In fact, I started my affiliate marketing business back in 1999, and everything took off from there. I am now active in the marketing world with far more than a blog, including podcasts, speaking engagements, eCourses, eBooks, and online trainings. I don’t see an end to it either. There is plenty of room for those who want to partake in what this Internet world has to offer.

From a personal side, my wife Arlene and I enjoy the flexibility it offers, from being able to help out with the family, attend more events, travel more, and the freedom our business brings with it. What we don’t miss are the long commutes and traffic jams, or mandatory meetings and hours. Those days are long gone.

I encourage anyone looking for a great lifestyle, without the demands of the corporate world, to jump in like we did. We have no regrets.

However, because our lifestyle and career are both directly linked to the Internet and technology, when something changes, we need to pay attention. And, something did.

Google Introduces the Penguin

Google will make changes from time to time, and made a big one on April 24th of this year. They introduced their latest algorithm, Penguin. Can it have an impact on your Internet business? Most definitely. If you aren’t careful about the quality of your website’s inbound links, even more so.

I started my affiliate marketing business long before I had even heard of Google. Back then, it was WebCrawler, AltaVista, and Excite. So, I have seen many changes in my time, many good, some not so good. I view this one as a ‘can be good’ change.

If you are careful about content that your backlinks reside in, then it should be a good one for you. And, if you are not careful about it, then the tuxedo-clad bird is going to bite you.

Penguin is NOT Replacing Panda

I want to first touch base on the rumors that Penguin is replacing Panda. It is not. They are two separate algorithms, doing different tasks in the Internet’s background.

Google’s Panda was designed to zero in on poor quality content, not spam, but rather content that is low in quality. Your material doesn’t have to be spam for Panda to notice it. If it is poorly written, with very little substance for the reader, Panda may have zapped it.

Arlene and I place certain guidelines to safeguard against poorly written material. But, even with those guidelines, we know that quality is in the eye of the beholder…and the beholder in this case is Google.

So, make sure your content isn’t keyword-stuffed and that it is well-researched, professionally written, and pertinent to what your readers are looking for, and you should be fine.

However, Penguin is something different.

Penguin’s Goal

Unlike Panda, Penguin does go after pages that are spamming Google. It’s no surprise they don’t like spam, and are going to do what they can to protect their search results from being clogged up with crappy, low, or no quality content. Those who are involved in link schemes that produce low quality backlinks to their sites are now in Google’s crosshairs.

It is not uncommon for a blogging network to have 2,000 – 3,000 sites set up through a massive multi-site WordPress installation … with the goal of selling links. The owners of these networks often make sure that there are multiple names, server locations, and IP addresses to hide the fact that it is one large network. To say that Google frowns upon this practice is an understatement.

These “blog networks” are notorious for not paying attention to quality, because they are spread too thin focusing on quantity instead of quality. And, this poor quality content typically contains backlinks that are now looked upon by Google as spam.

Unfortunately, if you are receiving links from these types of sites, your content, no matter how high in quality, might have been inadvertently included with these backlinking schemes.

It’s not over though…

Is it Permanently Penalized?

If your site has been flagged by Penguin, then no, it’s not. Penguin is an algorithmic update, without any human intervention, unlike Panda.

The good news is that as long as you don’t have thousands of spam links pointing at your site, Google will lift penalties without having to go through a reconsideration process. However, it will take some effort on your part.

According to Matt Cutts from Google, once you have taken all the incoming ‘SPAM’ links down from the page, or whatever the characteristics are that is flagging Google, the page will then be re-indexed. After a period of time Google will automatically reprocess your page. At that time it should pop back up and increase in ranking.

So, remove all the spam links leading into your page, and you should be fine. I know it might seem as daunting as climbing Mount Everest, but I’m just the messenger…so, don’t shoot!

Anytime you have been penalized by Google, yet unsure what you did:

• Look through Google’s guidelines thoroughly
• Ask questions
• Have a 3rd party take a look

You might not technically be at fault. For example, you may have purchased an expired domain name, unknowingly banned by Google in the past. If this happens, just remove the spam links and you should be fine. But, it’s good to know what happened, so it’s not repeated in the future.

Protecting your Site from the Penguin’s Long Arm

If the *spammy* links to your site have been removed, which I understand can be a mountain of work, then because Penguin an algorithmic update, your site should be on a better footing.

The task at hand now would be to go about the process of gathering in high quality backlinks to your site. I know it’s easy to say, and hard to do, but solid top 10 rankings are a worthwhile goal, and should bring you natural traffic for years to come.

In Closing

I don’t believe Google intends to make things difficult for legitimate online businesses, just the opposite. Getting rid of the scams and spams will lend more credibility to those of us who play by the rules and want to succeed.

James Martell and his wife Arlene have been in the affiliate marketing business since 1999. They share their wealth of knowledge through podcasts, eBooks, and many speaking engagements at various venues and events such as Affiliate Summit. Even though they are busy sharing with others how to make money with affiliate marketing, James and Arlene also find plenty of time to enjoy their life with their kids in a seaside community near Vancouver.

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Article source: Can Penguin Impact Your Internet Business? Info to Know!

However at the same time WordPress is also highly customizable, and it’s only really going to be as good as the person using it and as the decisions they make. One of the greatest strengths of WordPress is the simple fact that you can swap around different themes and styles, but at the same time this means that you are let free to essentially ruin any chances of success if you pick some kind of horrendous theme.

Choosing your theme then is one of the most important aspects when it comes to ensuring your success with a WordPress site. Here we will look at how to go about doing that.

Look Like a Blog

First of all, when you choose your WordPress theme, make sure that you are trying to make a blog and not a website. While WordPress has lots of features, it is ultimately a blogging tool, and it isn’t really equipped to build full websites which tend to end up somewhat cluttered.

At the same time then try to make sure that your blog is easy to navigate and that visitors can quickly find your latest posts. If they are currently being spoiled for choice with hundreds of different links then you will simply lose their attention because they won’t know where to look. The blog format is a highly effective one because it allows people to quickly see what’s new and to read through archives at their leisure – so go for this.

Space for Things You Need

That said there may be elements you want to add to your design – and this might mean things like advertising or things like widgets or Twitter feeds. I you know that you want to include these then you need to look around for a blog design that has space for what you need. Otherwise you’ll end up having to force them into your content or elsewhere where they will look forced and ugly.

Professional and Crisp Design

Finally you also need to make sure that your WordPress theme looks professional. These themes are largely often made by hobbyists and others who maybe don’t have any particular accreditation. In other words, some are great but others won’t look professional at all, so make sure you pick one of the former and that you look around at your competition to see what is expected of your site.

At the same time though you also need to make sure that your site isn’t going to instantly look like a hundred others. Try to either pay for your own unique theme, or pick one that is either less popular or that at least can be highly customized.

Patrick is a blogger and a wordpress fan; he loves how the platform is built to be customized while it still works out of the box. At his website design Melbourne company, Patrick uses wordpress for a log of clients.

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Article source: How To Choose a Great WordPress Theme

Economical crises requires of you to remain in the budget. This is something that you cannot take for granted. When you speak of the SEO friendly wordpress themes then you need to check out the free themes that are available over the internet. Speaking of the free themes, following is a list of the themes that can do the trick for you.

-          Copyblogger

The copyblogger is indeed a great theme that provides you with the desired satisfaction. You do not have to look anywhere else in regard to the quality themes. SEO is something that you have to do with precise attention. You can get clean codes that are very much vital. Also, you can get the widget that is ready to get the work done. You do not need to install any other software and the work can be done with complete satisfaction. Your color themes can be customized which is rated as an added advantage when you go for this SEO theme.

