Category Archives: Blogging Ideas

How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog Pt. 1

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This entry is part [part not set] of 3 in the series How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog

Enjoy this powerful series by Guest Blogger Ron Whitaker

Keyboard

Image courtesy of winnond/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

OK, folks, history lesson time!

Back in the 1800s American humorist Josh Billings made the following famous quote (actually, a little rhyme!): “I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace,  but the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.“

Just FYI, in the 1800s, the word “kicker” meant someone who was a constant complainer.

Now, I’m not saying that all of you are complainers, but if you’re a blogger who is frustrated with a lack of traffic to your blog, you just might be a kicker! (Wow! That was so Jeff Foxworthy!)

OK, so let’s learn how to be the squeaky wheel when it comes to our blogs and getting better traffic.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you the basics of how to improve your ability to get found in the search engines using keywords and phrases.

In Part 2, we’ll discuss “where” to include those keywords.

Then in Part 3 we’ll learn some strategies [guest posting, guest commenting, link building] to get your blog in front of larger audiences.

How I Learned About All This Blogging Stuff

Back in early 2009, when I was a caregiver for my mother, I decided that at some point I wanted to start and run my own website. Now, I had a lot of web design experience, having been a web designer since 1996.

I didn’t know what type of website I was going to launch, or what my service or product would be, but I knew I wanted to start my own website at some point down the road.

Fortunately, I had a good friend, Darrell, who had a lot of experience starting and running websites.

One day, as I was speaking to him about my desire to start my own website, he told me that I would need to do SEO.

What’s SEO, I asked?

Searching Engine Optimization.

What’s that?

He explained that it included certain steps you take so that when someone was searching for a particular keyword or keyphrase, your website would rank highly in search engines, such as Google.

I suddenly realized that I had a lot of studying and learning to do before I even thought of moving forward with my venture!

So, I began studying.

And studying.

And studying…

…my brains out!

As I began studying the topic of SEO, I learned that you need to do something called “keyword research” and then implement those keywords into your content.

That’s the start of how to get traffic to your blog!

But there’s more!

What are keywords and how do I implement them in my blog posts?

Good question!

If you and I were having a conversation, and I was telling you about my trip to Flagstaff (Arizona), I would mention things like Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the Arboretum at Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona, etc.

You wouldn’t hear me mention terms like Paris, Eiffel Tower, Wall of Berlin, Germany or the Louvre.

Those terms simply have nothing to do with Flagstaff!

So it is with our blog posts.

We need to focus on one (maybe two) ideas in each post.

And those ideas are communicated through words.

And we focus those ideas through what are known as keywords.

That way readers, as well as search engines like Google, know what the blog post’s focus is.

Starting a keyword research campaign

So, how do you get started?

Well, before writing a blog post, or even before launching your website, determine what the focus of the website or blog post will be.

Think about what words or phrases someone would use in a search engine that would lead someone to your site or blog post.

For example, when I started my website, a venue for baby boomers to list and sell “stuff” as they downsize, I considered words and phrases that people would enter into a search engine.

Woman sitting at computer

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Phrases like “baby boomers,” “buy and sell,” and “selling stuff” came to mind.

Just as a tip, come up with longer worded phrases, as opposed to single word keywords.

Why?

As another example, if I have a website that sells t-shirts, trying to get the search engines to rank highly for the word “t-shirt” is going to be difficult.

First, it’s too broad of a term.

Second, it’ll be way too competitive.

Instead, consider a phrase like “red polo t-shirts.”

It’ll be less competitive and probably will be easier to rank in the search engines.

How do I know if anyone’s even searching on that phrase?

That’s where some online tools come in handy.

Once you’ve made a list of all the keyword phrases you can think of, take them to an online keyword research tool.

What’s that?

Keyword research tools show you how many people are searching for that word or phrase in search engines, as well as how competitive that keyword is. By competitive, I mean how many other websites are already using and ranking for that particular keyword.

Google offers a great keyword research tool. And best of all, it’s free!

You can find the Google keyword research tool by clicking this link.

Google Keyword Research Tool

Once you arrive at the keyword research tool page, simply enter your keyword into the “Word or phrase” box.

After you click the Search button, a list appears below, showing keyphrases based on your “seed” keyword.

The Competition column shows how competitive that keyword will be to rank for.

