I know I have! What’s worse is when you only spot those ‘forgotten elements’ a few days after publishing and the post has already received 100+ visitors!

For this reason, I like to run through a check list before I publish my articles in the hope that I catch any errors or missing elements before the end user, my readers, even get to see the post.

The great thing about having a pre-publishing check list is that it slowly becomes second nature the more you run through it, allowing you to create and establish some positive writing practices.

With that being said, I hope you find the following check list useful.

1. Introuduction

Does your article have a strong introduction that tells your readers exactly what to expect from your post?

An introduction does not have to be lengthy but it should clearly describe what the post is about and who will benefit from reading it.

2. Clarity

Have you stated your point(s) clearly so that your readers know exactly where you sit on the topic you have written about?

It is okay to be ‘on-the-fence’ as long as this is clear to your readers.

If you are writing a list post, have you explained why each ‘tip’ is important.

Here are two examples so you can get a better understanding of what I mean:

BAD – ‘You should use Market Samurai for Keyword Research‘.

GOOD – ‘You should use Market Samurai for Keyword Research as it will show you exactly what low hanging fruit is available for easy search engine pickings’.

3. Conclusion

After you have written your post do you have a summary, a conclusion, something that ties together your post and reiterates your strongest points.

Many readers will scan your post and grab snippets from here-and-there. By having a good conclusion and a strong introduction you will enhance your ability to grab your readers attention and encourage them to read the post fully.

4. Call to Action

Do you have a call-to-action at the end of your post?

It doesn’t matter what it is, you should always ask your readers to do something. Without a call-to-action, your readers may get to the end of your post and then simply hit the back button on their browser, leaving your site without any further engagement.

Here are some examples of calls-to-action:

‘What do you think about affiliate link masking? Do you mask your affiliate links? Let me know in the comment section below!’

‘We would love to here your feedback on our plugin so please share your thoughts in the comments below.’

‘The Elegant Themes membership has just gone up to $39. Click here now to make sure you lock in your membership before they increase the price again’.

No matter what it is, ask your readers to do something before leaving your site!

5. Images

Do you have any images for your post?

By having images in your post you will have an instant way to grab your visitors attention. If you have a long post you can break it up by having multiple images displayed throughout the post.

You can get free stock images (read the licence for each image) from sites like:

Free Digital Photos

Stock Xchng

Or you can purchase royalty free stock images for next to nothing from IStock (I recommend this option as you’ll be hard-pressed to find quality images like you do on IStock from any of the free sites).

I Stock Photo

6. Headline

Do you have a strong headline that generates interest?

Be sure to have a headline that matches your content but also elicits some curiosity from your readers.

You see, many blog posts are shared across social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and it is often only the headline that people will see. For this reason, be sure to write something that catches attention.

Some of our best converting headlines for this site have been:

The Really Sneaky CommentLuv Trick for Better Blog Marketing and Promotion

Who Else Wants Access to the Largest Database of CommentLuv Blogs on the Internet?

Are You Cashing in on Your Relationships?

Play around with your headlines and see what works best for you.

7. Optimisation

Now you have written your post and gone through the steps above, it is time to optimise your article so you can squeeze as much love from the search engines as possible.

Are you targeting a keyword or keyword phrase for your post?

Make sure you have a strong Title Tag and it includes your target keyword.

Do you have a meta description?

Write a compelling description that includes your keyword phrase and write it in a way that it is an enticing introduction to your post.

Although this does not influence the search engines, the meta description is shown in the Search Engine Results Pages so is important from a visitors point of view; a good meta-description can easily increase your click-through rates from search engine users.

For tips on other on-page elements you should be targeting be sure to read our Understanding SEO guide and SEO Moz’s Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimisation.

Bonus Tip

Make sure you run spell-checker before publishing and re-read your post to catch any spelling errors spell-checker may have missed.

Conclusion

This post was created in the hope of sharing a quick overview for bloggers when writing their posts to eliminate missing steps in the publishing process.

In short, the check list items that should be worked through before hitting the ‘publish’ button are:

• Do you have a strong introduction?
• Do you have a clear viewpoint or stance?
• Do you have a strong conclusion?
• Always include a call-to-action?
• Have you used any images to grab your readers attention and enhance your post?
• Have you written a compelling headline?
• Have your optimised your post?
• Proof-read your post to tease out spelling mistake

Now over to you.

Do you have a pre-posting check list that you work to? What does your check list look like?

