Blogussion » blog promotion

The Ugly Side of SEO

Carmela@Blogussion — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:28:40 +0000

AS a blogger, I’m sure you’ve already come across advice that extols the merits of using SEO. Since it’s one of the quickest and most effective ways to drive traffic to your web site, SEO is now considered as one of the most essential site maintenance tools. Properly applied, this can empower your website and make it much more appealing to your market.

Black hat, white hat: It only takes a devious or uninformed move to turn an innocuous SEO technique into something unethical or downright illegal.

Now you can easily find lengthy online lists and discourses on what SEO practices can benefit your blog the most, and you may have relied on a few of them. But have you ever considered that as some point, some formerly recommended SEO techniques may inadvertently turn you into a spammer?

Here are a few common SEO practices that have turned ugly.

Comment and email spamming

Let’s begin with outright spam activity. First off, promoting your business via email and blog comments is encouraged and practiced by plenty of professional online marketing companies. If you do this the right way, you can generate widespread interest in your website quickly and very easily.

On the other hand, when your email or comments degenerate into a one-size-fits-all one-liner message + link, then that’s pure spam. Check out online regulations regarding spam, such as the CAN-SPAM Act. If your SEO techniques fail to comply with its rules, then you better find other ways to market your blog.

Link spamming

Flooding a comment box, forum post, or article with links to the same site is automatically considered as spamming activity, but sometimes it also takes just one badly placed link to create spam. I’ve seen this mostly in forums and comment boxes, where one-time posters leave one link in a remotely related discussion and never return.

IT DOESN’T WORK. Whenever Google detects spamming activity, it will simply send the site to the Google Sandbox for up to several months, and later remove it from the search engine index. If that happens, your site is doomed.

Random keywords

Keywords are the foundation of SEO. However, many misguided posters, writers, and webmasters simply incorporate random and usually irrelevant keywords throughout their content in the hopes of attracting as many visitors as possible.

If the keywords that you use are not what your market needs, then they won’t serve you at all. You can beat this by doing research first on what resonates well in your market so you can adopt the most effective keywords for your website.

Keyword stuffing

Related to wrong and random keyword usage is keyword stuffing. How many times do you expect to see the keywords ‘web development’ in a single paragraph of 200 words?

Bad SEO practitioners liberally pepper their statements with the same or similar keywords, sometimes to the point that the entire thrust of the message is lost. It only makes the content sound forced. It’s much better to trim down your keywords and apply them strategically at the strongest points of your content, where they matter.

Link buying

Once considered effective, this is now a highly dubious practice. Buying links to generate better online exposure poses more risks than returns because it is easy for your competitors to keep up with you and leverage their other assets against your business. At best, link buying can be used to support your entire marketing strategy.

Cloaking

As the term implies, cloaking is presenting different content to a search spider from what you show to your readers. What happens is that the search engine receives a set of scrambled but targeted keywords to increase the site’s ranking. It is also used by some webmasters to trick users into visiting their site.

For instance, a user will click on a website based on a search engine’s results and description, but will be redirected to another site different from what was described in the SERP’s. Obviously, this method is highly deceptive and could quickly get you banned.

Have you ever tried any of the methods listed above, and how did they affect your blog or website? Have you encountered anyone attempting to spam your website with these and other tactics, and how did you deal with them?

These practices may increase blog traffic at first, but in the long run they will drive more potential traffic away.

In the end, it is still much better to create substantial content, products, and services that will offer your target market specialized value, then promote it in a systematic, strategic, and ethical manner at a slower but steadier pace. And it only takes one false move to destroy months or years of building your brand’s integrity, so protect it at all costs.

Photo credits: asdfing.com, artdriver.com

Carmela Maraan has written on various topics ranging from marketing, advertising, blogging, and creative writing to adult material. She is enthusiastic about expanding her repertoire as she views the world as one huge library. During her free time she is also a voracious reader, an irrepressible singer, and a mom who hardly sleeps.

Why Guest Posting on a Low PR Site is Worth Your Time

AmandaDisilvestro — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:00:15 +0000

I often spend an entire hour searching for websites that I think are “worthy” of my writing. After all, I’m a brilliant writer, and not every website is popular enough to be given the pleasure of reading my writing. I want as many people to read my articles as possible so that I can help bring traffic to my personal blog. For this reason, I have always looked straight to the Google page ranking (PR) before even considering writing for a website. Google is where I want my blog ranked, so I want to write for sites that Google thinks are worthy.

Now, I realize there are very passionate defenders of Google’s PR but just as many supporters out there that think PR is a thing of past- that it’s not the absolute best judge of a website’s usefulness. So let me hear about what you all think, okay?

What does my opinion matter anyway?

After realizing that there were some great websites out there with low PR rates, I realized I was being a little bit ridiculous.I do not actually think my writing is as sophisticated as business geniuses like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. In fact, I write so that I can help people improve their small businesses, and I don’t care whether or not the article is read by the brightest minds in business. I want my article to be read by those who have questions, no matter how early or how established they are in their careers. This led me to wonder: Is it worth my time to guest post on sites with a low PR?

Where, When, and Why to Guest Post

1. Where

—Make sure that the site with a low PR has potential. There are many sites out there that are not ranked highly by Google for a reason—they are not maintained, they have no clear focus, hard to navigate, etc. However, there are websites who have a low PR simply because they are new on the scene. Check to see if there is an “about” section, a “guest posting guidelines” section, and a clean and clear layout. If the author has good credentials, is posting regularly, and the site is easy to navigate, you’ve hit the guest posting jackpot.

2. When

—Before you attempt to guest blog on any site, low or high PR, make sure that the personal blog you are linking back to is something you want people to see. If so, then guest posting is a great way to help your site gain popularity and rank with Google. The best time to guest post for a site with a low PR is really the same as posting for any old site. If you have an article ready to go, do not hesitate to pitch it to a site with a low PR. Why? Keep reading!

3. Why

—You do not want to ignore sites with a low PR for a couple of reasons:

Freedom—Sites with a low PR are usually more open to the types of posts you will submit. The site is just starting out, so they do not have as much room to be specific. They should want quality content, but you may be free to write about any topic with any tone you wish.

The Blog May Grow—If you saw potential in a blog, there is a good chance it will grow to be one of the biggest. If this is the case, you will have gotten in on the ground floor. In other words, once the blog grows the editor will know your name, know you helped contribute quality content, and your blog will benefit. Google will also see that your articles appeared on a blog with a high PR; thus helping your personal blog even further.

Overall, guest posting for sites with a high PR or a PR comparable to yours is the best option. There is no denying that this will help get your name and your blog out there to the public faster because your page will slowly get ranked faster on Google. However, do not discount writing for sites with a low PR. There are benefits. If you can pick out a blog with good potential and that blog grows, you will be seen as smarter (and more worthy) than all of those writers who ignore low ranked sites.

Photo Credit:humancmu.com

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to factoring. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including business
proposals to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading B2B Directory,
Business.com.

Creating a Trend to Effectively Stand Out

Derek Jensen — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:00:47 +0000

What does it mean to create a trend? A trend is really a specific direction that something or someone develops over a given amount of time that begins to spread to many others. In the case of blogging we, bloggers, should think about starting a trend for our blogs. Creating a trend will allow us to effectively stand out from the immense blogosphere. I strongly feel if we don’t have that urge to create a trend, why even blog, so let’s get started and spread our passions!

