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8:24 am
June 10, 2011
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QuoteHey guys,
Long time no see. John, what you're describing is pretty much what I'm trying to do with my blog Project Rock & Roll. I've been pecking away at it for a while, but I've managed to spread myself thin and I haven't put in enough work on consistently generating content, networking, and really honing my autoresponder. But, it's a strategy that I'm committed to and enjoy quite a lot.
I don't know how many IC members are working with music related blogging for fun and/or profit, but if anyone is give me a shout on the PM. I''d love to know what other people are doing, and I'm always good for a non-spammy comment or 5. 😉
Cheers
3:51 pm
August 27, 2011
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This is an awesome thread with a lot of value for those who want to get to the basics of SEO.
Besides creating a 'genre' blog, you can create a personal blog where you talk about other aspects of your craft (your instrument, lyrics or song writing) and incorporate some affiliate links to earn a bit of extra income to offset your hosting, domains and auto responder fees. I think this type of blog can be particularly effective if you have multiple projects you're involved in (cover band, original band, solo or duo act, teaching etc.).
When I say "personal" I mean the elements of music that involve you and spill over multiple projects versus what you spread on your toast this morning. You still need to add value and engage, entertain, educate your readers - make it worthwhile for them to read about. If you're worried about making your band site appear 'too commercial', you can use a site like this to post gear reviews with affiliate links. You're adding value by sharing what works for you; someone may like the effects that you use or be curious about the pickups in your guitar...so share the info and by all means, earn a commission or two in the process.
The other spin on a genre blog is one that specializes on the local scene if you happen to live in a decent sized city with a robust music scene. You can then interview or take live video to create even more engaging content. The benefit to this type of blog is in addition to getting SEO, you can also suck in extra traffic from the local bands telling all their fans to check out your site for the interview you did on them or whatever.
Whatever route you take, doing them half-assed will give you half-assed results.
You'll need to plan and you'll need to dedicate a certain amount of time and resources to make it happen. This of course could result in taking some time away from your music - so it's a fine line to walk. However, if you do this right - you could build a supplemental income that can benefit your music or gain additional exposure and attention to the other stuff that you do...
11:51 pm
June 10, 2011
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Question: Since SEO is best reserved for your mini-site, are there ways other than article marketing, JV and social media, that you can drive traffic to your squeeze page? Is the traffic you get for your squeeze page independent from your mini-site? So your overall efforts are feeding two separate reservoirs, your mini-site(s) and your squeeze page, which operate independently, funneling traffic to your email list? Or is it useful for the squeeze page and mini-site(s) to inter-relate somehow?
1:34 am
June 9, 2011
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Hi Julianna,
SEO is a keyword-centric strategy. Unfortunately it lends itself best to articles. Squeeze pages by themselves generally don't do well in the search engines because well... there just isn't enough content on a squeeze page that would warrant significant keyword strategy, or social interaction.
However a good converting squeeze page can rank, because Search engines also look at bounce rate (did they click the back button or leave the site altogether). So if your page converts well, the bounce rate will be lower (that's good).
One thing I've had success with is creating articles for certain keywords or phrases and if I can get them to rank well, I can point instances of the keywords in the article as direct links to a squeeze page that is optimized for that particular keyword.
Through the combination of the high ranking article, coupled with the keywords being linked to a squeeze page optimized for that keyword, I can get a squeeze page to rank.
However, you can do just fine with an opt-in box on your side bar. This way if people like your articles enough they may still sign up to your list to see more good content... especially if you use a concise offer and call to action.
The two can be interlinked assuming the follow-up sequence follows the same line of context. (apples & apples sort of thing)
Long-winded, sorry 🙂
5:00 am
June 10, 2011
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Hey Steve, I understand why SEO is meant for content driven sites as opposed to a squeeze page. I guess I'm seeing how a squeeze page and mini sites are useful for different reasons. Does one generally convert better than the other over the long haul? Mini-sites because you can get them to rank and see solid traffic vs. squeeze page because of the call to action. If you could only do one, where would you focus your energy? I guess I'm trying to figure out how to best spend my time...
4:29 pm
June 9, 2011
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Wow. Great question. Honestly, as much as I love passive traffic, I'd have to say I'd chose the squeeze page. The reason is that you can't really split test an article to see what gets more clicks from a search engine, but you can always test your squeeze page(s) and ultimately improve your conversions.
