Many online marketers try starting a Facebook Ad campaign once and to their standards fail, leading to never exploring Facebook advertising again. I’ve had many online marketers tell me that the blame rests completely on Facebook, and that it’s just not a great place to advertise online. Is it really Facebook’s fault or is it the online marketer who can’t find a way to make his/her ads work?

A little bit of both I think. See… some brands just won’t do well on Facebook regardless of the effort you put in. Some brands cover boring topics, and boring topics tend to not do so well on Facebook. Especially with Facebook advertising.

Still yet, many brands don’t fall into this “boring category” and yet their online marketing managers still find a way to fail. Why? Well instead of telling you why they fail on Facebook, I’m going to put a more positive spin on things and tell you the top 5 tricks for making your Facebook Ad campaign work!

1. Don’t Do In-Stream Ads

Facebook Ad manager gives you 2 options for advertising. 1) normal ads that show up in the user’s right-hand sidebar just outside of the stream and 2) in-stream ads that show up in the user’s actual stream. The latter just creates anger and hatred! You may get a little bit of performance out of it, but the backlash and bad PR will far outweigh any revenue you generate. Not to mention burn a giant hole in your pocket!

2. Setup Pay-Per-Like

I personally am a fan of setting up my ads as Pay-per-like instead of the traditional PPC or CPM types. I recommend building up your Facebook Page likes through your ads and then go to work on monetizing those who are already Likes. In other words, get the users permission to market to them first. Market later.

3. Target Specific Topics and Pages

The Facebook Ad manager allows you to specify topics and even better, specific Facebook Pages to target to. I highly recommend this as it helps you micro-target and get a much higher click-through rate. Not to mention a much lower CPC.

4. Post 2-3 To Page Per Day

In order to get the most out of your new Facebook Ads you’ve got to keep your Facebook page fresh. 1 post per day is to your page is too few, and 4 posts per day is too many. 2-3 is that sweet spot that works for most successful Facebook campaigns.

5. Post Visual Content

Don’t just publish words and links. Facebook users don’t respond too well to just words and links. You’ve got to leverage visual content i.e Photos, Videos, Memes, Infographics etc. Remember, your ad shows your latest status update so make each update count! Quick SEO tip: there’s a dual benefit here. Agency Platform helped me figure this little trick out. Using your Facebook Analytics you can see which visual content got the most engagement. Use that same visual content as link bait to improve your SEO Link building campaign.

The more obvious tip that I cannot forget to mention here is don’t spam! All people hate spam, but especially Facebook users. They really hate being spammed and rarely do they tolerate it. Make sure you are posting content that is relevant and highly engaging. To back that up, make sure your brand is legitimate and that you take any and all efforts to improve your product or service offering. I shouldn’t have to mention this last tip, but it always amazes me how many Affiliates and Lead Gen aggregators are trying to make Facebook Ads work. Ridiculous! Anyhow… good luck in your Facebook Ad efforts. Hope it treats you well!

This article was contributed by Nicole. She has been blogging about social media marketing for years.

Established Bloggers with 2K+ followers on Google+

Are you a blogger who uses Google+ more than Facebook? Do you have more than 2,000 followers on the platform? If so, Reputation Changer wants to talk with you.

Experienced Guest Bloggers

Organic Media Group is an American company which provides guest blog content for their clients. They need guest bloggers who have experience and are willing to work from home.

Freelance Tech Blogger

Are you always keeping tabs on major tech developments related to groups such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, etc.? If you can write with a UK audience in mind, this online gig will suit you.

Technology Freelance Writer

The Chicago Dispatcher, a monthly publication, needs a freelance writer to cover mobile booking app news. The required hours are dependent on monthly demand, and they want someone with a journalism degree or professional writing experience.

Freelance Copywriter

This copywriting position is open to freelancers in the Central New Jersey area. While the gig is fully remote, there might be a need for on site meetings from time to time.

Every month as Webmasters we ask ourselves what we can do to get more traffic and success with our SEO efforts. Because things seem to change so much in SEO we are forced to constantly change, innovate, and adapt. You could make an argument that this is what makes SEO so enjoyable. It’s challenging and new challenges are always arising.

Over the past year there have been almost countless updates to Google’s algorithm, countless changes to search results across several major search engines, and talk of even more countless changes and updates looming around every corner. So join me if you will, on a simple/common sense high-level overview of what to do and what not to do in your SEO efforts throughout this year 2013. First let’s take a look at the “Do’s.”

1. More Guest Posting

Guest posting, if done properly, will be a strategy that you will reap success from throughout this year and next. As long as the content is top-notch and you are focusing on getting published on high quality, high-moderated blogs.

2. Emphasis on Authorship Markup

I’m not just talking about setting up Authorship Markup in your code for rich snippets, but also focusing on building up author Google+ profiles.

3. HTML5 Integration

Converting your sites to HTML5 will be huge because of the ability to leverage new tags for SEO like the tag or the tag. HTML5 integration = better communication to search engines on content and types of content.

4. Mobile Mobile Mobile!

Optimizing your site for mobile will be huge as well. But more importantly, not creating a separate mobile site but creating a responsive design that’s the same site just adjusted to work with mobile phones and tablets.

5. Social Media Pushes

Pushing branding efforts in Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will continue to be a major area of success for SEO. The people who have figured this out are increasing their organic search traffic hand over fist each month.

Now that you know what to focus on, let’s take a look at the “Don’ts.”

1. Low Quality Guest Posting

There’s really no difference in low quality guest posts from article submission sites. Which is why you must stay away from this. High quality only!

2. Article Submissions

This is just old-school and Google has gotten so good at evaluating these types of links. You may think they’re working now, but the end is near!

3. Buying Links

You’ll always hear a few SEOs touting their link buying strategies and how they still work when executed properly. Even more however, you hear of webmasters who’ve been penalized by Google because of paid links. It’s your choice.

4. Link Building Too Fast

Slow and steady wins the race. Google and Bing are going to reward patient SEOs. Why? Because big brands are patient. They’re around forever so they have to be patient. It’s the affiliates who aren’t patient and that’s who Google is trying to eliminate.

5. Low Quality Content and Blogging

Always be on the lookout for Panda! One of the biggest don’ts of the year is publishing poor quality content in the form of pages or posts on your site.

Sometimes I find it better to structure a brainstorming or thought process not necessarily around “what works” but more around “what’s important.” This simple separation will help you prioritize better in your SEO efforts and truly understand where you should be putting your time, money and effort.

For example, would an aggressive press release strategy where you’re publishing multiple press releases each month work? Sure it would. The questions you should be asking yourself however are a) would the results be big enough compared to other things I could be focusing on and b) knowing how Google likes to improve things on their end, would the results be long-term? Looking at SEO strategies for SEO’s and SEO services in this light will help you come up with a solid DO and DON’T list like the one above.

This article was contributed by Nicole. She has been writing about SEO and link building for years.

When 2013 was just kicking off, pundits and aficionados were dubbing it as ‘year of the mobile’. As much as we like to get snarky with the headline catching proclamations, they might actually have been onto something. Taking a look at the numbers between 2010 and 2013, we indeed see that mobile devices’ share of global internet traffic has jumped from 2% to 14%. Research is indicating also that this trend is only gaining steam. Whether in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa or Scandinavia, there is now an unprecedented amount of smartphone and tablet owners along with unprecedented accessibility to Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

WWW dot Darwinism

So the world is in the process of ‘going mobile’. Does this then have any implications for web content or web design? Do sites now need to perform and look differently? The short answer is, yes they do. In fact, many websites are actually losing traffic because they’re not adapting to the changing reality of how they’re accessed. In industry jargon, they’re not ‘optimized-for-mobile’.

How is this so? What do sites have to do to keep up with the changing world around them?

“Design is about how a product is used” – Steve Jobs

To answer the above, we need to understand that there are a few issues that need to be addressed when designing a mobile-friendly site. First off, many desktop sites contain a wealth of multimedia and javascript components, which a desktop machine – with its relatively high processing power – has no problem displaying smoothly. Mobile devices though, due to their relatively limited processing power, usually can’t handle them properly. These components then have to be used in a site sparingly.

Second, because of the small screen sizes of smartphones (between 4 and 5 inches in size on the average), fonts which are normally suitable for a desktop monitor (around 19 inches in size) usually appear on them very small. Which brings me to my third point: On mobile devices, there’s only room for viewing objects vertically. There’s no room for positioning objects side by side (assuming they’re sized large enough for the human eye to behold), whereas on desktop sites, due to the large viewing space, components can be placed side by side. On a smartphone, such a layout would require the user to zoom out and in and scroll left and right (besides up and down) for accessing content (see screenshot).

In short, a desktop site on a mobile device can translate into a frustrating experience for a user, leading to his abandonment of a site. For site owners this can be a big deal.

The Everyman’s Solution

How then do we remedy this situation? How does a site owner transform his site from a mobile Syria into a mobile Singapore? If you’re a web professional who doesn’t mind the toil (superfluous?), there are a number of effective ways to do so. The thing is, these solutions require time and expertise to implement, or at least the funds to pay someone to implement, which renders them inappropriate for the layman, or even for the designer who just wants to take care of business quickly.

Fortunately, for time pressured, code-challenged, frugal folks, a solution is available in the form of one of the many online platforms for building a mobile website. Such platforms allow you to create an alternate mobile version of your site, which is served dynamically in as optimized-for-mobile HTML to mobile visitors. Let’s have a quick look at what I mean, and you’ll see how you can create a mobile version of your site easily.

Getting Mobilized

What an online conversion tool does is create an alternate version of your site, which is served to visitors identified as browsing on smartphones or tablets. But first we need to build our site’s mobile version. To get started, we navigate to one of the abovementioned online site builders (in our case GinWiz.com), input our site’s URL and presto! a mobile version of it is created in a matter of seconds. In our case we used dunkindonuts.com (who doesn’t love donuts?).

We’re also able to customize the look and feel of our site and can add unique mobile features too, such as the click-to-call, click-to-email buttons.

Once optimized for mobile, a site will look and behave differently than it would just being left in its desktop format. For instance here’s a look at the desktop version of the popular site Ask on a mobile device:

In order to properly view content a user would need to zoom in and then scroll in 4 directions. After optimization for mobile the picture is a bit different:

The content is within viewing range, is laid out from top to bottom.

How do smartphone-using visitors actually access a mobile site?

To make sure your mobile device-using visitors actually reach and enjoy your mobile site, all you’d need to do is insert a line of javascript in your ‘head’ tag on your regular site’s homepage. Once that’s inserted, any visitor to your site using a mobile device will be automatically redirected to your mobile site.

Summary

To sum up, there are more web surfers using mobile devices today than ever before and they don’t have much patience for sites that aren’t optimized for their devices. If you own a website or are a designer, a great way to cater to them (in addition to the standard professional ways) and make sure they have an optimal browsing experience when visiting your site, is to use an online site builder.

About the Author
This article was written by Shimon of GinWiz, a tool which allows you convert and optimize your website for any mobile device.

Lead Image via Bruce Clay

But While Tumblr investors were certainly happy for their payday and the service itself was in desperate need of cash to keep operating, Tumblr users greeted the announcement with significantly less enthusiasm.

But amidst the criticism and anti-Yahoo! jokes was a possible warning sign for Tumblr, namely reports that WordPress.com, the hosted service based on WordPress and operated by Automattic, had seen a skyrocketing level of Tumblr posts being imported to them.

But is WordPress, in particular WordPress.com, really the right choice for angry Tumblr users? The answer isn’t clear. Because, even if it is the best possible alternative, there are still many reasons why Tumblr users won’t be happy on WordPress and may find it a bad fit.

But to decide if it’s really the go-to destination for Tumblr users, we have to look at why it may be a good fit and, more importantly, why it may not.

Why WordPress Is a Natural Fit

On the surface, WordPress is the natural choice for any former Tumblr user who wants to move on.

Tumblr is, at its core, a blogging/publishing platform and WordPress is by far the most popular platform out there (in particular for the largest sites). It’s well-known, well-supported and has proved its mettle time and again on a variety of sites, including everything from blogs, static sites to Twitter-like interfaces.

Furthermore, WordPress has been working hard to introduce Tumblr-like functionality into its core. The introduction of post formats in the WordPress core enabled the creation of Tumblr-like blogs with different types of posts, each that had their own style. Currently, there are many themes, including ones available for free on WordPress.com, that provide great Tumblr-like functionality.

Finally, WordPress offers a very simple importation process and, if you have a self-hosted installation, it’s even trivial to get your permalinks to sync up with your new site, prevent 404 errors (http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-properly-move-your-blog-from-tumblr-to-wordpress/). In short, it’s likely one of the smoothest transitions you can make, especially if you own a domain for your site.

When it’s all said and done, WordPress looks pretty appealing for any disgruntled Tumblr users. WordPress is popular, well-known, well-supported and, easy to move to and, in many ways, very Tumlr-like. What’s not for a Tumblr user to love?

Sadly, there are a few potential snags.

Challenges for Tumblr Users

One of the first hurdles new WordPress converts will likely face is cost. Tumblr users, for example, can alter a theme’s code, add a domain and do a slew of other customizations for free. With WordPress, you either need to secure a self-hosted installation, which in and of itself will cost between $40 and $120 per year depending on where you host your site, or pay WordPress.com a fee for the privilege if you prefer to go that route.

As great as WordPress.com’s free features are, if you use many of the more advanced features from Tumblr, you’ll likely have to pull out your wallet.

However, the biggest challenges Tumblr users will face are less technical or financial and more cultural.

The WordPress community is very different from Tumblr’s. WordPress, including WordPress.com, started life as a straightforward blogging platform and spent much of its life modifying itself to be more akin to a traditional content management system, capable of running a variety of sites.

The features that have aimed to make it more Tumblr-like (or even Twitter-like) are much more recent. In fact, it was just in 2010 that WordPress.com added “Like” and “Reblog” features to its service, seemingly yesterday for a community that goes as far back as WordPress’.

So while those tools are there and you can use them, their presence isn’t as core to WordPress.com’s community as they are to Tumblr’s, which grew up with those features. In fact, it’s safe to say that, despite attempts to make WordPress.com more interconnected, it’s still more of a blog hosting service than it is a network.

In short, don’t expect to see a quite as much interconnectedness between blogs and don’t expect Tumblr’s culture to translate perfectly to WordPress. While Gifs and memes can be found on WordPress blogs (it’s worth noting the original cat meme site runs on WordPress), they aren’t as prevalent and the WordPress community simply isn’t as young and is largely focused on different things.

In short, WordPress is a different platform with a different community that’s been built around it. While you can likely build a clone of your Tumblr pretty easily using WordPress, you can’t clone the community that’s built up around your site on Tumblr.

Since no blog, Tumblr or site in general is an island unto itself, this can have a big impact on how successful and happy you are with your work.

Conclusions

So is WordPress right for your Tumblr blog? It really depends.

If you run the kind of Tumblr that would work well on WordPress and with WordPress’ community, such as a photography blog or a more traditional text blog, then it likely will make the jump well. It’s even better if your site has a decent audience independent of Tumblr’s and have your own domain name so you can take that audience with you.

Still, for most Tumblr users, the best move is likely to stay put. Rather than rushing to jump ship and charge into a different community that may not be right for your site, it’s probably wiser to not be hasty and weigh your options, including giving Yahoo! a chance.

After all, there haven’t been any changes yet and Yahoo! seems to be taking great strides to keep Tumblr independent. It could wind up that Tumblr is Yahoo!’s YouTube, a major purchase that is kept independent and largely untouched.

But despite that, there are still uncertain times ahead and Tumblr users would be wise to keep a lookout for alternative. It may be early to import your posts to WordPress, but it’s nice to know that you can…

There is not enough time to discuss all the different ways that businesses can use SEO services and various SEO tools. We could spend days talking about the best way to build communities around your business, creating keywords, keyword research, etc.

There are many building blocks in the SEO process and one of the ways to obtain successful SEO is to know how to use the building blocks. Blogging is a great method of SEO that helps with creating backlinks, helps strengthen your community, and allows businesses to connect through their customers.

This blog is going to help you with successful blogging for your business.

Interesting Blogs

Now, just like any other form of writing, when you are writing a blog for your company, you want the content to be interesting and informative. People use blogs to gain information and sometimes look for new ways to apply the information they have learned. But how can you tell if your blog is interesting? Well, you are going to want to ask some questions as a start.

Now when we put ask questions, we are not really referring to asking personal questions to yourself, we are talking about the blog itself asking questions. What questions are your blogs going to answer? Questions show the path to purpose, people are looking for information, but to what questions?

Your best bet is going to be to write out a list of questions on your topic that you think your blog is going to answer. Obviously you are not going to use every question you come up with because well, you want to keep it somewhat short. But writing out the questions is allowing your brain to exercise and get the creative blog juices flowing.

Once you have written down all those questions, you are going to narrow your list down to a mere question or two.

Researching For Blogs

Now most people may imagine blogs as a way to share all the knowledge you may already know on a topic. Wrong. Blogs are focused around questions and in order to answer questions, you need to do some research. People turned to blogs because it is easier than having to travel to multiple sources to get answers or an understanding of their question.

So you want to spend time on research for your blog to be successful. SEO online always preaches about good content in SEO, so research is going to help make your blog content valuable.

Creating A Cycle

Now the real trick to blogging is combining everything we have discussed so far and turning it into a cycle. Writing a blog is a process, especially if you want valuable information through your blog. When you started your blog, you started by asking questions and narrowing those questions down.   Once you narrowed those questions down, you begin to research the answers. Well, once you start researching, you are going to stumble across more questions that your blog could answer. Don’t write these questions off, throw them in the pattern until you have a solid blog.

Robert has been researching the best SEO tools for the past 5 years in an effort to educate businesses about the benefit of SEO services, and how they can help businesses develop into Internet Marketing.

Consider these eight common mistakes that could derail your success if you ignore them.

Distractions

Distractions are one of the key points which can play a major role when working from home. If you are married and working from home, with your spouse and kids doing what they do, then you are in for a real “treat”. With all the noise and interruptions, distraction is always around the corner.

Find a quiet space for your office, keep the door locked, and most importantly, set limits.

Try to convey to your family the importance of having an environment free from distractions while you are working. If you can not do this, telecommuting might not be for you.

