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Can I use Wikipedia for Link Building?

Janna — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 09:48:48 +0000

Recently, quite a few people have asked me whether they can use Wikipedia to create links to their website that count for SEO.

This is a topic that has been debated a lot, especially in the last few years. In my opinion, you should NOT use Wikipedia to build links to your website for SEO purposes. Here are 3 reasons why:

There are some very strict rules about adding content, including that you shouldn’t add content about yourself or for the purpose of self promotion, that the topics need to be of interest to the broader public and that all articles need to be based on third party information (there is usually a long list of references at the bottom of each page).
Wikipedia entries continually are continually monitored by volunteer editors which means they can get changed, edited or deleted at any time.
Wikipedia includes mainly internal links and only the references at the bottom of each page are external links – often none of the references actually point to the direct website, rather to third party reports about the website. In addition, external Wikipedia links are also “no follow” links which means they do not get counted towards SEO.

So, in short, I don’t see any benefit in using Wikipedia for link building. It can be beneficial as part of a traffic strategy (this is different to link building), however, if you are a beginning internet marketer, your time is much better leveraged using some of the link building strategies outlined in the Missing Chapter Report.

Keyword research for Video Marketing: The YouTubeKeyword Tool

Janna — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 09:06:07 +0000

How to Use Hubpages To Create Traffic to Your Website

Janna — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:46:18 +0000

Hubpages is a third party page similar to Squidoo. You can create an account at http://hubpages.com.

The reviewers at hubpages are quite strict and often don’t allow you to publish content that already appears elsewhere on the web or promote products or websites. That’s why many people ask can you post previous submitted articles on hubpages.

Although it’s difficult to post articles you’ve already submitted elsewhere, it is well worth your time to create a few Hubs with these sneaky tips:

Do your keyword research before you start. Like creating a Squidoo lense, the purpose of a hubpage is to rank highly in Google and channel the traffic to your money site (or list building site). Also add as many related keywords as you can so your hub can be found through other hubpages.
Re-write and re-structure content if you’re using an article that has already been published elsewhere. You can also combine two articles into one hubpage.
Add pictures and graphics to make your hubpage more interesting.
Create a keyword rich summary description.
Add your articles together to form Hubgroups which make it easier for visitors to find other related hubs (only add your own, otherwise you lose traffic to someone else).
Do NOT add any links when first creating your hubpage. Add your link later on, once your hubpage has been approved by a reviewer. Once the first link has been approved try and add a second link a week later.
Build links to your hubpage to increase its search engine ranking and traffic.

Do you have any other tips and tricks to get your hubpages going? Please leave your comments below!

Squidoo Lenses – 8 Tips to Get You Started

Janna — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:17:43 +0000

Squidoo Lenses are a super-easy way to create a basic website with lots of backlinks to your websites, videos, articles and other projects. You can create Squidoo Lense at http://www.squidoo.com.

The site can be a little confusing at first, so here are 8 tips to get you started, a little beginner tutorial Squidoo:

Use a good article as the main content – it could be a variation of an article you’ve already submitted to Ezine Articles or other article submission software.
Use photos or other pictures – they should be royalty free photos to which you’ve bough the rights, for example from Istock Photo. Otherwise you can get royalty free photos from Wikipedia or Flickr.
Add an RSS feed for another one of your websites or blogs to add additional content and create backlinks to your sites.
Add a video from your YouTube Channel where appropriate – this creates additional content and increases the views of your video if your Squidoo lense gets lots of traffic.
Do not mention any topics that are forbidden on Squidoo, these include debt, finances, sex, and more. Check the Squidoo Terms and Conditions to be sure.
Make use of the “health” button at the top of the page as this will give you some clues to improve your lense while you create it.
Don’t forget to add links back to your blog by adding in
< a href="http://yourdomain.com" > keyword < /a>
There is no obvious way to add links but using the html code works after you hit the publish button.
Add tags that relate your keywords in the right hand column.

What are your favourite Squidoo Lenses Tips? Leave a comment below

4 Things To Consider Before Starting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Janna — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:42:09 +0000

Before you jump in and add your business to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all those other cool social media tools for marketing, four important things should be considered so you don’t end up like a dork….

What’s your pitch?
Instead of using the old elevator pitch – one minute or less, consider your social media pitch: What is your company about in 120 characters or less? Figuring your pitch out beforehand will help you be consistent in your social media message and you’ll know exactly what to say when it’s time to introduce your business.
What are your goals?
Instead of implementing an overall social media marketing strategy first and then adding your goals, it is much more effective to develop your goals first. Then your goals and ideal outcomes can inform your strategy, not the other way around.
How are you going to be measuring social media marketing?
Many people say marketing on social media is a more effective way of marketing and advertising. Well, you’re never going to know unless you measure your results. You can follow as many case studies and experienced social media advisers as you like – in social media marketing every case is different and you’re insane if you’re not measuring your social media marketing results.
I recommend clients follow a set structure to measure their social media marketing results effectively: Goal-Structure-Measurement (more about that in a future post).
How are you going to engage others?
The reason that many businesses jump on to the social media marketing bandwagon is because “that’s where all the people are”. It’s true, a lot of people participate in social media, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be interested in your business or brand.
If you’re going to be effective at marketing on social media, you need to work out how to engage customers before hand. Whether you incentives by giving away discounts or freebies, whether you create a loyalty program or rewards for friend-to-friend referrals. Whatever you think will engage customers, I recommend developing a plan beforehand. The last thing you want to happen is for your social media marketing to flop because no one wants to talk to you.

Is there anything you wish you had considered before you jumped into marketing on social media? Leave your comments below.

Introduction to Social Media Marketing 101: What is marketing on social media?

Janna — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:37:17 +0000

What is social media? Generally speaking social media is user-generated online content that gets shared across communities. It allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Social Media is widely regarded as a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. From an academic point of view, some even regard social media as the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Social media marketing is the act of using social influencers, social media platforms, online communities for marketing, public relations and customer service.

There is a wide range of social media tools to be considered for your social media marketing strategy, and the list changes every day. In summary, social media range from communication (blogs, social networking) and collaboration (Wikipedia, social bookmarking), to multimedia sharing (YouTube, Flickr), reviews, opinions and entertainment.

Which social media tools for marketing?

More social media tools are appearing on the net every day. For business use and social media marketing it is advisable to focus on the most popular social media applications so that your social media marketing strategy can leverage the number of potential customers that can be contacted. Using the most popular social media tools for marketing also allows your business to take advantage of the large number of participants and a well established context for business use.

Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

There is a plethora of reasons, why well established companies are afraid of branching out into social media marketing – they fear the disadvantages of social media marketing could outweigh the advantages.

These disadvantages should be detailed in your business’ social media marketing strategy where the benefits and limitation of social media marketing should be analyzed to determine whether it’s the right strategy for your business, your marketing goals, and your marketing budget.

For many businesses, the time investment required for many social media marketing tools is an alarm bell or a red flag. The time spent marketing on social media should be closely monitored to assess whether the return in website traffic, promotion of your business brand, distribution of your business content, and resulting leads and sales is worth the investment in time and resources.

This is the first post in a series of articles on social media marketing. Are there any particular topics within this series you’d like to know more about? Leave your feedback below.