Baby Boomers…(that’s you if you’re between 42 & 60 – plus or minus a year or two) is retirement already upon you or starring you in the face?  You really want to retire and would like to travel and finally do things on your time schedule…But…the money looks like it’s gonna be a little tight so you’re thinking you’ll need to work longer or get some kind of part time work.

I do believe I can help you out.  I came across a great person who is helping me and others do just that.  Now before you lock the doors and hang out the NO SOLICITING sign, listen up or rather read on, I checked this guy out.  He has a free offer, actually several, where you can learn to do this without any catches.  Since I was beyond broke when I came across this offer I took the free.  And it’s free.

What the heck am I talking about?  Making Money Online.  I know you have checked out making money online and decided it was too complicated, spammy or costly to do.  Or maybe you have tried and lost a sock or shirt or two.  Or maybe you’re hanging in there and making money – but don’t have a clue if you’re doing it right or not.

I tried it on my own, since the guru’s were only interested in my money not answering my questions, and made a buck or two here and there.   But for every dollar I made I lost 100x that.  And of course Murphy’s Law set in and I also lost my job while I was really deep in the hole of debt.  I was not about to give up,  I had a hard drive full of internet marketing software and PDF’s.  Somehow or other that stuff was going to make me money.  It had helped me lose money sure enough and make someone else money.

Anyhow, enough of me back to the point of all this,  I was in a forum begging for help and the moderator sent me to this guy, Chris Farrell, heard of him?  Besides the fact I’ve got him pasted all over my website.  He has a free 26 video course on what a web business is and teaches you how to build a web business.  I took it…it’s good.

I finally began to understand things.  See he just doesn’t show you the steps, he explains the steps and why things are, he’s been there, he knows the frustration.  Well after that I took (still taking-I just started a short time ago) his Understanding Facebook course and his Create Your 1st Website by 3:45 This Afternoon.

I am starting to get the idea of how to use Facebook properly.  I never really liked Facebook before as I am not normally a social person.  And I really didn’t believe all these guru’s talking about getting hundreds of thousand of friends and making thousands of dollars.  Really didn’t believe them.  Chris shows the proper way to use Facebook and the how’s and why’s not just follow these steps.

And I’ve gotten off on a tangent.  Where was I? Umn…Oh yeah.  Your retirement.  Look, you can retire, can travel, can do things on your own schedule and can have that extra money.  Chris’s courses are thorough and he’s got a support team like no other.  They Care.

I was asking so many  that I finally started apologizing every time I asked one.  I felt like I was taking up way to much of their time and was totally stupid.  They told me to stop apologizing and keep asking until I understood.  And boy does everyone do just that.  No body has to feel stupid – you don’t get it…ask it.  (sorry, talking about me again)

I suggest, no, challenge you to take his courses.  So many of them are free.  They will get you started and on your way.  His courses do take time.  And there is work involved and you will get frustrated because, good old Murphy will step and mess things up for you, but the support team will hang in there with you – don’t give up whatever you do.

I had several encounters with old Murphy making sure things just kept going wrong( for 3 #@$#$ weeks), heck it had gotten so bad I finally ended up in tears.  But I was not going quit and a wonderful and very patient  technician from Australia, bless his heart, hung in there with me (he even ended up in the hospital, but as soon as he got out he was back online with me) till I figured out what was wrong.  You can’t ask for anything more than that.  (the issue turned out to be my browser-not the training)

Am I making money right now?  No.  I started in mid July and I am just finishing his I Love Traffic course.  Another good course.  Now I just gotta go do it.  A little fear here…I could actually be successful.  Between his traffic and Facebook course- a lot of information and a lot of SEO to do.  Working on it, that’s all I gotta do.

That’s another thing I like about Chris Farrell, he tells the truth.  The money comes, but it’s not a push button thing right off the bat.  You must build your business and Chris shows you how to build a very strong foundation-correctly and with understanding of the process.

He does this so that you could be anywhere in the world (with internet) and make money.  So take his course or courses and I do recommend joining his membership site to have access to even more good stuff.  Try it for free first then join.

It’s time for you to be free.

Thanks for reading my story, this was suppose to be about you not me.

To Your Success, Live Long and Prosper

p.s.  I forgot to mention that Chris has a newsletter called the Success Grenade that does a lot of free training.  I am getting it and I could learn how to build a website and a successful web business just through  reading this newsletter.  I am only on week 9, but I’ve been through autoresponders, keywords, building a customer list, building a squeeze page and more.

The newsletter is weekly and another thing I like about Chris Farrell is YOU DO NOT GET BOMBARDED with junk mail full of offers to buy some product from some other guru.  I sooo hate that.  If your product was so damn good why the heck are you pushing someone else’s product on me 50 times a week?  If and when I get an email from Chris I know something worth while is in it, so far free info on how to do something or a head’s up on something happening.  Success Grenade is just one of the many worth while benefits of joining and it is well worth it.

p.s.s.

For those of you who want to dive in right away and go to the max, Chris is offering for the first time a 6 week Chris Mentor Me program.  Click the image below for more info.  I will say it’s not cheap, but for some of you it could be the perfect opportunity.  An opportunity it is.  The doors close very soon and no idea if he will offer it again.

by Chris Farrell

Hello …

I’d like to quickly share something with you.

Once you have a website online…

…it’s very important you take a moment – to think about how you are going to communicate with your visitors.

A simple technique – is to be EMOTIONAL!

This is the core of good marketing.

So you have a website?

It’s important now to fill it with content that emotionally connects with your visitors.

This is easy to do — once you change your mental focus.

Instead of wanting to sing and dance all about your product — or your free gift — flip this on its head.

And think about your visitor for a moment.

Get inside their head.

What is your visitor’s struggle?

What is his pain?

What is his problem?

What can your product solve for him?

If you can verbalize a solution to a problem — you have made a sale! Or a sign up if that is your objective.

One of my first products (and still one of my most popular) was the eBook Create Your First Website By 3:45 This Afternoon.

This product showed the reader exactly how to create their first website — within a day.

I knew that many people struggled with an EASY TO UNDERSTAND guide to creating a website and getting it online.

This was people’s struggle – their pain – their problem.

I provided a solution.

Within 6 months this gift had been downloaded more than 10,000 times – and it still continues to be downloaded and distributed online today..

My point being — you have to put yourself in your visitors/customers shoes.

After all – that’s where they are living!

What are their fears? What are they struggling with?

Answer these questions — and you will have people clambering to sign up or purchase.

The first question you need to ask yourself — is what does your ideal visitor to your site want? Information? On what? Be specific.

What is their core problem?

Write as if you were sitting with a good friend having a drink explaining the benefits of your product and the problems it will fix.

Remember you are selling to PEOPLE.

And people are motivated and fueled by emotions.

It’s usually a fear of something — ‘…I’m scared of not having enough money…’ — or it’s a hope and dream ‘…I want to be able to do this…’

If you can paint a picture to minimize a problem – or make a dream a reality – - people will be a lot more responsive to your offer.

And you can accomplish this – by being real and connecting emotionally.

There are a few myths that circulate every now and again that I would like to dispel:

Myth No. 1

It’s impossible for the average Joe to make money online

This simply is not true. Making Money Online is a skill – and all skills can be learned. Like any skill it will take time and persistence and patience – but it can be done.

It took me just over 5 months from starting to make $250/day (not every day but certainly a lot).

Myth No. 2

I don’t know anything about computers

Guess what? Nor did 99% people when they began. I certainly didn’t.

Do you really think that EVERYONE making money online are technical geniuses? I can tell you of COUNTLESS people who are making money online – from all walks of life of all abilities and of all ages. And all these people did – is TOOK ACTION – despite their doubt and fear (which we all have).

Myth No. 3

I haven’t got the time

This is probably the most used excuse I hear.

The one thing that we all have in common is that we all have 24 hours in our day. What sets the more successful apart from the rest – is how proactive and productive they are with this time.

Don’t have the time? Work through lunch – do an hour at night. When I started in this business I got up 2 hours earlier every morning for 5 months – to study and learn and educate myself.

