Thursday, September 29, 2011

Blog Writing - Finding the Right Person

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



Every blogger has a different approach to things. Some talk about politics, others about their personal fiction projects. Some adopt a more serious tone, while others go for satire or outright comedy. Certain blogs might be more confrontational than others, and the topics covered can range from niche to popular appeal, often within the same blog.

There are a host of articles and sites covering advice on how to address various topics, but one area that doesn't get a lot of attention is what "person" to write the blog in. Each linguistic person has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on the message that needs to be covered. Ultimately, most will simply write in whatever person is most natural to them, but there is some merit in taking a bit of time to think about the implications, advantages and disadvantages of each.

First Person

I think, I want, I feel, I know... the first person is generally the default for blogging purposes. It's an instinctive way to think: We view the world from our own frame of reference and it's entirely natural to carry that perspective into the realm of blogging. After all, they're our own thoughts, so we're going to frame them from our perspective.

First person is an excellent choice for writing a personal blog. As said, it's a natural voice to write in, so extending that to speaking about highly personal topics is a good way to capitalize on the effect. People like the inside look at things, and want to feel they have a special understanding of a subject. When people they care about — be they authors, politicians, theorists or actors — talk about their personal feelings, it offers a glimpse into their window of thought. This effect can be lost in a third-person blog.

On the other hand, the first person can portray a degree of self-involvement that might put readers off. Not everyone cares what any particular individual thinks about a particular topic. If you say, "I believe the following..." then some readers have a natural tendency to ask, "Well, who are you?" This effect can be countered with the citation of facts and figures or quotations, but it's still a phenomenon the first-person blogger has to overcome. The reaction may not even be a conscious one on the part of readers, further complicating this choice.

Third Person

Third person is the perspective of choice for blogs about business or broad-reaching topics that aren't specifically focused on the personality of the blogger. The third person displays a degree of detachment and professionalism that allows for cool and apparently impartial assessments of any given matter. However, third person writing can also be emotionally powerful. Telling the story of a third party without the overt interjection of the writer's opinion is an excellent use of the third person device. It allows readers to get past the idea of someone writing the blog and get right to the emotional impact of the story itself, to get drawn in and engage with the subject matter.

Comparatively, few blogs about personality are written exclusively in the third person. After all, the point of such a blog is to get into the mind of the writer, so what value would a more divorced approach like third person have? In such cases, the use of third person should be employed selectively rather than as the default. The personal "I" is too important to a blog centered on the personality for the third person to make any impact.

Second Person

Very few perspectives are as controversial as second person. Less than one half of one percent of any written works is published in the second, or "you," person. It's just not something that people instinctively work at. Folks don't know how others think — it's a defining trait of individuality. Assumptions can be made, but without the ability to actually get into someone's head, the ability to understand and interpret their thoughts is limited to context, past experiences and a healthy degree of intuition, so most people avoid writing in second person because it's too unpredictable. The weakness hinges on, "You know that..." often being answered, "No, I don't."

For these reasons and others, the second person is often ignored. It makes people too uncomfortable when used on its own, and it's often dismissed as nothing more than a literary attention getting stunt rather than a serious writing effort.

However, once again, there is a value to the second person, particularly when mixed with first person. An instructional blog talking about something of interest to reader and writer is a great example of this. "I find that you'll want to spoon the mustard before the honey, so the honey doesn't stick to the spoon." This blending of persons makes the entire discussion more personal, drawing the reader in to a cooperative element with the writer.

Furthermore, the second person is an excellent choice for confrontational blogs. Sometimes a blog is written for an angle of activism and education, and presenting uncomfortable facts and figures with the association of "you" can do a lot to bring the message home to the audience.

So whatever choice I/you/one uses, spend a little time thinking about the others, and if they might find a place in a particular piece.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Leveraging the Social in Social Media

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario





So, social media marketing is about the conversation, not the pitch. People are starting to get that. This is a good step, but what does it mean in practical terms? Having conversations with people is nice, but the goal of a brand is ultimately to get people interested in spending their time or money on the brand, after all. What does having this conversation accomplish, and just how does a brand use that conversation to get the critical conversion from conversation to customers?

The Key Thing: Customer Investment

Just about everyone's familiar with the smart and trendy Mac commercials. They've been seen, redone, spun off and parodied just about to death, and will stand as icons of excellent advertising. But think about it — when was the last time you saw one of these commercials on TV? How often do they actually come up anymore?

The fact is, Mac's most consistent and open advocates are its users. People with an Apple notebook can't wait to tell their friends about it, take it around in public and talk up its virtues. This is true in other areas as well — Honda users have fan sites for their chosen vehicles, most people get into novelty diets or exercise programs as a result of their friends' influence and so on.

So, give people a reason to talk about your brand — by making it their brand.

Step 1: A Place to Talk

There is no reason whatsoever not to have a public, open discussion forum for your brand on your site. This can take the form of the comments section if your brand consists of a simple blog, or it can be a whole message board. Definitely have a Facebook page and enable comments so that people can provide input on your frequent, informative updates.

Step 2: Other Places

People like to put up fan sites of their own, in addition to official ones. This should never, ever be discouraged. Yes, there are some risks with having a site that isn't under your direct control. However, very few people are going to respond favorably to "big business" quashing the "little guy" who only wanted to show off how much he liked a certain product the business makes.

Instead, leverage this as an excellent opportunity. Contact them as an official representative and mention how much you appreciate their interest. If someone has a whole webpage dedicated to your bestselling line of how-to books, make a friendly "how to be an awesome fan" spotlight on your page showing off their site. When people see how well the brand treats its fans, they will talk about it.

Step 3: Talk it Up

Wherever people are talking about your brand, make sure they have good quality information on things, and that the information you give them is tailored to your audience's expectations. If your brand is high-class technical engineering tools, provide rigorous specifications your users can dig into. If it's a fashionable line of casual Sunday wear, offer interviews with the fashion designers and what their inspirations were. Give them some real meat to talk about, and they'll be chattering for months.

Further, remember the reciprocity principle. If a conversation seems to be really taking off, jump in on it. If someone raises an interesting point in an otherwise quiet thread, give it a boost with some official insight. However you see fit, get involved in the discussions and help people see that you want to talk about the brand as often and as early as possible. Spur the discussion, encourage the argument, do whatever you need to keep the party going just one point longer.

Step 4: Reward Interest

This was touched on slightly in Other Places, but it can be expanded further into its own point. McDonald's recently gave an award to one of its most loyal customers, Don Gorske. The restaurant recognized him as the world's premier Big Mac enthusiast, since Gorske has eaten more than 23,000 Big Macs over the course of his life. An odd award by most lights, but McDonald's certainly reaped the attention, and Gorske has gone on to be a guest on Super Size Me and The Rachel Ray Show.

Most brands can't quite leverage that degree of influence, but there are many ways to reward a fan for loyal interest in a brand. Perhaps your biggest fan deserves an advance shipping of the newest product you're planning. Maybe she's read every one of your novels to date and maintains such an active author-fan community that you'll use her name for the heroine of your newest work. Or perhaps the reward is a friendly lunch where you talk about ideas for the brand, and other things you have in common. Maybe you even hire your No. 1 Fan because he has some genuinely excellent ideas.

In General, Think Humanely

No list can comprehensively contain all the material that will get people interested in and talking about any brand. There are so many verbal tricks, psychological cues and special gimmicks that even trying to Google them would take months of research.

The biggest key is to think like a human. Remember the advertisements or conversations that got you interested in something, that made you want to participate in a brand as its advocate. Try to extend those same thoughts into what you put into your brand, and you'll draw in people just as interested as you.


About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dynamic Content: Using Analytics to Write Your Blog

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



The role of web analytics in setting useful metrics for a site has been discussed in-depth in any number of places, but this is far from the only useful function that web analytic practices can offer. As in any field, a little thinking outside the box can offer extensive rewards to the creative researcher. Perhaps most usefully, creative cultivation of web analytics can help conquer blogger's block and help a good writer come up with some unique angles for content they thought they had peaked out on.

