Posts Tagged ‘Website Marketing’

Managing All of Your Online Activities

I received a really interesting Tweet a couple of days ago, where a reader asked me how I manage all of my online activities. I immediately understood his question, because to the outsider looking in, I’m currently all over the web.

There are a lot of online writers out there who are just like me - with their hands and their words in everything. Submitting writing and content for clients and at websites throughout the Internet. In my case, I do paranormal research and writing with RealityUncovered, I explore conspiracy theories at TopSecretWriters, I write countless informational articles for LoveToKnow.com, technology articles for MakeUseOf.com, educational articles for Educational-Freeware.com, and I’ve published numerous articles for Associated Content, Helium and even eHow.
vintage typewriter

As I said to my friend and RU colleague Steve recently - it’s like I’m a grenade victim and I have bits and pieces of me that have exploded all over the Internet.

Managing Your Online Activities in a Sane Way

The first thing I should point out is that I don’t do all of these things all at once, or all of the time. Building a powerful online presence and a solid reputation as a professional writer takes a long time, and a lot of building blocks. All of these pieces throughout the Internet are simply stepping stones toward a larger and greater future. Some of them will become cornerstones of that future, while others will not.

The benefit of distributing almost 50 articles every month, to a variety of online destinations with your name credited to each one of them, is that you control your online identity. Even if anyone attempted to write something negative about you, you’ve overwhelmed the Internet with so much of your own work, that anything anyone else writes will never see the light of day - it’s a perfect online insurance policy. Plus - whose going to take you on when they see that you are such a prolific writer, willing to take on any topic and any issue?

Tools You Can Use to Organize

The key to managing all of this is organization. While Twitter and Facebook can certainly turn into a time-drainer, they can also provide a perfect platform to distribute new material of yours to your fans. And yes, you will soon have fans because people have preferences - and your writing will appeal to a specific crowd.

Don’t doubt it. But when that happens, you need an easy way to let those people know that you’ve just written something they may be interested in reading.

Another approach is something that I’ll be writing about soon at MakeUseOf, and that is this - one of the best ways that you can organize yourself online is by creating an author profile blog. I know, you’re thinking not another blog!? However, this one isn’t a blog that you’ll need to babysit. It’s one where you can embed all of the feeds from your online endeavours, and where you can offer an occasional update about your work and your current activities.

A personal bio blog can also help you organize all of the places that you’ve already been published, and it can land you some amazing opportunities for even better places to get published in the future.

So, here’s to staying busy and profitable in all of your online efforts!

Increase Your Website Ad Revenue with the Google Heat Map

If you’re running a free website (one that doesn’t require a reader subscription), then the odds are pretty good that you’re probably depending on ad revenue to support your operating costs (and hopefully some form of profit). In addition to using effective SEO techniques to attract as many visitors to your website as possible, another element of increasing your website’s ad revenue is by getting your visitors “converted” into revenue.

How do you convert visitors? As I mentioned recently in the 4 A’s of Marketing - you convert them into profit by driving them to take action that’s profitable for both the reader, and for you. It’s profitable for the reader because you’ve chosen products and services to advertise that you know are high quality and valuable, and it’s profitable to you because those companies pay you based on referred sales.

website ad revenue

Google Adsense is one of the best ways for new bloggers to learn what ad placement techniques work on a website and which methods don’t work. On one of my blogs, for the longest time I couldn’t manage to generate any clickthroughs to my Google ads. On the one hand, I don’t like introducing large and obtrusive ads into my articles or on my website, but on the other hand I could tell that my visitors weren’t recognizing the value of those ads and taking advantage of those links.

After doing a little bit of research about website “heat maps,” I figured out what I was doing wrong, fixed it, and increased my ad revenue by over 600 percent. In this article I’ll quickly review what I learned so that you can put it to use on your own blog or website.

The Website Advertising Heat Map

As I mentioned, Google Adsense is one of the best learning tools for a new blogger that’s looking to get into earning decent revenue through advertising. Google is extremely helpful in that effort, because they actually provide a very valuable ad heat map on their Adsense help pages that shows you exactly where you should place ads on your website for the highest clickthrough percentages.


website ad revenue

As you can see from the heat map, according to Google that most effective areas for advertising on a website are first and foremost at the very top of your content area. Now, there’s a tradeoff here. Personally I feel that placing a huge Google ad at the top of your content is very tacky and a major turnoff - it doesn’t look very professional. On the other hand, I’ve seen plenty of websites that do it, and they retain their readership - so proceed carefully.

The areas of any blog that I recommend concentrating on (if your template design allows for it) is the menu bar on the left and the menu at the top. These aren’t in the reddish-orange area, but they are still in the hot spots that generate the most action from visitors. The website where I tested this heat map concept was TopSecretWriters. I decided to place a large Google ad at the top of the left menu bar.


website ad revenue

I did have to slide some of my favorite graphical content down below this ad, and it did involve tweaking some of the template code itself, but in the end it was a smart move because it transformed the almost non-existent ad revenue on TopSecretWriters into a very healthy stream of clickthroughs and profit.

The moral of the story is this - the Google Adsense heat map is accurate, and I would highly recommend taking the time to become familiar with it and then redesigning how you structure the ads on your blog or website so that you are taking advantage of those hot spots.

Search Spy Unfiltered Search Engines

Search spy unfiltered search engines can offer you a competitive advantage in the world of search engine optimization. The SEO industry is very much an industry controlled by information. The more information and insight that you have over your competition, the better you’ll succeed. While this is try in most industries, it’s even more true in SEO, because the fewer people who are capturing the most lucrative search terms, the more successful you’ll be as you capture your SEO niche opportunities.

I’ve covered a number of SEO tools in a few of my earlier posts, such as the 3 tips for optimization and the need to be flexible when you choose your topics, but in this post I’d like to touch on yet another effective tool in gauging the online attitudes and interests of Internet travelers - that tool is search spy unfiltered search engines.

search spy unfiltered search engines

In this article, I’m going to share 8 online tools that you can use to closely monitor what people are searching the Internet for every single second. That’s right - a real-time “spy” peak into exactly what people are typing into the search engines. This insight could tip you off to the hottest upcoming online buzz, which can be a very powerful way to capture the online “Buzz” wave long before other bloggers even catch on.

Top 3 Search Spy Unfiltered Search Engines

The following online tools are considered “search spy” online apps because they simply update a list that shows you an unfiltered list of what people are searching for on search engines right this moment. Sure, you could use tools like Yahoo Buzz or Google Zeitgeist to learn about the hottest trends, but with those tools the moment you find out, just about every other blogger in the world finds out as well. On the other hand, using search spy tools - you can jump on the hot trends before anyone else even knows about them.

The first Search Spy tool that I’d like to mention is also the most popular because it’s DogPile, the most-used metasearch engine on the Internet. Any search engine that’s popular will provide you with a great sampling of what people are interested in. Dogpile’s realtime tool is simply called Dogpile SearchSpy.


dogpile search spy

When you visit the page, you’ll see a scrolling list of interesting search terms. These terms are what people are actively searching for this very moment. You can either choose to “Omit adult terms or not.” If you don’t, then you can expect an unfiltered list from the search engines that can be somewhat eye-opening at times.

IceSpy is a useful tool provided by the social network search engine known as IceRocket. IceRocket is a valuable and popular search tool that provides search results from networks like MySpace, Twitter, blogs and more.


dogpile search spy

IceSpy gives you some insight into what IceRocket users are typing into the search engine. As IceRocket continues to grow in popularity, the IceSpy search terms that scroll up the screen will become more and more a reflection of what bloggers and social network users are interested in. This is a great way to figure out what terms are more likely to race up the “DIGG” list.

The next search spy tool is also one of the coolest. Twitter is obviously one of the most popular social networks on the Internet right now, and getting insight into what’s going on throughout the huge Twitter community is a important key to unlocking current trends. One of the coolest tools for monitoring the pulse of Twitter is Twitspy.


search spy unfiltered search engines

So what’s so cool about Twitspy? Well first of all it displays the latest Twitter updates in a graphical way that shows you the profile image of the Twitter user who posted the update overlaid onto a world map, with a pop-up bubble that displays the update. It’s like watching a virtual worldwide discussion going on - and it’s very addictive!

5 More Useful Search Spy Tools

While the first three tools listed above have the greatest user base, so are the most useful and the most accurate samples of general online interest, the following lesser-known tools are also worthwhile. Even though they don’t have quite the user base as the big sites above, they still offer a select snapshot of a segment of the online population. As I mentioned earlier, in the SEO field information is power - so every source of information you can find is important.

  • Infotiger.com - Get a snapshot list of what people are typing into the InfoTiger search engine. Refresh the screen for an updated realtime list.
  • Ilectric Logs - Provides you with a list of the 20 most recent search terms typed into the Ilectric metasearch engine. Press refresh for an updated list.
  • Yahoo Buzz Updates - While Yahoo Buzz itself isn’t updated every second, this list of what Yahoo Users are “buzzing up” or “buzzing down” gets updated immediately - and provides you with an instant update into what Yahoo Buzz users are interested in.
  • Search Hippo Logs - Check out a list of the 15 most recent search terms typed into the Search Hippo search engine. Press refresh for an updated list.
  • Meta Eureka Logs - This page provides an unfiltered list of search terms for this metasearch engine known as Meta Eureka.

The list of search spy tools above comes from my personal private SEO research toolbox, and by keeping a close eye on the trends at each of these sites - you could easily capture the next big “thing” that could drive your blog or website into the stratosphere.

Top 3 Tips For Effective Search Engine Optimization

Through the years, I’ve learned through trial and error and by working for so many different clients, and seeing so many different results - what works and what doesn’t when it comes to search engine optimization. Like so many topics computer related, everyone is an expert. The truth is that when push comes to shove, the proof is in the pudding. How well can that person achieve long-term and consistent traffic?
search engine optimization

The following are the top 3 tried and true methods that I’ve learned over the years that will consistently and effectively increase your search engine traffic significantly every month. These are not techniques that will instantly multiply your traffic numbers overnight, but over time and used consistently with every post you write, they will lay a very solid and powerful foundation for your website or blog.

Tip #1 - Choose the Right Topic

Probably the most important aspect of SEO is selecting a title that you can cover with experience and knowledge, that a lot of people are searching the Internet for, and that very few websites provide information about. Identifying such “niche” topics is the very heart of truly effective SEO. Trellian’s Keyword Discovery tool is one of the most effective free tools at your disposal to “discover” what topics are in demand right now.


trellian

The Keyword Discovery tool shows you how many searches for a particular term take place every single day. For basic blog postings and online writing, this information is good enough. However, if you you are looking to extract competition information (how many websites are already covering the keywords), then you’ll have to pay for the premium version of the tool.

Tip #2 - Focus on a Niche, Don’t Write About Everything

One of the mistakes that many online writers make is that they want to capture all of the keywords they find that have tremendous traffic. Hot keywords are only one aspect of attracting repeat visitors - you also want to dedicate time and energy into those topics that your visitors are coming to you for. If you’re running a website about Cars, then focus on a niche within that general topic - don’t try to cover car insurance, car repair, car racing, car tuning and every other imaginable topic with one website. All you’ll do is overwhelm your first-time visitors and drive them away screaming.


busysite

The website above is a perfect example of a website that’s simply trying to do too much in a very limited space. Keep your website straightforward and simple, and your visitors will appreciate it. Give them what they came for - don’t try to be everything for everybody.

Tip #3 - Effectively Distribute Your Keywords

The area that most online writers fail miserably at is effectively distributing the keywords that they’re trying to target. Unscrupulous SEO “experts” will take a clients money and then spam keywords throughout the client’s website. Initial traffic will be significant, but once Google catches on (and the SEO expert already took your money and ran), you’ll discover that you’re blacklisted and without any traffic at all. The key to effective keyword SEO is in discretely and very carefully placing a limited number of keywords throughout your article, in a way that the reader doesn’t even notice.


freewritingexample

The example above is from a recent article here at FreeWritingCenter titled “Free Writing Classes.” As you can see, I carefully inserted the phrase into the article, and in one case included it as a bolded header for a section. Finally, I included the keyword text as “alt-text” in the various images throughout my article. The real science to distributing is knowing how many times to distribute the phrase based on the number of words in your article - and this is where the true value of a real SEO expert becomes apparent.

Better Website Content With Customized Marketing Solutions

Looking for free website content, free articles, or quality website articles? You’ve come to the right place.

So you’ve just created your Internet masterpiece. It’s the website that you’ve spent many months slaving over. The design is perfect. The code is flawless. You lack one thing…content. There’s no better way to attract the audience that your blog or website needs to survive than through customized marketing solutions that target the topics that your audience is looking for.

Free Website Articles and Quality Website Content

Okay, so you’re not a writer. It’s a valid excuse. But how are you going to get all of those visitors to come to your new site if you don’t offer new, fresh and quality content every so often? The answer is simply, you can’t - not without the right customized marketing solutions.

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