Spruce Up Your Blog & Be Heard With SoundCloud For Free!

SOUNDCLOUD – A WEB BASED MARKETING TOOL YOU SHOULD BE USING

Sound CloudI’ve been a fan of SoundCloud.com for a long time. It’s a site used for people who create their own music that allows them to build an audience through the site itself. It’s completely free to use, but not just for musicians.

If you are an avid blogger, or you’re in charge of marketing for your company, SoundCloud can be used as a quick podcasting tool. Instead of going through all the trouble setting up an official podcast feed, you can record lengthy audios via SoundCloud and embed them into your website.

So check out the quick podcast below, and then share with me if you are aware of other sites that provide free hosting of audio and video that you can embed for blogging!

Using SoundCloud for Podcasting by Carlton

Carlton Flowers
SoundClouder Extreme


Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments

SCAM ALERT – Fake QR Codes Can Sabotoge Your Smartphones

SCANNER BEWARE – RECENT RISE IN SCAM QR CODES CALLS FOR CAUTION

QR CodesEarlier this summer, I wrote about how QR Codes would soon revolutionize small business marketing. The use of QR codes in business is on the rise, and with that growth comes the opportunity for scam artists to take advantage of people’s newly piqued interest.

If you didn’t already know, a “QR Code” is simply a “quick response” code that works very similar to a barcode. It’s like the next-generation barcode graphic with a square shape containing patterns made with smaller squares. When using a QR code reader with a smartphone, you can scan the box to automatically take you to a website that contains coupons, discounts, special deals, or more information about the item being advertised.

Recently, there have been several reports of “digital scammers” creating QR codes for malicious purposes. When you scan a QR code made by these unscrupulous individuals, you can end up loading malware into your phone. The purpose of the malware is to copy your personal information for illegal use.

One of the common ways that the scam is being pulled is to apply a bogus QR code sticker on top of a legitimate QR code on an existing advertisement. When an individual sees the code, they trust the identity of the business and unknowingly scan the box with their smartphone. You should look for suspicious modifications on posters, signs, and advertisements before scanning to prevent being hijacked.

Remember that your smartphone can possibly contain your home address, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and other private information that identity thieves are targeting. When scanning QR codes, play it safe. Download a QR code app that allows you to preview the site. Also, make sure you trust the company that is displaying the code, and look for stickers applied over existing codes.

With every new technology comes a new way to cheat. Be educated and aware, and spread the word to your friends and family.

Carlton Flowers
Cyber Safety Patrol

For more information on QR Codes and apps, check out this great post by my friend Wayne Sutton that he wrote in 2010. Hit the link below and jump to the article on the Social Wayne website.

How To Find A Free QR Code Reader For iPhone & Android

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments

TweetGrid: The Real-Time Social Media Monitoring Weapon!

SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING WITH TWEETGRID

Tweet GridTechnology has really changed the way people share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences about businesses. Thanks to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, a company’s positive image can be bolstered or destroyed overnight.

Those who take the power of social media communities seriously allow themselves the ability to steer through the minefield of public opinion and continue with great success. But companies who chose to ignore the new paradigm we have experienced for the past several years are destined to hit mine and fail.

Reputation monitoring is the big new thing in the world of business today. Community relations now takes place online… in real time… and there’s a secret weapon you can use absolutely free of charge called TweetGrid that will allow you to keep track of what people are saying about your brand as it is happening.

According to Twitter.com, there were 140 million Tweets posted just last month. You better believe that a small but significant fraction of those little messages posted on the hottest micro blogging social community board were from people expressing their thoughts, feelings, or experiences about a business product or service.

Now then… considering the massive amount of traffic pulsing through Twitter each and every day, do you think it would be worth monitoring the site for any instances where your brand is being talked about? Would you like to know when someone says something positive? Or perhaps be in-the-know when someone says something negative about their experience with your business so that you could have the opportunity to corral the unhappy customer and show them that you truly care?

I should hope that you do!

That’s where TweetGrid comes into play. All you have to do is launch the website and set up as many grids that you need in order to monitor what is being said about your business. Pick a few keywords that you think people would use for your business, enter each word into a grid, hit the <enter> button, and there you have it. Each and every time someone makes mention of one of your keywords, it will pop into TweetGrid in real time.