Be sure to share your tips in the comment section below.

Warmest regards,

Kelly-Anne Foxley

The information presented here is taken from our Google Analytics account but before you look at the list I want to share my thoughts on a few things.

Below you will see that this site consistently receives visitors from a large number of CSS Galleries.

The benefit to using CSS Galleries is that it is a set-it and forget-it traffic stream, some sites are still sending us traffic from a submission I made over a year ago.

The downside to using CSS Galleries is the fact that the visitors are not targeted, land on your site, look at your design and leave again; not good for your bounce rate.

A surprise for me was seeing Intel Seek (link below) make it into the list as it is a directory submission site of the traditional kind (who said all directories were dead!).

As expected Google (.com and .co.uk) are always in our top referrers.

Here is a thank you to Alex Whalley for sending us visitors from his Threadless Thursday post; go read it when you are finished here as he shares some other useful links as well.

Another interesting thing to note, PrimoThemes has been in our top 20 referrers every since we wrote about their very useful plugin, WordPress Banner Ad Rotator Widget.

The traffic PrimoThemes sends here comes via a trackback to our post so be sure to include trackbacks in your marketing strategy.

If you see sites on the list that you have not heard of before be sure to visit and check them out, you may find a good future traffic source for your website.

Right, starting with the highest first, here is our…

Top Referrers List

1. Google.com
2. BlogEngage.com
3. CSS Luxury
4. MMO Social Network
5. CSS Blaze
6. Google.co.uk
7. Twitter
8. Alex Whalley
9. Dagaloo
10. Google.co.in
11. PrimoThemes
12. BloggerLuv
13. HootSuite
14. Quantcast
15. CSS Line
16. Facebook
18. Good Design Web
19. Intel Seek
20. CSS Mix

We’ll include numbers in our next top referrers post in a months time.

Can we write about you?

Link to one of our posts and send us some visitors and you could find yourself in next months Top Referrer List.

Please take a moment to leave a comment below and share who your top referrer is for the past month.

To your success,

Karl

P.s. Have a great weekend!

Especially all the social networking sites that seem to be appearing at a rate of 10 a day.

The reason I like being one of the first on board on any new site is because I like to try, test and then share my findings with our readers here or with my personal networks.

Well, the other day I came across another social networking site and was intrigued by what I read…

“Take a moment to think about how many different online networks you’re already part of. One for business contacts, one for old friends, one for strangers, one for your interests… You Don’t Need MORE Connections – You Want BETTER Connections. Being connected is not about having 1000s of “friends”. It’s being really related, to the people who matter – the ones you know, and who know you.”

The site is called Tobri and what is going to help it stand out from the already crowded social network space is the fact that it has a patented search engine.

What the site says:

“Tobri is a revolutionary new network that values connections based on their quality, not on numbers. It’s a living system where real connections grow between real people. TobiRank is a patented algorithm that shows you how to find anyone that matters, from the huge human network you’re already part of.”

Another unique feature is the advertising opportunity that businesses can tap into (more about that here).

Tobri is free to register so be sure to add me as a connection when you sign-up.

Tobri Helping Non-Profit Organisations and Charities

On a separate note about Tobri, I received this email from Ken McArthur today.

In the email Ken was excited to announce that Tobri is giving away 1,000 Premier Memberships to qualified Non-Profit Organisations and Charities.

If you know of any Non-Profit Organisation or Charities that could really benefit from the increased exposure that Tobri offers please forward them this pdf put together by Ken. -Thanks

Please contact those you think may be interested as soon as possible as those spots won’t be around for long.

Give Tobri a try and let me know what you think.

Karl

Bonus Tip: To get the most out of your Tobri membership be sure to complete your profile as fully as possible.

We have covered posts on FMS SEO that share some of our favourite productivity tips and tools because it is a subject that we know benefits individuals and business owners to get more out of each day.

If you have read the previous posts you will know that I am a fan of automation, semi-automation and anything that speeds up what I do.

I use a wide range of websites, apps, tools and software to make my life easier, make myself more productive and to simply speed up repetitive tasks.

For example, on a daily basis I use Roboform to auto-fill forms and log me into sites automatically, I use The Action Machine software to keep me hyper-focused, on-task, to manage my time and to increase my productivity, and I use my Gmail account to make managing my emails.

Not many people are not aware of the many features and functions that Google have loaded into Gmail that can really make everyday tasks so much easier (keep reading to get Google’s Gmail report).

Today I discovered a browser plugin, Cloud Magic, that does one thing and one thing only, makes Gmail even better by speeding up your interactions with your emails.

How does it do that? Watch the video below to find out:

Introducing Cloud Magic

I’ve been using Cloud Magic in my Gmail account  for a good few hours now and so far I am very impressed.

If you combine Cloud Magic with the great tips found in this report put together by Google then you’ll be a Gmail ninja in no time.

You can find out more about the plugin and download it directly from the Cloud Magic website.

Now over to you! Use the comment form below to tell me what you think about Cloud Magic or any other productivity tool that you use and love.

To your success,

Karl

P.s. Cloud Magic for Gmail is free so you have no excuse not to give it a try. Here’s the link again:

Unfortunately this isn’t always the case and you will end up with disappointed people who just can’t find what they are searching for on your site.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could capture the information that people search for on your site?

You could then use this information to make sure you have that content sitting ready to serve up the next time someone searches on your site with the same or similar search query.

Introducing…

Search Meter

So what exactly is Search Meter. To quote the plugin creator:

“If you have a Search box on your blog, Search Meter automatically records what people are searching for — and whether they are finding what they are looking for. Search Meter’s admin interface shows you what people have been searching for in the last couple of days, and in the last week or month. It also shows you which searches have been unsuccessful. If people search your blog and get no results, they’ll probably go elsewhere. With Search Meter, you’ll be able to find out what people are searching for, and give them what they want by creating new posts on those topics.”

Now I think you’ll agree this is some very cool information to have!

You will need to running a self-hosted WordPress install to use the Search Meter Plugin (you can get it from here).

After you have installed and activated the Search Meter plugin (read this post to see how to install plugins on your self-hosted WordPress site) head straight to the ‘search meter‘ tab under ‘settings‘ to configure your install.

Now, after you have had a good number of visitors to your site you will be able to check your Search Meter Stats (located at the ‘Search Meter’ link under your WordPress ‘Dashboard’ tab.

You will now see a summary of the successful and unsuccessful search terms that have been entered on your site.

You can click at the top to see this break down in ‘Summary’ view (default), ‘Last 100 Search’ view and ‘Last 500 Searches’ view.

Under summary view you will also see your ‘Unsuccessful Search Summary’.

The more people that search your site using your search box, the more data will be collected.

Now, if you see the same query presenting itself over-and-over again you can now write some content to serve up for future searchers.

I hope you can see the possibilities in having this data to hand and how you can us it to serve your visitors.

To your success,

Karl

P.s. For an advance website visitor tracking package take a look at Click Web Analytics.

The reality, on the most part, is that you have plenty of active members who have a hit-and-run mentality, meaning they drop a link here-and-there but do not stick around long enough to be a part of the community.

So what do you do when you want a conversation about the issues that are important to you?

Who do you turn to in these ‘communities’ when you need some real honest advice?

Well, if you are looking for a community of bloggers that are really supporting each other, and having fun at the same time, then you can do no wrong in visiting…

Blogger Luv

I could write a super long post telling you all about BloggerLuv and the amazing blogging community that it is shaping up to be (I would even say it ‘already is’) but, instead, I would like you to take a moment to read this very insightful post by Gail Gardner aka, Growmap.

Finally, before you rush over to the site and register, let me show you one of the cool features that is in place to reward the BloggerLuv members.

Blogger of the Day

That’s right, I was made Blogger of the Day and received a nice drive in traffic to our website (thanks John).

You can even become Blogger of the week (your profile will be shown on the homepage and across the site for a whole week).

Are you still here? Get on over and register today! Right now!

Here’s the link again: BloggerLuv

When you register be sure to look me up and add me as a friend.

With ‘Luv’,

Karl Foxley

P.s. John Sullivan, the guy behind the site, can also be found regularly blogging at his site, Pot Politics. You can read John’s post where he talks about the amazing bloggers who are flooding to the BloggerLuv community.

How would you like to do that without leaving your WordPress admin dashboard?

Well now you can with the WordPress List Rank Dashboard Widget (links below).

About the List Rank Dashboard Widget

The List Rank Dashboard Widget keeps track of the following:

• Google PageRank
• Google Backlinks
• Alexa Rank
• Yahoo Backlinks
• Delicious Posts

Using the included shortcode, you can also display rankings in your posts, pages and sidebar widgets.

NOTE: This plugin requires at least PHP 5. If your hosting account does not support this consider switching to a more robust hosting provider.

