


You should be. If you have never heard of Google PageRank and you have established a website, it is high time you learned about Google PageRank and what it means to you and the success of your website. Having an excellent Google PageRank can either make or break a website in terms of overall success. Let’s take a look at what Google PageRank is and why it is so important to every website owner.
First, a word about the Google Search engine: Google is one of the most popular search engines on the Internet. Not only is Google’s search engine the absolute largest of its kind, the company focuses on making web information easy to access and even easier to find. Google has designed a unique system and the search engine has yet to be surpassed in terms of the information it provides. Google has grown immensely since its early beginning in 1996 and it will continue to be a predominant force on the Internet. Furthermore, because Google offers easy access to immediate information, they own one of the top Internet search engines in the world. Thus, it would serve a webmaster well to become familiar with the Google PageRank process-the Google PageRank is an algorithm that is based on inbound links and other factors and will ultimately determine the location of listing of your website in the Google Search Engine.
What precisely is Google PageRank?
Google PageRank is a process the search engine’s uses as a way of selecting sites to answer specific queries. Basically, when an Internet user submits a query, the Google search engine will attempt to match websites to the query that has been posed. Yet, there is a bit more to this simple science than the act of submitting a query suggests. Rather, behind the scenes, Google uses specific algorithms to determine if a site specifically address a web user’s needs by analyzing the content of a site by keyword and by the number of inbound links associated with the site-every inbound link is viewed as a vote and the more votes one has, in conjunction with the more keywords one has, the higher their Google PageRank is.
Why is Your Google PageRank Significant?
What does it mean to you when your Google PageRank is increased? Does it really matter what your Google PageRank is at all? You bet it does-the higher your Google PageRank is the higher on a search engine’s listing your website will appear. Thus, if you are looking for top billing, especially in a search engine as popular as the one Google offers, you will definitely want to maximize your efforts of getting your website visible and improving your PageRank is the best way to accomplish such a task. Moreover, the higher you appear on the search engine listing offered by Google, or many other search engines, the easier your website is to find. Essentially this equates to more web traffic for your website and if you are running an online business, more web traffic ultimately means more profit for you.
Making Google PageRank Improvements
If you are looking to improve your Google PageRank you can do so by starting a link campaign. A link campaign can help you increase more inbound links to your website and in turn, more inbound links will increase your Google PageRank. How do you start a link campaign? Well, you can go the hard route by scouring the Internet to find websites similar to your own. Or, you can make your link campaign a far easier process by using the services afforded to you by PageRank Browser and locate all of the best, themed websites on the Internet with relative ease.
Of course, there are few things you must bear in mind when you begin your link campaign. Google actually rates various links and holds some links higher than others. In other words, if you link to 100 less than popular sites you may increase your Google PageRank. Conversely, if you link to 50 extremely popular sites and you get inbound links in return, you may significantly increase your Google PageRank because the most popular sites on the Internet are linking directly too you. Thus, when you begin your link campaign, keep this popularity issue in the back of your mind. Further, know that in using PageRank Browser, you will be able to locate the popular sites with ease, and thereby significantly increase your Google PageRank.
About Inbound Links
Quite frankly, some links that you will establish will be better than others. You goal will be to establish the best links possible by examining the quality of inbound links. Various webmaster tools can help you determine the quality of the reciprocal links you establish. You will want to work hard at establishing direct inbound links to your site-direct links from already popular websites. You will also need to establish links to websites that are similar to yours-remember the search engine algorithm used by Google to determine your page rank is based on relevance. You will also find that the location of inbound links is of significant importance. For example, when you establish inbound links, those links that are buried deep within a website will have less influence on the ranking of your website in Google’s search engine.
What is clear is that your Google PageRank is of significant importance. Thus, every effort should be used to improve your Google PageRank-with the use of webmaster tools and the use of sites like PageRank Browser you should have little difficulty getting your PageRank right where it should be. Therefore, you will not only improve your PageRank you will improve the web traffic you receive by leaps and bounds. Moreover, your improved PageRank will make you a force on the Internet to be reckoned with-you will have a highly recognizable website for all your efforts and you will ultimately improve your online business’ bottom line.
