Guest Blogging Challenges and How to Avoid Them

Many people decide to guest post on other people’s blogs to help increase traffic to their own websites and to receive a byline on their article. Guest blogging is an excellent SEO tool because most bloggers will allow the guest blogger to link back to their own website within the article. 

There are so many topic possibilities and various ways to promote your own products through guest posts, given that the blogger accepts the topic. 

While guest blogging can have countless advantages, many people are not sure where to start and may run into problems along the way. Consider the following tips to help you when guest blogging.

Coming Up With Ideas
The first step to guest posting is to come up with topic ideas. Before you ask a blogger if you can guest post on their site, you should have an idea of what you want to write about, what stance you will take in the article and what your title will be.

The first thing you want to consider when brainstorming topics is if it relates to your product. If you want to include a link to your website or talk about your business, you should be writing a topic that connects in some way to the page you are going to link to. If you simply want to guest post in order to get your name out there on the Internet, then try to come up with a topic you are knowledgeable about or are interested in. This helps to make the process run smoothly and helps to keep readers interested.

Pitching the Topic to the Blog Owner
After you decide on a topic, the next step is to contact the blog owner of the blog you intend to post on. This is one of the biggest challenges that many people have. You need to know how to decide on a quality blog to post your article on as well as know how to approach the blog owner.

When searching for blogs to post on, try to find a blog that receives numerous visitors every month. This will get more people reading your content and visiting your site. It is important that you search for blogs that relate to the topic you are interested in writing about. Think about what general subject your article would fit under, such as lifestyle, finance, health, Internet, hobbies, etc., and look for top blogs that specialize in that niche. In addition to finding a blog that your article would work well on, you also have to determine if they accept guest posts. If they do, the website will usually have a page that outlines the blogger’s guidelines. Make sure that you read through these guidelines and that you follow the directions before contacting the blog owner.

Before you pitch your topic to the blog owner, there are several things that you can do to increase your chances of getting your topic approved. First, interact with the blog. Read the articles posted to get a good idea of the voice, comment on various posts so that the blog owner recognizes you as a frequent reader and never overlook reading through the guest posting guidelines. Next, you will need to pitch your topic to the blog owner. 

When you email the blog owner, put a title in the subject box letting them know that you request a guest post. Greet them nicely, and provide your name, the topic that you would like to write about, and your expertise in the topic area. Offer any other important information that would help them in making a decision about your post, such as a link to your website or sample of work or a description about the article you want to write. Always be polite, follow their suggestions and make sure to write your email with proper spelling and grammar.

Writing a Quality Guest Post
The next challenge that many people have is writing a quality post. When writing a post, try to keep your own voice while matching that of the blog. Follow any word count limits suggested by the blog owner, and make sure to write in a clear manner with appropriate spelling and grammar. Keep the article interested, and above all, edit your piece several times to ensure that the article reads well.

Researching
Another important part of writing a quality post that many people struggle with is completing their research. Choosing a topic that you already have knowledge about is a great way to reduce the amount of research you need to do, and it adds credibility to your piece. If you still require research, gather several quality articles on the topic, and add the information to your article in your own words. Never copy from other sources, and make sure that you never use an article that you have already published somewhere else. This is bad for SEO and will cause your guest post to be rejected.

Follow Up by Engaging the Community
The last aspect of guest blogging that many people fail to do is to follow up by engaging their readers after the post is published. You can do this by using social media sites to promote the post as well as respond to all comments made on the article. Bookmark the page that your article is published on, and check back often to respond to others.

This has been a guest post from Naked Business Consultants, who are the experts at capital raising if you're aiming to take your business to the next level.

5 Tips For Dramatically Improving Your Display Ad Conversions

Today's guest post from By Marc Poirier, CMO/Co-Founder, Acquisio, is all about improving your display advertising conversions. If you want to make the most of your online marketing, it's vitally important that you understand how to make the most of every dollar - improving conversions and seeing a positive return on your investment.

It’s not so long ago that display advertising was considered to be on the brink of extinction, and all but a dead resource. Targeting audiences was difficult, and attempting to make deals with publishers that were mutually beneficial was near to impossible.

