Hold the spam when promoting your website

Almost every day I delete links from companies that are putting useless comments on our blog like:

Hello, I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wish you best of luck for all your best efforts. web designing companies Delhi, website making company in Delhi

this is really nice. thank you for sharing.By Tallahassee web design on Do Outside Blogs Help Your Websites Search Engine ...

As you can see the post aren't necessarily negative but one thing is consistent between all these "Spam Comments". They all have key word rich hyper-links that link back to their respective websites (I've removed the links for this post)

The purpose of this blog post is two fold:

1. If your a spammer please stop posting stuff like this on our blog. We will delete it. We welcome comments that add value to the conversation but if we think that the goal of the comment is to get a back link to your site your comment will be marked as spam and deleted promptly.
   
2. I wanted to answer the question- Why do companies bother posting comments on blogs as a way to build back links? I can sum it up in one word: Backlinks.
   
   Backlinks are the links from other sites which link to your blog or webpage. The major search engines view back links to your site as a vote of editorial confidence and good quality links from other sites can help boost your rankings in the search engines especially if that link is from a site that has related content themes to your site.

So comment spam is a good thing right?-- Wrong-  let me leave you with this little warning from the Official Google Webmaster Blog:

FACT: Comment spammers are often trying to improve their site's organic search ranking by creating dubious inbound links to their site. Google has an understanding of the link graph of the web, and has algorithmic ways of discovering those alterations and tackling them. At best, a link spammer might spend hours doing spammy linkdrops which would count for little or nothing because Google is pretty good at devaluing these types of links. Think of all the more productive things one could do with that time and energy that would provide much more value for one's site in the long run.

Promote your site without comment spam

If you want to improve your site's visibility in the search results, spamming comments is definitely not the way to go. Instead, think about whether your site offers what people are looking for, such as useful information and tools.

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What to Post on Your Company's Social Media Pages

It seems like more and more we get clients that are joining the trend and having us put together social media pages for their companies. This is such a smart thing for them to do. The only problem is, once they're all set up and looking great, what in the world are they supposed to post? What follows is my (Aaron Manogue, Search Engine & Social Media Marketing Expert) response to a recent email that I received. Take a look and learn a few tips that will help you know what to post and how.

Hi Aaron,

Now that our LinkedIn page is set up, how do we make the most of our company profile?  Do we put a LinkedIn button on our website?  How often should we post company updates? Are there ‘best practices’ to get the most from our profile?

Thank you,

"Client"

This was my response to their email:

Dear "Client",
What I always try and tell people is to post to their social media pages on Thursday or Friday of each week, or at least every other week. This includes LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter if you have them all. You don’t have to make 3 different posts to each one, just post the same thing to them all because your followers on Twitter may not follow you on Facebook or YouTube and vice versa. The reason I tell companies to do this is because they can sit down and think about a recap of what was going on in the company that week. Posting a link to a new product you’re working on or simply talking about what’s going on in the company (new products, expansions, community service, etc.) is exactly what you should post. And remember to be personable and professional. Write it like you’re telling your good friend about the exciting stuff that’s going on at work. Sometimes that’s hard to do because work isn’t always exciting, :) but if you write it like you’re talking to a friend, while staying as professional as possible, makes it easier and more interesting to read.

I would definitely put a linkedin button on your site as well as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube if you have them. Make a transition from your site to your (social media) pages and back again as seamless as possible, is great for getting people to follow you on social media.

Important Items Highlighted:

1. Post every Thursday or Friday (This depends on your industry as well. If you're a restaurant with daily specials, post them each day)

2. Be professional and personable

3. Talk about what's going on inside the company (New products, company/individual awards or certifications, involvement in the community, etc.)

4. It doesn't always have to be strictly business. Wish your followers a Happy Holiday or weekend or just plain tell them to have a great day! Being personable and not just being all about business shows customers that your care about them outside of sales.

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Measuring Return on Investment on PPC

Everyone knows that using Google and Facebook advertising is a very effective way to get your products and services in front of your target market. Facebook is possibly the most targeted platform to advertise on because of the fact that 92% of the 800 million + users willingly submit personal data such as age, sex, race, etc. to it. Google is right on track with their advertising because of their in-depth program and years of experience. So given the fact that they are both very good forms of advertisement, which do you use? And how much do you spend each month? But most importantly, how do you figure out if you are getting a decent return on investment each month.

Here are some sample numbers that I'm using to make this a little bit easier. simply substitute your statistics to apply to you and your accounts:

Unique Visitors: April 1st - November 9th, 2011 = 19,815
Average Sale on the Site: $206.16
# of Sales on the Site (Given Date): = 622

# of Sales/Visitors= 3.1 % Conversion Rate

Google Pay-Per-Click ROI Calculation

Google PPC Clicks to the Site: 1290

Total Cost PPC Campaign: $1,290 @ $1/click

With 3.1% Site Conversion Rate: 38.7 Purcahses x $206.16 = $7,979.39 (Gross Sales) or $6,689.39 after cost of PPC

Let's assume you have a 40% Profit Margin = $4,013.63 net

Facebook PPC ROI Calculation:
Facebook PPC Clicks To The Site: 636
Total Cost PPC Campaign:  $750.48 @ $1.18/click
With 3.1% Site Conversion Rate: 19.7 Purchases x $206.16 = $4,061.359 (Gross Sales) = Net After PPC= $3,310.87
Lets assume you have a 40% Profit Margin= $1,324.34 Net

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Is Social Media Necessary for Your Company?

