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Google XML Sitemap

Another popular plugin, the Google XML Sitemap plugin automatically creates a sitemap for you. This takes A LOT of work out of your hands, as creating a sitemap can be a long and arduous process, especially if you have lots of pages on your site. A sitemap will ensure that the search engines have access to each individual page on your website, leading to faster and more complete crawling and indexing.

Related Posts

The Related Posts plugin lets you put a list of Related Posts at the bottom of each blog post. This improves the navigation of your blog and keeps visitors sticking around for longer.

It gauges relation primarily through tags. If you've written a blog post about Improving Blog SEO, some of the Related Posts might be:

Best Wordpress Plugin for SEO

How To Customize Your Blog for Improved On-Site SEO

On-Site Blog Optimization Tips

Robots Meta

The Robots Meta plugin will create a robots.txt file for your blog in addition to modifying meta tags when necessary. Robots.txt tells the search engines not to index specific pages.

The number one reason you'd want to block certain pages from being indexed is because of duplicate content. Wordpress Archives, Tags, and Categories pages all contain content that exists elsewhere on your site. By telling Google and other search engines not to index these pages, you can avoid facing a duplicate content penalty.

This Robots Meta Plugin will do this for you automatically based on your specifications.

WP-Cache

The WP-Cache plugin has one purpose: to speed up your blog! If your blog is slow and lumbersome, the search engine spiders will have a hard time crawling it. Plus your visitors might get frustrated and leave.

The WP-Cache plugin works by caching all of your Wordpress pages in one single file. When a request is made, the pages are accessed through this file rather than by loading and compiling each of the PHP elements from the database.

Off-Site Optimization

Okay, so you've learned how to properly optimize your website. However, on-site optimization may not be enough to gain significant rankings, particularly if you're up against some stiff competition. To really compete in the “Wild West” of the internet, you're gonna need some high quality backlinks. Lots of them!

Backlinks are simply inbound links leading to your website from other sites. If you have a lot of backlinks from external high PR websites, Google will deem your website popular and important. Think of backlinks as building your reputation.

With zero backlinks, the search engines don't know what to think about you. You're not important, and for all Google knows, you could be a spammer! But some nice backlinks from sites that Google already favors will change this perception around. If a powerful, high-authority website is linking to yours, it must mean that there's something special about your website.

The more backlinks you have, the more weight Google will give your website in the search results. Always try to include the keyword you want to rank for as the anchor text.

Don't build backlinks too quickly or you may be penalized. Make a habit out of steadily building 5-10 backlinks a day. Here are some fairly easy ways to gain backlinks:

Forum Signatures

Posting on forums with a link back to your website in the signature is a good way to build a steady stream of backlinks to your site. Each thread that you post in will provide a fresh backlink. The forums you post to should ideally be do-follow, meaning that the Google bots will be able to follow the links to your website and count them as backlinks.

Posting on forums related to your website's niche is best. Just remember: Please do not spam any forums with links, as you will likely get banned. Always post relevant, valuable content to the forums. Doing this will not only ensure that you don't get banned, but will prove to other forum-goers that you know what you're talking about, so they'll be more inclined to click on your link.

Blog Commenting

Another way to gain valuable backlinks is to comment on relevant blogs in your niche. Generally blog comments allow you to include an URL. Whatever you put in the “Name” box will be the anchor text. In some cases you may be able to get away with using a keyword as the anchor text, but most likely it will be considered spamming and your comment will be deleted.

Blog commenting is a good way to build backlinks, but unfortunately most blogs are no-follow. Since Google is the only search engine that reads the no-follow attribute, you can still gain some link juice and increase your rankings in the other search engines.

It's also a great way to drive traffic back to your website. Make a habit of posting valuable, interesting comments on high-traffic blogs and you'll soon notice an increase in your own traffic.

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If you want to offer your videos to your website/blog visitors, there are several options you can take.

Most commonly, people will upload their video to Youtube or another video sharing website and simply embed the video on the page. This is incredibly simple to do, as shown in the picture above. It also saves a ton of bandwidth because the videos are not hosted on your own servers.

However, some people don't like the thought of putting a video on their blog that is branded with another company's logo. Youtube and other sites can also delete your videos at their own discretion, so there might be a bit of risk involved with hosting your videos with them.

So some marketers like to host their videos themselves using their own Flash player.

