If you have a business, you should have a blog.

While professional bloggers are “a rising class,” according to Technorati, hobbyists are in retreat, and about 95 percent of blogs are launched and quickly abandoned. A recent Pew study found that blogging has withered as a pastime, with the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who identify themselves as bloggers declining by half between 2006 and 2009.

Read the entire article at:
http://gapingvoid.com/2010/08/10/diary-every-forty-two-seconds/

Product photography could well be the single most important design aspect of any e-commerce website. Without the ability to touch, hold, smell, taste or otherwise handle the products they are interested in, potential customers have only images to interact with. Ultimately, the softer, tastier, flashier and more attractive your products look to shoppers, the more confident they’ll feel about purchasing from you and the better your conversion rate will be.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/08/24/improve-your-e-commerce-design-with-brilliant-product-photos/

Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs

The Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list highlights the best bloggers on the web discussing content marketing. Each blog on the list has been rated by our expert staff in terms of content strength, depth, regularity and, to a very small extent, popularity.

Rank Blog Name Focus
1 Brian Solis Social Media/Public Relations
2 Copyblogger Copywriting – Blogs/Blogging

Read the entire article at:
http://www.junta42.com/community/top-42-content-marketing-blogs.aspx

SEO is optimizing for search engines, for people who are searching for a specific keyword. We’d love to own those keywords so that people who look for them will find us first. The whole goal of SEO is to be at the top of the list when a person types in our keyword.

That’s like putting up a bigger sign outside, so if someone is looking for your store, they can find it easily. That’s good, as long as someone is looking for your store.

Case Study

So at age 20 Debbi Fields started her first cookie store at Liddicoat’s Market in Palo Alto. She signed the lease under the name Mrs. Fields’ Chocolate Chippery. On August 18, 1977, she opened her store at 9 a.m., but by noon nobody had bought even one cookie. Frustrated and afraid to fail, she took samples to people on the streets. They liked the samples so returned to actually buy cookies. Providing free samples to potential customers remained a cornerstone of her business in the years to come.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Mrs-Fields-Original-Cookies-Inc-Company-History.html

Mrs. Fields didn’t sell any cookies sitting in her store. She went out into the streets and gave away free samples.

As a result, people who didn’t even know they wanted a cookie, went to her store to buy cookies. They didn’t leave their houses that morning thinking that they wanted cookies. They didn’t search for cookies. They never intended to go buy cookies. They certainly didn’t type “cookies” into Google.

She got out of her store, and went to where people were doing other things, and suggested that maybe a cookie might be nice.

If you want to sell your products to people who are not looking for you, don’t stay where you are, but go to where they are, and make a small suggestion. There is a big Internet out there, with lots of web sites and blogs and forums. There are a lot of people looking for things that are not your product, but might be related to your product.

Related Topics
Figure out what topics or products or areas of interest might be related to your product. If you sell jewelry, maybe a wedding planner might become a good friend. If you sell doors, there are architectural and home improvement sites out there that you could leave some comments on. Maybe you sell ceramic pottery and you could hook up with some interior designers, or maybe that guy who sells doors.

I can imagine that jewelry maker hanging out on men’s lifestyle sites, waiting for someone to ask about gifts for their wife.

5 Targets
After you’ve decided on at least related 5 topics, you want to find web sites that relate to those topics. Use Google or Technorati to create a list of target web sites that might be places that potential customers might hang out.

You might want to build a relationship with the owner of the site, or you might want to just establish a presence on the site with comments. Your approach depends on the specific topic and that site. Leaving comments is a great way to start any relationship. Leave valuable, insightful comments.

As you make connections with people outside of your niche, the market for your product will expand and you will be able to sell your products to people who never knew you existed and never went looking for you.

Who needs SEO?

Some of you may have just recently discovered your passion.  It’s burning in your belly and you want to get good at it quick.  Well, here’s a little observation buried in the 2nd chapter of Outliers. This passage talks about results of investigating how much time it took for pianists to attain their expertise…

“In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice.  By contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just four thousand hours”

See that? Just 4,000 hours is all that needed for “teacher” status.  Here’s some cold hard truth for you…your audience just needs a teacher. Get to this level first and you’ll attract a huge audience along the way.

