Blogging Via Instagram

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and they are probably correct when you look at how the popular Instagram is. You can resist it all you want but visual blogging is the new blogging. Maybe you are a bit old school and like to express your opinions through words, as it is easier for you to get your point across. That however, doesn’t mean you should cut out Instagram completely from your blogging toolbox. It doesn’t mean you have to change your blogging style altogether. It simply is just another opportunity where you can build an online presence and lead new viewers to your blog. Below are some tips to help grow your blog through Instagram.

Make Sure You’re Easy To Find

People have a tendency to be lazy. So if you make it hard to navigate back to your blog they most likely won’t ever find you. Make sure all your information, including a direct link to your blog, is easy to find in your Instagram bio.

Keep It Professional

With social media being an extension of our every day life it is easy to blur the line between work and play. If you are using Instagram to push your work remember to keep it professional and not to have too many personal pictures. Unless that is what your blog is about otherwise you might consider having two accounts to keep things organized.

Don’t Overuse Hash Tags

Many people tend to overuse hash tags because they think it will make them more visible online. That may be true but it also makes you look unprofessional, a novice and desperate. Get creative with your hash tags and come up with relevant and unique ones to describe your images. This will help with encouraging like-minded people to view your blog.

Create A Hash Tag Challenge

We’ve all witnessed a host of Facebook challenges that have gone viral on our newsfeed. Instagram has been known to have more new users sign ups then Facebook and has the potential of reaching a larger amount of people. You can use this platform to generate engagement and get viewers to your blog. An example of a hash tag experiment that gained lots of attention is the #HungerChallenge which encouraged people to post photos of them living off less then five dollars a day to promote awareness for people who often go hungry. Collaborating with people helps build your presence online as well as connect you with similar minded people. This is a great way to get attention to your blog.

Don’t Buy Instagram Likes

It’s not a secret that you can now buy like and followers on all social media platforms. However I would advise against this as it is obvious, it turns real users off and it’s a waste of money. If you work hard at building your brand you will organically build loyal followers who care about what you have to offer. Buying likes for an Instagram photo from a dodgy site does nothing for you other then increase a number. In the long run it is not helpful with gaining you real viewers.

Above are just some suggestions on how to promote your blog through Instagram. It is important that you try and experiment to see what works for your viewers, as all industries are different and require different techniques. Happy snapping!

Myths Related To Seo On Wordpress.Com

If you are a diligent blogger striving hard to make a place in web blogging, naturally you will want to achieve SEO on WordPress.com. If your blog has achieved Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it means that sophisticated search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN will link your blog to a keyword when someone searches it on internet and will display it among the top 10 results. For e.g. your latest blog is on patriotism. Now if your blog has achieved SEO, it will be displayed among the top 10 results whenever anyone makes a search for the word 'patriotism'. And thus your blog will be visited by users more frequently.

To achieve SEO, you need to increase your site's SERP (Search Engine Result Page). You can accomplish this by:

Frequently updating your account and by publishing new and interesting content promoting your blog in a way that it reaches your target audience. People looking for information on a particular topic which your blog covers.

There are a number of ways and methods to increase your site's SERP ranking. But unfortunately, there exist a lot of commonly-believed myths about SEO on WordPress.com which have nothing to do with reality. Let's take a look at some of these myths and the true facts which negate these myths.

Myth No.1:

To achieve SEO, I require a plugin.

Fact:

Matt Cutts, who is the head of Google's webspam team, claims that WordPress.com is self sufficient in SEO and the users of WordPress.com only need to take care of 10-20 percent of the mechanics of SEO. The themes on WordPress.com have been composed in a way that they automatically link with search engines. Their design and composition makes it easy for search engines like Googlebot and several other search engines, to link the content and make it appear in front of a user. So no, you don't require a plugin to achieve SEO on WordPress.com.

Myth No.2:

Increased use of tags and categories in my blog post means a better chance for it to link with Google.

Fact:

Adding irrelevant tags and categories that have nothing to do with the content of your post, won't result in an increased visibility for your site on Google. Matt Cutts says, that Google doesn't blindly rely on categories and tags. It knows the context of your post from its content. Also, if a post is bombarded with TOO MANY categories and tags, it will result in its exclusion from Reader Topics pages. While adding categories and tags for your post, choose wisely and only add those tags that have the highest significance to a post. On a similar note, be more specific while adding tags. For e.g. add "nanotechnology" as a tag instead of "science".

Myth No.3:

If I am making a post about say, green tea, I should refer to the keyword and related terminologies again and again, as much as I can. This will get my post a lot of green tea-related traffic. Also, I should create multiple identical sites about green tea to get maximum traffic.

Fact:

It is good practice to inculcate correct keywords in your post and titles, period. Howbeit, overdoing it by stuffing keywords will not do any good for your SERP ranking. Also, copied material is not appreciated by Google and having multiple identical sites will be detrimental for your search ranking. Make your content appealing for human eyes, and not only to get maximum linkage with search engines.




AUTHOR BIO:
Austen Selby is currently working as a Content Editor at Key Difference. Her areas of expertise encompass business consulting, SMO, mobile technology, seo services and other technology and marketing-related topics.

SEO and SMO are Two Different Techniques

The terms Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are often confused as being synonymous. It must be for the word 'optimization' which creates the illusion that these terms are interchangeable. This is a false trend, and both these terms are visibly different from each other with regards to their meanings. You can achieve good SEO even if you are not doing so well in the SMO department and vice versa. On the other hand, it is possible that the progress of SMO will be directly linked with the progress of SEO. To clarify things in a better way, let us see what SMO and SEO are and how they differ.

What is SEO?

SEO is the utilization of search engine results page (SERP). It is the calculated placement of frequently searched and commonly used words and phrases in the web content. These frequently searched words and phrases are called keywords and key phrases. SEO is a marketing strategy which is used to amplify site traffic, sales of the product, marketing of brand and reorganization on part of a company or a person. When a user intends to do a search on internet, he inserts the keyword or key phrase into Google, Yahoo! or MSN, which are the commonly used search engines. SERP displays a list of top 10 pages which show the highest relevance with the keyword or key phrase. In other words, the best optimized websites will be displayed as the top 10 pages. In most of the cases, the websites which make it to the top 10 displayed pages have achieved SEO.

Benefits of Achieving SEO:

Websites which achieve SEO will appear more frequently than the others and they will be more popular and better trusted among the users of internet. This is valuable for the PR of a site. The PR of a site is ranked from 1 to 10 on the logarithmic credibility scale. The PR value of a site is directly proportional to its credibility. A site with better credibility will charge more for posting ads.

Now let's take a look at SMO.

What is SMO?

SMO makes full use of all forums of social media for the marketing and publicity of web content, a product or a brand. Bookmarks, news, pictures and video sites also play a role in advertising through SMO. SMO disseminates web content on popular social media sites like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Businesswire and Youtube. The intended use of SMO is to amplify site traffic, product and affiliate product sales and to achieve subscribers.

How to Achieve SMO?

Unlike SEO, SMO is not gained by the strategic placement of keywords and key phrases. Doing so definitely helps, but this is not the key principle for achieving SMO. Rather, it is achieved by producing eye-catching, innovative and influential web content which can grasp the attention of a user. If an audience finds the content interesting, he will share or post it. If the content gains popularity, it will appear on top social media bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.

Cut to the chase: Despite using different strategies and techniques, both SEO and SMO are often applied simultaneously to market the same content. Using these strategies prudently will make your content popular on social media sites and will make it appear on top ranking on search engines.
Image Credit: hywards

Author Bio:

I am Jeniffer, editor at Key Difference. Am passionate about SEO services, Technology, Email Marketing Services, Mobile Application Development, Marketing Consultant, etc. I wish to share my knowledge with others and jump into blogging.

Better Ways to Blog

With the rise of the Internet it seems like everyone you meet is a writer or blogger. No longer do you need a published book to verify that you indeed write for a living. But there is a vast difference between someone writing for passion and for profession. So how can you turn your passion into an income maker?

1. Become an authority on your subject

Knowledge is power and the more you know about what you're writing, the more it shows in your content. If you can provide the answers and knowledge on a topic, people will continue to come back to you blog, as you are answering their questions. As you become an authority in your industry people will start following your blogs to keep up to date with industry news. Thus, giving you more bargaining power when negotiating payment for sponsored work.

2. Target an audience through keyword search

Know your market. An audience is already available for you if you're willing to do some keyword research. Answer the questions asked on search engines and you will easily find a captivated audience. This means all search engines including Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. They are all large search engines and by finding out what people are looking for you can supply to a demand rather then creating one yourself.

3. Make it interesting

There is a lot of competition out there especially online. To stand out from the crowd, try something different. Videos or info graphics is a great way to capture people's attention and get them reading the entire article. Videos and graphics are also more commonly shared then just plain text.

4. Link your blog to all social platforms

There's no better way to get more people viewing your blog then through social media. When someone shares something on their Facebook or Twitter page there are more chances of people viewing it as they see it as a recommendation from an acquaintance. However buying likes and shares have no benefit, as they are not from real profiles. This is just a popularity contest and it will not help with building a real following.

5. Write for authoritative sites

Get your foot in the door by writing for credible sites. The more you write the more you'll build up your blogging profile. Seek out the best sites within your industry and offer to write for them. It's like the modern day internship!

6. Be easy to find

You've done all the hard work with your blogs but people can't contact you. What's the point in that? Make sure you have your own website with your contact details. Provide multiple options of contact for users, as some won't like filling out contact forms. To make yourself more accessible make sure you provide your email and social contact information as well.

Image Credit: Stuart Miles

How to Create an Awesome Interactive Experience Online

In today's day and age, most aspects of running a business are performed online. From dealing directly with customers on social media to putting together a website where clients can get better informed on services offered, the Internet ultimately holds the key to a company's success. That's why it's so crucial that businesses create awesome interactive experiences for their customers online.

It's simple to do this too. One way to make clients have a more interactive experience online is by inserting forums into your company's website. By doing this, you allow your customers to further discuss the products or items that you offer. Besides this, it also gives your clients a chance to interact with one another, while comparing notes on what they recommend purchasing or looking further into.

Similar to creating a forum on your website, you can also promote interactivity by giving your users the option of commenting on content posted. When you do this, you are now giving those people supporting your venture the opportunity to voice their options directly to you. This will not only make them feel like they are having a real say in what's going on, but also allow you to get immediate feedback on what you're doing right and in some cases, wrong.

Then, there is the option of putting in a live chat with staff feature. With this included on your website, your users will have the chance to talk directly with a representative from your company. In other words, now customers can ask questions or just discuss any comments or concerns they may have. This leaves customers with immediate satisfaction, as they feel their thoughts are being placed in the hands of people who can take what they're saying and make a difference with it. In fact, a lot of times these live chat features apply popular instant messaging programs that many customers already know how to work, making this process a whole lot easier for everyone involved.

Like with the live chat with staff feature, you can also put together a live chat with other users solution. This way users can talk with one another about what's being offered, providing vital information with each other along the way. However, since some users may be more outspoken than others, this feature will require you to moderate what's going on at all times. For instance, if a customer uses colorful language or says something completely inappropriate, you'll have to take down their chat message immediately. This engaging addition is worth the extra work, though, since it allows your company to build a sense of community among the users.

Another action you can take to make your website more interactive is hosting different podcasts monthly, weekly or even daily. Podcasts give you the opportunity to talk directly with your customers and further discuss your products and services. However, it also lets your clients have the chance to call in and ask any questions they may have. This lets those people supporting you better understand who you are as a company and what you can offer them in the long run that other businesses can't.

Whether you're a company that hands out free kitchen design software (check out Digital Decorator for an example of someone who has done this elegantly) or you're a business that offers your customers the chance to design a home online, interactivity will make a huge difference in your success rate. That's because this allows customers to feel more involved and invested, leading to a long history of business transactions down the road.

Author Bio:

This post comes from Archie, who writes for the Cookware Blog, check out his latest post on Five of the Best Kitchen Design Tools, be sure to check it out.

Best Blogging Practices for Lawyers

Even though blogging came into existence many years back in form of online journals, different individuals used it to share their interesting web finds, thoughts as well as other media. Blogging has emerged as the best platform to communicate with customers and clients. In the legal industry, blogging has been embraced as it offers great techniques to attract many potential clients who use search engines in order to get some answers for the legal advice. Solicitors are not easy to get and therefore clients tend to go for qualified individuals to represent them in the court.

The following are some of the best blogging practices for lawyers that they have found to be the most appropriate strategies for engagement with the clients:

1) Create posts that are tailored towards your legal professionalism

In case you are a defense lawyer who has twenty years experience in cases related to family issues, then a family lawyer should not blog about any prospective changes to the family laws. It is extremely essential to recall that the main objective of your blogs should be to attract potential clients who face legal issues that fall into your expertise field. You should think about your blog as just an extension to your expertise persona and only post information that would apply to the personal legal position.

2) Write as regularly as you can

Probably some of the toughest aspect of blogging would be to keep up with the schedule of consistent writing. Whereas the content of your blogging is very essential, the regularity and volume of your post is also very important to attract the readership attention.

Bloggers also operate just like a sprinter participating in a marathon. You should desist from writing a lot of information very fast. You should write down the main topics of the prospective blog and maintain the topics in a list so that you can use them when there is need of posting the information.

Therefore, you should always stick to the schedule as it will help you in writing the blog. You should not treat any of your blogs as an additional responsibility that only depends on other things. Just try and get used to it being your expertise schedule. In case you are planning to be noticed, you will need to catch up with other lawyers who are competing for the attention of the same clients. This means that you will need to post your blogs at least once per week.

3) Involve social media in your blogging

Some criminal lawyers think that writing blogging contents is difficult. Luckily, blogs and social media often have perfect relationship with each other. Followers of social media sites can and are believed to be very organized into the growth demand. The number of “likes” that you have does not actually translate into the value of the business unless an individual is active in urging them to be part of the essential community. Just try and make posits that are fully complete with the image attachments as well as beautiful inviting messages in order to attract any interested party to blog any information that you write on the teaser line. Besides, always respond carefully to the questions and comments that are posted to the social media pages.

The above three practices are essential for a family lawyer and criminal lawyers. In addition to right solicitors, then cases should be easily resolved in court.

Author Bio:

Sally Smith writes for Alexander Law, a law firm specializing in Criminal Law, Family Law, Property Law, Corporate Law and more.

5 Awesome Web Design Pinterest Boards You May Have Missed

Pinterest is a wonderful tool for new and seasoned website creators looking for additional inspiration, tips, industry connections and perhaps even new clients. There are many talented and well-known designers who use the Pinterest platform to create boards dedicated to the subject of website design and development. These boards are essentially collections of content (mostly images) that the contributor thinks will be interesting or helpful to other users of the site. When this content is being posted by reputable web professionals, the advice and wisdom that you can gain may actually increase your abilities, and your profits too! By knowing which posters to follow and who is posting the most helpful information, it will ensure that you spend less time browsing through the hundreds of other lower quality boards, and more time learning about the industry from the people who know it well. If you would like to stay on the cutting-edge of the website design world, here are some amazing Pinterest boards that we think you should be following.

1) Rusty C. Cook (ohrusty)

In addition to posting about well-designed web and mobile websites, Chicago, IL based designer Rusty C. Cook also has boards dedicated to other subjects relevant to the industry that many would find helpful, such as typography, branding and general layout.

2) Eva Morell (evamorell)

Freelance designer Eva Morell is a very prolific Pinterest poster, curating over a hundred different collections of design related images and other inspirational content, including a comprehensive board dedicated to great website design examples.

3) Web Design Library (webdesignorg)

Stacy Summers is the chief editor of webdesign.org, and she shares her extensive knowledge about the subject of her expertise to her dedicated Pinterest fans on her board “Web Design Tips & Tricks.”

4) Design Quixotic (helloquixotic)

With almost 82,000 followers, Brooklyn, NY, Art Director and Designer Thea Kennedy has a collection dedicated specifically to digital design, with many images and screenshots of superbly designed websites to inspire.

5) Waila Skinner (waila)

As the head of W Creative in Missouri, independent designer Waila Skinner has learned a plethora of website design tips, hints and tricks over the years, and regularly posts unique tutorials and links to quality content.

We hope that you have found our list of useful and informative web design Pinterest boards helpful in your quest to become a better webmaster. By learning from the pros, you will pick up good habits and learn how to spark your creative and business side in ways that you never thought to be possible. In addition to the Pinterest users listed in this article, it’s always a good idea to see who the masters follow as well. By clicking on the board owner’s profile, you can get a list of the people that they also follow, which can often lead to even more awesome Pinterest collections. In an ever changing industry such as website design, a never-ending source of spectacular, up-to-date content is a must-have tool in any designer’s arsenal.

Image Credit: kromkrathog

Author Bio:

This post comes from Sarah at Orange Digital, a hardworking web design agency in Brisbane. Not just a web design firm, their blog contains plenty of social media tips and tricks including ways to leverage your Pinboard for more business.