We can adapt many known practices to blogging

This thought initially came from hearing my professor lecturing one day in my advertising class. It had stricken me that if we push for creating a trend then followers and competition will increase. This is a thought process that has been practiced in our markets all across the world, so why not adapt that to blogging.

I am pushing for you to really dig deep into your passion, thought process, and overall vision. You, your content, and your community will all be affected. The post itself is a long read, but I hope you enjoy and looking forward to your feedback.

We all should be standing out in the blogosphere or the web if are striving for that ultimate success or happiness. I know that we each have a different definition or scope for our success or happiness, but we need to stand out.

Why should someone see, visit, or even care about you versus “them” or someone else? This comes down to your “unique selling point” and your overall marketing strategies. Our marketing strategies seem to all be very similar today, but many are brainstorming how to “twist” these proven and practiced strategies around in strictly benefiting them, their blog, and their community. So what’s this twist?

It’s setting a trend. They are creating a trend to promote them and their content in ways that will directly and indirectly positively affect them. Time to stand out.

Let’s now break this “creating a trend” concept down.

1. Bond to Your Passion

Your passion should be the reason you are blogging, creating quality content, and striving to be happy and having others feel the same way. I really want to emphasize that this needs to be your passion and not something that you thought would be great to do because you saw potential, etc.

Conversations with people may present more insight than you thought

For instance, while having a casual conversation with Daniel Delaney from Vendr.TV the other day, I asked him if he started Vendr.TV because he saw it as a potential or untapped niche or if he did it because it was his passion? His response was that it was his true passion and he wanted to make sure he rocked it out.

Once, we have our true passion we can then begin bonding to it. Bonding to it? Yes, act as if this passion is your child and strive to make it grow the best and healthiest ways possible. Don’t like the analogy, then bond to your passion by staying close with it and always checking whether whatever steps (big or small) you’re taking that they actually fit.

Allow time for your passion to truly find you and be ready to roll with it if you aren’t already.

2. Push for Originality & Creativity

Here are where things get interesting, messy, and filled with many ideas while brainstorming. Even while you might see this as “not for me” because this is not how you role with things, you should think about these general ideas:

Showing Your Voice
Quality & Unique Content
Word-of-Mouth

These are some general ideas of how we make our blogs different than others, whether they be in the same niche or not as us. Digging deeper, we must go beyond these ideas and begin to think about making that trend I’ve been talking about.

For a quick example you can use already established tools like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, related blogs, people, and Google to help integrate in this “digging deeper action”.

Missing the necessary “funk” could lead to a slow death for you and your blog

Now, originality and creativity are terms that have to come from the inner part of you. And to get to the point of starting a trend, think about the ways and methods you will put into immediate effect in order for people to make an immediate realization or generalization. This could be very simple or very complex depending on the level of creativity, originality, and needed hustle.

We’re now in a spotlight and waiting for everyone to come piling through the doors to see and hear what you have for them.

We all have some sort of originality and creativity to help us and our blogs stand out from the typical crowd into our very own spotlight.

3. Influence on Auto-Pilot

Things are on auto-pilot when you have everything programed in, figured out, and it’s just a matter of being along for the ride. Additionally, you are able to spend time focusing on more specific things such as reaching closer to your community.

Now, that you are closer to your community and your community feels this relationship the term “influence” starts to take shape. You now begin influencing your community, which influence other people all seeing what you have just done. What you have done meaning your original passion that you’re bonded to. This intial reaction from the infleuence is really inspiration that leads to a trend.

People are inspired by you and what you have merely done with your passion or finding out that their passion relates to yours to go out and “compete”. So many are aspiring to be like you and this influence will be on auto-pilot to continue that trend you either intended or not on starting.

While your influence continues to grow the trend, how do you make sure you stand out?

4. Being the Leader-of-the-Pack

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Now, you are at the point of being what I call the “leader-of-the-pack” where you are at the top of this trend/movement.

A quote by the honorable George S. Patton is highlighted directly above (to the right) and raises a terrific point while you are the leader-of-the-pack.

Since we have have built this trend we now have the responsibility of maintaining it. We must treat everyone who has been influenced to be apart of the trend as competition. But, we must not fear of this competition. We should only fear of us losing our touch. But, we are really at the point to effectively stand out in whatever niche or area we feel we are in. It’s really all up to you though.

Finally, we are back to square one in bonding to our passion. No, this is not simply a repeat.

5. Spreading Your Passion

Bond to your passion by staying close with it and always checking whether whatever steps (big or small) you’re taking that they actually fit.

Sticking to your passion will only continue to spread this trend. This will then most likely spread your passion, which goes back to my first point of that this should be the main reason we all blog.

What will be your trend and how will you stand out?

Let’s go starting make our very own trend and spread our true passions!

Blogging With a Battle Plan: My 3 Phase Marketing Plan

Chris Scott — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:00:28 +0000

When I began my blog about blogging, I decided to not make the same mistakes I had in creating previous blogs. I decided to have a concrete marketing plan, one that I would stick to no matter what. After all, most Internet marketing plans are not flawed intrinsically but flawed in the way they are carried out.

Today, I’d like to reveal some of the key concepts of my particular marketing campaign and where I am in that plan. I can honestly say that after 3 months I am right where I intended to be, no where near the top of my niche but slowly gaining ground.

Below is a brief overview of my plan. I’m giving away just enough information as to not show my hand to any would-be copycats.

The Battle Plan

Phase 1: Foundational Content Building

Since I’ve started my blog about blogging in February, I’ve written over 70 posts, which amounts to something like 3 to 5 posts per week. Some weeks, the information just flies out of my brain like a jet stream of free-flowing consciousness. Other weeks, I just can’t get motivated and need to rely on things like Alex’s official “Get Your Ass in Gear or Bad Things Will Happen” list, which is really all the inspiration I need sometimes.

The importance of having a vast archive of information is essential to any blog marketing campaign. Not because people like to crawl your archives (you are the only person who does that) but because your archives serve as a catalyst for permanent, ever-flowing search engine traffic.

Once you have a substantial archive of original information, you can afford credibility from Google. I’ve developed websites for years and, in accordance with what the gurus say, Google uses original content quantity as a primary factor in determining rankings. That means that if you set out to target an individual keyword for Google traffic, you are much more likely to be successful if your landing page is found on a site with a vast number of other pages.

This may seem obvious but many web entrepreneurs set out to sell a product online through a single page site (sometimes called a mini or micro site) and driving traffic solely on the merit of strong link building campaigns.

Mini-sites can be great for selling products through referral and affiliate traffic (traffic from other sites) or for social media campaigns (e.g.: Matt Inman’s army of comic mini sites including Things Bears Love) but are comparatively less effective than content rich sites for attracting organic search engine traffic. Because of the nature of blogging, my guess is that most bloggers are looking to get traffic by building content-rich sites.

The definition of a content-rich site

At what point is a blog considered content-rich in the eyes of search engines? That’s a matter that is very much up for debate among web developers. Some gurus say 100 pages is enough. I’ve decided half that number, primarily because a majority of my first few dozen posts are long (over 600 words).

Phase 2: Short-tail Keyword Targeting

After about 50 posts or so, I decided to move into phase two and target short-tail keywords (logical search terms) to establish credibility with Google and get that initial flow of traffic. I use all ree methods of link-building which includes but is not limited to: commenting on do-follow blogs, link exchanges and article marketing.

