Blazing Minds » Google

How to Enhance Your Online Business With Google + and Custom Logo Design

mikolorich — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:30:19 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Google + is a must for online business entrepreneurs.

Have you gotten a page yet, or still skeptical about the future and what it holds for you? The Holy Grail (Google) knows what they’re doing. Some amazing developments are going to attack the web like wildfire which has already started in 2012. You’ve got to position your business to win the race and profit.

Competition is getting fiercer by the day, only the savvy will make headway.

With a great converting Google + page, you can easily build your brand; enhance your product/service delivery channels and profit. When combined with a custom logo design, the journey becomes smoother and blissful.

Why You Should Join Google +

There are several benefits attached to it, but the common benefit which every business owner should consider is business promotion. How you can reach the maximum number of people that are interested in your offers.

According to Google, they’ve clocked 90 Million active users on Google plus since its launch. I’m sure you can tell what the future holds for this social networking platform. Amongst these active users are your prospective clients, joint venture partners and service providers.

If you play your part well, you’ll reap the rewards of Google +

Get a Catchy Logo Design

Your logo should be attractive enough to attract the least of your prospects. We know that not everyone is going to fall for a fabulous logo, but let majority win the race. You shouldn’t dabble in and create a meaningless logo.

It should be meaningful, speak a language and have your personality.

When deciding on a logo, consider your brand and where you want your business to be in the future. It’s vital to set your goals and stick to actionable steps to achieve them.

Add Your Custom Logo Design To Google + page

At the top left, you’ll be asked to upload a photo. But instead of uploading your personal photo, customize your logo with what your business renders and upload it. This is going to build your brand faster than the speed of thoughts.

It’s ideal to use lighter colors on your Google + page. People who use Google + page are serious minded. It’s quite different from Twitter where you can tweet about anything that piques your mind.

Google + is not for that. It’s for business and networking issues. It’s quite similar to LinkedIn. Facebook and Twitter are social networks that fall into the same category of “anything-goes.”

Learn to use your Google + page creatively and enjoy the benefits that Google offers.

Share Quality Contents Only

When sharing contents with your circles and groups, make sure you adhere to “quality rules.” Don’t share everything you come across with. If you’re not comfortable with the contents, is there any justifiable reason to share it?

Whatever you do with your Google + page would make or mar your credibility. Surf and share carefully and creatively. It’s also great to research your keywords before sharing anything. Google + is now index-able and that’s priceless to your overall search engine organic traffic.

I’ve used this strategy to promote my coupon blog where I feature free vista print discount coupon & psprint discount codes. It works if you approach it creatively.

Google + Recap

You need to join the Google + chariots that are moving across the city. Before you realize it, everything about blogging and search engine optimization is going to revolve around Google and their big plus. Do you want to be left behind?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Chibuzor is a Social media examiner and helps small businesses get more leads, fans and sales. He writes in his vista print promotional codes and psprint coupon code site and contributes regularly to 123print.com. These vistaprint.com discount coupon and psprint discount codes can help you save when printing your logos and business cards.

How to Enhance Your Online Business With Google + and Custom Logo Design is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Optimising Your Website With Google PANDA Update In Mind

John — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:55:42 +0000

As we all know, Google is the powerhouse when it comes to the world of search engines. Despite the growth of Bing in the past few years, Google is still the dominant force, and the latest algorithm update released recently caused quite a stir in the SEO world. The ‘Panda’ update was meant to downgrade the power of low quality spammy sites and content farms stealing others’ content, however it ended up affecting millions of sites in both good and bad ways. Generally it has helped a lot in improving the quality of search results returned by Google, but it means that there is now a new focus for the SEO world. This update and the subsequent tweaks (upto Panda v2.4) was one of the widest reaching updates, affecting over 10% of global search queries. Here is a quick reference guide to some of the do’s and don’t of SEO since Panda was rolled out worldwide:

- Simple things
The Panda update brought about a bigger emphasis on on page elements, but some simple ones. Make sure spelling and grammar are all correct, adverts are not intrusive (better yet not there!) and your code is nice and clean (use the W3C validator to check). These are all things that should already be there on a well designed site, but are sadly lacking in many…

- Engagement
The main point of the Panda update is that it would cut out low quality sites and spammy content. It therefore follows that high quality content will be engaging, and the website metrics will reflect this. Time on site, bounce rate and pages per visit are now all ranking factors, so as always ‘content is king’.

