Hi all, I thought I'd knock out an article about tags today. You should really consider using tags more in your web 2.0 promotions. Lots of people I speak with have no real idea on how to use tags, other than figuring that they may need them and that they could be handy. Well, they are all that and a lot more! Here is just a few uses. But first, a definition. Tags are really just keyword phrases, or categories, and they can provide an excellent link to your websites (yes an internal link, but it can still be powerful). If you start looking at existing tags for popular sites like wordpress.com and squidoo.com, it's not hard to find tag pages with decent pagerank. Actually hubpages is a better example because squidoo no longer index tag pages directly. For example check out wordpress.com/tag/law-of-attraction The page has a pagerank of 5. And pretty much all it contains is links to websites on wordpress.com that use that particular tag. But don't get too excited (at least not with wordpress.com). These pages are nofollow's so you won't get any of the link juice from them. But many other web 2.0 sites have tag pages like this that are dofollow. So it's an easy link to your website for some lovely link juice if you take the time to find them. Another great advantage of tag pages like these are that they often rank really well on their own accord in SERP's. As an example, do a search for mind movie creation kit in google. position 7, page 1 for me comes up with wordpress.com/tag/mind-movie-creation-kit/ Not bad. A tag page with no real content,just links ranking on page 1. Sure it's not that competitive a search phrase, but I've seen tag pages ranking for far more competitive keywords. Want a quick indirect link from a page 1 website? In the case above, just use the tag mind-movie-creation-kit, on a wordpress.com page and blam you're linked. How do you choose your tag? Well do the obvious ones (your major keywords, a couple of secondary ones), but also go out and take a look and see what people are using. But be sure to have a think of some extra ones. In the case of wordpress.com if you're the first to use a tag, you get a featured position at the top of the page (and will ALWAYS BE ON THE TOP). So your link NEVER goes off to page 2,3,4,etc when lots of people start using that tag. This is a hidden trick for new affiliate promotion launches. If you hear about a new product coming out, go and put up a post on wordpress.com using that tag in preparation. Then when you are ready to start promoting you will always be the first link on the page. And you will find they your competitors, who are themselves using this tag will actually be assisting you, because you're the first link on the page. Remember every wordpress.com page using that tag links to that tag page, and it's a dofollow link. That's why the tag pages often rank so well. And of course the people using wordpress.com blogs are trying to rank their pages, so they are probably getting some backlinks to their page, etc. All of this will assist you as the featured listing at the top of the page. So this is a case where you can truly say the more competitors the better I've been using wordpress.com as an example here, but the principles apply to many other web 2.0 websites out there. And the web 2.0 sites are getting smarter with tags now. Squidoo has always seemed to have understood tags, because it has an excellent tag suggestion tool when you create/edit a lens. It gives you popular related tags to use automatically. This is becoming more relevant now that squidoo lens are dofollow again. For many of the promotions I have been involved with, wordpress.com is right up there in terms of traffic sent to my money page. squidoo is up there, but the sheer number of other links they put on your lens (pointing to other people's squidoo content) means you tend to lose a percentage of clicks. But certainly still worth using. Tags also means it's possible to get ranked multiple times. For example with a simple wordpress.com page, I can get ranked for the root url. e.g. myname.wordpress.com, and then the article myname.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/blah-blah-blah And then if you are the only link (or the featured entry on the tags page) you might get ranked for wordpress.com/tag/myname and others. I've had 4 entries on page 1 from wordpress.com alone using this simple little technique. Finally, don't get too hung up whether the page is a dofollow or nofollow. This has no bearing on how it will rank in the search engines. I'd still rather have a link from a page that is sitting on page 1 to my website, whether it is a dofollow or a nofollow. I'd also like to have my other pages on page 1 as well. Can be a little off putting for other affiliates to try and break into a market if they see you controlling most of page 1. In my experience the competition will try for a little while, and then move on and find another niche that looks to be "easier to crack". In summary, do some research and start using tags, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find and the results you can achieve. Cheers Tim
Yes, I use tags on my sites and blogs as a way of getting better rankings without spamming the search engines. I like your site takeoverpageone. I feel bad for the competition when I am pushing them off the first page with all my domains. P.S. Why are you targeting a ridiculous kw like "mind movie creation kit"?
Yes tags are vital in my opinion, but the people I talk too seem to add them as an afterthought or don't put any real thought into them. Makes it easier for me to come along and take over The k/w I gave you was an example, but don't understand why you would say it's ridiculous? It's just another long tail keyword. Mind you it was profitable for me as well, during the recent "mind movies" promotion that hit the internet a few weeks back. I recorded every step I took entering the market as an affiliate in a day by day format, even including checking the affiliate stats. Made a nice little pile of cash for about 6 hours work getting ranked. You can see all these video's for free by visiting my website. Yes you will have to opt-in to see the advanced videos, how else am I going to hit you up with 10 affiliate promotions and one time offers every day? Yes I am joking, we are not promoting anyone else's material, so you're not going to get anything like that. Just don't want most of the material indexed, because like many things (remember the squidoo slap) if everyone starts using a technique it can become less effective, or stop working altogether. Sending subscribers to hidden links with the video content is a better way I think in keeping the information to a select few people who take action. There are some free video's on the blog though if you can't trust me. But who couldn't trust my handsome face I wonder Am about to record another one for the blog actually, which will be about building networks of links. Anyway this is turning into a salesfest for my website, and that wasn't the plan. Getting back on topic.... Tags are something that everyone really needs to focus on. I small investment of time doing this will return a big benefit. Cheers
Good article... and a good focus on another traffic tip.... worrying about wordpress.com being filled with "Made For Tags" pages...
great post tim, i never knew about wordpress keeping you at #1 if your the 1st to post for that tag. Good job!
True, but you also need to remember that you cannot put ads and other money making stuff on a wordpress.com blog.
Does the rule of wordpress keeping you at number one apply if you use a wordpress system to manage your blog that you host yourself? I do use wordpress, but it is for a domain that is hosted by godaddy.
Not strictly true. I've done it before and never really had a problem (not to say I won't have a problem though). I think it's all related to spam, if your obviously just putting spam up in a crude attempt to sell something, then yes you're likely to get taken down. I've always taken the time to put some decent content on my wordpress.com pages (sometimes mixing in ad's), and almost always linking to my money page and had great results. In fact I just replied in another thread how I got a 22 DAY OLD domain to Page rank 4 and wordpress was a big part of that. Two wordpress.com pages I created with very little content (around 600 words, plus a picture, and linking to my domain) are both pagerank 3's. About to put up a video on my blog about it, but happy to answer any questions here. So I believe so long as you don't post spam and focus on giving great content to users, you are save to do some promotion on wordpress.com sites. Cheers
Hi, This technique is mainly for wordpress.com blogs, however you have full control over your own tags on your own domain, so there is no problem there anyway. I would suggest you do both though. Why not create a blog on wordpress.com with some great content (and using some tags that are related to your content and have decent page rank on wordpress.com) ? Then you get the benefit of wordpress.com and it's authority site status in google as well as the advantages of having your own content on your own domain. That is part of the strategy I employed. My wordpress.com blog posts linked direct to the PR4 domain that had wordpress running on it. Check out my blog for a free video on using tags, and another entry I will be uploading shortly about how I got the 22 day old domain to pagerank 4. I've just finished the video, waiting for it to encode, so I can upload it. Cheers
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA! Nice sugestion. A worpress.org blog on a new domain will not get as good of rank in the SE's as a wordpress.com blog. I call it domain leeching. I invented that term as far as I know. Excessive product promotion on WP is not allowed.
Agreed that excessive product promotion on wordpress.com will get your site taken down. If you use the power of wordpress.com (and other blogs) it is possible to get a better ranking wordpress blog on your own domain. As I have mentioned I have a 22 DAY old domain with wordpress on it with PR4 on multiple pages. The wordpress.com blog promoting it is PR3 and around the same age, so in this case I am outranking it on my domain. So it is possible, you just have to know how to do it. Or if you are talking search engine positions, then I would say it normally takes longer to get your own domain to page one and rank ahead of the wordpress.com one. But I've done that as well Check out the new video I just uploaded on my blog if you want to see the details of the websites. Domain leeching, I love it! Cheers
Right on bro. See you at the top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. I am almost always talking search engine positions. hehehe Free marketing is hard to come by but is always the best. I am using it to launch my PPC campaigns for the products that get the best ROI for my time. Its the BEST way to do it.
Great advice and article Tim, thanks for contributing. I was wondering why Squidoo lenses were always so highly rated. Now I know the inside scoop.
Right! Try blog.ca too. Indexed in Goog e within 10 minutes of your first post with autopinging. HA I don't like giving my destiny to other companies though. I write my own content that stays in the SE's FOREVER!