From the category archives:

On-Page SEO

Review: MindValley Labs’ Free Newsletter

by Josh Hohman

grade a “Informative email newsletter that includes a fantastic search engine placement cheat sheet.”
Price: Free!
Link: Mind Valley Labs

Overview:

Mike Reining and Vishen Lakhiani at MindValley Labs take a scientific, but accessible, approach to PPC and search engine placement. These guys mainly focus on starting and running their own niche sites (much like I do), and as a result, only offer consulting services and a monthly membership site.

I get the impression that Mike and Vishen are passionate about internet markering and offer these services not to make a killing (trust me, there are much easier, and more profitable, niches to try and dominate than internet marketing!), but rather to share the substantial knowledge they’ve gained over the years.

Pros:

The MindValley Labs free newsletter offer more tips and tricks than a lot of paid products I’ve purchased! If MindValley recommends a tip, you can rest assured that it has been exhuastively tested on their own sites, and is a proven money-maker. These guys are even more anal retentive about testing and re-testing than I am (god help them…)

The real gem in the newsletter comes on the 3rd or 4th day of the autoresponder series in an email called “Can You Get More Traffic by Kissing Google’s Ass?“. If you click the link within the email, you will be taken to their site where you can download (free!) an “SEO Cheat Sheet” that tells you step-by-step everything you need to do to increase your site’s search engine placement for your particular keyword.

I was in the process of creating a similar cheat sheet for my own use when I found this one. The MindValley Labs version is really good, and best of all it is free.

Include the SEO Cheat Sheet in the On-Page SEO tab of your binder. (huh?)

Cons:

Since this is a free resource, I can’t find much to complain about. You have to provide a name and email to receive the newsletter, but the emails are not too frequent, and the info is great (I find myself opening the email as soon as I see it in my inbox).

Where to Get It:

Click Here to Learn More About the Mind Valley Labs Email Newsletter (this is a non-affiliate link)


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Review of “IttyBiz SEO School”

by Josh Hohman

grade a “Easy-to-read resource for beginners looking to learn the essentials of SEO.”
Price: $39.00
Link: Itty Biz SEO School

Overview:

Naomi Dunford decided to re-release her popular SEO School ebook this week, and if you’re new to SEO, or are confused by all of the more technical SEO books on the market, then this is your lucky day. Naomi distills a confusing topic into an easy-to-read 53-pages that will get you off to a solid start if you are looking to learn SEO. A must-read, in my opinion.

Pros:

Naomi’s writing style is entertaining to say the least (she curses like a drunken sailor even in her writing), but she knows her stuff. I know, because I’ve paid her over 4-figures just to call her and bounce ideas off of her. I bought the book when I was about 4 months into learning SEO, and I still didn’t have a good grasp of the big picture. This book set me squarely on the path to learning SEO.

I like to think of Naomi’s book as the “course syllabus” for the rest of your SEO education - which is why I’ve chosen to review this book first. You will not learn everything here, but you will learn the basics in a structured way, so that you can be intelligent about going out to find more granular information on a particular topic.

Without this book, my approach SEO would be a lot less organized and structured than it is today. In particular, 3 chapters are must-reads:

  1. What to Rank For: Naomi does a great job explaining the process of finding a profitable niche. More importantly, the book tells you which keywords you absolutely do NOT want to go after for a particular niche. The competition section is great as well, and goes into detail about how to evaluate your chances of ranking for a your keyword phrase.

    2. Include pages 15-24 in the Keyword Research tab of your binder. (huh?)

  2. On-Page Optimization: this chapter walks you through the process of optimizing your site for a particular keyword step-by-step. I have since found more detailed explanations of each step, but this is what got me started, and it is still an excellent resource to have.

    3. Include pages 25-33 in the On-Page SEO tab of your binder. (huh?)

  3. Off-Page SEO: I like this chapter because it is the best overview of off-page SEO that I’ve found. You will not learn everything you need to know here, but this will provide a solid foundation from which to build.

    4. Include pages 35-40 in the Off-Page SEO tab of your binder. (huh?)

Cons:

If you already know a lot about picking the right optimization keywords, and on- and off-page SEO, this is not an essential book for you. You’ll learn some new things for sure, but nothing is earth-shattering here. Having said that, I still read the keywords section from time-to-time because it is the best book on the topic that I’ve seen.

Where to Get It:

Click Here to Learn More About IttyBiz SEO School

Non-affiliate link: IttyBiz


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