A search engine has to try and answer these types of questions for you “Is this I am looking for?” “Does it provide me with enough relate information?” “Is this going to be useful in the future?” Well how does a search engine figure all that out. Well it uses a huge and fancy algorithm that is almost like magic which groups together web pages of a similar topic and then rates them in order of most relevant.

Getting into the category can be fairly simple. Make your site about a desired topic let the search engine find it and you are in. Getting to the top of that group is the hard part. Of course you have to offer good information that will be useful but even that won’t do it. Now back to the shoes. What if your friends told you those were a great pair of shoes, would that influence how you decided? What if it as a shoppers magazine? What about a Consumer’s Report? Each one of these adds a different type of value to the information you have and your overall decision. Then think about those recommendations you get from you don’t trust or is always selling junk. Would you trust those sources? Generally not.

Just like these recommendations for shoes that give you needed information and confidence a link does the same thing for a site. When other sites link to your site it says “I think this is important.” “I want to recommend it to others.” Getting one or two of these is a great start but what if all those in your category have 1,000 or even 10,000. Unless your link comes directly from Zeus that one recommendation doesn’t hold up against 1,000 recommendations very well. Also if the links you get are from spammy sources such as a site called diet-miracle-pill.com (not a real site) that just posts links on their pages to diet sites and that is all they do, not caring if the site is good or not, or true or not. ?Links like these are like recommendations that are from not as trusted sources. If the majority of your links are these kind of links it can really hurt your site.

So by getting more links (that are quality) you are basically getting more recommendations for your site. Get them to vary across different websites and you will be in business. Links are not everything but they do have a huge impact.

In the past it has been almost impossible to track your popularity on these Social sites. It would take hours and hours to comb through the sites or even the alerts you can set up. Recently though we have found a new service called Shared Count (http://sharedcount.com) that is great. You simply enter your URL and press enter and it takes it from there. Track the number of Facebook shares and Tweets your site has gain, it is interesting to trend this data and watch different marketing campaigns get more or less social attention. Tracking these stats can be powerful.

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What is tremendously popular in Japan and practically obsolete in the US?

Hello Kitty?

Sumo wrestling?

Nope. It’s QR Codes.

QR Codes (QR for Quick Response) are like  bar codes but are meant to be scanned by ordinary people (not check-out scanners) to quickly gather information from the digital world about the physical world. QR Codes can be scanned with cell phone cameras taking you to web pages without typing a single word.  Many free apps and non-smart phone software is available for scanning QR codes.
Imagine sitting at your favorite sandwich shop and wondering how many calories are in the delicious steak and everything sub you’re consuming. Snap a photo of the QR Code and voila! The complete nutritional information of your sandwich – without typing a word.

Or perhaps you’re perusing the record store wondering what the tour schedule is of the band whose album you’re ogling. Scan the QR Code and see a list of tour dates, song lyrics, or a MP3 free download.

Japan has been using QR Codes for years.  They’re present on everything from billboards to the takeout.

The use of QR Codes is limitless. I just wish the US thought so, too.

Here’s a report CBS did in March 2010 on QR Codes:

Scan the QR Code on this site for a free gift from ioVentures.

1. Start Early – Before we started this contest we tried to contact blog owners by email offering them a discounted service if they would publish a short post announcing our contest. About a week later when the contest was about to begin we had only heard back from one of the blog owners that we had contacted. We continued on with our contest announcing through other means we had previously decided on. The period of time we ran the contest was two weeks. By about a week and a half in we received a few more emails from the blog owners but by that time it was almost to late. We realized that some blog owners may not check their emails very frequently or that some were just busy and had more important things to do. If you are looking to run a contest I would suggest emailing those you wish to announce through early.

2. Do Your Research Before The Contest Starts - Another thing that we did before the contest started was research to find different forums that we could announce the contest on. We made a large list and then started registering to these forums so that we could post the topic of our contest. We discovered that with a lot of these forums you have to have to be a member for a certain period of time before they would allow you to post a new topic. So of the large list we compiled only a handful of them would allow us to post.

3. Make It Easy To Enter - When running a contest there are a few things that need to be done to have a successful contest. One thing that is very important is to make it easy to enter. If you have started early and had great success announcing your contest but the ways to enter are complicated or confusing chances are people are not going to waste their time on it. Even if the prize is something very appealing to the reader, they aren’t going to put in much time into figuring out what they need to do.  Also, depending on who your target audience is, you will want to gear your entry methods toward them and their general abilities and knowledge.