- Quality
As mentioned above, quality content is now the key. Information that will be well read, commented upon and shared via social media platforms is now more valuable than ever. This is what, in part, has contributed to the rise of infographics as a form of SEO, as they are vibrant and nice to look at, attract engagement of consumers and promote sharing around.
Infographics are by no means the only way of doing this, but ensure that whatever you write, you do so in detail and with knowledge. Article spinning and marketing sites which churn out rubbish content now have very little to no value whatsoever.

- Social
This is a metric that has been counted since before the Panda update, but has recently become even more valuable. Links and ‘shares’ from social media platforms are now a major ranking factor, but as with normal links it depends on the amount, variety, source and most of all power (or authority) of the account. One share from Lady Gaga’s Twitter account with her millions of followers will be far more valuable than 100 from no-power accounts.

Finally, in early November another update was rolled out giving greater power to fresh content. As with social signals, this has been a recognised ranking factor for a year or more, but this wide ranging update gives it even more power. Adding a blog to your site is a great way of getting more indexable content on your site, but now you need to make sure it is updated as often as possible. In my opinion, one post per day is now a minimum, and 3 or 4 would not be excessive at all.

All in all, good SEO companies shouldn’t be scared by the Panda update. If you conduct an ethical SEO campaign you should have been doing much of this all along, and if not, to be honest, you might well have deserved demotion….

Rob works for electric bed specialist Nexus DMS on their online marketing and SEO. He is a keen sportsman as well and loves football, squash and being outdoors.

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Optimising Your Website With Google PANDA Update In Mind is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

What is the probability of Google or Facebook buying Twitter?

Guest Author — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:10:28 +0000

Facebook and Google, both are trying very hard to pin down the popular micro blogging site Twitter. Twitter currently holds 300 million users and is still not match for Facebook’s 750 million users. In spite of the fact; both Google and Facebook are leaving no stone unturned to actually buy it.

The Twitter story

Twitter is an online social networking and micro blogging service. It allows its users to send and read text based tweets of up to 140 characters. Twitter was officially released in the July of 2006. Even after six years of its launch, all three of its founders, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, are still involved with the site’s development.
This has helped twitter to stay focused without losing sight of its original goals or without coming under the pressure of commercialization. But due to its astounding success others have definitely come under the pressure.

Why Google wants Twitter?

Google is the reigning king of internet based searches. Whether it is text based search through its search engine or video based search through YouTube. And now Google wants complete access to twitter’s data. Google argument goes that it needs data from twitter to upgrade its real time information offering. As a part of the strategy, Google has been indexing tweets to add a real time element in its search experience since 2009.
But the fact of the matter is that Google can’t live with its universal information disseminator tag when people are using twitter to make real time updates. Millions of users rather prefer to check their twitter account rather than Google news to check for latest updates, that too right from the horse’s mouth.

Why Facebook wants Twitter?

Evan Williams, Twitter’s co founder and former chief executive, once said that Twitter is an information network and Facebook is a social network. Facebook refuses to accept this simple difference; in its stubbornness to accept change, it has taken things to the hilt. It was rumored two years ago that Facebook was interested in buying Twitter. Facebook is still not the medium of choice when it comes to making update in real time and that pinches it lot. To counter that, it even introduced a twitter style update box but the realities are still the same.

The tweet from Twitter

Twitter executives have refused to comment on these recent takeover rumors and buying bids. But in the past the creators of Twitter have made it clear that it is not up for grabs.
Experts believe that Web is currently divided between two sections. One is the information web that is run by Google. The other is the social web, which is still heavily dominated by Facebook. Twitter makes up the mid ground between both these universes. Both the Giants believe that to truly capture the market; they have to takeover twitter or come up with something even better.
The other big player Microsoft is also keeping its cards close to its chest. In this storm of bids, which are now running into billions of dollars? It would be difficult for twitter to resist. Facebook and Google are eagerly waiting to make an offer that Twitter can’t refuse.

