Branding, Internet Marketing, Creative Design Team.Web design-development, SEO,Email marketing with targeted data, business printing and creative promotional products. Chinese and Spanish market specialization.
One of the most important business relationships for a Website owner (whether the site's for business or pleasure) should be with a Web hosting company.
After all, you pay a host to look after your site -- you should expect them to take good care of it. So it stands to reason then that host selection is important for anyone who manages or runs their own site.
* look at why it's important to choose the right host,
* review a hosting assessment checklist you can adapt to yur needs, and
* consider the aspects of shared or dedicated hosting, and choosing server software
* disk space
* email accounts
* FTP Access
* data transfer
* bandwidth
* multimedia support
...and more.
But first, let's look at why the choice of host for your site is so important.
Saving Face -- and Money!
How your chosen Web host looks after the server that hosts your site will reflect on you as the owner of the site. If the site is frequently unavailable due to unreliable servers, poor server configuration or the server simply being unable to handle the traffic your site receives, this will give your users the impression that you don't really know what you're doing. This is bad enough with hobby sites, but is of particular concern if you run a virtual store, or have potential employers trying to view your online portfolio.
We'd all like to think that once our site's up and running, it'll always be available to everyone who wants to view it, whenever they want to. But as we all know, this certainly isn't the case. There will always be those times when a site you try to visit isn't available for whatever reason. That is, unfortunately, the unpredictable nature of the Internet.
If your site is a business site, it could suffer from the lost opportunities to take orders or enjoy brand exposure, and personal and hobby sites, too, could miss revenue opportunities while they're unavailable. Even not-for-profit sites can get a poor reputation if visitors find them unavailable or slow to use.
While the potential loss of revenue is the most obvious reason for wanting to choose a good host, your decision can often have other ramifications than simply up-time. Quite often a problem with a host can affect the other services associated with your domain. Services such as email and FTP could also be affected, so you might find that while your site's down, you're also unable to check your email. Worse still, email messages could be returned to the sender, giving your visitors the conclusion that the site no longer exists...
Service Level Guarantees
While undoubtedly some downtime will be beyond our control, we can reduce the risks if we choose the host that is most suitable for the needs of the site. Any host worth their salt should inform you of any scheduled downtime before it happens via email, which will allow you to make alternative plans should you need to. Of course there is no way to predict any unscheduled downtime, but many hosts will offer an uptime guarantee that compensates you in some way for any downtime over and above that scheduled. The hosts that are more confident of their levels of service will usually offer better terms of agreement than will their less competent counterparts.
It's one thing to think that you're covered by these up-time guarantees, but quite another when you think you actually have a claim for compensation. It may be an idea to keep both a print and an electronic copy of the Terms of Service and any other important documents from the day that you purchase a new hosting plan, just in case.
Often problems can occur simply because you aren't able to monitor the site yourself 100% of the time. There are, however, products and services that can carry out various tests to check whether your site is live. But even if you can prove that your site was unavailable to you (or to your monitoring service) for more than the agreed acceptable level, you should always check the small print: if the problem wasn't your host's fault, they may not need to pay up!
You get what you pay for!
One thing to remember is that there is a host for every site. My perfect host could be your perfect hosting nightmare! A server that is well suited for one of your sites may slow down another. And there's no right host, so don't even try to visit and assess them all.
Remember, it's in your best interests to find the most suitable host set up for your site that you can afford, otherwise you can easily get a reputation for being unreliable, unresponsive and uncaring.
It's more than just a monthly or yearly fee it's your business and how's your customer see you , find you and then interact with you. CMT has several hosting options based on specific requirements we would be more than happy to review your hosting needs.
Strategies... These 3 seem not to get to many people raising red flags!
The most important thing in Social Media is being real. Just be who you are and you will go far. With that said, here are three things that ARE NOT real and are some definite No-No’s of the Social Media world.
#1 DO NOT Spam Links – Think about how it feels when you get a link spammed to you, it sucks right. So don’t be the spammer. Be the information provider. The knowledge expert. And the guru. I know that may be hard to conceive if you are just getting started but I want you to know that you DO have value to offer others. Simply by reading this you are increasing your value. Just reiterate it in your own words.
#2 DO NOT Link To Your MLM Companies Replicated Site – Oh man, this is probably one of the most common mistakes I always see newbies making. Just straight don’t do it. Here’s why. Your companies replicated site is not designed to ’sell’ your prospects. It is always designed to sign them up. So that is where you send them after they have already been sold.
#3 DO NOT Repost Good Content Over And Over – Even though you may have just written a killer blog post or linked to a killer video on Twitter people will consider it spam is you keep linking to it over and over throughout the day. However that does not mean that you can’t repost something more than once. I would say a good rule of thumb to follow would be to repost a great piece of content like no more than 3 or 4 times within a day.
I am pretty sure that Google will someday rule the world. And while my "less governance is better governance" belief runs through every vein...I do have to say, "hail to the king!"
Here's why your business needs to have a Google account:
Google Local Business Center (www.google.com/lbc): The LBC is a free tool that enables business owners to control the content of their business listings as they appear in Google Search and Google Maps. All you have to do is claim your listing in the LBC and go through a quick verification process to get access to the following kinds of data:
* Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.
* Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business' website or requested driving directions to the business.
* Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for "tea" or "coffee"?
* Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to your location.
Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics/): Google Analytics is a web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.
Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.
Google Docs (docs.google.com): is a free, Web-based word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and form application offered by Google. You can import your existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, or create new ones from scratch. You can invite people to your documents and make changes together, at the same time.
Google Calendar (calendar.google.com):
* Share your schedule- web based
* Get your calendar on the go
* Never forget another event again with built in reminders via email or text
* Send invitations and track RSVPs
* Sync with your desktop applications(Outlook, iCal and Sunbird)
* Work offline
Google Mail or GMail (mail.google.com): Gmail is the Google approach to email and chat. Practically unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail's simple but very smart interface lets you find them precisely and see them in context without effort. POP and powerful IMAP access bring Gmail to any email program or device.
And I'm not even going to get into Google Wave, AdWords, or AdSense. If you want to read more about ALL of Google's tools, check out their Google Business Solutions page.
Bottom line -- no business but especially no small or local business can afford not to take advantage of Google's free tools. Don't miss out.
All websites, blogs and social media should include this handy tool for your subscribers and their very easy to embed and install.
Top Free Online RSS Readers on the Web
The Best online RSS readers can be just as good as offline RSS feed readers thanks to AJAX and the Web 2.0 explosion. These web-based RSS readers often use drag-and-drop functionality to make using them a breeze. They are also free, which makes it easier to try out different ones until you find the reader you like.
1. Bloglines
Features: Organize feeds into folders, save article clippings, email articles to friends, drag and drop functionality, three ways to view a feed: Quick View, Full View, and 3-Pane View
Description: An online reader with some good features, Bloglines lets you view feeds in multiple ways so you can get the information the way you want it. The easy-to-use drag and drop interface still has a few rough spots, but still shines above most other online offerings.
2. Newsgator
Features: Organize RSS feeds into folders, view consolidated feeds, save article clippings, email articles to friends, drag and drop functionality.
Description: Doesn't offer as many features as other online RSS readers, which can be a good thing if you don't need all the extras. Very easy to use and the ability to drag and drop feeds into folders makes organizing your RSS feeds a snap.
3. Google Reader
Features: Organize feeds into folders, multiple ways to read RSS feeds, star articles you like, email articles to friends, drag and drop functionality
Description: Though quirky in some areas like how you create new folders, Google Reader is a solid RSS feed reader with some nice features such as the ability to mark articles as read while you read them based on actually scrolling to the article.
4. MyYahoo
Features: Organize feeds into tabs, preview articles before opening
Description: Surprisingly enough, MyYahoo is one of the most popular online RSS readers despite being a personalized start page rather than a true online RSS feed reader. And, so long as you only need to keep up with a few feeds, MyYahoo can be a great reader. But once you fill up a couple of tabs, it might be time to move on to a true reader.
5. Genwi
Features: Manage RSS feeds and friend activity across the web, supports blogs, videos, streaming music and photos
Description: Genwi is both an online RSS reader and a friend manager. By combining the ability to keep up with your favorite blogs or news feeds with the ability to read a friend's Twitter updates, Flickr photo stream or YouTube items, Genwi has the potential of becoming a one-stop shop in keeping up with the web.
6. Rojo
Features: Group feeds by tags, add feeds without registering with site, vote on articles
Description: This RSS feed reader has some interesting features and is pretty to look at, but it has bad usability in places and can be confusing to use. Also seems to choke on some feeds for no understandable reason. Overall, seems a little rough around the edges.
7. Feedshow
Features: Organize feeds into folders, email articles to friends, two different views to display feeds
Description: Feedshow doesn't have anything to make it stick out from the pack. The interface lacks usability, does not support drag and drop, and can be confusing to those new to RSS feed readers. Newly added feeds can also take a while to show up, which puts a big dent in Feedshow's usefulness.
So where is your business in the "social soup"? Do you have zillions of "friends/followers waiting to hear your every word or have you stepped back to check the pulse on these relationships?
Here's how we have begun a process of determining friends and colleagues from the "fake" add me or follow me gender:
can you and have you exchanged real ideas that will benefit the relationship?
has the relationship been one sided or a free exchange of good ideas?
have you earned the privilege of being a true friend and associate?
Social is exactly what it means be real, be yourself , be open and aware of your surrounding and bring and give something back otherwise your just faking it!
There are certain things you can do to optimize your images and make sure they load faster. The following are a set of tools and practices you should consider using to enhance your images for faster performance:
1. Don’t scale images in HTML – Don’t use a bigger image than you need just because you can set the width and height in HTML. If you need then your image (yellow-balloon.jpg) should be 100×100px rather than a scaled down 400×400px image.
2. Use PNG instead of GIF – Convert any GIF image you may be using to PNG format and there should be a saving in the size amount, resulting in faster load times. Most of the times this practice is hesitated by web developers due to the limited support in older browsers, but old browsers are old now.
The only problem could be variable transparency, which is supported by neither formats. So basically whatever a GIF can do, a palette PNG (PNG8) can do too (except for animation). You can use a free web based image converter to convert your GIFs to PNGs.
3. Use small favicons – If you are not familiar with favicons, they are small 16×16 pixel images that represent your site (it can be found beside your site’s URL in the address bar and bookmarks) and they are located in your site’s root directory as favicon.ico files.
