There’s a lot more to Article Marketing than you might have read.

Most Internet Marketing websites focus on how easy it is to write articles in a few minutes, and while this can be positive, it can unfortunately also encourage a proliferation of badly written or hard-selling articles, written simply because we’re told that’s what Internet Marketers should do!

This article will focus on a few important key points that must be considered when creating any article or blog post:

• Don’t choose Article Marketing as one of your Internet Marketing methods, unless you know you’re able to write well, and are happy communicating in this medium!

There are too many grammatically incorrect, badly structured articles posted, which have been written without much thought for what the article will communicate about the writer. You are a professional, and therefore anything you post on the Internet – whether it’s on your website or Social Media profiles, or on external Forums, Article Submission websites, or Directories – should reflect you and your professionalism as a marketer.

If you don’t like writing or can’t write well, choose another Internet Marketing tool, such as Video Marketing or Social Media.

• Only start writing any Article or Blog Post when you have defined the intended audience, that is, the Niche Market.

Once you know who exactly it is you’re writing for, it will be easier to communicate specifically to those people, in the words they understand, and addressing the problems they typically have that you are offering to fix.

With articles to be published on Article Submission Websites, you can define any Niche you’re comfortable talking to, because it will usually be read by a wider Internet audience. It goes without saying that therefore, if it’s an article for your blog, it needs to be aimed at the same Niche Market your blog has been created for.

• Remember that articles are a form of marketing, and although some people write for altruistic reasons, most Article Marketing is done because it’s an opportunity for you to make sales.

You need to have a purpose in mind before you write your article. Decide what it is that you’re promoting and why, then write with this in mind. Don’t be pushy though, as this turns your readers off. Writing with a ‘helpful information’ approach is probably the best strategy.

Do include a ‘call to action’ at the end of your article, directing your readers to do something next, such as click on a link, or check out a related product.

• Always do keyword research for anything substantial you publish on the Internet, because this means it is more likely to be found in the Search Engines organically.

Writing an article takes effort. Do increase its chances of being found by Internet surfers, by doing keyword research on the main topic and phrases in your article, and edit your final article by including some variations of these keyword phrases.

Don’t forget to also include the main keyword phrases as article tags or keywords when submitting your article, or as post tags on your blog, to help the Search Engines ‘label’ your content.

• Check, edit, and recheck your work, before publishing it.

You’re a professional, and although sometimes little errors do creep in, your spelling and grammar should be correct, and your paragraph order and overall structure should make sense to the reader.

If you’re not all that familiar with certain spelling or grammar rules, check them quickly before publishing to ensure you’re on the right track. Commit to improving your knowledge of grammar, spelling and writing structure, because this will make you a better and more efficient writer.

• When publishing your articles, choose Article Submission websites carefully.

Most accept articles for free, but often they have quite a few rules and restrictions for layout and links, and usually each article must be approved before being allowed to go live on their site (especially for Article Directories).

Here is a list of various types of article submission websites, hubs and directories, ranked by Google Page Rank (the closer to 10 the better) and Alexa Traffic Rank (the smaller the number, the better) – with thanks to vretoolbar.com.

• Do announce your published work so that others will know it’s there and read it.

Use all the tools you have to communicate that you have written something for others to read – tell them via Social Media and emails, publish various versions of your article or blog post on Article Submission and Hub/Discussion Group websites, and share your content in various forms (such as creating a video of the main points of the article) with friends, family, business associates and relevant clients.

Do bear in mind though, that your article was aimed at a specific Niche Market, so be careful to not bombard people who won’t appreciate it or who are simply not in your target market.

• Finally, I’m going to talk about Article Spinning - or the art of creating various slightly different versions of the same article, thus enabling you to publish “different and unique” articles across various websites, from only one article.