-          Streamliner Theme

This theme comes with the header tags which make it pretty much friendly to the search engine. Also, you have the luxury to modify the theme up to a certain extent. You should look to relish on such an opportunity that can simply get you going. The custom page works pretty much in coherence with the Word press themes which can really make the day for you. The streamliner widget is also a state of the art service provider that has revolutionized the working of the wordpress theme. This SEO theme is indeed great when it comes to the actual working of the SEO related matters.

-          Guzel Pro Theme

If you want to go for the unique designs then you have to go for the Guzel pro. This theme provides you with the distinctive themes that can really do the required job for you. Appearances have indeed become quite material and for that you need to have the SEO theme that can cater all the needs that are related thereof. There are many exciting and amazing features which you can simply relish on. This theme is indeed amazing when you speak of the trendy results that can provide you with the desired results.

-          ProSense Theme

This is another amazing theme that guarantees you result. There are many additional features to ensure that you get something beyond the ordinary course of SEO tools. This theme can really help you to taste glory in regard to the blog niche. There are many options that you can go for. There are slight variations in the working of these SEO themes so you need to consider the one that is in accordance with your actual needs.

Conclusion

This is indeed a must that you figure out all the options that can provide you with the desired results. You should look to ensure that you do not fall astray. If you can do the basics of SEO right, then you are guaranteed of the results that can really be helpful for you.

Author Bio

Russel Browne wants to provide some useful tips which would be quite beneficial to smooth the way of Test4prep exam clearance. Would you like to go through Exin Certifications guide self assessment tutorials.

Article source: Signs of A SEO Friendly WordPress Theme

1. Listen

A true salesperson listens; he or she does not just pitch the product and focus only on a sale. When you really listen to your potential customer’s needs, you learn a lot about them. Good sales people want to add value to their customer’s lives, not just make money.

2. Follow Up

Great salespeople don’t wait for the customer to contact after the first sales pitch has been made. They allow for a decent interval and then call and follow up. They’ll even offer to visit and demonstrate the product again if required. Sometimes a potential customer might be very interested, but forget to get back to you. A good salesperson knows when the fish is ready to bite and will throw in a tempting offer at the right moment to close the sale.

3. Establish A Rapport

How do you deal with your customers? Do you bother to network with them on a personal basis? Do you try to understand their wavelength and build a rapport? Is your customer happy to talk to you about other things besides your product?

4. Offer Personal Guidance

Some customers are quick to the uptake and don’t need much explaining. Some of them need greater handholding. It doesn’t do to show your annoyance with them, through voice or action. Explain product features multiple times and resend that email if your customer has lost it. It doesn’t matter – you’re here to make money out of them, so it’s your duty to go the extra mile and be available to the customers that need you more.

5. Be Patient

True salespeople know that it takes time to close a deal. They have the confidence to know that eventually, the customer will buy and that a relationship will be built. They know that Rome wasn’t built in a day. A solid business takes years to build and a long term customer is a permanent asset.

6. Establish Long Term Relationships

A really good salesperson focuses on the relationship and not just the sale. He or she knows, that you can sell one product today, but it’s the repeat orders that keep you in business. Focus on your clients’ well being and not just on the numbers. Remember their birthdays and anniversaries, and make them feel special.

7. Make The Customer Happy

A good salesperson knows how to create the right impression, and how to make a sale and yet make the customer happy. They make their customers comfortable, get to know them, empathize with them and show that they truly care. This is what makes the difference.

8. Be Tenacious

You try once and if the customer doesn’t buy your product or doesn’t listen to you, do you give up? The best salespeople don’t give up easily. They take the first ‘No’ as a ‘Maybe’ and keep going. They just shift tactics, but they don’t give up.

9. Keep Closing Deals

The closing of a deal is a salesperson’s winning game, just like winning a race is an athlete’s game. They keep themselves motivated by closing deals all the time. To achieve this, they throw a wide enough net so that there are always prospects to close.

10. Show A Calm Face

Your business may not be doing well, and you may be personally unhappy, but there’s no call to let your customer know that. Keep a calm face, a ready smile and a cool handshake for your customer. Let your customer see your suave side and put the rest behind a curtain.

Steven writes for website design company GO-Gulf.com, a leading provider of web application development solutions in Middle East.

Article source: What Any Blogger Can Learn From A Salesperson

It’s evident that Google has at least 52 new updates.  These updates consist of what they feel make Google an easier content richer site for users to find information.  In many cases I will have to agree that these updates helped a lot. There are however instances and many examples all over the internet where their recent 52 updates or better known as the penguin update failed.  Now we all know that it’s impossible to get all search results perfect, but, I feel it is a very good attempt.

The positives for SEO’s following by the rules or using what we call white hat tactics are the following.

• Google now looks for spun content more than ever and devalues it like they should of many years ago.
• Google analyzes the anchor texts linking back to your website.  If you have the same anchor text and not enough diversity of anchors, Google will devalue your anchor text.  This means it will make it almost impossible to rank up.
• Now more than ever it is very important to have 100% unique content.  Our company has used unique content from day 1 and we have not been affected at all by any of the updates.  It’s also evident that you can’t just come up with 150 words or less, place 1 anchor text in it and expect Google to find that of any value to the internet.  Unless of course you own Twitter.
• Google goes as far now as cross analyzing social metrics with your website versus other websites; it then analyzes your backlinking structure of anchor texts. The algorithm is by farm much more complicated than this of course, but this is just a simple example of what they are looking for now.

So you’re probably asking yourself what can I do to fix what I did in the past to my website.

Here are a couple of tactics you can use to help your website.

• Diversify your anchor texts.  The more the better according to the new algorithm update and from many case studies we have here.  Please don’t misinterpret this as just changing your main anchor text with many variations of the same word.  Sure you can mix up and vary your main word anchor text, but you must have other words with variation as well.  Try to use natural words others would link back to your site with like click here or take a look at this site.  Make sure everything you write is natural.
• Write all unique content, never for any reason use duplicate content.
• Make sure you have at least 500 words or more when you submit anything to anywhere.  Also make sure that the article you’re submitting to the internet gives value.  Google is tired of seeing spun junk posted to the internet that isn’t even readable.  So in other words make sure you would stop and read your own article.
• Do not keyword stuff an article.  I recommend 1 anchor text per article and no more.
• Submit to quality sites.  I can’t stress how important it is to post your article to a quality website.
• Stop submitting link types like spam forum posts, spam blog comments, unnatural link profiles.
• Directory submissions are now looked at as spam.  Be very careful when submitting to a directory, because they are now looked at by a Google employee as a inorganic link. If your website gets penalized ever they will make you take down directory links or at least make you try to.  I have multiple messages from the Google spam team telling a client of ours that decided to use directory links to take them down.  Google even went as far as giving examples of exact links where my client posted them.

SEO isn’t about how many backlinks you can create.  SEO is about high quality, natural linking, and uniqueness of a quality article submitted that includes value to the internet. To attain top rankings you must follow by Google’s rules or it in the end isn’t going to work out for your site.

Do the right thing, don’t spin and submit!

If you were hurt by some of these new updates and you need help from a white hat ethical company that offers affordable SEO then please visit our website today at http://www.affordableseo-services.com.

Article source: Google Penguin Update Information

My Blog Guest makes the process even more enjoyable.

How It Works

Here is a quick rundown of how the process works:

1. You post your articles in their Article Gallery;
2. The blog owner searches for what they need and when they find and like your post, they offer to publish it. They provide a link and a publishing date.
3. You get an alert that you have pending offers, and you select the one you want most, at which time it goes into pending status until it goes live.
4. You get a message saying it has been posted. You then monitor it through their link building tracking tool.

Why It Is Different

If you have used a database, you know why this is special. It allows the blog owner to find what they want, and the writer to sit back and wait for offers instead for begging for links.

For further incentive, it will alert you if anything changes, such as the post being deleted. Which eliminated the need for a separate tracking tool.

You can see some of the reviews in a post on MBG. There’s also the collection of MyBlogGuest video reviews and tutorials.

Try it – you risk nothing. It’s absolutely free to join!

You can download this infographic in various layouts as well as read the history of the project here.

Article source: Why MyBlogGuest is Different (Infographic)

We used Google , 1 votes, Facebook likes and shares, Tweeting, and adding Twitter followers. The promotional efforts were organic, undertaken by friends, family and associates. In other words, they appeared as natural social media interactions to Google.

The results are pretty telling. The sites promoted with Twitter and Facebook saw no change or small increases in rankings. The sites promoted with Google and 1 votes, however, saw significant increases in rankings (up to 14.63 positions!) over a variety of search phrases. It’s pretty clear that Google rewards those who use their social networks.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Infographic by Austin SEO company, TastyPlacement.

Article source: Does Social Media REALLY work?

Popular bloggers are usually quite outrageous

The top bloggers of the world are risk takers. Their content is risky, often controversial.

As a writer, it’s your job to stop people dead in their tracks to a point that they need to second glance the headline giving them no choice but to find out more – so they have to keep reading.

You need to constantly push the limitations and work on how best to make your blog work even harder for you. You wonder the best ways to double or triple your conversations. You’re always on the lookout for new and crazy ideas.

Obviously, not each and every blog post you publish will draw the masses like you hoped. However, this is what can separate an average blogger from a rock star blogger…superstars will never stop trying or give up. They continue to push boundaries and make everything they write better and more unique.

Successful bloggers write non-stop, it’s a continuous journey. Writing should be part of a super bloggers daily routine. Granted, not every piece written will be excellent. Some of it will hit the right note and send you a truck load of traffic.

Even if only some of your articles and posts go viral, you’re still casting a wide net and pool of content for search engines to offer visitors more options to find your website.

This alone has great potential to find you more customers and subscribers.
If there was just one line that defined you as a person, what would it be? Remember J.F.K’s classic one-liner?, “A great man is one sentence.” Is there a one-liner that defines you?

Super bloggers always have a plan

Do you? Super bloggers always have a master plan, and they stick to it! Not only do they have a plan, their plan is to go BIG. Without a plan in place, you won’t hit the mark. Remember, writing is a continual journey, there are no goal posts or finish line, and coming up with crazy ideas is what will generate the buzz.

How do superstar bloggers continue to keep the craziness and creativity rolling in? Let’s review some tips to break writers block.

1. Combining ideas. This is a great way to produce new and unique angles, combing several completely unrelated ideas and mash them into one piece. Here’s a few examples:  Can you think of any ideas to blog about when you combine blogging with Mt. Everest. How about Internet marketing and President Obama? See where that angle takes you?
2. What issues do your readers face, find solutions for them and address their problems through blogging?
3. Steal ideas and make them yours. Read a ton of blogs, 20+ a day. Take notes and ideas you extract from other people’s blogs.
4. Just start writing. Writers often need to have their creative juices jolted, and writing without any predetermined agenda is a good way to rid your mind of negativity.
5. Search for ideas. Make a system that allows you to take notes whenever you’re inspired. Keep your antenna on alert always and be on the look-out for bright ideas.
6. Environment. Should you feel uninspired, changing the environment can snap you out of it. Go to a cafe or by simply changing rooms can break the deadlock.

Always interact thoughtfully with comments left by visitors. Setting up contests and surveys is a great way to let your readers know you appreciate their feedback and support.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Successful bloggers are smart enough to know what to leave well-alone and what to capitalize on. You need to understand and know the right time to delegate projects and tasks better equipped for those that know better.

This can include things such as the design of your pages or back-end coding elements. Being able to delegate not only frees you up to keep blogging, but you’ll also do a lot less procrastinating.
Combining Medias

Using text: Text documents will be dominated by keywords which is useful for search engines, and will make up a large amount of the content you produce. These days, text documents may not be enough, a combination of various channels in needed.

Using videos: Sort videos (less than 10 minutes) are ideal for tutorial content. A popular way to implement this is to create a transcript to post on YouTube and your website, not only for your readers but for search engines too.

Audio: I personally love listening to podcasts with 2 or more people directing a tutorial. I find this approach way more interesting and engaging. Visit the Manager Tools podcast for more info.

Last, but not least

In a digital world where there are so many web pages and blogs flooding the Internet, you’ll need to take action to find out just what it takes to rise above the masses. Luckily for you, you can take advantage of the successes had by well-known superstar bloggers and copy their methods.

What other types of abilities do legend bloggers possess?

About the author: Matt Fuller offers an article writing service for Website Hotline. Thanks for reading this guest blog we hope you have found this information useful.

Article source: How to Become a Superstar Blogger!

If you’re trying to convince yourself that social media isn’t right for your business, then I’m here to tell you that you’re missing the boat. All of the websites that I mentioned above currently rank in the top 50 most visited websites in the world today (with the exception of Myspace which holds a spot in the mid-100′s).

While it’s vital for business marketing purposes to have a presence on some, if not all, of these platforms, it can be a daunting task to keep up with all of them. We can’t just spit out a blog post on our website anymore. If we really want maximum impact, we need to push it through some of these social channels. But what is the best, and easiest way to do that?

Just do a search engine query and you will come up with a wealth of tools to help leverage your social media influence. From services like Ping.fm, Seesmic and Posterous, to Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Ubersocial, there is no shortage of marketing platforms on the internet these days.

No two of them are exactly the same. As with almost any product in existence, there are pros and cons to each one. The market is saturated with reviews and user preferences, so I’ll spare you another one. I suggest only to sift through some of those reviews (especially the videos), so you can get and idea of how each one works. If that’s not enough, sign up for the ones that interest you the most, and give them a good test drive.

Most all of the tools that you will find are free (there are some exceptions), although several will offer premium versions for a charge. A premium version may just offer the ability to manage more profiles, add multiple users, or receive around-the-clock technical support. That’s just up to you to determine the ROI on the particular service.

In the past, social media has carried the connotation that it’s only for gossipy teenagers or 20 and 30-somethings to network and keep in touch with their former classmates. At one time or another, we’ve said the words, “I’m never signing up for a Facebook account”…I know I once did. Well, 800 million users (and counting) later, including 4 Facebook accounts for me personally, and the idea of social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Businesses need to realize that the people on social media sites ARE their customers. These are the people that buy your shampoo, read your magazine, or use you as their insurance carrier. You need to have a social media presence, and connect with your current and potential customers.

They are all free to use…and that makes the ROI pretty fantastic.

John Ehlenbeck is a small business owner, and contributing writer for Aprimo Lead Management.

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Article source: Leveraging Social Media in Your Business

With a lot of updates and versions available on the Facebook social media website, users often are interested in hiding the status and profile. It is not always essential to show your updates, comments and recently posted news to everyone in the community. People are getting more concerned about their privacy considerations and Facebook is an ultimate platform which offers you all the settings to hide your current status. Even if you have not befriended anyone on the Facebook, you will be capable of hiding your recent updates and profile status.

How to hide your Facebook status

• First of all, you are just needed to log into your Facebook account.
• You then hit on ‘Account’ label in the upper right corner of the homepage of your Facebook account. You will see a dropdown menu and you should them click on ‘Privacy Settings’ option.
• You will be welcomed with a new page.  You will find an option of ‘Custom Settings’ in the lower left of the new screen page. You will have to click on this option.
• You should then click on ‘Posts by Me’ button in the right side of the new screen. There will be a dropdown menu coming to your sight and the user is needed to click on the ‘Customize’ option.
• There will be a pop-up window from where you will be allowed to select the people and friends for whom your updates will be visible. There will be also an option of drop down menu which contains the list of your friends and community members. You can completely edit the list of WANT and DON’T WANT.

For those people whom you not like to see your latest profile status and other updates, you will be required to enter their names. As you start typing their names, Facebook will automatically shows you the full name. The user is free to select the accurate and appropriate name from the list and click on the same.

How to hide Facebook profile

• Just sign into your Facebook account with email ID and password.
• You should now click on ‘My Privacy’ settings option to edit your all personalized features. This button will help you to customize your viewing options and you will find it very easy to set your standards for hiding status, profile and photos.
• You can now click on ‘Edit Settings’, if you are interested in hiding the limited profile. You will then get a screen with your limited profile updates.
• The user is now free to choose all or none of the essential features of Facebook that are needed to be closed for the friends and community members. In fact, if you are interested in hiding all the profile status and updates, just make it sure that all the buttons are unchecked.
• You can then click on the ‘Save’ button to apply the latest changes to your Facebook account.

In this way, the Facebook user can hide his or her updates, comments, like or dislikes Facebook account and profile status too, at the same time.

Summary: - Facebook cares a lot about your privacy settings. This is the reason why is provides you with so many hiding options for each portfolio like status updates, profile and comments. You can easily choose the friends for whom your profile will be open.

(I am Susan Hannan from Exams key  Looking for Exams key exam assistance? Let’s take benefit of Exams key self-paced Microsoft Certifications training material and clear your IT certification on first try.)

Article source: How You Can Hide Your Status With Full Profile In All Your Facebook Accounts

Most people find websites by searching in Google or other search engines – and most search engines work by crawling content. The more content you have, the more there is for them to find, and the more there is for people to do on your site as well. And for that reason you can also sell your articles for a good amount of money and trade them for links and other things too.

But the competition is big, and the amount of writing you need on your site to compete is huge. You could be the best writer in the world, but after you’ve written the 500th article on your niche, suddenly inspiration can start to run dry. So how do you continue to come up with article topics time after time when by all rights you should have stopped ages ago? Here are some tips you can use to keep coming up with ideas and to keep those creative juices flowing.

Carry a Notepad: You’ll be surprised when the ideas come to you, and there are all manner of different things that can give you inspiration. The problem is that we often then go home and forget what it was we wanted to write about. By carrying a notepad we can jot these ideas down and make sure we go through them later (and trust me you’re more likely to look at a notepad than you are to look at your phone or laptop for more inspiration).

Read a Lot: Writing is really just a matter of taking in information, altering it and editing it in your mind, and then outputting articles and posts that present the same information in a new spin. In other words if you want to be able to put information out, then you need to take it in. Make sure you have bookmarked all relevant sites, that you have subscribed to all relevant magazines, and that you are constantly chatting to the right people. Breaking news pieces are always a great way to create articles that won’t have that much competition and that will be widely searched for (though admittedly their shelf-life is shorter).

Combine Topics: One way to make an original article is simply to combine two disparate topics. For instance you can compare how you approach bodybuilding to how you approach cooking, or you can look at how the financial crisis effects the popularity of the comic book. This is a great way to quickly create a new topic that will be highly unique.

Listen to Questions: If you are an expert on a subject, or if you are perceived as one (run a website and you will be) then you will find that lots of people come to you for advice and/or information on a related topics. This is true online – particularly if you have a forum or social media presence; but it’s also true in the ‘real world’ where you will find all your friends and family view you as the resident expert. These questions are great as starting points for articles – as if they want to know the answer then chances are that some other people will as well.

Vadim Kirichenko believes a website can prosper with help of proper SEO/SEM which would result in more traffic and more impressions on ppc advertisements.

Article source: Coming Up With Article Topics

What is semantic search?

According to the Wall Street Journal, it refers to the process of understanding the actual meaning of words. Basically, it can also differentiate between different meanings of a word. A classic example is Jaguar (the brand) and jaguar (the animal).

On the other hand, in keyword search the site’s relevance to the keywords being searched depends on the words that it contains.

Why only now?

Fact: Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo (also powered by Bing), use it since 2009.

There are a lot of reasons why Google made this move. To provide better service to the customers, keep up with the competition, have more control of the market. The list can go on and on. As usual, we can only speculate.

As of March 2012, it still holds 66.3% of the search market share. They always, and still dominate the market even with the combined Yahoo and Bing (33.7% of the market).

Was it because of Siri? Probably, yes. No doubt it captured our imagination – iOS and non-iOS users – but it is more than just having a fancy voice-responding feature.

Maybe it’s about the latest market trend.

Android sells a lot

Starting last year, there is just a drastic increase, by the day, in the number of android devices that are being activated.

In May of 2011, there were 100 million activated devices. It increased to 200 million by middle of last year. Everyday an average of 550,000 devices were being activated during that time.

By the end of February this year, it had surpassed 300 million users with 850,000 devices activated per day.

Half of the market share

By February this year, Android earned 50% of the market share in the US, according to comScore. It increased by 17 percentage points since February 2011. Apple’s iOS devices took 30.2%, followed by Blackberry (13.4%) and Microsoft (3.9%).

Although this may look profitable to Google, it is estimated that they only earn $1.70 per android device. Way way far from Apple’s $576.30 for each iPhone sold.

But it goes beyond the profit being earned per device activated. It is about the potential market of this booming android users. The increase in the number of subscribers basically mean an increase in the number of searches in Google – greater control of the search market.

To take advantage of this high demand in Android devices, a Siri-like feature (or better) can continue or even increase the momentum.

Majel and the Assistant

Late last year Majel, Google’s voice assistant, was reported as being developed as a rebuttal to Siri and was expected to be released earlier this year. But it seems that there is another ongoing project.

TechCrunch reported Google’s Assistant project. Google’s Android team will first, capture and organize data into a format that the computer understands. Then create a personalization layer (based on people content-interaction). Finally, they will create a mobile voice-centered do engine that does not just answer questions but execute commands.

The execution of this new feature in Android phones would need lots of organized information. And that may be the least of their worries.

Ready to answer anything

Google has humungous collection of facts, figures, and every piece of information that you can ever imagine. Although they do not disclose any details regarding the vastness of their database, we can tell based the number of searches.

For 2011, the average searches per day was more than 4.7 billion, with a total of 1.7 trillion at the end of the year.

They have the data – indexed pages. And they only need something (a voice-centered engine) to market these in a whole new way.

What to expect

Changes are on their way again. But we will really not be able to ascertain what they will be. For now, Google is still on the process of incorporating semantic search. It is expected that it will be good for the users because they will be able to find the information that they’re looking for, in the shortest time possible.

We can just imagine a world where we “talk” to our devices. The incorporation of semantic search further points to this direction. But it will still take time.

Ric, one of Agents of Value’s web content writers, explores the current market trends and relates them to yet another big move from Google. Semantic search will be incorporated in the search engine giant’s keyword-based system in the next coming months. Bing and Yahoo started to use semantic search way back in 2009. The question – why only now? This article explores some trends that could have triggered this shift to a more semantic-based technology. 

