11 Off-Page SEO Rules to Outperform Your Competitors

by Nicole Munoz

These are things that will affect your search engine rankings from outside of your web page. These are very important for growing the overall popularity of your site and make it easier for you to rank well for your chosen keyword phrases.

Create excellent content because it affects the following:

1. How much your content is shared on social media…this provides important clues to search engines about the quality of your content.

2. How long a search engine user stays on your site. If searches on a search engine and finds your site, but clicks back right away, it will tell the search engine that you may not be very relevant for that phrase.

3. How often your content is linked to. If you have good stuff, people will link to it…but beware, search engines can detect quality links, so old self-linking practices are dead.

4. Make sure you have a social media presence and you readily encourage your visitors to share your content on social media. It’s important that you’re being seen all over the web, if you want Google to give you favour.

Ways to ensure you’ve got quality engaging content that attracts users and search engines:

5. Each page should be on one unique topic.

6. Your navigation is clear and all your content is easily found by humans and search engines.

7. Use attention-getting headlines to grab your visitors’ attention and so they know they’re in the right place.

8. Make your content easy to read by using short sentences and paragraphs. Keep your words simple.

9. Break up your copy with subheads and bullet points, so viewers can scan it easily…instead of having them click away.

10. Use images to draw the eye in and tell a story with your content. Humans are visual creatures and photos and other images can help retain their attention.

11. Don’t forget to connect with other website owners in your niche. Friends tend to share the content of others, so this is just a win-win for all of you.

21 Reasons to Send a Press Release

by Nicole Munoz

And How to Position Your Story for Media Interest

If you’ve ever thought that you don’t have anything newsworthy to share about your business, this handy reference guide will provide you with plenty of ideas. Every company has newsworthy information to share and it’s just a matter of positioning that information so it’s of interest to the media.

The opening of your business. Local media is particularly interested in new businesses, especially when they offer a helpful product or service for the community. Write your press release showing the benefits to your community and target market. You can even include a special offer or free gift to encourage people to visit your business.

The launch of your website. The launch of a helpful website is newsworthy, just like the launch of a business. Make sure your release includes the useful features of your website. Invite readers to visit your website for a free gift. It could be a white paper, report, coupon, software, tool, etc.

Change in product offering. If you’re launching a new product that will help or if you’re lowering your prices, this might just be very newsworthy. Just keep in mind how your target market benefits and make that the focus of your release.

Joint ventures. If you’re combining forces with another company or individual and it benefits your target market, share that information in a press release.

Association membership. Join your local Chamber of Commerce or another business association. Include information on how your contributing to the group. Don’t know what association to join? Create your own.

A business move. If you’re moving to a new location that offers benefit to your customers, write a release. For example, if you’re getting a larger location for more inventory, moving to a location with improved technology, etc.

Share your expertise. A release that provides consumer tips, time-saving tips, money-saving tips, etc. that are relevant to your own business and show your expertise.

Make a prediction. Make a prediction that relates to your niche. Include supporting evidence, facts and statistics for credibility.

Solve a problem. If your target customers have a typical problem, create a release that includes solution. For example, if you provide skin treatments that help with dry winter skin, you can explain how the treatment works and provides release from pain and itch.

“Celebrities” that use your product. If a respected individual in your community or niche uses your product, share that news – with their permission, of course. Include quotes from the “celebrity” that share why they came to you and the results they’ve received.

Capitalize on current events. A popular news story is the perfect tie into your release. If you can relate the story to your business, it is quite likely the media will be interested. For example, if there is an increase in home break-ins in the area and you sell home security systems, you can write a release that includes tips for securing a home that refers to your products.

Capitalize on pop culture. Popular TV shows, movies and music are great fodder for a press release. For example, if you teach music lessons a tie-in to the popular TV show Glee might be an interesting angle.

Share your awards and accomplishments. If you’ve won an award or received some other type of recognition, this is perfect press release fodder. Show how this accomplishment serves your community/ target market.

Give awards. Not only can you share information about awards you receive, you can give out meaningful awards to your community as well.

Fundraisers. Spread awareness for your cause and your business, by making a donation or holding a fundraiser. Be sure to follow-up the announcement of your upcoming fundraiser with the end results you achieved.

Be a sponsor. Sponsor a local team or organization and write a press release about it. It shows you contribution and support of the local community.

Have a contest. Whether it’s a sweepstakes, an essay or video contest, it’s fun and interesting. Make sure to send a follow-up when the winners are announced.

Host a special event. Put together an open house or customer appreciation day. Offer refreshments, helpful information, etc. to attendees. Let the media know about the event with a press release.

Host a virtual event. Organize a teleseminar or webinar that provides valuable information to your target customer and announce this free event through your press release.

Create a useful publication. Are you putting together a helpful newsletter, white paper or report? Share it in a press release.

Create an internship or work experience program. If you’re going to hire some students for the summer, share the news. Follow up with stories on the success of the program with some of your star participants.

As you can see, there’s always something to share in a press release and if you don’t currently have a newsworthy event, you can create one. Keep this list handy to help establish your business in your community and to develop a relationship with the media.

How to Be a Detective for Hot Topics

by Nicole Munoz

One of the best ways you can guarantee profits for your digital book is to make sure it coincides with a hot topic. A hot topic is basically anything that a lot of people are talking about right now.

For example, when Tim Ferris’ “Four Hour Workweek” came out, that started a whole explosion of people who were trying to work virtually. When George Bush announced the war on Iraq, a whole host of books on both sides came out. As social media began to take off, a whole host of books came out about that as well.

What you don’t want to do is write a book after the topic has cooled. For example, playing online poker was a huge topic a few years ago. Today, such a book would have virtually no chance of success.

So how do you find hot topics in your genre? Here are a few tips.

Browse the Amazon Bestseller Lists

Look in your genre in the Amazon bestseller lists and see what kinds of books are selling. Whenever you choose a category in the Kindle or regular Amazon bookstore, you can choose to sort by popularity:

If you’re in the health industry and you see that 12 of the top 30 books are dealing with how to build abs, then you know that that’s currently a hot point for your industry.

If you’re in the graphic design industry and you notice that books on photo editing on iPhones are taking off, you might want to do something on that topic.

Use Google Tools

There are a couple of different Google tools you can use to help find hot topics.

Google Trends: This tool will tell you exactly what the hot trends are on a day to day basis. You can also type in a keyword and see whether it’s on an upward or downward trajectory.

This is great for researching a topic after you’ve already decided you’re interested in it. For example, if you decide you’re interested in iPhone photo editing, you can type a few related words into Google Trends to check to make sure it’s actually trending upwards.

Google Keyword Tool: This tool allows you to get exact traffic numbers for how many times certain words are typed into Google. You can also find related keywords to make a better assessment of the popularity of the topic.

This tool is great for evaluating the maximum amount you could earn from your book. However, it’s not a great tool to evaluate trends. Ideally, you want to get in on a trend in the beginning, when search volume is just beginning to rise, rather than when it’s already high and there are a hundred other competitors.

Watch What Magazines Are Saying

You can really stay on top of industries and trends by reading magazines. Magazines are usually updated monthly, which means you’ll be getting up to date information. Unlike internet sources however, magazines contain content that’s vetted by multiple people. There’s rarely any repeat information; instead real journalists go out into the world to look for a real scoop.

Get in the habit of reading a couple different magazines that focus on your industry or niche. If you notice that a lot more articles are suddenly being written about a certain topic, you can bet that that topic is getting hot.

You might also find that http://magazines.com is a great source of finding a variety of magazines in given niches. Most of the magazines have current covers shown on the site, so you can see the hot topics for recent issues. If you click on any magazine cover image, it will open up to a larger size so it’s easier to read.

After finding a magazine at Magazines.com, you can search for the magazine’s official company website to find more in-depth information on the current stories.

Watch Audible’s Sales

Audible is an Amazon subsidiary that sells audiobooks at http://audible.com. What’s great about Audible is that its audience tends to be early adopters. Also, in order for books to be adapted to audiobook, it usually already needs to be a success or the publishers feel very confident that the book will be a hit.

Because of these two factors, Audible is a great place to look for the hottest new trends. Look in the bestselling sections and the new releases sections of specific categories.

You can also find “Customer Favorites” in the categories that you browse through.

Doing Your Homework

These are a few different ways you can find hot topics to write digital books about and the key is to continue to do research over time. Finding hot topics is all about watching and understanding trends and as you watch them over time, you come to understand how things work.

While it’s very possible to write a successful book even if you’re not writing about a hot topic; your chances of writing a blockbuster are much greater when you’re talking about things that people are already talking about…so do your homework. It’s worth.