How to Maximize your Blog’s Reach

With blogging becoming such a trend in today’s world, there are more and more people turning to it, seeking a second source of income. With so much competition how can you get your blog to stand out above the rest? It’s more then just writing a good article. Below are some tips on how to get your blog post noticed.

1. Maximize the SEO of Each Blog

We all know that websites need to be optimized for search engine’s keyword results. But what about each individual blog post? As each post is a page within a site it can be optimized to answer search results also. This can indirectly lead people back to your main page and help increase traffic to your blog. By understanding what people are looking for online, you can optimize your blog to answer their enquiries. Therefore you blog could actually rank for that particular question and this can increase the reach of your blog.

2. Promoting You Blog Through Social Media

Clearly the world is going more social. Social media was more commonly used by smaller business as a cheaper form of marketing. It provided a quicker and more direct form of communication to their consumers. As the convenience of social media has grown in popularity, it has prompted for larger organizations to use social media. Instead of the traditional methods of communication such as emails and phones.

This shows how important it is to promote your blog posts on social media. It’s no longer good enough to do blogging as a side project. Your readers want to know who you are and most readers would not hesitate to do a little research on social platforms first. Sharing your blog on social media is just the new age way of word of mouth advertising. The benefits of social media are that it has a wider reach as many users have public profiles. Allowing for your blog to be shared and re-shared.

The importance of a business’s online image plays such a major role, in its success, that there are many dishonest websites emerging and taking advantage of this market. Although social sharing is important you should not give in to the temptation of buying likes, shares or re-tweets. This sort of business has sprung up, all across the world, from countries like Canada, Brazil and Spain. It is also commonly sold through sites like fiverr. It is dodgy and a waste of money as it does not give you real fans, they will never interact with you on your blog.

When real people read and share or re-tweet your blog it creates organic links that also help with your search engine rankings. This new form of linking is said to be the future of SEO.

3. Social Platforms are Search Engines Too

Many more people are looking for answers on social platforms rather then a search engine. Youtube is now the second largest search engine in the world and it is a video sharing social platform. By promoting your blog on social media it allows for more people to find your blog and become a follower.
Image Credit: Stuart Miles

5 Reasons Why You Should Convert Your HTML Site to WordPress

Having an online presence for your brand has its share of incentives. And if you are already running an HTML website, you have already made your first move.

However, the decision to stick with HTML is something that won't pitch you well enough for gaining the leverage you have been striving for through your presence on the Internet. HTML binds you in may respects and thus, the experienced webmasters as well as the novices are beginning to lean towards converting their HTML sites into more customizable and dynamic websites. And this is where Content Management Systems come into the fray.

As and when an individual decides to have a website of his own, choosing the most ideal content management system is consideration that takes precedence over everything else. And when it comes to that, you are greeted with a whole ensemble of options. But, let's say it without masking: Despite the stiff competition from CMSes like Joomla, Drupal, etc. Wordpress emerges to be the choicest CMS out there.

But, going back to the HTML websites, if you are one of those webmasters who still isn't convinced enough to make a switch from HTML to Wordpress, here are some bonafide reasons for your consideration

Your Static HTML Site Gets a Dynamic Wordpress Makeover

It's understood that you must have invested quite a bit of effort into developing that HTML website, but with the end-user becoming more and more tech-savvy, your efforts aren't bringing in the expected results since your website doesn't give you the free rein to be creative and play around with it. When you are aiming to build a website that needs constant updating of content, the HTML website won't serve the purpose. Websites made on Wordpress can be updated with new content as many times a day as you want. The website structure with HTML is rigid, and does not leave room for changes. Also, the URL's on the Wordpress website can be easily tailored for optimizing the site for SEO and you don't have to deal with the gibberish URLs for your website's pages and posts.

You can Seamlessly Tweak Wordpress Website's Design

Customization capability is of utmost importance in today's dynamic digital age. Any portal needs constant reinventions and updates to keep the users interested. If you stick with the same design and layout, you might as well start losing your loyal visitors to the competition. Wordpress gives you incredible freedom to tailor the website as and when you want. The multifarious themes of Wordpress provide you with a range that leaves you spoilt for choices. New Wordpress templates are developed every day and every once in a while when you decide your site neds a makeover, you can have your options.

No complicated Editing Programs to Deal With

One of the major challenges faced by the webmasters who run an HTML-enabled website is that they need to be expert at the editing programs of the likes of Dream Weaver. It is rather an unwieldy tool that requires investment of a lot of efforts and time to get used to. And with any HTML site, it has to be used quite too often. But Wordpress, with its suite of capabilities and a very straightforward tool for publishing content and images makes it remarkably easy to modify, add, delete or make any other tweaks to the content. Particularly when you are running a blog that needs to be updated with content every day, Wordpress offers an excellent alternative.

Versatility and Responsiveness Can be Seamlessly Combined with Wordpress

While on one hand, Wordpress makes it a breeze to develop dynamic and versatile websites that give them the wherewithal to achieve uninhibited level of funtionality, this CMS also doesn't interfere with the responsiveness and compatibility of the website over different browsers and operating systems.

The WordPress Plugins for Extended Functionality

Another remarkably useful feature of Wordpress websites is that it allows us to add advanced features to websites without having to write separate codes for them. These plugins are available for everything – be it for SEO, or for changing the designs or for increasing website speed, etc.

It is a proven fact that Wordpress gives you an absolute free rein over how you wish to structure your website. Get your HTML site converted to Wordpress and avail the freedom and the accompanying benefits.

Author Bio:

Sarah Parker is a HTML to Wordpress techie and always looking for new tips and tricks possible to make functionality of WordPress more efficient. Currently, she is working in Designs2HTML Ltd., as a WordPress developer and socialize aspects related to same on Facebook and Twitter.

How To Do SEO In 2014

Search engines apparently seem to be on a war footing to weed out ineffective sites that offer nothing of value to people searching for specific information. Google seems to have set a pattern with one update after another and then fine tuning them with further updates. It seems to be an endless circle dissuading many from getting into the SEO game. However, businesses desperately need an online presence and quickly to be available when the shift by consumers towards smart phones and tablets make a major impact. So how do you do SEO in 2014?

The question needs to be answered by analysing ranking in 2013 and then build on factors producing positive effects. Search engines have definitely taken major steps to stop spam from adversely affecting search experience. Time spent on a website is money for the search engines, as visitors are likely to click on a paid ad.

Increasing Role Of Social Signals

One way of enhancing experience is to provide a platform that encourages shared content, which is why social networking is gaining ground. Search engines established parameters to recognise good content strategy associated with ethical SEO including social signals derived from active engagement, authorship or value of content directly connected to the author, regular updates recognised by increasing readership, and frequent updates giving signs of a healthy website. Relevance does play an important part, and businesses recognise the fact they need to build authority where it matters.

Content Strategy For SEO In 2014

Debate on whether content plays an important role is no longer valid. Search engines have indicated in clear terms fresh information is relevant. The question then arises whether good SEO content strategy involves writing long or short articles. If other factors are analysed, relevance is definitely given to good content keeping visitors glued to the website. Articles averaging 2,000 words are finding prime spots in Google search. However, due consideration must be given to the fact mobile users have increased tremendously, and it is a bit difficult to read long articles on a smart phone.

The long-term strategy is valid, as tablet sales are on the rise. Developing content strategy for 2014 is a must, and the logical way to go about it is to generate more interest among visitors to build a strong fan base for the long term. Will content in specific niches play a dominant role depending on user interest? Ideally, a wait-and-watch approach is warranted inclined towards following leaders in the same niche.

People frown upon guest blogging as a Black Hat strategy no longer having relevance in 2014, which is far from the truth. Quality back links will play a vital role in improving rankings, and one way to look at getting links from authority sites is to continue writing relevant content.

The concept is changed a bit wherein high quality content finds natural resources in authority sites willingly offering to share the author’s content. In other words, the author does make a difference, both in the eyes of an authority site and search engine. A good author readily finds resources to post an article. The next link is always easier, as other sites recognise value in promoting what the authority writer now has to offer.

Image Credit: digitalart

Factors To Consider Prior Blogging

In recent times blogging yes become a very popular thing. That's probably the case because blogging is one of the most effective methods to market your product, business, or service. Another reason could be that people are using their extra time to be expressing themselves more. No matter what the reason, starting your own blog should be taken rather seriously.

The problem with most blogs is that they are started without the blogger thinking through it. Below are a few pointers the blogger needs to keep in mind before he starts blogging.

Focus on a specific topic

Before starting the blog, zero in on a specific topic to write. The topic you decide to write on should showcase your passion, area of expertise and skills that will let you share your knowledge with others. After determining kind of content you want to blog on, it is important for all your articles to revolve around the topic you choose. If you write about topics your audience is not interested in, you would just be losing traffic and readership, that too rather rapidly. Select a topic that no one is writing about and audiences would be interested in reading about. The topic should be good and niche because if you take up a subject that everyone else is writing about, then it will be difficult for you to stand out. Be exclusive and have your audience’s pulse for your blog to succeed.

Investing your own money in the blog

Blogging is a means of making money for a most people but they are usually not willing to shell out any from their pocket. Give it a good thought before starting your blog. You need to yourself fork some moneybout before expecting investment from someone else. If you wish for monetary returns from your blog, you need to see it as a business and spend money on it.

You’re a lone ranger

You will be handling all the aspects of your blog single-handedly, whether it is design, development, or online marketing unless you can afford to give it out to a third party. You will also be responsible for uploading new content and new information, uploading images, editing, cleaning up the website and taking care of marketing campaigns. You won’t do too well as a blogger if you are a shirker because blogging needs commitment to your craft.

Dedicated time

If you do not have time to dedicate to your blog, then avoid starting it. This is a very common and frequent mistake made by most marketers. Starting the blog, writing a couple of blogs for the first few weeks and then putting it on the backburner is a rookie mistake; blogging actually has a science behind it and you must begin only if you can give it adequate time. It’s important to update the blog at least every other day in a week and one post a day is the ideal way to begin. It will work really well for you if you can commit to your blog. You need to set aside a time and place to work on it every week.

Your blog host should be reliable and competent

The success of your blog critically depends largely on how reliable your blog hosting service provider is. It is important that your blog can be accessed from anywhere and anytime with fast loading time. The security of your website data and user data can be guaranteed by only a reliable blog hosting provider. The server security configuration should be high level to prevent hacking. A good blog host will also back up your blogs frequently, maybe on a daily basis, so that if you lose data it can be restored from a specific date that you need.

No blog becomes a success overnight

Your blog will not be successful instantly. A lot of people give up blogging sooner than later when they do not see positive results. But this is a part and parcel of starting a blog. You need to give it enough time to do well just like you would to a business. Any successful blog that has been around for years will tell you that the initial stages of blogging are the most difficult also. Increase the traffic to your blog slowly and new audiences will discover your blog gradually. Don’t give up even if you see very less traffic even after a few months.

Publicise the blog on social media platforms

If you want maximum returns from your blog, then promote the blog as well as the content regularly wherever you can. Social media platforms are actually the best place for doing that. You need to spend enough time on social media outlets to consolidate your presence and proof there. This will help in telling the visitors that you are influential in your area of expertise. It is possible to drive in hundreds or even thousands of visitors to your site over a period of time if you use it properly and regularly.

Write for readers first then search engines

For the benefit of your blog, it is important that you understand search engine optimization, use relevant keywords and write Meta titles other than implementing Google Authorship so that you can gain search engine traction for your blog. But you cannot limit your efforts to just driving traffic to your blog. Your readers must come first when it comes to writing content, optimizing should follow.

Blogging can be as big a challenge as it is exciting for you to embark on. You will not only have fun writing the blog but it will also be a gratifying experience if you get all these tips right.Image Credit: Stuart Miles

Author Bio:

I am Ramya Raju a freelance web design writer with 8 yrs of extensive blogging experience on a variety of online publishing and social-media platforms. I generally write high-quality articles on travel, photography, SEO, Web design, English courses, and generic topics too. I’m also an extrovert with a passion for photography, anthropology and travelling to different countries to learn the culture and living of the local inhabitants.

Contact:
Ramya Raju
E-mail id: ramyaraju896[at]gmail.com
Website: http://www.colorcharacter.com/uk/services

Worst Rank-Destroying SEO Mistakes

World of SEO is full of do-it-yourself experts, who only have a very basic grasp of what actually goes into a potentially successful campaign. If you believe that you belong to this category, you should know about some common, and potentially, very serious mistakes that are easy to avoid, but that could otherwise lead not only to all of your effort being completely futile, but actually cause the site that you are working on to be deindexed.

Choosing Inadequate Hosting

Naturally, if you intend on working on an already existing website, the owner may not be willing to change their hosting, but if you are considering optimizing a website that hasn’t been built yet, you should carefully consider your hosting options.

The provider has to be able to offer support for all the scripts and tools that your site will need, as well as afford you with enough resources so that the site doesn’t freeze as soon as your traffic spikes for the first time. Likewise, you need to make sure that you are not in a bad neighborhood, which is to say that your provider is not hosting spammy sites, as that might label you as a spammer as well.

Using Restricted Techniques

You have probably heard about three approaches to SEO – White, Gray and Black hat. Black Hat is the worst possible resort when it comes to Google-approved practices, it is considered to be unethical and because of these wrongful methods your website might easily get deindexed. This means strict avoidance of keyword stuffing, site scraping, cloaking, and others.

White Hat is completely different aspect of increasing your website’s visibility; it is the key to effective SEO. It allows keeping the integrity of the website while still existing within the frame of search engine’s terms of service. Provide great content made especially for the readers – not for the sake of links, find a solid keyword phrase that precisely represents your webpage, make your way to inbound linking and pay attention to page elements – visually break up your page with SEO-appropriate headings. If your methods do not comply with White Hat postulates – none of the SEO techniques are effective.

Not Doing Your Onsite Properly

A lot of people who are new to SEO focus on off page factors, like building the link portfolio and reaching out to people on different social networks. While these are important parts of an SEO strategy, you should only start dealing with them once you have a solid base, which is to say a site with decent onsite. This includes a number of things, like making sure that your page titles contain the keywords that you want to rank for; that you have optimized your internal linking structure for the best effect; that your page loading times are as low as possible; that you have an XML sitemap to help out the crawlers; that your bounce rate is at its minimum, as well as a number of other things.

Duplicated Pages

While it is sometimes impossible not to have several versions of a page, you should at least try to designate the canonical one, marking it as the one that crawlers should pay attention to. While having several versions of a same page is admissible in some instances, you should always be careful not to let this happen with your home page, as that could lead to significant loss of link value.

A little bit of planning goes a long way. Every bit of the effort you invest in preserving your good rankings is worth your time because it most definitely delivers great results.

Author Bio:     

Leana Thorne is a devoted blogger and a regular contributor to several tech blogs. She enjoys sharing newly found information, and loves writing –currently is exploring ways of organic search engine optimization, and is always happy to be of help.

26 Tips For A Blogger - Learn From My Journal

It would be much more, but I thought that at least this time I'll try to limit myself only to 26 tips for bloggers. Tips that I find useful and which can help you in your development as a blogger, increase traffic, online visibility, and blog monetization.

I write these tips as a result of my attempt to form some bloggers over time, so I could see some of the problems faced during the blog development.

Tips for a beginning blogger

1) Content is more important than design. Do not base your blog on a catchy design, if you have good content, interesting, attractive. And that can be learned.

2) How often do you write? Make a schedule and stick to it (it should be at least 2 times a week. More than two articles per week to keep up than to write one every day for 10 days, then disappear the next two months. Readers will notice your disappearance.

3) Do not ask the other bloggers for backlinks if you have not published anything on the website. It bothers me when I receive such requests. I recommend you ask for links to blogs that are at a similar level to you. Although I think the best would be to focus on writing content.

4) Do not focus on monetization if you have not posted anything on the site. Honestly, how likely do you think you will make money if you have not given anything?

5) No rattle or influencer other bloggers to give you share articles. Rather you can always ask about your articles, you can ask to give you an interview, etc. But if you're going to send emails to each of them and asking them to promote it, you risk creating a negative image. Plus, at some point they cease to help you.

6) Do not rely on traffic from another blogger (or more). Even if another blogger or influencer helps, do not count that you would pick up from this blog. I repeat: the only way to pick up a blog is to write content (articles) and striving to do better and better.

7) What do you write? Define issues that you will address and choose them as categories of the blog. Follow this strategy. If you have a blog about photography is stupid to write about the relationship of the couple and the care of cats and programming in PHP. Decide what niche you want to approach. When you feel that you are not satisfied with it then change blog direction, but do it consciously.

8) Do not overdo your share on Facebook. If you share in your articles to all Facebook pages, groups and profile of your Friends, you become annoying. Do not be naive, that you will not bring visitors, but you will create a negative image.

9) No email spam. If someone has not subscribed to your blog, do not submit articles by email.

10) Learn to write a title in a reasonably attractive way. I recommend the sites where you can read books online for free.

11) Read what you write out loud. That before publishing the article. If you think that something doesn't sounds good, rewrite the sentence. Rewrite article until you are satisfied. Usually this means to rewrite it several times. When you think it's good, publish it. There might be mistakes, you can correct later. You do not have to be perfect either.

12) Help others bloggers. Give them share to articles if they are good, give a like, tweet or leave a comment with your blog in the website field. Gradually you will be noted. Be careful not to get to the other side.

13) Don't open five blogs simultaneously. Start one, choose a name that makes sense and builds it. When big enough, you can start another project.

14) Get in touch with other bloggers. It's called networking. See what events are they present and be there. Create connections with them.

15) Respect your readers. If you promise something (eg that you write every day for a month) keep your promise.

16) Invest in your blog. At first just time and energy. As you can afford and you can also invest money.

17) Make a SEO strategy. Work on it.

18) Make a SMO strategy (Social Media Optimization). Work on it.

19) Work daily on your blog. You do not have to write every day. There are other tasks you can handle.

20) Become visible both online and offline. Get involved in community projects and online or face-to-face to ensure your visibility and exposure.

21) Do not leave spam comments on another blogs.

22) Do not let your blog be just a collection of separate items. Get links from your articles where possible.

23) Optimize your blog to keep your readers for it. On this side I worked mainly on literary style and focus on the more useful content. There are hundreds of ways to optimize the experience of readers.

24) The blog is not a democracy. There are the same rights for everyone involved. If we make an analogy, the blog is more like a dictatorship. When someone is making talks beyond measure is your duty to intervene.

25) Do not count that you will live from your blog. Unlikely you'll do that for quite a while, so make sure you have some source of income. You can make money from blogging, but it takes up time and work.

26) Periodically pick a day to do just administrative tasks. I usually do every Thursday and consists of tasks such as: replacement of broken links in articles, backup and database optimization, rewriting old articles, inserting links in articles (for example, take the last article and see where on the older articles you could put internal links).

There is a period (in many cases for over a year) in which you will not have any results. Most bloggers give in this time, disappointed that they do not see immediate results: traffic, website comments, likes etc. Unfortunately they do not come right away (unless you already have a very good online reputation).

I still believe that blogs (personal development blog or any niche) are a great tool and should be used extensively. The results will come, no matter how you started as a blogger.

If you already have a blog or want to make a website, give your opinion about the following topic: What problems did you encounter? What do you think should be avoided?

Author Bio:

Myself Abdul from Webhostinggenius.net. I am into SEO and Internet Marketing industry since 2009 serving small scale businesses to medium scale since then.And I’ve deployed all sorts SEO strategies and adword campaigns on all niches. I love to do anything related to Internet marketing and i can’t imagine doing anything else. You can contact me If you are having questions related to SEO, Internet Marketing, Social Media or Web hosting.

How To Use Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is an online tool that assists in collecting detailed data about website visitors. Once the Google analytics script is added to website source code, it is possible to track website traffic, traffic sources, as well as conversion rates and sales. Google Analytics is mainly designed to aid marketers and webmasters. As a basic service, it is available for free. The advanced version is available for some monthly fee. Advanced version provides many additional information than the basic version. Website owner must allow Google Analytics cookies in order to collect information.

How Google Analytics can help?

Google Analytics tool helps to track AdWords campaign and also to boost online marketing campaigns. Once a person has visits a website, Google analytics tool uses access logs to store visitors data on the server. The information is then analyzed in a particular way once it has been stored. Part of the information includes the time and date of visit, the browser type on the visitor’s end, and the operating system, just to mention a few.

Google Analytics tool has been applied to determine the number of visitors coming to a site. But this is just one feature that may not reveal what people do once they come to the site. Thus, it becomes necessary to track the pages they visit once they land on the website.

Online advertisements and marketing campaigns can be tracked through Google Analytics tool. Thanks to its ability to track visitor’s path through HTTP connections. People who know more about HTTP connections understand that it is simply a way through which computers communicate with each other.

Google Analytics can also help people calculate the following:

• Visit depth
• Bounce rates
• Repeat visitors
• Bounce rates
• Website loyalty, among other things
• Lead generation
• Sales

Google Analytics works for SEO because it is easy to use. It is possible to define a range of data when viewing statistics in different categories. Webmaster can navigate from general to more specific data on the tool. Google analytics also shows from where the visitors came from. Which also includes the Keywords they have used to find the site. This particular option is very important to rank higher in search engines for any particular keyword. However, the most important contribution of Google Analytics in Seo is to help website owners improve their marketing campaigns, advertisements and website visits by using statistics.

Google provides an improved version of Google Analytics tool, which can track even short activities on a particular website. It also loads faster. It is called Real time data. You can access visitors flow, number of visitors on site and many other useful data in real time using this new feature. It is possible to see where visitors are coming from, where they arrive and at what point they leave. Thus, by paying attention to each of the pages, webmaster can make necessary adjustments. This would result to more sales or conversion rates.

From the above discussion we can come to the conclusion that Google analytics has made the life of webmasters and marketers more easier. Read more information on Google Analytics here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics

Image Credit: SmartPhotoStock.

Author Bio:

Author Matthew Anton is a seo expert. He loves to write posts on how Google analytics can be used to track seo data.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Google+ for Business

Since its beginnings, Google+ has had the unfortunate label of being like a step child in the social media family. Social network titans like Facebook and Twitter have always been more popular in the past for individuals and businesses alike.

But for anyone with an online business who wants their presence made online, Google+ has actually become a necessity for online marketing.

So, if you are running a new business and are overlooking your Google+ account, it’s probably because you assume that little to no value can come of it. But that’s the furthest from the truth; Google+ can make a big difference in your overall Google rankings, as well how you engage your target customers.

1) Creating a business page can improve your search appearance:

Have you ever looked up a business you were curious in, and saw the large rich snippet image appearing to the right of the screen? This is all tied to how Google finds your business, which can be easily modified when you create a Places for Businesses page.

Google will favor your business when you have a well-established Google+ page (alongside a Places page)— allowing more accurate search results when people search for your business.

In Google’s eyes, trusted businesses will have their image icon appear within search results; making a good impression on anyone searching for you.

Give your target market the chance to read reviews of your business, and learn more about your products and services.

2) The +1 Button:

Ah yes, the mysterious “+1” button from Google. Believe it or not, it’s actually more straightforward than you think. Users clicking the +1 button, indirectly impact your business.

It’s doesn’t affect direct SEO; instead, it shows how users are likely to interact. Users are more likely to trust businesses who interact on Google+, and have a +1 business or product.

Having user-relevant content on Google+ will improve a business’ SEO rankings; attracting more clicks and +1 shares.

3) Google+ profiles are treated like regular sites:

According to a recent article in Social Media Today, Google doesn’t give special treatment to Google+ profiles; they are ranked with the same factors of any other website.

Individual Google+ pages even have their own PageRank. Providing some extra care to your Google+ profile (including your own interaction, links, as well as user interaction), could mean better rankings for your sites.

Find a way how to monitor employees Google+ interactions; evaluate your findings and plan a strategy to make the most of it.

4) Google Hangouts are more effective than you think:

Plenty of us have used live stream services for meetings and such through Skype and GoToMeeting. These help drive internal matters of your business, but have you thought about what you can do with Google+ Hangouts?

One of the most significant aspects of Hangouts is how you can live stream your sessions with the public, even if they aren’t involved with the Hangout. Take the opportunity to conduct a live interview, webinar — anything you want on camera for your target customers to view and understand.

Nothing beats letting your audience see the faces behind your project. The live streams can be viewed by an unlimited amount of people; so it’s a great tool.

5) Google+ has more users than you think:

Everyone likes to thumb their nose at Google+, believing “no one is on it”; but guess again. This past June, Google+ had more than half a billion active users, with numbers steadily growing.

If you’re looking to reach out to an audience beyond just Facebook and Twitter, it’s time to put Google+ in full gear.

Author Bio:

Andrea Fisher is a published journalist as well as a content writer for ADT Home Security. She has an English degree and political science minor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

How Can You Improve Your SEO Performance with Webmaster Tools

The best SEO company says that SEO experts should be familiar with different statistics that can help them enhance and optimize their strategies. One thing that can assist them in this regard is Webmaster Tools, a powerful set of tools especially meant for SEO specialists.

The greatest advantage of Webmaster Tools is that it allows you to view one or more sites from the Google angle.

It is necessary if you want a strong SEO impact. With the toolset, you can view your site in a way Google does. It gives you insights into the indexed pages of your site, the various links that are pointing to it, the most popular keywords etc.

Hence, a site that is active in Webmaster Tools has much better chances of being fully indexed and rank well as compared to the ones that are inactive in the toolset. You can also get other deeper insights from the tool set, which can be leveraged to get the best Search Engine Optimization benefits.

If you are not yet active in Google Webmaster Tools, let me tell you that it’s pretty simple. All you need to do is sign up for an account, login to the dashboard of Google Webmaster Tools and from there, add your website. You will then be asked to prove that the domain is yours. On the basis of your host, Google may offer to do the needful through an uncomplicated pop-up process that allows you to login and verify in a few steps.

The other options include getting a Google-provided meta tag to your homepage, followed by an HTML file upload to the root folder of your site, or confirming your ownership with the help of Google Analytics, if that is already installed in your website. It generally starts populating data within 24 to 48 hours.

Google Webmaster Tools Features:

The best SEO Company India says that once you are done with the site set up, its time to log in and make yourself familiar with the interface. The toolset, at its core, is all about metrics i.e. what’s getting indexed, linked and traffic.

The data you get should then be broken down in different ways to use it to formulate a plan regarding the steps you need to take to get your SEO campaign going.

The various Webmaster Tools metrics are:

Search queries:

It shows four metrics:

Impressions: It indicates the number of times a website is visited through a particular keyword. It, thus, helps you renew your web content with keywords of greater value.
Clicks: This shows the number of people who have taken action and clicked on your site in the search result.
CTR: This shows the number of users who have clicked on your website from the search results. If you find your number to be dissatisfactory, you can change your meta description to attract more traffic.
Middle position: This tells your exact rank for each keyword that you use. It helps you determine your performance and the impact you have on your traffic.

Keywords:

In order to understand how your keywords are performing, you need to click on the terms while being on the search query section. Studying the data for individual keywords informs you about the pages that are ranking for those keywords. This way, you not only understand your overall SEO achievements but also get to know about the different elements of your content campaign. 

Top Pages:

Within “Search Queries”, you get the opportunity to view “top pages”. This indicates content that gets the maximum number of impressions and clicks. It, thus, offers low hanging fruit opportunities you can easily capitalize on.

Page Level Strategy:

A site is structured in a way, so that each keyword points to a section of the website. Webmaster Tools enables you to identify ideal keywords for each of the sections. Once you get your keywords mapped, use them to rank tracking tool to find out extra data like competition and traffic.

Author statistics:

It allows you to tie in guest posts on other websites by linking to your Google + account. It can be easily accomplished by the “rel=author’ tag that is embedded as a link in particular write-ups. Your picture appears next to your content; and readers find it easier to read your other write-ups.

The best SEO company will always suggest you to use Google Webmaster Tools when developing an SEO strategy, as it offers you better opportunities and the perfect medium to determine the performance of your site.

Author Bio:

Sarmista Aun writes for a professional digital marketing company. She tries to guide all new online advertisers through her writings.