Installing the List Rank Dashboard Widget

If you know how to install plugins for your WordPress site then you can skip this section.

First thing you will want to do is log-in to your WordPress site (self-hosted) and click where it says, ‘Add New’ under the Plugins menu.

You will be taken to the following screen.

Now, using the ‘search box’ type in: List Rank Dashboard Widget

After you have typed in the search term hit the ‘Search Plugins’ button.

The returned search results should have the List Rank Dashboard Widget displayed at the top. If not, scroll through the list until you see:

After you have located the plugin click on ‘Install Now’.

You will be prompted to verify your installation with the following screen:

Click ‘OK’ and the plugin will be installed.

Now your plugin is install we need to activate it. When you click ‘OK’ you will then be taken to the following page:

Click ‘Activate Plugin’ and you have now successfully installed and activated the List Rank Dashboard Widget plugin.

Now to configure the settings.

Configuring the List Rank Dashboard Widget

To display stats that available in the List Rank plugin you will need to configure a few settings.

Head to the List Rank plugin settings page; you will find it under ‘Settings’ where it will now have a link that says ‘List Rank’.

1. Insert the URLs that you want to track in this box.

2. Tick all the check boxs for each individual stat that you wish to display in the dashboard widget.

3. Google API Key and Yahoo! Application ID input text fields. Click on ‘Get One’ next to both to get your keys.

Google Api Key

After you click on the ‘Get One’ link next to the Google API Key input text field you will be taken to the following page.

Click on the link that says ‘sign up for an API key.

1. Put a tick in the check box next to where it says ‘I have read and agree with the terms and conditions’ (make sure you have read and understand the terms and conditions before proceeding).

2. Input your websites URL where you have installed the List Rank Dashboard Widget.

Now click the ‘Generate API key’ button.

The next screen contains your API Key.

Select the code (highlight it by left clicking your mouse and dragging your cursor over the length of the code). Now press ‘Ctrl’ and ‘c’ on your keyboard to copy the selected text.

Paste, ‘Ctrl’ and ‘v’, the code into your Google API Key input text field.

That’s it, your Google Backlinks are set to go.

Now to get the…

Yahoo! Application ID

Just like before, click on the ‘Get One’ link next to the Yahoo! Application ID input text field.

You will be taken to the following page (after you have logged-in using your Yahoo ID):

Don’t quote me on the following information being correct but I use the above to get my Yahoo! Application ID for the List Rank Dashboard Widget.

Be sure to click on the radio button next to where it says ‘Generic, no user authentication required’.

Click on ‘Continue’ when you have completed all required fields on the form.

Just like with Google’s API Key, you must now copy the Yahoo! Application ID that was generated.

Paste the code into the input text field next to where it says ‘Yahoo! Application ID’.

Hit the ‘Save Now’ button and you are good to go.

If your settings have been successfully saved you will see the following message.

Now, click on ‘Dashboard’ under the ‘Dashboard’ tab to see your stats.

Now every time you visit your WordPress Admin Dashboard you will see the widget and the stats you are monitoring.

There you have it! Now you can watch your competition from the comfort of your WordPress admin.

Links:

The List Rank Dashboard Widget downloadable from WordPress.

Download the Plugin Directly from the Developer at Marcel’s Weblog.

Install the plugin right now in your browser here.

What do you think of the plugin? Is it something you will use? What features would you like to see added in the future (you never know, they may just be added in a future update)?

I’d love to your thoughts.

To your success,

Karl Foxley

P.s. For an advance visitor tracking analytics package be sure to take a look at Click Web Analytics (correct link updated, thanks Dennis).

]]> http://www.fmsseo.com/3349/list-rank-dashboard-widget-plugin-stats-tracker/feed/ 19 http://www.fmsseo.com/103/adam-horwitz-mobile-monopoly-product-launch/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=adam-horwitz-mobile-monopoly-product-launch http://www.fmsseo.com/103/adam-horwitz-mobile-monopoly-product-launch/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:42:43 +0000 Karl Foxley http://www.karlfoxley.com/?p=103 Have you met Adam Horwitz?

He built a list of 20k with mobile and is now sharing how he did with the Mobile Monopoly Launch.

Have you seen the video that was released by Adam Horwitz’s the other day where he shared his secret methods for making a killing from affiliate marketing on mobile phones?

Well, as a bonus, he’s just taken it up a notch by giving away software you can use to create your own mobile campaign in just minutes:

In a rush? Here’s the link!

