You’ve just put up a brand new website, or maybe you’ve had one for a while and it’s just not getting anywhere.

The Good News: You’ve already taken some action. Putting up a website is just one piece of the puzzle that many people who want to do business online can’t even say they’ve done.

The Bad News: You don’t know what to do next.

Better News: You’re in the right place, because I’m going to share a number of tips, techniques and strategies from my own experience that will help you promote and market your web properties.

Unlike putting up a website, however, it can take some time to see the fruits of your labor when trying to get noticed online. Furthermore, how quickly you see results can depend on the actual market that you’re in – the more saturated and crowded a market is, the more strategic and “out of the box” you’ll have to think.

The Smart Passive Income Blog was definitely not the first “make money online” type of blog, and if I were to ask any expert they would have told me to stay away from this niche before getting into it. But as you can see, with some hard work, creativity and consistency I’ve been able to nudge my way into one of the most saturated niches out there, and I’ve done pretty well for myself.

Below are some strategies that I’ve used in the past since starting my online career that you may be able to put to practice too. Not all of these may apply to you and your specific situation, but I’m sure there’s at least one tidbit you can take away from this post, and sometimes it just takes one little thing to really jump start your success.

1. Become an Authority in a Forum

When I first started my LEED exam blog at GreenExamAcademy.com back in late 2007,  I was also extremely active in a forum related to the exam where a lot of people went to ask for help. A couple of months later, without even knowing it, I was eventually driving a ton of daily traffic to my site and became fairly well known as the expert in the forum.

Was I really an expert?

To me I wasn’t – but because I was leaving detailed answers to everyone’s questions, I portrayed myself as one.

Forums are beautiful because it’s easy for a person to find answers to questions they’re looking for from existing threads, and if they notice you’re the one always leaving brilliant answers, they’re going to want to learn more about you.

And after a certain point, you’ll become so well known that other people will mention you as a resource, and the promotion just takes on a life of it’s own:

There are, of course, some rules that you should must follow when utilizing forums for promotional purposes:

1. You must first give before you can receive, and your primary purpose in the forum is to answer other people’s questions and solve other people’s problems – not to promote your website. Traffic to your site should be the result of people making the conscious decision to want to learn more about you and what you have to offer – not because you’ve tricked them or forced a link down their throats.
2. You should never post a link to your website – not until you’ve become well-known enough that you won’t seem like you’re just spamming. Even if the link you’re posting is 100% relevant, it will always seem self-promotional until you become an authority figure.
3. Always make use of your forum profile and signature. This is where you’re allowed to be a bit self-promotional, so talk about who you are, why you’re there and most importantly, link to your site.

Note: different forums have different rules, so be sure to read them over first before you do anything. Some forums, for example, don’t allow you to post any links until you’ve been a member for a week and have posted a certain number of times.

To find a forum for whatever niche you’re in, you can simply type the following text into a Google search bar: forum:”keyword”

See below:

If I were you, I’d find one of the more popular forums (check the # of registered users, as well as the dates on the latest threads to make sure the forum is still thriving) and aim to become an authority in that forum. I wouldn’t divide my efforts between multiple forums.

Choose one, and kill ‘em with content.

2. Get on the Radar of Major Players in your Niche

There is nothing that can quickly boost the traffic to your website and the credibility of your brand quite like an endorsement from a highly respected, top player in the same niche as you.

In the not-so-distant past, guest posting on big blogs was THE way to get in front of a ton of people. A guest post is sort of like an endorsement from the blog owner, which means huge spikes of traffic and lots of new subscribers for the guest author. Lately, however, guest posts are having less of an impact, probably due to the fact that they seem to be more and more common, sometimes more common than actual posts from the author on many of the top blogs around the world.

Don’t rule them out though, and if you’re in a niche where you believe there’s some major traffic to be had by putting your unique content onto another person’s blog – definitely give it a shot. Read Glen Allsop’s Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging before you do anything related to guest posting.

In the more recent not-so-distant past, featuring ‘Major Player’ generated content in a list post was an effective way to indirectly get a loads of traffic, primarily from resulting shares on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In this tactic, you’d contact several of the top people in your niche and ask them all to answer one or two simple questions, and then publish all of the answers into one major round up post.

This is highly effective and still works, however in some niches (like the blogging and make money online niches) it doesn’t work quite as well anymore because the same questions are being asked and published over and over again, and for the “Major Players” it was fun the first few times, but after a while it gets a bit repetitive and they realize that their time answering one or two questions for a round up post can be better invested elsewhere.

The best, but toughest type of endorsement you can get from a top player in your niche is a feature, or even just a link to your site included in a regular post written by the author of the blog. This isn’t easy and it’s something that cannot be forced (or else you’ll just be ignored), but with some work and a little bit of luck, you can get featured on another person’s site.

Here on SPI, I’ve featured several pieces of content written by others who have caught my attention a number of different ways – primarily with their unique content that they provide on their own blogs, and how often I hear about those pieces in my social networks. This is probably the same reason why A-list bloggers like Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse were happy to feature me on their sites too when I was first starting out, which obviously did a lot for my brand and my traffic.

Here are 5 non-spammy methods to get on the radar of anybody online. Here’s what I suggest:

1. Retweet (RT) tweets on Twitter that link to their own posts, and compliment them (genuinely) on their work. Since it’s a RT, they’ll see your name in their “@ Mention” column.
2. Tag their Facebook page while linking to their posts on your own Facebook page. Like Twitter, this shows up on their own Page and they see exactly who was responsible for the share.
3. And beyond that, on Facebook and Twitter, you can obviously converse and chat with them about whatever it is they are talking about. Don’t go overboard though – you don’t want to seem like a stalker. Just be genuine, like you were talking to this person at a party. No self-promotion – just get to know each other.
4. Link to their posts from your own blog. If they have trackbacks, pingbacks  or something like Google Alerts enabled, they’ll see where the link is coming from. If not, they may eventually see some kind of traffic coming from a new source (your blog), and they might be interested in learning more about where it’s coming from.
5. On the blog of the person you are interested in, you can leave comments on their posts! A lot of people have definitely caught my attention with the quality of their comments there on SPI, and as a result many of them have been linked to and a few even landed a guest post or two. If you do plan on leaving comments on other blogs, follow the same rules as you would with forums: keep it purely content – as if you were contributing content to the post itself, be engaging, no self-promotion, and don’t forget to link to your website in the “website” field in the comment section so you can get some direct traffic coming your way too. To sum it up, leave epic comments.

