I can hear the groans just reading that statement. A few of them from myself, even. That thing you’ve been told all along – create unique content- actually has some merit. Even Google says it’s true, so it must be. All those “automated content creators” and “free article directories” really aren’t going to help you out here. If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.

Here’s the two main reasons why it’s an absolute MUST to have unique content if you want to get anywhere with SEO:

1. Expands Ranked Search Terms
Unique content, with keyword phrases weaved NATURALLY into your content, brings in the visitors. Not just a short 100 article, but 500-1,000 words on your page topic. The shorter the content, the less terms your going to pop up in the search engines for. Plus if you have a copy that’s just pure crap and includes lines such as “[keyword phrase] is important. You’ll need a lot of [keyword phrase].” you aren’t going to rank for anything but [keyword phrase]. If your lucky even.

2. Links back
If your content is pure junk and an obviously your just trying to get a handful of visitors in to click on the Adsense links, no one will want to link back. No links back and you’ve lost the popularity contest with Google. Simple as that, really. Even if we don’t like it, Google puts a lot of emphasis on how many people are linking to your pages and site as a whole. What’s more, you can’t force that, and NEED to rely on others linking to your content or site. The only way to do that is with unique content.

Now of course, there’s more reasons why you need good content, some of them specific to why your writing in the first place (example – gain subscribers, gain credibility, accurately describe products, etc). But since I’m talking from an SEO perspective, those are the two most important. It’s also proof that us little guys working hard behind the scenes are always going to beat out the big boys with the automated systems.

Internet Marketing:
All forms, article marketing, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, list marketing, etc. etc. etc.

WAHM:
Anything WAHM related – preferably ones that an internet marketing blog post will fit.

I will be able to provide a copy of the blog post ahead of time for your approval. I will also be giving away free reports to your readers

If you’re interested, please do either of the following:
leave a comment … 
email me at mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Guest Blogger in the subject line …

Please also include a link to your blog in your message.  

I will be accepting guest bloggers on my blogs in the near future.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

If you had to choose one plugin for your WP blog/site … one that you simply could not do without …

What would it be?

… and yes … I’m talking about slam dunk – nothing but net …

I have a brand new site I am just dying to launch.  I am so excited about this new site for so many reasons. 

• One, it really hits home what I *love* to do online. 
• Two, I’m still going to be doing one of my favorite things to do – which is helping fellow WAHMs rise to the top of the success ladder – and will be doing more of it.  (Actually, not just wahms in general but more like anyone who sells online.)
• Three, I’m finally going to be getting all my “business stuff” online linked together.  Well, this site is only step one of that happening.

Oh I could go on and on here but if I do then I will be just spinning around the ring of the net …

So what’s in store this week? 

• Finally putting the finishing touches on all those reports/ebooks that are so very close to being finished and getting them uploaded.
• Getting them out to my review team for obvious reasons.
• Getting up my squeeze pages (for the giveaway stuff) and my sales pages (for, well I think you know what that’s for, lol!)
• Getting in touch with some blog owners about me doing some guest blogging.

Then if I’m lucky enough to get all that done … it’s time to move onto …

• Getting my affiliate program set up.
• Starting an affiliate center.

I think I better stop there.  If I keep going then I’ll be certain to set myself up for failure.  I’ll start with that and if I get that done … then I can move on.  (And that would be fantastic!!)

So back to work for me … not touching those sides!

Excited yet?  Yeah, me too!  Can’t wait!

What’s in store for you this week?

I was knee deep in search engine optimization, having finally gotten out of my slump and back on the horse. I’ve never been one to jump on the “latest SEO tricks”, and always stuck to the tried and true forms of SEO. Wouldn’t you know it’s been nearly a year since I’ve done anything but a few posts a month on Idea Queen, and all my rankings have stayed put for the most part. “Slow and steady wins the race” comes to mind here.

Now as I’m searching for some of the FireFox add-ons I had installed on my computer before the horrid computer crash of ‘09 (I’m starting from scratch here people – I more or less lost EVERYTHING, since I cant even find my back up disks from last April), I stumbled across something new. Well, maybe not new to the internet, but new to me. That program is Advanced Web Rankings.

