In short, SEO is the process of optimizing a website by tweaking both internal and external factors to drive website traffic that originates from search engines.

Here’s a brief rundown of SEO and what takes place when a website is made search engine friendly.

A Basic Explanation of Search Engines

If you’ve worked with an internet marketing company, you’ve been told that it’s important to ensure your website is search engine optimized so that search engines can pick it up in certain keyword searches. Search engines are text-driven programs that crawl the different web pages to find what’s on them. The search engines then index everything they come across during the crawling process.

During the indexing process, pages are assigned to certain keywords, which is how search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo determine which pages show up in searches. Next, the search engine processes the information by comparing the page to pages that are already indexed; relevancy of the page in comparison to what has already been indexed is also calculated. Lastly, the search engine retrieves the results and shows them in your browser, sorted in a range from the most to least relevant.

Keywords and Keyword Density are King

When you’re looking to work with an internet marketing company, you’ll likely consider purchasing SEO packages that select keywords for your website. The most successful keywords are generally two- and three-word search terms.

Internet marketing companies will use certain algorithms to determine which keywords will help drive users to your website. It’s also important to ensure keywords have the proper density, which helps determine how relevant a page is considered when it is crawled.

Dividing the number of keywords in the copy by the number of total words, then multiplying by 100, determines keywords density. The basic idea is that if a page has a higher keyword density, it will be considered more relevant. For major keywords, a density of 2 to 4 percent is generally accepted, with a density of 1-2 percent being ideal for more minor keywords. Be sure not to over-stuff keywords into your copy. That can penalize you in search results.

A Good Internet Marketing Company will Seamlessly Implement SEO

When SEO became a standard practice within the last decade or so, many companies tried to stuff their clients’ websites full of keywords, making the copy unintelligible and hard to understand. Thanks to the complicated algorithms used by top search engines, it’s impossible to get away with that type of SEO abuse today.

Instead, good SEO means integrating the keywords into the existing copy on a website without altering the meaning of the text. This helps preserve the original tone and voice of the client’s website and, most importantly, will ensure the site is indexed properly when crawled by the search engine.

After reading about how an internet marketing company will use SEO to improve your site’s performance, you’re probably interested in learning more about finding an internet agency. Guest post written by Michelle.

Photo source:

jandscomputerservices.com

talent-shout.com

1: Yoast WordPress SEO

Yoast WordPress SEO is an all in one SEO kit which gives you site wide control over some of the most important SEO factors. Most usefully it allows you to easily write SEO friendly meta titles and descriptions, or it can even choose them for you! You can use Yoast SEO to create dynamic titles and descriptions across pages or to update individual pages. Other handy features include the ability to customise the content of your RSS feed, additional permalink controls, breadcrumb creator and a handy XML sitemap creator.

2: W3 TotalCache

W3 cache is a great plug in for improving site speed. Some WordPress sites can be notoriously slow because they have a lot of information to fetch from the server and then deliver to the user. Blog posts, comments and plug in data all have to be retrieved from the server which takes a lot of time. W3 TotalCache significantly reduces that time by caching its own fully complete copy of that page in its memory and presenting that to the user.

W3 TotalCache also allows you to minify CSS and Javascript files, which is particularly useful in some WordPress themes where there are an unnecessary amount of files. W3TotalCache essentially eliminates the unnecessary files and squeezes everything into one efficient file which is delivered directly to the user. W3TC can also be used for local cache, providing information to the browser as to what to cache and how long to keep it caches.

3: Share This

As social shares are likely to carry even more weight as a ranking factor, it’s as important as ever to ensure you’ve got social share buttons on all areas of your site. There are several social sharing plug ins, but for sheer ease of use and number of services this is the best for those who just want to install and let it do it’s magic. Share This enables you to customise the social sharing sites you display and where you display them on the page. You can also register with ShareThis to get additional social analytics about your shared posts.

4: upPrev Previous Post Animated Notification

One of the best bounce rate search engine optimisation tips I can give is to get this plug in! This is a great little way to subtly capture your users attention, help decrease bounce rate and generally get people engaging with more and more posts on your site. A lot of people found it initially on sites such as Nytimes.com and oddee.com have also been using something similar for a while.

This plug in creates a slider which fades or slides into your page when a user reaches a certain point in your post. If you set this at the very end of your page, it grabs the attention of the reader and allows them to click straight through to a different post. It works because it’s not too intrusive and when used properly feels quite natural and helpful.

5: Google Analytics For WordPress

For those serious about learning about the insight of their website, there isn’t a more complete Google Analytics package than Yoast’s. This plug in allows you as much insight into your websites analytics data as you want. You can either install the tracking code and leave it to collect the raw data you need every day, or use it to set custom variable reporting, e-commerce integration and event tracking.

Scott is a writer who would urge every SEO who hasn’t got a WordPress site to go out and start experimenting TODAY!

The Importance of Regular Posting

It may seem irrelevant to post blog entries on a frequent basis, but it can actually affect how many readers come to your blog and stick with it. Blogs that have frequent posts not only have a better chance of ranking well in search engines, but are more likely to bring readers back for more information. In other words, readers want to read your content, but won’t wait around for two months before you make the next post. While some people blog multiple times a day, some bloggers stick with blogging once a week or only once a month. The exact frequency is strongly determined by the type of content you write.

Content Plays a Big Role in Frequency

If you’re writing small reviews on the nation’s top TV shows, bloggers will expect at least one post per day. On the other hand, if you’re blogging about highly technical business data or installment loans from Great Plains Lending, your bloggers will understand weekly posts. In other words, if you plan to write short snippets of information, you need to blog more frequently than if you write posts averaging over 1,000 words. Another piece of information you need to consider is how often your topic receives new information. For example, if you’re writing about sports, you should consider posting several times per day.

Growth Rate Also Plays a Role

Do you want your blog to grow? The frequency in which you post can greatly affect those numbers. If you’re blogging simply as a hobby, you may want to post 2-3 times per week. However, those that want to blog professionally can expect to post up to 3-5 times per day. Remember though, that content type should also be considered. However, the average blogger usually posts once per day to keep the growth steady.

Frequent blogging is necessary for growth. However, the level of frequency depends on your content and the amount of growth you’re hoping for. Regardless of the frequency you choose, remember to keep your schedule consistent so that readers keep coming back for new information.

The Internet, and the agenda of webmasters, has now made it possible to not only express your words and thoughts as  easy as can be on the Internet, but it has also made it possible to get paid to be doing so. And sometimes – if you’re good (and efficient) enough – that can mean “the big bucks.”

Not all freelancing jobs are created equal however. And in the Internet world, reputation can mean everything, and if you are new to the game and haven’t required one yet, you might be struggling for a while before freelancing starts to become a good source of income for you. There are also many different types of freelancing gigs you can get on the Internet.

Working for a Content Writing Company

The need for companies to hoard information on their websites to give them a chance to rank high in the SERPs is never-ending. There is an infinite thirst for quality content for websites, and because of that, content writing companies that can produce quality content on a high scale are a very much needed service in the Internet industry. There will always be a high demand (at least in the foreseeable future) for these types of services. This makes this type of writing platform one of the most consistent writing jobs out there (and may not qualify as freelancing in some cases because you will actually be employed).

That being said, this type of job does not suit everybody. Even though the work is very consistent, and you should never be out of a job if you are good at it (if you work for the right company), you may not make as much money per word. This is because the companies themselves have to make money as well, and therefore are always scraping a percentage off of the top. This also doesn’t allow you to choose what you will be writing for the day for money. You may be forced to write about some boring topics and you may have to write about them repeatedly.

Sometimes, working for a content writing company can mean you will be focusing a lot on volume and turnaround time – which is true for all types of writing, but even more so when you are working with these types of companies. It’s all about be willing to give up a little bit of your freedom and personal interest for having a little bit more job security and consistency.

Working with Content Farms

Pre-Panda (click here if you are unsure what Panda Algorithm update is) working for the “content farms” good have been pretty close to something of a golden ticket. Sites like Suite101.com could bring in some very lucrative dollars for you. Although leaders in the SEO industry claim that content farms will be here for a while, they are definitely less profitable then they used to be. Site like Suite101.com got completely annihilated by the update and left top senior writers wondering whether or not they should continue writing with the site as the profit margin with their revenue sharing was nowhere close to where it used to be.

Content farms, the highly advanced one anyways, still continue to be a profitable business, and you can still do well if you pick and choose who you want to write for. Many of the times, this type of writing can be the most flexible, and it is a great way to write when you want, and make money when you want. Demand Studios is one of the leaders of the Industry and if you know how to work the system for maximizing your profits – you can do very, very well.

Niche Forum Freelancing

Probably the least consistent, but also one of the most thrilling, flexible, and pioneering types of freelancing includes marketing your services (directly or indirectly) in forums that you are a part of, or have become a part of because of your intentions of making money off of freelance writing.

There are all sorts of different types of forums out there (the best way to find them is Big-Boards.com) and if you can find one that pertains to what you love to write about, and one that also has a heavy collection of webmasters in it with websites relating to that niche, you can constantly find work. And in a lot of cases – even long term clients.

In fact, a little known kept secret is that many online businesses, especially in the service providing industry – yes I mean businesses – can be founded out of a forum, and many Internet marketers work behind the scenes, without the need of a website. It is very cost-effective to do so, and many different opportunities can be found just by building relationships with people over time. Forums can have an exponential positive effect on your business. Simply put, forums are online gold mines.

Re-”Search” Freelancing

Obviously, one of the biggest spots for freelancing on this planet is Freelance.com (especially in India where the site gets most of its traffic), and other freelancing sites like it, but if you want to find the best freelancing gigs – they are usually left un advertised and are not posted in monster freelancing gigs website platforms.

In fact, using the search engines for finding the best freelancing gigs usually does not involve using the keyword “freelance” anywhere in your search query –at all. This search market is highly over flooded, and this will usually turn up freelancing gigs that require a lot of work that are done at a very cheap cost. You have to get more creative with your search terms, and usually what will happen is that you will find a private company that needs some freelance writing done for their company’s website, and they will usually offer up the work at a higher paying price.

Another advantage is this is that you can keep researching until you find the perfect job for you. Half of the battle of freelance writing is researching the market out there. Take your time, and find a job that pertains to what you love to write about!

Writing in SEO services

Contextual link building is a service that is very high demand, and with it, comes the need of the highest type of content. If you can create content that other webmasters are just dying to get up on their website, then you can make a lot of money being a guest posting subcontractor.

Getting into this business is not as easy as the other ones mentioned above. Mainly because you have to have your foot in the door already with either an SEO company, or a couple of webmasters that currently need the service. One way to do it is to pitch the idea of guest posting to somebody you are already providing article writing services for, and how it can greatly benefit their website. If you are good at explaining it, and fully understand the benefits of guest posting, it should be quite an easy pitch.

This type of writing can be your most profitable. But it will also be your most time consuming, as it has to be your best writing and you have to do a lot more than just write articles when it comes to guest posting.
Becoming a full-time freelancer is within your midst. How much money you make doing so depends on your ability to come up with creative strategies. The Internet is a giant frontier for business ventures, and the same goes for freelancing on the Internet. There is no golden rule to freelancing – except for making it happen.

This article was contributed by Philip Russell. In his spare time, Philip loves to join the online world in discussion about SEO, Internet marketing, and the newest and coolest way to make money online. By day, he helps to provide link building services over at www.inetzeal.com – an established a reputable white label SEO Company. He also enjoys computer programming, basketball, and music.

Despite how obvious these rules appear the how and why of these rules are often a mystery. Some rules have become accepted as simple common sense when it comes to good graphic design. Others were found to be practical tools to determine how a user navigates and uses a website. Regardless, over time these tools became standard for any designer wishing to keep their website as useable and visitor friendly as possible.

There are additional tools that can be implemented along with the basics that will not only allow you to measure your website’s usability, but may actually increase usability. Once you implement the tools, your visitors will be able to navigate and use your website as it was intended, with no confusion, making a return visit an easy decision when they next need the information or service your website provides.

User Testing As An Obvious Testing Option

Sometimes the most obvious method is the easiest one to overlook. Putting your website in front of individuals and getting feedback on how easy it is to use, find pertinent information and interact, is probably the most obvious way to get accurate, user-based feedback on your website design. Although user testing is most likely the best way to test your website, it is not feasible for everyone due to what can amount to significant time and money investments incurred by hiring individual testers. However, there are companies that provide this service. UserTesting will set up testing and allow you to view the user’s results using QuickTime for a small cost of $29. Silverback is another well-known testing tool that gives a 30-day free trial for Mac testing. After the trial period, the testing costs $49.95.

Using Heat Maps

A Heat Map is an overlay that records how long a visitor stays at any given point on your website, how the website is viewed and how users scroll through the website. In a nutshell, it provides pertinent information on how people view your website. It shows what they are clicking, what parts they are viewing and how long they dwell on any one given element. ClickTale is one heat map tool that is commonly considered to be a top choice for this. It provides eye tracking, click tracking and has an attractive overlay all in one package. Other heat map options include ClickHeat, SimpleMouseTracking and UserFly.

Using Google Website Optimizer

Used as a part of Google AdWords or all on it’s own, Google Website Optimizer will take you through a testing procedure that tells you whether basic testing is sufficient, or if your website needs a more involved, multivariate testing. Provided free by Google, it determines the best type of testing for your website. You must have your website already designed for this tool to work, and it is necessary also to keep the website simple so that it does not get lost trying to follow too much information at one time. While Google does not suggest changes, it is very helpful in helping to design great landing pages and showing you the best way to optimize your website information.

Using Google Analytics/Click Tracker

Another handy tool from Google, Click Tracker shows what part of your website users are clicking and how often they click. It effectively supercharges Google as a part of JavaScript, allowing you to receive more information from Google than normally would normally be available. It records every click whether it is an image, link, div, form element or span once it is embedded in the event handler. It is great at showing which links visitors like the most and points out possible confusing elements.

Brian Flores is a blogger for InMotion Hosting, a leading webhosting provider in the United States.

Many blog owners rely solely on Google Analytics for tracking traffic, referrals, keywords, etc, but Google Analytics is far from the best tool out there; when it comes to the important statistics you need to keep up with, it doesn’t even scratch the surface. So here are 5 analytics tools that are sure to aid in your success and give you what you need as a blog owner.

Crazy Egg
If you prefer to visualize your website statistics instead of reading boring numbers, Crazy Egg will suit your needs. It offers 4 different types of views: overlay, list, heatmap and confetti. Each is great for letting you see just where people are clicking on your website and how many clicks you’re getting in each area. With hourly reporting and notifications via RSS or email, you can view pertinent information like referrers (where your traffic is coming from), search terms (what people are searching for to get to your site), what browser your visitors are using, what time of day they’re visiting, what country they’re from and much more. Your data can also be shared with others via email or exported as a spreadsheet or PDF. Choose one of their 4 plans to get started; prices range from $9/month to $99/month.