The Global Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed worldwide on that keyword or keyphrase.

Google Keyword Research Tool Results

The Local Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed locally on that keyword or keyphrase. Locally is based on the country you chose in the Advanced Options and Filters section above. The default is United States.

Google’s keyword research tool is a great free tool. There are also keyword research tools that come with a fee.

One of the best ones out there, and the one I use, is called Market Samurai. It’s an excellent tool, relatively inexpensive, that will definitely help you get laser focused with your keyword research.

The owners of Market Samurai also provide excellent training videos as well to help you get started with using their product.

Summary

If you’ve ever wondered how to get traffic to your blog, the foundation lies in the keywords you use.

In this post we learned that keywords are essential to showing viewers the focus of our websites and blog posts.

We learned that to focus a blog post on a particular topic, we need to discover which keywords will be the best, yet not too competitive, to include in a post.

We also learned that there are some excellent tools out there, such as Google’s Keyword Research tool, and Market Samurai, that can make the process of discovering quality keywords easier.

So, where do we go once we’ve discovered a keyword or phrase that we want to use in a blog post?

That’s next week’s topic.

Stay tuned!

Another Great Baby Boomer Blog Carnival-Get Blogging Ideas

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Here is another great baby boomer blog carnival. There are lot’s of blogging ideas plus an opportunity to leave comments. Let other baby boomer blogger know what you think about their blogging. After all, we boomers must stay together and support each other. Click on this recent blog carnival here.

Random Facebook Pages of Blog Challengers Will Be Reviewed

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I am currently in a 30 Day blog challenge sponsored by Jeannette Cates. There are over 100 people participating. Now the cool thing about this is not only do you meet more people but you pump out blog content. This makes the search engines happy and may fulfill other goal s you personally have for blogging.

Those goals could  include:

  • product sales,
  • product development,
  • affiliate sales,
  • clicks on other ads on your blog
  • hopefully increased blog RSS subscriptions
  • Personal therapy
  • Twitter followers
  • Facebook Page “Likes”
  • Plus more

One of the things I am so very impressed with is the vast variety of all the blog posts. Many of them have Facebook Pages that I want to showcase. I won’t get to all of them. But I want to start showcase some of them randomly. So, if you want to visit I am going to do short reviews on one of my sites called Rosies Boomer Review.

I am looking forward to learning, getting empowered and motivated by some of the, sometimes unknown, Facebook pages. So often we are on Facebook giving updates on our dinners etc, but there are some REAL GEMS ON FACEBOOK PAGES.  Lets, start tapping into them and also PLEASE PARTICIPATE ON THEM AFTER YOU SAY YOU LIKE IT.

PS If you are a baby boomer and want to be challenged with great content, teleseminars, etcFacebook Page PLEASE visit visit Boomer Diva Nation’s Facebook Page moderated by the infamous and empowering Beverly Mahone.

Blog Food Guest Blogger Series-#2

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Reason 2 of Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 2 – Saving Time on Quick and Easy Updates to Your Sites

By Toolie

One of the challenges entrepreneurs face when trying to grow their
business is the point at which they begin to acquire helpers. Some use
virtual assistants, some use their teenage or college-age children.
Like any employment situation (virtual or contractual), the
entrepreneur spends time managing the relationship as well as the
work.

It's no different when you've hired a web designer to maintain your
website for you. It takes time to decide what you want, communicate
your decisions, and manage the results. It's a necessary part of
delegating the work, and provided you have good communication, it
doesn't have to be time-consuming. I'll leave you to imagine what it's
like when your web designer is NOT a good communicator. Perhaps you
already know....

We've discussed how nice it is to have schedule independence from your
web designer: that is, you being able to make changes to your site
WHEN you want to, even if it's after hours. Now we're talking about
how much TIME it takes to manage the relationship with your designer,
and whether that time investment is appropriate for "the small stuff."

I was on the board of my speakers association chapter for 3 years, and
during that time I was directly involved with maintaining the website.
We had a web designer who handled our maintenance for us for a reduced
rate, and he was pretty good about handling the changes in a timely
manner. But by "handling changes", I mean we wrote everything out for
him, and even formatted the text in Microsoft Word the way we wanted
it to look on the site. We sent in a Word doc, and he reproduced the
changes in HTML on the website based on the text we had sent him.

It took 2 hours to prepare that Word document, and it probably took
him another 90 minutes to 2 hours to format the text in HTML and
upload it to the site. So a total of 4 hours went into those web pages
every month. If we'd had access to the site ourselves, we could have
made the changes directly in HTML (in 2 hours), and had them visible
to the public immediately instead of 4-24 hours later.

It was a better use of his time to work on tasks that we weren't
capable of doing, like the original design, or major updates to the
look and feel of the site. The kind of work he was performing was
simple edits that we were capable of handling. Consequently, our
chapter switched to a membership site that better served our needs as
an association, and one that we could manage ourselves.

Are you doing the same thing? Are sending your web designer text
formatted in Word and then having them do it over again on your site?
I can almost promise you that even if you're exporting your text as
HTML out of Microsoft Word, your designer is NOT using it directly.
Word produces notoriously bloated HTML, so most designers ignore it or
run it through a cleanup filter before posting the text on your
website.

Do it right the first time; as an entrepreneur you don't have TIME to
do it OVER again! Learn HTML and CSS, and handle these simple updates
yourself! With a combination of how-to videos, demos, website layouts,
one-on-one coaching, and the support forum, the "I Can Fix My Website"
program has what you need to learn these skills quickly and easily.
You'll save time by handling website and blog updates yourself, and
leave your web designer (if you have one) free to concentrate on the
big stuff they really enjoy.

Next: Reason 1 - Saving Money on Your Monthly Online Budget

Toolie®

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series

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Hi, I sure hope you are enjoying this series by guest blogger Toolie. I also hope you are getting the message about posting different types of blog food. The series is a feast that can last a long time. Rosie

Reason 4 of Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 4 – Making Changes to Your Site on YOUR Schedule

I’ll tell you a secret about web designers: they like to design, not to maintain.

Design is fun. It’s creative. It’s self-expressive.

Maintenance is detail-oriented. It’s dull. It’s repetitive. But it’s also necessary.

If a web designer enjoys managing details, then carrying maintenance contracts is a good source of ongoing revenue and most web designers will offer to maintain your site for you. Regardless of what you spend on a webmaster though, the rub comes when you need something changed NOW. Right now. Not 2 days from now, not tomorrow, NOW. Scheduling, turnaround times, and your webmaster’s workload all come into play. Once the initial design is done, webma sters are usually not very interested in doing updates to their already-perfect creation.

You must think I hate web designers — I don’t, not at all! After all, technically, I AM a web designer. I do a limited number of site projects for clients who are in a hurry and who are happy to pay for me to do the work. But I don’t do maintenance for them. Any project I take on involves training package for them so that my clients do the maintenance.

It’s not that I don’t like maintenance; I too could make money as a webmaster. But I have a business of my own to run, just like you do. And I have found that my clients are happiest when they really own and run their own sites. (That’s also why my product includes 3 hours of one-on-one coaching time to get you up and running.)

In a previous installment of this series, we talked about making your website or blog a cash-producing machine. How are you going to do that if you can’t make updates quickly? With a site designed for easy maintenance, you can be in charge of those updates yourself and take care of them any time of the day or night. In the “I Can Fix My Website” course, I teach you what is “a site designed for easy maintenance,” so that you can create or refurbish yours with that goal in mind.

Maybe it’s just because I’m a night-person, but I get my greatest ideas in the evening. The phones settle down, we’ve had dinner, I kick off my shoes, and suddenly in the evening, my head is buzzing with ideas. I do most of my writing then, and I want to be able to set up new pages as soon as the writing is finished. If I had to wait until the next day for a web designer to install my updates, I’d go crazy. Being able to create and install new pages, new features, new opt-ins when I need them is the best of possible worlds for me, as business owner of cash-producing websi tes.

Even if you are not the one who creates your site, it still belongs to you. It’s your business at stake, so it pays to know how to operate it inside and out, even if you ultimately delegate some of the work to others. When it’s 7 pm on a Sunday night and you want to add something to your site before Monday morning, I can almost guarantee that neither your virtual assistant nor your web designer will be picking up the phone when you call them for help.

