Social Networks – perhaps you’ve heard of them before, but are not quite sure what they are. Why is it that the “seo experts” just love using social networks to help their sites get “top rankings” in the major search engines?

Social networking is the online grouping of individuals into specific groups or niches, like real estate activities or home business entrepreneurs. Social networking becomes interactive, whereas Social Bookmarking is really just creating a library of links or letting others know they should visit some content that you have bookmarked a link to.

Just like Social Bookmarking, the search engines love Social Networks.  Sign up for some high profile social network sites and it will boost the page ranking of your business website and blog, not to mention the direct exposure you can get from the potentially millions of people that may read your profile.

While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The social networking sites without a main focus are often referred to as “traditional” social networking websites and usually have open memberships (e.g. MySpace, Facebook).

This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

Social networking is based on the premise that people should both express their individuality and meet people with similar interests. This approach means that social networks will allow you to set up profiles, friends, blog posts, widgets, and perhaps something unique to that particular social networking website — such as the ability to ‘poke’ people on Facebook or high-five someone on Hi5.

When you join a Social Network you will find the following sections you either need to set up or should get active in.

Profile: This is the section where you set up your “About Me”. Profiles contain basic information, like where you live, what you do, how old you are, and in some cases personality questions (e.g. Social networks dedicated to a special theme like music or movies might ask questions related to what kind of music you like).

Friends: This where you can make friends with people and this is one of the major ways to develop business contacts.  Friends are trusted members of the site that are allowed to post comments on your profile or send you private messages. You can also keep tabs on how your friends are using social networking, such as when they post a new picture or update their profile. Friends are the core of social networking.

Groups: Almost all social networks allow you to use groups to help you find people with similar interests or engage in discussions on certain topics. A group can be anything from “real estate bloggers” to “People Who Like Cats” (which rules me out of that group) to “Marshall Tucker Band Fans” to “seo experts”. Groups are a way to connect with like-minded people, a way to identify your interests, and a way to gain exposure for your business.

Many Social Networks also have other neat features that can really boost your exposure on the Internet and help you get “top rankings” for your business.

These include:

• Blogs – where you can create your own blog entries,
• Discussions – for creating interaction between users,
• Widgets – where you can customize your social networking profile with web widgets.

Social Networking is fantastic for meeting people with similar interests and is a very effective business technique for business entrepreneurs that are looking for more sales leads and customers.

When you set up your Social Network sites you will be setting up backlinks to your business site, which the search engines love and also gaining direct exposure to potential customers.  This is truly a fantastic “low cost seo” tactic for “getting traffic” to your site and getting “top rankings” with the major search engines.  “Seo experts” love this strategy and you should too!

Here are just a few of the top social networking sites:

• http://facebook.com
• http://myspace.com
• http://friendster.com
• http://bebo.com
• http://hi5.com

And the list goes on and on.

HINT: Just like Social Bookmarking, you can use Onlywire and Ping.fm to simplify your social networking efforts. Once you set up Onlywire and Ping.fm you can syndicate your content and articles to the web’s top social bookmarking and networking sites with a single button click. Go to http://onlywire.com and http://ping.fm and sign up for your free accounts.

Setting up your Social Networking empire can take a lot of time (a lot more than setting up your Social Bookmarking network) but is well worth it in the long run.  If you need some more info on Social Networking and Bookmarking give me a call. I offer a variety of services to business owners whereby I will set up your Social Bookmarking and Networking spider web. My conversations are on the house.

BIG HINT: Sign up for either RoboForm (www.roboform.com/php/land.php?affid=m1953&frm=frame10) or LastPass (https://lastpass.com/) to help you manage all the Usernames, Passwords and demographic data you will need to enter when you sign up for all the Social Bookmark and Networking sites.  Either of these tools will make your job a lot easier.  Both offer Free versions.

How to Use Social Bookmarking for “getting traffic” to your Business Blog or Website….