Reinvigorate
With Reinvigorate you get real-time tracking via the auto-updating dashboard, so that you can see everything as it happens. Their snoop features dings you right on your computer desktop whenever you have a new visitor, sale, sign up and more. They offer heatmaps as well as detailed reports and granular graphs which can be customized. You can also get a breakdown of your statistics by the hour, day or month. Other great features includes referral tracking, visitor regions and timezones, page-level statistics and a globally distributed tracking code so that your site will load much faster. You can get started with a 14-day free trial or jump right into one of their 3 plans ranging from $10/month to $100/month.

ChartBeat
You’ll be impressed with ChartBeat’s dashboard adorned with gages, charts and a map – all of which update in real-time. You can see how many active new and returning visitors are on your site at any given time. You can also see how many visitors are reading, how many are writing and how many are just idle. The top pages section lets you see your most view pages and traffic sources will show you where visitors are coming from. The map of course shows locations and you can even view conversations (powered by Twitter), so that you can see what others are saying about your blog on the Web. Customizable alerts are available via email, SMS or an iPhone app. Pricing starts at $9.95/month and goes to $149.95/month for their 4 plans; you’ll also start with a 30-day free trial.

Woopra
Woopra also has a live dashboard, live notifications and an impressive set of features. You can watch visitors live as they’re navigating your site and even talk to them via a live chat widget. The visitor engagement area, which is very similar to ChartBeat, lets you see if your visitors are reading, writing or idle. Plus with integrations like Google Insights, you can get in-depth search engine data and see which keywords are bringing in the most traffic as well as find out what keywords you should be using that you aren’t. You’ll also get referral tracking, location tracking via a live map, system details (operating system, browser, screen resolution) and even the ability to see what ISP your visitors are using. With Woopra, you can go with their free basic account or choose one of their 6 plans ranging from $4.95/month to $179.95/month.

GoingUp
While GoingUp includes many of the basic visitor tracking features as the others on the list, it also offers useful optimization tools to help enhance your website. With the traffic trend analysis you can track and record the activity of your visitors, see where they were referred from, what they’re viewing and where they’re going once they leave your site. You also get to see keyword referrals, visitor locations, heatmaps and you can monitor inbound links (see who’s linking to you). If optimizing your website is important to you, you’ll love their Google pankrank and Alexa rank tracking tool as well as the page optimizer and keyword density tool. You can get started with a free account or choose one of their 4 plans; prices range from $19/month to $99/month.

While these are not the only analytics tools out their for your blog, they are some of the best. Whichever service you choose it’s important to not only look at the information, but also respond accordingly to help build a better website, increase your traffic and increase your rankings.

Guest Bio: This was a post by Lior Levin who works for an applicant tracking software company from New-York. Lior is a marketing consultant and an expert blogger.

The SEO View

As an SEO obviously my views on this side of things are a bit opinionated, however I am a blogger and internet loving junkie too so I guess you could say I can look at all of this from the other side of the fence as well. My suspicion since October(6 months after the update in April) was that Google were not intending to update their tool again and sure enough now looking a further 3 months on there has still been no sign of any update. My personal view is that Google will never update the tool again but that isn’t to say I wouldn’t say no to an update!

The Google View

Google know for a fact that SEOs use the PR tool to decide if a site is powerful or not and make judgements on whether or not to place their links on a site. Of course removing the PR bar is going to discourage some SEOs from Black Hat methods but is it really going to stop anyone? Don’t forget there are hundreds of ranking factors that a half decent SEO is aware of. Sure it might take slightly longer  to assess the power of a site but it won’t stop it from happening. Don’t forget there are other tools out there to replace it such as MozRank that do pretty much the same thing.

Who is to say that because you are judging a site for its PR that you are planning on putting a “dirty” link on the site? Would it be wrong for me to target a PR 9 blog for a post that took me hours to research and write or would it benefit both me and the blogger and start a relationship that would perhaps carry on for years?

It can easily be seen from both sides.

Bloggers’ View

The bloggers’ view on PR is often the one that Google ignores but I feel it is one of the most important sides of the argument. A blogger will work very hard on Alexa Rank and PR to make their blog more powerful and in the eyes of most bloggers the higher the PR, the better they have done with the site and the more motivation they have to keep going. This is something I myself look for in my own blogs and back in the day it was very rewarding to see you move up a notch in PR. The chances are many bloggers out there are unaware of the other ranking factors of a site so if Google do decide to cut out PR then it could dishearten a lot of fantastic bloggers out there.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

Having browsing some of the Webmaster Central help forums recently I discovered a comment from a Google Employee that states that perhaps there is still hope for the PR tool. You can find the full comment on the address underneath this text but here is a small snippet from the reply.

“We do update the Toolbar PageRank regularly, even if that’s not as regularly as some of you wish. I agree that it would be nice to have it updated more frequently. Given the time since the last update, I imagine you’ll start seeing another one in the near future.”

Of course by regularly they can’t mean externally because we haven’t seen anything in nearly a year and he did confirm earlier in the comment that the internal pagerank that Google have is constantly being updated (we already knew that though right?). He also goes onto say that the Google PR tool is just one search metric out there, listing a couple of other Google (surprise, surprise) products out there that you can look at.

Although it would seem that Google are perhaps working on an update it would also seem that if this Google employee is anything like Cutts that you should question every single word he put down and find the hidden meanings within to find the real answer within the text.

Don’t forget that Google PR is just one measurement on a site, and to list a few, you also need to look at your inbound/outbound links, the Alexa rankings and if you own the site and how users are finding the site and if they are coming back (see GA for details on this). Don’t discount other measurement tools like MozRank either.

Guest Bio: Ryan is a keen internet marketer working for a company that deal with car hire. If you fancy a follow you can find him on Twitter @ryanogs.

However, for Web development, the march of technology has been toward simplicity and ease of use. Blogging and Web publishing in general are both more approachable than ever. Not only can one set up a Facebook account in minutes but they can do the same with a WordPress.com account or a Tumblr blog as well.

In short, anyone who wants to publish a blog can easily do so and almost no experience is required, just the ability to fill in a short form and write some new content.

But this doesn’t mean we’ve gotten away from HTML and CSS being a requirement for creating a successful site. Not knowing these languages can be very detrimental to your site and not only keeps great content from finding the audience it deserves, but can actually cripple your site in ways you can’t predict.

Simply put, if you don’t know HTML and CSS, at least to a minimal extent, you are holding your blog back and gambling with its future.

The Pitfall

To be clear, advancements in blogging platforms have greatly reduced the importance of HTML and CSS knowledge in running a site. Not only is it possible to set up a site without looking at any code, but widgets, customizable themes and plugins now make it possible to do a lot of the more common coding tasks without cracking open the theme files.

But while this is great, there are also problems with it.

The first is that, when you can’t edit your theme by hand, you are limited to what is provided with it. You can only make the changes and additions that are built in. Even though some themes can be very flexible, it also means that your site will wind up looking like the other sites that use the same theme and there isn’t much that you can do about it.

Second, there are some things you simply can’t add via a plugin or widget, such as many external services, tools and other changes that require you to add the HTML code by hand. Though the process is trivial, if you’re intimidated by HTML it can be a trying experience.

Finally, and this is possibly the most important, is that things break. If your theme begins to have trouble, images start to break or a service you were using stops functioning properly, you need the ability to leap in and fix the theme. Otherwise, your site might appear to be broken or, even worse, generate nothing but an error.

