Another quality article from guest writer Alyssa Clarke today!

Marketing by Invitation

Conventional marketing works on the premise of putting your product information out in the general public space in manner that it reaches the largest number. The logic is statistical. If it reaches the largest number, it will also yield in the largest possible sales conversions. With a significant proportion of marketing now being done on the Internet, this model has outlived its usefulness.

The consumer on the web is no longer interested in generalized advertising and actually sees such marketing attempts as a distraction and a hindrance. The last decade has seen the evolution of a new form of marketing based on consumer preference known as permission marketing or inbound marketing. This concept, popularized by web marketing pioneers such as Brian Halligan and Seth Godin, has become the catchword in the field of social media marketing.

For online marketing and business blogs, the challenge is to generate traffic that is pertinent to the product category they are trying to market. Today, the quantity of web traffic in the sphere of internet marketing has become less relevant than the quality of that traffic.

This quality can be achieved through understanding and applying the principle of inbound marketing.

Why is Inbound Marketing Important

The value of inbound marketing is twofold. It is directed specifically at consumer preference. This makes the likelihood of a lead converting to a transaction much higher. Moreover, inbound marketing typically uses information about products and service categories as its vehicle.

This results in the consumer perceiving a greater value addition to the act of marketing. Even though the cost of online advertising is minimal per impression, the fact that inbound marketing is tied in with the interests of the consumer and the resulting conversion rate makes it as close to zero as possible.

Typically inbound marketing is targeted at users who have opted in for subscriptions for web services and have indicated their preferences for products and services of their choice at the time of registration. Another form of inbound marketing is through product reviews and endorsements carried out through special interest blogs and newsletters.

In the era of social media, one no longer looks at customers as buyers first, but as people with needs with whom relationships are built. Given the dynamics of inbound marketing, it is presumed likely that these people will then turn into customers. Business blogs are a perfect example of inbound marketing where they put out content that is relevant to their products and services. Users searching for that specific type of information can find such marketing content and click through to purchase or subscribe.

Inbound Marketing: The Secret of Quality Traffic 

For businesses setting up an online presence, it is essential to understand the value and the dynamics of inbound marketing. The contemporary consumer is intelligent and demanding. The conventional strategy of bombarding them with web ads has proved to be pointless, with more and more users opting for applications which effectively filter out such advertising through pop-up blockers and ad-blockers.

The discerning consumer of today will be more impressed with relevant content that provides them with the tools to make better purchasing decisions. Being able to grasp this principle not only results in lower cost of marketing and higher conversion rates but also builds quality traffic to your website that is relevant to your business.

About the author: Alyssa Clarke is a blogger who also happens to be a tech buff. She loves splurging on tech stuff and recently bought a cool waterproof mp3 player. She is also very fond of cars and her dream machine is Porsche 959.

Today’s offline marketing article is written by Angelita Williams.

When it comes to marketing your blog SEO is necessary, emails are great, and social media tactics are even better.  But word-of-mouth marketing is king.  Even with the many advances in technology (and maybe in part because of them), word-of-mouth remains the most powerful brand of marketing for any business in any sector.

According to McKinsey Quarterly, “word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.”  Consider this: while you are starting your blog trying to make a living or make extra income, some people start blogs and launch informal social media campaigns just to malign a company or product they’ve had a bad experience.  This is now considered word-of-mouth (WOM), reinvented for the 21^st century.  Before WOM was a one-to-one experience — now it is one-to-many.

Recommendations are powerful, and influence consumers “throughout the consumer journey.”  The question for you as a business owner and a blogger is how to inspire the kind of positive WOM marketing that can work wonders for your blog.

Here are five ideas to get you started:

1. Deliver early.  As a blogger, you’ve got it a little easier than some other kinds of business (your “shipping” is instantaneous and free), but that doesn’t mean you can’t impress your readers by releasing content, or more importantly, a product (think e-book), ahead of schedule.  Some bloggers urge that keeping a strict content-release schedule is important, but an equally powerful strategy is to tell your readers when to expect another post from you, giving them something to actively look forward to, and then surprise them by releasing it early.
2. Ask and ye shall receive.  It’s the oldest trick in the book, and yet few, if any, bloggers use it.  Do you want your readers to share your blog? Try asking them.  You might be very pleasantly surprised.  Of course, you can’t just say, “Talk about me to your friends!”  That’s transparent.  What you can do, however, is pose a question or challenge at the end of post: Did this post inspire you? Share it with a friend and share the good news!”
3. Pick a channel, any channel.  I hope that you aren’t hearing this for the first time from me, but you need to start getting active in a social media channel.  I’d recommend mastering one before launching several campaigns, because they do not obey the same laws.  But whichever you choose, get an authentic conversation going and keep it up to get people talking.
4. Get featured.  A very powerful way to get WOM going is to be featured on another blog, site, or in the news (if that’s possible).  If people see that you’re on another site they trust, they are much more likely to look into your blog, and then talk to their friends about it.
5. Get on the silver (or at least an LCD) screen.  State a YouTube channel and make videos.  Post a few blogs as videos.  Ask for video responses and feature them on your channel.  Do something, anything with video.  People like them, and if yours are good enough, they’ll talk about them.

Just remember, no marketing campaign is complete without a WOM component.  It might be difficult to get people started, but once you do, it will make all the difference.

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

The SEO building blocks consist of five key things to do.

There are obviously many things that you can do to for search engine optimization (SEO) but which should you focus on? Your time is valuable so I made a list of the top 5 things that you should do to maximize your time. In other words, why spend four hours on something when you can spend an hour on a task that should return 100x more value? Enough chatter, let’s get on the list:

• Write fresh content consistently! I’ve mentioned this in several previous posts, most recently at Blog about your niche. There is absolutely nothing more important than providing real value on your blog on a regular basis. So write, write, write. Set a goal of every other day or every weekday or every day. Just make sure you post useful information related to the theme of your blog a few times a week at a minimum. If your blog is about puppies, keep writing about puppies and skip the rant on politics.

•  Make your titles relevant. Having good, catchy titles are great. Having good, catchy titles with keywords related to your post is even better. So if your post is about losing weight, instead of “Shedding your unwanted fat” you could go with “Shedding the extra weight: lose 10 pounds in a month safely”.

•  Use keywords in your content. Don’t go crazy with this and scatter keywords unnecessarily (you will actually be penalized for that) but make sure you have some keywords in the body of your post. Imagine if I never actually wrote the words “search engine optimization” in this post, which is exactly what the post is about.

•  Have a logical site structure. This is pretty automatic if you use a good blogging platform (e.g. blogger or wordpress.com). However, if you are using custom themes or running your own blog on a separate host, that may change things a bit. Just make sure that your blog structure is organized so your directories and pages are easy to understand.

•  Use Google Analytics. It’s arguably the most useful analytical tool for your blog and it’s absolutely free! There’s no reason not to use Google Analytics. You can learn about where your visitors are from geographically, how long they are staying, what your traffic is this week compared to last week, how many other posts they are looking at, and much more. One important thing to monitor is which keywords are bringing them to your site. You could simply continue to utilize those keywords in future posts if you want to improve ranking for that niche.

None of this is groundbreaking. In fact, you should probably do these things for your readers anyway, not just for SEO purposes. And even though search engine algorithms change all the time, the aforementioned things to do have pretty much always been part of the core. It doesn’t mean you don’t need to do anything else either but if you only have time for 5 things, do these.

Backlinks, keywords in the URL, tags/categories, directories, social networking, microblogging, and a bunch of other tactics will come in due time. If you need help, find a niche partner to work with you. For example, if you’re looking to build a top online medical website, look for a company who has succeeded in developing those types of sites.

Happy blogging!

• Backlinks are, and always will be, critically important
• eHow: How much can you earn?
• Do Unto Others' Blogs As You Would Have Them Do Unto Yours

• SEO Tips for Blog Traffic Generation
• Permalink Structure without Dates
• Don't Just Write For Search Engines

Guest author Michael Evans tells us about his baiting techniques today.

