3 Quick Things You Can Do To Promote Your Website Today

June 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

If you’re anything like me, Monday is a hectic day, and one when you’re most likely to forget about promoting and marketing yourself, and be head down bum up in client work.

I’ve recently implemented a new kind of organisation plan (I say ‘kind of’ because it’s new and I’m still working it out!) whereby I use my Mondays and Friday to do Blogging work for clients, Tuesdays and Thursdays for SEO work, and Wednesdays to plan, market myself and deal with general ‘stuff. It worked OK last week, so I’m going to give it another go this week. Nothing scientific about it, but if it works, then great!

So, less of me and back to you – if your Monday is as hectic as I imagine it is, but you don’t want to miss out on promoting yourself and your website, here are 3 things you could do today that don’t take up much time.

1) WRITE A BLOG POST

I know, blogging may not be your thing, but trust me it’s a great thing to do for many reasons. I won’t go into them all in this post, but suffice to say you’re helping Google to see that your site is expanding, adding great content (very important since the recent Google updates) and you’re helping your readers to see you as credible and authoratitive. What’s not to like?

Not sure what to blog about? Here are 21 ideas. http://www.nikkipilkington.com/21-things-you-could-blog-about-right-now/

2) SCHEDULE SOME SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

It’s easy to get tied up and let your Social Media profiles slide when you’re busy, but it’s important to keep up a
regular presence if you want to be the person people turn to when they need your services. Take 10 minutes to schedule some tweets and Facebook posts to go out while you’re getting on with your work. Hootsuite http://www.hootsuite.com and Buffer http://www.bufferapp.com are great for this, allowing you to post links, questions, videos, photos, comments, thoughts and more, then schedule them to be released throughout the day.

3) LOOK INTO PINTEREST

If you’ve heard all about Pinterest and aren’t sure whether it will work for you, it’s worth having a good look – you can
find me at http://www.pinterest.com/nikkipilkington

Pinterest works pretty well for most UK sites, generating traffic, readers for blogs, and indeed leads and sales.

I wrote about Pinterest for a client here: http://www.marketingbyweb.co.uk/pinterest-whats-that-all-about-then

If you think Pinterest is all about work at home moms posting pictures of lasagne and cleaning tips, that article is well worth a read, because in the UK it’s not.

If you want to give Pinterest a go, then it’s also well worth checking out this great offer from Leighquantrill.com http://www.leighquantrill.com/pinterest-account-setup/

As some of you know, Leigh is my eldest daughter, and has been working as a Virtual Assistant for some time now, doing great work for her clients. I’m very proud of her, and loving seeing the enthusiasm she has for social media and helping her clients. So I make no apologies for promoting her offer, instead of one of mine ;)

Whatever you decide to do today, have a great Monday – why not drop me a Facebook message http://www.facebook.com/internetmarketingbynikki to let me know what you’ve done to promote yourself today?

Happy Marketing!

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Why is Content Creation Good for SEO?

May 24, 2012 By 1 Comment

I tell clients all the time that content creation is an important part of SEO – and this nifty infographic gives some very good reasons why.

If you’re not creating great content, either for your site itself or as part of your blogging strategy, then you will be missing out in future.

How are you going to make great content a part of your SEO campaigns from now on?

Thanks to Brafton for the fab infographic.

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The Travel Blogger Army and Your Marketing Efforts

May 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

This is a guest post by @adriasaracino

A symbol depicting a palm tree.

A symbol depicting a palm tree. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With thousands of travel blogs published every day, it’s easy for a compelling blogger to get lost in the fray.

That’s where travel blogger networks come in, forming a tight knit community of high quality, dedicated bloggers that link to one another’s work, comment and guest post on each other’s blogs, participate in Follow Fridays on Twitter and engage in community wide travel contests, sponsored by travel companies.

The combined efforts of this passionate, energetic and creative group of people creates content-rich media that greatly increases their individual search engine rankings while forming a tight-knit, caring community. Together, they find individual success.

And they’re perfect for your marketing efforts.

Why? Because they’re early adopters with a platform. They’re always on the cutting edge, looking for the best experiences and deals so that they can live life to the fullest. And they’re just as hopped up about helping others do it, too.

So, how can marketers engage with this moving and shaking community?

1. Use or Give Badges

The most popular travel blogs have vibrant sidebars in which they promote other travel bloggers or services with badges. While these are essentially ads, they don’t feel like it. They’re content-rich, written in a way that relates directly to the user so they feel appropriately targeted, therefore increasing the click-through rate.

A brand can issue their own to important bloggers for use on their site. What does it offer bloggers? A boost to their reputation and credibility via a stamp of approval from a recognized brand – your brand.

2. Curate a Travel Blog

One of the best ways to engage with the travel blogging community is by curating a company travel blog. Most of the best travel business websites, from currency exchange websites like Travelex to airline carriers like EasyJet, already run their own blogs. Go a step further by reaching out to the travel blogging networks directly to find guest bloggers. When treated well, these bloggers will most likely continue to use and promote these services in their own time.

3. Be Helpful

Providing access to the highest quality travel information is crucial for building the best reputation and search rankings not just amongst travel bloggers but amongst general customers as well. Travel bloggers can see right through crap content, so don’t waste your time creating it if you want to gain their trust.

4. Sponsor Contests

Travelers love new adventures, and you’ll garner a lot of attention if you partner with a blogging network to promote a cool new contest. For instance, The Global Bloggers Network runs blog hops, where people must travel to each blog within the network to gather information, which they submit to win prizes from sponsoring companies. In past contests, Contiki and EastytoBook have given away a $2,000 cash prize as well as three night’s accommodation at a resort. This is a great way to engage potential customers.

If you approach travel blogging networks in the right way, you can help a company become a trusted member of this tight knit community, staying fresh in customer’s minds as they recall the quality content or fun experiences you’ve provided online. What’s more, the brand will be considered cool, cutting edge and perhaps even world-changing – just the kind of thing travelers love.

Adria Saracino is a marketer and blogger. When not consulting on business’ content strategy, you can find her writing about style on her personal fashion blog, The Emerald Closet.

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How does a blogger think? [infographic]

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ever wondered how a Blogger’s brain works?

Source: pic.tuoboo.com via Nikki on Pinterest

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Blogging: Lack of time, lack of ideas, lack of proof

April 24, 2012 By 2 Comments
Those were just 3 of the reasons I was given as to why small businesses don’t blog last week.
 
I was presenting at one of Steve Clarke’s Platinum Mastermind Groups in Stansted and it was a great day. A group of small businesses all focused on one thing – building their businesses in the best way they could.
 
I was there to talk about blogging, and the three points in the title of this email came up time and time again.
 
  • They KNOW they should blog, but they don’t have the time
  • They KNOW blogging will build credibility and search engine positions, but they can’t think of things to blog about
  • They KNOW that people say blogging is good, but they can’t quite get their heads round why.

After a quick demonstration of how a blog post can be indexed and on the front page of Google within 15 minutes (phew! It worked!), and some searches to show how well blog posts do in the search engines, they were well on the way to getting the answer to the last point.

 
That’s the easy part :) Proving blogging can work for pretty much every business isn’t rocket science after all.
 
After a quick session on title writing and writing for your readers as well as search engines (a little secret I shared saw more than one light go on), we tried to address the first two concerns.
 
How do you make more time? Well simply put, you can’t. What you can do is MAKE the time for blogging. Like anything else, at first it will take longer and be more difficult, but after a while it becomes second nature. Something that took an hour or more in the beginning will take ten minutes or so once you’re used to it.
 
As for things to write about, there are infinite possibilities! I covered 21 Things You Can Blog About Today  – and there are more ideas in The 30 Day Blogging Challenge.
 
The thing that enlightened most attendees was the fact that your blog shouldn’t be all ‘me me me’ – yes it’s nice to share news of your new clients, your best products and your latest achievements, but then your blog just becomes a news repository, not a promotional tool.
 
A well written blog generates:
  • Credibility
  • Loyalty
  • Community
  • and obviously leads and sales

 I know it’s not an easy step for a lot of people, as it’s a different way of ‘advertising’ to that which has been used previously.

 
But it works, and it works well – is it worth investing a few hours of your time this week to kickstart your blog?
 
Of course, you may decide that you don’t want the hassle, and you’re happy for your competitors to take over the search engines and the social media for your target market. I’m guessing not though.
 
I’d guess that you don’t want the hassle but still want the benefits (in the same way I’d like to eat all the pizza I like and still be a size 12 ;) ), right?
 
In that case you’re lucky that one of the attendees asked me over the weekend to leave my recent Bonkers Blogging Offer open for one more day to give them the chance to sign up at the offer price. It’s here. If you don’t have the time, the ideas or the inclination to keep your blog updated, then this may help.
 
If you decide to do it yourself, then please remember I’m always available on nikki@nikkipilkington.com for questions and advice – and you can get me on Twitter @nikkipilkington too.
 
Happy Blogging! Let me know how you get on!
 
 
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Eureka! I’m training on blogging at a Eureka Platinum Mastermind Group

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is an example blog for a training sesion I’m running at a Eureka Platinum Mastermind Group

Blogging can be hard for some people, and successful buiness people are no different – some of the issues I’ve heard about today include:

  • I don’t have time to blog
  • I can’t think of anything to blog about
  • My website doesn’t have a blog
  • I can’t blog because I’m confidential
  • I used to blog but gave up

Today we’re going through how to blog, why to blog and where to blog in the hope of getting that Eureka! moment that will help them go away loving the idea of blogging.

If I’ve done this properly, this blog will be the thing that proves to them the power of blogging and I’l be saying Eureka!

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Stuck for things to blog about?

March 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We’ve all done it; thought “I really must write a blog today”, opened up our browser, and then spent 20 minutes trying to think of a catchy headline, something interesting to say, or even ANYTHING to say!
 
I get it too, and I write blog posts for a multitude of clients in all sorts of industries.
 
So I thought I’d share with you a few tactics I use when my blogging mojo has got up and gone :)
 
  •  Read the online news. Whether you’re a tabloid fan or a high brow browser, reading what’s happening in the world today can often spark off ideas that can be related to your business. Whether it’s an opinion piece or something related to a product or service you sell, topical news items make great blog posts.

  • Read your trade news. By the same token, having a look through a trade publication or trade news website can often give inspiration. Maybe a new survey has come out that you can talk about, some outlandish stats, or a new way of thinking about your area of expertise? All make great blog posts that will be of interest to your target market.

  • Browse your competitors. There’s always a sharp intake of breath when I come out with this one in training workshops, but let’s face it, they’ll be doing it to you! See what your competitors are writing about – can you approach it with a different angle? No-one has ever said that two companies can’t write about similar things, and of course yours will be much better, won’t it? ;)

  • Have a break. If it’s really not working, stop. Get off the computer if you can, go make a cup of coffee, walk to the shop, run round the garden or simply sit in an armchair and forget about it for half an hour. Clearing your mind allows you to stop focusing on the ‘Bloggers’ Block’ and some of my best ideas come to me while I’m ignoring the blog posts I have to write.

  • Ask for a guest blog post. Get someone else to do the hard work and get some of the credit. Guest posts are great when you’ve run out of time, can’t think of anything to write, or just want a different voice on your blog. They also bring in new traffic and readers, and inspire loyalty from the person who’s blog you have promoted.

  • Look in your ‘Swipe file’. You don’t have a swipe file? Well, you should! A swipe file features headlines you think of or see elsewhere and like, blogs you want to refer to, ideas that are half finished, and more. Start yours now (more about swipe files in next Monday’s blogging newsletter!)
There’s always something to write about, but it really is hard work at times to stop your blog from becoming just a self promotional ‘me, me, me’ medium, when it should be entertaining, informative and maybe even educational, if you want it to build your brand and credibility.
 
If you need some help with your Business Blogging, then take a look at my Bonkers Blogging Offer; it’s sure to take some of the pressure off and help your blog build into something that supports and promotes your business naturally.
 
Until Wednesday when we’re going to talk about the new Facebook Timeline and what it means for business pages,
 
Happy Blogging
 
Nikki
 
PS: You could also check out our 30 Day Blogging Challenge ebook if you’re stuck for blogging ideas – there are loads in there and it’s a style I follow myself!
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Malware on your WordPress site? Here’s how to fix it!

March 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

At the beginning of 2012 I was unlucky enough to have quite a few Wordpres sites hacked and infected with Malware. This meant that anyone visiting them was seeing a rather nasty message telling them that my sites shouldn’t be accessed and could infect the users computer. Not nice… not nice at all.

After 2 weeks of trying to sort this out with my hosts, I turned to Twitter for help. And Twitter users were very helpful. Lots of people pointed me to tutorials on how to fix it myself, which would have been great had I understood any of them (my lack of knowledge not bad tutorials I hasten to add!)

What I wanted was someone who could help me, not charge me the earth, and get my sites up and running again.

In came my knight on a white steed, Keiron Skillett from BetterWebSpace – within an hour we’d chatted on Skype, sorted out what the issue was, and he set about fixing it. 3 hours later it was sorted, and within a couple of days the warnings had disappeared. I didn’t have to mortgage my house to fix it, there was no drama, he took over and sorted it, leaving me free to run my business.

Of course, you may not want to pay someone to sort it for you (although I would hazard a guess that the money you’re losing by having a hacked website is much less than Keiron would charge to fix it), in which case, here is a great tutorial on how to fix it yourself.

Once you’re fixed, you’ll want to make sure your WordPress install is secure and hopefully unhackable – Blogmistress Babs Saul has some great posts on this here: Securing WordPress.

It’s a fact of life that there are nasty people out there exploiting every hole they can in your WordPress security, but with the help of Keiron (on Twitter at @Keiron

) and the tips from Babs, you’ll be well on your way to fixing that malware issue and making sure it doesn’t happen again.

 

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5 Reasons Your WordPress Blog Should Be Self Hosted

March 11, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m a HUGE fan of WordPress for websites and blogging, as anyone that reads here regularly will know.

But did you know that there is a difference between having your blog hosted by WordPress themselves, and hosting it on your own hosting (known as self hosting)? If you didn’t, don’t worry, a lot of people don’t.

To clarify, if your blog site has an address something like http://yourcompanyname.wordpress.com or http://yourcompanyname.blogspot.com then it’s hosted by either WordPress or Blogger / Blogspot.

If your blog has an address something like www.yourcompany.com/blog then the chances are it’s self hosted (although hat’s not always the case, drop me a line if you’re not sure and want to check).

So, read on to find out just 5 reasons (there are many more) why you should be self hosting your WordPress blog if you’re serious about your business blogging.

You’ll have more credibility

It used to be that if you had an @aol.com email address or a geocities domain name, you were seen pretty much as ‘second class’. And the newer version of that seems to be having a WordPress.com or Blogspot.com domain name for your blog.

It’s pretty simple – do you want people to see that your blog is a part of your business, or are you happy with them thinking you’re ‘playing’ at it?

I know and you know that there are some great blogs out there that AREN’T self hosted – but if you want to be taken seriously in 2012 then your blogsite needs to be either a part of your main site or have it’s own domain and be hosted on its own web space.

Are you serious about your blog?

You’ll get better search engine positions

A simple fact of life is that free blog sites just don’t do as well in the search engines. Quite odd really, especially as you consider that Blogger is owned by Google! But that’s how it is.

Add to this the fact that you can get some great SEO plugins for self hosted WordPress and it’s a no brainer.

Do you want your potential customers to find you when hey search on Google?

You’ll have control

OK, it’s unlikely to happen, but what would you do if WordPress decided to take down your blog? Or remove your blog posts? Or jus remove access to them for a while?

While you’re hosing your blog on a freebie site, you’re at their mercy – your content belongs to them and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Self host, and YOU’RE in control – you can back up your posts, move them where you like, and run pretty much no risk of your account being closed down and your hard work wiped out.

Would you like to be more in control of your content?

You’ll have a better choice of themes

There’s a massive range of themes on WordPress.com, but let’s face it, how often have you seen the same themes being used time and time again by different industries? With self hosted WordPress you can have a hue choice of themes, from an out of the box standard one to one that matches or complements your own website.

Do you want to stand out by looking different to everyone else?

You’ll have better plugins

I alluded to this earlier with the mention of SEO plugins, but there are a whole array of plugins that you can use on self hosted WordPress but not on the free hosted version.

From Social Media plugins to sharing plugins to commenting plugins to analytics plug ins and beyond – if you’re serious about your blog you need quite a few of these plugins.

Are you serious about your blog?

In short, self hosted WordPress is the way to go if you want to look professional, have more control, have flexibility and make the most of your blog – what’s stopping you going self hosted today?

Like this post? Check out our Wacky WordPress offer to take you from free hosted to self hosted at a drastically knockdown price!

 

 

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Get 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven for just £1!

March 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

They’ve called me crazy before, but there is method in my madness this time :)

When I started writing ebooks way back when (the first being 299 Steps to Website Heaven), I had no real plan, no schedule, and not really much of an idea of what I was doing.

But over the last few months I’ve been writing more and more 30 Day Challenge ebooks, and if I’m honest, I love doing them. I’ve drafted in other authors, co-authors, and we’re even looking at putting some of them into real life print books.

So after a lot of thought I’ve decided I want to build on that 30 Day ‘brand’ (I say brand loosely as I’m obviously not the only one doing 30 Day Challenges!) and keep all of my future ebooks in that stable.

So, I’m retiring 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven (and Website Heaven), in order to concentrate on the 30 Day Challenges and not ‘dilute the brand’ (I know all the lingo you know ;) )

However, as people are still buying 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven, rather than just abruptly remove it from sale, I’m offering it at just £1 until Monday 12th March 2012, when it will be removed, gone, an ex-ebook :)

Whether you’re an accomplished blogger or a complete beginner, you’ll find lots of really useful tips in this great ebook.

As a keen blogger – I’ve learned the hard way and spent lots of time working my way around the various blogging tools that are available. I blog for clients and get really good results. I’m always being asked how I get them – so I decided to put 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven together to answer all the questions.

Don’t worry if you haven’t blogged before – 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven guides you through starting, running and promoting a blog. It’s really straight forward – and puts you in control of promoting yourself and your business.

In the book i talk about:

  • The best blogging platforms
  • How to use categories and tags
  • How to think of things to write about
  • SEO for blogging
  • The secret tip that helps you to appeal to readers AND Google
  • Promoting your blog
  • Getting comments
  • Guest posting and why it’s great
  • and more!

So, if you want to grab a copy while it’s still on sale, pop over to 299 Steps to Blogging Heaven and pick yours up for just a quid.

Goodbye dear ebook, I knew you so well…

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