Yep, you heard me right. Spammers, hackers, trogans and viruses… it’s a jungle out there. And your blog is a sitting duck.

I have a series of suggestions I will be making over the upcoming days to help you defend this valuable asset in your online marketing arsenal, so stayed tuned. And if you haven’t grabbed the RSS feed yet, this might be a good time…

Wordpress Antivirus

The first recommendation is that you go and install the Antivirus plugin to help keep your beautiful theme files from infecting visitors that land on your site. There is no bigger turn off for a visitor than to have YOUR site infect them.

AntiVirus for WordPress monitors malicious injections and warns you of any possible attacks. With multilingual support. Simply, the plugin you must have.

Ideal as a supplement to the manual security measures in your blogs. Hey, it's free!

Settings include a manual scan, an auto-scan with email alerts in the effect it find something suspicious.

Download: Wordpress Antivirus here

.

.

To Repair Your Machine

Authors Note: Recently a few students have called to report my sites were infected. After 3 days of extreme review and re-installations of all the major files, I discovered it wasn’t me or my sites that were infected, it was the end users that were visiting. Please, take the steps above right now to clear your machine of any threat and let your surfing buddies know as well.

To Determine Your Real Version Of Flash

Related Videos

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• More About Keyword Research
• Authority Niche Site Setup: Add Your Ethical Bribe
• Part 1: Authority Niche Site Setup Series

Knowing what your target audience is reading is another of the steps in the journey to web success with your Wordpress blog.

There are a lot of tracking tools and plugins out there, but I wanted to introduce you to one I found which really provides some amazing insights into your traffic. You can drill into a month, week or day. You can review everything that's happened on a single URL.

Your referring websites are listed and the search terms used to find you are displayed. I think you will be impressed with the detail this small footprint *script* yields. Want to see my stats? Check out http://www.CenayNailor.com/slimstat.

Want to know how long they were on your site? Where they went? How they found you? How many pages they viewed? It's all here in this free script called SlimStat

Follow along with this video to find the software, install it on your server and get it tracking your visitors -- in under 10 minutes.

ATTENTION: You can view the video full screen by clicking the mouse anywhere on the video while it's playing.

Resources In Video

• SlimStat Software Script download
• Additional Instructions on Installation Options
• Benefits and Features of SlimStat

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Over time, your blog evolves (hopefully). This means category names change, posts are updated, files move or subdirectories are deleted. What happens when someone clicks a link to a post or file that is no longer there?

They get a 404 Error.

Even with a Custom 404 Error Page, you didn't deliver the content they thought they were getting. So they might leave.

And if you published that link in a number of places (as you should be doing), you now have *deadlinks* that aren't getting your visitors to the content you promised them.

You can stop the leaks, plug the holes and deliver the content you promised, no matter where it moved to, even a new domain.

Watch the video and then go grab the Redirection Plugin and start plugging up the holes that evolution leaves behind.

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Default Appearance of Tag Cloud

<?php wp_tag_cloud(''); ?>

<?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=7&largest=20&number=25&order=RAND'); ?>

Modified Appearance of Tag Cloud

• smallest - The smallest tag (lowest count) is shown at size 8
• largest - The largest tag (highest count) is shown at size 22
• unit - Describes 'pt' (point) as the font-size unit for the smallest and largest values
• number - Displays at most 45 tags
• format - Displays the tags in flat (separated by whitespace) style
• orderby - Order the tags by name
• order - Sort the tags in ASCENDING fashion
• exclude - Exclude no tags
• include - Include all tags
• link - view
• taxonomy - Use post tags for basis of cloud
• echo - echo the results

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If ping servers are a foreign concept to you, you probably won’t appreciate this list of ping servers. And since I value *appreciation*, let me explain exactly why you should care about ping services -- first.

And no geeky-technical-only-your-IT-manager-will-understand-it jargon.

The term *ping* dates all the way back to the early days of computer networks - which pre-dates the Internet. It was a service on the computer that would allow network administrators to check to see if a connection was present.

Sort of like a bat sending out sonic sound waves, a computer would *ping* another, and record the time it took to *hear* the return message. If it heard it at all, the network admin’s knew the network connection was *live*.

And while the *ping* tool is still available today to check for connections to other computers, with the introduction of blogs, the ping server was born.

Basically, the ping service is a tap on the shoulder of the service provider and search engines. It quietly says “Hey, Cenay posted a new article, come see”. And since many ping servers also talk to Google, Yahoo and the other search engines, this is like telling Google… “Hey, come crawl my site and see my new content”.

Since a *crawl* is the only way to get your pages listed in their index, you really want the search engines to show up as often as you post.

Wordpress contains a built in feature to allow you to do just that!

On the Dashboard | Settings | Writing tab of your Wordpress blog is a box called *Update Services* where you can list ping servers you want to notify every time you add a new blog post.

When you first create your blog, there is one ping server listed by default. You can add to this list, one URL per line. To fast track your notifications to the search engines, add more ping services from the list below.

Warning!

Wordpress, by default, will ping the services every time you add a post, or update a post. This means that if you edit your posts more than once, you are pinging the services each time you edit. This can lead to *ping spamming*, and getting your blog banned.

There is a way around this.

I highly recommend a Ping Optimizer which will selectively ping based on when the last ping happened. MaxPressBlog’s Ping Optimizer will allow you to set a “throttle” on the number of times it will ping in a given time frame.

This will ensure you can happily blog like crazy, update your posts to your heart content and NOT get your blog banned from the ping servers.

Action Items

Select 8 to 10 of the services listed above and add them to your blog’s Dashboard | Settings | Writing page. Save the changes.

Install MaxPressBlog’s Ping Optimizer and set the “optimizer” to ping no more than once every 120 minutes (or more).

If you find a ping server I didn’t list, let me know. Find one that no longer works? Let me know as well. Just drop a comment below!

One of my coaching groups got together and built me a couple/three videos as a birthday present. After laughing so hard I hurt myself, I called and shared with some of my family, which resulted in ANOTHER fit of laughter.

I really wanted to share their efforts with you. How inventive and touching. I can't tell you guys what it means to me that you took the time to do this.

For the rest of you.. enjoy!

Participate In Blog Aggregators And Communities

Join Newsgroups In Niches Related To Your Small Business

Visit And Comment On Related Blogs

Make Sure Your Small Business Blog Has An XML Sitemap

Don’t Forget The Offline Traffic Methods

• Business cards
• Letterhead, envelopes and stationary
• Pamphlets or brochures
• In-store signage, banners or message board
• Magnetic sign on your vehicle
• On your shopping bags (think Wal-Mart or Walgreens)
• On your giveaway’s such as pen’s, refrigerator magnets and calendar’s
• T-Shirts or Hats

Use Ping Servers On Your Small Business Blog

In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated.

Tap the search engines on the shoulder after every post and let them know they need to come crawl your site again, there’s new content.

A little can go a long way, so I use MaxBlogPress’ Ping Optimizer. There are some major flaws in WordPress's pinging system that can get your blog banned (which will cause you to lose traffic!). The Ping Optimizer ensures you are pinging the right people, at the right time, without pissing them off.