The key here would be to test as many keywords as you possibly can. If there are variations of the names of your business, enter them all. You could even enter common misspellings of your business name. The more the better. The bigger the population of people that frequent your business, the more chances there could be for people to talk up your brand.

If you own a restaurant or a service-related business, you might be surprised at how many people are commenting about your establishment on Twitter. People tend to Tweet a lot about the service they receive, and the quality of food at restaurants, for example. Your goal should be to reinforce and reward the positive comments, and transform the negative comments into good customer service buzz.

Throwing a “thank you” out for positive comments is a no-brainer. But what do you do when an individual says something critical or negative about your business or service? Is it possible to transform such an occurrence into something that could end up building up your reputation?

You bet it is!

If a customer tweets something that doesn’t put you in a positive light, your immediate response and offer to remedy the situation could end up transforming that unhappy person into a happy camper. At worst case, even if they are not ultimately satisfied, more people will trust you and take a chance because they will see that you care.

Simply showing that you care enough to respond is one of the best ways that you can bolster your business’s reputation. However, it goes without saying that you would need to have an actual Twitter account in order to post responses to mentions of your brand, so a little bit of research on how to get started using Twitter and knowing the best way to share your online presence would be in order.

As a side note, most businesses actively posting to Twitter have absolutely no clue as to what to post to be most effective in their marketing efforts. A lot of careless business owners “spam” the Twitter timeline with constant ads, and never interact with others in the community. That is a big mistake. Even if your only activity on Twitter was to respond to people posting about your brand, you would be leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of business Twitterers.

Make the decision now to start monitoring your brand on Twitter and take charge of what your customers reactions are. Turn every situation into a reputation-building opportunity, and watch your business grow leaps and bounds!

Do you have ideas on how to use sites like TweetGrid to better your social media monitoring efforts? Do you have a question about the strategies mentioned in this article? Share them in the comments section below!

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist

Twitter Turbo

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments

Blogging Basics – Your Business As A News Source

BLOGGING AS A WAY TO DISSEMINATE NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS OR SERVICE

Your customers are looking for news about your business and/or your products on the web. Are you providing them with the information they want, or are your competitors?

To continue my Blogging Basics series, I wanted to share this video that gives a graphical and simplified view and explanation of how a blog can help your business.

what is bloggingIf you don’t have a blog, your competitors are probably feeding your clients and customers and drawing them away from your business. That’s why it is critical that you understand this concept.

As the video states, there have been over 70 million blog sites created since 2003. Blogging has become the standard way to share information “news-style” for businesses, organizations, clubs, and groups.

But let me remind you, the greatest benefit for creating and maintaining a blog is the search engine optimization (SEO) power. You’re not just going to benefit by keeping news and information about your business on the web, but you will increase your chances of landing on the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) when potential clients are searching for info about your products or services.

When a local client is searching for your product, the chances that person picks your business are far greater if you are on the first page of the results that pop up on the screen. It is rare that searchers ever go past page 2 or 3 when drilling down through the results, unless there are no direct matches for what they are looking for.

Google’s search engine loves blogs, because they constantly feed in new information, unlike static web pages. That’s why it is time for you to take serious consideration on starting your business blog in the near future.

Stay tuned for the next post which will showcase my favorite free blog services. Meanwhile, if you have a question on business blogging, feel free to ask your questions in the comments section and I’ll do my best to help you see the light!

Carlton Flowers
Business Blogging Consultant

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

Business owners, click the image below for information on how you can get your hands on my special report, “Social Media Reality Check“!

Blogging For Business

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments

Blogging Basics – What A Blog Is, And Why It Can Transform Your Business

WHAT IS A BLOG, AND WHY IS IT CRITICAL TO THE GROWTH OF MY BUSINESS?

what is bloggingThat, my friends, is a question that I am frequently asked by entrepreneurs and business owners. Therefore, I’ve decided to start teaching about blogging on, well, my blog site!

I am excited to announce the start of a long series on the topic of business blogging. People these days want to know if blogging is something they should consider for their business, their profession, or other special line of work. And the answer to the question is a resounding yes. Blogging is critical to the growth and future success of your business.

