The Web Squeeze

How Not To Guest Post: Are You Doing Things The Right Way?

by The Web Squeeze on June 6, 2011 in Tips & Tricks with No comments

What is a guest post and why do most marketers do it? Guest post is one of the latest and most effective way in bringing traffic to your site.

Some people may be doubtful about how effective it is since they claim that a regular blog is helpful enough to catch attention of a number of visitors. However, what most people don’t understand is that this is much more effective than that. How so?

When yo do regular blogging, you are posting your article in a website where it can only reach a limited number of audience and it ends there—there is no way that it can catch the attention of other people unless those who have read it will advertise it. In guest posting, you are posting your article, or at least your site, in another person’s blog where a lot of people can have access to it. Thus, you can earn more visitors and if lucky, even hit your targeted traffic.

However, guest posting is not so easy. You cannot just write anything you feel about the blog and then expect the blogger to just approve it. In order for a guest post to be approved, it must first meet the criteria of the blogger. Having said that, it is best to make sure that you are doing guest posts in the most effective way. So, are you?

How Not To Guest Posts

- Directly promote your products and site. While you may think that doing it directly and straight to the point is a good idea, it may not be as effective as you think. Once people read the product brands or any website header, they will immediately zone off and will then move to another guest post. Why is this so? This is because they will think you’re not reliable. Since you are promoting and marketing a certain thing, they might think that you are biased and your comments will not even matter.

- Going beyond your comfort zone. Most marketers think that being flexible and versatile can bring them lots of visitors. This is why they tend to write outside their niche. Versatility is not always a good thing especially if you are really not knowledgeable on the given topic. Visitors can determine whether or not you really know things about a topic and when they find out that you’re not, you will lose your credibility.

Doing Guest Posts The Right Way

- Know things about the site you will be posting on. Good knowledge about the site is key since it will surely be related to your site. If you want to have good traffic, it is best to post in a site which is relevant to your site’s subject matter. It will not make any sense if you try posting at random sites. For a guest post to be effective, it should be posted in a site that is in the same niche as yours.

- Make improvements in your site. If you expect the guest post to be effective, then you are expecting that many visitors will go to your site. Now that you have driven good traffic into your site, the next step for you to do is to maintain them. What will make them keep on visiting your site? The main thing here is credibility. If they find your blog, credible and informative, then there is no doubt that they will continue visiting it. Who knows, they might even promote it?

About the author:

Sarah is the relationship manager of Nanostyle. NanoStyle is the first and only to imprint 24kt gold on Cubic Zirconia jewelry.

Web Hosting Secret Revealed – A Review of the Web Hosting Reviews Site

by The Web Squeeze on May 6, 2011 in Reviews with No comments

Not all web hosting service providers are created equal, and that’s a fact. If you’ve ever been turned off by the complexity and confusion of a jumbled up user interface, been overcharged for domain names and hosting, or waited days for a support ticket to get answered that seemed to have been abandoned, then most likely, you’re with a crappy host service.

Webmasters and blog owners deserve better. But where do you begin? With hundreds of hosting service providers out there (perform a Google search if ye’ be brave enough), how do you know which is the best? The short answer is that you don’t need to, because Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR) is a web hosting reviews site without a bias.

Background on WHSR

WHSR is the brainchild of Jerry Low, the site’s sole owner and contributor. He started the site after a terrible experience with Network Eleven, a host he frequently decries throughout the pages, and after having found no legitimate host review sites that dig deeper than the surface. In contrast with his competitors, Jerry actually signs up, launches, and manages sites with the provider’s integrated products and features before writing a review.

Jerry has been working with Hostgator, Bluehost, and Lunapages for over 5 years, and he’s constantly signing up for new accounts on multiple providers, all in an effort to bring about the most thorough, subjective reviews he can produce. One brush over his site, and you’ll get the feeling Jerry has accomplished a pretty respectable feat in and of his purpose alone.

What you’ll see on the site

The first thing we did in our review of WHSR was to take a look at the sitemap. With more than 250 links to various articles, blog posts, and pages, the first impression is that the site is well populated. As far as the overall style of writing is concerned, the articles and reviews are easy to read whether you’re a beginner or a pro.

We especially like that the pages are tailored to the reader’s need for visiting the site, an attribute that a long-standing blog tends to develop only over time. For example, if you’re new to web hosting services and this is your first blog or site launch, cruise over to the “Hosting Classroom”, a virtual vault of information, definitions, how-to’s, and beginner’s introductions to the vast world of web hosting.

And if you’re just looking for a review of a specific provider, Jerry has probably already covered them, and you don’t even have to look that hard – simply click on the “Web Hosting Reviews” tab. If finding out which host providers are great at what is your approach, check out the “Hosting Awards” page, broken up by specialties and categories. Compare and contract providers that have the best prices, or find out who offers the best business hosting (Hostgator took that award – check out Jerry’s review here).

One last piece of content on the site worth mentioning is Jerry’s interview with Jason Cohen, co-founder of WPEngine, back in mid-2010. A serial web entrepreneur well known in the WordPress development community, Jason launched WPEngine as a hosting platform specifically for WordPress-based sites and blogs. In an extensive Q&A session, Jerry picked Jason’s brain about the speed, scalability, and security his platform provides in a fun and interesting dialogue. Read the interview here.

Why not let someone else do the leg work for you when choosing your hosting provider? The reviews at Web Hosting Secret Revealed are first-hand accounts of a real customer, not just copy-and-paste text from the provider’s sales pages. Don’t get burned by a bad host ever again!

How Can I Get More Visitors to Purchase From My Website?

by The Web Squeeze on April 27, 2011 in Tips & Tricks with No comments

A guide to improving sales through your website

If you’ve got a website for your business and you’re looking to increase profits, you have to find ways to entice visitors–and visitors who want to buy! The answer, in part, is Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO. Google reigns supreme, and to find favour with the empire is to increase the success of your business. So just how do you get the attention of such a busy cyber-monarch? And more importantly, how can you turn high rankings into high rankings that make money?

Ranking for the RIGHT keywords

Sadly, it’s not as easy as simply selecting an assortment of keywords that define your product. There is a lot of competition in the market and understanding consumer search patterns, gaps in the market and which keywords are going to convert to profits is essential to harnessing the tools of SEO. Spend time broadening your keywords, and instead of selecting the same old battered words as every other similar offering, try to find some lesser-used words or phrases that still relate to your offering.

A well-designed website

Web Design is a fundamental consideration. Apply the same organisational logic to your website as you would to a physical store. Your website needs to be easy to navigate, intuitive, regularly updated and full of relevant, quality content. Things links back to your site from other sites are a surefire way to rise in the SEO rankings, and providing an option to link to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is essential.

Lead Generation vs eCommerce

In most cases, SEO runs the most smoothly for your business when applied with the goal of lead generation; that is, generating consumer interest and communication that allows you to grasp the baton and run it home with your internal sales strategy. This might be an avenue you’d like to explore further, rather than simply trying to get people to buy from the website. If it end up making money for you, it’s worth the extra effort!

Email Marketing

Consumer engagement is the holy grail of internet marketing, and the best way to promote this is to keep up targeted communication in the form of email marketing Building and maintaining a strong database of consumers in your demographic and keeping up your end of the conversation with interesting email content is vital to your relationship and reputation as a brand. Know your consumer, and spend the time required to court them.

Have a good offer

You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. In other words, all the Search Engine Optimisation in the world won’t convince people to jump on your offer if it isn’t a good one. Apply basic business sense to this one—search engine optimisation doesn’t make money out of thin air, it helps you direct attention to the raw goods.