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Blogging - SEO & Social Media Marketing

Viral Video / Corn Shucking?

1 Video, 2 Million Views

You’ve probably heard it a 1000 times, that creating good unique content is the secret to writing an interesting blog post or creating a video.  This is true but sometimes we confuse creative writing with good content, and they are not necessarily the same thing.

A story can be written or told through a video, and it can be well constructed and reported in a creative fashion, but that may not make it interesting. Additionally, the topic we are writing about may be headline news or it could be as obscure as shucking corn.

How many times have you labored over a blog post or video trying to make it the best it can be hoping that it will go viral?  What makes this video so compelling that almost two million people have already watched it?

What caused this video to go viral?

Is it the elderly gentleman who is the star of the movie?  Is it do to the popularity of his topic?  Is it the lavish sound stage where this is filmed?  Is it the script?  Obviously, it is none of these things.

This video went viral because it offered a cooking tip that resonated with a lot of people.  It is probably something you have never heard before; I was not aware of this tip and the video was forwarded to me from a casual friend.

This video is the epitome of unique, interesting & believable content.

I can guarantee you that this fellow had no idea that his video would become a viral sensation across the Internet.  If you note from his channel, this is the only video he has produced. Neither his YouTube channel or this video uses any SEO. It does not appear that this gentleman has a website, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account, for all we know he made this video with the intention of sharing a cooking tip with his kids.

Take away…

So the message here and the answer to creating a viral video is simply to make it interesting.  If two million people are interested in learning a new method of cooking and shucking corn imagine how many people might be interested in what you have to say.

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Domain Name? Hosting? WordPress?

I received a comment yesterday that is deserving of a more complete explanation that I think will help to clarify a few things for many readers.

Ashley wrote…”I’m in the process of reading your book and it has been incredibly helpful, and very easy to follow. Thank you!

One thing I have been curious about was how you start a domain. I understand you can go to a site like GoDaddy.com and register a website domain, if it is available, but then what happens? How do you then link the domain to a site like WordPress to start entering text?”

First of all, thank you for the nice mention about my book; I am very pleased that you are finding it helpful.  And you are correct, the process of getting a domain name, hosting your website and then adding content to the site confuses many people.

Domain Names & Website Hosting

Let’s begin with the domain name, i.e. yourcompany.com. A domain ‘registrar’ assigns domain names and there are many registrars from which to choose such as GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Bluehost and lots of others. People often get confused at this point thinking that acquiring a domain name includes the hosting of the website associated with that name.  Registering a name and hosting a website are two separate things.

Most domain registrars also offer website hosting, and prices range anywhere from a few dollars to over $25 per month for what is essentially the same service. Your challenge as a consumer is to find the best value.  This is why I use and recommend Bluehost for hosting because they will give you your domain name for free and only charge $6.95 for monthly hosting, and in my mind that’s a terrific value.

On my main website, I have two resource pages that can help you solve this problem.  Go here if you need to register a new domain (for free) and host your website.  If you already have a domain name and need hosting, learn how to transfer your domain to Bluehost.

Remember, as long as you host with Bluehost, your primary domain name will be free.  Also, additional domain names cost only $10 per year and can be hosted at no additional cost.  Essentially, you could have 20 fully functioning websites hosted and your only cost would be the $10 domain name fee each year.

How to maximize WordPress

wordpress website authoring tool Domain Name? Hosting? WordPress?Hopefully that clears up the domain name and hosting issue. The other part of your question was about WordPress and building your website.  This is confusing for some people because you can host a WordPress blog on www.wordpress.com, but it is best to use your domain as a WordPress blog.

Installing WordPress in the Bluehost control panel is as easy as it gets. You need no technical skills, just follow these simple instructions and you can have a WordPress blog installed on your Bluehost domain in minutes.

Once your blog has been installed, you can immediately begin to add content. As explained in my book, you can use WordPress as a conventional blog or use it to create a professional looking website.  WordPress ‘Themes’ and ‘Plugins’ offer you unlimited design options and the ability to add dynamic components to your site like your Facebook or Twitter feeds, forms, or almost anything you can imagine.  In essence, if you can envision it…there’s a Plugin that can make it happen.

You will find that using WordPresss as your website authoring tool is incredibly empowering.  Things that used to require hiring a programmer or web designer can now be done by you.

If you have any other questions about acquiring a domain name, website hosting issues or using WordPress, click that comment link below and get some answers.

Thanks and best of luck with your new adventure,

tom sig2 Domain Name? Hosting? WordPress?

 

 

 

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Halloween, Zombies & Marketing Myths

seo halloween myths Halloween, Zombies & Marketing Myths
No matter how long you’ve been online, you can always ‘dig up’ a new website that does something you’ve never thought about – and never knew you couldn’t live without it. Take zombies as a seasonal example…who hasn’t wondered what they’d look like as one of the undead?

seo zombie Halloween, Zombies & Marketing MythsOkay, maybe you’ve never had that thought, but now that you’ve heard about it, you know you have got to go to MakeMeZombie and upload your photo. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Yeah, that’s yours truly as a zombie and no one deserves to be zombified more than me.  Halloween has always been a special day for me…it’s my birthday!

Please, don’t bother with the witty remarks, I can promise you that I have heard them all before. “Your mama really got tricked”, yada, yada, yada… The point is…

Halloween is a holiday of fun and incredible superstition for kids.  However, it’s probably much like the way you celebrated when your website was first launched.  You believed that hoards of hungry cash-in-hand buyers would magically find your website; that’s the superstition part.

Now that you’ve grown up you realize that automatic web traffic is a myth.  A superstition as unlikely as headless horsemen and broomsticks serving as propulsion devices.  Those are stories someone told you, but they’re not true.

If you want traffic to your website, you must attract it or buy it.  You attract it by implementing search engine optimization bolstered by a social media marketing strategy.  Hey, that would be a great title for a book, SEO & Social Media Marketing!  In fact, it is a great book and that is NOT a myth.

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Social Media & Video marketing are HOT!

There are numerous ways to measure if you are making an impact with your blog.  A jump in raw traffic numbers, an increase in orders for your products, or inquiries about your services, but one less obvious measurement is the number of spam comments your blog receives.

Spammers target hot topics so when you see your spam comments soar, you’ll know you’re talking about  something that is of interest.  Today I experienced new book sales and over 60 new spam messages just since late last night.  I guess that makes me an overnight success, right? Obviously, the topics of SEO, Social Media and video marketing are very HOT!

Social media growth continues to explode

remember buy seo book Social Media & Video marketing are HOT!Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn receive billions of visits monthly; in fact Twitter grew by more than 600% in 2009, while Facebook grew by 210% and LinkedIn by 85%.  Hey, if Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world!

Blogs indexed by Technorati number more than 133 million and 900,000 blog posts are created within a 24-hour period and YouTube served more than 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during 2009.  There just might be something to this social media thing after all.

Online video is HOT

  • The average U.S. Internet user watches 186 videos per month.
  • Facebook’s video views are up 239% in one year.
  • Facebook users watched 245 million videos in May 2010 alone.
  • More video was uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all TV networks created in 60 years.
  • 5. 19% of small business advertisers already use video — up from 8% last year.

Yes, these are hot topics because businesses that are using these tactics to drive traffic are seeing results.  Like any marketing strategy, there is a right way to do things and a wrong way… if you don’t do it correctly, you will be disappointed in your results. Take the example of including the URL of your website in the description of your video; it gives viewers and search engines a link to your website.  Without it yours is just one of a billion other videos.

Are you ready to capitalize on these trends?  Don’t do it alone!  Get some help, check out the “SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide“.

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