The whole process of getting your website to the top of Google can be broken down into a number of steps that when followed, can place your site right up there at the top. The key is to consistently execute these steps until you get results. Here is how to create this process for you and your website.

Step 1: Identify a Reasonable Goal

When you are setting search engine optimization (SEO) goals, set both ambitious goals and goals that are achievable in weeks. These goals will take the form of keywords. You probably can’t expect to rank in the top three for your main keyword within six months. Although it is possible, don’t build your business based on that expectation. On the other hand, it is very reasonable to aim for ranking in a few weeks for long tail keywords. Start your quest for rankings with a main keyword to target in the long run and several less competitive keywords to rank for in the short run.

Step 2: Set a Content Goal

The content goal needs to come in the form of X pieces of content per Y amount of time. For example:

Goal: 3 Blog posts a week

Goal: 100 new products a month (ecommerce site)

Goal: 1 Video blog post a week

and so on and so forth. Remember that you are going to need to be able to follow this schedule for a few months. Be ambitious, but not so ambitious that you risk falling giving up. While it is possible to rank a website of just static content, Google does place a very strong emphasis and preference on websites that are regularly updated with new content.

Step 3: Set a Backlink Goal

Backlinks are the magic that makes an SEO campaign work. Choose one or two backlink strategies that you can execute regularly. Then create a schedule for when you will do the work. For example, if your strategy is to comment on ten blogs a week, then choose which days you will do your commenting. If your strategy is to do four guest blog posts a month, then you may have to contact five to ten blogs a week to make that happen. Again, schedule when you will do that on a weekly basis. The secret to rankings isn’t getting a bunch of backlinks all at once, but consistently increasing your backlinks over time.

If you follow these three steps and consistently add both content and backlinks to that content, you will find that you will very quickly start ranking for your lesser competition keywords. In a few months, you will find even higher competition keywords getting ranked, and eventually, you will even rank for your main keywords.

How can you take your existing commission checks and increase them by twenty, fifty, one hundred percent, or even more? If you are already earning money as an affiliate, that means you are in the top percentile of affiliate marketers. Here are a few tips for increasing your commission checks without too much work to take it to the next level:

Ask for a Bump

If you want to earn more money, all you need to do is ask; ask your affiliate manager for a commission bump.

Let’s say you’re getting paid $4 a lead. The affiliate network gets paid $6.50 per lead by the advertiser. More often than not, they would rather give you $4.50 and keep your business than refuse your bump and risk losing your traffic. If you are delivering a fair amount of converting traffic, they will be happy to give you a commission increase.

This same principle also applies to information products, even on ClickBank. Many publishers are more than happy to give a little extra cut by PayPal if you are driving a lot of traffic.

Go Direct

If you are driving enough traffic ($5,000+ a month) then you should seriously consider going direct, which means you cut out the middleman and send the leads directly to the advertiser instead of through an affiliate network. This alone could boost your revenues by fifty percent. Use affiliate networks to help build up your traffic and test different offers. Once you find an offer from which you can consistently earn a lot of money, explore the possibility of going direct.

Test Different Offers across Different Networks

If you’re getting paid $4 a lead and another network is promoting the same offer for $4 a lead, it’s a very good idea to split test the two offers because the two networks might have different landing pages, different tracking and possibly different amounts of dropped sales. Even if nothing else is apparently different, you will often find differences in sales rates on two different affiliate networks. Testing different offers makes plain sense. Find the highest ROI for your traffic and advertising dollars.

Expand Traffic to All Similar Sources

If you are advertising on Google AdWords, then expand to MSN and Yahoo. If you are advertising on Trafficvance (PPV), then expand to Media Traffic and Zango. If you are advertising on Facebook, experiment with Myspace and PlentyofFish. Whatever traffic sources you are using, identify all the similar sources and see if you can duplicate your results. Although MSN and Yahoo combined might only be a third of your Google traffic, but you don’t need to go through all the trouble of finding a working campaign as you already know what works.

These are a few ways you can take your existing campaigns and techniques and expand them to earn twenty to one hundred percent more money every month.

Sellers who use eBay Marketplace Research have a distinct advantage over marketers who don’t. With Marketplace Research, you can get data that will help you decide what to sell, what not to sell, and how to compete with other sellers more effectively. These are a few ways you can use eBay Marketplace Research to your advantage.

Check Demand before You List

How many people are buying the product you are about to sell? Conversely, how many listings get dropped without a single bid? Before you invest the time, money and energy into marketing a product, Marketplace Research can tell you exactly how much demand there is for the product.

Seasonality

Does the item sell best in the winter, or does it sell throughout the year? Perhaps the item sells fairly consistently, except for certain months when it makes a huge spike. These are crucial statistics to know before you jump into an industry. EBay doesn’t give you these statistics, but Marketplace Research will.

Statistically Winning Keywords

Marketplace Research can compile a list of all the keywords that were used to list the item you are selling, then match it to the number of sales those listings made and tell you which keywords statistically had the highest rate of success. By using these keywords you are virtually assured that your listings will get seen by the right people.