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Article source: Google’s Semantic Search, Why Only Now?

Do not panic! It’s not yet the end of your happy social networking days.

Facebook is just headed for big changes, what with new social media competitors cropping up everywhere. And in the fast-paced world called the worldwide web, you either roll with it, or get left behind.

Many think that the Facebook Timeline is a big mistake – it’s confusing, disorganized, and not user-friendly. Truth is, you just have to learn its best features so you can appreciate it better. Here are some of them:

1.  The Cover Photo

Who doesn’t like big, imposing photos on their profile?

The cover photo, which is part of the new Facebook Timeline, allows the user to post an 851×315 pixels picture as a ‘header’ for their profile. It lets you highlight your favorite moments, best angles, and if you’re a business owner, your brand.

You can choose to get creative with it, and create something totally interesting. Or if you want to take the easy route, just post your all-time favorite photo!

2. The ability to highlight posts, and the photos that go along with it.

In the old newsfeed, your profile is just arranged chronologically. Anything ‘significant’ (Facebook-wise) that had happened in the past will just be buried along with other status updates, photo albums, etc. once you post something new.

Through Facebook’s new timeline though, you get to show off your life’s most treasured moments through highlighted photos or status updates. Once a status update or photo is ‘starred’ or highlighted, it will present as a span of 843X403 pixels of enlarged text or picture on your profile. It also stays at the top of your profile’s feed for seven days.

3. Facebook reminiscing is just a ‘scroll-and-click’ away.

On the right hand side of your new Facebook Timeline, you’ll find the chronology of the years you’ve spent on Facebook since you signed up. To go down your Facebook ‘memory lane’, all you have to do is click on the respective year, scroll, and you’ll find all the status updates, shared links, and albums/videos you’ve posted for that particular time.

Now that’s definitely convenient!

4. Better photo viewing.

Most personal Facebook accounts are used both for social networking and largely for photo storage and sharing as well. With the new Timeline, users get to have a ‘dedicated view’ of a photo when they click it, and also get the option to view it full screen. Options to tag and rotate are also conveniently placed at the bottom of the photo.

5. Let your network know about your milestones.

We all have our proud moments in life. And with social networking sites like Facebook around, the urge to share them to the world is strong. With the new Facebook timeline, you get to broadcast to your friends (or to the public if you feel like it), and make it a permanent ‘fixture’ on your profile by indicating it as a ‘milestone’ or ‘Life Event’.

Usually accompanied by a huge, ‘cover photo-sized’ picture, a milestone also indicates the date when an important event happened, where it transpired, and the ‘Life Event’ category that it’s under. You also get to tag people who shared those significant experiences with you!

Like the old adage says, “The one thing constant in life is change.” Let’s just think of Facebook’s controversial Timeline as part of the social networking site’s growth spurts.

Anyway, the Timeline isn’t so bad after all.

Carlene Drake is a blogger, social media expert, and a Facebook junkie herself. If you need to find customized place cards for your wedding, make sure to take a look at what Facebook sellers have to offer!

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Article source: What’s Good With The New Facebook Timeline?

However, once the traffic reaches the website, the other major issue is the traffic leaving the website, which the webmasters need to keep a record of. The Google Analytics Event Tracking feature can help a web marketing firm great deal in this regard. The information gathered regarding the leaving traffic can be used for the following purposes:

Affiliate Tracking- If you are promoting affiliate products on your website, and the users click on the affiliate product, thus causing a switch. In such case, the information from Event Tracking can be utilized to find out which affiliate is taking the traffic away.

Opt-in Form Comparison- Google’s Event Tracking feature is an excellent replacement if your email management software does not provide any email opt-in form testing. With Event Tracking feature, you can find out which form is causing most offsite clicks.

Social Media Engagement- If you promote your social media profiles on your website, then the Event Tracking feature can help you find which social media platform of yours is receiving the most engagement from the user.

Setting Up Event Tracking Feature:

The Event Tracking Feature is integrated with a website in the form of a code. However, it’s the process before code generation that requires most attention to details. The process involves selection of two primary variables, namely Category and Action. A brief detail of these variables is given below.

1. Categories:

Categories are the general grouping of the goals you wish to track. The selection of categories depends upon the needs, and varies from business to business and situation to situation. You can use several categories to track down like,

• Affiliate offerings
• Video performance
• White paper downloads

The category selection part needs to be dealt with carefully, as Google allows a limited number of goals tracking, therefore, you need to select the most important ones.

2. Actions:

The action variable is used to specify a certain interaction or event that is taking place. For instance, while tracking the video performance, you can set action factors like ‘play’, ‘pause’, and ‘stop’ as tracking options.

After the selection of these variables, a code will be generated which can then be integrated with the website to track the off-site clicks.

Tips:

Tips from the expert can make you get most out of an activity compared to doing it yourself, like link building with tips can help you get authority links, similarly, a few tips that can help utilize Event Tracking more effectively are:

• The limitation of Google Analytics Event Tracking feature is that it won’t provide you with any information related to actions that take place off your website. You can’t find which clicks bring you most conversions.
• The Advanced Segments option can help break down the Event Tracking data, with the help of Advanced Segments you can easily break down the offsite clicks in term of their categories.
• The off-site click goals need to be redefined periodically, to ensure that you get hold of the best data for your website.

Conclusion:

In short, the Event Tracking feature of Google Analytics can help a great deal in analyzing the off-site click activity, for better retention of traffic.

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Article source: Event Tracking Feature of Google Analytics To Track Off-Site Clicks Activity

Introduction

Blogging is really a great way to make money online. As a matter of fact daily thousands of people join as a blogger and the number is growing day by day. However in blogging you do not start making money overnight.

You have to create content for months and months then you start making money. So you have to decide beforehand that on which topic you are going to blog for next 6 to 8 months. You have to choose a topic on which you can write without breaking the rhythm.

At the same time the topic must be profitable, that means it must be popular enough, so you get more values for your ads. Here I have listed 5 such topics which are profitable at the same time you can write about them continuously.

Let’s discuss them one by one.

Blogging

The first topic would be blogging itself. As I said there are millions of bloggers around the world. Many of them are new bloggers and they do not know much about blogging. These novice bloggers are looking for help of all sorts.

You can start blogging and give them simple tips like blog designing, templates, content etc. Blogging industry is growing daily and you can get many ads to show. These ads are very profitable and are here to stay for a long time.

Internet & Technology

Second topic you could choose to blog is Internet and various other technologies related to it. This can be about how to make money online, playing games, free software downloads etc. Again I must say all these topics or niches are very easy to write and at same time very profitable.

You can always find news about latest technologies that is related to desktop and mobile devices. You will never run out of content. If we talk about profit then Google Adsense ads pays you very high for this niche.   Moreover everyone knows about Internet and basic technology related to it. Therefore you can create content freely without any hassle.

Gadgets

Next topic you can choose is Gadget. Before I tell more about this let me give you a suggestion. Creating content around Gadgets niche is bit difficult. Although it is a very profitable niche and ads can pay you huge dividends.

But to create content you must have Gadgets like cellphone, laptops etc present with you. For writing reviews or features you need to experiment with them. So you may require money to buy some of these Gadgets. I recommend you to listen YouTube videos as you get more insight.

Facebook & Twitter

Facebook & Twitter is a social media platform. They are very popular and people using them want to know more and more about these platforms. So you can share tips about using Facebook and Twitter.

There are many blogs that caters only Facebook and Twitter. They give more insight about Facebook interface and its marketing value. You can also start a blog on this niche.

