Category Archives: blogging

Top Five Blogs We Love

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Posted by admin on September 18, 2009 – 7:07 am
Filed under blogging, online marketing

We love 4

Why we love the A Chica Bakes blog: The design is adorable and fits with the personality of the blogger. Sherbet Blossom Designs created this blog and did a fabulous job.

We love 3

Why we love the WebProNews blog: For the valuable content. Their fresh content is informative, full of helpful statistics, and many times their posts include charts or videos to help illustrate the issue even more.

We love 2

Why we love The Design O’Blog: Their RSS Feed subscription button and Podcast button are fun and creative. The little mice holding the icons are enough to get you to subscribe before you even read the blog. And, the blog content makes us laugh–it’s clever, witty, and fun.

We love 1

Why we love the n.Design Studio blog: This blog has it all. With a colorful and user-friendly design and valuable web design industry news and information, this blog keeps your eyes and mind busy.

we love 5

Why we love the Oddly Enough blog: Downright hilarious! From the headlines to the content, you’ll be giggling away when you read this blog. And we love their blog tagline: News, but not the serious kind.

Which blog is your favorite out of these five? We’d love to hear your feedback in our comments section.

Don’t Waste Blog Comments

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Posted by admin on September 11, 2009 – 8:14 am
Filed under blogging

A few weeks ago, I was messing around with my blog, checking the stats, adding a new widget, and answering comments. Something prompted me  to click on page three and four of my comments.

I was happily reading through comments that were months old until I discovered six comments that I had not approved.

I didn’t even know they were there.

I make it a point to reply back when people leave comments because I like bloggers to write back when I comment on their blogs. Also, we market blogs for clients on a regular basis and actively market our blog as well. My number one rule is: leave comments and comment back. It’s the polite thing to do and it helps build relationships.

So, you can image my shock when I stumbled upon these unattended blog comments. To make matters worse, someone had left a message asking to expand on the topic. And another person left me a message on a post that was about how communication is the key to business success. Talk about embarrassing.

How these comments managed to slip past me isn’t important. What matters is that not only did I miss an opportunity to connect with other bloggers, but I may have also lost readership as a result of my neglect.

Let this be a lesson to those of you who blog: stay current with your incoming comments. Reply back in a prompt manner. And it wouldn’t hut you to check comments from months ago. You never know what you might have missed.

I’d love for you to leave a comment. Oh, come on, you know you want to. Or share it on Digg orStumbleUpon.

Is Anyone Reading Your Blog?

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Posted by admin on September 9, 2009 – 7:16 am
Filed under RSS Feed, blogging, social networking

You work hard on keeping your blog current. You post frequently. Your blog is optimized. You comment on other blogs and, on occasion, you get a few comments on your blog. You’ve even listed yourself in blog directories.

If you’re like many people blogging for business, there’s always that question in the back of your mind: Who is reading my blog and how many people are repeat visitors?

RSS copyRSS 2

If you don’t already have an RSS feed on your blog, it’s time you got one.

Having the RSS feed option on your blog is key if you want your blog to gain large readership and have a solid base of followers. An RSS feed will also allow you to track how many subscribers read each post in their feed and if they click through.

RSS feed is a powerful marketing tool because . . .

**The more subscribers you have, the more you increase your online exposure and likelihood that a larger number of people will visit and leave comments on your blog.

**As mentioned above, a RSS feed allows you to easily track subscribers. Tracking allows you to see how many people visit your blog from their readers and how many times they click through your blog. From this, you can see what posts are the most popular. The more you follow your stats, the easier it is to cater blog posts to what your target market is hungry for.

**Your search engine rankings can increase dramatically with an RSS feed. Google detects if your blog is high quality based on how many people subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. The more subscriptions you have, the better your blog will rank in the search engines.

**Your subscribers can easily share their favorite blog posts / pages with their friends, colleagues, and clients via email or social media sites. In turn, when subscribers share your posts, they are creating a viral marketing campaign for your company.

**People who subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed save the time and aggravation of going through all the websites they enjoy, to search for newly added posts. It’s a tool that easily allows subscribers to constantly view your new posts because you’re already in front of them. That’s the power in getting readers to subscribe.

Tips for adding a RSS feed to your blog:

1) I suggest offering readers a choice to sign up via a regular feed or through email. People like choices.

