The Online Marketing Guy

I’ve been reading Blogging Heroes by Michael Banks and I’ve noticed that throughout the 30 interviews (I’ve read 28 of them so far.) that there are a couple of common themes that all of these professional bloggers tend to come back to. Some of the folks that are interviewed include Mary Jo Foley, Gina Trapani, Chris Anderson, Philipp Lenssen, Frank Warren, Steve Rubel, Gary Lee, Robert Scoble, Peter Rojas, Rebecca Lieb, John Neff and Brad Hill.

This book is worth reading! If you’ve ever felt alone as a blogger, ever felt that no one comments, or that the only ones who do are hurtful, this is the next book you must read. If you’re thinking of starting a blog, the first step is reading here (or my book, of course. ). If you’ve ever wondered what sort of person it takes to build a successful blog, this group provides an excellent measure.

The themese are:

Probably the biggest theme that everybody mentions is being passionate about your topic, and you have to be passionate or it’s going to chew you up and spit you out. If you are not passionate about a topic you, will run out of energy very quickly. To me this is fairly obvious, although I suspect many people getting into this for the first time struggle due to the newness of blogging. Its something that overcomes any forward thinking on the idea of “Do I have the stamina to actually carry this out?“. The real challenge is that every day you have to think of something to talk about, to continually put it out there to build an audience. As readership grows, the demand seems to get greater and greater, and how do you manage that?

While these bloggers (in one case I believe one of the people in this book actually comes from professional journalism background) came into blogging from different angles and with different back grounds, the real meat of their message is that you have to continually stay on top of whatever your unique topic is. This point is really critical, as well selecting the right topic. Again we’re back to being passionate about it. This is absolutely critical in order to be successful.

So one of the biggest things I’m noticing in relation to this the book is that I think as a search marketer and as an online marketing professional. I take for granted, for example, the notion of monetizing a blog or website.
To me the idea of not monetizing a blog or website is foreign. Too many of those interviewed for this book, completely the opposite is true. Many started with blogs simply for the sake of spreading a common word or the own point of view. Many have started blogs and grown blogs to the point where readership exceeds hundreds of thousands of people per month. When I see such growth I cannot help but see dollar signs! Though, I do completely understand their point of view, and having to deal with the question “Is this a moral issue?”

So my personal opinion on this obviously is monetize, monetize, monetize! I come from a background of online marketing and I understand the inherent value of unique content and the traffic it can bring. I also understand the idea of having a return on this – the time invested. This isn’t simply a hobby. This is something where you do get to share knowledge and expertise as well as developing a return on the time you’re putting in. The time you’re putting into this hobby, you’re not getting back. So you need to be very careful that the time you put into blogging as a return of some in some form for you.

Overall I am a bit lukewarm with some of what’s talked about in Blogging Heroes as regards the perception of SEO. Many of those being interviewed see SEO as an adjunct, maybe something to be avoided. In a few cases, some of those being interviewed in this book actually feel SEO is meritorious and that it is worth pursuing; that there is a return on this approach. One of the common themes on the topic of SEO is the idea that it’s very simplistic and that you needn’t put a lot of time and effort into it. I actually agree with this wholeheartedly. The core of SEO is built around usability and that in and of itself leads you straight back to the content you’re producing and the format in which you are showcasing it to your users. Many blogging platforms, such as Wordpress, make this very simple to manage.

Blogging is the ideal platform for actually showcasing content in a manageable way. Being a writer (good or bad) or being a subject matter expert, or even simply someone who is keenly a interested in a topic, the blogging world and the platforms themselves enable you to quickly showcase your information. By managing very basic SEO points such as having correct titles, by ensuring that unique descriptions exist on pages, by managing your trackbacks properly, by using images and ALT tags properly you can help a blog to really become much more search friendly. Probably the one of the biggest pieces of advice that leads to a search friendly layout is that of managing your URLs effectively. By actually going in and selecting your URLs be shown as postnames in the platform, you’ve taken a big step forward in ensuring that the search engines can very quickly and effectively understand what the post is about. By managing this one item, you will change your URLs from a series of numbers to the actual words used in the title that you wrote for the post.

The title of this post is “Are Bloggers Unaware? “ I believe for the most part they are aware. They are aware of their reader’s responses. They are aware of their own subject matter knowledge. There are aware of their own passion for the subject.

I’m not sure that beyond that -passion- a lot more is needed, for most blogs. In fact, if you are passionate about a topic, it will show through in your writing and in your presentation. That passion alone will draw readers to your space. So whether you are blogging for business, pleasure, a hobby or any other reason, bring your passion for the topic to the forefront. Do not enter into blogging if it’s on a whim, for a quick win, or if you simply feel like trying to make some money quickly.

The bottom line is making money online does not happen quickly.

Tags: Generating Revenue, Search Optimization, Organic Search, Blogs, Blog Books by searchgeek
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By posting to social bookmarking services and the like. OK, here’s a crash course - down and dirty. It’s meant to give you a basic overview of what to do, rather than be a point-by-point workbook. So, we’ll assume you have a functioning blog. You know how to post articles and maintain the thing. What you want is to increase the exposure of your articles and the blog itself. Well, have you submitted to the main blog directories? Do a quick search for “blog directory” and you’ll find several sources to submit your blog to (list at the bottom of this post). Very much like Yahoo’s directory, these spaces exist to catalogue blogs only. Some will pass PR values, some won’t, some cost money to get a listing in, most are free. Some directories will list you immediately, some may take a few weeks to get to your submission.In any event, it’s worth getting these listings. In almost every case you’ll need to add a small bit of code to your site - which usually amounts to showing a small, linked image form the directory or service. Nothing to worry about. Drop the code into your sidebar or footer and be done with it. Next up, you’ll be looking to get going on social bookmarking (I’ll explain the two main types below). This basically amounts to you spreading the word at a grass-roots type level. You’ll be checking in with many different services to let them know about your latest articles/posts. There are two main types of places you’ll be looking to get posts into:1 - places like Netscape - the news aggregators who take articles/feeds and show them to users who have accounts2 - social bookmarking services - these folks act as big file cabinets for your links - so any page you see, you click a button in your toolbar and the page is automatically bookmarked with them. Now, no matter where you are, just log into that one account and you’ll be able to access your bookmarks. …and you’ll be able to share them with other users of the same service - so posting links to your articles increases their exposure…Each service varies slightly in how they let you submit items, but the basics are this: 1 - you get an account (free) 2 - you submit the URL for the article 3 - you enter a description of the article and drop in some keyword tags 4 - you hit the submit buttonNow, it’s critical to remember something at this point:These services DO NOT exist to act as an advertising medium for your site.So, that means you’ll want to submit items that come from sources other than your own blog. That’s right, and on various topics as well. if you try to submit only items you’ve created, you’ll get tagged as a spammer and your IP will most likely be blocked. Play nice and you’ll be fine. With the bookmarking services, this is a bit less of a concern, but each service has it’s own limits so follow any posted rules carefully. Now, there are well over 50 of these spaces you can post to, so how do you manage them all? Sure you can take all the buttons and add them to your toolbar then click each button over and over, but there’s a better, slightly faster way to manage this stuff.

The Socializer helps you by allowing you to submit to almost all of these services from one space. Drop their button into your toolbar, go to a page, hit the “Socialize this” button, and start submitting. You’ll still need to click on each of the services you want to submit to, and each service will want some unique info like tags, but it’s a quicker way to manage the multiple postings of the same article, to different services. It takes me about 10 minutes to post an article across the top 12 services and the results are worth it.

Remember:
1 - you’ll still need to have an active account with each of the services you want to submit to, so it’ll take time, once, to open them all - make sure you’re able to accept cookies on your PC too, or it won’t work.
2 - post about more than just yourself
3 - keep up the pace - 3 - 4 times each week make the rounds and post unique stuff
Finally, be sure that you have your “pings” enabled. This function allows you to ping each service you list when you post a new article. It’s important because it help spread the word yet again. Just be careful you’re not posting the same article multiple times to the same service. Typically, each service will give you a URL to add to your ping list. Follow your blog platforms instructions for updating this list and get those URLs in there.

So, there we go - get the blog submitted to the blog directories then get your social experience moving.

Some Blog Directories:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/
http://www.blogwise.com/
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/
http://www.weblogalot.com/
http://www.bloggernity.com/
http://www.blogrankings.com/
http://www.blogdirs.com/
http://www.britblog.com/ - strictly for British bloggershttp://blogs.botw.org/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/
http://www.blogtagstic.com/
http://www.blog-directory.org/index.php
http://blogsweet.com/
http://www.blogscanada.ca/directory/ - for Canadian blogshttp://www.globeofblogs.com/
http://www.blogfinds.com/
http://www.addurlblog.com/

Tags: Search Optimization, Organic Search, Blogs by searchgeek
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In a word - no.

That said, it’s completely plausible for those new to PPC campaign management and SEO work to disagree with me. I recall, way, way back in the day, when I first came to a forum to learn about SEO. I knew I didn’t know anything, so my request was simple:

Would someone who knows what they’re doing please tell me what I should ask about first?

The rest is, as they say, part of the continual learning curve I’m on. In fact, I had no idea how complex that simple request was. Most folks who ask don’t know either. They hope it’s themselves that “just don’t know” and that there’’s one kernel or truth, one key component that, if they wrap their heads around it, will make the difference.

Most are startled to realize the depth of involvement it takes. The constant learning to keep up with the latest changes. The 100+ small details that actually make the difference in the long-run.

Now, I do this for a living, and I’m happy to say I love what I do. I’m a geek - I LIVE this stuff. I’m sitting on my sofa right now, while my wife and I watching an episode of Deal or No Deal on the DVR as I type this post. I’m doing it because I know I’m not meeting my goal of 3 - 4 posts a week. I need to hit that level to show the engines I’m serious and to help build content quickly. I know what it takes to rank well, I’ve done it with another website and blog of my own. Do the work, and you’ll see the rewards. But I’ve been lagging on this one.

Now, it’s not that I don’t know what to do. It’s that I do know what to do - I know all too well how much work I still have ahead of me. …and that’s where being new to this stuff, and asking the simplest of questions is refreshing.

Instead of being intimidated by what you have to learn, take solace in the fact that your path is straight ahead. You don’t have to spend time figuring out if things are worth pursuing, if that item of software will work, how much is too much to spend on external help - skip it all.

Your goal should be to spend the time it takes to learn a baseline of understanding with these items. SEO and PPC are not things you learn overnight (despite what the software tells you). They are not skills you’ll learn in university. They are skills you’ll only learn by doing it.

So, is SEO and PPC management easy? Ah, yes it is.

The basics will always remain the same. Details get refined, and you must stay on top of them, but it always comes down to one simple thing:

Build unique, useful content.

If that’s all you do - you skip the on-page optimization techniques, you skip the link building, you don’t optimize your images, your pages are huge - none of that will matter in the end. Unique, useful content trumps all of that and you will rank well over time - it’ll take a LONG time, but…

Start learning today, ask the questions, read the books and test, test, test. It’’s worth it for no other reason than you’ll have solid skills to start a new career should you choose to in the future.

Is this stuff easy? You betchya - but then again, I’m a geek, remember…

Here’s an article by a friend of mine, Bill Hartzer, who knows a thing or two about this stuff. This idea of a search engine marketing traffic jam is kinda funny, and illustrates how unique marketing online can really be.

