Posts in category: Internet

Some Tips from CFA

I may not be the number one parent in the world but I have made up my mind to create a controlled, godly environment for my children. I refuse to allow just anything be thrown at them by the demands of modern society, so that I can render account before God of how I brought up the gifts he handed over to me.

So, I am nowhere being a counsellor but here are some tips based on personal experience:

1. Monitor the activities of your children on the Internet and restrict unfettered access to ALL websites.
2. Protect them from unnecessary vices around our entertainment industry and prevent the pollution of their minds except for songs   and music videos that you consider safe for them.
3. Turn on child protection on your decoder especially when you are not around. Why allow your child access to E! or MTV or other channels that will expose them? Wait until they come of age, then they can decide.
4. Password your phone if you have sensitive stuff in there, at least I once met a father of 3 who had all sorts on his phone and he actually told me how he can’t do without watching “blue film” almost every night. He actually told me that their was nothing negative with the act and even when I brought in the spiritual angle,  he reminded me that he was also a Christian. All I could do,  is pray that God should have mercy. Honestly, who do you think is the bigger loser after watching porno? The actors or those watching?
5. Ensure that your children are surrounded by the right kind of influence, if you have to go to their school to meet their friends then do, remember we are leaving in a digital, highly advanced society today.

Even as an adult, I literally have to “flee” from things I consider tempting talk less of a child. So for example, I don’t visit any site showing half naked women not to talk of a porno site. I also don’t watch musical videos that want to get me to imagine the attractiveness of what is being dangled on the screen and believe it or not, everyday I say the Lords prayers and particularly I stress “lead us not into temptation.” You’ve got to guard your heart jealously!

So, what do you think?

Guest post by Chiko Noguchi. To gain exposure by partnering with us, read our write for us guideline.

The SEO industry received a huge shakeup in 2012, and the shaking can be chalked up to all the recent changes made to search algorithms in general. Black hat techniques are seemingly losing their effectiveness by the day, and the effectiveness of a few white hat methods are now being questioned too but the truth remains that white SEO is the way to go.

Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about the role social interactions have in influencing change in the search landscape. Social signals seem to be a factor, but how big is their impact, and what signals should we be looking at?

To be clear, the role social signals play in the SEO services industry is still unclear at this point. That’s even with numerous studies and expert opinions. However, there is enough information out there to put together a list of signals that are most likely to matter to your efforts.

4 Social Signals to Consider

1. Social Actions

Activity looks to be one of the most influential social signals. This action includes people liking and sharing your content on Facebook, and tweeting mentions of your brand name or retweeting your original posts. According to a study by Searchmetrics, which focused on the correlation of social signals and search, Facebook shares not only have the biggest influence, but activity from Facebook has the biggest overall impact. If you look at it this way, it would seem that the bigger the network, the more valuable it is to your SEO strategy.

2. Social Connections

The overall consensus is that social activity somehow factors into the search ranking mix. You may be surprised to know that social connections could be a reason as well. People liking your Facebook page. Building up your number of Twitter followers. Adding people to your circles on Google+. It may very well help increase your search visibility, another theory backed up by Searchmetrics’ statistics. Knowing that simply making connections might at least be one viable signal could motivate for marketers who have been hesitant about social media.

3. Positive Reviews

Social media has provided new and exciting ways for businesses to interact with their customers. It is not only an ideal customer service tool, but an outlet that helps strengthen relationships. What makes social media such an attractive proposition is that it works both ways. Customers can also reach out to the companies they do business with and engage in conversation, or simply leave feedback. This feedback is critical in terms of awareness and word of mouth marketing, but could also be another signal that search engines are looking at.

Back in 2010, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land wrote an article highlighting how Google was likely using reviews as a ranking factor. The article was specifically referring to reviews published on Google Product Search. Most other pundits seem to think that reviews on sites like Google Local and Yelp are given consideration. With so many aspects blurring the lines between what is officially social and what isn’t, it wouldn’t be surprising to know that feedback on sites like Facebook and Twitter counts as well.

