WebSite Marketing Strategy

The number of social bookmarking sites that have not gone the no follow route is slowly declining with Flickr the latest to join the no follow list. The seems to be an unhealthy interest in whether or not sites, social bookmarking sites included, use the follow or no follow tags. It seems that everyone is looking for rank juice rather than publishing for a audience.

Don’t get me wrong. Link building is important and if you can get inbound links with no follow tags then your ranking is going to be marginally affected. However when it comes to social bookmarking sites then is more value in what other are saying about your pages than a simple no follow link.

If your articles are bookmarked in a variety of social bookmarking sites then the search engines are going to notice you far quicker than by a simple spider crawl. If your article or page has been bookmarked by many then articles ranking climbs. Add to this the tags that are added to your page when it is bookmarked and the area of relevance is broadened. If I bookmarked this article with ’social bookmarking’ tags then that is one area. You come along and like this article and bookmark it but the tags you use are SEO and Linking. The article now has three points of reference. Each point of reference is reinforced every time someone bookmarks the page.

Whether or not the links have a follow or no follow tag, the search engines will still find the page within the social bookmarking sites and still reference them. I have had pages published, submitted to a site and been indexed by Google within two hours - the index is to one of the bookmarking sites, but that link still leads eventually to my page.

If you really want a social bookmarking site that does not use the no follow then check the following. From what I can see they don’t use the tag, however things are changing almost daily.

Furl
Propeller
Digg
Technorati
Slashdot

Once you have created a blog one of the quickest ways to get backlinks and to start building traffic is to submit your blog to as many of the blog directories that you can find. At least, that is the general advice that everyone will offer. There are however several things that you will need to consider before and during the registration process.

The first question you need to ask yourself is which blog directories do you want to submit your blog to. You can do a search and build a list or you can visit any blog that has a list of blog directories. You could also get a professional service to submit your blog for you. Often, the list provided by a reliable blog is your best starting point as they will generally have some knowledge of the directories being recommended.

Before listing your blogs, grab yourself a free email address from one of the free email services. Once you register your blog details on a blog directory your details including your email address are added to their database. Not all blog directories are honorable.  There are some that will either sell their database to advertising companies, or they will use their database themselves to send constant ad related emails. With a free email address you will at least save your regular email from being spammed.

Some blog directories require a reciprocal link on your blog. That is fine particularly if it is a little banner or text link. If they do require a reciprocal link avoid putting it in the footer. It seems at present that search engines such as Google consider links in the footer to be link exchanges or purchased links. This could have a negative affect on your search engine ranking. Place the recipricol link in either your blogroll   (for a text link) or in your sidebar. Group the banners together in the sidebar for a better aesthetic look.

Finally, when submitting to blog directories, choose your categories and keywords very carefully. Some directories may reject your blog if it has been submitted to the wrong category. You also want any backlinks that do come from the directory to come from the same niche as your blog. This increases the value of that backlink.

Submitting your blog to a range of blog directories is good PR and will improve the search engine value of your blog - just be aware of some of the pitfalls associated with blog directories.

When discussing blog software most people immediately think of WordPress and other blog publisher packages. There are however other blog software packages that help your develop your posts prior to publishing. One of these software packages is Microsoft Live Writer.

I must admit to not being a big fan of all things Microsoft. About the only Microsoft tool that I use on a regular basis would be Microsoft Office, in particular Microsoft Word. When I came across Microsoft Live Writer I was quite skeptical. Now that I have given it a bit of work out I must admit to be a quiet fan. The Microsoft Word feel does it make it a lot easier to use.

Live Writer does help me write posts a little quicker. One of the nicest features is the ability to insert images from my desktop. This means I can play around with various images until I get the right feel for my post. Once I have completed my post it is a simple step to upload into my blog and publish. The graphics are uploaded at the same time and Live Writer conveniently updates the links as it goes.

Live Writer does have several drawbacks. One of blog sites simply refuses to accept posts. I know Live Writer has issues with the Bad Neighborhood plugin (there is a fix available) and perhaps it Akismet has the same effect. I haven’t had the time to disable Aksimet and test it out.

On the plus side, Live Writer is free. It is very easy to install at set up. During the setup process it will visit your blog and download the page template you are using. When you start writing your post you are writing into the template which provides for a real WYSIWYG feel. Live Writer has the standard formating tools and buttons that you find on other Microsoft products such as MS Word. The graphics interface is very good allowing you to insert graphics and fine tune them. As with MS Word, you can simply click on the graphic and drag it to where you want it. You can also click and drag to resize as well. The graphics have several different borders that can applied.

I often want to use tables within my posts and have always had difficulties with the process. Live Writer has made that a breeze.  There is a Firefox tool that can be installed as a further option. Visit a page, select some text and click on the toolbar and Live Writer opens with that text ready to edit.

Blog software is not always about the platform you are using. There are some very good blog software applications available of which Microsoft Live Writer is one. Live Writer is compatible with most of the popular blogging services.  If you have the time to play around with it then it may just make blogging that little bit better.

I just finished up reading Search Marketing Standard magazine (a great read by the way and I would recommend it to all my friends and colleagues); specifically a few articles/interviews about social media marketing.  In an awesome interview with Cameron Olthuis about the State of Social Media Marketing, he talks about achieving front page [...]

Does your blog content planning include pillar posts? Do you have a clear idea of what a pillar post is? Pillar post are, as the name suggests, posts that support the whole structure of a blog. They are the kind of posts that people will reference time and again and are generally written to the following format.

• They are articles with a definite structure in that they include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
• They are usually longer than your average articles running to 700 or more words.
• Readers find the articles valuable and feel they benefit from the articles contents.
• The article is not only original it is fresh and demonstrates the authors expertise on the topic.
• The article remains valuable for a longer period of time.
• These articles are  well researched and include referencing and other relevant links.

Pillar posts are important to your blog content as it increases your standing as a writer within the blogging community. You will know if your readers consider it a pillar post as it generally receives more attention in the social community through Diggs, Stumbles and other recommendations. Your pillar post will generally have the more inbound links than other articles within your blog content.

When it comes to your blog content you need a pillar post and it is handy to be able to write one on a regular basis. Just don’t over do it.

Creating a blog is easy and so is getting your blog design right. Avoid these seven mistakes and you should have a blog design that is all set for your content. Get your content right and you will have a blog that is well on the way to success.

MISTAKE NUMBER ONE: Not Using Your Own Domain Name - The biggest mistake many people make is in simply not believing in themselves so they head of for a blog hosted blog like WordPress.com or blogger.com. If you are serious about blogging then get your own domain name and hosting. In this day and age the annual cost is quite small.

MISTAKE NUMBER TWO: Not Defining Your Niche - A lot of bloggers use a scattergun approach when it comes to publishing content. Settle on a genre, even if it is a broad one, and stick to it. Make sure each post that is published relates to that genre.

MISTAKE NUMBER THREE: Not Creating An Identity - Readers will want to know who you are. One of your first tasks should be to write an ‘About Me’ page. This can be edited over time. A photo is also a nice touch.

MISTAKE NUMBER FOUR: Infrequent Posting - You may write the best material on the web but if you only publish when you feel like it you will not build a reader base. Establish a posting routine, preferably every day. If you cannot post every day then at least establish a routine that readers can expect. This may be every Friday, or every second day - so long as it is predictable.

MISTAKE NUMBER FIVE: Poor Post Titles - Make the the title of every post stand out so that it attracts readers. The more attractive or luring the title, the more readers you are likely to get.

MISTAKE NUMBER SIX: Burying Your Hits - You are sure to write some great articles. Make sure they are always promoted and readily accessible from the home page. It only takes a carefully crafted list of links.

MISTAKE NUMBER SEVEN: Dead or Mysterious Links - There is nothing worse that reading an article that has a link with no reference to what the link is about or where it is going. Users can hover a mouse over a link and when they do they expect to get some feedback as to where the link is going. Worse still is when the link proves to be a dead link. Check your links on a frequent basis.

Think about these seven blog design mistakes and then think about your own blog reading experiences. You will see that most, if not all are relevant to what you would like to see when visiting a blog. You want to know a bit about the author, you want regular on topic posts, you want to know where the links are going and often you will want to check out some of their older titles. Start to leave these out of your blog design and you will find that your blog reader base will not grow.

Starting a blog is easy, getting your blog design right is also easy - we often just make it hard on ourselves.

Keep the mass quaternary key points in nous and you’ll be substantially on your artefact to nonindustrial a comprehensive, success digital strategy.

The advertisement pane is essential telecommunicate actual estate, and you crapper ingest it to your advantage.

Yes, there is a correct artefact to medium a word panel!

Are we poised for a recession? How module you impact within that reality?