…No they won’t. On the web, building a web site is not enough. If there are no links to the site anywhere, no-one is going to visit it. The site won’t even be listed in any of the search engines without some incoming links. To get traffic, you will need to do some promotion.
Web Directories
The basic part of any promotion campaign, web directories, whist they may not generate much in the way of traffic, will help in your site’s search engine ranking. A good list of free, non-reciprocal, search engine friendly directories can be found at info.vilesilencer.com.
Pay Per Click Advertising
This is advertising such as PPC Search Engines, like Yahoo!’s Overture, and contextual advertising, like Google’s AdWords. Be warned, it is very easy to go through a substantial amount of money for no reward using these services if you are not careful. AdWords (amongst others) lets you pick a maximum budget a day, but, although $5 may not sound like much, $5/day is $150+ per month. Better make sure your keywords are correctly identified, and, in preference, not highly competed on, and that your sales copy is good enough before doing this.
Quality Traffic, not Just Traffic
It’s what everyone is after, more traffic to their website. Traffic is easy to obtain, though. Autosurfers, manual hit exchanges and purchased traffic will all send visitors to your website. However, this traffic is just visitors, many of whom will just burn up your bandwidth for no reward. Unless you are receiving decent money for pay per impression advertising, such as banners and popups, this traffic can be totally valueless.
Repeat Traffic
Unless you only require visitors to visit your site once, because you are selling a one-off product, and your sales copy is fantastic enough that they are hooked to buy on the first visit (and if you are regulary doing this, write an ebook explaining how and sell it), you will want visitors to return. If there is nothing of value at your site, visitors may come once, but they won’t come back of their own accord. Typically, it is estimated that a prospective customer will be exposed seven times to a product etc. before buying.
Reciprocal Linking
Whilst somewhat frowned upon, and generally thought to not be as valuable as one-way linking (see below) for search engine optimization, a relevant reciprocal linking campaign can be an important traffic generating tool. swap links with sites in a related, but non-competing, business to your own. It isn’t really a good idea to link to competitors; although visitors will be interested in your product, there is a good chance you will lose them to your competitor, especially if their website or product is better or looks better than your own. Not a desirable outcome. For example, a web hosting site could link to a site that sells scripts and programs; visitors to one will more than likely use the other, but the sites are not in direct competition. You can also swap links with web directories that require a reciprocal link.
One-Way Linking
Considered the best form of link for SEO purposes, this can also be a good source of traffic. There are a number of ways of getting one-way links. The easiest is submission to free web directories (see above). Another good source is by writing articles relevant to your site or industry, putting a resource box at the bottom, then posting the article on the directories such as ZapContent.com, or by sumbitting to the ezines. Webmasters and ezine publishers are always in need of fresh content, and will publish your article for free. The hardest way of getting one-way inbound links is by having websites voluntarily link to you. The only way to do this is by providing a valuable tool, service or resource that other webmasters will want to direct their visitors to
Every webmaster wants links (possibly a lot of them!). That’s not surprisingly because links from other sites are not only a source of traffic, but also a very important factor that helps a site to rank well in search engines results.
Apparently submitting your site to web directories is one of the quickest ways to get links, but getting listed is sometimes much more difficult than it may seem.
The problem is that web directories are swamped by a large number of low quality submissions: poorly designed web sites, web sites without any original content or created only to display advertisements and so on.
For this reason directory editors review hundreds of sites per day and accept only those complying to a very strict set of guidelines. There are days, and I talk by personal experience, when more than 90% of submissions are rejected, in many case without even the need to visit the site simply because of a poorly written submission.
If you want to increase your chances to see your site listed, it’s essential to understand what informations you are required to provide about your site and how to properly submit them.
At least title, description and url are required by all directories.
Web site title
Directories have more or less restrictive rules about what you can or cannot have as your site title.
Some allow only your official domain name or company name, other are more liberal.
