Not Everyone Can Invest Buckets of Cash For Effective Marketing
Matt McGee has a great column on Search Engine Land Small is Beautiful column, where he focuses upon small businesses who are successfully using the internet to market their businesses.
He also posted “outtakes” from the article about local small business success on the web on his own blog and it makes for interesting reading. In a nutshell, John Tuggle created some video tutorials on guitar lessons and posted them on YouTube. One thing led to another and suddenly, John found his videos featured on the Gibson. Matt points out in the article above how such a link serves to help John Tuggles web presence not only with the search engine bots, but with the human visitors as well.
John also shares in the article how important it is to “just do it” when it comes to promoting your business via your blog on the web. The difference between “good enough” and “perfect” often means the difference between getting it done and off your plate or struggling with a project forever!
0 Google PR = Dumped by Blog Rush (?)
This blog, like 10,000 others was dumped by Blog Rush (called Blog RASH by the All Tips and Tricks blog…. VERY FUNNY!). Apparently, I’m in GREAT company, which makes me worry about the two remaining blogs that passed the Blog Rush "quality" test. (Read more about the supposed "quality controls" over at SEOpedia "Blog Rush is A Scam")
From what I can see, the only difference between the blogs that passed the test and this one are the ones who "passed" were the ones who "passed" were out of the Google Sandbox and had a PR ranking. This blog is still serving it’s sandbox sentence and as such, has no page rank. Because it’s relatively new (and unfortunately, NOT an only blog child) it hasn’t had the attention (a.k.a. posts) lavished upon it that I do my "favorite" blog children. However, it does have more than 10 posts and it hasn’t had a month of inactivity. (Speaking of Blog Rush, Snowboard John has a GREAT post on how to avoid common Blog Rush mistakes which are good advice for ANY blog post, not just those trying to attract Blog Rush traffic.)
The Right Truth blog was dumped by Blog Rush and the author suspects it’s content based. The Right Truth blog has a Google PR of 0 but an Alexa in the top 500,000.
Tamar Weinberg suspects her blog was suspended because of a less than glowing review of the service she posted. I searched this blog to see if I had made a similar post, but I had not. (I have made derogatory posts about blog rush on other blogs which I did NOT enroll in the service.) Again, Tamar’s blog does NOT have a Google PR ranking.
All Tips also cites 134u.com’s blog rush dump notification post. Again, another site without a Google PR ranking according to my Firefox plugin.
John Cow’s blog which sports a GREAT Alexa ranking (13061) but no Google PR was also dumped.
Local SEO Guide is another blog with GREAT Alexa numbers but no Google PR.
Just when I thought I had the pattern nailed down, I got to SEOCog’s blog. Oops! Not only is SEOcog’s blog a "lucky winner"… it also sports no PR rank. Rats. HOWEVER, it is a Blog Spot blog, so it’s not technically a self hosted blog…. so my theory may hold, just with an exception for multiuser blogs.
Then, I discovered WpTutorial, a self hosted blog site by Mike Paetzold. Despite the fact that WPTutorial doesn’t have a Google PR (according to my plug in), he’s still sporting the Blog Rush widget in his sidebar. He’s not one of the over 10,000 who were dumped.
RATS! So it’s official. There is no rhyme or reason for the Blog Rush Dump!
As for me, I am VERY leary of the "money for nothing" stuff…. and after reading SEOCog’s efforts to be REMOVED from the service, I’m very glad I didn’t list my older, more established blogs with the service.
Creating Pillar Articles
Every blog needs a foundation and the way you build that blogging foundation is through the use of "pillar" articles.
Great pillar articles are usually very informative, tightly targeted and are often the response to frequently asked questions.
They usually begin with such titles as:
10 tips to…..
7 things you need to know about…..
5 ways [blank] will change [blank]
How to [blank]
Fill in the blanks with topics your potential customers or partners need to know or would find interesting.
Sort through your outgoing email box to find emails you’ve sent to clients and use those to create these pivotal blog entries.
Then, as you create these pillar articles, keep your desired keywords in mind.
These pillar articles will provide a foundation for your blog. If you’re planning ahead, create a pillar article for each category you set up on the blog.
Pillar articles are so important, you may want to hire a ghost writer to prepare these essential foundation pieces for you. You’ll find that well written pillar articles will become your most popular posts on your blog.
Be careful. Pillar articles can become tools to create an avalanche of traffic for your blog, especially when focused upon essential keywords for your business.
How to get your blog to SHOOT to the top of the charts…
There are two types of bloggers… the first category is comprised of those who want an easy to use method of attracting potential clients or customers. By using the blog to share important information necessary for the potential client/customer to make a decision, business owners can shorten the buying cycle significantly and slant the odds heavily in their favor.
The second type of blogger is the blogger who wants to "monetize" his/her blog. They feature Google Adsense ads and other affiliate links on their blog in a way to earn $$$ for their referrals.
Gary King features an interesting post on his blog about a blog that shot to the top of the Technorati charts, seemingly overnight. How did iLEMONed make such a drastic rise to the top of the Technorati charts? By releasing a Word Press Theme and offering it for free. Gary points out that the blog doesn’t have an overwhelming number of subscribers, yet that free theme (complete with embedded links back to the iLEMONed blog) created a LOT of "authority points" for the up and coming blog.
If you’re a blogger in the first category, then don’t worry about entering the competition for the world’s most popular blog. Use your blog to communicate powerfully with people who are thinking about doing business with you.
If you’re a blogger in the second category, then seriously consider releasing your own free theme. It’s a great way to garner links and exposure for your blog.
Be warned though, creating such inbound links won’t allow you to rise (and stay) in the Technorati top 100. Technorati is on the look out for such "rapid rise" strategies and has been known to discount them. ILEMONed’s stay in the Technorati top 100 will be limited… but on the other hand… Google will probably count most if not all of those inbound links which will do wonders for iLEMONed’s page rank….
In the end…. inbound links are a GREAT asset. Releasing a free Word Press Theme is a GREAT way to generate inbound links for your blog.
Playing tag to promote your blog
Remember playing tag as a kid? Not only was it a fun game to play, but it also provided a great cardio work out. (But when you’re 10, you not only don’t KNOW the word cardio, you don’t care!) Well, playing tag in the blogging community is a great way to provide a serious "linking" workout for your blog.
Ben Yoskovitz starting his own game of tag by putting out a call for bloggers to submit their tips for increasing their productivity in his post The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project.
Ben did a NUMBER of things "right" when he declared this game of tag. First, he created a "logo" for his version of the game.
The image is nice and grabs your attention. Some of the players grabbed the image, some didn’t.
However, the single most BRILLIANT move he made (IMHO) is tht he provides CLEAR STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO "PLAY" THE GAME.
Playing tag is a popular game amongst seasoned bloggers. It acts as an idea starter and many bloggers will jump at the chance to share their views on a cohesive topic. Not only is it a way to attract new readers (and subscribers) to your blog, it’s also a way to build a nice supply of links to your blog. However, not everyone is a "seasoned blogger". If you’re unfamiliar with the whole concept of "blog tag", Ben makes it easy for you to join the game!
In the end, Ben reports that 137 bloggers joined in the game and he now has some great content for an ebook he’s creating from the project.
137 inbound links AND content for an ebook? It seems Ben’s game of tag is the ultimate productivity secret!
Using Digg to promote your blog
Your blog is a great marketing tool, but getting people to visit it can be a challenge.
One way to get massive traffic to your blog is to get your blog posts "dug" by Digg. Digg is a social networking site where readers nominate their favorite posts and stories.
Andy Beard has a great how to on using Digg to promote your blog called How To Find The Digg Friends You Never Knew You Had.
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