Where Should You Put Your Opt-In Box?

April 7, 2010 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, opt-in

When designing your home page and website, one of the most important questions you should ask yourself is “Where should I put my opt-in box?” You answer will depend on several things, including:

  • The primary goal of your website — is it to build a list or something else?
  • The overall layout of the page — the opt-in box should stand out, but not look out of place
  • Whether the opt-in box is the first thing you want folks to see, or not

I have an article that will further help you make these decisions posted on Ezine Articles. You can read it here:

ezinearticles.com/?Where-Should-You-Put-Your-Opt-In-Box?&id=3721071


Basic HTML Tags and Search Engine Optimization

March 9, 2010 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under How To, Learning Center, seo

I just posted this article about HTML tags and search engine optimizaton and thought it would make a good addition to the Learning Center.

Basic HTML Tags and Search Engine Optimization

Did you know you can improve your search engine results just by using simple HTML tags more effectively? In this article, I’ll share those you can use today to improve search engine rankings… even if you’re not a webmaster.

Click here to read more …


Home Page Design Tip

March 3, 2010 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, blogging

Later this month, I’m launching my new book Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them! To help promote the book, I’ve been writing a lot of articles about best practices. You can find them all listed on the website under the “Articles” tab. I thought you might find them useful, especially since many of them also have audio and video versions, as well.

http://www.homesweethomepagebook.com/articles/

Trolling For Topics – On Autopilot

February 3, 2010 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, blogging

Many people avoid setting up their website in WordPress because they are afraid of keeping up with a blog. The thing is, you don’t have to blog with a WordPress Website … I have several websites that are set up in WordPress simply because of the power of SEO that comes with using this platform.

That said, adding content regularly to your website is still a good idea. And it doesn’t have to be hard. Following is an article I wrote that can help you fill your email inbox with ideas for blog posts.

Trolling For Topics – On Autopilot

How do you keep finding fresh topics to talk about on your blog, podcast or ezine? One good way to keep up with your favorite subject is by subscribing to RSS feeds and creating RSS feeds for the keywords you choose.

Who are the “big fish” in your market?

If you’ve niched your business correctly, you’re probably “swimming” in a relatively small pond. Make it a priority to know who the big fish in this pond are. Find out if they have a blog, and subscribe to the RSS feed. This way, when they publish fresh content, you’ll receive notification. If they don’t have a blog, they may contribute material to an article directory like eZineArticles.com. Many of these directories let you subscribe to author-specific RSS feeds. Whenever a new article is posted, you’ll received an email with a link to the new content.

Continue reading ….


SEO and Accessibility: Ways to Use the “ALT” Attribute

January 3, 2010 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under How To, Learning Center, images

It is simple enough to do, but so many people (myself included) forget to do it: use the “alt” attribute in their image tags.

This attribute isn’t required for the image to show up clearly, but it is required for website usability. And, on top of that, it can give your website a search engine boost.

Let me explain.

Google Image Search
Google is now displaying image results when people search for information. So, you can use the alt tag to add key words and phrases to your web pages. In fact, adding the alt tag can enhance your on-page search engine optimization.

Use the Tag Wisely
The alt attribute is an attribute of the “img” tag and was created as an alternative for non-visual browsers when they come across images. In other words, the text is meant to be used when the image is not visible on the page. Instead, what is displayed (or read) is the alternative text.

In addition, many browsers display the alt text when the customer rests their mouse on the image.

So, you don’t want to put a string of key words in the alt tag. You want that text to be easy to read and describe the image in some way.

How To Use the Alt Tag
Adding alt text is simple:

Picture 1

Some Quick Tips for Writing Alt Tags

Be Concise
An alt tag that is too long can be broken by some browsers. Also, if you try to stuff too many keywords in your alt tag, you’ll get penalized by Google. Basically, your alt tag text should include only those words that will help put the image in context — not be a full description of the image.

Be Clear
Of course, you don’t want to be so concise that your alt tag text has no meaning or is confusing. Remember, it is not only the search engines that will be reading your alt tag text, but real people, as well. For example:

  • Dog – decent
  • Swedish Valhund – Better
  • Swedish Valhund with red scarf and a tilted head – probably a bit too much

Remember Context
Don’t describe the image if the image is part of the context. For example, the alt text for your company logo would be your company name … not “Company Name Logo”.

Disregard Non-Essential Page Elements
You don’t need to include alt tags for images that aren’t important for the context of the page, such as spacer images, bullets and the like.


Want to Pimp Your WordPress Blog Yourself?

September 24, 2009 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under How To, Learning Center, WordPress

picture-2I just discovered a handy little guide from LifeHacker that explains the basics of “Tricking Out Your WordPress Blog” here: lifehacker.com/5365600/the-beginners-guide-to-tricking-out-your-wordpress-blog.

It covers initial configuration and some good plugins, too. If you’re a beginner, this post could really help you DIY.


Recommended Reading: Online Reputation Management

September 18, 2009 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, Recommended Reading

When you are building and nurturing a thriving web presence, you need to keep tabs on your online reputation … both on strategically forming it and monitoring what happens out of your sphere of control. These books can help you do just that.


Also available
on the Kindle

Some of these books were suggested by Website magazine.


Post Press Releases for Free

July 29, 2009 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, seo

Want or need to post your press release for free? Check out these press release submission sites. By the way, online releases can be used for more than just getting press, they can be great for your SEO, as well.

Note: Some of these sites offer paid services, as well. The chart below makes note of that.

Press Release Submission Site Login Required HTML Anchor Tags Images Accepted Approval Time Paid Submission Option
pressreleasepoint.com Yes Yes No 1 Day Yes
pressabout.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
free-press-release-center.info Yes No No 1 To 7 Days Yes
pr9.net Yes No No No
prlog.org Yes No Yes 1 Day No
pressreleaseforum.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
express-press-release.com No No No 1-3 days Yes
postafreepressrelease.com No No No 1 Day No
pressexposure.com No Yes No 1 To 2 Days No
speedypr.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
sbwire.com Yes No No 7-14 Days Yes
seenation.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
myfreepr.com Yes Yes Yes 1 To 7 Days No
exactrelease.com Yes No No 1 To 2 Days No
sanepr.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
prwindow.com Yes No No 1 Day No
mediasyndicate.com Yes Yes No 1 To 2 Days Yes
webnewswire.com Yes Yes No No
businessportal24.com No No Yes 1 Day No
press.xtvworld.com Yes Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
thepublish.com No Yes No No
newsblaster.com No Yes No 1 Day No
usprwire.com Yes Yes No Yes
i-newswire.com No No No 1 To 7 Days Yes
pressmethod.com Yes No No Yes
1888pressrelease.com Yes No No 1 Day Yes
clickpress.com Yes Yes No Yes
prnuke.com Yes Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
24-7pressrelease.com Yes No No 1 Day Yes
pressreleasemonkey.com Yes No No Yes
pressreleasespider.com No Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
malebits.com Yes No No 1 Day Yes
clicnews.com Yes Yes No 30 Days No
pressreleasecirculation.com No Yes No 1 Day No
pr2work.com Yes Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
prfocus.com No No No 1 To 7 Days No
epicpr.com Yes No No 30 Days Yes
press-network.com No No No 1 Day Yes
pressbox.com No Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
freepressreleases.co.uk Yes Yes No 1 To 7 Days Yes
bignews.biz Yes No Yes 1 Day No
ideamarketers.com Yes Yes No 1 Day Yes
pr-usa.net No No No 1 Day No
newsalbum.com No No No 1 Day No
pr-gb.com Yes No No 1 Day Yes
digg.com Yes Yes Yes 1 Day No
base.google.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
prfriend.com Yes Yes No 1 To 7 Days No
theopenpress.com Yes Yes No 1 Day Yes
newsreleaser.com No Yes No 1 Day No
press-library.com No No No No
live-pr.com/en Yes No Yes 1 Day No
prarticle.com Yes Yes No 1 Day No
information-online.com Yes Yes Yes 1 Day No
openpr.com No No Yes 1 Day No
pr.com Yes No No 1 Day Yes

 

Have any of these sites changed their “free” policy to a a paid service? Please let me know. I’ll update this list as soon as I can.


Wrapping Words Around an Image In WordPress

July 10, 2009 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under How To, Learning Center, WordPress, images

Something I’ve noticed in the newer versions of Wordpress has really been giving my less tech savvy clients a hard time: wrapping words around an image.

There are two basic ways images are handled by WordPress:

  1. Through the theme’s CSS file
  2. Individually in each post or page

Since I tend to use images quite frequently and put them in different places, I usually remove most the the formatting from the CSS style sheet and place images by hand in the posts and pages. But if you’re using the Visual Mode rather than the HTML Mode, you might find that your images are not doing what you want them to do. Here is how to fix it.

First, you will need to use HTML Mode for some of this, so you’re going to have to get comfortable with HTML. But don’t be afraid, you’ll only need to look for specific code that I’m going to show you.

Step One: Upload/Insert your image by clicking on this image:

uploadinsert

Step Two: Select the image file you want to upload and up load it.

selectfiles

Step Three: Set your preferences for that image.

preferences

Most of the time, you won’t touch the Title, Caption and Description areas, so I won’t talk about them here. But I will go over the rest.

Link URL:

This lets you make the image a link or not.

  • If you want the image to be a live link to the image file, click on the “File URL” button and it will automatically fill in that field.
  • If you want the image to be a life link to the post, click on the “Post URL” button.
  • If you don’t want the image to be a link at all, click on the “None” button.
  • If you want the image to link to some other URL you have in mind, you can either delete the URL that is there or click the “None” button, then type in your chosen URL.

Most of the time, I just click the None button. WordPress remembers the last preferences you set, so you won’t have to do that again.

Alignment:

This aligns the image in relation to the spot you are inserting it.

  • None = no alignment. The image will be level with where you placed it.
  • Left = aligns the image to the left. Words will wrap around on the right.
  • Center = aligns the image in the center with words wrapping to the left and right.
  • Right = aligns the image to the right. Words will wrap around on the left.

Size:
When WordPress uploads an image, it automatically creates two or more versions at different sizes. You can define the parameters for Thumbnail, Medium and Large under Settings/Media. The Thumbnail you can see in the upper left of the window next to the date. The full size is the actual size of the file you uploaded.

Step Four: Insert the image.

Click on the “Insert into Post” button.

insert

Step Five: Fix the word wrapping

Once you’ve inserted an image, it might look something like this in Visual Mode:

visualmode

But look like this when you preview the post:

actualpost

Why is that?

For some reason, WordPress is using a “class” to wrap the image and the browser just doesn’t recognize it. So you have to go into the code and fix it.

When you look at the code for an image you’ll see something like this:

origcode

You want to replace the “offending” code, highlighted below,

offendingcode

with code that browsers will understand, as illustrated here:

thefix

In this example, I aligned the image to the right. To align it to the left, just change “right” to “left.”

To center an image, the best way is to put the image code in between center alignment div tags like so:

aligncenter

WARNING: When you go back into Visual Mode, it may erase some of the work you did in HTML Mode. So I recommend HTML Mode being your last stop. Save your post from there, otherwise, you’ll have to go back and fix everything again.


How to Write a Lead Generating Special Report

June 1, 2009 | Posted by Carma | Filed Under Learning Center, opt-in

Editor’s Note: One of the things I insist my clients have is a decent opt-in bonus to entice website visitors to join your list. James Roche, the Info Product Guy, wrote this awesome article that clearly explains how to write a special report that you can use as your opt-in bonus. I used to just send the link from his website but just recently found out that it is harder to get to without joining his list. So, I found it in an article directory and am posting it here so it will be easier for my clients to find as a resource.

It’s shocking how many leads and clients you can get with a special report. A simple 10 to 20 page document powers more punch for your marketing strategy than any other tool. Every day you can have people pounding at your door hungry to hire you when you use a special report (also called a white paper).

And writing a special report doesn’t have to be complicated. Even if you hate writing this is easy to do…well, as long as you use my proven 7 point outline to guide you. Simply answer the following questions and voila — you have your special report ready to be your client magnate.

1. “What’s the big problem?”

Start your special report by waking up your reader. Show them that you understand the core problem they’re facing. Don’t just tell them their problem – empathize with them. Show that you care and you understand how frustrating having this problem really is.

2. “What’s this problem costing you?”

Rub the pain of the problem in their face. I know it sounds tough but remember, you have the solution and unless you slap them across the face to wake them up fully then they’ll continue suffering unnecessarily. Is this problem costing them the money they could be spending on a new car? Are they wasting time without a solution? Does the opposite sex look at them like moldy bread?

3. “What’s the general solution?”

You have two options herein your special report. First, before giving your specific solution give the big picture solution. Show what’s possible. Second, you can show how people have tried other solutions but failed and why. This sets you up as THE solution.

4. “What’s your specific solution?”

Lay out your method or system at this point in your special report. This is the bulk of the special report. Maybe you have a 5 step method to stop divorce…briefly spell it out. You want to show your reader what to do, not how to do it. (For that they have to work with you one-on-one). Give the reader tips and strategies they can use today to start solving their problem. They’ll like and trust you more, the more you share.

5. “What’s the proof that your solution works?”

Share case studies of people and clients you’ve worked with. Don’t just give testimonials. This isn’t a sales letter. Think of it as a magazine article — the writer will tell stories and to show proof. A great formula for telling a case study story is the P.A.R method – Problem, Action, Result. First, state the Problem a client of yours had before they worked with you. Second, show the Action your client took (this should involve how you came in to save the day). Third, tell the Results the client made because they used your method or system.

6. “Why listen to you?”

State your credibility. This can be a single bio page with your credentials or you can share your success story. Tell how you discovered your unique method or system. In doing so, you establish your authority and expertise on the subject.

7. “What’s next?”

This is the most important part of your special report. By this point the reader should be frothing at the mouth hungry to take the next step. All you need to do is clearly spell out a specific call to action. Give them an irresistible offer they can’t refuse and a time limit for them to take advantage of the offer.

And that’s it! Just make sure your special report isn’t too formal. Make it conversational. Think of what you would say to a friend who is a part of your target market if you were both sitting in a coffee shop. You wouldn’t use “sales” language! You’d have a heart-to-heart talk with them – simply sharing your experience and showing them a way to solve their problem.

Remember, the purpose of your special report is to build the relationship between you and your lead so you can move them closer to getting to know, like and trust you, which leads to more sales for you.

About the Author:
Small business marketing consultant, James Roche, shows you how to attract more clients and make passive revenue with information products. Discover his proven and practical marketing strategies with his free special report, “The Shift: Quit Struggling, Make a Difference and Join the New Rich” http://www.marketingmadeeasyblueprint.com/free

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How to Write a Lead Generating Special Report

Copyright (c) 2009 James Roche


HONESTe Online Member Seal Click to verify - Before you buy!