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SEO Strategies - Optimize Online Press Releases For CRM

01 2008 Tuesday

By Nick Yorchak in Featured

In a fiercely competitive online atmosphere, press releases can be a valuable resource for increasing your company’s overall visibility, but only if they’re optimized effectively. Remember, this tactic is no longer just about publicizing your latest news. Instead, it’s about creating visibility through multiple channels that allow you to connect through content, reaching those audience segments that are relevant to your company and purpose.

When optimized correctly, online press releases can do all of the following:

Boost Search Engine Rankings for SEO

Drive Targeted Traffic

Build Brand Awareness

Save Money on Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

Usurp Position From Competition on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

Despite these numerous benefits, however, many companies continue to use unoptimized press releases that don’t work as well as they could. Instead, these lazy releases stagnate in Deleted folders and are never indexed by the major search engines. Remember, this isn’t a traditional press release like Grandma used to write.

Unlike traditional press releases, which were succinct and written with readers in mind, online press releases need to be more carefully crafted. An online press release (like SEO in general), is half art and half science - in addition to appealing to readers, they need to be optimized for search engines in order to drive results. A few simple modifications could increase their effectiveness drastically, providing far more SEO benefit to your online presence than they would have otherwise.

So how do you write and optimize an online press release that will drive tangible results?

First and foremost, employ common sense and reason. No one wants to read something that isn’t newsworthy, and these type of releases won’t garner any publicity. In fact, according to a DM News survey, 98 percent of journalists are online every day, and almost 75 percent are searching for press releases. So before you write anything, ask yourself if the story you’re thinking about publicizing is newsworthy. As a member of your industry, whatever that may be, would you take the time to read it? If not, don’t waste your time. Wait for a story that will make a splash and matter to your audience.

Next, identify the keywords your press release will utilize. Align them with the keywords and phrases you’re already optimizing in order to derive the highest SEO benefit. In order to make sure you’re choosing those with the most potential, start with some quick competitive analysis. This can be done by performing a News search that includes your keyword on Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, or any other popular search engine.

Looking at the results page, you’ll know if this is the right keyword or phrase to chase? How? By the amount of competition it presents. If you notice that most of the results are spread out over a longer time span, this keyword is a good opportunity because there clearly isn’t as much competition. On the other hand, if your search turns up ten stories from the past few days, you’ll know that this term is much more competitive due to the many stories you’re competing against.

Now that you’re aware of the competitive landscape, determine the amount of flexibility you have to work with. As I mentioned before, if you’re attempting to enter a space that’s crowded with recent news, you’ll need to focus on a single keyword phrase, while if you have more flexibility, you can chase several permutations of your keywords.

In the end, it’s a better idea to focus on specific online niches, crafting your press release in a way that you know will appeal to your potential readers. Your press release will be much more potent if it gets noticed within a specific sector than if it languishes away in relative obscurity, hidden somewhere in a crowd of similar stories.

This simple research phase can make all the difference in whether your press release gets noticed, but it’s often the most overlooked aspect of this strategy. Don’t get trapped milling around in the virtual crowd - stand out and get noticed by optimizing around the keywords that hold the most potential.

Once you’ve completed this critical research step, you will have identified the most potent keywords with which to write your press release. Now you’re finally ready to start writing!

Start with the headline, the most important part of your press release. Include your most competitive keywords in this headline. While it may be tempting to simply combine all of your keywords, it’s imperative that your headline remains both condensed yet descriptive. Think like a journalist and a searcher here. Stick to the basics, providing the essential facts and the who, what, where, when, and why. All of the major search engines start by looking for keywords in headlines, so be sure to give them what they’re looking for in order to capitalize on relevancy. Observe these rules and you’ll also attract those all important human readers.

After you’ve crafted the headline, it’s time to start writing the body of your press release. Begin by isolating several related phrases to maximize your SEO potential. For example, if you’re publicizing the launch of your new SEO site, your headline may be something like Fusionbox Launches SEO Microsite.

Don’t fall victim to the constraints you’ll encounter with the use of just one keyword or phrase. Instead, use a web of related keyphrases to expand your reach. Alternate permutations like “Fusionbox Launches Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Microsite,” for example, will invariably broaden your scope and influence. These various combinations allow your release to appear in News results for these related phrases as well.

Try rotating various combinations of keywords in the body of the release as well to create more diversity and cover more ground. For example:

“Fusionbox, a Denver SEO agency, recently lauched a new microsite devoted to search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. The company, which specializes in search engine marketing (SEM), web design, and web development, needed a unique platform to reach clients looking for optimization solutions and showcase their SEO services.”

Rather than using the same keyword phrase repetitively and sounding like a broken record (which drives human readers away), this sentence sprinkles other keyword combinations that expand the SEO value of the release without detracting from readability.

Be creative here. Don’t try to overload on keywords or your release won’t flow like good writing should. A good rule of thumb is to write with an eye for your keywords, incorporating them into the release when natural opportunities appear.

Once you’ve finished writing your release, read over it again and circle your keywords in red. Does it sound natural or look like a finished New York Times word search? If so, take a step back and ensure your work flows while maintaining general SEO copywriting best practices and a healthy keyword density.

Next, look for instances of your keywords where you could include a backlink to your site. This will allow you to build valuable incoming links to your site, which are a major determinant of search engine positioning. Remember to use the full URL in your link if you can’t employ anchor text, as this will ensure your link is indexed and available to search engines and readers alike. 1` Finally, you’ve finished writing your optimized press release. Now you’re ready to begin the submission process. There are an infinite number of press release sites on the Internet, but some are far superior to others. Before you go about submitting anywhere and everywhere, make sure the sites you’re submitting content to are crawled by the major search engines, or else you won’t get any SEO benefit from your release.

Many of the more popular distribution services are indexed by Google News, Yahoo News, and others, but make sure by searching for related stories on these engines and noting where the top results originate. This way, you’ll get a better idea of which distribution channels specific search engines favor.

Target these for your own release to ensure your content will be visible where it matters, especially as Universal search rolls onto the scene, showing News links among the regular search results.

As you can see, optimizing your press release is a somewhat complex endeavor. Still, considering that an optimized release is an essential ingredient to a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for its ability to boost search engine rankings, drive targeted traffic, build brand awareness, and even help you gain digital real estate on the SERPs (search engine results page), the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.