Manual link-building is a tedious task and the fruits of your labor are not seen until many months later, if ever seen at all. The best and most powerful links are natural links or those that come from other websites voluntarily. Ironically, you can’t get natural links until you first have unnatural links – or links created as a direct result of your efforts.

If you think people like Chris Brogan still spend time manually building links by submitting to article directories, commenting on other blogs and asking for reciprocal links, think again.

Chris Brogan has put his time into manual link building, and is now enjoying the benefits of a constant stream of natural links. All Brogan has to do is provide the content. Now, the quantity of natural links Brogan receives is only variable to the quality of his content. That’s where I want to be in three years. First I’ve got to put my hard time in.

You can replace the name “Chris Brogan” with the name of any big-time blogger. All big-time bloggers have one thing in common: they worked extremely hard to get to where they are now. If you thought Internet marketing was going to be easy money, get out now.

So far, I’ve successfully targeted two major keywords in my niche and ranked 1st in Google for both of them. Along with passively targeted long-tail keyword traffic, the two targeted short-tail keywords have given me roughly 200 daily visitors and an Alexa ranking close to 200K. That’s quite an achievement for me. Soon I will be moving on to phase three, which I will briefly explain below.

Phase 3: Extroverted Marketing

The two previous phases in my plan were somewhat introverted. I needed to build an enormous stockpile of content for MY site. I needed to build links to MY site. Phase three involves something a bit counter-intuitive: building quality content for OTHER PEOPLE’S sites.

Rather than only offering something of value on my own site, I will soon focus my marketing efforts on bringing value to other sites in my niche. On the Internet, very few things are accomplished alone; through the use of guest blogging, I can grow my blog by providing a service to other bloggers.

Guest posting is not for everyone. It requires strong copyediting skills and a tenacity that will not dimmer when posts are rejected or never looked at. Writing is my forte so I am very excited to soon be moving into phase 3 of my plan.

There is a large base of make money on the Internet, blog tips and SEO blogs authored by non-English speakers that have found enormous success by relying on marketing tactics that require no writing ability whatsoever. This is because search engines don’t know the difference between good copy and bad. People do know the difference. If you plan on guest posting you really ought to learn how to use a semi-colon first.

That’s MY Plan…

Now that I have given a brief outline of my blog marketing plan and where I am in it, I’d like to hear what some of the Blogussion readers have as a plan and where they are in it.

Do you even have a marketing plan? Do you consider yourself on track with it? What parts of your marketing campaign need to be amended?

Reaching New Customers By Expanding Your Vision

Seth — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:39:24 +0000

I‘ll be honest. Searching for new readers and customers is hard.

The work does not scare me though, it’s the fear of not being able to attract readers and customers even after I’ve put in the work. I’m guessing this fear is not new to you or to me but is something every blogger and internet marketer is faced with everyday. The great question: “Where am I going to get more customers from?”

First, the enthusiasm of starting a new blog venture is exhilarating. After a few weeks of checking your stats and analytics every day the exhilaration turns to disappointment. Soon your disappointment turns to frustration and then to the thoughts of quitting.

I see this pattern over and over again each week with a number of clients I work with. They all are looking for a quick fix and the same boring marketing ideas someone else tried to work for their blog. Before they get any further I give them a little expert advice:

Blogging is a long-term business venture, not a short-term fix

If they want to make money fast then I tell them to learn the stock market (risky), get an offline job, or sell a service (design, etc.). Now I know beginners can make money from blogging because I did when I started out. Beginning bloggers can also pick up traffic very fast if they have the knowledge, skills, and time.

Understanding What Traffic Is

This sounds pretty childish but I have found far too many bloggers don’t even realize what traffic is. Yes they know its someone going on their website/blog but other than that they have only a visualization of numbers and graphs.

First, Traffic or customers/readers are people. Now that statement isn’t usually life shattering or new, but too many bloggers actually forget that simple fact.

Second, traffic is not a measure of money made. There are some blogs that are so good at what they do that with very few visits then convert their few hundred visitors into buyers and subscribers. There are also blogs with thousands of readers but making no money or getting no new subscribers. Traffic is not a direct measurement for money-making methods.

Third, traffic increases when the people viewing your blog actually like what they see. In other words the more value your blog has to the reader the more likely they are to: come back, keep reading, and tell a friend. Making a quality blog visitors can land on (view) is the #1 priority of blog owners.

Understanding Why You Need Traffic

You are probably rolling your eyes right now. Stop and keep reading.

I am not talking about the most basic reasons for traffic like for someone to see your blog. I am talking about a concept that is deeper and more intricate. You will need to do some inward introspection and goal setting too. The reason will be somewhat individual to each of you but makes the biggest difference in your blogging. Why do you want traffic?

When I asked myself this question a few years ago everything changed for me.. no really it did. You see bloggers want more traffic because traffic is good. Traffic in our minds mean making money, becoming popular online, and sharing our message. But what is it that you want to do with those goals? Why are you working so hard to get visitors?

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.

A recent client of mine has a very nice blog on traveling. They write thoughtful articles that are valuable resources for their readers. The last few months as I have helped them learn more about blogging I have seen their traffic jump by 74% and they are becoming more excited about their success. The problem is they are not trying to do anything with their traffic. They are working their guts out to get traffic just to have it. In other words they want traffic just for the sake of having traffic!

Now that might sound dumb, but that’s what 90% of all bloggers are doing. They say they want to earn money online, make a difference, or accomplish some other goal but they are not using the traffic they have and don’t even understand really why they need traffic.

Like we talked about earlier, traffic really means people. People read, buy, and participate on blogs. Or at least that is the goal. If you are not optimizing your blog to convert your traffic into readers, buyers, and community members then stop promoting your blog right now! Everything you are doing will be for nothing!

Instead figure out what your goals are with the blog and how you want to accomplish them. What are your visitors doing to accomplish your goals? How can you help them help you? Once you understand why you need your traffic and what they can do for you then it’s a lot easier to understand how to get new traffic.

How to Get New Customers/Readers

Here’s where I hope to inspire you the most.

Up until this point I have been trying to help you see traffic for what it is.. people and a means to accomplish your goals. As such the route you take to find more people to see your blog and reach your goals is much more different then the route you take to get “Traffic”.

Here are some of the key differences in thinking about traffic as people, like your family, friends and co-workers:

You are more likely to share your very best resources with them.
You wont publish what you are not proud of.
You will try to be as helpful to them as possible.
You will think about the problems they have and provide solutions/resources for them.
You will be more focused on providing meaningful experiences then you will be with attacking them with useless ads and links they don’t need or care about.
Your relationships will get better.
Your community will increase because you care enough to respond to every comment and ask people sincerely what they think.
You will reach out to other people who need your resources and provide them with the solutions.
You will not be working for free, and you will end up with more money because your approach is about relationships and achieving goals together.
You will have more traffic then ever before.

Hopefully you see the positive effects of how seeing traffic in a more pure and positive light will improve the way you blog and in turn the traffic you get. Here are some more tips to help you get new traffic that are somewhat original to way too many bloggers.