4. Increased Backlinks

There has been much talk about whether social signals have become more influential than the backlinks SEO experts have told us reign supreme for so long. Well it looks like that time has yet to come. In fact, Matt Cutts revealed in an interview with Danny Sullivan that links not only matter, but they are still the most important ranking factor. Cutts said that the impact of social socials could be greater in the next decade or so, while also hinting that they now have an influence today.

Backlinks still wielding a lot of power is great for SEO professionals with a social presence because it likely means the links you generate on sites such as Twitter and Pinterest would help boost your rankings. What you need to do is take an active approach to making sure that your presence on the social space is formidable. That means interacting with others, developing valuable content, and encouraging people to share. If you’re looking for your surefire social signal, it may very well lie in backlinks.

Looking Ahead

All signs show that we are moving into a web era where social media has a huge, if not the biggest impact on SEO. For now, we are at a speculative stage where nothing is certain. The best thing professionals can do is to make sure they are educated and stay on top of the developments in the ever-changing world of search and the Internet.

Where do you stand on search signals? Are they already affecting your SEO value?

Chiko is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services.

Image  Credit: linkedmediagrp

There is so much to do in this world of digital media technology than one can get excited just thinking about it. Starting an online business is easy these days, all you need is a little guidance and you are set-up.

You could decide to become an affiliate marketer or a website designer, or even a website retailer (yes, there ARE people who deal solely in buying and selling websites). Whatever the case, you will definitely find a lot of people who have already blazed that trail.

Yes, that’s pretty much it about the digital media business. One thing though, it is always wise and advisable to begin your online business on a small-scale before expanding.

When it comes to online writing, a lot of questions arise. Some people even wonder whether monetizing writing skills is even possible or a myth. Truth is, it is possible to write in the digital media world and make money in the process. You could start slowly and gradually pick up the best moves as you go. On the other hand, you could just decide to read this guide and set yourself straight early. After all, what’s the fun in making all the mistakes when someone already made them?

If you are just beginning your small business or have been managing one for some time, you may just need to take advantage of the leverage having an online presence offers you. Luckily, CFA Leverage (one of Nigeria’s leading digital media consultants) is available to help your business with the gain an online audience. We use a combination of SEO processes and information marketing to give you that leverage.

However, this post is specifically for people who have already begun writing and are experiencing slow growth – or at least growth that is slower than they would have expected. If you are just beginning to learn the art of writing, you may want to read this article on becoming a freelance writer.

Here are some tips that have proven effective for when you want to monetize your writing experience via Digital Media:

1. Be Specific in Your Niche

Ah, yes. Remember that saying “Jack of all trades, master of none?”.

Exactly. It applies a lot to your writing career as well. The best and most successful e-writers have had this going for them: they pretty much stick to one niche. Allow yourself to gain professionalism in one niche, please. Your online readers and reviewers will grow, since they can easily associate you to a specific niche. As an example, you could publish works related to freelance writing, affiliate marketing, SEM and SEO campaigns. These are all related, and it counts as sticking in one niche.

2. Become An Authority by Writing What you Know

Top e-book writers and top bloggers have boosted their paychecks simply by writing on stuff they know about. It’s a very simple flow chart, really: you write about things that you know and people read to know these things. You are trading your knowledge for money.

Of course, at this point, you might go into panic mode with the thought that you do not really know anything that nobody else knows. You’d be surprised. The little things you know that most other people do not know are what make you the authority in that niche. As an example, some person somewhere might be wondering just how he/she might be able to upload a youtube video online. This is where you, the digital media expert writer, come in. If you’ve already written an easy tutorial online on how to upload the said video, you satisfy an unwitting customer, and BAM, payday for you.

This is merely an example, you know. There are a lot you already know, so tap into the digital marketing revolution today and earn for that knowledge.

3. The Pull-Out Technique in Writing for Digital Media

This is a technique that comes in handy for the e-book publisher. When you see a lot of publishers testifying to their publishing 100 e books in a single year (or a couple of months, even), they often have made use of the e-book pull-out technique.

How does this work? Rather than publish one large e-book and get a one-time payment on it, you could actually “pull out” a couple of sections from the e-book, thus breaking the bigger e-book into several “mini e-books” which you can sell to make more money than you ordinarily would have made if you had sold the original, compact e-book! Swell idea, right?

4. Write, Write, Write!

This is probably the invaluable technique. If you wish to make money as a self-published eBook writer, you will have to write. A lot. The e-book pull-out method will go a long way to set you up on that path, but you will need to be a prolific writer as well. The more you write, the more you are putting your name out there and the better your chances of being read. It’s all in the statistics!

You might be wondering at this point: just how much can I possibly earn from writing. Well, let’s just say that if you are prolific enough, you could be earning a minimum of $5000, easy. It’s the law of proportion at work here. If you have only one eBook available online, when a “customer” buys it and reads it, well, that is all. You make a couple of cents to a dollar and the trail ends there. But if you have a book series and someone happens to read book one, he/she may just be fascinated enough to read all off book one through to book ten! (Assuming, of course, that it is a ten book series). Thus, by writing prolifically, your digital media would have earned you ten times what you would have earned, had you had only one book published.

I am writing a book and a workbook which will teach and help small businesses in leveraging the internet for improving their profitability. Be on the lookout for this, please.

5. Use More Than Digital Media Publishing Option

It is also a great idea to publish using more than one digital media publishing house. Some of the really great ones out there include Amazon.com, Lulu, Barnes & Noble and Clickbank. This is in addition to the possible e-book sales you might be getting off your own website. This allows your income to come from several sources and converge at a final point – your bank account.

Writing for digital media is a great idea. While it makes for a great hobby, it also makes for a great means of making money. There are a lot of writers who have successfully retired on the income streams they made from their self-published writings. This can, however, only happen if they do not fall victim of vanity press.

An option open to you in projecting books written by you, is to Hire a Book Publicist.

Heading out to Accra Ghana, in the days ahead to speak at the IT Leaders West African summit.

Do you have any other experiences you would love to share? Feel free to leave a comment!

Creative commons images courtesy Trevor Barnard and jense159

Guest post by Hugh Yearsley. To gain exposure by partnering with us, read our write for us guideline.

It is a popular misconception that businesses only need a website if they would in a position to sell their products directly to customers online or have a service that can be delivered – or at the very least ordered – remotely.

However, while many companies can enhance their profitability in using the Internet in that way, every business – large or small – can benefit greatly from having a website or some form of online presence.

Your business an online presence for the following reasons:

1. Marketing and Reaching New Customers

There is no denying that business is tough for everyone at the moment and in this economic climate, every available opportunity has to be taken that may give you the edge over your competitors. With customers being increasingly savvy and more willing to shop around before spending, you need to ensure that potential customers can not only find you as a company, but also discover as much about your services as possible before your rivals.

For businesses which now rely on “traditional” marketing methods, there is only a limited amount of information that can be conveyed in a magazine advertisement or, a 30-second radio ad without being too complicated. Word of mouth is still an incredibly effective and underrated marketing tool, but its reach is often limited, so an online presence could truly revolutionize your business.

Potential customers have changed their habits when it comes to searching for products and services. Unless they are planning on using a business they already know, a lot of people no longer use traditional methods – business directories or newspapers instead turning to the Internet. Having instant access to company and product information is incredibly important and can be a decision maker for most people.

In the time it takes to find a telephone directory and find the right company (which can be random luck to find what you need these days), an online search could have found dozens of companies and a customer could have visited the websites of several of these. Sites like USYellowpages and 411.com and other print-based online versions may still feature businesses without websites, but have little more than basic contact details. If you have a website, it will make your entry stand out from the others, and yours will be the ones people will be more likely to look at before making calls to any of the others so without a website you could well be losing valuable business.