2) Next to the RSS symbol, include a powerful call to action. Don’t just say subscribe–it’s boring and it doesn’t stand out. Brainstorm and come up with something your target audience will respond to.

3. Put your RSS subscribe call to action and button up-front-and-center. Don’t hide it.

If you love what you read here and are so inclined, I’d love for you to subscribe to Copy Doodle.

Twillitary Strikes

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Posted by admin on July 28, 2009 – 12:29 pm
Filed under Marketing, SEO copywriter, Twitter, blogging, online sales

Military Twitter 

This Twitter themed T-shirt is being sold by Bouhammer.com in conjunction with KissMyGumbo.com and Vision Strike Wear, in honor of #MilitaryMon. All procedes from this shirt benefit Project Valour-IT, which ”helps provide voice-controlled / adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries.”

Purchase yours today and support our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.

Are You Using Your Blog To Its Fullest Potential?

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Posted by admin on July 23, 2009 – 6:39 am
Filed under Marketing Tip, RSS Feed, SEO copywriter, attract clients, blogging, blogging for business, increase site traffic, online marketing

Blogs are an excellent online platform to provide valuable industry news and tips to your target market, but they are also an integral part of marketing and promoting your business online. Blog posts that provide value to your readers help position you as an expert in your field and a credible source for viable information.

If you want a successful blog–one with a large readership and one that brings you customers–simply posting regularly isn’t enough. You need to market and promote your business blog. Setting aside an hour or two each week to market your blog will help increase readership, position you as an expert, and grow your client base. If you’re not using your blog properly and to its full potential, you are missing out on increasing website traffic and boosting sales.

Below are 9 steps to effectively market and promote your blog:

Step 1: Attach the RSS feed widget to your blog: RSS feed stands for Really Simple Syndication, which is a file containing a brief amount of information–a headline and synopsis–and a link to the full content on the blog. Voluntary subscribers to specific blog RSS feed will receive this information through their RSS readers. Search engines can detect if your blog is high quality based on how many people subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. In addition, search engines can detect how many people visit your blog from their RSS readers and how many times they click through to your blog.

Step 2: Import blog posts into your social media sites: With a large concentration of companies and individuals using social media sites to communicate, it’s important to import your blog into social media sites. Nearly all social media sites allow you to import your blog into your profile, including some of the most popular social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Importing your blog allows your target market to post comments and share posts with friends. Whenever a comment is posted on your blog from a reader via Facebook, the comment is visible on the reader’s minifeed, which can be seen by all of the reader’s friends.

Step 3: Create a blog marketing and promotion schedule: Creating a strict marketing and promotion schedule ensures you will stay organized and current with its promotion. Each week, set aside time to comment on like-minded blogs, ask other bloggers if you can be a guest blogger, or ask others to guest blog for you, and request to be on like-minded blogrolls. Don’t forget to set aside time to track your blog posts and recycle posts into articles.

Step 4: Comment on like-minded blogs: One thing many bloggers don’t realize is the importance of commenting on other blogs. Commenting on like-minded blogs is a powerful networking tool and works to increase inbound links to your own blog. Your comments should be relevant to the blog topic, add value and your expertise to what is being said in the blog, give positive feedback, peak the interest of the author and other viewers, provide links to similar pieces you may have written about the subject, and have a link to your email and website below each comment.

Step 5: Approach popular, like-minded bloggers, and ask if you could be a guest blogger: Search engines look highly upon blogs mentioned on other blogs because it illustrates that your blog provides intellectual material that ignites curiosity and discussion in the online community. Aside from other blogs, if search engines find your blog’s URL on social media sites and social bookmarking sites, these social media sites consider this a positive indicator that your blog is high quality.

Step 6: Approach popular, like-minded bloggers, and ask if they would be a guest blogger on your blog: Requesting like-minded bloggers to be guest bloggers is the perfect way to build relationships online and increase exposure. The more people you can touch and build working relationships with, the more likely you are to successfully market and promote your blog. Having guest bloggers also shows you are interested in what others have to say and are striving to find the best possible industry information available.

Step 7: Request to be on popular, like-minded bloggers’ blogrolls: After commenting on other blogs and requesting to be a guest blogger–and vice versa–it’s time to request to be on those bloggers’ blogrolls. Since you have a basis of a relationship with most of these bloggers now, you are more likely to receive a yes to be on their blogroll. Being present on other blogrolls helps increase inbound links and drive targeted traffic to your blog and website.

Step 8: Track blog posts: Tracking the popularity of specific posts helps you see what topics are of interest to your readers. Regularly tracking your blog also helps you track key phrases people use to find your blog and the amount of click-throughs you receive.

Step 9: Recycle posts into articles: Recycling past blog posts into online articles helps to increase inbound links, position you as an expert in your field, and reach thousands of potential customers. Articles are the perfect way to recycle important and valuable information and share it with thousands of individuals who have never visited your blog before.

Google’s Blog Ranking Criteria Revealed: Part I . . .

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Posted by admin on May 4, 2009 – 6:33 am
Filed under RSS Feed, SEO copywriter, blogging, increase site traffic

grab-2

Similar to when the popular kids in high school got to choose their team members in gym class, Google Blogsearch leaves the weaklings and so-called losers behind. If your blog isn’t popular, it won’t be part of the elite blog group that is ranked by Google. In other words, your blog won’t be on page one of Google Blogsearch. It will be on page 570—or worse.

If you want to rank high on Google Blogsearch, it’s time to start playing Google’s game. It’s all about popularity when it comes to ranking high, and there are a lot of factors that determine your degree of popularity. But, how does one become so admired? You must prove to Google that your blog is high quality.
• Approach popular, like-minded bloggers, and ask if you could be a guest blogger: Google looks highly upon blogs mentioned on other blogs because it illustrates that your blog provides intellectual material that ignites curiosity and discussion in the online community. Aside from other blogs, if Google finds your blog’s URL on emails, chats, and social bookmarking sites, Google considers this a positive indicator that your blog is high quality.

• Attach the RSS feed widget to your blog: RSS feed stands for Really Simple Syndication, which is a file containing a brief amount of information—a headline and synopsis—and a link to the full content on the blog. Voluntary subscribers to specific blog RSS feed will receive this information through their RSS readers. Google can detect if your blog is high quality based on how many people subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. In addition, Google can detect how many people visit your blog from their RSS readers and how many times they click through your blog. And, don’t try to trick Google by subscribing to your own blog numerous times. Google’s mind readers have already devised a way to detect this type of blog fraud!

Google Introduces Google Friend Connect API

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Posted by admin on April 6, 2009 – 7:21 am
Filed under Gain Brand Loyalty, Marketing Tip, SEO, SEO copywriter, attract clients, blogging, increase site traffic, market in economic crisis, online marketing, social networking

Google has recently launched its new Google Friend Connect API, which works the same way many social media sites do. Just like social media sites, Google Friend Connect (GFC) is an excellent tool for companies to use to drive targeted site traffic and grow a successful business online.

This free online marketing tool works with blogs and discussion forums to build a niche-oriented online community on that specific blog / forum. GFC plug-ins are now available on Wordpress, allowing you to add a more interactive and social aspect to your blog.

Using effective SEO techniques to drive traffic to your blog is the first step. The next step is to build a loyal group of readers and allow them to interact on your blog more than ever before. If you use the GFC tool correctly, you can build strong and long-lasting relationships with customers, drive targeted traffic to your website, build readership, and allow visitors to have an entertaining experience on your blog.

How Does GFC Work?

• Allows visitors to sign in to the GFC aspect of your blog using their personal Google, Yahoo, OpenID, or AOL AIM account and make friends, share media, comment, and invite friends from their other social networking sites to visit your blog.

• Permits visitors to become members of the blog and create a profile or upload an existing profile from a social media site they’re a member of.    

• Offers entertaining social features that engage visitors more and encourage them to visit your website and continue to visit your blog. 

All of GFC’s features allow you to build your own niche-oriented online community centered on your blog. This community will consist of people interested in your industry expertise and business. The growth is viral and is an excellent time investment if you want to build a successful business online.

Cost-Effective Marketing for Businesses

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Posted by admin on March 17, 2009 – 7:41 pm
Filed under Copywriting, Marketing Tip, SEO, article marketing, attract clients, blogging, increase online sales, increase site traffic, marketing in bad economy, online articles

Submitting online articles to reputable article directories, popular bloggers, social media sites, social bookmarking sites, and online publications is an excellent way to increase SEO.