Getting featured on other sites won’t always happen, but using these strategies you can at least introduce yourself to these people and get on their radar, and possibly generate long lasting business relationships with them.

3. SEO and Natural Traffic Generation

Of course, generating natural traffic through search engines is one of the best ways to market and promote your site – not only because you’re getting highly targeted traffic, but also because that traffic is virtually free.

If you have a brand new site, this will obviously take time to happen. Your goal is to get on the first page of Google for your target keyword(s), and depending on the niche you’re in it could take months, or it could take years.

I won’t go into too much detail here since search engine optimization is something that is talked about quite a bit here on SPI and on the blogosphere in general, however I will highlight a few key factors you should definitely pay attention to:

It All Starts with Great Content

Now, more than ever (especially after Google’s recent “Panda” update), the content you publish on your site is hugely important. It should be unique, extremely detailed and useful, or else you’re not going to get anywhere.

Think about creating content so good that it doesn’t deserve to be anywhere else but at the top of the search engines, and on everyone’s Facebook and Twitter streams.

High Quality Backlinks are Still Key

If you want to make any movement in the search engines, you must acquire high quality backlinks to your site. If you’re unsure of where to start, then definitely read The Backlinking Strategy that Works. It’s still working for many people, including myself, who implement the strategy.

Get Traffic From Long Tail Keywords

On all of my niche sites, and even The Smart Passive Income Blog, a majority of my search engine traffic does not from searches for my primary keyword – it’s for other keywords that people are typing into Google that I never even targeted, it’s just stuff I’ve written about somewhere in my posts.

On my security guard training site, for example, 42.91% of my search engine traffic comes from my target keyword “security guard training”, while 57.09% comes from 2,142 other keywords. And although most of those keywords only gather 1 or 2 hits, together they definitely add up, and as a result my Adsense revenue is always increasing.

The biggest thing to take away from this example is that the more relevant content you publish, the more chances people will have to find you.

4. Make a Presence on Lesser Saturated Platforms

Getting your name out there can be tough, but you can make it a little easier on yourself by making a presence on platforms that are a little less competitive and saturated. Here are some other places around the web where you could become an authority figure beyond your blog and the blogosphere, with the ultimate goal of promoting your website and brand.

iTunes (via a Podcast)

Starting a podcast and publishing it on iTunes was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made since the history of SPI. By doing so, I’ve been able to expand my brand onto a platform that has a lot of people on it, but is much less competitive – so it was relatively easy to gain some momentum.

Note: this screenshot was taken in September of 2010.

My podcast currently ranks #1 or #2 for the following keywords on iTunes:

• Blogging
• Online Business
• Passive Income
• Online Entrepreneur

These are highly competitive terms in Google, however it didn’t take much for me to find a top ranking for them in iTunes.

There are a ton of untapped niches here, so if you can create a show and become the leader and the voice for the subject on iTunes, you will promote your brand and you will see traffic, and potentially income as a result.

Of course, setting up a podcast isn’t 100% easy, and you’ll definitely want to make sure the quality of your audio is top-notch to get the best results. Definitely check out Cliff Ravenscraft from PodcastAnswerMan.com for all of your podcasting needs – and tell him I sent you.

Even if your site is brand new and you don’t have an audience yet, you can use iTunes as your primary traffic generator. This is exactly how Internet Business Mastery got started, and Sterling and Jay continue to rule iTunes as the #1 business podcast since 2005.

YouTube (via a Video channel)

YouTube is actually the #2 search engine in the world, and although some niches are pretty tapped out on this platform (weight loss and fitness, for example), there are some untapped niches that are very under-represented on YouTube as well.

As many of you know, I’ve been a big proponent of using YouTube to promote one’s website, and it has done wonders for my traffic ever since I started.

Here’s a screenshot of incoming links to SPI over the last few days, just to give you an idea:

Currently, my YouTube videos have been viewed nearly half a million times, and it continues to become a major traffic source for SPI.

If you find and fill a hole in your niche on YouTube and create a video that’s useful, you will get views and you will get traffic back to your site.

My best resource is SPI Podcast Session #19, which is all about YouTube marketing and getting the most out of your time spent on this powerful platform.

5. Becoming a Source for HARO and Reporter Connection

The last thing I’d like to talk about is something that I really wish was around when I was first starting out – a very powerful idea that you can use to get in some major spotlights, which has worked amazingly for a number of people that I know, especially Jaime Tardy from EventualMillionaire.com who was recently featured on MSN, CNN Money and even the front page of Yahoo because of it.

HARO, which is short for “Help a Reporter Out”, and Reporter Connection are two crowdsourcing sites that journalists, bloggers and other publishers use to easily gather information for whatever it is they are researching and need content for.

For us website owners, it’s free to become a source. As a source, you’ll get emails every day with inquiries from people all around the world looking to publish information about you if you have information they are looking for. Not all of the topics will apply to you, but the right ones can definitely put you and your website (again, if applicable) on a website with a large existing audience.

Here’s a screenshot showing what the emails from HARO look like. As you can see, if the topics are of your interest, you can get in front of some particularly large audiences (CBS Interactive, ABCNews, etc.):

I love this idea because the opportunities are coming to you – not the other way around. If I was just starting out, these are definitely emails that I would be looking forward to every single day.

Marketing and Promotion: In Conclusion

A few things to take away from these marketing and promotional strategies that I want to make sure you understand:

1. Putting up a website is important (obviously), but without any marketing or promotional effort, it’s just going to sit there collecting dust. Hopefully these 5 strategies give you some idea of what direction you can possibly take from this point forward.
2. Rarely does one see immediate changes overnight (although there is the occasional viral video or link from a super-site that can give you a quick boost), so be patient. Marketing is a process that takes time, and the beginning is the hardest part. However, once you get going it can have a snowball effect and things can begin to take off on their own.
3. And lastly, marketing is a people thing. It’s the relationships you build – not just with other big players in your niche, but directly with your audience, that can take your website to the next level.

