Just follow the sign...
It seems to be “the thing to do” around the blogosphere to publish a milestone post of sorts at the end of the old/beginning of the new year.
Well, for a while there I didn’t want to be left out of the trend (what would other bloggers think of me?) and tried long and hard to come up with something worthy to discuss.
My goals for 2011?
I barely had them for 2010… I guess I just like to be surprised; not everything in life needs to be planned out. Plus, do you REALLY care about my goals for my blog? I figured…
My accomplishments of 2010?
I am not too bashful about them as it is. Do we really need yet another post on my brilliant startup of Traffic Generation Cafe? Well, I can talk about it non-stop; however, we are given two ears and one mouth for a reason.
Then I read a post at Vladimir Prelovac’s blog and thought to myself - that’s it!
Why not sum up the state of SEO affairs of 2010 as I saw them?
PageRank This & That
Aaahhh… the all mysterious PageRank…
We all say we don’t care about it, yet we all strive to see that green bar grow like dough on yeast.
Unfortunately, most of us were out of luck this year, since Google devilishly decided to keep us all wondering and limited their PR updates to only one, which happened in April of 2010.
Some might argue that some websites saw a small jump (mostly from N/A to PR0 - my blog was one of them) in July, but I don’t really think it was a real update.
Will PageRank remain an important ranking factor of 2011?
Your guess is as good as mine. If you feel like you’ve got an opinion to share, leave me a comment or better yet, check out these posts:
Quality vs Quantity of Links
I’ve noticed there were 2 main extremes in 2010:
A. some webmasters completely ignored link building as such and solely relied upon “natural” link building
B. and yet other tried to collect every single junkie link out there. A link is a link, right?
I don’t subscribe to either one of those behaviors.
My take on link building:
- My perfect link: a link from a relevant DoFollow high PR page, high quality site.
- My second perfect link: a link from a relevant NoFollow high PR page, high quality site.
- Then comes: a link from a relevant NoFollow whatever PR page, high quality site.
- Then… there’s nothing. I don’t waste my time on link building on anything below my above standards.
By the way, by “natural” link building I mean writing the best content you can and let your content become a natural link magnet for incoming links.
If you sit around and wait for those kinds of links to come your way, you could be waiting for quite a while, even if your content is great.
If you are of the “a link is a link” mentality, then chances are your PR will never amount to much, since your site can and most likely will be judged by the quality of your links above all.
More on quality one way link building:
- Link Building Mixology: Your “How To Do It The Right Way” Guide
- Treasure Island of Link Building: How to Find the Best Links Every Time
- 3 Unorthodox Ways to Get King-Kong .EDU Links
- How to Rank Well For Your Inner Pages
Activity Factor
I am sure you know by now that I am huge on education. I spend as much money as it takes to learn more about internet marketing in general and SEO and traffic generation in particular.
One of the courses I took this year was Ryan Deiss’ “Perpetual Traffic Formula”.
In the course, he brought up one interesting point that I had a chance for mull over for a while now and fully agree with.
It’s not enough to have great content and build thousands of link to your site.
If Google sees that your site is getting a lot of links and consistent fresh content, BUT doesn’t have much evidence of human engagement and activity, your site smells fishy.
Logical, isn’t it?
Whether this point holds water or not, one thing is for sure: without human traffic you might as well close shop.
So here are some posts to help you with the activity factor, whether you do it for Google or simply because it makes sense to be in business with your human visitors rather than algorithms:
- 202 Tips to Increase Your Blog Traffic
- DoFollow Express: Is Traffic Generation Cafe Getting Off?
- 7 Tips to Make Your Comment Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb
- 30 Ultimate Tips To Dramatically Reduce Blog Bounce Rate
Long-tail Keywords & Google Instant Debate
It seems like we couldn’t get enough speculations on how Google Instant would affect SEO.
Now that the dust settled down, we all can safely say that not much has changed.
Many users ended up turning it off altogether, finding it simply annoying (speaking from experience here). And even those who didn’t still want to find what they are looking for and NOT what Google THINKS they are looking for.
