Pro Business Tips

Building Traffic with Wikipedia

A free online user-edited encyclopedia, Wikipedia is one of the most trafficked websites in the world. Used as a reference by consumers, casual internet surfers, college students and hobbyists, Wikipedia is a massive online collaboration run by volunteers and enthusiasts.

Wikipedia dominates Google search results because of the presumed quality of its content. Search for almost anything and chances are that a Wikipedia entry will appear on the first page.  

How Wikipedia Can Monetize a Blog

1. Credibility from being listed in Wikipedia increases customer and visitor trust, which might lead to repeat visits, bookmarking and a bigger audience base. If you are pushing products on some other pages of your website, you might have a higher potential for affiliate conversions and product sales.
2. Wikipedia traffic is ultra-targeted. Visitors arrive through a keyword search onto a Wikipedia page and then onto your blog via a link.
3. Getting listed in Wikipedia has a direct correlation to any website’s long-term monetization strategy and should be considered a strategy to explore within any traffic building or marketing campaign.

But, before you get too enthusiastic... Keep reading to find out what to watch for before you sign-up and start using Wikipedia to market your brand.

The 5 Rules of Traffic Building Link Exchanges

There's probably no more proven way to generate traffic than via link exchanges. This is where you promote a site with a link in exchange for the same on a partner site. 

There are many places where you can put this link list, such as a Resources or Partners link list.

But before you approach a webmaster or blogger for a link exchange, it's important to keep the following in mind:

1. Avoid using canned emails. Nothing is a bigger turn off to bloggers than an auto-generated email (or one that lacks any personal touches).
2. Know who you are talking to. Just as bad is being pitched to by someone who gets your business or personal details wrong. For example, if someone approached me and said they love Pro Shopping Tips and can't wait to do a link exchange. Get the person’s name, business, and URL right.  
3. Keep it your pitch brief; it shouldn't be longer than 2-3 paragraphs. Make a quick introduction and then get to the point. Make sure you include the URL to where your link list will be. Also, you will really get their attention if you compliment them on something they've they’ve recently written or a new product feature.
4. Highlight the benefits of link exchange - it’ll have more chance of success if there’s something in it for the partner you’re pitching to. Clearly outline what you’re asking for and how it will your prospective partner.
5. Be polite. An obvious point but you'd be surprised how many people actually turn requests into demands.

The 3 Tactics That Kill Search Engine Optimization

In the previous post, 5 Effective Search Engine Optimization Strategies, I looked at the best SEO tactics. But it's just as important to consider things that can hurt your best efforts to improve your search engine ranking.

1. Consider the trade-off between readability and a post stuffed with keywords that appear like little more than spam and will be penalized by Google as such. 
2. Avoid duplicate content as much as possible. Google can penalize you for writing about basically a rehashed version of a previous post that you wrote or appeared elsewhere. This is because a classic tactic of some spammers is to repackage or steal content from other sites.
3. Don't be verbose in your post. Generally speaking 1000 words is the absolute most you should post and many think that 250-500 words is a better target. Most of my posts are even shorter than that because of that's a core mission of the site.

5 Effective Search Engine Optimization Strategies

You hear and read a lot of different things about what constitutes effective ways to optimize your site for search engines. Here are five proven winners.

1. Effective Titles - For most people using an Internet search engine like Yahoo! or Google, there is very little to go on except for the title, maybe a short excerpt, and your domain name/URL, so make sure you have an effective title that speaks accurately to what your post is about.
2. Granular Posts - Focused, single-issue topics help search engines easily digest what the topic is about and this can help your ranking. The same principle is why niche blogs tend to be more successful in search engine results than general interest ones.
3. Relevant Keywords - It's good to try and place subject-relevant keywords in your title and throughout your post.
4. Internal Linking - There are some SEO benefits (and certainly traffic benefits) to linking to other relevant or related posts within your blog.
5. Inbound Links - SEO can be improved with things, such as inbound links from sites that are:

• Highly ranked
• Relevant to your topic
• Use relevant and searched-for keywords

Related Posts

• Traffic Building Strategies Using External Commenting
• Blogging and SEO
• The 4 Most Important Types of Blog Posts

Traffic Building Strategies Using External Commenting

There are many types of traffic building strategies a publisher can pursue to bring users to their site. In this series, I'm going to discuss the most popular ones. Let's starting with commenting on an external site. Make sure to include your name (and/or company name) and a link back to your site in the applicable area of the comments box. Why?

