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Blogging Trends – Don’t Become A Boring Statistic

I was talking with Jen over at Redheadranting.com about some of the irritating trends in the blog world so of course I needed to post about it.

Blogs have taken over the internet.  They’re everywhere.  They are fun, smart, sarcastic and informative.  They make me laugh, cry, scream and rant.  I love finding a good blog,  (It’s like finding a good author – I read every single one of their books and keep searching for the next)  I’ll sign up for their newsletter, subscribe to their posts and look forward to reading whatever they blog about.

The thing is, the more I delve into the blogosphere in search of the next best blog I am confronted with an abundance of CRAP.  You can feel it the minute the window flickers open and the pretty pink butterflys float across your screen – CRAP – and you say to yourself, “Didn’t I just read this post on the last blog I read?”  I know how this happens – You started a blog, but you don’t know what to write about – it’s harder than you thought.  You get ideas from blogs you enjoy reading  and voila you got yourself a post – then you do it again, and again and again until your blog isn’t YOUR blog anymore but just a version, a stepchild, a poor example of what it could have been if you had made it YOUR blog and not tried so hard to look like the other 50 million blogs out there.

1.  Don’t Become a Stepford Wife

Make sure you keep your content your own.  Don’t copy what others are doing  just because you think it looks cool – it’s cool the first time, not the second, third, fourth, millionth time.

2. Make sure you know what you are talking about.

Choose a topic you are interested in.  Choose a topic you are knowledgeable of.  Choosing a topic just because it’s the “hottest” trend right now won’t help if you don’t know anything about it.  If you write about something that you are personally interested in, this would eventually manifest itself in your posts and the readers would see just how well informed you are and that would make them want to read more. So make sure that you always keep your information up to date and refreshing. Don’t post the same thing that others are posting, try to be unique and you’ll see that people would prefer your blog over the others.

3. Be consistent – Again, never stray from the subject you chose for your blog. If your blog is about shoes, then don’t start posting about origami unless you can somehow connect it with shoes.

This constant changing would confuse your readers and they would eventually lose interest. Basically, they came to your blog because they want to know about the latest in shoes not because they want to learn origami. Remember that you’ve exerted quite a bit of effort in getting readers, so don’t start losing them now.

4. Make regular posts – Make sure that your blog always has new and fresh content. The more updated you are with information and news regarding your chosen subject, the more people would come to your blog to read.

Another benefit that you can get from frequent posting is that this attracts the search engines to crawl your blog for the new posts and this would subsequently boost your blog’s search engine ranking. So keep your blog well updated with fresh content everyday.

Lastly, make your posts very easy to read. Big words are great for when you are trying to impress someone with an essay but for blogs, keep the words simple and easy to understand. You don’t want your reader to start scratching their heads trying to figure out what you might be trying to say. That would make them lose interest and lose you profits as well. So keep it light and simple.


Image -Julias Gallery

Mar 11, 2010 | 17 comments | View Post

Hitting Your Stride: Four Keys to Timing Your Blog

There are a number of important factors that go into the production of a first-class blog. Quality of content, the layout of the page, how best to integrate video, formal versus informal tone, each of these is a decision that must be made during the creation of the project. That all comes before more esoteric concerns, which include the integration of meta tags, link building, traffic generation, and keyword/SEO implementation.

Yet underlying these important issues is one that many people wrestle with: How often should the thing be updated? Innocuous as it sounds, post frequency is actually vital to the success of any content project, and especially to blogs. Equally, it is a surprisingly complex decision that can involve numerous factors. Time, place, and availability of content all have parts to play in determining just how often you need to update your blog.

Finding the Right Frequency

Blogging is an extension of the principles of marketing. You want to get your content the exposure you feel it deserves, so you market it as best you can to cultivate an audience. This involves doing the legwork and research necessary to act on good information, and testing your ideas while allowing room for adjustment as you work and grow. Chances are you will not hit the right rate of posting immediately, and that is all right as long as you’re prepared to adjust when it’s required.

No single article can cover every eventuality of course, but we can break down a few core principles to get you thinking in the right direction. The key is to consider these ideas and extrapolate from them, using the other lessons you’ve learned, to build a solid, whole-picture approach.

1 – Make content king.

More than almost any other community, web users are keenly attuned to fluff pieces that don’t really say much. This isn’t true for 100% of the community of course, but those who can pick out an airy, pointless piece will almost invariably be sure to point it out, leading to some word of mouth you probably didn’t want. Don’t pick an update schedule that can’t live up to the content you have available. Stick to a schedule that you know you can provide a quality post for, every single time you sign on.

This has a twofold effect. One, it keeps the ‘pressure to post’ at a minimum. Content drives the posting, and you aren’t struggling every third day to come up with more information, or worse to rehash the information you’ve already posted. Secondly, it shows you have respect for the community, and keeps them interested and coming back.

2 – Set the time and day.

Even though the web never sleeps, a great part of the world still functions on a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule of sorts. Taking these rhythms into account can help you build the ideal web traffic for your project. For example, a blog focusing on home and family concerns and selling books related to it might not find as much of an audience during traditional business hours as during the time when people are at-home with their families. Granted this is only a rule of thumb, as many people surf the web for their favorite blogs during lunch breaks.

Another part of this element is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle. Many business blogs and publications settle on a three-a-week update schedule, and the MWF routine works out very well for this. They’re all business days, and the schedule covers the start, middle, and end stretches of a workweek.

Of course since this ends up being something of the default, it means that Tuesdays and Thursdays end up with comparatively little content for people to peruse. Sundays suffer a lack of content as well, for the obvious related reasons. If you find yourself preferring less frequent, longer posts, consider a T-Th routine to take advantage of the ‘gap’ between other updates.

3 – Have a conversation.

One of the most interesting contributions to modern marketing is the blog comments section. Every blogging software out there has some feature for allowing or disallowing comments. As we’ve discussed before, consumer input can have an incredible effect on any brand, and blogs are no exception.

Taking advantage of this resource requires a certain amount of patience. Conversations develop in the comments section as people discuss, dispute, and debate the merits of what you’ve posted. In short, you need to not just let this happen, but cultivate the effect. Allow reasonable discussions to grow, and comment yourself on the more relevant points. Let the consumer know their input is being seen, and that you care enough to respond to it. Posting new blog posts too frequently overruns this tendency, and could rob you of vital feedback.

4 – Be nimble.

As we’ve mentioned, you are not likely to get it right just out of the gate. You may bite off too much to chew, or update too infrequently for people to care. Evaluate the data, ask your consumers questions, and be prepared to change as needed. Flexibility is the ultimate survival tool on the web, and your blog will benefit if you approach the affair with an open mind and a willingness to try several approaches. Pick an update schedule, observe it, and then experiment with others until you have the one that best fits your needs.


Enzo F. Cesario is an online brand specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/

Mar 10, 2010 | 5 comments | View Post

Take The High Road, Treat Others With Respect


“With the rampant proliferation of user-generated content, the opportunity for disgruntled malcontents to damage your firm’s reputation increases everyday. Make sure to evaluate the extent of the problem, consider legal options, and stay within your comfort zone. Take the high road whenever possible, treat your opponent with respect” -Marty Weintraub

Yesterday an Entrecard blogger discovered that some members are cheating when they drop ECs, using a script that just shows the drop box, not the blogs.  Instead of researching this finding to make sure that there is no other possible explanation for these drops to show up -this blogger posted defamatory comments, calling these bloggers cheats and scammers.  It didn’t take long for other bloggers to join in, saying they would be sure to not visit those blogs anymore.  Some of these bloggers  have proven that his findings are not totally accurate.  If I were one of these bloggers, I would be FURIOUS.  These accusations will follow the bloggers forever.  Something like this should have been turned over to EC – let them figure out who is cheating.  I don’ t understand why anyone would post negative statements when they obviously have done a shoddy job gathering facts.  I’m angry for these bloggers – I’d say half of them drop and comment on my blogs often.    The person who wrote the post seems to jump to conclusions often and accuse people of cheating before he has all the facts.    I remember when he had some ad service connected to his blog that redirected you to another page – one time when I was dropping on his blog the page redirected to some porn site (this was not a virus – but something he was doing to earn money) .  What if I followed the same practice as this blogger and posted a long negative blog entry, connecting his name forever to to this nasty ad scheme.  He didn’t realize that porn was showing up and removed the code when I sent him a message, but it seems like maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to him at all and instead just blast him with accusations.

This is not the first time that he has made accusations like this.  Back in January he accused some CMF members of being Ghost-droppers (I was one of them).  Through research Turnip and Ben where able to figure out why these numbers where showing up and came to the conclusion that there were definitely no scammers/ghostdroppers.

Comment -

“The Spikes Ghost Dropper!
Here are my Ghost Droppers…. My official Spikes ended on 31st
December there i got 15 clicks of 10 available (already 5 clicks more).
Now i get since 1st January 2 – 5 visits from the same persons (mainly
Norfolk and four from San Angelo).
Other members told me similar findings. Seems someone wants to game
the system??”