About the author: Rebecca is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, gizmos and lifestyle. Beside this she loves cooking and travelling. These days she is busy with her new article on adapting to green architecture lifestyle.

Related posts:

Saturday Six – Google+

Facebook, Twitter, Orange and Texting!

The Google, The Buzz and The Ugly!

What is the probability of Google or Facebook buying Twitter? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

SEO Packages for Small Business

Guest Author — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:08:22 +0000

Run a search on Google for “SEO packages” and you’ll notice it returns several million results. If you’re a small business owner looking for an on-going, monthly SEO package, how do you make sense of all these seemingly infinite different providers out there and what they have to offer? Perhaps you might judge them on how they rank themselves for that particular search term? After all, if they rank highly themselves that’s a pretty good indication that they can get you to rank highly too, right?

Well, yes and no. Some precaution should still be taken even if your top short-listed providers are no.1 for various keywords. Above all else you need to know that your package includes all the necessary steps for ensuring search engine success; I have outlined many of these in my guide to small business SEO. However, I would also recommend considering the following 3 tips when looking at SEO packages online:

1.   Does your Short-listed Provider include bulk link building options?

Be very cautious when considering an SEO package that includes options such as “1,000 directory submissions” per month. This is almost certainly a bad move if you’re a small business start-up as you need time to engender trust with the search engines. 1,000 low-grade, low-authority links will not help you to establish that all important trust. It would be far more preferential to invest in a much smaller amount of hand-built, quality links with the initial objective of building up your root domain authority.

2.   Does your Short-listed Provider claim they can achieve results in less than 3 months?

Be extremely cautious if you hear this one! Results in the search engines takes time and a lot of effort. If you have a very well established site that has been online for 2 or more years then, yes, it may be possible to improve your current performance relatively quickly. However, if you see an SEO provider claim online that they can get you to page 1 in no time at all, follow this advice at all costs – avoid them like the plague!

3.   Does your Short-listed provider exclude certain important steps for lower cost SEO packages?

Again, if they do, think carefully before approaching these companies. I’ve seen certain SEO companies exclude absolutely crucial elements of the SEO process such as competitor research and keyword analysis. If these important steps are excluded by them and not carried out by you, your SEO strategy is frankly doomed.

These are just 3 key things to consider before choosing an SEO package online. I hope this helps anyone who is looking to find an on-going SEO provider.

James Hubbard is a specialist small business marketing consultant based in Brighton, UK. James offers various SEO packages that are tailored to individual business requirements.

Related posts:

How to Enhance Your Online Business With Google + and Custom Logo Design

How Can You Put YOUR Business On Google’s First Page?

An Infographic On The Benefits Of Estimating Software Packages

SEO Packages for Small Business is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Earning Rewards When You Interact On Blazing Minds

Karen — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:41:20 +0000

Now before I get on to the matter at hand, I would like to give a big shout to @Bbrian017 over at BlogEngage for the idea and inspiration of doing this on Blazing Minds, after reading his blog post “Earn Rewards when using Blog Engage“, I thought I would give the system an experimental run here on my blog and see if it takes off and if it does take of I will be offering a vast array of rewards that are reading the blog.

Rewarding You The Reader

As I mentioned above this is purely experimental for the blog so for the time being I have several “Rewards” running that can be earned when you are here, now only two rewards available, but over time and if this becomes popular I will be adding some more.

Getting Your Rewards

Simple by Visiting, Tweeting, Liking and using Google+1 will gain you loyalty points and you will than be able to use them for your rewards, you can find all the latest rewards and what you currently have by clicking the rewards tab on the right of the screen.

An Incentive To The Readers

All this will hopefully help the blog go that little bit further in to the world of the interweb So by sharing the post to your fellow followers and will not only give you points but will also get the blog to hopefully have more people stopping by and interacting with each other.

As I mentioned this is all something new that I’m trying and I would love to get your opinion on this, such as what would you like to see in the rewards and do you think this system will work in the long-term or only in the short-term.

So It’s Over To You

It’s your turn, let me have your thoughts on this loyalty rewards system

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Earning Rewards When You Interact On Blazing Minds is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Saving You Money With Groupon, What Is Groupon?

