Every great blogger should have basic SEO know-how. Without basic keyword strategy to drive traffic to your blog, a great blogger can go un-noticed. Some of the best blog posts I have ever read came from deep within the web. Most likely, rarely read before; with little to no internal and external links and a PageRank of 0. Being a good blogger simply isn’t enough. Whether you are a women’s fitness blogger or an actual SEO blogger; without basic SEO knowledge, you are like Jimi Hendrix deciding to play on the street instead of on stage. Your content will not reach an audience, and you probably will never make money doing it.

Keyword Research
This is why keyword research is so important. Google’s Keyword Tool and Keyword Spy are great ways to figure out what search terms correlate with your blog. Incorporating these keywords as links within your copy as well as your header will provide on page SEO value, reader value and (I’ll explain later) link building power.

Establishing a keyword set, doesn’t have to be a set list anymore. Targeting contextual terms should be consistent in the copy of your blog. The thought being, when somebody loves your blog post enough to share it on their site, they will include the contextual links. read more

Marketing online comes down to one thing an Inbound Link.  These types of links are ones that people can click on and be taken to your website from somewhere else, for example a directory, an article, a search engine, or email.  There are 3 ways that an inbound link can improve search engine rankings to your business.

1.    Direct clicking – When a visitor to a different site finds there is an inbound link to your site an opportunity is presented for them to click through to you.  In turn it stands to reason that the greater amount of inbound links you have out on the internet pointing to your site the greater the amount of traffic they’ll send.  Additionally the benefit is that this traffic goes directly to your site bypassing the search engines entirely. read more

I strongly believe that every business should have a blog to keep the lines of communication between you and potential customers open. The target of this article is to reveal 7 effective ways a blog can help you grow your business.

1. Blogging Boosts Brand Awareness

Corporate blogs create a unique opportunity to share your thoughts, ideas and offerings with not only your readers, but their readers as well, which eventually brings in more prospects. Guest blogging is another great strategy to build up an audience. Plus, new employees and outsiders can get a better chance to know company’s product launch, innovation and strategy.

2. Blogging Personalizes Your Business

Blogging puts a human touch to your business and keeps your audience updated on new and exciting things happening in your company. Blogs are all about being personal, so let your personality flow with blogging. Write in your own name. Share your personal experiences about running your business and being part of your niche. Being personal builds trust, so write with a conversational tone so people can understand and relate. read more

It’s no surprise that regularly redesigning your website to update content, indexing and page structure can have a tremendous positive impact on the continued success of your business. The reason that the design and structure of your website can increase traffic is because the changes are likely to result in search engine optimization. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of modifying a website to enhance its chances of appearing in the top search results when relevant key words are entered into a search engine. In other words, it’s one of the most effective ways of increasing the volume of traffic and incidental visitors to your website, which at the end of the day means more new customers or clients for you.

SEO is a huge area of knowledge which can make a big difference to the online profile and real world results of your business, but it’s also a practice where it is easy to make errors. To get you started, here are eight must-know tips for any website owner… read more

A new year has come again, and it’s the perfect time to start things right. Many of us may have made handfuls of mistakes last year, but this year signals an opportunity to realign things, to put them in order, and to begin anew. However, things left unfinished last year should not remain untouched; this new beginning is the best path we could take to fix or complete these things.

Some bloggers act like they’re celebrities in the blogging world. They divulge full details about their life and business. There is nothing wrong about that, since blogging is always personal and it is up to you to say and write whatever you want.

As a businessperson who blogs, it is unavoidable for me to reveal some details about what is happening inside my business. Many of my secrets are disclosed as I reply through threading comments, which I found harmless as long as the message is delivered in words that will not hurt my business strategy. However, I am not the type who announces everything about my business. I suggest leaving your serious mistakes as secrets, and having them fixed while delightfully continuing blogging.

As a blogger, I believe that you don’t have to delete your old posts or your whole blog to begin anew. Perhaps you can write a post to announce your excitement to do business. Excite your readers with your optimistic posts. Let them feel that something new is about to happen to your business. As a customer, it’s always good to hear something new about a certain store or product. read more

This is a guest post by Gary Kohler from LifeCover.ca.

To get noticed as a blogger you need to stand out.

You need to pick a niche and be the strongest voice of that online community. To get attention you need to stir the pot every once in a while but most of all you need to keep people wanting more.

There are many ways that this is similar to the world of gangster rap and here are five reasons why.

1) “Final” Goodbyes

Bloggers and rappers both love the “final” goodbye. The brackets are there because usually the final goodbyes are not actually final.

Some rappers will retire every second album but they will inevitably come back for another record or three. Bloggers do this too. They might need a vacation or some time to focus on their family but a lot of times they’ll come crawling back to their little soapbox.

Rappers do it to sell more records and to hype their newest effort. Bloggers likely do it for comment love and to send people to their newest blog or website. Once in a while a blogger or rapper will quit for good but most of the time they’ll be back for more. read more

We all have it. The email inbox reaches 1,000 unread messages like some virtual red flashing light indicator of procrastination. You’ve got 600 tweets to read and 45 DMs to respond to. Your WordPress blog is still version 2.5 and your WordPress Theme only works with WordPress 2.1. The To Do pile on your desk resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You’ve got Netflix movies stacked upon Blockbuster videos past due to return. And your blog is begging for a blog post.

The symptoms are all there.

You have backlogitis. read more

In this new series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re looking at the various ways your blogging creativity can be temporarily dried up and plugged up, and how to break the dam. Today, my recommendation is to go back to your roots.

Go Back to the Beginning

I know all there is to know about blogging, right? I’ve been doing this longer than most people, in fact, before some tweeters and bloggers were even born (that’s a scary thought!). I’ve been through all the various blog struggles and hoops there are to blog through. I’ve survived all the names changes from website to online journal to weblog to blogging to microblogging and the belief that social media is a new concept. I’ve had my content stolen, been accused of stealing other people’s content, abused by trolls and comment spammers, survived changes in web technology and many upgrades, and lived to blog on another day. So I’ve been there, done it all, haven’t I?

Have I? What I’ve done is forgotten what is was like to start blogging. To be the new kid on the bloggy block. read more

That’s right. Leave. Get out of here. If you got nothing to say to the world through your blog, leave, quit, stop. Get away from your desk, your computer, your office, your home, your life. Go away.

Not forever, just long enough to clear your head and mind and find your creative juices again.

As part of this new series called Nothing to Blog About, we’re looking at the various ways your blogging creativity can be temporarily dried up and plugged up, and how to break the dam. My first recommendation is for you to leave your blog for a vacation. read more

I’ve been at this blogging thing since before 1994 and faced many a time staring at my computer with dread. Not again. Honestly. Ain’t nothing left to say. It’s all been said before. And I said it. Tank’s empty. It’s boring. I’m bored.

A blog calls to you, begs you to feed it. Your readers want your words, and the need must be fed. What do you do when you can’t think of anything of value to add other than what you ate for lunch?

A couple years ago, when blogging was still in its infancy, a post title like this was fairly common, along with titles such as: read more