Colin Alsheimer » tips

The Arsenio Hall Show’s Guide to Images on Your Blog

Neil Lemons — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:00:21 +0000

Remember Arsenio Hall?

If you’ve slept since the mid 1990s, comedian/actor Arsenio Hall hosted The Arsenio Hall Show, a late night talk show that aired from early 1989 to mid 1994.

A frequent gag in Hall’s opening monologue suggested that he still lived in Cleveland, and drove himself to Los Angeles every day to host the show. While on these alleged long drives, Hall would ponder certain thoughts, referring to them as “things that make you go hmmm…” This running gag inspired a 1990 C+C Music Factory song by that very title. “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It also reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

What does the Arsenio Hall Show have to do with images on your blog?

An image that makes your reader go hmmm… at the beginning of every blog post can increase the likelihood someone will read it in the first place as well as the likelihood he/she will read the post in its entirety. Your audience will read the whole post just to see why the particular image was chosen just to satisfy his/her curiosity.

Picking a slightly odd or weird image, combined with an interesting title causes more brain stimulation. By relating the photo to something closer to the middle of the post, it triggers a rewarding, “I’m smart” feeling in the reader when he/she makes the connection.

This phenomena is similar to when the name of a song or movie is mentioned in the middle, the viewer/listener goes “ah, hah!” It’s more fun, if it’s not that obvious and rewards your readers who figure it out.

Stats back this up as well. Your audience is more likely to read a particular blog post if it has an image, and he/she is more likely to read the whole post IF it’s not a connection he or she thought they already knew.

Practical Tips

Use at least one compelling image every time you write a blog post.
Make it a little weird or off, relating two things that have never been associated.
Use Flickr.com and perform an advanced keyword search in the “creative commons” section for royalty-free images..
If you use Google Images, give the photographer or website credit.

What to avoid: Blasé corporate clip art. Cartoon illustrations. Not crediting the photographer or artist with a link.

Photo Credit: TodaysHotTrends.net

The Time Strapped Professionals’ Guide To Blogging

Colin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:36 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly looking for ways to save time.

As a professional in the digital sphere, work is a 24/7 undertaking between office hours, networking events, social media participation, and ongoing education. For most digital professionals, one thing that often falls to the wayside is blogging. Blogging is generally a time consuming endeavor requiring research, multiple edits, and creativity. But blogging is one of the most important activities any of us can be doing online.

A blog that’s regularly updated can:

Provide highly qualified search traffic
Be a source of quality backlinks
Prove thought leadership
Demonstrate technical knowledge to potential clients
Provide traffic from social media sites
Become a source of leads for your business
Increase customer satisfaction & brand retention
Create brand evangelists
Increase your digital footprint

But when you’re on a busy schedule, how do you keep it up?

1. Learn to Batch Process

Most elements of blogging can benefit from batch processing. I like to sit down for a few hours one day a month and brainstorm a couple dozen ideas for posts, mostly consisting of the title and a few sentences about the idea. I save all of these as draft posts. Then, on particularly productive days, I’ll sit down and write 2-3 posts at a time. On a once per week publishing schedule, that gets me pretty far.

2. Create an Editorial Calendar

Have problems coming up with ideas? Think of this as your road map to blogging. Take the batch processing idea above, and apply it to a 6 month, or even a full year’s schedule. Come up with one topic per week, or even a new theme to explore each month. This way you can deliver timely and seasonal content, and be prepared for it ahead of time.

3. Automate Your Promotion

While not a tactic I would always recommend, it can be a significant time saver. Use a service like HootSuite to automatically publish your new posts to your Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn accounts. You can also use HootSuite to push out to Ping.FM, which can update any number of sites.

4. Become a Digital Collector

Inspiration can strike at any time, and anywhere. Capture that inspiration by becoming a digital collector. Anytime I see a piece of content online that inspires me – be that photo, video or blog post, I’ll save it to my Evernote Notebook. I then tag the clipping with “blog idea” for future reference. You can do the same with services like Instapaper, or even through your Posterous blog. This can also help when you need to find support material for a blog post that’s in the works.

5. Experiment with Other Formats

Maybe writing isn’t your thing. You might be a better public speaker then a writer. As Gary Vaynerchuk might say, “Find what fits your DNA.” Go ahead and experiment with video blogs or podcasts. Then, when you post to your blog, include a paragraph or two of text content that describes the video or podcast. This way you’ll get the benefit of search traffic for the content you created.

6. Recycle Your Content

Are you creating presentations, white papers, or other forms of content for your business? Many of these can be recycled into quality blog posts. If the content has been published online in other places, make sure you vary up the text to avoid pesky duplicate content penalties from the search engines.

7. Learn to Leverage Mobile

Create content while you’re on the go. The iPhone and other mobile devices include features like voice recorders and video cameras. Use these to capture your thoughts and ideas while you’re on the go. You can also draft entire blog posts through Gmail, and depending on your set-up, post through e-mail, or post when you’re able to access a computer.

What About You?

What tricks have you discovered for saving time while blogging?

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101 Free Ways To Promote Your Website

Colin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:00:16 +0000

Looking for some free ways to promote your new website? Here are 101 completely free resources that you can use to promote your site. These resources range in scope from the logical to the completely illogical, but all are free (or require standard household goods), and all can be used for website marketing.

Start a Twitter account
Create a Facebook page
Create a Facebook Application
Create a LinkedIn group
Learn SEO
Submit your site to DMOZ
Start a blog
Write guest posts on popular blogs in your industry
Answer questions on Yahoo answers
Answer questions on LinkedIn answers
Answer questions on Answers.com
Submit articles to Ezine Articles
Submit articles to ArticleBase
Submit your site to Technorati
Submit your site to AllTop
E-mail webmasters of relevant sites for links
Create exceptional content and submit to Digg
Submit more exceptional content to Reddit
Submit articles to Associated Content
Create a quiz or survey & publish the findings
Create a linkable widget
Create an embeddable badge
Leave intelligent comments on blogs
Participate in forums
Create a Squidoo page
Add a link to your e-mail signature
Submit your site to AdAge’s power 150 list (industry specific)
Submit articles to Sphinn (industry specific)
Submit your content to Delicious
Submit your sites RSS feed to RSS directories
Create videos, submit to YouTube, link back to your website
Repeat #30 on blip.tv
Repeat #30 on DailyMotion
Repeat #30 on Yahoo Video
Repeat #30 on MySpace Video
Repeat #30 on Viddler
Repeat #30 on MetaCafe
Create a podcast, submit to iTunes
Create a podcast, submit to Podcast Alley
Create a podcast, submit to Blog Talk Radio
Start a MySpace page
Take great photos, upload to Flickr and link back to your website
Add a link to your website in your LinkedIn profile
Add a link to your website in your NaymZ profile
Create a local business listing in Google
Submit your local business listing to Insider Pages
Create a local business listing in Yelp
Create a presentation, and submit to SlideShare
Get interviewed and talk about your website
Interview interesting people in your industry and publish on your website
Bookmark your content on Mister-Wong
Submit your site to StumbleUpon
Create a “how-to” video that’s relevant to your industry and submit to eHow
Create a FriendFeed account and tie in your RSS feed
Add a link to your Facebook profile
Send a note to all your Facebook friends about your new site
Send a message to all your LinkedIn contacts about your new site
Throw a launch party, find another company to sponsor it
Create a contest and give away items you already own
Create some art and submit to DeviantArt
Create an eBook and submit to Scribd
Write an academic article about your industry, use it as a reference on a Wikipedia page
Sign up for a Card.ly account
Join Meetup.com and start a group, list your website as a sponsor
Be the first to write about a piece of breaking news
Create a blip.fm profile and add your website
Create a WordPress plugin
Create a Drupal module
Create a Joomla extension
Create a Firefox plugin
Design a WordPress theme
Design a Drupal theme
Design a Joomla theme
Create a humorous article and submit to Fark
Submit your site to Propeller
Create a profile on iReport and submit a news story
Join NowPublic and submit a news story, use your website as a source
Write an article about open source technology, submit to Slashdot
Start a networking group for your industry, have people sign up on your website
E-mail your friends about your website
E-mail your family about your website
E-mail your coworkers about your website
Create a Craigslist ad offering your writing talents, use your website as example work
Become a writer for about.com, link to your website in a post
Become a writer for examiner.com, link to your website in a post
Give a presentation at an industry conference, mention your website in your presentation
Submit an open source software project to SourceForge
Create a Tumblr site
Create a Posterous site
Create a Blogger site
Start a band, get listed on last.fm, link to your website
Create a virtual product, and join an affiliate network to sell it
Volunteer for a local non-profit, get listed on their website
Network with other bloggers, get them to write about your website
Write your website’s URL on your car with soap, drive around till you run out of gas
Submit a note to Passive Aggressive Notes, include your URL somewhere in the note
Submit a secret to Post Secret, include your URL somewhere in the secret
Convince a celebrity to endorse your website
Get on a reality TV show, talk incessantly about your website
Create a funny sign about your website, stand outside a busy street corner with the sign
Start a cable access TV show and talk about your website

Would you add anything else to the list?

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The Single Most Effective Tactic For Online Marketing Success

Colin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:27:23 +0000

Create great content.

There’s just no other way around it. If you want to have success online, you have to be creating great content and you have to be doing it on a regular basis.

Look at some of the best and most highly trafficked websites online, Mashable, Chris Brogan, Search Engine Land, Copyblogger. What do they all have in common?

Great content.

I find it funny when I meet with people to discuss online marketing, and they don’t want to create content. Either they don’t have time, they don’t know what to write about, or they’re worried about what people might say.

Trying to achieve success without creating content is like trying to lose weight without going to the gym. It’s not going to happen.

What kind of content should you create?

It depends what your goals are. If it’s search engine traffic, text based content like blog posts might be the best approach. If it’s social traffic, blog posts, video, audio, and images would be good choices. If it’s for lead generation, try a white paper or ebook.

The really successful ventures will find ways to create all of the above.

But I don’t have time

Make time. Or hire someone to do it for you. This is an activity that you must work into your schedule. Start with at least one new piece of quality content each week. That will be enough to keep the content on your website fresh, keep the search engines coming back to index your site, and hopefully – build your presence online.

Note: if you work in a highly technical or tightly regulated industry, be sure the writer you hire has a solid knowledge of your industry, otherwise it can get dicey.

Pro tip: don’t wait for inspiration to come to you, instead, head down to your local bar or coffee shop and have an all night brainstorming session. Then, create an editorial calendar for yourself. Then stick to your schedule.

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10 Warning Signs That Your Internet Marketer Is a Dunce

Colin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:44:38 +0000

A Dunce In The Wild

Much like the Social Media Marketing scene today, the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry is still rife with cheats and dishonest marketers, who would love nothing more than to slowly drain your bank accounts while providing little to no value in return. These marketers, and I hesitate to even call them that, take advantage of those who are unfamiliar with industry terminology, and how to do business online. It's for that reason that I've created these 10 warning signs that you're working with an Internet marketing dunce.

1. They don't ask business questions

Let's be honest. You're not starting an Internet marketing program for your health, or because you have some unnatural obsession with Google. You're doing it because you want to make money. You want to start, grow, or improve your business, and through some form of research, you've determined that your best bet is to forage into the online universe. When you meet with prospective SEO's or Internet marketing agencies, the good ones will ask you business questions like, "How much is a conversion worth to you?" or "What's the most profitable segment of your business?"

2. They don't ask tough questions

As an Internet marketer, I don't expect you to know everything that I do. If you did, you wouldn't need to hire me, right? A good SEO will ask the tough questions that can only come with experience and skill. If you say, "I want to increase my traffic", I ask, "why do you want to increase your traffic?" Is it to sell more widgets? To build a community? To attract investors? It's not enough to say, "I want to increase my traffic" – there's always some underlying reason for that goal.

3. They guarantee rankings – and it's all they talk about

Yes. Rankings matter. It's the Internet marketers job to provide visibility in the search engines for your website. And if you're not on the first page, you're not getting traffic. It's that simple. However, it's also the Internet marketers job to make sure your website is ranking for relevant keyword terms that convert AND provide traffic. Not to mention that sometimes, your website will convert better when it's ranked #3 for a term then it ever will at #1. Focusing on rankings is not healthy. It's a means to an end, so focus on the end – not the means.

4. They talk about time frames shorter than 6 months

Despite the fact that Google and Bing are trying to incorporate more real-time offerings into their search platforms, search engine opimization is a very slow process. If you've got a brand new site, expect to wait a year before you see any major search results. If it's an existing site, or a site with poor or even no optimization, expect six months. If you run into an SEO who guarantees 1st page placement in Google within a month, run far, far away.

5. They don't give you a plan

Just like any other form of marketing, good SEO requires a plan. If the Internet marketer you're talking to won't provide a plan, don't hire him.

6. They don't report

You want to know what you're getting for your money, right? If you're not measuring your marketing activities, then how do you know they're working? How does the Internet marketer know they're working, if they're not measuring and reporting? If you're flying blindly into the wind, you're just more likely to crash and burn.

7. They refuse to discuss tactics

Good SEO is not a mystery. If you're inclined to, there are hundreds of places you can turn to online for free and in-depth tutorials about how to do it right. Of course, it will take you a lot longer to produce results, but if you're on a tight budget – it can be done. A good SEO is confident in his skills, and unafraid to educate his client when necessary. There are no more trade secrets in SEO.

8. They don't talk about anything other than SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one component of a good Interent marketing campaign. Maybe your business needs some Local Business optimization, or Social Media Marketing, or Pay Per Click services, or Conversion Optimization, or a new Website Design. If your prospective Internet marketer can't recognize these needs, or refuses to acknowledge them… well, you know what to do.

9. They guarantee an oddly specific number of backlinks

Hey, I can guarantee that I can get you 200 backlinks. And I can do it tomorrow. Interested? I certainly hope not! Those 200 backlinks will be some of the lowest quality, most spam-tastic links you could possibly get. In fact, they may do your website more harm then good . But hey, I got you 200 links, right? It's exactly what I promised! Don't fall for these scams. Getting good, quality links that help your website is hard work. Really hard work.

10. They don't practice what they preach

If your prospective Internet marketer pitches you on a dozen essential initiatives, but you find they're not doing a single one on their own website, well my good friend, you've found an SEO that's all talk and no walk. It's easy to talk theory. It's a lot harder to show documented and proven results. An Internet marketer with no documented experience is liable to do much more harm than good to your website – and your company.

If you encounter any of these warning signs in your search for an Internet marketer, make sure you run far, far away. The last thing you want to do is waste money on marketing that's ineffective and misguided. Make sure you're selective, ask the right questions, and above all else – watch for the warning signs.

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