First, of course, there are keywords. Analyzing keyword trends is an important part of any attempt to create an optimized site. There are some people who can get away with ignoring this because they write gripping enough topics, but by and large a good site will make at least a few genuflections in the direction of keyword-oriented content.

If stuck without a good topic idea, a blogger can easily hop over to Google's AdWords or any other publicly accessible keyword-evaluating site and put in words relating to the topic the blog tends to cover. Once about 10 high-ranking keywords are identified, he can pick the best ones and build a solid article around them, using the trends others are talking about as inspiration.

On the other hand, some keywords are particularly unwieldy, and are only useful for their broad relation to a topic. Take a blog focused on popular vacation destinations: If the main keyword that comes up is "places to eat on vacation," that's a bit of a bulky keyword to try to optimize around. However, creating a series of posts on "places to eat" with subtitles appropriate to each entry could be just the ticket to taking advantage of that keyword without shoehorning it in. Remember, titles are part of a good optimization effort as well as the body of the text.

Next, a blogger should focus on analyzing his own blog's performance and trends. By the time it's generating significant traffic, the blog's analytics should show that certain topics are producing more hits and page views than others. This is a bellwether that should nudge the attentive blogger into writing toward those trends. After all, the audience drives the success of any brand, be it blog or book.

However, there is a lot to be said for remaining true to one's creative vision. Bloggers generally start writing because they're passionate and informed about a particular topic. Looking at the page views and tailoring content is important, but it should not extend so far as to compromise or completely change the message of the blog. People still enjoy the unexpected from time to time, so if a particular topic takes a writer's fancy, it should be written. As always, the key is to strike a balance between integrity to vision and attention to readers.

Now, new content is vital to any production, but there is something to be said for a look back at the classics. Older content is what initially drew readers to a blog in the first place, and it can remain topical over time. There are a number of techniques for refreshing older content, each of which has its own advantages.

The first is the straightforward reposting: A year or two after an old post, put it back up on the front page with a small addendum or introduction explaining why it's relevant again. This is particularly popular with political blogs that make major predictions that end up coming true, but it can also apply to any other blog. A cooking site might post the same classic holiday recipes once a year, or an educationally minded one might post a major article to remind people of a specific message.

Alternatively, there's the linkback and update approach. A new post is made with a link to the old post. The new post goes into brand new content that refers back to the older post, raising views on both pages and increasing the sense of relevance over time. This approach also can cement the overall message of a blog in reader's minds quite handily.

Then, of course, there is the retraction or redaction. Our content is like our lives, both growing and changing as we gain more experience and, hopefully, wisdom. Sometimes we write something that makes a great deal of sense at the time, but makes less sense as the years go by.

In cases such as these, the linkback or reposting strategy can be modified to include a bit of commentary explaining how one's views have changed, what new information is available and the reasons for the adjustment. This kind of honesty takes a lot of courage; shows great respect for readers and can often create a lively commentary thread.

Speaking of commentary, this is also a great way to refresh older posts. A blogger can go to the oldest threads, find the ones with the best views — say the top five — and ask the readers to rank them in a voting contest. The best one will be reposted with new commentary. This is a clever way to get more readers to look at older posts, and give some old content new and exciting life at the same time.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

That First Impression: Title Considerations

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



While it certainly isn't as much work as crafting the body of a superior article, selecting a title for a piece is definitely an important element of the entire process of content creation. The title of an article is a multifunction web tool, providing opportunities for engagement with the reader and search engine in equal measure. Putting some thought into the title and how best to leverage its effects will help title choices provide a solid return on investment instead of burdening an otherwise good project needlessly.

Making Wordplay Work

The necessity of a good title is rather self evident if one plays a small game. Borrowed from Christopher Hitchens' autobiography, Hitch 22, the game basically goes like this: Pick a popular movie title and change it just slightly to get a "title that didn't quite make it" — Quiet of the Lambs, American Pastry, Mister Zhivago, the American Samurai and such all demonstrate the importance of getting things just right. A small change can eliminate the value of good wordplay or an entertaining twist of phrase in favor of something more bland and pointless.

To that end, try to put some thought into the title. Reference popular works — for example, a comparison piece doesn't go wrong by referring to "A Tale of Two..." Alternatively, the title could reference a key quotation or phrase within the body of the text itself. Don't ignore something that seems to work, but double check creative title ideas against someone else's opinion, just to be sure.

Words are Key

The title is a crucial part of the Search Engine Optimization process. Keyword spiders and algorithms often look at the first words in an article, and the title is no exception. Having the core keyword worked into the title will consistently help return better results within Internet searches.

However, this comes with particular caveats: Some keywords, particularly keyword phrases, are long and clunky and can interfere with the aesthetics of a title. If the keyword phrase in question is "how to brew your own beer," that's one thing. A clever preface can be put before it, with how to brew your own beer as a subtitle or addendum to the main line. On the other hand, the keywords might be "Legal Advice Auto Accident," which is more difficult to work into a clever title. Experiment with a few approaches, and consider putting only a few of the keywords into the title or breaking them up into a fresh sentence.

Another trick concerns where to put the title. In many blog posts the title will have its own section. However, also consider putting the title and its keywords into the body of the paragraph itself. Some search engines ignore separate title fields and focus on the content of the article itself, so this can help keep a writer from robbing themselves of good keyword return.

Brevity, Please

Particularly in the academic world, titles of articles and papers tend to be long and quite dense. "An Analysis of the Savior Archetype in Modern English Literature" certainly tells us what the paper is about, but could also easily be summed up as "The Savior in Modern Literature" and loses nothing of its statement of intent.

Further, keyword optimization becomes less effective the further into a document one gets, and this includes the size of the title. Proper keyword effect selects for shorter, more efficient use of titles, so avoid the temptation to put the whole topic into the title line. Go for simpler, brief word choices that allow expression of the important information without going on and on.

Hyphenated titles are very popular for this reason. A single word can capture the intent of the message, such as "Betrayed," and then be followed with keywords. To take an example from the news, perhaps the keywords are "WikiLeaks" and "PayPal." The title could then be "Betrayed — WikiLeaks Banned from PayPal."

To Joke or Not to Joke

Not every lighthearted article responds well to a joking title. People are oddly finicky and picky about when they'll accept humor, and the use of puns in a title is a risky gamble. Yet it undoubtedly works — consider the example of the Focker movie trilogy starring Ben Stiller.

Obviously if the article is a serious piece, a pun should be avoided unless it's executed in the vein of dark humor. Serious work demands a serious title.

However, an important rule of thumb is to be very cautious about industries or groups in jokes. Consider for whom the article is intended. If it is aimed at a wider public audience, such as a newsletter or advertisement intended to bring people into a site for discussion or purchases, then an excellent inside joke would be misplaced. Not everyone understands the jargon, so it should be limited. On the other hand, a specialty letter crafted specifically for professionals of the plumbing craft could easily get away with jokes about piping and other internally-recognized puns. As with any online venture, the goal is clearly to keep the audience first and foremost in mind when selecting a title, rather than simply hoping they'll "get" it.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Understanding Cloud Computing for SMBs

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Audre Hill



The buzz about cloud migration , or taking your business to the cloud , is all over the internet. But between the geek speak and the sales copy, it's hard for small and mid-sized business owners to put cloud computing in perspective with their real business needs.

Here's a brief overview of the different types of clouds and the various vendors in those markets right now. As you read, keep in mind that the internet changes quickly. Cloud vendors will continue to come and go, so longevity, stability and portability will become increasingly important factors when choosing vendors.

Cloud computing for SMBs

The three main types of clouds right now are SaaS, PaaS and IaaS (descriptions will follow). As a SMB owner, you and your staff will usually only have direct experience with SaaS – the applications that deliver software like Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Here's an example of how the three layers work together.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

You and your employees use it as off-the-shelf application software. For example, if you use SalesForce to manage your customer database, you're using SaaS. It's hosted on the cloud, and you download apps to connect with the cloud version.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

As an example, let's say you decide that the off-the-shelf version of SalesForce still requires too many hours of manual data manipulation -- you're paying overtime in the accounting department because they need to use create spreadsheets every month to sort and extract data that's specific to your company.

