Ideas for Business

 After being a fan of Copyblogger and other projects, Brian Clark was kind enough to do a panel on SEO I was moderating at BlogWorld. Then I ran into him again recently at Affiliate Summit thinking each time what a great thing it would be for our readers to do an interview with him for Online Marketing Blog. 

Brian is a fantastic writer and marketer, recovering attorney and someone that over 50,000 people have decided to subscribe to at copyblogger.com - one of the most popular blogs on the internet.  Brian has a lot of what people want: knowledge, talent and success.  Read on to tap into some of that Copyblogger goodness.

How did you go from being a lawyer to an internet entrepreneur?

Easy… I hated practicing law and I was fascinated by the Internet. The transition was extreme I suppose, but I always had a thing for writing, so I started creating online content over a decade ago. Now it’s just part of me.  

How much does SEO play into your blog marketing efforts with copyblogger.com and the other sites you work with?

Well, it’s absolutely vital and yet absolute optimization never happens too soon for us. I’m a firm believer in building trusted authority sites, and sometimes that means foregoing the best keyword optimization in order to attract more links and subscribers. Once you have that trust (with people and Google) it’s easy to dive in and optimize certain pages or sections of a site.

What are the most common mistakes you see people make that get in the way of blogs or web sites from having better search visibility?

I think it goes back to my last answer… Obsessing over the perfect keywords in your title before you have any readers or any links is backwards these days. Google wants to rank trusted brands highly, and creating a brand goes way beyond keyword research and placement. 

How important is genuinely good writing to having a successful blog?

It depends both on the audience and the author. In some areas being a great writer will put you ahead of the pack. In others, people are more interested in what you have to share with them, warts and all. But how you say things will always matter, whether you’re considered a “great writer” or not. That’s where copywriting skills come in.

Do you see links and buzz worthy content as a cart before the horse situation? ie, in order to get those links, you need to have something worth linking to.

The content and the value has to be there first. People think this is about “gaming” or whatever. Some people think having any strategy at all is “gaming,” and that’s fine for them. To me, it’s about solid value and solid strategy… both are necessary to achieve online marketing goals. 

If you were limited to 2 or 3 things blog owners should always do to optimize and promote their blogs, what would they be? ie, what are 2 or 3 of your best blog optimization/marketing tips?

Well, it’s been said over and over, but I can’t say anything new. It’s about a unique voice, unique value, and working to make a connection with the audience. It’s not easy, but those who truly work at it will succeed.

What are some of your most effective tactics for writing blog post headlines?

It boils down to making a relevant and compelling promise… one that your target reader can’t refuse–and then fulfilling that promise with your content. If you’ll forgive a link, I’ve written a ton about headlines. 

What do you think are the most important success measurements for a corporate blog, a content blog, a personal blog? (RSS Subscribers, web traffic, repeat web traffic, advertising rev, consulting)

It really depends on your revenue model, but frankly, my answer remains the same regardless–subscribers. It can be email (and in most niches, it still should be) or RSS, but getting people to “raise their hand” and pay attention to you on a regular basis is golden.

What resources can you recommend for keeping current with blogging, monetization and internet marketing?

Well, for starters, you. Also, a lot of really great stuff is being shared on Twitter these days if you follow relevant folks. And I suppose we manage a decent tip or two over at Copyblogger.

Here’s the best advice I can give on this… learn from everyone. Study marketers you hate as well as marketers you agree with. Don’t close your mind to anything and you’ll come out with a more well-rounded toolbox of tactics and strategies for online marketing. 

 Thanks Brian!

Check out Brian on the web at: Copyblogger, Teaching Sells, DIY Themes and on Twitter

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The Copyblogger Files - Interview with Brian Clark originally appeared on the Online Marketing Blog. © 2009. http://www.toprankblog.com

Just when you thought you knew everything, you go to a conference and learn about a bunch of new social media tools. Since we're all trying to blog in smarter and quicker ways, here are several that you should check out.

Google's Tools

Google now organizes most of their services under one member login. So if you have a Google account for Gmail or Adsense, once you log in at Google.com, you should have access to all your Google tools.

Some Google applications that you should learn to use are:

• Google Analytics – the daddy of all analytics tools. As soon as you set up your blog, you should install the Google Analytics code even if your blogging program comes with its own analytics.
• Feedburner - owned by Google, they’re in the process of moving all Feedburner feeds to feedburner.google.com.
• Google Reader - using Google's feed reader may have future SEO and social networking benefits.
• Google Webmaster Tools - For the technically savvy, installing Webmaster Tools will help with search engine traffic. For more information go to Google Webmaster Central.

Remember, it's Google's world - we just blog in it.

Search boxes

Lijit widget – provides content search for your readers and stats for you, and can be monetized.

List building

• With MyBlogLog you are able to build a community to contact about your latest post or contest. Also comes with analytics, recent reader widget, and “top links clicked on” code.
• AWeber, Constant Contact, and iContact are all great enewsletter list programs.

Photo editing

Picnik – if you don’t have the money to buy photo editing software like Photoshop, Picnik is the next best thing. Editing is done online and the basic package is free.

DIY Widgets

Widgetbox – make your own widgets or use someone else’s.

Blog Editors

Windows LiveWriter – If you want to blog offline because you’re concerned about losing a connection – and all your work – LiveWriter is for you. Another choice is ScribeFire, which works in your FireFox browser. Both are free programs.

Social collaborating and networking

CollectiveX and Ning are both ways to build social sites. CollectiveX is for work related groups, and Ning is more social. Best of all both are free.

Other tools

• Shortening URLS for Twitter or email: idek, TinyURL, SnipURL, TinyPaste, Link Bunch, Krunchd
• Polls and surveys for your blog: polldaddy
• Updating all your microblogging and social sites at once: Ping.fm, Hellotxt, Fuser
• Managing your online profiles in one place: AtomKeep, PeopleBrowser (Firefox only)
• Helping you keep track of online conversations: FriendFeed, TypePad Connect

Next issue: Twitter third party applications – should you trust them and which are good ones to use?

(Originally appeared in the Mom Central Blogger Enewsletter)

Small businesses have far less room to maneuver within their budget than larger companies, making it imperative that they do their research before leaping into a new advertising opportunity. While this is also true of large companies, a small business is going to suffer a lot more for making a mistake when it comes to something like PPC advertising.

Choosing the right company to do your PPC advertising is very important. It should be one that won`t be too expensive and that allows you to experiment without being penalized. A few things to look for include:

Ability to limit spending. For example, AdWords lets you put a cap on how much you want to spend per day. You can set this to whatever your budget allows . . . $1 a day is quite affordable for any business!

Tracking. You`ll need to know exactly how well your various PPC campaigns are performing. This lets you try new ads and stick with the ones that work.

Keyword research. A research tool is very useful and if the PPC company offers one of their own, it`s going to be a lot easier to choose the right keywords.

Easy to use. You don`t have time to figure out something that takes hours to work. An easy to use format is necessary so you can get your PPC ads out there quickly.

Support. If something goes wrong or you have trouble with your account, you`ll need to be able to contact the company 24/7, so look for one that has good support and customer service.

PPC advertising can work very well when done right, but you do need to align yourself with the right company.

When you think of PR or press releases, chances are you`re thinking about sending them off to a newspaper editor or perhaps a news site. While this is what most people use press releases for, they actually have a dual purpose.

A little known secret is that press releases can create a major SEO boost for your business. Even without being too full of keywords, a press release is so information packed that it really catches the attention of both human news readers and the search engines. When you start submitting your news to various sites around the internet, you will end up with plenty of backlinks, not to mention your company name will be quite noticeable around the net.

Don`t think of press releases as simply a way to get your news picked up by major reporters and magazines, they are much more than that. Even just putting them out on a site like PRWeb can garner quite a bit of attention!

Press releases are highly underestimated . . . stop thinking of them as being a minor part of your small business strategy and start getting them out there.

So I was just reading the alleged conversations that went on in a Private Google group where a couple of X Google employees were discussing their experience at Google and what lead them to leave the company. First and foremost I don’t think that these are not the employees that got the boot recently ao we [...]