Case in point; if you want to talk authoritatively about a product or system, it helps to have some first hand experience with it. If you do not – and to my knowledge Lis Sowerbutts is not, nor has even been a Site Build It! owner, it’s a bit difficult to allot a ton of credibility to anything the author says.

It’s also a little annoying for marketers like myself who go out of their way to be informed before opening a discussion with an audience about a certain product or service (I recently reviewed Adam Short’s Niche Profit Classroom; I paid the $67/month subscription fee, learned the system and wrote about its Pros and Cons. It took many hours of work to do so).

It’s too bad Lis couldn’t be bothered to conduct a real review of SBI!. She’d have a lot more credibility if she did. Because as things stand, she appears to be little more than an ill-informed, lazy, malicious twit with a “bone to pick.”

Nonetheless, targeting the word “scam” along with “SBI!” and “Site Build It!” is a smart keyword targeting strategy, no doubt about it. If you are researching a product or service and are tired of reading glowing testimonials, nothing brings the comments of the disgruntled to the surface faster than a trip to your local search engine and a search for the “name of relevant product/service” plus the word “scam”.

But marketers aren’t shy about targeting these keywords either. In this case, a search for SBI! scam isn’t bringing up the genuine comments of unhappy customers,  but a seriously unflattering discussion of SBI!, written by an individual who knows next to nothing about it.

Before I continue with this discussion, let me digress for a moment…

First, unlike Lis, I consider myself well-qualified to discuss SBI! in detail. I worked full time for SiteSell.com in numerous capacities for 6 years, finishing up as Site Build It! Product Manager in December 2006 (a cancer diagnosis ended my term at SiteSell, and I work for them only in a very limited capacity now). I’m also a well-established, successful Internet Marketer who makes his living online and has done so for many years (see more about me).

I know what you’re thinking…

… here comes a PRO-SBI! rant from someone who’s as biased as Lis.

Not so.

Obviously I feel strongly about SBI!, but I’ve always been honest about who is best suited for this tool.

In my opinion, not everybody needs it.

Advanced marketers may not, especially if their requirements are minimal. You’ll notice that this site, for example, is not an SBI! site. It’s based on the Word Press Platform. As a marketer, I have an innate curiousity about everything web-based. Thus, I thought I’d give Word Press a try. No biggie.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because this site isn’t based on the SBI! platform, its value is diminished in some way.  I simply do not need the advanced functionality afforded by this tool here. For those who do however (my girlfriend Marilyn uses SBI! for her flower arrangement and information site, as does my friend and bandmate from The Big Bang, Ian Kurz, with his Everything About Camping site), it is invaluable.

Anyhow, let’s get back to the “SBI! Scam.”

Before I begin debunking some of Lis’ comments, let’s define the word “scam.”

Scam: A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle.

If you are familiar with SBI!, you’ll know a couple of things…

• It is taught at over 30 colleges and universities, including Penn State and the University of Arizona.
• Potential customers are clearly informed that SBI! is not a “get rich quick” (GRQ) scheme. In other words, don’t buy Site Build It! expecting to get rich quick. It ain’t gonna happen.
• Potential customers are informed – on the order page no less – that they need to bring BAM (brain, attitude, and motivation) to the table to succeed. Or, to put it another way… don’t expect a push-button solution to generating revenue. The system works, but YOU have to work it, and you will need to do plenty of  THINKING along the way.

I don’t know about you, but to me, this message isn’t consistent with a “scam” of any sort.  To me, it sounds a lot like a warning: if you think you can sleepwalk through this process, pressing a few buttons here and there and then expect to be living on a beachfront somewhere within a few weeks, sipping daiquiris while your chauffeur polishes the Bentley, you’re very much mistaken.

And it’s inconceivable to think that the SiteSell brass managed to hoodwink the administrators of 30 respected education institutions into using SBI! as a teaching tool.

Obviously then, SBI! is no scam.

So let’s address some of Lis’ arguments against SBI!…

1) You don’t own your domain: Initially, Lis insisted that you don’t own your own SBI! domain, based on the fact that Anguilla-Beaches.com was registered in Ken Evoy’s name (I’ll explain why it is in a moment). Then she updated her comments with the truth (that you do), but then insisted that this is still “disingenuous marketing.”

Interesting. You see, there’s nothing “disingenuous” about owning a domain name. You either own it, or you do not. Since you do own your SBI! domain name, as advertised, Lis’ inability to offer a full retraction on this statement is evidence of a strong anti-SBI! bias.