A little history on this strange word, a “blog” is actually short for the word “web log”. It was coined by Jorn Barger in December of 1997 to describe a website that acts like an “online journal” of sorts. Just as you would enter daily updates into a journal with pen and paper, you can create “blog posts” on a blog site to update readers who are interested in what you are writing about within your area of expertise.

Blogging can be a great way to build an audience and gain credibility in your field. It is a relatively low cost (and even no cost) marketing strategy that has the possibility of getting you instant exposure. Blogging can be significantly cheaper than traditional means of advertisement like billboards, newspaper ads, radio spots, and television commercials.

The Transformation From Websites To Blogs

When the Internet first started, the common practice was to build “static” web pages. I use the word “static” to mean that they basically sit there and do nothing. The main purpose of a static website is to give basic information about the business and how to reach them.

As time went on and the Internet progressed, people learned how to transact business on their websites, and e-commerce was invented. Not only could you get basic information about a business, but you could also make purchases and have the items shipped to you.

But the next big transformation that the Internet went through was the social media revolution, and the expansion of the “blogosphere“. This phase brought us real interaction among people on the net like never before. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter hit the scene with great fanfare. At at the same time, blogs started comprising a great percentage of the sites on the Internet that were also getting significant traffic.

Instead of just presenting basic contact information like most boring static websites, the blog site allowed businesses to publish cutting edge information on a regular basis just like a newspaper service. They also afforded people the ability to make comments and interact with the people reading their articles.

The biggest advantage for business bloggers? Their customers will find them first before finding non blog-using competitors. That brings me to the next topic for your learning pleasure, “search engine optimization”.

Search Engine Optimization

In this day and age, people go straight to Google to find businesses versus the old days of thumbing through the phone book. You, as a business owner, want your website coming up on the top of the search engine results pages (or “SERPS“) for maximum exposure.

That’s where “search engine optimization” (or “SEO) comes into play. SEO means designing and tweaking your site to give you the best chances of landing at the top of the SERPs for the search terms that relate to your product or service.

For example, if you own a local plumbing business, you want people seeing your website on the first page of the SERPs when they type in “fix broken pipe” on Google. If they have a leaky pipe spraying water all over the house, they aren’t going to sift through page 10 of the search results, they are going to pick a plumber from the first page!

If you are looking to harvest all of the Google searchers within your local community, you don’t really have any other choice. The blog is the king of the hill for SEO and its ability to magnetically attract Internet traffic.

Because a blog site is comprised of articles written on a regular basis, be it daily, weekly, or monthly, the search engines always detect that there is something fresh and relevant being added to the site. Google and the search engines love new and updated information. Current info gets lots of credit when it comes to website ranking.

Once you have a blog up and running, it is highly advisable to stay up on the latest SEO techniques to keep your high ranking on the SERPs within your niche. It will pay you great dividends in the long run.

So I Need A Blog… What Is My Next Step?

If you are a business owner, professional, or expert in your area of knowledge, you have gotten this far in the article, and you don’t own a blog site, it’s time for you to take action. If you seriously want to harvest the high number of your potential customers using Google each day, make an action plan and get started.

There are three different ways that you can take the blogging for business strategy to the next step. They are as follows:

  • start a blog site on your own using a free blogging platform
  • purchase a “canned” blog site from a professional service provider and manage it yourself
  • hire an SEO expert and blog designer to set up your site provide regular content

On the next edition of Blogging Basics, I will give you several choices of free blog services that you can use right away. I’ll also talk about some of the paid blog services, and why you might prefer to use them over the free services. We’ll also talk about real results that local business owners are getting from using the blogging strategy.

Until then, make sure to bookmark my site, and also subscribe to my RSS Feed by clicking the link below so you don’t miss a single post!

Carlton Flowers
Your Business Blogging Coach

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

www.carltonzone.com
www.microbusinessplans.com
www.twitter.com/carltonf

WANT GREAT DEALS ON ELECTRONICS? Hit the banner below right now and visit Amazon.com for awesome deals on gadgets and electronics, and you will help the CZ Blog to pay the bills and continue bringing you the straight-dope on what is happening in the world of technology!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

2 Comments

SEO Experts, You Don’t Know Jack!

