Jun 26, 2009

5 Google Tools

Internet marketers and webmasters have always had a love/ hate relationship with Google. Whatever you think of them they do provide website owners with some great market research tools.
No matter what market you are in or plan to be in, you will find these free tools provided by Google very useful when researching your market. You should be researching your market constantly, NOT just when setting up your site. The internet is ever changing and, if you're not keeping up with those changes, you will be left behind.

Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches And Wonder Wheel
When you start typing in the main Google search box you should see a drop down box appear giving you some alternative search terms related to the word you typed. Note these phrases down in a notepad file or write them on a piece of paper. They will be useful as part of your keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you will see "searches related to:" Note down any new phrases shown there.
Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format. You can also click on the related phrases to find more useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of the results on the left you should see a show options link. Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of the menu you should see wonder wheel.

Market Research Tool 2 - Adwords Keyword Tool
We all know how important keywords and search phrases are. Let's face it, it's what drives the internet. Google has provided us with a tool that tells you what keywords and phrases people are using to find what they are looking for. You are able to search an individual country, more than one if you hold down the ctrl key on your keyboard as you select, or all countries.
The adwords tool is now more valuable due to the fact it shows actual search numbers. Previously you only had a green bar to indicate how much traffic the search term receíved. You can also see how competitive each keyword is amongst adword advertisers, showing us which keywords are commercially viable.

Market Research Tool 3 - Google Trends
Now that you have an idea what keywords your market is using you can use the trends tool to check the history of that keyword / phrase. Google Trends supplies data for the last 5 years, giving you an idea if the search term is consistent. You can also see if the search term is popular at certain times of the year, also known as a seasonal keywords.
Another important function of Trends is the section that tells you the popularity of a keyword by country, city and language - very useful if you are targeting particular countries or even cities.

Market Research Tool 4 - Google Alerts
Alerts is underused by webmasters. If you want to stay in touch with what's hot in your market, you can by using Google Alerts. All you have to do is enter the most popular phrases in your market. Google will then send you links via email depending on what type you select.
The types are news, web, blogs, video and groups. If you would like a mix of all, you can select comprehensive. You can decide how often you want to be updated by selecting either: as it happens, once a day or once a week. I hope you can see how powerful this is if you want to be seen as an authority in your market.

Market Research Tool 5 - Google Web Search
Finally, we have Google's standard web search which is not standard in my eyes. It provides a lot of information if you know what to look for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of running a website. By performing a search of your market keywords, Google will tell you what type of content it sees as important.
If you see videos, blogs or images this gives you another way to reach the top 10 of Google. If you see Web 2.0 style sites such as Digg, that could be another avenue. If there are adword ads on the right side of the screen, that tells you the market is commercially viable and more importantly that the keyword you entered is good enough to pay for, especially if there are 10 ads or more.
As you can see, even if you don't have money to buy the latest tools, I have shown you there is a way to get some very important information using free tools from Google. Are you starting to love them now?

Jun 24, 2009

What Makes a Website Design a Good One?

A lot of people can recognize good design when they see it on the web. But most people don't really know what makes that design good.
How do you define "good design?" Is it subjective, like your favorite flavor of ice cream? Although there is some subjectivity within good design, there are artistic principles that good design is built from. Here are a few that form the foundation of good design.
1. Proximity
Because items that are in close proximity to one another become one visual unit, items that are related to one another should be grouped together. Laying out related items on a website page this way helps the eye associate the information and enables the viewer to mentally categorize the information easily. The flip side of this principle is that items that are not related should not be placed in close proximity to one another.
The purpose of the principle of proximity is to organize information in a way that enables viewers to quickly and easily comprehend. When information is organized, people are more likely to read it and respond. People are also more likely to remember information that is organized.
How can you determine if items form a visual unit? Squint your eyes and look at the page on a website. Now count the number of times your eye stops as it views the page. On a page that is using the principle of proximity well, your eye will stop three to five times. In other words, there will be three to five groups of information for the eye to comprehend separately.
2. Alignment
You've seen website page layouts where the text and graphics are placed wherever there happens to be space. The effect is messy, with no impact. Nothing should be placed on a page arbitrarily. There should be a visual connection between each item on the page. When items are aligned, it creates a cohesiveness that the eye appreciates.
The purpose of alignment is to unify the website page. Imagine a well-organized kitchen. All the pots and pans are stored in the organizer, the fruit is nicely displayed in a basket on the counter, the spices are all on the rack - everything is in its place. A page layout needs the same thing.
Look at a website page that you feel is good design. Now focus on the main visual element. Where does your eye go from there?
Do you see how other elements are aligned with that one main element both vertically and horizontally?
3. Repetition
Good design repeats some aspect of the website design throughout the site. It's this repetition that makes all the pages in a site look like they belong together. Color scheme, graphic elements, typefaces - all of these elements should be repeated - used consistently - throughout.
The purpose of repetition is to create consistency and to add visual interest. Repetition creates a professional, polished look that the eye is drawn to. When a website design uses repetition and is consistent, it is more likely to be viewed and read.
Here are some ways you can create repetition beyond simple consistency in typefaces and colors: Use some element in your logo as a major graphic element in the design. If you are using a ruled line, make the line more interesting visually by perhaps making it with tiny dots or dashes, then repeating the line element throughout the design. Create patterns that are repeated throughout the design. Take a small element and place it somewhere on each page for a whimsical look. Just be careful not to overdo the repetition, or viewers will be annoyed rather than pleased.
4. Contrast
The principle of contrast states that if two items are not the same, then they should be different - very different. Contrast creates an organizational hierarchy of the information and graphics on a webpage. When using contrast, you can't be a wimp! The contrast must be strong to be effective.
The purpose of contrast is two-fold: to create interest on the page, and to organize information. A page that is interesting to look at is more likely to be read. And contrasting elements will help a reader understand the way the information is organized.
Contrast can be created in many ways. You can contrast large type with small type, a serif font with a sans-serif font, bold with light, smooth texture with rough texture, a small graphic with a large one, a dark color with a light one.
A design that integrates these principles will automatically gain a professionalism and polish that it would otherwise lack.
Next time you stumble across a website design that makes you say "wow", check for these principles - you'll find them quietly working to make that design a good one!
================================================================
Laura MacPherson - Creative director at Northstar Creative, a website design studio located in Greenville, SC. Her company, Northstar Creative Web Design, (http://www.northstarcreative.net/) approaches website development differently than many web companies.
Northstar Creative combines the use of marketing psychology with top-notch web development to create truly exceptional custom sites for its clients.
================================================================
By Laura MacPherson (c) 2009

