Black Hat SEO Digest

Working with off-line clients?

A few of the posts in the Black Hat Experimental section deal with working with off line clients.  It’s one of the hardest things I ever do.

Give me a keyword or phrase and tell me to rank it – I’m good to go.

Tell me to build a network – I’m good to go.

Have me investigate what needs to be done to get sites to rank – I’m good to go.

Ask me to meet with someone in person – I’m NOT good to go.

If I was to be honest with myself I would have to say that I dread meeting with clients, talking over the phone, etc…  On most days my “big” adventure is going to walmart, the store, or taking my kids to whatever activity.  It’s a whole different ballpark when I’ve got to shave, get dressed in something nice, and actually go “sell” something.

The selling part isn’t what I find hard.  I don’t do hard sells – it’s not in my personality.  I was however a plumber for about 10 years.  During that time I got comfortable telling folks that something was shot and it was going to cost thousands of dollars.  In some cases (imagine the cost for digging up your entire back yard, putting in pumps, a drain field, etc..) the cost was in the 30k range and we were going to tear up your pretty landscaping too.

It’s really not difficult.  You just act like it’s a no different than selling them a soda for $1.65.  How you perceive the value of the service your offering is what is going to carry over.  If your like me and don’t have the ability to try and turn shit into shinola – it’s even easier.  If I tried to over inflate my off line services I wouldn’t be able to carry it off.

The best part is that my prices are way more than fair – but equate to a tremendous dollar per hour value.  Why?  I run a small shop, with little overhead on the seo side of things.  I meet with a client and tell them it’s going to be 5k to design their site, fill it up with the content THEY provide, do a little seo on it, and then work on rankings for one month.  I’m still cheaper than every single website development firm they have talked to locally.

I’m confident my prices are fair, that carries across to confidence in my abilities (which I have), which usually results in a sale.  Usually for everything I ask for – why? I’m the expert not them.

There is another way to project that expert status – and it’s expensive but ohh so worth it.  I’ve got business cards, folders, plans, outlines, etc..  all packaged up and I just hand them to the clients.  They cost about 9 dollars for everything in one, and I only give it to you after we’ve talked about prices, vetted you, and are on our way to finishing things up.

It’s got your contract inside it.

It’s got my cards inside it (20 of them with the clients name already printed on the back…. I do free work in return for referrals.)

It’s got question and answer sheets.

It’s got a form to fill out with all the parts their site will need.

It’s got an example workflow for a fictional client so they can understand how long things are going to take and the fact that input is required from them at certain stages (they hold it up — it’s their fault not mine).

Staples, vistaprint, and kinkos are all my best buds.  Vistaprint is great pricing to try new cards out – that’s about all I use them for.  Kinkos and staples literally have folks there to help you design and layout everything. (kinkos is better if you have one -but more expensive).

It’s going to cost some money to get things made – and your going to keep making changes.  Before you go that route do some work with off line clients and make sure your comfortable working with off line clients.  A great way to get started is to do some work at cost for some influential people in your area.

Or just do some of the things in the black hat experimental section here and walk in with proof your an expert.

Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

Popularity: 1% [?]

Black Hat Experimental – Polls / Hot Trends

Black Hat Experiments is a new section on the blog where I talk about ideas I (or someone else) had that seem like a good idea.  I haven’t scaled them, tested them, or really done anything – I just think it’s a good idea.  Here is the link to the category section where you can “see” them all.  Black Hat Experiment Category.  Side Note: Guest posts are welcome to BHD right now – either for this section, script contributions, or discussions. It’s a great way to get some exposure to your blog, service, etc…  I don’t charge for guest posts, and I won’t take ones that just promote some service.  Contact me if you are interested.  I won’t post another one until we get a few comments (good or bad) on each volume.

Polls and Hot Trends – Using Auto Blogs to Clean Up!

FIrst what’s up with hot trends?

I’m sure by now you are aware of Google Trends.  If you aren’t – or don’t quite get it,  google trends provides you with the top search terms for the recent couple of hours.   If you are autoblogging using these terms you show up in googles blog search and get traffic.  You also get links back from *(via trackbacks) from other sites on the same hot topic bringing you in more traffic.

Why mess with a poll?

Many marketers use polls as a way of “tricking” folks into signing up for a CPA ad.  I’m sure you’ve seen those lovely ads that say things like:  “Is Madonna Really Sleeping with the Lakers?” Click here to vote and win an ipod.

It then takes them to a fake poll, and then they fill out the cpa offer for a free ipod.

The marketer gets a couple bucks and life goes on.

How to bring it all together and have it make sense.

So most people using hot trends to auto blog use polls but they only use one per site.  With a little coding you can easily have your poll ads match what’s going on.  Let’s see what’s “hot” right now:

1. cash for clunkers qualifying cars

2. charlie foxtrot

3. clunker program

4. luke french

5. jarrod washburn

6. chris dodd

7. shuttle landing

8. erin andrews videos

9. omer bhatti pics

10. deltalina

So let’s say you use a plugin to allow PHP in your posts (phpexec I believe), and a plugin to put something at the top of every post (can’t remember which one – generic header I think).

You’ll have to be posting with just the “keyword” as your title – and nothing else.  So let’s pop in a little php code to the top of every post:

Do you think everyone else is searching for <?php the_title(); ?> right now?  Click Here to Vote for a Chance to win a FREE Ipod!

Let’s be honest and admit that you will have some “Duds”.  There are hundreds of variations you can do — such as:

Our last  <?php echo rand(15, 50 ); ?>visitors have also been curious about <?php the_title(); ?>.  Do you think you have something in common with them?  Fill out our “Profile” form for a chance to win a free mustang convertible.

Then take them to a page where they fill in a form about their age, weight, hobies, etc…  after they submit it send em on over to the CPA offer for the mustangs.  Make sure you grab their e-mail as well and dump em into a newsletter.

(note:  you could just hack into singlepost.php and do the same thing with out all the plugins – easier that way)

Basic little hacks to wordpress with some very basic PHP coding and you have a little more content on each page, a “new” User experience…. and a way to monetize crap traffic to a auto blog

This can’t last forever

Auto blogs that scrap for google trends get burned pretty quickly.  Here is how you protect yourself a bit.

1.) Install a plugin that “hides” categories from the front page.  This will help you pass any human reviews.

2.) Have “real” posts that do show up on the front page.

3.) After running it as an autoblog for a few weeks/few months turn it off – and make it real.  BURY that category so it doesn’t show up in the sidebar at all.

4.) You can always use something like power up wordpress to manage your real posts for all your autoblogs.  Bury that spam in a flurry of “legit” posts

Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

Popularity: 1% [?]

Black Hat Experimental: Ebay – Want it now

Ebay has a little feature called “want it now”.  It’s a place where people who want something can list what they want.  You can also contact them.

Now I’m not suggesting that you sell folks things from there – and spamming is wrong. Cough Cough.  Ebay doesn’t like it, but you could probably find a few bucks this way (or the safe way – I’ll get there in a minute).

BUT let’s say you have a free afternoon, and all these affiliate programs you belong to.  Between C.J. and Linkshare you can probably find lot’s of things that people are looking for.   Throw up a blog real fast, and start listing what you see people looking for.  Direct those ebay searchers to the page where you put the product.

I’ve used this feature only as a research tool in the past.  Let’s say I’m thinking about something to create a “ebay site” on.  I like to find little niches that don’t have much competition outside of strange people searching for them – and then direct them to ebay to make the purchase.  I’ll build a site that’s only going to make 200 a year if it only takes me 30 minutes.  400 dollars an hour is usually worth it in anyones book right?

Here is the ebay “want it now” page:

http://pages.ebay.com/wantitnow/index.html

If you’ve got ideas, or have used this feature on ebay a little further – speak up.

Cash in on your Competitors’ Work – SpyFu Ad History

Popularity: 3% [?]