Response -

There are no “ghost droppers” on our end. We prevent users from being
credited for clicking a spike more than once, even accidentally”
Furthermore, we have security in place to prevent someone from creating
multiple CMF Ads accounts and then visiting your blog from each login.
Note that “Credit for clicking a Spike” and “visiting via the Spike URL” are
not the same thing. If a person doesn’t refresh their page, it is possible to
click the link twice, but the buyer won’t be charged, and the person clicking
won’t receive credit. Seems like a fuss over nothing. 44 unexplained visits
over a period of 10 days. But I will look at the stats for that time period and
see if I can find anything unusual on either end just to follow up.
“Shelia, Ben and I also appeared on one of those lists. I assure you I am
also not gaming anything.

Here are a few comments left in my message box:

“Here’s what I wrote to him (and I’m prepared to take legal action against him if he doesn’t do a good job of retracting his statements):

I’m very mad!!!

I went to the extra effort of Googling your blog and opening it from Google’s cache, because I didn’t see your widget.

I then clicked on your widget from the cached page. I do that for any blog I regularly visit if the site is down or I can’t find the widget.

And this is what I get in return!!!

I expect a public apology.. VERY public!”

“I’m prepared to file a libel complaint with Google and request that they take action, so that I don’t have to resort to legal measures.

I wonder how much damage has been done and how this will hurt my EC reputation.”

___________________________________________________________________________

“As far as I know this is down to using a browser cache, hence the reams of major EC members being accused. To be honest I and XXXX are sick of dropping, we’ve spent months doing it now. So we’re off, no time for this unfounded slander. There’s even a comment at XXXXXX saying the same thing, perhaps someone does have a piece of software but it certainly isn’t us! We can’t even afford to get the roof fixed. If a site is sluggish many users will use a cached version of the site, most Macs have this as standard in Safari. If a widget doesn’t load usually it is because the server is slow…I think XXXXXXXX will regret his actions, he should have asked some of those he has accused to explain first.”

So what do you do when someone defames you online?

Tips From Ame Clear Blog

  1. Evaluate the authority of the page on which the negative content is published. As with any SEO assignment, start by taking a look at PageRank and inbound links profile using Yahoo Site Explorer and other tools. If the offending result is not on a site’s homepage, then take a careful look at older and similar interior pages along with their archives.Google’s algorithmic regard for any page tends to accumulate over time as a result of numerous factors, known and “black box.” Therefore it’s a good idea to keep in mind that any page’s clout might increase over time. Be advised and plan accordingly.Reciprocally if the problem content is currently indexing on a blog’s homepage, the difficulty may be mitigated when the post cycles off the homepage into archives. While the post is on the homepage, its content has the full “weight” of the homepage’s authority.This won’t be the case in archive unless the post generates great links. That said many blogs’ category pages, author and date archives accumulate PageRank and you might have to wait a while for the post to cycle even deeper into to site over time. (Note: PageRank isn’t everything but it’s better to have it than not.)
  2. Since some offending results violate copyright or trademark laws, a strong understanding of and willingness to utilize legal channels can be important arrows in the SEO sharpshooter’s quiver. Sometimes the first salvo we fire is from our client’s law firm in the form of a cease and desist letter.Be aware of laws as pertain to protected marks and intellectual property. Certainly taking the legal route can yield results and sometimes the expense makes sense. Our legal team has scared many an idiot off our client’s back. Some rouges just don’t want to mess with lawyers and can be “encouraged” to take down their problem content.On the other hand be a realist. Some insolent jerk halfway around the world won’t give a rat’s ass about your attorney’s saber rattling. Sometimes firing legal missals can even result in your opponent digging in their heals with an intransigent disregard for reality.When nasty search engine results stem from social media channels, it can be impossible to locate the villain let alone engage them legally. Social site moderators often couldn’t care less because they thrive on the passionate engagement which surrounds controversy. StumbleUpon (eBay) is the worst as they are nearly completely unwilling to enforce Terms of Services as pertain to abusive “troll” users.
  3. Determine the likelihood that the substance of proposed defensive content will further provoke and backfire virally. We find it’s best if newly created content and subsequent promotional activity do not appear to be directly related to the problem we’re competing with.My grandmother used to tell me never to “get into a pissing contest with a skunk. Even if you win…you stink. “Instead, create defensive content that builds on strengths of your business to contradict the negatives raised by a bad editorial. Build your content to outrank the perpetrator’s.Though we never take directly refuting offensive results off the table fully, one needs to be extremely careful. We don’t want 5 other bloggers to rally behind their jerky friend and take up a damaging cause they hadn’t even noticed before.
  4. Unless you’re an expert, talk to a professional before engaging directly in social channels surrounding the problem results. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen a business person, who has no experience in social media, climb into a comments thread and make things SO much worse. There are very few instances when taking a step back and counting to 10 will negatively impact the end result of defensive activities.If you’re not a regular contributer in a specific social media channel, learning the vernacular while under duress is not the best choice. Also we’ve seen clients make legal mistakes publicly which made a difficult problem much worse. Call an SEO/social media expert. Call your lawyer. Have a glass of wine and some sushi. Chill.
  5. If direct engagement in social channels makes sense, attempt to earn the provocateurs respect by your response. Every disaster is an opportunity in the making and vice versa. Whilst measured righteous indignation can be a powerful tool, start with classic high road messages of respect and understanding: “I understand your position,” “respect your right to express your feelings in public,” “am grateful for the opportunity to engage in a dialog” and “what can we do to make things right?”
  6. Take the high road over and over. Then take the high road again. If that doesn’t work…you can always nuke em’. There are white hat methods and other, ummmm, not-white hat methods available to “eliminate” the problem. Given recent furor over public discussion of non-candy-ass SEO tactics you’ll have to contact me directly to discuss the options further.
  7. Consider paid search as a stopgap and/or ongoing strategy. When weighing the cost of PPC to circumvent damaging organic results, paid search is often an attractive “lesser of all evils’ option, especially in the short term while waiting for other solutions to come online. Google’s content network, in the hands of a site-targeting expert, can be a highly effective channel-especially when clarifying or refuting mainstream damage in news, niche’ and social channels.
  8. Get back to SEO basics. The best defense is a good offense. In reality it should be difficult for idiots to crack into direct brand search results if your website is optimized properly.One of our newer clients came to us under assault from a disgruntled former customer. It didn’t make sense at first because the offensive result was on a PR zero site with little authority.Upon evaluation we quickly ascertained that our client’s website was entirely a Flash movie, literally with no deep indexing. Solving the “crises” was as simple as re-publishing the site in HTML with Flash elements instead of a full Flash movie.



Feb 11, 2010 | 34 comments | View Post

How to Effectively Work From Home (No More Excuses)


The number one reason I chose to pursue Internet marketing as an online entrepreneur was the freedom it provides. Having an online business allows you to take your business with you wherever you go and work on it at whatever time suits your schedule. Now, that’s the kind of freedom I am after!

But, in order to make your work at home, online business a success, you must possess a certain amount of self discipline so that you can properly use your energy and time productively.

Here’s a few of the most important elements that I learned that will keep your confidence, focus and productivity strong as you pursue your own dream of working at home…and succeeding.

The most important thing I learned was what things produced money for me and what things didn’t. For me it was no question…article marketing and list-building were the two most important elements to pursue for my business.

In other words, they were the best use of turning my time into money as they provided the best results.

Hanging out in forums and chat rooms…although very entertaining, was simply not cutting it. Forums can be productive for you if you monitor the way you use them and don’t just hang out killing what could otherwise be productive time.

Another important step to take is to cut yourself off from the noise…cut off the world that takes you away from your focus.

For example:

1) unsubscribe from your thousands of mailings. That is a chore in itself, but if you don’t do this, you will continue to be bombarded with offers that will only distract you from your goals. Choose to follow 1, 2 or possibly 3 mentors at a time…and no more. Trust me, the others aren’t going anywhere and will still be around when you’re finished with your present ones!

If this idea scares you, then create a separate email account and resubscribe for those hundreds of promos you will be getting and check it occasionally.

2) Do those things that make money for you first such as sending an email to your list, writing articles for the directories, checking your support desk for any help needed etc.

3) Shut your computer down and accomplish any offline tasks that are nagging at you to complete. I have found that if there are things that I am not tending to in my offline life, they will continue to nag me and unconsciously I am not getting the most out of my mind energy because of this subtle disturbance to my peace.

Value your time: Learn to say “no.” Sounds easy enough doesn’t it and yet there are those that have trouble saying “no” to anyone or any offer that comes their way. You need to choose what and whom gets your valuable time…you only have so much of it. Use your time to enjoy your family or to benefit your business in some way.

