Yay for Fridays! We made it! Have a fantastic weekend. Work at Home Reps Needed! F/t-P/t-Daily Pay Currently Interviewing – Work 100% Online (NATIONWIDE) Work at Home (NO Fees) Various Options Available Earn $50-$125! Participate in Research Study! Sr. Product Manager – Remote Access – ESX Core Platform Remote direct position: BA/data analyst with Tealeaf [...]
Source: http://blog.2work-at-home.com/WordPress/work-at-home/work-at-home-job-listings-for-5182012/
Posts are the lifeline of a blog. This is what makes a blog different from others. This is what brings in the traffic and makes sure they return for more. But, what makes a perfect blog post? What are the factors you need to look after when planning for your next post? Let me share some of the tips I learned from following blogging gurus and content marketers like John Chow, Darren Rowse and Jeremy Schoemaker.
The process begins when you start planning for a post and finishes when you hit the publish button. Your post is as good as you carry it out. We can split the process in three phases.
1. Planning and Researching
As I told you, the process starts when you start planning for your next blog post. After you decide your topic, you should start researching on that. Gather as much data as possible before you start writing your post.
2. Creating the content
Here comes the most important part, creating your content. I am not talking about the quality as it varies author to author. I am talking about formatting the content so that it grabs the attention of both human visitors as well as the search engine spiders. A good post should have at least three paragraphs; introduction to the subject, description to clearly describe the subject and then conclude the subject.
Then it comes to enrich and styling the content with proper tags. Yes, tags like h1, h2 and h3 can do wonders. It not only makes your post looks great, but also helps search engines to find the important sections within the content. Therefore, it is a good practice to put subheadings for your paragraphs and wrap them in h2 or h3 tag depending on the nesting of subheading.
Do not over style your content with bolded, italic or colored words as that might hurt eyes of human visitors and will decrease the content to code ratio.
I use SEOPressor Plugin that helps me to improve the quality of my post by suggesting changes in real time while I am posting my content.
3. Posting the Content
The way you post your content also matters. I mean, if you are using WordPress you can choose a better permalink, a better keyword rich title and add meta descriptions. Well, some of those aren’t default WordPress functionality, but plugins like All in One SEO or Yoast SEO can do it for you.
Having quality and properly formatted content getting more and more important after Google introduced the Over Optimization Penalty. You can afford having little onpage optimization (or no optimization at all) but the quality of your posts should be high. All you need is content that search engines love.
Abhik shares SEO News and Affiliate Marketing Tips on his blog ItsAbhik.com. Subscribe to his Newsletter and get 3 Make Money Online eBooks.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~3/RHTG6bkp9Fs/
These days, when you think about it, who doesn’t have a website? It’s definitely a great way to market yourself, your brand and to keep people updated on the things that you have going on in your life. However, if there’s one thing that doesn’t come up, perhaps nearly as much as it should when…
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This week in internet news you’ll learn why you have a huge advantage when you really pay attention to your data, what trends are emerging in online tech (and how to take advantage of them), how to better target your advertising, how to become a better collaborator and so much more.
Let’s Go!
News Article In Question: Columbia Business School
According to a study by Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA), there is a big gap between where organizations would like to be and where they actually are in capturing, analyzing, and using data to inform business decisions.
Data is either not collected, collected too infrequently, not shared across departments, and even when it is collected, not acted upon quickly enough, or used to develop more personalized communications.
Here are some of the key findings from the research:
- 91% of senior corporate marketers believe that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions
- Yet, 39% say their own company’s data is collected too infrequently or not real-time enough
- And 51% say that a lack of sharing customer data within their own organization is a barrier to effectively measuring their marketing ROI
- Large firms are much less likely to collect new forms of digital data like mobile data (19%), than they are to collect traditional customer survey data such as on demographics (74%) and attitude (54%)
- 85% of large corporations are now using social network accounts (e.g. brand accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare) as a marketing tool
- 65% of marketers said that comparing the effectiveness of marketing across different digital media is “a major challenge” for their business
- 37% of respondents did not include any mention of financial outcomes when asked to define what “marketing ROI” meant for their own organization
- 57% are not basing their marketing budgets on any ROI analysis
- 22% are using brand awareness as their sole measure to evaluate their marketing spend
Now if these results came from your average solo or small business owner, it might be understandable, but they study says it interviewed “253 corporate marketing decision makers, director-level and above…between January 27 and February 8, 2012. These professionals are employed at large companies (90% have a global annual revenue of over $50 million; 45% are over $1 billion)”
Why This Is Important To You:
Multi million dollar companies are ignoring their customer data, not collecting it frequently enough, and not acting on it. And if they’re not doing it, how much of your direct competition do you think are in the same boat?