So proper keyword research is still the bomb, however long it might be.
I am curious to know though if you saw any direct correlation of Google Instant and your site rankings or sales - the latter ones declining in any way, I mean.
If so, speak up in the comments!
DoFollow Movement
I dare to say that DoFollow movement has gotten even stronger in 2010.
More and more bloggers decided to focus on cultivating the community around their blog, rather than saving their precious link juice (if any) to themselves.
I am proud to say that Traffic Generation Cafe was, is, and will remain DoFollow.
More on that:
- The Ultimate DoFollow Blog Finder Tool
- Does NoFollow Follow?
- Juicy Blog Traffic: Want Some? DoFollow!
Best Tools of 2010
2010 was undoubtedly a year of huge launches.
All of our inboxes were overwhelmed by a flood of “This is the one you’ve been waiting for your entire business life!” offers.
Since it’s my business to know about anything new going on in the world of SEO and traffic generation, I did take a few of those “big” courses. Have I learned much? You bet. Would I even recommend some of them? Of course.
However, it’s undiscovered little gems here and there that made my blog stronger last year.
Like these ones:
Income Blogging Guide by Andrew Rondeau & Joel Williams - excellent blogging course for both beginners and advanced bloggers; the kind I wish I had when I first started or have written myself.
Market Samurai - with so many keyword research plugins and software popping up like popcorn in a movie theater, it’s hard to know what to choose. Bottom line for me: NOTHING beats Market Samurai in terms of its incredible features and functionality. Still my favorite and the only one I use.
MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet & Ninja Affiliate - 2 awesome plugins from MBP. Doubled my opt-in conversion rates (Pop-Up Domination doesn’t come anywhere close to the features Subscribers Magnet has). Started making money where I wasn’t making money before by inserting my chosen affiliate links without me having to think about it.
Thesis Theme and Scribe SEO - still my favorite tools for all my blog SEO needs. Great coding, easy use, professional look, best on-page SEO optimization and even some link building with Scribe SEO - between these 2 I have my blog very well-covered.
Funny thing: as I was going through a line-up of products I tried in the past year, for every 1 I can recommend I had 5 I wouldn’t.
Sounds like I should write a post on the ones you’d better save your money on…
Got an opinion? Comment to show me that you’re alive (and know what you are talking about)!
- » Ebay For Link Building: Going Once, Going Twice... And It Works!
- » Internet Marketing 101: The Telltale Signs of Profitable Markets
- » How to Use Google Search Query Terms to Learn More About Any Site
- » Friday Tips for Keeps: Does It Hurt to Add New Links to Published Pages?
- » SEO Traffic Basics: Reciprocal Links, Backlinks, Keywords
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This post brought to you by Ana Hoffman
Ana is the founder of Traffic Generation Cafe and wants you to know that her 7 Steps to Complete Search Engine Domination free SEO report = SEO Made Simple. Don't forget to pick up your own copy today - just click on the link above!
Ana has written 249 great posts for Traffic Generation Cafe.
A wife to a great husband, a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Ana,
I read/follow a lot of blogs; however, yours always, always blows my mind! I feel like a bad friend when I don’t visit enough. Then I realize when I do, it’s like getting fresh baked goodies and faboo coffee at your house compared to maybe tea and a stale bagel at another’s … I want to hang out at your house!
You truly help me (along with countless others no doubt) a tremendous amount and I’m endlessly grateful. In fact, you’re one of the woman mentors I want to feature on our new video series to begin in two weeks!
Thanks again for being so accessible, so knowledgeable and delivering every single time! I know it comes back to you ten-fold!
With much kindness and gratitude,
Elena Patrice
Yes I agree with you, Ana! Dormancy or inactivity sometimes do happen as I observed due to exhaustion of all your talent, knowledge and skills over a project or subject and in this case, blog or website promotion. All we need to do is to be aggressive and resourceful enough to occupy our time and promote our sites because marketing and promotion, as our main job, is non-stop because it is a competition among other people with websites to earn money. Your suggestions might be of great help to others who wants to promote and plan out their strategy for a more competitive website and thus earning a big profit for yourself. You may also conduct surveys, polls and interviews among big names and ordinary webmasters about web directories and blog rank sites in which you may consider some factors such as traffic, marketability and profitability. Anyway, thanks for your suggestions and comments, Ana I really appreciate it and keep it going!
Michel John Allones invites you to read: Filipino Achievers 2010
You’d better be in a niche that won’t quickly exhaust your talent, Michel - you are right about that!
Building an online business, or any business for that matter, IS non-stop work, no matter how you look at it.
I’d definitely be interested in seeing a list of product you do not recommend.
This is a really nice review! There are always so many reviews that it makes my head spin, but this was a well rounded and not complicated review that offered a lot of assistance. Thanks for that!
In my opinion on dofollow and nofollow - a link is a link in my opinion. Whether it’s dofollow or not (although dofollow rocks!) it’s a link to your website regardless.
Anyway, thanks for this great post.
Morgan invites you to read: Don’t Fear The Self-Promotion
I did write that post, Morgan - https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/lousy-internet-marketing-products/.
Well look at that! Fantastic. =) Thanks!
Morgan invites you to read: Why You Should Recommend on LinkedIn
RE: “Will PageRank remain an important ranking factor of 2011?”
I think Google will always be based around page rank - it’s a nice algorythm that works.
The issue is more what links pass pagerank, and how much they pass for that algorythm to keep working efficiently and avoid spamming techniques.
Richard invites you to read: SEO in Leeds
One way or another, they’ll have to make some significant changes to the algorithms to keep it a valid metric.
Thanks for coming by, Richard!
I know google doesnt tell us so its speculation at best, but I would love to understand the difference between backlinks from within the body of the text, vs. sidebar vs. comments section.
Im sure they are weighted differently Im just not sure how much google dings-down your backlink because its not inside the body of the post.
Any thoughts on that?
Dino Dogan invites you to read: What’s Holding Your Business Back and a Simple Fix You Can Implement Right Now
There’s a big difference between where links come from, Dino; in-content links are much more valuable because they are nearly impossible to manipulate with.
Thnx Ana..thats a perfectly reasonable and acceptable answer…I was hoping for like a break down to a percentage point..talk about tough customer lol
Google doesnt tell us what the algorithm is doing so all we can do is take a best guess…would be an interesting experiment to see by how much weight google puts on backlinks for body vs comment/footer/sidebar ..but now Im just thinking out loud…
thnx again…you’re great
Dino Dogan invites you to read: What’s Holding Your Business Back and a Simple Fix You Can Implement Right Now
You are a tough cookie, Dino!
Quite honestly, I never even looked into this enough to give you a better answer, but sounds like a great idea for a future post!
Have a great Sunday.
Hi Ana
Feeling better already knowing that pagerank is listed so infrequently, not that we should crave it
I think the point on the e mails saying about the must have products is getting silly, a certain section of the market is doing itself a lot of harm promoting poor products, I for one have lost respect for people I once thought highly of, lets hope 2011 sees an improvement in that area
All of which makes those who make good recommendations all the more valuable, clearly based on my taking up one of your recommendations and considering others I include you in that number
Thanks for sharing Tony
Tony Clingan invites you to read: “Online Time Management Are You Making The Best Of Yours”
Much appreciated, Tony - I’d like to stay on that list of yours.
Next week I am planning on publishing a post on what products I WOULDN’T recommend; hope you’ll come back for that.
I was very upset with being on certain lists - people who have so much potential to teach us some great things, yet all they do is promote each other’s products and don’t even hide it.
Hey Ana,
Awesome year-end post with some golden nuggets you shared with us in the past year.
By following your blog and implementing your recommendations, I have managed to transform my blog. Anyone who wants to grow their blog should do likewise.
Look forward to more of your awesome content in 2011!
Keep rocking,
Mavis
Mavis Nong invites you to read: Are You Still Annoying Your Blog Visitors
Many people are reading, but few are applying - human nature.