Karen — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:15:21 +0000

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Now I have to admit that I’ve heard so many people banging on about Groupon and saying that they can save themselves some money with some of the deals that were on offer, so the other day I decided to check out the site for myself and took a look for some deals in London.

Why London I Hear You Ask!

Well to put it simply, our capital here in the UK is probably one of the most expensive places to visit etc and if I could find some great deals for there, then I could then move on to checking out some local places.

Anyway I set my location to London and it came up with a deal for a “Three Hour Make-Up Course”, hmmm, not exactly what I was expecting but still a good saving none the less!

Being a “newbie” to the Groupon experience it took me a little while to check ou some of the previous deals that the site had to offer in and around London.

So Many Deals To Choose From!

After a little moving around the site and surfing the various options, I had made myself a list of interesting deals to pick from such as discounts for London Zoo, Meals, an hour in a flotation device (which I’ve seen on The Gadget Show, so I like the look of that) and much more.

I’m not sure if I will be using many of these offers, but I will be checking out the deals for other locations to see what’s going on, suffice to say, Groupon will save you money on certain things and to those that want to visit different cities as part of a holiday or even a day out then there are certainly things that can save you money.

What’s Your Experience With Groupon?

So now it’s over to you my loyal readers, do you use Groupon? Have you ever heard of it and what do think of it?

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Saving You Money With Groupon, What Is Groupon? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Ladies, Report Says Some Three-Fourths of Google+ Users are Male

Business.com — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:03:10 +0000

If you thought some men might have a little too much free time on their hands, you may be right.

According to Mashable, close to 87 percent of Google+ users are in fact male. The data comes from third-party site SocialStatistics, which compiled the data from select profiles. Another data provider, FindPeopleOnPlus, states that nearly 74 percent of Google+ users are men.

Digging a little deeper into the data, FindPeopleOnPlus notes that 95 percent of Google+ users who claim to be “looking for love” on the site are men.

According to the Mashable report, some six out of 10 users claim to be web developers or software engineers. Perhaps these guys are thinking the Internet is the way to meet women?

Should it shock us that more men are using Google+ to date than women?

A 2010 Liberty Mutual survey reported that males are more positively moved towards social media activities and use social networking sites more than females.

Survey numbers indicated 57 percent of males were more likely than females (50 percent) to have more than one social networking account, with men typically more likely than women to use social media accounts several times a week (except for Facebook).

Meantime, a Royal Pingdom survey noted that of the nearly 20 social networking sites it reviewed, the majority (84 percent) sported more female than male users. The average ratio of all sites was 53 percent female and 47 percent male.

Lastly, a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project stated that overall social networking usage nearly doubled from 2008 to 2010, going from 26 percent to 47 percent during that time period.

Yes, numbers, numbers and more numbers. So, who do we believe?

While surveys can be all over the place, the recent Google+ report is interesting in the sense that this tool is hoping to make some inroads into the commanding social networking lead that rival Facebook has.

If not as many women are using the Google+ tool to date as the numbers seem to indicate, what does the search engine giant need to do to attract more of a female audience? After a little over two weeks, Google reports that it has some 10 million users on Google+.

According to comments during an earnings call from Google CEO Larry Page, “Our goal with Google+ is to make sharing on the web like sharing in real life, as well as to improve the overall Google experience.”

For some time now, social media analysts have noted that women tend to use online social networking tools in order to connect with others and share personal items, while men see the purpose of social media to obtain information and add to their status.

While the Google+ numbers are early, could it be that men are reaching out more to share or are they just in search of a woman to share things with?

Photo credit: bazaarvoice.com

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Ladies, Report Says Some Three-Fourths of Google+ Users are Male is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Blazing Minds Hits 1,000 Posts

Karen — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:23:00 +0000

Great news for Blazing Minds today as the guest post from Steph Wood “Has Pixar Finally Jumped The Shark” marked a momentous moment as Blazing Minds hit 1,000 blog posts!

Yes folks it’s been some years in the making but the blog has finally hit that first magic mark of 1,000 blog posts, so this post is 1,001.

So I would just like to say a big thanks to everyone that supports Blazing Minds and to those that have been and are still writing some amazing guest posts for the blog, you guys and gals have certainly helped the blog on its way to hitting the 1,000.

Next step is the 2,000 mark, yes I know it may take some time to get there, after all it did with the 1,000 posts, but, with some love for blogging and some really amazing guest bloggers then we should be able to do it, so thank you everyone, let the celebrations begin

Related posts:

Blazing Minds Top Posts For 2011

Wow Blazing Minds Has Really Grown!

Guest Posts on Blazing Minds in 2009

Blazing Minds Hits 1,000 Posts is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Saturday Six – Google+

Karen — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:00:55 +0000

It’s been far too long since I last posted up a Saturday Six here on Blazing Minds, so just for those of you that have enjoyed these little fun memes in the past here’s one just for you.

This weeks topic “Google+” was chosen by @DiTesco so I’ve had to come up with a question or six to get your minds thinking about the topic, so instead of me rambling on about the Saturday Six, lets get straight in to it. Hang on, just a little video for you to watch first

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you using Google+?

Do you think it will replace Facebook?

Do you think there are far too many sites like this already?

Are you one of the many that hasn’t had an invite?

Is this too much too late?

Are you really bothered about Google+

There you go, six questions for you to ponder on and answer, ciao for now and keep blogging

Related articles

Google+ to take on Facebook even more with unannounced Games and Questions sections (benzinga.com)

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Saturday Six – Google+ is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Woot Woot! It’s Friday Already!

Karen — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:30:36 +0000

Hey there fellow bloggers and readers of Blazing Minds, can you believe that we have got to Friday so quickly, before we all know it it’ll be Friday again, I swear someone puts the clock in overdrive during the week Anyway enough of all this frivolousness banter, it’s Friday, so I’m using today for an excuse to shout out to those on Twitter that have been friendly to Blazing Minds over the last week.

Twitter FollowFriday – Are You Listed!

If you are on Twitter and following me @BlazingMinds you will have already seen my FollowFriday (FF) tweet, if you haven’t then here it is again

#ff @drrus @knitwitshair @commentluv @askkim @famousbloggers @numcrunchingmom @tlb1321 @gingermommy @ditesco @shairbearg (via @ffhelper)
June 17, 2011 3:50 pm via #FollowFriday Helper ReplyRetweetFavorite
@BlazingMinds
Karen

Are you in the FF this week, if you are then it shows that you have ReTweetd and Mentioned @BlazingMinds and the blog posts over the last 7 days, so cheers and the drinks are on me

What’s Been Happening on Blazing Minds

It’s been a great week here on the Blazing Minds, with some fantastic Guest Posts coming in and a mass of traffic coming in a certain subject, can you guess what it is yet? Yes you guessed it, it’s Stargate Universe, with the cancellation of the show, fans have hit the blog for information on the shows cancellation and the possibility of getting the show back on our TV shows. So as you can imagine the search engines such as Google have been kind enough to send some traffic my way

As I mentioned earlier there have been some great Guest Posts on the blog over the last week and the authors have done a good job responding to comments made on the posts, so here are the posts that Guest Bloggers have brought to you since Monday.

Guest Posts On Blazing Minds

How To Keep Safe In The Kitchen – BidDaddyCash

5 Extremely Successful Brands In FaceBook Marketing – Via MyBlogGuest

The Magic Of An 80′s Montage – Andy Monty

The Popular Posts From The Week

Out of the top 10 posts that have been read this week, two out of the ten were from this weeks posts, the other eight were from earlier weeks/months, but the top post from this week were:

Stargate Universe Cancelled And The Fans Are Not Happy! – 1622 views

Save Stargate Universe On FaceBook Gets Hacked! – 263 views

No surprise really as the top searched term was “Stargate Cancelled“.

Commentators That Love To Talk

There have been some new comers to the blog recently and I would like to say a big thanks to you for stopping by, of course the regular commentators are still turning up and showing that they know what to say and when to say it, by leaving some brilliant comments and even replying to other comments on post.

