INTERNET ADVERTISING – HERE TO STAY
INTERNET ADVERTISING – HERE TO STAY
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 20-10-2008 02:10:00
Everybody knows about advertising! Everyone has a differing and usually a very definite opinion about it.
But love it or hate it, it is without a doubt – here to stay.
There seems to be no end to the increasing advertising spend in most areas. Newspaper advertising is the only one that isn't expected to have an increase in spending this year.
More and more businesses are realizing that people are not as entranced with TV as they used to be. The numbers of TV viewers (especially 18-35 year old males) have decreased dramatically over recent years.
Now, with the emergence of TiVo, the question that has to be asked is “what implications will this convergence of media have on advertising?” Advertising on TV cannot be predicted or depended upon as it has in the past. So where does that leave business owners who know that they have to advertise to stay alive?
The one time advertisers 'dream' (TV) has lost a lot of its sparkle. This has left the advertising world with little choice but to think again about ways they can expose their products to the masses.
Does that mean that the internet has taken TVs place as the preferred medium for reaching vast audiences?
You probably think it has because any time you go online, you cant help but notice the huge increase in ads that appear on almost every page that you visit.
The harsh reality is that today, the web is a vast place to advertise in and there are also hundreds of cable TV channels to choose from. That means any attempts to reach millions of potential customers has been seriously undermined by being hugely watered down. There are seemingly infinite numbers of people there but they are spread out much thinner and much further.
If you are in business though, what choices do you have? You have got to go with the flow and try to market your product or service where most of the customers are. At the present time that appears to be the internet and the numbers that visit are growing steadily. The revenue that Google brings in - mostly from advertising (99%), is reported to have increased from $US440 million in 2002 to a staggering $US 16.5 billion last year.
There are changes occuring within the internet all the time and earlier this month (Sept), Google announced the release of its long anticipated new browser 'Chrome'.
How this will affect the internet and advertising in particular is going to prove very interesting. It certainly will have some effect because it is a change to the way that browsers work. Previously we would use a browser to visit sites but soon we will be able to load applications. So the line between an application and a website is starting to blur.
At the same time that Google was releasing their new browser, Mozilla was also releasing something new. It didn't have as much fanfare but it also will have an influence on the way we shop. It is a new Add-on for Firefox called Ubiquity.
This allows you to type a command into a window. For example if you wanted to add a map to an email instead of just a link to a map, by using Ubiquity, you could type in the command to 'map this' and then insert the map straight into the email.
This feature is not the easiest to explain in a few words but there is a video on how to use Ubiquity at http://www.vimeo.com/1561578?pg=embed&sec=1561578
Keep in mind too, that it is in its early stages and will undoubtedly undergo quite a few changes before it becomes main stream.
The interesting thing is, you can make your own commands too. As it becomes more developed and easier to use it will open up numerous possibilities for advertisers, making it even easier and more convenient to purchase things on line.
The point is, the internet is evolving. It is becoming a more interactive environment and that calls for a different approach from advertisers.
With the increasing use of social networking sites, advertisers and businesses will have to keep in touch with what is going on in these channels in order to understand what their market wants. In a social setting people communicate largely by word of mouth. They also tend to buy similar things to what their social group buys. If the advertiser can somehow hook into a social interaction like this, then the possibilities and opportunities are going to be greatly increased.
One of the big challenges is going to be finding new ways to present advertisements in a way that will encourage the buyer to be interactive. It will become ever more important to understand that an audiences participation can be crucial. It can mean the making or breaking of a brand, simply by how much the audience gets involved and spreads the word.
Advertising is going to change and evolve along with the internet. But one things for sure it is not going to go away.
ARE THE SEARCH ENGINES KILLING SEO?
ARE THE SEARCH ENGINES KILLING SEO?
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 27-08-2008 12:26:00
Have you heard that SEO has as good as been killed off by Google's latest Algorithm tweak!
Well that's according to Steven Carrol back in May 2008. If that really were the case then the thousands of SEO companies that are trying to make a living by optimizing websites for clients may as well liquidate their businesses right now.
The only way forward, apparently, is to pay, pay and pay some more.
So if you are new to the internet and have only just jumped on the band wagon and got a website, your chances of getting a good position on a Google search, are basically zip! Nil!
What he was saying was that Google have had this war on SEO for years now and have at last found a way to stop this so called “gaming the SERPS”.
If that were true, what would it mean for people who are new to the internet ?
