If you are starting your first website, you are of the fortunate many who have the opportunity to start at the top by doing things right the first time around by implementing a new WordPress website.

Here’s what’s going to happen though.

First, you’re going to have the immediate goal of spending the least amount of money to get a website up and running. After all, every sibling, spouse, friend, or colleague will tell you how easy it is to get a website for $0 to $750.

Notice how I phrased that with the spending even before the “up and running” part.

Second, your website will take twice as long to complete as you expected because you really didn’t know what to expect.

Third, your completed website won’t convert visitors to customers as much as you thought it would.

Fourth, you’ll send an email to your web-guy and say, “Why am I not getting any leads or sales through my website?”

If you even get a callback or a reply to your email, the response will not be a pleasant one.

Fifth, the war begins between client and web-guy.

That’s about the time WE get the phone call to rescue the client from the web-guy’s wrath.

This happens over and over and over again. So, don’t worry, you are not alone if you’ve already experienced a falling-out with your web helper.

And, don’t be embarrassed to reach out for help! It’s just good business to find a better solution.

The one advantage of going the cheap route the first time around is that you realize after a bit of pain that working on the web is a real business and you need to approach it with a real budget and a real planning process with a real team.

One thing you can count on though is using WordPress software to power your website.

There are at least 35 reasons to use WordPress for your main company website. For this post, I’d like to focus this post on the 20 most critical steps to consider when starting your new website with WordPress.

1. Describe on paper what important people will be visiting your website

2. Find what your website has to look like to show those people you “know the game” of that industry.

3. Make a list of the content items those people need to see before making a decision to contact you for a quote or buy the product you’re selling.

4. Document 3 problems your product or service reduces or eliminates

5. Find at least 5 competiting websites and analyze them.

6. Identify approprate colors that speak to your targeted visitors

7. Brainstorm a tagline to accompany your logo

8. Choose Linux hosting so that WordPress will run most efficiently.

9. Contract with your designer that you will receive all orginal graphics files.

10. Assure you get all usernames and passwords to keep control of the project.

11. Apply graphics to PHP include files, which will require some PHP skills.

12. Add your primary navigation to the “Menus” area and use text-based navigation when possible.

13. Add a search box for visitors to search pages and blog posts, which is an off-the-shelf feature already included with WordPress.

14. Setup your contact form. Redirect your visitor to a “thank you” page after the form is completed online.

15. Adjust Permalinks to be search engine friendly for every post and page on your site.

16. Install plugins for better performance.

17. Install security plugins to “harden” your WordPress website from hackers.

18. Add HTML and XML sitemap as well as a Google Webmaster account to announce to Google every time you add a page or blog post.

19. Include a robot.txt file.

20. Use the H1 tag only once per page or post.

21. Add RSS subscription icon.

22. Offer an “alarming” giveaway to get visitors to opt-in to your list if they’re not yet ready to buy from you or make contact with you by phone or email.

23. Assure you have setup the correct plugins to make your new WordPress website appear consistent on any mobile device.

24. Test everything.

25. Go live!

In future posts, I will address each step with more details. But this serves as a starting point.

If starting your first website with WordPress sounds like a lot of work, well, it is to do it right! Our team at HereNextYear is standing by to help with your new custom WordPress website…the first time around…without the webmaster wars.

If your website is not in WordPress, we recommend you do whatever it takes to transfer your website to WordPress as soon as possible. There are at least 35 reasons why your main company website should be using WordPress, but for this post, I’d like to focus this post on the 20 most critical steps to convert your traditional website to WordPress.

There are 10 steps involved with transferring a traditional website to WordPress.

1. Decide if you are going to make the transfer on your own or pay someone to do it for you.

2. Make a full backup of your current website regardless of whether you are doing the conversion yourself or using outside help.

3. Verify that your current website is hosted on a Linux server as WordPress will not run most efficiently, if at all, on a Windows server.

4. Setup WordPress in a development area on your website so that no one sees the pieces and parts of your incompleted transfer as you are working on them.

5. Get access to your original graphics files, which are usually in .psd format, as it is easier to slice images using the native format.

6. Apply graphics to PHP include files, which will require some PHP skills.

7. Add your primary navigation to the “Menus” area and use text-based navigation when possible.

8. Add a search box for visitors to search pages and blog posts, which is an off-the-shelf feature already included with WordPress.

9. Setup your contact form. Redirect your visitor to a “thank you” page after the form is completed online.

10. Adjust Permalinks to be search engine friendly for every post and page on your site.

11. Install plugins for better performance.

12. Install security plugins to “harden” your WordPress website from hackers.

13. Validate HTML and CSS to assure all of your code is sound and current.

14. Add a custom 404 error page so that your visitor is directed to a page that they can still navigation through in case you changed some URL’s in the transfer process.

15. Add HTML and XML sitemap as well as a Google Webmaster account to announce to Google every time you add a page or blog post.

16. Include a robot.txt file.

17. Use the H1 tag only once per page or post.

18. Add RSS subscription icon.

19. Export all of your content pages from your other online database and import them into WordPress or create your new pages from scratch. Either way, you’ll need to edit every page and post for formatting, so plan on spending 20-60 minutes per page.

20. Test everything while in the development directory.

21. Go live!

In future posts, I will address each step with more details. But this serves as a starting point.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well, it is to do it right! Our team at HereNextYear is standing by to help with your conversion to WordPress. Let us know if you would like us to review your current website and supply a quote.

The steps are more involved, but yet, somewhat easier if you are intending on starting a brand new website in WordPress.

The Ultimate FREE Guide to Making Blog Posts with WordPress

I’m asked several times a month by clients how to make a blog post. Sometimes the question is about where to get the content, how to post the format, what to do about images, and of course SEO.

Well, now I have a few websites where I’m asking member participants to supply me with “guest blog” posts too. So, I figure it’s time I put together a real blog post checklist to follow for clients, members, and of course welcome first-time visitors to the HereNextYear site too.

I’ve talked with my clients in great length to answer these questions, of course, so these steps might make more sense to them than to a person landing on this page for the first time. I just needed to assemble a sort of quick-reminder checklist for them.

If you have any questions, please add them to the comments area below and I will be happy to reply…for free…in a written form to your comments.

