Today I’m going to share with you how I get one of my old websites back to top 10 in Google, spending very little time and money.

But before I tell you what I did, let me give you a brief background about this particular website.

I have a niche website that I created back in 2004 and it has been in the top 10 in Google for a competitive keyword for years.

To give you some idea, that ’single word’ keyword gives 6,900,000 results in Google, i.e. more than 6 million websites are fighting for that keyword.

A few months back, I realized that the sales from the website dropped. I suspected that my ranking in Google had probably dropped. Indeed, it dropped out of the first page into the second page. The exact ranking was 12th position. Just missed the top 10 by 2 positions.

To regain my top position, I needed to get lots of backlinks fast.

Thus, about 2 months back, I engaged a freelancer to submit the website to 1000 link directories for less than $30. That’s all I did.

A few days ago, I realized that sales from the website increased. I went to Google and checked. Indeed, I’m back to the top 10. I’m now in the 7th position.

From this experience, I once again prove that directory submission is still a viable promotion method.

Some Advice In Website Creation

When I first started creating niche websites to profit from Adsense and affiliate sales, I followed the advice of the ‘experts’ - follow your interest.

I wrote very good articles and each website took me one month of intensive effort!

Soon, very soon in fact, I ran out of interested topics and I had nothing to write. It took me a while before I decided to create websites using Private Label Articles.

I’m glad that I made that decision.

The traffic and earnings from some of the websites created using Private Label Articles outperform those ’sweat and toil’ websites I’ve created.

For example, one of the websites I’ve created using Private Label Articles is now consistently generating more than $500 a month from Adsense. The highest record was $700 in one month. It took me only a few hours to create the website and a few hours to promote it.

I’ve tried at least 4 different Private Label Article services in the market and there is only 1 that worth my time and investment. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), that website will be closed on 30th June 2008, i.e. it will stop accepting new members after 30th June 2008 (but existing members will still continue to receive new articles). When it reopens, probably after 3-4 months time, the same service will cost you double.

If you are just starting out but are committed to build some passive income online, I suggest you grab this PLR service that I use before it’s closed to the public and ‘naively’ follow the instructions laid out by them, especially their 90-day challenge as well as my step by step guide. If you can just do that, you will thank me one year from now.

This post is about how to use pingback/trackback to get more links and contents for your blog.If you have a blog, you probably have 2 important things to ‘worry’ about.

1) Finding/writing quality content to post to your blog

2) Getting quality links to your blog

Here’s a proposal on how you can have both at the same time!

The idea is to use the pingback/trackback feature that comes with a Wordpress blog.

Here’s a typical scenario:

- Person A writes something on her blog.

- You read her blog and have some afterthought.

- You blog about your thought in your own blog (hence more content for your blog).

- You either pingback or send a trackback to Person A’s blog

- Person A’s blog receives the pingback/trackback and displays it as a comment to the original post, linking it back to your blog (hence another link juice for you).

Now, for this method to work, 2 things must be ready:

1) Person A’s blog must allow trackback and pingback

2) Ideally, person A’s blog sets “DoFollow” for her trackback and pingback.

How to know if a blog allows trackback and pingback?

Simple, just check out the blog and see if there’s any trackback or pingback links. They are either in the comments section or a section on its own (like LeadsLeap blog).

How to know if the trackback/pingback has “DoFollow”?

If you use Firefox, you can install a plugin called SEO For Firefox. The plugin will highlight links with “NoFollow”. Any link without “NoFollow” is “DoFollow”.

If you use IE, change to Firefox! (How is my humour?)

How to create a pingback or trackback?

1) First, it should be enabled in your wordpress blog. You can do that by logging into Options » Discussion - and making sure there is a check mark next to Attempt to notify any Weblogs linked to from the article (slows down posting.).

2) Next, write a post and link back to the original post.

In most cases, Pingback will happen automatically and there is no need for you to send any trackback.

If you have any difficulty in pingback or trackback, refer to this excellent guide.

A note on “DoFollow” trackback and pingback

Wordpress blog, by default, has “NoFollow” trackback/pingback link. If you own a blog and would like to advocate “DoFollow” for trackback and pingback, you can install Dofollow Trackbacks Plugin.

If you decide to do that, write a comment below to let our readers know you advocate “DoFollow” on your blog. Who knows, some readers may decide to read your blog and pingback to your blog

Final note

You are welcome to link to LeadsLeap blog and get a pingback or trackback, provided that you don’t spam. For LeadsLeap members, you can add your referid to the link. It will pingback to the original post.

There is an SEO theory which suggests that mass directory submission will get your website into Google sandbox.

The basic idea is if your new website has too many links all of a sudden, usually due to mass submission in a short time, your website will be ‘jailed’ by Google.

Is it true? Let’s find out in this little test that I’ve done.

In my test, I built 3 40-page content websites and then did the following IMMEDIATELY:

- For 2 of the websites, I bookmarked them at Digg and Propeller (as what I usually do to promote new websites) and submit them to 1000 link directories (outsourced).

- For the third website, I only submit them to 1000 link directories. Forgot to submit to Digg and Propeller actually.

After 3 days……

All three websites got indexed in Google, one with 100% of the pages indexed and the other two with 50% indexed.

From my experience, it is unusual that new websites get 100% indexed. Usually, if your website has 40 pages, about 10-20 pages will be indexed initially. I believe this is because there isn’t enough link popularity for the new site.

But in this test, one website got 100% indexed. Is it a coincidence or it’s the effect of 1000 directory submission? Em…

How about the traffic?

There is a surge in traffic to all 3 website in the first few days. This is expected because link directories owners are evaluating the website for listing.

But after 7 days……

One website average about 20 visitors a day and the other two websites average about 40 visitors a day.

Frankly, I like what I’m seeing.

To give you an idea, my other websites with ’slow’ link building process are getting 5 to 10 visitors a day initially. These 3 websites are really having a great start.

Are all the traffic from Google?

Not really. Two websites have most of the search engine traffic from Google. One has most of the search engine traffic from Microsoft Live. Besides search engine traffic, te websites also have traffic from Digg, Propeller and tons of link directories.

The websites are now 2 weeks old and the traffic has been pretty consistent.

From this little test, I’ve yet to see any sandbox effect on these 3 websites as a result of mass directory submission.

On the contrary, I’m seeing Search Engines giving my websites more priority as a result of more initial links.

Will Google ‘jail’ the websites after some time? Well, only time can tell. But I’ll surely keep you informed.

Have you got any similar experience before? Or you ever got your website thrown into Google sandbox as a result of mass link directory submission? Feel free to discuss below.

Many new marketers fail to start because they are not sure how to promote a new website.

So today I’m going to show you step by step what I normally do when I start a new website.

Before listing down the step by step instructions, I need to clarify that what I’m doing is to promote 15 to 40 pages Adsense website or product review website. It can be a static site or a blog.

“Why is it important to clarify on this?” You may ask.

This is because you can start many kinds of websites. Adsense or product review website is just one easy way to make ’small’ money online, but when you have 100s of these little sites, it’s more than enough to quit your job!

Other forms of website you can start include a squeeze page to build list, a mega service site like LeadsLeap, your own product site such as your own Clickbank product etc. The strategies required for these kinds of website is different from promoting Adsense or product review website.

For one, you can’t do any form of joint venture for Adsense or product review sites. You can do advertising, provided you know what you are doing. But search engine optimization is a surefire free traffic source that you can rely on and once you get such traffic, it’s going to serve you for years!

So in this article, when I say promoting a new website, I’m really talking about promoting it to get search engine traffic.

I’m not going to talk about on-page search engine optimization here. You can read it somewhere else or if you post a request below, I’ll probably discuss it in my next blog post.

Today, what I’m going to share with you is off-page optimization, which is all about building link juice to your website.

Ok, I hope by now you get the whole picture and are ready to see the simple steps that I use for all my little sites that are enough to earn me a full time income.

Step 1 - Bookmark 1 page of your website at Digg and Propeller

This is the first thing you should do once your website is ready. Just choose any 1 page and bookmark it at Digg and Propeller. This will get your website indexed by Google, usually in less than 3 days.

Warning: Don’t bookmark more than 1 page and if you have tons of websites that look similar, make sure you open different accounts to bookmark or your account may be suspended. I have my account suspended twice! Technically speaking, you shouldn’t bookmark your own website. But if you do it under the radar, it is the fastest way to get your website indexed.

Step 2 - Write 5 articles and post to as many article directories as possible

Some of the directories you must “hand” submit to are Ezinearticles, ArticleDashBoard, Buzzle, GoArticles.

Next, take up a lifetime membership here and submit all your articles there. From my experience, 5 article submissions will give you 100-200 backlinks.

Step 3 - Submit your website to link directories

There is an argument on whether submitting to link directories is still effective as a form of link building. I’ve been doing it since 2006 as an integral part of the whole process and frankly I’m not sure what would happen if I stop doing it. Maybe one day I should try!

However, one thing for sure is the links count. If you do a link search for some high PR sites, you’ll see that many links come from link directories. If you believe that every link to your website will help you in your search engine ranking, submitting your website to link directories is a great way to get tons of one way link.

You can either do it yourself, which was what I did when I first started, or if you have the budget, get a freelancer to submit for you. You can get some cheap bargain here.

Step 4 - Set up 3 way link exchange

You probably are familiar with 3 way link. Yes, it’s one of my favorite tools too. If you are new, 3 way link is a little too ‘expensive’ for you. The price is $47 a month. Get it when you have 10-20 websites.

That’s all I do whenever I launch a new Adsense or product review site. Even without step 4, just by doing step 1 to 3 will get your website to PR 2-3.

What can you do with a PR 2-3 website?

Well, besides making money from Adsense and affiliate sales, you can sell link and make another $20 a month from each website you own. You can read about selling text links in this post.

Recently I accidentally discovered an interesting way to increase your Google Page Rank to PR4 for free. I’m going to tell you exactly what I did. But before you read on, promise me that you will not report me to Google!

Ok, I was just joking. It’s nothing unorthodox, illegal or unethical. In its simplicity, the method is called article marketing.

You see, I do a lot of article submissions to promote my websites. But for years, I have been making 1 mistake that I only realized recently. This 1 mistake interesting made one of my ‘hardly-promoted’ website a PR 4.

Here’s the full story:

If you have submitted articles to article directories before, you will know that there are two ways to add an anchor link in your article.

The first way is to add it in a resource box. This is the most common way.

But some directories do not have a resource box. For such directories, you will have to add your link within the article itself.

One such directory is Article Alley.

When you submit an article to Article Alley, there isn’t any resource box where you can add your anchor link to promote your website. So I usually add the link within the article itself.

But what I didn’t know FOR YEARS is that there is one standard resource box for every author and this resource box, if filled up, will appear in all the articles you’ve submitted. That’s where my mistake was made.

Several years back when I opened my account with Article Alley, I wrote something in that standard resource box. I also put one of my first websites as my website address. This was done in the author’s profile and as a newbie at that time, I was just obediently filling up all the blanks.

For your information, the website I’ve entered is a mini-site, with less than 5 pages in total and very little content. I’ve never promoted the website at all. It was one of those ‘great idea but never follow through’ websites.

What happened was Article Alley automatically inserted this website url to ALL the articles I’ve submitted. I have 100s of articles in Article Alley and all the articles contain a link to this ‘forgotten’ website.

Years past and now, this ‘forgotten’ website has a PR 4!!

As I’ve said, this website has not been promoted at all and the only link it has is from Article Alley, but it has 100s of links from Article Alley!

Now, does it mean the website got its PR 4 solely by having 100s of backlinks from 1 website?

Not quite true. Let me explain.

Article Alley is an article syndication network. Articles submitted to Article Alley will be distributed to many other websites. When I do a search for the backlinks to this ‘forgotten’ website, I found many links from other article directories.

That’s the power of article marketing!

A useful conclusion

One useful conclusion I can draw from this little incident is that when doing article marketing, you can have more than 1 link in your article. All your links will be counted by the search engine!

In my case, I typically have 3 different links in each article. That’s about the maximum that most article directories allow. But in the case of Article Alley, I have a total of 4 links. 3 within my article as usual and one in the standard resource box, which links to the ‘forgotten’ website.

The link to the ‘forgotten’ website is the last of the 4 links in the article.

The fact that this ‘forgotten’ website can get a PR 4 shows that all the links are counted, regardless of where the links are positioned.

This means if you have a few websites of the same theme, you can write one article and include 3 links to 3 different websites. That way, you are promoting 3 websites at the same time. Of course, you have to do it tactfully so that your article does not look like a link spam.

One of the hardest things in online marketing is probably to get your online business of the ground and let it run on autopilot.

Although I’ve done it before, it is still a big challenge for me whenever I start a new website.

Today, I’m going to show you how a new website put a simple twist to an old concept and achieve extraordinary results in less than 3 months.

The website that I’m talking about is Qassia.com.

Qassia is a new website started in January 2008. But today, it ranks 4,762 in Alexa ranking and has more than 4000 webpages listed in Google.

So what is Qassia?

Why are people crazy about it?

More importantly, what are the marketing mechanisms that are making people crazy about it?

Let’s see……

If I were to break down Qassia into its simplest form, Qassia is nothing more than a combination of an article directory and a link directory. (For newbies, some examples of article directories are ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com, and some examples of link directories are DMOZ and Yahoo!Directory.)

If you were to start another article directory or link directory, chances are you are going to fail because the idea is no longer novel and there are thousands of them out there.

Think about this: If you were to start an article directory, how are you going to find thousands of people to submit articles to your directory, especially when you are just starting.

But Qassia has done it. Qassia is hardly 3 months old, yet thousands of people are happily sending their unique articles to Qassia and eagerly promoting it to other online marketers.

The secret lies in its credit system.

Qassia positions itself as a free link directory that gives you unlimited one-way backlinks to your website for free. Why do webmasters like one-way backlinks? Well, backlinks are good for two reasons: 1) for direct traffic, and 2) for better search engine ranking.

The catch is in order to achieve better ranking for your backlinks, you will have to earn credits.

The more credits you earn, the higher your website ranks in their link directory, which translates to more web traffic to you (both direct traffic and search engine traffic).

See the twist in the system? That’s why people are working hard to submit articles to Qassia.

Similar to all other successful websites, Qassia also has a referral system. It’s the same old story. The more referrals you have, the more credits you earn and the higher your website ranks.

Does this concept work?

Check out its Alexa ranking. It’s moving up superbly fast. This means the website is receiving lots of traffic.

If you do a search on Google.com by typing in site:www.qassia.com, you can see that it already has more than 4000 pages ranked in the search engines. Most of these are articles submitted by its members.

Whether this system is sustainable or not is too early to conclude. But it is set for a great start and I believe there is a great deal we can learn from this website, especially its marketing strategies.

This website is currently in closed beta and everything is kept secret to the public (I’m not sure if it’s another well-planned marketing strategy). There is no way you can signup Qassia unless you are referred by an existing member.

If you want to signup this website and see for yourself some other brilliant marketing strategies they’ve used, you can sign up through this invite-only link: http://kohym.qassia.com/.