Just a quickie – we’ve recently been using a fab free service called Social Mention that not only offers real time search for the places your name or brand is appearing, but also analyses those mentions for tone and meaning. Find out if the talk about you online is negative, positive or neutral!

They also offer daily Social Media Alerts, which are like Google alerts but for a variety of social media applications – again it’s free and well worth checking out if you want to see where you’re being talked about.

If you’re looking for free brand monitoring online then this in conjunction with Google Alerts is a great start.

Lots of the questions I get on Twitter and Facebook relate to blogging and SEO, and as I was typing up a quick and dirty guide to SEO Blogging for a client, I mentioned it to someone else and they asked for a copy. Then I mentioned it on Twitter and others asked. So I tidied it up a (little) bit, put it in PDF format and here it is

It covers:

• Thinking of what to write
• What not to blog
• How much should I write?
• How do I get people to comment?
• Should I tweet and facebook my blogs?
• Blogging for SEO – a quick and dirty guide
• Making sure Google knows about your blogs

It's not an advanced guide, it's not rocket science and hopefully it's not full of jargon.

I'm offering it free – no sign up, no cash, nothing – all I ask is that if you like it, you drop me a line in one of the many places you can find me, and then direct someone else to this page by either Tweeting about it, Facebooking it, mentioning it on Linked in, writing a blog post about it, or shouting on the High Street with a megaphone (special kudos to those of you who do the latter!).

Anyway, please click on the link to get 67 SEO Pointer for Blogging Beginners – a free guide

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photo credit: lumaxart

Since Facebook announced that they were offering the functionality for website oweners to have 'Like' buttons on their non Facebook content, the race has been on to develop a plugin.

We've found two so far.

• Facebook Like Wordpress Plugin V1 (link goes directly to zip file) – this puts a Like button at the top or bottom of your posts (we've put it at the bottom( of ours as you can see). You can change the size and a few other options, which makes this one our favourite. You can find out more about this plugin on this blog post written by the creator.
• Facebook Like Button Widget – this installs a widget that you can then place in your sidebars. It works well on some blogs but was too wide for our sidebars unfortunately and it can't be changed as far as I can tell.

So now Facebook members can 'Like' your content when they visit your website!

Let us know if you install either of these plugins so we can pop along and take a look!

Not sure how to install plugins? See our Guide to installing Wordpress plugins.

Still unable to install? If you need help installing a Wordpress plugin, please see our Wordpress Plugin Installation Help service.

I have to be honest and say that I’ve not paid huge amounts of attention to Google Buzz until recently. I mean I’ve played with it and I like it, but a lack of time has meant I’ve not used it particularly well. It’s just too easy to feed in my Twitter stream and hope for the best. Lazy, huh?

So I decided that I’ll try harder with Buzz over the next few weeks, and work out how to use it in a way that’s different to blogging and different to Twitter – my instinct tells me it’s somewhere in the middle of the two, practice should help me to help my customers use it in an effective way.

Already some people are preferring Buzz to Twitter, so this Google Buzz button plugin is a great addition to a Wordpress blog.

Simply download the plugin and install (see here if you’re not sure about installing plugins – and if you’re still stuck, drop me a line as we may be able to help) to put a  Buzz button on your blog posts. The icon can appear at the top of the post, as we have it, or at the bottom. (There is an option for manual insertion if you know what to do with Wordpress templates, so theoretically you can have the icon appear anywhere you like).

So download the Google Buzz button for Wordpress plugin and give your readers another way to share your blog posts.

If you need help installing a Wordpress plugin, please see our Wordpress Plugin Installation Help service.

We’re on a bit of a Facebook Fan page mission here at NikkiPilkington.com – it seems that all of a sudden we’re building Fan Pages for clients large and small!

We love to see what others are doing with their Fan Pages, and with this in mind we’ve created the Here’s My Fan Page Fan Page!

Join as a fan, and post details of your fan page so other fans can find it! We’ll spotlight selected pages, post some of the on our other Fan Pages, and generally try to help you out with the gaining of fans.

All we ask in return is that you forward details of this page to your friends and contacts, and encourage them to join!

So please, become a fan, post details of your Fan Page, and help to spread the word!

And the other Facebook fan page post? Keep checking in or subscribe to the Feedburner feed top right to be alerted to it when it is posted!

It’s not always easy knowing which keywords and phrases to target when optimising your website – and as I say in my latest blog over on Birds on the Blog, it’s all too easy to fail to see beyond high traffic and high competition phrases.

So why not try asking other people what THEY would use to search for you? This great tool from Seed Keywords allows you to set up a scenario (eg “If you were searching for a website that sells XXXXX, what would you type in to Google?”) and then invite people to contribute, anonymously.

If you can get enough people to contribute, you can get a great overall picture of the type of things that current and potential customers could be typing in to find you – and I bet there’ll be a few surprises!

Set up your ’scenario’ then promote it via:

• Email to current customers
• Your Facebook fan page
• Twitter
• On your blog
• In your email signature
• On LinkedIn
• Everywhere!

In fact, why not post a link to your scenario below and I’ll promise to drop and make some suggestions on each and every one.