Favicons are extremely important because they are requested before any other components of your website by the browser. So guess what happens when you have a big sized favicon or even worse, no favicon? the browser is 404′d. You don’t want to 404 a browser or make it struggle loading your favicon, so it is preferred to have your favicon reduced to a size under 1K. You can use this free web based Favicon Generator to make yourself a nice favicon.
Optimizing images for better search engine rankings
With most of the talent driving competition to keyword industry, it is not surprising that ranking for desirable keywords is a difficult task these days. However you can still rank high enough for very competitive keywords in a slightly different but very lucrative environment – Google Image Search.
There are a lot of great articles about better image optimization for search engines by other authors, however I will show you some great tools to take full advantage of your precious images. Here we go:
1. Use batch file re-namers - You know it is advised to have the keywords you are targeting as your image names. For example, “widescreen-wallpaper.jpg” is better than “image.jpg” if you are targeting the keyword “widescreen wallpaper”. But what if you have 100 images? you don’t want to waste time renaming each image file separately. So do yourself a favor and find a batch file renaming program that will do the job automatically.
Windows users can do this with Windows Explorer (here is how) and Mac users can use Name Mangler to batch rename files. If you are finding it difficult to use Name Mangler, I have written an extensive tutorial on how to use it.
2. SEO Friendly Images WP Plugin – As the name suggests, this plugin will automatically update all of your images with proper Alt and Title attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Download plugin.
3. Media Library Gallery WP Plugin - This plugin will automatically create a gallery for every image you have stored in your media library. With this plugin you will create a browsable gallery for your users and more indexable content to search engines. Say hello to Google Image Search traffic! Download plugin.
4. Smush.it WP Plugin - Smush.it uses optimization techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a completely safe procedure, meaning it optimizes images without changing their look or visual quality. This practice is also confirmed by Yahoo Extreme Web Performance team. Download plugin.
Conclusion
Images are often under rated by many web masters in terms of not being significant traffic generators, however, I personally have been taking full advantage of images I use in my site by taking some time optimizing them for better performance. That is why Image Search is my primary referral traffic generator. Since there is no intense competition for image rankings, you can easily rank well for highly desired keywords.
Some might say “Google Image Search, who cares?”
But, once you understand just how potent Google image search really is, then I guarantee that you will be first in line to take advantage of the associated benefits. If you have any additional tips or tools, please share them in the comments below. I will love to hear your thoughts.
It’s extremely valuable for businesses to understand what the "social" in social media really means, and where its power lies, before launching any social media tactic. The social phenomenon is all about people. People are less influenced by brand and aren’t trusting institutions anymore. As the collapse of the advertising industry is showing us, people are tired of businesses trying to sell products through interruption.
So, how should businesses put the “social” in their marketing plans? Consider creating widespread employee and constituent blog content expressly for search. It humanizes an organization, thus making it more relatable to consumers.
Appearing in the organic results of a search engine page is a great opportunity for businesses to be seen by potential customers where they'll be appreciated. As with any marketing initiative, when your prospect expresses a need or problem, you need to wave your arms with the solution.
In order to accomplish this in search marketing, you must deliver relevant, human blog content that talks about customers’ problems and how you solve those problems effectively. This is the perfect opportunity for blogging; use their language.
Matt Cutts, head of Goggle's Web spam team, has simple advice for anyone targeting search: "Think about what people are going to type, and talk about that."
It seems so simple, but it's incredibly powerful. Here are four simple steps for corporate marketers to drive success for blogging strategies:
· Research the keywords that drive your business.
· Create titled, individual blogs, and target those keywords.
· Encourage all of your employees to create content.
· Solicit customer feedback and reviews. Thinking strategically
Getting the most out of your corporate blog requires you to think about blogging in a tangible, measurable way. With that being said, blogging’s first corporate benefit is search. Search traffic is the only traffic that can be controlled. Think about the three sources of blog traffic: direct navigation (people who type in the URL or RSS); referrals (people who find blogs because others have linked to them); and search engine queries.
The best you can do on the first two sources is hope that with good content people will navigate to you, or that other sites might link to you. Search, however, is absolutely 100 percent in your control. If you title blogs with keywords, you know what your prospects are searching for. And if you create relevant content about those terms, you stand a very good chance of influencing not only your ranking, but your traffic. Multiply that over many blogs, and you create a legitimate and appreciated search traffic machine.
The great thing about business blogging as an online marketing strategy is that it makes the customers/searchers really happy. They find the page that exactly matches the ways they're thinking about the problems — which are their search phrases — populated with stories on how people have solved similar problems for similar people all day long. The net result is low bounce rates, an increase in readership and, most importantly, high conversions.
Who are you targeting? It doesn't necessarily only have to be Gen Y consumers, Riley said in her report, since more people from older generations take part in social media every day. Still, marketers should target specific audiences to avoid sounding too generic.
2. How does your target audience use social media? Make your campaign revolve around consumers' behaviors and not simply your company's objectives. Older generations use social media differently than younger ones; find out how, and plan accordingly.
3. How should you come across? Sound "genuine" in your social marketing campaign, Riley advised, and not "cooler" than normal. Make your brand sound more personal than in other channels by making consumers' experiences consistent.