IN-YOUR-FACE SEO ADVICE FOR THOSE THAT REALLY WANT THE TRUTH

SEO AdviceI’m back on my SEO rant again. For those of you who don’t know, that stands for “search engine optimization“. It’s an important thing for people trying to use the Internet to do business.

To explain SEO in a nutshell, you want your business showing up on the first page of the search engine results pages (or “SERPS“) to give you maximum exposure and thus, maximum potential sales.

For busy business owners who can’t figure out how to accomplish the task of landing on top of the pile of results, they seek out consultants. Funny thing, though, most consultants don’t know jack squat about SEO.

I will call out these fake SEO experts all day long, and I have the experience and inside knowledge to back it up. The crazy thing is, I truly believe that 80% or more of people who claim to know how to rank sites in the search engines are so far off base that they end up hurting their clients more than they help them.

First of all, my experience stands on its own. Right now, I can land page 1 of the SERPS on most topics in my niche, and usually within a matter of hours. The fastest time? 10 minutes. And that was on a competitive keyword that gets millions of searches per month.

There’s a popular upcoming smartphone that I have been hitting page 1 for over the past month, and if you’re smart enough, you’ll figure out which one it is. And if you think I did this using the latest and greatest techniques of the experts, think again.

I do not have thousands, or even hundreds, of backlinks to my blog site. I only have 28. By most SEO experts’ definition, this would be a total failure. They claim that you need thousands to rank on Google properly. That’s bunk. 100% bunk.

I also didn’t land my high search results by loading my domain name with any particular keyword. My site name, www.carltonzone.com, is generic. By the advice and teaching of the so-called experts, I shouldn’t be able to rank as high as I do on any topic I wish with such a generic non-keyword-specific blog URL.

Again, claiming that you need keyword-loaded URLS is 100% bunk. Garbage. And it’s high time that someone took the garbage out!

That’s not to say that backlinking and domain name keyword stuffing are not working methods. They may give you a boost. All I’m saying is that you can get on page 1 of the SERPs without it, and I am the proof.

If you are wondering, I don’t use any blackhat methods (that’s cheating), or grayhat methods (cheating but in a sneaky way) to get my pages high in the SERPs. I don’t recommend it, and I won’t ever try it. Period. My recommendation is that honesty is the best approach.

But on to the other reason why I’m telling you that these SEO eggheads don’t know jack squat… my job experience.

I am not at liberty to give the details, but lets just say that for a certain period of time, as I worked for a large contract consultant, I was downgrading the very sites that utilized the methods of the SEO experts to get their clients higher SERP placements.

If you think there’s no human aspect to cleaning up the mess of web page indexing and automatic activity of the algorithms, think again! I am so shocked that people actually believe that only the complex computer programs are used to get sites indexed and ranked in Google.

Even if there was a shred of truth to the lie that only the algorithms do the work of ranking sites, there’s still no guarantee you can game the system. For example, we are all very aware that Google came out with “Panda“, a recent algorithm update aimed at cleaning up the content farms and low quality websites from the SERPs. Even the algorithms will trip up the cheaters.

All-in-all, I just wanted to get it off my chest one more time that you SEO experts don’t know jack squat, and you need to stop bilking your clients by using questionable methods that gain temporary results and long-term punishment from Google.

My advice to you, budding business owner? Watch out who you listen to when it comes to search engine optimization. Honesty produces longevity and continued success. Taking the shortcuts will potentially put you in the permanent Google penalty box. Use your heads!

One of these days I am going to get angry enough to write a $10 report that gives all of my methods and advice, and I’m going to pit it against all of the shysters out there selling their garbage $297 SEO seminar products. I wonder if anyone would buy it…

Carlton Flowers
Bustin’ the Chops of the SEO Hucksters

Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

www.carltonzone.com
www.microbusinessplans.com
www.twitter.com/carltonf

WANT GREAT DEALS ON ELECTRONICS? Hit the banner below right now and visit Amazon.com for awesome deals on gadgets and electronics, and you will help the CZ Blog to pay the bills and continue bringing you the straight-dope on what is happening in the world of technology!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

1 Comment

QR Codes – The Future Of Local Business Marketing Is Here

QR CODES WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR BUSINESS MARKETING

QR CodeThe future of local business marketing is here. There’s a small black and white box with a strange pattern in it that will change everything. They’re called “QR Codes“, and you need to know why they will impact your business for the better if you utilize them.

