Normally, I don’t do extraordinarily long posts. But summing up 30dc aka thirty day challenge in 1 post is a mouthful.

So I’ve formatted it nicely in an easy to read way with clickable links to the resources.

Right upfront there’s been much discussion about what sites to post content to and which ones rank the best.

I use these web2.0 content holders –> Squidoo, Hubpages, ezinearticles, scribd, docstoc, wordpress.com, tumblr.com, issuu.com and recommend you do the same because they are power domains.

Also get signed up at Mybloglog.com, Friendfeed.com and BlogCatalog.com because they are aggregators and you can get massive backlinks from them.

I’ll be updating you on “How to Get Credit for NoFollow Links”

The easiest way for you to get the updates is to subscribe using Google Reader.

Add to Google Reader

So now you’ve done that let’s get right into. Note: This is a checklist and recap of 30dc. If you’ve never gone through it go to 30dc internet marketing right now and view the full challenge because if not you’ll be lost.

Preseason

Week 1

1. Install Flock 1.2.x

Disclaimer: I still use Firefox because my firefox extensions and add ons are all setup already. And I had been working on a slower computer. Since Flock is a RAM hog I didn’t want to slow my computer down further than it already was. Com Upgrade due to happen any day now when I trade with a friend for his 2006 Sony Vaio.

P.S. I have been running a desktop (2GHZ non core duo, 512 mb Ram) from fall 2002.

Week 2

1. Tweak Flock

2. Sign up to Twitter

Week 3

1. Setup TwitterBar in Flock

2. Install Adobe AIR and Twhirl

I have Adobe AIR installed but for same slow com reasons never installed Twhirl. Looking forward to using it once my com swap is completed.

I use twitterbar all the time and other than direct messages to people is the only way I use twitter. I love it because you can be on a cool page of content or mysterious story and post your little headline about it right from on the page. So fast and so easy so use TWITTERBAR.

Week 4

1. signup for a google account. You can do this by going to www.gmail.com and signing up.

2. Use gmail account to sigin to Youtube. Since Google bought youtube your gmail account works as a login to youtube. Fully integrated and very cool.

Also, **UPDATE** I Just found out about youtube allowing annotations in their videos. This means basically you can add cartoon bubble commentary and/or links to your other youtube videos. Hopefully, youtube will allow outer linking to your opt-in, blog, salesletter or other money pages.

CURRENTLY you can only link to your other videos in youtube using the annotation feature. Very cool and more info to come.

3. Get good using Google Reader because it brings the web to you. I’ve set it to be my default and there’s lot of cool stuff going on at google with changes to their search rankings. Google Reader has gone social and you need to be on the cutting edge of it.

Get more details from me and social media expert Chris Lang at our dedicated, exclusive Facebook group about it. Join it here:

Google Social Marketing

4. Join and use Stumbleupon

I have the stumble toolbar installed and stumble all the stories or content I like. You should be doing the same. Inside TaggZilla 1 of my users Ange Recchia got 945 visitors from Stumbleupon just by posting her quality content into TaggZilla. It’s a very powerful strategy and Stumbleupon visitors have been shown in studies to be the highest converting of social traffic.

Week 5

1. Google Subscribe to Ed Dale’s Google Subscribed Links

This is a cool feature which has been around for awhile where you can recommend search listings to your ‘tribe’. Basically instead of an email opt-in subscriber list you are convincing people to subscribe to your search.

You are guiding their search results in Google basically supplementing what the normal google algorithm would do. They subscribe to your Google recommendations and when they do a search on a keyword phrase you have recommended a link for, whether it would normally show up in the top 10 or not it shows in your subscribers’ top 10 results and it has a little icon next to it showing you recommended it.

Hopefully they trust you and will be more likely to click on that results.

The trick is getting people to subscribe to your recommendations.

Week 6

1. Sign up with FriendFeed

FriendFeed is a cool service that can and will increase your search rankings…because the links are all dofollow right now (I checked this on Saturday Aug 30, 2008).

The only exceptions I found which were nofollow were: all tinyurl are nofollowed as well as the link to download and install the friendfeed bookmarklet.

If you don’t know what any of that means don’t worrry. The IMPORTANT POINT is any links you post and share inside your friendfeed get you an authority link to the site you posted in there. This means when you post a link to a story on your blog your blog domain site now has 1 more power link.

