Posts Tagged ‘blogging tips’

SEO – Is It As Important As It Once Was Or Is Social Media The Way to Go?

SEO (search engine optimization) is something I am continually trying to improve upon. I experiment with different approaches on both of my blogs to see what works and what doesn’t. It is a tedious process but something I am convinced I will someday master, or at least have fun trying. Sadly, I have been reading a little more and more from different blogs that SEO is not as vital to blog growth as it once was. The recent popularity of sites such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, MySpace (which is losing popularity to Twitter and Facebook),  EzineArticles, eHow and other similar sites can do more for a blog’s popularity in several days then months of great SEO work. The “viral” nature of how stories and/or videos catch on is truly mind-blowing in many cases.

I will not give up on SEO tactics. Proper search engine optimization will provide long-term benefits. Submission of my posts to social bookmarking sites, the use of Twitter and writing for ezine type sites will help but will not replace tried and true practices. Why not use both equally? I read a good post called “15 Step by Step SEO Tips For Writing Blog Posts” which I feel incorporate good tips for both practices for the modern SEO approach.

Incorporating all tactics for The Complete SEO Package

The way most see it, these practices are one in the same. Submission of posts to social media sites of any kind can help with link building, an important SEO tactic however the post or article can become viral regardless of the SEO used. You cannot go wrong when you utilize the complete package!

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Increasing Your ReTweet Numbers

This morning I read a great little post from Daniel Scocco on increasing the number of retweets on your blog. This has been something I have been struggling with for the last few weeks myself. I have been looking for tips and tricks on various blogs but Daniel’s simple list basically says it all.

Simply stated two facts stand out:

• Increase your traffic by providing high quality and useful content (naturally – more readers=more retweets)
• Ask your readers to retweet your posts – some readers may not be using twitter and others may be using twitter but do not know what the retweet button is

I have 1500 followers on my main twitter account (MY FOLLOW ME BUTTON IS ON THE RIGHT SIDE (shameless promo ) and I have averaged 1-2 retweets per post. My retweet button hasn’t been working correctly but I have been tracking the tweets through my url shortening service (I have toyed with 2 services lately).

So with Daniel’s tips in mind, I ask you to PLEASE use my retweet button on the top right corner of this post to pass these tips onto others (another shameless promo)!

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Search Engine Optimization – SEO

If you are very new to blogging, you may have heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and not know what it is. In short, SEO are the steps you take in order to make your site more search engine friendly. This includes a variety of small things you should do when writing posts and/or pages. Below you will see some simple steps to begin with:

• Use keywords that are popular – check out Google’s Keyword Tool
• Use those keywords in your title and in your post but do not overdo it
• Link to some of your previous posts, if fitting
• Link to other blogs (this will help you to get link-backs which many say is most important)
• Install SEO plugins – they can do a lot for you in the back-round

As you get more familiar with SEO, you will begin to find and use more helpful tips. For now this is a good starting point and remember, CONTENT IS MOST IMPORTANT!

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Blogging: Learning the Hard Way

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Since I am on the path of sharing my failures lately, I figured why not share another lesson I learned the hard way. Until a few days ago my blog address was ecommerce-earnings.com/wordpress and while talking to my blog mentor he mentioned I should remove the /wordpress from my address (he also told me this when I first began my blog) as this is something Google is not particularly fond of.

I should have done it right the first time!

So with a little help moving the files around, I removed the dreaded /wordpress. However in doing so, I also broke most, if not all of my LINKS (internal, external and most importantly INCOMING).  I corrected all of my internal links, links to my blogging communities, and notified some of the incoming links of the change. I also noticed that the TweetMe numbers all reset to zero. It looks as if nothing was ever tweeted! UGGHHH

I unfortunately have to start almost at the beginning again however this is good. Moving forward, I will have a Google friendly address and all of the links I build from here on out will be solid and unbroken because I finally have things done properly.

Do yourself a favor, when installing Wordpress (I do not now how the other platforms work) be sure to install all files directly into the domain file and do not create a separate Wordpress folder. It will save you time and a lot of aggravation.

Do you have any hard learned lessons? If so, please share as we can all use some help.

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Traffic Exchanges – Another Failure

In my recent post concerning social bookmarking sites, I shared my negative experiences with the use of sites such as:

• Stumble Upon
• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit

Although I did see a quick spike in traffic, it was not what I was looking for. So I simultaneously began using traffic exchanges as another way to drive traffic to my blogs and sites. I set-up my free accounts, created various splash pages and started surfing to earn points!  For those of you that haven’t tried traffic exchanges here is a quick overview as they are all similar:

• You create a free account (or you can pay for a “premier” or similar higher level account)
• Enter your website(s)
• Create splash pages for those websites
• Surf other members splash pages and/or sites in a surf bar to earn points (you typically have to spend a certain amount of time on each splash page or site, usually 10-15 seconds, to earn points)
• Once you accumulate a certain number of points you can apply them to time periods in which your splash page or website is displayed to other members/surfers
• If the person (or you, if you are surfing) views a site that is interesting,  you can click the link to go to the full site
• If you join a team, you can all surf together to maximize the points or rewards

The idea behind traffic exchanges is to create a splash page to gets the surfers attention, enticing them to click through to their sites. They hope to sell you something or get you to join them in their group of surfers. You are basically surfing to be surfed and I spent hours upon hours of surfing to earn those points on sites that I had no interest in!

ALL IN VAIN! I spent countless hours on this only to figure out that EVERYONE was doing the same thing as I was. The large majority of surfers are only surfing to earn points and in some traffic exchanges, you can purchase points. There is no real interest in what people are promoting because everyone is worried about their own promotion. My visitor count was certainly high but the page views were low and the clicks on my site(s) were non-existent.

Another failure and I guess that is the best way to learn because I can now pass on my experience that using traffic exchanges do not work. Please do not waste your time. If anyone has had a different experience please let me know. I tried for six weeks and no REAL success.

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Blogging Tips From One of My Favorite Blogs

I am constantly in search of new tips for improving my blog(s). I recently came across a post on DailyBlogTips and I was impressed with the tie-in of the tips with the movie “The Wrestler”.

Who would have thought that blogging tips would come from this movie?

If you watched the movie you will certainly get the link and if you did not see the movie, maybe you will be impressed with the ingenious way the author gets his point across.  However, it is clear that the professionals are always trying new ways to not only provide informative posts but also to make them “catchy” and I think this is both.

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Start Blogging Today

Should I start a blog?

If you are considering the idea of trying to earn on income online, the first thing you should consider is blogging. Operating a blog can be one of the best ways for you to promote yourself, your business and ideas.

What is blogging? Simply stated – A chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links (Marketingterms.com)

My definition is: A digital platform for people to share ideas, concepts, stories, information and/or resources. There are many blogs on the web and the concepts range from gardening to rocket science (Spacefellowship.com see I am not kidding)

If you are passionate or have extensive knowledge on something in particular, you should consider blogging about it.  You may be very opinionated on political events, social issues, carpentry or house cleaning. The topic doesn’t matter because chances are there IS an audience for you! You can blog about current events or a niche topic. There is no restriction.

How to start a blog:

Starting a free blog is the best way to “get your feet wet” in my opinion. This will allow you to get familiar with the blogosphere and help you sharpen your skills. There are many FREE blog platforms available and here are some of the most popular.

• Wordpress.com – Easy to use, loaded with features and provides great resources to answer your questions
• Blogger.com – A Google platform. Also comes loaded with features
• Blog.com - Rich with features and claims to have 2 million bloggers
• Vox.com – From the creators of Movable Type and TypePad

Be sure to read the terms and conditions as some free platforms have minor restrictions.  These platforms will allow you to choose themes and make inserting pictures, videos and links easy. Any of these will provide you with the tools you need to get started.

How will this earn money you ask? One step at a time grasshopper! You should start your blog and worry about providing quality content for a while.

GOOD LUCK and start blogging now!!!!

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Undergoing Some Changes

Hello everyone! I am excited to say that we are currently working on revamping our blog! You will be seeing some changes over the next few days that will take us all to a new level.  We are basically combining the efforts of our other sites/blogs into one.  We will continue to provide everything we have currently (just presented differently) as well as sharing tips, tools and advice on how amateurs can earn and save online.

Please be patient with us

We hope to have an very active blog with everyone providing comments and tips of their own. We do not claim to be making $100,000’s through our online ventures but we are certainly turning a profit and it wasn’t necessarily an easy road. My wife and I have invested a lot of time and a “some” money (not a lot for running multiple businesses online in our opinion) but hard earned money nonetheless. We have learned a lot and we are certain that many people can benefit through what we have learned. We have purchased many products, joined many mailing lists and joined many programs. Some them helped and/or worked and some of them didn’t. We will share what they were and hope that YOU SHARE back.

If you are an expert blogger or an extremely successful online entrepreneur this site isn’t for you. We do not claim to have all of the answers and we are continually learning ourselves but if you would like to pass on some tips…PLEASE DO SO! We intend to provide advice for novices and amateurs just getting started because we have been there and done that!

So please be patient and let’s grow together!

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