Thinking Your Way To Profits

January 28, 2009

Since my son was born, I've had a lot less time in front of the computer. That was how I planned it. I wanted to take as much time as possible to be with my son and watch him grow.

That does not mean, however, that I was not working. When I was walking him to sleep (which requires quiet), or running an errand by myself, or doing some chore, I often took that time to think my way through what I was going to do when I did get back in front of the PC.

This proved to be incredibly effective, since I wasn't wasting time when I sat down at my desk. I had a well-thought out plan each time I got behind the keyboard, and that made my time, limited as it was, much more productive.

In fact, that "thinking time" is where my latest projects (WebComp Analyst and Web Data Parser) were born. Just having the time to think through ideas that I'd had previously sparked other ideas, which lead to a plan to test a theory, which resulted in new software applications.

You see, sometimes we can get so caught up in the working part of our business that we forget about the thinking and planning parts — and it's the thinking and planning that guide us to long term goal achievement. You probably know the adage, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." It's so true!

Besides, just stepping away from a problem can often spark a solution in our minds. I read a book a few years ago that dealt with modern research into how memory works, and it made the point that our subconscious mind is often more effective at solving problems than our conscious mind is.

Have you ever tried really hard to remember something, and had it on the tip of your tongue, but it just never came to you? But a few hours later, when you'd forgotten all about it, that "thing" popped into your head? That's your subconscious at work, and it can work on problems you're trying to solve, too. I'm astounded at how many solutions pop into my head when I'm not even thinking about the problem. So sometimes it pays to just step back and do something else.

The proof of what I'm saying, as I said, is in my latest software applications — which were coded in record time (for me anyway). I got the software coded faster because when I sat down to write it I already knew exactly how I wanted all of the components to work! That's the power of a plan.

It isn't stopping with those two applications, though. My latest creation is also the product of time spent musing about a "how to" question: How can I create a software application that will answer any question you throw at it? Wow, I thought, wouldn't it be fantastic to have a piece of software that could do that? Talk about a tool for rapid content creation!

Well it's out of my head and on my desktop now. It's called Answer Analyst, and you really want to take 8 minutes of your time to watch the preview video I put together this morning:

Click here to watch the preview video.

Let me know what you think in a comment below.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Internet Marketing, Blog | 75 Comments

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Answer Analyst Preview

January 28, 2009

I've created a new tool that is meant to compliment Instant Article Wizard (and IAW Pro). It helps you research the answers to your questions (and help you find questions that need answering) with lightening speed.

Click here to watch the preview video.

Please post a comment with your feedback and/or suggestions. Thanks!

For those who commented asking for the launch date, I expect AA to be available in another week or two at most.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Web Design, Internet Marketing, Blog | 154 Comments

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How to rank in Yahoo.

January 4, 2009

According to the research firm HitWise, Google had almost 72% market share for search in October 2008. With that kind of market share, it's understandable that everybody is focused on ranking in Google more than any other search engine. I certainly have been for the last couple of years.

Yahoo, on the other hand, held less than 18% of market share in that same time period. If that doesn't sound like enough of a percentage to bother putting a lot of time into, don't fret. As it turns out, the single most effective method you can use to improve your position in Yahoo will also help your rankings in Google.

I discovered what it takes for ranking in Yahoo on accident. I had a certain site in the 3WayLinks.net network that made it to page two of Google for its keywords — but no further. I analyzed the competition and knew I would have to get more than 250 links to the site in order to get it on page one, so I put a post in 1WayLinks.net to get more links to it.

Time passed, the post spread across the 1WayLinks network, and sure enough, the site went to about #4 / #5 for its keywords in Google. I was quite pleased.

However, when looking over my traffic logs, I noticed I was getting a lot of traffic from Yahoo as well. I was surprised, and checked out the keywords. I was delighted to see that my site held the #1 ranking in Yahoo for the same keywords the site was ranking for in Google! This despite the fact that it never ranked anywhere in the top 100 in Yahoo before.

This prompted me to do more testing. I put other sites into 1WayLinks.net and watched them rise to top spots in Google and Yahoo.

After doing some research, I discovered what was causing the great Yahoo rankings: in-context links.

In-context links are links that are put in the middle of a paragraph of text, such as the link in the first paragraph of this blog post. This is opposed to the "links page" form of linking, where the link is actually disconnected from the text which describes it (if there is any). Navigation links fall under the second style, too.

Google appears to treat both in-context and "links page" style links pretty much the same. At least, the "links page" links are counted and applied in Google far more than Yahoo! appears to count them.

Since 1WayLinks makes it easy to get in-context links (also called "editorial links") to your pages, it makes it a lot easier to get ranked in Yahoo as well as in Google. It's a real win-win.

It also seems to be a lot easier to get to #1 in Yahoo using 1WayLinks.net, which is important, since sometimes just being on page one isn't enough to get a lot of traffic from some keywords. In fact, since ranking #1 can result in almost 7 times as much traffic as ranking #3, having a top ranking in Yahoo can actually bring more traffic than having a very good ranking in Google for the same keywords despite the market share difference. I am, in fact, getting more traffic from my #1 Yahoo ranking than my #4 / #5 Google ranking on that one site.

So if you're trying to rank in Yahoo, make sure you're getting solid in-context links — it makes all the difference in the world.

One other thing to note that seems to help greatly in Yahoo (and Google) is having an exact-match domain name. I wrote a post about this and how it can help you rank in Google back in July. It turns out the same is true with Yahoo.

(In case you don't know, an exact-match domain name is a domain name that exactly matches the keywords you want to rank for. For instance, if you want to rank for "small green widgets", then you want to own smallgreenwidgets.com or smallgreenwidgets.net or smallgreenwidgets.org. I've tested .com and .org in Yahoo to great effect.)

Please post your thoughts and questions in a comment below.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Search Engine Optimization, Blog | 144 Comments

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