Build sites for people.

Create content for people.

Help as many people as possible.

If you can do that, then you will be rewarded sometime in the future.

Cheers!

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Your Website Is Up – Now What? 5 Things You Can Do To Market and Promote Your Website
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In mid-2010, I committed to a 90 day extreme home fitness program called P90X and it literally changed me. Physically, I was in the best shape of my life, and mentally I was more energized and pumped than ever before – which had a direct impact on how I executed my businesses and how I lived my day to day life.

I shared my P90x results with you on the blog, complete with before and after pics and detailed stats (Warning: I am shirtless in those pics!) and since then I’ve apparently inspired several others to follow suit and achieve similar results. Being able to inspire and help others through my blog is why I do what I do, and to realize I could help people not only with their businesses, but with their health and fitness too, is such an amazing feeling.

Health, fitness and diet are so important because without our health, we cannot enjoy life to the fullest.

After finishing up P90X, I decided to go through the program again. I started round 2 in December, but after a few weeks I found myself getting bored and stopped my day to day regiment. My diet slowly started to include food on the “do not eat” list (the Holidays did not help!) and although my physical appearance did not change, my stamina and mental endurance did.

I caught myself slacking and started over again, only to go through the exact same pattern: start off strong, but lose energy over time.

What was happening to me?

Why was I failing over and over again with a program that I knew I could finish because I’ve done it once before?

It was then that I began to think about not why I was failing, but why I was so successful the first time around, and here’s the list that I came up with:

1. It was my first time going through the program, so it was always new and exciting to me.
2. I had clear goals that I was working towards, like specific body fat and weight loss, as well as numbers that I wanted to reach for particular exercises (e.g. 20 pull-ups).
3. I was writing down everything and tracking my progress every single day, which is recommended in the program.
4. I had a lot of people holding me accountable, since I mentioned it on the blog and to a number of my friends. I did not want to fail those who were watching me.

When I think about it, these exact 4 reasons are exactly what helped me achieve many successful things I’ve done online, from Green Exam Academy, to the niche site duel, iPhone applications and even the Smart Passive Income blog itself.

When I tried to go through P90x a second and third time, I failed because I did not have any of these things working in my favor.

Now I know what to do, so please consider the following paragraphs my #4 from the list above, because I’m not going to let you down.

I will be going through a new fitness program called Insanity, which was recommended to me by forums members on BeachBody.com and a few of my friends who have seen amazing results with it too. It’s by the same company who created P90X (BeachBody), but this program is very different. It’s only 60 days, no equipment is necessary, and it really pushes you to your limits with a lot of hardcore cardio and resistance workouts. I know, because I’m already at day 12 and it’s nothing like I’ve ever done before. It really makes P90X look like a walk in a park.

As far as diet, I’m following Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet from his new book, The 4-Hour Body, which basically means no bread, pasta, rice (brown or white), grains, potatoes, breaded fried food or dairy. Proteins and vegetables are regulars on the menu, as well as legumes such as black beans and lentils to fill in the calories. These guidelines are used for 6 days, and on the 7th day of the week, I can eat whatever I want. It’s a “cheat day”, which I wasn’t so sure about at first, but it really works. I won’t go over the science why (I’m sure a few SPI readers can vouch for the slow carb diet plan), but it really helps me when I have a craving during the week because I can simply say to myself, “I’ll save that for cheat day”, and I either forget about it by then, or am really satisfied when I finally reward myself at the end of the week.

So far so good, and I think I have an advantage that I didn’t have before when I was going through P90X that will almost guarantee that I will not fail:

My wife and I are doing this together.

She’s my best friend, but now she’s also an at-home fitness partner and when it comes to meeting goals, she’s always laser focused so I know we will help each other succeed (and yell at each other when we’re being lazy!). Plus, it’s great bonding time after the little one goes to bed.

I’ll share the results and picturess with you like I did last time after it’s over, but I’m hoping to finish up with 14% body fat (on my at home scale), 155 lbs (which is virtually the same weight I am now, which means I’d be gaining muscle since I’d be losing fat), and my goal is to be able to run a 6 minute mile.

Oh, and of course, a killer 6 pack, hehe.

It’s on.

Wish us luck, and have a wonderful weekend! Cheers!

p.s. If you’d like to give Insanity a shot, I would love it you purchased the program through my affiliate link below. If you’d rather not, no worries! Thank you!

Click Here to Purchase Insanity through Pat’s Affiliate Link

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I’m Going Insane!
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Over the past 24 hours I’ve received at least 20 emails from readers about Google’s recent algorithmic changes, asking me how it might affect my backlinking strategy and approach to building niche sites.

In case you’re not up to date, this is what the latest algorithm changes do, according to the Official Google Blog:

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites-sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites-sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

This change apparently has an effect on about 12% of search results, so this is really significant and a lot of people are already feeling the effects of it.

*Note: as I write this, the changes only effect rankings in the US. Google is rolling out changes world-wide over the next couple of weeks.

So how does this effect niche sites?

Niche sites have been notoriously on the lower end of the quality scale, primarily because it presents a relatively quick and easy opportunity to earn a dollar online, and as a result thousands of people create sites quickly without regard to the quality of the articles they publish. Sometimes, people even use software that ‘scrapes’ content from other sites (i.e. auto-blogging software), so the content isn’t even original.

As many of you know, I’ve been diving into niche sites lately so this change is definitely a concern for me. However, I was quite surprised when I checked the rankings for the 4 niche sites that I currently own:

1. Securityguardtraininghq.com – Stayed at #1 in Google for primary keyword.
2. Niche Site #2 – Stayed at #3 for primary keyword.
3. Niche Site #3 – Jumped from #5 to #3 for primary keyword.
4. Niche Site #4 - Jumped from #8 to #4 for primary keyword.

Now, I realize this is a small sample size, but based on what other people have been telling me I should have seen some changes, and I did!

They all either stayed the same or climbed higher.

This is just my educated guess, but it’s probably because I always focus on publishing lots of quality content on my niche sites, and because of this my sites aren’t seen as low-quality spammy sites, but rather sites that do provide unique and helpful information about a particular topic.