Connect with other bloggers – You are not mingling with the enemy! The more bloggers you get to know the more traffic you will get. Meet people who are doing the same thing you are doing by leaving comments, writing personal emails, and connecting with your favorite social media. If you leave a comment on new blogger in your niche, they WILL check out your blog and want to get to know you. Meet 2 new bloggers every day or 5 every week and you will be getting more traffic in no time. Your comments will also improve dramatically.
Write More Content – A lot of blogs write too few posts because they either do not have the time or energy to post high quality content regularly. In response to this and the many things said on the post “What is Quality Content“, find easier methods for writing quality content. Try using different posting strategies. Add podcasts, videos, images, or a variety of other posting methods that are both new and interesting and less time-consuming then a 1500 word article. Learn to mix it up and you will not only get more readers but they will be more interactive.
Leave a Trail – Stop making everyone hunt for you because they will never find you that way! Instead leave a trail where ever you go. Carry business cards, talk to other bloggers in your niche (topic) and comment on every post you read. Over time people will have seen you everywhere and want to know more about your blog. An example is of a recent barrage of guest posts by Josh > The World’s Strongest Librarian. He guest posted on over 40 blogs and I saw his name everywhere. Eventually I stopped by his site and I am sure thousands of others did too after seeing him on a number of their favorite blogs.

Now that you are pumped to treat traffic like people and starting thinking about your blog differently, don’t forget to connect with other bloggers, write more content, and leave a trail. You will thank me if you do this. It’s what all my clients do!

Knowing When to Hire a Professional

Knowing When to Hire a Professional

Seth — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:05:20 +0000

There comes a time when you are up against an insurmountable task or deadline and there is nothing you can do but face defeat. At least that’s what it seems like when you don’t know what or who to turn to for help.

Finding the right help and understanding when its time to use the resources you have available are important. There is has never been more free content and excellent tips online to teach you exactly when and how to accomplish your task at hand. Maybe you have a school project, deadline at work or more relevant a new blog you have to have ready. What do you do when you are not sure where to go and feel like you hit a dead end? — To a Professional

Great Free Resources

Now I am a pretty practical guy and spend very cautiously. I read reviews, talk about the products with others, and try to demo as much as I can before every buying anything. So let me first tell you about all the great “free” resources available online. If you have questions you can try to find answers with some of these great resources. The best part is that all of the free resources listed have search bars. So if you don’t see what you are looking for immediately just search for it.

Blog Tips

If you are trying to learn how to start a blog, how to make money blogging, or how to customize thesis theme then stick around. We have lots of great resources like our Blogging Guide to help you get through whatever dead ends your facing. If you don’t see it then just ask and we at Blogussion will either write up a tutorial for you or show you where else you can find it. So for blogging tips, Blogussion is a great place to be. We also recommend looking at many of our readers blogs because they offer excellent resources on how to blog better.

Writing

For those interested in writing I would recommend learning from the masters over at Copyblogger. Not only are the articles extremely good quality but they are also very entertaining. I leave 90% of the articles having learned something new. Most of the time you just can’t say that about a site. If you want to write better headlines (which I recommend ) then check out an excellent resource Alex put together on 18 Resources for Writing Better Headlines. In no time your writing will improve and you’ll be finishing your work faster.

Design

Many bloggers struggle to either find a suitable theme/template or customize it once they find something they like. As you might know Blogussion was design and customized off of the Thesis Theme which we would recommend you buy if you want a very robust framework to customize. For help with this check out Asnio.

If you are looking to do a lot of design work yourself then I would recommend you start with a few very trustworthy and high quality blogs. First I would recommend you check out the TutsPlus program. The blogs in particular you should see are PSDTUTS (photoshop) and NETTUTS (Code). In addition to these sites the blog WebDesignerDepot.com is an incredible resource.

Getting Professional Help

No I’m not talking about for your current mental state but rather for your blog! Blogging is hard work and getting some help every once in a while goes a long ways towards being successful. Otherwise we spend months working on something we don’t even know if we are doing correctly!

Think about the major problems that you have and how important it is to use a professional. The last time you were sick you probably led you to a doctor. Or the last time your car’s engine blew you went to a mechanic. Whenever you are trying to do something right you should check into using professional help.

The major question is.. when is the right time? To that I would answer as soon as possible. Find a consultant, designer, or professional to get you started on the right track and moving towards success. If I were a new blogger again I would have hired a consultant to teach me about marketing my blog and got an excellent designer to produce a blog I could be proud of.

Then with their help I would be sure I was not wasting months of my time trying strategies that don’t work and designs I am never pleased with. Think about this from a monetary perspective. You could try and spend months of your time doing it yourself and most likely not getting it right, or spend some money to get it right immediately and start your blogging on the right foot.

Finding a Professional

The key to finding the right help is by first knowing what your goals are. As a Blog Promotion Consultant my first question before I ever start is “What are your goals?” Then I try to find out what they are currently doing so I can explain what is right and wrong. By the end of the conversation not only does the client have a better understanding of what to do, but more importantly where they are going.

Looking for the right professional can sometimes be tough. My first bet would be to look to those that are doing it right. What are they doing right? Do I like their style? How could I get their help? Then just be a little courageous and ask them for help in an email or even a tweet!

The best thing to do is offer what you are most willing to pay for and explaining what and why you need them. In return do not be afraid to ask them questions about what they will be offering you and how you will pay them. If you are getting design work does the money all have to be upfront? Ask those important questions before you get involved.

If you are looking for a blog promotion or Thesis theme designer then you came to the right place. Alex and I do those very well and have a number of current clients we work with. Just contact us and let us know how we can help.

If your looking for additional help from writers or other freelancers then checking out Freelance Switch would be a good idea. They have hundreds of quality professionals who know what they are doing.

Conclusion

Doing things yourself is great but when it comes time to getting an almost impossible job done, hire a professional. Also be sure to do it right the first time and don’t spend wasted hours on something that will fail.

Some Sites Every Blogger Should Have Bookmarked

Blog Promotion: 169 New Ways to Build Traffic like a Ninja

Seth — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:00:22 +0000

Promoting your blog is perhaps the most difficult part of blogging. After spending hours writing a great post and putting links and images in it you push the publish button and wait… but nothing happens! Your post is live on the web and no one is clamoring to read it! You can’t even get a comment!

That’s why today I am going to outline some very simple new ways to promote your blog. Some of these methods you will have heard of and I am going to guess that many of them will be completely new. The important part is that you try them out and see what works for you and your blog. Some of these things wont be interesting to you, that’s okay. For this reason we came up with 169 ways to promote your blog out of the ordinary.

Branding

An important element to think about as you start to go through this list and try the new promotional methods out is branding. The key with many of these things is to get your name and url (web address) seen by as many people as possible for as little money as possible. You don’t want to spend $1 million dollars to get 2 new visitors so think about the efforts required for each of these as well. Most of them require little time, expertise or money. Some are ridiculous and we warn you to try them at your own risk! The better the domain name the easier it is to do try these methods out. Try to find a domain name that is short and easy to remember.

For some very important and basic promotion methods, read our popular post on Blog Promotion. It outlines dozens of promotion methods you must be instituting to promote your blog online. So read the basic post if you are beginner and then go down this list and find what you like.