4. What do you want to achieve? Don't just launch a social media campaign because your competitors are doing it or your agency wants you to do it. Figure out your company's goals first. If you're rebranding, for instance, social media may be the way to go. Riley pointed to the viral videos Dove recently produced as a model to follow.
5. Are you ready for a long engagement? If you have consumers download a widget, they'll expect greater interaction from you over a lengthier period of time than with a commercial or banner ad. So Riley suggested using site analytics tools, surveys or user-generated content analysis to gauge consumers' social interaction with your brand. Incorporate fresh content for a lengthy time period to encourage ongoing interaction.
There’s a new way to turn these networks into net revenue, however, and it's based on a “five forces” framework. Understanding and then managing these five interdependent forces — which include me-driven, peer-driven, trust-driven, time-driven and cause-driven forces — help anchor the development of an effective social strategy. The following are the five forces explained in detail:
Me-driven
People often use social networks to display and extend their interests, or to assume alternate personas. Users decide with whom they interact, what conversations they want to join and what information they want displayed. These communities are about the people and relationships they foster, not about advertisers. Pull, not push, is the name of the game.
Peer-driven
Peers drive users to stay connected within their social networks. It’s also those peer-driven interactions that increasingly drive decisions. For marketers, knowing who has the influence in a social network is critical. Otherwise, advertisers are likely to find that efforts to engage the community will be as effective as mass mailings — with the added risk of bad viral reactions.
Trust-driven
Social networking blurs the line between what’s public and what’s private. The notion of trust in social networks operates on two levels: trust in the platform itself to protect the community and trust in its members that comprise the platform. But brands must earn the trust of the network before they can earn sales from its members.
Time-driven
The time trade-offs that people make between different social networks are a function of the interactions they wish to have, their needs at specific times and their interests. Competing for time and attention means that relevance is now the name of the game. Users need returns on their time the same way that marketers need ROI on their marketing dollars.
Cause-driven
Social networks have become platforms for advancing social change, and have changed the paradigm from charity-to-person to person-to-charity. For marketers, the key is to care about what your audience cares about so it, in turn, will care about you. The interest from advertisers, however, must be genuine because these communities can sniff out a commercial pitch faster than you can say “bad PR.”
Making the five forces work for your brand
Good marketing always has been about building a relationship with the customer. In many ways, social networks are the opportunity that marketers have dreamed of for decades: a chance to build relationships with a ready-made community of people who are open about who they are and what they like.
But social networks aren’t yours to control. And neither is your message. Ceding control is necessary to build credibility and prove the authenticity that's critical to being “friended” by these communities. Social networks are vibrant ecosystems that haven’t invited you in. Earning their trust and building relationships must come before the sales pitch. Heed that advice, and you’ll find that in the end both your company and your bottom line will be “friended” by them even more.
The reason you are redesigning your website is to impact your business, not because you are bored with the design or because your CEO wants it to be blue not red. So, focus on the results you want. More visitors, leads and customers. Every decision you make should be focused on improving those goals. Keeping that in mind, you might spend a bit less time worrying about the exact shade of reddish-orange on the callout background, and more time worrying about things that will improve your marketing results.
2. Avoid pitfalls. Inventory your assets, then protect them.
There are countless ways a website redesign can actually negatively impact your results. In fact, more often than not, website redesigns do have a negative impact on marketing results. Your existing website has a lot of assets that you have built up. These assets help your prospects find your website and help you turn them into leads and customers. You need to find out what those assets are (great content, keywords you rank for, inbound links to individual pages, conversion tools) and protect them carefully during the redesign. PS - Many "web design experts" get this stuff wrong. They are design experts not Internet marketing experts.
3. Spend resources on remarkable content that attracts and converts. Not unique design.
There is a great article from Seth Godin about this. He says "I'm going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there's one that you can start with? ...Your car isn't unique, and your house might not be either." Most people care about the content more than the design. The design should be good, but that does not mean unique and expensive.
4. Create an ongoing content building strategy.
If you have more content, on average you will have more website visitors and grow your business faster. A 100-page website will beat a 10 page website 90% of the time. And a 500-page website is even better. And if some of those web pages were written recently, that's even better. So, build a strategy to continue to add more and more content to your website over time. Hint: Blogging makes creating content easy.
5. Enable conversion experiments.
The key to driving your conversion rate and the number of leads you get from your website over time is to constantly improve the effectiveness of your conversion tools - this usually means your landing pages. If you build a completely static website and have to go to a consultant or IT person each and every time you want to set up a new landing page or to change an existing page, you might be limiting your ability to quickly experiment and improve. I am a believer that some sort of system that lets you edit content and build landing pages without having to know coding is a good idea.
6. Include a blog, RSS, landing pages, SEO.
Any website built today should include these basics. They are not expensive, and they work. A blog is a great way to create content on an ongoing basis, and to start to converse with your customers and prospects. RSS allows some content from your website to be automatically pushed out to other websites and people, increasing the reach of your content. Landing pages are critical to actually get value out of your traffic. And SEO is not hard, and it really works.
7. Metrics: Visitors and leads.
We have come full circle. If the goal was to increase visitors and conversions, then that is the metric we should track. What does this mean? It means if the CEO hates the new design, tell her to go pound sand and show her your improved lead conversion metrics. If your creative director says he loves the new design, ask him to explain why you are now getting fewer leads and why you should not change the website back to the old one.
