The Pros and Cons of Using Video in Your Site or Blog

Last year I started experimenting with online video. I focused mostly on screencasts, doing some blog reviews and how-to videos. I liked to work with video, and found that it has many benefits. After some time I also realized that it carries some drawbacks, though. Below you will find what I learned from it.

PROS

1. Video sets you apart from the crowd. Most people are able to setup a blog and start writing text posts. Current blogging and publishing platforms make it a no-brainer even for 5-year old children. Video, on the other hand, requires a special setup (e.g., a video camera, screen capturing and editing software). Using video can therefore set your blog or site apart from the crowd.

2. Video appeals to a different audience. There is a great number of online users that prefer to watch videos over reading text content. YouTube’s popularity is no coincidence. Adding video to your site could widen your potential audience and bring new visitors aboard.

3. Video enables you to show rather than tell. Demonstrating things and explaining some concepts can be easier with video. Sites that have a good amount of how-to articles and tutorials could therefore benefit from the format.

4. Video can be more personal. Video will bring out your voice and possibly your face. Needless to say that this is a much stronger way to interact with your visitors. Secondly, if you want to develop your personal brand, video could help with that.

5. Video reaches different online channels. Given the immense popularity of online video sites, YouTube above them all, video could be used to tap into different marketing channels and new traffic generation opportunities.

CONS

1. Video requires more preparation. Casual videos can be shot on the spot. If you want to produce something more professional, however, you will need to work on the setup, script and related activities. In other words, you will need to work even before you start shooting the video.

2. Video takes time to edit and upload. Apart from preparing the video before you shoot it, you will also need to dedicate a good amount of time to the editing and uploading processes. Choosing the right format, video platform and player are also areas that will need attention.

3. Video is not optimal for search engines. Google and other search engines are evolving fast regarding how they index videos. That being said, text is still king if you want to optimize your site for organic traffic. One solution for this is to offer video transcripts, but this will require some extra work on your side.

4. Video is not suitable for all topics. Depending on the topic or type of content that you want to create, video might not be suitable at all. Lists of resources, extensive articles and detailed researches, for example, are better presented in textual format.

5. Not everyone likes video. While there are many Internet users that swear by online video, there are just as many that can’t stand it. Those are mostly people that don’t have too much time to surf the web, and who prefer to access the information in textual format, because it allows them to scan through the content, and filter only the bit of information that they need.

Overall I think it is worth a try though. Video is certainly going to be a huge part of the web in the coming years, and the sooner you get used to it, the better.

What about you, have you experimented with producing online video? What did you learn from it?

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SEO and PPC Work Together to Improve a Search Engine Presence

Search engine marketing novices may not understand all of the different components of an SEM strategy and may be confused by the terminology. SEO? PPC? Is there really much of a difference and is one strategy better than the other? Yes there is a big difference and no, one strategy is not better than the other. SEO and PPC are independent tactics that serve different purposes but they don’t need to be mutually exclusive. In fact, they shouldn’t be. The best SEM strategy is to implement both, especially in the beginning of a search engine marketing campaign.

PPC is also known as paid search. PPC ads appear in the sponsored section of a search result. The websites that appear in this section are there because the advertiser was the highest bidder for the keyword or keyword phrase that was used. Each time the ad is clicked on, the advertiser pays the search engine. Hence the label, “pay per click”. The key to a successful PPC campaign is to target the right keywords that will result in not only traffic, but conversions. Since the website owner is essentially paying for this traffic, it might as well be worth something to them. The costs associated with PPC can be extremely high, especially in a competitive industry.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of making changes to the website and other content across the web that will attract the search engine spiders and improve organic, or natural, web page ranking. SEO isn’t considered to be paid search because no money is exchanged between the website owner and the search engine, but there are certainly costs associated with SEO. SEO is a lengthy process that is never really “over”. It starts with industry, competitor, and keyword research. Next is on-site optimization which is followed by ongoing link building. Good link building requires time and resources to create quality content and share it on the web on a regular basis. Many website and business owners simply don’t have the time or resources. Therefore, they need to hire an in house SEO staff member or outsource the work to a trusted agency or consultant. Good SEO is paid for, just in a less direct manner than PPC.

Since web users have become more savvy over the years and understand the difference between an ad and an organic result, there are arguments that SEO is better than PPC. The truth is that both strategies have their place. While SEO is extremely important, it takes a long time to get onto that first page of a search result for targeted keywords. Some websites never even make it to that first page. PPC, while expensive, can ensure that your brand is seen on page 1. Even if the ad isn’t clicked on, it’s still improving brand visibility. As time goes on and an organic presence improves, it’s possible to scale back on PPC but it doesn’t need to be eliminated entirely. Having both a paid and organic presence on the same page really establishes relevancy for particular keyword searches.