Marketing Apparel – Get a t-shirt made with your blog’s logo and URL on it. You can also offer the t-shirt as a prize in a contest on your blog. If the t-shirt’s design is pretty cool, the winner will advertise for you wherever they go!
Yard Sale - Sell items you no longer want and make sure to put up a sign in your yard with the words “Sponsored by ______.com”
Teach a Local Class – Go to your local community center, college, primary schools, etc. and offer to teach a free class about your blog’s niche. If you blog about cars, teach a class about how to change a tire. There are a lot of ways to build face-to-face relationships in your area.
Get on Your Local News – Find a way to get in your local newspaper to build some hype around your blog and what you are doing online. An easy way to do this is by writing an editorial or showing up to important local events.
Farmer’s Markets – Give away food at local events like farmer’s markets, conventions, fairs, car shows, or other local events. People will stop by your booth and will accept a handout with your product or blog on it for a small bit of food.
Go to the Beach – Enjoy yourself and while there etch your url into the sand. Just be sure to watch out for the tide. – Works in snow too!
Write on a Dirty Car Window – It only takes a second!
Host a Snowball Fight! – Unless it is illegal in your state. This is a fun way to get people to have fun and with a little hot chocolate sponsored by your blog it’s a quick way to get your name out as well.
Yard Sign – Campaigns do it all the time, just put a very nice sign in your window or yard, be sure to check the rules of your city or neighborhood though.
Post Flyers – Stick a poster about your website on your work or school’s notice-board. You probably want to wait until no-one is around before you try this one.
Public Browser Trick – Go to your local library, internet cafe or computer lab and set your blog’s domain name as the default browser homepage on all the computers you can easily access. Just make sure not to violate any terms of use.
Router Trick – This is an easy one to do and can get your neighbors interested in your blog. All you have to do is name your wireless router after your blog and try to get your neighbors interested. Who knows, you might have a fellow blogger next door.
Blank Business Cards – You can hand out a business card whenever your blog comes up or whenever you bring it up in conversation. Be sure to mention your blog to more people offline.
Local Meeting – Organize a meet-up for webmasters and bloggers in your area and use it as an opportunity to network.
Backpack Patch – Get yourself a custom patch to put on your bag or backpack and travel with it everywhere.
Niche Hot-Spots – Leave fliers or posters at hot spots for your niche. For example: If you have a music blog then post flyers at a local music shop, concert venue, etc.
Take Out a Local Ad – Local ads in newspapers are often pretty cheap and local papers have a circulation of thousands. One more way to be found.
Wear your URL – Create for yourself and friends custom t-shirts or hats with your URL on it. People will want to know more and you will be creating conversations about your blog.
Use a Talent – You Draw? Make Crafts? Sing Songs? Find a way to expand your visitors by showcasing a talent which exposes your blog.
Homeless Humor Approach – Why do your advertising approaches have to be boring? Try something funny and exciting
Hire a Consultant – Find out specifically how you can get your blog going and get help from an expert. I have consulted many clients and the key is for bloggers to be open and willing to listen. Many consultants are pretty inexpensive considering the time they save you from having to learn it on your own.
Hire a Publicist – Have them take care of your PR for you. They are expensive though so be aware.
Bumper stickers – There a millions of drivers so get a bumper sticker for your blog and mail them or sell them to your blog readers. Every time they drive anywhere they will be promoting you.
Have a Party – Tell local bloggers, friends, and family that your blog is sponsoring a party with food, drinks or whatever you want. Then when everyone comes in hand them a card with your blog on it. It will create some great buzz offline.
Invite Offline Friends – Often we forget that many of our friends and associates offline might be interested in our niche too. Just mention your blog the next time your offline friends ask you what you are up to.
Advertise on the Radio – It is generally pretty cheap and very easy to set up. If you have something non-web people would want get talking.
Advertise on TV – If you have product to sell and 30 second commercial might be a great way to get people online to check out your site.
Sell Your Product on an Infommercial – If people can sell inflatable kitchen knives and tons of other wacky stuff, you can sell your product too!
Put Your URL on Your Desktop – If you are like me you use your computer outside of your house at school, library or in public. People will see it and may visit your site.
Write a Guest Posts for Offline Productions – I’m talking about newsletters, magazines, books, newspapers, or any other offline production you can help people and do a little self-promoting at.
Write an Editorial for the Newspaper – Get yourself in regular print and reach a whole new market. Its easy if you just write an editorial about an issue you face and send it to your newspaper.
Lost Wallet Stunt – Make or buy a bunch of very cheap wallets or purses and lose them all around town. Inside don’t leave anything but a card with your url on it for them to check out. – link
Shave Your Blog Into Your Head! – Drastic but easily recognizable. You will need 2 things though for this to work… a good barber and a short url.
Door to Door Sales – It works for many businesses so see if you can leave a flier, offer a service online, or educate them with your blog.
Vehicle Signs – Place signs on your car window or doors advertising your blog’s url. – example
Birthday eCards from Your Blog – If your Facebook fans are having a birthday, just send an e-card and let them know you and your blog care.
Bathroom Ads – Common in bars and restaurants, ads in the bathroom are smart and fun.
Snowman Advertisement – Create a fun scene in the snow and ad your advertisement to it! Maybe a sign held by a snowman saying “Blogussion.com was here!”
Dog Sign – going out for a walk with the dog, put a sign, sweater or leash with your blog’s name on it!
Join the Better Business Bureau – If your business is licensed, get involved with the BBB in your area and benefit from networking with other small business owners that might need your product or services.
Halloween Candy with URL – Halloween is a big night in many places worldwide so add your url to your door, candy, and any other spooky treats.

