News for February 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 6|Is Your Blog Working As Well As It Should?

 Is Your Blog Working As Well As It Should?

 

Just as with any other marketing strategy, once you create a blog to promote your business, you need to keep track of your results.  Doing so will allow you to see how effectively blogging is working for you and also let you see what changes you need to make to create a better blog.

 

Step One:  Keep Track of Your Blog Results

 

The first step in deciding how well your blog is working as a marketing tool is to evaluate your blog’s effectiveness:

 

·Keep track of wins.  Winning contests, reviews, and positive notices for your blog not only ensures that readers are looking at your online project, but it suggests that you are doing something right.  Entering and winning design contests and “best of” blog contests can help ensure that your blog works better as a marketing tool.

 

·Keep track of other blog mentions. A blogroll refers to the practice of linking similar blog pages from one article.  Just as you will want to link to other blogs from your blog, so others may choose to offer a link to your blog.  This sort of linking ensures more hits and ensures that your blog will strand higher in rankings – much as a much-quoted web page will gain high rankings in google. 

 

·Keep track of all online mentions.  You should not just look at mentions of your blog in other blogs.  Keep track of where your company name and blog name appears online – in forums, web pages, and in publications.  What sort of publicity are you getting for your blog and your company?  Has there been a difference response to your business since you began the blog?

 

·Do some market research.  Ask your customers where they heard of you and why they chose you.  Ask your customers and readers to rate your blog.  The responses may be very telling.

 

·Count hits. Depending on your blog software, you may be able to count how many people view your blog.  This can be an important way to measure how many people you are reaching.

 

·Place your blog in context. Consider your other marketing and advertising strategies.  Compare the amount of time and money you spend on your marketing efforts – and the results you get from each effort.

 

Step Two:  Make Your Results Better

 

Once you have considered how your blog is affecting your business, you should be able to see what needs to be done.  If your blog is not getting enough hits, try advertising your blog more through online groups, emails, and links.  If the response to your blog is not great, then you may need to make some changes in content and style to lure in more readers.  If you find that your blog is not getting the results you want, though, make sure that you have given the blog a chance.  Do realize that it takes longer to build a solid loyal audience with a blog than with other forms of marketing. If you do build a regular audience, though, the promotional potential of your blog will be quite high.

 

Edited: February 23rd, 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 5|Other People’s Blogs

 Companies are often surprised by the amount of time and effort it can take to produce one good blog.  Blogging software makes the writing and publishing process easier, but responding to reader comments, finding time to write regularly, and creating links and multimedia components can take some time.  For this reason, many companies place all their effort on creating their own blogs, sometimes to such an extent that they ignore other blogs in cyberspace.  This is truly a mistake, since in many cases, other blogs can have as much impact on your marketing as your own online efforts!

 

What Are Other Bloggers Saying About Your Company?

 
One of the first steps you will want to take when marketing using other blogs is to find out what others bloggers and online writers are saying about your company and your blog.  Other people’s and companies’ comments are read by readers and potential customers, too.
 
Many blogging software packages allow you to search for links to your blog or company website in other people’s blogs.  You can also run a goggle check on your blog name, company name, and URL addresses to see what others are saying about you.  Regularly checking online to see what is being said can help you get a sense of how your efforts are working.  Remember:  blogging is a community effort, with links in other blogs and comments in other blogs affecting how readers see you.  You need to keep track of how you are doing to understand how your online presence is affecting your business.
 

Responding to Other Blogs

 
Once you begin reading comments about your company and online presence, you may well wish to respond to the comments others have made.  Before you do so, do take some first:
 
  • •Read and reread the comments you wish to respond to and make sure that you understand them.  Make sure that you understand the tone as well as the words – you will look and feel silly if you respond angrily to a post that turns out to have been written in a teasing or tongue-in-cheek manner.
 
  • •Calm down.  In cases where comments are negative, especially, it is easy with blog software to respond at once.  It is better to calm down first and allow yourself the time to respond in a clam manner.
 
  • •Stay clear and on topic. When you respond to a posting or blog, make sure that you are clear and that you stay on topic in order to prevent an out of control name-calling exchange.  Clearly state what you are referring to, what comments you have about it, and what actions (if any) you are going to take or want to see taken.
 
