How to set up a blog

How to set up a blog

If you a going to create a niche site then there are two options create a web site or create a blog.In this post I am going with a blog seeing as how this platform is one!

Which blogging platform to use.

There are several platforms including WordPress.org,WordPress.com and Blogger.com.The last two are free services but the URL you will be assigned includes blogger or wordpress which detracts from the professional image you will want to portray.It’s like using a Hotmail account for your business you just don’t do it.

The best option is WordPress.org which gives you greater flexibility and your own URL.There is a cost to pay being the purchase of the domain name which is around $10 per annum.I use Namecheap.com which offer domain names slightly lower than the big ISPs such as GoDaddy.

For hosting I would recommend Hostgator where for $7.95 a month you can host an unlimited number of websites or blogs.In fact you can install WordPress inside you cpanel in a matter of seconds.Once the site is live you can change the theme from the WordPress default theme to another be it free or paid.

If you do use say Namecheap to register the domain name and Hostgator for hosting you will have to change the Nameserver settings inside Namecheap so they point to Hostgator but there are instructions inside both Namecheap and Hostgator as to how this is done.

Plug Ins

There are a number of plugins that you will need to optimize the blog for the search engines.They are:

1. All In One Seo- This plug in overrides your normal WordPress setting for the page title and description.A box will appear at the base of any post you are writing where you can insert the title and description that will appear in the Google search results.The title is the bit that appears as dark blue in Google and the description is the bit that comes next.Be sure to use your keyword phrase in both.There is also a box for keywords that are inserted in the HTML metatag part of you page but do not appear on the page.

These keywords are not given as much weight as they once were,because people were using keywords unrelated to the page in order to gain high ranking.Google now give more importance to backlinking from sites with a high page ranking.

2. XML Site map- this plug in creates a file that is used by the Google spiders to index the site.

3.Easy Privacy Policy creates a privacy policy page plus privacy content which Google likes to see.The page is automatically shown in your navigation bar.

4.Permalinks allows you to alter the url of your blog post so that you can incorporate your keyword phrase.

 
You want to select the custom structure option as shown above and the use the coding /%postname%/.Then when you write a post you can change the file name to whatever you want.

5.You will want to track where your traffic is coming from so you can use Google Analytics.This plug in will link to a Google Analytics account you have already created.You can set up your account here.This plug in gets round the problem of inserting the analytics code in your html directly if the thought of that makes you nervous.

The Theme

The next important part is the look and feel of the blog.Just as with hosting you can have free or paid themes the latter giving you more flexibility but if you are on a budget then the free ones do just fine.Look for the appearance tab on your wordpress dashboard and look for the themes option.

This will open a page which shows the current theme you have but look for a search box where you can find more to chose from.There is even a filter function where you can specify the colours used and how many columns are deployed.Then with one click the current theme is removed and your new one goes in.It’s that simple.

Content

Once you have completed all these tasks you are ready to write your first blog post.Remember each blog post must be keyword focused so you need to know what are good keywords to write about in your niche.We can say the people come to the internet looking for information that will solve a problem.They will not stay on your site or buy from you if you are not offering a solution to a problem.

So you need to find they keyword phrases people are using to find those solutions and then build blog posts around those keywords.I use Wordtracker for my research though this is a paid service.For free keyword searches use the Google keyword tool.

Another tool to find what question are being asked in your niche is to go to Yahoo Answers .There is a search function where you can find the questions.As well as getting post ideas you can start answering the questions yourself and post a link back to your blog.

Well this post has gone on rather a bit so look out for the next one where I will go into more content strategy as content will always beat SEO in the end, as it is content  that people really want.

Happy Blogging

Andrew Collinson

Backlinking-strategies-that-work

Backlinking Strategies That Works

Building multiple backlinks to your website is vital if it is to rank highly on the search engines.One of the most popular methods is to write articles which can then be “spun” to produce even more versions.These are then posted in article directories which contain links back to your website.

The Google spiders see all these backlinks and start to rank your website.The problem is if you use one of these article submission sites then Google will see all these backlinks going to your site and know it’s unnatural.The use of these article submitters may therefore be counter productive.

