Do I use a free theme or pay for a premium theme?

What I’ve learned over the years is that, depending on the niche that your blog is targeting, it’s often very cost-effective just to purchase a premium theme and get your content online as quickly as possible.

For personal blogs, sure, use a free theme. But if you’re launching a blog targeting a professional or corporate audience, buy the premium theme and you’ll be happier in the long-run. It’ll be easier to gain the trust of your blog audience, plus you’ll be pleased with the raw power that many of these premium themes have under the covers.

New Corporate Themes for WordPress

Here are a few corporate themes that caught my eye at ThemeForest, arguably the top premium WordPress theme site on the web.

Debonair Corporate WordPress Theme [View Demo]

I think Debonair looks fantastic. The green and grey color scheme is totally trendy for corporate websites these days. I was this close to buying it today, but instead, decided on Glide which is shown just below.

Glide Premium WordPress Theme [View Demo]

I actually purchased Glide today, which is what prompted me to write this blog post. I love that there are multiple sliders you can choose from to highlight your feature content. And the theme comes with this really neat skinning ability, where you can change the colors of the background, the nav bar, etc. all from the WordPress dashboard.

 Thunder Business WordPress Theme [View Demo]

See More Corporate Themes

You can browse more Corporate and Business WordPress themes here.

Happy blogging!

But did you know that they also offer free custom printed t-shirts?! This was news to me when I found out just a few days ago.

To me, this seems like a great deal for new start-ups and tech companies looking for some basic, free / cheap t-shirts to wear around town and to local meetups and events.

Here’s how it works:

1. Choose the text to appear on the front of the t-shirt, such as your company name, slogan, and web site address.
2. Choose a t-shirt design. (They’ve got a few hundred designs to choose from.)
3. Choose the t-shirt color. (White, grey, and black.)

Pretty simple process if you ask me. And as far as I can tell, you only pay extra for additional customization and for shipping.

Here’s the link to the free custom printed t-shirt page on the Vistaprint website.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts.

Note: Each of these 125 x 125 banners are owned by their respective owners; none of them are my own work.

Click into the article to browse through the gallery of “Your Ad Here” images.

I present to you the 5 Minute Long Tail SEO Drill. You’ll learn how to quickly and easily implement some simple on-page SEO techniques to improve your Google search ranking positions (SERPs) and, ultimately, boost your blog’s traffic.

No doubt, many of you will already know about this particular method. And for those that don’t, it’s such a simple and obvious method that you’ll question why you haven’t started doing this already.

I recently spent 5 minutes doing long tail SEO on my blog and within a couple of weeks, was seeing search engine traffic to key pages on my blog increase by over 20%, resulting in overall site traffic increasing by over 12%. Again, this is just with 5 minutes of effort.

Repeat the 5 Minute Long Tail SEO Drill every month or two, and you’ll see continuous step improvements in your site SERPs.

The 5 Minute Long Tail SEO Drill concept:

Fact: Ranking on the first page (SERPs 1 – 10) of any Google search query is far better than ranking on the 2nd (SERPs 11-20) or third. While being on the first page may result in an abundance of traffic,  click-thrus dramatically drop off as you fall onto the 2nd and third pages of Google search results.

Goal: You want to be on the first page of Google search results (and, actually, as high on the first page as possible). And, chances are, your blog already has a lot of “low-hanging fruit” that you can quickly affect change to, and easily get onto the first page.

Strategy: Using Google Webmaster Tools, identify high impression Google search queries where you’re ranking low on the first page (8-10) or high on the second page (11-13). Perform on-page SEO to optimize your content to those search queries, and move up the SERPs.

The 5 Minute Long Tail SEO Drill method:

Step 1: Identify high impression search queries where you’re ranking low on the first page (8-10) or high on the 2nd (11-13)

(We’ll be using Google Webmaster Tools for this. If you don’t already have your blog set up to use Google Webmaster Tools, do that first, then come back.)

In Google Webmaster Tools, open up the Your site on the web > Search queries view.

The Search queries screen lists all of the Google search queries which resulted in an impression for your blog. By default, the list is ordered by impressions, which is great, because that tells us which search queries have the power to affect change most dramatically.

Further to the right, you’ll notice your average position for each of the search queries.

Remember, the goal here is to find high impression search queries for which you’re ranking low on the first page or high on the 2nd page.

Glance down the listed search queries, looking for search queries with positions in our target range. When you find a couple such search queries, note them down mentally and move onto Step 2.

Step 2: Make a list of which blog entries are associated with the target search queries

In Google Webmaster Tools, when you click on any of the search queries, you are given additional details about the search query, including the URLs to the blog entries that were actually listed in the search results for that query.

Normally only one blog entry will be listed, but in cases when multiple blog entries are listed, identify which one appears most often. That’s the blog entry we’ll be optimizing.

For each of the search queries you identified in Step 1, write down which blog entries you’ll be optimizing. Once you’ve done this, move onto Step 3.

Step 3: Perform on-site SEO optimization on those blog entries

When optimizing your blog entries, there are three key areas you want to focus on.