You can do Article Spinning manually, and although this will in all likelihood achieve better results, it will obviously take more time. To do this, you simply need to change the title slightly, and change various headings and words within the main body of text of your article. For example, change “keywords” to “key phrases” or “keyword phrases”; or change around the order of sentences, so “You can do Article Spinning manually” could become “Article Spinning can be done manually” in another version.

Or you can use Article Spinning software to do the task of spinning for you. You simply paste your original article into the software, and you will get a huge number of versions of the same article. However all versions will usually need to be checked before submitting them online, because computers lack fine tuned knowledge of language and may substitute an incorrect word or simply a word which doesn’t really fit. This will of course reflect badly on you, because ultimately you are the author of the article.

Two things with Article Spinning software – if you’re going to go this route, research all the software available, and pay for good software (don’t be tempted with free software). But if you’re not good at writing articles in the first place, or can’t bear sitting down to write often, then don’t bother with Article Spinning software either – because clearly Article Marketing is not your thing!

In summary, Article Marketing is a free marketing tool, because usually the only cost is your time. If you can, it’s great to take advantage of this, but it needs to be done properly. After all, you are in the business of communicating if you’re a marketer, so articles and any other content you produce must be professional. Article Spinning software can help to create lots of different versions of each article to increase publication options, but do check these versions before publishing, because it’s your name that will come into disrepute, not the software’s! And don’t forget that the point of Article Marketing is to make money from it, so remember this when setting out to write an article – you must have a purpose and a call to action.

What to do now?

Find out more about Article Marketing on this blog, and get your free copy of Brett Ingram’s ebook “Awesome Article Marketing” here.

Talk to us about getting Article Marketing training, or us writing your articles for you!

If you’re serious about making money from your content, read Robert Bly’s book “How to Write & Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit: Your Guide to Writing and Publishing Books, E-Books, Articles, Special Reports, Audio Programs, DVDs, and Other How-To Content” and learn how to create almost any kind of content to sell:

There’s a lot written about the ideal position for your website to appear on Google’s (or other) Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The number 1 position, right? Or at least within the Golden Triangle (more on this below)!

But while appearing first on a RELEVANT Search Engine Results Page might be ideal (and studies confirm that click through rates to the first link are higher than click through rates for second or lower positions), it’s not always possible.

•  Firstly, your position is based on keywords (amongst other things) - because human visitors type ‘keywords’ or ‘search strings’  into Search Engines to find the
  information they need on the Internet. So not only the keywords you use on and in your website, but also keywords used by other competing or even non-competing websites, come into play.
• Secondly, website positions in Search Engine results are dynamic and can change frequently. Being first or fourteenth on any SERP today doesn’t mean you’ll stay there. Your position changes relative to what you and other websites are doing to link to and drive traffic to your/their websites, and to increase their keyword- and relevancy-ranking in Google and other Search Engines. You’re basically in a giant ‘swirling pool’ of websites, and regardless of what you do, others might do more, be more relevant, have more quality back links to their sites, or have more credibility than you – and thus might rank above you, and their position or yours will change relative to the others.

Note that we are talking specifically here about ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ Search Engine results, and not about the pay-per-click adverts that typically appear across the the top and down the right hand side of Search Engine Results Pages (often within a light pink or yellow area of the page).

So, back to the Golden Triangle…

The Golden Triangle is the so-called triangular or F-shaped area on the top left of any Search Engine Results page, or webpage, where people’s eyes tend to hover and read much more. See heat-imaging eye-tracking photograph alongside.

Research studies by independent companies and Google have found that people tend to skim read across, then down, then across, in a more or less F-shaped pattern from the top left of a webpage, including a SERP.

This has all sorts of implications for your website search results, as well as for your webpage design, including the following:

• You must aim to appear in the top 3-4 organic search results of a SERP, for your chosen keywords. Any below this, and the rate of skimming, reading, and clicking links drops significantly, even if on the first page!
  