It would mean that the only real way they could get noticed on the web would be to buy their way to the top. This could conceivably be done with Google paid listings on similar websites or on a search or even by buying the competition. Who can afford that? Almost no-one.
Surely this would be counter productive to Google itself who claims to be doing their tweaking in order to achieve better genuine results for their searchers.
I'm sure Google finds it a bit of a thorn in the side when there are people out there who are gaming the results, because that serves to distort the results that searchers for a specific topic are getting.
What does “gaming the SERP's really mean and how is this being done?
If you decide to go with an SEO “expert” then you will need to be wary of some of the promises that they make. Maybe you have seen advertisements that claim to get you a number one or first page listing on a Google search. That is an incredibly ambitious claim.
I cannot see how such a claim can be made unless they are using underhand, or “Black Hat” methods to achieve these results. What can we do as consumers to make sure that we are not taken in by unsubstantiated promises.
First thing to do is check out their own site's position in a Google search for a popular key word. If they are not in the first two to three pages, then what would you conclude..... If they can't do it for themselves then how are they going to achieve it for you.
Another tactic that is sometimes used is this. A company can guarantee you to be on top of the SERP's but they will use key words that are not being used by many others. For example you may be selling Gumboots for the Australian market and the SEO company has got you a top ranked position for “Muck Boots”. Well that is great that they have got you that position but it doesn't benefit your business much unless you are targeting Americans living in Australia. Yes you have got the promised results but is that what you've paid good money for? A top-ranked position for an almost un-searched-for word? I don't think so! That would be a complete waste of money and time.
The area of fine print is another one to watch out for. How many of us read the small print very often? Certainly not me! Imagine every time you wanted to register with another Blog Directory or download some software, having to actually read all the conditions that you were agreeing to. You would have to spend hours just reading and then you would probably find something that you disagreed with. We all know that if we don't check the “agree” box that we don't get the goods – simple as that.
The same shouldn't apply when we are going to employ a company to SEO our website. Read the small print!!! Make sure you are signing an agreement that says they will use SEO to get your website into the number 1 slot and not Pay Per Click. Obviously it would be easy to get a site ad in a good position on a search engine if you threw enough money at advertising.
These are just a few of the scams that are out there to be careful about.
So does that mean that you don't have a hope in hell of optimizing your site at all?
Well in spite of some people's dire predictions that Google are orchestrating things so that everyone in future will have to pay for their position, there are still a lot of real SEO experts out there that say otherwise.
So if you are in the “newbie on the net” category, you are probably wondering what the best thing to do is?
Most would agree that content is still one of the most critical factors in getting your site noticed. That and time. There's no real way around the fact that it will take time before your site climbs up the results ladder.
You can help make it happen by ensuring your content is interesting, informative and unique and also by promoting it everywhere you possibly can. This is very simple but unfortunately not very easy and certainly not very fast.
Write blogs and submit them to as many directories as you can. Have your own blog – of course. Sign up to article directories and submit articles on a regular basis. Join social networking sites. Make videos. In other words – put yourself out there. Draw attention to yourself.
Loooook at Me Loooook at Me......
A Guide to RSS Aggregators
A Guide to RSS Aggregators
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 19-08-2008 12:10:00
For a quick introduction to RSS click here to watch a video tutorial RSS explained
One of the most popular features of Internet portals, websites, pages and even emails is a frame that features an organized list of news headlines and periodic updates from other web sources. Really Simple Syndication, formerly “Rich Site Summary” or simply, RSS makes this possible.
Most users visit a lot of websites whose content continually change, such as news sites, community organization or professional association information pages, medical websites, product support pages, and blogs. As Internet surfing became an intrinsic part of business and leisure, it became important to get rid of the very tedious task of repeatedly returning to each website to see updated content.
RSS easily distributes information from different websites to a wider number of Internet users. RSS aggregators are programs that use RSS to source these updates, and then organize those lists of headlines, content and notices for easy reading. It allows computers to automatically retrieve and read the content that users want, then track changes and personalize lists of headlines that interests them.
The specially made computer programs called “RSS aggregators” were created to automatically find and retrieve the RSS feeds of pre-selected internet sites on behalf of the user and organize the results accordingly. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes referred to as "RSS Channels" and "RSS Readers".)