At the same time it is very profitable also. You can get ads from many other third party providers.

Google Products

Your maximum profit for ads will come from Google adsense.  Google offers a lot of services through its various products. Let me guarantee if you are creating a blog that spread information about Google and its products then Google will definitely like you.

Google Ads pay very high dividends for their ads shown on content that is written for Google products only. You can write on search engine, Gmail, Google docs, YouTube etc. All of them are very popular and new and interesting blog posts written on these topics are always going to appeal larger audience.

I recommend you to start a blog on this niche as it is very profitable and simultaneously very easy to create good content.

Conclusion

In conclusion I would say that if you are confused and not able to decide the niche of your blog then you can take my 5 recommendations. The first niche to choose is Blogging, second is Internet & technology, third is Gadgets, fourth is facebook & Twitter and last is Google products.

You can choose any one of them because they are very profitable as well as easy to write.

This post is by Pritam Nagrale who writes about SEO, internet marketing and work from home ideas. If you’re looking for more outlets for making money like affiliate marketing, AdSense then you must go to the blog Jobs8Home here you could find hundreds of best ways and tips to make money online.

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Article source: 5 Most Profitable Niche for New Bloggers

Less Spam

The very basic advantage of using the Google social search is that, there is a less chance of spam appearing in the search engine results, as a complete Google+ social graph of a person is taken into consideration. Each and every little detail is taken into consideration, which minimizes the effect of spam results. However this could sometimes result in irrelevant information to appear in the search results, if the circle of a person has a large number of random people included.

Up to date Results

Since, one keeps on updating their social profiles on Google+, and the fact the current activities are taken into consideration by the search engine, this enables the person to gain results which contain updated material. This will give an opportunity to the person to access the material which is relevant and completely up to date with the recent activity of the person on his/her Google+ account.

Finding People Within Circles

For instance, if a person is looking for a writer to hire for a job, then with the help of Google social search the person will have an opportunity to find the relevant person for the job within his or her social circle on Google+. This will be possible as the search engine will take the interest of people in the group circles into consideration. This means, a person who might have listed writing as one of their hobbies or interest, then that person’s profile would automatically come in the search engine results.

Business Advertising Point of View

If a person wants to advertise product or services to specific type of people, then with the help of social search it can be possible. The social search will allow the individual or a business company to search amongst their followers the right people who might be interested in their product or services.
Overall, all the material which comes in the search engine results is more relevant to what the actual viewer is looking for. However, one has to be really careful about what kind of information they are looking for. The main issue with this is that many people in the circle can have unreal or wrong information updated on their profiles. This can then directly affect the search engine results, making them inaccurate or unreliable.

I am John S Lam from Pass Certification .Pass Certification has also contributed in the online expositions and provided the material about the GIAC Certifications. (He Live in Valley Drive Philadelphia, and Blogging from In many Tech Commnunities.)

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Article source: Gain a Competitive advantage via Google Social Search

In conjunction with the statement released by Google in its official blog, codename “Venice” is aimed at delivering localized search results for user queries that Google perceives appropriate. The system is now capable of detecting queries and documents that are local to the user. In short, Google will try its hardest in order to provide you with localized organic results based on the location you are currently in, regardless if you have a geo-targeted search query.

What’s with Venice Update?

To understand Venice update further, here is a look at how it works. Before Google made the Venice update, if you search for a local UK product or service without using a city modifier, the results that would be delivered to you are organic listings or national sellers that are relevant in the UK. You would not find LOCAL results unless you add a city to your search. For instance, you would have had to search for “Manchester hotel” or “Oxford hotel” in order to get the results you are after. However, this has changed significantly after Venice was introduced.

Take the search query “solicitors” for example. With the system update, the results that will be delivered to you are a mix of national results and local pages or sites that are set to your current location. You must take note, however, that the localized results are delivered on queries that Google thinks deserves a local emphasis. As such, if you search for “White House” or “Las Vegas,” you will get the same results regardless where your location is set.

What Venice Can Do for Your Business

If you own a local business, the Venice update opens up numerous opportunities for you to make your online presence felt. You can expect your website to show up in organic search listings for generic search queries along with the big guns within the industry. Such a result, of course, would be delivered as long as the end user is within local vicinity. In short, this is definitely a great time for you to capitalize on Venice to get more local traffic, which can then translate to more sales.

Capitalizing in on Venice Update

SEO experts have not totally figured out what exactly triggers a page one local organic in the said update. Perhaps it is based on a combination of two or more traditional organic factors. However, you can always explore your options to localize your SEO. That means, focus more on geo-targeted keywords. For instance, rather than targeting “solicitors,” opt to target “Manchester solicitors.”

Equally important is for you to ensure that all of your local listing are both standardized and optimized across the Internet. You would want to provide more accurate, optimized, and engaging details for the type of business that you have in different listings and directories. Doing so will allow end users to easily find you.

Also, do not forget to make adjustments on your link profile. As much as possible, the anchor texts for your inbound links should include your business’s location. For instance, if an article is written about your business, allowing for the link in the content to read “Manchester solicitor” than “click here” would be more beneficial for your local search ranking.

The full impact of Google’s Venice update is still not fully understood. However, the methods mentioned above can be of great help to improve your site’s local performance.

The article was written by Robert Kirk who runs a Website Design and Search Engine Optimisation company in Scotland, UK.

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Article source: Paddling Through Google’s Venice Update

The principle search engineer of Google, Matt Cutts, says that “When someone recommends something, that’s a pretty good indicator of quality. We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings.” A quality indicator is something all of us need to help distinguish real quality from the millions of search results. Also, this is a very effective use of our latest social network habit where we like to share our recommendations and like to know what the people we respect recommend.

If many Google users and internet marketers are happy with the value Google +1 offers, then don’t you think that black hatters will take advantage of this potential? As you may guess, right after Google +1 proved it worked, many black hatters came into the scene and tried to abuse the capability of the Google +1 button to manipulate search engine results.

The opportunity arose when the sites that bought tons of spam back links lost their domination in the search results as a result of the use of social indicators in Google’s rankings. Some unethical SEO firms were quick to find new ways to use Google + as a selling tactic to get more business from their clients. They have started to sell Google +1 votes claiming that the votes were from real people and able to increase rankings on search results. Similar to the spam practices of link building, these SEO firms have been trying to take what is meant to be beneficial for everyone and to turn it into an opportunity for their clients’ unethical and unfair advantage. While these black hatters have been trying to abuse Google +1, Google’s Panda update revealed that Google was very serious about kicking them out.

The Panda algorithm enables Google to measure the quality of +1s by comparing the relevance of a user’s +1 with the previous +1s or Facebook likes that the same user has made in the past. Clearly, Google follows users’ real life experiences and their preferences that should be relevant and consistent and then detects spam activities from irrelevant or inconsistent ones. In fact, Google uses “relevance” once again to determine “quality,” and “quality” can help Google catch black hat SEO attempts red handed.

I strongly agree that social signals are powerful signals of users’ engagement of a page. It is great for all of us to be provided with retweet, Facebook like and Google +1 information. However, social signals are not everything. Google will always look at other indicators, such as the length of time visitors spend on a page and the source of the visitors. Of course, on and off page SEO techniques still count. Therefore, attempts to manipulate search results with spam votes are useless.

Obviously, it is not a game where you can beat Google by cheating. It is a serious marketing attempt to adapt your business to your customers’ changing needs, expectations and behaviors. Therefore, I believe that unethical practices to manipulate Google search results can only harm the owners of those practices who are blind to see the real value in maximizing white hat SEO efforts for truthful search results.

