1.  Pick your site topic, something you are knowledgeable and/or passionate about.

2. Register a domain name, preferably with your topic as keywords. I  suggest a registering a “.com” instead of a “.net”, “.biz”, etc.

3. Set up a web site hosting account. The cheapest plan is usually all you will need until your traffic soars, and you do not need dedicated hosting at this time.

4. Build your site. Many domain hosting accounts offer Wordpress installs with a click of a mouse. If not, you can download Wordpress for free at WordPress.org.

5. Pick a theme. WordPress comes prepackaged with a generic blue theme.  There are a variety of sites that offer free templates. The only downside to using free templates is that other sites are out there using the same theme, and the creators of the templates may insist you keep a link on your site to them (in exchange for their hard work of designing the theme).  Or you can purchase themes, such as Thesis Theme,  that are more unique and no reciprocal links are required

6. Wordpress Mechanics. A few tips: Under Privacy, make your blogs visible to everyone. Under Permalinks, change the custom structure /%category%/%postname%/ which is the best structure for the search engines.  I don’t recommend using the default as you don’t want a question mark (?) in the URL.

7. Now Add Content! Write what you know, how you feel. Try to add posts at least three times per week.  Wordpress allows you to program posts in the future, so you could simply blog once a week, but make it look like you are posting every day!

8. Monetize your site. You can make money with affiliate marketing links, sponsored reviews and targetd ads such as Chitika.

9. Get Visitors! First tell all your friends and family to visit your site (hopefully you have some of both).  Then submit your site to blog directories and search engines.

10. Helpful Stuff. AddThis.com lets you add a button for easy bookmarking & sharing. StatCounter is a just want it says, a stat counter, and it’s free (select the “invisible” option). Plus check out my list of recommended Wordpress Plug-Ins.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have been using lijit for 4 months, 3 weeks, 9 hours, 38 minutes and 59 seconds now (or so my account tells me). I decided to give it a try after seeing so many of the website examples at BlogWorld use it. So far, I have only tested it on my celebrity fashion website.

So what does lijit do?  It provides a search tool for your website’s results as well as results from your social content and your network’s content (so my visitors can search my other relation fashion websites as well). Great for my visitors, but sometimes frustrating for myself when I’m trying to find a previous post, and have to scroll through results.

They also offer in depth statistic of website referrers, keywords, page views, locations, etc. For free, I might add!

Not only is their service free, they offer revenue opportunities as well.  I by no means will be able to retire off my earnings so far, but it’s cool to actually get paid for using a service. Now if they only had a referral or affiliate program!

Another thing I like about lijit (besides them sending me this free tshirt) is their personal service and fast responses.  They even promoted @stealthestyle via their @lijit twitter account which I thought was extremely nice, so thank you!

What are your legitimate thoughts on lijit?

Social Media’s Conflict of SEO Interest

A large part of the search engine ranking algorithm is a giant popularity contest. Who’s linking to you and who are you linking to?  With that understanding, wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest for you to have full control over a separate website, and be able to link to yourself?

That’s the problem between social media and SEO! If Google counted links coming from your Facebook or Twitter account to your personal website, it would be biased and would upset the popularity contest. For this reason, the search engines have recommended to social media websites to place “nofollow” on all links leaving their websites. This is a signal for the search engines to ignore the link (or keeping with the popularity contest metaphor – ignoring the votes).

So Social Media Has No SEO Value?

Most social sites have this “nofollow”, but not all. Social bookmarking sites like digg.com & reddit.com allow you to share content that search engines recognize the links. Social informational sites like hubpages.com and squidoo.com allow you to provide information on the topic of your choice, and search engines also recognize those links, provided your content is of high quality. Don’t count on links from Wikipedia, twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. to count towards your SEO.

So is Social Media a Waste of my Time?

Heck no! Consider the goal of SEO for your site –traffic. Whether you are selling something, advertising, or pushing an informational agenda, you need traffic. Search engines may ignore the links from these sites which would help your site rank higher; however, these social media sites are powerhouses to the search engines. Write great information (read: interesting, funny, new, or controversial) on social media sites, and your content will show up in search engines! Make the link back to your site attractive enough, and you will reap the rewards of the traffic that these powerhouses send.

How Can I Tailor my Social Media Content?

If you want your content to be found by search engines, make it easy to classify by choosing a keyword for the content to revolve around. Use the keyword (and slight variations of it) in your titles, headings/subheadings, and content. That way when someone searches for that keyword, the social media content is found to be both relevant (from having the keyword) and popular (for being on a powerhouse site), and you can draw more traffic.

Google Says Social Media is Important

But wait, didn’t I just say that Google ignores the majority of social media links? In the traditional sense they do; however, the social graph also plays into rankings. Let’s think about this logically – what is it that Google wants? Accurate

Your social graph says a lot about you – that is, who is linked to you and who are you linked to. It’s not the biggest factor in the way Google ranks sites, but it matters.

THE Rule

Content is King!  There is no magic bullet for social media, but interesting, valuable content is as close as they come. Provide solid content and people will talk about it, share it, and link to it. Good content leads to good traffic and good SEO.

A.J. Wilcox has worked in the Internet marketing industry for several years. He currently is team lead over the Local & National accounts at the local online marketing firm OrangeSoda.com.

Once a week, Del and I have “date night”.  He was less than impressed when I asked him to do a quick photo shoot before we went out this week. He perked up when I told I had a chance to win $1000 from Affiliate.com in their T-shirt Blogging Contest and that I’d share if we won!

Affiliate.com – a huge CPA network – gave out these cool King and Queen tees at Affiliate Summit last month.   My original intention was to pose like a fanned hand of cards, but as you can see, I’m no choreographer.

Yes, I know Affiliate.com has already made the Free Shirt Friday list, and I bumped this post up for a chance to win a grand – do you blame me?  I apologize to the other shirts in waiting for being selfish.  If it makes you feel any better, Affiliate.com is also donating $1000 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund as well.

And as a bribe to the celebrity judges – Missy Ward, John Chow, Zac Johnson, and Murray Newlands – drinks on me at #ASE10 with the winnings?!

*Update – seems I missed the entry deadline to enter the contest – it was 2/22/10 (for some unknown not-blonde reason, I thought it was 2/28). So even though I wasn’t qualified to win, the prize went to the most deserving Heather in BC!

These days, with sites such as Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad out there, it is easy and free to instantly create a blog and seconds later be commenting about everything and nothing. This means that gaining a relevant, high quality audience for your blog and posts is becoming more and more of a battle. Content can be improved over time and while your poorer articles and posts will get buried away in your blog archive, your blog name, if good it’s enough, will keep visitors coming back. A bad name will lead to name changes which in turn will lead to visitors either losing you on the net or losing interest full stop.

Know Your Audience

Your blog name must reflect your content and blog image, but must also appeal to your target blog audience. If your audience are the grammar Gestapo, a group who enjoy hunting down grammatical imperfections, then misspelt names such as Flickr, Pikchur or Raptr wouldn’t be appropriate. However if your audience are from the more causal Web 2.0 crowd then they may well embrace this new “text speak” alternative spelling.

Alphabetical Placement

As more of a side note than a direct rule, you may want to think about the first letters of your blog’s name, as blog rolls and directories often list blogs alphabetically; therefore the closer you are to the start of the alphabet the more potential traffic you stand to gain.

Domain Name

Having your own domain can mean the difference between being easily found or lost in a sea of similarly named blogs. Ensuring your blog name is free as a domain is a crucial stage in setting up a blog, as if it’s not available it may be worth going back to the drawing board. It’s also worth considering the length of your domain name. Filling a domain with a ridiculously long blog title that essentially means nothing is a sure-fire way to put off visitors and search engines, which look for relevancy of both domain and title. Keep things simple and avoid extra words which add confusion, for example – “Just About Everything You Can Think Of” blog.

Keep SEO In Mind

Every blogger wants their blog to be read otherwise there would be little or no point in creating one. To get a blog read and visited you must gain an optimum position in the search engines for words related to your blog title and content topic. To do this you can either leave the search engine algorithms to pick up your content then judge its relevancy and quality, or you can help yourself gain a higher position in the search results by considering SEO when creating your blog name. Produce a blog name that contains at least one main keyword which sums up your content, while at the same time trying to keep it original by adding words that differentiate your blog from others in the field. If your blog is about the SEO industry in Manchester (UK) then you may want a title such as Manchester SEO Buff, and locate it on a domain as close to the title as possible e.g. www.ManchesterSEOBuff.co.uk

Originality

For any blog, standing out is important. For any subject matter or industry insight there are multiple bloggers writing multiple blogs so using some imagination and being original is important. Look at your competition and analyze what type of blog names they have. If they are all mundane and descriptive then perhaps a more creative title would give you an edge. Think about differentiating yourself in the search listings so that users can instantly see your blog name or URL.

Planning Ahead

Think about where you’d like to see your blog in 5 years time. For example, will it always be a blog focusing on SEO in the Manchester area or would you like to expand geographically to the North West UK or all of England? Think about whether you want to stick with commenting about that specific industry, or would like to expand into the digital marketing mix in the not so distant future. Focus can be a great way to keep your target audience’s intererest.

The Name Depends on the Type of Blog

Naming your blog depends on what you want to get out of it and who you are trying to reach with your blog’s content. Deciding this should be one of the first things you do before actually coming up with names. Get this wrong and there may be no point in starting a blog in the first place.

Commercial Blogs

Commercial blogs are often linked to from the homepage of a commercial site for example I-COM, a Manchester based SEO and web agency. Commercial blogs have a tendency to be either named simply as ‘Blog’ or after the company’s service or brand. This is to give an instant point of reference and help visitors know exactly whose blog they are reading. Some companies disguise their blogs with people’s names or generic service titles to build up a network of followers who can then be linked back to their homepage and create traffic as well as potential customers.

Personal Blogs

Just because a blog is personal, it doesn’t mean that title doesn’t matter. Choosing a suitable blog name can help your audience relate to you, and their numbers increase. A blog name or title can immediately tell your audience a lot about your character and personality, giving them an instant reason to connect with you or leave your page. For example this blog, entitled I Work In My Pajamas, instantly hints to any visitor that the author has a job which allows them to work from home, a passion for what they do and importantly, a sense of humor not to mention a fondness for online.

Informative Blogs

A blog name such as SEO Manchester would be considered a more formal, informative title used by an industry expert or freelance SEO consultant to talk about news and goings on in his or her industry. The title gives the visitor a clear indication of what the content of the blog will comment on and helps the search engines match the content with the name. Having a domain that contains those keywords will increase the chances of a good search engine page rank.

Lastly here is a quick checklist for a good blog name:

• Easy to Read
• Easy to Pronounce
• Easy to Spell
• Easy to Remember
• SEO Friendly
• Original

If there’s a story behind your blog name then feel free to leave a comment below.

Good luck and happy blogging.

Now that you have been working your freelance business for a while, you have probably found out what a lot of freelancers already know: there is a difference between the steady paycheck of a “real job” and the “feast or famine” existence that often befalls freelancers. But it doesn’t have to be that way! As a freelancer, you too can have a “steady paycheck”, but it will take steady work on your part in the form of consistently marketing your business.

Many people start the New Year with a resolution “lose weight” and sign up for a gym membership just knowing that they will be there three times a week without fail. We all know what happens, other obligations get in the way, and those regular workouts become less and less frequent. Freelancers often start their businesses the same way: marketing like crazy at the beginning, but then, when there is plenty of work, the marketing efforts become less and less frequent. One day, the freelancers look around and not only are all of their projects completed, but there is nothing in the sales pipeline to replace them!

It is really essential that you consider marketing your freelance business as part of your regular workload. Putting marketing activities on your daily or weekly work calendar will help you to remember to actually do the activities necessary to keep your name out there in the marketplace.

There are many ways to market your business, both through traditional outlets and with social media marketing; and it really depends on your particular freelance business which marketing activities will work best for your situation. But by returning to your initial written marketing plan (you do have a written marketing plan, don’t you?), you can now refine it and expand your activities as necessary.

Whichever marketing activities you choose, make sure that you have a program in place to track how well each different activity is working for you. Remember, consistency is the key—even while you are busy with your present projects. Keeping your pipeline full of prospects will keep your bank account full of client payments.

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After a career of 35+ years in education, collaborative sales and sales management and marketing, Pamela Hilliard Owens, M.Ed. started her own freelance writing and editing business in July of 2008. Her company, Writing It Right for You knows that “It Matters How You Say It”! She work with individuals, graduate and post-graduate students, and businesses throughout the United States, Canada, the Middle East, India, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom on a variety of academic and business writing and editing projects.

Pamela Hilliard Owens specializes in working with graduate students–especially ESL students, anything involving education, ghost-writing and working with authors, writing web content, social media marketing and networking, direct sales, and writing and editing various papers of any length involving research and/or APA citations. She also does affiliate marketing and maintains more than three personal, political and business blogs and guest blogs for several clients around the world.

Most affiliate marketers are self-employed (or own your own company as is my case), so tracking all expenditures is essential when it comes to doing income taxes for deductions.  And it’s already time to think ahead to next year’s taxes, because it you’ve been thinking about buying or building a new home, now is the best time to do it with the new 2010 Home Buyers Tax Credits announced.

As part of President Obama’s Housing Stimulus package, the first time home buyers tax credit that was due to expire November 30th, 2009 has been extended and income caps have been raised. It has also expanded to include homeowners who have lived in their current property for over five years. Written binding contracts to purchase must be signed and in effect by April 30th, 2010, and then the property must be closed on by June 30th, 2010.

For First-Time Home Buyers
Tax Credit Available $8,000 ($4,000 married filing separate)
Income Limits: $125,000 if single, $225,000 if married
Eligibility: May not have had an interest in a principal residence for 3 years prior to purchase
Limitation on Cost of Home Purchased: $800,000

For Current Qualifying Home Owners
Tax Credit Available: $6,500 ($3,250 married filing separate)
Income Limits: $125,000 if single, $225,000 if married
Eligibility: Must have used the home sold or being sold as a principal residence consecutively for 5 of the previous 8 years
Limitation on Cost of Home Purchased: $800,000

Unfortunately I don’t qualify as my new house is only three years old (and I hope to exceed those income limits), but if I did qualify, I’d definitely consider building again!

This post is sponsored by Coldwell Banker. All opinions are mine.

At Affiliate Summit in Vegas, I had the opportunity to meet Janet Meiners Thaeler, author of the book I Need a Killer Press Release–Now What???: A Guide to Online PR (available from Amazon.com, yes that’s my affiliate link).

Janet not only gave me today’s featured free shirt, but also an autographed copy of her book that offers some great tips for writing and promoting press releases for any kind of businesses, as well as a long list of places to submit your press release online.

Check out Janet’s website at OnlinePRBook.com, and thanks for the shirt! I love RED shirts being a Nebraska Cornhusker fan and all.

I may not have won Affiliate of the Year at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award ceremony, but I was happy to see my nomination Jeremy Schoemaker did win the well-deserved Blogger of the Year Award for his ShoeMoney blog.

Jeremy launched his Shoemoney System shortly after Summit, and it was sold out within hours! The system shows people how to make real money online.  You can still get on the waiting list and/or watch this video where Shoemoney talks about the 6 ways to make money online.

And if you don’t take my word for it that Shoemoney and his system are d-bomb and totally legitimate, you gotta trust Loren Feldman of 1938media, right?

Sleepy Heads was the first company to send me some pajamas to work in!  I received these awesome Frankie & Johnny Comfy Couture Flannel Lounger Pajamas, and I love them! Why? Well, first off, pink is my favorite color. And second, these are made of 100% cotton flannel which is extremely comfortable.  They even have a pocket (for tissues – I feel a cold coming on) and an elastic drawstring waistband (extremely helpful during a pantsing match).  You can buy your own from SleepyHeads.com (and yes, that’s an affiliate link).

Sleepy Heads’ affiliate program is housed at ShareASale and managed by the uber-cool Kristin Kinsey of MadHatter Consulting.  Thanks for the top-notch PJ’s!

Disclosure: I received the above product at no cost from Sleepy Heads.
All opinions are 100% mine.

Want me to work in your pajamas?!