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By Martin Hofschroer in Featured

SEOptimizationChristmas is a time to reignite relationships and one friend you should definitely keep in touch with is your blog.

SEO expert Kevin Gibbons has warned website owners not to ignore their blog over the festive period as Google’s spiders continue to working all the way through Christmas time.

It is important to keep updating your site with fresh content such as blog posts and articles as this will help your SEO strategy and also attract new traffic if the information is interesting enough.

Mr Gibbons blogged on Econsultancy: “Regular, original copy is essential for your organic optimization. Your website should be putting out a regular content ‘heartbeat’, so that the robots know to keep checking it.”

Being featured on Google News can also raise the profile of your site and significantly boost traffic rates but a number of requirements need to be fulfilled before it is worth applying.

Milind Mody, founder of SEO firm eBrandz, summed it up neatly be stating that you should have at least 100 articles before embarking on the application form and this must be supported by a daily submission of a minimum of three articles.

The content in your articles must be unique and be written by multiple authors, while including images with relevant captions is also recommended.

Google has recently changed its ranking algorithms in response to a business owner who used negative feedback to boost his SEO strategy.

The owner of a spectacles shop provided poor customer service to provoke his consumers into venting their rage on internet review sites and forums which resulted in the business achieving greater prominence in Google.

When people searched for the name of the company they would be confronted with scathing reviews but when shoppers entered the name of fashionable spectacles brand, the organization would appear at number one.

“I just wanted to let you guys know that the more replies you people post, the more business and the more hits and sales I get. My goal is NEGATIVE advertisement,” claimed the owner.

Google was alerted to the anomaly and developed an algorithmic solution to avoid situations similar to this in the future.

You know it’s nearly New Year when lists featuring the events of the last twelve months start appearing.

This time it is Google’s turn to reveal what everybody was searching for in 2010 and the results are pretty unsurprising with Facebook topping the poll as the overall most searched for phrase.

Looking for a web design London company? PureBlue are a UK based Internet Marketing company with the focus on showing how the right internet presence can transform your business. Visit www.pureblue.co.uk for further information.

By Andrew Holtom in Featured

BlogBlogs take commitment and time to build, without traffic it can be a lonely uphill struggle. Implement these tricks to increase blog traffic on your site.

So you’ve got your blog running, but you are waking up day after day to no traffic. What has gone wrong? This is a common complaint for many website owners. Read on for methods to increase blog traffic.

There are many methods to apply to increase blog traffic. Two mistakes that newbie bloggers will make, for example, is not providing top notch quality posts and not spending time building relationships. Without good content, there is not much reason for people to hang around, and without relationship building, people aren’t so likely to return.

Here are some actions to take that will improve your traffic flow.

1. Good content takes time to research and to write. Build time into your weekly to do list for this purpose.

2. Spend time networking. This can be done via social networking tools such as LinkedIn or Facebook. Alternatively you can network by commenting on other blogs. By adding pertinent and relevant comments that add value, you can build up a presence on other blogs in your niche and the readers of your comments will click on your link. If they don’t, you have at least built a back-link to your site, to help with your search engine marketing.

3. Offer free giveaways. Again, these need to be of good content that people want to read. The best giveaways provide unique and useful information that cannot be found elsewhere. You can create this content by running a survey, by offering your unique opinion on your industry (stay polite).

4.Learn about SEO. Yes, SEO takes time. It’s not even so much the application of it. It needs to be learned, then you need to stay on top of the latest changes and methods, as it isn’t something static with Google changing their ranking criteria at least a couple of times a year. This is essential to increase blog traffic.

5. Apply SEO. This might mean optimizing graphics, titles and tags on your blog. Spend time researching each keyword up front for the best results. Use SEO plug-ins and URLs to aid your blog in getting found.

6. Invite guest posters. Guest bloggers will often pull some of their own audience over to your blog for their post. If you invite bloggers from your niche, you will have access to the same market.

7. Don’t advertise. By adding adverts all around your blog, it can often lower the tone. Wait until you have a popular blog until you start adding them.

8. Keep comments closed. That is until you have got several RSS subscribers and regular readers. Nothing looks more sad and lonely than a blog without any comments. Keep your anonymity private until you are popular.

9. Share as much as you can. This might even mean revealing some of your own business secrets. The more you share, the more you will be rewarded with links and traffic.

10. Write pillar posts. These are the posts that really are worthy of getting a lot of attention. Perhaps a major list or a post that describes step-by-step procedure on how to do something. These are generally unique and take more than an hour to create. Make the most of them by bookmarking them on Digg and promoting them on your social networking accounts.

With so much competition out there, blogging does need to planned and implemented with quality posts. Before you know it, you will have implemented the steps required to increase blog traffic on your site.

Andrew Holtom is an experienced and accomplished online marketer. Andrew enjoys introducing newcomers to the profits of internet marketing. To read more about blogging and other online marketing methods visit Andrew’s blog at www.webmarketinginformation.com

By Javier De La Cruz in Featured

Tlinkbuildingwo months ago I was struggling to index one of my new video sites; the more quality links I put to my site, the more I went down in the Google rankings. It was the first time I experienced the hammer of Google.

I am a website builder not a SEO expert. All my knowledge about SEO comes from eBooks’ and tips from experts. Several of them always told me that “No Follow Links” didn’t had any effect in the Google algorithm. Almost all my SEO efforts were always concentrated in getting Do Follow Links.

To my bad luck, I was so wrong!

First let’s define what is a non follow link. In a very basic and simple way, is an HTML attribute that tells the search engines that one particular link shouldn’t influence the website rankings of help with his indexing.

During my ranking battle with Google, I read a very exciting E Book from Josip Barbaric. He was the light in my path. His approach on No Follow Link was very different. To him No follow Links were essential for a good Google ranking. The logic is very easy to understand.

The Google algorithm takes links as a vote of trust from the users. If the quality of the links is good, Google increase his trust in your site. But you must be very careful in how you get those links. If you practice the conventional SEO strategies your goal is getting links, links and more links, but Google don’t only evaluate the number of links. They also evaluate how you get those links.

When a website doesn’t uses SEO techniques but has a good Google ranking, the quality of the content is the key. Visitors find this content relevant to their search and from time to time they link or trust in the website making a recommendation or review via social bookmarking, social media, web 2.0, etc. Almost all this social sites uses non follow links and the visitors establish the links in a natural and organic way.

Blog owners could use the site content because is good and webmasters establish links to the site because of its quality. This visitors and users don’t see if they are establishing a non follow or a do follow link. They only recommend the site using their preferred method. If you think with this kind of logic then you can understand the Google algorithm.

You must establish a good number of do follow links to your site, but you have to consider to establish non follow links too and this link placement must be organic. Never establish 100 links (do follow or non follow) in one week and then nothing for the other week. Google is going to punish you.

In my experience, the best way to establish non follow links is using social media and bookmarking sites. I personally recommend social marker since you can establish a nice number of links in minutes. Almost all the sites that are listed in social marker (approximately 60%) have the non follow attribute. After my video money making site got several non follow links the Google rankings were better. I conclude that you most consider the placement of non follow links in your SEO strategy as an essential part of your success.

Learn more strategies and tips about internet money making techniques and the use of video for profits in www.youtubesecret.net.

By George Torok in Featured

marketingMay you live in interesting times.

Is that ancient expression a curse or a blessing? I think it depends on how you define “interesting” and more importantly how you adapt to it.

If you define interesting to mean unpredictable, challenging and threatening then clearly we are living in interesting times. Business these days is more like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft than canoeing in a duck pond.

It’s too easy to be mesmerized by the danger of capsizing. If you focus on the rocks, that’s where you will go. The secret is to look for and steer to the high water and paddle like a fiend.

Survival is Not the Goal

If you set your sights on surviving you could slip and sink. If you set your target as thriving then you might flourish.

How do you thrive in these turbulent waters?

Marketing is the result of all the messages that you and your staff send. In fact, your staff sends more powerful marketing messages than all the advertising you ever do. Therefore, marketing becomes the end result of almost every business decision you make.

By John Beaumont in Featured

contentTip one: Reveal any drawbacks to your product.

Let us start with a negative. Eh? A negative?? Sure. If a part of your product/service could be conceived as having a minor flaw then bring this out. Why? No product or service is 100% perfect and by admitting this you will gain credibility and minimize any doubts in your readers mind.

An example might be that whilst your product might make some money by using it the reader is unlikely to make mega bucks from it. This will appeal to someone who just wants to make a little extra cash without building a huge business.

Tip two: The Length of Copy

Surprisingly there is a maxim that long copy sells, short copy doesn’t. However that doesn’t mean that the copy should be too long. Probably between 10 to 20 pages is best. However don’t worry about the length when first writing your draft as this may inhibit your thoughts.

Tip three: Write only short sentences

Try to keep within 15 to 20 words but concentrate on maintaining a friendly and personal style. By all means make each sentence as “punchy” as you can. You are “talking” to a friend don’t forget.

Tip four: Paragraphs should be kept short

As with the sentences you should also try to keep your paragraphs short and to the point. Ideally each paragraph will be only up to six lines. Also ensure that you do NOT use double spacing as this can cause confusions to your reader. This is because the dividing line between each paragraph becomes blurred causing your copy to lose impact.
Not always possible. See below!!

Tip five: Get to the point and use specifics

Keep on track and avoid generalities. If you are promoting a weight loss program then do not say that you lost over 30 lbs. This type of statement is nowhere near as effective as saying that you lost 30.5 lbs. So be specific.

Tip six: Be honest

Under tip five I said that you should be specific and gave the example of losing 30.5 lbs. However do not make this statement if not correct. If you haven’t done something yourself or you can’t prove it then don’t say it!! This is dishonest and unethical and you do not want the bad reputation that goes with it. However if you are sure that someone else has achieved this goal with your product then you can claim that. Please bear in mind that you may be called upon to prove the statement though.

Tip seven: End each page in the middle of a sentence if you can

The reason for this is that it will cause the reader to continue because the brain naturally wants to complete something. I trust that the above tips help you when you start to write copy.

The most important thing to stress is that your copy should be conversational and friendly so don’t worry too much about appearing too formal.

You are in business but you are also their friend.

Would you like a FREE! “6 Pages To 6 Figures Special Report Reveals EXACTLY How to Build a long lasting and Passive $100,000/yr Online Business. Get it here. Discover the Top secret tactics that the Heavy Hitters are using to make thousands of dollars with little or no effort here.

By Rick Hendershot in Featured

bloggingIf you are an online entrepreneur – or any kind of entrepreneur for that matter (offline, bricks and mortar, professional, whatever) you may have wondered if you should start a blog to promote your business. Should you start a business blog, and how should you approach it if you do?

In this article I want to suggest what an effective business blog is, and the attitude you should have when you consider creating one. This may help you decide if you should put in the effort to create and maintain one.

Business Blogging is Marketing

Starting and maintaining a business blog can be a lot of work, so it is important to know why you are doing it. Almost without exception, people in business have blogs for some marketing objective. They don’t blog because it is good for their health or they have a lot of spare time on their hands. They blog because they are trying to “sell” a message.

That doesn’t necessarily mean your business blog should be constantly hawking products or talking about special deals. But it does mean that it should reflect your business objectives and offer relevant information to your primary target market – your customers and prospects.

Sometimes the “marketing” objective of a blog is not very obvious. To take a fairly extreme example, let’s say you are a writer or a “commentator” type – you know, the kind of person who likes to express opinions, “rant”, or just hear him or herself talk.

Put yourself in this person’s shoes for a minute. Having a blog gives you a platform for getting exposure and enhancing your professional persona. It doesn’t have to be your only soapbox – you may also want to post videos on Youtube or start a radio program on BlogTalkRadio.

Or you may already be one of those popular opinionated radio talk show hosts. Having a blog can be the focus for your empire – the thing that ties it all together and helps you establish a consistent presence.

Business Blogging is about Publishing

Second, business bloggers should view themselves as publishers. Publishing is different from just writing things occasionally. Publishing is done in an organized and focused way with the intention of appealing to specific readers – your audience, your community, your people.

Unlike a diary, or even a traditional blog (which is sort of like a diary) you are not primarily writing for yourself in a business blog. A diary is not meant to be read by others. A business blog is the opposite. A primary objective is to give as many readers as possible something interesting to read, watch or listen to. And, of course you want to create a tie-in with your company products or services at the same time.

There is a parallel here with book publishing. Traditional publishers will only publish a book if they think it has a chance of recouping costs and (hopefully) making a profit. When you submit a written work to a traditional publisher you are subjecting your work to the evaluation of a somewhat detached third party. Their primary concern is not to spread your message, but rather to sell your book in order to stay in business.

