Linkedin Consultant | Linkedin Consulting

5 Tips to Build and Grow Your LinkedIn Network

Do you want to tap into LinkedIn’s 150 million–member worldwide network?
It’s important to focus on the right kinds of activities that will yield the best results.
In this article, I’ll reveal five key strategies and activities you can focus on to build and grow your network.

#1: Update Your Status Frequently and Consistently

Only one-third of LinkedIn members visit the site every day, and another one-third of members visit the network several times a week, according to a survey conducted by Lab42. You can check out the complete infographic from Lab42 on LinkedIn Members.
When you log into LinkedIn, notice each time who shows up in your home feed. Most likely you will see the same few people frequently.

Active LinkedIn users will show up more frequently in your home feed.

These individuals are getting more visibility because they are more active, and you can do the same if you commit to staying active on the network. This is a subtle but powerful way to build influence with your network connections.
If you make the commitment to become more active in the network, you have a real opportunity to shine! It takes time, effort and dedication, but the payoff from staying top of mind can be significant in developing new introductions, relationships and business opportunities.
Here are a few ideas on how to be an active LinkedIn member:

• Update your status at least three times a day on the actual site itself, versus using third-party tools so that you have full control over your message and increase engagement (see image below).
• Share and comment on the updates of your first-, second- and third-degree connections at least once a day.
• Send an invitation to connect to at least one new person per day.
• Start and/or participate in LinkedIn Group Discussions three times a week.
• Answer questions on “LinkedIn Answers” three times a week.
• Comment on profile updates from the companies you follow on LinkedIn once a day.
  

  By updating your status manually in LinkedIn, you can control your message and increase engagement.

Important note: Be careful about sharing your tweets directly on LinkedIn. When you do this, you don’t give your LinkedIn network connections any opportunity to engage with you within LinkedIn. Be selective about the tweets you choose to send automatically into LinkedIn from your Twitter account. There may be some value in saving time and increasing visibility by doing this, but realize no further engagement will take place within LinkedIn.
Sending all of your tweets into LinkedIn can get very annoying for your connections!

When you send a tweet to LinkedIn, your network connections are unable to engage with your update within LinkedIn. Instead, if they click "Reply" or "Retweet," they'll be taken to Twitter.

#2: Build Connections Constantly

One of the best things you can focus on in growing and engaging your LinkedIn network is to always look for connection opportunities. LinkedIn recently enhanced its People You May Know feature.
Take advantage of this opportunity to review whom you may know and send them a personalized invitation to connect right there from the People You May Know tab.

The new People You May Know feature makes it easy to discover potential connections in your target markets.

The “Alumni” search feature on LinkedIn is also quite powerful, as you can narrow your search by geographical location.
In the example below, I’ve selected the high school I attended and my current geographical location, which uncovered 74 new connection opportunities for me! Make sure to plug in the high school(s) and college(s) you attended to expand your results.

A search for new potential connections who attended my high school and live in my area.

#3: Be Strategic about When You are Active on LinkedIn

Studies have shown that LinkedIn members are more active in the afternoons and are more likely to use the mobile site in the evenings. With this in mind, focus your participation activities during the times when you have the best chance to be seen.
I would also recommend experimenting with this depending on where you live and what industry you work in. Mix up your strategy and record the results over a week’s time, such as how many new connections you gained and how many engagement opportunities you created during each week based upon when you participated.
For example, I have found that engagement within my industry and target market is quite high on weekday mornings AND on Saturday mornings. Therefore, I make LinkedIn one of my first stops of the day as much as possible.

#4: Join and Actively Participate in LinkedIn Groups

You’ve probably heard this recommendation before, but LinkedIn Groups are one of the most active areas of the network and the participation stats are quite compelling.

A survey and infographic from Lab42 reveals powerful LinkedIn Group participation stats.

Simply joining a group on LinkedIn won’t get you anywhere. You must jump into the new and popular conversations and add value as a member!
One of the best successes I’ve ever had in a group within my targeted niche was to ask for advice. I needed to find a resource to complete a certification and that simple question generated over 30 responses.
Be careful not to over commit to too many LinkedIn Groups. Pick three to five groups that make sense for you to be actively involved. Here are five ways to use LinkedIn Groups to build influential connections.
LinkedIn has just made it much easier to find groups within the network that might be valuable for you to join through the new LinkedIn Group Search feature.
Now, group conversations are being indexed within LinkedIn search. Additionally, you can filter your searches and see which of your connections are also members of a particular group.

Find the right LinkedIn Groups to join and get actively involved through the new LinkedIn Group Search feature.

