SEO Hosting Blog

One of the keys to success with running a home-based business is identifying ways to advertise it effectively. When I first launched Clarksville Computers, I spent a lot of time making sure that it pulled up in all the right places in Google. I worked hard to achieve top results in organic search and Google Maps. And to reinforce things further, I even setup an AdWords campaign. Once my search engine marketing campaign was complete, I had a total of three listings per page in Google. I felt like I was going to “eat up the competition.” But surprisingly, the results did not deliver as well as I had expected.

I couldn’t understand why my phone wasn’t ringing off the wall. I thought to myself, “perhaps there’s a problem with conversion?” and “perhaps my ads needed optimization?” So, I checked into that, and quickly realized that conversion was not my problem. Instead, it was with exposure. In other words, my search engine marketing campaign was not receiving the amount of ad impressions I predicted. “But how could that be possible?“, I thought to myself. And then I realized how my predictions failed.

I realized that when a potential customer has a problem with their computer, it’s very likely that they are NOT able to get online to search for a repair shop. If their computer is broken, or in need of a repair, how can they get online to find me? So, that’s when I realized I could not completely bank on search engine marketing alone. That said, here are some other forms of advertising that I am using to market my home-based computer repair business.

#1. Customer Referral Program — I offer every customer the opportunity to earn money by enrolling into my customer referral program (inspired by HostGator’s Affiliate Program). If a customer is interested, I give them a handful of my business cards and explain to them to write their name on the back of each card they hand out. Each card I get back from a new customer, they earn $20 cash for the referral.

#2. Car Magnet Advertisement — I ordered two huge magnet advertisements for my car. The cost of the magnets was only $20 each on VistaPrint.com. With my car turned into a mobile bill board, I am exposing my business to hundreds of people on a daily basis. My advertisement is simple, catchy, and effective. Here is a copy of my car magnet:

#3. Bus Stop Advertisements — My girlfriend’s father gave me this idea, and it’s a smart one too. Many cities offer an advertisement program for bus stops. Also, there are cities, such as mine, where you can simply tape up an advertisement on the plexiglass wall. Advertising your home-based business at bus stops is effective because your ads are being exposed to people while they wait to catch the bus. They have a lot time read, register, and remember the message in your advertisement.

#4. Business Card Distribution — Distributing your business card out on the counter-tops of other businesses is also a very effective way to advertise. Just about every place I go, I drop a few cards on the counter-top. And I do so automatically if I see other business cards already there.

#5. Little League Baseball Outfield Fence Billboard Advertisement — My son has been playing Little League Baseball for six years. Hundreds of people migrate to the baseball fields to watch their kids play baseball. Our local Little League has a billboard advertisement program for the outfield fence. The cost is $200 for the first year, and then $125 to renew each year. Check your local Little League Baseball website for advertisement programs available.

I hope these ideas help you with creating your own successful OFFLINE advertisements for your home-based business. What are some other ideas you can think of that could help others? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so you never miss a beat over here at SEOHosting.com.

I just came to a realization. This is the SEO Hosting blog, yet we almost never talk about web hosting. The truth is your web host plays a huge role in helping you build your online presence. If your website is always down, you could lose out on potential customers, and it could even cause the search engines to have problems crawling your content. Additionally, if your website loads slowly, it may possibly cause your search rankings to drop.

Simply put, you need to make sure you have a quality web host that can help you grow a successful online presence. Here are some signs of a bad web host. If your see these characteristics in your host, RUN!!!

1. Your website is down on a frequent basis. When your website is down, you can’t make sales online. It’s just that simple. Every minute your site is down is money that you could be losing. While a lot of hosting companies will promise a certain percentage of uptime, it’s hard to gauge which ones really live up to their claims. Your best bet is to find one that actually guarantees 99% or more uptime and that has a proven track record of satisfying their customers.

2. You can’t get in touch with customer service. You want to know how some companies are able to offer ridiculously cheap hosting? They do it by cutting their customer service. They either outsource their service or reduce the number of hours it’s available. Unfortunately, your website is a 24/7 store, and if it goes down, you need to get it back up no matter what time day or night it is. Make sure you choose a hosting company that offers 24/7 customer support.

3. Your website takes too long to load. Load time is important for a couple of key reasons. First, the average visitor gives a new website 8 seconds to grab his interest. If your website takes too long to load, visitors will back out before even seeing your content. Also, load time seems to play a role in determining your website’s search engine placement. A quality web host can help your site load faster.

4. Your website keeps getting hacked.Most people look at uptime and bandwidth when choosing their host. However, they overlook the importance of security. A web host with poor security could leave your website and personal information at risk. Make sure your hosting company uses the latest security technology to help keep your website safe.

Who is your web host? Are you happy with their services?

Christmas is the time of year where many bloggers fondly recall their favorite memories and posts from the past year. Other bloggers look forward to the upcoming year with hope, optimism, and bold predictions.

Not me.

See, around here, it’s not Christmas time. Nope. It’s Festivus time. And in the spirit of Festivus, it’s time for my airing of grievances with the blogosphere. (In my best Frank Costanza voice) “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”

Grievance #1: Not every post you write is linkbait gold, so stop over-promoting it

Look, I don’t have a problem with you promoting your blog. Hell, I encourage it. Promotion is an essential part of blogging that many bloggers overlook. But what I do have a problem with is when you treat every single post (several posts each day) as if it’s pure linkbait gold. You constantly rally the troops to try to get your post on the front page of Digg, ReddIt, Sphinn, or some other social voting site. Then, you Tweet out links to the post with the urgent preface of “PLEASE RT!!!”

The bottom line is this: Not every post you write deserves to go viral, hit the front page of Digg (or other similar sites), or become a trending topic on Twitter. And that’s okay. That doesn’t mean you should stop promoting your posts, but I think it’s a good idea to save your heaviest promotional pushes for the few pieces that are truly linkbait worthy. Otherwise, if you rally the troops too often, they’ll stop giving you their full effort, and then the law of diminishing returns kicks in.

Grievance #2: Every post you write contains 20 different links to your sales pages

Linking internally on your blog does have its benefits. It can improve usability, and it can also improve your website’s search engine performance. Having said that, directing every link to sales pages for your products and services is not the way to grow your blog. Blog readers don’t want to feel as if they’re constantly being sold something. They want to learn, and they want to read your unique insight on topics important to them.

That’s why your links should point to pages with content that enhances the learning experience. This can be past posts on your blog, articles you’ve written, and other blogs (linking out is a must!).

Grievance #3: You have too many ads

Monetizing your blog is one thing. Cramming it so full of distracting ads that it interferes with reading your content is another. If you do allow advertising on your blog, make sure you present it cleanly so that it doesn’t overwhelm visitors and make your blog look like a NASCAR jacket.

Grievance #4: You treat headlines as an afterthought

People like to say that quality post content is the key to building a successful blog. And while that’s partly true, it’s not completely accurate. See, you can write the best posts in your niche, but if they don’t have headlines that make people click, you’ll never get the full attention of your audience. Stop treating the headline as an afterthought. It should be treated as the most important part of every post you write. Otherwise, your email subscribers won’t open your messages, and the users on Digg, ReddIt, Sphinn, etc. won’t take the time to visit your post or vote it up.

Grievance #5: You write misleading headlines

Is there a cheaper trick in the book than lying in your headline just to get people to read your post? Seriously, if you tell me you’re going to give me “10 Tips for Increasing My Conversion Rate”, don’t give me 2 tips and ask me to buy your eBook for the other 8 tips. I remember seeing a post one time that had a headline along the lines of “How I Bought a Flat Screen TV for $50!” Right off the bat, the blogger confessed that he didn’t really buy the TV for $50, but that he’s only making $50 per month payments on his credit card for it. Needless to say, I automatically stop reading blogs that try to mislead readers, and you can be sure I’m not the only one.

Well, those are my grievances with other bloggers. What are yours?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go prepare for the Festivus Feats of Strength.

1. Write the way you talk
2. Don’t just copy what everyone else in your niche is doing
3. Always proofread your posts
4. Do your best to respond to comments in a timely manner
5. Don’t fight with commenters who disagree with you. Respect their opinions.
6. Optimize your posts for maximum search engine performance
7. Create a strong internal linking structure
8. Link to other blogs as well
9. Focus on writing headlines that beg to be clicked
10. Always deliver on the promise of your headline
11. Hold reader interest by posting on a regular basis
12. Have a place where you jot down ideas for new posts so you never suffer from writer’s block
13. Make sure every post is the best work you’re capable of producing
14. Don’t ignore proven formulas like top 10 lists and how-to posts
15. Make your posts easy to scan by using bullet points and numbered lists
16. Fact check your content before posting. Failure to do so could cause a permanent loss of credibility.
17. Spend time promoting your blog. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will automatically come.
18. Give and receive guest posts
19. Don’t overlook the design of your blog. People do judge a book (your blog) by its cover (its design).
20. Place a subscribe link above the fold to attract more blog subscribers
21. Use pictures to spice up your posts
22. Break really long posts into a blog series whenever possible
23. Never stop trying to improve your blogging skills

As a freelance copywriter, I’ve worked on several projects where I was hired to clean up the mess left by the last copywriter. For one reason or another, the copy they wrote wasn’t working, and of course, the client wasn’t happy with it.

Most times, this happened because the client tried to save money on hiring a copywriter. They hired the cheapest copywriter they could find, and as a result, they got what they paid for.

When cleaning up the mess left by rookie copywriters, I’ve noticed there are 3 common mistakes they tend to make. 

• Rookie Mistake #1: Focusing on the wrong benefits—My good friends over at The Write Blog, wrote a post a while back titled “Don’t sell the car. Sell the Nissan.” The title sums it up perfectly. You need to write copy that focuses on the benefits specific to your products and services. It’s all about identifying your unique selling point. Like Wintress says in her post, you wouldn’t sell a car by telling the reader that “it’s a faster way to get around town than riding a bicycle.” Instead, you would probably focus on the miles per gallon the vehicle gets and the unique features specific to the vehicle (and more importantly, the benefits of said features).

• Rookie Mistake #2: Not asking the reader to take action—At the end of the day, the success of the copy depends on whether or not the reader takes action. All copy has a purpose. It could be to close the sale on the spot or to get an email address to gather leads. Identify the purpose of your copy, and ask the reader to take the action you desire. If you don’t ask for an action, your readers will never snap out of their passivity.

• Rookie Mistake #3: Using too much fluff—I’ve seen some copywriters make a living out of saying nothing at all. Oh, they write a lot of words, but they aren’t actually saying anything. Their copy is nothing more than a bunch of fluff that takes up space but never gets results. Here’s a tip. Print out your copy, and cross out non-essential content that doesn’t add to your main message. Just be careful not to go overboard as you don’t want to strip the personality and conversational tone from your copy.

Which rookie copywriting mistakes would you add to this list? Leave a comment with your thoughts.