What’s your opinion? Do you think the Google +1 button will continue to provide valuable information or black hatters will unfortunately be able to manipulate search results?

Jeff is a passionate blogger. He often writes about SEO and is also a content writer for Serije.

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Article source: The Real Value Of The Google +1 Button And Ethical SEO

What is anchor text?
Anchor text “anchors” a URL to text on a Web page. When people create Web pages, they have the option to create links to other content. The can do this by associating text on the page with the URL of different page. In many HTML editors, writers can simply highlight text using a mouse and then type the URL into a box in the editor window. SEO professionals call the highlighted text “anchor text” because it is the launching point of the linked URL.
Writers can also create a link using HTML code. Consider the following example: This is an example of anchor text. The anchor text for this link is “anchor text” because when a reader clicks on it, the reader’s Web browser will open yourdomainname.com.

Website owners, authors and SEO workers should take steps to ensure that the text-based links only refer readers to destinations that relate to the anchor text used for the links. Some experts say that search engines could classify links as spam if those links lead to irrelevant online content. Other people say that search engines have moved away from evaluating anchor text to shift emphasis to social signals and other metrics.
Anchor text also affects search engine ratings of destination sites. Although website owners have no control over the words used to link to an external site, Google assumes that valuable links will have relevant anchor text.

Predictions
The article by Rand Fishkin, “SEO Moz search ranking factors: Future of Search”, predicted that anchor text would lose its SEO value. By most accounts, Fishkin was correct. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that Google had moved to devalue anchor text because it has difficulty discerning between paid links, link spam and organic links. By de-emphasizing anchor text, Google can discourage anchor-text manipulation and possibly deliver SERPS that include links to high-quality destinations.

Besides predicting the devaluation of anchor text, SEO professionals also predict that Google will begin adding penalties to websites that use keywords as anchor text. Google wants to discourage website owners from using SEO to create high-ranking pages that have little or no value to Internet users, so it automatically classifies external links that have keywords as anchor text as spam.

Still, website owners should lightly consider some of the dire warnings from the SEO community. Many differing viewpoints on industry blogs suggest that Google still highly rates anchor text and keyword content and contextual placement have little effect on search engine standing. Skeptics point to the way Google, in the past, said that it would demote websites with keyword-rich domain names. Most experts say that change never happened.
Many in the Web-development community actually hope Google devalues anchor text, mainly because so many people use anchors like “Click Here” or “Check This Out.” Such anchor text will rarely bear relevance to destination links and thus decrease the page rank of the destination as well as the host site.

Conclusion:
Despite the fact that search engine algorithms and SEO continue to evolve, anchor text will continue to play a significant role in Web development. Even if search engines start to downplay the role of anchor text, optimized anchor text will add value to website readers by accurately inferring the nature of linked content.

Many SEO professionals would like to see search engines examine the context of anchor text because many nefarious website owners will spam search engines by including adding optimized anchor text on irrelevant Web pages. Search engines could reduce SEO spamming by making sure that it only acknowledges legitimate anchor text that has contextual merit. Bloggers counter that a contextual requirement for anchor text would unfairly dilute the value of blogroll and footer links because those links rarely have any surrounding text.
Google will likely find a way to evaluate blogrolls and footers separately from links used in context, so it will accommodate all concerns while improving the value of the Internet experience for all users.

Citations:

• Rand Fishkin article

Andrew is doing anchor text research for http://www.anexcelsiorelevator.com/. As much negative press that anchor text is getting, it will surely be unaffected when used for branded keywords.

Article source: Anchor Text Losing its Value

What is this sensation that’s sweeping the Internet, anyway?

Share What You Like

Simply put, Pinterest is a website that lets you (if you’re a member) post pictures of things you like that you found on the web. You can post pictures of anything from a favorite sandwich to a wedding dress to a kitchen sink, and other members comment on your finds.

You can also follow the “pins” of other members – a great tactic if you’re planning a big event or making an expensive purchase and would like inspiration from unbiased, third party “friends.”

Artful Commerce

Now that Google and Bing use social media presence as a page rank factor, search engine optimization companies have seized upon the opportunities present in Facebook, Twitter and now Pinterest. An artful Internet marketer might develop a following on Pinterest as an effective means of increasing a business’s web traffic, ideally converting visitors to customers.

According to a 2005 Pew Research report, men made up the majority of Internet users, but in just seven years that trend reversed itself – particularly in the areas of social media and online shopping. As users, women own the social media sphere and as such savvy ecommerce SEO companies tailor their marketing approaches to this audience.

Get an Invitation, Start Posting – It’s Just That Simple

Unlike Facebook with its dozens of settings, page views and features, Pinterest is delightfully simple. Post a picture, make a comment, comment on others’ photos – and wait for comments on your finds in return.

Imagine the opportunities present for, say, a locally owned clothing store that is establishing an online presence? Suddenly, your store in Albuquerque is attracting customers in Alabama – an ecommerce dream come true.

Tying It All Together

The goal of all of this search engine optimization is increased search engine rankings. Consider your own query experiences: how likely are you to look beyond the first few results that appear on page one of Google? If you’re like most people, the answer is not very likely.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo send spiders across the web that collect website content in an index. When you enter a search term, the software quickly scans through its index looking for relevant terms. That’s why having your company website appear in the first few search results is incredibly valuable.

Of course, there is more to developing a successful ecommerce SEO strategy than posting to Pinterest. An experienced Internet marketer spends days examining and analyzing a website’s content, from text to photographs and more. Every part of your website can be optimized for search results, even your shopping cart.

A successful ecommerce strategy integrates increased traffic flow and sales. When was the last time you sold a product five states away?

Now that you know more about Pinterest, find out more about what it takes to be a professional Internet marketer. Post written by guest blogger Michelle.

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Article source: What Is Pinterest, Anyway?

To gain the strength in the marketing business online we need to be strict on the visibility among the competitors and the completion is really tough these days. The new techniques we must be using to gain that edge on the competitors with distinct advantages

The e-commerce business today needs the proficiency and the expertise to create the space of the site in the top of the competition. Here are the few points as the techniques of the blog marketing we shall be using. Here they are discussed below:

• The Modern Approach
• SEO
• Setting priorities
• Continuous development of the skill
• Outsourcing
• Bring the business Offline

SEO

The URL of your site accurately resembles the target niche you decided to attract, is very important. Using the niche target title URL makes the optimization easy. It is eye catching and the drift is on your side.

Such SEO tips or tricks or practices will considerably help your blog to get recognized in the millions of the same target. Always keep an idea of the niche you targeting and include the name of the segment in the URL id of blog. Keep floating the flows of the traffics. One last most important thing is that always use the blogging tips in the blog which you created.

Setting the priorities

Although we always know what we want to do in the blog but we must set up the things and also a to-do list in the blogging but it is needed to be prioritized and the sequel must inherit the blog. We have a lot of the things which are important but the most important ones to be given the priority. We can use the videos as to increase the new customers and involve the new traffic. This is the one of the few examples we can use but we shall never stop prioritizing.

Outsourcing

Why outsourcing, might be the question arising in the mind, but why not, it will help the business great deal. When you get caught up in the time lag and he results were not showing up and the planned things are getting postponed and we get panic in the mean while. So what if f we outsource the business and leave the worries behind. This will increase the marketing of your business and more money.

Summary

This may be said that the techniques which we use are the tested and tried at the levels of the business online. The segment of the e-commerce thus needs the techniques to prevail in the market for the longest times.

