Christmas SEO

Tis the season and all that when people are looking for the best deals on Christmas gifts, are you giving yourself a chance to make some money?  You have a niche and you are blogging for a group of followers, there is nothing wrong with providing some niche-specific offers that will put a few dollars in your pocket.

For instance, if you have a sewing niche, find a great deal on a sewing book on Amazon and blog about it using your affiliate link.  (Or if you have a sowing site, maybe a great deal on farm equipment?)  If you are a mommy blogger, look for things other mothers can use and do a review.  Look at Google Trends and see what people are looking for and write a post.  This time only happens once a year and it’s a great opportunity to make some extra cash if you play your cards right.

What are you doing to help your Christmas SEO (and ROI!)?  Join the conversation at My BlogFrog site.

Need a free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at SEOAssistant.org.
Need PSD Design or a new Twitter Background?  Visit Uniquehorn.net.

Yahoo Clues

Yahoo recently put out a new tool to compare trends in search items, Yahoo Clues.  It’s a handy way to compare two different search terms and see how they compare to each other.  Here’s a comparison between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

First thing we see is that the searches for Black Friday are more consistent over time.  If you were trying to optimize your site for these terms in the years to come, I would focus on ranking for Black Friday more than Cyber Monday because it looks like very few people search for that before Black Friday and I imagine nobody searches for it after Cyber Monday.  The window is so small you’d be better off getting the traffic from Black Friday searches.  (Doesn’t mean you neglect Cyber Monday totally, just put your resources where they will  do you the most good.)

There’s also demographic info.  I was surprised to see women out searching men across all age groups.  I expected more men to search for Cyber Monday at least.  Shows what I know!

There’s also location info.  The leader in both searches?  Illinois.  If you had asked me to name the state that led the way in search volume for these terms I might have had to take 50 guesses.  It’s also amazing to me how low New York is on both tables.

Finally, one very cool tidbit is some insight into what people searched before and after the term you are looking at.  A great look into how the mind of the average searcher works.

A great tool and easy to use, I recommend you play around with it and see what you can discover!

Looking for what to do in Long Beach Island?  Check out LBISource.com!
Need a FREE SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at SEOAssistant.org.

How to create an SEO Plan for your Site Pt 3

So far we’ve looked at Keyword research and On-site optimization, today we look at ways you can make your site rank for your keyword with off-site methods.  But before that I need to clear up one thing that was brought to my attention, when I say that you should write posts that use your keywords I’m not suggesting that is all you should do.  You should continue to put out the same content you have been but you should also sprinkle in the occasional post that is targeted for your keyword phrase.  What this does is keep your regular readers happy, (you are still putting out great content) but brings in new readers as well from the Search Engine results.  It’s also important to remember that if you like getting ad revenue from your site (and who doesn’t) far more visitors from Google searches click on ads than regular readers, that’s why it is important to always have a steady stream of first-time visitors.  There are a few helpful discussions of this on my BlogFrog page.  Now, on to off-site optimization!

Articles

Articles are an easy method of getting a backlink that is targeted to your keyword phrase.  All you do is sign up for an article hosting website like E-zine articles.  There are a lot of them out there but E-zine seems to be the most trusted but I have seen a lot of success with a few others like Squidoo or ArticlesBase.  Once you sign up write an article (or a series of articles) that talks about your keyword phrase, then put a link to your site in the “About Author” section.  Ideally the anchor text in the link should also be the keyword phrase you are focused on.  For instance, let’s say you’ve done your research and found that the keyword phrase you want to focus on is “crochet baby bonnets”. (I’ve picked this phrase because I know nothing about it and am not really sure I spelled it right.)  You would write a series of articles with with titles like “Unusual ways to crochet baby bonnets”, “5 ways to crochet baby bonnets”, or “What to consider before you crochet baby bonnets”; then in the “About Author” section you would say something like “Jane Blow has been crocheting baby bonnets (That would be linked) and other clothes for years.  Read more about crocheting (or baby bonnets, whatever) at www.blahblahblah.com.”  I know of one woman in particular that has a website that is an affiliate site for a relationship advice product, all she does is after sending her kids off to school, she writes a new article every day about some aspect of her product and includes a link back to her site.  She says it’s a rare day that she doesn’t make $300-$400 through her site, she’s been so consistent and so focused for so long that she is reaping the benefits every day.

Comments

 Another great way to get a link back to your site with your keyword phrase is to comment on other people’s sites, you just need to keep two things in mind.  First, your comment can’t be stupid.  Someone put time and effort into that post so read what they wrote and give good feedback.  No one likes a spammer.  Second, the most helpful way to get a backlink to your site is to use your keyword phrase as your name.  Generally most comboxes will ask for your name, email, and website and will link your name to your website so if you put your keyword phrase into the “name” box you will get a link to your site that uses your keyword phrase as the anchor text.  You should set a goal of at least one or two comments a day with links back to your site, this will force you to interact with other sites and keep tabs on your competition as well.  An easy way to find places to leave comments is to set up a Google Alert for your keyword and you will get a daily email of other blogs and websites that are relevant for your phrase.

Ask for Backlinks

One of the easiest ways to get backlinks is to just ask for them.  If you are active enough in your niche that you’ve built up a relationship with others, ask them to link back to you with your keyword as the anchor text.  Make it easy for them by writing a great article and then ask for a favor, the worst they can do is say no.

What methods do you use for off-site SEO?  Come join the conversation at the SEO Assistant BlogFrog page.

Need a FREE SEO Site Assessment?  Visit www.SEOAssistant.org
Need PSD Design for your site? Try www.UniqueHorn.net

Fake Activism - TWLOHA

Every once in a while, some new fad takes over my FaceBook wall and I’m forced to wade through dozens of posts promoting awareness for some new cause.  Sometimes it’s the color of a woman’s bra to promote Breast Cancer Awareness or some other bit of trivia for the Cause of the Minute.  This last weekend was To Write Love On Her Arms Day (TWLOHA) and I was treated to untold numbers of pictures of people who had written the word “Love” on their arms and taken pictures of it to boost awareness of the TWLOHA movement and their fight against abuse, molestation, incest, and other forms of sexual trauma.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the sexual abuse of children is horrible and every effort should be made to eradicate it.  And kudos to the TWLOHA people for finding a unique way to generate “buzz” and get their program out there.  In fact, it is really the trendy cause du jour among middle-class Christian teens.  It’s not uncommon at all to see a few TWLOHA T-shirts in most Youth Group meetings.

