How to Rock the Blogosphere In 3 Simple Steps by Guest Blogger Adam Costa

The following post reveals my simple three-step process I use to find authoritative blogs, produce quality content and promote them across the web (without spending too much time and/or money).

Let’s take a look at each step…

How to Find Authoritative Blogs

There are two things guest posting should provide you with: traffic and links. Therefore, it’s important to find blogs which have plenty of traffic and offer high-quality links.

To do this, you’ll need two toolbars:

• SEOBook toolbar
• SEOMoz toolbar

Both can be downloaded – and used – for free using Firefox.

Below is a screenshot of the SEOBook toolbar:

This toolbar pulls data from a number of sources, though Monthly Uniques is what we’re mostly interested in. This is an estimate on how many unique visitors this site receives each month. Please keep in mind this is an estimate only; on my own sites (where I can compare this number against my analytics) my traffic levels are actually three to four times greater. So if the toolbar states 5K monthly uniques, that site may have 15 – 20K uniques.

Generally, if the toolbar reports 5K then I know this blog has some decent traffic, and will (hopefully) move some eyeballs to my own blog.

Of course, placement matters too. Some blogs may place your post immediately into a category page (in which case look for higher traffic to offset this).

Once you’ve established a blog’s traffic levels, it’s time to measure the value of its links for SEO purposes. High quality links will move your site up in the search engines for various search terms. While there are innumerable ways to measure authority, the SEOMoz toolbar makes this super-simple.

Here’s a screenshot:

Notice how this toolbar measure page and domain authority. Both have their place, but for guest posts we’re interested in domain authority.

Based on a scale of 1 – 100 (with 100 being highest), the SEOMoz toolbar measures a blog’s overall authority. It’s a logarithmic scale, so going from 30 to 40 is much easier than going from 80 to 90.

Try to post on blogs with a minimum domain authority of 40. Obviously, the higher the better, but you do have to start somewhere. Most top blogs like to see proof of your work before accepting any official pitches.

Once you’ve selected (and landed) a guest post opportunity, it’s time to…

Plan (and Write) Your Post

The first thing I write is the headline. I’ve never seen this mentioned anywhere, but it does me a world of good.

Why? Because the headline forces you to target your audience. Consider the following two headlines:

• How to Get More Visitors to Your Blog
• 5 Free Ways to Get More Traffic Using Social Media

Which would be easier to write? Both headlines provide a goal (“get more traffic”) but the second also provides the method (“using social media”), a specific number (“5”), and an added benefit (“free”). With such a targeted headline, you know exactly what will work in this post. It’s also more likely to catch a reader’s eye.

When it’s time to write, implement the (10 + 2) *5 technique from 43folders. Basically, you divide an hour into five 12 minute sections. In each section you write non-stop for ten minutes, then rest for two (I usually stare off into space, but that’s me). Then, BURST into another ten minute typing tirade followed by two more minutes space-time.

Try it out; you’ll be amazed by the results.

Promote Your Post

The whole purpose of a guest post is to build traffic and links, right? So why not lend a helping hand and promote your own post?

The following are easy ways to help spread the word:

• Tweet the post (and re-tweet the blog’s tweet)
• Like it on Facebook
• Bookmark it
• Link to it in other guest posts (but only if it’s relevant!)
• Comment on other related blog posts
• Mention it in forums
• Record yourself reading the post, publish on video and audio sites

Now this may seem like a lot of work, but Pixelpipe lets you submit to over 100 sharing sites from one simple interface. It’s time-consuming to set up, so consider hiring someone from Fiverr or eLance to create the accounts for you.

Conclusion

Guest posting works. But it works so much better when you follow this system. It helps you find higher quality blogs, write quality content faster and promote it across dozens of channels with ease.

What are your ideas for improvement? Let me know in the comments section below!

Thank you Adam for leading by example with a great guest blog post!

Why Your “Go-to” Web Marketing Tactics May Let You Down
*guest blogger Amanda DiSilvestro

Unfortunately, some of the same problems at home can transfer into the workplace—the biggest problem being change. Change is obviously a good thing, and a necessary thing, but it certainly has its share of problems. You remember when you used to expect your children to listen to you; then the teenage years hit; you remember when your 8th grade teacher let you turn in your homework one day late; then high school hit; you remember when you knew your big, strong SUV would take you to work on time; then the neighbor’s bigger SUV hit. Things in your business can change just as fast as the things going on in your life, and internet marketing is among the fastest.

The reason there are so many blogs giving advice about Internet marketing is because change happens so rapidly. Best marketing practices are changing, and it takes the efforts of many to inform small businesses and entrepreneurs of these changes. For those who are new to the Internet marketing world, whether a new manager, new business owner, or recent graduate, it is imperative that they get up to date information. For those who are veterans at the Internet marketing game, it is imperative that they do not get set in their ways.

The truth of the matter is this: There are certain aspects of Internet marketing that you can no longer count on to work for your business. In other words, if you’re assuming these factors of internet marketing are not going to let you down, think again.
Below lists a few factors that you should no longer count on when it comes to your web marketing campaigns:

Don’t Expect These Concepts to Do Your Company Right:
–Email addresses are not as available as they used to be
When web marketing started, people were more inclined to give out their email address because there was not nearly as much spam to be had. This allowed your company to send out newsletters and messages to anyone who might be interested. Now, people are extremely hesitant to give out their email address in fear that their inboxes will be filled with spam or unwanted, annoying daily messages. In other words, you can no longer assume that you will have a good email list when it comes to email marketing, so your efforts now need to also be on convincing potential customers (and even existing customers) why they should subscribe to your email list.

–The way we surf the web has changed
The past few years have given us smartphones and IPads. This is something that now has to be taken into consideration when starting an email marketing campaign. While it used to be a given that your campaign would be viewed on a large computer screen, you can no longer use this assumption. Consider your font, images, and audio when creating a campaign. Would they be easily seen and clearly heard on a tiny screen?

–People are now used to customized messages, products, and even websites
More competition has grown in the world of email marketing, and people are starting to pick up on the fact that the Internet allows you to be more selective when trying to lure in customers (e.g. local search marketing). While the past encouraged a company to market to everyone on a large scale, the current economy forces companies to use websites and tactics that will market only to people interested. If you continued to market wherever you wanted and ignored the opportunity to customize your messages and narrow your audience, your money would be wasted.

–You can no longer count on a simple good piece of content
If content is what you want people to read, the simple quality of it may no longer be enough. People are being bombarded with podcasts and flashy images, not to mention the fact that Americans today are moving at a faster pace. While your web marketing has always needed something to grab the attention of readers, this idea has been amplified.

Overall, there are tons of staples that will (most likely) always been a necessity when it comes to email marketing—good content, organization, clear contact information, carefully placed links, etc. However, knowing these few items that have changed are crucial in keeping your web marketing efforts successful.  However you want to look at it, change is necessary. When my high school teacher told me late homework was no longer acceptable, I did not stand there and try to prove her wrong—sometimes change can be good.

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to telemarketing.She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including b2b telemarketing to small businesses and entrepreneurs at Business.com.

Getting Great Hosting – Without Breaking the Bank
By WMT Guest Blogger: Sebastian Brown of Rackspace.com

Sometimes it seems like paying for website hosting is like literally buying up some real estate. It’s true that websites can be a powerful investment. However, not all of us have million dollar webmaster budgets to throw around. Getting great hosting doesn’t have to mean taking out a second mortgage. Just like the $7.00 domain you picked up, hosting can be cheap as long as you use cloud hosting options. It’s no accident that cloud hosting solutions are the most popular hosting plans on the Internet – here’s why.

Your Kindergarten Teacher Was Right All Along

If you are willing to share, you can pick up some cheap hosting by using public cloud hosting. Think of hosting like a gigantic pizza. Everyone wants to eat a slice – but not everyone needs an entire pizza to themselves. With public cloud hosting, you share virtual servers (or hard drives hooked up to the Internet) with other web sites. When one server is full, your data filters onto another one instantly. With public cloud hosting, you can scale your resource requirements on-demand. Whether you have a gigantic web sites or a little five page mini-site, you can use public cloud hosting to pay for only the memory and processing power that you use.

It’s not all good news though. There are some disadvantages to public cloud hosting that might make you think about buying your own pizza. For instance:

Public cloud hosting does not let you choose where your data is stored. So, your valued paparazzi picture of Jennifer Lopez eating a bagel will be stored right alongside someone else’s pictures of their new baby. You never really know which server has your data.  You don’t get the super processing power of managed private cloud hosting with public hosting. In most cases, public cloud hosting limits data transfer to around 10 MB a second. While this won’t make much of a difference for small web sites, a site like YouTube would be devastated.  Your information is secure – to a point. Public cloud hosting provides you with just as much security as any other normal web site. However, you may be legally required to have a firewall in place to protect financial information, government data or private personal information – like employee profiles, for example.

Then Again, That Was Kindergarten – This Is Business

If you can’t stand the idea of sharing that pizza, you aren’t immediately doomed to add a few zeros to that hosting check. Managed private cloud hosting (also known as enterprise cloud) is a great alternative because it can be used as a virtualization layer – meaning you don’t have to have your own physical server room – you can just buy space from other people that do. When you get right down to it, every little Tweet and Email on the Internet has to be stored on some physical server. There isn’t just magical memory floating around.

With managed private cloud hosting, you get faster data transfer speeds (usually at least 100 MB per second at the minimum), higher security and your own set of servers where you can control the data storage. You also get to manage multiple servers to host multiple web spaces. Of course, managed private cloud hosting also has a few costs that you should think about:

You can’t scale your resources like with public cloud hosting. Sure, you can also get more server space – but it’s not instant and you might end up paying for space you don’t always use. You usually have to enter a contract. It costs money to dedicate a server to one person. If you take off 2 weeks later, the server owners can’t justify the cost of deleting or transferring your data.

For most new web masters, public cloud hosting is just fine. There seems to be a dark “cloud” hanging over public cloud hosting where people consider their data to just be out there for any amateur hacker to steal. This just isn’t true. If you don’t have a big budget and just want to start up a site but have no idea how much memory you need, you can use public cloud hosting. However, managed enterprise cloud hosting has become much more affordable than it used to be and it can help build your web site into the mega-site it’s destined to become.

No related posts.

I had the pleasure of having Julian Eisner (from Germany) in my Web Marketing class in UCSB and he kindly gave me permission to share his thought leadership on web marketing.  THANKS JULIAN!  Enjoy Julian’s words of webdom and this brilliant analogy to boost your marketing!

Author: GUEST BLOGGER Julian Eisner
It’s time to change your web marketing!

There are many reasons why some businesses still do not apply the new rules of web marketing. First, individuals as well as businesses might still be afraid of using web marketing because they feel that they lack the knowledge and the resources necessary to compete in the World Wide Web. Second, they simply do not want to change their old habits and continue relying on the marketing strategies which they always followed. However, these might not be as effective in the 21 century as they used to be. Third, the do not realize the outstanding opportunities that web marketing may provide, no matter what size the company is.  Now, what can web marketers and consultants do to help such companies to get over their reluctance towards the new rules of marketing?

My major back home in Germany is International Business Administration with focus on change management, i.e. how to implement changes within your organization as well as how to make an impact in order to change your organization as a whole. My goal is to show what web marketers do so that businesses overcome their initial aversion towards web-marketing, for whatever reason.

Therefore, the 8-step-change model by John Kotter, professor at the Harvard Business School, will be modified for the specific needs of changing a company’s web marketing.  Change management theory can help web marketers to engage businesses to proactively play a role in the e-marketplace to enhance their performance, customer satisfaction and results significantly.  Moreover, there are tips provided for web-marketers and consultants how they might support and convince their clients in each stage of the change process.

8-step change model by Kotter (1996)

Level 1 – Creating the climate for changing your web-marketing

1. Increase the Urgency
The first thing a change manager has to do is to create awareness for change. Businesses as well as their representatives must face the fact that it is very likely more dangerous to continue “business as usual” than to take a chance and try some new ideas. Some people might come up with excuses like: “Oh, we have never blogged; our company doesn’t have a Facebook account”. But not doing something right now must not mean to never get it started! Of course, nobody wants a company to completely give up on the marketing that still works well for them. And in this early stage of the process, harsh criticism of the current practices might even add to the client’s aversion towards web marketing. However, the client must the opportunities he/she is missing by not actively participating in the web. Soon or later, his business might be pushed aside by its competitors. At the end of the stage, a client should have the feeling that time is running out and that the conviction becomes firm that something has to be done.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Evidence from outside: Come up with best-practice examples of how competitors or other companies in similar industries succeed with web marketing. Showing a client the superiority of the competitor’s web marketing certainly increases his willingness to take on action!

2. Building guiding teams
In order to build a great site, for instance, web marketers, designers and site engineers must work closely together. However, only if all parties act in concert, a great design, usability and visibility will eventually come together. Therefore, web marketers should assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort.  Maybe you have already figured out which persons in the company who are already taken with the idea of changing their web marketing. Attract these persons as key change leaders by showing enthusiasm and commitment. Key change leaders do not only carry the project, they can also help convince the more reluctant team members.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Be passionate about web marketing! Show them how web marketing helped your business to thrive. Your enthusiasm might spread over to your client.

3. Get the vision right
A vision statement outlines what the organization wants to be. Consultants should help their clients to create a realistic “web vision” to help direct the change effort.  If your client is a jeweler in Santa Barbara, your vision should not be to become nr 1 on “jewelry” in Google Search. However, “jeweler Santa Barbara” might seem a more realistic and more effective search engine term for your customer. Help to develop strategies for achieving that vision, e.g. creating great content on your site, engaging in search engine optimization etc.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Keep it simple: Make the company focus on what is essential for their business to thrive, e.g. their unique selling position, and how they can create and present customer value in the web.

Level 2 – Engaging and enabling the organization

4. Communication for buy-in
Once a clear vision has been established, web marketers now can focus on build alignment and engagement within the organization they are consulting. You can feel free to use every vehicle possible to communicate and promote the new vision and strategies for web-marketing within the client’s company.  For web marketing, communication also means introducing. Introduce and teach employees who never used web marketing and social media tools before to its advantages and benefits. Make sure to keep the communication simple and heartfelt. Get insecure employees on board by addressing their needs and providing them with help! In a second stage, employees who have experienced a sense of achievement with a social media tool might become communicators of the new approach to other employees.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Communicate with social media tools so that your client becomes accustomed to it. For instance, write a blog about your new web vision and how you are planning to enable action.

5.  Enable action
Remove obstacles to the change! For instance, if your client is lacking the technical knowledge, do something about it, either by hiring or training or think about soliciting professional help! For whatever reasons there are obstacles in your way of succeeding in the World Wide Web, work hard to change systems and or structures that work against the vision.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Help to self-help! In this stage of the change process, the client should learn to do more and more on his own initiative. The consultant should adopt a more supportive role rather than pushing the client and keeping them dependent….

Brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people! (Randy Pausch)

6. Create short term wins
In this stage of the change process, you should plan for and achieve visible performance improvements. No matter if you want to increase your search visibility, enhance the design of your web site or update your e-mail list, share the results with everybody! Make sure that the improvements you made are not only recognized by the client’s customers, but also within the organization. It’s hard for those who are still doubtful and biased about web marketing to argue against hard, visible facts.  Besides, recognize and reward those involved in bringing the improvements to life, because these employees will continue their effort once the feeling of success has confirmed their confidence in the new tools of web marketing.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Step by Step! To see how the client’s company climbs up the latter in Google search by adapting the new rules and techniques of web marketing visibly shows the positive effects of your effort.

Level 3 – Implementing and sustaining the change

7. Don’t let up
Now that you have created trust, motivation and credit for new marketing tools within your client’s organization, the web marketing of your client does not run like clockwork, but still needs to be actively and professionally supported by the web marketer. If you don’t go forwards you go backwards! Reinforce the behaviors shown that led to the improvements. Therefore, continue allocating resources within the organization for steps that turned out to be successful and monitor how the employees improve their web-marketing-skills.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Monitor and track! Implement Google Analytics for your clients to see which actions taken were successful and what the issues to focus on in the future are.

8. Make it stick
In this final stage of the change management process, articulate the connections between the new behaviors and corporate success! Now that your client has successfully adapted new web marketing tools that suited his business the best, don’t stop mentioning who much the company has improved since the time you came here. Motivate the client to continue improving his web-marketing and keep him up-to-date with recent, interesting web marketing tools that might help his business.

Tip for Web Marketers:
Keep contact with your client! Both your client and you will gain mutual benefits!

This 8-step model is a good initial guideline of how web marketers and consultants can proceed in a change management process. First, web marketers have to create a positive climate for change so that the client is willing to change his/her web-marketing. Second, engage and enable the organization with the ability to compete in the e-marketplace. In the final stage, implement and sustain the changes you achieved and focus on continuous improvement.
However, every change management project remains unique and has to be modified to meet the specific needs of every client the best.  The most important thing is that at the end of the process, your client is ready to “set sail” and explore his new business opportunities with the “web-marketing ship” you built together.

Julian – THANK YOU for a great contribution and so many points to ponder!