We get asked this all the time – clients often spend a lot of time thinking about copy, words, structure and navigation, but then forget the essential piece that ties it all together – the pictures.

Only last week I had to tell a client that stealing pictures from other people’s websites was a BAD thing!

And yes, using Google Images to steal images is bad too – sorry!

Which is why I was very relieved to come across this post today from Web Design Booth – 30 websites to download free stock images.

It does what it says on the tin – 30 websites that offer free stock images that you can use on your website or blog without getting into trouble.

Now you have no excuses!

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thanks to Dan at eco friendly hosting company Light Being Creations for helping us to point our clients to the Solar Powered Directory.

The guiding principle for the Solar Powered Directory is to only list businesses, NGO’s, charities and organisations that show a dedication to making this world a better place through ethical & sustainable business practices, care for the environment and valuing people.

As well as accepting business listings, the directory accepts personal sites and articles, and offers you the chance to create your own META tags in order to help your listings.

It’s new, so we can’t judge just yet, but it’s free and only takes 2 minutes – why not submit your site now?

If you know of any other ‘green’ directories, please let us know in the comments below.

One of the things I hear most often when I talk to people about promoting their websites themselves, is that it ‘takes too much time’ and they ‘don’t know where to start’.

Well, while I can see where they’re coming from on the second point, the first one doesn’t ring true with me. It’s not about spending loads of time every day, it’s about doing SOMETHING every day and seeing the effort pile up and bring results. It’s about not giving in because you ‘don’t have the time’ and not putting things off because you’re ‘not sure how’.

Promoting your website can be done by you, it can be done a little every day and it doesn’t need to take up your time.

I’m challenging you right now to do 3 things every day to promote your website. That’s all – 3 little things that take up less than half an hour of your time.

Here are a few ideas to get you started – pick 3 and do them today!

• Post a blog – it doesn’t have to be 1000 words, just something you think people would be interested in. Make a comment about some news related to your industry, write about a new product or service, announce a new client, offer some tips and help (like this blog!) to help others – it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.
• Schedule some Tweets. Use Hootsuite or similar to schedule a few tweets throughout the day – links to your website, blog or services, but also relevant news, funny things you’ve found, thoughts you’ve had. It should take about 5 minutes and means you have a steady presence on Twitter throughout the day. Don’t forget to still check in and post in real time too though, don’t automate the lot!
• Add something to your Facebook Fan Page – a link to your site, a video you found on YouTube, a news item, a new discussion, or just ask a question in the status. Another 5 minute job, if that.
• Add a client testimonial – hopefully you’re always asking clients to say nice things about your work – instead of hoarding the testimonials to post all at once, add one every so often. After all, this also gives you something to talk about on your Facebook and Twitter profiles. Time: 5 minutes!
• Comment on a blog. Read a blog related to your industry and make a comment – you’ll get a link back to your site, and might even generate some discussion. The more you comment he more you will become known. Make your comments relevant and knowledgeable though, not just ‘Me too’ type posts. Time: 10 minutes for reading and commenting.
• Post on a business forum. Again, a great way to link back to your site, share knowledge, help people out, get help yourself, and get yourself known. Time: 10 minutes to read and post.
• Add yourself to a directory. Find a local business directory, or one related to your industry, and add your website. Some directories provide great backlinks, and some have good traffic. Time: 2 minutes.

There you have it, just a few things you can do off the top of my head – and that’s before we’ve started on SEO, landing pages, newsletters and articles!

What 3 things are YOU going to do to promote your website today? Do one right now by commenting below
photo credit: Robbert van der Steeg

It’s 2010 and a great way to create hype and recognition of your product or service this year is to involve the blogosphere.

We’ve worked with quite a few clients in 2009 who gave away free samples of their products or services in return for reviews, generating backlinks, great articles, traffic and in turn buyers for very little outlay.

Good blog reviews on sites with lots of traffic in your niche market can create great buzz, great traffic and obviously sales.

So why not try it this year?

If you have a product or service that you could give away, even to as few as 10 good bloggers, in return for reviews, you could generate more interest in your company, and hopefully more money!

It’s as simple as approaching bloggers in your market, and asking them if they’d accept your freebie in return for a review.

Some points:

• DON’T demand a positive review – be confident in your product or service
• DON’T only choose blogs with lots of comments – ask about the number of readers or subscribers too
• DO ensure you give your bloggers some guidelines, telling them where you want them to link to and the tone of review you’re looking for, as well as the number of words you’ll need
• DON’T demand to see the blog before it’s written – although feel free to ask for changes in grammar and spelling afterwards.
• DO remember to thank your bloggers and comment on their blogs afterwards

It does take up a little time, it isn’t always easy to get people to agree to do this, and some would say it’s a little controversial, but it works, and it works well.

We’ve seen book authors sell more books, skin care specialists make more sales from their online shops, speakers gain more bookings, and a baby product retailer increase sales by 75% from 15 reviews!

Give it a go, let me know how you get on, and of course if you don’t want to do this yourself, drop me a line to nikki@nikkipilkington.com to find out more about  how we can help you for as little as £15 per review!
photo credit: altemark