One way to do this is to download this program: JW Player. This program allows you to easily create your own personalized Flash player that you can embed onto your website. There are a lot of cool features to this program, including the ability to add watermarks and customize it with a whole bunch of plugins. You can even add Google Adsense to your videos if you want.

However, a lot of people tend to underestimate the amount of bandwidth that will be eaten up by hosting their own videos. Check with your hosting company to find out your bandwidth limits. If you get a lot of visitors to your website every day, chances are pretty good that at some point you will reach your limit and your website will basically, well, shut down. NOT good. Fortunately, there is a solution!

Amazon S3

You can host your videos with the Amazon S3 Simple Storage System. This service provides cheap unlimited data storage that works great for videos and other large files that you don't want to host on your own servers.

This service is incredibly cheap - $0.15 for each gigabyte of storage uploaded, and $0.18 for each gigabyte transferred. So basically, you can store dozens of videos for only pennies. Even if thousands of people view your videos, you will likely only have to pay a few dollars. There are no recurring fees or charges -you simply pay for what you use.

If you downloaded the JW Player, you'll have to figure out how to configure it to play the Amazon S3 videos on your website. It's a fairly simple process though. This blog post contains a video explaining how to set it all up step-bystep.

Amazon S3 is a great option and it can be used for more than just videos. You can use it to back up valuable files on your computer in case of a crash and it's much cheaper than getting an external hard drive.

Video SEO

So by now you should be pretty knowledgeable about the basics of video marketing! But if you want good results, you'll have to put extra care and effort into video SEO. Think about article marketing: you can't just write a bunch of random articles, blast them out everywhere and expect good results. You have to conduct thorough keyword research, properly optimize your articles with targeted keywords, and build backlinks. Videos work the same way.

Search engine optimization for videos is pretty simple. In your title you should include your keyword phrase first before all the other words if possible. Put your keyword towards the beginning of your description, and include as many relevant tags as possible.

At the bottom of the description, many marketers add a LONG list of related keyword phrases. Both Google and the Youtube search engine will pick up on these and you will rank better as a result.

You can social bookmark videos just like any other website, and because it's a video instead of a bunch of text, you may find you get a lot more traffic from Digg, StumbleUpon, and other bookmarking sites. Videos will catch their attention, especially if you use an eye-catching title.

Build backlinks just like you would with any other website. You won't have to worry about building backlinks too fast because Youtube is so popular, it gains thousands of new backlinks every day and Google won't notice. If you picked a good keyword phrase, a few high PR backlinks might work really well. Your videos will probably rank easier than articles and blog entries will, especially if there aren't currently any videos on Google's first page.

Another good thing to do is submit your “Uploaded Videos” RSS feed to RSS aggregators. Many people don't realize that YouTube videos even have RSS feeds. Not taking advantage of this would be a seriously mistake and could cost you a lot of backlinks!

Here's something else to keep in mind:

The Youtube algorithm will rank your website based on views, comments, and ratings. The more of those you have, the higher your video will rank within the Youtube website. Therefore, it's important to distribute your video as much as possible. Send a link to your mailing list. Make a few Tweets about it and link to it from Facebook, urging people to rate and comment. Even if it's just family members and friends at first, that initial boost of views will give your video a good headstart.

Video Marketing Tactics

Finally, the last topic in this ebook we'll cover is tactics! These are some good tips you can utilize to get the most out of your video marketing efforts.

Make sure your video is targeted. You wouldn't write a blog entry on gardening in your BBQ blog and you should treat videos the same way. They need to be laser-targeted to exactly what your visitors are looking for.

Deliver good content. Articles and blog posts filled with non-sensical spun content might be okay for backlinks but will not drive traffic or increase conversions. The same could be said for crappy videos.

Design your video to cater to your specific demographic.

Write eye-catching titles and descriptions. Instead of “How I made money with Clickbank”, try “How I Made Over $420 OVERNIGHT Using Super Simple Clickbank Strategies!!”

If you're making a “how-to” video, list the basic steps but leave your viewers wanting more. Perhaps you could put a little tease at the end: “This will drive some traffic to your articles, but I know another method to cause a traffic EXPLOSION in only MINUTES!”

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Free Traffic Methods

If you're running on a tight budget, there are several free traffic methods you can use to start driving traffic to your website. Remember that when you opt for free over paid marketing tactics, you will have to invest more time, and the results are typically slower.

