Writers On The Move: guest blogging

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The Evolved SEO Marketing – Content Discoverability and Socialization (the top 3 strategies)

By Karen Cioffi

SEO marketing has evolved significantly over the past couple of years. While the fundamentals are the same, it now includes socialization and organic inbound content marketing that promotes discoverability.

Search Engine Watch describes the new SEO as “web presence optimization.” The site goes on to note that it’s “an all-encompassing approach to optimizing an entire web presence for organic search including the website, social channels, blogs, articles and press releases.” (1)

Of the many elements of SEO, there are three strategies that are at the top of the content discoverability popularity list and the ones you should be most concerned with.

The 3 most popular SEO marketing strategies:

1. Blogging with Effective Keywords, Content, and Socialization

One of the basics of the ‘evolved’ search engine optimization strategy is organic inbound content marketing. It’s the process of bringing traffic to your website through discoverable content, such as blog posts.

A major element of your content should be the ‘tried and true’ use of keywords. Keywords will drive search traffic to your website and ultimately drive conversion.

Conversion is the process of getting visitors to become subscribers, customers, clients or say YES to some other call-to-action you have in place.

It’s the combination of effective and targeted keywords and quality content that will produce the results you want. It delivers visitors to your site and motivates them to share your content with their networks.

Part of this optimization process that brings traffic to your site is sharing your content with your own social networks as soon as it’s published.

2. Guest Blogging

Spread your wings. Research sites that are relevant to your niche and that have high authority and query the owner or follow the site’s guidelines if available.

Guest blogging helps you take-it-up-a-notch. This content marketing strategy brings you to the attention of the high-ranking website you’re guesting on and to the attention of that site’s readers.

Guest blogging has a two-fold benefit. It helps you develop a connection with the site owner, possibly leading to other things, and it broadens your visibility.

To make your guest blogging gigs worth the time and effort, you need to create an effective ‘About the Author’ for the end of your articles. It’s important to make the author tag focused on the reader, not about you. Let the reader know what she’ll get if she clicks on your link.

3. Article Directories

While article marketing via article directories has been around a while, it’s still a top SEO marketing strategy.

As with guest blogging, it’s about using relevant keywords that will allow readers to find your article and it’s about writing quality content that other blog owners will find of value and ‘shareable.’ Other blog and website owners will read your quality content and want to share it with their own audience. This will prompt them to post it to their own sites, especially since it’s free content.

And, as with guest blogging, you need to have an effective ‘About the Author’ with a call-to-action, usually leading to your email list opt-in. Make your Bio count. An effective Bio will let the reader know that if he clicks on your link, he’ll get even more helpful information.

Summing it Up

The evolved SEO marketing strategy is all about discoverability and shareability. The means to this end is optimized content that is driven by organic inbound marketing strategies.

In other words, if you write it using optimization strategies (keywords and valuable content) they will come. And, they will share what you’ve written. This will please the ‘search engine powers that be,’ which in turn will give you higher ranking and authority.

Higher ranking and authority = more perceived value and more traffic, resulting in more conversion.

How About You?

What SEO marketing strategies do you use?

Reference
(1) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2288392/Time-for-a-New-Definition-of-SEO

Like this article? Please share it!

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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

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Call For Guest Posts

This is a mid-summer call for guest posts from our readers.

Taking advantage of guest blogging is a great marketing move - it's part of article marketing. You make connections and you increase your visibility . . . and authority.

Why not share with us your experiences, your knowledge, and your thoughts on writing and marketing. While we'd love original content, we do accept reprints. So, take the plunge and guest post on Writers on the Move.

If you're interested, please check the Guidelines Page (we do not accept third-party links).

Hope to see you up on this page soon!

Karen

P.S. While you're here, if you're not already a subscriber, please sign up for The Writing World (top right sidebar).

Guest Blogging - Writers on the Move is Looking for Guest Posts

Every now and then we make the call for guest posts, and today is one of those 'now and then' days.

Guest blogging is one of the top article marketing strategies. If the site is a 'quality' site that's in your niche, it can be more effective than using article directories. Why not check out our Guidelines page and submit an article today.

Remember: Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

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P.S. To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Award-Winning Author, Freelancer/Ghostwriter
Build an Online Platform That Works

Guest Blogging - Advantages for the Host Site

Advantages for the blog host

Last month this time, we took a look at the advantages there are for those who guest blog on other sites. Today we're looking at some of the advantages for the host site.

• Before continuing, it will probably be a good idea if you refresh your mind by reading the previous post first, as many of the advantages for the guest apply to the host as well.

In addition to those advantages, the host also gains the following:

• Increase of Knowledge: Your guest brings with him or her expertise that you don't have. This increases the value of your blog for the reader.

• Saved Time: Instead of spending hours researching a topic, by inviting a guest who is an expert on that subject, the host benefits two ways. He or she learns from the expert, and the blog gains followers who are interested in what the guest has to share.

• New Cyber Friends: Hosts may even blog about the guests, giving them another topic of interest, while developing their relationships with the guests.

If you are hosting a guest on your blog:

• Comment on the post. After all, you wouldn't invite a guest to your home and not interact with them, now would you? Show an interest in comments from visitors as well. They're also visiting your cyber home, remember.

• Promote as suggested in the previous section. This makes sense. Not only do you want other visitors to come to your site, you want them to know the guest who is taking part on your blog. This helps to build your platform as well.

• Thank Your Guest: publicly on the post, as well as personally in an email.

Over to you:

What sort of posts would you like a guest to post about on your site?

Give your answers in the comment section below, and maybe someone will offer.

SHIRLEY CORDER lives a short walk from the seaside in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with her husband Rob. She is author of Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer. Shirley is also contributing author to ten other books and has published hundreds of devotions and articles internationally.

Visit Shirley on her website to inspire and encourage writers, or on Rise and Soar, her website for encouraging those on the cancer journey. Follow her on Twitter or "like" her Author's page on Facebook.

Guest Blogging - Advantages for the Guest Blogger

I have recently become aware of the advantages, for both parties, of guest blogging. This month we'll take a look at the advantages for the guest, and next month (same date, same place) we'll look at the advantages for the host.

Advantages for the guest blogger:

Here are some of the advantages you may gain if you are a guest on someone else's blog:

• Build Backlinks: Guest blogging is regarded by many as one of the easiest and most effective way to build backlinks to your site. Guests to your host's blog will follow your links. An increase in backlinks will increase your ranking on Google, and if they like your site, they may start to visit it regularly.

• Build Your Platform: We hear about this need all the time. Editors often look to see what your platform is like before considering your contract. If they find you as a guest on other blogs as well as your own, this can only help your platform.

• Build Your Brand: By guest posting on your host's site, readers will associate you with that site's niche, and start to search for you when they want to know more on the topic.

• Build your site traffic: Guest blogging is one of the best ways to draw readers to your own site. Chances are your host will advertise your post on Twitter, Facebook,etc, which will also get your name "out there". If readers enjoy your guest post, they may start to follow you on other social media sites as well.

• Build Your Subscribers: As other guests to your host's blog follow your links back to your website or blog, they may well want to sign up to receive your newsletters or follow your RSS feed, so that they do not miss further posts by you.

• Build Your Credibility: As other bloggers read your excellent guest posts, they in turn will want to know more about you, and may also invite you to post on their blogs.

• Build Exposure: This stands to reason, the more blogs where you post original material, the more people will read your work, and the better known your name will become.

• Build Promotion: of book launches, or other products you wish to promote. A condition of your guest blogging should be that you get a bio with clickable links.

• Build Your Social Base: Writing is a lonely occupation, but if you want to be read, you need to make friends in the cyber world. By posting as a guest on other blogs, you start to mix, not only with the hosts of the sites, but also with their readers.

So what are you waiting for? Take a look at the other sites that cover interests similar to you, and see if you can write an article for them - or even share one you have already written on your own blog (provided you don't want them to pay you!)

Before you guest blog:

• Research the blog. Know its goals. Figure out what sort of posts the host wants. Read the last dozen or so blog posts. Get the feel of the site.

• Post original material. By all means quote from some material on your own blog (and don't forget to link back) but your host doesn't want a clone. For Google ranking, the material you post must be original.