If we make good use of our time – this will give us a great advantage – for scarcely one in a thousand individuals ever put his or her time to anywhere near it’s potential. Doing so – is being true to ourselves – taking control and accepting responsibility.

Myth No. 4

I don’t know where to start

Ok – I’ll give you this. By far the hardest part of this business is NOT the actual act of making money – BUT knowing how to START making money.

In other words – knowing exactly what to do FIRST.

The most common question I get asked is—- ‘How do I start?’

There is simply way too much information out there. You could spend forever ‘learning’ and perpetually be in a state of ‘about-to-start’.

The biggest myth about making money online is that it is hard to get started.

The following is the FIRST thing you need to do.

Acknowledge that it is going to take time. I suggest giving yourself at least 6 months. This is after all a business you are creating. You would not expect to be in profit immediately if you were creating an OFF line business. Why should ON line be any different?

Sure you can make money quicker once you know the basics – but these basics can take you a few months to get confident with.

This business starts by learning the basics of how to create your own website.

Now if this thought terrifies you – please do not worry – you are by no means alone. Every newcomer (myself included) at one point or another was aghast at the idea of creating a website.

But you can create a website within a few hours.

Take a look at my free eBook available at this site.

It WILL allow you to get started online. Work through it slowly and methodically. This is the FIRST thing you need to do.

Everything else is POINTLESS until you understand the basics of how to create a website AND get it online.

And you can learn this skill here.

It’s a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best – the best is very often what you get.

p.s.

for a limited time only – get in on this…

STOP RIGHT THERE!

You need to take a look at this…

As incredible as this will sound…

Bank busting tactics from #1 online coach who went from from struggling to $1 million…

…in just over 2 years this guy has gone from ZERO — to having a 7 figure a year web business.

And more importantly — he’s vowed to help you achieve success too.

To learn more now click here

Let me ask you this.  How would an extra $20,000 – $10,000 – $5000
— or even $1000 a month sound to you?  Would that help?

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If YES –then you need to watch this FREE 90 second video — and grab these two FREE gifts.

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You are one click away from a real game-changer…

See you at the next page,

To Your Success

PS.  The biggest myth about making money online is that it is
hard to get started.  It really is not.  Take a look here and see for yourself…

Click to see for yourself

by Chris Farrell

Hello!

Here’s A Powerful Tactic For High Impact Online Marketing!

EVERY contact – you have with ANYONE – is important!

Repeat that after me…

EVERY contact – you have with ANYONE – is important!

A lot of newcomers to this business forget this — they are too busy trying to make a sale.

Any successful business – is based on relationships.

This has never been truer for a web based business.

That means that every email you reply to – every autoresponder message you send – every article you write – every forum thread you post – every Facebook comment you make…is important.

Every contact – you have with anyone – is important.

…every email you reply to, every autoresponder message you send, every article you write, every forum thread you post, every Facebook comment you make…is important… – Chris Farrell

Now – you can easily spend money on a classified ad — or Pay Per Click — or some other method to drive traffic to your site…

…but a technique a thousand times more powerful than this –
is the personal contact you have with individuals.

When I began my web business — I made a pledge to myself to reply personally to every email I received.

I strongly believe that this was a major contributing factor
that allowed me to start earning $250/day (not every day but certainly a lot) — 6 months after I started.

I also remember clearly when I would email other marketers. 9 times out of 10, if not 99 times out of 100, I would not get a reply.

Occasionally however — I would. And even today — it’s those rare individuals that replied — that I have a special affinity and bond to.

And STILL to this day — it’s these marketers that I listen to and open their emails.

As soon as you begin to get emails from visitors to your site — or from members of your list – most — if not all — of these emails will not make you any money. At least not yet.

However — more importantly than making some money immediately (yes there is something more important if you want longevity in this bizz) is the relationship you are creating — by replying to these emails.

And those that are very successful in this bizz — know this.

So stop seeing dollar signs in your eyes. And start to realize that every contact with anyone – is marketing.

People WILL remember a personal reply.

Yes – it will take time.

No – this business is not get rich quick.

But spending a little time nurturing and creating a relationship is time very well spent.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…

…if you are good to your list — when the time comes – your list will be good to you back.

Needing more money?

There’s still too much month left at the end of the money? Maybe this will help…

Ebay Auction Training Videos actually helped me in my auction selling, they gave me a few tips that really helped. Heck! I would’ve never of thought of them in a million years if I hadn’t seen the videos.

Learn how to make money online with Ebay Auction Videos by PLR or on Ebay as a Seller.

If your looking for something to sell on ebay go here – Make4Ebay  for some ideas.

Success to you Ebay Power Seller!!

Here is a FREE gift from eBay’s first ever eBay Entrepreneur Of The Year…
Ebay Auction Tutorials!

He is giving away Resell Rights to a series of 28 eBay videos that he just created (which are probably the most up-to-date eBay videos out there right now).

In these videos, you get to watch over his shoulder as he sells on eBay in real time and exposes his secrets along the way.

Personally, I grabbed these videos for myself not so I can resell it, but so I can learn from them.  (Yes, they’re that good, I really did pick up a few things that actually helped me to get sells on Ebay)

But if you want to make some quick cash by selling these videos to your own customers, go right ahead.  Your customers will love you for it because these videos are not like other video tutorials created by average Joe’s.  These videos were created by someone who lives and breathes eBay!

They won’t be free for long though so I suggest you grab them now while you can at this link:
Ebay Auction Turtorials

Google Authorship Markup Verification Tutorial For Blogge

By Ryan T Malone

At the start of July this year, many people started noticing that there were a few pretty big changes happening in search. The number one most influential change being the inclusion of a profile image to the right of search results. I’d also like to make it very clear that I am not talking about the smaller avatars below results, as per some confusion on Twitter and Facebook this weekend about a breaking story from Google that actually broke a month ago.

Understandably, this is going to be a pretty drastic change, a real “Make Or Break” kind of change, and one that (luckily enough!) we can use to our advantage. For example – consider the impact that having an author profile image may have from a traffic generation standpoint.

Number one – it builds trust right where you are trying to attract visitors, and number two – it provides yet another avenue to attract followers to your social media profile, namely your Google or Google+ profile.

In all essence, a massive positive change that you can ALL use to your advantage right now by simply adding two link relationship tags to your blog.

Note - If you don’t or aren’t confident doing this yourself, click here to get me to do it for you.

The first of these tags is the rel=”author” tag. This tag is used only on a link to your “about” page on your blog. What this tag does is quite simple – it tells Google that this page is a page that is dedicated to the author, and is the most important page on your blog or website relating to the author. Quite simple, right?

The second of these tags is the rel=”me” tag. This tag should only ever be placed on your author page, and should only ever link to either a Google+ profile, or a standard Google profile. What this does is quite simple – it tells Google that the page that you are linking to is in fact the profile of the author. This is exactly where Google will pull its profile image from.

Now, I have created a video showing you how to make the appropriate changes to your blog so that you can potentially start seeing your profile image displayed beside your search results, but be aware – this is not something that just happens after you have done the work. Much like other listing upgrades in Google, this is on a case by case scenario, and either may or may not happen for you. That said, if you practice good SEO, and rank highly for specific keywords, then this will be a very important process for you to follow and implement right now (Seriously, put aside 10 minutes right now, this is that important!).

Video Resources:

The code to use in your functions.php file to enable to use of relationship tags in posts is as follows:

This post was heavily influenced by information given by Joost De Valk on his blog www.yoast.com – I give credit where it is due, and as an avid reader of his blog, I recommend his work to anyone who reads this blog. His original post on this topic can be found here.

And… don’t forget to test your blog with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool. If it doesn’t work, comment below, and I will see what advice I can offer.

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know, and remember to retweet this post or +1 it.

Cant Be Bothered Doing This Yourself?

That’s fine, not all of us know our stuff when it comes to coding and messing around with the inner workings of a WordPress blog, or a static HTML site.

Don’t want to do the work yourself? Click here to have Ryan do it for you.

This I understand. I just did get it before. How about you? Did this article explain things better? Better yet you don’t have to do it yourself. Oh,but if you don’t have an about us author page (guilty) on your site get on up and get it done. (drats!)

rel=”author” and rel=”me” in WordPress
by Joost de Valk

The recent changes from Google and my post about it regarding the highlighting of authors in search caused quite a few questions. People have been asking me how to do specific things and how to make certain elements contain rel=”author” or rel=”me”. Instead of replying to each of those emails and comments I decided to write one post which “has it all”.

I did see some more examples pop up, for example, when I searched for [highlighting authors], both this post from Matt Cutts (on highlighting authors in the comments) and this post from Gina Trapani got an author highlight.

Is the link to the Google Profile from the author page required?
How to add rel=”author” to a link in your menu
How to allow authors to add rel=”me” to links in their bio’s
How to allow authors to set their Google Profile URL
How to change the author URL
More questions?

Is the link to the Google Profile from the author page required?

Apparently, yes, it is. It’s quite logical for Google to want a link from your Google profile to your author page, it makes 100% sure that you are indeed the author of that piece of content when you link to your Google Profile and back from your Google Profile to your author page. Of course the link to your Google Profile wouldn’t be 100% needed for this, I don’t know whether Google will keep this requirement.

The flow should thus be as follows: article links to author page on the same domain. The author page on the same domain links to the Google Profile. The Google profile, in turn, links back to the author page.

So you are not, as some people suggested, meant to link to your Google Profile straight from the article, instead, you should link to your author page on the domain you published the article at and that page in turn should link to your Google Profile and be linked from your Google Profile.
How to add rel=”author” to a link in your menu

One of the issues that came up with is that some people don’t want to show the author on each and every post when the author on that blog is always one single person. Those people will usually have an “about” page linked in their site’s main navigation, for instance, Robert Scoble, on his blog Scobleizer:

Scobleizer’s about link, that should have rel=”author”

That “about” link could very easily be used to identify him as the author of each and every post, to Google, if it had rel=”author” sticked to it. Turns out that this is actually very easy to do if you use the WordPress menu editor.

Go to the Menus page and in the top right, click on screen options:

WordPress Screen Options Link

Once you click that link, it’ll fold out, and the display options will show, including “Link Relationship (XFN)”, be sure to check that box:

Once that box is checked, you can edit your menu item to include the link relationshop “author” which will cause it to get rel=”author” added to it:

Custom Menu element, be sure to just add author, this will cause rel=author to be added to the linkBe sure to just add “author” (without the quotes) this is enough to make sure the link will have rel=”author” added to it.
How to allow authors to add rel=”me” to links in their bio’s

If you update your bio on a WordPress blog you write on to contain a link to your Google Profile and want to add rel=”me”, you’ll come to the conclusion that WordPress strips out all the rel elements from links. Why it does that is beyond me, I’ve already opened a Trac ticket and created a patch to allow it. Until that is in core though (if it makes it in), you’ll need to allow it yourself. To do that, simply add this to your site’s functions.php file or functionality plugin:
1 function yoast_allow_rel() {
2 global $allowedtags;
3 $allowedtags['a']['rel'] = array ();
4 }
5 add_action( ‘wp_loaded’, ‘yoast_allow_rel’ );

This will allow all rel values to be used, nofollow as well. You could tighten this more but I doubt you’ll need it.
How to allow authors to set their Google Profile URL

If you don’t want authors to add the link to their bio but would rather give them an input field to enter their Google Profile URL, you’ll need to hook into the contact methods functions of WordPress. First, tell WordPress you want to add the Google Profile contact method:
1 function yoast_add_google_profile( $contactmethods ) {
2 // Add Google Profiles
3 $contactmethods['google_profile'] = ‘Google Profile URL’;
4 return $contactmethods;
5 }
6 add_filter( ‘user_contactmethods’, ‘yoast_add_google_profile’, 10, 1);

This will add an input field on their edit profile page below the default AIM, Yahoo and Google Talk / Jabber contact methods:

Google Profile URL input field

Second, in your theme’s author.php file, the author template, you need to add a bit of code to output this new URL:
1 $google_profile = get_the_author_meta( ‘google_profile’ );
2 if ( $google_profile ) {
3 echo ‘Google Profile‘;
4 }

Of course you can style this in any way you want, show it in a list, etc. Here on yoast.com, for instance, I replaced the default contactmethods with Facebook, Twitter and the Google Profile.
How to change the author URL

If for one or more authors on your blog you want to change their default author URL, you could do something like this:
1 function yoast_change_author_link( $link, $author_id, $author ) {
2 if ( ‘admin’ == $author )
3 return ‘http://example.com/about-me/’;
4 return $link;
5 }
6 add_filter( ‘author_link’, ‘yoast_change_author_link’, 10, 3 );

This would change the author URL for the author with username “admin” to http://example.com/about-me/, you should of course change this to what you need in your specific case. This should work with most themes, if it doesn’t with your theme, let me know what theme you’re using and I’ll try to come up with a solution.
How can I test whether my rel=”author” implementation works

Once you’ve added one of this bits above, you probably want to test whether it’s working. To do that, use Google’s Rich Snippets testing tool. You can find an example report showing that my implementation is correct here. See the screenshot:

More questions?

Do you have any more questions? Ask them in the comments, I will update this post with the needed answers!

Update: just to show “off” that it works:

Umm…sure. Did anybody catch all of that? I posted this article in hopes it would help me. And it did to the point of rel=me if it is really me writing the content, but… is this necessary? If it’s not me I post the author. I think Google is asking a little to much here. But I guess I’ll give it a try.
This is the link going back to the original article
What do you think? Comment below

Getting Your Thumbnail in Google Search Results

By Michelle MacPhearson

Google has made two moves in their search results pages that will impact your ability to survive in your marketplace.

Unfortunately, many folks are getting those two moves confused with each other. Consider this post clarification.
Googles +1 Thumbnails In Search Results

Firstly, there’s the +1 button on all the Google search results. It looks like this:

I’m sure you’ve seen it and maybe even had a clicky-click.

With Google+, that +1 button gets more interesting. When someone you have in your Google+ Circles has +1′d an item that YOU then search for and see in the search results, you’ll see their little thumbnail picture (and a link to their Google profile) along with the search results. Here’s what that looks like:

Danny Sullivan +1′d the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (as did I) and when I search for it, I see his smiling face in my search results since he’s in my circle.

Karen Kramer +1′d Google Adwords, and Brett Stark +1′d the Traffic Estimator, and again, because they are in my Circles, I see them in my search engine result pages.

The way Google’s got it running right now I won’t see thumbnails from people that I don’t know – just those I’ve added to Circles.
Author Profiles in Search Results

The second thing we’re seeing are author profiles in the search results. Most sites haven’t implemented this yet, so they’re not out and about super often, but you will be seeing this more and more. They look like this:

The thumbnail you’re seeing here is Google’s attempt to start correlating content publishers and writers (that’s you and me) with their Google profile. Content publishers who are using the new “rel=me” tag get a big image next to the content they’ve published and, of course, a link to their Google profile.

Why?

So that Google can start to determine which authors have credibility in a niche. It’s called “Author Authority” and they’ve indicated it’s a ranking factor.
Which Do I Want? Why? Huh?!

Now that you know the difference between the two, you want to know what it means to you!
Implementing Google +1 Thumbnails For Your Site

Right now the +1 thumbnails are affecting search results your potential visitors are seeing if they are using Google+ and have a friend in their Circles who has +1′d the item your potential customer has now searched for (perhaps an article on your website).

This is a compelling reason to implement the +1 button on your website.

Someone is more likely to click the search result that their friend, someone in their Circles, has already +1′d. That friend has vetted it for them, they’ve said it’s good via their +1. The searcher trusts the people in his Circles and his eyeballs are going to fly over to the familiar face first! You want your listings in the search results pages to have familiar faces next to them, so you’ve got to add the +1 button to your site.

(You can see I’m giving the +1 button a whirl here, give it a click if you’d like to be a part of the experiment).

But what if your audience hasn’t adopted Google+ and the +1 button yet? Keep reading, I’ll tell you about the Google+ marketing team in a moment.
Implementing Author Profiles in Search Results

These show up regardless of whether the person is in your Circles or not (in fact, the searcher doesn’t even have to be signed in to or have a Google account to see them) and are immensely important because of that. Of course, the visibility of the listing, with the larger thumbnail image is massive. It’s a completely different kind of search result that people aren’t used to seeing and it’s going to draw a lot of eyes (and thus clicks to the associated article).

What’s more interesting: the article with a real person attached to it or the bland, faceless and anonymous-seeming results around it?

Those of you who add the “rel=me” tag and get your thumbnails in the search results will see higher click-thoughs as a result. Guaranteed.

Also, these thumbnails come with a link to your Google profile. I mentioned author authority earlier, and you’ve got to know that it’s not just about the number of followers you have (Google is hip to the “follow me and I’ll follow you game”), it’s about the quality of the content you produce. With the “rel=me” tag, Google will begin to get an idea of what niches you’re an expert in and if your work is respected in your marketplace (Is it +1′d? Is it shared via Google+? etc.) With the “rel=me” tag, Google will being tracking all of that and incorporating your author authority into the algorithm when they decide whether to serve up one of your pages in the search results or one of your competitors’. (So if you haven’t already, it’s really time to step up your content game and start producing quality stuff you can put your face next to, literally).

When people see you in the search results, like Christina Warren, they can click right through to your Google Profile and add you to one of their Circles.

So how do you get your author thumbnail and profile link into the search results (like Christina Warren’s)? Joost de Valk has a comprehensive “rel=me” tutorial for WordPress users. Perhaps a plugin is coming soon Joost?

Remember, these author profiles will show up in the search results regardless of whether the searcher is signed in to Google and whether or not they have a Google+ account. It’s imperative you start to use them because everybody will be seeing them!
The Google+ Marketing Team

I can imagine some of the readers here thinking, “Ok, I get why the author profiles are important, because everybody will see them. But I don’t see why the +1 thumbnails matter to me because none of my customers are on Google+ yet.”

But look at what Google has done here. First, they invited the digerati to Google+ and built scarcity. Then they opened the dorrs to invitations intermittently, so more tech savvy folks who asked their friends for invites could get in as well.

We’re the dorks. We’re the outliers. We’re the ones in the internet marketing, social media and search engine optimization space who own our own websites and are looking for attention in the marketplace. So we’ll implement the +1 button on our websites because we know that our own audience and friends are on Google+ and that they will see the +1 thumbnails from their friends in Circles.

And we’ll also implement the “rel=me” tag. And our pictures will start to show up in everyone’s search results. And searchers will start to click thos thumbnails and go to our Google+ profiles. But if they want to talk to us, want to be “friends,” they’ve got to join Google+ too.

We will give Google+ and our Google profiles enough visibility, as we start to add both the +1 button and the “rel=me” tag into our sites. We are Google’s marketing team for the entire Google+ project.

Sure, you could opt out and refuse the +1 button and the “rel=me” tag.

But it’s SEO suicide. You’ll suffer lower click-through ratings in the search results pages, which is a ranking factor. You’ll miss out on any author authority, which is a ranking factor. You’ll miss out on social proof via +1′s, which is both a ranking factor and a way content is spread amongst real users. Don’t do it.
You’re Playing Google’s Game Now

Takeaways?

Get the Google +1 button on your site
Add the “rel=me” tag to your site
Make sure your content is good enough that people will want to +1 it and share it

Finally, if you enjoyed this post and gained some insight, a share on Google+ or a tweet would be much appreciated!

Oh dear, the things people do to rank!  Well if you do internet marketing so that you can hide from everybody  -  GET OVER IT!! and fast.  No more hiding behind Mr. X. or MS. X  (glad to see more of the ladies getting into I.M. )  From hear on out, it’s your face baby, and now your brand.   What do you think?  Let me know below.