Content Creation Equals Inbound Marketing Results

Inbound Marketing. That's a term that's been getting more popular over the past couple of years, but what is it exactly? Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers. It is similar to other recent concepts: relationship marketing and Seth Godin's idea of permission marketing. David Meerman Scott recommends that marketers “earn their way in” via publishing helpful information on a blog etc,  in contrast to outbound marketing where they used to have to “buy, beg, or bug their way in”  via paid advertisements, issuing press releases in the hope they get picked up by the trade press, or paying commissioned sales people, respectively.  Not only does that make conversions a bit easier and more tightly targeted, it helps spread your expertise across the web. Paid ads rarely build a marketers reputation as much as published content.

So content seems to be the key to getting inbound leads. Content can be carefully crafted by savvy marketers to push subtle ideas and information to a targeted audience. We noted blog posts in the above definition, but let's take a look at other content marketing strategies.

Webinars: this is one of the most popular forms of content marketing due to the dynamic way in which it teaches people. Videos and graphics married with an audio presentation or even a webcam can make critical points to your audience like no other medium.

Articles: the written word still stands as the most prolific way to publish content on the web.  The well-crafted word can make a huge impression when done right, but articles have long been a search engine favorite due to the fresh and deep content. Written content is still the easiest way to get good search engine placement.

Online videos: the fastest growing medium on the web is dynamic, fun and interactive.  It can show visual information best: how to use software and programs, offer testimonials and record stage presentations. Online video is also become a fast favorite of search engines due to the popularity of Youtube and mobile devices.

Tweets, Facebook and Comments: micro-blogging isn't just the toy of celebrities and 13 year-old girls. Smart marketers have been using these popular and powerful social networking tools to spread the message of their services and expertise. It's easy to talk about yourself, but trying to stuff interesting content in 160 characters or less can be a challenge.

There are more ways to spread content around the web that can bring an avalanche of interested leads. Find out how you can take control of this powerful medium for yourself.

Setting Up Your Website With WordPress

Setting Up Your Website With WordPress

Setting Up a WordPress Website

Setting Up Your WordPress Website

If you are new to WordPress you may find it to be a bit overwhelming to understand. This article will help you get started with setting up your WordPress website.

First off, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a static website or blog. The WordPress software is free and can either be downloaded from WordPress.org and manually installed on your server, or you can install it directly from within your hosting account.

Setting up your WordPress site is fairly easy and should only take several minutes to complete. Here are the simple steps to take:

  1. Register your domain name.
  2. Set up a website hosting account.
  3. Install the latest version of WordPress.

Register Your Domain Name

There are two places you can register your domain name. One place would be a domain registration company, and the other would be your hosting provider. It would be much simpler to purchase your domain from your hosting provider versus a registration company simply because you eliminate the extra steps of having to change the Nameservers. And most new website owners don't have a clue of what a Nameserver is.

At the moment you can find a domain name for under $10 per year.

Sign Up With Website Hosting

Next you will need to purchase a web hosting account. You can find reliable and cheap web hosting for under $7 per month. An excellent place to start is by visiting GreatInternetMarketing.com. The majority of web host support WordPress, but be sure to check before signing up for their service.

Installing WordPress

You have two choices when installing WordPress to your host, an automatic install or manual install. The easiest and quickest way is by using the automatic installation wizard your host provides. If you choose to install manually you will have to download the WordPress software, manually setup your database, then upload all the files for installation.

Upon completion of the installation you receive a link to your WordPress administration login page. Here you will be able to login, access and manage your website or blog. You will be able to change your websites design layout, theme and add content to your pages.

For more complete information on setting up a WordPress website, I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginiahttp://imtcva.org , and please don’t forget to download the FREE career brochure!

How Often Should You Blog?

Blogging is currently a very hot trend.  It cannot be ignored if you are doing any sort of marketing on the Internet. Well written blog posts create valuable content that show your expertise. An active blog shows that you are current in your industry. Daily posting proves that your site is important to the search engines and the public.

Blog Fresh Content

The biggest reason blogging is hot right now is that it ranks very well with search engines. But let's not ignore the truth that blogging is just a great way to get information out and connect with people. The Internet has put a severe hurting on printed materials and one of the reasons is because that something is published on the Internet instantly.  With RSS feeds, Facebook and Twitter sharing, hundreds, thousands, even MILLIONS of people could actually be aware of your content in a matter of moments.  It becomes obvious that it is important to have well written articles at this point, since the information is available so quickly and by so many people.

Blog Tightly Focused Content

While it's possible that a huge number of people will have immediate access to your content—and some will delayed access as people check-in to their Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts—not all these people will be eager to read your content. Especially if it doesn't catch them right away.  You want to make sure that when people come looking for your material later, it is tightly focused and available to be found through search engines.  The tighter the focus of the article, the more likely it will be to score well.  Stick to a few terms that are important and complimentary to your topic at hand, especially when optimizing for search engines.

Interaction With Readers / Customers

Remember the reason you are writing is for your audience.  You are giving them information, even if that information is only for their entertainment purposes—let's call that gossip or daydreaming. Daily blogging will help build up that rapport with your readers, even if they never reach out to communicate directly with you, they are still accessing your content. Give them something of value—in the form of information or their guilty pleasures, there are certainly A LOT of sites out there doing that on a daily basis—and they will be more inclined to come back, read through your content, and SHARE your content with their friends.  Make them laugh and you have them right where you want them.

Blog to Keep Them Coming Back for More

Remember, you have to entice your readers with fresh content, that is tightly focused and appeals to your target audience.  When these conditions are met, your site will spread through social sharing and find value in search engines that will allow the content to be relevant and valuable even past the immediate moment of sharing.

Internet Marketing Training Center – Blog Linking In Your Posts

When posting to your blog, don't forget to put a clickable link towards the bottom of the post with a call to action. This call to action can be a text link saying for example:

* Change Your Life. Free Info!
* Get Your Free “Killer Website Designs” Ebook!
* Make $5000 Every Time You Speak!
* Learn The 7 Steps To Leadership Success!
* Find Love In 90 days Or Less!

or any call to action that relates to your business. The point is, your blog post is full of great content. Reward your reader with additional content such as a free white paper, report or special training that they will reward you back with by leaving their email or buying a product. You should at least get the visitors email to build your database, so that you can market to them throughout the year.

What happens if there is no call to action link? The reader may read a few of the posts, get reminded of something they read somewhere else and disappear. What about your opt-in box at the top of your blog? As they scroll down to read additional posts, that box disappears from their line of sight, and they may forget all about it. Those opt-in boxes at the top right corner of your blog are notoriously weak for sign ups. A link to a “freebie” or further training embedded in the post, while they are still engaged in the material they are reading, is far more effective.

Don't let the reader get away without giving you their email address. It takes alot of work to get them to your blog in the first place. The blog is not the “end point” of your marketing, your opt-in or sales letter is. The blog creates interest in your business or service, and quality posts can entice the reader to make a further decision or conversion. Not only that, the search engines love “anchor text” or clickable links made of keywords. Don't leave links that just have your URL or “click here.” Use a strong call to action and reward your reader with addtional quality info and they will give you something in return.

Start your life changing education right now! (See how we did that?!)

Blogging: How to Get the Most from Your Blog

Is your blog consistently reaching your target readers? If not, it could be because you are not fully acquainted with your blogging software. Invest the time to learn the features of the software, even it means hiring a professional blog coach or buying a book on the subject.

Here are some additional tips:

  • Post about two to three times a week y to develop a following.
  • Include keywords in the headlines so the search engines can find you.
  • Familiarize yourself with your niche market so you can provide valuable tips and information.
  • Write content that makes people think, respond and react. Take some risks to reach their emotions so they will want to come back to read your next entry and tell their friends about your blog.
  • Post brief articles. Long postings can bore your readers.
  • Add a subscription form so visitors can sign up for your blog.

To discover where you can learn more about blogging, visit http://imtcva.org/program/

Blogging: New to Blogging? Learn the Language

According to Wikipedia, blogging has been around since 1997 and people started using blogs globally in 1999. If you are new to blogging, learning the language and familiarizing yourself with terms bloggers commonly use may take the mystery out of setting up your first Internet marketing blog.

  • Blog
    Blog is short for weblog and is similar to an online journal. Basically, it is a website where the owner of the blog can make regular entries and visitors can post their comments. Blog postings may be comments, photos or videos and may be organized by date, by topic, by subject, or in any way that makes sense for you and your readers. They are usually displayed with the most recent postings at the top of the page.
  • Post
    Every entry in the blog is called a post and each post usually has a title and content, as well as other parts. The content may be text, images, links, and videos. Every post has a publication timestamp, and most also have categories, tags and comments. The latest post is displayed first so the reader will see the latest public speaking news first.
  • Categories and tags
    Categories and tags organize posts and make it easier for the reader to find information within the blog. While categories are like topics, tags are more like keywords.
  • Comments
    Blogs usually let visitors post comments about the posts. This gives readers the opportunity to interact with the writer of the blog and enter into an online discussion, which others readers may join.
  • Permalinks
    Permalinks are user-friendly URLs. Permalinks, a WordPress term, make it easier for search engines such as Google and Yahoo to catalog blog posts. Each post on a blog has a unique ID and permalinks provide a way to link directly to a post. A formatted link, a permalink usually has some form of the title in the link. For example, a post with the title Everything You Wanted to Know about Public Speaking might have the permalink myblog.com/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-public-speaking.
  • Theme
    The design and layout you select for your blog is called a theme. Since the content of your blog is usually separate from the theme, you can change the layout of your blog at any time without having to worry about the content being affected.
  • RSS
    RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS and feeds are a way to distribute the content of your blog so that people can subscribe to it. This means people do not actually have to visit your blog regularly to see what you've added. They can subscribe and have new content delivered to them by email or through a feed reader.
  • Page
    When blogging, it's important that you understand the difference between a web page and a post. While posts depend on having timestamps, web pages do not. Web pages are not displayed in chronological order and they do not have categories or tags. A web page only has a title and content (for example, About Me or Contact Us). The number of pages on your site remains relatively static, whereas new posts are added every day or so. Pages have static content, while posts have dynamic content