When I first heard about the importance of backlinks, I thought it should be easy to bring up my site on the [...]]]> What is Link Velocity?

Link velocity is the rate at which a website gains back links. We all know that the single most important thing to gain a good position on SERP is to have a good amount of quality backlinks on your site. Search engines are computer programs which can only do so much. They still need humans to tell them which site is more important against the rest. When a site is gaining backlinks, it is likewise telling search engines that it must contain valuable information worthy to be shared by other people among their readers.

When I first heard about the importance of backlinks, I thought it should be easy to bring up my site on the first page of SERP. I just have to work on building backlinks which can be automated or done by somebody else.

Or I thought it is.

It is Google’s business to bring the best user experience to their customers and they will stop at nothing to identify the sites that are manipulating their search results.

Aside from the quantity and the quality, they also want backlinks that comes naturally.

If you have been working on link building techniques and your link velocity is not right, you are getting your blog in danger of being suspected of manipulating the SERP.

The Right Link Velocity is Determined by the Following Factors

1. Age of URL

A site that has been in existence for 5 years with a link or two does not look good. A 5-day old site with 1000 backlinks also looks suspicious.

2. Traffic

If a keyword has 10,000 monthly searches and you are getting 1,000 backlinks in a day for 30 days, does it look natural? If your site is visited 400 times in a day and you are getting 500 backlinks out of it, how do you convince anyone that your backlinks are legitimate?

3. Number of pages

It should be obvious that a site with more than 1000 pages could possibly get more links. But even news sites, or even ESPN sports doesn’t get more than 20 Google Plus votes. Google + is a link created by Google to help them determine how important a webpage is. Each clicks on Google + is a vote to that site.

4. Consistency

When a webpage is getting 500 links in a day for 30 to 45 days, then stops suddenly, it won’t make any sense and it will just negatively impact your site.

If you are using link building techniques, be consistent for about a year. If you know that you cannot sustain it long enough, do it moderately and make sure that your backlinks should come and go as natural as you can.

The factors I mentioned above are not really new. When you are building links, just use common sense and do not disregard the importance of right link velocity. Google is serious about their campaign of penalizing manipulative sites and you don’t want to get into that situation.

White hat SEO involves practices to improve your site’s visibility on the web. It involves different methods like the right use of keywords, creating good content, and ways to make your site load faster to make sure that you are helping Google to provide the best user experience. If you can follow all white hat SEO guideline, your site will definitely be favored by search engine by putting it on top of their search results.

The opposite of White Hat SEO is Black Hat [...]]]> Google Penguin is another step that Google took to determine which sites do not conform to their quality guideline. They are targeting sites that are obviously using black hat SEO to manipulate the search engine results.

White hat SEO involves practices to improve your site’s visibility on the web. It involves different methods like the right use of keywords, creating good content, and ways to make your site load faster to make sure that you are helping Google to provide the best user experience. If you can follow all white hat SEO guideline, your site will definitely be favored by search engine by putting it on top of their search results.

The opposite of White Hat SEO is Black Hat SEO or web spamming. In pursuit of high ranking, some web publishers use shortcut methods to make their pages rank higher than what their site really deserve. They produce content that does not benefit the user, but will surely manipulate the different search engine algorithm.

Last April 24, 2012, Google announced that they are changing their algorithm in the next few days that targets web spammers. Any site that does not provide valuable content will be penalized by reducing their rank or being blocked totally. So, to avoid being blocked by Google from their SERP, make sure that you are not doing any of the methods below.

1. Keyword Stuffing

A good way to make your page indexed by Google correctly is by using the right keywords across your content and using them repeatedly and naturally without irritating your reader.

Take note that I used the word “naturally”. Review your articles and make sure that your keyword density does not go beyond 2% of the number of words to avoid being suspected of keyword stuffing.

2. Link Schemes

The relevance of your site to a search query is heavily determined by the quantity and quality of sites that link to you. Every important and authority sites that link to you is like a vote on your site’s importance. However, some web publishers engage on excessive link exchange. There should be nothing wrong with link exchange if it happens naturally. But if you are paying for it or use it in excess, then it can hurt your site when Google Penguin is launched.

3. Link Building Scheme

BMR used to make a lot of money by allowing web publishers to submit 150-word article to their site with a link to their own. Ezine Articles used to rank high on SERP’s. When you submit an article to Ezine, you are allowed to insert a link to your site which should increase your page rank since it is a site with high PR.

BMR is gone. It went out of business recently after Google blocked it from their SERP. Articles from Ezine could hardly make it on the first page of SERP. Both sites have been penalized by Google after Google Panda.

Avoid link building network, especially those that require you to pay a certain amount. You don’t want to invest on anything that will, one day, go into waste.

What Should You Do If You Have Been Wrongly Penalized By Google Penguin

If your stats continue to go down after April 24, 2012 and you are not violating any of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, submit the following forms for reconsideration:

1. Google Webmaster Reconsideration Tool
2. Google Penguin Feedback Form

Here’s a quote from him:

So how can we say that you will get penalized for it? In fact, bloggers do it all the time with something called “link love”. When they find interesting articles, they share it among their readers. And when the source noticed that they have been sending traffic to his blog, they link back out of courtesy. And I must admit that I am one who feels the pressure [...]]]> I have seen too many write ups about link exchange and how you can get penalized for practicing it. The truth is; as long as it’s not excessive, it is actually beneficial for blog sites and Matt Cutts actually noted it on his blog.

Here’s a quote from him:

So how can we say that you will get penalized for it? In fact, bloggers do it all the time with something called “link love”. When they find interesting articles, they share it among their readers. And when the source noticed that they have been sending traffic to his blog, they link back out of courtesy. And I must admit that I am one who feels the pressure of linking back when someone quoted my blog on his.

It is linking that makes up the blogosphere. It is what makes blogging unique. And to say that link exchange is wrong is not true.

Sources of Quality Sites for Link Exchange

1. DMOZ Directory
2. Yahoo Directory

Both DMOZ and Yahoo are very careful about the sites that they include on their list. If they trust those sites, I’m not sure why you can’t. Start asking for link exchange from those sites within your niche. But before you do, follow these simple guidelines to make sure that you will achieve some level of success.

1. Do not expect too much

If you send 10 emails and only one of them responded, that’s a good start. The problem with those who tried to solicit for links gets easily disappointed and stops from there. Persevere. Continue sending emails relentlessly.

2. Get a good web design if you can’t write well

People links to site because they like it. Take note of the word “like”. They must like your site because of your articles or simply because there’s something unique about the way that you presented your ideas.

It’s not always easy to write interesting article. But if you can present it with a nice- looking and unique web design, there’s a good chance that they will respond to you positively. The sites that they would most likely ignore are:

• Those with grammar and spelling mistakes
• Blogs that look like any other blogs
• Blogs that look desperate to earn money 

3. Be realistic

Do you know that webmasters check your site’s PageRank before they link to you? If your site’s PageRank is 0, do not expect that a site with PageRank of 4 or 5 will link back to you. That’s not how it works and it’s not fair. Blame it on Google if you are looking for someone to blame.

If you are not looking at offering some financial reward, then, be realistic.

Before you rant about it, find out why they wouldn’t respond to sites with a PR of 0

• The site is still new. It’s possible that your site is only 3-6 months old and it’s not easy to trust that you will be serious about it.
• It’s also possible that you must have been penalized by Google for breaking their policy and if they link back to you, they, too could possibly face the same problem.

Offer your page with a better PageRank. A PageRank of 2 is not bad, as long as you are not asking for a page with a PR of 5.

When I mentioned the word “post” I don’t mean purely articles. Sometimes a video or an image can speak a thousand words. It can be interesting and it is an update. So next time that you are running out of topics to write about, consider the following alternatives to update your blog.

For some reason, people are easily attracted to lists. Top 10 music videos, 101 ways to lose weight, 3 steps to a better blog, 5 reasons to stop smoking, and so on. A list is interesting and easy to write. Just try to insert [...]]]> When it comes to blogging, there are two ways for you to stay on top. Publish interesting posts and update your blog regularly.

When I mentioned the word “post” I don’t mean purely articles. Sometimes a video or an image can speak a thousand words. It can be interesting and it is an update. So next time that you are running out of topics to write about, consider the following alternatives to update your blog.

Lists

For some reason, people are easily attracted to lists. Top 10 music videos, 101 ways to lose weight, 3 steps to a better blog, 5 reasons to stop smoking, and so on. A list is interesting and easy to write. Just try to insert a sentence or two to engage your reader.

Reviews

When you create a review about a certain product, you are not generating idea out of nothing. You can visit the website and look at the features and write down your opinion about those features. Since people want to read reviews before purchasing anything, you will definitely get a share of traffic from those posts. In addition, writing reviews also give you an opportunity to earn, if you sign up with the company who owns the product.

Photos

As I mentioned, a picture is worth a thousand words.

One of the ways to catch a reader’s attention is to put an image beside the words that you want to highlight. When you run out of topics to write about, why don’t you post pictures with some interesting words below each one of them? Just make sure that you give it a good title with your keywords and use the same keywords on your image files to make sure that your post is indexed by search engines appropriately.

Link roundup

Make a list of good and helpful websites within your niche and publish them with a link to each one of them. You are giving a lot of help to your readers when you do that and I’m sure that they will appreciate your content.

Interviews

Another alternative post is an interview with a famous name within your niche. You will not just attract a lot of visitors, but you are also giving your visitors a different perspective, especially if you are the only one who posts articles on your blog.

Polls

Another interesting activity that you can do on your blog is hosting a poll. You can write about it before you launch it and update your visitors about its progress. Most forum sites use polls and encourage those who voted to drop comments. Do the same with your blog and write articles about the comments that you receive.

Podcast

Sometimes, it’s easier to talk than to write. Nobody will stop you from using podcast. Just don’t use it very often as it is not something that all people would want to find on blogs.

Videos

Instead of Podcast, videos are better. Upload a video on your blog and promote it through YouTube.

Guest Posts

Inviting people to post an article on your blog can give your reader a different perspective. Just make sure that you check the article before publishing it to make sure that your guest blogger is not using your site to promote his blog blatantly.

Through the years, affiliate marketing is still the best method of earning online. It still presents a huge opportunity as individuals and businesses continue to search for people who can promote their products over the Internet. While the concept of affiliate marketing never changed, strategies do due to tough competition.

If you are new in blogging and thinking of ways to earn through affiliate marketing, I have one piece of advice for you. Make sure that when you [...]]]> If you think about it, people have been making money online for almost 15 years now. Although it is a little tough now than it was before, there are still bloggers who can make thousands of dollars by endorsing other people’s product.

Through the years, affiliate marketing is still the best method of earning online. It still presents a huge opportunity as individuals and businesses continue to search for people who can promote their products over the Internet. While the concept of affiliate marketing never changed, strategies do due to tough competition.

If you are new in blogging and thinking of ways to earn through affiliate marketing, I have one piece of advice for you. Make sure that when you check the Internet for guidelines, you are not reading articles that have been published 2-3 years ago. A lot has changed since then. Not only because of the competition, but also because the way that search engines treat websites have also changed.

What you will find in this article are some tips that will hopefully help you to make money using the latest method that most successful bloggers do today.

Is Article Marketing Dead?

Google, and other search engines continue to find solutions to bring the best result to users. And recently, they have targeted content farmers such as article submission sites which used to dominate search engines. Just a few days ago, they blocked BMR (Build My Rank), which is widely used by website owners to improve their rank. Although Ezine, Squidoo, and Hubpages are still around, their sites are not so visible anymore on SERP (search engine result page). Those sites are considered to be the number one tool that affiliate marketers used before to direct users to their sales page. It used to drive hundreds of traffic in a day. But try to submit an article now and you will be lucky to get a few visitors from those sites in a week.

You can still use article marketing, but do not expect huge success. Focus on niche marketing instead.

The Latest Trend is Niche Marketing

Niche marketing is focused on a narrow market. Look for a lucrative product with the same market that popular keywords have. An example is loan. A lot of people are searching the Internet about loans that makes that keyword really pricey. If you blog about it, you have a potential to earn huge, if you can beat the competition. It will be tough. It will be difficult.

Users who search about loans are most likely interested with cheap salary loan rate. “Cheap salary loan rate” is a niche. Instead of blogging about loan, focus on the latter and you will have a better chance.

When you blog about a niche market, you wouldn’t have to break your back with all strategies that you can think of since there are less competition. Just produce the right articles that will greatly help users and work on SEO.

Topics That Converts

While you can write any article about your niche, focus more on topics that will convert visitors to buy your affiliate product.

1. Product Reviews – When people search for “name of product + review” (ex. Canon 7D review), their intention for their search is clear. They want to buy a product and they are just trying to check what others are saying about it. If you can write a review with a link to your affiliate, there’s a big chance that you will earn from those visits.
2. Product list – Just list down the available brands and insert a few words stating your opinion about each one of them. Do not forget to insert your affiliate link for each of them.
3. Write Solution Articles – How to’s, treatments, and tips are great articles that provides solution to a problem. Make your affiliate product as the solution.

In Google’s quest to produce the best user experience, they periodically check all the web pages that they have crawled before to see which site deserve its position, which site should be penalized, and which page deserve higher position. This index update is called Google dance which occurs every 36 days.  Another situation when a site suddenly receives Google penalization is during Google Panda update. Google Panda is that event when Google changes their algorithm that determines the site’s ranking.

Google dance usually happen every 36 days or 10 times in a year. We have to remember that the Internet is constantly changing. There’s an article published every few seconds and links are created from time to time. To stay on top of the game, Google has to update their [...]]]> Periodically, Google updates its index by recalculating the PageRank of the web pages that they have crawled. Since the number of pages is huge, it normally takes a couple of days before the whole process is completed. During this period, the position of web pages fluctuate until they settle to what should be their final position until the next update, thus the name Google dance.

When Does Google Dance Happen?

Google dance usually happen every 36 days or 10 times in a year. We have to remember that the Internet is constantly changing. There’s an article published every few seconds and links are created from time to time. To stay on top of the game, Google has to update their search results to make sure that they are providing the best, the freshest, and the most valuable content to their searcher.

What Happens To My Blog during Google Dance?

Some bloggers, especially those who watch their rank on a daily basis, panic during this time when they see that their position suddenly drops from search result.

Let’s look at possible scenarios to help you understand what’s going to happen if you experience this. If Google don’t find anything wrong with your site, or if there is no other competing site that deserves its position, then your site gets back to its original position when the whole process is completed. If Google finds another competing site that looks more valuable than yours, base on their algorithm, then your site moves one step backward. But if another competing site is penalized, then your site moves closer to the top.

The worst is – if they find suspicious activities on your site, then your site could possibly be taken out of Google’s index.

How Can I Prevent My Blog From the Negative Impact of Google Dance?

Avoid black hat SEO if you are not ready from its repercussions.

Some bloggers use black hat SEO on purpose because their strategies are focused on short term goals. They know that their site will not last long and getting shut down is part of their plans.

Be careful with your link building campaign

If your site is so new, avoid paying for massive links. It doesn’t look real. Make it as natural as possible. Or if you can avoid it, then do. But if you really want to pay for links, consider drip feeding. It is a method that gradually creates link to your site.

Update your site regularly

If your last update was 8 months ago, while your competitor clearly shows fresh updates, do you expect to hold the same position?

I must admit that I have a blog (my first one), which I don’t update regularly. For some reason, those pages that made it to the top of search result remain on their position even after a few years. I wouldn’t be able to make a valid conclusion, but my guess is because of the comments that continue to come along on a daily basis. Those are legitimate questions and opinions coming from visitors who actually read all the comments that was written 3 or four years ago (I doubt if they ever read the article since their comments are directed to previous posts J).

So why am I sharing this?

That blog that I mentioned never use any black hat SEO or any off-site optimization, but it continue to hold its position even after Google Panda and Google dances. My point is to build your blog according to Google’s TOS and you will have a blog that is as solid as a rock.

The success of Google relies on giving the best result to searchers and they will not stop looking for sites that manipulate their search result. They have been very good at it lately that I have seen numerous sites that suddenly disappear from Google.

The key to blog success is perseverance. As long as you apply the following On-page SEO factors, you will reach the [...]]]> When people think of SEO strategies and techniques, it seems that link building comes to mind right away. There should be nothing wrong about working on building your link as long as you are using white hat optimization techniques. The problem with black-hat SEO is the amount of risk you are putting on your site.

The success of Google relies on giving the best result to searchers and they will not stop looking for sites that manipulate their search result. They have been very good at it lately that I have seen numerous sites that suddenly disappear from Google.

The key to blog success is perseverance. As long as you apply the following On-page SEO factors, you will reach the first page of search result. It may be slow, but the result is definitely solid.

1. Cross-Browser Compatibility

My site looks good on Chrome since I use it as my browser. But one day, when we were shopping for a laptop, I went in front of the item on display and opened up my site. It was using IE, and I was surprised to see that some of the codes appeared on the screen. If you come across a site showing codes, would you stay longer to understand the content between those codes?

Each of the browsers has their own web-design requirements. Make sure that your site is compatible with, at least, the major browsers namely, Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari.

2. Linking

The closer you get on the first page of search result, the more spammy comments you will get. It’s so tempting to show them off on your page, but please don’t.  Google is now looking at TrustRank. It is a link analysis system that separates useful webpages from spam.

The quality of your links, whether inbound and outbound, plays a very important role in determining your position on search results. The more links, coming or going to trusted sites, you have, the higher your score is. If your site is found to have a lot of spammy links, it will negatively impact your site’s position.

3. Keywords on Your Title

The title of an article should briefly describe its content. If you use the right keywords on your title, your page will be indexed correctly.

4. Keywords in the Body of Your Article

Search engines will find it difficult to understand the importance of your article in relation to a search query if you have not optimized your article with the right keywords. Try to use your target keywords a couple of times across the body of your article. They should dominate your content to make sure that it stands out from the rest of the words.

5. Keywords  on Images

Name your image files to describe it briefly by using your target keywords.

6. Reduce your Ads

According to a recent study, searchers are annoyed by ads popping up or ads that almost consume the entire page.

In response to giving the best user experience, Google is now penalizing sites with ads that cover the above-the fold area.

7. Interlink You Pages

Make sure that every page on your site is linked by a click or two to your homepage. It will help other pages discovered by searchers if they are linked to each other.

8. Optimize Your Meta Description

The Meta description lies within the header. Make sure that you insert a meta description with keywords that briefly describe what your page is all about. Make is interesting as the meta description is usually used as snippet on search results.

9. Make it Fast

Users want a page that loads fast. When a page is taking more than 5 seconds to load, they click off from the site to find other sources. Therefore, Google added a special program to determine the load time of a page.

Avoid flashes, java, and large files to speed up your site.

10. Use Keyword Variations

Search engines would love your article if it is filled with related keywords. If your major keyword is “home-based jobs”, consider using work-at-home jobs, working from home, data entry home-based opportunities, and other related keywords across the body of your articles.

11. Update Your Site Frequently

Search engines love blogs because they are updated frequently than static websites. Since they are always in the quest for providing the best user experience, they need to give users the latest information with regard to their query.

12. Do Not Forget to Socialize

Although search media marketing is part of off-page factors, making it easy for visitors to share your content could surely help boost your SMM strategy.

13. Use “Dofollow” and “Nofollow” Appropriately

Use “dofollow” on links that goes out to authority sites and “nofollow” on your sales page.

14. Optimize your URL

If branding is not that important for you, consider using keywords on your URL. Believe me, it helps a lot in ranking.

15. Do not Over Optimize

While on-page factors are all about optimizing your page, do not overdo it or your site could be suspected of manipulating the search results. Aside from perseverance, moderation is the number 2 key to stay in this game.

If I tell you that most sites would require you to have at least contributed 50 posts to the community, would you still want to think of increasing traffic through forum sites? Most bloggers who learned about [...]]]> I actually enjoy participating on forum sites. I have been an active member of a few sites for some time now, and I would say that I have been good at determining if a post is spammy or if a link is inserted in “good faith”. I really don’t mind seeing posts to promote a site for as long as it’s related to the topic. But some would. And not everyone can forgive you if you ever try to promote your site blatantly.

If I tell you that most sites would require you to have at least contributed 50 posts to the community, would you still want to think of increasing traffic through forum sites? Most bloggers who learned about it immediately dismissed forum marketing and turn, instead, to other strategies. There’s really nothing wrong about that. However, if you would just understand how to leverage on forums, you’ll discover more benefits other than gaining traffic.

Forum Marketing Benefits

1. Questions that actual people within your niche needs to be answered. You can use those questions as topics on your blog.
2. Popular keywords
3. Industry trend – you’ll immediately learn what’s new within the industry.
4. Links to other blogs. It works both ways – either you or they link to you. Since you have already established relationship with them, link building comes naturally, which is what search engines really look for.
5. Relationship with other business owners within your niche, who could possibly open good opportunities.
6. And of course, traffic. The forum members are not the only people who will visit your blog. If you can find a forum site that is indexed by Google, you posts on the community site will remain forever on search results, which will then be discovered by anyone interested.

How Can You Make Forums Work For You?

Promote or Brand

Although inserting a link to your blog is a good way to increase traffic (if it is allowed), simply answering questions can also lead to good results. By providing valuable information, you are branding yourself as an authority within the niche.

Create a signature instead, but do not insert it when you are just starting to know the members around. Read the Forum rules to know when it is allowed to insert your signature.

Focus on Giving Value

To establish your reputation quickly, grab every opportunity to answer questions. Make sure that when you answer, you are providing substantial information. Keep your answers simple but valuable. Avoid writing a lengthy answer, or most of them will ignore your post.

Be in Control

It is easy to get caught up on forum sites. Do not spend too much time on them. You have other things to do to achieve success in blogging, and forum marketing is just one of them.

I usually keep it to 5 posts in a day – whether to answer or start a thread.

Choose Your Community

Do not spend a lot of time on forum sites that has very few members or sites with thousands of members. It is not easy to be heard if there’s just too much noise. Choose a forum site with moderate number of active members. It can produce better outcome.

Use a Good Signature

A signature that links to your sales page is not a good idea. In fact, it destroys your reputation. Link to your blog, instead. It is more appropriate.

In addition, do not fill your single post with more than 2 links. It is really not necessary and it looks spammy.

Paid Forums Pay

Some bloggers avoid paid forums. The thing is; most of those paid forums are indexed by Google.

Everything that we do online to earn money goes by the same principle, including earning through affiliate marketing. It is easy to set up. But if you don’t put some time to learn about it, it will just be another weed that litters the Internet.

While we can find a lot of strategies online to make it big on affiliate marketing, what I am going to share here are the biggest mistakes most bloggers [...]]]> You cannot throw a seed on the ground and expect that it will grow by itself. You have to learn about it, nourish it and make sure that you provide everything that it needs to grow into a tree that will bear a lot of fruits.

Everything that we do online to earn money goes by the same principle, including earning through affiliate marketing. It is easy to set up. But if you don’t put some time to learn about it, it will just be another weed that litters the Internet.

While we can find a lot of strategies online to make it big on affiliate marketing, what I am going to share here are the biggest mistakes most bloggers commit.

No Research

To be effective, you have to know your target market to understand what they need. No matter how big or fascinating your eBook is, if they don’t need it, why would they care?

You also need to learn where they are coming from and hanging out online. Although the search result is the best source of traffic, you still need to meet your target market elsewhere to engage them more since a single encounter is not always enough.

Poor Web Design

Users have become cautious when purchasing online. You cannot force your visitor to trust you with the product that you are endorsing if your site looks lousy. First impression always counts. A professional looking site looks credible.

Have your site designed by professional designers if you have no time to make it look good enough. You can go to 99Designs to find freelance web designers or do it yourself by using a simple tool from PageLines.

Content that Does Not Convert

Content is king. Of course. While you want to provide valuable information to your visitor, make an effort to write contents that will bring your reader one step closer to conversion.

Write articles that give solution where your product is a part of it.

Wrong Niche

I cannot forget how I made this biggest mistake. I was able to get one of my sites on the first page of SERP in two months. I was so excited thinking that I finally found the perfect recipe. But as I check my daily traffic, I was lucky to get 30 visitors a day.

I selected a wrong niche. I should have paid more attention to the numbers.

If you want to make it big in affiliate marketing, finding the perfect niche is the key. You have to select a less competitive niche with continuous demand. Do not under or overestimate the numbers. Always be conservative.

Too Much Ads

Have you seen a site filled with ads that provides little information? How do you feel about it? Users find it difficult to trust a website filled with too many ads. It’s like you’re screaming your intention to earn money from them. And they are less likely to cooperate.

 Unrelated Ads

Affiliate marketing works well when your site is well-themed, including the banners. Visitors come to your site with a particular interest. If they see advertisement that they think can provide answer to what they are looking for, it is not impossible for them to clink on it.

Below are some of the offenses committed by web owners against their readers and I hope that if you are unknowingly practicing them, please reconsider your web design. And if you have encountered other web design mistakes, please share it with us through the comment section below.

We want to know where we are going and we, obviously, want to know the path that we’ve been [...]]]> We know it. When you create a blog, think of your visitors. When you write your articles, create it primarily for readers and make it accessible to search engines. We think of them all the time. So why have I been seeing web designs that doesn’t seem to care about their readers?

Below are some of the offenses committed by web owners against their readers and I hope that if you are unknowingly practicing them, please reconsider your web design. And if you have encountered other web design mistakes, please share it with us through the comment section below.

Visited Links

We want to know where we are going and we, obviously, want to know the path that we’ve been through. It helps us understand where we are and helps us decide where we want to go next. Not changing the color of visited link is an offense against your reader. When you change the color of visited links, you are helping them to avoid revisiting pages unintentionally. When the color of visited link remains the same, it causes disorientation and bad user experience.

Wall of Text

What else can bore you to death than reading a wall full of text? I had a project before which required me to make an analysis about a report which I can access through the Internet. It was about 20 pages long and it took me two weeks to finish my project. When I read the text, my eyes always got teary that I had to take a break and resume the following day. Before I finished the report, I swear that I have cursed the publisher more than twice in a row.

When you write articles, break it into small paragraphs under headings and subheadings. Use bullet points or numbers. Highlight keywords and use simple writing style.

Font Size

Some web designers think that small fonts give a sleek appearance and more room for other contents. However, small fonts reduce its readability among users who are over 40 years old.

A good web design should look good without requiring the user to enlarge or reduce the size of the text. A font size of 12pt relatively suits most readers.

Page Titles

I know that in order for you to attract traffic, you have to make your title catchy to stand out among the list of SERP. The title is also the first thing that users could discover your page through social bookmarking sites. While it’s important that you create an interesting title, you have to make sure that your reader will not be disappointed once they read the full context of your article.

When your title indicates that you are revealing a secret, make sure that what you have on your page is not something that they read on other websites.

Your title should clearly describe what your article is all about if you want your reader to keep coming back.

 Ads

Readers have learned to stop paying attention to advertisements. While they can forgive you for putting banner ads on your sidebar or below your header, do not let it get into their way. They came to your site with full expectation that you will give them the information that they need. Give it to them without annoying them with ads popping up on their face.

Conventions

When things behave the same as it has always been, we don’t worry about what’s going to happen next. When an apple falls from the tree, we know that it’s going down.

When user’s expectations are met, they feel more in control and confident. They will appreciate you for meeting their expectations.

When you contradict other conventions, you make them feel like a child, exploring without knowing what’s going to happen next.

I am not an expert writer but when I read something good, I try to observe what makes an article engaging. And it is what I am going to share with you today.

When you repeat a phrase, it gives a little impact. It dissolves monotony while stressing the point. As a kid, we love rhythm. By repeating phrases, we are presenting our thoughts rhythmically.

But do not overuse it or it will be annoying.

Social media is also good for online business. However, when people learned that it can improve their traffic tremendously, they jump into it right away without understanding how it fits into their objective. They thought that by getting more “likes” and following more tweeters, it will increase their revenue.

Social media is not the be all and end all of Internet marketing.

It plays an important role to achieve success online, but it [...]]]> Social Media is everywhere. It is trendy and it shines. People love its technology and its concept. Like everyone around, I also like to share whatever is going on in my world and also want to be found by people I have connected with in the past.

Social media is also good for online business. However, when people learned that it can improve their traffic tremendously, they jump into it right away without understanding how it fits into their objective. They thought that by getting more “likes” and following more tweeters, it will increase their revenue.

Social media is not the be all and end all of Internet marketing.

It plays an important role to achieve success online, but it is just one of the components. Your strategy should include the content of your site, email marketing plan, SEO, and most importantly, a clear plan that will tie them all together.

You can have thousands of likes and have your post retweeted a thousand times or spend all day actively participating on conversations in Twitter and Facebook, but unless you have a clear path of how it fits into your marketing structure, you will never achieve any success.

Think of social media as one step and explore how it can help you achieve your goal. Define the path. Where do you want your Facebook fans to go next after they visit your page? What do you want your Twitter followers to do next? What are the things that you need to do to motivate them to do what you want them to do?

By clearly defining the pathway that will lead them to your sales funnel, you can see a better picture of each segment and have it optimized to achieve a better chance to succeed.

Let me share an example.

According to successful Internet marketers, consumers today have changed their buying behavior. You cannot shout at them anymore to buy your product. You have to give them something of value to give you a small commitment and a slight level of trust. That small trust permits you to ask for more commitment by offering something more valuable. The cycle goes on and on until you get them to purchasing your major product that can only happen after they give their full trust on you.

You can start your marketing plan by setting up a site with helpful information. Add an optin box where visitors can sign up with their email address. Create a video with valuable lecture and a 20-page eBook.

Create a Fan Page on Facebook where you can announce the free video that you are giving away, which they can download on your site. Unlike Facebook page, Fan Pages are indexed by search engines so there is a great possibility that it will be discovered by interested users. So, ask them to like your Fan Page to increase its position on SERP and provide a link to your site where they can download the free video. Announce it on Twitter as well.

Once they sign up on your optin box, send them the video through their email. At the bottom of your email, let them know that you are publishing a free eBook soon which you will announce on Facebook. Send them more valuable information related to their interest. Do everything that you promised to give them. You can insert a one-time offer at one point that will only cost them about $10. If they don’t buy it, that’s fine. Continue building relationship until you win their trust. Offer your major product. If they don’t buy it, move on. When the time comes that they need your product and they are ready to buy, they wouldn’t look somewhere else, but you.

Do you know how the Internet took over traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing, such as TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, and billboards are based on one-way communication. You create a campaign, launch them, and wait for people to buy your product.

If you use the same concept for your Internet marketing campaign, it will not work.

This is how you can make money through your blog.

You publish articles that will help people solve their problems. You create something valuable like eBook or video and give them away for free. Tomorrow, [...]]]> If you find the following characteristics in you, blogging is not for you. Pack up and find something else to do where your presence is valued.

You are selfish

Do you know how the Internet took over traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing, such as TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, and billboards are based on one-way communication. You create a campaign, launch them, and wait for people to buy your product.

If you use the same concept for your Internet marketing campaign, it will not work.

This is how you can make money through your blog.

You publish articles that will help people solve their problems. You create something valuable like eBook or video and give them away for free. Tomorrow, you will give more, and more, and more. And then, you make a little offer. Out of 100 recipients, only a few of them will respond positively. Regardless of the result, you still need to continue giving.

Four years ago, I was looking for home-based job. One that I was looking at was teaching online so I signed up on a website that offers free e-course. I never purchased anything from that website, but until today, I am still receiving email and freebies from the web publisher.

To earn money from blogging, you have to learn how to give without expecting too much in return. The reward will come, but you have to give first.

You are lazy

To succeed in blogging, you have to update your site on a regular basis. Promote it each time that you publish an article on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. You also need to submit a number of original articles on different article submission sites regularly. In addition, you need to visit other blogs and read their article to be able to participate or drop a well-thought comment. You also need to be an active member of community sites within your industry.

Does it sound a lot of work to you?

Let me tell you what a lot of work is:

It is breaking boulders 24 hours a day and 7 days a week without a day-off for 3 years.

Blogging requires work, but definitely not as hard as other kinds of work.

You are impatient

Ask any successful blogger if they have not felt any frustration when something that they planned so well did not materialize according to their time frame.

Any activity that’s associated with blogging requires time. You cannot promote on forum sites without winning their trust first. You cannot force your followers on Twitter to visit your blog without building your relationship with them first. You cannot force search engines to put your site on its first page of SERP within two weeks.

If you cannot wait for things to grow and mature, stay away from blogging.

You want to be on the safe side all the time

When you decide to write something that requires your opinion, decide which camp you are in and let your readers know about it. Being safe gives a lame impression and it doesn’t spark any interest.

According to Google, as long as you make your articles compelling, there’s no reason why your site will never reach the top list of SERP.