May
9
Blogging and Search Engine Marketing
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, blogging | 5 Comments
My First Effort
I launched my Online Social Networking blog on November 6, 2007 with my first post, Here We Are.
I was a blogging and search engine optimization newbie.
You might remember my earlier post, “You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going!” I made a plan and got started.
My strategy was to attract readers at social networking sites such as MySpace and Yuwie, and at the same time build a strong presence in the search engines.
I chose to write about social networking because of the large amount of experience I had with online social networking and social networking sites, and I selected the name of this blog and its principal keywords accordingly.
My blog took form over a period of several months with a few false starts and reversals. I kept writing week after week and networking and strategizing while waiting for my search engine marketing to kick in.
I joined MyBloglog and Entrecard to connect with other bloggers and entice them to visit my site. At Entrecard I made new friends.
One, a gentleman named Marcus Hochstadt, has helped me enormously. Not only has Marcus given me lots of encouragement, but through a contest he organized and ran on his Internet Business Guide blog, he also helped me gain more than fifty good inbound links to my blog. This helped my Google Page Rank.
Moving Up in Google
Page rank is Google’s measure of a site’s authority. It’s a major factor in Google’s determination of a site’s position in search results.
Having your site shown by Google and other search engines on page one of the results when people search for your targeted keywords is highly desirable and is the primary goal of search engine optimization.
As my credibility increased, and my page rank went from zero to one and from one to two I moved up in the search engine results and saw large increments in the number of visitors Google was sending my way each day.
I started tracking my blog’s traffic late January using Google Analytics. At that time Google was already providing me with a couple of visitors per day. The following chart shows how my results improved over time. Click on the chart to view a larger much larger version.
On a good day now I receive about 30 visitors. This will continue to grow over time, and I’ll keep you posted.
You Can Do It Too
I’m teaching a free course on blogging, search engine optimization and social media marketing. You’ll learn all the techniques I’ve discovered and how you can apply them yourself.
A wide range of social media marketing training courses is available at My Private Classroom for Marketers.
Subscribe to my newsletter at my free social media training site.
If you’re interesed in harnessing the synergy of blogging, social networking sites and search engine optimization, visit my Blog Marketing and SEO Training.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
May
7
Rationale for Social Networking
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, communication | 1 Comment
Last November I examined the popularity of social networking sites.
In a series of four posts I examined the reasons I believed that online social networking was very relevant:
- “High Tech/High Touch” - As sterile technology increasingly impacts our lives, we crave greater and greater intimacy to offset it.
- Digital Age - Our technical capablity permits, even inspires us, to share multi-media digital files with our friends, family and colleagues that contain valuable information, memorable experiences and enjoyable entertainment.
- Communication - Online social networking sites are capable of providing us with the functionality that e-mail did in the past plus a big additional benefit, file sharing.
- Search Engine Optimization - More and more marketers are turning to social networking both to connect with users and to get free traffic. Traffic comes from within the community and, thanks to the search engines, from without as well.
On March 24th I looked at Social Networking vs. Advertising and how people tend to approach social networking with an advertising mindset. If you haven’t seen that post, I highly recommend it.
My good friend Ivo Jackson, a very gifted writer, wrote a blog post April 8, the 7 Reasons Why You Should Do More Networking Than Selling that looked at networking from another angle.
Ivo provides an excellent rationale for social networking that applies to offline as well as online social networking. These are the points she makes:
- People don’t like to be sold.
- Selling only works when people are ready to buy, and most of your network is not ready.
- People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
- Selling yourself or your brand is easier than selling your product or service.
- The law of averages is real - long term success is relative to the size of your network.
- If you help people get what they want, you will eventually get what you want.
- If you expect a great harvest, you must first plant some seeds.
Visit Ivo’s blog and read the complete article.
I wish to add just one point that I made in my March 24th post. Networking allows you to determine what people really want so that you can customize your offer to them.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
May
6
The SpiderWeb Marketing System
Filed Under Alerts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News | 60 Comments
History Repeating Itself
Pay It Forward for Profits, a quasi downline club pretending to be a funded proposal, collapsed last year. I hoped people would learn a lesson from it.
Members were funneled into marginal programs such as GDI and Empowerism for the sake of the income streams they provided — and perhaps too because the Pay It Forward founders had a prior interest in those programs. Members had sought to promote their primary businesses when joining PIF4P, but that idea typically got lost in the shuffle.
As Diane Hochman teaches in My Private Classroom webinars, marketing systems are simply not sustainable. They implode once a large enough number of users adopt or tout the system.
