First, blogs allow you to control the content.  Social media platforms come and go, so you risk the likelyhood that one day your content will disappear.  What’s more, with your own blog you control search engine optimation, user experience, and addition features you wish add to the site.  The beauty is that all your blog content can be easily shared on social networks, yet you still retain control.

Second, you can simply do more with your own blog.  You can publish content, you can share it where you like, you can customize and leverage your own RSS feed, you can add video, audio and images, you can have a newsletter, and more.  Social networks let you do some of this yet not all.  Of course, they have features that are not possible on a blog, but that list is short.

My point is your blog should serve as your single distribution point for content online.  With the right setup, you can automate much of the distribution from that point and then manage the response on the back end with other tools, such as Google Reader and Tweetdeck.

The tools will change but this point is clear for me – host everything on your own site first and distribute from there.

What’s your blogging strategy?  How has your blog helped you connect with your market?

via Selling SEO Projects Against PPC Campaigns – Search Engine Watch (SEW).

Of course, this really depends heaviy on your business model and sales funnel.  For some businesses that sell directly online, PPC is a fantastic option, since you have the ability to track ROI to the penny and can quickly coorelate keyword performance with sales to tweak your PPC strategy.

For more traditional selling models, PPC is great to get initial traffic coming in, but it’s SEO that will drive long-term organic rankings and search traffic.

Furthermore, SEO tactics, such as developing great content with RSS feeds, gives you the ability to increase inbound links, where PPC is a one-shot deal with no long term impact.  Once you stop paying the traffic stops.

Take an hour today to revisit your traffic generation plan.  Consider PPC and SEO among other strategies, specifically thinking about the short and long-term goals you hope to achieve with each.

It’s still shocking that many newbies don’t understand links. You don’t need to link to a lot of Web sites. You need a lot of good Web sites to link to you. And, it’s best if you can manage to get some of those links to include — in some fashion — the keywords that describe the page they’re linking to.

For example, if I’m linking to Search Engine Watch, I would want to link using the words “Search Engine Optimization News” within the anchor text of the link. If I wanted to “deep link” (that is to say, link deeper within the Search Engine Watch Web site), I would link to the Promotion & Link Building page using the words “Link Building Resources.”

via Top Signs Your Site Isn’t Ready for Prime Time, Part 2 – Search Engine Watch (SEW).

This strategy is so critical.  I would also add that not only do you want to use your keywords in this deep linking strategy, but you should also link from sites that have a high PageRank.

For example, you could generate dozens of inbound links from sites with a Google PageRank of zero and your efforts would yield very little in-terms of SEO.  Whereas one link from a .gov or .edu site with high PageRank could significantly improve your rank.

To lean more about PageRank, check out Wikipedia on PageRank

To check the PageRank of any site, check out prchecker.

While no one knows every element that each search engine includes in their algorithms, one thing that everyone can agree on is that a site needs to have quality content in order to rank. For many sites, one of the easiest ways to add that quality content on a consistent basis is by starting a blog.

via Blogs and Blogging 101, Part 1 – Search Engine Watch SEW.

This is pretty basic, but the fact remains that quality content with some sense of keyword research can drive quality traffic to your site.

Yet, so many website owners fail to create unique and compelling content.  Not you, of course, those other people.

It’s a task that’s often seen as a chore, but blogging must be central to your internet marketing strategy.  Using social media tools to drive traffic is great too, but in the long run it’s on-site content that will ultimately drive the most traffic from search engines.

For me, the best way to look at blogging is as a place to discuss topics within my niche that I’m truly interested in.  It shouldn’t be hard if your website is about a topic that you actually care about or spend time thinking about on a regular basis.

If you fear the idea of putting your thoughts out there, try writing a number of blog posts and just saving them as a draft.  That will help get you in the rythym without the risk of criticism.

Good luck and happy blogging!

This data obviously suggests that Twitter could be a valuable tool to music marketers, currently struggling to figure out the best ways to monetize music

via Twitter as music marketing tool | Software, Interrupted – CNET News.

I’ve seen a number of musicians embrace Twitter as a great platform to connect with their fans.  Seems like a perfect fit, given that most bands have message and the fans are rapid for a glimpe into band mates’ daily lives.

What can businesses learn from bands on Twitter?  For me the answer is to have a personality.  People want to connect with people on Twitter, not a corporate logo.

Of course, you can set up multiple Twitter accounts for other purposes, but the real connection happens between people.

Another important lesson for companies is that Twitter is especially useful for gaining momentum around an event.  Twitter followers love the connection they can make with a band days, hours, even minutes before they go live on stage.  Learn from that and see how you can incorporate Twitter into your next event.