Learn to say “no” to time wasters. Learn to say “yes” to your life (family and business)

Set up your work hours and stick to it. For me, this was early in the morning. I would get busy on my business…coffee in hand while most everyone else was sleeping.

If you’re busy writing an article or blog post, time yourself! That’s right, buy a typical timer and set the alarm for the amount of time it should take you to complete this task. This will keep you honest with yourself but more importantly it will keep you accountable for your time!

Don’t spend 3-4 hours on a short report or blog post that should be written within 20-30 minutes. After timing yourself for awhile you might be surprised at what you find. Use this information to improve your time management skills.

Create a daily action list. I create mine the night before so that it is ready and waiting for me when I sit down at my desk in the morning and I never have to guess at what needs accomplishing. It is simply a compilation of tasks that I want to accomplish that day. Better to keep it simple…especially at first until you get comfortable with your own time frames. Don’t make the list so long that you are defeated before you begin.

I move from one task to the other until I’ve completed them all. If I have miscalculated my timing and everything does not get done that day, whatever is left undone goes to the top of my “to do” list for the next day.

Don’t forget the breaks! We need to take 15 minute breaks to stretch our body and give our minds a rest. Ideally you should never work more than three hours straight without some sort of break. But, come right back after your break!

And, last but not least, take ACTION. This is the most important step of all. If you don’t take action, your dreams an ideas remain just that…dreams and ideas. Combine your dreams with action steps…persistently and consistently…and watch your dreams manifest before your eyes!

Becoming an online entrepreneur is one of the most exciting opportunities that has ever come along. Becoming a success at it, is all about your self discipline.

Kathy Dobson – For further tips and resources visit: http://www.kathydobson.com



Jan 23, 2010 | 23 comments | View Post

Google Webmaster Tools – A MUST!


As a website owner, one of your top priorities is going to be getting your site indexed and ranked by Google. People perform over 235 million searches a day with Google, so the potential to receive significant traffic from this search engine should be enough for you to invest the time to make sure it’s done right.

Google wants to fill its index with quality, error free websites that are beneficial and targeted to their searchers. Enter Google’s Webmaster Central Tools ….. http://google.com/webmasters . If you’ve never heard of it, it’s Google’s way of helping you with your website’s indexing. Not too long ago, it went through a redesign and upgrade process which made it more useful and easier to use than ever.

First thing you’ll need to sign in with is a Google account. Google requires an account to be able to use all of their free services, including Blogger and Analytics, so if youdon’t have one, now’s the time to register.

If you have multiple websites to list, that’s no problem. Up to 500 sites can be added all under one roof. You will need to perform what Google calls “site verification” for each site submitted. This proves to Google that you are the owner of the site before they release detailed information to you. At one time it was a lengthy process of cutting and pasting code into the head section of your index page or uploading a separate HTML file. Now they’ve streamlined the process and it’s all done with one click of an email.

If you use Blogger.com, “Webmaster Tools” can be enabled from within the Blogger dashboard under tools/resources. Once your sites have been submitted, you’ll have access to a whole suite of useful tools. The website is broken up into three main sections.

  1. Site Configuration (Information about your site)
  2. Your Site on the Web (Google data re: your site)
  3. Diagnostics (Any problems Google had while indexing your site)

If your website has never received a decent ranking with Google, these numerous reports will help you in tracking down the problem. It’s truly an “eye opener” to see your site through the eyes of a search engine.

On the “Crawl Errors Page”, any errors Google encountered while crawling your site are revealed. The url’s not listed, and the types of problems such as restricted by robots txt, url’s that timed out, and unreachable url’s will be uncovered. If numerous pages of your site are not indexed, Sitemaps can also be submitted to help Google find and crawl all of the pages of your site.

If your website is not showing up in Google’s index, or you think it’s being penalized for some reason, you can contact Google from within the “tools interface” with a “reconsideration” request. This will ask Google to take another look at your site. Before submitting, make sure you’ve cleaned up any errors, and that you’re not in violation of any of Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Here’s a small sample of some other tasks that can be performed.

  • Keyword Research: The keywords page lists the most important words Google found when indexing your site. So you know what keyword/phrases your site is ranking for.
  • Who’s linking to your website.
  • Page rank for individual pages can be reviewed.
  • Change of address feature, which is useful when moving domains to let Google know.
  • Data can be downloaded in spreadsheet format in order to be analyzed and tracked.
  • Any RSS feeds can also be submitted as sitemaps.
  • Parameter Handling- Allows you to tell Google which url’s you want them to ignore.
  • Emails from Google’s Webmaster Tools can be forwarded to any email address you specify.

Contrary to popular belief, Google wants you to succeed online which is why they give you the tools needed to fix any problems, and make your site a search engine’s indexing dream. That’s not just good business for Google, it’s good for your website too.

Find out more at http://merlesworld.blogspot.com/ Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/msmerle

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Jan 11, 2010 | 12 comments | View Post

3 Awesome SEO Plugins for Your Wordpress Blog

Search engine helps you to generate traffic, but consequently Search Engine Optimization is very complicated, which beginners and expert bloggers dismay in joining such a strategy for achieving traffic. Starting a wordpress by default is pretty suitable at letting search engines see what’s happening. Fortunately, there are wide varieties of plugins accessible to keep you attain a good ranking for your blog, lessen that the stress of typing the code of your blog to obtain results of the search engines.

Here are some very beneficial SEO plugins to help you build a better wordpress blog.

Redirection

In improving our wordpress blogs, we cannot avoid our permalinks to be broken. This happens when you make changes to an old post, or maybe in upgrading or improving your wordpress blog also when you make changes on your permalinks. These changes can break up your entire wordpress blog.

Ill explain what really happens behind these changes, each post has its own URL this is what we call permalinks. When it is broken, those visitors won’t find your blog post. The redirection plugin helps you to redirect the visitors to follow the new permalink. So that your traffic will work efficiently.

features include by John Godley:

  • 404 error monitoring – captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects
  • Custom ‘pass-through’ redirections allowing you to pass a URL through to another page, file, or website.
  • Full logs for all redirected URLs
  • All URLs can be redirected, not just ones that don’t exist
  • Redirection methods – redirect based upon login status, redirect to random pages, redirect based upon the referrer!

Existing features include:

  • Automatically add a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes
  • Manually add 301, 302, and 307 redirections for a WordPress post, or for any other file
  • Full regular expression support
  • Apache .htaccess is not required – works entirely inside WordPress
  • Strip or add www to all your WordPress pages * Redirect index.php, index.html, and index.htm access
  • Redirection statistics telling you how many times a redirection has occurred, when it last happened, who tried to do it, and where they found your URL
  • Fully localized

Robots Meta

Robots Meta plugin allows you to point specifically to the search engines which sections of your blog to crawl. This means that you’ll gain more respect from search engines, and likewise more traffic.

This plugin by Joost De Valk makes it possible to:

  • Prevent indexing of your search result pages, while still allowing the search engines to follow the links on them, by adding noindex, follow robots meta tags.
  • Disallow indexing of subpages to your homepage, category pages, author pages and tag pages, to prevent duplicate content.
  • Prevent indexing of your login, register and admin pages by adding noindex robots meta tags.
  • Add noodp an noydir meta robots tags, allowing you to opt out of DMOZ and Yahoo! Directory descriptions.
  • Prevent Yahoo! and Google from indexing your feeds by adding a meta tag to their head-section.
  • Prevent indexing of just your comment feeds.
  • Disable author and date-based archives.
  • Prevent attachment pages from ranking in the search results over your articles.
  • Enforce a trailing slash on archives.
  • Edit your .htaccess and your robots.txt from within WordPress.
  • Assign robots meta tags to individual posts & pages.
  • Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Add noarchive tags to your blog.

SEO Smart Links

Internal linking structure is the prime subject of SEO. If you have more links it just convey how well your website structure is. The problem with this is that if you had to manually go and create links to relevant and important posts you’ll spend hours and hours doing it.

Here are some advantages by Vladimir Prelovac:

  • SEO Smart links allows you to specify a word, like ‘SEO’ and then link it to a post on your site. Then each time the word SEO appears on your site, it’s automatically turned into a link you specified.
  • SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.
  • SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
  • Further SEO Smart links allows you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs. Finally SEO Smart links allows you to set nofollow attribute and open links in new window.
  • It is a perfect solution to get your blog posts interlinked or add affiliate links to other sites.
  • Everything happens completely transparent, and you can edit the options from the administration settings panel.
Stace Zimmerman.  Please visit this site for wordpress themes

Jan 06, 2010 | 13 comments | View Post

15 Article Ideas To Start Your Next Brainstorming Session

Do you ever dread sitting down to write because you’re just not sure what to write about?

When you’re doing article marketing, you need to create a steady flow of articles. You may be just getting started and haven’t gotten into a writing groove yet. Or maybe you’ve written tons of articles and are feeling like you’ve written about your topic in every way you possibly can.

I assure you–you have more creative writing ideas in you. You just need a little help in looking at your topic in a new way to come up with new writing ideas.

Use these 15 article ideas to start your next brainstorming session:

  1. Use a keyword suggestion tool such as WordTracker to look up searches that people are doing related to your topic. When you find a search term that is popular for your topic, then write an article to satisfy that term.
  2. Take a look at your website stats and see what people have been typing into search engines to reach your site. Write articles to satisfy those searches.
  3. Forums: Look at popular forums in our niche and see what topics are hot. Pick out some questions that people are asking that you think your target market might also be wondering, and then write an article that answers that question.
  4. Blogs: Start following some popular blogs in your niche, and see what topics strike a nerve with the readers. You can usually tell what topics are hot by how many comments the post has. Sometimes just looking at the comments on a topic is enough to spark ideas for new articles.
  5. Newsletters: Subscribe to newsletters in your niche and see what catches your eye. Use a compelling newsletter topic as a jump start for your next article.
  6. Google Alerts: Create Google Alerts for each of your keywords and see what other folks are writing about your topic. The idea is to just catch an idea–you can cover the same or similar topic in a new way, with a new perspective, and with different information.
  7. Solicit questions. If you have a blog or a newsletter list, ask your readers if they have any questions for you. Take the best questions and write articles that provide answers.
  8. How To articles. What can you teach your readers? Think of a specific lesson, technique, or skill that your target market needs to know in order to succeed in your niche, and then walk them step-by-step through how to do it. Numbering each step helps readers follow your instructions more easily.
  9. Top Tips articles, or any list article. All articles do not have to be in essay form–some articles can be lists. Be sure to include an intro and concluding paragraph and to choose an overarching theme that your readers would be interested in. For example, this article is a list article. My overarching theme is “article topic ideas”. All of the elements of my list contribute to that theme.
  10. Got an e-book that you’ve written? You can break your e-book(s) up into articles. You can also use your table of contents as an article idea list.
  11. Look at your newsletter messages–turn them into articles.
  12. If you’ve done any audio interviews, you can turn them into articles. Just re-listen to the interview, take notes, and then create articles based on the information you covered in the interview.
  13. Customer support replies–have you ever written a customer support reply that was so thorough, instructional, and useful that you thought you should share it with all of your readers? Some customer support replies are worthy of being turned into articles.
  14. Forum replies and blog comments. If you leave really insightful, helpful, and knowledgeable blog comments, consider turning them into articles. Now, these comments have to have some depth and meat to them. You might have to develop the idea further to make it into an article.
  15. Write a “Top 7″ article and then bounce an article off of each of the 7 items. That way you get 8 articles out of one Top 7 list!

Use this article idea list to brainstorm your next 15 (or more!) articles. How many article ideas were you able to come up with from this list?

Steve Shaw is an article marketing expert, and founder of the popular article submission service, 

Jan 03, 2010 | 6 comments | View Post

Take A Fresh Look For The New Year

The new year is almost here.  I like to sit back and review how my sites are doing and what changes I might need to make to keep them relevant.  It’s easy to just let things keep going the way you have them, but, maybe you could make a couple of simple tweaks and changes and renew YOUR excitement for the material you are sending out to the blogosphere.  Let’s start with the obvious: Get People to Come to Visit Your main concern in the beginning year or so of your website is getting people to come to your website. You can do this by employing a number of basic tactics: 1. Learn about search engines – When you begin to learn what search engines are looking for in a site in order to rank it higher, you will begin to get more hits on your site.  Without adequately optimizing your website for search engine spiders or algorithms, you have little chance of your site receiving visible listings on the search engine results pages. That spells death to most online businesses. 2. Tell everyone you know about the site – Put your website address on everything that you can in order to get people coming to your site. 101 Easy Way To Get Traffic To Your Site 3. Link with other related sites – If your friend has a website, link with them or link with others in the same market as you to increase your website traffic. The Link Building Cookbook 4. Make your site exciting – By offering new and fun things on your website, you will encourage new traffic on your site every day. 5. Advertise your site on other sites – By heading to video share sites and posting a video of what you do on your site, you might just drive new traffic to your web page. Video Marketing Creates Easy, Fast, Free Traffic Keep Them There Once you have visitors coming to your website, it’s your job to keep them there and to keep them coming back. There are several ways to do this: 1. Change your content, but not your layout – When you keep things in places where people can easily find them, you will allow the loyal web surfers the ability to easily browse from page to page to find what they way. 2. Introduce new features on your site that are easy to use – Add a video blog or perhaps a few animations that are easy to load up and that change regularly. 3. Include ‘teasers’ on your site – Make mention of things that are coming up on your site (and on the website only) in the coming days. This will keep people coming back to see what’s new and exciting. 4. Offer discounts – By helping loyal customers and visitors buy merchandise with discounts, you are going to keep them coming back and looking for more to buy.  (I love to offer help to my visitors – free advertising, free ad design – a great way to make contacts and friends that last) 5. Make sure your web hosting is top notch – When your site is always available, no matter what the web traffic is, you will keep people coming back. If you ever have any server problems, fix them immediately and then apologize to those that may have been affected. (I use Godaddy and haven’t been down once in 2 years) Find Ways to Branch Out You can’t stay exactly the same when you’re trying to compete in the ever-changing world of the internet. You need to find new ways to add to your current business so that you’re always interesting to your customers. Try looking for suggestions from your customers in your comments sections of your site to see what else they might want to buy that would complement or add to their buying experience with you. For example, if you sell sailboats, maybe you can begin to offer instructional videos for sailing so that they can enhance their skills.  Please visit:  http://www.InstantWebsiteBusiness.com

Dec 27, 2009 | 2 comments | View Post

Top 10 AdSense Tricks To Boost Your Commission

adsense tipsA lot of people try to make money with google adsense.  They sign up, get the code, put it on their website, sit back and wait for the cash to start rolling in . . . . .wait . . . . .  what’s going on, I’ve only made a penny today, what am I doing wrong?

Is this you?  I got a great email with some awesome tips to help you really earn with adsense.

Google AdSense – http://www.google.com/adsense – is fast becoming the preferred way for people to earn an income online. Forget eBay and multiple affiliate programs. Whether you are a work-at-home mom trying to make a little extra cash or an Internet entrepreneur with hundreds of monetized websites, AdSense is truly the easiest way to earn money.

Simply sign up for a free account, grab your ad code and paste it in your site. But here’s the amazing thing – no matter how much money AdSense is making for you right now, a few simple tweaks can increase that amount considerably. And I should know, after learning about these tricks, I more than doubled my AdSense commissions!

The self-proclaimed AdSense gurus and experts are sharing this insider knowledge, for a fee.

You can learn all these secrets from them, as long as you buy their e-book, sign up for their seminar or purchase their newsletter. But I’m going to share all their AdSense tricks for free. Here they are:

1) Color code your ads to match your web site palette *exactly*. Don’t use frames around your ads. Instead, in the AdSense code generation interface, make sure you choose the same color as your page background for the ad frame and the ad background.

When choosing the ad heading colors, match them to the *exact* color of your page headings. Use the exact same ad background shade as your page background. Use the exact same ad text font and color as the text on your pages. You can see an example of this color-matching on my Search Engine Advice Blog at – http://www.searchenginecollege.com/blog.htm – notice the 4 link ad unit at the top and the skyscraper text ad unit on the left hand side under the heading Ads by Google as you scroll down the page? The link and text colors are identical to the color palette used throughout the rest of the page.

Near enough is NOT good enough. If you can’t quite get the color matching right, use Google’s built in color palette together with the RGB to HEX or vice versa color converter on this page – http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style. That handy little tool was a life saver for me.

This is probably the one single tweak that made the most difference to my commission levels.

2) Try not to use the traditional horizontal banner style or leaderboard image ads because people are blind to them.

3) Use Google’s own AdSense optimization tips at https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html and visual heat map to assist you in deciding where on your page to place your AdSense ad code.

4) Research competitive keywords using a keyword research tool such as Keyword Discovery at http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ or grab a list of the most popular keywords from various sources and use them in your web site pages where relevant. This article – http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/article.php/2156041 – is a good source of frequently searched keywords. Targeting popular keywords should trigger AdSense ads on your pages that utilize those keywords. The more popular the keyword or phrase, the higher AdWords advertisers are generally willing to pay per click for it so the higher your commission on those clicks.

5) Incorporate the AdSense code into your page so that the ads look like a regular part of your site. You can see an example on this Internet Dating Stories site – http://www.lovestory.com.au/ – where link ads are incorporated within the regular left hand navigation of the site under the heading “Feature Links”.

6) Use Google’s new 4 and 5 link ad units wherever possible. They seem to have a much higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than regular ad styles. You can view all the AdSense ad formats at https://www.google.com/adsense/adformats.

7) Place arrows or images next to your ads to draw attention to them. You can see two different versions of on this search engine article library page – http://www.searchenginecollege.com/articles/article-library.htm – at the top (where a pointing hand directs your eye to the ad) and the bottom where 3 images draw your attention to each of the three AdSense ads.

8) Use the full allowance of multiple AdSense ads on each of your pages – 3 regular AdSense ads, plus 1 link unit. Use careful placement of these ads so they blend into your site and don’t distract from your content. Clever use of this allowance can be seen on this page about bad Internet dating stories – http://www.lovestory.com.au/bad-stories.htm – where you see:

- 1 horizontal 4 link ad unit towards the top of the page under the first paragraph.
- 1 vertical skyscraper text ad unit about halfway down the left hand side under “Sponsor Links”.
- 1 vertical skyscraper image ad unit down the left hand side under “Sponsor Links”.
- 1 horizontal text banner unit at the bottom of the page with images above each ad to draw attention to them.

You can also include 1 AdSense referral button in addition to the 3 other units.

9) Tailor your page content to a particular niche or focus. Page content that is tailored towards a specific theme is more likely to trigger AdWords ads that closely match the content and are therefore more likely to interest your visitors and inspire them to click.

Don’t create pages merely for the sake of placing AdSense ads. Visitors (and search engines) can see through this ruse in an instant.

10) Use custom Ad Channels for each of your ad placements, for example, “Top 5 Link Unit Blue Palette” or “Left Side Navigation Image Skyscraper” etc. Tweak, track and measure the success of each of these custom channels so you know what gives you the highest CTR. Some ad formats and colors will work better than others, but you won’t know which until you test, test and test some more!

Read More Here

Kalena Jordan manages Search Engine College – an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.
Nov 17, 2009 | 19 comments | View Post

Are you Blogging Effectively?

bloggingWhy is a blog called a blog?  I know, I know it’s web and log put together, but shouldn’t that be a Wog?  I was reading Dr Suess, “The Shape of Me and Other Stuff” to my daughter the other night and came across what is probably the first use of the word blog “or shaped like a BLOGG! Or a garden hose! “ The Blogg in this case is a funny looking animal of some kind.

Perhaps blogging isn’t such a graceful word.  For me, personally, it sounds like a worded drudgery the way cereals can be soggy, skies can be foggy, and the way minds can be groggy. But for now, it s too late to rename this shortened word for web-logging. Widespread blogging is nevertheless one of the most engaging Internet developments of the past few ages. As a medium it gives rise to many new and worthy voices and plays a new and vital force in shaping thoughts, political realities, trends, and even our language.

I believe that a blog is simply a tool to use for someone who s got something to say. Let me be clear in saying that a blog is a poor choice for someone who needs a megaphone to scream out to cyberspace in order to elicit a meaningful response from Internet users. If you want attention and want it now and expect blogging to bring it to you, then this will surely be a disappointment. However, if you like to write and engage others on subjects of which you have a few command or experience, then it s a wonderful application with which you can interact with people who share similar interests as you. The hype is well founded.

Anyway, here s a list of blogging tips

1.) Be topical.

Cohesiveness in message is not optional. Readers may or may not be interested in your topic, but if your message is haphazard that few will bother remembering to return to your blog because it essentially would offer nothing to remember. This doesn t mean blogs can t jump from subject to subject. For instance, a blog with a humorous focus has all the leeway in the world for subject matter, but it would be foolish for such a blog to turn the humor on and off. In such an example, the aspect of humor would be content s glue, the strength of the blog. The beauty of staying on point and on topic is that eventually, due to the nature of the Internet, you will find those interested solely in your topic. (as opposed to online diaries. There are millions of them on the internet, few have any readers. Email me with examples if I m wrong and I ll be able to show you why you re showing me a blog and not a diary.)

2.) Refresh your content

Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of communication.

And remember, what s old is not new and, for blogs, thusly not interesting. 2006 isn t the time to rail against Enron or Vanilla Ice. Insight doesn t matter much to yesterday s news.

3.) Clear Language Counts.

Blessed is the blog with a clear line of logic. Write without inside jokes, clique-y catchphrases or ambiguous logic. Initially time readers need to be close to your message. They are more likely to return to blogs that strike them positively. If the initially read is confusing there will not be a second read.

4.) Feed the Spiders.

Search engines take notice of active blogs and blog search engines are especially sensitive to activity. If nothing else, search engines are smarter today than they were yesterday and are only getting smarter. In constantly improving they are seeking to aggregate quality; quality blogs are updated several times a week, if not daily, as opposed to once or twice a month. I don t mean to scare you but a big spider is watching, so dance for them.

5.) RSS.

Think of RSS like a magic to blogging world, because that s the effect it s had. RSS feeds are a way to exponentially sound your voice to the interested. These feeds are a great means to increase the distribution and readership of your original content.

6.) Spell check.

Hey man, use the spell-check. I do if I didn t you probably wouldn t have made it to #6. It only takes a minute and can save you from looking like a hack.

Your weblog audiences will be small at initially. And, frankly, that s the way it should be. Who are you to think that half the internet will flock to you after three or four posts of your blog, anyway?

If you tough it out while maintaining quality, readership will materialize. You will link to cool, relevant blogs and, in turn, they will to you. While your voice may be unique, your niche likely isn t and if your content is emitted smartly to the Internet those relevant readers will respond through readership and interaction. That I guarantee.

To get into blogging for free, go to http://blogspawn.com now! Hosted Wordpress blogs for the taking, over 60 themes ready to use, or install your own. Also loads of very useful plugins already sourced and waiting for you to activate.

Written and posted by Bruce Earl Andrews ( A.K.A. Blogger-Bruce )

Nov 09, 2009 | 11 comments | View Post

Got Writers Block? 50 Blog Post Ideas

list of blog post ideas

I wish I could come up with a new brilliant post every day – some days it’s so hard to come up with a topic to blog about.  I like to browse forums and other blogs to see what people are talking about and to get some ideas for different subjects to post about.  Here is a list of 50 blog post ideas for business blogging for any industry. You can apply it in most niches I think. Some of these ideas are the bomb and will bring you publicity and popularity while others focus on highlighting your expertise or are part of a social networking strategy. Some of the post ideas are all of these at once.

  1. Envision the future of your industry by extrapolating the current developments
  2. Explain why everybody should care for your trade and not only specialists
  3. Make a list of famous people who deal or dealt with issues related to your business
  4. List 30 or more online resources for business people in your industry
  5. Review a publication dealing with your industry
  6. Make a list of the top myths in your industry and debunk them
  7. Disagree with a high level personality in your business, prove her or him wrong
  8. Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your niche
  9. Report from a trade fair
  10. Compare the your national market to markets abroad
  11. Collect the best blog postings in your niche and compile a best of-list
  12. Expand your focus to a similar area of expertise by comparing
  13. Write down a code of ethics for your blog and your business as a whole
  14. Explore and depict a niche social media platform for your trade, if there is none use a forum to do that
  15. Add a forum to your blog or site if your site has a big enough community to sustain it
  16. Break the rules of your trade by remodeling them and adapting to current situation, write about it
  17. Go off topic and link a topic from everyday life back to your business “10 Ways SEO is like Base-Jumping”
  18. Make a list of WordPress plugins that are most useful for your industry “The 10 Best WordPress plugins for Graphic Designers”
  19. Reach out to your clients and fans: “What would you like to change in [insert your product or service here]?”
  20. Display attractive images of your products, several of them, in the best case your own products
  21. Analyze the current climate in your industry and explain the ramifications
  22. Identify leaders in your area and ask them to guest post on your blog or write for their blog instead
  23. Show what went wrong in your company, why and how you dealt with it, learning from mistakes is very helpful for others
  24. Compare the new vs the old ways of doing your buisness
  25. Highlight top female bloggers or experts in your trade
  26. Create fictional and visionary product description
  27. Satirize a very well known personality, be it of your trade or outside of it
  28. Write an allegory about your idol doing your business like “The Bruce Lee Method of Business Blogging”
  29. Thank your 10 favorite readers and/or commenters
  30. Expose a scam in your industry (make sure to consult a lawyer in advance)
  31. Take a big brand (or several) and use it as an example for best practices vs mistakes
  32. Use humor to lighten up a boring topic “I Can Haz Pay Per Cat? The Lolcats Way of PPC”
  33. Explain the local advantages of your company, do not hide behind modesty: “Oxford: SEO since 1542″
  34. Review a book dealing with your topic that really displays thinking outside the box
  35. Combine your topic with another one, usually but wrongfully not combined with yours, like SEO and graphic design
  36. Express your own personal view an a highly debatable issue and do not just repeat common ground opinions
  37. Make a short movie to show on your blog, this can be something funny or just simply you speaking
  38. Create a list of indispensable software or web tools for your job
  39. Take a common issue many people care about and explain how it relates to your business
  40. Introduce a new business model in your trade or better, several of them
  41. Be the first to break news, for instance reveal your new product via the blog
  42. Check your search engine referers and write postings for those queries that had no matches until now
  43. Check in your stats which post is the most popular one and write a follow up
  44. Join a trade organization and explain why you did it
  45. Make a donation to a good cause and blog about it
  46. Introduce the 10 most promising bloggers in your industry
  47. Check Digg, StumbleUpon or Technorati to find out what’s most popular right now and find a new angle to it
  48. Engage in a discussion on a forum and reprint on your blog
  49. Ask people on Twitter a question and blog the best replies
  50. Make a list of blogging ideas specifically for your industry

Remember that business blogging is about value. That’s indeed the most crucial difference between private and business blogs. In private blogs people want to express themselves, business bloggers want to create value for others. So while writing a post for a business blog always consider this question: Of what use can this article be to potential clients, people in my industry and the general public?”

Oct 29, 2009 | 22 comments | View Post

5 Simple Ways to Increase Blog Comments

increase blog commentsPosts that inspire comments from your audience can become part of what makes your blog more popular, and can keep it that way if the comments keep coming.

Right or wrong, the number of blog comments you have is seen as an indication of how successful your blog is.

Here are some ways to increase the amount of commenting that takes place in your blog.

1- Make it as easy as possible for visitors to comment.

That means taking down every barrier to commenting except spam control, until comments start to rise.

That includes:

•letting visitors leave comments without logging in
•removing all authentication processes such as captchas and verifying their email address,
•turning off moderation, as well as letting readers know that comments aren’t moderated,
•installing plugins or tools that will allow them to log in with Twitter or Facebook profiles or integrate their comments on those sites with your site
•getting rid of anything else that slows down the commenting process. Until you have a high traffic blog, you probably won’t have to worry about anything other than the basic level of spam.
So keep a cautious eye, but get rid of restrictions one by one and see if the increase in participation after a week is worth a few off-topic entries. Not only can you delete those later, but, you can re-enable any of anti-spam measure the instant the volume of spam gets out of hand.

2- Find out what people want to know on your topic and write about that constantly.

If your sites is about pet lovers, and people want to know all about organic dog and cat food, write about it. It might not be your favorite topic, but if it brings you engaging traffic, make it a regular conversation point. Your site is there to serve your population – at least that’s what it should be about if you want your blog to help you make sales.

3- Stay on topic.

Even if you have a themed day that’s a little outside your topic area (like our Tool Time Fridays with Morgan Lighter) make sure all those posts can still relate back to your central subject.

For example, the other day, Morgan wrote about a tool that can turn YouTube videos into a format compatible with iTunes. Put that together with some of my tips on how to get traffic with web video and you have a whole new use for recordings you uploaded to YouTube and other sites.

If you have trouble coming up with something to write about, your topic may be too narrow. If you can’t seem to pare down the number of available topics to one over-riding theme, your topic may be too broad. It’s okay to shift or widen your focus to fix that problem, but once you pick a final topic, stick with it.

4- Post regularly to become part of your reader’s daily habits.

People are habitual creatures. They’ll most likely find your site and include it in their new habits through doing one of their old habits.

Today, someone got up, brushed their teeth, got ready for work, went to their office, read their email, then the news or their RSS feeds (or both.) If they found your site through some other blog’s feed they read, and decided to add you, whenever you have a new entry, they’ll at least read the headline.

That opportunity only comes up each time you publish. After that first six weeks, it’s not as important that you’re doing so daily. But you should be putting up posts in a predictable fashion IF you want regular commenters. Whether it’s approximately every 24 hours, or every Tuesday and Thursday at 2:21 pm isn’t as important as making it a regular occurrence.

5- Leave an open-ended question or query at the end of each post.

If you look at Chris Pirillo’s blogs over at Lockergnome, instead of ‘Leave a Reply’ above the comment form, it often says something like ‘What do you think?’

In addition, when you create a post, the last sentence of your post can be a question to your audience that allows them to continue the conversation. If all other barriers are removed from commenting, sometimes the issue is that you’ve done such a good job writing the article that there’s nothing else to add. Turn your fantastic monologue into dialogue by asking a question, point blank.

Leaving your post open to input stimulates conversation online in the same way.

Remember, blog comments aren’t necessarily a measure of how well your blog is doing. But a responsive community can help indicate whether you’re on the right track.

Tinu AbayomiPaul – Read the story of how I used blogging, RSS, social media and article marketing to keep a number one ranking on Google and Yahoo for seven years at http://trafficreality.com/evergreen today. I can teach you the same simple steps I used.

Sep 16, 2009 | 31 comments | View Post

100 Free Tools For Tracking Everything On Your Website

 

First of all, I will be announcing the winner of the $100 giveaway first thing in the morning.  YEA!  I love giving money away. 

free website toolI came across this list in an email from Site pro this week and had to pass it on.  This is a good one to bookmark and come back to whenever you need something for your website.

 Here is a list of 100 free tools to track everything on your Web site.

Web Site Statistics and Counters

    1. RiteCounter – While Ritecounter has a visitor counter, it’s the extras that put it over the top. Track hits to individual pages on your site, enjoy the free IP tracker, and enjoy other valuable tools and features.
    2. GoStats – GoStatis is a free Web hit counter that more than exceeds the value of its price tag. Quickly check out page views, determine your returning visitors, gauge your page popularity, and more.
    3.Browser Statistics – If you’re feeling out of step with what kids are doing on the interwebs these days, this program helps keep you up to date. It lets you know what browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, and Javascript people are using these days, so your site won’t be too far behind (or too far ahead) of the times.
    4.Who’s.Amung.Us – This site provides a simple code that you add into your site, and requires no registration. With the code, you’re tracking visitors numbers and locations, peak traffic times, and more.
    5.Histats – Get your statistics in monthly, daily, or even hourly format with this tool. You’ll get stats for every page, a click counter service, visitor path tracking, and more.
    6. Tracewatch – Choose between PHP tracking or Java tracking with this cool tool. You’ll also get a web-based panel with which to scope out the real-time visitor tracking info.
    7. eWebCounter – Keep track of visitors visibly or invisibly with this simple program. Also, get reports of visitor statistics e-mailed directly to you.
    8. Statcounter – Invisible and incredibly accurate, Statcounter is like a slightly less lethal ninja. It tracks your hits, keeps track of web stats, gives you real-time statistics, and more.
    9. FireStats – This program is primarily tooled to non-commercial users. Use it to track referrers, OS trees, search engine keywords, and more.
    10. Compete – How much of the entire Internet have you captivated on any given day? This tool measures how many people have visited your site that day—out of everyone on the Internet.
    11. Visitors – A super fast web log analyzer, this tool works for Windows, Linux, and various Unix-like systems. It outputs the statistics from your web server log file into a variety of reports, and requires no installation whatsoever.
    12. Stat24 – It’s all about 24-hour info with this slick program. Get professional statistics, web counters, web promotion and graphical maps of visitor clicks, all in one package.
    13. Active Meter – Designed around visitors and not just visits, this tracking tool goes the extra mile for you. Track multiple Web sites with a single account, enjoy invisible trackers, and get all of the info you need to keep those visitors returning.
    14. SiteMeter – This provides visitor info in a down-and-dirty, no-frills manner. Get page view averages, lengths of user visits, total counters and daily counters, and more.
    15. OneStatFree – Sometimes the simple things really are the best. This tool lets you see which days and times are most active for your site, how its performance compares to others, the browsers your visitors use, and more.
    16. FreeStats – Getting web browser access and a customizable dashboard is just the tip of the iceberg with the cool program. You also get detailed statistics and around the clock information.
    17. GoldStats – What makes this program Golden? Live reports, detailed visitor information and search engine keyword reports.
    18. Stat08 – It’s hard to even list all of the features that you get with this free tool. External referrer statistics, search keyword adjustments, visitor statistics (including geography and system information) and more.
    19. CQ Counter – Would you like an ad-free, server installation-free web counter? With CQ, you can track which search engines bring you the most folks, how often your pages are reloaded, site hits, and much more.
    20. eXTReME Tracking – What makes this tracking so extreme? You get basic tracking, geo tracking, system tracking, and referrer tracking.
    21. BBClone – Designed as “a PHP based Web Counter on Steroids,” this tool lets you go beyond the number of visitors. For your visitors, you can get IP addresses, browsers, the order that the visitor viewed pages in, and more.
    22. Webstats Basic – This simple program has a little of everything. It allows you to observe visitors and trends, monitor your site traffic, and export reports of your site in a variety of formats.