That’s 4,000 hours, which you’ve probably already invested.

In case you haven’t here are some tips to get you jumpstarted:

Read the entire article at:
http://pushingsocial.com/7-ways-to-cheat-the-10000-hour-rule-and-still-be-a-better-blogger

It’s FREE!

That’s amazing. I would have charged a bunch for this course.

Go read the info page and sign up for it.

The Creative Pathfinder | Lateral Action

A creative career is a uniquely inspiring adventure – with unique challenges.

When you set out to earn a living from your creative talent, or to produce creative work to a professional standard, you’re aiming pretty high.

Whether you’re an artist, designer, writer, actor, musician, filmmaker, or working in another creative field — artistic or commercial — you know that competition is fierce and only stellar work gives you a chance of success.

If you’ve been in the business for any length of time, you’ve probably also noticed that creativity isn’t enough. Like it or not, things like motivating yourself, choosing the right career path, managing your workflow, understanding your intellectual property rights, building a reputation, and convincing others of your worth can make or break your career.

All of which is challenging enough, but if you’re anything like me, the idea of a conventional job is something to be avoided at all costs. Which means the usual career advice isn’t much use to you.

This is why I’m launching The Creative Pathfinder — an in-depth course offering an alternative take on professional development for creative people. It’s a practical education in the artistic and professional skills you need to thrive in the real world of the creative industries.

Did I mention it’s completely free?

Read the entire article at:
http://lateralaction.com/pathfinder/

For the past few years, I’ve given numerous presentations introducing SEO to new audiences of marketers, engineers and executives. With the end of SEOmoz’s consulting business this past January and the completion of our final contract obligations this Spring, I thought it would be wise to share the 190+ page deck to hopefully help those of you who are tasked with introducing SEO to your companies, agencies and colleagues.

The deck is updated as of August 2010, but I hope to update it again in the future. Along with the Beginner’s Guide to SEO, this resource should help those seeking to learn SEO or catch up on key points from the past few years.

Introduction to SEO

View more presentations from randfish.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-comprehensive-intro-to-seo-powerpoint-slide-deck-?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+seomoz+%28SEOmoz+Daily+Blog%29

I got my first email on Christmas day in 1992. My wife had bought me an “Internet Starter Kit” for Christmas. It was a dial up account. I had some technical trouble, so I sent an email to their customer support. I got a response. Wow. A new world erupted.

Now, years later, I have lost track of how many emails I get each day, and how many get bounced by my spam filters before I ever see them. I can’t go out to dinner without checking my email. If you want to talk to me, it’s better to send me an email than to call me. I’m that bad.

Email is direct. It’s personal. It’s from someone else straight to you. It’s now, in the moment. It only takes a second.

We’ve developed filters to pass up email that doesn’t look interesting, but if it does make us curious, we read it. If we know the person sending it to us, or if we have a relationship with the sender, then we’ll open it.

The key to email is building the relationship, and the trust, with the person you are sending it to, so they open it.

The key to the trust part of that is to ask permission, then don’t abuse the permission when you get it.

If you were to create a mailing list, using a company that provides that service, you can ask for people to give you their email addresses. You then have permission to send them email. Using the service, managing all of that is easy.

Everyone who comes across your site, for whatever reason, can be captured for potential future sales. If someone finds your site, is interested, but then wanders away and never finds their way back, they are forever lost as a customer of yours.

If you can get their email address and send them regular newsletters or notices, (or whatever you want to call your emails), they will always have a link back to your site. They will be reminded of your products. They have raised their hand and shown interest in your stuff. We love these people.

So, the step by step process is to create an account with a mailing list service provider. I use and recommend Aweber, (affiliate link) but there are others that provide great service too.

When you have an account, follow their directions to set up a list, then a form, so that people can subscribe to your newsletter. You need to put that form on your web site. If you don’t have a web site, get one. You can get a free site at http://www.wordpress.com. If you do nothing more than create the site and put the form on the home page, do it.

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to subscribe to your mailing list.

If you can give away something free in exchange for subscribing, you’ll get a good response. Put the form in the top right corner of the page, if you can. That’s where people expect to “do stuff”, like search or forms. Everybody does it that way because everybody does it that way.

