How Not to Run a Facebook Ad Campaign, and a Few Other Tidbits
How not to run your social media campaigns
This post is going to be controversial, so hold on to your hat. One Facebook ad that keeps popping up in my feed is by Boost Blog Traffic, which is run by Jon Morrow. Now, I love just about everything about Jon and I am a big fan, but this ad was a stinker.
I mean skunk quality stink.
In the ad, Jon is promoting a guide on how to write for Huffington Post. The ad is clearly targeted towards writers and not marketing professionals. As a professional writer, the ad rubbed me the wrong way.
No Pay, No Way
Does Huffington Post pay writers?
Let's get one thing straight: Huffington Post does not pay writers.
Promoting a site that doesn't pay writers is wrong. If he were simply targeting marketers that wanted nothing but free publicity it would be okay, but he wasn't. He was targeting writers, people who pay their rent and buy groceries by writing. Spending writing for "exposure" leaves you homeless and hungry.
Huffington Post has made a killing off of free content and it's places like this that ruins it for writers. People expect us to write for free for "exposure." Do people who post there get exposure? Sure. Robbing a bank can get me exposure, too, but it's not the kind I want.
Iffy Reputation, Too
On top of the no pay, it is well known that Huffington Post is losing its credibility. One look at some of the latest posts will tell you how far it has fallen. It already has a pretty crappy reputation in many circles. A prime example? Well, just take a look at all of the people who dislike Huffington Post in the comments of any Huffington Post article. Or in the comments of this ad.
Writer Backlash
Writers made their feeling heard in the ad comments. There were dozens and dozens of writers expressing their displeasure with the ad. Now, at this point, Boost Blog Traffic could have tapped some good customer service techniques. That wasn't the route they took. This was the reply:
A lot of freelancers make good money writing for them. The idea is to write a post and then link to your own website at the end so people can find you. Works well for promoting any type of service. Or even products.
Okay, like I said, writing for exposure is NOT a good way for WRITERS to make money. It's a marketer's tactic, but I digress. The reason why this was such a horrible response is because whoever posted it (since the Facebook user photo is of Jon, we'll say it's him, but it is more than likely someone running their ads department), copy and pasted this answer over and over again to reply to other's concerns. #FAIL
How not to run your social media accounts
Peter also makes a great point:
Facebook ad customer service
If there are so many writers making great money from this tactic, give us some examples.
John makes another great point:
example of bad social media customer service
No doubt.
What You Can Learn From This Facebook Ad
The moral of this tragic story?
If you are going to create a lead magnet, make sure it doesn't offend the group of people you're targeting.
If the target group complains, don't reply with the same canned answer over and over.
Be sure to back up your claims with proof.
Make sure that your tips can actually be incorporated by your target audience.
Poll: Biggest Problems Businesses Have When It Comes to Content Marketing and How to Fix Them
Recently, I decided to poll business professionals about their greatest content marketing challenges and I got some surprises.
How Often Do You Post Fresh Content to Your Site?
fresh content poll
My very first question was pretty simple: How often do you post fresh content to your site? You know what was surprising? Out of the 109 business owners polled, most didn't know that they needed to post fresh content on their site on a regular basis.
How often should you post?
It is better to post no content than post thin or shabby content that search engines and visitors hate, but if you want to increase your page rank, fresh content is key. The general rule is to post content only when you have good content and do it on a regular basis, whether that be once a month, once a week or once per day. Search engines and people like it when a site is consistent.
website content poll
Do You Ever Think About SEO?
The next question I asked is if they ever thought about SEO. Out of the 137 business professionals that answered, 24% never consider their content and how it affects search engines. 52% think about it all the time and 51% thought about it sometimes.
How Important is SEO?
Umm, well, you want people to find your website, don't you? Unless you use social media 100% for attracting new business or website visitors, then you need SEO optimized content.
What Is Your Biggest Content Posting Problem?
For this question, overwhelmingly, people said they just didn't have time to post. This is what one respondent had to say:
how to have time to post content
The biggest surprise was how many people answered that they didn't even have a website. Back in the early 2000s I would have expected this answer, but today you need a website. No question. A whopping 85% of consumers use the internet to find businesses, according to Yelp. If you don't have a website, chances are, customers will find a competitor that does have a website.
Problems when posting content
How to Get on Top of Content Posting
There were a lot of respondents that had their act together, though. They post fresh, engaging content on a regular basis. Many were able to do this because they hired a freelance writer, like me.
content writer
Others had systems in place that made posting a priority. One respondent said, "It's called keeping on top of things."
Ideal Media
Another solution that none of my respondents had thought of was using syndicated content from providers such as Ideal Media. This way, a business wouldn't need to create content from scratch. They would simply use content provided by other publishers. This takes a lot less time and is much easier to manage than creating brand new content.
So what did I learn from my polls? A lot of people don't think that content marketing should be a big part of their business. That's too bad, since those that actively use content marketing find that they have a steadier stream of customers than those who don't. If you aren't using content marketing, I urge you to start, today. Hey, hire me if you need help.
Big SEO Change for 2016? Voice Search
voice search SEO
The other day I was reading Jeff Bullas' article on the newest SEO trends for 2016 and one thing stood out above all the rest: voice search. I use Google voice search on my mobile phone constantly. I bet you've never considered optimizing specifically for voice search.
Google and other search engines look for different things when doing voice searches as opposed to a typed search. This can mean some big things for your website.
What Voice Searches Look For in Content
Remember in English class when you learned the five Ws? If English class was a long time ago for you (I'm not telling you how long ago it was for me), then I'll list the five Ws for you:
Who
What
When
Where
Why
Just about any voice search question starts with one of these five words. So, it makes sense that voice searches will look for content that has the answers to these questions.
