Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

ReTweets – What are They?

First, what is a ReTweet (RT)? When someone ReTweets they are sharing interesting tweets from the people they are following with their own followers. Thus, the a Tweet becomes a Retweet.

Here’s an example of an RT: (The blue areas are  linked inside Twitter)

RT @kendraboo If you live anywhere near Murray Indiana, @kendraboo is gonna be playing a top secret lil show at Midnight Café on Elms St.

This RT is then ReTweeted over and over again by anyone who lives in Murray Indiana, thus it goes viral and hundreds of people show up at the Midnight Café on Elms St. Which could be good or really bad if the show stinks or there are only 30 seats available for a hungry crowd of 200 people waiting to hear the show.

The benefits of RT’s can be from both sides of the coin. First, when you RT worthy Twitters, your followers will soon learn that it’s worth while to pay attention to your Tweets.

The second benefit of RT’s is when you personally share something of great value, your followers will then RT your Tweets.

How to ReTweet to Your Followers

It’s pretty simple. Just click on the Tweet you want Retweeded, and you’ll see an option to Retweet appear. Watch the video below to see just how simple it is to Retweet.

It’s a sweet way to Tweet.

Retweet Twitter Resources – Say that 3 times really fast!

To get the most out of RT’ing, check out these two resources:

TweetMeme WP Plugin – A WordPress button that allows your visitors to Tweet your post to their followers. You can see an example at the top right hand side of each post in my blog. Read about the TweetMeme button plugin on this site, or visit the official site at Tweetmeme.com.

Retweetradar: Retweetradar finds trends in the mountains of information ‘retweet’ed on Twitter. You can follow the Retweetradar by clicking this link à> http://twitter.com/#!/retweetradar

You can follow this Social Networking 101 series as it progresses, become a follower à> http://twitter.com/#!/netwoozy. Currently the series focus is on Twitter with new posts in the series every Friday.  This is the second post in the Twitter basics series.

Here’s a quick video on how to Retweet using the new version of Twitter.

Are you looking for ways to build a business online? Frustrated from trying a few different programs and never seeing a dime for your efforts? You’re not alone. Building a business online requires a few things that are not really covered in the How-To-Make-Money-Online guides.

The reason for this is because most people are hungry for the fast buck. They don’t want to take the time to really understand what it takes to make money on the Internet. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be covering a weekly series on something referred to as the S M A R T system.

Building a Business Online
Using the SMART System

S: Specific, Significant, Stretching & Simple

M: Measurable & Manageable

A: Attainable, Attitude, Appropriate, Achievable, Assignable & Ambitious

R: Relevant, Results, Results-focused, Results-oriented

T: Time-bound, Time framed, Time-Specific, Trackable

These are things that I personally need to work on. Most likely you need some guidance here too. I’ve been able to succeed at making money online, but I’ve not quite reached the financial goal I want to hit.

My Personal Goal – To Build Multiple Online Assets

Right now I make the majority of my money providing SEO services for other people. Instead of helping other people make more money online by ranking their sites high in Google, I want to build Netwoozy.com into what I had originally intended it to be.

A website to help Inter-NET Woozy entrepreneurs.

I’ll be covering this subject every Monday. The perfect day to set your goals for the week.

Friday I’ve reserved for Social Networking 101.

I haven’t set a goal for the rest of the weekdays yet, but I’ll get there soon.

If you’re wanting to improve your online business, before you jump in and make a big splash, you really need to learn what you’re getting into. It’s going to require some planing and goal setting.

You can follow me on Twitter @netwoozy to learn when I add a new SMART post.

Anchor-text Strategies

Exact Match VS Match Variants

For many years the strategy for anchor-text linking has been to create an exact match for the desired keyword phrase to rank well in the search engines. This exact keyword phrase would then be used over and over again within all areas of SEO, both on-page SEO as well as off-page SEO, for backlinking hypertext and anchor-text links.

Over time, these methods had to be tweaked here and there to keep up with the changing of the search engine algorithms. However, little change was made regarding anchor-text links.

In 2011 Google introduced the highly intelligent Panda algorithm, with an ever- increasing content evaluation IQ. The goal of this algorithm is pretty simple: to deliver the best user-friendly search engine experience while obtaining the most relevant as well as beneficial results.

There has been a lot of speculation and rumor about how to rank well in the search engines during these changes. However, if we want to know how Google’s new Panda thinks, the best way to figure things out is to go directly to the source.

Matt Cutts – Anchor-Text Variant Strategy

Matt Cutts is one of Google’s representatives who assists webmasters in understanding what they need to do in order to make Google’s new Panda algorithm happy. I was reading one of his blog posts today about how to write useful articles and within this article I found a wonderful gem of information.

Pay attention to his little bit of advice regarding keyword anchor-text links:

“I’d recommend thinking more about words and variants (the “long-tail”) and thinking less about keyword density or repeating phrases.” Matt Cutts, Writing Useful Articles that Users Will Love.

This helps us understand where our thinking should be when it comes to creating SEO content, anchor-text links, and on-page SEO. Exact keyword phrases repeated over and over again are not what this new Panda algorithm has been trained to look for. Rather than stuffing our SEO content with the exact keyword phrase that we are trying to rank, according to Matt, we should be using partial phrase matches along with keyword variants.

For instance, we might write an article with the title “Organic Gardening Tips for Newbie’s.” In the article we can use a variation of that keyword phrase, such as; gardening without chemicals, organic gardening secrets, tips for gardeners, etc…

Each of those keyword phrases is a variant on the targeted keyword phrase that we want to rank. The overall content of the article as well as the title can help the search engine understand that our site is all about organic gardening.

When writing articles, your keyword anchor-text no longer needs to be an exact match. Instead, the combination of your keyword variants along with your on-page SEO will help your site rank well for a wide variety of keyword phrases, including your targeted keyword phrase.

If we really think about what Matt said in that one little comment, we will come to understand that we no longer need or want to be focused on exact phrase matches or any type of keyword phrase stuffing. Rather, our focus should be on consistent variants of the keywords that we want Google to give a high-ranking position.

Comparing the Old Exact Match with MC Recommended Anchor-Text Variants

Back in the Day, Exact Match:

Organic gardening in the title tag, organic gardening in the h1, h2, and h3 tags, organic gardening in the alt image tag, organic gardening mentioned 2% to 4% throughout the content, and organic gardening anchor-text links in the side-bar, footer, and header.

And Today, the Panda Way:

Organic gardening in the title tag, gardening tips in the URL, h1 – gardening without chemicals, h2 – organic mulch tips, h3 – simple tricks for a healthy garden, alt image tag – best organic practices, and so forth.

As you can see, this new way of thinking about anchor-text linking is quite liberating. When someone types the keyword phrase, “Mom blue jacket”, with the old-school thinking we’d have to toss out using correct grammar in order to get that specific keyword into the article.

Today, we can easily add in that phrase by a simple variation, “My mom needs a blue jacket.”

I am sure that using the exact phrase match in some of our anchor-texts will still have a positive impact on our rankings. However, if we are not developing our SEO strategies so as to include well rounded variants of the keywords that we want to rank well, in time, it could possibly do more harm than good.

And if we are true forward thinkers, we’ll understand that the great Panda is learning to think more and more like a human being. And the more we conform to the new wave of SEO, the better our sites will fair with each and every Google Panda update.

TWITTER 101 – LEARNING THE BASICS

For those of you who need to understand why anyone would ever want to Twitter, watch the video below.

Twitter is a great way to connect with family, friends and business associates. Here are a few things you need to do when you set up your Twitter account.

1 Create your profile. Help people understand what you’re all about and why they should follow you. You can include a link to your site within your profile. Include a nice picture to represent your business or add your own mug.

2. Don’t spam. Think of Twitter as a way to help people, not spam your affiliate products in their face. Retweet helpful information you find on the web. Tweeting things of value is a good way to build a good rep among your Tweeting followers.

3. Follow to be followed. Follow people that deliver worthy Tweets of interest, and they will appreciate your worthy Tweets as well. If you want to be followed, you need to find people to follow first. Don’t get all caught up into the greedy Tweeters who try to tell you how to use and abuse your Twitter followers just to sell products or information.

4. Inspire and communicate. Since you’ve been smart and are following experts in your field or niche, feel free to ask questions. Be kind and helpful. It’s not just about YOU. Twitter is about sharing and communicating relevant information.

5. Tweet your blog posts. Gotta WordPress blog? Use the TweetMe plugin and Tweet your blog posts to your followers.

How to Set Up Your Twitter Account

I’m not a techi gal, and you’re probably not interested in the programming details of Facebooks new um… Open Graph Protocol and Graph API, but if you FB, you’ll wanna read this post.

Facebook LIKE Button

To Like Or Not to Like

Facebook Colonizing the Web Via LIKES

Everywhere you go you’re going to start noticing something. That little button that offers to LIKE what you see. I have one at the bottom of my page here. Go ahead… LIKE ME!

Simple to use and implement tools like these are expanding Facebook’s colonization efforts.

With this tool and a few others, FB has developed a seriously deep stake to position itself as the colony leader via the social aspect of the Internet.  With more than 75 partners participating, Mark Zuckerberg predicted that there would be “One billion Like buttons on the web within 24 hours after launch.”

I’ve tried to find out if those statistics came true, but so far it’s a prediction without a follow-up. But if you pay attention to where you surf, take note of just how many places you can now LIKE and share at the click of a button.

What Does This Mean for YOU and ME?

Okay, here’s my wee incite on this issue. While some people are going to be screaming and kicking about how their privacy is invaded, others like um… people who make money with CPA advertising on FB may quite possibly gain access to data that is more targeted resulting in higher click-through rates and a better ROI.

What Does This Mean for YOU and ME Personally?

While FB is making these leaps and bounds with it’s LIKE button it’s also stirred up some frustrations and doubts regarding the privacy issues.

The most important aspect of this feature is that you can LIKE any page without a special login request or connect request via logging in with a user name and password.

So, how can you avoid LIKEING something without it automatically LIKING it to your FB account??

First let me tell you why you should know this.

I have two FB accounts. I have one that is totally 100% dedicated to friends and family. My other FB page is 100% dedicated to Netwoozy.com. I don’t mix and match. Some of my friends and family have recently decided to Friend my Netwoozy FB page, which is fine. However, I don’t force my business in their FB Face.

When I want to LIKE something that is business, my Internet business, that which totally confuses a lot of my friends and family. I mean their eyes begin to blur and their minds start to wonder whenever I talk about some of the things I LOVE or DO online – SO… I try to avoid these types of one-sided conversations. Which is also why I have a separate business FB account.

How to Avoid LIKING in the Wrong FB Account

Simply remember to LOG OUT of your account before you continue working on other things. Or, remember you are LOGGED IN when you surf and decide you want to LIKE something. You won’t be asked if it’s ok. You won’t be required to LOG IN and accept the intrusion. It’s a done-deal if you are already logged in.

THAT my friends is how to avoid sending LIKES to your personal account when you were simply trying to LIKE it for your business account. Or Vice Versa.

Okay so, are you logged in? Do you wanna “LIKE” this post?

What’s your take on the LIKE without the double opt-in so to speak?

To help you navigate to make these changes on your FB account watch the video below.