The RSS aggregator is like a web browser for RSS content. HTML presents information directly to users, and RSS automatically lets computers communicate with one another. While users use browsers to surf the web then load and view each page of interest, RSS aggregators keeps track of changes to many websites. The titles or descriptions are links themselves and can be used to load the web page the user wants.
RSS starts with an original Web site that has content made available by the administrator. The website creates an RSS document and registers this content with an RSS publisher that will allow other websites to syndicate the documents. The Web site also produces an RSS feed, or channel, which is available together with all other resources or documents on the particular Web server. The website will register the feed as an RSS document, with a listed directory of appropriate RSS publishers.
An RSS feed is composed of website content listed from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual content being described. In some instances, the short description or title line is the all the updated information that a user wants to read (for example, final games scores in sports, weblogs post, or stock updates). Therefore, it is not even necessary to have a web page associated with the content or update items listed -- sometimes all the needed information that users need would be in the titles and short summaries themselves.
The RSS content is located in a single file on a webpage in a manner not very different from typical web pages. The difference is that the information is written in the XML computer code for use by an RSS aggregator and not by a web user like a normal HTML page.
There are 2 main parts that are involved in RSS syndication, namely: the source end and the client end.
The client end of RSS publishing makes up part of the system that gathers and uses the RSS feed. For example, Mozilla FireFox browser is typically at the client end of the RSS transaction. A user’s desktop RSS aggregator program also belongs to the client end.
Once the URL of an RSS feed is known, a user can give that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the RSS feed for changes. Numerous RSS aggregators are already preconfigured with a ready list of RSS feed URLs for popular news or information websites that a user can simply choose from.
There are many RSS aggregators that can be used by all Internet users. Some can be accessed through the Internet, some are already incorporated into email applications, and others run as a standalone program inside the personal computer.
RSS feeds have evolved into many uses. Some uses gaining popularity are:
For online store or retail establishments: Notification of new product arrivals
·For organization or association newsletters: title listings and notification of new issues, including email newsletters
·Weather Updates and other alerts of changing geographic conditions Database management: Notification of new items added, or new registered members to a club or interest group.
The uses of feeds will continue to grow, because RSS aggregators make access to any information that individual users like more convenient and fun.
The answer to this question depends on several things.
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How much you can afford.
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How much time you have.
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How much expertise you have.
Are you in the same position as so many online businesses when they start out? You don't have any spare money. In fact you don't have any money at all! It is all up to you - you have to prepare your product, develop a marketing strategy, build a website.
You might be feeling a bit skeptical about parting with your scarce cash when you believe you could probably do the job yourself. It would seem like a logical conclusion to build your own website. But how will you go about this?
If you have plenty of time up your sleeve you may want to consider using a template. Creating a website using this method can save you both time and money. It also eliminates the need to learn html or another computer language. Having said that, if you don't have any knowledge of coding then you will be very restricted as to any changes you wish to make to the template.
This will inevitably mean that you will have to get someone to implement those changes for you which is an additional cost.
Consider too the profile that you want for your company. Templates can, if you're not careful, convey the “cookie cutter” image. It is better for your company if you can present yourself as individual and innovative.
However you should weigh up the pros and cons of templates so that it doesn't end up costing you more in the long run.
Here are a few things to keep in mind that may help you to avoid making mistakes when using templates.
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Don't choose a really popular template. - It's like looking at a herd of cows in a field. They all look the same! Unless that cow is purple of course.! Then it really stands out. If you want your website to have maximum impact and rise above the sameness of hundreds of others, then give it the “purple cow” factor.
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Having found a template that is suitable to use with your theme you may find that some things on it will require changes. It might be that the template has images in the header that don't fit with what you want to promote. By all means take some time to make the necessary changes but be careful not to get carried away and end up redesigning the whole thing.
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Be aware that the template that you choose must serve your purpose. Keep it simple and easy to navigate around and don't make the mistake of choosing a template just because you think it is pretty.
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At some point in the future when your business expands you may find that your simple “homemade” website is just not sophisticated enough to deal with all the unforeseen intricacies of administration that have arisen. For example you may find that you will eventually need a database to e mail your subscribers with current offers or a newsletter. Then you will need to add that to your template site and so you will be spending a great deal more time to remedy the situation.
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Don't change the look of the template beyond recognition. It is a good thing to try to make it uniquely your own, but if you change it too much, you are surely defeating the object of the whole exercise : and that is - to save time and effort.