Humor yourself and your clients we all live with stress and laughing always helps.
Keep your website updated with relevant content CMT has a contact management system in place whereby we can edit, publish, create and manage your entire web presence with our dedicated hosting included.
Trust your instincts you have they're usually right .
No matter has much things change basic principles still make sense.
Google seems to have gotten it right with their applications and search use them wisely.
Listen and be an observer or silent participant be willing and open to learn from everyone.
Do not follow everyone else because everyone's in the sandbox create your own voice.
Social media it has its place you must define where and how you fit in.
Be extremely cautions how you share your personal and professional information online.
Lastly do you really, really love what you do? This goes along way about how well you perform.
Did I miss something, I am sure I did, let me hear your ideas!
A recently published whitepaper by Johnny Royal, CEO/founder of Luthier Society, a multimedia firm based in Hollywood, Calif., laid out several social media 3.0 trends of which marketers should be aware. The following are highlights from the report, titled Social Media 3.0 and the Future of Viral Marketing:
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1. Multimedia microblogging
Microblogging is currently limited to short text messages and possibly links to photos or web pages. As a result of the creation and deployment of the multimedia messaging service — a standard way to send messages that include multimedia and content to and from mobile phones — users will be able to send text as well as short videos, photos and audio files directly to another phone user, Royal says.
2. Interoperability between platforms
Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Photobucket don't get along well, Royal says. To use them, users must become familiar with each site's procedures. What's more, few sites can connect with each other and share content easily. In the future, expect to see sites integrate together more fully to streamline the user experience, Royal predicts.
3. An increase in open-source technology
Currently, websites maintain their own usernames and login information, which users must remember when they register for these sites. Also, every time users become members of sites, they're required to fill out new profiles, which usually include information already contained in their profiles on other sites. Projects like OpenID and OAuth, for example, are creating single usernames/passwords for all social media sites, and automatically fill in profile data to save the user time and encourage site participation, Royal says.
4. Improved tracking and metrics
It's difficult to effectively monitor traffic and discussions on social media sites currently, Royal says. But many programs are in development that will make it possible to easily and accurately gauge what's being said about a particular topic or product, he says.
5. Predictive modeling and artificial intelligence
Savvy social media networks and sites already are looking for ways to enhance the user experience with predictive modeling algorithms based on data gathered from actual user behavior, Royal says. While this concept can be a tremendous boon to marketers, it will likely cause consternation among privacy rights activists, so expect to see a heated public debate on the topic before it's settled.
1) Find keywords. Pick a list of words relevant to your business. Think about which words are most likely to get people to do what you want them to do (convert into leads) and focus on those words. Then pick one word (or phrase) to use on one page of your site.
2) Put keywords in Page Title. The Page Title is one of the most important things that Google and other search engines evaluate to determine what is on a web page. Put your keyword or phrase in the title, keep it short.
3) Put keywords in Page URL. Google and other search engines also use the text of the URL of the page to determine the content of the web page. You should use your keyword or phrase in the URL of the web page - either the folder/directory structure or the HTML file / page name itself.
4) Put keywords in Meta Data. While the page metadata (Page Description and Keywords) are not nearly as important as they used to be, they still count. Take advantage of them by putting your keyword or phrase there. The description should be readable by a person and make sense and the keyword metadata should focus on your keyword or phrase - do not make it long, less is more.
5) Put keywords in your H1 text. The H1 text is usually the title of an article or some larger bold text at the top of your page. Google and the smaller search engines can see this and they put extra importance on the words in the H1 text. Make sure your keyword or phrase is there.
6) Use keywords in the page content. Putting the keyword in your page content also signals to search engines that the page is actually about the keyword and should show up in search results. I have heard from "experts" that you should use your keyword anywhere from 4-6 times to 10-12 times. My advice is to just write naturally.
7) Monitor your rank. Give the search engines some time to do their thing (couple days) and then keep checking your rank to see what happened and track your progress.
Saludos! CMT Creative Marketing branding, internet marketing and creative design. We look forward to your comments!
1. Best Premium WordPress Theme An intriguing title goes a long way towards getting people to the blog. Failing that, posts with numbers seem to work. Especially weird or odd numbers. 27 is odd.
2. A picture per blog post has been my trick for a while. It draws your eye, whether or not you want it to. We’re wired for it. I use Flickr Creative Commons photos to do that. (Make sure you give them adequate credit. I show that in this post, too.)
3. Did you ever notice most of my posts open by asking a question? That’s a secret. When I do that, you stop and think about the question. But more importantly, it shifts your mind to the “what’s in it for me” sphere that you started reading from in the first place. Make sense?
4. Break things up visually. Notice that I have an H3 tag (html speak) title repeating the top title, and that I’m using a list to give your eye some natural “chunking.” Go back and read cafe-shaped conversations for an example.
5. Oh, maybe I should’ve started the post by saying that it helps if you write something useful for people. People want posts they can use to improve themselves or their business.
6. Brevity rules. I mention this a lot. People just don’t read long posts (usually). There are exceptions. I read every word Ann Handley writes, and often wish for more.
