Traffic exchange to increase traffic, yay or no way?

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Do you think a traffic exchange can increase your website ranking and visibility?

Traffic Exchange to Increase Traffic to Your Website

I know I usually share useful tidbits of information with you and encourage you to use it and report back, but today I want to try something a little different.

Have you ever used a traffic exchange to drive traffic to your website or increase your website ranking?  Increasing traffic to your website is the first step (the second step being to get your visitors to interact) but how can you be seen when you can’t be seen?

To some of you that sounded like it made no sense, but if you are at the end of your patience with your poor website that hasn’t seen more than a dozen visitors in a month you might just know what that means.

The idea behind a traffic exchange is to use it along with other marketing strategies to increase traffic to your website.  And I don’t just mean from the exchange itself.

As we know, there are key things that help your website climb up the rankings in the search results.  Relevant content, frequent updating, optimized pages and images, quality and relevant links back and traffic.  Now, why would the powers that decide who ranks higher expect us to get visitors before we can actually…get visitors?  Well, they assume that if you are getting traffic you are worth seeing.  To a point that is correct.

Can we simply enroll in a traffic exchange, pay for backlinks and post empty content and be at the top of the searches?  The chances are getting slimmer and slimmer because as you can understand we want the top results in our searches to be relevant and worth our time.

In my experience, a traffic exchange can actually help increase ranking.  Do you agree or disagree?  No really, I want to know what you think!  I make an effort to provide optimized content and I do improve with every effort I make, and I have seen a noticeable difference since I have enrolled in a traffic exchange.

It was helpful that I was able to receive a free advertising package to see how it really works and how it really doesn’t take much time at all.  There are a couple really BIG benefits of this that I want to share with you and I will use a bulleted list to show you how important this is to me:

  1. I got 1000 free visits to the sites I added and
  2. I can actually make money from the ad packages that I purchase plus the free one I got.
  3. No membership fee and no referring to make money.
  4. I have access to different marketing materials created by the company and
  5. There are motivational strategies that I apply to my own business!

So I can keep using this exchange over time to help the ranking rise with other websites.

Now, I am content with the traffic I get because people find me that want to know what I have to say, but this was merely experimental because I have always heard of traffic exchanges and people with opinions weren’t really educated with the subject or just sounded really biased one way or the other.

I’ve been using this exchange for 6 months now and I am actually making money to the point that I want to actually take it out and spend it on some nice new site designs so this is a win-win for me.

And who knows, maybe my own efforts of improving SEO and keywords have been solely what has helped me be found easier than before but either way, I have learned some really valuable strategies from the business materials that I can apply to my own businesses.

I welcome your thoughts and experience on traffic exchanges!  YAY!  Or no way?  If you would like info on the exchange I have used let me know and I will get you the details.

Everyone has an opinion, but should you listen?

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Marry Christmas from Dionne The Marketing Connoisseur

I’ve have had a family emergency (perhaps two) this past month and I’ve had to put some projects on that metaphorical back burner.

As you know, when life happens certain parts of our lives can slow down or even be put on pause temporarily but it’s always important to keep moving forward even if we just think about what our next step will be and then the first chance we get, take some action.

I wanted to take a few minutes and share something that happens to me a lot. I’m sure you can relate.  Maybe you can add something that I’ve missed?

As you know, anything you do starts to become public knowledge to the people around you.  You come across strangers that want to give you their input on your goals and your life but it can be a bit much sometimes.  Everyone has an opinion and some can come across quite strong but is it really something that I should take seriously?

I used to get all kinds of parenting advice from strangers in the grocery store when my daughter was a toddler.  She was pretty tiny and complete strangers would tell me that I should feed her more often!  I had all kinds of input on ways to “fatten up that baby”.  Please.  Take care of your own life and I refuse to justify myself.

Ever since I adopted the lifestyle of becoming a business owner, the most random people would call me or even email me articles and advice that I really should follow.  It was always accompanied by a remark that stated “if you try this you might actually make this work” and “good luck I hope you can make this happen for once”.  Um, excuse me?  Do you have any clue how much business I bring in?  I may not be a millionaire but I do have great results because of my troubleshooting abilities and my creative network of people. I see a steady increase enough to know that I am doing something right.

