SEMbyDesign

I have discussed commenting on blogs in the past. I have promoted making sure the blog you are leaving comments on is DoFollow. So, I have opted to make my blog a DoFollow blog. Now, this is not JUST a DoFollow blog, I have installed a little plugin that makes this blog dofollow after a commenter leaves 3 comments. This will hopefully encourage good comments. I would love to have more comments, and you the commenter would love the backlinks! So, happy commenting! In the next few weeks I will also introduce a contest for commenting.

Happy Thursday! SEM

I have mentioned article writing in several past threads as a way to gain web traffic. I have put this to work for several clients, but many have objections for one reason or another to actually doing this. Common objections are: No time, can’t or won’t write, or disbelief that it will actually work.

Objection 1: No time. Now, we are all pressed for time, the least expensive way to do the article writing is to do it yourself, since, as the business owner you have the knowledge to write these articles. I as your technical consultant, could find resources, but they may not convey the thoughts about your business like you can.

Objection 2: Can’t or won’t write. Now…not everyone has the skills to write, but again, you have the knowledge of your subject that will make for a good article, and we are not talking about a Phd. thesis here. Just a quick 300-500 word article that we can link back to your website. You write the content and I will do the techie stuff, deal?

Objection3: Disbelief that article writing works. How do we know until we get a few articles out there and see if it helps.  This is a very low cost solution to test.

Have fun! SEM

If you don’t have a site yet, let’s cover the basics of what you need to get going.  First, you are going to want to find a host/name registrar that will be there for you when you have problems.  Trust me, you will have problems at some point over the years.  The main problems I have seen are mostly glitches, like email not working, or like your domain name not resolving(fancy way of saying that it doesn’t come up in your browser when you type it in).  You want your host to be responsive to these problems.

Ok, never fear - the problems I have encountered have all been minimal.  Next you want a host that is going to handle your bandwidth, meaning are you going to have a high traffic site(hopefully!) that is graphics or media heavy?  E-commerce that requires a secure certificate?  These are all considerations for your host.  Also, what is your site going to be programmed in?  Cold Fusion, PHP, ASP, JSP?  These all require different types of servers.

Next you want to consider email services…most hosts offer some type of email, web based, pop or IMAP.

I mainly program in PHP, and use open source scripts, which many will install on your server with a click of your mouse.  Also most hosting companies offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you don’t like the service, or if you inadvertently buy a plan that won’t work for the application you are attempting to use it for.

I have put together a Hosting Review page  with hosts that I use frequently - I think you will find some useful info there, and you can click through to research any of the hosting plans.  These hosts have all treated me well with the service they provide - I place all my customers on one of these hosts if they need a hosting plan.  They are all one-stop, so you can purchase your domain name at the host as well.

Have fun! SEM

I am going to pat myself on the back for a second.  I just got done taking the Google Certified Adwords Professional Exam, and I passed with flying colors.  It was a difficult exam with lots of questions to try to trick you into clicking the wrong option, but I made it!  I really enjoy putting together a good Adwords campaign, so if you are in Omaha, or anywhere else, for that matter and need some help with Adwords (or any similar CPC program like Yahoo or MSN for that matter) give me a shout!

I will post the official seal of the Adwords Professional as soon as I can, so as to comply with all the usage requirements, for all to see.  I am pretty excited about this development in my professional freelance career here in Omaha.  I think there is huge demand for it,  and I think people should consider this type of advertising for *most* businesses.  I have been successful with brick-and-mortar businesses, service businesses, and e-commerce businesses with CPC advertising.

Have fun out there! SEM

As I write this, I am sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops, within earshot of 2 middle level mangers from a major corporation.  (I know this by their professionally embroidered polos!)  Their conversation consists of how their employees are resisting the 360 reviews and ’self assessments’ - folks, THIS I do not miss.  And this is why I want to make the coffee shop my only ‘cubicle’!  These managers banter about ‘Emotional intelligence’ and other corporate HR buzzwords is not a part of my lifestyle.

Working for myself, from home, or where ever a client wants to meet me is the single highest priority - I get to spend some decent time with my kids, set my own hours(although I tend to be a work-a-holic and put in way too many hours anyway.)  I am Employee of the month every month and have garage parking!

Anyway, this is just kind of a rant since I can hear the crazy-talk that I have worked so hard for 5 years to avoid.

