What is an Internet Troll?
The word “troll” is an Internet slang term denoting someone who tries to provoke an emotional response or disrupt the flow of conversation in an online community. Trolling can be done in online discussion forums, chat rooms, blogs, or other social media outlets. Since trolls are purposefully controversial and often post offensive or harassing messages, they can be more than a nuisance to small business owners trying to create a safe place to network or engage with their clients. Continue reading
Link Baiting: How to Get Great Links with Great Content
One of the biggest challenges many people face when optimizing their site for the search engines is getting quality backlinks (links to your site from other sites). While automated link building services may sound tempting, you could cause serious harm to your site if you do not ethically build your backlink network with other quality web sites.
So, what’s a small business to do? Continue reading
5 Creative Uses of QR Codes
Want to spice up your marketing and show consumers how tech-savvy you are? QR codes are a great way to make traditional one-way marketing mediums more interactive and engaging—enabling you to connect with potential clients like never before!
A QR (quick response) code is simply a matrix barcode encoded with data such as a URL, text, phone number…or almost anything you want. Smart phone users with a QR code reader can then scan the code to discover what interesting secrets await! 
Here are 5 creative ways QR codes can integrated into traditional marketing mediums Continue reading
What’s More Important: Google or People?
The most important rule to remember when writing copy for your Web site is to know your audience. But who is your audience? In the world of online marketing, you have two audiences to appease: Google and potential clients.
What Is Google Searching for?
Search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing use complex algorithms to determine where your site should be placed in the search results, and it is the copywriter’s job to ensure that the search engines like what they see. So, what are the search engines looking for? Continue reading
Facebook: Revolutionizing the Way Info is Shared with the ‘Send’ Button
Today, Facebook is rolling out a new feature that has the potential to further shape the way information is shared across the Web—the ‘Send’ button.
The new ‘send’ button allows people to share great articles or online resources they find with selected friends, instead of all of their friends via the ‘like’ button. According to Facebook, the social plugin is “the easiest way to share things with groups and individuals.”
To use the ‘send’ button, individuals simply click the button to choose who they want to share a particular link with. Link info can be sent through Facebook Messages, posted to a Group or sent via email—whatever is deemed the most appropriate method by the person wishing to send the link. Continue reading
Using the ‘Like’ Button Outside of Facebook
As most businesses already know, Facebook and other social media outlets have become increasingly important for ranking consideration, user experience, and a solid Return on Investment (ROI). However, Facebook’s ‘like’ button is not as widely understood or used by business for maximum benefit. Continue reading
Top 10 Linking Considerations
As you seek to help your site gain visibility in the search engines, link building is an important tactic that should not be overlooked. Below is a list of the top 10 things you need to keep in mind when building backlinks to your site: Continue reading
Blogging Like a Blogger: Tips for Starting a New Blog
With so much content online, chances are you’ve either read blogs or have written some. However, when writing blogs for your business, there are some guidelines you should follow to help make you the friend and the expert.
Tips for Blogging
The main difference between a personal blog and a business blog is that in a business blog you want to be informative, professional, and an authority in what you’re blogging about. While personality matters, you don’t want a business blog to sound like a personal rant. Here are some general blogging tips that can help you: Continue reading
How to Avoid Overusing Keywords in Your Copy
It is a well-known fact that content is king, and a skillfully written page can make the difference in turning a potential client into a paying customer. One of the most important aspects of writing copy for Internet marketing is the seamless incorporation of keyword phrases into the copy.
Here are several tips to help you use pertinent keyword phrases in such a way as to impress both the search engines and human visitors Continue reading
Google’s Panda Update: Slapping Content Farms
Google is always updating and evolving to find ways for its searches to be more helpful to users. One of the latest additions, known as the Panda Update (or the Farmer Update), is one such measure. This update blocks (“slaps” is another term being used) out websites that Google deems inappropriate because of low-quality content. While it’s been in use in the U.S. since February, Google is finally expanding it to all English language websites.
What is Panda?
The Panda Update seeks to identify and weed out low-quality sites from search results. What types of sites will be most affected? The biggest examples of these sites are known as “content farms” or “link farms.” These sites are designed with little or weak content and may contain lots of links to other business sites. In essence these sites are like farms where links are planted without thought, not restaurants where they are properly used with other ingredients to make a fine meal, or in this case, great website. Continue reading