Sure, it’s true that data can be boring, but when you consider your data represents different things about your customer, ignoring the data means you’re ignoring your customer.
If you’re in a space with lots of competitors, your secret weapon will be paying attention to your data and becoming more responsive and agile.
What shocked me the most about these statistics were the staggering amount of aimlessness shared among these multi million dollar companies.
For example “85% of large corporations are now using social network accounts, yet 37% did not mention any sort of financial goal tied to their “ROI”
Also, the statistic about focus on demographic and attitude data confirm that these organizations aren’t using online tools to their maximum potential.
This is why you should always be paying attention to your Google analytics, segmenting your email lists, and your Facebook Insights and adjusting accordingly.
Sure, data can be boring, but making money rarely is.
News Article In Question: Mashable
Google made the argument for cloud based word processing a little more compelling this week by incorporating it’s search function right into the Google Doc’s interface.
Without ever having to leave Google Docs, you can quickly insert quotes, maps, and free use images by simply dragging and dropping straight from the resource pane. The best part is, attribution for each one of these items will be included automatically in the footnotes, so you can focus on what’s important, the work.
For more tips on how to use “Research” click here.
Why This Is Important To You:
For students, this is a wonderful way to create research papers more efficiently, but that’s just a little too obvious.
As a business owner, you may find yourself on a joint venture where you have to write a business plan with one or several partners. If you’re team is interested in data, there will be a considerable amount of research that goes into your plan, and on a big enough project, email becomes too hard to work with.
Because Google Docs *ahem* Drive allows multiple users to edit the same document, once the plan is outlined, all of the other members in the team can work on their individual sections and use the research pane to quickly access and cite source data.
If you were presenting your plan to investors, you could link slideshows, show maps (if relevant) and include all of the relevant documents in one easy to access folder on Drive, saving trees, ink, and a ton of headaches.
News Article In Question: The Next Web
Earlier this week, virtual pinboard “Pinterest” raised $100 Million dollars from Japanese ecommerce Giant Rakuten.
This round of funding put the fast rising social network’s worth between $1-1.5 Billion (yes with a B) Dollars.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said:
“While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining.
We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”
Drew Olanoff, editor of The Next Web says about Pinterest
“Pinterest has huge potential for ecommerce firms, as I recently explained when I wrote that Amazon should seriously consider buying the service…
…The site’s popularity has surged over the last year, with statistics showing that itstraffic grew by more than 6,000 percent over the final six months of 2011, turning it into a service to rival Facebook, Twitter and other established social networks.”
Why This Is Important To You:
Pinterest, has literally gone from completely unknown to the third largest social network in the world in just two years, so there’s a ton that you could learn from their growth alone.
However, what’s more important here is to focus on the more immediate opportunity, and possible paradigm shift this might represent.
So far, no company has been able to really crack the “social commerce” side of social networks. Sure, Facebook has Credits, but those are primarily used to purchase virtual goods.
Pinterest, having such an image heavy focus creates perfect synergy for selling real tangible items if that’s your thing.
However, if you’re a graphic designer, or photographer, there is also a huge opportunity for you here too. There are plenty of lack luster promo shots, and a ton of sellers that could benefit from better “packaging”.
The opportunity is ripe if you’re willing to put in the work to prospect for your clients.
News Article In Question: Techcrunch
According to a new report by media research firm Neilson, over 50% of American’s are using a smartphone.
As a by-product of that more people are downloading more apps.
In just a year, the average number of apps per smartphone has jumped 28 percent, from 32 apps to 41. Not only is the 2012 smartphone owner downloading more apps, they are increasingly spending more time using them vs. using the mobile web — about 10 percent more than last year.
Nielsen notes that the time spent on the top 50 apps is actually down compared to last year: the top 50 apps today get 58 percent of our app time, compared to 74 percent in 2011.
Why This Is Important To You:
Mobile, particularly smart phone usage, has only been trending upwards over the past few years, and is likely not going to die down.
You don’t have to make the next Angry Birds to make money off of apps.
Consider there are people out there who have made their livings with “to-do” lists, flashlights, reminders, and other basic functions. Apps often represent a quick fix to a simple problem.
The more common the problem your app solves, the better chance of success it has.
News Article In Question: Google Blog
According to a study between Neilson and Google, Around 31% of adults 18 to 49 consume less than 2 hours of television per day.
It’s not that they’re not watching, but rather they’re spending more of their time online.
“And this segment is growing – households that opted for broadband internet instead of cable TV grew 22.8 percent over the past year.
According to the report, it actually costs 92% less to target the “light Tv viewer” through Youtube and the Google Display Network in combination with television ads. This sort of cross platforming targeting is more effective as 63% of light tv viewers report they don’t even see Television Ads.
Why This Is Important To You:
18-49 year olds make up a good percentage of anyone’s target market, and their spending power is pretty vast.