Just observe the best practices I’ve described above and you’ll build your online presence in this fiercely competitive online atmosphere where visibility is everything. An optimized press release will allow you to connect with your target audience through content while deriving tangible SEO benefits.

Author: Nick Yorchak is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a full-service Denver Internet marketing agency offering complete SEM solutions. He can be reached at (303)952-7490. For more information on optimization strategies, see the free Fusionbox SEO Resources library or browse Nick’s SEO blog.

7 Reasons Why it Doesn’t Pay to Do Your Own Website

01 2008 Tuesday

By Paula Gregorowicz in Featured

The other day I was having a conversation with a potential client when she started apologizing for not being better with technology and not having had any success building her own site. I get this a lot. I am not sure why, but it seems web design and financial planning are the two main fields where people for some reason think they should be able to do it all on their own. I mean, I have yet to hear a colleague or client say “I have this painful tooth, but if only I were better at dental surgery I could get this fixed right up in my spare time.” Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? Yet that seems precisely the line of thinking many solo and small businesses take when it comes to their website and Internet Marketing.

Now, if you are dead set on taking the DIY route, I am not here to stop or criticize you. It is your business and the choice is ultimately all yours. However, I would like to put forth a compelling list of 7 reasons why it is not the best use of your time or money to do so.

1) Do you consider a website a once and done project? Are you prepared to make an ongoing investment in writing content, updating the site, and maximizing your technology investment so customers can find and buy from you? On the web content is king so unless you only want a virtual brochure, you need to be ready to invest ongoing time on your site on a regular basis (at least monthly). A team of professionals can help you navigate these waters and make it easy for you to do so.

2) The world of the web and its related technologies are constantly growing and expanding. Even if you work in the field full time for years it is impossible to know it all. Why would you want to take on the gigantic task of learning all this expertise in addition to your core field of expertise (what you do or sell in your business)? And, even if you could learn enough to get by, what about the little things you miss (and not even know) that could cost you big time in terms of mistakes or lost opportunities?

3) Do you know which technologies to choose to get the most bang for your buck and marketing efforts and why? Does the world of autoresponders, hosting companies, blogging platforms, merchant accounts, podcasting, shopping carts, and the like leave your head spinning? If so, how can you make informed decisions around which technologies can help support your overall business (and not be a case of technology for technology sake)?

4) Just because you can buy Photoshop or another graphics editing program doesn’t mean you are a designer. Talented artists can help you brand your business through visuals in a way that sets you apart from your competition. It takes years of experience and innate talent to be able to do this successfully. Even I know my limits which is why I work closely with artists on my team to ensure people who work with me get only the best.

5) Web standards and best practices are there for a reason. If you don’t know what they are, why valid websites matter, or how they integrate with one another, you may build your site and unknowingly exclude an entire segment of your potential client base from being able to view your site as you intended.

6) Your current and future customers are counting on you to be a master at what you are offering them. Unless that offering is web design and consulting, you are shortchanging your most precious commodity by dabbling in the website business. Your time IS money and wouldn’t you rather spend it generating more revenue for your business doing what you do best?

7) A good web professional will co-create with you what you really want and need. You will work as partners and you still get to be as involved or uninvolved as you wish. Most importantly she should be able to offer you ongoing services in a mix that is right for you so that you can get the most out of your investment (this isn’t a build it once and forget it project). If you’re not getting that level of personal service you’re being shortchanged.

As always, the choice is up to you. My experience has been that just as you are a lot happier when you have a doctor mend a broken bone vs. trying to DIY , your business can be that much more joyful when you give yourself permission to bring in the technology experts.

Author: Using her signature down to earth and “plain English” approach to website design, Paula Gregorowicz and The Paula G. Company work with small and solo business owners to make the web work for them so their online presence is a true reflection of who they are and what their business is all about. Visit http://www.paulagwebdesign.com

4 Indispensable SEO TOOLS for Competitive Research

01 2008 Tuesday

By Jeffrey Smith in Featured

SEO tools are essential for plotting your ascent through competitive industries and allow you to carve out a niche in the top 10 for an entire series of key phases for your website, blog or business.

Reaching the upper echelon of organic search is no simple task, in fact, it requires a great deal of patience, foresight and strategy. Although we leave the use of these tools up to your imagination (much like Adobe Photoshop, where there is more than one to reach the same objective) the extent of the results all depend on your ability to think-outside-the-box and wield each tool with creativity.

So let’s get started…

There is quite a buzz about this first tool in the SEO industry right now, so, we will cover that one first.

First up - SEO Tool #1: “WordZe Keyword Discovery Tool”

Every good SEO campaign starts with fundamental keyword research. Without it, you could waste months optimizing the wrong terms and miss the boat on what’s hot and what’s not when gauging an industry and the respective keywords that drive it.

A high search volume (traffic-bearing) keyword is a result of supply/demand and conversion, although it may be more difficult to acquire, the rewards yield more than enough profit to justify the means. Whereas a less competitive keyword can provide you with a top 10 listing, but for a term with low search volume that nobody is searching for. So, it’s better to eliminate the exercise in futility by using a keyword research tool that allows you to find the most relevant (up to date) search data to base your keyword discovery.

Just in case you are still stuck in the past and using keyword antiquated research tools like Overture Keyword Discovery Tool or Word Tracker, there’s a new series of professional-grade SEO tools making a debut called WordZe that’s sure to hit the sweet spot for SEO enthusiasts (while mutually raising the bar for keyword research/discovery tools).

Say for example, you want to compete for a specific keyword and you enter it in the “word rank” global competitive keyword analysis tool. The company describes this tool with the following “WordRank is a tool that will inspect the search results for a given keyword, then analyze each domain to assist you in understanding the level of competition you can expect from others that already are leaders for the keyword or industry.”

Pretty straight forward, and to the point. This by far is my favorite, because aside from just showing you who ranks for the term, it provides an accurate snapshot of how many links per month your competitors are building to maintain that term for their position, for “that” keyword - “Priceless SEO data”.

The calculation uses a new fundamental ranking algorithm, that by far is the most evolved I have seen for a commercial tool. I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the awesome SEO Tools that the exclusive members have now at Jim Boykin’s - Internet Marketing Ninjas (this is NOT a plug or paid advertisement), but using WordZe for only $35 per month in conjunction with Compete.com (our next pick) and you can essentially deduce just how difficult it would be to dethrone your competition from their most prized, traffic bearing keywords.

Aside from this tool, they have a keyword density tool that allows you to enter your domain name, it takes a snapshot of all of the keywords from the domain and assesses the terms the site is targeting. In addition to viewing the raw data, it provides useful one, two and three word combinations that you can test in search engine queries to provide valuable insight about where they rank for any combination of related phrases.

Also, the site has a wide array or other tools (that I have yet to explore) that allow you to assess trends, demographic information, keyword demand based on the region, state or global percentage of requests for that keyword and so much more. For the price it is a must-have SEO tool for your analysis toolbox.

Next Up SEO Tool #2 - Compete.com Search & Site Analytics

Aside from having to wait nearly a month to purchase a few credits (as a result of their API reaching it’s daily limit) I was finally able to test drive some of Compete’s nifty SEO tools. My favorite is the site analytics section which has become a natural stop after taking a peek at your competitions back links in Yahoo. Speaking of Yahoo and SEO, on a side note, follow the link to get Joost De Valk’s new SEO Analysis Tool, a FREE plug in for Mozilla Firefox that reveals the anchor text of your competitors back links (when you use the site:www.competitorssite.com search command) - “Priceless and not to mention FREE”.

Not to digress, as a freebie, Compete allows you to assess the monthly traffic a site is getting just as a taste of their SEO tools right from the home page. So, say for example, you want to see how your traffic fares against your favorite competitor, just type their URL or paste it in the top left portion of the homepage’s vs. query box and click return.

You can also, add up to 3 domains to have a face-off to see which site is getting the most traction for their keywords in the SERPs. It breaks down traffic trends to their site using data collected over the past year. Once again, “Priceless information”, when attempting to assess the strength of your next keyword acquisition campaign.

The hint here is “if they are smoking you in the rankings, at least you can turn the microscope on them with a few of the other tools here to determine if a keyword quest is in order to tip to vote in your favor from the search engine spiders. I was researching a few competitors for example who have managed to secure a number of high ranking keywords, yet despite their selection of optimized terms, their traffic was a mere fraction of ours. So, ultimately one needs to decide if targeting competitive terms or focusing on the long-tail of search is the way to drive optimal conversion for their pages.

Compete also has the ability to parse monthly search engine queries using site analytics and reveal which keywords visitors used in order to reach the site in question. Just add this to a great keyword discovery tool like WordZe and you could essentially assess the competitive climate based on the cross-referenced data in a few short hours which could save you months building links for the wrong terms.

SEO Tool #3 - Linkvendor.com

Here is an excellent example of philanthropy in it’s finest from Linkvendor.com, whereby Marcus from SEO Solutions / SEOmetrie (I like the first name, kinda has a ring to it) made these SEO tools in context of his diploma/thesis. Kudos to Marcus and thanks for sharing…

He has essentially ran the gamut on every possible SEO tool that one could desire ranging from analysis and link popularity to domain tools and keyword position checkers. This is one free site that is link-worthy and anyone using them should definitely throw a link back their way.

SEO Tool#4 - SEO Chat’s Page Rank Search Tool

Although the Page Rank Search Tool was probably designed just to see if your pages are passing the little green fairy dust, another way you could use it is by using a link command with one of your competitors domains in the mix.

Just click here and add your favorite competitors domain name using the link:competitorswebsite.com to the query box, sort by page rank and set the number of results to 100 and viola, you can take a peek under the hood of your competitors back links in Google and see which pages are passing the most link juice. At least, as far as a rudimentary inspection that is.

Well, that wraps up this review of 4 Indispensable SEO Tools You Can’t Live Without. Since so many tools were omitted, I feel the need to throw in a few more since we are on a such a roll.

SEO Tactics for SEO Tools - Application

Now that you have some nice tools to play with, as an added bonus, how about a few SEO tactics to go along with them to get things started.

1) Hypothetically speaking, between SEO Digger (as a keyword mining tool that reverse engineers the Google Search Algorithm and extrapolates keyword combinations) and Hittail (a great tool for extracting the keyword gold from the long-tail of search for visitors that have already visited your pages), you could survey your keyword landscape for a future SEO campaign.

2) Or perhaps you may visit a site using SEO Quake (another wicked Firefox Plug-in), to get a summary of their domain age, Who is information as well as their back links and combine that with a summary of the traffic from Compete.com to see just how effective their SEO is.

3) Or what about using SEO Chat, or Joost De Valk’s new Mozilla plug in to conduct a link analysis through some link mining to see which pages are candidates for links from your competition. Chances are, since they linked to someone in your industry, they are open for some type of service/exchange. Just don’t email them with a reciprocal link request, unless you want to ruin any chance of an authority link. Pick up the phone and see what you can work out, you never know.

4) Also, links do not always have to come from the same country to be effective in augmenting your global website profile. Dave Davis from RedFly Marketing has created a another awesome Firefox plug-in Google Global that allows you to view organic and paid Google search results as they appear in almost any location on Earth, talk about link building opportunities. What are you waiting for, go download your copy if you haven’t already.

In closing, SEO tools are only as dapper as the one using them, so remember to think outside the box and experiment with new and exciting methods when optimizing your pages.

I know we have only scratched the surface on this one. So many search engine optimization tools, so little time, so this is one time where I would like to call upon other SEO’s that may wish to share their favorite SEO Tools or techniques and drop a relevant link or two below. Don’t be stingy now, comments are open and if you have a question, let it be heard.

If not, then stay tuned for more SEO tips, tactics and strategies from Seo Design Solutions. I hoped you enjoyed this post and if you like, link it, Digg it, Stumble it,mixx it, Scoop it , Zoom it, or share it how you like.

Author: Jeffrey Smith is an active internet marketing optimization strategist, consultant and the founder of Seo Design Solutions Seo Company http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/. He has actively been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings a wealth of collective experiences and fresh marketing strategies to individuals involved in online business.

