Article Marketing Tips – How To Create Online Content That Generates High Traffic To Your Website

Article marketing is an online advertising technique widely used by successful businesses today and one of the best ways to enhance the visibility of your website, thus generating more website traffic and increasing your sales. With the following article marketing tips, we would like to help you make the most of this efficient tool that can make your site rank high on any search engine.

Including Relevant Content on Your Site

The first of our article marketing tips is to provide relevant, useful articles on your website. This is the first step of establishing yourself as a great, dependable seller or service provider. One of the most important things before building awareness to your site with the help of other tools is to make your website attractive and informative, and the texts published on your site are the best way to achieve this.

You can choose from several ways to make your site interesting with the help of article marketing. You can include pages on your site that give useful advice, tips or suggestions about your niche; you can have pages that contain testimonials and reviews, but whatever type of articles you choose, you must make sure they are 100% original and relevant to your niche.

The articles you publish on your site also need to be written correctly – you don’t want to read poorly written articles about the topics you are interested in and neither do your prospective customers. The style and the content of the articles is also important: you should try to make them interesting and fun to read, and you should also try to come up with real problems that your readers might face, then provide solutions, raising the reader’s interest in your products or services.

Article Marketing Tips to Create Texts Structured the Right Way

Do not forget about the structure of your articles, either. Organize your texts in a clear, informative manner – including subtitles and bullet-points are great ways to keep the reader interested.

Another thing you must bear in mind when you create your articles is keyword usage. Internet users type keywords into their browser when they are looking for information. If your articles are structured around the right keywords, the sites these articles are published on will appear among the first hits in the user’s browser, so the more relevant the keywords are, the more likely it is that the user will find your site and visit it.

And how to find the right keywords? The internet provides many different tools that you can use for keyword research. These tools allow you to enter keywords that you consider relevant for your topic and they will display the competition level and the number of searches for that keyword, also providing alternative keywords to use. A good article contains primary, secondary and long tail keywords as well, so you should come up with several different sets of keywords grouped according to their relevance for your topic. You must introduce keywords into the title and the subtitles as well – the title should always contain your main keyword, to tell search engines what the text is going to be about.

Once you have found the right keywords, it is time to organize your unique article around them. You will have to enter the keyword with a certain density into the text, the recommended percentage being 1% (the keyword entered once every 100 words in the article means a 1% density).

Backlinking with Your Articles

Our article marketing tips continue with suggestions about how to use your articles the most efficiently. Once you have created content about your activity and you published it on your own site, there is another efficient way to attract make your business more visible: to publish articles on other websites, with a technique called building backlinks. This tactic consists in posting relevant, interesting, well-formulated articles structured around the right content and containing the URL of your domain, on other, authoritative websites with the purpose of driving traffic towards your site. You can start posting your articles on social media sites and professional forums. and you can publish them on blogs as well, each of these posts pointing towards your site, encouraging visitors to check out your products.

Using Article Submission Services

If you consider the task of creating your own articles energy and time-consuming, you can hire other companies to leverage their experience in the area to your advantage. These companies are experts in finding the right keywords for your content, writing high-quality, properly structured articles and publishing them on authoritative sites to generate the highest possible traffic for your web site. They usually offer different packages so that you can choose the one that best suits your objectives and your budget, but all these packages have two things in common: the articles included are written in a professional manner and they will be published using the most sophisticated online marketing tools.

Forget about those newfangled article marketing or submission widgets – see what Google’s Matt Cutts thinks about them.

Article marketing is one of the most efficient tools of website promotion, so our best tip is to start using it. Whether you write and publish your articles yourself or you hire professionals to do that for you, good articles can boost your sales within a very short time.


Source: https://www.prchecker.net/article-marketing-tips.html

Best Affiliate Programs 2015 | Adam Chats About Top Affiliate Products

How do you feel about promoting High ticket Affiliate Programs?

Top Tips for Bloggers Considering Becoming Affiliates

In theory, using affiliate commission to boost your income could not be easier or more straightforward. However, in reality, in such a saturated market, it’s important that one is 100% sure of the things to take into account before committing to affiliate sales.

Here are the top questions you should consider: 

- Are you doing it for the right reasons?

It’s all well and good thinking that your blog is at the stage where it could start making you money, and it’s true that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online.

However, simply because you want to ‘make money’ should not be the sole reason for wanting to continue a blog. Blogging and writing insightful and imaginative articles that strike a chord with your audience should be the ultimate driving force spurring your blog on. Readers will see through posts that are too promotion-heavy.

- Do you have a wide enough following?

In order to start making some money from your blog, you don’t necessarily need to have thousands and thousands of existing subscribers. In our experience, much of the engagement and comments left on a lifestyle blog will be from individuals who have organically discovered your site through social media pages and not by those who are already subscribed to your blog. If you feel as though your content is generating enough unique views, engagement and comments from a wide plethora of readers, then becoming an affiliate site is absolutely something to consider seriously.

- Are you driving enough traffic to your blog from social media platforms?