The first thing I noticed after downloading it was that I’m a HUGE GEEK. I was drooling over all the functions of this sexy beast, and didn’t even know where to start. The main reason I wanted my hands on it was for some -safe- form of checking rankings that didn’t require me typing in all my keyword phrases one by one and searching for them in the listings. Keep in mind Idea Queen has at least 100 optimized pages, some with multiple keyword terms.  Talk about a daunting task, and I can’t even keep track of half of them without it consuming an entire day. Granted I only use to check every 3 months or so, but still. Big, big task. Sadly I lost my spreadsheet with all the info though, so this is a HUGE time saver in my researching.

Some of the functions just aren’t available with the standard version, but that’s fine. I’ve always had my own way of keyword research, and honest, it’s worked for years for me. Don’t fix it if is ain’t broke, right? So that part I don’t need. HOWEVER, it’s sparked some suggestions for me as I was adding in my keywords since I had it set on “Google suggest”. Which in turn sparked an idea for more content. WOO!

Now it doesn’t just spit out all your rankings, but give you reports and other functions to see if your really targeting the keywords you should be. It also shows you if your site has moved from specific phrases over time. Very cool, and very good to know.

When my free trial expires, I do plan to buy the full Standard version for $99. And for those of you that know me, spending this much on one business tool is simply unheard of. Even more surprising, I plan to upgrade to the Enterprise version for the keyword research function after I get further into the swing of things again. For now though, I’m extremely happy to have a good handle on where my pages are ranked, and knowing where I can improve.

I’ve never been a big fan of popups, popunders, or anything that annoys the crap out of me. Although I’ve been seeing some “less intrusive” means of pop ups that I don’t think are too bad. For some reason being able to click the box off the page itself is less annoying that a new window. Don’t ask me why I really don’t know.

So I went in search of a script or something to use to make one of those nifty subscription box page pop ups. Come to find out Aweber provides this, already built in and highly customizable. *Happy dance* All I needed to do was set it up there and use one itty bitty snippit of code that worked flawlessly on my WordPress template (speaking of, have you SEEN the new redesigned Idea Queen? I’m still working off some static pages but I may be moving it all over to blog-only format eventually).

Now for the Numbers….

I’ve always been pretty darn good about putting my subscription boxes all over the place. Every single page in the MIDDLE or TOP of the content. Not tucked away on the side. The conversion rate of visitors to subscribers was about 1-2%. Absolutely pathetic really. 1-2 subscribers a day, 3 if I was lucky, and sometimes ZERO…. for 700-1000 new visitors every single day. Yuck.

As soon as I changed it so a box would pop up (and yes of course I left the old ones in place, I’d be stupid if I didn’t), I had instant subscribers. It was added sometime this afternoon (still early evening now), and I have 4 confirmed subscribers (5 more still unconfirmed, but won’t add those in the total just yet). Now it may seem small but if you figure there’s probably more to come (and I’m taking into account it’s Thursday – not exactly my best traffic day). Averaging just 8 a day is 250 per month, which is a HUGE leap from the 25 I was averaging.

I’ll be sure to post more results later, but I just wanted to share this awesome feature Aweber has (and probably has for quite some time, I’m just now noticing it HA!). Oh, and it’s under “Web Forms”.

That’d be why I’m really excited about this new product I found via Twitter of my good friend @Ravish30 – actually I found the contest to win one and the name of the product really caught my attention. It’s called SodaStream

Sounds cool, doesn’t it? (Well if you’re a soda-holic like me then it really caught your attention as it did mine, lol!)

I clicked on her giveaway link just so I could at least see what the product was. You’ve got to at least go to SodaStreamUSA (link above) and check out the video. It’s pretty short but it shows you exactly what this thing does and how it works. To make the long story short … you make your own soda at home! Do you have any idea how much money that would save me??

And I’ll admit upfront, the main reason I’m telling our readers about this is cause it’ll get me 5 extra entries to Laura’s contest at New Age Mama’s but that’s not the only reason. I truly think this product is cool! Plus Laura gave it a great review to boot. I’d love to get my hands on one of these!

