All About SEO and Marketing

In the internet world, advertising a blog or site to increase site traffic is an accepted norm. The traffic is needed to gain readers who might want to buy the services or products being sold in a particular website. Sites that don’t sell any services or products, like a personal blog for example, also gain an advantage if they have traffic. A large readership would be advantageous to traffic ranking which would ultimately have an effect on your page rank and therefore you rank in search engines.

Bloggers are aware than spam commenting is one way of increasing links to a website and therefore raise its search engine rank. However, years back, Google invented the “rel=nofollow” attribute to hyperlinks to prevent such links from getting any legitimate credit when ranking websites in search results.
The “rel=nofollow” attribute does not mean that the link will not point out to the site or worse, block access to the site.  The hyperlink that has a “rel=nofollow” attribute will still point to the linked site, be indexed by search engines but will not count in page ranking and search engine ranking.

Of course, the criteria for the “rel=nofollow” html varies with each search engine. Google does follow the hyperlink, indexes it but does not count it for page and search rankings. Yahoo follows the hyperlink, indexes it and makes it count in search rankings. Remember, Google is the “one” who dispenses the much coveted page ranks.

There are a lot of blog software today that have adopted the “rel=nofollow” tags. Just over a year ago, you can spam comment to your heart’s content in every blog that you hop to and be assured that your hyperlink will count. Not anymore as blog software like: Blogger, Wordpress, Six Apart, Scripting News, Flickr, Buzznet, MSN spaces and more is now using the no=follow attribute. Woe on spam commenters whose aim is to gain backlinks! Only legitimate hyperlinks, as deemed by a site, will be counted. Because of this, a lot of sites, blogs, especially, have lost their page ranks.

It is not recommended to add a “rel=nofollow” attribute to your whole site’s html. It is suggested to put the tag only on pages where the reader could leave links and trackback by themselves.

When you look at SEO packages, you probably look at the included output, the promised results and – most importantly – the price tag. But if that’s all you consider, you’re missing out on one very important factor. A package’s payment scheme as major a point as the upfront price because it could very well determine how much you pay in the end.

You’ll nowadays find many SEO companies offering their service packages in either one-time or monthly arrangements. How does each one work out, and which payment schedule will work better for your budget and your site’s needs?

Why One-Time Payments?

It’s common for companies to offer their services and then ask for a one-time up-front payment either at the start or at the end of the project. This kind of arrangement has certain nuances that could make it either advantageous or disastrous for your budget.

The biggest advantages of going with one-time packages are

1. A fixed project cost- You just need to have enough capital to pay that single up-front charge, and then that’s that.
2. Less budgeting hassles- You won’t have to worry about continuously paying the service provider. After you issue the payment, you’re free to relegate your budget to other pressing matters.
3. Fewer time frame worries- Once you’ve paid, you just sit back and wait for the results to begin manifesting. It’s entirely the provider’s responsibility that the agreed upon results are delivered, and all within the specified schedule

You might, however, have a very big problem when it comes to the price of one-time packages. With price tags that range from $1,000 to $5,000, it’s not something that you can easily afford. And there lies its primary disadvantage – it’s cost-prohibitive because you have to pay that entire amount all at once.

The Case for Monthly Packages

If you don’t think that one-time packages are for you, many professional SEO companies also offer their services on a monthly basis. As you might have guessed, this arrangement has certain advantages:

1. It’s more cost-accessible- You’re likelier to afford $500 dollars a month than $3,000 in one go. Monthly packages will make it easier for you to get SEO services for your site if you’re on a tight budget.
2. Your budget is adjustable- Because you renew your contract at the start of every month by paying the fee, you could also opt out of the provider’s services at any time. If, for example, you run out of funds or you stop needing Internet marketing services, it’s easy to just stop a monthly-term SEO project.
3. It’s more flexible- In case you happen to need a slight adjustment in SEO services midway through the project, it’s easier to make that adjustment with a monthly payment schedule.

But a monthly arrangement is not without its faults. If anything, it could actually turn out to be more expensive than a one-time package. Say you got a $700 monthly package instead of a $3,000 one-time deal, but the project stretched on for 5 months. In the end, you paid out more because the project took so long to complete – a problem that doesn’t exist with one-time packages.

Which One’s Better?

That’s a question that only you can answer. Both payment schedules have their own pros and cons, making them better suited for certain sites, niches and other factors. If you have the budget for it and know a reliable provider, though, one-time packages are a wise choice because they’re less troublesome to maintain.

You could also try a combination of both. Take, for example, a new service provider you’re trying out. While you’re still gauging the provider’s methods, a monthly package is a smart idea so as not to plunk down too much money with that new provider at once. But once you’ve proven your new provider to be effective, you could switch to a one-time plan and then take advantage of its hassle-free nature.

Look at your niche as well to guide you in choosing a package. If your niche is growing and expanding rapidly, a one-time package might be more strategic so that you’ll get all the services you need to achieve a certain result; your SEO-using competition won’t easily drown you out.

It all comes down to answering these two questions:

* What do you need?
* What can you afford?

Choose one-time packages if:

* You’re just after results, period.
* You want to peg your marketing budget to a specific amount.
* You’re confident in the abilities of your provider.
* You’re not sure how long the project will take to finish.

Meanwhile, monthly packages might be more practical when:

* You want results and flexibility
* You have a small marketing budget that’s replenished monthly.
* You’re not yet entirely comfortable with your provider.
* You’re positive that the project will be finished in x number of months.

Whichever one you choose, just make sure that you’re going for the package with the better value-for-money and not just the one with the better up-front price.

There are many names for copywriting - sales copywriting, press release writing, SEO copywriting, etc. - but they all pertain to the same thing, which is structuring the content of your website is a specific way to achieve one main goal - to grab your reader’s attention, to maintain that level of intrigue, and to stimulate human emotions to evoke specific reactions; that’s what we call a successful internet marketing approach.

Almost all advertising agencies and in-house marketing departments have a full-time copywriter or even an entire staff of copywriters. They typically work together with graphic designers and marketing strategists to develop a particular product or service’s creative platform. Their goal is to mesh words and images in an effective way to create a strong brand image that will establish trust and credibility with customers.

Here are the basics steps on how to use improve your own content writing:

1. Isolate the market you want to reach out to

The first thing to do for good persuasive copywriting is to figure out who your target audience is. You need to establish you ideal customer based on demographics such as age, gender, economic status, values and emotional needs. With this information you can then decide what you think is the best way to approach this target audience in your article writing.

2. Create head-turning headlines

. Attention-grabbing headlines are critical if you are trying to promote your business or blogging site. It is the first and only chance you’ll get to create an impression upon your reader, so it better be a good impression. Remember that when web users browse online, split-second decisions are made whether to read a particular article to visit a particular website.

3. Find a distinctive selling angle

You must make an offer that the reader can’t refuse. You must give the reader an incentive to invest his or her time to continue reading the rest of your article. Not only must your offer be compelling, but it must also be unique. Tell the reader why your offer is different from the rest.

4. Write simple, straight-forward paragraphs

Your writing should be clear, concise, and to the point. It should feel conversational and comfortable. You must also keep things as simple as you can to make things as easy as possible for the reader to understand.

Each part of your article should have a main idea with the purpose of sparking a specific emotion in the reader. Always stay focused on your theme. Stress the unique benefits of your product or service, and make sure not to convey false benefits, as this will quickly put out the reader’s interest. Finally, end your article by summing up everything, restating your offer and re-iterating how you will back it.

With these four simple techniques - identifying your target audience, making good compelling headlines, creating a unique selling proposition, and writing a clear and concise body - your internet marketing writing skills will improve significantly. For additional assistance, you can also search the web for a copywriting company that offers professional copywriting services .