How To Build a Multimedia Blog

01 2008 Monday

By Gobala Krishnan in Featured

Have you toyed with the idea of a building a multimedia blog? Well not to be rude, but it’s about time! Admit it - a text-based blog is boring. No matter how information-rich your posts are, they’re just text and the last time we paid attention to any of it, text didn’t exactly throw us into any sort of exciting frenzy!

With today’s technology, there’s really no reason why you can’t turn your blog into a virtual entertainment center complete with video, audio, instant messaging, and more. This article describes a couple of the multimedia tools we’re talking about just so you can get an idea of how you can turn a Plain Jane Blog into a screaming wild ride of thrilling exhilaration.

Internet Video

Online video takes multimedia to the max and quite often, making it available from your blog can be a simple matter of installing a plugin or pasting in a small piece of javascript code. YouTube offers thousands of free videos like this for example, but if you want to make your presentation truly unique, you’ll need to make your own little movies. Most of today’s cameras (and some cell phones) can turn anyone into an instant movie maker and if you’re not camera shy, you can record yourself using a product that you’re selling, you can record yourself explaining a particular technique, or you can simply record yourself giving a speech.

If you **are** camera-shy however, you can record your computer screen instead. Thanks to a sweet and free screen-capturing program called Camtasia, you can make videos of yourself using software like Microsoft Excel or Word with or without audio and text bubbles. If you’re a software developer, you can make training videos and teach your users how to use your programs while you’re sleeping!

Internet Audio

Offering audio on your blog is another great way to satisfy today’s multimedia-crazed society — especially since we’re all naturally attracted to sound more than we’re attracted to text. With audio, you’re presented with a couple of options. You can offer streaming audio, which is live audio broadcast from a radio station or even from your own home. Or you can offer recorded files. Many blogs will play a recorded audio file as soon it’s loaded while others let visitors download a collection of files.

Either way, audio gives you the opportunity to offer an earful of business-related speeches, lectures, or interviews and increase the interactivity of your blog at the same time.

Instant Delivery vs. Archived Delivery

If the truth must be known, immediacy is what makes multimedia most effective. Streaming video and audio is much more exciting than their recorded forms because they’re LIVE. It gives visitors the feeling that they’re “right there” inside the action and that they’re part of an important event.

If offering your own streaming information isn’t a feasible option for you right now, offer some of the free streaming videos and audios that are already available. You’ll find a ton of relevant subjects ranging from software and computer topics to sewing and fishing hobbies. Just be sure that you keep your visitors’ capabilities in mind when offering these tools.

You don’t want for example, to overburden your visitors’ computers by forcing unwanted downloads. Always give your visitors the choice of listening to an audio file or watching a video. Believe it or not, a significant portion of the Internet community still connects via dial up.

These users for instance, won’t appreciate having to download a ten megabyte audio file before your blog completely loads — especially since it can take dial up users up to half an hour before that download is even finished!

Author: Gobala Krishnan is the author of the best-selling “Wordpress Adsense System” and also a niche-blogging specialist. Discover how you too can master Wordpress as marketing weapon now at http://www.EasyWordpress.com

7 Steps to Creating Info-Packed Teleseminars From Your Articles

01 2008 Monday

By Donna Gunter in Featured

Teleseminars, or workshops conducted over a teleconference line, are one of the easiest ways to grow a business and leverage your expertise online. However, when I speak to clients about using this marketing strategy, many believe that they don’t have enough content to create a powerful 45-60 minute teleseminar. Do you share that same belief? If you’ve ever written an article, you’ve got enough information to create a teleseminar.

I love to repurpose content, i.e., create something once and use it again and again for multiple purposes. I’ve found the articles I write weekly to be the easiest to repurpose. The type of article that works best to launch a teleseminar is a tips article, or one that is written with numbered points as the body of the article, i.e., 6 Secrets to, How to Do … in 10 Easy Steps, etc.

Here’s how you can create a teleseminar from one of your articles:

Craft your description and learning bullet points. Write a one paragraph overview of your teleclass based on the content of your article and include 3-7 bullet points (very short descriptions of the bullet points in your article) outlining what the participants will learn as a result of participating in your teleseminar. This is the description you’ll use to help you promote your teleseminar.
Expand your article bullet points. Participants like concrete examples, so in your planning process come up with stories or examples you can share about each point, point out mistakes people make with this point, and discuss better strategies to use instead.
Craft your introduction. The easiest way to create an introduction to a teleclass is to tell your participants what caused you to create it, and then give a synopsis of what you’re going to cover during the teleseminar.
Determine your call to action. Typically teleseminars are part of a larger marketing strategy for an online business owner: to sell a product or program, to grow a list, or to create content for an information product. Determine what you want your call to action to be for your listeners, and make plans to insert it into to your teleclass script. Share this call to action with your participants at the beginning, middle, and end of the call.
Format your conclusion. Here’s where you again summarize what your said during the teleseminar, remind participants of your call to action, and ask for any questions before closing the call.
Develop your script. Now, you have all of the pieces developed, and it’s time to put them together in an outline or script for yourself. Note your introduction, expanded bullet points with examples, insert your call to action several times when appropriate, and end with your conclusion.
Draft a handout. Help your participants remember you and your presentation. A handout with your contact info is the best way for them to refer to the material presented. You can create a study guide which permits them to fill in the blanks during the course of the teleseminar, a handout that you send with notes from the teleseminar, or a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation that you provide before the seminar. Remember to include your contact information in your handout as well as your call to action from the teleseminar.

Now, you have a complete teleseminar that you can use again and again with different target markets to help you grow your list, sell your products and services, and establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Take a look at your article bank and determine what you can repurpose into powerful teleseminars for your business.

Author: Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com.

WordPress, Feedburner & MyBlogLog “Oh My!”

01 2008 Monday

By Darren Dunner in Featured

WordPress, What is Good for, absolutely everything!

The internet is inedited with blog sites, these blogs are popping up all over the place. I will not be surprised if we change the “www” to “wwb” “world wide blogs”. Wouldn’t that be funny! Well, we know that there are 100’s of blogs, 100’s of writers and yet some of you reading this article have yet to test out the power of a blog.

There are many great blog software programs, but I am a creature of habit and like to stick to what I know best, which is WordPress. Is this the best blog software out there? I really couldn’t say, but every site I use it on Ranks in top 10 of Google for specific keywords that I target. What I am about to explain here is how to take a power tool like wordpress and explain how you can start to turn this thing on!

There may be some aspects of this article that are confusing so feel free to contact us to get those questions answered. My attempt is to be clear, but I may throw a few things out there that will leave you wondering.

Let’s just say that as a reader you are interested in making money online and you have a great idea or you have re-invented other ideas in such a way that you know it is better then what has been done before. Now, you want to expose this idea of yours and turn it into money. How will you do this? Where do you start? You probably already have a website and can’t figure out why no one is hooked in yet.

Well, you need a blog and again my suggestion is WordPress blog. Install this on your site directly and then either you or someone qualified can change the design theme to match your own site. This is not easy and requires that you understand PHP, CSS and Xhtml.

Now you need to choose some topics to write about. This can be confusing too right? Because how would you know what kind of topics to write about that will capture the interest of the search engines and readers? I mean, this can be really tough to think of topics within your business industry to write about as I am sure everyone is well informed about your products or services and understand the benefits of all you have to offer right? Okay, I am being sarcastic here! Of course this is easy, who is a better expert in your industry then you are? You only need to choose a few topics.

For example, let’s take this article. If I decided to sell blog services based on what I am detailing here, then I can create a blog and have these 3 topics:

Using WordPress
Setup Feedburner Today
All About MyBlogLog

Based on these 3 topics I can write up blog posts for days, weeks, months, etc. There is always something new and since this is my niche I can always have something to talk about.

Because of the power of Wordpress every time I post a blog here, it pings a blog server. This means that a link back to my blog is noted and the search engines can now follow this new link and crawl my blog. Every post, I get a visit from the search engine bots.

So think carefully on your topics and don’t over do it. Try to stay with 3 – 5 topics unless you have a team of writers or ghost writers helping you out, this will be too much and you can loose the interest of your potential readers.

Another reminder here is to always leave a link back to your main site, service or product page. Every post gets a link back to your main site of business. In case this point is not clear… Link back to your main site on every single post! Just 1 link is all you need.

Connect Your WordPress to Your Feedburner!

What is Feedburner you ask? It is one of many ways to add a subscribe feature to your blog so that people can subscribe and be notified of the latest posts from your blog. Are there other means to accomplish this? Yes, there are many. So why choose FeedBurner? The first thing I consider here is that Google has acquired them and they make adding subscriptions to your blog super easy.

In order to use feedburner you would need to have a blog and an rss feed. To find your rss feed you need only add the words /feed after the URL of your wordpress blog. If you have a blog at: www.mywordpressblog/blog then you would input into FeedBurner this urls: www.mywordprssblog/blog/feed

After that, just follow the prompts and after you feed is set there is an option in FeedBurner called “Publicize” and on the left after you click this is “Email Subscriptions” click that and now you have a code to put on your wordpress blog.

In your wordpress blog software there is a file called “sidebar” it is located in wordpress/wp-content/themes/default/sidebar.php and this is the file you can open and insert your code. You may want to customize it a bit as you have some freedom with the script to add tables, borders, etc.

An example of this can be found at: www.glamatopia.com which is a customized wordpress we setup using the techniques I have described here in this article.

There are many other features like ping options, feedcount, etc. For the purpose of this article we will not go into those at this time.

Your advantages for using FeedBurner are:

You can build an audience that will receive updates on your new posts
Since Google owns FeedBurner, you blog will now be pushed into Google’s search engine
If you take the time to learn more about FeedBurner you will find many other ways to advertise your blog

You Might Be A Member Already Of MyBlogLog.com!

If you are not familiar with http://www.mybloglog.com you may want to check this out. It has web 2.0 community features and allows you to publish your blog and rss feeds at no cost!

The great thing is you may already have an account to login and activate and not even know this. Yahoo has acquired MyBlogLog.com and if you already have a Yahoo account you can login and start creating your profile and adding your blog today. It not, the sign up process is very simple.

I will write up an article dedicated to the “How To Use MyBlogLog.com” but will give a couple useful tips here.

After you have your account click on “My Home” and you will see on the right side of the site “Account Tools” and then under it choose “Add site/blog I Author” Start to enter in the details it requires and follow the prompts.

You will discover that all members are search able, that this site is very search engine friendly and the back links you can receive from this site is amazing.

Another cool feature is the E-mail Signature that you can create from each site you list here on the site. You click on “My Account” then “Email Signature”. Follow the prompts there and create a really simple to make and simple to use email signature.

There are some paid features on MyBlogLog.com. After you add a site you can preview and edit these and see the options for these paid services. These only increase your web presence and are very affordable.

I highly recommend playing around with all the features and seeing how these can help put your blogs presence on the web.

Let’s Wrap This Up

By building your blog properly, creating a subscriber base using FeedBurner.com and promoting your blog using MyBlogLog.com you are just starting to tap into the power of social media marketing. Though there are many other methods this is a great way to start building a smart and long lasting business online.

If you have any questions about this article please email “editor at sitepronews.com” and I will be happy to assist further.

Author: Darren Dunner, Editor for SiteProNews your best resource for SEO concepts, web development ideas and online marketing. Darren has been in the web industry since 1999 and currently customizes and brands blogs for marketing purposes along with offering multiple ways to creative backlinking.

Article Marketing: What Should Your Article Be About

01 2008 Friday

By Moe Tamani in Featured

Article marketing is a wonderful tool to gain attention to your business. Article marketing has been around ever since the printing press but it has really taken off in these days of the internet.

The good news: article marketing is a proven tool for growing your business through your website. The bad news: you have to write a lot in order for it to be most effective – and I do mean a lot.

How much? Some article marketing experts advise you to write five or six articles a day to keep yourself in the public’s mind. Remember, this is electronic media: one minute you’re the hottest thing out there, the next minute, you’re gone.

So, what can you write about so the well doesn’t run dry? Here are some ideas to get your creative side working for you.

What are the newest trends in your industry right now? Are you a dermatologist who supplies Botox? Write about its benefits to your patients. Do you have an alternative to Botox that is even better? Why is it better? What are some factors your patients should consider before going that route?