Surveys, Blog Tools and Web Site Communication Gadgets

    23. Feedburner – Here’s one for the bloggers out there. This tool lets you turn your blog into an RSS feed for those dedicated readers, track who’s subscribing to your wisdom, and even track what your most popular posts are.
    24. Woopra – This tool is great if you want more communication with visitors on your site. In addition to tracking tools, Woopra includes a chat tool, letting you communicate to visitors via handy pop-ups.
    25. Addfree Stats – Need free statistics for your visitors? Track and display your hits, poll your visitors, and even view the data on your mobile device.
    26. BlogTracker – This is a great, ad-free way of keeping track of your blog visitors. You’ll get visitor counts and other statistics in a sweet, hassle-free format.
    27. Enquisite – Here’s your go-to program for search engine traffic data. Track regular searches and paid search engine clicks, and become an expert on drawing more visitors to your site.
    28. 4Q – Take a tip from Family Feud and use 4Q to learn what the survey says. This tool helps you design polls for your visitors, and get more detailed feedback beyond the simple fact that they came to the site.
    29. Google Banned Checker -A quickie tool to check if your domain name has been banned by Google.
    30. ClickTale – Sometimes Big Brother watching isn’t such a bad thing. With ClickTale, you can record and view visitors’ actions on your site from their perspective, allowing you to better customize your site to fix problems people may be having.
    31. Clicky – Clicky is another great tool for bloggers everywhere. It provides an easy-to-read dashboard, Twitter keyboard monitoring, in-depth visitor analysis, and more.
    32. Snoop – Interfacing between your computer and your site, Snoop ensures that you don’t miss a thing. Be notified of comments, purchases, referrals and more with simple audio alerts.
    33. MyBlogLog – If your blog and Facebook had a love child, it might look a lot like this program. You can effectively create an entire online community around your blog, as other bloggers running the program can visually see that you’ve visited, leave comments, and more.
    34. Mochibot – If you use a lot of Flash on your site, then this program is ideal for you. It helps you track the popularity of your Flash games and animations, gauge viral Flash ad campaigns effectively, helps incorporate Flash into your blogging, and more.
    35. Alexa – How does your Web site rank? Use Alexa to check out site ratings, hot URLs, and cool blogs.
    36. The Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer – Extend your Alexa experience right into your browser. Get the real skinny on the sites you’re visiting, check out the real-time related links, and other sweet features.
    37. Webtrack – Get e-mails or SMS messages when your site goes down or when visitor trends change with this cool program. You’ll also enjoy slick graphical statistics and lots of great visitor info.
    38. dnScoop – Should you stay or should you sell now? This site estimates the value of your domain name, and also lets you scope out the prices of great domain names on the market.
    39. Feed Analysis – This blog-friendly app is designed to complement Feedburner. It uses Feedburner info to provide interactive charts and more in-depth analysis.
    40. SongKicker – Got a Web site for your band? Use this quirky app to sound the electronic depths for your Amazon sales and Internet gossip about you to gauge how hot you and your tunes are.
    41. Reciprocal Link Check – Link partners are a great way of expanding your presence all across this series of tubes. To make sure your partners are still linking back to your site use this handy tool.
    42. Google Adsense Preview – Google ads are a great way to increase your Web site revenue…if they’re doing their job, that is. This site lets you sample the ads that Google’s Adsense has picked out for you.
    43. Google Adsense Calculator – Speaking of Adsense, is it properly paying out in cents (and dollars)? This tool helps you predict earnings changes relating to Impressions, Click Rate, and Cost Per Click.
    44. List Cleaner – If your site or blog has a lot of lists, here’s your chance to clean them. This simple too removes duplicates from any list you give it, ensuring that your Top 100 isn’t more like a Top 80-something.
    45. Nuconomy – Even though the economy’s in the gutter, the Nuconomy is looking good. This tool goes beyond page views to see just how actively engaged your users are with the site, allowing you to make it even greater.
    46. YSlow – This Firefox extension helps you measure your front-end effectiveness. You’ll get a letter grade on your design and an outline of possible areas you can improve on.

Technical Web Site Stuff for Smart People

    47. Web Page Analyzer – It’s all about file sizes and connection speeds with this simple, awesome program. Discover how quickly your site loads at different speeds, find the combined file size of all items on your page, and trim your sites down accordingly.
    48. Grape – Free and open source, there’s a lot of room in this program for exploration and expansion. Get fluid statistics, API extensions, and more.
    49. W3C CSS Validation Service – While the name may be a mouthful, it can be described in just two syllables: awesome. Analyze the different CSS templates you used in your Web sites and make sure it meets W3C recommendations which, among other things, means that multiple browsers can read it just fine.
    50. Netcraft – Who watches the watch…er, the server? Actually, you can do so with this tool which lets you check out the OS and server software of your webhost, when its computers were last rebooted, and more.
    51. DNS Stuff – Worried about keeping your domain name profile up to date? Use this program to check what’s in your WHOIS profile, and make sure you don’t have an obsolete e¬mail hanging out in there.
    52. ServiceUptime – Worried about your site going down? This service will e-mail you if that happens, change the domain name being checked, and more.
    53. Octagate Site Timer – Here’s another great tool for those worried about visitors with slower connections. You can measure how long it would take users to load multiple pages with this great, simple tool.
    54. URI Valet – Here’s what your site really needs: a valet. Scope out your load time, server headers, internal links, image sizes, and more.
    55. Browser Shots – While not as visceral as body shots, these Browser Shots are almost as intoxicating. It renders your site in Linux, Windows, Mac, and other browsers, meaning more people can enjoy your work.
    56. NetRenderer If you’re a fan of Internet Explorer, you know its one weakness: it has more versions than Spiderman has clones. With this tool, you can render your site in everything from IE 5.5 to IE 8.0.
    57. Piwik – One of the key draws to this great program is its features are built inside plug-ins, letting you choose what to keep and what to toss. You store the data it collects in your own database, including visitor tracking, keyword effectiveness, and other great tools.
    58. AWStats – Definitely designed for the more visually minded, this tool generates web, streaming, ftp and mail server statistics in graphical format. It’s also great for analyzing log files, getting web compression statistics, sussing out HTTP errors and other great features.
    59. JAWStats – As you may have figured out from the names, JAWStats is designed to work with AWStats. It gives you a variety of charts, graphs, and tables regarding visitors to your section of the Internet.
    60. Clickheat -If you can’t stand the heat…well, get away from the monitor before you catch on fire. If you can stand the heat, use this tool to get a visual “heat map” of the hot spots on your Web site, define pages with keywords, log screen sizes and browsers, and more.
    61. Analog – Sometimes an analog tool for the digital age is just what the doctor ordered. Analog reports in 32 languages, and lets you track usage patterns on your site with speed and customizability.
    62. Track Yahoo Search Advertising – Just how effective is that Yahoo advertising? This tool helps you measure your Yahoo ad hits, making sure that you’re getting your money’s worth.
    63. CrawlTrack – As a webmaster, what are you missing? If you answered “dashboard,” you’ll enjoy this tool that provides a downloads counter, blocks hacking attempts, tracks down the keywords that lured visitors in, and more.
    64. W3Perl – Easy to install and easy to manage, W3Perl is beyond user-friendly. It can be used for page tagging and logfile analysis, and can even be run from your command line.
    65. The Webalizer – This tool analyzes your web server log files, and produces them in an easy-to-read HTML format. The analysis is quick, the program is portable, and it supports dozens of languages.
    66. Reinvigorate – Does your Web site monitoring need to be…well…reinvigorated? This tool gives you real-time info, granular visitor insight, desktop tracking and other cool features.
    67. XiTi Free – This handy tool is already being used by over 350,000 sites. Use it to get a global view of your site, including visitor interest criteria, IP address exclusions, and awesome client support.
    68. SpyFu – Think your Web site kung-fu is strong? This program estimates how much money your competition may be spending on advertisements, which can give you the edge.
    69. ezine designer – It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Give them your Web site URL and a valid e-mail, and get notified if your site ever goes down, which is great for webmasters on the go.
    70. Fiddler Web Debugging Tool – If you’d like to decode the conversation between browsers and your servers, this is the tool for you. In addition to its great debugging features, this tool won’t crash your browser like others of its kind.
    71. Firefox: Web Developer Extension – If you’ve already got Firefox, you’re halfway there. This extension lets you remove cascading tiles, assess all of your external links, remove Javascript components, and more.

Analytic Programs for Web Sites

    72. blvd – This program has almost all of the analytics you’ll need in one slick package. Get live stats, RSS conversion tracking, social media referral info and more.
    73. goingup! – For those who feel like analytics packages lack a personal touch, this program clicks all the right buttons. You can personalize your dashboard, get the low-down on visitors, and even get tips on how to improve your web rankings.
    74. Yahoo Web Analytics – This is a webtool that believes, like you, that “Web site visitors are now people, not clicks.” Tracking data is available in minutes (if not seconds), there’s 8 filters for scoping out your visitors, and you can track dozens of custom fields and on-site actions.
    75. Open Web Analytics – This tool is all about building analytics right into your applications. This allows you to map users on Google Maps, scope out the age of your visitors, track their clicking, and a host of other cool features.
    76. Google Analytics – You trust Google to find sites, so why not let them help you with yours? Track unique visitors, viewing trends, and use their unique visual analytics system.
    77. Crazy Egg – If you liked Google Analytics’ overlay tool, then here’s a program that goes crazy with it. See visual representations of site visitors as a map representing just how hot (or cold) certain parts of your site are.
    78. Slimstat – If you’d like your web analytics software with a bit of hot sauce, then here it is. In addition to normal analytics services, you’ll get bot tracking and spam filtering services, too.