At this point, you hire a custom software developer to code SalesForce to produce the reports your accounting department needs. He'll code and test your customized version on Force.com (owned by SalesForce) --a bare-bones software platform, or PaaS.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

These are the virtual machines that developers love because they provide a basic development environment in a push-button scalable form: processing, storage and networking can all be sized to fit the project almost instantaneously. There's no waiting for a human to configure and network a new server to create more storage space. And there's no large up-front hardware investment necessary to expand a system because the fees are set up to pay-as-you-go.

As a business owner, you won't need to get involved with the details of cloud migration, PaaS or IaaS – especially once you have your custom software developer on the project. Good developers are lifelong learners and have a network of professional contacts they can tap into for news about the latest software trends. Your time will be freed to run your business and manage customer satisfaction – which is the real goal of adding custom software to your operations.




About the Author:
To see a cloud computing infographic for a visual perspective, check out http://boomcycle.com/how-smbs-use-saas-paas-iaas/. Visit the Boomcycle.com website to find out more about how this Los Angeles custom software development team can handle your cloud computing needs and add value to your business.


Read more Articles written by Audre Hill.

5 Tips For Writing Great Content For Your Blog

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Lee Dobbins



The goal of any blogger should be to attract repeat visitors that devour your content and are left begging for more.

You want people to come back to your blog over and over again, and you want your content to earn their trust so that they will link to your blog, tweet your posts, like you on Facebook and eventually buy stuff from you.

That's why learning to write good web content is a must if you want to be a profitable blogger.

5 Tips For Writing Good Web Content

1. Good Web Content Focuses On Providing Value, Not Setting A Stopwatch

I often have people ask me how much time they should spend writing an article and my answer is "as long as it takes". You should be focusing on writing the best article possible on your chosen topic and not on how long it is taking you. A few extra minutes (or hours) spent making your article spectacular will pay off in spades in the long run.

When writing content for websites, one must adopt the mantra of quality over quantity. Better to spend several hours crafting a killer blog post then push out 4 substandard posts in the same amount of time. The killer blog post will get you readers and links while the 4 substandard posts will harm your credibility and drive readers away.

2. Good Web Content Is About The Reader NOT The Writer

Writing good web content is about providing a benefit to the reader. No one wants to hear about you, they want to hear about what's in it for them and how they can benefit from your article. In order to keep the reader interested, you must give them what they want.

How do you do that?

By targeting your writing to the reader instead of writing about yourself. Sure, you can write about your experience on the topic and how the tips you are going to give out helped you but don't go overboard and tell your life's story. No one, with the exception of perhaps your mother, is interested.

What you should do , however, is give out information that will help your reader. Let them know what benefit they can expect from following the advice in your article. For example, this article lets readers know that if they follow the advice on writing good content for websites they may benefit by increasing their following, getting their articles tweeted and liked and gaining readers trust.

3. Good Web Content Is Easy To Read

If you want to write great web content, then you have to brush up on your writing skills. You need to make your articles flow. They need to be easy to read or your reader will click away from your site and probably never come back.

One of the tricks of writing good web content is to make sure your article has good structure. Having different sections is good because it allows the reader to skim along and pick up the essence of the article by the headings. Make sure your article has enough information to be complete but don't be too wordy. Write only enough to convey the idea and not a sentence more.

It goes without saying that good grammar and spelling is a must. You also need to be sure that your sentences flow together and aren't stilted which makes it difficult for anyone to read.

4. Good Web Content Solves A Problem Or Gives An Answer

People read articles because they want an answer to a problem or want to learn more on a topic. Therefore, you should strive to give people answers to questions in your articles. Of course, you must know what questions people are asking first which you can find out when you do your keyword research. And then you must research the answer, if you don't know it already.

The key to writing good web content is to provide a thorough answer and not just gloss over the answer with fluff. Most content for websites is inadequate in this area and you can really make your blog stand out from the crowd by giving good solidly researched information.

Another thing to note is that you must deliver on the promise of the headline. If your title or headline is "How To Get Rid Of Stretch Marks With Natural Methods", you must tell them real natural methods to get rid of their stretch marks in the body of the article. Many people make the mistake of not actually revealing the real answers in the article in the hopes of selling them a product that does later on.

5. Great Content Has YOUR Voice

Last but not least, you want to make sure that your web content has your voice. You want your articles to sound like you talk. You don't want to write a boring essay like the ones you did in school – no one wants to read articles like that!

Develop a certain "voice" that exudes your personality so that anyone reading your content will feel like another person is "talking" to them. One way to do that is to get voice recognition software like Dragon Naturally Speaking and actually talk out the article. Or, if that doesn't work for you, simply picture that you are talking to a friend and just type out the words as they are coming into your head.

Writing good content for websites is critical if you want to develop a following. There is a ton of other bloggers out there clamoring for readers attention and you must differentiate yourself with quality if you want to stand out from the crowd. With social media becoming so prevalent today, it is critical that you provide great quality content which has real value that people want to share. Do this, and you will find that your blog subscribers grow exponentially over time.




About the Author:
Writing good web content is just one piece of the puzzle to getting traffic to your site. The other piece is having a good back linking plan which you can find out more about in this free report. You'll also want to visit http://www.websitepromotionblueprint.com to get more tips on blogging, content creation and website promotion.


Read more Articles written by Lee Dobbins.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Why Anchor Text Could Be The Most Important Aspect Of SEO

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Lee Dobbins



Anchor text is perhaps one of the most important aspects of Search Engine Optimization but it is also one of the least talked about.

This one element of SEO is important to understand because it can help your page get ranked for a target keyword and also help you evaluate your competition more precisely.

The latter is critical and, in fact, if you don't take anchor text backlinks into proper consideration when looking at the competition for a keyword you could be missing out on some hidden gems that are easy to rank for.

What Is Anchor Text?

Anchor text is the hyperlinked text you see on a webpage. It is the visible words that you can click to take you to another page. Anchor text html code looks like this: <a href="http://www.yoursite.com" target="_blank">Your Anchor Text</a>

On most websites, you typically see this as blue text that is underlined and when you click on it with your mouse, you are taken to the corresponding url.

How Bloggers Use Anchor Text

Bloggers and website owners use anchor text naturally to point to other pages on their website as well as pages on other sites that they find relevant to what they are blogging about. You've probably even done this yourself when writing a post where you referenced another post on your site, an affiliate product or even a post on another site.

Usually a blogger will use a phrase that indicates what the page is about in the anchor text, as opposed to a url, so that the sentence reads correctly.

The anchor text in these links helps both the visitor and the search engine spiders figure out what the 'linked to" page is about.

How Search Engines Use Anchor Text

Search engines use anchor text to help them figure out what the hyperlinked page is about. So, as you can see, getting anchor text backlinks with relevant phrases in the anchor text is pretty important if you want the search engines to rank you for a particular keyword phrase.

In fact, anchor text is such an important factor in ranking a page that pages can rank for a keyword phrase even when that phrase does not appear in the url on on the page!

There are several cases where this has happened, but perhaps the most famous is where the Adobe Reader download page ranked #1 for the search term "click here" for many years even though those words were nowhere on the page. So many people had linked to that page using the anchor text "click here" that it got to the #1 spot without any on page SEO for the term.

Search engines place a large importance on external anchor text (links coming in from other sites) and some importance on internal anchor text (links from within your own site) when ranking a page so it stands to reason that you should make getting anchor text backlinks with your target keyword phrases a priority.

One important thing to note is that it is widely thought that if two links on the same page target the same url, that only the first link is counted by Google so you want to be sure that you use your desired anchor text in that first link.

How Anchor Text Is Important When Judging Competition For A Keyword

If you think about how important anchor text is to the search engines when determining ranking for a keyword, then it's easy to see why it is a critical component of analyzing the competition for a particular keyword phrase.

