3 Reasons Why You Should Blog

Posted by Steinar on Jun 16, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Believe it or not, some businesses spend a lot of money building fancy websites and pay-per-click advertising network but still do not blog.  This might not be such a bad thing if they have endless financial resources but for those looking for a long-term position in search engines and influence online, there are several reasons to blog.

Blogging helps your business in several ways:

1. Sharing your Knowledge. Blogging allows you to share relevant information online in a controlled environment.  We all have something to share and rather than repeat yourself each time you meet a new client, blogging is a great way to catalog your ideas and use them for future reference.  It also helps you organize your thoughts and stay up to date with the current trends within your niche.

2. Controlling Your Content. You own your blog so you are in control of how it is displayed and who can see or comment on your content.  It’s fine to post content on other sites, but at the end of the day those sites might go away, increase fees for access, or change the way they share information.

3. Driving Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines like websites that have fresh content on a regular basis.  Blogging enables you to easily update your content so it is consistently fresh.  Using keywords and other SEO techniques in your copy will also help drive search engine indexing.

That’s just three reasons to blog – there are many more.  What do you think?  If you’re not blogging, why?

How to properly tag your images for search engine optimization

Posted by Steinar on Mar 17, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Tagging your images for search engine optimization is a great tactic to drive more targeted traffic to your site.

If your site is being indexed by Google, chances are your images will be indexed as well. I suggest you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools (free) just to make sure Google know you want your images indexed.

First, I tend to only use one image per blog post, so the optimization settings are pretty simple and only take about 10 seconds.

Once you’ve inserted your image you want to set the Title, Alt and Description tags to include your keywords or at least some description that relates to the topic of your content. Some content publishing systems, like WordPress, allow you to right-click and set the tags, but you might have to look at the HTML in some cases.

For example, if I’m blogging about “homemade fishing lures”, my optimized code would look like this:

<img src=”homemadefishinlures.png” title=”homemade fishing lures” alt=”homemade fishing lures” description=”homemade fishing lures”>

Easy right? Give it a shot and track your image related traffic in Google Analytics.

What do you think? Do you tag your images for search engine optimization?

Blogs are perhaps the most powerful online marketing tool available

Posted by Steinar on Feb 23, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 2 comments

This quote was too good to pass up …

In other words, if you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on perhaps the most powerful online marketing tool we have available today, regardless of whether you are focused on dominating one particular niche, or entering multiple small niches, or helping clients with their online marketing, or all of these things.

via My Notes From The Ed Dale Internet Marketing Seminar – Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak.

Yaro is correct, blogs provide serious marketing power.  They equal the playing field in many respects and provide a platform for individuals to compete with the big boys.  What’s more, search engines love blogs and if optimized, blogs can deliver website traffic much more readily than other forms of non-paid traffic.

What’s remarkable is that so many business owners still do not have a blog or if they have one they don’t post anything.  This blows my mind.  Some would rather pay for traffic I suppose – and don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with that.  Paid traffic makes sense in some cases, but blogging almost always makes sense for a business.

Blogging really helps accomplish several things.

1. Blogging is a way to express your knowledge, demonstrate your skills and share information with your market
2. Blogging is a great way to grow your network
3. Blogging forces you to stay ahead of the curve within your industry
4. Blogging is a great strategy to drive search engine optimization
5. Blogging is a great way to control your content rather than posting independent thoughts across 3rd party sites

And yet, blogging is not “easy.”  It takes time, thought, and planning to do it well.  But once you map out a your content distribution strategy and even fill out a blogging editorial calendar it can be quite rewarding, both personally and for your business.

Search Engine Optimization: Back to Basics

Posted by Steinar on Feb 17, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Search engine optimization is the process of implementing on-page and off-page tactics to drive search engine results placement.  In other words, the stuff you do to help your site show up on Google.

Long-tail keywords refer to the combination of terms into a phrase that represents your site, your products and services, etc.  Think of them as the words that people might use when searching for your website, company or products on Google.  Much like any marketing strategy in general, choosing the right long-tail keywords has strategic implications much like choosing the right target market, niche, or micro niche.  The more focused you are, the more relevant you are to that audience.

On-page optimization refers to the activities to incorporate on your website to drive search performance.  This may include proper coding, the content itself, a site index, the frequency with with new content is published, etc.

Off-page optimization is the collection of activities you execute outside the scope of your site to improve indexing and drive traffic.  This may include submitting your site to search engines and other directories, submitting your RSS feed to 3rd party sites for syndication, commenting on other blog posts with high PageRank to drive inbound links.  The list goes on.

What do you think?  Are your SEO tactics driving more, higher targeted visitors to your site?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

3 Reasons to Comment on 5 Blog Posts Per Day

Posted by Steinar on Jan 19, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Creating your own unique content is well known as the best method to drive traffic to your website and share your knowledge on a given topic.  It should not be considered work.  Think is it more as an outlet for you to discuss what you’ve learned lately or explore a new topic in depth.

Another great channel to learn more about you niche and network with others in your industry is to read blog posts and leave comments as you go.  I’m sure most of you read blogs, but do you leave comments?

Here are 3 reasons to comment on 5 blog posts per day:

1. Leaving a comment commits you to really think about what the author has said.  Rather than quickly skimming blog posts, take a few minutes to reflect on the author’s position and craft a meaningful response or question.  The benefit is that you can learn a lot about how you really feel about the topic and help determine your personal position on an issue.
2. Leaving comments is a great way to network with others within your niche.  If you’re reading a commenting about something that truly interests you, then this should be fun and rewarding.  Much like attending an endless cocktail party with others in your industry.  Very cool.
3. Finally, leaving well crafted comments can serve as a great source to drive off-page search engine optimization.  Most comment fields ask for your name, email and url.  Fill these sections out and don’t be afraid to include your keywords along with your name.  Also, use your keywords in the body of your comment and as anchor text should your include any links back to your site.  Don’t abuse this approach . . . make sure our keywords add value and don’t distract from your message.

Clearly, commenting has is benefits, but many people struggle to find content to comment on.  Personally, when I find an interesting blog (or anything with an RSS feed) I subscribe to it with Google Reader.

Each morning I spend 5-10 minutes scanning for intersting articles and comment on a few. I repeat this process in the evening.  Each day I learn something new and the traffic from these comments continues to grow weekly.

What’s your niche?  Would commenting on other blogs help you learn, connect, and drive traffic to your site?  What’s holding you back?