Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

All bloggers know that a well-written, entertaining
and focused blog can generate huge volumes of traffic
from visitors. This is one of the basic learnings in
blogging: blogs should be focused and centered on a
topic and other related issues.

Search engine marketing is simply the process of
getting your blog and its content sufficiently high
ranking in several search engines for your keywords.
This would enable your content to generate more
visitors to your site from SERPs or Search Engine
Results Pages. Attention-grabbing content titles and
sites help users to feel compelled to click on your
link in the search engine results pages and eventually
visit you.

Additionally, search engine marketing needs a Web site
that is optimized for search engines. Normally, this
is a Web site that can display a configuration setting
that makes it look interesting to search engine
spiders. In turn, the spiders will visit the site and
look at your content. After doing this, the spiders
then pick up significant keywords, which determine the
characteristic of your page. Lastly, the content
returns to the search engines for the purpose of being
indexed.

Enhancing Search Engine Marketing

Nowadays, blogs are making tons of small news Web
sites or mini content centers that contain significant
information and links. Compared in the past, search
engines visit major news Web sites since they were the
ones who were the ultimate sources for the newest
content to be found online. Blogs have outpaced
several media outlets online due to their capability
to deliver and publish fresh information to the public
faster.

The key in getting noticed more by the search engines
is to publish faster. Since search engines looks for
the freshest, high value and relevant information, it
is important for you to publish frequently. This would
get your blog more visits from major search engines
and others.

Blogs have a natural relationship with search engines.
Since blogs are natural search engine magnets, the
search engine spiders will visit your blog often if
they detect an update from it. In addition, the
content of your blog does not have to wait for months
before getting into search engine result pages but
instead, your content will be displayed in a matter of
hours or days.

It is important to know how much the search engine can
do for your blog. Blogs should be frequently updated
to allow the search engine spider to visit you often,
since they are normally programmed to visit your blog
as often as you publish fresh contents.

Reasons Why Blogs Rank Well in Search Results

Firsly, blogs are designed to meet the demands for
search traffic and search engines. Blogs are also
highy significant in their niches and are considered
as the best sources of the most up-to-date information
online. More so, blogs can be keyword optimized.
Keyword optimization helps blogs achieve high rankings
in search engine results. Additionally, wisely
distributing the keywords evenly on the content can
also help your blog rank easily on search engine
results.

Compared to Web sites, blogs are also text-rich
publishing tools. This only means that the code used
by blogs is light weight. This makes your blog’s
content highly visible to search engines. Search
engine spiders can visit your blog frequently and
crawl over your content faster because of greater
clarity. This clarity provides a vivid interpretation
of what the content of your blog is all about

Selling Your Blog: How to Find Blog Advertisers

Selling Your Blog: How to Find Blog Advertisers

There are several ways to monetize a blog. One of the
most commonly used is by selling advertising space,
either through text-based advertising or banner ads.
But to do either of these, you will have to look for
advertisers who will pay to have their ads placed on
your web pages. If you’re unsure on what to do and how
to do it, here are tips to help you find blog
advertisers to help you generate revenue with your
website:

Promote. Instead of just leaving possible banner ad
locations blank, let advertisers know that they are up
for grabs. Use ‘Advertise Here’ or ‘Your Ad Here’
texts to indicate their availability.

When advertisers click on these areas, they will
arrive on a page where information about buying ad
space will be provided. Make sure that there is a
webpage that will be used for this purpose
specifically. This page may either contain information
about your terms or it could be a link that will allow
your advertiser to send you an e-mail.

Seek out advertisers actively. Other than openly
promoting your blog for ads, you could also find blog
advertisers by targeting them. That way, you get to
choose who will place their ads on your blog. A
standard letter of approach to advertisers should
contain:

- a brief introduction about yourself

- a short explanation of the purpose of your e-mail

- a short explanation why you’re soliciting their
sponsorship or ads

- a concise explanation of the benefits of placing ads
on your blog

- details regarding your advertising terms (type of ad
placements, industry to which your advertisers belong,
maximum number of ads in one webpage, cost, method of
payment, etc.)

- important details about your site, such as your
subject matter, audience, number of traffic, etc.

Offer sponsorship. Blog sponsorships are fast becoming
a trend online, as the number of businesses utilizing
blogs as an extension of their marketing efforts
increases. Through sponsorship, you will be working
closely with a company (your advertiser) and promote
their products and services through your blogs. Your
web pages will also carry that company’s name, brands
and logo.

You could also come up with a sponsorship deal wherein
specific parts of your blog’s content will be
sponsored by the advertiser. This type of blog
advertising works well if your site is quite popular
already and has a considerable number of visitors.

Do a keyword search. There are many companies and
individuals using Google Adwords who might be
interested in an arrangement with you. Do a simple
keyword or key phrase search regarding major topics on
your blog. Then seek out sponsored links and find out
about the companies that pay for them. Get in touch
with these people and offer your blog for their ads.

Take advantage of links. Blogs and other sites that
link with your blog are potential advertisers. If they
find your blog interesting enough to link with, they
might be open for negotiations regarding advertising.
You might want to send them an e-mail to let them know
your blog is available for advertising.

Tap people who use your forums or leave messages.
Another way to find blog advertisers is to offer your
ad spots to people who leave comments or messages on
your blogs. Seek out people affiliated with a company,
group or association. They might be interested to buy
ads on your blog.

SEO Importance In Blog Advertising

SEO Importance In Blog Advertising

Having a blog on the Internet that gives people some
good informaton doens’t do a lot of good if people
don’t know that it’s there.

If you want people to be able to find your blog,
something that is important is that you have good
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Whenever you put one or more words into a search bar
to look for something, the SEO of a website is what
helps bring up those websites.

For example, if your blog is about Harry Potter, you
are going to want to be sure that your blog includes
popular terms such as Harry Pottter, JK Rowling, and
other things that are related to Harry Potter.

Think about the things that people look for when they
are interested in Harry Potter, and the kinds of
things that come up when you search.

It’s always a good idea to use your own experience
when you are optimizing your blog for searching.

Think about what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and
use them for your own blog SEO. This way, when someone
puts one of the terms that you put in your blog into a
search engine it will be one of the sites that comes
up.

Of course, there are other factors that come into play
that determine where your blog will come up in the
list, but everyone starts somewhere.

The more keywords that your blog uses, the more people
will come to your blog. It just takes time and
patience.

Setting Your Own Blog Advertising Rates

Setting Your Own Blog Advertising Rates

Sooner or later, you will be faced with the decision
of whether to use advertising on your blog or not.
Advertising isn’t mandatory for keeping your blog
interesting; in fact, it’s merely an optional tool you
can use in case you want to take advantage of your
blog’s popularity. But once you’ve decided on placing
ads on your site, there’s one more issue you need to
consider: setting your blog’s advertising rates. So
how much can you expect to charge or be charged?

With blog advertising, there are no set rates. It is
up to the blogger to design the correct ad payment
scheme that attracts advertisers and allow him to
generate a reasonable income at the same time.

To help you determine the right advertising rates for
your blog, it’s important to consider doing some
research first, particularly about similar blogs and
to consider your traffic and perform some simple
experimentation using your site.

Playing with figures If you think that setting your ad
rates at low prices will attract more advertisers, you
couldn’t be more mistaken. Your $300 a month rate may
not stand against another blogger’s $600 a month rate
if you only have 50,000 page views monthly and he
enjoys 600,000 page views.

An advertiser will look at the ratio between the cost
of advertising on your blog against the amount of
traffic that your site generates, the same traffic
that will potentially click on the ads.

A good ‘constant’ to consider when determining ad
rates is the CPM or Cost-Per-Mille - mille being
equivalent to 1,000. Let’s say a blog receives 150,000
page views monthly. For a 125×125 sidebar ad (usually
the most common), the blog charges $250 monthly.
Divide $250 by 150 (that’s 150,000 divided by 1,000 to
come up with the CPM) and you’ll get $1.66 CPM.

The same arithmetic is used by some of the most
popular blogs, including JohnChow and Copyblogger. For
your blog, you might want to consider how much traffic
you generate and the number of genuine page views you
get. These figures will help you evaluate your blog
and come up with the appropriate ad rate.

Since these blogs are well established, you could
start at far lower rates if you’re still building
traffic. Consider a starting figure of about $0.5 CPM,
which is friendly enough to your advertisers and good
enough for you. Raise this rate gradually as your blog
becomes more popular and as more advertisers and
sponsors buy ad space from you.

Size and location Advertising rates also vary
depending on the size of the ad and where it will
appear. Larger ads and those that will be placed in
prime locations or ‘hotspots’ will cost more. Ads will
also be more expensive if they will appear along with
content or on your blog’s header. Cheaper locations
will be those found on the page’s footer and the area
located after the fold.

Factors that influence ad rates Not every blog can
enjoy strong advertising support. That’s mainly
because not every blog has the right amount of site
traffic, the right visitors, market demographics or
niche. These are just some of the factors that affect
your eligibility for ad placement and the rate you can
charge on your blog.

Blogs, by the way, do not pass through the same
channels as traditional print media. The cost of
providing information in blogs is low enough that
bloggers can offer low advertising rates and still
earn a profit.

Social Bookmarking for Blog Advertising

Social Bookmarking for Blog Advertising

Social bookmarking sites are a growing trend and are
becoming more popular each and every day. They are a
great place to share your bookmarks with everyone and
to be able to access them from any computer. They are
also a great place that you can post a link to your
blog.

There are over fifty social bookmarking sites that you
use to submit your link to your blog. Digg, Digo, Blue
Dot, and del.ico.us are just a few of them that are
the most popular. Each site has its own guidelines and
rules for posting links, so it’s important that you
want to read the rules that they have before you post
any links.

Because social bookmarking isn’t as targeted as other
forms of advertising for your blog, you may find hta
tit will take longer for it to be effective. But it’s
also a good way for you to get your blog noticed and
it may bring in people who may not have found your
blog another way.

Since social bookmarking doesn’t always give you the
opportunity to know who it is that has seen your site,
or get to know other people, it’s always a good idea
to keep track of the visitors who say they were linked
to your site through a bookmarking site. If the site
allows you to put a comment, ask people to let you
know on your blog that they found it through a social
bookmarking site and which one. That will help you
know how effective it is.

The Basics of Blogging

The Basics of Blogging

With the advent of internet marketing, Web publishing
is continually gaining ground and popularity.
Nowadays, technologically savvy corporate businessmen,
or even business employees, use blogs to build and
manage relationships with their consumers. They share
their company’s expertise, culture and other
information, which can help develop the customer’s
interest in their products and services.

On the other hand, not only do businessmen venture in
the world of blogging but regular computer users too.
Not only can they voice out their opinions and
thoughts to others but also earn money in more ways
than one; from selling ad space to offering expert
services, which in turn builds their reputation as a
professional.

If you are thinking of entering the blogsphere, you
must be ready of the problems you might encounter in
several areas of blogging, such as: choosing,
installing and configuring your blog software tools.
Although the collection and assortment of
configurations vary widely, a neophyte blogger can
still get confused. The tools are not the only
obstacles you must overcome but also the terminologies
used for blogging.

Tools for Blogging

Basically, the software tools for your blog greatly
depend on your provider. For instance, the RSS
functionality can be absent from one provider but
present in another. Additionally, some blog software
tool providers can cost as low as $4 each month
depending on the extent of service you choose, while
others can be used for free but with limited services.

Choosing the right software tool depends on you. If
you have enough cash to spare for a blog or if you
want to really get serious with a blog and hope to
earn cash in the future, which is always a
possibility, you have the option of choosing priced
blog software tools. However, if you are a newbie
blogger, it might be advisable to start with free blog
software tool providers.

Fortunately, some providers that charge for their
services also offer free trial periods, which range
from 10 to 30 days. This is an excellent opportunity
to try and test out the services they offer without
paying any fee. Luckily, if you find a provider that
you are comfortable with and offer the services you
need, you can always use their free trial periods to
the full extent before subscribing.

Blogging Terminologies

Blogging is like a secret society and like most secret
societies; it has its own language that you must
learn. Although, technologically savvy individuals an
easily familiarize themselves with these terms, it
might be hard for those who have limited or no
background with Web publishing whatsoever.

Firstly, the most important term in blogging is Post.
A post happens every time you place or publish an
update to your blog; you also create a post this way.
Secondly, since blogs are a means of communication,
comments are also possible. If your audience leaves a
message regarding your published content, this message
is referred to as a comment. Normally, the comments
are labeled and time-stamped to allow you and other
readers to see who posted the comment and when it was
posted.

Comment spams, is also a term that happen when a
single reader continuously repeats the same comment
over and over again. This can be a headache for the
blogger as the blog can be used by the reader to
promote other blogs or Web site.

These are just some of the few terms that you can
encounter in blogging. Only exploration and experience
can help you understand the other terminologies
involved in blogging.

The Benefits of the Blog Types

The Benefits of the Blog Types

In blogging, you are not limited into one type of
blogging type. In fact, there are several types of
blogs. No matter what type bloggers use, they publish
content around topics and issues that they feel
passionate about. For instance, several bloggers write
about politics, others for pet care and some for
personal computers. However, blogs that are business
oriented are often focused into a single topic for the
fact that they need to emphasize their services or
products.

Blogs can cover a wide range of topics. Because of
this versatility, several people are starting to blog.
Not only can they express what they feel or advertise
their products or services, they can also earn cash.
Blogs are new methods of earning income at the comfort
of your own home. However, that is just the icing on
the cake since blogging can bring lots of joy to
several bloggers for that fact that they can share
their opinions and thoughts to others and receive
advise from them or vice versa.

Blogging for Business

Several businesses are exploring the world of
blogging. This is an excellent opportunity for them
since blogging is a great medium of communication.
Additionally, business oriented blogs can benefit from
the search engine optimization advantage, which is the
biggest leverage of blogging.

If the business has a Web site that promotes a product
or service, any type of content that the business use
as the vehicle to drive the business or commerce to
another level require a blog. Blogs are very useful
because they are text-based and light weight, with
regards to the code used, compared to traditional Web
site content. This only means that blogs minimize the
crawl time of search engine spiders and allow them to
retrieve more information about the page to the search
directories a lot faster.

More so, blogs are dynamic because they can be updated
frequently. By frequently publishing contents for the
blog, the search engine spiders visit more often. The
result is that the blog can have more pages being sent
over the search engines compared to the business’s
opponents. This is very good indeed if the competitor
is the one who has a static Web site. This also
provides the blogging business an opportunity to reach
out to more potential customers, thus possibly
increasing their revenue.

Blogging for Personal Use

Normally, personal blogs have the characteristics of
being exciting, interesting and enjoyable. Bloggers
blogging for personal reasons have the purpose of
keeping their friends and family updated about their
lives and activities. Many bloggers find comfort in
blogging personal contents. Additionally, if you
create a personal blog, you are open to the idea of
sharing your interest with other people who might
visit your blog.

Like any other blogs, personal blogs can be
incorporated with photos, videos and other multimedia
elements. You can create a personal blog about
anything that you feel passionate about. There are
even personal blogs with contents regarding products
that the blogger is really interested in. This
provides the businesses ideas about the preferences of
their customers. This only proves that blogs also work
in synergy.

Blogs are very easy to use content management systems,
which allow you to publish articles right away and in
real-time. These platforms for communication unravel
new opportunities to connect with others both in a
personal or professional manner.