We cannot highlight enough the important role that social media will play in whether or not a move into the realm of affiliate commission is a successful one. By staying active and sharing original content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google + and Pinterest, you can make sure you are continually building your following and chances of making commissions through sales made through your site. It is also worth actively encouraging shares, retweets and re-pins of particularly popular posts, especially by other high-profile bloggers who may follow you.

- Is your content engaging enough for your audience?

If you are seriously interested in making money through your blog, you will need to start writing reviews of products and services with affiliate marketing in mind. You cannot simply throw links out randomly and expect a wave of commission to start rolling in. It is far more effective to think of the affiliate links as added resources that compliment your existing copy, and not the sole reason you have written the piece in the first place.

- Do you have the extra time to dedicate to your blog?

Perhaps a rather straightforward point, but chances are you already juggle writing and managing your blog with full-time work or studying. Therefore, an important question to ask yourself is whether you can dedicate the required amount of time to monetising your blog, especially if it starts to do very well for you. Would you be willing to forego the odd night out or shopping trip with friends in order to stay in and work on your blog? If the answer is no, then you might want to re-think your options.

- Would you know the kinds of affiliate programs to approach?

Affiliate links will earn you commission if you successfully drive a sale to the merchant, which means that a blog reader will need to click on one of your embedded links, and either purchase or sign up to something before you see any kind of commission. Therefore, the more relevant your affiliate ad is to your reader’s likes and preferences, the higher the chances they will click on the link and make a subsequent purchase.


Source: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/top-tips-for-bloggers-considering-becoming-affiliates/1264
By Mark Russell

How To Create Information Products That Sell Themselves

You want to make money online, right? Start by realizing that the Internet is the way to go in terms of creating, marketing and selling merchandise, i.e. information products.

The Internet has become the place where consumers prefer to purchase things. If you want a piece of that multi-billion-dollar-a-year business, then you need to have an online product that people will want to buy. You can certainly market and sell products manufactured by other companies and individuals (affiliate marketing), but when you produce your own information products, you earn the largest profit margin.

Once you understand the basic fundamentals, you will be able to determine what information product will be ideal for you to focus on. Creating your own product is fairly straightforward and don’t cost a tremendous amount on money to produce – it’s just information in product form…

Make Sure You’re Information Products Offer Both Quality And Value

If you want your product to make an impact, you will want to focus on quality. Just as in the world of brick and mortar stores, merchandise that is made with cheaper materials tend to detract from the quality. The manufacturer will be able to charge less for it, which attracts consumers looking to save money, but it will not earn a positive reputation.

When it comes to information products created for the Internet, quality is measured differently. They can include e-books, videos, music, applications, games, and other downloadable items. Generally, when a consumer makes a purchase, they can have them downloaded to their computer within minutes. That the huge advantage of this type of product – it’s available immediately.

As a result, quality will be determined by the content and composition of the information. If you take time to produce a quality product with polished content, an attractive cover or image, and something people will find useful, then you will tend to find more success with it than with something that is just thrown together.

Deciding On What Information Product To Create

You may have some great ideas to market online, but you’re biased. Each of us thinks that we have the best ideas and that all it will take is investing in it with time, effort, and money, and people will be flocking to buy it. The problem with this mentality is that innate bias.

We tend to become too excited about certain ideas we have that we believe are winners. It’s important to get some opinions from people who won’t have a vested interest in the idea. Friends and family can sometimes be ideal to ask, but it will be important for you to make sure they know you will want their honest opinion.

If your idea is considered unique or ideal, then begin to research anything that may be similar already on the Web. You may think that it’s unique, but other people may already have something similar out there. That doesn’t mean you have to abandon your idea though; instead, determine how your idea is different and better than the others.

The Power Of Online Information Products

Products that are specifically designed for sale online are unique in that they can be downloaded by the consumer as soon as their transaction is complete. That means that marketing will be as important as the product itself. When you market your product, you will want to speak directly to a need your target audience has and how what you are offering fills that need.

Blogging is a great way to promote your information product. Knowing how to start a blog or becoming involved with web hosting is essential to online marketing. Keep these thoughts in mind as you move forward with your idea.

Know The Market

It is critical that you know the market you will be targeting. What age range will be most interested in it? Will it be men, women, or both?

If you create something that would be perfect for middle-aged professional women, but you focus on young, college-aged men, then your merchandise will not sell. Even if you realize that you targeted the wrong audience, make adjustments to the product and your marketing campaign; don’t simply abandon it. The great thing about most things created for Internet sale is that they can be altered without a tremendous amount of expense or effort.

As mentioned, marketing is as important to the success of your product as quality. Before you put together this incredible information product that is going to sell like crazy, you should think about marketing. If you promise something of value to the reader, the marketing will become much easier.

Develop a balance in which the marketing complements the product. Testimonials are a great way to show prospective buyers that what you’re offering is worth the investment. If you don’t have customers yet, then consider giving some copies away in exchange for those valued testimonials.

Solve A Problem

As noted earlier, anything marketed for consumers needs to solve a problem. A novel solves the problem of quiet entertainment. An e-book on how to become a successful affiliate marketer solves the problem that inexperienced professionals may have.

You should conduct market research to determine precisely how to solve that problem for the consumer. See if there are other products similar to yours that were successful as well as any that weren’t successful. There are often great lessons to be learned from both.

Creating a product that you intend to sell online demands a great deal of research on the market before it is actually created. An adage by Benjamin Franklin states that, ‘Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ That idea you have may be incredible, but you still need to do a serious amount of work before you will achieve success with it.

You can get rich solving other people’s problems!

Source: http://blogsuccessjournal.com/make-money-online/information-products/how-to-create-information-products-that-sell-themselves/

My top 11 blogging tips

Alright, so I’m taking a slightly different direction today. I was going through some emails this weekend, poring through questions from the best readers on the Internet (this would be you). I have quite the back log of fantastic reader questions and post suggestions, and I hope to tackle a number of them this fall.

Quite a few repeated themselves about the same subject — blogging. Apparently, some of you think I know how to blog daily while keeping a dust-free home and perfectly groomed children who love each other and never fight.

I have absolutely no idea how one does that. I’ll keep my eye out for the answer, but in the meantime, I I’ll compromise and answer the overarching blogging question, which basically asks, “How do I blog well?”

I don’t know everything about blogging. But I do know some things. Here are my best tips about blogging while still miraculously getting dinner on the table.


1. Decide your reasons.

Think through your purpose in blogging. Blogging for fun looks a bit different than blogging to promote your Etsy site, which also looks different than blogging to practice your writing skills and maybe land a book contract, which – guess what?, looks different than blogging to make a little side income with ad revenue.

You can have more than one reason, of course, so long as they don’t conflict. But if you’re blogging simply to share photos for the grandparents (a great reason, by the way), don’t be disappointed when the ad networks don’t come flooding your email inbox.

Likewise, if you’re blogging to earn revenue (and you therefore want to build an audience), don’t be frustrated when your readers move on when they haven’t heard from you in six weeks.

Blog consistently with your main purpose in doing so.


2. Flow with the seasons.

There are some seasons in life that are more conducive to more in-depth blogging. Enjoy those, and reap their benefits by reading and writing all you can about the topic. For me, I started Simple Mom when my second was a newborn. I nursed all day long, so during those long periods of sitting, I read and read and read some more about blogging.

I started with ProBlogger and went from there, in case you’re wondering.

It wasn’t long before Reed was walking all over the place and scooting the step stool up to the kitchen counter holding the knife block, so needless to say, I was up on my toes much more then. I didn’t read much on the subject of blogging any more.

Go with the season you’re in. Don’t fight it. Another season is probably just around the corner.


3. Marry and keep an amazing man.

Joking. Well, sort of. Honestly, one of the reasons I started Simple Mom — and why I can continue to keep it up — is because my husband Kyle is my most loyal reader and fan. He is a big reason I can write regularly throughout the week, and he sees himself just as much a part of the blog because he helps with the laundry and dishes and carpooling.

I am blessed in that we both work from home. We tag-team our approach to work and parenting, and every Sunday evening we dig up the weekly calendar to decide who works when.

I know not everyone can do this. But I add this to the list because I want you to know that he helps an enormous amount, so I definitely don’t “do it all.” Not by a long stretch.



4. Be you…

Don’t try to be Heather Armstrong, or Ree Drummond, or Ann Voskamp, or Amanda Soule, or Alli Worthington. Be you. Write like you. It’s way more fun. You’ll definitely stick with it longer, and people will enjoy reading you more.


5. …But keep your readers in mind.

This is particularly true if you’re writing with the purpose of generating a community or earning revenue in some form. Yes, in some way you’ll still write for you, but if you’ve created a place where people feel like they belong, like they’re in a community — it’s almost like they have part ownership.

That doesn’t mean you worry yourself to sleep making sure everyone likes you. You still write for you, and the things that interest you. But keep the readers in mind who are blessing you with their time and their eyes.

If they’ve expressed an interest in a topic, go with it.

And also — you can’t say thank you enough. Thank your readers all the time. I slacked off showing my gratitude the first half of this year, and it showed in my writing. Plus, I missed saying thank you, and it made blogging less fun.

Thank you, by the way.


6. Get to know people, and ask good questions.

I’ve rarely met an unfriendly blogger. I’ve met extremely busy bloggers, but I can’t imagine any blogger I’ve met who knows a thing or two honestly wants to withhold major blogging secrets or not reach out and say hello.

Don’t think of bloggers with big audiences as anyone different than you. If you have a good question, just ask. Get to the point, and don’t expect an answer right away, but don’t let intimidation or cynicism stop you from initiating a conversation.

Also, make friends. Blogging is much more fun when you make blogging friends. Email or tweet a blogger, and see if you hit it off.