So, here goes…

Blog Post Length

A good blog post is typically 200-600 words in length. If you are a guest poster (posting to a blog that is not yours), this length may be considerably longer. Here’s an example of a guest post I made for Premium Web Cart. On your own blog, however, the typical length should be within the 200-600 range.

Blog Post Etiquette

Never write a blog post that is just a bunch of paragraphs. Your readership will be cut down to 5-10%. Always section off your content into the following pieces:

1. The problem – The intro states the problem and why it’s important that your readers know that there is something they can do about the problem right now. I like to make these intro sections either one or two paragraphs. Rarely will I go beyond that unless I’m guest
posting.

2. The solution – Present your recommended solution in either one of two ways–a series of steps or bullet points. Always use 1, 3, 5, or 9 steps or bullet points. Never use even numbers as the human mind is always wanting resolution. If there are two steps to the solution, the human mind will always look for the third, for example.

Once you get over the 9 mark, all sorts of possibilities exist. Use of “10 Steps” just seems to be not detailed enough for people anymore. It’s funny. Offer 3, 5, 9 steps and people get excited. But, 10? Blahhhh. Who wants 10 basic steps anymore? Better to go up to 21 Steps, or 35 Reasons.

That reminds me of one of my most popular blog post ever. It’s called 35 Reasons Why a WordPress Website is Better than a Traditional Website for Your Business.

Notice the numbered list. Notice the slightly longer intro. Notice the “Why WordPress” image (more on that further in this post). Notice the bold on the main points and light text of the description of each point.

3. The send off – Provide a recap of how important this topic is and that by using those steps or bullet points, the reader will be well on their way to improving upon the problem. You may decide to have a link to a product you’re selling or give a phone number if additional services are suggested. That’s completely fine to do in a blog post…BUT! You want to be sure to finalize your steps or bullet points before suggesting the next step.

For an example of properly closing off a discussion and suggesting there’s more, go to my blog post about 5 Home Page Designs for Pro Speakers

3 Types of Blog Posts

There are three core types of blog posts. Others do exist that I might post something about someday, but focus on these for now. They are enough to keep you busy for years!

1. How-to information – Position yourself as an expert in your field and that you are willing to share what you know. Craft a nice mix of giving them the goods without giving away the farm. Start these types of blog posts with lists.

Examples:

“3 Easy Steps to….”

“5 Questions Everyone Should Ask Before Hiring a….”

2. Industry News – Know when news is happening in your industry so that you can blog about it. Go to Google Alerts and setup several keywords you are trying to get search positioning for.

When anyone on the Internet posts content or news that includes those keywords, you will receive an email with a link to that document. You might want to adjust the settings at Google Alerts so that you are only notified once per day.

With an industry news post, you have two choices. You can either add a link in your post to an article you saw someplace and then make a comment about the posting; or, you can make the posting as if YOU discovered the news and you’re reporting it to your readers. Either is fine. But,
personally, I choose to link to other websites and give them the credit for the news and then give my side of the story on my blog post. Just lets me appear more honest that way.

3. “Real Stuff” – I use this term real stuff because these are the blog posts that most people equate to “what I ate for breakfast.” You know…the real useless stuff. Or is it?

Remember, people BUY from people they know, like and trust. I’m going to add another word to that list you’ve probably heard many times before. And, that word is “relate-to.” People will buy from you if they know, like, and trust you. But, if they can relate to you, more people will buy from you and they’ll buy more from you.

Every once in a while, you need to step aside from telling people how smart you are with all of your educational lecturing (blog post type 1) and

industry opinions (blog post type 2) and simply prove to people that you are a real human being that has the same questions, experiences, findings,

intrigues as your audience does.

One of my most favorite “real stuff” posts was my very first YouTube

video where I recored my then 9-year-old racing a ski instructor down a NASTAR course…and darn near beat him! It has nothing to do with my

industry or educational steps. It shows I’m a regular human being with a kid and a hobby beyond just working all the time.

The Headline

You don’t need me to tell you how important a headline is. If you’ve ever sold anything or written anything on the web, you know that a GREAT headline is really a big deal. You really need to take the time to craft a headline that hooks your reader. And, when I mean hook, I’m not saying hook them into buying, or even hooking them to call you. You just want to hook them into reading the next paragraph. If you’ve accomplished that, you’ve accomplished everything the headline is supposed to do. So, how do you find out what you should be writing about in the first place and crafting a headline?

• Go to Google’s free keyword search tool.
• Search the Google search tool for the main phrase that you are interested in making a blog post about. Example: “tree trimming” (I’m writing this portion using a specific example for one of my clients in case you’re wondering where I pulled “tree trimming” from)
• Add the captcha words so the search will function. If you use this tool on a few searches, Google will ask you to login to your account. So, you may wind up setting up an AdWords account inside Google to see full results. That’s fine. Go ahead and setup the account. You will use this tool frequently and simply having an AdWords account is free even if you never run a Google AdWords campaign.
• Notice all the keyword phrases in the search results. They can be further sorted chronologically by clicking on the column header. So, that means you can sort the report by Keyword, Competition, Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches.
• Pick a headline for your blog post that BEGINS with one of the resulting keyword phrases on this search results page …because people are already searching for those phrases.

So, if I entered “tree trimming” in the top search area, I would see a search result report that would include the word “tree trimming services.”

I would then begin my headline with that phrase and THEN tack on the end of it the content I wanted to get into the blog post.

“Tree Trimming Services in Rogers Arkansas are Reported Higher Priced than Ever Before”

NOTE: Because it takes me forever to craft the perfect headline, I had my programmers craft a little tool for me that creates headlines for me using the 250 most effective headline formats. I just answer a few questions and it spews out 250 possible headlines. Go check it out inside our completely FREE members area. Have a couple of other tools in there for you too.

Using Images and Photos

Every, well, maybe not “every” but certainly 80% of all of your blog posts should have at least a photo or an image of something that describes he blog post. Also, a photo or image helps to promote the blog post on social media because people are attracted to those images when I post the blog post on facebook and Google+.

So, you need to start including a photo OR an image (some sort of graphic, bought or produced on your own) with as many blog posts as you can. You will get better with this process as you go.