I am very open to ideas but when business is going so well that I have enough work to keep two people busy full time, I’m a bit put off by their assumption that I have a limp idea that never worked.  I dislike it when people that talk down to me.  I always wrote a very nice reply graciously thanking my caring friend for his (or her) time and assured them that I am so busy I will have to make time to see if I can work that strategy onto my dance card.  I may have exaggerated a time or two, but this was years ago and I wasn’t nearly as mature as I am now!  ;)

I don’t know why I felt the need to justify myself, but I was pretty much offended.  Ironically, each and every time the advice was from individuals that never once made an effort to do much of anything except sit around and complain.  Now, it doesn’t effect me.  I like to learn from my mistakes as well. Yes, it is possible to make mistakes even with people telling me what to do!

Have you ever had someone pick apart your efforts and tell you that you’re going about things all wrong?  Of course you have.  Same here!  The more projects I take on the more people seek me out to tell me that I should do things his way or her way or that I’m just plain wasting my time.  One thing my childhood taught me was to have a very thick skin so to speak and I can handle criticism and put downs really well without it effecting me for the most part, but you might be quite a bit more sensitive and pushy people might stop you in your tracks and terrified to try anything new.

What happens to your overall mood after hearing unsolicited advice?  Do you feel energized and willing to try new things, or have you gotten so frustrated from being tugged in so many different directions?!  I used to take notice of what anyone told me thinking that I was being open to new ideas when in reality I was trying to please everyone and even though I was doing what was being suggested no one was ever happy with me results.  I learned the hard way. :)

Here are a few things for you and I to keep in mind the next time someone is trying to give you his or her two cents.

Does he or she have my best interests in mind or is he (or she) just being critical?  And needlessly bossy?!

If someone has your success in mind, it may be a good idea to read the next few suggestions and see if the advice can be something adapted to your process.  Don’t get me wrong, it can be really good to get input from another point of view but don’t automatically take it seriously when someone says “you’re doing it wrong” or “do it this way”.  If you don’t know this person and you are getting the feeling that they just want to give an opinion, thank them and don’t take it too seriously.  But make a mental note that you might be able to learn something from their experience even if you learn how to approach people when YOU want to give your input. :)   And for heavens sake if you are getting the results you want  don’t change!  If it ain’t broke…you know the rest.

Has this person taken action towards success in his life/ her life?

From time to time I hear advice from people that don’t quite take initiative to make their own dreams a reality.  It’s never the right time, the right mood and it just isn’t going to work right now for them.  Since it’s not up to me, I let them be.  I don’t have time to motivate everyone but you and I must consider the source of where this information is coming from.  Even if the advice comes quoted from an Anthony Robbins book it doesn’t mean that you need to take heed and change your direction especially if the person making their lips move never take initiative on their own.  If you’re talking to someone that hasn’t taken steps toward success, don’t take it too seriously.  Look at their fruits of their labor and ask yourself if you want the same results.

Don’t let it destroy your energy.  Stay on track with this strategy…

There have been times that a flippant comment about my goals has ended the day with my shoulders slumped and my goal list in the trash.  Not to mention some hardcore pouting and tears that spilled out and onto my frowny cheeks.  All because one person thought I was headed in the wrong direction and cut my dreams apart.  If I listened to every piece of advice, I would still be a confused mess and my other half would avoid me as if I had influenza.

So try this…pick 1, 2 or even 3 people in your life that are taking active steps to their goals.  These are people that you notice trying new things and adapting their strategies when they need to.  Staying strong, positive and active even if it’s just little steps at a time.  People that speak encouragement but the truth.  These are the ones you want to take notice of if you are given advice.  You can also run ideas by them to see if these are really things that you want to consider or if you need to write it off as needless input.

Sorry, I’m definitely not against advice but you do have to think about who you listen to and who you smile politely and just thank for their comments.  If you wear your heart on your sleeve and try to please everyone your dreams are no longer yours but it’s a tangled ball of yarn that you alone are left to unravel after everyone has gone.