In any case a good title should never exceed 4-5 words. Using a long list of keywords as title (keyword stuffing), excessive repetitions and inappropriate punctuation must be absolutely avoided.
Web site description
Many sites are rejected due to an inappropriate description. A description is not an advertisement and should never contain superlatives or excessive marketing hype.
Directory listings are usually searchable by words contained both in title and description so the keywords commonly used to find your site should be included in your site description. However always write 2-3 complete sentences that sound natural do not make your description a long list of keywords.
Web site URL
You would say that people should at least be able to correctly submit their own web site url. If you work as directory editor for a while you will change your mind! It happens quite frequently that a site is rejected simply because of a mistyped url.
Never type your site url directly into the submission form. Test it in your browser, save it in a text file and copy and paste from there.
Each directory can have some other specific rules, so be sure to carefully read the submission guidelines and comply to any special requirement.
It’s said that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression: directory editors read the informations you submit before visiting your web site. Learn to properly write your submissions and you will greatly increase the chances to have your website accepted.
Being a novice website developer the hardest part of creating a new website is getting actual people to look at your website. Coming up with the next great idea seems to be the easy part but it will never be a real success if you are the only person reading your work. I have been doing some experimenting with this problem and here are some of the things that seem to work for me.
1. Social Bookmarking &ndash this is my number one pick because in large it has brought the lions share of the traffic to my site, there are some great sites that do this Social Bookmarking &ndash this is my number one pick because in large it has brought the lions share of the traffic to my site, there are some great sites that do this Social Bookmarking &ndash this is my number one pick because in large it has brought the lions share of the traffic to my site, there are some great sites that do this Social Bookmarking &ndash this is my number one pick because in large it has brought the lions share of the traffic to my site, there are some great sites that do this .digg.com is my favorite it seems to be one of the most popular at the moment you can submit a link to one of your stories with a brief description and if it intrest the rests of the diggers you might make it to the homepage.
2. Article Directories &ndash I have to admit that there are a lot of crappy articles on most article directories so if you put your well written article on one it is bound to get snapped up by hundreds of content starved websites looking for new stories all they will all have backlinks pointing to you, Article Directories &ndash I have to admit that there are a lot of crappy articles on most article directories so if you put your well written article on one it is bound to get snapped up by hundreds of content starved websites looking for new stories all they will all have backlinks pointing to you,
target=”_blank”>Articledashboard.comArticledashboard.com seems to be a nice one.
3. Forums Posting - This has got to be the most time consuming one if you do it correctly you must find people who might have some interest in your site, in my case those are computer related forums and I try to help people with there computer problems and drop a link to my site in the signature. Becareful with this one please don’t spam forums with a bunch of junk just to get you link out there if you can add to a discussion or help another member most forum admins will not have any problems with you putting a link in your sig.
4. Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here Website crawled - This is one of the hardest things to do but it has the potential to pay off big if you get a good ranking from Google. One thing that needs to be checked is your Robots.txt file this allows search engine spiders to correctly craw your pages a more detailed article on the subject can be found here .searchengineworld.com. You also might consider trying to implement Google’s new Sitemap generator - this is on my to do list
5. Directory Submissions - Submit your site to human edited web directories like Directory Submissions - Submit your site to human edited web directories like Directory Submissions - Submit your site to human edited web directories like Directory Submissions - Submit your site to human edited web directories like dmoz.org/. It will help your page rank and may even get you some traffic.
6. Link trading - Most sites with similar interests as yours will be more than happy to add a link to your site as long as you provide them with a reciprocal link.
This is by no means an all inclusive list and I am sure there are many more great ways to generate website traffic if you have a suggestion please post a comment.
Whatever you do in business, do it big! There’s no other arena in which those words are truer than the internet. It’s a competitive world wide web, and you do have to find your niche. But once you find that niche, do it just a little bit different than everybody else. Do it big. People don’t often think in those terms. So if you are able to put yourself in that mindset, then you’ll be ahead of the pack.
