Monthly Archive for June, 2010

Website Strategies #2: Mega Site

Published on June 30, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Strategy#2: “Mega-Site”

Mega site approach is good. Owner concentrates not only on very small niche and small content site like 10-20 page review site but goes after wide variety of topics that includes high competition and volume keywords as well as smaller sub keywords along with related niches / topics.

Core strategy is following:

- select the main keywords and their keyword categories and sometimes even more sub-subcategories;

- select related subjects and their categories;

- develop huge list of keywords of so called long tail (thousands of little keywords) that fits under the main topics;

- develop main topics (quickly) just to fill main categories;

- heavy development of long tail articles – this means creating articles on groups on these small keywords and optimizing them fast with couple good links. Usually this strategy will allow having 10’s of pages optimized within few shorts months and receive first targeted traffic;

- As the long tail is being targeted and developed, the more traffic and more links are achieved which eventually will result in subcategory rankings and later in rankings of all main categories.

This strategy relies on the principle of uncovering different low searched low optimized keywords from different angles that relate to the main topics and then optimizing them for driving thousands and thousands of visitors from search engines and leading them from these long tail pages to your main pages like product reviews and sales pages.

Truefocus – StartupBusinessEducation.com

Published on June 30, 2010 in Website Development Portfolio. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

We are helping Truefocus, LLC, to launch one of its summer campaign (StartupBusinessEducation.com).

Truefocus - startup business education

Truefocus is a distance Career and Business Development Center, that helps people find new careers in professions they love.  Isn’t it time you develop a new career objective and find a job you love?   Or if a budding entrepreneur, what about your dream of starting a small business?

Embrace Your Potential with Truefocus, and receive the counseling, coaching and business education needed for your journey.

Website Strategies #1: Blog

Published on June 28, 2010 in Website Online Marketing. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

The next couple postings will provide you with a couple of strategies for growing and improving your affiliate businesses using websites and search engine optimization.

As In any business it is important to have strategy. The same applies to affiliate marketing since it is your business and has to be treated like business.

Each has own strengths and weaknesses, that’s why we’re stepping in and providing you with couple strategies to use separately or in one big marketing mix to ensure growth and stability of your affiliate business.

Before you start to apply these strategies it’s important that you have already decent understanding about websites, hosting and other basic elements of web.

Strategy #1: “Blogs”

Very simple but yet effective strategy is blogging. Blogging is good from couple of aspects, like:

- Blogs are free to create

- There are many different blogging services to use with different and very flexible features;

- Very important – blogs are search engine friendly content management systems (CMS) that can achieve high rankings in search engines even without knowing much about technical aspects of search engine optimization.

Here are few examples on what to write blogs:

- Blogs can be used to create diary about ones progress using some enlargement method. By posting different feelings, aspects, pictures, can create an interaction with audience.

- Blog of course can be used as any regular website as long it allows customizing navigation, setting up categories.

What would be the blog strategy that works?

Basically the main goal is to create little blog network of 5-20 blogs that are on close topics to each other as well they should be aiming for low competition search terms. Usually it means either low searched term or also terms that are 3-4 and more words long.

Key factor in blogging is to have keyword rich content and then link it between blogs and other sites targeting these specific keywords and pages. See our other post regarding Link Campaigns for more details.

Each blog should be updated with 1-2 posts every other day or so. Blogs should achieve 10 or more posts each.

In a month’s time it would be quite realistic to achieve 100 visitors a day. Of course, some blogs will produce better and some not. Some will achieve higher rankings some will support these with links.

Last note on Link Campaigns

Published on June 26, 2010 in Website Search Engine Optimization. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Exit links per page

A common mistake many webmasters make is having lots of exit links to partner and affiliate sites. Sometimes it leads to 10 or more exit links per page which is bad from two aspects. Search engines can see this page as some sort of spam, and these many exit links take away valuable PageRank and minimize the possibility to rank well in search engines.

A simple solution is to minimizing the exit links and use them more effective. There is no need to have 25 links in one article whenever the product name is mentioned.

The same applies to link exchanges – there is no need to have on all pages links to partner pages. It is quite enough to create a separate page for this purpose and keep them there.

Exit links to other sites

The fact is that Google engineers say that it is normal to have one way links to a website as well as one way exit links to other websites (this means – the site that receives the link doesn’t have to link back). This makes sense since as there can be websites that are related and enhance the visitor experience or as references but once again don’t overdo. Several links are okay but too many again looks bad and can harm your website.

