Some blogs (like this one) are primarily text and that's okay. But other bloggers may want to combine other media into their blogs and pictures are one way to do that. Unfortunately, copyright doesn't always allow bloggers to include pictures legally. (They do anyway, but that's a rant for another time). 

So, how can bloggers create an engaging blog with pictures without breaking the law or busting out their digital camera every time they want to take a picture?

One great resource is available at Flickr. When Flickr photographers take pictures and upload them to Flickr, they can set the digital rights usage of that picture to a specific setting. These rights are based on the work that Creative Commons is doing for work (http://creativecommons.org/). And one of those settings is attribution 2.0 which says that the photographer gives permission for people to use their pictures for free as long as there is attribution (i.e. a photo credit). There are other restrictions that might be relevant, too, and you can view those here. 

Basically, that means that any picture on Flickr that has a Creative Commons "Attribution 2.0" license can be embedded into your blog and all you need to do is give a photo credit to the person who took the picture. And, to make things even easier, Flickr gives you a page where you can view all photos with this license.

So, click to that page, view the pictures, find one you like, embed it, and give appropriate credit. It's easy!

When I was in college, my dorm was somewhat notorious for the people who had lived there before. And each year, the group of freshmen (and freshwomen) who lived there were ushered into a hallowed closet and invited to write their names on the wall, joining the hundreds who had gone before. It was an interesting tradition and somewhat meaningful to add your name to the list of people – luminaries and not-so-luminaries – who had lived there, too.

This same idea translates into the business world, too, specifically when it comes to commenting on blogs. When you leave your mark, you are joining with others to indicate your participation in that community – however modest – and you are aligning yourself with other likeminded people. This is the ultimate in positioning!

So, here's what you need to do: Go to Gravatar and sign up. This gives you an easy way to spread your face, logo, or recognizable image around the web. Then, identify your top three favorite blogs and comment in them every day. Also, find one other blog – a blog you might read but don't comment on – and comment in it every day. In this way, you'll help to contribute to a community at your favorite blogs and you'll also add 200 – 365 additional blogs (depending on how diligent you are at daily commenting). Imagine how rich those back links will be!

Also, check out Disqus. Their main system is a plug-in to help you manage comments on your blog but they also offer Disqus Profile so you can manage your comments on other blogs.

Brought to you by: Contemporary VA - Run your business instead of running in circles.

Google's Keyword Tool is useful for people who are creating AdWords and for doing search engine optimization. But that's not all it's useful for. Here are 6 ways to use Google's Keyword Tool for your business:

1. To research your competitors: When you search for a keyword, you'll get a variety of synonyms you may not have thought of. These search terms can help you find competitors who are lurking just around the corner and scooping up clients who are searching for the very thing you're selling! Search for each of the top terms and take note of the top ten search results for each term. Any crossover will hint and a very successful SEO campaign and a key competitor you'll need to work hard to compete against.

2. To research your target market: When you search for a keyword, you'll also end up with a long list of related modifiers that you didn't consider. I found this in a recent search for my own business. I typed a keyword that I typically try to target and found a modifier – a second word – that is being searched by my target market but which I did not think of. Targeting this keyword can help to increase traffic.

3. To find content ideas: Sometimes writing a blog can end up being a little dull if you run out of ideas. You either end up not writing anything at all or writing nonsensical stuff that doesn't really matter. By searching for your keywords and drawing inspiration from some of the others that show up in the list, you can keep your ideas fresh and relevant to your target market.

4. To help your marketing planning: Identify the top 12 search terms that you want to be known for in 2010 and target one a month. Just focus all of your marketing energy on one search term a month and create tons of content around that term. Then move on the next term and the next and the next. You can always revisit your previously targeted work but this way you can find a balance between targeting several keywords and focusing on just a few.

5. To watch for trends: The keyword tool gives you monthly search volume. If you pick a few keywords and track this volume month after month, you can see how the trends change on those searches over time. The value here is to see growth opportunities before they happen.

6. To watch for "back doors". A back door is when someone gets to your blog because it contains keywords they're searching for… but with a different definition than how you are using. I had exactly this experience when I was marketing spicy food for a client and we were using the word "hot" as a key part of our AdWords… until we were reminded (with this tool) that "hot" has other meanings besides relating to food. We used some negative modifiers (vacation and girls, to name two) to eliminate searches and AdWord click-throughs that were getting to us when they intended to go somewhere else.

In college, we used the case study method to learn to analyze and solve business problems. I liked this because case studies, like real life, are messy and complex and not easily solved with a single answer.

Recently, I stumbled across a blog post that caught my eye. I confess that the stumbling was completely accidental. But I stopped and read and thought: "this is like reading a case study in college… and there are some good lessons to be learned here."