Posting this in the first place is also evidence of something I said earlier; Lis is too lazy to do any real investigating into SBI!. If she would have spent 5 minutes on Anguilla-Beaches.com, she would have realized the site belongs to Nori Evoy (Ken’s daughter). Since Nori started the site when she was 13, it makes sense to be registered in Ken’s name.

Then she could have performed a Better-Whois on any of the zillion sites featured on the SiteSell results pages to discover that yes, you do own your own domain name.

But she didn’t.

What does that tell you?

2) You can’t move your site to cheaper hosting.

Again, Lis has to retract this statement, indicating is that is IS possible, but apparently “quite difficult.”

Once again, a little research done beforehand would have prevented Lis from putting her “foot in it” once again.

Worse, there’s absolutely no context provided here either, which means you’re getting an artificially “negative” view of the transferring process.

For instance…

As I indicated earlier, this site is based on the Word Press platform. And while I could easily transfer it to another hosting service that supported the Word Press platform, it would be a serious P-I-T-A to move it to a hosting platform that supported a different format, like Movable Type, Blogger or straight HTML.

And that’s why this argument is flawed; you’re not switching hosting – you’re looking to move material provided in a specialized format to another different specialized format – either HTML, a blogging platform, CMS platform, or whatever. And that’s a P-I-T-A no matter what you are using. In other words…

… this is an issue not exclusive to SBI!.

In other words, while its unfair to call SBI! a website building platform (because it’s so much more than that) you must do your due diligence before picking a specific platform for your web business because you do not want to have to change it later.

3) Using Alexa to validate SBI!’s traffic-driving ability is deceitful because…

“Alexa ranks just proves that you have a bunch of internet marketers visiting your site - probably because of the link from the sales page - as they are the only people who use the Alexa tool bar. Internet marketers are unlikely to buy your homemade chocolates or rent your condo in Puerto Rico.”

This is another perfect example of how lazy Lis is; once again she has made a series of unsubstantiated statements which, like the ones she’s already had to retract, are easily demonstrated to be inaccurate.

In her rather rambling statement above she has indicated…

• The SiteSell “results” page (a page that illustrates the effectiveness of the SBI! process by featuring select sites and its corresponding Alexa ranking) is worthless, since the only reason why the site in question HAS an Alexa ranking is because it is visited by internet marketers who have the Alexa toolbar installed.
• Only Internet Marketers use the toolbar, which infers that all Alexa data is incredibly skewed and offers no value at all.

To demolish these arguments, let’s first see what Alexa says about how it obtains its data…

“Alexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period.”

So by its own admission, Alexa compiles its data from numerous sources. This makes sense, since only a tiny percentage of surfers browse with the toolbar. If it only used this data to compile rankings, most web sites would receive no Alexa at all. Yet relatively few do, which is indicative of much more diverse sources of data.

Secondly, if Alexa compiles data over a 3 month period, there will be a 3-month lag before any site’s information is updated. In other words, the sites appearing on SiteSell’s “results” page – especially the non-internet marketing sites that according to Lis only have an Alexa ranking because they are on the “results” page – would have to be included with no Alexa ranking at all. This would mean that for a period up to 90 days, prospective SBI! customers would see tons of poorly performing sites as a “testament” to the effectiveness of SBI!.

Hardly good for business.

Obviously then, any site included on the “results” page must obtain a decent Alexa ranking on its own, or it makes ZERO sense to feature it on an SBI! PREselling page.

Two last things to think about…

If it were SO easy to manipulate Alexa rankings for your own financial benefit, why is SiteSell the only one to be doing so? Why wouldn’t any of the zillion other website building services use it to demonstrate proof of their own traffic-building systems?

And if SiteSell is manipulating the data, why aren’t they being sued by Alexa?

4. The SBI! Search Engine (SE) Tool submits your site to the SEs, including Google. According to Lis, you should never submit your site to Google.

Really?

According to Google’s own Webmaster guidelines, you should.

I don’t know about you, but I know who I will choose to believe.

5. SBI! advocates the use of PPC (pay-per-click search engines) which…

“…is as about as risky as say foreign exchange dealing as it is not something any new on-line marketer should be doing.”

Uh-huh. Now it’s just getting silly.

A couple things here (and I hate to beat a dead horse, but Lis would have known this had she any real experience with SBI!)…

• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is NOT risky. As the owner of an offline business, I can tell you I would love to have more advertising opportunities like PPC, where I can easily select my audience, determine the maximum I will pay per visitor, and measure my conversion rate. In the offline world, I pay a ton of money for advertising and have almost no idea how well it fares for me. Online, you determine what you will pay per visitor, and who those visitors will be. PPC is only risky if you don’t do any research or elementary math, and throw a pile of money at poorly performing keywords and pages.
• The Site Build It! documentation does address PPC advertising in detail, but it does not “advocate” it. PPC is an essential element of online marketing, and depending on the nature of your business, may or may not make sense for you. This is completely addressed in the SBI! Action Guide. Obviously, advertising only makes sense if you can obtain a decent ROI, which usually means you need to be selling your own product or service. But if you can make $50 for every $10 spent on PPC, why on earth wouldn’t you do it? At the very least, you need to be educated about the opportunity.
• For brand new sites that do sell products/services, PPC brings traffic, customers and newsletter subscribers immediately, so your business can start being profitable.

