If you missed our mailing yesterday, then you won’t want to miss reading this post. Qassia is an up and coming social community that awards you with backlinks in exchange for your “wiki-like” writeups.

Read about Qassia social community here

[NOTE: Qassia does send you a "validate yourself" type email to create your account. Be sure to give a real inbox or you will have wasted your time. Validate and return to the site to continue setting up. Your DASHBOARD gives you access to all the different aspects of how to setup your Qassia and what's what on how to write.]

After signing up, you’ll want to do a few things before you start posting. Always, in any community, fill out your profile and upload a picture or your avatar. This particular social media community is not that indepth (nothing at all like Facebook or Myspace), but letting others know who you are and what you do is always critical. Make your information fun and informative, they like that

Then you use the “Add Intel” links to begin adding your tidbits to their wiki-type setup. You need to have a bit of backbone when publishing since 10 other people will read what you’ve written and “grade your work.” We note that not everyone plays fair, and while some questionable entries get okay marks, other pieces of information that would be of use to all don’t always get the proper marks. We think the members of Qassia just don’t “get it” yet, but hopefully do over time.

The great thing is reading is subjective. So don’t be disappointed (or even elated) about your marks. That’s not the point

Gaining valuable backlinks in the search engines for your tags and “reports” is the point. Quassia promises great things in the search engines, so why not be a part of it.

As with all new programs or websites, we are suspending judgment until it’s been around long enough to receive some sort of grade itself. However, if they stay on track with their goals, why not be in at the start of something new that has the potential to really boost your website, blog, etc., into the search engines.

Qassia, after joining or even if you don’t join, please take the time to tell us about your experience here on this blog.

Never pass up the chance to branding yourself!

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Our own Qassia url is already in Google! We only started yesterday…! Now to see if and/or how long before our tagged stuff appears.

In the last post, we explored the argument of the chicken and the egg with a discussion about which comes first – keywords or market research. As pointed out, the two do go hand in hand. Miss out on either at your peril.

While yesterday’s post (below) talks about finding what people buy first, let’s also give credit to the fact that more often than not, people come to the net to search for information (yes I’ll add it…) first. And, where do they head? Most likely a major search engine if they don’t have a favorite store in mind.

Keyword research is a must – that should go without saying. Obviously with well-researched keywords your website exponentially increases its chances of being ranked higher in the search engines. However, more often than not, we find that many people do not know where to start or even how to start.

The key is to find the right keywords. Our good friend, Vrecc, over at our most favorite Hubpages, has written his unique perspective on keyword research and given you a great tool (free!) to do it right.

Vrecc’s informational article, SEO Optimization and Keyword Research, implements SEOQuake (don’t worry he’s got the download link marked for you). But he doesn’t just leave it at that… you’ll also learn how to use it properly before the end of his article.

Here’s a quick exerpt to wet your appetite though we encourage you to read the entire article (never put the cart before the horse because this is not the “final” part of his article):

“The final step is to actually make a decision on whether or not a keyword or phrase is worth deliberately targeting. The answer depends on your ability to build incoming links into that page. The main way I build links is to write articles and post them to directories. The articles contain a link back to the page I’m targeting. I can get as many links as I can write articles. If I’m willing to write 20 articles then I can get 20 links. It doesn’t really count if someone syndicates my article and puts it on their website with my link in it. Google is likely only to count the link from the article directory. Another great way to get backlinks is social bookmarking. I’ve seen several hubs on this topic. You will find them with a quick search.”

Enjoy!

If you found this post and our “pointers” to great information useful, please take the time to leave your comments below. We appreciate your time and effort!

A recent post on the Nichebot Keyword Research blog makes the assumption that too many people rely strictly on keyword research to begin figuring out what niche they would like to develop to make money online.

We agree with the overall presentation that one should not use keywords as the starting point to building an online business. Instead, your keyword research is conducted to further enhance search-ability for that particular segment or niche after you’ve determined your market. While keyword research is a mainstay for developing tags, metas, titles, and content on your website, as stated, it is a tool used to uncover what people are searching for.

On the other hand, to reveal what people are buying online, you need to use “market research” tools. The article goes on to give you some solid starting points which include:

To Uncover Hot Selling Products

Head to eBay and click on their BUY tab. You’ll know in a flash what people are purchasing. The “Popular Products” is another link resource to ferret out even more information.

Amazon is, of course, another place to go to see who’s buying what. The idea, keep in mind, is you are trying to figure out what niche you could likely corner based on what people are physically buying.

Where to Find Popular Digital Products

A good solid source for information about popular digital products is Clickbank’s Marketplace. You’ll be able to set specific criteria and pull up what’s popular based on criteria you set.

In fact, Clickbank suggests the following:

“How do I identify the most successful products to promote?”

“Some affiliates prefer to promote very popular products that attract lots of affiliates (high affiliate gravity), while others prefer to promote products with less advertising exposure (lower affiliate gravity). The Marketplace can be sorted, within each category and sub-category, by item gravity. Either way, your best bet is to promote products that are well presented and likely to appeal to the people who visit your website, or view your advertisements.”

Competition

The final section of their post discusses the dreaded word “competition!” Many people fear competition and so never make a choice of what to plunge into online. If you read the article, you will discover that:

“There is NO reason to feel that way. In fact, you should get excited when there is a lot of competition. Here’s why…

“If there is no competition whatsoever in a marketplace, there may be no marketplace (or people to market to) at all. You should actually be worried if you don’t find any competitors for a market you wish to enter.

“The more competition there is in a marketplace, the more commerce is being moved. The more commerce that is being moved, you’ll have a chance at grabbing a bigger piece of the pie.”

We give this informational article a thumbs up for clarifying a business builder’s first steps, and again we have only presented an outline of the full post.

You can read it for yourself here:

“Market Research (or finding a profitable niche market) has Nothing to do with Keyword Research”

Enjoy!

Writing a press release just may be right up there with having all your teeth extracted in one go. We’re often asked if we write them, or conversely, if someone else is going to do their own, how to go about it.

Our upfront advice? Do not try doing this yourself, unless you are the rare exception and know the whole ins and outs of releasing information to the media.

That said, there also is nothing like going straight to the #1 source, in our book. So, if you’re interested in seeing if a press release is right for you, here are some quick links to all the information you need to know. By reading first you’ll help ensure your press release hits the airwaves with a bang (or decide this is not right for you):

Press Release Best Practices

Formatting Your Press Release

Press Release Template

Quick Tips for Effective News Releases

Editorial Guidelines

Yes, you’ll recognize the site when you get there we’re sure. And it would be safe to assume that the guidelines, tips, and tricks above for writing and releasing Press Releases would apply to any distribution source you might choose.

Again, it’s not easy writing one, and often spending the extra cash to have one professionally written for you is probably your best option. One thing to definitely remember is that a press release in and of itself must be “newsworthy.” This is not the place to try to pawn off some sleasy advertising (most likely it would not be approved anyway).

We would suggest when it comes time to submit your press release for distribution that you pay the extra bucks and have them (in this case PRWeb) distribute it immediately to Google and Yahoo! news feeds.

Should everyone do a press release? Our answer is no. Just because its out there doesn’t make it perfect for all occasions. Save press releases for grand openings, new product launches, new websites with unique twists.

Just our two cents.