This is really a test of the emergency blog casting system, Warning, this is only a test.
This is my first post by voice, I dialed in to WordPress and put in a code form my blog and was able to directly record and do this audio post. Learn more about post by voice, and let me know in the comments if it’s helpful/neat or obnoxious!
I am a big fan of Gmail, initially I will admit that most of the attraction was just because it was free and offered 2 gb of storage. Over time, Gmail has added new features like calling from you inbox that have made it more and more appealing to the geekier side of my nature. Now there is a lot you can tell about a person by their email address, so here is another reason to consider Gmail, Priority Inbox.
Essentially, it separates your inbox into three initial screens, with Priority mail on top, starred messages sorted for follow up, and everything else below. This makes the “star” rating system in Gmail a lot more effective. So far I haven’t seen any hitches or bugs, so learn more about Priority Inbox, give it a spin and give some feedback in the comments.
Guest Blog by John Jones
One of the key factors to any successful online marketing strategy for a small business owner just starting out with search engine optimization, pay per click and other strategies is to first identify your audience. The best way to do this is to get an idea of what people might be searching for when looking for your products or services.
I’ve spent the last seven years working with a few hundred clients. Every one of them started out with me completing some pretty detailed keyword research. Needless to say, I’ve spent some time over the years waste deep with keyword research. I’ve manually typed out lists, semi automated spreadsheet software and most recently have dived into a little more advanced spreadsheet automation.
Roughly a month ago I set out to evolve once again in regards to one aspect of my keyword research and that is to completely automate the list creation process. What started out as a small project for my own personal use, quickly became a concept for an online keyword discovery tool that any small business owner in real estate, mortgages, retail or marketing consultant can use when starting in on their own keyword research efforts.
Today I launched my keyword discovery tool that will help quickly create a list of local specific keywords based off of the answers you provide to three simple questions. Those questions are:
A list of three areas and three niche phrases will result in 27 possible keyword combinations. A list of three areas and six niche phrases will result in 54 keywords and the possibilities are endless.
So as you know, I’m putting my mouth where my foot is and going local in Diamond Bar. As part of that process I updated my meta-title and description. Now in my past experience, before the Caffiene update on Google, it was a crap shoot on how quickly Google would pick up the change and update the SERP, and adjust rankings accordingly.
I actually saw the update last night just 10 minutes after I changed my Title. What really fascinated me though was that I also immediately broke into the top spot for Diamond Bar SEO. Now I know that I’ve built up some authority over the years, this is a blog and not a static website, and that it’s not a competitive term by any means, but I think that SEOers who have been around for a while should re-evaluate their expectations when it comes to timelines and estimating when Google has recognized an update.
[I was talking to]…Jared Spool of User Interface
Engineering, to ask, “Flash intros – good or bad?”Jared said, “When we have clients who are thinking about Flash splash pages, we tell them to go to their local supermarket and bring a mime with them. Have the mime stand in front of the supermarket, and, as each customer tries to enter, do a little show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket
and trying to explain the bread is on aisle six and milk is on sale today.“Then stand back and count how many people watch the mime, how many people get past the mime as quickly as possible, and how many people punch the mime out.
“That should give you a good idea as to how well their splash page will be received. ” {Via}
{via OATMEAL – Who Rocks}
No matter how well your website is ranking in the search engines and no matter how much traffic you’re getting, if your copywriting isn’t great, you won’t get sales. Those rankings will be meaningless. And that traffic will be for nothing.
SEO copywriting is the glue that brings all your other online marketing efforts together. Without strong glue, everything unravels, and you get no results.
If you aren’t converting visitors into customers, it could be that you’re making one or more of these 7 SEO copywriting mistakes.
Take a look at your website copy. Are you making any of these mistakes?
About the Guest Author:
Gagandeep Singh works for a conversion rate optimization company Invesp and blogs about landing page templates, conversion rate optimization, SEO and affiliate marketing.
Guest post by Stacey Cavanagh of Tecmark SEO Liverpool
When it comes to web content, irrespective of whether it’s sales copy, informative writing or random thoughts and musings on a blog, it should be easy reading! Reading online shouldn’t be made a tedious task and for most of us, perusing websites and blogs is a leisurely activity.
Words can be to much of a good thing..
Personally, if an article (no matter how interesting its title) starts like a rocket science manual, I’m out of there! By all means, vary your vocabulary – by the same token I hate to read posts where a blogger evidently doesn’t know another word for ‘good.’ But stretching out a word count by fluffing up the content is annoying. Concise content makes for quick reading, ideal for the busy workaholic society we live in.
Now, I’m exaggerating with the title of this post, in complaining about ten words where one will do. More often than not, my peeve comes where writers use two words in place of one. Of course, sometimes there’s a need for this and child like sentences devoid of adjectives, for example, would make for bland writing. There’s a fine line between ‘concise’ and ‘bland’ content.
So, examples?
"A Sentence with to many adjectives is like Coffee with to much sugar."
There’s a time and a place for adjectives and sometimes they just sound out of place and long winded when read out loud. Take the sentence, “He was an incredibly intelligent fellow, but had an extreme lack of common sense.” When read out loud is lacks punch and crispness. A revision to, “He was an intelligent fellow, though lacked common sense,” is easier reading. That’s a 14 word sentence versus a nine word one.
If you’re writing an article on Barack Obama’s proposed health reforms, you would want to let your readers know what the changes are, how they would be affected by the changes and the obstacles the President faces. While it’s easy to wander off on a tangent at times, writing about Obama’s educational background or going into too much depth over the history of health in the US fluffs the article up and takes away from its point. After writing, read out loud and be critical. Ask yourself what the point of each sentence is and if you can’t find a purpose of a sentence, delete!
Sometimes we repeat ourselves without even realizing we’ve done it. Even if you’ve worded it differently, the same point or fact made twice (even at opposite ends of an article) is just more words than necessary!
Look for opportunities to crush and squeeze your verbiage. - Photo by Tomf
Once you’ve cleared out everything you think you can, read through again (preferably out loud). Look for opportunities to tighten up your sentences in ways not described above. An example could be changing:
“Whenever the Jones family got news pets, the neighbour’s children always tended to take to them quicker than the Jones boys,” to
“The next door neighbour’s children always took to the Jones’ new pets quicker than the Jones boys did.”
I know I’ve barked on about concise content here, but this should never come at the expense of meaning. The idea of concise content is saying what you need to say as tightly as possible – not about cutting points out in order to shorten a piece. Think punchy, crisp and natural sounding content and you’re well on your way to great copy.
