I thought I’d circle back to yesterday’s blog post and my discussion about FunDogCollars - because a reader brought up a really great point that bears repeating. When you’re digging into a niche as tight as ‘dog collars’ versus ‘pet supplies’ or ‘pets’ - it becomes quickly obvious that you’re not going to write about dog collars per se - but about pets, and the joy of owning pets, in general. The heartwarming stuff that gets everyone, including me, a bit teary eyed.
The first two weeks of the 30 Day Challenge is about content and content distribution. Let’s take a look at the ecosystem:
Primary blog: This is the main hub of the wheel, the center around which all else circles. This is the destination of all traffic via improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In my case: fundogcollars.com.
Secondary blogs: This includes setting up secondary blogs on WordPress, Blogger, Weebly and Posterous with engaging and unique content. When I say unique, I mean each article is different, or you get penalized by the infamous Google algorithm (more on that later). These original articles contain your primary blog URL as part of the article. These are called backlinks, and the more backlinks you have, the higher your primary blog ranks with Google.
Article Submissions: While your cranking on the above, you also start creating expert article content for numerous Ezines and other outlets, including eZine Articles, Scribd, Squidoo, and Hubpages. Again, all unique and differing content.
Directory Submissions: Each time you write an article and post it, you’ve created a unique URL. For example, if I write an article and post it on Word Press titled ‘Where in the World is Griffin: The Magic of GPS Dog Collars, the following URL is created: http://fundogcollars.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/where-in-the-world-is-griffin-the-magic-of-gps-dog-collars. The goal is to submit this URL across as many link directories as possible - and this is automated by both Market Samurai’s Rank Tracker and Traffic Bug. This distributes your URLs deeper into the Web, and both these tools are great and can help save time - but don’t get me wrong, it’s still time very intensive.
Whew! You got all that?
So I was only being a little tongue-in-cheek when I said that I was bored with dog collars. Yeah - there’s actually tons of great stories out there that could really drive the niche. The point: it’s easier if it’s something you love. Spend time digging in and choosing the right keywords - or niche - to begin with.
When I follow this model again - and I will - I’d consider taking a week off after Day 5 and just writing and banking tons of content. Then, I’ll have multiple resources to plug and play as the challenge proceeds. Content, truly, is king. And with content by the pound, you can really leverage the distribution model outlined above. But it’s work, plain and simple.
I better get busy.
NOTE: I misunderstood the directions of the 30DC and actually duplicated a lot of content across these various channels I described above. This is a big ‘no-no’ and I got Google slapped. My SEO ranking actually fell from #3 to #5 in a matter of days. Ouch. That will leave a mark.
