"Twits on twitter" 15.9.08

There are a few.... ;o)

They obviously don't know it themselves, else they wouldn't carry on being twits!
Maybe they will soon ;o)

Twitter, a great idea which I don't think is going to die out anytime soon with devices capabilities so you can use your phone with it etc will most likely help it grow massively as more people hear about it, try it and like it.

Why use twitter?

For the same reason we live...to build relationships, be connected, to share, to talk, to help, to teach, to laugh, to support and to be there for.

If you doubt that, you don't grasp it as you should.

People who use twitter often get "news" online fast, like the current IKE issue, people posting updates on twitter were doing so in REAL time.

There is a lady who is in LABOUR, giving birth, keeping everyone updated on twitter...in REAL time. Best of luck there to you too. ;o)

It's like a mini RRS feed of someones going on's as it happens. :o)

Where else do you see that? See the potential with that?

Yet so many who should know better get it wrong.

Here is the dilemma with the twits, they see it as ONLY a marketing tool, inevitably be to be abused like other things that go the same way.

Marketing IS a part of life, we all do it, but not all the correct way, or in the most beneficial way.

Unintentional marketing is usually the best marketing.

Hard to do when all you intend is to market and IMO end up spamming the place with links in almost every "tweat" (each 140 character response made) you make.
If that is YOU, you don't "get it at all" IMO...you are a twit!

Don't get me wrong there are some marketers who do use it well.

Tweaters on the other hand, "get it" ;o)

It's a connection tool first, they follow who they like, while others who like them follow them. :o)

One good advantage with twitter is you can add the RSS feed to a blog, website, lens which means freshly updated content each time you tweat.

Your biggest advantage on twitter is to be YOURSELF.

Just as it is in life.

If twitter is ONE part of your social networking efforts, be careful not to ruin it with a dirty great footprint which could be counter productive, as Lynn terry elaborated on too.

It's not all bad though as Lynn shared with us a good port on doing it successfully.

I point you to them as it means I need not explain it myself, and also I am doing what we should be doing.

Sharing good content which will help others, and freely.

I am not taking away from my own success doing this, as others would have you believe when they say, "you may LOSE readers, as they may prefer the blogs you share over yours".

Well, if that is the case, it means I need to DO better with my content rather than STOP sharing great content of others... does it not?

But hang on, I AM sharing content here, but improving it by linking to great content elsewhere because I feel MY readers deserve it. ;o)

That IS the essence of the web after all.

Lynn will be pleased lol.... don't take Lynn's or my word for it, read the what those who use twitter say.

Who better to read than those who say what makes you "get it", than those who say it ON twitter.


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 2:31 PM, , links to this post



"Did you catch it?" 3.9.07

I hope the weekend was a good one for you.

Maybe some of you worked hard over the weekend, did you catch it?
The opportunity?

Where?

Right here on the blog, taking action using article traffic and maybe a new blog, or at least your newish blog you have been hard at work on up to now.

Grabbing the one off one way link offer to link to your choice of a good article which also has the bio box of yours on it pointing back to your blog. ;o)
This article is on your blog anyway among others you have already done.

You could have also written an article on how you write your blogs articles on "topic" with your 100% commission "article easy" book link, on a post near the one I link to... (hint: a certain yet different page, so you have bigger exposure? **) ;o)

**Any guesses? (comment below) ;o)

Opportunities are everywhere!

If I was to mention that as this is the 198th post, there is a little time to still act! ;o)

If you new you should start (after this post) on "How you start blogging" and then read up on "creating the blog" and "promoting the blog" not to mention grabbing your "one way link" which will help your blog get found faster. :o)

Give it a go and you may well have some pleasant surprises!

And why the heck should you listen to me anyway? ;o)


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 1:49 PM, , links to this post



"One way links from here" 31.8.07

As you will know by now one way links are great to help your page rank improve.
One way ones are even better especially for newer blogs that need to get the exposure as quickly as possible.

One way anchor links are even better again yet may only point to certain post you have done, so if this is your route pick you best post in which you have the best chance of gaining a reader who will come back later or at least bookmark your blog.

To this end how can I help you which will also help me?

Well this is my 197th post so I had considered making my 200th one a great list of on way links to your blog.

BUT there is a dilemma, I do not want everyone posting just expecting a link back, as this is not how I value my blog, its NOT a link farm is it. ;o)

So... I got thinking, instead of having just a link, how about I make it a link with a short 30 word blurb of your choice?
Like a bio box style set up.

