Looks like the next update for Word Press will make some big changes.
Usually when I get an update and install it there is almost nothing to notice, but this time the control panel will have a new look.
It looks at first glance like it will be a good thing. Let’s just hope it doesn’t also break too many things like plug-ins and themes. As always make sure everything is backed up before you install it.
I’ll keep you updated as to how it works for me.
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If you have lived in a cave for the last couple of years and have never heard the term “Link Bait” you might think that it’s some black hat trick to fool the search engines into ranking your site higher. Well, it turns out that Link Bait is one of the best and natural ways to help your site get traffic, both through the search engines and with links from other sites.
The best way to get higher rankings for your site is to get one way links from other sites pointing to your site. I have written before about how search engines consider these links “votes” for your site and how one-way links that point to you without you pointing back (link exchange) are much more valuable. These kind of links bring you traffic through the search engines, but also traffic from the sites that are linking to you.
So what is the best way to get these links? You can get them yourself by writing and distributing articles, posting comments on blogs and forums with a link to your site, you can buy them (which is now frowned upon by Google) or you can get them naturally by having the kind of content on your site that people want to link to.
The last option is now called Link Bait and is the best and most valuable way to go. There is a good article called “What is Linkbait?” on a site called realestatehyperlinks.com that gives some good ideas for free. They are selling link baiting campaigns for $9,995.00 and up, but you can easily do it yourself for free. How good of a deal is that?
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I got an email the other day from a company in India that wanted my SEO business. I don’t think that they read my site, but they talked to me about link building and I don’t write about that much so maybe they did. They contacted me through my email form so what they sent wasn’t officially Spam, but it sure read like a form letter and if I got it through the regular email I would have considered it junk.
Their claim to “AMAZE you with our work” and mentioning several times their “ETHICAL LINK building process” and “white hat technique” got me curious so I wrote to them and asked them exactly how they planned to do that.
They told me that they wanted 50% up front and before the other half was to be paid they would send me a “report of the confirmed links”. They sent me a lot of other information about how their “One Way Links will help to achieve Top 10 ranks in Google, Yahoo & MSN” and sent a price list, but still no mention of how they got the links that they claim would be so beneficial to my site. While I don’t argue that getting relevant inbound links to my site will help in my rankings, being labeled as a spammer may get me in trouble (like with so much of the crap that I fight against being posted here in this blog).
So I Googled this company. I tried several keyword terms that they claimed to help me with like “Search Engine Optimization”, “SEO services”, “link building packages” and more and couldn’t find them anywhere (surprise, surprise). The keyword terms were all pretty competitive ones so I tried to find them for their name (not mentioned here) and I went back 25 pages. Still nothing!
I am thinking that if you can’t be found for your own name and your site is more than a couple of days old you must have done something bad not to be on the search engine results.
To read more about shopping for SEO services there’s a good post on the Wordpreneur site
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I have a page on my site with some of my favorite site designs that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of designs that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these site designs, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of the sites are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called First Light Landscaping.
A nice looking site done in earth tones. It looks like what they do, landscaping.
I like how that anywhere you click in the header goes to their contact page. The main goal of this site seems to be to get you to request a free quote and they make sure to ask you to request one several times. The navigation is very clear and the green stands out very well against the brown “dirt” background.
To do better with the search engines more content would be better, but these posts are about the design of the sites that I like and I like this one.
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Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Animax Tic Tac Toe is a switch on the old game that we have all played for years, a bit like the old TV game show.
The game asks you a question and if you answer correctly you get an “X” if you are wrong the game places an “O” in the box. So you get to test your trivia knowledge as well.
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One of the things that I like to write about, because I believe in, is giving away something to help promote your business. I also think that free information is one of the best products that you can give away.
I have written before about how this can work. Here are some of the examples.
I recently ran across another one recently where a seminar that worth $6,000 is promoting itself by giving away what it also sells. The post is called “Why Free Works” and I love simple and descriptive title.
If it’s done well “Free” works very well. Think of all the huge sites that you know of on the web and how many of them got where they are by giving something away.
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I saw an an on Craigslist last night that said basically I’m going to try this again, but I’ve been stuck twice before.
He then finished the post by saying that the lowest price will get the job.
I wrote to him with some advise.
“You say lowest bidder gets the job and then you complain about being stuck twice. No wonder.”
He quickly wrote back.
“LOL, can’t believe i’m taking the time to respond. it’s an attempt to get people to give me their best price. Thanks for your concern though.”
I gave him a quote that I’m sure won’t be his lowest bid and since he was kind enough to explain his reasoning to me I tried to clarify what I was saying.
“If you only consider price you may wind up with nothing at all.”
Certainly nothing worthwhile.
There’s an old saying that goes…
“There is nothing that someone cannot make a little more inferior, sell a little cheaper. And those that only consider price, is his prey.”
I’m guessing I will soon see an ad that says “I’ve been stuck 3 times now…”
It’s amazing how I read about something that a marketer should or should not do and then right after it happens to me. It may just be that after I read about it I’m on the lookout for that activity, but it still amazes me how often they are related.
For example I was just reading Melinda Krueger, the Email Diva last week and she was answering a question from someone who thought that it was a bad idea that a company would invite him to start paying his bill online when that was something that he always did. Then over the weekend I got an email from a company advertising something that I had just purchased.
The price was the same so you can say it’s not a big deal, but after reading The Diva’s post it would have really impressed me if they sent something extra to buy that would have augmented my earlier purchase.
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I have a page on my site with some of my favorite site designs that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of designs that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these site designs, they all look good and are clear and easy to use. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of the sites are not in English and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called Cottonseed Oil Tour.
Looks like an old fashioned country store for “America’s Original Vegetable Oil”. The site looks like what it is. Navigation is clear, easy to use and right at the top.
They ask for your story and sign up for their newsletter right up front.
I think that this is a great site for this promotion.
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Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Here’s a site with 6 fun tests, that you can try. One of them is just for fun!
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