7. Write “unfinished” posts. Having ways that others can add to a post or improve on it invites participation. This might just mean asking for ideas or getting a sense of what others’ experiences are.
8. Mix up the length of your posts, so that people can read varied length articles, like magazines and newspapers do.
9. Consider an editorial calendar, where you write down which TYPE of blog posts you’ve written lately, and which you intend to write. This helps you from doing recurring posts, and gives some variety to what you’re writing.
Technical Stuff
10. A nice clean blogging theme goes a long way. I’m a huge fan of Thesis for WordPress (so much so that I became an affiliate for it).
11. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your post. Most people stop at putting a big orange RSS button up in the corner of their blog. Check out my sidebar. Check out the Financial Aid Podcast. Look how many ways we show people how to stay connected to the community. That’s not by accident.
12. I’ve said it before. Claim your blog in Technorati. You don’t have to like Technorati. You don’t have to think it works well. But it triggers mechanisms you need.
13. Consider changing your permalinks structure. (In WordPress, this is in Settings/Permalinks. Where is it in MT or Blogger?) I learned this from Chris Pearson. Change it to custom and put /%postname%/. If you click on any post including this one, you’ll see it all written out in plain English without extra info. (This is a preference).
14. If you worry that a post might get “lifted,” or if you encourage people to repost your work with attribution (which I encourage), include a few links in the original post that will politely show people where the content came from. I learned this from Christopher S. Penn.
15. Consider every plugin and widget. Do they improve your blog or slow it down? Do they help you blog smarter?
16. Learn a little more HTML, just a bit. Learn how to make links, how to add photos, how to bold and italicize things, and that. If you’re stuck, Google or “view source” on blogs that do what you want to accomplish. (For example, I had to learn how to stop and start a numbered list with ol start=”10″ to write this.)
17. Don’t force people to register for an account to comment on the blog. Lots of people won’t. (Your mileage may vary, but corporations try this all the time because they’re worried about someone leaving a “your company sucks” comment on the blog. It doesn’t fix that. It slows down real discourse.)
18. Technology should serve your community and your content, not just be there. Consider every technological change with that lens.
The Bonus Round
19. Share your posts politely via social platforms. In Twitter, I usually ask a question, and provide a link to the blog post to see what people think. I don’t “blurt” the blog posts automatically. Not every post is worth Twitter.
20. Facebook has tools like Simplaris Blogcast that integrate your blog into Facebook. So does LinkedIn. This falls into my outposts strategy.
21. Link out to other blogs often.
22. Comment on other blogs often. Thoughtfully. Adding thoughtful comments to other people’s posts builds friendships. I was a passionate commenter on Copyblogger back when I had 10 subscribers on my blog. Brian was still really nice to me.
23. Remember to comment in your own comments section. Conversations with your readers turn them from readers into a community.
24. Showcase your community. I do this with my Rockstars page (which needs updating) and by taking the occasional guest post.
25. Be consistent. You don’t have to blog daily, but if you blog once a week, get at least a post a week. Need blog topics?
26. Repoint to the old stuff occasionally. It’s often still useful to new community members.
27. Keep giving. When you can’t think of what else to give, give some more. Being helpful is the #1 thing you can do for your community. Share your secrets. You can’t execute them all anyhow.
Chris has his opinions (and I like that) and he has a good handle on what's important in the virtual world!
Content Syndication is another series of tools we use to acquire
more inbound links for your website. Technically it’s still
considered “Off-Page” optimization, as we talked about in our
last article. But it’s significant enough that I consider it our
fifth fundamental aspect of SEO.
Content syndication is a process of submitting articles, e-books,
blogs, product announcements, press releases and RSS feeds to
various sites for publishing.
Each time one is published in another site, not only are you
providing your content on the Internet, the name of your website
is (usually) published in the article as a link back to your site.
The search engines regularly crawl these sites, and find the
links on them. When they find yours, it provides another vote
of confidence for your website.
Article Submissions
Here’s how it works:
1. We will typically write an article for your site
using one of the keywords we want to optimize.
2. We write the article around the specific keyword,
sprinkling that word appropriately throughout the
page – without over-doing it.
3. Next we do the on-page optimization. We’ve already
discussed how we do some of this before.
4. We publish it as a new content page on your site.
5. And then we send it out (submit it) to article directories
on the ‘Net for publishing.
Many of these article directories have high quality ranking,
high PR. So having just a few articles accepted by high PR
article directories can be very beneficial for the ranking of
the key words used in those articles.
Blog Submissions
The same concept is used in writing and submitting blogs.
You can create a blogsite. It can be either as an adjunct to
your site, or a completely separate site.
For example, Google provides free hosting for blog sites.
And Word Press provides a free blog engine and hosting as
well for blog sites.
Then go ahead and write articles, or blogs, for your blog site.
This is something we do for our clients as well.
You write about what’s current and interesting in your
business, and put it on the site. However, remember, this
is for SEO, so it’s important to write the article around a
key word that you’re optimizing.
When the blog is published, it also gets submitted to blog
directories and blog feeds. When somebody picks up the blog,
you get another link.
E-book Submissions
An e-book is an electronic book. It could be about anything.
It could also include articles, or chapters in it that are
keyword centered articles. You can make the e-book available
as a free download for your website visitors.