Have Fun out there! SEM

Picking a domain name is quite possibly one of the most important things you can do when you are starting up a site, and possibly one of the most difficult. Difficult, because many, many domains have already been registered. Here are some tips:
1. When you are researching, it is fairly important to have a keyword in your name - for instance if you are selling jewelry, you should have the word jewelry somewhere in the name.

2. Don’t make it too regional if you are thinking of a national or international audience - in the case of jewelry sales in Houston, JewelryDesignHouston.com would not be a good name if you were trying to appeal to a larger audience than the residents of Houston.

3. Unless you are a non-profit organization or a college or university, try to stick with the .com extension - no one can remember the other extensions, like .biz too easily.

4. Stay away from special characters and numbers in your name. Dashes and the numbers 0-9 don’t make for names that are easily remembered.

In general, practice trying to tell someone the name out loud or over the phone if you can say it without having to explain it that is best, for example, we’ll use 4example.com - “hello Bill, my domain is w w w . 4 the number 4 not spelled out example . com.” This makes for a very confused individual on the other end of the phone.

You can go to any domain registrar to find out if your name is available - if it is not, sites like Premium Domain Name Auctions should have a great selection of names, or people willing to sell you your dream domain name.

Most of my clients ask me what the best way is to get traffic to their site at some point or another. For some, I know blogging will do them a great deal of good. I recommend that they 1. Start a blog and 2. Post diligently in their blog 3-5 times a week. Now, if you will notice, it has been seemingly quite a while since my last post…almost a week. Yikes! Here I am telling people what they need to do and not practicing it.

So, a friend of mine from CGMTechnologies.com, who has many similar ideas came up with something that I am going to try to do - maybe it is second nature to most, but for me it is going to take some discipline. Chris has proposed a 30 day challenge to set aside a certain amount of time daily towards the goal of becoming financially successful on the web(a different definition for everyone - to some this may be a little extra cash, while to others, it may be a part time job or even full time). You will read more on this in the coming weeks as Chris defines the parameters of the challenge.

In the mean time - -Get out and blog your behind off! SEM

Lets talk about social networking for a bit…I have played around with several different business models for driving traffic.  Social networking was made popular with the advent of Myspace and facebook.  There are several knock-offs to these, but they remain the predominant forces in social networking today.  A couple of my other favorites are LinkedIn.com - a professional social networking model - you network with friends whom you have gone to school with, co-workers and contractors you have worked with.  Kind of an on-line resume with lots of extras.

The one that really intrigues me, however, is Squidoo.com.  This site has really taken off, and is getting a lot of recognition by top search engines because it is so full of content - quality content.  3 reasons I like the site:  It’s free to place as many lenses(terminology for pages) as you wish,  You get paid for the revenue your lens generates, and it can provide valuable traffic backlinks to your main website.

I will be testing some of the ways I can use this to my advantage and reporting on it in the coming weeks.  If you have any thoughts or successes on squidoo or any other social networking platform, please comment!

Today’s topic covers a couple of different ways to monetize a business.  I have often said that there is a pretty straightforward formula for turning your website into a revenue stream - this being: Content = Traffic = Money.  In that order.  Content needs to be placed in order for search engines to get ahold of it, so that they can display the site for people who are searching.  Simple concept in theory, and most site owners don’t get it.  They expect the “if you build it they will come” theory to be true, (which can happen, but it’s like winning the lottery).  You must have content, content, content.  This will get you traffic naturally.

The other thing you really need is backlinks.  Even more difficult than building content - this is where some of the other techniques come into play - forum posting, article submission, comment posting on blogs…all good ways to get backlinks.

Ok…kind of a scatterbrained post for today, but I have had 3 questions this morning about this very subject, so it may be more out of frustration than anything!  Thanks!

One way to drive traffic to your site or blog is to get on the web and find blogs that have similar content to your site or blog, and leave a few posts with relevant content. If your site has content on real estate loans, for instance, find a blog about real estate investing and leave a comment on a few key posts, with real, relevant information. This provides you with key backlinks to your site as well as links that users who are curious about your site and found your comments useful will follow.

It is not too difficult to find blogs related to your content - just go to blogcatalog.com or bloghub.com to find relevant blogs. Then find a few that you like, and post comments…bloggers appreciate feedback on their post anyway…this provides valuable content and interaction with the blogger. And, who knows, you may end up meeting someone you like and form a valuable business relationship with!
Happy Commenting!