4. A Contest Run On A Blog Is Much Easier Than One Ran On A Website - The client, at this point in time, did not have blog associated with their business. We decided that we would run this contest by creating a new page on their website containing the information about the contest (prizes, rules, ways to enter, etc). The reason we found it easier to run a contest on a blog is because it is much easier to get readers to interact with a blog and enter a contest. Posting a comment on the blog was a huge success in our other contests. Also people who generally read and are associated with the blogging world are typically (not always) more familiar with the link building methods used to gain entries. To sum up our reasons for thinking it easier to run the contest on a blog, it is easier to put up the contest content and it is easier for the readers to interact and enter.

5.  Leverage The Losers - As we know, anytime there is competition there is a winner and a loser. In the case of a contest, often times there are many losers. These losers can be a great audience to target. For one, these losers have enough of an interest in the product or service that was being given away to have taken time out of their day to enter. One of the ways you could target this audience is by offering a small discount as thanks for participating.  This will not only help give you a good reputation but gives those that entered reason and incentive to come to you for your product or service. Also many times you will have their E-Mail addresses, You could occasionally send them a special offer or a product update to keep your company fresh on their mind for when they decide the time is right.

There is no instruction book that tells you exactly how to set up a contest, and there probably never will be. Every contest will be different because each contest is geared toward a variety of people. However, there are certain things that are general to every contest, and as you (and I) continue to run contests we will learn many things that will be beneficial to running a contest.

Let’s take a quick look at the different schools of thought regarding social media.

THE “SOCIAL MEDIA IS WORTHLESS” CAMP

Those who belong to the Social Media is Worthless Camp feel that social media is nothing more than a bubble and will recede into the sunset along with the other internet bubbles. Remember Friendster? Case in point.

Many in this camp feel that social media is the next big thing and, therefore, cannot last. They prefer to put their energies into time-tested, stable practices such as Search Engine Optimization, PPC, and SEM.

THE “I SEE VALUE IN SOCIAL MEDIA” CAMP

The folks in this camp are the most reasonable of the three camps, the happy medium, if you will. Albeit somewhat of a bunch of fence sitters, this group realizes that there is value to be had in social media and tries to tap into it.

The benefits of social media, from their perspectives, is that of research and announcements. Social media sites such as Facebook hold an enormous amount of information about your market segment and customer base. It is a window into the homes of your buyers and potential buyers. And they’ve left their window wide open.

Is it also a great place to spread the word about your company, a promotion, a contest, an event where friends share and invite their friends to join in the fun (if you’ve done your work and actually made your content fun and inviting).

There is value in social media, but is not the driving force of their SEO and marketing efforts.

THE “I (HEART) SOCIAL MEDIA” CAMP

Those who belong to this group spend more hours talking with their friends on Facebook than with real, live people. They believe a well-executed ad campaign on Facebook or a witty video on YouTube is the rainbow which will lead them to the pot of gold. One’s time is best spent on social media sites.

Their biggest argument for this are the rather large handful of cases of people experiencing huge ROIs and success from their social media efforts. Many artists have been discovered on YouTube, such as Zee Avi. Many companies have seen sales go up 100 fold after posting a video. So it’s possible.

There are lessons to be learned from all three camps. Social Media is a powerful tool bu it can also be a waste of time.

What sucks so many people into focusing all their efforts on social media is that the time spent doing it is rather pleasant and the rewards come with more warm fuzzies than, say, link building.

Social Media should be implemented along with a full blown SEO and SEM campaign. It should complement your advertising efforts, not be the main source. Think of Social Media as a crisp glass of Chardonnay with your meal; it complements, not sustains.

Things Social Media Can Do For You

1. Helps you get to know your audience

Social media is an incredibly powerful learning tool to help you find out more and understand your target audience.

Social media sites have forums, chat rooms, and fan pages that are filled with nuggets of information from people already interested in your industry. Join these groups and get in on the conversation as an investigator, a detective, NOT as a salesman. Ask questions and read what people are saying about certain products or companies. Social media has also given people the self-appointed power of being critical and all-knowing about everything and they have no qualms about sharing the opinions with the world.

2. Get Free Incoming Links at a Click of a Button

That magic button is the Digg, Reddit, or other kudos-type buttons you should have at the top of every post. If something likes what they read, they can Digg It and share it with friends. This generates links and even better, traffic.