You can struggle all you want trying to get your website to the top of the search engines, but by the time you get there, the rules for getting there will have changed. You can spend countless hours trading links with other websites, but you’ll find that many of those will soon ditch their domain. You may consider any number of online strategies for getting your website noticed, but the bottom line is somebody on the other end always wants to get paid.
This is when the idea of “do it big” comes into play. Let me explain. I recently discovered a website owned by a woman from the UK. Her product was original art. Specifically, cartoon-like pencil sketches. Her intention was to put her work on shirts, stationary, and greeting cards and to sell it through her website. The problem was she couldn’t get her site noticed. She had no visitors.
How many times have you lamented over the lack of visitors to your site? I have, and I do. It doesn’t matter how many visitors a site receives. It never seems to be enough. We are insatiable. But you can struggle with online strategies, or you can do something big offline. Here’s what I suggested to the woman from the UK.
Start a campaign. Call it the “loan a shirt” campaign or something of that nature. The idea would be to take a shirt featuring the artwork, and send it around the world. How? She or somebody else would wear it for a day and then pass it on to another person who would do the same. This would continue for any duration of time. But the goal would be to send the shirt around the world, and each person who wore the shirt for a day could log on to the site if they choose and fill out a quick location form so the shirt may be tracked.
It’s such a simple, low-cost idea, but it’s a creative way to expose a website as the address would be listed right there on the shirt. And people who wore the shirt for a day would get to see and sample the product first hand. It could even be an event for charity, and an effective press release would be the only invitation the media would need to get involved.
But what if somebody decided not to pass the shirt on? What if somebody stole it? What if the shirt got lost? What if “this”, and what if “that”?
Hey, what if it worked? What did it cost? Nothing. It only required a little creative thinking. A person could do anything they wanted with the idea in order to eliminate every negative “what if”.
The point I’m trying to make is we don’t often think of doing something big offline to promote ourselves online. And it doesn’t have to be costly. It doesn’t have to even follow what we believe to be the traditional rules of advertising. Just think big, do it big, and get noticed. After all, isn’t that the goal? Or is the goal just to advertise?
‘More than 80% of the traffic comes from the top ten search engines’.
You have probably read this statement many times and it’s true at least for the majority of websites.
So how about web directories? Is submitting your site to them a waste of time?
Even if directories usually don’t deliver a lot of traffic they contribute inbound links to your site increasing its link popularity a very important factor used by search engines to rank websites.
When someone queries a search engine using a keyword relevant to your site, higher is your site link popularity higher are its chances to come up near the top of the results.
Submitting your site to web directories will help you increase its visibility and attract more traffic from search engines.
However you need an overall strategy to successfully manage your directory submissions or you will only lose your time and energies.
Is your site ready?
You should never forget that directories don’t exist to give away free links. Their purpose is to provide their visitors with good quality sites.
If you want some chances to get listed you need a well designed web site containing useful and original content or offering useful services.
Your site must also be complete without broken links or links to ‘under construction’ pages.
Other things that can cause a rejection of your submission are: too many ads (especially pop-ups and pop-unders), automatic redirections to another domain, having the same exact content of other sites (example: the ’self replicated’ sites some companies provide to their affiliates).
Preparing your listing details
Open your favorite text editor and write down the following informations:
1) your web site URL.
2) your website Title. Some directories accept only the official site name as title, others allow some descriptive keywords, but in general stuffing a lot of keywords in your title is not acceptable.
Write 2-3 different titles in compliance with these different rules.
3) your website description. Write what your site is about in a couple of sentences. Avoid superlatives, exclamation marks, excessive hype and generally everything that makes your description sound like an ad.
Description should be written in third person. Avoid expressions like ‘we offer’, ‘we are …’.
4) a set of search keywords related to your site. Separate the keywords with commas, then write down the same set of keywords this time separated by spaces. Some directories require the first format, others the second one.
5) your full name and email address.
Once you have done save the document. By copying and pasting these informations into the submissions forms you will save time and avoid errors.
