Finding ways to build High ranking Backlinks - domains that help.

There are still far too many legitimate website owners that falling for the guaranteed page one on Google for only $100 trick!

The key to optimising your presence on the web is influenced by over 200 factors within Google's search algorithm, which is also being constantly tweaked.

For the sake of this article we're going to cover a small but crucial part of one of those factors. Backlinking.

Backlinking is no longer the realm of the spammer. It has become the world of the strategist and the best ones, get the first page of Google. Backlinks are a critical tool to raise page rank and pagerank is what prioritises your page over others with the equivalent value in content.

You also need to understand the difference between nofollow and dofollow links and their value which is covered in a different post.

To gain a decent pagerank you need to be backlinked from pages with a high pagerank and those that have the golden goose are not going to share the golden eggs that easily. The first step is to identify highly ranked domains that will be the easiest to backlink from, with both dofollow and nofollow link status.

It would seem obvious but the high ranking pages to start with are your Social Media and high traffic interactive domains e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler and the like. remeber however that Facebook likes are not tracked as backlinks. The links have to be a clickable link to the site youre trying to rank. You also need to remember not to shorten the link because nofollow links credit the link to the url shortening service and NOT your website.

Then there is the use of the link wheel. Do NOT attempt this unless you have a thorough understanding of how the bots that crawl the web manage your information with the latest algorithms, however creating the actual links is the first step to building you valuable reputation.

Below is a list of high ranking domains upon which you can build information hubs that link back to your site. But also remember that if you only put one article on the blog/page domain, it will have less relevance than the page that has multiple articles, thus the job of SEO becomes an ongoing project.

Social Media platforms

Google+
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Tumblr

Then build your article and information hubs on high ranking web building platforms such as:

Weebly
Wix
webs.com
Blogger
Wordpress
Yola
Squarespace
Moonfruit
Angelfire
Lycos (Tripod)
Virb

This list is not exhaustive and you can hunt for  many more as you surf the net and discover the platforms that others are using to spread their reach.

Remember you can always check a domain's page rank by going to http://checkpagerank.net/

This is a small articel on SEO and you will need to apply a number of other strategies tomake it work.

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5 Ways to boost your Social Media Presence

Everyone is looking for new ways to boost their online presence and Social Media activity and there are without a doubt plenty of advice columns. Just in case a few people have missed them, here are another five hints.

1. Scoop.it! Yes  join scoop it and curate it daily. It only takes 5 minutes every day and compared to other platforms, it manages to drive crazy amounts of traffic to and from your website. The key to using Scoop.it is to remember to Scoop everyday. Don't forget to cross post to your favourite platforms and Scoop.its free account allows you to cross post to at least two platforms, FaceBook and Twitter being the first to come to mind!




2. Use a social Media Dashboard - It has become noticeable that the mainstream cheapies the likes of Sprout Social have suddenly become expensive! If you can afford it, we continue to recommend Postling which provides an easy to use, intuitive user interface and at a song $5 for five accounts and $1 for each additional account. This provides quick and easy management of all your active platforms in one place with control over cross posting and enables you to set up tweets and post well ahead of time.

3.Blog from a different domain. Most online blogging platforms have fabulous page ranks. So if you blog on Blogger, WordPress, Wix or Webs, you can be sure you are back-linking to your site from a ready made high ranking page. While this does not guarantee an immediate online presence it certainly helps a lot to get you closer to that all evasive first page of Google, and is a strategy we recommend to all our new clients. Keep your main site on your domain and blog with a subdomain link. - It all helps.


4. Recommend your article to Mashable. Reputable aggregating sites such as Mashable and Technorati, will not only drive traffic to your site, but also provide the kudos that you need to improve that page rank, and wow, what a long term digital footprint it leaves!

5. Check for plagiarisn EVEN if you wrote the article by yourself. The internet is so full of content that there is no way of knowing whether there are multiple duplicates of the phrases that you use. Google's algorithms can be quite pernickity and if you use just that little too much that appears to be cut and pasted even from several different sources, you're out on a limb. A fabulous free online tool for this can be found at small SEO tools.

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Monetising your online skills - Three ways to increase cash flow

Every Web developer and internet professional wonders what more could they possibly do to optimise their income.

If a Web developer, particularly those that work from home and are constantly competing against the cutthroat bargain offers out there, needs to optimise his/her business edge, I usually point them to the fact that increasing their income lies in their own lap.