3. Come Up First on SERPs

If you write a killer article and lots of people Digg it (in both senses of the word), that Digg article can come up high on the SERPs, even if your website doesn’t. And having an article with lots of Diggs generates loads of traffic.

There is great power in social media, however, don’t get carried away and spend all your time trying to add more friends to your profile. Social media can quickly eat away at all your time.

• Time Allocated: 90 mins
• Required Passing Score: 75%
• Number of Questions: 90
• What you get from the test: A cool Google certificate showing you are authentic and the right to claim you are a Google Analytic certified individual.
• Expiration Date: 18 months from test date

My Personal Opinion of the Test: It had a lot of application questions, which makes it more difficult but more fair at the same time. I wouldn’t even try the test if you haven’t watched the Conversion University videos, they hide a lot of good information in each video. When you study for the test don’t gloss over anything especially if you don’t really understand what Google is saying, odds are if you do that is what will be on the test.
The biggest thing I gained though from taking the test is just getting a better idea of where to look for answers to client problems. Even if in a few months if I don’t remember the exact name of the cookie Google embeds or how to write Regex character for character I have a base to go off of. I have a better idea of what analytics can do and I can use that to think of new solutions. All said and done I would recommend that any SEO professional should take the challenge, or at very least go through the Conversion University.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is part of a wider strategy to draw traffic from search engines called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Pay-Per-Click (PPC), commonly referred to as paid search advertising is generally the other piece of the SEM pie. But that’s a topic for another day.

SEO consists of four main parts:

1. Researching phrases that your potential clients are using to search for businesses like yours
2. Optimizing your web content to include those keyword phrases
3. Getting keyword-rich links to your site with those phrases
4. Tracking your results

SEO often requires an upfront investment of time and money before solid results appear, but this ongoing process can bring you highly targeted traffic over time. (For a more detailed overview of the SEO process see Search Engine Optimization Training)

How can SEO increase the Value my Press Releases?

When considering the SEO benefits your Press Release can have, there are two areas you must consider: The ranking potential of your website AND the ranking potential of press release itself.

A well structured press release can rank well in the news search engines, stays visible longer to those searching news engines and if it’s not time sensitive you can even rank in the normal search engine results with a little link building effort. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To optimize a press release here are some guidelines:

• Include keyword phrases in the title of the release. On many sites the press releases end up on, the title of the release becomes the title tag of the page, this is one of the most important factors in helping a page rank well.
• Include the keyword throughout the release, but especially in the first paragraph.
• If you include headings, naturally try include keywords there.

Helping a Press Release to reach a wider audience via SEO optimization is smart. However, with a little coordination with your search engine marketing company or team, every press release is also a chance to help your website rank better. Know the following items:

• Target keywords & keyword clusters
• Target pages (urls) on site
• Current search rankings for those keywords

Each release should include two to three keyword-rich links to different pages on your site. Each page on your site should be optimized to rank well for a handful of specific, related keyword phrases, a cluster. The keyword phrases you use to link to those pages should be the same keywords for which they are optimized. This combination of onsite optimization for specific phrases and related offsite links pointing to that page help it rank well for those phrases.

With these pieces of data in hand, you are armed with the information necessary to help your press release bring in traffic AND to contribute to your site’s overall search engine rankings.

What Online PR Tools Are Best?

Recently TopSEOs.com listed the top ten PR sites (Thanks @NewspaperGrl). A the top of their list was PRWeb.com, a site designed to help you specifically optimize your PR for SEO to get the largest reach possible. PRWeb & others have tools to help you know how many people saw your press release. In addition to this you should also be monitoring your own site’s stats to see how people are arriving on your site. You can tell this through your site’s referral statistics.

How Do I Assess the Effectiveness of My PR?

Every Press Release should have a call to action in it, an offer or a special discount. This doesn’t have to be the main focus of the release, but make sure to give the viewer something to act on. If this is in place, it’s one of the most important measures of effectiveness that you can monitor.

Other measures include views of the release, successful interviews from local or national news outlets as well as website traffic.

The Wrap-up: A Case for SEO in PR

As was stated at the outset of this article, a large majority of Press Releases go out every day and are NOT optimized for visibility on the web, let alone to help a company’s search engine rankings. With a little effort, you can drive targeted traffic to your website with the help of online Press Releases.

I hope these thoughts were helpful. If you have any questions, I’d love to write more on this topic, just leave a comment or shoot me an email and I’ll get back with you with an answer. Call me too if you’d like us to come present to your company and share with you how we could help you increase traffic & sales. Follow me on Twitter @ioVspaceMonkee or get our latest blog posts and free workshop announcements @ioVentures

Now that you know this, it is time to really dig in and understand blog commenting and how to use it effectively.  If you follow these steps that are layed out for you, you will start to see traffic and a boost in your organic search rankings.

1. Finding Related Blogs

This is important and not important at the same time.  There is a phrase in the SEO world that says, "a link is a link".  However, if you are commenting on blogs that are related to your niche or industry, you are much more likely to receive qualified buyers coming to your website to buy your products or services.  You can also comment on just about any blog and receive traffic, but they are not pre-qualified buyers.  Having a nice mix of both related and non-related blogs to comment on is a good idea.  You can find industry related blogs by doing a search on Technorati.

2. Using The Proper "Name" When Filling Out The Name Field

This will make or break your blog commenting efforts.  Using the proper name will not only help you with SEO link value, but it will help readers of that particular blog know what your website is about.  You will want to use your keywords that you are trying to rank for when selecting your name.  In addition to that, you will want to select the appropriate page of your website that is related to your keyword to use as your URL>  For example, if my website was about Blackberry Cell Phones, I would do the following…

• Name: Blackberry Cell Phones / URL: www.blackberry.com
• Name: Blackberry Bold / URL: http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrybold
• Name: Blackberry Storm / URL: http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrystorm

3. Don’t Spam Comment

This should be common sense, but for most people it is not.  They just want to rip out blog comments like nobodies business.  This is not how to blog comment!  You need to take time to read the post that you are going to comment on and then in the most professional manner, make an educated comment that adds value to the post and adds value to any readers to read your comment.  If you get lazy, even once, your comment could be marked as spam, reported to Askimet, and your comments will never see the light of day on any blog currently using the Askimet plugin.

Remember, you are a guest on other people’s blogs.  Don’t do anything that would make them mad or that would make them not like you.  You want to become friends with them, add value to their blog, and respectifully take their faithful readers and turn them into your customers.

Contacting bloggers is a powerful tactic, it can be a win-win situation for both parties. Many bloggers are looking for new good and intriguing content.  A good strategy is to approach them with and ask if they would be willing to trade. You write some good content for them using the skills you know if they would let you post a link or two in that post. The blogger is getting new and good content and you are getting some high quality links.

There are definitely things you shouldn’t do when contacting bloggers and by studying those we can better learn what we are suppose to do.

Never Send a Mass Email:

Mass emailing may save you time in the initial work it takes to send out emails but your response rate will be so low it won’t be worth your time in the end. Remember bloggers are really people with time constraints, goals, dreams and are putting some hard work into their blog. They will be able to tell that you really haven’t spent much time on their blog and that your offer was sent to hundreds of people. They won’t feel a desire to respond.

A better way to contact a blogger is to spend some time on their site, read their posts, and get to know their style. Then tailor your message to them as an individual person. Acknowledge their work and what you liked about it; also refer to something specific that they have done on their blog.

Never Just ask for a Link:

Blogging is a business just like your ecommerce business or corner grocey store or the consulting company you own. You wouldn’t just let someone advertise on the side of your business, or in your newsletter, or on your employee’s shirts for free. A blogger isn’t going to include your link on their site just because you asked. They have to feel at least these 3 things first

1. There has to be obvious value for their readers
2. They have to feel that there is a personal benefit for them (whether that is a comission on sales, broadening their resources for their readers, or even an exchange of resources. For instance if you want a link on their site offer to put one on your site.)
3. They have to feel recognized. Bloggers work hard at what they do and they want to be appreciated for those efforts.

Never Start a Conversation with How Good your Company is:

Nobody likes to hear how good you are until they know you like what they do. If you start your letter out with statements all about you and how you are amazing a lot of people will just skip over the email and move on to something else. Acknowledge their strengths and what about their work attracted you to their blog. Then proceed to explain to them how a partnership would be beneficial.

How to Find Blogs in Your Industry:

Go to one of the following blog search engines and type in some industry specific phrases.  You should be able to find quite a few that write about your industry.  Don’t forget to search for blogs in related industries as well.

1. technorati.com
2. blogsearch.google.com

Wrapping Up:

Contacting bloggers takes a lot of one on one effort but it is worth your time because of the link value it will give you. Who knows, a blogger may even be willing to post about you, your business, or review a product you offer allowing you to be introduced to all of their readers.

Any questions?