An interesting question came up in a group I started over at IM Faceplate about WordPress Questions. Imagine that, me starting a group to discuss questions about WordPress

This is very much related to my post earlier this week when I talked about taking advantage of your analytics.

I’ve found I’m getting more traffic from search engines through my content than my keywords. Does this mean I’m doing something wrong, or is it just that I happen to write my posts in a way that’s very search engine friendly?

First and foremost you are not doing anything wrong. It is not at all unusual to get traffic from searches that you did not target.

That was the point in paying attention to your analytics and finding those phrases and then going back and specifically creating keyword targeted posts for those phrases.

A lot of times if you are picking very competitive keywords to target you may actually end up getting traffic from the longer tail of the main keyword and not from the keyword you optimized for.

So you understand when I say long tail these are the words that are ore than one word. For example if you are writing about dog collars a phrase like electric dog training collar would be a long tail phrase.

This is the key when you are doing your keyword research. Target the long tail first. If you want to rank for dog collars it would be better to target terms like

• electric dog training collars
• choker dog training collars
• diamond dog collars
• and more similar type terms.

all of which have your main keyword dog collar in it. You will eventually rank for the term dog collars but you will be much more likely to rank high for the longer tail words.

Building these types of silos for the primary keywords you want to rank for and you will rank not just for the long tail but as you gain enough rankings in the long tail you will rise in the rankings for the main keyword too.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed. Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: analytics, keyword-research, search engines, search-engine, silos, traffic

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One of the over looked way to generate more traffic is by paying attention to how people find you that you did not target. I do this but was reminded of it yesterday.

I had a Twitter conversation with a good friend of mine. Long time readers know my good friend Steve Roye. He runs a blog to presell his Killer Standup Comedy System.

We are always bouncing ideas back and forth even though Steve has gone away from internet marketing and is focused on his comedy business.

I saw a post he wrote “Is The Killer Stand-up Comedy System A Scam? Is Steve Roye A Scam Artist? “

So I dropped him a direct message asking if someone had been bad mouthing his course. (They should not be but he teaches a different method so I thought maybe someone had tried to rip him.)

The answer was no that no one had but he was getting traffic from the terms with his course name and scam. So he wrote a very specific blog post to target that topic. It will increase his traffic and it also is a very targeted topic for targeting his buyers. Someone interested enough about his course to be searching about it being a scam is definitely a potential buyer.

He was taking advantage of what people had already been searching for and wanted to rank higher. It is something I do when I go through either my Google Analytics account or MyBlogLog stats and see searches for topics I did not initially target.

This is a great way to get additional traffic and to increase your ranking for terms that people are already searching for and finding you through. Write a blog post targeting those keywords and you will stand a very good chance to rank much higher for those terms.

If you are getting one or two visitors this could easily get you even more traffic.

So pay attention to your stats and if you are getting one or two visitors for a term you never targeted then a blog post can move you up the serps for that term and send you even more traffic.

Your questions and comments are welcomed.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blog, google analytics, internet marketing, scam artist, serps, stand up comedy, traffic

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Beyond creating content, the toughest thing about blogging is promoting it…

Making sure you get traffic, ranked in the search engines and ultimately creating a blog that makes money is a full time job in itself…

What if you’re blog promoted itself every time you posted?

WP Syndicator

Andy Fletcher has created a new WordPress plugin that automatically promotes your blog every time you post…

It syndicates your content across the top web 2.0 properties and automatically generates high quality, high traffic one-way links with the anchor text in the keywords of your choice back to your blog.

WP Syndicator

The reviews are in and people are seeing some serious results. This takes a job that would normally take all day and does it automatically…

Every time you make a new post, you get free permanent links and a surge of targeted traffic. This is hands-down the coolest “must have” WordPress plugin I’ve seen this year…

WP Syndicator

If you need more traffic to your blog, or you want to get a new blog indexed and ranking high in the search engines in record time, then you need to check this out…

WP Syndicator

This is a plugin I have been using since the beginning of last month on multiple blogs and both the plugin and the support has been excellent.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: backlinks, blog traffic, link wheels, traffic, WP Syndicator

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Okay I have been thinking about what to rant about today for over an hour while I go through my morning checklist. This has been a busy week for me and I have noticed that it is usually harder to find topics to rant about when I am creating content.

Now that is a good thing for me but it does bring up the point that when you are being proactive there is less other things to upset you. That is not a bad thing.

So I guess this rant will go in a different direction. What are you doing to be proactive?

Have you done any of the following this week and do you do them regularly?

• Create new blog posts
• Comment on related blogs
• Add or edit an email from your autoresponder series
• Submit articles to the directories
• Create a video or podcast of your article
• Guest post on someone’s blog
• Create a new product either for sale or as a giveaway

Those are just a few things that you could have done this week to move your business forward and generate more traffic to your sites.

How many have you done this week?

Leave your answer below in the comments or ask a question about WordPress or blogging. I have writing to do so cutting this short. What about you?

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: autoresponder series, blogging, email, podcast, rant, traffic, wordpress

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Almost finished the series on plugins here. There will be one more post on this tomorrow and that will be the most important one of the series so stay tuned. Remember that I am always looking to answer the questions you have here so feel free to ask them in the comments.

The original question that started this series was..

what are you top plugin choices for WP?

Today we address spam plugins and other miscellaneous plugins. There are a lot of choices and this list could be much longer but these are the ones I use at least semi-regularly.

• Askimet
• WP Spam Free
• Podpress
• Google Analyticator
• WordPress Thread Comment
• WP Ezine Articles

Askimet – Comes with the base installation and is a good anti-spam plugin but needs some help.

WP Spam Free – When combined with Askimet the two do a decent job of eliminating spam.

There are lost of other spam plugins but some hurt your number of comments such as the captcha plugins which keep people from commenting so it becomes a thin line to walk. Do you increase comments or reduce spam? I prefer more comments and deal with moderating the additional spam comments.

Podpress – This is the best of the podcasting plugins that I have tried. It interacts with the major podcast directories and can be tied directly into Itunes easily.

Google Analyticator – Easily adds your Google Analytics tracking code and allows you to see the stats from there within your dashboard.

WordPress Thread Comment – If you have an older theme that does not support threaded comments (they are integrated into the latest versions of WordPress) this will allow you to take advantage of them without having to hack the theme.

WP Ezine Articles – If you are a Platinum member of Ezine Articles this is a nice plugin that allows you to submit your articles to Ezine Articles from your dashboard.

Repurposing your content is a great way to get more traffic to your blog and article marketing can be an easy way to do that.

Now I could have added literally hundreds of other potential plugins but there is a trade off when you add plugins and that will be tomorrow’s discussion as we end up the series on plugins.

Your comments and questions are welcomed. Talk to you tomorrow.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: article marketing, blog, eliminating spam, google analytics, plugins, podcast, podcasting, podpress, traffic

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There are two big questions that I get over and over every time I do a talk on blogging.

1. What do I write about?
2. How do I get traffic to my blog?

Today we will give you 5 ways to help you answer the first question. This will help you with the second question because regular quality content is one of the big pieces to answering the second question.

You need to be active in your community no matter what the topic is. If you are you will see what types of questions are being asked. So forums on your topic are one of the easiest places to see what questions are being asked.

What problems are people having? Answer these questions as your blog post. Now you have a topic and are providing information your audience wants. Think that might even help you with getting traffic?

Use Google News to keep track of what is new on your topic. Let Google find the latest news. Now I find it easier for me to add the feed from that topic to a feed reader so I can just open that in the morning and catch up on the latest news quickly.

Yahoo Answers is another place where you can search on your topic and see what type of questions are being asked. You can use the best or most common questions as blog post topics. Answer a few while you are there and link back to your blog and you have more potential traffic too.

While you are going through Google News you will be finding other blogs in your niche. Take a minute or two to comment on some of the better posts but pay attention to the comments. Often people will be asking questions in the comments and this can be a great place to get topic ideas. Commenting is a good way to generate traffic to your blog at the same time.

Finally what are you doing and what is working for you? Last night I did a conference on beginning blogging for my Get Referrals Fast members. This topic was a big question that was asked so it created a topic for me to address today.

Anyone that attended could write a blog post today about what they got from the conference and use that as a post and even promote their Get Referrals Fast link while doing it in a very soft sell approach.

So that gives you 5 ways to get blog post topics so you don’t have to sit down at the keyboard and stare when it is time to go post.

Because I like to over deliver here is a very important sixth tip . Always have a way to write down ideas when you get them. I carry a little spiral notebook with me and often have a small digital recorder. I can and have gotten an idea while out shopping or just walking around. Write it down or record it. If you don’t the odds are that it will be long gone by the time you sit down to write.

Let me know what you think by adding your comments and any ideas you have on generating more blog post topics.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, feed reader, topic ideas, traffic

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You have decided that guest blogging makes sense to you now you have to figure out who would want your posts.

If you provide quality content there are lots of blog owners that will but finding them takes a bit of that nasty 4 letter word that we tend to not want to hear – WORK.

Uh oh there went half the readers I can feel the cursors hilting the back button right now. I just said one of the unmentionable words.

So you are one of the half that stayed. Congratulations! You understand the truth.

Now if you are actively blogging I would expect (not assume not going to use two bad words in the same post ) that you are actively commenting on blogs on your topic. You know who has quality blogs on your topic.

The first step would be to contact them and offer your services. Some of those blogs may be actively soliciting guest bloggers. If they are you can follow whatever instructions they have given you to submit your articles.

There are forums and sites that allow you to meet and up and find people who are looking for guest bloggers. I use one called My Blog Guest and have found it to be useful.

You can do a search on Google and find quite a few different places that are looking for guest bloggers. A quick search this morning came up with 117,000,000 results for guest blogging forums.

You can see that with a bit of effort it is quite easy to find places to guest blog.

Take advantage of the people that left as soon as I mentioned that 4 letter word and put in the work and you can help generate backlinks and traffic from others by guest blogging and getting exposure you could not get otherwise.

You can use this same process to find others that can supply you with additional content and alternative viewpoints to as hosting a guest blogger has advantages too.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: alternative viewpoints, backlinks, bloggers, blogging, guest blogging, traffic

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Writing blog posts can be hard at times. I have often written about ways to make it easier for you but there are times that it is still hard. Once you have put out that effort though are you maximizing it?

Quality content is valuable and just using it for your blog post is actually a waste when with a bit more effort you can get it out in multiple formats or on multiple sites.

Now I am guilty of this all too often. Are you?

It does not take that much to read the article and make an mp3 out of it and have a podcast.

You can rewrite a bit and add a signature file and you have an article to submit.

Put the article into power point format and read and record it. You now have a video.

Reuse the content as content on Hub Pages, Squidoo, etc to create back links to your blog or the page your post was promoting.

None of these will take you a long time to accomplish and the benefit you can get from doing this is immense.

You have done the hard work of creating quality content and you can easily get more from that effort.

Once I finish writing this post I can convert it into a video and podcast quite easily. I will be doing just that and with video uploading and rendering it will add about 45 minutes.

When I am done I will have a podcast delivered to a variety of services through Podpress from this blog and 7-8 new listings on a variety of video sites.

Think I might get a bit more traffic from that effort?

You can do it easily if you just follow the steps in Sunday Night Cash Plan too.

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About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

 How Often Do You Repurpose Your Content? [1:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Technorati Tags: hub pages, mp3, podcast, power point template, quality content, traffic, video sites, video uploading

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One of the best ways that I know of to get more traffic to your blog is to guest blog. At the end of last year I put together a blog tour which I called The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour.

I spent 5 days a week posting to someone else’s blog for 8 weeks moving to a different blog each week. It was fun to get to visit with other people’s audience and I had a good time.

I followed the steps Nicole Dean teaches in her “Blog World Tour Guide“.

Well the summer is coming and I think it is time to do it again but I need your help.

To pull this off I need to come up with a catchy name for the tour and I need 4 people that are willing to let me come in and rant and rave on their blog. I am planning this for the month of August.

Now if you would like me to stop and spend the week send in a ticket to the support desk and let me know…

• What topic your blog is on
• Why I would be a good fit for your audience
• Why I should pick you

What you get if selected is…

• 5 days of good content from me
• Promotion from the Squidoo lens I will create for the tour
• Promotion from my blogs as I discuss the blog tour

So if you are interested let me know I need to get this planned now.

Even if you don’t want me to visit I am looking for a kick butt name for this tour and if you can supply it you can win a blog installation from me on your hosting ($120 value) or one hour of my coaching time.

Leave your tour name ideas below and the one I choose will be the winner.

Looking forward to getting back on the road again.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blog, Blog Tour, blog tour guide, blogs, Nicole Dean, traffic

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One of the best ways to generate back links and additional traffic for your blog is using major sites where you can control to an extent the content and most importantly the anchor link text.

Sites like Squidoo, Hub Pages, et al. This is often called parasite hosting. You can act like a parasite and use their reputation to help build authority to your own site.

These sites work best when you use them to build back links to your own site and sell from your site. Some are very particular about linking to affiliate sites.

Here is an example of how you can use these sites

Create a review of a product on you blog. Add content to these sites and link to that review using anchor text that benefits you. Now you have stayed within the terms of service of the sites and are driving traffic to your presell page.

This is just one way to take advantage of these sites.

A quick aside – You may have noticed that I have started hiding some of the content here and allowing access to it only those that have registered for this site. Make sure to take advantage of that extra content by registering as you never know what is hidden below which you are missing. I am testing something and members will be the ones to find out about it when the testing is done.

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For more information on using these types of sites check out “Taking Advantage Of Parasite Hosts.”

Technorati Tags: back-links, Huib Pages, parasite hosts, presells, squidoo, traffic

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