Following is 5 SEO tips that will have you well on your way to writing better, and more effective SEO marketing copy.

SEO Tip 1

Write valuable content

Writing for the search engine algorithm that will sift through your copy can be a slippery slope. In order for your content to compliment your SEO marketing strategy better in terms of back links, bookmarks and to rank high in search results, you will have to find the balance between valuable content geared at your human audience, and writing search marketing friendly copy.

SEO Tip 2

Keyword Research - success depends on this

Knowing which keywords to use and who your target audience is merely requires a bit of research. Yet it can’t be stressed enough. It is safe to say that your whole SEO marketing campaign’s success hinges on this element. Common sense tells us that you can’t reach coffee drinking customers if you write about plant pesticides. By taking the time to perform a simple online check using aids such as Wordtracker or Google’s Keyword tool, you can gauge the relevancy of the terms related to your industry. This will place you in a much better position to know what you should be writing about, and who your target audience is.

SEO Tip 3

Keyword density – find the right balance

Saturating your article with the relevant keywords may end up doing more damage than good. This may prevent it from being picked up and indexed by the search engines, and might even compromise the effectiveness of your strategic search marketing efforts. The rule of thumb is that keyword density should make up 3 – 10% of your written content. There are online tools that will easily calculate keyword density for your copy, eliminating any doubts.

SEO Tip 4

Write persuasively – get to the point

The purpose of search marketing copy, besides affecting your SEO ranking is to persuade and influence people’s thinking. In order to achieve these objectives you need copy that is impactful and that will attract and keep your reader’s attention. Most importantly it must convince your audience to take action.

SEO Tip 5

Use your headings for all its worth

The heading of your article serves a wider purpose than merely informing the reader of its contents. In terms of SEO marketing, the heading of your article should be used to score easy points from search engine algorithms. Through cleverly implementing the keyword into the title, you will immediately place extra weight behind your ranking.

By incorporating these fail proof techniques in your SEO marketing strategy, you will notice an increased efficacy in your copy’s performance that will guarantee your site to perform at its peak. These are simply some SEO tips to follow in your quest to write better SEO copy.

Important questions business owners, managers and marketing managers must ask before embarking on a web design project.

1. Why have a website?

Important question. Here’s why. Answer this question to determine the single most important reason why you need a website. Because every company has a website except us, is not an answer. Here’s a tip, no, it’s actually a challenge. Improve the lives of your customers with your website.

2. What must the website achieve?

Before you ask what your website should look like, rather ask what should it achieve? You should have clearly defined goals that can be measured. Examples of goals can be increasing sales conversions, newsletter sign up conversions and increasing website traffic.

3. What will be our usability testing strategy?

You’ll notice that I’m asking what will be your usability testing strategy and not; Will you have a usability testing strategy? Your website’s success depends on the successful interactions with users – I like to call them people because that’s what we are. If people struggle to find things, download a file, sign up or buy a product then you’ve lost out on possible revenue. The only way to know if your website is used as you intended it to be used is to do usability testing. This guy rocks at usability testing.

4. How often will we update the site and who will do it?

If you plan on updating your website on a regular basis it may be a good idea to invest in a Content Management System (CMS). Although the initial investment in a CMS can be substantial, it can prove worthwhile in the long run. A CMS is a web software that allows anyone with computer literacy to update and maintain a website. Be sure to include this consideration before you embark on a web design project.

5. Must we show up on search engines?

Along with your overall online marketing strategy, your SEM and SEO strategy needs to be defined from the outset of your web design project. Why? Because websites have to be developed in a specific way to be as findable as possible for search engine spiders.

6. Which web design agency will we work with?

Excellent question. Thanks for asking. Now there are thousands of web designers and small agencies popping up like mushrooms all over the place and there are big agencies that charge small fortunes. Making a choice can be overwhelming and confusing at best. The best advice I can give as a business owner is this. Think of your web design agency in terms of a love relationship. You need to trust each other and confide in each other. There will be teething problems as with any love relationship but there will also be chemistry and comradeship and integrity. The web design agency should be able to demonstrate their abilities and show how their work has positively contributed to their clients businesses.

7. How much money do we need to spend?

Touchy subject, I know, but revealing your budget is something you absolutely have to let any online marketing agency know about. If you don’t want to reveal your budget, many top quality agencies won’t even consider working with you. Without revealing your budget you’re asking for web agency’s to quote blindly. Now I know you may, and most people do, have reservations about this because you think the web design agency will try and see what they can get away with. This all comes down to the trust and integrity factor again.

Defining your web design and development budget is one thing, but remember this. If you need your website to be found on search engines and if want to continually attract visitors and prospects to your website, it will need fresh content on a regular basis. This means regular updating, maintenance, marketing and copywriting budgets need to be considered.

Here is a list of the basic services you should budget for:

• Web Hosting (Traffic and Bandwidth usage)
• Design and Development of website
• Online Copywriting / Content Creation
• Usability testing
• Monthly Maintenance
• Monthly Marketing (SEM and SEO)

Well. I sincerely hope this post helps. Any questions, web design related, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Without beating around the bush – the best way to build an email marketing list is to create an opt-in list. Before we go any further, it is best that I describe what an opt-in list really is: This is a mailing list that compels a user to actively agree to receive an email such as a newsletter.

This means that people who subscribe (opt-in) to your mailing list really do want to hear from you. What better target audience do you want?

Here are 3 crucial factors to consider when creating your opt-in email marketing list.

Step 1: Get a subscribe form on your website

One of the most obvious, but often overlooked ways of building an email marketing list (email database) is to have a subscribe function available on your website. This needs to be unmistakably clear on the page accompanied by a strong call to action (CTA) to persuade visitors to subscribe.

Ask the minimal information necessary. People don’t like to give away too much of their personal details and they don’t like long forms. The minimal info your form should request is an email address (thank you captain obvious!), but if you want to personalize your email campaign you’re going to need a field for the name too. Then again, each situation is different. You need to decide what’s right for your situation.

Step 2: Provide an Incentive For Subscribing

If you can convince your potential client to hand over their details, then the battle is half won. Along with a clear cal to action your website should clearly state the benefits for signing up. Consider offering free stuff – people love getting stuff for free. For example offer a free 30 day trial or a free test drive or free valuable information, etc.

One needs to track, analyze and optimize subscription forms to increase sign up conversion rates. The more convincing your call to action and the more attractive your offer is and the easier your form is to fill in – the more subscribers you’ll win.

Step 3: Turn On The SEO Heat

Once you have a subscribe form going and a solid offer to boot, then it is high time to start turning on the heat with regards to your SEO and SEM; this is to get targeted traffic to your website – The logical conclusion is that the more visitors you get, the more sign ups you’ll get and the better your online business will do. It’s a numbers game, pure and simple. But, take note, SEO is in itself not an overnight process and it will take many months of tweaking, feedback from the search engines, quality content and much more in order to create a true success story for your website.

The success of your email marketing depends on many factors. The quality of your opt-in list is surely one of them. And when you’ve finally obtained permission from people to talk to them, you’d better be sure your words are worth more than gold.

Yip, email marketing positively still rocks. It is definitely one of the most profitable online marketing tools today. It’s so easy to do, quick to produce and with the right strategy can yield the best return on investment compared to other online marketing tactics.

When targeted correctly, your email marketing campaign can deliver your marketing message to the ideal prospect in a timely manner – you can strike at the exact point in the selling cycle that you desire and gain high response rates from prospects that you want. It’s no mystery why Microsoft uses email marketing month after month, it must be because it really works! As you sit there reading this, discover 8 rocking reasons why you should invest in email marketing.

1. Reaching A Worldwide Audience Rocks

The walls of traditional marketing are null and void. If you have the kind of product and service suitable for a global audience then online marketing and especially email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your market. Emails can reach who you want, when you want and the way you want.

2. Interactivity Rocks

Utilize the power of rich, web-based media to create emails that grabs your target market by the collar and refuses to let go! Using well crafted call to actions and hyperlinks you could easily point prospects to landing pages on your website giving you even more opportunities to persuade and sell.

3. Personalize Your Emails – Now That Rocks

Email marketing software makes it really easy to personalize email campaigns. To increase your campaign response rates, include the recipients name in the subject area of the email and address them on their name in the email itself.

4. Instant Measurable Results Definitely Rocks

The measurement tools that today’s email software provides are awesome. You can actually see who opened their emails, how many emails were opened and what links were clicked. This information helps you gauge quickly what works and what doesn’t. Once you know this you can quickly adjust the next campaign for email marketing success.

5. Accurate Targeting Rocks

The best people to market to are people who want to hear from you. People who expressly gave you permission to communicate with them via email are a gold mine. If you don’t have an existing email marketing mailing list you can purchase a legitimate custom-built list and target prospects you may never before have reached. Although purchasing a mailing list is not always the best thing to do. It’s better to have list of prospects who gave you permission to talk to them.

6. Super Fast Responses Rocks

Cumbersome replies to direct mail, as well as slower responses are the order of the day – in the 80’s and 90’s at least. With email marketing you are able to see responses within minutes of sending out a campaign!

7. Email Marketing Is Quick and Easy – This always Rocks

With all the easy to use email marketing software available today you can create campaigns right there where you are sitting, right now. In the comfort of your own home you can create an entire email marketing campaign. No complex resources, no

wasted revenue and plenty of feedback are what you can expect to receive – if you do it right.

8. Email Marketing Ain’t Expensive – How Rocking Indeed?

Email marketing is way cheaper than traditional direct marketing (snail mail). Research indicates up 70% cheaper. What’s worse, is traditional direct marketing lacks the interactivity, fast response times and measurability that email marketing provides.

If you want to increase your revenue, measure your exact return on investment and build relationships with customers and prospects, then you’ll want to invest in email marketing. You can read more about doing email marketing right way on our website.

This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.

Here are some the astonishing facts:

• Newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years
• In the last 5 years unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million.
• This year, traditional advertising is in steep decline:
• Newspaper Advertising is down 18.7 %
• TV advertising is down 10.1%
• Radio advertising is down 11.7%
• Magazine advertising is down 14.8%

In contrast to the decline of traditional advertising, digital advertising is growing rapidly

• Mobile advertising id up 18.1%
• Online marketing spend is up 9.2%

Dell claims they have earned $3 Million via Twitter posts since 2007.

In February 2008, John McCain raised $11 Million for his U.S. presidential bid.

That same month Barack Obama attended no fundraisers. Instead, Obama leveraged online social networks to raise $55 million in those 29 days. How are you using social networking sites.

The mobile device will be the world’s primary connection tool Internet in 2020. The computer I your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred times smaller than the one computer at MIT in 1965.  So what used to fit in a building now fits into your pocket. What fits in your pocket now will fit into a blood cell in 25 years.

This video was produced in September 2009. Which makes most of the facts and figures mentioned here obsolete and out of date. Welcome to the digital revolution.

If I was to get into a long elevator ride with you and you asked me for some words of wisdom on SEO, this is what I would say:

1. Do Thorough SEO Keyword Research

The first step in SEO keyword research is to get under the skin and into the minds of your prospects to figure out which search words and phrases they use to find your products and services. If you have Google Analytics monitoring your website you can also determine what search phrases people use to find your website.

When you select your keywords, remember to take into account things like various ways of spelling these keywords. People may also use singular or plural or even use different words for the same product. For instance, you might be missing out on a lot of website traffic because you’ve optimized your website for the search phrase “cellular phone special” and not for “mobile phone special” as well.

2. Create Valuable SEO Content

Users get sucked into websites with great content. In this case we’re talking abut website copy. Let’s examine some of the best ways website copy can be used to support SEO efforts.

Firstly, content must provide value for the user. Let me explain. If you’re looking to buy a new TV and you find a website with expert articles and user-authored reviews that answers all your questions, then chances are you’d view the company as an authority on the subject. You may even return to the website to read up on that specific TV model you so desire. This generates trust and could quite possibly lead to you buying from that company.

Secondly, the keywords and key phrases used in the website copy is healthy for search engine spiders which results in better rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

3. Design An SEO Ready Website

An SEO ready website means that the website structure is built in a way that it easily supports SEO efforts. Now hang on, this might get a little technical for some.

When search engines crawl your website they crawl through the HTML code. Make sure that the spiders can easily crawl the content of your web pages by employing web standards development techniques (ask your web developer about web standards). This ensures that your website is lightweight, loads quicker and is easier to crawl for spiders.

4. Start A Link Building Effort

Link building is any effort you make to increase the amount of links from other websites to your website. Search engines pick this up and regard the amount of links to your website as signals of relevance. Allow me to clarify.

In the eyes of search engines, each link from one site to another counts as a vote of confidence. If a website attracts many links from other websites, search engines deem it as a credible source or as an authority on the particular subject that website is about.

May I remind you about creating valuable SEO content as mentioned in section 2 above? Valuable content will attract links because for some reason people like to share and the nature of the web makes it easy for people to share.

5. Measure Your SEO Efforts

One of the most overused yet most pertinent phrases I hear often is, ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure.’ This phrase is all the more relevant to SEO.

With web metric tools such as Google Analytics you can measure how many visitors your site attracts, how long they visit, what pages they view, how long was it viewed and so much more. It’s the perfect tool to find out if your SEO efforts are paying off.

So these are the SEO tips I would give to you in a long elevator ride. If you didn’t fall asleep reading this, kudos to you. May you live long and prosper.

The clip has had 817,919 views since it’s been discovered on the 12 Jan 2010.



The 90 second viral clip sadly is not about a real product but rather a promo for Nolan Films. However, brands should take a leaf out of this and hopefully realize that great ideas need great execution. Great ideas with poor execution or vice versa just won’t work as well.

What also helped to make this viral video clip a success is the soundtrack. I don’t know the first song, although it sounds familiar. But I definitely know Jimbo’s, The End. Eye of a tiger has been overused, but still works in this instance.

• Higher revenues through increased sales
• Increased user efficiency
• Reduced development costs
• Reduced support costs

Until usability gets embedded in the processes of your company, you’ll probably find you need to justify the investment. Fortunately, usability initiatives deliver a major return on investment: it’s not unusual for usability projects to return benefits of 5-10 times their cost in the first year alone. — David Travis, October 1, 2007

If you own a business and have a website, then you have to read this article on usability.

Read the full article here http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/usabilitybenefits.html

Don’t read this if you already have successful email marketing campaign going.

Do read this if you’re thinking about getting one going or just lacking the motivation to do it.

I have found that lack of discipline and procrastination are one of the biggest reasons why companies don’t use one of the most lucrative online marketing tactics available today.

So from my own experience here’s what I know works.

1. DO IT!

If you don’t your competition will sooner or later. Be the first, second or third but don’t be the last to get an email marketing campaign going in your industry.

Here’s some advice a client of mine recently imparted on me. He said; There are real smart, talented people (let’s call them super Joes) out there that never really achieve anything and there are average Joes who have become spectacularly rich. The difference between these people? Average Joe chose to do something and super Joe kept talking about doing something. So take irreversible action now and start planning your email marketing strategy.

2. Increase gain, decrease pain

If you want your audience to open up their email inbox to you then give them something to increase the gain and decrease the pain. No, don’t give them drugs! Give them something of value, for free. This can be anything from valuable useful inside information, special deals, free stuff, etc.

Email marketing is essentially a CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management) and the best way to maintain relationships is to give some love without expecting anything in return. So give something in your newsletters that your audience will appreciate and that’s possibly worth sharing with friends.

3. Do you have permission

Some mornings when I slide into my office chair to read my mail, I find that some random Joe is trying to tell me and sell me, right inside my inbox. Don’t these people know that this is my inbox!

Although spam is annoying I can maintain my composure, but there are people I know who get convulsions, spill their morning tea and go into epileptic verbal fits when they receive spam. I can’t stress this enough. Only send emails to people who have opted in to your mailing list. These are people who are giving you permission to communicate with them. It’s any marketer’s dream.