Much of that has changed in the last couple of years, and the Google Display Network (GDN) has certainly been an instrumental part of the evolution. However, the GDN experiences many of the same problems that early display networks endured, and it’s very important to be vigilant about how and where your ads are displayed, as well as to whom they’re shown.

If we look at the problem from a point of finding solutions, then we see five main areas that marketers can pinpoint. We can dig into these deeper in order to ensure that a decent ROI is achievable through the GDN by lowering your CPA and increasing the number of conversions that you get.

What is important to remember about these five things is that each area needs to have a great deal of attention paid to it to get the most for your advertising dollar. They all work in concert with each other, but when one is not working at its optimum level, the entire initiative can suffer as a result. The following are five tips to maximize your GDN investment and improve CPA.

1. Create Keyword Lists
Start by creating lists of around 20 keywords, and then put them into action and start testing them against each other. The best results are usually achieved by allowing them to run for at least two days, as you’ll need time for them to duke it out and get a decent amount of click data, which you can then use to declare a winner.

Don’t stop at doing this just once. Constantly create new keyword lists, and have them compete, eliminating low performers, and elevating sets that do better.

2. Configure Ad Placements
There are times when even the most seasoned PPC pro can be surprised by the places on the network that lead to success. That said, however, general experience shows that the pages that perform the best in any campaign are the ones that are most closely related to your advertising topic.

On a daily basis, you should be combing your Analytics to find pages that are either getting high numbers of impressions and no clicks, or pages with high CTR and few conversions. Also, be on the lookout for pages that are performing well, and add them to your Managed Placements. Be this a domain, or an actual page on a domain that performs well, you can add that to your list and dedicate more resources to it.

3. Manage Your Bid Pricing
Certain topics are more popular at given times of year. This is something that every marketer knows, lives, and breathes. What’s interesting that we have found on the GDN is that, when these terms become more popular, you can actually lower your bid prices. It’s counter intuitive, but true. More volume means more opportunity.

With good placements and actively progressing keyword lists, you’ll be able to adjust your bids at a higher strategic level, and get on pace for lowering your CPA on a daily basis. There really is no harm in attempting to find your sweet spot several times a day.

4. Test Ads
Any good PPC pro knows that one should have at least two ads running in tandem, and this is true in this space as well. Defining your creative at the beginning is important, but the people who really define what your ad should be, and how it should look, are your audience members. Give them several to choose from, and eliminate those that don’t engage, and keep going with the good ones. But never, ever stop testing.

5. Watch Your Daily Budgets
This is something that you can’t keep your eye on close enough. Campaign budgets can start to get spent on a whole lot of nothing if you’re not careful. Therefore, paying close attention to the daily budgets of your campaigns is a non-negotiable aspect of successful advertising initiatives.

Those campaigns that are not performing well should be cut down to allow for more resource dedication to those that are. This keeps the entire account healthy, and gives you more working capital. With this strategy done the right way, you will extend your reach and increase your potential conversions.

With the amount of decisions that need to be made on a daily basis, it’s easy to see why some will opt for a tool to manage their accounts, but it can be done manually if you’re able to dedicate the time to staying on top of all of these aspects. Stay on top of all of them, and you’ll be able to lower your CPA while increasing the number of conversions you achieve, and enjoy greater visibility into your results on a daily basis.

Marc Poirier is a professional Internet Marketer with more than a decade experience in the Search industry. He is Co-Founder and CMO of Acquisio where he leads all sales and marketing activities. He often speaks at events like SES, SMX, Ad:Tech, TFM&A and OMMA, and writes columns and articles for various publications, including Search Engine Watch, Visibility Magazine, SES Magazine, and the Acquisio blog.

Marc began his entrepreneurial career in 1996 while working on his Ph. D. in Cognitive Science. That’s when he co-founded Webaxis Alliance, an interactive agency that worked on major Canadian web sites such as sympatico.ca and canada411.ca

Brand Update : RIP Tata Tion ( 2009-2011)

Tata Tion- the non-carbonated beverage drink from Tata Beverages has bite the dust. The brand which was derived from tea extracts and the differentiator was the presence of Ginseng which gave the drink a healthy proposition was discontinued merely after one year of existence . 

