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Search Engine Marketing Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners
Summary - If you have taken the plunge and opened a home based business, you are likely interested in learning how to make it a success. The most important skill to master when working at home is marketing.
How to Grow your Home Based Business
Marketing is the key to financial success for any home based business opportunity. When you work at home, you must learn how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow your annual revenues. No matter how knowledgeable you are about a particular product or service, if you don’t generate sales, you will go out of business. Follow the ideas outlined below to grow your work at home opportunity.
Article Marketing
Content is king on the Internet for generating website traffic for your home based business opportunity. When a potential customer types in a keyword or keyword phrase into a search engine, a list of relevant websites will come up for their review. And, when they click on a link provided, the business stands the chance to generate either a lead or a sale. So, for your work at home opportunity, leverage the power of article marketing to increase revenues. Articles of interest to your target lead can be placed onto your website or into article directories to increase your natural page rank over time.
Create a Blog
Blog marketing is also a popular online marketing technique for home based business owners. Blogs are more personal in nature than articles and can also be placed either on your company website or on an independent website with links back to your URL. Blogs should be written about informative topics that would appeal to the ideal lead for your business.
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Posted by nevilk on 02/01/10 at 01:02 AM in Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Over the last year or so, lots and lots of new ways to promote your business have appeared. Some of these were there before, but they’ve now become mainstream and have opened the doors for smaller businesses to compete with larger businesses for the first time. And they all have to do with advances in technology.
For the first time, you are able to market and promote your business to the masses without it costing you a penny and whatsmore, because some of these ideas are new and a bit different, it makes marketing fun!
If you’d asked me about these things a year ago, I probably would have told you that it simply wasn’t possible, but now it is. So, let me give you a bit of an insight into some of the new ways to promote your business. All of these are completely free to do and some of them may appeal to your nature as a completely different and creative way to do business.
1. Social Networking I think most small businesses have now heard about Social Networking or the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc, but many people haven’t yet experienced this form of marketing. It’s still incredibly new and a bit scaryfor people, but it’s a really fun way to get your message out and great for allowing people to experience the person behind the business.
2. Podcasts or audio recordings Audio recordings are gaining pace as a completley different way to learn. These are tips, opinions and information but on an audio recording rather than being written down. Once you’ve recorded your stuff, you can send a link to download the recording to your customers or provide the information on a CD. You can even record a few recordings and then submit them to Itunes for inclusion on their site.
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Posted by helend on 01/06/10 at 04:01 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing, Business Coaching | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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The word ‘Autoresponders’ has been used more and more over the last few months and pretty much all of us have now experienced them even if you don’t yet realise it.
But just what is an autoresponder and why should you think about using one in your business?
Well, let me explain.
The simplest form of an autoresponder is when you send a message to someone and you immediately receive an email back that tells you that person is out of office. This email will have been sent automatically (no human response was required) and it will have responded to you – hence the name autoresponder.
You will have also probably seen an autoresponder if you’ve purchased products off of a website. Take Amazon for example or Ebay. If you’ve purchased something from Amazon or made a bid on Ebay, the chances are high that you will have immediately received an email from the company confirming your purchase or your bid.
And you may have seen autoresponders at work if you’ve subscribed to a newsletter from a website. In most cases now, you will have immediately receive an email from the company concerned welcoming you to the website with a copy of the newsletter.
Now, trust me when I say that a human is not sitting there at all times of the day or night responding to messages that come in from a website or order confirmations – these emails are sent automatically from you by a computer programme that has been specifically written for this purpose.
But, why should you care? What has this got to do with your business?
Now (hopefully) you’ve got your head around what an autoresponder is, I want you just to think for a minute about the power of autoresponders and how they can help your business.
Imagine that while you’re on holiday, a potential customer visits your website.
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Posted by helend on 10/29/09 at 05:10 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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As a teen entrepreneur coach, I work with young entrepreneurs who are often bootstrapping when they start out. They are searching for simple ways to build a presence online to compliment whatever they are doing in the offline space. Even though they are often technologically savvy, when starting a business, marketing a business online can be information overload. So these are the simple steps I share with them so that they can get started. And they can use supplementary resources, advanced programs and tools and fee based 3rd party applications to build on this foundation as they acquire more knowledge, visibility and money.
1. Name It and Claim It. When you decide to build an online presence pick a topic that centers on a theme and try to make sure everything you set up from your social networking sites to your blog, somehow ties back to that theme. It helps to build greater brand awareness. The more niche or specialized the theme, the easier it will be for your target customer and the media to find you vs. you trying to find them. Express your unique voice as it will make you more memorable i.e. Relationship Marketing Expert, Mari Smith, always wears turquoise in her videos, online avatars and at conferences so she can be easily recognized….not to mention she is a 6′ blonde =) When creating a name for your blog or user name, try to think of an all encompassing term that someone might use to search for your site or blog.
2. Choose Your Platform. Think about the behaviors of your customers or do a survey (www.surveymonkey.com) to find out what online tools they are using. The places where your customer are spending their time are the places you need to be active. You don’t need to register for a lot of sites or the latest and the greatest. Register for one or two sites.
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Posted by shonikap on 10/23/09 at 08:10 PM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Wordpress STD’s (Security Transgression Defilements) are a common occurrence. WordPress-powered websites are far from being immune to hackers, although the latest release/s address many earlier security issues. WordPress, like other content management systems and forums such as phpBB, vBulletin, is a major target for hackers and spammers. Basic prophylactic measures, or condoms for WordPress STDs, need not be complicated or expensive.
Those involved in hacking WordPress usually want to use the sites as concealed (cloaked) link farms. Its rare that actual damage is done to your site, and often the site owner remains blissfully unaware that there’s been any interference. Some of the link injection systems are extremely sophisticated! Testing for enemy action can be as simple as opening your site and choosing View / Source and reading through the content of the <Head> section down to, and including, the <BODY> tag. The link injections I’ve seen are usually immediately after <BODY>. Is there a long string of HTML code containing links to dozens of sites you know nothing about? If there is, you’ve been violated, and have a WordPress STD (Security Terminated Deficiency)!
This article is not about fixing security violations. Its about simple prophylactic measures most “non-technician” site owners take. This is not slick and professional security strategy, and there are some who will scoff at using “security by obscurity” as a primary tactic. However, even on a tight budget, the following 12 zero-dollar steps can and should be taken to minimise the possibility of attack.
1 - Always Use the Current Version
Why anyone would persist with an older version is beyond me. Upgrading has always been easy enough, and recent versions reduce the pain to a button click!
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Posted by benk on 10/20/09 at 07:10 PM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Have you ever longed for people to knock on your door wanting to do business with you? Um – doesn’t often happen does it?
Actually that’s not quite true. There is a way to get people knocking at your door, but it doesn’t just happen by itself. You need to influence this. And how you do that is to build relationships with people so that they perceive you as an expert and know, like and trust your approach.
That sounds so easy doesn’t it? Well, I know it’s not. One of the best ways to help people to perceive you in this way though is to write articles.
Articles are great for loads of things. They’re great for building your reputation as an expert in your field and they have the added advantage that once you’ve written one article, you can then use it in tons of places.
Some ideas of where you can use your articles include in your newsletter, in other people’s newsletter, post them on-line to build your presence on the internet and on social networks, send them to the press, include them in a book, put them on your blog, send them out to your clients and contacts as useful information or you could swap your article in exchange for people’s contact details on your website.
Just in the last few months, articles that I’ve written have been included in three books (two are still being published, but one is on the bookshelves as we speak), got me several clients and I’ve also been ask to speak in several places too. How much free publicity is that?
I’m not telling you this to boast – I’m telling you this so that you can realise that writing articles is a powerful marketing tool that can really help you pitch yourself as an expert in your field. After all, do you think your clients would rather work with an expert? Yes, of course they would!
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Posted by helend on 10/10/09 at 11:10 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Brands and marketers are rapidly leaving the orbit of “paid media” dominance and entering the gravitational pull of the age of “earned” and “social media.” But, first, a definition, compliments of Wikipedia:
Earned media (free media) refers to favorable publicity garnered via efforts other than advertising, as opposed to paid media, which refers to publicity gained through advertising. Earned media often refers specifically to publicity gained through editorial influence, whereas social media refers to publicity gained through grassroots action, particularly on the Internet.
Brands that want to generate “coverage” in a world where professional and consumer-generated media live side-by-side, they either must “earn” it (PR) or stimulate a conversation (social) based on action, in-action or mis-actions (mistakes). Traditionally, earned media coverage was largely facilitated through public relations campaigns - professional editors assigned stories to journalists who wrote about something “newsworthy.”
While that process is still at work in an ever-expanding media universe, today products and (customer) services that delight consumers by exceeding, or failing, to exceed their expectations earn voluminous word-of-mouth (social media) coverage from armies of bloggers, tweeters, and Facebookers, who magnify the brand message virally.
While earned media has been around since the first campfires, the Internet and social media networks make it much easier to earn media for a brand, product, or oneself. But earning digital media doesn’t mean it’s free. Instead of paying for media placements (advertising), marketers pay for the time and resources of people who will investigate what’s being said about your brand and then engage on your behalf. These can be employees, contractors, agencies, etc.
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Posted by lens on 08/31/09 at 06:08 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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“Hey, come take a look at this storm system. It’s enormous.” – Hideki, Japanese astronaut, The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Lots of people missed the big news of the Beijing Olympics. It wasn’t that Mark Phelps won 8 gold medals. It wasn’t that the U.S. edged out China on the total number of medals. It wasn’t the hundreds of personal tragedies and triumphs. Some of the competitors undoubtedly felt like Laura Chapman … “I know you always thought I took the competition too seriously … you were right. It was all for nothing.” The big news was that nothing happened. Sure The Chinese government and China’s CCTV was afraid. NBC was afraid. AT&T was afraid. BBC was afraid. Microsoft was afraid (they had a lot riding on Silverlight’s success). Limelight and Akamai were afraid. Afraid the video pipes of the world would collapse.
Didn’t happen!
The estimated 1.3 billion worldwide Internet users were more than four times the number of potential users that tried to access Mark Cuban’s broadcast.com “airing” of Victoria’s Secret show a decade ago.
The Games Begin
This online video challenge streamed more than 2200 hours of live competition in 25 sports. More than 112 video streams were often available at one time. All told 336 streams could have been sent out simultaneously. The content was available to 77 countries. The great thing was online viewers around the globe didn’t have to watch NBC’s version of the Olympics. Use your search engine, type in Beijing (or 2008) Olympics + country name and BAM!
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Posted by andym on 08/30/09 at 02:08 PM in Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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“This show as prerecorded earlier, because it didn’t make much sense to prerecord it later.” – Gary Owens, announcer – Rowan & Martin Laugh-In (’68-’73)
The writers’ strike was all about giving their members a “fairer” proportion of the growing volume of online content. Since it appeared to be a prolonged affair Tellywood focused a lot of attention and money on indie films at Sundance. At the same time more than a few analysts wondered aloud if there might be a mass migration from TV to online videos and folks would be less than enthused in returning to the family room set.
On a recent dive trip to Kona we met a couple who said they were part of the second wave of hippies to Santa Fe and were writers / artists / videographers. We asked if they had shown the work at any of the growing number of film festivals around the globe. The videographer part of the duo said no but he had been turned down by a lot of them. Then he added that in the past few months he had had a lot of interest in his work from both Tellywood and online outlets. In fact five had been sold … two to Tellywood, three to online firms. It made us wonder or as Laugh-In’s Arte Johnson would say, “Veerrry eenteresting…”
In markets such as the U.S., homes have more TV sets and DVD players than broadband access. It may be growing but if it weren’t for our wireless card in Kona we’d have been stuck with dial-up (don’t even ask!).
Screen Differences
A number of folks like to say convergence is taking place and soon we’ll be three-screen households. Maybe yours but not ours! They’re different. They’re viewed differently.
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Posted by andym on 08/30/09 at 02:08 PM in Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Television production used to be pretty straight forward. You had HUGE, HEAVY cameras three people pushed around. In the control room you had sliders and BAM! magically the signal went over the air. At home you turned on the set. Had dinner (families ate together then) and a half-hour later the tube was lit and you watched the Sid Caesar or Lone Ranger show. It was so cool.
For years we all went to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show and the behemoths of the industry dominated the floor. Big, sexy, expensive cameras. Big, gorgeous, expensive control panels. TV sets, big/bigger, gorgeous, expensive. Then the cable and satellite folks emerged with “a better TV experience.” Once you got tired of over-the-air only shows in they “offered” you 50-100 fantastic channels for $100 a month. Suddenly our wife could watch HGTV, daughter could watch the gut-buster infomercial, and son could watch Telemundo (he’s practicing Spanish and the skirts are short). According to Nielsen we started watching more TV - 4 hours, 34 minutes a day in 2006-07. Not bad for the producers, network, cable operators, advertisers. Nielsen found:
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Posted by andym on 05/18/09 at 02:05 PM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing, Branding | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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We see the value in Earth Day. We recognize the importance of World Peace Day. In deference to our wife we think even Mother’s Day is OK. But Twitter Day? Somehow Oprah coming online and saying “Hello Twitter World.” (or whatever) is not quite up there with the wizard of Menlo Park (Edison) calling one of his assistants for help! For the most part, we don’t really care that Oprah, Shaq, Parris, Kutcher and a lot of other folks are thinking about or talking about. Yet a million +/- folks have signed up and track their every 140 character utterance. Our son - who has an account but is too busy instant messaging with his smartphone and Skyping on his notebook – made the observation that if you Twittered in the real world instead of on the Internet you’d be arrested for stalking! Heck we have people following our updates and all we have is a Twitter account…and we thought we didn’t have a life! But there is a growing Twitter population. In just a couple of years it has grown to well more than 10 million according to ComScore. As Domino Pizza, Amazon and other firms are quickly realize the mob mentality can be a force to be reckoned with. In the old days you used email, the phone and if you wanted to use the wayback machine you sent a letter.
Hum of Noise
Today people young and old can’t stand the vacuum of silence and we rush to take advantage of every personal and social networking tool that is available. Twitter and other microblogging tools caught the attention of people everywhere when terrorists attacked the hotel in India and when the US Air plane went down in the Hudson River. Instantly people around the globe could see the news first hand. News media incorporated the citizen journalists’ inputs with their coverage seamlessly.
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Posted by andym on 05/18/09 at 02:05 PM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Today’s Web 2.0 social media environment offers a tremendous opportunities for companies to closely engage with customers, prospects and market segments in a positive, mutually beneficial manner. The problem arises when marketing and communications people view these new 1:1 outlets as a great marketing/sales and PR pitching opportunities. They forget that the individuals if not treated properly and with professional respect can turn and instead of being the ones who are being hunted can become the hunters. People - regular folks - can be mean and brutal if they are abused. Marketeers need to know the pros/cons, challenges/opportunities. Consumers need to know that they have a powerful platform to strike back and cause real damage. It requires a mutual understanding on both sides and a meaningful two way relationship otherwise…duck.
“Nothing in those files makes their sacrifice worthwhile. You have to let go. We’re professionals, when an operation goes bad, we tie it off. ” – Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) – The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The world of new media – widgets and social applications – looks like a beautiful marketing hunting grounds.
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
Imagine people flock to Web 2.0 locations where they blog.
They upload/download audios/videos of specific interest to them.
They congregate at business/special interest web sites to gain information and be entertained.
They twitter.
They gather daily/nightly in online communities to exchange information, news and just hang out.
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Posted by andym on 04/01/09 at 03:04 PM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing, Public Relations | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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There is so much information floating around out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to get some rankings. So much of it is contradictory and confusing. I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about the secrets of top rankings.
So, let’s jump right in with the secrets to SEO success…
Search Engine Secret # 1: There are no secrets! The search engines make it all very public and clear what you need to do to get top rankings. The success lies in the details and proper implementation. But there is no top secret, proprietary technique for getting top rankings.
OK, so now we all know there are no secrets, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t information you need to know, such as:
If you don’t optimize your site, you won’t get top rankings. It really is that plain and simple. If the engines can’t spider your site and you don’t have links and strong content, you don’t stand a chance against the sites that do have all that in place. So many people don’t want to spend money on SEO, or are afraid to take the plunge but then they can’t understand why they don’t have rankings. So maybe there is a secret – maybe the secret is take action and get your site optimized!
Your site structure matters! I can’t tell you how often people have said to me “I know my site is a mess, but I don’t want to spend the money fixing it, so can’t you just throw up some keywords and Meta tags and get me some rankings?” Ummmm, no, I can’t. Your site structure is your foundation. You would never build a house without a solid foundation, why would you build an SEO campaign without a solid foundation?
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Posted by jenniferh on 02/18/09 at 06:02 AM in Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Business Strategies | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Larry Page and Sergey Brin are famous entrepreneurs that fulfilled the lifelong dream of many individuals all over the world by creating something from scratch that effectively made them billionaires. In fact, they did not just create any old thing but the company that revolutionized our use of the Internet. They founded Google Inc and the Google search engine. Both Page and Brin are still in their thirties and are worth around $18.7 billion each as of February 2008. Their entrepreneurial skills are an inspiration to millions, who all dream of doing the same thing.