  • •Decide how to respond.  You can respond to a person directly, through their blog commentary, or through your own blog. If you respond to a blogger or commentary directly, be aware that other readers who have seen comments about your company may not read your comments.  Plus, your email or response may eventually end up online, anyway, possibly edited or cut from context.  Responding via someone else’s blog gives you more control, but still has you remain on someone else’s space.  Commenting on your own blog gives you the most control and ensures that readers will come to your blog to read your comments. Of course, you can also choose to not respond at all.
 

Edited: February 21st, 2009

Mattcuttsarama: 21 Great SEO Tips From Google’s Matt Cutts

 I copied it somewhere, but forgot the URL after transfered it to Text File. If it yours, please tell me and I will credit it to you. Thanks.

This is a compilation of stuff Matt Cutts has said historically, minus some of the more recent stuff here, here, and here. I decided I’d dig backwards and document some of the older stuff. I dated it accordingly. Here it is:

1. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/
Matt recommends using dashes over underscores to delimit words in urls. 2005.
Google does not algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url despite the fact that some have raised it as a possible heuristic for spam detection. I think WordPress pretty much precludes this anyway. 2005.

2. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-sneaky-javascript/
Google takes action on individual instances of spam when they find it, but they focus on creating better algorithmic solutions. He states that he would not recommend using sneaky javascript redirects because your sites may get nailed in the near future. 2005.

3. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/
Google updates their index data — including backlinks and PageRank all the time. However, they export and publish new backlinks and PageRank data approximately every three months. New backlinks and PageRank are meaningless — it is not an update. The information is likely already factored in for awhile before you see it. 2005.

4. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-nearly-hidden-text/
Hiding text using similar colors and background colors can actually be worse than using the same colors. Using “#EEEEEE” instead of solid white on a solid white background can look worse — as if you’re trying to hide it. I suspect this is a heuristic for detecting hidden text. 2005.

5. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/q-a-thread-march-27-2006/
If you sell links, Matt says you should use link condoms. Otherwise your reputation may fall. I assume this means they will devalue your outbound links. 2006.

6. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Googlebot can only crawl the free portions that non-subscribed users can access since it does not log in. Therefore, be sure to excerpt material in the free version that that offers value. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

7. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
If you must use Flash, you must also make an HTML version available as well. Block the Flash version from the crawlers with a robots.txt file. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

8. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Use user-friendly URLs like "african-elephants.html," and not "343432ffsdfsdfdfasffgddddd.html." Don’t overdo it either — african-elephants-and-their-habitats-etc-etc-etc-etc.html. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

9. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Assign unique, descriptive tag and headings to every page. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

10. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Minimize the number of redirects upon hitting a URL. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

11. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Minimize the number of URL parameters — 1-2 parameters if possible. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

12. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Don’t use a parameter named “id=” in a URL for anything other than a session ID. Otherwise, it may not be included in the index. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

13. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-post-vanessa-fox-on-organic-site-review-session/
Earned-links are earned and given by choice. Google does consider buying text links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

14. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-analytics/
Blackhat SEOs may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured. Vanessa Fox. 2006.

15. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-link-follow-up/
Google’s is against selling/buying links, and Matt indicates they are good at spotting them — both algorithmically and manually. Sites that sell links can lose their trust in search engines. 2006.

16. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-spam-in-other-languages/
Google is focusing on detecting spam in other languages in 2006 — Italian, Spanish, Chinese, etc. 2006.

17. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/
External (domainA -> domainB) 302 redirects are largely treated as 301s now. 2006.

18. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages — www.example.com vs. example.com vs. www.example.com/index.html. Since all these urls are different, a web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, it tries to pick the best one and elimintes the others. To help Google, link to resources on a site consistently, and use 301 redirects to enforce it. 2006.

19. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
Do not use the URL removal tool to remove domain.com if you are worried about URL canonicalization and have both domain.com and www.domain.com in the Google index. This will remove the entire site. 2006.

20. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
Search engines can perform canonicalization for things like keeping or removing trailing slashes, upper vs. lower case, or removing session IDs from bulletin board or other software. 2006.

21. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/sitemaps-interview/
404s (Gone, but may reappear) are treated the same as 410s (Gone, but will not reappear). Most web masters use 404s as 410s anyway. 2006.

Following these tips will probably help you rank better, so long as you actually trust Matt Cutts. I’d assert it’s wise to approach some of his advice with skepticism, since I’m sure Google gives him guidelines as to what he can actually say, but following the advice above won’t get you into any trouble.

Edited: February 15th, 2009

Go Shopping To Get Blogging Idea

Last weekend, I ran a small seminar about internet marketing. Actually it is not really a seminar, better to call it personal coaching.

It took about 2 hours talking about how to make your first dollar onine.

The seminar was held at Jaya Jusco (one of famous Super Market in Malaysia), near to my parents in law’s house – Kepong.

After 2 hours of chit chatting, I went for window shopping around the store. Awesome.

It inspired me to write this post. Lucky for me, I also bring my $35 digital camera with me.

As the title mention, go shopping to get blogging idea. 

How?

When blogging, I rather suggest you to write a niche blog than a general blog. Why? Because you will have quality traffic. Have a conversion rate more than you write for general blog.

I will write about that later on. 

But, how you can get idea from shopping? Before I answer you, here are some pictures taken on that day.

You can write a review on new shoes everyweek. Just go to the shoes store, and click a few picture then it is done. Write also its price, features etc.

 

This is the latest perfume at this store. A lot of choices, you can write how the perfume smell etc.

Very niche store. This store actually has full of socks. You can wrte about the latest design at that shop.

There arre so many ideas out there at the shopping mall. It is also a good way to find your niche.

Anyway, happy blogging and there is no way "i have no idea what to blog" excuse.

Keep writing and writing and then the traffic will pull in to your blog.

 

 

 

Edited: February 13th, 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 4|Sparkling Blog Writing

 Sparkling Blog Writing

 
Blog writing is not like others forms of marketing writing.  If you want to use your blog to draw customers, you need to create a blog that is casual and interesting without being too sales-oriented or to aggressive in marketing.  Interestingly, the company blogs that do not promote and aggressively push their product and company often generate great company marketing and advertising as readers enjoy reading the blogs more without obvious pushes to buy.
 

What Types of Writing to Use 

 
To make your blog writing sparkle – and to make it spark sales – do include types of writing that readers will enjoy or find useful:
 
  • •Information about the company.  Including contact information, FAQs about your company, company or product manuals and other information makes it easy for readers to find what they need about you – which encourages readers to refer to your blog each time they need to know about your company.
 
  • •Job opportunities and company culture. Listing job openings and information about philanthropic causes your company is involved in as well as information about the atmosphere of your company is useful for job hunters.  It is also an easy way to get more readers interested in you company.
 
  • •Comments about the company and personal comments from workers. Personal comments are what really set blogs apart from other types of online writing.  Personal comments from company leaders and employees let readers know what your company is really like.  It can also improve sales, as customers are likely to develop brand loyalty if they see your company as a “face” or voice rather than just an impersonal logo.
 
  • •Value-added content for readers. Providing useful and handy information is one of the best ways to get readers to your site – and to get readers interested in your product.  Offer screensavers with your company logo, contests, tips, and useful articles, and you are more likely to get a regular group of readers.
 

Adding Style to Your Blog Writing

STYLE

 
  • • Keep it short. Like other types of online writing, blogging tends to rely on short paragraphs and small pages with links rather than big blocks of text.  Also, using the active voice (“We have opened a new division” rather than “A new division has been opened”) is also good for developing a nicer style.
 
  • •Let your logo do the talking. Rather than trying to promote the company constantly in your text, try making your text keyword-rich and value-added content rather than too “salesy.”  Instead, have your company logo clearly displayed on the page and mention the company as a workplace.  Your readers will still know about your company, but without feeling as though they are reading an ad.
 
  • •Stay enthusiastic.  Write about what you care about and write with genuine passion.  Writing dry copy just because you feel a blog is a useful marketing tool will not get you more readers or more customers.
 

Edited: February 12th, 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 3| Get More Readers for Your Blog, Get More Customers

 

There are several ways to make your blog one of the “hot” blogs online.  Traditionally, those companies that have the largest star-power have had the most popular blogs, since everyone loves to read about celebrity or success.  However, a great many smaller companies and individuals are developing large followings on the web. You can, too, with this simple lesson.

 

Keep it Rich

 
Keyword-rich, that is. Blogs are a great way to generate keyword-rich content, especially if you update your blogs each day. In fact, for some smaller businesses, blogs make more sense than hard-to-create web pages.  Blog software makes creating a blog almost automatic while the spiders on search engines seem to favour high-quality and often updated keyword-rich blogs.  
 

Steps to take:

 
  • •Keep keyword content high with plenty of keywords.  As you write your blog entries, do try to use not only keywords having to do with your topic, but also synonyms for your keywords.  This will help your readers find you more easily on the Internet.  For example, if you offer discount fashions, use a variety of keywords, including “discount fashions,” “cheap designer wear,” “discount clothing” and others.
 
  • •Provide quality, often-updated content.
 
  • •Specialize.  The best way to make use of the search engine optimisation of blogs is to narrow your focus.  Rather than developing a hodgepodge of ideas and themes, write with one theme in mind.  It will help ensure that people looking for information on your topic will always find you through a search engine.
 

Join the Community

 
Make sure that you promote your blog by joining the blogging community.  Creating a larger presence for your blog online will result in more blog readers and possibly, more customers:
 
  • •Add the address for your blog to email signatures and include mention in any ezine or email newsletter you have to let readers know about your blog.
 
  • •Mention your blog on appropriate forums.  For example, if your company offers resume writing services, consider writing about your blog in job-hunt forums.  
 
  • •Allow for readers’ commentary on your blog.  Many online blog publishing programs already allow this.  If your readers can post their comments and read the comments of other readers, they are more likely to return to your blog regularly, and so keep your company name in mind.
 
  • •Make your blog searchable through your interests. Many blog programs allow you to create a user profile, which allows readers to search for you and your blog by interest topic and locations, in many cases.  Do not overlook this simple way to draw readers.  Simply fill out your profile, taking care to use many “interests” to attract more readers and browsers. 
 

Edited: February 11th, 2009

Theme, Plug In and Tips One Stop

Do you blog? I do. When I start any blog, one thing that trouble me a lot is, the template. You may say, there are many sites offer free wordpress theme out there. 

Tell you what, it is very hard to get ideal template but unique – not many people use it. I love the feeling to exclusive. Don’t you ? 

It is real a trouble and very hard until I found this wordpress themes site. All your needs are here. F.O.C – free of charge.

Here you can download any free wordpress themes. I do appreciate all the work they had done. Because of the quality they gave to me, I really want to have their premium theme. I wonder when the day will come ;) .

Besides free wordpress theme, they also offer free plugin and write some blogging tip. I bet you will found it amazing. Grab this opportunity now. Bookmark the web and happy blogging.

Edited: February 10th, 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 2 | Blog Marketing Ideas That Sell

 Once you develop a blog, you will want to use the best blog marketing strategies you can to sell your company.  However, marketing blogs are different from personal blogs and blog marketing or advertising is very different than other forms of marketing.

 

Make Your Blog a Customer Draw

 
In order to make your blog a powerful marketing tool, you need to get your customers and clients to see it.  That means that you will need to advertise and provide content that gets attention:
 
  • •Make your blog visually exciting.  Choose an attractive background colour and provide photos or images.  Consider sound.   Develop your blog as you would a web site, with the same visual appeal.  Some bloggers even add video and sound to their blogs.  There is no need to spend many hours composing art works, but know that simple text on a white background may simply not draw as many readers as you like.

 

  • •Make sure that your customers know that your blog exists.  Providing some targeted advertising on the Internet is not hard.  Try some link exchange programs with web sites, blogs, and ezines that have similar content to your blog.  In many cases, simply providing a link to another web site can convince that web master to provide a link to your blog.
 

Make Your Blog a Company Pusher – Without Being Pushy

 
Your blog needs to promote your company.  However, if you are too heavy-handed, you will not be terribly exciting and may push customers away.  That’s why you should aim for only a small amount of content that actively pushes your company.  Do suggest newsworthy items that will lure your readers in.  For example, writing “today we launched a new division – now expecting mothers can take advantage of our fashions” is much better than sales copy such as “buy our hot new maternity fashions now.”
 

Give Your Readers What They Want

 
Studies suggest that as many as a quarter of Internet users tune into blogs.  That means that if you can give your blog readers what they want, you can be reasonably sure of having a decent audience.  Among the content that you may want to include in your blog:
 
  • •Tips and advice.  Many successful marketing blogs are much like successful consumer magazines – readers tune in to read content that is useful.  A computer company can offer computer tips and advice, for example, while a writing service blog can include daily ways to boost writing skills.

 

  • •Interest.  If your personal or business life is fascinating, then great.  There are many successful marketing blogs that detail the exciting lives of company presidents who are also hobby racecar drivers or skydivers.  This sort of material can ensure a steady audience.

 

  • •Humanity.  One of the things that blog readers are most interested to see is the face behind the company.  Many blog readers like a company run by people who have similar concerns.  Building humanity into your blog by detailing your company’s efforts to help the community, for example, is a great way to build credibility and customer loyalty.

 

  • •Style. Many readers just love to see a gorgeous, well-written blog.  Plenty of marketing blogs simply provide interesting content and nice graphics and do quite well in drawing readers and customers.
 

Edited: February 10th, 2009

7 days to blogging success : Day 1 | Blog Basics

A blog is sometimes called web log or weblog.  It is a type if online journal or diary, often including personal comments as well as web links and images.  Many people keep a blog as a type of personal creative exercise, but you can easily use this popular online type of writing to market your business.  Blogs are very popular right now and they can be a great and inexpensive way to contact more customers.


The great thing about blogs is that people read them for fun.   Customers may be becoming more jaded about advertising, but they will gladly read a blog that has some interesting things to say.  Many top companies are using blogs to deliver a better and more personal message about their companies – and the strategy seems to be working.

Starting a Blog


Starting a blog is as simple as finding a space online to write – and the time to write.  To begin a blog, first develop a theme idea or blog idea.  You may want to look at other people’s blogs to do so.  In general, you will want to develop a central theme for your blog in the same way that columnists develop a theme for their articles.  This helps ensure that your blog is not too “scattered.”

Next, find some place to publish your blog.  There are a number of sites – both paying and free – that give bloggers a chance to publish their material.  You may also want to simply set up your blog on your web site, especially if you already have an active web site.

Writing Your Blog


Once you have a place to publish your blog, you will have to set aside some time each week to develop new content.  When writing your blog:

•Write simply and clearly.  Use small paragraphs and spell check before uploading.  Your readers will trust what you have to say if you say it well.

•Go easy on the advertising.  The idea of a blog is to give readers something fun and exciting to read and look at.  You will have more readers if you comment on the world and are entertaining, rather than just hype your product.  Consider writing about your day, the atmosphere your workplace has, and culture, rather than just your company.

•Consider many types of content. Blogs allow you to upload images, create links, and allow users to make comments.  Your blog will have many more readers if you make your blog exciting with these pluses.


Promoting Your Blog


Just putting your blog online is not enough.  After all, there are many millions of blogs on the web right now, so unless your blog is on a high-traffic site, you may not get readers unless you advertise.   You can easily advertise your blog without spending a cent by mentioning your blog in your emails and web pages or newsletters.  You can also enter in online competitions – if your blog wins a prize you are more likely to get a constant flow of traffic to your blog.  You can also ask ezines and other content providers to review your blog, which will also draw readers.
 

 

Edited: February 9th, 2009

7 days to blogging success

 New to blogging world? Or maybe, you don’t even have a blog. 

Never mind, it is not the end of the world yet. You are at the right time and at the right place. Starting tomorrow, I’ll write 7 posts about how to success in blogging.

The overview below may give you some idea what you will learn in the next 7 days.

 

Lesson #1 - Blog Basics. Get an overview of the steps for successful blogging. This is the foundation. It’ll put you on solid ground. No worrires about falling down. 

Lesson #2 - Blog marketing ideas that sell. You’ll get real insight into writing what your readers want to know. Don’t do this and you’ll leave money on the table. Ouch! 

Lesson #3 - Discover the different writing styles that have been found to successfully draw and keep readers. Once you have them, you’ll want to keep them hooked. Here’s how. 

Lesson #4 - Find out how to make other people’s blogs pay off for you! Blogging has turned into a community. Be part of it and succeed faster! 

Lesson #5 - Managing your blog for success. Discover some of the easy things you can do to make sure that your blog is perceived as truly wonderful resource! 

Lesson #6 - Learn about TrackBack, a system used to see who’s talking about your blog. Use this and make your blog the center of attention. 

 

Lesson #7 - Learn how to really build up the benefits of your blog to your readers and how to get more hits on your blog. 

 

So, bookmark this page or simply subscribe my blog by clicking here >>> Read this blog by Email

So you will not miss any lesson.

All the best !

Edited: February 8th, 2009