10 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Building Your Business Using Social Media
If there is one buzzword in marketing circles in recent years, it is “social media.” Social media, meaning interactive online communities like Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube, is transforming the landscape of the Web, and with it, altering the way companies large and small interact with their consumers and with their target demographic. Luckily for small business owners, social media marketing is one of the cheapest and most democratic ways to reach a new audience. A well-crafted social media campaign can go a long way towards bringing your company name recognition and media attention. But as easy as it is to use social networking to benefit your company, it is unfortunately also easy to fall victim to any of the potential pitfalls that face the first-time social media marketer. When planning your next Facebook or Twitter campaign, avoid these ten mistakes.
Google+ Raises the Bar for Bloggers
Not to imply that every blog you write isn’t chocked full of relevant, well-written content, tailored for just the right audience, I’m sure it is, but understanding the real implications of Google+ should have you thinking twice before you hit any publish buttons. More than ever, especially with the advent of the search engine giant’s most recent, most misunderstood social networking offering, content quality and relevance to a target audience count. Here’s why.
Jumping to conclusions has been the common response to Google’s latest entry into the world of social media. Comparisons to you-know-what are legion as are dire predictions of failure linked to previous false starts by Google, Wave and Buzz to name the last two. More cynically, others have assumed that the companion +1 button is nothing more than a rip off of the Facebook “like” button, again comparing Google+ to the dominant social media site, with the sole, rudimentary utility of upping rankings. These exercises in overlooking the subtleties that make Google+ very unique and innovative are not the stuff of sound analysis. [Read more]
20 Unconventional Ways To Spice Up Your Blog
Blogging has revolutionized the internet in a way that few other trends have been able to accomplish. Millions and millions of people have found an outlet for their writing and opinions. Anyone who can use a keyboard can literally have their own blog, their own journal up within literally three minutes of reading this article. It is really that easy. Then why are most blogs drearier than a Miley Cyrus concert? Why aren’t there more of creative writers that make the world stand up and take notice of what they have to say? If you have been around the internet blogosphere, then you have invariably stumbled upon those “me-too” blogs that are basically nothing else than online journals of every excruciating detail in the bloggers’ life. Things like what they had for lunch, what time they woke up, what they watched on TV etc. routinely find their way into blogs. The trouble is, no one other than the writer themselves really cares about these things. [Read more]
What it Takes to Run Effective Article Marketing Campaigns
An article marketing campaign is useful when you’re trying to provide information about a business, increase sales and gain traffic to your website. When people search for information on the internet, they usually type in a keyword that relates to what they are looking for. Their search engines then take them a “search results” page where links to information on the subject they requested are displayed. The information they choose to read is usually in the form of an article.
People Want Facts
The entire point of writing an article is to provide information. Opinion and fact are two completely different things. Yes, people love an article with personality, but too much is simply a waste of time for the reader. Know what you are writing about and provide as many legitimate, verifiable facts as possible.
Articles Should be Readable
Take the time after you’ve written your articles to proofread them. If an article contains an abundance of misspellings and punctuation errors, it takes away from the quality of the article. Most of the time, article directories will display the name of the author. Because your name is displayed, people will not want to read your articles because they will know that your articles are of poor quality. This gives you a bad reputation as an author. It’s best to proofread your articles before submitting them. Knowing what type of tone to write your articles in also helps. Avoid switching up the tone too much in your articles. Decide whether you want to create content in a conversational or informational tone.
Hire a Qualified Writer
Not everyone is an expert at writing their own articles. Some people simply do not possess the skill needed to churn out an informative, interesting, fact-filled article. Others do not have the time or patience to create the articles they need to advertise their products and/or services, so they choose to hire someone who can. The person you choose to hire should have experience and work they can provide in order to help you to make a decision about whether or not you should hire them.
More is Better
The more articles you submit, the more effective your campaign will turn out. Submitting only one or two articles per month isn’t going to cut it. Since there are so many people submitting articles on a daily basis, the chance of your article remaining at the top of the list is very slim. It’s best to submit a number of articles each month, especially if you plan to keep your numbers up.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
Keywords should be inserted into your article at least once every 100 words. Keywords are the terms that people use to search for information. The search engines are able to locate information by searching for those keywords in your article. Find out what words and phrases to use and strategically place them throughout your content. Avoid overusing your words and phrases, as search engines have a way of identifying spam immediately and practically overlooking articles with heavy amounts of keywords altogether.
Use More Than One Directory
Submitting to more than one directory is important. You’ll gain a lot more exposure, resulting in more success. The best thing to do is to find out what directories are the most popular, and submit a different article to each one. Only use article submission software to submitting to low and medium quality directories and take your time to manually (format) submit unique content to the top 50 sites (based on homepage PR and Alexa ranking).
