2011 February

Five Key Principles of SEO

February 26, 2011 by Dave Wellman 2 Comments

I have been blogging now for just about a year. Over that time, I have heard much said about search engine optimization (SEO). So bloggers pay very close attention to all the ins and outs of SEO while I have heard people with 30-40,000 blog hits per month say they never worry about it. (One trainer said, “Just write consistently and the SEO will take care of itself!)

I do consider the SEO aspects of my blog. I’m kinda a “middle of the road” SEO guy. As a result I have come up with what I think are the five key principles of SEO.

1. You do need to consider the titles of your blog posts. Your titles are what the search engines look for first when considering how to rank your content. If you are not using long-tail key words to identify the people you are trying to reach, your posts may never get read.

2. Don’t let your blog get spammy by repeating your key words/phrases too many times or in ways that don’t make sense. The spiders these days are pretty smart and understand how marketers try to get rankings for posts that are not really what they claim to be. Using your key word/phrase too many times alerts the spiders to spammy sales letters rather than real, valuable content. These sites rarely get a high ranking.

3. Only seek to advance one keyword phrase in each post. You can write new posts everyday that deal with other key words/phrases as well. Really good bloggers work hard to not confuse the spiders or their readers with too broad a topic in each post.

4. Think about dominating 5 keywords/phrases that really tell the story of your business while providing you a non-stop pipeline of new customers. You cannot really be all things to all people. Specialize on the things that are going to make you the thought leader in your niche!

5. Be consistent in the production of your content. Many are the bloggers whose blogs never achieve a good SEO ranking, not because they don’t write well, but because they don’t write enough.

For me, SEO sounds a lot harder than it really is. Just be thoughtful, decide what it is you are going to write about, and make sure you keep writing. With this philosophy and the five keys principles of SEO, your blog is sure to bring you much success and your clients much new and valuable knowledge!

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Inbound Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Business, Facebook, Google, How to, Internet, Keyword useage, Marketing, Media networking, Optimizing, Popularity, Principles, Rankings, Search, Search engine optimization, Search engines, SEO, SEO techniques, Social Media, Strategy, Traffic

Three Basic Strategies for Successful Blogging

February 25, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

In order to establish a highly successful blog, every blog owner should understand three basic strategies. These strategies are not rocket science instead they are basic things that can be handled quickly and efficiently. The reason that most bloggers (especially business bloggers) don’t ever produce highly successful blogs is that they don’t make these basic strategies a priority in their overall marketing strategy.

The first basic strategy for successful blogging is to always be on the lookout for fresh and valuable content. As I look around the blogesphere, I see lots of blogs that are just re-plating the same old stuff that is found on everyone the blogs written by “the guru’s.” What the successful blogger needs to do is to make their blog their own. Do the research with your current clients, ask them what things they want to know about. Look to engage new clients with the things that seem to matter to them. If every blogger in a particular niche just reworked the same stuff everyone else was writing about, nothing new or exciting would ever come to light!

The second basic strategy for successful blogging is to be consistent. Decide how often to write (based on testing in the early days of your blog) and then discipline yourself to keep that schedule. I have been guilty of having a great idea for a blog, getting it up and running, and then letting it flounder with no new content for long stretches of time. This is not good!!!!! Successful bloggers like Chris Brogan or Seth Godin are always presenting their readers with new material. Learn from the best …. be consistent.

The third basic strategy for successful blogging is to convert readers into leads. Business blogging is about helping your business to grow and prosper. So while you are blogging great content that provides valuable content to you current and prospective clients, don’t forget to offer them more by subscribing to your blog, asking for a white paper on a particular subject, or setting up an appointment to meet. Even the greatest blogger will not be successful if they do not convert readers to leads and leads to new customers.

Like I said at the beginning, these three basic strategies for successful blogging are not rocket science, but if you will follow them faithfully, they will lead to greater success for your blog and more importantly your business!

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Inbound Marketing Tagged With: Basic strategies, Blogging, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Strategies, Success, Successful blogging

Making “Local” Stand Out Online

February 24, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

About ten years ago, I was sitting across the table of a Village Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was in a meeting with a businessman who was trying to convince me of the need to invest in a start-up company that was working to create local search engines for the new technology that was the internet.He and his company had noticed that there was really no place online to narrow a search for a product/service down to a local area. They had set out to find a way of making “local” stand out online.

Fast forward to today. Local search is one of the fastest categories of growth online with approximately 20% of all searches today being local in nature. My friend from ten years ago may have been too far ahead of the curve for the times, but he was right on as to the direction a growth of internet searches.

So, in this age of growing local searches, what is necessary in making “local” stand out online? I think that there are three basic things that are absolutely essential:

1. Get online! Now I know that this seems obvious, but really very few locally owned businesses have any kind of real online presence. Some may have a website, but most do not know what to do with it, or how it can bring in revenue for their businesses. Even fewer local businesses understand Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any other method of extending thier business outside their brick and mortar walls.

2. Get found! Now that you have an online presence, you have to know how to get found. This includes things like “online” specials, local search engine optimization, and offline introductions to your online presence. Get people looking for you, tell people about your “online” locations, and do things for your “online” followers that are exclusive to them.

3. Get consistent! Too many times local businesses will have a spark of inspiration to get online. They will get started and get found, but after a couple months, they will get too busy to keep things up and current. Once this happens, they will quickly fall back to their previous default position and their online presence will at least suffer if not just come to an end. To have long term online success you must make your online presence as important to your business as unlocking the door everyday to welcome your current and new customers.

If you will take these simple steps to making your “local” stand out online, more people will find you, more people will refer you, and you will grow in ways you could only before dream of.

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Local Business Marketing Tagged With: Facebook, Get consistent, Get found, Get online, LinkedIn, Local search, Offline, Online, Twitter, YouTube

Social Media ROI

February 22, 2011 by Dave Wellman 2 Comments

I walked into a new Bettendorf business yesterday (coffee shop) and while enjoying a nice cup of coffee and evaluating my last appointment, I met the owner of this new business. In talking with her our conversation turned from “how’s the coffee” to “how did you find us?”

Being an inbound marketing evangelist, I was happy to tell her that I found out about the store through a random Twitter conversation. One random tweet while I was following my Twitter stream and now I’m hooked. (They roast all their beans right in the store!)

In this crazy work of social networking/marketing it is sometimes difficult to measure your social media ROI, but if you keep asking “how did you find us” while being active in your inbound marketing strategy, you will find more and more people will respond as I did! Don’t be afraid to ask, and don’t be afraid to test the waters either.

So, get out there, get found, build your social media “cred” and see the ROI from your efforts skyrocket!

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Inbound Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Bettendorf, Coffee shop, Inbound marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

Saturday Marketing Observations

February 19, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

Have you ever sat down on a Saturday night and considered the marketing you have observed over the past week? I am beginning to make it a practice in my business. I have spent some time today in my first Saturday marketing observations about what I have seen over the past week. Some of the things that I have seen have inspired me, some have caused my mind to be filled with possibilities, and some have reminded me about how much money is spent on marketing that is just plain wasted.

It reminds me of the business owner who said, “Only 50% of what we spend on marketing really works. The only problem is that I don’t know which 50% it is!”

That leads into my topic for today and that is that all of your marketing dollars must be accounted for in measurable ways. Now measurable means different things to different people, but in the end you have got to find a metric that measures how much you spend to brand and market you vs. how much business (new and repeat) that your marketing dollars produce.

To do this requires three things:

1. The development of marketing campaigns instead of creating “give aways.”
2. The development of a tracking system that allows you to measure both who gets your message, who opens your message, and who responds to your message.
3. The ability to know when something is working and when it is not. Only then can you spend your hard earned marketing dollars where they do the most good!

Well, Saturday is almost over for me so I’m gonna say “nighty night.”

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Marketing, Marketing Campaigns, Marketing dollars, Marketing tracing system, Measureable marketing practices

Three Keys to Inbound Marketing Success

February 18, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

Inbound marketing is the process of finding prospects and eventually converting those prospects into new (and wildly loyal) customers through the use of content generating blogs combined with a series of “offers” and the use of social media to get your message out.

In order to be successful with inbound marketing, you need to understand three keys:

1. Inbound marketing will only be successful when you are consistently creating good/relative content that answers questions that your current and future clients are asking. Your task is to both understand what your clients/prospects have questions about and what the answer is!

2. Inbound marketing will only be successful if you create multiple offers that provide clients/prospects with information that they cannot easily find anywhere else. This includes both your initial offerings as well as a long-term nurturing program that culminates in sales.

3. Inbound marketing will only be successful as you learn how to cultivate your current and new clients into raving fans so that they become active referrers of your company, products, and/or services.

If you will focus on these three keys, your inbound marketing program will provide you with new levels of success in this new marketing era.

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Blogs, Converting prospects, Create content, Create offers, Inbound marketing, Nuturing clients, Prospects, Raving fans, Referrals, Success

Consistency trumps all the tricks!

February 15, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

One of the things that I have learned over the past couple years is that consistency trumps all the tricks. People who are successful are also people who are consistent in the things that they have chosen to do. From athletes to scientists, from business moguls to the lady running the coffee shop on the corner. Success comes when we approach life with consistent effort.

It’s kinda like learning to drive a car with a stick shift. The first few times you try to get the car moving, you about give yourself whiplash (along with everyone else in the car). However, the more you work at it, the more consistently to try the more smooth the effort becomes. No one enjoys the “fits and starts” of those first few attempts, but if you are going to learn to drive the car, you have to go through them.

Marketing your business and creating a quality brand is the same way. You can’t just try some thing for a few weeks and then move on to something else, and then something else, and then something else ….. (you get my point). Instead, you have to decide what you want to do and then you need to stick with it until it produces the results you want. Be consistent and be patient, it will pay dividends in the end.

Talk more later ….

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Athletes, Business owners, Business success, Consistency, Scientists

The Power of You

February 3, 2011 by Dave Wellman Leave a Comment

For as long as I have been in business I can remember being told that the only way to be really successful in business is to look to others who have been successful and do what they have done. I have been told more times than I can count that “there is no need to reinvent the wheel.”

The only problem that I find with this attitude is that when I have studied the really successful, world-changing people in all aspects of life, they all worked hard to reinvent the wheel. They didn’t live with the status quo. They marched to the beat of a different drum! From Edison to Einstein, from Ford to the Wright Brothers, from Gates to Jobs all the “world changers” in business (as well as all other aspects of life) were re-inventors of their particular wheels.

What does that mean to you? Well, I’m glad you asked! I see three particular things you need to know about these people and how they built their life successes:

1. They were great thinkers and dreamers of how the impossible could be made possible. Real thinking is a lost art in business (as well as most areas of life) anymore. Most people just want to be told what to do and then to follow along in that until they can retire. There are very few hardcore thinkers anymore. That opens a very wide door for those who are ready to think for the good of their clients/customers and for the good of society at large.

2. They were inventors and innovators. Once they spent time in thought, dreams started to materialize. Those dreams became passions and the passions became successful businesses. But, all their success in businesses started as new thoughts about how life could be better for the greatest number of people.

3. They learned that in everyone there is a power that exceeds the normal and everyday! As they would think and dream, they asked questions of others and caused them to think and dream. In the end their initial drive made not only their world better, but the worlds of multitudes of others as well. They challenged others to reinvent some wheels as well.

We each chose our businesses because we felt we had something to offer our clients/customers. We each have set out on the journey of finding our own level of success. We can either limit ourselves to the wheels that currently exist or we can reinvent the wheels of our niche. Either way money can be made, but only as a thought leader can you really find the power of you!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Business success, Dreams, Power of You, Reinvent, Thinking, Thought

Three Basic Strategies for Successful Blogging

Making “Local” Stand Out Online

Saturday Marketing Observations

Consistency trumps all the tricks!

The Power of You

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