• Your most important information needs to appear to the top of any webpage, article, or blog post – preferably ‘above the fold’ (that is, in the area visible without scrolling down).
• You can use colours and shapes on your webpage to work with, or against, this typical F-shaped skim-reading pattern. For example, bold colours in a logo to the top left will be seen, and will emphasize your website branding. On the other hand, if you need something to appear on the right hand part of your web-page, you can draw people’s eyes to it by repeating bold colours/shapes there that already appear in the top left corner.

You can read more about Google’s eye tracking studies at their official blog here.

In the meantime, make sure your website is designed to Golden F standards!

Get your current website audited by us for free! We’ll check out your Golden-Trianglability and feedback what you can do to improve it! Or get your very own SEO-ready WordPress blog and website built for you, to your specs. Check out the blog website built-for-you offer here.

Google Golden Triangle image courtesy of http://eyetools.com/research_google_eyetracking_heatmap.html and http://austrotrabant.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/layout-change-for-google-top-ads-further-blurring-the-line-between-ads-and-search-results/

Social Media – the thing we all love to love… and hate!

Recently, Google launched it’s copycat Google+ (Google Plus) social media tool to rival Facebook. Although competition is always welcome, and perhaps especially since Facebook appears to have an increasing stranglehold on social media, some commentators have already asked the question that begs on its knees to be asked: Do we really need another social media network?

Now Google+ does have some good features. In their design of Google+, Google have considered the shortcomings of Facebook, and added some unique ideas to address these in Google+. Most impressive is the Google+ Circles concept – where you can tailor certain messages/posts/photos to certain groups, so that all your ‘followers’ don’t receive all of your posts, and only the groups or people you want to see those posts will see them. Great if you’re using Google+ for multi purposes, for example work and play, or if you don’t want your gran to see what you’ve been up to this weekend. Simply create a Circle of your most intimate acquaintances to send the gory glory stuff to, and keep your gran in your “Clean Living” Circle! That’s right, you can create and name your own Circles too, although Google+ does come with the standard suggested Circles, like “Friends”, “Family”, “Acquaintances”, etc.

At the moment the initial visual appearance of Google+ is also much cleaner and less cluttered than Facebook - we like this. Upon landing on your Google+ profile home page, you’ll simply see four buttons across the top – Home, Photos, Profile, and Circles, with a Stream/status update box beneath that, your profile photo to the left, and some suggested ‘followers’ to add to your Circles to the right. So far with Google+ there’s not as much of the ‘page litter’ that Facebook has, such as FB adverts, lots of group/app buttons and general ‘noise’ on the news feed or profile pages. Let’s hope Google+ stays that way, and Google doesn’t get lured into placing Adwords/Adsense adverts all over to be greedy!

Google+ also features a live video chat/ status update function, called Hangouts, where you can have a group ‘video call’ via your webcam to up to 10 people at a time (similar to Skype group calls). This is probably the most attractive feature to pull in younger social media users, because it’s live and interactive, on the run. Nevertheless it’s a tool that has a lot of potential for businesses too.

Other notable but less interesting features of Google+ are their Sparks (news feeds on topics you’re interested in) and Huddles (a group text chat, Google chat or instant messaging feature, although I don’t think this function is clarified enough for users).

However, all that aside, and we still have Facebook dominating the social media scene. Around 750 million FB users (and counting) are simply not going to give up their habit of using Facebook to jump ship to Google+. Human beings are largely creatures of habit. Of course there are recent growing concerns about Facebook and privacy issues that has undoubtedly dented the world’s love affair with Facebook, and even some reports that when Google+ was released, some Facebook users immediately closed their Facebook accounts and moved lock, stock and barrel over to Google+ (to stick a finger up at Facebook’s power and control over their private imformation).

But I don’t think Facebook needs to be overly worried. More likely is that Facebook will simply incorporate some of Google+’s best features, like Circles, into their user interface, and some of Google+’s unique selling points will be lost in the social media mire. Update 21 September 2011: Facebook have recently added Friend Lists, which means you can filter posts to certain groups, rather like Google+ Circles! See all the recent Facebook changes, like Timeline and Ticker, announced in September 2011 here (thanks to Mashable.com).

