Sponsor Me to Attend BlogHer PRO 14
BlogHer just announced their next conference, BlogHer PRO ’14. It will take place December 3 & 4 in Redwood City. I had a good time attending BlogHer ’14 down in San Jose, but I was left wanting more take-home, actionable items that I could use to build my blog. This conference seems to focus more on that aspect of blogging. Most notably, it promises that I will walk away with a new, professional media kit. This is something I know I need, and would love to have.
Read MoreWill There Ever Be A Yahoo – Google Partnership?
Guest Post by Dan Chaney
Before Google dominated the search engine market, the #1 place to go for information on anything was Yahoo. No one could go outside or watch TV without seeing one of their ads each day. Today, Yahoo is not in good shape. Some internet users either think it’s dead or have no idea what it is. At one point, a few companies tried to buy the company but the execs and shareholders refused the offers. However, no one has thought of a partnership. Will Yahoo ever do such a thing with Google or someone else? The short answer is maybe.
Yahoo could use some help in some form or another. Their net income is at $228.5 million according to their Q2 2012 earnings report, which has been in decline for some time. They’ve also had many of their top-level execs either leave or have been let go over the past six years. Add on the fact that they’re having to compete for business with two juggernaut-sized companies (Google and Microsoft) and it becomes clear that Yahoo has a massive hill to climb if they wish to stay open.
A partnership of some could work in their favor, but it depends on what the other party would offer them. The first thing they need is more people using their search engine. Without that, there’s not much of a reason to visit except to check e-mail and read the news. Original content would also help. If Yahoo offers something people want to see or read that can’t be found elsewhere, there’s a good chance that they’ll be able to convince users and investors to give them a second look. In short, they’d have to utilize multiple services from one company or team up with multiple companies to remain afloat.
At some point, Yahoo will have to do something big to attract the attention of internet users and businesses alike. If they can’t offer better services and content than its competition, it’ll have to put itself up for sale and hope for the best. A partnership with Google would help, but only if it’ll convince people to come to their site on a regular basis aside from checking and sending email. Also, it’ll depend on which services the partnership will improve. Otherwise, the deal may turn out to be an expensive waste of time for all parties involved.
One way or another, Yahoo needs to get its house in order. Will that include a partnership of some kind? Only time will tell. Given the history they’ve had when it comes to being bought up, the folks in charge may choose to do things on their own until all of their efforts fall flat before striking a deal with anyone.
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Dan Chaney is a blogger for HirePulse advertising with a background in social media and marketing.
Read More6 Tips To Improve Keyword Research for SEO Content
Guest Post by Sam Mauzy.
Keyword content creation is one of the best ways for people to increase their search engine rankings. However, it is important that you chose the right keywords to focus on for the best ranking results. Here are some tips for determining which keywords you should use as a part of your SEO strategy.
Long Tail Keywords
Instead of focusing on direct keywords, like “cars” or “cats,” websites are far better able to get traction with long tail keyword searches. To begin with, most people are more likely to search specifically than broadly, so it makes more sense to create content for phrases like “cheap used cars” or “long-haired cats.” To find the most popular terms related to keyword bases, simply type in a keyword and Google will provide a drop-down list of the most popular long tail searches.
Localize Your Keywords
One of Google’s recent updates was to prioritize local search results. This means that if you have a physical storefront, you will want to create keyword content that includes your location. This also ensures that you are getting your target demographic to your website. If you sell used cars in California, visitors from New York are likely to be simply taking up your bandwidth.
Focus on Keywords that Improve Your Conversion Rate
Related to localized content, you want to try to hone in on keywords that will not only increase the number of visitors to your website but keywords that will improve your conversion rate as well. Creating keyword content for things that have little to nothing to do with your site will not improve your conversion rate and could hurt you in the long run as it increases your bounce rate.
Take Advantage of Analytics
One of the best ways to do keyword research and track your progress is to look at analytic data. The information provided by Google Analytics alone is both extensive and valuable. Some of the things that you should be looking at specifically are your pages with high bounce rates and your pages with high conversion rates. High bounce rates mean that people aren’t finding what they are looking for, meaning keywords used on these pages are probably not your best bet. Conversely, landing pages with the highest conversion rates are those that you should use as a base for additional content.
Use PPC Data
PPC ads are a great way to do a test run on a keyword selection. Since keyword content can take weeks or even months to turn into search engine ranking improvement, PPC ads are a quick way to see if new keyword content will improve your conversion rate. Used correctly, PPC ads are a great source of inexpensive and real-time market research.
Make Your Keyword Goals Attainable
Finally, make sure that you are choosing keywords you can realistically achieve high search engine rankings with. It is better to achieve a high ranking with a few long tail keywords than spend months achieving little progress with a highly competitive keyword. That is not to say that you cannot ever achieve top rankings with a particular keyword, but you should consider it a long term goal and put your effort into several keywords at the same time.
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Sam is a blogger with a background in SEO. His latest challenge has been learning how to make iPhone apps which he has found to be a great new marketable skill to have.
Read MoreThe True Value of Google+
When you are trying to promote a site for your business or for a cause, it is important to promote its visibility as much as possible. This often involves you signing up for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Recently, Google+ has become a popular social network that many webmasters and businesses are turning to for promotion. Here are a few things to consider about the true value of Google+.
Integration With Google Places
If you have a local business, you will definitely need a Google+ account, so that you can take advantage of Google Places. Google Places was a service offered by Google, which made it possible to promote your business listing for local searches. Recently, Google moved all of the Google Places accounts over to Google+ accounts. This means that if you want to participate in this program now, you have to have a Google+ account. This makes it possible for you to reach customers in your local market for free and interact with them.
Multiple Ways to Connect
One of the nice things about using Google+ is that you can connect with other people in many different ways. For example, you can form circles of different types of contacts. You can set up “hang outs” where you can video chat with a group of people. You can send direct messages, public messages, and chat with people as well. If you are trying to increase visibility, and get to know your customers, this can be a good way to go about it.
Integrate Into Site
If you are a webmaster, you also have the opportunity to integrate Google+ features right into your site. There are various widgets that you can put into your site with just a few clicks. For example, if you have a Brain Host hosting account, you’ll be able to integrate Google+ buttons easily onto your pages. This makes it easier for your website visitors to interact with your Google+ profile, and for Google+ visitors to find your site.
Why Get Started?
If you are serious about developing an online presence for your business or website, you owe it to yourself to open a Google+ account. It is the latest social network to make a splash online, and it is growing quickly. While it is yet to unseat Facebook as the undisputed king of social networking, it can provide you with some benefits for your business.
Read MoreHow Does Content Monetization Work and Does it Matter?
Guest Post by Murray Newlands
In short, content monetization is the process of earning money through written content.
There are a many ways to achieve this. You can earn money by either selling the actual content or by using internet-based writing tools. In the first method, potential buyers of your content can be anyone from news editors to artists to entertainment blogs. In the latter method, you can use one of the hundreds of possibilities available through the internet that enables you to make money from something aside from the actual content. Examples of some of these opportunities are the use of AdSense, sales of consultation or advertising for a small business.
It’s important to know these different techniques if you want to enhance your writing and reach your readers’ expectations. In order to grab the attention of your readers, you need to deliver the content while keeping your specific audience’s specific interests in mind. You need to convey to your readers the main reason you are writing the piece.
There are several ways that you are able to monetize your content. When writing for a newspaper, for examples, you need to write articles in a manner that can attract the reader’s attention. You earn money though writing a compelling piece that editors of the specific paper want to pay you for one time. You also need to make it an interesting, engaging article for those who want to advertise in the paper, so that the paper can earn from business relations, readers, advertisers, etc.
If you are an advertiser, you need to design the content according to the market—you need to make potential customers of your product or services know the qualities of your product. Your goal is to convince them to purchase your product or services.
If you want to sell your business ideas, you need to focus the content of the ideas. This enables your customers to see your ideas again and again and to get accustomed to them. And If you own a website, you can significantly raise your website’s income by advertising with the help of marketing tools such as Google’s AdSense, paid posts and link insertion.
But maybe you are a blogger that doesn’t make much money from your website. Why not earn money from your labor? Wouldn’t it be great if you could make money while working on your hobby? If you want to boost your blogging income, you can use link insertion as a simple tool for content monetization of your blog. All you have to do is to insert some java script code in your site and this can monetize your site automatically. The software will use words and phrases from blogs and use them to link it to relevant advertisers.
A useful tool for advertising is INTENTclick, which provides an alternative basis for your content monetization. This tool is especially useful for content, which are for advertisement of products or services in origin. You can find more details about these helpful internet advertisement techniques in the book “Content Monetization.”
So all said and done, content monetization really does matter, as it can be a great source of revenue for your website. Using the correct tools can help you reach optimization and make the most amount of money without upsetting your readers.
Disclosure: I am working for the company INTENTclick.
Read MoreAffiliate Summit East 2011: Wil Reynolds Keynote #ASE11
Wil Reynolds knocked it out of the park once again speaking at Affiliate Summit East 2011. Not just the most requested session, but as a keynote speaker! It was the only keynote I attended this time around, and well worth it!
Bullet Point Review!
- We fall in love with the things that are easy.
- This is the 12th affiliate summit Wil’s speaking at.
- Sick of shortcut tactics that win.
- Find .edu clubs on topics that you could sponsor.
- Intitle search.
- Google is matching synonyms so sometimes you don’t have to do as much work as you think
- Believe in the power of 1. What are you doing to turn 10 to 10,000?
- What value do you add?
- Google will eventually figure it out.
- Rel=author (once you get to a certain level, Google starts putting your picture by articles).
- 30-40% of searches are related to brands.
- If you’re being un-followed en masse, you screwed up. Invest your time & find out why.
- Underutilized assets: badges, giveaways, social.
- Invest in assets.
- Find .edus or k.12 that list scholarships – make one!
- Strong connections are always valuable.
- Little tidbit: Press 4 in Google Voice to record. Pay Speech Pad $1 per minute to transcribe and use that as your content!
Wil was goodly enough to utilize the power of the SEER Interactive Blog and his twitter following and posted all the links he mentioned in his keynote here: Affiliate Summit Keynote Links.
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