Affiliate marketing does not have to mean selling cheap trashy e-books or clicking links to some supermarket special that will earn you ten cents per conversion.

Those professionals that already have a website have a goldmine in their web assets and often don't realise it.

Always have a blog and where possible, write once a week at least. A good example is those that are WordPress specialists. WordPress is a platform of preference in the small to medium enterprise world and if you're any good at working with WordPress you can almost surely automate your income. Here's how:

First of all - become an affiliate, There are many WordPress theme stores out there that offer affiliate programmes. I have had countless visitors to our website and blog, who have followed the links, bought a theme and then discovered they are somewhat out of their depth, only to contact me for help.

In South Africa in particular there are so many that believe they can approach their web presence in a DIY manner. As they do and then realise that it will be much quicker to appoint a professional, they will turn to the professional website they started with. Voila - you have a client!

This approach applies to Wordpress themes, plugins and marketing software.

Secondly - Diversify your product range. If you're already building websites then you can build mobile apps. Note that I mentioned apps - NOT websites. Websites should be built responsively now anyway, but we all know the web is rapidly going mobile. Use your coding knowledge to grow your professional development opens new doors all the time. And the affiliate thing comes in here too. Review some of the WYSIWYG mobile app products provide the link and wait for the greenhorns to get in touch.

It also isn't a bad idea to use some of these apps yourself and develop your product base and portfolio.Its always advisable to sell products that you are familiar with.

Thirdly - Teach. Yes thats what I said teach. Offer a class twice a month at R150 per two hour session and by getting the word out locally the ten to twenty regulars that start to come will cover those overheads before you've even started to build on the web. Teaching also sets you aside as an expert in your field!

To find out more on how to make more money with somewhat less effort and bring more business through the door, sign up to the Homegrown event in Cape Town here.

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Social Media and how agencies charge non profit clients

I have spoken out on how small business clients are brutalised over Social Media costs and how agencies charge them.

For the first time, I have had a potential client that has objected to our charging structure. This post may or may not attract comments, either way and whether the comments are positive or not, I'm feeling an urge to reach out to my industry. Our charges are really transparent. SO here goes.

The client is an established non-profit organisation. They have minuscule funds to cover their digital costs. We engaged in an extensive discovery process - too much time in fact prior to instruction, but it was important to us that we had the issues well tied down. So how did we tackle their needs?

Loosely broken down we placed a strategy on the table. Firstly to rebuild their archaic and poorly optimised website, then to set up their social media channels (four in particular) and socially bookmark and manage them.

We also placed our services for corporate grant applications for digital marketing purposes in the strategy and the work involved was offered pro bono. However the management of the resulting Adwords and online marketing accounts will be charged at 20% of the budget with an agreed ceiling.

Essentially the client would enjoy a new fully responsive website with social media integration and monthly management including content creation for just over seventy thousand Rand for the year.The maximum cost for Adwords and online marketing would come to two hundred thousand Rand (not including the budget).  Thats means we charge two hundred and seventy seven thousand rand for a years inclusive services (about $27 000)

This organisation will receive more than eight times the costs in digital grant funding alone. Based on previous experience, our track record  and current strategies they are expected receive five to nine million Rand in fundraising.

I consulted with marketing managers of two other agencies, who cannot see how they can refuse the proposal, but they still appear to have.

The biggest single issue that I have is that in the normal scheme of things we would just charge a flat rate consultancy and agency fee. But these folks don't have the money, so our payment will be performance based and after all we are a business so we need to make a profit and our staff need to make a living. In this case the risk is spread and we are being rather generous.

I can't fathom why when we know based on what we're offering in terms of SM management and fundraising marketing, we're being accused of daylight robbery.

Anyone?

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Tech ten minutes is back!

Tech ten minutes is back!

Our fabulous breakfast meetup is back.

May 4 to May 7

Monday May 4

Is your website working for you?

Tuesday May 5

Is your Social Media working for you?

Wednesday May 6

DIY or pay someone to SEO your site?

Thursday may 7

Making Social Media pay for itself -monetising your advertising

Tech ten minutes is a ten minute minute talk on a particular topic surrounding technology in business. the talks are structured so that even the small business entrepreneur can garner some knowledge that he is able to apply immediately.

The talk is followed by half an hour of discussion and questions and the guests are then free to network until 8:30 am .

