S uccessful internet marketing may involve many factors, and the choice of a domain name is a huge part of that process. There are additionally several aspects of what makes a strong domain name choice. Here are the most important details to keep in mind when choosing domain names.
A strong domain name will be short, sweet and to the point. Not only should you keep this in mind with choosing domain names but you’ll also want to remember to check out domain name extensions with which you can supplement your primary website.
Ensure the name you choose is directly related to your actual business activity. Choosing a domain that is as close your business name as possible makes it super easy for people searching the web to find you. If they are able to type in your business name and immediately see your website, that’s an absolute plus. If your business name is already taken, you’ll want to select a URL that is as close as you can get. (Read More)…
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Web Hosting
M any people settle on a domain name at the same time they choose web hosting services, purchasing their domain from the same provider from whom they select hosting service. GoDaddy hosting is a prime example of this, as GoDaddy sells and auctions domain names in addition to providing several types of hosting.
There’s nothing wrong with getting your domain name from the same company you choose for web hosting, as long as you put sufficient thought and planning into that domain name. Your URL influences how easily people remember your website as well as how efficiently search engines are able to rank and index your website.
There are many types of hosting plans available from GoDaddy hosting and other service providers. Some companies find that a single hosting plan will serve their purposes, while others must select multiple hosting methods in order to achieve their long term marketing and business goals.
Choosing web hosting can be an intimidating prospect when you’re not certain what your business needs are. The best hosting providers will help you make the selection of a hosting plan based on your true business needs and your allocated hosting budget.
Choosing web hosting can be an intimidating prospect when you’re not certain what your business needs are. GoDaddy will help you make the selection of a hosting plan based on your true business needs and your allocated hosting budget.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an essential part of any successful internet marketing campaign and utilizing a strong email marketing service provider is also advisable. While it’s possible to put together your own email marketing communications, including auto-responders and other convenience practices, the process can be very complex and time consuming. This is the reason that services like AWeber are so widely used by website designers and internet marketing professionals.
AWeber is one of the top email marketing service providers used by businesses of all sizes. It is a subscription based program which allows website designers and operators to create opt-in features on their websites. Such features allow users to subscribe to newsletters and other communications. Opt-in features can also be included in email messages in order to allow those who receive email forwards can easily and quickly sign up to receive future mailings.
AWeber allows you to quickly and simply setup your initial subscriber list. The easy to use account setup tools make quick work of the process. You’ll also setup the opt-in button on your website which makes it possible for new subscriber information to automatically be added to your AWeber subscribers list.
This shortens the time necessary for sending out email marketing content and also prevents the need for you to maintain the mailing list. The AWeber system makes it possible to save a great deal of time and effort. You can create a single message and have the auto-responders mailed to every member of your mailing list. You can also create time-delayed communications, setting up a schedule on which communications are sent to various subscribers.
AWeber actually offers website owners the opportunity to test drive the program for just one dollar. The trial run of the program allows you to take advantage of all AWeber’s tools for thirty days. Get Started Today For Only $1! – AWeber Communications.
How do you effectively stay in touch with your subscribed readers?
Which tools do you use to achieve this?Aweber handles all my email distribution and campaigns.
If you are really serious about building your mailing list with your blog, then this tool would help achieve this.
It also happens to be the industry leader in Email Management System.
It’s a very simple yet powerful system to use – And more importantly it works.
With very little effort, Aweber email system allows you to send bulk emails to your entire mailing list. You can also schedule these emails to be sent at specific times you want.
Especially for a newly formed blog, it is very essential to start building your mailing list from day one and to maintain a relationship with them.
See it in action
One of the key components of AWeber is its Auto-Responder facility.
Subscribers to YourBlogTools.com would have had a taste of this already.
It essentially handles the following:
Captures user details from your blog
Verifies and welcomes new subscribers
Email Campaigns
And much more
How I use Aweber
On a weekly basis, I interact with my readers by doing the following:
To broadcast emails to my readers on the fly with new tips and updates
To schedule blog post email notification.
Why I chose Aweber
With regards to list building, which is quite important to me, I wanted to hit the ground running. Aweber was able to meet my requirements.
What I wanted
I was a after a proven system that works
A reliable system
A complete Email Management System
What I didn’t want
An unreliable system
Emails filtered to spam folders.
Try Aweber here
Do you have any questions regarding this tool?
Are you already using Aweber? Share your experiences here.
Imagine you’ve just checked-in to a hotel, reception have handed you your room key, You open the door, only to find your room in a complete state - bed unmade, towels on the floor e.t.c.
I guarantee you would turn back and find somewhere else.
The same principle applies to a blog. When visitors stop by and find your blog a complete eye sore or of no value, they would simply turn back and go elsewhere.
Let’s ponder on a few things
(1) Is your blog clutter-free and presentable?
Do you have a good theme installed?
How many side bar widgets do you have installed? - Must you really have all that?
Do you really need all those social bookmarking icons? Are your text font / size readable by all?
All these factors constitute to the overall appearance of a blog.
Let’s go back to our hotel analogy – although a blog/hotel may have something of value to offer, if first impressions are negative, chances are, the visitor will not return.
Remember first impressions counts, so take time to plan your blog's structure.
(2) Is your blog offering something of value?
Once that first impression bridge has been crossed, content is your No.1 product of value.
Either you have a news or an entertainment blog visitors are reading your stuff because you have something of value to offer.
Bare in mind, in most cases, visitors on your blog are there simply for their own interests.
What are your thoughts on this?
Have you recently done a stop-by test?
What would you suggest?
Imagine starting a new blog with no plan of making friends - It's a bit like drafting a post but never hitting the publish button.
Visitors and potential friends don't just magically appear, we have to actively find them.
Let's Interact
Let's check out some tools that would brag about your blog as well as interact with others.
To continue with our series on "Essentials tools for a new blog", Engaging your blog with community is a good thing.
Your blog is always going to be in a world of its own without communication channels or means of reaching out.
There are several ways to create these channels,
however, in this post I shall focus on four social media ones. Some of which have been applied to this very blog.
Twitter (widget)
Let's face it, as of the time of me writing this post Twitter is the biggest thing out there. A social networking service that enables you to send and read messages - also known as tweets.
If don't already have an account - get involved here
And of course there are several third party Twitter applications that would give you a nice tweeting experience.
You can also decide to incorporate your Twitter conversation on your blog in a form of a widget. On this blog I am using Twitter for WordPress
Benefits:
Freedom of self expression in 140 characters.
Ability to build a group of targeted followers.
Ability to update your followers with new activities on your blog.
Incorporate your Twitter conversation on your blog
Twitter Feed
With Twitter Feed, you can auto-schedule your blog post to distribute to Twitter.
Meaning your followers on Twitter would instantly know when you have a new post.
Benefits:
Easy way to notify the Twitter world of your blog postings.
One-time setup
Tweetmeme Button
The TweetMeme retweet button is designed to encourage visitors to tweet your blog post.
This would actually be my first time using this widget.
I am keen to see the effectiveness of it.
Benefits:
Re-tweeting a post
Displays the number of tweets
Share Button
It essentially does what it says.
The Share This or Share/Save button encourages visitors to add your posts to social bookmarking sites.
There are tonnes of share this application around. The Share button used here is by Add to Any.
Which tools do you use?
file:///F:/Documents%20and%20Settings/john/Desktop/twitter-for-wordpress/
These are exciting times guys...
As we enter the beginning stages of YourBlogTools.com, I will be documenting series of action steps taken to get this blog up and running. If you are just starting out on Wordpress then you are not alone - just follow on.
Listed below are some of the plugins I first installed
All-in-one-seo-pack
Optimize your blog for search engines. Be sure to enter in your blog's tagline, description and keywords.
Google-analytics-for-wordpress
Begin to track the volume of visitors to your site, your visitor's location, how they arrived at your site and more.
Google Site Map generator
Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. This generator tool would automatically notify Google each time a page is created on your blog.
Wp-recentcomments
Use a section of your blog to display recent comments. I am currently using a plugin by mg12 which has been tailored to my current WordPress theme.
Recent-posts-plugin
Prompt your readers with other related information within your blog.
Have you recently started a blog? Can you remember the plugins you first installed?