Website Marketing Strategy Blog

by Kathleen Hobbins

Are you having trouble posting to your business weblog regularly?  Are you struggling to think of things to blog about?  Here are some tips to help you out if you are encountering obstacles trying to post regularly to your business weblog:

1. Many people agonize over a 400 word blog post.  Stop it.  Take advantage of the fact that blogging allows you to use a tone and style that is more casual than a lot of business writing.  So spend a moment to organize your thoughts and then just write your blog post conversationally, as though you were speaking to a friend or colleague.  It will reduce the time it takes for you to write each post and help you get over writer’s block.
   
2. Write your content in advance.  I often write a week’s worth of posts on a single day, then use my blogging software to schedule them to be published on separate days.  I find it easier to sit down and write several posts at once, than to sit down three times a week for a single post at a time. 
   
3. Engage your readers to comment and then glean ideas for future posts from the comments.  Pose a problem in your post and ask your readers for their solutions.  Then respond to the comments to generate more conversation.
4. Go outside your own business to identify issues in your niche at large.  Read other blogs and forums in your niche to see what is being discussed.  Then address it in your own business weblog.
5. Use PLR content prudently to generate ideas about what to blog about.  “PLR,” or private label rights content, is readily available for purchase on the internet in a large number of markets.  It comes in the form of ebooks, articles and videos.  Your purchase of it gives you the right to use the content as though it were yours.  But don’t ever use it without customizing it.  First of all, you want to be sure that all your content is optimized for your keywords, so you will need to rewrite it to use your keyword phrases.  Secondly, since the search engines don’t like duplicate content, you want to be sure that all of your content is unique to your blog.  So take a PLR article, digest it, and rewrite it to reflect your perspective.

I have found that blogging routinely makes it easier and faster.  And it’s necessary to post regularly to draw the attention of readers and the search engines.  Following these tips should help you with your job of posting regularly to your business weblog.

Technorati Tags: business weblog, search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

The search engines love a business weblog.  But you still need to work hard if you want to rank high.  Here are eight tips that will help you increase your business weblog’s ranking in the search engines.

1. Choose your title and URL carefully.  You want to use a keyword in your URL, yet make it user friendly, while still finding a URL that is available.  That can be challenging.   Different bloggers approach the task differently.   This is what I did:  Since one of my keyword phrases is “website marketing strategy.”  The phrase itself was not available.  So I added the word “blog” to the end of my keyword phrase.  Another choice would be to add hyphens between words in your URL.  I used my URL as the title of my blog.  And that’s how you came to be reading the “Website Marketing Strategy Blog.” 
   
2. Post to your business weblog daily.  One of the advantages of using a blog is that they are so easy to use and update.  And the constantly updated material is one of the features that the search engines love the most.  So exploit those facts.  Blog daily — it’s easy and the search engines love it.
3. Use keyword phrases as your category titles.  The search engines will pick them up and raise your rankings for those keywords. 
   
4. Don’t forget to tag each post.  It’s easy to do on most blogging platforms.  Don’t overlook it.
5. Ping each new post to let the search engines know that there is something new that they need to check out.
6. Submit your business weblog to RSS directories.  You can find a list of those directories here.  It builds up your backlinks as well as bringing you traffic from the directories.
7. Social bookmark your substantive posts.  By the nature of blogging, some posts are light in content and value.  Those posts don’t have to be bookmarked.  But remember to bookmark your meaty content on at least four or five social bookmark sites.  There is a list of social bookmark sites here.
8. If you have a money site separate from your blog, link to your money site often.
   

Have you ever come across an abandoned blog?  I have.  Many people start blogging with good intentions but don’t keep it up.  I hope it goes without saying that a blog that doesn’t get treated well won’t serve you well in your marketing efforts.  Blogs are easy to create and maintain and very beneficial to you if you work them.  So make the most of your business weblog and it will be good to you, too.

Technorati Tags: business weblog, search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

Some website owners hire SEO consultants to formulate and implement their website marketing strategy.  But do you want to know a secret?  You don’t need a consultant.  You can be your own SEO expert.  You can educate yourself to carry out your own website marketing strategy.

The basics of a website marketing strategy based on search engine optimization include the following:

• Keyword research
• On-page optimization techniques such as
  
  • Creation or editing of content on the site to make it search engine optimized
• Off-page optimization techniques such as
  • Creation and regular updating of your business blog to promote your money site
    
  • Article marketing and use of Web 2.0 content sites to draw in readers and create backlinks
  • Use of press releases to disseminate information about your product or service and build backlinks
  • Participation in forums and commenting on blogs
  • Submission of site to search engines and live web directories
  • Submission of your blog’s RSS feed to RSS directories
  • Social bookmarking of your on-page and off-page content
    
• Monitoring of results for continual improvement
  

These things take skill and know-how and, most of all, work.  But they aren’t hard and are certainly within the realm of the possible for anyone who owns and wants to promote a website.

It may be that the best use of your time requires you to focus on other things besides the SEO of your website.  Frankly, most of these techniques are somewhat time-consuming.  That doesn’t mean that you need to hire a consultant.  You can hire an assistant or virtual assistant to implement the website marketing strategy that you put into place.  Or you can use an assistant for particular tasks that you don’t enjoy or that are routine, such as submitting your site to live web directories or submitting your blog to RSS directories.  Reserve the remainder of the SEO techniques for your own focused attention.

No matter what your choice is with respect to delegation, your best result will come when you take responsibility yourself for knowing and understanding how SEO works and for monitoring the results of your campaign for continual improvement.  Since it’s your business that is at issue here, you need to be diligent in making sure that your website marketing strategy is implemented correctly and that you are getting the results from it that you deserve.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

The most crucial website marketing strategy for success online is search engine optimization.  There are many reasons why this is so.  This article outlines four chief benefits of SEO in the systematic implementation of your website marketing strategy.

First and foremost, the systematic implementation of a search engine optimization campaign will cause your website to rank higher on the search engines.  Consequently, more people will find you when they search your keywords on a search engine.  That brings more traffic to your site and, with it, more sales.  And that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of a website marketing strategy.

Secondly, the increased traffic that SEO brings to your site will enable you to reduce or eliminate your reliance on pay-per-click or other paid advertising, saving you money.

Thirdly, since your SEO is done in reference to the keywords you use on your site, it means that people finding your site are doing so by searching your keywords.  As a result, the traffic is targetted.  After all, the people finding your site are looking for information on your keywords.

And last but not least, appropriate and diligent use of SEO can help you dominate your niche.  Aim to rank high for all of your keywords on all of the major search engines.  That means that the lion’s share of web users who are looking for your keywords will find you.  You will be unavoidable.  You will have dominance.  This builds your reputation as an expert in your field, drives traffic to your site and, again, increases sales.

So the benefits of SEO are too good to pass up.  Are you passing them up?  Don’t!  Formulate a systematic website marketing strategy that employs search engine optimization now.  Implement it without delay.  And benefit from it for a good long while.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

Search engine optimization is the best website marketing strategy but it is not a quick one.  Ranking high on search engines is not immediate.  But your SEO efforts will prove successful for you if you avoid these common mistakes.

    Big SEO Mistake #1.  Failure to apply consistent, persistent and focused effort.  Do you have several keywords that you would like to optimize for your site?  Pick one and engage in all the SEO techniques that you are aware of until that keyword ranks high in the search engines.  Do your on-page optimization, write and submit articles, blog, comment on other blogs and participate in forums with respect to that keyword.  When you like your position in the search engines for that keyword, move on to another keyword for your site.

    Big SEO Mistake #2.  Failure to diversify among the SEO techniques in your website marketing strategy.  Sometimes people fall into the habit of doing one or another SEO technique and forget about the rest.  But it is important to build backlinks in a variety of ways to make your SEO efforts look natural and to take advantage of the different strengths available from using each one.  Set a schedule that encompasses all the backlinking strategies that we have discussed on this blog and do some of each every day.  By week’s end, you should have done something in each of the SEO techniques to market your site.

    Big SEO Mistake #3.  Failure to choose your keywords wisely.  You should start your website marketing strategy by finding keyword phrases that are appropriate for your site, get a reasonable amount of traffic, but aren’t too competitive.  To do that, brainstorm about your niche to come up with a list of keywords then use Google’s keyword tool.  That tool will give you a wealth of information, including letting you know the monthly traffic for your keyword.  Then search your keyword in quotation marks on Google.  The number in the upper right hand side of the search page results will tell you how many pages have been optimized for that keyword.  Once you have selected your keyword phrases, be sure to optimize your site for them.  Use your keywords in your headings, in your text and in your domain names or URL extensions.

