aimClear Search Marketing Blog

There’s not much debate about it. Predictable recurrent content is the new SEO. Call it a blog, blog powered online media room, press release, or a post to a content management system which is plugged-into-the-grid by pingbacks, trackbacks, and tags. Creating compelling content, of value to your readers, on a set schedule yields wonderful rewards. It’s hard work and is very labor intensive.

Much to my chagrin, sometimes even the most avid of journalist blogger-fanatics might not have enough time to write because of other important business. In my case we have new client blogs to launch, dozens of pay per click (PPC) campaigns to manage, conversions to track, analytics to dissect and conferences to attend.

Don’t Waste Precious Words.
Many beginning bloggers miss extra traffic opportunities by minimizing quick posts as throw away for lack of thoughtful external linking tactics and promotional strategies- which don’t take much time at all. Remember that stream of consciousness posts can sometimes send thousands of unique visitors to your site over the course of weeks or months. It all adds up.

Here are a few tips for sourcing quick posts for business blogs (when you really don’t have time) which can yield traffic. The following scenarios are actual case studies from clients’ blogs. The traffic counts are for the 30 days following each post. Try these simple techniques to make emergency too-busy-to-write-business-blogger-posts pay. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Blog about topics you care about. Post about subjects where your expertise intersects with readership interests. It never ceases to amaze us how much more successful heartfelt blog content is. aimClearBlog has had some posts which were carefully calculated to drive traffic, optimized, and did just that-drove some traffic. Other posts were late night rants about the SEM industry that touched a nerve, provoked reactions from other blogs (and social communities), and drove tens of thousands of visitors over the course of a few days resulting in links and sales.

Readers can tell when a subject truly matters to a blogger. Readers react to honest passion when it speaks to their personal mission. The crux of all marketing is aligning the true value of products with actual marketplace interests. Your blog is a product too. Buzz, inbound links, traffic, and ultimately meeting your KPIs are directly associated with readers perceiving expertise and passion in topical areas they care about. Read the rest of this entry »

With over 71 million blogs worldwide it’s no surprise that physicians are frequenting blogs and social media sites to exchange ideas, share their lives, seek employment, and connect with each other and patients. A growing number of doctors are participating in the online social media revolution with a wide array of intentions. Also, SEM (Search Marketing) professionals who seek access to the physician-demographic for advertising are finding clever ways to utilize blogging channels.

Cornucopia of Physician Blogs
Physician blogs like Kevin, MD, Family Medicine Notes, Fixin’ Healthcare, and journal Health Affairs cover topics ranging from the crises in medical liability, vaccination theory, medical news, and health care policy. Medical News Feed is a blog and medical news aggregator. Specialized blogs such as Dr. Len’s Cancer Blog, by Len Lichtenfeld, MD, and the Medical Practice Business Blog serve focused physician niche’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lee Odden over at Top Rank has a running “Big List” of SEM blogs which is a veritable who’s who of search marketing blogs. Literally, every blog I personally read is on the list and it’s a very useful resource. Over 350 blogs relating to search marketing, blogging, social media, and new media public relations are recommended. Thanks to Top Rank for including aimClear Search Marketing Blog on the Big List.

Hard to Make the Cut
There is no site-submission or review-request process to get on the Big List. Odden says up front that inclusion is “totally subjective and not an attempt to be a comprehensive resource, but one we’ve found to be useful at TopRank.” Still the Big List is very well respected in the trade and is an important benchmark of any search marketing blog’s credibility.

Some of my favorite blogs on the Big List are: Andy Beard, Bill Hartzer, Bruce Clay Blog, Cartoon Barry, Copyblogger, Daggle, FroggBlog, Graywolf’s SEO Blog, High Rankings Advisor Archives, Jim Boykin Internet Marketing Blog, Market Position, Matt Cutts, Occam’s Razor, Pronet Advertising, Search Engine Land, Search Marketing Standard Blog, and SEO by the SEA. Read the rest of this entry »

Many skilled and experienced marketing professionals do not yet understand that the blog structure is the killer SEM enabled content management system. I know first hand what it means to misperceive blogging software. Though aimClear mashes up chunks of blog functionality behind many websites we work with, it took a few years to become personally committed to blogging.

The truth is that bloggers pioneered software and linking methods which socialized the interconnected grid of links and content. Blogging communication tools, laid over the Internet, have helped maximize the social promise of http protocol. Blog-style tools are ubiquitous in nearly all online social communities.

We build blog software hybrids to facilitate feed marketing, content management, hosting community dialog, interactions with social websites, and for blog powered online media rooms. It makes tons of sense. These pockets of functionality are easily available to mash up from open source software like WordPress and integrate easily with traditional website structures. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some highlight’s from this weeks SU WordPress buzz, with links to each reviewer’s SU profile.

Weblog Tools Collection & Blog Archive & Announcing Wordpress Pl…
scorpion68a
Interesting competition. It seems that we are going to improve our plugins collection.

Introducing ProSense: An Adsense Ready SEO Wordpress Theme
VladTheAffiliate From the page: “Featuring built-in ad units with optimized placement and blending, ProSense�s broad design scheme makes it easily suitable for a wide variety of niche topics or content types.”

WPDesigner WordPress Themes & So you want to create WordPress theme…
rockyourbody
Wordpress theme design Read the rest of this entry »

First I want to welcome any experienced bloggers who followed the pingback-invitation to this post. We appreciate your traffic. aimClear Blog is a search marketing blog for in-house, agency, advertising and PR professionals.

In our travels we’ve learned the average Internet marketing client needs introductory guidance regarding blog basics like trackbacks, pingbacks, MyBlogLog, social bookmarks, and even foundational topics like posts, categories, and feeds.

Power bloggers are welcome to stay and explore our slant on SEM topics like landing pages, analytics, SEO, PPC. However, this post is primarily aimed at parties interested in learning blogging basics, perhaps as a prelude to a business marketing effort.

What Happens When a Blog Links to Another Blog?
Most modern blog platforms, like WordPress and Movable type, have a built in feature which notifies other blogs that you’ve linked to them. This is called an (outgoing) “pingback” Also, incoming pingbacks are immediately visible to you when other authors link to your blog from theirs. In WordPress the incoming pingback information shows in the dashboard. (See “Latest Activity” graphic above).

This mutual notification is an incredible networking opportunity. Because high quality inbound links are an important measure of any website’s reputation with Google, it is rare for our website not to receive a near immediate visit from a blog we just gave outgoing link love to.

A fascinating dynamic in the blog world is that so many blogs link directly to competitor sites. This astounds many people we talk to about blogging. I understand. It seems somehow counterintuitive to promote other businesses by proxy. However the benefits outweigh potential liabilities.

Myth #1: Link to your competitors’ blogs and they’ll rip off your clients. False! While the online marketing blogs we link to are “competitors” they don’t need to steal our clients…they’ve got plenty of their own. Otherwise we wouldn’t think them cool enough to link to. Read the rest of this entry »

With so many of our clients blogging now (and asking lots of good questions) the subject of blogs comes up often in our “how-to” conversations. Obviously I’m a big fan of blogs. I love to write and I love search marketing.

Blogging is a wonderful pastime and satisfying personal endeavor that can pay returns on a number of levels.

Three critical components any blogger should consider when working to build readership include content, frequency and distribution. Content must be interesting and useful to your readers. Develop your unique voice and don’t be afraid to post things others will not agree with if it is your truth. Be responsible and change your mind in public if you are wrong.

First, by way of background, here is a post from earlier this where we covered the historic progression of blogging (from the early BBS days) to the SEO enabled heat seeking content management projectile that applications like WordPress and Movable Type have become today.

15 Time-Tested Blogging Tips (Believe me we’ve made mistakes in learning some of these) come from various sources, including our own experience. I hope they prove useful. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s seminar tracks included topics about SEO fundamentals, conversion, advanced advertising, contextual ads, and advanced organic optimization. I’m confident that I will remember one session today as the highlight of my SES New York 2007 show. The standing room only crowd for SEO Through Blogs & Feeds was sprinkled with some of the world’s most respected SEO bloggers.

The panel was comprised of some of the finest social media minds in the world: Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media, Stephan Spencer, President, Netconcepts, LLC, Rick Klau , Vice President of Publisher Services FeedBurner, and Sally Falkow, President, Expansion Plus Inc. [Read Full SES Coverage at SEO RoundTable]

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I attended an SES NYC 2007 training session taught by Jennifer Laycock, whose Search Engine Guide website is an authority site in the world of organic search. Jennifer is an expert at understanding and analyzing how entire communities have migrated their interactions to the Internet and how to exploit it. Viral link baiting, which focuses on amassing a pool of relevant links to your site from flashy and compelling (sometimes junk) content, can be very useful for the bursts of links it generates. Quality and quantity of inbound links is a crucial measure for Google when determining if a site is popular and deserves to receive top rankings.

Link baiting can be a useful way to generate decent links in large numbers. Viral marketing is different and speaks to a longer term strategy which also generates links but is more prone to result in conversion to a website’s key performance indicators-like sales or information requests. In the continuum of traffic segments, viral marketing to interested communities often results in more engaged traffic which stays on the website longer because of a higher interest level.

Read the rest of this entry »