Content marketing. Archives - Page 2 of 2

The Etiquette Of Co.ordinating With Guest Post Submissions.

If you accept guest posts for your blog then I am sure you know that a guest post benefits both the blog and the person who writes the post. It is a mutually beneficial exchange of resources .

But, if you frequently publish guest posts and you keep on getting regular posts which you need to moderate and queue them for publishing then having a system to communicate with the guest bloggers is of utmost important. As people need to kept informed about the progress and status of the post submitted by them.

The guest who has submitted the post for the blog has spared time and effort to write the post and in this times of Twitter and social media many times the posts lose their significance and importance if they get delayed in getting published which is shear injustice to the writer.

If the post has to be rejected due to some reason then it should be done right away so that it can be published else where by the blogger. If it has been read and accepted then it should be immediately be scheduled and the date should be informed to the person who has submitted the post so that he is clear and go ahead planning for the next post.

Ideally the person should be informed within 24 – 48 hrs about the status as later than that is considered as being very inconsiderate of the other person’s time and effort.

Points The Guest Bloggers Should Keep In Mind:

Follow the blog guidelines.
Submit the post as per the procedure on the site.
Submit original and useful content.
Interact with the commenters on the blog .
Do not make the blog post or the comments a cheap link building avenue.
Promote the post.

Points The Host Needs to Keep In Mind:

Make it simple to submit the post.
Have a page to explain the guidelines for guest post submissions.
Be quick in responding to the guest regarding your decision after moderation.
Give a reason if the post is rejected .
Respond to emails by the guest poster. Answer their questions and clear their doubts.
Promote and share the post giving due acknowledgement and credit to the guest blogger as they are giving you content for the blog.

Guest blogging is a team effort if it is managed and coordinated well it can be very helpful for the blog as this is like your online team that you have which is contributing to the content and marketing of the blog.

The Art Of Commenting On Blogs

Blogs are usually created for sharing , expressing and voicing certain thoughts, opinions and information to reach out to more and more people , comments on the blog prove that this exercise has been fruitful and has a multiplier effect on the outreach.

Blog comments are the most valuable UGC (User Generated Content) which benefits the blog as well as the commenter. It works both ways , the blogger gets the opinions and view points of the readers which initiate a discussion, if the discussion has been meaningful and highlights the importance of the topic then it makes the blog post a valuable resource on the topic.

Such kind of regular value added comments from regular visitors which create interest in other visitors also help build a community. The success of any blog is based on the regular readers it has and how many additional visitors become regular readers on a regular basis.

No doubt the blog posts have to be interesting enough to generate that interest but to maintain that interest level the blogger too has to reply to every comment to make the person who wrote the comment feel that he was heard and what he shares regarding the topic is a value added content for the blog.

The back link you get from the comment thread may or may not pass on the link juice. I shall not mention the core SEO benefits derived from commenting as I think it is not ethical but when you share links in your comments do it from the perspective of adding content value to it or purely for the purpose of sharing the content on the link shared which according to you is correlated and will help the readers in some way or the other.

There are certain things to keep in mind while commenting on other blogs:

Never just post a comment for the sake of getting a link back. It is unethical and also resorts to comment spamming.

Share valuable info. related about the topic or share your opinion about it.

Reply to other people’s comments if you think have something to add to.

Do not make your comments too long so that they end up superseding the blog post itself.

If you think that your comment is worth being shared to other beyond the community of that blog tweet the link on Twitter or share it on social media. This again subtly benefits the blog too.

Comment only on topic for which you are passionate about or have knowledge about.

Incase you are posting a comment on a blog post about which you do not have Much knowledge, you can even ask a question in the comments section.

Be honest and authentic about who you are and if possible allow your logo or picture also to be displayed

By having such a commenting policy and approach your web presence can reap the benefits of promoting your brand, having a voice in the selected community, have indirect SEO and marketing benefits, reach out to new communities beyond your blog and search engine presence and also manage to get additional direct and referral traffic.

Content marketing. / SEO - 04/19/2011

The Highlights Of Conference Click Asia Summit 2011- ‘The Power Of Digital And Mobile Marketing In Asia’

Last week I had the Opportunity to participate in the largest marketing event in Asia delivering Digital, Social and Mobile marketing solutions – Click Asia Summit 2011. It was a 3 day summit with a focus on ‘The Power Of Digital And Mobile Marketing In Asia’.

The highlights of the conference:

The conference started of with a very inspiring keynote by Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne . It proved a point that in order to be successful in the digital world one does not need a string of degrees and qualifications attached to his name but a focused approach , dedication and hard work. Gurbaksh’s session encouraged the entrepreneurs to take failure also as an opportunity and go ahead with more positivity rather than getting bogged down.

The delegates had to keep choosing the options of the sessions available , trust me it was a tough one as whenever you made a choice somewhere you felt that you are missing out on the other session which was equally informative.

The sessions onMobile Web: The New Mass Media byMahesh Narayanan, Google India and There's an App for That! By Neil Burton, Web Spiders – UK proved that mobile marketing strategy has to be a part of your digital marketing strategy if you want to future proof your online presence for the long run as statistics and data proved that more and more people are switching on to their smart phones to surf the web and downloading more and more Apps. For their smart phones.

But I think that as smart phones become smarter and internet connectivity becomes better and cheaper for the handsets there will be no need to download Apps. But the handsets will be used more like we use our laptops today. We discarded our desktops for laptops, now we shall discard our laptops for smartphones and that will literally put all the power in the hands of the people as people will shop surf more online due to the ease and accessibility always available in their hands.

The presentation on Metrics-Analysis-Action! And the Day 2 Keynote on Digital Analytics By Gillian Muessig, SEOmoz focused on the following points:

No analytics signal is a signal in itself
Data is not information and reporting is not analytics
Always dive deeper and track to find answers to how the offline and online advertising is lifting each other
Data is not analytics – As just having a car is not sufficient you need a driver to drive it – Just data is not enough you need to analyze it and decompose the metrics to get answers which will help you to take corrective actions and right decisions.

Gillian’s informal way of speaking and reaching out to the audience for questions attracted everyone’s attention and made a dry topic like analytics very interesting.

The sessions on :

Advanced View on PPC vs. Organic by Jeff Adelson Yan, Levelwing

Search Engine Marketing - Dead and Buried? (PANEL) by

Milind Mody, eBrandz

Navneet Kaushal, PageTraffic

Raghavendra Satish Peri,IBM

Best Practices: Online Marketing Vivek Bhargava, Communicate2

They all focused on the importance of having a marketing mix of SEO, PPC, Local Search with a focus on Google Places. They also stressed on the fact on how one marketing strategy helps on leveraging the other sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. As these topics a very vast in themselves the extent to which they were discussed was not sufficient and satisfactory.

The first day concluded with a refreshing session by Mr. Anupam Kher touching the human side of technology and baffling everyone with a down to earth talk and chat on how success has made him more humble and how failure and adversities in life can make you a better person.

On day 2 the following workshops:

Ecommerce In India: Opportunities & Challenges (PANEL)

Dirk van Quaquebeke, Brandmile Ptd. Ltd.

Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal India

Digital Marketing, Lead Nurturing and Social Media for B2B Enterprises

Neil Burton, Web Spiders - UK

Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT

Mobile Marketing & Brands in the Mobile Web Environment

Naveen Tewari, InMobi

Rajiv Hiranandani, Altruist-Mobile2Win

Clearly stated the emerging of the mobile web and the current trend of mobile Apps. Kunal Bahl described the ABCD of Indians as A for Astrology, B for bollywood, C for Cricket and D for discounts. and went ahead to discuss the success of Snapdeal India . The key factor for any ecommerce site to be successful is to give a predictable experience on the site to the visitor was the main takeaway.

Dirk van Quaquebeke, Brandmile Ptd. Ltd. Mentioned that the India is fashion conscious, Indians have disposable income and are early adapters to e-commerce and deals and discounts work well in the Indian market.

Neil Burton, Web Spiders – UK and Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT spoke about lead nurturing and Social media in a B2B scenario . The importance of content for lead nurturing was highlighted .

The content should be remarkable and ignite conversations. The main takeaway - Content provides the context for conversations in social media. In a B2B scenario for social media forget about the image supply as much as information as possible. The main ROI for a B2B campaign is lead generation and building relationships.

B2B is different from B2C
Create a strategy
Talk business from start
Talk numbers , statistics and data
Build a community

The session on Twitter for Business by Pradeep Chopra, Digital Vidya was a runaway hit with a very individual style of conducting the session Pradeep Chopra immediately connected with the participants and I am sure convinced everyone to start tweeting.

The # tag for the conference #cas11 surely became the trending topic.

On day 3 there were two specialized workshops to choose from, one was on Advanced SEO and the other one was on Social Media Marketing.

The SEO workshop was conducted by Bill Hunt, Back Azimuth Consulting and Benedict Hayes, Communicate2

Rajiv Dingra, WAT Media spoke about the importance of blogging.

They were full day workshops covering the following topics:

Time	Advanced SEO Workshop	Social Media Marketing Workshop
9.00 am - 5.00 pm	Bill Hunt, Back Azimuth Consulting Benedict Hayes, Communicate2 Rajiv Dingra, WAT Media	Gaurav Mishra, MSLGROUP Asia Gillian Muessig, SEOmoz
	Introduction SEO Factors Architecture Content Authority The Algorithm SEO Campaign Strategy	1. Real-life social networking game How do we connect with others on social networks around our passions? How do connections lead to conversations, collaboration and community? How can brands connect with people around their passions?
	SEO for Complex Websites The Challenges The Specific Challenges for Large Sites What to Avoid in, Large Sites Especially How to Rope in Stakeholders How to Maximize your Search Shelf Space How to Centralize your Efforts The Downstream Impact How to Maximize Searcher Stimuli	2. Community-centric integrated marketing How is the social web changing integrated marketing and the role of agencies? How can brands create a series of integrated marketing campaigns that build upon each other? How can brands leverage owned, paid and earned media into their integrated marketing strategy? Pepsi Refresh case study.
	Managing Complex Search Programs How to Effectively Deliver Search at Scale Key Focus Areas for an Enterprise How to Integrate SEO in the Workflow Roles and Responsibilities within the SEO Team How to Make a Page Search Friendly What are Organic Search Diagnostic Metrics? What are Organic Search Performance Metrics?	3. Social web strategy for business impact How can brands leverage conversations, campaigns and communities for business impact? How can brands build online communities to organize and energize their evangelists? How can brands measure business impact, platform influence and program engagement? Dell case study.
	The Dynamic Issues in SEO Spidering About URLs Indexing Optimization Listing How to Manage Keywords Understanding the Intent of the Searcher	4. Social web strategy in the B2C context How can brands use contests to build high-engagement communities? How can brands use communities to drive retail footfalls? How can brands create cause-based communities to connect with their stakeholders? Starbucks case study.
	How to Manage Complex PPC Keywords Creative Development Google Quality Score Optimizing Landing Pages	5. Social web strategy in the B2B context How can brands use communities to strengthen relationships with partners? How can brands use communities to attract and motivate talent? How can brands use communities to establish thought leadership? Microsoft case study.
	How to Measure the Success of a SEO Campaign Reporting Executive Dashboard Search Health Report PLP Scorecard Search Effectiveness Metrics Integration Metrics How to Build a Business Case	6. Strategy on a post-it note game What are our brand values and business objectives? Who are our brand evangelists and what are their passions? What is our core platform and program strategy and how will we measure success?
	Searcher Intent Modeling Searcher Intent Modeling Overview Searcher Intent Modeling Steps Integrating Paid & Organic Search Keyword Arbitration The Challenges The Keyword Conflicts How to Allocate Keywords
	Link Building Digital Asset Optimization The Challenges A Checklist The Best Practices
	Enabling Success in a Large-Scale Global Search Marketing Program The Burning Issues Fundamentals of Search marketing Search Organization Audit Enterprise Search Ecosystem
	Managing a SEO Process Managing a Team Managing the Keywords Managing the Technology Managing the Performance Managing the Priorities

Conference Pics :http://www.flickr.com/photos/64046153@N03/sets/72157626961170824/

Content marketing. / SEO / SEO Events - 01/24/2011

Is The Content On Your Website Helping The Visitor To Take A Decision?

Content has a wider connotation now especially after the integration of social and search.

Right from the time the first web page was developed , the most important aspect has undoubtedly been – ‘CONTENT’ – ‘Content Is King’ as it is rightfully said.

The content on the website speaks volumes about your company and also helps you in the SEO of the site. But keeping in mind the dynamics of the evolution of the web, importance has to be given to all the content generation media directly or indirectly related to your website on page or off page.

Every single word you write on your website is surely the content directly affecting the quality score of your website.

If every page on your website targets a unique set of keywords then the possibility of every page becoming the landing page for those set of keywords can surely become a reality and hence ensure those many organic search rankings .

For example: The domain www.malibuplastica ranks on page 1 for the products and services of the company with different landing pages as per the content on that page.

Keyword                                                         Landing Page
Polycarbonate sheets -                                  http://www.malibuplastica.com/index.htm
Polycarbonate Sign Boards -                        http://www.malibuplastica.com/signboard-sign-facia.htm
Polycarbonate Domes And Pyramids -     http://www.malibuplastica.com/Polycarbonate-domes-pyramids.htm
Polycarbonate Anti Riot Shields -               http://www.malibuplastica.com/polycarbonate-anti-riot-shields.htm

This is from the perspective of the search engine spider to make relevant pages rank for different keywords and have focused landing pages with relevant keywords.

But from the perspective of the visitor landing on the relevant page is the first step. The actual journey of buying from the site or contacting the company representative starts from there. The first impression is of course the overall design but the design aspect is so relative that what catches the fancy of one visitor may not appeal at all to the other.

But after the first few second s of a quick assessment of the design the eyeballs move on to read the content. If the content is interesting enough and offers a detailed information about the products and services, the comparative analysis , pricing details along with ease of navigation and minimum no. of clicks then surely the interest level is retained and this influences the decision of the online buyer.

An online buyer needs information immediately else he goes back to the search engine to search for more . The website content should compel the visitor to go on reading the info. Available on the site and make him feel confident of buying from the site.

Usually the comparative study, the reliable payment gateway, trust seal and an SSL certificate boost the confidence of the buyer to finalize a decision.

A website is built for the visitor but the spider specifics are equally important. When we talk about content we usually refer to the on page content but the off page content influencing the site is equally important. The integration of social and search is making this more and more important.

What you post or tweet i.e the content of the tweet or the post you share on facebook, the links that you share , the topics, conversations , comments and blogposts that you like , your email signatures, etc.

On the flip side the User Generated Content - what others write about you on the reviews, comments, and in their tweets especially if a link and your social media account has a reference to are all part of the content which influence the holistic quality score of the content and yes if the visitor also refers to the social media before he decides to buy from your site then that it indirectly influences the online buyer’s decision.

Bing / Content marketing. / Google / SEO - 12/03/2010

My Experience Related To Guest Blogging

Image via Wikipedia We are reading about guest blogging extensively on the web recently. Guest blogging is about getting your post published on another blog or publish a post written by someone else on your blog. Both give an opportunity for networking, adding a freshness of writing style on the blog, reaching out to more communities and making your blog to reach out to other communities as well.

I would like to share my experience regarding guest blogging . Last month I registered on http://myblogguest.com/ hoping to get guest posts for the WebPro Technologies blog . When I registered and went through the user friendly interface and read articles beyond just my field of SEO , Social Media and Web Marketing , the idea of writing for other blogs also fascinated me and I wrote my first article http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-traditional-media-of-marketing-to-the-internet-media-of-marketing/23947/ for a guest post and submitted it to http://myblogguest.com/ .

The first offer received was from Search Engine Journal http://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/bharati-ahuja/ which was something no one can refuse . The interaction with a new blog community has given me immense pleasure in sharing my views on the topics which I am very passionate about and the comments made by the readers surely gave me a varied perspective about the topics written by me.

Being a web marketer reaching out to more and more and networking with the people of the industry and sharing knowledge and information is the lifeline of our company and trust me guest blogging has surely given me this opportunity.

http://myblogguest.com/ a Community of guest bloggers is managed by @seosmarty . You can sign up for free and find out how the community can help you. http://myblogguest.com/ has featured on http://myblogguest.com/forum/featured_on.php

Last but not the least please read about what guest blogging is not before you go ahead with guest blogging. http://myblogguest.com/blog/what-guest-blogging-is-not-getting-it-right/

More, more, more traffic
More, more subscribers
More, more people sharing the post on social media
More and more benefits!

Benefits for guest bloggers:
• Reach new audience

• Build your brand

• Network

Benefits for blog owner:

• Get free exclusive content

• Get free targeted traffic

• Network

• Get new fresh perspective

Please do share your guest blogging experience with us and please retweet to spread the word about guest blogging which puts both the parties concernened in a win-win situation.

Content marketing. / Google / SEO - 10/18/2010