The concern I have is that this type of “activism” confuses meaningless symbolic acts (posting pics on FaceBook) with actually doing something meaningful and concrete.  If a teen writes a word on their arm, posts a pic of it, then goes on with their life with some sense of having actually accomplished something they are deceiving themselves.  Christ has not called us to a life of FaceBook posts but a life of service and sacrifice and if a Christian confuses the former for the latter then they are headed for a life that makes no impact for the Kingdom of God.  I’m not saying we should stop promoting causes we believe in, I’m saying our symbolic acts need to be followed up by some kind of sacrifice on our part for that cause.  Whether it be a monetary donation, volunteering to serve in some way, time spent in prayer for them, or any other thing you can think of; if our “activism” costs us nothing then it accomplishes nothing.

The Bible teaches us that our greatest joy is found in focusing on others.  In fact it’s often said that JOY is an acronym that tells us that in order to get Joy you have to put Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in between.  You are robbing yourself when your life consists solely of symbolic acts when Christ calls us all to the joy that is available when we roll up our sleeves and actually do something for the Kingdom.  Let me encourage everyone who reads this go do something and find out for themselves that there is more joy in working sacrificially than posting pics on FaceBook.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Join us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

How to create an SEO Plan for your Site Pt 2

Last time we started our look at how to create an SEO plan for your site with “Keyword Research”.  If you haven’t read that yet, click here see what you missed.  Once you have a set of keyword phrases in mind, pick one to focus on for a week or two.  As time goes on you can rotate through your list to make your site more relevant for multiple phrases but for now let’s just pick one and focus on it.

On-Site Methods

Today we are going to look at things you can do on your site to make it rank better for the phrase you’ve chosen.  What we are trying to do here is convince Google (Or Yahoo, etc.) that when someone types the phrase you’ve chosen in to their search bar, your site should be at the top of the list, at the very least on the first page.  To do this, you are going to have to create content that uses the phrase you’ve chosen.

Blog Posts

This is the easiest way to get it done.  Just write a post or a series of posts that explain or at least use the phrase you’ve chosen.  Let’s say the phrase you’ve chosen to focus on is “How to use coupons”, you would write a post that would use those words in the title of the post.  Then in the body of the post you would use those words as much as possible.  Start off with something like, “Today we are going to look at how to use coupons”, or “Ever wonder how to use coupons?  Let’s learn together.” or however you want to do it.  Then create a very informative post explaining your keyword phrase.  Don’t write for Google and just repeat your keyword phrase over and over but create good, useful content for your readers that uses the phrase you’ve chosen.

URLs

Another easy way to make your post be more relevant in Google’s eyes is to include the keyword phrase in the URL.  The easiest way to do this is to set your Blog to include the title of your post in the URL and then make sure to use your keyword phrase in the title.  If you don’t already have this set up, in WP go to Settings=>Permalinks and click one of the presets that includes to post name in the URL. (Like “Day and Name” or “Month and Name”)  You might also have a plug-in (like “All in one SEO”) that is already doing this for you.

The key here is to really make your blog the place to go for information on the keyword phrase you’ve chosen.  You want it to stand out above all the others and have the best info on the web for that phrase.  Next time we will look at some off-site things you can do to capture the Search Engine Results Pages for your phrase.

Please visit my BlogFrog Page and give me your feedback on this post.

Need a FREE SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.
Need PSD Design for your site? Visit www.UniqueHorn.net.

How to create an SEO plan for your site Pt 1

Most people start a site with very little thought given to SEO.  They have a passion and want to start writing and sharing and they assume that eventually they will get a following.  And sometimes that’s exactly what happens!  Other times their efforts fall into the static of all the other blogs out there and languish in obscurity.  Fortunately, with a  little planning you can get your blog noticed by more people and begin to see some fruit from your labors.  The important thing is to have a plan for your site and then follow through.  For the next few posts, we are going to look at how to implement a step-by-step plan and what you can do to increase the Search Engine traffic for your site.

Do Keyword research

The first step is to figure out what keywords you want to do focus on.  There are a number of tools out there to help with this.  If you have a little money to spend (or can get all your research done within the free trial limit) you should go with Market Samurai, a very powerful and easy to use app that makes market research very easy.

If you don’t go that route, then make use of the old standby; Google Keyword Research Tool.  It’s very easy to use and gives good results.

Step 1 Select a Keyword

Go to the Keyword tool home page and type in a phrase that has something to do with your site.  This could be anything but you want to be a little vague so you can see the range of options it brings up.  For this example, I’ve typed in “Mommy blog”

Step 2 Take a look at the results.

The first column you want to look at is the “Competition” column.  The less green in the result bar, the less competition for that phrase.  I was actually surprised to see that that for the most part this is an underserved niche.  There is very little competition for virtually every relevant keyphrase.  In other words, with a little focus and determination you could get your blog at the top of the Google results pages for some very lucrative search terms.

You also want to look at the number of searches for that term.  It doesn’t matter if you focus on a low-competition keyword if nobody is searching for it.  For instance “redneck mommy blog” has no competition but nobody is searching for it so don’t focus on it.  On the other hand, “baby blog” gets a ridiculous number of searches and has no competition.  In fact, if you go to the Google results page for that term there’s stuff that probably shouldn’t be there. (A fake blog from an Office character that has two posts in the last 6 months?  Practically begging someone to take its place on the results page)

Your Homework

Play around with the Keyword Tool and find some keyword phrases that fit your blog, are low competition and have a good number of searches.  You should have a list of 3-5 keyword phrases and rank them in the order you want to focus on them and next time we will look at what to do with them.  In the mean time, I’m interested in any SEO plans you have for your site and what has happened with them.  Please go to my BlogFrog forum and answer the question, your input will be very helpful as we move forward.  Thanks!

Need a FREE SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at SEOAssistant.org.
Need some PSD Design for your site?  Visit www.UniqueHorn.net.

The Election

Well the election results are in and it looks good for the Republicans and bad for the Democrats.  While I can only hope that this means a return to fiscal responsibility and smaller government, (do I dare dream of a balanced budget?) it’s important to remember that regardless of how the election goes, God is still in charge.  He directs the King’s (and President’s!) mind like a watercourse in His hands, He determines the direction of the country and He has the final say on what our Government does.  Let’s make sure we are not looking to Washington to be our Savior, we already have a Savior and He’s enough.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Come join us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com
Looking for a great company that does Home Repair and Remodel in Arlington TX? Visit www.HouseMendersofTexas.com.

My BlogFrog Community

I have started a new community for people with questions about SEO in general and SEO for small blogs in specific.  Please come over to www.myblogfrog.com/SEOAssistant and join!  Today’s question is, “What do you understand the least about SEO?”  My plan is to use this information to create a few blog posts hopefully explaining some of the intricacies of the SEO world.  Please click on the link above, join the community and tell me what you think!

