Times have changed, though, as is evidenced by the constant numerous Google slaps, forcing people to scramble to keep their businesses going.

What most people have left out of the equation is that PPC is not the only way to go. I believe it is still the fastest way to make money, and probably the best way to make big money, but SEO shouldn’t be ignored, at all.

SEO traffic is free. Whats not to like about that? Ya.. it requires some learning and dedication, but there are lots of ways to make it easier and faster.

I have learned a lot about these ways in the past several months. First I started out trying to learn a bunch of different methods and different tools. You know.. site submission software, niche research software, article spinning software, and the list goes on.

Way back in August of 2008 I tried a new tool and said ti could do all of those things and get high SE rankings for niche keywords. They gave me a free 30 day trial to test it out.

I signed up for the free trial and downloaded this “cool new software”. Then I installed the cool new software. Then I opened the cool new software. And I sat there and stared at it.

I had no clue what to do with this thing. I mean it. I had no clue. I had a complete lack of understanding as to how to make this new thing work. It intimidated the heck out of me!

Now I’m no computer dummy. In my former business life I built and repaired PCs for a living. I know my way around software too. There usually isn’t much I can’t figure out when it comes to new programs. But this one had me scared of it!

It was so scary, in fact, that I only had it for less than two months, and then I canceled my subscription. Done… enough of the scary software!

Fast forward a few months to late 2008 -  early 2009.

I couldn’t get that cool new oh-so-scary software out of my head. It was almost like it was haunting me! No lie. It wouldn’t go away.

I guess that was because I recognized the potential it had. I saw past the intimidating awesomeness of it and saw that it was capable of doing.

So I did it… I went back to the website and signed up for it again. But this time I was determined I was going to master this thing!

So I set out on a journey to learn how to use this incredible tool to its fullest potential.

Once I started diving in, and learning what this thing could do, I was blown away by it.

Here’s an example: I created a new Hub Page for a specific keyword that this tool had helped me to find, and then I used this tool to submit this Hub Page to the Social Bookmarking sites. Less than two hours later I was sitting on Page 1 of Google for this keyword phrase. Uh huh! Page one

And the best part? Over two months later I am still on page 1 and that keyword phrase is still making me money

Stay tuned to learn more about this tool that was once so intimidating and now so valuable to me!

Now, go and make some money!

Be blessed,

Curt

PPC sites were thin… just enough content to get by, with little or no added value for the end user. The focus was purely on conversions… nothing more and nothing less. PPC sites would typically be a single page of content.

This is no longer the case… the lines are blurring quickly. SEO sites were always content-rich, with pages and pages of valuable articles and information for the users to plow through in their quest for information and knowledge.

Nowadays, with Google forcing the “good user experience” down the throats of PPC marketers, people are being forced to build richer sites with lots of content. I won’t tackle the subject of why this is being done, or what my real opinion of how Google is handling it is, but let’s just say that it is what it is, and SEO tactics slowly coming into play in the PPC arena. Ignore this fact at your own peril. It will cost you to do so.

Over the coming weeks I’ll discuss some of the tactics I have been employing to make Google happy. You’d be surprised at what will work. Most of these tactics cost little or no money. There are a few special tools that make it a heck of a lot easier, but none of them will break the bank to buy.

Check back again soon for some updates on the PPC – SEO connection.

Now, go make some money!

Be blessed,

Curt

They should stick to what they are good at.

What they are not good at is understanding internet marketing and internet commerce.

Despite the fact that they have some of the most up-to-date technology and programming, they lack severely in the department of knowing what they are doing when it comes to internet commerce and the searches that are related to it.

Here’s why I say this.

Attempting to market anything on Google is a nightmare. Because they don’t understand how people search when they are shopping online, Google forces all internet marketers to jump through these next-to-impossible hoops, in an effort to create a “good user experience”. Their vague definition of a good user experience is “giving the user more information than they initially wanted”, so that the user would have gained some kind of insight or benefit from visiting your site even if you weren’t selling anything.

This is great for people who are just information-hunting. The casual surfer looks for this stuff. The buying surfer doesn’t. The buying surfer knows what they want and doesn’t want to have to wade through pages of extraneous crap to find it. Give them too much info and they’re gone in a matter of seconds. Give them a direct route to what they’re looking for and they’re more than happy to buy.

Google has confused these two types of traffic and has tried to force them all into one funnel, mercilessly beating marketers to death in an effort to get them to conform. Their insistence that every single website have pages and pages of content is overkill and is part of the reason that Google stock has dropped from a high of almost $800 per share down to half o that. Google’s PPC advertising income has dropped and their share holders know it.

Google is in trouble and they know it. So now they’re scrambling to try to fix it, and you and I (the marketers) are taking the heat for their lack of education in the e-commerce world.

Get a clue, Google, and stop cutting your own throat.