Unfortunately Google also hasn’t paid enough attention to people’s Internet use when creating Google+. Search for “Google +” (with a space between Google and +) in Google.com, and the link to the Google+ site WON’T appear in the top search results on that page (at the time of writing)! Google+ is still relatively new and not all web users will necessarily yet remember to type it as “Google+” (without the space) – so if it can’t be found by web surfers who may be curious and want to check it out, what’s the point? Ironic, because Google are supposed to be experts on how Internet users think about and use the web (via their huge search engine databases), and so this little oversight could cost them some consumer take-up.

At the time of writing (July 2011), Google+ is still in the early (beta) stages, and people can’t yet simply sign up to it – you have to be invited by someone who already has a Google+ profile. But it’s easy enough to arrange – simply email me and I’ll send you your Google+ invitation!   ==>>    Update 21 September 2011: You may notice a blue arrow pointing to the top left of your screen at Google today (21 September 2011). This means Google+ is now open to all. You can simply go to Google+ and create your profile. Or I’m happy to send you an email invitation if you’d prefer!

Here’s an interesting article from the BBC website dated 20 September 2011, discussing the rise of Google+, whether it will steal Facebook users, and what the other Social Media are doing to compete with it: “Google+ Open Social Network to Everyone”.

What do you think? Do you prefer Facebook or Google+? Or do you use both? Will one outshine the other? Does it matter? Please feel free to comment – I’d love to hear your views!

QR code for AztecInternetMarketing.com

So we’re beginning to see more and more QR Codes (or Quick Response ‘Barcodes’) everywhere - you know, those black and white pixelated square thingeys – on websites and blogs, on posters and leaflets, in magazines, in advertising, on TV, in emails….

What on earth are QR Codes?

They are a relatively new (and clever) automated, digital and shortcut way to give and receive a piece of information such as a website address, some text such as a nutrition label, an email address, a phone number, or free bonuses, coupons or giveaways…

And lots more innovative uses are being introduced daily as companies, marketers, bloggers, online businesses and everyday people join in and start using them.

You need a SmartPhone to access them, with a QR Code Reader Application, such as Google Goggles (Android), which by the way also reads product labels, paintings and images and identifies them for you, too (or you can simply use a QR reader app that does only QR Codes – there are lots, such as Kaywa).

You simply hold up your phone, point it at the QR Code, and hey presto, the QR Code’s website link, coupon, information or text will be displayed on your phone.

QR Codes provide a really neat and quick way to access information - without having to write it down on paper or a serviette (which usually gets lost), type it into your cell phone notes (which you promptly forget about), or photograph it on your mobile phone (only to find the pic was too blurry to read anyway).

How can you get your own QR Code?

Kaywa.com - QR code generator

Search online for ‘QR code generator’ or ‘get your own QR code’. There are lots of sites providing this service for free, although as QR Codes become more mainstream and commercial, you may find we get asked to pay. One of the free QR Code generating sites is Kaywa, and it’s this simple to do:
– Type in your website URL or text,
– Choose the QR Code size,
– Click on ‘generate’.

Voila! Your QR Code is ready, and can be easily added to media, business cards, blogs and emails - either using the HTML code or the URL permalink at the Kaywa site (or simply copy the QR code image and paste it where you want it to appear). Kaywa also provide a QR code reader app, so if you don’t have one, download it now from their site to your cell phone!

But – why should you use QR Codes?

Firstly, I’m guessing you’re something to do with online business, right? So, it’s a no brainer – QR Codes are the next big happening thing in Internet Marketing. Be there, or be square! Seriously though, if you’ve got a website or are doing any sort of online marketing, QR Codes need to be part of your marketing strategy. There will come a time soon, when members of the public, your customers, associates and competitors will be using them frequently and will have the expectation that you use them too – and you will be asked ‘do you have a QR Code?’!

