I’ve always been one of those people who spends way too much time online finding content around the web. Recently, I started a new job as an SEO and this skill has become incredibly handy while writing guest posts for link building. Because of Google’s Panda algorithm, it is becoming more and more important to have quality guest posts on respected sites—you do not want your backlink profile to stem from non-relevant PR link farms.
While I am admittedly too good at finding things on the web, there are times where I am still stumped for guest post ideas. I write for a website called Scarves.net so I do a lot of blog prospecting and inspiration searching in hard-to-find corners of the web. For this type of research, many times the best ideas that I need are not the first hit in Google. When I am searching for great tips on how to wear scarves, how to store your scarves, and crafty projects for scarves that make great guest posts, I always turn to these five websites. Whether you are searching for info on scarves, marketing, or SEO, it does not matter. These sites can always help to get those creative juices flowing again.
Continue reading “Top 5 Creative Websites to Use for Inspiration in Guest Posts”
Tags: creative articles, guest blogging
An interview with Sherry Hyle of Concept Hub
Considering all the social networks available today, LinkedIn isn’t usually at the top of the list. Should LinkedIn be at the top of the list for certain businesses and individuals?
Continue reading “LinkedIn: The Business Intelligence Gathering Social Network”
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Tags: inside sales, intelligence gathering, LinkedIn
People hear about the algorithm so much they don’t 
realize the other side of Google’s ranking matrix – human raters.
A few years ago, conversion optimizers wondered whether their work to improve a landing page’s conversion rate also influenced search rank. Well, today it most likely does because of human raters.
Continue reading “Google’s Quality Raters Are Looking At Your Site”
Tags: google quality raters, search results, seo, seo approach
I believe many bloggers want to take every post 
they make viral. Is this a realistic goal to achieve? It probably isn’t, but you shouldn’t aim to take every one of your posts viral in the first place either.
The number of posts that actually go viral is pretty low. However, if you know how viral marketing works, you may be able to take a couple of your posts viral. Here are some reasons why your viral marketing campaign may not be working and what you need to do differently.
Continue reading “Why That Great Post Didn’t Go Viral”
Tags: viral campaign, viral marketing
A jaw-dropping 212 million shoppers showed up to take 
advantage of Black Friday sales in 2010, with an even more astounding $39 billion being spent on merchandise. What this means for your business, of course, is a healthy competition to draw in as many of those 212 million shoppers and as much of an “in the black” profit as your organization can manage going into the first day of the 2011 holiday season.
With tech trends evolving from year to year, advertising has done so as well. Attracting your customers is, to the dismay of shop owners everywhere, going to require more than a simple flier or word-of-mouth campaign. Luring in customers means intelligently implementing a social networking strategy into your business’ marketing plan, which may include ubiquitous sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and various other sites with mass followings scouring the Internet in search of which retailers have the greatest deals, and what exclusive offerings businesses like yours have made available online.
Continue reading “Appealing to Consumers on Black Friday”
Tags: black friday, business to consumer marketing, holiday marketing tips
What gets more attention from prospects: listings with images or those with customer quotes?
As it turns out, the answer is “yes.” Mediative recently completed a study watching people interact with search results in Google Places listings. They wanted to know where people look, whether listings with reviews influence people and if/how people use the maps.
The study involved 12 in-person participants using eye-tracking software and another 90 participants online. The premise was that each participant took an imaginary road trip across Canada, choosing a place for a friend to get a tattoo in each of 4 different cities: Hamilton, London, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
Continue reading “Research Shows Which Google Places Listings Get More Clicks”
Tags: google maps, google places, mediative research
An interview with Larry Block of RUtxting.com
Larry shared some interesting statistics on text message marketing: according to Nelson Ratings the average text message gets a response within 2 hours.
He also shared that any B2C business who offers any kind of coupon can benefit from text message marketing and they are always finding new and creative ways to use this technology to do marketing.
Continue reading “Text Message Marketing Tips”
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Tags: text message marketing
An interview with Ileane Smith of Basic Blog Tips.
Many people get started blogging with lots of enthusiasm only to give it up a few months later because no one seems to know about it or show any interest in the discussion.
Continue reading “How to Blog Successfully – Tips From Ileane Smith”
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Tags: audience engagement, blog ideas, how to blog, ileane smith