Make a Resource Box
A resource box provides information about the author, such as their name, the types of subjects they specialize in, their goal, their services, years of experience in business, etc. Creating a resource box at the end of each article is a great way to gain a much more positive reputation in regards to the services you provide. It also entices people to want to read more of your content.
Become an Expert
Whatever it is you choose to write about, it helps to become the ultimate expert in your field. For example, if you are writing articles to sell candles, find out everything there is to know about candles. Spending a few hours each week researching the background history of your product and finding out all information possible will make your content more interesting and help you to gain more readers. People will continue to look for your articles in hopes of finding out all the information they need.
Blogging Back to School
In my neck of the woods, a new school year is starting and parents are collectively rejoicing as kids head back for another year of learning. The timing seems right for a blogging back to school post!
With that in mind, following is a refresher on the fundamentals for successful blogging:
1. Publish useful content.
This fundamental rule of successful blogging applies not only to the content in your blog posts but also to the content in your blog comments and across the social web. Make sure it’s useful or no one will read it, share it or talk about it.
2. Avoid things that make you look like a spammer.
Go light on the links, disclose paid posts and ads, and don’t crowd people’s in boxes. In other words, be honest and play nice.
3. Give credit where credit is due.
Cite your sources. If you quote content from another website or blog, link back to that site or blog as the original source. If you use an image with a creative commons license that requires attribution, make sure you link back to the owner of that image.
4. Follow the laws.
Claiming ignorance won’t get you off the hook if you’re caught breaking the law. Make sure you don’t plagiarize, and only use images, audio and video that have the proper copyrights and usage permissions attached to them that allow you to legally do so. If you publish paid posts or reviews on your blog, make sure you follow the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 16 Title 255.
5. Remember your words live online for a long time.
Don’t publish content on your blog or elsewhere online that you might regret later. What you publish today can be found in Google searches for many, many years. Even your Twitter updates are archived by the Library of Congress!
Remember those rules you learned in grade school about being nice to others, being respectful, listening, taking turns, and so on? They apply to us as adults, and even to bloggers and online publishers, just as much now as they did when we were children. Follow those golden rules you learned in kindergarten, and you should be just fine.
Are you still following the blogging basics or is it time to go back to school?
Is Your Blog’s About Page About the Right Stuff?
When was the last time you read your blog’s About page? It’s easy to forget that page when you’re busy writing fresh blog posts, but your About page is one of the most important destinations on your blog. When visitors land on a post in your blog, they’re likely to read the content, possibly click through to read some more posts if they like what they found, and then what do you think they do? They check out your About page to see who is behind all of this great content!
Therefore, you need to make sure your About page is always current and tells your story in the best way possible. The About page is not the place where you should be modest. Instead, use this page to truly promote yourself, your experience, your skills, and your expertise. Sell yourself so anyone who reads your About page understands why you are the person to be writing about your blog topic and the vast value and knowledge you bring to the online conversation.
With those tips in mind, following are few elements your About page must have if you want people to believe you’re an authoritative source for information:
- Your background and experience: Try to stay focused on experience related to your blog’s topic. Lead with your strengths and your biggest accomplishments that prove why you’re capable of writing about your blog’s topic. You can always include personal details at the end of your About page if you want.
- Links to your online content other than your blog: Demonstrate the reach of your online presence and let people get to know you better by providing links to other websites and blogs that you own or write for.
- Links to your social networking and twitter profiles: Invite people to get to know you better and communicate with you further by providing links to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking profiles. Make it clear that you welcome new followers and connections.
- A contact form and/or your contact information: Make it easy for people to get in touch with you by providing a way for them to communicate with you in a manner other than leaving a comment on one of your blog posts.
- Your picture: Don’t be shy. Including a picture of yourself on your blog’s About page makes you seem more ‘real’ and allows people to feel like they know you as a person not just as a bunch of words on their computer screens.
What do you have in your blog’s About page? Are there any other elements that you think are essential to creating a great About page? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
The Secret to Boosting Search Traffic By Being Fast and Easy
Did you know that sites which load quickly get higher search engine keyword rankings thereby getting more search traffic to their sites than slow-loading sites? It’s true for your blog, too. Even Google has admitted that fast load times equate to higher search rankings. However, most bloggers haven’t taken the time to evaluate their blogs’ load times.
The more “stuff” you put on any given page on your blog, such as flash effects, ads, images, videos, and all the other stuff that clutters bloggers’ sidebars, the slower your blog posts and pages will load on a visitor’s web browser. Fortunately, there are ways to both analyze your blog’s load time on an ongoing basis and there are ways to speed up page load time across your blog.
Out with the Old
First, take a look through the content on your blog. Are there flash items, images, video or other content that slows down the page load time that you can remove entirely? Common culprits for slow-loading pages are flash elements and third-party ads. Each element on a page on your blog or website has to be “called up” and displayed on screen each time that page loads. No one wants to hang out and wait for a page to load for more than a couple of seconds. That’s simply the way that web browsing works in 2010. People expect pages to load instantly. If they have to wait more than a few seconds, they’ll click away never to return again.
In with the New
Second, use a tool like Google Webmaster Central to keep track of page load time on your blog. Using the Site Performance option in Google Webmaster Central can give you all kinds of information about your blog page load time, so you can make changes to pages that are loading particularly slowly.
Add a Little Something Extra
Third, if you use WordPress, use a plugin like W3 Total Cache to speed up page load time on your blog. You can follow the link to read more about WordPress plugins to reduce load time. You also should read about 9 easy steps to speed up your WordPress blog.
Bottom-line
Page load time can help or hurt the organic traffic that comes to your blog from keyword searches. What are you waiting for? If you want to get more search traffic to your blog, then you should take some time to find ways to make sure your content loads quickly so Google gives it the highest ranking possible.
Image: stock.xchng
Are Blogrolls Defunct?
The blogroll was once an essential part of every blog. Today, that’s no longer the case. More and more bloggers have removed the traditional blogroll from their blog sidebars and replaced it — believing that a blogroll is not an effective use of the valuable real estate on a blog’s sidebar.
In simplest terms, the shift in thinking from “blogroll cricital” to “blogroll not very important” has evolved as bloggers determined their blogrolls did not deliver an adequate return on their investments (in this case, the investment is the blogger’s time and the space allocated to the blogroll in the sidebar).
So is the blogroll truly defunct or is there still value in having a traditional blogroll in your blog’s sidebar?
Naturally, different bloggers have different views on this topic, and only you can decide what’s best for your blogging goals and your audience. If your goals for your blog include making money and building a larger audience, then every little bit of space on your blog should be filled with something that adds value either to the user experience or to your overall business plan for your blog.
Still not sure what to do with that blogroll? Think of it this way – if an ad on your blog wasn’t bringing in revenue, you’d replace it. The same line of thinking should apply to your blogroll. If your blogroll isn’t helping you reach your blogging goals, you should replace it.
If you’re still not sure what to do with your blogroll, take a look at your blog analytics using a tool like Google Analytics to learn if visitors to your blog are actually clicking on the links in your blogroll. On the flip side, look at where incoming traffic is coming from to your blog in an effort to determine how many people are finding your blog through other blogrolls versus links within blog posts, comments, etc. Blogrolls work both ways in terms of driving traffic — outgoing to other blogs you recommend and incoming from other blogs where you’re blog is included in other blogrolls to your blog. Analyze both effects to determine if your blogroll truly adds direct or indirect value to your blog.
If you decide to keep a traditional blogroll in your blog’s sidebar, make an effort to keep it up-to-date. A blogroll that’s cluttered with blogs that are no longer updated or irrelevant to your blog’s topic and audience (for example, you linked to a blog out of reciprocal linking courtesy), is not useful and can actually damage the user experience on your blog.
So you have three choices when it comes to blogrolls: keep a traditional blogroll in your blog’s sidebar, delete your blogroll from your blog completely, or replace your blogroll with a single, separate page of recommended reading and links. This final option is becoming more and more popular as a way to keep some form of a blogroll without sacrificing space on a blog’s sidebar.
It’s up to you to evaluate your goals and analyze how you’re using the space on your blog in order to meet those goals. Just remember, you have choices, and just because another blogger is doing something, that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for your blog, too.
What do you think? Do you still have a traditional blogroll on your blog? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
5 Crucial Tips To Help You Secure A Successful Blogging Future
Blogging, depending on your approach, is a lot like investing in prime assets. Some niches appreciate faster than others and all require a dedicated overseer who is constantly tweaking and improving the portfolio and instruments to guarantee the best results. The blogosphere is your marketplace and the strategies that you implement and maintain will greatly affect the long term success of your blog.
However, before investing your precious time and effort into growing a blog you need to have a solid plan to execute and define clear goals for yourself. Here are some excellent tips to help you get started on the right track to achieve your blogging dreams. [Read more]
Creative Techniques To Help You Profit From Seasonal Blogging
Although many of us are blogging for the long-term in very specific niches, there exists many more dynamic opportunities to achieve blogging success as well as various styles that can be adopted. Over the years I have learned that there are some of us who have not really mastered the quality of patience and do have difficulty being committed to tasks and goals that require long-suffering dedication that leads to success.
So I have a few ideas through which I can offer some inspiration for the short-term blogger and how you can take advantage of the various changes and seasons of popular events. [Read more]