How to Optimize SEO for Voice Search
Google search
Basically, the five Ws are five words used in good writing to describe something to the fullest. If your content is great, it should already be answering at least half of the questions that could be asked in voice search. If your site doesn't have content that answers these questions, you're losing business.
Here are some five W questions that you should already be answering on your website:
"Where is (your business name) located?
"What is (your business name)'s phone number?
"Who owns (your business name)?"
"What does (your business name) sell?"
"When is (your business name) open?"
Once you have the basics covered, it's time to create a go-to area for questions. Write down a list of all the questions your customers have asked you or that you think they may ask. Now, create a Q&A page that answers these questions. That's SEM for voice search gold.
Go a Step Further
content marketing SEO for business
Once you have a great Q&A page up, now you can further optimize your site by adding blog posts that dig deep to really answer each question in detail. Use the question as the title of the post and be sure that your post is more than 200 words to draw in search engines. The longer the better, in fact.
To make the post even juicer to search engines, add graphs, photos, video or any other kind of media to really drive your point home. Not only will search engines love all the extras, but your visitors will, too. When visitors are happy they become customers, so when optimizing your content, keep that in mind.
How to Optimize SEO for Voice Search Infographic
Make Your Site Stand Out in Search Results
Even if your site makes it onto first page mobile results, there's no guarantee it will get clicked on. So, you need to make your search result stand out. To do this, use structured data to help Google add more information to your search result. Google has a great tutorial for optimizing your site with structured data.
SEO is always changing and evolving, but if you get a jump on next year's trends today, your business will be prepared and have an edge over your competitors.
Need help with your content? I'm available.
Share this infographic: <iframe width="769" height="2592" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="http://alinabradford.com/big-seo-change-for-2016-voice-search"></iframe>
What is Branding?
While researching an article for Content Groove (I'm the editor over there), I realized people are confused about what branding actually is. If you are one of those people, I'll explain it.
What is Branding: Branding Definition
Branding definition
Here is my branding definition: Making your brand stand out from competitors with marketing that is consistent and recognizable as belonging to only your company.
It's pretty much that simple. You want everything, from your website copy to your logo to your images, to mesh together to create a cohesive message that people can remember. What people remember about you is called your branding image.
What Branding Encompasses
Branding encompasses any type of media that represents your business, including:
Visual content such as videos, photos, illustrations, infographics, web design and logos
Text including articles, web copy, blog posts, social media posts, newsletters, flyers, etc.
Audio content such as podcasts, radio ads, etc.
All of these content types need to carry a similar theme throughout. Visual content should use similar colors and stylistic choices. For example, if you typically use drawn images for your content, don't switch over to live subjects.
Audio content can be cohesive by using the same voice actor in all of your audio recordings or by using the same jingle in ads.
Text should have the same tone from piece to piece. For example, if your brand usually has a fun, irreverent tone, using a formal tone in your blog posts would be jarring to your customer.
where to use branding
Examples of Brands that are Nailing Branding
You see branding every single day. It's everywhere. One of the biggest examples of brands nailing branding is Coke. What did you think of when you read the word "Coke?" I bet the color red and wavy white lines came to mind. Coke uses white and red in all of their ads, on products and on their site. Even the Coca-cola winter mascots, the polar bears, are white with red scarves. Thier use of consistent color usage is part of their branding.
In content marketing, there is no more brilliant branding tactic than Yoast's memorable use of staff caricatures. No matter what, when I think of Yoast, I think of their caricatures.
So, there you go. Your 101 course on branding. Have any questions? Ask away!
Photo credit: Closed Branding Iron Cookhouse in Mentor, Ohio via photopin(license)
Get Your SEO on Point with 37 Must-Have Ingredients
SearchEngineLand-Periodic-Table-of-SEO-2015
Recently, Search Engine Land released its Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors. This table consists of 37 factors that you need to create the ultimate SEO cocktail in 2015. Here's a look at the table, then I'll jump into each element and what it means.
Breaking Down the Elements of Fantastic SEO
Here the 37 elements of great SEO. I'm going to break each one down and tell you why they matter to your site.
Here are the answers to your SEO questions.
SEO Elements in Content
To start off with, you always want to use great content. I'm a content specialist. Trust me on this one.
Here are the elements of great content.
Quality: Provide well-written, interesting text that doesn't include errors. Also, make sure your content gives readers what they want.
Research: Make sure to research keywords for your content. Use Google Adwords Keyword Planner for
Words: Include those words and search phrases that you researched into your content.
Fresh: Use fresh content that people are looking for.
Vertical: Add images, video and other vertical content to your text.
Answers: Always answer the question that the person is searching for.
Thin: Avoid "thin" content. This is content that doesn't fully answer a question. Google also considers content under 200 words to be "thin."
Architecture and SEO
Architecture is the effect that your site has on your SEO. You can create great content, but if your site lacks proper SEO, then you'll fail. Here are the elements of good site architecture.
Crawl: Make sure that search engine bots can easily crawl your site and find what you want them to find. You can do this by adding page, media and post meta, fixing re-directs and broken links, etc.
Duplicate: Putting duplicate content on your site is a big no-no. Having one page that says the same thing as another on your site tells search engines that your site is crap.
Mobile: This is a new requirement and it's BIG! Make sure that your site is optimized for mobile devices. If you have a WordPress site, this can be as easy as using the Jetpack feature "Mobile Theme."
Speed: Your site should load in a couple of seconds. Do a site speed test and then optimize for faster loading times. One good way to speed up your site is to reduce the size of your images.
URLs: Don't let your URLs be a string of numbers and call it a day. All of your URLs should include keywords or phrases. Click around my site to get an idea of what your URLs should look like.
HTTPs: Provide a secure site connection for your visitors. It's that simple.
Cloaking: Don't try to trick search engines. It's just a bad idea.
Your SEO Depends on HTML
html coding and seo
Search engine optimization includes how your site is coded. I know, I know. You picked a template for your site because you didn't want to learn coding. Don't worry, this is pretty simple.
Titles: Your title HTML tags should include keywords. Hint- Use a plugin that can help.
Description: Add meta descriptions to your pages, media and posts. You can do this will a simple plugin like Yoast.
Structure: Use a page structure that is helpful and makes sense. Adding bulleted or numbered lists really helps.
Headers: Use headers with HTML tags and keywords. This isn't hard. Write a keyword rich title or sub-title, and then click the H1, H2, H3 or H4 button in your post or page editor. It will add the code you need.
Stuffing: Stop keyword stuffing!
Hidden: Make sure that your design doesn't hide words you want search engines to find. For example, if your page background is gray, don't use a gray font. Duh!
Off-the-Page SEO Factors
There are some SEO factors that are called off-page. Here is what they are and why they are important.
Authority: Authority makes your site look like the hip, cool, influencer on the block. How many shares your content gets is a big part of this.
Engage: If your site has a high bounce rate then a search engine will see it as a crappy site that doesn't interest the people who go there.
History: Search engines check to see how long a site has been up. The longer, the better.
Identity: Have you taken steps to verify your site and its users? You might want to.
Piracy: If your site has been flagged for piracy, it may drop off of search results all-together. Let this be a lesson to never steal content, folks.
Ads: Search engines hate sites that have tons of ads, especially above the fold. Google likes sites that have no more than three ads per page.
Linking for SEO
Links are a huge factor when it comes to good SEO. Forget these elements and you can kiss your rank goodbye.
Quality: Search engines like it if you only link to other high-quality sites. If a site has a good reputation, you can be pretty sure that search engines will like the link.
Text: The pages you link to should contain keywords you want your page to rank for. Your link text should also contain keywords.
Number: You want other sites to link to your page by the dozens. A lot of links make your site look like a content boss.
Paid: Let's get one thing straight. Paying for links to your site isn't doing you any favors. Search engines are wise to these tricks.
Spam: There's nothing search engines hate more than spam. Stop spamming your links in forums, blog comments and the like. That little scheme was nixed from SEO tactics years ago. It's like wearing a polyester suit. It was popular once, but now it just makes you look tacky.
Personal Information can Affect SEO
Search engines also look at the personal information of people who have visited your site before. They look at:
What country a person is located in.
What city they're located in.
If a person regularly visited your site and/or shared it.
Has a person favorite your site? Has their friends?
Social Media and How it Affects SEO
There are two final factors that search engines consider when ranking your site. First, they look to see if experts or trusted social media accounts have shared your site or content. Getting the right people to share your content is key to search engine marketing (SEM). Second, search engines check to see how many people share your content. The more shares, the better.
All of these elements come together to produce your ranking for certain keywords and phrases. Getting your SEO on point is the best way to raise your ranking.
In-Depth Infographic Guide to Growth-Hacking
Want your business to grow more quickly? Try using these growth hacks.
Overcoming Differences To Remain Business Partners and Friends
A Shared Goal Can Be Achieved With The Right Outlook,Book Co-Authors Say
Please enjoy today's guest post.
getting along with your business partner
Good business partnerships can lead to great things, whether it’s Ben and Jerry dishing up ice cream or Penn and Teller dishing up magic.
But sometimes partners aren’t well matched. Their personalities fail to mesh, their differing visions lead to a clash of wills and what seemed like a good idea at the beginning disintegrates quickly in a flurry of angry words and ill will.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. A business partnership – like any relationship – can thrive if the right ingredients are in place.
“You can be friends and business partners at the same time,” says writer Gail Harris, whose latest project involved a partnership that brought difficult, but not insurmountable, challenges.
Harris is co-author with Brandi Rarus of the book “Finding Zoe: A Deaf Woman’s Story of Identity, Love and Adoption.” The book tells the story of how Rarus, who became deaf at age 6, faced the challenges of her disability and later adopted a daughter who also is deaf.
Like many good partnerships, the one between Rarus and Harris began because each had something to contribute. Rarus had a story to tell, but she is not a writer.
“I decided to find someone who would work with me to write the book, so I advertised for a writer and Gail was one of the people who responded,” Rarus says. About five years passed from the time they began working on “Finding Zoe” to the day the book was published.
Every moment was not smooth, and there were disagreements along the way, but eventually they made their shared dream a reality. Harris and Rarus offer a few tips on what makes a partnership work.
• Communicate. Communication is paramount in any relationship. It’s what unites us. Communication was a challenge at times for Rarus and Harris because they couldn’t hash things out in a quick phone call the way many people might. “We needed a sign-language interpreter and one wasn’t always available,” Harris says. Video calls were much easier because Harris could see Rarus and the interpreter. They also were able to do some video calls without an interpreter since Rarus is a good lip reader and she can speak, though Harris said it took awhile to get used to the way she talked. “We understood each other about 85 percent of the time. But there definitely were a couple of important miscommunications, once about the book’s front cover design,” Harris says.