Do You Have Enough Experience to Achieve The Desired Result
After considering the options of learning how to build a website from scratch or using a template, you may well come to the conclusion that it might be more cost effective in the long run to employ the services of someone with expertise.
When you hire someone to build your website, they have the responsibility of sorting out all those annoying little things that would probably take quite some time for you to fix.
A person who designs websites for a living will be able to achieve a more professional result faster than you simply because of their experience. They will also have the ability to talk to you about what kind of design would best suit your business and how to optimize your site for greater exposure. The question of whether you have enough capability for expansion should be covered by your designer at the start. They will be able to structure your site so that it will be able to cope with an influx of customers.
Another thing to take into account is the question of security. As your business grows and you accumulate more customers, security becomes an issue that deserves your attention. Your web designer can advise you and set you up with security measures such as an SSLcertificate. This is necessary if you are going to collect and store sensitive information like names and addresses, passwords, identity numbers, credit card numbers etc.
Security such as this will protect both your customers and yourself from fraud. Imagine the damage that could be done to the reputation of a growing company if sensitive data were to be intercepted by malicious individuals just because adequate security wasn't in place.
Having a website designed by a professional may be your vehicle to success. If you are able to get the cash to invest in a good design with the needed backup when any problems arise then this will free you up to get on with other aspects of your business strategy and really give it a head start.
So these are a few points to ponder when making the decision about whether or not to do your own thing or get someone qualified to help with your website. The important thing is to get your web presence happening in the most cost and time efficient way.
Psst….Will You Write My Articles?
Psst....Will You Write My Articles?
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 15-07-2008 02:08:00
Let’s say you need a new suit. What do you do? Do you choose the cloth, take your measurements, and start stitching the suit yourself? No, you would simply visit a good tailor, let them know your wishes and then let them custom-fit a suit for you according to your choices. In the same way, if you want to launch a well-thought out article marketing campaign for your Web site, you should outsource your article writing work. Here are some reasons why outsourcing articles might get you better results than writing them yourself.
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An article marketing campaign really starts picking up steam after about 50 articles. Then, to keep existing readers interested and to attract newer visitors to your Web site, you need to keep churning out articles every week, if not every day. Obviously, the articles need to be well-written and keyword-rich to really make an impact on the search engines. For instance if you were writing about website design, you would include keywords like web design, website design, SEO, internet marketing and the like. This kind of writing demands a lot of effort from you. Not something you can jot down as you are getting ready for the office. And, when you have just launched your Web site, there are a hundred other things vying for your attention. You may not be proficient at writing so it makes sense to outsource the research and writing work and devote your time to other important activities (like marketing) that are required to keep your Web site up and running.
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Great Internet marketers are not necessarily great writers. As an owner of a Web site, your expertise might lie in more entrepreneurial persuits and other required skill sets rather than in article writing per se. So, hiring a freelance writer or an article writing service allows you to concentrate on what you do best and get the articles written by people who know writing better.
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Another situation where outsourcing provides better results is when you want to post articles on varied subjects on your Web site. As it is highly unlikely for any single person to have a reasonably good understanding of all subjects, you can search for experts on each subject to write articles related to their own domains. In this way, without writing a single word, you can get compelling copy that attracts prospective customers to your Web site.
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Launching the article marketing campaign is only the first step. After the campaign has taken off, you need to keep up a steady supply of articles to e-zines, newsletters, and article directories to retain and enhance your reader-base. If you had earlier outsourced your articles, you can ask the same writer to continue ghostwriting an article a week and submit them to relevant e-zines or directories.
So, now that you know why outsourcing articles makes sense, let’s look at a few things you need to keep in mind when looking for a freelance writer. There are all kinds of writers out there—Good, Bad, and Tardy. Your first task when hiring a ghostwriter is to choose someone who meets your requirements of quality, time, and cost. Ask potential ghostwriters to provide samples of their work for previous clients. Evaluating written samples can give you a good idea of a writer’s style and quality of writing.
Once you have shortlisted a few good ghostwriters, it’s time to negotiate payment terms. Be realistic about payment terms as good quality writing comes at a price. Don’t expect to find a writer who meets all your requirements and yet charges only five dollars for an article. After you’ve finalized the payment terms, communicate your requirements in detail, if possible in writing. This could include article keywords, word limits, preferred writing style, and schedule for delivery. Once the project starts, ensure that you remain available to your writer for any questions and clarifications. Regular and effective communication is the key to a successful outsourcing relationship.
