TechPatio » Blogging

Do you experience poor traffic from Google search recently?

Guest Author — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:29:43 +0000

Bloggers out there who had been making good money from advertisement, especially Google Adsense, might need to take another look at the recent changes from Google. One of the changes was the page layout algorithm.

Most Adsense publishers love to place a big 336×280 or 300×250 ad units “Above the Fold” simply because those ad units claim to be one of the few best performing ad units. Even I myself am doing the same thing but Google thinks that it is not a good user experience to show heavy advertisements instead of content at the “Above the Fold”.

As a result, Google is to penalize those sites with heavy advertisement sor probably even no content at all at the “Above the Fold” area. This only affects the “Above the Fold” area where you can still place your advertisements along the way as long as your readers can find your contents easily.

What can you do to solve this issue?

The thing that you should do now is to ensure that the area “Above the Fold” has a certain amount of contents. If you do not want to get rid of your advertisements to show more content, you can follow what I had done to my site.

Run a scan to check how much content you really have at the “Above the Fold”. You can use the Browser Size tool to help you out here.
If the width to have your content is too small and you are using a 336×280, reduce your advertisement size to 300×250.
If you have a small left sidebar for advertisement purposes, it is time to get rid of them as well unless that is the only advertisement you are going to show at the “Above the Fold”.
Don’t push your content below the advertisement. It is not a good idea anymore. Instead, align it to the left or right together with your content. This way you can show your advertisement and content as well at the “Above the Fold”.
If you have menu bar above and below your header, try removing them and replace them on your right sidebar or footer.
Lastly, you can also reduce the height of your header if you have a tall size header.

Apart from making all these changes to get your traffic back, you should always remember to create more valuable contents as that is what not only your readers love, but Google as well.

Guest article written by: Alan Tay is the author who runs IT Security Column, a IT Security blog where he mostly writes about computer security tips and security software reviews.

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What to Look for in a Marketing Agency

Emily — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:50:12 +0000

As an SME, or even a large business, it can often be difficult to stretch your resources far enough to cover the costs of an inhouse marketing team. And if you already have one, more often than not, they will be completely overrun with projects and tasks, so new campaigns and urgent marketing work can’t be undertaken as urgently as it needs to be.

If this is the case in your business, likely you are considering outsourcing to a marketing agency – whether just on a project basis, or retaining their ongoing services so they become almost an extension of your business. The difficulty is – how do you select the right one for you? Ideally, you want to get your selection right the first time so you can build an ongoing relationship with the agency, and save time later re-briefing company details and other general information for future projects.

So what should you consider?

Size and spend

First and foremost, try to match the size of your business with the size of the agency you are commissioning – this is especially essential for small businesses in order to build stronger relationships. Unless you’re just after some business cards and letterheads, it is vitally important the agency grows to understand your business, aims and objectives and also the culture.

Similarly, the size of the agency will often have some bearing on the cost. If you’re inclined to go with a big, top five agency, you need to be aware your marketing costs will reflect this. In contrast, a boutique agency may be more affordable.

Strong pitch, thorough understanding

When the agency pitches to you, it should be evident not only that they’ve done their homework, but that they’ve taken the time to analyse what they have found in order to build a thorough understanding of your business. Look for a pitch that resonates with you, and that speaks to the ideals, goals and values you see represented in the business. The more your agency understands you, the less time and money you will waste.

New media specialisation

Of more importance than ever, is making sure your selected agency is up-to-date with current trends. You will want them to have digital experts on their team so they can advise you of the best and latest technologies and channels you can use to communicate. You will need an agency not only with web experience, but now perhaps more significantly, one that knows its stuff when it comes to social media as well as SEO.

Previous clients and work

While many of us generally skip over the testimonials page, take the time to have a look at it. First, read all the testimonials so you can get an idea of what work the agency undertook and how satisfactory it was. Next, get more in depth – ask the agency if you can possibly speak to previous clients they have worked with so you can gain and honest and open understanding of how the agency works with its clients of all sectors.
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How to Improve Your SEO with StatCounter Analytics Data

Guest Author — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:38:36 +0000

All website owners who take their SEO seriously have some sort of Web analytics script running on their sites to monitor performance. One of the most feature-rich is StatCounter. This free yet powerful service can provide a ton of valuable data that you can use to refine your SEO strategies.

