What you need to know about copyrights

For most of us, we know some of the basic concepts of copyright, especially when it comes to text. When we post on our blog, we need to post original content. It’s more than just a method to ensure good SEO results, it’s also the law, meaning that you can’t just pull off an article from another site, add it to your own, and call it yours. That’s a breach of copyright. However, when it comes to images, it’s a concept that’s much less known or followed. Images follow the same laws and principles, and you can’t just go on Google Search and pull off any random image to add to your post, even if you think it’s related somehow. There’s things you can do, and things you cannot. Then, there! ’s exceptions like Fair Use, and ways around it. First, as a generic concept, images on the web are like any other media, they are copyrighted by their creator. Even if it doesn’t say so on the image or site, the default law in the United States and many other countries says that anything you create is automatically owned and copyright by you. This means chances are the image you find online isn’t yours, and you can’t add it to your post. Now of course, the chance of the owner finding his or her image on your site isn’t great, but just like Copyscape exists for text, there are ways to find copied images as well. Google recently added a function that allows someone to upload an image, and find all images on the web that are similar to it. That makes it very easy to find any indexed page using a copyrighted image. A lot of people know about Fair Use, and it’s a great way to use images without having to ask for permission or pay for them. But there are strict rules that apply. The purpose of Fair Use is so you can use a copyrighted work if you intend to criticize or comment upon it. This means, for example, that if you write an article that provides news or information about a specific brand, you are allowed to use an image of that brand in your article. That’s Fair Use, and you don’t have to ask for permission. However, let’s say you talk about drinks and how good they are for your health, you can’t paste in a Coca Cola image, because you aren’t writing a news or commentary specifically about them. If Fair Use doesn’t apply, then there’s still other ways to get images. A lot of sites have appeared recently that sell stock images at low cost, such as iStock Photo, stock.xchng, and Getty. But again, be careful that you follow their licenses. Typically they have 2 licenses, depending on what you intend to do with the image. Getty in particular has been in the news lately for sending many threatening letters to bloggers who use images without permission. Remember that there’s nothing in the law that talks about ‘credits’, which is a misconception a lot of people have. Providing credit to a source has no impact on legality, and doesn’t make an illegal act okay. It’s purely up to the author whether re-using his or her image and providing credit is alright or not. Overall, always try to be safe when using other people’s properties. You don’t want to make your blog into a legal target, so stick with free resources, or pay for a license if you expect to need a lot of stock imagery. There’s many sites offering images under a Creative Common license, and as long as you follow that license, these images can be used freely, which is great. In doubt, consult an attorney or legal resource, or just create your own images. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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5 Strange Lessons Bloggers Can Learn from Sports

I’ll admit it. I’m not much of a sports fan. I can’t recall the last time I went to a sporting event live and the last time I watched a game of any sport all the way through on TV was about two years ago. However, this doesn’t mean that sports don’t have a great deal to teach us about competition, cooperation and overcoming obstacles. The truth is that every match, game and event is a contest between talented competitors and the winner is determined by a variety of factors, many of which apply equally well to our every day struggles. In that way, sports actually are a microcosm for life itself and there’s a lot we can learn from it. However, that doesn’t mean that all of the lessons are straightforward or even pleasant. After all, sports in real life are nothing like sports movies. So what are those lessons? Here are five to consider as you work to grow or improve your blog. 1. There is an “I” in Team There’s an old adage about there not being an “I” in team and it’s completely wrong. In many sports, if not most, one or two really good “star” players can turn a team around. Sure, the other players are important and everyone has to work together (teamwork is still a very real thing) but the difference between a mediocre american football team and a championship squad is often just a good quarterback. When you’re working with other bloggers, it’s important to keep this in mind. Whether you’re working in a team to write for one site or cross-promoting between blogs, you need to make sure that you have the right mix of people. Also, it’s important to know where you fit in with this mix of people. Bear in mind, in some groups, you may be the star and in others you may be a regular team player. But it’s important to be honest about your role so you can do the most to help your team thrive. 2. Talent Isn’t Everything On the other hand, while its true that one “star” player can turn a team around, it’s also true that talent isn’t everything in determining who is or is not a great player. Sure, talent is important, but a mediocre player with a great leadership or presence can do more for a team than someone who is merely talented at the game. The same is true for heart and determination. After all, a mediocre player willing to work tirelessly for his team is more important than a talented one who does only the bare minimum. However, on the other side of the coin, looks also matter as does showmanship. These are ugly truths but they are clear when you look at the history of great athletes. Blogging, as well as most things in life, is the same way. Talent is important, but it only takes you so far. At some point, you have to go beyond your gifts to do something great. 3. Points are What Count Baseball, for example, doesn’t care how many doubles or triples you hit. Until you cross the plate, you haven’t put any points on the board and you are no closer to victory. Life and blogging is very much the same way. You have objectives and goals and, if you don’t meet those goals, then you need to figure out how to adjust to meet them next time. It doesn’t matter how good your posts are or how solid your SEO seems, if you aren’t converting, gaining subscribers or seeing the traffic you want, you need to adjust and try again. Doing well doesn’t mean anything if you aren’t putting points on the board. Period. 4. The Officiating is Never Fair Every sport has to have rules and those rules must always be enforced. However, machines aren’t capable (yet) of enforcing the rules by themselves so humans are the ones that have to do the dirty work and that’s why we have referees, officials, umpires, etc. Sadly, humans aren’t perfect and, as such, the officiating will never be either. To make matters worse, one bad call can change an entire game. This is true with anything else in life and, with blogging, the rules are enforced by Google and by your host. Unfortunately, both of them are fallible and can penalize you unfairly. The best way to deal with bad officiating is to play the game so well that one or two bad calls won’t hurt you. The other is to make it crystal clear that you are playing by the rules to minimize bad calls and learn how to talk with the officials to get the outcome you want and deserve. Because, one area blogging does differ from sports is that, with blogging, sometimes you can argue with the referee and win. 5. You Truly Can’t Win Them All Finally, though it’s an old cliche and cold comfort for the losers, it is also true: You can’t win them all. A mediocre team will win half their games. A good team will win most. A great team will win nearly all of them. However, no team wins every time. As a blogger, you’re going to have bad days. There will be good ideas that go bad, articles that fall flat and site changes that create an angry mob at your door. It happens. The best thing you can do in these situations is pick up and try again tomorrow. Not every swing will be a homerun and not every day will be a victory. The key is to not dwell on it and, instead, learn from it. If you can improve in the face of defeat you weren’t really beaten at all. Bottom Line Sports, when looked at the right way, are a great microcosm for life and just about anything you do in it. Conflict is conflict and just because a battle plays out over points and on a field doesn’t make it less educational that one that plays out in our own lives. Though I’m not saying you should become a sports fan or that you need to be in order to glean its lessons, by looking at other’s struggles, wherever they may be, you can learn a great deal about what separated champions from those who merely showed up. That, in turn, is an important lesson that can greatly help you with everything you do, including blogging. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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What To Avoid When Doing SEO By Yourself

If you have made the decision as an individual or a small business person to perform the quite arduous task of search engine optimization by yourself, there are definitely some things that you should take into consideration to maximize your efforts. There are some tried-and-true methods of search engine optimization that definitely work, and there are definitely some things that do not work. We will discuss some of the things that you should definitely avoid when doing search engine optimization on your own. Spinning articles and submitting them to websites Although this might be a much quicker way of creating content for yourself, spinning articles limits your search engine optimization in ways that definitely do not pay for themselves in terms of the advantages given. If you spin articles, you run the risk of cannibalizing your own content. Ever since the Google Panda update, search engine spiders have become increasingly wary of articles that are obviously spun and of link webs, which are the main reasons to spin the articles in the first place. On top of confusing search engine algorithms and cannibalizing your own content, there is really not an article spinning tool, free or paid, which has received praise enough to even warrant using the technique. The technology simply has not caught up with current search engine optimization trends, besides being a bad practice in and of itself. Oversaturation of keywords Because you are so familiar with the themes of your websites and all of your business, there is a natural tendency to over compensate by listing these themes over and over again in the form of keywords. Because you may not see the results of your search engine optimization efforts right off, you may put more keywords into your text and your articles, which may hurt your efforts more than it helps. Part of what makes a site pop in search engine rankings is the amount of time that the site has been up. Sometimes you simply have to let time pass. The best thing to do is to create more and more content, creating more instances of your keywords in the same percentage. This keeps your content dynamic, which is very attractive to search engine spiders, without over saturating the keyword usage and allowing for more content overall. Comparing yourself to competitors While it is definitely good to perform detailed analysis on your competitors, their keywords and links, it is definitely not good to copy their style of search engine optimization. What you need is to become more entrenched in your specific niche, not to try to take over someone else’s. So instead of trying to compete on the same keywords as your competitors forget the same links, you may find it more effective to research longer tail keywords or create relationships with the webmasters of different link hubs within the same industries as your competitor. Quick-fix techniques The other black hat techniques which give short-term boosts in search engine rankings are simply not worth the time they take to implement. There is a definite temptation to take the shortcuts when it comes to directories and link building as well as incorporating your social media marketing into your search engine optimization. Resist the short-term temptations because they are never worth it. The major search engines have not only implemented many types of blocks that punish you for using black hat techniques, but the algorithms are getting smarter and smarter by the day. Even if you are not caught this week does not mean that you will survive the next sweep the following month. Jeff Gross is a blogger and writer, with four years of writing experience in the fields of SEO and internet marketing. He is currently appointed as a writer for a NY real estate agency that makes Queens homes. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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Nov. 29 Is 'Pay A Blogger Day' So Buy Your Favorite Writer A Drink

Today is the perfect time of the year to pay your favorite blogger for their hard work and dedication to the fields they cover. Dubbed ‘Pay A Blogger Day’ by startup Flattr. Flattr is a micropayments website that allows users to purchase tokens which they can then use to pay bloggers small amounts of money by clicking on the Flattr button found on various websites (pictured above). The site is encouraging users to use the Flatt Click Button or even buy your favorite blogger an ebook, their favorite songs or even a t-shirt. Speaking about the movement Flattr co-founder Linus Olsson told Mashable: "We think that many blogs are insightful and witty and people just expect them to be free even though there are a lot of effort and love put into them," and "It's about time to try to give them something tangible back, at least one day of the year." While the day is obviously a great marketing ploy by the micropayments website it’s also an easy way to pay fractions on the dollar to your favorite writers. For example a simple $5 payment is disbursed throughout the month based on your clicks, for example if you have $5 in your account but only click on one Flattr button that writer will receive 100% of the disbursement, however if you click on 10 buttons that money at the end of the month is distributed among all of your clicks. Helping spread the word about today’s events are Posterous, Bambuser and Twingly. As one blogger says on the Flattr site: "This month … I've made $0.03, but it was the best $0.03 I ever made." It’s easy to forget that many bloggers put in long hours (I can log 18 hours on many days), it’s not quite the “work eight hours a week” pipe dream fed to readers by “make money blogging” website owners. So take some time today and support your favorite blogger, heck even a beer or a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day can make a writers week, maybe even their month. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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Breaking Up With Your Search Engine Optimization Company

When it comes to both personal and professional relationships, you can run into difficulties and sometimes your differences are so vast you should go your separate ways. The same can be said of search engine marketing. The right partnership can create a wonderful online advertising campaign that manifests itself in high traffic, higher page ranks, and more business. Sticking with the wrong firm, however, can do more damage than good. How do you know when it is time to break up with your search engine optimization company? They never return your calls or reply to your emails. When they were courting you, chances are your SEO company was incredibly responsive. If you had a question or comment, they were quick to supply an answer or address your concerns. Even in the initial phases of your SEO campaign, they were probably happy to discuss whatever was on your mind and eager to convince you they truly understood you and your business. Now that your contract is well established, however, days may pass before you hear back from them, if you do at all. This is the number one sign you need to find yourself a new search engine optimization company. You are the client and communication really is key to a successful campaign. Now, you and your SEO team are busy people. Occasionally, things may become lost in the shuffle or a response may be delayed, but that should be the exception not the rule. After all, if they cannot bother to respond to you, how much attention can they possibly be paying to your campaign? They never call; they never write. This is along the same lines, but is slightly different. Your SEO campaign is a fluid thing that is constantly evolving. You should be hearing from your search engine marketing team on a regular basis. Not every day, mind you, but occasional check-ins are not only appropriate but absolutely necessary. Maybe your campaign needs an adjustment, perhaps it is time to expand or scale back certain initiatives, or possibly it is simply time for a status report. Either way, they should be initiating contact and keeping you informed. If you have no idea how your SEO campaign is going, it is quite possible that they do not know, either. You are better informed than they are. Clearly, it is a huge red flag if you know more about SEO developments than your team does. Part of this is your responsibility, however, because you should occasionally search for the latest SEO news. Have you heard of Google's Panda? What about mobile optimization? Do you know about Facebook's ad services? Has anyone mentioned holiday PPC? Some people would argue that you hired someone to know all that stuff, so you do not need to be aware of any of it. If you want to have productive conversations and a strong campaign, however, staying informed is critical. Relationships, after all, are a two-way street. They should address SEO developments with you of their own volition, but when you bring something up, they should be able to answer intelligently and explain how it does or does not apply to you. If they cannot do that, they are either incompetent or unfocused. Neither is good for your business. They are suggesting new and naughty things to enhance performance. Hopefully, you did your initial homework, and were not seduced by some black hat SEO company that employs unethical tactics that actually undermine your site. Even the good guys can go bad, however, when they are feeling pressured and the carefully crafted campaign they launched is not performing as expected. The proper approach to an underperforming SEO campaign is to modify it until you find what works. That can take time and patience, however, and it can be tempting to resort to tactics that produce short-term results, even though they will eventually backfire. If something sounds too good to be true or like spam, it probably is. They may not use the terms link farming, keyword stuffing, or gateway pages, but if what they are describing sounds less like high quality SEO content and more like tricks, it is time to do some digging. If you confirm your suspicions with a little research, don't walk but run away. These are the most obvious signs it is time to break up with your search engine optimization company and find a new search engine marketing team. Hopefully, you will never encounter any of them, but it can be difficult to gauge just how successful your SEO campaign is and if it would do better in someone else's hands. If your SEO partner is being attentive, proposing solid ideas, and willing to discuss your options, chances are you are fine. You simply may need to give your campaign a bit more time. If you sense it is time to part ways, however, or encounter any of these things, do your company a favor and move on sooner rather than later. The right search engine optimization firm will do your business a world of good, but these telltale signs indicate it is time to find a new search engine marketing partner. Learn more at Wpromote.com Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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Is It Necessary To Have a Blog for Affiliate Marketing?

A blog is a platform with the help of which you can share your ideas regarding different issues with various types of people. In your blogs you should discuss about the topics that is relevant to your audience. This will help you gain the trust of the audience and you'll find that people are looking up to your blogs to solve their problems. You can utilize blogs to make money affiliate marketing as your source of online earning. It's because, blogging is an important tool of affiliate marketing that will help you boost traffic to your website. This will increase the number of click on your link and you'll be able to earn a good amount of money. Importance of blogging in make money affiliate program Read on to know how blogs play one of the major roles in affiliate marketing. 1) Helps you get linked to your devoted followers Being a blogger, you must remember one thing that the people who are visiting your website and going through your blogs regularly are your devoted follower. If you're able to provide your visitors fresh and updated contents through your blogs and recommend good products and services, then you'll be able to prosper as an affiliate marketer. If the company allows you then you can include special offers which will increase your affiliate sales. 2) Helps you build up reputation very easily You must be aware of the fact that brand is an important part of e commerce. If any product of a company fails to fulfill the requirement of any customer, then the brand will have a very bad repute. The reputation of the company can get marred. Now, if you're a regular blogger and have good terms with your visitors, then you can discuss this issue openly through your blog posts. This will help you sail safely through such ups and downs and retain the previous market. 3) Easily accessible to the public If people want to go through your blogs, then they are not required to take any memberships. Hence, anybody who wants to get information about the products that you're marketing, can go through you blogs and get benefited. This will increase the sale of the products and helps you prosper in make money affiliate marketing. 4) Inculcates a competitive spirit If you want to prosper in this field, then you have to beat the competitive market. Regular blogging can help you realize your dreams. If you're able to track other bloggers in the markets and read their posts and frequently comment on it, then you'll be able to boost traffic to your website. Try to be the first one to post comments in others blogs and give reference of your blogs. This will surely drag a huge number of visitors to your website. This will increase your affiliate sales and help you prosper in this field. 5) Gives you the opportunity for one on one communication One on one communication is an important factor in a flourishing business. Through these blogs you'll be able to solve different queries of the visitors of your website. This will also help you entertain the needs of your visitors. This way you'll be able to improve the mutual understanding among you and your clients and can get various ideas to make your products user friendly. Lastly, the above mentioned factors have made blogging become one of the hottest growing medium of communication for business and individuals. This platform will allow you to get a closer look to the needs of the visitors, build up trust and will help you prosper in make money affiliate marketing. About the author: Rick Murphy is a contributory writer associated with the Debt Consolidation Care Community and has written several articles for various financial websites. He holds his expertise in the affiliate marketing industry and has made significant contribution through his various articles. To get more knowledge affiliate marketing visit: www.debtconsolidationcare.com/affiliate/ Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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Blogging Pro Job Board Highlights (November 21 – 25)

How did Thanksgiving go? Were you able to eat all your favorite Thanksgiving food? I hope that you didn’t get too full and now have to suffer a tummy ache. Before you end a wonderful week, here are the highlights of this week’s job board. While there may be fewer listings than usual this week, we still have some pretty nice jobs. Good luck! Freelance Writer for Accredited Language Services Accredited Language Services is a leader in communication and international business support , and they are looking for a freelance writer. The writer will need to create content for blogs, web sites, and newsletters. Contributing Bloggers for Lakhoni Are you always on top of the latest news and gossip about celebrities and the entertainment scene in general? This new web site is looking bloggers in the niche, with payment at $10 per post. Tech Blogger for MakeUseOf.com For Internet addicts only. MakeUseOf.com is looking for star bloggers who can help them make a stronger impact on the online scene. If this is you, and you would love to get paid a nice sum per post, go apply now! Technology/Internet Blogger Here is another job for technology and Internet enthusiasts. TechWalls is looking for people who can writer high quality articles on a wide range of tech/Internet topics. The job is remote. Sales Person – SEO/Internet Marketing/Social Media Services Can you sell anything to anyone? Have you got the talent to talk people into buying whatever it is that you are offering? If you can sell SEO/Internet Marketing/Social Media Services, you might be the person that Performancing is looking for. Go for it! Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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5 Blogging Faux Pas You Might Be Making

Blogging is an inherently social activity, just one that happens to be done with millions of other people all across the globe. As with any social activity, there are social norms that develop and pertain to the way that bloggers interact with one another. These aren’t necessarily laws (though there is some relationship when you look at copyright) but they are general guidelines to help ensure that bloggers don’t needlessly injure one another and work together for the betterment of the larger community. What exactly those standards are is up for debate. Often times, what one sees as the norm will depend as much on other factors as it does their role as a blogger. But still, there are a few generally-agreed upon norms out there, but they also happen to be very easy boundaries to cross at times. So what are some missteps you might be making in your interactions with other bloggers? Here are five of the more common ones. 1. Commenting When You Should be Emailing/Vice Versa When you run across a post you like on the Web and you want to reach out to the blogger about it, you are faced with a tough choice: Do you comment on the post publicly or send an email directly to the blogger. Generally, the question to ask yourself is: Would this, if posted as a comment, further the conversation or make the post better? If you’re highlighting a point in the original, adding information or putting something up for broader discussion, it’s probably best to put it up as a comment. If you’re just wanting to say “Good job” or point out a typo, you probably should send it via email. Also, anything that might be disruptive to the conversation should be sent via email as well. If you have reason to believe that your conversation could get heated or is simply a tangent to the original post, it’s probably best to send it via email to keep the on-site conversation more focused. With blogging, there’s still plenty of times where a private letter is a better choice and it is important to know when to use it. 2. Spammy Comments and Extra Links While we’re on the subject of blog comments, blog commenting can be a great way to promote a site, especially a new one, but it is important to realize that comment marketing means much more than simply posting wherever and whatever you can. It’s important, with every comment you post, to make sure that the comment is both relevant to the post and, as mentioned above, adds to the conversation. However, equally important is the issue of linking. If the blog provides a link to every commenter, as most do, it’s considered poor form usually to put a link to your site in your comment itself, unless the link is extremely relevant to the conversation. Many bloggers, often without realizing how spammy it is, will post a short “Good Job” comment and follow it with their name and URL. Always remember, make your post relevant and that you get one link per comment (the automatic one usually) unless there is a drastic reason to break that rule. 3. Providing Bad Anchor Text Bloggers, generally, love it when you like their content enough to write about it and link to it. That’s what every blogger strives for to some degree. However, a big part of that linking isn’t the direct traffic one gets from the original post, but the SEO benefit from having another site “vote” for them via an outbound link. For better or worse, a lot of that SEO benefit comes from the keywords used in the anchor text. For example, if, on a post about widgets, you say “This great post on widgets” it is better than simply linking to the original article with the word “Source”. If you want to list the original article as a source link in the footer, consider using the title of the post as the anchor text instead of “Source” or “Original Article”. 4. Editing Your Post Without Clear Explanation or Credit No blogger is perfect so, if you blog enough, you’re probably going to have to edit at least a few of your posts to put corrections in. While most corrections are minor, a typo here or a missing word there, sometimes you might get a fact wrong or state something in a way where the reader gets the wrong idea. These things happen but how you correct them is important. If your correction materially changes your story, you need to make it clear in your post that you made a change (probably using strikethrough rather than actually removing text) and explain why. Equally importantly, if you got the correction from another blogger or commenter, it’s best to give credit and thanks for the help. The last thing you want to do is seem bitter about being told you were wrong when you were, that’s a great way to ensure that no one ever helps you again. 5. Unnecessary Pingbacks/Trackbacks Perhaps surprisingly, pingbacks and trackbacks are still very much around. They are tools used by blogging platforms, including WordPress, to track when other blogs create inbound links so they, in turn, can link back. Many blogs have disabled this feature because it’s become a popular tool for spammers, but other bloggers, realizing the potential, have taken to adding unnecessary links to their posts to get trackbacks on other sites. In fact, there are actually plugins and tools that can do this automatically. While a “related posts” addition to your site may be appropriate, sending trackbacks and pingbacks to sites and entries you aren’t actually referencing in your post is a pretty big annoyance to other bloggers, especially those who have to clean out dozens of such notifications every day. Bottom Line Most of these missteps are merely annoyances to other bloggers. It may result in a deleted comment here or a mildly disgruntled blogger there, but those are the exact things that undermine any blog promotion and growth effort. In short, the best way to grow your blog is to become a part of the blogging community and that means learning to respect and follow the rules/guidelines that are a part of that community. While some bloggers manage to do well breaking the rules, remeber that you violate them at your own risk and, if you do it too much and do so intentionally, you’ll likely find that there are many bloggers with negative opinions of you and some who are actually very angry with you. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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Five Simple Steps for Local SEO

Local business owners across the country have been struggling with the recession. It isn’t easy to maintain a healthy business when people don’t have the money to spend, and you don’t have the advertising dollars to get yourself out there. In our technology driven world there are a few advantages that business owners have started taking advantage of. Technology has allowed individuals to perform business faster, more efficient, and even on the go. One of the most important things for businesses of all types is the internet. You have to have a strong internet presence in order to have some legitimacy, form a new customer base, and of course make some new money. While it seems like there are an endless amount of options you can chose from marketing your business, one of these methods stand alone above all others. The process of local SEO for small business owners should be the next step you take, if you haven’t already. You can achieve natural and effective local SEO in five simple steps. Step 1 The first thing that you need to do is get an online presence. You must have a website. Listings are not enough. People are going to want to go to your website, and they are going to want to click around before they decide whether they are going to, or are willing to make a purchase. You do not have to go all out and buy a $5000 dollar website, although that wouldn’t hurt. There are an abundance of website options out there for under $500 dollars, and even some free WordPress themes geared towards a particular business – those can get you up and running in just a few days. Whatever option you chose, try not to over do it. Customer click freindly websites are what works, anything unneeded or over the top will simply discourage customers. Important information should never be two clicks away. Step 2 Step two entails something very simple that all business owners should do. You are going to want to get yourself listed in Google Places. In order to do so you are going to have to make a Google account and create your listing in Google Places. You could even have an SEO professional handle this to ensure that your listing is done appropriately. However, it is very simple. After you have made your listing Google will send you a postcard to your place of business and there will be a list of directions that you will follow on the letter in order to get yourself listed. This postcard will come in about two weeks. Step 3 Step three is related to Google Places. For the third step, it is important to place your business listing in as many online directories as possible. Most people don’t use the yellow pages, but they do use online directories like them. Yelp, Yellow Pages, and other directories are a great place to start. It is also important that the information you list is consistent across the board. Remember that a search robot might not read “Terrace” the same as “Ter.” Google doesn’t pull this information off directory sites, but you can be sure that they are looking to them as a reference. Step 4 Effective On-site SEO. Believe it or not things like on-site SEO matter, and more than you might think. For someone who is always online, and has a good computer to match, a page load time might not matter so much. However,  it matters first and foremost because the search engines evaluate your site based on page load time, among other things. The other reason is for people with the bare minimum connection, and older computers. They will most likely click back and chose another page if they are having trouble loading yours. Other factors that come into play involve various page attributes. You want to have the right keyword density that sum up your business, or that you are trying to rank for. This should be anywhere between 3-5% per page. Then, things like placing various keywords, or locations in your header tags are very vital as well. Although your store may be called “Harry’s Heating” most people are not looking for Harry selling heating services. They are looking for heating services, in a certain area. Something like “Arlington Heating” would be much more appropriate. Do not forgot about on site SEO. Step 5 Off site SEO. Off site SEO is confusing to a lot of people, especially local business owners. And, especially with all of the bad practices that are sometimes associated with it. There are many things that go into off-site SEO. The most important is making an effort to place links from other websites, that are directed back to yours. To many business owners, especially the ones who are not to computer savvy, this really doesn’t make any sense. This is where a white hat link building service is so vital. Working with reputable SEO’s that can provide you with the best saerch engine optimization practices are what you are looking for. They also have the advantage of working with a distinguished local business, and in the eyes of Google that is a plus. The problem with link building services that are done on a global level is that anyone can buy a domain and claim a certain set of keywords that they want to rank for. With a local business, you typically have some sort of brick and mortar presence, long before you have an online presence. Therefore, SEO’s can provide amazing content, and amazing links – which is beneficial to both parties. Each article or piece of content you write, should be viewed as a small advertisement for your local business. Depending where your content gets posted, you could potentially get more views than a billboard would off a major highway, although that is not likely it is certainly more cost effective. SEO has come a long way since the realization that higher rankings, means higher profits. The truth is that SEO is changing everyday, and it is constantly a moving target that you must aim for. A lot of people view this as a bad thing, but is that concept any different than other business? Do you not have to keep up with changing laws, environments, markets, currency, and economic issues? The answer is yes you do. Some things however, are constant. People are always going to need certain things like food, water, and shelter. From the looks of it there will always be small local businesses. Small, local businesses have the advantage of earning their right to legitimacy offline before they come online. Google knows this, and now you do too. Local business SEO should be something all local business owners engage in. Whether you try to do it yourself, or whether you hire professionals, the important thing is that it is done. Of course the most important thing in any of this is that you have a great product or service behind your online presence. Without that, your Local SEO will not be sustainable. This article was written by Thomas Benjamin. Be likes to blog about many various topics including internet services, business, and SEO. Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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How To Link Bait Without Alienating Your Reader Base

New website owners and owners of struggling properties will often try just about anything in order to bring visitors to their websites. One of the most common practices is the “art” of “link baiting” in which an articles title is designed in such a way as to attract readers based off grandiose statements and incorrect information that is later explained in the story or by twisting title information to make it appear more appealing (in many cases). What many writers fail to understand is that link baiting can be accomplished without pissing off your reader base and sending mixed messages. Let’s take a look at a few quick ways you can create more attractive baiting techniques that bring readers to your blog for the right reasons. 1. Lead Into The Stories Premise Think of your title as the first sentence of your story, what can you tell the reader that will let them know what your story is about while still leaving them with more questions. The basic rule of journalism is that the start of any good article should include the “who, what, where, why when” attributes of the story. Let’s assume that you know the who, what and where for a story about a man who is holding a group of people hostage at a bank because he wants his brother freed from prison, you’re title could read: “Man holds bank tellers hostage to help brother.” As you will notice that title leaves open a lot of questions for your reader, for example “how is he helping his brother?” and “where is this occurring.” What you have essentially done is forced the reader to examine your lead-in opening within your article by clicking over to your story. 2. Use Visual Descriptors When Possible  While leading someone into the start of an article is a great way for them to discover more about what you have written sometimes a colorful explanation of your article can attract “visual” readers. Have you ever noticed how some teachers, employees and other people will use words like “Let me draw you a picture.” Those people relate their ideas to “visual cues” such as “drawing a picture” because they like to develop a picture in their head before they proceed. By “drawing a picture” with your title you can associate your articles with visual people. One example of this might be: 10 Pictures Of Everest You Have To See To Believe. Notice how the word “see” is incorporated into the post. Visual Descriptors are best used with video and photography posts in which visual information will be used. In this type of baiting you are not baiting an idea that needs more information but rather you are baiting the visual necessity of many people. 3. Ditch Title Information That Readers Want For Commenting If you’re writing a post about celebrity dating and there are two people involved in the story you can bait people into your article by only using one of the subjects names. For example “Justin Bieber Spotted On Venice Date With Girlfriend.” In that example the reader is left to wonder if Justin Bieber has a new girlfriend, while the information still provides users with enough information to understand what your post will be about. Internet readers love to read a title and then share them via Twitter, Facebook and other venues before they have even read the article, the reason users do this is often because they think they get the gist of the article and then move on, by forcing them to open your page to find more information you ensure that they actual provide a pageview for your article while at the same time helping them engage more with their Facebook and Twitter shares which in turn will lead to more engagement from their followers. This method not only works for celebrity hit pieces but can be effective for Politics: “Hilary Clinton Meets With GOP Leader To Discuss Super Committee” and Sports: “Tiger Woods Finally Sets Record Straight About Former Caddie” and others. As you will notice the titles just provided all offer lead-in titles that also avoid double nouns which forces a reader to continue onto your article in order to complete the association they are already looking for between people, people and places and even place and other places. As Google’s Matt Cutts points out: On a meta-level, I think of "linkbait" as something interesting enough to catch people's attention, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. There are a lot of ways to do that, including putting in sweat-of-the-brow work to generate data or insights, or it can be as simple as being creative. You can also say something controversial to generate discussion (this last one gets tired if you overuse it, though). Sometimes even a little bit of work can generate a reason for people to link to you.” His point resonates true, if you don’t want to alienate your readers you can’t relay on controversial titles at every turn of the page, in fact even some of today’s most controversial writers from the rights Brietbart and O’Reilly to the lefts Kevin Drum (Mother Jones) and James Fallows (The Atlantic) know to avoid overusing titles that draw controversy to their sides points. Do they use grandiose statements from time-to-time, sure they do, but they also employ leading sentences and the other methods used in this article to help them draw in readers while providing the information their title promises. Do you have any link-baiting tricks you care to share with our readers? Get backlinks to your Blog! If you are looking to promote your blog and get high quality backlinks from a PR6 2003 domain then Blogsearchengine.com is for you. For as little as $14.99 you can submit your blog and have a review written and published there with a backlink to your website or blog, we accept all niche!

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