Start or Join A Group

Publish Articles You Are Proud Of

• Comprehensive examination of what people talk about superficially
• Great big list of resources that are related to your niche
• Step by step tutorial that shows people how to do something they are interested in
• The solution or steps to a problem you have faced in your business

About The Author

Cenay Nailor is an Internet, Affiliate and Networking Marketing success coach with mad technical skills she loves sharing with Videos. Visit her video tutorial blog and get some technical help. You should also snag the weekly injection of Tech-Based Marketing Newsletter, and have it sent right to your inbox. (Upper right corner)

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Converting An Existing Blog To Affiliate Theme

There are a lot of Wordpress Themes out there, but none that could make affiliate marketing easy. Until now.

I recently purchased Affiliate Theme by Unique BlogDesigns to give it a whirl. Before getting the Affiliate Theme, I had to find a Wordpress theme that somewhat matched my *market*, and then make extensive edits and upgrades to make it work. Getting the Affiliate Theme was like getting an *Easy Button* for affiliate marketing.

The real test came when it was time to convert an existing site over the Affiliate Theme. This video shows you exactly what I did and how I did it. It wasn’t painless (because the blog already had a numbers of *posts* or products I was reviewing), but it was easy. Let me show you how.

To see their video on features and what is offered, click the Learn More About Affiliate Theme link here. Oh, and tell them Cenay sent you. They already know my name, I spent some time in the support forums helping folks out that were asking questions about how to set it up.

Your customers are looking for you. Can they find you? When potential customers have a problem and need somewhere to go, they search for it. They head to their favorite search engine, type what they want and are presented with a list of results Google promises can help them. If you don’t appear in those results, you don’t exist. You miss out on the sale, the branding opportunity and the ability to convert that targeted searcher into a lifelong customer. And that’s the value that search engine optimization (SEO) brings to small businesses. It puts you in your customers’ line of sight and establishes you as an expert. Source: Small Business Trends

I’m not going to talk about the much repeated permalink editing or heading changes here. Instead, I’m going to share with you some SEO tips for WordPress that you might not have bothered to check, the fine details that is. Keep in mind that some of them are the result of recent updates from Google. Let’s go. Source: Daily SEO Blog

There are a lot of parallels between Google AdWords and SEO, and a lot of the beginner mistakes are the same for both traffic acquisition strategies. I figured it would be worth outlining some of the most common ones to help save you money on your search engine marketing campaigns. Source: SEO Book Blog

Here are a few quick mistakes that I see new bloggers making (some of which mistakes I made myself). They’re listed in no particular order and I’d love for you to continue the list in comments below:

1. Giving up too early - blogs take time to take off
2. Putting off starting a blog - waiting until everything is just right before launching can mean you never do it
3. Echoing what everyone else is talking about - say something unique and share your opinion

Source: Pro Blogger

I just posted a new How To video on my *I Can Do It Myself* Video site and thought I would share it here. If you haven't visited that site recently, you should check it out. I completely revamped the theme, added new features (like embed codes for the videos) and gave it a facelift

• They typed the URL incorrectly (don’t tell them this, no one wants to know they made a mistake)
• Google sent them to a link you used to have, but deleted during spring cleaning
• One of your posts linked to another post that was related, but that you later renamed to improve your SEO

• Don’t blame the visitor. Seriously, no one wants to hear they made a mistake, even if they did.
• Provide a search box, sitemap or another way for them to find what they are looking for.
• The 404 Page should have the same look and feel as your blog or site. Features they are accustomed to seeing should still be there.
• If you have a very popular page or post that gets a lot of traffic, perhaps that is what they were trying for -- so highlight it or provide a direct link.
• Have a product? A mini sales page here (after you provide options for them to get back on track) let’s you make use of normally *dead* web real estate.

Related Information

• 5 Tips to Make Your 404 Page More Usable (uxbooth.com/blog)

• 404 Error Pages, One More Time (smashingmagazine.com)

• How To Customize Your 404 Page (sitepoint.com)

MMA Group Coaching Overview

June 17th, 2009 [60:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

Its true. Fancy blogs look good, but they take time to load on your visitors browser, and that can cost you. If it takes too long to load, that little voice in their head says “All the pages will take this long, do I really want to click the next link?”

At that point, you have lost them…many for good.

Although I have no hard numbers to back up this statement, I figure you have about 8 seconds. If they aren’t seeing real content delivered in 8 seconds, they are thinking about the next site.

Sorry.

You not only have to focus your small business blogging efforts on delivering great content, you have to ensure it’s formatted well and displayed on screen in a pleasing, well organized way. And fast.

So, let’s take a look at 3 ways you can speed up your small business blog’s page load time with just one factor, images.

Optimize Your Images

To many of you, this might be a foreign concept. An image is an image, right? Wrong. Even within an image type (JPG, GIF, PNG), there are differences.

For example, look at the two images below. They look the same to the naked eye, right? Well, okay, not exactly the same but really really close, yes?

Although they look the same to the human eye, their file sizes differ wildly. The top one is 739,133 bytes, and the one on the bottom is 129,643 bytes.

The one on the right would take only 17% of the time it would take to load the one on the left. Let me put it into perspective for you. The top one takes 13.1 seconds to download to your visitors computer at 56K, and the bottom one takes 2.3 seconds.

You can optimize your images using an image compression tool either online or with your favorite image editing software such as Fireworks, Photoshop or Paint.NET. Just open the image and use the Save As option. Select JPG and choose options. The sweet spot is about 80% (to 90%) of original *quality*.

Resize Your Images

There is a second difference between these two photo’s that isn’t immediately visible.

The top image was left at it’s original size (1024 x 768) and *resized* with the width and height feature inside the blog post editor to match the bottom image (500 x 375). (You can test this by clicking the image. It will display at it’s original size which is much larger than the bottom one, don’t forget to come back and finish reading how you don’t have to live with slow loading blogs)

If you plan to display it at 500 x 375, resize it to 500 x 375. Again, your file size will go down, and smaller is better in our situation.

You can resize your images using an online image editing service or your favorite image editing software such as Fireworks, Photoshop or Paint.NET. Just open the image and select the *transform* tool. Grab the corner of the image and drag until it’s the size you want. Save as instructed above.

Select The Right Image Format

They are not all created equal. You can read more about the differences between image types at Sitepoint, but let me summarize here.

JPG format is intended for photograph type images with lot’s of detail and color changes, like the images shown above. Saving an image at 80 – 90% of original quality hits the sweet spot for image quality and file size.

GIF format supports a maximum of 256 colors, which makes them practical for almost all graphics except photographs. Generally, GIF files should be used for logos, line drawings and icons.

PNG format, a relative newcomer to the web, PNG was designed to surpass the limitations of GIF (256 colors) but provide smaller file sizes than JPG with better compression.

Picnik : Online Image Editing Tool

As a developer, I have access to lot’s of really cool toys and image editing applications, but I could just as easily use the very popular Picnik to do most of what I do. It’s an online service (free to use) that allows you to upload an image, crop, resize, add text (etc) and then save back to your computer.

It’s quick. It’s easy. I recommend you make Picnik (or something similar) your new best friend.

Optimizing, resizing and selecting the right image format based on the image itself will go a long way to making your blog load faster.

Source: Secrets To Web Success. A blog I co-author with Dali Burgado, Deontee Gordon, and Carol Hansen. Together, we help small businesses find their online voice.

