Anything Under The Sun: What Is Competition Analysis?

Earlier, I mentioned Competition Analysis, and I promised you guys that I’ll enlighten you about this. So, this time, I’m going to discuss this task here at Anything Under The Sun. Here goes;

Now, once you get a set of keywords with high search volumes and low competitions, the next thing you need to do is to perform a Competition Analysis. Doing this task will allow an SEO or Web Marketing Analyst to know how much work needs to be done in order to get to the top or the first page.

Competition Analysis or Competitive Analysis is a task wherein you get information about your competitors like their websites’ Page Ranks, Internal Links and External Links. As I said earlier, you may use Market Samurai to do this job automatically. However, if you do it manually, which I prefer, you will be able to fully understand what you need to have and what you need to do to get to the top or at least included in the first page.

When doing a Competitive Analysis, one of the basic tools you need to have is SEO Quake. This is an Add-on you can install in your Mozilla Firefox, which can show you the Page Rank, Internal Links, External Links of your website or competitors’ websites.

Page Ranks are very important when it comes to Competitive Analysis and Keyword Research. Even if a certain keyword has more than 30,000 search volumes, you can’t use them if most of the websites competing for the same keywords have page ranks that are higher than 3 or 4. Internal Links and External links shows how well made sites are.

By gathering the Page Ranks, Internal Links and External Links of your competitors’ websites, you will be able to create your own on-page strategy, one that will allow your website to become more visible on the internet.

Another thing that you need to do when performing Competitive Analysis pertains to finding how many backlinks your competitors have. This will show you how many backlinks you need to have in order to beat your competitors. Say if your competitors have 1,000 backlinks, doing a competition analysis will let you know that you need to do more than a thousand back links.

Now, Competitive Analysis or Competition Analysis may seem easy. However, you need to be properly trained in order to do this task perfectly. I am thinking of creating individual training videos for this, as well as for Keyword Research, but I still don’t have enough time.

However, once I find enough time, I promise I’ll share them here. Next time, here at Anything Under The Sun, I’ll try to teach you all about Backlinking.

Anything Under The Sun: What You Need to Know About Keyword Research

So, this time, here at Anything Under The Sun, I’m going to give you a glimpse on Keyword Research and Competition Analysis. I think that this task is the most important aspect in On-Page and Off-Page Optimization, which is why I created a whole article just for this topic.

So what is a keyword?

A Keyword is a word or a phrase that that people use to locate or search for information, products and services in the internet. If your job is On-Page Optimization, you need to put these words or phrases into your website to make Google understand that your site is related to your niche or market.

For example, if your niche or market is about Dogs and you’re offering techniques on grooming dogs, then you need to use keywords that are related to your niche. Let’s say, “Dog Grooming 101” or “How to Make Your Dogs Look Cuter”.

But before you use these keywords, you have to make sure they have enough Search Volumes and Low Competition. How? Well, here’s where Keyword Research comes in.

Keyword Research or KWR is a process where SEO’s or Web Marketing Analysts find the exact keywords that they should use to market their products, websites and services. Depending on your employer’s preferences, you will choose your keywords based on the amount of Search Volumes and the amount of Competition they have.

Search Volumes are the number of times a keyword has been used Globally or Locally in order to find a certain product, information or service. They are usually categorized into two, Global Monthly Search and Local Monthly Search. GMS, as the name suggests, are searches done globally, while LMS, are searches done within your locality.

There are two most common tools used for Keyword Research; Google Keyword Tool, and Market Samurai. These tools help SEO’s find suitable keywords that they can use to make their websites more visible on the internet.

Google Keyword Tool basically shows you the number of Searches made for a certain keyword each month. If you want to do your Keyword Research and Competition Analysis manually, this is the perfect tool you can use.

However, if you want an easier way to do Keyword Research and Competition Analysis, you can use Market Samurai. This tool, unlike Google Keyword Tool, shows SEO’s and Web Marketing Analysts a complete list of Keywords and Competition Analysis with just a few clicks. In its usual output, Keywords that have high search volumes and low competitions are highlighted. Nevertheless, you still need to undergo proper training to be able to use this tool effectively.

Oh, you’re probably wondering what Competition Analysis is all about. Well, it’s another topic that I will discuss next time, here at Anything Under The Sun. For now, I hope you learned a thing or two about Keyword Research. For more information, don’t hesitate to contact me. J

Anything Under The Sun: Understanding On-Page Optimization and Off-Page Optimization

Previously, we talked about the two types of Virtual Assistants. Today, here at Anything Under The Sun, I will do my best to give you an understanding about On-Page Optimization and Off-Page Optimization since, as I said earlier, these are the two things that involved in a Web Marketing Analyst’s or SEO’s job.

If your employer told you to do On-Page Optimization, this means you’re responsibility is within your employer’s website. Whilst, if he/she told you to do Off-Page Optimization, your work is usually outside of your employer’s site.

Well, I’ll explain further. An On-Page SEO usually makes the website as appealing to its visitors or readers as possible. They are also responsible for creating and uploading content, videos and/or photos on the site. When creating your content/articles, videos and photos for your website, you need to make sure that they encourage your readers and/or viewers to try your products and/or services.

are also the ones that create Internal Links, which are links that point the visitors from one page of your site to another; i.e. Home to Contact. Aside from these, it is also their make sure that all the links within the website are working perfectly.

Now, as for Off-Page Optimization, an SEO’s responsibility is to create backlinks to his/her employer’s website. When we say BackLinks, these are links that you put on other websites that point to your employer’s site.

Backlinks are usually created by submitting articles, videos and photos to different websites such as EzineArticles, YouTube and Panoramio.  Whenever you submit an article, video or photo, you need to put your website’s URL on the description or resource box, and encourage your readers and/or viewers to visit your website.

Nevertheless, if you want your On-Page Optimization and Off-Page Optimization to be very effective, you need to have proper keywords. But I’ll discuss Keywords and Keyword Research on another article here at Anything Under The Sun.

Anything Under The Sun: Becoming A Virtual Assistant

Today, here at Anything Under The Sun, we’re going to talk about how to become a Virtual Assistant. A lot of people these days, especially those who aren’t able to find jobs in the corporate world are trying their luck to become online employees.

One of the most popular types of jobs you can find online is a VA. There are actually two types of virtual assistants that I know of (please feel free to add some if you know); first, the personal assistants and second, are SEO’s.

Personal VA’s are like secretaries. They manage their employers’ schedules, meetings, etc. If you want to become a PVA, you need to be good in verbal English because you will constantly call your employer’s business associates and prospects to schedule meetings and/or close deals.

You also need to talk to your employer about to remind him/her of his/her schedules. Some employers who have their PVA’s for a long time even allow their PVA’s to pay their bills. So, if you want to become a PVA, you need to be trustworthy.

Now, another type of VA’s is the Web Marketing Analyst or SEO. This type of virtual assistant is responsible for making his/her employer’s website as visible on the web as possible. A Web Marketing Analyst or SEO’s may work in On-Page or Off-Page Optimization; however, there are some who work in both types of optimizations, like me, for instance.

If you want to become a competitive SEO, you need to learn both On-Page and Off-Page Optimization techniques, and I’m telling you, there are lots. You see, an SEO’s or WMA’s job runs from building the website to making it visible to its target market. You need to learn how to find the proper keywords and use them to your site’s advantage.

On my next upload here at Anything Under The Sun, I’m going to tell you everything may need to become a good Web Marketing Analyst or SEO.

Anything Under The Sun: How to Get an Article Writing Job

Image from Microsoft Office

Today, here at “Anything Under The Sun”, we’re going to talk about one of the most popular online jobs, Content/Article Writing.

Article writing is one of the most important tasks in internet marketing. Many expert internet marketers believe that in internet marketing “Content is King”. Depending on how well it was written, an article may have the capability to drive traffic to a site and convert this traffic into buyers. Because of this, many employers provide better compensation to their article writers. An article writer may earn between $150 USD to $400 USD per month depending on his/her experience.

Since the pay is quite competitive, the number of individuals who want to get hired as article writers increases, and due to the increase of aspiring workers, getting an article writing job becomes more and more difficult.

So, how do you compete with thousands of individuals for an article writing position?

First of all, if you want to get hired as an article writer, you will need to have a competitive portfolio. Now, when going for corporate positions, all you need to have are your RESUME, Application Letter and or TOR. But if you’re applying for online positions such as Online Article Writer, you need to have work samples aside from your personal blog.

Write at least 5 Articles. These articles can be about anything under the sun or anything that you can possibly think of. It can be about pets, health, technology, etc. Now, most people think that you need to have an impeccable grammar and broad vocabulary in order to land a good article writing job, but I am a living testament that this is not all true. As you can see, my grammar is not nearly perfect, but it does the job. And a lot of foreigners like my articles.

When writing an article, make sure that it is easy to understand. Many foreigners don’t like writers who use complicated words just to let their readers know that they have a degree from a prestigious university. Make your articles are simple, direct-to-the-point and have at least 350 words.

If you’re already familiar with keyword phrases and how to use them in creating articles, make sure to use this knowledge when you’re writing yours. If not, there are many article writing trainings that will teach this to you online or if you’re lucky, maybe your first employer will be willing to teach this to you. (I’ll try to explain this thoroughly on my next article.)

So, once you finished your articles, you need to create your own accounts at article submission sites such as EzineArticles.com (P.S. When signing up for Ezinearticles.com, you should use your Google Mail account instead of your Yahoo Mail account). Make sure that your profile has your photo, as well as, your FB, Twitter and/or blog accounts.

After you created you account, upload your articles. Now, EzineArticles.com only allows a newbie to submit 1 article. You can only upload your 2^nd article once your 1^st article gets published (usually takes 48hours). Just upload until you finished all your 5 articles.

Once you have all your articles uploaded and published at Ezinearticles.com. Copy your EzineArticles account link to your online RESUME.

Now aside from EzineArticles.com, there are still hundreds of sites where you can upload your articles. There’s ArticleBiz, Article99, etc. Rewrite each of your articles and upload them to different article submission sites and copy the links of your public profiles (most article submission sites have public author profiles), if not, copy the links of your articles and paste them in your online RESUME.

So there you have it. Next time, here at “Anything Under The Sun”, I will try to explain Keyword Phrases and how to use them when writing your articles. Teehhee