The Best Seo Blogs

If you are like most small businesses, the success of your company is dependent on attracting local customers, whether they are in your region, state, county or even town. While it’s great to see that your website is pulling in visitors from around the country and maybe even around the world, you don’t want to waste the time or resources worrying about leads and inquiries that you can’t possibly follow up with. So, how do you ensure you are doing everything in your power to pull in those valuable visitors from across town? Check out this list:

1. Optimize your site for geographic-specific keywords.

Depending on the competitiveness of your geographic region and industry, this is a quick and easy way for you to start ranking for various keywords that local shoppers are using to search in Google, Yahoo! and Bing. To do this, make sure that the Page Title, URL, H1 tag and page content of your web pages include your geographic keyword phrase and that you are consistent across all elements. For example, check out this page, which illustrates geographic keyword optimization done right. By doing this, this company is more likely to pull in consumers in Newington, CT who are looking for replacement windows and siding. Remember, if you have multiple pages for each town/city you service, make sure they are different enough so the search engines don’t tag them as duplicate content!

2. Blog!

A blog is a great way to talk about your local services and commitment to your local market. Share case studies or success stories of work you’ve done in the past in each town, city or county. Customers love being in the spotlight, so use your blog as an opportunity to showcase them and highlight your great work. Remember to use the geographic location in your blog title and URL and promote your blog to generate inbound links!

3. Engage with local bloggers and city-specific websites.

When you engage with local bloggers from your area and share your knowledge and expertise, you begin to establish yourself as a great resource and expert in your industry. You’ll be getting your name and company in front of local readers and begin to develop relationships with influential bloggers who may be more likely to do feature stories about you in the future. While HubSpot doesn’t pull customers in from any one specific geographic location like your business may, we frequently engage in conversations on the Boston Globe’s website, Boston.com, as well as with local technology and business bloggers, Mass High Tech and the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX). See what’s in your local area, and start interacting.

4. Sign up for accounts on ratings & review sites.

As we have seen, consumers are more and more likely to start their research process online for a local vendor, handyman, car mechanic, doctor or marketing professional. Armed with that knowledge, you need to make sure your business is listed on the major websites that provide ratings and reviews for various services. Here are a few to check out:

• Google Local (Free)

Google requires you to register your business online, then verifies that you are the owner by either calling you or sending some snail mail to your address. Once you are registered, you benefit by having the opportunity to appear in Google’s Local Business Results for a given search term. Your ranking inside the Local Listings is based on Google’s ranking algorithm that awards well-optimized pages and inbound links to your website from other websites.

• Yelp (Free)

Yelp has been around for several years now and is the gold standard for getting information on local restaurants, shopping locations and entertainment venues. However, now they’re starting to see a wider variety of businesses listing their companies on their site, including those in real estate, event planning, financial services and medical service providers. This is a great place to encourage your happy customers to leave some feedback. If you receive negative feedback, it’s a good chance to engage with that consumer and turn their experience around with a heartfelt note or follow up. Read more about how to supercharge your business’ presence on Yelp.

• Angie’s List (Free for Companies, Paid for Consumers): 

Angie’s List is an aggregator of sorts that pulls in reviews of local businesses and contractors. Angie’s List attempts to circumvent fake reviews by charging consumers a monthly fee in order to browse their listings and review businesses. Check it out and see if it’s right for your business.

Now get out there and start rocking local search!

 

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Learn more about how you can optimize your site to rank higher in search engines so you get found by more qualified prospects. Download our search engine optimization kit.

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Are audiences more interested in understanding what the big brands are doing?  Do we look up to Coke and Pepsi and other great brands for inspiration?

At HubSpot, we love to measure everything, and recently we completed a short study on how the use of brand names (including Coke, Pepsi, Dominos, Google, Pampers, Facebook,etc.) in article titles had an impact on blog article performance.

The results were astounding.  Out of the approximately 100 articles published over a period of 50 days, just over 20% of them had major brand names in the title. 

As you can see in the graph below, the articles that had a major brand name in the title generated 60% more page views on average than articles without them.

Also, we published 6 articles with Google in the title, and on average they performed 50% better than articles without brand names in their titles.

Surprisingly, while the use of brand names appeared to have an impact on page views and readership, it had little or no impact on comments (or conversation) and what appears to be a negative impact on inbound links.  The brand name articles got 3 fewer inbound links on average than their counterparts.

If you’re wondering why we used such a short time frame for the study, it’s because blog articles are like annuities. Over longer periods of time, articles continue to amass more and more page views, which would skew the study.  The top-performing articles in all groups were spread pretty evenly across the time frame used for the study!

Thoughts,  Observations and Takeaways

• Timing Your Article Publication is Key — There was definitely a “news” factor to articles with brand names in their titles, and the timeliness of the publication coincided with the conversation about the brand on the Internet and in media.  (e.g. the Dominos and Pepsi articles).
• Visible Brands Serve as Case Studies — People and marketers in general love hearing what major brands are doing and how they are conducting their business.  A lot of companies like to emulate and learn from big brands.
• Familiarity Has an Impact on Viral Effect — People become bigger “sneezers” (per Seth Godin’s idea virus) when it comes to bigger brands because they are more familiar with them and their products.

Have you noticed any interesting trends in how your blog articles perform?  Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo credit: Nikita Kashner 

 

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Want to learn more about publishing a blog on your business website? Watch the free video to learn how to create a thriving inbound marketing blog.