Tags: Search Optimization, Organic Search by searchgeek
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This one really is starting to rot me. Every day I hear from folks and the jist of their thinking is this: I should be able to make money on the Internet quickly, right? I mean, everything happens quickly on the Internet. It’s kind of true, but not really… OK, so you want to start a website and make money - don’t care how - you just want to make money. Great. Step one, build a site. Step two, market it. Step three, count the money. Well, the first two steps are basically sound, though not nearly as simple as that statement might lead you to believe. Step three is completely realistic, if you plan and execute steps one and two properly. The trap most folks fall into is common. They WANT to believe the hype from slicksters selling snake oil. Sure, he’s your friend, and he’s willing to just GIVE you his secrets - the secrets that made HIM wealthy. In reality, it’s simply a sales pitch. You have NOT suddenly discovered gold everyone else has overlooked - this is 2007, not 1897. Even if you are GIVEN useful information (such as I and others provide), the reality still exists that it will cost you money and time to reach the all important step three - counting the money. It’s not that we don’t give you everything you need to succeed. It’s just that you, the person wanting success, must ultimately step up and do the work. You must pay the bills. You must make the effort. I could blow sunshine up your ass all day, but it won’t make you a dime. No matter how motivated you FEEL, you still must take action. And it’s at this critical juncture that most Webmasters fail to seize the day and run with it. Folks get jittery and think maybe they should back off before getting in over their heads. They get scared of “new” and fall back to “known”, allowing their promising project to languish for lack of effort. So, that about covers the “lazy” part of this article. Don’t be lazy. Keep at it. Don’t take shortcuts. Now, the fast part… We’ve been conditioned to accept that life moves at the pace that governs our lives. Speed limits are reasonably high and allow us to compress the traveling of large distances into a manageable time frame. Starbucks uses killer, professional-grade machines to churn out their brews fast and hot - no waiting. Mechanics use airguns because they are much faster than using a hand-wrench. …and the Internet moves at the speed of a click. Just that fast - anything we want, anywhere we want to be, anything we want to see - just one click and you’re there. Loath the fact that you might, from time to time, have to type in a domain, yet even that’s relatively quick. So, in the end, we’re left thinking the Internet is fast. Well, I’m afraid it’s not that simple when it comes to making money on the Internet. You see, regardless of how fast that click is, you still need humans to build the site, maintain it and market it. Users don’t suddenly appear the moment you go live and hand you money. Building a business online is NOT like plugging in an electrical cord. Inside the wires of that cord are electrons. When the cord is not plugged in, the electrons are in a static state where they basically sit still. Plug it in, however, and electrons flood into the wires from the source, shoving the static electrons into action and pushing them through the wires and out into whatever device you’ve plugged into the other end of the cord. In one end, out the other. There is not an infinite amount of traffic waiting for you to “plug in” so they can flood your site with traffic. Just like the new coffee shop around the corner needs to be seen and tested by users, so does your site - and it takes time. Think of your website as a battery being charged. The cord is “full” immediately. A battery charger takes the current and passes it into the battery. The battery is not immediately fully charged, it takes time. As the battery charges, it’s capable of doing more and more work. As the traffic to your website grows, it’s capable of generating more and more revenue. No, the Internet is not a fast way to make money. You still have to follow a basic business plan. Things take time to build, time to market, time to grow. Sure, you can build a website faster than a building. But it’s still going to take months and months of effort to spread the word and market the site. Over time, users find the site on their own and the search engines begin to rank it higher based on their own factors. Over time, the traffic grows increasing revenue. Over time, you have a steady revenue stream. Note that at no point did I say it’ll happen fast. Typically, to rank well for organic searches, you’re looking at between 9 month and a year. This applies more to brand new websites than to established ones expanding their content. It’s a general guideline, and some folks will rank faster or slower. It also assumes you’ve covered the basics of search optimization and link building during the construction of your site. When you plan a business, it’s typical to talk about a 5 year plan. You’ll need cash flow to survive day to day, but over 5 years you should see steady increases in traffic/sales/revenue. Building revenue online is no different. And just like cutting corners when building your building, cutting corners with your website or it’s marketing can bring the whole thing crashing down. Most online businesses will begin seeing revenue pretty quick, but seeing $25 per month from Google Adsense is a long way from $1,200 per month. Heck, $25 might not even cover your hosting costs. There again is a point worth mentioning - it’ll cost you money to set up your online venture., If it’s free, it likely isn’t going to work, so don’t waste your time with the freebies. Step up, be ready to invest some of your own time and money (as little as $30 per month (maybe even less) could be enough). Be ready for some steep learning curves, as cheap means you do the work yourself. But most of all, don’t be lazy and don’t watch the clock. I’m sure there are ways to make a quick buck online, but making a quick buck one month is not long-term income. Heck, even the quick bucks take work - why not put that work into things that matter and will work for you down the road?

Tags: Search Optimization, Organic Search by searchgeek
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