Since list building/ relationship building is the primary focus, I'd definitely choose the squeeze page over the mini site.
The trade-off is that driving traffic to a squeeze page is a constant effort, whereas SEO has a passive element to it (if you can rank well).
I think what it comes down to is that even with a mini site, your focus should be to get eyeballs on a squeeze page first, make an offer for contact info, then use the mini site on the back-end for relationship building.
I'd love to hear what others think about this.
5:16 pm
June 10, 2011
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why not make the mini-site members only and build it out from the squeeze page? Anyone who gets to the site via SEO sees an oops as with this site or the squeeze page is the home page and you can't access the rest without opting in? I feel like someone else suggested this and you responded with a reason why it wasn't optimal but just searched for that thread and didn't find... sorry if this question is redundant...
6:13 pm
June 9, 2011
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Oh... because a page like that wouldn't get any love from the Search Engines.
Pages only get listed in the search engine if the spiders can crawl it. If you use some sort of script that redirects or hides content, the spiders can't measure the relevance of your content to the keywords it would rank for. Therefore, people would actually have to be able to land on the page before it could ever even get a ranking.
Does that make sense?
7:11 pm
June 10, 2011
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Ah yes I get it. So you can't create a home page that is simultaneously crawl-able by the search engine spiders but requires an opt-in by visitors to access the rest of the site. If visitors can't access the whole site from that page, neither can the crawlers.
So it sounds like getting traffic to a squeeze page via articles/forums is the best place to start and a mini-site helps maintain the relationship as well as generating passive traffic, itself (or income via affiliate links, ads etc.).
Any other recommends on best ways to drive online traffic to your squeeze page?
Many thanks Steve!
10:29 pm
June 11, 2011
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Not sure if im missing something here... But, why not drive traffic to your squeeze page all the time. And build your mini site so you can get the SEO traffic. But have an opt-in with a big call to action on the sidebar for your offer. Im pretty sure i got that idea from here. Basically...if you're doing a site on doo wop music. You'd just feature yourself in the sidebar. Then you could potentially rent that sidebar space out to other artists when you get good traffic.
DRESSED HIS WIFE UP LIKE A HORSE FOR HIS NEW ALBUM COVER
http://www.deanfields.net
10:31 pm
June 11, 2011
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the doo wop example wasnt completely fleshed out before i moved on. Basically, you would feature yourself as the latest big thing in doo wop.
that is of course...if you did doo wop. But you could really become an authority in your niche for your articles. So, your readers would potentially really be interested in what your music sounds like.
DRESSED HIS WIFE UP LIKE A HORSE FOR HIS NEW ALBUM COVER
http://www.deanfields.net
12:16 am
June 7, 2011
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Dean Fields said:
Not sure if im missing something here… But, why not drive traffic to your squeeze page all the time. And build your mini site so you can get the SEO traffic. But have an opt-in with a big call to action on the sidebar for your offer. Im pretty sure i got that idea from here. Basically…if you're doing a site on doo wop music. You'd just feature yourself in the sidebar. Then you could potentially rent that sidebar space out to other artists when you get good traffic.
If I'm understanding you right, that is exactly what I do. For example with MMM. I pull in SEO traffic with /.
I even link to the squeeze page in various articles. Sometimes I keep the squeeze on a separate domain, sometimes i don't. Depends on the niche and the inherent value on the home page.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
4:48 am
June 9, 2011
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Totally. Getting traffic to the squeeze page from articles works really well. You SEO the article content, whether it's posted on Ezine articles or your own mini site.
If it's Ezine articles you link from your resource box, but if it's your own mini site, you link from the actual keyword occurrence form within the article. If the squeeze page is also optimized for that same keyword, you might also get the squeeze page to rank for that same keyword as well.
But that also ties into how easily the search engine gets from one to the other.
The difference being that I have never tried the separate domain for the squeeze page, like John mentioned. I keep it within the same "silo" as the keyword I'm most trying to rank for with the article. However I don't rely on SEO to get traffic to the squeeze page. That's what the article.
Dean has got it right from what he said above.
5:17 am
June 10, 2011
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Thanks this is really helpful!
Seems like it would be much easier to get good SEO results from an article on an authority site vs. an article on your own mini-site. In the long run will you see more solid traffic for articles on your own mini-site?