This might go without saying, since you’re on a blog about making money online, but if you’re using video and graphics to target your market, your marketing dollars are going to be better spent using Youtube’s promoted videos, and Google’s display network.
On the flip side, that doesn’t mean you should abandon the idea of using television at a marketing platform all together.
27% of viewers do still see television ads, and if you’re being wise about what time slots you’re buying, your messaging can be significantly reinforced to that 27%
Ultimately, this means you could end up spending less, and getting more.
News Article In Question: Inside Facebook
One of the underlying themes of all the news this week is that the web is becoming more visual.
Like the headline says, photos are now 3x larger on Facebook Mobile, which also means they will take up more real estate in the Mobile news feed.
“…pages should consider sharing square photos to maximize the amount of space their posts take up in the mobile feed and increase the likelihood that fans Like or comment on the activity.”
Like Josh said in his “10 Facebook Tips You Don’t Know About” post, images are a great way to get more clicks to your content on Facebook.
Why This Is Important To You:
Facebook’s mobile usage is only increasing. Facebook mobile is the number 1 downloaded app on the major app stores, and with the increase in smartphone usage that we saw earlier, that trend isn’t likely going anywhere.
By adding compelling images to your posts, you greatly increase your chances of earning valuable clicks, which is always the first step to earning more leads and sales.
News Article In Question: Fast Company
“A new survey from BIA/Kelsey has looked at the trends in advertising on social media and concluded that by 2016 it’ll be a market topping $10 billion per annum, mainly as display ads.
For context, some $3.8 billion was spent on these ads in 2011, so phenomenal growth is predicted.”
However, data from Wordstream suggests that Facebook Ads (in their current state) have less reach and lower click through rates.
So where will that money be going?
“…richer formats and creative elements, like video, will be the principal social ad market growth drivers,” says Jed Williams, analyst and program director of Social Local Media for BIA/Kelsey.
Read: Not Facebook display ads, which could be one of the major reasons GM pulled out of Facebook 3 days before it’s IPO.
Why This Is Important To You:
All trends indicate a shift in the way the masses are consuming content.
One of our regular commenters Servando Silva said about last week’s wrap up
“So, what can we learn from this? Work hard and think on the future. Prepare things and make all your goals so that finally, you make a bigger goal with the mix of all you have done?”
Which really got me thinking.
The point here is not to see the trend, acknowledge it, then carry on.
Rather, I’m reporting the news that exists now to show you where things are headed. Not so you can “think on the future.” but rather so you can start getting ahead of the curve and be the one that sets the trend, not struggle to figure it out when it’s too late.
News Article In Question: Search Newz
Some of you may have fallen victim to Google’s infamous “Penguin Update” latest rollout of the “over optimization penalty” which is basically an attempt to level the playing field for websites with an “unnatural link velocity”
A major shift in search engine rankings occurred this past week, enough where multiple webmasters speculate that Panda 1.1 was let loose on the world.
However, Google states that the shift from the 24th was not as a result of Penguin.
Regardless, Matt Cutts, chief of Google’s Web spam has gone on record saying about Penguin “It’s been a success from our standpoint.” Which means the big scary Penguin isn’t going anywhere.
Why This Is Important To You:
Many, many, many sites have been affected by Penguin, and as a result have lost a good percentage of their rankings overnight.
Obviously, for some this is a travesty, but for others, an opportunity.
Google’s whole purpose for their search engine is to “deliver the best results” and previously that would mean “the best” could mean the person who knows how to manipulate the search engine the best, not necessarily the site that deserves to be at the top.
For those who lean rely heavily on their “Seo-ified” content to drive traffic, Penguin is terrifying. (if you’ve been pecked by accident, Google has a form for that)
However, if your focus is more on delivering outstanding content, here are some linkbuilding tips in the post Penguin era.
News Article In Question: 9 to 5 Mac
The headline really says it all, Facebook has released a separate page manager app for iPhone users in Australia…
Why This Is Important To You:
If you manage Facebook Pages, you already know doing it on your phone is kind of a drag.
Having a dedicated Page Manager app makes that updating on the go just a little less cumbersome.
No word on when it will be released to the rest of the world, but I know I’ll be looking forward to it.
News Article In Question: The Next Web
Google is very serious about making it’s Hangout Product something very special.
Recently they’ve updated the Hangout’s Api and have said it is capable of the following:
1. Overlays you can statically fix to the screen, not just a person’s face. It’s now possible, for example, to create “lower third” effects (http://goo.gl/Fivm), borders, and captions like you see on news shows and live interviews.
2. Apps that can respond to facial movements in real-time. Now when participants tilt their head side-to-side, look right and left, or lean forwards and backwards, your app can react accordingly. You might decide to let participants’ faces control gameplay, for instance.
