Choose the right keywords: This is always the key to successful SEO, it is worth spending time at the outset to review the competition and be aware of the amount of work it will take to rank for the chosen keywords.

Use an SEO friendly Theme: Many themes are designed to look good rather than support WordPress SEO. It is therefore advisable to choose a theme that satisfies both, even if this does mean looking at premium (paid for) themes.

Set Permalinks: Make sure that the Permalinks are set to “%postname%” which means that the post/page title will appear in the URL. For WordPress SEO purposes this is much better than the default setting which is to use a number.

Create Sitemap: Create a site map for the search engines. A plugin like “Google XML Sitemaps” makes this easy.

Install the “All In One SEO Pack” plugin: This is the best known and most popular WordPress SEO plugin. It improves WordPress SEO in a number of ways and most users will be happy with its default settings. What you do need to do is enter a title, description and keywords for the homepage. These will be shown on the search results when the link is to the blog rather than an individual page or post and should entice people to click on your entry. Other functions of this WordPress SEO plugin include:

• Giving control over how titles are displayed
• Controlling duplicate content by preventing it being indexed
• Allowing entry of meta data for each page post

On Each Page/Post:

• Write a compelling title including a keyword.
• Edit the URL as necessary. If your title is long, shorten the URL making sure to keep the keyword.
• Use the keyword in all headings.
• Use the keyword throughout the content and particularly in the first sentence.
• Include a graphic and put the keyword as the ALT text.
• Write a good meta description.
• Have links to other pages/posts on your site.
• Include external links to authority sites in your niche. Be careful not to link to any site that Google may consider dubious as this can reflect on your site.

Producing search engine friendly content is really the key to WordPress SEO and you really need to check each page/post before publishing it. Fortunately you can install a plugin to do this for you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Ogram

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The people whom you follow on Twitter are people who share a common interest with you and your business. If you don’t figure out some way to organize all of your followers and the people whom you follow, you will have chaos.

At this point, you should create lists that help you to organize your followers into logical categories. Setting up Twitter lists is easy and very straightforward.

1. Go to your Twitter profile
2. Select the “Lists” button
3. Select “New List” from the drop-down menu
4. Enter the name of the new list. You should choose a name that you will remember easily
5. Before you actually create the list, you need to decide whether you want to make it public. Your public lists will appear on your profile and other people will be able to subscribe to those lists. It is your choice whether to share your lists with other people
6. Select the “Create List” button and you will see your new list on the main screen of your Twitter feed in the right column
7. Now that you have a new list in Twitter, you can start adding whichever followers you wish. Begin by selecting the Twitter handle for whichever follower you wish to add to your list and then select “Lists” on the profile of that particular follower

There are several different lists that you can use that will really benefit you and your business and which will help you to make the most out of Twitter, an amazing social media tool.

• Follow the influential people: The first step is to find influential people on Twitter who are a part of your niche. You should organize them into a list so that you are always kept current regarding the discussions that they are having with other people.
• Allow the influential people to follow you: If you want people in your niche to pay attention to you, find out if they have a Twitter account, create a list of people in that niche and add them to your list. After you have put them on your list, let them know. It is a wonderful way to begin a relationship.
• Understand who is following you: A wonderful way to learn about your Twitter followers is by engaging in discussions with them. It is critical that you really listen to them and not just converse on a superficial level. You will learn a great deal about them from your discussions. Through your engagement with them, you will start to gather more and more topics for the content that you share with other people online. You will gain insight into what they want to read about, whether their interests are in products and/or services. A good way to build up your list is by either exporting the Emails that you receive to your address book (if your list is not very long) or using a service to help you export and manage your list of followers.
• Keep up with the technology: Technology is changing so rapidly nowadays that you need to constantly learn about new offerings. The more you know, the more you will be positioning yourself as a savvy subject matter expert.
• Monitor the blogs that you choose to participate in: When it comes to the generation of content, blogging is an extremely powerful way to go. You should try to be the first person to comment so that you get the most attention for you and your business and the most online exposure. People will remember you if you consistently start discussions on interesting and educational topics. You should follow your favorite bloggers on Twitter, which will practically guarantee that you are among the first to learn new information. Bloggers very often choose Twitter as their first social media channel to post updated information.
• Pay close attention to your competition: If you want to learn and grow in your business, a smart way to do that is to watch what your competition is doing with Twitter. If you watch your strongest competitors, you will easily be able to understand what works and what doesn’t work.
• Create papers for your niche: In Twitter, you are able to post updates in a newspaper-like format. The content of those papers is drawn from your own tweets, #hashtags and Twitter lists. You are able to make a list of the sources that you like best and then create papers for the benefit of all of your Twitter followers so that you can showcase the best material from your followers’ updates. People will really love that.

A really great way to put a good list together is to examine the lists that the other experts in your niche put together. If you see that the experts have put a list of reputable people on their list, it is the right list for you to have. The following are good websites for finding lists that have been created by other people:

• TwitterCounter Top 100 Twitter Lists: This tracks statistics of Twitter users. You simply type in your Twitter address and your statistics will pop up
• TweepML: This allows you to maintain and share your lists with your Twitter followers
• TweetFind: This is a Twitter directory that contains Twitter lists. It is a smooth way to bring businesses and clients together
• Listorious: This is a 3rd-party website that manages an organized directory of Twitter lists. It allows you to search through the lists by category so that you can find the most popular lists
• Listatlas: This simplifies Twitter lists by ranking them based on the number of followers that are contained within any given list.