The Internet loves speed. Those are customers whizzing past your site. Get them to stop by and view your latest creations: products, writing, services, all described and made available on YOUR schedule, because you know how to wrangle your site yourself. My website training product plus coaching program will teach you how.
Tomorrow: Reason 3 – Controlling and Protecting Your Business Sites
Toolie®

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series # 6

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10 Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 6 – Jazz Up Your Website or Blog with Ideas from Other Sites

By Toolie

Have you ever seen a cool image, graphic, or feature on another site
and wondered how it’s done? With a little knowledge and some
curiosity, you can find out how it’s done, and maybe produce something
similar on your website.

On most websites, it is possible to view the source code of a site in
your browser, and even examine it in your favorite HTML editor. (I do
this all the time when I’m trying to diagnose a problem for a client.)
I also collect URLS to code for neat things like countdown timers,
background snow effects, and other features that I’ve spotted on other
websites. I don’t use the code, though, without first finding out what
the terms of use are, whether it’s free or licensed code.

Most of the time, the code that makes those nifty features appear is
code someone paid for, and with some investigation, I can go find the
site and buy it myself. I am in no way advocating theft of other
people’s intellectual property. (Did you hear what I said?) I’m
talking about doing research in the code so you can go do the right
thing (by buying the code), and enjoy the benefits.

There are sites on the Internet where you can go shopping for features
by the type of code you want to use. Let’s say you want to add a
background “snow” effect for your website during the holidays. My
favorite source for such things is www.HotScripts.com, a centralized
search engine for both free and paid scripts (Javascript, PHP, and
other languages). You don’t have to be a programmer to install the
scripts, you just need to know enough HTML to place the code in the
right spot (very much like you do to install a Facebook badge or
Twitter feed).

Some scripts on www.HotScripts.com are just features you add to your
websites; some are entire programs you can buy. Most of the free
scripts simply require that you keep their website URL in the code to
give them credit, which is absolutly the right thing to do. Some
scripts will allow you to remove that credit if you pay a registration
fee, which is also fair. Here are an example:

http://www.dseffects.com — will let you use the script for free if
you keep the author credit within the code. It costs $24 for a license
for one domain so you can remove the author credit, and $80 for up to
10 websites. (What a bargain!)

Some sites let you take their images as long as you make a copy,
rather than linking to their image. Here’s where I found a page of
animated snow GIF files:

http://www.scri8e.com/h/xmas/CICED/SnoAni/

The site owner allows you to make a copy for personal use, and
explains on this page why you cannot simply link to the images.

http://www.scri8e.com/5/1TermsOfUseNoLinking.html

If I decided to use one of his images, I would create a shortcut to
his website in the folder where I store the images so I remember where
I found them.

Now, to do the research initially, you need to know a little HTML. But
once you do, it opens up a whole world of possibilities. This isn’t
just about having the neatest effect to impress your friends; this is
about finding and utilizing features that will benefit your customers.

For example, I found a fabulous live chat program on someone else’s
site, and decided to switch. That allowed me to stop paying a monthly
fee for a chat program that was overkill for my little business. I
found that new chat software developer by inspecting the code,
tracking down the company website, and buying a license for all my
websites. I even recommend and install that chat program now for my
clients.

So what are you waiting for? It won’t take long for you to learn HTML
and CSS and be able to track down the features you’ve liked on other
sites. You don’t have to imitate, you can customize. Most of all, you
can assist and please your customers with the website and blog
features that help them buy from you. My website training program will
get you started learning HTML and CSS right away.

Next:  Reason 5 – HTML/CSS Skills for More Than Just Web Pages and
Blog Posts

Toolie®

Blog Food-Guest Blogger Series # 9

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Here is Toolie’s installment # 9 in her series :

 10 Top Ten Reasons to Manage Your Own Websites and Blogs

Reason 9: Seizing Opportunities as They Come Along

If you’ve spent any time reading my emails or participating in my webinars, you know that I emphasize how fast the Internet moves, and how important it is for you to be ready to seize opportunities as they come along. Being able to manage an existing website is great; being able to create one or more pages or even a whole site when you need it is even better.

A couple of years ago (before I really knew what direction my business should take), a colleague of mine from the National Speakers Association invited me to deliver a teleseminar as part of another association’s series. I immediately agreed to participate, and we worked out a series of interview questions. I had one problem though; I didn’t have a website for this particular area of expertise. None of my existing sites were really suitable. I was going to need a website, and fast!

Once I had the teleseminar content worked out, I devised a small website to accompany that content. I didn’t have a product to sell, so a salesletter wasn’t going to work. What I planned to do was provide a special page of resources connected to that content for the teleseminar attendees. I needed a multi-page website that listed my services and pointed to the websites I DID have. The resulting site became www.Tooliedotter.com.

Is it an impressive site? No, definitely not my finest work — in fact, I debated about showing it to you at all. Did the site provide the intended information? YES, it did, including the hidden resources page. The site also included links to 2 online demos I already had, an opt-in box for my webinars, a working contact form for future inquiries, and my Live Chat button in case someone wanted questions answered real-time. The site provided evidence that I had consulting expertise, and provided a destination for consulting inquiries.

How long did I spend on this website? Less than eight (8) hours: in fact, I put it up overnight. It has my colors, my fonts, and a simple design I can expand and update in the future. Did I get visitors to my website as a result of the teleseminar? You bet. Did I get business from it? Indirectly, yes, through my webinars and coaching. Am I going to leave the site like it is now? NO! I’ll be revamping it when the time is right. The important thing is that I was able to produce the site when I needed it.

Most of you won’t need to create an entire site to seize an opportunity for exposure and future business. But wouldn’t be great if you could put up a dedicated web page specifically for an opportunity for acquire new clients? With a little HTML and CSS knowledge, you can do exactly that, any time of the day or night. My new training product/coaching program/membership site will show you how.

Tomorrow: Reason 8 – Branding and Creativity Applied Online

Blog Food-Teaching Videos

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This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series Blog Food-Videos

Teaching videos or videos that teach you something are great blog food. Why?

They are not just a sales promotion

  • They provide content that you can put into action right away
  • They are great for everyone, including baby boomers if they are done well
  • I love them

Now, you don’t always have to post the video directly on your site. You can link to the video post.  To illustrate enjoy this gourmet serving of blog food from my good friend and WordPress expert, Cathy Perkins,The WordPress Wizard.

This engaging and insightful video discusses what you can do with old blog posts sitting in archive.

I also encourage you, remember I love blog coaching, to practice at least one of her suggestions before the end of the week! Let me know.

Note: Notice how she DOES NOT rush through her presentation.

Ok, enough talking now view this excellent video. This link will take you directly to the blog video of The WordPress Wizard.

A New Way to Promote Your Facebook Page

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I found a really cool way to promote my Facebook page with a short link. No, I am not talking about Tinyurl, or Snipurl. Whereas both of them are excellent for shortening that long Facebook page url, I am using a WordPress plugin that keeps the name of my site in the url but sends you to my Facebook page.

See here is the link to my Facebook page on Blog Coaching for Baby Boomers  http://www.bloggingforboomers.com/5h6

Now I place this in my Twitter tweet and it works wonders.

So, If you want to know how I did it, which is really simple. I am holding a short teleseminar session for fans of my Facebook page. All you have to do is become a fan. The session will only be 10 minutes on June 9 at 9:00 pm (EST). I will broadcast the conference line number to all the fans on tomorrow during the day on June 9, 2009. And don’t worry if you can’t be on the call the link to the mp3 will be, you already know, on the Facebook page.

I must give Kudos to Cathy, The WordPress Wizard for telling us about this during one of her FREE teleseminars one Wednesday.

PS Please note that you can change the link. For example I can change the link to say http://www.bloggingforboomers.com/facebookpage.  And to show you that it is true I am changing it as soon as I finish the teleseminar. But since I already broadcasted the prior link use this link to connect and click on JOIN THIS FAN PAGE.  So use this link

http://bloggingforboomers.com/5h6

Windows Movie Maker-Still Learning

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Just in case you are wondering why I posted the Windows Movie  video in the last post I will tell you.

I just discovered it. That’s right I read about it in a newspaper article and played with it on the same day, Now it is not perfect. I sent it to email and after 2 days it was delivered. I have no clue why. However, I am going to play some more and try to make this work. Any insights are welcomed. After all, as baby boomers, we must keep learning and know how to ask questions -also the right ones.

This was done on Windows XP so I will also play with Vista. Cannot find how to connect with hosting options. What If I have an option already?

One major question I have is how to find the code to pop into my blog. Anyone know?