Google even provides you with a search operator to do this - the allinanchor operator. You can use it by typing the following into the google search bar:

Allinanchor:"your keyword phrase"

This will return the pages which have anchor text pointing to it that contain the quoted keyword phrase.

I hope you can see how powerful this is - first of all, Google must think it is an important element of a page because it provides the allinanchor operator. Just the existence of the operator would seem to indicate that it uses the anchor text when deciding what a page is about and ranking it.

Secondly, using this operator will show you which pages are optimizing for your chosen keyword phrase!

It makes sense that only the pages that have anchor text backlinks with your phrase are the ones optimizing for it so you can forget about searching for your phrase in quotes or any of that non-sense.

Not only that but, you can take a look at the actual backlinks for each of your competitors and see how many of them have that anchor text and what the strength of those links are to make a more educated guess as to how difficult they will be to beat out for that top spot.

Anchor Text "Best Practices" For Your Website

Now that you know how important anchor text is to your rankings, I'm sure you will want to pay more attention to it in your SEO efforts but you don't want to go hog wild and create tons of anchor text backlinks all with the same keyword phrase or you might find that your efforts don't yield the results you want.

Here are some things to consider:

1. Vary Your Anchor Text - We all know that Google prefers it when people link to you naturally and when that is the case, they don't all use the same anchor text. So, when you are linking to your site from your articles or web2.0 properties you want to make sure you don't always use the same phrase as well. Using your target phrase in about 50% - 60% of the links is probably a good idea.

2. Links From Relevant Pages - For the best results, you want your anchor text backlinks to come from pages that are related to the topic because this is what would happen naturally if people were linking to you because you had great content it would most likely be from a blog post on the same topic.

3. First Link On Page - Don't forget that Google only counts the anchor text from the first link that it sees so if you will have more than one link to the same url on a page, act accordingly.

4.Plan For Natural Linking - There's nothing better than having people just naturally link to one of your posts but, of course, you can't control the anchor text they use when they do. Since most people will naturally use your headline as anchor text, you want to be sure to consider that when coming up with the title for your blog posts.

Anchor text is crucial to both your SEO efforts as well as when analyzing the competition for a keyword phrase. Taking the time to use it properly can be the difference between ranking in the top 3 and not ranking at all so it's in your best interest to start putting better anchor text practices to use in your business today!






About the Author:
Anchor text backlinks play a key role in SEO. Get a free copy of Lee's Website Promotion Blueprint Guide for an easy to use blueprint to get more traffic to your website. Also, check out her article on how to use anchor text backlinks to do competition analysis that will help you nail a top spot in Google.


Read more of Lee Dobbins's articles.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Social Media Marketing Tools – Putting Your Finger on the Pulse of the Web

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



Time makes a mockery of most predictions. Once derided as the tools and hobbies of hopeless shut-ins and intellectual ivory tower sorts, social media sites such as PayPal, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the home of an entirely new, powerhouse economy. Where hundreds of years of war and diplomacy have failed, social media marketing has succeeded in bringing people around the globe together in the pursuit of common interests and open markets. Social media marketing is the home of successful brand promotion, and finding the right mix of tools to take advantage of it has become the defining issue of the modern brand.

When people refer to SMM tools, they are discussing a host of applications and programs that allow real-time and long-term feedback on the performance of their social networks. This kind of information goes beyond the purely mechanistic approach of SEO and website performance, moving into the realm of genuine social engineering. Social media tools can track the number of times a brand is being mentioned across each network, compare traffic between networks, determine where the buzz is starting and which path it took to get from, say, Digg to Facebook. Knowing the focus of each of these tools and the best way to use them is the key to bringing all this power under control and using it to help promote a brand to its full potential.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an excellent platform for brands to manage social networks. A simple, efficient, all-in-one approach makes TweetDeck very useful for getting updates out quickly to a number of locations. TweetDeck supports Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, GoogleBuzz, LinkedIn and Foursquare, giving a user easy access to all of the major networks. Users can send out status updates to any or all of these at once, allowing unified messages to be spread in a single step, without the potential to forget one. However, it does have its limitations. Very heavy traffic to multiple accounts can slow down its efficiency, making it more of a startup and middleweight tool than a long-term solution.



HootSuite

Similar to TweetDeck in that it is targeted toward smaller businesses, HootSuite is an alternative tool that allows for several levels of customization. For starters, the basic package is completely free, and will support five networks of the user's choosing. Currently available platforms include Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, MySpace, FourSquare, Facebook and PingFm. Upgrading to paid subscriptions allows additional networks to be included.

HootSuite really shines because it offers steady "streams" of information about each of the user's networks, allowing the aforementioned real-time monitoring of web traffic. If a particular network is flagging or performing particularly well, it will be brought to the manager's attention. Further, HootSuite provides user bios and links to various users' social networking profiles, allowing a brand to tailor its content to the needs of the market more efficiently. The information is a bit limited in the default package, but even upgrading to the $5.99 a month subscription brings a great deal more detail to hand.

Engage121

For larger businesses looking to make their mark in the social networking world, Engage121 offers a number of more powerful options. This is a program for professional social networking managers, because it is entirely customizable to the exact needs of a business. One of its touted features, for example, is the ability of a local office to examine, modify and approve messages from the central branch. In this vein, a generic message can be sent out about company directives, while allowing each branch to add or delete content based on the relevance it has to their own particular mission. Thus a large clothing chain won't waste time sending out messages about their new swimwear line to their regional users in Alaska.

However, it has to be stressed once again that Engage 121 is not a tool for beginners. The sheer number of options can be daunting to put in the hands of an inexperienced manager. It's best to offer it to someone with a great deal of skill under his or her hat who can offer a specific plan of attack for using this tool.

General Thoughts

As a more broad consideration, there's no reason to limit oneself to any one of these applications, or indeed any of their competitors. A sound SMM strategy might, in fact, use several programs at once, either to get multiple sources of information or to test out which works best for a given company's needs. Then as the brand grows and needs increase, the manager can move up to more robust software and applications that better service the needs of the company.

Above all, remember the axiom that these tools are based on the need to promote communication between brand and audience. They are not meant to reduce the users of the network to data that can be analyzed and directed — these are people with their own minds and agendas, who will respond in kind if they feel slighted or taken advantage of. Instead, they should be used as a way to get information about what people want to talk about and to build a brand's reputation.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Friday, September 16, 2011

List Building - What Is The Most Important Benefit?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Titus Hoskins



If you're new to list building, you may just be wondering what all the fuss is about? What's so important about list building you may be asking? Why should it be the first task any webmaster and/or marketer should do? More importantly, you may be wondering what is the number one benefit of building your list?

Without a doubt, one of the greatest benefits for building a list of contacts, is developing a lasting mutual relationship with a vast number of people who you probably wouldn't normally be communicating with on a regular basis. It is this relationship which is the most important benefit of building your list. You must make a lasting impression and build a lasting relationship with your contacts or subscribers in order for your list to work.

Many webmasters and marketers fail to realize that a list of contacts, even a very large one, is virtually useless unless you form and nurture a relationship with these subscribers. This relationship must be built on trust and respect, one where both parties benefit from being a part of the list. It truly is a give and take interaction, where everyone gets what they want.

Building such a relationship is not easy, it can take years of experience to get right. First and foremost, a subscriber on your list or newsletter must feel wanted, but also they must get something of value from being one of your subscribers. In most cases this "something" will be valuable information which they can use with their website or online marketing. In some cases, it could be special deals, discounts or even bonuses if they purchase through your links, but usually it consists of information the subscriber needs.

Many people make the mistake that this should be some earth-shaking information, but in reality, anyone who runs a website for several years already has some valuable information to give to someone who is just starting a site. In other words, your knowledge will be valuable to someone if you can construct your lists to get subscribers who need and appreciate your information. It may also be helpful to specialize in a certain topic and concentrate all your learning around this topic. Then before long you will be considered an expert, someone who everyone wants to hear from in one form or another.

If you build this lasting relationship with a large group of contacts, you will always have willing targeted visitors to your sites. These repeat visitors will prove to be a great benefit for any webmaster. You will also have a large group of targeted prospects who will be interested in your offers and/or products. Handle this relationship right and you will also have a large list of potential customers, ready to open their wallets if the price is right.

So the next time someone mentions list building, you should realize building a large list of contacts is only the first step and often the easiest part. In this age of Twitter and Facebook, building a large group of contacts can be done almost overnight. However, these contacts are useless unless you build a mutual relationship and then and only then will you see the true benefit of list building.


About the Author:
If you want to find out more about list building, try this handy eCourse on: list building Or why don't you simply follow us on Twitter to get other useful marketing and list building help: twitter bizwaremagic Copyright Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.


Read more Articles written by Titus Hoskins.

Press Preferences - Blogging Software Explained

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



One of the biggest advantages that the web offers is the relative ease of developing tools catering to the needs of a particular user set. For every ten people who want to perform a specific task, there will be ten ways for them to do it because each will have ten different needs to address. Blogging software is an excellent example of this phenomenon as there have been numerous blogging programs that have arisen since the advent of Livejournal in the late 1990s.

Understanding a few of the more common blog software programs can help any blogger make an informed choice about their particular needs and get their message out in the most efficient way.

Livejournal

Livejournal is the earliest, albeit not the simplest, of the blog creation programs introduced. It began as an early form of social media networking software; the emphasis was on friends sharing their journals online with one another. As such, it has a multitude of features aimed at creating a mutually-supporting network of watchers and friends.

There are groups that can be joined and monitored for content relating to the blog's interest, which is a key tool in generating involved commentary. Similarly, it is easy to subscribe to specific blogs and monitor them on the "friends" list for the same kind of content. The Livejournal software also is used by a number of blogs, such as Deadjournal and Insanejournal, and was used by Greatestjournal before GJ went under. Thus, a great many people already are familiar with its functionality and there is a large user base to tap into.

On the other hand, it isn't the simplest system to figure out, with some friends functionality buried under several layers of interface. Additionally, it suffers from a certain juvenile reputation, being firmly associated with high school students in many minds. The audience is still big, but it has its limits.

Blogger

Blogger is one of the most commonly used blogging programs out there. It has the advantages of being very simple and more or less omnipresent. It's become so common to use that the .blogspot portion of a url has become inextricably associated with blogs of all types, be they serious or more casual in nature.

The simplicity of Blogger is its strongest advantage. It doesn't bury the user in options, making the process of setting up and getting a blog moving very easy. Blogs can be tagged and disseminated on short notice, and there are a number of templates available to customize a blog's appearance.

On the other hand, the simplicity of the interface is a slightly shallow concept. Blogs can be tagged, but they can't be categorized within the blog itself. This makes organizing a Blogger blog a bit difficult. Going further, templates cannot be edited easily — doing so requires CSS and HTML knowledge. Any business hiring a blog writer to use the Blogger software will need to stipulate that CSS and HTML editing knowledge are a must as well.

WordPress

WordPress is growing in popularity as a blog platform because it offers a compromise between simple but limited options like Blogger and the more robust yet incredibly complicated options such as Movable Type. WordPress is essentially a word processor built into a publishing package.

A whole slate of editing options are available for writing the blog itself, such as font and formatting adjustments, and the option to edit in visual style or to go right to the HTML if the blog writer is comfortable with that. There are options to make a quick post with very little adjustment as well as options to make a more complex offering with jumpcuts, embedded video and elaborate pictures. Also, the templates can be adjusted without knowledge of HTML, allowing for much more customization.

Moveable Type

This is an unusual entry into the software. It is very well known and incredibly powerful for people who know what they're doing. However, it is also notoriously difficult to install properly and even harder to use to its full effect. MT offers many options for customization, but then so does being able to program in computer languages such as HTML and C++. This is an option not for the beginner, but for someone already experienced with blogging and computer language in general who wants full control of every aspect of his or her blogging experience.

Self Made

This is a bit of a trick in that it isn't explicitly a blogging software program. Instead, some users do elect to simply make posts directly onto their front page using the basic text software of their site. This has a certain simplicity to it, minimizing the need for complicated installs. However, it also has an unfinished look about it, and severely limits the options of what can be accomplished, and as such is an option more to be avoided than embraced.

As a final note, it is fairly easy to get a hold of these blogging programs. Before committing to any one of them, a user should create a "dummy" account for each and try a few sample posts to see how they like working with the software. This will make the entire process a bit more complicated up front, but will ensure that the company gets the tool it most needs.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Double The Number Of Online Leads From Your Website Using 5 Fishing Lessons

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2011 Robert Dempsey



If you want to increase the number of leads your website produces by 50%-100% or more there are 5 lessons you can use from…fishing. Those 5 lessons are:

1. Go where the fish are
2. Use the right bait
3. Have a tackle box full of lures
4. Patience required
5. Keep fishing until you catch them

Let's look at each and how they apply to online lead generation.

Lesson #1: Go Where The Fish Are

If you want to catch a fish you need to go where the fish are, preferably where they are in abundance. There is a growing list of where you customers live online, with the major ones being:

  • Social networks â€" Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, niche networks
  • Video sharing sites â€" YouTube, DailyMotion
  • Location services â€" GoWalla, Foursquare
  • Private social networks â€" industry association sites, private groups
  • Forums
  • Search engines â€" Google, Bing, Yahoo!
  • Blogs

  • All of the sites mentioned above have varying demographics and different numbers of users. Before choosing which sites to spend time on, use Quantcast.com to see if the demographics of the site matches with your ideal customers.

    Smaller blogs are an exception here. You can find highly specific niche blogs perfect for fishing, however the demographics will remain unknown until you do a little research. The easiest way is to subscribe to the blog using email or an RSS reader. This will deliver blog post to you as they're published. In a short week or two you'll be able to tell if the content on the site is attracting your next customers or not.

    Blog tip: the content might not be a perfect fit for your customers however the owner of the blog might be a great partner for your business.

    Lesson #2: Use The Right Bait

    What are the problems that keep your ideal customers up at night? What business or personal challenges are they seeking solutions to? To catch a fish you need the right bait, the online translation of which is free opt-in content.

    Opt-in content comes in many formats:

  • E-books
  • Guides
  • Whitepapers
  • Videos â€" single or short video courses
  • Audio recordings

  • The more formats you can provide opt-in content for, the further you can spread that content. As an example, you could write a short guide and post it on your blog as an opt-in offer. You could then have that guide turned into a video and posted on YouTube, and extract the audio and post it to iTunes. One piece of content then becomes 3 and attracts customers on 3 different networks. It's also in a format they prefer.

    But formatting aside, if your content doesn't inform, entertain or help solve a problem it's a complete waste of time.

    Lesson #3: Have A Tackle Box Full Of Lures

    If having one magnet that attracts customers is good then 10's or 100's of magnets must be better right? Yes!

    As you already know, people have different problems at different points in their business. And I'm sure that your products and services solve more than one problem. If not, create another product or service â€" your customers are sure to have more than one problem.

    The point is to create opt-in offers that each solve a single problem or address a single issue. This way, you can create a mountain of opt-in content and capture more leads. The more lures you have in your tackle box the greater the likelihood you'll catch even more fish. The more rods you have out at one time, the more fish you can catch.

    Lesson #4: Patience Required

    When talking about online lead generation what we're talking about is inbound marketing â€" the process of turning your website and blog into a lead magnet. The simple version of inbound marketing is:

    1. Creating a lot of free content, typically on your blog, that attracts the types of customers you want
    2. Syndicating that free content as far and wide as possible using social media and other online sharing
    3. Converting website visitors into leads through the use of free opt-in content
    4. Nurturing leads to becoming customers using additional high-value content with sales messages

    It can take some time to turn your first leads into customers. According to the inbound marketing certification program from HubSpot that I passed, it can take between 3 and 6 months. Patience is required to keep going. This brings us to lesson #5…

    Lesson #5: Keep Fishing Until You Catch Them

    During those initial 3-6 months you may want to give up, and many companies do. You can use this to your advantage.

    Measure everything. Here's an example.

    Let's say you publish a blog post that announces a free whitepaper that you wrote. On the blog post you have a graphic that the reader can click which takes them to a landing page with an opt-in form. To get the whitepaper they have to opt-in. In this situation â€" very typical of online lead generation - a few of the most important metrics are:

  • Number of page views on the blog post
  • Number of clicks on the opt-in offer
  • Number of page views on the landing page
  • Number of opt-ins
  • Number of people that opted in that actually downloaded the free whitepaper

  • Using these metrics can tell you how interested your readers are in the content you're publishing. Test different opt-in offers to gauge topic interest, and when you hit on a good one, start releasing more.

    Recap

    Let's review the 5 lessons:

    1. Go where the fish are
    2. Use the right bait
    3. Have a tackle box full of lures
    4. Patience required
    5. Keep fishing until you catch them

    By using these 5 lessons you can easily increase the number of leads your website generates by 50%-100% or more.




    About the Author:
    Robert Dempsey is the CEO of Dempsey Marketing which specializes in direct response social media â€" social media strategy with measurable results. Visit http://DempseyMarketing.com/ today to get more leads and sales using social media.


    Read more Articles written by Robert Dempsey.

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011

    Trans-tangental: The Value of Off-topic Blogging Posts

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



    Brand-oriented blogs by necessity have to focus on a particular topic. People are coming to the blog because of the brand, and they want content related to the brand in most cases. Readers are creatures of habit, and routine is comfortable to them. A blog should put out on-topic content for the same reason it should update on a consistent schedule. A blog that doesn't maintain a consistent voice or message is probably not going to maintain its target audience's long-term interest, by and large for the same reason that a book that can't decide if it's an adventure story or a romance won't hold a reader's attention.

    That said, there are many very good reasons to go into off-topic posting as well. Habit and routine are important, but so is variety. Creativity and a smart change of pace can make a blog more lively and keep the readers guessing. The trick is to balance the needs of on-topic commentary with the occasional bit of off-the-wall entertainment that brings some lively discussion with it.

    As an example, consider a blog dedicated to political journalism. The author has a modest audience of several thousand people interested in his posts. The blog focuses on political corruption and promise-breaking, because this is the author's interest and because everyone likes a good scandal story. However, this kind of material can get relentlessly depressing over time. If the only picture being painted is upsetting, people might not check in to the blog quite as often.

    So, our mysterious author occasionally breaks from form and posts some material not related to the core message of the blog at all. Every so often, mostly at random, he'll post a recipe from his travels around the world. Or he might share a YouTube link featuring a musical composition he's quite fond of. In these alternate posts, the audience gets a glimpse of the writer's personality, gaining some empathy with him and learning a bit more about the world in general.

    This kind of irregular off-topic material is intriguing specifically because it isn't something that can be predicted. The audience can come back every day or every week for the content they've grown to expect, and can also come with the slight hope that maybe a new "unusual" post will come up to catch their attention.

    In a similar but variant approach, there's the idea of playing with a particular theme. Say that a blog is focused on architectural disasters. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are devoted to stuff that's simply hideous and ill-advised, such as chartreuse shutters on a house painted orange, while Tuesdays and Thursdays focus on poor construction that's pretty evidently going to fall apart. The main focus of the blog is humorous, rather than serious.

    To play with this theme is to write posts that come close to it, and still follow the main theme, but go at it from a different direction. For example, say our architecture blog starts a series called Silly Saturdays, where he posts images and blog entries about people who've deliberately gone a bit nuts in their construction for a funny effect — such as a family that builds a treehouse in the middle of a city. Alternately, he could post a Sunday WOW blog in which he shares images and stories of houses that have truly amazing architecture, subverting the original theme. He's still focusing on the interest in architecture, but changing the pace just often enough to provide context and perspective.

    In both the case of irregularly-timed, off-topic posts and those that occur regularly but only as a small part of the main content, the key is to maintain a good proportion. In both cases, the bulk of the content is focused on the key topic at hand, be it political journalism or amusing architectural decisions. This means that the "asides" are small and rare enough that they come as pleasant surprises and changes of pace. They allow the variety that keeps the mind quick and engaged, while not overpowering or distracting from the main message people are coming to enjoy.

    Choosing the sort of off-topic message to go into can be tricky. Content that plays with or subverts the main message of a blog is usually easier to work into the process. It doesn't feel forced or squeezed in, because it's still touching on the main body of work while allowing for a bit of creative differentiation.

    That said, instinct is usually a good thing to follow. Remember that no one can predict what kind of mood the Internet is in at any given time. Websites about cute cats, bizarre cakes — even videos of pandas sneezing have gone viral for no apparent reason except a "mood" taking hold of us. If you're writing a blog and an idea that doesn't seem in-theme but still worth posting comes up, give it a try. At worst, people might wonder what the big deal is and ignore the post. Fair enough; in that case, you can return to your regularly-scheduled programming. On the other hand, it might just garner a certain amount of interest and bring in a new audience to pay attention.




    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


    Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

    Saturday, September 10, 2011

    Blog Writing - Ghostwriting Dos and Don'ts

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



    Much of the content on the web is produced by ghostwriters. This isn't immediately obvious, but it really has become a standard practice across the web as a whole, mainly because it's an efficient and reasonable compromise. Sometimes the creator of a product or website just doesn't have the written communication skills necessary to actively promote their brand via blog. Similarly, a talented writer might lack the name credibility to break into writing about something on his or her own reputation. These two talents join their resources and produce a blog in the name of the creator, but with the talents of the writer, and everyone goes home in a limousine; the writer gains valuable experience and hopefully a good recommendation when they eventually move on to other projects, and the content promotes the brand.

    That said, there are still some misconceptions about ghostwriting that pop up from time to time. To that end, it can be helpful to clarify the nature of ghostwriting and how it relates to creating a high-quality blog, particularly through examples of some of the best and worst practices that can pop up when employing a ghostwriter.

    Do be involved

    Hiring a ghostwriter is not quite the same thing as hiring a more traditional writer. Normally a writer is employed to write something in his own name, from his own ideas and for his own purposes. Even a writer hired to convey a brand message is allowed his own identity to a certain extent. But a ghostwriter is writing on behalf of and to an extent as the name of the brand or creator of the brand.

    This means that the "idea man" behind the brand needs to work very closely with the ghostwriter to discuss topics, posts and commentary. Yes, notice that commentary is included: Any good blog includes a very active comments section from which good ideas can be brought to light, and the replies of the ghostwriter to these comments must reflect the same persona he adopts as the author of the blog. This requires bouncing ideas and the nature of replies off the idea man and keeping things in theme, as it were.

    Don't Micromanage

    This may seem to contradict the prior point, but the two actually compliment each other. Yes, a ghostwriter must work very closely with the "name" they are writing under to make sure that the content produced is in line with the authorial vision of the brand. However, there is a reason that a brand hires a ghostwriter, and that reason is his expertise. The writer knows the way he is comfortable writing and knows how to communicate in that medium. This means that any brand that hires a ghostwriter must be comfortable bowing to his experience in the field he has chosen and listen to his advice.

    The reason for this is to create consistency. Part of maintaining a good ghostwriting image is projecting a consistent voice and style of writing from issue to issue. If there is a lot of call behind the scenes to change the tone or content of a blog, the message eventually will become schizophrenic and fail to keep readers' attention because it can't stay on message.

    Do consider outing your writer

    This is a risky decision, but it can be a vital one. Sometimes a relationship with a ghostwriter can develop so thoroughly that it becomes obvious they need to be taken on full time. Ghostwriting is, by its nature, a tenuous and temporary relationship, but it can also serve as a sort of internship leading to long-term agreements. Perhaps the blog is incredibly successful and the writer justifiably would like a bit more recognition for his work.

