We are all looking for dofollow backlinks, and a nice dofollow backlink from Google itself would not go amiss. How to get one?
If you have a Google account, and chances are you have if you are an internet marketer or writer, then you will also have a Google profile. If you use Gmail, or Blogger (blogspot).com or have an Adsense account, you will have a public profile page.
Go to your Google profile page and you will see a space to input links. https://profiles.google.com/yourusername
Go to Links ~> Add Custom link, and save.
You can add as many links as you like and each of them will be dofollow.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Blog Promotion Through Article Marketing
The more places with links pointing back to your blog, the better. And this is where article marketing comes into its own.
Article marketing used to mean writing a short blurb about your business, pointing back to your main site or blog, and many directories allowed you to copy your work, or that of others, and simply paste a repeat post with a link.
Thanks have changed. In an effort to clean up the web for the searcher who was fed up seeing the same material over and over, the major article directories now require you to write unique content.
Think of any article you may write as being something a magazine might print.
It will complete in some way, and full of interesting information, written without spelling and grammatical errors. You can write your articles in a program like Microsoft Word, which will underline in red any spelling or grammatical errors, giving you the opportunity to fix them.
The browser Google Chrome also includes a spell checker, which is a great help if you are writing directly into a posting box. Simply right-click on the words underlined in red, and a list of options will appear, as the software tries to guess which word you meant to write.
Obviously, this is of little use to those foreign language speakers whose English is very poor. These people tend you use article spinning software and the results are sometimes hilarious, but certainly unreadable for the most part and obviously spun/translated.
Even when native English speakers use spinning software, it is usually possible to detect their use, and this is strongly discouraged.
How can the web acquire fresh, original content, if everyone chooses to simply re-hash what is already out there?
So, the article you write must be complete, contain a minimum of 150 words, depending on the site, but 300 + is always better. More words normally equate with more information and Google loves information.
You are not a politician, spreading words out while saying nothing. You words have to mean something online, so don't write something like "it can be ascertained that at this particular time.." instead of "now" because searchers only browse sites. They have a quick look and one or two words have to jump out at them to hold their attention, then they are gone.
Of course, with article marketing, you have two target audiences, one is the viewing public, and the other is the search engine spiders which are machines looking for data.
First and foremost you want the spiders to catch your link, while at the same time you want your article to be actually read. The spiders see the words you write too, that is how they know which adverts to put on your blog or site. So don't be shy about using as many keywords as you can find that relate to your subject matter, and putting them into the body of your text in a readable manner.
This is partly why longer articles are better. There is room for more keywords.
Article Marketing Sites
Article marketing used to mean writing a short blurb about your business, pointing back to your main site or blog, and many directories allowed you to copy your work, or that of others, and simply paste a repeat post with a link.
Thanks have changed. In an effort to clean up the web for the searcher who was fed up seeing the same material over and over, the major article directories now require you to write unique content.
Think of any article you may write as being something a magazine might print.
It will complete in some way, and full of interesting information, written without spelling and grammatical errors. You can write your articles in a program like Microsoft Word, which will underline in red any spelling or grammatical errors, giving you the opportunity to fix them.
The browser Google Chrome also includes a spell checker, which is a great help if you are writing directly into a posting box. Simply right-click on the words underlined in red, and a list of options will appear, as the software tries to guess which word you meant to write.
Obviously, this is of little use to those foreign language speakers whose English is very poor. These people tend you use article spinning software and the results are sometimes hilarious, but certainly unreadable for the most part and obviously spun/translated.
Even when native English speakers use spinning software, it is usually possible to detect their use, and this is strongly discouraged.
How can the web acquire fresh, original content, if everyone chooses to simply re-hash what is already out there?
So, the article you write must be complete, contain a minimum of 150 words, depending on the site, but 300 + is always better. More words normally equate with more information and Google loves information.
You are not a politician, spreading words out while saying nothing. You words have to mean something online, so don't write something like "it can be ascertained that at this particular time.." instead of "now" because searchers only browse sites. They have a quick look and one or two words have to jump out at them to hold their attention, then they are gone.
