SEnuke is that it randomly pulls out articles from ezinearticles from you, using your selected keywords.  So what good is that?  
Well, the best way to come up with content QUICKLY is to read what other people are writing, and to go off of that.  So...it goes like this:  type in "lose belly fat abs" in the SEnuke keyoword field.  click "download seed article from EzineArticles."  Read the article and re-write it in your own words, maybe changing a few things around; in other words, use it as research - don't plagiarize!!! (Can you tell I'm a teacher?).  
After the article is written, go through and spin it a bit.  Better yet, use the discount you get on ContentBoss through SEnuke and get the content automatically spun for you - that takes about a minute!
Once that's done, check for uniqueness...make sure you've added tags & spun the articles...added the domain you want to promote, and DONE.  Start submitting - automatically - to social network and article directories.  Easy easy easy.  And quick. 


Got a response on twitter regarding my PPC question.  @ScottieT76 says to create an external landing page that the PPC lands on.  I suppose it could be as simple as create a blog with a strong call to action.  Eventually, I could include an opt-in form, and that would help me keep selling to interested consumers.  Not a bad idea.  But first, I'm going to try creating articles that link only to the affiliate offer.  Hey, if I don't try it, I'll never learn what really happens...


Keep you updated, but as it's almost 12:00, I may have to leave soon to help my zombie brother-in-law get to the dentist.  
 

What's SEnuke like?

The trip to the dentist ended up being 4 hours.  It was about an hour of driving, 30 minutes of waiting in the waiting room, 20 minutes watching a video about how to take care of the socket (he had a wisdom tooth pulled), an hour getting some cold packs at Walgreens and some soup for him at the Filipino store, and an hour making sure my zombie brother-in-law was okay & took his meds before I took off & came back home.  


Got back in & went back to SEnuke.  Before leaving, I had already used an ezinearticle to write my own article.  I spun it (less than one minute), went through it to make sure all the sentences made relative sense (another 2 minutes), and then submitted to a bunch of 2.0 sites - 5 minutes with 8 windows open, all automated.  Not bad.  Except that only 6 out of 18 of the submissions succeeded.  I wonder why?  


Submitting now to article directories...

Article submissions

Well - that took all of 5 minutes.  Just submitted to 6 article directories.  Unfortunately, just like in real life, they must be manually approved before the URL is available.  Considering the amount of time I spent writing the article (oh, about 10 minutes), I assume most of these are going to be turned back.  But who's to say?  


For article submissions, I'm gonna have to say that Unique Article Wizard (uaw) is still my favorite.  It takes a little longer to write an 8-paragraph article and spin it (myself), but boy does their stuff get around the internet!  I'm still finding articles I wrote from the last challenge I did a few months ago popping up all over the place.  So UAW is my next action step.  After I bookmark all my 2.0 sites first :-).


....okay, so now I'm watching as eight windows speed through the bookmarking process, and I'm feeling pretty darn lazy at the moment.  And I'm thinking, sure this is submitting stuff like crazy...but will it rank like the articles I spend time on?  The sites I build myself?  And I'm annoyed at the sites that are not successful - even though I know the six 2.0 submissions would have taken me...well, about 100 times as long to complete myself.  I guess my real question is whether I would use this tool for clients.  I want to make sure submissions look good, not spammy...


Will update later - more stuff to do!  

13 Bookmarks? DONE!

That was easy.  The secretary at the High School where I teach has two buttons on her desk - the Staples "easy" button and the "Whoomp!" button (that annoyingly sings "whoomp there it is..." over and over again).  If I had an "easy" button, I'd press it now.  


But I'm starting to feel just a little uncomfortable.  For two reasons.  First, I guess I want to see the results first hand.  I'm a semi-perfectionist; I can accept things that aren't perfect, but I can't accept things that are ridiculously imperfect.  So I think I'm going to go check out all those URLs I created.  Here they are, if you want to see for yourself.  It's 17:58 now (EDT) and if you're looking around this time too, it's very likely that I haven't changed anything on the site.  In fact, I might not change anything - just to show everyone how SEnuke manages things.  


What I thought was cool was that I could spin images (so one image would come up on one website, and another would show up on the other), and that I could pretty much do the same for links, anchor text, etc.  Basically, anything can be spun, including the HTML.  Anyway, let's check these out:


http://cid-ca28eea2a12814d7.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CA28EEA2A12814D7!106.entry
http://edwardherring.vox.com/library/post/how-to-get-rid-of-your-belly-fat---flat-abs-workout.html
http://edwardherring87.xanga.com/706827244/how-to-get-rid-of-stubborn-belly-fat---flat-abs-workout/
http://edwardherring87.blog.com/2009/07/09/how-to-get-rid-of-mulish-belly-fat-flat-abs-workout/
http://edwardherring87.livejournal.com/717.html
http://flatabsworkout.blog.friendster.com/2009/07/

Errors!  Blech.