A hint on this last tip: Reach out to a blogger that seems to have about the same size audience, or who writes about the same topic as you. That way, you can share ideas and experiences as you journey together.  (But you never know, really — Alli and I are fantastic friends, yet our blogs could not be more different.)



7. Drink water, get exercise, and sleep.

Blogging is a sedentary activity, and if you’re not careful, you’ll spend hours and hours of your day not moving much. Move a little every day. Drink water constantly, and keep a cupful right by your laptop. And go to sleep. Shut off that computer and enjoy the three-dimensional world before hitting the pillow.


8. Organize yourself.

If you want to create a blog that posts regularly, has a specific niche, and fosters a community, then you’ve got to plan a bit in advance. Pencil in regular writing, editing, and networking times throughout your week.

Write an editorial calendar. Right now my posts for Simple Mom are more-or-less planned for the next two months, and I keep track of them on a separate calendar within my Google calendars.

Oh, and don’t leave your email client, Facebook, or Twitter open while you write and edit. You’ll never stay focused.


9. Use “use” instead of “utilize.”

Edit, edit, and then edit some more. For every hour I spend writing, I spend about three editing. Choose your words carefully. Spell correctly. Use adverbs where there should be adverbs; adjectives where there should be adjectives.

Get to the point — I’m regularly surprised how much deleting I do before I publish a post. I’ve already deleted paragraphs from this post, in fact.

Don’t use too many exclamation points, and don’t use emoticons — unless you’re blogging for yourself, or for fun. Or if this is your genuine style of writing (see point number four). Then go nuts.

And almost every time, “use” is more appropriate and more pleasant to the ears and eyes than “utilize.” I’m just saying.


10. Don’t forget about the kids.

Remember your priorities. What good is an enormously successful blog if your family is left in the dust? It’s a blessing if you can contribute to your family’s income through your blog, but not to the detriment of your relationships, well-being, and unity.

Close the laptop regularly, and give your kids quality face time. Go on dates with your spouse. Continually kindle your three-dimensional friends.


11. Keep it fun.

This last point is definitely not the least important. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t have a ball running your blog, then you’ll fizzle out, and it’ll show in your writing.

If you’ve noticed you’re no longer having fun, change it up. Take a little break (if your blog is more than just a hobby, re-run posts at least a year old, or find some guest posters). Try vlogging, or taking more photos.

Listen to music while you blog. I do. It makes it a lot more fun.

I could say a bit more about blogging, but I’ll stop for now. There’s already so much out there about the subject — if you’d like to learn more, I’d start with ProBlogger, Blog Coach, and Blogging Basics 101.

Really, at the end of the day, you’ve just got to be you. Your blog, your family, and your self will be all the better because of it.



Alright, fellow bloggers, now it’s your turn. What’s your best blogging tip?


Source
By: TSH

I love this post and it has been such an inspiration for me, thanks TSH!

Starting a Blog in 2015? Here are 5 Tips Pre-Blogging Tips

A new year is almost upon us. Wouldn’t it be fun to start a new blog in 2015? I agree! The first step of any new project is the planning stage. Unfortunately, many people (myself included!) have a tendency to forego this step and jump right in. Sometimes this works, but most of the time it just leads to a mess. I’ve been blogging, in some form of another, for over ten years, so take it from me: you need to think ahead. Here are five things to consider before you go any further in the starting-a-blog-process!

Don'ts rush it

If you’re like me, you come up with an idea and become completely and totally obsessed with it. When the idea of, “Hey, you know, I think I could start my own web design business and actually be successful,” struck me, I wanted nothing more than to jump right in, head over heels. And that’s awesome. But you have to give yourself time. You need time to research, time to develop your product/brand/idea, and time to understand if this is something you actually want to do or if it’s just a passing phase. I spent a good 2-3 months researching product need/pricing and developing my products before I ever launched Dinosaur Stew. The bottom line here is don’t act on impulse, because blogging is not an impulsive thing. It’s a huge commitment and, in order to be successful, you need to commit.

Know Why you're Blogging (and have realistic expectations)

Are you blogging for fun or because you think you’ll be able to make a quick buck off of it eventually? If you’re only blogging for fun, you don’t have to worry about much. However, if you’re looking to monetize your blog, you need to ensure you’re truly willing to put the work in to make your blog be the best it can be. Most importantly, have realistic expectations. You can start making money your first month of blogging, but–realistically-it likely isn’t going to be more than a couple dollars from Google AdSense advertising because you’ve convinced your best friend and your brother to visit your website every day and click your links. You can make income blogging, but it will take lots of dedication, hard work, and most of all–time!

Start writing posts. NOW

Before you start your blog, start writing blog posts. This will help you out in a number of ways. First, it’ll help you understand if you actually like blogging. Since writing blog posts, is, obviously, an integral part of blogging, if you hate the writing part, it’s best to find that out sooner than later. Secondly, it will help you understand if the scope of your blog is enough. For example, if you can only think of two posts to write, you might need to expand the topics that your blog will cover. Lastly, if you have a bunch of posts already written before your blog’s launch, you’ll be able to devote more time to promoting your blog, instead of having to spend all of your time coming up with more content.

Know your Schedule

For many, blogging can be (and is!) a full time job. Keeping up with a blog can be time consuming. Keeping up with a blog can feel like a chore. Can you keep up? Will you want to keep up? Will you still have time for you? Going back to the first tip, it’s easy to act on impulse, but you need to look ahead to the future. If, after eyeing up a calendar, you don’t think you’ll have time to commit to the upkeep of your blog at some point in the relatively close future, don’t waste the time or effort starting one! You can always start your blog at a later date but for now, don’t waste the energy when you could put it to use elsewhere!

Know Yourself

Is blogging going to help you or hurt you? Is this blog going to help you grow in some way? Even though you might be passionate about something, blogging about it might not be the right thing for you. I’m super passionate about cookies. And cake. And pie. And I know how to blog! I could be the next Averie Cooks! But I know that if I started a dessert recipe blog, I would be rewarded with Type 2 diabetes and an advertising deal for bariatric surgery, and that’s not what I want for myself. Make sure there’s something in it for you, beyond the odd change you get each day in advertising, to make it worthwhile.

Are you thinking of start a new blog soon? What do you think of these tips? If you’re already blogging, what would you tell new bloggers?


Source: http://dinosaurstew.com/starting-a-blog-in-2015-here-are-5-tips-pre-blogging-tips/

What is an Autoresponder and Why Do I Need It?

You've heard it time and time again, "The money is in the list!" This is, after all, the Golden Rule of online marketing. But, where's the list? How do you get a list? What do you do once you have the list? These questions can all be answered with one word: Autoresponder!

Simply put, an autoresponder is an automated follow-up tool, which you set-up to check back with your prospects through email messages you create and schedule. There are various autoresponder services out there, but the most popular once, by far, are AWeber and Get Response. The reason these two services are at the top of the popularity ratings is that they are simple to use, offer several features like form-creation and broadcasting capabilities, and they have great deliverability ratios (all that means is that it is very unlikely for your messages be sent to your prospects' SPAM folders).

Now, the way an autoresponder works is by storing your prospect's information from your opt-in box and getting them on queue to receive your pre-set messages. So, if you have a website (blogs and Facebook business pages can also have opt-in boxes added to them) with an opt-in box which asks prospects to type in their name and email, once someone provides that information, the autoresponder takes care of the rest. Depending on the settings you have established, the new lead (what a prospect becomes after filling-in the opt-in box) will start to receive your messages according to the schedule you have set up.

Why do you need an autoresponder? 
Well, the most obvious reason is that you need a way to build that infamous list! It is absolutely no use to you to have an offer people can only see once, especially if they make a purchase that first time. Also, autoresponders put your marketing and follow-up on autopilot. Think about it, you can set up your list so that people receive emails from you on a set interval for as long as you wish them to. And, the beauty of it is that after the initial set-up, you don't have to do anything else. Another beautiful aspect of having an autoresponder is that it allows you to "broadcast" or send one-time offers to your list with ease. This is another way of capitalizing on your list.

Should you get an autoresponder? 
If you are serious about building an online business, then the answer is YES, ABSOLUTELY, WHAT ON EARTH AREYOU WAITING FOR! Remember, that the money is in the list. You cannot make a living on the internet if you have to go back every day and start from scratch! Imagine how long it would take you to do all the follow-up by phone or writing emails one at a time. AWeber and Get Response are also a great value for their cost. Both go for about $20/month. AWeber will give you the first month for $1. Get Response also has a free version, which can be a good way to test it, if you're still a bit skeptical, but it limits considerably number of leads you can store and broadcast. Also, if you are an affiliate to several opportunities or businesses, then you can broadcast your list with new offers. This means you no longer have to start a business venture from scratch!

Autoresponder: by far the BEST tool a network marketer could invest in. Not only is it essential for list-building, but it will truly put your lead management on autopilot. Get your account today!


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4625214

55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love

Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization that even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.

1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.

6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.

8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.

10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.

11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.

12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.

Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.

13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.

14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.

15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.

16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.

19. Text around your links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.

20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.

21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.

22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.

23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.

24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.

25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.

26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.

27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.

28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.

29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.

30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.

31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.

32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.

33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.

34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.

35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.

36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!

37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.

38. Use keyword rich captions with your images.

39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.

40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.

41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:

(1) Log out of Google

(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar

42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.

43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.

44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.

45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.

46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.

47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.

48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.

49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.

50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.

51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.

52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.

53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.

54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.

55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.



Maybe a little technical here and there, but most of them easy to understand and quick to use in your blog. Other tips? Please share.

Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/55-quick-seo-tips-even-your-mother-would-love/

Top 10 Tips for Blogging

Blogging is a great tool for writing, sharing news and photos or art and just generally reaching out to the nameless ranks of people combing the internet every day in search of news and entertainment. TopTenREVIEWS have reviewed the best of the best blog software programs in the hope of showing you just how fun and easy creating a blog can be. 