I am so glad that you did, Mavis, and soooo excited to see your blog blossom!
I hope you’ll never be in direct competition; I don’t like those odds.
Ana
Competition? Never!
I decided long ago not to worry about PR. I thought it was a total waste of time. It didn’t really tell you the true worth of a blog, if anything it only told you that someone had more SEO prowess than the other person.
I never even worried about keywords as I found them all to hard and I felt it restricted my blogging. It wasn’t until the end of last year, December sometime, that I decided to do something about that and so I bought Market Samurai. Still haven’t got past the second video.
You know what the funny thing is, even though I’ve never tried to do anything to increase my PR my blog’s a PR4, and I’m forever bagging Google
Go figure.
Sire invites you to read: Why I Chose MailChimp Over Aweber
Some people are just natural at it, what can I tell you, Sire… lucky you.
I suppose it all comes down to niches and competition. I look forward to replacing blogs like Copyblogger and Problogger in certain search results and that does require some link building legwork on my part - no other way around it.
I love Market Samurai. Maybe because I never watched the darn videos, just dived into it. That way I discover something new every day.
Hey, thanks for coming by.
Heck, I’m not sure that it has anything to do with luck Ana, I work very hard at what I do and I reckon that somehow or other it’s just paid off. All that said though, all PR is good for is as a trophy to hold up to others and to coax that little more out of your advertisers. I’m not one for trophies but I don’t mind getting the extra dollar when I can.
Sire invites you to read: Top 5 Reasons Why No-One Is Advertising On Your Blog
Either way, it’s good social proof and why not milk it for all its worth?
Plus, I am tired of all the “where is your green bar” questions…
They are the exact same people who hold way too much value on PR. What, do they think that the average, non blogger / website owner, will value their site more because it has a bit of green on it? The vast majority of surfers wouldn’t know what PR was if they tripped over it.
PR is nothing. It’s the content that counts and the way you interact with those who take the time out of their busy lives to leave a comment. That’s what really counts.
Sire invites you to read: There’s More To Helium Than Meets the Eye
Very interesting post, this is true stuff. According to the Google algorithm Google can update the Page Rank after every three months but in the year 2010 Google have not updated PR for every sites. The last PR update was done in 31st march 2010.
Every webmaster are still don’t know the perfect reason for this.
Everyone knows the changes of Google but no one know the reason.
Nice topic for discussion.
Jenny invites you to read: Famous People With Diabetes- Halle Berry- Larry King- Salma Hayek And More
Google definitely has the mind of its own, Jenny.
Thanks for coming by and adding to our discussion; welcome to my blog!
Ana
I have to agree with you Ana regarding the MBP Subscribers Magnet. I’m thankful that was one of my purchases this year. There are other things I purchased that really weren’t worth it and I look forward to hearing from you what you bought that you didn’t like!
I’m also a “dofollow” believer as well and I believe that along with commenting on other blogs which created reciprocity with other blog owners, I believe it’s helped me get more quality comments. I do think it’s been important for me to draw a line in the sand and only approve comments that are value adding though, so that my blog doesn’t become a spam magnet.
My page rank is nonexistent and I’m not sure how that all works. I felt a little reassured when you said that they haven’t updated it since April or possibly July, but maybe I shouldn’t keep my fingers crossed?
The link building is something I’ve not focused on too much yet, but definitely something I will be working on in 2011.
Thanks for all the great information as usual. Loved your Sunday coffee too! It made me want to come exploring to find this post!
Heather
Heather C Stephens invites you to read: Get More Blog Traffic and Leads the Easy Way!
You should definitely start focusing on link building, Heather.
Your content is fantastic; there is no reason you can’t draw more traffic from the search engines and with more links, you definitely will.
Glad you enjoyed my Sunday coffee post; I just did it on a whim to see what kind of reaction I get. I think the series is here to stay!
Excellent all around Ana, and I think you’ll appreciate the beginning of my 2011 post, when it’s published.