Help for the SEO Impaired

    79. Website Grader – Schooling yourself about your Web site has never been easier. Just give them your site, list any particular sites you’re in competition with, and receive an e-mail with how you compare in the Internet, with an option to receive ongoing e-mails.
    80. Majestic SEO – Speaking of the competition, here’s another program to help you get a leg up on everybody else. It gives you detailed reports about other sites’ backlinks and anchor text, giving you the anatomy of your enemies.
    81. Google Trends – What keywords does your site need to rock? Use the search masters, Google, and find out what hottest search phrases on the Internet are.
    82. .htaccess URL Rewrite – Got some of those crazy-long URLs that send visitors scurrying? Shorten them to something more user-friendly with one simple step.
    83. Cloaking Checker – Sadly, the Cloaking checker has nothing to do with Romulans. Instead, it lets you compare how search engines “see” pages as opposed to how browsers see pages.
    84. Keyword Density Checker – Feel like your keywords are getting a little clustered? To make sure your site isn’t cluster-stuck, use this tool to examine keyword density in a handy tag-cloud format.
    85. Search Engine Position -This cool tool has two simple components. Primarily, it lets you see how far up (or down) you are on Google searches; in addition to scoping your domain, you can put in certain keywords and see how they’re working for you.
    86. Spider View – Skip being a fly on the wall, and try being a spider on the net. With this application you can view your chosen site from the perspective of a search engine spider.
    87. Trifecta – Why measure just one aspect of a page when you can measure a trifecta? This program estimates the relative popularity of pages, blogs, and domains.
    88. Term Target – It’s all about your mad Keyword targeting skills with this no-frills tool. It assigns any given page a grade based on how well the keywords are targeted.
    89. Linkscape – If your internet marketing needs an edge, Linkscape will sharpen it right up. Identify linking domains, analyze the competition, find link acquisition targets, and more.
    90. Term Extractor – This tool extracts terms that appear to be targeted at search engines. Check your own site’s effectiveness out, or just scope out the competition, with no installation required.
    91. URL Redirect Check – Use a lot of re-directs? Make sure they’re search-engine friendly with one simple click.
    92. Geo Target – Does your site’s marketing need to go global? Geo Target helps determine how effectively your site targets region-specific searches.
    93. Check HTTP Status Code – Sometimes keeping your sites afloat is like being Scotty and keeping the Enterprise from blowing up. This quick tool spits out what status code a site is giving—sometimes you can even fix it problems without dilithium crystals.
    94. IP2LOC – Simply give this site an IP address, and get a handy Google map of the area. Literally track down the competition, or just make sure your IP is giving off good vibrations.
    95. Find Domain Age – Just how old is that domain? This simple tool gives you a quick, precise answer to that question.
    96. Juicy Link Finder – Related to the previous program, this tool helps you old domains with high page ranks. You can specify searches by keywords, and see who the kings of that particular term are.
    97. Raven – It’s all about optimization with this handy tool. It checks out your SEO components, examines what needs work, and lets you keep PDF records of its work.
    98. Content Duplication Tool – Worried about duplicate info? This tool helps you sidestep the negative effects of duplicate info (such as index issues) and streamline your site.
    99. Quarkbase – Consider this your base of information regarding info about your Web site. Find out how you’re looking on Facebook, Alexa, and everywhere else on the web.
    100. Image Analyzer – How well do your images help out your Web site? This simple tool makes sure there’s no issues with image heights and widths, no images or text are missing, and so on.

These tools can provide you with imperative information about your Web site or online business. Never have a bad web page again and earn more traffic than ever before. Just think, you may never need another computer repairmen or webmaster.

Suzane Smith – toponlineengineeringdegree.com

Aug 14, 2009 | 26 comments | View Post

Nasty New Entrecard Trend

list of stock photo sitesI am not writing the post to offend anyone – just trying to make you think.

I’ve been with entrecard for over a year now.  If you spend a little time on it every day you can get a lot of traffic to your site and make wonderful contacts in the blogosphere.  EC has had it’s issues over the last few months but I try to look at it as growing pains – they don’t want their site to fade into oblivion because it became stagnant and irrelevent.   So, I decide to sit back, watch and wait to see what happens.  But I’ve noticed something quite disturbing over the last few months.  It isn’t the changes in EC that is hurting this community, but the members posting about their unhappiness with everything EC.  Some members are going as far as attacking other members – critisizing the quality of their blogs, their advertising habits, just about anything they can complain about.  While blogging is a great format for writing about anything I think people really need to stop and think before they write a negative post and put links and pictures to other sites on their blog (especially when you don’t really have an issue with that site)   Why would you want to negatively impact another blogger, one in your own community?  I won’t post links to these sites or I’d be guilty of the same thing I’m complaining about.  Remember, every negative comment you make about another person, blog or site is there forever.  Maybe if people would quit bitching and get to work they would be too happy with how well their site is doing to complain about others.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’d like to provide everyone with a bunch of links to some “free” stock photo sites.  I think putting images along with posts is an important aspect to creating a visually pleasing blog.  I get a few snarky comments about the pretty girls I put on my site – but everyone’s taste is different,  I happen to think hot girls add a little beauty and interest to this site that could be really boring if it was all about how to advertise a website.  Maybe I should put pictures of computers and flowers and dog poop.  I guess you just can’t make everyone happy all the time.  Enough ranting, here’s the links – one bit of advice though, if you are putting these images on something that you are going to sell (ebook, template, etc) you should probably go ahead purchase the rights to the images so you never have to deal with any copywrite issues down the line.

  • 123RF
  • Absolutvision
  • Abstract Influence
  • Acclaim Images
  • Big Stock Photo
  • Burning Well
  • Cepolina Photo
  • Design Packs
  • Dreamstime
  • Elfwood
  • Flickr
  • Fotolia
  • Free Foto
  • Free Media Goo
  • Free Stock Photos
  • Image Catalog
  • Inmagine
  • iStock Photo
  • Jupiter Images
  • Morguefile
  • Open Photo
  • Open Stock Photography
  • Photo Gen
  • Photo Rogue
  • Photobucket
  • PhotoRack
  • Shutterstock
  • Stock.xchng
  • Stockvault
  • Webshots
  • Woophy
  • WP Clipart
    • Jul 11, 2009 | 71 comments | View Post

    Be A Better Blogger (Some Common Problems with Blogs)

    pretty girl with a laptop computerBlogs are a portion of the many technological advancements we have seen in recent day, but they have quickly become extremely popular. People can create them to share their thoughts, ideas, and expertise with others around the world. There are vast quantities of blogs out on the internet these days, but not all of them are created equally. Many are excellent, but others are more painful to read. Just what exactly makes a blog less than enjoyable? This can be attributed to any number of reasons.

    First of all, it can sometimes be difficult to find a blog that best fits your current need. For example, doing an internet search for a blog on a specific topic could bring up hundreds of sites. Some will be large sites such as Blogger that host lots of smaller blogs, and you will have to weed through to find the one that you need.

    Another problem with blogs is the content. A blog is intended to be a forum for expressing yourself to the world. Unfortunately, too many people tend to use it as a chat room between friends. They write all about local events and such and comment back and forth in that way. People also tend to use phrases and/or slang that is only familiar to their friends. This alienates potential readers who might like to gain some knowledge from the blog.

    In addition, there are often too many blogs out there that have just not been updated. It seems that people start them up but do not take the time to post after a while. It would be helpful if blog owners realized that people often want the information they can provide and would like to form a readership relationship with the writer. However, this means the writer has to hold up his end of the bargain and furnish valuable, educational content
    for the blog.

    Speaking of content, if you consider creating a blog, think of an intelligent topic. For example, consider starting a blog that would be more along the lines of a philosophical discussion or spiritual exploration. There are already too many blogs on the web devoted to people’s favorite actors or actresses. Share your knowledge and passion with the world; just choose the less trivial knowledge!

    Another common problem with blogs is the commenting feature. It is virtually useless in many cases. A large number of blog owners have a place for comments available, but many do not bother to respond to the comments placed. It is difficult to create a readership if you leave them feeling insignificant or ignored.

    The world of blogging can be fresh, interesting, and exciting. However, it takes some work by the blog writers to create relevant blogs that are useful for a wide range of people. Chat rooms were created for small talk and intimate conversations. Blogging is meant to create a community that can share information and passion on various topics. If writers will focus on the readership more than on themselves, blogs would be better for everyone!

    Author:    Ed Reuben

     

    May 09, 2009 | 32 comments | View Post
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