Although the product had good intentions, consumers gave it a lukewarm reception. Two factors may have affected the life of the brand a) Taste b) Price . Tion's taste may have acted as a big downer and it never appealed to the masses. Second factor is the price. Tion was very expensive and even though Tata launched a smaller SKU, the quantity was never enough to quench the thirst. That was also the first impression when I tried out the brand. 

Another issue was the segmentation. Tion was not able to clearly focus on its TG. Who would actually buy a product like Tion ? Tion infact tried to cater to every one hence the brand positioned itself very loosely. The tagline " Why Let Go " is a result of such a unfocused positioning. The brand at best would appeal to the set of consumers who wanted a healthier alternative to softdrinks and that is definitely not youngsters.

Tion was bit too early in targeting the mass using the health proposition. Although many experts harp on the trend towards healthy foods, the idea is still in the utopian stage and has not translated into purchases . 

Related Brand 

Tata Tion - Why Let Go

How to Host an Effective Facebook Competition For Your Business

Facebook has become a phenomenon and an invaluable marketing tool.  It is becoming increasingly popular as a space to host competitions and there are some key points to understand in order to run a successful Facebook promotion.

Understand the Rules of Facebook

The key point to understand is that all promotions must be run through a 3rd party app.  This is true in all cases even if the competition simply involves submitting a name.  Even though there are numerous competitions on Facebook which ignore this rule, they do so at the risk of having their Facebook presence shut down completely.  If the cost of using a 3rd party app would be prohibitive, it is possible to use Facebook to promote a contest which is being hosted elsewhere such as on a blog or a 3rd party website.

The 2nd most important rule is that all promotions on Facebook must be clear in their terms and conditions and these must be visible on the front page of the promotion.

Understand the Goal of the Competition

Is the aim of the competition to collect e-mail addresses for a mailing list, to drive traffic to a Facebook page or to guide users to an external website?  What is the current state of the platform and what changes will need to be seen for the competition to be judged a success?

Assessing the current state of the platform could be a good opportunity to see if anything can be done to make it more appealing before the competition starts.  Once the competition is in progress, it is important that no significant changes are made (unless they are connected with the competition). Otherwise, it will become difficult to impossible to judge whether the increase in traffic is due to the competition or due to the improvements to the platform.

Understand that Technology is a Delivery Method - Not a Goal

In many ways, running a successful Facebook competition is essentially identical to running any other sort of competition.

Make the effort needed to enter the competition commensurate with the prize on offer.  Users may leave their e-mail address for a small prize, but are unlikely to go to any great degree of effort unless the prize is very desirable.  A great way to find out what people find desirable is simply to ask current users what they would like to see as a competition prize.

Encourage users to make their friends aware.  Since the number of entrants in a competition reduces each individual's chances of winning, giving free entries in return for referring other people is a common strategy for encouraging people to spread the word.

Make sure that everything works as it should.  This is possibly the most fundamental rule of all; however it is surprising how often it is ignored.  Any questions must be checked and double-checked (both for accuracy and for spelling) and if the answers to them should be found on a website make sure they are there.  Likewise, check that the method for entering the competition works as it should and is regularly monitored for glitches, technical or otherwise.

Special guest post by Amy Harris who is a writer forExpert Marketwhich offers a free service to businesses, providing a sourcing tool for finding office equipment and business services. She enjoys helping businesses discover the best marketing strategy.

Totem Pens : Carving Out a Segment

Brand : Totem
Company : Win Pens Pvt Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 518

Totem is an interesting brand. You may not have seen an ad of this pen but this pen is selling like hot cakes in various markets across India. Totem ballpoint pens are manufactured by Win Pens Pvt Ltd which is based in Culcutta. 

What is so special about Totem is that this simple pen effectively met  the need of the customers. Forget the fancy expensive pens or the highly advertised ones because many does not serve the basic function as effective as Totem. Many customers have realized that products like these perform much better than the high profile ones. 

Totem which is priced at Rs 3 is now one of the fast selling brands in the category. There is strong demand for this brand among students and also from office segment. The reason being the utility. Many pens in the sub Rs 10 category have serious quality issues. Most of the pens smudge , are not ergonomic and often the ink gets messy . I have seen many students (during their exams) carrying a piece of cloth to remove the smudge from their gel pens which messes up their answersheets. Many consumers say that products like Totem has more quality than its expensive counterparts. 