On the other hand, when you self-publish you pay the costs up front and are not willing to accept some third party’s opinion of the marketability of your writing. This is often called the vanity press because people who self-publish are prepared to pay to have works printed that have no hope of making a traditional publisher any money.

Blogs have been compared to the vanity press because they are self-published, have virtually no cost of entry, and often have no chance of getting a lot of readers.

But business blogs – at least as I have described them here – are more akin to traditional publishing. It is only worth doing if it is marketable – if people want to read it – and if it can give your business some fairly tangible benefit. You should not waste your time and effort on a business blog if it has no chance of giving you some kind of return.

In other words, as a publisher you should be prepared to do what it takes to make your business blog a worthwhile investment. First, that means evaluating your target market and coming up with a game plan. Second, it means creating content that has a chance of getting readers. And third it means promoting your blog because you recognize that without readers you are basically wasting your time and the resources of your business.

Rick Hendershot is president of Linknet Promotions and publishes a marketing blog called Linknet Forum. It focuses on SEO, social networking, blogging strategy, link building and other online business marketing topics – < a href="http://www.linknetforum.com">www.linknetforum.com

By Nikki Cripps in Featured

copywritingRecently a potential client contacted me to write content for his site for a new product.

The brief was as follows:

“The text is for Google not the public. The language needs to be “normal verbiage” in original copy but does not have to be technical. I want a key word density of 8%.”

At that level of density the keyword would have appeared at least every second line, and this was for a piece of work of 1500 words.

I declined.

I don’t write for Google, I write for humans. Keywords are important – essential – for search engines. But it is people who read the online content, who pick up the phone and who place an order. Who has the patience to read 1500 words with the keyword stuffed in so monotonously that the content becomes unreadable?

But the bigger question is: How did a website owner become so convinced that this was how content must be written? His commitment to the keyword density was unwavering and he even sent me examples of how easy it was to do. It would have been a challenge to make it work but a waste of time for me and the client. I’m not sure if someone out there took up the project – I’ll keep monitoring the site to see if it appears.

Keyword obsession is a dangerous game. The roulette spinner, aka Google, dominates the market for keyword promotion, ably assisted by SEO marketers and companies who have become enslaved to the idea that keywords equal profits and they are the one true path to success. Ten years ago the term “keywords” was not part of everyday lexicon. A search in Google (sigh) returns 301,000,000 results for “keywords.” All of this has undoubtedly contributed to the belief that filling content with keywords so it’s fatter than Santa’s sack is what matters in online content.

While the jury is still out on the appropriate density of keyword frequency (and I’ve seen some SEO companies recommend 10 to 12 percent) a creative approach to including keywords in content can overcome unreadability and obvious stuffing. Well written content, that is engaging, interesting, covers the keywords, answers customers questions, creates trust, and makes the customer want to do business with you is a more successful model than content written with an overblown emphasis on keywords.

As a professional copywriter I ask my clients to send me a list of their top ten keywords, in priority order, along with all the other information necessary to compile the content for their sites. Copy is prepared with the keywords included, but written with the ideal customer in mind. Good copywriters will always have “Think like a customer” as their primary focus. “How will this copy rank in search engines?” should always be second.

Writing for people is far more enjoyable than writing for a search engine, and I’m sure readers respond accordingly. Overuse of keywords alienates readers who feel they are being talked at, rather than communicated with. Why risk your credibility with customers unnecessarily?

Nikki Cripps is a Sydney based copywriter who writes exclusively for small business websites. She’s been a journalist, public relations consultant and writer for almost 20 years. She is the owner and operator of www.wordsforwebsites.com.

By Jessica Swanson in Featured

twitterOnce you’ve signed up for a Twitter account, Twitter gives you a few generic backgrounds to use on your Twitter profile page. Unfortunately, using the default Twitter background is the best way to “bore” your followers to death. Not to mention that you’re letting an opportunity to brand your small business slip through your fingertips. If you want to stand apart from your competition (as any small business owner does), then you’ll undoubtedly want to create a unique and customized Twitter background. One of the wonderful parts of Twitter is that you’re able to upload your very own customized background. Obviously, there are many benefits for creating, customizing and personalizing a Twitter background for your Twitter account. The best part is that it doesn’t need to be expensive or technically challenging.

However, before we explore how to create your Twitter background, let’s look at why your business would benefit from a customized background.

1. Business Branding. Creating a Twitter background that showcases your small business colors, logo and business personality, helps grow and extend your brand.

2. Creativity and Personal Expression. You have the ability to capture the attention of your prospective clients and customers as soon as they land on your Twitter profile page. Through the use of interesting design, creative graphics and a bit of imagination, you can make a strong statement through your Twitter background.

3. Additional Business Information. You have the option to add additional information about your small business through the use of a customized background. This is incredibly important since you are only given a 160 character bio. You can choose to add logos, marketing messages, marketing taglines, additional URLs and links to your other social media sites. It doesn’t matter if you are a Photoshop expert or technically challenged, here are three ways to fully customize your Twitter background:

1) Do-It-Yourself

If you are handy using a design program like Photoshop, you can design your own Twitter background. The most important design element to keep in mind is that your image should be approximately 1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels tall. This will allow all browsers and screen resolutions to easily view your Twitter background. In addition, if you are adding a left-hand column in your Twitter background, you’ll want to ensure that the design is smaller than 225 pixels. This way your column won’t interfere with your center Twitter content.

2) Upload a Free Theme

There are dozens of services that allow you to upload free, semi-customizable themes for your Twitter background. It’s a fairly straight-forward process and you can find free themes by searching for “free Twitter themes” on Google.

3) Order a Customized Theme

If you would like a fully, customizable theme you can have one designed, for a fee. To find a service that will complete this work for you, simply search “customized Twitter themes” on Google.

So, if you are going to use Twitter as a marketing tool for your small business, make sure that you showcase your small business brand through a customized Twitter background.

Jessica Swanson has helped thousands of small business owners, all over the world, implement low-cost, high-impact DIY marketing campaigns.
Known for her energy, passion and “get-it-done” attitude, Jessica takes complicated marketing concepts, turns them upside-down, and makes them incredibly simple and outrageously straightforward. To download your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, visit:
www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com

By Zeke Camusio in Featured

businessDo you want to start a new business but don’t have any great ideas? Well, that’s great, because I have too many ideas but not enough time to start a business for each idea I have. So, in this blog post I’ll share 10 great startup ideas. Just so you know, this is not a list of “leftover” ideas that I’m giving away because I don’t believe in them; I’d start these businesses myself in a blink if I had the time. Unfortunately, I’m involved in five startups at the moment, so these ideas are for you to take. If you start any of these businesses, let me know. I’ll be your first customer.

A Service that Allows Hotels and Airlines to Sell their Empty Rooms/Seats

The Problem: The cost of flying a plane from Denver to New York is almost the same whether the plane is full or there’s only one passenger on it. If an airline gets $50 for a seat that was selling for $200 the night before, it’s not great for them, but it’s a lot better than not getting anything. Same thing for hotels: every night that a hotel has an empty room, that’s money that they’re leaving on the table.

The Solution: What if there was a service that allowed people to place bids on hotel rooms and flights? Airlines and hotels could secretly accept the bids at the last minute. For example, let’s say I want to go to Europe for a month. I’m willing to pay $200 for a one-way ticket and I require a 4-hour minimum notice from the airline. Airplanes leave to Europe with empty seats every day. The first airline willing to take my money would get it. The key here is to allow the airlines and hotels to accept bids secretly. After all, if you paid $300 for a flight, you wouldn’t like knowing that the guy next to you paid only $50.

By Titus Hoskins in Featured

webprogramRecently, the following happened to me, I wrote my regular weekly newsletter and posted it on my site. Since this was a longer WordPress URL, like millions of other webmasters, I used a URL shortening service to make this link more usable and manageable.

I posted this shortened URL to Twitter and placed it in my weekly email posting… immediately I started getting emails from my subscribers and followers… the link doesn’t work, you must have made a mistake.

Which can be easily done, but when I checked the link, I found that the shortening service was not working properly and giving the dreaded “Page Not Found” response. To compound the problem, I was using the Google URL shortener Goo.gl and since it was Google everyone assumed the mistake was on my part. I mean Google is Google.

In the past, I had been using bit.ly but had switched to Goo.gl, well – because it’s Google. And everything works better with Google; this was the first time something I used with Google had not worked as planned. And it just wasn’t my links, none of the links with Goo.gl were working. No big loss, unless you were linking your Black Friday & Cyber Monday traffic thru these shorteners. Ouch.

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