Jun 19, 2009

Time Management for Your Online Business

And the secret to any truly successful Internet business is… tweaking and maintaining your website.
Think of your Internet business as a garden. It may look great when you plant it, but if you stop tending it and just walk away, it will turn into a weed jungle in no time.
The same is true for the website that represents your online business to the world. The time you put into maintaining and improving your website will keep it growing and making more money.
There’s always that nagging feeling that says, “Yes, I know this stuff has to get done, but I just don’t have the time (or inclination) for it right now.” You just need to manage your time… because all those little chores need to be done!
So here’s a website maintenance schedule to make all those tasks a little easier to manage. This way you can see what needs to be addressed often, and what only needs a checkup every now and then.
Your website stats and PPC results will tell you what you need to test or change, so we recommend doing both short-term and long-term reviews. For the more static parts of your website, you don’t have to change anything if it isn’t out of date. Just do scheduled reviews to make sure it is still current and accurately representing your business.
Daily to weekly
  • Add new content to blog
  • Review results of PPC ad campaigns and landing pages
  • Review and track website statistics and results

Monthly

  • Test parts of salesletter: headline, subhead, product descriptions, headlines, bonus, etc. (or every 1,500 to 2,000 clicks)
  • Test opt-in offer
  • Add articles (add fresh new content whenever you can, but at least once a month)
  • Clean up links to other sites (make sure they’re still current)
  • Review surveys/polls (if your surveys or polls are out of date you will look unprofessional)

Every 3 months

  • Intense PPC stats analysis (historical overview)
  • Intense SEO stats analysis (historical overview)

FAQ page
About Us (you may not need to change anything, but it’s a good idea to check back fairly often to make sure you’re giving your customers an accurate picture of who you are)

Update these as soon as there is any change

  • Contact Us
  • Other administration pages, for example Returns Policies
  • Product descriptions/prices
  • News
  • Videos/audio
  • Images
  • Testimonials
  • Summary for directories

Put website maintenance in your schedule and you’ll see your online business thrive.

source: http://www.internetmarketing.com/time-management-for-your-online-business/

Jun 18, 2009

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Jun 17, 2009

Search Engine Optimization is Dead! Long Live Answer Engines.

 
 

Sent to you by Webmaster via Google Reader:

 
 

via HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog by Pete Caputa on 6/15/09


Hunch, a new site from the co-founder of Flickr, launched today

I haven't gotten this excited about a new "search engine" since 2004. Back then, Eurekster launched and I started a whole blog about it, in the style of the unofficial google blog.  Of course my irrational exuberance was unfounded, as Eurekster continues to limp along. Or maybe it's fairer to say that my expectations weren't in line with their aspirations. 

Either way, let's just say that I'm tempering my excitement for this new "search engine," by only writing a blog post about it, as opposed to creating a whole blog around it.

What is Hunch? 

If you've been watching TV lately, you'll notice that Microsoft has launched a new search engine called Bing. In the ads, they make fun of how search engines return a list of usually unrelated results whenever you're trying to get an answer to a question

Bing's innovation is that they guide you to [what was] farecast if you're doing a travel related search. 