Dennis Edell invites you to read: I Was Hoping to Never Have to Publish This…
Make sure you let me know, Dennis; don’t want to miss it!
Great post Ana. I feel pagerank will remain a vital factor in 2011 and every year after that. Of course I’m not 100% certain, but I believe pagerank is part of the foundation search engines such as Google operate on. I guess we all will just have to wait and see.
Also, thanks for the recommendation of the income blogging guide. I have been looking for a solid training course for a few weeks now to learn some new things, and I might give this one a try.
John invites you to read: Tips On Searching Through Comcast Email Directory
We shall see what Google has in store for us in 2011, John. If they are planning to continue with PageRank, would love to see an update soon.
As far as the blogging guide is concerned, you should be very happy with it. I’ve been working on it and learning despite the fact that my blog is already well established.
Welcome to my blog!
Ana
Amazing …This cafe also increasing web traffic like the student crowd in the cafe near university. And this is providing the strategies for getting a high page rank. with the help of this you can buy targeted web site traffic.
Thanks, Maria - glad you stopped by.
Ana
awesome content as usual Ana….:) Happy new year
Tristan Richards invites you to read: Secret Facebook Prospecting & Recruiting Tip
You as well, Tristan - thanks for coming by!
Hi Ana,
Its funny that you mention about PR as I was just thinking that I have been seeing that conversation everywhere…still!
The thing is, there are probably many, many factors that Google uses to rank individual pages that they do not tell us about. Perhaps they just decided to stop advertising this one. No matter. They have not said anything, so I am just focusing on other things, like writing content.
My two cents on link building, at least in the terms you put it:
If I read something that I think is good, then I will comment. If I don’t like what I read, then I don’t. My thought here is that, if Google, et al, are looking to index sites according to their value to searchers, then their constantly changing algorithms are probably getting better and better at determining quality.
Of course, there is a possibility that this will never really work. And, what if it does work but I have drastically different taste (not better or worse) than Google? Where does that leave me? Over-analyzing again, I suppose.
Lovely post. Thanks!
You know, before I go do whatever it is that I am doing next, I have a question. Is that checkbox right above were I am typing generated by subscribers magnate?
Have a nice day!
mark invites you to read: Bloggers On Building a Personal Brand
Always great to see an intelligent opinion, Mark.
I am really fed up with the talk as well.
In my humble opinion, doing what’s best for your readers will get you right with Google as well, no question about it.
Yes, that box is generating by Subscriber’s Magnet.
Ana
Great post, Ana!
And I admit… I DO want that little green bar to grow! For me it’s just another form of social proof, you know?
And yes… Google Instant was super annoying and I turned it off… instantly
Tristan invites you to read: How to Turn a Lousy Blog Headline into a Great One
I do know social proof… I get asked a lot where MY green bar is. I understand they ask out of ignorance, but nonetheless.
Ana, your site has become one of my favorites due to posts like this one. With so many people touting their “breakthrough” products, I really appreciate a post that gives your opinions on which ones provide value, backed up with the reasoning behind the opinion. I am still a bit leery of Scribe due to the recurring monthly fee. Could you clarify in a future post why you feel it is worth the money?
Thanks, and please keep up the great work.
Steve Stillwater invites you to read: Best of How to Go Green from 2010
Thanks so much, Steve - there are really very few products I use and recommend.
I understand the drive to make money, but at what expense?…
I completely share your caution about buying into any monthly subscription. My choice was based on the advantages I get out of it and how much more efficient it makes my blogging life.
I will definitely try to write a better review on it in the future.
Have a good one!
Hi Ana,
happy New Year and thanks for putting this overview together. It gives me a good feeling of what I know and what I don’t know (painful, very painful).
I started using Scribe SEO back in October this year and I love it !
I agree with you that I didn’t plan the most important events in my life. But it’s definitely good to know what one wants and what not in order not to be surprised negatively.
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend invites you to read: Oliver Tausend’s Blog- Thanks To Top Commentators In December
I think we both learned quite a bit in the past year, Oliver - it was exciting to see both of our blogs grow!
Glad you share my passion for Scribe SEO; it sure made a huge difference on my blog.
Ana
I bought the bmp subscribers magnet off your page, very cool, just set it up, thanks!
Ray Higdon invites you to read: What is The Blog Success Summit & Should You Attend
Yay, thank you, Ray!
I will take my husband out for a nice dinner, courtesy of Ray Higdon.
Pagerank is another issue to deal with. Dang the list just goes on and on. I think PR won’t be out of the picture anytime soon unless someone replaces Google. Facebook Pagerank? Sounds better I think haha.
Great set of tools there btw. I like scribe SEO but the fact that it’s monthly thing turns me off.
Yet another great post
Kevin invites you to read: Goodbye 2010! Here’s to new opportunities…
It’s fashionable to talk about PR these days, so we all talk about it.
The truth: who gives a …?
I know what you mean about Scribe SEO. For me though, I get enough out of it to make it worth my $27.
Maybe once I start making some change then I’ll look into Scribe
Kevin invites you to read: Don’t Pay For SEO Services! Free SEO Report in Minutes!
I agree with your idea at Quality vs Quantity of Links, most likely the line “some webmasters completely ignored link building as such and solely relied upon “natural” link building” this thing really happens.
Ron from Electricians Isleworth invites you to read: Electricians Isleworth – Reasons to Hire Licensed Electricians
It’s very easy to be “spammed” with “natural” links, Ron. Spammers are getting smarter by the minute, and now that they figured out how to spam with trackbacks and pingbacks, clueless bloggers let them have all the links they want because they believe it shows “social engagement”.
Anyway, quality always works, whatever Google changes.
Ana:
Excellent Post. I don’t know what Google is going to do with PR, I assume replace it…but with what, I dont know. I am thinking something more along the lines of a social media barometer. But, I’m just throwing darts in the dark on that one!!
Would love a post about which products to stay away from…
Lisa
Lisa invites you to read: The Fastest Way To Turn Any Blog Post Into An Article
Don’t we all, Lisa, when it comes down to Google?
I am sure they are laughing at us trying to figure them out…
Oh I have NO doubt about that!! I envision people in a monitoring room watching all of this what if, what about, well maybe stuff and cracking up every moment! “look Bob, this one thinks PR is gone, haahaa!”…..I guess we wait and see.
Lisa invites you to read: The Fastest Way To Turn Any Blog Post Into An Article
I think the importace of PR is getting decreased. Even Google don’t giving it much importance. That is why they are not updating it. We can see many PR 0 websites in the top search results. So nowadays PR is important only if you want to monetize your site because advertisers still prefer high PR sites.
I agree, Rojish. Too bad many webmasters are still obsessed with it.
It would be interesting to see what they’ll replace it with…
Hi Ana,
Great post you have here some nice things to look at and think about.
Market Samurai is a must and I have enjoyed using it for almost 2 years now, would not be without it!
Joan - BlogBizBuzz invites you to read: Backlinks & SEO
I am with you Joan - the benefits of using MS are incredible!
Pleasure to see you on my blog.
Nice review Ana,
Good Sum up.
Was it just me or did it seem that there were just too
many places to check in and touch base etc…
and yes, as usual the market sure was full of
‘that one missing piece we’ve been waiting for’!
Saw your post on Scribe SEO - I’m off to get mine through your link - Thanks.
I’d love to see you post your review on the ones you wish you’d known to avoid.
Here’s to a fantastic 2011 - don’t you love a new page?
Ken
Good morning, Ken:
I will definitely make a post on the products I wouldn’t use in the near future.
Thanks for checking out Scribe SEO; I’ve loved using it and hope you will as well.
Not sure what you meant by, “too many places to check in and touch base. ”
Ana
A great link is a link that comes from within a text that is related to the link, the anchor text and the target page.
If you have a car accessories blog and write a post (or a subsection in a post) about your favourite internet photo sharing site then that’s still a good link, even though both sites are not related.
Good point, Andreas - I should’ve said “relevant page” and not site.
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