Increased workload

Sometimes, partners or families of telecommuters forget the fact they are working and are loaded with lots of additional chores. Being present at home does not mean you are available anytime for laundry, errands or supervising and monitoring your children’s activities.

At the same time, employers might think that there is more time available for their employees and that telecommuters are able to take on more work. You have to be aware of these two extremes, and be ready to juggle.

Out of sight, out of mind

When you’re not interacting with people in the office, you tend to be overlooked. Your presence in the workplace helps remind your boss of your value to the company.

When you telecommute, you have to work a little harder in maintaining communication with colleagues (chat, video or phone calls).

Participating in group projects whenever possible is good.

Isolation

Do not underestimate the value of social interaction, especially if you are an extrovert.

Working from home can be ideal for introverts who are able to concentrate better when they are alone, but many people find themselves to be in a state of better motivation and concentration in the company of others.

The lack of routine

Before you start working from home, set up a planned routine: Grab a cup of coffee before sitting at your desk, check your email, schedule meetings and lunch breaks at the same time every day, etc.

Establish a routine that is similar to the one you had in the office and use a timer if necessary to keep you focused on your tasks.

Data security

This is one aspect that can turn out to be a major worry at times. You do not have servers at home to store your data like you do at your workplace. Your PC system at home might not be that powerful as the one that you use at your office. Beware of your tasks, projects and team work all the time, and keep your the antivirus updated. Better yet, Internet security applications are widely preferred over antivirus software.

Use passwords to access the system across all your devices, and protect key folders that contain important information.

Limited equipment

Employees who work from home use their own computers, printers, phones, fax, routers, and other electronic devices. Try to have some of the best working tools that allow you to telecommute with comfort, safety and efficiency.

Inability to separate work and family

As with the distractions and household responsibilities, the line between work and family life can be blurred when telecommuters are performing tasks at night and weekends.

Just imagine this scenario: your family is waiting for you to plan a picnic and then you suddenly receive an email. You think, “I will answer this email quickly and be back”. Some time later, you realize that you have lost a couple of hours of your weekend.

Try to keep your work tasks within your regular working hours to prevent any kind of exhaustion that may come due to these blurred lines.

About the Author
Clement Almeida is the managing editor at Bloggercent. He also has an interest in watching movies, proven by the large number of movies in his library. An active person, he has taken a new step towards blogging and hopes to use his skills in this venture.

Image credit: Phil Toselli

Social Media Writer

This one is for beginning writers based in San Jose, CA. A company needs an enthusiastic individual to work on their social media and blogging profiles. College students are welcome to apply.

Essay Editor

Have you always wanted to help people learn how to write properly? If you believe in starting them young, this editing gig will match your passion. College Right is looking for essay editors, and you might be a perfect fit!

Freelance Editor for French Slang Book

Ulysses Publishing is looking for an editor to edit the raw manuscript and to make sure the text conforms to the style, tone and general organization as established by the in-house editor. An editor who is fluent in French is required.

Freelance Writer

The Rockefeller Foundation needs a freelance writer who can occasionally meet in New York. This is your chance to work for such a big name!

Digital Marketing Blogger

Online marketing, SEO, content marketing, and social media – if you know about these things, then you might be blogger that Addictivity is looking for. This is a telecommute position.

That’s a tad morbid, isn’t it? Well, it’s no secret that everybody born on this earth has to die one day. Nobody is eternal and death doesn’t really send invitations before it takes one away. Taking into consideration that this is the 21st century and majority of the people out there are active members of at least one of the top social media networks, have you ever wondered what the status of your social networking profiles will be when you leave the world? Will they be deactivated or deleted? If so, then how? Let’s have a look.

The Inactive Account Manager – Google

Google recently introduced the so-called inactive account manager which allows users to manage the way their account is to function after their death. There are three options to choose from.

You can set a Timeout period, i.e. a time slot after which your account can be treated as inactive. The Inactive Account Manager will alert you via SMS or email before this timeout period ends, so that you can reset it (as long as you’re alive!).

Another good option is to setup trusted contacts. These trusted ones will be made aware when you stop using your Google account. You also have the choice of sharing your data with them if you wish to do so.

You can also request Google to delete your account but that would be an instantaneous procedure.

Turn your Facebook page into a memorial

If an active member of Facebook dies, his/her friends and relatives have 2 options to choose from for them to decide upon what is to be done with the profile page after his/her demise. One, they could completely erase the profile. Two, they can turn it into a sort of tribute page where friends can keep leaving messages.

For the first option, you must fill in this form and also provide proof of death of that person. To make the profile of the deceased as a tribute page, fill this other form and provide evidence of death.

The “Tribute Page” is similar to an active account in that it allows friends of the deceased to leave messages, see the published photos or interact with past releases. But it has certain limitations, such as non-appearance of the profile in public searches, photo tags, events or friend suggestions.

Twitter Account Closure

In the case of Twitter, you have no options to create a “tribute profile”. In fact they have got no form to deal with such issues. The only options are to leave the account as it is, or request closure. For closing the account, a friend or family member must follow the instructions put up on this page here and submit certain documentation by mail or fax, including the certificate of death and personal identification.

Linkedin – Verification of Death

For LinkedIn, your surviving relatives or friends would have to submit a verification of death form by signing a document called “Verification of Death”. It’s in this form here.  This form is not put up anywhere on the linkedin website, but a third-party tool called Docusign has been created for this. You will have to fill in details like – Deceased Name, his/her email address, date of death, your relation with the decease and other such related questions.

So these are the ways to close the social accounts of your loved ones in case of their death. And, if you want to cover your behind in case your death, you might want to let your closest friends or family members know about these things, too.

About the Author: Clement Almeida is the managing editor at http://www.bloggercent.com. He also has an interest in watching movies, proven by the large number of movies in his library. An active person, he has taken a new step towards blogging and hopes to use his skills in this venture.

[Image via Abode of Chaos]

Traditional publishing has long maintained a “church and state” separation between the editorial and advertising departments. Meanwhile, from the reader’s point of view, the two have always intermingled. The daily news appears alongside ads for fashion brands, department stores, and household services. We can almost certainly credit the the abundance of local car dealership advertisers for the auto section in local newspapers. The line has always been blurry.

So why does today’s merging of online content and commerce cause hesitation and uncertainty, especially in consumer-oriented content such as fashion, electronics, or motorcycles? It shouldn’t. The majority of bloggers do not claim to be journalists in the traditional sense of the word. Their role is closer to that of columnists; they seek to influence their enthusiast audiences through the expression of their opinions. Therefore an advertiser, sponsor, or merchant isn’t paying for coverage, but for access to a blogger’s audience.

An attentive audience at that, since blogs have become the most trusted source of information. They have replaced traditional publishers in the areas of influence and ability to drive direct purchases. A March 2013 report published by Technorati showed that blogs are more likely to influence consumer purchase behavior than any other independent online media, including Twitter, Facebook and even online magazines.

Methods of blog monetization

We know audiences trust in blogs and welcome product reviews and recommendations. The question is, what’s the most efficient way to monetize the value of your content? There are numerous options, such as:

• Using contextual advertising (with a service like Google AdSense) through automatically generated display ads on your website. Revenue is earned from valid clicks or impressions.
• Selling paid banners, where you sell ad space directly to businesses and brands
• Signing up for affiliate marketing programs, in which a merchants pay commissions on purchases clicked through from a blogger’s site
• Direct sales through e-commerce stores, memberships and consulting services

However, some of these online advertising approaches are neither sensible nor effective today. For all but the largest blogs, developing and selling individual ad units is not a realistic option. While affiliate marketing can be profitable, it requires a great deal of time and effort to research each advertiser, apply for their program, and then create all of the affiliated links in past and future posts. At the same time, consumers have become increasingly tired of intrusive, distracting display ads. Banners and pop-up ads have become white noise, now generating a CTR of just 0.09%.

But don’t panic – a smarter way is emerging. Native monetization is a new approach to advertising that seamlessly integrates promoted brands or products into the fabric of a site itself. This includes automated link monetization services, which turn the links (and, optionally, keywords) within your blog posts into affiliated links. When readers click and buy, the link monetization technology ensures your site gets credit for the referral and you earn revenue.

With link monetization, readers are able to cut through the clutter of web searches and advertising to find the products they want – from the bloggers they’ve come to trust. While merchants are building a more targeted base of customers, bloggers make money from the stuff they are passionate about without the stress and hassle of traditional affiliate marketing. Everybody wins and the blurring of content and commerce is truly not an issue.

Don’t forget to disclose

In October 2009, the FTC determined that any blogger who receives payment or accepts gifts for a post is considered to be providing an “endorsement.” The ruling also states that “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

As a blogger, you’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into building a trustworthy blog and cultivating loyal followers. Your audience views you as an expert and trusts your recommendations.  Don’t risk that trust by failing to disclose your affiliate relationships in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. A simple badge linking to a disclosure page or a mention in your “About” section can satisfy the requirement. Just make sure readers know you get paid when they click and buy. Don’t be timid; many readers love to help out their favorite bloggers and actively choose to make purchases via their links if they know the credit goes where credit is due.

Planning your content to maximize blog monetization

How do you use link monetization to deliver “curated” advice that builds your authority and your bank account? Be authentic – focus on the stuff you’re truly passionate about and time coverage according to your audience’s interests. Follow trade publications, sites, associations and events to build your expertise and give your audience previews and reviews that will help them feel “in-the-know.”  Take advantage of the year’s shopping-related holidays and triggers, like graduation and sports seasons.

Monetization doesn’t have to be a dirty word for bloggers!

After all, the content of your blog is valuable to your audience. The key to generating revenue without degrading your editorial integrity is tapping into link monetization to automatically earn money doing exactly what you do best — sharing your honest opinions and insights with your audience.

For more information, download the “Blogger’s Guide to Earning More” – a handy reference to help build your brand, bond with your audience and build your business.

OLIVER DEIGHTON is Vice President of Marketing at VigLink, a technology company helping publishers earn from the content they create and the commerce they drive. Prior to joining VigLink, Oliver spent nine years at Google where he was most recently a Product Marketing Manager leading key projects across a broad range of B2B and B2C product areas including AdWords, the Google Display Network, Google Play and Google+. Prior to Google, he held marketing and sales positions with MP3.com and eMusic. Oliver graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology.

Image via 401(k) 2013 and bizbuzzmedia

1. Posts

Posts app

Works with: WordPress, Blogger
Price: Used to be $9.99, but now it’s free!
Simply put, Posts is the best blogging client for iPad. It’s got the kind of slick interface that Apple itself could have made, its lovely design features thumbnails to make managing your blog more visual, it offers both WYSIWYG and HTML editing, and you can even use it to manage multiple blogs. You can moderate comments from right inside the app, and there’s a robust offline blogging mode, too. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more full-featured, easy-to-use, beautiful blogging app anywhere. I wouldn’t mind seeing support for more blogging software, but for what you get, at zero cost… Posts can’t be beat.

2. Blogsy

Blogsy app

Works with: WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, TypePad, MovableType, Drupal, Joomla, SquareSpace, MetaWeblog, IBM Connections
Price: $4.99
The best thing about Blogsy is that it’s creators are updating it and adding new features constantly. One of the very first iPad blogging clients to be made available, I checked Blogsy out a few years ago and wasn’t very impressed. But thanks to the developer’s commitment to never stop improving it, it’s become a real powerhouse of productivity. It interacts seamlessly with your most-used social networking services like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, and more (but strangely, no Twitter). And did you see that list of blog software it’s compatible with?

3. Poster

Poster app

Works with: WordPress
Price: $2.99
Poster is iPad blogging done right. It has a clean, minimal interface, and it has all kinds of bells and whistles that Apple fans will love. At first glance, Poster looks like a “quick and simple” blog editor, but don’t underestimate it. It can manage up to nine different blogs, it smartly integrates with Dropbox, it supports multiple languages, and it lets you create articles with custom post types. Perhaps Poster‘s real specialty is allowing you to create new blog posts using selected text, images, and more from other apps. Virtually anywhere you see a picture, you can select it and switch to Poster to create a post about it. See a quote you like in Mail or Safari? Copy it and open Poster, and you’ll have yourself a new post with that text. Poster is power and beauty in one package.

4. Prose

Prose app

Works with: WordPress, Blogger
Price: $2.99
Another in the vein of Posts (see #1), Prose is a utilitarian blog editor that gets the job done but doesn’t do anything terribly unique. Still, iTunes users have almost unanimously positive things to say about it. You can edit in WYSIWYG or HTML modes, manage multiple blogs, it has an offline mode, and plays nice with your social networks. One nice feature is how it creates neat visual thumbnail previews of your posts and media.

5. BlogPress

BlogPress app

Works with: WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, MovableType, TypePad, LiveJournal, Windows Live Spaces, Joomla, Drupal, SquareSpace
Price: $2.99
It may not be much to look at, but BlogPress has a lot to offer under the hood. It handles all the usual stuff like text, photos, and vids with ease, but it also offers some thoughtful extra features that you might not find elsewhere. It can automatically generate geo-location tags and maps, for example, and it supports the MetaWeblog API. On the other hand… It always gives me a little pause when an app’s description or website is filled with typos and bad grammar; it usually means that either the app is a quick hack job, or that the developer is so focused on programming that small, user-friendly details get overlooked. I fear the latter could be the case with BlogPress, but it’s still one to keep an eye on thanks to all its powerful options.

Also worth noting: all of the major blogging platforms have their own proprietary apps, many of which are quite good. They include WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Xanga, and more.

About the Author
Benjamin Weeks is an Internet entrepreneur and freelance blogger with discerning tastes. He prefers to wear Izod, he gets his 4G access through Clear Internet Deals, and he cried the day that Saturn cars went out of business.

Optimize Your Site Through A/B Testing

A/B Testing allows you to discover what isn’t working with your current website strategy, giving you the necessary knowledge to fix it. This can be achieved in numerous ways, both with your online marketing and offline marketing such as emails. No truer, however, is this for call to actions, which should elicit a response from the visitor.

You see, visitors are very critical in this over-saturated web, and something that doesn’t meet their criteria will get tossed to the site faster than they can click out of the website. Always test your call to actions in determining what is resonating with your audience. You might find the slightest change in verbiage makes a huge impact in getting the sale by garnering the necessary response in the visitor.

Test Regularly

If you want to see significant results, they aren’t going to happen overnight. The only way to ensure your marketing is on the path to success is to test your design elements regularly. The more you test, the more likely you are to reach that positive result. Make sure you test once you launch the site as well. You want to come in as early as possible, as this ensures you don’t lose those pivotal conversions from not testing.

How Long Should I Test?

There’s no clear-cut answer to this question, only an estimate based on your site’s volume of visitors. The higher the volume of visitors means you should test until you receive 70 conversions for one variant. Conversely, if you have a low-volume store with high-value items, it’s best to aim for 20 conversions.

Implementing SEO on Your Site

Search Engine Optimization ensures your website is seen by your targeted audience much easier. Many businesses utilize it as part of their marketing strategy to ensure they’re getting the traffic they need. When used in combination with A/B testing, search engine optimization can reap very real rewards for your business. Let’s take a closer look at some ways this is achievable.

Do I Need an SEO Expert?

Many business owners believe there is some sort of magic behind the creation of SEO, and only experts can get them to first page on Google. In all actuality, SEO is pretty easy to handle once you understand the basic components. It doesn’t require technical training or a highly skilled individual to do it. Simply devote an hour or two at it a month, and you’ll see incremental changes in traffic.

You Don’t Have to Spend a Fortune on Good SEO

Luckily, the basic workings of SEO are the same such that it doesn’t require a huge cash investment when another provider is willing to do the same work for a smaller fee. Whether you spend double the amount won’t matter because the SEO will work the same.

A Few Search Engines Will Do The Trick

You need not be listed in every search engine possible to receive the amount of traffic you’re looking for. There are roughly five hundred search engines and yet Google has 70% of clients in the wide world. Yahoo and Bing follow after, but don’t stress about showing up in all the rest as they most likely won’t produce the results you’re looking for.

Nothing is Guaranteed

There’s no clear path to getting the results you’re looking for with SEO, which is why you should be cautious of agencies that are trying to get you to the first spot on Google. It’s a fine mixture of having the right keywords and key phrases so that search engines latch onto your site. Through careful optimization over the long term, you’re on the path towards mastering the art of search engine optimization and reaping rewards for your business.

Do you implement these techniques into your Internet marketing? How has A/B testing or the use of Search Engine Optimization worked for your business? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author

Ruben Corbo is a freelancer writer who writes about several different topics in the field of internet marketing, gaming, art, and music. For more information about topics relating to multivariate testing or anything that will help you convert your high traffic into online sales, go to http://www.Maxymiser.com/.

Image via Rushtips

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Blog Article and Website Content Writer

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Here’s your chance to write for popular site Lifehack! If you do in-depth research and feel comfortable coming up with content for video, you’ll have the time of your life.

In Internet marketing, organic traffic is web traffic that comes from listings that aren’t paid for. These listings can include guides, search engines like Google or Bing and directories. Typically, when you want to make money blogging, search engines are the best source of organic traffic. Below are 6 smart ways to drive organic traffic to your blog or website.

#1 – Deliver Quality Content

One of the easiest ways in internet marketing to drive organic traffic is to deliver quality content to your readers. This is not only more appealing to visitors but it also gives them a reason to explore your site further. In addition to quality writing, it’s also important to choose your keywords. It’s best to use the keywords in the first and last 100 words of the article. Take care not to stuff your page with keywords, however, as most search engines penalize that.

#2 – Search Engine Optimization

When it comes to SEO, there isn’t a definitive list of dos and don’ts because search engines are constantly evolving. Fortunately, there are a few key points to consider when you want to make money blogging. A great headline that includes your keyword is important, as are alternate text for images, outbound and inbound links and a concise permalink with no stop words (or, to, the, etc.). A keyword density of 1% to 2% is best and there are numerous SEO plugins you can use such as SEOPressor or WordPress SEO.

#3 – Build Natural Backlinks

Natural backlinks are another important way to drive organic traffic and make money blogging. In the internet marketing world, natural backlinks are links your blog receives on its own without help from the site owner. These links are generally from sites that enjoy the blog’s content. Obviously building natural links isn’t a simple task. It takes dedication, great content and constant promotion via social media and other platforms. While it may be time consuming, the payoff is definitely worth the effort.

#4 – Internal Linking

Another great way to boost organic traffic to your blog is to link to internal posts on your site. This helps search engine bots to find your site’s content faster and more efficiently, which in turn makes it easier to make money blogging. Most importantly, it allows your visitors to find the information they are looking for which reduces the bounce rate and increases page views. This task can be automated by using a variety of plugins that are available for internet marketing purposes. These plugins use an algorithm to figure out the best page on the site to link to, based on the subject of the post.

#5 – Exposure on Social Media

One of the many factors search engines use to decide page rank is social media authority. The more exposure your blog has on sites like Facebook or Twitter the higher your rank in the SERPS will be. In order to best utilize social media and make money blogging, it’s necessary to offer a variety of sharing options for your visitors. Social media plugins can help you choose the most appropriate sharing buttons for your page, which will be found alongside of your content. Since many social media sites have millions of users they are a gold mine when it comes to internet marketing so use them well.

#6 – Professional Looking (and SEO Friendly) Design

Whatever your CMS or blogging platform is, you will usually find dozens or even hundreds of templates or themes for your blog. While this might sound great, not all themes and templates are created equally; some are more internet marketing friendly and professional than others. You should use premium, SEO-ready templates whenever possible since their CSS and HTML codes have been validated, and they offer the correct use of H1, H2 and H3 tags.

It’s never been easier to make money blogging provided you follow the guidelines above and do your due diligence. If you are willing to put in the work, your blog will be making money in no time.

Thomas Alling is the owner the popular blog BloggerCodes.com – He writes about different ways to make money online and also write unbiased reviews of internet marketing services and business opportunities. The latest is a review of the Empower Network.

The key to having a successful blog is to have a plan. Just throwing up content every now and then isn’t going to find you the audience you want, and visitors to your blog certainly won’t return if you don’t give them a good enough reason to. The first way to ensure that they do come back is to make it easy for them to do so. Take a long, hard look at the design and layout of your blog, and be honest with yourself. Would you stick around if it belonged to somebody else? Also, consider how easy it is to find once people are on your site. Display the most recent posts in a sidebar and have “Blog” listed proudly within your navigation.

Now that you’ve got the easy part down, let’s take a look at five things you can do to completely destroy any chance of having a successful blog:

We Love You… Now Buy Our Stuff!

Repeat after me: Your blog is not for promotional purposes! Too many businesses try to use their blog as a way to promote their products and services rather than using it to share information that readers will share in return and keep coming back to the blog to see what else you have to offer. If you had a door-to-door salesman who came round to your house every day, no doubt he would start to get more than a little annoying after a while. The same can be said of blogs that are constantly trying to slip in promotional content. It gets really tedious and wreaks of desperation. If you’re great at something, it should come through the information and advice you present through your blog. You don’t need to come across all “Sell! Sell! Sell!” in order to make an impression.

Keywords over Great Words

By now it must be a universal rule that you should write your blog content from a place of honesty before going back over it to add any keywords or key phrases you feel are important to the post. Anyone with half an hours experience in the world of blogging will be able to sniff out a blatant attempt at search engine manipulation and from that point on you have lost a reader. It’s completely the wrong attitude to have. You should put the reader and their needs before anybody else’s. Do this and your blog will look more like a love letter to your readers, instead of a Valentine’s Day card to Google.

Thank You for Your Comments… Bye!

Ever read an article or blog post that was overwhelmingly brilliant, shockingly bad or has driven you to great vengeance and furious anger? 9 times out of ten you’re going to write a comment on that post, and you’re going to expect a response, especially if you were in complete disagreement with the writer. Imagine then, that after your reply, you never heard a peep out of that writer again. Not even an acknowledgement that you took the time out to respond.

If you want to guarantee that you lose readership, you should do exactly the same on your blog post. There has to be more of an agenda to your content than simply throwing it out into the world. Getting a good debate going and seeing that people are responding to your words is a great feeling, and should be what all blog posts aim for. If you’re just going to leave commenters hanging, they won’t be hanging around your blog ever again.

Most Recent Posts… 2011?!

A regularly updated blog is essential in today’s business world. You can almost guarantee that the majority of your competitors will be keeping their blog updated with fresh content every week or so, so you should do the same. It doesn’t look very good to potential clients and customers when they visit your blog and the last time you wrote something was August 2011, and you’re talking about something that was relevant or interesting back then but now is about as much use as a review of the iPhone 3.

The more you update your blog with engaging, fun and interesting content, the more traffic it will generate and it is far more likely that you will see a lot more interest in you, your products and your services. Just no videos of the team doing the Harlem Shake or a “hilarious” rendition of ‘Gangnam Style’. Nobody wants to see that.

Daley is a freelance writer who wants to help his fellow writers to get out there fully confident and armed with great writing. He can be found struggling with his own career at www.daleyjfrancis.com

However, this wasn’t the first time Tweetdeck made a major change that sent users scrambling for alternatives. In December of 2011, months after its purchase of the app, Twitter recoded the application entirely, renaming it “Tweetdeck by Twitter”, and stripped out many of the apps most popular features, including LinkedIn and Foursquare support.

Though the app was able to battle back some and win over some of the people who left it, there are many, even today, who still pine for the original Tweetdeck over any other version.

But this isn’t the first time in recent memory that important Web applications have been shuttered or drastically changed. In March, Google announced that its popular Google Reader service would be shutting down July 1st and, in April, Posterous announced it was closing in a mere 30 days.

These are just a few quick examples of a problem everyone who works online faces. The tools you love and use every day could he a case of “Here today, gone tomorrow,” and there isn’t much that you can do about it. Companies go out of business, crashes happen and unprofitable products get cut, it’s part of life online.

Still, it’s obvious that you need to be able to continue working and that creates a new set of problems, how do you continue working after after your tools have been taken away from you?

The answer is a combination of proper planning and, more importantly, building your own toolset.

Changing Tools Mid Strike

The Internet is probably the first time in human history that a person can have their tools taken away so permanently, so easily. Though carpenters might have a hammer break or lose their screwdriver, they could trivially find and purchase a very similar tool and continue on.

With the Internet, not only can your tools break and disappear, but they can do so for factors outside of your control and with no possibility of finding a perfect, or in some cases near-perfect, replacement. Even worse, these changes can happen with little to no warning, sending scrambling to find an alternative and, in some cases, direct your visitors to your new home.

This can make building a presence online feel like you’re trying to construct a house on quicksand, constantly being forced to change, shift and pivot as the ground disappears out from under you.

So how do you improve the stability of your online experience and ensure smooth transitions when necessary? Here are a few tips to help keep you on firm footing, no matter which services are closing down.

Finding Solid Ground

If you want to find solid ground online, you have to be prepared to make it yourself. Building your house on someone else’s foundation is risking having everything disappear from underneath you. If you want a stable presence on line, you have to take responsibility for it yourself.

On that note, here are a few good suggestions that can help you stay sane even as the world around you keeps shifting.

1. Get Your Own Domain: The first step to having a stable online presence is having a reliable address. A domain is fairly cheap, about $10 per year, and is yours as long as you keep paying for it. Even if the service you’re using closes, you can just point that domain elsewhere and keep going.
2. Self Host What You Can: Hosting, especially for smaller projects, is also fairly cheap and simple. Plus, what’s on your server, you control and will remain active until you decide to leave (or stop paying). Even if WordPress.com vanishes tomorrow (highly unlikely), your WordPress installation on your server will remain valid, keeping you online.
3. Avoid Unproven Services: Online it’s tempting to jump on the latest fad or trend, but a service that’s here today can be gone tomorrow. Stick with proven providers that have a large history, a stable user base and seem to be doing well financially. As Google Reader shows, this isn’t guaranteed protection, but it greatly reduces the risk.
4. Backup, Backup, Backup: Backups are always important but they are doubly so with Web services. Disasters strikes, companies close and data is lost. Don’t let yours be lost forever. Backup your content regularly so you can quickly port it elsewhere.
5. Always Be Looking at Alternatives: If you use a service and depend upon it, always be looking for alternatives and experimenting with them. Not only might you learn about something that’s even better, but you’ll know the lay of the land and be able to move on quickly should something happen to the tool you trust.

If you can do these things, while you won’t be completely immune to the bigger shifts that can happen online, there won’t be many disasters that you can’t recover from quickly.

Bottom Line

If you want a stable presence on the Web, the responsibility is on you. If you try to build a house on someone else’s foundation, you could find that the ground is sinking beneath you. You have to carve our your plot of the Web and make a stable home for yourself.

While this requires extra time, effort and money to set up and run, it’s likely energy well spent. After all, the effort it takes to make a good home for your Web presence is significantly less than the energy it takes to move and readjust it after you’ve had your foundation kicked out from underneath you.

So whether you are hunting for a blogging platform, tools to help you use social media or ways to discover new content, be mindful of the grim realities of such online tools. Try to do as much as you can under your own roof and, when you can’t, stick with third parties that are reliable and stable.

But even then, always be prepared for surprises. You never know when Google may shutter another project you’re using or a major company make an unexpected change.

Overview of Link Building

To understand the importance of anchor text in regard to link building, we must first understand what link building is.

Link building is a white hat SEO practice that involves acquiring links from other websites to increase your own site’s ranking in the Google search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. The most common way of obtaining these links is through guest posting or guest blogging.

Guest blogging is the practice of writing content for other sites as a guest author. When link building, someone who is guest blogging will also include a link back to their site. These links are either included within the content of the guest post or at the end of the article within an author bio. Having these links on other sites pointing back to your own site tell Google that your site is important and bumps it up in the SERP rankings.

There are a number of things to consider when link building in this manner, but no two are more important than the ideas of relevancy and quality content. Producing high quality content on relevant sites will provide you with the most powerful links. To get a better idea of how to produce quality content, read this excellent article on content marketing.

Role of Anchor Text in Link Building

The role of anchor text in link building is simple. Anchor texts are the keywords or phrases that you are trying to get to rank higher in the Google SERPs. The term anchor text describes the term or phrase you are using to link to your website. This great article from SEOmoz gives a more in-depth explanation of what anchor text is and some of the coding associated with it.

Importance of Anchor Text

As mentioned before, the role of anchor text in link building is an important one. Anchor text is the foundation on which you craft your link building efforts around. Choosing the right anchor text will determine the success of your link building campaign and there are a few different factors and criteria to consider when choosing the appropriate anchor text.

Check for Competition

When deciding what anchor text you want to employ in your link building project, it is wise to consider the level of competition of the terms you are trying to rank for. As you can imagine, terms or phrases with low competition will be much easier to rank for. However, no matter what the level of competition, it is vital that you choose relevant keywords for your anchor text.

Keep Location in Mind

Another crucial aspect of anchor text selection is where it is located on the page. The placement of the anchor text will determine how much value or “link juice” it is given by Google. As we discussed earlier, when placing links in a guest post for link building purposes, the links are typically included within the content itself or in an author bio at the top or bottom of the page. Depending on where these links are located, they will be given different amounts of value. Anchor text links included within the content tend to be given the most weight by Google. Of course, these links must fit naturally within the content and it is preferable to avoid including them in the first paragraph.

Diversify Your Anchor Text Portfolio

Finally, it is also important that you diversify your anchor text portfolio. This means you want to use a variety of terms or phrases for your anchor text. Establishing links through a variety of keywords and anchor texts will greatly increase your chances of moving up in the SERPs. In fact, using the same specific anchor text over and over can potentially hurt your rankings. Also, if you are able to fit two links naturally into a guest post (or if the webmaster allows for two links in your bio) make sure the links go to two separate pages, as Google will only count one link if they are going to the same page.

The anchor text is a very important aspect of link building, and it can make or break a link building campaign. Factors such as location and level of competition for certain keywords will determine the success or failure of your link building efforts. Link building is a white hat SEO strategy that can be very effective when done with the correct considerations for anchor text in mind.

About the Author
Andrew Dennis is a writer at the relevancy first link building company Page One Power. When he’s not writing about link building and white hat SEO practices, Andrew enjoys working on his baseline jumper.

Image via aenigmaticus

GOOGLE: NOT JUST ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE

Many people around the world use Google for finding information and images, as well as for navigation. And there’s also Gmail. Google.com is the most visited site of the world, as proven by the no.1 Alexa rank given to it as of February 2013. Ever wondered what goes into making such a wonderful site?

Developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page and launched on the 15^th of September 1997, Google has come a long way from just being a search engine. Written in the popular C++ language, Google has become a multi-lingual site that offers its services throughout the world. With more than 22 special features other than the word search capability, Google takes care of every kind of person living in the world. Some of its special features include Synonyms, Weather forecasts, time-zones and sports scores.

HOW DOES GOOGLE SEARCH WORK?

One of the many algorithms Google uses to display search results on its search results page is the PageRank algorithm that was formerly named Backrub, because it uses the backlink technology to find out how popular a website was. This technique of searching is completely different from the other searching techniques that many other popular search engines were using before Google. These search engines used to display search results based on how often the search terms occurred in the page or how strongly associated the search terms were in each resulting page.

To date, Google has added 250 different indicators to determine the ranking of pages on the result lists, on top of the PageRank algorithm. These indicators are closely guarded details, giving Google an edge over its competitors, all the while helping to keep spammers in check.

WHAT MAKES GOOGLE DIFFERENT?

While the main job of a search engine is to provide the user with quick results, Google is a step ahead and provides a two-line description about the content of the webpage. It also provides a snapshot of what can be expected from the website. This way, Google makes it easier for users to search for websites that are most relevant to their keywords, and it avoids wasting the time of the user.

The “I’m feeling lucky button” on the Google page is an important addition to Google’s search success. When a user clicks on this button, he is redirected to the website that would have first appeared in the search result directly, bypassing all advertisements and other search results on the page.

GOOGLE DOODLE

Another important addition to the Google page is the Google Doodle, a small image that appeared above the search box. This doodle helped in increasing traffic because of it covering an important aspect of that day in history. It covered  important world events, and has since moved on from just being an image to an interactive doodle. Clicking on the Doodle takes the user to a list of search results highlighting the importance of that day.

GOOGLE INSTANT

Introduced in the United States on September 8^th 2010, Google Instant became an instant hit with users, especially ones having a fast Internet connection. Google Instant starts to display what it considers will be the most relevant keyword in the search parameter. This technique enables users to search even faster than before ,and more importantly, showed whether the content they are searching for is present or not. Google claims that the Instant feature present on their site saves an average user 2-5 seconds on every search.

GOOGLE MALWARE PROTECTION

Sometimes Google flashes a message “This site may harm your computer” if the site is known to install malicious software on the user’s computer. It does this for user protection – to prevent users from accessing content on a specific website that is known to inject malicious software or track cookies.

CONCLUSION

The list of Google’s features is practically endless. These features have made Google the most popular search engine and the default homepage of millions of computers worldwide. Even other search engines like Bing and Yahoo! are first searched on Google before users are redirected to their sites. All this and more has made Google from just being another search engine to being an integral part of people’s lives.

About the Author: Clement Almeida is the managing editor at http://www.bloggercent.com. He also has an interest in watching movies, proven by the large number of movies in his library. An active person, he has taken a new step towards blogging and hopes to use his skills in this venture.

This makes having a blog all the more important, and knowing what makes a good one can increase the amount of traffic that comes to your site and build you a reputation as an authority in whatever niche you work in or whatever it is you blog about. In order to do this though, you need to be able to put it all together: Knowledge and personality – and then find the time to keep doing it. Find the time and you’ll start to get the hang of it, and the more you enjoy it, the more your readers will too.

Here are a few tips that can help you create and maintain a good blog that should keep your readers happy:

Keep it Short and Sweet

Essays are great, but do the majority of people visit a website or blog to read a 5-10,000 word dissertation on a subject? No. They download that and read it when they have more time to do so. The majority of blog readers are taking 5 minutes out of their day to read something fun and interesting, so keep your blog posts short and sweet. If you can say everything you need to say in 200 words, so be it. Don’t feel the need to pad it out. It’ll become less concise and most likely bore your reader away from the screen. That said, if you can write 500-1000 words on a subject, you should definitely do it. Just break up the text with sub-headings, images and maybe even some video clips if you feel the need.

Back Yourself Up

Nobody likes to be tripped up, and it can be just as embarrassing online as it is in the street. There are people who are going to critical of your work, and that’s fine. Don’t rise to it and always be professional and you’ll be fine. The issue comes when you don’t provide your sources or your research gets holes punched in it, and you get exposed by somebody. This comes from not doing sufficient research and not citing your sources. Do this, and you’ll be fine. It’s tough to come back from being caught out for not doing your research. It could harm your long-term reputation and standing, so back yourself up all the way. That way you can defend yourself against any naysayers.

A Feast for the Eyes

Whether you’re writing 100, 200 or 2,000 words on a subject, it’s always good to give the reader a little something to look at. Your blog should be designed in a way that shows it off nicely with a good layout and plenty of colour, but it’s up to you to make it really stand out from the crowd. Nothing elevates content better than nice, high resolution images and some HD video. It can really separate your blog from the bog standard posts. Just make sure you have full permission to use the images and video. You don’t want to be forced to take your post down due to a clumsy copyright issue.

Keep Updated on Your Subject

If you’re going to write regularly on a subject, it stands to reason that you’re going to keep up to date with all the latest developments and trends, and then communicate that back to your followers. This is a great way to create a long standing relationship with your subscribers, as they will begin to trust that you will always be up-to-date on what is happening in the industry. If you can be their first port of call – even over a news site – than you are in a really good place. A great way to do this is to sign up for Google Alerts on the subjects you are most interested in. It will keep you updated on all the news and you will have all that information right there in front of you. It’s up to your then to make that news your own. Add your personality, opinion and expertise to the subject though, don’t just be another blog guilty of churnalism.

Use Your Friends

Nothing improves the authority of a blog than having guest authors and interviews on the site. It shows that you’re more than capable of stepping aside and letting another expert have their say, and it can really improve your standing in your specific niche. If you’re a freelance writer, get involved with other writers in the community and ask them to write about their experiences on your blog, or request interviews with experts in the field and post them to your blog. The more extensively your blog covers a niche, the more people are going to come back, and share your work with the wider world on the various social media platforms.

Daley is a freelance writer who wants to help his fellow writers to get out there fully confident and armed with great writing. He can be found struggling with his own career at www.daleyjfrancis.com

Happy weekend!