But, compared to Hunch, Bing isn't even close to a decision making or "answer" engine. 

Hunch enables their users to work together to create sets of questions and answers. It also lets users create "topics" that are a series of questions that guide users to one of a handful of answers. 

In effect, they let the community create answers to complex questions. This is the innovation that is huge! 

Of course, like Eurekster, success of this services will depend upon whether a significant number of users start contributing to it. Then, it'll require a massive amount of people to start using it. But, I think Caterina Fake, Hunch's co-founder and co-founder of Flickr, probably has what it takes to make that happen. So, I'm giving this a big benefit of the doubt. 

How to Use Hunch to Help People Find You!

This morning, when I started playing with Hunch, I was initially not sure how this would benefit businesses. At first, they ask you to answer a bunch of questions about yourself to help teach the system about you. I told them a bunch of things about me that seemed very irrelevant to someone who'd want to market to me, especially if that company is a b2b company. 

But, I'm glad I went back and tried to understand it a bit better. When I did, I realized that there were ways to get complex questions answered, by answering a series of questions that the community has created and stringed together. I did a few searches and didn't see any questions that were already answered that I really wanted an answer to. So, I figured I'd try and teach the system. Once I started creating a "topic," "What Blogging Software Should I Use," the system informed me that there was one that was already similar. 

So, I started down the road of answering some questions so the system could tell me, "What should I use to create a blog?

Here's how I set up HubSpot, so that we might have a better chance of being found when someone wants to answer this question:

  1. I added HubSpot blogging software as an option including a description, an image and a link to the page on our site that explains our blogging software.
  2. I told the system how people would answer all the questions if they were a good fit for HubSpot software. For example, for the question, "Is this blog for personal or professional use?", I selected "professional" from the list of 3 options. 
  3. I was able to add questions like, "Do you care if your blog helps you attract more search engine traffic to your business domain?" and then selected the different answers that would apply to "yes" and which ones applied to "no".

Why SEO will Move Aside for DEO (Decision Engine Optimization)...

With Hunch (a decision making engine), it's possible to get actual answers to questions, instead of just a list of things that might be relevant. 

The rules of DEO are simple: 

  1. Be really good at what you do, so that other people will build you into their questions and answers.
  2. Make sure your solution is present when people are asking for a solution like yours.
  3. Create decision making guides that help your best prospects find you by feeding the system the right series of questions to ask to them.

What if Hunch Doesn't Ever Get as Big as Google?

Learning from my hype-making-mistakes, I'd like to temper this post a bit by saying, even if Hunch doesn't get huge, it's still a good SEO move to participate at Hunch. 

Why? Because Hunch is a site (just like answers.com, Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia, aboutus.org, Knol and Squidoo) that will show up in Google's search engine results pages more easily than your site --- especially for a challenging keyword. If you can't get your website to rank for a challenging keyword, you might as well try and be featured on the page that can.

As people create more and more "topics," Hunch will generate a lot of free search traffic from Google. The pages are automatically optimized as the site places the questions in the page title, url and some other important spots. I also expect the site to attract a lot of links naturally, as topics become really authoritative ways of finding good answers to tough questions that search engines just don't know YET! 

What Do You Think? Any Equally Bullish Predictions? 

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Jun 14, 2009

Six Lessons Business Bloggers Can Learn From Great Public Speakers


churchill

This article was written by Matt Eventoff, a communications strategists who helps leaders become great communicators. You can read his blog Communications 3.0 or follow him on Twitter: @communicate101.

Winston Churchill. Abraham Lincoln. John F. Kennedy. What do all three great leaders have in common?

All were exemplary public speakers, and not one of them blogged!

Ok, that's really not fair as Al Gore had not yet even invented the internet while each was alive.

Still, there are lessons that every blogger can learn from great public speakers of the past in order to capture, motivate and move an audience. Here are a few:

1. Simplicity - Two of my favorite quotes, both of which apply to great public speaking and great blogging:

"Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word, before you let it fall" - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent." - Dionysius

2. Brevity - Part II of Simplicity: Speeches (and blog posts) that resonate don't drag on.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address? Under three minutes.

Does this mean every blog post you write should be consumed in less than three minutes? No. It means if you want a reader to keep coming back, you better be interesting and you better get to the point

3. Message Consistency - Hope and change (Barack Obama). Never surrender (Winston Churchill). Ask not (JFK). There was never any doubt what any of these three men stood for when they spoke.

Every reader knows what he or she is getting when visiting the HubSpot Blog (expert internet marketing advice). Drudge Report (breaking news). PerezHilton (celebrity dirt).

Every week, week after week, these immensely popular sites get tons of traffic, and week after week these sites deliver subject matter that their readership cares about - consistently.

4. It's Not About You - Every great public speaker recognizes that a speech or presentation is not about the speaker, it's about the audience. Blogging is no different. Ignore this to your own peril.

5. Tell a Story - People will remember a story, they may or may not remember a fact. Most great speakers tend to incorporate great stories into speeches and presentations. Blogging is no different.

6. Care. Be Passionate! - To me, this is what truly differentiates great speakers from good speakers. A great public speaker cares, tremendously, about the subject which he or she is speaking on. And it shows, each and every time. Care passionately about what you are writing about if you want your readers to care at all.

Photo: Wikipedia

SEO for YouTube

How to Search Optimize Video for B2B Marketing


Publishing a lot of content and optimizing that content so it gets found in search engines is an important part of inbound marketing, and videos are an important part of content. Given that YouTube is by far the most popular video website, you should be publishing videos there (even if you are a B2B company like HubSpot). You also need to be able to optimize your videos to show up higher in searches on YouTube. Here's how:

SEO for YouTube

title

1) Title & Description- Just like on-page SEO for web pages, you need to optimize the basic text information describing your videos - the titles and descriptions. These are set when you upload the video. The title should contain a good keyword phrase (it needs to be short because YouTube limits the length). The description can be longer, 2-3 sentences or more is fine, and it should also contain keywords and variations of keywords. Including a URL link at the start of the description is a good idea, since the description is mostly hidden by default, but your link will still be visible and clickable if it is at the beginning. To include a link in the description, just add a full URL (including http://) at the start of your description.

tags

2) Tags - For SEO, you should include at least 5-7 relevant keywords as tags for your video. Using tags will associate your video with other videos that use the same tags, so when people watch a different video, your video will be shown as a "related video" and you can get additional views from people who originally were watching other videos.

views

3) Popularity / Views- The popularity of your video (the total number of views and the number of views in the past 24-48 hours) is an important factor in how well your video will rank in search results. YouTube prefers to show people popular videos, because they are almost always better videos, and a lot of the videos on YouTube are poor quality. Finally, this isn't really YouTube SEO, but videos that have gotten a big spike in views in the past day or so will get preferred placement - and also will be given "honors" which put your video on lists like "most viewed today" which then in turn attract more views.

links

4) Inbound Links / Embeds- Inbound links (links from other websites to your website or video) are important in traditional SEO, and are also important in YouTube SEO, with the addition that an embedded video (when someone puts the YouTube video into their own website) functions like an inbound link. You can see how many links and embeds your video has by using YouTube Insights (log into your account, find your video and then on the right-hand side of the page will be a gray button that says "Insights"). Getting more websites to link to and embed your video will help it rank higher in search results, so promote your video to people who might embed it or link to it. Another tip is to find other similar videos and click on "Statistics and Data" below the video, and it will show you "sites linking to this video". If a blog liked another similar video, they might also like yours. You can contact this blog to let them know about your video, hopefully they will also embed it or link to it.

ratings

5) Ratings & Comments- Higher ratings and more comments are also indications of better and more interesting videos, so get as many great ratings and comments as you can for SEO purposes. The best way to do this is to make great videos, but if you have already made your video, encouraging your blog readers or friends on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is a great way to get more ratings, and those ratings are likely to be good because you know those people.

Webinar: How to Use Online Video for Marketing

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Watch this free online video marketing webinar to learn how to use different forms of online video to grow your business with inbound marketing. Watch now -->

Jun 13, 2009

Free Traffic and the 4 Vital Elements of a Successful Website

From SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
By Brye Bishop (c) 2009
Let's face it, anyone can build a website. There are countless companies out there offering a vast array of web building solutions, some good, some great, and some quite frankly are a complete waste of time! But throwing together a website is really only part of the story, only part of the process. There are literally, hundreds of thousands of web pages, that will never be viewed and therefore stand no chance of commercial success. Some of those sites are relatively good; unfortunately their owners have misunderstood the process and have the cart before the horse...
In the online world nobody just happens by your website, credit card in hand! If you've yet to build your website, or about to create a new site, stop! consider first exactly what you wish to achieve with that site, before you start. "Creating a website should follow a process proven to deliver a commercial end result... or run the risk of ending up, just another pretty picture in cyberspace!"
Fortunately there is a process, and I highly recommend you take a look at it... perhaps you already know it...
Content > Traffic > Pre-sell > Monetize
A time tested, 4 step process, proven to produce websites that deliver... commercially! Ok so, let's now look briefly at each step and why they work in this particular order.

1. Numoro Uno, as always. Content.

Very, very important. Building information-rich sites is crucial. You must have high quality, unique, relevant content on your site, A; because you want to attract visitors in the first place and B; to generate long term, search engine based free traffic.
Online, people are looking for solutions, for information that leads to solutions. They use the search engines to hunt for the most relevant facts to reach this end goal solution. Your job is therefore easy... give it to them... but don't just plonk down any old garbage and hope for the best... take your time, put in the effort, provide good quality information that will over-deliver and keep your visitor interested, satisfy her need and you will be rewarded. Over time, gradually add new fresh, useful content and you will be creating web pages valued by
humans and search engines alike. On the internet, high value content is king!

2. Traffic...

Ahh! The Holy Grail... Much has been written on the subject, and many are making a good living providing (?)
this elusive element.
Truth is, (excluding social media) there are but two ways to get it - you either pay for it, or you optimize for it. If you take the time to understand the basics, you can easily do both.
Paid search, (PPC) such as Google Adwords has its place, and can provide an immediate stream of targeted visitors to your website; however it is a study of its own and can, if not understood, be very costly very quickly! If you want to go that route learn with small amounts (of money) and don't be tempted to throw good after bad... owch! been there! Safer and arguably better, is optimization (SEO) for the organic results, as reached via a Google or other search engine search. This is simply intelligent website construction, a process anyone can do. The important point is, the optimization should be built in during the creative process, at the time you're constructing the site; you are literally building your website to principles that make it search engine friendly, thus leading to high natural positions in organic search results, leading to of course, significant free traffic flow to your site...

3. Don't sell... Pre-sell.

You have created a website with value rich content, and fully optimized its pages for indexing by Google (and other search engines)... Folks are arriving at your site as directed by their search results. You are keen to have them buy your goods or services, ready with your pitch... but wait! There's another vital step in the process of converting your visitors into customers, and you've done half the work already...
Pre-selling is a warming up process, whereby you develop trust and confidence in your offer... it's already well known that people are more willing to buy from those they like, trust or respect. By over-delivering relevant high value information, without appearing to be forcing a sale you will almost by default, create an atmosphere that inevitably leads to sales. Simple!
As far as your visitor is concerned, her needs are being met, his wishes are being fulfilled, you are providing the very information that is the solution to that which they are searching for in the first place. Pre-selling creates an open-to-buy mindset that smoothly introduces your visitors to your monetization offer.

4. Monetize.

Ok thanks for sticking with me, here's the home run... This is where you make your offer enticing by introducing and highlighting the many benefits of your product or service, and detailing exactly how it offers the solution to their predicament. You have paved the way with informative, relevant content and can now look to close with persuasive sales copy, Your call to action should be strong and concise. Tell your prospect exactly what they need to do to order. If you have a good product, and you should, let them know exactly how they will benefit by ordering from you... Today!
So there it is... in brief... A formula simple, yet highly effective. Generate targeted free traffic via your highly optimized website, provide information packed content that offers solutions, warm up or pre-sell your visitors by over-delivering on the quality of that content, then and only then, monetize by introducing persuasive, benefit focused sales copy to convert pre-sold visitors into enthusiastic customers. For full details on how to implement each of these steps (with no technical knowledge whatsoever!) grab yourself a free 48 page e-copy of The Simple Art of e-Persuasion at the info link below... or visit my site.
================================================================
Brye Bishop is a highly successful internet entrepreneur and marketer, committed to providing quality source information and assisting others in their quest for financial freedom.
http://www.Clickfig.com ...Get your free copy of The Simple Art of e-Persuasion now, simply email "eBook offer" to info@clickfig.com
================================================================

Jun 10, 2009

Spelling and Grammar in Online Content

Just how important is spelling and grammar in online content? It is well known that not everybody in the world speaks English as their primary language.It is also well known that while the first fact is true, the vast majority of all websites... and especially websites about Internet Marketing are written in English.
Not everybody can be an expert in English but you really should consider the importance of spelling and grammar in your online content.
Would you allow an auto repairman to work on your car after he described such technical issues as "fixing the thingy there" or talking to you about "doo-hickers" and "thingamabobs"?
The fact is that if you are going to allow someone to work on your car, you want them to know a carburetor from distributor and you want to know what they are working on and without a bunch of generic talk or worse yet... gobbledy-gook involved in the discussion.
In all likelihood, you would probably leave running and never go back. It may be that they are the greatest mechanic in the world but you would never know that because they could not establish your trust. How many sales pages have you seen where you were almost compelled to buy something that sounded really good but had second thoughts?
I personally know of one very admirable product that is nearly complete in every sense of the word and it really is an awesome product.
The sales page is long, involved, detailed and laid out in all the right ways according to the copywriting gurus but conversion rates still hover somewhere around one to two percent. Why is that? Well it could be because it is an expensive product but somehow I doubt that is the case.
It happens to be a very in-depth and informative informational product for Internet Marketing that leads you by the hand from start to finish where you can get enough going to at least get started creating your virtual online empire.
While it is actually an incredible product and you would definitely be interested if you saw it, most people will never actually see it.
The fact remains that when somebody is going to "plunk down" their hard-earned cash for an informational product, they want information. "Well Duh!" you say. Still, how are you ever going to trust someone to provide you with valuable and timely information that will actually help you if they can not even get a sales page up without a massive number of errors?


Are you going to trust them or are you going to run... whether consciously or not, because you are just not convinced that they know what they are talking about?
Nearly everybody is judgmental to a degree. If a fat, smelly, homeless looking person cut in front of you in the line you would be much more likely to get upset than you would if an extremely attractive person graciously intervened and thanked you for your kindness, beguiling you with their charm and good looks.
Facts are facts and no amount of discussion can change reality. The same principles hold true in website copy. If your website is full of errors that could have easily been avoided, it is costing you more than just a little lost ad revenue.
How important is spelling and grammar in online content? Do you want your readers coming back from more or running away without even giving you a chance?
About the Author: Ward Tipton is a Professional Writer who has spent the last five years providing highly specialized and quality Professional Writing Services.

Jun 8, 2009

HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet?

Posted by Pete Caputa on Tue, Sep 30, 2008 @ 08:15 AM

In a recent blog post discussing the importance of link building for search engine optimization, I asked people to share how they build links to their website. I recommend you go read the responses. I also recommend you read that article so you know how to construct inbound links so they affect your search rankings for individual keywords that you want to rank for.
link building

In that article, I said I'd be writing a follow up article about "how" to build links to your site.

Link building is not easy. And it's not that intuitive until you do it. There are also many different techniques and methods that will have varied results. Below is how I recommend clients start and master link building.

I tell people that there are 4 Levels of Link Building Excellence. And it usually takes 4 years to master it - just like high school:

9th Grade: Links You Can Build Yourself That Require Little Time Investment

Before I get into this, I'd like to stress that you should have a really good keyword strategy and make sure you've optimized each page on your site around a different keyword phrase. Any link you're building should be designed to help a specific page rank high in the search engines for a specific keyword.

That said, the first set of links that every business should get are the ones that don't require anyone else's help. There are lots of business directories out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business. Some of them require approval. Some of them require a fee.Yahoo's directory, Joe Ant, Aboutus.org are some of the ones you should do right away.

In this class of Level I links, there are also many social media sites where you can simply build links to your site. Most of these no longer pass SEO credit, but they're still good links to get, assuming your target audience visits the site or these sites rank high for your keywords already.

It's arguable that you should hire someone to do (or start) this stuff for you. It's low level work that generates low level returns. Just make sure that you don't hire a firm that will get you 1,000 links for < $1,000 dollars. If it's too good to be true, it is.

10th Grade: Links You Build Yourself that Require Effort

Before I get into this level, I'd like to stress that launching a business blog should be done before doing this. Without having a blog on your site with lots of good well optimized content, you don't really have anything to link to.

That said, there are two very common link building techniques that work well that don't require you to be a "thought leader". Yet. These activities require a bit more time investment and a small financial investment. They are article marketing and press release optimization. With both of these methods, you have to create relevant content that will appeal to your market. So, it requires more time than Level I. Also, the process of getting your articles syndicated and your press releases submitted and picked up - takes effort. You might consider hiring a wired pr firm or a strong seo firm to do some of this stuff for you.

If done correctly, both of these methods can significantly increase the links to your site. Also, if you write your articles and press releases with a keyword strategy in mind, and with links that support your keyword strategy, it can significantly raise your rankings for specific keyword terms. Run your press releases and your articles through press release grader to determine whether they're going to help.

11th Grade: Links You Network For that Require a Significant Time Investment

This part of link building is kind of like sales. Cold calling can be done effectively with persistence. But, networking, getting referrals, giving first, the law of attraction, etc is a better way of getting new clients.

Link building is the same way. If you're more of a cold caller type, and there are lots of potential places you can get a link, you might consider just creating a list of webmasters and asking them for a link.

If you're a natural networker and you're in this for the long haul, I'd recommend being a bit more patient. Apply your persistence and spend your time building relationships.

No matter what route you take, the goal of this level is to make yourself visible among people interested in the same topics as you. This process is a bit self promotional. But, you must promote yourself in a way that you're adding value. You master this level by acting like a resource for people in your industry. How do you do this? It's all about networking and building meaningful relationships. The first step is reading other people's blogs. Then, commenting on them. Then, eventually starting a relationship where you're communicating 1 on 1 with them. I recommend you take the leap from reader to 1:1 with a blogger, by pointing them in the direction of other people's content that might be interesting to them. In the non marketing world, this usually happens through email. In the marketing world, this usually happens through Twitter. If you're techy, this might happen through Delicious. If you use StumbleUpon or Digg, those are great platforms to share things with peers. Even google reader lets you do this kind of networking. But, it can certainly happen through any social networking platform or system that enables 1:1 communication.

From a link building perspective, the ultimate goal of this level is to get invited to write a guest article for other people's blogs or website. For example, I wrote an article about inbound lead generation for Aaron Ross not too long ago. In the article, I linked to relevant resources on my blog and the HubSpot blog and site. These are great links from an authoritative source. Aaron reaches our target market sending relevant traffic. These links also help us rank for our target keywords.

