Yahoo! Bought Tumblr…What to do with your Tumblr now?

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:46:33 +0000

So apparently Yahoo bought Tumblr today (for $1.1 billion). Yahoo has promised they won't change much about Tumblr, but it's probably best to cover your bases. What should you do with your Tumblr blog now? Well, if it's any indication of what the best move is, check out this tidbit from WordPress founding developer Matt Mullenweg: normally WordPress imports 400 to 600 posts per hour from Tumblr. Within the hour after the announcement, 72,000 posts were moved from Tumblr to WordPress. If you'd like to go this route, follow these simple steps from Computer World to migrate your Tumblr blog to WordPress:

Is WordPress or Blogger useful for online marketing?

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:02:29 +0000

If I do blogging on wordpress or blogger.com then how can it can be useful for the products and services which we offer? WordPress, hands down, is the most useful for online marketing. Here are several of the countless reasons to use WordPress for online marketing...

How to Share the Best Content for Your Business

Charissa Grandin — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:47:15 +0000

Everyone knows that content marketing is the way to promote your business these days (and don't forget SEO). There is a wealth of information across the web on content marketing, but sometimes taking that information and applying it to your business can be challenging. Copy Blogger posted a recent article with their recommendation on how to make content marketing principles work specifically for your brand. But fortunately there are several other methods to consider as well. We'll share them all with you below. Here are several ways to take all that great content marketing strategy information out there and make it work specifically for your brand:

Why SEO should always be an integral part of Content Marketing

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:53:02 +0000

Successful Content Marketing Necessitates Good SEO. To have a successful content marketing strategy you must include good SEO. Content is king, but you need to optimize all your content for SEO to have the greatest reach, attract your target audience and gain new leads. When you have content optimized for search engines it will continue to be discovered and generate traffic for you long after you post it. You want to have a steady stream of content going out, but you want to be sure that content is optimized for SEO to keep a steady stream of traffic coming in to keep that same content working for you down the line.

Will adding meta tags to a WordPress site make any difference?

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:20:11 +0000

Absolutely! Adding meta tags to any site will greatly help your SEO and help you get discovered online when people are searching for the keywords that you optimize for. It is an excellent idea to add meta tags to your WordPress site. You can use the WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast to optimize all your posts for the keywords pertinent to your brand or business and the keywords for which you want to be found. Take some time every month to brainstorm what keywords would best attract your target audience.Then use those keywords each time your optimize a post with the WordPress SEO plugin.

4 Additional Tips to Avoid Blogging Burnout

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:56:08 +0000

We would like to add four more tips to avoid blogging burnout. There are many different ways you can keep your blog current and many varied types of posts you can write to keep your blog fresh and keep the content flowing:

5 Reasons to Read the Top 75 Marketing Blogs

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:29:26 +0000

Here's another one for inspiration when you need some go-to sources for keeping the latest marketing practices fresh in your mind. Unbounce published this article listing the top 75 Marketing Blogs. This is definitely one for your marketing bookmarks. Author Kristi Hines has conveniently divided these into categories: all-in-one, analytics, blogging, content & copywriting, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, interviews, search engine marketing & optimization, social media marketing, and website optimization. I can't wait to check all of these out. As a content marketer it's important to stay abreast of the latest marketing practices and information. It's a great idea to set aside a block of time each day/week/month, whatever you can make time for, to go through top industry blogs. This will help to:

Is SEO Important for Online Marketing?

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:48:19 +0000

Yes. SEO is central to online marketing. Search Engine Optimization in regards to content marketing as explained on Wikipedia: As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. Optimizing your website and all your content you share online for keywords you want to be discovered for is key in today's marketing world. Here are some tips to help you get started:

6 Ways to Use Social Media to Boost Your Ecommerce Business

Charissa Grandin — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:29:44 +0000

Web Biz recently posted an article outlining what social media and SEO can do for your ecommerce business. Below we share 6 ways you can use social media to boost your ecommerce business.

12 Steps to Implement a Successful Content Marketing Strategy

Charissa Grandin — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:52:31 +0000

Here is a must-read article from Content Marketing Institute on the future of content. Content is central to a good marketing strategy, and good, effective content is key. It is crucial to stay current on the best content marketing practices when it comes to growing your business and your brand. When you create, curate and share good, helpful content, you can effectively display your expertise, build an audience and your business. Content marketing has become an essential role in today's market--so important, in fact, that many larger businesses have broken that role down into distinct functions from Chief Content Officer to Director of Audience. Even if you are a small company or an individual brand, it is important to be aware of how these new roles of content marketing are broken down so that you can be sure you are covering each of these functions within your marketing strategy. Below we share with you 12 practices you can do for your company to ensure you're carrying out these roles even if you aren't able to hire an entire team to perform them.

3 Tools to Help You Write Compelling Posts Even When You Don’t Think You Can

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:06:19 +0000

Crafting the right headline can greatly increase your chances of impelling people to click on the subject line to read your message or article. It's always helpful to have different sources and methods to turn to for reference when you need fresh ideas for content. So, here we share with you three tools to add to your go-to list of sources when you need some inspiration to ensure you get your content noticed.

Small Businesses: Statistics Show How to Grow Your Customer Acquisition & Retention

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:21:12 +0000

Want more customer acquisition and retention? Be sure you're making optimal use of your website and corporate blog. According to a recent article on Brafton.com's blog, a new study shows that when it comes to small businesses, website and corporate blogging work best for customer acquisition and retention. "New data suggests marketers must leverage creative SEO content to speak to every type of visitor online." This can be done through content marketing. If you're familiar with content marketing you know that blogging is a big component of that. When creating a blogging strategy for your business, here are some essential items to consider:

7 Diverse Content Marketing Tips to Increase Traffic, Sales & Engagement

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:04:12 +0000

Looking for some content marketing tips to refresh your current marketing arsenal? Here we found a great list from Search Engine Journal to help boost your site traffic, build visitor engagement and increase sales. This comprehensive list covers several ways in which to market your brand. There's sure to be one on here you haven't tried yet. Incorporating a variety of content marketing methods into your content marketing strategy is a vital approach sure to increase your brand's reach. Below we list our top 7 methods, adding some of our own.

Content Marketing Strategy: 5 Ways to Cut Your Blogging Time in Half

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:36:23 +0000

We recently posted about "spring cleaning" for your site's SEO. It's important to revisit and reassess your content marketing strategy as well. Today we came across this comprehensive article from Search Engine Watch on checking up on your content marketing, social media and SEO strategy health and how these elements work together as a whole to bring about desired results and marketing success. It is full of tips and facts for every facet of your marketing campaign. The third step the author covers is the benefits of blogging. Your blog is a really important component of your marketing, SEO and social media strategy. Blogging is a great tool that can exponentially build your business and audience online over time, particularly if you can commit to a minimum of two solid articles per week...

Content Marketing Strategy: 6 Ways to Share Top Quality Content

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:40:19 +0000

How's your content marketing strategy? Are you consistently sharing and creating good, effective content on your website, social media accounts and interactions across the web? According to this article from content marketing expert Lee Oden, "content ties as the number one digital marketing priority along with conversion rate optimization for 2013." In addition changes in search engines and SEO practice are making it more important than ever to feature good content both on and off your domain. Because more and more people have adopted content marketing, it is critical that the content you are sharing is top-notch.

Essential SEO and Content Marketing Checklist for Blog Writing

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:16:58 +0000

If you have a good content marketing strategy, writing at least two blog posts per week is part of it. Sometimes it can be a struggle to come up with topics or new material. It's helpful to have a guide to follow to make sure you have all the necessary elements for a good post in regards to SEO and content marketing. Here is a great checklist we found on B2C's blog to keep handy when you're writing your blog posts each day. It covers everything you need to include in an article to optimize for content marketing and SEO. Here are the most important items to remember (we've added some of our own):

Must Read: CMI’s Successful Content Marketing Strategy Guide

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:05:45 +0000

Content Marketing Institute posted a helpful white paper today to guide you through building your content marketing strategy. Even if you already have a content marketing strategy in place, this is a great resource to consult to assess your current status. Content marketing strategy is not static--it needs regular attention and updating. So at any stage in your marketing development, it's always a good idea to assess your plan and adapt to current needs. CMI lists 7 steps to create a successful marketing strategy...