The hard part for bloggers seems to be:

10. Consistency

Your readers and search engines love consistency. If you post three times a week, every week, this is considered the bare minimum for attracting and maintaining a readership. There is such a thing as too much blogging, though. Posting once a day is considered normal, meaning you’re not living in a dark cave staring at the glowing rectangle all day every day. But every post you make is a new page to be indexed by the search engines, so after one year you will have more than 300 pages in the web with your name on it!

9. Originality

With the ever-growing legions of bloggers out there, internet devotees are always on the lookout for the next great, original blog concept. One blogger might be devoted to showcasing photos of the rooftops of St. Petersburg. Many blogs are devoted to fashion and celebrity gossip, but there aren’t that many documenting people dressed in the gothic style during the hot days of summer.

8. Personality

Whether you create a web persona for the purpose of blogging or you plan to put your real self out there, personality is essential to a good blog read. This gift comes naturally to some bloggers and not at all to others. Whichever you are, your writings will reveal this personality to the world. A lot of bloggers give up fast when they receive negative feedback that is taken personally, but keep in mind that all writing media is subjected to waves of rejection. Don’t give up – there are mean, anonymous people out there surfing the web leaving rude, baseless comments, but there are also plenty more people with constructive comments to offer.

7. Brevity

Be brief in your blog posts. Break up text with cuts, subheadings, bullet lists, photos – people reading on the web tend to scan for anything that slows down or catches their eye. If you want to keep your readers reading, be succinct!

6. Diversity

Multi-media is almost a must these days. Text, video, photo, audio – use all of it in your blog to create well-written posts that are augmented with images or other media. As long as you’re on the way to becoming a blog superstar, might as well go for those YouTube views as well. Uploading your video to YouTube is a great example of how to drive traffic back to your site, as well.

5. Social networking

Use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever your social network of choice is to drive traffic to your blog, alert your friends you have a new post.

4. Collaboration

Use online relationships to collaborate on blog posts and expand your readership – encourage comments, comment on other people’s blogs, link freely and share traffic.

3. Promotion

Commenting on other blogs and getting your blog noticed joins up with social networking here. If you are promoting a product on your blog pay attention to other bloggers promoting a similar product. Use your best judgment to decide what works and what doesn’t. But please, no spamming – it is discourteous, not cool, other users will not take kindly and search engines will penalize you (remove your pages from the index).

2. Other media

Why limit yourself to just a blog? Podcasts are a great example of new media working with blogs to make them even more up-to-date and interesting – your readers will enjoy hearing your actual voice and it will heighten their reading of your content in the future. Check out TypePad blog software for integrated podcasting capability.

1. Fun

The most important part of blogging is having fun and loving your blog. If you choose to blog about something you have a passion for that will come through across the vast and nebulous internet. Additionally, the blog will be sustainable for you because you care about it.


Source: http://blog-software-review.toptenreviews.com/top-10-tips-for-blogging.html

50 Blog and Content Monetization Strategies for 2014 & Beyond

Ready to start making more money from the content on your blog and beyond in 2014? In this guide, we’re going to look at 50 ways you can monetize your content both on and off of your blog.

Monetize Your Blog
Here are the top strategies plus a few new ones to try. Remember that monetizing your blog is all about experimentation; there is always more than one way to do it. Most of the top earners online monetize in a variety of ways.


1. If you are earning money on your blog through promoting affiliate products or your own products, remove any Google AdSense or other low cost per click advertising. Do not lose $50+ in commissions or sales for a $0.01 click.

2. If you write content for other sites, consider the topics you submit carefully. Any topics where the post would directly lead to sales of affiliate products or your own products should stay on your blog. For example, a post entitled “10 Great Tools for Freelancers” where seven out of the 10 tools have affiliate program options should be posted to your blog. Any other topics should be used as guest posts.

3. Add a “Hire Me” page to your blog that outlines services you can offer to your blog readers. If you’re not sure what to offer as a service, think of the things that people ask you to do the most. Maybe it’s help them configure their blog, evaluate or customize the design, review the content, promote the content, etc. Whatever you get asked to do often could make for a great service offering.

4. Add an “Advertise” page to your blog that outlines what advertising options you have to offer — banner ads, text link ads (nofollow, of course), sponsored reviews, sponsored tweets, sponsored infographic placement, etc. — so that people know how they can get more exposure for their businesses on your website. Be sure to include a media kit [click here to use our customized media kit generator tool] with stats on traffic, mailing list subscribers, RSS subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and so forth.

5. Attract advertisers by keeping a high fill rate. If a potential advertisers comes by and sees four “Advertise Here” boxes in your sidebar, they will know the site is not popular enough to receive advertising offers. Leave one available “Advertise Here” box in your sidebar in the smallest space possible (usually a 125×125 space) and use affiliate product banners for the rest until the spaces get legitimate offers.

6. Consider paid placement of content on your blog. Networks like PostJoint connect bloggers to marketers who have guest posts they will pay to place on relevant sites.

7. Share your blog audience with quality publications to earn income. Networks like LinkSmart help bloggers create revenue-generating links to relevant content within their blog posts to sites within their publisher network.

8. Monetize the area beneath your content with third-party content links from networks like Outbrain, Taboola, and even comment platforms such as Disqus.

9. Want to try affiliate marketing, but not sure how? Start with any products or tools that you have paid for to build your blog such as premium WordPress themes, paid SEO and social media management tools, e-books you have read or courses you have taken to grow your blog, and similar. Just search for the product, tool, e-book, or course name plus affiliates or affiliate program on Google to find out if they have one you can join.

10. Already promoting several affiliate products? Cater them to your content by using the Widget Logic plugin for WordPress. It allows you to add PHP code in order to only display sidebar widgets in certain areas on your website. For example, if you write about several different topics within different categories, you can create multiple widgets for the top and bottom of your sidebar that will show affiliate products that match the topic of your posts based on the category (see example targeting options here). You can also have a default widget in both of those spots that show a general affiliate product that fits the theme of your blog for any posts or pages that don’t match the specific topics. This can help boost your affiliate commissions by showing the right products to the right readers.

11. Include a call to action at the end of each and every post, whether it is a call to action to buy an affiliate product, learn more about your services, or purchase one of your own products. When a reader thoroughly enjoys a piece of your content, they will be primed to buy something from you.

12. Turn your blog into a lead generating machine by adding mailing list opt-ins in all the right places: your header using plugins such as HelloBar, near the top of your sidebar, at the end of posts, on your about page, and on your thank you pages not related to newsletter signups such as your thank you for commenting page using Comment Redirect or your thank you for contacting me page using any comment plugin that offers a redirection URL after a form is submitted.


Monetize Older Content
Go into your Google Analytics program and look at the top pages for the last year. Notice a few pieces from several years ago that are getting a consistent amount of traffic? Make sure those pieces of content are monetized in the following ways so that you are capitalizing on all of your hard work throughout the years.

13. Find an affiliate product that matches the topic of the post and add a pitch for it near the end of the post. If your post is still getting a lot of traffic, then it is considered a good source of information. Help people discover more information related to that topic that they can purchase through your affiliate link.

14. End the post with a strong call to action for your own products or services if relevant.

15. At the very least, make sure the post drives people to sign up for your mailing list. Consider having subscribers go to a special mailing list that is set up for an autoresponder series that leads them to purchasing an affiliate product or a product of your own.

16. Have an older technical post that is still receiving a lot of traffic? Turn it into a whitepaper or report and offer it as a lead magnet of your mailing list.

17. Notice a series of older posts that are thematically linked and still receive traffic? Turn those posts into an e-book that you either offer as a lead magnet for your mailing list or for sale on the Amazon Kindle Store.

Monetize Your Videos
You don’t have to create written content in order to make money through your blog. Video content can be monetized as well, no matter what network you place it upon. 

18. Enable the option to monetize your YouTube videos with Google AdSense ads. You’ll need to log in to your YouTube channel in order for the link to work.

19. Include links within your video description on networks like YouTube and Vimeo that direct people to the products or services mentioned in your video.

20. Take advantage of Associated Website Annotatations on YouTube to get links directly to your website in your YouTube videos.

21. Consider premium tools like Viewbix that allows you to add apps directly to videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and other third party video platforms. These apps allow video viewers to engage with your video in ways such as subscribing to your mailing list or learning more about your products and services. Note that apps are viewable on videos embedded on your website within the Viewbix player, not on YouTube itself.

22. Capitalize on the audience of networks like YouTube and Vimeo by turning posts about affiliate products or your own products into videos. People who may not want to read a review about an affiliate product or your own might enjoy a video review or walkthrough of the product instead.

23. Monitor your video comments. If you notice a particular set of videos are increasingly popular and people are asking for more information, consider creating more in-depth videos from those and selling them as a video course.

Monetize Your Podcast
Podcasting is continuously increasing in popularity, and it is a medium that allows you to tap into an entirely new audience if you have only been using written or video content up until this point. If you use podcasting as a part of your blog content in any way, here are some ways to monetize it.

24. Have a popular podcast? Start looking for sponsors. You can look towards other popular podcasts in your niche to see who is sponsoring them (usually announced at the beginning of an episode) and reach out to those advertisers. You can also add it as an option in your advertising page so advertisers know they can reach a larger audience on iTunes.

25. Create show notes for each of your podcast episodes that you direct listeners to. This will be a great place to include affiliate product links, links to your own product sales pages, and links to your services page as mentioned through the podcast.

26. Do you think portions of your podcasts could be compiled to make an interesting audio book? Try your hand at converting your podcast clips into an audio book for platforms such as Audible.

27. Turn an insanely popular podcast into revenue by hosting private podcasts for members only.

Monetize Your Presentations
Do you have presentations that you use for speaking or to supplement your blog content? If so, you can place those presentations on Slideshare and monetize them in a few different ways.

