A Geek's Night Out

Last night the stars must have been lined up just right, because that rare chance came along for me to get out of the house - alone! - and I went for it ;)

My children were both gone for overnights with friends & family, and my father stayed with my grandmother for a few hours, so I took the opportunity to hit my favorite sushi bar. It's a quiet little hole-in-the-wall place a couple of towns over, owned by the same family that runs the popular sushi bar I used to frequent in the city.

I grabbed a few guides I'd been wanting to read, and headed out. It took me almost an hour to get there, which was just as well as I had a lot of things on my mind... so it was a good chance to just think it all through and clear my mind. I had actually brought along 6 guides/books because I was undecided on what I was in the mood to read when I left, but by the time I arrived I had settled on a couple of smaller ones (quick reads) and took them in with me.

The sushi was fabulous, and I totally indulged myself! I ordered my favorite: Unagi, the Las Vegas Roll and a Crunchy Shrimp Roll. Mmmm.

Keeping me company was a report by Karon Thackston titled How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy) - Karon is the author of The Step-by-Step Copywriting Course, which focuses on SEO Copywriting (or writing copy that increases your search engine ranking AND appeals to your visitors - ie converts well). I had added this report to my order when I bought the Course, but hadnt had a chance to read it yet... so I had it printed out along with a couple of the Bonuses I received from Karon.

I have to say... eel, crab, seo, cream cheese, shrimp, copywriting... total geek heaven!

I wasnt expecting to learn anything mind-blowing or new. I kinda figured Karon would talk about keyword density, keyword saturation, etc etc. Boy, was I wrong! I got so many new ideas from the first chapter alone that I was ready to take a second look at my entire site right then and there. Her specialty is in writing FOR the visitor, but in a way that really enhances your on-the-page optimization. She was right on target with this particular report - full of great ways to write that will serve both purposes. Impressive!

Some keywords are easy to work in... others are not. After reading up on her methods, I'm going to go back to my keyword research and take a second look at some of those search terms I passed up that just seemed too "odd" to work with or too difficult to make them 'sound right' in the copy. There's definitely more potential there than I realized.

It was a quick read, 8 short chapters, but all information & examples - no fluff. I also read a couple of interviews Karon did, looked over the Search Engine Checklist (a very cool, unadvertised bonus) and then read up a bit on article syndication. By then I had finished my last bite of sushi and wrapped it up for the trip home.

It was a nice, quiet ride... and my mind was reeling. Now, more than ever, I am excited about getting my new site up and 'playing' with all of these ideas, methods & strategies I've been soaking up lately. Every new concept I learn just adds to the overall profit potential and gets me motivated about it all over again!

Next on my list - the RSS Course by Joe Vitale. It's a freebie at his Stampede Secret site, which teaches you the strategy behind getting highly targeted traffic using blogs & rss feeds. I didnt have time to read it as it came in this week, so I printed out each lesson and plan to hit the entire course at once. It's easier for me that way... plus I can absorb the information better as a whole than in little bits at a time. Call it a quirk :p