Aligned Marketing Blog

This is my last post before Christmas so I wanted to give you something special.

If you've ever read Jonahan Morrow's blog on Copyblogger then you know you are enjoying one of the true writing talents in the blogosphere. His latest post is inspirational; below is a link. I hope you (1) enjoy it as much as I did and (2) share it with a friend.


Merry Christmas,
Steve and Carol Hartkopf

On Monday we learned that About.com forecast Twitter to reach 26 million users (15.5% of adult internet users) by 2010, taught you how open your own Twitter account and discussed being a good Twitizen. Today you’ll learn how to:

How can you locate the right people to Follow? Here are some tools:

• Wefollow (http://wefollow.com) lists the Twitter people –Tweeps, Twits or Tweople – with the most Followers by tag usage. Think of a tag as a subject, such as music or news.Follow the people with the most Followers in the subjects that matter to you.
  
• Twellow (http://www.twellow.com) is “a search directory of people by area of expertise, profession or other attribute listed in personal profiles. Use the same Follow tactic here as you did with Wefollow.
  
• Nearby Tweets (http://nearbytweets.com) is a very cool tool because it lets you find other Twits in your, or some other, geography. Personal note: I walked into an event in my home town and the first person I introduced myself to said, “Oh, I know you, I Follow you on Twitter.” It was cool. We both started laughing. The lesson: Follow people close to your home or work.
  
• Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) allows you to search the Twittersphere for keywords or topics and is an excellent way to find like-minded people, potential clients or business partners to Follow.
• Listorious (http://www.listorious.com) was explained in detail in my November 4 post (http://tinyurl.com/yal4ay5) so just let me say, it’s a super directory of lists on Twitter and I highly recommend you use it to locate people to Follow.

How you get people to Follow you:

• The first tip is a no-brainer: Provide good content. Post (Tweet) content that is interesting, useful and/or entertaining and your followship will grow.
• The second tip is to make sure your profile is well written, your page design is well executed and, in general, you treat your Twitter account as a marketing tool. Most people prefer to know the people they Follow and your online presence is your introduction, the beginning of knowing you.
• List your Twitter account on your website, blog, all of your social media accounts, email signature and printed materials, if you have them, and provide a link to your Twitter account whenever possible.
• Pick a tweet-niche and stick to it since it is, in effect, your online brand. Most of my tweets are about business communication and using technology in digital marketing. However, I also throw in a few posts about current events, sports and fun stuff, such videos, to show the lighter side of my personality.
• Since most of the people you Follow will Follow you in return, using the previously mentioned tools will drive your Follower number up is a great way to increase Followers.
• Retweet (RT) the people you want following you. Most Twitters review their list of RT’s and if you are helping them spread their message it’s likely they will Follow you out of courtesy/reciprocity.

How you can locate topics to Tweet and Retweet:

• Follow your passions. If, like me, you enjoy social media, current events and fun-stuff, then post about those topics.
• Visit websites that have great content and either comment (tweet) about what you read or RT articles, posts and videos.
• Here are the sites I visit often for content.
  • Google (http://www.google.com) is my #1 source. When a topic strikes my fancy, I Google it to learn more and that often spurs a post.
  • The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/home-page). WSJ is right in my wheelhouse as far as business reporting, quality writing and politics. I think the online subscriptions is, like, $69.00 a year.
  • YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) is my #2 source. I’m always amazed at what is available on YouTube. There’s a video on almost every subject imaginable and a lot of them are either hysterical or surprisingly informative.
• For information about technology and what technology marvel is coming next I visit:
  • Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com)
  • CNET (http://www.cnet.com)
  • TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com)
  • Alltop (http://alltop.com) is an online magazine rack where you can pick up great information, current thinking, well-written articles and post about almost any subject.
  • There are a lot of great blogs and blogger directories online. Here are the ones I use the most:
    • Mashable (http://www.mashable.com) is a blog dedicated to social networking news and events.
    • Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com) promotes itself as a site for “copywriting tips for online success” and, in my view, it delivers.
    • Problogger (www.problogger.net) helps “bloggers add income streams to their blogs.”
    • The Bloggers’ Bulletin (http://www.thebloggersbulletin.org) is an excellent source for “Tips, Tools and News on Blogging!” (Yes, this is shameless self-promotion since I’m a contributor. So sue me. Check it out, I think you’ll agree that the team is producing good content and helping a lot of people get started blogging.)

Final thought on behalf of all bloggers, most of us put a lot of time and energy into our blogs. We take this stuff seriously. So tell us how we’re doing? Is this information useful? What else would you like us to report on, discuss or teach? If you’re not comfortable making public comments, send me an email at shartkopf@aligned-marketing.com. I’d really like to hear from you.

It’s Wednesday, the only one this week. Do something remarkable!

Steve

Inbound links are an important and often misunderstood search engine optimization tactic.

But before we get into tactics, let's begin with a definition. According to Wikipedia: An inbound link is a hyperlink transiting (Is that a word?) domains. Links are inbound from the perspective of the link target, and conversely, outbound from the perspective of the originator. Inbound links were originally important (prior to the emergence of search engines) as a primary means of web navigation; today their significance lies in search engine optimization (SEO).

In addition to rankings by content, many search engines rank pages based on inbound links. Google's description of their PageRank system, for instance, notes that Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.[1] Knowledge of this form of search engine rankings has fueled a portion of the SEO industry commonly termed linkspam, where a company attempts to place as many inbound links as possible to their site regardless of the context of the originating site...

Got that?

Maybe this is an easier way to get your head around the concept of inbound links. There are thousands of directories on the web. There are even directories for directories, such as Best of the Web (www.botw.org) or Web Directories (www.web-directories.ws), which boasts 13,000 directories. When these directories list your site's url and provide a link to your site, that is an Inbound Link.

There are many techniques and methods that produce varied results. In my next four posts you will learn some easy and not so easy ways to build links to your site.

1. Beginner Tactics
First, you must have a solid keyword strategy and optimize each page on your website around a different keyword phrase. Each link you build should help a specific page rank higher on the search engines for your specific keyword. 

That said, begin your linking strategy by submitting your page url to relevant free directories. There are lots of business directories (for example) out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business. MacRAES Blue Book (www.macraesbluebook.com) is one. MacRAES lists US and Canadian suppliers of industrial product.  Some directories require approval, some require an update every 90 -120 days and some require a fee, which means it takes time, effort and maybe even some financial resources if you want to be listed on the appropriate directories for your website or blog.

In addition use social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, the usual suspects, to build links to your site and blog, assuming your target audience visits the site or these sites rank high for your keywords already.

At this point it's also a good idea to consider hiring someone to perform this work for you. The work is easy to do, albeit time consuming, and as you would expect, delivers a good return on your investment. Just don't hire a firm that guarantees 10,000 links for $500 dollars. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Besides, I've heard more than one "expert" say that Google doesn't like 10,000 inbound links showing up in a day or two. That signals to them that you're gaming the system (at an unacceptable level) and can get you punished. Yikes! It's just not a good idea to poke an 800 pound (Google) gorilla in the nose.

Finally, start a blog. I'm not going to go into specifics here because I've written about blogging dozens of times and there are, literally, thousands of great articles available online to help you get started blogging - Copyblogger and Blogger's Bulletin are two of my favorites. Blog postings keep your site, your inbound links fresh and, as we'll learn in my next post, are a good relationship building tools.

On Wednesday I'll introduce you to some Intermediate Level linking tactics.

Steve