5 Ways to Avoid Writers Block
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategies
But often coming up with ideas about what to write about is difficult. It’s not unlike the novel writer who has started a book but then sits down at their computer and then can’t think of a thing to say.
Welcome to the world of “writer’s block”. We all have it from time to time and while it might be difficult to get those wheels turning in your mind as to what to say, here are some tips to keep those wheels well-oiled:
1. Visit blogs that talk about your topic. Oftentimes you’ll find a topic on another blog that you hadn’t considered yourself. Take a look through their archives and see which topics are getting the most discussion. Jot down some ideas that you think may be interesting to your own readers and then use that as a springboard for your own ideas.
2. Check your email. You likely subscribe to other people’s newsletters within your industry. What kinds of information are they sending you? Are you interested in that information as well? If so, it’s likely your readers are too.
3. Visit Google. Visit Google and do a search for one of your keywords then take a look at the links that show up on the left hand side of the page. Here you will have the option of searching blogs, videos, and discussions on the term you searched on. Visit each of these to see if you can’t get a spark going as to what you can write about.
4. Visit your RSS Reader. Many people use RSS readers which help them to keep up to date on what other people are discussing online. A quick visit to your own RSS reader will give you a wide array of ideas that you can use on your own site.
5. Visit Article Directories. Most article directories have a section that showcases the most published articles within a certain area of expertise. Find out which of these articles have been published the most and then write your own take on that topic for your own site or newsletter. This is usually a great indication of what is popular right now.
Writer’s block affects everyone. But thankfully the Internet has provided us with a vast amount of resources that can help us break out of our slump by simply doing a little bit of investigation ourselves.
Google’s Love / Hate Relationship With Affiliate Marketers
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Google, Internet Marketing, seo
This fantastic infographic provided by SEOBook, shows how Google’s attitude towards affiliates has changed over the years. First, they loved you because you bought PPC traffic, then when that traffic began to get noticed by big companies, they started a slow but steady campaign to oust most affiliates from their PPC network; even going as far as to ban many affiliates.
At first you would think that it may be the affiliates problem right? They should have known that their ads would get banned. Not so fast…whenever you delete or pause a PPC ad in Google, no matter how old it is, it still remains in your account. Many affiliates were banned because these old, outdated ads, which may have been deleted or paused, were at the time completely within Google’s terms and conditions; however, because they currently don’t adhere to the rules, they were banned, some for life.
Essentially, Google had them by the throat. They ran completely legitimate ads in Google say in 2005, decided that they didn’t want to run that ad anymore for whatever reason, deleted it, (although still contained within the account, thus, not truly deleted), and then had their account banned because it didn’t adhere with Google’s current terms and conditions.
Can you see the problem here?
Over the years, affiliates have been taking some pretty big hits by Google; either getting their sites pushed down in the search results, or whatever the case may be.
Ironically, during this short amount of time, Google has opened up their own affiliate network. Which leads one to wonder if these same sites were to promote products from Google’s affiliate network, would it make a difference in rankings? I haven’t tested this but would sure be curious to hear of anyone who has.
So, all this rant out of the way, here’s the infographic I was telling you about…
Internet Marketing Infographics by SEO Book
Force Google to Notice You
Filed under: Google, GooglePlus, Internet Marketing, Marketing Strategies
Back in mid-to-late 2010, I published a blog post that explained in detail about rel=author. Essentially, it’s an easy way for users to see your head shot when they do a search in Google.
Here’s an example. All I’ve done here is a search on “google rankings drop” and in this screenshot alone, there are two search results that stand out – why? Because they’ve added this little attribute, which is a single piece of code to their page.
Now, in order for you to accomplish the same thing, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps.
The first is you must create a Google profile – if you already use Google+, then you already have one.
Secondly, you’ll need to do one of two things in order for Google to recognize that you are the original author of a piece of content and that it’s tied to your Google profile. The first is covered in the original post located here, but the second alternative you have is new.
The newest option is to be sure that you have added your name and email address to any post that you have authored. Google states that this option is best for those sites who have multiple authors contributing to it. The email that you use on the content that you’ve authored should then be placed within your Google profile. Once you’ve done that, Google will send a verification email to that address.
Now, why is this all so important? Aside from the obvious that it makes the content you’ve authored stand out in the search results, Google has now added the number of people who follow you in Google+, gives you the ability to follow them in Google+, and even a way to view the comments on that post directly from the search results.
Additionally, they’ve added a way to see how often your content is showing up in the search results via their Webmaster Tools – another very nice, new addition.
Aside from the fact that Google continues to improve authorship, and respond to what authors would like to see, the whole bottom line is that authorship builds trust. Now, while it’s easy to assume that since this is tied so tightly to Google+, that you might believe that it’s just a “round about” kind of way to promote Google’s new social network and, you may be right, but the bottom line is, if you want Google to notice you, use their own suggestions and make yourself stand out!
Written by: Kristine Wirth