Or you can utilize Clipboard Magic. This free software allows you to save multiple rows of data and load them into the Windows Clipboard simply with a click of the mouse. It’s really useful when you need to fill in many online forms with the same informations.
Finding web directories
The next step is finding directories where you can submit your site.
You can use top directories to find minor and specialized directories
Spend some time to determine how each directory is organized and find the most appropriate category for your site.
Submitting to the wrong category usually causes a rejection of your submission.
Compile a list of all directories where you have submitted your site indicating the date of your submission.
Verifying the results
Not all directories send you an email when your site is listed.
You should periodically visit your list of directories and make a search for your site title or url.
Flag all directories where you find your site.
If your site has not been listed after about 2 months from the date of your first submission you can try to submit it again. My advice is to not resubmit more frequently.
You can also contact the directory owner and ask about the status of your submission, but if you don’t receive a reply, don’t insist. There may be many reasons why a directory doesn’t list your site, simply accept the fact that not all submissions are successful.
Submitting your site to web directories is an essential part of your website promotion strategy.
It’s a time consuming task, but with the right planning you will be able to manage it successfully.
Whether you are starting a new business or operating on a budget, you cannot go wrong with free web promotion. The truth is that not everyone has an expense account to justify an aggressive advertising campaign. Many businesses, especially web-based, outline marketing as their largest expense. However, free web promotion has changed the way that everyone looks at advertising.
The best way to gain free web promotion is through the use of press releases, which highlight upcoming news, events and headlines regarding your company. In order to write an effective press release, your business must be involved in something noteworthy. Whether it be a contest, a grand opening, a special sale or other event, a press release is the perfect way to advertise your business happenings for free. There are a number of press release submission websites, which allow business owners to submit their news for free. In addition, submitting your press release to newspaper and magazine editors may increase your chances of being published both online and in print. Before sending a press release, which should be no more than one page in length, make sure that your name, mailing address and telephone number is included at the top of the page. Many editors require that contact information be present before they will even consider publishing a press release. The reasoning behind this is to confirm the identity of the person submitting the news.
Web promotion can perhaps best be utilized through successful positioning on internet search engines. By making sure that your website content is rich with information, links and updated information, search engines will be more likely to position your site among the top ranks. In addition, a descriptive website will also find it’s way to the top. For example, if your business deals with collectibles, make sure that your content is rich in keywords dealing with collectibles and the product line that you offer. Avoid stuffing keywords, but make sure that your website clearly indicates it’s subject matter.
One of the best avenues for web promotion is through article marketing. While many website owners are still somewhat unfamiliar with this approach, others are cashing in on a surge of traffic generated from properly marketing their articles. The key to successful web promotion via article marketing is to write an informative article that everyone will want to read. At the bottom of the article, include a brief paragraph featuring your name, the name of your business and a website address. The next step is to submit your article to as many article directories as possible. The more exposure, the better. As other webmasters log on to article directories in search of content for their website, they may select your article to be featured on their site. The more webmasters that feature your work, the more free web promotion your business will receive.
There are a number of ways to acquire paid marketing opportunities and an equal, or greater, number of ways to get free web promotion. If done correctly, web promotion doesn’t have to empty the entire expense account. In some cases, it won’t even cost you a cent.
Message to ICANN: Let those who want to create a TLD, simply register it with ICANN.
If the TLD is not already taken, if they have the technical capability to mange the TLD, and they have the desire to market domain names on that TLD, then let them do so.
It should be similar to the registering of a domain name, except on a higher level, with the added technical requirements. ICANN should be sort of an upper-registry for TLDs.
It would be ludicrous for a domain name registrar like GoDaddy or eNom to ask you for a business plan, or a non-refundable application fee, before allowing you to register a domain name. It would be ridiculous for a registrar to have “rounds” of domain name releases of names “they chose” in advance.
Okay, this month, GoDaddy will be allocating cheaperwebhosting.com, doggrommingmadeeasy.net, and virtualinternetwebnetwork.net. We will be taking applications and public comment during the month of February. We will then spend another month reviewing the applicants business plans to decide who we will allocate the domain name to. If you are not approved to manage the domain name you apply for, your application fee will be held by GoDaddy until further notice.
Some people will say that is not a good analogy, but it is a perfect analogy. Here is why: If info.com was still available and I registered it. I could then start selling subdomains like car.info.com, computer.info.com, icann.info.com or any other subdomain someone wished to purchase from me. The subdomain is one dot removed from the domain name the same as the domain name is one dot removed from the TLD.
There is no longer any reason to believe ICANN is doing anything other than restricting free enterprise and free trade by not opening up the market for TLDs. It is no longer acceptable that ICANN should be the one to decide which TLDs will or will not be created nor is it acceptable that ICANN gets to choose who can or cannot run a TLD.
Do you present a businesss plan to the city you live in before they allow you a business license? No.
Does the city ask you to prove you are financially stable before issuing you a business license? No, as long as you pay the registration fee.
If you apply for a business license to open a clothing store, does the city ask how you will run your clothing store or if you have the necessary expertise to run a clothing store? No.
Does the city think you will hurt them economically if your clothing store goes out of business? No, it’s none of their business.
Is the city concerned that there may not enough demand for yet another clothing store? No, again none of their business.
ICANN not allowing me, or anyone else in the world, to create a TLD of our choice in any language we choose, is a blatant violation of our rights. In many countries, America among them, the right to free enterprise still exists. ICANN is denying me that right as an American citizen and doing so when even their own organization exists under American law.
There are no needs for auctions or rounds or anything else. If you want to run a TLD, then you register it and start selling domain names. If you fail, you fail, just as in any other business venture you take on.
Artificially restricting namespace to make a few business intellectual property interests happy has to stop.
You know, normally you can find a definition of a word or phrase by typing “define: your phrase here” into google and come up with a lot of results. Currently there are millions of blogs and there are hundreds of people who call themselves “Blog or Blogging Consultants”, yet when you type “define: Blogging Consultant or Blogging Consultant” into google you get no definition.
That is probably a good thing for most blogging consultants because without a definition, there is no standard to hold them to. I’m not claiming to be the blogging guru of all time or anything of the sort. So before you “blogging consultants” out there start getting defensive about this, think before you write. If you get too nasty about the post I may ask you to define “blogging consultant” and without google many of you couldn’t do it.
Now that is out of the way, lets talk business. Every business should have a blog. There are so many reasons for your business to have a blog it would be hard to write them all in one blog post, so lets assume you know your company needs a blog.
So do you hire a blogging consultant? What qualifications do you look for in a blogging consultant? What does a blogging consultant look like? How much should I pay a blogging consultant?
Lets start with “Should you hire a blogging consultant?”
The quick answer is yes, but lets go into why first. There are a lot of things that go into making a blog popular. Technorati tags, submissions and pings to bloglists and blogsearch websites, learning how to get on the right blogrolls, etc.
If you are new to blogging it takes awhile to catch on to most of these things and most blogging consultants say that all of the above is necessary if you are going to have a successful blog.
There are more things to add to the list but this article isn’t about how to run a successful blog, it’s about blogging consultants. Hiring a blogging consultant can save you from making a lot of early mistakes and get your blog found a lot quicker than trying to do it on your own.
Now all the blogging consultants are liking me again. I can tell. But will it last?
What qualifications do you look for in a blogging consultant?
Here is where things get ugly between me and the blogging consultants. Most blogging consultants are . . . well . . . bloggers. Many of them have what they think is a successful blog although many bloggers have different ideas for what success is.
Some think it’s defined as how much they made on google adnonsense last month. Others count success by number of visitors to their website or the number of comments that appear on their blog. Still others measure their success by what the other bloggers think about them.
What do all of those bloggers who are blogging consultants have in common? They all think that having a successful blog automatically makes you a qualified blogging consultant. I told you it was going to get nasty. After this article if I measured my success by what the other bloggers think of me then I’m doomed!
Fortunately I don’t measure my success in terms of what the other bloggers and blogging consultants think. Lets get back to those qualifications for a blogging consultant.