• Readers of that blog might see your comment and be interested in learning more by clicking on the link that leads to your site.
• Search engines will also spider your comment content and your comment will appear in search results, which may garner clicks.
• You will also get some mild SEO benefits since Google's algorithms rewards in-bound, quality links--even if they are your own comments pointing back at your site.

The 4 Most Important Types of Blog Posts

There are many types of posts. This isn't an exhaustive list but a survey of a handful of the most popular styles. Here are the four most important that are great for grabbing eyeballs:

1. Instructional
   How to do something ("How to Repair the Engine of Your Car") posts are very popular because one of the main reasons people use the Web is to find help or information to solve some problem. If you look at the popular social news bookmarking site Digg, you will a lot of stories that go viral and hit the front page follow this format.
2. Informational
   Posts that explain or define a topic are also very popular. A blog that does this very well is How Stuff Works. Check it out.
3. Reviews
   This genre comes in all shapes and styles and can be about anything. Check out Consumer Reports for example, which has a series of blogs that review popular items such as cars and electronics.
4. Lists
   These are generally easy to write and very popular on the Web. Bloggers love to link to these, as well. See Swiss Watch Boutique's "6 Things to Avoid Doing with Your Watch" for a good example.

Related Posts

• Writing Tips and Tricks 1 - Title
• Writing Tips and Tricks 2 - Post

Writing Tips and Tricks 1 - Title

What makes a good blog post? There are many important elements but for today's tip, I'm going to focus on the title.

Post title

• Keep your title short and snappy - Anything under 40 characters is good.
• Keep it informative - A cryptic title ("When Things Go Bad") can work but an informative one is usually better ("Money Saving Tips in a Bad Economy")
• Make it visually distinct - Keep the title distinct from the rest of your blog entry (font size, weight, type)
• Get their attention - This is especially important for search engines and RSS feeds since this is often the only thing a potential user will see. But make sure the promise lives up the hype. So if your title is "14 Scariest Gerbils of All Time," make sure the gerbils look scary, not cuddly.
• Make sure the title is SEO friendly - By default, most blog software will include your title in the URL, so rich keywords are important to consider since they are easily recognized by search engines. However, it's important to balance keyword rich titles, which can get formal and dry in a hurry, with something clever, pithy, and memorable.
• Meet a need - Any titles that meet a need are especially effective since they have a tutorial quality about them, such as "7 Must-Have Tools for Running a Business Online"

Blogging and SEO

I previously mentioned that blogs are built for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why's that? There are four main reasons:

1. Frequent Updates - Search engines give preference to fresh content.                
2. Linked and Networked - Blogs have more incoming and outgoing links than most Web sites, a key factor in page ranking. Therefore, if you create a great blog that people find useful and relevant, you have a built-in PR staff who will help spread the word about your blog. As the word about blogs continue to spread, more and more people will find this venue an important tool in business.         
3. Built for Indexing - The underlying HTML is cleaner which makes it easy for Google to index.                
4. Archived and organized - Similar to above, the “site map” architecture of blogs makes them easily categorized and organized by search engines.

Making Money Blogging

Blogging can directly and indirectly make money and I will dig into these in more detail in future posts but here are a few benefits:

1. Fame - A successful blog will build your visibility in business or a niche.
2. Contacts - Blogs an excellent networking tool. A popular blog will put you in touch with all sorts of interesting and influential people.
3. Credibility - Over time, you can become an expert on an issue which can lead to a plethora of opportunities from freelance blogging to book deals to consulting engagements.
4. Sales and Marketing - You can turn your blog into a marketing vehicle for your e-commerce store or even directly sell stuff right on your blog.
5. Traffic - Blogs are proven way to generate traffic, which is the holy grail for advertisers. This is how many blog sites are supported. In fact, search engines love blogs. Why? Check back tomorrow.