Useful Free Online SEO Tools

I was browsing some SEO forums when I came across a thread listing many useful free online SEO tools. Here are the ones I bookmarked and plan to use myself:

Dig PageRank Checker
This web site will scan many Google datacenters and check your site’s pagerank at each of them. It’s really easy to use and the results come back fast.

Backlinks Checker
This site is probably my favorite of the new tools. It will scan for your site’s backlinks, and then produce a report with each of the URLs, the number of other links on the same page, the anchor text used for the link, the page’s PR, and whether or not the link is set to ‘nofollow.’ Very useful information!

Lynx Viewer
This is an online version of the text-only web browser. It’s useful because search engine spiders can only read your web site in text mode. So you can use this tool to see how your site will look to the search engines.

Cubestat
This tool is more fun than practical… unless you’re selling your web site. It estimates the value of your web site based on factors that I didn’t take the time to understand. I have no clue if the data is worthwhile, but it’s fun to plug in your own sites, those of competitors, and any other big name web site to see it’s estimated value.

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So there you have my newly discovered list of free online SEO tools. If you know of any other free SEO sites that are useful, please share them with us by leaving a comment. Thanks!

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40 Blog Setup Tips

Daniel Scocco wrote a great post titled Blog Setup: 40 Practical Tips over at the DailyBlogTips site. While the post is nearly a year old (which can be an eternity when it comes to blogging), most of the tips are still valid and practical. If you’re setting up a new blog, or just want to improve your existing one, then it’s a worthwhile read.

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Build a Niche Store (BANS)

I’m having trouble sleeping, so I’m going to write my first post on Build a Niche Store (BANS). Build a Niche Store is a software package that allows you to setup websites featuring products from eBay. Considering the millions upon millions of products sold on eBay each year, you can create BANS sites around practically any niche you like.

(Click here to see a sample Build a Niche Store web site: http://www.hellohdtv.com.)

Here are the top reasons why I like Build a Niche Store so much:

1. BANS takes advantage of eBay’s affiliate program. This made it easy for me because it gave me access to eBay’s extensive product selection, as well as eBay’s name recognition. (The affiliate program is managed by Commission Junction.)
2. BANS makes it easy to create e-commerce websites. I work in IT and know how to create websites, but I don’t have the time or desire to spend dozens of hours creating each new website. BANS makes it easy for me because whenever I want to create a new store, I just install BANS onto the site and do some minor tweaking. Then that’s it… the store is setup and done.
3. BANS works because I’ve made money from it! This is not something I can overemphasize. As I’ve gotten into affiliate marketing, I’ve tried many different programs, software tools, etc. Not many of them have actually worked. Yet I’ve consistently earned commissions from my BANS stores every month since I started with it.
4. The BANS user forum. I frequently visit the forum, and get everything from help and tips on using BANS, to general marketing advice. The forum is so good they could probably charge a monthly subscription for access, but they don’t as access comes free with purchasing BANS. Of all the websites and forums I’ve explored trying to learn about affiliate marketing, the BANS user forum is one of the best I’ve found.

There are many other great things about Build a Niche Store that I won’t mention now because I plan on writing in more detail about BANS in the future. For now just know that while BANS is just a tool and not a silver bullet, it’s one of the easiest ways I’ve found to earn affiliate commissions online.

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Commission Junction

1. The first kind is managed and run exclusively by a merchant. Amazon Associates is a good example of this. The only way you can sign-up to be an affiliate for Amazon is through their associates program, and if you sign-up, you’re only an affiliate for Amazon.
2. The second kind is an affiliate management portal. These are basically companies that manage affiliate programs for merchants. Commission Junction (CJ) is an example of this kind of program. When you sign-up for CJ, you’re not actually an affiliate for any merchants. Within the CJ site, you then apply to be an affiliate for various merchants. CJ will then manage the relationship between you and the merchant, and pay you any commissions that are due.

If you’re just starting out, I suggest you get an account with Commission Junction. This way you’re all setup and prepared to apply to be an affiliate for merchants as soon as you’re ready. CJ manages affiliate programs for some major merchants (eBay, WalMart, etc.) so it’s a good one to be signed-up with.

When you sign-up for the first time you have to provide your web site address. So you’ll want to create a web site somewhere. A free site or blog is sufficient to get started, so you can just do that.

Once you’re signed-up and apply for various merchants, they’ll review your sites (you can add more sites after you’ve created a CJ account) so you want to develop some good ones later on, but just to get a CJ account, any old web site should do.

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