What's Happening To The Google's Latest Changes?

One of the website to be placed on high octane for very Internet Marketer is non other than Google.com. With it's recent release (2011) of facebook equivalent social networking site (Google+), it's ambition is obvious i.e. trying to make the company/site as "sticky" as possible in the online world (as if it's still not sticky enough now! ;-))

Recently, there are quite a number of major changes being announced by Google, especially on the Search Engine algorithm changes which will affect how Google Search Engine populates the search result. This is the follow-up changes to the previous Panda revamp, which continue to focus on the theme: Quality is IN and Quantity is OUT!  Also, with the introduction and integration of Google+, the search results will be much more personalised (when you do the search after logging into your Google Account). 

If you are interested to know more about the changes, do check out the following blogposts detailing some high level summary of the latest changes:

Google's 30 Most Recent Search Quality Changes - From Search Engine RoundTable

Google’s Latest Algorithm Changes (They Don’t Include Panda) - From WebProNews

On the same note, I am sharing the following FREE ebook detailing the 8 important Google Tools that all internet marketers should know in order to improve your marketing effectiveness (click on the image for instant download). 

The 8 tools covered in the eBook are:

1. Google AdWords
2. Google Docs
3. Google Keyword Tool
4. Google Alerts
5. Google News
6. Google Reader
7. Google Places
8. Google+

 

Hope you enjoy my sharing.

Cheers!

P/S: I've recently added the "FREE Stuffs" page aiming to share the FREE ebooks, whitepapers, eGuides etc. that I find relevant to our Internet Marketing venture. The topics covered ranging from Blogging, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization to Social Media. Do check it out and enjoy the reading.

Where To Network With Peer Bloggers?

Whether you are a newbie to the blogphere or a veteran professional blogger, one of the key activities in blogging is to get connected with other liked minded peers (online or offline). Whether you are blogging for fun or for money, you are encouraged to mingle around with other bloggers as you never know what you are going to learn from them.

If you do a Google Search, you will find many sites/platforms that allow bloggers to network with each other, learn from each other and also expose your blog(s) to other liked minded bloggers. This is especially important if you are blogging for money as the saying goes, online marketing is all about "relationship building"! Same thing applies to blogging too. So, to be successful in the blogging space, besides creating unique and interesting content, do make connection with other bloggers as part of your venture as well. Just treat it as another channel of social networking (like in the facebook or twitter).

Today, I am going to share some of the popular bloggers communities which are free to join:

1. Blogggers - A social network for blog writers (in fact, if you do not own any blog, you can join the network too). It does looks like any other social network, besides promoting your blogs, you can request and accept other bloggers as your friends as well as writing on another blogger's wall. In the "Talk" section, you can connect with other bloggers by posting or answering queries.

2. Blogcatalog - Another social network site like Bloggers.com but the UI (user interface) is more tuned towards twitter whereby you can follow other bloggers and other bloggers can start to follow you. It's "Discuss" section is for you to connect with the rest. Also, there is a Paid membership as well to feature your blogs on the first page

3. Famous Bloggers - On top of getting connected with other bloggers, you can write guest posts for publishing them on this site. Of course, one of the main reason for writing guest posts is to expose your blog and it will definitely increase the traffics potential of your blog.  This community is more focusing on how to make money by blogging

4. Link Referral - Link Referral is focusing more on promoting/advertising your blog to other bloggers. There is a "Forum" section whereby you can learn and share the knowledge on any topic under the sun.

5. BlogHer - BloHer is an authority community built mainly for female bloggers from around the world. It was established since 2006. If you are a female blogger, do not miss this community!     

I am sure there are many other such communities around, do share with me if you have some other such communities worth recommending.

Meanwhile, enjoy the blogging and networking!

Cheers!

FREE Web Design Contract Template

If you are a freelance web designer or developer, what is the one most daunting task that you dreaded most? I believed most of you will say drafting the contract. Of course, unless you have legal background, otherwise, I am sure you will face huge challenge even to get the first sentence out.

Fret not, you can always find free guide or template to get you started from the web. To save you sometime from searching, I am recommending Web Design Contract Template from Bidsketch. you can download the FREE Web Design Contract Template, worth $149 (with NO email submission required) and use it on the fly.

I've personally downloaded the 16 pages Web Design Contract template (in MS Words format), I must say that it is a very comprehensive web design contract template that covers all bases. Effectively, it is good to go by just updating some of the highlighted variables (mainly to suit your needs).

Hope that this sharing is of help to you.

Cheers!

Site Trail - A Comprehensive Website Analysis Tool

One of the key tasks of professional bloggers or webmasters is to constantly review and analyse our site/blog's traffics patterns. For example, how many visitors have visited our site? Where are they coming from? How long they stayed in our site and which are the most used keyword(s) etc....? These are all the important knowledge in order for us to tap on it and improve further.

There are many Website Analysis Tools in the market (paid or free version). Recently, I've chanced upon a relatively new Website Analysis Tool called Site Trail. By far, this is one of the most comprehensive website analysis tool that I've came across. 

Let me explain why I said comprehensive. Most of the existing website analysers focus mainly of displaying the traffics patterns in various graphical forms, but Site Trail covers much more other important spectrum, to give you a better idea of what I am referring to, I've summarised the list of analysis provided by Site Trail below:

1. Social Media Analysis - This feature analyse the site's popularity in the social media space e.g. the number of Twitter followers, facebook likes, Delicious bookmarks and Youtube video etc...

2. SEO Analysis - This feature allows you to learn how well a site is optimised for popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

3. Traffic/Visitors Analysis - This is the usual stuff in analysing the traffics patterns.

4. Content Analysis - This feature analyse the top keywords used and the average page size.

5. Revenue Analysis - This feature estimates the advertisement value of the site.  

6. Link Analysis - This feature find out who a site is linking to and how much “link juice” it passes to them.

7. Domain/Hosting Analysis - This is another usual stuff in identifying the Domain Name (WHOIS) and IP Address etc...

8. Server Analysis - This feature shows what software a site was built with, how fast it’s web pages load and the programming languages it uses.

9. Colour Analysis - This feature shows the top colours used on a site including respective hex codes and colour densities.

That's not all, there is a content curation feature called "News" whereby you can aggregate (or "trail") the sites of your interest with a click of button and you your aggregated news streams will be placed in your "My News" section.

Most importantly, this tool is absolutely FREE. Thus, if you are new to website analysis or are looking for new perspectives of website analysis, do check out this interesting Website Analysis Tool.

Cheers!

 

How To Write Killer Blog Post Title?

If you are earning money through blogging (i.e. either a professional or semi-professional blogger), good for you as Content Marketing will be here to stay (at least this is what most authority marketing sites/blogs are predicting for 2012 and beyond). Content marketing covers blog marketing, article marketing, press release etc... Basing on the 2011 research, most participated company plan to increase their marketing budget on content marketing in 2012 and the outsourcing of content marketing effort is on the rise (especially the blog marketing).

Today, I am going to focus on the blog marketing aspect. When come to blog, I believed most of you will tell me that the most important part of blogging is the quality content. This is not wrong as "Content Is King" as far as online space is concerned. However, there is another equally (if not more) important aspect of a blog whereby the bloggers should pay equal attention to, that is the Blog Title. It is important as usually visitors will base on the few words of the  blog title to determine whether to read further. Thus, blog title is likened to the window display of a boutique shop, it plays an important part in attracting the new customers to go inside the shop (and spend).

So, what makes a killer blog titles that will attract most audience? Here are my 5 simple tips on how to write a killer blog title:

You need to create Blog Title that....

1. Creates Controversy/Curiosity. Most people like controversy or curious topics. For example "Why is Apple NOT as good as you think it is?", "Who kills Facebook?" etc...

2. Quotes the Number. People like those posts with top x lists. For example "Top 10 bloggers to watch out for in 2012", "10 Mistakes to avoid in blogging" etc...

3. Uses words that teach the visitors something. People come to your blog to learn something, so, give the gist  to them upfront. For example "Important guide for IOS5", "How To Write Killer Blog Post Title?" (looks familiar?) etc...

4. Uses positive and/or catchy words that appeal to most people. People usually like to get inspired, so, if you have an inspiring blog titles, chances are they will read further. For example "Awesomely simple ways to lost weight", "Free tips on how to earn money online" etc... 

5. Creates personal connection. People like to think from their own perspective, thus, if the blog title can trigger them to initiate the thinking process about themselves, it will create enough pull factor for them to continue reading. For example "Is Blogging for YOU?", "Are YOU ready for 2012?" etc...

I am sure there are many other tips being shared by other bloggers on this topic, there is no hard and fast rules but you can definitely practice one or more tactics to test out the response.

Cheers!