Noble Samurai

Hi Team,

I’ve got something exciting to share with you about Market Samurai.

We just released an improvement to the SEO Competition module that makes backlink anchor text analysis of web-pages that have a lot of back links much faster, and easier to complete.

This latest update has resulted in a MASSIVE speed increase for completing backlink anchor text analysis.

In one test, we found a 9,400% speed increase. That’s a speed up of nearly a factor of 100.  In fact, the improvement is even better than that: previously, the more backlinks you analysed, the slower the process went – twice as many backlinks could take nearly four times as long to analyse. Now few pages will take longer than 10 minutes to analyse.

The low-down on backlink analysis

The backlink analysis functionality in Market Samurai allows you to check two items:

• the PageRank of the pages linking to a URL; and
• the text contained within those links – for example, the link in the previous item to Wikipedia has the text “PageRank”.

The text is important – this is the most powerful factor Google takes into account when ranking your website for a keyword. So knowing the kinds of keywords being used in links to a page is essential to understand how Google will rank that page.

How do I do backlink analysis with Market Samurai?

First open up a project in Market Samurai and enter the SEO Competition module. Then generate the top results for your keyword or enter your own custom URL.

Now just click on the down-array to the right of the link.

Next, press the Anchor Text Analysis button to see a detailed link-text analysis for that webpage. Alternatively, you could also analyse the PageRanks of the backlinks.

A new window will pop-up showing you the information you asked for.

How much time will this save me?

Well, if you were trying to analyse a webpage with, say:

• 300 backlinks, which in some cases might have taken over 10 minutes, might now take around 1 minute;
• 600 backlinks, which might have taken over 40 minutes, should take around 2 minutes;
• 1000 backlinks, previously taking more than 90 minutes, should take 3 or 4 minutes.

Of course, the exact numbers depend on the page, your internet connection, the speed of your computer, and many other factors.

So, good luck investigating your niches – and please leave a comment if you enjoy this new update or if you have some thoughts on backlink analysis you’d like to share!

Mike

P.S. – If you don’t own Market Samurai yet, or your Market Samurai trial has expired, you will have lost access to the SEO Competition analysis tools. This means you will not see the benefit of this improvement until you upgrade your copy of Market Samurai to the full version.

If you already own Market Samurai, you can open the software right now and begin benefiting from this improvement.

48 Comments »

There is a common misconception that in order to develop a successful online business you need to be targeting hundreds or thousands of keywords.

This perception often causes a great deal of confusion and can lead to ‘Analysis Paralysis’ as people spend months analyzing keywords looking for the perfect opportunity. As a result they never follow through to create a complete and profitable business.

Last week, a group of us were discussing this problem and came to the conclusion that the reason this misconception is still so prevalent is that in the past, focusing on quantity versus quality DID actually work.

In the early days of Internet marketing, if you placed a large number of related keywords on a page or included them in Meta and Alt tags you could often get rankings that led to traffic.

Similarly, in the early days of Google Adwords, it was possible to load your account with thousands of keywords and generate a steady stream of traffic to your site.

However, while this may have been the case in 2003, it is very important to realize that THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

The old approach was a ‘shotgun strategy’ in which you targeted a large number of keywords, took a shot and hoped for the best.

With the continuous improvements in search engine algorithms and the development of quality metrics such as Google’s Quality score, this approach is no longer effective.

The mantra of “The more keywords the better” is a thing of the past.

The alternative to the old shotgun strategy is a new ‘laser like’ approach in which you explore your market carefully and then zero in on a small subset of specific keywords.

To understand why this laser focused approach is so important we need to examine something we call the ‘Iceberg Principle’.

According to the Iceberg Principle, finding a good keyword is just the tip of the Iceberg.

In order to transform a keyword into a genuine asset for your business, you need to undertake a range of tasks that most people unfortunately never get around to.

These tasks include:

On-page optimisation

Off-page optimisation

Obtaining high quality backlinks

Writing articles

Conducting targeted PPC campaigns

Etc.

The truth is that every one of these activities requires time and effort. Clearly, if you are trying to target thousands of keywords, following through on these activities becomes virtually impossible.

So, instead of generating lists containing thousands of semantically related keywords, here is the laser focused strategy that we recommend in today’s SEO environment.

To get started, use Market Samurai to generate a sample of keywords in your niche and then continually refine and filter these keywords until you find 5-10 keywords that have the following characteristics:

(1) They are highly relevant to your niche

(2) They have reasonable levels of traffic eg. 100 visitors per day

(3) They have acceptable levels of competition eg. Less than 30000 competing web pages

(4) They have low strength of competition ie. The top 10 sites in Google are not well optimized

Once you have identified and selected your target keywords, redirect your focus to the on-page and off-page SEO tasks necessary to transform your keywords into genuine traffic-generating assets for your business.

173 Comments »

Nobody wants to work 16 hours a day.

Nobody wants to be stuck at their computer, keeping their sites “alive”.

The reason most of us begin in internet marketing is because we are sick of killing ourselves 9-5, 5 days a week – just so that we can get 2 days off on the weekend, and 2 weeks per year paid vacation…

…We want freedom – we want free time and free money – so we can do whatever we want – driving fast cars and living in big houses, sailing around tropical island paradises, to just “being there” with our families – and doing it all without having to worry about setting the alarm clock for Monday morning.

But it’s how to make this “free time” and “spare money” that trips most people up.

The “Passive Income” Paradox

Most people try to create “free time” by working less – only to find that their “spare money” runs out very quickly when their websites are left to age and decay on their own…

…Or they create “spare money” by working harder – losing their “free time” in the process, trading one ball-and-chain job for another.