More on Blogging Offline

Create a Widget – Get a widget created for bloggers to easily put your feed in their sidebar with little or no effort. Over time your widget might spread and get you links and traffic from around the web.
Send a Trackback – Link out to other blogs and send trackbacks when you mention other great articles. It’s a great way to get your blog’s link out their and build opportunities.
Make a Youtube Video – Your video can be something funny, sad, or informative. Put your link in the video at the end or in the description.
@Reply Marathon – @Reply to all of your twitter followers in a single day! (if you have a ton, spread it out) You will have started conversations all over the twittersphere and people will follow you and join in!
Search and Comment – Type in a keyword you are trying to rank well for and then go to each article in the top 50 positions and leave a comment.
Stumble and Comment – An easy approach to getting your name out… just hit your stumble button in your toolbar and comment on every blog you stumble upon.
Service Competition – Run a competition and make the prize a service you’ll perform. This could be marketing, consulting, graphic design, a guest-post, or some other service which utilizes your own individual expertise.
Free Advertising Networks – Free advertising is great for new blogs with low readerships who are looking to build some followers. All of the free advertisers I have seen run off of a ad for ad program. You run an ad for someone, they run one for you.
Email Signature – Add your website’s URL to the signature of each email account you use. If appropriate add a funny comment or quote to draw people’s attention.
Build a Blog – For someone else. After taking the time to help them… they will most likely tell everyone all about you and how you set it up.
Chamber of Commerce – Get a Link from Your Local Chamber of Commerce website.
Get added in Online Yellow Pages – Not only is it usually free, but it’s a great way to get a link to your blog and the services you provide.
Get links on Local Sites – Become an expert on your niche topic on local sites. Get listed as “New York’s Best Web Designer” or other such attributes by reaching out to local blogs about the area.
Launch an Affiliate Program – If you have got a service or product to sell, setup an affiliate program to build links to your site and build your branding.
Craigslist - Create an ad about your service, expertise or product on Craigslist. Just be sure to watch out for spam!
Wikipedia page - If you have an important blog write a page up in wikipedia about it.
Google and Yahoo Groups – Involve yourself in a group relevant to your niche. If you can’t find one, start one. This way people looking for a community within your blog topic have one more avenue of finding you.
Answer Relevant Questions on Yahoo! Answers – Look for questions in your niche and when you find them provide extremely useful answers to build some networking and get people to look at your profile. Also, where relevant, place links in your answer.
Squidoo or Hubpages – Putting together a quality page on one of these sites is not only easy but worth your time. You can add your blog’s link, rss feed, and start sending traffic to your site right away. This is also a fantastic way to get your new product, blog, or page indexed and found by Google.
Email Past Commentators – Haven’t heard from someone in a while? Send out an email to old commentators to get them involved and let them know you miss hearing from them.
New Commentators – Send a personal email to new commentators pointing out your best content and asking them about there own interests. It’s a great time to build a relationship and build a long-time reader.
Offer Free services to other bloggers – Reviews, Stumble, Tweets, Design help, or whatever else you can offer is a great way to build trust and get people to keep coming back.
Plan and Post an Amazing Forum Thread – Make sure your links are in your signature and if your thread is really “hot” many readers might stop by.
Review Relevant Products – A great strategy for getting relevant links from high-traffic sites is by reviewing products. You can use sites like Amazon or even movie sites like IMBD to let others know about what you thought of the product. These are especially important if they are relevant to your subject matter.
Review Related Blogs on Alexa – A very easy way to get your name connected with other blogs in your niche. If you are very similar to a blog, make sure to review it so other niche viewers will see your review.
LinkedIn Recommendations - LinkedIn is a great way to make connections with other professionals in your niche. After connecting with them start writing recommendations for them. Not only will your relationship with them grow, but their other connections will see it as well.
Write Testimonials for Products You Use – Start writing testimonials for online products you use and enjoy. The owners might just post your testimonial on their site with a link to yours.
Sponsor a Charity – Find a charity and sponsor it. If it is pretty small they might link to you and put a banner to your site. Another quality link is yours! It also might stay up much longer than an advertisement so you really might get your money worth.
Make a Tool Chest – Collect the links or iforms of a variety of useful web tools for your niche and place them on a resource page for your readers. It will be bookmarked and spread.
Create a Blogging Alliance – Get a blogging buddy, a group of friends, or a network to help you start promoting your content to others.
Create a Font – name it after your blog, and link to it on font sites. If you have the skills this might work well to build unique links.
Watermarked Images – Take some awesome pictures or create digital art and watermark your site into it. Whenever your image is seen, so is your blog’s name.
Add “Alt” tags – Make sure all of your images have alt tags to start picking up traffic and help with your seo.
Funny 404 – Make a custom 404 page and bookmark it on social media sites. Look for 404 sites that showcase custom pages and let your readers tell their friends about how funny/amazing yours is.
Write Nearly Libelous Things About Others – Now do this only if you want to get traffic in both forms.. Good and Bad. You must be careful in how you do this. I personally would not try it, but it really works for some people.
Be Topical – Talk about issues that are happening right now in your community and in the world.
Highlight Your Best Posts – Create a nice list post with your best posts and perhaps a brief description or why you like them.
Start a Twitter Account – Make sure to name it after your Blog and start building some followers.
Make a Random Post – Make it non-related to your niche but keyword targeted. See if it brings in new readers and adds to your blog.
Flickr Account – Take amazing pictures and put them on a flickr account with your url.
Make a WordPress plugin – If you can code and understand php get started and you will get traffic it’s a useful or novel plugin.
Make a WordPress theme – Similar to the plugin, you will be linked to from most of the blog’s using the theme and also for any support.
Make a Firefox Theme/Extension – Again if you can code or you want to learn how then use this element to add to the community. In return chances are your traffic will really pick up.
Make a Resource List – Find resources from your blog or any other website and compile a gigantic list that is easy for others to come back to often. Resource pages turn into great pages to bookmark too!
Give Away Your Next Idea in a Contest – Have you come up with a fantastic idea? If you are willing to take the risk, run a contest in which you get very noticed and your winner gets your next big idea. If they hit it big, they will always thank you. Your credibility will only increase too.
Give Away a Blog You Own – This can be tough, but you can run a contest and give away one of your blogs that is already setup and earning. The value to the winner would be huge!
Find a Problem > Offer the Solution – go on Twitter and search for a problem by using the # hash tags, then reply with a solution!
Stamps – Buy your stamps at zazzle and customize them with your logo. Everyone you mail to will see your blog url…
Facebook Your Friends – Tell your friends about some of your recent posts they might be interested in by sending them a message or writing on their wall.
Create a Fan Page on FaceBook – Its so easy just go to Facebook and get started.
Participate in Relevant Forums – Drive traffic back to your blog through your forum signature and relevant links.
Blog Ad Contest – Run a competition to win advertising space on your site. This is yet another no-cost prize you can use to market your website: free for you but valuable for others.
Write a Guest Post for Off-Niche Blogs – Sometimes an off niche blog has a variety of interested readers that might be looking for what you have so never be afraid to write for off topic, high-traffic, blogs.
Write a Guest Post for Huge News Sites – Try to get on Nytimes.com or other big news sites to get great pr links and excellent traffic. To do this you have to do and write something fantastic.
Free eBooks – Produce an ebook with links back to your blog and encourage free sharing with your link in the book and on the other blogs.
Free Use Photography – photos with free use attributions specifically for bloggers to use in your niche are a great way to provide a linkable resource to other bloggers.
Define a Term – Creating new terminology is a great way to build traffic. If you coin a term, traffic will start coming based on the new phrase. For example, one of our biggest keywords for traffic is “blogussion” which is not only our blog’s name but also the term for having a “blog discussion”.
Run a Second-Hand Giveaway – Instead of selling some of your used but in good condition stuff, give it away through contests? Be sure the stuff is actually worth participating for though.
Free Product for Review - If you have a product of service, give it away for free if others will write a targeted review about it. It’s a great way to spread your product throughout the web.
Add Your Blog to Local Search – Using Yahoo and Google add your blog to their local search and get targeted traffic from your local bloggers.
Rebates – Offer a rebate on a product you are an affiliate for. Not only will you make some money on the product but you will get extra traffic as well. If you really want to get traffic, give away all of your income for a specific product so buyers pay less and visit your blog more often.
Coupons – Stay up to date on a few companies products and offer great deals to your readers with coupons.
Tell Them How Badly You Suck! - Reverse Marketing is very odd… but sometimes it works very, very well. Just be careful with it.
Convince a Social Media Ninja to Sponsor a Post – In other words… get someone that has a lot of pull on twitter, stumbleupon, digg, or other social sites and either convince them or pay them to sponsor a post.
List of Other Blogger’s Best Posts – Sounds odd but if you went through other blogs and made a list of the best posts on their blog you will most likely get a link and easily get tweets if the blogger is popular on twitter.
List Post of Bloggers Your Readers Must Follow – Bloggers will come and check it out, thank you, pingback and comment. Creates some buzz on a variety of sites. For an example check out BloggingTips.com with 373 tweets!
Do an Interview with An Important Blogger – Create some buzz about a famous person being interviewed on your site. Make it unique and your site will be the place to get their important interview.
Thank You Notes – Send thank you notes to bloggers you have been inspired by, learned from or connected with. Your gratitude will go a long way in solidifying a long-term relationship.
What is Wrong With This Picture? – Make a picture with your digital imaging software, like photoshop, and put together an image with lots of items in it. Then make it a “what 10 items are out of place?”, or “Can you find?” post. People will forward it in emails, blog about it and stumble it.
Article Marketing Outside Your Niche – Write articles and submit them to Ezine or other article databases on subjects you normally don’t write about.
Submitting to Aggregators – Make sure your blog is in reputable aggregators for other bloggers to find your great content.
Submitting to Domain Checkers – Use free domain tools to check your site and build links through their custom pages of your site.
Borrow a Reputable Email Newsletter – Team up with someone and write a guest newsletter post for an exchange of readers or money.
Sponsor a Petition – No matter the topic, your blog can sponsor a petition to make others aware that people like/dislike something.
Sponsor a Goal – Encourage your readers to do something great! Get 1,000 visitors a day, earn $100 a day, or get out of debt. Make the goal specific to your niche and let your readers know how you are doing.
Survey Past Commentators – Ask them what they like about your blog and if there is anything they would like to see in the future. It’s a great way to get them coming back.
Ask Your Sponsors – Ask how your sponsors the best way they would like you to market it them. In return you are encouraging them to participate in helping you and your securing future earnings.
Make Videos for Other People’s Blog – If you have skills for video making, offer to make tutorials or videos for other blogs for free. It’s a great way to share your talent and drop some link love and names. With all the equipment this could be a great way to guest post on someone else’s blog.
Write a List About Myths in Your Niche – Debunk myths in your niche to get massive links to your article.
Create an Amazing Resource – Like this list for example. Or provide something no one else anywhere. If you are the only or first person to provide a resource you will be remembered.
Podcast – Start a weekly podcast that will be picked up by itunes and other audio services. It also attracts different readers interested in listening rather than reading your content.
Do a Webinar – If you can figure it out then go ahead and set up a webinar to chat about the latest topics in your niche, answer questions, and teach.
Commenting Debate – Start a commenting debate with a few bloggers and get things started pretty heatedly. Other commentators will not be able to help themselves from seeing what the fuss is all about.

