“linkbait”  has been around as long as the internet has, it was just never called “linkbait” it was called content and many bloggers have been doing it for years without ever knowing it. Many of the best bloggers produce articles and posts for their readers to enjoy and not in the hope that it will get picked up and linked to, but that is what happens with really great content, people link to is because they want to. Since the advent of the social bookmarking and the Web 2.0 sites it can happen more and more.

If you produce content that satisfies your reader’s needs and not in the hope that you can pick up some links, you may find your self pleasantly surprised with what can happen. If on the other hand you to create a piece that you want to work as “linkbait”  a lot of extra planning is needed, how will you get people to notice what you have written? And how will you get them to share with others?

If you can catch a breaking news story before everyone else or if you can put your spin on something that has been recently featured in the news this can be a great way to pick up a lot of interest.

If you can answer and question better than anybody else. The list of possibilities here are endless, literally anything with a “how to” at the beginning of the title can work but only if what you are offering can answer all the questions the searcher have, back your findings with plenty of research, build your credibility by pointing to sites that can help to enrich the answer and there’s always the chance that they will link back.

Target the right audience

When writing your article write it with your reader in mind, different audience will need to be approached differently, teens and young adults will enjoy a light hearted piece more than someone in the sixties would, in this case the teens would be more willing to share this with their friends, and this might just help to get the ball rolling.

Offer Real Value

Your content will only pick up links if it offers the reader real value, if your readers don’t see any value in the piece why would they tell anybody else about it?. If they recommend something they are in a sense putting their seal of approval on it, unless they are willing to do that they won’t tell others about what you have created.

Attention Grabbing

This can prove the toughest thing to do and not only is it the toughest it’s probably the most important aspect of your article. The heading may only be a few words long but those few words have a lot of work to do, they first need to grab the reader’s  attention, hold for it for a second, give them a a teaser of what they can expect to find if they keep reading.

Hold Their Attention

A great heading will get the visitor right where you want them, now the opening paragraph needs to continue the good work started by the heading. The aim of the first paragraph needs to reaffirm that they are making the right decision and if they continue to read through the page they are in for a real treat.

Closing.

In most circumstances the ending paragraph is more or less a recap of what you just told the reader, I see no reason why this should be any different. But this time why not ask them if they linked the article and if they did why not share it with some of their friends by using the conveniently positioned social bookmarking buttons.

This is a Guest post by Neil Jones of eMobileScan, one of the Uk’s leading Barcode Scanner experts, specializing in the Symbol LS2208.

Here, then, are 5 easy local search marketing and SEO tips to help you “act local” for success!

1. Get A Website

This shouldn’t need saying at this point in the 21st Century, but you really do need your own website! Local search marketing just doesn’t work otherwise, and customers are increasingly suspicious of any business that doesn’t have a website – it doesn’t seem like a “real” business, somehow.

2. Get Your Website Right

Local search marketing starts with your web address. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to get a domain name from your own country if you’re serving a local market – .co.uk, rather than .com, for instance. Follow this up by making sure your actual business address is prominently displayed on your site, along with a local phone number. This is solid evidence that you’re a proper local business, and your customers will appreciate it. It won’t harm your search engine rankings either!

3. Get Your SEO Sorted

SEO isn’t difficult, but it does require a bit of thought. The idea is to think like your customer, standard business advice, but all too easily forgotten. What search terms is your customer most likely to use – “shoe shops, anytown”, or “shiny shoes, everywhereshire”?

Once you have a list of these terms, base the content of your website around them. Make it interesting and relevant content, the sort of thing people actually like to read. Above all, make sure it’s written in legible English. There’s nothing worse than a web page that’s obviously been stuffed with keyword and SEO terms. It may fool the search engines, but search engines don’t buy from you – real live human beings do!

4. Get On The Search Engines

Once your website is up and running, submit your details to the 3 biggest local search engines. Google, Bing and Yahoo all have local services, where you can build a profile for your business. Submission is easy and free, and an essential step in local search marketing.

