Posted by admin on Jan 25, 2009 in
promotion Today will conclude my promotion discussion. Today is all about how and where to get paid promotion for your website. Over the past few days we have discussed other various methods to promote your website but today is all about using paid services to get traffic to your site.
Paid Promotion isn’t For Everyone
First I must say that not everyone should use these methods. They require money, and I understand that not everyone has a constant supply that they can put into a website. However, if you do have money then using the paid services can be very useful and profitable. I don’t want people blowing every last cent they have on paid promotion methods so please, if you don’t feel you have enough money then don’t do this. Stick with the free methods and you should be just fine, only difference is it will just take a little longer to see results.
The first way to use your money to get people to your site is pay per click, or PPC. This is most usally attributed to Google because they are the major search engine that does it. Whenever you do a search on Google on the right side there is a sponsored link section. This is where people like you and I pay to get our advertisments up there to ge tpeople to our site. You don’t pay per person that sees your ad but rather, per click, thus the name PPC. This method is most notably used in affiliate marketing where people get visitors to their sites and then hope to get them to buy products. However, we cna use this just to get people to our site. It’s pretty easy. AdWords is the most popular way to do this so you can sign up there, and if you signed up to HostGator then you most likely got a $100 credit to AdWords that you can use. This is useful because it allows you to test and get used to the tools before spending your own money. Now you simply make an ad, enter your payment details so that Google can be paid, and then the ad goes live. Depending on your niche you could see results quickly or it may take a while but you will see results. Also each clcik will cost different depending on your niche. Once you start getting results you need to work on your ad copy to try and get better conversions and a better quality score.
Next is a prety simple concept. You pay someone to get your banner or link on their site. This method usually charges a per month, or per 1000 visitors, depends on where you get it and who it is. These are prety easy to find, and you can go to a site like DigitalPoint where tons of people have sites where you cna place your link. The price will vary from site to site but one thing to make sure is keep it in the same niche. Pretty easy concept.
That’s all the methods that I would use if I was going to pay to get traffic to my site. Another method I may consider is a sponsored review but those are generally quite expensive. Hopefully after all of this promtion talk you guys have some traffic coming to your site everyday. See you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 24, 2009 in
promotion Today we are going to continue on the path of our website promotion discussion and today look at article marketing. Some call artilce marketing “bum marketing” but we won’t be using it that way. We aren’t going to be using it the way bum marketers do however, because we will use it as an additonal support to our websites. Let’ get started.
Article Marketing 101
The basics of article marketing is basically this.
1. Write articles using your keywords you are trying to target.
2. Submit your articles to the most popular article directories.
3. Receive traffic from teh resource box on your articles.
That is everything in a nutshell. Some people will actually use article marketing as their sole income source on the internet by selling affilate items or by selling their own product through the article’s resource box. We however use the resource box for traffic and backlinks. Essentially that is all we really use this for.
The first part is creting your articles. That’s pretty easy, just do what you would normally do when you write a blog post and that’s really all there is to it. The second part is submitting to article directories. The most popular by far is EzineArticles. It’s relatively easy, just sign up and submit. It won’t appear immidiately because they must approve it first but as long as you didn’t do anything against the rules it will show up in a day or two. The resource box you simply put a link back to your website with the desired keyword phrase you wish to rank for. That is it! It is really that easy.
The cons to this method of marketing is that it takes up a lot of time to write your articles. However, it is well worth it to get your articles into these directories because 1 article can send you traffic for a long time. Now imagine that you do 1 article that each brings you 25 visitors a day for a year. That’s 9125 visitors a year from just one single article! Now think of duplicating this with 10, 25, or 50 articles and the traffic you could receive is unimaginable. It does work! You just need to dedicate your time to make sure it does. If you start practicing your writing then you can get your writing time down to 15 minutes per article and just crank them out to get you a real nice set of articles that provide traffic and backlinks to your site. It is worth every second you spend on it so get started now and see the results it can bring.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: article marketing, promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 23, 2009 in
promotion Ok, that was my poor attempt at being punny. Haha, okay that’s it. Today is all about forum promotion of your website. Despite my poor jokes today is pretty fun. It’s all about going on forums and posting as to promote your website. 
Forum Posting is Useful, but Time Consuming
Well yesterday we talked about one form of promotion for your site and today we are discussing another type. Today is all about forum promotion. Everyone know’s what forums are, they are like websites where discussion between many different people takes place and it is very community oriented. Forum promotion is very similar to blog posting in that you go to another site to write small comments to get your link around.