And you can also submit it to e-book directories.
When your e-book gets accepted, you get more links.
We often take the articles or blogs that have been written, and
combine them into an e-book and submit them to the e-book publishers.
Product Releases and News Submissions
Yep! You can write product releases and news releases
and submit them to the appropriate directories.
You can also publish these releases as blogs.
You get the idea.
Each of these methods is a significant part of enhancing the SEO
on your site. It not only adds content to your site, but is
capable of getting high-quality links back to your site.
In our next article I’ll be talking about some of the important
behind-the-scenes technical tools that are used in SEO.
In the meantime if you have any questions, call me.
As you become more involved there is a logic behind all this. http://cmtmarketing.net
YouTube has played an important role in many marketers video strategy, yet it does have its pitfalls. Two important advantages with YouTube is that it is free to use and drives consumer traffic daily. Overall, it’s important to keep in mind though how these free video services may impact your brand and your creativity. You’re competing against videos that show dogs riding skateboards, while you are trying to engage potential consumers with your brand. In order to gain traffic, are you going to also have to incorporate a similar tactic to win the audience and does it help your brand or hurt it? Here are some important things to keep in mind when thinking about hosting your video:
• Does it reinforce your brand? Does it match your “look and feel”?
• Is the content really yours after it’s uploaded?
• Do you get meaningful analysis and reporting?
• Is quality a concern?
• Are you making money?
• Are the related videos really related and how do they impact your brand?
Video will continue to evolve as an important medium in our overall marketing mix. Always consider "free" before jumping in there are open sources whereby the community is built upon sharing important work otherwise do your homework.
30 Ways to Get Links Naturally & Stop Link Building
30 Ways to Get Links Naturally & Stop Link Building
More and more conventional link building methods, like directory submission are of less and less value, Google does not even recommend high quality paid directories any more. In fact soon we’ll see a situation where all artificial ways of link building will be frowned upon.
On the other hand former SEOptimise writer and renowned UK search marketing blogger Patrick Altoft reported a few days ago about companies which spend thousands on link buying budgets per month. This way of link acquisition is not allowed by Google for a long time by now and many high profile sites have been penalized already.
While the urge of spending money on links comes as no surprise it is met by an often low quality shady part of the SEO industry. Getting links naturally requires also an investment, an allocation of time and resources combined with know how in some Internet industries like web design or development but not solely.
The money gets spend not on the links directly but on a web venture that gets links naturally and sustainably over time. The allure of “free” is in most cases the key to get links but also altruism leads to a direct ROI in terms of links. So think twice before spending money directly on low quality links.
Stop link building artificially and use one or several of the following 30 ways to get links naturally:
1. Create a timeless or regularly updated resource list, example Web developer’s Handbook
2. Program a free tool or software everybody needs in a particular niche but not everybody offers yet (compare the query font tester vs color picker)
3. Develop a high quality theme or template for a well known platform like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla that gets updated along the software
4. Program a WordPress or other popular blog platform plugin, in the best case a platform independent one like Akismet
5. Develop a Firefox plugin for a recurring task or dealing with a widely spread annoyance like BugMeNot
6. Organize a genuine yearly recurring competition like the Web 2.0 awards
7. Organize a Recurring charitable event like the Blog Action Day
8. Forge a lasting partnership with a similar service provider, like a graphic design agency joining forces with a PSD2XHTML provider
9. Build a community like 9Rules where people “proudly” are part of and display on it on their sites
10. Support artists with free or cheaper web hosting (or anything else they need) like MediaTemple does
11. Mirror a high traffic site, for instance an open source software or an activist site
12. Offer a rebate for a particular group, especially students but also workers class families, veterans or whatever disadvantaged group
13. Offer free music or other audio downloads. or at least a way to listen to the audio online, that’s the secret of success of MySpace
14. Offer free ebook or better free ebooks (more than one) like O’Reilly for instance
15. Maintain a business blog updated regularly with high value resources, best example is Inside CRM
16. Get your content translated and republished in multiple languages and countries
17. Join a community and become one of the most valuable members like Maki of DoshDosh did on Sphinn and Digg
18. Offer high quality free icons for download and free use
19. Offer background patterns for free for web designers
20. Offer free wallpapers for download and invite artist to modify them
21. Create a Facebook application and maintain it over time
22. Create a CSS solutions for common tasks or CSS problems or even better are whole set of solutions
23. Offer free scripts and “chunks code” (like CSS as it’s not a script) for webmasters to use freely
24. Create a highly useful and visually appealing Flash application like SimpleViewer
25. Give away images using a creative commons license on your website
26. Publish recipes for healthy, Italian, French, Chinese or any other kind of desirable food not everybody can buy
27. Offer fundamental self improvement advice like hackyourself does
28. Start a green initiative, whatever it might be, there are thousands of ways to do that, carbon free websites is great example
29. Educate children, especially from poor families be it in the West or down in the “global south”, e.g. the 100 Dollar laptop gained huge recognition
30. Help animals and boast about it displaying images of them you don’t have to as obnoxious as PETA
As you see many of these ways of getting links naturally are projects based on market forces or in other words on what many or most people need. The best thing on the Web is additionally that even free things normally not provided by the market can be offered in a profitable way as by gaining links the investment is made profitable at last.