I definitely welcome Google’s changes because I think it’s a great reminder that we should never discount the importance of quality content on our sites, even on niche sites. It’s easy to lose focus on this because we always hear about external strategies, like building backlinks, that are sexier than writing quality content, but now you know you can’t do without it.

Google is literally giving us the formula for success here:

• Create high-quality sites
• Use original content
• Write in-depth content
• Be helpful!

As my good friend Nicole Dean says, “Make money by making the internet a better place.”

My niche site strategies will not change, but just remember that my strategy relies heavily on quality internal content too. Keep publishing a lot of excellent content, take advantage of massively long tail keywords, and rise to the top of Google while leaving the spammers and content scrapers behind.

What are your thoughts on the latest Google update? Have you seen any change in your rankings?

Cheers, and have an awesome weekend!

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Google’s Algorithmic Change and its Effect On My Niche Sites
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It’s happening again – Facebook has made changes to its business/fan pages and now all of the videos I have about creating a page and landing pages are out to date, including the one I published just a couple of week ago.

There are already a number of articles that do a great job of explaining the Facebook page redesign, but for your amusement I’ve created this little 3 minute video for you using the software from XtraNormal, which was used to create a lot of extremely viral videos you may have already seen, including this one.

More “real” content coming Monday, but until then, enjoy!

(click here to watch the Facebook Pages Update and Redesign video on YouTube)

Update: After creating this video, I found out that Facebook had made a glitch when they first rolled out the new pages, accidentally shrinking the middle portion of pages from 520px to 493px, which I address in the video. Facebook has since reverted back to the original 520 pixel page.

Of course…

Check out my updated Facebook Page Here.

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Facebook Pages Update and Redesign – Again
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As a blogger who does both video and podcasts, I’ve invested in a number of gizmos and gadgets to help me run my businesses. Below, you’ll get an over the shoulder look at exactly what I’m working with. Also, please note that some of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon.

The Desktop Computer

Currently, I’m running a 24″ iMac Computer. This piece of hardware was my very first Apple purchase made back in October of 2006 and I’m extremely satisfied with it. It’s really handy for all of the graphic design and other multimedia stuff that I do on a daily basis. Plus, because I have an iPhone app business, the Apple computer is quite necessary.

For those of you who want the specifics, it’s a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and her name is Betsy.

The Mouse

I prefer Apple stuff for most pieces of computer related equipment, however when it comes to the mouse I just can’t get used to any type of Apple mouse.

For one, I really need to feel the click, so any type of touch sensitive mouse just won’t do. And secondly, there’s one particular feature in a mouse that I just need to have – a hyper scrolling wheel.

I love hyper scrolling because it allows me to move up and down any page with lightning speed, and the wheel allows me to have more control. In particular, this is very handy when writing blog posts because I usually don’t write my posts straight through from top to bottom – I bounce around a lot and hyper scrolling allows me to easily navigate while constructing my posts.

The mouse I use if a Logitech VX Revolution. It’s a wireless laser mouse with an ergonomic design that you can see below (and yes, my mouse pad is a bamboo cutting board. Unfortunately, a laser mouse will not work on a glass table):

The Laptop

In addition to the iMac, I also have a laptop computer.

The laptop is not used for my business at all, but I thought it was important to add it here to the list because it is what keeps me sane (and my wife sane too).

You see, I wrote a post in mid-2010 entitled, The Most Important Conversation I’ve Had About My Business Ever where I discuss how my wife and I were having a hard time figuring out when I was working, and when I wasn’t.

If you’re an entrepreneur working at home, you’ll understand that it can be very difficult to draw the line (both physically and mentally) between work and non-work activities on the computer, especially with things like Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet. It’s really easy to just jump on the computer at any hour of the day to get more work done, because as an entrepreneur our work is never really finished, and there is almost always more that we can do.

My solution was a second computer – a laptop, which would only be used for personal, non-work related things only. This way, when I’m in my office on my iMac, everyone knows (including myself) that I am working on business related items. When I’m on my laptop, it’s “just for fun” so it’s a little easier for my brain to turn off “work mode”, and it’s a lot easier for my wife to understand that she can interrupt.

You might think that this is just a clever excuse to get a second computer, but almost a year after purchasing the laptop I can tell you it’s been working just like I had hoped.

As far as the kind of laptop, that’s not really important here – but in case you were wondering it’s a 13″ MacBook Pro.

The Pen and Tablet

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is about how I create some of my YouTube videos.

In these particular videos I use an electronic blackboard to teach something, but really all you’re seeing on the screen is an image of a “blackboard” I created in photoshop and a recording of myself writing on top of it.

To record what you see on your screen, I use Camtasia for Mac (Camtasia Studios for you PC users), although you could use ScreenFlow here as well.

To actually write on the screen, you could use your mouse, but it’s very difficult to get any decent penmanship with it. That is why I use a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Tablet.

I absolutely LOVE this thing and often find myself using the pen instead of the mouse even when it’s not necessary.

If you have photoshop, it also reads the pen pressure so your writing looks like actual handwriting, and if you flip the pen upside down it acts like an eraser too.

The Pocket Video Camera

I’m in Love with my Kodak Zi8 pocket cam, not only because it takes ridiculously sharp HD video, but also because it’s one of the only pocket cams available with an audio input jack, which allows me to use my podcast microphone to get some high quality audio into the vids.

I picked up this little guy before Blog World Expo in hopes that I’d use it to interview everyone that I met, but of course I only pulled it out to take video of the Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s parked outside of the Hotel Entrance at Mandalay Bay. Lately, however, I’ve been using it in the office to shoot some videos for the blog and some new projects that are in the works, and the quality is just out of the world.

Here are a couple things I’ve learned about pocket cams in the short while I’ve been using my own:

1. Unless you’ve got the most steady hand in the world, the videos will always come out a little wobbly if you’re not using a stand or tripod. My wife has literally gotten sick a few times watching some of the videos I’ve taken of our son. When shooting videos of myself, I just setup the camera on my desk with a flexible mini-tripod (like this one) to keep it still.
2. Sometimes, I have the camera in the perfect position and when I press the button in the back to record, I move the camera and have to start all over again. To make it easy on myself, I purchased a little Kodak Pocket Cam Remote Control which I can use to control all aspects of the camera from my recording position.

