Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

• If you have a Word Press blog, which is the platform for this particular blog, you may be excluding your blog from the Google Index without even realizing it.  Two of my clients were being excluded and I was left puzzled and questioning what I KNEW to be true.  Goes to show that you learn something new every day…and today I learned something new about Word Press.

• One of my clients has a Word Press blog, which he built himself using the free guide “blogging for buyers“.  He hired me to help him find a domain name and I felt really good about the domain we chose.  Based on all the research I did, it seemed as though the domain name alone would help him to yield good search results once he added some good content to the site.   Not So Much!  (learn more about how to chose a good domain name here.)

• No matter what we did and how I coached him, we couldn’t get Google to index his blog.  We have all of the SEO tools installed, had hand submitted the site to the Google Index and NOTHING! I hope this will all change with what I discovered today.  I wanted to bring it to your attention as well to make sure you have your Word Press blog set up properly to be indexed and crawled by Google, Technorati, etc.

• Follow these steps to make sure you are in good shape:

• On the left side of your Word Press screen, you will see “settings”, click on it.  A list of options will drop down, and one of those options is “privacy”, click on it. This is what you will see:
  

• Make sure that your site is set TO BE CRAWLED, and not set to block the search engines.  I am 100% sure that both of my clients who had their settings set to “block the search engines” did not choose that setting, which leads me to believe that it is the default setting.   I can’t think of any other way that it would have ended up “blocking” the search engines and I am very hopeful that now that it is fixed, Google will begin to crawl the site and we will see some activity.

• There is much more information regarding getting found on Google in the Getting Found On Google Section.  Good luck to you on finding your place in the Google Index.

P.S. Thank you for taking your time to visit and hope you find the information useful. I hope to help you learn everything you want and need to know about blogging. I welcome your questions (site specific is good) and definitely your suggestions. I hope to answer your questions before they come up or when you find that you have one. By clicking on the Orange RSS Feed button on the left side of the screen, you will be automatically updated of new information available without having to "check in" to see what's new. It's the easiest way to keep up to date. Thanks again for stopping in, I value your time!

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• I recently came across a situation where one of my clients was told by his business consultant that his  blog was for one purpose only.  To educate people  and share good information.  My client was told that his blog should not be used for “marketing purposes” and I tend to disagree.

• If your blog isn’t to be used for “marketing”, then what is the purpose in having it?  Now don’t get me wrong, educating people and offering your visitors valuable information is crucial to the success of your blog, but factoring self promotion and marketing is also important.  You have to find good balance in your blog to make sure you are educating your readers, after all that is what most people are looking for when they read blogs, they want information and providing valuable information will keep them coming back for more.

• My recommendation to you when creating a blog post is to educate FIRST and market second.  If you approach your posts by marketing first, you will most likely loose the interest of your readers within a few moments.

• The best way to use your blog as a marketing tool is to provide valuable information with hyperlinks directly to your product pages where people can take action with the product or service you are offering.  It serves three purposes:

1. Blogs create fresh content which is what “Googlers” want and what Google wants to provide.
2. Leads potential clients to the place to take action
3. Create links throughout your site or from your blog to your site, which helps with your quest to work with Google.

• To learn everything you need to know about how to blog along with what to blog about read “profitable blogging”

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• Today, the FTC released updated guidelines for bloggers who endorse products and services.

• The updated guidelines from the FTC say the following:

• The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.”

• Read the complete press release from the FTC here. To see the   complete guide published by the FTC, click here.  It is 81 pages and makes for great reading in the evenings you find it difficult to fall asleep. LOL

• It will be important to make sure people who read your blog know you are being compensated when you endorse a product.

• As I learn more about these new guidelines, I will post more.

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The question of the day…Should I try to build my own blog site or should I hire a professional?

Let’s go over the advantages and disadvantages of both…

Do It Yourself:

• If you create your own blog, it will take time away from whatever it is keeps you busy now.
• Building your own blog without the help of a professional designer and the assistance of what to include/not include could keep your blog from reaching its full potential.
• If you consider yourself to be pretty “techy” and like this sort of thing, I encourage you to dig in and get your fingers “dirty”, if indeed you will actually follow through, the key here being…will you actually follow through and get it done?
• By creating your own blog, you are in control and don’t have to depend on someone else to make changes and updates that are often needed on any website.  You created it, so you know how to change it, update it or fix it if need be!
• If you don’t happen to have an eye for what looks good and create your own blog, you may get visitors to your blog that “bounce” the second they arrive because your blog isn’t inviting or looks cluttered.

If you do decide to create your own blog, we do encourage you to create a custom look and feel to your web blog and the easiest program to do that is Artisteer.  It requires NO PRIOR web design knowledge or experience and could not be more user friendly.  It is a great program and they do offer a free demo.  Visit this link for a full video tutorial on how to use the program.  The tutorial shows you how to build a simple, but completely custom blog theme in 5 minutes!  Yes, the video is 5 minutes with no outtakes or secret shortcuts.  The whole blog template is built in 5 minutes.  Watch the tutorial now.

Hire A Professional:

• Hiring a professional to set up your blog in most cases is a one-time fee because once a blog is set up it is done.  I have many clients who hire me to do exactly this because they either don’t have the time or just choose not to do it themselves.  It is not that time consuming for someone like myself that has done it many times and very cost effective if you have the funds available.  Feel Free To Contact Me For a Quote.
• A professional will most likely set up your blog to match your company website or be able to integrate your company logo by using design software that you may not be familiar with.  As mentioned above, check out Artisteer and the tutorials to see if this is something you simply wish to take on yourself.  It really is easy with a little video training!
• Hiring a professional will require a small investment, but typically when you have some “skin in the game” you are more likely to follow through with the actual blogging.
• Your blog will need to have some structure to it and a professional will obviously have more insight in to creating that structure.

NOTE: If you do choose to hire a professional to create your blog site, make sure that your agreement includes training on how to log in, create blogs, and manage the site.  There isn’t a lot to managing a blog other than adding “blogs” (content and articles) regularly, but you will need some guidance to get you started.  If your designer doesn’t include training, you are strongly encouraged to “pass” and find one that does.

As you can see there are benefits to both.  You may possible wish to try designing and creating your own blog if you feel you have the time to do so.  If you find you aren’t succeeding at it, then hire a professional.  What have you got to lose!

It is also important to subscribe to this blog because I offer ongoing tips on how to add “widgets” and plug ins on how to make money with your blog and stay consistent with it!  Subscribe now

If you aren’t sure exactly how to subscribe to an RSS or what an RSS feed is, click here to learn what it is and how to do it.  Once you learn about RSS feeds, you will understand how much time and energy they will save you!

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Don’t hide content from your visitors

I love visiting the sites of other bloggers who really offer great content and sometimes what I read, really sticks with me in a way that I want to return again and again to re-read it.   I may mention it to other people in conversation, retweet it, or simply want to refer back to it because it was a great lesson!

One of my favorite bloggers, who shall remain nameless, because he really is a GREAT blogger who offers great content.   I visit his blog daily to see what other little tid bits of information he has for me today in the world of blogging.  His tid bits are “gold nuggets” and I so appreciate them.

I recently read a post on his blog about the importance of your headline.  He mentioned in his post that the heading of your post is as important than the blog itself. So important that you should invest as much time in the heading as in the blog post itself.

He also offered GREAT tips on what a good heading includes, buzz words that are important, etc.  I was having a conversation with a friend regarding some issues she was having getting people to open her email blasts and I thought about this post!  This post included just what she needed to improve her open rate!

I have since then, visited this blog no less than 6 times to try and find this “golden post”, but can’t find it because he has no “search box” on his blog that I can find.  He offers related articles, which I was fortunate to read while “hunting” for the one article I really wanted, but after six visits…still can’t find that one post! Gosh Darnit!

Lesson Learned – MAKE SURE YOUR BLOG HAS A SEARCH on it, so people who return and want to find a past article CAN find it.  It is the simple things that we often forget.

Happy blogging.  And…because what this particular blogger talked about, read this article about writing headlines and good “copy”.

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Lesson one:

GET A BLOG!!! I know I sound like a broken record if you have read my free report on “Profitable Blogging“, but I wouldn’t keep mentioning it if it weren’t so important.

If you haven’t read the free report (no strings attached!),  you must read the report, it includes greater detail about why blogging is imperative to your success with ranking on Google.  Make sure when you get your blog, to use your own domain name and to do the hosting through HostGators so you can take advantage of the tutorials on setting up your word press blog step-by-step.  They have a super user friendly interface and you will be glad you chose them.

Lesson Two:

Blog!  Your blog will do you absolutely no good, if you don’t actually blog on it.  If you don’t feel it is something you can keep up with, hire someone to blog for you.  Blogging is really what will help your rankings and is the fastest and easiest way to accomplish “getting found on Google”.  One of the things that Google “spiders’’ look for as they crawl the Internet is new/fresh content.
Blogging = new and fresh that is also the most current.

Lesson Three:

When you blog, make sure that you use the keywords you wish to rank for in your blog AND that they link either to a page on your blog/website or to another blog post to create internal links in your website.  This is also called “deep linking”
Let me give you an example:

In the PrinterBees blog, when you see posts for Keller Williams Business cards and the words Keller Williams business cards in the blog post, those words link directly to the Keller Williams business card page on our website.  If you think of Google like the largest librarian on the planet and this librarian is in charge of making sure things are organized properly in this huge library, The Internet.  This link to your main web pages will hold more weight because the key word is in the link. In this blog post, I have created three “key word links” to the PrinterBees, Keller Williams business card page that ARE MY KEYWORD.  When Google crawls this page AND finds these links which include my keywords, it is another hint about where to index the site and it’s relevance to the person who has typed in “Keller Williams Business Cards”.  At the time of this post, PrinterBees is listed on page 1 in the number 8 position.

This is a lot to work on and take in, there are more lessons coming on the simple things you can do to improve your rankings.  Stay tuned, visit frequently or subscribe to the RSS to make sure you catch the next lesson.

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I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where I could have a blog to pretty much rant about anything and everything and it came to me as I was looking in to new Twitter user names because I am unhappy with the one I have.

Nadine Blogs! in my mind it couldn’t be more perfect because I have so many websites going on at one time, this is the perfect spot to talk about all of them.

I do hope you will stop by often to see what I am up to in both my business and my personal life. I do have much to say and can only hope you will find it interesting and of value. Thanks for taking the time and I must admit, I don’t really have a “plan” for this blog, so we will have to see where it takes us!

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