• Write your very best. Where obviously your own blog deserves good writing, and everything you post should be well proofed before going public, it is even more important when you're posting on someone else's blog. Send in poorly written material and chances are it won't be posted at all. You certainly won't be invited back. And it won't achieve any of the advantages listed above.

• Send a sample. Rather than querying whether you can do a guest blog for a site, send along a possible post and say, "After researching your blog, I thought you might like to use this on your site?" Or "Would you like me to adapt this for your blog?" That makes it easier for the host to accept it--or reject it if it isn't suitable.

• Comment on possible blogs first. It is a good idea to frequent the blog for a few weeks, and comment on other posts. This way the host already knows your name, and may in fact follow your link back to your website or blog. He or she may then invite you to do a post.

• Promote your blog post.

○ Tweet your post on Twitter - more than once. Remember, the world is ruled by time-zones. A good time for Americans to read your tweet is a bad time for Australians. I promote all my blog posts eight times in all: three times, eight hours apart, the first day; then once a day for five days, each at a different time.

○ Share your post on Facebook, LinkedIn, ShoutOut, and any other social media you are involved in.

OVER TO YOU: What sort of posts could you write or share with other readers of this site? What would prevent you from doing so? Let's talk! Hit comment and leave your thoughts.

Writing From The Heart: Laura Smith author of “In All Things; Giving Thanks When Hope Seems Lost”

Writing came easily for me because it came from my own personal experiences and a deep place within me. I write very honestly and hold nothing back. I believe that by the power of our testimony others will find healing. I believe sugar coating things makes for a nice story but has no impact. Of course this depends on the type of books that are being written. Creativity plays in more in some writing genre’s than others.

When I was very young, I remember sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen on the floor while my grandparents and their friends sat at the table playing cards. They would play for hours and hours and often times into the night. While I would sit there on the floor, I was very content in doing so because I was in my own little world doing what I never imagined would be my heart’s desire later in life. I was writing stories and songs, and reading them or singing them out loud for my card playing family to adore. Now, thinking back to that time and the fact I was only about 4 years old and had no idea how to even write my name let alone a story or a song, I’ve concluded it had to be God planting within me the inspiration and desire to write.

Fast forward to my teen years, I remember wondering why I was even on this earth or why would God put me in a family that didn’t seem to even want me. I was always called a mistake and they would tease me when I was younger that they found me on the streets of St. Paul. It’s no wonder I married the town rebel two weeks after my high school graduation! Finally someone loved me and I wasn’t going to let that go.

Again, fast forward 18 years and two daughters later, I’m re-married. My youngest daughter was molested by her biological dad, is diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and Bipolar disorder, my oldest daughter diagnosed with neurofibromatosis and going through numerous back surgeries, many other trials and then being told my husband and I will never have a child of our own. But wait! After weeks of being sick a random pregnancy test to rule out that possibility, I’m PREGNANT! A miracle! It took us weeks to absorb this miracle and with growing excitement from our entire family, I lost the baby 3 months into the pregnancy.

While some write to entertain, I found the writing process was very healing for me. Journaling through trials helped me to empty the pain of the day from my heart onto paper so I could start fresh the next day. As was the case when I initially started writing “In All Things”, it was simply in a journal and a way for me to try and process the grief of going through miscarriage. Later, my original intent was not to publish a book, however; when I had one person read it and then another, and another, the feedback was amazing! It was like a sense of urgency that the message within was something people needed to hear. And even the men who have read it have been profoundly affected.

Since the publishing of this book, I have had inspiration for another book to be a second in the “In All Things” series. The next one will be “In all things; Expect A Miracle” which is about an amazing two years going through my dad’s cancer journey with him. Also since publishing, I have been asked to speak at a few local events and my desire is to be able to do that more. I feel when you can share your story in person, it can touch people more deeply.

At one of events where I shared my story, there was a lady in the audience that was healed instantly from the pain she was suffering for two years! I would love the opportunity to see others find that same healing and freedom to live again. I encourage others with a personal story to get it out there, the reward, and I don’t mean monetary, is far greater than the fear.

Author Bio: Laura works as a medical coding and reimbursement specialist in Northern Minnesota. In All Things is a witty and raw account of an otherwise normal life filled with incredible challenges that will make you laugh out loud and cry tears of joy and tears of sorrow. Her little family had no idea that the life experiences they walked through early on and one life altering event would prepare them for the near death of her oldest daughter.

Author’s Contact: tnlsmith90@yahoo.com

Author’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InAllThings
Author’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/LauraMStorrs

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4KBlLlBXhQ

Link to Purchase: http://www.halopublishing.com/bookstore/Laura-Smith also available at all major online book sellers.

Halo Publishing and the World of Ink Network are currently touring author Laura Smith’s, In All Things: Giving Thanks When Hope Seems Lost published by Halo Publishing Int.

About the Book:

Experience an incredible journey that will make you laugh out loud and cry tears of joy and sorrow. Learn how one miraculous encounter with God created an unshakeable faith that would later give Laura Smith the strength to face the near death of her oldest daughter.

Get a sneak peek of the book at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4KBlLlBXhQ

Today on The Writing Mama show at BTR's World of Ink Network, Laura Smith will be sharing about her book and the experience of sharing her life story. Come listen live or on demand at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork/2012/06/11/the-writing-mama-show-with-vs-grenier

You can find out more about Laura Smiths’s World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/77nwvdt

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com

Book Promotion: Creating an Informational Funnel

When thinking of book marketing, there are a number of rungs on the marketing ladder. The first involves creating a quality product, in this case a book. You want a book that you’ll be proud to offer for sale, and a book that customers will want to buy.

Once you have a finished product/book, you need to move onto the promotion basics. This rung on the ladder involves establishing a presence - you’ll need to create visibility and a platform. To do this, the first step is to get a website or blog. Next, you will need to join writing groups in your genre, groups in your target market, and other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

After you’ve established a presence, the next step is to create an informational funnel leading back to your website. The purpose of this funnel is to bring traffic and inbound links, to your site.

The more traffic to your site the greater your visibility in the search engines. More traffic also means a greater chance of visitors purchasing what you’re offering.

When it comes to an informational funnel, content rules. Here are three strategies to increase traffic to your site.

1. Add Content to Your Blog

Make your presence known by offering information in the form of content on your blog. Content is what will make you an expert in your niche, genre, or area. But, just posting the content to your site will not create the traffic you need. Each time you publish content to your site, you need to let your social networks know about it.

Tweet it and post about it to Facebook and your other social networks. Be sure to always include a clickable url link that goes directly to the article. This is a part of inbound marketing – it leads visitors back to your site through an information funnel.

In addition, using effective keywords in your posts and the post titles, related to your site’s platform, will help the search engines index your content.

2. Article Marketing

Once you feel comfortable with adding content to your blog, you can now venture out into the article marketing arena to capture a larger audience. While most article directories have guidelines, they are fairly lenient. Follow the guidelines and post an article to one, ten, or a hundred different directories. Most of them don’t require original articles, so you can use articles you’ve posted on your blog.

Usually you will be allowed to include a brief bio in the form of a resource box. Make it short and sweet. Be sure it links back to your website or blog, whichever you want the traffic to go to (if you have more than one site).

Those who click on the link will be creating inbound links to your site which is a feature Google and the other search engines like. In fact, quality inbound links are an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO).

3. Offer to be a Guest on Other Quality Sites

Another avenue of inbound marketing is offering your articles to other quality blogs or sites; you become a featured writer on the site by providing a guest article. It might be viewed as visiting another neighborhood. The particular site you are featured on has its own set of visitors, thereby broadening your visibility.

Do your research though, before you approach bloggers. Make sure the fit is right by checking prior posts on the site. In addition, when you approach the blog owner to ask about a guest post, let him know that you are familiar with his site.

And, be sure to always make it a win-win situation. Let the blog owner know that you will promote your feature post, and you might mention that you’ll include his site in your newsletter.

Finally, self-edit all your articles before you post them or send them off.

Tip: Using content to draw visitors back to your site is inbound or organic marketing. It is free, and it works by creating an informational funnel leading back to your site. In order for inbound marketing to work effectively, you need to provide valuable content on a regular basis.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter / rewriter. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

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