Is there something confusing about your industry that many people seem to misunderstand? For example, are you an advertising copywriter and everyone seems to think you deal with legal copyrights? Write an article and explain the difference. Are there some terms that make your clients’ eyes glaze over? Write a brief glossary that explains the legalese in an easy-to-understand way.

What is going on in your industry in the next few months? Many industries are cyclic, with the same events happening the same time every year. Remember: think two or three months ahead on the calendar, at least, to give yourself some lead time. Is it almost tax season? If so, are there tips you can give your customers on how to save on their taxes? Or, is it almost Christmas? Does your business offer a unique item that would make a great gift?

Now think about your particular company. Have you received any feedback from a client or customer about how your company helped them through some crisis? That’s great! Write about it. However, for article marketing, remember, it can be tricky: Free article content is not supposed to blatantly plug your company. You will probably have to change the names and situations just enough that the client will be unrecognizable in the article. But you can write the article so as to say, “Carol Smith’s house burned down, but thanks to new trends in insurance customer service, she was able to get help more quickly.” Your article can have links to your webpage where you can include Mrs. Smith’s testimonial, if you have her permission to do so.

One very effective way to brainstorm for article ideas is to come up with lists. What lists are helpful to your customers? “Ten things to do before you meet your financial advisor”; “Five ways to tell if your dog is healthy”; Six ways to choose a dermatologist” are all ideas that your potential customers will want to read. Once they do, they will want to visit your website or contact your company for more information.

Do and don’t articles can also be entertaining and informative. “Do take your dog’s leash on a trip to the vet. Don’t let Spike run wild in the office” can be helpful reminders. You can even use it on your own website, published in a checklist format that your customers can print off and keep on their refrigerator. Of course, you’d print it in such a way that your business contact information is at the bottom of the checklist.

Fun bits of trivia and history can make for an interesting article also. You could just list fun facts or make a short quiz. Just make sure that the information is truly interesting to your clients.

These are just some ways to brainstorm for article ideas. If you are truly stumped for ideas, just walk away from it for a while. You’ll be surprised at how much your brain will keep working on it without you being aware.

While article marketing is an intensive way to build public awareness in your business, it can be very effective. Try these ideas and soon your free articles will build interest in your company.

Author: Moe Tamani is a SEO Marketing expert and Internet Marketing Strategies consultant.

5 Fun and Free Ways to Get Leads to Find You in Facebook

01 2008 Friday

By Tinu AbayomiPaul in Featured

I’m so livid that I can still hear his voice in my head. Does that ever happen to you?

“You’re completely nuts,” he said. “You can’t get anything from Facebook but a sheep thrown at you!”

“No. YOU can’t get anything out of Facebook because you have a time management problem.” I hung up the phone, furious. I mean, how can you call yourself a marketer if you can’t manage to gain from a site where the leads come to you?

Since he obviously won’t listen , I’d like to tell you for free what I wouldn’t tell him if he paid me. (No, he’ll never read this - don’t get me started on That.)

What follows are Five Fun and Free Ways to Benefit from Having a Facebook Profile.

1. Import Your Blog Posts, or Social Feeds

Make sure you already have asserted your own copyright and that you read their T’s and C’s before proceeding.

Another thing Jeff Pulver mentioned to me in Facebook is that your audience in Facebook and in the Blogosphere may be different, so this isn’t for everyone. There’s not enough space to go into it here, but several variations on this can explode your results.

2. Get to Know Clients, Colleagues and Mentors Better

Many people think of LinkedIn when they hear about this tip, another of my favorite sites. (Google “Vincent Wright LinkedIn” and you’ll get tons of great, free information.) It’s a great site to network at if you have a specific professional purpose in mind.

However, if you want to get to know people, with no particular agenda in mind, Facebook is better. It’s not an either/or type of thing, they’re just different tools.

Once you’ve made some type of connection with someone in Facebook, you can unobtrusively learn about your online pals, and use the little tidbits to make small talk about common interests, which can lead to conversation, which can lead to phone calls and other offline encounters.

The reason this is so powerful is that it mimics the way we get to know people in our offline lives.

Familiarity goes a long way to establishing trust. Add in the transparency that occurs from them seeing your news, and you’re doing two things with your clients that your competition is not.

Who would you buy from, someone you trust, or a company where you’re just another number?

3. Participate in Groups

The emphasis is on participation. Interact and get to know people.

Be more concerned about connecting with others than about gaining site traffic. To get more involved, you can stop by occasionally and contribute content. You’ll get the best effect from joining the discussion board conversations.

If you’re looking for business related groups to start with, try Mark Joyner’s Simpleology, Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Group, Open for Web Business, or Facebook for Business.

Once people start to see your name come up in conversations, on their Facebook home page and in discussion boards, they click on your profile to learn more about you, which often begins interaction. Of course, they can also surf to your site through your profile. You can even start your own group, or a fan page about your business.

4. Upload videos

The kinds that seem to go over best are short, simple videos with just you, a plain or simple background (white wall or you at your desk). If you’re a bit too shy for the camera, think about a video capture of your screen as you demonstrate something important (also called a screencast).

They can be up to 15 minutes long, in a variety of formats, and up to 300MB in size. It’s free, and it automatically translates from their allowed formats into a format viewable by all browsers.

5. Share Links

When you share a link on your profile, your friends can get a notification of this, and they can also easily share it with their friends. Big deal right? But if you have 100 friends who average about 100 friends, the right link, exposed virally, can spread as if you emailed it link to 10,000 contacts.

As with email, not everyone will pay attention to it, and of those who do, not all of them will act on that information. But for the price of free, without spam? Can’t be beat.

If that weren’t enough, you can share links in Groups now on Facebook. So that means if you are an active participant in 20 groups of over 1000 people, you have added a potential 20K to your audience.

Hint: Link sharing works better when you’re being helpful and have a track record of being an open, sharing person, not just constantly posting links from your own site.

And there you have it, five fun, free ways to utilize Facebook to enhance your business.

The next time someone tells you that Facebook can’t help you, tell them to shut the hell up or talk about the things they know.

Okay, I’m kidding.

Just ignore them, and join the group of quiet marketers who are learning the laid back ways of social media marketing.

You don’t have to spend your day on Web 2.0 sites to promote yourself either. Often, when your profile is properly set up, it can generate leads for you with a minimum of upkeep- free. Not to mention advertising opportunities that are appropriate for some sites.

Try it yourself, then decide.

Author: Confused about how to get clients, joint venture partners or more blog traffic from Facebook without violating their terms with traditional online marketing techniques? Go to http://freetraffictip.com/1-facebook to learn more about the ins and outs of marketing on Facebook.

How to Build Links and Optimize your Website for Multiple Keywords

01 2008 Friday

By Jeffrey Smith in Featured

In case you were wondering how to systematically achieve saturation for multiple keywords for your website in search engines (instead of just a few), then this is a must read post. This tactic is specifically designed to work in Google using the allinanchor / keyword relevance ratio to back links pointing at your site. This is the point where the competition gets nervous as a tactic like this could go viral with just one post from a popular Stumbler, Digg or otherwise. I will leave that at your discretion to cast your vote, but this is not the first time where I should have simply shut up, but I thought I would leave you with some good reading material for the weekend.

As an SEO company involved in this illustrious industry, I feel like we owe those sincere seekers who yearn for legitimate SEO techniques and only find dozens of sites with shallow posts, vague references and theory. I don’t mind sharing a few tactics here and there as the tendency to create, test and implement them typically happens faster than I can write them down.

So in this way, this post truly serves as a web-log of this fundamental technique, that we have used time and time again to bolster numerous top 10 positions in search engines. Naturally, we have to hold back something, otherwise we would make the SEO community obsolete, but in any case, these tactics are what we use when targeting an entire industry for long tail search engine domination, they can also be used for more aggressive/competitive terms by using this tactic.

But, in the even that you wish to rank in the top 10 for a result that has 1.2 - 1.8 million results, you can essentially pick them off like flies using just a fragment of this technique. The terms we consider worthy are usually the ones that takes months to acquire. So, don’t build links to fast from off topic locations, it’s better to focus on quality vs. quantity, however having a diverse base of IP addresses to use is ideal (such as an article marketing resource box that you can moderate) Hmmmmm.

The exercise:

First start off by writing down every possible singular keyword that pertains to your industry. From there narrow it down to the top 20-30 terms.You could also just use a keyword discovery tool, but in this instance, think like a consumer trying to reach your site. The reason is, many of the search terms used to reach your site are unique and do not fall into realm of showing up on the “keyword radar”, so common sense can equal conversion if you pick the right phrase and beat your competition to the punch.
Then after you have a list of 20-30, start combining two word combinations strategically using the premise of how you think someone may type a query into a search engine. web page optimization, optimize my website, how do I SEO my site, etc… come up with your wild card list of key phrases which you can have fun with later, since if you optimize your site for one group of keywords ALL OF THE KEYWORDS in the anchor text get a boost. So even though you may be building links using exact match, you still get the benefit of each individual word in Google.
After you have your list of 30 singular, 20 two-word combinations and 10 or so three-word combinations (just seeing if you were paying attention, since I didn’t say anything about the 3 word combinations) take each of the two and three word combinations, place the phrases “in quotes” and enter them in a standard Google search query one at a time.

Look at the results of the keywords in quotes and this will give you a good indication of the allinanchor and allintitle relevance by using the quotes. Usually if you do this, you can remove the quotes and 90% of the sites remain the same. Without quotes it may be 1-10 of 2,000,000 results, with “the quotes” it may show 1-10 of 20,000. It is the term in quotes you want to look at in order to gain a metric on the competitiveness of this key phrase.

Also, the more words you add, the easier it is to optimize, even if the chronology of the words does not make sense, you are still optimizing your site for any combination of keywords that are contained in the anchor text. In case it’s a new term, this is anchor text, so use it wisely as it is your number 1 tool for developing links, relevance and rankings (for now at least) in Google.

Getting back to the exercise, if the term comes back with under 100,000 results then move it into your to do list of links to build as a likely target for your SEO. Granted that this is merely one tactic, feel free to combine it with your own methods. Now, without giving away too many secrets, you will be responsible for finding ways to build links.

Not just any links, but links that allow you to have control over the anchor text (the text in the link). Use these terms to whittle away at the root phrases building 100 links per keyword combination, then run analytics software of check out Niche Watch and see where you stand using a before and after methodology.

Every site is different, but say for example you have a PR6 site, you can skip most of these tactics and just put a keyword in your title tag, mention it a few times, build links from your own site to itself and dominate the SERPs. However, since we know that you are going to be challenging websites such as those in the SERPs as you step over them in concentration for allinanchor relevance as you specifically augment your site by fortifying it with keyword combinations, you can actually surpass a lazy or passive higher page rank site in this fashion.

Our site for example can chip away and rise approximately 100,000 results per month for competitive terms using moderate link building methods (1000-2000 quality inbound links per month for example), so if we were going after a super competitive keyword such as “SEO Company” for example with tit’s 1.4 million results, it would take roughly 1 year to build links to get to the top 10 using this tactic.

Each site is different as the authority that results from each link varies. The point here is, each website has a link velocity ratio that is consistent with how aggressively it can move up the rungs until it arrives in the top 10 search results for a keyword “in quotes”. If you wanted to find out where you stand for the keyword in advance, you could always click your url first, then use the search command www.google.com/ie?&num=100 to get to the 100 results per page stripped down Google interface. From there (since you have clicked your link in advance) you can put the keyword in question “in quotes”, hit return and find out where you stand.

If you are position #200 for example and you are building links for every word that comprises the phrase (services SEO, SEO Services, Search engine Optimization Services, Engine Optimization SEO, etc.) then you should see your ranking move up and up closer to the top 10 for a number of terms.

When it hits the top 10 for the allinanchor: terms, if the keyword is not being challenged directly by another competitor your site should hit the top 10 as well. If there is competition you should be in the top 30 or top 20 results and you will have to figure out which other SEO factor is holding you back from there.

If you wanted to be more specific and chart your progress, you can find the link to link velocity ratio to determine how many links or how much time it will take you to crack into the top 10 for each of the respective search terms. Or you could find the best page for each link using the Google command site:www.yoursite.com keyword, to increase the links per page (LPP ratio) as a deep linking strategy to increase the impact of each link (don’t forget to socially bookmark them as well for an added boost).

This is how you get your rankings to spread out to other terms. *If you use exact match terms for two word key phrases, then you can see the results usually within a week. The idea is, start with three words, when you see them moving, then alternate one of the keywords with another word from your list from before. So you can rank for keyword keyword company, keyword keyword services, keyword keyword professional, etc.

Examples like SEO Marketing Consultant, SEO Website Marketing, Internet SEO Marketing, etc… this will become apparent later just how effective this tactic can be for blanketing a plethora of terms.

Then you focus specifically on the phrase you want to rank for, create a custom page using a keyword density tool or writing copy that utilizes the phrase one time in the title, one time in the h1 tag, one to 3 times in the document and continue to build links to that page with those keywords in the anchor text. This is the advantage of having a blog as you can camouflage your link building tactics under the guise of an informative post. I will just hint at SEO content copy writing here, but you get the gist (link bait, social media, social bookmarking / link building ahem, ahem).

My suggestion, build 50 links to the page and move on to another term. Then give it a week or two and go back and check the status of the keywords and how your allinanchor:, allintitle: and allintext: ratio’s are performing is contrast to the keyword combinations, make note of your progress and try to find your site in the SERPs again. You can go back to the Google interface and check or you can just scroll through the normal results to see where you stand. If the keywords you select are under 20,000 results, if your site has some authority you can take those over from just posting an on topic post that is tagged properly in your blog. But to sustain them, you have to feed the pages keyword combinations to keep them afloat in the SERPs. This also provides a cushion around them to help fend off competition from leap-frogging past you up the ladder.

Acquisition (climbing the rungs) and defense from others can be done through varying the tactic slightly. Slow down once you have acquired a top 20 and let the link velocity push you up the ladder. Then you can build 1/3 of the links using the exact match terms until you hit the top 10. If you crack the top 10, then go back, add a few more occurrences of the keywords you want to rank for in your document/page. Add a few more links, wait a week and then see if that pushes you over the hump into the top 5.

This method may seem a bit chaotic, but you get the gist, you can manage one keyword or several at the same time. The key is to use a common denominator as the pivotal term that is used to tie together all of the variations of the word stemmed singular, plural and adjective based keyword combinations until you have effectively saturated each keywords density in the external links to your site. You can always check on Google Webmaster tools which keywords have the highest occurrences that are directed at your site. The idea is, to build a base term, add a qualifier, then do this again and again, until all of your main keywords are essentially lodged in the anchor text pointing at your site from a wide variety of unique and Class C- IP addresses.

For example if you did a search on a term like “seo professional” this term returns 126,000 results. If your site has a PR4 for example and you have content that supports this type of industry of jargon in your domain name, on your pages or in your page titles, you should already have some leverage for the term. Terms that have slight correlation to your site’s theme can be optimized, but the rate of which all depends on your website authority, the links you use and how much link juice they carry, where you point them, the competition and how algorithms see your link building techniques (natural or unnatural) if you invoke a penalty, you will not rank for that term for a while until it’s lifted, so it’s better not to get greedy and vary your titles, anchor text and pages when deep linking.

I hope you found this information useful, if you did, then cast your vote to share it, sign up for the RSS feed or just enjoy…See you in the SERPs.

8 Tips to Drive Video Viral Marketing

01 2008 Thursday

By Linda DiMarco in Featured

The idea of companies using video for Web marketing is still new. Some companies are certainly experimenting, often by embedding video, typically hosted at YouTube into their existing blogs. The fact is, some of the best online video comes from unlikely sources.

Another fascinating example of a viral form comes from Tubes by Adesso. The campaign included a YouTube video, a press release, and a landing page. Sometimes a series of videos, works well as a mechanism for people to download additional information from the marketer.

Organizations of all kinds are now busy posting content on the internet, and sending people links to the content or hoping that it goes viral. Creating a simple video is really easy; all that’s required is a $300 digital video camera-or even a mobile phone-and a YouTube account.

There are all sorts of enhancements and editing techniques to make video more professional, but some organizations go with the grainy and jerky homemade look. Other companies create a regular series of video content that might be delivered through a vlog, an online channel at a company site, or a vodcast, which can tie into a syndication component with iTunes and rss feeds.

8 tips that will help with creating a successful video

Tip #1 creating a video is easy, and posting on YouTube is free. Copy to your computer, and then either upload or edit it, with such software as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to add titles and special effects.

Tip #2 Your video should be no longer than two minutes (preferably less) - think very short. Although YouTube will accept a video that is less than 10 minutes (smaller than 100MB), try to make it between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Tip #3 Make your description clear and specific to best promote your video, create an accurate and interesting text description. Use descriptive keywords and language that people will use when they search for videos like yours.

Tip #4 Don’t attempt stealth fake customer insertions. Some companies attempt sneaky, stealth insertions of corporate-sponsored video in a way that makes it seem like it is consumer-generated. The internet community is remarkably skilled at ratting out inauthentic video, so this approach is likely to backfire and cause harm to a brand.

Tip #5 Consider inviting your customer communities to submit video. One of the most effective ways to use this technology to drive viral marketing is for companies to develop a contest for people to submit their own video, which then is made available for others to see. Would-be directors are given prizes, and the best videos are usually showcased on the company site. In some cases, the winners are played on TV as “real” commercials.

Tip #6 Sometimes a series of videos works well as in the case of “Will It Blend.

Tip #7 Tell everyone. When you upload your first few videos, you are likely to hear a deafening silence. You’ll check your video statistics and be disappointed by the tiny number of viewers. Create links to your from your home page, product pages, or online media room. Mention your video in your email or off-line newsletters, and create links as part of your email signature and those of other people in your organization.

Tip #8 Make sure bloggers know about the videos. Give them a link, or comment on other people’s blogs (and including a link to your’s) is a good way to build an audience. If you comment on blogs in the same space as yours, you might be surprised at how quickly you will get viewers to your video. And while your competition is still trying to figure out “that blogging thing,” you can tap into this world, and leave the competition behind. Content on the Web takes many forms besides video, including an effective content-centric site, webinars, blogs, and podcasts. Have fun with it and experiment for best results.

Author: Linda DiMarco is an editor at Women Business Magazine. Check out the December issue for Herbal Female Libido Enhancers at: http://www.womenbusinessmagazine.com

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