7 Successful Practices All Good Content Marketers Share

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:58:58 +0000

In this digital age good content marketing strategy is key to your business success. You need to be sure you've established a good online presence and are doing it well. There are certain traits that the best content marketers possess. Here is a great article by Brian Clark at Marketing Land about 5 traits all successful content marketers share. Here we share his list of 5 traits along with two of our own key content marketing success tips to add to the list.

Spring Cleaning: Assess the State of Your Website’s SEO

Charissa Grandin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:20:11 +0000

Spring is here! Now is a good time to clean up the SEO on your site and give it some much needed attention. We found this great two-part SEO Spring Cleaning guide from Content Lead to help you through the process. Some items you will need to assess...

3 Tips to Building Business with Your Ecommerce Site

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:44:22 +0000

Do you have an commerce site? Link building can help you gain more business. Search Engine Journal just published this article with ideas to help you get started. Here is a summary of their top 3 tips:

Lessons from Forbes on Understanding Social Media and Search

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:29:37 +0000

Forbes published an article today that explains just how crucial it is to have an accurate understanding of social media and search to effectively take action to promote your business successfully. You can't just put out a news release and hope it sticks somewhere. You have to know what you're doing, what works and why. It is about understanding how social and search actually work to be effective and what actions you must take accordingly. To successfully do this, you must be aware of the current state of social media.

Checklist: Build Revenue for Your Online Business

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:23:27 +0000

Before your start building revenue for your business online, you'll want to make sure you have these fundamental business-building blocks down as well as completing the next checklist once you've got your bases covered.

With Google Reader’s Exit, It’s Time to Consider Alternatives

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:05:24 +0000

You probably heard the news yesterday that Google will be shutting down its RSS reader service on July 1. This comes as quite the surprise to some. Many count on Google reader to organize blogs and sites they want to follow to keep up on industry news. I know I used it on a weekly basis to catch up on industry news or tweet relevant articles.

SEO: 5 Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:19:46 +0000

Search Marketing Expo - SMX West is a week long conference for search and social media marketing professionals being held this week in San Jose, CA. Brafton Editorial shared some important SEO insights delivered at SMX West today by Matt Cutts (Google) and Duane Forrester (Bing). The web is full of tips and instruction on SEO--it can be overwhelming at times. So, here are some enlightening tips from two serious experts on SEO to help remind you what NOT to do.

4 Essential Conference Tips (and apps to help!)

Charissa Grandin — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:10:10 +0000

Ever wonder what to do with all the business cards you bring home from networking events, or the best ways to take notes at a conference? Social Media Examiner compiled a great list of the best apps to help maximize your experience at business events and conferences. One of the best ways to make the most of a conference is to be involved--in person and via apps and social media. Below we share some of our favorite recommendations.

The Importance of Responsive Design for WordPress

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:43:38 +0000

Here's a great article from Mashable featuring 20 stunning responsive designs for WordPress. Responsive design is pretty much a must these days with tablet and mobile internet use on the rise exponentially. Read our recent article on the importance of responsive design. WordPress is a very popular, simple and effective way to create a website and maintain a blog. We like to use Theme Forest as a source for site design for clients and ourselves. Make sure when you search to search for "responsive designs." They have quite a nice selection.

Prepare Visually for the New Facebook News Feed

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:02:28 +0000

Facebook just announced it will soon be launching a new news feed format. Here's a great article from Wibiya with 5 tips on how to best optimize your content for the new format. The key to successful content sharing on the new format? Visual. Make sure to optimize your posts and contents across the web that you will share on Facebook to be image-centric, visually friendly. It makes sense: images and visual interest have quickly become a priority when sharing content online. More than words, images are what grab users' attention the most. Make sure to put some thought into the images you create and share. Good quality, original images are best.

What is User-Generated Content (UGC)?

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:34:33 +0000

User-generated content (UGC) is content that your users create themselves. When done effectively it can be a powerful asset to your content marketing strategy. UGC gives power to your customers to create content and generate buzz for your brand.

Google+ for the Win

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:11:43 +0000

If you're familiar with Google+ you are likely aware of some incomparable benefits it has to giving your content marketing strategy a significant boost over other social platforms alone. In this article from Copy Blogger, one of the must-follow content marketing blogs on the web, author Demian Farnworth explains why it is the best social platform for marketers.

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A Better Understanding of Content Curation

Charissa Grandin — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:23:10 +0000

Content Curation continues to be adopted as an integral part of content marketing strategy for more and more people and businesses. Yet many people have misconceptions about what content curation is and are hesitant to try it out. This article by Ron VanPeursem on the B2C blog sheds light on some misconceptions about content curation and highlights its benefits. Well worth the read. And content curation is a practice well worth adopting that can be a vital part of your content marketing practice.

4 Tips to Create More Content in Less Time

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:34:00 +0000

Everyone is always looking for better ways to post more content. Sharing and creating plenty of quality, relevant content can greatly help you get in front of your target audience more often. Right Mix Marketing posted an article today, 21 Tips to Make Oodles of Content in Less Time. Here we share our favorite tip from their post with you and add three of our own.

Here’s One Reason to Have a Good Content Marketing Strategy

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:14:16 +0000

Here's one reason to have a good content marketing strategy: "93% of companies using inbound (digital) marketing increase lead generation," according to new data from HubSpot's ROI report. When you effectively apply good inbound marketing strategies to marketing your business, you can see amazing results in site traffic, SEO, leads and sales.

8 Tips to Win Customers and SEO with Your Site

Charissa Grandin — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:58:20 +0000

HubSpot shared some valuable information on how to maximize your site for your target audience as well as maximize it for ranking well in search engines. Below we summarize what we think are the most important tips to heed.

Rumored New Twitter API Could Be Released Tomorrow

Charissa Grandin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:59:56 +0000

Rumors have been circulating about a new Twitter API that will allow ad campaigns more akin to Facebook ads. API stands for Advertising Propagation Interface. The following SlideShare explains the this concept and how it can be a beneficial form of marketing.

3 Immediate Benefits of Content Curation

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:24:00 +0000

Content curation is on the rise and quite widespread these days. It's definitely something you will want to consider adopting and adding to your content marketing strategy. When you add curation to the mix, you are able to share more content and provide a wide variety of helpful information to your readers and clients.

Quora: The Powerful Content Marketing Tool You Should Be Using

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:02:00 +0000

Quora is a great little tool for content marketing (that you may not yet know about), particularly when it comes to writer's block. Quora is an online marketing power tool -- it is the ultimate place to learn about everything, and everything and it has a massive built-in audience. -The Content Strategist Here are 3 invaluable reasons to use Quora to fuel your content marketing:

How to Reach Your Target Audience Online

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:44:37 +0000

Know where your target audience hangs out online

Do you know how to best reach your target audience online? This article from Social Media Today breaks down where to find everone you may be looking for. It’s never been easier to research and locate your ideal customers online, so there really is no excuse for not marketing correctly to your ideal customers via social media. If you know where to find who you're trying to reach, it's much easier to make the best use of your time and effort to getting your message out there. Take a look at the...

Two Undeniable Reasons Content Marketers Should Use Instagram

Charissa Grandin — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 03:42:16 +0000

Two Undeniable Reasons Content Marketers Should Use Instagram

Instagram may not be suitable for every B2B and B2C company, but there are definite benefits to the type of visual marketing that Instagram provides that should not be overlooked. Visual marketing is becoming increasingly popular because it is effective. These days people are barraged with an overload of information on the Internet. It's important to incorporate quality images that stand out and make people want to click them. Easily reach members of your target audience by making good use of...

Newsjacking, Content Marketing and the Superbowl Power Outage

Charissa Grandin — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 22:42:42 +0000

One effective content marketing tool you can use is newsjacking. This is the practice of taking advantage of a breaking news story to create content around—a tweet, a Facebook post, blog post, etc. This is a great way to capitalize on news of the moment and get discovered by (or even engage with) members of your target audience.

Content Marketers: Don’t be too quick to jump on the Vine bandwagon

Charissa Grandin — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 04:27:00 +0000

Twitter released a video sharing app called Vine on January 24. According to this B2C article many content marketers have signed up, but it’s probably not a worthwhile tool for your content marketing arsenal for these reasons: