Affiliate Marketing

7 Steps To Hiring “A” Players For Your Business

2012-02-02T14:25:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6541" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Learn how to find top team players."][/caption]

The success of your business as it grows will partly depend on you hiring “A” players in all the key positions.

Hiring staff doesn’t need to be complicated – it’s a case of knowing who you need, using your marketing skills to attract them and then a filtering process to save time and effort in selecting the right one. We take you through it below.

Know Who You Are Looking For

If you have mapped out your business and broken it down into key systems and processes you should be able to clearly identify the skills and talents you are looking for in a new team member; what will make them an “A” player?

Also, think about the type of personality that will “fit” with your business – then you are well on the way to deciding on exactly who you are looking for. This is a key stage that all the rest of the hiring process hinges on.

Write The

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How To Use Web Outsourcing To Grow Your Business

2012-02-01T17:37:00.001-08:00

If you don’t build a business that can operate when you’re not there you don’t really have a business – and web outsourcing is a great strategy for making sure you do have one.

If you have been following our posts on the Competition Crusher workshop topics you should be clear by now on mapping out your business into a series of detailed processes; if everything goes according to plan, you will reach a stage where you cannot look after all those processes yourself and, in order to expand, you will need to hire team members.

You Can’t Do It Alone!

Don’t pretend that you can do it all yourself – if you have built a strong business you won’t have the time or skill-set to be able to manage everything without some talented help.

Remember that a business needs to be able to operate and earn you income when you are not there, so the idea is to slowly remove yourself from the day-to-day running, so you can focus on the bigger picture.

Following The

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How To Use Press Release Marketing In Your Business

2012-01-31T13:24:00.001-08:00

If your business can get to grips with online press release marketing it can be one of the easiest ways to bring traffic to your website and boost sales. We show you how below.

Benefits Of Press Release Marketing

Offline PR brings you exposure in magazines, newspapers and maybe even local TV or radio; online we are targeting back-links and traffic to our website via well-written, optimised press releases that are interesting and widely distributed.

Traffic comes from the keywords and back-links that are embedded into optimised press releases, which help us get rankings in Google News and the main search engines.

Using A Distribution Service

In order to get a good level of traffic hitting our website we need to use a distribution service for our online press releases.

A great one to use is PRWeb . You submit your completed press release and they will send it to literally thousands of other sites.

A Melbourne SEO Example

You’ve probably seen the “Google

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How Press Releases Create The Ultimate Testimonial For Your Business

2012-01-30T13:07:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6478" align="alignleft" width="221" caption="Go beyond celebrity endorsements."][/caption]

We have often mentioned the importance of others vouching for your business; when the media vouches for you, that’s the ultimate testimonial– and online press releases are a great way to make that happen.

One of the most important marketing strategies for your business, after you have created an optimised website with a sales funnel in progress, is to “up” the exposure you are getting; this will enhance your expert status, provide free advertising and start to send more traffic your way.

The Value Of Testimonials

Testimonials for your business can come in one of several ways:
Customers – most are happy to say some good words about you.
Celebrity Endorsements – expensive if you need Tiger Woods!
Experts in your Niche – Interviewing them creates the “halo” effect for you
Media and Other Organisations

You should try for all of the

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A Sample PR Strategy – The MCG Way!

2012-01-29T14:08:00.001-08:00

We have mentioned the “Selling the MCG” story in another post or two but we focus this post on it because it serves as a sample PR strategy for your business.

Below we cover how the idea came about and then how it was brought into the public arena to help sell it.

Of course, in this case we are talking about an Australian icon (the MCG) in a one-off venture, but many of the lessons I learned from this campaign I took into my later businesses and hope that you can use the lessons in yours too.

The Idea

I had just read the “One Minute Millionaire” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen and was intrigued by the story of how someone actually sold pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95 during one of its reconstructions.

A while later I was driving past the MCG and saw that they were knocking one of the stands down and had my light bulb moment.

The MCG was an Australian cultural icon in much the same way as the Brooklyn Bridge is to East Coast Americans and

SEO Melbourne

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012)

2012-01-20T14:12:00.001-08:00

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012)

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Posted by randfish

It's easy to build a blog, but hard to build a successful blog with significant traffic. Over the years, we've grown the Moz blog to nearly a million visits each month and helped lots of other blogs, too. I launched a personal blog late last year and was amazed to see how quickly it gained thousands of visits to each post. There's an art to increasing a blog's traffic, and given that we seem to have stumbled on some of that knowledge, I felt it compulsory to give back by sharing what we've observed.

NOTE: This post replaces a popular one I wrote on the same topic in 2007. This post is intended to be useful to all forms of bloggers - independent folks, those seeking to monetize, and marketing professionals working an in-house blog from tiny startups to huge companies. Not all of the tactics will work for everyone, but at least some of these should be applicable and useful.

#1 - Target Your Content to an Audience Likely to Share

When strategizing about who you're writing for, consider that audience's ability to help spread the word. Some readers will naturally be more or less active in evangelizing the work you do, but particular communities, topics, writing styles and content types regularly play better than others on the web. For example, great infographics that strike a chord (like this one), beautiful videos that tell a story (like this one) and remarkable collections of facts that challenge common assumptions (like this one) are all targeted at audiences likely to share (geeks with facial hair, those interested in weight loss and those with political thoughts about macroeconomics respectively).

If you can identify groups that have high concentrations of the blue and orange circles in the diagram above, you dramatically improve the chances of reaching larger audiences and growing your traffic numbers. Targeting blog content at less-share-likely groups may not be a terrible decision (particularly if that's where you passion or your target audience lies), but it will decrease the propensity for your blog's work to spread like wildfire across the web.

#2 - Participate in the Communities Where Your Audience Already Gathers

Advertisers on Madison Avenue have spent billions researching and determining where consumers with various characteristics gather and what they spend their time doing so they can better target their messages. They do it because reaching a group of 65+ year old women with commercials for extreme sports equipment is known to be a waste of money, while reaching an 18-30 year old male demographic that attends rock-climbing gyms is likely to have a much higher ROI.

Thankfully, you don't need to spend a dime to figure out where a large portion of your audience can be found on the web. In fact, you probably already know a few blogs, forums, websites and social media communities where discussions and content are being posted on your topic (and if you don't a Google search will take you much of the way). From that list, you can do some easy expansion using a web-based tool like DoubleClick's Ad Planner:

Once you've determined the communities where your soon-to-be-readers gather, you can start participating. Create an account, read what others have written and don't jump in the conversation until you've got a good feel for what's appropriate and what's not. I've written a post here about rules for comment marketing, and all of them apply. Be a good web citizen and you'll be rewarded with traffic, trust and fans. Link-drop, spam or troll and you'll get a quick boot, or worse, a reputation as a blogger no one wants to associate with.

#3 - Make Your Blog's Content SEO-Friendly

Search engines are a massive opportunity for traffic, yet many bloggers ignore this channel for a variety of reasons that usually have more to do with fear and misunderstanding than true problems. As I've written before, "SEO, when done right, should never interfere with great writing." In 2011, Google received over 3 billion daily searches from around the world, and that number is only growing:

sources: Comscore + Google

Taking advantage of this massive traffic opportunity is of tremendous value to bloggers, who often find that much of the business side of blogging, from inquiries for advertising to guest posting opportunities to press and discovery by major media entities comes via search.

SEO for blogs is both simple and easy to set up, particularly if you're using an SEO-friendly platform like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. For more information on how to execute on great SEO for blogs, check out the following resources:

Blogger's Guide to SEO (from SEOBook)
The Beginner's Guide to SEO (from Moz)
Wordpress Blog SEO Tutorial (from Yoast)
SEO for Travel Bloggers (but applicable to nearly any type of blog - from Moz)

Don't let bad press or poor experiences with spammers (spam is not SEO) taint the amazing power and valuable contributions SEO can make to your blog's traffic and overall success. 20% of the effort and tactics to make your content optimized for search engines will yield 80% of the value possible; embrace it and thousands of visitors seeking exactly what you've posted will be the reward.

#4 - Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to Share Your Posts & Find New Connections

Twitter just topped 465 million registered accounts. Facebook has over 850 million active users. Google+ has nearly 100 million. LinkedIn is over 130 million. Together, these networks are attracting vast amounts of time and interest from Internet users around the world, and those that participate on these services fit into the "content distributors" description above, meaning they're likely to help spread the word about your blog.

Leveraging these networks to attract traffic requires patience, study, attention to changes by the social sites and consideration in what content to share and how to do it. My advice is to use the following process:

If you haven't already, register a personal account and a brand account at each of the following - Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn (those links will take you directly to the registration pages for brand pages). For example, my friend Dharmesh has a personal account for Twitter and a brand account for OnStartups (one of his blog projects). He also maintains brand pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
Fill out each of those profiles to the fullest possible extent - use photos, write compelling descriptions and make each one as useful and credible as possible. Research shows that profiles with more information have a significant correlation with more successful accounts (and there's a lot of common sense here, too, given that spammy profiles frequently feature little to no profile work).
Connect with users on those sites with whom you already share a personal or professional relationships, and start following industry luminaries, influencers and connectors. Services like FollowerWonk and FindPeopleonPlus can be incredible for this:

Start sharing content - your own blog posts, those of peers in your industry who've impressed you and anything that you feel has a chance to go "viral" and earn sharing from others.
Interact with the community - use hash tags, searches and those you follow to find interesting conversations and content and jump in! Social networks are amazing environment for building a brand, familiarizing yourself with a topic and the people around it, and earning the trust of others through high quality, authentic participation and sharing

If you consistently employ a strategy of participation, share great stuff and make a positive, memorable impression on those who see your interactions on these sites, your followers and fans will grow and your ability to drive traffic back to your blog by sharing content will be tremendous. For many bloggers, social media is the single largest source of traffic, particularly in the early months after launch, when SEO is a less consistent driver.

#5 - Install Analytics and Pay Attention to the Results

At the very least, I'd recommend most bloggers install Google Analytics (which is free), and watch to see where visits originate, which sources drive quality traffic and what others might be saying about you and your content when they link over. If you want to get more advanced, check out this post on 18 Steps to Successful Metrics and Marketing.

Here's a screenshot from the analytics of my wife's travel blog, the Everywhereist:

As you can see, there's all sorts of great insights to be gleaned by looking at where visits originate, analyzing how they were earned and trying to repeat the successes, focus on the high quality and high traffic sources and put less effort into marketing paths that may not be effective. In this example, it's pretty clear that Facebook and Twitter are both excellent channels. StumbleUpon sends a lot of traffic, but they don't stay very long (averaging only 36 seconds vs. the general average of 4 minutes!).

Employing analytics is critical to knowing where you're succeeding, and where you have more opportunity. Don't ignore it, or you'll be doomed to never learn from mistakes or execute on potential.

#6 - Add Graphics, Photos and Illustrations (with link-back licensing)

If you're someone who can produce graphics, take photos, illustrate or even just create funny doodles in MS Paint, you should leverage that talent on your blog. By uploading and hosting images (or using a third-party service like Flickr to embed your images with licensing requirements on that site), you create another traffic source for yourself via Image Search, and often massively improve the engagement and enjoyment of your visitors.

When using images, I highly recommend creating a way for others to use them on their own sites legally and with permission, but in such a way that benefits you as the content creator. For example, you could have a consistent notice under your images indicating that re-using is fine, but that those who do should link back to this post. You can also post that as a sidebar link, include it in your terms of use, or note it however you think will get the most adoption.

Some people will use your images without linking back, which sucks. However, you can find them by employing the Image Search function of "similar images," shown below:

Clicking the "similar" link on any given image will show you other images that Google thinks look alike, which can often uncover new sources of traffic. Just reach out and ask if you can get a link, nicely. Much of the time, you'll not only get your link, but make a valuable contact or new friend, too!

#7 - Conduct Keyword Research While Writing Your Posts

Not surprisingly, a big part of showing up in search engines is targeting the terms and phrases your audience are actually typing into a search engine. It's hard to know what these words will be unless you do some research, and luckily, there's a free tool from Google to help called the AdWords Keyword Tool.

Type some words at the top, hit search and AdWords will show you phrases that match the intent and/or terms you've employed. There's lots to play around with here, but watch out in particular for the "match types" options I've highlighted below:

When you choose "exact match" AdWords will show you only the quantity of searches estimated for that precise phrase. If you use broad match, they'll include any search phrases that use related/similar words in a pattern they think could have overlap with your keyword intent (which can get pretty darn broad). "Phrase match" will give you only those phrases that include the word or words in your search - still fairly wide-ranging, but between "exact" and "broad."

When you're writing a blog post, keyword research is best utilized for the title and headline of the post. For example, if I wanted to write a post here on Moz about how to generate good ideas for bloggers, I might craft something that uses the phrase "blog post ideas" or "blogging ideas" near the front of my title and headline, as in "Blog Post Ideas for When You're Truly Stuck," or "Blogging Ideas that Will Help You Clear Writer's Block."

Optimizing a post to target a specific keyword isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. 80% of the value comes from merely using the phrase effectively in the title of the blog post, and writing high quality content about the subject. If you're interested in more, read Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization (a slightly older resource, but just as relevant today as when it was written).

#8 - Frequently Reference Your Own Posts and Those of Others

The web was not made for static, text-only content! Readers appreciate links, as do other bloggers, site owners and even search engines. When you reference your own material in-context and in a way that's not manipulative (watch out for over-optimizing by linking to a category, post or page every time a phrase is used - this is almost certainly discounted by search engines and looks terrible to those who want to read your posts), you potentially draw visitors to your other content AND give search engines a nice signal about those previous posts.

Perhaps even more valuable is referencing the content of others. The biblical expression "give and ye shall receive," perfectly applies on the web. Other site owners will often receive Google Alerts or look through their incoming referrers (as I showed above in tip #5) to see who's talking about them and what they're saying. Linking out is a direct line to earning links, social mentions, friendly emails and new relationships with those you reference. In its early days, this tactic was one of the best ways we earned recognition and traffic with the SEOmoz blog and the power continues to this day.

#9 - Participate in Social Sharing Communities Like Reddit + StumbleUpon

The major social networking sites aren't alone in their power to send traffic to a blog. Social community sites like Reddit (which now receives more than 2 billion! with a "B"! views each month), StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Care2 (for nonprofits and causes), GoodReads (books), Ravelry (knitting), Newsvine (news/politics) and many, many more (Wikipedia maintains a decent, though not comprehensive list here).

Each of these sites have different rules, formats and ways of participating and sharing content. As with participation in blog or forum communities described above in tactic #2, you need to add value to these communities to see value back. Simply drive-by spamming or leaving your link won't get you very far, and could even cause a backlash. Instead, learn the ropes, engage authentically and you'll find that fans, links and traffic can develop.

These communities are also excellent sources of inspiration for posts on your blog. By observing what performs well and earns recognition, you can tailor your content to meet those guidelines and reap the rewards in visits and awareness. My top recommendation for most bloggers is to at least check whether there's an appropriate subreddit in which you should be participating. Subreddits and their search function can help with that.

#10 - Guest Blog (and Accept the Guest Posts of Others)

When you're first starting out, it can be tough to convince other bloggers to allow you to post on their sites OR have an audience large enough to inspire others to want to contribute to your site. This is when friends and professional connections are critical. When you don't have a compelling marketing message, leverage your relationships - find the folks who know you, like you and trust you and ask those who have blog to let you take a shot at authoring something, then ask them to return the favor.

Guest blogging is a fantastic way to spread your brand to new folks who've never seen your work before, and it can be useful in earning early links and references back to your site, which will drive direct traffic and help your search rankings (diverse, external links are a key part of how search engines rank sites and pages). Several recommendations for those who engage in guest blogging:

Find sites that have a relevant audience - it sucks to pour your time into writing a post, only to see it fizzle because the readers weren't interested. Spend a bit more time researching the posts that succeed on your target site, the makeup of the audience, what types of comments they leave and you'll earn a much higher return with each post.
Don't be discouraged if you ask and get a "no" or a "no response." As your profile grows in your niche, you'll have more opportunities, requests and an easier time getting a "yes," so don't take early rejections too hard and watch out - in many marketing practices, persistence pays, but pestering a blogger to write for them is not one of these (and may get your email address permanently banned from their inbox).
When pitching your guest post make it as easy as possible for the other party. When requesting to post, have a phenomenal piece of writing all set to publish that's never been shared before and give them the ability to read it. These requests get far more "yes" replies than asking for the chance to write with no evidence of what you'll contribute. At the very least, make an outline and write a title + snippet.
Likewise, when requesting a contribution, especially from someone with a significant industry profile, asking for a very specific piece of writing is much easier than getting them to write an entire piece from scratch of their own design. You should also present statistics that highlight the value of posting on your site - traffic data, social followers, RSS subscribers, etc. can all be very persuasive to a skeptical writer.

A great tool for frequent guest bloggers is Ann Smarty's MyBlogGuest, which offers the ability to connect writers with those seeking guest contributions (and the reverse).

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are also great places to find guest blogging opportunities. In particular, check out the profiles of those you're connected with to see if they run blogs of their own that might be a good fit. Google's Blog Search function and Google Reader's Search are also solid tools for discovery.

#11 - Incorporate Great Design Into Your Site

The power of beautiful, usable, professional design can't be overstated. When readers look at a blog, the first thing they judge is how it "feels" from a design and UX perspective. Sites that use default templates or have horrifying, 1990's design will receive less trust, a lower time-on-page, fewer pages per visit and a lower likelihood of being shared. Those that feature stunning design that clearly indicates quality work will experience the reverse - and reap amazing benefits.

These threads - 1, 2, 3 and 4 - feature some remarkable blog designs for inspiration

If you're looking for a designer to help upgrade the quality of your blog, there's a few resources I recommend:

Dribbble - great for finding high quality professional designers
Forrst - another excellent design profile community
Behance - featuring galleries from a wide range of visual professionals
Sortfolio - an awesome tool to ID designers by region, skill and budget
99 Designs - a controversial site that provides designs on spec via contests (I have mixed feelings on this one, but many people find it useful, particularly for budget-conscious projects)

This is one area where budgeting a couple thousand dollars (if you can afford it) or even a few hundred (if you're low on cash) can make a big difference in the traffic, sharing and viral-impact of every post you write.

#12 - Interact on Other Blogs' Comments

As bloggers, we see a lot of comments. Many are spam, only a few add real value, and even fewer are truly fascinating and remarkable. If you can be in this final category consistently, in ways that make a blogger sit up and think "man, I wish that person commented here more often!" you can achieve great things for your own site's visibility through participation in the comments of other blogs.

Combine the tools presented in #10 (particularly Google Reader/Blog Search) and #4 (especially FollowerWonk) for discovery. The feed subscriber counts in Google Reader can be particularly helpful for identifying good blogs for participation. Then apply the principles covered in this post on comment marketing.

Do be conscious of the name you use when commenting and the URL(s) you point back to. Consistency matters, particularly on naming, and linking to internal pages or using a name that's clearly made for keyword-spamming rather than true conversation will kill your efforts before they begin.

#13 - Participate in Q+A Sites

Every day, thousands of people ask questions on the web. Popular services like Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com, Quora, StackExchange, Formspring and more serve those hungry for information whose web searches couldn't track down the responses they needed.

The best strategy I've seen for engaging on Q+A sites isn't to answer every question that comes along, but rather, to strategically provide high value to a Q+A community by engaging in those places where:

The question quality is high, and responses thus far have been thin
The question receives high visibility (either by ranking well for search queries, being featured on the site or getting social traffic/referrals). Most of the Q+A sites will show some stats around the traffic of a question
The question is something you can answer in a way that provides remarkable value to anyone who's curious and drops by

I also find great value in answering a few questions in-depth by producing an actual blog post to tackle them, then linking back. This is also a way I personally find blog post topics - if people are interested in the answer on a Q+A site, chances are good that lots of folks would want to read it on my blog, too!

Just be authentic in your answer, particularly if you're linking. If you'd like to see some examples, I answer a lot of questions at Quora, frequently include relevant links, but am rarely accused of spamming or link dropping because it's clearly about providing relevant value, not just getting a link for SEO (links on most user-contributed sites are "nofollow" anyway, meaning they shouldn't pass search-engine value). There's a dangerous line to walk here, but if you do so with tact and candor, you can earn a great audience from your participation.

#14 - Enable Subscriptions via Feed + Email (and track them!)

If someone drops by your site, has a good experience and thinks "I should come back here and check this out again when they have more posts," chances are pretty high (I'd estimate 90%+) that you'll never see them again. That sucks! It shouldn't be the case, but we have busy lives and the Internet's filled with animated gifs of cats.

In order to pull back some of these would-be fans, I highly recommend creating an RSS feed using Feedburner and putting visible buttons on the sidebar, top or bottom of your blog posts encouraging those who enjoy your content to sign up (either via feed, or via email, both of which are popular options).

If you're using Wordpress, there's some easy plugins for this, too.

Once you've set things up, visit every few weeks and check on your subscribers - are they clicking on posts? If so, which ones? Learning what plays well for those who subscribe to your content can help make you a better blogger, and earn more visits from RSS, too.

#15 - Attend and Host Events

Despite the immense power of the web to connect us all regardless of geography, in-person meetings are still remarkably useful for bloggers seeking to grow their traffic and influence. The people you meet and connect with in real-world settings are far more likely to naturally lead to discussions about your blog and ways you can help each other. This yields guest posts, links, tweets, shares, blogroll inclusion and general business development like nothing else.

I'm a big advocate of Lanyrd, an event directory service that connects with your social networks to see who among your contacts will be at which events in which geographies. This can be phenomenally useful for identifying which meetups, conferences or gatherings are worth attending (and who you can carpool with).

The founder of Lanyrd also contributed this great answer on Quora about other search engines/directories for events (which makes me like them even more).

#16 - Use Your Email Connections (and Signature) to Promote Your Blog

As a blogger, you're likely to be sending a lot of email out to others who use the web and have the power to help spread your work. Make sure you're not ignoring email as a channel, one-to-one though it may be. When given an opportunity in a conversation that's relevant, feel free to bring up your blog, a specific post or a topic you've written about. I find myself using blogging as a way to scalably answer questions - if I receive the same question many times, I'll try to make a blog post that answers it so I can simply link to that in the future.

I also like to use my email signature to promote the content I share online. If I was really sharp, I'd do link tracking using a service like Bit.ly so I could see how many clicks email footers really earn. I suspect it's not high, but it's also not 0.

#17 - Survey Your Readers

Web surveys are easy to run and often produce high engagement and great topics for conversation. If there's a subject or discussion that's particularly contested, or where you suspect showing the distribution of beliefs, usage or opinions can be revealing, check out a tool like SurveyMonkey (they have a small free version) or PollDaddy. Google Docs also offers a survey tool that's totally free, but not yet great in my view.

#18 - Add Value to a Popular Conversation

Numerous niches in the blogosphere have a few "big sites" where key issues arise, get discussed and spawn conversations on other blogs and sites. Getting into the fray can be a great way to present your point-of-view, earn attention from those interested in the discussion and potentially get links and traffic from the industry leaders as part of the process.

You can see me trying this out with Fred Wilson's AVC blog last year (an incredibly popular and well-respected blog in the VC world). Fred wrote a post about Marketing that I disagreed with strongly and publicly and a day later, he wrote a follow-up where he included a graphic I made AND a link to my post.

If you're seeking sources to find these "popular conversations," Alltop, Topsy, Techmeme (in the tech world) and their sister sites MediaGazer, Memeorandum and WeSmirch, as well as PopURLs can all be useful.

#19 - Aggregate the Best of Your Niche

Bloggers, publishers and site owners of every variety in the web world love and hate to be compared and ranked against one another. It incites endless intrigue, discussion, methodology arguments and competitive behavior - but, it's amazing for earning attention. When a blogger publishes a list of "the best X" or "the top X" in their field, most everyone who's ranked highly praises the list, shares it and links to it. Here's an example from the world of marketing itself:

That's a screenshot of the AdAge Power 150, a list that's been maintained for years in the marketing world and receives an endless amount of discussion by those listed (and not listed). For example, why is SEOmoz's Twitter score only a "13" when we have so many more followers, interactions and retweets than many of those with higher scores? Who knows. But I know it's good for AdAge. :-)

Now, obviously, I would encourage anyone building something like this to be as transparent, accurate and authentic as possible. A high quality resource that lists a "best and brightest" in your niche - be they blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, individual posts, people, conferences or whatever else you can think to rank - is an excellent piece of content for earning traffic and becoming a known quantity in your field.

Oh, and once you do produce it - make sure to let those featured know they've been listed. Tweeting at them with a link is a good way to do this, but if you have email addresses, by all means, reach out. It can often be the start of a great relationship!

#20 - Connect Your Web Profiles and Content to Your Blog

Many of you likely have profiles on services like YouTube, Slideshare, Yahoo!, DeviantArt and dozens of other social and Web 1.0 sites. You might be uploading content to Flickr, to Facebook, to Picasa or even something more esoteric like Prezi. Whatever you're producing on the web and wherever you're doing it, tie it back to your blog.

Including your blog's link on your actual profile pages is among the most obvious, but it's also incredibly valuable. On any service where interaction takes place, those interested in who you are and what you have to share will follow those links, and if they lead back to your blog, they become opportunities for capturing a loyal visitor or earning a share (or both!). But don't just do this with profiles - do it with content, too! If you've created a video for YouTube, make your blog's URL appear at the start or end of the video. Include it in the description of the video and on the uploading profile's page. If you're sharing photos on any of the dozens of photo services, use a watermark or even just some text with your domain name so interested users can find you.

If you're having trouble finding and updating all those old profiles (or figuring out where you might want to create/share some new ones), KnowEm is a great tool for discovering your own profiles (by searching for your name or pseudonyms you've used) and claiming profiles on sites you may not yet have participated in.

I'd also strongly recommend leveraging Google's relatively new protocol for rel=author. AJ Kohn wrote a great post on how to set it up here, and Yoast has another good one on building it into Wordpress sites. The benefit for bloggers who do build large enough audiences to gain Google's trust is earning your profile photo next to all the content you author - a powerful markup advantage that likely drives extra clicks from the search results and creates great, memorable branding, too.

#21 - Uncover the Links of Your Fellow Bloggers (and Nab 'em!)

If other blogs in your niche have earned references from sites around the web, there's a decent chance that they'll link to you as well. Conducting competitive link research can also show you what content from your competition has performed well and the strategies they may be using to market their work. To uncover these links, you'll need to use some tools.

OpenSiteExplorer is my favorite, but I'm biased (it's made by Moz). However, it is free to use - if you create a registered account here, you can get unlimited use of the tool showing up to 1,000 links per page or site in perpetuity.

There are other good tools for link research as well, including Blekko, Majestic, Ahrefs and, I've heard that in the near-future, SearchMetrics.

Finding a link is great, but it's through the exhaustive research of looking through dozens or hundreds that you can identify patterns and strategies. You're also likely to find a lot of guest blogging opportunities and other chances for outreach. If you maintain a great persona and brand in your niche, your ability to earn these will rise dramatically.

Bonus #22 - Be Consistent and Don't Give Up

If there's one piece of advice I wish I could share with every blogger, it's this:

The above image comes from Everywhereist's analytics. Geraldine could have given up 18 months into her daily blogging. After all, she was putting in 3-5 hours each day writing content, taking photos, visiting sites, coming up with topics, trying to guest blog and grow her Twitter followers and never doing any SEO (don't ask, it's a running joke between us). And then, almost two years after her blog began, and more than 500 posts in, things finally got going. She got some nice guest blogging gigs, had some posts of hers go "hot" in the social sphere, earned mentions on some bigger sites, then got really big press from Time's Best Blogs of 2011.

I'd guess there's hundreds of new bloggers on the web each day who have all the opportunity Geraldine had, but after months (maybe only weeks) of slogging away, they give up.

When I started the SEOmoz blog in 2004, I had some advantages (mostly a good deal of marketing and SEO knowledge), but it was nearly 2 years before the blog could be called anything like a success. Earning traffic isn't rocket science, but it does take time, perseverance and consistency. Don't give up. Stick to your schedule. Remember that everyone has a few posts that suck, and it's only by writing and publishing those sucky posts that you get into the habit necessary to eventually transform your blog into something remarkable.

Good luck and good blogging from all of us at Moz!

Feel free to copy and re-post this content or the graphics, but please do link back (or reference SEOmoz if using the images offline). Thanks!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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3 Ways To Get Media Attention For Your Business

2012-01-19T14:12:00.001-08:00

Online or offline, media attention can help our business in quite dramatic ways; below we look at a couple of personal examples of this and then suggest a few approaches that you can start looking at for your own business.

Example: Selling The MCG

My own example of selling the benches and carpets from the MCG is covered in more detail elsewhere but, suffice to say here, it was aided incredibly by the media attention I got following an initial press release and editorial ad.

When lastminute.com.au picked it up and promoted it the faxes hardly stopped for 2 whole days and sales went through the roof.

Obviously it helped that the MCG was part of Australia’s heritage and it was something of an interesting subject for most Australians, but the free media attention I received made me realise just how important it is to a growing business.

HARO Website

HARO is an abbreviation of “Help A Reporter Online” and is a worldwide site that reporters go to and list the

SEO Melbourne

The Essential Facebook And Twitter Marketing Approaches

2012-01-18T12:48:00.001-08:00

How many businesses do you know of out there that are using Facebook and Twitter marketing smartly?

Social media marketing is still finding its “level” somewhat but it seems to me that many businesses misinterpret the opportunities that Facebook and Twitter provide. So below we try to clear that up with some guidelines for the essential approaches involved – and they ARE different.

Essentials Of Twitter Marketing

Twitter is all about engaging with your clients and other people – in 140 characters or less!

The idea is that through Twitter you can disseminate quick information, often in text message style short-hand. This allows you to keep your customers up to date with what’s going on and to share industry news – the shortened URLs provided by the likes of bit.ly allow you to send links to others easily and effectively now.

The purpose is to engage with your customers; you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you but it’s great to stay across

SEO Melbourne

How Google Tools Can Help Transform You Into Market Leaders

2012-01-17T14:07:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6338" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Make sure you are always alerted."][/caption]

Getting the news first and reacting first to it is one of the hallmarks of market leaders; in fact people have made their fortunes from being the first to the key news in their field – notable examples exist in the banking and financial sectors.

Nowadays it’s hard to be first with the news because people around the globe are more connected than ever to what’s happening; that’s why a couple of Google tools are so valuable for your online business and can help to propel you to the top of the heap.

Google Reader – or Reeder (iPhone)

Google Reader (Reeder on the iPhone) is a fantastic tool to ensure you don’t have to flit between 20 different websites to read the news you want to read.

Google Reader allows you to pick the most important sources in your industry (most market leaders have blogs which you can select) and it collates all relevant daily

SEO Melbourne

7 Ways To Earn Online Market Leadership

2012-01-16T16:59:00.001-08:00

Online market leadership should be the goal of every web-based business leader and learning how to position yourself as such is the first step.

Below we take you through the top 7 approaches that can help earn you the title of “market leader” in your field.

1. Develop And Tell Your Story

Your story should reflect your struggle to get where you are today, concentrating not only on the successes and breakthroughs but on the failures along the way. Everyone has a story and telling it is key; because it can form the basis of your web videos and auto-responder campaigns and will help you build the all-important connection with your audience.

Without a story it’s very difficult to connect on the human level and earn market leadership. Think of the “Tony Robbins” story of the simple, poor, overweight guy made good; or the “Virgin” story of the “David vs Goliath” struggle, for example.

2. Conduct Interviews For The “Halo Effect”

Conducting

SEO Melbourne

Questions To Ask Before Launching A Business Social Media Campaign

2012-01-12T16:45:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6299" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Know the purpose of social media."][/caption]

Before you rush headlong into setting up your business Facebook and Twitter accounts and launching a massive business social media campaign, take a moment to think.

Social media is NOT for every business and, even if it is for you, your approach will be more effective if you take the time to ask a few questions of your business before committing resources to social media.

1. Do you understand the Purpose of Social Media Marketing?

There is no point embarking on a social media marketing bonanza without knowing what you want to achieve form it; the end goal will be to increase sales, of course, like any marketing – but social media is a very indirect marketing channel.

If you use traditional “push” marketing on social media you will probably fail; you need to “pull” your clients in to you by providing relevant, informative content and engaging with

SEO Melbourne

Why Social Media Marketing Is The Future Of Your Business

2012-01-11T13:55:00.001-08:00

The “naysayers” who question whether social media marketing is worth the time and effort may be missing the point slightly.

Businesses need to start getting the point fairly quickly because social media is growing exponentially and its influence is increasing.

Many of the doubts come from people who expect to sell more directly from social media marketing, but it’s not necessarily about that.

It’s more about the buzz it can create, the fact that you are engaging with your audience and the positive effect it can have on your online presence and your rankings - all of which then lead to increased sales.

“Socialnomics”

In the book “Socialnomics”, by Eric Qualman, the author asks the question about what would be considered more valuable – recommendations from robots (search engine bots working to algorithms) or recommendations from friends?

Of course we value the word of our friends more, because we know and trust them.

This idea is literally

SEO Melbourne

How To Use Contests In Your Facebook Marketing

2012-01-10T17:56:00.001-08:00

Facebook marketing is attempted by many but succeeded at by relatively few.

Often its focus is misunderstood, leading to a lack of impact. A good Facebook marketing strategy should revolve around creating highly relevant, compelling content that resonates with people, encouraging them to share and feeding new leads into your sales funnel.

Running contests are a great way to get things moving and we look at a typical way of doing this below.

Online Photography Business Example

An online photography business wanting to use Facebook to promote its services is in a strong position because photos and videos are great visual media for grabbing people’s attention; both can be used to good effect on Facebook.

Assuming you already have some contacts on your business Facebook fan page, how about running a contest amongst your followers?

For a photography business it would be something like a “Cutest Baby” contest where your fans can upload images of their baby; the

SEO Melbourne

5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now {you know how I feel about video}

2012-01-10T01:24:00.001-08:00

5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Improve your rank using web videos.

Can you name a good reason why you haven’t started web video marketing for your business yet?

No?

I’m not surprised, because video can help virtually every business; it is considered one of the “low hanging fruit” areas of online marketing because it will enhance virtually everything you are doing online and increases conversions over traditional text and images.

So why wouldn’t you start now? Here are 5 reasons that might just convince you to get started:

1. People Do Business With People

In an online world full of faceless businesses and companies, video allows you to cut through the anonymity and connect with your audience, face to face, person to person.

The importance of this cannot be over-estimated, because it has always been (and maybe always will be) the case that people buy from people.

If you can connect to your clients through video, they are already pre-sold by the time they pick up the phone or request a quote; they already have a sense of who you are and what you stand for; they already know you love what you’re doing because it oozes through in your videos.

Quite simply, they are more likely to buy from someone they know – and they’ll feel they know you better through watching your videos.

2. Increased Authenticity And Transparency

Web video marketing allows you to keep it real! You can demonstrate that you are authentic and trustworthy with nothing to hide: that’s important because people’s biggest fear online is being scammed.

You can show them who you are, what you do and how you do it. This is much more important than having slick, rounded videos – that can all come later!

Don’t worry if your first videos are rough around the edges; the key is to just get started, make your mistakes now and improve the quality of the videos over time; people forgive mistakes in videos, but they don’t forgive someone trying to con them.

3. Heightened Expert Status

Web video also allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise – whether it’s via How-To videos or FAQ videos, you are able to show that you know your stuff. It may take time to get to where you want to be but video will get you there quicker than any other medium.

4. It Makes Life Easier For The Visitor

The YouTube phenomenon means that we have come to expect video when we land on a page; many of us don’t want to read large chunks of text but if we see a video front and centre of the page we will click on it. It’s just more inviting and easier than reading a long sales letter, for example.

5. Better Rankings

If we’re in online marketing we’re in the business of getting rankings to generate traffic to our website. With web video it’s relatively easy to rank well because the competition is still not that fierce in many business areas.

We have seen how video results have merged with text, images and maps in search engine results; using some general video SEO pointers can help you dominate results for certain keywords.

Are you convinced? You still don’t believe in the power of web video marketing? Well I suggest you head on over and watch the FREE Competition Crusher workshop at www.crusherworkshop.com. Then let us know if you’ve changed your mind!

5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now

2012-01-09T13:38:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6260" align="alignleft" width="216" caption="Improve your rank using web videos."][/caption]

Can you name a good reason why you haven’t started web video marketing for your business yet?

No?

I’m not surprised, because video can help virtually every business; it is considered one of the “low hanging fruit” areas of online marketing because it will enhance virtually everything you are doing online and increases conversions over traditional text and images.

So why wouldn’t you start now? Here are 5 reasons that might just convince you to get started:

1. People Do Business With People

In an online world full of faceless businesses and companies, video allows you to cut through the anonymity and connect with your audience, face to face, person to person.

The importance of this cannot be over-estimated, because it has always been (and maybe always will be) the case that people buy from people.

If you can connect to your clients

SEO Melbourne

5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos {yes}

2012-01-08T22:55:00.001-08:00

5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Your web videos should be spread far and wide but, in terms of your website, there are some key pages where it is irreplaceable.

Video increases conversion rates of leads – so it is a powerful tool to encourage a call to action. That means it needs to be sitting on your pages with the highest traffic.

Check with Google Analytics what your most visited pages are. Then add video to it. The likelihood is that some of the following pages will be the key ones:

Your Homepage

When customers land on your homepage they are looking for something. If you have done your “homework” you should know before you set up your site who will be visiting, who your ideal client is, what they are looking for and what you should be saying to them.

This means that your video on the homepage can address their biggest frustration; you can describe it better than they can and this will create the all-important connection by showing them that you understand their problems; then offer the solution and call them to action.

This will increase the chance of getting them to pick up the phone, sign up for your free report or send an email for a quote, because you are “pressing all the right buttons” in their minds.

Services Page

On your services page you can use video to explain exactly what you offer, with no ambiguities. The visual and practical element of video should be a great advantage over using text and images to convey the benefits of your products and services.

About Us

Tell your story through video on the About Us page and show your customers how you have faced many of the problems they face and how you overcame them to be where you are today. This will create the connection and show what a great position you are in to offer the solutions.

FAQ Page

FAQ auto-responders are great for demonstrating your authority and expertise in your market area. Choose 10 of the questions your customers regularly ask and 10 questions they should ask; then make short web videos for each.

Testimonials

Video is excellent for providing proof and credibility for your business. Create customer testimonials and try to interview some of the industry leaders on video so that everyone can see how you and your business are mixing with the right people and getting results.

Promotional business videos can be uploaded to video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and many others, but the purpose is usually to drive visitors back to your website. That means you need to get videos on all of the pages of your site where people will land.

There are plenty more online video and general online marketing strategy tips like these in the free-to-watch Competition Crusher workshop. Simply click here to learn more about it.

Use web videos to transform your web pages.

5 Live Video Recording Tips For New Video Makers

2012-01-08T19:17:00.001-08:00

Don’t let the hot flushes ruin your first video-making experience! Live video recording can be a little daunting at first but good preparation for your videos will go a long way to calming the nerves and shooting something that looks and sounds professional.

We go through five tips to record live video below, which should help you.

1. Script It But Don’t Read It

Prepare what you’re going to say; in fact the script you write will be the single most important aspect of your video because, ultimately, it’s your message and how you deliver it that counts.

When you’re delivering in front of the camera don’t read or you will probably sound “wooden”. The skill is in using the script as a guide but making it sound natural - like it’s off the top of your head.

This may not come easy but it’s what actors do all the time; the Braveheart speech from William Wallace on horseback that sends chills up everybody’s spine – it’s highly scripted but appears

SEO Melbourne

5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos

2012-01-08T13:58:00.001-08:00

Your web videos should be spread far and wide but, in terms of your website, there are some key pages where it is irreplaceable.

Video increases conversion rates of leads – so it is a powerful tool to encourage a call to action. That means it needs to be sitting on your pages with the highest traffic.

Check with Google Analytics what your most visited pages are. Then add video to it. The likelihood is that some of the following pages will be the key ones:

Your Homepage

When customers land on your homepage they are looking for something. If you have done your “homework” you should know before you set up your site who will be visiting, who your ideal client is, what they are looking for and what you should be saying to them.

This means that your video on the homepage can address their biggest frustration; you can describe it better than they can and this will create the all-important connection by showing them that you understand their problems; then offer the

SEO Melbourne

SEO services

Guide To The Essential Web Video Equipment

2012-01-04T13:59:00.001-08:00

Web video equipment needn’t cost you a fortune; but there are certain essentials you’ll want, to make decent-looking and sounding video that helps you get your message across.

Below we take you through the basic equipment that you’ll need; you can spend as little as about a thousand dollars on this...or the sky’s the limit at the upper end of the range!

The Lights

Lighting is important – you are making a business video, not a ghost movie, so make sure you have three lights positioned in a 3 point system: that’ one to the right, one to the left and one behind you; this will avoid any “Hammer House of Horror” effects!

Another lighting tip is to turn off any external light sources in the room.

The Camera

This needn’t be a camera to rival Steven Spielberg’s! A “Flip” camera will be fine for many of you or, if you want something a little more advanced, try a Canon 60d which is a digital SLR model that shoots great video.

If you are really on

SEO services

Don’t Be A Perfectionist Non-Starter With Business Video Making!

2012-01-03T13:39:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6145" align="alignleft" width="203" caption="Just do it!"][/caption]

Being a perfectionist is great in some areas, but I find that when it comes to business video making, it can be used as a reason not to do anything at all!

The only thing worse for your business than bad web video is no web video, so it can often be a case of biting the bullet and just getting started.

Typical Reasons Not To Start

We hear many reasons why businesses have not yet started a web video strategy:

“We don’t have the right equipment”
“We haven’t found the right video production company to help us”
“We’re waiting for the end of the financial year”
“We just need to get “this” out of the way …then we’ll….”
“We want to read up a bit/go on a course/find some tutorials so that we get it right…”
“We are working on a strategy now”

Just Do It!

Our advice to any business that finds itself uttering any of the above is

SEO services

Ho ho ho... Now I have a kiteboard. Welcome to the next level :)

2011-12-27T18:30:00.001-08:00

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Discover The Main YouTube Channel Optimisation Secrets

2011-12-22T13:34:00.001-08:00

It’s true that every Tom, Dick and Harry can have their own video channel these days; but very few businesses go about YouTube channel optimisation the right way to make theirs stand out in the crowd.

Remember that your channel is important for promoting videos that drive potential customers to your website so optimizing this process is an integral part of generating traffic.

Below we look at a few strategies you can use to make sure that you are on the map when it comes to online channels that make an impact.

Your Channel Username

Select a username that includes your main keyword as this will help with optimisation. You are looking for opportunities to include your keywords wherever you can, within reason – the effect is similar to the on-page SEO effect of getting the right keywords in the right places.

Background Image

YouTube provides options for customising the background image, so you should use them; this can help to brand your business – include

SEO services

The 5 Pillars Of YouTube Video Optimization

2011-12-21T13:29:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6115" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Check the competition."][/caption]

You’ve spent time planning, shooting and editing your video; it’s been uploaded to YouTube and is looking great on your channel! Now – it’s time to sit back and watch the viewers flock to view it, right?

Not quite so fast! Video optimization is a key component of video marketing as you need to give your creations the maximum chance of appearing in YouTube search results.

Remember that YouTube is a “vertical” search engine, meaning a search engine that delivers results for one type of medium only– online video.

Therefore many of the rules of optimizing video are similar to the rules of on-page SEO for your website – much of the emphasis is on using the right keywords in the right places.

Here are five of the main guidelines to get your video ranking:

Select Keywords

Your keyword phrases may be the same as you have used for the on-page SEO of your

SEO services

Does translated content cause a duplicate content issue?

2011-12-21T02:57:00.001-08:00

Does translated content cause a duplicate content issue?

Uploads by GoogleWebmasterHelp

Will multilingual translations of one content across different websites attract duplicate content penalty? Yo, New Delhi, India

Have a question? Ask it in our Webmaster Help Forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en

Want your question to be answered on a video like this? Follow us on Twitter and look for an announcement when we take new questions: http://twitter.com/googlewmc

More videos: http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp
Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Webmaster Central: http://www.google.com/webmasters

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How To Optimize YouTube Video When The Competition Is Fierce!

2011-12-20T13:22:00.001-08:00

We have covered in another blog post about how to optimize YouTube video in a non-competitive business area – but sometimes there are some “buzz” areas that attract a lot of videos; this makes it harder for your videos to rank and therefore, unless you learn some “guerilla warfare” tactics, your video will be rustled out of town!

Optimizing for keywords in the title, description and tags is all well and good most of the time. Most people uploading to YouTube don’t even do that.

But for some areas – usually where the stakes are higher and the “big boys” are involved – it helps to know what YouTube is on the lookout for in its algorithm.

Backlinks & Embeds

The more back-links to and embeds of your video the better; getting it posted in blogs, on your website, social media pages and as many other places on the web that can display a video, will make yours more competitive for your tags and keywords.

Views, Ratings And Comments

In a

SEO services

How To Structure Online Video To Get Results

2011-12-19T16:14:00.001-08:00

Web video may be the “buzz” topic out there these days but it’s amazing how few businesses know how to structure online video properly.

Remember that virtually everything that internet marketers do outside of their website should be designed to get as many as possible flocking to the website; it’s almost all about generating qualified traffic to your site.

So, just as with your social media marketing and PPC campaigns, your video needs to be structured to send people back to your website.

How do we do that? We focus on a few areas below.

The Intro

This is important, just as it is with copywriting. You need to capture the attention of your audience straight away as you won’t have long – attention spans are short!

Starting a video with “Hi, I’m....” is not going to do that. You need a “hook”.

Grab their attention with a bold promise, a question you know your viewer will want to know the answer to or by addressing one of the key concerns or

SEO services

Caz and my first Xmas tree together {pretty good first go?}

2011-12-17T04:42:00.001-08:00

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A Basic Online Video Marketing Action Plan

2011-12-14T17:34:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6036" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Talk to your customers via web video."][/caption]

One of the tools that any new web-based business needs to get to grips with early on in the game is online video marketing.

Web video is rapidly becoming just as important to your business as having a website and soon it will be so mainstream that you will look outdated if your website DOESN’T feature it.

Therefore it helps to have a basic action plan to work to. The below details should help.

Open A YouTube Account

YouTube is such a recognised and trusted brand that you can’t afford not to have a YouTube channel when you start out making videos to market your business.

Nowadays YouTube is becoming more advanced and trying to improve the general content of its videos so it has provided extra editing tools that allow you to add more professional touches. Alternatively you can use an external editing program and just upload the finished

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Using Web Videos For Higher Conversions - SBIM Weekly News

2011-12-14T16:23:00.001-08:00

Welcome to this week's issue of SBIM Weekly, the email that summaries news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners. We scour the internet to keep you on top of what's important to you and your business.

So, with the holidays just about here, how's business?

If you're in retail you should be peaking and if you're in a service based business you're probably wrapping up loose ends.

Either way, you need to be thinking about your 2012 web strategy. The web isn't going anywhere and you need a plan to dominate it.

If you want some help with your plan, it's the best time to schedule a one-on-one with me. Find out a little more about these sessions here:
http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/seo-services-australia/internet-marketing-consulting-services/

But I digress... Here are a some of the headlines that caught our attention this week:

1. How to use videos to increase conversions - 2012 will be the year of

Melbourne search engine optimisation

5 Steps To Successful Online White Paper Marketing

2011-12-13T12:50:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_6025" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Make your list happy through a white paper."][/caption]

Capturing names to build a database is the starting point for any long-term online marketing strategy; one way to do that effectively is to engage in white paper marketing and below we show you 5 steps you can take to get the results you’re after.

Choose A Hosted Service

You can try to run a mailing list yourself but the problems start when you grow and are sending out large amounts of emails; you’ll find that your “hit” rate of successful deliveries starts to drop because of being blocked or classed as spam and not making it through the mail filters of your customers.

Services like www.aweber.com and www.getresponse.com are specifically designed to successfully deliver emails and know how to navigate past mail filters. They have built their success on it, so it’s best for most businesses to take out a hosted service like one of

Melbourne search engine optimisation

5 Reasons Free Reports Are Winners For Your Online Business

2011-12-12T14:26:00.001-08:00

If you make one change to your online business today make sure you start using free reports to act as lead magnets.

Free reports or “white papers” are great ways to attract customers to your business and there are many other side benefits that we look at below.

1. They Reduce The Bounce!

Most people visiting a website will give it a few seconds to see if something captures their attention and, if not, bounce away to somewhere else.

A free white paper with a good title, an attractive graphic and an easy-to-fill form on your page will attract their attention and may be the difference to make them stay a while longer on your page to absorb your message.

2. They Build A Database

Of course, capturing email addresses is a great way to build a database – and a database is a great fulcrum for future marketing campaigns: you compile a list of people already interested in what you do and you can use them for surveys, to shape new products and services around and to

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Where Are The Changing Rooms In Your Online Sales Strategy? {smart}

2011-12-09T05:02:00.001-08:00

Where Are The Changing Rooms In Your Online Sales Strategy?

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Where Are The Changing Rooms In Your Online Sales Strategy? is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

If the strategy fits, wear it.

The more I think about online business in general – and especially online sales strategy – the more it connects back to what I learned when I had a bricks and mortar Planet 13 clothing store.

Online and offline businesses – are they really that different?

Attracting Customers To The Store

Traffic for an online business obviously equals walk-in customers for a physical clothing store.

The better your store’s physical location and the better your marketing, the more walk-in custom you get in your store. Obviously rental on the High Street of the city center is much higher than for a back-lane in the suburbs so it often means only the “big boys” can afford the prime locations.

The most valuable location online is Number 1 in Google for your main keywords. But the beauty is that this position is open to anyone who focuses on the right SEO marketing and social media strategies. These then drive traffic to your online business and the “rental” costs may be absolutely minimal (as little as the cost of hosting and labour costs for SEO.)

“Why Don’t You Try It On?”

It’s become more and more obvious to me how the best online sales strategies mirror what we used to do in the clothing store.

When the customer walked in to Planet 13 our sales staff didn’t ask them straight away if they wanted to buy a Metallica or Slipknot T-shirt. The first step was getting them to the changing rooms so that they could feel and see for themselves how great it looked on them.

Similarly with an online sales strategy what you need to be thinking about is “how do I move the customer along in the sales process?”

Too many online business owners force the issue by concentrating immediately on getting the sale, whereas in reality there’s a process involved and the customer will only buy when they’re good and ready.

So Where Are the Online Changing Rooms?

Online, a typical example when a prospect comes to you might be this:

They find you through organic search and land on your home page, where there is an offer to opt in for a free report.

They choose to opt in and provide their email address – that’s the first step to the “changing rooms”!

An autoresponder email then delivers the free report to their inbox or directs them to where they can download it.

Follow-up emails over the course of the next couple of weeks let them know a bit more about who you are, what your services are and let them know you are available to help if they need it.

This has opened a communication channel between the two of you and has brought them, effectively to your online “changing room” where they can begin to feel comfortable with you and your product.

There has been some bonding and engagement between you and you have built credibility and authority with them – and they have seen that you provide products and services that can solve their problems; they are ready to buy from you, just the same as that Metallica t-shirt fits perfectly and looks and feels fantastic and the price is right for them.

Do you see how online and offline sales are a series of steps that you need to have clear of in your own mind? Then you can use them to guide the customers through until the transaction and beyond.

Many of the same steps apply to t-shirts or online business services! You can pick up plenty more tips like this in the series of videos available on the learning section of the Melbourne SEO website. Just click here to learn more.

Where Are The Changing Rooms In Your Online Sales Strategy?

2011-12-08T13:29:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5988" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="If the strategy fits, wear it."][/caption]

The more I think about online business in general – and especially online sales strategy – the more it connects back to what I learned when I had a bricks and mortar Planet 13 clothing store.

Online and offline businesses – are they really that different?

Attracting Customers To The Store

Traffic for an online business obviously equals walk-in customers for a physical clothing store.

The better your store’s physical location and the better your marketing, the more walk-in custom you get in your store. Obviously rental on the High Street of the city center is much higher than for a back-lane in the suburbs so it often means only the “big boys” can afford the prime locations.

The most valuable location online is Number 1 in Google for your main keywords. But the beauty is that this position is open to anyone who focuses on the right SEO marketing

Melbourne search engine optimisation

The “Other” Reason To Build A Client Database

2011-12-07T14:09:00.001-08:00

Most readers will be aware that it’s important to build a client database in order to market products to your prospects; but did you know there’s another reason to start doing this as soon as possible?

You’ll see below how valuable surveying your database can be to your business and how it can help to shape product development and future marketing campaigns.

Sales Database Building

Have you gathered a few hundred email addresses on your database, from an opt-in campaign? That’s pretty good going and will serve you well in the future – don’t stop growing it.

But are these entries in your database mere email addresses or can you say you know these people? I bet you can only say that you know a few of them from email correspondence, right?

Well the first step to using your database smartly is run a survey or two.

Database Surveys

The point is that you can’t run an effective marketing campaign without knowing WHO you’re marketing to.

Ok, so you

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Breaking The Mold With Your Email Autoresponders

2011-12-06T19:50:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5959" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Give a human touch to your emails."][/caption]

The trap that many people fall into with their email autoresponders is to convince the recipients that they are receiving an automated email!!!!

People don’t like receiving general emails that are not speaking to them personally and sound like they may have been penned by a robot! They want human contact and they will only buy from humans.

So how can you make sure that you break the mold and create an email marketing campaign that speaks to those who have recently opted in to your program? Read on…

A Typical Autoresponder Email Series

Typically people will try to start selling to their new recruits too early, with time-sensitive offers. While it is true that people who have just signed up to your site are the “hottest” prospects, you don’t want to frighten them away with the “heavy sell” before any bonding has taken place.

A typical series

Melbourne search engine optimisation

6 Steps To Write Sales Emails That Convert

2011-12-05T14:11:00.001-08:00

“I’ve tried sales emails and they’ve never really worked for me”…. does this sound familiar? If this is the case for you, then why not try changing your approach?

Sales emails can be a powerful weapon to keep in your online marketing armory, if you have built up a client database and you have products and services ready to be marketed to them.

Below we look at how to approach an autoresponder email campaign in terms of creating mails with the right tone, content and design.

1. Use Multimodes

People digest information in many different ways; some prefer to watch online video, others prefer DVDs that they can watch offline; others still like to load onto their iPod to listen to on the way to work or print out a PDF report to read in bed.

It’s important to cater for all types of data consumption, so bear this in mind when you do your marketing mails.

2. Keep It Chatty!

Many of the people you are writing to in your campaign you will have had some

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

2011-12-02T12:06:00.001-08:00

Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

The Official Google Blog

From your favorite sports highlights and dance competitions to make-up tutorials, science experiments and great movies, there’s a ton of great stuff on YouTube—over 3 billion views worth per day by last count. More and more, behind every great video is a great Channel, and with our announcement last month that more of them are coming to YouTube, we want to make it easier for you to find and keep tabs of what you want to watch.

So, today we're introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint. Here are three ways these updates will improve your life on YouTube:

1. A new homepage
The YouTube homepage is your gateway to a vast entertainment universe. To help you get more into YouTube, we’re making it easier to find and follow great Channels when you arrive. On the left side of the homepage you can create your own, personal, customizable YouTube Channel line-up. Sign in, or create a YouTube account. Then you can browse recommended Channels; customize your homepage’s feed; even link your YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook to see what your friends are sharing. The new homepage feed we launched earlier this year is now front and center on the homepage. You can switch between feeds by clicking on different Channels on the left.

For step by step instructions on using the new YouTube homepage, you can go to our help center.

2. Simpler, customizable Channels
Given the homepage’s new focus on helping you find and organize your favorite Channels, we would be remiss if we didn’t update the look and feel of the Channels themselves. Today we're launching an improved Channel design focused on what matters most: helping users find great videos. As different uploaders have different goals, we've created new Channel templates to meet your needs whether you produce one video a week or have thousands of videos for a fan to browse. Some partners have even uploaded videos talking about the features, or giving tips on how they’re taking advantage of the new design. To learn how to opt-in to and test this new Channel design, check out our help center.

3. A new overall design
To bring the new homepage and Channels designs together we’ve also applied a fresh coat of digital paint across the whole site. In July, we unveiled an experimental design called Cosmic Panda. We’ve used your feedback to improve our overall design, and today, we’re presenting a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page.

Ready to get started? Your new YouTube is already shipped and waiting for you at YouTube.com, and like every new toy, we included an instruction manual (and video) to help.

Our recent Channels expansion, our grants and educational programs, and this new design are all focused on helping you discover a broader range of entertainment on YouTube. We’re always innovating and testing new stuff out to make the experience the best it can be for you. We rely on your feedback to figure out when we've gotten it right and when it needs further tweaks. So let us know what you think.

Posted by the YouTube team

Sent with Reeder

Sent from my iPhone

How An Info Product Helps You To Work Smarter… Not Harder!

2011-12-01T19:43:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5924" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Create your own product."][/caption]

Are you a little tired of being told you should be working smarter not harder, without ever being told HOW to do that?

That ends here, because we show you below how developing an info product can unlock some of the secrets to working smarter - allowing you to get paid more for less work! Sounds good? Read on…

Become An Expert In Your Niche

If you are not an expert in your own niche yet, do everything you can to engineer yourself to that position. Know your own market inside out and keep learning and improving your knowledge. Blog, write articles, read up, discuss on social media sites and other people’s blogs and get people interested in what you’re doing and show them you are an authority.

Whatever your niche is, find out what people most want to know and go about discovering the answers. Interview the experts in your field and align yourself with them, never

Melbourne search engine optimisation

How Your Google Places Page Fits Into Search Results

2011-12-01T13:06:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5935" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Get your business found."][/caption]

Ever typed your company name into Google and seen what comes back at you? Does it include your Google Places page details? Are the title and descriptions looking how they should? Is there any video or pictures in the results?

It’s a good exercise for any online business to do, because it will show you what others are seeing when they are searching for your keyword phrases or your company name.

A Well-Optimised Listing

We have already optimised our Google Places page so if you would like a benchmark of what an optimised listing should look like type “Melbourne SEO Services” into Google.

The first thing you will see is a title link (meta tag) to the home page that summarises our business and includes a main keyword phrase:

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Underneath that you see the meta description, which adds some more detail about your core business

Melbourne search engine optimisation

New secret project...

2011-12-01T00:46:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

SBIM Weekly - Plus 1 On Google Adsense Ads And More

2011-11-29T20:08:00.001-08:00

Welcome back to this week's SBIM Weekly, the email that summaries news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners. We scour the internet to keep you on top of what's important to you and your business.

Here's what's news for this week:

1. Google's going to put +1 on Adsense ads - interesting
http://davidjenyns.posterous.com/adsense-display-ads-will-now-feature-the-1-bu-hwsws

2. Google Plus let's you see your contacts' +1s - this data will shape the future of search
http://mashable.com/2011/11/22/google-news-plus-on/

3. New Facebook phone rumour - not surprising but will be huge if it happens
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-android-phone-buffy/36870/

4. Duplicate content in a post panda world - good article on important website factors
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world

5. Internet TV explosion in 2012, the year for internet TV
http://www.reelseo.com/internet-tv-to-explode-in-2012/

6. YouTube

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Email List Marketing Made Easy

2011-11-29T14:26:00.001-08:00

Email list marketing is not particularly difficult but it is amazing how many online businesses are not being successful with their campaigns.

Below we will take you through a few approaches, including a couple of cases studies with our own businesses, showing you the kind of results that can be achieved from following a very measured approach. Hopefully it will help steer you in the right direction with your future email marketing campaigns.

The Four Day Cash Machine Approach

Firstly we introduce an idea we followed from Frank Kern called the “Four Day Cash Machine.”

This involves a series of four emails on consecutive days as follows:

Email 1 – Product launch email outlining what the deal is and stressing that it’s only open for 4 days at the special rate. Give them a reason for the great offer – for example you want to gather testimonials and therefore you are prepared to “give away” the product at such a low price in return for their

Melbourne search engine optimisation

3 Reasons To Claim Your Google Places Listing

2011-11-28T15:49:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5890" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Get more visitors through Google Places."][/caption]

Not claimed your Google Places listing yet? Tsk, tsk!

It really should be a priority for your online business to be doing the things that will get you noticed and this is one of those things. It’s becoming more important so stop putting it off and get it done!

If you’re not convinced yet then maybe we can persuade you with the following reasons.

1. Universal Search Has Taken Over

You have probably noticed how every week or month something changes with how Google presents its search results.

A major change was a few years back when they introduced their Universal Search system which, instead of just serving text results, started to include news, video, images and local listings.

Then maps were added – based upon businesses and their Google Places listings – and this represented a big shift that had the SEO community wondering what to do

Melbourne search engine optimisation

Your Google Places Ranking Guide

2011-11-24T14:21:00.001-08:00

To get a Google Places ranking is really very easy and needn’t take much time; so it’s another tool in your SEO “kit bag” that can help make a difference.

Just in case you’re not familiar with Google Places, this is the system whereby your business is identified on maps that Google serves in search results – you know, the maps with the red pins labeling locations?

Most businesses are NOT using Google Places correctly and therefore it’s easy to gain an immediate advantage over your competition and this brief guide shows you how.

Claim Your Listing

It’s easy to claim your listing for free here. Simply fill in your business details and wait till Google sends you a PIN number through the mail so you can verify that you are the owner of that business.

Set Up All The Details Correctly

Go through and list all your details correctly and consistently, including address and service area (if applicable – online businesses may have no specific service

SEO services

More Outsourcing Strategies In The SBIM Weekly

2011-11-23T18:53:00.001-08:00

Welcome back to the SBIM Weekly, the regular summary of news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners. We scour the internet to keep you on top of what's important to you and your business.

Now before we get to this week's headlines (for those of you playing along at home with our recent Market Samurai blog post) I wanted to give you the update. The comments have been off the scale - people are loving it! We've had 145+ comments and that's just on my post alone.

Anyway as part of this exclusive promotion we've put together something special that will never be repeated.

In short, we took our best selling and most loved course "The Outsource Profit Machine" and turned it into a digital product - that means we can sell it at a fraction of the recommended retail price.

Please note this 80% off Market Samurai exclusive is strictly limited - it must end midnight Friday USA pacific time.

If you want to find out more visit:

SEO services

Top 3 Mistakes Businesses Make With Keyword Targeting

2011-11-23T14:55:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5857" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Learn how to do effective keyword targeting."][/caption]

If you’re a small business designing a website, understanding keyword targeting is one of the fundamentals of success; but it’s amazing how many mistakes are made with it.

Most businesses don’t understand that you can actually rank for any keyword that you like, if you build enough back-links and prove to Google you deserve it; taking time to identify what it’s worth going after and then taking the steps to get there is basic to your online business.

Here are 3 of the main errors that online businesses make when it comes to this important part of your marketing strategy.

1. Not Getting Inside Their Customers’ Heads!

Another mistake online businesses often make is not understanding fully what their customers are searching for – this is key to targeting the right website keywords. In fact getting inside the minds of your customers is

SEO services

How Search Engines Work: SEO Demystified

2011-11-23T14:41:00.001-08:00

Any SEO expert who explains the main concepts of SEO in needlessly complicated language probably doesn’t want you to understand how search engines work; keeping it mystifying justifies his own existence!

We prefer to take another approach and that’s to strip SEO down to its basics so that a 12 year old child can understand it. Read on and you’ll see we’re not exaggerating.

The Google Algorithm – The Main Judge In A Gigantic Popularity Contest

You may hear the “Google Algorithm” mentioned as if it is some complicated system that it will take you years to understand.

In actual fact you can just think of the Google algorithm as the main judge in a gigantic worldwide popularity contest.

Search engines basically measure your popularity and they do this in the same way as humans do.

Measuring Popularity - Emulating The Human Way

When we create a research report how do we usually judge how much weight it carries?

I can go out and tell everyone that

SEO services

Off to Sydney for a corporate client training day. Talking about online biz - I love this stuff!

2011-11-23T00:34:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

Online Outsourcing Secrets Finally Revealed

2011-11-21T19:06:00.001-08:00

Just curious, have you watched that presentation I did for the Market Samurai team yet? I emailed you a couple of days ago about it and if you're doing any business online - it's a must.

The fact is, marketing online (or off) is a "team sport" nowadays and everyone I know "kicking goals" in business has a great team behind them. So what's the secret to getting 'A players' to join your team at a fraction of what you'd pay someone locally?

That's what the guys over at Noble Samurai asked Pete Williams and I to talk about in a brand new Video Series that reveals the RIGHT WAY to do online outsourcing.

When done correctly, outsourcing can help you build a profitable business quicker, easier and with less money than you thought possible - it's the secret to my success.

Anyway, you can watch my first presentation here:

... and then check out the second video by Pete here:

These are cutting edge concepts, so check them out and let me know what you think. I really want

SEO services

3 Steps To Effective Keyword Research For Small Business

2011-11-21T13:32:00.001-08:00

Before writing your web copy and building your site you need to drill down into the nuts and bolts of your business and do keyword research. This will identify the phrases that you will target through your web copy and on-page SEO to get your site ranking with the search engines.

Some people fall into the trap of putting keyword research into the “too hard” or “too technical” bin when, in reality, it’s not difficult at all.

Here we show you three easy steps so that you get the results you are after.

1. Identify Your Top Products And Services

The first step couldn’t be easier. What are your main products and services?

If you are a Melbourne-based printer, for example, your main products might be printing services, brochure design, flyer printing etc.

That’s really all there is to the first step – knowing what your business is. Nothing difficult about that is there?

2. Use The Google Free Keyword Tool

Secondly you use the Google Keyword

SEO services

The Basics Of On Page SEO – Part Two

2011-11-17T17:37:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5820" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Make your site visitors feel at home."][/caption]

In part one of this post we looked at the concept of on page SEO: what it is, how it differs from off page SEO and three of the first things you can be focusing on to get your website in good SEO shape.

In the first part we focused on “back end” optimization techniques; here we will focus more on what visitors and search engines “see” when they land on your website and how to go about optimising these pages with further techniques.

1. Your Web Page Copy – Keyword Focus

What you actually do with your keywords in the web copy of the relevant pages of your website is equally as important as your page titles and descriptions.

Each page should be focused on 1 or 2 keywords, no more. For instance you can have a main keyword phrase like “Melbourne SEO Services” and then a variation or two such as “SEO services” and “search engine

SEO services

The Basics Of On Page SEO – Part One

2011-11-16T18:43:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5809" align="alignleft" width="345" caption="Learning the basics is vital in mastering SEO."][/caption]

The beauty of on page SEO is that you can do it once and it can last for the life of your website. That makes it doubly important for you to get it right first time, so that you can forget about it, let it do its job and concentrate on your off page SEO, which is more time consuming.

Below we take you through what you need to know.

What Is On Page SEO?

On page SEO essentially tells the search engines what’s on your website pages. You are making it easy for the search engine web crawlers to find and index your pages and associate them with the right keywords, so that you have a good chance of being listed high in the search results for those keywords. That brings you traffic and, hopefully, sales.

That’s why it’s important. Now what is the right way to go about it?

Fundamentals

1. Know Your Market

It’s fundamental to the success

SEO services

Learn The Outsourcing Process In The SBIM Weekly!

2011-11-14T19:51:00.001-08:00

Here it is... SBIM Weekly, the regular summary of news and helpful links for small/medium sized business owners. We scour the internet to keep you on top of what's important to you and your business.

Before getting stuck into this week's news, I just wanted to share with you something I'm quite proud of. I've been asked by the team at Market Samurai to make a video
about the way we have built our outsourcing team.

I know I'm biased but it's definitely worth the watch - it's 100% pure content and actionable steps. If you do any business online you need to build a team. Watch
the way we do it here at Melbourne SEO Services:

http://www.noblesamurai.com/blog/outsourcing/outsourcing-video-1-how-to-build-a-team-of-a-players-2717/

And remember to place a comment on their blog too! I'll be watching out for it.

Now onto our regular program... here's what's news this week:

1. How Siri will eat into Google's search market share - I can see this

SEO services

Getting Into Email Marketing? Read Our Aweber Review

2011-11-14T18:45:00.001-08:00

Looking to buy (or already own) AWeber? Click here to grab these free bonuses.

We use AWeber for email marketing. Here's why.

AWeber is a reliable and high performing email marketing solution which we use here at Melbourne SEO Services. Email is one of the very best ways you can use to contact your customers with your products and services. In fact the subscriber list is considered by many to be the most important part of a marketing campaign and allows the owner to market his goods with a high probability of success. Many businesses use this means as evidenced by the fact that the major autoresponder companies’ businesses are thriving.

It is true that the ‘money is in the list’. By building an email list through opt ins on the squeeze page, the business owner is ‘future proofing’ his business. You’ll always have a highly targeted traffic source regardless of what happens with the search engine algorithm or an unexpected paid advertising rate

SEO services

Use Automated Directory Submissions For Smart SEO

2011-11-14T13:20:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5770" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Do not build links all in one day."][/caption]

For every high quality backlink you target for your website there are potentially scores of other links you may be missing out on …unless you are using directory submissions to help your SEO efforts.

With a good directory submission service you can take a “shotgun” approach to links which automates the whole process and nets you many backlink “prizes” from just one “shot”. We discuss this approach in more detail below.

Building Backlinks

Core to your off-page SEO efforts is building backlinks; the best approach is to go for quantity as well as quality and to diversify both the places you are getting links from and the text you include in the actual links.

With online marketing putting all of your “eggs in one basket” rarely works and so it is with links; we need to use all the many and diverse tools available to us – many of them are

SEO services

Two Search Engine Ranking Factors You May Overlook

2011-11-13T15:55:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5752" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Use search ranking factors to your advantage."][/caption]

We all know that the likes of keyword optimisation and back links are major search engine ranking factors for your website, but there are a couple of others that you may not have considered. We look at these below.

1. Website Commenting

The trend of commenting on articles or features posted on your website or on your YouTube channel has stemmed from the popularity of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which give everyone a “voice.”

It is arguable that this has minimal impact on search engine ranking currently, but there is little doubt that it will have a big role in the future – so it’s a good idea to get ready for it now.

Google’s release of the Google Plus social network earlier this year proved that it is well aware of the importance of social media to the Internet as a whole; whether it takes a big chunk of the social

SEO services

Old Spice Viral Video Parody | Get Serious Man.

2011-11-10T19:29:00.001-08:00

There is no denying it: The Old Spice ads, first launched at the Superbowl in February 2010, have been a smash hit for both the company and the advertising agency behind it. The social media numbers are astounding: 40 million You Tube views in 12 months; A Twitter increase of 2700%; Facebook interaction up by 800%; Traffic to oldspice.com increased by 300%. And Old Spice became the number 1 all-time most viewed branded channel on You Tube. This all led to a sales increase of 107% for Old Spice body wash. Needless to say the company is overjoyed.

With the success of things like the Old Spice commercial, the demand for viral marketing campaigns has skyrocketed, but many businesses don't know where to start. So in response to the high demand, Melbourne SEO Services has just announced a new service to help small businesses create, and more importantly, optimise their videos for the greatest chance of viral success.

The original Old Spice video was pretty funny and since we like

Melbourne SEO

How To Use Article Directories For SEO

2011-11-10T18:00:00.001-08:00

If you’re not constantly building backlinks to your website, then you’re not focusing your off-page SEO in the right area.

Backlinks should be occupying the majority of your SEO time and a great way to build them is by getting articles written and submitted to article directories. Below we look at how you can do that effectively.

Article Directory Submission

There are specific sites that are set up to publish your articles and allow you to include a backlink to your site.

A couple of the larger article directories are EzineArticles and Go Articles and both have submission guidelines listed clearly on their sites for writers to follow when uploading their content.

The basic premise is that they exchange your content for a backlink in a win-win relationship.

A good strategy is to choose a few different submission sites and submit at least one article per week, because SEO works best when it is an ongoing effort of organic growth; this tends to be more effective

Melbourne SEO

I like getting notes like this...

2011-11-09T22:21:00.001-08:00

That was fantastic – thank you David!

I feel we have much to do but with knowledgeable guidance and experience – it's the 'right' direction to work on.

I love your systems David, you have a great feel for what your customers need and the order in which they need them – you seem very well set up.

The encouragement was welcome too – thanks.

Looking forward to understanding more of what you've suggested and executing it – looking forward to the results in time too :-)

Very happy with today's discussion.

Thanks again David.

Cheers

Jen

=======
That was for a one-on-one consultation with me... want something similar? Find out more here:

http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/seo-services-australia/internet-marketing-consulting-services/

Quality Backlinks Source - Our Build My Rank Review

2011-11-09T18:24:00.001-08:00

Looking to buy (or already own) Build My Rank? Click here to grab these free bonuses.

Find out why Build My Rank is in our link building toolbox.

To rank higher, your site needs incoming links from different sources. They need to be links from authority sites with targeted keywords and surrounded by relevant content. A link network that we use to great effect here at Melbourne SEO Services is BuildMyRank (BMR). This service provides high quality one-way backlinks to your sites. It is a blog network link building solution.

You simply write a small unique snippet or article with your keyword anchor text in it and submit it to their system. You get one link per 150 words. If you want to write larger articles and put a couple of links in there you can. BuildMyRank pushes this out to a set of low to medium PR blogs in their network. They have over three thousand PR1 to PR6 sites. They also create an RSS feed from your post and submit it to RSS directories, bookmark your

Melbourne SEO

5 Areas Of Website Analytics You Need To Focus On

2011-11-09T09:36:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5577" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Use web analytics to understand your site visitors."][/caption]

Measuring results is important in everything we do in business and is one of the keys to constant improvement; so once you have your site up and running, what website analytics tools do you use to monitor its performance?

There are five key areas we have identified that you can focus your attention on – not only to point out weaknesses of your site, but to see what’s working well.

1. Number Of Visitors

The number of visitors you get is one determining factor of how successful your online business will ultimately be, as site traffic means leads – it’s the equivalent of people passing your high street shop.

Seeing an incremental increase with some welcome spikes in numbers now and again should mean that you are doing the right things, though obviously it’s difficult to be specific with numbers; if you are operating in a small niche

Melbourne SEO

3 Blog Commenting Tips To Put Your Website To The Top!

2011-11-08T18:25:00.001-08:00

Blog commenting is often misunderstood and generally not used enough amongst website owners; it takes time and effort but it can offer a rich seam of online gold – namely backlinks.

Below we look at three ways your business can use comment links for your all-important off-page SEO efforts; that ultimately means better rankings, more traffic and more leads.

Target All Backlinks

One of the most commonly misunderstood areas of backlinking is the value of “no-follow” blog comment links. These are links that webmasters instruct search engines not to include in the linked website’s ranking in their index and are meant to deter spamming.

The much-esteemed SEOMoz website ran a study where they took the best ranking websites and reverse-engineered what these sites were doing; common to them all was that they commented on blogs, even when the links were “no follow”.

Rather than spending too much time on whether your link is going to be a “no follow” link,

Melbourne SEO

9 Steps To Writing Great Sales Copy

2011-11-07T14:48:00.001-08:00

Some people freeze when it comes to writing sales copy; but it doesn’t need to be a fearful process. It’s possible for anyone to create a great sales message by following some simple guidelines and, while it may take some practice and fine-tuning, it will come.

Following are nine steps for writing sales copy that should help your business sell more.

1. Headline

You need to “hook” your visitors, whether they have come to your webpage from organic search traffic or via an email or other online marketing campaign. Prepare a headline that engages your audience and gets them thinking they need to read the smaller print that follows. You only have a few seconds to capture their imagination.

2. Story-Telling

Being able to tell a short story in your sales copy achieves several purposes.

Story-telling is traditionally how knowledge has been passed on, because information “sticks” better when attached to a story. Also it engages the audience on an emotional

Melbourne SEO

Secrets To Overcoming Objections In Sales Online

2011-11-07T13:04:00.001-08:00

[caption id="attachment_5672" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Are you credible enough to your customers?"][/caption]

Online sales techniques are not quite the same as offline sales, as you nearly always have another major objection to overcome – and that’s one of credibility.

If you’re meeting somebody face to face then it’s much easier to form an opinion, rightly or wrongly, of whether someone is trustworthy, genuine and seems like they are able to deliver.

Online, all you have is your reputation, your own content on your site and testimonials to present your case for credibility. The all-important question is – how can we make our visitors feel comfortable about buying from us? And thus make us succeed in overcoming objections in sales online, if any.

Understand The Objections

Before being in a position to handle objections you need to understand what they are.

All the time when the customer visits your site there will be a conversation going on

Melbourne SEO

5 Top Website Usability Tips

2011-11-03T18:41:00.001-07:00

[caption id="attachment_5652" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Make it easy for people to use your website."][/caption]

Unless your website is easy to navigate around and find information on, you may be left with confused visitors not interested in buying from you.

If you are in the process of designing or re-building your site, following these basic steps will greatly enhance your website usability.

One Page One Purpose

You’re not publishing a book so you don’t have to worry about using extra paper! It’s therefore better to create extra pages than to cram information on one page.

Keep every page unique to a sole purpose – this will help to create clarity for the reader and if all the pages are indexed on a well-designed menu then the relevant information will be easy to find; there’s nothing worse than having to scroll through irrelevant information to find what you need.

Also keep reader options on any given page to a minimum – too much choice

Melbourne SEO

4 Online Copywriting Tips For Creating Web Content

2011-11-02T20:55:00.001-07:00

[caption id="attachment_5642" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Online copywriting should be easy to understand."][/caption]

Ever rocked up to a website and cringed at the web copy because it doesn’t hit the right notes at all? Well, online copywriting certainly doesn’t come naturally to everybody but it’s an important part of your web presence so following a few tips can help this aspect of your web marketing.

Below we take you through four of the main copywriting tips for generating web content that gets a strong marketing message across, without appearing too “forced” or “awkward”.

Write To One Person Not Groups

A great starting point is to really know your avatar. This means climbing into the skin of your target audience and picturing what they are looking for. Think of one person - your ideal customer; then write everything with this person in mind, as if you were writing it exclusively for them.

This will help you keep your copy on-point,

Melbourne SEO

How To Build A Marketing Funnel For Your Business

2011-10-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

If you’re just starting out with your online business then how are you going to attract the people that will ultimately determine your success or failure? Drawing customers into your marketing funnel is a basic of business that you will need to put a lot of thought into.

Case Study Of A Sales Funnel That Worked

You may know that I started out online with trading software products, designed to help people create their own business and trade successfully on the stock market.

The products I really wanted to sell were the high-margin information products, but without any credibility initially it was difficult to see me succeeding by going straight into marketing those.

I decided to create a couple of low-cost front-end products that would get people “dipping their feet into” my business and trying first.

I developed “Ultimate Trading Systems” which contained tips for designing trading systems, which sold for under $10. This meant that customers could sign up at minimal risk to themselves – there was no major investment involved. It also allowed me to build my reputation.

This all served a couple of purposes. Firstly it got the customers over the initial BIG step of having enough trust to share credit card and contact details with our business; secondly it allowed us to reference the higher-end products we were selling - the Metastock programming study guide, DVDs, eBooks, software programs , which were the information products that formed the core of our business.

Once we raised our credibility by delivering what we said we would deliver and showing the customer that we knew what we were talking about they became less nervous about spending on the bigger products.

If I was able to wind back time I would probably have added another step into the above process; I would have created an affiliate marketing set up to sell the products from the beginning – perhaps allowing them to sell the cheap products and retain all that revenue but incentivising them with commissions for selling the more expensive products; that way I could have had a whole army of people selling our products with little effort on my part.

How Can You Start Your Marketing Funnel?

Now how do you apply the above model to your own business?

The basic idea is to create cheap or free products to introduce customers to your business and connect them to what you really want to sell them.

This may be in the form of a free report, a free video or another low-cost product; something that benefits the customer by providing information that can help them, as well as helping to position YOU as the expert in your business segment.

Start up businesses need to address very early on how they will attract buying customers, as a critical part of their business plan. We have shown you how to go about building a sales funnel; if you would like more great tips about getting started you can check out the free-to-watch Competition Crusher Workshop. Just click here to find out more.

[caption id="attachment_5515" align="alignnone" width="462" caption="Get customers using a marketing

Marketing Funnel

Nice my iPhone 4s just arrive {quick unboxing vid}

2011-10-24T18:38:00.001-07:00

IMG_0704.MOV Watch on Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

Is Your Online Business Strategy Aiming At The Right Target?

2011-10-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

Most businesses don’t fail through lack of effort; they fail because their online business strategy was not focused on the right target.

Call it what you like – “working smarter, not harder” is often used – but there is no substitute for getting your own strategy focusing on the things that will give you the best Return on Investment (ROI).

