My Final Traffic Update

This article and video were written and produced based on my opinion of what I call Social Media Hype. You may have a totally different opinion. I base mine on actual events that happened to me and my blog. Please join in the discussion whatever your viewpoint may be.

I thought I would announce the final results of my recent surge in Social Media traffic and non-Social Media traffic. Guess which one won? Anyone who is familiar with this site knows that I was recently posted over at Chris Brogan. I made a spoof video about all the hype and hoopla that was being made over the release of Chris’s “Trust Agent” book. To my surprise and delight, Chris posted the video. What a cool thing for Chris to do for me.

At the same time, Allyn Hane at BloggerIllustrated.net, Internet Marketing Video Blog made several spoof videos of A-list bloggers also. Allyn was mentioned on Grizzly Brears blog, Make Money Online For Beginners. I also have been receiving some traffic from another up and coming internet marketer, Lis Sowerbutts, Passive Income Online. She made mention of our video spoofs and I have received traffic from her. BTW, if you haven’t read Lis, I would go and check out her blog. I dig chicks with attitude.

Allyn received a huge surge in traffic from a non-Social Media blogger (Griz). I appreciated the fact that Chris posted my video, but my Social Media traffic results were disappointing to say the least when you consider the huge amount of so called social media subscribers Chris has. As someone new to internet marketing, I feel lucky to received such a quick and helpful education that I hope I will carry with me as I continue to work on internet marketing in various forms. After I was mentioned on Griz’s blog, my traffic also surged and has been steady ever since.

There is a huge lesson to be learned here in Social Media marketing. However, I’m not the teacher, only a student. I made a video presentation of my Social Media surge and I hope that you will enjoy it and I also hope that the stats will open your eyes and help you on your journey in internet marketing. Your Social Media strategy may deserve a second look if you are serious about traffic to your blog.

For those who may be interested in the technical aspect of the video, here is how I made the video. Everything is Apple Mac based. I first made the presentation using the Apple Keynote program. All of the slides, transitions and typewriter text was made in Keynote. Keynote is how Apple kicked PowerPoint’s rear end.

To embed the video clips in Keynote, I used a screen capture program for Mac’s called IShowU.

Once I finished the presentation, I exported the presentation as a QuickTime movie. This is a very cool feature of Keynote. You can turn a presentation into a movie.

Once I made the presentation into a QuickTime movie, I imported it into my Mac video editing software, Final Cut Express. In FCE, I tweaked the video and added my music etc. I made this particular video in 4:3 aspect instead of the usual 16:9. The process is not a quick process but it’s very flexible. If you can think it in your mind, there is a good chance you can reproduce it in video form with these applications I mentioned. It’s not hard, it just takes practice like everything else in life we do.

Music by the O’Jays.

2009 BloggerLens.com

I have to tell you that this video interview is one of the most awesome video interviews ever made. I’m an official Trust Agent now and you can certainly trust me. As a matter of fact, I would like for you to Re-Tweet this article even before you watch the video. I would like at least 300 Re-Tweets on this article before anyone even watches the video.

This video was made as a result of the Green-Eyed Monster, Jealousy. I became very jealous of Allyn Hane at Bloggerillustrated.net because he has recently landed video interviews of some high-powered A-list bloggers while on vacation in Mexico. I have not had that type of success and I became jealous. He’s even claiming to be a Trust Agent now before I could claim to be a Trust Agent. I am not proud of myself. In fact, I’m a little ashamed I let my emotions get away with me. Through hard work and determination I was able to land my own A-list celebrity blogger, Chris Brogan. I hope you enjoy the video. Please for the love of God, buy the book from my link after you watch the video.

I think Chris has a good supply of books and you can order if you visit his site. You should comment on his blog too, you are not an official Trust Agent until you do. Get your scrolling finger ready, there’s a lot of little soldiers before you.

Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com

Are you making it difficult for Google and other search engines to find your hyperlocal blog? Everybody needs a little help now and then, even the Big G. I thought I would write about the guidelines I use whenever I write an article for my hyperlocal blog, the Monroe Scoop.

Let me state right now that I’m not an SEO Expert (search engine optimization). I’m not an expert at anything with the one exception of enjoying an ice cold Blue Moon in a frosty mug at the end of every day. There are a few things that I try to do with every article I post in the hopes that it will help the search engines find my site. If you apply the same principals on your site, I think it will help build your traffic, it certainly will not hurt.

Doing SEO on a hyperlocal blog is not the easiest thing in the world to do. If you try to do everything perfect, you will go crazy in the process. I want you to focus on just a few things that will eventually become second nature to you. It’s easy. Two things I enjoy in my life. Free…me and free get along great. Easy…I’m a simple dude and don’t like things real complicated. I want my stuff on cruise control if possible.

Heres how I roll:

Since I’m simple, I’ll do my best to make this simple.

I’m going to assume your site is built on the Wordpress platform. If you are using a free blogging platform, that is ok as a supporting site to send links. However, stop wasting your time and effort and get on your own site and your own hosting. If you carefully read the terms of service on free sites, you will most likely find that you do not officially own the content and they can shut you down on a moments notice. Do Not Risk It!

Make sure you install the All In One SEO Pack Wordpress plugin. Every time you post an article, fill in all of the information into this plugin. I won’t go into the details of this plugin on this article. There are plenty of sites that will do it better justice than I. Just Google it. It’s a very easy plugin and pretty much self explanatory.

I rank #1 on more local terms in my community than I could shake a stick at. I try to write naturally for the most part and just let it happen. No way I can SEO for everything. I rank #1 simply because I post articles and Google has determined that I’m the authority. Google will do the same on your hyperlocal blog also. Ask Matt McGee, he’ll tell you that he can easily rank for just about any term he wants on his hyperlocal blogs.

Here are a few of my personal guidelines I try to do at least 90% of the time.

I focus on 4 terms mostly. 2 variations of my city name and State. 2 variations of my County name and State. Those 4 terms are most likely the 4 most searched terms in your community. Either through a broad search or an exact search.

• Whenever I use my city or county name in my article title I always use my state also. Ex. Over 500 Union County, NC Students Screened For Pre-Kindergarten. I could simply write Union County and everyone in my community knows what I’m talking about. To Google, how many Union Counties are in the USA?
• I always use an H1 Tag at the beginning of my articles. I start every article (mostly) with my geographical location. Check out the screen shot of the beginning of the article. See the big bold Union County, NC? That’s just my little message to Google.
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• Now I just write naturally throughout my article or I post a press release. If the press release uses the word Union County in it, I will usually add the “NC” or “North Carolina” to it. Not always but usually. Use your best judgement.
• At the end of every article, I take the opportunity to once again mention my County or City and State, and I also add a link back to the homepage of the Monroe Scoop. I think every SEO Guru out there will tell you that deep linking within your site is very good. I show a link and I “bold” it all.
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• At this point and time, it’s time to start adding “tags” to your article. This is very simple to do. Simply start perusing down your article and add tags for the pertinent information in your article. Names, organizations, locations etc… If you notice in the screenshot, you will find that I tagged many of the words that were in my article that someone might do a search on in Google or in my own site search bar.
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• Always, always, always add “alt tags” with keywords to your photos. I get a lot of traffic to my site from Google images.
• Now here’s a little secret that you may or may not know about but I feel it can be very effective for your hyperlocal blog. Check your stats and look at the search terms that people are finding your site from. Look at the pages on your site they landed on. Take some of those terms and go back and edit those articles by adding those tags to that article or do some editing by adding those terms in the article. Tags will create more Wordpress pages for Google to index and give you more terms to be discovered by.
• Make it a habit to link to other articles within your site. If you are writing an article talking about the Humane Society and you have previously written about them before, link back to the previous article using good keyword terms as your anchor text. This deep linking helps greatly as the Super Duper Guru’s will tell you.

These are very easy and simple steps that will help your site with the search engines. If you start applying these ideas, it will soon become second nature.

Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com Hyperlocal Blog & Citizen Journalism

Caution: The article that you are about to read contains extreme bias on my part.

Traffic, that’s what an internet marketer can teach you about hyperlocal blogging. I could stop right there and this article would be complete. If you take a moment and give it some thought, what else do I need to say? Internet marketers are brilliant when it comes to internet traffic. At least the good ones are. An internet marketer depends on traffic to make a living online. As a hyperlocal blogger, I depend on traffic to build my media empire. No traffic, no empire, no advertising, no money.

I study internet marketers for a reason and you should too. A good internet marketer knows SEO. A good internet marketer understands link building. A good internet marketer understands affiliate programs and how to use them to his advantage. Rarely do you find an internet marketer willing to share their knowledge without pushing some sort of bullshit (sorry) product on you. Personally, I follow only 4 internet marketers faithfully and today I’d like to highlight my favorite internet marketer.

Allyn Hane of bloggerillustrated.net. I found Allyn through some comments he had made on one of my other favorite sites. I clicked through and that’s when I found Blogger Illustrated. Allyn is one of the most entertaining video bloggers on the internet. He teaches his viewers about the nuts and bolts of internet marketing and how to build traffic to your site. Let me warn you right now about Allyn before you visit his site. If you are an Oprah or Dr. Phil type sensitive person who just wants to feel good about yourself and your blog and no one reads it but you and your mommy, don’t bother. Allyn will sense you watching his videos and will reach through your monitor and open hand slap you where you sit.

I trolled Allyn’s site for quite a while and every now and then I would make a comment on his blog. I studied Allyn’s videos and what he teaches and I apply much of what he says on my own hyperlocal blog. Although I have never met or spoken to Allyn, I was connecting with him through his videos because I felt we had a lot in common. Surely that happens to all of us. How many of you have a co-worker or someone you see on a regular basis and you just feel a click with but do not actually know? That’s human nature folks, we tend to gravitate to those we are most like.

I found myself always looking forward to Allyn’s next video and actually get pissed off at him if he doesn’t put them out fast enough. Allyn drinks beer on his videos. I drink beer while watching Allyn’s videos. How cool is that? Allyn uses a whiteboard to get his point across. I drink beer while watching Allyn use a whiteboard.

Allyn truly cares about your success online and he is the master of his own domain. Allyn usually sets his camera up in his kitchen and talks to you as if you had just dropped by to bum a beer after watching him cut his grass. Funny how folks stop by after the work is done. He leans over the counter and tells you straight up how to be successful online. There is always a cold beer on the counter and he’ll grab his laptop and flip it toward the camera to show you something trying to make a point.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard a new rock song by the group Shinedown. The name of the song was “Sound of Madness”. As I listened to the song, I thought to myself that’s got Allyn Hane written all over it. I had an idea. I would create Allyn a video introduction for his videos. He would be able to use it as an intro and an outro for his videos. I spent a while doing some editing and using a picture of him found online, here is what I created.

I had no idea of how Allyn would take it or think about the video I made for him. Why did I do it? I did it as a sign of appreciation for what he does. I do a lot of video work and I know first hand how much work he puts into it. What else could I do? I could have sent him a case of beer but I would rather drink it myself. Only 8 out of 24 would have arrived.

What happened after I sent my video to him, just blew my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything for anyone in my life who showed as much appreciation. Allyn’s a humble guy and I never expected his response. Allyn’s very next video was a video review of my hyperlocal site, the Monroe Scoop. Grass Roots Internet Marketing. Go Hyperlocal. I was blown away and I appreciated the review very much. Allyn’s review has sent this site and the Monroe Scoop a ton of new traffic. Below is the video review from Blogger Illustrated.

You may watch a video of Allyn outside while grilling some chicken on his deck or he may post a quick video of his thoughts while sitting in his car. You should be able to get a sense of his passion and excitement from the video above. Folks, you ain’t seen nothing yet until you head over to Blogger Illustrated and watch all of his videos. No doubt you will become a fan.

If you want a better hyperlocal blog with more traffic pay attention to what Allyn teaches and implement it on your own site. Your site will be better, Google will find you and rank you higher, your traffic will increase and you will be a happier blogger.

Enjoy or download for free, Shinedown. “Sound of Madness”.

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Copyright 2009 bloggerlens.com Hyperlocal Blogs & Citizen Journalism