SiteSell Blog

How To Turn Your Online Business Into a Community

Guest Blogs by SBIers

By Rena Klingenberg from jewelrybusinesstips.com

A few years ago I came across two words that changed my view of my online business....

At the time, I was reading my visitors' feedback at the end of an article on one of my websites. One of the comments mentioned "Rena's community." What? I had a community? When did that happen?

Suddenly my entire perception of my websites shifted. I didn't have just subscribers, visitors, and commenters. Instead, I had a true community... people who were the heart and soul of my online business... folks who...

• subscribe to my newsletter and RSS feeds
• visit my sites regularly
• read nearly everything I publish
• post comments on my individual web pages
• submit their content and photos to my sites
• purchase my info-products
• link to and promote my websites
• interact with each other on my website pages.

Over the years, these people have indeed become a lovely community of kindred spirits revolving around my websites.

As soon as I grasped this new vision of "community," I began to revamp all of my sites into better social gathering places where people in my niche come to share, learn, connect, and inspire each other. You can do the same...

It's Time To Raise Your Game!

E-Business Tips

Speculating about Google's Panda algorithm change that Ken posted about back in February and its global rollout this month is pointless. Most folks, just like after most Google dances, are doing fine. (For example, total traffic across all SBI! sites is up, a testimonial to the overall quality and success of SBI! sites.)

However, for those sites that did experience a substantial traffic drop, the hurt is gut-wrenching. The natural reaction is to lash out at Google, to wonder "why me?". Meanwhile, those who are unaffected continue quietly working, oblivious to the controversies and even conspiracy theories swirling around the Web.

Impacted or not, it's time for all to do a detailed self-audit. Ifyour site hasbeen impacted, return to basics -- be very critical of your site.(If you're an SBIer, check off the self-audit steps listed in this TNT HQ article.)

If your site-audit does not uncover any specific causes, it's all the more upsetting. It's important to remember that what seems to be an arbitrary "rejection" by Google is, in fact, a mistake... a "false-positive." This type of error has, historically, righted itself over time as Google constantly moves to improve its algorithm. What to do in the meantime?

The best solution for this type of hurt is to keep moving forward, to focus on doing rather than speculating.

Don't get caught up in trying to over-analyze the situation. You have to keep on working through it until Google's algorithm catches back up to reality...

Pointers for Sourcing Product

Monetization

Do you want to sell hard goods online? Are you considering an online store as one of your income streams? Either you make the products yourself to sell or you find third party "makers" and sell their goods. The hunt for the latter is known as "sourcing product."

Start your search close by. You may know people who create their own products (artist, designer, pewter maker, sculptor, welder, wood carver, writer, etc.). Do their products fit with your site's theme? Yes? Contact them, and set up a sales agreement. You market and distribute their products, and they pay you an acceptable percentage. This way, no out-of-pocket expenses are required to stock inventory on your part.

When you are sourcing product, all it takes is a little creative "outside the box" thinking to locate an opportunity that "fits" with your e-business. Instead of being a "creator of product" become an "aggregator of products."

Ouch! Page Dropped By Google!

Traffic Generation

There are many reasons why a page could be dropped from Google. The key for you is to figure out why and whether you should do anything about it. Let's start with these general possibilities...

• Pages have duplicate content. This could be from using an article from an article directory, without reworking and adding lots of original content to the page. Or it could be from affiliate products, where the same wording about the products is found on dozens of other affiliates' pages.

• A site has copied another site's content. That duplicate content may affect the latter's rankings.

• Google doesn't trust the links into the site. They may come from spammy neighborhoods, link farms, or from sites known to sell links.

• Google doesn't trust the links out from the site. These links are going to sites unrelated to the content of the page or site.

• Pages are orphans (pages that have lost all links in to them), or are very far from the home page, with just one link to them, likely from the next higher level. If Google has to do a really deep crawl to find a page, it is more likely to get dropped (if it ever lists it, that is).

Lots of Traffic? Sell Ad Space!

Monetization

Are you planning to sell advertising space on your well-established website? Advertising rates vary widely among niches. A site about finance or investing can demand a higher ad fee than a site about novelty gifts.

If there's no "set standard," how do you calculate the value of an ad on your site? Here are some suggestions...

1) Over and above your niche consideration, take into account factors such as...

• PageRank of page (when linking out)

• Your site's Alexa traffic rank

• Traffic numbers for the page where the link will be located

• Keyword value (both the keywords the advertiser wants to use in the ad and keyword value of the page where the ad will be located)

• Age of your site (a well established site vs. a new and not as virally connected site).

2) Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find out what advertisers are paying for each of your important keywords.

3) Do a search for advertising rate sheets available from other sites. You will get a good idea of what your competition is charging for ads.