Does he or she understand where I am coming from?

If I can’t walk in your shoes, I will never truly know how you feel.  I am really good at empathizing but I still don’t know exactly what you’re going through.  I will cry with you and laugh with you and even listen to your life story if that will make you feel better.

When one of my friends or people in my family are having a rough time I always (and I mean ALWAYS) hear, “What should I do, Dionne?  I need your help.”  Most times I don’t give advice that is wanted.  Usually the expectation is that I will just take care of the problem and be the hero, but I don’t work that way.  I might ask you questions to help you figure out the way you want to go, and by talking to you I let YOU decide what your plan of action could be and it’s up to you to make it happen.  I am not your maid.

When I’m asked a question, I give an answer.  Oddly, my answer is usually met with a justification or the real funny thing is when I’m asked for advice and then completely disregarded.  My only wish is that my advice or time in conversation will get you to think of the direction you want to go and help you think of ways that you want to get there.  Don’t just do what I say! THINK, DAMMIT!  I don’t hand out solutions I teach you how to find your own.  And we can talk about it and learn together.  So it’s kind of like art.  Don’t always take it for what it looks like at first sight.  Use what’s between your ears and don’t waste it.

Take action!

Who was the last person that freely gave you input on your life direction?  Think about the following questions while you think about that interaction:

  1. Did he/ she have my best interests in mind?
  2. Does he/she show positive signs in his/ her life?
  3. Is he/ she someone that I trust to give me advice that is worth my time?
  4. Should I take notice and adapt my goals to his/ her suggestion?

Using social media for marketing your business.

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Connecting with your readers using social media to market your business.

How many social media options are there?  No, really I’m asking if you’ve counted because I haven’t.  I am always discovering one that I had no idea existed and I really pout at the idea of learning yet another way to interact.  New layout, new platform…new day during the week for all this?

www.niftybuttons.com for adding social media icons to your website

Nifty Buttons and nifty that we don’t have to write the code! YAY!

Thankfully we can make it easy for our readers to connect with us using the options we already use!  While saving us time in learning even more ways to connect.

Social media buttons for your convenience and my convenience!

I found Nifty Buttons and that is going to be a page that I visit frequently.  I had put off adding my buttons because looking up the code and getting it put into the sidebar isn’t just a 60 second task and like you I don’t have an overabundance of time.

These will definitely do until I get the site custom designed!  And the best part is…I didn’t have to generate the code!!  All you have to do is select the button style you like, click it and enter in your URL’s and the code is automatically generated so all you do is cut and paste!

I wish I had known about this a lot sooner.  So I knew this would be the perfect thing to share with you!

Social media marketing can increase traffic to your website.

So get those buttons on your site for everyone to see!  Let’s connect!  As you know, you can actually increase your following by adding options for your future readers to find and keep in touch with you in places like Facebook, Twitter and Google +.  The search options and sharing features show other users information that the platform has deemed desirable by following your interests and your readers might just use one of those as a way to keep track of their favorite sources for information.  Even if you’re not too keen on maintaining a bajillion accounts chose a few that you’ve had the most interactions with since those will be the methods that your demographic tends to use to engage with other people.  This applies to you!

Take Action!

If you haven’t already, get your social media buttons on your site so your readers can interact with you even when they aren’t reading your beautiful blog posts! 

What is your social media of choice?

TGIF

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TGIF! Enough of the daily work week now it's time to start your own online business!

TGIF! Now its time to work on your own venture!

Happy Friday!  Even if it’s nacho Friday!

When you aren’t living a life that is aimed at our goals you stumble from one working day to the next living for the next day or days off.  Your Friday can never come soon enough and your weekends are never long enough!

TGIF Anyway!

I really don’t dread Mondays I look forward to a new week and a fresh page on my weekly calendar!  (I’m weird…you were warned!)  I do love Friday’s because junior is off from school but that’s about it.  I work hard on the days I work and I take days off when I need them.  I am living my goals and making the most out of every day even when I haven’t been successful in reaching my latest dream I keep going and I smile through the sweat and tears because I know that I’m making my life into what I want it to be. :)   I’m not living my life as someone else’s stepping stone doing something because I think I don’t have a choice.  You’d better believe I have a choice!  And so do you.

We all work for someone just in different ways.

Don’t get me wrong, working for someone else is perfectly ok and there is nothing wrong with it.  In reality, as a business owner I do work for my customers and clients because I do adjust my preferences to meet his or her needs not just my current mood.  So I don’t really work for myself.  No one that is reliable or trustworthy will ever boast,”I do what I want and when I want!”  But for me, I am living my idea of my dream one day at a time.

Even if you work a job you hate, it’ll get a small bit better knowing you are taking steps to change things for the better.

If you work for someone else and you love your job and who you work for that’s GREAT!  Are there any other goals you wanted for your life?  Are you working towards them or are you using your job as an excuse to be inactive just sitting where you are without growing?

If you write, paint, sing, recruit affiliates for a living…you still work for your readers, your admirers, your listeners and your referrals.

I haven’t finished my journey but I’ll get there.  Why?  Because I never quit. :)

Take Action!  Let’s get started…

If you want to start an online business or create your own blog you need to start now.  Don’t wait until the holidays are over for more time or wait until you finish a certain chapter in your life.  Things will never calm down, you will never have free time and it will never “feel right”.  If you want it bad enough do it.  Do it now.  Take at least one small step a day and you’ll get there.  Start by clicking here.

Why can’t I be rich?

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You aren't tired of your current circumstance if you are not taking action to change it.

You aren’t tired of your current circumstance if you are not taking action to change it.

Why can’t I be rich?

One of my acquaintances likes to use the phrase, “I am so tired of working so hard to be poor!”  First on my list of things to rant about: if you have a job and can afford to eat every day you are not poor.  Choosing to buy electronics and using credit cards and creating a lifestyle dependent upon a paycheck to maintain your choices is not called being poor.  If you want to see what poor really is take a look at people that are out of work and can’t afford to keep electricity on or feed their kids every day.  This happens right here in cities in the United States so don’t tell me that you’re poor if you are reading this from a smartphone that belongs to you.

Quite frankly, if this person was so “tired of working to be poor” I would think that he or she would do something about it to make change happen.

What, you don’t think it’s possible?

Circumstances can motivate change.

Eight years ago I was a single mother with an almost two year old baby and a part time job.  My bank accounts had been overdrawn by someone who knew how to work the bank system and had used a fake identity so all the responsibility fell on me.  I lived in a drafty double wide.

Playing and making memories in our double wide!

Playing and making memories in our double wide!

You never heard me complain, not even once.  My first priority was keeping my child warm, clean, safe and fed.  My second priority was changing our circumstance.  I was denied for state assistance for food, money or childcare expenses so I didn’t have that as an option.  We never missed a meal, we always had our home and we always had more than enough.

Blackberry picking behind our mobile home!

Blackberry picking behind our mobile home!

I went from one part time job to where I am now and there was a looooooong journey in between but I have made great progress and had great success.  Most importantly, my daughter has a good example to follow and she teaches me just as much as I teach her.

Enjoy the simple things.

Enjoy the simple things.

Even in that double wide I was very rich!  I was living in luxury and loving every minute of it.

Think of your current circumstance as a motivator for you.  Are you really tired of it or just mildly irritated?  Are you fed up enough to do something about it?

How can I work for myself?  I want to be “financially free”.

Start with what your interest is.  What do you always think about or dream about doing?  Writing, painting, car repair, blogging?  The chances are good that you can make money doing what you love.  Heck, you can even make money blogging!  If you want it bad enough you’ll get it.  And no, it did not take me a decade to be successful.  It all depends on the direction you chose and how proactive you are working towards your goals.

If you really are wondering how to become wealthy, it will take work but you can get there.  If you’re looking for extra income ideas we can brainstorm that as well.

Being rich, financial freedom (an overused term) and the beachside lifestyle is all a bunch of hype and no you can’t get that overnight.  If you really want it, you’ll do what it takes.

Take action!

