Saturday, July 4, 2009
Top 25 Blogs
We’ve compiled a list of our top 25 blog picks that will energize your business with up-to-date news and unique perspectives from industry leaders. Our blog roll is a mash-up of not only marketing, business and strategy blogs, but many other topics that might be at least an interesting read, if not completely relevant to your business. Brain science, social networking, web 2.0, psychology, sociology and entrepreneurs breaking the mold are some of the many topics covered in this list.
Enjoy!
1. Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog-M&SIB delivers on its name. The blog is constantly updated to provide readers with the freshest, most interesting content in marketing and strategy.
2.Neuromarketing-This blog blends both brain science and marketing to deliver a grounded, interesting and different perspective.
3. Ad Lab-Advertising for the future. This forward-thinking blog aims to give insight into where advertising is today and those on the creative front-line.
4. Seth’s Blog-Written by media marketing guru, Seth Godin, this blog is Seth’s social commentary on just about everything-from what school is for to e-mail campaign studies and everything in between.
5. Read Write Web-Trend and news oriented, RWW is a leading the web technology blog with over 275 k RSS subscribers.
6. Brand Channel-Published by Interbrand, Brand Channel is an important, multi-dimensional resource guide for marketers, entrepreneurs and brand managers alike, to get a fresh perspective in company branding.
7. Ecademy-Ecademy is a business forum for startups and established entrepreneurs to learn and get some pointers. Its blog is divided into three topics: community, business and social and is completely user-generated by Ecademy members.
8. Trend Central- This site delivers on its name. It offers the latest trends in lifestyle, style, entertainment and technology.
9. Springwise-This is one of the best trend / freshest, coolest, most innovative business forum out there. Springwise, the sister site to Trendwatch, is a resource guide for entrepreneurs to see what companies are leading innovation in business.
10. Mashable-Mashable is a Web 2.0 and social networking blog that has earned its stars by providing up-to-date, breaking news.
SEO Tools
Getting the Most Out of SEO Tools
The 6 tools you need to use to become a highly-profitable SEO expert:
- Search Analytics Tools - establish your marketing goals and establish a baseline for where you are at right now.
- Keyword Research Tools - discover the keywords your customers are searching for right now.
- Competitive Research Tools - see what keywords your competitors are targeting.
- PPC Tools - buy important keywords and track the results to understand how well they convert,which helps you focus you organic SEO strategy on the most profitable keywords. Save money using these free Yahoo! Search Marketing & Microsoft adCenter Coupons.
- Link Analysis Tools - start building your link profile and track your progress compared to competing websites.
- Search Engine Ranking Checkers - determine how effective your marketing is by watching your search engine rankings improve.
More Useful SEO Tools
SeoBook Google Gadgets
SeoBook Google Gadgets - Insert your favorite keyword research, competitive research, and link research tools directly in any web page for free. Learn more >
- Browser Extensions & Toolbars - make SEO data available directly in search results or available at the click of a toolbar button
- Google Gadgets - one of our featured tools, these allow you to make SEO tools conveniently available anywhere
- Other SEO & Webmaster Tools - miscellaneous SEO tools like robots.txt tools, server header checkers, meta tag generators, and other tools that make it easier to be a webmaster.
Successful Link building Services
The art of successfully employing link building techniques is much like the other aspects of Internet marketing which require you to know your target audience as well as the kind of websites they will be coming from. In this regards the site traffic reports are crucial for building successful link building campaigns. This is why you will find most professional SEO companies to start off with analyzing website traffic reports.
There are some common pitfalls into which the ordinary webmaster is prone to fall into when conducting link building on his own. Many people go for free for all link farms and various link schemes for the purpose of obtaining link popularity and a higher page rank. Nor should you be using any hidden links. Companies that employ such as optimization techniques are actually running the risk of banning your website as these techniques fall into black hat category.
Link building requires patience and persistence which is one of the major reasons why hasty webmasters fail to bring about the desired results. Even if you go for a professional SEO company you should know that the results will take some time to kick in. Certain new developments have taken place in the search engine optimization industry and some link building services have lost their value whereas other new practices have gained importance.
In the past reciprocal links used to have a lot of value. They still do have value but it is a rather time-consuming task to find websites with which it would be profitable to exchange links. Furthermore large clients do not necessarily have reasons to swap links or set up a place on their own website for outbound links. All of this can be countered by employing a variety of organic optimization tactics. This includes the writing and distribution of press releases and articles on the Internet. You can really get into the heart of the Web's structure using these link building services. This is largely because these text documents contain invaluable information which allows them to be indexed indefinitely. The experts also recommend that such text documents should be indexed within a special archive on your own website.
One often overlooked yet very powerful link building technique is making use of the "powered by: link". This technique especially comes in handy when looking to promote products and services the Internet. Provide your visitors with easy access to product codes where they can find a descriptive text that can be copied and pasted onto their own website. Free search box tools are also an excellent way of earning back links to your web site.
Another area which is being utilized for link building services at the moment is specialty directories and branded verticals. There are many companies striving to create smaller portals that are loaded with content containing links giving them long-term value in their own industry. Developing high quality content to publish in the small size portals will help to get listed in the ODP Web directories and other resources listings. A successfully employed secondary site helps to drain page rank value onto your primary website. Furthermore you can directly block your competition from including their content and links in your own portal.
Using SEO service as a Strategic Tool for Your Online Business
If you are building a website for the purpose of getting income from ad revenues, then you are probably thinking about Adsense sites or mini sites that display text advertising. The key to make this kind of business successful is web traffic. If more people can hit your site, then the probability of these visitors clicking your ads will be greater. Hiring a SEO service for the purpose of building traffic is a good business move. A search engine optimization service has the right tools in targeting the most lucrative keywords needed by your website. By using proven SEO techniques, your site can enjoy huge traffic surges especially if you can dominate the first pages of search results. Your ad revenues will surely increase as you get more traffic from the search engines.
On the other hand, if you have a website where you sell affiliate products or your own product, then massive traffic is not enough. What you need is highly targeted traffic or those people who are ready to buy your products. This is a little tricky but an experienced SEO service will have the right expertise to funnel highly targeted traffic for your site. Normally, a professional search engine optimization service will target niche keywords, action keywords, and high converting keywords. Researching these keywords takes time and considerable effort. Only an experienced SEO service with the right expertise and tools can provide you with the right keywords that convert well. Through its services, you will be able to drive ready to buy traffic to your site thus ensuring the profitability of your online affiliate business.
Strategies for building an authority site are also different. If you own a full-pledged ecommerce website or a corporate website that markets your offline business, then your site should be an authority site. The key to make your site reputable is to grow your link popularity. A professional search engine optimization service can make your site extremely popular through effective link building efforts. You will be able to get quality back links from reputable websites, blogs, and online forums. Your site can also become popular through links coming from web 2.0 and social networking sites. Building links is very difficult but it could be made easier through the help of search engine optimization service. Your business website therefore will become a reliable site that people will constantly visit.