Secondly, creating and using QR Codes are not a huge drain on resources, and don’t need a whole lot of your hours, or extra staff, to add them to your marketing activities. Simply decide what you will use QR Codes for, and where, and do it!

Start with the most basic and obvious – create a QR Code for your business website or blog URL. Then market it via your usual channels such as social media, email marketing, printed leaflets and adverts. After that, its time to get creative – you can use QR Codes for anything, such as announcing new blog posts, sending people to your social media profiles, on marketing leaflets, for discounts and special offers, or next to or instead of web links.

QR code - Free and Low Cost Internet Marketing Facebook Page

Have fun with QR Codes!

<<<=== Visit and Like my “Free and Low Cost Internet Marketing” Facebook Page for more online business tips, tools and techniques.

Everyone’s talking about Personal Branding – “You Inc”, “Brand You”, “Me Inc” or “Brand Me”. But if you’re new to Internet Marketing, Online Business, or the concept of Personal Branding, how do you go about finding and developing your Personal Brand? And isn’t it simply too much trouble – why should you bother?

Let’s look at what a Personal Brand is:

Just like certain foods, drinks and material items will have strong branding, for example, Coca Cola, so can you. The essence of a brand is that it has a personal identity - we associate various personality attributes and experiences/sensations with it. This mental picture in our heads of Coca Cola makes it stand out from other soft drinks, and gives it value (lots of value – $67 billion brand equity, in fact).

How does this work with human beings?

Tom Peters, renowned writer, speaker and business consultant said, way back in 1997:

The good news — and it is largely good news — is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.

Personal Branding is all about the image and statement you project, consciously and subconciously, to others. When you’re online, your personal brand will be projected through your website/blog, your blog posts and articles, your videos and emails, and your social media profiles and posts.

So how can you identify, create and develop your own “Brand You”?

Let’s break it down into a few steps you need to go through to identify who you are, and which attributes you will focus on to build your Personal Brand:

==>> 1. Firstly, you need to know yourself, who you really are, what you’re good at, what your individual talents are, what you like doing, what turns you on… (we’re talking business not pleasure here).

And you need to be specific - it’s no good saying “I’m a good hairdresser”. You need to think about which factors make you a good hairdresser, and even more importantly, how do they make you different from (and better than) other good hairdressers? Things like you’ve a warm personality, you put your customers at ease when they walk into your shop, you’re able to quickly grasp what they want and like with their hair, and you have an 80% customer return rate…. Plus you have a good general knowledge and lots of interests, so can talk to anyone about just about anything….

The key is you need to identify specifics about yourself, that will be attractive to customers in your line of business. And don’t get stuck on only work related skills and talents – think about your broader life too, and what you can bring to the work situation to attract customers and make them happy.

==>> 2. Secondly, you need to identify which talents, personality attributes, and skills you’re going to focus on in order to grow your Personal Brand.

Remember that some of what you project is unconscious, so don’t get too attached to only certain branding factors. Get the opinions of trusted others, both friends and customers, who will be honest with you here – because often we see ourselves in a different light to how others see us. Make sure you identify a few easily communicated personal branding issues that will make you stand out from the crowd.

==>> 3. Next, you need to choose how to communicate what it is that makes you unique. Again, it’s not just your work experience and skills, although of course those are important to prospective clients, because they give credibility. Remember too that being professional, but friendly, counts.

Your Personal Brand will be a mix of your skills and experience, how you interact with others, and your personality, in their minds. You need to market you and your business as one – don’t forget you need to communicate to prospective customers why they need to go with you and not the next good hairdresser/builder/network marketer….

You’ll need to choose communication channels that are suited to you and your talents. Don’t choose video marketing if you’re shy and freeze up as soon as the camera points at you. You’ve got to show yourself off in the best light, and you need to be attractive (in words, image, concept) to anyone reading/watching/listening.

