My friend Jeremy Schoemaker (ShoeMoney) recently published his Local Marketing Blueprint on udemy.com. This course is made for two types of people: those who own small businesses, and those who want to sell services to these small businesses.

As you may know, ShoeMoney is a huge Internet marketer. He has over 172,000 followers on Twitter, over 21,000 Likes on Facebook, and a Klout score of 73. Yes, those numbers are even higher than mine!

The Local Marketing Blueprint has over 43 lectures and 3.5 hours of content. The course sells to Udemy users for $197 but I got Shoe to offer it to John Chow dot Com readers for only $9. That’s right. NINE DOLLARS!

I know people who purchased Local Marketing Blueprint at regular price may get upset by this but hey, even at $197, it’s still worth the money. At $9, it’s the steal of the century!

Click Here To Get Local Marketing Blueprint for $9

If you don’t see the price discounted to $9, just enter chow in the coupon field and you’ll get the discount. The coupon is good until this Friday, May 19 so get it now!

This article courtesy of How To Get Shoemoney’s Local Marketing Blueprint for $9

This article courtesy of Building Niche Affiliate Sites That Produce Revenue

With Google playing mind games with SEO masters, blog owners and webmasters around the world… no one is safe from recent changes in the search results. While we can’t change how Google fluctuates web site rankings, we can make sure that we are ready for future updates and make our web sites and blogs ready for any future changes. No matter what Google does, in the end quality links and content are king. With this concept and model in mind, using the proper software to monitor and manage your sites rankings and back links are key. Today we are going to take a look at Sheer SEO Software Suite and how it can help you in the search engine rankings war!

“Research shows that 60-70% of the users of search engines will only use the results in the first page. This means that getting to the top 10 results of the search engine is critical for your business.” – Sheer SEO

Breaking Down the Features of Sheer SEO Software

As wonderful as it would be to just buy software or click a button to have our web sites ready and optimized for search engines, it just doesn’t work that way. SEO and site optimization is a continuing mission, which never seems to end. With Google updating their algorithm and rankings all of the time, having the necessary software to track these changes and monitor your sites makes the whole process a lot easier.

Let’s now take a look at the many different features of Sheer SEO and how it can help you win the war against competing sites in the search engines.

Many SEO software packages specialize in only offering a few different features and reporting options, Sheer SEO has a massive list of tools and features that can all be run through their software. You can check out the screenshot below for a few examples, but the list on their site includes many more, such as tracking rankings, site pagerank, traffic estimation, directory submissions, blog reviews, keyword density and so much more. With so many tracking features available, Sheer SEO offers a 60 day free trial to test out their software so you can fully understand it’s power and features before joining as a premium member.

Why are all of these tools and features necessary? Simply because the way web sites rank in the search engines is not a one trick formula, but a collection of many different factors. Being able to pull reports and view your previous activity and performance in directories, blog reviews / guest posting, incoming links and much more, all contributes to your overall rankings in the search engines. We can’t all become SEO masters, but through the use of seo software, we can better understand how to improve our web sites and rankings.

Sheer SEO Live Demo

We can talk about the benefits and features of software all day, but one of the best ways to see how something truly works, is through the use of a live demo.

Through the use of Sheer SEO Software Suite and it’s seo tools we can pull up rankings and traffic reports for any web sites and keywords one desires. The reports are quite simple and easy to read and understand. Using the tabs on the top of the reports you can scroll through the various reporting sections and sorting abilities. One of the problems many people have when using SEO software is that they are confused with all of the reporting and miscellaneous stats and tracking, as you can see in the screenshot above, Sheer SEO makes all of their reports very easy to understand and learn from.

The Cost of Sheer SEO Software

Just like all web sites and traffic are different, so are the ways we can track and report web sites rankings and keywords. Sheer SEO understands this all too well and have a pricing plan and membership level that is built specifically for sites and marketers of all sites. Most importantly, Sheer SEO is offering a two month free trial that lets you monitor a single domain name and up to 40 keywords. Once your trial is over, you can select from any of their premium membership plans, which range from $7 to $199 a month, based on the number of domain names and keywords you might want to track, along with other advanced features.

Try Sheer SEO Software Suite for 60 Days Free

This article courtesy of Improving Search Rankings with Sheer SEO Software

This is not going to be another post on why you should write guest posts for other blogs because I don’t recommend you do that. I have never written a guest post, and I doubt I ever will.

One of the best ways to get higher blog traffic and Google rankings is by guest posting. By having a popular blog (like this one) post your guest article, You expose your writing to a much bigger readership. However, an equally big benefit is you’ll be able to link back to your blog from the guest article, which not only sends you traffic, but helps your blog rank higher on Google.

Why I Don’t Write Guest Posts

Writing a guest post takes a lot of work. You are already spending a lot of time creating content for your own blog. Creating guest posts for other blogs can easily double, triple, quadruple, or more, the time requirement. This is because every post has to be unique. Guest posts submitted to me must be exclusive to my bog. This mean the post can’t be posted anywhere else. If you’re submitting guest posts to a lot of blogs, it could mean you will have no time to update your own blog.

Doing Guest Posts The Right Way

How do you get the traffic and Google benefits of guest posting without having it suck the life out of you? You outsource it!

The easiest way I’ve found to guest post is by using the guest posting service offered by Get Links Pro. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve written about these guys before. Get Links Pro has been my exclusive link building service for the past year. Their prices are the lowest in the industry and they don’t offshore anything because they are located in India (they’re the company that SEO companies in the US outsource to).

While link building is the primary business of Get Links Pro, they also have an extremely economical guest posting service that is used by many of the top Internet marketers. Get Links Pro will write 500+ word articles in any topics you want for as low as $15 per article. Not only will they write the article, they’ll find the most relavent blog to guest post it on. Get Links Pro has built relationships with hundreds of blogs so the chances of them getting a guest article posted will be higher than if you try to submit it.

Your Writing Should Be for Your Blog

With Get Links Pro, you can concentrate on creating quality content for your blog, and leave the guest blogging to them. They have a team of writers with experience in every topic you can imagine. No matter what your niche, Get Links Pro can write that guest post for you. Don’t just take my word for it. My friends Zac Johnson and Shoemoney use them as well. Here’s what Shoe has to say about their service:

The results for me have been nothing short of amazing. For each property we have tested them on they have soared in rankings. Since Get Links Pro uses nothing but whitehat techniques there is no risk of being penalized.

Every article will be over 500 words longs and contain one or two dofollow links for the author bio (depending on blog’s policy). The post will be sent a PR1 to PR6 (or higher) blog relevant to your niche. A 500+ word blog post takes at least an hour to research and write. Then you have to find the best blog to submit the post to, email the blog owner and hope he accepts the post. If I had a choice of doing it myself, or outsourcing it to Get Links Pro, I would choose Get Links Pro every time.

As I stated in the beginning, Guest posting is one of the best ways to get higher traffic and Google rankings. It’s also the most time-consuming and not something I recommend you do. Your writing should be for your blog, not someone else’s. This is why I love Get Links Pro so much. They will do the work for you, and they’ll do it a price that is so affordable, it will give you sweet dreams, and give Michael Kwan nightmares.

This article courtesy of How To Dominate Google By Guest Posting

Former Playboy and Epic executive Michael Sprouse is in the house to co-host todays ShoeMoney.tv show. Today my guest will be mobile advertising expert Toren Ajk.

Should be a good one don’t miss it! 1pm CST on ShoeMoney.tv

BTW you have a few more days to grab my latest video series – The Local Internet Marketing Blueprint for only $49!!

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

This article courtesy of Toren Ajk & Michael Sprouse on Today’s ShoeMoney.TV Show

Hey, Justin Goff here…

I’ve made a living as a product owner and an affiliate for the past 5 years.   Now, one of the easiest ways to make money online is to be an affiliate for another product.

And while I recommend being an affiliate marketer to a lot of new people, once you know what you are doing you should really be making your own products.

Whether your product is something like a DVD, a vitamin supplement or even something common like phone chargers – having your own product gives you SO much more control over what you are doing.   Along with that, there’s a few BIG reasons to have your own product.

1.  Your affiliates build your email list

When you have affiliates that make sales for you, you’re collecting a buyer’s email address everytime they make a sale.  This is the KEY to having a long term business online.   Once you have a customer, you can make new products to sell to them, and continually market new stuff to your list.

2.  You have a “backend” for every sale you make

Every sale you make as an affiliate is usually a 1 time payment for you if you’re an affiliate.  But when you actually own the product, you can make the same sale and then you can also make more money on the backend since you have a new customer.  This allows you to spend more money on advertising, which can get you even more customers.

3.  Affiliate marketing without a list is NOT a business

If you have NO email list or no way to contact people who have bought products through your affiliate links, then you really don’t have any REAL assets in your business.

People who have emails, physical addresses, Facebook fan pages etc… all have real assets that allow them to continually market to the people who buy their products.

If you’re just starting out, affiliate marketing is a great way to get started.   But once you understand what you’re doing, I would definitely look into making your own product.

This is the best way to build yourself a real business that will last.

- Justin

Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

This article courtesy of Why You Should Make Your Own Product (And Not Be An Affiliate)

What’s the point of your homepage?

If your homepage simply features a list of your latest blog posts, you’re making a big mistake.

It’s important to get your homepage right because it’s going to be one of the most viewed pages on your blog, but people donâ��t view it in the way that you’d think.

Who Visits the Homepage?

Before you decide what to put on your homepage, you need to understand who views your homepage and how they got there.

First-Time Visitors

You likely think that your homepage is the first page of your website that somebody sees. That’s probably not the case.

The only way your homepage will be the first viewed page is if another site links to your homepage, if someone tells somebody to go to www., or if you have a well-known brand.

On my blog, 14clicks, only 3.9% of my traffic starts on the homepage.

Second-Page Clickers

What’s more likely is that someone will first see a blog post, then click over to see the homepage. This person has already interacted with your site and they’re curious enough to click over to the homepage.

On 14clicks, the homepage accounts for Ǽ.1% of the second-page traffic, which is 3.6 times more than any other page.

Returning Visitors

If someone found your site once, liked it, and wants to go back to it, they’ll do one of two things.

One, they’ll go directly to the domain. Two, they’ll search for the name of your site. In either case, returning visitors will probably start on the homepage.

On 14clicks, 58% of the homepage traffic comes from people typing in the domain directly or from Google (with some variation of “14 clicks” being 5 of the 6 most popular keywords).

In general, people find your site through a blog post. If they like the post, they’ll click to the homepage. If they return, they probably start on the homepage. Therefore, most people who see your homepage have already interacted with your blog and you need to adjust your content accordingly.

Your Homepage Needs to Answer Their First Question

�€œWhy should I stick around?”

To answer that question, you need to communicate what your site is and who it’s for.

Eye-Catching and Concise Headline

The headline should be the first thing a new visitor sees. It needs to answer the question, “what are the benefits to me personally if I cruise around this blog?�

Put your headline front-and-center so it’s first thing someone sees when they visit your homepage.

Eye-Catching Image or Video

On the side of or below your headline, you need to put an eye-catching, trust-building, benefit-depicting image or video.

The purpose of this image/video is to elicit a positive emotional response while visually communicating what your site is all about. If you have a personal branding blog or a company that’s tied closely to your personality, put a photo of yourself on your homepage to build trust.

Good Example: JustCreative.com

Jacob Cass has a picture of himself and his headline featured above the fold. He also uses his headline to direct people to his portfolio and blog.

Tell People What You Want them To Do

After you tell people why they should stay on your blog, you need to tell them what to do next. Underneath your headline and image, put your call to action. This could be one of four things depending on the purpose and goal of your blog.

Request a Quote

If you have a service-based business and you want to use your blog to collect leads, the homepage is a great place to put a button or a link to your contact page.

Subscribe

If the goal of your blog is to get email subscribers, put an opt-in box at the top of your homepage.

If you’re worried that the opt-in box will annoy your existing readers, don’t be. In the same way that you tend to gloss over ads, once they’re subscribed, they’ll subconsciously scroll past it to the content.

Register or Login

If you have a membership site and your number one goal is to turn readers into users, place two buttons as your call to action: “Register” and “Login.”

Purchase Something

If you want to skip the whole email marketing step and go directly for the sale, not what I’d recommend, then you can make the homepage call to action “See Our Featured Product” or “Shop.”

Good Example: SocialTriggers.com

The sole purpose of Derek Halpern�s site is to turn readers into subscribers. So he puts opt-in boxes everywhere, including at the top of his homepage.

Add Credibility and Social Proof

Once a visitor knows how you can help them and what you want them to do, it’s up to them to make that decision. The best way to help them make that decision in your favor is to demonstrate your credibility through social proof.

Social or Subscriber Counts

People are a lot more likely to subscribe if they know that lots of other people are already subscribed.

If you have more than 1,000 subscribers, show that number directly below your call-to-action. If you don’t, you can show social proof with your number of monthly readers, Twitter followers, or Facebook fans. If none of those numbers are over 1,000, you need to get to work.

Show a Testimonial, Preferably from a Well-Known Source

Another way to build credibility is to feature someone else’s opinion of you and your blog. Ask your most active readers to give you a testimonial and tell them that you’re going to put it on the homepage.

What’s even more powerful is a testimonial from someone who everyone knows. This builds authority by association. But don’t coerce testimonials from people who wouldn’t otherwise read your site.

Press or Customer Logos

If you’ve gotten a lot of press or have worked with well-known brands, put their logos on your homepage. Again, this builds authority by association.

I’m torn whether or not you should link the logos to the articles, though. On one hand, it could build your credibility even more if people read those articles. On the other hand, you’re driving people away from your site right as they’re about to take action. What do you think? Comment below.

Good Example: Conversion-Rate-Experts.com

Ben Jesson and Dr. Karl Blanks, from Conversion Rate Experts, have worked with the largest companies in the world and their blog has been featured on a number of prestigious media outlets. They make that clear with client logos and press logos (which aren’t linked, by the way).

Regularly Updated Content and Deep-Linking for SEO

From a search engine optimization perspective, there are two important things to consider with your homepage.

One, your homepage should update at least slightly when you post new content. Google likes to see fresh content. Two, every page on your site should be two-three clicks away from the homepage to make sure it gets completely indexed.

Links to Latest Blog Posts

New content on the homepage, even if it’s just the headlines, is important for search engines, but it’s also important for your readers. When people come back to your blog, they��re expecting to easily find your latest content.

This doesn’t mean that your blog needs to be on your homepage. You can choose to use a Recent Posts plugin to display the headlines and excerpts from your latest blog posts.

Deep-Linking and Sitemap Link in the Footer

The best way to make sure that every page on your site is within three clicks of the homepage is to subtly link to your category archives and sitemap in the footer.

This also helps from a usability standpoint if people are looking for posts on particular topics.

Good Example: IncomeDiary.com

As you see, Michael showcases the latest posts on the Income Diary homepage because his goal is for you to consume as much content as possible. The more blog posts you read, the more likely you are to subscribe and buy something from him. In the footer, he links to the sitemap, category archives, a few popular posts, and author archives.

The Final Word

Blogs are different from traditional, static websites because almost everyone who sees your homepage has already seen a different part of your blog.

It’s important to adjust the content of your homepage knowing that they’re already interested in what you have to say. Whether itâ��s leads, subscribers, or sales, the homepage is a great place to convert people to whatever goals that you set for your blog.

How does this help you see your homepage in a new light? What are you going to do about it?

Photo by: Stuck on Customs

This article courtesy of What to Put on Your Blog’s Homepage

This article courtesy of Writing Good Headlines, Dell #XPS 13, and an Affiliate Summit Central 2012 Preview

You know how it feels…you’ve been writing a blog post every day for the pastł years now, and you recently checked your dashboard to see that you already have over 600 posts; 600 posts that took an average of an hour to write, proofread and edit, format with images, and publish and share.

You’ve also noticed that you have a little over 10,000 comments; that’s at least 10,000 minutes of yours and you readersâ�� time, cumulated over the span of several years.

The above scenario seems cool, until something really strange happened.