    This kind of announcement should be handled carefully but honestly, explaining the good work that the ghostwriter has done and the nature of the decision to bring him out in public. It will definitely have consequences; some readers are fickle and might feel upset they weren't reading the "real" thing, but in general most people will stay for the good content they have grown accustomed to.

    Don't settle too fast

    As mentioned, ghostwriting is a good choice for people who want a more temporary relationship. Some blogs are by nature very short-term projects, such as a blog intended to serve as advertising leading up to a particular product's launch and the immediate period after the launch. Then the blog closes down after serving its purpose, remaining online only as an archive for interested parties, if at all.

    In these cases, it's important to understand the nature of ghostwriting and not force a blog past its lifespan. Let the project go as long as it needs, and then move on to another, possibly with another writer. No writer is perfect for every project, and recognizing when new talent is necessary for a project is a vital skill in getting good ghostwriters. However, this requires being up-front and fair with the writer from the beginning, and letting him or her know the temporary nature of a project. Writers often get used to working from project to project, but when they don't know that a project is going to be temporary, it can lead to them scrambling to fill the gap in their schedule.




    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


    Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

    Friday, September 9, 2011

    Beyond Expectations - Getting the Most out of Like and Share

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



    People long have loved to find new and innovative uses for the most innocuous technologies and advances. In the late 19th century, "moving pictures" were a nickel-arcade novelty. Today films such as Avatar are made on budgets comparable to military-grade hardware investments. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone could barely call from one room to another; now the average iPhone has more uses and computing power than all the computers used in World War II combined.

    This trend is repeating itself with the rise of social media network marketing practices. What started as socialization programs only slightly more complex than the average e-mail client has grown into one of the newest and most promising marketing niches in the entire world. Taking advantage of this means familiarizing oneself with a few surprisingly simple concepts that have unusually far-reaching implications. In particular, marketers are finding that the "Like" and "Share" features on Facebook have become the newest and best tool in the online marketing arsenal.

    We "Like" It

    The "Like" function is a pretty simple one — people click "Like" for things that interest them. On the surface, this seems almost irrelevant, but thinking so ignores the way Facebook operates. Taking advantage of the "Like" function is actually the key to getting good marketing opportunities out of Facebook.

    When a user clicks "Like," whether on Facebook itself or through a site's Facebook plug-in, Facebook records the data and uses it in a number of ways. First, a notification is put up on the user's wall confirming the "Like." This informs other users who are familiar with the wall about the product, news item or event, giving them an opportunity to examine and potentially "Like" it as well.

    Therefore, if a user has even 200 friends, which is not that great a number given the increasing inter-connectedness of online communities, that's 200 people who will see what their friend "Liked," and who will have the chance to "Like" it themselves. This is the very foundation of viral content, or content with the ability to move rapidly along through intermediate connections of hundreds of people.

    Additionally, Facebook makes recommendations to users based on things they have "Liked." Thus if friend A has friend B, and friend A puts a "Like" on business C, friend B will not only get an announcement about the "Like," but may have the business recommended to them since they "Like" friend A. This is still another route of communication and an indirect marketing opportunity that requires no more effort than a simple click. Thus it is to any business' advantage to put a plug-in allowing people to "Like" them on Facebook via the businesses' site.

    "Share" a Little, Gain a Lot

    "Sharing" is another process which allows users to spread information about themselves and the products, news items or events they enjoy across multiple networks. This level of extra-connectedness in essence performs the same function as "Like," but with more data given which people can use to evaluate contacts and make connections.

    "Like" simply gets a basic fact out there. "Share" will tell users more about each other, allowing for the kind of networking that drives modern business. It also expands the audience beyond the immediate momentary location of Facebook to other sources such as LinkedIn or Twitter. This further creates the potential for any post to go viral, allowing it to spread quickly among related yet distinct audiences.

    Two-way Street

    The communicative rather than broadcast model will serve marketers well in the area of "Liking" and "Sharing." Yes, it is good when users "Like" a business — it drives referral traffic to the business and allows for more information to get out there. However, equally good is when a business provides "Likes" to others and for their material.

    In the first, most mercenary example it will increase the business' own traffic automatically. Consider friends A and B from before. If friend A puts up a post that Business C likes for whatever reason, friend B will see the "Like." This creates another indirect marketing opportunity and referral traffic automatically. So it's clearly to a business' benefit to be active in the community and to consistently "Like" things that are interesting to the business.

    Indirectly, it creates goodwill in the community. The model of the Internet is a place where people exchange ideas and information, so people respond well to good comments. If business C "Likes" friend A's post, then friend A may "Like" them in return, for reciprocity if nothing else. This can be amplified by providing well-thought-out, insightful and proper comments on various walls throughout a given Facebook community.

    At its roots, Facebook "Likes" and social networking "Shares" create opportunities to be more involved, and they reward increased and thoughtful involvement more than automatic, disinterested participation. Actively read through communities touching on a brand's interests and look for the "Likes" and referrals others are following. Provide commentary for your brand, as well as for the interests of others, and people will respond out of courtesy. The brand that behaves like a human will receive human consideration, while the brand that acts like a robot will be blocked out automatically.




    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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/


    Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

    Thursday, September 1, 2011

    Who Else Wants to Know How-To Write an Effective Advertisement?

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2006-2011 Bill Platt



    Webmasters struggle everyday with the question of how they should advertise their website. There are so many advertising venues; it is hard to know which is the right venue or the right combination of advertising venues.

    The answer to this question is actually simple. The right venues are the ones that allow you to earn enough sales from the placement of your advertisement to make a profit. Your advertisement should earn more money for you than it cost for you to buy the advertisement.


    Choose Your Words Carefully

    "If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind - give it more thought." --- Dennis Roth

    With advertising of any type, you must learn to choose your words carefully.

    Most online advertising is in the form of a classified ad. With a newspaper, you can choose any size of advertisement to communicate your message to readers. The newspaper charges you based on the number of words in your classified ad.

    Online, you don't get the option of buying additional words. Instead, you buy an ad, and the publisher tells you how many words or characters you are allowed to use in your advertisement.

    Here is how the different search advertising options break down:

    ExactSeek.com through the ISEDN.org network:

    Headline Length: 30 characters

    Description: 100 characters

    Google Adwords through Google.com:

    Headline Length: 25 characters

    Description first line: 35 characters

    Description second line: 35 characters

    Overture.com through the Yahoo network:

    Headline Length: 40 characters

    Description: 190 characters


    As you can see from these numbers, you generally do not have that much space to tell your story so you need to select words that best tell your story, using as few words as possible.

    Most products or services cannot be sold in just a few words so your goal should be to get people to your website and let your website do the selling.

    On your website, you can tell your story in the way it needs to be told. Your website can also answer all of the questions that the reader might have about your products or services.


    Choosing The Right Formula For Your Advertising

    In your own mind, you might think that people need to know all of your credentials. But, advertising should not be viewed as a "brag fest". People do not care what you have done; they only care about what you can do for them.

    So tell them how you can help them and give them a reason to visit your website for more information.

    If you understand why your customers buy your products and services, then you can answer their questions and help them solve any problem they might have.

    If you can solve their problems, they will buy what you are selling.


    Pre-Qualify Your Visitors

    If you are engaged in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, you definitely need to pre-qualify your visitors in your advertising. Why pay for people to visit your website if they are not likely to buy what you are selling?

    If you are engaged in selling wholesale products to retailers, why would you want to pay for visitors people whose sole intention is to buy one of what you are selling at retail prices? You wouldn't, would you?

    Provide enough detail in your advertisement to help people make an informed judgement as to whether you can actually help them accomplish what they want to accomplish.

    Give your prospect enough information to skip your advertisement, if he or she will not benefit from your offer.

    Even if you are using other types of advertising like pay-for-inclusion, you will still want to pre-qualify your visitors, because if you don't, it will skew your website conversion numbers. Too many unqualified visitors to your website might give you the erroneous idea that your sales copy is not performing as well as it should.