The last 45 tips come from a very popular post written about blog promotion which I highly recommend you read. It is the 3rd most popular post on Blogussion and will definitely help you get the basics of blog promotion down. So if the 125 new ideas were not enough and you are craving the last 45, check out the article on blog promotion.

Conclusion

Promoting your blog can be fun and exciting. You just need to get the word out that your content is great and your community is too. So try some of these easy methods to get your blog found by new users and extra eyes.

4 Unusual (And Long Term) Ways to Promote Your Blog Using Forums

Alex — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:03:59 +0000

Everyone knows that using forum signatures is a good way to generate some backlinks. However, there are other ways to use forums to your advantage.

The ideas I came up with in here are ideas that may take a little longer for you to accomplish than the average forum promotion tactic. While you should always go with regular forum posting, you should try and work your way towards completing these strategies as they have very beneficial results.

Consider Your Reputation

Most forums, especially vBulletin powered forums, have a reputation system. The way to earn a high reputation is to post helpful posts and reply with useful comments. If you’re only focusing on posting for the signature link, then chances are that your reputation will remain low. This is a bad thing considering members are more likely to click on your links if you have a high reputation.

There are plenty of ways to build up a reputation on forums and start getting your blog recognized. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Welcome new members as often as possible.
Post funny/interesting thoughts in general discussions.
Review member submitted websites or projects (where applicable)
Post related links and articles in threads.
Create helpful and interesting new forum threads.
Provide great feedback and suggestions.

Be careful of forums with negative reputation systems. If you make an enemy, your reputation could be held back by them lowering it. Always try to find forums that go without the negative reputation. In addition, never ask for reputation, or complain about being negative repped. This is a sure-fire way to lose respect and authority.

Another aspect of gaining reputation is giving it out. People love being complimented and positively represented, so positive repping other members will make them twice as likely to rep you back. When choosing other members to give reputation to, try and pick members who are interested in your niche, and who seem to be regularly active.

The more reputation you give out, the more those members will notice you. Just remember that there is a limit to how much reputation you can give in an hour, and you don’t want to give it out on a whim. Be genuine with your recommendations!

Specialize in Your Niche’s Forum Category

If you have a blog about football, then join sports forums and become a regular in the football category. If you join a forum about football, then become an expert in the offensive or defensive categories. Always try to become an expert on the board containing your website’s niche. If you want to establish yourself, you can try:

Creating new threads in your niche’s forum.
Answering other members’ questions.
Building and expanding on discussions using your own knowledge.
Asking interesting/well thought out questions.
Finding and sharing related articles and links.

Building up posts in a specific category will help you to establish a name for yourself, and will get you recognized by an audience interested in your blog’s niche. The more you participate in a particular forum, the more you will build up your potential customer base.

Consider Your “Created Threads” Count

Anyone can post on a forum. The members that get noticed are the ones that create new and interesting threads. This shows other members (and the administrators) that you’re willing to go the extra mile in participating in the community. Creating new threads on forums is a great way to increase your reputation and recognition.

Be careful of how useful the threads that you create are. Making threads that are beneficial to the entire community will gain you more authority than threads that pertain only to yourself. Some examples of universally helpful threads are:

A recent announcement from a major website in that forum’s niche.
Free resources that might be useful to members.
An interesting “what if” scenario.

If you run out of ideas for thread creation, look at other forums in your niche. What threads are most popular on those forums? If you find one that hasn’t been posted on the forum you’re active on, then post it yourself. Remember not to create too many threads at one time, lest you be marked as a spammer. It’s also important to maintain the threads you create, replying to other members comments and questions and prompting further discussion.

Creating and maintaining new threads is a fantastic way to get noticed by the community. In addition, those who view your member statistics will be impressed at your thread count, and will probably be interested in visiting your blog.

Become Friends with the Admins

Forum administrators are friendly people, and if you become friends with them, you can gain perks that other members might not have. Even if you’re a little bit shy, there’s no reason not to leave a “what’s up?” or “great job” message on the administrator’s profile. You can also check to see if they have an instant messaging client listed, and attempt to chat with them.

Getting to know the administrator will help you in ways you can’t imagine. Administrators always go to loyal and active members for favors, and perform favors in return. Need a quick stumble or digg? Ask the forum admin and they’ll be happy to trade with you. Need to get a service completed? Ask about members that can help out, and the admin will point you in the right direction.

However, you don’t want to irritate the administrator. If they don’t seem interested in being friends, then move on to a different forum, or focus on other promotional/beneficial tactics. Administrators have sway over the community, and you don’t want to get one angry. Here are some more ideas for becoming friends with the administrator of a forum:

Make small talk – discuss common interests
Offer to help with a small task that needs to be done for the forums
Talk about projects and the status of your endeavors
Ask them how they’re doing from time to time
Be friendly and approachable

Those are the four unusual yet effective ways to advertise your blog on forums. While these methods take more time than your average promotional method, they come with major benefits.

Photo by Toni Verdú Carbó

Blog Optimization Series: Search Engine Marketing (2/3)

Janith — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:53:57 +0000

In the first installation of our Blog Optimization Series, I went over the basic fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization. It has been some time coming but I’ve spent a good deal of time – researching on the latest on the next installment. The second addition to our series will be Search Engine Marketing.