6) “You don’t need a newsletter or autoresponder unless you are selling crap.”

In over 10 years of doing business online, this is the first time I have heard ANYONE say this (having made it this far through her “review” it really shouldn’t surprise me to hear something this dumb).

It doesn’t matter which marketing gurus you worship at the feet of, they all say the same thing; a newsletter or autoresponder is paramount to ANY online business.

Yes, regardless if you are selling anything or not. It is the only way to stay in touch with your visitors, build trust and rapport with them, and to encourage return visits. If you are actually building a business online – regardless of how you monetize it – you need visitors. More importantly, you need repeat visitors who trust you. The easiest way to accomplish this is with a newsletter and/or autoresponder series.

7) At $300/year, Site Build It! is expensive. All you need to spend is $10 on a domain name, $5/month for hosting, and supplement that with some free tools used in conjunction with WordPress.

Sigh. Let’s go through the reasons why this is yet another ridiculous statement…

1. SBI! is not expensive. The minimum investment for ANY successful online business will be…
   $10/month hosting (I would not recommend paying any less for hosting, regardless of what Lis says. As with everything, you get what you pay for. Cheap hosting is often inferior hosting).
   $10/year for your domain name
   $19.95/month for your autoresponder which you MUST have if you are serious about succeeding online.
   That’s a grand total of $370/year, $70 more than SBI!, which offers all the above, plus tons of other features as well.
2. Compared to other online business building services, SBI! is cheap. For instance, Adam Short’s Niche Proft Classroom (which I recently reviewed) costs $67/month.  What about tools that offer similar functionality to those already present in SBI!? I recently played with a keyword research tool, Cash Keywords Pro and it also costs $67/month. SBI! contains a ton of cutting edge keyword research tools already… no need to pay anything extra.
3. SBI! is a LOT more than a series of tools and simple web hosting. It’s the process outlined in the Action Guide that is so invaluable. One thing Lis says is that her suggested bundle of tools is not an “all the tools in one place” solution, and “you’ll have to learn some stuff along the way.” Once again, Lis has FAILED. This time, to account for your time being worth anything. Learning how to build a successful web business from scratch can literally take you years of trial and error. Who do you ”listen” to? Whose ideas are credible? Every guru seems to have a different idea… and product to sell you. What are the best options for your business? Is your business even viable? From keyword targeting to SEO, from web copy to autoresponders and newsletters, from monetization to link building, from social media marketing and Twitter, there’s a ton to know and learn.In short, what every budding newbie marketer needs isn’t a bunch of free stuff  and an invitation to “go build your business as you see fit.” What they need is a proven, concise, step-by-step process how to build an online business. And THAT is what SBI offers. And THAT is its biggest value.

8. SBI! is a scary cult.

Which sounds more reasonable to you…

1) The SEO of SiteSell.com, Dr. Ken Evoy, is a diabolical mind control expert. From his bunker in the Caribbean, he controls numerous satellites and operates sophisticated “world-hypnosis” machines which turn innocent surfers into slathering, raving pro-SBI! fanatics.

2) SBI! works (if you work it). This leads to an ecstatic group of individuals who cannot believe their good fortune; the “stay-at-home-mom” doesn’t have to go back to work, but can enjoy raising her daughter. The retired couple are happily supplementing their income and can now follow up on the plans they had before the credit crunch.

Is it any wonder folks like these are both excited by SBI! and eager to share the good news?

I can relate myself; I remember back when the Internet first started earning me a living. I scarcely dared breathe for fear of killing the “goose that laid the golden egg.” It’s an exhilarating feeling - while you sleep, affiliate commissions pile up. As does Adsense and Chitika revenue. Feel like taking a day off? Go for it… the money keeps on coming in.

When it happens, it’s amazing. Unbelievable, in fact. And the way your life opens up? The freedom you now have is incredible.

So I understand the enthusiasm.

But it makes me wonder if Lis actually makes any money online. If she did, she would not mistake genuine enthusiasm for the “evidence of a cult.”

Oh yeah… and I have been in Dr. Evoy’s office several times, and never once did I see any mind control devices.