You no longer own the 600 posts, and the 10,000 comments, and any other part of your blog. It would have been good news if you just sold your blog for five figures, but in this case, it was stolen from you; yes, a malicious hacker just got into your website, and is ready to rip it apart. As if the pain isn’t enough, the hacker that hijacked your blog will probably redirect your blog to an illegal website, or turn it into a website filled with adult content.

What Are You to Do in a Situation Like this?

Do you just sit down and fold your hands, and believe this is your fate? Or do you get your blog back? Or let’s reexamine the question:

What if you can prevent that from every happening?

What if you can make sure that thousands of you and your readers’ hours won’t be wasted eventually? A lot of us are sad at every instance of a particular website being hacked, when we are really doing nothing to protect ours. Here are 6 ways to protect, and save yourself in the case that hackers are targeting your website.

1. Have Strong Passwords, and Change them Regularly

The first step you should take to protect your blog from being hacked is to have a password that is very strong. You’ll be surprised at how simple the password some people use is, and they end up complaining when they’re hacked.

Make sure your password doesn’t contain your name, address, or even date of birth. Use something nobody can ever associate with you, and don’t ever talk about your password to anybody. Also make sure you change your password regularly; like every 3-6 months, and you will be able to protect yourself from being trailed by a hacker.

2. Have More than One Admin Account

It could be 3 or more, and it could be only two. It is very important not to have just one admin account. The reason for this is that the first thing an hacker will do once they hack your blog is to change your details, and you can protect yourself by taking control through your other admin account.

Another thing you should realize is that this technique is just as dangerous as it is helpful, so make sure you prepare yourself for this; the more admin accounts you have on your blog, the more routes an hacker can take to get to you. To protect yourself from this, make sure the username and passwords for all your admin accounts are so unique and different, so that it will be difficult for any hacker to take control upon getting to your blog.

3. Install Plugin that Monitors Your Files and Notify You of Changes Immediately

You can also tell your hosting to help you configure your server to notify you in case there is any change in any of your files at any time, or you can look for a plugin that makes this easy.

A lot of little changes happen to our blog every day, but the reality is that some of them shouldn’t be. It is important for you to make sure you don’t come to know about any of these changes lately, so make sure you regularly monitor your sever and wordpress installation for any changes.

4. Scan Every Theme and Plugin You Want to Install

This is especially important if you download your themes and plugins from other websites online, or if you’re using cracked plugins and themes. You never know when a sleazy programmer will put a little code in your theme or plugin, or when that cracked software you’re downloading will be virus infected.

Don‘t just wait to get hacked before you realize this, so make sure you scan every theme and plugin you want to install on a regular basis; scan them with your own antivirus before you install them.

5. Back up Your Blog Regularly

Don’t ever miss a day, because you never know when your blog will be hacked. One thing I have noticed in the hacking world is that, no matter how secure, there is nothing that cannot be hacked. Of course, you can invest time and effort into making your blog very secure, and you can even hire an expert to take care of this aspect. But the reality is, if a group of hackers dedicate their efforts to bring down your blog, it will only last a few hours at best.

The best thing to do in a situation like this is to back up your blog regularly. Have at least 2 plugins/software that backs up your entire blog, and make sure you check regularly to ensure your files are properly backed up.

6. Use Different Passwords for Every Aspect of Your Website

For every webmaster you can have up to 3 different username and passwords for your hosting, and these 3 passwords can make it easy for you to recover your website in the case that you’re hacked.

• The first password is for your hosting account; where you can see tickets, pay for hosting, and change your Cpanel details.
• The second password is for your Cpanel; where you can access various parts of your website and make changes directly to your blog.
• The third password is for your wordpress installation in itself; where you can add new posts, reply to comments, create new accounts, and update your blog directly.

The deadliest mistake any blogger can make is to make all 3 passwords the same, and you can protect yourself to an extent by making these passwords different.

You should also make sure all 3 usernames are different, and try getting your web host to help you change your details from the default one to something more secure.

Paul is a freelance writer and broadband expert that help people find satellite TV providers.

This article courtesy of 6 Ways to Protect Your Blog from being Hacked

This article courtesy of Unboxing the Dell XPS 13