Hi, We're glad you stopped by. Why not subscribe to our RSS feed and we'll let you know when we added a new post.. Thanks for visiting!

There are many different services that can be added through Posterous:

On Twitter – make sure you add your web address to your profile.

On Facebook – add a Facebook PAGE, using the Facebook Page Quick Start Guide found on Facebook. Can add websites to your Facebook page – which gives more banklinks.

On LinkedIn – you can add “My Company”, “My Blog”, “My Websites” – all of which give you links.

To manage all of these, add services via Posterous.  So, add Twitter, Facebook Page and LinkedIn.

Take home message – always put your link into your profile on ALL services.

Tags: ed dale, posterous, SEO, the challenge

To set up:  just send an email to post@posterous.com

Posterous will then reply and then you can choose a name for your account and set up a password. Add a photo (Ed says this is a good idea).

BIG TIP: In the description field, include your domain name and anchor text (main keyword phrase) by doing this:

<a href=”http://yourdomain.com.au”>Replace this with your Anchor Text</a>

It will then look like this:

Replace this with your Anchor Text

Skip the find and invite friends and then you are done

You may need to confirm the email address (just click on the confirmation link in the email that Posterous sent you).

Set Up Auto Post

Click on “Add a Service” and then click on the icon for the type of service you want to set up (eg WordPress). Then enter your blog URL, username and password.

Repeat this for each of the Services you want to post to.

Once the Services are set up, each time you post to Posterous, it will also post to your other accounts.

Tags: ed dale, posterous, the challenge

Ed Dale says “This is the missing link!”

Go to www.posterous.com – it is a micro-blogging service. But, its best feature is that you can email in your posting! So you can take a photo with your smartphone, type in a few lines and send it to Posterous – and it is posted instantly!

Auto-post function – you can set up various blogs to receive your Posterous content. It keeps all the formatting, anchor text, links, media etc.

Facebook posting – Posterous will also post it direct to Facebook.

Tumblr – posts direct to Tumblr.

So, with one post from your iphone, it updates various blogs, posterous, Facebook and Tumblr.

Advanced Question – but what about the “duplicate content penalty”?? This is where Google does not display more than one version of the same copy in its results.  BUT – Google still indexes the content AND it still counts for backlinks!!

Tags: ed dale, posterous, the challenge

1. Create an account at eZine Articles.
2. Read the Editorial Guidelines (good idea to read this regularly as they change frequently).
3. Click on “Create Your First Article”
4. Select a Category and Sub-Category
5. Put your Keyword Phrase in the Title.
6. Write some “teaser copy”.
7. Add the text of your article (which you have (of course!) written earlier). Make sure your keyword phrase is in the first paragraph. Around 500 words is about the right length.
8. Turn WYSIWYG Editor on. This enables you to add some formatting.
9. Use formatting very selectively. if you receive an email from eZine articles telling you there is a problem, just change it!
10. In the keyword area, make sure your keywords are suggested and add any other relevant keywords.
11. In the Author SIG box, insert your text about you (including your keyword phrase) – you can have two links, one to your site and the other to the relevant blog posting. You do not need to use your own name – if you prefer, use a “pen name”.
12. Click on “Preview Article” and check that it looks OK.
13. If you are happy with it, click on “Submit This Article”.  Expect it to be reviewed within about 7 days.

Tags: article writing, articles, ezine, the challenge

A backlink is an external link back to your site.It has two components:

• the URL (ie the page it is leading to
• the text (which should be your keyword phrase) that is “hiding’ the link itself – it is called “anchor text”

It is crucial to understand “anchor text”.

Here is an example of anchor text and a link:

my keyword phrase

The anchor text is – “my keyword phrase”
The URL is “http://www.challenge.co”

Another factor in building backlinks is the “authority” level. In this lesson, Ed is using the example of “Ed Dale is the sexiest man alive”. It matters who makes the statement – if Heidi Klum or Jennifer Aniston said it, then it would carry more weight than if Joe at the pub said it!  But “authority” for backlinks is not the huge factor that some people think it is.

Action: spend 10 minutes (set the timer) of “fueling”.  Then set the timer again and do a 10 minute “free writing” session. Then, spend the final 10 minutes editing a writing effort from a PREVIOUS day.

Tags: ed dale, SEO, the challenge

This lesson suggests creating an account with Traffic Bug.

There is a 40 day trial for The Challenge:

www.traffic-bug.com/TC/

Note from MLM: I have used TB before and was not stoked with the results, so cancelled my subscription (it is about US$20 per month). I’m not going to report how to use TB in this post.

Tool: Market Samurai

What is “Ranking”?

You should now have a new website, at your selected domain name , with a single page (or article). If Google visits your site today, then it will rank you for your site based on the keywords used, without any backlinks. When you then build backlinks, Google will identify that and your ranking for those keywords will increase.

How Do I Track the Ranking of My Site?

1. Open Market Samurai for the project that relates to your site.
2. Click on “Rank Tracker”.
3. Click on “Add Domains” and enter the URL (ie domain) of your new website.  Click on “Add Domain”.
4. Click “Add keywords”.
5. Enter the theme and category keywords you are targeting for your site.
6. Market Samurai will then list your keywords.
7. You can also monitor the ranking of other pages you can create. Click on “Add URL” and paste in the address of the page you wish to monitor.
8. At the top, select the search engines that you want to monitor (start with Google) and also selct “Phrase Match results”.
9. Set the “Search Depth” to 1000.Once your site gets into the top 500 and then 100, you can change the depth to save search time.
10. Then click “Update Rank” and MS will establish the current rankings for your website.

Interpreting the Results

A “-” that indicates that the URL is not yet ranked for that page.

A “+” means that your page has been indexed but it is not yet ranked within the top 1000.

A number (eg 46) means that you are ranked at that number within the specified search engine .

You can click on the “chart” icon (on the right hand side) so track your site’s ranking progress over time.

Tags: market samurai, rank tracking, the challenge

Google Analytics is software provided by Google that will track the statistics for your website. It is the industry standard, so the data is widely accepted.

• To signup go to, www.google.com/analytics. Use your Google account (or sign up for one – it is free!).
• Once you are signed in, enter the website domain name (URL). Enter your Timezone and Country. Click “Continue”.
• Enter your name. Select country.
• Agree to Terms of Service.
• If you are using your own site (not WPD), then copy and paste the code and send it to your web developer or add it to your website yourself.
• If you are using WPD, then select “Save and Finish”.
• Login to WPD. Under “WPD Tools” (right hand side), click on “Google Analytics”.
• Click on the red link. This will take you to a Google site. This will aks you if you want to allow WPD to have “access’ to your GA account (it doesn’t have control, just access).
• Click on “Grant Access”.
• Then click the “Tracked” option next to your Website URL.
• You can then log in to GA and see the data for your site from that point on. Or you can use “View Stats” within WPD (it pulls the data from your GA account).

Tags: google analytics, the challenge, wordpress direct

This session will show you how to load your content from Market Samurai to your WordPress Direct site.

In Market Samurai, open your project and then go to “Publish Content”.

1. Click on “View Local Drafts”.
2. Next to the draft you want to work on, click on the “pencil” on the right hand side.
3. Click on “Publish” (bottom right hand corner).
4. Under account, please select “New WordPress Direct Account”.
5. Enter your WPD account details.
6. Click on “Add Account” button.
7. Now set publish options (immediately or a subsequent date).
8. Select category for new article.
9. Identify where images should be placed (leave first option selected).
10. Click on “Publish New Article” (bottom right hand corner).

Your article is now being uploaded to your WPD blog along with any images.

Tags: content, market samuari, the challenge, wordpress direct

This session will help you get your site up and running very quickly using WPD.

To start you need:

• wordpress direct account
• a domain name
• a web hosting account that is hosting that domain name
• your category keywords
• A brief (30 word) description

Set Up WordPress Direct

1. Login to your account at www.wpdirect.com
2. Click on “Install New Site”
3. Select a template and click “install to new site”
4. Enter your domain name and FTP hosting account details.
5. Enter your website account settings.
6. Skip the autoincome maker software setup (you do not need this now). But tick the boxes for “Text” and “Video”.
7. Change the default password to something else.
8. Skip Adsense and Analytics for now.
9. Click on “Install Website”.

Load Content (this will be covered in next video)

1. Click on “Manage Posts”
2. Copy and paste your content straight in from Market Samurai (the post you edited yesterday!)

The first page of your site should now be visible!

Add Your Brief Description

Go to “Website Settings’ and paste or write in your “Brief Description”. This description is what will appear in Google results – so you want your keywords in the text for the description.

Tags: the challenge, wordpress direct