Final word

Add content and add links. Start slowly and as time goes on – increase the speed and keep adding content. Remember to link to the homepage as well as to internal pages or categories as well as getting one way and reciprocal links. Use a large number of keywords in your links and don’t overdo it with exit links, especially affiliate links per page. In no time the site will be driving steady stream of visitors and growing as you keep promoting it.

More on Link Campaigns

Published on June 24, 2010 in Website Search Engine Optimization. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Link gaining speed

The speed of links appearing in a website is used for several spam prevention filters invented by search engines. For a new website it wouldn’t be advisable to get more than 100 links in the first month. This mean 2-3 links a day as an optimum way for first month.

Why? Because site has to grow slowly as it would do naturally.

Next month the number of links can be grown at speed of 3-5 links per day.

On third month up to 5-10 links a day can be added.

For older sites that already have a good reputation and have PageRank of 4 or more and 500+ links, the speed can be faster – 10-30 links a day.

It is important to add links to internal sections/pages and add new content constantly as the link campaign is being executed.

Link relevancy

Nowadays situation relevancy is taking an even higher importance than ever. Engines take a serious look at not only what PageRank and reputation the site has, but also the topic the site is about.

For example, if page “Weight loss pills” links to website “Programming”, this will be interpreted as bad and a low quality link that won’t offer as much benefit as if the link were on the same or a familiar topic.

The more links from relevant topic pages – the better.

Link proportions

There are lots of rumors about what link proportions a website should have. How many links should be one-way and how many of them can be reciprocal?

Answer is simple – the more one way links to website the better! 20, 30, 50, 90, 100%!

Why? Simply put – the more one way links the more valuable the site is and the better reputation it has.

If reciprocal linking is used heavily, the engines can minimize the value of them. Another thing is that link partners take away a portion of PageRank.

Link Campaigns

Published on June 22, 2010 in Website Search Engine Optimization. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Links are the most important element after content on the internet! Why? Because this is how the internet world is tied together – through links.

This posting will explain key factors about links and how to use them in the right way for acquiring good rankings in search engines.

Every successful web site has to have links pointing to it. That’s the core principle of search engine rankings. So to gain visitors and rankings in search engines a link campaign must be planned and executed.

Where to get links

Links can be gained in several ways – the most popular are explained below.

Directories – are the best way to start working on your link campaign. There are hundreds of directories and many of them are free so it is good to start there. Some might require a backlink before accepting inclusion, some might require $5-20 payment but in return will give 4 to 10 links to your website to different pages and with different link texts.

Forums and newsgroups – are another option for gaining links – all it takes is posting into related places and along with posts include also links to website. Links can be integrated in signature or also in part of reply if there is appropriate information.

Blogs – are a great solution to give its owner total control over content and links. As a lot of blogging companies offer blogs for free it just makes sense to create them and use for link creation and building a network of sites around central website, however these blog sites have to be linked by other external sites.

Articles and press releases – represent a very powerful strategy for getting one way links as well as an instant stream of extra visitors if the article is republished by some online or offline medium. Places to submit articles:
http://www.newswiretoday.com
http://www.prleap.com
http://www.freepressrelease.co.uk
http://www.prweb.com

DMOZ and Yahoo directories – these two are very powerful in eyes of search engines – also called trusted sites. Link from any of these will assure search engines that your site should be high quality. However, it is quite tricky to get in free DMOZ especially if it is a 13 page affiliate site with links and banners everywhere. The same applies to Yahoo as well as 300$ to 600$ nonrefundable fee to review your site for inclusion which won’t guarantee inclusion.

Link exchange – most popular way for gaining huge numbers of links and improve site rankings. Only disadvantages that reciprocal links are worth less than one way links.

Link networks – stay away from these. Getting 500 links in one day is a sure way to get penalized by search engines.

Using Social News to Build Buzz

Published on June 9, 2010 in Social Media, Website, Website Online Marketing and Website Search Engine Optimization. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Unfortunately, simply submitting your article to these social sites isn’t enough to pull in a massive audience. The good news is that you can act to improve your chances of hitting the social news jackpot.

Search the Web and you’ll find plenty of articles on how to “game” social news sites, most often by paying a dodgy service to skew votes using nefarious methods. We can’t discourage you from this approach strongly enough. Not only will your story immediately get buried by legitimate users, but going this route will also tarnish your organization’s name and pretty much ensure that no other stories from your company’s web address ever get promoted on that site. It’s the kiss of death!

Sites like StumbleUpon and Yahoo! Buzz are also efficient at filtering out lame, planted, or paid-for stories.

Your first plan of attack should be to generate mind-blowingly entertaining content that will make the masses laugh, cry, and be inspired all at the same time. Yep, this is a tall order. If you use social news services for any length of time, however, you’ll get to know their constituencies. You’ll start to see recurring themes among the popular stories. Studying these can help you to frame your own content appropriately. Here are some strategies that seem to consistently resonate with social news communities.