If you don’t want to take the extra time to go take photos and you’re not much of a designer, using iStock.com is a great alternative.

• Go to iStock Photo and make an account.
• Buy some credits…probably good to buy about 50 credits.
• There’s a place on the left column with a bunch of checkmarks for the type of image you want to receive in your search results, including photos, illustrations, video, audio, flash…Reduce your search results to find what you want faster by only leaving “photos” and “illustrations” checked, unless of course you know for a fact you would rather use a photo for this particular blog post or an image/illustration, then uncheck the other to reduce your search even more.
• When you find a picture or image that relates to the topic of your blog post, you will need to resize it to something that works well with your blog post. I usually set screenshots or photos to 500 pixels wide and 72 ppi resolution for easy viewing and, yet, quick loading.

   

   

  For smaller images, like those you see when I post topics about WordPress or facebook or Google+, I make those smaller so that I can have content to the right of the image. And, I’ll have that content styled to not be butt-up against the image but a little to the right of it. [Clients, let me know if you need help with styling]

   

• ALWAYS buy the photo or image in the lowest resolution possible for the least amount of credits.

   

• Once you have about 10-20 pictures or images, you can start re-using them with blog posts as pretty much every blog post should be somehow related to your topic and therefore have something to do with at least one of your collection of images.

   

• Design (or have your designer make) or create four or five little images that you plan to blog about most frequently. That way you don’t have to always spend money buying images and photos.

   

• And, let’s not forget about video and taking your own pictures. Not only does Google love images and pictures, well, facebook and Google+ do too! When you post a video or photo to your blog post, either will come up as a thumbnail when you add a post to facebook or Google+. Always feature a photo or video (or illustration too of course) in any blog post, because the social network posting will display those to viewers and attract them to visit your blog post.

   

• Finally, make sure your image or photo is NOT linked to anything. If there’s a picture, just about everyone will click on it. But for seo reasons, you want to keep your image/photo tied to your blog post.

Blog Post SEO

After you’ve added your post content, headline, and photo, move your way down to the bottom of your WordPress post admin area and complete the most important fields of the All-in-One SEO Pack, which are:

• The Page Title
• Meta Description
• Keywords

  Remember, the keywords field is one of those things that’s way at the bottom of the totem pole as far as what Google looks for so don’t pay too much attention there. Just add maybe 3 or 4 phrases and that’s enough.

   

  Just a few more steps that I’m going to keep in the SEO list by continuing with #4:

   

• Double check your URL to make sure it has the same keywords you just added to your Page Title. You can change that URL remember. And, it should be more exact with what people are searching for than what you have in the headline. For the tree trimming example, I would make my Page Title in the SEO Pack plugin to be “tree trimming service best prices [location]” because that’s not only something a large amount of people are searching for, but also fits well with the headline you created earlier.

   

• Publish the blog post and then go find three (3) other pages on your website or other blog posts on your site, go into edit that page through WordPress and then change a few words in your content so that a text link makes sense. For example, I might have on a different blog post the following sentence:

   

   

  “You might be wondering why tree trimming is usually so expensive…”

   

  I would enter the post and change that sentence to look like this:

   

  “You might be wondering what to expect for tree trimming service best prices…” whereas that underlined blue link would be a live link to your NEW blog post you’ve been working on all this time.

   

  Finding a few other pages or posts on your website to link to your new blog posts shows Google you have created something that is related to another pot and that if you have it on three other places on your website, it must be rather important. So, Google lists it. See how that works?

   

Alrighty, I’m all excited to go make a new blog post! Wait, I just did. Ooops.

Take your time with all these steps. Go one by one and you’ll get it. If you have a question, HereNextYear clients, you know where to find me by email, phone, or Skype. If you’re not a client, be encouraged to make a comment to this post and ask your question there. I reply personally
to all inquiries.

And, if you do want to learn more about this process, you might checkout a mini-book I wrote in December when I first realized how to get any and every one of my blog posts on Google…within 5 seconds! Often in the #1 position!

In fact, when I launched it originally last month, I even called it “5 Seconds to #1″ and it sold handsomely for the five days I let it out.

I can’t offer the orginal discounted special I gave in December, but I will open it up again the same document, 5 Seconds to #1 on Google, for purchase for just $14. BUT, that’s only going to be available ONLY until Saturday, January 21, 2012. I’m soooo close to having my Getting Brutal with Google fully updated, full-length, SEO ebook completed, (the only thing that stopped me was a deadline to have my first 5 chapters in to the Wiley group for the 2nd edition Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies coming out in April, but that’s another story!)…

…in which the “5 Seconds to #1″ document is included.

I won’t be selling the 5 Seconds document at all when Getting Brutal launches…and that will be at the same rate it has been for the past 10 years at $79.

So, there you have it. One big giant blog post for sure, but still the same format. Intro with the problem, bullet points or steps to follow for the solution, wrapping up with a convincing statement that I HAVE given you what you came to the page to see. And, then offering some step to take if you want to do even more.

Have a great rest of the week. This is Marty Dickinson saying blog well and bye for now!

I have to admit that I get bored quickly listening to speakers at seminars and conferences. So, about a year ago, I started bringing my video camera along whenever I would attend an event with a well-known presenter.

As soon as the speaker would start speaking, I would jump out of my seat to take a photo and then upload it to my laptop. From there, I would make a blog post and challenge myself using several steps to see if I could get the post onto Google’s #1 spot for the speakers name…by the time they were done speaking.

I didn’t think much of it as it was really more kind of a game than anything to see how fast I could get these posts onto Google. The first post I made live at a conference, took about 45 minutes to show up. The next time only 20 minutes went by and my new post was on Google. In October I made a post while sitting at an NSA meeting and only 8 minutes after I hit that “Publish” button, the posting was there on Google.

At first, I thought my results were skewed by my own search history settings on Google, so I went to my other fav search tool at Scroogle.org that allows you to search without any of the Google personalized search junk influencing your search results. Same thing. #1 position!

Of course, I knew the real potential of such a process would be for getting higher search positions for keyword phrases related far beyond just a public speaker’s name.  I would spend the next month hording my new found process. At least I had some good stories to tell the next time I was to be the one presenting. But, that’s as far as it went.

