Category Archives: Blogging

Gearing up for 2012: Own Your Marketing Strategy

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Small business owners often overlook their own marketing strategy, planning and implementation because they are overwhelmed with the process, don’t know where to begin, and think it’s going to incur a high cost, so they push it to the way side and wing their business development and marketing, only to see that there are no new business or increased revenue.  Business owners should take their marketing serious if they want to grow their business, become known as an expert in their field, and attract new clients, and it will take an investment of time and money in order to learn how to leverage social media and online marketing tactics to attract and retain new clients, share your expertise across multiple channels, and get the search engines to index your website.

Don’t worry if you feel intimidated by all the verbiage around social media marketing, and SEO, but you and your business need to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Here are a few things you need to assess immediately:

  • Website
    • branding
      • Is it time for an overhaul? when was the last time you updated your website? Consider new fonts, color, header and logo
      • What is your value proposition, is it time to reframe your positioning, strengths?
      • Is the language targeting your ideal customers? does it resonate with them, draw them in, and help them know,like, and trust you?
    • message
      • Does your website address your ideal customer’s pain points?
      • Does every page (tab) offer insightful tips, resources, (to enable the “know like and trust” factor)
      • are people (visitors) clear about who you are, what you offer and how you can help them?
    • Call to action (what do you want your visitor to do once they are on your site: sign up for newsletter? Download a giveaway that gives them a taste of who you are and your expertise? Sign up for a free 30 minute consultation?
    • List building tactics: (using text or newsletter to stay in touch with visitors) Your visitors are your potential clients. You want to continue to “touch” them on a regular basis by offering timely, relevant information they can use immediately. The more often they “see” you, the more chances they are getting to know you, and will eventually do business with you. There are tactics to employ if you are using a newsletter to educate, inform and add value to your prospects – that will drive them back to your website and social sites.  That is why having a strong website, a newsletter or text messaging system, and social media all offer ways to connect and foster relationships with people who end up becoming a raving fan,endorser, a referral partner, and client!
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – this is where it can get tricky.  You don’t really want to do this yourself unless you have been aptly trained and understand how you can optimize your website on the back end (for the search engines) as well as applying tactics on the front end (website content, blogging, newsletter, utilizing videos and social media)
    • Keyword searches help you know what people are looking for online, this can give you ideas on what content to write about, adding appropriate headlines and keywords within your blog post
    • Keyword searches also tell you what words are highly searched for, and depending on saturation, what words are better to use and what words won’t work so well.

These are some of the things you should do first if you want to grow your business, attract ideal customers and be seen as an expert in your field.  Sometimes having a fresh pair of eyes to look over your website, offer recommendations, will save you a ton of time, even money, because there are alternatives and viable options that can get you up to speed fairly quickly and taking your game up a notch.

You don’t have to wait to get your self all together to attract your ideal customers and build up your business; having a smart social media strategy and making it easy for people to connect with you such as “seeing and hearing you” via tweets, Facebook posts, blog commenting and engaging within LinkedIn groups and Quora will definitely show your value and expertise to others (even if your website isn’t perfect) but you want to make a way to capture your visitors, stay connected to them via text messaging or newsletters, and cross-pollinating all your online activities so your website gets indexed by the search engines, so people can share your information within their network via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there by growing your network, creating a buzz around you and your business, and growing your list.  It all counts and it will all pay off, just start with getting your website up and running with the right tools in place, then get a strategy in place, know what platforms to be on, tools to use to manage and measure, and have fun!

2012 is going to be a great year, commit to that thought and make it happen.

Hire a business marketing consultant who can help you plan your steps and keep you on track so that 2012 will be prosperous for you.

Social Media Burnout

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I’ve been suffering from a massive cold for the past four weeks.  Having this downtime has forced me to rest from my normal day to day operations, especially around my social media activities.  I can’t put a finger on it, but I’m attributing my lack of interest as social media burnout.  It could be that my cold derailed me  from the fast moving track, that all the incoming feeds from various sites sound like pots and pans, and the words on the page come across as blurry to me. I can’t seem to concentrate enough to get past the first few sentences.

It’s times like this that I turn to Sci Fi reading. It gives my brain a rest from digesting new content and Sci Fi stuff really fascinates me, especially because what was cool fantasy years ago is now a reality in today’s world – all kinds of gadgets, streaming tv on our cell phones, cloud computing, etc.  I have tons of blogs in my head that are screaming to come out, but then I look at the white space and I can’t think of one thing to write.  I know being sick doesn’t help, my thoughts are somewhat discombobulated. All the streaming content add to my distraction.  Perhaps something is brewing beneath all of this and I have yet to discover a new path to carve out for myself.