Links, links, links… It drives me nuts, but being an online marketer, there is no escape from the stark reality that you need to get links to keep the ball rolling. Clients are obsessive about links and if this is not enough, they keep pressing you to get links from high PR sites, (I have got a client who once asked me to get backlink from Google) until you start creaking under its sheer pressure. Now, without any iota of doubt, links are still somewhat important but getting links by following the old and hackneyed techniques will not come to any help.  So, the only way out is Link baiting. Yah, I know it is time consuming to develop something unique and compelling before promoting it as a link bait. Failure to maintain quality can spell doom for the entire project. So, to make your task, easier, here we are going to list some infallible link baiting techniques that are time tested:

Infographics: Images are more powerful than words and probably infographic is the strongest evidence to proof it. A great infographic can go a long way to spread the message, which would otherwise take great effort from your side. Moreover, infograpghics are really handy tool to grab the attention of the users and that means, by publishing some informative and great looking infographics, you can increase your chance of getting links from some premium domains. First, you can submit the infographics in some sites and secondly, chances will be there that your infographics being posted in some high PR sites and you will get the credit for it in the form of a link back.

Ebook: eBook is another great way you can get some great quality backlink to your website. However, you need to be very particular that the ebook is offering some solutions to real life problem and is not filled up with fully information. Adding rewritten content in the ebook is not going to work for your website anymore as none would care to feature it as a piece of great art. Rather than rushing away with it, you need to clam down and give attention to quality otherwise, all your effort will come to naught. Have a great cover for your ebook and promote it heavily on social media and you are sure to get hold of success soon.

WordPress Plugin: Developing a wordpress plugin does not take a long time and unless your ambition is not too high, you can easily make a wordpress plugin up and running. Try some popular tutorials and you will be amazed to find how easy it is to develop it. Once it is up and running, you do not have to do much to promote it, as wordpress plugins are much in demand. If God permits, you will be rewarded for the good work you have done in the form of a backlink shared by some benevolent bloggers.

Free WordPress or Blogger Theme:  Since everyone around seems bitten by the bug of blogging, you can make the most of this trend by offering some great theme for both wordpress and blogspot blogs. Now, it makes sense to develop a theme related to your service, as chances will be there that the theme will be adopted by bloggers of similar niche. Just make sure that you have not forget to add links of your sites at the footer section of the wordpress blog and links will be coming from all walks of life. What more you may want?

Offer some Freebie: Offering freebies is a great way to attract attention of general people. You can offer some nice images or PSD files or you can develop a cool online tool like bulk PR checker or IP checker. Since people like to have freebies, people will be linking to your website automatically and this will help you see major uptick in ranking.

Did you try anything else and get through it? We will be glad to hear that please share your comments below:

Stephen Dedalus is an online consultant by profession and blogger by passion. He has written numerous articles and currently associated with webhostingdeals.org that offers best Web Hosting Deals.

Free Blog Help is honored to show episodes of Future of Publishing by Murray Newlands, the CEO & Founder of Influence People, and Oliver Roup, the CEO of VigLink. In the first episode, Roup and Newlands have an interview discussion with some of the tech industry’s leading experts in marketing and publishing:

• Yulia Smirnova, SEO Manager,
• Pirouz Nilforoush, President and CEO of NetShelter, and
• Paul Edmonson, CEO of HubPages.

Free Blog Help missed out on the first live episode, but we’ve gotten our hands on an edited version of the premiere. Check it out below:

Check out more on the Future of Publishing Facebook page.

Partial transcript:

Murray Newlands (host): Hello, I’m Murray Newlands, and you’re watching the Future of Publishing. Today’s show is brought to you in conjunction with BlogWorld and sponsored by VigLink. I’m here with my cohost, Oliver Roup from VigLink, as well as Paul from HubPages, and Yulia who’s SEO Manager for a large Internet brand, as well as Pirouz who’s the President of NetShelter, which is a company that represents over 200 of the biggest tech blogs in America. If you go to FutureOfPublishing.tv you can enter our competition to win an Amazon kindle and a hint to answer the questions on that (we’re an international crowd) Yulia’s from Russia originally, Oliver’s from Canada, I’m from the UK. I’d also like to thank out many syndication [and other] partners. I’ll run through a long list here, obviously Justin.tv, Justin.tv/futureofpublishing, BlogWorld, AdRants, Adotas, Growmap, Famousbloggers.net, Business2Community, VigLink blog, MurrayNewlands.com, NetShelter blog, and HubPages blog, as well as about 20 other sites out there, thank you very much, and also to Tagged for hosting us. Oliver, now to you!

Oliver Roup (host): Thanks very much. Now I thought I’d just start by asking you guys to describe the business you’re in, what you do, and how the business works.

Pirouz Nilforoush: So, an introduction, my name is Pirouz from NetShelter, and we’re a network of over 200 of the most influential technology blogs, and we really enable these blogs to focus on what they love doing, which is producing engaging content, and help them really monetize their content and connect them with brands.

Oliver Roup: Paul.

Paul Edmonson: HubPages is a top 60 website in the world, we’re a little over 50 million uniques, and it’s build by individuals: People who are just starting out publishing online that are sharing the things that they’re passionate about, the things that they know how to do really well, and then we combine a great monetization engine with it that help people build meaningful content streams.

Oliver Roup: Yulia.

Yulia Smirnova: Usually I help big companies to try to drive natural traffic to their site and optimize that site toward that channel, or sometimes I also look at site optimization and see what we can do on the pages to make conversion [rates] better.

Learn more by watching the show!

We have a mobile MMO article today from William Taylor.

Working on-line is steadily becoming a growing business as there is a wide variety of how and who can make money on-line.

So if wanting to pay off school loans, car payments, or credit card loans; or if just the thought of quitting the day job is very tempting; working online is a viable option. To help you get started on your freelancing career, there are online classes that can teach you different skills you can use to start working online.

Each person deserves a fair chance at entrepreneur happiness and the ability to make easier cash with one’s skills.

Freelancing

The ability to make money has expanded greatly since the dawning of the Internet. There are many different styles that allow one to earn an income with little to no investment. The most popular way to make easy money on-line is by running a blog. The main goal for bloggers is to focus solely on one topic, and continually back-link to the personal blog so Google Adsense pays them. Due to the Internet, there are people all over that can do small, simple tasks to make a nice income from working just a few hours a day.

Cottage Industry

It is possible to run a business on-line through means at home; which involves being able to produce, package, and even sell a product with little to no actual investment from the worker except time and skill. There is always a small need for shoppers who want to buy homemade knickknacks and such; soaps, candles, plush toys, and earrings just skim the top of the Internet iceberg. This is possible with the growing advancement of social media; Facebook and Twitter, and even Etsy, the marketing for homemade consumer goods is a booming market to make easy money on-line.

Students Can Do It To

High school and college students can benefit from this method of money making as well. By offering their skills as a tutor, not only are the capable of using their abilities to their fullest, they are also helping others in a time of need. This can be done either on-line, or through school, and home. Posting fliers or advertising on Facebook that one can tutor in certain areas is a great way to get the ball rolling.

Partner Up

Working on-line is also a great chance for friends to get together and open a small little business from home, and do the stuff the both of you enjoy. Having a partner in the process can also help save money, and the both of you can use the doubling of skills to bring in more work. Making business cards with e-mails and websites and posting a Facebook page for the business are both great ways to get the business noticed.

The opportunities to earn money on-line are endless. So if the goal is paying off bills or adding extra money to your wallet, take the time to think positively on what you can do in the now; push all negative thoughts aside and stay focused on the good. Think about how refreshing it would feel to wake up and know that the financial problems in life are solved with just a little bit of extra work. Being stressed over money is not a glamorous feeling, so just toss that stress out the door and focus on reeling in that extra cash.

The post is authored by William Taylor. William loves to gain knowledge on web designing, internet marketing and anything that provides him visual awakening. Visit his site to gain insights on internet and tv.

Today’s SEO post is from Jason Phillips.

It is never easy to figure out the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tips.  There are tons of SEO experts claiming to have the best tips on the market to assist with search engine results. There is so much information looming around on this topic that if you sat down to sort through it, it would take weeks to read it all.

I wanted to list some useful information about performing SEO.  These tips do not guarantee a first page Google result. The tips were created through tried-tips that work with determination and prove invaluable with improving search results.

Free SEO tips are your friend

There is a large misconception that SEO should always cost tons of money. There is no denying that expert SEO services are not cheap; however, there are plenty of SEO techniques that you can apply to websites, articles or blogs.

The free services include:

• Analyzing your competition with SEO tools that are free
• Shoring up your on page SEO
• Contact bloggers and invite them to write guest blogs
• Perform keyword research with a handy and free tool called “Google Keyword Tool”
• Write quality articles for your blog that will attract visitors and attract useful links

If you have the time to waste, there are tons of articles and blogs that give away free tips on search engine optimization. Ensure that you pay attention to what the writers have to say because the information is free.

Start locally with SEO

Sometimes people aim high with their SEO tactics, and this is a marvelous thing, but you should always start local to the place you live. If you live in Buffalo, New York, set your goals for keywords that begin with Buffalo.  This will prove specific to the place you live.

Targeting specific keywords will gain various clients sooner than later.  It proves useful because this will allow you to obtain referrals and positive testimonials. This proves better in the long-run instead of a quick fix.  Your goal should always be for long-term compared to short-term. This also makes it easier to track your SEO progress with keywords.  There is no quick-fix when performing SEO, no matter what anyone informs you. The process is typically slow, but this is ok as long as you are making process.

SEO is always a slow-but-sure process when performed correctly

No matter how hard you try to be with your SEO techniques, the process is always slow. No matter what the experts say, no one is able to rank number one on the first page of Google. Minimally, you have to prove yourself for more than a week for Google to pick up on your efforts.  If we are talking about top-keywords, it might take you or the company you are using a year or more.

Performing intelligent SEO tactics is more of an opportunity in comparison to a problem. Most webmasters will see that they have not made progress in days or weeks.  This might prove disappointing, but eventually, Google will place trust in your website. There is tons of junk floating around on the Internet and Google needs to see relevant backlinks consistently for a period of time. Most websites turn out to be junk, and this is a way for Google to wade through the trash. Do not give up when you do not see the fast results you hoped for. Sometimes, it takes Google a little time to improve your website, but with determination and perseverance, it will happen.

Bing SEO and Google SEO go together

A colossal mistake most SEO bloggers and writers make is they tend to believe that they must optimize their website for Bing and Google separately. Unbelievably, both these search engines have different algorithms. The fact is, their algorithms determine different, but it proves useless in trying to use different SEO strategies in ranking your website on both. What works for Google, will work for Bing, as well. Most of the differences involved are things that you cannot control reference domain names and others.

Focus on diversity

It does not matter the number of links you get; what matters is how many websites you get them from. Google enjoys viewing a collection of links on your website backlink profile.  Provide Google with these links and try to earn as many quality links from different websites as possible.

Read top online SEO forums

This tip does not require an exceptional education or software.  You literally only have to read. Some SEO experts will advise to stay away from forums. I disagree with this information because there is a generous group of people who will be happy to help you in your SEO endeavor. There is an abundance of free information on performing SEO on SEO forums. If you read and pay attention, you will be able to distinguish the beginners from the experts. Once you make this distinction, ensure that you pay attention to their forum postings. Word of caution, there are tons of garbage on SEO forums.  If you have the time, read all the information carefully and learn where to go to look for experienced SEO tips.

Do not ever give up

In order to achieve your goal, you must work hard and never give up. Great SEO techniques involve a lot of work.  Keep in mind the goal is to gain more clients and traffic than you can handle. Your hard work will eventually pay off in the long-run. Do not give up because the longer you remain committed and dedicated, the higher your chances will be that your opponents will eventually give up. Once they do, you will obtain your goal.

This Article has been written by Jason Phillips; Jason has a passion to do research and analysis on the web and to write about SEO Strategies, Visit Flash templates for more information.