Orange County Internet Marketing Advice by Darby Works, Inc.

How to Use Digg (or not) To Get Tons of Traffic

Part of me hates using headlines like this because they only tell part of the story. If you don't already know, Digg is a social media website where users vote on which articles they like. The articles with the most votes move to the top of the heap. But like any community - online or otherwise - Digg users have their own likes, dislikes, quirks and tastes. They may not like what you have to say - not that they are necessarily hostile towards you. It's just that Digg users simply may not dig your stuff. So whether or not Digg fits your demographic, the point here is that if you can find a social network that includes your target audience, you can get good traffic and sometimes lots of it.

The brilliant people over at Marketing Sherpa just wrote an insightful "how to" article on how to use Digg to implement viral marketing strategies. Rather than try to summarize the article (and possibly butcher it), I'll let you read it from the horse's mouth.

How to Use Digg To Go Viral
SUMMARY: For marketers on a tight budget, viral marketing can be a cost-effective alternative. But execution relies on referrals and word of mouth, so it’s difficult to measure the impact.

There are places, though, where content can go to flourish. Like Digg.com -- a social media website that can serve as a launch pad for a surge in your Web traffic. Learn how Digg.com works and how to craft content that “diggers” will love to discover and share.

Social Networking Versus Google The Gorilla

Can social networking and social search sites generate better search results than the reigning King Google? I guess we shall see. I personally don't think so - at least not in the near future. Here's a teaser...

Can Social Search Take Down Google?
Jimmy Wales' Wikia Search will open to the public next week with an eye toward improving search by letting users tweak search results in a fashion similar to how users edit entries on Wikipedia.

Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, announced that the project would enter public beta on January 7. The goal, he said, is to reduce the "bottleneck of two or three firms really controlling the flow of search traffic..."

Will Facebook's New Paid Ads Be Welcomed Or Cause A Rebellion?

Facebook, the hugely popular social networking site, has launched their equivalent of Google Adwords. Only time will tell whether the Facebook community accepts or rejects them. Read a nice Facebook Ads Review here.

8 Content Development Strategies

I currently work with a number of freelance writers who produce keyword rich content for my clients' sites. I thought I’d pass along some content development tips I’ve discovered over recent months. As you probably know by now, creating new content on your website gives you more “real estate” online. It’s another way to broaden your influence and attract new visitors.

Write Quality Content!
People like to read good articles on the web. Solid advice can ingratiate you to your visitors, help build your brand equity, and create new customers. Don’t get sloppy, people!

Avoid Lousy Writers At All Cost.
Just a corollary of what I said above, but it must be said. You may be able to get people to your site, but if your content is lousy, you’ve not only lost a visitor, but you may have damaged your brand. That visitor may never come back. Worse, they may tell others never to visit your site.

Avoid Automated Content Creation Tools
There are a number of software packages out there that claim to create instant content. I would think twice about using any of those. Google will eventually catch on and filter that stuff out. Why waste your time for a flash-in-the-pan solution? Instead, write your own original, evergreen content, and attract visitors for months and even years to come.

Consider Writing Content for “Influencers” Instead of Your Normal Website Audience.
Here is what I mean. Would you rather your article get noticed by the L.A Times or the Ghost Town Herald? Get to know the “influencers” in your niche on the web. You’ll probably discover a number of bloggers in your industry who really carry some weight with their readership. Get to know their blogs. Become a contributor. Consider writing an article mentioning the blog or blogger by name. Tailor the flavor and style of your article to the blog itself. The basic idea is to get noticed by this “influencer.” If this blogger picks up your article or mentions it, you suddenly get instant exposure to his or her entire blog community. Now imagine doing that 5 or 10 times over.

As an example, I wrote a post a couple weeks back on Pay Per Click Marketing Tips. Someone picked it up on Digg, and I got 800+ visits to that post in one day.

Choose Your Content and Keyword Phrases Based on Your Company Goals and Resources.
This may sounds obvious, so let me unpack it a bit. Content is all about keywords. The keyword phrases you choose or don’t choose are critical to your success. If you think you are going to write a quick article about “music downloads” or “stock trading” and suddenly get a ton of web traffic from your instant #1 Google rankings, guess again. Now if you have the time to build links to those articles, blog about them, get them circulated and ranked well on StumbleUpon, Digg, and some of the other big social networking communities, then yes, maybe it’s possible. The key, however, is to write rich, compelling content that has the possibility of going “viral” and get distributed widely across the web.

Consider Keyword Trends
Google Green Bars: Use the free Google Keyword Suggestion Tool, and only write articles using keywords that have lots of green bars (good traffic, strong trends, and advertisers.) If you are going to spend time carefully crafting an article, why waste it on a topic that has little or no interest?

I’ll digress here by saying that, yes, some people purposely go after hundreds and hundreds of topics that get just a little traffic. They write lots of articles and get a little traffic to each one. Unless you have lots of time, money, or already have  access to rich compelling content, this approach is long haul.

Use the other tools like WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, and Google Trends.

Keep Your Articles Short or Long
Confused huh? After reading dozens of opposing views about this topic, I have come to the conclusion that it simply doesn’t matter. Length is not the issue. Good content is good content. If a 500 word article works brilliantly to cover a topic, then so be it. If 3,000 words are needed, then that’s fine too. The reality is that people will read it IF it’s a good article! Are you getting the point here?

Consider Outsourcing Your Content Development.
Here are a few companies I have worked with directly or have heard good things about:

• Constant Content - worked with directly
• WeWriteIt - worked with directly
• Associated Content - worked with directly
• CKMG - have heard good things

And the last tip?

Write Quality Content Always!

Cheers!

Social Marketing For Your Cell Phone?

Wow. Who has time for that? I guess lots and lots and lots of people do, according to Bluepulse, the Australian social network for mobile devices. These guys are nearing 100 million page views per month. Could I have just a nickel per page view please?

Bluepulse Expands Mobile Social Marketing Sites...

Is Social Networking For Business Really Viable?

I am just beginning to dig deep into the latest web trend called "social networking" or "social marketing." It's basically word of mouth via the web. You see a website, image, video, or other resource you like and you "bookmark" and add it to your account from using one of the many social networking sites like StumbleUpon, Orkut, Digg, Squidoo, and many others.

Yes, know I am a little late to the "social networking" party, but I am busy making money for clients via search engine optimization, website optimization, pay per click marketing, business consulting, and other "traditional" marketing methods.

Anyway, I have a StumbleUpon account, and an Orkut, Digg, and others too. But man, to keep this up adding bookmarks day after day to each one can be very time consuming. Especially when you aren't even sure of the outcome.

I guess my concern is that this rampant bookmarking by businesses is just another fly-by-night way to get some cheap traffic. Basically it’s link farms re-incarnated. But I could be wrong. I don’t know enough yet to make a final judgment.

Here is one gal who thinks social bookmarking is a bunch of hogwash. She is Molly Wood, section editor at CNET.com, and she makes some really good points. Here they are in a nutshell:

1. There's nothing to do there
2. It takes too much time
3. Traffic alone isn't enough
4. Strangers kind of suck (or, put nicely, the social hierarchy is really not that attractive)
5. We already have the Internet

Read the full article here. I welcome your comments…