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Welcome to the post-Winter/pre-Spring version of the BIGLIST review of SEO blogs.  Snow is starting to melt and you can actually walk around outside (in Minnesota) without your eyelashes freezing together. We have a nice group for you to review so fire up your RSS reader and subscribe.

LyndiT blog gets our attention for great design and user experience in this BIGLIST update. Lyndi Thompson is a Social Media and Online Marketing Specialist and like me, is addicted to peanut M&Ms.  Besides writing about a mix of social media, SEO, web design and online marketing topics, you might be interested to know Lyndi lives on a mini farm, owns several animals including a donkey and supports some great causes in the Northwest.

• Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing – Frank Reed blogs on several sites including Marketing Pilgrim and Biznology. Here, he shares is talented writing skills to tell stories about SMB internet marketing topics. This isn’t a how to blog, it’s a broader topic and things to think about blog as the name implies about Search, Mobile, Social and Local.

• State of Search – What’s going on in the search and social media marketing space?  This new blog from Dutch internet marketer, Bas van den Beld of Search Cowboys fame, and friends promises to be a source for what’s happening in the world of search and social.  It also compliments a weekly radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm of the same name.

• ezlocal blog – If you’re in search of great advice on local search marketing, this might be your lucky day. You can expect detailed how to posts including those about Google Maps and Local Business Center and local marketing topics. ezlocal itself is a local business search resource and directory.

• Digital Marketing Zen – David Wells is a digital marketing strategist for an agency in Charlotte, SC and publishes a blog that documents his observations via posts, podcasts and a curated collection of videos on topics that include everything from Augmented Reality to SEO and Social Media to Web Analytics.

• Single Grain Blog – This agency blog is written by Sujan Patel and Ross Hudgens on SEO, PPC, Design, Link Building and some social media.

• Website Workshop – Buzzhound Learning Lab is a St. Louis, MO based agency with a newer blog that has started writing posts again about SEO and topics that support the SEO training courses offered.  Hopefully they continue.

• Aussie Internet Marketing Blog – Sean Rasmussen writes “down under” about practical tips on a variety of online marketing topics including SEO, blogging, social media and general web 2.0.

Did your SEO or SEM blog make the cut? Share the good news with your readers using the badge and link below or choose one from the badges page.

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Posted by Glen Allsopp

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Despite my love for SEO and my presence in the industry for almost 5 years, I have to admit that I barely followed the latest trends over the last 12 months. 95% of SEO related feeds disappeared from my Google Reader account and I stopped manually checking some of the biggest resources in this niche.

The main reason for this is that I no longer work with clients so new tactics and many advanced SEO methods didn’t matter to me that much. I was also at the point where I felt I was getting overloaded with the same information or bad advice, instead of sticking with the basics and going with what I know.

Instead of reading 30+ SEO feeds per day and watching every Matt Cutts video like it was a direct message from God, I shut out all the noise and just started building websites around things I love. In the 12 months since going solo I’ve had more success than the previous four years and I’ve gained rankings for a large number of very competitive keyphrases.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore the industry and try everything yourself, as there is a lot of good information out there (especially from the likes of SEOmoz, Aaron, Sebastian, Rishi and David).

What I do suggest is that you go with what works and stick to it consistently, rather than constantly looking for magic-bullets to increase your rankings. Today I want to share four things that have been working very well for me in increasing my own rankings.

1. Get People "Googling" Your Brand

Many people may disagree that this is useful in improving your rankings, but I’ve seen far too many examples of this tactic working well to dismiss it. I stumbled upon this idea when I released a free eBook which received thousands of downloads, and mentioned a website of mine while mistakenly forgetting to link to it.

Because the site in question was an integral part of the guide, people started "Googling" the phrase. Within the first 30 days of launching the site there had already been 500 people searching for it in Google and landing on the domain.

The reason I say this is because this website ranked 2nd in Google for its main keyphrase very, very quickly, without the link juice to usually grant such a high ranking. The site literally had 5 links compared to the hundreds that competing websites had which were also much older.

Thinking about this logically, it makes sense that Google and other search engines would want to rank a page highly when people are searching for the brand name directly. I believe that because so many people were looking for the site and having to go to page 3 or 4 to find it, the rankings improved because Google want to show the best results to their users.

Google have said that this does play a part in the algorithm, but I was surprised at how big an effect it had. I don’t recommend you do this for all sites, but if you release something or mention a product, try just mentioning the name and not linking to the site (not always, of course). Get people searching for your brand / domain directly and see what that does to your rankings.

2. Monitor Repeat Sellers on Flippa.com

I was contemplating whether or not to reveal this as it has given me some ridiculously awesome link ideas, but I try to provide as much value as I can, so here goes. If you head on over to Flippa you can find people buying and selling a lot of successful and high ranking websites.

What I’ve noticed is that some people are selling a lot of content websites that are ranking for great phrases very quickly and very easily. If you look hard enough you can find sites making $5,000+ per month from rankings they’ve achieved in just 2-3 months.

Instead of buying these sites in all cases, I’ve simply looked at where the backlinks are coming from and figured out how the seller is able to duplicate them so easily. I’ve seen sites ranking with nothing but spammy chinese blog links and other sites ranking with freely available link sources and making a lot of money.

If you have the time to look around, there are some real link gems to be found.