Or to put it another way – a day’s work going in the right direction is worth infinitely more than a week’s work going in the wrong direction!

How To Focus Your Business Strategy

Sometimes it’s a question of challenging your beliefs, especially if you’ve been taking your business in one direction, only to find that it’s not really working.

A good example of what it takes can be illustrated by the co-founder of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), who taught me how a change of vision or focus can make a world of difference to any situation in life.

We all receive the same stimuli from our surroundings but we all process those stimuli differently, as illustrated by a couple of examples from my NLP training.

The Spelling Test!

With the subject of spelling, the best spellers can visualise the word in front of their eyes and they can spell it forwards or backwards. Poor spellers will sound out the word syllable by syllable which can sometimes work, but only for the simpler words.

It’s a question of how they are looking at it that decides how successful they are.

Finding The Right Aim!

When a group of Olympic shooters were asked how they hit the target so accurately they replied that they imagine a laser pointer on top of the gun and when they shoot they line up the dot with the target. It was this process of visualisation that helped get results. When this technique was introduced to the US military it improved accuracy greatly.

So, bearing these lessons in mind, how do you ensure your business is aiming at the right target?

Here are some pointers:

Question your own business paradigm – is there a new way to look at things that will improve the chances of success, like the speller and the shooter?
Map out your short-term goals and longer-term goals and have them clearly defined in your business plan.
Work out how you will generate cash-flow in the short-term to help reach the longer-term goals
Think about products and services that involve less time and effort, but higher and longer-lasting returns for you. For example, if you run workshops, can you film them so that you are creating extra product opportunities with the footage?

Following the above lessons and tips should point you in the direction of developing business strategies that produce a good ROI – the name of the game with any business!

Working smarter on your online business strategy is easier if you use all the great web resources available to you; one of those is the Competition Crusher Workshop which you can view completely FREE here: www.CrusherWorkshop.com.

[caption id="attachment_5495" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="Your online business strategy should hit the

Online Business Strategy

The 3 Pillars Of Product Creation And Marketing

2011-10-23T05:53:00.001-07:00

You can’t create a successful business without creating a top product that there’s a demand for, but if that product isn’t made known to the world then you won’t be selling anything.

That’s why recognising the three pillars of product creation and product marketing can help to underpin your whole online business strategy. We detail them below.

Identify The Need

Some businesses develop a product and then look for the need. To us this is nonsensical.

Identifying the need or a hungry market first and tailoring your product to that need guarantees there will be buyers for your product.

No matter whether your product is based around plumbing, IT services or training

Melbourne SEO

What I learn from Richard Branson tonight {4min audio}

2011-10-22T04:58:00.001-07:00

Memo.m4a Listen on Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

Just watch Richard Branson for an hour... He's an excellent example of how to live :)

2011-10-22T03:41:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

How To Map Out An Internet Marketing Plan

2011-10-12T23:43:00.001-07:00

How To Map Out An Internet Marketing Plan

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

How To Map Out An Internet Marketing Plan is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Without an internet marketing plan of where you want to take your online business, it may end up floundering on the rocks. Put simply, you need to know where you want to take your business and how to get there, before you start out.

Below we look at the overall marketing plan for Melbourne SEO Services as an example, to show you the kinds of things you need to be thinking about as you start your journey.

Where Do You Want To Go?

Melbourne SEO Services was designed as a company that would provide information products to businesses needing guidance with their internet marketing strategies.

Why? Because info products are high margin, can be replicated, are scalable and they allow the company to create products once and get paid over and over again!

When the company started, that was the vision and we are just entering that territory now, but there have been deliberate steps taken to get there. It has been a process of steering the company closer to the vision.

Now, where do you want to take your business?

How To Get There?

We couldn’t just start out in the info product space because we hadn’t yet built the credibility or surrounded ourselves with the team of A players that we needed.

We started out with SEO services – helping companies improve their traffic levels. We offered a free report called the SEO Manifesto, which visitors could opt in to receive a copy of in exchange for their email address. This way we built a database of clients that we would keep contact with and sell other products and services to.

This critical first step achieved a couple of things. It gave us the cash-flow to start developing other products and services and it built our credibility and status as experts in what we were doing.

Cash-flow Generators

Taking the above lesson, in order to get where you want to go, your business will need a cash-flow generator at the front end. How are you going to raise the funds you need to take your business forward?

With Melbourne SEO Services we needed to document core processes and systemise all aspects of the business so that this could then be used as information product for business in the next steps. But it was the SEO services that generated enough cash for us to do that.

We have since developed Mastermind groups and business coaching sessions as well, which are other cash-flow generators, but the core business is being steered towards the info products we drew up in the first internet marketing plans we made all those years ago.

Edging Towards The Vision

In addition to the SEO services, we started developing outsourcing products, web video and small business courses that edged us into the realm of the high-margin info products.

That’s not to say we want to spend all our time running workshops. We use the model that we create content once and get paid from it forever, so we run one workshop, video it and then use this content again and again.

All the videos that you see from workshops we run are products we can sell that will generate profits over and over again, growing our business.

Before you take your business headlong into the often chaotic work of internet marketing, know where you want to go and how you will get there – have a sound internet marketing strategy from the word “go” and map it all out.

You can learn more about how to do an internet marketing plan and all aspects of taking your small business to the top of your market in the Competition Crusher Workshop at www.CrusherWorkshop.com.

You need an Internet marketing plan to succeed.

Ouch! This bruise hurts... {bah! A friendly game of footy... I don't think so}

2011-10-05T18:34:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Web Video Marketing: Make Your High-Roller Clients Feel Special

2011-10-04T23:04:00.001-07:00

Web Video Marketing: Make Your High-Roller Clients Feel Special

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Keep your high-rolling clients happy.

Are you looking for new ways to make your high-end clients feel special and also to help you with your web video marketing campaign?

One way to make a splash in both of those pools is to send a camera to your customer and ask them to record video testimonials and send the file to you so you can post it; they can keep the camera!

We often think of testimonial videos as chores for the people who have to do them – that applies to write ups or videos; but the truth is that many clients will be only too happy to help, especially if you look after them well.

It also plays to their ego and can give them that feeling that they are special, coveted and important enough to your business to be asked to put it on film.

Many customers, though, have the best of intentions of helping you, but never get round to doing it so, if you want to try the sending-a-camera approach out for your business to try and nail the testimonial you’re after, then try the following way of going about it:

Buy a Flip Camera or a Kodak Playtouch – these are both decent quality, cheap video cameras. You may like to add a personal touch by sticking one of your logos on the camera.
Send the camera to your customer with a letter asking them to record a testimonial for you in a quiet, well-lit room; in return they can keep the camera.
It’s best to include in your letter some questions that they can answer on camera and thereby you can steer the video testimonial in the direction you want it to go.
Instruct them that , if they want to keep the camera once they have finished recording, either send the SD card back to you or upload the video file to the DropBox folder you have shared with them. Give them clear instructions on how to do this in your letter.
It’s best once you have edited the video to the required length and format, to seek the client’s approval before uploading the video to your web site. They will appreciate the consideration you have put into the process.

Having the camera in their hand should convince the customer to get the testimonial that they promised done. Of course this approach would only be done with clients who are spending big with you.

The value of these video testimonials is high, because they involve little work for you and are authentic; it’s much more difficult to fake a video testimonial than a text one, which makes them instantly more valuable to your business as a marketing tool.

Do you have any other suggestions or ideas that can help the web video marketing of your business and also give your most important customers that warm, fuzzy feeling? If so please let us know in the comments section below.

Use More Than One Tool To Build Links – Linkvana Review

2011-09-27T05:23:00.001-07:00

Use More Than One Tool To Build Links – Our Linkvana Review

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Looking to buy (or already own) Linkvana? Click here to grab these free bonuses.

Linkvana is on our list of tools in the SEO Method 2.0. Read below to find out why it’s part of our link building strategy.

Anyone who owns a website wants to get as many quality links to their site as possible. We have discovered a link building site here at Melbourne SEO Services which will do just that. It is called Linkvana and this service can help you garner many quality, one-way inbound links.

Linkvana lets you submit 100 word posts or more.

With Linkvana, you simply create small snippets or posts of one hundred words which are then syndicated to one of the blogs in their network. You get one link inside that blurb, you cannot do any article spinning. Every blog has a healthy page rank; most of their sites are between a PR2 and PR5. They have lots of link popularity – the blogs have thousands of inbound links coming into them and they have domain age. None of their sites are new and many are over six years old. Your blurbs are going to high quality blogs, not spam blogs.

To write a very small article of one hundred words is quick and easy to do. You can write these small articles yourself or you can use Linkvana’s outsourcing option. Their English speaking writers will create posts for you based around your keywords and with your links embedded. You get a lot of diversification in the domains that they’re going to which is very beneficial from a link building perspective. You are also able to set up your posting frequency by scheduling your links over time for natural link building.

The links are one hundred percent permanent; Linkvana will never take them down and there is no limit to the number of backlinks you can receive. You can also see at a glance the status of your sites, because they list the page rank, number of pages indexed and the number of backlinks to your domain. With this information, you can quickly see where your sites need some attention SEO wise.

Linkvana has been around longer than a lot of link building services and thus provides a better network through its larger number of aged, high PR sites.

Any questions you may have about the service are answered promptly and professionally by Linkvana’s support team. They welcome suggestions and try to integrate features suggested by users if these will enhance the service.

Your only obligation to Linkvana is to make sure your site is a quality, whitehat site and the posts you write to obtain backlinks are unique, handwritten content. In this way Linkvana are able to keep their network free from anything that could be seen as negative by the search engines, which in turn is a benefit to you, the user.

When used in conjunction with other link building methods, Linkvana is a powerful and effective tool, as we have found at Melbourne SEO Services. Why not give them a try by following the link below?

Ps. If you’d like to read another Linkvana Review – Click here.

5 Reasons Why Making Web Videos Makes Sense

2011-09-26T23:38:00.001-07:00

5 Reasons Why Making Web Videos Makes Sense

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Web videos can increase your popularity.

There’s never been a better time for a business to start making web videos because now is always the right time to boost sales.

That’s the bottom line for how web video benefits an online business, but we go into a bit more depth below and break it down into the 5 leading reasons why you should start now.

1. Web Videos Drive Traffic

Well-made, well-distributed web videos will drive traffic to your website and your website should thrive on that, if it knows what’s good for business.

Video is search engine-friendly so it will help you dominate the first page of Google for your keywords; not only that but it gives you the chance, through a well—written speech with a good call to action, to convince people that they need to head over to your site. Watermarking your video with your URL also tells them where they need to visit.

2. Web Videos Convert Visitors Into Sales

Video is the online equivalent to a face-to-face meeting. That means you can look your customers in the eye, pre-empt questions and objections they might have and show how your solution fits their needs best. Consequently its conversion rate is much higher than for plain text and images; sales will increase with well-made web video – period!

3. Web Videos Help to Create Credibility and Trust

As well as conveying a marketing message, web videos allow you to demonstrate your knowledge in your business field; you can show your customers that you understand their needs and concerns, answer FAQs that you know will come up and use video to show your customers how to complete a particular task.

This all adds to your status as an authority and boosts your credibility and trustworthiness – which are qualities that will ultimately decide whether someone online will buy from you or not.

4. Making Web Videos Has Never Been Cheaper

You can get a whole range of video making equipment together – including a camera, tripod, 3 lights, a good microphone and a backdrop –for under a thousand dollars now. And you can edit and distribute them for free or minimal charges.

How far does $1000 go in a marketing campaign with traditional media? Not very far. With the equipment you invest in you will have everything you need to make unlimited videos that market your business well into the future; the ROI is excellent.

5. Making Web Videos Has Never Been Easier

Making and sharing good quality online videos has never been easier; even 2 years ago we didn’t have the same level of video resources available to us and both hardware and software is still being honed, perfected and made available. The integration between all the production and distribution components of successful web video is at its highest level ever. There’s no excuses left not to be making video!

Certainly over the past couple of years the “voodoo” element has been removed from web video; the mystique that made people’s eyes glaze over at the thought of making their own videos has gone. Business owners now feel empowered and ready to take the plunge into the world of video.

If you are one of these business owners needing some direction with making your web videos then you will find a lot of tips on video production and SEO as well if you visit our YouTube channel today.

Trump dropping bombs.

2011-09-22T01:09:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Edit your videos with YouTube {the beginning?}

2011-09-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

Edit your videos with YouTube

YouTube Blog

Until now, when you uploaded to YouTube, your video was hosted and shared, but couldn’t really be changed. If you wanted to trim off the end, swap out the soundtrack, or add an effect, you had to edit your video using a separate program and upload again.

Starting today, you can edit your uploaded videos right on YouTube and maintain the same video IDs. This means you keep your view count and comments, and all existing links to your video will continue to work. No re-uploading necessary!

Here’s how it works: just click Edit video on the video’s page or on your My Videos page:
You can stabilize your hand-held footage, rotate a video, and boost the contrast and colors. Try “I’m Feeling Lucky” for 1-click color correction:

Or if you’re looking for a more dramatic change, try one of our effects (developed in collaboration with our friends at Picnik):
Click Save to begin processing the edits to your video. And if you don’t like the new version, fear not: you can revert to the original and save again. You can also save your edits into a new video and try out multiple versions. Note that popular videos with over 1,000 views and videos with third-party content can only be saved as new videos once edited (learn more).

Here’s a quick video showing what you can do:

We’ll be rolling this out to all users globally over the course of the day. We know you want your videos to look their best, and we’re excited to see what you come up with using YouTube video editing!

John Gregg, Software Engineer, recently watched “Shenandoah.”

Sent with Reeder

Sent from my iPhone

I made this... {impressed?}

2011-09-16T05:10:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Why i look like Mr. Burns in my videos.

2011-09-13T23:28:00.001-07:00

Better Video Presentations Using The Mr. Burns Stance

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Imitate Mr. Burns for better presentations.

Well…not quite…but I got your attention didn’t I?

Hopefully you’re not quite as cold-bloodedly evil as Monty Burns from the Simpsons cartoon; but his characteristic stance does include an interesting feature that you can definitely use to your advantage when you are making video presentations. Let me explain.

The Importance Of “Friends”

When you are in front of a video camera on your own, you don’t have many friends.

The camera can be seen as a friend and that’s great if it helps you to talk to it in a relaxed and natural way; your only other friends are your stance, your breath and your voice.

Any actor will tell you the importance of these three things in creating a good screen presence. Like an actor you are in front of the lens and trying to play your “part”.

In most marketing videos your “part” is to come across to the audience as confident, assured, authoritative and as natural as possible.

Body Language And Hand Movements

Confidence is portrayed in many ways. Think about your body language.

You see, every body movement is amplified on camera; you may even discover a twitch that you didn’t even know about when you see yourself on video!

While I’m not suggesting that you adopt the stooped and creepy stance of Mr. Burns, you may want to emulate what he does with his hands.

Your hands are a very important component of your stance as they are dexterous and want to move around, fidget and touch things, by their very nature; knowing what to do with them is a constant challenge for presenters, especially when you have adopted an open stance in front of the camera to convey authority, stability and composure.

Keeping the fingertips of each hand joined like Mr. Burns has its advantages. Hopefully you have more than three lizard-like fingers on each hand, but this hand position is a “power position” and helps to present you as a confident figure in control. That’s why I use it in my Melbourne SEO videos.

It’s a very subtle thing that you may not even notice when it’s done correctly, but you will certainly notice when hands are waving around or fidgeting on-screen; it looks unprofessional and doesn’t convey any sense of composure.

So the Mr. Burns stance may work well as a way to steady your hands and stop them moving around when you present your videos. If you try to adopt a straight and neutral posture with hands in this position it should help your all-important confidence, when recording your videos.

There is much more to delivery techniques for video presentations than just your stance and hand positions, but paying attention to the details like this will make all the difference to the professionalism of your videos. Find plenty more tips like this in the Lights, Camera, Profits! workshop by clicking here.

These domain renewal letters are the biggest scam. #NotCool

2011-09-12T19:15:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

The Three SEOs and the Fairy Godmother {hehe}

2011-09-12T04:56:00.001-07:00

Three SEOs were plotting their strategies one evening late into the night when they all fell asleep. In their dreams they were visited by a sweet and beautiful fairy god-mother named Matticia. “You have all been so good, abiding by search engine guidelines, you may each have one wish,” Matticia said softly.

The first SEO thought quickly and said, “I wish I had a magical link building pen. Every request I send out will get a link back.”

Matticia waved her wand, sparkling stuff came flying out the end, and the first SEO felt a tingly sensation all up and down. A pen appeared in the first SEO’s hand.

The second SEO said, “I wish I had a magical Mirror of Link Baitiness. I want my Web sites to be so beautiful people will always link to their natural beauty.”

Matticia waved her wand again, and sparkly stuff went flying around the second SEO, who felt all tingly deep inside. A mirror appeared in the second SEO’s hand.

In the morning, the three SEOs woke up all excited. The first SEO looked down and saw Matticia’s pen. “Look!” the first SEO said. “With this magic pen I’ll always be able to get whatever links I ask for!”

The second SEO held up the mirror and said, “But I will never have to ask for links again. People will always link to the natural beauty of my Web sites.”

They then looked at the third SEO, who glanced downward and shuffled his feet. “Well?” said the first SEO. “Yeah, what did you wish for?” the second SEO asked.

“Nah, you wouldn’t want to know,” the third SEO told his friends. They insisted they wanted to know what Matticia did for him. “Really, you don’t want to know,” he replied. But the first two SEOs demanded to know what wish Matticia had granted to the third SEO.

“Well,” he said slowly, “You both had such great ideas I figured I wouldn’t be able to out-optimize your sites. So I asked Matticia to 301-redirect all your sites to mine."

5 Screen Presence Tips For Recording Home Made Videos

2011-09-11T03:21:00.001-07:00

5 Screen Presence Tips For Recording Home Made Videos

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

You’re not alone making home made videos!

It’s all well and good following tips for recording videos in a structured environment with professional equipment in professional hands, but many people reading this will be at home or at an office alone with their video-making!

So we thought we’d focus on a few tips for recording a polished and effective edge to your home made videos, concentrating specifically on your screen presence.

Everything Says Something

Everything in the video frame says something either about you or your business product or service. This means it’s ultra-important to think about what’s in the background, if you’re recording from your home or office rather than outside.

Of course some people just prefer a plain background created by a sheet of fabric, so that nothing distracts from the message; but you might like to add something that says something about you as a person, about your business or that attracts the eye of your customers – something you know they will like and appreciate; a simple example would be to include flowers or soft colours if you’re marketing more to females than males.

Look Them In The Eye!

Eyes are very important when you are recording your video. Make sure that you are confidently looking into the camera with steady eye-contact; that way it will appear that you are looking directly into your viewers’ eyes and this is one of the first rules of sales – make and maintain eye contact throughout the meeting.

This is as close as you’ll get to meeting many of your customers face to face, so make the most of it and avoid looking away repeatedly as this will only unnerve your viewer.

Treat The Camera Lens Like A Person

You don’t have to shake hands with the camera (!) but, in every other way, treat the camera as if it is a potential buyer that you are presenting to. It will depend on who your intended customer is, but knowing that and treating the camera as a potential customer will affect your dress, your tone and your content, as well as your body language. This will keep things more natural in your video than just talking to an inanimate lens.

Consider Where You Place The Notes

The last thing you want is your video to lose impact by making it obvious that you are reading a script or by your eyes being diverted by badly-placed notes.

If you must use notes keep them near the camera lens – directly behind or above it usually.

If you are keeping your videos short, then try to practice reading enough so you don’t need a script and can work off memory or just a few bullet points. Reading scripts can sound “wooden” much like bad acting – and this will detract from the main marketing message of your video, which you are trying to convey.

Take A Look In The Mirror

Many amateur video makers benefit from practicing first in front of a mirror. That way you can iron out anything that doesn’t look or sound right; then by the time you are ready to record you are no longer fretting whether this or that aspect is right. It will help you to build confidence.

Remember – there’s no rush to recording home made videos; use as many takes as you need!

These few tips on screen presence when making your internet marketing videos are expanded upon greatly in the Lights, Camera, Profits! workshop. Find out more about it here today.

Huh... this stuff works and my free stuff no less.

2011-09-02T22:58:00.001-07:00

Read this on @thegoogleguy 's advice. Good advice.

2011-08-19T23:30:00.001-07:00

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Black Or Green Screen? What's the best choice?

2011-08-18T02:42:00.001-07:00

Web Video Background – Black Or Green Screen?

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Video background – Black or Green?

Once you have sorted out your camera, lighting, microphone and tripod, the last thing you need to get right before kicking off is the video background. This is important if you want to do effective video filming.

One option is to use a piece of fabric behind the presenter and the other is to use “green screens” and then edit later.

Here we weigh up both options for a video-maker just starting out.

In the Black Corner!

If you’re going to use a piece of fabric behind the presenter make sure it is clean, has some weight to it and hangs well, as video can pick up a drape that has creases or stains, or is too lightweight.

You want the viewer to be concentrating on you and what you’re saying rather than the backdrop, so keeping it simple is best; make sure that you don’t use your Scottish grandfather’s kilt!

Keep to a solid colour and the general consensus is that black works best – though some prefer to use white.

If you are using fabric be sure to wear clothes that contrast with the colour – so don’t choose a navy blue t-shirt if you have a black video background, for example.

In the Green Corner!

Green screens are a great tool for video makers, as they allow editing out of one image and replacing with another. Weather forecasters often use them and they are used a lot in movie-making.

But using green screens is complicated and they need to be lit separate to the subject. It’s all about the lighting and green screens must have consistent lighting from 2 sources minimum.

Afterwards the green colour can be edited out by chroma-keying in iMovie, but the problem is that unless it’s done extremely well it can look a little unprofessional or tacky, with green glows still visible around the edges.

Unless you have previous experience with green screens or are prepared to work at it to get it right then the best option is to go with the draped fabric as the background for your web videos.

It may seem a little picky to be concentrating on the background of your web video like we have done here, but we at Melbourne SEO services believe that if you do something, you need to do it the best you possibly can.

The Lights, Camera, Profits! workshop concentrates on doing all the different facets of web video production well, so that you start your video marketing strategy on the right foot from the beginning. Find out more about it by clicking here.

The “Will It Blend?” Video Marketing Lessons {I love video}

2011-08-02T21:54:00.001-07:00

The “Will It Blend?” Video Marketing Campaign

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Blend videos into your web marketing.

Is there anybody on the planet who hasn’t seen or heard of the “Will It Blend?” series of online videos?
Those of you left with any doubts about the effectiveness of online video marketing in general and, in particular in answering customer questions or objections, should see the light when they consider the “Will it Blend?” series.

It includes over 100 videos, many of which went “viral”, about whether a Blendtec machine could blend various objects ranging from rake handles to marbles to Justin Bieber dolls; these videos helped to answer the question in EMPHATIC fashion, showing how the blender managed it. The videos created a lasting impact and were much discussed and sent around the Internet.

Here are the top 4 things we can learn from the “Will it Blend?” story.

We Can Pre-empt Customer Questions And Objections

Customers always want to be sure that your product does what it says it does “on the label”. Blendtec blenders were marketed as ultra-powerful blenders so the customer has every right to say “prove it” or “how do I know it’s as powerful as you say?”

In the old days they could only have demonstrated this with pictures, text, testimonials and technical specs. Or they could have spent a fortune with TV advertising.

Online video enabled them to show the power of their machines in seconds and very cheaply and effectively, reaching a huge audience.

Video Is More Effective Than Images Or Text

If a picture can paint a thousand words how many pictures can a video paint?

For many online marketing purposes – answering questions, FAQs, promoting products, demonstrating how something works or introducing your company – online video is proven to be more effective than images or text as it brings a subject to life and creates the “human connection” between you and your customer.

We Can Make Our Videos Entertaining As Well As Informative

The success of the “Will it Blend?” campaign is partly because it is amusing. It’s showing something original and dynamic on camera in short sharp bursts that don’t require any brain-power for people.

They kept it interesting, to the point and entertaining.

Video Has An Enduring Impact

People still talk about “Will it Blend?” The name Blendtec is etched into people’s minds from the strength of their 100-plus video campaign. The effect from video is far more enduring and memorable than pages of text or even photographs.

Online businesses can learn by paying attention to other online success stories and any small business entering the world of video marketing can certainly learn a lot from the “Will it Blend?” story. Further tips can be found on this subject in the Lights, Camera, Profits! Workshop. Just click here to learn more about it.

I think I just broke Hostgator... just got this email from them ;)

2011-08-02T20:06:00.001-07:00

This is just one of our many hosting accounts ;) When I do things I like to do them big...=======

Hello, This email is to notify you of a change made to your HostGator web hosting account. Through a recent audit we have noticed that a small percentage of our users are hosting a very high volume of subdomains, addon domains and parked domains within a single cPanel account. We found that the Awstats and Webalizer statistics software packages found in cPanel were impacting performance for all other users when processing statistics for accounts with a high volume of domains. We have no intent to limit the volume of domains hosted by our clients; however clients with a high volume of domains are causing high CPU usage above our resource use guidelines. In lieu of disabling these client's accounts we have decided to deactivate Awstats and Webalizer statistics generation for these users. During our audit we found that your account is hosting 747 domains and or subdomains. This volume of domains is not compatible with the statistics generation software found in cPanel. Currently Awstats and Webalizer will be disabled for your cPanel account. Your past statistics will be available, but no new statistics will be shown in the future. Because we realize our clients must have access to statistics software we would like to offer you an alternative to Awstats and Webalizer. We have implemented a cPanel plugin for Google Analytics. Via this plugin you can utilize Google Analytics throughout your sites without having to make any manual changes to your code. The plugin can be found within your cPanel account at this time. If you are already a Google Analytics user you will simply need to enter your Google Analytics ID for each domain you wish to track. If you're not a current user of Google Analytics and need an ID you can get your ID for free by following this link: http://www.google.com/analytics/ If you have any questions or concerns regarding this change or Google Analytics please contact our support department and we will be glad to help. Best Regards, HostGator LLC Support

Just got this email from YouTube, looks like they've made me a YT partner {funny how quickly things turn}

2011-08-01T00:08:00.001-07:00

help center | e-mail options | report spam

Dear theseomethod,

Congratulations! Now that you're a YouTube partner, you're on your way to sharing revenue from your YouTube videos and increasing your audience through syndication.

Here's some important reference material. Please sign in to your YouTube account in order to access this information.

Getting Started Guide - See how to use YouTube partner features.
Partner Guidelines - Review the Partner Tutorial.
Partner Agreement - Detailed partner agreement.
Community Guidelines - Understand your responsibilities in ensuring a positive experience for our users.
Partner Account Settings - Update your Google AdSense information.

Looking for even more YouTube partner information? Visit our comprehensive Partner Help Center or catch the latest news in our blog.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Team

"Things are gonna explode"... I like it.

2011-07-31T19:56:00.001-07:00

Just got this email from a client:

"Hey Dave - just wanted to let you know that I'm implementing your suggestions, and sure enough business is picking up! Thanks!! I'm just waiting for a better looking site, then things are gonna explode :)" - Chris Hammer

I love getting those sorts of emals... if you're looking for results like these check out: http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/seo-services-australia/internet-marketing...

Watching the Jordan Belfort {Wolf of Wall St} pitch his bootcamp #learning

2011-07-27T02:30:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

How to Eat What You Kill {a good way to live}

2011-07-23T06:32:00.001-07:00

How to Eat What You Kill

Freakonomics

(AbleStock.com)

This is a cross-post from James Altucher‘s blog Altucher Confidential. His previous appearances on the Freakonomics blog can be found here.

Life only tastes good when you eat what you kill. When you hustle for what you earn and someone pays you money in proportion to the service you’ve offered, the idea you’ve created, your ability to execute on it, and their ability to consume it in a way that benefits them.

Someone asked me the other day, “What does it mean when you say you ‘Eat what you kill’?”

It means that the greatest pleasure is going into the jungle and mastering the ability to hunt and survive without the help of masters who only pretend to guarantee our safety; i.e., bosses. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an employee, a student, a homemaker, a writer — it’s time to start forgetting about all the ways the world has promised you safety and comfort.

Human knowledge has torn apart our families, our bank accounts, and lulled us into a creepy sense of Disney stability. A good friend of mine was just laid off from his job of ten years. He found out through an email and was asked not to come into work for the rest of the week and to clean out his desk when security came in on Saturday. All of that human knowledge in an email. Ten years of work. Time to cut costs. “What do I do now?” he asked me.

How to Eat What You Kill:

Don’t depend on one boss, buyer for your company, product, service you offer, etc. Diversify everything you can. When I was starting Stockpickr I was trying to start 9 other companies simultaneously, plus was running a fund of hedge funds. When I was trying to sell Stockpickr, I was in serious talks with 5 other companies. When I write articles, there are five different sites I write for. When I was broke and about to lose my home, I wrote to over 100 different people to try to build up my network. When I worked at HBO I tried to build value in every department; all the time I was preparing my exit by planning out my first successful startup.

Become an expert. Read every book, blog, website, whatever, about what you want to be an expert in. When I began day-trading for hedge funds I must have read over 100 books on trading and investing and then wrote over 1,000 programs testing out different trading models. And I still sucked at trading. I then spent years doing it before I felt I was halfway decent enough to pull consistent money out. And only then did hedge funds start hiring me.

Connect people. If you introduce person A to person B and then person B is able to solve a pain point in his life, then you just made a good connection. Each connection is another string in the tightly woven net you build that will catch you when you fall and throw you to higher heights than you’ve ever experienced before. And you will fall. Don’t think it can’t happen.

Give ideas for free. If you have no network then you have to build it. Nobody wants to help you for free. They are all just trying to survive. Even billionaires are trying to protect their luxury-soaked lifestyles plagued by jealousies and over-sexed libidos. You have to build your idea muscle and work hard to come up with ideas that can really help these people. Then send them the ideas for free. Not everyone will respond, but the benefits are:

You exercise that idea muscle
Someone will respond. And that someone will make you money. When I did this technique, one person out of the 40 gave me money to manage. Another person hired me to write. My life changed.
See Give and You Will Receive.

Always work on your exit. No matter where you are: a job, a startup, your startup, writing a column, working at McDonald’s… always diversify your possible exits and begin immediately working on them. You don’t have to exit tomorrow, but never forget that you can get that email tomorrow that says you have to clean out your desk by Saturday. Build your personal brand, make your boss’s contacts your contacts, make calls, send emails, leave responses on blogs, come up with ideas out of the scope of your job description

Never say a bad word about anyone. Don’t betray anyone. Don’t backstab anyone or step on anyone’s toes. Don’t gossip. This might come into conflict with the idea of “eating what you kill” but backstabbing in order to do it implies you have a “scarcity” mentality: that there isn’t enough out there unless you kill someone else in order to get what you want. Let me tell you something: there’s enough out there for everyone. Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill-will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don’t support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck. Avoid those and you avoid competition. Don’t hurt anyone.

Don’t care what people think. People will hate you for being a hunter: your bosses, colleagues, partners, investors, extended family. But they don’t have to feed your family. You do. Once you care what others think, you’ve lost. Then you’ve just set up the same boundaries for yourself that those other people have set up for themselves. They are all smaller than you and live in straitjackets. It’s easy to kill someone in a straitjacket. Don’t be one of those people.

Create your own luck. Luck doesn’t come from god or magically out of the air. When a runner wins a race by one-tenth of a second, chances are he prepared more, studied his competition, ate better, slept better, was more mentally fit, etc. Once you’ve checked all the boxes on your preparation, guess what, you’ll be lucky. A lot of people say, for instance, that Mark Cuban became a billionaire by luck. I address that in this post.

Reward is unrelated to risk. People say, “No risk, no reward.” This is not true. I don’t like to take risks. I have a family to feed. Don’t take risks with your kids. Diversification is not about diversifying your cash investments, it’s about diversifying all the sources of plenty in your life: opportunities, knowledge, friends, networks, investments, risks, health, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, i.e. the Daily Practice I recommend. To eat what you kill, minimize risk so you don’t die on the hunt. You do that by diversifying every part of your life. The outcome of this is that if you forgot to bring your knife on the hunt, you still have your gun. If you forgot to bring your ideas full force into the game, you still have your network; if you lose on one risk, you still have the nine others. That’s where you get the reward.

Take responsibility for all failures. It’s your fault when you go hungry. Former world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik said in his book, One Hundred Selected Games that the only way to reach the highest level of success is to develop the ability to critique your own failures. Note the word, “only” in this. Anecdote: Botvinnik used to train by playing against someone who would blow smoke in his face so as to get accustomed to difficult playing situations. He was the world chess champion for 15 years.

Honesty. If you don’t ask for what you want, chances are you won’t get it. If you don’t say what you believe, you’ll never stand out from the 99% of people out there who hide the truth about themselves and their desires. If you don’t stand up and say or show how special you are, nobody will ever think you are special. Nobody is out there advocating for you. Honesty about what you feel, believe, know, think, want, will make you a multi-dimensional person in a flat-land world.

Patience. Most important. Three-year-olds can be honest but it doesn’t mean anything. They still poop their pants on occasion. You need to grow up. To check all of the boxes on the above items, do the Daily Practice to stay in mental, physical, emotional, spiritual shape. Avoid crappy people, be honest, take responsibility, and so on. Being a hunter is very discouraging. Sometimes you have to go for lean stretches where there’s nothing to kill and then nothing to eat. To be honest, I’m on a four-year stretch. I’m hunting for my next kill and I will get it. During those times it’s most difficult to keep balanced and stay sane. I’ve talked many people off ledges during these periods, including myself. It’s these times when it’s most important to be around only the people who love you, and to avoid the damaging people who will bring you to their peculiar and particular circles of hell. You don’t want to go to hell. At the end of the day, patience is the virtue that takes you to heaven.

Don’t worry about adding or subtracting to the sum of human knowledge. Human knowledge is never that great. Be better than human. Be a hunter.

Sent with Reeder

Sent from my iPhone

Improve Your Business Marketing Skills With Training Videos Online

2011-07-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

Labeled as the quickest and most powerful form of social media SEO toolkit at the present times online videos birthed the emergence of online video marketing and online video learning respectively. Both have distinguished the modern versions of videos available today from the earlier ones. Online videos are in demand today for their efficiency in most brain processes.

Scientific studies prove that 40 percent of the cortex is at work when video processing is done by the brain. This means that human beings are capable of scanning their visual background and gain more knowledge and retain it through learning assisted with visual presentation.

Various businesses have benefited much from online marketing presented in video forms. The latter did not only make customers receive product or service information, but also made them feel the importance having one in their lives. Moreover, internet entrepreneurs utilized online video learning too in obtaining more knowledge to improve their current marketing skills. Generous ones even share their craft through online videos that they themselves made or can be done after taking advantage of premium SEO services today.

Appearing as a learning trend, its value increases among its existing online users. If subscribing or purchasing web video training is one of the major decisions that you are to make at the moment, ponder on the succeeding helpful insights. They can help you in making the right decision.

In comparison to offline learning, learning through the internet is possible wherever and whenever there is a computer ready for your use. If your hours are tight because of work, you can go about online video learning during your free time. Such convenience and flexibility is not possible with traditional learning as it requires a set place and time. Most often than not, you would have to cancel important meetings or family events just to attend a class or seminar. Another benefit of online learning is proceeding at your own phase whether you are a quick learner of slow learner. Different folks mean different strokes when it comes to learning. You can also go back to the lessons which are very difficult for you to grasp with just one or few clicks on your mouse. If it happens that you are confronted with a business situation that is difficult to handle, you can always look back to your previous lessons for reference.

While it is true that learning from the best in the field of internet marketing happens in special seminars conducted by the former, both novice and experienced internet marketers can also acquire it online. Training videos online authored by the same experts offer the same kind of training given at special seminars. These online videos may also cost cheaper than the actual seminars. But if you think that you would benefit more in classes and seminars, feel free to sign up for one.

Another advantage of web video training is its being cost effective. It saves your extra bucks from the usual fare because you don’t have to go anywhere. Purchasing online videos is also budget- friendly to your business or company. It can be easily shared with the rest of your staff and future employees – that is you are planning to expand. You won’t be bothered to stretch your budget for training costs because it is all there.

The only downside of online video learning is the absence of personal contact. This affects users who are dependent on learning with a teacher, trainer or a seminar facilitator as they may have a lot of questions and would need quick answers to them. Likewise, they need constant confirmation that they are getting the lessons the right way. Although online videos created for learning purposes use simple words and uncomplicated teaching method, it is a fact that it cannot fit everyone’s learning style as we are all different.

Discover more of our SEO services and improve your online marketing with the help of the best SEO company.

Writing A Job Advertisement To Hook A Players {we just used this method}

2011-07-20T15:16:00.001-07:00

Writing A Job Advertisement To Hook Great Performers

#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Get the right hook to snatch the best applicant.

Every step of the hiring process needs to be aimed at hooking the type of great performers that you want working in your business. That process starts with writing a job advertisement that will attract the best and there is a skill to doing this that many small business owners miss.

Some job posting sites may restrict you in the format that you have to use for your ad, but following is a job advertisement example format that we have successfully used to hire staff in the past – great performers that are still with us!

Before we start, a general point about knowing your target market, which frames the following step-by-step process we have laid out. Who exactly are you trying to attract? Only by knowing this can you start writing an effective advertisement.

Headline

Write an eye-catching headline that says in a few words what you are looking for.

Summary

Summarise the job in question and say clearly and directly what’s needed to be successful in the position.

Tell The Story

Here is where you need to be a bit creative and use your copywriting skills. You need to climb inside the mind of the type of applicant you are after and think about what they would want to read; wherever the job you are offering meets what they will want to read then push the point.

For example a video maker may want to know that their videos will be seen by many viewers and a writer wants to know that his words will be read by many… can you offer this opportunity? If so, sell the opportunity to the applicant!

Present the Problem And Solution And Make It Real!

Present the problem to which the applicant can be the solution e.g. at present this is happening, so I need someone to come on board who will….this will make you and the job seem more real and also creates an urgency to the process. You can even use video or images if that helps to make you, your business and the job seem more real.

Show Them How To Succeed In The Role

Explain what the successful applicant will be able to do and how that will solve your problem.

Introduce Your Culture And Team

Include a few details about your company – the type of culture you are building and a bit about some of the other team members already with you, if space permits.

Present Clearly The Benefits of What You Are Offering

Go over all the potential benefits of the position to the successful applicant – not just salary but anything else you are offering: training, help with other enterprises, becoming part of the “family”, bonuses etc.

What They Need to Do Next

Make the next step clear. Don’t leave the applicant “hanging”. Tell them step-by-step what you need from them.

Reiterate!

Before closing you may want to reiterate some key points. For instance, if you are looking for a long-term staff member then make it clear that you are not after remote workers who just want to make a quick buck.

Hiring the best staff is a long process and it’s not easy…but it is time well spent. Start with a great job advertisement and the rest can follow. Learn about the rest of the process through the Outsource Profit Machine workshop by simply clicking here.

How To Get The Best Backlinks For Your Websites

2011-07-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

If your business has existed online for a fairly long time now, you could be one of those who continually strive to obtain the best link building strategies. Looking back, the term backlinks got famous along with the emergence of different online businesses.

For most internet marketers and website owners, backlinks are determining factors of a website’s or business’ success. However, novice owners of online businesses usually get confused about how backlinks really work. Understanding the concept behind backlinks is easy.

The internet can be simply related to a highway. The line of stores situated in the towns the highway traverses is similar to the number of online businesses in the web. Say you are a store owner who wants to attract potential customers to your joint. For this to happen, signposts and diversions from the highway leading to your store are needed.

Symbolically, the signposts and diversions are the backlinks and your store is the website of your business. Such comparison clearly shows that backlinks are the incoming links from other websites pointing to your website. As a matter of fact, the quality of each link reflecting your website greatly affects the standing of your business.

What Are The Ways To Get The Best Backlinks For Your Website?

Every website owner’s priority is to obtain quality backlinks because they are helpful in increased web traffic. They can also increase a website’s ranking in the search engine results. Following are the means to obtain them.

Online Directories

To start off with the backlink building, you can register your website to different online directories. Some of them charge their customers for the services they offer. Two of the free online directories to take note are DMOZ and Yahoo. Before registering your website to any directory, do a quick check on its status.

Backlink building entails consistent efforts from the website owner or from the webmaster. Part of this should be the goal to include your website to as many directories available. When choosing directories, ensure that they are keyword rich with highly targeted categories and titles. One thing to avoid – never use suspicious means of generating backlinks. Search engines can ban your site for that.

Article Submission

To get free backlinks, you can submit articles related to your site’s content to different article directories. Besides article posting, they allow your website’s link to be posted on the lower portion of their page right at the end of your article.

As a reader enjoys your article, he will link to your website for more details. Definitely, he will even share this with other people he knows. This, then, becomes a great means for your website’s search engine optimization.

Keep in mind that the main purpose of your website is to provide quality content and helpful insights more than getting a high ranking in the search engine result pages. It should exist for that reason. Quality is everything when it comes to internet marketing.

Connections With Social Networking Sites

With the emergence of social networking sites, site owners have found another opportunity for website owners to create backlinks. Creating a profile on famed sites like Facebook, LinkED and Tweeter opens the door to generating endless number of backlinks for your website as you can post there your official link.

Increase in quality traffic comes from repeated views from visitors. This can be achieved by updating your profile regularly – keeping it fresh with interesting and useful information.

Blogs and commenting on them are definitely connected with social bookmarks. It can boost the number of best backlinks available for your website when paired with other effective methods. This could give your website to top the search engine rankings.

Discover more of our SEO services and improve your online marketing with the help of the best SEO company.

Rule Your Niche With The Best Internet Marketing Techniques

2011-07-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

Being well-informed on the best internet marketing techniques these days is an essential task for all internet article marketing as change spins the world of small business internet marketing. The marketing strategy that may have tremendously worked for your website last year may not do it the same performance this year. So as an internet marketer, be sure to have your eyes open even to the tiniest change in the strategies and try your best to maintain your website in sync with the latest.

First of the marketing techniques that you should learn about is gaining information about your targeted market. Knowing your prospect client’s needs and desires is very important as these will guide you in the development of your product or service. Websites like Amazon and Clickbank prove to be helpful in determining the interests of your niche customers, their buying patterns and their product preferences. Trailing on these factors comes easy because of the daily consumer reviews from different people abounding on websites such as these. Another one of the best internet marketing tools that you can manipulate is the AdWords. This tool and other tools of this type can help you target the right keywords that can draw the attention of your future customers. You can get them for free, so you don’t have to worry on extra expenses.

Now that you have the suitable keywords at hand, integrate them with all the written information in your site. Make sure that they exhibit great sales value with eye-catching headlines courtesy of your trusted SEO company. Let viewers know what they need or what they need to hear from you and related them to your detailed product or service descriptions. This will intrigue them and later on prod them to take advantage of what you are offering them. Your website may come in a blog or an informational site format and may hold one page for your present customer’s testimonials. Making sure that whatever you have posted on your website meets the standards of sales writing is another task to be added on your list.

As part of the best internet marketing techniques, sending emails can still do your business wonders these days. Slight update concerning it is the benefit of signing up for “autoresponder” service. This can help you a lot as it allows automatic generation of emails in response to the customers’ or viewers’ queries posted on your website. You can send along with your reply email, options on how your potential customers can get freebies. This will make them feel excited and look forward to availing of your products or services.

Social networking has been the present means for people to communicate in this age. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are famed for such a purpose. Posting a backlink to your website on these social networking sites can help rouse the curiosity about your website, thus, potential customers start to view your domain. An addition to the modern and best internet marketing techniques is the use of videos in business promotion through YouTube. More than getting your message across to your target audience, sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube let you know right away what people think about your products or services as they can easily post comments or ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ whatever you have shared with them online.

Moreover, they also provide a fertile soil for the planting of backlinks pointing back to your site. Acting as lifelines of websites, they serve as the driving force prodding people to view your site using these effective SEO services. However, there are other natural procedures of gaining backlinks and gaining traffic in effect. Posting links to your website on blogs, forums, government directories, Google Maps and sites which exhibit high page ranks from search engines can also walk your website all the way up to the ladder of online direct marketing victory.

Visit http://www.davidjenyns.com today to discover more website advice.

Three Bright Tips In Hiring An SEO Expert

2011-07-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

With the outstanding benefits of search engine optimization sprouting left and right, you are now probably searching for ways on how to take advantage of it. As it involves a lot of processes, it would be best that you get an SEO expert to do the work for your website.

SEO techniques evolved from a simple concept to a famed commerce filled with acclaimed experts providing service individually or with a group of other specialists. If you are new in the field, choosing the right service provider for your website could be difficult as the rest of them claim to be the best. The only way to be victorious in this search is to be knowledgeable of SEO services matters.

Inquire For Results

While credentials and skills are to be considered in hiring an SEO specialist, they should not be your main focus when you conduct an interview. Yes, they are important. But it would be wise on your part to inquire for positive results that he is able to provide for other clients. This is because most SEO service providers advertise their skills online by merely enumerating what they can do for your website once hired like dragging your site to the top of SERPs.

A genuine specialist has the ability to discern the needs and concerns of the client’s website prior to a consultation. With his findings, he must be able to formulate a strategy that shall address the past and present problems of your site and lead it all the way to the top of the result pages of most search engines. SEO needs vary from one business to another as they offer different products and services. An SEO expert from an SEO company can define those needs along with your own site’s needs.

Get Hooked

Keep in mind, that specialists are hired to help you in managing your site’s SEO and to not take control of everything. Know all the strategies he implements. Get yourself informed of the SEO processes so as to protect yourself from approving fraudulent tactics which can kill your business.

There are some practitioners in the field who manipulate corrupt means in acquiring traffic to their customer’s site and making the latter appear on top of the search results. These are unacceptable to search engines. Google openly penalizes unnaturally optimized pages.

In connection to this, it is wise to put your website in the hands of an honest SEO expert who relays his tactics upfront. You can follow up on this by asking him the scope and limitations of his plans for your site’s progress. Being hesitant in probing about these things would do you no good. Think about the welfare of your business.

Grow In Information

Stick your nose on your website’s progress as well as updates in the SEO basics as modifications often take place. Know all the procedures that your hired specialist implements in your website.

A few years backs, meta tags, keywords and URLs are the only key factors for a successful online presence. Today, your site’s optimization would need link building, article marketing, connecting on social networks and the like to survive SEO competition.

As soon as you receive your service provider’s report, keenly observe the following facts.

Backlinks – Identify their sources. A true expert checks the credibility and relevance of a certain site first before linking your site to it.

Other accounts – A service provider may open other accounts for the reason that it is needed for your web content’s syndication. Know all the log information and passwords of such accounts. Open them regularly and notice the important stuff in them.

Keywords – Most SEO strategies depend on keywords; ask your specialist to be updated of the latest in the keyword market.

As you ask questions to your prospect SEO expert, reflect on the above-mentioned. Speak confidently to let him know that you mean business.

Talk to an expert now at http://www.davidjenyns.com/ to learn more in-depth insights with our SEO training DVDs.

Affiliate Marketing

7 Steps To Hiring “A” Players For Your Business

How To Use Web Outsourcing To Grow Your Business

How To Use Press Release Marketing In Your Business

How Press Releases Create The Ultimate Testimonial For Your Business

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21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012)

#1 - Target Your Content to an Audience Likely to Share

#2 - Participate in the Communities Where Your Audience Already Gathers

#3 - Make Your Blog's Content SEO-Friendly

#4 - Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to Share Your Posts & Find New Connections

#5 - Install Analytics and Pay Attention to the Results

#6 - Add Graphics, Photos and Illustrations (with link-back licensing)

#7 - Conduct Keyword Research While Writing Your Posts

#8 - Frequently Reference Your Own Posts and Those of Others

#9 - Participate in Social Sharing Communities Like Reddit + StumbleUpon

#10 - Guest Blog (and Accept the Guest Posts of Others)

#11 - Incorporate Great Design Into Your Site

#12 - Interact on Other Blogs' Comments

#13 - Participate in Q+A Sites

#14 - Enable Subscriptions via Feed + Email (and track them!)

#15 - Attend and Host Events

#16 - Use Your Email Connections (and Signature) to Promote Your Blog

#17 - Survey Your Readers

#18 - Add Value to a Popular Conversation

#19 - Aggregate the Best of Your Niche

#20 - Connect Your Web Profiles and Content to Your Blog

#21 - Uncover the Links of Your Fellow Bloggers (and Nab 'em!)

Bonus #22 - Be Consistent and Don't Give Up

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