Following these guidelines can help move your stories up the ranks and closer to the front page.

Write a top 10 (or 20 or 53) list. Social news readers seem to love lists and often promote them.

  • Share stories about technology innovation. As we’ve mentioned, social media early adopters tend to be techies, so these news sites are often geek-heavy. Industry-specific tech wars, such as Apple versus Windows, can be great fodder on technical sites like Slashdot.
  • Teach something. Tutorials and advice are popular; for example, we’ve seen front-page stories on Digg about “How to take photographs in direct sunlight” and “Fifty scientifically proven ways to be persuasive.”

  • Be political. Hot or politically charged news stories typically attract attention.

  • Be controversial. Controversial findings from scientific studies or polling results often initiate heated debate.

  • Post anything cute and cuddly. Why is it that we can’t resist stupid pet tricks, sneezing pandas, and other amusing memes?

By reading your social news sites of choice diligently, you’ll get a clear understanding of which stories are popular. Keep that firmly in mind when creating content to post on social news communities.

Measuring Success for Your Website

Published on June 7, 2010 in Website, Website Metrics and Website Online Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Many marketers are familiar with the notion of the marketing dashboard: watching the status of ongoing marketing activities, including spending and sales, to measure the return on marketing investment.

To build your own online marketing map, you must first determine your goals. Forrester analysts have invented an excellent approach for developing social media objectives called POST: people, objectives, strategy, and technology. POST encourages marketers to get to know their customers and to set concrete goals up front.

First, figure out who your customers are. Where do they spend their time online, and how do they like to interact when they’re there? How can you engage with them in a positive, meaningful way? Second, specify your ideal campaign outcome. Do you want a two-way relationship with your customers and potential customers? Do you want to reach a new audience? Do you want people to start talking about your product?

In the strategy component that follows, create a plan for what you will do if customers embrace online initiatives. How will you keep them engaged? What will you do to strengthen those relationships? Answer these questions before you start blogging, tweeting, or posting on Facebook.

The results you want should drive your critical technology decisions. If you choose to become active in a social network where your customers don’t hang out, you won’t be successful. If you want to build buzz, then a blogger outreach campaign is probably a better choice than starting a corporate blog. By taking all these factors into account and then measuring results against concrete objectives, you’ll know whether you’re on the right track.

In all cases, we encourage you to be as specific as possible. For instance, instead of simply gathering more incoming links, identify the kinds of sites you want to link to yours.

Be Realistic and Humble

Published on June 5, 2010 in Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Companies new to social media often have misconceptions about what’s achievable.

They tend to believe that if they upload a video on YouTube, that video will automatically get a million views. That’s simply not the case. As more and more content goes online, earning audience attention gets harder.

For this reason, testing your strategies before committing to target numbers and setting goals is a good idea. Companies often immediately expect thousands of visitors a day, when a much more realistic starting point is a couple hundred. And of those visitors, only a subsection will be the ideal target audience.

Still, a couple hundred visitors to your website each day is a good start, so don’t get discouraged early on.

Great Tips for Writing the Meta Title Tag

Published on June 3, 2010 in Website Search Engine Optimization. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

The Title Tag plays a vital role in determining your site’s search engine rankings. One needs to pay attention to the words that appear in your Title Tag and the order in which they appear. As the tag suggests, Title Tag announces the summary of the content appearing on the page. Think of it as a crisply worded sales phrase and include your most relevant and specific keywords or key phrases in the Title Tag describing the content of the page.

You could put the product or service you are offering in the Title Tag, instead of your firm or company’s name. For example, if you have a site offering kitchen appliances, instead of having a title like “www.cooking.com”, you could have a specific keyword rich Title Tag like “Bar Blenders: Waring Kitchenaid Hamilton beach Cuisinart bar blenders and blender”. This title would cover several keyword phrases like- bar blenders, bar blender, Waring bar blenders, Kitchenaid bar blenders, Hamilton Beach bar blenders, Cuisinart bar blenders, blender etc.

Most users search for specific products and services, not company names. If you do wish to include the site name, then you can add it at the end of the Title Tag. Having your most important keyword phrases towards the beginning of the Title Tag helps display your title in bold in the SERP (search engines results page). Title Tags are also the text that gets captured when users bookmark your page.

Google usually reads about 90 characters of your Title Tag. So, leverage this length to cover prominent keywords relevant to the page. A common mistake webmasters make is to have the same Title Tag throughout the site. You must leverage different Title Tags for each page and customizing it depending on the content theme