• Be committed. Both people must be committed to the end goal. It doesn’t work if one person is passionate and the other lukewarm. The two co-authors of “Finding Zoe” early on had to work out some differences about just what the end goal was. Rarus saw the proposed book as strictly a story about Zoe’s adoption. But Harris convinced her that the book should be Rarus’ memoir and lead up to the adoption. It was through such give and take that the story, and the book, began to take shape.
• Avoid being judgmental. We all judge other people and other people judge us. You need to put yourself in the other persons’ shoes – in this case your partner’s – and try to understand what they are going through or where they are coming from. “We live in a world where people are quick to blame and judge others,” Rarus says. That’s actually a theme “Finding Zoe” touches on, showing the fruitlessness of assigning blame, she says. In a partnership, it’s important to try to understand and respect the other person’s point of view, the co-authors say. Having opposing ideas about how some things should be handled is inevitable, and can spark even better solutions. What’s important is to be respectful as you work through disputes.
Whether it’s a disability or personality trait, everyone is different in some way, but those differences need not become obstacles when two people work together for a common goal, Harris and Rarus say.
“Our differences are minuscule compared with how we are alike,” Harris says. “Just look at the way Brandi and I came together to write this book. Language was not a barrier. Different lifestyles were not a barrier. We became friends and worked together to produce something wonderful.”
About Brandi Rarus and Gail Harris
Brandi Rarus, who lost her hearing at age 6, has traveled the country speaking out for deaf children and building awareness of what it means to be deaf. She was Miss Deaf America in 1988. She and her husband live in Austin, Texas, with their three sons and adopted daughter.
Gail Harris is an award-winning writer and teacher of the intuitive process who also adopted a child. In addition to co-writing “Finding Zoe,” she is the author of “Your Heart Knows the Answer.” She lives with her husband and son in Framingham, Mass.
Photo credit: The Argument via photopin(license)
The Big Jerks! How to Deal with Content Theft
prevent people from stealing content
If you've posted content on the web, you've probably had your articles stolen and posted on another site. Often, the thief will claim that he wrote the brilliant article you paid for or wrote. The gall of these people!
I've had it happen to me so many times I can't count them all. Time to fight back, everybody! There are some ways that you can thwart content thieves and even get their sites shut down.
The No Copy Code
The No Copy Code keeps people from being able to copy and paste your articles or blogs. Simply copy and paste this code into your site's HTML and you're golden:
[bctt tweet="Here are ways you can thwart content thieves and even get their sites shut down."]
<script language="JavaScript1.2">
//Disable select-text script (IE4+, NS6+)- By Andy Scott
//Exclusive permission granted to Dynamic Drive to feature script
//Visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com for this script
function disableselect(e){
return false
}
function reEnable(){
return true
}
//if IE4+
document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false")
//if NS6
if (window.sidebar){
document.onmousedown=disableselect
document.onclick=reEnable
}
</script>
<script language=JavaScript> <!-- //Disable right mouse click Script //By Maximus (maximus@nsimail.com) w/ mods by DynamicDrive //For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com var message="Function Disabled!"; /////////////////////////////////// function clickIE4(){ if (event.button==2){ alert(message); return false; } } function clickNS4(e){ if (document.layers||document.getElementById&&!document.all){ if (e.which==2||e.which==3){ alert(message); return false; } } } if (document.layers){ document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN); document.onmousedown=clickNS4; } else if (document.all&&!document.getElementById) document.oncontextmenu=new Function("alert(message);return false") // --> </script>
how to stop article theives
Anti-Content Theft PlugIns
An easier thing to do is to simply install a plugin that will prevent content theft. Ther are several good anti-theft plugins out there. Here are a just a few:
What to Do if Your Content has Already Been Stolen?
This first thing you should do when you find out your content has been stolen is to write an email to the website's owner. Here is a sample email template you can use:
Dear (Site's Name) Owner,
It has come to my attention that my article (Name of the article and a link to the article on your site) is posted on your site. You can find it here: (Insert link to the article.)
In accordance with US copyright law, I own all rights to this article. By posting the article without my permission, you are breaking the law. I am sure this is a mistunderstanding. Please, remove my article by (give a deadline.) If the article is not removed by this deadline, I will be filing a complaint with Google and I will be contacting your site host to have your site removed for copyright infringment.
Thank you for your compliance in the matter.
(Signature)
Now, that's the letter that I use and it works pretty well. If you want something a little more intimidating and formal you can use this template by IPWatchdog. This is called a DMCA ( which stands for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) letter.
Next, follow through with your threats if your article isn't removed. File a copyright complaint with Google. Then, contact the site's host to have the site taken down. To file a complaint with the host, go to WhoIs Lookup to find out details about the site. Then send the details, your information and a DMCA letter, in writing, to the host. Many hosting platforms will have a specific protocol for handling copyright issues, so call or live chat with their customer service to find out what you must do to get the offending site taken down.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but if more people went after content thieves more people would understand that they can't get away with content theft.
Dipping Your Business' Toes Into Another Region
Conquering the world is every business leader’s dream. Your product on the shelves of every store in the real world and online ecommerce website is what the true ambition is. To be this successful you have to start somewhere. And like all successful businesses, you have to first become well-known and loved in a city, town or even village. You have to first spread your wings over your own patch of ground first and fight the local battle. Then you can venture out and begin to deliver to neighboring cities and towns.
This involves a lot of marketing, a lot of legwork on your part to go to different conventions and meet the local populace. After this, you can think of conquering the nationwide field. However, the first step to this is actually, duplicating what you have just done in another region.
What’s the point behind it?
The pace of business today, will make you question why you should do things in such a linear fashion. If you have set yourself up and became a name in one region, surely with the power of all the online tools and options you can go nationwide right?
