Vertical Jump Training Blog - Helping You Elevate Your Game!

With two sons playing competitive basketball there has been a lot of discussion around our home about how to "get more hops" or increase their vertical jumping ability.  Talking with the kids on my youth league teams and my sons teammates confirmed that this is a really hot topic not only among basketball players but also among volleyball players, soccer players and more.  Having hops is a big asset in many sports.

So my sons set out to "get more hops".  We purchased the Air Alert vertical jump system and gave that a try.  Both sons completed the program and saw marked increase in their vertical jump just not to the extent guaranteed by the developer.  We then tried "The Jump Manual" by Jacob Hiller.  Again, my sons some some increase in vertical jump but not as much a guaranteed.  Still, they both agreed both programs were worth the money and the time and effort put into completing them.

Still, trying to increase their max vertical jump, I began to do a lot of research online.  I quickly found their is no lack in people and sites pushing their programs and extolling the reasons why their program is better than all the rest.  Doing this research proved to be tedious and time consuming.  So, I decided to put together a blog that brought together all the different programs, theories and training program related to vertical jump training.  Thus, the Vertical Jump Training Blog was born.  Get More Hops! doesn't push any one particular training program.  Rather, we strive to present the many varying points of view, training techniques and the many vertical jump training programs available.  We bring it all together and let you decide what will work best for you.

Justin Michie's 30-Day "List Getting" Training Program

I don't often recommend many training programs but you should check out Justin Michie's 30-Day "List Getting" training program.  It starts on June 1st and you should think about being part of it.  Justin is the author of the highly regarded book "Street Smart Internet Marketing", which you should also read.

By the end of the course, Justin personally guarantees that you'll have an opt-in email list of at least 500 people (and that's starting from scratch) or you don’t pay anything. And with each subscriber worth about $1.00 per month in profit, you're going to start making a lot of money pretty quick.

A high quality list of targeted subscribers is like having an emergency cash fund for anytime life throws you a curveball. Want more cash? Just blast out a quick email to your list and the money shows up in your account like magic.  You can learn more here.

For Veteran Social Marketers, Twitter is Tops!

I've only played with using the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace for internet marketing purposes.  However, I also have a blog dedicated to my hobby and I have a Twitter account that I have associated with that.  Whenever, I post a new item on my blog a corresponding Tweet is created.  I also Tweet whenever something of interest to my fellow hobbyist happens.  I have noticed a significant increase in my blog traffic as a result of my Twitter activities.  My blog and Twitter compliment each other as I have picked up followers on Twitter from my blog traffic and vice versa.  The amount of traffic created has convinced me that marketing through social networks is worth looking into. 

In an interesting article on emarketer.com it would seem that experienced internet marketers have been on board with social networking for some time, as many as 96% of marketers with extensive social media experience are using Twitter while 91% of the same group report they use Facebook.  Now I need to research and understand how to increase my following of these social networks.  If anyone has such experience, I'm listening!

Street Smart Internet Marketing by Justin Michie

I have downloaded my share of internet marketing and SEO e-books the past few years.  Some I paid for and some were free.  The vast majority of time I was disappointed.  Most were shoddily written and prepared documents with little or no useful information.  Many were simply regurgitations of material you can quickly and easily find elsewhere on the internet for free.  Of course, I shouldn't have been disappointed as the main purpose of these free offers is to get your email address to add to their marketing list.

I recently acquired a free copy of Street Smart Internet Marketing by Justin Michie.  As usual, I approached it with my typical skepticism.   However, a quick perusal convinced me that this book was different.  First, this was no quickly and sloppily thrown together piece of junk.  This is a quality, 308-page pdf document with loads of useful information.  There are 38 chapters in seven sections covering topics such as:

• Electronic marketing
• Designing and building a website
• Email marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Website Promotion
• Joint Ventures and Affiliate Marketing

This book was originally written in 2006 but Justin Michie has revised it and brought it up to date for 2010.  This isn't a book you will read through in an hour or two.  It will take time to read and digest.  When you are done you will want to keep it handy for frequent reference.   I had yet to write a review of an e-book because, quite frankly, they weren't worth the time they took to download much less write a review.  This book is different.  Take my word for it, Street Smart Internet Marketing by Justin Michie is a book you should take a serious look at.  It's free so what do you have to lose?

