Part 9
Search Engine Current Tips, Tools & Techniques…
Just remember to always think about what YOUR target market and how THEY would be searching for your services or products. Boy, I have to tell you there is SO much to learn in the world of SEO, so I will be looking on other blogs to gain more knowledge as well.
Well, I found one site that contained something interesting….the 8 worst SEO techniques Krissi Danielsson

Part 10
Press Release Distribution Websites
Since this original post, Ponn herself has come up with a pretty extensive list of press release submission sites, here

Part 11
Blog Directories
I believe this has to do with sites such as MyBlogLog and Blog Carnivals. For me personally, I have recently become a part of MyBlogLog and a few blog carnivals. With both of these, a tip is to join the communities or carnivals that are in your target market.
My Blog Log and Blog Carnivals are pretty easy to start, however, it is important to be sure to schedule time each week to spend on these to gain exposure and positive benefits from them.

Part 12
Link Text
When I first started blogging, I didn’t know how to do this or just how important it was to do…basically, if you give the “love” you will receive the “love” from others online. If you comment on others blogs and give credit to what they had to say, you mostly likely will receive credit, “links” to your blog as well.

Part 13
SEO Tools
If you are searching for keywords, Ponn Sabra recommends (and I have to agree with her) for searching for keywords Keyword Advisor
Another site is SEO Tools.
On this site, they offer a backlink popularity tool, a competition finder, and offers a spider test.

Part 14
Sound HTML coding practices- you can go online to do this to find good advice or ask your SEO friendly blogger and get down the basics. This helps tremendously when blogging because it will allow you to spread the exposure of others advice and add value to your blog.
Update since I wrote this: My big recommendation is going to be to download Yaro’s Blog Profit Blueprints. This is a VERY concise and easy to understand (ALSO FREE) ebook or report that helps the newbie blogger to know how to make money online from blogging.

Part 15
Image Optimizations
This one is very new to me, although I think I know what I need to do. I haven’t mastered this skill yet but I think it is simple (someone can correct me if I am incorrect)…you just would save a image file on your computer and then paste the link into your post for your blog entry.

Also, in the midst of doing this SEO marathon, I found another great advice FREE e-course , 10 days to a better blog, that I am submitting to…giving by Wendy at eMoms at Home. Hey, there is always more to learn, right?

Below is a little bit of my rather WONDERFULLY long BLESSED list for this week:
1)Found 24 cents in my closet
2)Received “just thinking about you” e-card from a friend I have not talked with in a few months
3)Mom & Dad stopped by to see us unexpectedly (nice time)
4)Got cookies from a friend in the mail
5)Won a prize for an commercial ad done by Rebecca White at an online networking event
6)Gave my brother option for an issue and it allowed him to find a solution
7)Received email from my niece
8)Invited to be added as a friend on another blog
9)Received special gift from my brother
10)Didn’t have any phone calls for the holiday…so I was able to enjoy the holiday better
11)Asked to be a part of new online networking group

I hope that you will try this easy but very effective tool that will help you become more positive in your business and personal life.
Be sure to go to the University of Prosperity and read up about what these ladies have to teach regarding the Laws of Attraction.

Social bookmarking

…there is some controversy on this topic and whether or not it is a good idea to get involved with these types of sites because the “down side” is that is invites spammers “access” to your blog or website. As for social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us are different than social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace or Ryze. MyBlogLog is in its own category of Blog specific social media/networking/posting sites, with BlogCatalogue and GoodBlogs as its counterparts.
All 3 kinds serve different purposes, but in the end they are places to network and build communities to drive traffic to your interests, wants and your business (products and services). All I can say is that my personal experience with places like these, whether it be at social networking sites like Ryze, Linkedin, Yahoo groups OR social bookmarking places such as MyBlog Log or Stumble—I have found it is one of great ways to gain business connections and friendships develop. I would like to also reference a recent online to do list that I was a part of that may help Wendy Piersallof eMomsatHome, started this To Do List project and part of the list is about social bookmarking. I have recently become a member of Stumble Upon and from my brief experience, it seems pretty easy and I look forward to the benefits of gaining more visitors to my blog/website. One of the key points she makes is to be active on the site and ask your online friends who are members questions to help.