Getting a one way link from some places will cost you a fair bit, so I thought I would go one better and charge everyone a single dollar, or a single pound, whatever you prefer, those who are smart will know which to use. ;o)

So here's the plan, I will do a blog post, as long as need be on my 200th, which will solely promote your blogs, if this appeals to you, just buy me a beer today using the icon below, and then comment on this post saying you have bought and want this bargain one way anchor link.

I will then give you my email addy to send your blurb, I will post these on the blog in the ORDER I get payments...;o)

So be quick and get yours on the top of the post! ;o)

Any thoughts, comments, or takers?


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 3:04 PM, , links to this post



"Article traffic"

Writing articles is yet great another great way to gain extra traffic with the added bonus of having a longer term effect if others use your articles.

By far the best way is to use "long tail" keywords relating to your blog, site topic.

For an example lets say you have a "dog related" blog, you have tips for training, breeding and other general dog related topics.

Your general keywords may be...

Dog
Dogs
Dog training
Dog breeding
Breeding dogs
Training dogs

These are termed "short tail" in the sense they are broad search terms, these are the keywords every "dog related" site or blog will target, rightly so too. ;o)

But using longer tail keywords can gain a big advantage for you in the sense others may not target them, and you have less competition by targeting these terms.

For example...

Training dogs the right way
Dog training and breeding
Dog training for new owners
Training dogs for beginners
Training German shepherds < This could be changed for all other breeds. ;o)
Buying my first dog
Dog training at home
House training dogs
The new dog breeder

Etc... you see that these are longer terms, more in line with what people will search for too. ;o)

Writing articles that target these terms will bring in a "long tail traffic stream", meaning you get this traffic long after you do the article. ;o)

With less articles targeting the same keywords as you you have a better chance to capitalise on the traffic coming in.

You really should add articles to your plans for they are an "evergreen" form of traffic, use a good bio at the bottom of each pointing to your blog and watch the traffic build up.

Another twist for you is to capitalise on linking the articles together, so one could be linked using anchor linking as a better SEO plan for your blog traffic.

For example you do an article called "Dog training at home", which is a basic one for all dogs and dog owners, posting this to an article database, but you can have this linking to another blog post titled "Dog breeds and training" where a list of breeds of dog and training methods for each is laid out nicely for all traffic from the first article... ;o)

So your anchor link in the first article bio will be...

www. whateversitename.com/dog_breeds_and_training < that's the second articles title...

IE... an anchor link. ;o)

A post with a short blurb and a link to each breed and training article you have on the blog.

Do you think these people will click on the breed specific article you have for them?

What's more you can add affiliate links or AdSense on each post of the second articles list.

That's the way to do articles I think. :o)

If you think it's hard think again, it's made easy with the fantastic article ebook done by a friend, which is a crazy bargain and what's more, you can add a twist to the above method to gain buyers of this very book and make a profit. ;o)

How?

Do an article on how you write articles very easy on "dog training" and how other dog lovers can also start a blog on their new dog...
Have your anchor link to a post specifically teaching others how to start their "dog blog" with your ebook link at the bottom for them to get started with. ;o)

One sale and you got a great article book free!


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 12:47 PM, , links to this post



"10 daily success tips" 30.3.07

newspaper clipping
Seems some nosy bugger called Aaron Potts wants to know every one's success tips?! ;o)

That is a success tip right there in learning from others.

But I debated on this post after seeing Lynn Terry tagged me with it... even after what Lynn said about why she tagged me?

"Because your personal story truly inspires me…" :o)

Thanks Lynn!

Why did I debate it then?

What is classed as success?
Being a personal thing it will be different to everyone, so I asked...

"Am I a success?"

In my eyes I am in many ways, in others?

When I get a donation using the button below with a comment in the paypal email like...


"Item/Product Name: being a cool person with a cool blog - here's beer"

Thank you...what a cool reader... ;o)

Then I think....hmmm am I successful blogger too... ;o)

So do I have tips or not!

I think so, here are a few tips I use in life, in no particular order.


1. Trust your gut instinct, it's rarely wrong!

Having had to grow up relying more on my better senses and trusting my gut 100% I have learned it very rarely is wrong.

If it's saying something, shut up and listen to it! ;o)

There has been many a time it's saved me some serious hassle and problems, so I never underestimate it you shouldn't either, it wants and knows what's best for you at that precise moment.

2. Always strive to keep reading and learning.

Reading has been a massive part of my life and it even influenced my speech. Reading is never a bad habit, unless you read the wrong things!

Reading stimulates your brain nicely, everyone reads, but it's also what you read that matters.

3. NOTHING teaches like doing.

You can read all the instructions you like, until you actually DO you will limit your learning greatly.
Experience is the greatest teacher you have, experiences are what shape you.

As I already mentioned reading helped my speech, now the actual reading didn't do it...ME talking while reading did it!
The experience of doing made it the reality.

4. Be honest and faithful to yourself.

It's YOUR life, you have to live with it! So you owe it to yourself to be honest with yourself at all times.
This has to be one of the most important parts of life and what you do.

Can you in twenty years live happily with what you are doing now?
There must be millions of old people with a head of regrets!
Don't be one of them.

5. Trust yourself and have faith in what you can do.

You ARE better at things than you really think, that's fact!
We all underestimate ourselves and what we can do, yet the ONLY thing stopping you is YOU...I speak well because I KNEW I could do it and had faith in myself to do it.

Believe that you can do it, have faith and DO. You may surprise yourself, there was NEVER a baby who could walk at birth!

6. Mindful of the real why!

Everything you do, you do for a reason. It's that "why" you do it you should always be aware of.

The why is what should be driving you.

I want my sons to be proud of me, it's at the forefront of mind in all I do because it is the real why.

My sons are the most important part of my life therefore it stands to reason how I am in their eyes matters as much as what I can do for them...leading by example as it's not about having the most money, the best car, the biggest house, it's about "being".

7. Positive thinking!

Everyone says it yet it's so true and important and I will repeat it.

You should ALWAYS look for the positive aspect of every moment, I have had some pretty negative moments but there is always something positive there.
That positive will minimise the negative, everytime.

Light always eliminates the dark.

8. Silence really IS golden.

Believe me in those silent moments you have your mind will work wonders.
Stillness runs deep!
Silence has no distractions. Need I really say more on that? ;o)

9. Be yourself.

You are unique and you have uniqueness in your way of being.
Get to know yourself better everyday.

Know what really stand out in you and your personality.
This uniqueness IS your ticket to success.

There IS something different about you, you just need to know it, appreciate it, nurture it.

10. Read my blog daily! :o)

Well of course # 10 is pretty important!

They key to all of this is YOU!

So, that's 10 good tips from me, and now I have to tag others to share theirs!

So in no particular order I am tagging...

Alice Seba

Becuase she is on a roll at the moment...

Michel Fortin.

Bound to have some good tips...

Martin Avis.

Because I repsect his views on most things... (wonder if he will do this meme this time?)

Ladan Lashkari.

Because Ladan has succeeded against some serious odds!

John Carlton

The guy always gets me hooked into his writing!

Jason Lewis

Fellow Brit with some good tips, so lets hear the success ones! ;o)

Kevin Riley

Because I want an invite to such a beautiful place where he lives!

My biggest tip will in in the next post!
A whole post about it, be sure to "tune in" ;o)


Take care,


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 5:51 PM, , links to this post



"Anchor linking" 29.3.07

Anchor text link...

Had an email from a reader asking what I meant in an earlier post when I wrote that.

Glad you asked if you don't understand, never daft questions are there? ;o)

So, as with any text link it's clickable yet with anchor links you are also using a keyword link, like if I wanted to share a post I made about my dog.

I would use keyword link to give that link more "weight" to the search engines view on that link and the content on the page.

As in this example I would write take a look at Kaya in her youth.

That is the title of the very post.

A common mistake people make is to have all their links saying "click here" for link love.
That is not a good anchor text link at all.

Better would have been to link "link love".

I am sure you can imagine why now. :o)

It's a bonus when it comes to SEO (search engine optimisation).

Hope that makes sense and if not, post in the comments and we will work it out. ;o)

Take care,

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posted by Rob Sellen @ 4:26 PM, , links to this post



"Link love" 21.3.07

Lets talk about linking and why it's the basis of the "global conversation" which is the net, blogging is a big part of that global conversation.

Link love is the act of linking out to something you like, something you want to share. Smart linking can explode your traffic as well as give your readers something extra.


Tagging is what I call a form of link love, you will only tag to those you feel your readers will appreciate, people who you like and respect.

I recently tagged Michel Fortin with the "5 things tag" that went around the blogosphere, this did boost my traffic quite a bit.

See what I did there?
There is another benefit to linking, internal linking which is linking to an older post on your own blog. Why does this benefit me? Not only does it lead you the reader back to an older post it will also be picked up by the search engines.

It was also an anchor text link, I used the keywords instead of "click here" which is a very important part of gaining page rank due to relevance, no one searches for "click here", they will search for "5 things" tag which will show all the blogs who were a part of the "5 things" tag.

Anchor text links will always be an important part of your linking strategy and you should utilise it, whether it's a link to an older post or to another blog.

"Link bait" is not a term I really like but it is a part of linking. Some people do this in various different ways but do it for ONE reason, to get others linking to them, or at least talking about them.

People will check links to them and see the bait, it will work or it wont, depending on the reaction of the person baited.

For an example I could "bait" with something controversial like saying "Brian Clark LOVES link baiting"... :o)

How will he know I did that? By checking his stats he will see you go to HIS site via the link bait link as I just did and possibly come here, read this and SCOWL at me on his blog! Who knows what he will do, most likely NOTHING but laugh at me!

As I say it's just an example of how people do this, some do it very well.

Linking should be a big part of your blogging, after all it's a conversation, conversation's that are one way are pretty boring wouldn't you agree?

Linking is spreading the word about other people.

Linking is adding to your content, it can even be viral which is good marketing.

Gonna link to this post? ;o)

Take care,


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posted by Rob Sellen @ 2:32 PM, , links to this post



"Recycled Content" 15.3.07

So, you took my advice and grabbed one of the top $7 "reports" recently released I recommended here, articles!

You created some good content to post to one of the article database, or better to your blog or website. This is what builds your "Virtual real estate" aka "sellable businesses" up, good content.

Content is king... or at least prince!

If prince, the king could be anchoured text links...that's for another post, should you want to hear it.

But don't stop there, re-use your content as much as you can, build other uses, set up as blog content, newsletter snippet content, adword preseller content, ezine ads, etc etc...the list goes on.
Free reports to build your list, content affiliates can use to presell your products.

So many ways.

Change your mindset to realise who you REALLY are, and go for it!

Even use some of your content to create your own $7 reports, give others the big incentive to spread your work and build your list! If you have yet to get the scripts needed, go ahead and grab them when you get the $7 report.

Do you have un-used blog post, or articles?
Ones you have done, or redone from PLR that you have not used?

Content has so many benefits, it's used to get traffic, repeat traffic, links, google page rank, better search position, better authority...etc
More than I can think of.

Extend your feeder traffic by breaking down what you have to slightly create a wider section of the larger market, persuade them into narrowing into your funnel market. ;o)

Try creating a bonus viral aspect right into it.

The content you spread itself is by virtue, viral.

This is what you should be doing with all that great content you create....again you CAN create it too.

I am going to be doing just that, re-using what I create.

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posted by Rob Sellen @ 1:18 AM, , links to this post



"The essence of the blogosphere" 6.3.07

To me the essence of the blogosphere is "connecting", this is done in so many ways yet some swear by some ways and vice versa.

First off...
There is no correct or incorrect way, other than spamming that is.

It's all how you define it, we all have our own ideas of whats good or not, whitehat, blackhat, or grey, I have my own view, whatever.

I like the fact to make a point of a topic, like for example, link building, I can just link to a good piece. ;o)

Linkbaiting is another term used, I much prefer to say "connecting", that is, after all what it's all about.
It's the intent that decides what is linkbaiting to me.

You need to step back and look at the bigger picture.

Looking at Lynn's post about comments had me laughing, I mean Lynn nails it right there, read it, yet to be honest for Eric to say in his own comments that James may not have done it for that reason", makes it stand out even more, it could be just that, a smart linkbaiting tactic by James... ;o)

Then Lynn makes another great post about seo.

Could I be linkbaiting here?

Who knows?

I will just agree with Lynn's comment here, to quote.

I am not suggesting that you disable commenting on your own blog. I certainly wont be doing that. I value my readers thoughts and opinions, and love the ongoing discussion here..


Here was something ironic, proof that it IS keyword links.

I digress, it's ALL about linking, seo, connecting, the whole blogosphere thrives on itself.
The key to every blog is the people, those behind the blogs.

To me the blogosphere is a rich tapestry of digital, interactive, imprints of peoples lives, thoughts, etc.

Looking at things that real people do like standing behind a counter, then blogging about it!
A GREAT idea, what blogging should be.

That's what blogging is about, sharing, connecting, maybe the others connecting to you, reading your blog, etc, spreading the reach of your blog.

Giving great tips and providing short cuts to good info is another great advantage of blogging.

The people often use controversy in getting readers and links to their blogs, sometimes it's unintentional., but works.

The debate over the secret movie is an example, Blair has been a part of the controversy himself, but hey he also does a great blog there, how does he attract them though. ;o)

These people may now check their stats and see me linking to them, or readers going to them from here, pop over here and read...again, connectivity!

If not, maybe I should call them all idiots...they may post and bash me. ;o) JOKE!

Controversy does work, depending on how you do it.

Sometimes it's stupid, yet funny! Only In America eh... JOKE! ;o)

So, the real essence of blogging and the blogosphere is CONNECTING.

Any thoughts?...

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posted by Rob Sellen @ 10:51 PM, , links to this post