The environment is informal and relaxed and BYOD (Bring your own device).

The coffee is free and  awesome and if you would like a croissant or breakfast sandwich please ask and we'll arrange one.

As we are a Cape Town based business with a strong interest in heritage, we ask our guests to bring a few coins to contribute to the St Georges Cape Town Cathedral roof restoration fund.  - every penny helps

PLEASE BOOK for this as there are limited spaces.

call the office on 021 828 9869 or 0748273548

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SEO and Digital Media Is it all just a huge rip off?

As I sat across from a Business manager this morning, I nearly collapsed on the spot when I saw what this particular organisation was paying for a single digital media campaign. As I'm one that will not hesitate to tell people that you get what you pay for, I was utterly dumbstruck by the figures before my eyes.

 I had been called in to offer some advice in a situation a little like shutting the stable door loooooong after the horse had bolted. He glanced over at me quizzically when I gulped for breath and asked in a slightly higher than usual pitch exactly what golden bells and diamond studded whistles were going to be attached to this particular digital campaign. I was given a copy of the PowerPoint presentation and took a copy back to the office to cogitate over the possibilities - and probabilities.

 The presentation is FULL of what if's and the campaign strategies rely heavily on the client. The client is expected to connect the agency with the relevant partners.It appears that the agency is being paid for the (rather mundane)ideas and the client is expected to provide the rest of the resources. The outline of the strategy is based on the platforms they will use and the strategies they will offer in order to facilitate the ingress of funds. But...... 

There is no clear demarcation of how the campaign is going to be targeted at different population sectors nor the implementation of calls to action. Because of the confidentiality of this particular request for advice, I cannot divulge ANYTHING....YET. 

What I do however see is a client that does not know what they should be spending and has no idea of the value of the quotes they are being given. I also see an agency grabbing the opportunity to cash in on a number of big names and losing sight of business ethics and objectives in the process. My greatest fear for the client is whether this agency is in fact going to be able to produce the goods. While we would have undoubtedly used the same or similar digital strategies and certainly encapsulated to some extent their approach, we would have by now identified different target groups and included a strategy as to specifics in terms of how we expect to employ a call to action for each of the different target groups.

 So many businesses seek to dip their toes in the digital media jungle. SO many get lied to and conned by fly by nighters and then there are the bigger guys, the agencies that by the very name they bear feel it is ok to overcharge. Having had a look at the brief, I see some really bright flashing lights. While we do not have a massive following - our social media is active and we can be contacted without a very long wait through any of our social media channels. The BIG NAME agency involved has what I woul termin client speak remedial needs for their social media. How can you sell a product you're not using yourself?

The agency claims some big South African clients. Their legacy is however quite poor. When you build a campaign for a client, achieving the end result is obviously the objective, but does the client enjoy a long term legacy or will their visibility gradually melt away into obscurity?

I was shocked when at yet another presentation, a prospective client told me that she was being charged R5000 for 5 tweets per day - and nothing else......

Dont give me the exponential reach stuff bla bal bla, because actually ignorant clients don't understand that stuff..... Many dive into the behemoth of Social Media because they think thats what they should be seen to be doing, when in fact its like doing DIY open heart surgery on your marketing strategy with only a medical dictionary to get you through.....

I refer to the SEO snake oil article that can be found here and I now see with absolute clarity why the bigger companies are balking at following the rest of the world into the digital frenzy that is out there.

I will say with absolutely no fear that if Shoprite, and Edcon and the other large corporates are investing more than R500 000 per month into digital media management (Have they actually defined what that entails I wonder, or is that term as fluid as the perception of one manager compared to the next?) - Then somebody counting the pennies has been conned and please give us a call so we can disabuse you of your errors. Woolworths on the other hand have got the best retail Social Media presence Ive seen in SA, so whatever they're spending, its a good investment, but theyre till a little behind the curve.

Campaigns are a separate matter and if youre looking for a ROI, then you need to pay your agency on a commission basis. I know commission is a dirty word, but if your agency's bread and butter depends on it and they know what they're doing, then trust me they will outperform your wildest dreams because the bottomline dependson it.

The money matters and if you dont want to throw a whole lot of greenbacks into a hole, check your stuff out. AT the very least if the agency youre talking to doesnt have social media activity worth noting......I would recommend that you leave...

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7 Small Business marketing Strategies

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