You too can get a few chances to win by entering here:
http://newagemama.blogspot.com/2010/01/sodastream-review-and-giveaway.html

And I’ll wish you good luck but darnit, I really want this thing! lol!

{Sigh} Now if only I could just convice the folks at @sodastreamusa to let me do a review for you all …

My good no, make that my awesome gal pal, Shelly of the Shakin & Bakin Recipe Blog:  In the Kitchen with Shelly is hosting a contest in which you could be the winner of a 126 page cookbook:  Hershey’s Classic Recipes Cookbook!

According to Shelly who already has her very own copy of this delicious hardcover cookbook, it includes recipes such as:  “cookie jar favorites, irresistible brownies, chocolate cakes, decadent desserts, tantalizing treats and so much more!”

My mouth is watering uncontrollably already!

If you want to take your chances in winning this delectable cookbook … Shelly has made it super, super-easy for you to get a minimum of 11 entries and if you enter today you could easily get up to 29 entries!!  (Although don’t get your hopes up cause I’ve already claimed myself winner, lol)

So if you want to give me a run for my money … head on over to Shelly’s blog right now so you too can get the maximum amount of entries possible!

Click here to == > > Grab all the juicy details and submit your entires!

Good Luck to all!

]]> http://2wahms.com/583/love-chocolate-as-much-as-me/feed 0 http://2wahms.com/581/thanks-for-the-ideas-twitter http://2wahms.com/581/thanks-for-the-ideas-twitter#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:22:34 +0000 Kara http://2wahms.com/?p=581 It’s been awhile, I know. After some family issues over the summer I went into shut-down mode, and it’s taken me this long just to get back into somewhat of a regular routine. Not that I ever really turned my back on all things business, it was just that I was only taking care of the bare minimum. Well, I’m back in full swing. At least I hope.

What really brought me back was a new business idea (courtesy of a new advertiser on Idea Queen – see her advertisement on the left hand side at the top). This is idea was not really something new for ME as much as it was something for my 7yr old daughter to do. Jillian, my little entrepreneur, is now making her own soaps. She’s even got her own website – Soap by Jillian – which she helped design.

Now somewhere in between making soaps and posting, I got in the mood to blog again. FINALLY. Somehow I found myself on Twitter, and I have no idea why it took me so long. The more time I spend there, the more ideas that come to me, and the more I want to do stuff.

Just today I realized that Valentine’s Day is approaching, and thus creating a lot of twitters on the subject. Jillian has a heart soap mold she’s been favoring, which I thought “hey that makes a good Valentine’s day gift for kids”. Not only did I twitter that, but I did a post over on Idea Queen for others to post their V-Day gift ideas for kids. Which in turn made me think I needed to come over here and post too, since it falls in the category of “business idea”.

So if you haven’t already, go sign yourself up to Twitter even if it’s just to post some random stuff. You never know what you’ll find or who will find you. Oh, and feel free to add me too on Twitter!

]]> http://2wahms.com/581/thanks-for-the-ideas-twitter/feed 0 http://2wahms.com/576/virtual-cookie-swap-i-need-your-recipes http://2wahms.com/576/virtual-cookie-swap-i-need-your-recipes#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:27:43 +0000 Anita http://2wahms.com/?p=576 While organizing a “real” cookie swap for some friends and family … I started thinking it’d be cool to do something like this online too.  From there it simply exploded!
 
To try and make a long story short, I need your favorite cookie recipe.  With these recipes I’m going to compile a WAHM Virtual Cookie Swap eCookbook.
 
Included in this ebook will be the name and website address of each submission.  (Think – Exposure!)  eCookbooks will be set up so anyone can give it out to whomever they want.  (Think – Viral Marketing!)
 
And … If you submit a recipe, I will create a personalized copy just for you!  There’s so many things you can do with these.  You’ll find a list of things on our details page.
 
Want more exposure?  Submit as many recipes as you’d like!  The more the better!
 
Grab all the details here:
http://www.mommyshelpercommunity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14530

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