The solution is to have a a tier of sites that point to your main site and have all the mass submitted articles point to this tier of sites.These are sites which have high Google ranking and can therefore handle and massive amount of inbound links.Google would have no problem with this.

Then you link from that tier of sites back to your main page so that the SEO linking can happen without Goole getting suspicious.The sites for this protective tier are

1. WordPress.com ( not WordPress.org where you have to pay for a domain name and hosting.)
2. Blogger.com-free and owned by Google.
3. Squidoo.com created by Seth Godin.
4. Hubpages has a PR of 6 and an Alexa ranking of 188 at the time of writing this article.

So now I have shown the reasons for this system let’s see how it works:

Create an article for your niche site.

You first write and article that is original or outsource this function if you are confident with this method.I use Elance.com when I outsource.You will need to find someone good to work with who has a strong track record in your niche.The article should be 400 to 600 words in length.Post this article to your blog and ensure is optimized for the search engines using All in One SEO plug in.

Set up your tier of website that surround your niche site.

These are the sites mentioned above and are all free.You will need to create content for each site and ensure there is a link back to your main site.You can re-use the same content as the article or blog post by creating a You Tube video which you can embed on the Squidoo/Hub page site with a hyperlink from You Tube.

Submit to the article directories

You do this using your article submission software.I use  Submityourarticle.com which spins your article first  then submits it over a number of days, the choice is yours as to how many days.All the big article directories are covered such as Ezine.com and GoArticles.com.

Make sure these article link to your Squdioo,Hubpage WordPress.com and Blogger.com pages NOT your niche site.

Rinse and repeat

Go back to step one and start again.The whole process will take some time unless you outsource and for me is all free except the article submitter software which is a paid service.

Tel me what your strategies are to get backlinks  by leaving a comment and let’s see who’s got the best system.

Can NoFollow Follow?

DoFollow is the absence of the NoFollow code in your links. The NoFollow is a special HTML code that you can add to links to prevent search engines from passing any page attributes such as page  rank.

The purpose of NoFollow was to discourage spammers leaving meaningless comments on blogs just to get backlinks to their sites.

Most major sites use the NoFollow code and on self hosted WordPress sites,NoFollow is the default code.

So you may think that there is no point in leaving comments on a NoFollow site.Well some surveys have been done and it has been shown that back linking from NoFollow sites will still boost your ranking if you focus on one particular keyword.So don't let NoFollow puut you off.

The key is to leave quality comments.Don't just say "great post".It is likely that the moderator of that blog will delete your post.Leave comments that add to the debate.The more focused your comment is on the the blog post subject the more credibility you will gain.

People will then start coming to your blog to see what you are about.

So find some relevant blogs in your niche and start commenting.

Yours in Mastery

Andrew Collinson

ps now leave a good comment below.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Traffic generation via SEO or search engine optimization is one of the least understood, yet effective traffic generation strategies in online marketing these days.

Are you using a website to promote your online business?  (If you said no, stop right here and go set it up NOW – your online business is useless without a lead capture/landing page!!!)

If so, you may have found yourself a bit frustrated – to say the least! – by how difficult it can be to generate targeted traffic to your website.

Many marketers launch websites (or just use their company duplicated site, which is also a huge no-no) with the “build it and they will come” mentality, thinking that simply having a site is the key to successful traffic and lead generation.
Unfortunately, no matter how much time or money you have sunk into your online presence, building a website is not enough.

In order to make your website truly work for you, you need to use search engine optimization (SEO) to get targeted traffic to your website

Search engine what?…
Q:  What is search engine optimization | SEO?
A:   Search engine optimization involves generating traffic to your site through being ranked high in search engines for your chosen keywords.

Q:  Why should you care?
A:   Search engine optimization robots look for keywords , and having them in your content will help your site to achieve a position high up on the search result rankings.

Think about the last time you did a Google search.

How many pages of results did you look at to find the information you wanted?
Chances are you didn’t look past the first page or two of results. If you are on page 4 of Google you might as well not exist.

The same is true with the vast majority of internet users — if they don’t find what they’re looking for on the first page, they usually either give up or try a different search phrase.

There are several good SEO keyword tools I use Wordtracker  to find keywords relevant to your business and generate more traffic for your site via search engine optimization.

Spend some time finding out what people are searching for in Google and other search engines… and use these keywords in your content.

This includes not only the text of your website, but also your image tags, title tags, and page descriptions.
It takes quite a bit of time to use search engine optimization to gain more traffic for your site — time that you would probably rather spend talking to prospects.

HOWEVER, by properly optimizing your site for search engines, you can generate targeted traffic much more effectively — and spend your time capturing email addresses through your autoresponder like Aweber, instead of hunting for those leads.
 

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With SBI you learn the key to success is building a content based website that offers value to your visitors, not one that just pitches products to them.

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How to use keyword

How to use keyword.An important topic.The first thing you must do is make sure the keyword you intend to use is actually used by people when using Google.

You may think that you have a great title for a blog post or web page but if no one is using it,then you are not going to rank on Google or any other search engine.

Take the title of this post.Notice I used the single “keyword” not the plural.Why?Because a free Google tool told me the single version is used more often than the plural.

The tool in question is the Google Adwords Keyword tool which you can find here

Just type in the word you want to use Google will give the monthly search figures for that and other words that closely match it.You may find a word or phrase you had not thought of ,but is used more often.

You need that keyword phrase in the first sentence of your body text,and perhaps one more near the end.But don’t overdo it or it will look like keyword spamming and Google will penalise you with a low search result ranking.You can find more great advice on keyword research by reading this blog post by Renegade Super Guide Marie Leonard

If you have a blog then make sure you install the All in One SEO Pack to you blog which you can find here this allows you to change the title of the blog to something more appealing to the search engines.

The content of the blog remains unaltered but you get an even better chance of high ranking.

So do your keyword research first before writing your post.

Your partner is success.

Andrew

Lead Generation:getting noticed by the search engines

Lead generation.We all want more leads.

To get those leads we must show up on the search engines,because if you are not known by the search engines, you are invisible on the internet.

You can create the best website there is,with hugely compelling copy but it will count for nothing if the Google,MSM and Yahoo spiders have not had a look at your site.

So how do you get search engine rankings?You need two things:keywords and backlinks.

Think about what you do when you search for something on the internet.You go to Google and type in a word or phrase in the search box.

Then Google goes and finds sites that have that word or phrase on their site.

So the first thing you need to know is what words or phrases people are using to find things on the internet.

To help you with that process Google has developed it’s own keyword tool which you can find here.Type in a word that you think relates to the central theme of your site and Google will show you how many times a day that word typed into Google.Not only that it will list variations of that word.The trick then is to use this list to create web pages n your site.

Take one keyword and make it the main subject of that page.In this way you are more likely to be ranked high on the search engines as Google puts the most relevant pages to that keyword at the top of the list.

If you want an even deeper list of keyword I recommend Wordtracker that also offers a free keyword tool  here.

Then keep adding pages to your website or blog using a different keyword for each page.This is part one of your search engine optimization strategy for lead generation.

The second part is backlinks.

Backlinks are links on other websites that link back to your website.The more you have the better.But they have to be a certain type of backlink.

You must link back to your site from a site that is well regarded by Google.An example would be Squidoo.com which is a free web page creation tool that is well regarded by Google.You can see here a live Squidoo page on lead generation online .Create valuable content on your Squidoo lens then link to your web page or lead capture page.This will raise the status of your page on Google and get it higher up the search engine rankings.

Ideally you want to have one way links from the page that has high ranking back to your page,but not the other way.Google gives greater importance one way links.With two way links Google thinks you may have an agreement with the website owner of the other site to exchange links in order to lift rankings.

You can go on the internet and find these link exchange “farms” where people just exchange links with each other often between sites that have no relevance to each other.

Look for quality links and this will boost your search engine rankings.

Have a great day

Andrew Collinson

If you want to learn more about lead generation and search engine optimization I recommend the Renegade University which you can find here