SiteProNews |
- Personal Branding: 5 Profitable Reasons Why You Should Brand Yourself
- How To Get The Most Out Of Your Sales Copy – A SPN Exclusive Article
- Managing Your SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article
- Connecting Up The Spider Web – Google Places and Google+ – A SPN Exclusive Article
- Ten Things to Avoid When Running an SEO Campaign
| Personal Branding: 5 Profitable Reasons Why You Should Brand Yourself Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:22 AM PDT 
So, what exactly is personal branding? In essence, personal branding is the process by which business people differentiate themselves by identifying and effectively articulating what makes them different or unique from their competitors – what makes them stand out from the crowd – a sort of personal USP (Unique Selling Proposition), if you will. This is especially important if you’re a service provider in a competitive field. Why is personal branding so important? Because if you don’t stand out from the crowd, that means you’re just like everyone else – a white jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. And if you’re just like everyone else, why should customers or clients choose you over your competitors? Answer: They shouldn’t, and they probably won’t! Using myself as a real-life example, let me illustrate the importance of personal branding, and how it can make you stand out in a crowded field. My name, “David Jackson” is a relatively common name. To make matters worse, there are many other David Jackson’s with business websites who have been online a lot longer than I have and are far more established. But if you type “david jackson marketing” into Google without the quotation marks, I rank at the #1 position out of nearly 3 million pages. And if you just type in the name “david jackson” without the quotation marks. I rank #4 out of over 42 million pages. That didn’t happen by accident. That happened because I was relentless in establishing my personal brand. When I created my website 3 years ago, my #1 objective was to have people associate my name with marketing – consistently solid marketing advice and quality marketing articles. And I was relentless in pursing that objective. Mission accomplished, but I’m not resting on my laurels. Today, I’m just as relentless in trying to hold on to my top Google ranking. The numerous published articles on my site, as well as top authority sites keeps me highly visible, as well as provide the search engine spiders with plenty of fresh, quality, relevant nourishment. And what are the overall results of all my hard work? Well, because of my personal branding efforts, I’m so busy with my consulting business, I’m actually turning clients away. Such is the power of personal branding and relentless execution. Following are 5 profitable reasons why you should establish your personal brand: 1. Gain Expert Status Without branding yourself, people will not perceive you as an expert. You will simply be another carnival barker in a sea full of carnival barkers. Branding yourself will give you expert status (provided, of course, you really are an expert) – and a much bigger megaphone. 2. Credibility and Trust With the advent of the Internet and the world-wide dominance of Google, nowadays, as a business person, you are pretty much your Google search results. Let’s face it, any responsible person considering doing business with you is going to do their due diligence and search for information about you online to see if you’re legitimate and trustworthy. And if they can’t find you, or have a hard time finding you in Google’s universe, guess who’s going to get their business? That’s right, if your competitors are more visible than you are in the search results, the perception will be, they’re more professional and trustworthy than you are. That means they’re going to get the business you could be getting. The best way to prevent that from happening is to effectively establish your personal brand – stand out in the crowd. 3. Gain An Edge On Your Competition Earlier, I described personal branding as “the process by which business people differentiate themselves by identifying and effectively articulating what makes them different or unique from their competitors – what makes them stand out from the crowd – sort of a personal USP (Unique Selling Proposition).” I also said, “If you don’t stand out from the crowd, that means you’re just like everyone else – a white jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. And if you’re just like everyone else, why should customers or clients choose you over your competitors?” Well, by effectively establishing your personal brand, you automatically become a black jelly bean in a jar full of white jelly beans. You stand out! Establishing your personal brand will increase your perceived value and give you the ability to charge higher fees – provided, of course, you’re good at what you do. This will automatically increase your income. And if you are really good at what you do and your clients are satisfied, they will refer you to other clients. Higher fees, satisfied clients and referrals…This personal branding thing is sounding better all the time, isn’t it? 5. Gain Confidence As you become more and more successful because of your personal branding efforts, you will also become more confident. This confidence will be obvious to everyone who comes into contact with you, including potential clients who will be magnetically attracted to you because of your confidence. In closing, I didn’t write this article to teach you “how” to brand yourself. I wrote it to educate you on “why” you should brand yourself. If you want to learn how to brand yourself, there are personal branding experts far more qualified than I who can teach you about personal branding. One of the absolute best is Dan Schwabel (PersonalBrandingBlog.com). There are also some excellent books on the subject. Two of my favorites are You Are a Brand!: How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success by Catherine Kaputa and The 10Ks of Personal Branding: Create a Better You by Kaplan Mobray. David Jackson is a marketing consultant and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| How To Get The Most Out Of Your Sales Copy – A SPN Exclusive Article Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:14 AM PDT 
If they find otherwise; they feel like they have landed on the wrong page, and will not hesitate to click away. The sales copy should first address their needs and wants, as well as appeal to their core emotional values. These “core emotional values,” are simply their natural appeal towards the product or service they are interested in. Say they are interested in planting a garden (or having one planted) they have entered keywords that will take them to a service page such as; “having a garden planted.” They expect to find sales copy, which targets that service. They expect direct benefit -oriented copy that advises them on the how much and the specific of the services. Most people “scan copy,” without actually reading the whole page – unless it truly “strikes a chord,” with them. To get the most from your sales copy; it should be easily scanned for benefits. Strong headlines, that convey obvious benefits are a must. Bullets, and sub-heads that are specific help them to know they are in the right place to “get” what they are looking for. When they can quickly find the “what is in it for me,” about the subject of their interest, they feel compelled to “keep reading.” When their interest is really peaked – they will take in every word with enthusiasm. “This is what most writers call the “hook.” It can be a whole short paragraph, or several sentences. Whichever works, it is essential to keep a high level of interest from your visitors. If their level of interest drops off, it is because the copy starts to “ramble, get off subject, or stop making “good sense.” What is it in the copy that is the real “selling point?” It is the “whole page” that does the collective work of “selling.” It always starts with a great headline, a great lead, very quick and specific benefits that “speak to the reader’s interests.” There is no such thing as a sales page that is “too good.” Every great sales page contains the same basic elements. There are a thousand different ways to make a great point. Once the copy grabs the visitors interest, they will begin to seek every single benefit that appealed them to the subject in the first place. When they find them in the order that “hits a nerve,” the copy evokes a positive response. A great sales page should actually let the reader “sell themselves.: People do not like to get the feeling that they are “being sold.” Hyped-up sales copy that sounds like the average “used car sales man,” is a quick turn-off to buyers. They want to make a solid connection, get specific information or results. People do not like to feel as though the writer has “wasted their time.” They actually resent having “lost 30 seconds of their life” by reading poorly thought-out copy. Get their attention, get to the point they are looking for, appeal to their emotions, show them you have what they want or need (instead of “telling them”) and they will sell themselves. This is a system that needs no “tweaking.” It works. Stick with this kind of sales copy, and watch your bottom-line dollar profits soar. Do you need a better sales page for your Website? You be the judge. Professional Web Copywriter, Creative Writer, Saleswriter See Copywriting site: www.AAAWebcopyservices.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Managing Your SEO – A SPN Exclusive Article Posted: 08 Aug 2011 10:04 AM PDT 
Now it’s been two weeks and the traffic has stopped. Only so many friends and family members! So now what? You need to decide on the following points: Who is your website aimed at? How do you reach them? How much time and money are you prepared to put into it? If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions, please stop what you’re doing. Sit down and spend a day answering them. If you don’t know who your market is then there is no point even starting your SEO. Once you’ve decided who you want on your site you need to put your product in front of them and get them clicking. The following is my recommendation for what to do to start the ball rolling: 1. Submit: The first thing I do is submit my site to all the search engines. Get yourself a Webmaster account with Google, Yahoo and Bing. Submit sitemaps to them all too. Do this early to get it started. It can take time to get listed in the engines so don’t wait until your site is completed. 2. Keywords: Deciding which keywords to use is the hard part. With so much competition on the web it’s hard to know which keywords will be the most successful. Try to think of how you would begin to search for your product. What would you enter in Google to find you? 3. Meta: Ensure your meta Title is relevant to your content and contains keywords. When people search this is the first bit Google will see so make it count! 4. H1: H1 tags are like the headline in a newspaper. They act as an anchor grabbing the bot and telling him “Oi, look at this!”. Including a keyword in your H1 will also help. NB. There are H2, H3 and H4 tags too so use them! 4. Content: Ensure your content is original, unique, relevant and contains keywords. Try to change the content of your homepage regularly. If you can’t think of new content each day or it really doesn’t apply to your site then you could include a news feed as this will change daily. 6. Persist: “If at first you don’t succeed…” SEO is not an overnight thing. You can’t submit to Google today and expect to see your site on top tomorrow. It takes time and effort to get top positions. SEO can take months or even longer. Don’t give up or be downhearted if you’re still not there after a few weeks. After all is said and done the main thing to remember is your content. I recently posted on an SEO forum the following analogy: In real-estate they say “Location, location, location”. The equivalent in SEO is “Content, content, content”. Andy has been developing websites for 15 years. Optimisation has been a major part of this for a long time. Andy now works as a consultant advising on website design, development and SEO for companies across Europe. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Connecting Up The Spider Web – Google Places and Google+ – A SPN Exclusive Article Posted: 08 Aug 2011 08:07 AM PDT 
However, the changes that have been rolled out over the last few weeks have caused a lot of confusion, rather than an injection of enthusiasm for the huge potential for opportunity. From my perspective, it’s almost as if Google keeps re-leveling the playing field to keep Places within the reach and grasp of the average local business owner – who doesn’t have a fortune to spend on fancy websites and search engine optimisation advice – whilst still keeping up with the latest technological advances and innovations. The advent of Google+ – whilst seemingly separate from Google Places Pages – is a huge step in the right direction when it comes to improving customer activity on both Places Pages and customer websites. With the social media evangelists leading the clarion charge to get one of the rare tranche of initial invites, the desire to be a part of this new ‘restricted numbers’ platform has mushroomed, so that people from outside the digital world clamoured to be part of this new ‘competitor’ for Facebook. They’re also becoming more clued up about the significance of the +1 button on many pieces of website or blog content. Just as Facebook has the ‘like’ button and the facility for Facebook comments to show up on the personalised search results pages of Bing, Google have come up with something similar for Google+ – but with added juice. By linking your name to any content that you submit on your blog, website or as an article and from there to your Google+ profile, you are providing author authority which allows the search engine to place an image of you as the author beside your work on any relevant results page. If that doesn’t make your content stand out over your competitors, I don’t know what will. It’s the equivalent of the Places Page red balloon – but for people. With so many additional people joining Google Mail (otherwise known as Gmail) in order to be part of Google+ and then using their account as their standard email address, they have the key piece of the jigsaw which will allow them to participate in the intricate web of services that Google is building. You need a Google account to claim a Google Places Page and you also need one to leave a review – whether you’re on your PC or a mobile device. It is also now possible to access domain-based email accounts and non-php mail functions using a Gmail app, rather than Microsoft’s Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbolt. So, with the groundwork in place to connect up their spider’s web, Google rolled out the latest changes to the Places Page format. A big red ‘Write a Review’ button replaced the previous third party testimonials from local listing directories. Some experts said there were issues regarding using other websites’ content, but why offer customers the chance to leave reviews through other directories when Google now have an effective method of their own? Pre-Google+, not so many people had a Gmail account, so it required a lot of determined effort to leave a review on a Places Page. That problem is now solved. And with their own mobile app already in popular usage, Google have a head start over the majority of the local listing apps – even though some of them are now paying to have their mobile app installed as default on some mobile networks. Having said that, although the third party reviews no longer show in the exact number listed against any page, that doesn’t mean that Google does not still take them into account and it would be a very brave business owner indeed who put all their eggs in one basket when it comes to reviews. Get your business listed in as many local listing directories as possible so that people have the opportunity to review you, whatever app they use. Uploading photographs is another addition to the latest roll-out – again, for the mobile customer, people are far more likely to upload a review and a photo at the same time, whilst actually at the venue and having a great time, than waiting until they get home and connecting their phone up to the computer. But, more importantly, these images will make the business entry stand out in the listings on both a PC and a mobile screen, as well as increasing on-Page activity. Indeed, if you look at the newest branded one box entries, these are definitely trying to include the most useful information in the easiest way. Eye-catching pictures with only the most relevant wording taken from both the Places Page and the business website – so no detailed description and working hours to over-complicate the slick preview that is seen by the customers. What is becoming quite clear is that Google is optimising the local Places Pages for both social and mobile, using the factors that have always underpinned their SERPs – relevance and trust. But now it’s their own users who are providing both the information and the verification. Jo Shaer is a Local SEO Aficionado, who uses Google Places, Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media to direct traffic for a wide range of businesses at Lollipop Local. She also writes a regular Blog Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Ten Things to Avoid When Running an SEO Campaign Posted: 07 Aug 2011 10:00 PM PDT 
There are loads of things that you need to be doing within an SEO campaign, but there are also some things that you REALLY must avoid and we take a look at some of these below with our top ten things to avoid when running an SEO campaign. Waiting Too Long - One of the biggest mistakes most people make is waiting too long to even begin an SEO campaign. If you have a website you should be running some kind of SEO, no matter how young the site is because a good campaign can help to get a higher ranking in the early days. Targeting Competitive Keywords - If you sell houses then the chances of you getting to the top of Google for the keyword “houses” are going to be slim, to say the least. If you are working in an extremely competitive market, then you need to look outside of the box and start looking at easier keywords that you can rank for, because realistically, it is going to take a lot of time, effort and a little bit of luck to top the charts for the most competitive search terms. Ignoring Long tail Keywords - Many people think that they should always go for the most popular keywords, but these often tend to be the most competitive, so you need to look at the long tail keywords. If you targeted 5 long tail keywords that all attracted 200 searches a month but were less competitive than one that attracted 1000 searches a month, you stand more chance of getting the traffic you want in a much shorter time. Publishing Poor Articles - Content on your own site is very powerful, but you should also look at writing articles and releasing them on some of the more powerful article directories like EzineArticles. If you are going to do this, then make sure you only publish good quality articles, otherwise they will be rejected and once again you will have wasted your time. Spammy Blog Comments - Although blog commenting can be a good way to get relevant links back to your site, if you go around adding poor and unrelated comments, then this is only going to backfire on you in the long run. If you are going to comment on blogs, then make sure that you post quality comments on quality sites and check out the link follow status and the page rank / authority before you even begin. Bad Link Neighbourhoods - Always avoid linking to or getting links from “bad neighbourhoods” – sites like gambling, adult and other sites that might be considered a little bit risque. If you are found to have loads of links on these types of sites, then you are going to be in trouble, so always make sure you are careful about where links are added to your site. Ignoring Your Own Website - SEO begins at home in our opinion because if your website is rubbish, any extra traffic you generate will be a waste of time. Add to this the fact that if your meta titles and content are really poor, you are also going to lose out on ranking because two of the biggest factors when it comes to onsite SEO are meta titles and quality content. Running Out Of Patience - SEO takes time – fact! You cannot expect to start an SEO campaign and get overnight results; it will take weeks, if not months, before you really start to get the results that you deserve if you run a good campaign. SEO should be an ongoing thing, running for as long as you decide to keep your website alive, because SEO is one of those things that goes on forever and is a constant effort. Ian Spencer works for Clear Web Services, a SEO Web Optimization and Web Design company serving the Forest Of Dean, Gloucestershire and South Wales. He has worked in the SEO and Internet Marketing world for many years, and working in partnership with another company has launched the new SEO business. http://clearwebservices.com/. For more information, please call 01594 835 857 or emailinfo@clearwebservices.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
Have you ever tried to hammer a nail with the heel of your shoe? I did once, when I was a kid and didn’t have a hammer handy. It can be done, but I can assure you, it’s difficult – very, very difficult. So too is trying to build a business without branding yourself. 
When you get a visitor to land on your sales page, what should be the first thing they find? They should find beneficial, helpful content, which is most relevant to the keywords they entered into the search engine.
So you’ve got your nice shiny new website. You’ve told all your friends and family to go and see it and to Like it on your Facebook page.
For many small businesses, Google Places Pages are their big chance to overtake their larger competitors and get onto the front page of Google with a red balloon highlighting their listing.
There are plenty of SEO companies and consultants on the Internet that can help you out and plenty of free forums and guides that will give you the basics. Even if you do decide to use the skills and expertise of an SEO firm, it is still important that you at least know the basics of SEO so that you can also work with the company to make the results even better.| You are subscribed to email updates from SiteProNews Recent Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment