Bing is the search engine by Microsoft, a company that, after having been outperformed by Google, is once again keen on boosting revenues and retaining users via search engine marketing. With Bing, Microsoft has so far succeeded, thanks largely to their mass Internet marketing and continued usage of their Internet Explorer web browser (whose default search engine is Bing). This is why your blog should be optimized for Bing, too – and not just Google. Otherwise, you might lose potential readers and leave potential profit on the table. If you’re a smart blogger, Internet marketing, SEO specialist, or social media professional, you’ll find ways to reach Bing users, too. Here are a few useful steps to help you do that. On-page / on-site optimization: Your first step is to work on optimizing your website and the pages within it. Here’s an on-page optimization checklist you can use: No Broken Links Correct Redirects H1 Tags For Headlines URL Friendly Pages Most – Read the full article
Congratulations, blogosphere. It seems that we have reached the point where 90% of the blogs out there have put either an E-mail address or a contact form onto the site. Gone, finally, are the days where readers or media would spend hours scouring the site to find out how to contact the writer or blog editor. A contact form isn’t enough, though. You need to offer readers a bigger glimpse into who you are and give them a few different ways to contact you. Bloggers are starting to realize this and you’re seeing more and more buttons and links to profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, About.Me, Facebook, and other sites. No, you don’t have to stick a link in your “about” page to your old photo album from Greek Week, but letting others know where to find you elsewhere online is a great way to promote your blog and personal brand. The communication barrier is a lot less significant in the – Read the full article
Blogs have increasingly become valuable multimedia hubs where personal bloggers and companies provide information through all types of media in various categories of interest. When bloggers write posts and get them published, they expect readers to find them. The fact, however, is that your blog is one among millions of others – probably even hundreds of millions – existing in the Web universe. Instead of waiting to be discovered, you need to find a way of telling the world that you exist. The best way of doing this is to promote your blog to social media sites. Once your post is published at your ‘hub’, you should let your followers and fans find the post where they hang out. With more than 200 million Twitter users and about 800 million on Facebook, having your post promoted through social media is crucial in giving your blog much needed exposure. There are several major platforms where you can publish and enable people – Read the full article
Blogs are here to stay. (Call them “online magazines” if you’re not used to the portmanteau.) But gone are the days when you just signed up, went for the simplest blog theme or layout, added some cute Dear Diary posts, and suddenly had everyone finding you. These days, you’ve got to stand out. And standing out takes more than signing up for an account in your favorite blogging platform. (Our favorite, of course, is WordPress.) Go for something that will differentiate you – and which will also reflect your identity well. That’s why we came up with this list: to help you find the appropriate look of your WordPress blog, whether it’s a simple company news blog, a photo blog, an online magazine, a video blog, a friendly community for your fans and followers, a social media hub, or a tumblog. If you like this list of online magazine / blog-friendly WordPress themes, share the love by tweeting it, posting – Read the full article
Facebook is all about building relationships – and so is your blog. So are they a match made in heaven? Should you shell out some of your hard-earned cash to buy advertising for your blog on Facebook? It could be a smart move. Statistics show that Facebook advertising is more effective at relationship marketing than it is at direct selling. Besides, compared to many other forms of advertising, Facebook is low-cost, but any money you spend needs to be cost-effective. That means creating ads that stand out from the crowd, that reaches your target audience, and that drives traffic to your blog. Sound like a big order? When you’re creating your Facebook ad, remember these 3 tips and you’ll increase your chances of success. Know Who You Want to Reach One key to successful online marketing is getting your message to the right people and Facebook lets you choose your target audience. Even before creating your Facebook ad, decide who – Read the full article
When creating your first blog, you probably dream about having an engaged fan base that would check your site every day, waiting impatiently to read your valuable opinions or thoughts. If you were like most new bloggers, you were more than a little disappointed when barely anyone left a comment and your traffic statistics left a lot to be desired. If you still haven’t found a great way to promote your blog, try one or more of these techniques to drive traffic to your site: Blog Everyday – or Almost Everyday Google and the other search engines love fresh content. The more often you post, the higher your rankings will go. If you apply a little keyword strategy, you’ll soon soar to the top of the search page! Fresh content also keeps your fans coming back for more. If they like what they read, they’ll tune back in for the next edition. If they become disappointed by how long it – Read the full article
It’s that time of the year once again: the time to make lists, review what has happened in the last twelve months, and look back at some of the year’s highlights. It’s no different here at Lakeshore Branding. As you probably know by now, we’re very passionate about all things online. And that’s why we work hard to bring you news, trends, tips, tricks, and the occasional top secrets on Internet marketing, social media, technology and apps, etc. So, as 2010 comes to a close and we herald the coming of a new year, we thought it would be a cool idea to check out Lakeshore Branding’s top 5 blog posts of 2010. 60 Awesome Small Business WordPress Themes This blog post was inspired by the small business owners who are dedicated to finding solutions to enhance their visibility online. And since we were getting a lot of questions about where they might find business-oriented WordPress themes, or how they – Read the full article
We all get it from time to time: blogger’s block. Like we’ve completely run out of ideas for our blog or website. Like we’ve completely run out of time. Drinking gallons of coffee to no avail; staring at a blank screen for hours; pressing “Save Draft” over and over when, sadly, there isn’t really any “draft”. And with the onset of this “writerly” disease, we wonder: will traffic go down? Will readers soon unsubscribe? Will my online presence suffer from this inability to generate creative, engaging blog content? What about my business? Have I turned into a vegetable? It’s a scary thought, especially considering that one of the best ways to gain visibility, name or brand recognition, and search-engine love in this information-crazy world is to write or blog as best as you can. Calm down. Throw your worry about your writing room window. And beat blogger’s block by following these great tips below: Keep an idea journal. You never – Read the full article