5. Get Reviewed

Finally, encourage your customers to review your business. Good reviews are obviously welcome, but don’t be afraid of bad reviews. Too many good reviews can look a bit phoney, so the occasional bad review helps to give a more realistic picture. Note – the important word here is “occasional”!

The internet is a global phenomenon, but local knowledge still counts. Pay attention to your local search marketing and SEO, and you’ll create a powerful and effective shop front for your business.

Technology has truly made our lives much easier and more comfortable. Now, everything seen outside your home can be seen through the monitor of your desktop computer. The whole world can be encased in a 14” LCD monitor and all we have to do is click. Technology has made it even better, with the surge of smart phones, we are not just restricted to texting, calling, and checking our email. Mobile phones have even become a driving force in sales and marketing. The line between mobile devices and computers is starting to fade; you can buy groceries, watch movies, and even check the latest happenings around the metro on your mobile phones now.

Here are some things you can do with that handy phone:

• Go shopping. Who would ever imagine that you could buy your favorite clothes on the Internet? You can just literally sit down at the bus or at the subway, and browse through your favorite high end stores and check their new collection, or even see which stores are on sale! This way of shopping has been coined as “shopping on the move”. This can be highly addicting especially for people with busy schedules who are always on the move. Their mobile device acts as an escape from their busy lifestyles and provides a short feeling of excitement as they get to shop directly from their phones. You can also shop for books and other gadgets online. Payment is usually by credit card.

• Take tours of the world. Here, users can visit any place around the world without leaving the comfort of your own home. It may not be as exciting as really going to the place itself, but browsing through the different videos and photos has its own version of excitement as well.
Aside from these, how does one use their everyday mobile phone to expand their business? With new features and applications in today’s smart phones, it is impossible that these won’t come in handy. Here are some ways to utilize the power of these tiny gadgets:

• Your very own business hotline. This is one of the basics. Even though a landline is helpful, getting a mobile phone which can answer calls anytime anywhere could also help in your business. There are already lots of phones coming out that use a landline number, this have proven to be convenient to people who are usually on the go.

• Creating your mobile website. Nowadays, anyone can create their own website. This is essential because people go online more now than they did 10 years ago. The problem is how to recreate it so that anyone can access it through his or her mobile phones. It might look hard, but it’s actually very easy. You can download mobile kits and applications online that will transform your website and make it possible to be viewed on a mobile phone. It’s quite easy, and all you have to do is follow the steps. When creating a mobile website you have to make sure that it’s compatible with as many kinds of mobile as possible. You might have successfully created a mobile website, but can it be viewed in any type of mobile phone? You can also ask the help of professionals when it comes to creating your website.

• Using your cell phones as guides. Recently some museums have created mobile phone applications to act as guide maps with added features such as interactive menus where guests can view added information on their phones while strolling around the museums.

The world is truly at your fingertips. Many people have used the internet for online businesses, since it costs less and is becoming more of a convenience especially to people to have no time to go out. The mobile phone is starting to pave its way. Mobile phones have been around for quite some time and who would know that this small device could be used to earn money? Now, we can truly say that nothing is impossible and maybe in the near future more amazing things are waiting to happen.

Judy Gulick is an avid mobile user and writes for various blogs on emerging mobile and business Internet technology.

This is a guest post and the author’s views below are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Momentum Marketing.

1. Personal or company website – There are two ways where you can publish your bio and take advantage of some links. It is recommended that you have your bio on your personal website or blog (or both) and on the website of the company you work for or own. That way people can learn more about you if they need to.

2. Conferences and events – If you are going to be a part of a big event, perhaps one where you will speak to an audience and you are announced to be there on a certain website, you should take advantage of that and publish your bio.

3. Author bio – When you are publishing articles or writing a guest post, you will often be asked for your bio. It is a great way to take advantage of that fact and write it so people can see it.

4. Profiles – If you have a profile on certain social networks or social bookmarking website, you can publish your full bio there and include the links you want.

So how you can actually use the bio to your advantage?

1. Links – You bio should include links. Links are not only for the search engines. Keep in mind that people who are reading your bio are already interested in your and might want to know more. Links will help them and redirect them to the right places where they can learn all that valuable information about you and your business.

2. Co-Citation – In case you don’t know what I mean I will give an example. Let’s say your company’s name has the word SEO in its name. It is a great idea to make your company’s name and the words “SEO tools”, “SEO consulting” etc. stand close to each other. That way, the search engines will eventually find out that the two are connected.

3. Amount of links – The amount of links is completely up to you! Where you put them, how many you use and where they lead to is for you to decide. However, don’t use your bio to spam. If you are going to use links, make them relevant to what you are saying and to the anchor text. That way, everything will feel and will be natural.

As you can see, what you do with your bio is up to you but you should also be careful if you want to do it perfectly good. My advice is to make a couple of versions of your bio with different lengths because the different websites allow different amount of symbols that you can use.

This is a guest post by Lyuben Georgiev. Lyuben is working for Outrider Denmark – one of the largest search engine optimizaiton companies (the experts there commonly refer to it as Søgemaskine optimering bureau) in Europe. He also writes for a lot of blogs including Search Engine Journal.

This is a guest post and the author’s views below are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Momentum Marketing.

What type of audience? Niche or general?

With the many social media websites out there, audiences will vary significantly from one to another. There are several general news sites such as Digg, but there are also a number of great sites focusing on a specific niche. Such sites may not send much traffic, but their traffic is usually of higher quality, offering greater networking opportunities.

What type of content works best?

One of the primary things you might want to observe is the results of various types of content. Check the front page daily for several days and identify any habits or patterns. Many social media websites have an audience that usually prefers particular types of content. Learn what you can from popular items, and create content that is likely to appeal to users. For instance, if resource lists are always on the front page, you might want build your own resource list. Of course, the content you produce should also be popular with your regular subscribers and readers.

What type of content doesn’t do well?

While you are looking for content that produces results, you should also take note of the types of content not appearing on the front pages, or what draws negative responses from readers. Just like any audience has its likes, it will also have its dislikes. Promoting the wrong kind of content at a particular social media website is a waste of time.

Are users allowed to submit their own content?

This was one of my main considerations when looking for a site to promote my Diet to Go coupons, Bistro MD promo codes and Medifast discounts. If you are planning on targeting a particular social media website, you will want to know whether there are rules concerning submitting your own content. If there are, you will need to ask friends to submit it, or rely on your readers.

How many votes are required to be popular?

Some major sites can take more than 100 votes to get to the front page, while smaller social media websites might only need a few votes. Obviously, larger sites usually have more users, making it easier to get votes. This is something you need to consider.

Are there widgets/tools that can be used on your site?

You must be familiar with voting widgets and buttons. Some plugins and widgets allow users to vote at almost any site they want, while others are only for specific sites. Consider whether you need to use voting buttons or widgets on your site.

About Author
Charles is a technology lover and regularly writes about social media and internet marketing. He also writes about nutrition for diet blogs that share Diet to Go discounts and Medifast coupons. Currently, he is writing for a diet blog which offers $25 off on Medifast weight loss plan and DietToGo promotion code, two meal replacement plans.

This is a guest post and the author’s views below are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Momentum Marketing.

Market – this is a free marketing opportunity, work all the space that you have to your favour by telling the world what you have on offer in terms of your USP and your products/service. Ensure that you have put a link to your website from your profile page and that are making the most of any space on the background image.

Commit – Twitter will deliver for you if you commit to two essential components that all successful social networking requires. One is that you will Tweet quality content in the form of links to useful pages and educational material, and the other is that you will be present enough to engage with others. It really does work best as an interaction tool, but not in spammy way. By providing quality information, you will be gaining the respect and ears and eyes of your market.

Tweet – for the best results, you should really sign on daily. If you can’t commit to that, then you can always use tools like Hootsuite to schedule your Tweets in your absence. But Tweeting manually is the best so that you can take part instantaneously in the community.

ReTweet – behave like a reporter for your connections by Retweeting the best posts and information you find that will be of use for your market.

Reply – by responding to any mentions of you, you are taking part in the conversation and building a community. You can ask questions and provide answers. Just type the handle (for example @Obama) to respond.

Tools – use what is available in the form of the tools specifically developed for use with Twitter, these include http://en.splitweet.com/ that will follow the mentions of your brand on Twitter.

Search – by using the search tool on Twitter with #hash tags you can find who is looking for services such as yours. Use http://search.twitter.com/ to find people asking questions in your niche industry.

#Hashtag – use the hashtag when you tweet so that your tweets will display in searches ie #SEO

Directory – http://www.twellow.com/ is a Twitter directory so that you can find businesses and people in your niche industry to follow, some of them will follow back.

PowerTwitter – will allow you to watch videos and you can preview what is on the end of link addresses without needing to click.

Shorten your links by using http://bit.ly or the tool in Hootsuite if they are too long.

How has your experience with Twitter been so far?

Here then, is a four point strategy to give you a successful head start in small business internet marketing.

1. What’s The Point?

The first and most obvious question, and therefore the one that’s most easily overlooked – what do you actually want from your small business internet marketing initiative? Decide on your goals in advance and make sure they’re specific, concrete and measurable. Vague goals get vague results, every single time.

2. What Does The Customer See?

When a visitor lands on your website, what do they see? Interesting, relevant content, that demonstrates that you’re reliable and trustworthy? Or a load of badly written sales talk riddled with spelling mistakes? You need to be as professional online as you are in real life, so make sure your website isn’t the equivalent of a stained shirt!

3. What Tells You They’ve Been There?

This goes back to the earlier point about making sure your goals are measurable. You need to know which of your marketing efforts are paying off, so you need to know where your visitors are coming from. You also need to be able to track conversions, ie, which of your website visitors actually turn into paying customers. There are any number of website statistics packages available, many of them free, so instal some without further delay, and actually look at what they’re telling you.

4. What’s Your Social Media Profile?

Every small business should have a blog, and probably a Twitter account and a Facebook page as well. These can be easily interlinked with free online services that allow you to post to all of them at once. This creates a little infrastructure around your main website, attracting more visitors and potential customers.

Two points to consider. Once you start posting to social media sites, keep posting – there’s nothing more off-putting than looking at a blog that was last updated a year ago. Secondly, post creatively. Obviously you’re a business, and your main aim is to make money, but a string of relentless sales messages will just alienate people. People like to buy, but they don’t like being sold to.

So concentrate on providing information, helpful hints, humorous stories and so on. Anything that a real person might like to read.

Small business internet marketing is an art form, but it’s one that’s very easily learned. The main principle is to be clear about what you want and to be clear about what your customers want – not such radical marketing concepts, after all.

Image by Andy Beal.

Profile

Add as much information as possible to make it 100% complete. This will mean adding education, career history, companies that you have worked for etc. The more you add, the better you will come across. People will trust you more and you will benefit from all the connections that you will have access to from the companies, schools, university, etc.

Set your profile for SEO by adding ‘Other’ as your website link and then adding your chosen keywords for your site, followed by the URL. You will be rewarded with a nice back link to your site. Another way to use SEO in your profile is to include keywords that people would search on. Add these to your summary and your interests.

Add a professional looking photograph. Think ‘friendly but approachable’ for the best results.

Connections

Now it’s time to get to work on connecting with people from your past. The more people you connect to, the higher your visibility will be. It is also more likely that people would work with you, if you are a friend of a friend as opposed to being an unknown entity to them.

Use the search tool to look for more people that you know.

Connect with your Twitter account and your WordPress blog by using the applications. You may also want to connect to your Slideshare account.

Ask for recommendations and give recommendations to those that you know. This will give more credibility to your claimed skills and talents.

Networking

Using LinkedIn for networking can yield very fruitful results. You can join niche groups that will have people in your exact niche. If you can’t find your niche, then you can easily create a group. Use the groups to interact and as a place to distribute relevant and pertinent posts from your blog (if you have one). Don’t spam though – spamming is not a quality marketing practice.

Use the Answers tool to ask questions and provide knowledgeable answers. This is an opportunity to display your expertise and knowledge on the topic at hand.

LinkedIn really is a powerful networking tool and an absolute goldmine where prospects are concerned. Be certain to at least create a profile on it even if you are not being continually active on it.

Don’t forget to Connect with us on LinkedIn!

Here we share our favourite social networking tools available that will save you trouble and time:

Addictomatic – Search for a term on this nifty tool and it will return results from blogs, social networks and the main search engines. This tool can be used in various ways. You can use it to see what is being said about your company and how far you have reached. Alternatively, it can be used as a tool to view what is showing up for your keywords. This will give you an insight into what the competition is doing, that perhaps you should be.
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Social Mention – Get an idea of how your company is perceived with this tool. Positive or negative coverage on the web. Other info provided is on who is mentioning you most, with which keywords and what sites. Again, this can prove useful with keywords or if you want to check out what your competition is doing. The competition really needs to be followed at all times by businesses, after all they could be up to something that you need to know about.
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How Sociable? – how visible is your business. The Pro version of this social networking tool enables you to check how you compare against your adversaries on all the main social media sites and save it all in a PDF file to share with colleagues or employees.
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Twitter Feed – use this tool to post your blog for you automatically and to share your Tweets and your blog posts. Analysis of clicks is possible but probably the best part about this tool is that you can gain back links to your site as it works for you. For example, if you sign up to sites such as identi.ca and hello.tx then you can ask Twitterfeed to post to them for you too.
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Hootsuite – a social networking tool that will schedule your status updates and Tweets. It will cater to many accounts at once and is all operated from a tidy dashboard. If you have more than one employee who you would like to operate your social media marketing, then you can set up an account on Hootsuite with access to the same social media accounts. It clearly displays all mentions and responses, with a URL shortener too.
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By setting up these social networking tools for your business, it’s almost like having a full time employee focused on your social media strategy. You can check out the competition and look for opportunities to gain more coverage of your company in addition to taking care of your online reputation management.

Which social media tools are your favourites? Let us know in comments!

Outbound Marketing – Dandelion Seeds

Dandelions send out literally thousands of seeds.  Most of them will get eaten by birds, or will shrivel up and die in the sun, or get washed away in the rain.  Nevertheless, one or two will find just the right conditions in which to grow.  Most of nature works on this principle.  Send enough of it out and some of it is bound to stick.

Marketing has worked in pretty much the same way for centuries – from shouting about your wares in the local market to TV ads.  The process has become more sophisticated over the years, but the idea is always the same.  Get as many people as possible to hear your message, and some will buy.

All advertising is outbound marketing, as is cold calling and email blast marketing.

Inbound Marketing – Tasty Nectar

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, works on another natural principle.  Plants depend on pollinating insects for their survival, and have evolved sophisticated ways of attracting them.  Certain orchids, for example, mimic the form of female bees in order to attract pollinating males.  Other plants give off the scent of rotting meat to attract flies.  In other words, the plant gets what it wants by offering the insects what they want.

This is exactly how inbound marketing works.  Just as a flower has evolved to attract passing insects to its tasty nectar , so websites have evolved to attract passing internet traffic.  A fundamental principle of the inbound approach is that people are already looking for what you have to offer.  They just have to find you, so the idea is to make yourself easy to find.  More to the point, your visitors have to feel that they’ve chosen to find you.  Providing information and content that your visitors wish to read is the way to do this.

Blogging, social media and search engine optimisation are all inbound marketing tactics.

This is a 180 degree reversal of traditional marketing methods.  Many business owners, including online businesses, have failed to grasp just how revolutionary this actually is.  They continue to rely on outbound marketing, the same old advertising techniques dressed up for the internet age.  Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this, as such, outbound marketing has one big problem – the vast majority of people don’t want to hear what you have to say, and have become increasingly adept at blocking it out.

There’s an old saying in advertising – only 20% of marketing works, but nobody knows which 20%.  Inbound marketing completely bypasses this, because the emphasis is on providing information, rather than delivering sales messages.  Another significant advantage, of course, is that inbound methods are much, much cheaper than the old outbound approach!

Once you understand the inbound marketing concept, and apply it to your online enterprise, you will automatically put yourself way ahead of your competition.

Remember: people are already looking for what you have to offer, they just have to find you..!

Find out more about Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web.

Images by HubSpot.