Brands like Totem virtually created a new segment of Rs 3 pens. Consumers ask for Rs 3 pens and many well known brands have started selling their products in this segment. The success of these products can be attributable to 

a) Value For Money

b) Utility

c) Better Performance

The Rs 3 category is now getting crowded with many brands entering the space. Totem has not invested in any brand building activities. Its playing the commodity game and soon can be outperformed by more established players. The company will be losing a big opportunity if its not able to capitalize on the current demand. Right now consumers are not asking for specific brand in this category and its a matter of concern for brands like Totem. Brands like Nataraj, Linc etc are capitalizing on their brand's awareness to make their way into this high volume category and for Totem, its losing an opportunity to build a brand .

How To Use Social Signals To Dramtically Improve SEO

In order for your website to achieve the level of success you are looking for, you need to engage in some type of online marketing. Currently, search engine optimization and social media marketing are two of the best ways you can promote your website and drive targeted traffic to your business.

While SEO and SMM are two different entities, they are becoming increasingly intertwined thanks to the latest search engine algorithm updates released by Google. Google is now placing a larger emphasis on social signals to determine whether or not a website is providing its users with quality content. The thinking behind Google’s algorithm updates is that if your website does provide value to your readers, those readers will want to share it with their social circles via their social media accounts. If your website has a lot of backlinks coming from these social media websites, then it will be rewarded with a higher ranking in the search results.

Because of these recent Google algorithm changes, it is important for businesses to include social media marketing techniques with their SEO campaigns. This will allow your website to obtain the highest possible rankings within the search results.

How to Improve your Social Signals
There are a variety of ways that you can improve your website’s social signals in order to obtain a higher ranking within the search engine. One of the easiest strategies you can use is to include social media buttons on your website’s content. This will enable any visitor to your website to easily share your content through their social media accounts. If someone has a large following on a social media website, their followers may see your link posted on their account and share it with their followers, greatly improving your website’s credibility in the eye’s of the search engines.

Another way to improve your social signals is to actively market your website on the most popular social media websites. Creating a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest account for your business will allow you to raise the awareness of your company on those websites while simultaneously connecting with their users.

Once you have created your accounts, you will need to actively engage with people on those social media websites. By interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you will be able to form meaningful relationships with them. This will lead to those people following your account and seeing all of the new content that you produce.

After you start to build a following for your social media accounts, you will want to provide your followers with nothing but high quality content. When you provide your visitors with nothing but great content, you will become an industry leader and viewed as an expert in your field. This will allow your business to gain credibility and the trust of your followers. Once people view your business as an industry expert, they will be more likely to share your content with their social media followers and help build valuable backlinks for your website.

As search engines start to place more of an emphasis on social signals when determining where your website should be ranked, it is important for businesses to add social media marketing to their overall SEO strategy. With an increase of links coming from social media websites, a business’s website will move up the search engine results as Google will view the website as an authority figure.

Guest Post provided by Ben Sawyer.  Ben is well known blogger and Internet Marketing Strategist. Here is his advice about how to implement social signals into SEO to increase online visibility and gain more visitors, which he already implemented into a campaign he done for Vandko Candles, New York based company. 

Understanding Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO is about building online authority, digital reputation, and trust for your website. The quantity, quality, and relevance of the links that are attached to the website determine the quality of search result rankings.

When initiating a campaign to improve rankings for a leading brand, the focus was on off-page optimization and building authority for the site.  However, the existing authority was entirely dependent on the links that had already been established.  Enter "off page SEO".  The primary step to improve rankings and traffic was through the development of quality inbound links.

One must realize that off-page is more than link building. The way you diversify authority for your website, is through conversations people are having about brands, references they are making, and diversifying your link portfolio to establish your authority.

Link Building is the practice of building inbound links to create compelling authority around any item that is shared.

Compelling Content is the best way to optimize your website and other digital assets. Without compelling content it's hard to get a link building audience. The best way to earn relevant links from other sites to your site is through the development of compelling visuals, descriptive, and design, that excite others and are worth of being cross-promoted by other sites. As an example, something as simple as a chocolate chip cookie recipe or cupcakes are great items that can be used to promote food ingredients for the likes of Kraft and other major manufacturers. 

Co-Marketing is another opportunity for off-page SEO.  The effort of cross-promoting and marketing is a way of networking, and building relationships to create community.  When you can work with other companies to jointly market each other’s content, products, or services, you expand your reach and website authority. Co-marketing is similar to guest posting. A person has access to the other company’s networks, prospect, leads, or services, which ultimately increase reach. 

Social Media hasn't been on the radar as part of off-page SEO but it is now. The criteria around off page SEO is to build your reputation one step at a time and build community. The reputation created on social media is instant, and the authority established through various credentials can provide significant lift to your website authority in the eyes of Google and other major search engines. 

Public Relations or Public Affairs needs to be an integral part of your off-page SEO as well.  By having a well planned PR campaign that is optimized in such a way that it is easily shared can dramatically improve exposure. Positioning your communication as a message that needs to be shared as a fact or announcement is a powerful tool.  For example, if Kraft is expanding within the range of cookies, and adding more healthy cookies, it would really help to create sustainable messages around the sweet, and healthy benefits of the food, cookies.

In the above example, the quality of search result rankings would not be determined by the recipe of the food products that Kraft plans to promote, but by the publicity of social media efforts as others share recipes and tout health benefits. 

Using effective messaging an positioning can help to dramatically improve off-page SEO.  Whether you are creating original content that is easily shared or pushing messages via public relations, the more quality links you are able to generate to your site, the better!


Guest post from Karishma Sinha. An eye on consumers, and passionate about analytics and research tools that can make marketer stay educated about his or her creative instincts. I have worked in PepsiCo, and Quest International, managing product innovation for Snack products. In 2006, transitioned to the marketing services, and consulting world. Am a graduate from St.Xaviers, Mumbai, Master's from Symbiosis Pune, and a Full time MBA from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business, North Carolina. 

Pinterest Email... This is Cool!

This morning, when I rolled into the office and started trolling through my emails, I saw a letter from the founder of Pinterest.  As a casual user of Pinterest it certainly caught my eye.  The letter is a personal one that takes you inside a recent idea that was just launched, Secret Boards!

The concept is simple but brilliant.  Here's an excerpt from the email...

"I had two thoughts driving home from the hospital with my wife, Divya. The first was, “I can’t believe I’m a Dad.” The second was, “I hope I can get our new baby, Max, out of that new car seat when we get home.” During the first couple weeks, we started to figure out all the little things that are second nature for experienced parents...

"As usual, Divya was a few steps ahead of me. When our doctor suggested we buy a humidifier she said, “Oh, I already have one!” When I was getting Max ready for his first bath, she pulled out a neat homemade bath kit, complete with a tiny towel, comb and toothbrush..."

“How did you figure all this stuff out already?!” She looked at me and and cheerfully replied, “I just follow other parents on Pinterest!”

"Today, we’re excited to continue this tradition with a new feature we hope will make Pinterest even better—secret boards. Secret boards give you a place for things you’re not quite ready to share yet, like a surprise party, special gift ideas, or even planning for a new baby. We’re testing out the feature by giving everyone 3 secret boards. You’ll find them at the bottom of your profile. We can’t wait to hear what you think!"

—Ben & the Pinterest Team

You can see from the email, Ben took inspiration fro ma real life situation and applied it to his business.  Are you doing the same?  Taking inspired action is truly the key to success.  Also, I thought it was really cool that instead of announcing a new "feature", Pinterest made it personal and share the back story about it's creation.

Now that you have the inside scoop... starting Pinning and have a great weekend!

Godrej Aer : Aer it Out

Brand : Aer
Company : Godrej

Brand Analysis Count : # 517

Godrej has entered the Rs 300 crore Air Care market with the new brand Godrej Aer. Godrej was instrumental in developing the category of air-freshners in Indian market through the JV Godrej - Sara Lee. Ambi-Pur was the brand which had created this category in India. But in 2011, Sara Lee sold its personal care division to P&G and the brand Ambi-Pur has moved to P&G.

Not to be left behind in the category which Godrej's JV had created, the company was quick to launch its own brand Aer in the Indian market. Godrej Aer is now running its launch campaigns across the Indian market. 

The brand has started off with some thoughtful branding strategies. To being with, Godrej has chosen a very powerful brand name " Aer ".Aer which is the marketer's way of using the generic word " Air" .

Ambi-pur is the most visible brand in the air-freshner category in India. Air-Wick is another brand which is focusing on the home category . There are also many local and imported brands in this category.Odonil was one of the pioneers in the room-freshner category but some how this brand is restricted to washrooms ( pun intended). This lifestyle product is expected to see better growth in coming years. According to reports, this category is growing at the rate of 20% each year.

Godrej in the launch campaign is focusing on the car -freshner segment of the category. 

Aer has tried to tackle the market using two differentiating attributes. First factor is the design. Aer has put lot of thought into the design aspect of the container. The design is eye-catching and very contemporary. Second differentiator ( in car freshner) is the ON/OFF switch. The brand is harping on this factor in the television commercial .

Watch the ad here : Aer 

Godrej Aer's focus On/Off switch  as the key differentiator may not be sustainable since any competitor can easily replicate the feature. Launching the brand purely on this easily copy-able feature is a marketing mistake on the part of Godrej. Its also surprising to see that Godrej is downplaying the wonderful design element of the brand. The brand is focusing on functionality + fragrance as the main focusing point. The brand has the tagline  " Aer it Out " and has put its mission as to change the way air smells and spells. The brand has priced the product a little above the Ambi-Pur but I feel that the design will encourage many consumers to switch to this product for a trial.

Related brand

Ambi-pur

5 Important things to remember when planning your social media strategy

A lot of mistakes I see businesses making when joining social media networks is leaping in without a plan – or to put it more precisely – without a strategy. It’s something I think many of us overlook. After all, when we use something on a day-to-day basis for our own personal enjoyment (I mean, who doesn't log into Facebook during their lunch break or on their night-off?) we assume we can treat social media marketing with the same flippancy and casualness.

But social media marketing is just that, it’s marketing. You wouldn't jump head first into a print ad campaign without thinking about the marketing credentials and the strategy behind it first and you shouldn't jump head first into social media marketing either.

The sheer power of social media marketing has already been proven so don't waste your time trying to convince yourself of the potential opportunity. While I'm not claiming every company needs to hire a social media professional to plan out their strategy, what I do recommend is sitting down with your marketing team and answering a few questions, outlining a key points, and jotting down some ideas or key concerns.

1. Think about your demographic
Before you start posting status updates, think about who's going to be reading them and what time of day they're most likely to check their updates and news feeds. Take for example, if your main demographic included teenagers and school children, posting during school hours would be a big waste of time because they would be in class (hopefully) and wouldn't have access to their accounts. Posting during the evening however or during lunch break would be prime time for updates as this is when they'd be online and looking through updates.

2. Brand your pages
Your social profiles are just like your web pages and emails. They should all be branded. Make sure you've got your logo clearly and concisely displayed somewhere on your profile and make sure your colors and design features echo your websites in some way as well. Make sure these choices are consistent throughout your social networking too – because it’ll be confusing for customers and fans if not.

3. Set a budget
A great part of social media marketing is communicating with your customers and fan base, encouraging their interaction. While you don't need a budget for this initially, in order to drive your presence forward on a larger scale, you might want to set up competitions or give-away's. To do this effectively, you need to set aside a budget and a realistic one too. Do you want to give away smaller prizes on a regular basis, or do you want to give away a large prize once or twice a year? All these little details need to be taken into consideration for your promotions.

4. What are using social media for?
While social media is for encouraging brand communication and inevitably increasing traffic and sales, you need to consider what your customers and followers are interacting with you for. Are they following your updates because they're funny, or do you give away bargain discount codes? Do you post interesting and insightful content or are they following you because they get a behind-the-scenes look into your company? All these thing matter and once you've identified this pull, making updates become easier.

5. Set targets
Set yourself realistic targets on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Think about how many updates you want to post daily, and then (on a larger scale) how many likes and interactions you want on a monthly basis. Keeping track of these things is a great way to prove how worthwhile your work has been – but it’s also a good idea as you can see if your technique and strategy is actually working over time. If not – it might be time to try a different social network – or reevaluate the strategies you’d had in place.

By asking yourself these questions and taking the time to answer them honestly, you can dramatically improve your chances of social media success. The benefits of social media can be yours with a little planning and hard work.

This Guest Blog Post was provided by Elle-Rose Williams – who works with WhoIsHostingThis. You can find out more about them, here. 

Attract More Visitors To Your Blog - 9 Strategies...

Attracting more people to your blog is essential for improving your individual brand and monetizing your blog. In today's guest post, Korah Morrison shares her helpful traffic generation tips. Attract more visitors to your blog with these simple steps: 

1. The first method you may wish to think about is simple advertising. Advertising works and there are many methods you can use to advertise your blog--both online and offline. It will cost you a little bit of money, but its expense all depends upon how badly you want people to see your blog. 

2. You can try a guest post on someone else’s blog. This is where you add quality content onto someone else’s blog in return for their blog linking to yours. This will bring you direct traffic from the readers of the article who follow the link, and will help you to appear higher up in the search engine results pages. If you do wish to appear even higher in the search engine results pages you should consider the aspects of SEO. This is the act of making your blog post easier to read by the search engines, so that they list you higher up in their search results. Submit a sitemap to Google so that they list you in their search engine results. 

3. Do not be afraid to talk about it on social media. If you have followers or friends on social media platforms, then talk about your blog and encourage people to go and look at it. Talk about its topics and the angle you took on certain issues. 

4. Add a link from your email to your blog. Have one embedded at the bottom of your emails so that every single email you send out has a link to your blog from it. You may also add a link from your website if you have one. 

5. Allow people to link from your comment section, if you want them to comment and to keep coming back. Links are handy for rising higher in the search engine results pages, so people will happily keep coming back and commenting every week if you allow them to post links. 

6. Have an exciting or interesting title for your blog posts. A dull or boring one will not attract many visitors. Make sure that you write about the title you choose. Don’t add a title that is exciting and interesting if it has nothing to do with what your blog is actually about. Do not make your title misleading, but do make it exciting or interesting enough to grab people’s attention. Sometimes it is only the title of a blog that encourages people to even bother reading your blog.  

7. The use of social bookmarking. Put the plug social bookmarking. It is quite possible to get targeted traffic from these services. 

8. Compile lists. People love to read lists of any rules, tips, techniques, relating to important questions. Very convenient when all useful tips collected in one place. 

9. Commenting on other people's blogs. It is desirable to leave comments on popular blogs. And not just comment, but clever and useful comments. It could allow you become noticeable and get attention. Traffic from popular blogs is very useful. 

If you're struggling to generate traffic to your blog, consider these helpful hints.  Over time, by taking small actions in the direction of your goal, traffic will start to build.  Stick with it!

About the Author: Today's guest post is by Korah Morrison, writer on essay writing service and she likes to write about seo, blogging, social media and internet marketing.

Marketing New and Different!

What is it that makes someone stand up and take notice?  In marketing, it's what's new and different that catches the eye.  I recently had to address this issue with the SCOOP Internet Marketing Forum.  I started the forum a couple of years ago and have been blessed with a growing number of members. However, now I'd like to expand the platform to help as many marketers as possible find the answers they're looking for.  To do so, I have to begin asking some questions.

Where to Begin?
I thought long and hard about my forum and other forums I've joined in the past and asked that one difficult question.  "What's so great about the SCOOP forum?"  It's not an easy questions to ask yourself.  In fact, I'd like you to try the question out on your product, service, or business.  What is it that's truly unique about you?  How do customers benefit by purchasing your service above other service providers?

The question is difficult because it requires us to think of something new, different. After asking the question to myself I realized that:

--What I had to offer wasn't different
--Consumers could find similar information elsewhere
--I was making excuses for why I had a me-too solution

From Thought to Action
Once I realized that I wasn't offering anything of greater value than my competitors, other marketing forums, I had to begin asking a different question, "How CAN I make my forum different and better?"  Asking that questions really got me thinking.  It also made me realize that I should be working with others to share ideas and evaluate possibilities.

After just a short while we started to find a variety of things that we could do to enhance the forum (expanded profiles, design changes, exclusive content, etc.) to set us apart from the competition.  It was clear to me that once you start asking the right questions, you can do something to set you apart and rise above the crowd.  Keep this in mind the next time you're just getting by and need a change for your company, products, or services!