During this process, you're also building up a group of people that will most likely begin following you...

Seniors Rule! (12th Grade): Links Other People Give You Because You Create Remarkable Content.

This level is like the last month or two in high school when you've already passed mid terms and you've been accepted to the college of your choice. You've done the hard work already. Now, it's time to go to parties and enjoy being the care free big man on campus.

You don't necessarily halt the activities above. But, you spend more of your time just creating remarkable content. (And some link bait.)

At HubSpot, we do some guest articles once in a while and we optimize our press releases. But, mostly we just put time into churning out content on our blog and producing other online marketing resources like webinars and white papers. Some of you seem to think this stuff is pretty remarkable. As a result, it generally creates great conversations in our comments, strong attendance at our webinars and lots of white paper downloads. And regularly, people link to our webinar announcements and blog articles of their own accord.

This doesn't start happening overnight, unless you're already famous. We have a lot of advantages at HubSpot. Website grader's success, funding in the bank, successful clients, smart founders who started blogging before they had a product and now... a lot of employees who contributor to the blog, a strong social media following, etc.

But, we did it in <>

The biggest mistake that newbie internet marketers make is thinking that creating great content on their blog will be all it takes to be successful internet marketers. My biggest frustration is when newbie bloggers pack up shop after just a month of writing because the blog doesn't have an immediate impact on their search traffic and lead volume.

At the end of the day, if you publish great content on the web AND connect, relate and build relationships with other humans, really good links will come naturally. Until then, put in some homework and earn your way through link building high school.

Photo by CarbonNYC

A Simple Guide For Achieving Top Rankings

By Darren Chow in SE Optimization

The proper term for the process is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a combination of two major components. First, you must learn how to tweak your web pages so that the search bots find your content to be search engine friendly. Once you have set up a search friendly site, the next component is to build back links. But before diving straight into SEO, you must first know which keywords to target.

Choosing Your Target Keyword Phrase.

Many new Internet Marketers make the mistake of choosing the wrong keywords to target. So what makes a keyword inappropriate?

Your ideal keyword phrase should be around three to four keywords. - If you are targeting a word like “music”, you may find that you may not be able to rank for anything. That is because the keyword itself is too general. Whether you are looking for someone to sign up as a member, download a song, or buy something from you, you want to be sure that you are matching the right offer to the right audience. In other words, you are looking for targeted traffic. So instead of choosing a keyword like “music”, a keyword phrase like “local music bands” would be a much better choice.

Use a keyword research tool to make sure that the keyword will bring you traffic. - If you are targeting an obscure keyword that nobody ever uses, you may just be wasting your time and resources. Google offers a free keyword tool that will give you a good idea on which keyword phrase to choose. The tool reveals estimated search traffic, as well as the level of competition.

But don’t be over-reliant on keyword tools to help you find keywords. As a business owner, you should be very familiar with the market. Know who your target customers are. That will help you find and locate valuable keywords that no one else would’ve thought of.

Choose keywords with a fair amount of competition. - Some marketers believe strongly that keywords with little competition are easier to rank. Therefore, it makes sense to target those keywords. But if you are setting up an online business, you want to be in an active market. In other words, the best keywords are those with a fair amount of competition, but are not overly saturated. A fair amount of competition is a good indicator of the value of a keyword phrase. You stand a much greater chance of success if you target those keywords.

Setting Up a Search Engine Friendly Website.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a geek to learn how to tweak your sites. Most content management systems are SEO friendly, and the best part is, most of them are free. The popular ones include Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and DotNetNuke. Your web pages will be search friendly when they are hosted on these systems. But if you really want to learn the basics, make sure that you implement the following.

If you are tweaking your site manually, there are two important things that you must implement. First, always make sure that your target keyword phrases are included in the title tags. Use them in your META keyword and description tags as well. Next, use a search engine friendly file name such as “your-keyword-phrase.html”. You can easily rename your html files using any text editor.

Manual tweaks can be implemented easily if you have a small site. But if you are thinking of growing the website into a huge site, you should consider using a content management system (CMS). If you are using a CMS, be careful not to overload the site by installing too many unnecessary plug-ins. Remember that your primary goal is to make it easy for the search bots to find your web pages, and to determine the overall theme of the content. By installing too many unnecessary bells and whistles, you are making it more difficult for the search bots to do their job. For that reason, you often find that hassle free templates tend to work better than fanciful ones. Don’t overcomplicate things. The golden principle here is to keep things simple.

When you are satisfied with the design and content, it’s now time to let the world know about your site.

Link Building with Articles.

There are many ways you can build back links to your site. You can post entries on blogs, submit links to Web 2.0 properties, submit URLs to a bunch of web directories, or write and distribute press releases and/or articles. You can use a combination of these methods if you have the time and resources, or you can keep your focus on just one - such as article marketing.

Article marketing is one of the easiest methods to get well established websites to link to you. These are authority sites that have been around for years, and you can get hundreds (maybe even thousands) of one way back links from these sites. One way back links means links that point to your sites, but you don’t need to reciprocate and link back to the external sites.

Every article you write allows you to include two to three simple text links at the bottom of the article. Here is when things get interesting.

In the “eyes” of the search engines, every link from an external site to your website is counted as a vote. In other words, the more back links you have pointing to your site, the better your site will rank. Of course, these can’t be any back links. They have to be links from authority sites and relevant web pages.

Now you already know that there are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet that are recognized as authority sites by the search engines. All you have to do is to create relevant content, put your links at the end of the articles, and submit them to the article directories. When they are approved, your articles get published online, and you get a bunch of high quality links pointing to your site.

What you really need to know here is that you must be careful about what you include as the anchor texts for your links. Anchor texts are words that you place within the HTML link tags. For instance, instead of having your links as “Click here”, make sure that you create links that say, “Your Keyword Phrase”.

This is how the search engines determine the theme and relevancy of the content on your website. The assumption here is that if there are a thousand links from external sites “saying” that your site is about “green aliens”, then perhaps your site is really about “green aliens”.

Write on topic, and include your target keywords as anchor texts. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to Expect After Your Articles Have Been Published.

If you website is brand new, don’t expect to see miracles overnight. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks for a new website to pick up speed. If you have done everything right (choose the right keywords, optimize your site, and pick the right anchor texts), then your site will appear in the search index in about three weeks. Initially, it will appear in page 5 or 6 in the search results. That is a very good sign.

In another two week’s time, your website will move up to page 3 or 4. Don’t rest on your laurels and stop writing and distributing articles. Keep up with your link building campaigns. If you have chosen the right keywords, you should be able to rank in about 6 weeks. For highly competitive keywords, it may take longer.

Your goal is to at least get your site to rank on page 1 on the major search engines. Once it emerges on page 1 of the search results, you will be receiving a steady stream of highly targeted traffic from the search engines. Do your part by serving your visitors well by publishing valuable content or offering killer products. You will soon be enjoying the handsome rewards.

About the author:

Darren Chow is a full time article marketer. He founded a successful article submission service, and has been offering high quality article writing and submission services to hundreds of Internet Marketers worldwide. http://www.fastsubmitarticles.com


Jun 5, 2009

How to Turn a Blog into a B2B Lead Generation Machine

from HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog by


B2B lead generation machine blog

B2B blogging experts understand that a blog is a lead generation machine. This blog generates more traffic than our main company website. Each month, tens of thousands of people find this blog through search engines and social media websites, and thousands of them like the content enough to take the next step and respond to one of our offers and become a lead.

Some B2B bloggers think a business blog is just about thought leadership. Yes, B2B blogging is great for thought leadership and brand building. But, with this blog we get all the benefits of thought leadership, and also get lots of leads. By maximizing the lead generation potential of your B2B blog, you can have your cake (thought leadership) and eat it too (leads).

How to Maximize the Lead Generation Potential of a B2B Blog

  1. Publish Great Content. While you might think that to get more leads you need to publish more sales content about your products and services, you are wrong. That type of content is not interesting to your prospects, and few of them will read it. Publish content that is useful to your prospects, and lots of them will find it. The first step is to build a big audience so you have more people to try to capture as leads. Better, more interesting blog content means more readers.
  2. Create Compelling Offers. Once people are reading your blog, you need to entice them to get to know you better and become a lead. Offers are what you offer people in exchange for their contact information. One offer is not enough. We have over a dozen different offers that we use on this blog, because we want to have an offer that is targeted towards the content of each blog article. For instance, the bottom of this article has an offer to watch a webinar about blogging. The offer is targeted to the content of the article. An offer to watch an SEO webinar would not work as well, because the readers are not thinking about search engine optimization. That makes sense and is a natural next step. In addition, your offer should not be "request a demo" because people reading a blog article are not ready to jump all the way to watching a demo. They usually want more education first. Let them take the natural next step.
  3. Test Killer Calls to Action. The Call to Action is what people click on to receive the offer. It is basically the sales pitch for the offer. You want to rotate different versions and test lots of these in order to get more people to notice them and click on them. Trying different colors, fonts and placements is important, and all of this can take some time to test and analyze yourself. We have calls to action in square buttons on the side of the blog, at the bottom of each article with text and an image, and sometimes we put them other places too. You can rotate all of these manually to try to find the ones that get more clicks. Or, you can use a free product to automatically optimize your calls to action.

Do you use your B2B blog for lead generation? How? What tips for B2B blog lead generation do you have to share?

Webinar: Advanced Business Blogging


Learn how to build your business blog into an inbound marketing machine.

Download the free webinar to learn how to create a thriving blog.

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