While it’s impossible to describe every feature here, I will highlight some of the most useful ones. First, let’s consider what you need to know to improve your website SEO. You’ll want answers to questions such as:

Which keywords is my site ranking for?
Which pages are the most popular?
How long do visitors stay on my site?
Who links to my site?
Where do my visitors come from?

Useful SEO Tools in StatCounter

Now here are some of the features in StatCounter that can help you gather the information you need. Assuming you have created a free account and have set up a project (your website), click your project’s name and look on the menu on the left for a list of statistics.

Keyword Analysis and Recent Keyword Activity

These two types of data show the keywords visitors used to find your site. “Keyword Analysis” tallies the total number of visits and the percentage of visits that arrive by way of which keywords. To see visitor activity for a specific keyword, click the magnifying glass next to it.

In “Recent Keyword Activity,” you will see the latest keyword searches made, the search engine used, the page on your site that was found and your ranking for that keyword.

How to Use This Data: Knowing what keywords you rank for is extremely important. Use the results to refine your page titles, headings and meta data. For example, you might try changing a page title to your top keyword. Also, you can use these keywords as ideas for new content.

Popular Pages

This section displays your pages by number of visits. Your most visited page appears at the top. Recorded visits are for a limited period only (anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the amount of traffic you receive– the more traffic, the shorter the period covered). If you want longer coverage, you need to upgrade to a premium StatCounter account. Anyway, this data is important because it tells you which are your “winning” and “losing” page.

How to Use This Data: You can promote your most popular pages even further, or you can try to balance things and get attention to other pages. At some point though, you might want to get rid of your weakest pages. If you get no backlinks, visits or revenue through them, it shouldn’t cause any issues if you deleted them. Just do it gradually. Don’t delete lots of pages at once.

Visit Length and Visitor Paths

“Visit Length” shows you what your average bounce rate is. The lower your bounce rate (that is, the smaller the green slice in the pie in StatCounter), the better. It means visitors stay longer on your site. A bounce rate of about 50% or less is good. 80% or higher is dangerously high. In addition to the bounce rate, you want to look up “Visitor Paths” to find out the navigation path people take through your site. After finding your site, how many pages do they look at? How do they go from one page to another?

How to Use This Data: If you know you have a high bounce rate and visitor paths are short, you need to work on your site design to improve user engagement. This is easier said than done because some niches just have a higher bounce rate on average than others. Things like internal links, multimedia and proper formatting may help.

These are just some of the things you can do with an analytics tool like StatCounter. Remember, SEO is a continuous effort and such a tool will prove to be a big help.

Article contributed by Blog Lady. Visit bloglady.net for more Internet marketing and SEO tips, Facebook login help, WordPress tutorials and more.

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7 Reasons why your Website Sucks and Why People Avoid It

Guest Author — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:39:58 +0000

Perhaps you have decided to create a website many times but have always seen your efforts end up in a failure.

Experiencing trouble with your website?

It is important for the ranking of your website with the SEOs that the visitors stay on your website and see what you have displayed for them. It is possible that many times your visitors leave your website more quickly and do not go through the content that you have made available for them. If you want to know the reasons for it and also learn about some common things to avoid having on your website to make it a success then hang on and read further ahead.

Reasons behind why this happens?

Auto sound: this is something that makes people leave your website quickly. It is possible that at time when you visit a website a sound or a video starts playing automatically. This distracts the visitors to the website and they avoid it altogether the next time they log in. many people also have background music of their choice playing on their website and they think it might please the visitors however this is not the case. The background music might annoy your visitors and they might leave it before viewing the content. Therefore auto sound or background music on your website is one major reason for its failure.
Complex or bad navigation: if the visitors find the navigation system on your website complex or bad they might leave your website within seconds. It is important therefore to make your navigation system as simple and as effective as possible.
Slow loading: slow loading of your website even on a high speed network connection might make people leave your website or not visit it altogether.
Too many pop-ups: if your site has too many pop-ups, it will be responsible for the less visitors you get on it. Pop-ups distract the visitors and they try to avoid sites which have too many of them
Lack of relevant information or useless content: the main reason somebody will stick to your website despite everything else will be its content. If your website does not contain relevant content then there is a big chance that people will avoid it altogether.
Outdated information: if your site contains outdated information, people will stop referring or getting back to it in the future. You need to make sure your website remains up to-date all the time.
Boring: your content might be boring or the appearance of your website might just be plain dull. Make sure you make your website colorful, in an accepted manner and try to add only relevant yet interesting content.

What should be done to avoid it?

You can always try to avoid the points mentioned above for a better traffic to your website and its success. Make your content interesting and not too over bright so that everything else remains balanced on it.

Guest article written by: Crystal J. Briscoe is from Self Test Engine. Looking for 642-481 exam help? Let’s take advantage of Self test engine self paced 642-591 training and pass your IT exams on first try.
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5 Ways to Fire up Your Blog Audience

Guest Author — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:00:46 +0000

Presently the blog viewers and audience is very much alert and attentive about what is actually presented to them in regards to when different blogs initially are appeared over the World Wide Web. In today’s world, it is extremely imperative that a blogger must comprehend the tricks and procedures that are essential to find the targeted viewers, but more necessarily, the skills and abilities it takes to maintain them.

You need to keep this point in mind that your blog/site should be something exceptional along with being entertaining and amusing as it is beneficial and information to your intended audience. You need to make sure that you are securing the permanence and durability of your portal by catering to the interest and needs of your existing as well as potential clients.

Following are the Ways via which you can Fire Up Your Blog Audience

1. Content & Quality

If you ever get to hear it ever, you must have heard about it a million times. As a matter of fact, there is not shortcut or trade secrets that will ever successfully and proficiently keep the interest of your targeted audience as much as quality content is going to be.
You need to make sure that you are writing a content which should count. You need to think about some reasons why your intended audience should visit your site, and consider what kind of content is in demand. Figure out the certain requirements of your audience and take as much time as you want while you are writing the content.

2. Appropriate Content

Remember that people are seeking out your portal for some specific reasons. You should maintain a particular level of steadiness and keep learning about coming up with such contents that are useful in fulfilling the prospects of your targeted audience.

3. The Blogger’s Personality

Some of the most vital benefits related to blogging is that your intended audience already is expecting a particular level of informality or intimacy. They are not only in search for comparative content but also seeking out bloggers with whom they feel associated on a special level.

You should give your target market an opportunity to relate to you or get to know you in a way that is actually going to make them feel that they have build up a strong connection.

4. Be Different!

You need to keep this point in mind that you do not hold a typical bloggers image that is an introverted individual. You must know that the entire blogosphere is extremely immense but the best thing about it is that everyone if considering establishing connections here.

You should be making friends with several other people in this field that are providing comparative content, but you should not compete with them in any way.

5. Lit The Fire

Another vital means via which you can summon some awareness for your Internet site is an alternative strategy that must call for caution. This approach is pretty controversial.
It is not controversial for sake of controversy, but it should be something that is useful even for your marketing and promotion. You can highlight several conflicts as an approach to make people talk about some of the most important topics prevailing around you.

Guest article written by: Crystal J. Briscoe is from Self Test Engine. Looking for 642-437 exam help? Let’s take advantage of Self test engine self paced 642-447 training and pass your IT exams on first try.

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4 Reasons a Business Should Invest in Social Media

Emily — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:08:56 +0000

Social media is proliferating across all walks of life and is increasingly infiltrating everything we do. Business owners should realise this as they stand to gain many benefits from engaging in social media marketing and utilising methods such as facebook marketing to increase online profitability as well as drive traffic to their retail store fronts. This article explores how to do this and why it is so crucial.

To build your online presence

Spread the word of your business through social media because it is free, unlike traditional advertising forms. The internet represents a dynamic marketplace which businesses use as a platform to attract the attention of vying customers and prospective buyers.

If utilised correctly, it can result in numerous new visitors on a daily basis. Social media is all about social networking so use it as a medium to promote your business to new people.