Forum Marketing

Forum marketing is a good way to generate traffic to your website, but it will only work if you're providing something of value to the forum members. In other words, you can't just join the forum and start posting anywhere and everywhere, just for the sake of posting. The best thing to do is to set up your forum profile with your website URL, and include your website URL in your signature, so it's automatically included in every post you make on the site.

The key is to make sure you find forums where your target audience is frequently found. You can do this by searching Google for "forum + your niche." Once you've found a forum or two related to your niche, then it's time to start looking for places where you can be useful.

Look around the threads, and if you see someone asking a question, take the time to answer it. Don't sell your product or service, unless it provides a legitimate answer for their problem. Instead, offer your expertise and extend a hand to help, if you're able to do so.

The more actively involved you become in the forums, the more you'll establish yourself as a expert in the field, so people will learn to trust you and what you have to say. When you're a credible expert, you'll start to see traffic come from the effort you've put into forum marketing.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is another good way to generate traffic to your website. It takes a bit more time to develop videos, though, so you'll need to create a balance in the time you spend using this method with other methods, until you see that it is working well enough for you to continue.

If you have a computer/Internet related niche, making videos is much easier for you, because you can use screen-casting software to record your screen while you talk. You can use it to share tutorials related to your product or service. This also an excellent option for people who are camera shy, and don't want to physically appear on camera but still want to make use of video marketing.

If you regularly engage in conference calls, where your interested customers can come to learn more about your product or service, you can use screen-casting software to record the session, and then include this as a video, too.

Screen-casting software options include:

AVI Screen: Free

Cam Studio: Free

Adobe Captivate: Commercial

Screen Flow: Commercial, Mac software

Jing: Free, with limitations

Other niches will have to invest in a video camera, if you don't already have one, and spend time editing videos to make them useful to your audience.

To do this, you'll want to sign up for a YouTube account. Since Google owns YouTube, having a dedicated YouTube channel where you post videos can naturally help with your search engine optimization to improve your traffic numbers.

Invite people to become subscribers to your YouTube channel by including a link to it with your social media icons. Subscribers will be notified whenever you post a new video.

You can also include your videos in blog posts, giving you yet another crosspromotional tool. If people find your blog post, they can be drawn to your YouTube channel, and vice versa.

Twitter

Twitter is another excellent free traffic promotional tool. It may take a while to see results with this method, because you need to take the time to build an audience of followers who are targeted to be your potential customers.

It's important to get involved and interact with people on Twitter, and it's equally important not to constantly "toot your own horn." If all you do there is talk about yourself and your products or services, no one will listen, and you'll quickly get lost in the abyss.

Much like you would do with forum marketing, you should take time to find things to share with your audience that are of use to them, regardless of whether or not they originate with you. A good rule of thumb is to share your own content 10% of the time, while sharing others 90% of the time. By creating relationships with people on Twitter, you may be able to find others who are willing to share your content with their following, in exchange for you sharing their content with yours.

To make this easier for you, Prismatic offers a collection of material for every niche/subject you can think of. You can automatically get share links, and then, to save even more time, use HootSuite Pro or similar software to schedule your tweets and other social media updates. This should not, however, take place of actual interaction with your followers. Use it to save time, but never to fully automate the process. People need to know there is a real person behind your Twitter profile.

Facebook and Google+ Groups

Facebook and Google+ groups are much like forum marketing, except they use the social media networks as their platform, rather than stand alone forums. The best way to use these tools is to search the networks for groups where your target customers are already active.

Become actively involved in those groups, but never by spamming the groups with your product or service advertisements. You'll be removed from the group, and you may compromise your social media accounts. Instead, look for ways you can become helpful. Answer questions, and offer to be available for questions whenever possible. Never participate in a group for the sole purpose of promoting your business. It will show, and people will start to ignore you.

When you start to see your own brand/community expand, you may want to start your own Facebook and/or Google+ group to allow your followers to come together and discuss your product/service. They can talk about how it's helped them, how they want to use it, ask for advice from other users, etc. all while providing a real customer testimonial base for your perspective customers. It can also serve as an excellent customer service vehicle once your business is up and running.

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How To Avoid These 7 Outsourcing Mistakes

Truthfully, most marketers make mistakes when they start to outsource. I did -but I saw it - and still do - as a learning process.

