Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies

Did you know that using keywords in blog posts can increase your website/blog’s traffic? Here are a few tips to help you use keywords when blogging:

• Focus on one keyword per post. If you already have a list of keywords for your site, then this should be easy! Just pick one particular keyword and write a blog post based on it.
  
  
• Use the keyword early and often. Once you pick your own keyword or keyword phrase, be sure to use it right away – if you can manage it in the first sentence of the post (naturally of course). Also, use that keyword multiple times throughout the posts’ content – try a minimum of once per paragraph.


• Link the keyword to other blog posts and other sections of your website whenever possible.
  
  
• Use the keyword in your blog post title and url.


• Use keywords in tags and categories. Tags and categories are not only used for organizing content, but are also keywords themselves.


• Now, remember when I said put your keyword everywhere? Well, don't overdo it! Yes use your keyword in your blog title, url, and throughout the blog post, but be sure to not keyword stuff.

When writing a blog post, remember to use these keyword tips and you’ll increase your blog traffic in no time! Don’t have any targeted keywords? WSI can help you identify what keywords you should be targeting and how you can use them in your Online Marketing efforts.  

 

When considering starting a blog you have to decide what type of blogging is right for you (or your company). Let’s discuss the different types of blogs out there and the difference between them:

Long-form Blogging
This is considered the most traditional and original type of blogging out there. As the name suggests, long-form blogging is just that – blog posts in a long, often consistently formatted style. This WSI blog you are currently reading could be considered a long-form blog.

So, what is the benefit of long-form blogging? The obvious answer – space. While posts on this type of blog often take longer to create/write, they allow you to include all the information you want to get across. This allows you to educate the market on your topic without be constrained by 140 characters.

Common platforms for this type of blogging? Blogger, WordPress, and TypePad.

Micro or Short-Form Blogging
This is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of blogging out there. This type of blogging is short and usually ongoing status updates to your audience. While restricting how much information you can share at one time, this is a great method to keep in almost constant contact with your customers, or audience.

A popular platform for micro blogging is Twitter or Facebook.

Lifestreaming Blogging
Lifestreaming is a way of sharing activities of one’s life in a timeline format with very little educational information being shared. This type blogging is mainly short posts with lots of documents included. Types of documents often shared are photos, videos, mp3s, etc.

This type of blogging is not used very often for business, but is more of a self-promotional type of blogging style. 

Platforms for lifestreaming blogging – Tumblr or Posterous.

Once you have decided what type of blog will work for you and what platform you want to use, you can start focusing on building your blog and generating traffic. For more information on blogging and how you can make your blog a success read our other posts on blogging here.

Good luck and happy blogging!

 

Are you struggling to come up with topics that are appropriate for your company’s blog? Running out of content that is not only interesting to read and write, but that is informative to your customer? Thankfully there are a few great, and simple to use, tools out there that can help you do some blog topic research. These blogging research tools will help you stay abreast of what the hot topics in your industry are and should help you find subjects that you can blog about.

Blogging Research Tools to get you started:

Google Alerts: This is a blog research tool you might already be using, as it is a popular method people use to get news. Google Alerts is a free email alert service from Google, it notifies you when there are new web pages or new stories about a certain topic you are interested in. Why not create a few Google Alerts using keywords appropriate for your industry? Then you can pull key news articles for your blog posts.

Feed Reader: Feeds are incredibly useful for blogging research. Subscribe to the RSS feed from a blog or website that you are interested in. You can receive new blog postings, podcasts, and online news as they are updated that give you current topics being discussed in your industry.

Google Trends: Once you have found a few topics you want to blog about, enter them in Google Trend to view popularity of topics over time. This will allow you to research the blog topic and see the search popularity of it before you start writing blog posts.

Keyword Research Tool: Google’s free keyword tool can help you research keywords relevant to your blogging topic. By using the right keywords you can drive the right traffic to your blog post.

Use these blogging research tools to find interesting, pertinent and current information to write your blog postings. Your readers will appreciate fresh and relevant content.  

Want to know what other research tools are available? Want to stay updated on hot blogging tips? WSI wants to keep you informed, sign-up for our free newsletter – Inside Edge to receive more blogging tips.

So we already convinced you to write a blog for your business and shared tips how to get that business’ blog started. Now I want to discuss some additional things you could be doing to make your business’ blog more successful.

Know your traffic. Analyze your blog’s statistics; analytics not only lets you know you are doing something right, but they allow you to analyze where you can improve your business’ blog. I strongly urge you to add some type of analytics (Google Analytics being a popular choice) to your blog, or most major blogging platforms (Word Press, Blogger, etc.) have something built in or offer an easy plugin.

Don’t focus on just visits, really look at where your traffic is coming from and see if there are some areas you can improve to get more organic-search based traffic to your blog.

Know your audience. Look at who is already following and commenting on your business’ blog; do they fall into a particular age/professional/locational group? This will help you understand how you should be writing to your audience and hopefully attract more readers.