28. Links within presentations are clickable on Slideshare, so be sure to link to any affiliate products, sales pages, services, or squeeze pages mentioned in the slides.

29. End each presentation with a few links that people can click through to learn more about you, including links to your lead magnets, products, and services.

30. Premium Slideshare members can add a lead generation form into their presentations. This form will be shown at the end of your presentation on Slideshare itself, on any social networks the presentation is shared upon, and on any websites the presentation is embedded in. If your presentations are popular, it’s a great way to generate leads for your business.

Monetize Your Kindle Books
Amazon Kindle has provided everyone with the opportunity to be a published author. Regardless of whether you want to be an author, having a Kindle book allows you to reach a massive audience on Amazon. Of course, unless you’re a bestseller, you won’t actually earn a lot off of the Kindle store from book sales themselves as most by unknown authors are sold for $2.99 or less. Here are some other ways to monetize e-books through Kindle.

31. Make each Kindle book a lead-in to a product or service that you have to offer. Think about the topics your ideal customer would be seeking information on from Amazon and create your e-books accordingly.

32. Offer Kindle books that are acting as lead magnets for your products and services under the Kindle Select Program. This program means that you are exclusively offering the book on Amazon and gives you more options for promoting it, such as the ability to offer it for free for a boost in sales rankings and reviews.

33. Interlink each Kindle book you create with others. This way, if someone discovers one but isn’t necessarily interested in the product or service it promotes, they will still be invited to read your other books and learn about the products and services associated to those.

34. End each book with a link to your squeeze page so that readers can become mailing list subscribers. Create a list with a specific autoresponder series that leads the reader into buying a particular product or service.

35. Add links to supplementary content within your Kindle book that are fully monetized. For example, if you mention a product that you are an affiliate for, link to a YouTube video or blog post where you demonstrate the value of the product and have an affiliate link for it.

Monetize Your Infographics
Infographics have been heavily used by the SEO industry as a way to build backlinks in exchange for better rankings. High quality infographics also have the potential to become viral across social networks and sites as large as Mashable. Learn how to use infographics for monetization in a number of ways.

36. Place an infographic on your sales or squeeze pages. Because of the high likelihood that the infographic will be shared, you will get a lot of links back to your sales and squeeze pages, increasing their rankings and conversions.

37. Place an infographic within product review posts. Because of the high likelihood that the infographic will be shared, you will get an increased volume of traffic to your posts, increasing their affiliate sales.

38. Include shortened links throughout your infographic in relation to mentioned affiliate products, such as an infographic about the top tools for a specific purpose.

39. Include links at the bottom of your infographic leading back to your business website, sales, or squeeze pages. This way, no matter where the infographic is posted, people can find a way back to your business.

40. Turn product reviews into infographics, posting them on sites such as Flickr and Pinterest. Include links from those networks that lead to the products themselves. Watch out for Pinterest stripping affiliate credentials in some cases.

Monetize Repurposed Content
People like to learn in different ways. While some people like to read posts on a blog, others might want to hear a podcast or watch a video. Here are some ways you can repurpose your content on an on-going basis and monetize each piece of repurposed content.

Repurposing Text-Based Blog Posts

41. Turn blog posts into podcasts simply by repurposing the text within them as a script. Monetize your podcasts in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

42. Turn blog posts into videos by turning tutorials into screencasts or a little facetime with the camera. Monetize your videos in the ways discussed in the section about videos above.

43. Turn blog posts into presentations by taking the main points and turning them into visually impressive slides. Monetize your presentations in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

44. Turn a series of blog posts into an e-book. Offer the e-book as a lead magnet or sell it on Amazon Kindle.

45. Turn technical posts on your blog into whitepapers and reports. Offer the whitepapers and reports as lead magnets, adding new subscribers to lists with an auto responder series designed to sell a related product.

Repurposing Podcasts

46. Turn each podcast episode into a written post for your blog if you haven’t already. You will want this to be more than just at transcription. Find someone who can turn the podcast content into a unique piece of written content, then monetize it with relevant links to products and services.

47. Turn a series of posts created from your podcasts into an e-book. Offer the e-book as a lead magnet or sell it on Amazon Kindle.

Repurposing Videos

48. When applicable, strip the audio from your videos (such as interviews and Google+ Hangouts) and use them as podcasts. Monetize your podcasts in the ways discussed in the section about podcasting above.

49. Turn each video into a written post for your blog if you haven’t already. You will want this to be more than just at transcription. Find someone who can turn the video content into a unique piece of written content, then monetize it with relevant links to products and services

50. Update a series of older, popular videos with additional details and repackage them into a video course. Link this course to the older videos.

Bottom Line
There you have it — 50 ways to monetize the content you create for your blog, your podcasts, your presentations, and your videos. With these tips, you should have a very successful and profitable content marketing and monetization strategy. Have additional tips? Please share them in the comments!


Source: http://monetizepros.com/blog/2014/50-blog-and-content-monetization-strategies/