The Podcasting Microphone

I think I’ve gone through 3 or 4 different microphones before I finally landed on “the one” – a Heil PR40.

When it comes to podcasting equipment, I don’t know jack when it comes to the technical and geeky stuff behind it. All I know is that I’ve tried a lot of other recommended microphones, and this one by far produces the best sound quality.

It is not a USB mircophone – it has a regular 3-prong jack like you’d see on professional microphones that musicians use, so in addition to the microphone you will need a mixer as well, plus the cables to connect the mixer to your computer. It’s a lot of equipment, but if you’re serious about recording some high-quality audio, this is the kind of stuff you need.

In addition to the microphone and mixer (a Behringer Xenyx1002), I also have:

1. A wind screen (also known as a “pop filter”), which is placed in front of the microphone so it doesn’t record any breathing or “popping” sounds that can sometimes occur when you say words that begin with the letters B or P.
2. An arm (which looks like an architectural studio lamp) that allows me to swing my microphone in a position that is easy to record with.

I’m also planning to get a “shock mount”, which holds the microphone and absorbs any vibrations that can happen during the recording to improve the overall sound quality

If you’re going to be purchasing podcasting equipment anytime soon, I highly recommend getting a package from Cliff Ravenscraft of PodcastAnswerMan.com. He’ll set you up with everything you need just like he did for me. Here is an episode of PodcastAnswerMan where Cliff specifically talks about the Heil PR40 microphone and how it compares to others.

The iPhone

The iPhone is important for my iPhone app business for obvious reasons, but it’s also important for all of my other businesses as well.

It allows me to stay connected to my followers on Twitter and Facebook.

It gives me the ability to upload notes (including voice notes) on the cloud using the Evernote application, which I can later access on my computer in my home office.

It gives me the ability to listen to podcasts and read other people’s content while I’m on the go, because I’m always trying to learn more.

I can use it to take high-quality pictures that I can use in my blog posts, just like in this one.

Peace of Mind

This last piece of equipment isn’t absolutely necessary, but when you think about how much our businesses rely on all of the equipment that we use – that if someone were to take that equipment we would no longer be able to do business (sorry, I’m not trying to scare you, but it’s true) – then maybe it is absolutely necessary.

This piece of equipment is a security camera.

There are a lot of at-home security cameras available, but I use the Logitech Alert 750i Security System and it gives me the peace of mind that I need when the family is away from home. Here’s what’s cool about this system:

• I can view the camera from my iPhone through a securely connected Logitech iPhone application.
• I can view the camera through the web, through a secure connection.
• I can set it up so that it can send me an email or text message whenever motion is detected.
• It records everything and stores it in a mini-chip inside the camera, and also onto a computer.
• It’s all wireless and runs through a router, so the camera doesn’t need to be setup next to a cable modem – all it needs is an electrical outlet.
• I can even zoom in and pan around the room a little.

It’s one of those things you setup to hopefully never use for what it’s intended to be used for, but it really does make me feel better that it’s setup and ready just incase.

Equipment That I Am Planning To Get

This post went longer than expected, so I left a few important pieces of equipment out that I just wanted to quickly mention before I move onto what I plan on investing in next. Specially, I’m talking about an office printer/scanner (A Canon MP830) and an external hard drive for backup

There are a couple of major purchases that I plan to make in 2011 to help with my businesses:

1. The new iPad. I intentionally held off on the first iPad because I knew there was a better one that was eventually going to come out (there always is with Apple, right?). This purchase will be helpful both for my iPhone app business (which we do want to expand onto the iPad platform soon), and for productivity purposes here in my office and while away for events like Blog World Expo.
2. A green screen. I’ll be shooting some high quality video for some membership sites and courses at the tail end of 2011, and a green screen could be a great way to add some unique touches to the video to make them more presentable and memorable.

We’ll see what happens. Until then, Cheers and have a wonderful week!

So what’s your favorite gizmo or gadget that you use for your online business or blog?

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Exactly 12 hours after I posted my previous niche site duel update, my niche site took a giant leap from #117 in Google (where it was sitting for about 5 days), to #58, and now it’s sitting at #53. This was very encouraging because it means that my backlinking strategy is totally working, which is perfect timing because that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you today.

(sidenote: I’ve been getting a lot of emails about how to check your rankings in the search engines lately. Answer: How to Find Your Google Keyword SERPs Ranking)

To quickly reiterate, backlinks (links from other websites to yours) are the key to moving up the ranks of search engines. The quality is far more important than the actual number of backlinks, so it’s our goal to get them primarily from sites that have a high Google Page Rank.

There are a ton of different ways to get backlinks, but I’m only going to share with you my specific techniques that I’m using specifically for this niche site duel.

Publish Excellent Content

No matter what niche you’re in, you should always be publishing excellent content on your site. This is a no brainer, but many times we often put aside creating excellent content for other strategies that will help us rank higher.

Sure, you may climb the search engines, but what happens when you’re on the first page of Google and start to see traffic? They bounce off your site like a rubber ball because you’ve got crappy content.

Furthermore, with superb content you’re more likely to get backlinks in the most natural form possible – from people wanting to link to your content simply because your content rules.

As I mentioned in Niche Site Duel 004: My Content Strategy, I have a content strategy that may easily position my site as one of the most helpful websites available on the subject. If I can create the “go to” website for my niche, then backlinks will happen naturally and Google will love it.

Article Marketing / Web 2.0 Sites

This is similar to what Tyrone has outlined in his most recent video (see the niche site duel hub), but I’ve added a few things.

I will include a video (soon) that walks you through my process and gives you an over-the-shoulder look, but here’s a quick breakdown for now:

Creating Anchors

• I get set of backlinks by posting articles on the following article directories:
  • EzineArticles
  • GoArticles
  • Amazines
  • ArticleDashboard
  • ArticleBlast
  • ArticleAlley
  • Buzzle
  • iSnare
  • TheFreeLibrary
• I also get a set of backlinks by creating free blogs and posting content on the following web 2.0 sites:
  • WordPress
  • Tumblr
  • Live Journal
  • Blogger
  • Squidoo
• To speed things up bigtime and make the content part of all this much easier (since this is A LOT of content that needs to be written), I use a couple of handy tools (aff links):
  • Instant Article Factory
  • The Best Spinner

Instant Article Factory is excellent for creating quick content that I primarily use on my web 2.0 sites.

The Best Spinner has saved me the most time throughout this whole process, because what I do is:

1. Write a good, unique article (between 350 and 600 words), and then post it on the primary niche site.
2. I then use the tool to spin the article and then submit it to EzineArticles.
3. I repeat by re-spinning and re-submitting the article to all of the various article directories. All of my spun articles have been approved so far, including on EzineArticles.
4. I then re-spin the same article and use it on my Web 2.0 sites too.

Note: This allows me to “repurpose” my original article in a unique way that generates more backlinks without have to write more. That being said, when I use The Best Spinner (trial) to spin my articles, I make sure to read each of the spun articles before I submit them. This is important to me, and I recommend insist that you take the time to read through each uniquely spun article yourself before submitting them to make sure you’re not publishing content that doesn’t make sense.

Also, it is not an easy button, as it does take time to go through each word or phrase and select synonyms, but it really saves me a lot of time in the end.

Backlinks for my Backlinks

To give the backlinks from my anchor sites a little more “SEO Juice”, which will ultimately flow down to my primary site, I hit the anchors with mass social bookmarking and even more article submissions. I usually do this right away (after they are created or approved), so they are rapidly indexed.

You could use a tool like Bookmarking Demon to almost automatically submit to hundreds of bookmarking sites, but to be honest it’s a really expensive deal. I like to just spend 30 minutes using a free tool from SocialMarker to do the trick.

I’m also exploring mass article submissions as a way to boost my backlinks using tools like Automatic Article Submitter and Unique Article Wizard, which can send out hundreds of articles in a day to various smaller article directories around the web. I can’t recommend either of those two programs yet since I’m still getting familiar with them, but UAW looks promising. I’ll keep you updated.

So to sum things up, I’m essentially creating a mini-network of articles and blogs around my main site, with an outer ring of “boosters”. I will occasionally link the web 2.0 properties to each other and the articles as well.

I do have a few other strategies that I know about that I may try in the future, but for now this is it, and it seems to be working quite well. Hopefully within a few weeks I can get onto or close to the first page and then begin my monetization plan, which I’m really excited about and will share with you in a later update.

Until then, Cheers!

Other Posts in The Niche Site Duel Series

• Niche Site Duel: I’ve Been Challenged, and I Accept! (8/16)
• Niche Site Duel 002: Finding a Profitable Niche – My Process Revealed (8/18)
• Oops. The Niche I Selected is Bad, and Here’s Why (8/20)
• Niche Site Duel 003: How to Setup a Niche Site – Before You Add Content (8/25)
• Niche Site Duel 004: My Content Strategy (9/10)
• Niche Site Duel 005: My Backlinking Boo Boo (9/13)
• Niche Site Duel 006: My Backlinking Strategy (9/14)
• Niche Site Duel 007: Ranking and Traffic (and Earnings!) Update (9/29)
• Niche Site Duel 008: My Monetization Strategy (10/26)
• Niche Site Duel 009: I’m On The First Page of Google! (10/27)
• Niche Site Duel 010: I’m Ranked Number One in Google!! (11/8)
• Niche Site Duel 011: THE Backlinking Strategy That Works (11/10)
• Niche Site Duel 012: An Experiment and Income Update (11/29)
• Niche Site Duel 013: CPA Promotions, Private Advertising, Job Board and Income Report(1/14)
• My 275% Increase in Adsense Revenue (1/26)
• Niche Site Earnings and Directory Listing Update (3/11)
• I Was Just Offered Five Figures For My Niche Site! (5/11)
• Niche Site Update – New Content, Record Earnings, and What’s Next (5/26)
• Niche Site Duel – One Year Later (Earnings and Traffic Update (8/15)

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Niche Site Duel 006: My Backlink Strategy
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1. Niche Site Duel 004: My Content Strategy
2. Niche Site Duel 008: My Monetization Strategy
3. Niche Site Duel 005: My Backlinking Boo Boo
4. Niche Site Duel 012: An Experiment and Income Update
5. Niche Site Duel 002 – Finding a Profitable Niche: My Process Revealed

When I was in Architecture school at Berkeley (Go Bears!), my classmates and I suffered long, hard nights at the studio drawing massive plans, building detailed models and drinking lots and lots of caffeine.

Some of our semester long projects required over 60 hours of work per week, in addition to our actual class time for both Architecture and general education courses. It was nuts, and because we had segments of the semester long project due about every 2 weeks, I often found myself pulling all-nighters, crashing on a nearby couch, or in a sleeping bag under my desk.

Most of my classmates were right there with me, pencils in hand – however there were a few select students who just seemed to never be around until the last couple of days before each deadline.

My studio mates and I always thought, “There’s no way these people are going to finish in time. We’ve been here for almost 2 weeks straight, and they come in with 2 days left before the deadline with nothing.”

Well – when the deadline came around and our graduate assistants and professors looked at our work, some of the “procrastinators” always seemed to get the better comments.

Truthfully, it bugged the crap out of the rest of us! As a result (sadly), those students were segmented from the rest of the group because we couldn’t stand how they could get so much good work done in such little time. It just didn’t seem fair. They weren’t in the studio much to talk to anyways.

Fortunately, I ended up becoming good friends with one of the “procrastinators” because we were both in the Marching Band together. I eventually ended up talking to her about why she comes in with only a few days left before a project was due, and this is what I remember she said:

“There are a few of reasons. First, I know if I spend all of my time in studio with you guys, we’ll chat all day and all night and probably get nothing done. I’m actually glad the rest of you feel this way about me, because then you won’t talk to me when I do come in and I can focus and get my work done.

“Secondly, it’s because the deadline works in my favor. It forces me to be extremely focused, because I have no other option but to be focused. Putting things off and not making decisions doesn’t become an option anymore, and I can get more done.

“Third, I have so many other things to do, and so many other things I’d much rather be doing than spending all my time in studio. No offense, Pat.”

Here is what I (and you, possibly) can take away from this kind of mindset and approach:

1. Just because you’re spending time doing something doesn’t actually mean you’re getting things done. Yes – I was basically living in the studio and doing “work”, but was I focused and doing work the entire time? No.
2. Minimize distractions to maximize efficiency.
3. Be smart about your time. Time is something we cannot get back, so being efficient and smart about what you do with your time matters a lot. Stay laser-focused.
4. Understand what makes you laser-focused. For my marching band friend, her came from the approaching deadline. For you, it may be something different. Force yourself to be focused when you want to get things done. This combines perfectly with #2.
5. What she said about “…not making decisions doesn’t become an option anymore” really struck a chord with me. Many times, we find ourselves working on projects, websites and businesses, and not following through because there’s something “just not right” about it, or it’s not perfect. Well, nothing good will happen until you launch, until you actually finish your project and make those decisions.
6. Understand what you want in life, set your priorities, and do what it takes to make it happen.

There are two types of procrastinators in the world: the lazy ones who waste time, and the smart ones that control time. Luckily, I met a smart one and learned a lot about how she utilized her time and forced herself to stay focused.

Should you be a procrastinator?

No.

Should you strive to be efficient, maximize your efforts and stop wasting time, so you can spend time doing other things that you love?

Absolutely.

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This is a short post – yes, but a powerful one. It involves a little bit of participation, so please don’t be shy...

A couple of weeks ago, I shared this little exercise on my Facebook Page.

I asked my followers to share a link to their website and describe it using only three words.

Any words, but only three.

After over 100 responses, I found that this simple sounding task was actually quite hard for some people, and in fact it made some rethink the entire concept of their websites and why it exists.

So today, I invite you to do the same. In the comment section, please only respond with three words that describe your site. Do not include a link in the comment section, because my spam filter might block you. Instead, put the link in the URL field under where your name goes.

3 words only. No URLs. Oh, and no hyphens either…sneaky people!

I won’t leave you with any more instructions, but here’s something to think about:

What three words will you choose that make you stand out from everyone else?

This is your “abridged elevator pitch”, so make it good.

Oh, and there will be something nice in store for the few that stand out to me the most. Be sure to leave your correct email address in the required field so I can contact you.

Lastly, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the launch of The Smart Passive Income Podcast this coming Monday. I’ve been working hard setting everything up, but it’s finally here!

Cheers!

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When I was attending architecture school at Cal, I took a class called Environmental Design 11A: Intro To Drawing. It was four hours of class on Monday and Wednesday, and a meetup for an hour on Friday as well. The crazy part was that this didn’t include the time that was needed to complete our weekly projects. In total, I was averaging about 35 -40 hours a week just for this one class out of my entire schedule. Ah, the life of an architecture student.

During the semester, we were taught that one technique to make our drawings look more realistic is to not focus on the object that you’re drawing, but to focus on the shadows on and around the object instead. Why? Because shadows are everywhere, we just don’t realize it.

If you take a quick glance around the environment you’re in right now, whether your inside a home or office, or outside in a cafe – you’ll begin to notice that shadows are everywhere. Even in and around the keys of your keyboard lie a very precise pattern of shadows.

If you try to draw something, it will not look realistic without shadows.

After I learned this lesson, I began to look at the world in a different way. I noticed shadows everywhere, and I became a better artist as a result. Some of my non-architecture friends thought I was weird, because I would point out certain shadows that looked really fancy or interesting to me. Ah, the life of an architecture student.

Shadows of Marketing

Ever since I started doing business and marketing online, I’ve begun to look at the world in a totally new, different way. Much like how I started to notice shadows to help improve my artwork, I notice marketing techniques and strategies all around me, everywhere I go. It has opened my eyes to numerous ways to reach people that I have or would like to incorporate into my online repertoire.

The shadows of marketing are everywhere, you just have to notice them.

Take a quick glance around the environment you’re in once again, and notice how many forms of marketing are around you already. The labels on your electronics, the t-shirts that people wear, and every single commercial on television, just to name a few things.

Trillions of dollars are spent each year on marketing by companies who are fighting for our attention. Notice what does catch you’re attention, and figure out why it worked on you. Is there a way you can incorporate the same kind of strategy or thinking process into your own work? It costs these companies trillions of dollars to put it out there, but it’s free for you to consume and learn from.

There are way too many examples that I can show you, but here are a few of my favorites:

Costco Samples

Costco is awesome. Not only do I like to go there to get my annual supply of peanut butter and a 12 pack of croissants, but I like to go around the store and try all of the free samples too. Have you ever given any thought to why they give away free samples? Yes, it’s because they want you to try certain foods and purchase that product, but its far more calculated than that.

For one, there is human interaction involved. You go up to grab a piece of hotdog with a toothpick stabbed in it it, and you’ll get back a nice smile, and a small 5-10 second mini-presentation that describes the piece of food. Sometimes, you feel kinda bad just taking and leaving, so you listen for a little bit. A plate with food and no human interaction wouldn’t do any good.

Secondly, there’s social proof. You see large huddles of people standing around a small cart with a microwave on it, and you want to know exactly what everyone is excited about. It triggers a kind of “I want that” emotion inside of us, and sometimes that thought transfers from the sample, to the actual bulk product itself.

Lastly, it’s another awesome reason to come back and shop. Anyone who I’ve ever talked to about Costco always mentions the free samples, and not without a little bit of excitement or a smile. Have you ever seen anyone frown because they get something free, especially if its a small piece of something delicious?

Infomercials

I’m proud to admit that I love to watch infomercials. I’m sort of a night owl, so I get to see a lot of informercials in the late hours of the night. I don’t buy the products – I study the sales pitches. The next time you stumble upon an infomercial, spend a few minutes to watch it from a marketing perspective.

First, think about what channel you’re on. That’s called, target marketing. It’s not a coincidence that half of the commercials during the Price is Right are for some kind of mobility scooter or denture cream.

Each infomercial is a carefully calculated sequence of events that has been researched and optimized to sell. People end up buying products they don’t even need, because these sales pitches are so good. You might not buy whatever it is they are trying to sell, but they know that someone out there who is watching the same channel as you definitely will.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself while watching an infomercial:

• What is the problem?
• What is their solution?
• What are the benefits of their solution?
• What kinds of things do their testimonials say?
• What are the features of their solution?
• What was the original price?
• What is the actual price?
• What are the bonuses or free gifts?
• What is the scarcity factor?
• And what kinds of images are shown in each of these stages?

Oh, and in case you were wondering how to create an online sales page for your next information product, you’re welcome.

At the Casino

As a person in the architecture field who worked on a few projects in Las Vegas, I knew that Casinos were places of marketing genius. In the way the floor plan is drawn, to the location of their slot machines – everything is carefully planned to get the most bang for their your buck. For example, did you know that some of the loosest slots are placed next to the buffet line? Why? Because everyone who is waiting an hour and a half to get their prime rib dinner can watch all of the winners nearby. I’ll bet you that 99% of the time, when people are finished with their buffet they are trying to get their money back on the slots.

Next, casinos aren’t built so you can find the exit easily. It’s sort of like an Ikea. The more lost you are, the more you get to take in, and the better chance there is that you’ll find something that peaks your interest (and your wallet).

Here in San Diego, there are more than half a dozen Indian Casinos that are within an hour of where I live. My parents and I like to go every once and a while, not really to gamble, but more to take advantage of the pretty awesome buffets they have to offer. I do gamble a little though.

In each of these casinos, you’ll notice a Winner’s Wall, where previous jackpot winners are featured for everyone to see. Have you seen the types of people who are featured on that wall? No offense, but none of them are particularly beautiful people. They are just average. Why do you think that is? The reason is because it makes it seem like anyone could be a winner. If there were only beautiful people on that wall, it would discourage the average person from thinking that they could win a jackpot, and therefore spend less money. They aren’t consciously thinking that – it’s just subconsciously what happens.

How about the free drinks to anyone playing at the tables, or the really loud sounds from the slot machines, or the beautiful waiters and waitresses. The list goes on and on, you just have to notice these things.

Try It Out

As I said, I could go on and on about this. It’s come to a point where I notice things that work, and notice things that don’t work either. Sometimes, I just want to call the marketing department of a company and say “What are you thinking?!”, but I’m not going to do that. I’d rather use my knowledge that I learn from the outside world on my own blogs and businesses, and I invite you to do the same.

The next time you turn on the television and see a commercial, or go to the mall to shop for something, consciously think about how companies are trying to get your attention. What is the company, who employs the person that says “hello” to you in a retail store, really trying to do?

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it), and I wish you and all of your families a safe, happy and relaxing week.

Cheers!

p.s. The artwork at the top is from a mid-term in my ED11A class. We were to draw something in pencil that incorporated a coat, a desk, and a chair. I chose to represent the desk and chair as a piano and piano bench, and I also threw in my trumpet, which was my passion at the time.

Images used under Creative Commons from Webolutions and Spider.Dog

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Shadows of Marketing – Are You Paying Attention?
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If you’re not interested in my recent wedding and honeymoon, feel free to ignore this post and come back in a couple of days when I talk more about making money online. I just wanted to take a moment to share this special moment in my life with you, since it’s the reason why I’ve been gone the last half-month (hence all the guest posts.

I was recently married on 2/21/09 in San Diego. I make a joke about this date with my wife all of the time, and she always gives me a funny look as a result. The date, February 21st, also known as 2/21, or as I like to say, “two to one”, like two families becoming one…hah. Anyways…it had been raining the two previous weekends, so we were really blessed to have a nice, clear sunny day in San Diego for our wedding.

Our ceremony started at 11:00am at the Immaculata Chapel on the USD (University of San Diego) campus. The church is BEAUTIFUL and we paid a little extra to make sure we got it because we loved it so much. Here’s a picture of the chapel below:

I have to admit, I knew I was going to cry, but when Canon in D played on the organ when April was walking down the aisle, I was balling! Tears of Joy.

Anyways, the ceremony went smoothly, and by 12:00pm on 2/21, I was a teary-eyed happily married man. Here is a picture of our wedding party below. 4 Bridesmaids, 4 Groomsman, 1 Matron of Honor and 1 Best Man:

Yep, that’s me sporting the white tux. The green thing around my neck (and the groomsman’s necks too) is a lei made of maile leaves. Mine was the only one that had white orchids on it. We had a hawaiian/tropical theme for our reception, so we had to do something to connect the ceremony to that theme too.

Our reception was at Paradise Point in Mission Bay, San Diego. You may recognize that name from an episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8, where they stayed when they went to San Diego on their way to Hawaii to get married (this is kind of ironic because that’s where we went for our honeymoon). The resort is VERY tropical feeling and it fit perfectly with our theme. Here’s a shot of me and April from the windows of the ballroom (courtesy of one of my best friends and awesome photographer, Ryan Acain at radcaptures):

The reception was awesome. All of our friends and family were there, and since basically had the same set of friends since high school (we met in high school, but did not start going out until after College), it was like a giant reunion for everyone.

Our first dance was a hit too. We danced to Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love”, which was seemed to be interrupted by a DJ mishap. Everyone booed the DJ for ruining our dance, but then Akon’s “Beautiful” came on and we performed a hip hop dance routine. April is a hip hop dancer, so she choreographed this awesome dance to surprise everyone. It was sweet. I’m hoping there will be a youtube video up soon which I’ll definitely share with you.

Here’s a picture of us during our first “dance”, hehe:

Here’s a picture of us at our “sweetheart table”:

Dinner was perfect, and the champagne toasts were even better. My best man made the funniest, most thoughtful speech that I’ve ever heard. It was definitely a tear-jerker, but it bought back some good memories about our past. Good times.

Well, the night ended with open dancing and it was fun to see family and friends all together again having fun. Honestly, the whole day went by so fast. Our other friends who were married said they don’t even remember their wedding day happening because it flew by so fast, and now we know exactly what they meant.

I’m glad there are pictures and a DVD to capture these memories of the best day of my life, my first day as a husband to the most beautiful woman in the world.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this, your kind words and wishes, and for being a part of my life, even if you’re just on the other end of a computer – it means a lot to me. All the best to you!

Here’s to health and happiness for the rest of our lives.

Cheers!

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