Organizing your Twitter lists

You are able to access all of the Twitter lists that you have put together and are following from your Twitter homepage. The management tools on Twitter can assist you with viewing all of your lists at the same time. For example, HootSuite and Tweetdeck, enable you to create columns for each one of your lists.

Conclusion

Now that you understand the concepts of how to create Twitter lists, it is up to you to start using it in the most effective way for you and your business. There is no limit on what you can do when it comes to Twitter lists. Your lists will grow over time and you will find yourself asking what you ever did before you used that tool for your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Cohn

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There is no doubt that email marketing has become one of the best and fastest ways to make money online. There is nothing more exciting than checking your email to find that you have made a sale or several sales. But before you can experience the thrill of getting money in your inbox, you have to build a mailing list. Some may tell you that building huge list of people all jumping at the chance to buy your products is easy!

Unfortunately, when it comes to building a responsive mailing list with thousands of subscribers, things aren’t always that simple. However, there a several list building strategies that work successfully and I am going to share some of them with you in this article.

But first I want you to keep in mind that a responsive mailing list is your ideal target market, people that are asking you to send them information and offers by email. Many internet marketers make virtually all of their income just by sending email’s to their lists. Imagine how great it must feel to send out an email and in an hour or two have your inbox full of orders. It is very possible, especially when you take the time to employ basic and effective list building strategies.

When it comes to building your own list the first thing you should do if you want people to give you their email address is to make it very easy for them. If you have a website or blog add a subscription form to all of the main pages. Make it highly visible and offer your visitors something of real value in exchange for joining your list.

If you don’t have a website or blog you may want to consider setting one up just for your list building campaign, especially if you want to build a big list. If setting up a site isn’t for you there are other methods that you can use, you will just have to get more creative when it comes to collecting email address.

Above all else keep it simple! Keep in mind that people are busy and easily sidetracked, which means you don’t want to make them giving you their email address something that they have to think too much about or work too hard to do. The general rule is, the easier you make it the more email addresses you will collect!

If you have an existing customer base make it a top priority to get an email address from everyone that makes a purchase from you. Whether it’s during the sales process or after the purchase of one of your products make sure that you ask your customers for their email address. The optimum time to do this is before the purchase is completed because they will think it is part of the process.

It is very important to always remember that your customer must give you permission to send them promotional emails. Asking them for an email address as part of the sales process does not give you permission to add them to any other mailing list or bombard them with promotional emails. That can lead to spam complaints and you don’t want that. What it does do is give you the opportunity to follow up with them, ask how they liked the product or service and then entice them to join your regular mailing list.

There are many ways that you can entice people to join your mailing list. Here are a few quick ideas that you can use;

- Give them a bonus product, free gift or a discount on their next purchase when they subscribe.

- Send them to a webpage where they can download a free eBook, report or software related to the product they purchased.

- Offer them free access to member’s only website where they can get access to additional information, customer perks and special offers.

- Give them a chance to win a prize, by holding a free contest or sweepstakes for subscribers only

- Offer them free customer support and email consulting.

- Have them fill out a survey and give them a free gift as an incentive to complete the form.

There are many ways that you can entice people to join your mailing list and by focusing on these core strategies you will be well on your way to building a responsive list for your business. The simple fact is that email marketing is essential for any business. Once you have a list, and begin building a relationship with your subscribers they will have more confidence in you and your business. Just make sure that you provide them with information that they will find helpful and beneficial.

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Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

I must admit, I am fairly new to Twitter.  I just recently started Tweeting due to curiosity.  I did not understand that all the buzz was about.  So, I make it a point to start figuring this Tweeting / Twitter concept out.

Currently, I am trying to determine how to get more “Followers”. What do find that works best for you?  What steps do you take to build your Twitter Follower list?

• Do you advertise your twitter account?
• Do you treat your twitter profile like a free standing website?
• How often do you tweet?
• etc…

We welcome your ideas to share with our guests and clients via this website and our Twitter Profile.

Leave a comment below to share your tips! How do you get Twitter Followers?

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Create a profile – An interesting profile with the right amount of information is essential if you want people to visit your profile and stay there. You only have seven seconds to impress a customer. When you have a profile with your personal and business information and a pleasing photograph, you get people to take notice of you.

Find people – You can use Twitter natural search to find people who are interested in products related to your business. You must search everyday and keep on adding more people. Start following them and some of them will follow you back. This will start a communication and that will form the base for increasing your business.

Send tweets – Send tweets to people you think could be potential customers. Don’t look like a sales person. Send a minimum of 15 tweets a day. Make sure that your direct marketing tweets don’t make up for more than 20% of your total tweets for the day. Keep sending links to articles, blogs and videos that may interest them. You can also use various Twitter analytics tools to send automatic tweets.

Modify the database – keep deleting those who don’t follow you back. This will allow you to form a database of targeted audience who are likely to become your customers in the future.

Shorten your links – Since the space is minimum, you must shorten your links. You can use the website bit.ly to shorten your link. Shortening the link will give you more space to write.

Social media networking was a life changer for Hannah. Learn more about her Twitter campaigns athttp://getfreetwittertips.com – Free Twitter Tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hannah_M._Perry

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But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

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In the comment box below, please tell us the following:

• Your Twitter url:
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Be sure to share this post with all of your online friends and social networks!

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Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

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To change your WordPress Avatar:

You’ll need to sign up at http://www.gravatar.com with the email address that you’ve associated in your blog with your admin user account, and upload you image to gravatar.com.

Once you’ve done that your gravatar.com image will appear whenever you post on your own blog or on other WordPress blogs (if you put that email address into the mail field of the comment form at that other blog).

Presto!  Now everyone will know just how beautiful you are.  :)

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