Rather than develop or teach systems and shortcuts, Diane Hochman and I teach key leadership skills and offer excellent social media marketing training.
After all, isn’t it better to invest a few months to develop strong marketing and communication skills that will serve us a lifetime than to invest the same effort in a system that might make us a few fast bucks if we’re lucky?
It’s not good to rely solely on a marketing system to build a business, but when the system itself is the product, as was the case with Pay It Forward for Profits, then the ultimate end comes quickly, usually within a year or two, and the program is completely wiped out.
Unfortunately most people don’t learn. They blame their result on bad luck or external circumstances and jump on one of the next bandwagons to come along.
As Alexander Pope said, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” and new marketing schemes appear every week.
Caution Recommended
What’s astonishing about The Spiderweb Marketing System is how closely it resembles Pay It Forward. When I signed up and looked inside, I could hardly believe my eyes. There was GDI front and center, just as it was in PIF4P.
That’s where the automated blogs are set up. Global Domains is the first paid component of this free system.
Hmm. Did I just say that?
I guess the system isn’t free. Users buy overpriced web services for $10 per month from GDI in order to use The SpiderWeb Marketing System.
When you get to the Direct Matches* sign up, you really can sign up for free. However, if you do, you won’t be able to implement the Direct Matches piece of the traffic system — better pay another $10 per month for that. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern here.
Ever hear of bait-and-switch?
Sorry. Let’s call it upsell.
There are multiple income streams — some pretty good. And there’s no made-up story about funded proposals like with Pay It Forward for Profits — also good. However, I wish they were up front about the cost. Spider Web is not a free system.
Many people will join Spider looking for multiple streams of income, but instead they’ll find themselves saddled down with multiple streams of outgo.
Oh, there is one other thing. In addition to clogging the Direct Matches MyMail system with spammy messages, The SpiderWeb Marketing System is a proponent and proliferator of automated blogs.
An automated blog is a system generated blog. The system creates the blog and pumps posts into the blogosphere faster than you can say “global warming”.
I just though of a name for this new phenomenon, it’s a blog infestation.
Okay. Needs some work. Give me some time. I’ll think of a better one.
All kidding aside, I can’t understand why somebody would want to spend hours spamming members at Direct Matches and Yuwie while polluting the blogosphere on auto-pilot.
There’s a moral issue too which I hope to discuss in detail in a future post. For now, consider this. When somebody visits a blog, they assume that it’s the journal of a real live person — not the fiction of a computer program. How can this type of impersonation be right?
Kimball Roundy, creator of the Spider System, has given us something interesting to watch. We’ll get to see how Google and the other search engines cope with his quasi-blogs and how visitors react to them as well. We’ll also get to see if automated blogs are really scalable and if a substantial numbers of people actually make money with them.
Meanwhile please be careful. If you see a low hanging spider web, duck!
Speaking of ducks, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. I wish we could still say that about a blog. 
*Direct Matches happens to be one of my favorite social networking sites. Too bad it’s going to be overrun yet again with spammers. I was so relieved when Pay It Forward fell by the wayside. Now I’ll have to put up with another wave of spamming for a year or so until The Spider Web Marketing System runs its course.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Apr
24
Don’t Follow the Flock
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 2 Comments
Tonight Diane Hochman speaking on a free My Private Classroom webinar revealed the top seven Internet screw-ups of the average marketer.
My favorite was following the flock.
Facebook is hot. Very hot. There are scores of top networkers on the Facebook scene.
Is that where you want to be? Do you want to follow the flock to Facebook in the hope of successfully competing with some of the world’s greatest networkers?
You might be successful. But instead, why not carve out a niche for yourself somewhere else? There are hundreds of social networking sites. Why not lead the flock instead of following?
Whenever everybody zigs, be a leader and zag. If they zag, you zig.
Diane made a number of other excellent points. Then she summed up her insightful and inspiring talk with the following advice. Above all, you should use common sense and be yourself.
For an invitation to the next free My Private Classroom webinar, complete the subscription form on my Social Networking Project site devoted to online social networking and social media marketing training.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Apr
15
Online Social Networking: Quantity vs. Quality
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
On April 4 in Building a List with Online Social Networking I discussed the role of online social networking in permission-based marketing.
When you add a friend at one of the social networking sites, you are adding that person to your list, and at the same time you’re adding yourself to his or her list. It’s reciprocal list building.
You’ll readily agree that a tiny list is not likely to get you far. Right?
You must build a large list. But how large? And do you focus on quantity or quality?
Whether you have 100 or 500 or 5,000 people on your friends list, you aren’t going to be able to have a regular intimate dialog with all of them. So why opt for smaller rather than larger?
In Stan Relihan’s interview with Ron Bates, the most connected networker on LinkedIn with around 40,000 direct connections, Ron answers the question quite succinctly. He says that “there is quality in quantity”.
In other words, the larger your list, the more people there will be who are just the ones you’re looking to meet. Some relationships will remain superficial while others will become strong friendships.
Ron also discusses the importance in business today of what he refers to as an “additive online presence”. Before somebody does business with you they’re likely to Google you to see what comes up. That’s your online presence. Each place you network, post an article or bookmark a site adds to that presence. This you may recall is a subject we touched on last month in Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence and is frequently discussed at My Private Classroom for Marketers.
I encourage you to listen to Stan’s interview with Ron Bates and Stan’s other online social networking podcasts. You’ll find loads of gems.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Apr
6
Social Media Marketing Training
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 2 Comments
My Private Classroom for Marketers
For the past two years I have been showing people how to use social networking sites to make new friends and build their permission based marketing lists. Some of my conference calls are recorded and archived on my social media marketing training site.
I have helped many marketers to get started in online social networking and have received positive feedback from them.
In November I started blogging.
As I was optimizing my blog for the search engines, not only did I become interested in seo, I developed equal interest in social bookmarking and social media marketing. There are many hundreds of social media sites. Some of my favorites that include Digg, Qassia, StumbleUpon and Twitter are listed on my blog’s sidebar.
I mentioned one morning to my friend Tom Long that I was looking to learn more about social media sites. He suggested that I look into My Private Classroom for Marketers. I followed his advice and became part of My Private Classroom that very day.
My Private Classroom has scores of webinars every month on many different aspects of social media marketing. While most training is for members only, they also offer free social media training.
What attracted me most to MPC however was their expertise and classes in video marketing. They teach members how to create and edit videos, as well as how to distribute and promote them through YouTube and other video sites.
I made my first video a couple of weeks ago which you can find in my post, Social Networking vs. Advertising. It’s a “quickie” video. There’s no actual video in the video.
In order to become a member of My Private Classroom, I needed to join Leaders Club. Leaders Club sells leads, but I don’t use leads. Purchased leads don’t work very well. I only wanted access to the classes that are free to My Private Classroom’s Leaders Club Team. I joined Leaders Club as a training only member, and that was my entrée into MPC.
I attended about ten webinars since joining and enjoyed them all. The best ones for me were the ones about video. Another favorite was a live demonstration of MySpace networking.
I look forward to conducting webinars for My Private Classroom, perhaps as soon as May. I would like to teach about keywords and keyword research. Perhaps I will also teach about blogging and how to network online with other bloggers.
Several people have joined My Private Classroom through me, and I am personally mentoring them to help accelerate their learning.
New technology is changing the way we market every day, and I believe that leaders at My Private Classroom are acutely aware of this. They are doing an excellent job keeping abreast of the latest developments in the Web 2.0 social media platform and in mobile technology.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Apr
4
Building a List with Online Social Networking
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, communication | Leave a Comment
List building today isn’t the exclusive domain of autoresponders.
Sure, a reliable autoresponder is still a vital tool if you’re marketing on the Internet. However, online social networking and friend lists ought to weigh more heavily in your permission based marketing strategy.
I started realizing this in 2006 when I first joined MySpace. I noticed how much richer and more effective the two-way communication of social networking sites was than the ongoing monologue associated with e-mail marketing.
I always encourage my e-mail contacts to write me back, but few actually do. And I never learn enough about them, unless of course they choose to join me on MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie or one of the other online networking venues I frequent.
There is another big reason to incorporate online social networking in your online marketing repertoire.
Consider the ease with which you can add thousands of friends on MySpace compared to the cost and difficulty of building your autoresponder list. Whether you use one of the “friend adders” and risk suspension of your profile by the networking site owner, or whether you add friends manually, it’s still much more straightforward to build a permission based marketing list through social networking than it is using more conventional opt-in list building techniques.
I myself do both. I add new subscribers to my autoresponders on a regular basis and simultaneously add new contacts to my friend lists on LinkedIn, MySpace and Yuwie. I have a good reason for doing so.
Not withstanding my previous remarks, it’s easier for me to broadcast a message on demand to my opt-in list than it is to my social networking friends.
Most people check their e-mail at least once a day. If they want to hear from me, they will.
If I post a bulletin on MySpace they can easily miss it. I have to post it several times each day to keep it “on top”. And if they don’t log in, or even worse, if they’ve abandoned their profile, they won’t see the message at all.