Sports Writer

USA Today is looking for a sports writer who can be based anywhere. They prefer someone in McLean, VA, though. Make sure you’ve got the talent for writing grabby headlines before you apply.

Article Writer/Blogger

An Internet marketing company is in need of a writer/blogger who can write good pieces quickly. They are looking for a home-based worker, so this is perfect if you’re looking for something on the side.

Guest Bloggers

If you’ve got a network of blogging connections, and you are able to post on various sites, this gig is an interesting one. You need to write 500-word articles and place them on good blogs. Good pay, too!

English Localization Contractor

Aeria Games is looking for for a Localization Editor. You have to be based in Santa Clara, CA, and you need to have an excellent command of the English language. Oh, and you’ve got to know the gaming mindset.

Blogger for Angling Site

Are you always out fishing if you’re not working? If you have the knowledge of all sorts of fishing, and you can hold your own when it comes to writing, this online gig is more than worth a try.

The future’s here, and it’s all about the image. We’re drowning in a sea of written content and it’s the kittens, selfies, sunsets and sports shots that are keeping us engaged.

The growth of social networks like Pinterest and Instagram are fundamentally changing the way we interact with images. According to Nielsen’s 2012 Social Media Report, Pinterest had year-on-year growth of a whopping 1,047%. Instagram announced that it had surpassed the 100 million user mark in February 2013, handling an almost unbelievable 40 million images a day.

Our own research into image-sharing at Slingpic shows a heavy skew towards image-dominant social networks. In terms of engagement with content, articles with relevant images have 94% more views than those without. The same trend is noted in social environments where Facebook posts with images have the highest engagement rate of all posts.

From a commercial perspective, images are playing an increasingly crucial role in marketing and purchase behaviour online. The 2012 EMarketer survey showed that 32% of surveyed customers made a purchase after seeing an image on a social image-sharing website.

All these fact and figures point to what we all broadly know about images: people love them and want to share them. Images evoke emotion and action and provide a visual summary for the content that surrounds or compliments it. However, visit many websites, blogs or commerce platforms and the lack of image strategy is woefully apparent.

To make sure you’re ahead of the game on creating a practical and effective image sharing strategy, we’ve shared a few tips and considerations to start the ball rolling.

Relevance And Quality

Sounds obvious, but good quality images that really sum up a broader story go a long way to creating both interest and a broader perception around your site. Think carefully about what an image actually says about your content. Does it enhance the story you’re trying to tell? If it was isolated from the primary content or aligned to 138 characters of text, would it still make sense?

If your budget allows, ditch stock images in favour of specially commissioned professional photography of key visuals. If the image is going to circulate in the social sphere, make sure it’s the best possible portrayal of your site and brand.

Who Shares Images?

Women currently dominate image sharing. According to a 2012 Pew research survey, they are more likely than men to post photos to any kind of website. Pinterest’s audience is 80% female and skews towards affluent urban and suburban households. Instagram, too, skews towards urban based women. Consider this audience trend in image sharing if you are looking to encourage greater sharing of your visual content beyond your site.

Your audience focus may be skewed to other audiences so utilize website analytics tools and social monitoring tools to understand where inbound traffic may be coming from and allow you to infer demographics of consumers and sharers of your image content. For example, at SlingPic we have built in analytics to let you know what images are garnering the most attention.

Images And Social Channels

Images are a powerful way of summarizing longer form content. If, for example, you have a Facebook page to complement your main site, consider using a high-impact image as a visual hook to drive traffic through to a longer feature on your website or blog. Coordinate your times for posting of images to social channels to coincide with the posting of content on your site.

Also consider the mechanics of how the content will get into social channels. Most people cut and paste links, which is very clumsy and prone to error and in turn traffic drop-off. Building in simple, easy to use image-sharing functionality vastly improves the quality, quantity and measurability of how people share images.

At Slingpic we’ve created a one-click image sharing widget that makes it easy to share visual material into social platforms and benefit from return traffic to the location of the image.

If you have a carefully curated image and written content approach, make sure you don’t waste the opportunity to capitalise on interest and traffic should that content be shared in social platforms.

The Rise And Rise Of Infographics

In our content saturated and time starved era, conveying ideas and figures with pretty pictures has proven a very effective way of getting a summary of your ideas over to people!

Infographics are also a solid way of making your content portable while retaining the integrity of the source. If a visitor to your site shares your infographic into social channels, you benefit from the correct story being told and from additional traffic coming back into your site for more information.

Infographics are now incredibly cheap to produce and there are even automated tools to enable you to produce them online, if you don’t have the required design skills or resource in-house.

What About Copyright And Permission?

Are the images yours? If so, accept that putting them online will reduce your ability to control copyrighted use of them. Some image owners use image watermarking or disable the right-click-save function. At Slingpic we include an optional function to include a copyright notice when image content is shared from a site.

Whilst all these steps are useful, they don’t provide an iron-clad guarantee of correct use of your images, but that has to be weighed up against the increased profile and web traffic you might generate by making images available.

If you are using other people’s images and want to play it safe to avoid any legal issues, ask for permission to use the images or buy stock photography. If you are using other people’s images without their permission you will need to understand the nuances of fair use. Simply citing the source of the image is often not enough to protect you.

SEO Considerations For Images

Seems an obvious one, but given how images are now becoming such a big part of site content, it’s still astonishing that people don’t follow the basics for image SEO. Make sure you have a relevant alt attribute description with all the important keywords included. The same goes for the file name. Lastly, keep in mind a balance between image quality and file size. Page load time is still an important component in search rankings for Google so make sure you retain the quality of your images while keeping file size in mind.

In Summary

‘Images as content’ is currently one of the hottest issues for marketers, publishers and bloggers, and for good reason. Visuals are emotive, can provide a powerful summary, context and signposts for a broader story, and have the ability to actively drive interest and action.

Having a clear strategy for how you approach images on your site as shared and social content is crucial. Understanding what their purpose is and when and where to use them is becoming a prerequisite for good site creation and management.

To paraphrase Allen Ginsberg, whoever controls the images, controls the culture.

Slingpic is an image sharing widget that makes it easy for site visitors to share your images across their favorite social platforms. Improve your social media presence and benefit from new traffic to your site.

Luckily, many bloggers offer ghost-blogger services in addition to writing for their own blogs. Ghost blogging enables an author to explore other areas of interest without the worry of maintaining an entirely new site. For your company, hiring a ghost-blogger means finding someone dedicated to the art of blogger who will help your blog become a success.

What is A Ghost Blogger?

A ghost-blogger (like a ghost-writer) is a person who creates a blog for a company or individual. Usually, ghost bloggers won’t blog under their own name on a company blog – they will be the voice of the company. Sometimes, a company will want a blogger to blog under their own name (usually true if a company hires a celebrity blogger).

Ghost-bloggers are a great asset to a company as they manage all the nitty-gritty of running a company blog, including topic generation, keyword research for blog posts and writing, editing and publishing content. Often ghost-bloggers will also source images, respond to comments, manage guest-blogging campaigns and will even create info-products.

A company usually pays a ghost-blogger a fee per post, although some ghost-bloggers work on a monthly retainer.

Keys to Attracting the Best Ghost Blogger

So you’ve convinced your boss to create a company blog, and he’s decided to hire a ghost-blogger to write it. How do you go about finding the best writer for the position?

Be Specific in Your Advert

The best way to obtain applications for a guest-blogging position is to put an advertisement on Blogging Pro Job Boards. Your ad will be reaching a dedicated community of thousands of bloggers writing in a range of different industries – and there’s bound to be a blogger out there who is perfect for you.

To avoid getting hundreds of submissions that don’t meet your needs, create an advert that’s as specific as possible. Include:

-          The relative experience you’re looking for. If you want someone with industry experience, or a college degree, then mention this in your post.

-          The amount you’re willing to pay per post. It might sound crass to start a rate in your post, but giving bloggers an idea of what you pay will ensure only people willing to accept the rate will apply.

-          The preferred nationality. For various reasons (usually associated with tax) a company wants to employ a person from their home country. If you have a preference, then please post it in the ad, as many bloggers work internationally.

-          The scope and expectations of the position. How many posts will the blogger write each month? Will the ghost-blogger also be responsible for sourcing images and uploading the posts? Is the blogger expected to contribute to editorial meetings or perform any additional tasks?

-          Your requirements for application: e.g. Email with three samples and a cover letter, fill out an online form, or send in a list of post ideas.

-          A link to your blog. If you add a link to your blog, potential ghost bloggers can look at what you’ve created so far and tailor their pitch to meet your needs.

-          A Specific Code or Instruction. Some companies will add a special instruction, such as asking all applicants to include a certain phrase in the subject line. This does two things – it helps companies organize applicants in their email client, and it enables them to eliminate any applicants who don’t follow instructions.

Eliminate Time Wasters

When you have all your responses from your ads, go through and delete the responses that receive a definite “no”. Even with a strong, specific advert, you will receive low-quality, generic applications, applicants who don’t have the required experience, and applicants from international destinations. It might be daunting to cull a list of 100+ applications, but deleting the time-wasters will leave you with a handful of strong candidates.

Now what do you do?