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6 Simple Ways to Improve Your Writing

If you’re taking your blogging seriously, you need to think of yourself as a writer, not just ablogger.

We’ve already taken a look atwhy great content matters so much. In this post, I’m going to give you some simple tips for improving your writing skills.

#1: Write Regularly

The more you write, the easier writing will become. You don’t have to write every day — but writing regularly (at least a couple of times a week) will really help you improve.

If you’re struggling to find time to create blog posts, schedule your writing sessions in advance. You could even head out to a cafe for a few hours (hey,it works for Darren Rowse…)

#2: Ask for Feedback

It’s a scary thing to do, but one of the best ways to improve is to ask for feedback on your posts. Buddy up with another blogger and ask them to tell you what’s working well and what isn’t. Make sure you return the favor when they need a hand.

If you belong to any private forums or membership sites, you could post a work-in-progress for other members to comment on.

#3: Read Thoughtfully

When you read a great blog post, don’t move straight on to the next. Stop and work out why the post was so good. You might even want to print it out so you can write in the margins.

Look at the structure — what subheadings were used? Look at the writing style — did the introduction have a compelling hook to draw you in? Find onething that you could do in your own posts as a result of what you’ve discovered.

#4: Edit Your Writing

When you’ve finished a post, it’s tempting to hit “publish” straight away. But taking just a few minutes to edit will make a huge difference to your finished post.

If you can, leave your post alone for a day before you edit — that way, you’ll be able to spot mistakes more easily. Watch out for typos, but also pay attention to the bigger picture: you might need to spice up the introduction or swap a couple of paragraphs around in the middle.

#5: Read About Writing

There are hundreds of books and blogs about writing. Set aside some time each week for reading about writing — even if it’s just half an hour. Try to read something that you can put into practice straight away.

Some great places to start include Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101 page and the“Writing Content” archive on Daily Blog Tips.

#6: Take a Class

If you want to improve your writing fast, take a class. That might be at your local college or online. Ideally, the syllabus should cover the sort of writing that you want to do (web writing, blogging, copywriting or similar) — but you can still learn a lot from a creative writing class.

Most classes or online courses will give you a chance to get direct feedback from the tutor: this will let you pinpoint areas for improvement in your work.

What could you do today to take your writing further? And if you’ve got a suggestion to add to this list, share it with us in the comments!

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30 Essential SEO Resources for Beginners

For many bloggers, SEO seems like some kind of black magic that only super technical people can ever get the hang of.

I’ll admit, starting out with SEO can be very intimidating.

The massive amounts of information (and misinformation) is enough to send any blogger into a state I like to call “information paralysis”, where they are unable to act.

I’d like to alleviate some of that today.

Below I’ve outlined some of the most essential and trusted SEO resources, from blogs, to tools, to guides, to forums and conferences: it’s all here.

Dive in below, and don’t let the fear of learning something new stop you from utilizing this great inbound marketing aspect.

SEO Blogs

It’s always good practice to keep updated on the world of SEO with the top SEO blogs.

Below I’ve outlined a few of my personal favorites, covering search engine news, tips, and algorithm changes.

• Search Engine Land — One of the biggest blogs on search engine news and information.
• SEOmoz — One of my favorite SEO blogs, I’m also a contributor, split between the main blog and the YouMoz blog, filled with good SEO articles.
• SEO Book — Aaron Wall creates some truly great articles, love him or hate him, you should be reading his blog.
• Matt Cutts — Head of Google’s webpam team, you should probably listen to him or something.
• Search Engine Journal — Great blog for link building, PPC, and optimization information.
• Google’s Blog – Google’s main blog, not much on SEO specifically, but it’s good to know what Big G is up to.

SEO Guides

Blogs can be an incredible source of information.

Unfortunately, for the newbie, they are too split up: info is spread throughout hundreds (or thousands) of posts.

These complete guides offer a more thorough offering on learning SEO.

• Google’s SEO Start Guide – Official Google guide to getting started with SEO.
• Beginner’s Guide to SEO — The most essential read for beginners, and it’s pretty too!
• The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors – Excellent visual guide to SEO.
• SEO Copywriting Guide – The SEO Copywriting guide is a must read
• Marketing Terms — Confused about what “SEO”, “SEM”, “PPC”, or “inbound marketing”? Learn all of the necessary phrases here.
• Search Engine Ranking Factors Guide – Another great guide, this time on ranking factors, from SEOmoz
• Simplifying SEO Guide — Great guide on how to keep SEO simple.
• SEO Cheat Sheet — Another must read for website owners from SEOmoz.

SEO Tools

SEO can be an immense time sink if you aren’t careful.

Definitely check out a few of the SEO tools below that can save you countless hours and a ton of frustration.

Just be sure not to spend too much time playing around with the tools instead of actually using them!

• Google Keyword Tool – If there is one “getting started” tool that you must learn about, it’s this one. Know it well, you’ll use it forever (or at least as long as Google is around).
• SEOmoz’s Tools — A comprehensive suite of tools that I’ve started to fall in love with. It’s paid (and a premium price), but very useful.
• Google Webmaster Tools — If you are going to play Big G’s game (whitehat style), you need to use their tools.
• Open Site Explorer – A individual SEOmoz tool that’s perfect for checking competitor’s backlinks, as well as other metrics. More comprehensive if you’re a pro user.
• Serp IQ – One of my recent favorite tools to emerge on the market, tons of great uses from competition analysis to keyword discovery, this tool is insanely fast and has a ton of great features.
• Scribe SEO — A super useful tool (especially if you are focusing onWordPress SEO) because it breaks down keyword density to perfection.
• SpyFu — Great for spying on your competitors, specifically their advertising.
• Wordtracker Keyword Tool — A classic, must use for keyword research.
• Market Samurai – Still one of the best keyword analysis tools on the market, perfect for checking SEO competition, although it runs somewhat slowly (Adobe Air).

SEO Forums

Although guides and blogs can offer a ton of essential information, sometimes you are going to have questions.

Forums are a great spot to get these questions answered.

• Webmaster World — One of the oldest forums for website owners.
• Digital Point Forum — Useful, but can be a time sink: remember, it’s always better to do more work and less reading.
• Search Engine Watch Forum — Very popular forum tied to Search Engine Watch.

Conferences

A bit advanced for most, but a great way to really dive into SEO is to know about (and go to) the many search engine related conferences.

• SES Conference — SES is the leading global event series about search and social marketing, with a focus on tactics and best practices.
• Blueglass — BlueGlass’ Internet Marketing Conferences have quickly become known in the web marketing circles as being premier events for learning the latest strategies, interacting with the speakers and networking
• Search Marketing Expo — Another leading search engine conference.

Over To You

Is there a big resource that you’d like to see included?

Let us know some of your favorite SEO resources in the comments, and thanks for reading!

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6 SEO Tips from Google Itself

If you are new to SEO Google just released a video with some basics mistakes you should avoid and six tips you should apply on your website if you want better rankings. If you have been working with SEO for some time you won’t find anything new here, but it might be a refresher and remind you about the factors that Google considers to be important:

If you are in a hurry here are the 6 tips:

1. Do something cool: Make sure your site stands out from the competition.

2. Include relevant words in your copy: Try to put yourself in the shoes of searchers.

3. Be smart about your tags and site architecture.

4. Sign up for email forwarding in Webmaster Tools to get notified by Google if anything is wrong.

5. Attract buzz: Natural links, +1s, likes, follows… all these can help.

6. Stay fresh and relevant: Keep content up-to-date on your site to keep receiving organic traffic.

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10 Proven Ways to Generate Website Traffic

There are hundreds of ways to generate website traffic, but in this article, I want to cover some of the fundamental tactics.

These are ways that I’ve used in my business, and I know from personal experience that they work.

In the end, this is about building a blog and business that will be with you for years to come.

This is not about quick-fix strategies that get slapped by Google after a few months.

So let’s jump right into the first way, shall we?

1. Guest Blogging

The absolute first one for any blog is to do guest blogging, which means to write articles for other blogs and websites in exchange for links back to your site.

This is the tactic I’ve used to build my blog up to thousands of subscribers. I’ve built a business around writing for others.

To find guest blogging opportunities either check out the blogs you’re already reading, or go to your favorite search engine and type in: “niche + “write for us””

2. Forums

The next way to generate targeted website traffic is forums.

find big forums in your niche, and start contributing. Don’t promote your own website. Just provide value and be helpful.

So how do people find your site?

You put a link and a call to action in your signature, which is the part below all of your posts, just like an email signature.

Some forums don’t allow signatures, so make sure the forum you’re registering for does.

3. Blog Commenting

Then we have blog commenting.

Blog commenting isn’t the best way to generate website traffic, but it still works in getting some traffic to your site.

A big advantage of blog commenting is that it helps you connect with the site owner. And if you comment on dozens of blogs, people will see you everywhere, and they’ll get curious.

4. Article Marketing

Article marketing is something I’ve used to build up multiple passive income streams throughout the years.

I now prefer guest blogging, because it’s easier, but if you’re not ready to write for blogs with thousands of readers, I suggest you look at article marketing.

When I do article marketing, I only write for EzineArticles.com. I don’t bother submitting to hundreds of directories, because EzineArticles gives me the best bang for my time.

