What about you?

He said ‘What do you do then?’

I knew from my friend he was clueless about technology, so replied, ‘web design‘, knowing if I said SEO it’d go over his head.

He then asked ‘Oh, so you work for Google then?’

Yet more proof people think Google IS the Internet… (which is probably one of many reasons why BING will fail)

Bill Gates & Co’s pathetic attempt to, in their own words, ‘be the next Google.’

Bing, comically, is an acronym of ‘but it’s not Google.’

Hmmmm… Fail.

Or is it just me?

1)    Make it easy for your audience to add your feed.

Don’t hide it halfway down your sidebar, or tuck it away into your footer – show it off and give it pride of place.  If people are enjoying your content and they see your icon or link, they’re more likely to add you to their feed reader.

Some great examples:

• http://www.bittbox.com -it was probably the second thing I noticed
• http://www.webdesignerdepot.com again – very prominent
• http://www.webdesignerwall.com is there, high up, and yet not intrusive at all.

2)    Find something you’re good at.

What does your audience come to your blog for?  Is it to read your rants, criticize your reviews, or to download the free stock images you added?  Look at your most popular pages, and get thinking.

If you have got something cornered, do it more.  And more.  And then some more.  People will literally be awaiting your next instalment.

Words of wisdom – don’t try to do everything, stick to what you’re good at and invest your time and effort in that.

3)    Offer something valuable.

You’ve looked at what your readers want, you’ve decided you’ve got enough knowledge and abilities to keep delivering it… so, the next step is to offer something valuable on a regular basis.

Did your audience like your rants about local eateries?  Compile local guides in PDF format.  Do they come for your rants on the daily grind?  Tell your stories like a book, so every day they come back for the next chapter.

In essence, you need to give them something they need.  EVEN if they don’t know they need it yet!

4)    Self Promotion is the key.

Don’t just put your stuff out there – promote it, get people expecting and awaiting more of it, get them teetering on the edge of their computer seats waiting for you to hit the ‘publish’ button.

Tease them; ‘more Photoshop brushes will be added next week’  … get them awaiting your next instalment, and adding your feed so they can get it right away and not risk missing it!

5)  Finally, a few quick tips to try:

Next to your free content and downloads, offer your RSS feed button and some text.  Something like: ‘add my feed to keep up-to-date with future freebies.’

Add your blog feed to other sites too – most social sites let you import an RSS feed in – Squidoo, Facebook etc- offer your feed out to your fans and followers, and they’ll keep coming back…

Add your RSS feeds to RSS directories – just do a Google search for ‘RSS directories’ to get started!

If you are a fellow SEO, you may wish to open up delicious and get bookmarking – these will help you get your clients’ sites ranked instantaneously.

So stick on the kettle, make a nice hot cup of tea (milk no sugar, thanks) and let’s get started.

#1 — XOM Reviews:

I think the first place to submit to should be: http://www.xomreviews.com – It’s quick and simple.   Simply click ‘add URL’ at the top to get started.  Enter your site address, and that’s it.  Voila.  No logging in, no signing up!

#2 — AboutUs.org:

Next, visit:  http://www.aboutus.org – This is an editable Wiki for websites.  Search for your website at the top, and edit or add to the current listing.  You’ll need to set up an account to do this, but it’s pretty quick.

Remember to write about what your business offers, your company ethic, etc.  If somebody uses Google to search for your company name, you may find this About Us page ranked alongside – so make sure you write it well, and check for errors.

TIP:  at the top of your Wiki page, add tags about your company – a great chance to add in some related keywords!

#3 — The Free Index:

Now check out: http://www.freeindex.co.uk – This site is aimed at UK businesses, but if you are from the US just click the little flag at the top to switch sites.

You’ll get to enter your details in loads of boxes, using their template, and then go to town adding details about your products and services.  Again, go to town here and add as much content as you can.  Try and write it freshly – don’t just copy it from your site – this will lead to increased exposure in the search engines – you’ll want your site to be found alongside this one – knock off one of your competitors with another of your own listings – legitimately!

#4 — BT Trade Space:

Next, we move onto another favourite of mine: http://www.bttradespace.com – Sign up, write all about your business, your website and most importantly: set up a blog.  Write up loads of entries detailing your products, talk about your service and write about your staff.  The links you can add to your site in the blogs are ‘dofollow’ links, so take advantage in every post and link your inner web pages

#5 — Squidoo:

Visit http://www.squidoo.com and sign up for an account.  This project will be ongoing, but your goal ultimately is to write a page for every single product or service you sell.  Link them all together, and then link them all to your website.

Why?  They’ll eventually help your site to rank well in Google.  Additionally, Squidoo will send you free money depending on how many pages you make, and how many people visit them each month. I have 2 and I make a measly $2 a month – but if you have one for every single product you sell, you could easily pay for your web domain and hosting out of the free cash!

Finally, here are a couple of places you can advertise your business site, products and services for free:

• http://www.gumtree.com (any country)
• http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites (US)
• http://www.facebook.com/marketplace (any country)
• http://uk.freeads.net (UK)
• http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/central/PostNationalAd (US)
• http://www.sellit-right.com (any country)
• http://www.hotfroguk.co.uk (UK)
• http://www.wikiweblink.com (any country)

Enjoy, and happy linking!

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Back-story : I registered seo-derby.com a couple of months ago and it’s been sat in my account doing nothing ever since.  I keep getting spam through to my hotmail address associated with the account, which concerns me, as I’ve done nothing with the name yet!  So, either 1and1.co.uk sell email lists of registrants onto these spam eMarketing companies, or these companies have a way of tracking newly registered domains… I assume (and hope) the latter.

Anyway, hang onto your hollyhocks, because I am going to tell you about an amazing company that can do amazing things, which I have found through the aforementioned spam. You won’t believe it!

I keep getting emails from this company asking me if I’d like to take advantage of their … get this … SEO service.

Oh, not just any SEO service, but a service that has:

‘broken the Google Algorithm.’

No way fellow SEOs!  They’ve broken the Algorithm!  THE Algorithm – the much sought-after, top-secret and highly coveted algorithm – yes!  That one! They’ve cracked it!  Envious, much?

Well, if that wasn’t enough to get the juices flowing this company also claim’s that the:

‘tough SEO work that you are doing daily can be replaced just by placing one single line of code into your website…’

ONE SINGLE LINE OF CODE!  Wow – whatever you do – please don’t tell my boss!  I’ll be out of a job!

And just when you think that it cannot get any better – everything they can do for you is automated!  Well, we all know how much Google loves automated junk being puked into it’s index don’t we!

Oh please! Sign me up now quick – and while you’re at can you ask your uncle to open a bank account anywhere in the world and send me all the details.  A very rich customer of mine recently died without leaving a will, and I have $300,000,000 to send to your uncle, thank you.

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