Know how to promote. Writing a blog post shouldn’t be the end game, you should be promoting all your business’ blog posts on all your social media networks as well. I suggest using Hootsuite to send a link to your newest blog post to all your social media networks. Also, try to encourage your employees to share your latest blog posts with their social networks.

Know how to comment. You should be responding to comments on your business’ blog whenever possible. This lets your readers know you appreciate them and encourages them to continue to communicate with you. Getting negative comments? Learn how to address these.

I hope these suggestions help you take your business’ blog to the next level and not only increase your readership, but also improve your blogging experience.

Blogging is a well loved form of internet marketing and social media. It allows you to share your ideas and expertise with your target audience while building credibility for your business. It also help you increase the content available though your website and allows other to easily share that content online.

The biggest fear of business owners is that their social media marketing will be met with negative comments targeted at their product or services. Internet marketing consultants will tell you not to fear a negative comment. Embrace it.

The first thing to remember after you receive a negative comment is that these are real opinions from your audience. Even if the statement is unfounded you still need to handle the situation with care. Step away from your personal emotions and try to understand what exactly the commenter is saying and where they are coming from.

If a comment is inappropriate you should feel comfortable deleting it but if the feelings are real and honest it might be necessary to reply.

The most important thing to remember when responding to a comment is that you are the author of a blog that shares content with your audience. Make sure that you comment is thoughtful and well written. Avoid being overly emotional or argumentative.

If applicable consider replying in a way that launches a dialog between you and the commenter. Something really good could come out of it.

Keep in mind that you receive a negative comment there is also a lot of good behind it. For one thing, this person is reading and talking about your blog. And they are giving you the opportunity to make it right or you can possibly change their mind about the negative opinion. Take into consideration these comments and see how you can learn from them. They may have just shared something that changes your business for the better.

Keyword rich content is a necessary element to successful search engine optimization. If you are trying to increase the amount of content that is on your website the answer may be as simple as starting a blog.

The idea of "blogging" can often be overwhelming for some business owners. Those that are less internet savvy may see it as a challenge they do not want to face. However if you're letting your concerns hold you back from blogging you're missing out on a fun and easy way to add valuable content to your website and improve your search engine optimization. There are several marketing studies available online that show a direct correlation to the amount of blog content to number of leads/sales generated. More Content = More Leads/Sales.

If you're not sure where to start with your blog here are a few helpful blogging tips to get you started.

Blog theme - Your blog needs a centralized theme. This will determine what you write about. Typically it is best to classify your genre and write within that scope. The search engines are constantly trying to figure out what your site is all about so that it can display your site pages within the search results. Writing within the niche you serve helps not only the search engines, but can position you as an expert in your field.

Don't pitch - The point of a blog is not to make a sale. Your blog is a great tool to position yourself as an industry expert and leader. Share your knowledge with the world and end it at that. At the most, at the end of your post, a small link to a Free Offer of some kind should be fine.

Good title - It sometimes takes as long to come up with a good title as it does to write an entire blog post. This is because your title is the best chance you have to catch your readers attention. Make it count! The title of your blog post is the 1st thing that the search engines will see. Incorporating some good keywords here makes a lot of sense.

Content length - Blog posts are typically brief, 300 words is good. But don't write much less because what we have found, for seo purposes, content is more effective if the content is 300 words or more.

Bring something new - Your audience has a lot of choices out there. Give them a reason to read your blog. Share new and cutting edge information. Make it really valuable and readers will come back again and again.
 
Quality - Check your spelling and grammar before posting. No one wants to read poor writing.

Frequency - When you are just starting a new blog it's very important to post on a very regular basis. Shoot for 3 posts every week but as little as a few each month can hold your readership. If you don't post enough people will lose interest.

Share you Opinion - Share your opinion with your audience in a clear and concise way but keep your outlook positive. Don't bring anger and negativity into your blog posts, it will turn away readers.

Follow these tips and you can have a bustling blog in no time.

Most blogs today incorporate this logo onto their webpage’s:






It has become a highly recognizable symbol online but few people know what it really means. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) logo. Accompanied only by words like "subscribe" or "follow" this logo speaks for itself, or does it?

RSS feeds have become an "everyone else is doing it" cliché on today's blogs. We assume we need one but not everyone entirely understands exactly what the RSS feed does.

Today's web savvy prospects have become hesitant to sign up for email reminders or to subscribe for updates from businesses they like simply because of the increase in emails that will result. If you are like most people, we are frantically unsubscribing from every newsletter that hits our inbox to reduce email clutter and overload. For businesses with blogs, readership is the key to success and subscribers create a fan base that you can track and market to. Making the decision to offer an RSS feed to readers is giving them the ability to follow your blog with ease. Your content can easily be shared via a person’s RSS Feed reader, email, or even Outlook has a section for strictly RSS Feeds.

RSS feeds act like a subscription to your blog however there are no email alerts when you post new content. A user chooses a web feed format and then adds their favorite blogs or news sites to their feed. When new content is published on these sites the reader will see the content in their web feed.

By definition this is a form of syndication such as a newspaper might use to publish valuable news from across the country. The benefit of an RSS feed is that it is completely designed by the consumer. They choose their news and information sources and build the perfect news feed for their interests. Also, another huge benefit of RSS Feeds, is that people can easily share your content on their own blogs or share posts via social media and you get links back to your site in a lot of these instances.

Giving your audience the ability to keep up with your content through a web feed is a must in today's fast paced internet marketing arena. If they like what they see they may decide to sign up for your e-newsletter as well and eventually make a purchase or contact you for more information. You spend a lot of time writing content for your blog and website. Don’t let it go to waste, make it easy for your consumers to follow you and keep up with your content using an RSS Feed.

Blogging really is a form of social media. Some social media sites are hard to measure the success of and blogging can be included in this.
 
The key to keeping a successful blog is to decide what you're going to write about and why. Your posts should speak to a specific audience and share information that this audience will find both unique and interesting. You then want to stay focused on this topic. If you start your blog about car repair you should not write a post about fixing your roof.

Once you have outlined your blog topic, do some keyword research. Use the free Google Keyword tool and type in some keywords related to your blog topic. It helps if you get into the mind of your target prospect and ask yourself – Who am I trying to reach? What am I trying to accomplish? What would they search for in relation to this blog post?

Don’t wait to start tracking the traffic to your blog posts. Get Google Analytics or another analytics software installed into your blog right away. eFusion blogs come with analytics built in and Word Press blogs, you can easily add the Google Analytics tracking script. Tracking the analytics of your blog posts will tell you how many people are visiting your blog, what keywords they used, what blog post they landed on, as well as how long they stay and what they do from there.

Follow these steps to help you measure the success of your blog:
 
1. Track Visitation - How many people are visiting your blog?

2. Are You Sparking Conversation? - Do readers comment on what you have to say? Do they discuss it?

3. Duration of Visit - Use your analytics to find out how long people are staying on your site. Did they land on your blog by accident and leave right away or did they start with one blog post and spend time jumping around and reading more? This will help you determine if you blog as a whole is interesting to readers.

4. Page Visits - Analytics will let you see what pages people are visiting and what page they enter into your site through and what page they leave from. This can help you see what posts are grabbing traffic so you know what to keep writing about.

5. Physical Location - Analytics can get as detailed as telling you where your readership is coming from. If a high percentage of your readers come from California it might not make sense to blog about a recent snow storm.

6. Keywords – Find out what keywords people are using to reach your blog. You might find some great keywords that you could use to expand on throughout your existing site or even write more blog posts around.

Ultimately measuring blog success takes time. Measuring the ROI of a blog comes from readership and followers. A good web analytics program will help you better understand your readers and their viewing habits. The more you blog, the more traffic you will get which will ultimately lead to more business for you.

There is a reason that public relations professionals no longer rely fully on sending a press release to local media to promote a new product. Instead they are sending media professionals and well known bloggers samples of their new product.

This is done with the hope that some of these writers will share their personal experience with their audience. Consumers are far more likely to relate to a blog post describing an experience with a new line of running shoes then they will be to acolades promoted by the manufacturer.

Readers appreciate the story behind a product review. For example, the writer was suffering with knee pain during their daily runs and had feared that their running days were over until they tried a new brand of shoe that changed everything. Now they are training for the Chicago Marathon.

Having your product discussed on someone elses blog or website is beneficial for a few reasons. It is a great way to get your product information out to the masses and it is also an excellent way to boost your search engine optimization performance. If these bloggers point their readers back to your site Google will see this as a sign of the quality of your site and improve your search engine rank.

Encouraging others to talk up your product is an excellent marketing technique. It is also important to make sure the content written on yor website is speaking directly to your consumer. Tell them a story there as well. Make it easier for your reader to relate to you and your product and you are more likely to make a sale.

When you establish a blog the lines between blog and website can become rather blurry. It is easy to question why you need a blog when you already have a website but the difference between the two is very important. Communication.

A blog is set up in a way that allows you to share information with your readers and then it allows them to comment back to you thus starting a conversation. A website is simply an output of information that your are providing. This is important and has its place but a blog serves a different purpose.

Although the communication that happens on a blog is often between a couple of people the benefit of it is that all your readers can see the back and forth. It will give them a better idea of who you are as well as potentially answer a question they may have had. The comment feature in a blog makes you available to your reader.

Another great feature of a blog is that you can tag your posts with keywords. This will enable someone visiting your blog to search for a post on a certain topic and find the information they need easily. Your blog will also improve your search engine optimization and if your blog is featured on your website it improves the content and information available on your site.

Ultimately a blog is a great way to boost your credibility with your readers and open the lines of communication.