You can use videos that help you market your product, service or even you. Marketing videos can be just like a commercial, or can be like a short infomercial. Some people create marketing videos with consumers of the product or service. Happy consumers can one of the most convincing arguments for buying.

Do videos need to be about selling?

These videos may not necessarily sell something by themselves. You can have instructional videos that bring in visitors and get more website traffic. These you can add to the various video and social network sites. The more sites that have your videos the better it is for your online business plan by sending you more website traffic.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

MJ Schrader

Below is a fun video that is designed to show an Easter Egg (a hidden fun code)….

Here

What is Nofollow or dofollow?

Dofollow means that when a search engine spider crawls a website with your comments it follows your link. Some websites have dofollow turned on to increase their comments. It boosts the commentator’s SEO ranking.    With nofollow, when search engines crawl the site it sees the words but it does not follow them back to your website.  This protects the blog’s SEO ranking.

Dofollow Flaw.

Back link points are only one part of the equation that search engines use. Search engines actually use a variety of methods to create their rankings. Google was the only search engine to use this in their ranking and as of June they changed their rules AGAIN.  But another key element to this, is that Search engines keep their ranking equations secret, to keep fraud down, what gets filtered down is not what is real.

How do you search?

Think back, do you always use search engines to find things? How often are you reading a blog and you see a post title that interests you? If you read the comments and someone says something interesting do you see what else they have to say? Do you visit their blog? When people you know click the like, Digg or other button to say this is a cool article do you read it? Search engines help people find things, this is true, but people are social and we follow the social end quite frequently.

Your mission:

Your presence means more than anything. Search engines still see your name attached to that blog post. More important than search engines, people see your comments. You are building a reputation, you are becoming a friend, you are becoming someone people trust. Trust is what will help you with online business success.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ  Schrader

Tomorrow: Freebie Friday!!

Saturday: Posterous… One Post to Success

These videos are going to be available on YouTube.   Now, people are unique, while vanilla is overwhelmingly the favorite flavor of ice cream we try many other flavors.   Fudge Ripple, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chunky Monkey (YUM), Green tea…  (well I would like to try Green Tea )  In the same fashion YouTube is not the only video sharing site available, you can post your videos on other sites.   Or post on You Tube and other sites.

YouTube ~ This is probably the most well known of the video sharing sites.

Break.com ~ Comedy is king on this video sharing site.  You also can earn money but it does take quite a lot of views to do so.

DailyMotion ~ Maximum length of a video is limited to 20 minutes, which is longer than YouTube allows. Users can create groups allowing people to see people who may have related videos. This can be traffic building as someone familiar with one person in a group may come and see your videos.

HowCast ~ Short instructional, informative how to videos are what HowCast wants.

Metacafe ~ Community is very important on this video sharing site.

Viddler ~ Brand yourself with this video sharing site. Add your logo and make the movie player match your website color scheme.

Other video sharing sites

There are many more sites available to for video sharing. Each has slightly different rules as to what is accepted, what length is maximum and what formats are accepted. These differences can work to your advantage when your provide slightly different videos to each site to help your business and traffic building influences.

So what is your favorite ice cream flavor?

What about favorite video site?

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

SEO means search engine optimization, for many it also means stress and worry.   SEO is hard work, right?  Well some steps are actually pretty easy.

1. Change to an SEO friendly permalink.

Each blog post and website page you build with WordPress has a permalink; permanent link, assigned to it.  Make certain it is set to your post name by visiting, Settings, then Permalink.  You want the custom setting to be /%postname%

2. Add Google XML Sitemaps.

This plugin is like a map of your site enabling search engines to know what is on your website and where to find it.

3. Use Keywords.

These are words people commonly search for in relation to your niche. Use keywords appropriately without over use for a better experience for SEO and your visitors.

4. Get an SEO Plugin

These plugins allow you to add a meta title, meta description and meta keywords to each WordPress post and page you create. These allow search engine optimization by allowing them to know what is on the page.

5. Add content.

Regular posts is probably the most important step and it gives your visitors more reason to be interested in what you sell. You can Add an Ezine Article to Your Blog when you keep the article and resource box intact. Mixing and matching these with your own original content keeps the site SEO friendly and brings more traffic.  You can even use my Ezine Articles

6. Limit posts to one category.

While you may have several categories the post will fit, limit it to one. Each category the post is in creates another URL. You want to limit that number. A post with multiple URL links may only be one post but search engines see each as individual posts. This is the infamous duplicate content that people talk about.

7. Be consistent, insist on consistency.

Does your website start with www or does it not. In either case you can type http:// in front of the website name to make it click enabled. But you want to be consistent in your use of www or not and ask others the same.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

Juan Mann, founder, giving a hug. PHOTO CREDIT: Free Hug Campaign

Domain Names in Life

The Sick Puppies would not be a good domain name for a veterinary clinic.  Personally if I moved to a new town and looked up vet clinics that is not one I would visit.   The clients that might visit that kind of domain name… might be a sick puppies themselves.

However SickPuppies.net is the domain name for a band of the same name.  Thus the domain name is their company name and requires building their name as a band and not puppies who are sick.

This band wrote a song for the Free Hugs Campaign at FreeHugsCampaign.org. This is an example of a domain using keywords and a name related to what they do.  Yes, they give away free hugs.  It’s a wonderful campaign.

There is a low cost spay and neuter clinic called Cause for Paws at  CauseForPawsTexas.com.  This domain name does not contain keywords related to what people look for in a low cost clinic.   Yet if someone just came across the website domain name, they would probably guess it to be related to animals and a cause, of some sort,  to help the animals.

So what does your domain name say about you?

Is your domain name a brand?   Does your domain name contain related words?  Does your domain name echo what you do?   Just thoughts to consider in the domain name search.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

PS.  A video…

Bet it makes you smile

Create fun videos.

The number of people who watch videos on YouTube grows daily.   Below you will see a video my cat and I made as introduction to Rockstar Coaching.  I don’t think I even mentioned the coaching.  Next week I will go into getting comfortable with video.

With a fun video you could get more traffic. Create a funny video, an instructional video, a video about your products or services. Then include tags related to your business and your website link.

Use contests.

Fun contests with prizes that people love create word of mouth traffic. People tell friends and your traffic grows. There is also a curiosity factor that brings people. You can have contests that require visitors to contribute to your site, visit multiple pages and more.

Speaking of CONTESTS.

I would like to hold one, but I want YOUR input.  What kind of contest would you like to see?  What would you like for a prize?

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

Actually not always.  There some fabulous and fun ways to get more website traffic for your online business. By having fun in generating traffic, your traffic is likely to view your business as a friendly business which helps increase sales.

The notebook that inspired the look and feel of my brand.

Use Photos.

There are several photo-sharing sites that also link directly to search engines.  Add tags related to your business and when people search images for those words your pictures and website appear.  Also if you are on my Twitter stream or Facebook you probably have seen that I take almost daily pictures with my phone.

Create a presence on social media.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and others are known as social networking sites. The key being social interaction, but this also means networking with the friends of friends, just like business networking builds your business. You need to interact with people and build a presence but this is as simple as adding pictures and videos that you created from the previous two.

Create a fun avatar.

Blogs, forums and other sites allow you to add a miniature image called an avatar. If your avatar is animage of you having fun people may click it, to learn more about your website.

What other ways can you create?

Think about ways to create more website traffic. What do people enjoy, how can you help others, there are a number of ways to generate traffic and plenty of ways to add some fun.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

This is seventh in the Planning the Unexpected series.  Each day is a products, person or service I recommend. Please again note that attached links are affiliate links. This helps me make some money to pay for some emergency things during my grandmother’s funeral. Today is about Social Media and features Mari Smith…

Social Media and Your Online Business

While you may not know what social media is, you probably have used it. Many of your friends use it, sometimes on a daily basis. These are the websites that allow people and business to connect to each other on a social basis. Social media has been growing for years and will only continue to grow.

Social Media Sites

Facebook allows families, classmates, friends and businesses to stay connected. Twitter allows for microblogging. This feed can include what is happening in your day, asking for advice, or telling friends where you are, if they want to join you. There is Linked in for business professionals. StumbleUpon which is social bookmarking, this allows you to share sites you like with others. The number of social media sites available is amazing and growing.

Growing Your Websites

People are social. Many people are busy, moving hundreds even thousands of miles is common. Social media allows people to stay close and stay in touch. While this may have started with people, businesses require people to buy. They also realized people like businesses that are friendly. Websites, businesses large and small benefit by joining in this social movement.

Mari Smith

I have followed Mari for quite a while and would love to meet her. It was through her sites and her products I learned how to set my Facebook page, find people I connected with and create a fan page. She has created products and reports that have helped me know what I need for Twitter.

Social Marketing Method

This course is about as complete as you can get. With Social Marketing Method you can learn Facebook and Twitter. Learn how it can help you, what you need to know to maximize your efforts while minimizing your time, in other words socialize smarter! See I have used Mari’s courses and while I have not met her they have helped me tremendously which is why if you want to grow on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites you can not go wrong with her. Plus she has a cool Scottish accent, which is really great for the monthly Q&A sessions with her.

~ MJ Schrader

Save 25% off my products?

In honor of Pat’s Unseminar 8, you can save 25% off any product this special page.  You have until July 17th!

During Check Out use Coupon Code: PatSpecial610

Does your website have a flash or movie intro?

Flash or Movies may not load on different browsers. Some people are still on dial up. Even if that seems dark ages to you, think about dial up, think about people who are in remote areas who do not have fast internet. Your flash movie will keep them from going to your site.

Is your website an eye sore?

This is a surprisingly common mistake. I visited a site that was bright green with hot pink and yellow swirls on it. Unless that site was giving away money, I was not about to stay.

Did you forget to sell to your readers?

Most every website involves selling something. That something may be a product or service, but it involves selling. Even a personal website involves selling yourself, so let the readers know how you can make them laugh, cry or otherwise bring emotion.

Are you talking features or benefits?

On your pages you want to talk about benefits. Stir emotion in your readers, get them involved. The soft light from this lamp will make you look younger. Getting laser hair removal will mean smooth sexy legs all summer. These are benefits that keep your visitors on your business website.

Did you write for online reading?

Most websites have short paragraphs. Lists and highlighted text are common. There are spaces between paragraphs. What you will notice is that most of the writing can be scanned. Reading long paragraphs online is hard on the eyes.

How can you avoid these mistakes?

The common website mistakes are problems with not thinking about how other people see your website. While you may have a certain vision for your site and think everyone wants what you want, think about others. Ask people you know for honest opinions on your website. Ask them to use different browsers. When you stay focused on the reader your site will grow.