I admit, I’m pretty new to StumbleUpon.com but just today I saw one of the reasons it’s recommended as a great Social Network and SMO tool.

We have a new Door County Wisconsin blog that we just stared about a month ago. My wife, who loves to write, has been in charge of the content. She wrote a really good article on Saturday about how to make reviews on DoorCountyReviews.com so today I went to the article and added it to my StumbleUpon account. About 30 minutes later we had over 60 page views on the blog. I know, that’s really nothing, but to go from 0 page views to 60 in a few minutes is rewarding to me, especially when part of our business plan is to work with local businesses who will care about traffic (or should).

So, point is, if you haven’t signed up for StumbleUpon.com yet, I recommend it. It’s a great way to promote you’re own stuff and share it with a huge community, which in turn could turn in to traffic, which in turn could turn in to sales.

So much to do with an eCommerce business, isn’t there? Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur.

UPDATE: I did the same thing with a few of my articles from MollerMarketing and have had over 100 visitors today from StumbleUpon.com!

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I teach clients about meta tags in one of my lessons so I thought I’d write out a few of the basics to use as a checklist. In the Search Engine Optimization world, there are many different opinions about what’s the “right way”. My good friend Janet Meiners did an article about the Top 10 SEO Factors, of which I agree with 100%.  These are guidelines I try to follow on all my sites.

On-site optimization, what we to on our site to make it search engine friendly, is only a part of getting the right traffic to your site. But if you do it correctly, it can really help you get out of the Google “sand box”.

Here are the tips:

Meta Tag Titles

• 6-10 words maximum
• Minimal keyword repetition
• No domain name
• Use keyword phrases that you want people to use to find you in a search engine
• Use “byer phrases” instead of “browser phrases”
• Every page of a website can have its own unique meta tags

Meta Tag Descriptions

• 1-3 Sentences
• Keyword repetition recommended
• Explain what the page is about

Meta Tag Keywords

• 25-30 words separated by commas
• keyword repetition is okay
• make sure the words relate to the page you’re marketing

Here are my meta tags (title, description, keywords) for my home page at www.ClogOn.com:

Title: Clogging shoes | Dance Bags | Capezio dancewear

Description: Online clogging store with new and used clogging shoes, taps, dance bags, capezio dance wear and other clog dancing information.

Keywords: clogging, clogging dance shoes, dance bags, capezio dancewear, taps, clogging steps, clogging shoe supplier, history, clogging blog, clogg dance, clogging dance team specials, what is clogging, clogging shoe distributor, costume bag

Hope this helps and gives you a picture of how your meta tags can look on your pages. Remember, we want to customize the meta tags for all pages, especially the ones we want to be found in search engines. I personally don’t waist a ton of time on the about us or contact us page.

If you want more in-depth information, this SEO book is excellent:

(Aff)

(Non-Aff)

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For some of you, this is old news, but I recently read a great article about Craigslist testing written by Mat Siltala. He did some tests with listing strategies on Craigslist and made $500 in 10 minutes. That’s right - a “get rich quick” scheme that really works!

If you’re new to Craigslist.org and don’t know what it is, let me share 5 reasons why Craigslist.org is smarter than eBay:

1. FREE, FREE, FREE: that’s right. No listing fees, no selling fees, limited worries about shipping. With eBay, you have to pay to list whether the product sells or not, you have to pay a transaction fee when the product does sell, and then there are the “little things” that can really add up - extra pictures fees, gallery picture fees, bold text, sub-titles, buy it now options, and the list goes on and on. Craigslist does charge for certain things. Here are a few of them: Q: How does craigslist support its operations?
   A: By charging below-market fees for job ads in 7 cities, and for brokered apartment listings in NYC.
   Q: How much are job ads?
   A: $25 for NYC, LA, DC, Boston, Seattle, and San Diego, and $75 in SF.
2. Potentially quicker transaction time. Just like my friend Mat, you can make money in minutes. I talked in another post about the success of a few of my clients and my own personal Craigslist Success. If you list a product effectively, your phone (or email) may be going crazy with buyers.
3. Less worry about getting burned by shipping fees. Unfortunately, I’ve had a few clients who have seen great results selling products on eBay; however, they didn’t factor in the correct shipping and ended up having to pay quite a bit to ship the products sold. If done correctly, this can be avoided with eBay. In Craigslist sales, they actually warn you about shipping and other things.

I’m going to put Mat’s research to the test with some things I have around the house.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

******* I also challenge all subscribers to Moller Marketing to put this study to the test.  The participants who see results and let me know, either by making a comment or sending an email, will have their website featured on http://mollermarketing.com, and I will personally give them a Link on my blogroll for the entire month of September.  Let the games begin!  This game ends on September 1, 2007.*******

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I had a client today ask me for more information about article writing so I decided to do more research on the subject. As many of you that I work with know, article writing can really help us get targeted traffic to our websites and build link value on other sites. Questions many clients ask:

What am I supposed to write about?

If you are a client I’m working with, you’ve heard me say it a thousand times - keyword research is so important, not only for helping us narrow down the niche, but also for marketing later on. Our articles need to be specifically about keywords we want to be found for on search engines.

How long does my article need to be?

250-500 words is fine for an eCommerce Blog.

What if I don’t like writing?

Start to, you’re building your own business and writing is part of it. If you don’t like to write, there are options like www.elance.com and www.getafreelancer.com.

How will I know if my articles are being seen and working?

Track your stats. I use two tracking devices: www.statcounter.com and Google Analytics. Both will tell me important information: where my visitors are coming from, how they found me, and what they do when they get to my site. If you are submitting articles to a variety of sources and not getting any traffic from them, maybe it’s not the best use of your time.

Where else can I post my articles?

This article about eCommerce Blogging may help. I also like to look for forums related to my industry and blogs that relate to what I’m writing about. Use portions of articles you’ve already written as comments or threads on these sites. As people like what they’re reading, they’ll tend to go to your site.

What makes a good article?

Proper usage of keyword phrases that you want to be found for. Example: I have a client that is trying to move up the charts for a specific keyword phrase. He wrote an article and published it at ezinearticles.com. After a few days, his article was published. The interesting thing was that the article had the specific keyword phrase in the title. The very next day, when typing in that keyword phrase in Google, his article (not his site) showed up #4 out of over 900,000 websites. This means that he was 1 click away from being found for his brand new website by his target audience.

My top 6 quick tips to help you write compelling article content:

1. Get to the point, be brief and be unique. Leave all sales & marketing hype language out of your articles.
2. Be interesting, don’t ramble. Ask questions, provoke thought or insight backed with reasons why your ideas work.
3. Write your article to be visually appealing for easy eye text scanning. This includes bullets, lists, bold text, etc. (see next point)
4. Include generous use of sub-titles/sub-heads, bullets, numbered lists, and an occasional block quote.
5. Create an easy to understand article title so that your reader knows upfront what your benefit promise is… then be sure to deliver in the article body the answer to the promise you just made.
6. Know your audience. Write about things you feel need to be discussed by your potential buyers. Answer questions they may have that can back up their buying decisions.

If you’d like more information, email me at info at mollermarketing dot com.

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I get this question quite a bit and made this comment last night in answer to Sam’s question. I thought I’d make a quick list of the top things that have to be done. Here they are:

1. Get content on the pages of your site. Content can include but is not limited to the following: a) Information: answers to questions visitors might have about the things you are marketing, fun facts, tips, top ten lists, etc. b) Pictures: of products, of yourself, of clients using the products, etc. c) Positive feedback about the products, testimonials, your opinion of the productsc
2. Get products on the site. Remember the “three click theory” rule - if a client has to click more than three times to make a purchase, they’ll probably go somewhere else. Make the path to the check for products easy to follow. Products are not limited to your catalog pages, they can also be on the home page as “Featured Products”, specials, or whatever. See dance bags at www.ClogOn.com.
3. Get your name out there on as many other quality sites as possible. The best way to do this is via a) article writing b) press releases c) submitting to directories (free, paid, niche, and local) d) blogging (on your own and on other peoples blogs) e) link trading with other sites

There are definitely other things to do but this is a good start.

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