2. An Information Resource

At a bare minimum, your site can provide valuable information to customers about who you are, where you are located and what your company does and sells. Even if customers can’t buy your products directly, they can find out just where they can buy what you offer and you can let them know exactly why they should choose you over anyone else.

You’re no longer tied by constraints of limited physical dimensions of magazine advertisements or time limits in radio advertising and unlike either of these, the website can be as dynamic as you want it to be. Anything in print is out-of-date the instant it is sent to print, often weeks before it is seen by anyone, but information online can be updated in real-time. Information dissemination is a major reason you need an online presence.

3. Customer Interaction and Feedback

One thing that no business wants to do is loose potential customers, but that happens to thousands of businesses every day with many of them not even realizing it. As a business, if you’re not able to take a customer’s telephone call for any reason, your main switchboard is engaged or a customer needs to contact you out of normal office hours and can’t find a way to reach your business, then human nature dictates that they’ll look elsewhere.

With a website set up with a basic contact form, with popular options for the most common enquiries available, your customers will be able to reach you 24 hours a day at a time to suit them. If their questions aren’t covered by the form, just having a professional email address connected to your website (as opposed to a free email address provided by Hotmail, Google or similar providers) will give more credibility to your company and even if a customer doesn’t contact you through your website, your email address will be easier for them to remember.

Your website can also offer an invaluable resource for both you and your customers when it comes to testimonials. New customers are often wary of using businesses or products for the first time, and no matter how much money is invested in advertising or marketing, customer reviews are worth their weight in gold in comparison and are far more important. Sites can easily incorporate features to allow customers to directly offer feedback to you on your company as a whole or even each product or service.

If you want to make sure that your customers are kept up-to-date with all the latest news and developments with your company, you can post daily updates to a news blog on your website, Facebook or Twitter, or even offer an electronic newsletter through your website that visitors can subscribe to.

4. The Importance of Social Media

Over the last few years social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter have had an increasing impact on business as well. Successful companies are making use of both, in addition to their primary websites as a way to interact with their customers in new and innovative ways that they have never been able to before. They have provided business with a quick way to get bite-sized information and updates directly to customers and – more importantly – receive vital feedback.

While some businesses rely solely on Facebook for their online presence and don’t give the Internet a great deal of consideration, the combination of a website, Facebook and Twitter is the most effective way to promote your business online to reach the widest possible audience.

Ultimately, the true potential of what a website and social media can do for your business is limited only by your imagination.

Hugh contributed this guest post for WhoIsHostingThis – who provide hosting reviews on the top web-hosting companies, visit the website. Hugh is a freelance tech writer and marketing expert.

Creative commons image courtesy of canlasa and RDECOM

 Guest post by Patrick Del Rosario. This is his 2nd post here, the 1st one was on Small Business Failure. To gain exposure by partnering with us, read our write for us guideline.

Google Zoo – Pandas and Penguins

Everyone recognises that search engine optimisation is constantly shifting. Last year Google Panda was active in finding low-quality or duplicate content, and this year Google Penguin is cracking down on websites with unnaturally low-quality links. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation – in case you didn’t already know) consultants and companies alike have laboured steadily to figure out these recent algorithm puzzles set forth by Google.

The Almighty Number One Page

The Google Penguin Update launched on April 24, 2012.

According to the Google blog, “Penguin is an important algorithm change targeted at web spam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.”

Optimising your website incorrectly can cause you to not only drop in rankings, but become banned from Google altogether. So why do people risk it? To see their site on The Almighty Number One Page of Google, of course!