3. Utilise Guest Blogging in Your Niche

In 2009 I wrote more personal development related guest posts than anybody else and in return built a blog with over 6,000 subscribers. I recently sold the site for a mid five-figure fee, but still use this tactic for a number of other sites. (I know Youmoz links are nofollow, so I’m not using this as an example).

Apart from ranking number one in Google for "Guest Blogging" (;)), the tactic allowed me to rank on the first page of Google for two phrases which each get over 30,000 exact searches per month. One of which, was the phrase personal development.

I’ve wrote a 2,000+ word post on guest blogging over here so I’m not going repeat everything I said there, but utilising this method is very simple:

• Find the top blogs in your niche and see if they have clear opportunities for guest posting. If not, contact them. If so, contact them.
• Perform Google searches like niche "guest post" or niche "write for us" to find more sources for your content
• Once you get an opportunity, write an excellent article and send it off to the editor / site owner. I prefer to send my posts as text files with HTML inside so it’s easy for them to paste into Wordpress and keeps your links intact.
• Put a non-spammy, anchor text link in the bottom of the guest post which will not only be great for rankings but also send traffic to your site
• You get links and traffic, and the site owner gets excellent, free content for their community

I have noticed a few big name SEO’s abusing this already (I won’t say who) so I don’t know how long this tactic will remain effective, but it’s working well for now and is probably hard to algorithmically block in all cases.

4. Dirty Bookmarking Links

I don’t know why, but social bookmarking links (even automated ones) are helping some of my sites massively. I don’t love using this tactic as it feels kind of dirty but I can’t deny that it is working well.

The two instances I find it working best are:

• 1. On authority sites that have tons of links but need links with more specific anchor text
• 2. On new sites in small, fairly uncompetitive niches

Trying this for competitive phrases on sites that are either new or don’t have many links doesn’t seem to be doing much, but for the two examples above I’m amazed at how useful this has been.

I know this won’t be for everyone and I would not recommend doing it on a high-profile client site, but definitely test it for yourself. You can buy software that automates the process or you can find people on Digitalpoint who are willing to do it for a small fee.

Now I’m going to spend the next month catching up on the major changes in the SEO industry, so if you have any recommended links, please do share them in the comments.

Glen Allsopp writes for ViperChill which is a blog about viral marketing. He helps people build websites that others naturally want to talk about.

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Earlier in the week we looked at the importance of ‘niches’ when it comes to building profitable blogs. Today I want to extend the topic and gives the process that I tend to use when working out if I want to start a new blog in a particular niche. I hope you find it helpful.

Many factors will come into play when it comes to choosing a niche to blog about – but the following are those that I tend to pay most attention to:

1. Your Interest in the Topic

I started out blogging on topics that interested me – but as I began to see the potential to make money from my blogs began to experiment with topics that I had less interest in but which I thought would be profitable.

What I discovered in creating these blogs that had potential for profit, yet which I had little interest in, was that I couldn’t really sustain them. I had little to say on the topics and when I did write something I suspect that those who read my content could tell that it was a topic that I was not passionate about. As a result the traffic did not come, I did not become known for the topic, nobody linked up and the blogs were far from profitable.

On the flipside of this – the blogs that I did have an interest in and a passion for have flourished. My interest in the topic is not the only factor that made them successful but I suspect it is a fairly important one that underlies much of the success and profit that I’ve had.

One question to ask yourself in choosing a niche is ‘What are YOU about?’ Choosing a topic that reflects you means you’ll be in a position to be able to find enough to write about and you’ll write it in a way that engages with the topic and your readers.

2. The Popularity of the Topic

You can have all the interest in the world around a topic but if nobody else shares your interest you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle to build a blog that gets much traffic.

This doesn’t mean you need to choose the most popular topics going around – in fact they may not be a wise choice due to the competition also targeting those niches – however you will want to choose a niche that has some level of demand for content.

There are many ways to do research on this whether topics are popular – here are three that I use:

1. Google Trends – do some searches on Google trends for keywords around your niches (and compare them) and you’ll see whether the topic you’ve chosen has been growing or shrinking and how it compares to other topics.
2. Market Samurai – I’ve written about the potential ofhttp://www.marketsamurai.com/c/problogger(affiliate link but it gives you a free trial)tool for optimising posts on your blog for SEO – but it is also a useful research tool in looking at the popularity of topics – particularly the module that allows you to assess how many searches are being done on different tools in Google.
3. Your Local News Stand – perhaps one of the simplest ways to look for popular topics is to head to a local news stand and look at what publications are being sold there. Not only look at the topics of magazines – but check out what is being written about as hot topics IN the magazines and you might find an emerging sub-niche to focus upon.

Ultimately you’re looking for topics that people are interested in, passionate about, want to learn more on and/or that people want to talk about and interact in a community around. There is an unlimited number of topics and ways to tap into them. Watch TV, talk to your friends, head to a local library, read a newspaper – see what people are into and you could just identify a topic worth exploring.

3. Competition

One of the factors that I see some bloggers failing to acknowledge in the choosing of a niche is how much competition (and how strong the competition is) in their potential niche.

The danger in choosing some popular niches is that you might be competing against some very powerful sites in those niches. While this isn’t always going to be a factor to stop you exploring a niche it should definitely be considered and it can perhaps help you to shape your niche to be something that will give you a competitive advantage.

There are a variety of ways of assessing the strength of competition in niches.

One of the simplest is to simply do some searches on Google to look at how many sites exist for keywords on your topic. This won’t give you an indication of the power of the competition – but it will give you some indication on the ’size’ of competition and it will identify some sites that you will want to be monitoring.

Market Samurai (mentioned above) is one tool that can take your analysis a little deeper. As highlighted in my recent optimising posts on your blog for SEO post it has a module that will not only show you how many competing sites there are but also how strong they are (around a number of factors). It’ll also identify what type of level you’ll need to get to in order to compete with them.

As you begin to assess your potential competition in a niche don’t be completely put off by niches with lots of strong competition. Instead as you analyse what other sites are doing look for opportunities in two areas:

• ways to differentiate yourself – as you look at other sites look for gaps in the topic that they’re not covering or things that perhaps you could do that might differentiate yourself. Perhaps there is a sub-niche that everyone is ignoring, perhaps they all ‘look’ the same, perhaps they all approach the topic in the same sort of ‘voice/style’. These things could be things to explore in offering an alternative to the established sites.
• ways to interact and leverage the competition – as you look at other sites look for places that you might be able to connect with, contribute to and leverage in the building of your own site. Perhaps the competition has the ability to submit guest posts or articles or perhaps they have a forum area for interaction. Find ways to be a genuine contributor to your competition and you might find ways to help build your own site indirectly.

4. Is the Topic Sustainable?

Another factor that I see some bloggers neglecting in the choosing of a niche is consideration of whether the topic is one that they’re able to sustain.

This partly relates to the interest and passion that the blogger has for the topic – but it also relates to the topic itself and whether it is dynamic enough to have content written about it on a regular basis.

• Will it be possible to keep new content flowing on this topic?
• If the blog will be a ‘news’ blog – is there enough news or developments happening on this topic to keep reporting on it?
• If the blog will be a ‘how to’ type blog – Is the topic deep enough to be able to come up with enough tutorials or tips?

A number simple exercises to help assess the sustainability of a blog (depending upon the type of blog you’ll be developing):

• Brainstorm topics – set aside 10 minutes to brainstorm topics for blog posts. Do you run out of ideas or are they flowing easily? This will give you an indication on how many posts you’ll be able to write.
• List ‘problems/needs’ of readers – if your blog will be a ‘how to’ type blog list off problems or needs that your potential readers might have that you could tackle.
• Google News – if your blog will be a ‘news’ type blog – check out Google News for your keywords and see how often news is breaking on the topic. Is there lots of news or is this a topic that only has occasional news breaking?
• List Products – if your blog will be a ‘product’ related blog – do some research into how many products there are in that category and how often new products are released.

Got the picture? Really it is about doing a little analysis of the topic to see if there is enough in it to keep producing new frequent and regular content. If there’s not enough – perhaps consider either another topic or a different format for your site (blogs tend to do best when they’re updated but you could create a more static site).

5. Is the Niche Profitable?

This won’t appeal to everyone as not all people want to monetize their blog but if it’s a goal to make money from your blog then you’ll want to assess the potential for profit before you start.

There are a few ways to get indications on whether a niche will be profitable – including:

• Google Ads – do a simple search on Google.com for your topic/keywords. Look at what ads Google is serving for those keywords over on the right side (or above the search results). Doing some analysis of these ads can be useful on a few fronts. For starters they’ll show you if any advertisers are actively targeting those keywords. This is handy to know if you’re planning on running AdSense on your blog. It will also be handy to check out who is advertising as they could be potential direct sponsors of your site. The other useful thing to note is whether any of the ads are for products that have affiliate opportunities as they could be products you could promote as an affiliate.
• AdWords Analysis – another related way to check on the value of a niche is to do some analysis of how much people are willing to pay as advertisers in the Google AdWords program. Just knowing there are advertisers is a healthy sign but they could all be just paying a cent or two to have their ads appear. Using the AdWords Keyword tool will give you a bit more of an indication of what people are paying to rank highest for their ads.
• Affiliate Products – speaking of affiliate products – do a little hunting around to see if you can find any products online that have affiliate promotions that you might be able to promote. Sometimes this is as simple as Googling ‘keyword affiliate product’ but other times you’ll want to check out affiliate networks like Commission Junction or PepperJam (aff) to see if they have any relevant products listed for your niche.
• Brainstorm Potential Products of Your Own – what could YOU sell directly to readers? As you’re pondering a niche it could be well worth while keeping in the back of your mind potential products that you might be able to develop to sell from your blog. These might include information products (e-books, training etc), membership areas (where people pay a monthly fee for extra teaching, community etc), personal services (coaching, speaking etc), a physical product relevant to your niche – or something else. More and more bloggers are turning to developing their own products as ways to monetize their blogs so keep this option in your mind from the beginning.
• What are others in the niche monetizing with? – one of the quickest ways to work out whether there is potential to monetize a niche is to check out what other sites are doing to make money on that topic. Check out the biggest sites first and look at whether they run advertising (and what sort), whether they’re promoting affiliate promotions, what kinds of products/services of their own they sell etc. You might find that you come up with a quick list of things to start monetizing your own site with very quickly by doing this.
• Market Samurai – I know that Iv’e mentioned Market Samurai already in this series but it’s a tool that also has a monetization module that allows you to look at the profitability of a niche. In fact there are a couple of tools within the Market Samurai system that are worth using when assessing the profitability of a niche. One is in the ‘keyword research’ module which gives you options to look at three factors including the Adwords value of the work, the SEO value and some assessment of whether people are searching with the intent of ‘buying’ or just surfing for ‘information on the keyword. The other module allows you to search for affiliate promotions relevant to your keywords (very handy).

