You may be saying now: “Of course it’s SEO! There’s no such thing as SEOProc.”
Are you sure?
I’m going to show you that while most webmasters dream of reaching the SEO King/Queen status, many of them are in fact moving towards SEOProc stardom.
See if you recognise any — or all — of the following symptoms:
1. Spending time in SEO forums and blogs is essential. You read as many posts and comments as possible, trying to distinguish valid pieces of information from the useless ones. Eventually, you get confused and tired… and move on to the next forums and blogs.
2. Split testing is important because it helps you detect SEO techniques that truly work. For several times you’ve been about to run your own tests. But then you say to yourself: “Why would I want to do this anyway? There are already so many SEO specialists doing this. I’d better wait until they publish their own tests’ results.” And this is exactly what you decide to do.
3. Keyword researching is an absolute must-do for all webmasters. With this fact in mind, you research keywords all the time. You hardly — if ever — put your research’s resulting data in use, but that really doesn’t matter. At least you’ve taken the first and most important step in your SEO strategy and this is what counts.
4. Installing SEO plugins on a WordPress blog is easy. You often find posts listing such plugins. You love reading and bookmarking those articles. After all, by reading them you’ll be able to choose the right SEO plugin… someday. There’s no hurry; new plugins are released all the time and you prefer waiting for the perfect one.
If you relate to the list above in any way, beware: Search Engine Optimisation Procrastination — aka SEOProc — will hinder you from achieving web success. Unless you stop procrastinating and start taking action now.
Can you think of any other SEOP symptoms? Share them by leaving a comment.
Seeing a graph of your hits go up can definitely give a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Aside from the money it can bring, high traffic provides a sense of accomplishment. It is, undoubtedly, good for business, but some people, especially those who are just starting out, tend to make it the only goal, and therein lies the problem. There is more to making money online, and there is certainly more to traffic than just volume.
1. Targeted audience. In this era of a crowded Internet, people are increasingly creating niche sites to cater to a certain crowd. In order to work, these sites must attract people who are more or less predisposed to listening to what they have to say. Otherwise, they’ll just click away faster than you can say “Web 2.0”. This is why SEO and your overall marketing plan are very important.
2. Sustainable traffic. With sites like StumbleUpon and Digg, it’s fairly easier now to get huge spikes in traffic. However, these spikes are often unpredictable, and not really that good for business – that is, unless you can convert them into regular readers and sustain the momentum. There are various strategies for these and I may take them up in future posts.
3. Reader engagement. Let’s say you’re getting tens of thousands of visitors a month, which isn’t bad in any case, but nobody is commenting on your blog. Needless to say, it’s not a good sign. A successful site is one that can connect to its readers. It’s also validating to receive comments, even criticisms, because at least you know that people care enough about what you write to say what’s on their mind. There are even bloggers who purposely rile their readers to get tons of comments and generate buzz, but then that’s a different story.
4. Monetizability. Of course, the bottom line for online businesses, whether directly or indirectly. Can you convert your traffic? In Internet marketing, high quality leads will result to high conversion rates, whereas casting a wide net randomly is less effective. Observers have also noted that StumbleUpon traffic, though substantial, yields a poor AdSense clickthrough rate (although there are some workarounds on this, such as putting up CPM ads).
All in all, what traffic means to you really depends on what you want to achieve. Not everyone is aiming to convert through product sales. Some bloggers don’t even have ads on their pages, and that’s because they only write to gain credibility and establish their own personal brand (then make money in consultancy, public speaking or other services). In this case, catching the attention of the right people and expanding your network may be more beneficial than tens of thousands of hits. So unless reaching the mass market is truly your goal, it might be prudent to start looking at other aspects of your website traffic.
Once upon a time there was an adage that was born. It was named “Content is King”. Many people grew to know of this adage and became quite familiar with it chanting its name all over the land. Ok, ok enough of the fairytale.
If content is king, then unique and up-to-date content is what you are looking for, period. The days where you could simply grab content from the umpteen article directories out there and post it to your site getting full credit for it, benefit wise, just as if it were your own are fading away. Sure, you can still get that content and add it to your site but now the benefits have devalued in a major way, both from a search engine’s point of view and your users’. (more…)
One of the things any webmaster learns really fast in their field is the importance of time. With that in mind they continually seek faster more efficient ways of doing things. This isn’t something only webmasters do, it is done throughout every industry in the world.
If you make saving time one of your goals for your website business you will be astounded at just how much time you will have to do more and more important things. Here are some examples to help clarify my point:
Be prepared, think ahead.
You are looking for somewhere to find a great image for a project. For all of you that have taken some time to find the right image you know how much time that can be. Well if you already knew of a site where you would most likely find the image then that saves time. Don’t rebuild the wheel. If you know in advance that you will be needing a good Font Source then ask a designer colleague where would be a good spot. By the time you are ready for the fonts you know just where to go.Stay sharp, quality counts.
Your website is starting out with only 5 pages so you decide to just code it all in html making a static site, rather than making it dynamic with a server-side language. Time is precious. If you do it right the first time you save the time and money doing it over again plus the time spend on the original.Knowing is Half the Battle
Finding solutions to problems. In the internet world as the world itself people are always trying to find solutions. In the internet world this can be just a forum away but when time is of the essence you need to know where to go to get results. An example of this is a site called ASKAGEEK.com where technology related questions can be submitted with answers being prompt and well thought out. And yes, the service is free. I know that when I need an answer that that’s the place for me to go.
One of the major hurdles preventing the average person from being good at this is keeping a record of who is good for what etc. Don’t depend on memory. Keep a list, a file, something, so that you will always have it. (unless the dog eats it)
Sometimes in life its some of the most obvious things that seems so unthinkable. This is one of them. Take some time to think of ways you can save time. It can change your life.
Feel free to comment and let us know ways in which you have been able to save time. Here is one from me.
– I pay attention to the things I do daily and look for repetitiveness. One I find it I start thinking of a way to do it once or only a few times instead of continually.
Best of luck.
The truth is, many Internet marketers sometimes have the tendency to be over-eager, earning the industry a less than stellar reputation. More than a few have tried to change this perception over the years with honest-to-goodness value propositions, and for that I applaud them. However, there are those who still insist on turning a profit on deceptive, irritating methods like spamming. Where traffic is, so spam goes, and right now the prime targets are social networks. (more…)
We all need web hosting whether our sites makes $100,000/day or $0/month, however, we don’t always have to pay full price for it. Now I know there are several hosting companies offering such low hosting plans that some people might feel that it doesn’t matter if they pay or not but I will assume you are not one of those people since you have continued to read past the title of this article :-).
A common misconception with hosting companies is that they will only offer deals and discounts on their small hosting plans, this is not true. Hosting companies are in business to make money just as most of us are and they weight the Pros and Cons of business arrangements just as we do. If something makes sense to them then there is a high chance that they will do it whether it be a budget hosting plan or a top notch dedicated server.
How does this work? Well, it is very simple really, all you need to do is contact your web hosting provider, try to speak with the person in charge of business development or billing and let them know that you are currently hosted with them and would like to know if they would be interested in a barter arrangement where you add “Your Site Name hosted by Your Host Name” with a link to their website on all pages of your website.
This can be a very attractive offer to a host since a referral from a website that is currently being hosted by the hosting company is far more convincing than many of the alternatives such as searching through web hosting directories or using search engines. If you have loyal followers of your site then the “hosted by” message becomes even more powerful as a means to provide additional business to your host.
Have a few bits of information on hand when calling your host:
If your host seems a bit reluctant to go ahead with your offer you can suggest a trial period during which they can track the results and see if the deal will infact be beneficial to them.
As simple as this strategy seems the beautiful thing is, it works! So give it a shot and let it work for you. Good luck!
For a number of months, Twitter has been the darling of the technorati. It was simple, easy to use, and most of all, it was addicting. For marketers, it was another way of tapping into conversations, and knowing what was hot in the eyes of the twittering public. News had a way of breaking out fast in Twitter, and people talked in a very raw, informal manner that’s valuable if you need to see real trends as they unfold. (more…)
The economy might be slowing down, but technology and Internet-related businesses are still experiencing steady growth. If you’re looking for new income sources, the Web is not a bad idea. However, just like any other business, making money online is a multifaceted endeavor. If you’d like to try you’re hand at it, it’s best to study the risks and the how-to’s. I’ve gathered a few free ebooks and resources here written by some of the most highly regarded Internet marketers to help you understand how it all works. Hopefully, you’ll find them useful and answer some of your questions. (more…)
If you have realized the benefits of search engine optimization then by now you should also have come to the realization that SEO isn’t rocket science (oh don’t you just hate hearing people say that) but it’s also no walk in the park. It can be a very timely process that doesn’t come with any guarantees and is different for every website. Before you get all stressed out about it, fear not, help is on the way. (more…)
For most of us with content driven sites whose purpose online is to make money there are a few companies out there that help fascilitate this process. These companies are particularly beneficial in that they allow you to make money with only the initial setup involved. No sales team needed!
They can help give smaller sites a helping hand and larger sites a major boost in revenue.
So who are these companies and how can I get started with them? (more…)
