Anyways -- here's the strategy I'm using to get some good
rankings: short-term (for long keyword phrases), medium-term
(for your core keywords: 2 to 3 word phrases) and eventually
the BIG keywords.

Let's call it the forest analogy...

Let's go from the big picture to the small:

First, you see the big forest --
Then, there's the trees...
Then, there's the leaves...
And finally, there are the creatures that live on the leaves.

Here's how you get rankings for FOREST.

Phase 1: Let's get rankings for the leaves
and set the stage for "tree rankings".

1. Start building pages about "leaves".

- Build a page that talks about the caterpillar that lives
maple leafs.

- Talk about how the maple leafs change color in autumn.

- Write an article about how maple TREES need water
and sun.

- Do a blog post about how maple is made...

Send 40% of the links from those articles and pages
to the deep links of those pages...

40% of the links should go to the sub-domain or
folder called: "leaves"...

20% should go to your home page, which should contain
the words "trees" and "forest".

What will happen is:

- You are going to start getting a lot of rankings for
the articles about maple leafs, and even maple trees.

- Of course, you will be building links for "trees"
and even "forest" - which will kick in more and more...

Phase 2: Go for rankings about "trees" and set up
the stage for "forest"

Now, we keep repeating the same strategy we just did.

This time, let's focus on other trees: Mahogany and Teak.

You build another folder about mahogany and another about
teak.

You crank out 3 to 10 articles and blog post about all of the
various factors about these trees.

40% of the links to the deep pages (which you can get the rankings
within weeks for the long keyword phrases) -- 40% of the links to go
the folder page (which will get your rankings for 2 to 3 word phrases
within months).

Make sure you send 20% of your visitors back to your home
page (and you want the words "forest" and "trees" to come
in every shape, size and variation.

Now: phase 2 can last a long time... I would keep targeting
every tree you can think of, while maintaining that link ratio.

Phase 3: Getting rankings for the forest.

Now -- after months (or years) of writing articles about
trees, leaves and forest - you will NATURALLY get rankings
for FORESTS.

At this stage, I would focus 50% of my links to the home page
with a 50% ratio of various forest keyword combinations.

Green forest
Rain forest
Teak Forest
etc...

And that's it. Of course, it takes TIME and patience.
But - IT WORKS and it will continue to work.

This is a VERY solid long term diamond or gold strategy.

Matt

P.S. I learned it from John Matterson (His UBBC course
rocks -- if you want to learn how to build an internet business
from copywriting, to email marketing, to PPC, to web 2.0 to
offline - it's all there). http://www.ultimatebusinessbuildingcourse.com

Forest - Pets, Animals, Wildlife and the Outdoors (very broad and general) As the diamond site, Lizardz will focus on all the topics listed.

Trees - Dogs, Cats, Camping trips, pet supplies, dog training

Leaves - health food for dogs, Texas camping trips, poodle grooming

The Details About the Leaves - Healthfood for pregnant dogs, Texas camping trips for seniors, how to groom a poodle with household products.

The difference between Kurt's strategy and what mine is:
Kurt will build it out on different sites. I'll build it all
on the same site.

Build on,
Matt

Matt... One question, why don't you make a domain name for each specific niche ? You are betting on one site with a lot of subdirectories, right ?

Tasari

Hey Matt,

I think we're closer than that.

Above, you suggest article marketing, which is really the same concept. But in addition to writting and submitting articles, the content is used on free blogs and other similar services.

You can read my other post about "Diamond sites"
to hear why.

Basically -- I want to drive 80% of my resources into
one or 2 sites.

Matt

Matt,

Is that not a bit risky? I have a directory site, one of the biggest in it's niche, total white hat updated a few times per week and was getting 7k- 10k uniques a day, PR5, until mid 2006. Google decided it did not like the site anymore and it dropped out of the serps completely. Down to 1k per day mostly Yahoo.

It is slowly recovering over the last few months. I would be reluctant to put all my eggs in one basket.

Noel