Here are 7 major outsourcing mistakes and how to avoid them:

Mistake #1: Expecting outsourcers to work the same way you do and at the same speed and level. In short - expecting them to ’be’ you...

Your work habits will not be the same as someone else's. A lot of marketers make this simple mistake and that can cause misunderstandings when you hire a freelancer to help you.

Don't expect freelancers to work as fast as you work and to know what you know. They won't. Neither would you if the shoe was on the other foot. Don't expect too much.

The solution is to make it as clear as possible what you want doing, and to show them any examples of the kind of work that you've done yourself in the past.

Don't clarify your needs verbally. That leads to oversights and costly mistakes. Write it down. This also means you can keep a copy to refer back to if there are any problems in the future.

For example: if you want specific keywords used with a precise percentage on each page, say so. If you want a certain type of keyword used, like long-tail keywords to target a specific target, be explicit in your explanation of your needs. Tell them and then ask them to explain it back to you in their own words to ensure they really do understand.

The more you share with your freelancer, the better the product you order will be when you get it. Mind reading is not normally an outsourcer's talent.

Mistake #2: Not outsourcing the correct things.

If your blog is widely read because of your 'quirky' or 'personal' style don't try to outsource this. In short don't try to outsource any part of your business that is 'you'. In my opinion this would include things like video presentations, webinars, mentoring and anything where the customer pays for 'you.

So, if you are a poor writer but a good speaker, outsource the e-book.

The ideal solution would be to dictate the e-book and then get a freelancer to transcribe it for you.

Mistake #3: Setting lax deadlines or none at all

Meeting deadlines is difficult at times for anyone, particularly those working full-time from home. When you tire of a project, your motivation to complete a project might be weakening. Your focus could be distracted by the pretty day or the desire to just sit on the couch and watch some TV. After all, you're the boss and no one is telling you what to do and when to do it.

Remember when you are hiring a freelancer that they are working from home, too, and have the same distractions and lack of motivation at times that you have. Since you are paying your freelancer, you can set clear and strict deadlines for delivery of your completed project.

If your project is large, for example 50 articles or a long e-book, set checkpoints for delivery of finished sections of your project. That will allow you to check the quality of the work while it is ongoing and give you time to make adjustments if you and your freelancer didn't understand each other at the beginning.

Tell them what you want, when you want it and what it should entail.

Then get them to explain it back to you.

Clarity is the one biggest factor that can make or break your outsourcing endevours.

Mistake #4: Not being thorough about checking the completed work

This step in the freelance process is very common with busy marketers.

The real result of not checking the completed work very carefully is the hit your reputation will take if it's got grammar errors or misspellings. The quality might not be what you expected to get from a freelancer with good recommendations.

For all you know, the freelancer outsourced the work to another ghostwriter with less skills than the one you hired demonstrated. This really shocked me the first time I came across this!

The content might not be unique and, for all you know, it might be plagiarized from another writer's product. Check for validity by using Internet services to check out the uniqueness of the content, like Copyscape.

You're not being suspicious - you're protecting your business.

Another valuable, free technique is to take a couple of sentences from your ebook or article and search for it on Google. If Google returns hits, you possibly have a plagiarized product.

Some freelancing communities or groups use an escrow account to protect both the freelancer and the marketer from unethical behavior. Most freelancers will accept 50% upfront and the rest upon delivery.

The buzzwords for this mistake are: Check! Check! Check!

Mistake #5: Not treating a good freelancer like gold

You will not find good freelancers on every corner of the Web. When you do find one that meet your requirements, fits your style and understands your needs, keep them happy with you. Freelancers with those qualities will be difficult to find.

Some clients act like they are the boss in a normal business when they hire a freelancer. Most freelancers work full-time for themselves for the same reason you do.

The message here is to treat your freelancer like a treasured part of your business and not like an hourly employee. Normal praise is nice to hear for good work. If you need some part of your project adjusted, don't blanket criticize the freelancer, but point out the areas that need some improvement and give them time to do it. If you provide an occasional small cash reward or quality work, you will have a loyal freelancer who will make sure your interests are taken care of.

Don't accept shoddy work from any freelancer you hire though. It's your business and reputation that will suffer.

Mistake #6: Believing that quality is guaranteed by a high price

It is a common human belief that the good stuff costs more. That might apply to automobiles and wine, but not necessarily to ghostwriting and computer programming.