Every day now it seems like we talk with a client or prospective client that asks us why it's important for "a company like theirs" to use social media. Most of them belong to major manufacturing or industrial companies, that if you think about it, might not make any sales off of a site like Facebook or Twitter. So why is it STILL important for companies like that to be involved in social media. It's because the amount of brand awareness, company exposure and potential client base that you can build essentially for free is limitless. We put together an infographic to visually express why we think it's important every company has some sort of presence on social media.

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What the New Facebook Means for Businesses

Everyone that uses the "almighty" Facebook has definitely noticed their big changes that they implemented last week. And as many of you know, not very many people are happy about them. You are just worried about that business Facebook page that they've spent hundred of hours on building, maintaining and expanding. So what do all of these changes mean for you and your business page?

There are two major underlying changes that business owners need to be aware of when it comes to posting on their Facebook wall. Oversharing and overloading. They sound like one in the same, right? Not really. As always, being a business owner on Facebook is a challenging task. You must interact with customers on a personal and positive level, but you have to make sure that you don't over do it. Just like any other type of marketing material, people don't want to be flooded with hundreds of ads continuously. I always tell people, "Effective marketing messages with minimal contact." Make what you put out there such high quality that you don't need to contact potential customers 100 times to have them get the point. This goes the same for Facebook posts. Make your posts valuable and effective so you don't have to post every single day.

On the other hand, overloading is loading up your page with so many applications that when people come to your page, they are distracted by all the bright shiny lights, applications and games that have nothing to do with your products and services. Games and applications are great ways to get people to your page, don't get me wrong. But if you have so many that people have no idea what your products and services are, what's the point? My suggestion is to stick to the basics, be personable and give people quality.

The less you waste people's time and the more you seem like an actual person instead of a business, the more interaction you will receive. And interaction leads to relationships, and better relationships, lead to sales.

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Facebook Edgerank: How to Get Your Posts to Appear More Often on Your Fan's News Feeds

You make interesting posts and you try to be as personable as possible, but it just seems like your posts aren't popping up on your fan's feeds very often. What is it that determines which posts appear more often and higher on news feeds? It's called Facebook Edgerank and the higher you can make your rank, the more exposure you'll get to your fans. It's a win/win. Edgerank is a complicated algorithm seen below, so what the heck does it mean to you?

Huh? You're still lost? Yeah, so are we.

Ue= affinity score between viewing user and edge creator

We= weight of this edge type (create, comment, like, tag, etc.) Essentially it means, how popular is the post

De= time decay factor based on how long ago the edge was created

Affinity

This is a score based on the proximity or how friendly you are with someone. You've probably noticed this before; checking out someone's page a few times within an hour and all of a sudden they are in your news feed more often

Edge (Post) Weight

This is a basic formula which determines the importance of a post. Pictures are more important than text posts, videos are more important than someone "liking" a page, etc. There's no set-in-stone hierarchy to certain types of posts, but there are certain types of posts that clearly do have higher Edgerank than others.

Recency

The final element of this equation is related to frequency, also known as time decay.  The longer a post has been up, the more it has "decayed." Newer posts have higher edgerank because of the fact that they're news! People want recent information, not something from two days ago.

Don't worry about the math, just do the following to up the "weight" of your edgerank and effectively increase your prominence on fan's feeds.

There are a few distinct post types you can use to raise your Edgerank and increase your visibility to your fans:

1. Videos Posting videos are seen as an action of high value and importance. People would rather watch videos than read long posts about your products. Let's face it...people like information to come easy.

2. Links Links automatically generate a short summary and picture from the page you're linking to, which makes your post stick out a ton more than a typical text post.

3. Encourage Interaction Asking for input, suggestions, or opinions is a great way to get your fans to interact with your page and company. Making sure people understand that you value their input is a huge part in the success of your business.

4. Be Personable It doesn't always have to be business! Wishing your fans a happy holiday or to have a nice weekend goes a long way to get people to value your company and it's products and services. Be a friend before you try selling them something and your sales pitches will go a lot further.

5. Post During the Social Media Rush Hour There have been thousands of studies on when the best time to post is, but in our experience, posting between 3 and 5 pm is by far the best time. We think this is true because people are getting done with work and logging into Facebook to check on what is going on. Numbers have shown that Facebook traffic almost doubles between these hours.

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New .xxx domain names- How will they effect my business or trade mark?

ICANN (The domain name governing body) has recently announced the release of .xxx domain extensions. Members of the adult entertainment industry are now submitting registration requests for domain names with the new .XXX extension which correspond to their existing domain names and trademarks.

Many of our clients have received solicitations from domain registrars encouraging them to file an application to block their domain from the .xxx extension with costs for this service between $200-$1,000 per year.

I'm not a lawyer but here is my opinion on this:

As the Internet grows ICANN is going to keep coming out with extensions (.biz. net .xxx).  I feel that it's a waste of time and money to keep buying up extensions just to protect your brand. People looking for a legit product or service won't be typing in yourdomain.xxx they Google you or use the domain printed on your marketing materials.

At Foremost Media, we own the .com, .net and .biz extensions and we use them for different purposes like a support site, email and server routing. I wont be blocking ForemostMedia.xxx. In my opinion this is a tactic by domain registrars to get you to spend money. I would also believe that .xxx sites would be the subject of heavy filtering on search engines so unless your looking for porn they I just don't see .xxx domains popping up on a Foremost Media searches.

If you do decide to pass on blocking your the .xxx version of your trademark or domain ICANN also provides opportunities to challenge trade mark violations in domains down the road via their Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ("UDRP").

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