How do you drive traffic to your Squeeze page from your mini-site? Is the mini-site content only, with a link on every page leading to your squeeze page?
I'm still trying to figure out whether a mini-site is worth the effort right now or whether to just write a bunch of articles on ezine...
5:28 am
June 10, 2011
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ps, in John's example, it looks like you don't even need to have a mini-site devoted to doo wop... it could just be a site devoted to your music with a big call to action? I brainstormed @ 20 articles about some of the crazy adventures I've had in the music biz and amazing stuff I've gotten to do as an artist and I'm not sure whether to throw up a mini site or post them all on squidoo or ezine...
5:32 am
June 7, 2011
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Hey Julianna, I went in to depth on the first point in your other thread, but in short, it's not necessarily easier to rank with an article on an authority site vs a mini site. It can be, but it very much depends on the keyword stats.
Re, driving traffic with a mini site, you could do it in a number of ways but if it were me I would treat the mini site like your own article directory where you make all the rules and control all the real estate. I would probably link 2 - 3 times within teh article itself (and one of those links would be a direct call to action much like a resource box at EZA). You could also run your own add in the side bar, header, or wherever else you felt like doing so.
Here is an example of a mini site I created 3 or 4 years ago. I haven't touched it in years but it still brings in the odd sale.
http://www.restaurantrecipesexposed.com/
I don't drive traffic to another site but rather I send traffic directly to affiliate links. It's ugly as sin (intentionally), but it did pretty well for me back in the day. It should give you an idea of what a profitable mini site at least could like like. Nothing says you need to make it look anything like that though. Even a simple blog with links in the content would do fine.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
4:28 pm
June 9, 2011
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John Oszajca said:
Re, driving traffic with a mini site, you could do it in a number of ways but if it were me I would treat the mini site like your own article directory where you make all the rules and control all the real estate. I would probably link 2 - 3 times within teh article itself (and one of those links would be a direct call to action much like a resource box at EZA). You could also run your own add in the side bar, header, or wherever else you felt like doing so.
That's a really great insight.
5:35 pm
June 10, 2011
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Also, I haven't been able to articulate my question properly but what I'm trying to figure out is, if you have a website title like besthiphopdownloads.com do the search engines see hip hop and downloads and treat them separately as keywords or do they recognize the entire phrase only? Taken separately, "hip hop" and "downloads" are massively searched low competition keywords. Also "best hip hop" yields much better results as a full phrase than "hip hop downloads" while "best hip hop dowloads" yields virtually no results.
Do the search engines string together all the words in the title and/or are the words also taken on their own? I'm wondering that for the body of my articles as well. In the context of a complete sentence, how do the search engines absorb the keywords? Do they automatically add in the words before and after hip-hop to build a phrase that seems implied? That has always confused me about using keywords and measuring their value.
12:12 am
June 7, 2011
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First off, wow, do I make a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes or what. I really need to read this stuff back before I hit post.
I'm still a bit fuzzy on what you're asking Julianna but if I hear you right, I think you are trying to figure out if you select a domain name such as besthiphopdownloads.com, does that help lend relevance to your site (and thus your ranking) for terms such as "best hip hop" as well as "hip hop downloads", as well as "downloads. and so on, or just "best hip hop downloads".
Is that right?
Assuming it is, this kind of thing is somewhat debated as Google's algorithm is very much a secret, but my impression is yes, it will grant relevance for all of those terms. BUT, the most significant factor is going to be the anchor text of the backlinks.
The one thing that is widely considered to be true though, is that if you are trying to rank for a term, you should ideally not put words in front of it (this is not an absolute rule). Just one of those little things that probably does help.
So if you were trying to rank for "hip hop downloads", would drop the word best from the front of the domain and go with something like "hiphopdownloadsonloine.com, or whatever. In other words, add the extra terms after the keyword (if you need them at all), and focus on the main keyword you hope to rank for instead of trying to fit 2 or 3 of them into the domain. That is what I would do anyway.
I used to do it exactly like you are trying to do and I had all kinds of bestsomethingsomething.com domains because I saw that best _______ ________ had search volume as well. I stopped doing that and now think that it's better to get maximum relevance for the competitive keyword and then just build some backlinks with "best" in it. I believe Google's algorithm to be smart enough to understand that the real relevance factor is the noun, not the adjective.
Does that answer your question?
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
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