If you are a small business owner, your local advertising and marketing will be revolutionized by incorporating QR codes in your flyers, print ads, billboards, and every single place that you display your business identity.

The days of traditional advertising are over. I will even boldly say that marketing your business on the Internet or on Facebook without QR codes are going to quickly be useless. Why? Because there’s a new mega trend about to hit. And it’s mobile marketing.

Smartphones are everywhere. More of your customers are packing iPhones and Android devices than ever before. When they want to check out for options eating out or shopping, they’re not sitting at home on their home computer to search. They’re reaching for their smartphones.

Within one year, there will be more searches conducted using a smartphone than the home computer. Studies say that 240 million searchers will use their cell phone, while 200 million will use a PC. The gap will widen as more and more people utilize their smartphones as their primary Internet device.

In fact, mobile marketing will give you your biggest bang for your advertising buck. It is a wise investment. You can forget about wasting time and money designing fancy web pages that aren’t optimized for viewing on a cell phone.

The new formula for reaching your potential clients and bringing customers back on a consistent basis will be combining a mobile optimized landing page with traditional advertising and QR codes (plus a little bit of stealthy marketing).

More and more smartphone carriers have free QR code-reading apps, and they are using them. The newness scanning QR codes piques interest and curiosity, and it is quickly becoming popular. Just imagine the rush of new business that could generated by using this new technology right now, while it’s hot.

Just when we thought Twitter, Facebook, and social media marketing was the big new thing, technological advance brings us another paradigm shift in the way we will interact and do business on a local level.

Are you a small business owner or leader of a community group or association that depends on driving new customers and clients to keep your business thriving and growing? Then you better get on this now, and strike while the iron is hot.

You have two choices: figure all of this out on your own, or keep your mind and focus on the daily aspects of your business and let an expert handle it for you.

QR TurboFor the busy folks in the latter category, I suggest you contact me immediately and find out how you can be up and running within days with QR Turbo. I’ll even give you a free 30 minute consultation and live demonstration.

But if you hesitate, I’ll be swamped, and you’ll be left paying a consultant 5x the price for what I can provide for you.

Just pop an email to carlton.flowers@gmail.com with “QR Turbo Fee Demo” in the subject line, and I’ll contact you and schedule a visit.

I’ll also throw in a super free insider tip on how you can use Google Local to set up a free listing that will land you on page 1 of the Google search engine results for your locality.

You will want to get this info before your competitors crowd you out, leaving you on page 2 or 3. And believe me, that could mean the difference in massive traffic to your business (or your competitor). It is mission-critical.

If you want to keep your status as “top-of-mind” for your niche, or kick your competitors off the roost while they are sleeping, I’ll expect to hear from you soon.

All the best,

Carlton Flowers
Your High-Tech Marketing Strategist

Don’t miss a single post! Hit this link to subscribe to my RSS feed right now —> http://feeds.feedburner.com/carltonzone/yZXF

Check out other interesting articles!
Just click on a magazine below and hop to that blog category. Enjoy!

Technology BlogBusiness BlogMarketing Blog

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments

The Future of Print News – Subsidized Tablets?

COULD TABLETS BE THE ANSWER TO THE DECLINE OF PRINT NEWSPAPERS?

It’s old “news”… print newspapers are on a serious decline. Don’t get me wrong, they still have their place. But it’s not a “growth” market by any means. Technology is cutting into the traditional daily newsprint’s market more and more by the day. But can this same technology save an old dinosaur info delivery service that is rolled up and chucked across the yard onto our front porches every morning?

I think so…

And so do two Philadelphia based newspapers: “The Philadelphia Inquirer” and the “Daily News“.

These two traditional newspaper providers are going to throw caution to the wind and try something completely different… use an Android tablet to disseminate their content and subsidize the cost of the device.

The folks at GottaBeMobile.com report that the decent Android tablets they would target cost around $500 to $600, and the papers could cut the cost in half. $250 to $300 would get them a tablet that ha a home page with links to the newspaper’s paid edition, which they would get half off the monthly going rate for using the subsidized tablet.

The GottaBeMobile writers talk about potential privacy issues with this arrangement that must be considered, due to the fact that the newspapers could collect valuable information on their readers habits. But how bad could this be?

If I could get my hands on a hot new Android tablet at half the price, do you think I would care if the company subsidizing my device knew how much time I was spending reading sports articles versus economy and breaking news? Not at all. Of course it could get a bit more detailed than this, but I would not be bothered.

SUBSIDIZING TECHNOLOGY – IT’S ALREADY THE NORM

This is not an earth-shattering concept. We already enjoy greatly reduced prices on technology from companies who subsidize the initial cost in exchange for a service agreement. For example, you take a $699 iPhone, add a $400 subsidy from AT&T when you add a 2-year agreement to pay their enormous monthly cost for phone and internet service, and you get the friendly low price of $199 as a result.

We have even moved into non cell phone markets, like eBook readers. The Amazon “Kindle With Special Offers” shaves quite a few bucks off the $149 Kindle eBook reader device and brings it down to $114. Would you opt for the Kindle at a cheaper price and put up with a few pesky advertisements? I know I would.

This is a growing trend, and it’s gonna stick. It’s the future. But I’m surprised that it took this long for two significant newspaper services to take a chance on at least diversifying their service to include digital media before it’s too late.

For instance, there is a certain Post Dispatch in a very large metropolitan area of Missouri that is currently suffering. I have verified inside information that employment is down over 40%, and one of the two printing locations has been mothballed. Their circulation is way down, and they are on the ropes. If they don’t make a monumental change to breathe life into their company, and soon, I don’t know if they will survive.

When we see long-standing companies start to take a tremendous hit financially due to a paradigm shift in the way we consume content, it’s gonna be “get on the techno bandwagon” or ride the ship down to its demise.

How do you read your daily paper? Do you still subscribe to the printed version of your town’s newspaper service? Do you read news stories on sites like Yahoo, or Google? Or do you pay to read your local paper online?

Sound off and let me know!

Carlton Flowers
Techno Trend Watcher
www.carltonzone.com
www.microbusinessplans.com
www.twitter.com/carltonf

Check out other interesting articles!
Just click on a magazine below and hop to that blog category. Enjoy!

Technology BlogBusiness BlogMarketing Blog

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

2 Comments

An SEO Strategy You Have Never Heard

REVEALED: THE SECRET TO MY EXTREME SEO SUCCESS

SEOGo outside and throw a rock and you’ll probably hit an SEO expert. They’re everywhere. And they’re a dime a dozen.

Sadly, they charge hundreds if not thousands of dollars to perform their search engine witchcraft. And people pay it without question.

Then you have all of the experts that like to lend free advice. They know it all. If you want to get on page 1 of the Google search engine results for competitive keywords, and do it fast, they know it all.

Some say you need hundreds of backlinks. Some say thousands. And if you don’t have the time to post comments on unsuspecting respectable blog sites, then they will sell them to you for a monthly fee.

Some will say that you have to get a domain name stuffed with keywords directly related to the niche you are trying to conquer. Or even that you’ve got to get a new keyword rich domain for every different website project that you have.

I love the ones who say that you’ve got to build this big complex “link wheel” network of websites. You make a few dozen websites that all point to each other, and then they all spit out a link to the big site you are trying to push your product on.

Here’s the crazy thing…

I do absolutely none of these things. But I am consistently able to conquer page 1 results with relative ease. Sometimes it happens within hours, or even minutes. Using one method, it even happens within seconds. But what is the secret to my SEO success? How am I able to do this? Buckle your seat belt, because I’m about to drop the bomb and give up my secret. What is my method, you ask?

It’s called HONESTY

Yep. Honesty. Plain and simple. Instead of registering domain names stuffed with keywords, making crazy link wheels, or generating hundreds of useless backlinks, I spend my time focusing on writing top-notch information about the topics that I love.