6. What Else Do You Bring to the topic that You Can Leverage?

Previously when I’ve covered the topic of how to choose a blog niche I’ve stopped after exploring some of the above points. However there are almost always a number of other factors that individuals bring to certain topics that can make those niches more sensible choices.

I guess ultimately it comes down to looking at what you have at your fingertips that you will be able to leverage to help you get your blog up and running and working really well.

There are many factors that might come into play including:

• Expertise/Experience – you might be someone with years of experience in the industry which would give you a real head start in the creation of content and also building authority and profile in the niche.
• Contacts/Network – perhaps you already have some good contacts with other bloggers and web site owners in the niche that you’ll be able to leverage to help you promote your blog.
• Established Sites on Related Topics – maybe you already have another blog, newsletter list, website, forum or site on a related topic that you could use to help you launch your new blog.
• Repurpose-able Content – some people already have a lot of content written for other purposes that they can use as the basis for their new blog (for example I met one person recently who had been training in an area and who had already created hundreds of documents for offline use that could easily be used on a blog).

This list could quite easily go on and on. Essentially you need to do a bit of a SWOT analysis of the topic and see what strengths and opportunities that you uniquely have that will help you to get a leg up into this topic.

Sleep On It

My last advice on choosing a niche for your blog is to take your time and don’t act too hastily. While you don’t want the process to drag out too long – I look back on the 30 or so blogs that I’ve started over the years and wish I’d taken a little more time going through this process. I went through a phase where I impulsively started a series of blogs that I quickly knew were not right for me – if I’d only given the ideas a little time to breath I might have discovered before I started that perhaps there were better ways to use my time going forward.

So take your time – share what you come up with with a trusted friend or two – do a little research into the topic and then, when you’re ready and are in a good position to make a decision – ACT!

Also keep in mind that you might need to go through this process with a number of topics before you find one that fits for you. You’re unlikely to find a topic that fits all of the above criteria perfectly – but hopefully something will stand out to you a little to help you make an informed decision.

Questions for Discussion:

1. What other factors would you say come into play when choosing a niche?
2. If you already have a blog – what were the most important factors for you in choosing that niche?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Blog: How to Choose a Blog Niche [6 Tips]

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As this post goes live I’ll be in the process of arriving at SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas.

I was fortunate enough to at SXSWi two years back and it was one of the best conference experiences that I’ve had – so I’ve made it a priority this year to return.

My schedule is pretty open. The main thing that I’ll be doing is a book reading this Friday night. I’ll be talking about some of what Chris and I have included in the 2nd edition of the ProBlogger book (due out next month).

The book reading is on at 5pm, Friday 12 March on the Day Stage. I hope you’ll come!

For those of you involved in the Third Tribe there is a drinks/meetup the next evening (on Saturday 13th from about 5.30pm) at a bar called ‘Lovejoys’ at 604 Neches Street (2 blocks north of the convention center).

Note: I originally thought that my reading was on Saturday and we’d do one after the other…. but I messed up the time so the book reading is Friday and the Drinks/Meetup is Saturday. Sorry for the messing around 3rd Tribers.

Other than that I’ve got a pretty open few days and am looking forward to checking out a few panels and keynotes and doing as much networking as possible. If you’re at SXSWi I’d love to meet you – feel free to come up and say hi any time!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Let’s Meet at SXSWi!

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A few years ago, I used to say I can run my business from anywhere in the world as long as I have my laptop with me. This was because all my information and the programs I used to run my business were stored on my laptop. I never really liked that setup because if something were to happen to my laptop, I would be pretty screwed. There was also the hassle of syncing the laptop with the desktops. Oftentimes, I never brother to do it and ended up not having files that I needed.

Today, I no longer need my laptop to run my business. I just need access to a Web browser. The Web browser can be on my laptop, my iPhone or a public computer at the library (or an Apple Store), it doesn’t matter. I never have to worry about syncing or missing any files. All my datas are stored in the cloud using the latest security and backup technologies.

I have replaced all the programs I used to run on my comp with Web browser based programs. I’ve done it to the point where there are almost no programs installed on my Macbook Pro other than what came with OSX. With the exception of iMovie 09, every other program I use to run my online business runs from a Web browser. This has completely liberated me from having to carry around my laptop when I go on trips. Sure, I still bring the Macbook but it’s nice to know that should something happen to it, I can just swing by any Apple Store, buy another Macbook and I’m back in business with nothing lost. Here are all the browser based programs I use to run this blog.

Blogging Software: WordPress

John Chow dot Com is powered by WordPress, which runs from any web browser. I can log into my blog from anywhere in the world as long as I have access to a web browser. Before blogging came along I created content sites using MS FrontPage. I would create the page on my computer using FrontPage and then upload it to the web server using a FTP program. That tied me down to one machine. With WordPress, I can access my blog from any machine, anywhere in the world.

Email Software: Gmail

In the old days, I used MS Outlook to handle my emails. I would never brother to sync the emails between the laptop and desktop. This caused all kinds of problem because I had different emails on different machines. Then there was the time I reformatted the computer and forgot to backup my emails.

Moving my email to Gmail has been one of the best moves I’ve ever made. Gmail has one of the best spam filters in the business and I never have to worry about having different emails on different machines. Gmail also makes a good backup service. Because each account has 8GB of storage, you can use it to backup your WordPress database. Just make an email address for your WordPress database, then use the WordPress database backup plugin to email a copy of your DB to the Gmail account once a day. Should something happen to your database, just log into the DB Gmail account and recover it.

Newsletter Software: Aweber

My blog newsletter is handle by Aweber. Their interface is all browser based and can be used from any computer. With Aweber, I can quickly create sign up forms and auto responders. Every money making blog needs a mailing list and Aweber is by far the best in the business. My list is the main reason the blog makes the income that it does. If your blog doesn’t have a list, get one now!

Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts and follow ups. It’s a great way to test drive Aweber to see what it can do for your blog. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you find that email marketing is not for you, contact Aweber within 30 days and they’ll give you the $1 back.

Documents Software: Google Docs and ZOHO

Forget Microsoft Office. You don’t need it anymore. All my documents are handle by Google Docs. Why pay for Office and have it take up space in your computer when you don’t have to? One of the best features of Google Docs is sharing and collaboration. If I’m working on a project with other people, I can give them access to my docs so they can work on it as well.

If you prefer the look and feel of MS Office, then you can use ZOHO, which as far as I can tell, is pretty much MS Office on the Web. I’m shocked Microsoft hasn’t sued them out of business yet.

Time Management: Google Calendar

I used to use Outlook to handle all my appointments and reminders. I now use Google Calendar to do the same thing. I like how I can share my calendar with others so they know what I’m up to and can even schedule themselves in.

Twitter Software: Hootsuite

Before I discovered Hootsuite, I used TweetDeck to handle my Twitter account. Hootsuite is the best Twitter client I’ve used to date. It has many advantages over Tweetdeck, the most important of which is that it’s browser based. I can use HootSuite from any computer and not just my own. HootSuite also uses way less resources than TweetDeck but offers additional features like timestamp tweeting and stats so you can find out how many people clicked on your links.

With HootSuite, you can manage all your Twitter followers and accounts in a single application. You can create as many columns as you want in order to separate your followers into groups. You can add new tabs to track keywords or other Twitter accounts. Add your Ping.fm application key (and a Group, if desired) to send new tweets from HootSuite to your Ping.fm account. Add your blog RSS so it sends out a new tweet when you have a new blog post. HootSuite even allows you to add editors in case you don’t want to write the tweets yourself. I can only see celebrities and the President of the United States using that feature.

Instant Messaging: Meebo

Meebo allows me to run all my Instant Messengers from one browser window. Before Meebo, I was using Adium and I still prefer Adium over Meebo. When I am on my Macbook, I will use Adium. When I’m on a public computer I will check my IM with Meebo.

Image Storage: Flickr

I used to store all my images on my local comp. Now I store them all on Flickr. Flickr allows you to store up to 200 photos for free. Go beyond that and they will want you to upgrade to a Pro account, which gives you unlimited storage. A Pro account cost $24.95 a year ($47.99 for two years). That to me is a no brainer. I have lost photos before because of a hard drive crash and I didn’t have a backup. Those are memories that I can’t recover. While there is always a chance that Flickr might experience some kind of failure, I know their backup systems are far better than what I use.

Flickr integrates with WordPress if you run the Flickr Photo Album for WordPress. This plugin allows you to pull in your Flickr photosets and display them as photo albums on your blog. The plugin provides a very simple template that is fully customizable. Since all my blog photos are pulled from Flickr, I save money on bandwidth cost.

Image Editor: Pixlr

Most of the time, the only thing I need to do with an image is resize it. For that, the built in Preview program in my Macbook can do it. However, there are times when I need to edit a photo before uploading to Flickr. For example, I might need to add a watermark or blank out some sensitive information (like in the Meebo screenshot). For those occasions, I rely on Pixlr. Pixlr looks and works just like a Web based version of Photoshop. With the exception of the really advanced stuff, pretty much anything you can do in Photoshop, you can do in Pixlr. And it’s free!

Video Storage: YouTube

I used to store all my videos on Vimeo until YouTube started allowing me to embed HD videos. Now, I’ve stop uploading my videos to Vimeo and I’m going to let my Vimeo Pro account expire. Why pay for HD when you can get it for free with YouTube?

Editing videos is pretty much the only thing I do that is not browser based. However, because iMovie comes with OSX, I can easily work on my videos from any Mac. If I’m on a PC, then I’ll have to settle for Windows Movie Maker but I wouldn’t wish Movie Maker on my worst enemy.

It’s Better Living In The Cloud

Many people feel unsecured about keeping their information in the cloud. For me, I actually feel more secure by having it there. I have lost information before when things were stored locally. I have yet to lose a single item from the cloud. Plus the freedom it gives you is unmatched. A few days ago, I walked into an Apple store, used their Macbook for an hour, accessed all my information, set up an email marketing campaign and made $1,500. By having all my programs running from a Web browser, I can make money from any computer, anywhere in the world.

The above Web browser based programs are what I use to run John Chow dot Com. For affiliate marketing, I use a bunch of other browser based programs. But that’s for another day.

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I am quite passionate about the Internet, and as such I am always coming up with new ideas for websites and online businesses. At the same time I know that focus is vital if you want to achieve success, and I already have a couple of projects going on, so most of the time I just let those ideas site on the back burner.

Thinking about it, though, I figured that it could be interesting to post the ideas on the blog. If nothing else we’ll discuss about business models and making money on the Internet. There is also the chance that someone will like the idea and implement it, or adapt it slightly to launch something similar. If you do and end up making millions I will only be happy!