So there you have it. A complete breakdown of Lis’ BOGUS SBI! review.

What’s the moral of the story?

Always do your own due diligence.

Question those who talk with authority, but have no practical experience with what they deem to be an expert on. Be wary of those who have to retract statements that have been proven inaccurate, especially when rudimentary research would have established the facts beforehand. And watch for statements that are completely at odds with readily established facts (i.e. “you don’t need a newsletter unless you are selling something”).

Of course, always, always, always look for evidence of an ulterior motive. Lis’ article is packed with them.

As for me, well… SBI! may be for you, or it may not be for you. Regardless, it is an amazing tool and you deserve to know the truth.

Oh yes, and one more thing; SiteSell has prepared a response to Lis’ article. You may wish to read the official response to the whole “SBI! scam.”

This morning I received yet another e-mail from some “marketer” or another, promising me the secrets of the guru’s for an unbelievably low price.

Uh-huh.

Amazing how such a large majority of marketers – even some of the most successful ones apparently – can’t seem to spell. Yep, they can dominate the search engines, suck ooodles of cash out of the pockets of hapless surfers, and effortlessly deliver truckloads of back-links to their web sites, without having mastered the basics of grammar.

Guru’s.

With an “apostrophe.”

The apostrophe in this case, denotes possession. As in… “this is the guru’s pen.” The apostrophe “shows” us that “this is the pen belonging to the guru.”

The thing is, these are the people who are supposed to know better. It’s a well-established fact that online, spelling and grammar mistakes severely undermine your credibility. After all, a new visitor does not have a whole heck of a lot upon which to judge whether or not you are a credible authority in your field.

How many really successful business people or companies are you aware of that have blatant spelling mistakes in their promotional copy?

I know that as soon as I see something like “guru’s”, my respect level immediately drops a notch or two. Rightly or wrongly my first thought is…

“How much can you REALLY know about marketing if you can’t master basic English?”

Now I have to be honest here; I’m famous for my thoughts getting ahead of my typing. This will occasionally result in some interesting “word stew.” And everyone makes honest mistakes. But if you’re doing business online in any capacity, you cannot afford to do so. That’s why in addition to using a spell-checker, I have someone review ALL my material (even this is not foolproof, but it does eliminate 99% of errors).

You need to do the same.

If you run a large business, you can delegate the appropriate person to the task. If not, get your spouse / friend / daughter / son to do it. The bottom line is this – get another pair of eyeballs on your material.

You can’t afford to make credibility-demolishing mistakes and expect to become successful with your online business.

Like “guru’s.”

And that’s the topic of today’s ramblings.

If you’ve just begun your Internet business in the quest to make money online, you’ll understand what I say when I tell you that as an Internet marketer, you have to wear many hats. At least, you have to wear many hats until you’re profitable enough to start outsourcing some of your tasks. For example, you need to…

• Create reams and reams of well researched, authoritative content.
• Perform basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tasks, such as on-page optimizing and link building.
• Investigate monetization options like ads from Chitika or Adsense, and relevant affiliate programs.
• Set up and write a bi-monthly/weekly informative newsletter (and a series of autoresponder messages).
• Investigate and evaluate new marketing options as they arise (i.e., video marketing).
• Seek out and approach joint venture partners.
• Daily tasks; moderating comments, updating RSS feeds, etc, etc.

And so on and so on and so on.

That’s a LOT of hats.

And there are two major problems with this.

First, it’s not uncommon to get paralyzed by the magnitude and sheer number of jobs in front of you. It’s easy to find yourself dividing your time up between umpteen different, yet equally important tasks on a daily basis. In the end, you make very little progress on anything.

The solution to this is simple; prioritize your tasks on a daily basis, and do not focus your energies on any more than one or two tasks per work session.

For example, on one day you may decide to focus only on content creation. On the next, some on-page optimization and link building. And the day after, a newsletter and a new message for your autoresponder. The key is to have your tasks set out the night before, so you know exactly what you are doing the following day.

A word about prioritizing your tasks; obviously, your priorities will vary according to the state of your online business. For example, if your site is new, you are wasting your time if you’re investigating monetization options, affiliate programs or linking opportunities. All your efforts need to be focused on creating enough quality content to…

• Address the needs of your visitors
• Drive “organic” traffic from the Search Engines
• Warrant a link from a quality directory or resource

Until this is done, everything else you do is a waste of your time (if you have no traffic, for instance, then the investigating of monetization options is pointless, since you have no visitors to monetize).

Once your online business is established, you can take a breather from creating content and focus more on marketing-related tasks. As an example…

For me, the creation of new content becomes a major priority every two weeks prior to the mailing of a newsletter (the newsletter provides updates on new material – without new material, there’s no point in sending it!). In the time between newsletters, I can focus on other tasks.

The other problem with wearing too many hats is that there will come a time when no amount of prioritizing of tasks and efficient work management strategies will help you grow your business at a timely manner.

And that’s where I am at the moment.

My main site, UltimateFatBurner.com, contains a thousand pages of content or more. It receives 5-figure traffic numbers daily. It continues to grow day by day, week by week, year by year. But it is growing s… l… o… w… l…y (there are, after all, only two of us whose main priority is the site). And, the larger a web site becomes, the more difficult it is to make dramatic changes to traffic numbers, in-pointing links, etc.

It’s certainly no longer possible for me to wear all my hats, work efficiently and move the site forward. I can’t research and write content, moderate comments, investigate JVs, create videos and pod/blogcasts, obtain in-pointing links, plus the 8 zillion other things on my “to do”.

The only way to continue to move forward is for me to take off some of my hats, by outsourcing some of my jobs to third parties. The question for me then becomes…

What tasks CAN I outsource to third parties?

Obviously, I am not willing to compromise the quality and integrity of UltimateFatBurner.com. And, since the foundation of those things lie with the high quality, well-researched content found on the site, clearly that is something I will need to continue to do myself. But things like video creation, blog/podcast creation, SEO… these are things I can outsource. After all, this is simply a re-packaging and leveraging of existing content.

I am going to talk about the outsourcing process more a little later – the point of this discussion is recognizing the number of hats you must wear as an Internet Marketer, and how that can seriously affect your productivity. What drew my attention to this over the last few weeks was the fact that I never seemed to be able to “deliver on my deliverables.” When I really did some hard thinking on this, it was easy to see the problem.

To address the issue, I spent some time clearly defining my role – specifically listing all the tasks I do week by week. Then I divided those tasks into those I could outsource, and those I could not. It’s been an illuminating experience, and one I hope will vastly improve my efficiency and the growth of my web sites.

Sometimes, you need to take off one or more of your hats in order to grow.

For those of you not ready to outsource yet, clearly defining your tasks on a day to day basis – according to the state of your web site – is a priority.

Give it a try. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

Yep, today I’m unsubscribing from a ream of newsletters of various Internet Marketing gurus of one form or another.

Why?

Because I’m not getting ANYTHING of value from them. Nothing. Nyet. Nada. And I’ve given each one a chance. More than a chance, in fact. But all good things must come to an end, and today, I’m outta here.

Fact is, I’m tired of being treated as little more than a wallet on the receiving end of an e-mail. Almost every message I receive is some variation of…

“Click here to find out how “so-and-so” (often an unemployed “former” loser with about $5 worth of cash assets) generated $1,000,000 in revenue last year from an old laptop. All while sitting poolside waiting for his/her unemployment checks to show up.”

Of course, if I manage to resist this amazing story and subsequent offer (because there is always an offer), I have nothing to worry about. A new, equally amazing opportunity will arrive in my inbox tomorrow. And the day after that, and the day after that.

I’ve written before about the golden rule of successful online/e-mail marketing. It’s called “Give… THEN Take”.

These folks are happy to “take” (i.e., your money and your time), but they haven’t figured out the “give” part yet. And therein lies the rub…

If you want your newsletter to be read and your recommendations to be credible, you need to establish a relationship with your visitor/subscriber. And you do that by giving… your insight, your valuable, insider information (in the form of tips, “how-to’s”, etc) and so on. So that people trust you when you make a recommendation.

When you make recommendations every single day, for every product on the planet, they lose impact.

Think about it.

If you’re a fledgling Internet Marketer, this is one message you must heed (if you need a positive role model in this regard, sign up for Paul Myers’ newsletter… and see how it’s done!). No, there’s nothing wrong in asking for the sale, but you do need to earn that right.

So earn it.

If you’re not a marketer, and are simply trying to find your way to building a successful online business you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. And I recommend you do what I did… vote with your mouse. Force these guys to offer something of value.

Don’t worry… you are not going to miss anything important.

And very rarely have I felt that I didn’t get my money’s worth. Sometimes, I may only pick up a tip or two, but often, that is enough to justify the purchase price.

What I don’t understand is the people who won’t spend a penny on marketing resources, insisting everything can be found online “for free.” While this may be possible in some cases, it doesn’t place much of a value on your time. Sure, you may find free resources, but how do you determine if they are credible sources of information? Yep… you need to do your due dilligence. And that takes MORE time.

So in the end, how much farther are you ahead… really?

Frankly, it’s cheaper, simpler and WAY faster to spend a few dollars here and there than trying to find the same information for nothing. Remember, it’s the time you spend working on your online business that you actually make money. If you spend most of your time surfing, then your business is not growing.

So don’t hesitate to spend money on the quality publications from reputable marketers. It’s always a great investment!

Any guesses as to what that might be?

Yep… it’s the failure of individuals to make a committed effort to the diet plan they have chosen. Many continue to analyze new programs despite having chosen a solution, and before long, begin to second guess what they are doing – especially if they do not see immediate results. Surely a better, easier and more rapid solution to weight loss lies just around the corner?

Sound familiar?

It’s this “paralysis by analysis” that also prevents many people from making an income online.

If you happen to be subscribed to the newsletters of a guru or two, you’ll know exactly what I mean. There’s hardly a day goes by where one or another of them is not promoting the new key to instant online riches. And it’s easy to get drawn into the pitch. After all, these folks are good at what they do. Their PREselling copy is mesmerizing. Their offer, compelling. And, should you click through to the sales page of the promoted product/service in question – with its lurid, red, all-caps title and breathless promise of instant riches – you may find yourself seriously considering the offer.

Don’t.

There will be another one just like it tomorrow.

And when you see it, you’ll wonder if you made the right decision by buying the product / solution offered to you yesterday.

And so it goes. On and on and on.

The constant analysis of offers and opportunities is indeed paralyzing, and in the end, you’re unable to move ahead on anything. I can attest to buying dozens of products over the years that I have never used, and on occassion, never even looked at. After spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars, I’ve learned my lessons; my efforts are always best channeled towards my existing businesses, and there is no better, quicker, faster, or more effective way to make a living online. If you did your due dilligence when you selected the route you are currently on, don’t deviate.

Don’t alter your course. In fact, don’t even LOOK at other offers.

Paralysis by analysis is a killer.

I received an e-mail (regarding UltimateFatBurner.com) from an individual at a recognizable Search Engine Optimization firm that went like this…

“I cam across your article on a websites and we would post an article of yours on one of our weight loss related websites if you would post our article on your website.”

Now I don’t want to sound like a prude here, but if you are going to send me an e-mail soliciting some sort of venture, the first thing you want to do is to make sure you spell check your message, and (gasp!) use proper grammar.

Next, don’t make the assumption the webmaster on the receiving end of your e-mail is a complete moron. Show him or her some respect. Seriously.

Because my first question is…

Oh yeah? What article? Where?

Because I don’t do article exchanges. Sure, I’ve had my articles re-printed on other web sites. These are articles obtained from an article directory, or a webmaster has approached me directly about re-printing them on his or her own site.

If you want your invitation to have some credibility, the first thing you need to do is put your money where your mouth is. In this case, that means saying…

“I came across your article at ‘www.somedomain.com.’”

Next, don’t make the assumption I am interested in article exchanges. Follow that up with…

“Are you using article exchanges as a means to build up your in-pointing links? If so, I was wondering if you would be interested in exchanging articles with one of our clients?”

Those are two good first steps.

But here’s the big one.

This individual has asked me about article exchanging without telling me what site I’d be linking to, or showing me which article I’d be posting on my site.

Accordingly, this is just about the stupidest question I could be asked. Because any webmaster who has a Net-leading resource in any niche is not going to link to any site that damages the credibility of his/her site. And she is certainly not going to post any articles that promote products or theories that are not in accordance with those published on her site.

So the answer, obviously, is “that depends.”

But, since this e-mail is coming from an “SEO expert” who darn well ought to know better, there is no “that depends.”

Instead, it’s a quick shift to the right, and a quick stab at the DELETE button.

You want a link? Make the effort.

Sheesh.

Find high quality blogs and hub pages that are related to your niche and/or theme, and make relevant posts that provide real value to the readers of these resources. If applicable, provide a link back to a related, quality article on your site – but only if it genuinely supplements the article.

(Regardless of whether or not a “no follow” protocol is followed on the resource in question, obtaining in-pointing links on credible sites is a worthwhile venture, not only for the referred visitors, but the credibility they impart on your own site).

Notice how I said “it would seem like a no-brainer” link building strategy?”

If what I see on my sites is any indication, it seems the majority of webmasters can’t seem to grasp this concept. Or, they can’t be bothered to make the effort required to put together a decent post. And by decent post, I don’t mean…

“Great site! I have a site too – click here to read about my weight loss journey!”

With that said, let me talk a little bit about utilizing this link building strategy properly. Done right, it’s worthwhile. Done poorly, it’s a waste of time…

First and foremost, no quality blog is going to allow you to muddle up an intelligent discussion by posting tripe, material that provides no benefit to the site’s visitors, or material that has no obvious purpose other than to obtain an in-pointing link.

As a webmaster, I see this as an attempt to piggyback on the success and the traffic of my sites, but without the willingness to provide anything of value in return. Frankly, I find it insulting.

Bzzzzzzzt. DELETE.

If you can’t provide anything of value to a discussion, don’t post for the sake of posting. You’re wasting both your time, and the site’s moderator.

Second, just because you can’t add something of value to a quality resource right now, doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to. I recommend using a RSS reader (I recommend the free FeedReader) to stay on top of new posts on quality blogs, so you can jump in and make a relevant post when and if you can. Just find the “RSS” button and sign up to the site’s feed, and you’ll automatically be informed of any new content.

Third, in some cases, it may be worthwhile to create a brand new article that supplements a discussion, just so you can legitimately obtain an in-pointing link from that resource.

Fourth, take some time and put a little effort into your post. Remember, you’re essentially asking the webmaster of the resource for the right to piggyback on his/her traffic and credibility. S/he does not know you, and does not owe you any favors. If you want a link, earn it.

Here’s an example of a post that I made recently. Notice how it adds some additional, relevant material and is a valid attempt to add real value to the discussion? How could a moderator refuse this?

For great resources, don’t hesitate to offer a link from your own site, or some kudos to the webmaster… this does not go amiss either.

Take a look at this example, for instance. I was thrilled to find this great quality resource, and had no reservations about telling the webmasters that. In this instance, I also added a link to a relevant, high quality article on UltimateFatBurner.com, and as a service to my visitors, added their site to my Blog roll.

Bottom line?

If done properly, you can use this strategy to obtain quality in-pointing links from similarly themed blogs or hub pages. But it’s not a quick fix solution. You need to have something worthwhile to link back to, and you won’t always have that. In both examples outlined above, I knew I had an article that would be a perfect match for the topic in question. Had I not, I wouldn’t have made these posts.

In that case, I would have simply added both sites to my RSS reader, and waited until they covered a topic for which I could provide a link of value.

Badda-bing, badda-boom.

Easy as pie. If you do it right.

Do it right.

But I won’t be buying this keyword research tool, or any other.

I don’t need to.

I know exactly what my visitors are searching for over at UltimateFatBurner.com, and exactly what searches bring them to the site. It’s pretty simple; an array of fairly generic terms related to weight loss, supplements and diets, and more specifically, individual product names, usually coupled with the words “reviews” or “information.”

Keyword research for me is simply ensuring I stay on top of the newest, most popular, and most aggressively advertised products and review them in a timely manner (incidentally, I use the professional version of the FreeFind site search on UltimateFatBurner.com; this allows me to review reports of current and most popular searches performed on the site – a very handy feature).

But what about utilizing powerful keyword research tools to find keyword opportunities related to my niche? And then using these keywords to create new, Search Engine optimized material based upon them? After all, that’s what most gurus recommend, right?

It is.

But here’s what most gurus don’t tell you when they are fishing for commissions on the newest keyword research tool or software…

Just because you may find keyword opportunities related to your over theme or niche, doesn’t mean your audience is going to appreciate them. And it certainly doesn’t mean those newly created pages are going to rank well with the Search Engines (SEs). Let me explain…

Many of the SEs use theme-based ranking algorithms to some degree and tend to give the ranking “nod” to sites that have tight, focused, and targeted themes.

To further illustrate this point, let’s stick with my main site, UltimateFatBurner.com. Obviously, the pertinent theme of the primary subdomain is fat burners, diet pills, weight loss supplements, or whatever you want to call them. Several years ago, I bought into this “diversification” of theme and, using various tools and software, unearthed a flood of targeted, related keywords (mostly within the adult type II diabetes and exercise niches).

But the content I created around the most promising of these keywords flopped… horribly.

Why?

Two main reasons…

1) UltimateFatBurner.com’s audience visits for one reason, and one reason only; to research the latest and greatest weight loss pill. It’s not a stretch to figure that those looking for the “quick fix” in weight loss are not going to be particularly interested in practical, exercise-based options.

At one time, I thought I could use the reviews of popular fat burners as a way to draw people to the site, and introduce them to more practical options for weight loss. But with a passive medium like the Internet, it just doesn’t work that way. In other words, if you start telling people stuff they do not want to hear, they will just go somewhere else.

In other words, my audience could care less about exercise-related content, regardless of how popular a certain piece of keyword software has revealed it to be.

2) No rankings: Exercise and weight-related health issues like Type II diabetes certainly fit within the “weight loss” theme. But apparently, not enough so that these pages piggyback on the established credibility of UltimateFatBurner.com within the “fat burner + weight loss supplement” theme (almost every new fat burner review I post will be listed in the top 10 rankings of Google with minimal SEO efforts).