The software is completely FREE — and he’s even included a video to go along with it that lets you look over his shoulder as he creates a campaign you can COPY right off the screen.

With the info heshares there’s nothing for you to figure out just a proven profit machine you can literally steal word for word and make money from right now.

Seriously! Mobile is HUGE, is set to get even bigger, and this is the best chance at a free taste of the action you’ll ever get.

Go grab your copy of the software and watch the video right away, because Adam says this will be taken down soon.

Click here to visit the site.

To your success,

Karl

If you are wondering what a joint venture partnership is then please take a moment to read my previous articles (links at the bottom of this post).

Before you search for joint venture partners be sure to have a product or service that people can promote when they partner with you.

So, how do you…

Find JV Partners

The answer is quite simple, use your direct competition for inspiration.

‘Why?’, because this is one of the quickest ways to find people with related products or services in your market that you can ask to partner with you.

I’m going to make some assumptions at this point and these are:

• you have a product or service
• you are in a niche market
• you have identified your competition

Now, for this method you need to…

Identify Your Competitors Joint Venture Partners

To get started you should visit your direct competitor websites and have a good look around.

Keep your eyes peeled for a newsletter sign-up form, if they have one, sign-up (more about this below).

Do they have a resources page, a partners page or something similar where they mention other people that they are working with?

People often use these pages to share products that are related to their own product but are NOT perceived as a direct competitor.

Once you have found a  related product that is potentially a good fit for you, go and visit the website and get in touch with the owner, letting them know about your product and how you would like them to come on-board as a joint venture partner.

Don’t worry about rejection. You will have your offer rejected on quite a few occasions but do not become  disheartened, it can be a numbers game sometimes.

Returning to the newsletter, the reason you should sign-up to your competitor’s newsletters is so you can see the type of promotions they run and to see if they promote any related products from partner sites.

If they do, you will now be able to contact that product owner and work out a possible joint venture partnership of your very own.

Using your competitors to find joint venture partners is one of the easiest methods around but in future posts I will show you how to do the same thing using Google and Clickbank so stay tuned for those.

Here’s wishing you every success,

Karl Foxley

P.s. How would you like to discover the one marketing method that has the potential to bring you new clients every single day without ever having to go out and sell your services. This course alone will permanently change the way you look at marketing.

Here’s the link: Integration Marketing

P.p.s. Here are those previous articles: ‘Introduction to Joint Venture Partnerships‘ and ‘Objections to Joint Venture Partnerships‘.

Today I want to quickly cover one of the biggest objections I hear people make as to why they will not consider joint ventures in their marketing campaigns.

The objection usually goes something like this:

‘Why Should I Enter Into A Joint Venture Partnership When I Can Keep All of The Profits for Myself?’

I hear this question so often, and yes, you can generate traffic to your promotions all by yourself, and yes, you can keep one-hundred percent of the profits.

But, let’s take a deeper look at this using a quick example:

I have an ebook sells for $97. I average 100 visitors a week and sell 4 copies of my ebook making me $388 each week. Not bad!

Now, I ask Mike to JV with me and he agrees at a commission of $57.

Mike now sends me an additional 100 visitors a week and again, I only make 4 sales out of each one-hundred visitors… but I bet you’ve guessed it already…

Even with Mike’s cut of 4 x $57 = $228, I’ve made an extra $160 for doing nothing (other than putting in the time to create the joint venture partnership in the first place).

With the above maths in mind, just imagine if you had an army of 100 joint venture partners all promoting your ebook at a $57 commission per sale. You would make $16,000 in a week. I think you’ll agree that this is what it is truly all about.

Joint Venture Traffic

Another important factor to remember about your joint venture partner’s traffic is that each JV you get on board will have already built up arelationship with their list of subscribers.

This means, when they send out an email containing a recommendation for your product, their subscribers are more likely to respond by opening the email, clicking on the link and hopefully going on to purchase from you.

This is known as warm traffic. Warm traffic generally converts at a higher percentage than cold traffic because they have been pre-sold the product by someone they trust.

Now you understand the potential of entering into a joint venture partnership be sure to read my other posts on the subject.

To your success,

Karl Foxley

P.s. How would you like to discover the one marketing method that was responsible for bringing me new clients on an almost daily basis without me ever having to go out and sell my services. This course alone will permanently change the way you look at marketing.

Here’s the link: Integration Marketing