About two weeks ago, I used the same process to write a blog post about Google+ and how big companies just looove Google+ and how those big companies have already attempted to dominate the space. Google had been implementing some big changes to their search algorithm that same week, so I decided to see if my process still worked and I added one other ingredient to the steps. That post got to the top of Google in……5 seconds!

 

What was the difference between my 8-minute record and my 5-second record?

 

The use of Google Plus in tandem with my blog post.

 

Enough was enough. I had to document my process in full beginning with my WordPress website setup strategies and detail out the entire posting process.

 

This past Monday, I released my latest mini-eManual to my subscribers fittingly called, “5 Seconds to #1″ for the whopping Cyber-Monday cost of just $7. I know it’s worth a lot more than that, but hey, it’s Christmas season!

 

The feedback from my subscribers and members so far has inspired me to release it to anyone interested but I’m only allowing it to be made available until Monday, December 5 NOW REOPENED!!. Then I’ll remove the order link until it reappears in my January 2012 revision of my full-length manual Getting Brutal with Google, which I’ve been selling for $79 and updating continuously since 2005.

 

I think it’s only fair to charge for this manual since I spent all day Saturday after Thanksgiving to put it together for you. There’s nothing left out, no “secret sauce” that you have to pay another $100 for to get. It’s all there.

Surprisingly enough, not many people are talking about or using this method. They must be all caught up in something more “sexy” like QR Codes or mobile spam or something.

 

This product is NOW AVAILABLE only until Saturday, January 21, 2012!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional speaker websites are evolving. Meeting planners, event planners and speakers bureau managers have been telling me for months of planning my new MotivationalSpeakersWorldwide.com speaker directory website that they can tell in under five seconds exactly how much a speaker charges and how established the speaker is in the speaking business. And, established professionals speakers are changing their websites to accommodate. Your website absolutely MUST conform to what these people are looking for if you are going to compete!

Although we’ve been designing speaker websites for several years now, it’s important for us to stay hip to what other speakers are doing to promote themselves online. As a result, I’ve been analyzing speaker websites for the past several weeks (at least 500) so that I can more clearly advise our HereNextYear speaker clients.

Many speakers that come our way are not used to looking at other speaker websites. By displaying some good examples here, they and you will be able to give us (or another designer) a more clear direction for your project.

You’ll find there are a variety of looks and feels with the following examples, but one thing is the common denominator and that is the presence of a home page layout that is separate from all the other sub-pages. In fact, with the more established speakers, there are typically “3″ layouts for every website; a home page, a sub-page them used on all other pages, and a blog section.

I’ll blog about what should be included in the sub-pages and blog section another time. For today, I’d like to focus on the home page. It turns out that almost every established, working, busy professional speaker has a home page that uses one of five layouts. Here they are:

Layout #1 - This is by far the most popular featuring a full height or 3/4 height image of the speaker on the left and then content on the right. The content can consist of text, images, a mixture of both, video, books. There are all sorts of variety of what makes up the content section.  Then you will commonly see a search box at the top and 3, 4, or 5 image or video boxes on the bottom.

Here are a list of speaker websites using design layout #1. You will probably recognize most of them:

http://www.drwaynedyer.com
http://www.louisehay.com
http://deepakchopra.com
http://www.marksanborn.com
http://www.myss.com
http://www.ziglar.com
http://fripp.com
https://www.stephencovey.com
http://www.briantracy.com
http://www.laurastack.com
http://www.louheckler.com

Layout #2 – This is the second most popular design layout probably because the speaker or designer feels it’s more important to feature the content first instead of the photo of the speaker. But the other pieces remain pretty much a standard.

Professional speaker websites featuring layout #2:

http://www.jackcanfield.com
http://www.suzeorman.com
http://www.harveker.com (variation of design 2 but with large top header)
http://www.marianne.com
http://www.armandmorin.com
http://www.trump.com
http://www.funnyscott.com

Layout #3 – This design layout is third on the list in popularity, probably because it most closely resembles what people are most used to seeing in websites; 3 columns. You have to be careful with this one, though, because a 3-column layout gets the most comments for being called “too busy” when we do live hot seats in workshops. A hot seat is where you bring someone’s website up on screen for the audience to critique. 3-column websites can be the best format especially if you have product to promote and a list to opt-in to. I’m just saying you have to be careful to not overdo when using a 3-column layout.

Professional speaker websites featuring layout #3:

http://www.peacefulwarrior.com
http://floydwickman.com
http://www.woz.com (Steve Wozniak)
http://www.tedturner.com

Layout #4 – This format combines two scenarios. Sometimes I’m seeing the main video on the right and a figure in the middle of the header and some are without a photo in the header but still with video. If a speaker does not have a main video, this format is hardly ever used. If a speaker does have a main video, I see this format to be growing in popularity maybe more than any of the other designs.

Professional speaker websites featuring layout #4:

http://www.lesbrown.com
http://www.tonyrobbins.com

Layout #5 – This layout is used the least frequently out of the five. My eye tells me the reasoning is because I’m probably not going to read the content to the right if I’m watching a video. So, I would need to get creative with the right column to attract attention there…but not to the extent where people avoid the video.

Professional speaker websites featuring layout #5:

http://wealthfoundation.com (Loral Langemeier)
http://www.michaelegerbercompanies.com (sort of a combination of 5 and 2)

To summarize this Post – I’m sure you can see that there is quite a decision to be made with your speaker website home page! The key to choosing will be looking at many different websites and selecting a layout as well as plan for contents that matches your speaker message and your personality.

I would love to hear your comments and discussion on this topic. Do you like home pages on speaker sites to appear differently than the sub-pages and blog section? What turns you away from speaker websites when you land on them? What makes you stay? Are there any other speaker website layouts you’ve discovered that you would like to share here?

Rory Vaden is doing a great job speaking at NSA Colorado. Rory’s topic is that you “have to start doing some things you don’t want to do.”

Rory’s “deep dive” session after the break will be about social networking really, but what a good lead in for a presentation about social media for speakers than to inspire the audience first to be willing to do things we have to start spending time doing! Great job Rory and good luck with your new book, Take The Stairs.

What Low-Grade SEO Companies Do to Get Your Website #1 on Google that They Don’t Want You to Know About…that Can Drill Your Company Into the Ground Faster than a Woodchuck on Steroids in a Lightening Storm!