Finally, you must review the writer’s work and provide feedback regularly. This is especially important if you are working with a writer for the first time. It helps you check whether the writer is on the same page as you and avoids need for major rework at the end of the project. Hopefully, if you have hired a good freelance writer, there will be little need for changes.
Hiring a freelance writer for your article marketing campaign is a good idea if you need several quality articles quickly to promote your new Web site. Outsourcing your writing work also makes sense if you need a regular flow of articles to attract more readers to your Web site.
ABC of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 18-06-2008 01:25:20
A Web site is only as good as the traffic it gets. As an Internet marketer, you probably believe this to be true. But what is the secret of attracting good quality traffic? The answer in a nutshell is search engine optimization or SEO. Read on to find out what SEO is and why it works.
Just go back to the time when you wanted to find the nearest pizza delivery option quickly. You certainly didn’t remember a string of unfriendly URLs. So you probably just opened your favorite search engine, entered the keyword “pizza delivery” plus your location, and Bingo! You received a list of pizza joints near your place. In the next few minutes, you had glanced through the first three links, placed your order and were soon happily munching through your pizza before crashing into your bed. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The truth is most of us reach new Web sites through search engines. And most of us do not look beyond the first few links in the search results to look up what we want. There might have been a really great pizza place quite near your home, much better than the one you opted for. But because its Web site was not optimized for the search engines, it appeared somewhere around the 20th place in your search results. So despite making fantastic pizzas, this pizza shop lost the opportunity to serve you and other online customers.
This is exactly what can happen to your Web site if it is not search engine optimized. In this day and age, no one has the time or patience to plough through hundreds, if not thousands, of links. And to be honest, if users are finding what they want on the first few links, why should they look further? As the marketer, it is your responsibility to try and bring your Web site in the first two pages of search results in top search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. How can you do that? Well, there are two key aspects to optimizing a Web site for search engines—one is optimizing the design of your Web site and the other is optimizing the content of the Web site.
To optimize your site’s design, you must plan its structure such that it can be easily recognized, navigated, and crawled by search engine spiders. For this, you must:
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Use compliant HTML code: All the HTML code on your Web site must be compliant to global Internet standards. Otherwise, search engine spiders will not be able to crawl and index your Web site properly. As a result, your Web site will not be able to rank well on search engines.
To optimize your Web site’s content for search engines, ensure that it is relevant for targeted keywords. For this, you must:
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Ensure the right keyword density in your Web pages: Search engines check the frequency of the search term or keyword in a page when determining page relevance for that keyword. In earlier days of SEO, Web masters used to repeat keywords again and again to gain higher ranking. However, search engines have now got smarter and have started penalizing pages that indulge in such keyword spamming. Therefore, at present, the right keyword density is between 2 to 3%. This means that in a 500-word article on soft toys, the keyword “soft toys” should appear about 12 to 15 times in total.
Getting to the Top of Google
Most Internet marketers dream of getting their Web pages on the top of Google's search results for relevant keywords. Google has now become synonymous with search engines and the term "Googling" often used in place for the more mundane "searching" or "browsing". So, it's no wonder that marketers want to stay on the top on Google. If your Web page is somewhere on the top results for the keyword "educational toys" on Google, your children's Web site is virtually guaranteed thousands of quality visitors. By quality visitors, we mean people who actually want to buy educational toys or similar products and not those who have accidentally landed on your Web page. But how do you ensure that Google's ranking algorithm looks favorably to your Web pages? Read on to find out.
Google's secret to the best search results is that it ranks pages by their tangible value to searchers. The tangible value of a Web page is determined on the basis of its content and links to that page from other Web sites. Of the two factors, links are more important because Google assumes that another Web site will link to your pages only if the pages have good content. There are some ways in which you can take advantage of this feature of Google's ranking algorithm.
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Use relevant keywords in the anchor text or label of your links. Instead of adding vague "Click here" links, make the keyword part of your link. For example, instead of "Click here to view math games," use "Math games" to provide a link to a page containing games to teach mathematics. In addition, avoid using the same keyword in the anchor text of the links. For example, if your primary keyword phrase is “educational games,” you can label one link as “Educational Games” and another as “Top Educational Games.”
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When providing links to internal pages, use absolute or complete URLs instead of relative links. For example, use http://www.<websitename>.com/math/one/ instead of "./math/one/". While the relative link will also work internally, it will not be of much use to you in optimizing your page for the search engine.
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Google believes that a link that leads to a relevant page even four levels deep is more valuable to the visitor than a link to the home page that does not have relevant content. For example, if a link for “racing game” leads to the home page that lists all types of games, Google does not give it much credit. In contrast, if the link leads to a page with info on the “Most Challenging Car Racing Game,” even four or five levels deep, the link is considered valuable by Google.
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Avoid overstuffing your pages with links. A good thumb rule is to limit the number of links on a page to less than 1% of the page word count. For example, if a Web page has 500 words, you should have max 5 text links on the page.
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Try to find the most suitable inbound links to your pages. This requires some time and effort from your side, but the results are well worth the effort. One way to do this is to submit your Web site to good directories, such as dmoz.org and webworldindex.com. As soon as these directories link to your site, you will have some good quality inbound links that will immediately raise your ranking with Google. You could also try a good SEO software tools, such as SEO Elite, get top place in Google and other search engines. Although these tools can cost you around 200 dollars, their results are really worthwhile. These tools not only allow you to perform rank checking and reporting but they also let you determine the best link partners for your site.
By using the above tips and tricks, you can improve your Google ranking and attempt to get the Number 1 position in the search results for a targeted keyword.
There are many facets to ranking well with search engines. Mastering the basics is essential. If you need that extra edge over the competition we recommend you download and to use this program....
From SEO to SMO — The Great Leap
By : W.D.Price
Posted: 27-04-2008 10:52:00
Social media optimization (SMO) is threatening to become the new Internet marketing model, pushing paid searches and search engine optimization (SEO) into oblivion. While SEO was all about manipulating search engine algorithms by making your articles keyword rich, SMO is about subtly influencing the actual people who read these articles. In that sense, SMO work in a similar way to advertisements on television. No one forces you to buy anything, but that woman with long golden tresses in the ad certainly makes you want to try out the shampoo she is endorsing. So, if you want to pull visitors to your Web site and attract them to your products and services, follow the guidelines in this article to start your own SMO campaign.
Before you start your SMO campaign, you must identify the social network or community Web site you are targeting. Be sure you select the Web site whose theme matches with your interests. For instance, Babblz (http://www.babblz.com) is about parenting while Hugg (http://www.hugg.com) is about the environment. So there is no point in hanging around on Hugg if your interests (or your Web site) relate to automobiles. The good thing is that niche community sites are coming up on a big way on the Internet so it’s not really difficult to find a social site that is related to your field.
After you’ve found a social media site in your niche, make an effort to really get to know the site and its users. All social media sites have a set of rules—while some of these rules will be posted prominently on the site, others will be apparent only when you participate genuinely on the site. The best way to build a reputation on a social media site is to participate normally and follow stated rules. Post regularly on the site, read other people’s posts, and comment on them honestly. Soon, you will have a small network of other members who will reciprocate and comment on your posts. Whenever you get a new comment on your site, be sure to reciprocate. That is the cardinal rule of SMO. If you do not respond to comments, you will lose your new social network friends quite fast.
While adding posts on social media sites, make sure that you are not spamming. In SMO parlance, spamming is when you are constantly self promoting your Web site in your posts and comments. All social media sites have mechanisms in place to detect spam and penalize spammers.
Like SEO writing, social media writing also revolves around good content. However, while SEO articles typically have a more technical tone and are keyword rich, social media posts have a more informal tone like blogs. In addition, social medial posts are usually time sensitive. Posts based on recent news, rumors, and speculations are the most popular and get the most comments. In SMO terms, even one week old news is considered stale news. So, it is important to be among the first to break a news item on the social Web site. In case you are late, it is better to participate by adding comments to related posts.
The key to successful social media optimization is to plan your content carefully to try and make it to the home page of the site. For this, you have to research the Web site thoroughly and write posts that are relevant for members of the site and worded so as to appeal to them. To find out more about members’ tastes, read posts of regular contributors, comment on their posts, and network online and offline with them. Building your own network of loyal readers on the site is important because most social media sites allow users to vote on the posts. If a post has sufficient votes, it can make it to the home page of the site. And if your post (along with your link) is showcased on the home page of the social media site, it can do wonders for the traffic on your Web site. Although preferences vary from site to site, most community sites like posts that include lists, videos, images, and tips. Such posts are most likely to make it to the home page. If you study your target social media site carefully, you will soon find what clicks and what does not.
Happy SMOing!
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