Allows you to monitor public discourse

Having a public Facebook fanpage for your customers will allow you to observe the conversations that people are having about your brand and business. In turn, you will develop a better understanding of how customers perceive your brand and this will result in deeper insight into your target market.

Apart from helping you amend potential problems with your current product and drive their sales upwards, you will be able to identify what your target market wants and execute new product or service opportunities. Social media is the easiest way to reach out to your customers in this era of technology.

Increases exposure and drives sales

For bricks-and-mortar businesses, social media such as Facebook and FourSquare is an ideal opportunity to increase exposure and drive sales from the online sphere to the retail front. Customers visiting businesses can now ‘check in’ or ‘rate and review’ a particular business and share their experience with their established network of friends.

As a business owner, you should check to see if your business is listed. Once you have done that, it will appear on a smartphone whenever people in the radius click the ‘check-in’ button. Once the listing has been created, you can even manipulate the information that appears under the listing.

Facebook now allows business owners to merge their check-in listing with their business Facebook page whilst FourSquare allows business owners to create check-in rewards and set up loyalty campaigns. It’s free advertising and statistical evidence shows customers trust word-of-mouth more than advertisements! The more people who check into your place, the more publicity you receive and the more sales you generate.

To command a presence and build authority

These days, it is as important to have a Facebook fanpage or a Twitter personality as it is to have a website. Existing and prospective customers will look for a Facebook fanpage or a Twitter presence to learn more about your company.

They want to know what other people think of you, they want to conduct research into what product you are selling, and they want to learn more about how the company works and how it portrays itself to its customers.

Your Facebook fanpage or Twitter personality can be a one-stop-shop for customers to learn everything they can about you. Greater visibility of a business will contribute to greater feelings of trust between customer and business.
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Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

Guest Author — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:44:39 +0000

If you haven’t heard of social media, odds are you don’t own a business. Still, some small business owners are hesitant to adapt to the new medium. Some feel that it isn’t relevant to their business, others are afraid of screwing things up, and still others don’t think that they can compete with the big brands.

Today, a large number of people in every demographic is using social media. People who like spreading the word about something are using it even more. You don’t need to compete with big brands to succeed. And if you do screw things up, social networks are very forgiving once you “get it.”

To help you get past your hesitation, or improve your social media skills, here are some tips to get some momentum going.

It’s Not About You

The biggest mistake that businesses make when they try to use social media is thinking that it is all about them. They confuse social media with traditional advertising. Remember, people only see traditional ads because they are there to see something else. You have to think of yourself more like a media outlet than a marketer. It’s about your audience, not yourself.

It’s Not One Way Communication

The difference between a traditional media outlet and social media is the ability of the customer to talk back. Since you can “hear” what they have to say, they expect you to react rather than just promote. Listening can be just as important as talking, not just because of the image it provides. It can also be a valuable source of feedback and new ideas.

It’s Not Fast

Social media takes time. You need to build a following before you can sell anything. Don’t expect instant gratification.

Don’t Spread Yourself Thin

You achieve the best results from social media if you dive all the way into a single community rather than mass publishing to a large number of communities. If you aren’t spending enough time on a social network to understand what appeals to the users, how to start a conversation in it, or how to build a following, you won’t achieve the success you are looking for. This is why you should spend some time deciding which networks are the best fit for you, so that you can focus your efforts where they will be most helpful.

It’s Not a Numbers Game

Instead of going after quantity, sift for quality. Instead of looking for a big audience, build connections with real people who have influence in your niche. Go out of your way to help these people and be genuine. It’s best to go into it without thinking about any particular reward you might receive. Just keep giving. They will give back. Earning the acceptance of experts in your niche is the best way to earn the reputation of an expert yourself.

Don’t assume that you should only help influential people, either. While this is where you should be putting about half of your effort, the other half should be put toward everyday people that are looking for help. This helps build your reputation as a reliable source, something that money can’t buy.

Be An Expert

To be an expert in your niche you simply need to be more willing to find information than most people are. You don’t need to know everything about your niche, you just need to know where to look or who to call. Spend some time talking to people in your niche and find out what they want to know. Give them the answers and they will be grateful.

Emulate Success

No need to start from scratch. Look for people who have achieved success because of social media and study what they did right. Don’t copy them; originality is an extremely important part of social media success. Learn from them. Study the experts and look for patterns.

Conclusion

Success in social media is about connecting with your audience, finding out what they want, and giving it to them. The more you go out of your way, the more success you will find. Involve yourself in the online community and distance yourself from the idea of making money right off the bat. Instead, focus on building a solid reputation and build a business from there.

Guest article written by: Jeff has been blogging since 2007 & contributing on many websites since that time. He is a professional internet marketing and blogging consultant. Jeff is also a consultant and content contributor for Queens homes NY community.

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Good SEO Company vs. Bad SEO Company

Guest Author — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:06:50 +0000

Websites needs to rank well if they are to attract quality traffic and in the end increase the visibility of the services or products being offered. With this high demand in achieving high search engine rakings, several companies have emerged that provide Search Engine Optimization aka SEO services. Generally, SEO involves the use of certain strategies such as keywords, link building, and page titles optimization with the main aim of increasing traffic to the website. However, not all SEO companies are genuine as some use dubious ways to get high page rankings only for the website to be penalized later. It is for this reason that businesses or individuals must distinguish between good and bad SEO companies.

Checking their Online Rankings

One easy way of differentiating between a good and bad SEO company is by checking their online reputation. Since they are providing SEO services, their website needs to rank highly for certain keywords and phrases. Make a search for the company using any of the major search engines and find out their rankings. If they rank highly then this likely means that they will use the same techniques they used on their website to ensure yours ranks highly. On the other hand, if the SEO company is not found in the top pages or even in the top 10 search engine results pages, chances are that their methods do not work.

Sample of Past Work

Good SEO companies need to be proud of their work and thus should have a portfolio of past clients. Enquire about the availability of such a portfolio and try to search for those clients using certain keywords. If the result is positive, then the company knows what it is doing and will ensure your site ranks highly on search engines. On the other hand, SEO companies that are not willing to provide you with a portfolio of their past work are likely to offer substandard service and must be avoided.

SEO process takes time and no company can guaranteefirst page rankings in a couple of days. In most cases, the process of achieving top rankings takes weeks or even months. A good SEO company will make it clear to you the duration in which to expect results. On the other hand, companies that guarantee you top rankings in days or even a week are likely to be scams. Some of these bad SEO companies will even tell you that they have discovered the search engine algorithms that allow them to deliver quicker results. The truth is that search engines never share their algorithms and they keep making regular updates.

Customized SEO Strategy

Websites are different and thus will require different SEO techniques for them to achieve high search engine rankings. A good SEO company knows this and thus ensures that SEO strategies are customized as per the needs of a website. On the other hand, a bad SEO company uses the same strategies for all of its clients. Moreover, a website might require less or more backlinks for it to rank highly for certain keywords. A SEO company that sells 50 backlinks for all of its clients is probably not genuine. This is because a website might need more than just 50 backlinks. With the high number of SEO companies in the market, it is important to carefully researchabout a SEO company before signing up for their services.

Guest article written by: Crystal J. Briscoe is from Exams Expert. Looking for HP0-Y42 exam help? Let’s take advantage of Exams Expert self paced HP0-Y40 training and pass your IT exams on first try.

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Tip: Need a blog topic idea? Build on a good post

Guest Author — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:44:47 +0000

When you have a great blog going you will be able to enjoy the success but at the same you will feel the pressure of keeping up with writing great blog posts to sustain that success. And there will be times when you will find it tough to come up with something fresh and new. On such a day one option for you is to read your own posts of the past, specially the ones that have been received well. There is a good chance you will have something more to say on the topic. Or perhaps a readers comment sets off a train of thought that leads to a new and interesting blog post.

But before you jump on to the opportunity that writing further on an earlier blog post presents you should consider the up side and the down side. On the down side if the original post had covered the issue in sufficient detail then another post on it may be more like flogging a dead horse. But chances are if the post was liked a lot earlier the topic has quite some depth and the flogging a dead horse analogy may not be quite true. That brings us to the potential up side. And there are many and they easily out weigh the down side most of the time.

One potential up side is that that the reader response allows you to shed better light on the issue now that you know how the readers are receiving your ideas. Then writing on an earlier blog topic can help you build a longer chain of thought which could lead on to something bigger. If your readers have made useful comments to your post and those comments help you to develop your ideas further, then you can acknowledge such readers in the blog post and this should bring your blogging community closer.

When you go beyond scraping the surface of a topic and taking it up in greater depth you can expect to find more issues of interest. These will add depth to your blog and it will go a long way in helping you consolidate your reputation in your domain of expertise.

For example I often write on car body kits and headlights and by writing many posts on these topics I have been able to cover it in great detail which enables me to show my depth of knowledge of these products. So the next time you are short on ideas for a new blog post check out the best ones from the past and look for inspiration there. Happy blogging!

Guest article by: Louie Liu has been in the car aftermarket products industry for over 7 years. He enjoys being able to make people enjoy reading about technical products such as body kits, car spoilers & other aftermarket products. You can learn more about car aftermarket products at his site www.ilovebodykits.com.

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How Many Blogs Should You Have?

Guest Author — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:30:35 +0000

Although one can make as many blogs as one likes, getting them all to succeed is hard work–harder than if one were focusing on just one blog. The issue of how many is too much for one blogger needs to be addressed early on. Assess just how much you have to give to each site, how competitive its niche is and how realistically you can fulfill your goals before you launch multiple projects. You should have only as many blogs as you are capable of maintaining. Answer the questions below to help yourself determine that.

How much time do you have?

Few of us have the luxury of too much time in our hands. But no matter how much time you have to spare, that will be divided among multiple blogs; the more you have, the less time that you can devote to each one. That’s simple mathematics. You can’t change that. Calculate how many hours a week (or month) you can allot to each blog. You’ll want enough time to be able to meet your publishing quota for each blog. Hint: The less time you have to publish, the fewer blogs you can hope to maintain consistently.

How strong is the competition?

Blogs in competitive niches would require more of your time than ones in niches that are less competitive. A blog that faces little to no rivalry can “take care of itself” even without you constantly updating and promoting it. Assess just how much work your multiple blogs will need. If only one of them needs a lot of work, then running them all simultaneously may be possible. However, multiple blogs in highly competitive niches? That’s quite a daunting challenge, assuming you work alone and don’t outsource.

How much do you really know about the subject?

Many new bloggers are so excited by the idea of profiting from “keywords” that they fail to consider how well a topic suits them. Don’t be misled by the keyword Cost Per Click or any other statistic. Unless you have real knowledge or fondness for the subject, blogging about it can be more trouble than it’s worth. Instead of spending your time writing and publishing, you devote it to research. Worst of all, you probably wouldn’t enjoy it– you’d be miserable. And that makes you unproductive. Abandon niches that you have no real interest in.

How good are you at multi-tasking?

Can you prioritize your sites? Do you have the discipline to follow a publishing schedule for all your blogs for an entire year? Do you thrive in handling multiple projects? These are necessary to managing multiple sites. Some people like to do many things at once– this may be the perfect situation for them. But others are more comfortable with engaging only one project at a time. Create a plan for your blogs for the next 12 months. Think you could fulfill them? Be honest!

What is your goal for each blog?

Do you want each one to be a “super site” with thousands of posts? Or would you be happy with two dozen posts on most of them? Can you realistically expect to fulfill your article output goal for each blog within a specific time frame? To give an example: I set a goal of 300 posts per year for a priority blog, to reach 1,000 posts in 3 years; but I only 50 posts in a low priority one. Some of my sites have a “lifespan” of about 25 posts before I let them sit; others are ongoing projects. Be specific about your goals, and be realistic about the odds of realizing them.

As you answer each of the questions above, I think you’ll get a clearer picture of where you stand with regards to multiple blogs and websites. This isn’t a minor undertaking, if you are a one-man (or woman) show. So don’t take it lightly.

Article contributed by: L.J. at Blog Lady: Tips on WordPress blogging, Gmail, Facebook and Internet marketing.

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