    Big SEO Mistake #4.  Impatience.  But while you’re waiting, hustle.  You won’t see results immediately.  Don’t give up when you don’t.  Have faith that these techniques will work, because they will.  Keep up your work until you get to where you want to be in the search rankings.  If you are working on your website strategy and don’t see immediate results, keep going.  If you give up and don’t see results, don’t be surprised.

Do something every day to optimize your website, either on-page or off-page.  And keep it up.  Work on your website marketing strategy and it will work for you.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

One way to build your blog readership and to increase backlinks to your blog posts is by submitting your RSS feed to RSS directories. 

If you don’t know your RSS feed, simply enter your blog’s URL into a browser window.  When your blog loads, take a look at the address bar.  You will see that little orange and white logo with a point and curved lines radiating out of the lower left hand corner.  Click on that logo and the address in the address bar will change to your RSS feed.  My domain name is http://WebsiteMarketingStrategyBlog.com.  My feed is http://WebsiteMarketingStrategyBlog.com/feed.  Your RSS feed will probably follow a similar pattern.

Here is a list of RSS directories: 

• Feedest.com
• Blogoculars.com
• 2RSS.com
• FeedMill.com
• Plazoo.com
• Page2go2.com
• RSSmicro.com
• FeedFury.com
• RSSMountain.com
• FeedBase.net
• RSSmotron.com
• Rss-Feeds-Submission.com
• MillionRSS.com
• Yahoo RSS Guide
• ReadABlog.com
• GoldenFeed.com
• BlogDigger.com
• RSSFeeds.com
• WeBlogAlot.com
• Chordata.info
• BlogPulse.com
• IceRocket.com
• RSS-Network.com
• Jordomedia.com
• FeedShark.BrainBliss.com
• FeedPlex.com
• FeedCat.net
• Feedage.com
• NewsIsFree.com
• Syndic8.com
• NewzAlert.com

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

As a website marketing strategy, blogging is a powerful tool.  It is a way to build credibility with your readership and enhance your reputation as an expert in your field.  It gives you a way to build backlinks to your money site.  If you take advantage of RSS submission sites, you can build readership and backlinks.  When other bloggers link to your blog, they introduce you to their own readers.  But many bloggers fail to make the best use of their business blog.  If you are using blogging as a website marketing strategy, don’t make these mistakes.

1. Don’t neglect your blog.  Updating your blog regularly is crucial to its value to you as a website marketing strategy.  You want regular readers to keep coming back, you want to attract the attention of the search engines and you want more and more blog posts to be ranking for your keywords in the search engine results.  So set yourself a schedule and blog regularly, at least weekly.
2. Don’t diminish the value of your posts.  Make your posts compelling and informative.  Reach out to readers who may be in the “pre-sell” stage for your product.  Add images and videos where appropriate to make your blog appealing to readers, to offer fresh content and to be able to showcase your product in different ways.
3. Don’t forget to optimize for the keywords you use on your site.  Use your keywords in your categories and in your posts.  Optimize your blog posts like you optimize an article.  Use your keyword in the first and last sentences of the first paragraph of the post, in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the post, and throughout the post about once every 100 words.  It will help you attract the attention of the search engines.
4. Don’t overlook your chances to monetize your blog.  Sell your own products or an affiliate product on the blog.  Consider adding Google Adsense or other programs which will pay you for running ads on your site. 
   
5. Don’t make it too personal.  Your business blog should be about your business.  If you want to post videos of your piano-playing cat, use a different blog.  You can be casual, but be professional on your business blog.

Blogging is a great way to market your product, both to build readership and to build backlinks.  So make the most of this valuable website marketing strategy.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

Search engine optimization is my favorite website marketing strategy.  Want to know my favorite thing about search engine optimization?  It’s free.  It costs zero.  Zip.  Nada.  Or at least it costs nothing if you do the work yourself.