You can have all those tricks. They might work. but it’s temporary. Truth is, when website reviewers that work for Google catch you doing all those things, and when they see that your content is 1/10th of the quality of those keywords you stuffed in that new fancy domain name for your website, you’re gonna get whacked.

When you focus on making good quality content, and not all those tricks, your web pages will be Google Slap-Proof. Reviewers will downgrade your site when they see you using dubious black hat or gray hat tricks. But when your content is generated using the honesty approach, there is no reproach. Your site will stand the test of time.

People in this day and age want instant results, and they will stop an nothing to get that accomplished. But if you want your site to end up on page 1 of the results and stay on page 1, drop the stunts and make a quality page and be honest about what it is that you are doing.

If you are writing an informative article to attract traffic to earn money on Adwords ads, that’s fine. We all know that you’ve got to monetize your blog, or your article site. Just keep it within reason. If you are selling a product, be proud and tell people why you think that your product will enhance their life or make their problem go away. Be upfront. If you want to become a respected writer and sell advertisement opportunities, focus on being the best writer you can instead of going after the shortcuts to riches.

Follow my advice and it will pay you dividends for a long, long time. Follow the short-cut SEO scam artists, and you will eventually waste your time. Think about it. I dare you to tell me that I am wrong about this. Go ahead, just try.

Carlton Flowers
Keepin’ it “SEO Real”
www.carltonzone.com
www.microbusinessplans.com
www.twitter.com/carltonf

Check out other interesting articles!
Just click on a magazine below and hop to that blog category. Enjoy!

Technology BlogBusiness BlogMarketing Blog

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

2 Comments

Duplicate Content Stinking Up The Web

ARE THE MOTIVATIONS BEHIND POSTING DUPLICATE CONTENT PURE AND HONEST?

If you don’t know what duplicate content is, it’s seeing articles posted on the web word-for-word in different places. It’s people re-purposing the same information for whatever reason, which rarely is to promote the original message of the article. There’s usually an ulterior motive. And what is the end result? The Internet gets mucked up with loads of duplicate crap.

The most common reason people copy and paste articles on their own sites is to generate traffic. Why? To get people’s eyeballs in front of the stuff they want to sell. Sometimes it is a physical product, other times it’s a report of some type, or a scam business opportunity. All in all, I will boldly state the the overwhelming majority of people who do this are con artists, and they are not making the Internet a better place.

So where do they get their duplicate content? There are several different ways that people can obtain and copy content for their own benefit. Here are a few common tactics and sources:

  • blatant copying and pasting of news articles
  • blatant copying of pertinent information from authoritative websites
  • copying information from Wikipedia
  • purchasing “PLR” or “private label rights” articles to re-purpose on your website
  • using software to re-write articles and fool the search engines from catching the duplicate content

Your next question is probably, “who are the people doing this the most?” The common duplicate content abusers usually fall into one of these categories:

  • Internet marketers and “gurus” (con artists)
  • bloggers who make money from Adsense articles
  • email marketers with big lists who promote tons of products
  • affiliate product pushers (selling other people’s stuff for a commission)
  • short-cut artists trying to rise to a respectable level without doing any work

Okay… so maybe that offends some honest people who use duplicate content for whatever reason. But what I have to say to you is, write your own crap and you will have more success than slinging duplicate garbage across the Internet. None of these shortcuts will get you to the top, nor will they sustain your sales. The most successful bloggers and marketers are the ones who use their own honest unique content!

One of my biggest annoyances comes when I am searching for something legitimate, and I run across the same article on different sites jammed with Adsense ads. For example, I was searching for information on tension headaches, and I found multiple sites using the same article copied from webmd.com but for the selfish reason of selling things and making money. People like me don’t appreciate that. It’s a time wasting annoyance!

I’d like to know if you have noticed as much duplicate content floating around the web as I have. I’d also like to know if anyone can post a good response exposing the positive side of the story on using duplicate content. Take the poll below, or sound off in the comments section!



Carlton Flowers
Guardian of the Web
www.carltonzone.com
www.microbusinessplans.com
www.twitter.com/carltonf

Check out other interesting articles!
Just click on a magazine below and hop to that blog category. Enjoy!

Technology BlogBusiness BlogMarketing Blog

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

No Comments