If you really want change, go get it.  Do you want to get wealthy or just enjoy life with a little more freedom?  Go get it!  Yes it is that simple.  There are steps along the way but you can get there.  Get in touch with me if you need some direction.

Truly improving you website SEO will add customer value.

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Create value for your customers by sharing relevant content.

by Dionne Baldwin
Create value for your customers by writing relevant content and using your customer satisfaction strategies to give them something they can use.

Add value by giving your customers useful information.

I watched the first video in a three part series offered by Hubspot and SEO.com that explains how to improve on page SEO for your website.  This three part series is an SEO crash course offering information at beginner, intermediate and more advanced levels.

The first video was just over four minutes and that is about the perfect amount of time for busy people just like you and me!  Remind me to thank them for keeping that in mind.  They didn’t pad the info with needless facts that we already know or hype that gets annoying they got right down to business.  They got right to the point and gave us seo tips that we can apply to our sites NOW.  And for an added bonus we can download a free SEO template to use for optimizing our sites!  I thought I had my strategy all figured out for SEO but using this template made me really think about my site and what I’m actually not yet doing to make it easier for my readers to find me.  And yes, I took notes on the video.

Even if you have years of website management and optimizing I encourage you to check this out.  Effective strategies have changed and resources like Hubspot and Seo.com are a necessity for me to stay on top of the changes so I can see what is working right now and not last year.  Techniques like keyword stuffing aren’t “in” right now and I see people creating new sites still using this outdated attempt at ranking.

Let’s go for quality.  Let’s follow the advice of the experts.

Most importantly, let’s follow the example of creating customer value.  Think about what happens after you watch videos like this that spring you into action.  Do you apply the advice and get excited when you see it working?  Does that make you remember Hubspot and SEO.com and want more from them?  Of course you do and so do I!  They know that by giving us things that we can use for free we see how their advice is useful and actually we start to see it as a necessity to move forward and they have begun to build that rapport with us.  We see their status updates and feel the urge to see what we can learn next making us the perfect future loyal customer.

Give them a free sample!

We should be following this advice to.  Are you giving your readers something useful for free or are you teasing them?  Please tell me you aren’t building them up with hype just to disappoint them in the future!  By giving them something for free you give them a sample of how valuable you are as a resource and they just keep wanting more.

Take the less than five minutes out of your day and sign up for the crash course.  Don’t assume you already know because as I said before previous strategies for SEO are outdated.  You need to stay on top of the updates!  And that’s what I’m here for. :)

Take Action!

To sign up for this free online video series click here and you will be taken to a page to sign up for the course.  This link may only work for a limited time as things are always changing so don’t wait and sign up today!

4 Things You Must Do for SEO

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4 Things You Must Do for SEO

by Dionne Baldwin

What is SEO and why do you want it?

Wikipedia defines search engine optimization as:

“the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results.”

Optimizing your website is mandatory if you want people to find you and see all of your hard work, assuming that you are giving them good quality content and a reason to keep coming back to visit.

I do hate saying “SEO” because I feel it is overused and I would rather optimize with readers like you in mind than thinking about what web crawlers prefer.  If we lose our perspective and only program ourselves to look for what crawlers look for and ignore our poor readers there is no point in gaining visibility is there?

Imagine a delicious bakery making the most amazing breads, tarts and pastries that you can think of.  They make one of your absolute favorites that you haven’t had in years.  The bakery owner puts fancy light up signs in the front window, opens the doors to let the tantalizing fragrances of the fresh baked beauties waft down the street but you live four blocks away and rarely frequent that street.  If the bakery owner had just put out some signage at the nearest busy intersections and done some advertising in the community to spread the word you and so many others would make the busy bakers even busier!  But in this analogy, the baker did not optimize his shop for his hungry customers.

So let’s think of this as becoming more reader friendly, not just trying to appease the crawlers.  The more distant from our actual readers we make our work, the harder it is to connect with them when they find us.  Let’s just stay ready to connect!

But these things are the boring part of website building!