Power Links = Higher Google Search Rankings

So get more power links

2. Add the various social services you use into Friendfeed. eg digg, stumble, twitter so it will automatically pull what you’re posting and voting on. This gets you HANDS OFF EXPOSURE AND LINKS.

Week 7

1. Browse around and start using Friendfeed

2. Subscribe to the rss of the Friendfeed room for your team and any other cool people or rooms you want to follow

Getting this stuff coming to you in Google Reader is key. It can be your aggregator, your central command center.

Instead of having to remember 100 websites you need to participate in, Google Reader brings them to you so you can filter and decide which to comment on or participate in based on the time you have for that day.

Week 8

1. Go into the forum, find and join a team

Teams are very important. As a veteran challenger the biggest benefit I got was the people I met during the challenge and who were on my team. There’s simply no substitute for quality, motivated, driven and ambitious people to work with.

I can’t emphasize enough the power of the mastermind. Use it.

This is the end of the pre-season stuff.

If you’re joining the challenge in September or beyond there will still be teams forming. Just go into the teams section of the forum.

The training this year was extremely powerful and the people involved even more so.

Day 1 — 30DC Introduction, It’s Thirty Day Challenge Time 2008 version

1. Ed’s Magnificent Symphony of 4 parts: Market Research, Traffic, Conversion –> then Product

2. Go through preseason and especially have your Google/YouTube, Twitter, Friendfeed accounts setup and ready

3. Come up with 5-10 ideas for markets or topics you’d like to be in and have a business making money

4. Setup Google alerts for your ideas / grab the RSS feeds (this allows you to keep tabs on your market and gets writing ideas)

Also, you can do a google alert for your own website to keep tabs on what people are saying about it AND MOST IMPORTANTLY ESPIONAGE. You can see if your competitor’s are sand bagging you or starting malicious and false rumors about you so you can weigh in and stop em dead in their tracks.

Day 2 — Unleashing the Power of Market Samurai

1. Download and install Market Samurai

2. Run your 5-10 ideas from day 1 through the Samurai.

Think of the way you would search for your topic. Now think of the way a regular person might search for your topic. Type these into the Samurai and get more suggestions.

You’re looking for keywords with 80 SEOT or higher. This means when you’re in #1 position in google SERPS you’re likely to get 80 clicks per day for visitors going to your site. It’s all about traffic.

3. Narrow down to the best 2-3 ideas for further research

Day 3 — Competition Analysis

1. Use Market Samurai’s SEO Competition button to see how many competing pages for the term are out there on the web.

2. Pick 1 keyword which has at least 80 SEOT and less than 30,000 competing pages in google (or 50,000 as an absolute upper limit)

These numbers will make it easiest to compete and get top rankings in the google search results

I know it can seem difficult to find keyword phrases which meet this strict criteria but you must do so because there’s a reason other terms don’t meet the criteria….BECAUSE they’re damn hard to rank for and other more entrenched sites are going after them.

The whole goal here is low hanging fruit.

Day 4 - Sell Something

1. Find a few affiliate products (in ClickBank or Amazon)

2. Include a product image and resize with picnik.com (free) or Adobe photoshop

This affiliate product is only a TEST so don’t get up in arms.

Think back to when you were a kid (or even now). Don’t you prefer books with lots of pictures and easy to read?

You must make your websites this way. People like to know what they are buying and most people are very visual. So give em some eye candy to look at. Usually, the affiliate product you are using as a test will have a good photo you can just resize and use on your blog.

Day 5 — Creating Your Content

1. Find articles using Google Blog Search, Technorati, and Google Reader email me at alexanderalaric1 @ gmail.com because I’ve got the insider info to keep your rankings from plummeting in the new Google algorithm.

2. Analyze interesting articles for authority and number of links using Market Samurai

Today is all about writing good content articles your market will love. Use the ‘wow factor’ golden nugget method Ed talks about and attribute the main article you paraphrased.

Basically, you find a good article, take out the 1-2 ‘wow factor’ things which grab you and are likely to grab your market, jazz em up with your creative copywriting spin so they sound ultra interesting, then post em to your blog.