Once you finalize your rate structure, move on to the next step...

Reality Vs. "Should Be"

E-Business Tips

Reality does not go away because you ignore it or say things should not be the way they are. Reality, if ignored, merely rears its sometimes ugly head later on and smacks you in the head, after you've done so much work and have much more on the line.

Don't make decisions based purely on "the way things should be." Take a hard look at what's happening in the present, the "here and now." Work your e-business within your comfort level and be proud of what you do and who you are.

Robert Ringer sums up his Reality Theory this way....

'Reality isn't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are. Either you acknowledge reality and use it to your benefit, or it will automatically work against you.'

Does your e-business need a reality check? Are your e-business goals smoothly aligned with your personal beliefs and your actual situation?

Images Are Also Content

Content & Article Writing

Images are also content... especially if your niche is very visual (ex., a travel niche). If your site fits that bill, optimize all images by following these guidelines...

1) File Name:  The page's keyword should be in the image's file name (the exact keyword is best, dashes between each word in a multi-word keyword).

2) Alt Attribute (Alt Text) and Title Attribute:   Use the page's keyword in a brief Alt Text description of what the image is about. Keep it short, but make it descriptive (ex., a photo of the pool at the Cuisinart Hotel might say "Cuisinart Hotel swimming pool").

How Do You React to Change?

Guest Blogs by SBIers

By Richard Gorham from Leadership-Tools.com

Too often we hear people complain when they are forced to change from "the way it's always been". The excuses are plentiful and easily anticipated, usually coming from the same group of nay-sayers.

This type of reaction is not surprising because most human beings, when faced with change, experience a heightened degree of discomfort. Their discomfort leads to fear and anxiety as they ponder the potential for future conflict or failure.

Consequently, most people prefer to remain within their 'comfort zone'. They shackle themselves with lower expectations and will do almost anything to avoid change from affecting them.

And then there are the ultra-successful minority (measured by overall happiness) who understand the many benefits of change, and who more fully appreciate why getting, and living outside their comfort zone is so deeply important.

Google, Plagiarizing, and "The Little Guy" - Part 2

Ken's Blog

In my previous post, we talked about "gray-zone" plagiarizing and an important public commitment by Google to protect the Web against those who would profit from the labor of others.

In today's post, we will explore Google's commitment and emerge with action steps for you to take, if you are a victim of plagiarizing, to finally get that thorn in your side removed.

Google made an exciting commitment. However, Google's history is one of saying one thing and doing another, especially when it comes to the solo e-business proprietor, including a recent example that came directly to me.

Google's refusal to de-index that site was disturbing...

Disturbing at Three Levels

The first level of disappointment in Google is straightforward. Google recently launched its "Farmer/Panda" algorithm. The "100% pap content" of this paraphrasing site fooled Google's vaunted "Farmer/Panda" algorithm.

That algorithm was meant to rid search results of this type of site. It failed. How good is this new algorithm, really?

I would never ask that question based a single anecdote. However, in recent posts, I have written about...

The "Farmer/Panda" algorithm. We call it the "Big Pap Attack." A follow up post talked about...

The False-Positive problem and how Google solves these errors depending on who you are and how much negative publicity you may generate for them. The problems go beyond false-positives...

The False-Negative problem and how ehow.com's increasing traffic (after the Farmer release) casts doubts about the entire Farmer/Panda/Pap algorithm and its ability to detect pap.

The second "disturbing" level speaks to the paraphraser's need to avoid detection at Google. Google not only missed the copycat site at the algorithmic level, "Google humans" refused to do anything about a site that was clearly derivative when it was submitted to Google DMCA.

Careful paraphrasers know that Google will not assign humans to actually read and compare two sites carefully. Why? "Because it does not scale."

That is a fancy way of saying, "We don't want to spend any of our billions of dollars of profits on doing the right thing." Speaking of those billions...

Google, Plagiarizing, and "The Little Guy" - Part 1

Ken's Blog

Plagiarizing of websites runs the gamut. At the "blatant" end of the spectrum, there is the mindless, criminal approach of word-for-word, page-for-page copying.

The opposite end of the range of possibilities involves careful paraphrasing. Far more subtle, the re-wording is detectable upon careful inspection. What gives the offending site away?...

The structure of the content on each page, as well as the structure of the overall copycat site, makes this form of copying obvious. This content thief is simply more careful, willing to work a little to avoid detection by Google.

S/he works the "gray zone" with skill, profiting from spamming-and-scamming an unfortunate minority of hard-working individuals.

Google offered testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. It delivered an important, principled commitment to protect the Web against those who would profit from the labor of others. More on that to come.

I'm not sure how far that commitment extends to you, the solo proprietor building an online business. This post aims to find out...