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Little Tweaks With A Big Impact

1. Update Your User Profile: I say this one is first because some of the other steps below will require you to log back in, and who can remember that crazy randomly generated bit of garbage they call a password? Dashboard | Users | Your Profile Change the password to something you stand a chance of remembering before you do anything else. Then, when you get kicked off (and you will for some of these settings), you can get back in without referring the email they sent you.
2. Change Your Blog Tagline:Yes, it true. If you leave it as Wordpress creates it, you are branded as a noobie from the word *go*. By default, Wordpress inserts *Just another Wordpress Blog* as the tagline. Go change it. You should be stating your purpose, provoking thought, asking a question – anything but *Just another Wordpress Blog*. Dashboard | Settings | General Be creative, this is one of the first things your visitors see.
3. Permalink Structure: Right out of the box, Wordpress will display a link structure something like this for your posts: http://www.YourDomain.com/?p=101 which means absolutely nothing to you, your visitors or Google. Get rid of it. Dashboard | Settings | Permalinks There are five different options there, and while this post isn’t about a best SEO practice, I will mention that using either Day and Name or Month and Name do nothing for you from an SEO standpoint. I hope I don’t have to say that the Numeric option doesn’t either. I use a custom structure that let’s me benefit from the category name (as a part of the URL) and the Post Name. It looks like this:

   /%category%/%postname%/

4. Decide on WWW or not: Again, by default, Wordpress just includes your blog’s domain name here. If you plan to be giving out your link as www.MyDomain.com, then you should change it now on your blog. Since this affects your tracking analytics, it’s best to do it up front. Dashboard | Settings | General Please note, doing this will log you out. Just log back in with your handy new password.
5. Discussion Settings: Boy, we could write a whole book on this topic, but let me just hit the highlights. You want folks to comment on your blog. You just don’t want the pill pushers and porn queens to have the run of the place. I setup comment moderation with 3 or more links (I use CommenLuv which inserts one link, their web URL is a second link, so 3 would be if they included a link in their comment. If you don’t plan to use CommentLuv, change this to 2). You can also include a list of words that are *iffy* in the box below this setting. Any comment with that word would *trigger* moderation. (Moderation just holds the comments until you stop by and approve or trash the comments).
   The Comment Blacklist box is where I spend my time. I include a list of words that I really don't want on my site such as viagra, penis, enlarge, and the names of several popular drugs. I have nothing against the 60-something year old man who wants to improve performance, my site is just not the place to promote that. I also include words of a sexual nature, including rape, porn, xxx, sex, virgin, lesbian, gay, etc. Trust me, this helps.
6. Activate (Turn On) Akismet:This often overlooked step can mean the difference between 384 spam messages a day, or not. Akismet is one of the very best *anti-spam* plugins and comes preinstalled with Wordpress. Use it. One note though: Wordpress requires an API key, something you can only get by registering on the Wordpress.com site (profile only, no blogs required). Once you register, they will send an email with your API key. Insert that in the appropriate place in your Dashboard. (Once you activate Akismet, it will be at the top of every Dashboard page until you activate it).
7. Turn Off Post Revisions: Post revisions is a great idea that Wordpress takes to an extreme (in my mind, you might disagree). The basic premise is this. Every X seconds, Wordpress will create a backup of your post. Great, right? Here’s the rub. Each *revision* it saves creates a new record in your database (making it bigger) and Wordpress has the annoying habit of displaying a complete list of every revision you ever made in your life, when you go in to edit a post. If you are like me, and blog via a Desktop Client, you already have a backup of your post. So, to turn off this annoying feature, open your wp-config.php file in Notepad or something similar and add this line somewhere near the other define you find in there.

   define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

8. Setup Categories:At least one. No, you don’t have to know the entire category structure at this point, but it is helpful to have at least an idea of the categories you will use most often. Once you have created your most often used category, change the default category to this. Dashboard | Settings | Writing Change the default post category to your newly created category. While you are on this page, here’s a Bonus Tweak: Change the Size of the post box from 10 to 20. By default, Wordpress will create the “post body” box to be 10 rows high. I don’t know about you, but this feels a little crowded to me.
9. Setup Ping Services:This one isn’t strictly a *do-it-before-you-do-anything-else* kinda tweak, but will go a long way to getting you that coveted traffic. By default, Wordpress added one ping server to the list of possible servers you can use. (Just one?) So, I went out and found some of the best servers. I just copy the list into the area for other update services. Rather than include them all within the body of this post, I am attaching a text file you can download and copy from. Dashboard | Settings | Writing Copy the list (or select the ones you want) from the  List of Ping Servers
10. Install Google XML SitemapsGoogle XML Sitemaps generates a compliant XML-Sitemap for your site, allowing the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN) to easily index your site. Every time you edit or add a post, the sitemap will modify itself unless you tell it differently (see below). Click here for Google XML Sitemaps plugin. This part is optional, but highly recommended! Go to Google Webmaster Central and log in with your Google Account (you do have a Google Account, right?). On the first page, there will be a link to “Verify” your site. Follow the instructions there. Once that’s done, you can then click the *Add Sitemap* link from the first page and put in the URL to your sitemap, which will be something like this (non-working) link: http://www.yourDomain.com/sitemap.xml
11. Install A Database Backup Plugin:Wordpress is software that is driven by a database. All your posts, pages and links are stored in the database. If it crashes, your entire *blog* could be lost, so take a minute and install a backup plugin to protect yourself. I have tried three or four, but the one I like best (and make sure is on all my blogs now) is the WP-DBManager Plugin. Once installed and activated, just go to Dashboard | Database (it’s on the bottom) and select DB Options. Select the maximum number of backups to keep on hand (mine is 10) and setup the auto-email feature. This will send a zipped copy of your database backup to your email address. Sweet, huh?
12. Change Media Settings:Wordpress will (somewhat) auto-size your content based on when and where you insert it into a post. If your theme allows 400px for the content width, and your max width for a large picture is 1024, you have a problem. You can manually resize any photo, but taking the time to update these media values before you get started is a real time saver. Dashboard | Settings | Media Adjust according to *taste*, but make sure your large size is no wider than your post content area as defined by your theme. For example, mine is 580px to fit in this area.
13. Change Plugin and Theme Location:Okay, don't be scared, but this is moving a little towards the advanced side. First, the logic behind this… Wordpress is open source software. It is maintained by a whole team of community minded folks who are constantly improving it and adding new features. As a result of all this busy activity, from time to time you are going to have to upgrade your Wordpress software (and yes, it's still free). However, the upgrade process (without the proper plugin) can be a little scary and a bit tedious. To prevent accidently overwriting your plugins, themes or special settings, there is a way you can move your static (unchanging) files to a different location. It can be anywhere on your webserver. All you have to do to implement this strategy is copy the entire directory (wp-content) to another location and then tell Wordpress where it can find those files. Like we did to turn off revisions, just edit the wp-config.php file to include the define statement shown below.

    define(’WP_CONTENT_DIR’, ‘http://www.labnol.org/assets/wp-content’);

    Don't forget to upload it back to your blog's root folder.
14. Prevent Visitors From Browsing Your Wordpress Folders:Okay, there are the curiosity seekers, and there are hackers. I don’t want either one accidently wandering around my Wordpress installation. For ANY reason. There are a couple of ways you can prevent this. One is simple, one is not so simple. Select the method you are most comfortable with.
    • Method 1Create an empty text file and save (name) it index.php. Upload this file to wp-content (wherever you placed this), wp-admin, and wp-includes. The empty file will be read when they navigate to that location and display a blank white page, rather than a list of your files.
    • Method 2Add the following line to your .htaccess file that exists in the main WordPress installation directory.