Toward the end of your post include a link to the main article so those who want to read more can.

Day 6 — WordPress Direct (aka WPD) easy point and click blog builder

1. Choose whether you want your own domain or to host on the free sub domain WPD provides

2. Signup, setup your blog, and load your 1st content piece

You can make your main sales post ’sticky’ meaning it will always stay at the top on your homepage so whenever someone finds your blog they see your best piece right upfront. Test out different calls-to-action so your blog converts.

Put in your image of affiliate product your selling and link to your affiliate page.

Day 7 — Google Analytics Tracking

1. Signup for google Analytics (you should be able to use your same google account)

2. add in your blog domain so it will start tracking

3. post the javascript code it gives you into WPD or your own wordpress backend

This is pretty self-explanatory. You have to know where your visitors are coming from, how they’re finding you, how long they’re staying on the page, what articles are most popular and whether they buy, how they leave your site.

This will tell you what content is working and what you need to improve on.

Day 8 — Grand Opening Time for Your New Business

1. Use socialmarker to submit your content

This lets google, yahoo and msn know your content is alive, your blog is open and tells them to come check out your site. Very important.

Day 9 — Telling Your Market You Exist

1. Use Market Samurai and Google Search to find authority sites where you can contribute and get a linkback

2. Participate in forums, groups and blog comments for backlinks (do this ethically and add good valuable responses. NO SPAM).

3. Check if your site is indexed in Google. Just copy and paste your domain then hit search. If results come up with your main domain you’re in

The key here is to contribute value. Don’t hurt your reputation by just posting ‘nice article’ or ‘good blog post’ then linking to your site.

-Ask a question
-Get the conversation started
-Add your insight to what the article was about
-State your opinion about what the author’s saying

Any of these 4 will do well and your comment will be well received and likely to get approved.

Day 10 — Rest Day

1. Submit your RSS feed right from within TDC website (you have to be logged in to do this). There’s a built-in RSS Submitter

This is very cool and will get you high quality backlinks from RSS directories which have good authority in Google. Very easy to do within 30dc website.

Day 11 — Squidoo

1. Signup at Squidoo.com

2. Create a lens for your main keyphrase. Preferrably www.squidoo.com/keyword

3. Social mark it through 5 or more sites using socialmarker

Posting to pre-existing power domains is a great way to break into top rankings, especially on highly competitive keyphrases. This is a more advanced topic I’ll talk with you about later down the track. Get and Stay subscribed to my videos for more info

Day 12 — Hubpages.com

1. signup for a HubPages account

2. Create a Hub related to your main keyword phrase. Preferrably www.hubpages.com/keyword. Make it non salesy because Hubpages is strict

3. INCLUDE ONLY 1 LINK to your blog. No linking to your affiliate product page

4. Social mark it through 5 or more sites using socialmarker

Just like Squidoo, Hubpages is a power domain which Google loves. You want to build links to your Hub so it will rise in the rankings. Get and Stay subscribed to my videos for more info

Day 13 — Look at Your Google Analytics Data

1. Find out where your traffic comes from and what keyword phrases they are finding you under.

2. Write optimized articles based on the new keywords people are finding you under

Your own site visitors will tell you how they’re finding you when you have analytics installed. This is very cool because it unearths keywords you may not have ever thought of.

Day 14 — Tumblr.com

1. Tumblr is a power domain but very strict. If you’re starting this post challenge you should be alright

2. Post good content and only put 1 link to your main blog

Tumblr ranks very well but they hate affiliate and internet marketing. I know many marketers using this right now and doing fine. The reason 30dc blogs get nuked is because of many people all signing up at once on the same day. Then tumblr can just nuke all blogs created that day.

Starting anytime after September there will be no mass 30dc blog signups so you should be ok to use tumblr.

BEWARE though - write your content in a text editor like Wordpad or Notepad. That way if Tumblr does nuke your content you still have it backed up and can post it elsewhere.

This is just a good policy for any content creation. Create it in a text editor, save it, then post to the web. That way if your browser crashes or it doesn’t post you can just copy and paste instead of having to redo the whole thing.

Take it from me because I’ve lost too much content this way.

