Something I need to say here

Good point Sloanjm. I have seen websites rank as high as number two in Google for a particular keyword but their traffic is still poor. The site content is usually quite poor. So while ranking well in the search engines is excellent, it is good to ensure the content contains information that will be perceived as useful.

learn from your mistakes. I have built many websites and you learn as time goes on. No one will be willing to give away all there skills for free , or would they ?

great point, sloanjim.

Getting ranked on google will never harm your website's traffic, however it doesn't mean overnight millions. More people use google to search for free stuff than to buy stuff anyway.

Nick G,

I think 99% is a pretty high estimate, I'd personally put it at 90% to 95%. It's just that the good stuff with real value usually costs a bit more and is harder to find, at least for newbies.

Yes, there's a lot of hogwash out there, but that's probably because the IM scene is full of newbies trying to sell quick money tricks and tips to other newbies. Ironically most of these things aren't exactly hogwash, I've spent thousands since I've gotten into IM last year. Most of the ebooks I buy actually provide pretty good information. And their theories and systems work, (until they get outdated) but they usually take up too much time.

So the newbie IMer will just continue looking for the next quick cash system without realizing that they're actually going through an information overload and are not taking action, which is the single most important thing every IM'er has to learn to do.

I have had several websites on the first page of google for anything form a few thousand targeted result pages up to over seven million result pages (broad match).

It doesn't do anyone any good to be on the first page of google if your marketing sucks, if your offer sucks, if your headline sucks, if your offer targetting sucks, if you sidetrack people already in your resultpage listing, and about a million other things you could do wrong.

Imagine owning a hot dog stand.
What would attract more customers: Putting it up next to a football stadium where people go during a pause in the match, or in the middle of the desert?

Football match obviously.

Now consider this:

What is the mindset of 99% of the people watching a football match?
- Where can I get a hotdog?
- What a great chance our team just had!
- The referee should be shot!
- Boy I am thirsty from all this screaming and singing...
- What did that player just do?!? Boooo!

The right answer is all of the above.
It all depends on what time it is.

In the middle of a period, if one of the teams is atacking and winning, you probably couldn't PAY someone to have one of your hot dogs.

But when the referee blows the wistle to pause the match for 20 minutes, what happens to the mindset of the people watching the match?

Their feelings and focus suddenly shifts in a split second from "Football mode" to "Drink and hotdog mode".

The same things should be considered when you do your marketing.

Are your advertising matched up with the mindset and the feelings that people have when they search for something on the web?

Are you taking advantage of that mindset and those feelings, enhancing them, and stirring them up in your headline, and your copy?

Does your offer provide a natural solution to something they think or feel as they search?

So many things can be wrong in an advertising funnel it's rediculous.

And it's all tied in to, and needs to be aligned with one of the least rational and logic things in the universe: Human emotions, feelings and mindset.

Just a rant...

~Olav

that's the same everyhere offline as well. 95% of all services/products are rap and overpriced. That's bizz.

Yeah, It's difficult to find good nifo on how to make money with out being ripped off.

Very true, I am ranked #1 on page 1 of google for a particular keyword, its the main keyword for the site. However, the niche sucks, commercially anyway. So while its great to be on google page 1 it doesn't automatically mean lots of sales..........PS anybody wanna buy a site ranked #1 on page one.....PM me!!!

Just to add my .02 on this. You don't actually need to be #1 or 2 - just the top 5 or 8 - IMHO. This is because their is a distribution curve of clicks. Remember when you were growing up? How many of you were told never buy the most expensive or least expensive of what ever? Well the mentality rolls over to the search listings too. A lot of people by pass the #1 and sometimes #2 listing thinking (for psychological reasons) that they would be the most "commercial sites" unless it is an .edu or .gov and sometimes .org - again just my opinion, on the subject, based on my own research.

As for getting FREE info from gurus. I have read many threads here where up and coming gurus advise getting on people's lists and suck up all the FREE info they put out. If the emails are too spammy just unsubscribe or block with junk/spam filter.

Also youtube is a very good source for informative videos on many IM topics. Just search for what you need to know - ie. social bookmarking. Then sort by up-load date to get more time relative info.

Teach yourself how to make money online. For years. I read what the gurus did or said to do and ended up no where. Now I do my own experiments and see what works. You would be surprised how uncomplicated it really is.

Some myths I have found out:
1. Doing a Google search for a keyword will determine the competition - False

2. First page of Google is great - False, number 1 position is great and gets 40% of the traffic for the keyword.

3. Content is King - Not really...backlinks are King. I see mature blogs with thousands of pages of posts with little traffic.

Take the basics about SEO and experiment. It's free and will produce better results.

Use AdSense and affiliates like Amazon to monetize your website.

Not all traffic will make money. Only choose keywords that are product or service related. Do some research before selecting keywords. They must be profitable.

Here's an easy money maker:

Register at Hubpages.com and create a Hub on a topic that has profitable keywords. Hubpages lets you use AdSense in the article. A Hub with no backlinks will get PR1 in a month or two just from the main domain. One of mine makes $2.00/day. Add 100 or so backlinks with PR2 - PR5 and watch the traffic grow.