Top 10 Link Building Tips for Bloggers Posted: 12 Sep 2013 12:07 AM PDT Are you a blogger? Are you disappointed with you search engine results you get? Are you unsure how to promote your content? If the answer to these questions is "yes" then you are in the right place. In this article we'll go through the ten link building ideas and tricks that will increase your traffic and help you promote your blog. You need to ensure you stay away from poor quality spam strategies and focus on quality, because the search engines are more discerning than ever. Top Link Building Tips for Bloggers Links With organic search results the key is to have top quality content that is both useful and interesting. If your content is rubbish then no one will share it, no one will read it, and no one will promote it. If your content really does add value to the lives of your visitors then people will share it with their friends, colleagues, and family members. Top Tip No. 2 – Make Your Content Easily Shared As well as making your content top quality you have to think about content that will be shared by your readers and followers. Statistics, infographics, images, reports, videos, e-books, tutorials and so on are high value content that people are likely to point to. They can also be shared through social media very easily. Think about making your content aesthetically pleasing too by using good images and media. Top Tip No. 3 – Ensure Your Website is User Friendly Often we are tempted to use certain strategies to build our websites. We may pop images in straight from our cameras; we may use slideshows; we may hide certain content from view. Some of these will actually harm our search engine ethics. Use images that are fast loading. Avoid cluttered and messy pages. Ensure that your content is easy to view, easy to share, and easy to consume. Focus on your reader and you will get rewards for your efforts. If you focus on search engine marketing, or take short cuts, you may well miss the points all together. Top Tip No. 4 – Create Frequently Asked Questions and Resource Pages It's a well known fact in the search engine world that people enjoy linking to information that is useful. Frequently Asked Questions and resource pages are two types of content that are amongst the best linked in the web. If you get some of your top topics in a single place and collate the information into FAQ's, you'll likely get lots of links. Resource pages that collate information to other websites can even be useful. Top 10's, Top 20's, Top 30's, are always very good. Top Tip No. 5 – Create Summary Pages When you have a website it's always good to create summaries on your industry, on a certain time period or on certain topics. If you have fantastic quality summary pages that round up the topics very well then people will share them. Top Tip No. 6 – Create Useful Documents and Templates Many people are online looking for Excel Spreadsheets, worksheets, templates, and documents that they can use as a starting point for their projects. By providing these you will be able to dramatically increase the number of links to your site, as people point to them through Facebook, Twitter, and from other websites. Top Tip No. 7 – Use Guest Posts Guest posts are terrific a way to drive incoming links. You need to source good quality niche related blogs that will post your links and then provide top quality content for them to publish. You'll get a twofold benefit. Firstly, you will get the link value from the website. Secondly, you may well get access to an audience who then find out about your brand. Top Tip No. 8 – Become a Writer for Other Websites When you blog about niche topics you may well receive approaches from other websites to provide content and information. Much like guest posts, contributing for these websites in the form of interviews, volunteer contributions and so on can be a great way to get incoming links. Top Tip No. 9 – Make Your Website Optimized but Search Friendly You really do have to think about your reader when you are writing a guest post but you also need to think about getting your keywords in, synonyms in, and ensure you get a healthy balance of keyword promotion in your posts. If you stuff your post with keywords, you'll get search penalties, or no value for your content whatsoever. Make search engine friendly, quality content, and think about your meta tags and titles too. Top Tip No. 10 – Redevelop Your Content If you make some really good content that works then think about redeveloping it and repositioning it for different websites around the web. You could publish your content on PR websites, article directories and even in magazines, newspapers, and on industry websites. If you want to really get the most for your ideas and efforts, then why reinvent the wheel when you know something works and is popular. You can point to the popularity of the content when you are promoting the content. So there you have it, ten top tips for bloggers in their link building efforts. If you follow these guidelines, and really do create top quality content that people enjoy and value, you'll have links flowing into your website in no time at all.  |
What’s the Inspiration Behind Your Blog and Business? Posted: 11 Sep 2013 10:57 AM PDT Everyone has a story about why they started their first blog and how they turned it into what it is today. While I’m writing this post on BloggingTips.com, my first and “priority” blog will always be ZacJohnson.com. This is the blog I started in 2007, and today it's one of the driving forces behind the success of my business. So why did I start ZacJohnson.com and how did I get it to where it is today? Without going into all of the details, I’ll tell you a little story. When I was in high school and around the age of 15, I started to use the internet and knew there was a way to make money online. First, I came across some banner ad networks that would let you install a toolbar on the computer, and you would make a few cents an hour for them to show banner ads while you used the internet. Then I started creating and selling 468×60 banner ads for people with web sites in AOL chat rooms. Then I came across web hosting affiliate programs and pitched them to businesses in AOL chat rooms as well. These were all fine and dandy but not really a legitimate and long-term business model. It was then that I came across the power of affiliate marketing and Amazon’s affiliate program. Through the use of both of these models I was able to start generating six figures a year while in high school. In 2000 my dad and I flew across the country to California to attend Commission Junction University, which was for all of the big affiliate marketers and merchants that used their network. This was the first internet marketing event I ever went to, and I was also the youngest kid there. It was amazingly cool and definitely kick-started me in the right direction. I still talk to a few of the people I met at the first event today… 13 years later! So long story summed up… I created ZacJohnson.com in 2007 because I had a lot of stories and advice to share. Since launching the blog, I’ve been able to meet a ton of people and it’s really completed changed the way I run my business and the opportunities I’ve had in life. It Wouldn’t Be Possible If…As much as I would like to think that I’m great at business, I know it all wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t surrounded by great people. This includes my sister and parents – especially my dad, who flew me out to conferences and still comes with me to them today. Of course, my lovely wife Reena has always been there by my side as well.They say you are a collection of the five closest people around you. Surround yourself with awesome, great and successful people and you are that much more likely to be successful. You Also Need Drive and Passion! We couldn’t talk about success and business without mentioning “passion”. It really is the driving force behind every super successful entrepreneur and business. This isn’t just a 9-5 job that we are working to make someone else rich… THIS IS OUR LIVES! We need to eat, sleep and breathe this stuff on a daily basis and we accept nothing else but success. Yes… these are the components that are responsible for the inspiration and success behind not only my blog and business… but also my life. Visa understands what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and they have created a great infographic which I have posted below.  I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa's. Visithttp://facebook.com/  |
The Importance of Proper Blog Setup for Branding Purposes Posted: 11 Sep 2013 07:31 AM PDT Are you looking to establish an online brand that is authoritative, that consumers can relate to, and that casts you as a true industry expert and thought leader? If so, there are few tools more effective than a blog. These days, it is by no means hyperbolic to say that all companies need a strong blog presence, as a blog can serve as the centerpiece of their online brand-building efforts. With that said, not all company blogs are created equal. There are some key questions to consider as you seek to set up your blog—like should you establish the blog on your main domain, as a subdomain, or as an entirely separate domain? Is it better to use a blog from WordPress or from Blogger? Companies that are serious about online brand management need to think through the pros and cons that come with each of these different options.  Blog Setup on a SubdirectoryA recent Search Engine Watch article illuminates some of the distinguishing characteristics of a subdirectory blog. This, the article maintains, is usually the best approach, for most companies—though this is by no means a hard and fast rule. The major advantage of using a subdirectory to set up your company blog is that it allows you to add regular, fresh content updates to the root domain, which in turn improves Google visibility. Additionally, when the blog is properly promoted, you can gain deep links from other websites and social media channels.There are a couple of cons to note, however. The main one is that using a subdirectory does not provide your brand with an additional SERP listing. For those more interested in using a blog for branding than online brand management, this is a major downside.  Blog Setup on a SubdomainMeanwhile, for companies zealous for reputation management—eager, perhaps, to subdue an article from a site like Pissed Consumer or Ripoff Report—blogging on a subdomain can add an additional piece of online real estate. Of course, the cons include a lack of fresh content updates for the root domain; when your blog content gets hits, it adds little value to your primary domain. Blog Setup on a Separate DomainStill other companies prefer to set up entirely separate, "unofficial" blogs. In some select cases, this may be a good online brand management strategy. With a totally separate blog, you can better establish your blog as an "unbiased" or independent presence, and, if the content is really spot-on, the blog can become a respected industry resource. With that said, it is hard to utilize this strategy in a way that really adds to the prestige of your brand.A final consideration is that companies can always start their business blogs on WordPress.com or Blogger—but do either of these platforms really serve the company's interests? They do not necessarily do much to establish the brand as one of prestige or authority, and they certainly do not add fresh content to the root domain. They are easy—but for companies serious about online brand enhancement, ease is probably not reason enough to go this route. |