By Frank Reed

I suspect that the title of this post creates different reactions amongst different groups. I also suspect that none of the reactions include, “I agree wholeheartedly!” Why does the specter of creating content set off service providers, agency clients, and businesses flying solo, making them more than a little squirrel-y?

I’ll tell you why. It’s because of the perception of good content. When someone reads good content, there is this feeling that “I could have done that.” As a result, there is a perception that developing good content is easy.

Well, it’s not. In fact, because of the deafening noise of the Internet marketplace and the need to rise above the din of the fantastically average (and WELL below average) content that makes up the vast majority of the Internet, you have to do a few things well to create good content. Here’s what I think they are. If you agree, great, and if you don’t, then go create some content around your argument.

Create Consistently – This is the one that makes everyone queasy. Businesses in the SMB (small and medium business) and SME (small and medium enterprise) space absolutely hate this fact. They want everything to be “one and done,” but content doesn’t play that game. Denying that fact will only hurt a business in the long run. If you are serious about Internet marketing, you have to be serious about consistently generating content AND placing the correct value on it, so it can continue to be developed at a high level.

Create Passionately – Even if you are selling the most boring product or service on the planet, you have to be passionate about your content or else no one will be. Boring content breeds bad results. Sure, you might still sell things, but you will not sell more than if your passion for your work were evident for all to see. By the way, if you need to hire someone to convey that passion, you are not alone. It is something you need to consider very seriously.

Create Creatively – Kinda goofy, I admit, but if you are just doing one thing over and over (like writing and just providing that kind of content), then you run the risk of losing those who would like to see some pictures or video or something else. I am very guilty of this at times, and need to start drinking my own Kool Aid, so to speak. The written word is powerful but it takes time to ingest and digest. The nice thing about it, though, is that the search engines find it to be the healthiest food for their spiders.

Create Intentionally – I once again will blow the whistle on myself here. Planning your content and the delivery of that content will produce more predictable results. In other words, you can start to tell stories, create themes, and do other things that keep content consumers coming back to you. If you just leave everything to the idea of being “inspired in the moment,” you will have some rough days and some gaps in content. I know where from I speak.

So, despite my claim in the title, developing good content for the Internet is NOT easy. It just looks that way. I challenge you to think about your own content efforts in a brutally honest fashion and decide whether you are serious or not. If you are serious, you will be rewarded and if you are not then I honestly don’t know what will happen to you. Now that’s scarier than anything isn’t it?

50.My best advice for gathering a LOT of easy links is to create and release free templates for any wide-spread, free CMS system out there. Wordpress, PHP Link Directory, Joomla, Mambo, Typo66, Drupal, etc. You are not a designer ? Hire one to build you some templates. What’s the benefit ? That small “template by X” in the footer of the template, that will reside in all the websites that use it. The more functional and beautiful the template is, the more people will use it. Colleen, from Kalina Web Designs as well as Chris from Pearsonified come highly recommended by me and others. It’s not worthwhile to tell you that I too have a design company. We’re too expensive for your ass

Resource: http://www.seopedia.org/internet-marketing-and-seo/101-web-marketing-ideas-and-tips/

It is a common assumption that search engine rankings are determined by a magical formula rooted largely (or almost exclusively) in technology. In reality, long-term search engine rankings are generally achieved through an equal mix of technology and updated website content. An ethical search engine optimization company will usually turn down work when told that under no circumstances can any of the visual elements or content of a site be changed.

It is largely a site’s content–from the text to the images–that allows search engines to determine what that site is about. That same content also helps other sites and directories to decide whether or not a site is worthy of a link (and link popularity is, of course, a major factor in rankings). Many companies do not want to hear this, especially after they have paid a sizable amount of money to a web designer. The bottom line? That site built entirely in Flash for which you spent $50,000 is not going to achieve high rankings for a variety of phrases without substantial changes that will allow its content to be indexed by the engines. The truth hurts sometimes–but so can the cost of lost opportunities.

Update the Website without Consulting Your Search Engine Optimization Company

A very common and innocent mistake can have disastrous consequences. It generally happens when a webmaster is updating a website, perhaps simply adding a press release or uploading a graphic. Accidentally, the webmaster saves an older version of the site over the new version, removing many of the elements that the search engine optimization company had added to achieve high rankings. This can result in a loss of positions for which the search engine optimization company, of course, is blamed.

Worse yet, since most sites are developed on a “test bed,” damage can be done when the site goes live. Test beds are not intended to be crawled by search engine spiders, and so responsible webmasters include instructions in the site code requesting that spiders not index the site–the Internet equivalent of a “do not disturb” sign. The major search engines dutifully obey this request on the test bed site. They also dutifully obey when these instructions are accidentally transferred over to the live site during an update. As you might imagine, the results from such an oversight are somewhat less than ideal. Once again, the search engine optimization company generally gets the blame.

Since constantly accepting blame can be demoralizing, a good search engine optimization company monitors the code on all of its clients’ sites on a daily basis, analyzes any changes, and quickly reacts if anything potentially harmful has been done. In this way the website can be repaired before ranking losses occur.

Link to Other Sites

Everyone that has a website has received at least one email requesting a link exchange. Unfortunately, this type of exchange defeats the purpose of link popularity, and engines are starting to take notice. Since inbound links are essentially counted as “votes” for your site, a simple trade-off between sites does not necessarily indicate that those sites are advocating one another. Worse, if you actively link out to a site that becomes penalized (and sites that seek reciprocal links are likely to be very aggressive in their optimization tactics) your site can become penalized in turn.

This does not mean that you should never link out to another site, especially if you believe that the site contains information that is of value to your visitors. Your search engine optimization company, however, should be given the opportunity to review any site to which you want to link. Additionally, a thorough search engine optimization company will frequently review the outbound links on your site, making sure that none of the websites to which you are linking begin using questionable SEO practices. This ensures that your site stays out of danger of penalization.

Create Additional Domains

There are legitimate reasons for wanting to have several domains mirroring your site (tracking the performance of offline website advertising, for example), but few, if any, are search engine related. If you are hoping to get a double listing for duplicate content on multiple domains, you are wasting your time–the engine will typically choose one version of the content and keep the other version out of its index.

Not long ago, there was a danger of all versions of a website being removed from search engine results for having multiple domains with the same content. Most engines, as mentioned above, now will simply choose one of the websites and discount the others. The problem is that promoting multiple domains with duplicate content can water down your link popularity as it is spread over several sites. This obviously hinders campaign performance.

Vanity domains can still be used, but they should redirect to a single version of the website using a 301 redirect. This means that if anyone adds an outbound link to one of your vanity URLs, your site will still get credit for the link.

Try Your Own SEO Tactics

The worst nightmare a search engine optimization company can face is when clients begin to see great results from the campaign and then believe that they should pitch in and help “accelerate” the results. Unfortunately, while the intentions are admirable, this is usually much like someone observing an auto mechanic screw on a radiator cap and believing that this observation now qualifies him as a certified radiator technician (and his tool of choice is generally a hammer). There is much going on in a typical search engine optimization campaign involving page elements, behind the scenes factors, linking strategies, and many other facets. If your search engine optimization company were to take the time to explain exactly how everything worked and why it was important, your campaign could take years. Many tactics, particularly those that SEO beginners might try, can put your site at risk of penalization. I suggest you steer the car and let your search engine optimization company fix the radiator.

Change the Marketing Direction

This may seem like an obvious issue that is easy to avoid, but often a search engine optimization company is the last to know that your company is no longer offering a certain product or service, that you no longer desire certain types of clients, that you are launching a new product or service, or that you are trying to drum up additional business in a certain product or service line. Organic search engine optimization takes time. When marketing issues like this arise, your search engine optimization company should be on your speed dial, so that it can be ready to take action based upon your current marketing strategy.

There are many other ways in which to hinder the performance of your search engine optimization company, but the above list details some fairly common examples. Organic SEO, when done properly, offers one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing channel available. If you do careful vendor evaluation, your campaign should perform above your expectations, provided you trust your search engine optimization company and leave your hammer in the toolbox.

Resource: http://www.aj2000.com/articles/sabotage-seo-efforts.htm

Thanks to the wonderful graphics team at The Shabby Shoppe, we have come up with another great “Shabbie Chic” design!

http://zorradesigns.com/babybri2/

1. 1. Full Shabbie Chic Scrapbook Style Design
2. 2. 6 months FREE hosting (after will be $5.00 a month / $60.00 a year)
3. 3. Set up in Joomla Content Management Program (CMS). This makes it easy for ANYONE to update the site. No HTML knowledge is needed.
4. 4. Commerical License of ONE design kit from The Shabbie Shoppe; a $25.00 USD value.  If you want to use more than one kit, there will be an extra cost.

Offer Expires:  Feburary 27, 2010

We have released a new version of “Zorra Designs”! We have also introduced new pricing for the 2010 season! Enjoy affordable and ecconomical pricing!

$15.00 an hour design and maintenance
$5.00 a month / $60.00 a year server hosting