Finding Keywords: The First Step to Blogging Success
Guest post by Sean McGinnis
I’ve been a web marketer for a long, long time. Having built my first web site (DVD Verdict) in April 1999 and managed one of the larger SEO teams in the country from 2006 to 2009, it’s safe to say I’ve seen many changes in web marketing over time.
Interestingly enough, there is one thing that has never changed – not one lick over the previous 14 years – and that is keyword research.
Finding keywords is one of the most important (and most overlooked) aspects of web marketing. I’m not going to try to convince you why doing keyword research is important. That’s a blog post for another day.
Today, I want to help you find the right keywords. Let’s dig right in.
Filed under Blogging, Communication, Guest Posts, How To, Marketing, Resources | Tags: finding keywords, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Trends, Google Webmaster Tools, SEO, web marketing | Comments (26)We Make Our Own Fairy Dust
The one thing that I’ve realized is that in business and life, there is no such thing as fairy dust.
Scratch that. There is; but we make it ourselves.
Image: Alexandria LaNier via Flickr, CC 2.0
Worms
A few weeks ago, I was on the receiving end of an “I’m going to the garden to eat worms” type of message from a friend.
She was down in the dumps about business, it just wasn’t as groovy as it had been a few years ago. She was worried about being personally affected by the sequester, and was seriously considering taking a J-O-B. Would I talk her out of it?
Filed under Business, Marketing, Shonali Burke, Women's Issues | Tags: ann bevans, business development, fairy dust, international workers day, may day, sales | Comments (15)Breaking Out of The Box Only To Be Put in Another
Do you ever feel that you’ve worked really hard to break out of one box, only to be put in another, in a way you didn’t anticipate?
I do.
And I wonder if it’s an ironic and unintended consequence of doing such a good job of positioning ourselves, that we’ve positioned ourselves all the way into a box. Maybe a slightly larger and more comfortable box, but a box, nonetheless.
The early PR days
Early on in my career, I was very clear that “PR” wasn’t just “publicity.” So while I did a lot of media relations and publicity for various clients (at which I was very good, false humility aside), I was more interested in learning how those great “hits” made a tangible difference to the client. That’s what kickstarted my interest in measurement, which is why #measurePR came about, and so on.
But my foundational years were in pitching. How to write a really good news release; how to craft a pitch; the right and wrong ways of PR pitching, and the blood, sweat and tears of securing great (according to the client) results … all these are things I cut my teeth on.
Filed under Communication, Marketing, Shonali Burke | Tags: breaking out of the box, rebranding, reinventing yourself | Comments (25)