It started with Myspace, then Facebook, then Youtube, and now its social bookmarking. All fall into the Web 2.0 genre. The use of these sites for SEO purposes and simply to get massive exposure to your websites and blogs has become the latest trend in internet marketing.

Have you ever bookmarked a web page in your browser so you can go back to it later?  They allow you to save bookmarks online and Tag/Categorize them with keywords instead of saving them as bookmarks in the favorite’s list of your browser.  This is what social bookmarking is, except everyone can see what you bookmark.  Note: Social Bookmarking is different than Social Networking, which we will cover in the next post.

A big reason that savvy business owners and “seo experts” spend so much time and effort on social bookmarking is because of the power of Web 2.0. For instance, Google, Bing and Yahoo absolutely love all of these Web 2.0 sites.

Here is the main reason why you need to have a social bookmarking campaign. Google puts a lot of emphasis on one way back links to your website to help determine its page rank.

Not only does Google look at the number of links but they look at the quality of the links.  There is a transfer of page rank that occurs from the higher ranking site to yours.

Social bookmarking is one piece of your overall campaign, is a simple traffic generation technique and is a very “low cost seo” tactic.

It is free to sign up at the popular social bookmarking networks, and it doesn’t take too long to bookmark your site. Bookmarking a site or blog is easy, but to consistently bookmark all of your new blog posts does take some effort.  Also, setting up the bookmarking sites for the first time does take an effort.  But, once you set them up you are good to go.

When your site receives a bookmark, it shows the search engines that people are talking about, and interested in your site. This is a great way to get a ton of high quality back links and get “top rankings”.

Here are just a few of the top social bookmarking sites:

•    http://del.icio.us
•    http://digg.com
•    http://furl.net
•    http://simpy.com
•    http://redditt.com
•    http://kaboodle.com
•    http://netvouz.com
•    http://fark.com

and the list goes on and on.

HINT: You can use Onlywire and Ping.fm to simplify your social bookmarking efforts. Once you set up Onlywire and Ping.fm you can syndicate your content and articles to the web’s top social bookmarking and networking sites with a single button click. Go to http://onlywire.com and http://ping.fm and sign up for your free accounts.

Setting up your Social Bookmarking empire can take a lot of time but is well worth it in the long run.  We offer a variety of services to business owners whereby we will set up your Social Bookmarking and Networking spiderweb.

BIG HINT: Sign up for either RoboForm (www.roboform.com/php/land.php?affid=m1953&frm=frame10) or LastPass (https://lastpass.com/) to help you manage all the Usernames, Passwords and demographic data you will need to enter when you sign up for all the Social Bookmark and Networking sites.  Either of these tools will make your job a lot easier.  Both offer Free versions.

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Yahoo Profiles.

In previous posts, Google Profiles – Creating Your Social Networking Spiderweb – Tip 08, we covered setting up Google and Microsoft Live Profiles and why they are such a great idea.  This is a continuation on that theme, only this time we are covering Yahoo Profiles and why you should set one up to promote yourself.

And here is an example of what my Yahoo Profile looks like http://profiles.yahoo.com/markvschwartz

Live – Bing Profiles.

In a previous post, Google Profiles – Creating Your Social Networking Spiderweb – Tip 08, we covered setting up a Google Profile and why it is such a great idea.  This is a continuation on that theme, only this time we are covering Microsoft’s Live (Bing) Profiles and why you should set one up to promote yourself.

And here is an example of what my Live Profile looks like – http://cid-76eddf7545e67454.profile.live.com/

“Google Profiles” are a great way to promote yourself, your brand and get your name out on the web.

Google Profiles are being given very good placement in the search engine results, so it is worth it for you to set one up.

A Google profile is exactly what it sounds like: A personal profile that appears when someone does a Google search of your name — it lets you display to others more about who you are and what you’re all about. My advice: Create one now to make sure you’re properly represented on the Web.  Creating a Google profile is a great “low cost seo” tactic used by many “seo experts”.