5. Interviews

When your blog starts growing, and especially if you can show people that you know what you’re talking about, you will get interviewed.

Interviews are great for expanding your reach and building links to your blog.

This tactic is more for bloggers who already have a following. But it can work for beginners if you’ve carved out your niche well.

6. Podcast

Starting your own podcast is a great way to expand your reach. I just started mine not too long ago, and the response has been fantastic.

There are millions of blogs competing against each other, but only a few hundred thousand podcasts at the time I write this.

And depending on which market you’re in, the numbers will vary.

Conducting a podcast is scary for most people, so they don’t do it. If you can push your comfort zone and do things other do not, you will stand out.

And you will generate traffic to your blog.

7. Video Tutorials

If you want to take things even further, you can start creating videos.

You don’t have to be in front of the camera. You could do PowerPoint, or Keynote, presentations and use software that records your screen, such as Camtasia for PC or Screenflow for Mac.

You could even repurpose your podcast into video, as long as you put in some slides or visuals to keep people interested.

8. Free Course

Another great way to generate website traffic is to create a free course.

Yes, a course that you give away. Make sure you do some keyword research before you create it. Pick a keyword you can rank for and then use the keyword in the title of your free course.

This will help you rank when people link to your course. The goal is to make the course so good that people want to spread it.

9. Proper SEO

You can’t forget proper SEO. I’m talking about both on-site and off-site.

Use keywords that your market uses. Pick ones that you can compete for when you write articles, create podcasts, and upload videos.

Google has made a lot of changes, but SEO is not dead. Google wants to rank good content, so help them find yours.

And remember to make it easy for the search engines. Use keywords that are relevant, and then get people to share your content.

10. Hard Work

Most people look for quick-fix strategies when it comes to generating more traffic to their website or blog.

But if there’s anything I’ve learned throughout the years of running an online business, it’s that this takes hard work.

And the more willing you are to put in the work, the more targeted website traffic you will generate.

I am living proof of this. I’ve never succeeded with the latest tactic. Instead I’ve slowly built up my online business.

And today I can do what I want, when I want and from where I want. I have the freedom I want. And I have control over my time.

Wrap Up

Focus on working hard instead of looking for a quick-fix, because that’s when you’ll start seeing real results with your blog and your business.

One of the big ones I left out of this article was social media, because I haven’t focused a lot of my efforts on it. Many of my articles have gone viral, but I still haven’t found a formula that guarantees results.

All I can say is to produce great content, work hard, and keep taking action.

If you do those three things, you will go far.

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Top 10 Android Apps for Bloggers and Writers

As a blogger you need to stay connected and updated regarding the latest trends in the blogosphere and inside your own niche.

These days this doesn’t mean browsing through websites on your desktop, though. We are mobile now, but luckily we carry a computer with us anywhere we go (the smartphone). If you are an Android user I want to share with you 10 applications that will make your life as a blogger easier. Check them out:

Here’s I’m going to list of top 10 useful Android apps for bloggers to help you maintain your blog using a mobile device and get things done when you’re away from your computer.

1. WordPress App for Android

No doubt that WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms on the Internet. You can make use of this app to directly get access to your WordPress admin panel and publish blog posts. It allows you to perform many essential tasks like moderating comments, editing, adding photos and videos and managing your blog straight from your smartphone.

2. Blogger App for Android

Blogger is the second most used blogging platform, and if you’re using Blogger as your blogging platform than this app is for you. It can help your blog in the go and enjoy the tremendous experience. Cheers to Google for creating such a remarkable application which can be accessed to through your Android smartphone.

3. Hootsuite App for Android

Hootsuite is a social media Android apps that allows you send updates to Twitter and Facebook. Plus it also allows you to schedule updates on your social networks and view the click-through rates. You can manage your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare on the go with Hootsuite for Android

4. Google Reader App for Android:

Google reader is one of my favorite app because it helps me in getting the updates from my favorite blogs, including Daily Blog Tips, all at once place. It could be a time consuming process to check the updates from all blogs and websites and to get everything in systematic order in once place, Google reader app for Android is perfect solution.

5. Google Analytics App for Android

This is the most useful app for bloggers who love to crunch over the numbers. This app makes it easy to check your blog stats, number of pageviews, visitors location, traffic sources and lots of other things through Google Analytics on your mobile device.

6. Paypal App for Android

You can use this app to manage your Paypal account on the go. Make use of this app and shop for the things you love, send money to anyone, transfer money to collaborators and lots more. This app can help you check your balance from anywhere at anytime even if you are not cool with banking on any kind with phones.

7. Gmail App for Android

Gmail is one of the most desirable email clients, and pretty much every blogger out there use it. Through the app you can easily connect your different custom domain email addresses. Gmail app for Android helps you keep your conversations going on everywhere you go. I know you are probably already using it, but hey I needed to include it to make a true top 10 list.

8. Facebook App for Android

Facebook App for Android helps you stay connected and share status updates, review your upcoming events, chat with friends, share links and checkout your news feed all from your home screen. In my opinion the app is also better than the mobile site experience, so check it out.

9. Twidroyd App for Android

Twidroys app for Android is the only Twitter application that works great in your Android smartphone. It has a free and paid version, but the paid version is very nice and worth few bucks. It let’s you do everything like see websites and view photos next to tweets. A must have for Twitter power users.

10. Writer App for Android:

It is a basic notebook app that can help you write your drafts and copy-paste them later with Writer even if you don’t have an Internet connection. Whenever you feel you’re in writing mood, open this app and it allows you to focus on nothing but writing.

Conclusion:

Overall, with the variety of applications available in the Google Play store blogging with a mobile device is really easy and fun.

If you believe that is any app missing from the list make sure to suggest it with a comment below.

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Make Your Site Faster with Google’s mod_pagespeed

As you probably know a couple of months ago Google announced that it would start taking into consideration the load speed of web pages when determining the its search rankings. In other words, the faster your page, the higher the chances of your rankings going up, and vice-versa.

Luckily for webmasters and site owners Google is also trying to help us to get there. This week one of its tools for this purpose went out of beta. It’s called mod_pagespeed.

Here’s how Google describers it: “mod_pagespeed is an open-source Apache module which automatically applies web performance best practices to pages, and associated assets (CSS, JavaScript, images) without requiring that you modify your existing content or workflow.”

Among other things it will:

• Image optimization, compression, and resizing
• CSS & JavaScript concatenation, minification, and inlining
• Cache extension, domain sharding, and domain rewriting
• Deferred loading of JavaScript and image resources

I still haven’t tried it, but when I get some free time I’ll install on my server and see how it works. Did any of you guys installed it already?

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Freelance Bloggers: 12 Tips to Promote Your Work With Social Media

There are growing numbers of bloggers making money by writing for other blogs. With the popularity and success of multi-authored blogs and news-related blogs, this appears to be a trend that will continue as there is a considerable need for valuable, well-written content that draws attention. As a paid writer, if the work that you produce consistently draws traffic, comments, and links, blog owners will want you to write for them. You’ll have more repeat opportunities as well as more new opportunities that find you.

Social media provides an excellent opportunity for freelance bloggers to promote their writing and draw traffic and exposure. Many paid writers assume their job is over as soon as the post is submitted. However, a little bit of extra effort to promote that post with social media could make a world of difference in the success of the post and in the amount or work that you get. Blog owners are paying for results. If you can outperform other freelance bloggers by delivering some extra traffic with social media, your services will be more complete and more effective.

Why is Social Media a Great Fit for Freelance Bloggers?

1. Portability – With social media you can build profiles on various sites that will help you with just about anything that you write. You can essentially build profiles and take them with you from job to job. Whether you write for one blog or for ten, your profiles with social media can help you to promote it all. When you start a new gig writing for a different blog, your social media profiles are ready and able to produce results right away.

2. Noticeable Results – Many blog owners that are paying writers are routinely watching stats to see which writers and which posts are producing the best results. With social media you will be able to generate enough traffic to your writing that the blog owners will take notice.

3. It’s Free – Promoting your work with social media will cost you nothing. Once you have been active, learned how the sites work, and built profiles, you can quickly promote your work at no cost.

4. Exposure – There is almost no other way to get your work in front of as large of an audience as you can with social media. If you’re using the most appropriate sites and categories to promote your work, the visitors that arrive will be fairly well targeted.

My Experience Promoting Paid Blog Posts with Social Media:

5. StumbleUpon is Key – A decent StumbleUpon profile is extremely valuable. I’m not one of the top users, but my profile is effective enough that I can submit or review one of my articles and get the ball rolling. If the article is worthy, several of my friends will wind up seeing it and giving a thumbs up or a review, leading to more traffic. StumbleUpon is also very flexible. Almost anything you produce will have a place on StumbleUpon if it is high quality. Best of all, you can start using StumbleUpon and producing results amost immediately. It’s not like Digg where you have to have a very strong profile to have a good chance at drawing traffic.

I almost never give a thumbs up to content on my primary blog, as I leave it up to readers to determine whether or not it is worthy of a stumble. However, very frequently I’ll give a thumbs up to my work on other blogs. Submitting your own content to social media can be a sticky issue for some people. I personally don’t see any problem with promoting your own work on other blogs, but I would be interested to hear your opinions on the subject. From my perspective it’s just a little something extra that I am able to provide to the blog owner that is paying me for my work.

6. Don’t Ignore Niche Sites – If you tend to cover specific topics or industries in your various projects, niche social media sites can be another great resource. While niche sites will not be able to drive as high a volume of traffic as the major social media sites, the quality of traffic will be much higher and visitors will generally be more interested.

7. Sharing Can Help – Most social media sites allow some type of functionality for sharing links with your friends. When appropraite, be willing to share your work with friends that you think will be interested. Many bloggers do this regularly for their own work, but not too many do so for their paid writing.

Some Tips for Getting Started:

8. Start with Major Sites – Unless almost all of your paid writing is highly targeted on a specific niche, general social media sites will give you the best results. Building a profile with a site like StumbleUpon will allow you to promote a higher percentage of your work. If you are just getting started, focus on what will give you the best all-around results.

9. Go for the Most Noticeable Results – One of your goals should be to create results that will get noticed by blog owers. If they notice that your work is typically bringing a lot of traffic, your work will be more valuable to them. This is another reason to focus on major social media sites. If you’re writing for a blog that draws decent traffic, the blog owner may not think very much about a niche social media site that send a few hundred visitors to one of your posts. On the other hand, a few thousand visitors from a major social media site would be very noticeable.

10. Become an Avid User – Take the time to use the social media sites that you’ve targeted on a regular basis, not just when you need to promote one of your posts. Being a strong social media user involves much more than just promoting you own work. Get to know the site and be looking for opportunities to help others as well.

11. Don’t Force It – Not every blog post will be a good fit for social media. When you write something that just isn’t likely to draw much interest from this audience, don’t force it. You’ll have better results when you stick to promoting your best work that is well-suited to social media.

12. Build a Network of Friends – Regardless of which social media site you are using, friends are a significant part of your success. Be sure to dedicate enough time and effort to build up your social media relationships. Networks of friends aren’t only important on the social media sites themselves. Many bloggers are able to help promote their work by emailing a few other blogging friends to request social media votes when they need them. Building a strong network of other bloggers can be a big help in this way. Of course, you need to be ready and willing to help others whenever you can.

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How to Get a Custom URL for Your Facebook Page in Five Easy Steps

Does your Facebook page’s URL look something like this?

www.facebook.com/My-Facebook-Page/303188632181849

By default, your Facebook page’s URL is made up of your page’s name plus a long number. If you want to put the URL on your business card, or spell it out over the phone, this is obviously not ideal.

The good news is that you can create a custom URL (sometimes called a “vanity URL”) with a username and no number, like this:

www.facebook.com/myfbpage

In the past, you needed 25 likes to do this, but you can now do this at any time – even when you’re setting up your page.

It only takes a couple of minutes to secure your custom URL, so do it today if at all possible: the longer you delay, the higher the chance that someone will take the username that you want!

1. Login to Facebook and go to your page. (You can find it in the left-hand column of your Facebook home page, under Pages.)

2. At the top of your admin panel, click “Edit page” and select “Update Page Info”, as shown in the screenshot below:

You’ll then see this at the top of the Page Info tab:

3. Under “Page Address”, click the “Enter a Facebook web address” link, then click the new link that appears – “Create a web address for this Page?”

4. Your page should be automatically selected from the drop-down menu. Enter the username you want and click “Check availability”. You’ll need to make sure your username fits Facebook’s guidelines.

5. Make sure you’re happy with your username (and double-check the spelling) before confirming it. Once you’re sure you’re happy, click “Confirm”.

And that’s it! You should see this confirmation message:

Your old URL will redirect to the new one, so you don’t need to worry about updating your previous links.

Have you had a custom Facebook page URL for ages, or did this post prompt you to get yours? Let us know in the comments.

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Tips to Create Effective Sales Pages

If you already have a sales page, or are planning to build one soon, you should check out a post from my buddy Karl Staib, titled 10 Tips to Create a Sales Page that Converts Prospects to Customers. Karl goes through the strategies that worked well on his own sales pages, including the best practices of the industry.

For instance, here’s one of the strategies mentioned, which many people overlook:

4. Share Your Technique

Giving people advice that is valuable can be a little surprising to people. Many companies will hide their best information from you, so you have to hire them. When you show people that you are confident in your work, they will be drawn to you.

It’s why I offer people a free product launch e-course when they sign-up for my newsletter updates. I know that they could probably use this information to make 10%-20% more money off their launch, but that’s ok. The people I want to be on my list and hire me will know that this is still a small percentage of everything I know. If they hire me, I could probably increase their sales by 30%-50%.