I agree.  I’d much rather start writing and typing away and just send my posts out into the world wide web.  This is part of being the owner of a web presence and as you know there are things grown ups have to do that are unpleasant.  In the midst of all this glamorous talk of “I make my own schedule!” and “I get to work from home!”  comes a list of things we’d rather ignore.  Don’t worry we don’t have to do these things often unless we change our vision.

4 Things You Must Do for SEO

Here we go…

1.  Page Title and Meta Description

Instead of just your company name write a short description of what you do and if possible work in a keyword or two. For example:

Made with Aloha – Handmade cards and custom invitations. 

Short, sweet and descriptive.  You don’t want it so long that people have to take three breaths to say it but make your words count.  Handmade cards is actually a popular search term and so is custom invitations so that is not only a great preview the customers that find the website in the search results but those are also highly used keywords.

Your description will appear in the search so make sure you get your point across to your readers briefly and with keywords if possible.  It has to make sense.  For example:

Our cards are crafted with the finest quality artisan papers for every holiday or special occasion.  Custom invitations are our specialty and our collections will take your breath away!

If you were shopping for handmade cards online, would this description appeal to you?  It’s brief but to the point.  I’m sure there could be more keywords but adding too many will not only scare off your customers but that may actually have a negative effect on your optimization.

By the way, this applies to all of your pages not just your homepage.

2.  Optimize your images.

So does that mean I have to go back and change all my images that I already have?  No seriously, I’m asking!  :)   Naming your images with what they are or what they apply to can have an impact on optimization.  Your image name, description, caption and alternate text should reflect what the image is or what it applies to.

If I had a handmade card photograph of a wedding invitation with mauve and silver with pearl-like adornments I would title my image accordingly.  The description would be something elegant that would caress the reader in an imaginary feeling of beauty and implied sophistication of the event being announced on the invitation.  The same with the caption.  I’d suggest making this a priority from here on out as I have heard this is a must from other website owners that get way more traffic than I do!

3.  List your keywords.  Use them wisely in your pages.

If you haven’t already, go to Google keyword tool and type in what you think your keywords are for your brand.  Have you used Google keyword tool?  I swear by this and it works wonders.

You and I have ideas of keywords that define our posts but sometimes we are thinking from the other side or we simply don’t think like our readers.  How did you do on your keywords?  One thing I learned in optimizing keywords is not to chose the words or phrases with the highest result because there is the most competition.  Remember, we aren’t quite there yet.  You can make your keywords work for you sooner if you chose words with less searches than the top phrases but not so few that you don’t see any traffic from the searches.  I usually chose anywhere around 20,000-50,000 searches or less.  I wouldn’t go much lower than 6,000 though.  I do get adventurous and work in a higher searched term and I do actually get results from it but if you’re starting out give this a try.

I use this for my blog posts as well.  Just use your best judgement.  If you happen to write about a topic you think is useful but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest according to this tool, write about it anyway!  You never know.  This is exactly what it says- a tool.  Not a rigid standard. :)

With your keywords, try to work them into your description reasonably without making it overwhelming.  And remember, it has to make sense to your readers not just you.

4.  Write content that your readers want and need to see about you.

I know you have an idea in your mind of what your readers want, but make sure you are writing for them. Get out your one page business plan and make sure your mission is in there somewhere.  Make an outline if you need to, separate paragraphs and you must find relevant images to add that are interesting!  Images make a load of difference.  They add color and something appealing to a website instead of just plain ‘ole words.  Let your images tell a story, put photos of you so they can identify YOU with their brand.

It may be helpful to picture onw or two of your readers to be your example that you think of whenever you create content for your site.  Think to yourself, “Would _________ find this helpful?”  Before long you’ll be automatically writing and posting things that your readers love and you’re automatic thought process will be, “__________ would LOVE this!”  And you will be right.  Because you are optimizing for your readers and making your site web crawler friendly.

Take action!

Create a blog post writing to your readers on a personal level using your own voice and not your “selling” voice.  Don’t write at them.  When you write, do it in a conversational way so it feels as though you really are speaking to them personally because that’s exactly what you are doing!  By making that connection you begin to build a relationship with your audience.  You can be professional and personable at the same time and still establish trust and credibility.