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Don’t Forget to Market Your Blog

On January 7, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

People blog for different reasons. Some people have an idea for a blog and they want to turn that idea into a real moneymaker. There have been real successful bloggers who have done this, but most attempts that I have encountered have failed. They had an idea and turned their blog into a business model. [...]

People blog for different reasons. Some people have an idea for a blog and they want to turn that idea into a real moneymaker. There have been real successful bloggers who have done this, but most attempts that I have encountered have failed. They had an idea and turned their blog into a business model. Nothing at all wrong with that. How you can tell if a blog has failed is if you see it ranking well in the search engines and have not seen any new posts for months. I can’t tell you how many blogs I have seen, really great ones that get abandoned due to lack of advertisers or poor monetization strategy…that is another blog post topic all together. Others have taken a blog and used it as a marketing tool for a business. Is there a different strategy involved?

Yes. A blog as a business model is different than a blog as a marketing-tool model. But, in reality, both types of blogs require a marketing strategy all to themselves. The key is to drive targeted visitors to your blog from many different sources and which ever type of blog you have – business or marketing tool – you’ll need to market the blog. People often forget that a blog (especially a stand alone one) is a website that needs to be marketed.

There are a variety of ways to market a blog, but it all starts with the blog itself. The most basic form on online marketing is search engine optimization. This is the beginning. By optimizing your blog for search engine traffic you are giving your blog the basic building blocks to act as a business on its own or be used as a marketing tool for your existing business. In some cases, you can even do both. Without a solid SEO strategy for your blog, however, success as either will inevitably allude you. Don’t forget to SEO your blog.

Search engine optimziation is one really good source for targeted visitors however there are many other great ways to drive targeted visitors to your blog, they include:

1. Search Engine Optimization – Make sure your blog has excellent content and is naturally optimized.
2. Online Publicity – Publish newsworthy press releases online to drive relevant visitors and good inbound links.
3. Social Networking – Become active in the top social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and talk about your blog.
4. Social Bookmarking – Submit your blog posts to good social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon.
5. Guest Blog Writing (on other blogs) - Over time develop your credibility in your niche and write for other related blogs.
6. Opt-In Email Marketing – Build a list through your blog and send out newsletters that drive people back to your blog.

The bottom line is blogging is a useful and long term approach that really works. If you are launching a business as a blog or using your blog to market your business, either way take the time to develop a long term marketing strategy. Believe me, it will be worth your time!

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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To What Extent Is PPC an SEO Tool?

On December 13, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Over the years you’ve probably heard search engine optimization and other Internet marketers refer to pay per click advertising as an SEO tool. It is, of course, its own form of marketing and whether or not you use it as an SEO tool has no bearing on the effectiveness of it as marketing tool. [...]

Over the years you’ve probably heard search engine optimization and other Internet marketers refer to pay per click advertising as an SEO tool. It is, of course, its own form of marketing and whether or not you use it as an SEO tool has no bearing on the effectiveness of it as marketing tool. But even I have referred to PPC as an SEO tool on several occasions. But to what extent? First, but not foremost, PPC can be used as keyword research. It can be used to discover new keywords to target for your SEO campaigns and it can also be used to test keywords for your SEO campaigns.

On discovery, let’s say you have your list of keywords and you design a PPC campaign around a tight grouping of keywords. You type in your primary keyword for the campaign into the Google PPC Keyword Research tool and the tool returns to you a list of related keywords. It is quite likely, especially if you have not conducted a thorough keyword research in the first place, that you’ll find keywords on that list that you have not explored.

Then there’s the testing aspect of keyword research. If you take your lis of keywords you can devise PPC campaigns around those keywords to find out which ones have the highest CTR – click through rate. By determining CTRs for your keywords you are effectively testing them to see which ones are capable of the greatest returns. You can then take your high-CTR keywords and devise SEO campaigns around them. Beyond the keyword research component of PPC as SEO, there are also opportunities for you to engage your audience with PPC and SEO simultaneously. This is where PPC can itself be a kind of SEO aside from your SEO campaigns. If you target the same keywords in your PPC campaigns that you target in your SEO campaigns then you increase your overall marketing effectiveness.

It is a known fact that 80% of searchers click the organic listings more than the PPC. But if you focus your PPC efforts on those 20% that click the PPC ads then you are missing out. When a searcher sees a PPC ad for the same URL as a related organic listing sitting next to it then that itself makes the organic listing more desirable to click on for the searcher. It adds a level of credibility that an organic listing alone doesn’t have. Advertisers who use PPC in conjunction with strong SEO campaigns see their organic listings receive more click throughs overall. And that’s where PPC can best be used as an adjunct SEO tool.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Squeezing A Call To Action In Your Description

On November 7, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Your description meta tag really only serves one purpose these days and that is to attract clicks from organic search listings. Rather than using the tag as another on site search engine optimziation tool, you may be better off using it as a marketing tool. Keywords are important however there are times when it may [...]

Your description meta tag really only serves one purpose these days and that is to attract clicks from organic search listings. Rather than using the tag as another on site search engine optimziation tool, you may be better off using it as a marketing tool. Keywords are important however there are times when it may be more prudent to forsake a keyword or two if it is going to result in more traffic.

One tactic that is being used more frequently now is to include a call to action inside the meta description. When searcher see your description in the search results, the call to action may just influence their decision on whether or not to click on your listing.

A call to action can appear anywhere within the description, for example, “If you are looking for the latest information on (keyword) then visit our site for expert articles”, or similar. The ‘visit our site’ is the call to action.

You may only have 200 characters to make your sales pitch, but in a world full of expert Tweets, it shouldn’t be that difficult to create an professional sales pitch with a call to action.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Is SEO Your Bottom Line Or A Sideline Activity?

On November 3, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Different online marketers achieve success in different ways. But I’d be willing to bet that most of the ones who hit it big do so by using search engine optimization as a primary internet marketing tool to drive targeted visitors that lead to sales. Why did I come to that conclusion?
Besides having been [...]

Different online marketers achieve success in different ways. But I’d be willing to bet that most of the ones who hit it big do so by using search engine optimization as a primary internet marketing tool to drive targeted visitors that lead to sales. Why did I come to that conclusion?

Besides having been in the internet marketing industry for 12 years, I have seen almost everything (believe me NOTHING surprises me at all! :) Also, social media marketing is still struggling and learning to find its groove with companies from a marketing perspective. A recent survey by CitiBank and GfK Roper reveals that most small business owners don’t rely on social media (in fact 63% of all small businesses surveyed said that the social networking component of social media marketing was not helpful at all!). As a result they get more sales and leads out of their own websites and search engine optimziation efforts. Even without that survey, however, I’d still say the same thing.

Most people, even today, if they want to find information, go to one of the search engines. A few people Twitter a question or head to Yahoo! Answers. But most of them will still attempt to search through one of the search engines. If they don’t succeed in getting the answer to their question on the first search query, they’ll send another query. The same search with a twist.

In other words, search is still the major factor in website success. A few years ago, no matter which website you were looking at, about 80% of the traffic was coming from a search engine – and most of that from Google. In fact, I think at one time about 80% of all Web traffic came from Google. Now it’s probably around the 70% range. The other 30% comes from various social media websites and third-party referrers.

This tells me that you can’t really succeed online without search engine traffic. Most social media traffic still doesn’t convert. That is, a low percentage of social media traffic converts compared to a higher percentage for search engine traffic, which includes organic search and paid search.

That’s why I think online marketers who make SEO a major factor in their online marketing campaigns will do better than marketers who make SEO a sideline activity. Which one are you?

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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5 Reasons Why Blogging Is The New Internet Marketing Tool

On December 26, 2007, In Internet Marketing, by Corporate Blogging

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and [...]

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool. (more…)

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