Looking for a FREE SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.
Looking for PSD Design?  Visit www.UniqueHorn.net.

De we need to prepare for Martyrdom?

In yesterday’s sermon, we spent a great deal of time on the subject of martyrdom. Talking about the possibility of giving your life for the sake of the Gospel is always a little uncomfortable in my Western, well-fed, prosperous context. Martyrdom seems like such a remote possibility that I would do better to be worried about a meteor falling out of the sky and killing me because there is a greater probability of that happening then actually dying for my faith. Talking about how to handle yourself in a situation that could lead to martyrdom seems to fly right over the heads of most of the people in my congregation. “When am I ever going to need this?” seems to be the silent question in their eyes as I speak.

Is the possibility of martyrdom something we should be spending time on in a church service?  After all there hundreds of other topics I could cover that would seem more relevant to my congregation’s lives and spiritual walks. Despite this, Pastors need to give instruction on this matter because any Pastor will tell their flock how to live well, good Pastors will tell their flock how to die well. Here’s a few reasons.

1. The Bible talks about Martyrdom.

 Any Pastor worth his salt is going to be preaching through the Bible verse by verse. When you do that you will inevitably hit a verse that mentions martyrs and you have a responsibility as a faithful exegete to handle that Scripture and apply it to the lives of your people.  Preaching like this will hit every topic important to God in the exact ratio that God has included it in His Word.

2.  Your flock needs to know it’s a possibility.

Even in America it is possible to be made a martyr and every day it seems like we are moving closer to that being a reality. When government makes it impossible for Christians to speak the truths of the Word in certain situations, how far will you take it? Will you still call Homosexuality an abomination when they threaten you with jailtime?  Will you still speak out against Abortion if they will fine you? What if it gets worse and the punishments get more severe?  What if you are in a situation where mob violence takes over?  How will you react?  Which leads us to our final point...

3. You flock needs to have an opportunity to decide now what they will do then.

Being put in a position of possible martyrdom may catch us by surprise so we need to have our response thought out before hand. How would you react if threatened with torture? Death? The murder of your child or another loved one? Hopefully these are questions we will never have to face in reality but we should prepare ourselves mentally for the possibility.  Think through different scenarios and mentally steel your self for different difficult circumstances.

While martyrdom is an unpleasant topic, it should be preached on and dealt with in a pastoral matter.  Every believer should be prepared for possibility of losing money, property, and even our very lives for the sake of the Gospel so if that day comes we will be able to stand strong in our faith.  Remember, if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before His Father and only those that endure to the end will be saved so nothing less than our eternity is at stake when persecution unto death comes upon us.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.
Looking for a great company that does Home Repair in Arlington, TX? Visit www.HouseMendersofTexas.com.

Best of Today's SEO - 11/01/2010

Why Search Metrics are Horrible – A look at how common SEO Metrics are falling into irrelevancy

Blekko – A new Search engine that provides SEO data on the SERP’s

Local Search – A new look at how to rank for local searches.

Looking for a FREE SEO Site Analysis?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.
How about some help with PSD Design or Twitter Backgrounds? Try www.UniqueHorn.net.

I AM The Movie: Another failed attempt to be relevant

If you haven’t seen the trailer for this movie, take a minute and watch it.

 

 

I was watching an interview of the writers for this film the other day and I can tell you that they seem to be nice guys with a genuine heart to introduce God to the world.  Of course, the God in this film is nothing like the God of the Bible.  I guess I can’t actually say that, he’s half the God of the Bible.  All peace and love and just wants to wrap his arms around you and sing you to sleep but none of the harsher attributes the Bible talks about.

This movie removes all the talk of our responsibilities to God, like the responsibility to actually accept responsibility for our sins before asking for them to be forgiven.  How can anyone get forgiveness for something if they’ve never admitted they did anything wrong?  How will they know they’ve done something wrong if we don’t tell them?  But that’s too harsh, much better to tell them that God loves them just like they are and offer some false peace that only lasts for a while.

I know the writers of this movie are trying to present God in a good light so the world will accept Him but they just don’t realize that if they compromise on His character they aren’t presenting God but a false idol.  False idols don’t save anyone, they don’t offer real peace, and they don’t offer anything of lasting value.

I sincerely hope the next set of “Christian Screenwriters” that come down the pike can get it right.  Go ahead and show us a God that is intolerant of sin, that is angry with sinners, that expects perfection from every man, woman, and child on the planet.  Go ahead!  Maybe then they will understand how amazing Jesus’ death actually was.  Maybe then they will see that although God will judge sin, he has provided a substitute for that judgment in His Son.  Maybe then they will actually understand the Gospel and their need for repentance instead of seeing God as some weary traveler hoping that somebody somewhere will come to their senses and look to Him for help.

Maybe.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Come join us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

Manage Your Online Reputation Well

While working on our blogs and brands we need to remember that our online reputation is vital and needs to be cultivated with as much vigor as anything else connected to our blogs.  Sometimes we forget that it is important for our readers and clients to know that there is a real person behind that blog with a life that extends beyond your URL.  Here’s a few tips to keep your online reputation growing.

#1 – Use Social Media Well

This is a little tricky because most of us want to keep our public and private life separate.  While we want as many people as possible to be connected to our business life, most of us would like to keep our private social media sites restricted to the people we know.  That’s why, going into any new social media, you need to have a clear idea of what its going to be used for.  For instance I have a public FaceBook for fans of this site and a private FaceBook for me and 2,000 of my closest friends and Mafia Wars players.  (OK, I screwed that up.  Quick Tip: If you want to start playing any FaceBook games, start a new profile.)  I also have a separate Twitter page for my business and one for personal.  The home feed for my business page is so cluttered that it is unusable, I just follow hashtags with it.  On the other hand, I use my personal home feed just has people I actually care about hearing from.  Some of this can be done with lists if you just want one Twitter account but since I use HootSuite, this way is easier for me and keeps everything in nice, neat, separate boxes.

#2 – Make a Bio Paragraph

Write a short bio that includes a few backlinks.  Anytime you write a guestpost or send out a press release, tack this on the end for a few great links.  Some thing like:

SEO Assistant is a blog dedicated to helping small businesses and blog owners with their SEO needs.  Aarn Farmer provides high quality SEO services and free SEO site assessments for anyone interested in his services.  SEO Assistant can be followed on FaceBook or Twitter.

Short, sweet, to the point, and super easy to throw at the bottom of anything I write for the public.