Of course it takes time.  In fact, it takes time in two ways.  It takes the time and effort you put into writing articles, blogging, posting on forums and the rest of your website marketing strategy.  And it takes time for the search engines to find your optimized pages and backlinks and to move your site up in the search rankings accordingly.  Some people say that time is money.  But in a lot of people’s lives, they aren’t interchangeable.  Sometimes you have more time than money and sometimes you have more money than time.  Want to know my other favorite thing about search engine optimization?  SEO can change you from a person with more time than money into a person with more money than time.

So here’s a list of free SEO techniques, just to remind us.  Some on-page SEO techniques are:

• Choose a domain name that includes your keyword phrase.
• Use your keyword phrase on the pages of your site that promotes them.
• Create an articles section on your site.  Publish unique, informative, keyword rich articles on your site regularly.

Some off-page SEO techniques are:

• Write and submit a lot of articles to a lot of articles directories.  Make sure each article is unique, informative and optimized for a keyword phrase that you use on your site.
• Create and post to your blog.  Use your keyword phrase in your blog and link back to your money site.  Import the RSS feed from your blog onto your money site. 
  
• Participate in forums and comment to blogs in your niche.  Choose forums and blogs with high page ranks wherever possible. 
  
• Submit your site to live web directories.

Don’t just do one; do them all.  SEO is a website marketing strategy that doesn’t cost anything but is worth its weight in gold.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

Building backlinks is essential to your website marketing strategy.  Too often, website owners use only one or two of the numerous ways that exist to build them.  But the best approach is to use a large array of methods.  Here is a list of five ways to build backlinks.

1. Write and submit press releases about your website.  The link-building capacity of press releases is similar to that of article marketing.  By submitting the press releases to press release sites, other sites and newsletters can republish your release, giving you a new backlink for every new publication.  Be sure to include your website URL and contact information in your press release.  Use your creativity when you frame the services and products on your site to be newsworthy.  For example, if you have a recipe site, write a press release titled, “The Holidays Bring New Opportunities To Perfect Your Cookie Recipes.”  Or, if you have a home schooling site, you may do a press release on “Laid-Off Parents Turning to Home Schooling To Cut Expenses.”
2. Participate in forums in your niche.  Submit your URL in the identification section of the forum, not in the post itself.  Make valuable posts.  Check your spelling, write in full sentences and say insightful things.  Remember that backlinks are more helpful to you when they come from a forum with a high page rank.  This is a website marketing technique that also enhances your own reputation.
   
3. Write and submit articles to article directories.  Publish tons of articles and scatter them among a large number of article directories. T he articles on article directories can be republished on other website owners, providing a backlink to your site with each republication, so make sure your articles are well-written and highly informative to increase your chances of being republished.
4. Exchange links with other webmasters in your niche.
5. Write product reviews and post them on forums that allow you to include your website URL. 
   

Since the world wide web is getting bigger every day, you can’t afford to just do a little.  You need to do a lot.  Your website marketing strategy should include regular use of all of these techniques.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy

by Kathleen Hobbins

Of all the tools in your website marketing strategy, article marketing is one of the most powerful.  Here are four reasons why:

1. It’s not just cheap, it’s free.  If you write your own articles, your only investment is time.  And most of the article directories are free.  So writing and publishing an article costs you only time.  Now, time can be an expensive commodity, so you may choose to outsource your article writing.  Even then, the investment you make can be minimal.
2. It may be free, but it brings real results.  If all you do is write one article and publish it to an article directory, you will have one link back to your site.  Imagine publishing 100 articles.  Then imagine that  . . . some? . . . most? . . . all? . . .of those articles get picked up for republication only three or four times.  You will have hundreds of backlinks to your site.  When it gets leveraged like that, why isn’t everyone using this website marketing strategy?
   
3. It may be free, but it brings long-lasting results.  Article directories archive their articles, so the backlinks from your articles never go away.  They may be republished by website owners or ezine publishers, and those backlinks stay in place, too, as long as the publishers keep up their archives.
4. You choose the keywords.  You can write about what you want, how you want and when you want.  Choose a keyword and publish a slew of articles using the word and linking back to your site.  Watch your site soar in the search results for that keyword.  Then pick another keyword.  Get the picture?

There is no downside to article marketing, only a long, steep upside.  So do it.  And keep it up.  Article marketing can be your most important website marketing strategy.

Technorati Tags: search engine training, Website Marketing Strategy