Wednesday, September 30, 2015

How to Improve Your Online Profile (Part 3 of 4)



How To Improve Your Online Profile (Part 3 of 4)

By

Sohaib Azam


“Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.”

Denis Waitley, Motivational Speaker








Article Submission


            This article will not focus on the grammar and editorial aspects of article submission as that is common sense that every writer should know before submitting any article. This article will focus on some of the other dos and don’ts involved in article submission when it comes to submitting articles in order to get traffic for your website.


Article Do’s

            One of the first do’s when it comes to writing an article is to write one that is informative and has relevant, unique content. What this means is the article should offer information about something that is not already common sense and will offer readers new information about that particular topic. When a reader looks at your article, he or she should learn something new and be able to obtain a different perspective on that topic that they might not have had before.
It is just as important that the article contain relevant unique content that you did not simply copy off someone’s website. The perspective that you write on your article should be from your own experience and knowledge and not simply a rehash of someone else’s point of view. You need to write like you are an expert on your own topic.
            Another important thing is to try to solve a problem or answer a question in your article. In this case of this article, I am writing to help people improve their online profile so that they can attract more people to their website. I could have written about the history of the internet or written several articles detailing some of the many statistics about internet use. Those are certainly good topics to write about, but they may not appeal to the readers as much as writing an article that discusses how to utilize the internet to their advantage. Readers will feel more engaged in the article if they are reading on that addresses a problem or issue that they may have. It is always important to write like you are reaching out to the reader.


Article Don’ts


            One of the most important no-no’s of article writing is writing an advertisement for your article. Your article is not meant to be a sole means of promoting your business. Writing an advertisement for your article damages your credibility because it tells the reader that you are writing so that you can obtain their money and not to solve their problems. The only place that your website’s URL should go is in your author biography or in the resource box.

        Another no-no is relying on other sources or copying their content onto your website. Relying on other sources tells the readers you are not an expert on your topic and that you do not understand your topic well enough to form your own points of view and ideas. The originality of your ideas and viewpoints in your article is what the readers will be looking for and they will use those in judging the credibility of your article. 

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

How to Improve your Online Profile (Part 2 of 4)


How To Improve Your Online Profile (Part 2 of 4)

By

Sohaib Azam


“The golden rule for every business [person] is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.”
-Orison Swett Marden, inspirational author










Building Links


            The idea behind building links is that you should be able to have other websites post your URL on their site so that it will direct traffic to your site. This is called an inbound link. This way, if prospective customers visit the other websites, they may see the link, click on it, and visit your site. It will also help raise your ranking in search engine searches. But building links is a complex process in which the builder must account for certain factors. These factors will be the discussion of this article.


Factor #1: Finding a Relevant Site


            When you want an inbound link, you must make sure the website is one that is relevant to your business. For example, if you run a birthday party booking business, it would not make sense to have your link posted on a law firm website for two key reasons. First of all, law firms and birthday parties are two separate concepts that do not interlock. Second, you fail to hit your target audience as birthday party booking would mostly target younger children whereas law firms would target adults. It is very important to have your link posted on a site that relates to the business you are running as well as a site hits your target audience. Thus, some good examples of website types for having your booking business’s link on would be a daycare business, kids camp, or party supplies store.


Factor #2: Finding a Site Ranked On The Top Pages Of a Search


            As important as relevance is, it is just as important to find a site that is ranked among the top of a search engine search. Common sense would dictate that an inbound link from higher ranking sites like Amazon or eBay would give your site a higher ranking in a search. But, it is difficult and unrealistic to expect such big businesses to grant you an inbound link to your site. A more realistic approach would be to look at the top few pages of a search and look for small to medium sized businesses related to yours and try for an inbound link there.



Factor #3: Building a Relationship With The Owner Of The Business


            So you’ve found your site and want to get an inbound link. There’s still a matter of talking to the owner of that business . The owner probably receives several e-mails pertaining to a request for an inbound link with most of these requests getting either rejected or ignored. It will be your task to try and stand out in terms of your request and also build a relationship with the owner of that business. This requires perseverance and patience. Be ready to have many of your requests turned down and be ready to spend a good amount of time building a solid relationship with the owners of the businesses before you get your inbound links.


            On a final note, when you do get your inbound link, make sure that you ask the owner to use anchor text, or having the URL hidden in a set of key words or terms relevant to your business to be hyperlinked, like in the example above.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

How to improve your online profile (part 1 of 4)






Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
-Benjamin Franklin, American Icon



    For this topic, I will use four separate blogs to highlight what it takes to improve your online profile. For this article, I will discuss the importance of good content.



Content

      The idea behind good website content is that it should help drive customers to your website and help engage them in what they are reading so that they can ask questions if they have any and perhaps purchase one of your products. There are seven important points that will help you create effective website content(1):


1)    Keeping the content simple: Even though you are probably well educated in your field, it is important to understand that not every prospective customer will share your understanding of complex and advanced vocabulary, so it is important to write content that anyone can understand. No need to be complex at all in your descriptions.


2)    Incorporating keywords: There has to be a balance here. You should incorporate the keywords you want the search engines to pick up in your content, but you should not do it too much such that it may turn off the readers. A good rule of thumb to remember is that you should mention the keywords at least once within the page, but you are welcome to mention it more if it flows naturally with what you are writing. But try not to make keywords the main focus of each sentence you are writing. (2)


3)     Bold Type/Punctuation/Bullet Points: This is pretty self-explanatory as this will grab people’s attention towards certain points that you would like to make. Remember that bullet points are your best friends. They help guide the organization of your points.


4)    Negative Space/Paragraphs: I know it is tempting to write a lot of stuff, but sometimes, it’s important to look at what you aren’t writing. Make sure you give a good amount of space between your paragraphs and make sure your paragraphs have even margins. Remember, other people have to read this content and should be able to process each paragraph adequately and without a feeling of being lost between paragraphs.


5)    Headings: These serve two purposes. First of all, they are a way to introduce what you will be talking about in the upcoming paragraph which helps the reader anticipate what will be discussed. The other purpose is that it is a great chance to incorporate keywords as long as they adequately fit what you intend to talk about.



6)     A style that speaks to the customer: The most important takeaway from this point is to personalize your website so that you are speaking to your customer and not filling your entire page with facts and figures. Sure, those things are great, but you should be writing in a way that makes the customer feel like you are engaging to the customer. Remember, the success of your business depends on the customer, and you will not get the customer unless you speak to them. Make sure your writing style reflects that.


7)    Change it up: in order to get higher in the search engines, it’s always important to change some of the information on your site every now and then. You can do this by adding a video, change a paragraph, add a news article or blog, or whatever may be appropriate. The search engines will bump your page down the search list if you aren’t keeping your website content fresh.


References

(1)  http://www.wpromote.com/blog/blogging/7-secrets-for-writing-effective-website-content (note: the first six points are taken from this website, but the seventh point is from my own knowledge. Each point has my own input and interpretation as opposed to a regurgitation of what was on the site)

(2) http://www.seomark.co.uk/keywords-website/ (note: this only applied to point 4) 


Saturday, September 12, 2015



The increasing use of internet in the modern era

By

Sohaib Azam

            Two things concerning the internet are no secret in today’s world: 1) That the use of internet has been increasing since its introduction to the public in the early 90’s and  2) that it has become the standard for business and personal use in recent years. There are literally more than a hundred statistics out there and several different sites that post these statistics. Instead of boring my audience with a bunch of stats that might seem obvious or useless, I would like to use this blog to write on some very notable stats that are worth sharing (all taken from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm):

1)      In 2000, the internet’s early years, there were only 360 million internet users across the world. That number has jumped up to over three billion out of seven billion people living on this earth, which is nearly half of the population.
2)      In Africa, 4.5 million people accessed the internet in 2000, but that number jumped significantly to over 300 million in 2014 which is almost a 7000 percent increase. One would not regard Africa as a place where internet use is rampant the way they would with Europe and North America so this increase is notable.
3)       The Middle East also saw a significant increase from 3 million in 2000 to 113 million in 2014. This is over a 1000 percent increase in a 15 year span.
4)      On the same site, you will also see that Asia and Latin America experienced significant increases in internet usage as well.
5)      North America has almost 90% of their population accessing the internet while Europe has more than half of their population using the internet.

        There are many statistics and websites out there that detail internet usage, but they all convey the same message: that internet usage has increased significantly since its early days and that is not likely to change in the years to come. While this is an obvious point to most people out there, what might have not been obvious was that regions such as Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America experienced major increases in internet use, even though these areas would arguably not be seen as technology hubs the way North America and Europe would be seen.

      
       There may very well come a day where internet use reaches near 100% in the world. With such increasing and widespread use of the internet in the modern era at such a fast pace, it is that much more important that businesses take advantage of this increase by utilizing the online world to their success. Building a website for their business if they do not already have one is a good start to taking advantage of this trend.