==>> 4. Finally, you’ll need to keep “You Inc” fresh, lively, changing, dynamic.

Tom Peters, again:

You need to revolutionize your portfolio of skills every half-dozen years, if not more often.

That was what he said in 2004! Now you’ll probably need to rethink “Brand You” every half-dozen months, or at least yearly! This doesn’t mean you throw everything out every year and start again. Keep what’s working, what’s uniquely you, the aspects of your Personal Brand that have been successful - but think of new ways to add value.

But why should you bother to go to all this trouble of growing and changing your personal brand, when surely your website will get you customers and sales?

The sad truth is that no longer is your website guaranteed to be found, when potential buyers are searching online for a business like yours – there are already 298 million websites out there, and counting. Although it’s important to use a variety of methods to ensure you and your business come up high (preferably on the first page) in search engine results – such as SEO, keywords, social media, directories, etc – there also needs to be that something extra that people will ‘get’ when they land on your website, which encourages them to choose you instead of other websites/businesses. And that something extra is “You Inc”.

If you’re having trouble identifying and communicating your Personal Brand, I can help. I specialize in all things Internet Marketing, to help grow and explode your online business. Check out all the Online Marketing and Personal Branding consulting, training, mentoring and services I can offer you at my I.M. Services page, or email me now with your request: aztecnetwork@live.co.uk. Make today matter!

To your online success,

Get your very own Tom Peters material here: Search for Tom Peters books

Coca Cola brand information courtesy of http://www.garrreynolds.com/Branding/brandyou.html.
Tom Peters quotes courtesy of http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html?page=0%2C0.
Website statistics courtesy of http://news.netcraft.com/archives/category/web-server-survey/.
Fresh fruit image courtesy of http://clc2.uniservity.com/GroupRenderCustomPage.asp?GroupID=314515&ResourceID=3133920.
Zebra image courtesy of http://stuffalusk.wordpress.com/tag/zebra/.

If you’ve signed up to a few top Internet Marketers’ or Network Marketers’ autoresponder lists (via the usual freebie ebook offer), you’ll know that you usually get pretty frequent emails from them, often on a daily basis.

And the chances are that you’ve unsubscribed from quite a lot of lists over time, because let’s face it, some are simply very annoying! But you’ve probably kept your subscription to a few as well. At least while these few provide value for you.

So what exactly is it that some Guru and Expert Internet Marketers and MLMers do with their Email Marketing campaigns, that keeps us coming back for more? And what is it that makes them even more successful?

I’ve looked at the emails I have signed up to receive from three Network and Internet Marketing ‘gurus’ – Larry Beacham, and Toby and Layla Black (the latter two are a team).

The reason I chose these Gurus to talk about today is that after a few months, I have still NOT had the urge to unsubscribe from their emails. And this is despite the fact that I have NEVER joined their MLM businesses or purchased anything from them! Thus I feel they are suitable examples because I am able to give an unbiased opinion – I am discussing and anlyzing them from the ‘outside’ of their organizations, so to speak. Not joining or buying from them has been a personal choice of mine, and is not in any way an indication of a failing on their part, because they have tens of thousands of followers and people in their networks.

So here’s the Do’s of Guru Email Marketing:

• The first thing you notice about Guru emails is that they’re delivered ‘fast and furious’, that is, they come on a daily or two daily basis. Why is this important? Because they are keeping themselves top of mind in your head, and thus are building a relationship with you. They’re always there, in your Inbox, like a friend. 
• The next thing to note is that their emails always seem upbeat and positive. How do they do this? They write in an easy going, chatty and informal style, and always provide helpful and positive information, as well as things to buy or actions to take (that ultimately build and grow your, and their, business). This also means we see them as positive, happy and successful people - and who doesn’t want to be around people like that?!
• And, they’re creative and sharing. They take small events in their lives (or bigger, more significant things) and let us know what these mean to them and how you also taking these actions can make your business better. Not only does this make them seem more like real people, because we get to find out about their daily lives, business actions, experiments and even failures - but they successfully analyze and communicate how these events or actions have meaning for their businesses and lives, and thus yours too.
• Plus, they get around, and share their info, expertize, experiences and love of online business in a variety of ways - so in addition to lots of emails, they use bogging, videos, webinars, you name it - to add value to the messages in their emails. This builds them a strong online presence and unique personal branding.

What does this mean for you and your Email Marketing campaigns?

==>> Firstly, you can’t write a set of emails and leave it there. Effective, relationship building Email Marketing has to be dynamic, organic, continual - and fuelled by your everyday life and how you believe this will help others.

==>> Secondly, you need to develop a writing style that reaches out and touches others in a really friendly, open way. Look at the styles that some of the best Email Marketers write in - there is a formula that they use. Avoid overt sales or product talk, and instead focus on something that is difficult for others, and how you found a solution that will work for them. And you are in this to make money, so links to products or services you sell should be included, but they must be relevant to the email message.

==>> Thirdly, in order to find enough material to communicate with your list often, and in a meaningful way - you’ll need to reach deep inside you, and always be vigilant about even small things, events and happenings in your life that may seem insignificant. Remember that even those things which don’t initially appear to be anything to do with growing your or others’ businesses can sometimes provide authentic teachings which are very relevant to business. 

==>> Finally, use more tools to build relationships and your personal brand - so besides email marketing, get into blogging, videos, video webinars, audio webinars, podcasts, and live presentations and conferences… whatever you can to become known as THE expert in your field.

This article is a second in my ‘Guru series’ of blog posts - read the first article about the overall success tactics of Internet Marketing experts, and how you can emulate their style, here.

So go forth and put the ‘Guru’ stamp on your Email Marketing!

To your success,

Get your own Email Marketing package here - the same one many Gurus use and one of the best known around - including web forms, autoresponders, broadcast emails, email templates, subscriber management database, click stats, email marketing training, and more! :

Postage stamp email graphic – with thanks to Skinz.org (who provide free skins and clipart for your websites)

I was alarmed today to view my blog and find a blog post entitled “Pay Per Click Marketing – How to Do it Right”, which I did not write or post, and I had not invited the authors to be guest writers for my blog.

The article was even complete with links to the hacker website. Despite the fact that they may have made some valid points about PPC advertising, I have deleted their post, because they posted illegally on my blog.

If you’d like to know what to do to prevent your blog being hacked, admixweb.com have prepared these tips on protecting your blog from hacking attempts. These tips include:

• Using a strong password that doesn’t contain dictionary words
• Using WordPress Plugins such as ’AntiVirus’ and ‘Login Lockdown’
• Doing regular backups of your blog

Good luck, and I hope you avoid the same fate!

Picture acknowledgement: hacknmod . com

• Making videos from slideshows (including text, still images, graphs and other graphics), and
• Using still or moving screenshots of websites or software packages in your videos.

Having received a Google Adwords voucher for £75 with one of my web packages, I decided to check out what all the fuss was about with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. [Current UK/USA exchange rate: approximately £1 = $1.60].

For those of you who don’t know what Google Adwords or Pay-Per-Click advertising is, it basically means you the advertiser only pay Google each time someone clicks on your advert, rather than any upfront advertising costs.

• How much you ‘bid’ to Google to pay each time someone clicks,
• The maximum you’re willing to spend per day,
• The content of your advert compared to the website you’re linking it to, and
• The Keywords you’re linking with your advert – and what internet users are searching for.

To see How to do Google Adwords PPC on a small budget, click here. And to see the official Google Adwords Beginners Guide, click here.

This blog post was first published at my other blog http://www.kathrynrosewilson.blogspot.com/ on 5 March 2010. From time to time I disable my Google PPC ads, so you might not see them when clicking on the “aloe vera hertfordshire” link above.