Day 15 — Weebly.com

1. Create a Weebly account

2. Build a content page with a link to your blog

3. Load your blog’s RSS feed in Weebly’s under the account options (or settings whichever it is)

Weebly is cool because it’s a power domain and gives you dofollow links. So you get link juice which Google counts and this helps you rise in the Google rankings faster.

Day 16 — EzineArticles.com

1. Read the Terms of Use and Editorial Content for EzineArticles because it’s strict to maintain the quality of the article directory

2. Signup for your author account (use pen name if you have one and plan to use it)

3. Write a compelling article and submit

4. Also, new video on WordPress Direct updates

Day 17 — Rest Day

1. Learn how to check rankings for your keywords effectively in Google

Use SEO for Firefox and set your google search preferences to show 100 results. Then use ctrl+f and type in your site name to quickly find it. If not on the first page then go to page 2 and so on until you find it.

Once you find it click on the SEO for Firefox because it will show you what number result on that page it is. So if it says #23 and you are on page 3 then you are result #223 because you’ve gone 2 pages deep of 100 results each and another 23 down from there.

Day 18 — Decision Day (D-Day)

1. See where your blog ranks in Google

2. See how much daily traffic you’re getting from your Google Analytics data

3. See how many and what percentage are clicking through to your affiliate offer

4. Decide if you want to test another affiliate offer

5. Decide whether niche is worth your continued time or starting in a new niche would be better

You are looking for at least 200 visitors to your blog. Where are you ranking in Google?

If you’re not on top then fire up Market Samurai and look at the SEO competition grid again to see how entrenched your competitors are and how hard it will be to get the top ranking you deserve and desire.

You want 200 visitors to your blog. Then look at how many click through to your aff offer and what percentage that is. How many of them buy?

You want 200 visitors to click through to your aff offer so you can make a good judgment on the strength of the aff offer and product. If noone out of 200 who clicked on your aff offer bought then switch to a different aff offer. Or ditch the niche altogether. Use your judgment and gut feel.

Day 19 — Theory of Traffic and Online Business

1. Basic concept of traffic in online business

2. Find the lowest hanging fruit in traffic acquisition strategies. Gets you more traffic faster and with less effort

As with most things in life you want to go for the lowest hanging fruit. Take the easiest pickings first and then move onto hardest stuff once the ‘bone is picked clean’.

Day 20 — Google AdWords Basics

1. Sign up for a Google AdWords account at adwords.google.com

2. Create your first AdWords ad for your main keyword

Watch Adwords video below on this one. I don’t want to go into detail here because the video is good and when you’re spending money you want to have the complete picture. This is a quick summary so go check out the adwords video.

Day 21 — More Google AdWords Tactics

1. Monitor your AdWords stats. Keep a close eye on your account otherwise YOU’RE wasting money.

2. Use Market Samurai to find more relevant keywords that have AdWords traffic and bid on these to get broader reach in your marketplace

3. Use 1 keyword per ad group

4. Create 2 different ads for split testing which performs best

Optimizing your adwords account is a whole course in and of itself. The main points are to monitor your click thru rate, cost per click and conversions. These are high on Google’s list and the higher your CTR (click thru rate) the lower your CPC (cost per click). This is a good thing.

Also, the groundwork you have already done in the maximum edge process (building your optimized blog, bookmarking it, posting optimized content to web 2.0 content holders, bookmarking that) has told google what your site is about.

This gives you a higher quality score when you first start adwords.

Higher Quality Score = Lower Cost Per Click

And that’s a great thing.

Day 22 — Managing Your AdWords

1. Model other ads based on the peel & stick method,

2. Monitor CPC, CTR and ad positioning very closely because this determines your ROI (return on investment)

3. Track conversions so you’ll know what to tweak and what to dump

ROI is really the only thing which matters in business. Because there is no free lunch even when it comes to ‘free’ traffic. To get top google rankings you have to trade your time or pay someone else to build links and content for you.

So to get traffic you give either your time or your money.

Giving your money in exchange for traffic is the place you want to get to.

Day 23 — WPD Autoposter and Q & A

1. Learn about WPD’s autopost feature

2. Find out why your site hasn’t been indexed, why ranking shuffles, etc.

Today is an intro into the power of the WPD (WordPress Direct) autoposter. How to use it correctly and effectively to come in the next couple days.