SEO Venture Follow Up

Well, here it is half way through February, 2010.  I thought I would take a few minutes and summarize my SEO Venture experience and results.  And by the way, I checked earlier today and found that my site, www.snowmanornaments.org was still ranked on the first page of Google results for my primary search phrase "snowman ornaments".

I learned a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), web site design and marketing during this little experiment.  Using the various techniques that I learned I was indeed able to get my site placed on the first page of Google and, at one point, one actually ranked number one!  So, I can definitively say that SEO marketing techiniques work, if done correctly.  It is work, it takes time and effort but it can be done. 

What I also learned was the extreme importance of getting started early particularly if you are talking about a seasonal niche market as was mine. I started my experiment near the end of October for a Christmas seasonal niche.  That was way too late!  I should have started at least two month earlier.  Yes, my site reached a #1 Google ranking on December 9th but that was too late to make any money that season.  People have already made the bulk of the decorating purchases by then and I was still failing to drive traffic to my site.

That is the other major lesson I learned.  You can have a great Google ranking, even number 1, but if you don't drive traffic to your site what does it matter?  Traffic for my site started to pick up just in the month of December, again too late, and didn't generate any sales.  Based on what I was seeing on other specialty ornaments sites I don't believe my niche was too narrow or not viable.  I just failed to rate highly soon enough and failed to generate enough traffic to generate sales.

Because of my late start I can only call my SEO Venture a partial success.  Yes, I was able to create a web site and within a couple of months have it ranked on the first page of Google.  However, my other goal was to see if money could be made and that I did not do.

So, my SEO Venture experiment will continue.  It will go on hiatus for the next several months but around July or August I will pick it up again.  This time with the goal of generating real revenues.  I will get an early start with a web site that already has a high Google ranking.  There will be work to be done, a web site rewrite most likely and then I will need to learn how to drive traffic to the site.  Hopefully by this time next year I will be reporting success on the second goal of my SEO Venture.  In the mean time I will be reading up and learning about how to drive traffic to my site.  Until then!

We're Number One!

Wow, I must admit to being very excited about this!  My SEO Venture website, www.snowmanornaments.org, has the number 1 ranking for my keywords when I checked this morning!  I guess the keyword changes and the additional content I added late last week were the key to putting me over the top.  My site jumped from the mid-70s to number 1 in only 5 days!

Check this out:

The lesson I learned from this is to pay extra close attention to your keyword selection and 'on page' SEO.  Spend time with Google Analytics and other tools to determine the best keywords for your niche.  Don't hurry or scrimp on effort here.  All the books, blogs and articles reinforced this but I guess I had to learn it by trial and error.

The changes I made to my keyword metatag were minor but simply duplicated what Google Analytics were reporting as the most searched for keywords in my niche.  Honestly, I thought I had previously made many of these changes but apparently not.

All this makes me wonder how much sooner I could have ranked in the top 2 pages of search results had I made these changes earlier.  Of course, that is why I took on this experiment in the first place.  To learn from my successes and my mistakes and to pass on my experiences to you.  So, I must consider the first part of my SEO Venture a success!  I have successfully started a niche website and succeeded in getting it ranked #1 on Google.


Unfortunately, I fear I am too late for this seasonal niche to see much income from my website.  It is now December 9th and most people have already purchased their decorations and decorated their homes.  To reiterate the key lesson I've learned here, when working with a seasonal niche market make sure you give yourself enough lead time to develop your niche and get ranked highly.  I should have started at least a month earlier than I did.  However, this does bode well for the next holiday season!

Search Rankings Stalled

Well, all the 'on page' and 'off page' SEO that I have been doing has landed my website, www. snowmanornaments.org, in the 69-79 range in Google search results.  It seems to have stabilized in that range.  It is a definite improvement over it's debut spot of 129 but not good enough to see substantial traffic as a result.  So, today I did a little more keyword research using Google Analytics and made some changes to my meta tags on the website.  I think I spotted a few mistakes I've make that may make a difference. 

I freely admit to a certain amount of frustration on my SEO Venture experiment but also have to keep reminding myself that I am a newbie at this after all.  I've done the major things all the SEO books and articles suggest and still haven't seen the desired results.  I'm sure there are a number of steps and nuances that a SEO guru may have already taken to have obtained better results.  However, I am committed to seeing this through whether or not it happens soon enough to take advantage of the holiday season.!