I recently took on a large contract for a series of articles, and it keeps me hopping. The great part is the money is good, and I have a steady income.

Because writing articles for a DIY site is easy work, it goes well. But I often get stuck on a topic that is hard to find information on. What do I do in this case, and how does it relate to bum marketing?

I let Google do the work for me. so many people are unaware of what Google has to offer. One, I use Google Notebook extensively. It is great for keeping research organized, the cost is free, and all you need is a Google account.

Next, I make extensive use of the "highlight" feature on Google. I find this especially good for pages with a huge assortment of links. I recently was looking for a source of statistics for an article on motorcycle emissions, and the page I landed on had well over 1,000 links. By using Google highlighting, I was able to quickly skim the page and find my info. Another good feature of highlighting is determining both LSI and keyword density. By turning on highlighting, the keyword phrase you type into the Google search box is automatically highlighted, letting you know what density is on any page. This visual aspect of research is worth its weight in gold.

The simple and free research tools are the best to use. I suggest you get a Google Notebook as quickly as possible, use it to your advantage, and your research will go twice as well.

Peace,

Charlie

:D

It amazes me how quickly your lens falls off ranking when you do not have the time to work on it. I am on vacation visiting my son and DIL right now, and have neglected the lens a bit, and find my rankings have fallen off tremendously.

Taking care of a lens only needs your attention about 10 minutes a day. If you go a day or two without posting, you are gonna fall off the edge.

I read with great interest this morning a lens created by Jackclee wherein he has created a "squidbook", complete with TOC and a linking strategy. I am going to work on this throughout the week, between trips to the sites, pool parties, and cookouts.

Peace,

Charlie~

PS: I'm having a ball!

I'm wondering how many of you have a hard drive filled with tons of digital dust in the form of PLR articles. I collect them avidly, as they are a basis for articles for my bum marketing efforts. I can safely say that I have over 10,000 PLR articles on my HD. Anyone who has been into IM for any period of time collects them like I do.

The funny part of this is that some surveys show that 95% of people who buy or download PLR articles never do anything with them. Don't know how accurate this number is, but I can safely bet it is pretty close to reality.

I got a bit bored last night and went through some of my PLR. I keep them in a separate folder on my HD so that they are easily accessible. Almost all of them are niche related. There is everything from articles on home schooling to the art of cigar smoking, and I am betting if I do some keyword research, I will find a great niche for bum marketing.

Many of the PLR articles are poorly written. Actually, this is to our advantage. We can take these articles, clean up the English and grammar, and market to our heart's content.

Here is a trick - open a PLR article in MS Word. Use the synonyms feature in Word by selecting a noun and right clicking - synonyms. An article can be changed in a hurry. You clean up the language, rewrite about 30%, and you have a winner. Run it through Copyscape for the first few of your articles you redo and see if there is a chance of duplicate content. You can judge fairly quickly using that method to determine if enough changes have been made.

One bit of advice. When using PLR articles, always check the rights you should be receiving with the articles. If you did not receive this license with the articles when you downloaded them, I would be very hesitant to use them. Better safe than sorry...

Take some time this weekend and see what you have. You may be pleasantly surprised. After reviewing your stash, go to the SE's and do a little bum marketing research. You're halfway there...

Peace,

Charlie~

I have often wondered why there have been so few comments on the lens. A few have showed up lately, and I was okay with that. However, tonight I was doing a bit of tweaking on the lens, moving the guestbook up further for greater visibility, when I discovered 4 pages of comments I hadn't approved yet. Approved? Duh! It seems I don't either see to well any more (true) or don't know how to follow any instructions on something new. Obviously, I have it set up in my module to approve comments as they are written.

I am feeling particularly stupid, and apologize to all the great folks who have commented on the lens. Guess I will go and wipe the egg off my face now...

Peace,

Charlie~

I mentioned earlier on in the lens about a program that I am interested in. Sam, the gentleman who contacted me via the lens, has set me up with his program. It begin last week, and is a 12 week program in lessons that are easy to understand and provide exact information on what to do in bum marketing.