Once you get the list set up, send regular emails. Make the email valuable, so that people are trained to open them. Give them a reason to open them. Once you give away a lot of good stuff for free, people will be happy to buy your stuff. They are fans.

The subject of newsletters and subscribing to mailing lists is a deep subject, with many posts that can be written about it. Someday, I’ll write them.

For now, just remember: “the money is in the list”.

Click here to get started: Aweber

Listening, Content, Socialize and Measure could just as well be represented as a cycle, but I think the forward direction is important because you can’t reach outcomes without action. Any good social media marketing effort needs to begin with some kind of Listening program. That means using social media monitoring tools to collect, sort and manage social content according to topics being monitored.  Content is the glue that makes search engines work and content is a critical part of the social sharing experience within social media. Speaking of sharing, socializing with other like-minded individuals as a personal experience can fold well with brand interactions as long as the needs of the buyer persona has been reconciled with business objectives. Successful efforts within the social web can be measured, and should be, in a variety of ways.  Measurement justifies objectives and it’s important to identify the right tools for monitoring real time and web analytics.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/07/4-social-seo-success/

http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com

Most of the searches that bring people to this site are for “web designer”. People who know this site by name or reputation, just know where to go and type it in. I think the new name will help with SEO, search engine optimization. It’s always good to get your keyword into the domain name.

SEO is not the reason for the name change, however. I’ve gotten a verbal offer to sell it and we’ve agreed on terms. The contract has to be reviewed and approved and signed. The deal may still fall apart, but I am changing the domain name anyway, regardless.

I will still be me. I’ll still be writing, and helping, and advising, and building web sites the same as I ever was.

Nothing changes but the name.

I'm a Unicorn!

My hesitation is that it meets at 7am. I’m a web developer that fits that stereotype, so I don’t do mornings. I actually had to take a nap yesterday afternoon. In the balance between business and lifestyle, I just don’t know. My wallet says yes and my body says no. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Two interesting things happened during the meeting. We did an exercise where we had to stand up and tell everyone what animal we were and how that related to our business. Sheesh. I hate that exercise. Beside the “snake in the grass” and “I’m a monkey because I throw my poop.” they were pretty boring.

What was my animal?

Why, I’m a unicorn of course! I give people magic powers.

Unicorn Barfing Rainbows

I figured that when I build web sites for people, using WordPress, they have the power to control their own content. My clients have been excited to have that power. It feels like magic to them, so I must be a unicorn, right?

It all made sense to me, but it was at 7am in the morning…

The second concept that I thought was valuable, even though it had a stupid name, was “power partners”. The idea is that you join with two other people who are complementary to your business. Examples were a financial adviser, a mortgage broker, and an insurance guy. I think another set was a card designer, and event planner, and a photographer.

I think there’s some value to that idea. I’m going to work on finding a couple other people who can complement, and not conflict with, my business here. You might think about other people or businesses that can work with you, so that you can help each other.

I think “power partners” is not a cool name though. I think we should call them “my homies!” instead.

What do you think we should call our “power partners”?

Here is some great advice about what to write in your blog that will get you more traffic, (that is more customers.)

The advice he gives in this article can be powerful, so use it wisely.

Think about your niche. Right now, 90% of the people blogging about topic are huddled around mediocrity. No one wants to offend, shock or make waves. Another 5% are living double lives. One day they are Dr. Jekyll, the other Mr. Hyde. They are searching for their voice and looking for the courage to break free.

The last 5% are jaw-droppers. Every post they pen oozes personality. Their blog has a hypnotic draw that inspires a fanatical following. You’ll find these “artists” in every niche and industry: resume writing, law, gardening, librarians (I’m serious!) and hundreds more.

They inspire and make social media look easy.

You can too because I’m going to give you the recipe to making your blog absolutely fascinating. By the way, the bloggers that push the envelope get their guest posts published, strike up lucrative partnerships and land those juicy joint ventures. Do not ignore this…

Read the entire article at:
http://pushingsocial.com/7-fascinating-ways-to-spice-up-a-boring-blog

My advice for younger people for the longest time has always been, “Work your butt off.” As I get older I find myself amending it somewhat, to something more like, “Work your butt off doing something you love, something that matters, something that resonates. Don’t worry if you die trying- it’s better to be corpse that once had a go, than a sleepwalker who never bothered.”