3. A new way to keep high-activity apps in sync for all participants. Certain hangout apps (like games) need to respond to lots of actions from everyone in the room, all at once. (Think collaborative whack-a-mole.) v1.1 includes a new method to propagate high-frequency, low-latency updates across the hangout.
Yesterday, they announced a Hackathon where 6 developers will “hack” their Hangouts Api just to see what it can really do.
Why This Is Important To You:
Hangouts have been becoming increasingly popular all by themselves. With the Api, the right development team, and a little bit of creativity, it’s theoretically possible to create easily accessible augmented reality games, interactive game shows, or an infinite number of other applications.
If you’re a developer, I would start experimenting with this now. You have first mover advantage to creating extremely useful, and very cool applications.
The web is getting increasingly more visual, more social, and more interactive.
If you take advantage of these trends before they become the new standard, you can set the example, not struggle to keep up.
Paying attention to your audience, being where they are, and giving them experiences they’ll remember is quickly becoming the new paradigm of web marketing, and that’s not going away any time soon.
Thursday is attached to Friday! The weekend seems a little closer if I think of it that way Good luck with today’s listings. Currently Interviewing – Work 100% Online (NATIONWIDE) Work at Home Reps Needed! F/t-P/t-Daily Pay Earn $50-$125! Participate in Research Study! Work at Home (NO Fees) Various Options Available Sales Account Manager 1 [...]
Source: http://blog.2work-at-home.com/WordPress/work-at-home/work-at-home-job-listings-for-5172012/
My friends over at IZEA have just pulled back the curtains to their newest social media platform: Staree.
Staree allows users to post photos and videos from their mobile device or desktop, and share them with friends through Facebook and Twitter. Users make money from display advertising targeted to their content and product placement in photos and videos. Ted Murphy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of IZEA, has this to say about his new baby.
IZEA’s mission is to help social media fans monetize their content, creativity and influence. We brought paid blogging to the market six years ago, and were pioneers in sponsored tweets and check-ins. The monetization of photos and videos through Staree is a natural addition to the IZEA product portfolio. It creates new ways for influencers to earn money and new marketing opportunities for advertisers.
Starting today, Staree is available to everyone: From Hollywood A-listers to everyday people. The hottest celebrities like Kendall Schmidt and Logan Henderson are already using Staree to take their social media presence to the next level. Kendall got his start on hit shows like “Frasier” and “ER” and is currently starring on “Big Time Rush.” His co-star Logan found his passion for acting after appearing on “Friday Night Lights.”
Staree is designed with branding, protection and collaboration in mind. Users have the ability to customize their profile and copyright their content. Managers and agents can access their client’s accounts and post on their behalf. “Our goal was to provide professional features through a simple user interface that anyone could use on the web, iPhone or Android device,” said Ryan Schram, Chief Marketing Officer, IZEA.
John Chow dot Com on Staree
I have been using Staree for the past three days. So far, I have six photos and a video on the network. All the media was uploaded via the Staree iPhone app. The app hasa bunch of filters so you can give your photos that Instagram look. Unlike Instagram, Staree can post videos, photos and messages.
Uploading a photo is a lot like Instagram: fire up the app, take the photo, choose the filter and write a description. You can send a photo to your Facebook or Twitter stream. The process is the same for making a video, but there are no filters at this time.
Making Money Online with Staree
Like I said before, I’ve been using Staree for only three days and uploaded half a dozen photos. Still, that was enough to make me 74 cents yesterday.
At this rate, I’ll make enough for a nice lunch at the end of the month, but I’m just getting started. I do see good potential with Staree. As the network gets biggest, the income can only increase. And the money-making potential of Staree will attract over a lot of Instagram users. Why make nothing uploading photos to Instagram when you can make money uploading it to Staree? Give Staree a try and let me know what you think.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~3/L7s-a8kGCY0/
This guest post is by Bamidele Onibalusi of YoungPrePro.com.
Guest blogging is currently among the most popular marketing tactics, and you can be sure find guides on guest blogging almost anywhere you go online.
The problem with guest blogging is that it is being used by so many people today that if you donít have a solid plan your blog will hardly benefit.
Imagine I ask the question, “What exactly do you want from guest blogging? How do you want guest blogging to contribute to the success of your blog?” What would be your answer?
I’m sure a lot of us will answer along the lines of, “I want to score a guest post on ProBlogger and get hundreds of visitors back to my blog as a result.” Or “I want to score a guest post on {insert top blog’s name} and bring my blog to limelight.”
The reality, though, is that while following the above approach might sound like a smart thing to do, it is hardly very effective. A guest post on a big blog in your niche won’t make your blog popular; ten guest posts on big blogs won’t, either.