#3 – Fill Out Bio Info on Sites You Use

In any niche, there are forums or other places that have a profile page, fill those out completely.  When selecting the name you will use on a forum, consider using one with the keywords you are targeting and make sure you have a signature that includes a link back to your site.  If you are on these sites anyway and use them well, make sure they are increasing your reputation and are helping people find you if they want to.

What are some ways you increase your online reputation?  Leave a comment below!

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Come visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.

What Biblical Womanhood is not

Rachel Held Evans has decided to live like a Biblical woman for one year.  You would think that would be great but she apparently has an incredibly bad idea of what Biblical womanhood actually is.  To her it means this:  (Click through to see video)

 

 

Some of these ideas she has are incredibly offensive and betray a lack of understanding of true womanhood.  And that’s the point.  She is trying to make the Biblical idea of Complementarianism, the belief that God gave men and women different and complementary roles, into an anachronism that is irrelevant for today.  It shows that this poor woman doesn’t understand the difference between the Old Testament law and the New Testament freedom we have in Christ.  She mixes in just enough truth (Wives should submit to the leadership of their husbands) with enough inapplicable error (Women should cover their head)(Does she not realize that her husband IS her covering?) to make all of the truth appear to be silly and outdated.

I hope you sell a lot of books because it will be the only reward you ever get from them.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Join us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

Best of Today's SEO - 10/13/2010

An easy way to get people to “like” your product – Do you have a store front?  Would you like a QR code so people can find you on the internet easier?

Would you like to search your Google apps? – If you use Google for all your documents and spreadsheets, now there is a way to be able to easily search all your Apps at the same time.

Wish your Google Analytics stats were more easily searchable? – Here’s a great way to “hack” GA to get you the info you want.

Want a Free SEO Site Analysis?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.

Belief Before Behavior

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.  - Rev 1:3

When I was 15, my stepfather decided (after much begging) to teach me how to drive.  I had never been behind the wheel and had no idea what to do, but I had seen it done tons of times so I knew I could handle it.  Turns out watching someone else drive and actually driving are very different!  To make matters worse, the only car we had was a stick-shift and the coordination it took to get all the pedals and the stick working in harmony was just beyond me at first.  My stepfather was patient and keep telling me what to do and coaching me as the truck lurched around a vacant parking lot like some kind of epileptic jackrabbit.  Eventually I got it and the order of events was crucial; first I was taught, then I put what I was taught into practice.

God does the same with us

God has established a similar chain of events for believers; first we hear instructions through the teaching of the Word of God, then we follow those instructions obediently.  We know that God gives us orders through His Word because He loves us and wants wants best for us.  Even when we obey only sporadically and our walk with Christ is about as smooth as my first day driving, He instructs, disciplines and guides us until we get it.  Although we will never be strong enough to live this life without His help (and why would we want to?), He does expect us to become more consistent in our walk as we mature in our faith.

The time is near

This verse also gives us one of our motivations for living obediently to God, the time is near.  We don’t know when this life will end but we do know it will be soon and we will have to give an account for everything we’ve done and said.  It should be the goal of our life to be able to give a good report on that day as we give glory to God for saving and sanctifying us.  Not that we lived a good life in our own power but that we were faithful to rely on His power to enable us to live a Holy life before the world.  The knowledge that the time is short motivates us to listen to the Word and obediently put it into practice.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Come visit us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

Be Blessed by Reading the Word

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. - Rev 1:3 

Does your church include a time for reading the Scripture?  Not teaching it or preaching it or expounding or expositing, just having someone stand before the congregation and read it with passion and emotion.  Have you heard the Psalms spoken in poetic meter or the Prophetic books thundered in convicting power?  Have you listened as the the Master walks on the water or heals the leper?  Have you been reminded that the Bible is a beautiful book of poetry and prose that stands the test of time and has been Divinely inspired?

Be Blessed

No wonder that the Apostle John reminds of the blessing we receive when we hear the Word read.  In our desire to make the Bible understood, we chop it up and dig in to each word and phrase but we can’t forget that is not how the Bible is intended to be enjoyed.  It is to be read in large chunks, we are supposed to see the themes being built and the ideas being formed.  We are supposed to see how the story develops and builds and resolves.  Most of all, we are to remember that having the Word is a blessing and we are blessed to have it.

Read Your Bible

Read your Bible.  Read it out loud to yourself, read it to your family, read it to your church, read it anywhere and be blessed.  Marvel at this beautiful story and the incredible truths it holds.  Be astounded at its wisdom that has held up over centuries and its poetry that still moves the hearts of men and women alike.  Read your Bible and be blessed.

Looking for a Reformed church in Arlington TX?  Come visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO - 10/13/2010

Need help ranking for a local website? – SEOMoz can help you out.

How are the Search Engine’s faring? – I think Google gonna be OK. 

Self driving cars? – Is there anything Google can’t do?

Need a Free SEO Site Analysis?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

WordPress Wednesday - Change the size of your post box

 

Tired of squinting at the tiny box WordPress defaults to when writing a new post?  It can be annoying to only be able to see a few lines at a time when writing but fortunately there is a very easy way to make that box bigger.

Step 1 – Head over to Settings=>Writing

Step 2 – Go to “Size of Post Box” and change it to the desired size. 

(I use 30)

That’s it!  Now you’ve got a much larger and easy to read text box that will make posting much easier.

Do you need a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

We Are All Witnesses

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.  - Rev 1:1-2

A few years ago, Nike launched an ad campaign heading into the NBA season with the tag line, “We are all Witnesses”.  It was meant to highlight the glory of LeBron James as he dominated another season with his other-worldly basketball skills and led his team to an NBA Championship.  Of course it didn’t quite turn out that way, LeBron failed in the postseason and eventually bolted for another team in another city.  We are all witnesses indeed.

John is our Witness

Something similar happened 2 thousand years ago on the isle of Patmos but instead of millions watching one man, one man witnessed the plan of God and told it to all the world.  That man was the Apostle John and through him, we get a front-row seat to exactly how God’s plan for this world will finally be culminated.  Not to stretch an analogy too far but where LeBron failed in his quest to win a championship, Christ will certainly succeed in His quest to redeem the world and restore it back to its rightful state as perfect and free from decay.