Read the entire article at:
http://www.gapingvoidgallery.com/product_info.php?products_id=74

Read them all, then get to work.

If you’re trying to make money online, sooner or later you have to face it. Conversion. That intimidating topic: how to get more buyers from the same amount of traffic.

The only reason conversion is intimidating is that there are a lot of places you can go astray. Most of them aren’t that hard to fix, but any one of a thousand little problems can keep you from getting the conversion you should have.

I don’t have a thousand tips for you today, but I do have 101 to get you started.

Here are 101 fixes, some small, some big, for making more sales online.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.copyblogger.com/101-conversion-boosters/

Well, it’s 3 months later and I just got the following email from Tess this morning. I had to share.

Hi Conrad,

I just wanted to give you an update on my SEO status.

When we did the interview several months ago, I was super excited at the increase in hits on my Etsy store. Now, I have even more SEO success to shout about! Attached is a screen shot of page one on a Google search for “Hunger Games Bracelet.” The top two results are posts about my bracelet. The third and forth results are direct links to my Etsy shop.

In other words, I now occupy the top four spaces on page one of this particular Google search. Amazing! When I started my SEO work, my shop didn’t show up on Google at all…though I stopped looking after about page 5 of the results.

I’ve also taken your advice and started a joint Facebook page along with several other Etsy sellers of Hunger Games merchandise. We have a Twitter account too. We’ve been doing weekly giveaways and the number of followers increases every day as word spreads.

All of this has led to a measurable increase in sales for me. Wah-hoo!!!

I credit your free SEO booklet for giving me the kick in the pants I needed to just do it. Thanks a million times over!

Tess Richardson
–
www.coldhandswarmart.etsy.com

Drawing by http://gapingvoid.com/

This post describes the process that an artist or creative person can use to make a living from creating what they love. I’ve seen many examples of it, so I know it works. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. Any one can do it, if they really want to.

If you’re an artist or creative person of any kind then ‘creating’ is a lot higher on your list of priorities than ’selling’.

One of the great joys of pursuing your creative passion is the sheer pleasure of writing, painting, making music, acting, taking pictures or whatever you do — without any ulterior motive, and without needing to show any kind of ‘return on investment’. You do it because you love to do it. Amen to that.

On the other hand, even if you don’t want to be a millionaire, I bet you wouldn’t mind a little fame. Not vulgar Hello! Magazine celebrity, but maybe the respect of your fellow artists, and some critical recognition. A few adoring fans probably wouldn’t hurt either.

You don’t have to be rich as well as famous, but all of us have bills to pay, so I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind earning a decent living from your creative work. Getting paid to do what you love has to be one of the greatest gigs on earth.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/2010/06/07/artists-creatives-internet-marketing/

They talk about having a strategy and tactical knowledge. That’s exactly the kind of stuff that is explained in the Simple Guide To Internet Marketing Basics. Listen to what they have to say. If you have any questions, come ask them here.

That’s the good news. But artists also have a few weaknesses.

Frequently artists are resistant to marketing in general and marketing themselves in particular.

Some are scared of selling out or just plain scared.

Some feel the pain of trying to balance time invested in marketing with time in the studio— content marketing is cheap butit requires persistence and dedication to succeed.

Content marketing also requires strategy— it’s no good just posting your artwork, writings, videos etc. and hoping this will magically lead to fame and fortune. Artists need to create content with their desired audience in mind (not pandering but being aware of what gets their attention), as well as considering their own goals, and having a content strategy that gets them where they want to go.

Tactical knowledge also matters— things like using a professional blog platform, getting people to subscribe, offering e-mail subscription, copywriting, headlines etc.

Mark and I will talk about how to take advantage of your creative strengths and how to solve the difficulties listed above.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.artheroesradio.com/2010/07/why-artists-have-an-unfair-advantage-at-internet-marketing-a-conversation-with-mark-mcguinness.html

Google Webmaster Central  

This is the official YouTube channel for Google Webmaster Central, your one-stop shop for webmaster resources that will help you with your crawling and indexing questions, introduce you to offerings that can enhance and increase traffic to your site, and connect you with your visitors. Learn more at http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Read the entire article at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp