Blog Design and Theme

This is your chance to make a great first impression.
Personally, I’m a fan of Wordpress. However, no matter the blog publisher or website host…NEVER go with just the standard/default template that is available. Search for templates and themes that are “clean” and fresh looking. If you are using a lot of pictures and videos, you may want a theme that is darker in presentation. Lots of text and information, lighter colored themes seem to work best.

Keyword Selection

We could really spend all day talking about this topic, but for the sake of the article we’ll keep it short. Effective keyword usage is your way of telling the search engines what information your website contains. If you are marketing a dog training course, your blog/site should be peppered with the phrase “dog training” through the site. Never, EVER…do keyword stuffing (using the same phrase over and over) it is a quick way to get your website sent to the bottom of the pack.

META-TAG Optimization

In all honesty, there are some people that say this is unnecessary. My opinion is that every little bit helps. Plus, for the most part, once you do this you rarely, if ever, need to go back and update it. This is the area that you can put your top 10-20 keyword phrases. Additionally, use a MetaTag description that is a 4-6 sentence description of your website.
Make sure you place several of your keywords in this description.

Link using Keywords

No website should be an island to itself. No links in or out is a surefire way to make sure you don’t get any search engine traffic. Whether you are linking to or from your site, use one of your relevant keywords as the anchor text. Simply using “Click Here” does very little for your SEO and internet marketing.

Link within your blog/site

As you create more articles and post more content, its safe to say that you will discuss the same or similar information in different postings. Link to other articles and postings within your blog. Give the search engines every piece of help in indexing your site.

Good Permalink Structure

Again, using every opportunity to get our keywords involved in our internet marketing…make sure that you are using good permalink structure. What’s a permalink? The URL for this post as it appears on my site is http://kevincrawley.com/2010/02/27/seo-for-blogs-internet-marketi
ng-101 With this URL, my keywords “internet marketing” is getting another opportunity to shine. Had I not made the change, my URL by default would have been something like
www.kevincrawley.com/?p=5

Get a Domain Name

If you are on a budget…fine, get the free option of a blogger.com or wordpress.com site. However, if you really want to make some headway with any type of marketing strategy for the internet, invest the few dollars and get a domain name. There are several hosting companies out there. My personal preference is Global Domains International. I’m an affiliate and it allows me to build an income by sharing the service which makes my hosting FREE!

These are just a few steps that you should take if you want to improve you search engine optimization. No, you will not jump to the top of Google rankings on day one, but consistent effort and actions will bring you results that will pay off.

About the author:
Kevin Crawley is a trainer/teacher and entrepreneur that loves to see people reach their fullest potential. Find out more about him and get more tips at www.kevincrawley.com

The questions that many people have when they first start using Twitter are complex and require social media marketing training.

How do you communicate a message in 140 characters? How efficient can twitter be when individuals receive 40 to 100 tweets every 30 to 60 seconds? Can twitter be the only network in your social media strategy?

 Let us work backward and begin with the last question first; can Twitter be used effectively by itself? The answer to this question is no. Twitter ought to be used in conjunction with other social media services, blogs and websites to create a well rounds multilevel approach. It is all about using twitter to great buzz around something that you are doing or have created.

 Like other social media networks, Twitter works best when you are promoting or offering something that is at no cost. You cannot tweet direct marketing messages and be expecting to be successful. You need to provide a lot of useful subject matter, like tips, links to articles, videos etc. Your marketing message must be wrapped inside the content.

 How effective can Twitter be with so many Tweets being sent?

Yes, the people active in Twitter are receiving a lot of Tweets and as a result your message has to be of interest to your followers to get noticed. There are a lot of direct ideas and useless information hanging around Twitter as noise.

 You need to rise higher than the noise by providing attention grabbing headlines that show all the signs of quality content.

Again, do not waste you energy with a direct marketing message, since it will just get absorbed in the noise. Originate the tweet with words like; FREE, article, video and new blog post.

These words will get looked more frequently then any potential marketing message, so add in these words within your subject matter rich message for the best results. You must to get noticed to get read.

 How do you communicate a message in 140 characters? Well, this is the reason I stated that Twitter cannot be the only network in your line of attack. It would be problematical to get your full message out if this was the only medium you were using.

 If you have a blog, articles and video produced on a topic you can use Twitter as a broadcast system to tell associates about the content. Stick to the primary reason why Twitter was developed; to tell people what you are up to.

 If you use Twitter to put out a message about your new content and offer something for Free it can be very effective at driving traffic. The 140 characters you have are an adequate amount to tell people about the additional work you are doing on other social media platforms and within your market.

 Just remember not to directly market to your twitter followers.

Use your blog, articles and videos to further strengthen your content message and keep your marketing to areas where people will visit if they like your content; such as your website, signature files, author bios and your video description area.

Simply use Twitter to get individuals to those areas.

 About the author:

FREE Download – Get Your 10 steps to network marketing success ebook at: http://www.TheHomeBasedPro.net Jeffrey Yeomans (Skype:

jeffrey.yeomans) has been in the internet marketing for 12 years as a marketer & consultant. He can help coach & mentor you to become one of the top of internet marketers, contact him today:

http://www.thehomebasedshop.com/

More and more businesses are promoting their products and services on these social networking sites. It’s also a good idea to have a blog on your own website, in addition to the Twitter and Facebook posts.

All of this blogging can help a website become more popular with the search engines. A website that is constantly changing and adding new information will rank higher in Google and other search engines. Also, having links back to your site, as you would in Twitter and Facebook, help with search engine ranking.

South Jersey Websites can offer you your own blog for your website. It’s easy to use and update, and will help spread the word about your business.

Contact us about getting your own website and blog.

You expect a business to have a telephone. Well, these days, a business is expected to have a web site as well—it’s a credibility issue. And although it’s a complicated subject, once launched, what could be easier than using the internet to spread your marketing message, educate your prospects, and convert prospects to clients?

In the early days of the web, businesses thought they could just put up a site and expect the phone to ring. A successful web site today is a tool that integrates and connects all of your marketing efforts. It’s where your prospects begin the process of knowing, liking and trusting you and your business.

A properly constructed web site will:

Build awareness – it’s where many prospects start their search for what you’re offering.

Shorten the Selling Cycle – prospects get to know you, your business and your product before they even meet with you.

Provide Access to Information – prospects in the market for your product or service can find out what they need to know any time they choose.

Become a Referral Tool—people recommending your business can simply refer the prospect to your web site as an easy starting point.

Forget about a home page with some lame “welcome” message—get right to the facts of the matter with a compelling headline about how you solve your prospects’ biggest problem or frustration. Keep the copy short and to-the-point and include pages on:

Your Difference – why dealing with you is a better experience than with your competitors.

How You Work – some information up front will help your customer to know what to expect if a transaction takes place.

Your Story – this humanizes your business—customers like to know how the business got started and how it has evolved.

Your Ideal Client – sure, go ahead and describe the kind of customer who really benefits by doing business with you. That way, prospects will know where they fit with what you’re
offering.

Your Products/Services – of course this is all-important. Give brief, but accurate descriptions and pricing—show pictures where applicable.

Case Studies – these help prospects visualize what the product or service might do for them and they are proof of your success with others.

Client List – if applicable, list your satisfied clients. This is also a good place to work in some client testimonials—further verification of the worth of your product.

Every page should have your contact information: name, telephone, fax, email and your address—why hide it until
 the end?

Now there is much more to a web site than we’ve covered here—design, navigation, linking strategy, blogs, and
 search engine optimization to name but a few things.

But for now, start thinking about your new or revised web site, because if you’re not harnessing the internet, you’d better prepare to become obsolete.

About the author:
Marketing Masters, Ken & Liz are Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coaches and authors of The Buzz, a FREE monthly ezine for small business owners who want simple, effective, and fun strategies to get more business, guaranteed. To get your copy of the special report The Seven Steps Plus One to Small Business Marketing Success, by Duct Tape Marketing Founder John Janstch
NOW visit http://www.marketingmasters.ca