Though these types of incidents are very rare, if it happens to you and you can’t fix it, you’re at the mercy of those who help you and that can greatly slow down the time it takes to get back online.

In short, if you don’t know HTML and CSS, at least some, you’re both limiting what you can do with your site and putting yourself at risk of not being able to respond effectively if something should go wrong.

These are risks you don’t have to take and shouldn’t if you can avoid it.

How to Avoid It

The simple answer on how to avoid this pitfall is “Learn HTML and CSS”. But the answer isn’t that easy.

There is no real reason to aim to become an expert on HTML and CSS, unless you plan on developing your own themes from scratch or do more heavy manipulation. It is more important that one understand the basics of both the languages, including possibly some JavaScript and PHP, than they be able to answer everything off the top of their head.

So, before one considers going back to school, here are a few quick ways to get just the HTML knowledge you need without spending a lot of time or money.

1. Online Tutorials: W3Schools has a great basic HTML tutorial for the complete notice that familiarizes you with the basics of HTML structure and tags. Has a similar one for CSS. There are many other great tutorials out there but these are great for learning as you can work “live” and learn by experimentation.
2. Get a Book: As powerful as online tutorials are, you might also want to spend a few bucks and get a decent HTML/CSS book. Not only is it a great reference, but many learn better from a book and it lets you look at your work and the guide without changing tabs.
3. Set Up a Test Site: Finally, consider setting up a test site with a duplicate theme at a different URL (perhaps test.yourdomain.com) so that you can dabble with your HTML code without destroying your main site. This is a great way to get practical practice and understanding of your theme without any risk.

All in all, to get the amount of knowledge you need to move forward with your site, you only need to spend a few hours of time. However, it is time well spent as it can help you take your blog to new heights and fix problems as they arise.

Bottom Line

In short, there’s nothing magical about learning HTML and CSS. If you know how to use a word processor or other office applications, there really isn’t significantly farther as much of the results are similar (bold, headings, tables, etc.), you’re just learning how to indicate it in a new way.

Considering the doors that HTML and CSS can open up for your site and the headache it can save later, it’s a worthwhile investment.

Even if you never actually use it in your theme, you’ll be able to not rely so much on the visual editor of your blog and that will let you ensure that posts are formatted exactly right and give you complete control over how your entries look.

In the long run, that may actually be the biggest benefit of all in getting a primer on HTML.

At CopyByte, our focus is not merely on removing every unlicensed copy of a work but finding ways to use the realities of the Web to work for content creators, including encouraging legitimate reuse and harnessing the power of their Web for good, rather than fighting against it blindly.

In addition to the above services, CopyByte provides plagiarism analysis, content analysis, expert witness testimony and other services to help with litigation and legal matters.

However, CopyByte is not a law firm and should not be taken as legal advice. Instead, we work with a variety of technology and legal partners to provide a our services and help develop practical strategies that can work on the Web.

New clients receive one free hour of consultation simply by scheduling an appointment and times are usually available within a few days.

So, if you’re interested in seeing how how you can get the most out of your work and your effort, schedule an appointment with CopyByte today. We will be happy to see how we can help.

Check out our services.

If you blog long enough, it is bound to happen to you, even if you aren’t aware. Someone will take your content and republish it on their site, sometimes with a link, sometimes without, sometimes the full work, sometimes just a snippet. There are a million ways your content can appear on other sites, some ways legitimately and other ways less so, but they are all interesting lessons in how your readers interact with your work and, in some cases, problems you have to address.

Because, while most content reuse is fairly harmless. Some uses, especially by plagiarists and spammers, can have a negative impact on your site. This makes it important to know both how to track your content, what your rights are regarding your work, when is a good idea to step in and, most importantly, what you can do if you find that you need to.

Unfortunately, the issues are far more complex than what we can discuss in a single column, but we can definitely give a good overview of the situation and what you can expect.

The Pitfall

The pitfall here is fairly simple, people are going to want to use your content on their sites. Some will have noble intentions, such as quoting your content in a response or linking to it to let their readers know about it. Others, however, will have less-than-pure motives, including spamming the search engines in an attempt to gain a higher ranking and to plagiarize your work to take credit for it.

Most of the time even the most nefarious use is fairly harmless and goes unnoticed. However, there are times that a site will either be successful in using another’s content to game the search engines or manage to convince a large number of people that they are the author of a work.

Smaller sites and newer sites are especially vulnerable to these issues. Since they don’t have the trust with Google or a large reader base, it is trivial for other sites to swoop in and replace the original. Spammers, who often have large link farm networks, can often times take the content from new sites and outrank them for unique terms and can be very difficult to unseat later.

This can be a major drag on the growth of a new site, especially one that is in a spam-friendly niche. However, too few bloggers are aware of these problems when they arise and when they are aware aren’t certain what they can or should do.

Fortunately, most of these cases can be easily prevented or resolved, if a blogger is willing to give some thought to how they want their content to be used and are willing to enforce their rules.

How to Avoid It

On my main site, Plagiarism Today, I talk at great length about content misuse issues and what bloggers/webmasters can do to prevent, reduce or stop it. However, much of the process comes down to seven steps that can to be repeated for every site:

1. License Your Work: Determine what conditions you want your work to be used under and mark it accordingly. If you are comfortable with some level of reuse, consider getting a Creative Commons license to clearly explain your terms. If you are not comfortable with any reuse, be sure to add a copyright footer that includes the year, the © symbol and “All Rights Reserved”. Though the latter is not needed under the law, it helps prevent confusion.
2. Track Your Content: For your blog’s main content, use FairShare to monitor where it is being used on the Web. For content that is outside of your RSS feed, consider using Google Alerts with several key phrases from your work. Both will notify you automatically when duplicates of your content appear online and both are free services.
3. Contact the Site Admins: If you find that your work is being misused, contact the site admin and ask that they stop. This is known as a “cease and desist” demand and can take a variety of forms and tones. These requests can be threatening and professional or friendly and polite, the choice is yours based on your approach and the case itself. Sometimes you are forced to skip this step, as with spam sites.
4. Notify the Host: If the site is within the U.S. or another nation with a notice and takedown system, contact the host of the site to have it removed. You can find who the host of a site is using WhoIsHostingThis or Domain Tools. When sending a notice to a U.S.-based host, you’ll need a to file a DMCA takedown notice.
5. Notify the Advertisers: If the site has advertisers, consider notifying them about the infringement if you believe it to be intentional. Most major ad networks will discontinue accounts of those who infringe copyright.
6. Notify the Search Engines: If contacting the host doesn’t get results or is not practical, consider filing a DMCA takedown notice with Google and the other search engines to have the content removed from there. At the very least, you will not be competing with your own work.
7. Consider a Lawsuit: Though in most cases of online content misuse, a lawsuit is neither a practical nor an adviseable step, if all else fails, it may be worth considering if the case you are dealing with may be the exception to the rule.

If you take these steps, you’ll likely find that the amount of content misuse you’re dealing with is kept to a minimum and you are able to handle any incidents that do arise. Though it is by no means a perfect system, it is one that is easy for bloggers to follow and doesn’t require any money to complete.

In short, it is meant to be a simple, effective and free way to protect, monitor and enforce your content on the Web.

Bottom Line

All in all, protecting your content from misuse is fairly straightforward and shouldn’t take a great deal of time and energy. If you’re doing everything correctly and focusing on the important cases, it won’t be a distraction from your regular blogging efforts.

However, this means being smart about how you enforce your work and realizing that, as a blogger, not all reuse of your content is bad, especially those that create an inbound link. If you license your work to encourage good use, you’ll likely find that very few people actually abuse your content and those who do can usually be stopped quickly.

This will let you protect your work while encouraging its spread and still not spending too much time thinking or worrying about these issues.

After all, if you spend all of your time thinking about copyright issues, you’re not blogging or growing your site and that could be the biggest disaster of all.

That’s where screencasting comes in, and a useful program like TechSmith’s Camtasia can make a technophobe look like the next Spielberg. OK, that might be a stretch, but if you’re looking to get the most out of your screencasts, here’s why I dig Camtasia.

First, why screencast? From e-learning to presentations, screencasting is a great way to demo your products and services. Camtasia offers a PowerPoint plug-in that turns your presentations into videos.

The tools give the ability to conduct basic audio and video editing without having to step into an Avid suite with an annoying (and unshowered) editor.

With the flick of your mouse you can record what is happening on your screen. Choose to record the entire screen or define a specific area.

While I am impressed with the software, there is a bit of a learning curve. (As I’m sure you can tell from my quickie test below.) I purposely created the demo in one-take without ever having seen the software before. It’s a choppy job – but it did get done – and that gives me confidence that after a few more spins, I’ll have a good handle on Camtasia. There are also several screencast (shocker!) tutorials available.

After you record the actions on your screen, the video is inserted into the editor, where you can make changes, add transitions and effects, and insert music and other media. You can choose to import your own media or grab content from the pre-stocked library.

One of the cooler features is “sketch motion” which lets your mark up your screencast ala John Madden football telestrator style. Cool cursor effects allow you to put your mouse hand on steroids to make it more visible to viewers.

When your project is complete, choose the output dimensions (widescreen/HD options available) and hang tight as it renders. You can choose to size your screencast for the Web, mobile phones, or DVDs. There’s also a nifty one-touch function to send your screencast directly to YouTube.

A free 30-day trial should make a believer out of anyone, but the $299 price tag is sure to keep some frugal bloggers away.

Q: Many bloggers discover that selling banners and links is not the best way to generate revenue. What type of blogger is the best fit to cash in on the MediaPass business model?

A: This may sound odd but the answer is most. Yes, some blogs (e.g. finance, parenting, cooking, medical, science, health, fitness etc…) convert better than others but even the lower converting blog’s subscription pages still far out monetize purely ad-based sites. Take for instance a blog that converts 0.5% of their users that arrive on one of their subscription pages. Our average subscriber spends about $60 with renewals. That means that the effective CPM on those pages is $300, many fold over the ad rates any blog is getting.

Q: Is there any self-evaluation a blogger should perform before signing up?

A: They should simply use their intuition in determining what sections and pieces of content make sense to charge for. Some only charge for their legacy/archived content, some pick entire sections and some pick maybe one in three of their articles (or whatever ratio they would like). Our account managers are trained and can also help them pick.

Q: Are subscriber pages blocked from being crawled by search engines?

A: No

Q: How do bloggers get paid?

A: Via check or ACH twice a month. We are updating our platform to pay more often. Will be ready next month.

Q: Will MediaPass work with all blogging platforms?

A: Currently all but blogs hosted by WordPress. I want to be clear about this. MediaPass works perfectly on a blogs that use WordPress as their CMS (as most do) but if they are hosted by WordPress (i.e. their domain name ends in .wordpress.com), we currently don’t support that.

Q: What is your dream plan for Mediapass?

A: Even the smartest blogs and publishers are not experts in online subscription practices as we are. We have created a product that automates much of that expertise. Which is why if a blogger wants our system to do something MediaPass currently doesn’t it’s either b/c A) We will be developing that functionality in the future or b) it’s not a good subscription practice so we don’t let them fall into a trap. B is the most common reason. We think every almost every blog should have some paid element to their site. Blogs that are 100% free don’t make enough money for their efforts. And we want to help power the subscription platform for all of them.

Q: What do you say to bloggers who feel the introductory 35% cut MediaPass keeps is steep?

A: Three things: 1) it costs hundreds of thousands and most often millions of dollars to start a sophisticated in-house subscription platform and is equally expensive in upkeep. We handle everything so it is essentially riskless. 2) What many bloggers may not realize is that other ways in which they monetize their site (i.e. ad networks and AdSense) charge them usually between 50-60% and sometimes more. Those companies have fixed but no variable costs to deliver their service. We have both and still charge less. 3) We believe our subscription expertise pays for itself. Meaning in most cases a blog’s subscriptions will be at least 35% higher for having used us. Additionally, if a blog uses us and it doesn’t outyield their current monetization, the solution is pretty simple; stop using MediaPass.

Q: Any success stories you can share?

A: We have multiple. Our publisher terms and conditions don’t give us the right to tell the world who has decided to add subscription elements to their publication. We are close with a site called GameClassroom that has let us mention them on a few occasions. They have increased their eCPM on those pages by over 10X, which appears to be about our average.

Q: Do you offer a solution for a blogger to sell access to one-time content (i.e. – a Web-based ebook)?

A: Yep. We have a pay-per-view (PPV) and they have access to that content forever. We don’t turn it on as an option in their publisher console unless they are doing something like video or an ebook because PPV is usually not the best way for publishers/blogs to maximize revenue.

I’ve signed up for MediaPass but have not launched it yet. I plan on attempting to use it to make my eBook available in an online format. I’ll be sure to share the results. Anyone out there give it a try? Let us know in the comments section below.

The one item that often gets lost in the shuffle is SEO. Many bloggers add in a few strong keywords and move on to the next post. Guilty as charged. That’s why when I came across ScribeSEO, an automated writing assistant service designed to help you flag down search engine love, I was intrigued. When I read that Brian Clark of CopyBlogger fame was behind it, I was sold.

It’s too early to report any results, (Have you tried Scribe? Tell us below.) but the one thing I really, really like about ScribeSEO is that it gives me confidence that I am doing everything I can to get my posts in front of as many eye balls as possible. It also forces me to re-evaluate my work before posting – an essential component of successful blogging.

The search engine optimization software has plug-ins available for WordPress, Drupal and Joomla, though I have been relying on the Web-based version that can be utilized, irrespective of your blogging platform.

After inputting your post the software will analyze it, generating a score (0 – 100%) on how your post meets standard SEO recommendations. Word count, readability, keyword density, hyperlink count and other factors are examined, all factoring into your score.

After the analysis is complete (it takes mere seconds), an SEO summary is displayed. This can be accessed any time from your dashboard as a Word doc download. The number of analysis queries you can submit depends on the package you choose ($17 – $97 a month).

What I like about the product is that it puts several valuable tools under roof. Can you achieve much of this for free with some legwork? Absolutely. But personally, I never mind paying for a service or a reminder that makes me better at what I do – and makes it easy to get there. Of course there are two sides to every story, and Scribe SEO has its detractors. However, I am from the camp that believes the service is a blessing for bloggers who are technologically-challenged or do not have the time or interest to engage in SEO. What do you think?

1. Puzzle Social Network Icon Set

What grade school student doesn’t love puzzles?

2. Sewn Badge Icon Set

This set reminds me of badges on Cub Scouts uniforms!

3. Moleskin Icon Set

For the discerning student, only a moleskin notebook will do.  Are moleskin icons right for your blog?

4. Color-stroked Free Hand Icon Set

This is one of my favorite hand-drawn icon sets.  I wish my doodles looked this good, and I love the crumpled paper.

5. Hand Drawn Social Media Icon Set

Here is another option if you like the hand drawn style.  This one offers consistent square shapes with simpler designs drawn on grid paper.

What do you think?  Will any of these social media icon sets give your blog the bling it needs?

Follow the link to read more about back to school and blogging basics on Performancing.

Check them out and see if the right social media icons to give your blog some zing are included in the list!

DelliFeed Icon Set

These food-related social media icons are available in six sizes and include cakes and popsicles!

Cheers Web 2.0 in a Glass Set

This set of social media icons includes martini glasses, wine glasses, margarita glasses, beer mugs, and more!

Panda Social Network Icons

This social media icon set includes 21 icons in 128×128 size, and all use the same cute Panda bear!

T-shirt Social Icons

This set of social media icons would be perfect for a fun fashion blog!

Science Social Media Icon Set

Surely there are far more blogs than just science-related blogs that could use the clever bottle designs in this social media icon set!

What do you think of these social media icon sets?  Do you use fun, interesting, or niche icons on your blog or do you stick with simple square, circle, or rectangle icons?  Leave a comment and share your preferences.

Foursquare and other hyper-local, mobile-connected services are evolving into the next big marketing wave, and if you’re not engaged yet, you will be soon. Close to two million people already are…and growing.

Here are the reasons why I decided to join, and why you should consider as well.

Story Ideas

I recently blogged about 5 Places to Find Blog Post Ideas. Well I’d like to introduce you to #6: Foursquare.

By learning your readers habits, you will not only have access to a gold mine of blog post ideas (and deliver what your readers want), but you will also be able to monitor trends. Insight into readers is one of the biggest hurdles that bloggers have to overcome. Without a budget for focus groups and traditional research, many of us take a leap of faith on who our audience really is. Getting your readers to friend you on Foursquare, gives you a glimpse into the products they buy, the restaurants they eat in, and how they spend a lot of their time. You don’t have to be a marketing expert or publishing pro to understand that this is valuable data.

BREAKING News

A growing number of journalists are using FourSquare to get the word out on breaking stories. This can save your life (unlikely but possible)! When Times Square was evacuated in May because of Faisal Shahzad’s faulty bomb-making skills, The Wall Street Journal “checked in” to the vicinity and warned nearby Foursquare users.

Get Readers Involved

The majority of people never take their online relationships offline. I’m not suggesting that I want random readers walking up to me at the supermarket, but there could be a time and place where it would be great to have a face-to-face interaction. Foursquare makes that possible. It’s ideal to use at industry conferences and other networking events where you are trying to connect with other bloggers and/or readers.

Also, bloggers should not underestimate the the psychological incentive of Foursquare badges. These “virtual awards” are handed out by business owners. You can always create a badge of your own when readers visit a certain place.

Twitter geolocation will continue to keep the number of people “on the grid” on the rise. Are you willing to put yourself on the radar?

Here are 9 effective techniques and tips that can be easily implemented to make your blog lightning fast.

1. Disable Unused Plugins

This is one of the easiest things we can do to reduce load times. I know many of us get carried away trying out the thousands of cool plugins available but we need to bear in mind the fact that they use system resources. Assess whether you need the plugins that you have installed and determine if they necessarily serve a useful purpose. Also, deactivated plugins that are not deleted can possibly create loopholes and back doors that hackers can exploit so delete them and maintain security for your blog.

2. Install A Caching Plugin

I recommend using the caching plugin W3 Total Cache which can greatly reduce the load time for your blog’s pages and ease the work on your hosting server. W3 Total Cache has the highest level of compatibility I’ve seen so far, especially with Content Delivery Networks.

3. Choose The Right Web Host

Personally, I’ve had my share of headaches when it comes to bad web hosts. There are tons of web hosting companies out there claiming to be the best but don’t seem to make the cut. Regardless of how optimized and efficient your blog may be, hosting your site on slow servers can drastically reduce your blog’s speed and up-time.

4. Use Less External Scripts

A tracking system such as Google Analytics is extremely useful for tracking a blog’s traffic and visitor demographics. However, having too many scripts installed from different providers can significantly increase and stall the loading of your blog because they are being called from an external source. If the server where the script is being called from is slow or down, this will affect your site’s performance. Other examples of external scripts include, code from video hosting sites, tracking badges and advertisements from external ad networks.

5. Check For Hacks & Other Exploits

Malicious code can seriously cripple your site’s performance and if you suddenly see an increase in your site’s loading times, its worth it to check for possible malicious injections. Plugins such as WP Anti Virus can scan your files for existing exploits. Read WordPress Security – A Comprehensive Guide to significantly improve your blog’s security.

6. Optimize Your MySQL Database

Optimizing your blog’s MySQL database can greatly reduce the load on your hosting server and improve load times, especially if you have a huge long-standing blog. The WP DB Manager plugin can easily optimize your database in a single click and even allows you to schedule optimization tasks.

7. Reduce The Number Of Images

Although images can assist with the overall appeal of our blogs, they need to be used in moderation. Less is best. Remove unnecessary badges and pictures that provide no useful purpose for neither you or your visitors. Minimal blog templates and designs usually perform best since they use less fancy images and javascript in the code.

8. Use A Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN is a network of expertly optimized servers around the world containing copies of your site’s data placed at various locations in the network to maximize bandwidth thus reducing your site’s load time. This works really well if you have visitors from all across the world as the servers closest to them will be used to deliver content quickly. A CDN provider such as MaxCDN can provide great performance without putting a strain on your pocket.

9. Avoid Flash Content

Flash takes a lot of time to load and can significantly increase load times. Flash should not make up the main design elements of your site.

Conclusion

There’s nothing better than a blog with great content and zero load times. Use the simple techniques above to improve the experience for your blog’s visitors while achieving maximum authority in google.

Do you know of any unique tips and tricks for increasing speed that are not mentioned here? Please share them with us in the comments, we would love to hear from you.

Let’s discuss what readers of corporate blogs are looking for and what elements will keep them coming back for more and even make a purchase.

Its Not Only About Self Promotion

Traditional advertising focuses on promoting how wonderful a company’s products are. We are constantly bombarded by these ads over the television and personally, I have become immune to every single one of them. I have never purchased an item based on just flat out promotion except for that once in a while awesome never before seen product. Also, technology has made it possible to skip advertisements so we might need to move away from television ads and find more unique and dynamic methods.

This type of advertising and self promotion will not work for blogging if you’re considering to move the same old strategy there. Its fine to have a post on new products, deals and freebies occasionally but it should not be the essence of your blog.

Back in the day when I was a little more ambitious about my health goals, and had more time to devote to maintaining my girlish figure, I joined a health club.
I would work out weekly.

I found that being surrounded by folks with similar goals and interests served as a great motivator and support system. We would share laughter and woes, and serve as each other’s cheerleaders.

The same opportunity exists for bloggers wishing to connect with like-minded people who are in the same niche group, of the same gender or profession, and have similar passions or platforms.

The ticket? Blogging communities.
As one popular adage states, “There is strength in numbers.”
If you want to increase your exposure, build important alliances, learn from others who have embarked upon the same path, or reap other important benefits, blogging communities can help strengthen your blogging experience.

Here are a few things that they have to offer.

1. Many blogging communities have “member benefits” such as promotion of your book, event, class, or other activities for free, or at a significant discount.
2. The potential exposure through connections can cause an increase to traffic on your personal blog, providing you with greater visibility and impact.
3. Success by association—Who wouldn’t like to be associated with others who have achieved great levels of success as authors, prominent business people, and Internet influencers?
4. You can have your blogging/writing questions and concerns addressed through community bulletin boards and chats, minimizing the need for extensive online research.

Here are a few examples of blogging communities.

Blog Her.com — http://www.blogher.com/ As the name implies, this is a forum for women that offers support, networking, and a directory for members.
Midlife Bloggers—http://www.midlifebloggers.com—Addresses issues relevant to those in life’s “transition” stage.
Gather.com—http://www.gather.com/—Members share advice, expertise, commentary, and the potential for paid opportunities.

What’s your opinion on blogging communities? Have you ever been a part of one?

Image: Renjith Krishnan

Search Engine Optimization was once a topic only the experts would talk about and hiring an SEO professional was the only option for most businesses aspiring to venture online. This is no longer the case and below I will show you some simple SEO techniques as well as the importance of using the right keywords when marketing your blog.

Your Targeted Keywords Should Represent Your Blog’s Services & Goals

If you are proactively blogging rather than passively, you should already have an idea of what you would like to achieve through your blog and hopefully you are taking steps in that direction by providing content in relation to that. The keywords you market should reflect that as well.

For example, if your blog teaches your readers how to be a successful blogger, you could aim for the keyword “how to blog.” If your blog provides all there is to know about blackberry smartphones then aim for a similar keyword or phrase. Another great example of this, is our sister site

BloggerJobs.Biz which provides lots of freelance blogging job opportunities. If you use google to search for the phrase “blogger jobs” BloggerJobs.Biz will show up in the number 1 spot and number 3 if you search for “blogging jobs” and this is what you should be trying to achieve within your niche for your blog.

Keyword Research To Find The Right Mix

There are billions of keywords and phrases that are searched for, however, there are specific combinations that are more popular and more competitive than others. You need to be somewhat aware of what is being searched for so that you can better understand, please and capture those search engine visitors.

Google’s Keyword Research Tool can help you to do extensive research on keywords you may want to dominate and it provides information such as: the number of monthly searches, how competitive the keyword is and search trends.

6 Things To Keep In Mind When Link-Building & Using Keywords

To help your site rank high in search results for your chosen keywords, there are some simple techniques to use.

1) Use your targeted keyword as your link text when opportunities arise for you to spread and share your links. You can try to chose a name for your site that is as close to the targeted keyword as possible.

2) Chose a domain name that has your chosen keywords in it. Its important, however, to keep your domain name short and sweet

3) When sharing your links, if possible, ensure that they have the appropriate link titles in the code. For example, <a href=”http://www.bloggingpro.com” title=“Blogging Success”>

4) Link to related articles within your blog posts while including appropriate title tags in the code. If you’re writing articles for your niche on your blog and the content is related in some specific ways, ensure that you link that text to those posts.

5) Use an SEO plugin like All-In-One SEO Pack to ensure that you are using post titles, keywords and descriptions appropriately. This is especially useful for blogs that use older types of blog themes that don’t have these features built-in.

6) Your articles should be keyword rich. This is very important especially if you’re focusing on a particular niche. However, keep in mind that you’re writing for human beings and not search engines, so do not spam your articles. Rather write naturally by focusing on your niche.

Dominating search engines is still very much important and not just social search. Even with the massively growing popularity of social sites and the sharing of information through them, there are still some sites where up to 90% of their traffic is from traditional search engines. So, be on the ball, target those keywords and dominate those search results.

Discussion

How much of your blog’s traffic is from search engines? What techniques are you currently using to help your blog rank better in search for specific keywords? Share your thoughts in the comments, we would love to hear from you.

Blogging All-in-One for Dummies offers over 700 pages explaining anything and everything about blogging for a beginner audience, so you can start your own blog right away!  It’s a perfect supplement to the content you read here on BloggingPro.  The book includes 8 minibooks about starting a blog, choosing a blogging application, publishing blog content, growing your blog’s audience, making money from your blog, and more.  There is even a minibook about Twitter.

While Blogging All-in-One for Dummies is certainly the most comprehensive book about blogging available, following are a few other books that I recommend:

1. The Everything Blogging Book

This book is in need of an update, but it’s still an easy-to-read and understand guide to getting started as a blogger.

2. Blogging for Dummies

Blogging for Dummies is also a great beginner’s guide to blogging.  This book is several hundred pages shorter than Blogging All-in-One for Dummies, so concepts are not covered as in depth as they are in my book.  However, it’s still a great resource.

3. The Rough Guide to Blogging

This is a very short, very easy to read, and very simple book, which gives a great introduction to blogging.  It’s outdated, but the basic concepts of blogging are delivered in such a simple way that it might be worth reading if you’re an extreme novice to blogging.

4. WordPress for Dummies

This is a great guide to learn how to use WordPress as your blogging application.  I should also mention that my book about starting a blog with WordPress, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress, is coming out in 2011.

5. Google Blogger for Dummies

I wrote this book, and it’s one of the most up-to-date books to learn how to use Google’s Blogger blogging application.  Many other books about Blogger haven’t been updated in years, and Blogger has gone through many changes in the past year alone!

6. TypePad for Dummies

This is the best book you can buy to learn how to use TypePad, and since it wasn’t published that long ago, it’s quite up-to-date.

Did you use a book about blogging to help you get started as a blogger?  What book about blogging do you recommend?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.

Successful professional blogging is no longer for the average Joe with average goals. It is for the prudent who will approach their audience seriously and strive to build their company, and more so, personal brand.

Here is a massive guide that will get you started on the road to developing your blogging brand for success.

Set Goals, Huge Goals!

Before you register that domain or go crazy thinking about the right name for your blog, write down clearly defined goals for your site. Get a pen and paper, or however you write notes, and start jotting down everything you may require and what you NEED to be successful with your blog. Spend a week or two to decide your direction and focus on it. Your goals may not be set in stone for the entire lifetime of your blog since you will definitely grow, mature and learn so your goals should grow with you but remain in a general direction.

Aim for the sky! If your blogger friends want to achieve or are achieving $1,000 per month, shoot for $2,000 per month. Never limit your goals to match your peers or environment.

Know Your Target Audience & Competition

Spend the time to read and study other bloggers in the blogosphere. However, not just the smaller newbie bloggers who may be on the same level as you but try to learn from the “big guns.” Never size up your competition by analyzing the weakest opponents. Ignore them, they will compromise your judgment and cause you to aim lower.

Your blog should be serving a purpose, whether its to provide financial guidance, video tutorials, news, etc. Find out if those are the things readers want or need or may not even know it yet. Get on the grind and think of a unique way to fill a need or provide a unique service through blogging. Your audience will thank you and you will stand out as a pro blogger.

Use A Killer Site Design & Domain Name

If you’re not a skilled designer/developer, hire one here who can give you the entire package: Awesome logo, killer user-friendly site design, robust theme, the works. If you want to build a brand your design needs to be unique and stands out from the everyday regulars.

Choose a domain name that somewhat describes what you do. It will stick in the minds of your readers much easier. If the .com top level domain (TLD) is not available and is in use by someone else, never ever use the same name with .org, .net or any other TLD. You will be placing yourself in unnecessary competition with the owner of the .com since readers will remember this much easier. If you wish to have your name as a domain name, this has its pros too since you will be building a more personal brand with your name ringing all over the net in the forefront, whereas describing what you do in your domain name will help with SEO and thus better search results.

Use A Coming Soon Page Before Its Launch

If it will take you more than a couple months to execute your plan to build your blog, you definitely need a coming soon page that provides a little teaser of what is to come. This builds anticipation in the minds of those who have encountered your site. Have options for readers to subscribe to your newsletter that will in the meantime provide e-mail updates. Ensure it also has links to your social profiles like twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.

Start promoting your blog and begin commenting on other sites with your URL of your coming soon page. Use that URL in everything online. In a couple of months when you’re ready to launch, your domain would have already been crawled by search engines and could have gained a couple google page ranks which builds your search engine authority even before your launch.

Consistency That Makes Your Brand Stick

Be consistent with your topics, names and all other forms of branding and design. Create a tagline that sticks and use it all around the web. Similarly, brands like McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Nike use their logos consistently in everything they do and captures the consumers’ attention by providing consistent quality regardless of recessions, lawsuits or any other challenge.

Use a consistent name with your tagline when commenting on other sites. For example, “Robyn Samuda – Social Media Expert” along with the domain name in the comment form.

Guest Post On Popular Blogs

Guest posting is a surefire way to get your brand and your name out there in the blogosphere. Always guest post on sites with superb quality and reputation. Unfortunately, most of us judge others based on association and it applies to blogging as well. In addition, guest posting allows a couple link backs to your site which will improve rankings in search engine result pages (SERP) and can easily drive unique visitors to your blog. Try to guest post on at least 2 sites per week and within a couple of months your massive increase in traffic will surprise you.

Quality Content Can Make You Famous

Time and again we may seek inspiration from news stories, events and other bloggers. However, never copy and post the same information. Nobody wants to read old news, especially old news that is copied and pasted. Don’t get me wrong though, you can write about current happenings even if it has been reported already but always find a way to provide deeper insight, provide graphs and other research material that is not readily available elsewhere. This will make you stand out as the pro in your niche.

There we have it. Building your brand is easier than you may immediately realize. The key is to always be consistent with your targets, your image and evolve as you master the blogosphere and strive towards being exceptional.

Discussion: What do you think you could achieve with a personal brand that stands shoulder to shoulder with the biggest blogging names you can think of? Massive dream and yet it is possible. How have you been able to build your brand and stand out? Please let us know.

Here are 5 solid reasons your company will flourish through maintaining a blog.

1. Search Engines Love Dynamic Content

Maintaining a blog gives you the distinct advantage of easily creating new content on the fly with very little hassle. Search engines, especially Google, place higher priority on sites that constantly produces fresh, valuable content that is useful for the web at large. Static, unchanging websites can give the impression that your company is not moving forward and not creative.

Take the opportunity to blog about about new products, new experiences, useful tips and guides for your customers and publish company news through this medium. The search engines will reward you with targeted traffic.

2. Connect With Your Customers & Prospects

Blogging opens up the lines of communication unlike traditional marketing. You will now have an excellent opportunity to find out who your customers really are and gain deep insight into their preferences and dislikes. Knowing your customers better will help you to find and keep more just like them.

Take the time to interact with your customers and prospects and gain valuable feedback while expressing your company’s vision and goals.

3. WordPress – Advanced & Easy to Use Platform

Of course, the blogging platform of choice is WordPress, which can be downloaded from WordPress.org or if you prefer, VIP hosting and support is available at Vip.WordPress.com for large-scale deployments. Lots of big names are using WordPress such as CNN, Time and BBC; and we all know how successful they are online.

WordPress makes publishing content as easy as saving a Microsoft Word document while offering a professional platform that can help drive any business to online success.

4. Easy SEO Integration – Increase Targeted Traffic

Blogs are excellent for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and with WordPress, SEO integration is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Plugins such as All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps makes mastering SEO and pleasing the search engines a cinch.

WordPress offers the ability to manage SEO while you write and create content targeted at customers and prospects within your niche. While there are many professional SEO’s out there who charge an arm and a leg for their services, you will be well on your way to being a pro yourself or simply keep these tasks in-house.

5. Commanding Influence & Authority

Having a blog to complement your present marketing efforts gives the opportunity to build credibility and authority. Your regular marketing messages are good but can be like a resounding cliche in the minds of your prospects and customers. Blog posting allows for the excellent opportunity for your visitors to get to truly know your work and solutions, request help and advice. There’s no better person to answer those product questions but you. Use this medium to build your authority and influence your customers to purchase.

Most importantly, take that first step and make your mark in the blogosphere. Your customers and prospects are spending much of their time online so its time to grab their attention, build relationships you’ve never had before and reap the rewards of increased traffic and sales.

Also, these articles are great if you’re confused about SEO. The search industry can be a confusing one because there are many spammers spouting off misinformation to get more sales. But the articles are solid and contain useful advice.

Another reason I like them is because they’re written by Brian Clark, who I consider to be one of the best writers in the blogging field. Brian has a lot of experience as a copywriter both offline and online. He’s able to take complex topics and explain them so that they’re easy to understand.

So, free up some time, grab a cup of coffee, and check out the following articles if you want to know the fundamentals of SEO including why it still matters.

1. Does SEO Copywriting Still Matter?

In this article, Brian gives reasons why SEO is a very effective traffic technique. Over the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of buzz about social media. But Brian talks about a survey that shows that using a search engine is the 2nd most common internet activity after email. With all those people using Google or other search engines, it makes sense to do SEO to maximize your traffic.

Also, Brian talks about the importance of getting links and writing SEO copy.

2. Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting

In this article, Brian gives 5 onpage elements that you should focus on to improve your rankings. Fortunately, implementing his advice won’t be a time consuming task.

Onpage SEO is easy to do and once you get into the habit of doing it, you’ll see an increase in search traffic.

3. Does Writing for People Work for SEO?

This is my favorite article out of the three. In it, Brian blows up the myth that writing for search engines is different from writing for people. That may have been the case many years ago, but the search engines have gotten much more advanced. These days the best SEO writing methods are geared towards human readers not just search bots.

But make sure to read the article since Brian explains what he means when he says writing for people. It might not be what you think.

1. To Target More Relevant Keywords

Keyword research tools can only go so far. Many people have access to the tools so the search terms you discover are often competitive. On the other hand, reading books seems to be a lost activity. Many people who used to read a lot books are now doing most of their reading online. And you’ll even find bloggers and webmasters that haven’t read one book about their niche.

Therefore, there are many keywords in books that are not competitive while still having some search volume especially if the book has sold well.

2. To Create More Linkworthy Content

One of the keys to creating linkworthy content is finding unique topics. If you only consume online information, there is a tendency for your content to be too similar to other blogs.

You may have heard the term “echo chamber,” which occurs when blogs in a niche write about the same things. You can combat this phenonemon and cause your blog to stand out from the crowd by reading books. Books give you a new perspective about your niche and can inspire you to create valuable, unique content.

Also, you’ll gain a deeper amount of knowledge since books are usually more in-depth than internet content. You can then tap this knowledge to create more resourceful posts than your peers.

3. To Improve Your Credibility

One of the reasons I know Brian Clark (of Copyblogger fame) knows what he’s talking about is he refers to classic copywriting and advertising books in his posts. Books may seem low tech but people are impressed when you can quote reputable authors. Also, your audience will find it helpful if you can give them a list of good books to buy on Amazon.

Being well-read demonstrates your expertise and improves your credibility. It shows that you are well-rounded and can understand your niche from a wider perspective. I am much more likely to trust and follow Brian’s advice than another copywriter who has only read online content.

Over to You

How often do you read books about your niche?