About the author: I am Aalma from Exams key and searching for exams key exams support? I will tell you advantage of exams key self based Exin Certifications  training material and help to pass this exams on first attempt.

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Article source: What Blog Marketing Techniques You Should Use?

Use keywords

Obviously, people are more inclined to read a story that interests them, and if the headline contains popular keywords, it is more likely to be read. Make sure that your headline includes keywords that people actually find interesting, and your article will generate a ton of attention. You could use the aid of keyword finders to give you a list of terms or words that people tend to use when referring to the topic of your article. This will help ensure that your keywords are current and that they actually gain interest.

Be extremely detailed

Readers are typically not interested in reading articles that contain headlines that are too vague. If a reader is going to spend time reading an article, they want to know exactly what they’re going to get out of it. Plus, they’re more drawn to details. For example, instead of using the headline, “How to bake a cake”, use “The easiest way to bake a moist chocolate cake”. This way, your readers will know that the instructions on cake making will be easy, and they’ll also know that the end result is going to be a moist chocolate cake.
A great way to ensure that your headline is detailed is to try and create a one-sentence summary for your headline. People often like to know the results of the article they’re about to read ahead of time, but they’ll also be interested in how you came to that result.

Ask a question

If you don’t think the one-sentence summary is good enough to generate interest, try asking a question. This is extremely beneficial for articles that may be opinion-based instead of factual.
One thing to note while using a question as your headline is to refrain from questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no answer. Sometimes, if people can answer the question too blatantly, it will deter them from reading.
Use lists.

People are also more inclined to read articles that come in list form, so your headline should call out to this. For example, instead of using “How to write great content”, you should use “5 tips for writing great web content”.
This type of headline usually piques the interest of those readers who are looking for a shorter, detailed read. Plus, if your headline is “Top 10 movies of 2012″, they’ll be really interested to see what you have listed as number one.
Headlines are the first thing that your readers are going to see. If your headline fails to capture your audience’s interest, nobody is going to read your article.  Use keywords, be extremely detailed, ask questions and use lists, and you will soon see an increase in your readership.

Mark Weatherford is a high school english teacher and published author who loves to write in his free time. He is a grammar fanatic and often encourages his students to proof their work with a grammar checker in order to ensure their writing is professional and mistake-free. He is currently editing an Of Mice and Men summary.

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Article source: Headings That Rock -Engaging Your Readership with Creative Titles

This infographic, “How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds”, contains the results of scientists’ research on social media’s impact on the brain, along with several other intriguing facts about social media.

For the embed code and the original source of this infographic: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/resources/social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic/

This infographic was produced by Assisted Living Today, the leader in finding top assisted living facilities.

Article source: Social Media is Ruining Our Brains

But how long are your links active? Are people on Facebook more responsive than Twitter to click on your company’s link? It’s often hard to tell but there are a few options and ideas out there to try and maximize your efforts.

A popular way to create a backlink to your site is to scout out blogs that you might feel have the same audience that you’re trying to build, comment on a post and leave a link to your site. This is a great way to create another link back to your page but remember, Google is smart. Google not only looks at how many pages/sites contain a link back to yours, but it also considers the content that is surrounding your link.

If your business’ site is about a specific subject, make sure you’re posting your link on a site similar or related to that subject. Otherwise, your backlink may just be dead on arrival. After you’ve commented and linked your page to the blog, post it on your Facebook or Twitter account to create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the blogger.

Using apps to help you track your links on Facebook and Twitter is another great option to help you determine if your efforts are worthwhile. An app such as QuickTagger (http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/tools/quicktagger) allows you to categorize where you want to post your links and does the posting and shortening of links for you. All of the data you’ll need to track the effectiveness of your posted link can then be monitored through Google Analytics. This can help you determine which social media channels are producing the most action for your backlink and help keep it active.

If you want your business’ site to succeed, a little extra work on the side may prove to have great payouts. Earlier in this article, commenting on blogs was mentioned as a tool to help produce more backlinks to your site and in turn increasing your ranking amongst search engines; the pitfall being lack of quality content. Creating your own blog (or two), allows you to have full control over the content and can post backlinks to your main web page as often as you’d like. Again, promoting these blogs that contain your links on Twitter and Facebook can all be tracked using an app such as InMotion Hosting’s QuickTagger to monitor efficiency.

Lastly, another way to create more permanent backlinks might be to take out an online ad that contains your site’s link. It’s more links back to your site which boosts those organic search rankings. Once the ad is up, promote it on your Facebook and Twitter accounts!

VPS Hosting Specialist

Juliana is an Online Specialist for high traffic capability VPS Hosting provider based in Los Angeles @InMotionHosting. You can follow her on Twitter for top web traffic tips @JulianaPayson.

Article source: Backlinks In Social Media: Wasted Efforts Or Rank-Worthy Tactics?

So you want to connect with your customers? You want an online presence, a buzzing hub of excitement enlightening your site stats with visits from the world over. And social networks with their finely honed usability and fluffy exterior edges seem like the perfect way to do it.

You already use Facebook, and you’ve dabbled in Twitter but you want to take it a step further. You’ve had a look at your favourite famous brands and fans simply flock to comment on any content that appears with the adulation of an Apple fanboy. You too want that success for your business.

Online presence doesn’t have to be a blind jump into the abyss, an all or nothing overnight affair in which you can make or break your business.

You have started a Facebook group, it has been 48 hours and you only have 13 likes? Don’t panic…yet.

Businesses are Run by Humans

Connecting with your customers is not just for multinational or even national corporations. Establishing a brand identity online is about creating quality content and engaging with your customers. If you start a Twitter page and only update once a month then no-one will follow you. You are providing no value to you customers.

Churning out link after link, generated from auto-posting applications with no interaction, is also an online faux pax. Why? Because it’s obviously not human, natural, or organic in any sense of the word.

What do you think?

It is especially important to create a sense of inclusion in online activity, whichever way you plan on approaching social media. For small businesses this may include direct interaction with your customers, a successful version of this which never fails to amaze me is the Brewdog Facebook page which employs the tactic of asking questions to their followers.

Questioning is a form of interaction that includes a call to action and is very successful.

Consider the following example:

What is your favourite cheese?

If this pops up on your timeline, you are most likely already thinking of cheese before your fingers hit the keyboard. You have been asked a question and now that you have formulated your answer you are ready to reply.

Customers can be Fiercely Loyal

The brand is asking you a question, unless the business is using a specific person as their point of contract, you assume that you are answering to the business as a whole. The business wants to know what you think. They must value what you have to say. Why wouldn’t they value what they have to say, you are very clever, you have bought their product after all.

Compare and Share

Through asking a question you are bound to gain a multitude of replies. Once you have secured a few replies then you are much more likely to instigate a conversation between your audience. You can have a whole group of people joining in the conversation about something related to your product and once you have put in the initial work you can see the conversation grow organically.

In the structure of Facebook this is a valuable tool, as comments written will often be visible by the commenter’s friends even though they themselves do not follow your business page.

Please Enter Your ZIP Code

People don’t like entering their details online. There is a stigma (deservedly) attached to putting your details into every asterixed box on the net. This is why social networking sites have an edge when it comes to social engagement and organic growth on Facebook. A profile is already an established and trusted portal for a Facebook user, with no need to enter further details there are no barriers to overcome.

Utilising these methods can have a real effect on your business; you should not underestimate the power of social networks, or more importantly the people using them. It turns out, the customer is always right.

Dan Izzard writes for Strategy Internet Marketing, who can increase your website sales through conversion rate optimisation and improve your search engine ranking with pay on results SEO.

Image att: Sean MacEntee

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