      Options All -Indexes

      This will turn off the auto-feature to *list* files that exist in a directory without a default page.
15. Make It Harder To Hack Your Site:Along those same lines, I want to make it a bit harder for the hackers to find weaknesses in my installation. Knowing my Wordpress version can provide them with enough information to attack me, I remove the temptation. (And no, it doesn't happen often, but yes, it does happen). I remove the little snippet of code that is present in almost every theme out there.

    <meta content="WordPress 2.7" name="generator" /?>

    And while that's almost enough to discourage most, you can completely remove the feature from Wordpress by adding this line to your theme's function.php file.

    <?php remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator'); ?>

16. Change The Location Of Your Upload Folder:By default, Wordpress will put any photo's you upload to a directory called wp-content/uploads. First and foremost, uncheck the "Organize my uploads into month and year based folders”. It makes absolutely no sense in the real world, and we like working in the real world. Dashboard | Settings | Miscellaneous You can optionally tell Wordpress to use any folder on your webserver for the default location, but if you plan to do this, include the *path* to your folder, and the full URL as well. (ie: *path* would be ../../images if you want the photo's to go to http://www.MyDomain.com/images. (The ../ tells Wordpress to move up one directory))
17. Add Your RSS Feed To Feedburner:Yes, you can use the built in RSS feed that Wordpress installs, but Feedburner is such an excellent feed content delivery and tracking system, why would you want to? Burn your feed with Feedburner, and then either install a Feed plugin that will force all your feeds to your Feedburner account URL, or update the theme header.php file to add the following line:

    <link title="Title of Feed " href="YOUR FEEDBURNER URL GOES HERE" type="application/rss+xml" rel="alternate" />

18. Activate Your Analytics:Keep track of your users and traffic, there’s a lot you can learn from who visits, how they found you and where they go from your place. I recommend Google Analytics, Woopra, Firestats and Psychic Search. Other good analytic services available include Mint and StatCounter. You have a couple options here. The first is plugins (always recommended for the value they add to your blog), or manual theme edits. For example, Google will provide you with a little code snippet. Just open the footer.php file and just above the closing body tag, add the chuck of code. I prefer a good plugin like Ultimate Good Analytics. Both Psychic Search and Firestats are plugins as well. Woopra is a service that also offers a plugin (optional).
19. Custom 404 Page:It happens, people make mistakes… they type the address wrong, or you move a page. They land from the search engines from a link that no longer exists. Bam! 404 Error. (A fancy-non-geek-way of saying the dang thing is just gone). Now, you can just hope it doesn’t happen (it will), or you can plan on it now, and get the most use out of that page. Do you offer a product? Place a mini-sales letter on your 404 Page Template with a link to the full letter. Add things like your Top Posts, or Most Actively Discussed Items to the 404 page to give them options to consume your content. A 404 page doesn’t have to be a death-sentence. Give the visitor options and she won’t leave your blog just yet.
20. Help Google Love Your Blog:It's a sad fact that most bloggers don't do this step until they have been blogging a while and realize there are things they should be doing to optimize for the search engines. You can be ahead of the game if you install Headspace2 or All In One SEO right away, and start completing the extra fields they give you. I won't go into detail here (that's a whole 'nother post), but each of them offers fields for Title, Description and Keywords on the New Post screen. You should complete all three. Make sure you use your primary keyword for the post at least once in the title and description, and place 1-5 keywords in the keyword field.
21. Create a Contact Me Page:Do not over look this important step. You want to be accessible. You want them to feel you are a real person they can reach out to. If you don’t provide a way to *connect*, they won’t. And they will wander off, never to be seen or heard from again.
22. Create a Visitor Site Map:This is different than the one you created for the search engines… this is a page that provides a quick overview of everything on your site. Don’t assume your navigation is working for your visitors (it might not be). The more ways you provide for them to find your valuable content, they more they will. If your theme doesn’t include an archives.php file to allow this, get Dagon Design Sitemap Generator or SRG Clean Archives. Both are plugins and make this process almost painless.

Anything Else?

• Social Media Marketing
• Niche Marketing
• SEO and Traffic Generation
• Copywriting
• The Secrets of Outsourcing,
• Blogging Strategies
• Building a Tribe of Loyal Followers

I was talking with a blogging student a couple of days ago, and explaining the importance of publishing good content, that goes beyond the obvious and thought I would share those thoughts with you.

Publishing Good Content Affects SEO In Two Beneficial Ways

Searchers Are More Likely To Click

The first is sort of obvious. If you are publishing good content, ie: something people are looking for, then when your content is served by Google in the organic search results (SERP), people are more likely to click the link.

This is especially true if you take the time to craft both a great title that states (implicitly or explicitly) the benefit they will gain from clicking the link, and a well thought out description. Remember, Google reads the descriptions in the meta-tag IF it contains the keyword(s) the searcher typed in so give this some thought.

The Side Benefit Of Good Content

The second benefit is a little less obvious, but even more powerful a reason than the first. If you are writing about what your *niche* wants to know and providing great content, other blogmasters and webmasters will link to your post, or even better, publish your post and include the resource box you took the time to include.

You did include a resource box, right?

I know some bloggers get upset when their content is republished on other blogs, but not me. I just make it easier for them to grab my post and make sure I include a resource box that explains who I am and a link back to the original post. If they are within my same *niche*, that backlink's value to me is way more than any hurt feelings I have.

Perhaps A Third Benefit?

Something I haven't finished testing yet, but suspect is a third benefit is the *shareable* nature of good content through the social networks. I know that Twitter (for example) uses *nofollow* on all their links published to the Twitter Timeline, but there is still the clickable nature of a link shared socially.

So, while it might not be a direct SEO benefit, it definitely helps in getting more eyeballs.

Source: Secrets To Web Success. A blog I co-author with Dali Burgado, Deontee Gordon, and Carol Hansen. Together, we help small businesses find their online voice.

"But It's A Blog? What Can I Do About It?"

Plugins To Help You Survive A Digg

I recently came across a short *Check List* to help you determine if your site is *SEO Friendly*. I am including that list and a couple of additional notes here. Use this checklist each time you post new content, and you will get *found* much faster.

• Is the Title appropriate to the content? Does it let the reader know what is contained within and does it build interest or ask a question?
• Is the Title unique for each page or post? (Duplicate titles only confuse your readers and Google)
• Is there at least one Hx Tag with your primary or secondary keywords?
• Are URLs User friendly? Are they short enough to be memorable and contain one or more keyword
• Is the content really worth linking to? Is it valuable in some way to the reader or search engines?
• Have I avoided all the blackhat SEO methods like hidden text and keyword stuffing?
• Is my post or page visually appealing?
• Do I have a Sitemap for the search engines (XML) and another for the readers?
• Is the robots.txt file correct and not blocking any needed url?
• Are any meta tags stopping Google from indexing anything which needs indexing?
• Are the meta keyword and description tags there for all pages?
• Are the alt tags of any images descriptive to both the content and the purpose?
• Have you added rel="nofollow" to all external and internal non content links ?

I would add:

• Have you completed the All In One SEO or Headspace2 (depending on your preference) additional fields that increase your SEO on each post?
• Did you include your primary and secondary keywords in the description?
• Did you build your custom, hand-crafted HTML rich *Excerpt*?

Boy, I really hate it when this happens. Some *guru* will state something like "Install All In One SEO and you will be instantly found by Google". What a load of horse-manure.

Let me correct this terrible misconception, before it destroys some small business blogger's dream.

First and foremost, All In One SEO (AIE SEO) is a great plugin. I don't want this post to sound like I am dissing the plugin itself. Only the guru's accidental (?) misconception. Installing it is Step 1.

Step 2 is to actually use it.

The power of AIE SEO lies in it's ability to override Wordpress's default behavior, and allow you to:

• Insert meaningful, keyword rich titles to the Browser Window Title
• Insert post specific keywords to the Keyword Meta tag
• Add a hand-crafted Description to display when Google lists your post.

However, you have to actually complete those fields. Once installed, AIO SEO add's a new set of fields to the bottom of the *Add New Post* page like the one shown below:

If you will take the time to complete those three fields, you make Google's job of serving your content to searchers, based on keywords. You do want to get found, right?

Title Field

Remember this is going into the Browser Window Title, not the Post Title. [The Post Title is displayed at the top of the content area] It should contain the Post Title, as well as your tag line, or site name, or a fuller explanation of the benefit stated in the post. This is also what Google uses when displaying the link to your post/page. This should be human readable as well as spider readable.

Example:

• Post Title: 7 Strategies To Improve Your Blogs SEO
• Browser Title: SEO Training : 7 Strategies To Improve Your Blogs SEO

Description

Once your post/page reaches the point that Google will serve it up when a searcher types in a keyword, you want a hand-crafted description visible. You only have a few seconds to reach out and grab your potential reader by the throat and convince them that clicking your link will give them the answer they are looking for.

Your description should be meaningful to the content, contain the primary keyword at least once, and convince the searcher that clicking on the link will deliver them the solution/benefit stated.

Keywords

Search engines will cross reference the keywords in the Keyword Meta Tag against the content being served, and the keywords used in the searchers request. Obviously, they should match.

A word of warning. Don't include keywords that aren't in your post, or inferred by your content. If your post is about gardening on a rooftop, don't include the keyword "SEO Strategies". It will confuse Google and limit the benefit of any of your keywords.

All In One SEO Settings

Normally, the home page of your small business blog contains the "Site Name" only. Sometimes just the URL. Zero benefit to you from an SEO standpoint. AIO SEO contains a settings page where you can define your Home Page's Browser Title, Description Meta Tag and Keyword Meta Tag.

You should spend a couple of minutes completing these three fields as well. (Just the one time, unless you decide to make a change later).

Like everything else in life, there is no single magic bullet to SEO and getting your small business blog found by the search engines (and therefore by your potential customers or readers).

You have to work at it.

This particular technique only takes an extra couple of minutes on each post, but the long-term benefits are enormous. Do yourself a favor... if you have AIO SEO installed, use it.

Coming Soon:

AIO SEO is a great plugin for SEO benefits, but I found a better one. I will be discussing it next week so stay tuned.

Source: Secrets To Web Success | Add Page Peel Effect To Your Blog

I recently completed a new piece of software for a really great client that I am pretty proud of. In the short time it's been out, it has achieved a great reputation within it's market and has been voted the #1 software of it's kind for 2009.

To celebrate, and to make things interesting, the client has given me 5 copies to *give away* to whomever I want.

My faithful followers and Tweeter friends, you just stumbled into a great opportunity.

I have decided to hold a contest and award 5 lucky readers a copy of the software, no strings attached, with our compliments. So, keep reading to see how to enter.

What the *Prize* Is

First, let's talk about what the prize is. I pulled this from the Personal Financial Statement Software sales page over on Jim's site.

And though the reading is a little dry, the concept is pretty simple. If you need a way to produce (and maintain) professional looking Personal Financial Statements, this easy to use software is pretty slick (even if I do say so myself). At the bottom of the post, I included a short video on the power, features and ease of use which should get your saliva glands working over time.

Personal Financial Statement Software

Create your own professional looking personal financial statement today with our #1 rated software. Our powerful, yet easy-to-use software lets you complete and maintain your personal financial statement quickly and easily.

Personal financial statement software is used by those who are:

• Looking to obtain loans
• Buy real estate
• Evaluate estate planning goals
• Filing for divorce
• Need itemized personal financial information

The Contest Rules

Yeah, I know, we all hate rules. But, we have to have at least an outline of what it takes to win your copy of the Personal Financial Statement Software, so listen up.

In the comments area of this post, provide one of the following:

1. A short reason to use PFS, that isn't listed above.
2. An unusual reason that a personal financial statement can be used
3. The best headline you can think of to *entice* someone to buy the software
4. Compelling *copy* that demonstrates the power of the software

Please also include your basic computer setup, operating system used and your #1 reason for wanting or needing the Personal Financial Statement software

And just for the record, I will admit a shameless bid to ramp up the sales page for Jim by using the comments this post will hopefully generate. And no, also for the record, you probably won't get credit for it! But I really value your opinion, comments, suggestions and input.

So, watch the demo video below, and post your comments. The best FIVE will be selected and the winners will receive a special link to download their fully licensed (non-trial) version. I am looking forward to seeing your creative comments!

PS: Final note: We have to have a deadline, so how about 1 week? Winners will be announced after a review of all the comments with the cut off date being Friday, May 15th. Good luck!

If you have followed my advice on your browser of choice, you might have noticed that after running a while, FireFox gets a little RAM hungry. I found a tweak you can do to improve performance and reclaim some of the memory it eats voraciously.

I found this little tidbit in a number of places across the web when I went looking for a solution, but will credit the original author and his site. You can click the link in the source box below the article to see any updates he might have posted.

Now, this is by no means a REAL fix for the Firefox memory leak, but it certainly does appear to help it quite a bit. This little fix will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, and as a result it will take up less than 10MB of memory while minimized. So far, from my experiences with using this today, when you maximize Firefox it will obviously increase the memory usage. However, it does not seem to go back up to the insane amount that it was at before minimizing it. For example, Firefox was at 180MB of memory usage and then I minimized it and after a few seconds I maximized it. After maximizing it and continuing on my routine business it appeared to only have gone up to 60MB. This seems to be a good solution for me right now since I frequently maximize and minimize Firefox anyways.

Now I know many people will say that Firefox will take longer to maximize since it will be located on the hard drive, but I haven’t noticed ANY delays. It is able to redraw itself just as quickly as if it was located in the ram (in my experience). Okay, now here are the few simple steps:

• Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
• Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
• In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
• Now select True and then press Enter.
• Restart Firefox.

See how quick and painless that was? At any rate you can always go back and delete the same setting that you just created if you start to experience any issues.

I have also set the browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers value to 0 because that will prevent Firefox from caching pages for the back button. This is also supposed to free up some memory that gets stolen.

Source: CyberNet: This May Help Your Firefox Memory Leak

Converting An Existing Blog To Affiliate Theme

Recent articles on my main blog have focused on the organic traffic you want from the search engines, and how to get it. I hope you have been following along.

Today, I want to show you a shortcut.

I say *show you*, because this little tip is best understood with a video where I can show you click by click and step by step exactly what to do. I reference a couple of sites in the video that will be linked under the video.

Just to recap the basics of SEO and inbound links though, you should understand that Google counts each inbound link to your post or page as a sort of *vote*. A pledge of support or an agreement from your peers (niche partners) that your content is relevant to the topic at hand.

However, a little known fact is that links from your blog also count as votes. Now, all this is just from an SEO standpoint, but there is another benefit to all this internal linking.

More eyeballs.

That’s right. Your visitor finds something he or she likes and clicks to go read the rest. At that point they have demonstrated their willingness to *consume* your content. Great!

Now give them more.

This video will show you two additional techniques to keep their interest, deliver exactly what they want, and get a little search engine love in the process.

It’s a win-win.

Links Referenced

• To sign up and get the Zemanta Wordpress Plugin or Firefox Browser addon, visit Zemanta here.
• To read more from Carol Hansen, check out her blog FromMyKitchenTable.com here.

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You have started your Search Engine Optimization education and have learned that inbound links count as *votes* for your site when Google ranks you website. Come on, everyone knows this right?

So, how do you get those coveted inbound links?

You can surf for blogs in your niche that have a page rank, and contact them. You can then beg, borrow or wheedle a link from them. Good luck with that if you haven't already established a relationship with them.

You can comment on their blog, on the posts that are most similar to the content you are posting. A good idea, but somewhat time consuming since it's important when you comment, to add value to the conversation.

Or, you can use a built in feature of Wordpress (you are on Wordpress, right?) and have those inbound links automatically added to your blog every time you post something.

Which would you prefer?

Okay, then, let's look at exactly how to do this.

First, a visual representation of the Trackback process. Take a minute to really understand what this image is showing you. The red lines are from YOUR blog, and the blue lines are from other blogs posting similar content. (Ideally, these are authority sites or sites with a lot of traffic)

Okay, clear as mud? Let me clarify it in plain English.

When you post content on your blog, AND you include a Trackback URL to a blog post on someone elses blog, their blog software will automatically include a link back to your blog.

Simple, right?

Be a little selective on which blogs you trackback to, and get into the habit of doing this everytime you post and pretty soon, you will have dozens of inbound links directly related to your content from authority sites all across the web.

The Mechanics

The process is simple and requires just a little prep work before you post. You are already researching your articles for your blog and making sure you are using the right keywords, so this step is just an extension of that.

During your research phase, as you come across blogs that are posting similar content, grab the Trackback URL (copy using right click and select Copy Link Location) and paste it into your document. Since you can Trackback more than one link at a time, place them all together, separated by space's if you have more than one.

When you are editing a post, you have an option below the post area that looks like the image shown:

Just paste the Trackback URL into this field and save your post as normal. Your blog will ping their blog and notify them of the Trackback. Their blog will then automatically display your Trackback link and some of what you said around the link in their comment list. Instant inbound link.

To be fair, I have to tell you that not all blogs offer the Trackback service. While it's on by default with a new Wordpress blog (and many other blogging services), some bloggers intentionally turn it off. If that is the case and there is a blog post out there you really want an inbound link from, just comment on their post. Remember to add to the conversation with value. (No spam!)

As the SEO expert for your small business, if you aren't using Trackbacks, you should start immediately. It's a simple, automated way to build inbound links from authority sites to your small business blog.

Source: Secrets To Web Success A blog I belong to with Dali Burgado and Deontee Gordon. Together, we three help you blog and brand your business.

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With the recent publicity Twitter has been getting on national television, there has been a huge rush to *Get On Twitter*. And while I agree you should be on Twitter if you are branding yourself, there are some Do's and Don'ts you should know about. Keep reading to learn some of the Twitter Etiquette that is expected of you.

Trust me on this one. You don't want to find out 500 followers into building your *brand* you were doing it wrong!

First, the Don't Do It Under Any Circumstances warning

Don't be the TMI guy or gal. Most of your followers don't want to know what you had for breakfast or when your last bowel movement was. It's an instant turn off to see 19 posts detailing your minute by minute dismal morning. The only one's that will follow and enjoy this style of Tweet'ing will be sad people with no lives who want to live vicariously through you. Trust me. This is not a good idea.

Don't be the super spammer. These are the folks that I immediately Unfollow and I think I am not alone on this one. If all you have to say to your following is how they need to run out and buy the next super-duper juice you are promoting that will regrow hair, reverse aging and make their breath smell better, then you probably won't last on Twitter.

Don't speak just to yourself. This is a social site and you should be creating (or joining) conversations. If all your Tweet's are just you speaking to your following at large, and not any specific person, you won't grow your followers, you will turn off those that are following and the men in white coats might just show up at your door for talking to yourself.

While I am not a Twitter expert (obviously), I have been following what several people that are experts are doing. I also know what turns me off immediately. If you don't mind that I (and people like me) won't follow you, then by all means, feel free to walk to the beat of your own drum.

Now, for the Do's On Twitter Marketing...

For this, I am going to let a woman who has successfully built a following of more than 11,000 people explain the 7 Simple Rules To Success On Twitter. I have posted a link to her wonderful article below, but here's a little taste to convince you she knows what she is talking about, and you should stop reading this, and go now and read the entire article. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get done.

1) The Rule of Visibility on Twitter.

You absolutely MUST be visible on Twitter if you are going to get your message out to the masses. You must spend time on Twitter and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “Twitter Blueprint” and then work that blueprint every day. How many hours a day are you going to be seen on Twitter ? How many people are you going to follow this week? How many times are you going to Tweet this week? How many direct replies will you make? All of these things make you "visible" on Twitter . Be seen and be heard. Be there on a daily basis.

2) The Rule of a Powerful Twitter Profile.

Why would people want to get to know you on Twitter?

Click here to read 7 Simple Rules To Success On Twitter by Carol Hansen of FromMyKitchenTable.com fame.

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I recently wrote an article on another blog that I want to point you to. There are three of us (Deontee Gordon, Dali Burgado and myself) that contribute to the Secrets To Web Success, so you get a full range of specialties.

The article I am suggesting you read if you are trying to build your organic rankings is called SEO: Backlinks Are Your Blogs Life-Blood. It's an article full of great ideas to help you improve your search engine rankings and be featured on more organic results.

So, head on over and check it out. You can also check out all the SEO related articles by clicking the Category, SEO Saturday's. I hope you enjoy it.

If you've been watching the news, you are probably getting a little nervous about now. It's only a few short hours until the scheduled *hit* of the April Fool's virus... and no, this isn't a joke.

It is stage two of one of the most destructive computer worms ever known - a conficker worm dubbed the "cyberworm of mass destruction".

Experts cite the dual measures of making sure your system is updated with the latest Microsoft security patches and backing up critical data as *just good business*. I would add a third step to this.

Download and have ready to run a new detection and removal tool from BitDefender Labs.

Downadup (or Conficker) is a network worm that takes advantage of vulnerabilities in Windows to spread. Its removal is complicated by the fact that it blocks many known antivirus software and associated websites.

BitDefender Labs has detected a new and more aggressive Downadup version. It spreads using a Windows RPC Server Service vulnerability and is called Win32.Worm.Downadup.Gen.

The worm itself is not new, it made its first appearance late November 2008, known under the names Conficker or Kido as well exploiting the vulnerability described in the Microsoft security bulletin MS08-067. After successful exploitation it used to install rogue security software on the infected machine.

Go get your copy now at http://www.bdtools.net/ -- it's free. But more than that... it's peace of mind.

Google, an absolute mega-giant on the Internet is in business and making a boat load of money, by doing one thing, really really well. That one thing is matching a visitors search results to the content they are most likely searching for.

Let me break that down for you with an example. You visit Google.com and type in *quilting tips* and hit enter.

Now, what is it you are are looking for? Are you looking for how to grow mint in your backyard garden? No. Are you looking for how to make money on the Internet? No.

You are looking for tips from other quilters on how to quilt. That's all your looking for. So, Google's job in that, is to match your search request with the content you are looking for, exactly. Or, as close to exact as possible.

In order to do this, they spend a lot of time and a lot of money and they've written a lot of sophisticated software (Google Bots) that goes out and crawls millions of websites each day. And every time they find a site, they look closely at it, they review the keywords associated with that site and they rate the site based on relevancy to the keywords on the site.

They also add the references to the content of that site to their master *index*. This Index is what they use to match a search to results.

You with me so far?

The Google Index is a list of keywords and all the sites found by Google that contain those keywords

You have a friend at Google, and you give him a call and you say, "You know what Bill (that's your imaginary friend's name), I'm having a little trouble coming up with some ideas for my blog content, or want to know what my competition is doing, and I want to see whats *hot* in my industry. Could you just shoot me an email every time Google indexes something that contains the keyword *quilting*? Could you do that for me Bill?

Can you imagine the absolutely priceless goldmine that could represent to you?

Well, you can stop imagining. Google did exactly that, without pulling Bill away from what he's working on.

They call this service Google Alerts. It's free to setup. Free to use. You can get alerts on as many keywords as you want. You can have them emailed to you daily, weekly, or as they happen. You can have Google only send an alert if the keyword is used on a news site, or a blog site, or every time it used on any type of site.

What could you do with that kind of information? With that kind of process? Google email's you every single time your keyword is used, regardless of where it's used? Sweet!

I created a short video (less than 5 minutes) that shows you exactly how to setup and start using this service. After watching, click the link and visit Google Alerts and put your keywords in and let Google go to work for you. It's like having a personal assistant that never sleeps, never needs potty breaks and doesn't whine about the drudgery of the task.

Click here to setup Google Alerts.

Click here to setup Google Alerts.

An article I originally posted on the http://www.SecretsToWebSuccess.com blog I co-author with two fantastic folks, Dali Burgado and Deontée Gordon. Come check it out!

I know, it’s a little hard to believe, right? The search giant wants to help little ole me understand and leverage Search Engine Optimization for my small business?

In a word… Yes.

Google has created a new channel on another mega-giant, YouTUBE. It’s called the Google Web Master Central channel, and they are uploading videos made by the actual geeks that are building code within the Google-plex. In fact, they are also responding to questions and comments left on a video in new videos.

Ever wished you just could ask Google “Is Google putting more weight on brands in rankings?”. Now you can.

There’s a serious number of video’s online already, all nicely arranged into playlists so related videos’ are grouped together. There are videos that covers how sites are displayed in Google search results and that introduces other useful Google resources for webmasters.

Search engine optimization is sometimes a daunting task for small businesses without a large SEO budget to hire firms to manage it for them, but it just got a little easier. Check out the Google Web Master Central channel on YouTUBE, and get the answers you are looking for — right from the horses mouth, so to speak.

I wonder if Google will find this post and be mad that I compared them to a horse? Hmmm.

Below, is a one of the videos in the Google for Webmasters series. Do yourself a favor and book mark the Google channel and check in often. SEO as taught by the master of it? Oh yeah.

Source: Secrets To Web Success A blog I belong to with Dali Burgado and Deontee Gordon. Together, we three help you blog and brand your business

Whew! That was a ride!

In fact, we probably have them more often since we tend to *boldly go where no man has gone before*.

This week has been a week of just such difficulties. Some were self-induced (and therefore I have no one to blame, throw sticks at or give the evil eye), and some were brought on by outside influences. (Dare I say *hacker*?)

So, my apologies.. on the eve (so to speak) of a major launch, my site is in the toilet. If you visited and got a perfectly white page and nothing else, don't worry, it's not you. You have stepped off into the Twilight Zone called *Blogging Cenay style*.

I appear to be back up and running, though some stat's are gone and one or two plugins are no longer is present. And strangest of all, my completely upgraded 2.7 Wordpress installation reverted to 2.6.3. Go figure.

Couple of hints if your blog goes wonky:

• Try accessing pages individually...are they still there?
• Try to connect to your blog's database using a tool like MySQL Query browser
• If you recently installed a plugin, try deleting it with your FTP client
• If all else fails, contact Tech-Support

You are backing up your blog's database, right? In the event things go terribly wrong, having your database backed up each night and sent to your email account, is a great safety net.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, has two major factors which govern your success, or ultimately, your failure. Want your site to succeed? You need to master both.

SEO On Page Factors

The first major factor is really the simplest to master. But first, you need to know what those creepy little *spiders* look for when they come and *crawl* your site. Oh wait.. I didn't tell you about the spiders?

Spiders (bots, robots, crawlers) are small programs that the search engines employ to go read your site so it can *index* your content. The index is how they are able to return results when someone types in "digital camera for sale" or "best marketing company". The spiders job is to review your content, and build an index of keywords that relate to the content.

A spider views your site a little differently than a real person, but providing a good experience to the spider is every bit as important as making sure your human visitors find what they are looking for.

Things like page titles, headings, bolded text, tags, keywords in the meta tags and a good site map are things that make the spiders get all giddy. So are things like your content being viewed *first* and your keywords being within the first 50 words and the last 50 words of what it does read.

If this sounds hard, don't despair. I promise, we will cover each aspect thoroughly in the coming articles. I will even show you things you can do to help with this, especially if you have a Wordpress blog.

SEO Off Page Factors

Off page is a little more difficult and time consuming in the overall scheme of things. Off page refers to other sites and how they link to you. See, Google rates your site based on the number and quality of links that point to your site.

Now, I know what you are thinking. "I just started my site, how in the world are people going to know to link to me?" That is what you were thinking, right?

Inbound links come in a variety of flavors, shapes and sizes, and you can generate a lot of them.

Inbound links: Links from other sites that point visitors to your site.

Forums, newsgroups, signature lines on your social profiles, partner sites, comments you leave and other sites you own can all point to you. Articles you create (we will cover this topic in depth real soon) can contain a resource box that contains links to your site.

Google views links to your site kind of like a vote for your site. Search engines use the number of incoming links that a site has as just one of the factors for determining your ranking, but incoming links to your blog or website also means more visitors to your site. In fact, inbound links will directly affect your Google Page Rank, that coveted but often misunderstood *rating* that everyone talks about.

So, getting a link from a site that Google crawls on a regular basis, one that has a high Google Page Rank has some impressive benefits. Sites can *leak* some of their good page rank your way.

So, until next time, keep your eye open for potential linking partners, sites that have good Page Rank already, or sites that get a lot of daily traffic. Try to think of ways you can add value, and get links in exchange. And no, I don't mean link farms... those really don't work since Google takes a dim view of them.

As a part of the ongoing effort to educate Network and Affiliate Marketers in the value of Internet Marketing Techniques to their business, I will be presenting a series of SEO Related articles, starting today. (This content originally appeared on another blog I co-author and I am reprinting with the *team's* permission.

It's a digital world.

In 2009, the population at large is connected via cell phone, iPod, PDA's and personal computers. At any given moment, a digital device is close at hand to most of us. The Internet is home to more than a billion surfers daily. It has infiltrated our world to such an extent, that the act of looking something up has turned the name of one of the number 1 sites on the Internet, into a *verb*.

People say "I'll just Google it", and everyone knows what they mean. More importantly, everyone knows how to Google something. Well, okay... not your 2 year old niece or your 108 year old grandmothers, but pretty much everyone else.

We have discovered the joys of *being connected*, the bliss of reaching out and getting instant connection. And if you aren't speaking to your market-place on the Internet, you are missing literally hundred's of thousands of potential clients.

And this relates to SEO, how?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the science or ability to get your *link* (blog, website, articles, products, etc) in front of those that are looking for you.

When a surfer (your potential client, remember?) types something in Google, the results that they see are called search engine result pages (SERPs). And this is where you want to be listed, right?

SEO is also a process.

You won't be SEO optimized in the first 20 minutes of starting your SEO efforts. You won't be completely optimized in the first 20 weeks, either. But each new thing you do to refine or *tweak* your site, brings you more visitors. Period.

This column, held each Saturday, will be focusing on exactly how to optimize your site. If you follow along, and do the steps we discuss, before you know it, that trickle of visitors will become a stream. That stream will become a brook. That brook will become a river. A river of fresh and return visitors flowing to your site, all eager to see what else you offer.

So, plan to check back often. In fact, go ahead and subscribe to the feed for this blog now, while you are thinking about it.

Don't know what a feed is? We'll cover that too. Have a question you want to see covered, feel free to leave me a comment and I will get to that as soon as I can.

Related in this series:

• Case Study: 200% Traffic Increase With Plugins
• If You Build It, They Will Come…Not!

The links above are the two previous posts on this subject. Just joining me? Start there!

And to those that asked, but were not accepted as one of the blogs in the case study... my apologies. I hope you will follow the published results of the case study so you can increase your traffic yourself. I believe there will be quite a few pointers and more than a little direct SEO advice.

And The Winners Are...

• Carol Hansen and her Health and Wellness blog at http://www.getrealhealthnow.com/blog/
• Bethune Matthews and her Millinery and Hat Making Blog at http://www.DIYMillinery.com
• Luke Hawthorne and his Make Money Online blog at http://www.LukeHawthorne.com
• Mike Stokes and his Cajun Cooking TV blog at http://www.cajuncookingtv.com
• Stephanie Blackburn and her Real Estate Success blog at http://www.RESuccessLink.com

MMA Group Coaching Overview

June 17th, 2009 [60:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

Branding YOU, Inc. (with Cenay Nailor)

May 15th, 2008 [28:45]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Branding YOU in Network/Internet Marketing

Sept 6th, 2008 [15:00]
Special Guest Appearance with Cenay Nailor on Blog Talk Radio Show (To download, right click here and save)

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Helping Newbies Get Started Online (with Cenay Nailor)

November 1st, 2008 [60:00]
Special Guest Appearance with Cenay Nailor on Blog Talk Radio Show
(To download, right click here and save)

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Introduction To The Ad Group (with Cenay Nailor)

May 9th, 2008 [13:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Overview of Ad Group and Online (with Cenay Nailor)

May 8th, 2008 [37:15]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Goal Setting (with Dani Johnson)

June 13th, 2008 [33:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Creating Better Ads (with Shawn Casey)

July 9th, 2008 [30:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

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How To Make Quick Cash (with Shawn Casey and Jeff Paul)

July 20th, 2008 [15:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Secrets Of Info Products (with Shawn Casey and Jeff Paul)

July 20th, 2008 [15:00]
(To download, right click here and save)

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Guilbert Bromberg - Online Session (4/22/2009)

Guilbert Bromberg - Online Session (4/24/2009)

I wanted to get a little feedback from you guys. You know I am all about the techie stuff, right? Gosh, how could you not know with all the how-to videos and tech articles? Anyway...

Here's what I was thinking...

• I get a lot of questions about creating a product, building a capture page for it, stirring up some *buzz* and putting together the download page.
• I am almost done with my new book Ultimate Guide to Wordpress Plugins.

Those two things taken together suggests a possible *marriage* of concepts.

How About A *Clinic*?

I was thinking, what about a live (or recorded) clinic, using a real product (my new book) and real time steps and tasks necessary to launch it?

So, on to my question. Would there be any interest? And if so, which would you prefer? Live or Recorded?

Please take a minute and *cast your vote* by leaving a comment right here. Please ask your Twitterpeeps or social friends to come cast their vote as well. If there is enough interest, I will put the whole thing together and you can watch me, step by step, do everything necessary to launch a product out into the wild. (The Internet silly, what did you think I meant?)

I look forward to hearing from you. And if you have a suggestion about what else to include in this clinic, now would be the time to speak up!

Related in this series:

• Case Study: 200% Traffic Increase With Plugins

Most folks would define SEO (or search engine optimization) as the science or ability to optimize your site or blog for the search engines. That gets you visitors, right?

When the search engines can find you, typically, everyone else can. But is there another way? Do we have to rely on the giant search engines like Google, MSN or Yahoo to send visitors to our sites?

Zemanta

Once installed, Zemanta sits quietly in the *Add New* page, offering images, articles, products, blog posts and other related content, based on the keywords of your post. Adding a photo or related blog post is as easy as clicking the title.

Done.

If it's a photo you are adding, it will neatly tuck it into the upper right of your post.

Adding a related blog post? Zemanta will insert text and links into your post like the one's you see at the bottom of this post, automatically.

Setup Zemanta to include the *Reblog* option, and visitors can blog about and republish your content with a few clicks, gaining you more visitors. And everyone that visits the reblogged content, see's your content.

Traffic from sources other than the search engines? Absolutely! Eye candy for your blog? You bet. A better experience for your visitors? No question.

Would you agree?

Related articles by Zemanta

• RSS Plug-ins Do Some Lifting For You
• Security and Hacking: The State of WordPress Blogs
• Update on WordPress SEO Secrets
• WordPress SEO Secrets - Its launch day!
• SEO for Bloggers: How to Get Started
• 7 SEO Wordpress Plugins

Want a 200% Increase in Traffic?

• Your blog must be a self-hosted Wordpress blog and you must be willing to upgrade to the latest version.
• You must post to your blog at least once a week.
• You must be willing to allow me direct access to upload plugins, change settings and make theme tweaks
• You must be willing to allow me to spotlight you and your blog in my case study if we achieve 200% (or better) increase in traffic, without changing your posting schedule .

Please note: I will provide a non-disclosure agreement about login info and FTP access and remove these from my computer once the case study is complete. I will backup all files, posts, theme files, etc. before beginning and will put everything back the way it was if things don't go as planned or at your request. You may *stop* the process at any time with an email.

• Week 1: Baseline traffic numbers
• Week 2: Installation of my secret weapon plugins
• Week 3: Tweak settings of the various plugins specific to the blog
• Week 4: Tweak theme files to add SEO elements
• Week 5: Review traffic patterns and current tweaks
• Week 6: Fine tune tweaks and settings
• Week 7: Fine tune theme tweaks
• Week 8: Review traffic patterns and current tweaks
• Week 9: Compare traffic from week 1 and week 9. Publish results.

Related in this series:

• If You Build It, They Will Come