Once you set up your Google profile it will (soon) be available in other Google web applications.   For example, when you are in Google Maps there is a link to your profile at the top of the page.

Profiles are public and contain basic information about yourself: a nickname (the real name is displayed only to your contacts), your occupation, your location, a list of your links to other sites, a photo and a short description.

To begin with, you can upload a photo of yourself so people that have met you will know you are the person they are looking for. A profile also lets visitors send you messages (but doesn’t give them your e-mail address — nice bit of privacy protection there), read your bio, get contact information (whatever you care to provide), and see any links you care to share. And, Google now lists name-search results in a Profile section at the bottom of the query page. By creating a profile, you can stake a claim to that section and, hopefully, steer searchers to the real you.

Creating a Google Profile is easy:

1. Go to Google Profiles (http://www.google.com/profiles) and click ‘Create my profile’.
2. If you already have a Google username, sign in. If not, you’ll need to create one before you can proceed.
3. Enter information like your name, where you grew up, where you live, where you work, where you went to school. The more information you enter the more interesting you will be to people viewing your profile.
4. Profile Photo – The key to a good profile is a good photo of yourself so people know who they’re reading about when they get to your profile. So add a photo of yourself because everyone wants to see a photo when they’re reading a profile.
5. Create a short bio about yourself (and your business).  Make it engaging, yet professional. Remember, potential employers may look at your profile so be careful what you say.
6. What you Offer – Do you have a home based or personal business? If you offer some sort of product or service, your Google profile is a great place to promote it.
7. Keywords – What do you like to do and who are you? Those are your keywords. Are you a network marketer? Enter keywords into your Bio, your Super Power etc
8. Custom Links – Google Profiles allows you to enter all your important links. If you have a business website, blogs, or social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, you can include all of them in your Google profile. Including links to your other sites on your Google profile is also good for the other sites because it will give them a search engine boost.
9. Photos – In this section you can have your pictures from Picasa display.  If you have a business this is a good place to show pictures of your products (if for example you sell art or website designs, etc.).
10. Contact Info – I think this is self explanatory.
11. Profile URL – You can choose your own URL for your Google profile at the “Create a Profile URL” (at the bottom of the profile page) — otherwise, your profile will look like http://www.google.com/profiles/109806878684291553078. Use a name instead so your profile will look like http://www.google.com/profiles/markvschwartz, which is much nicer (and better for search). Be careful to choose a name that suits you (like your name or the name of your business). This will be what people see at the top of your browser bar and also what they see in search engines. You can copy your Google profile’s URL and add a link to it from your other websites so people can come and read all about you.
12. Click on “Create a Google profile”.

Setting up a Google profile provides an easy opportunity for you to promote your business.  Your Google profile is one more tool you have to network, connect online and improve how people find you on the Internet.  Ultimately, you have everything to gain by setting up your own Google profile as part of your “social networking spiderweb” and Internet marketing strategy.

Social media sites are popping up all over the place at a rate that defies the imagination. The trend is non-stop, so you can sit on the sidelines and watch or you can get involved and use them to your benefit, perhaps on a truly social basis or to promote your business.

With the hundreds and hundreds of “social networks” and “social bookmark” sites available, how does one make sense out of them and how to use them? From a business perspective, it is a fact that the major search engines love the social networks. As a result, you can use social networking as part of your “low cost seo” strategy for getting “top rankings” on the search pages and subsequently driving traffic to your website/blog/business.

There are many, many strategies for how to start using social networks and bookmarks sites for SEO and getting traffic purposes. The following video shows one basic strategy that anyone can do, although it does take some time and effort.

So enjoy the video and I would love to hear your perspectives and insights.

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Why Commenting on Blogs Works for “getting targeted traffic” – 05

There are many ways to get targeted traffic to your website or blog and one of the more popular methods is to find blogs and blog posts related to your topic or business niche.  Then you enter comments for each appropriate blog post that you find.

I’ve always been an advocate for being an active blog commenter because it can play an important role in your overall online marketing strategy.  It can help in “getting targeted traffic” for many reasons, not just SEO.  (Although it is an extremely effective, “low cost seo” tactic that many “seo experts” use.)

By taking the time to comment on blogs, even one or two comments per day can lead to extremely positive results such as reputation building, expert positioning, and the building of inbound links (even if the blog you are posting comments on uses the “no follow” attribute in their comment fields).  Commenting on blogs is therefore, more of an indirect way of getting “top rankings” with the major search engines.

One of the neat things about blogs is that are not a one-way conversation between the site author (blogger) and their audience. Commenting on blogs allows readers to continue that conversation, feel involved, offer their opinions, and to start a debate, etc. When readers visit a blog they like to see a vibrant community with a lot of post comments. A lot of comments show that the blog is active and thought provoking.

When you meaningfully participate in a blogging community, you are creating meaningful relationships with people who can send you significant traffic.

When you enter a blog comment you are also entering your name, email address and website.  So if your comment is interesting, readers may click on your link and visit your blog or website.  Your comments may also get re-tweeted, get social media votes and even bookmarked.  This is the way that content spreads and is the way you get real traffic that actually matters.

Do not spam your comments! If you try leaving a comment like “Nice Blog, Check out My Website” it is NOT going to get approved by the blog owner and will not be posted. The key here is to show the blog owner that you actually are interested in their blog and want to contribute towards it.

If you really want to make the most of your time, only focus on blogs that have Google page rank. This is a nice way to gauge the quality of the blogs you come across.

TIP:  To start out, find 5-10 related blogs with high page rankings and become active in them.  Don’t try to become active in too many blogs at one time as you will spread your efforts too thin.

Getting “top rankings” with Article Marketing

Issue 01 in our – Getting “top rankings” Series

If I were to recommend just one traffic generation strategy, it would be a toss up between video and article marketing. But for now I am going to go with article marketing because it is easier to get started with. There is a reason why article marketing is so popular – it actually works!  It is also a very “low cost seo” tactic – in fact it shouldn’t cost you a dime.

Article marketing is where you write articles about your niche or topic and you then submit them to article directories.  At the bottom of each article (usually in the Resource or Author box) you write, you are allowed to insert a link or two that links back to your website.

There are thousands of article directories that have “top rankings” with the search engines and by you having your articles and links on them gives your site some huge advantages.

And, once your article is published in these high ranking directories, other bloggers, etc. will see your article and may publish it on their site or blog.  This creates even more back links to your site.

Thus, it is quite common for just one of your articles to get you several high quality backlinks.

There are many ways to publish articles.  You can post them one at a time to the directories with “top rankings” or you can use automated tools that will publish to dozens, even hundreds of directories.

To start with, I do not suggest that you submit your article to every article directory you can find – instead just stick with the top few.  Hold off on submitting to more than five to 10 directories until we teach you about how to spin articles, how to avoid duplicate content penalties, and some of the article submitting tools available.

Here are some for you to consider.  Or, you can go here for a list of the top 50 article directories.

• http://ezinearticles.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://searchwarp.com
• http://articlecity.com
• http://isnare.com
• http://buzzle.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://helium.com
• http://articledashboard.com
• http://ideamarketers.com
• http://amazines.com

For those of you that are ready to use an automated Article Submitter, I use and recommend Magic Article Submitter. It is very inexpensive, easy to use, and comes with a 90 day guarantee.

Okay, that’s it for today.  Now go write an article of at least 500 words and submit it to five or so article directories.  Change your titles for each site and make sure you use your keywords in the title of your article.  It is also a good idea to try and make each article somewhat unique so they each appear as original content.

Please read the Article Submission guidelines for each of the directories because they will not publish your article unless you follow them.

Next up we will be discussing Social Bookmarking.

Getting “top rankings” – Series on How to Get Targeted Traffic

Introduction 00

Welcome to the kick off issue on how to get traffic to your business website and blog and get “top rankings” with the search engines.  (You do have a website and blog, don’t you?)

In this series I am going to be sharing with you dozens of great ways to drive traffic to your website(s).   The more traffic you get the more successful you will be.

Please don’t get overwhelmed with all the tactics that I am going to show you, and don’t feel that you must use every single technique I show you.  In fact that might be a little bit of overkill.

I suggest that you create a folder on your computer to store all these tactics in so you can refer to them later.  As you receive new tactics take action on them, now, rather than later.  Most of the tips are very easy to do, they may just take a little effort on your part.

Before we start with the techniques, I need to set a foundation for you and cover some general concepts about traffic generation.

The techniques you are going to learn and use will often drive traffic to your business website/blog in two different ways:

1)    you can receive traffic immediately from the method used directly through the links that you obtain, and

2)    the back-links you receive by using these methods will help your site get higher rankings in the search engines, which will result in a lot of organic traffic.

It will be nice great to take advantage of the immediate traffic you can get from many of these techniques, but if you are in this for the long haul, your main priority should be in getting as many high quality links to your site/blog as possible.  This will ensure that your site performs better in the search engines.

Basically, the more links a site has pointing back to it (aka back links), the better it is going to rank with in the search engines.  Therefore, most of our traffic generation methods are going to focus on obtaining high quality links to your site using “low cost seo” or free methods.

Don’t worry, this will not be as hard as it sounds!

On a final note, it may be very tempting to go out there and get as many links as you can, as fast as you can.  This may actually hurt you! Slow down and take a methodical approach. The search engines like to see you get links naturally over time.  When they see hundreds or thousands of instant links to your site they suspect something is not natural and will  penalized you from getting “top rankings”.  Try to shoot for getting around or under 10 new links a day, just to be safe.

We will get started in the next issue, so stay tuned.

The Power of Blogs for “getting targeted traffic” – “low cost seo” Tip 6

If you don’t have a blog, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Simply put, blogs open up doors for you to certain aspects of web promotion, and make it a lot easier to rise up in the search engines and get “top rankings”

Blogs are one of the most successful ways of expressing oneself one the Internet. The whole concept of blogging revolves around the need to express ideas, share opinions, spread news, promoting products or to simply have fun. A blog is actually a small individual web page more like a diary that you keep online.  The beauty of blogs is that they are easy to update and allow the blog owner to easily publish links, photos, videos, documents and more.

Blogs often receive more traffic than other web pages. Why? The answer lies within the way the major search engines work.  Search engines like fresh and high quality content. This is the main benefit of blogs and why they often rank ahead of normal web pages.

Blogs started out as web diaries but have taken on other dimensions, one of which is the commercial aspect. I’ll give you an illustrative example here: let’s say you you’ve started your own home business promoting an internet based business opportunity like Infinity 100 (http://infinity100.teamwork10.com).  A blog about Infinity 100 and why it is
such a great business opportunity would meet the requirements of other people who share your interest and it is also a great promotional tool for the development of your business.  (Disclosure: I am was an affiliate with Infinity100.)

Therefore, web marketing and the need to easily and informally communicate with others fits right in with blogging.

If your main website isn’t a blog, you should consider adding one, such as: http://mywebsite.com/blog//

By adding a blog to your website you will be able to draw traffic towards your actual website.  Plus, most blogs are free.

You can set up your own self-hosted blog or you can get a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. (For now, we won’t go into how to set up a blog.  We shall cover that in future tips.)

One of the great things about WordPress blogs, especially self-hosted ones, is that there are many plugins that you can install (also free) that will further enhance your blog. This makes it possible to do things like notify the search engines when you have posted new content, automatically bookmark your post to the social bookmarking and networking
services, create a community of subscribers, setup future posts to go live automatically, and more!

ACTION ITEM: Get a Blog in your area of interest and start publishing.