The Edward Show

E452: Should you try to manipulate CTR in Google search? First, I explain why this is even possible - the experiments that have been done and leak data that show CTR is a valued ranking signal. Second, I give a breakdown of exactly how CTR manipulation is done: using bots, hacking, and microworkers. The breakdown is from Charles Floate on 𝕏: https://x.com/Charles_SEO/status/1839665713692459103 Thi...

E451: How this guy was getting paid $10,000 for an hour-long consulting call, cold, with no referrals. This was 2017, and my clients were paying this guy. Here's how he pulled this off. 00:00 The $10,000 Consulting Call 00:41 Introduction to This Guy's Marketing Genius 01:25 Deep Dive 02:15 Controversial Marketing Tactics 03:04 Fabricated Stories 07:13 Guerrilla Marketing Examples 09:56 Pivot 10:2...

E450: How the Rayz mobile app scaled to $80,000 MRR and 40M+ views on TikTok with this easy, faceless video strategy. This is a crazy one, so get your popcorn ready. Then, how you can use this strategy with easy-to-make single-feature apps. From the thread: https://x.com/iamgdsa/status/1836063552961945810 Use my exact social media posting strategy: https://edwardsturm.com/articles/social-media-pos...

E449: TikTok has overtaken Google as the biggest search engine among Gen Z… the opportunity is huge. It's very easy to rank on TikTok and creators are getting lots of traffic. For example, Sabrina Ramonov who writes, "12% of all my TikTok views (around 1.3M/week) come from search and this % continues to grow." TikTok ranks on Google. The videos can (and should) be reused on Instagram Reels and You...

E448: A fast-food titan whose 50-year-old business is doing $70,000,000 in annual revenue gives advice to a struggling entrepreneur who cold-emailed him. The titan was so wealthy he owned a literal castle that him and his wife had restored. Whereas the struggling entrepreneur was, "a hungry, broke, and eager first-time franchisee." This is a warm business story with plenty of lessons. You're going...

E447: What makes a YouTube video viral. Written by MrBeast in his leaked 36-page super-dense internal company handbook. So much good stuff in here. If you're active in doing content marketing on YouTube or trying to make more engaging videos, there's a ton to learn from this. And this is just one small part of the book. Read the whole "How to Succeed in MrBeast Production" book here: https://bit.l...

E446: How to go viral on YouTube Shorts. The content I'm seeing that performs really well. How to craft a good title for YouTube Shorts. YouTube and YouTube Shorts statistics. This is an information-dense episode on YouTube Shorts. Yesterday's Newsletter as mentioned in the podcast:  https://edwardsturm.com/articles/harsh-feedback-made-me-viral/ 00:00 Introduction to YouTube Shorts Insights 00:13...

E445: Lars Lofgren confronts a hydra of affiliate Parasite SEO posters on Reddit. One of the affiliates is even a moderator! Lars enters the hydra's lair, confronts it, and tries to take it down. But does he succeed? Does Lars Lofgren succeed at taking out the Parasite SEO posters on Reddit? You'll have to listen to find out. And credit again to Lars Lofgren here: https://larslofgren.com/reddit-af...

E444: Indie Hackers is being abused for Parasite SEO, even with lazy AI-generated articles being pushed to the homepage. This is what I'm seeing and this is how I would improve it. 00:00 Introduction to Parasite SEO 01:21 Parasite SEO Techniques 01:57 Indie Hackers and Parasite SEO 03:25 Detecting AI-Generated Content 05:42 The Impact of Parasite SEO 12:32 Best Practices 14:03 Final Thoughts #seo...

E443: How this entrepreneur used organic Twitter and paid ads in 2020 to launch and scale two information products - one about AWS and another about Twitter. As well as the pricing experiments the entrepreneur ran, marketing experiments, the messaging that had the biggest immediate financial impact, and all the lessons gained throughout the person's journey. The author goes deep - this is a good o...

E442: How to have more pictures of you or your company appear on Google Images. This video is especially applicable for people, where there can be lots of other people who have your name. Brand names are easier because they tend to be more unique. If you want to control the narrative of your brand, which people experience when looking you up on Google Images, this episode is for you. The beautiful...

E441: A close friend had one of his best-performing 𝕏 posts of all time. But he didn't consider going deep into the subject. However he should have. The subject matter was highly validated. This podcast is about all the ways in which a well-performing 𝕏 post can be the gift that keeps on giving. How to turn tweets / 𝕏 posts into well-performing: - Podcasts - LinkedIn Posts - TikToks - IG Reels - L...

E440: Hope everybody stays safe out there. This episode is about dedication to consistency. 00:00 Unexpected Trip to Warsaw 00:34 Floods in Central Europe 02:29 Thoughts About Consistency 04:57 Nervous Anticipation in the City 06:48 Final Thoughts The Edward Show. Your daily digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/ #consistency #socialmediamarketing #personalbranding #di...

E439: The GPT-based Chrome Extension in this episode ranked on Google for 213,000+ keywords on Google (2,200 rankings in positions 1-3) with a site that was well under one year old. No 301-redirects. No acquisitions. Normal SEO, heavily augmented with programmatic AI pages. Then, during the panic of Google penalizing AI sites in early 2024, this site completely scrapped all its AI pages. Then… it...

E438: A press release SEO experiment ten years ago directly refutes a top Google representative's claim that they do not work. And my experiences sending out many press releases. The last one I sent out was April 2022. All of my experiences were positive. And alternatives to press releases if sending out out is over budget. Read the press release SEO experiment: https://seosherpa.com/seo-experimen...

E437: This is what I learned about networking while going to NYC technology and business events every night for three years. It's a list of the most impactful things to do to create a web of relationships that will give you a consistent stream of awareness and referrals with little further lead generation. If you want to get good at networking so that you can make: - Sales - Allies - Friends This...

E436: For those saying SEO is dead… NerdWallet's revenue is up 25% year over year, with SEO making up 76% of visitors to its site. "According to Semrush, NerdWallet's search traffic is close to as high as it's ever been." NerdWallet's search traffic is up 38% over the last two years despite ChatGPT being released in December 2022. NerdWallet's secret? Updating its pages. More in the episode. Resea...

E435: A thread on the Entrepreneur subreddit today: 1. How a company repeatedly games Reddit by buying upvotes to product recommendation lists where their product is discreetly nestled into the list. 2. How a Redditor tries to expose them. 3. How that Redditor is then downvoted into oblivion and their comments hidden. 4. How the company buys comments to further hide the Redditor trying to expose t...

E434: A guy in the Urban Farming niche made total $432,483.50 + an additional $130,000.00 and $21,000.00 with his business, mainly from Instagram. First, he gives an overview of who he is and what he's doing. Then he gives a more specific breakdown of his funnel, his operational details, and his exact marketing strategy. After, he recommends to various Instagram creators how they can monetize thei...

E433: We look at the time Samsung bought out the train station in front of the new Apple Store Malaysia. Samsung used a legal loophole to do this and renamed the station, "The Samsung Galaxy Station." They also bought out all the ad space in the station. People had to walk through nonstop ads of Samsung devices to get to the new Apple Store. Next, we look at Burger King's viral Moldy Whopper Campa...

E432: There's a belief in SEO that backlinks from websites, and especially from pages, that link out to thousands of other sites, are not enough to do anything. "This page gives so many algorithmic votes of confidence (aka SEO backlinks) that they stop mattering," the theory goes. But is this true? This experiment tests this and turns back results that are directly actionable. 00:00 Backlinks from...

E431: This is the true story of when Google forgot to renew its domain name, Google.com, and somebody purchased it and literally owned it. That somebody is Sanmay Ved, and he wrote this article on what went down: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-purchased-domain-googlecom-via-google-domains-sanmay-ved/ Then the Verge reported on the amount paid to him by Google: https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/29/...

E430: This is a crazy hack for increasing SEO backlinks and brand awareness. All the time Meetup organizers step down. By doing what's described in this podcast you can get notified when this happens so you can take over the abandoned meetup that the organizer worked hard to build. It's now your meetup. Then, with this meetup, you can increase backlinks, brand authority, and even an email list… fr...

E429: A common question I get is, "I have this idea. I'm not sure it could work. I'm passionate about it, though. Really passionate, in fact. Do you think it could work?" I received this question from my landlord just today. I also received a variation of it from somebody I was with yesterday. If you're not sure your idea could work, this is my response. 00:00 IA Question from My Host 00:37 My Soc...

E428: Reddit is making changes that make Parasite SEO harder, but not yet impossible. Here's what is happening. And the ways Google has made LinkedIn Parasite SEO more competitive. Plus, is there an actually good way to engage in blackhat digital marketing? What's suggested in this pod might actually be it. 00:00 Introduction - Parasite SEO Crackdown 01:13 How Parasite SEO Works on Reddit 02:10 Ch...