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Carmen Rane Hudson

Weekly Round-Up: 4 of This Week’s Best Online Marketing Posts

July 19, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

best-online-marketingThat Sharknado was flying all over the Internet, but I managed to find some great content anyway. I didn’t even get bitten!

First up is a post from Jeff Bullas called “How to Create and Write Evergreen Content to Boost Your Business.” This is incredibly important for small business owners to grasp and master.

Now, you need to have a variety of different kinds of content. It’s not a good idea to go 100% evergreen because that can get a little robotic.

At the same time, I work on a fence contractor’s blog right now. What contest ranks and performs the best? The evergreen stuff, hands down.

Small business blogging is different. You’re not necessarily going to build up this huge following full of people who come back again and again, engage, share, tell you how great you are, etc. But that’s not really the point. Get Mrs. Johnson to read 2-3 of your good posts and provide the answers she’s looking for when she’s looking for it and you’ve achieved what you need to achieve. She’s sure as heck more likely to call you than a guy who is just Google+ listing, or who can’t offer her anything more than a bunch of self-serving copy on his website.

Next up we’ve got Marcus Sheridan of Sales Lion, and here’s more on the same theme. I referenced Sales Lion last week too, and I’m seriously starting to think that The Sales Lion is one of THE go-to blogs for small business owners, especially contractors.

This week’s gem? Why “Useful” Beats “Amazing” Any Day of the Week.

“Just be useful” should probably become the new mantra for every small business owner who is diving into the world of content marketing, or for those who manage SMB blogs.

And it’s pretty awesome, because you can just stop stressing over it. People keep crowing, “OMG! Your content has to be AWESOME!” Well, that’s freaking intimidating.

Marcus says, “No, your content just has to be useful.” Yes, yes indeed.

That was the same theme shared by Phil Rozek in 10 Solid Examples of Blogging for Local Business. That was written way back on June 20th, but read it anyway if you want a second opinion on this usefulness thing, as well as a list of bloggers who are getting the job done right.

#3 on today’s round-up comes from Darren Slaughter, who is, of course, another go-to guy for contractors in particular. “Struggling with Conversions on Your Website? Click Here Still King.”

It’s another object lesson on how it’s just pretty much important to avoid overthinking stuff. One amazingly simple conversion strategy, well worth reading, and applicable to any type of small business.

#4 was a local SEO post, a bit of news worth hearing about. Phil Rozek announced the return of 5 star ratings to Google+ Local pages.

And there you have it! Some great online marketing posts from all over the web. What did you find this week?

Filed Under: General Online Marketing

Why Your Small Business Needs Blog Writing Services

July 18, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

blog-writing-servicesI don’t know you, Small Business Owner. But I bet I know a thing or two about you.

You’re busy and probably exhausted. You have to somehow cram 30 hours of tasks into each 24 hour day.

You desperately need to keep the leads rolling in, but marketing has to hit the back burner more often than not. When you have to make a choice between the customer in front of you and the customer you might get tomorrow, the customer in front of you wins.

Sure, there are long term consequences when you fall down on your marketing, but you’re doing the best you can right now.

Plus, you might even hate to write. And all this talk about “engagement” and “relationship building” is kind of stressful when you are thinking about obtaining the revenue you need to keep your business open and your family fed.

But you know it’s got to be done. And you know that blogging will bring you more business than brochures, billboards, radio ads, and the old, dead Yellow Pages.

These are great reasons to take advantage of blog writing services. Imagine knowing that every single week, your blog and website is filling up with cool content that builds trust with your prospective customers.

Imagine getting around problems with listing your business in a given service area. Imagine being at or near the top of search engine results for each town in your service area because your blogger is making intelligent use of local keywords every time a post goes live.

You know all of the benefits of blogging: more traffic, more trust, more sales. So if you’re not blogging already, or you want someone else to handle it for you, contact us about web maintenance and blogging services. Travis and I will make it easy for you to get more visibility and sales online!

Filed Under: Small Business Websites & Blogs

11 Reasons Why a Small Business Owner Should Avoid Facebook

July 17, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

avoid-facebookAs you know, I’m a big fan of social media for small business. However, I’m coming to the conclusion that Facebook is probably one of the worst social networks for small business owners to focus on.

Others may disagree, but I’m going to back all of this up with some solid reasoning. I’ve also got some experience comparing client performance on Facebook to client performance on other social media sites. Without going into detail, the results on Facebook just aren’t pretty.

Here are the 11 reasons why those results aren’t as awesome as I’d like them to be, and why you should just go right ahead and avoid Facebook.

1. You aren’t friends or family

Facebook is primarily a network that links friends and family members together. That’s why most of the users are there.

People on Facebook don’t really want to hear from brands. They want to see pictures of their grandkids and find out if people they went to high school are doing better than they are.

2. You aren’t fun

You can ignore this point if you are a restaurant owner, club owner, or something similar. Facebook is actually really good for those kinds of businesses.

However, if you’re something a little less fun, like, say, the dentist, then people on Facebook are simply in the wrong mood to read your content.

Granted, if you can make yourself fun, have at. I could see a dentist posting all sorts of funny dentist cartoons once a week doing pretty well, if he knew where to dig them up in order to post them.

3. You aren’t a big brand

Big brands do well on Facebook because people know them. Coke, Pepsi, Zappo’s shoes, and other brands market on a global scale and have millions of people to choose from. Often, these brands have also mastered the art of being fun.

By contrast, you as a smaller business have a limited pool of people to market too. You don’t have household name recognition to push Facebook likes. And you may not be able to afford the special deals and offers that keep people coming back to those pages.

4. You do business in a specific local area

Again, this comes down to the very small pool of people that you can reasonably draw in on Facebook. There are strategies for reaching local people very quickly and easily on Twitter or Google+, but it’s only possible to reach brands this way on Facebook. On Facebook, you can’t just follow local people in the hopes of being followed back: they have to seek you out.

5. There are Better Places to Spend your PPC Dollar

One of the most reliable ways to get business on Facebook is through Facebook’s brand of PPC advertising.

On one hand, Facebook PPC is pretty awesome for its ability to target users by specific demographics: geographic location, gender, age, and the like.

On the other hand, Facebook drives all that traffic to your Facebook page, which Facebook owns, and not to your website, which you own. And few people make the jump from Facebook page to website.

Google PPC, by contrast, drives traffic to your website. You own that. It’s under your control. And it’s where the purchases and appointments happen.

6. It takes a long time to gather followers

The right program can drive existing customers to your Facebook page. But it’s going to take a long time.

Which means that you may be pushing content on Facebook to less than 20 people for six months or longer, which is not exactly rewarding.

7. Your content may or may not appear in a customer’s news feed

Facebook makes decisions about which content appears in the news feed for each user. According to Forbes.com, less than 5% of the customers who “like” your page ever see your status updates. So they may like you, but then they’re going to forget about you.

Bitter news indeed if you paid for PPC ads to get those likes in the first place.

8. The Like Button May Hurt You

“Like” buttons on webpages only help businesses when customers are particularly proud of their purchase. So if you’re in the business of selling status items like high-end clothes or cars you can ignore this point.

Everyone else should heed The Huffington Post’s warning: adding a Like button to a business that people are embarrassed to use or not thrilled about using actually decreases sales by 25%. So, ah…rectal surgeon? Avoid it.

9. Facebook Isn’t as Valuable for Traffic as G+

Let’s face it, Facebook is in direct competition with Google now. And Google+ gives you a clear search engine boost in a way that Facebook never will.

Sure, there’s evidence that Google is taking social signals from all the networks into account, but they’re going to weigh their own a lot more heavily.

10. People will unlike you when they’re done with you

Albarce mentioned that Facebook contests could be treacherous because people unlike your page as soon as the contest is done. So if you’ve spent money purchasing any incentive to get people to “like” your page that money may just be wasted.

11. Twitter and G+ Offer More Rewards, Faster

Twitter makes it easy for you to engage with people in your city or service area, and people who are on Twitter are in the mood to read great content. If they follow you, they’re in the mood to read content just like yours.

And while you have more space to write words on G+, it offers much the same in the way of mood, segmentation, and quick engagement.

You just do not get that engagement on Facebook. For one thing, when someone likes a page you still don’t get the right to write on their walls or address them directly. But it’s really easy to communicate with people on both of the other two social networks.

Your business may be the exception. But for most SMBs my advice is to simply leave Facebook to languish while you build your presence on the other social networks.

Filed Under: Social Media

How to Accept Guest Blog Posts Without Getting Screwed

July 16, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

guest-blog-postYesterday, I talked about how you could continue to submit guest blog posts without shooting yourself in the foot. But if you also accept guest posts there are other things you need to think about.

Why? Because if you accept the wrong guest posts your site could be just as penalized as if you’d submitted lots of terrible guest posts. So how do you avoid this problem?

Tighten Your Standards

And I don’t just mean content quality standards either, though obviously content quality should be your primary concern. I’m talking about checking out the blogger who is proposing to generate content for your site.

Think about it. You wouldn’t let just anybody into your home, so you shouldn’t let just anybody onto your blog. Take some time to check out the writer’s credentials. Pay attention to what they’re doing on the Internet.

Is this writer spreading a ton of low-value blog posts wherever he or she can do so? Then you might want to skip that blogger. Google seems to do a lot with “guilt by association.”

Now, I’m not saying that every guest blogger you invite needs to be famous. Because that’s silly.

I am saying that you should make sure that they aren’t mass producing a lot of mediocre content and that they seem to be authoritative in the niche they’re proposing to blog in.

You run a landscaping business and your blog is all about landscaping. Someone from the local fence industry who has mostly written on their own blog and maybe in one or two other places wants to guest blog. Go for it.

You run a landscaping business and someone who sells a dodgy weight loss product wants to guest blog, and that person has written some stumbling, fumbling content on just about every site known to man? Skip it. That person doesn’t really know the first thing about landscaping and your site isn’t relevant to their site. And that person is just the sort of person that Google wants to penalize.

Always ask: what’s the value to my readers? Is this post bursting with value? Does this blogger bring value wherever he or she goes?

In fact, you can even seek out people who have impressed you and invite them to your blog. You don’t have to wait for them to come to you.

Use Copyscape

Don’t make a big deal out of using Copyscape, because that’s going to be a little bit insulting to serious bloggers, but use it. The last thing you want is to publish spun or duplicate content, and Copyscape is the quickest way to spot either.

Cultivate Regular Contributors

When you do this you’ll get a steady stream of content from people you trust. You can offer them a lot of value by letting them link to their own sites in the body of their posts instead of in the targeted author boxes (when and where appropriate).

You can trust to your own eye to tell whether the link is promotional, spammy, or useless. If it brings value, leave it. If it annoys you, then make the blogger cut it.

A trusted regular contributor will almost never present this problem, however. And your audience will appreciate high-value regular contributors as well.

Keep Thinking of Your Readers

If you’re accepting guest posts for the sake of packing your blog full of content that you didn’t have to write then you are already off-track. There’s only one real reason to accept a guest post: you think that it will provide something of value to your readers.

If that hasn’t been your strategy to date then make it your strategy now. Otherwise, you’re better off not accepting any guest posts at all.

Filed Under: General Online Marketing

How Safe is Your Guest Blogging Strategy?

July 15, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

guest-blogging-strategyI’ve been hearing more and more buzz around the fact that Google will be targeting guest posts on their next algorithm update. So how safe are your guest posts, and thus your website, from Google’s newest push?

For example, hisWebMarketing recently suggested adding the “no-follow” attribute to links in author bios. If you don’t know already, a “do follow” link tells Google’s bots to count the link as part of your overall link profile. Google does not count “no follow” links, but humans can still choose to click on the link in order to follow it back to your website.

A couple of months ago, James Finlayson posted on Moz.com and offered a graphic representation of the ways that guest posts can skew a link profile. He was full of great advice about keeping your head above water when it comes to avoiding penalties.

I’ve been doing a lot of my own thinking on the subject of guest posts, and I’ve come up with a few takeaways of my own. Here’s how small business owners can continue to pursue guest posts without losing the benefits of guest blogging.

Build Your Author Rank

I’m getting the impression that people with a higher author rank will have a lot less to worry about when it comes to seeing penalties on their guest posts.

Consider this Matt Cutts video, also featured in the hisWebMarketing post:

I’m getting the impression that people with a higher author rank will have a lot less to worry about than people with a low author rank, or no author rank. So post great content no matter where you post it, and make sure the content is attributed to you.

No doubt Vanessa Fox and Danny Iny can both expect to have a pretty awesome author rank. I’m finding it hard to believe that Google would ever want to penalize their guest post efforts.

And the only way Google could distinguish a “star” or “high quality” author from those who are perhaps not so amazing would be to use author rank.

Develop a Handful of Good Relationships

What’s better? Making 30 posts on 30 blogs in 30 days or making 30 posts on one highly trustworthy blog in 30 weeks?

I’m guessing that it’s going to be 30 posts in 30 weeks on 1 high quality blog. 30 posts in 30 weeks is a more natural progression, and it speaks of providing solid value to readers.

30 posts in 30 days on 1 high quality blog (your own) would also speak of providing solid value to readers. No penalties there.

but 30 posts in 30 days on 30 guest blogs smacks of smearing low-quality content all over the Internet. And avoid “services” which farm out guest blog posts to whatever blogger seems willing to take them…they’re just trouble waiting to happen. The results will be low-quality blogs that may not be entirely relevant to your content, stuff Google can spot as garbage a mile away.

Remember, too, that guest blogging isn’t just about creating “link juice.” It’s about building an audience and a following, which leads me to my third point.

Yes, Guest Posts are Still Useful

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t assume that Google’s penalties will strip all the value out of guest posting.

You don’t need to get fixated on grabbing hundreds of do-follow links. They’re nice, but no-follow links still provide value.

And guest posts still contribute to your web presence. They help you create a following and build your brand. So build a relationship (or hire someone who can build a relationship) with a good blog’s followers and you should see some of those followers over on your own site.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about what you should do if you have decided to host guest posts of your own, since hosts can be penalized too.

What are your predictions for guest posts and how Google will treat them? Let me know in the comments below!

Filed Under: General Online Marketing

Weekly Round-Up: 6 of This Week’s Best Online Marketing Posts

July 12, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

best-online-marketingThere were a lot of great posts floating around for me to share with you this week. Note that “this week” might be “last week” as far as actual post dates…I can sometimes be a bit behind. Nevertheless, the info is still worth sharing.

Here they are, in no particular order.

First, there’s “The Two Most Powerful Words in the World of Content Marketing Right Now.” In my post 19 Things Customers Want to See on a Contractor’s Blog I referenced a Copyblogger post that talked about this particular blogger’s decision to share information about his prices.

The “Two Most Powerful Words” post actually talks about how he did it. It’s an easy method that you can copy for your own blog or website.

Next, there’s “Does Review Velocity or Recency Influence Local Business Ranking?”

I’ll warn you that this post is a bit “deep in the weeds.” However, it had some awesome insights about Google Carousel and how reviews are factoring into local rankings. If you’re getting most of your reviews on sites like Yelp there’s no reason to worry–Google may well be factoring those signals into your Google+ Local ranking even if people aren’t reviewing you on Google. It turns out that few people do, simply because Google requires customers to fill out a profile first.

“Should You Do Link Building to Your G+ Page for Local,” is another impressive in-depth post from Mike Blumenthal. The answer seems to be a resounding “no.” Send those backlinks to your own website and blog instead.

However, Mike did stress the need to build up your presence on G+ social media. The G+ social media platform started out very slow when Google first unveiled it, but it’s certainly gotten a lot more powerful.

“WordPress Trackbacks and Pingbacks: How to Use this for SEO & Traffic” was the post that taught me something new this week. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know those things were anything other than strange, random spam until I read this post. I’m sure Travis knew, but I never thought to ask him. I will definitely be taking a closer look at both of these things in the future.

Why? Because according to Traffic Cafe, they actually provide you with a powerful way to continue the conversation you’re having with other bloggers.

“How to Turn Drab Blog Posts into Sparkling Content” was another good one. Confession time: I really struggle with blog post headlines.

When I’m writing a sales letter or something they come naturally to me, but I have to work myself into that mode. In blog post mode I tend to be thinking about “let’s teach and share information,” and unless I specifically remember to reach for my copy of Headline Hacks I usually wind up in a bit of trouble.

However, Henneke’s post gave me a couple of new things to try and think about, and maybe it will do the same for you.

Finally, there’s “How We Increased Organic Blog Traffic by 203.5% in Less than 3 Months — And You Can Too.” This was a guest post on Pro Blogger written by Kristina Allen. It was an absolutely fantastic post that explains the role of keyword research in blogging about 1000 times better than I ever could, with the bonus that her post will help you generate a lot more topics for your blog. Be sure to check it out.

Speaking of guest posts, I got an opportunity to do one over at The Blogging Painters. Thank you Chris Haught for giving me the opportunity to share “How to Make Local Search Work for You and Your Service Area.” It gave me a chance to share what contractors should do about the fact that Google+ Local doesn’t always make things easy for people who have service areas instead of a location that customers can come to visit.

To wrap this up, I’d like to issue a big open invitation. If you’ve got a great internet marketing post to share go right ahead and add it in the comments section. I’d love to see it!

Filed Under: General Online Marketing Tagged With: blog round-up, blogs

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