About a month ago I told you that I was undertaking an experiment to see whether I could get duplicate content ranked in google. 

I thought I’d give you an update to let you know how I was doing.

The site in question is not under my control (it is an online store) and all affiliate’s have the exact same store, the only difference being the affiliate id on the end. 

Therefore I can’t change the content nor do any onpage SEO on it.  But was I able to rank it (including my affiliate id at the end so I get credit for any sales) in the search engines?

Before I started this challenge I was nowhere to be found in the SERPS (or at least not in the top 200 – I stopped looking after that).

Around 26th April I finally found myself ranked at No. 192 .. and since then I’ve been slowly climbing the serps.  Today I am at  No. 81 in Google for my main keyword, and have been getting a lot of little hits and long tails as well.

Ok, so I’m still not high enough to get any significant traffic or sales (I have only had one sale in the last month via that site – total commission around $30), but I’m pleased enough with the results that I’ll continue my backlinking campaign and see where I am in another month.

Overall I’m still very confident that I’ll be able to get this online store much higher and my goal is to get it on the front page (if that’s possible).

I’ll keep you posted ..

As I become more and more savvy with SEO I realise that the most important way to get your website or blog ranked high in Google (getting your site to rank #1 in Google is guaranteed to get you lots of lovely traffic) is about 20% on page SEO (keywords, bolding, h1 tags etc) and about 80% off page SEO – namely backlinks.

But not just any backlinks, keyword anchored backlinks. What’s a keyword anchored backlink?

A keyword anchored backlink is one that contains your keyword in it. This is what Google uses primarily as a ‘vote’ as to what your site is about.

A keyword anchored backlink: Affiliate Marketing Tips
A normal backlink: http://www.tracey-edwards.com

They both go to the same website (i.e. mine), however I would get a lot more link juice with Affiliate Marketing Tips than I would just having my website address.

I never understand the importance of that before (which is why my blog ranks really highly for my name, but not much else).

I’ve been using keyword backlinks a lot lately for many of niche sites and they are slowly rising in the SERPS. I’ve only been doing it for a few weeks now but I know that if I keep at it and building links to my sites they will eventually get higher and higher.

So how you do get backlinks to your site?

My favorite method is still via article marketing. Article directories such as ezinearticles and goarticles have a high PR (which is important for sites linking to you – not your own site) and you are able to place two links into your resource boxes.

If you wrote one article for each keyword phrase that you are targeting then you could have one of your anchored links to your specific post, and another to your main site. And effectively get two good backlinks to your site.

Another method is commenting on dofollow blogs, joining link building programs and learning as much as you can about SEO.

I haven’t even started trying to rank this site for anything yet because I don’t have a clue what I want to use it for yet (other than just looking pretty and chatting to you guys) but one day I might make it a huge site full of lots of affiliate marketing tips that you can make lots of money online with.

Until then – enjoy my posts.

Tracey xx

Late last year I told you that I was taking Adsense off my blog because it looks messy and it wasn’t making me any money anyway. And that I thought putting Adsense on your blogs was a waste of time.

I was an idiot.

Yes, this particular blog doesn’t make that much money because really it’s more of a social blog so people can keep track of what I’m doing online but the number of niche blogs that I now have that is growing all the time and THEY do earn me some nice Adsense income. It all started about a month ago when I discovered Griz.

What’s a Griz?

Griz is, in my opinion, the best SEO/Adsense teacher that I’ve ever come across online. I found him after doing a search for ‘make money online’ in Google and his How to Make Money Online for Beginners site was about #3 – out of over 180 million results.

Oh and did I mention that it’s a free blogger blog? Interesting isn’t it.

He also recently started another site that I also have been reading: Make Money with Adsense. It’s eye-opening.

Anyway all of the information on his blogs is free and the best SEO & Adsense information that you’ll ever find. He walks the walk, and talks the talk.

Since following his methods my Adsense income has risen from about $2 per day to $10 per day. In just one month! Imagine what I’ll be earning from Adsense in 12 months time.

So my advice to you dear readers is to visit Griz and devour his websites. Read everything twice. Three times if you have to. Delight in every tip for making money online that your little beginner (or even intermediate to advanced) minds can soak up.

It’s just another income stream to add to your belts and best of all its totally free.

Griz – you’re a legend.

And yes I can’t help that this blog is pretty – I’m working on it.