You probably know the solution already [hint: it's getting other people to do the work to create profits for us] – but it might be “too difficult”, “too expensive”, “too risky”, “too time-consuming”, “too unprofitable”, “too stressful” or “too imperfect”.

That’s why I want to introduce you to Marc Lindsay and Daniel Turner.

The Masters Who Run Multi-Million Dollar Businesses on Outsourced Labour…

Marc and Dan have built their multi-million dollar (per year) web empire using outsourcing.

They currently have over 140 websites, over 100 “staff”, 3 companies (including one of the world’s most respected SEO companies), and offices on 2 continents – and have several sites and companies that make 7-figures per year.

The Key is Their Systems

The brilliant part about Dan and Marc’s business is everything runs on systems.

That means Dan and Marc didn’t take on the role of being “outsourcing managers” as their new job title – everything runs by itself, according to the system.

And this means their businesses run themselves, grow themselves, improve themselves, and become more profitable – making Dan and Marc more and more money with practically no time and effort required.

Dan and Marc’s “Outsource Method”

If you want to find out more about how they did it, Daniel and Marc have just released their “Outsource Method” – their “how-to” guide that gives you the systems and techniques that they use in their own business.

It will show you how they started their business for $50 while they were flat broke – and how you can get started the same way (hiring staff who will take the load off you for just $50 per month).

The $1 Introductory Trial

The price will be going up to $995 on October 15th. But if you get in before Thursday, you can try the full course for $1 (paying $297 once-off in 10 days time if you like what you get.)

If you want to find out more, or get access to Dan and Marc’s Outsource Method at the $1 trial price, here’s our referrer link. (If you decide to keep the course, we make a commission.)

Alternatively, here’s the direct link if you prefer (using this one, we won’t see a cent).

Make sure you get it at the $1 introductory trial price (before Thursday October 15th) – this is incredible information that you won’t want to miss.

Since I met Marc and Dan in March 2008, I’ve hassled them for just snippets of this information whenever I’ve hit a business impasse – and the nuggets they’ve given me have been pure gold.

Tomorrow, I’m getting into a supercharged Mini Cooper S, and driving along the Great Ocean Road to an isolated cabin for a week-long vacation – I’m taking my copy away with me.

33 Comments »

Have you heard?

Market Samurai is now the tool-of-choice for keyword research inside StomperNet.

(In fact, they liked it so much that they even arranged to pay to license copies for all StomperNet members, so that all members could access Market Samurai during their membership.)

Why is this cool? And what is this “StomperNet” thing?

If you haven’t heard of StomperNet before -

• They provide the most comprehensive training program in the world for internet marketing;

• Since 2006, they’ve helped 104 beginner internet marketers to build web businesses that now make over a million dollars per year online;

• They were responsible for breaking all internet marketing sales records in 2006 when they made $18 million dollars within 24 hours of launching;

• They have some of the world’s top internet marketers on staff – provide one-on-one internet marketing coaching – and they give you access to exclusive events where you can access them personally;

• And they have over 1,400 pieces of internet marketing training (don’t worry – you don’t have to go through it all) meaning there’s an expert video or training resource on practically any topic you will ever need.

The entry price to StomperNet was previously around $800 per month – which sounds like a lot of money – but when you look at the library of resources that it gave you access to, and the 104 stories of beginners whose online businesses now make $1,000,000+ per year, then it puts $800 into a very sensible perspective.

But this year, StomperNet have completely changed their program, and their price tag.

They’ve pulled together an incredible collection of internet marketing tools – including Market Samurai, ecommerce shopping cart software, article distribution software, video distribution software, easy split testing software, text message autoresponders, social media monitoring tools – and they’re giving all users access to these tools for free, as part of their membership…

…Plus – they’ve taken the remarkable step of dropping their prices from around $800 per month to just $197 per month so that more people can access their tools and training resources.

Is StomperNet for Everyone?

No. There are some types of people who stand to get more out of StomperNet than others.

For example – if you’ve ever dreamed of running a large, highly profitable online store – then StomperNet is the best training you can get.

You only need to look at the pedigree of StomperNet’s own faculty members to see why:

• Audrey Kerwood’s “A2 Armory” is the case study poster-child for how a shopping cart site should be marketed;
• Brad Fallon’s “My Wedding Favors” site went from a $2,000 initial investment to $1.2 million in its first year, $7.8 million the year after;
• And Todd Chism’s “Patio Shoppers” site (founded in 2005) currently turns over $5 million a year.

So if an online store is part of your online business plan, then getting access to StomperNet for $197 per month (when it used to be about $800 per month) is a no brainer…

But on the other hand – if your focus is more towards smaller, lower-margin sites – OR if you get stressed by the idea of getting “too big” with your online business – OR you don’t have any time or money to invest into growing your site – then StomperNet probably isn’t for you.

Here’s Where To Get More Info…

If you want to find out more about StomperNet, you can use our referrer link here (and if you choose to become a member, you’ll help us to fund even more Market Samurai enhancements – like the performance enhancements we released today.)

Or you can use this direct link if you prefer, and we won’t see a cent.

But if StomperNet interests you, make sure you check it out now – because it will be closing its doors in a few hours (at 11:59pm EDT on Saturday)

That means there are only a few hours left if you want try StomperNet’s tools and training for the discounted $197 per month price before they close their training programs to new members.

(I’m sorry for the late notice. But hopefully you get this blog post in time.)

8 Comments »