What no top commentators for the week! Nope, I’m keeping the commentators back for the end of the month, those that have stopped by will be some tasty link love in special post

CommentLuv Back On Blazing Minds

Now some of you may have seen the issue with the CommentLuv plugin recently and the problem with the new plugin not grabbing feeds, thanks to Andy @CommentLuv I was able to sort the issue out and after tweaking the blog I’ve got CommentLuv up and running again. You can find out a little more on my post on the CommentLuv blog titled “Keep An Eye On Those WordPress Plugins”

Ok folks that’s your lot, I’ll be back soon with more posts and hopefully some great Guest Posts coming your way and keep your eyes peeled for a special announcement from myself and @JML_Direct

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Woot Woot! It’s Friday Already! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

How to Improve Your Brand Ranking on Google

joshdd — Tue, 31 May 2011 09:06:59 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Advertising is a key part of running a business. In the online business world, Google is one of the most powerful forms of advertising that you can take advantage of. However, in order to feature highly in Google search results, you first need to establish a strong web presence. Establishing your company as a brand will really help you to go higher up the ranks.

The question is how exactly do you define yourself as a brand? What does it involve and how can you do it?

Why Establishing a Brand is Important

One of the main reasons why Google will be helping bigger brand names on the site is because it is trying to filter out spam. There is a ton of useless, spam content that the company has to deal with. One of the ways in which they can combat this is by recognising the bigger branded companies.

By increasing your presence on the net, you will gain new exposure to potential clients and you will have a better reputation. In order to improve your brand status you will need to do a lot more than just target a few keywords.

How to Establish Yourself as a Brand

One thing that Google will look for is the quality of information that is found on your site. If you take look at large well known companies such as Sony, you will find that there is very little spam on the site. The information found there is useful and relevant. That is what you need to ensure your website is offering.

Is the content on your site relevant to the product you are selling? What can the visitor gain from your site that they cannot get anywhere else?

Another thing that Google looks for is keyword content. If you are focusing on keywords then they need to look natural in the text. Articles should not be too keyword rich. You should also try to include your company name in the anchor text too.

You also need to increase the amount of people who are searching for your brand. You will find that this happens naturally as your website becomes more popular. Direct searches for your company will not happen overnight. You will need to advertise and draw in traffic using other keywords too.

One great way of establishing yourself as a brand is to use social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter are two great sites to use. These have millions of users every single day. Creating a business page will help you to build up an online presence. Similarly you can use same niche blogs to advertise your business. Reply to posts and get your brand noticed.

Avoid spam replies however as these will just give your company a bad reputation. Only make a post if there is something relevant that you can say.

It is also worth using offline advertising too. Flyers for example can give a link to your website. Consumers can then log on directly to your site or they may search for you on Google.

Once Google has established you as a company, any mention of your brand will be picked up by the site. Therefore if there is a recommendation or a link to your site on a different website, Google will pick up on it. They want companies who are popular and if you are getting mentions from other sites then that will make you more popular.

These are the best tips that you can follow to establish yourself as a brand. Remember, these days Google is interested in a lot more than a few keywords!

This post was kindly sent to us by Lior who is a marketing advisor at Kitchen Stools Direct, a bar stools and kitchen stools company from London.

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How to Improve Your Brand Ranking on Google is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

How Can You Put YOUR Business On Google’s First Page?

BigDaddyCash — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:00:14 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Today, the easiest way to start your own business is to develop a website through which you can sell your product or service. It’s becoming less and less necessary to have a high street presence and far more important to have a website through which you can conduct ecommerce. Since the internet has everything you can imagine, and many many things that you couldn’t, and every kind of retailer, from multinational conglomerates to artisanal individuals making their goods in their living room vying for your attention you need to join them. But how do you go about it?

Do you want something tailored or off the peg?

Today many SMEs run on WordPress, it’s a very easy to use CMS which is free at entry level yet can be paid for so that you can have your own .com. It, and its competitors are both extremely powerful and flexible as well as having cost benefits which beat bespoke websites. Going with a bespoke website might be necessary if you have very specific needs but the costs are high and can put you in the position of having to rely solely on your developer for any changes that you might need to make in the future. If you do need to go with a specialist developer make sure they use a well recognised software package so that if you need additional work done and your original developer isn’t available you won’t have to seek out the only other person in a 500 mile radius who knows how to program it.