The process is pretty much the same as blog commenting. You search Google for something along the lines of, “your keyword forum” and find one that seems will do the trick. Again we are looking for a forum in our same niche. Then we sign up to the forum. Most forums require email verification so then we go and confirm our emails. Now most forums will require you to do a few posts before you can get an activated signature, the place where we will place our link. So first you must go around and post USEFUL and MEANINGFUL posts that add to the discussion. Then we simply go to the user control panel and insert our link so that we can get that on the forum.
Once you get your minimum posts it’s important that you keep it up, building an authority on your topic is important. Also building a reputation on any forum takes time so don’t ruin it at first. Build it up over time so that you seem more and more reputable. If you are on a very popular website an aged and reputable account is worth a lot. The sooner you start the better.
The downside to forum marketing is the sheer fact that it does take up a lot of time. Some of this time you may want to dedicate to some other aspects of your site. That’s why I recommend only spending a little bit of time each day on this part of your promotion. For my first week on any new forum I try to get anywhere from 50 to 100 posts over the course of a week that are high quality and add to the discussion. This is critical just like it was for blog commenting because no one will respect you if you show up and start spamming links and garbage. So just take it slowly and add something worth while to it.
That’s all there is to it. It’s really simple but it does take up time. If you aren’t willing to devote the time just yet I just recommend you sign up to the forum first so that you can at least start aging your account because it will look a little better. Continue working on your blog, too, and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tags: backlinks, promotion
Posted by admin on Jan 22, 2009 in
SEO,
promotion Welcome back guys. Today is going to be all about the importance of gaining backlinks to get your site higher in the rankings for search engines. Just a side note is that today is my birthday so I’m pretty happy. Let’s get started on today’s lesson.
You Need Backlinks to Win!
Remember way back when we were still doing research? It seems like a while ago but it wasn’t that long ago. Well part of our research was on our competition and one of hte things we looked at was backlinks. This was an important number because it was something we could look at and target for our own promotion. Now we can look back and see how many backlinks should get us near the position of Google, of course there are many other factors other hten backlinks but this is one of the most important.
We’ve talked about getting our links in the bookmarking services that are on the internet. This is just one way to get your link out there and today I will talk about another method that is very effective. This method is called “blog commenting” and it’s really easy to do. It is exactly what you would expect. You go to other blogs and comment on them leaving your link in the comment area. However, there’s a little bit more to it then that. In order to find these blogs I usually just do a quick Google search on, “keyword blog”. This usually allows me to find at least one good blog to comment on. The first thing is that you need to make sure that you are commenting on blogs in your niche. What’s the point on commenting on a dog training blog when you run a site about working out? It wouldn’t make much sense at all. The second thing is that you comment on the higher ranked blogs because that link will be “worth” more in Google’s eyes. You could waste your time getting 100’s of low ranking backlinks but if you get just a few high quality backlinks then you will be on your way. The last thing is that you have the keywords you are trying to rank for as the backlink text. It’s called the “anchor text” and it helps to rank better for your targeted keywords. If you can do those 3 things you will be looking good.
One thing that I must stress however is that you never, and I must say it again, never, ever, spam anyone’s blog just to promote your site. When you comment make sure it’s meaningful and that it will give back to the article or add to the conversation on the article. I personally hate spam so much and once you get a site you will also understand how annoying it is also. So please, for the sake of everyone, don’t spam anyone’s blog with comments, it just isn’t cool.
Well that’s it for now, building backlinks is so important so you need to get on this now. The sooner the better. Backlinking your site is an on going process that never really ends so you need to get in the habit now so that you can continue doing it later down the road. Tomorrow we will discuss another way to get your backlinks in another popular place.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: backlink, promotion, SEO
Posted by admin on Jan 21, 2009 in
promotion Yesterday we discussed how to use Digg to bookmark your posts and your blog. Today we will discuss how to use other sites like Digg to further our site promotion beyong just Digg. We are going to continue getting our sites noticed so that we can actually get some traffic to them.
Beauty of Social Bookmarking Sites
Some people may say that social bookmarking is a waste of time but I will have to disagree. Everything about social bookmarking site is perfect for any website. You get a free backlink to your site for every bookmark you put up, you get targeted visitors to your site for those that see the bookmark, and you can do it all for free! That’s pretty awesome I think. The less I have to spend to get my blog noticed the more happy I am.
The only downside is the amount of time it takes to do each bookmark. It doesn’t take much time to just do 1 post on 1 or 2 bookmarking sites but when you have 5 or so posts and you want to do them on 10 bookmarking sites it begins to take up a lot of your time. Fortunately there are some amazing tools out there online for free! One of my favorites is SocialMarker. It is really easy to use and it cuts down on your time that it takes to do these bookmarkings. The one thing that takes the longest is just signing up to the sites that allow you to bookmark your posts. SocialMarker makes it really easy though, you just enter the details for your site and then it takes you through each site to bookmark. It’s pretty much automatic with just a little bit of effort. Of course this isn’t the fastest way but it’s the best free way to do this that I have found.
However, if you have a decent amount of change hanging around you can spring for the extra spiffy automatic submitters. One that I have found works very nicely is BookmarkingDemon. It costs $147 but in the end I think it is very worth it because you will save so much time in the end. It works absolutely like you would want it to and it really does save you time and money. So if you have the money I highly recommend that you buy it.
Now you have a couple of ways to mass submit to dozens of social bookmarking sites. I know this will save you time and it will get your site out there. This is the basis of promotion and we need to get this down now so that we can move forward. You should see results from all of the work you put in so it’s not wasted effort. Go ahead and bookmark your posts. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: bookmarking, promotion, SEO
Posted by admin on Jan 20, 2009 in
SEO,
promotion Well we’ve done a lot over the past two weeks or so and now it’s time to get our name out there. We’ve taken all the steps to research and write up to this point and now it’s time for promotion. We want to get our site noticed right? Yes. Let’s go.
Digg is the Key
Digg is probably the best known social bookmarking website on the web. It’s no wonder why either, it has tons of traffic and tons of new website news everyday to check out. The major benefit of social bookmarking sites is that you get a nice backlink and that the users who come to your site are usually targeted. That’s the best of both worlds. Now we just need a way to capture those people and get them to come to our site and that is where we begin.
First thng we need to do is sign up to Digg. It’s a simple registration process so just go on over and sign up. Now, if you have Sociable on your blog then you can simply Digg each individual post very easily but if you don’t there’s still a simple process. When logged into Digg click on Submit New and enter the URL of the post and click News Article. Then you type up a title and description for your submition. Then pick a topic that’s closest to your niche. Then just submit it! That was easy huh? Now if you have Sociable then the process is 1 step shorter but it is the same process.
Now that we know how to Digg something let’s go ahead and Digg each post. After that make sure to Digg the actual URL of the site because we want the actual site to get dug too. Each of these submittions helps with our SEO also because more backlinks gives us more authority. Not only are these just backlinks but they are also a great way to get spidered really fast! Most Digg submittions, that I do allow, Google to index my site so much faster then just waiting for the natural spidering. This is always a good thing.
Okay so now you should go and Digg probably like 5 of your posts, if you have more then you can do more but you don’t want to do too many. Then when you have finished do doing your site go to your 5 favorite websites and Digg them because then it will look more natural. It’s always a good idea to Digg other sites so everything looks natural. After that you are done for today. Maybe you should write some more content. See you tomorrow.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Tags: digg, promotion, SEO
Posted by admin on Jan 19, 2009 in
Themes,
development After the slight veering off topic yesterday we are back on course today and the discussion today is all about themes. A blog is nothing without a decent theme so let’s take a look at how to get a good theme.
We Need a Quality Theme
It’s well known that themes that look clean and professional are much more likely to keep users on the site. Would you want to go to a site that has the default template on it? My bet is that your answer was no. I wouldn’t either and most people would agree with us. That is why it’s so important to have a nice looking blog.
There are a couple of ways to get a theme for your blog, there’s the free way and there’s the paying way. Both options have pretty good themes but both have pros and cons. The free option has TONS of themes out there, and I mean tons. A quick search of “free wordpress themes” yields over 2 million results. Now some of the themes out there will be garbage but you CAN find some really nice looking themes. TopWPThemes have some excellently well made themes that are free for download. If you just do a little bit of searching you can find a theme to fit your needs and your blog. The one con of free themes is that other people can have the same one so you lose a little credibility if you have the same theme as thousands of other blogs, but if you don’t have the money for your own custom theme then this is just fine for now.
The second option is the option that costs you money. This is definitely the best option out there. Getting a custom theme designed, while costing you money, will definitely give you that professional feel. If you get a custom theme then you can get it exactly how you want it and the quality will definitely be better. However, if you are just starting out this may not be the best option to switch to right away. It does cost a good amount of money and I would say the average cost for a decent custom designed WordPress theme would be about $100. Now of course you can go find a freelance that could probably do the job for about $50 or you could go and find a company that does it and be charged around $500. Either way you need to decide for yourself if the expense is worth it right now because it is a decent amount of moneyto invest in a blog.
I hope that helps clear up any concerns or questions about Wordpress themes but if it doesn’t just elave a comment and I’ll try and answer it. If you don’t have a new theme on your blog then I suggest you go out and download a free one and upload it to your site.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: development, templates, Themes
Posted by admin on Jan 18, 2009 in
Basics,
SEO,
development Today I am going to discuss something that I wasn’t planning on until it was brought to my attention. Since I really want this blog to get noticed then I have to do everything I can to make sure my on page SEO is the best that it can be and when something was brought to my attention that showed that my SEO wasn’t as strong as it could be it caused me to take immediate action to keep my SEO the best it can be. Now I want to show you how to do it so you don’t make the same mistakes.
How to Set Solid Permalinks
Well permalinks are the URL links of each of your individual posts, for example the permalink for this post is http://websitedevelopmentology.com/2009/01/18/permalink-settings/ . This is important because we want to make sure our article titles stay in the URL for increased SEO benefits. The default for WordPress permalinks sets your posts as .com/?p=23 where 23 is the number assigned to the post and as you can see that’s not very good for your SEO because that doesn’t mean a thing to me or the search engines. Now I will explain the steps to checn your permalink settings.
1. In your WordPress admin area go to Tools and then Permalinks.
2. Click on Day and Name and then click Save Changes.
3. If your .htaccess needs to be changed, which I needed to do, then do this.
3a. Open Notepad.
3b. Paste this,
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
3d. Save as .htaccess
3e. Upload to your public_html folder.
4. That should be everything, refresh your permalinks settings page and see if the changes were saved, it should say so in the top left corner of the page if you did it correectly.
Now that you have done that you will have much better on page SEO and you need to make sure you do this very soon because your previous links will lose whatever is attached to them so switch over to get yoru new links some juice. That’s it for today and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for some template talk.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: Basics, development, SEO
Posted by admin on Jan 17, 2009 in
Content,
development Hey guys, I’m back today to explain why we need to make sure that we keep updating our blog. We’ve learned how to update our blog and how to write the articles to put onto our blog and now I today I want to discuss why it is important to keep our blogs updated.
Google Loves Fresh Content
The basis of today is the fact that Google absoultely loves fresh content. The whole basis of a blog is the fact that your are constantly updating your site with new information and articles and this attracts those spiders like crazy. It’s critical that you get spidered by Google, and other search engines, because without them then you won’t get indexed and thus won’t see results from all your hard work. At this point our number one goal is to get indexed on the major search engines, that is Google and Yahoo. If you don’t ever get inndexed then you won’t get any traffic, or at least not as much as you can if you get in the search engine results which is our primary objective.
Since I posted my post on how to write articles two days ago I think that you should have posted at least 1 article onto your blog by now. At this point I want to instill a writing discipline that I have been trying to put onto myself and that is to make a post every day for your blog for the first 30 days. The results I’ve seen from this have been spectacular and I think it is the best way to get indexed fast and stay indexed. You don’t have to necessarily write a new post for your blog every single day for like a whole year, but for the first 30 days I would highly recommend it and then after that you can sort of back off a little bit. There’s an old saying, “Content is KING!” and that is certainly the best statement that sums this all up so go write some more articles!
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted by admin on Jan 16, 2009 in
Content,
development By now you should have at least 1 or 2 articles ready from yesterday, and if not then that’s okay just make sure that you do work on one to get up onto the blog. Since blogs are all about updating today we will talk about the simple process to get your articles onto your blogs. Before that though you must have an article ready, so if you do let’s get started, if not go write one!
How to Update Your Blog
Updating your blog is really easy! There’s no messing with code or figuring things out, it’s simply copy and paste and enter some details and you’re ready to go! So first things first.
1. Open up your article in Notepad, or whatever you wrote it in.
2. Login to your blog dashboard.
3. Under Posts click on Add New.
4. At the top enter the title for your article, I usually like to put my keyword that I am targetting into the title because I feel it helps with on-page SEO.
5. Then go to your article and copy the whole thing then paste it into the body on the page.
6. Now for some minor details, enter a category for the article and a few keywords to associate with the article.
7. If you have the All-in-One-SEO Pack, which you really should, then scroll to the bottom and enter a title, description, and keywords to add more SEO benefits to your page.
8. (Optional) If you don’t want the post to be shown immidiately then go under Publish on the right hand side and click Edit and enter the time when you wish the article to be posted. This is especially helpful when you have several articles ready to go in advance.
That’s all there is to it! It is really simple and I think anyone that has come this far should easily be able to get their articles onto their blog to get it filled with some content. Content is king afterall so make sure you get a post or two up and then come back tomorrow for more information.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: articles, Content, updating