So why should you put all your eggs in one basket? Diversify. E-mail people and contact them through multiple sites and through multiple channels on each site to maximize your message delivery and response rate.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Apr
1
Narrowing Blog Focus
Filed Under Announcements, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, communication | 2 Comments
After much consideration and discussion with my friend Janice Weinberg, I have decided to limit the scope of this blog to online social networking, social media, and personal development.
There are other places to promote her site and her book. Keeping a narrow focus will better serve my readers and help the search engines.
I appreciate your readership and support. I encourage your participation. Sincere comments will be rewarded with a follow-link back to your website.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Mar
24
Social Networking vs. Advertising
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 8 Comments
I just made my first video, a replay of my August 8, 2007 conference call.
It’s too long to upload to YouTube, so I uploaded it to Google. I learned how to make the video in My Private Classroom for Marketers.
It’s all about offline and online social networking, and about how networking differs from advertising. Hope you like it!
I recommend looking and listening, especially if you’ve ever used Direct Matches or any of the other social networking sites. Without further ado, here’s my video.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Mar
18
Social Networking Sites: Your Web Presence
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, blogging | 3 Comments
Google™ Larry Brauner and you’ll find several pages of entries that pertain to me. A dozen entries or so link to profile pages in various social networking sites. Several of them link to pages in this blog.
In a recent post I listed ”web presence” as one of the Top Reasons Why I Blog. Blogging is a marvelous way to build a web presence.
What about online social networking?
We think of social networking sites as places to meet, network and communicate with people. This is true.
But consider this: Online social networking sites are hosts to personal profiles. These profiles showcase you to fellow networkers, and at the same time they build your Internet presence, Web 2.0 social media style.
You are able to join a practically unlimited number of social networking sites and post your profile. Many of them will let you link to your blog or other favorite website. Post a profile that “brands” you. Do not post blatant advertisements.
I close with a note of caution: Don’t try networking actively on more than one or two social networking sites. You’ll spread yourself too thin and fail to develop the credibility and key relationships you’re looking for.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Mar
17
Don’t Make This Mistake
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, blogging | 1 Comment
Since I submitted my last post listing the Top Reasons Why I Blog I had an important exchange with a gentleman who I will help with his blogging.
He said that he wanted to write a blog for self-branding, and that he didn’t really care much about keywords.
I told him that he’d be better off to define his keyword niche and build on it, so that he could earn his rightful place in the search engines. Why shouldn’t he grow his personal brand and his search equity at the same time?
When I set up this blog last November my goals were fuzzy. I made frequent title and meta tag changes. This hurt my credibility with the search engines and delayed my progress. I believe that had I not done so, my page rank would now be 2 or 3 instead of 1, and I would be further along in my marketing.
Keyword research is very important. I’m acquiring a keyword tool that will help me make more informed and decisive keyword decisions.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
Mar
12
Top Reasons Why I Blog
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Search Engines, blogging | 16 Comments
We all like lists.
Now that I’m blogging for a few months, it’s time to list my top reasons why I blog.
If you blog, feel free to share your top reasons for blogging. If you don’t, perhaps my list will motivate you to start.
So here we go. These are the top reasons why I blog:
- I value a web presence, and blogging is the cornerstone of my web presence.
- It was easy to get started.
- Blogging organizes my ideas.
- It helps me communicate and to disseminate my ideas in posts sucha as Critical Success Factors.
- It tests my ideas.
- It preserves my ideas.
- My blog can provide value for my readers.
- My blog is a free sample of me.
- Blogging helps establish my credibility.
- It’s a form of online social networking.
- It works well with social networking sites and other social media sites.
- Blogging helps implement my personal branding strategy.
- It attracts people to me.
- I can blog to promote people, products and services.
- I can blog to create viral marketing.
- Blogging is interactive. I can use it to share my opinions about business in posts such as The SpiderWeb Marketing System and ASD Ad Surf Daily Cash Generator and allow readers to provide feedback.
- Blogging endears me to the search engines.
- I can use it to stake out search engine keyword real estate. You can learn more about this from my Blog Marketing and SEO Training series.
- Blogging anchors me.
- It builds my writing muscle.
- It’s a learning experience.
- Blogging helps me with my personal development.
- It helps me reflect.
- It helps me develop consistency.
- It sets an example for others.
- Blogging is cool.
- Blogging is fun.
Don’t miss any posts. Register, it’s easy, or subscribe to my RSS feed!
|
|
|
|
|
-
Blog Syndication
-
Blog Statistics