In other words, the SEs know this site as an authority on fat burners, not on exercise and type II diabetes (in fact, there are already well established sites within both of these themes, regardless of the keyword opportunities I discovered). As far as the SEs are concerned, the three topics are not close enough in theme.

Sure, I could have created new subdomains, created reams of content around both of these topics, and acquired the necessary in-pointing links for the SEs to consider this site to be an authority on these themes and then divert the necessary traffic to make them viable

But then my efforts would not be focused on fat burners, a theme with which I have good standings with the SEs already. Obviously, I’m better off to keep my efforts focused here.

So what’s my point?

I’m certainly not arguing that keyword research is not important. It is. Vitally. Especially for new websites. But depending upon your niche, it may become less so as your web site becomes more and more established. As it does, it may be that it is your audience’s interests and your log files that will point you towards new keyword opportunities.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to periodically perform some basic keyword research, just to make sure you aren’t missing anything critical – you shouldn’t be, if you did your research properly in the first place – but you really don’t need anything expensive for this (Google’s free tool works quite well!).

The bottom line is that you may not need a keyword research tool. Sure, a good one may be effective at identifying related keywords, but it can’t tell you what your audience’s interests are and what material they are most likely to respond to. It can’t tell you whether these keywords are close enough to your existing content’s theme to be able to “piggyback” on your site’s established credibility within it.

Just something to consider before you go binging on the latest keyword research tool!

That said, let me explain why you should avoid using PLR articles on your web site if at all possible. Yes, I’m well aware that there are plenty of gurus who recommend using private label rights to beef up your site’s inventory of content. I don’t happen to agree with them.

At all.

And that’s even if you take the time to re-write them in your own words (usually the one stipulation made by the gurus who recommend this strategy), which most people simply don’t do.

There are several reasons why…

1) Excellent content rules the day: If you’re using a content-based web site to attract Search Engine traffic, build your credibility and effectively monetize your audience, PLR articles won’t do the trick. Today, providing generic, standard, readily-accessible content material is not going to establish you in your visitor’s mind. And it certainly will not establish you as a leader in your niche.

And I can guarantee you won’t find any revolutionary or particularly insightful information in any PLR package you buy. Certainly not at the $3-$12 per article price.

I know. I’ve actually bought numerous private label rights articles over the years thinking I could perhaps leverage the content somehow. Nope. Nien. Nyet. Nada.

Sure, it’s adequate, I agree. But comparing PLR articles to properly researched, insightful material of your own is like comparing a meal at a 5-star restaurant to a Swanson meat pie.  Sure, the meat pie tastes fine, is easy to prepare, and covers most of your immediate nutritional needs. But your guests aren’t exactly going to be crooning about your culinary skills. Nor are they going to beat a path to your door the next time you offer, “c’mon over for supper!”

To repeat, “adequate” just ain’t gonna “cut it.”

So why bother?

If you don’t have the time to create quality content of your own, you’re better off to wait until you do, or get into a different business.

I’m serious.

I’d rather have a small, slow-growing web site packed with unique, quality content than a large one based on PLR articles, syndicated material, and what have you.

2) Duplicated contented is not a credibility builder: As a little experiment, a few weeks ago I bought a PLR package of articles from a reliable source. I then copied and pasted the first couple of sentences of the first article directly into Google’s search box, pressed “Search”…

And “whammo!”

Dozens of results.

Plenty of folks had bought the same package I did, and posted the articles, word-for-word, on their web sites. Now I realize most folks are not going to know the posted PLR material is not unique to your web site. But it’s not something I’d be willing to risk.

And hey, let’s face it; it’s pretty cheesy.

3) Possible Search Engine (SE) issues: To date, I am not aware of any ranking penalties being applied to web sites making liberal use of private label rights articles. But it’s not improbable that the SEs could at any time start querying their databases for duplicate content and sites that are based heavily upon it, and begin applying a ranking penalty.

Think about it; the more likely a site is to be based on PLR material and duplicated content, the less likely it is going to be a genuine authority site. Ergo, the less likely it is going to effectively address a visitor’s search query.

Bada-bing, bada-boom. Say good-bye to your rankings.

So a big thumbs-down on PLR articles altogether?

Well, I’d agree that using PLR articles sparingly and re-writing them in your own words is unlikely to be detrimental to your web site and your business. However, I’d have to ask why you’d want to even bother investing time in this – how much longer would it take to write your own, unique, “one-off” articles, anyway?

Give ‘em a miss. That’s my recommendation.