Sean, thanks again for following along and for giving me some credit in helping you overcome the block. Even the very best writers suffer this, so why not us SEO‘ers? JK Rowlings used to live only a few miles from where I did in Edinburgh, Scotland – I bet she suffered block at times too! I think its just a way of your mind telling you to slow down so that it can recuperate its creative juices.
In answer to your questions…
1. Keyword a GO or a big N-O?
A massive stumbling block for most of us! As I mentioned way back at the beginning I throw out all the stuff that most SEO‘ers learn at or near the beginning of their online pursuit of glory.
I will check my Micro Niche Finder keyword tool and then double check with the free Goog Keyword Tool to retrieve the basic info – search volumes (exact) and in MNF I can check if the exact domain name is available. Hmmm… that’s about it as far as those keyword tools are concerned.
Of course, if I want to go for sales I gotta be creative enough to come up with some form of buyer (ish) type of keyword. Post on that later. In this case I put myself in the place of a potential buyer or someone who is looking for a service. If it hits home then its worth further research.
Then, its a case of checking out my comp in Google (I don’t bother with Yahoo or Bing for reasons already given). I mentioned all this above too but its simply about the backlinks of those sites in top 10, the domain age, the PR of course, Alexa ranking… But even if the sites are all PR3 and over I still may well go for it. I am not intimidated too much by that alone. This also depends however upon if its time well spent – is my time worth investing in pursuit of this particular keyword phrase? Obviously if I’m monetizing with AdSense on my site and they are offering 20 cents a click… you know what I mean Sean…
There is a formula that Courtney Tuttle and Mark Butler (2 of the very top SEO‘ers around!) came up with that I use loosely for determination of a profitable keyword. I think the Market Samurai does a similar job – cool bit of kit that is, although I don’t personally use it.
Let me see if I can remember cos its been a while since I actually used the precise method…
search vol (exact) x 0.4 (approx. 40% of the search traffic will go for the top ranked site) x adsense cost per click given in the Google keyword tool x 0.25 (this is approx. how much Google actually pay you of the shown click value provided by the GK tool) x 0.05 (this is the click through rate on the average adsense site)
Now according to Mark and Court, they would target a keyword phrase that will offer them $50 US and above per month, once they have assessed the top 10 ranking sites in Google to see it the keyword is do-able.
Its a very neat algorithm/equation that is relatively accurate given that you can indeed attain the top spot in the Goog ranks…
Hope that covers your question and if I missed anything or something not clear pls let me know.
2. Yes using UAW or similar software for building backlinks to web 2′s and solid articles is a really healthy technique to use. I take your point Sean regards the fact you do not get as many submissions as you were “promised”. What I do if I have only around 300 or so submissions is that I will go back into UAW and fiddle with my keyword choice a bit, then I will fiddle with the categories a bit, where possible, and often it is possible. I then re-submit and viola! Often times I’ll get a further pile of submissions, thus perhaps 500 – 700 over the two submissions. Does not always work out this way but you MUST try to get the best out of this or its leaving your money on the proverbial table, it really is!
3. Spinning – I write one version of a single article and then spin it to provide me 250 uniques – generally in the range of around 50%, which will often be sufficient for even ezinearticle.com unless I sniped an article from their database. If that’s the case then I would have to up that unique level to 60% and perhaps just over.
Spinning – I am lazy! I don’t mix this and mix that. I simply go through a quality article that I have located on ezinearticles.com, on Scribd.com – any place as long as its good quality. I will re-write with synonyms up to around 50% uniqueness, taking time as I do this to ensure its gonna be almost perfect. I would then go through each article again just before any submissions to any directory, site, blog whatever, to ensure it reads perfectly.
And that’s it. Not too taxing at all. If its too taxing I’ll sooner watch TV (and moan about my lack of progress while doing so 
)!
If you are able to make 250 quality article from one re-write even though it takes you 2 hours to do so, this is indeed incredible investment of one’s time Sean! So you should indeed forgo the thought that you are not being productive enough.
Once I have all these articles I have content sitting waiting to use. It takes a teeny bit of my hard drive, its really good quality, its unique and its thoroughly useable for almost anything I can think of regards the attainment of backlinks. Well okay, not quite anything, but you get my point I’m sure.
I use articles for my 100+ word snippets – a lot of the time! If I have a campaign going where the keyword is tough, I will need this amount of fresh content and more besides.
Nothing is going to waste, my dear friend! I LOATHE with a vengence wasting any precious time – its just the way I’m built. Hence I can’t hold down a simple JOB haha!
4. iSnare – I only started using them for this particular campaign cos I’m lazy haha! How many times have I said that – but its so true. If I can’t see a good reason for doing something then I can’t motivate myself to do it. And if I do manage to motivate myself it will not last long. iSnare demand 500+ word articles and that’s simply too much for me, unless I am writing for my clients that is. I have far more motivation in writing for clients than I do for myself, which is really very odd because I am such a free spirit!
And to be honest Sean, no, I would not be comfortable with mass submission of any of my articles unless they are at least relatively unique in content (the stats would depend upon what I was using it for but I tend to go for 45% and above) and I have checked each one over thoroughly for any form of mistakes – at which time I add a bit here and there so most of my articles are actually around 50% unique and sometimes quite a bit more.
You see, I’ve done enough stuff in my time whereby I’m just churning out over and over – its tedious, its not really rewarding in itself, and I’m a bit fed up of it.
That old argument that we all hear about when we are new to internet marketing – for me – that rings true more and more as the days and weeks pass. And that is – if you are not passionate about a subject don’t go anyplace near it!
Many IM’ers totally disagree but then, are they in this game purely for the money and thus are simply mechanical in their practices and principles?
I’ve had enough of that now. I am from now on going to be writing for PEOPLE and not for the spiders. I will be writing about what I love and will not be touching anything that simply does not turn me on. This way, its guaranteed to be received with open arms and smiling faces, and at the same time, its going to make some hearts pump faster than they were before they saw my work!
Always got something to say, I know. I have really strong feelings about some things and I can’t just sit back and let things happen without getting a tad hot under the collar. Its purely because my passion for this stuff cannot be locked away – its gotta come out one way or the other, and thus the internet really does suit me only too well because its a fantastic way to vent one’s passions, frustrations, annoyance, love… you name it!
I hope this answers your concerns and questions adequately. Let me know if you have any other things on your mind and We’ll talk them through. I’d be only too happy to see you surge ahead with your internet work! Do keep in touch and let me know how things are progressing!
Cheers
J
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