Of course all these ways of getting links also get you reputation and fans and thus traction in social media too. People hate companies and busineses overselling but they love free stuff and those who offer it. When everybody loves you also those who are willing to spend money will find you.
In case you wonder now “how can I achieve that, I’m no programmer, designer, content creator, artist, activist” you don’t need to be, there are plenty out there are they’re short on money especially those from India. Sometimes even 100$ are enough.
Yesterday we addressed web engagement today we like to touch upon some web design concepts that will help your web presence.
The success equation for meaningful marketing is web visibility + credibility. Make your small business BIG with the strategic web marketing. We're here to support you!
Employ these three healthy web marketing steps to make your marketing multi-task:
1. Design. You have only one shot at making a great online first impression. With your competition only a click away, you need to make every website visit count. Good design solidifies your brand, establishes credibility, evokes trust, makes navigation clear, establishes your brand, appeals to your target customer and makes them feel good about doing business with you.
2. Usability. Make sure your site has a clear purpose, is easy to navigate, clickable items look clickable and that you have clear call to actions to engage action. Show your visitors what you want them to do when they get to your website - we all need guidance!
3. Visibility. Just because you built a website, does not guarantee that people will flock to it! Web marketing has so many tools (beyond the website itself) that can be tapped to increase awareness. Make sure your site is designed to attract search engines, consider creating community with blogs and social media, try online advertising and offer value on your site via good content. Take advantage of using email, search engine optimization, paid search ads and affiliate marketing to increase visibility. Find ways to connect, communicate and collaborate!
Stop Thinking Web Site, Start Thinking Web Solution!
First, its about first impressions. Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 seconds
The Web is #1 and will continue to grow so how your site looks reflects your attention to detail while promoting your brand
Your website is your brand
A search engine does not deliver engagement it delivers introduction
Your visitor needs to know that you understand them and their needs
Respect find out what it means to me, respect privacy and be cautious
Stay consistent deliver a single version of the truth so your audience receives a consistent message
Content is King(my favorite)feed your hungry visitor fresh, relevant, quality content
There are many more ideas and concepts but the take away is you have one golden opportunity to impress
its that moment when your visitor decides to take the next step. Continue the conversation and be prepared to deliver on your message.
I learned a valuable lesson that I want to pass on. You see, I think, I am pretty intelligent right. I understand tech stuff, I have lots of business experience, I am well traveled, speak three languages..yada..yada...
Well, I submitted a proposal thinking how smart I am to have developed this format with graphs, charts and lots of useless information that only a consultant would bother to read. Here is what came back and how I learned never to think I am smarter than my client:
Speak to your client in simple English review the points that are important and provide a solution
Never think your client will not read your proposal, they will and they will provide feed back
Remember time is valuable do not waste yours or especially your clients with your snobby intellect.
If your client really likes you, trusts you and believes in your capabilities call your client with specific solutions to their problems provide a time to complete their project and tell them you value their business. Stop the fluff ,it's not necessary, smart people know simple is a sign of brilliance!
2. Set your goals. Be reasonable and realistic.
Your social media campaign should not be about realizing your dreams about stardom and becoming an instant millionaire. It’s all about connecting with other people. Ask yourself who is the person who can help your business grow. Is it a potential client, or a partner, or somebody who can simply spread the word around? See how you can approach them and make them interested in what you have to offer.
3. Treat it as a project and be consistent.
It’s not a hobby or some kind of past time activity…. If you start your social media campaign consider it a serious project. You have to plan ahead and devote some time and hard work to it. The biggest mistake you can make is to start it and abandon if you don’t see immediate results.
Social media is not about (at least not JUST about) direct sales. That’s the biggest misconception of all. Starting conversations with your sales pitch would be the most effective way to turn people away. Social media is about connecting to other people, finding out what matters to them most and engaging them. Selling is a by
product of this process. People might not buy directly from you, but if you prove yourself as a trusted and knowledgeable professional they will bring you more business by recommending you to others.
Simple ways of accessing the web in a single search. LeapFish consolidates fragmented information from multiple sources and major web portals like Google, Ebay, YouTube and numerous social media outlets (blogs and social networks) and breaks it into simple and wider reaching results for the user all being provided with instantaneous search functionality (no more clicking the “search” button and being led to another page to get results). … Leapfish leapfish.com “Behnam Behrouzi” “search engine” …
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5 Marketing Tips for Twitter
The simplicity of Twitter is what helped make it one of the most popular and powerful online social media sites today. If used well, Twitter can be an effective and invaluable marketing tool that will let you reach a vast audience of potential customers and clients. The 140-character limit imposed on tweets forces your messages to be concise, and in this media-saturated culture, that is exactly the type of easily digestible format that people crave. Here are 5 tips for taking advantage of Twitter in your marketing strategies.
2. Engage your audience in conversation
Engaging members of your target audience in conversation is one the key pillars of a good marketing campaign. It’s not enough just to shout your slogan at them. You have to see what they have to say so that you can deliver your message in more effective and unique ways. To see what other people are saying and to respond to their tweets, use TweetGrid and TweetDeck. Look for relevant topics and add your two cents to the conversation.
then your image (yellow-balloon.jpg) should be 100×100px rather than a scaled down 400×400px image.