What I have seen thus far impresses me. It is obvious that he has put a lot of effort into the program, and a big drawing factor for me is the fact that he focuses on doing things with free resources - a very vital part of bum marketing. Remember, bum marketing is an approach to marketing that even a "bum" can do. Sam is going down that road.

I plan on spending a week or two with this program, and if it looks like a good resource, will post it here. I am a bit leery of posting anything that I don't consider to be a big advantage to the reader. But I like what I see thus far. Stay tuned...

Peace,

Charlie~

I have been experimenting with Squidoo here to see what my results would be. I purposely took a few days off to see what the results would be. In these few days, my lensrank has fallen to #495, down from #137, and my standing in category is now #9, down from #4. I have also dropped from the #3 position to #13 in the SERP's. Who said internet marketing is easy?

This shows me the popularity of Squidoo as a bum marketing tool. Previously, I had posted something on a daily basis, taking about 15 minutes a day to do so. It worked for me very well, and I will continue on that strategy. Letting your Squidoo lens slide will take cash off the table...

Today, I watched a review of Squidoo from a bum marketers perspective. Published by Travis Sago, it shows how well Squidoo lenses do in the bum marketing field. It is of course a lead in to a website that Travis is affiliated to, but the information is a real eye opener. Check it out...

Peace,

Charlie~

I have been remiss in letting people know where to go to find the source for bum marketing. Several emails have prompted me to answer a few questions, and to provide for my readers information that is useful for them.

Travis Sago coined the term "bum marketing." Travis has actually made a spin on the very effective marketing strategy of article writing. His wife Jeannie made the comment that his strategy was so simple, that a literate bum off the streets could make a living at it. Hence, bum marketing.

One question I received was from Roseanne Barry. I quote her here: "So what do you suggest for some-one who has just set up a web site selling, well here take a look at Eye Candy Ebooks My heads just overloaded with info eg: The moneys in the list -what list? Google adwords and adsence??? SEO??? I'm ready to give up!! any tips please and now bum marketing method !!" --Roseanne Berry."

Roseanne, like so many others, is struggling with information overload. My best suggestion for any new marketer or anyone interested in making money on the web is to learn everything they can about a strategy, employ that knowledge to their internet activities, and go on to the next after learning the most they can about each strategy.

This is why I advocate for bum marketing. You do not need a website, although it is helpful, you can make almost instant cash, and there are a lot of methods available. I hope to cover as many as I can here.

To Roseanne: a shameless plug for your new site!

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

If you have followed this lens at all, you might be having thoughts running through your head about countless hours of drudgery doing nothing but article writing and submitting to article directories. Don't ever let anyone tell you that internet marketing is a push button deal - push button A, and watch your bank account fill up! Nothing is further from the truth. You gotta pay your dues, folks...

I am working on a script to help the bum marketer take his work to a new level. if all goes well, it will be available within a week or two, and I will post the results here. If you have been in the game as long as I have, you see the winds of change sweeping over internet marketing. I see it as a good thing. People are so sick and tired of being scammed and taken for a ride, and there are a growing number of marketers - including myself - that know it needs to stop. My plans are geared towards that end.

I am also reviewing in the next few weeks a course designed by a marketer who approached me because of this lens. His mission is to eliminate some of the drudgery of bum marketing. I won't go into detail because I have not reviewed this package yet, but it looks very promising. Stay tuned - news at 11...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

One thing to remember when writing any article is always allow for a good linking strategy. This makes your article appear more relevant to the search engines, and puts your reader's focus into what you are saying. Many marketers think a simple banner on their site is useful, and helps them to generate income. Obviously, you can't include a banner with an article submitted to an article directory, but you should also be posting relevant content to a blog or landing page set up for marketing purposes. Long gone are the days of "thin sites" set up for affiliate marketing. Google just plain doesn't like them, and many have disappeared from the SERP's. A good site should contain at least 10-20 pages to be relevant.

We know that Google serves up relevant ads based on the subject matter of your site. If you have a site that focuses on the Apple Ipod, and you are being served ads that relate to blogging or making money online, then your linking strategy is not working. Your wish is to have your readers clicking on ads that pertain to the Apple Ipod, so content and linking strategies on your site should always pertain to this.

Adding relevant links in the body of your article is essential. Although it can be time consuming, the results you get from doing so is well worth it. Internal links on your site, links to relevant product, and links to relevant content on your site work well for you. In our above example, the text link in your content should point to the Apple Ipod you may be reviewing. You have the reader's attention, so linking to the product you are promoting through text links is all that more important, and can result in sales. It is natural for many surfers to click on a link in the body of the article rather than looking all over your site at ads and banners. If they aren't, then your content isn't holding their attention.

Linking strategies are important in any campaign. It is essential that you track every change you make in any of your marketing strategies, and find out what is working and what is not. Doing so means the difference between success and failure.

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

I've been doing some research lately just to see how folks are searching for information and product. I think that we, as marketers, do not look at the internet like so many consumers do. We tend to look at it from a marketing point of view, and not from the position of how surfers are using the search engines.

Point in fact - if you are targeting the phrase "dog house" then you will find competition to be way over what you wish it to be from your marketing standpoint. It returns 73,700,000 competing sites, and there is no way you can go there and make money. So we, as marketers, drill down, and find the phrase "dog house for big dog." This returns 3,450,000 competing sites. Four million is still out of our range.

Here is where we need to step back and consider what our readers are really looking for. How about "how to build a dog house for a big dog?" We get a return of 16,000,000 searches. By now we are getting a big frustrated and are ready to give up hope of making any money in this niche.

I have always advised that marketers think like surfers. When we target a phrase, we use quotes to get an exact match. The average surfer wouldn't even know why this is done. And Buffy and Spanky aren't looking for plans for a dog house. They want to house their Rottweiler, Twinky. So this lovable pair is going to search on a phrase such as "how to build a dog house for a rottweiler."
They aren't going to use the quotes to search, and they are going to find only 503,000 competing sites, well with in the range of the seasoned marketer to make money from. From a marketers point of view, this return shows nine Google ads on the page, an indication that money is being made with this phrase.

Remember your reader. Speak to them in their language, and don't try to shove a product down their throat. Even the average surfer can spot a come on very quickly. Instead, rely on a well written article, and a well defined bio box to get you the clicks you want.

The biggest focus in bum marketing is writing. To many this can seem a daunting, boring task. Not everyone likes to write like I do. We know as marketers, however, that bum marketing is a real good thing, and is one that can have you in profit in a very short time.

So consider this - you have been writing at the very least 3 articles a day, posting them to article directories, and you are seeing the traffic beginning to come in. Things are looking up, and you continue to write. In a very short while, you have a ton of articles on your HD, and this gives you added value. How's that, you ask? Take these articles, build an ebook, and market it. I have a plan in place to do just that, and will continue along these lines in upcoming posts...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

Here is our outline:

Topic (1 sentence)
Summary (2 -5 sentences)
Introduction (1 paragraph)
Body Of Article (3 or 4 paragraphs)
Wrap It Up (1 paragraph)
Resource Box (2 - 3 sentences)

Using the article summary, we break it down like this: Topic is of course your title. Use Advanced Marketing Institute to analyze your headline. Get in the habit of doing this when starting out. Soon, your titles will become second nature. I use this resource daily, and it has been very helpful.

The summary of the article will be an abstract of your article. As many article directories require this, be very careful with wording, and attempt to get every detail in this as you can. It is the leadin for the article, so be careful here. You will be limited in the amount of information you can provide.

When you begin to write your article, you will give the introduction in the first paragraph. Using anecdotes or analogies here is very appropriate, and gives a good lead in. This is your best shot at gaining your readers interest. Use you best conversational tone. When writing, write as you speak. it gives more credibility to your work. The reader will instantly see your interest and passion in your writing. Be passionate about what you write about. I can talk for hours about writing, but certainly can't meaningfully talk about installing kitchen cabinets, which I know little about. By now, your word count should be around 175-200 words.

In the body of the article, clearly and precisely explain your subject, your knowledge of it, and helpful points for the reader. Don't go off on a tangent here. Try to stay as focused as you can, and yet still maintain your word count. Try your best to not be wordy. Keep sentences short and to the point. You should now be at 300 to 350 word count.

Wrap up the article. Summarize, giving your best points. Be sure you have answered any questions the reader might have. Give a call to action here, possibly with appropriate links. You should now be at around 400-500 words in count.

The resource box is your chance to be a star. Be very careful with this, as it is the call to your reader to take action. Get in the habit of reading resource boxes in articles. Be mindful of the ones that draw you in and make you take action. Copy the method that works ON you!

Finer points abound. More news at 11...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

We have discussed keyword research, using the search engines, and think we have a good niche. Time to test the waters.

I recommend that starting out, you use 3 article directories for your submissions. This is really a time factor thing until you become adept at writing for the web. I would use Ezine Articles, Go Articles, and Searchwarp to begin with. These are in my opinion the best directories for the beginning bum marketer to start with. You can add more directories in later when you are more comfortable with submissions.

Writing for the web is much different than writing for pleasure. Although I have been writing for many years, I needed to make the transition into article marketing. Thankfully, there is no big learning curve!

This is the structure we will use:

Topic (1 sentence)
Summary (2 -5 sentences)
Introduction (1 paragraph)
Body Of Article (3 or 4 paragraphs)
Wrap It Up (1 paragraph)
Resource Box (2 - 3 sentences)

So where do we get this information for our article? Stay tuned. News at 11...

Peace,

Charlie~

When you have determined that the niche you wish to promote is a profitable one, the next thing you might want to do is to go to Google, run your keyword phrase in quotes, and take a good look at the results. You will only be interested in about the top five.

One of the first things I look for is to see if anyone has a link for my phrase on Ezine Articles If you see several links near the top for your keyword phrase posted at Ezine Articles, then give your keyword phrase more careful consideration. It is a sure bet that another bum marketer is targeting that keyword phrase.

Looking to the top few links, do you see that the phrase might be residing in a subfolder on the top site? An example: Say you are targeting "weight loss plan" and you see that the top link is on a site that goes like this: http://www.girlstuff.com/weightlossplan.html. If so, then be assured that if you set up a site that is like this: http://www.weightlossplan.net, then you stand a much better chance with Google than someone who has tacked on this keyword phrase as an afterthought.

Go to that top listed site. Check their page source, and take a look at the structure of the page. Is the title "weight loss plan" or something else? Is it in the meta keywords tag? A little knowledge of SEO goes a long way here, folks. Take the time to know your targeted niche, but take more time knowing your competition...

Peace,

Charlie~

As a freelance writer, I sometimes get hung up on the idea that I will never write for free. Everything I produce has to earn an income, either now, or down the road. It is just the marketer in me, I guess...

How does this relate to bum marketing, you ask? Quite elementary, dear Watson. If you are writing as a bum marketer, then you are producing at least 3 articles a day towards your goal - preferably 10. Although each article is 400-500 words, it equals cash in pocket. How? Simple. Click the banner and go to Associated Content and post your stuff.



You can post each article as non-exclusive content on this site, and they will pay you for your article. Generally, they pay between $3 & $4 per article. Writing 10 articles a day equals 30 bucks. Times that by 6, and you put 180 bucks in your pocket each week. Not worth the effort, you say? Get this - Associated Content pays the mortgage on the 114 year old livery stable where I reside. Think on it...

Peace,

Charlie~

For the beginning bum marketer, the best place to go to find product is Clickbank. If you have identified your niche, then starting with Clickbank and then moving upwards as success grows is your best bet.

Grab an account with Clickbank if you haven't already done so. You will then have access to thousands of different products, and can almost always find one to fit your niche.

Once you are familiar with Clickbank, and have created an account, look for product in your niche. You will see a box like this:



Here, you can search by category, popularity, and keyword.

When you decide that you have found a product that interests you and speaks to your niche, consider the stats of the items found. Under the product description, and the information about it, you will see the stats that are relevant to this particular product. This list is from the "Graphics" subcategory.



(These item descriptions have been shortened to facilitate presentation)

You will see that item one has a payout of $16.36, a commission of 50%, and 72 percent of sales is from affiliates. The last term, gravity, at 150.84 tells us that this constantly changing value goes up when more unique affiliates have made money from selling it. For bum marketers, we will look at product with a gravity between 10-70.

Of the two products in this list, number two is a better choice for the bum marketer. Not only does it pay out more ($32.09) but it has a low affiliate referral rate, and a gravity of 7.23. Not exactly where we want it to be but still a better choice than the number one product.

Internet marketing, for whatever reason, is a game of numbers. Always remember that when using any method, whether it is affiliate marketing, article writing, or plain vanilla bum marketing...

Peace,

Charlie~

Article writing is like every other worthwhile endeavor. Remember the old adage, "the longest journey begins with the first step." The first step in article writing is going to be creating a title for your article that works.

The biggest part of bum marketing is article writing. To get your reader to stay more than 3 seconds on your page, you will need a catchy article that draws them in. There are two steps to this.

Always use your keyword phrase in the title. In this instance, my keyword phrase is "article writing" and it is the first two words in the title. Your keyword phrase should also be included as close to the beginning of the first paragraph as you can get it. Secondly, you want to have a title that has high emotional value to the reader. A title will elicit three responses from a reader - intellectual, emphatic, and spiritual. Each has its own value, but is measured in a way that gives balance to your title, and achieves the response you wish.

Try this - the next time you write an article, and think you have a very good title that elicits the response you desire, go to Headline Analyzer to see if you are right. It may surprise you...

Peace,

Charlie~

Obviously, one of the first thing to do is to find a profitable niche. Bum marketers always look for long tail keyword phrases that have little or no competition to speak of. a keyword phrase such as "golf tips" get a return in the SERP's of over 46 million hits. No one can compete with those kind of odds, unless you want to take on Tiger Woods!

But what about digging deeper? Look at keyword phrases in the golf tip niche that are getting less searches. For example, the keyword phrase "golf tips for beginners" drops down to a little over 1 million searches in the engines. This is still pretty high, so lets dig deeper.

Think about golf in general, and specifically golf tips. what is your biggest issue with golf? What about sand traps? Lets try the phrase "golf tips for getting out of a sand trap." This returns a search results of 207,000, a number you can easily compete with. Refine your search to get the most out of bum marketing.

One of the best things about bum marketing is the fact that not even a website is needed to make a regular income with the method. Using an affiliate site as your landing page works just as well. But, hold it! you might say. A lot of article directories won't let you do that!

That may be true. But you CAM drive traffic to a blog, set up for free at Blogger.Com or Wordpress.Com, with no hosting fees and a drop dead easy interface to work with. Blogging is my marketing strategy of choice. I can change it on the fly, can post to it through other applications, such as Orwell Pro and ScribeFire, and I always have fresh content.

Consider a blog for the bum marketing method. WordPress can be downloaded for free, and a 10 year old can set ua a blog at Blogger.Com. Remember the "bum" in bum marketing...

Peace,

Charlie~

I try to spend time on the forums each day to keep on top of what is going on in the world of bum marketing. It saddens me to see so many people ranting that they just cannot write articles, and are helpless to do anything about it.

Many marketers have a ton of PLR articles on their HD begging for the chance to be put up on your server and make you some money in the process. If you have a ton of PLR articles in your niche, try this - open the article in your favorite plain vanilla text editor. Put a ton of white space between the paragraphs. Then, go up above the first paragraph, and rewrite in your own words. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Give it a try, and soon you will be writing on your own!

Drive on...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

You have done your keyword research on a niche you think may do well. What is the next step? No, it is not starting to write a ton of articles for that niche!

In bum marketing, we want to not only have a profitable niche, but want to have a way to monetize it. There is no sense in targeting "blue widgets" if no one has an affiliate program that pays well for them!

Here is an example - because I am involved in a brick & mortar that specializes in plus size clothing, I have a real interest. I know it is a profitable niche, and I have done my due diligence. But before I start throwing articles at the SE's, I want to check out affiliate programs for that niche. Why bother writing articles for something you can't monetize?

I go to Google, type in "plus size clothing" + affiliate, and see what is out there. This tells me if I can monetize. It gets no simpler than that...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

Every where these days you see articles, methods, and just plain junk on the subject of bum marketing. As always, many people are on information overload on this subject. There really is no need for this.