Of course, with article marketing, you have two target audiences, one is the viewing public, and the other is the search engine spiders which are machines looking for data.
First and foremost you want the spiders to catch your link, while at the same time you want your article to be actually read. The spiders see the words you write too, that is how they know which adverts to put on your blog or site. So don't be shy about using as many keywords as you can find that relate to your subject matter, and putting them into the body of your text in a readable manner.
This is partly why longer articles are better. There is room for more keywords.
Article Marketing Sites
- Hubpages - Hubpages is a great community of writers. It is a great place to join and all they ask in return is that you write good, original content of at least 300 words, although 500 - 1500 words are better. Don't just write articles for links to your other sites, write some just for Hubpages too, otherwise you risk having your work taken down as overly promotional. You are allowed to publish without your work being pre-checked, but if it is poorly formatted, badly written, too short or copied content, it will be removed.
- Squidoo I only have one or two articles on Squidoo, but wish I had more because they are doing well in the rankings just now. Squidoo submissions will be pre-checked for quality before you are allowed to publish.
- EzineArticles Ezine also pre-checks your work before allowing it to be published. Ezine have dropped in the rankings since Panda, but they are sure to return to their former glory soon.
- ArticlesBase ArticlesBase is a very popular directory, although it is not one I have used yet. Others who have say their work, if well-written, is well received by their community.
- Excerptz Excerptz is a relatively new site which offers a 90% rev share and people who have published there report and very quick index time, as well as superb sales results through Amazon.
- Xobba Xobba is another up and coming site which offers a 90% rev share, and geo targeting for Amazon. Items are indexed quickly and get good search engine traffic.
- ThisisFreelance This is a great home for high quality web writers where a 60% revenue share is offered. If your writing is of poor quality, please don;t attempt to write there.
- Wizzley Wizzley is the newest of the article writing sites and is very similar to Hubpages but without their PR. However, they have a very active writing community and who is to say this is not the place of the future.
Web Promotion and Backlinking your Blog
Assuming you have already set up your RSS feed, you may want to do further web promotion and backlinking of your blog.
There are lots of sites around where all you need to do is write a short blurb outlining what your blog is about, insert a link back to your blog, and post.
You need to join each site, and please read the rules. Some only want a single line, while others prefer 200/300 words as a minimum.
Everyone is looking for unique content these days, so re-word your blurbs each time. Write a unique summary of what your blog is about.
I find the following list excellent for this.
There are lots of sites around where all you need to do is write a short blurb outlining what your blog is about, insert a link back to your blog, and post.
You need to join each site, and please read the rules. Some only want a single line, while others prefer 200/300 words as a minimum.
Everyone is looking for unique content these days, so re-word your blurbs each time. Write a unique summary of what your blog is about.
I find the following list excellent for this.
- SheToldMe - requires around 150 words.
- Redgage - Just a short blurb will do, but they have a nice friendly community over there too.
- Blurpalicious - Very easy to backlink to - a single sentence will suffice
- Tipdrop - Only space for a single sentence, so make your words count! Use your keywords.
- Snipsly - A Wordpress site. Requires about 200 words
- FolkD - just a short line
- Delicious - again just a line and the link
- Bukmark
- Kwzz
- Hubspin
- A1 Webmarks
- Digg
- Jim's Free Links
- Bookmark Dofollow
- Tagza.com
- Google Buzz Bookmarks
- Excerptz - requires a minimum of 300 words
- Xobba
IM Automator
You may also want to join IM Automator where you input up to 10 links a day for free. If you only have one blog, post all your individual posts by their separate URLs.
Social Monkee
Another free tool is Social Monkee, where you can use a free membership to create up to 25 new backlinks per day.
Why Backlink?
The whole point in having backlinks is to raise your blog profile and push it up the SERPS. The nearer to the top of the search engines your blog goes, the more visitors you can expect to get.
Unless you are writing in a high competition area, you should only have to backlink your blog once on each site, and then forget about it.
Some of the above list are revenue sharing too, so you can use your Adsense or Amazon affiliate code too.
How to Promote your Blog using RSS Feeds
If you've ever wondered how you can promote your blog using RSS feeds, then read on.
On Blogger, the RSS feed is called Atom.
Look down your page until you see the word Atom, and right-click on it. Choose open in new tab and copy link from top, or else just copy link location. Then open Feedburner and click on Burn a Feed.
Copy the URL of the new feed name they give you, and head over to Twitterfeed. Click on Add a Feed, and send your Feed to whatever Social Networking site you are already a member of - or join up to a few new ones.
Tell Twitterfeed how often you want your link promoted and to where.
Once done, you will not need to re-do these steps, because anything new you add to your blog will automatically be sent outwards.
Next, you will want to find a list of RSS Feed Submitter sites, and manually add your new feed to each one. This is a one off promotion. You will not need to do it again, but you will be amazed just how powerful this is in terms of pushing your blog up the SERPS.
On Blogger, the RSS feed is called Atom.
Look down your page until you see the word Atom, and right-click on it. Choose open in new tab and copy link from top, or else just copy link location. Then open Feedburner and click on Burn a Feed.
Copy the URL of the new feed name they give you, and head over to Twitterfeed. Click on Add a Feed, and send your Feed to whatever Social Networking site you are already a member of - or join up to a few new ones.
Tell Twitterfeed how often you want your link promoted and to where.
Once done, you will not need to re-do these steps, because anything new you add to your blog will automatically be sent outwards.
Next, you will want to find a list of RSS Feed Submitter sites, and manually add your new feed to each one. This is a one off promotion. You will not need to do it again, but you will be amazed just how powerful this is in terms of pushing your blog up the SERPS.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
How to Find the Best Keywords
Whatever you write about online, you will want to find the best possible keywords to write around. While it is true that it is always best to write about things you know about, and that you have an interest in, a true Freelance Writer has to be able to write about just about anything.
You may be asked to write blog posts for someone else, freelance, and to do this you not only need to be able to research the topic well so that you can write in an authoritative manner, but you need to be able to apply basic SEO to make the article search engine friendly.
So, How to Find the Best Keywords?
You can use the Google keyword tool - where the results you will see are competition for ad spaces, but they will give you a good idea of what is searched for and what market is over-saturated.
In addition to looking up words and phrases in the keyword tool, you will need to look at the results in Google.com too.
You will also need to know what backlinks your competitors have through Yahoo Site Explorer.
All in, keyword research is a long, slow laborious task but one which is vital if you want to be able to attract traffic.
High traffic, Low Competition
Ideally, you are looking for keywords that have a high search and low competition. This is more difficult than it sounds because there are literally millions of sites out there covering all topics.
Freelancers do not need to go this extra mile because most of the time, their employer will have stated what to write about and what keywords to use.
I have not researched the keywords for the topic I am writing about, because I am 100% certain the topic is incredibly over-saturated and the chances of you reading this are slim.
However, it is a subject I know well, as I have studied SEO intensely for two years full time and I am just beginning to understand it all, which is why I am happy to pass it on.
Market Samurai
I bought Market Samurai over a year ago, after trying their trial version. This program is a MUST if you are serious about learning SEO and web writing whether you are freelancing or have your own site or blog.
It is accurate and educational, and actually really helps you to understand how SEO works. It is also tells you your competition without leaving the software, and can even tell you vital factors like domain age, PR, internal backlinks, external backlinks of other sites (and where the backlinks come from) with just a single button click.
Market Samurai is an invaluable tool for keyword research and is constantly updated. It can save you hours of fun, traipsing through the keyword tool, digging deeper and deeper and constantly checking Google.com for competition.
It has many functions and includes URL searches and rank trackers for new entrepreneurs but I'm afraid I haven't used it for anything more than research so cannot tell you of its other functions.
Market Samurai gives you a free trial - it might be 7 days, you will have to click through and see, and they include many training videos which you may feel enhances your understanding of how the software works. If you do not buy at the end of the trial period, the price rises quite substantially. Not only that, you can never download another free trial using the same email address and the same computer, as hidden files are left behind preventing a second free trial. These guys know what they are doing!
I highly recommend buying at the discounted price offered at the end of the free trial.
After I started using Market Samurai, my traffic doubled after I made the changes they recommended and my increased earnings more than made up for the cost of buying.
You may be asked to write blog posts for someone else, freelance, and to do this you not only need to be able to research the topic well so that you can write in an authoritative manner, but you need to be able to apply basic SEO to make the article search engine friendly.
So, How to Find the Best Keywords?
You can use the Google keyword tool - where the results you will see are competition for ad spaces, but they will give you a good idea of what is searched for and what market is over-saturated.
In addition to looking up words and phrases in the keyword tool, you will need to look at the results in Google.com too.
You will also need to know what backlinks your competitors have through Yahoo Site Explorer.
All in, keyword research is a long, slow laborious task but one which is vital if you want to be able to attract traffic.
High traffic, Low Competition
Ideally, you are looking for keywords that have a high search and low competition. This is more difficult than it sounds because there are literally millions of sites out there covering all topics.
Freelancers do not need to go this extra mile because most of the time, their employer will have stated what to write about and what keywords to use.
I have not researched the keywords for the topic I am writing about, because I am 100% certain the topic is incredibly over-saturated and the chances of you reading this are slim.
However, it is a subject I know well, as I have studied SEO intensely for two years full time and I am just beginning to understand it all, which is why I am happy to pass it on.
Market Samurai
I bought Market Samurai over a year ago, after trying their trial version. This program is a MUST if you are serious about learning SEO and web writing whether you are freelancing or have your own site or blog.
It is accurate and educational, and actually really helps you to understand how SEO works. It is also tells you your competition without leaving the software, and can even tell you vital factors like domain age, PR, internal backlinks, external backlinks of other sites (and where the backlinks come from) with just a single button click.
Market Samurai is an invaluable tool for keyword research and is constantly updated. It can save you hours of fun, traipsing through the keyword tool, digging deeper and deeper and constantly checking Google.com for competition.
It has many functions and includes URL searches and rank trackers for new entrepreneurs but I'm afraid I haven't used it for anything more than research so cannot tell you of its other functions.
Market Samurai gives you a free trial - it might be 7 days, you will have to click through and see, and they include many training videos which you may feel enhances your understanding of how the software works. If you do not buy at the end of the trial period, the price rises quite substantially. Not only that, you can never download another free trial using the same email address and the same computer, as hidden files are left behind preventing a second free trial. These guys know what they are doing!
I highly recommend buying at the discounted price offered at the end of the free trial.
After I started using Market Samurai, my traffic doubled after I made the changes they recommended and my increased earnings more than made up for the cost of buying.
On Page Optimization for Blogger
For on page optimization in any site, you require 4 things, as well as good, original content throughout your blog. You should repeat your main keyword at least once in every post, with generous use of your other keywords, written in a natural manner. Never keyword stuff. It looks awful and Google will probably penalize you for it.
To the uninitiated, keywords are words that people search for online - those are the words that people type into a search engine when looking for information.
For that matter, every word is a keyword, but if you are aiming at a certain market, you will want to use keywords pertaining to that market.
Your keywords will also bring you adverts related to your keywords, if you use Google Adsense.
Your keywords should be in:
To the uninitiated, keywords are words that people search for online - those are the words that people type into a search engine when looking for information.
For that matter, every word is a keyword, but if you are aiming at a certain market, you will want to use keywords pertaining to that market.
Your keywords will also bring you adverts related to your keywords, if you use Google Adsense.
Your keywords should be in:
- your Title
- your Header file
- Your URL
- your Meta-Tag Description.
Adding a Dynamic Meta Description Tag in Blogger
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| How to add a meta tag in Blogger |
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