Days and Times of Days

Is it better to list your auctions for five days or seven? Should you end on a weekday or weekend? What time is the best to end your auction? Again, Marketplace Research can give you detailed statistics based on past listings. It will tell you what times of day the most successful auctions ended and what times of day failed to get buyers.

Spy on Winning Sellers

What are winning sellers selling? What are their keyword strategies? What are their listing strategies? Marketplace Research gives you a whole host of data on specific sellers that eBay doesn’t provide you with. This information can really help you pull ahead of the pack and eventually surpass the industry leaders.

Research Overseas Markets

Should you sell your products overseas? How much demand is there? Not only will Marketplace Research answer this question, it will even give you a breakdown by region. Furthermore, it will also show you the various different eBay-owned websites on which you could market your products internationally.

EBay Marketplace Research really gives a seller a powerful advantage. Instead of having to spend time and money figuring out what works and doesn’t work, you can instead just look up the data based on past performance. That could mean thousands of dollars and months of work saved.

The more bids you have on your auctions, the higher your eventual sale price will be. The number of bids indicates to other bidders how popular your item is. The more popular it is, the more others tend to want that item. Here are a few proven tactics to get more bids on your auctions:

Start Your Auction at $0.99

Starting your auction at $0.99 will virtually guarantee you will get bids, especially if your item is worth significantly more. You have to have a bit of confidence to do this because often times your item won’t get bidded on until the last hour of the auction.

While starting at $0.99 can often win you more bids, it can be a trade-off. Sometimes starting lower causes people to believe your product is worth less and therefore will eventually sell for less; while at other times the extra bids drive the sales up. Test it for yourself to see what works.

Aim for Snippable Times

Many eBay buyers prefer to bid at the last minute to prevent others from seeing their bid prematurely. This practice is called “sniping.” As a seller, you want to make it as easy as possible for snipes to place their bid. Therefore, look at ending your auctions either on weekends or at nights, when people can comfortably be in front of their computers. When in doubt, take a look at when all your competitors end their auctions and time your items to be within a few hours of theirs.

Have a Unique Selling Proposition

Having a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) can really make the difference. So many sellers try to compete with one another selling basically the same item, which makes no sense. Instead, come up with something unique about your item. It can be something as simple as a free guide to the product to be included when they buy; or a small related item for free. Whatever it is, make sure you have something that sets you apart from your competition. Promote that USP shamelessly.

Clear Pictures, Description, Shipping and Refunds

Take several clear pictures of the product from all angles. Avoid using stock images or images from the manufacturer, as that is what everyone else will be using. Answer common questions in your description. Make sure your shipping and refund policies are very clear. Know what questions others frequently have about the product and answer them preemptively. Even in the competitive marketplace of eBay, there are a lot of bad listings. A lot of people just copy and paste their website into eBay. By taking the time to really answer questions, take new pictures and create a professional description, you will make your listing stand out.

If you craft your auction with clear pictures and description, have a rock-solid USP, end your auction at ideal times and start your auctions at $0.99, you’ll almost certainly get a nice flow of bids for your items.

EBay Pulse is eBay’s in-house tool to help marketers figure out what to sell. As the name suggests, it is designed to help you figure out the ever-changing “pulse” of eBay. What’s selling right now? What do people want? What’s popular and what’s making money? EBay Pulse can be found at: http://pulse.ebay.com/

Here’s how to use this tool to find profitable new markets:

Popular Searches and Largest Stores

While the popular searches are interesting to look at, they generally won’t give you much useful information. Most of these markets are completely saturated. Many of the sellers have very close relationships with wholesalers or even manufacturers, and the profit margins will be razor thin.

On the other hand, it is often quite educational to look at the largest stores to determine what products they are selling, how they are selling, and what kind of tactics they are using.

Most Watched Items

The most watched items change a lot faster than popular searches and can be worth tracking regularly. Here you will quickly get a sense for what people are interested in. If you spot a market that seems to have demand and isn’t oversaturated, jump on it right away.

Using EBay Pulse in Categories and Sub-Categories

This is how eBay Pulse is really best used. Start by selecting a category from the category drop-down box. Take a look at the most popular searches, largest sellers and most watched items in the overall category. Then, select a sub-category. Again, look at the popular searches, largest sellers and most watched items. Often your most useful data will come from looking at smaller sub-categories rather than larger top-level categories. These are the places where you will find under-fulfilled markets with potential to make money.

Watching eBay Pulse over Time

The most effective way of using eBay Pulse is to check it regularly. Glancing at eBay Pulse just once or twice usually won’t tell you all that much. But when you look at it regularly, you will be able to spot trends fairly quickly.

Look for new items to show up on popular searches or most watched items. See if an item is gaining in position or losing position. If it is rocketing up in popularity quickly, do some research. Did something happen to spark interest? Is it a new item, or an old item that somehow caught the attention of the public? Can you find a wholesaler or manufacturer for the item?

EBay Pulse is an extremely powerful tool for finding new profitable markets in which to sell your products. Start by browsing the site-wide and top-level categories for general trends and ideas, then drill down into specific sub-categories to really find untapped niches.