Bum marketing as we know it these days has always been around. It just went under the dreaded name of article marketing. Millions have been made on this subject alone, because of the fear of writing on a niche subject, especially if you are unfamiliar with it. Travis Sago has put a new twist on plain old article writing by cleverly attaching the noun "bum" to his theory, making it more popular with the mass of internet marketers who plain hate writing. Using "bum" makes it sound easy, and speaks to the "push the button" crowd. This mindset, of course, never makes anyone any money.

The object behind bum marketing is to find keyword phrases that have little competition, are searched on in small numbers, and are almost always longtail keyword phrases. Understanding longtail keyword phrases will help the beginning marketer get to where he needs to be in a hurry. A longtail phrase is typically a keyword phrase that has 4 or more words in the search term. an example of this would be this - if your niche is "golf" and you wish to target longtail phrases, then you would search for a keyword phrase such as "golf tips for the left handed golfer." A Google search for "golf" brings up 377,000,000 matches on the SERP. The phrase "golf tips for the left handed golfer" brings back no results. Why is this relevant? I for one can testify that, as a left handed golfer, this is very relevant to me, but yet there are no results returned for that phrase. One good series of articles for this phrase can immediately put you at the top of the SERP's.

Bum marketers advocate searches that get 500 "hits" per month, and is tightly targeted. this is simple enough to do with all the free keyword tools around. The secret here is to find the product to promote FIRST. It makes little sense to write a ton of articles on a subject that has little to offer in the way of product. I suggest using Clickbank for your first endeavors in bum marketing. Setting up an account is free, and Clickbank is highly focused on popularity and what converts well. It makes it simple to find a product that you can write articles for.

In following posts we will look at where to begin in your efforts. Drive on...

Bum Marketing is a numbers game. I know of many marketers making 250 -300 dollars a day bum marketing, and it just is not hard to do. You need to focus mostly on writing. I know - you don't like to write! Not many people do. but consider this...

I am sure you have interests. And if you are a marketer, you have a ton of PLR articles on your HD. Give them a spin, and then post them. The typical BM article is around 400 words. i can write a 400 word article on most any subject in 10 minutes. Give me another 5 to post it to the directories. Easy stuff. I prolly waste 15 minutes in my work day just staring out the window!

Follow along, and we will get you up to speed. In the meantime, check your interests, and check your PLR content.

Drive on...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D

if you are interested in marketing online, the bottom line is this - you are going to need to write articles, like it or not. Of course, you can use the PLR articles stashed on your HD, but most of them are going to take time to rewrite and to put your own unique spin on. If this is the case, why not just write your own? You will have unique content, be seen as an authority in your niche, and will have a lot more self satisfaction at the end of the day.

Writing is really a no brainer. If you have access to the internet, you have all the resources you need to make it online. When I write any article, no matter on what subject, I can come across as an expert in that field. Am I? Of course not! But the fabulous ability to research on the Information Superhighway makes me knowledgeable.

The most important part of research from a writer's point of view is this - always use longtail keyword phrases when searching. As a freelance writer, a lot of my assignments are given to me with a title, and it is up to me to provide the information. An example - I recently did a series of articles on mortgage brokers for a high ranking website. Although I have little knowledge on how mortgage brokers work, I simply pasted the article title into Google and got all the information I needed. Pretty simple stuff...

In writing your articles, use the Google capability of finding synonyms. In the example above, I used this syntax to find the synonyms I needed to write the article on mortgage brokers -- "~mortgage broker" (without the quotes.) This returns to me in bold every keyword Google thinks is relevant to the keyword phrase "mortgage broker." The tilde is one of my favorite punctuation symbols, and I have found it to be a real boon to me in writing articles.

If you are interested in this theory, try this experiment. Using the tilde to find synonyms for your article keyword, write down all bolded words from the SERP. I have my preferences set on Google to return 100 results, which makes it easier to scroll down and find the keywords I am looking for. I compile them, and easily put these synonyms into my article. Give it a try...

Drive on...

Peace,

Charlie~

:D