Content Writing Advice: Making Content Count!

June 7, 2011 Leave a Comment

Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.

Words are a powerful thing, it can convey a boatload of meaning, and yet at the same time if you’ve listened to any politician answer a question he doesn’t want to you can see that words can also be meaningless. The question for business owners, and website operators is whether or not you’re writing content just for the sake of drawing more visitors by getting better rankings, or if you’re writing content that will be helpful to your current and potential clients. My advice is that you embrace the idea that being an effective website is about providing relevant content. Let your website be judged on the character of your content!

 

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Observe, Participate, Engage – Social Media Coaching

April 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Here’s a good phrase to use when you need to coach clients on effective social media marketing, “Observe, Participate, and Engage!”, let me break it down for ya:
Observe
You want to encourage your clients to observe the social media outlet they’re targeting and understand how it works.
Youtube: Liking, playlists and comments
Facebook: Liking, posting links, pictures, questions, videos on Facebook profiles and fan/business pages
Twitter: Tweet, @ Reply, Retweet, List
Yelp: Reviews, Comments
Blogs: Relevant comments, referencing posts in your own blog

Participate
Show your clients that they should participate in the conversations that already exist around blog posts, videos, posts, questions etc.It’s an opportunity to connect with a target audience and express a humanity and common interest. In most cases it also counts as an inbound link as their profile name leads from their comment/like etc to their profile.

Engage
 Effective marketing on social media is fueled by good content, so post links to their own site’s resources, interesting articles they’ve discovered, video that is topical, interesting quotes or thoughts etc. By putting something out there you’ll engage active participants, gain recognition and with patience and diligence a following.

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I Support Prison City Derby Dames

March 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

So I have found a new challenge and exciting venue in my life, Roller Derby! It started because of a trip my wife and I made to Long Beach with some friends at the last minute to see the Long Beach Roller Derby Championship match. The next day Bunny had bought her own skates, and I’d broken out some “moon boots”/Inlines and headed off to practice at a local rink. Unfortunately we didn’t find a home there, but a month later we headed out to meet the Prison City Derby Dames who immediately made us at home as freshies, me as a newbie ref and Bunny as a newbie skater. Since then we’ve grown, and pushed ourselves in ways that we didn’t think possible. If you’re thinking of getting into roller derby do it! Come see an upcoming bout between Angel City Roller Girls: Rocket Queens and Prison City Derby Dames or come to a practice and get rolling! Look forward to seeing you get on four wheels!

If you’re already a fan of PCDD, then show your support! I’ve created some images and badges for your blog, twitter and Facebook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Case Study: Baby Steps

December 4, 2010 4 Comments

Well, after doing the basic setup of the client’s site in WordPress, it turns out they already had their email through Intuit, and will be using that platform for their site. So far it seems like an okay platform, and I don’t see any major hijinks from it so, whatever the client wants is fine with me there.

Google Local: Verifying 2 businesses at the same address and phone

Google Postcard used in Google Places VerificationWell it was less painful than I thought, but they want it postcard verified this time, and there was no option to do it over the phone. That means the ham Law Group will need to keep their eyes open for that tiny little Google Postcard that will be coming in 2-3 weeks. it’s a bit of a bummer that it takes so long, but I guess it’s a way to “vet” the business’s validity and I can’t think of a much better way myself.


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Case Study Ham Law Group – Local SEO Campaign

November 28, 2010 4 Comments

Howdy ladies and gents,

I have decided that I will be chronicle all of the actions to build up their business that I take for them publicly,  listing all of my tactics, strategies and link building methods as I endeavor to take business that is completely unlisted online, and attempt to get it higher visibility on Google, Yahoo and Bing local search and get it’s new website some relevant rankings, traffic and client conversions.

The Client: Ham Law Group

Located in Downtown Riverside, Ham Law Group provides legal counsel for Bankruptcy, Family and Criminal Law cases. It’s sister company is Affordable Document Services, and it actually shares the same office space, which will make some aspects of local optimization a little bit more difficult. If you’re not aware, Google’s Local verifies businesses via phone number and address, so when I get to that step it should prove “interesting”.

Well, I hope that my open notes here will help others as they have already made me think a little more coherently about a long term strategy for Local and website optimization.


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Twitter posts in WordPress.com

November 18, 2010 1 Comment

WordPress.com’s awkwardly named Blackbird Pie feature for twitter is actually really awesome, bringing in sweet styling so you don’t have to take a screenshot and upload it to get a tweet onpage.

  • The tweet’s text
  • Links in the tweet
  • Links to hashtag pages
  • Usernames that link to Twitter profiles
  • A retweet link
  • A border around the tweet showing part of the background image from the Twitter profile

 

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Learning Braile in ESL

November 12, 2010 Leave a Comment

learn-braile-in-esl

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My First Audio Post

August 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

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!

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Get Your Gmail Priorities Straight

August 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

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.

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Time Saving FREE Keyword Research Tool

August 10, 2010 1 Comment

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:

  1. What areas (Cities, Counties, Neighborhoods) do you work in?
  2. What service / product (plumbing, plumber, plumbing services, etc.) do you sell?
  3. What state are you in?

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.

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