On the CNN Money website, in their small business section, they have a "website remedies" blog in which people write in with their website problems and the bloggers make suggestions. The one I stumbled across was an interesting case: The website owner has a service that allows visitors to register and receive a certificate for a date. In other word, you could register any date and make it "your" day. Strange; interesting; compelling. But his site wasn’t doing the brisk business he was hoping for. So the experts took a look and identified a number of places where he could improve.

Their insight was really value:

They talked about his overall message being unclear.  That’s a lesson for any website owner: Make sure your message is clear, straightforward, and "hits ‘em between the eyes" as soon as they click to your site.

They talked about his site lacking attractive colors or thematic tie-ins. That’s a good lesson for website owners: Your site needs to look good if you’re going to keep people there.

And, they talked about the sales flow once people started thinking about buying. How easy and clear is the sales process and what happens as they click through to buy.

Clear message, the attractiveness of the site, and the clarity and efficiency of the buying process are evergreen problems in the world of online business. It is a daily battle to get traffic to your site and to keep it there. If I had a nickel for every resource and idea that were designed to do one of those two things, I’d be sipping margaritas on a beach.

You can read the full text of the article here. Their advice in this post, and in this blog in general, is extremely valuable. At first, website owners might say "but their problems aren’t my problems"; to which I’d counter that this is just like those case studies in college. Their problems are not EXACTLY like your problems but you can still learn something because their problems may have similarities to your problems.

This blog – which CNN Money called "Website Remedies" is going in my regular reading and I think it should go in yours, too.

Brought to you by: Contemporary VA - Run your business instead of running in circles.

I remember when forums were THE place for people to market their business. It was like the killer secret that guru business people sold to clients. They’d say, "go onto a forum and link back to your site". Today, the world’s attention has shifted from forums to Twitter, but forums still provide a valuable place to interact… and to market your business.

To market your business in a forum, start by finding forums that are associated with your subject matter. There might be several but choose 2 or 3 of the best ones and sign up. Now, some people might tell you that you need to fill out your profile in detail and include a link back to your website in your profile and in the footer of every post. However, I’d advise that you do it a bit differently. You should think first about adding value and building a reputation.

So, introduce yourself (if they have a place to do so). However, don’t blatantly promote your business. The rule of thumb in the beginning should be to remain understated.

Then, start looking for content to comment on. Find different conversations about your subject matter and participate. Don’t just *bump* the topic, but add relevant insight. Start small and slowly build your reputation on the forum. Plan to comment on 1-3 new conversations each day and continue in 4-10 conversations that have already started. This might take half an hour of your time.

Spend the first week or two just commenting. Don’t do anything else.

Then, after you’ve had plenty of discussion, start a topic of your own. Now, here is where it gets tricky because it can be tempting to put your business’ link in the footer at this point. Instead, you should resist for a little longer. Just start a discussion about a topic that interests you and the forum users.

Then start another one. Then a third. Keep the discussion lively without allowing a lot of conflict.

At this point, you might be ready to add a link back to your website. And, add it into your profile.

Why don’t you do it earlier? Lots of people add their link early but I believe that forum users may resist users who are linking back to their site too early and, in fact, hold them up to a higher standard. (In other words, you can be a pushy forum participator and people will mind less if you’re just doing it because that’s who you are but if you’re a regular forum participant, people might perceive you as pushy simply because you want to talk about your subject matter). So, you need to win their respect first by becoming a valued board contributor. In fact, although this runs counter to accepted wisdom, I believe that the longer you go without a back link, the greater your reputation can be online.

As a valued contributor, you can build up a huge base of interested readers who will then be surprised when they discover that you operate a related site.

Remember, when it comes to forums, seek reputation first and business will follow.

Google AdWords. The debate definitely rages on this one!

Skeptics say they are dying because they’ve been bid up too high out of reach of the common entrepreneurs and that web users are savvier than ever and frequently bypass the paid click-through.

Believers say it’s the only way to market a business because of the measurability and testing ability that AdWords provides, and because placement isn’t solely dependent on bids. We believe that there is still opportunity there, but we’re also realistic enough to know that some of the more popular keywords are probably out of reach. What we’re more interested in is creating great Google AdWords that compel click-throughs.

So, how do you create compelling AdWords ads that prompt people to click through? After all, they don’t give you a lot of space so you need to get it right!

* Keep your ads short and punchy. Eliminate useless words.
* Stay benefits oriented.
* Don’t try to be fancy, stay simple and state it like it is.
* Start broad and slowly target your audience to the time and place of a demographic that is most likely to buy.
* Use Google’s tools, especially the goals and funnel tools provided through AdWords and Analytics. They are very helpful.
* Use negative keywords to help limit the kind of audience you want on your site.
* Tweak your AdWords often so you can create the best functioning ads.
* Run different campaigns – some to test ongoing offers and some to test limited time offers.
* Remember: if people are clicking through your ad but not buying, the problem lies in your website, not necessarily your ad. There is some kind of disconnect you need to investigate.

The best place to start, in our opinion, is Google’s own Learning Center. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good and you can find a lot of information there: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?page=learningcenter.cs. This site will give you the basics you need to know about Google AdWords. From the terminology to the metrics to how bidding works, and so much more. This is THE site, in our opinion, for information on the nuts and bolts of AdWords.

There’s a beginner section and an advanced section, and even a section for you to study to complete the Google Advertising Professional Exam which is the first step in becoming a certified expert.

Once you’re familiar with how Google AdWords work, you need to move into how to make it work for you. For this purpose, there are few that have achieved the same level of expertise as Perry Marshall. Visit his Google AdWords information page at: http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/. Marshall delivers great content that can help an entrepreneur become successful with AdWords. I own his book; it’s solid and I highly recommend it.

The time and money you spend up-front to become an AdWords expert will save you time and money as you apply what you’ve learned. You’ll be more likely to get more clients faster because of what you learn through these two invaluable resources.

One of the most common questions that newsletter publishers have is: "How do I get my newsletter read?" After all, people get lots of stuff emailed into their inboxes and they don’t have time to read everything. So how can you get them to select YOUR newsletter to read?

Sure, you probably provide consistent value that entices readers to open your newsletter week after week… but how do you get them to open up your newsletter the first time?

Subject lines are one of the only determining factors that people have in deciding whether or not to open an email. They’ll combine the information they get from the subject line with the clues they get from the sender line to decide.

So emails from DR. NABU ABINIDAB, ESQ with subject lines that say "FOR YOUR UTMOST CONFIDENTIAL ATTENTION ONLY" are likely not going to get opened. (I hope).

By emails by sources that are trusted (such as a newsletter distributor) still need to vie for the limited attention of the reader. They may see it’s from you… but do they have the time to read it?

Ultimately, what your subject line needs to do is convince them that it is worth their time to read your newsletter.

If you’re well known and you deliver great value, you don’t need a fancy subject line. Jeffrey Gitomer’s email newsletter is fantastic and comes with the "say-it-like-it-is" subject line along the lines of "Jeffrey Gitomer’s Sales Caffeine issue 593".

For the rest of us regular folk, we need subject lines that are perhaps more compelling. A few ideas include:

* Ask a question that will later get answered inside the newsletter. For example: "Do you know which stocks to invest in THIS month?"

* Make a compelling statement that requires the newsletter to elaborate. For example: "The 3 Stocks You Need to Buy Today"

* List the subject matter of the newsletter in a compelling way. For example: "Ice Cream, Pizza, and Pepsi: We Talk about These Three Investments."

There has been a lot of thought and study that has gone into subject line success: People are always trying to figure out how to make sure that subject lines get through spam filters and how they can convince people to open the message.

Here is a really cool tool to help you validate your subject lines and alert you to the potential you have that your newsletter will end up in spam:

LocalNews.Biz: "Validate Subject Line".
http://www.localnews.biz/subjectline/validatesubjectline.asp

And here are a few helpful resources. The experts don’t all necessarily agree but you’ll find enough guidelines here to make your subject lines more effective.

Lyris.com: "Email Subject Lines: 15 Rule to Write them Right" http://www.lyris.com/resources/email-marketing/subject-lines/

MailChimp: "Study of Best and Worst Open Rates on MailChimp"
http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/email_marketing_subject_line_comparison/

ClickZ: "Winning Subject Lines"
http://www.clickz.com/3379451

Web-Source.net: "How to Write Effective Email Subject Lines"
http://www.web-source.net/web_development/email_marketing.htm

Washingtop Post: "Write Effective Email Subject Lines"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/01/AR2009090103079.html

Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt.com: "Microcontent: Headlines and Subject Lines"
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html

iMediaCollection.com: "The Art of the Subject Line"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/6909.imc

EmailStatCenter: "Subject Lines"
http://www.emailstatcenter.com/SubjectLines.html

Over the years that I’ve been doing online marketing, I’ve found several sites that have proven to be useful for a number of reasons. And I’ve bookmarked them. Here they are,  for your convenience. Now, instead of having a dozen or so bookmarks for yourself, you only need to bookmark this page and revisit it for all of your online marketing needs!

PRChecker.info. PageRank, named for Larry Page, is that magical Google ranking based on several mysterious variables (and you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank). Watching your site’s PageRank and striving to improve it is a helpful way to measurable improve your site’s credibility. In theory, higher Page Rank means higher placement in searches (although that is not my personal goal with the sites that I watch PageRank on). PRChecker.info will check the PageRank of any site you type in. Very handy.

Google Webmaster Tools. Google Webmaster Tools is the first of two Google tools I like. Using Google Webmaster Tools, I’m able to have Google diagnose my site for me and tell me any problems it has while it is crawling the site. This has been helpful in the past when a site I had wasn’t indexing properly: I used Google’s Webmaster Tools and was alerted to the problem quickly. This is also the place where you can submit a sitemap to help Google crawl your site more effectively.

Google Analytics. This is the other Google tool I like. You put a code into your web pages and Google will record every time someone clicks on your page. You can do so much with Google Analytics, like see where people are clicking from, and when. You can see what it is that they are looking at on your site and how they got to your site. You can see what pages they clicked to and from, and what pages they are leaving from. In particular, I really like the Google Analytics goals tracking where you can assign goals to different pages on your site to track people through your sales process.

SEO Toolbar. This isn’t so much a bookmark as it is a browser toolbar. I like their keyword research tool which cross references keyword information from a number of sources. They’ve got free training and competitive research – it’s a good tool to add to your browser.

Textalyser. Keywords are key in online marketing. You need to make sure that you’re highlighting the right keywords so search engines correctly list you with other relevant websites. I’m sure there are other tools out there but I’ve come to enjoy textalyser.net which is rich in information but painfully simple to use. Whenever I need to write something for a site and it needs to be keyword friendly, this is my go-to bookmark.

These are just a start. You might find more sites or you might find applications that you prefer over the ones I’ve listed here. Or, your business’ needs might be different from mine so you might need to invest in something else. But for many businesses, this list covers the basic online marketing needs they have.

@ContemporaryVA on Twitter.  Follow the team to stay updated on business resources we deliver that cover strategies and tips, social media and more!

Online marketers work hard to create a flurry of activity in order to drive traffic to their site. This traffic might include things such as articles, press releases, AdWords, Squidoo lenses, and other types of traffic drivers. 

In the last post, we gave you a useful chart so that you could break up your long sales letter into several steps and that allowed you to track potential customers along the imaginary pathway that you had created. You could more easily see where people were disengaging from your sales letter and you could fix it, ultimately improving the number of people who would make it to the end of your sales letter and buy from you.

But there’s more you can do from this simple chart. Assuming (of course) that you would continue to use this chart to track the success (or failure) of customer engagement in your long sales letter, here are some more ideas to use your chart and take your sales page to an all-new level:

IMPROVE YOUR PAGE 1 ADVERTISING: Once you know how all of your pages are performing and you are making changes to improve the conversion rates of the pages that are "down the pathway", you should turn your attention to page 1. It’s important to note that this is not something you should do BEFORE you know how your other pages are converting. Do it after. That way, once you’ve optimized all of your pages for maximum sales, you can work on your first page to increase that initial, all-important attention-capturing page.

IMPROVE YOUR ADVERTISING-TO-PAGE-1 IMPACT: Look at your advertising and compare that to the number of people who appear on your first page by comparing impressions to clicks. (You may want to add another column in your chart.) When you work first at increasing your website’s conversion rate, then you work at improving the number of people who come to your site, you’ll maximize your own effort. (By comparison, if you do it the other way around, you’ll just be sending more traffic to a website that doesn’t convert.)

TEST ALTERNATE PATHWAYS: If you’re a user of Google AdWords, you know that you can use Google to help you test different landing pages from the same ad. Well, you can use a similar approach inside your broke-up sales letter, too. Once you have found a good conversion rate, try sending people to a different inside page. Perhaps, instead of page 4 being a list of problems they face, you might make it a list of testimonials, for example. Consider using this testing method to test a shorter letter, a longer letter, a story-style pitch, a more aggressive pitch, a funny pitch, etc.

ENGAGE USERS: User engagement is huge and often inadequately utilized in web-based sales letters. But the paper-based direct marketing world understands it all too well. That’s why you get junk mail that encourages users to scratch something off or check a box or apply a "yes" or "no" sticker. You might throw out your junk mail without scratching the scratch section, but others will scratch it off. You might throw out your junk mail without peeling and sticking the "yes" or "no" stickers, but other people might put the "no" sticker on and send it back… and enough of them put the "yes" sticker on and send it back to make it worth the company’s time. That’s user engagement.

You can do this, too. You might have pop-up windows that link from "click here to read more testimonials". Or you might have a video. Or you might have a downloadable document. Or (and here is the power of the chart) you might have 2 options at the bottom of your page instead of one. One option says "tell me more" and takes users to the next page in the sales letter while the second option says "I’d like to think about it" and takes users to a email sign-up page where they can sign up for a newsletter.

So, break up your sales letter. Create your chart. Watch where people are falling off and fix it. Then, use the same chart to make improvements earlier in the pathway to win more and more potential customers and move more and more of these potential customers… into REAL customers!

Contemporary VA

@ContemporaryVA on Twitter.  Follow us to stay updated with our many resources that include business, accounting and bookkeeping, social media, and much more!