I tell people upfront the 3 biggest mistakes that they can make on their sales page free-of-charge. They might go back to their sales page and start working on these three mistakes, and that’s ok because they probably wouldn’t have hired me anyway. The people who do hire me know that I know my craft and I will help them increase their conversion rate and save them time and money.

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9 Ways To Run Your Blog Like A Small Business

It’s always about ‘how blogging would help in a small business’ rather than the other way around. Ever since I started my intense blogging in February 2009, I’ve noticed how much my four and a half years of working background in product and customer service for a small company had taught me much about blogging. Whether or not your aim is to monetize, most of us bloggers are hoping for the same thing: traffic and productivity – which in a small business scenario translates to customers and revenue.

Here’s a basic flow of how a small business usually runs:

Starting & Planning:

1. Deciding the Service/Merchandise

Merchandise is the revenue generator for small business. It depends much on the current market and the types of needs your business could fulfill. Small business conductors will carry out brief market research, identify and test upon the targeted market with several prototypes in a considerable amount. They never sit and wait for business to come knocking on their doors.

Deciding your blog niche is essential. Even if you have no idea which niche that best fits you, tryout several writings for your preferred topics. You will then able to decide which will bring you the most satisfactions and success, while pinpoint your weakness and strength along the way. Actions lead to outcomes. Whether good or bad, gain experience from it.

2. Maximize Your Resources

Are you financially equipped? Knowledge and experience wise? Small business conductors will maximize the use of their assets to help in the business, innovatively turn every idea into action.

Some bloggers are well adapted with knowledge of programming, web designs and SEO. By all means, apply these to optimize your blogging results. Even if you don’t have much to offer, take up a self-learning course on the how-tos, joining forums to get familiarize with the blogosphere, get help or necessary advices from the specialists. Make an effort to build your resources via knowledge database because what you gain is invaluable, and will be a major asset for your blogging career in future.

3. Planning and Precautions; Expect the Unexpected

Yes, we heard a lot about the benefits of owning a business plan. However, un-expectancies are bound to happen during the process, such as product shortage on promised date, warranty issues, customer complaints etc. Such experiences taught our company to be constantly alert and have backup plans whenever an issue comes up.

In blogging, it’s advisable to have yourself prepared for situations like burnt outs, data-lost, commenting issues or a sudden server breakdown. Preparation is always better than regretting later. Try to be ahead of your problems if possible. Trust me, you’re gonna thank yourself for initiating the backup plans.

Actions:

4. Publicity & Promotional Methods

Being the sole distributor for a particular merchandise helps to gain popularity fast. Otherwise, you need to work extra hard for publicity, such as offering special discounts or free gifts for loyal customers. Educate your new customers: what’s the main attraction of your product? Why should they come to you instead of your competitors? Sometimes it requires patience, but quality is what ensures business reputations and longevity.

Same as blogging, to stand out from the saturated market, you need to start building your own audiences with quality content. Originality will win you backlinks from other sites while ensures sustainability. You could have exposures done effectively via blog commenting, taking parts in forums, initiate promotions via blogging campaigns, guest postings and participate in social media sites. Another great way is to reward your readers with free subscription gifts or link love for their continuous supports.

5. Quality Product & Customer Service

Nowadays, many small businesses overlook the importance of ‘after sell service’, which sometimes one of the reasons that drive the customers away. Word of mouth can either build you, or destroy you. Thus, be attentive to our customers is always our utmost policy.

In blogging, what defines quality content? Subjective as it is, but not running far from solving a problem, generating ideas and creating good vibe for those who read it. Consider about your readers at all times. Unless you’re super busy with reasons not able to give an instant feedback, otherwise, you need to cater their needs asap.

Reviews:

6. Feedbacks

We do monthly reviews on our merchandises. Such action helps to decide whether our business will continue to benefit from it, or should we move on to other alternatives? It takes into account every customer’s feedback, call of complaints, solutions provided by the vendor, and ROI after considering all the aspects.

Likewise, we are concern about blog visitors and their reactions to our writings. We cannot please everyone, but we still need to take in all the feedbacks, good or bad, and improvise them. Knowing the importance of reviewing your blog will ensure acceptance from your visitors. It could be done by observing your blog comments, emails, and monitoring via Google Alert regarding your personal branding on various sites.

7. Follow Ups

In small business, it’s easier to follow up on customers in a regular basis. Whether it is via phone calls, surveys or a casual conversation during their visits to our premise. This is to build up a marketing relationship with our customers, having them to come back regularly for our services or products.

By utilizing the same concept, we can try to get in touch with our readers, not only through comments, but through emailing as well. Make use of the social media sites available for effective follow-ups. Form an author-reader relationship. Bear in mind your readers could always go to other similar blogs but they’ve chosen yours instead. With this simple reason they deserved your pamper and attention at all times.

Research & Development

8. Quality Control

We are always told to deliver more than what we promised and never the other way around. A well manageable small business is never negligent of quality control.

Blogging is always about quality control for that matter. Besides writing skills, try to minimize the spelling mistakes, and have a clean blog layout that is easy to navigate. Make sure the content is well structured and not losing your personal touch. Maybe a new input would be good for your blog? Try occasional use of vodcast or radio show for your blogging presentations. But don’t over doing it, or risk yourself without a proper training at first.

9. Outsourcing & Future Planning

A small business will find ways to survive, for example outsourcing for possible ventures. Most small business conductors are risk takers and willing to expand their business to the next level.

Try to figure the next possible step for your blog. Could it be collaboration with like-minded bloggers for a webinar? Building a fan site in Facebook? An ebook? If you’re all about gaining knowledge on how to monetize your blog, it’s important to know how and when it’s the time to make it happen.

It is said that blogging market is saturated. But we need to be optimistic if we wish to go headstrong in this blogging business. Small business runners are risk takers, opportunists, and customer-oriented, something we could learn much about and benefit from. However, it’s important to never lose touch of our own selves. Be honest, sincere, and a positive attitude will help us go a long way, while running our blog successfully like a small business.

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8 Lessons Learned Growing a Site to One Million Monthly Page Views

Some time ago one of my sites crossed the one million monthly page views mark. The screenshot from Google Analytics for the month of August is below.

While I know there are thousands of other websites out there with much higher traffic, reaching this milestone made me quite happy, as this is a website I built from scratch (i.e., I still remember when I registered the domain).

Below you’ll find the eight most important lessons I learned while building this site (I won’t reveal the URL for privacy reasons, but the useful stuff is below anyway):

1. Choose Your Niche Wisely

Most people who read this blog probably think it is my largest and most profitable website. Well, it’s not. The reason? Niches like blogging, make money online, SEO or Internet marketing are pretty small when compared with mainstream stuff like gadgets, movies and television, cars, health and so on. That is why my “money” sites are placed in those niches, while I write on Daily Blog Tips mostly because I have fun doing it.

2. Find A Unique Angle

While picking the right, relatively large niche is important, I wouldn’t recommend you to start yet another tech or cars blog, where you would get most of your content from other, larger blogs and sites. Most mainstream niches are crowded, and if you just write about what everyone else is writing, after them, people will have no reason to visit your site. The solution? You need to find a unique angle. You need to come up with an idea that will differentiate both your site and your content from others in the same niche. Not easy, but possible.

3. Repeat Visitors Matter

There’s one metric that very few people pay attention to, yet I believe it’s one of the best indicators of the potential of a website: repeat visitors. Basically if the amount of repeat visitors on your site is increasing over time it means that you are converting some of your casual visitors into loyal ones, and that your overall traffic will increase overtime. If the amount of repeat visitors is not growing, on the other hand, it means that your content is failing to engage visitors to the point that they will remember your site a couple of days after visiting it. In this case you need to rethink your strategy.

4. Quality Over Quantity

If you need to choose between quality and quantity, go with quality. In order words, you’ll get much better results publishing one top quality article per week than publishing five average ones. It’s the quality of your content that will increase the amount of repeat visitors you get, after all, and the amount of backlinks you’ll receive from other sites (more on that below).

5. Google Is Your Friend

Whether you like it or not, Google is the main traffic driver around the web, so you better befriend it and use its help to grow your site. This means that you need to understand how search engines work (e.g., how Google crawls the web, how it decides which websites to serve when people search for stuff, etc.) in order to optimize your content, pages, and to promote your articles in a way that will increase their exposure with search engines. It will take some effort from your end, but the results are certainly worth it.

6. Research and Gather Data

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization and to promoting your website in general, you’ll need to research and gather data (as opposed to trusting your gut or intuition). That is, you’ll need to understand what are the hot topics inside your niche, what search terms are sending you more traffic, what visitors are more likely to stay on your site and so on. With the numbers on your hand you’ll be able to make much better decisions, both in terms of content and promotion.

7. You Can’t Do It Alone

While there are many people who manage to grow large sites alone, I found that getting some help along the way made all the difference. On most sites I have these days I focus exclusively on the strategy/promotion aspects, while leaving the web design/content development to other people. Sure, you’ll need to spend some money, but this is one of the most efficient ways to grow any website (and any business, for the matter).

8. Slow and Steady Wins the Race

It took me around three years to go from zero to one million monthly page views. During that time frame there was no single event that catapulted my site’s popularity, no large spike in traffic. It was a gradual and slow process, where every month I would promote the site a bit more, do some guest posts and so on. All that mattered to me was to see the traffic numbers increasing, albeit slowly, month after month.

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