Second if the real-time view. This is really great as news breaks instead of refreshing your screen every minute.

Third is the ability to automatically tweet certain RSS feeds in your account list.

Mashable also did a recent article on Friendfeed:

FriendFeed, the multi-network activity aggregator co-founded by GMail creator Paul Buchheit, announced today that it has entered the crowded field of real time search. FriendFeed was already the best way to learn what early adopter social media users were saying about any topic across blogs, Twitter, delicious and other diverse social media sites. If FriendFeed wants to step it up to the next level and challenge business-class conversation trackers, we believe there are four steps the company needs to take.

via How FriendFeed Could Become the Ultimate Social Media Tracking Service.

As the largest online video sharing site, YouTube is home to everything from Obama’s weekly radio address to corporate sponsored infomercials and people showcasing their musical talent. The list goes on and anything you can imagine can be found on YouTube. It’s free to sign up, free to upload videos, and free to view videos. Honestly, there’s nothing stopping you from taking advantage of this great medium to communicate and engage with your market.

The fact is most people do not understand how to properly optimize their videos for search engines and thus most video get very little attention.

[ Open this video to study the following optimization techniques. ]

Keywords

As with any search engine optimization strategy, keywords are critical. Think of them as the combination of words or phrases that people search for on the Internet. Since YouTube videos are frequently indexed by major search engines, it’s important to understand some simple steps to make your videos more search engine friendly.

It so happens that you can also call out these keywords in a special Keywords section with every new video you upload. Here’s your chance to thoroughly differentiate your video from the pack.

Titles

The title of your video needs to include two things: 1) your keywords and 2) something to hook viewers as they scan through a list of titles. If you fail to include the right keywords, search engines will ignore your video and if you fail to use a catchy title viewers will ignore your video.

For example, instead of using a title such as “Great House on 1.3 Acres!”, you might get better results with “4581 Morgan Creek – House for Sale in Roseville, CA”. The first example would be fine if the video was for a specific client, but the second video will ultimately draw more viewers since it names the city and uses the keyword phrases “house for sale” and “Roseville, CA”.

Descriptions

The second most overlooked section of posting a video on YouTube is the description field. When search engines index your video, the description field is a key element.

First and foremost, if you have a URL that you want visitors to visit, put that as the first item in your description. By default, only the first few lines of the description are displayed above the fold, so you want your URL to be right there at the top in the most obvious position so viewers click on it. Be sure to format the link correctly so it’s an active link using “html://www.mysite.com”.

The description field is also a great place to pack in your keywords and keyword phrases. Take care not to overdo it – strive for something that makes sense and gets the point across, but still incorporates the keywords where possible. An extra bonus is that YouTube cross-references related videos and people are more likely to find your video if you follow these general guidelines.

http://www.macprosolutions.com/

Need Mac Training? Call me at (434) 806-3272 to discuss.  I love to teach and have the experience and patience to help.  If you can dream it up, I can probably show you how to do it.

Free wi-fi hotspots in Charlottesville

• Starbuck’s (once you put a few bucks on a gift card)
• Shenandoah Joe’s (Preston and Ivy Rd)
• Mudhouse (Downtown Mall)
• Greenberry’s (Barrack’s Road)
• La Taza (Downtown Mall)
• Milano Esspress & Gelato (Downtown)
• Java Java (Downtown Mall)
• Panera Bread (Barrack’s Road & Hollymead Shopping Center)
• Barnes & Nobles (Barrack’s Road)
• McDonald’s
• Arby’s
• Dunkin Donuts (29N)

Have more to add to the list?  Leave a comment below or send me a note on Twitter.

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Effective Blog Posting
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1. First, tell the reader what you are going to discuss.  This accomplishes two things: one, it keeps you focused; and, two, it helps your reader gauge relevance right away. (hint: search engines like this too for indexing)
2. Next, explain why the post is relevant or important.  You don’t want to just ramble on without any purpose.  Helping your reader understand why something is important to them is a terrific gift.
3. Finally, close with a call to action.  Is there something specific you would like the reader to do with this information now?  Call you? Leave a comment? Share with others?  This will really depend on your post, but a call to action is critical if you intend on creating dialog or moving the discussion in a new direction.

And remember, blog posts don’t need to be long & professionally written.  The more you relax and let the ideas flow, the more comfortable you’ll get and the better your writing will become.

What others rules or guidelines do you apply to blogging?  What’s your approach?  Follow me on Twitter and let me know!