First of all a blog is a website. It is a website that is updated often in most cases, but it is still a website. Each blogpost becomes a page of that website. So with a blog you are creating more webpages to your website as often as you post to your blog.
Now I have a question for you. Would you first look to hire a blogger to do search engine optimization for your website? Would you first look to hire a blogger to handle your AdWords campaign? Would you first look for a blogger to build your website for you?
The answer to all of the above is probably no, unless the blogger also has experience in those fields and not just for their blog. Actual websites they have built, optimized, and marketed for themselves and for clients.
A blogging consultant should not just be a blogger. They should also have all of the skills necessary to run a website. Now the blogging consultants are all mad at me again. But think about it. Many bloggers know how to write. They know how to get into the right circle of blogger friends who will link to them. They know about blogging.
So if all you need to know is how to write a blog, then hiring a blogger who knows how to write is the answer, but if you need someone who is going to manage your blog for you including posting to the blog, search engine optimization, link popularity, (and not just from blogrolls), and marketing, then you need to hire a webmaster who also blogs.
Okay, How much should I pay a blogging consultant?
How much do you have? Just kidding. A lot depends on the type of blog you want or have. A corporation blog has to pay more, not because they have more, but because there are all kinds of legal and policy matters that have to be considered with every single blog post and every single link to or from another blog or website. A small business blog doesn’t have many of the same issues as the corporate blog, but still has certain standards that need to be met.
If you have ever hired a webmaster, not a web designer, a webmaster, (Thats another article), or a Search Engine Optimization Company, or a Search Engine Marketer, or even just a Marketing Consultant, (The just was in there just so I could make consultants mad again.), then you have an idea of what a blogging consultant should cost.
Now keep in mind, if you are hiring a blogging consultant to strictly teach you how to blog, then it’s not worth as much money as when you hire a blogging consultant who is also going to perform all of the services a Webmaster and Internet Marketer would provide plus search engine optimization.
Ha ha! I still didn’t say how much it costs. It’s coming. Read on.
What does a Blogging Consultant look like?
He or she looks like someone who has more than just a blog or blogs. Someone who also owns and manages several websites for themselves and for clients. As I said before a blog is still a website.
Sometimes you come up with a great blog story. You know it will drive you a lot of traffic but you have a problem. None knows about your great blog post. In order to get maximum attention you need to spread the word around. This is where the social / bookmark networks come handy.
What is a social / bookmark network?
It’s a place where you can share your stories or bookmarks with others. Take blog reporter for example. You submit your blog story to the network, allowing other members to vote and comment on it. More popular stories that receive a certain number of votes get promoted to the front page. Most social networks are different. Some even allow you to export a large number of bookmarks straight from your browser.
Why social networks?
1) Social networks get a lot of traffic due to their nature. Users often return to read the latest stories and share their own.
2) Readers are usually only one click away from your blog. A popular submission can bring you thousands of daily visitors.
3) Most social networks are free and take seconds to register and submit your first entry.
4) You will be surprised when you see the amount of other websites that use feeds from various social networks. A good story can spread across the network like wild fire.
5) If your story will not get to the front page you can always submit another one. In most cases there is no limit on the amount of stories you can submit.
6) Most social networks are search engine friendly. Not only your story will be picked up by major search engines in no time, in most cases you will also get a reciprocal link. Some social networks have very good google page rank (PR)
Tips and tricks:
1) An interesting, catchy story is often a must. Your main target is to get promoted to the front page by getting enough votes. You need to convince other readers to vote for your story. Strange, shocking and controversial stories often do well.
2) You can always ask your friends to join and vote for you in order to get more votes. Don’t create fake accounts because you will simply get banned.
3) The more stories you submit the better. If you want a steady flow of traffic you will need a steady flow of submissions.
4) Just enjoy your experience. I certainly find it more interesting compared to other methods of blog promotion, such as link development.
There are a lot of various social networks around. Simple search on google should do the trick. I personally recommend blog reporter because it is the first personal publishing network designed especially for blogs.