Add richness to your store.

If you can add features and benefits to your website you’ll attract more visitors, making your site sticky and easy to navigate and you’ll see those visitors becoming conversions. Your product might be a great stand alone but giving people an added incentive to visit your site will tempt people away from your competitors if they can’t offer the same.

Put some life in your site.

Google likes sites that have been around for some time but you don’t want a site the looks old. Refreshing your on-site copy regularly gives Google the impression of activity and quality. Department stores change their copy on a daily basis as their product offers and descriptions change, If you can change your onsite copy a couple of times a week, with industry news, product descriptions, a blog or even a feed of your work related twitter.

Links and likes.

Once you have a site it’s important to implement some basic SEO. If you don’t promote your site then it doesn’t matter how good your product is, if you don’t shout about it you’ll find yourself languishing around page 25 of Google’s results pages. Just Google ‘SEO tips’ and the best ones will, by nature of their being the best SEO, be at the top of your results. Applying just a few of these methods will see you racing up the SERPs. You should also put your details on every directory you can find that has anything at all to do with your field of endeavour, not only does this make you findable in the directories, it’s very good for your SEO if all the information that’s available on you is as up to date as possible.

Use the best tools.

Getting to know how to use packages like Google’s Webmaster Tools, rank checker and Google Analytics will help you in your promotional activities too. You might not want to become an authority on promoting websites when your business lies in making handmade jewelry but that would be like having a shop and not taking care of your window display. You have to make your website attractive not only to your human viewers but to Google’s spiders and robots too.

Get recommended.

Putting up testimonials and reviews from your customers is a really good way to give your site value. People buy from people so making giving your site a big dollop of The Human Touch.

Dan Cash has become a recluse since discovering you can buy EVERYTHING over the internet there are takeaways in Cardiff that take orders by email and pizza delivery in Southampton who will build your pizza to your exact requirements any time of the day or night.

Related posts:

Blazing Minds Gets a Nice Page Rank Update!

HOW TO: Build Your Business with Testimonials

How To Run An Efficient E-commerce Business

How Can You Put YOUR Business On Google’s First Page? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Google Continues to Invest in Clean Energy With Wind Farm Investment

Guest Author — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:08:49 +0000

Google has now invested over 100 million dollars in a wind farm in California as a step towards creating cleaner energy sources. They are not new to the idea, as they have been investing in the green area of life for some time. Still, the 100 million dollars they have invested in Shepherd’s Flat project drew some attention around the tech water coolers today. Google seems set on their plans to be a leader in the clean energy field and seems to be saying all the right things.

What makes the Shepherds Flat project so enticing for Google is because of the turbines being used. They are the first to use direct-drive turbines, allowing permanent magnets to generate electricity instead of the more complicated and frustrating gear box models. These are considered to be much more efficient in the long run, so it makes sense that Google would invest in them. Where there is money to be made, it seems that Google is already there and on top of things.

Google has invested a ton of money in clean-energy type ventures, and really put their money where their mouths are. They have been talking about green living, green-technology and alternative power sources for a very long time, but they are not just talking any longer. They have put in 350 million dollars into the various projects and look to likely invest even more. While certainly they are primed to make some serious returns on the investments, it is still important that they are taking the needed steps to implementation.

This wind farm is not just for show, of course. In California, they are requiring utility companies to create one third of their power from renewable energy before 2020, and this wind farm is certainly a huge step towards making that happen. The 30 square mile farm can generate over 200,000 homes worth of energy reliably, and Shepards Flat is not the only one out there. Others are sure to follow as the deadline approaches.

This wind farms are really rather incredible when you consider that they are so cleanly operated. Wind farms and solar energy have become more and more popular in recent years for that reason alone. Eventually, perhaps all power will be generated in a clean fashion. Until then, we are dependent upon big business mavens like Google to buy the big equipment.

Google may be known as an Internet giant, but this shows the reach that big business can have in a positive way when they set their minds to it. Here is to hoping that Google hangs around after the profits tighten up a bit as well. Clean energy will not always be easy to invest in. Google sure has said and done the right things so far though.

About the Author: Rodney is a North Carolina based freelance writer and sports columnist. Rodney regularly contributes articles to online publishers such as HungryScholar.

Related articles

Google Invests a Hundred Million in Oregon Wind Farm (searchenginejournal.com)

Google Invests $100 Million In Oregon Wind Farm (techland.time.com)

A Wind Farm In Oregon Draws $100 Million Investment From Google’s Treasury (techcrunch.com)

No related posts.
Google Continues to Invest in Clean Energy With Wind Farm Investment is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

What Are The Most Popular Ad Sizes For Advertisers On Your Blog?

Karen — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:31:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

If you ‘re a blogger then probably one of the things that you are doing to get revenue from your blog is to have advertising running, from either Google Adsense or independent advertises paying you so much for a mother advertising or even more, but what is the best Ad size to have on your blog and which ones do the advertisers prefer.

Since starting Blazing Minds, I’ve had several adverts running on the site and I started off, as most people probably do, with Google Adsense, by placing a banner at the top of the site to bring in a little to help with the running of the site.

My Most Popular Ad Sizes

But when it came to advertisers wanting to buy Ads on my blog that was a different matter and I pondered on what size ads to sell on Blazing Minds, I tried several sizes and there was only one size that seemed to get more offers than others and that was the 125×125 size add.

Now I’m not too sure why this Ad size is popular, maybe it’s the fact that sites such as CMF Ads, EntreCard and a few others have as their default size.

So this is the size that I opted to use and it has become the norm for Ads on Blazing Minds, even though you see the 468×60 ads running on the top of the blog and the bottom of the blog, they just aren’t as popular as the 125×125 Ads, the 468×60 are ok for Google Adsense but the popular ads for sales are the 125×125 ads.

The option I have now taken is that I now have the Ads running at the 125×125 size, from both BuySellAds.com and AdvertiseSpace, Adsense though is a different kettle of fish

Google Adsense

For Google Adsense I’ve found that my most popular sizes on my blog are the 468×60 (placed near the top of the post), 300×250 (placed towards the bottom of the post) and the 160×600 (placed in the right hand side bar). All these have been designed with their colours to meld in to the blogs colour scheme so that they don’t jump out at the read and fit in nicely with the rest of the blog.

Something else I’ve noticed is since changing the colours to fit in nicely and by having the Adsense in these locations has helped, it’s not making me a millionaire, but it has improved over the original colours schemes of jumping out at you and being in other locations.

So to round up

I’ve found that the 125×125 sizes are the most popular.

Having Google Adsense in the good locations and not having them “in your face” really helps.

But this is what I have found, it may be completely different for your blog

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No related posts.
What Are The Most Popular Ad Sizes For Advertisers On Your Blog? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Google’s Farmer Update!

Marcus Cronate — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:44:25 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Is this playing on anyone else’s mind at the moment? Personally I haven’t seen much of a drop on many of the sites that I have or currently work on. Could it be because my link building abilities are out of this world? I doubt it, although I always tried to do the right thing, and I don’t think that I have built links from link farms or what not.

Now the main reason I am posting this is not to discuss the link farms, because I believe that Google are in essence doing the right thing by cracking down on this sort of [Enter Profanity].

I am curious why people are talking about spinning tools and their distributaries? Sorry but since when did spinning become link farming?

The main reason has received such a bad slat of press and belief from so many people is simply because they have been used and abused before, however many spinning agencies are taking extra precautions to try and stop spammers from upsetting what their tools are supposed to be used for.

A friend of mine that runs one of these unique article distribution websites has explained his reasons for changes they have made. Full info click here!

Spinning an article is an effective way of distributing unique content on the same topic to a multitude of websites, and as long as it is used properly it will work. Article spinning shouldn’t be made out to be the demon that it has been. Although it can be spammed, it is a good way of distributing useful information, as long as it is good quality.

Try not to dismiss options in SEO that do still work if they are used properly and not spammed. These are ways that could help you to progress your website, however if you take what is said about updates at a slanted angle you could miss out on some good tools!

Related articles

Link Mines versus Link Farms (seo-theory.com)

Can Inbound Links Harm Your Website? (cash-bandit.com)

Google whacks link farms (go.theregister.com)

No related posts.
Google’s Farmer Update! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter