Get blog tips fromhttp://www.PlatformUniversity.comfounder and NY Times Best-Selling author, Michael Hyatt as he shares the top blogging mistakes he made, how to avoid making them yourself and blogging tips for building a more loyal following in much less time.
25 Free Tips for Marketing your Blog
Post by : Juan Carlos Sanchez
With so many blogs being created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out. It’s simple. People want to read good content, and with good content comes ad revenue. Well, maybe it’s not that easy… We’ve finally unleashed the secrets of successful blog marketing. Do note that these are not guaranteed to increase your click-through ratios and they will not bring good karma to you or your ads.. If only.. Nonetheless, these tips should benefit your blog and make it more user-friendly, more easily accessible, and more content-enabled.
There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them, so here is a -short- list of tips for marketing and optimizing a blog:
1. Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name! 2. Obtain and install customizable blog software – WordPress and Moveable Type are my favorites. 3. Customize blog look and feel templates – aka design. 4. Research keywords and develop a glossary – Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint,SEOBook Keyword Research. 5. Optimize the blog: * Template optimization – RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap * Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT * Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary) 6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality. 7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking. 8. Setup Google acount for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission. 9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll. 10. Format archived posts, related posts. 11. Enable statistics for tracking – Performancing, Google Analytics, ClickTracks. 12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines. 13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign. 14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories. 15. Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs – Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt. 16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog. 17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it. 18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence. 19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value. 20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog – Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds. 21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post. 22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible. 23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made. 24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you. 25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.
In this video, I show you a basic search engine optimization technique you should use on ALL new content you publish to the internet – whether it be a YouTube video or your own affiliate site. I also continue along with my Art of Snore case study, and you can see that the site is ALREADY getting organic SEO traffic!
Social bookmarking is still a very valuable back linking method.
I social bookmark my sites on all the major social bookmarks because it does 3 things:
1 – it gets your blog posts, articles, and videos indexed and found by Google
2 – it gets your content social proof – it’s easier to get likes and shares from social media traffic, so it’s a great way to start the snowball. Google does rank your content based on the social clout of your content.
3 – you can get quality, targeted website visitors to your website. A lot of these people will turn into customers and subscribers because of their highly targeted nature.
Question:
Do you social bookmark every page or video on your site?
Answer:
Yes, every single time I create a new piece of content I social bookmark it!
In the very recent past, a friend of mine [Kate] was lucky enough to get her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a very popular social bookmark site. With her permission, I was given an excellent chance to overlook and analyze the traffic generated from these types of sites. Read on to discover the pro’s and con’s of social media site traffic, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.
Firstly, it should be said that any sort of internet traffic, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your site should all be welcomed, as any visitor is a good thing. In saying that, however, it should be noted that traffic in all its greatness, is not created equally. Great differences become apparent when you start to analyze its source. The purpose of this article, is to take a much closer look at the traffic generated from social bookmarking, from the perspective of internet marketing.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 years, you’d notice a very big trend on the web–social bookmark and media websites have become «all that» on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these popular sites sound familiar?
This is where a lot of social bookmark traffic will originate from. In essence, these sites are driven and «controlled» by the users. Users or members choose which content they want to bookmark, and this will lead into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely popular, and flow traffic that the average website owner can only ever imagine having. Thats a lot of traffic, isn’t it? But is it really useful?
All this traffic and hype must be a good thing, right? But is it really worth your time? Should you integrate active promotion to these types of social media websites? What about concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The question more at point is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the front page of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?
As a website owner myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In addition, I wondered if utilising these sites could benefit me; i.e, could they help me generate more income online?
Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to have a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a chance for a first-hand, upclose study; I was not about to pass this up.
However, this didn’t happen by chance. Kate took the action of placing the free «Addthis.com» bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this quite easily. Using this simple bookmark «button», you can start to attract these sites. However, be warned; a site featured on the front page of social media sites can almost instantly generate 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in essence is enough traffic that it may overload your server. Not good!
So be careful; active promotion to these social bookmark sites should only be taken upon if your servers or web hosting company can withstand the sudden influx of traffic.
With Kate’s permission, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and social bookmark traffic generated. Interestingly enough, some very important factors were realised. The Majority of this traffic will:
– Simply bounce back.
– Very few visitors will stay on your site; even for a short period of time.
– Very few visitors will actually go into the depths of your site.
– If you have a newsletter or similar, you’ll notice that very few sign-up for these.
– If you utilise any type of marketing follow-ups, etc, very few will enter.
(In saying this, an unknown variable is the content of your site. Is it well written? Does it perform well? Is it useful or attractive to the visitor?)
Traffic from these sites does pose a very common problem, however; its temporary traffic, to say the least. The mass amount of traffic generated will usually only last a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the front page. Most of these visitors will rarely remain on your website for long, and the majority leave within seconds. In saying that, you may have a few sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that explore your site. But keep in mind, this number will not be very high.
Social media site traffic can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of fast food restaurants; they come and go as quick as they came. The visitors will basically view your content, and before you know it, have already left, surfing back to the main site to venture onto the next item or listing. Social bookmark traffic will always behave differently, to a large extent, when compared to organic search engine traffic, or your newsletter traffic, for instance. Very differently.
Visitors from Kate’s article posts will generally add up to 50 to a 100 new sign-ups a day; much different when compared to social bookmark traffic. In addition, readers and visitors to her articles are actually interested in her content, and therefore have been previously exposed to similiar content upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.
The choice of traffic will always lay in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the traffic from social bookmarking sites. A question still remains, however– is social bookmark traffic really all that useless?
Firstly, as previously mentioned, you need to remember that no traffic should be considered useless. Any type of visitor to your website should be counted as a good thing. Any website owner should realise that getting traffic and visitors to your website is a must; otherwise its game over.
When someone searches for a particular term in a search engine, and they end up at your website, this means that your visitor is there because you have what they’re looking for. This type of traffic is essential to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be «targeted traffic»; that is, they’re more likely to read your pitch-page, overlook your information, sign-up to a newsletter, or even buy a product. Additionally, they may also become repeat visitors. Traffic like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you really want.
However, its not all bad news. Social media or bookmark sites do have a bright side.
How would you like the possibility of your website gaining exposure to millions of people? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Even though you may not get sales, for instance, this traffic can assist in getting your websites name out there; branding it, creating a buzz.
If your website appeals to a more mass market, then you are even more in luck. Social bookmark traffic in this case can be an excellent source of traffic and visitors.
Social sites such as these also have another added bonus; gaining a link on high PR7 and PR8 websites, with high traffic flow, can’t hurt your search engine rankings. After your website is featured on a social media site such as Digg, your link can also appear on a large number of secondary websites on the web, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this traffic will also be using the Firefox web browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do for you? Your Alexa traffic rank will be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re running the Firefox browser.
Something worth pointing out, is that the traffic generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stay durations were the common thing in this traffic, that is, this traffic behaved more like organic traffic. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that Stumbleupon is a higher quality site, and this was reflected from the higher quality of the visitors originating from there. This also made me come to the realisation that not all social media/bookmark traffic can be measured with the same stick. This experience also pointed me out to something important; the content featured on Kate’s website is geared towards targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is generally not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.
An idea to better take advantage of this type of traffic, is to gear your website and its content to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to achieve a greater level of success, is largely dependant on what you offer and how it is offered. Another unknown variable, unfortunately.
In the near future, I hope to gain the chance to further study social bookmark traffic, and its long-term effects on websites. In specific, the effect it would have on keyword rankings and link popularity rankings in search engines; only then can I come to any type of real judgements. However, for now, my mind is being kept open, and the idea is being tossed up as to whether social media and bookmark traffic is actually worth the time or the effort. Is the time taken away from your usual day-to-day marketing efforts worth it?
Video is taking content marketing by storm, but then you have to do more than just to realize its full potential use online marketing tips and tricks
When five years in the future, you would be reading this article or would you watch it in video format ? As online video continues inimitable emergence, it is an interesting question to think about.
In 2017, video will account for 69% of all buyer Internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video-on-demand traffic alone will almost be tripled. Leaves in a strip of statistics on the subject, I am hard pressed an indicator that not suggest to find a rapid growth.
With online video quickly becoming an important tool for people to satisfy their information and entertainment needs, small businesses will need to learn online marketing tips and tricks to include in their internet marketing strategies.
Video is the future of content marketing. That is to say, if it is not the here and now. Several studies show more than half of companies already using the medium – a figure that is predicted to increase as more and more aware of the possibilities. Nielsen says 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future. It’s not hard to see why.
When it comes to potential range, video is matchless. YouTube gets more than one million unique visitors per month – that’s more than any other channel, apart from Facebook. One in three Britons see at least one online video per week – which is a weekly audience of over 20 million people in the UK alone. Video will give you access to all of this. Video done well can give you a piece of. What other form of content can do the same?