Also, goes over some of the common reasons you may not be indexed or ranking well yet, what is the google dance?, and what to do next if you’re in this category.

Day 24 — Rest Day and Copywriting PDF

1. Read provided copywriting materials in the PDF

This is a great case study and excellent tips to improve your copywriting. As a copywriter myself for the past 9 years I can tell you this is good info.

Copywriting is a different skill than just writing a blog post.

There are certain ‘trigger’ words and emotional buttons you can push to make your visitors more likely to want to buy from you.

This PDF goes into the details on how to do this MOST IMPORTANT SKILL far better even if you’re a newbie coming in right out of the gate.

Day 25 — D-Day part deux, Decision Day

1. Have you gotten 200 visitors to click your aff offer? Did anyone buy?

2. Build out with related keywords or scrap the project

If you got the 200 clicks to your affiliate offer and noone bought you have a decision to make. You can test a different aff offer. Or you can scrap the project and move on to something else.

If they bought and you are still getting traffic it’s time to build your rankings higher. And get more related keywords to target and build greater traffic.

Day 26 — Monetizing under performers

1. Use Adsense, CPA’s or selling the site to get your money back and some compensation for your time

Adsense is an easy quick way to get some cash. It won’t make you rich but you can make a few dollars a day doing it.

Be Aware CPA networks can take a while to get approved for so it might not be an overnight money getter for you.

Also, you can sell your site at http://marketplace.sitepoint.com if you choose to go this route.

Day 27 — Getting More Related Keywords

1. Look in your analytics to see how people are finding you, target these keywords

2. Fire up Market Samurai for more related keywords

3. Make categories in your blog based on main keywords

4. Using WordPress Direct to create high quality content (correctly using the autopost feature)

This is where your blog really gains traction and a following. You want to get more readers and traffic and to do so you have to rank for more keywords.

WPD makes it easy to add content but watch the video to see how the autoposting works and how to do it correctly so your site doesn’t get banned.

Day 28 — Get More Links!

1. OnlyWire.com was recommended as an auto posting tool. Unfortunately, I’ve only ever been able to make it work with 3 of the 20 some sites it claims to work with so your benefit with this will be minimal.

For real super human auto link building benefit which actually does what onlywire claims to I posted what I use and my review of auto link building beauty

2. Find web 2.0 content holders related to your niche automatically using Market Samurai, and comment on them with link back to your blog

3. Learn about Market Samurai’s pingback feature and how to get links using it

The pingback feature is a very cool thing in Market Samurai. The coolest part is pingbacks show above any human comments so if you have an attention getting title for your blog post you can get readers of the blog your pinging to come to your blog.

Also, potentially the link from the blog to you will be dofollow. But don’t count on it because some will and others won’t be followed. Either way you get more traffic by doing this. QUICK TIP: Focus on your blog post titles because they’ll bring people in or keep em out (if your title sucks)

Day 29 — Get Off-Page Authority Links

1. Find Yahoo Answers related to your niche, answer questions and get links to your blog, you can even comment on closed questions

2. Use Market Samurai to find .edu and .gov discussion boards to get links

3. Learn how to use different options in Market Samurai to get authority backlinks

Gurubob shows how to use Market Samurai to find all sorts of cool and authority places where you can get power links by contributing to the conversation and adding value in forums and blogs. Edu and Gov links are gold for you because Google loves em.

I believe this functionality is only available to buyers of Market Samurai so be aware of this. At $147 though this time saving tool is an absolute must in any webmarketers arsenal.

Day 30 — Common Mistakes, WPD autopost how to

1. Ed goes through the most common mistakes and where in the process they occur

2. Gurubob takes you through how to use the autopost feature in WPD ethically and correctly.

Autoposting is an amazing leverage tool to keep your blog updated so you can build links and create more traffic. You have to do so correctly so your articles look good and Google keeps loving your site.

You probably remember the old sites of 2005 which were garbage autopost adsense sites.

That’s not what WPD does and trust that with Gurubob’s input they designed it so the posts look natural and Google will still ‘love your blog long time’.

Whew, 30 days summarize in 6 hours!

Day 31 - What now?

1. This was something of a bonus day

2. Ed unveils the What Now Page where the next evolution in your training begins

You’re all done. Rinse and Repeat.