I’ve written hundreds of guest posts for my blog in the past two years, a good portion of which were published on big blogs. I’ve even had a guest post published that sent me 1,000 visitors in a day, and another one that sent me around 1,500 visitors in one week. You’d expect these to be some of my most effective guest posts ever, but unfortunately, they weren’t.
The best guest posts I’ve ever written, in terms of results, were written in one week, and they were submitted to blogs youíve probably never heard of. I wrote 31 guest posts, and I submitted them all in one week.
Together, all of those guest posts sent me less than 150 visitors in total referral traffic. But, those 31 guest posts I wrote in one week have resulted in over 60,000 additional visitors in search engine traffic over the past six months.
Re-read the above paragraph; that was 31 guest posts in one week, submitted to very small blogs that sent little or no traffic, but which lead to over 60,000 visitors in six months.
If we do the math, that’s like an additional 10,000 visitors in a month, for just one week of work. It’s an average of 1935 visitors per guest post. (It’s actually more, because the real number was around 64,000 visitors, but I rounded it down for the purposes of this discussion. Another thing worth noting is that around 26 of those guest posts were published, but let’s leave it at the number written—31—for the sake of this article).
You’re probably thinking, “How did he do it?” I’ll answer that question in this article, but before I do so, I’ll try to convince you as to why this approach is better than just focusing on writing hit-and-miss guest posts for big blogs in your niche.
So you see clearly what I mean, here are screenshots of my search traffic before and after the challenge.
Six months of traffic before the challenge:
Six months of traffic after the challenge:
You’ll notice a huge increase in traffic in just six months with these screenshots. It’s like a 200% increase in traffic, even though I never did anything to increase my SEO traffic after the challenge.
I know a lot of factors count when it comes to SEO, so the stats above are to some extent subjective, but I’m certain the search engine traffic increase is hugely influenced by those 31 guest posts I talked about earlier. To prove this, I wrote a post just ten days after the challenge, since I’d already started noticing an additional 100+ search engine visitors. You can read the post to read more about my experience.
If you’ve written a number of guest posts on big blogs before, you will notice the traffic you get hardly lasts. Depending on the quality of your guest post and content on your blog, you’ll be lucky to retain 10% of the visitors you got from a big guest post (you can retain more, of course, if you focus your efforts on getting subscribers).
With this in mind, even guest posts that sent me thousands of visitors only do that in the week or month of the guest post being published; after that, the traffic dies down and I hardly get any more traffic from those guest posts.
With guest blogging for SEO, however, the effect of a single guest post can last for months. Search engines take time to recognize and calculate links, but you can start seeing effects a few weeks after gaining a link.
The difference between writing guest posts for traffic and for SEO is that traffic dies down as your guest post gets buried on the blog where it was published, while traffic increases from the search engines as time goes on; in other words, the value of your linked guest post increases with time.
If you want a huge spike in traffic from your guest posts, you have to choose the very best blogs in your niche, and, to be honest, it takes time and effort to get published on them. In contrast, writing for links is easier with smaller blogs.
In other words, you can write, say, three guest posts for smaller blogs in the time it will take you to write one post for a bigger blog, and if you do things right you will be able to get results from the guest post on the smaller blogs in no time.
Let’s be honest: when you write for a blog that publishes a host of topic, the traffic you will get will only be targeted to an extent, no matter how targeted your guest post is.
However, by focusing on SEO ,you’ll get more closely targeted traffic. People only use the search engines when searching for something specific, so they’re more likely to subscribe to your blog or buy your product if they come from the search engines (or at least, if they come through targeted keyword results).
A few guest posts can have an effect for years. Traffic doesn’t die down like it does when you experience a spike in traffic from a recently published guest post—with search-optimized posts, your traffic keeps increasing for years.
What’s more, you keep on getting more traffic without doing anything. For example, since I completed the 31 guest post challenge, I haven’t done anything to improve my SEO. Yet my search traffic keeps increasing.
SEO is very competitive, though, so depending on your field you might need to keep building links actively. But you’ll also get great results from doing that, and it will be more cost-effective than paying for ads.
Now that we’ve covered the benefits of writing guest posts to improve your SEO, let’s talk about the kinds of blogs you can write for. While my recommendation in this section reflects what I did, note that the better the blog, the better your results.
Here some metrics you can use when trying to select a blog to write for.
Alexa ranks websites based on the number of people who visit the website with the Alexa toolbar installed. Even though this is subjective to an extent, that doesn’t mean it isn’t an effective measurement. In my own experience, blogs with good Alexa ranking have some authority in the search engines, so getting a link from them can be very effective.
During the challenge, I only wrote for blogs with an Alexa ranking below 400,000. Yep, you read that right. These kinds of blogs are very easy to find (in fact, you can find hundreds of them in a few hours), so getting published on them probably won’t be much of a problem.
You can check the Alexa ranking of any website by installing the Alexa toolbar.
Google Pagerank is still as effective as it used to be, and it is an actual sign of how much trust Google places in a website. For the challenge, I used blogs with a Pagerank of 2 or more.
The thing, however, is that I either used Pagerank or Alexa rank to assess the sites—rarely both. So if a blog has an Alexa ranking of 400k or less, I don’t care about its Pagerank. If a blog has a Pagerank of 2 or more, I don’t care about its Alexa ranking.
You can check the Pagerank of any website by installing the Google Toolbar, for Firefox, or the Pagerank Status add-on for Chrome.
The Mozrank of a blog is another important factor when determining whether to write a guest post for it or not. I didn’t know much about how Mozrank worked when I started the challenge, but it seems more accurate than Google Pagerank and Alexa ranking, so any blog with a Mozrank of 3 or more is a good fit irrespective of its Pagerank or Alexa rank.
You can check the Mozrank of any website by using the tool at Moonsy.com.
This seems to be the best metric at the moment. It uses a combination of a blog’s Alexa rank, Mozrank, and other metrics to calculate the blog’s worth. Any blog with a Customrank score higher than 30 is a good place to start.
You can check the Customrank score of any website by visiting Customrank.com.
While the above metrics give you an idea of what kinds of blogs you can write for to get good results, actually finding a blog to write for is another thing.
I’ve published the ultimate guide to guest blogging on my blog, and it contains practical and extensive tips on almost every aspect of guest blogging that this article won’t be able to cover. Check it out if you want a better idea of guest blogging and how to find blogs. However, here’s a short guide to finding blogs for guest blogging in any niche:
{niche} + write for us
{niche} + submit guest post
{niche} + guest blogging
{niche} + submit post
{niche} + guest blogger needed
{niche} + contribute
You can also try changing the terms to keywords you think people in need of guest posts will use. Make sure you replace “{niche}” with your niche, but let the plus sign remain. E.g. in the blogging niche I’ll search for something like “blogging + write for us” (of course, without the quotes).
You will find a lot of blogs using the methods I outlined in this section, but you can’t use all of them. Make sure you gauge any blog you write for with the metrics we discussed above.
One major question that comes up a lot when it comes to SEO and link building is that of relevancy. A lot of people are confused as to how effective it is to write a guest post for a non-relevant blog, or how relevant the post’s title should be.
My blog is a writing blog, but I didn’t write a single guest post for a related writing blog during the challenge, so I guess that answers your question about relevancy! I only wrote for blogs in the technology, blogging, and make-money-online niches, and the impact on the results I got was still significant.
One thing to note, however, was that I didn’t write irrelevant posts for these blogs. For example, I didn’t write a post about the latest Apple iPhone for a tech blog and link it back to my writing blog.
Every guest post I wrote was in some way related to my blog, and to the blog I contributed to. For example, a guest post on a blogging tips blog might be on how to write better blog posts. A guest post for a technology blog might be a post on top writing apps I have on my Blackberry (and I do have a Blackberry!). A guest post on a make-money-online blog might be a post on how to make money writing. You can see how those posts tied the topic of my blog to that of the host blog.
One major myth you’ll hear about using guest blogging as a link building strategy is that the quality of the content doesn’t matter; it does, so make sure you put extra effort into your content if you want to get good results from this tactic.
In a nutshell, there are two things to remember when writing guest posts for link building purposes:
As you read this article, you might come to the conclusion that this tactic isn’t effective with bigger blogs. The fact is, it is; in fact, the bigger the blog, the better your results.
The problem most people have when it comes to writing for big blogs, though, is that they don’t use anchor text, and that alone costs the author a lot of potential traffic.
What makes this whole approach worthwhile is your use of anchor text. The anchor text is the keyword you use to link back to any page on your blog—it’s a vote of authority for your site, and it tells the search engines what the page you link to is all about.
You have to use caution when using anchor text, though. Here are a few things you should keep in mind:
I’m not saying you should link to all pages in your guest post; a guest post should link to just one or two pages. This means the success of your campaign will depend on the volume of the guest posts you can write.
The final, and most important question is, What effort has it taken to keep the traffic this challenge generated? Was it worth it? Was it a good return on the investment of my time and effort? You can bet it was worth it, as those 31 guest posts have attracted tens of thousands of additional visitors to my blog from the search engines. And they’re just the ones I could count—of course, a percentage of those visitors will share my posts, a percentage of those visitors will subscribe, and a percentage of those visitors will tell their friends too.
I haven’t tried using ads to grow my traffic before, but I know that the one week of effort I put into this challenge was more profitable than any ad could be. I generated free, targeted traffic I couldn’t get elsewhere, and it only continues to grow as time goes on.
I was so impressed with the results of the challenge that I’m planning to make guest blogging for links an integral part of my marketing approach going forward.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter if you’re a blog or a business owner, guest blogging can be a smart way to grow your traffic and improve your search engine rankings. Is this idea entirely new to you? How are you using guest blogging to grow your business? Tell us in the comments.
Would you like to take your business to the next level with smart guest blogging? If so, hire me and letís discuss how I can help take your business to the next level. Also, if youíre interested in cutting edge tips and techniques on how to use your writing to grow your business, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter by downloading my free eBook, The Writerís Handbook: How to Write for Traffic and Money.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How I Increased My Search Traffic by 200% in 6 Months
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/VFiRDXtmxkw/
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What’s the point of your homepage?
If your homepage simply features a list of your latest blog posts, you’re making a big mistake.
It’s important to get your homepage right because it’s going to be one of the most viewed pages on your blog, but people don’t view it in the way that you’d think.
Before you decide what to put on your homepage, you need to understand who views your homepage and how they got there.
You likely think that your homepage is the first page of your website that somebody sees. That’s probably not the case.
The only way your homepage will be the first viewed page is if another site links to your homepage, if someone tells somebody to go to www., or if you have a well-known brand.
On my blog, 14clicks, only 3.9% of my traffic starts on the homepage.
What’s more likely is that someone will first see a blog post, then click over to see the homepage. This person has already interacted with your site and they’re curious enough to click over to the homepage.
On 14clicks, the homepage accounts for 28.1% of the second-page traffic, which is 3.6 times more than any other page.
If someone found your site once, liked it, and wants to go back to it, they’ll do one of two things.
One, they’ll go directly to the domain. Two, they’ll search for the name of your site. In either case, returning visitors will probably start on the homepage.
On 14clicks, 58% of the homepage traffic comes from people typing in the domain directly or from Google (with some variation of “14 clicks” being 5 of the 6 most popular keywords).
In general, people find your site through a blog post. If they like the post, they’ll click to the homepage. If they return, they probably start on the homepage. Therefore, most people who see your homepage have already interacted with your blog and you need to adjust your content accordingly.
“Why should I stick around?”
To answer that question, you need to communicate what your site is and who it’s for.
The headline should be the first thing a new visitor sees. It needs to answer the question, “what are the benefits to me personally if I cruise around this blog?”
Put your headline front-and-center so it’s first thing someone sees when they visit your homepage.
On the side of or below your headline, you need to put an eye-catching, trust-building, benefit-depicting image or video.
The purpose of this image/video is to elicit a positive emotional response while visually communicating what your site is all about. If you have a personal branding blog or a company that’s tied closely to your personality, put a photo of yourself on your homepage to build trust.
Jacob Cass has a picture of himself and his headline featured above the fold. He also uses his headline to direct people to his portfolio and blog.
After you tell people why they should stay on your blog, you need to tell them what to do next. Underneath your headline and image, put your call to action. This could be one of four things depending on the purpose and goal of your blog.
If you have a service-based business and you want to use your blog to collect leads, the homepage is a great place to put a button or a link to your contact page.
If the goal of your blog is to get email subscribers, put an opt-in box at the top of your homepage.
If you’re worried that the opt-in box will annoy your existing readers, don’t be. In the same way that you tend to gloss over ads, once they’re subscribed, they’ll subconsciously scroll past it to the content.
If you have a membership site and your number one goal is to turn readers into users, place two buttons as your call to action: “Register” and “Login.”
If you want to skip the whole email marketing step and go directly for the sale, not what I’d recommend, then you can make the homepage call to action “See Our Featured Product” or “Shop.”
The sole purpose of Derek Halpern’s site is to turn readers into subscribers. So he puts opt-in boxes everywhere, including at the top of his homepage.
Once a visitor knows how you can help them and what you want them to do, it’s up to them to make that decision. The best way to help them make that decision in your favor is to demonstrate your credibility through social proof.
People are a lot more likely to subscribe if they know that lots of other people are already subscribed.
If you have more than 1,000 subscribers, show that number directly below your call-to-action. If you don’t, you can show social proof with your number of monthly readers, Twitter followers, or Facebook fans. If none of those numbers are over 1,000, you need to get to work.
Another way to build credibility is to feature someone else’s opinion of you and your blog. Ask your most active readers to give you a testimonial and tell them that you’re going to put it on the homepage.
What’s even more powerful is a testimonial from someone who everyone knows. This builds authority by association. But don’t coerce testimonials from people who wouldn’t otherwise read your site.
If you’ve gotten a lot of press or have worked with well-known brands, put their logos on your homepage. Again, this builds authority by association.
I’m torn whether or not you should link the logos to the articles, though. On one hand, it could build your credibility even more if people read those articles. On the other hand, you’re driving people away from your site right as they’re about to take action. What do you think? Comment below.
Ben Jesson and Dr. Karl Blanks, from Conversion Rate Experts, have worked with the largest companies in the world and their blog has been featured on a number of prestigious media outlets. They make that clear with client logos and press logos (which aren’t linked, by the way).
From a search engine optimization perspective, there are two important things to consider with your homepage.
One, your homepage should update at least slightly when you post new content. Google likes to see fresh content. Two, every page on your site should be two-three clicks away from the homepage to make sure it gets completely indexed.
New content on the homepage, even if it’s just the headlines, is important for search engines, but it’s also important for your readers. When people come back to your blog, they’re expecting to easily find your latest content.
This doesn’t mean that your blog needs to be on your homepage. You can choose to use a Recent Posts plugin to display the headlines and excerpts from your latest blog posts.
The best way to make sure that every page on your site is within three clicks of the homepage is to subtly link to your category archives and sitemap in the footer.
This also helps from a usability standpoint if people are looking for posts on particular topics.
As you see, Michael showcases the latest posts on the Income Diary homepage because his goal is for you to consume as much content as possible. The more blog posts you read, the more likely you are to subscribe and buy something from him. In the footer, he links to the sitemap, category archives, a few popular posts, and author archives.
Blogs are different from traditional, static websites because almost everyone who sees your homepage has already seen a different part of your blog.
It’s important to adjust the content of your homepage knowing that they’re already interested in what you have to say. Whether it’s leads, subscribers, or sales, the homepage is a great place to convert people to whatever goals that you set for your blog.
How does this help you see your homepage in a new light? What are you going to do about it?
Photo by: Stuck on Customs
Source: http://www.incomediary.com/what-to-put-on-your-blogs-homepage
This is not going to be another post on why you should write guest posts for other blogs because I don’t recommend you do that. I have never written a guest post, and I doubt I ever will.
One of the best ways to get higher blog traffic and Google rankings is by guest posting. By having a popular blog (like this one) post your guest article, You expose your writing to a much bigger readership. However, an equally big benefit is you’ll be able to link back to your blog from the guest article, which not only sends you traffic, but helps your blog rank higher on Google.
Why I Don’t Write Guest Posts
Writing a guest post takes a lot of work. You are already spending a lot of time creating content for your own blog. Creating guest posts for other blogs can easily double, triple, quadruple, or more, the time requirement. This is because every post has to be unique. Guest posts submitted to me must be exclusive to my bog. This mean the post can’t be posted anywhere else. If you’re submitting guest posts to a lot of blogs, it could mean you will have no time to update your own blog.
Doing Guest Posts The Right Way
How do you get the traffic and Google benefits of guest posting without having it suck the life out of you? You outsource it!
The easiest way I’ve found to guest post is by using the guest posting service offered by Get Links Pro. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve written about these guys before. Get Links Pro has been my exclusive link building service for the past year. Their prices are the lowest in the industry and they don’t offshore anything because they are located in India (they’re the company that SEO companies in the US outsource to).
While link building is the primary business of Get Links Pro, they also have an extremely economical guest posting service that is used by many of the top Internet marketers. Get Links Pro will write 500+ word articles in any topics you want for as low as $15 per article. Not only will they write the article, they’ll find the most relavent blog to guest post it on. Get Links Pro has built relationships with hundreds of blogs so the chances of them getting a guest article posted will be higher than if you try to submit it.
Your Writing Should Be for Your Blog
With Get Links Pro, you can concentrate on creating quality content for your blog, and leave the guest blogging to them. They have a team of writers with experience in every topic you can imagine. No matter what your niche, Get Links Pro can write that guest post for you. Don’t just take my word for it. My friends Zac Johnson and Shoemoney use them as well. Here’s what Shoe has to say about their service:
The results for me have been nothing short of amazing. For each property we have tested them on they have soared in rankings. Since Get Links Pro uses nothing but whitehat techniques there is no risk of being penalized.
Every article will be over 500 words longs and contain one or two dofollow links for the author bio (depending on blog’s policy). The post will be sent a PR1 to PR6 (or higher) blog relevant to your niche. A 500+ word blog post takes at least an hour to research and write. Then you have to find the best blog to submit the post to, email the blog owner and hope he accepts the post. If I had a choice of doing it myself, or outsourcing it to Get Links Pro, I would choose Get Links Pro every time.
As I stated in the beginning, Guest posting is one of the best ways to get higher traffic and Google rankings. It’s also the most time-consuming and not something I recommend you do. Your writing should be for your blog, not someone else’s. This is why I love Get Links Pro so much. They will do the work for you, and they’ll do it a price that is so affordable, it will give you sweet dreams, and give Michael Kwan nightmares. 
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~3/HUhDbojm8UU/