    Use Power Words In Your Advertising

    "Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words." --- Aprocrypha

    Copywriters are always talking about "power words" or "power phrases". These are word combinations that influence the reader to take an action.

    One example of using power words in your copy is to substitute the word "children" for the word "kids". Parents are more influenced by the reference to children than they are by the reference to kids.

    "Guaranteed" is another power word. It gives your reader an added incentive to buy what you are selling. Prospects take comfort in the idea that if they discover later that they have made a bad decision, they can always get their money back.

    "Proven" is another power word. It tells your reader that you can back up what you are saying with "proof". Your prospect can see "scientific" or empirical "evidence" that you are telling the "truth". These are more power words for the person who is paying attention.

    Power words attract attention, spur reader curiosity and compel readers to take the action that you want them to take.


    Pay More Attention To Your Headline

    The 25 to 40 characters that are available to you for your headline are the most important part of your advertisement, hands down.

    On most websites, the headline is in bold print. The truth is your prospect will not see your description at all, if their attention is not captured first by your headline.

    "Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood." --- William Penn


    Test and Track Your Results

    If you do not take the time or effort to track your advertising, you will never know what is, or is not, working for you.

    Set up different landing pages for your ads to determine which ads are producing results and which ads are failing to deliver on their promise.

    This one step will save you more money than you can imagine. It will allow you to dump the dogs and build upon your successes.


    Shades Of Gray

    Ad tracking will enable you to pinpoint the effect of the slightest changes in wording and presentation.

    Changing one word in your headline or description could make the difference between selling one unit and selling 500 units, but without a tracking system that might never be apparent.

    Let's compare two headlines:

    * Read Our Wealth Tips,

    * Read Our Wealth Secrets.

    Which of these two headlines is more compelling to you?

    Do you see how much of a difference one word can make in your copy?

    Play around with your copy to find text that is more likely to compel your reader to visit your website.

    The words you use in your copy can make all of the difference in the world.


    Stand Above Your Competition

    The PPC advertising companies are going to hate me for telling you this, but you don't need top placement in their search advertising results, if your ad is written better than the ads of your competitors.

    The company with the most compelling headline is going to draw the attention of the reader. It's not uncommon for the advertisement in position five or six to get the click because of a compelling headline and an attention grabbing description.

    Fortunately for you, most of your competitors probably do not understand how to write an effective advertisement. This will allow you to quickly jump to the head of the class without spending more money for those higher spots in the PPC bidding process.


    Start Small and Take Care With Your Advertising Budget

    When you are testing new advertising copy, you should start small. You don't want to spend $1 a click in a pay-per-click advertising venue, using an advertisement that hasn't been tested or proven successful. To do otherwise is a waste of valuable resources.

    Google Adwords ( http://adwords.google.com ) and Yahoo's Overture ( http://www.overture.com ) systems both require you to start your bidding at five cents a click.

    At http://www.7search.com , you can buy advertising for as little as one cent per click.

    At http://www.ExactSeek.com, the founding member of the ISEDN (http://www.ISEDN.org), you can build an ad around a specific keyword phrase for as little as $12 per quarter or $36 per year. Your ad is then displayed through more than 200 ISEDN member websites.


    After You Have Mastered The Art Of Advertising...

    After you have mastered the art and science of advertising, you will learn the most important lesson of all.

    All venues can produce exceptional results, if you have written a compelling and effective advertisement.

    When you write effective advertising copy, you will be able to convert anyone's traffic into sales.



    About the Author:
    If you want to learn how to make article marketing effective and profitable for the promotion of your online business, you will be able to locate several article marketing training guides at http://WritingPuzzle.com/ If you are looking for an article syndication service company to help you promote your online articles, explore http://thephantomwriters.com/ which has been providing article marketing services since 2001. Bill Platt is the owner of both of these web properties.


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    Four Types of Blogs and How To Use Them

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2011 Enzo F. Cesario



    Blogging clearly has arrived and is here to stay, according to the buzzword-slinging set. It's the "next big thing" or the "wave of the future" - even a "revolution." Still, most of the people commenting on the blogging trend aren't sure exactly what it is, how it works or even what the different kinds of blogs are. Blogging already has taken a myriad of forms. Born when dial-up was still the standard, it came of age during the rise of broadband and now its text-based roots are giving way to podcasts and video blogging. To that end, here are a handful of blogging types and what sets them apart from the others.

    Type 1 - Classic/Personal

    This most basic blog type harkens back to the earliest days of Livejournal. These blogs serve as simple, personal accounts of thoughts and experiences. They're records of the user's life, things that interest him or appeal to her. They can record personal journeys both physical and mental, as in the case of blogging an exciting road trip or a reader's attempt to get through the entire canon of a particular author.

    Brand It: The real value of personal blogs is twofold. In our increasingly online culture, people have expressed feelings of isolation and disconnect from society. Thus, the thirst for personal information and details is growing. People want to hear personal stories from folks they are interested in, and these blogs give them a window into the humanity of others. Secondly, personal blogs that persist more than a year or two grow over time, maturing with the author. They change focus and grow more refined as time goes on, allowing the readers to have a sense of growing along with the subject of their reading. Thus, personal blogs can serve to help an established or even a growing brand make a personal connection right with its audience.

    Type 2 - The Watchblog

    It has been mentioned before, but blogging has some of the greatest potential to undermine corruption and totalitarianism ever seen. During the recent elections in Iran, bloggers brought out stories of abuse and corruption. Bloggers and their quick dissemination of information have exposed stories of police brutality, corporate misconduct and government gaffes overnight. There are entire blogs dedicated to exactly this kind of effort, carrying nothing but stories that expose the indefensible actions of those who cannot abide in a lawful society.

    Brand It: The real power of this kind of blog in brand building is in the building up of public trust. Trust is fundamental to all business and branding. If there's no trust in a brand, people simply won't buy. Thus, people who expose breaches of this trust gain a certain level of credibility themselves. Similarly, this kind of blog can promote good conduct as well as expose bad conduct, creating a web of trusted providers that becomes mutually validating and prosperous.

    Type 3 - Satire and Snark

    Laughter is all-powerful. If a man argues with his opponent, he grants that opponent a certain level of respect; obviously the two viewpoints must be equal, or at least commensurate, or there would be no argument. However, if a man can get people to laugh at his opponent, then there need be no argument… ridicule does the work for him. Such is the power of a satirical blog. Whether done through biting and clever writing, simple sarcastic commentary or just posting ridiculous videos of politicians who betray their own ignorance, this kind of blog allows people to laugh at the matters presented and bring out a message by implication rather than overt pounding.

    Brand It: One of the most powerful tools available in the world of blogging is the ability to laugh at oneself. People who have a sense of humor about their own failings are often conversely taken quite seriously. Point out a foible or two that popped up in recent meetings. Discuss hilarious absurdities in your industry. Take a famous mistake your advertising department made and have a laugh at it. Harness peoples' desire to laugh, and you will genuinely have an audience worth keeping.

    Type 4 - Interviewing

    This is where blogging best shows its roots in classic journalism. An interview with an authority on some subject lends credibility to an article, and builds trust in the publication. As said above, people want to hear what others are thinking; they want that connection with the world around them. Having a more human element, interviews can provide this connection if handled well.

    Brand it: The trick with interview-oriented blogs is to keep the material interesting for your audience. If a blog focusing on fashionable apparel were to interview an engineer on the scientific stresses that go into clothing fibers and manufacturing, most of the audience would probably fall asleep. On the other hand, if that same engineer were to explain in simple terms that the use of one fiber allows for thinner thread and thus smaller seams, and show the difference in two fashion photo spreads, that might interest the target audience more.

    A Last Thought - It was touched on only briefly, but always remember that the blog is driven by audience expectations as much as by the focus of the brand itself. The brand exists in the mind of the audience or it doesn't exist, so the blog must reflect that in tone and content. It's also advisable to pick a type or even mix among the types in order to best capture these expectations, rather than choosing a type based solely on the projections of the brand.




    About the Author:
    Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding 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 http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


    Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.