You’ve heard the saying “What you don’t know can hurt you.”

Well, I’ll bet you don’t know about THIS!

And, in this case, not knowing could get you…

-Sued
-Banned for life from Google
-Blacklisted from your industry
-Disbarred
-Stalked
-Harrassed
-Worse??

So, pay attention to this longer-than-normal blog post about something vital to your business and even you personally. Let me set the stage.

Have you ever had an email come into your inbox like,

“Top of Google for ANY Search Phrase–Guaranteed!” or

“We’ve reviewed your website and believe we can get you guaranteed placement on all search engines!”

If you haven’t, well, it’s only a matter of time. In fact, maybe you’ve engaged one of those companies and you now pay them $50-$150 per month for SEO services. Every month they send you a report (if you’re lucky) of all the keyword phrases your site is ranking for on Google.

If you subscribe to one of these low-grade, shoe-string-budget services, you’re not alone. Even bigger companies are exiting contracts with established, big-league, SEO companies to see if they can get the same results with small SEO providers.

There are, who knows how many, hundreds or thousands of so-called SEO experts that have figured out some “system” to get your website to display on Google’s free, organic, search results. And, funny how they always seem to charge around $50-$150 a month.

Those that actually DO get results for that kind of price have an seo secret. Want to know how they do it?

I’m going to admit that I’ve been turning the other cheek, so to speak, for the past few years when it comes to paying attention to what these low-grade outfits are doing in the SEO industry.

When I want to get a page of one of my 100+ websites on top of Google, I just do it. I don’t need to learn how to do it. I don’t need to pay anyone else to do it for me. In fact, my record for getting a new page on Google’s #1 position for a 3-keyword phrase is 8 minutes.

Since most people don’t have a “real budget” for an ongoing SEO program, I really don’t push the issue that they should spend a bunch of money on ongoing SEO. As a result, I do far more SEO reviews of websites than I do actual SEO for company clients. They would rather do the SEO work themselves by following my suggestions, which is fine with me.

You see, true Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means two things, as I talk about more extensively in my Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies book:

1) You have to change components of the pages of your website that you want to appear on Google’s search results. This is called “on-page SEO.”

2) You have to change things not on your website. These strategies are called “off-page SEO.”

So, yesterday, I was writing up one of those SEO reviews for a client giving them insights as to what to change both on-page and off-page so they could get better rankings in search engines.

In that process, I started spying on some backlinks that were pointing to some of my client’s competitor websites. Backlinks, if you’re not familiar with the term, are links on other websites pointing to yours.

Google still to this day loves backlinks. Having links on other websites is supposed to give Google the idea that your website must be popular, and therefore a credible website on your topic. Haa, of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. But, that’s the attempted logic.

And, here’s where my news about SEO search engine optimization companies starts to get alarming…

I remember seeing on a forum one time where a guy was promoting his search engine services. “His” promise was #1 on Google for a one-word keyword: $50,000 per month. #1 on Google for a two-word keyword phrase: $25,000 per month. #1 on Google for a three-word keyword phrase $5,000 per month.

How can any human live with himself and charge that kind of money for doing something so seemingly administrative as search engine optimization, you might be thinking.

Well, these are much more realistic numbers I hate to say. It takes that kind of effort, time, and dedication to do SEO correctly and naturally over the long term. You either need to hire someone to show up to your office everyday and work on your SEO and web presence under your watchful eye or pay someone out-of-house to work it for you hoping they actually get the work done.

Either way, SEO takes someone time to do the job, whoever that person or team might be. Anything short of spending that necessary time and dedication and you’re looking at “tricks” and “shortcuts” to get the results you’re looking for.

Tricks or shortcuts on the Internet are welcome in some places and are dangerous in others.

So, when we look at what these $50-$150/month service companies are offering, know too that they have found a trick or a shortcut to get you the results you want. And, that’s potentially dangerous for you and your business.

When Google sees you pulling tricks instead of using approved tactics, you run the risk of your website being banned from Google search entirely. But, interestingly enough, and this is where my analysis got a whooooole lot deeper, some of these low-grade SEO companies are able to use legit tactics so that your website doesn’t get banned.

“Then, Marty, what’s so bad?” you are probably wondering…

SEO companies are using a very scary scary and pathetic twist on the “off-page” side of SEO. And, that’s what I discovered.

Low-grade SEO companies are using ANY means they can find to get as many links on ANY websites they can find that will post a link to your website. The sheer volume of numbers of links can bring your website higher on Google searches based on keyword phrases. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the text they’re writing to feature the link can definitely harm you. Here’s an example.

Imagine for a moment if i was to write a blog post on this very website and quote YOU publicly that you said the president of our country is a (fill in the blank of something really really negative). And, then imagine I added a link to your website so that everyone could see the comment came from you.

If you’re a political activist, this might be a dream come true. But, for most of us, we don’t want our political feelings to be made public; especially if those political views are NOT our own! You would be calling me threatening me with my life or even pounding on the door of my office to remove your name and any association with that comment, right?

Well, one of the greatest ways to get a link to your website is to participate on blogs by commenting on them. You read a topic, add your comment and add a link to your website. Pretty simple concept.

Now imagine literally thousands of links pointing to your site with comments to blog posts made by people speaking on your behalf that you’ve never met! Now imagine those comments made on your behalf…and the comments made have piss poor grammar and not even a full sentence in English! Now how does that make you look?

That’s the tactic these search engine optimization companies guys are using. The U.S. owned home-based startup companies are hiring people in other countries to find blogs to post comments on your behalf and then add a link to your website.

When I spied on these SEO services providers, I dug even deeper to find all of the blogs they’re posting on and all the posts they’re writing. I found posts on some very ligitamate websites like sports commentary sites, news sites, health and wellness sites. Unfortunately, I also found comments made on porn blogs, porn search engines and directories, drug-seeking forums, rehab sites, therapy sites, arabic sites that I couldn’t even read and could only see reference to the link, and dating sites.

That was enough for me, so I stopped. I got the picture loud and clear. India, the Philippines, Mexico, all the hot-spot outsource countries must have teams of people just sitting at their computers adding comments to blogs and wherever else they can add content and links. They’re probably sitting there doing this work all day long for dozens of clients each. They probably get paid by their manager by how many links per hour they can generate. They don’t have any care where those links are or what is said.

The U.S. based SEO entrepreneur, on the other hand, simply has to make a report at the end of the month showing all the search phrases your website is now ranking higher than it was last month. He pays out, say, $500 a month for a team of outsourced help to build these backlinks for him and charges 20 clients $50-$150 per month. Not a bad business on paper, but potentially very distructive to a business owner and his business.

Now, I saw other comments on these same blogs that looked like they were even automated, like “Nice post dude. Thanks for great work!” and a link to some website selling bath soap or something.

Again, broken English. Has nothing to do with the post. These particular service providers that I spied on surprisingly enough did NOT have comments that appeared automated. In fact, it looked like they read a few comments made before theirs on the blogs and then commented. But the English was still poor and noticibly from a foreign, non English speaking person.

My question for you is this. If you’re going to go with these low-grade SEO companies, are you okay with having 15 or 20 foreign representatives of you and your company whom you will never meet and never talk to, comment on blog posts around the world on your behalf?

That scares the CRAP out of me that American business owners of start-up SEO companies are allowing this to happen. It’s got to be one of the worst ways I can think of to make a buck and be in business for oneself.

I’m not even sure that the American business owners of these SEO companies knows what their outsourced guys are posting. I mean, some of the comments I saw were downright insulting of the U.S. and of our American people. And, then the link would bring people to a legitamate U.S. based company website.

Very scary folks. Very scary!

My suggestion to you is this…

1) When you see an email come in that guarantees you anything about Google search positioning or has the appearance of a broadcast email about offering SEO services, don’t get sucked in. Don’t reply to it. Just delete it. You’ll be better off.

2) If your U.S. business is a REAL business and not just a hobby for you, please align yourself with an established SEO team of U.S. English-speaking people to work on your ongoing search engine optimization efforts. You’re going to pay more, that’s true. Just do it. The Internet is the very core of your hope for growth as a business. Be careful not to cut the wrong corners. And, make sure those U.S. English-speaking people you hire are the ones that will actually be DOING the SEO on-page and off-page work and not just outsourcing it to some other country of unknown helpers.

3) IF you can’t stand it, and you just have to go for one of these shoe-string budget SEO companies, then at least ask for 3 websites where they have had good results and look up their backlinks. Yes, you can lookup every directory and blog post where someone’s website has a link. Read the comments made on blog posts and descriptions made in those directories. Judge for yourself by the comments made.

So, to wrap this up, what you don’t know about SEO is one thing. What you don’t know about these SEO companies and their SEO offers could very well degrade the fine stature you’ve so carefully built for your business.

Be wise and be careful. Lots of SEO start-ups will try to lure you to their new and sexy process for getting on top of Google’s search results. And, their pricing gets more and more attractive every year.

Social Starters is a term I’m coining as of today.

Yep, you heard it here first. Social starters are words that help you to get started participating in online social networking discussions. Social starters are important because they set a desired tone for the words you intend to be received by another reader.

People misinterpret the meaning of words on a page more often than we realize. Wars have been started by receiving parties misreading text on a page. Employees have left tenured positions because of a battle that started over a poorly written email that was read as being condescending.

When you start replying to posts on social networks, know in your mind that whatever you write will likely be received in a way other than you had hoped.

Here’s a good example. Let’s say I make a simple facebook wall post with the following sentence: “Is it the weekend yet?”

You could interpret that single sentence many different ways depending on your own mood and surroundings. You could wonder:

-Is he really having a bad day and figures all the trouble will be over by the weekend?

-Does he have tickets to a sporting event or a concert and can hardly wait for the weekend to get there?

-Is there a hot date scheduled for Friday night?

The list could go on and on. Meaning, you have no idea what “Is it the weekend yet?” really means.

Now switch roles. Imagine you are the one that has posted “Is it the weekend yet?” and I respond to your post. I could take several directions with my reply post. Imagine if I was to respond with “What an idiot…it’s only Wednesday!”

If I was to post this as a reply, you might think I’m so abrupt that you might remove me from your followers list.

But, how about if my response is slightly different, with a social starter added? “Mann o mann, I know it. Can you believe there are still three days to go?”

This type of response is much more inviting and even a bit engaging. It just sounds like there’s more of a person involved in the response with a social starter to lead it off and could even invoke an additional response from the original poster. And, THAT is the whole purpose of social networking; to engage.

From researching with several of my facebook friends, some of these words are more traditionally called filler words or word whiskers or interjections or verbal tics. Many of them are considered taboo in public speaking. Most of them are completely banned from formal writing. But, there is no official word for them ALL until now. They are social starters and social starters are a very good thing, when used properly.

Listed below are 101 social starters that I’ve used in replies to facebook wall posts, tweets on Twitter, groups on Linkedin and tons of forum responses.

I’m sure there are more and you’re welcome to add to the list in comments. But, try starting your comments with these words as I’ve provided an example usage for each of the 101 Social Starters:

1. Agreed: “Agreed. That is definitely the best way.”
2. Ah: “Ah, I see it now, thanks and have a great week.”
3. Aha (usually followed by an exclamation point): “Aha! I get it now, thanks.”
4. Ahh: “Ahh, I finally get it now, thanks.”
5. Alas: “Alas, you were right, thanks!”
6. Awww: “Awww, I really appreciate that, thanks.”
7. Ay: “Ay, good to see you again.”
8. Amazing: “Amazing that it took this long to snow.”
9. And: “And now I finally get it thanks you to you.”
10. Basically: “Basically, you’re saying you’re saying it shouldn’t take that long for me to see results, I know it.”
11. Can: “Can you tell me more about it?”
12. Congratulations: “Congrats! And, let me know your progress.”
13. Cripes: “Cripes, I can’t believe I’m asking this again but can you tell me one more time?”
14. Dang it: “Dang it, I just don’t get it, sorry.”
15. Definitely: “Definitely! I’ll get right on it.”
16. Does: “Does that mean you’ll help me?”
17. Dude: “Dude, please tell me again you’re with me on this.”
18. Eek: “Eek, I didn’t expect that, can you try it again?”
19. Eh: “Eh, it’s not a big deal, don’t worry about it.”
20. Gads: “Gads, I can’t believe that happened to you.”
21. Geeze: “Geeze! When will they learn?”
22. Good job: “Good job and you deserve it.”
23. Good lord: “Good lord, you’re bound to get some good luck soon.”
24. Good one: “Good one! You are the master.”
25. Gosh: “Gosh, I hope you’re wrong about that but you’re probably not.”
26. Got it: “Got it, thanks.”
27. Great: “Great! Glad that worked for you.”
28. Grrr: “Grrr, why do people make things so hard when they don’t have to be?”
29. Ha: “ha, yeah, I got it finally.”
30. Haa: “haa, yeah, I got it finally.” (I use “haa” more than “ha” because people might misready “ha” as a misspelled “hi.” If I use “hi,” I would want to make sure to capitalze the H and use the person’s name, like, “Hi Joe and thanks for the question.”
31. Hehe: “hehe, you might if you’re a glutten for punishment.” (Notice again the use of lowercase “h” on the hehe to be more conversational)
32. Hey: “Hey, y’know, I’ve found that to be one of the most overlooked steps of it all.”
33. Hi: “Hi Dave and thanks for that great comment as not many people really know that.” (Always use a person’s name after using “Hi”)
34. Hi there: “Hi there Cindy and welcome back…it’s been a while.”
35. Hmm: “Hmm, that’s a very interesting point.” (One of my favorites)
36. Hmmm: “Hmmm, I’m really going to have to take some extra time and evaluate that statement.”
37. I dunno: “I dunno Ben, I’ll bet there are lots of possibilities still on the Internet today.”
38. I mean: “I mean, that’s just crazy awesome Wendy! You are sooo lucky.”
39. Indeed: “Indeed. You right across the board.”
40. Is that right?: “Is that right? You really got two coupons for free?”
41. It’s like: “It’s like when a video goes viral online, right?”
42. Just: “Just checked out that link and you’re right, I think there is something wrong there.”
43. K: “k, I’m going to look into that and get back to you.” (Almost always use lowercase for my “k” usage)
44. Kind of: “Kind of unfortunate to see him take that route isn’t it?”
45. Kinda: “Kinda confused why anyone would do that.”
46. Let’s see: “Let’s see if I can add to that list a bit for you.”
47. lol: “lol, you gave me a good chuckle with that one, thanks.” (Almost always used in small letters to indicate a chuckle or LOL capitals for a big laugh out loud but be careful about overusing lol especially if your target audience is older than 40)
48. Like: “Like, how exactly could anyone prove that?”
49. Mann oh mann: “Mann oh mann, that’s just going to take forever.”
50. My goodness: “My goodness, when will you ever slow down?”
51. Nice: “Nice, that is such a natural next step for you.”
52. Naaa: “Naaa, I really see no purpose in that.”
53. No biggie: “No biggie, we’ll just cover it tomorrow.”
54. Nooo: “Nooo, we really don’t want to wait until next week so let’s just get it done today.”
55. O: “O, I get it now, sorry.”
56. Oh: “Oh, I really didn’t expect that but thanks for telling me now.”
57. Oh dear: “Oh dear, here you go again.”
58. Oh my: “Oh my, where did you come up with that one?”
59. Ohh: “Ohh, I don’t think so, but thanks for asking.”
60. Okay: “Okay, I think I’ve got it now, thanks.”
61. Oops: “Oops, I missed it, sorry. I’m on it now.”
62. Oy: “Oy, what a day and there’s still tomorrow to get through.”
63. Person’s name: “Kevin, just wanted to say thanks for a job well done.”
64. Right: “Right, it works exactly like that, good job!”
65. Sheesh: “Sheesh, what did he hope to accomplish with that little trick?”
66. Sheeze: “Sheeze, I really am amazed he even tried that one!”
67. (sigh): “(sigh) I really have no clue how to respond to that.”
68. (shaking head): “(shaking head) Can you believe it happened again exactly the same way?”
69. So: “So excited to hear that great news.”
70. Sorry: “Sorry you didn’t expect me to reply so fast.”
71. Sort of: “Sort of agree with that as long as you’re willing to include a bit more time to the process.”
72. Supposedly: “Supposedly they’re going to have the roads clear in an hour.”
73. Sure: “Sure, I can understand your reasoning behind that one.”
74. Thank you: “Thank you so much for that great complement.”
75. Thanks: “Thanks for all of those great comments to my wall post.”
76. Thx: “Thx and I’ll get back to you with questions.”
77. Too funny: “Too funny and that experience didn’t even slow you down.”
78. Umm: “Umm, do you really think you don’t need to move your website to WordPress?”
79. Uh: “Uh, I think I might need until Tuesday to make a decision like that.”
80. Unbelievable: “Unbelievable how that little bit of work you did brought such a high ROI.”
81. Understand: “Understand too that the dude had plenty of time.”
82. Unreal: “Unreal…did he really think he’d get away with it?”
83. Wait: “Wait, before you go jumping to that new system, there’s something you should know.”
84. Well: “Well, that’s true, I gotta give it to you there.”
85. Whew: “Whew, thanks for the warning as that was a close call.”
86. Woe: “Woe, do you think we should be talking about that on facebook?”
87. Woo: “Woo! You were much faster at getting that implemented than I expected.”
88. Yessir: “yessir, that is exactly what I would do in that situation.” (Again, using the lowercase y to indicate informality.)
89. Yikes: “Yikes! Where did they come up with that mess?”
90. Yippee!: “Yippee! I tried it and it worked like a charm!”
91. Woops: “Woops, I sent the wrong file, so let me try this again.”
92. Y’know: “Y’know, I wonder too what that would be like.”
93. Yah: “Yah I know it’s tough mann.”
94. Yay: “Yay, I can see it’s going to be a long night.”
95. Yay!: “Yah! I never would’ve imagined it happening like that.”
96. Yeah: “Yeah, I’m getting there too.”
97. Yep: “Yep, you got it.”
98. Yes: “Yes, it’s true for sure, believe me.”
99. Yo: “yo, when do you think you’ll be ready with that?” (Use this one for someone you know as it is one of the most casual social starters you can use, along with the lowercase “y”)
100. You bet: “You bet we can get together for coffee. What’s a good time for you?”
101. You’re awesome: “You’re awesome! Thanks for sharing that.”

Get your copy here! The 2009 edition of Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies is now in its 4th printing as of April 2011. Go to Amazon for the cheapest price, of course, but order through this special offer and get:

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2. Document that shows you how to optimize every blog post on WordPress for search engines

3. Marty’s top 30 most important blog posts on printed paper for easy reading and quick reference

4. Website Pre-Flight document to help you put your plan to paper

5. Marty’s personal checklist for getting all the client leads you want from Twitter, Linkedin, and facebook

6. 30 days free and unrestricted use of the Internet Marketing Actionizer program

7. Three hours of assistance via private online chat with Marty about any Internet topics you would like to discuss

That’s a $200+ value for the one low price of just $97 (No Charge for UPS Regular Shipping within US).

From the co-author, Marty Dickinson, “When I was asked to be a co-author, the Wiley group asked what I wanted to write about that would help people with their Internet marketing. My response wasn’t what they were expecting. When they heard my list, their reply was that no one seemed to write about those topics in other Internet marketing books they had seen. And, they thought, those pieces were so important, that my part should be featured in the first section of the book! Nice!”

And, if you think just because the date on the book is 2009 that the content must be outdated, checkout this testimonial from Carol that just came in…last week…over facebook:

“Hi Marty…Just wanted to say that – while nursing a cold on Friday – I started reading Web Marketing – All in one. What a pleasure! It took me all day (seriously) to get up to page 96! Every time you mentioned a service on the web, I just had to crawl off the couch and go see! I’ve been “doing” web since it started, and I learned more in one day than in all of those years! Thank you so much! Love the writing, love the info… Can’t wait to find out what I don’t know about email, social media and blogging!!! Thanks so much!”

Carol Sutherland

Whenever I attend a seminar these days, I’ll look for one of the top speakers to start speaking, take a picture of him or her, make a blog post and see if I can get top positioning on Google by the time they’re done with their talk. Sometimes it works and sometimes it takes a bit longer like 2 hours or so for the posting to appear. But, it does appear and always within the same day. So, I thought I would share the process of exactly what I do to make that happen.

The subject is Brian Jud. Brian is a semi-famous book marketer who educates people how to sell books to retail stores and other outlets. In the authoring and book marketing industry, he is considered one of the greats. Here is my first screenshot that simply shows that I really did attain a #1 positioning on Google for the term. You might get a different result depending on what IP address you’re on and in what part of the country and of course whatever preferences you have set within Google. But here’s the screenshot anyway where, as of today, searching for “brian jud presenting” or “brian jud speaking” brings a search result in the top position pointing to my WebsiteWaves.com blog.

So, how did we get there? Through a series of steps. For the past two years, almost all websites produced by HereNextYear as well as those I’ve churned out on my own have used a content management system called WordPress. My WebsiteWaves.com blog is in WordPress as well. Here is what it looks like on the inside where I made the post:

There were 6 steps I had to take to have any hope of getting my post to display even close to the #1 position on Google for those search phrases. As shown above, I had to:

1. Create a headline for the post that had “Brian Jud” early in the headline wording. Since I wanted to make sure I got positioning for “Brian Jud Presenting,” I created a headline that also had the word “presenting” in it.

2. I created a url that had “brian” and “jud” in it so that Google would see this page as being related to him somehow. If the phrase was more competitive, I could’ve further optimized this page by making the url “brian-jud-presenting.html” but apparently just “brian-jud.html” was enough in this case.

3. Instead of having a file name for my photo of brian be something like 08212010-a1.jpg like lots of digital cameras will create by default, I changed the name to have “brian” and “jud” included.

4. The content of the post itself didn’t need to be very long, but it did need to include “Brian” and “Jud” early in the content and mentioned somewhere else in the paragraph as well. So, that’s using the same keyword phrase without being overbearing or unnaturally stuffing keywords into the content.

Then, to further optimize my post, I scroll to the bottom of the WordPress blog post page where I’ll see two more steps.

5. I created a keyword targeted “Page Title” of “Brian Jud Speaking | Selling More Books to Retailers by Brian Jud.”

6. Then wrote a complete sentence that becomes my meta description line. Both the Page Title and the Meta Description are what shows up in Google when you do a search.

Notice that I didn’t even enter any keywords in the “Keywords” section. Because people have abused the keywords area so badly for so long, Google barely even recognizes them anymore. It doesn’t hurt to throw some keywords in there, but I just wanted to prove the point that you can get pages of your website on top of Google’s organic search results in under an hour without ever adding a single meta keyword.

But, the process is not over! In fact, we’ve only setup the page so that Google “can” recognize it. The next step I took was to add my post to Ping.fm so that a message can immediately be sent to all of my social networks. Here’s a screenshot from within ping.fm:

Notice how in the circle, there is a list of all the social networks I’ve added to my ping.fm dashboard. Then I’ve underlined the message with the url of the blog post. Ping.fm will automatically convert that url into a short url, which is fine. The instant addition of my post is what is seen by anyone connected to me. Maybe even more importantly though is that Twitter is one of Google’s main sources for what’s called “Real Time Search.” I’ll talk about that in another post, but let’s just say, it’s yet another way Google finds out about up-to-date information posted online…immediately in real time.

Then, when I hit the “Ping It!” button, the message is sent out to the networks and looks like this on Facebook as an example:

Notice how it was just barely noon by the time I had someone making a comment to my facebook post. I think it was about 10:15 am that morning when I took the picture of Brian. It took another 20 minutes or so getting the photo into my laptop and formatting it, then making a post. At 11:30, I searched Google for “brian jud presenting” and there it was. Then the comment came in.

So, that’s how it works. I swear I should just sit around all day and make blog posts. But, this isn’t about “me,” it’s about what YOU could do with information like this. Of course, first you need to get setup with WordPress by someone who knows what they’re doing. Then, find what people are searching for related to your industry. Then, make all the blog posts your fingers can handle!

And, one day soon, you too will be able to tell ME how YOU got a #1 search position on Google in under an hour!

All the best,
Marty Dickinson

President, HereNextYear, Inc.