Anyway today I want to share an idea that I had back in 2008. I even purchased a domain and created a prototype for the business, but it never took off as I didn’t have time to put on the project.

The Idea

As a web publisher, I know how annoying it is to have scrapers copying my content and publishing it all over the web. In fact this practice is not only annoying, but it can be costly too. If people can find your content on other websites they might not visit yours, and excessive amounts of duplicate content might also hurt your search engine rankings, thus reducing the amount of organic traffic you’ll receive.

Unfortunately monitoring who is stealing your content and taking action to solve it would consume far too much time for the average web publisher, and here is where this business would come. It would be a company offering “copyright protection services for web publishers.”

How It Would Work

The service would have three main steps:

1. Content Theft Monitoring: Once the web publisher becomes a client, the company would start monitoring the web to see what websites are stealing the content of the client’s website. Ideally the company would develop a proprietary technology to track the copyright violations effectively.

2. Content Takedown: Upon identifying the content scrapers, the company would take the necessary actions to take it down. On this step you would have a hierarchy of measures. First of all the site owner would be contacted in a friendly way. If that didn’t work, the hosting company would be contacted with a DMCA. If even that didn’t work, the company would study with the client the possibility of taking proper legal action.

3. Reporting: Every month the company would provide the client with a report. It would include all the instances of copyright violation found, and percentage of the violations that were already solved, and so on.

Where is the money?

The business model is pretty simple. In exchange for the services mentioned above the client would pay a monthly fee. The company could have different tiers of service, depending on the size of the client’s website.

For example, a personal blog with fewer than 500 pages could be charged $49 monthly for the service, while a mainstream content portal with over 10,000 pages would need to pay $199 monthly, because tracking all the violations here would consume a lot more resources.

Challenges

The main challenged I foresee with this business is to convince web publishers that they are actually losing money due to content scrapers. If you could build a couple of strong case studies proving that by removing duplicate the revenues of the website actually increased you would be in a good position to sell the service.

Another problem is the content takedown process. You would need to have at least one lawyer aboard to manage this part of the business.

Over To You

What do you guys think about this idea? If any of you want to give it a shot I already have a pretty good domain name (paid $1,000 for it) and a basic website design ready to go.

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Original Post: Business Idea: Copyright Protection For Web Publishers

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I’ve written a few contrarian things lately.

Specifically, I ranted a bit about why I think the most common “make money online” technique doesn’t work for most people, and about how, really, the most important ingredients of success are persistence and grit.

Then, on my own blog, I ranted about why “systems” for achieving specific results don’t work.

I got a lot of comments, emails, and tweets agreeing — too many people are looking for a quick fix, and we need to remember the basics: hard work, and good old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness.

But believe it or not, there’s actually a problem with taking that train of thought too far.

Yes, a lot of the marketing for how-to-start-your-business products preys on the naive and is motivated by greed. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good information out there — information that could help you move forward, remove roadblocks, and arm you with new skills.

No, there is no magic bullet

But that doesn’t mean that you should become a business isolationist, figuring everything out solely on your own, wary of anyone, anywhere, who sells information.

The most sensible approach — as is usually the case — is somewhere in the middle.

Spending money on a fool’s dream is akin to gambling, hoping that some “system” will pay off big. By contrast, spending wisely — with a decent chance of a solid return — is more like an investment.

Obviously, the best way for me to explain the difference is by talking about my grandparents.

Gambling vs. investment

My grandparents used to go to Las Vegas a few times every year to play the slots. Every once in a while, they’d win, and come back with a few thousand dollars more than they left with.

More often, they’d come home having lost some or all of what they’d budgeted as their “fun money.” No matter what happened, they always returned happy, with new stories to tell, and couldn’t wait to go again.

So the question is: Were they gambling while they were in Vegas?

And the knee-jerk reaction is, “Of course they were. What kind of dumb question is that, Truant?”

Well, I don’t know. I’d define gambling as risking an asset that you can’t afford to (or don’t want to) lose because you’re hoping it will multiply. Investment, on the other hand, is spending an asset for a defined purpose to receive a return that you have good reason to believe you will get.

If my grandparents went to Vegas, plunked down their pension checks, and then hoped like hell to hit a jackpot so that they could at least recoup the money they put in, I’d say they were gambling.

But that’s not what they did. They set a budget. They “spent” that budget on the slots. If money came back? Aces. But if not, they wrote it off as part of the trip cost and still came home happy.

They went in with a defined goal: Have a fun trip pulling levers and watching things spin and light up. That’s what they got. They were investing in their entertainment, and in their own enjoyment.

Similarly, I’d argue that what makes a business expense gambling versus an investment is the intention you have when you make it.

How to invest in your business

Are you gambling on schemes, or are you investing in information you can use? The line can seem fuzzy, but I’ll bet it’s obvious once you start looking for it.

Ask yourself what you hope to get out of a purchase. You can buy the craziest, most harebrained get-rich-quick course out there, but you’re investing if you have a realistic outcome you want to see from that purchase. (I’ll talk later about some ways that could happen.)

Or, you can buy the most conservative, reputable, boring instructional course in existence and be gambling, if you spent your rent money on it because you hoped that it would revolutionize who you are and what you do, and fix all of the problems in your life.

If you find yourself thinking things like, “Maybe this course will work,” you’re gambling.

Because courses don’t work; students do. No one course or product will “do it” for you.

If you don’t know anything about a topic, yet think that buying one product will make you a ninja master at it, you’re gambling.

If you have a deadline in mind for how fast a course’s content “must work, or else,” you’re gambling.

If you’re spending money that you cannot afford to lose on the hope that you’ll quickly earn it back, you’re gambling.

Investing in information, on the other hand, is slower-paced and more laid back. An “investment” goal should feel reasonable. It shouldn’t make you overly nervous. It should be something you could tell your mother about without her suspecting that you’re one of P.T. Barnum’s famous suckers.

And the interesting thing? There are a bunch of ways to invest, and a bunch of desired outcomes. It’s not always about a cash return.

• Some people will invest in a course specifically to see how the creator put the course together, and how he is able to justify the cost.
• Some people will invest in a product simply to get on the radar of the seller, to set up a connection that they might later be able to turn into a working relationship. (This wasn’t my intention when I bought Naomi Dunford’s Online Business School, but that’s what happened. How much did I get from the course? Who knows? But how much did I gain from meeting Naomi? Um, a whole lot.)
• Some people will buy a product with the intention of learning only ONE tiny tip from the whole thing, and then applying that one tip to make back the price of the course. It might be a quick return, but it might also be over a long time.
• I even heard a story once about a person who bought a very expensive product so that once inside the circle, she could have prospecting access to . . . well, to the kind of people who could afford to buy a very expensive product.

Still not sure? Here are my three big rules for the “right” way to invest in an information product, a course, coaching, or a service:

1. Know your intended outcome

Even the most expensive, overhyped purchase isn’t a gamble if you enter into it knowing what you can reasonably expect to get out of it.

It almost doesn’t matter what that outcome is, as long as you know it in advance.

Maybe you want to make your money back over either a short or a long time.

Maybe you simply want to see the seller’s marketing sleight of hand.

Even if you say, “I’m pretty sure I already know most of this information, but spending $2k on it will force me to use it,” you’re going into the game with your eyes open.

Obviously, if you buy better stuff, it’s easier to go in with reasonable expectations of what you’ll get out of it.

2. Buy on value, not price

Dave Navarro took some flack in certain circles over his product How to Launch the **** Out of Your E-Book. The program cost $97, and people were outraged that a PDF could be so expensive. After all, you could go down to the local Barnes & Noble and get an actual paper book for $20!

That’s looking at price, rather than the value of the information being sold.

(And by contrast, because an information product consists of slick-looking MP4s with better special effects than Avatar doesn’t make it worth a dime.)

Don’t look at a file or a stack of CDs and ask, “Is this collection of pixels or bytes, in and of itself, worth X dollars?”

Instead, ask how much having this new information will, over time, allow you to earn. (And I can tell you without a doubt that if you read How to Launch and you actually take the advice he gives, you’re going to learn something that can improve your sales by a lot more than $97.)

3. Take responsibility

The hallmark of gambling may be high risk, but investment has risk, too. Even the soundest purchases can bomb on you.

When you decide to make any investment, own up to that risk. Be willing to lose what you spend.

Not everyone agrees, but my own philosophy is, I don’t hedge my bets going in, saying that if it doesn’t work out, I’ll ask for my money back.

I know, I know . . . this is heresy, but think about what the unconditional guarantee mindset says. It says that you’re putting the onus on the product to work for you, rather than on yourself to implement what’s in it. You’re saying to yourself, “I’ll give it a shot, but no promises.”

I always thought that it would be really annoying to own a restaurant, and have someone send a $30 steak back because they didn’t like it. Was it burned? No. Tough? No. So what was wrong? The customer just decided he wasn’t that hungry. Well, if the problem is on the customer’s end, then why should the restaurant have to eat the cost?

I’ve paid for products, coaching, and services that didn’t work for me, or that I just plain didn’t like. Unless a provider has deliberately lied or unless it’s obviously, demonstrably terrible, I don’t ask for my money back. I’m looking at one such product right now, on my shelf. It cost $1500, and had an unconditional money-back guarantee. I won’t ask for my money back, though, because there’s nothing wrong with the course. The problem is on my end, in lack of implementation.

You take a risk when you invest in anything (or, for that matter, when you eat at a restaurant). If you want to be 100% sure about everything, then honestly, you really shouldn’t be in business.

I don’t want to understate this: Investment is really important. You need helpers and partners if you want to be efficient and effective. You need information on topics that you don’t already know well. You need advice in order to grow.

And let’s not forget that the mere act of putting your money where your mouth is tells your brain that what you’re doing is a livelihood, not a hobby. Investment is a way of pushing yourself to take your business seriously.

Just know what you want to get out of a purchase before pulling the lever on the metaphorical slot machine.

P.S.

Nobody point out that my slot machine metaphor for business is flawed. Of course it is; I’m just being colorful. How exciting would it have been for me to tell the tale of when my grandparents went to Duluth to put a hundred dollars into a low-yield federal bond?

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant drives a flying saucer and invests in low-yield federal bonds. If you dig his mojo, you should join the Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions for more monthly mojo than you can handle.

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I’ve never understood why Google Analytics shows percentages rather than actual numbers in the “Goals” report when you are looking at traffic sources. The information below is good but it’s a lot better to just see the numerical amounts.

Luckily there is an easy way to show the amounts, if you are at home using custom reports. Simply set up the report using the dimensions below and the information will be available straight away.

The screenshot below shows the final report.

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How to view actual goal numbers rather than percentages in Google Analytics

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