Part 7

Setting Blog Traffic Goals and Meeting Them

– Now, this is something that I started and I am following others footsteps to achieve this. For instance, that is why I am completing this SEO challenge for my blog. I am learning a lot as I am doing these things and offering value to my blog by giving others my advice about my experience. I am following others I admire and becoming a part of the blogs/groups/communities that they are a part of in order to learn what they have done. For instance, Ponn suggested to me that I sign up to Yaro’snewsletter – already did it (and boy, I am glad I did–great information). I realize that I may not be able to do everything at the speed that someone else may have, however, at least I am actively moving in the right (increasing exposure) direction. As you are reading this, I just noticed thatPonn had added another post challenging others to Steven’s blog by following his post on how to increase RSS subscribers to 500 in 1 month!

One of the things that I have learned by this challenge is to find who knows who and follow their path and read up on their information and see what the consensus is among them.

Owner of Life by Design and Self Esteem coach, Tonya Ramsey, will be debuting “Mom’s Coffee Break” on Friday, June 1st. This will be a biweekly online gathering for moms taking place on the 1st and 3rd Fridays at 10amCST for 1 hour.

Mom’s Coffee Break will highlight a topic on women interests and an honorary featured sponsor will be available at each gathering.

For the launch of Mom’s Coffee Break, the topic will be on overcoming self sabotage and the featured sponsor is, Tally Green of Gano Excel Healthy Coffee.
Ramsey provides group and individual coaching for women because it is her passion and purpose in life to assist women in helping them realize their potential and ability to accomplish their business and life goals.
Ramsey is an avid student of the laws of attraction and recently started as an instructor at the University of Prosperity to allow others to bring the laws into their lives to bring them to the life they desire. Ramsey currently lives in Wisconsin with her husband and 2 ½ yr old son. She is also a part time student at the University of Wisconsin working towards the completion of a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor of women studies.
As a work at home mother herself, she realizes the struggles and achievements of working at home however, Ramsey says “I look at my son, and I see all the possibilities that this world has to offer.”

Wow, that wasn’t too tough.
I still do need to do some of these things…especially get into the team blogging and the syndicating my feeds, even for my articles. And, I will shortly be doing the audio or podcasting….minis and regular length.

Hey, is there someone who would be interested in team blogging with me? Comment below because they would be a great help to me and you.

I have to say…completed 1/3 of this SEO marathon by Ponn Sabra and I am very glad that I took this upon myself to do because there are some great basic things that I just “forgot” about or didn’t even realize where simple things to do to boost my blog.

Neeext…

I have to tell you that I had won a copy of Beverly’s book at a online women networking chat and at first, even though, I was excited to have won the prize, I wasn’t sure if I was the proper person to have won such a prize. See, I am only 35 (not quite yet a baby boomer). When the book arrived, I loved the graphics and book cover. I was excited to receive something by Beverly because I was a fan of hers. So I thought I would read a few pages to get a feel for HOW she writes. Well….
I couldn’t believe it…I could relate to SO much in this book. And the way she wrote the book was amazingly done…with humor but also highlighting her strong faith in God was priceless. I began telling my friends about this book because even though most of them were not baby boomers yet either, I told them it was a must read because of topics that ANY working mother can easily relate. In this book, Beverly talks about sexism in the workplace, trying to compete with others, being a working mother while trying to raise a child, relationship issues, self image, and conquering self doubt. Every women (including work at home moms) entrepreneur can relate to these things and it is a great “pre-menopausal” guide for women. So be sure to pick up your own copy here

Now Building References pages means creating
1. An articles page (listing all the new and old articles)
2. About Us Page – intro/bio about your and your business
3. Media Page – Links to interviews, podcasts, press releases (This one I really liked because it mentions ALL media outlets that have mentioned you or your business)

This is something that I will be working on as well and will have completed by the end of June 2007. When I started thinking about it, I have quite alot of information out there (I have been interviewed about 4 times-woohoo).
P.S. Be on the lookout for my upcoming podcast (internet radio show) too!

This takes a bit of time but it just a matter of getting on the web and gathering the information out there about yourself and placing it on one page on your website…great credibility booster!

Oh, if you are reading this post before you read the part 1…let me tell you what is happening. See, I am challenging myself to follow the SEO marathon posted by Power Networker, Ponn Sabra.

For Part 2, Ponn had suggested to add these two things: Subscription Feeds and Bookmark Tabs. She mentioned that she found it easy to do by following, John’s post. Well, I followed his instructions and unfortunately for me I don’t seem to be able to add this to my sidebar?? Any help here, would be appreciated. But at least, I tried.

Since Part 2, didn’t work (at least for now)…I continued to Part 3. This piece talks about article submissions and about one of my favorite subjects…writing. Ponn had written originally that she had only submitted articles to Ezine articles and recently she had done another comparison of two article submission sites that she has tried – read her post about Submit You Article.com and Article Hut.com.
I have about 6 articles already written so my next order of business is to submit them to ezine articles (will be doing this by next week) and then I will probably go to Submit your article.com as well (Ponn did it-so I will follow her lead). I have heard a lot of good things about LadyPens.com as well so that will probably be my 3rd choice.

Whew…I am well on my way…3 down…just 12 more to go…stay with me.

She conducted her own SEO marathon and once I realized that I needed to do most (really it was all) of these things for my business, I decided to challenge myself to complete her list. So I am going to start with number one and work my way to the end.

So here goes…

The first thing that she mentions is her google rank and her alexa ranking. So, that is just what I did. I am getting Key Business Partners to just become listed without the wordpress.com part. The reasoning is because I believe right now I am not receiving any Google Page Rank however, that will shortly change. (keep a look out). Alexa ranking is 7, 213, 336, however I don’t think that’s too bad considering, the blog has only been up for less than a month. The next part of the first was to go to Text Link Brokers and follow the five steps to a perfectly optimized page.
Step one – Know your niche. I have found that some business owners who have not been successful in doing this step. I can understand that when you are new in business you feel they want to target and be able to service anybody and everybody with your products, however, no one company can do this alone so it is best not to try. On the Text link brokers blog, they further explain that it is important to be as detailed as possible in this step. this is true – have a clear picture of what your ideal client or customer is i.e. where they live how kids do they have held to the kids how the pets to the have what is there and come do they have pets will kind of pets. The reason why this step is so at present is because it allows you to concentrate your efforts towards the people who are looking for your product or service and not to the people who do not wish most likely to use or what your service. Well, this is not an exact science however it just allows you better focused effort for your business. Once I narrowed it down, it made much easier to gain customers .
Step two- Finding the correct key words
once you’re done with Step 1, this step will be a lot easier. These days there are tools to help you find the most “profitable” keywords for your business. Such tools as word tracker and Digital point are just a few. In this process it is best to take out a blank sheet of paper to start writing down a list of words that are associated with your business and look that up the of the keyword search tool. Don’t be afraid to give a couple hundred words to start. I relate this to what writer does who would have ideas about books to write. This is just like a brainstorming session – it allows you to get all the thoughts down on paper the key word research tool allows you to know which words and or phrases hold more weight than others. Remember these keyword search tools are only an approximation to the popularity of a word or phrase. They are pretty accurate but I would not say there are 100 percent, right on the dot. I had done a step and although, it does take a while, by doing this, again, it has helped my business tremendously.
Step 3 – Next, is to write your content for the website. He defined your keywords with your writing however don’t just write for keyword sake but write to your customers and what they can gain from visiting your site. I will say that I am in the midst of doing this, as my site is being created.

Step 4 is to optimize your pages. This correlates with Step 3 because if you are using your keywords in the content of your pages, your pages should be optimized effectively. In the step, the Text link brokers talk about the description tag and the key words tag. For the description tag, be sure that it describes your business in a few words. For instance, if you are a florist, you don’t want to be in about cakes. For the keywords tag, just be sure to put in your keywords– I would say your top 10 keywords (I believe there is a maximum – but I don’t know what this is). I have some keywords for my blog, however,once this becomes a website, this will be completed.
Final Step – 5 – Writing a title tag. I know that I mentioned that there was some debate about meta tags however, the tile tag has been noted to be important as far as tags go for website. There isn’t a debate that this tag is important.

I hope that this has been helpful to some…I am going on the part 2…stay tuned.