Now it’s our turn

Now the torch has been passed to us.  God has saved us and confirmed His Word to us, now we have the responsibility to be witnesses to the Truth.  Not just observing the Word but testifying to its power and relevance to the world.  All the words of this Life are entrusted to each generation and each generation must go preach the Word, convicting the world of sin and showing them the beauty of the Christ.  God is glorified when His people witness the truth and proclaim it boldly.  We are all witnesses.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX?  Visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

How to increase your backlinks Part Two

In my previous article, we looked at  a few ways to increase the number of backlinks that exist for your site.  Backlinks are important because Google counts each link as a “vote” for your site and judges it’s relevance accordingly and also because it’s a great way to get traffic to your site.  I can attest to the fact that traffic to my blog varies dramatically depending on where my links go.  If someone fairly popular mentions my blog then visits go up accordingly, so thank you to everyone who reposts, retweets, or mentions this blog!

FaceBook

Let’s face it, everyone is on FaceBook.  My 80 year old MIL is on FaceBook.  People’s pets have their own FaceBook page.  It’s absolutely huge so harnessing the power of FaceBook needs to be part of your backlinking strategy.  This is a fairly simple process, once you write a post you want to share, put a link to it on your FaceBook page.  Once you do that (and this is the key!) ask your followers to share it with their followers.  You don’t want to do this every time because it can get annoying but if you have something you think a lot of people would benefit from, don’t be shy about asking people to share it.  FaceBook makes it easy by having a “Share” button right below each post so all they have to do is hit that and FaceBook does the rest and you have multiple high-quality links back to your site.

Guest Posts

Keep an eye out in the Social Media streams for the blogs in your niche, occasionally one of them will request a guest post. (Usually the blogger needs a break or is going on vacation, something like that.)  When that happens, offer your services and write a VERY high quality post that includes a short bio at the end with a link to your site.  Keep it short, entertaining, and informative because this may be the only exposure your site gets to this segment of readers so you want to put your best foot forward.  Alternatively, you can request to write a guest post on someone’s blog but I recommend you have some kind of relationship with the person first, maybe a conversation through Twitter or email.

Press Releases

Press releases are great ways to get links out about your site.  These are very helpful when you first launch your site, are celebrating a anniversary, or just completed a redesign.  Anything noteworthy is a good excuse to write a press release and have it distributed.  Use a free service like www.bignews.biz or www.transworldnews.com to send your releases out for the world to see.

How do you get links for your site?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Need a free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

Book Review : The Treasure of God's Word

As we approach the 400 year anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, it's natural to look back at the impact this book has had on Western culture. The Treasure of God's Word is more like a starter book that gives you the history of this translation of the Bible as well as giving examples of Bible verses covering various topics. For instance, you get a short essay on how the translation team was selected then chapters of verses covering subjects like God's Mercy, God's Grace, etc.

It's a beautiful book with a faux-leather cover and gold-gilded pages and large, easy to read text.  The short essays are very interesting and are full of information that most people wouldn't know about how this Book came together. It was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone that is curious about the King James Bible (arguably the most influential book ever published) or just wants to be reminded of the beauty and majesty of the King James language.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Come visit us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

What are Angels?

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,  - Rev 1:1

To ensure that His revelation would be given to John exactly right, He entrusted it’s transmission to one of His angels.  This angel was given the incredibly important task of revealing to John all the things that would happen in the next few chapters and God’s prophetic message for each of the seven churches we will meet in chapters 2 and 3.

What are angels?

The most descriptive Bible verse dealing with angels is Hebrews 1:14, where the author reminds us that angels are “all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation”.  Angels are not “little gods” but servants of the true God who serve God by serving us, His people.  The Greek word translated “angel” is literally “messenger”, angels are messengers of God’s will.  This is why God knew He could trust the angel to deliver the revelation safely to John because that is precisely the reason God created angels in the first place.

Do we worship angels?

In years past it has been popular to focus an inordinate amount of time on the study of angels, as if angels were meant to be the focus of our faith.  Angels are servants of God and are not meant to be what we worship.  This is something like standing in a beautiful building and praising the hammers and saws used to build it instead of the architect that designed it.  Idolatry is an easy sin to slip into because our hearts are idol-factories, constantly churning out new things to turn our love and affection towards instead of God.  Making idols out of angels is even easier because they are stronger than us, holier than us, and we know they live in the presence of God, but they are not God.  They are finite in power, love, and righteousness and do not even compare to the infinite worth of our God.

Why did God make angels?

Angels are used to help remind us that as great as angels are, they are still just created beings like us and we should worship the One who created them from nothing.  God does not need angels, because He is infinite and in need of nothing, any more than He needs us but yet He chooses to love us and include us in His plans.  He even created the angels to serve us and to help us in our journey towards His glory.  Praise God that He has provided everything we need for life and righteousness before we even knew we needed it!

Looking for a reformed church in Arlington TX?  Want to read more posts like this one?  Come visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

WordPress Wednesday - How to Embed a Form

There are probably as many ways to do this as there are products but I’m going to show you the way I do it because it is by far the simplest way I’ve ever seen.

Step #1 – Navigate to Google Docs

Head to Google’s free document center, Google Docs.  If you don’t already have a Google account you will need to start one.

 

 

Step #2 – Create a new form

Go to the “Create New” dropdown button and scroll down to “Form”.

 

 

 

 

Step # 3 – Fill out the form

This is where you ask your questions.  What do you want to know?  You can also make the answers multiple choice or allow long-form text responses.

 

 

Step #4 – Embed the form

This is where Google Docs really shine because they make this so simple.  Simply go to the “More actions” button and drill down to “Embed”.  It will provide you a short line of code that just needs to be copied and pasted into your post.  If you are using something like “Windows Live Writer” make sure this code gets posted in the “Source” or “HTML” tab.  In this case it turns “iframe src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dHFFak9ZRVdfYkFKanNuNTFibW9CZnc6MQ" width="760" height="671" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

into this:

Loading...

 

Step #5 – Read the results

Once the form is embedded and you start receiving answers, all the data will sent automatically to a Google Spreadsheet that will be available in your list of documents.  Go there and start learning what answers people gave to your questions!

Did you find this helpful?  Leave a comment to let me know.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

Best of Today's SEO - 10/05/2010

7 Ways to Find Inspiration – At a loss for what to blog about?  Need some fuel for the fire?  Here’s a couple great tips.

Want a Video Game on your Site? – Ever thought about adding a video game to your site to increase the time people spend there?  Here’s a few pointers.

Reputation Management – Unsure of the best way to brand yourself using social media?  Try this advice.

Ok.  This has no SEO value I just found it interesting.  This is a round computer so Asians will not lose their “slant-eyed” look.  That sentence is so incredibly offensive I can’t believe I wrote it.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

How to increase your backlinks Part One

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your site is through backlinks.  A backlink is a link to your site from somebody else’s site and a rule of thumb is that the more of them you have out there on the internet, the more traffic comes to you and the more relevant your site is seen as by the search engines.  Backlinks are an important way to get the word out about your site. If you have the best content in the world it won’t matter if no one can find you, so here are a few “tried-and-true” ways to get them.

Blog Comments

One of the best parts of the internet is the fact that no matter what your niche is, there is somebody else out there with either the same or similar interests.  Once you find these other blogs, be sure to follow them and read what they are saying and if they say something that moves you to chime in on the conversation, leave a comment.  Just remember a few rules. #1 Keep your comment on topic. (Otherwise, it’s just spam.) #2 Contribute something to the conversation (Otherwise, it’s pointless) #3 Keep it positive. (If you have something negative to say it may be better to send a private message to the blog writer.  Or not. Use wisdom.) #4 Make sure the comment includes a link so people can find you if they like your comment. (Most comboxes do this automatically now but just be sure)  The important thing to remember is that this is another person’s sandbox so you don’t want to do anything that will come off as just a spammer trying to “game” the system.  Be relevant, be thoughtful, be concise.

Articles

This is a great way to get backlinks and one a lot of bloggers don’t make use of.  Write an article about some facet of your niche and submit it to an article marketing site. (E-zine Articles is a good one.)  Make sure that in the “About the Author” section there is a link back to your site.  The great thing about this is you probably already have great content you can re-purpose for an article.  Go back over your posts, find something interesting and rewrite it in article form.  Once you post it you will have a great backlink to your site.

Twitter

Twitter is another great way to get a backlink. Try to use the shortlink that WP provides instead of the ht.ly shortened URL if there is enough room in your tweet ( www.SEOAssistant.org/p=6 vs ht.ly/pOGD45) This will get you a direct link instead of going through a link shortener and if your tweets end up on a static page or get retweeted a lot it’s a nice way to get a backlink to your site.

I hope you found this helpful.  How do you get backlinks?  Leave a comment and tell me.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

"Waiting for Superman" review

Last night my darling wife and I got free tickets to see the new documentary “Waiting for Superman”.  It was a very interesting movie covering the way our public education system in America has been broken.  There are school systems that consistently churn out under-performing students and drop-outs.  There are school systems in America that if your child goes there, they have less than a 30% chance of actually graduating and being prepared for a four year college.  These are numbers that are terrifying and they are made all the worse by the fact that parents know these bleak numbers and are at a loss for solutions.  Their only hope is to get their kid into a charter school that has a much higher success rate, some charter schools graduate as many as 96% of their students.

Watching this movie the thing that struck me most was the absolute despair these parents felt when their children was only 6 or 7 years old and they knew that if they couldn’t get them into a charter school they were almost guaranteed to not graduate from high school.  Because entry to these charter schools is held by public lottery, your kid’s future was totally in the hands of fate.  It was hard to believe this reality existed in America, the greatest country on Earth and one with a totally free public education system available to all.  What caused this problem and what are the solutions?  Let’s take a look.

Problem #1 – Teacher’s Unions

The main problem the movie focused on was the teachers themselves.  What made for a higher success rate in graduation wasn’t the income of the student’s family, or the niceness of the school’s facilities, or even parental involvement.  The number one factor in student success (according to the movie) was the quality of the teacher and how much that teacher was invested in making sure their students succeeded.  The main stumbling block to this was the fact that the Teacher’s Unions were so powerful that they had negotiated tenure for all teachers that had more than 2 years experience.  So after a teacher has gotten tenure they can do anything and no one can fire them.  Some teachers just read the paper, some ignored the children, but most of them just went through their day by rote with none of the passion necessary to engage students and get them excited about learning.

Communism always leads to trouble

These problems have arisen because the unions have found a way to divorce results from reward.  In other words, in a capitalistic society if you do excellent work it should lead to excellent pay, if you do average work it should lead to average pay, and if you do poor work it should lead to poor pay or you getting fired.  A lazy hand should lead to poverty and a diligent hand should lead to wealth. (Prov 10:4)  As soon as this God ordained incentive to excel is removed the natural human tendency towards sloth takes over and it turns all but the best teachers into mindless drones doing just enough to get through their day.  You would think the obvious solution here is to remove these tenure rules and let the districts reward their best performers and fire the worst but the unions are too powerful and will not let that happen.

Problem #2 – It’s not the state’s job

The second problem is one that’s not even addressed by the film and that’s the mindset that we Americans have that it is the government’s job to educate our children.  According to the Bible, the responsibility for education falls solely on the shoulders of Mom and Dad. (Prov 1:8)  While it’s certainly not sinful to send your child to public school and to hold those schools responsible for their performance, it’s not the teacher or the principal that God will hold accountable for how your child was educated; it’s you, the parent.  We cannot abdicate our responsibility to our children by relying solely on their school, we must roll up our sleeves and make sure our kids are getting what they need.  It can be as simple as making sure they read a book for an hour a day and have memorized their multiplication tables but we must make sure that our kids are progressing at the rate they should.  That’s not the school’s job, that’s ours and unless we start taking this responsibility seriously, this nation is headed for trouble.

Read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.org

Why do we need Revelation?

Rev 1:1  The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer? Anyone that’s ever had a child under 5 on a car trip has heard these questions and knows the difficulty answering them.  You can’t say “almost there” because you just have to say it again in 30 seconds when they ask again.  You can’t say “45 minutes” because they have no idea what that means.  You even try “as long as one episode of Sesame Street” but that doesn’t work unless they are actually watching the episode in question. (Portable DVD players, how I love you!)  What would sometimes work for us is to list all the things we were going to pass on the way.  We would say, “We will pass this sign , then this store, then this McDonalds, etc., then we will be there.”  It tended to help because it gave the kids signposts to look for on the trip.

Revelation gives us God’s “signposts”

Similarly, God gave us the book of Revelation so we would know what is going to happen at the end.  He gives us sign posts to look forward to the same way I did with the kids only His went something like, “First the Rapture, then the seals are broken, then the AntiChrist comes to power, etc.”  It is important to God that His children know where He’s taking history and that He has a plan for the earth that will result in it’s redemption.

Revelation lets us have hope in turmoil

Can you imagine going through all the things listed in the book of Revelation without the roadmap of Revelation?  To have put your faith in a God that claims to be able to sustain creation but to see that creation falling apart around you?  Earthquakes shatter the landscape, famine starves children, plagues destroy whole communities, and on and on it goes.  If you weren’t told beforehand that this was God’s plan and everything must happen like this in order for the final redemption of Creation back to it’s pre-fall state, you would look and despair.  It might even cause you to throw away your faith and trust in your own power to save you.

Revelation makes our faith secure

But our God doesn’t want that to happen.  He loves His children so He made sure that we would know what’s coming, so we can see the signposts and not despair but to increase in hope.  Now every earthquake, every plague, every persecution brings us hope because we know it brings us closer to home.  These things “must take place” and they will be difficult but not impossible.  They are not for our destruction but to bring us safely home to a new Earth, free from sin and death and decay and under the care of our God.

Read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO - 9/28/2010

Social Media Metrics – Can you measure what your Social Media is worth?  Probably not but here are a few guidelines.

The danger of overdoing SEO – Ever run into one of these blogs?  Where it’s obvious it was constructed for Google and not an actual reader?  Are you making these mistakes?

Should your content be short? – Or does length really matter?

More lurkers on your pages? – The number of Social Media accounts have gone up but the amount of content hasn’t.  Translated – More people that look at your pages but never actually interact with you.

Need a free SEO Site Analysis?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

3 Ways Small Blogs Make Life Difficult For Their Readers

You’ve got a blog that you are proud of that has great content.  You update faithfully, you are interesting, you are doing everything right but you still can’t seem to get any traction.  Why?  You may be working against yourself.  You want a blog that promotes itself, one where your readers take it upon themselves to repost your posts, they comment, they promote etc., but you may be making it difficult for them to do that.  Here’s 3 ways you may be making life difficult for your readers.

1.  You make it difficult for people to follow.

  You want your blog to be in front of as many eyes as possible and the easiest way to do that is to provide options for them to subscribe.  If I find an interesting blog, the first thing I do is throw it in my Google Reader feed so it’s always there.  If you don’t have an easy way to do that like a FeedBurner button, I typically won’t bother.  Some people may prefer to get your blog in email form sent to them everyday, do you have an option for that?  If I had to actually visit all the blogs I read, I probably wouldn’t read 90% of the blogs I’m interested in, there just isn’t time to hit all those sites.  I rely on RSS to keep me informed so make it easy for me to subscribe.  You should have clearly marked “Subscribe Here” buttons anyone can see with not too much trouble and it’s in your best interest to make sure your readers can find them.

2.  You make it difficult for people to comment.

  I realize that spam is a problem and steps need to be taken so your com-box doesn’t become some kind of internet landfill but there should be limits!  You can’t be so afraid of spammers that you discourage community.  If I want to leave a comment you should ask for name, email, website and possibly a Captcha and nothing else.  Don’t make me go through a multi-step registration and log-in process to say that I appreciated your post.  Sure some spam may get through but that’s the price you pay, better that some spam gets through but your readers find it easy to comment than you stop all spam and half your real comments.

3.  You make it difficult for people to promote you. 

I read your post and loved it!  I want my friends to read it because I know they will love it!  I want the world to read it and bask in the glory that is your wisdom!  But if doing that requires more than a click or two I probably won’t bother.  There are tons of plug-ins available that make it easy to retweet your post, send it to my FaceBook page, Digg it, Reddit it, or any one of the dozens of social sites out there, get one and put it on your page.  Let your readers do the hard work of promoting your site in places you can’t.

You’ve already done the hard part!  The reader is on your page and likes what they see.  If you will put these items into action and make the social aspects of blogging simple you will see an uptick in traffic and you will begin to see the rewards you want for your blog.

Want a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Come to www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis.

Are Jesus and God two different people?

Rev 1:1  The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,

 

In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon was called together to answer a key question that Christians were facing, what nature does Jesus have?  Was He a great man, filled with the Spirit of God?  Merely empowered by God as His finest creation?  Was He God alone?  His apparent humanity just an act to help Him relate to us better?  The answer goes to the core of who the church says Christ is and who we worship.

The Council’s Answer

Fortunately the Council got the answer correct.  Jesus Christ is God, existing for all eternity, omniscient, omnipotent, having all the power of God and at His Incarnation He added to His Divinity, humanity.  He is still God but now He is also man having both the nature of God and the nature of man and these two natures are perfectly united but not co-mingled.  In other words, Christ’s two natures do not fight against themselves but they do remain separate.  This why sometimes in the Scriptures, Jesus acts like any man and sometimes He acts like only God can.  For example, as a man He prayed to the Father (Jn 17), as God He allowed people to pray to Him (Acts 7:59).  As a man He was tempted (Mt 4) as God He is sinless (Heb 4:15).  As a man He grew in wisdom (Lk 2:52) as God He knows all things (Jn 21:17) and so forth.

How does God give Jesus revelation?

This is why in our verse today we see God giving something to Jesus as if He were a separate person.  This is the Father giving revelation to the man Christ Jesus.  While on the earth Jesus “emptied Himself” and “made Himself nothing”, (Phil 2:6-7) one of the things He emptied Himself of was complete foreknowledge of when the end would come.  When He entered triumphantly into Heaven all the fullness of God now dwells in Him including exact foreknowledge of His triumphant return. (Mt 24:36)  This verse shows that this revelation was given to Him by the Father, the reasons for which we will look at next.

Christ had to have two natures to save you

The good news is that Jesus’ two natures is exactly why we have salvation.  The perfect sacrifice had to be man because it needed to represent man and it needed to God because it had to be infinitely good to bear the weight of our infinite evil.  No mere man could meet these requirements, God Himself had to come to Earth in the form of a man to die for us so we could live with Him and (Praise God!) that is exactly what He did!

Come read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO 9/24/2010

Need some SEO tips for video?  SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday is for you.

Heard of Angelgate?  The latest mini-outrage to sweep throught the Tech sector gives us an important lesson.  If you are trying to send a Direct Message through Twitter, make darn sure it’s actually a Direct Message before you hit send.

WiFi on steroids is cleared.  Now someone just needs to actually develop it.

Curious as to why FaceBook went down?   Did it affect your day at all?

<a href="http://graphjam.com/2010/09/23/funny-graphs-facebook-outage/"><img src='http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/0fb461fe-6da1-404c-8460-cdbdfc4a0f81.png' title="funny graphs - US Productivity At An All Time High!" alt="funny graphs - US Productivity At An All Time High!" /></a><br />see more <a href="http://graphjam.com">Funny Graphs</a>

3 More Common SEO Mistakes Small Blogs Make

Here’s a few more of the common SEO mistakes I see small blogs (including at times this one) make.

 

1.  They don’t make it easy to use Social Media to follow the blog and repost the posts. 

With most blogs it’s very easy to add a plugin like SexyBookmarks that will make reposting your blog very easy.  Nothing drives traffic better than having one of your readers repost your blog in their FaceBook or Twitter stream.  Make that an easy process.

2.  The posting schedule is inconsistent at best.

Here’s where I fall really short of the mark.  Make a schedule for your blog and keep to it.  Whether it’s 10 posts a day or 3 posts a week doesn’t make any difference but being consistent is key.  There’s so many blogs out there it is just too easy to get lost in the static.  Google SERP’s reward page counts and blog activity.

3.  It’s boring. 

Not only do your posts need to be short, and snappy but they need to entertain.  One of my favorite blogs is 6 Year Med, it follows the journey of a med student becoming a pediatrician.  I know nothing about medicine or this woman’s life but the blog is absolutely fascinating.  Writing is a skill like anything else and can be developed over time.  Do some free-writing, do some reading, pay attention to things that grab your attention and try to figure out how they did that.  I guarantee you will be rewarded.

In brainstorming the first blog in this series I came up with quite a few common mistakes so you will probably be seeing more in this series.  What mistakes have you seen out there?  What mistakes have you made?  Leave a comment a let me know.

Do you need a free SEO site assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis. 

3 SEO Mistakes Small Blogs Make

  As any small blogger can tell you, there is a world of difference between running a blog in your spare time and having a blog popular enough to support you working on it full-time.  Most bloggers I know would love to able to have a blog make the kind of money that would justify it becoming their sole source of income but they tend to shoot themselves in the foot with mental errors.  Here’s a few common errors that small bloggers make that keep them from growing at the speed they want.

1.  They don’t use alt tags on their media.

I’ve told the story before of how my wife’s blog still gets traffic every week from people searching for MC Hammer pants on Google Image search.  She did a post years ago and included a pic of some MC Hammer style pants and labeled it as such and she gets people almost every day from that source alone.  Granted it’s not the most targeted traffic but I can guarantee you it has exposed her blog to people outside of her normal traffic circles.  If you use a picture or a video clip, make sure you use descriptive alt-tags so Google knows what the heck it is.  Over time I guarantee that this tip alone will bring you extra traffic.

2.  They use ugly formatting.

All the great SEO in the world won’t help you if when people come to your site, their eyes are met with a wall of text.  No one wants to work to read what you’ve written.  Use your Heading formats and the occasional bold or italics to make something pop out.  Use formatting to draw your reader’s eye to what you want them to see and they will be more inclined to return.

3.  They don’t promote their posts well.

You may have the best post in the world but if no one knows, no one will care.  Use services like Digg or Stumble Upon to tell people about your post.  Use Twitter and include appropriate hashtags and post it on your FaceBook page.  (Don’t have a FaceBook page?  That’s a whole other post.)  There’s a ton of ways to promote your posts, find out what works for you and use it!

What mistakes have you made or seen others make?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment?  Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis.

Revelation 1:1a

  The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. Rev 1:1a

 

Ever read through the Book of Revelation and find yourself unsure of what’s going on?  With all the imagery and symbolism it can be a very confusing read but that was not originally supposed to be the case.  The word revelation in the above verse means that this book was intended to be a revelation, an unveiling of God’s plan for His Earth moving forward.  It was never supposed to be confusing, sure there is symbolism  but the symbolism is usually explained in the text itself and exists to reveal truth, not conceal it.  Let’s start our Journey through this important book.

Why does this book exist?

First and foremost we need to realize what the reason for this book’s existence is.  Although it tells what is coming that is actually just a means to an end.  The end purpose of the book is to reveal Jesus Christ, to show Him as the Almighty master of creation that He is.  What we will see as we move forward is that He is no longer a Galilean peasant but the rightful King of all.  He wants us to know what is coming not just our foreknowledge of future events but to elicit praise from His people.

What has He given us in this book?

He has given us a detailed map of what is going to happen at the end of time so will know that He is God, He has a plan, and He has the ability to see that plan through to the end.  This is not a God that has His fingers crossed hoping that it will all work out someday but a sovereign Lord that can make all things happen according to His pre-ordained will.

Why has He given us this book?

This revelation is given to us so we can have peace.  If this God is powerful enough to make all the things we will see as we move through Revelation happen, then why would you worry about whether or not He can make all things happen in your life exactly as He has planned?  If He has a plan for the final years of the whole Earth, surely He has a plan for your life; and if He is able to make His plan happen for the whole Earth, surely He is able to make His plan happen for your life.  This is not a weak God, or a God not intimately involved in every facet of creation, this is a God that is all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, and all-good.  You can trust Him.

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When I first heard about Seesmic relaunch last week, I was really excited about  the possibilities.  For those of you not familiar with the service, Seesmic promises to be a platform for platforms.  In other words, they want to be the place you go to for all your social media programs like FaceBook, Twitter, Google Reader, Groupon, Zappos, and a ton of others.  This was very exciting to me because I hate a cluttered browser and I have to have about 5 tabs running along the top of my Chrome just for these sites plus what ever other browsing I’m doing.  So in theory, this program is for me and right up my alley.

Too good to be true

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way I expected for a couple reasons.

#1  Facebook

 – I have about 2k people “friended”on my FaceBook but only about 20 I want to actually hear from.  (The rest are all Mafia Wars adds.)  These people are on their own list in my Facebook but there doesn’t seem to be a way for Seesmic to only stream the people on that list.  Instead I get hundreds of updates a day from people I don’t really know and I lose the updates I do care about in the static.  So what do I do?  I go to Facebook directly to read those updates defeating the purpose for Seesmic to begin with.

#2 Twitter 

– Same thing here, lots of people but only a few I want to hear from.  This may be my fault as I haven’t taken the time to organize my Twitter feeds but I’m not seeing an option for it regardless.  Also, there’s not an easy way to direct message or retweet someone from their tweets.  I had been using HootSuite before and loved this functionality.

#3 Google Reader 

– This one is probably on me.  I downloaded the plugin for Reader for the API, installed it, and…nothing.  I can’t figure out where to go to see my Reader stream.  I know it’s installed because this morning it told me there was an update for the plugin and I needed to download it and restart the app but it’s still nowhere to be found.  Even if this is my fault, the interface should be a heckuva lot easier to use and more intuitive.

It’s not all bad

There are a few things I really liked.  I loved the fact that new tweets and Facebook updates popup on my screen.  This means I can follow Twitter and FaceBook with a quick glance instead of having to go somewhere else to check it.  Once they add a way to tailor what feeds actually cause the popup to happen and a way to move that popup box anywhere I want on the screen, it will be perfect.  (Right now it pops up right where my curser always seems to be.)

This is an ambitious project and in theory is exactly what I want.  As soon as theory meets reality I will probably be back for another look but until then I guess I’ll stick with HootSuite and all those open tabs.

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