1. Blog post title - Does your current blog post title contain the search query you’re optimizing for? If not, rewrite the title so it does. In some cases, you may be using a slight variation of the search query in the title. For example, you might be using the individual words from the search query in your title, but not as a single phrase. For these cases, consider revising, but before doing so, see my consideration notes below.
2. The first sentence – Search engines prefer to use the first sentence of your blog post in their search results. So, remember to use the search query term early on in the first sentence.
3. Keyword density – In your blog post itself, you want to mention the search query term multiple times. The exact frequency depends on the overall length of your blog post, and this is referred to as “keyword density“. Aim for a keyword density between 1% and 5%. For example, a 1% keyword density means that for every 100 words in your blog post, mention the keywords from your search query once. Longer blog posts will inevitably have more words, so you’ll have the opportunity to repeat your keywords more often.

Some considerations:

• Most blog posts will have multiple search queries resulting in search engine traffic. When doing any of the optimizations suggested above, don’t forget to consider what other search queries you may be affecting.
• Usually, I’d optimize for the top 2 or 3 search queries for a given blog post, and anything below that, leave alone.

Anyway, so there you have it– the 5 Minute Long Tail SEO Drill.

Over the next few weeks, monitor your SERPs using Google Webmaster Tools, and watch them improve. As well, as the whole point of this is to direct more traffic to your blog, don’t forget to monitor your traffic in your favourite analytics package, and measure the improvement.

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

It’s for this reason (and for the fact that I’m near dead-last on the list of Internet Marketing Top Blogs) that I’ve been experimenting with ways of improving my Alexa Traffic Rank.

And I must say, I feel that I’ve been successful. Over the last 2 weeks, my Alexa Traffic Rank has improved significantly.

My Alexa Traffic Rank climb

Two weeks ago, I had a 3-month Alexa Traffic Rank average in the 1,300,000′s.

Last week, that ranking improved to 942,966.

Today, my 3-month Alexa Traffic Rank is listed as 765,305. And Alexa tells me that, over the last 3-months, my ranking has improved by 643,157 positions!

But, even more, my 1-week Alexa Traffic Rank is a startling 240,335!

So, how is this possible?

Everyone knows that a simple, yet arguably inefficient way to improve your traffic rank is to just increase overall website traffic. Hopefully the traffic you’re gaining has Alexa Toolbar users in the mix, otherwise it won’t affect your Alexa Traffic Rank.

The real quick way to get instant results is to TARGET Alexa Toolbar users.

Pointless Analogy

So, for the sake of this pointless analogy, let’s say that improving your Alexa Traffic Rank is akin to working out at the gym and building muscle mass. The only real reason to do either of those two activities is to impress others. I mean, having a great Alexa Traffic Rank doesn’t mean your site is successful and having huge muscles doesn’t mean you’re healthy.

Let’s say your goal was to develop a great-looking, enviable body. You could approach this in two ways. Either use the complete set of gym equipment available to do a complete full body workout. Or, instead, concentrate on the muscle groups that will show off your results much quicker, like your arms and chest.

If you’re goal is to simply impress the average person, then the 2nd way may be a quicker way to your goal.

That’s the same with how we’re going to super-charge your Alexa Traffic Rank. Listed below are 3 easy, quicker ways of improving your Alexa Traffic Rank for instant results.

3 Ways to Improve your Alexa Traffic Rank

1) Install the Alexa Toolbar! This is a no-brainer. With the Alexa Toolbar installed, every time you visit your blog (up to once per day), you’re helping to boost your Alexa Traffic Ranking. 

2) Attract visitors likely to have the Alexa Toolbar installed. This is simple. Head over to Google Blog Search, and do a search for alexa traffic rank. Sort by Date. Now, you’ve got a list of people that have blogged about the Alexa Traffic Rank. There’s a very high possibility that each of these bloggers have the toolbar installed.

Play on their ego: Visit their blog and write a glowing comment about your attempt at improving your Alexa Traffic Rank. I will bet you that every single one of these bloggers will check out your site in return. Bloggers (including myself) love seeing whose linking to them and/or commenting on their site.

And as an added bonus, many of their subsequent visitors, also seeking Alexa Traffic Rank hints (and who also probably have the toolbar installed), will see your comment and hit up your blog too! It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

3) Attract even more visitors likely to have the Alexa Toolbar installed! How? Blog about the Alexa Toolbar or the Alexa Traffic Rank on your own blog! Attract people searching for advice on how to improve their Alexa Traffic Rank (and who also hopefully read this blog post first and already installed the Alexa Toolbar themselves).

Then what?! Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 over and over and over. To help you out, add the RSS feed to the Google Blog Search results for alexa traffic rank to your RSS Reader. Comment on all new posts about the subject. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The cycle continues! And others may use you as part of their own cycle! But no matter, in a few weeks, you’ll be the envy of your blog friends, with a super-charged Alexa Traffic Rank!

The idea is to choose one of Market Leverage’s CPA offers and share how you’d market the idea. From the submitted blog posts, a few winners will be chosen: 1 winner by Zac, and the rest by Market Leverage.

How to Enter This Contest

1. If you aren’t already an affiliate with Market Leverage, sign up for an account.
2. Browse the various campaigns on the Market Leverage website and choose one that you’d like to “promote”.
3. Write a blog post or create a YouTube video, detailing your promotion ideas for the chosen campaign. (Quality and Originality will be two factors that determine the contest winners, so make your posts stand out!)
4. Head over to Zac’s blog and leave a comment on the contest post with a URL to your entry.
5. (Optional) Follow through and actually make some money executing your campaign promotion strategy!

On January 5th, the winners will be chosen. Who knows, maybe it’ll be you!

Below is my entry to the contest. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but who knows, it could actually work!

My “Share Your Secret” Contest Entry

The campaign that I would promote is the “Are You Psychic – Mobile Fun Test” campaign, which pays out a decent $8 per lead.

I’d choose this product because of the growing media buzz around fringe sciences, the paranormal, and conspiracies. Just look at some of the new TV shows to hit the airwaves recently: Fringe, The Mentalist, Monk, Psych, and probably a bunch more I’m not aware of.

I’d target the audiences of these TV shows, because I figure that people that enjoy these shows are also open to the idea of ESP, and possibly have dreamed about having ESP or being a psychic.

Two methods:

1) Advertise on Social Media sites like Facebook. Zero in on the favourite TV shows that users list on their profiles, and target users who list the ones I mentioned earlier. Create ads targeting those TV shows and asking the question, “Are you Psychic?” Or, ”Are you a Mentalist?” etc.

2) Advertise on Search Engines using AdWords. This time, target keywords like “fringe tv show”, “fringe tv series”, “the mentalist tv show”, “psych tv series”.

Direct users to your landing pages, with each TV show getting it’s own, customized landing page. Sell the campaign. Rake in the dough.

The Goal
To attain a Page Rank of PR1 within 1 week.

The Reasoning
Although from a search engine perspective, Page Rank may be losing relevance, from a marketing perspective, Page Rank is still a useful and necessary indicator of website authority. For folks offering paid links or posts from their blog, the Page Rank value is not only important, but often necessary even to get the conversation started.

Keith’s goal was to begin using the KickJoey.com domain as a platform for paid reviews, so, attaining a Page Rank was deemed a necessity.

The Result
Unfortunately, after one week, even with some promotion across the blogosphere, his domain remained at PR0. But that never really surprised anyone, considering how infrequently Page Rank gets updated. To be honest, I didn’t think Keith had a chance. I figured he’d have to wait til the next big Google index PR update occurred, if Google ever does one of those again.

Happily, there is a positive ending to this story. After 4 more weeks of waiting, Keith did notice his domain was finally awarded a Page Rank of PR2.

While you might say to yourself, “But it’s just a PR2. Why the fuss?” Why the fuss? Because I can honestly tell you I know many other bloggers who are still waiting for their PR to update after many months of waiting. Is it just bad luck on their part? Probably not.

When asked about the PR2 Page Rank, Keith mentioned to me that he probably owes it to the 4 PR4 backlinks he received while promoting the experiment (and less so to the PR2 backlink that he got from this site, LOL).

Well, there ya have it. A happy ending to the 1-Week PR Experiment.

And if there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that if you’re a new blogger anxious to be awarded a Page Rank, you better make some friends in high places… I mean, with high Page Rank…

If you haven’t heard yet, you can use coupon code 99DOMAIN over at GoDaddy.com to purchase .com/.net/.org domain names for 99 cents!

Update: The $0.99 domain name deal is dead, but you can find current GoDaddy.com coupon codes here. Before purchasing domain names, you should always find a working GoDaddy coupon code first, as it’ll save you an easy 30% off your domain purchase.

This is a smoking deal for anyone looking to start the New Year fresh with a new blog/website. Even if all you do is buy a domain for $0.99 and flip it for a few dollars on SitePoint or DigitalPoint, that few dollars is nearly pure profit!

To make the deal even more smoking, as always, if you purchase 5 or more domains from GoDaddy, they’ll throw in free Privacy Registration (a $11 savings on each domain!).

Keep in mind, this is just for 1-year domain name registrations. I’ve got a handful I’ll be registering tonight. Lemme know which domains you end up picking up!

• Tom – Entrepreneur Interview
• Chovy
• Karilyn
• Anthony Ettinger
• Jeff Bowyer
• Stew Babcock
• Annalise
• PuReWebDev
• Heather in Beautiful BC

Thank you for contributing to the site!

As always, we’ll be doing this same thing next month, so feel free to join the conversation and earn a link back to your website.

There were also two new bloggers in attendance, Parm and Moneca, who battled over the free copy of Site Point’s The Website Revenue Maximizer book. After a which discussion between the two, it was decided that Parm would be the lucky Dot Com Pho newcomer taking home the 300-page hardcopy version of the book.

If you’re in the Vancouver-area and interested in coming out to a Dot Com Pho lunch, head over the John Chow’s website and he’ll announce the weekly location near the end of the week each week.