Well, first of all you have to not get too far ahead of yourself. A modern country is very large not just in space and distance but the amount of people. It's not as simple as taking your business hundreds of miles in one direction and becoming recognized in a short amount of time.
The space you occupy isn’t always representative of the market share. For example, you could take your business towards another region and go as far as setting up three stores 100 miles deep into it. However if the population of that land is a mere few thousand, it's still a smaller market share than if you were to head 50 miles in another direction and have millions of people living in it. Therefore, moving to towards another region has to be done in a strategic fashion so you can have the maximum amount exposure and success.
The possibility to travel far and wide
It's amazing how powerful the real world side of business still is. In fact, it will never become irrelevant. There may be a time when all business is done online, and only deliveries will be done in the real world. However for many businesses, having a real world presence is in fact the only way their business can stay alive and even, exist. Retail is finding this out as more and more people want to walk into stores and try on clothes before they buy them due to insufficient ways of measuring and sizing methods used online. The food industry simply cannot exist purely online. Restaurants and bakeries need to literally exist in the real world to even function. Therefore taking on a new region in your respective country becomes a major challenge for those who want to expand and grow in the efforts to one day, become a franchise.
You need the logistical power first. Freight haulers like Jayde Transport are companies that offer this possibility. Munching up the miles, they have services that deliver products thousands of miles across a country.
For example, if you're a pizzeria and you want to move from the east coast to the west coast, you will need a company that can make long haul trips with your imported goods to your new locations. The Italian provolone cheese that you import and docks in the east coast, needs to be delivered to your new restaurants in the west. The key is to have the ability to transport what you need to keep running your new locations.
Scope the competition
You have to scope the competition out first and see what you’re up against as you expand. If you move into an area where there is a similar business that does fantastic work and sells some of the best products and services around, you have stiff competition already. If they have been established in the area for a long time and multiple generations have been using it for their needs, then winning over customers will be a difficult task.
This is why you need to strategically plan your moves so you don’t land in too deep water where you can’t swim or keep your head above the surface. Move into areas that seemingly have gaps in them so you fill a void for consumers.
This can be done by tactically locating yourself so you are in distance of multiple towns and cities. Or you can set yourself up on the empty side of a city where aren’t many similar businesses, for example. No doubt the successful companies will already be wanting to move there so if you can beat them to the punch you have gotten yourself a good head start. The local people will know your name before they will of the business that perhaps their friends and family use all the time. This is only won when you are tactically locating your business and timing your arrival at the precise time when there is a gap in the market.
Furthering your influence into another region is a test for any business of any size. It's fraught with many dangers such as being squeezed out of the market share, not having the correct logistics and being unable to compete effectively against established names. However, if done right you can build an empire that will grow and expand successfully.
Does Social Media Affect SEO?
google SEO tips
There has been a lot of buzz about how social media accounts affect the SEO of a brand's website. The 2013 Moz Search Ranking Factors study has already concluded that pages with Google+1, Facebook likes, tweets, and comments rank better than sites that don't. That's not what I'm out to prove, though. I want to prove that by simply having posts that link to your site on social media search engines will send more traffic your way. In 2014, Matt Cutts said that search engines don't care about social media, but still, I wondered...
Flashback: Posting fresh content isn't supposed to affect the ranking of other sites you own, but according to my research and the findings of people I've talked to, posting on one site can boost page views of another site or articles if it is by the same author. Now, this doesn't seem to work anymore since Google Authorship is now defunct, but it was a great, very underused tactics that I enjoyed that had no actual proof backed up by Google. So, when I come up theories I typically test them instead of checking to see if Google has confirmed the information. Call me a rebel.
Now, I'm not here to say I have conclusive evidence, but I did an experiment to see how posting to social media affected my own site's page views over a 96-hour period. Here's what I found.
The Set Up
Setting up this test was pretty easy. All I did was make sure that I had one day were my auto-post system (I use Buffer and Klout) wouldn't post any social media posts linking to my site in a 24-hour period. The next day, I made sure that the auto-post system posted several links to my site on both of my site's Facebook and Twitter accounts.
I know, I know. It's so simple it's stupid. That's what I thought. No way this test was going to find anything conclusive, but...
The Findings
The results blew me away! Take a look at the graph:
Does social media affect SEO? My results say yes.
The yellow bar is the day after. On May 1st, only one social media post that linked to my site was posted (one post slipped through). The next day, site views plummeted. One the days that I posted several links to my site, I got double and almost triple the page views.
Now, you're probably thinking, "Duh! Well of course she got more page views on those days! People clicked on her links and went to her site." Actually, no. The social media link clicks didn't even make a dent in my stats.
I have checked my theory on previous days and have found similar results. The more I post, the more page views I get from search engines.
The Conclusion
My conclusion is that search engines love it when you post links to social media. The reason why? Well, we already know that Google and Twitter have a content agreement. It is believed that Google uses Twitter to aggregate content. Link building and credibility also factor in, according to HootSuite.
I want to test this theory even further. I'm going to keep trying it, but I also I want you guys to do your own test and then tell me your results. You don't need to tell me your specific stats or anything. Just a yea or nay is enough. Comment below, contact me or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter.
The Psychology of Marketing Infographic
the psychology of marketing
I'm always interested in the psychology of marketing, so I was super psyched when I recently got an email from Megan Wilson over at Ghergich & Co. Here's what she had to say:
Hello Alina,Just read your post, "How to Automate Your Social Media Accounts for Free", and I thought that your overview of sites like Klout and Buffer were really great for people looking to get more out of their social media accounts.
Our design agency recently released an infographic with Salesforce Canada. It outlines the ways emotions and cognitive biases influence purchasing decisions.
More than 64% of people who have stated they have a strong relationship with a brand said it was because they had shared values.
Each of the biases and psychological factors listed in the graphic offer clear, actionable tips for marketers to use in their sales marketing strategies.
Would you be interested in posting the infographic on your site?
My answer? Sure, Megan!
I'm sure you guys would like to take a look, right? Here it is, below:
Click To Enlarge
Via Salesforce
A Tour of My Office: How to Keep Your Desk and Office a Happy Place
My office
Instead of the usual What to Read this Week, I thought I'd go off-topic. I'm pretty sure that most of you who follow my blog have a desk and spend most of your weekdays there. Me too. Over the past couple of decades, I've found ways to make my desk and office a happy place to work. Here is a tour of my office to give you some inspiration.
Me too.
Over the past couple of decades, I've found ways to make my desk and office a happy place to work. Here is a tour of my office to give you some inspiration.
Build Your Own Little Forest
Plants are the very first thing I added to my office decor. Currently, I have an arrowhead plant, two aloe veras, a pineapple tree and a fibrous begonia. They add color and life to my office.
In a Forbes article, Burton Ways, a an interior designer, color therapist, and authorsaid: “Integrating plants in the work environment not only beautifies the environment but has been proven to reduce absenteeism, reduce stress, lower blood pressure, increase positive feelings, lower noise levels, decrease room temperature and lower humidity." I guess I am on the right track with this whole forest in my office thing. Here are my little office babies:
I guess I am on the right track with this whole forest in my office thing. Here are my little office babies:
Okay, so my pineapple tree isn't that big yet...
My aloe decorated with a feather, a china dome, a My Little Kitty clip and a crystal frog.
My arrowhead plant, which I've had since I was a teen.
This aloe vera is decorated with all kinds of stuff. It's like my little office Christmas tree.
I love the happy pink flowers on my fiberous begonia.
Bright Colors
There's nothing like bright colors to wake you up in the morning. My office is decorated in touches of cobalt blue and sunny yellow.
I repainted my filing cabinets so that they weren't ugly.
I have happy blue and yellow pom pom things hanging from the ceiling.
Keep Fun Things On Your Desk
I always have a few fun things on my desk at all times. One item is a vintage Timex watch that I like to play with when I'm trying to come up with an idea for an article.
My vintage Timex watch.
I also have some beauty stuff like lip gloss and fragrance spray on my desk because...well, just because.
beauty products
Inspiration Wall
In my line of work, it is important not to run out of ideas. I have a whole wall of inspiration beside my desk. It has blog post ideas, notes, photos, paintings, posters...
inspiration wall
Enjoy Your Visitors
The best way to keep your office a happy place is to welcome visitors. My office, which is a sunroom built onto my home, has a regular parade of small humans coming and going.
My youngest daughter making a visit to my office.
Get Your Pagerank Back, Score a Rocking Landing Page and more this Week: What to Read this Week, April 20-26
get your pagerank back
Hi and welcome to this What to Read this Week. I want you to be a business superstar. You can't be a superstar without a little help from your friends. So, here are some great reads on getting your pagerank back, scoring a rocking landing page, writing headlines that melt people's faces and more.
Make Your Landing Pages Rock
The best way to sell your product is to make your landing page rock. One guide on landing pages that I think you'll find interesting is Hacker's Guide to Awesome Landing Page with Singup Form. Here is a quote from the guide to give you an idea of its angle:
Growing email marketing list is hard, but it is crucial for your online business. The good news is that there are some really easy places you are already collecting email addresses. All you need to do is make sure these email addresses make it inside your subscribers list. With Zapier, Mandrill and MailChimp that's a piece of cake. By leveraging cloud services to do the heavy lifting - we get a lot of value instantly. The less custom software, the better.
Get Your Rank Back
Do you have pages on your site that used to rank well, but are now in the Google graveyard? Is it knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door? This tactical guide to making old pages rank in Google again by Neil Patel is your antidote. Here is one tip from the article:
Your main navigation menus contains your most site’s significant and helpful pages. When you have a valuable page that you want to rank again, then you can give it more traffic through a high visibility link.
writing great headlines for articles
Absolutely Awesome Headlines
Great headlines bring all the boys (and girls) to the yard. So, I recommend reading 36 Outrageous Headlines You Can Not Help but Click. If these headlines don't give you some ideas for your own, then I don't know what will.
Build Your Audience
You can rock all you like, but if you don't have an audience, what's the point? In his article, 7 Methods to Grow your Email List (The Organic Way), Tom Ewer shows you how to build your email list without buying addresses from sketchy services.
Here's a great quote from the article:
Now there’s a new alternative to pop up boxes called ‘Scroll Triggered Boxes’. These are comparable to pop up boxes, but they work by appearing once the user has scrolled down a specific amount of the page, such as 70% or 80%.
Want more great tips and reads? Follow me on twitter- @alinabradford
Small Business Tips: What to Read this Week, April 13-19
small business tips
Hey, happy Monday! Welcome to another installment of What to Read this Week. This week, I'm going to focus on articles that will help small businesses.
Free List Building Mega Book
Last week I told you about a massive article that linked to over 100 articles on list building. Well, this week, I've found you a massive guide on the subject. The Definitive Guide to List Building is incredible and covers just about everything you can think of on the subject. The best part is you can download it for free to read on your Kindle or tablet. That's what I did.
Social Media Tips for Small Business
Want to know how to handle social media in 2015? Read Guy Kawasaki's Social Media Insights for Small Businesses. Here's a great tip from the article:
Assuming you have a great product or service, the most effective social media strategy is to establish a presence as a sector expert that creates and curates valuable content. By establishing a reputation for expertise, a small business gains credibility and endears itself to its followers. Hopefully, this will lead to more business.
Getting Blog Traffic
Does your blog need more traffic to drive conversions? Of course it does! I haven't seen but one or two small businesses that didn't need help. Lisa Burben over at Online Super Ninja has some great idea in her article The A – Z Of 26 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog. Here is just one of them:
Kingged – Kingged is a new community of bloggers that truly drives bloggers to your blog. It seems to grow daily and has been around less than a year.
Some Off-Topic Fun
Last week, I offered to feature those who left comments on the last What to Read this Week Post. Here are the winners:
Chris Eirschele clued us in on her new book:
"I am proud of my new book – The Kid-Gardener’s Planting Book for Parents – that is targeted at adults who know children that have expressed an interest in gardening, but they themselves have rarely, if ever, grown plants. It started out in an electronic format in late 2014, and now has gone into paper in two versions: color and black & white. My first ebook was – Garden Truths From My Family’s Stories – which I self-published on Amazon. The Kid-Gardener’s Planting Book was the brainchild of myself and my editor/publisher, Victoria Nicks; Decoded Science self-published the ebook and the printed versions."
Fran Spiegel gets a shoutout for her humorous travelogue – Ride the Rocket – Toronto Enabled. The book is about meeting a newly-discovered family in Toronto and exploring the city with them. She says:
When I explore a city I wear my disabled hat. I ask questions like: Can I get my wheelchair to all parts of that museum? What help is available for anyone who needs a little extra help?"Ride the Rocket is more than just a humorous travelogue. It’s about family. It’s about developing strong family ties and traditions, and laughing at some of the hilarious situations we found ourselves in because of the language differences. And, yes there are some big differences. English English is different to Canadian English!"
Have you read anything interesting? Have written anything interesting? Share in the comments! You may be featured next week!
Build Your Email List and Please Your Customers: What to Read this Week, April 6-12
Business tip articles
Welcome to this installment of What to Read this Week! I hope you had a great Easter weekend. My kids are too old for egg hunting this year (*sad mama*) so we just stuffed ourselves with candy, ham, rolls, mashed potatoes and Netflix.
Let's jump into these great reads!
List Building Supreme
I probably don't need to tell you how important list building is, but to get a great email list you need a good strategy. There's no lack of strategies out there. Jenna Dalton rounded them all up into a super post: The Ultimate List-Builder’s Resource Guide: 111 Links to Double or Even Triple Your Subscribers. Yup, 111. Have mercy!
What Do Your Customers Want?
Danny Iny has a different way of building a business. He lets customers tell them what they want. His new book, The Audience Revolution, details his experience. I read it over the weekend. If you want a more detailed approach, his free video and worksheets can help you figure out what your audience wants, too.
The Code for Content
Wouldn't be great if there was a code that you could use to create fantastic content people love and that draws in visitors? The article Ignite Your Content Marketing With The Content Code is about a code created by Mark Schaefer aimed at doing just that. The article is basically a summary of some of the great tips from Mark's book. One great quote from the article:
Repurpose content. Mark gives a good example of how one of his posts had 7,000 page views but when repurposed as slides it was viewed more than 100,000 times on Slideshare.
Did you read or write something awesome this week? Share it in the comments!
Also, don't miss my free book:
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How to Fix Your Tweets Infographic
broken twitter
Want some great Twitter tips? Here's my latest infographic! Enjoy and feel free to share!
Twitter tips for better engagement.
Use this code to embed the infographic on your site:
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/690111/BrokenTweets/thumb.jpg"></a><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/690111/BrokenTweets/image.jpg" alt="websitewer" title="easel.ly" /></a><br /><a href="http://easel.ly" style="text-align:left;" align="left">easel.ly</a>
Brand Management Extravaganza, What to Read this Week: March 30- April 5
branding your business
Welcome to this week's instalment of What to Read. This week there are some great reads to make your brand the best it can be.
Get Your Online Brand Rocking
Want to rock your online presence, but don't want to read a long article about it? This infographic by FabulousBlogging.com is perfect. It breaks down everything you need to do to get your online image popping into daily, weekly and monthly tasks so you don't get overwhelmed. It's best tip is:
Getting Attention for Your Brand
Eyes on your marketing
Attention isn't easy to come by in the jam-packed internet marketplace. Luckily though, there are some brand management tips you can use to stand out from the rest. Search Engine Land gives you the low-down in the post How To Get Your Content In Front Of Millions Of Eyeballs by Stoney deGeyter. The best quote from the article is:
SEO is about seeking out and fixing any roadblocks that might be preventing your content from being found. This includes “hidden” site architectural issues, navigation issues, usability issues and, yes, keyword/content issues.
How Google and Twitter will Be Affecting Your Brand
google and twitter are teaming up
Newsflash! Google and Twitter are teaming up. What does this mean for your brand? Read Social Media Today's article SEO Game Changer: Twitter and Google Finally Agree to a Search Deal. Due to the mash-up:
...Twitter activity is likely to have a direct impact on search engine visibility.
So, if you don't have a strong presence on Twitter, then you need to hop to it. If you need help, just let me know.
A Little Known Way to Market Your Brand
Little known marketing idea
What to Read this Week: March 23-29 Fresh Content Ideas for Spring
Shh, I'm reading.
Hey, welcome to this week's installment of What to Read. Spring has sprung and there is no better time to refresh your website or blog with new content. (You really should be refreshing your content regularly, by the way.) If you haven't posted in a while, or you just need some great ideas, check out these articles.
Blooming Blast of Blog Post Ideas
Need a great idea for a blog post? Russ Henneberry has 212 content ideas for you! Check out this post The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas. The best part is the infographic, which I have printed out and posted on my office wall. I NEVER do that, so you know this post is a good one. Hey, even content experts like me need some inspiration from time to time!
Recycle, Refresh and Reuse
Sometimes fresh content doesn't need to be, well, fresh. It just needs to be new to the audience. That's why I'm digging 11 Ways to Repurpose Blog Content Into New Media by Rebekah Radice. My favorite tip from the article is:
If you have considered podcasting, but don’t know what to talk about, grab a few points from your latest article and expand upon each bullet point.
Repurposing your content is good, but what about posting content verbatim somewhere else? Does it hurt your site? Kim Cooper and Andy Crestodina have the answers in this article: Is Reposting Blog Content On LinkedIn Pulse, Medium, and Other Sites a Good Idea? Here is a great quote from the article:
The idea behind copying and pasting an article into another location is simply to make it more visible to a broader audience. It’s a brand builder and it works. But there are a lot of things that it doesn’t do…
Make Landing Pages Your New Content
I like to share free stuff with you guys each week and this week isn't any different. Why not add some great landing pages to your site content? These pages will drive conversions and help your bottom line. The good people over atLeadpages are giving away three flexible landing page templates that will increase your conversions.
What are you reading this week? Tell me in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.
Photo credit: The man with the moustache says "shut up" via photopin(license)
What to Read this Week: March 16-22, Free Stuff, Increasing your Site Traffic and More
Fascinating reads!
Every Monday I let you take a peek at what I'm reading. Here's another installment of What to Read this Week.
This week I'm loving me some free stuff and I'm sharing some great articles on increasing your site traffic, using video and some reasons to rethink ads.
Free Stock Photos
Okay, so you really don't read stock photos, but I thought I would share with you some freebies that were offered this past week. Hubspot is giving away 750 free stock photos that are perfect for blog posts and websites. All you need to do is fill out their form.
Why yes, that is one of the free stock photos, above.
Buffer also rolled out a free way to create stock photos with inspirational quotes or copy in just seconds with their tool Pablo. I've given it a try and it's really easy to use. You choose an image, type out your text and share or download the image.
Increase Your Site Traffic with Backlinks
increasing your site traffic
Good traffic flow can get your site noticed, so I rounded up a couple of great articles by Neil Patel on boosting traffic using backlinks.
Can You Grow Your Organic Traffic Without Generating Content? Neil says yes, but you need backlinks. This article gives website owners some great insight and tips.
[bctt tweet="So, what’s the secret to ranking high if you don’t want to focus on content generation? It’s backlinks. -Neil Patel" via="no"]
Of course, after reading that, you'll need a few tips on backlinking. 7 Proactive Ways to Get Backlinks That’ll Actually Boost Your Traffic doesn't give you tips on old hat linking. Neil offers up-to-date ideas for getting backlinks without ticking off Google.
Jump Into Video
Curious about how video can positively affect your site? Check out Let's Get Visual: 7 Reasons to Add Video to Your Marketing Mix. According to the article, 100 million users watch online videos daily. You can be one of the businesses offering those voracious watchers great video content.
Ads Are Silly
Jon Morrow always has the best article titles on his site and this one isn't any different. 13 Reasons Why Blog Ads Are a Silly Monetization Strategy (And What to Do Instead)by Sarah Peterson is great. She points out in this little gem that unless you have tons of traffic, you'll never make much money with ads. So what should you do instead? Read the article!
Once you're done with Jon's article, read 5 Advanced Techniques I Use To Make Money On My Blog by Erin Bender. This article is aimed at bloggers looking to make more money from their blog in unusual ways. It's one of the most creative posts I've read on the subject in a long time.
What are you reading this week? Anything good? Let me know! Oh, and feel free to share a link to anything good you've written this week.
What to Read this Week: March 9-15 Marketing Tips from the Pros
What to read this week includes curated articles on marketing, branding, content and more.
Here's another installment of What to Read this Week. Every Monday I let you take a peek at what I'm reading. This week there is some really great stuff for you guys looking to brush up on marketing.
Pinterest Marketing Tips
First up, Danny over at Firepole wants to know: Does Your Pinterest Marketing Need a More Personal Touch? The article centers around Pinterest's new feature called Pinterest messaging and how using it can give your Pinterest account a much more personalized feel.
Here is my favorite quote from the article:
Your end sales goal is to expose your expertise to new audiences. The best people to help you accomplish this are your fans who already love what you do, and have a large following of their own! By asking them to repin your content and expose it to their audience, you’re putting your work in front of new audiences.
Do You Feel Like a Marketing Idiot?
Who hasn't felt like an idiot when talking about their business? So it's no surprise that the title of Amy Dunn Moscoso's blog this week was: Why You Feel Like an Idiot When You Talk About Your Blog (and How to Fix It). My favorite quote from the post was:
Look at the most successful blogs in your niche and ask, “Why should people read my blog instead of those?”
If you don’t have a convincing answer, poor positioning is probably to blame.
Get Those Leads!
One of my go-to reading destinations is Social Media Examiner, and this week is no different. Andy Crestodina's article on creating content that generates leads has got me glued to the screen. Now, every marketer has his or her own approach to the marketing funnel. Andy dishes on his take in this article. My favorite part is:
If your conversion rate from visitors into leads is good (above 2%), but your traffic is low, the top of your funnel is weak.
What are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments!