Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Awesome information...I have a lot of work to do! Inbound links seem to be an important factor that my competitors have over (way over) me. Would you suggest link sites such as www.linkmarket.com?

 

 

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Have a Creepy Crawly Day!

Seth, Bugmaster
www.CoolBugStuff.com

Seth - beyond the tried and true practices of reaching out to relevant and authoritative sites in your industry and requesting that they link to you, your best bet is to create quality content and features that are going to entice people to want to link to your site.  Check out this article on link baiting and generating buzz - there`s also the option of purchasing inbound links through a service like www.text-link-ads.com or outsourcing your link building (depending on your budget)

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chuck fuller

Seth,

I would suggest starting a bug blog.  You seem to have a passion about bugs, and creating a blog under a seperate domain will allow you to link back to your products in context in an article, using desirable keywords in your linking text.

Let me know if you don`t understand this concept, and I can send you some examples of some ecommerce sites that use this tactic.


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Steve James Fresh Yields- a new media firm, providing ecommerce solutions, redesign consulting, web design, email campaign management, and internet marketing.

This is great information. Let me see if I`ve understood all of this.

First I need to straighten up my URL`s and make it more user friendly (to be linked and to get crawled) while adding relavent keywords tot he URL like (coolbugstuff.com/products/anthill/antfarm").

Then I need to fix my title tags and clean them up from all they extra coding so they read something like "Cool Bug Stuff - Bug toys and Games" and make sure that they all look different so I don`t get indexed as a supplimental result on my other pages.

Then I need to lose weight on the coding (I will have to talk to my web guy), add a bug blog (on another domain name) which links back to me (Steve -please send examples of other sites that are doing this), and create buzz and reasons for others to want to link to me (or pay for the service).

Did I understand this correctly? Is this THE formula?      

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Have a Creepy Crawly Day!

Seth, Bugmaster
www.CoolBugStuff.com

Aloha Seth,

and thanks for CREEPIN` me out w/ your cool bug stuff! ooooh my nephews will LOVE you!  Last time I stayed at their place, I woke up to a big ol` spider right next to my glasses. AHHHHHH!  creeps!

but yes, I`ll still send them to your Web site so they can creep me out even more. (she grumbles )

if you`re really going after ORGANIC rankings... how about starting a blog? what can you write about that would get your audience (target market) creeped out and have them participating and gathering on YOUR lawn?

are there things you can teach them?
pranks you can have them share - and win a contest for the best CREEPY PUNK ever?

the more you blog (aka: write) about things relevant to the keywords you`re going after, the easier it`ll be for you to get to the top.

one warning:  sure, I may be biased - since I have a product on blogging - BUT - honestly, the product came out of our own necessity and findings trying to promote our company on the web.

the "how to business blog" product was only created AFTER we tried everything SEO related, including hosting a forum and couldn`t get past page 10 (bleck!). Once our Coach got us into blogging for our business, we were HOOKED - (yes, much like a drug - or coffee for the surburbanites) b/c of the quick results we saw. AND, it put us in control of SEO and updating our Web site, since it was sooooo easy - even for a non-techie like moi.

So - that`s my 2 cents. hopefully i`ve turned on another biz owner to the beautiful act of blogging for your business. and keep me posted when you create a blog of your own - so i can send it to my nephews so they can WIN your contest. man are they good at creepin` out their aunt Dee-Dee.



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Coach Deb Communication Commanderette http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

Okay now, what is the difference between a forum and a blog? I have a forum where I write (blog). Is it the same or a blog has to be a separate entity? 

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Have a Creepy Crawly Day!

Seth, Bugmaster
www.CoolBugStuff.com

ok seth, even though it bugs me out every time I read your sig  I`m going to give you TOP rating b/c you ask GREAT questions! And just for admiting you need SEO help - you generated a great forum thread.

So - to answer your question of what the difference is between a forum and a blog:

A.  Many, many things

B. Starting with SEO - SE spiders LOVE Web sites that are build on RSS technology (AKA: a blog)

C. SE spiders LOVE fresh content - (so when you post an article a day - or 3 a week, they`ll keep returning to your blog with greater frequency to see what else ya` got for them to put at the top of their results for your keywords

D. Forums are lovely - but not attractive to ARTICLE directories. I can`t tell you how many times I`ve googled my name, and found that yet another newsletter, magazine, or trade publication have picked up another one of my blog posts (articles) and published them. (I give permission at the bottom of every post - provided they include my Web site address and contact info.)

E. Which then leads us to... more inbound links
bottom line on that ... the more you got `em - the more the spiders love you and rank you higher and higher than your creepy competitors

F. As for the DIFFERENCE between a forum and a blog... well... what we`re on right now.. is a public forum. anyone can pose a question, and anyone can put their two cents in.

A blog is authored by YOU only (unless you partner with people and put them on as contributors) then the general public can COMMENT on YOUR post, but ultimately, you get the ranking, the SEO, and the keyword relavancy, b/c of the reasons listed above.

I`m new to this forum, but hopefully this link will show up - as it`ll direct you to a blog post that will give you a visual picture and explanation of the difference between forums, and blogs

Aloha!
Coach Deb
Advanced Business Blogging Tips


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Coach Deb Communication Commanderette http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

Seth,

Blogs are more article based, with comments allowed for each article.  Forums are thread based, and are structured a bit different.

Coach Deb reiterates some of the points Chuck and I have been making.  Properly linked keywords in blog articles is a great internet marketing technique.  As for an example, check out this link on Ice.com`s blog sites.

One thing though, search engines don`t love blog sites built on rss technology just because they syndicate through feeds.  It`s more the fresh content, xhtml code base (no bloat), and the internal linking bloggers tend to use in articles.


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Steve James Fresh Yields- a new media firm, providing ecommerce solutions, redesign consulting, web design, email campaign management, and internet marketing.

Steve James and Coach Deb - you are the best!

Awesome information. Anyone not seeing these posts are really missing out. I have already put your suggestions into motion and you have made things clear and easy to understand for a non-techie like me. Now, do you have any questions regarding bugs? Recycling with worms? I am at your service   

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Have a Creepy Crawly Day!

Seth, Bugmaster
www.CoolBugStuff.com

LOL - now THAT would be a recycling program at its best (and one I`ll admitedly never implement) hey - maybe you can figure out a way to put the termites to work at recyling all the garbage in the world. make those buggars useful for once!

Thanks so much for taking a moment to give us such great feedback Seth. And for the opportunity to help and share our expertise. it`s people like you who encourage us to continue dispelling our expertise in the area with others.

Now you`ve earned yourself a GIFT! We`ve got a report we no longer give away, but I`ll send it to you if you`d like to really get your brain thinking of all the ways you can use blogging to help your business.

Just PM me, and I`ll get it over to ya. Reference the report:
"21 Ways to Boost your Business with Business Blogs"

(PS:  sorry I missed your call yesterday - being 6 hours behind has some disadvantages... hopefully we can catch you after the holiday.)

Aloha!
Coach Deb


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Coach Deb Communication Commanderette http://AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com