Worried about duplicate content and potential search engine punishment? Good. You should be. Don’t do it.

Ah, but what about duplicate content on other people’s web sites? If they don’t link to you, you don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll save a further explanation about that for later, but I don’t believe it makes sense for Google to punish you for something that is not giving you any advantage. Besides, they understand content syndication. Google’s developers and designers are anything but stupid.

2. Your money site does not necessarily need to be extremely narrowly focused on a few key words, but your feeder sites should be. For example, I will soon be starting a web site for those folks trying to develop an online business in their spare time. That is, they hold down a regular job and do this stuff at night. The site is called MidnightMarketer.com and it is not live yet (but sign-up page works). Anyway, that will be one of my “money sites”. It will cover a plethora of topics related to internet marketing, time management, technology, and even health.

In order to “feed” it potential customers, I am also developing “feeder” sites that will focus on each of those more focused topics. The feeder sites will contain as many highly focused articles on their subject matter as I can find. My goal is that search engines will (rightly) see them as quite valuable and relevant results for some important search terms. Then visitors will see links and ads for MidnightMarketer and head on over. I can even make a little money off those that don’t click through to MidnightMarketer.com, thanks to Adsense ads mixed into each page by Sonic Page Blaster.

3. Don’t use reciprocal links, especially between your feeder sites and your money page. Yes, I know that flies in face of conventional wisdom. But try to understand Google’s motivations--that is key to predicting what they will eventually do. They understand that one-way links are usually more meaningful than reciprocal links, which are often just trades between webmasters. A one-way link usually points to something useful.

OK, I’ll back off on this just a little: When you can, get one-way links. When there is no other choice, reciprocate. And yes, you can be sure Google keeps track of all links into and out of a web site.

4. Do use a blog, hopefully even more than one. Blogs don’t have to be on your server(s), they’re not owned by you, and it is going to drive Google’s software gurus nuts trying to sort wheat from chaff in blogging world. Even though I support Google in most things, it is kinda fun to do something that makes them a little crazy. [I mean that in a good way, Sergei.]

== Rossaroni, no baloney ==

The MidnightMarketer

The lead company you choose may have different options for delivering your potential prospects to you. These may include a daily list sent to you via email, which you will then have to import manually into your autoresponder (if you use one), or they may send prospects directly to your autoresponder. Be sure to review all these options before choosing a lead company.

Submitting to ezine directories:

An ezine directory is a website which compiles a list of ezines. Some only list ezines that relate to a certain subject while others allow a wide range of subjects.

Most directories will not allow ezines which contain pornography, “hate”, “anti-government”, or other related subject matter to be listed on their site.

Submitting your ezine to a directory costs nothing and takes little time. Just go to any major search engine and look up ‘ezine directories’.

Some results for your search will be actual ezine directories, others may be web pages which contain a list of them. Browse through all sites methodically to find as many ezine directories as possible.

In each directory, there will be a link somewhere on website that says something to effect of “submit your ezine”. When you click it, you will be taken to a page with a submission form to fill out.

Be sure to give details of your ezine in a purely informational style. It is not an advertisement, so leave out all catch-phrases and other hype.

Visit as many directories as time allows. The more you submit to, more people searching for information you offer will be likely to find your ezine while browsing those directories.

There is a software program called EzineAnnouncer which makes this whole process much quicker. It will submit your ezine to a large number of directories for you, without you having to spend time doing it all manually. It costs money, so check it out and decide for yourself if you feel it’s worth it.

How much time and money you spend is up to you. If you formulate a plan and stick with it, using techniques outlined above will result in a significant boost (even an explosion!) in your ezine subscriber list. Give them a try, you will be surprised by how well they work.