The back-door into SERPs, maybe? If you have the $$, it’s the easy way to get traffic from Search Engines. If your one of the many, that can throw money for the better of your website – let’s take a look at some of your options and a few pointers on the sidelines too…

Search Engine Marketing

If you’ve been following this series, you might remember in the first post – I went over why people optimize their blogs for Search Engines. This is a long and strenuous process, that can never be completely done – because not matter how well you optimize your blog; there will always be something more you can do (even add another inbound link.)

So, is there any hope for those that are not consistent? Perhaps not so much of a solution but an alternative to gradual SEO would be to throw money at SEM. Search Engine Marketing is utilizing the services provided by big-named companies, to sell ad-space.

Google Adwords or Facebook Ads just might ring a bell in your mind, but what differentiates a SEM campaign from a good SEM campaign? It’s about planning, managing and knowing not one, not two but as many of your options as possible. Let’s break it down to a simpler format.

Designing the Campaign

Just like any other project – a design sketch of the campaign is required. Before you start spending money like there’s no tomorrow; it’s absolutely critical that you have a basic idea of the concept of SEM and also a definite plan.

Your plan should include aspects of your campaign such as budget, start dates, end dates, minimum expectations, PPC (price per click). A campaign without a design usually runs into trouble sooner or later because many people overlook the simple things.

Managing the Campaign

Once you have a design, traffic won’t start flowing in. You have to keep a constant eye on how the statistics are performing, and which areas needs your attention/supervision. Many people assume that SEM is a “do once and forget” technique to conquer the SERPs but they couldn’t be further from the truth.

Just like SEO is a constantly updated process – SEM requires an ever watchful eye; to pick up on trends and assign profitable PPC rates for specific keywords. The design + management of SEM campaigns can be out-sourced to the millions of SEO Companies out there – but there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do it yourself? Save money, and you know what exactly what is going on within the campaign itself.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords is the big-daddy of all PPC Advertising program. One of the most significant earners for the multi-billion dollar company and a program that offers a lot for the little guy. We haven’t been exploring the possibilities and features of Adwords here @Blogussion but there’s so much to it – that I won’t be able to cover it in one post.

So, going by a generalization that we all have heard about Google Adwords – I would encourage you to take it for a spin. Learn as much as you can about the program from as many useful sources of information as you can find, then play around with it a little while. For some people Google Adwords is their key to success, for other’s nothing more than a waste of time.

Yahoo Search Marketing / Microsoft adCenter

Almost the counter-parts of Google Adwords, these two programs are the closest competition to it. On a personal level, I haven’t explored their full functionality but on a search engine basis – they won’t be that dissimilar to Google Adwords. Depending on the Search Engine that best suits your interest, the three services will provide a range of options and features to help you rake in the targeted traffic from around the SERPs.

Social Media Ad Networks

If your site is so more socially-orientated - you might find advertising on social media networks; such as Facebook to be a gold mine. Obviously, you won’t appear on the front pages of these media networks, but you’ll reach a fairly high percentage of users with the correct research + PPC rates.

It’s important that you target your site to specific social media networks. For example, advertising your blog about penicillin on Myspace wouldn’t be your best bet. Search around niche-specific media networks that offer paid advertising and you’ll be raking in some very loyal readers.

Stay Tuned!

Search Engine Marketing is a very broad topic with many outward branches, but hopefully this can give you a little bit of intuition of what it is – and how people can manipulate it for their own benefit. Websites such as SearchEngineWatch, come up with some nice tips and tricks when it comes to SEW – something we can all learn from.

Stay tuned for the next and final installment in the Blog Promotion Series : Social Media Optimization!

Blog Optimization Series: Search Engine Optimzation (1/3)

Janith — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:36:40 +0000

As we all know Search Engine Optimization is a long term process, that needs to be attended intuitively. As webmasters – we all have different techniques and we all go to different depths of optimizing our blogs. However, it’s fair to say that we all have one common goal; which is rank high for our keywords and start getting organic traffic.

Still, most bloggers neglect the basics and don’t understand the fundamental power of SEO.

What’s worse than neglecting SEO? Completely ignoring our work in the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) aspects of blog-promotion. Join us in a series-post to help explain and reveal the secrets behind the trio!

Search Engine Optimization

First up in the three will be SEO.

Why? Well, I decided it’s better for us to start off on the right foot – and ease into the idea with something we already have a rough idea about.

Let’s face it – ranking high for our keywords is (if not should be) one of our focal points when it comes to maintaining our blog. Getting to the front page of SERPs and maintaining high positions is not an easy task, but I want to take the consistently regurgitated SEO advice and give it to you straight.

These techniques alone will cover most on-site optimization and you’ll be ranking for most of your keywords + a few more!

Research + Target Keywords

A website without targeted keywords is like a fishing line without any bait. Only difference being, your hunting for search engine spiders that eat words/phrases. Without having targeted keywords, you aren’t giving them anything to bite on. It’s absolutely critical you have researched a handful of well define search terms.

A few months ago, I wrote up an article titled: What’s the key to Keywords? It covers the basics of utilizing keywords and optimizing your blog to them. If you need some insight or perhaps just a recap of keywords – I would recommend reading that post once more.

XML Sitemaps

Sitemaps (XML ones to be exact, but non-XML ones are not a problem) are loved by crawlers. Why? Because they can crawl off to different pages from one single page. It’s just perfect and makes their job so much easier.

If a crawler can find all links within a site from just one page – its more likely to spend more time on that site. By having a constant flow of new content + pages to crawl or re-crawl older pages – it will inherently spend more time on your blog.

There are several plugins that can automatically create XML Sitemaps for you, such as Google XML Sitemap Generator (WordPress Users) or you can install your own coding/scripting.

ALT Attributes

Not so long ago, I wrote Debate: DoFollow V NoFollow Links. It sparked quite some discussion, and several arguments (least to say) on a couple of external forums. It’s interesting because everyone has their own thoughts about ALT Attributes such as “rel=nofollow” but end of the day – it really is up to you.

Internal Links

Internal links are important because it allows crawlers to navigate your website’s deeper pages more conveniently. So, link to old posts if it’s appropriate and whenever you can, mention other internal pages. Not only will this benefit from a SEO perspective – but it will also drive traffic to your older posts.

Link Building

One of the most popular posts here is 45 Link Building Tips To Help You Promote Your Blog. Why? Well, simply because of the SEO value it contains. There’s almost a million ways people build links on the internet, these were just 45 ways I personally use/plan to use.

Analysis + Reports

Search Engine Optimization doesn’t end when you’ve done all the practical techniques. Just like any on-going project; you need to keep a constant watch on how your optimization is performing. Identify both the positively performing aspects and also the aspects that are lacking attention.

Nicholas Pruhdon’s Tracking Your SEO Performance is an excellent read on this topic. Mr. Pruhdon carefully takes into consideration the different methods and the different information you can extract from from possible “SEO trackers.” Definitely a worthy read!

Quick mentions on Search Engine Optimization;

As a blogger, you should soak in information like a sponge – listen to everything you can – then decide for yourself the best technique/method. Don’t believe everything you hear but take educated guesses and some calculated risks when it comes to SEO.

What do you think is the most critical aspects of Search Engine Optimization? If you have any recommendations – drop by a comment below