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Wow. That’s a mouthful isn’t it? It is exactly what it says it is. This short post is an experiment in longtail keyword titling. I want to see what combination of words in this blog title will bring me a decent search return and what the competition is. I will report back in a few days on the results.

What prompted me to do this was a posting I did the other day with Garry Conn’s name in it which gave me a google page 2 return when someone searched on his name.

Have you ever been to website where the subject and content is lost in all the clutter? The webpage opens up and you are immediately bombarded with ads, both static and flashing, division of topics, multiple headers and a double row menu across the top; and that is all before you start to scroll down.  Then all of a sudden a popup appears in the middle of your screen asking you to subscribe to an RSS feed or sign up for an email newsletter.  WOW talk about “website sensory overload”.

I guess I come from old school web design, if there is such a thing as old school.  I believe in the Keep It Simple philosophy of design.  When a visitor comes to one of my sites I want to be able to immediately find what they are looking for.  I do not want distractions and I don’t want my visitor to have to hunt for the information they are seeking.

Keeping your design simple has another major advantage as well. SEO (search engine optimization) is much easier on a simple site than on one with multiple layers of what some call information, what I call distractions.

I look at each website design two ways. How easy is it for my human visitor to navigate through my website and find what they are looking for and second, how the search engines move through the site on their periodic crawls. What I have found is that if the site is easy for a human to use then it will be very easy for a search engine to crawl. True, my websites might not be as “pretty” and “flashy” as some and they will never be considered as “eye candy” but what they will do is provide a constant source of information for the visitor.

Simple design equals simple use which equals a sticky website.  A sticky website means repeat visitors and repeat visitors will bring lots of traffic and you will benefit from that traffic by simple “unobtrusive” limited advertising, whether it be a banner ad or something as simple and effective as Adsense.
I would rather provide my visitors with solutions that may involve 2 or 3 advertisers than solutions that offer 15 or 20 advertisers. Those 2 or 3 will probably pay more than the total of the 15-20 due to the increased traffic you are sending them.

Anyway, that is my opinion for what it is worth.  How do you feel about this subject?

I have a question for everyone. I have been approached by a potential SEO client with a project with a different payment plan. I am not even sure if this is ethical but thought it interesting enough to ask the SEO and MMO community whose advice I have come to trust.

My potential new client has said in return for doing SEO work on his website I can have one year of Adsense placement using my Adsense ID. Basically I optimize his site and my payment comes from whatever income is generated by Adsense and other affiliate programs. The site is in a fairly high payout niche and it would offer an extra incentive to me to ensure the site becomes higly visible.

What is your opinon of an arrangement like this? The only thing that bothers me is what if the site starts generating a good income stream then in 12 months I have to give it up? hhmmmmm

Would you like a piece of the hard earned money from all the U.S. Based top bloggers?  Do you want to give a chunk of your income to others who read your blog your hard earned money? Wow…isn’t that great. Top bloggers work and I get paid. I think I will quite my regular job and sit on my ass and collect my thier money.  Of course I don’t think I will have to quit my job. I will probably be terminated as taxes are raised on my boss who is a small business owner and he has to make cuts in his staff so he can pay the increased taxes.  That’s okay though ’cause the government is going to take care of every single aspect of my life.

Spread the wealth??  What a crock of crap.  Is Barak Obama out of his mind? Does he not realize what he is going to do to people like me? I AM MIDDLE AMERICA.  If he is elected I stand to lose my job as my small business owner employer will be forced to pay more taxes to fund Obamas social programs.

Make money online? How about Lose Money Online.  Can you tell I am angry? I rarely write when I am upset but I can’t help it. Sure Bush has made some blunders but not all our problems are his fault. God help us if he is elected. Might as well go ahead and change our name to the Socialist States of America and put a hammer and sickle on our flag.

Looking for a niche website that will generate holiday income? Here is a way to market a niche oriented site offline. Gift certificates are a huge item during the holiday season. Sometimes finding the right gift can be more of a challenge than we can handle. Enter the “Gift Certificate” website.  There are several great affiliate programs out there that you can use to make money with gift certificate purchase. I use the following two step process to market this site offline for great online results.

Step 1: I build a nice looking website that is pleasing to the eye complete with different gift certificate purchase options and information. This site is constructed in such a way that as each holiday throughout the year rolls around, I can quickly change the look to reflect that holiday.  In the case of the one I am working on now, it is Christmas oriented.

Step 2: I go to my local Staples or Kinko’s and I get 1000 business cards made that say “Looking for a gift certificate for a holiday gift?” or something to that effect.  I put the website addess on it along with some names of various types of certificates (monetary, dinner, actual gift, discount, etc…) and I start passing them out.  I always keep at least 100 cards with me at all times and my goal is to hand out 100 cards a day. If I run out I simply go and order another 1000.

When crunch time comes for gift purchases hopefully those people you have handed them out to will pull them out and go to your website. Don’t hesitate to email your friends and family with the website address and ask them nicely to pass it on to thier friends and family as well.

There you go. Two simple steps to market your holiday gift certificate website offline and generate online affiliate sales. Simple but effective (especially if you live in a smaller town like I do.)