Google Founders - The Early Years
Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin come from an extremely academic background. Larry Page, who was born on March 26, 1973, is the son of an influential and esteemed computer science professor, Doctor Carl Page. His mother also taught computer science at Michigan State University. As such, it was perhaps inevitable that he would also dedicate his academic career and his life to the sciences. He achieved a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan before moving on to Stanford University, which is where he met Sergey Brin.
Sergey Brin, on the other hand, serves as a different sort of inspiration. Larry Page proved that anything was possible in the entrepreneurial world with a good education, but Sergey Brin became an entrepreneur despite extremely humble beginnings. He was born in the Soviet Union in August 21, 1973 to a mother and father that were both mathematicians. Feeling that they could not give their children the life they deserved, Michael and Evgenia Brin moved to the United States in 1979. He followed the same academic path as his family but moved into computer science at the University of Maryland before enrolling in Stanford University.
The Making Of Google
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Posted by GlobalBX Staff on 02/04/09 at 12:02 AM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing, Famous Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurship | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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If you aren’t creating a monthly newsletter you are missing out on an opportunity to market to your list. Newsletters help establish your credibility, keep you top of mind for your prospects and allow you to make special offers to your list. Please note a paid newsletter needs to be informative and doesn’t always offer the same sales opportunities. However a freebie newsletter can have ads, special offers and promotions and more.
If you are running a monthly newsletter, it is important to make sure you are getting the most out of it. Here are some things you should keep in mind month after month as you work on your newsletter.
1. Determine what your readers want - If you aren’t covering topics they are interested in, no one is going to want to read it. And although your newsletter should promote your business, it’s also meant to establish your credibility and build your relationship with your prospects and customers. Be sure to discuss topics of interest and value for your customers and prospects.
2. Personalize your newsletter - there are hundreds of newsletters circulating on the Internet and in the mail. You need to make your newsletter stand out from the crowd. Making your newsletter uniquely you will make a difference. So be real. Feel free to include personality and emotion in your newsletter. Create a template with a look and feel that your prospects will associate with you and get to know.
3. Make it look good - people will first judge your newsletter by appearance and if it doesn’t look professional and compelling they won’t bother reading it. Also, remember to keep it brief. Use bullets and appealing headlines. And include graphics.
4. Ask for feedback and opinions from readers - include your readers in the process. Invite them to provide feedback and then actually implement some of their suggestions.
5.
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Posted by jenniferh on 01/28/09 at 07:01 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing, Growing Your Business | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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With so much talk about social media these days, everyone is jumping on board and trying it out. We are seeing some common mistakes out there and I thought it was important to address these mistakes to help eradicate them in the future.
Don’t get me wrong, there will be a learning curve – we all went through it (and I met some great people that helped me, and that I helped along the way) but the key is to learn up front to minimize errors!
So, here we go…
Mistake One: Completely Ignoring Social Media
Believe it or not there are still some people out there that are ignoring social media. They may be unsure of how to participate or maybe they just don’t have time to get involved. No matter what the reason, this is a big mistake. Social media continues to grow in popularity and in importance to internet users - the exact users you are trying to reach.
Mistake Two: Bare Profiles
If you don’t bother completing your profile people won’t be able to get to know you. It is also a sign to other users that you aren’t serious about participating on that site. Many spammers don’t bother to complete their profile and a blank profile has become a red flag.
Your profile should include a custom background when possible, a photo, contact information, and a list of interests to help people get to know you better.
Don’t be afraid to show some personality and let people really get to know you and your company and what you stand for.
Mistake Three: Faking It
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Posted by jenniferh on 01/26/09 at 06:01 AM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing, Growing Your Business | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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As a website owner, I’m sure you are always looking for new sources of traffic. Have you considered Google News? If you regularly publish news in your industry and want to be seen as a source for news you can request Google include your site.
This can be a great source of traffic and an excellent way to boost credibility for your company.
There are some important details you need to be aware of in order to increase your chances of Google including your site.
First and foremost, you have to request that Google include your site by visiting: http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/request.py.
Here is some of the criteria Google is looking for.
Make sure that your pages that display the full text of news articles have unique URLs so that the Google is able to index each story individually. URLs with more than one article will not be included on Google News.
The URL for each article must contain a unique number consisting of at least three digits, and should not resemble a date. I’ve often heard you should aim for more than six digits to be safe.
Here is what Google says about this: We can’t crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article23.html. We can, however, crawl an article with this URL: http://www.google.com/news/article234.html Keep in mind that if the only number in the article consists of an isolated four-digit number that resembles a year, such as http://www.google.com/news/article2006.html, we won’t be able to crawl it.
Make sure content on your news site is original. You can’t republish a CNN story and expect Google to include your site in the News search results pages.
Your site should have more than one author. You should also have a page listing all of the authors with their bios.
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Posted by jenniferh on 01/26/09 at 06:01 AM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Below are some of the crucial items you should have on your Blog. Take a look at this list and your Blog and see how you measure up. I can tell you that I did it myself and I had to create an action plan to fix my own Blog.
You see, just because I know what needs to be done doesn’t mean I always have time to implement it myself.
It is like the shoe cobbler’s children going to school with their shoes falling apart. I am so busy helping clients, I don’t have time to work on my own things.
The same may be true for you. You are so busy but you know you want to, actually you need to, Blog. So you start it and don’t necessarily have everything in place.
That’s OK. The key is to find out where you are lacking and create an action plan so you can take steps towards getting everything in place,
So, here is your checklist. Do you have:
A strategy in place? Do you know why are you Blogging? What are you hoping to accomplish? Do you know how often you have to Blog, what types of posts you need in order to accomplish your objective?
A posting schedule? Ideally you should have at least 2 new posts a week, and up to 5. Less than 2 is too little, and over 5 is often too much (unless you are a great writer and have lots of news and information to share, so you aren’t just writing fluff).
A comment policy? Do you moderate? If so, how long does it take to approve comments.
An ‘About Us’ section? Since Blogging is about connecting, sharing information and creating dialog to form relationships, you need to be sure to tell people who you are and what you are all about. Including contact information is a good idea
A Blogroll? Be sure to include NON company links. Point your readers to sites/blogs that you think THEY would be interested in reading.
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Posted by jenniferh on 01/26/09 at 06:01 AM in Software & Technology, Small Business, Search Engine Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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There is no escaping the reality of the economy. These are not good times for most people. Many individuals and businesses are suffering.
However, in spite of that, many online businesses are still doing well. Online shopping was up over shopping in traditional retail stores (Cyber Monday was up 15% over the previous year).
People don’t stop searching the web just because times are bad, and the number of searches per person are on the rise, so there is still plenty of traffic to be had. Then it becomes the job of your website to convert that traffic.
What you need to know is that people tend to shop differently in a poor economy. They research more, they comparison shop more and they look for more value for the money they spend.
It’s true, individuals and businesses are trying to cut costs - but most people and businesses can’t stop buying. There are still supplies, inventory, services etc that we need - to function and to run our business. So when people go to purchase these products and services they are more likely to look for discounts/sales and to search and compare on multiple sites.
Now is the perfect time for websites to step up and provide potential customers with the information and incentives needed to get the sale. Do a marketing review of your website and make sure your site is compelling, informative and offers a great deal.
You should look at what special offers you can afford to make to entice people into doing business with you. You can also set a deadline on the special offer in hopes of getting people to just buy right then rather than comparison shopping.
If you know for sure you are cheaper than some competitors place your own price comparison chart on your site so they can compare you to others without leaving your site.
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Posted by jenniferh on 01/26/09 at 06:01 AM in Search Engine Marketing, Sales & Marketing, Business Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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Looking for a way to drive more traffic to your website? One of the most powerful techniques for increasing visitors to your site is by getting other webmasters to place links to your website on their sites.
When other websites include links to yours, this can increase traffic in two ways. First, there is always a possibility that people who visit the other site will be interested in seeing what you have to offer and so will choose to click through to your website and browse around. Second, assuming the links are on appropriate websites, your website is likely to index higher in the search engines. The higher your site’s search engine ranking, the more targeted traffic you will attract to your website.
There are a number of different ways to build backlinks to your website, many of which are free or very inexpensive.
Forum Posting
One of the quickest and easiest ways to begin building backlinks to your website is to become an active participant in forum discussions that relate to your line of work. Include a link to your website in your signature line, and you’ll add another backlink each time you leave a comment on the forums you choose.
Make sure the forums you select are relevant to your business. Doing so ensures that the other participants might be interested in what you have to offer and might click through to your website. Relevancy also increases the odds that the link will benefit you in terms of search engine optimization.
Article Marketing
One of the most powerful things you can do to create backlinks for your website is to engage in article marketing. This technique involves creating informative articles related to your area of expertise and submitting them to online article directories.
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Posted by rando on 01/21/09 at 09:01 PM in Software & Technology, Search Engine Marketing, Growing Your Business | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackback URL
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