SEO Tips and Advice | Social Media Strategies and News

OK – so you’ve got on Twitter, worked out what the hell it’s about and then thought “How on earth am I gonna get more followers?”

It’s true – it would be best to have an audience when it comes to Twitter – yes, you can just tweet to yourself as after all it is a micro blogging platform but in order to get the most out of Twitter, you need to get involved in the real time conversation.

One of the main things that grates me about the common answer to the above question is “Just follow more people and most will follow back” – ok great, so you can handle a million tweets flying at you 24/7/365? Are you interested in all those people? No? What a surprise.

Instead of thinking of ways to gain fake followers, you’d be best off following a few easy methods to gain followers who are actually interested in you.

Besides – seeing a Twitter profile with an unhealthy ratio of followers to followed just doesn’t look genuine. Are they really listening to all those people?

So – lets get onto 5 ways to increase your Twitter followers:

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Hey everyone,

Hope you’re all fantastic and 2010 is going well for you so far.

Sorry for the lack of content recently – it’s been crazy busy my end, so I’ve not managed to get round to doing some posts. I do however, have a few in mind that I want to sit down and create – so I’m looking forward to them.

Anyway, this is literally a quick post to assure you I haven’t gone anywhere and I’m still here

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Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a fantastic new year celebration and are ready to hit 2010 with all you’ve got!

Towards the end of the year, I posted about Why Being a Snob Can Hurt Your Rankings with regards to the use of nofollow links. If you missed it, I suggest you check it out, as you may be one of those snobs

This time I want to focus on another snobby behaviour with regards to linking, and it’s one you cannot afford to ignore – especially with how the search engines are starting to shape up with how they look at links.

One of the most important SEO factors at the moment (and has been for a looooong time) is the quality and quantity of links pointing to your pages. This really helps when it comes to ranking, but how/why? Well the search engines see links pointing to your pages as “votes” or “approval”.

So how does it help you rank for specific keywords? Well – to keep it very quick and simple (for this post) – you link to your pages with keywords in the anchor text (the text that is clickable). So rather than using “click here”, or “more info” – you would use anchor text such as “Blue Widgets”, or “Dog Training” – whatever keywords you want to rank for.

So – it stands to reason to get as many links as possible using those keywords and yes it does work! So that’s great stuff – all you need to do now is blast a load of links with perfect anchor text at the pages and you’re cooking on gas! No. Not true.

Whilst the search engines aren’t fool proof – they do have means to be able to detect an un-natural quantity of links being built to any one particular page/site so this isn’t something to take lightly.

Also – think about it, how did the web work before search engines started to come about? You relied on links to be found at all not to even rank but just to allow your site to be found by surfers.

So, people would link to you with “click here”, “more info” or even just your URL as a link. The average webmaster is not going to link to you with perfectly crafter anchor text, it’s just not a common way of doing things.

Finally it seems the search engines are taking this into consideration enough for you to think differently and this year you could very well start to see a big shift with how linking works.

Don’t be a Snob – A Link is a Link

OK – not 100% strict, but pretty much. Just like nofollow links provide some value and help mix up your linking portfolio, non crafted anchor text can do the same. It mixes it up – it looks natural and non crafted. It’s something you really need to factor in, otherwise I don’t hold much hope for you in the future.

So, what exactly am I on about? What ratio of good anchor text to “not so good” anchor text do I need? If I knew that, I would be a gazzilionaire But this what is I mean…

There will be plenty of times when you cannot get the anchor text you like from your link targets, so rather than turn your nose up – take them, it’s not a waste – trust me.

How else can you vary it? How about in your anchor text that you can control, you put something like “click here for more info on blue widgets“, “blue widgets here“, “the best blue widget resource” – whatever, don’t be too fussy for longer anchor text – it helps

This will help make your whole linking portfolio look a lot more natural and will stop it looking for too “perfect” or “sculptured” – it’s well worth it in the end.

So there you go – get mixing it up!

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Well, there we have it – another 365 days have passed. 52 weeks, 12 months. However you measure it, it’s gone quick!

I always remember being told when I was younger that time speeds up the older you get. “Nonsense” I thought. Hmmm, I’m beginning to think it’s true.

So how was 2009 for you? Mine was a mixed bag to say the least. There were plenty of personal development lessons I have identified over this year – which is fine as it gives me something to work on.

From a business point of view I don’t have many regrets apart from one thing which has annoyed me and that is I should have started this blog sooner! (One saving grace is I have learned a lot during this time)

I launched HelpfulGuy in September, and have been very pleased with the results already! I have managed to attract a great audience and following and I really enjoy bringing you all the content I can and sharing my knowledge. So thank you for reading!

So why the delay? Well, I hang around with other SEO guys and girls – I read a lot and learn a lot from the best in the industry. That was the problem. Not that I am learning from the best and hanging around fellow SEOers – but the fact that it made me feel that I cannot possibly contribute any more and I felt that everyone knows this stuff. Wrong!

The same thing happened with Social Media – I have been practising Social Media since mid 2008 and the same thing happened – I thought everyone knew this stuff because of the (online) circles  I was hanging around in.  Wrong again!

There are literally millions of people out there that don’t know this stuff – I just failed to recognise that.

Learn From My Mistakes

So – a little tip from me. Whatever your passion, whatever circles you hang around in – there is always an abundance of people that don’t know what you know and more importantly – want to know it!

So – with that in mind, keep going with your passion – this ultimately will give you the most mileage. After all, you know this stuff, you love this stuff and can more than likely teach this stuff so stick with it.

Don’t be attracted to the next “big thing” or “craze” – if you’re not into it, it won’t go far.

So, for 2010 – there is plenty that I have in mind for me and you. More training, more webinars, reports, videos, audios, interviews – the lot. I’m going all out. I have come a fair way since September, so imagine a whole year of me “on it”.

But that’s enough of me. I’d love to hear your story of 2009 – what did you go through (doesn’t have to be business) – what do you plan on achieving in 2010? What would you like to see from me? I’m happy to hear!

Please leave in the comments below – I would love to see them. Remember this doesn’t have to be just business based. It could be personal. I wanna know what makes you guys tick

Get commenting!

Oh, and of course – HAPPY NEW YEAR! May it be a great one for you.

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This is part one of my “Don’t be a Snob” series. How many parts will there be John? I hear you say. Well – I don’t know! Definitely 2 – maybe more

I hear it all the time – through forums, through conversation and all sorts of other channels.

Oh, I don’t want that link – it’s a nofollow

It’s exactly this type of mentality that can actually go against you and hinder your rankings. Why? Well the search engines know about link building, I mean come on – it’s part of their algorithm for choosing who should rank and where. It’s an important part of Search Engine Optimisation, one that I personally always stress that if you could only choose one SEO factor, I would recommend link building.

So how are nofollow links any use? After all – they don’t pass any link value, so why bother?

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Wow – well that was needed!

I’ve been in this internet marketing game for a while now – since mid 2003 and I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. I’ve seen the guys at the top go from teaching you how to “exploit” certain functionality of the internet to teaching you how to create a real online business.

Being involved in internet marketing for this long also has it’s problems. I have learnt about so many methods, techniques and opportunities it’s untrue – but that has lead me to not being focussed and working on what I should have all that time ago.

John Reese is the man to the rescue this time. He’s a guy who’s achieved a huge amount online, and he appears to be quite a down to earth guy. He’s launched many successful products and courses, so it’s fair to say he’s worth listening to.

He’s emailed about his latest course a few times, and I checked it out a couple of times too. Part of me thought “not another course”, but after reading the sales page, I knew he was talking about a lot of problems I had/have when it comes to working online so it struck a chord with me.

So, I took the plunge and went through the entire course over the weekend and it made me feel fresh and invigorated. It was a very worthwhile thing for me to do and I’m really pleased I did. The first 3 lessons alone made me a lot clearer and more focussed on things.

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Listen up – I need to be quick.

Just finished recording a screen capture video showcasing the Google Real Time Search and I wanted to get this post out there. After all, if I waited, it wouldn’t exactly be “real time” would it?

Late last night (UK time), I saw the news, that Google had announced further information about their real time search (via Mashable – thanks guys!) Now this is BIG with a capital – well B of course!

Why? Simple – this affects EVERYTHING in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The organic results aren’t gonna be the dominating factor on certain search terms. PPC (Pay Per Click) may be overshadowed even more if your ad appears down the right hand side.

If you’re an SEO that has been burying your head in the sand when it comes to Social Media and how it “doesn’t affect you”, then sorry – this is a kick in the balls for you. You woken up yet? This is as big as when PPC got introduced so deal with it, accept it and understand it.

It’s not just Google Real Time Search – it’s Bing. They announced before Google about their intentions to show Twitter AND Facebook updates in results. Bing also has a more exclusive relationship with Facebook as Microsoft (creators of Bing) have invested, and that includes exclusive deals, such as paid for ads and no doubt special treatment.

So Google will be showing Facebook PAGE updates and nothing more (yet), even this element doesnt appear to be live yet. Make sure you have your fan pages indexed! This is an awesome opportunity.

OK, make sure you check out the video below to see more about how Google Real Time Search will affect the search landscape.

Let me know what you think. Am I getting too excited? Too ahead of myself? Or am I just super awesome and know my shiz? Let me know!

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Bit of an unusual post from me today but it’s for a good cause so I thought I would share it with you! Naturally, I will take a look from a Social Media view

NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) have launched a campaign to allow you to send a personalised letter from Santa to your children (or any child for that matter). This is a great little gift all for a suggested donation of £5. Here is the information below:

The NSPCC’s Letter from Santa fundraising initiative gives parents, grandparents and anyone else the chance to nominate someone special to receive a magical letter from Santa for a suggested donation of £5. The letter is personalised with the child’s name and age and is sure to confirm that Santa will be making his usual stop in the child’s home town to wish everyone a merry Christmas. The letter is written in a hand script font and is beautifully illustrated on quality colourful paper. The envelope shows that it’s been safely delivered through ‘express Rudolph Mail’.

Fundraiser Binita Patel said: “Letter from Santa is a brilliant way to put an extra twinkle into Christmas this year and make a child feel extra special. The appeal also helps us to raise money to support children who are perhaps not as fortunate.“

“It is important to remember that Christmas is not a time of celebration for every child. Over the 12 days of festive cheer last year, ChildLine – a service provided by the NSPCC – counselled over 3,500 children who were in danger or distress and had nowhere else to turn. By supporting this appeal you will be helping to provide support, advice and protection for these children who are in desperate need of help.”

Also on offer is a Baby’s First Christmas letter from Santa, which is the perfect keepsake for newborns celebrating their first festive season.

To order a letter from Santa for a child you know, visit http://www.nspccwishes.org.uk/ or call 0845 839 9304.

It does look a real cool little gift and I can imagine thier eyes will light up when they receive it. There is a video on the site to show you more, so go check it out!

OK, from the social media side of things, there’s one thing that I’m pleased they’ve done, and that’s include the “Add This” button on the top right. This allows people to share the page via several social bookmarking sites – so that’s a pretty cool touch.

What would I do? Well, I wouldn’t just rely on that. A lot of people aren’t really sure what that is and why they would click it. Instead? I would allow people to order as normal, and right before the final confirmation, allow them to share what they’ve just done via Facebook and/or Twitter.

This is a real opportunity to allow people to spread the word about the campaign via thier networks. You could set up a pre-defined tweet that reads something like:

@NSPCC – Just ordered my Letter From Santa, they’re gonna love it! #letterfromsanta

OK, what that does, is not only get further exposure to NSPCC’s Twitter account by mentioning them in an @reply and get a hash tag going for the name of the campaign, which will become clickable and that will take people to a stream of tweets containing that hash tag. Of course, there is a chance of a Retweet for it to be passed on further.

Now the above is all depending on NSPCC using their Twitter account. At present there isn’t any activity, depsite over 200 followers. It’s not the easiest of subjects to use Twitter for, but I’m sure they could get creative if they had the right Social Media advice

On to Facebook – by using Facebook connect, this would allow people to log in via their Facebook account and post to their wall what they have just done. Again, this has the potential to spread very nicely via the newsfeed and in turn attract more traffic to the page and hopefully more orders!

As I say, this looks like a real nice gift for any children in your life. They’re bound to love it and cherish it. I wish them luck with the campaign. Guys – if you’re reading this, please take the above into consideration to get as much coverage and exposure as possible.

Hopefully that helps!

As usual guys, let me know what you think and let me know if you’ve placed an order!

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Wow – 25th post here on Helpfulguy.com and how fitting that it’s 25 random facts about me!

Thanks for all your comments and participation on my previous 24 posts, it’s really appreciated and long may it continue!

OK, so this idea isn’t mine. I saw this idea on Michelle MacPhearson’s Blog and thought it was really cool. Michelle is one of my 5 Ladies of Social Media too, so even better!

So, without further ado – lets get to my 25 Random Facts About Me: John Hutson. I hope you enjoy!

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Hey,

Super quick post that I’ve slapped together. This is a review on the book Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk which I have to say is awesome.

This is how quick I wanted to share with you my thoughts. My room is a mess, I used my in built web cam and the sound is a bit ropey – but hey, I wanted to give you an unscripted review a real true insight from the heart.

I have never read a book so quick, I couldn’t put it down and I know I will read it again soon too.

Anyway, check out the video below:

Oh, how about grabbing the FREE Chapter?

If you want more information and videos about the book, you really should check out the dedicated site: Crush It Book

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Have you read it yet? Let me know your thoughts!

Still not sure? Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll see what I can do

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