Here are some ways to stay hidden from Google’s suspicious eyes:

1. Practice White-Hat SEO

There are two options of conducting search engine optimisation. The correct way, referred to as “white hat,” and the incorrect, immoral way known as “black hat.” Black hat techniques break the rules of search engines and involve tactics that are spammy and dishonest such as:

1. Hidden doorway pages (gateway pages)
2. Duplicate content (many pages with the same text)
3. Keyword stuffing (high keyword densities)
4. High-quantity link farms (unrelated links pointing to the site)
5. Hidden text (invisible text colours that blend with the background colour)

White hat SEO is the “correct” way of optimising your website so it shows up high in search results.

Search engines and users love fresh content; it inspires loyalty from readers and ensures search engines will visit your site regularly. Although this is a longer process requiring updating or refreshing information, it is well worth the effort for optimal long-term results.

2. Have Topic-Driven Content

Websites must assume a content marketing strategy that covers all their online activities. Create great content with readers in mind first, search engines in mind second. Give your readers fresh, steady updates of original content that provides value!

Value is determined by popular opinion, unbiased information, industry news, or just the advice that if you put your audience first you will get high search engine visibility.

Additional reasons to focus on content include:

1. People will want to share your content virally if it provides really helpful information.
2. Great content will send you lots of targeted traffic.
3. When content is the focus you will receive more than just search engine traffic. Social websites, word of mouth, mentions, revenue referral sources, citations, rankings, etc. should never be discounted.

3.Link Building – Tactics vs. Strategies

Link building should be a by-product of great content, not the reverse. The difference is link building is a tactic, while content marketing is a strategy. What is meant by this is that if you’re just trying to build links for SEO purposes and nothing else, this is a short-term solution – a tactic. Stop chasing Google’s algorithm with “black-hat” tactics.

4. Syndicate Your Content

RSS (Really Simple Syndication – in case you didn’t already know), syndicates your web content to other sites and builds inbound links, making RSS one of the most effective SEO strategies today.

Syndication is fundamentally taking a piece of content (an article, blog post, video) and sharing it or re-posting it somewhere else.

Here are some syndication tips:

1. Position a noticeable link on your homepage letting your visitors know right away that you have feeds and that you offer content syndication.
2. Another form of syndication is taking someone’s article, writing about it, and linking back to the original source.
3. Set up a webpage specifically for all your feeds.

When you or other people syndicate your content, it is seen as a sort of social link building. Google highly considers people talking and writing about your content – so they boost your rankings because you are the original source!

5. Always Incorporate Social Signals

Nowadays it ought to be everyone’s goal to make social media a part of their SEO services campaign. After Google’s various updates, remember, without a social presence, your trust factor will be greatly devalued.

If you have not already done so, create a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube profile and make sure your website is linked to each of them.

You should realise some important factors:

1. Google announced social signals are officially incorporated into their search algorithm.
2. Increasing your fans, likes, and followers will alert all the search engines about how popular your site is.
3. Out of all the sites that got de-indexed, penalised, or punished after the penguin/panda updates – the sites with the most social signals got hit the least.

Social sharing is vitally important today. It is the best sign that others are liking your content. It is your choice whether or not you get involved. There are conversations on every network twenty-four-seven; all you have to do is get involved, supply helpful content, and watch your rankings increase.

6. Knowledge Is Power, Content Is King

Dear internet entrepreneurs – knowledge is power. Make sure to always write with your readers in mind before you write with SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages – in case you didn’t already know) in mind. Content, and the organisation of your material, is the most significant factor for search engine optimisation.

Search engines rely on the content of a web page to assess how relevant and dependable your material is to a specific search. Content is still king – no matter how many links you get or how great your homepage SEO is – content still is, and will always be, king.

I would love to here you thoughts and feedback in the comment box below.

Patrick Del Rosario is part of the team behind Open Colleges. It is one of Australia’s pioneer and leading providers of Web design courses and Graphic design courses. When not working, Patrick enjoys blogging, travelling, and photography. Patrick together with his father runs a Photo Studio in the philippines. If you have a blog and would like free content. You can find him on Google+.

Creative commons image courtesy Seventh Continent