Look for Voice over Content

When looking at different samples from bloggers, focus on finding a writer that has a voice you feel matches your company branding. When choosing a ghost0blogger, the voice of a writer is much more important than the information they include. Facts can be researched and higher-level articles can be created, but if they can’t get the voice of your company right, they won’t

What do I mean by voice? The style and personality of the writer on the page; the way they write – the words they choose, and the way they string them together. Are they funny, cute, professional, dry, elegant, sparse, or quirky? Does their voice match your company’s brand?

When judging voice, look for:

• Writing samples that engage you from beginning to end.
• Comfort with using industry terms and jargon
• Articles you can imagine sitting alongside the current content on your company blog.
• Word choices and blogging practices that reflect the principles, policies and ethics of your company.

Look for Writers Who Can Enhance Your Brand

Many ghost-bloggers are a brand in their own right, and partnering with them could result in increased exposure for your company. If they are ghost-blogging for you under their own name, they can advertise their posts on their own website and social media pages, and their readers might decide to becomes regular subscribers.

Many people will read a blog simply because a certain blogger writers for it. It adds an extra level of brand recognition and legitimacy that you shouldn’t overlook.

Look for Bloggers You Gel With

If you’re going to be working closely with a ghost-blogger on creating content for a blog, then it’s important that you choose the blogger whose attitude, style and personality best fit with yours. If you work well together, things will get done faster and the whole blogging process will be much smoother.

Ghost Bloggers Aren’t Scary

Hiring a ghost-blogger is the best way to gain momentum for your company’s blog. A ghost-blogger takes care of topic generation, content creation and uploading of your posts, leaving you free to focus on what you do best – running the company. The blogger’s voice can make or break your blog, so it’s important to take the time to carefully consider whom you want to hire to create your blog.

Talk to a ghost-blogger today – I promise we don’t say boo!

Have you hired a ghost-blogger before? Have you worked as a ghost blogger for a company? What were your experiences?

About The Author 

Steff Green is a writer, ghost-blogger and illustrator at Grymm & Epic Copywriting and Illustration. When she’s not relaxing on her little slice of rural paradise in New Zealand with her ducks and sheep, she writes about blogging, SEO and email marketing tips at SEO Joe.

Know why you’re using social media.

Firstly, writing for social media isn’t simply a case of hashing together any 140 characters and tweeting them, or brazenly plastering your latest product all over Facebook and Instagram. That won’t get you anywhere. To post well, you have to know a little about the context of the environment you’re working with, how best to approach it, the reasons your demographic is there, and what you can gain from them.

So before pledging your allegiance to one network or another, identify why social media is an investment for you. Sketch out goals - what metrics are important to prove success? Likes and follows? Traffic increases? New leads and sales? Brand awareness/ reputation improvements? Or better customer service?

Know your tone.

Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to develop your social voice. Your representative tone needs to be accessible, fit with the site you’re using and remain reflective of brand image. For best, simplistic engagement, brand tone of voice should be seamlessly unified on posts across networks – presenting one cohesive, social personality.

This does not mean you should post duplicate or identical content across all networks however, as this can make campaigns stale, boring and repetitive, and cause audiences to lose interest.

Know your demographic.

Knowing your demographic will largely dictate your tone and your network of choice. Don’t, for example, invest time in a Facebook page if your audience isn’t active there. Before embarking on a social campaign, consider who your key social demographics are, how they want to interact with you, and where they’re active, then match your content to spark their interest. For example, if you offer visually appealing products, or inspire user creativity, you may have customers who are heavily into Instagram or Pinterest, so get creative. You may even generate a little UGC (user generated content).

Know what you should be posting.

Everything you post, like, and retweet acts as an ambassador for your brand, so appropriate posting – professional, polite, and well spell-checked is crucial. Tweak style to suit platform – ie. perhaps be more ‘light’ and less corporate on Facebook than LinkedIn – and keep it varied using features such as polls, hashtags and discussions to inspire and assure followers of your presence.

When it comes to actually writing posts, as with all content it’s important to keep things fresh. But unlike other content forms, with social media you have much more content variety! Images and video have great response rates, so regularly mix your approach across all social networks – to ask questions, create polls and quizzes, share pictures and details about your other social accounts, and of course post brand news and promotional information. Remember that shorter posts inspire higher engagement, as does asking questions – so never be afraid to simply ask for a few likes or RT’s!

Lastly, you’re aiming to build better relationships with customers by ‘humanising’ your brand, which requires dedicated time. Regular connected interaction and social attentiveness (i.e. – responding to customer posts, retweeting and replying), will encourage engagement,  regularly reminding followers of your existence, and boosting the effectiveness and reach of your -well considered- written posts.

Alastair Kane is a freelance writer and business blogger. He provided this article on behalf of Communicaid a culture and business communication skills consultancy in the UK.

Before you kick off those shoes, here are the highlights from this week’s Job Board.

Digital Copy Editor

A virtual newsroom is looking for a digital copy editor to work remotely. They use browser-based CMS, InDesign CS4, Adobe PDFs and Google documents, as well as basic in-house systems. If you’re more reliable than anyone else you know, hit Apply!

Book Reviewers

Do you always have something to say about stuff that you read? Put that to good use and be a book reviewer for Kirkus Media. They need people to review indie authors, and reviewers can be based anywhere.

New Orleans Columnists

Internet Brands needs columnists from New Orleans to share their knowledge of the city. From nightlife to dining to hidden treasures – if you have the dish on these, then go for this telecommute position.

Freelance Writer for Regional Magazine

MyCityNetworks needs people in Ft. Lauderdale/Broward to visit local businesses such as spas and restaurants. The goal is to review these establishments, and you get paid for it!

Freelance Blogger

Got experience writing for the US Hispanic/Latino community? You don’t have to be able to write in Spanish, but if you do, then you’ll get even better pay. Check out this listing now!

Advantages of Responsive Web Design

The main advantage of having a responsive design for your website is that your site will automatically adjust itself based on the screen size and screen resolution of your visitor’s device.  Columns, tables, and images will automatically resize themselves, which means that your site will retain most, if not all, of the original design elements.

Since your site restructures itself, the next advantage to this form of design is that you will not need to provide mobile sites for each type of device.  Many sites choose to have separate sites that are optimized for smartphones, the iPad, etc.  With responsive design, you are as close to a “one site fits all concept” as you can get at present.

Also, Google recommends that websites be setup with a responsive design.  As we all know, Google drives a lot of the innovations regarding web design due to the importance of their search engine.  If Google says it’s important, it is important.

Disadvantages of Responsive Web Design

Earlier, we said that a responsive design will fit most devices.  The truth is that some devices will still not be 100% optimized with a responsive design.  Depending on how much of your traffic is mobile-generated, this could be an important issue to consider.

Next, a responsive design requires much more time and resources than a standard design or using separate mobile sites.  In most cases, the average website owner will not have the skills needed to set up this design and will have to hire a developer to convert to a responsive design.

Also, a responsive design is not viewed as a mobile-only site by webcrawlers, which means you may not be able to use the same SEO tactics to target mobile users as you might with a separate site.

Another consideration: since the site is just a scaled down version of your website, it will load slower than a mobile-optimized website.  This means that mobile devices will need to download unnecessary code which could result in slower download times and force some users to abandon your site.

Finally, if the number of mobile visits to your website is less than 5% of your total traffic, the investment in terms of cost and time may not be worth the result.  You may be better off with a standard option or if you are a WordPress user, can try a responsive theme.

How to Get a Responsive Design in WordPress

If you already have WordPress installed and don’t already have a responsive theme installed, no problem.  All you need to achieve a responsive design is to download and install a responsive template.

First, log in to your WordPress admin page and go to the appearance section of your dashboard.  Next, go to themes and click the install themes table.  There you can search for responsive themes. You will be presented with well over 100 responsive themes to install.  Once you have found the theme you want, click install and then install now in the popup box.  When you have received the message that the theme has successfully installed, click on activate.

Go to your url and refresh the page, and you now have a new responsive design.  If your front page shows up as the customer front page of the theme, go back to you dashboard and then appearance and  then theme options.  Expand the home page section and remove the check beside “overrides the WordPress front page option.”  Your original front page should return with the new responsive theme.

To learn more about WordPress themes or to view other responsive themes, check out the WordPress official website. Still not decided if you need to switch? Here are some of our suggestions:

Who Needs a Responsive Site?

After seeing the advantages and disadvantages of a responsive design, you may still be on the fence about whether you should develop one for your site.  Below are some of the types of sites that should utilize a responsive design.  If your site fits under any of these types, you may want to consider a responsive design.

• A significant portion of your visitors are mobile users. (Almost everyone owns a mobile device so I think this means you most likely need one.)
• A site dedicated for mobile technology and mobile compatibility.(Examples are software/products geared towards mobile users like mobile game sites, etc.)
• A website wanting one brand identity (This means that you don’t want a separate site.)
• Websites that have information that needs to be accessed quickly and over a large variety of devices (Examples are news websites and magazines.)
• Retail sites targeting 15-30 year-olds. (It is said that people in this age group are more likely to have their own mobile devices. )

Many web experts agree that a responsive design is the future of web design.  If you want to get ahead of the curve with regard to mobile compatibility, you may want to explore a responsive design for your website.

About the Author
This article was written by Lori Campbell of PressTheWord Channel. If you want to learn how to set up your own responsive web design in detail, be sure to check out their latest WordPress tutorial.

Image via axbom