Article marketing is a cost-effective way to increase your online visibility, drive traffic to your site, and bring in more business. One article provides long-term results, exposing your company to thousands of potential customers—over and over again. Every article you place drives more traffic to your website and improves your site’s link popularity and search engine rankings.

Online articles are an excellent resource for potential clients and illustrate you’re an expert in your field. When writing online articles, it’s important for them to be well written, informative, and unique. This rule applies no matter where you submit your article.

Make sure your article is focused and expresses your expertise. The article should not sell your product or service—it should be informative and relate to your industry knowledge.

For example, if you specialized in web copywriting and online website promotion, instead of writing all your articles about web copywriting tips, try to think outside the box and touch different industries in a unique way. 

When writing articles, you want to utilize keywords your target market will likely use on search engines and incorporate those naturally into your online articles. The same keywords used on your website can and should be used in your online articles.

CAUTION: Some people make the mistake of thinking the more keywords they use, the more site traffic they’ll receive. The placement of your keywords and the correct usage of them will build site traffic. Focusing on a small set of keywords in niche articles will bring in more traffic and help the article to rank high on search engine results.
Also, make sure to include inbound links to your website at the end of an article, and, if applicable, throughout the article. Remember, the goal is to drive traffic to your website.

Once you’ve written your online article, it’s time to spread it across various online marketing platforms. As mentioned above, submitting online articles to reputable article directories, popular bloggers, online publications, social media sites, and social bookmarking sites is an excellent way to increase SEO.

5 Ways Blogs Increase SEO

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Posted by admin on March 15, 2009 – 9:18 am
Filed under SEO, SEO copywriter, attract clients, blogging, blogging for business, increase online sales, increase site traffic, market in economic crisis, marketing in bad economy

Click the play button to listen to the blog post or, if you prefer, read the post below.

Increasing targeted traffic to your website can cost a small fortune, but it doesn’t have to if you know the right tips, tools, and strategies to get a significant amount of targeted traffic. All it will cost you is your time. The more comfortable you become with these tools, the less time and effort you’ll spend on the blog.

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is through a blog. Blogs significantly help your SEO efforts because search engines love updated, fresh content.

Creating a blog is free and is an excellent way to attract thousands of potential customers to your website, increase your search engine rankings, and boost company credibility. A constantly updated blog is a great way to build a loyal readership group. It allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your field by providing visitors with tips, industry news, and information they can use in their own business. It’s also a great place to showcase news relevant to your company and post case studies, testimonials, or awards you’ve received. It’s also an excellent vehicle to let the public know about community service your company is involved in.

There are 5 major ways blogs can increase SEO:

• Search engines love keyword-rich, updated content. 

• Search engines rank you on how many inbound links you have, and blogs are a great way to link back to your site. The more links you have from reputable websites, the higher your page will rank because the search engines will view your site as one of high importance.

• Keywords work on your blog the same way they do on your website. You want to utilize keywords your target market will likely use on search engines and incorporate those into your blogs.

• If you post your blog on social bookmarking sites, it provides a link and gets you exposure.

• Recycling your past blog posts in future articles that are submitted to other online platforms further increases inbound links, exposure, and higher page rankings.

Increase SEO with Keyword-Rich Blogs

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Posted by admin on March 2, 2009 – 7:00 pm
Filed under Copywriting, Marketing Tip, SEO, blogging, blogging for business, increase online sales, increase site traffic, market in economic crisis

It’s important to keep in mind your keywords when posting on your blog. The keywords you use should be the same keywords you use on your website. Keywords work on your blog just as they do on your website. You want to utilize keywords your target market will likely use on search engines and incorporate those into your blogs. The goal of using keywords on your blog is that when someone types in a specific keyword, your blog pulls up on the first page of search engines.

Keyword placement is critical in attracting viewers to your blog. A set of the same three or four keywords can be placed strategically in the title, links, categories, and body of a blog. As with your website, you want to attract a specific target market with profitable keywords. Your goal is to get a high conversion rate from your visitors. This won’t happen if you generalize your target market. Know your target market, and get specific with your keywords.

Each blog post has its own set of labels and categories to help the engines and visitors know what their post is about. Too many bloggers aren’t taking full advantage of labels and categories. Labels and categories are the best place to use the keywords you use in the post—it’s about using the appropriate keywords or phrases in your labels. These keywords and phrases have to match up with what the post is about. The goal isn’t to put out as many keywords as you can think of. The goal is to have a concentrated set of keywords.