It is of course fascinating and, in an age of information overload, it is vital for small businesses to provide content that is easy to digest; if not, then the consumer will simply move on. Video does this very well. If a picture is worth a 1000 words a minute of video is worth 1.8 million, as Forrester researchers say. No wonder then that Axonn Research shows seven in 10 brands can be seen in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them.
But video is really possible for small businesses? Absolutely. Production costs have fallen sharply in recent years and you no longer need to be a technical whiz to work out how to use. Apps like Twitter’s Vine, with its six-second maximum clip length, have dramatically increased the opportunity for companies with a limited budget to get stuck in. Still, if you have to realize a decent return on your investment, you need to bear the following in mind.
online marketing tips and tricks will help you consider the audience you are trying to achieve and ensure the video is relevant to them. If it was not the most appropriate means to convey your message, you are probably wasting your time.
Do not forget, social media and promote across multiple channels. If you want to fully realize potential of videos,make it easier for users to find and share. Not mobile neglect not. Ooyala has a tenth of all video plays happen predicated on mobile phones and tablets, and it is an increasingly important segment of mobile phones with 41% more market share for video consumption at the end of June 2013 than at the beginning of the year .
Finally, be more creative not only with the videos themselves, but in the strategy you develope around them. As my head marketing likes to say, creativity wins more than the cost of production every time. Get that little law and videos will not only be the future of content marketing, so learn all you can about online marketing tips and tricks.
Online Marketing Tips and Tricks. https://youtu.be/b4ssKIpgKCg
The Five Basic Principles of Online Marketing
Post by : Juan Carlos Sanchez
The experts about the most vital parts of online marketing, and you’ll invariably come up with a list of five major responses. These five critical online marketing principles are:
1. Dead-ends
2. Giving and selling
3. Trust
4. Push and pull
5. Niche marketing
The dead-end principle means that your web marketing effort can’t just exist. It must give prospective customers a reason to look around and take action. Otherwise, it’s the same as having them see your ad, then turn around and go elsewhere – your ad was a dead-end to them, they didn’t get anything out of it. No matter how informative your website is, with gorgeous graphics and a winning layout, if it does not encourage your visitors to take certain actions, then it is just taking up web space and isn’t actually filling a purpose. Therefore, when you’re designing your web marketing strategy, before even building your site, you’ll need to ask yourself how you’ll obtain your visitors. You’ll then need to choose which activities will get you to these results, and which of them can be done in-house, as others are outsourced.
The giving and selling principle refers to the fact that when people shop online, they expect to receive something a little extra. Therefore, one fantastic method for attracting customers to your website is to give something to them for free, and then attempt to sell them something else. The strategy typically goes as follows: the first step is to attract people to your site using a good amount of free information. The second step is to inform these prospective customers about your products and services. The free stuff doesn’t need to be something tangible. Even the information has value, and then once they’re hooked, they’re ready to learn about what you have to sell them.
Trust is an extremely important principle for web marketing. In fact, many experts believe that it is the most important of all the other principles for selling your products and services. Without this trust, people simply won’t buy from you and you won’t have a business. Trust is built in a number of ways. This can include selling well known and respected name brands, by clearly displaying your privacy, shipping, and return policies, by joining well known and respected organizations, and by offering guarantees that you’ll stand by. A customer-friendly system based on quality and transparency allows you to build your credibility and will earn the trust of your prospective customers, leading to more sales of your products and services.
The push and pull principle works by pulling people into your website using attractive content, and then pushing your information to them on a regular basis using email. This can be done in a number of ways; most commonly, this has to do with opt-in programs such as newsletters and updates about sales and other promotions. Since websites are relatively passive, it is extremely useful to add an active element to your marketing campaign that will remind your prospective customers of your existence, and entice them to act on what you have to offer.
Niche marketing has become a vital part of the web marketing industry. It is a recognized fact that to be successful, especially with an online business, you need to know your niche, and market directly to them. With a small business, finding the niche must be filled in order to give them enough leverage against the competition. A niche allows a business, no matter how large or small, to focus on a certain corner of the marketplace, limiting the competition, and focusing on the precise type of person who is most likely to become a customer. The key to niche marketing is to begin with a business plan to identify and define your focus and purpose, and then build your website and marketing strategy based upon the vision you’ve outlined. This encourages consistency and accuracy throughout your web marketing efforts.
All of these principles are very important to creating a successful marketing strategy online. By making sure that these principles are all fulfilled, you can be certain that you’ll increase your number of new visitors, and – perhaps more importantly – encourage past and current customers to return.