Hmm...first site doesn't look so impressive, but the second and third look mighty fine to me.  Just realized I goofed and placed the wrong keyword in the keyword field in SEnuke - so while the articles are supposed to be promoting "flat abs workout," some of the keywords say "flat abs diet."  Oops.  


I guess blog.com doesn't like html...
...livejournal's looking pretty good (by the way, those two images I snagged were from flickr creative commons...just do a search for that in Google, and when you find the site search for your keyword.  All legit & legal & can't make anyone mad).  
Finally, the friendster blog looks fine as well.


So...right now I don't feel so bad at all.  Except that none of my blogs link to each other, and that's one very important step.  I wonder if I'd have to submit to less sites at one time in order to get the links right?  Make sure I link to what I want to link to?  Because right now, the only link juice I'm giving these sites is from the bookmarks, and that leaves out one of my favorite strategies.  


So anyway, what do YOU think of these automatically created sites?  Let me know on twitter @lianecarmi ... :-)

RSS Feed Submissions

5 minutes later, and I've got 17 RSS feed submissions.  It's not Howie's Pinger, but hey, it's 5 minutes for 17!


Still gotta submit some videos.  I usually do that through Traffic Geyser, but hey, SEnuke has a module for that.  Shall we give it a try?  
Just so you know, step one is getting a bunch of images off of flickr creative commons.  Anything that looks like flat abs will work here, and maybe a nice fruit or two.  Then, it's off to animoto to create the video, and finally, submissions.  Are you as excited as I am?  

A good, solid plan

So...if you noticed a little break in the posts it's because I couldn't take the dead pixel in the middle of the screen anymore.  I uninstalled SEnuke, packed up the computer & ran to Best Buy to exchange it.  I also needed some time away from the screen to figure something out.  Using SEnuke made me feel like I wasn't completely in control of my marketing - like things were just sort of "happening" and I wasn't taking part in it (although I did write an article).  


I felt like my marketing plan wasn't coming together right.  I had sites up, but they weren't leading anywhere (except my affiliate link).  I'm thinking the best way to use SEnuke is to have a central hub first - something to link all the sites to - but still, I want to link some of the sites together as well, since that's part of my over-all strategy.


In a way, I was giving up on my marketing strategy to "adapt" to this new tool.  So that's something I definitely need to get a better handle on.







IM Remarkable Summary (as it's 23:56 right now)

Picture
Over the last few hours, I've been setting up my new PC - again - and doing some research on SEnuke.  There are many new capabilities that simply weren't included in their videos - but that are talked about in their forum.  As much as I hate forums (too many people are like me and like to write a lot), I'll go where I can to learn how to do what I want to do.


Okay...so a summary...


Here's what I got done: 
I got my keyword research done
I picked long-tailed keyword phrases to go after
I picked an affiliate offer to promote (and a CPA offer for the future)
I took the time to learn a new piece of software that can save me a lot of time (SEnuke)
I learned a few things I had previously overlooked when it comes to PPC & competition analysis
I realized that Jing is SUPER-easy to use to take screen snapshots & draw little squares around results...
Oh - and while I haven't sold my affiliate product yet, I DID make some referrals for SEnuke.  Go figure!  
...
But in truth, I realized two very important things that will undoubtedly move me forward:
ONE - if I want to get something done, all I need to do is challenge myself to get it done.  Ignore distractions, have one main target result with a time limit.  


and TWO - I learn by doing, and by really paying attention to what I'm doing.  I can watch Howie on a webinar or video 500 times, but there's nothing like doing it first-hand.  


Oh, wait, a bonus lesson: THREE - I learned that at this point, I still do need to sit down and draw out a plan for every single niche and every single keyword phrase.  It's how I think.  Pen to paper.  And it's still not hardwired in there.  


So how do I feel about this in general?  I'm going to challenge myself over the next 3 days to get a really good understanding of SEnuke so that I can use it to its full potential.  And then, I'm going to take out that sheet of paper and draw out my specific linking strategies - and I'm going to use SEnuke to put them in place.  While the time for the challenge has ended, this is still a viable niche, and my personal challenge has NOT ended.  Until I've done everything I've learned, I haven't learned anything.  And until I've made that first sale in this niche, I haven't made enough mistakes.  


SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:


If you're reading this to learn, I hope you got a lot out of seeing my step-by-step methods - and I hope you were entertained by my digressions.  
If you're reading this because it's interesting, thanks!  I love writing.  
If you're reading this because you're on Howie's team & you're reading all the blogs, I apologize for writing so much.  More pictures next time, I promise ;-)


Oh - keep checking.  If you're lucky, maybe I'll update this blog again as I continue working on this niche...