Today, affiliate marketing superstar Rosalind Gardner really set me straight!

Here’s how it happened.

While reading Rosalind’s always informative blog, I learned something new.

Over the last several months I’ve seen numerous references to the demise of the Overture Keyword Selector Tool, that’s the free online resource many marketers use to research keyword popularity.

But my experience was different. Every time I used the tool it worked for me, so I just assumed these were only temporary outages. (BTW, I access Overture’s results through a keyword software program, so I rarely visit their site.)

Anyway, I discovered that while the Overture Keyword Selector Tool may still be online, the search information isn’t current. It’s showing old results from searches in January of 2007.

Yahoo! recently acquired Overture and is obviously not supporting the service at this time. Hopefully, it will return one day, perhaps as the Yahoo! Selector Tool.

I’ll keep you updated when I hear something new, or the next time Roz sets me straight.

What Do You Think?

E. Alvin Davis
“The Coach’s Online Marketing Coach” ™

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As a coaching professional, you surely appreciate the concept, “knowledge is power” — and it truly is.

It’s the power to make better, more informed decisions about everything affecting your coaching practice.

Having access to this knowledge allows you to “keep score” on your business. Once you know your “baseline,” you can work to continually improve your performance in every single area of your coaching practice.

When it comes to the online part of your coaching business, there’s a great resource that can help you track your metrics.

I’m talking about Google Analytics, a free resource from our friends at the big “G.”

Even small, minor improvements to your coaching business add up. Tiny changes that may not seem all that significant at the moment, compound and build, and ultimately lead to significant growth.

If you haven’t signed up yet, be sure and check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

What Do You Think?

E. Alvin Davis
“The Coach’s Online Marketing Coach” ™

This is a followup to my last post, Coaches, Here Are 5 Ways To Get Your Coaching Site Indexed Quickly!.

Here’s one of my favorite tips and it involves s website you may be familiar with, CraigsList.org.

CraigsList is essentially a classified advertising site. It started out several years ago in San Francisco, but has now branched out to other cities across the U.S.

Once you’re at CraigsList, simply post a classified ad. I typically use the Services category, and then place my ad in the most relevant sub-category. You can post your classified ad for free!

Do not SPAM and do not abuse this service. Just post a legitimate ad one time, and one time only. Because the content of CraigsList.com is ever changing, the Google bots spider in on a regular basis.

Typically, your ad will get your site indexed pretty quickly.

What Do You Think?

E. Alvin Davis
“The Coach’s Online Marketing Coach” ™

I’m often asked by fellow coaches, “How can I get my coaching site indexed quickly?”

Here are the top 5 ways I recommend.

1. Submit your site to the MSN.com (Microsoft) search engine. Go to www.msn.com and do a search for your site. If your site doesn’t come up you’ll receive a message saying, “We did not find any results for yoursite.com. At the bottom of the page you’ll see this, “If you cannot find a page that you know exists, send the address to us.” Simply enter your address and MSN will index you.” Check back in a week. If you’re still not indexed, resubmit.

2. If you don’t already have an account for My.Yahoo.com, create one. Then go to your My.Yahoo page and in the upper left hand corner, just below “Search,” you’ll see a “Add Content” link. Click it. On the new page you’ll see a large “Add Content” text box. To the right of that is a “Find” button. Right next to that is a “Add RSS by URL” link. Click that link and add your URL. If Yahoo can’t find your page, you may do better by submitting your RSS feed URL.

3. Create a blog and begin posting regularly. The two options for blogs are Blogger.com and WordPress.org. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. Check ‘em out and see which option is best for you. Register your blog with Technorati.com. Also, be sure and ping your blog each time you add a new post (this lets Technorati and other sites know that new content has been posted.)

4. Submit a “Google Sitemap” to Google. Note: This is different than a regular sitemap. The most important issue is making sure that your links are descriptive and written in complete sentences.

5. Make a post on a popular forum that allows the use of “forum signatures.” (Don’t just post anything, make a valuable contribution to the forum.) Since the search engine bots regularly visit forums, your post will get indexed with your URL.

So there you are, 5 ways to get your coaching site indexed quickly.

Of course, getting indexed is only dipping your big toe in the water. That gets you in the game (barely!), now you have to start building links back to your site to increase your rankings.

What Do You Think?

E. Alvin Davis
“The Coach’s Online Marketing Coach” ™