So I just want my friends on Twitter,Facebook, FriendFeed and Linkedin to know that I’ve been somewhat distant lately – the only energy I have right now are for my clients, and I’m at a loss as to what direction I plan to take these next few months.  I’ll still keep my hands in social networking, but there is something inside of me saying that something has to change, so I’m taking a break from all the outside noise so I can “listen” to that still voice telling me what to do next.

I plan to blog regularly – targeting business owners who can’t wrap their arms around social media – I love-love to help people get past their awkwardness around Twitter and other social sites and to learn how to network and hang out on these sites in order to connect, build trust, and grow their business.  But for now, I’m going to take advantage of the space I’m in and enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and hope my creativity returns soon.

Oh and one more thing, I got my first hater the other day, it came from someone whose IP address is in New York, “EatShitandDie”.  Wow, thank you for taking the time to wish me a great day!  ha-ha-ha….

The Do Follow Blogs Movement

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BlogDon’t you just love blog commenting? I definitely do

And it’s not simply because I want to get backlinks from Do Follow blogs. It’s really good to learn from other bloggers, and get valuable information from other blog commenters too. It is always beneficial to participate in an interactive community. Eventually, the internet today is all about building relationships, and the sharing of valuable content.

Notice how I place emphasis on “do follow”. This is because if you’re commenting to attract backlinks to your own blog, if you’re doing it on No Follow blogs, you are not getting any backlinks.

Do follow vs. No follow blogs

Do Follow and No Follow attributes comes into play whenever you leave a comment on a blog that has your link.

Do Follow blogs tell the search engines to follow the link left together with the comment. NoFollow blogs, on the other hand, tell the search engines NOT to follow the link that is left with that comment. That is to say with the former, you can get link juice in the form of backlinks; in no follow blogs, you don’t.

By default, a WordPress platform is a No Follow blog. But in order to increase visitor involvement, a lot of bloggers (like me) have turned their blogs into Do Follow blogs. If you’re new to blogging or if your blog is still set to the default No Follow, you may want to consider turning yours into an interesting interactive community.

Here’s what you should do: identify what plugins you will need, and let your visitors know you have joined the DoFollow movement.

How to Do Follow your blog

Simply do a search for Do Follow plugin. Select one, install it and activate it! This will remove the NoFollow feature in your comment section. You can install plugins to prevent spam comments when you do this as well. Always keep in mind to let people know that you are a Do Follow Blog.

Some visitors may have no idea what that means, but those who do know will often times leave a comment on your blog!

One last thing

When you are on a DoFollow blog, make sure you leave quality comments. Well, one liners are okay, but if you can ask some questions or add valuable content, then that’s really great! Search for Do Follow blogs that are in the same niche as yours and have good traffic flow to make blog commenting really work for you. This will allow you not only to leave a great comment and get more traffic, but gain a backlink as well.

Do You Have A Do Follow Blog? Elmar Sandyck Is An Expert Internet Marketer And You Can Get More Online Marketing Tips And Techniques By Visiting www.InternetMastermindStrategy.com,/a>


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

4 WordPress Widgets Must Haves To Give Your Blog Maximum Flexibility

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BlogWordPress is a blogging/CMS (content management system) platform that allows you to not only create a blog on your website, but create the entire website using this flexible blogging platform. In order to get WordPress to look more like a static site, you will want to have the most flexibility you can when it comes to setting up the blog/CMS platform. This article gives you an overview of what widgets you should use on your blog that will give you the needed flexibility.

1. Widget Logic

Widget logic is a useful widget that allows you to control which pages your widgets appear on. It’s power resides in the fact that it can be implemented on a widget by widget basis. This gives you full reign over what kinds of content appears on what pages and you an further target your content to a much tighter topic. Widget logic can be found at wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widget-logic/ and is a free plugin. You will have to understand some simple WordPress conditional tag syntax, but it is very easy to pick up and once you have it, you are on your way to creating a truly unique website.

2. WordPress Sign-up Forms

WordPress sign-up forms are widgets that interface directly with your autoresponder, or mailing list software. The more popular emails list services each have their own WordPress widget, so the specific one that you would use will depend upon the service you have. Using these widgets makes it easy to add a sign-up box to all of the pages on your web site, which will help your mailing list grow more quickly.

WordPress sign-up form widgets include the following:

1shoppingcart

Aweber

Constant Contact

IContact

3. RSS Feed

The RSS feed comes with the standard WordPress install and it allows you to bring in other feeds to place on your website. Using RSS feeds allows you to have content on your blog that is constantly changing. This feature will bring the search engines back to your site on a more regular basis, which will improve the speed in which your pages are indexed. When used in conjunction with Widget Logic, you can incorporate several different RSS feeds into your site based on the topic, thus making each page on your blog more tightly focused to the topic, which will help it rank better in the search engines.

4. Text Widget

This widget is gives you extreme flexibility because it allows you to place additional HTML code on your website. You can use this widget to place ads on your web site and used in conjunction with Widget Logic, you can highly target these ads as well. A cousin of this widget allows you to add PHP code instead of HTML code. For more highly advanced programmers, this will allow you to add an almost unlimited kind of functionality to your WordPress blog.

Using specific widgets will allow you to create a web site that will be just as effective and complete as many custom hand developed web sites, yet at a fraction of the cost. Using the different widgets discussed will give you the flexibility you need to build a website that is unique, functional and easy to customize.

B. Hopkins teaches entrepreneurs Internet business strategies and how to use WordPress to create websites that can be easily updated and perform better in the search engines. Attend one of the WordPress workshops to get better blog and website performance.

psiphonconsulting.com/workshops/wordpresstraining1.html

A drivetraffictomywebsite.com creation.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Website Legal Compliance for Blog Sites Now More Risky Than Ever

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BlogUnfulfilled promises by blog site personnel to remove objectionable materials from blogs continue to create headaches – and increased legal exposure – for blog site operators. A recent case involving craigslist.org teaches a critical lesson for blog site operators: be very careful what you and your personnel promise; be very, very careful.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

If you’re a blog site operator, you should have a clear understanding of the protections – and pitfalls – provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (Section 230).

Prior to the enactment of Section 230, a blog site could be held liable for defamatory posts by its visitors, even if the blog site operator had no knowledge of it. Think about it – posters to your blog often have an axe to grind; many believe that they can post almost any derogatory comment on the Web. Section 230 was passed by the U.S. Congress to provide relief for websites that allow visitors to post comments.

Section 230 was a significant breakthrough for websites that qualify as “interactive computer services.” Today, blogs and blog sites should qualify for protection under Section 230’s umbrella immunity.

Section 230 provides two immunity clauses:

* a website operator may not be treated as the “publisher or speaker” of any information provided by another;

* however, a website operator may be held liable for any good faith action it takes to restrict access to “objectionable” materials.

In 1997, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Section 230 immunity by ruling in the case of Zeran v. America Online, Inc. that Section 230 immunized America Online from suit regarding content posted by third parties, even if there was an unfulfilled promise to remove the offensive material.

Despite the fact that Zeran and other early cases ruled in favor of Section 230’s immunity for website operators, two recent cases show that the immunity is not bullet proof – the most recent one being Scott P. v. craigslist, Inc.

Scott P. v. craigslist, Inc.

Scott claimed that his supervisor was harassing him due to sexual orientation. Scott even alleged that his supervisor created false ads about his sexual orientation and posted them on craigslist.org.

Scott called craigslist and complained about the alleged false ads requesting craigslist to not post future ads that would identify him. According to Scott, craigslist personnel promised to “take care of it.”

About a month later the supervisor successfully posted six new ads on craigslist that identified Scott. Scott then sued craigslist.

Craigslist moved to dismiss Scott’s suit on the grounds of Section 230 immunity, but the motion was rejected based on the doctrine of promissory estoppel, and the rejection was upheld by the California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Promissory estoppel allows a plaintiff to recover damages from a defendant who makes an unfilled promise on which the defendant reasonably relies to the defendant’s detriment. The significance of promissory estoppel is that plaintiff may recover damages for an unfulfilled promise even in the absence of an enforceable contract.

Conclusion

Scott P. v. craigslist, Inc. and the 2009 case of Barnes v. Yahooo!, Inc. both hold that despite the statutory immunity of Section 230, a website operator may waive the immunity by promising to remove objectionable materials and then failing to live up to the promise.

The lesson for sites with blogs and blog sites – in order to avoid this major pitfall involving promissory estoppel, be careful to avoid promising to remove objectionable material. Don’t even make statements that could be construed to be a promise such as “we’ll take care of it.” The best course of action is to state explicitly that you are “not promising” to remove objectionable content, but that you will “take it under advisement.”

Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting your website legal forms for website legal compliance – www.digicontracts.com/kits/firewall.aspx . Use his free online tool — Website Documents Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your website legal forms at DigiContracts.com.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com