#5: What You Share Matters

What you share on LinkedIn does matter. This is what will define you as a trusted authority within your industry and with your target markets. The key is to share news, articles and insights that are relevant to your connections if you want to attract and grow the right audience.
If you’re plowing your blog posts into LinkedIn as status updates or into LinkedIn Groups without asking a question or trying to achieve engagement, you won’t get very far. Believe me, I’ve done this and so have many other marketing experts. It is perfectly okay to share your content, but it’s important to be considerate when you do so and position it in such a way that can potentially get your connections to engage with you.
I’m a big believer in the idea that creating and sharing your own content is extremely important for establishing yourself as a thought leader and becoming the trusted authority in your niche. Just avoid phrases such as “check out my videos” or “check out my latest blog post” because honestly, no one cares about you until you care about them. Be a resource and be helpful to your connections in addition to finding ways to create dialogue with them.
Keep in mind that when you share something that is “share-worthy” and members of your extended network see it and share it, you increase your visibility significantly because you gain exposure to their connections.
To easily find and share content that is interesting and relevant to your target markets, consider using the LinkedIn Today site. This is a great tool for finding popular, trending and relevant content to share with your network.
Now it’s Your Turn
I hope you find these recommendations for growing and engaging your LinkedIn network helpful. As the network itself continues to develop and add new features, it’s important to refresh your LinkedIn engagement strategy and make sure you are leveraging all of the great features!
What do you think? What other tips do you have for building and engaging your network on LinkedIn? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Facebook Consultant | Facebook Consulting

Facebook Advertising Guidelines Advertising philosophy At Facebook, we believe that every part of our site, including the adverts, should contribute to and be consistent with the overall user experience. Thus, we are committed to protecting our user experience by keeping the site clean, consistent and free from misleading advertising. We believe that we can help transform existing advertising into messages that are tailored to the individual user based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists and businesses they care about. Advertising Guidelines The following guidelines apply to all adverts appearing on Facebook, including adverts within canvas pages of Facebook Platform applications. In addition, all advertising on Facebook must comply with the Privacy policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Advertising appearing within applications on Facebook Platform must comply with all additional Facebook Platform policies. Facebook reserves the right to reject or remove advertising that we deem contrary to our advert philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time and Facebook may waive any of these guidelines at its discretion. 1. Accounts 1. Advertisers cannot create or manage multiple Facebook accounts for advertising purposes unless given permission by Facebook to do so. 2. Advertisers cannot programmatically automate the creation of accounts or ads unless given permission by Facebook to do so. 2. Landing pages/destination URLs 1. Adverts that contain a URL or domain in the body must link to that same URL or domain. 2. Adverts must send users to the same landing page when the advert is clicked. 3. Landing pages cannot generate a pop-up (including "pop-overs" and "pop-unders") when a user enters or leaves the page. 4. Landing pages cannot use "fake" close behaviour (ie. when a user clicks the 'close' icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behaviour should result). 5. Landing pages cannot utilize "mouse trapping" whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser "back button" and traps them on their site and/or present any other unexpected behaviour (for example, navigation to another advert or page). 6. Adverts cannot require viewers to click on the advert to submit Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone numbers, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses) on the landing page or in the advert, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and where the advert and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold. 3. Facebook references 1. The following conditions apply to all ads that have a Facebook Page, application, event, group or Connect site as its destination, except as otherwise specifically permitted to those subject to the Branding and promotion policy section of the Platform policies: 1. Adverts may make limited references to "Facebook" in its title, body or image for the purposes of clarifying the destination of the advert; 2. Adverts cannot imply any endorsement of the product, service or ad destination by Facebook. 2. All other adverts, destination adverts and landing pages must adhere to the following restrictions: 1. Adverts cannot mention or refer to Facebook, its site or its brand in any manner, including in the title, body, image or destination URLs; 2. Adverts cannot use Facebook logos, trademarks or site terminology (including but not limited to Facebook, The Facebook, FacebookHigh, FBook, FB, Poke, Wall and other company graphics, logos, designs or icons); 3. Facebook site features cannot be emulated. 4. Advert copy and image content 1. Adverts must directly relate to the content on the landing page. 2. Adverts must clearly represent the company, product or brand that is being advertised. Products or services promoted in the advert must be directly available on the landing page. 3. Adverts must not include unsubstantiated claims, including but not limited to prices, discounts or product availability. 4. Adverts cannot insult, harass or threaten a user. 5. Adverts must not contain audio that plays automatically, without a user's interaction. Any automated animation must cease after 15 seconds and must not replay. 5. Prohibited content 1. Adverts must not be false, misleading, fraudulent or deceptive. 2. Adverts will not be permitted in cases where a business model or practice is deemed unacceptable or contrary to Facebook's overall advertising philosophy. 3. Adverts, or categories of adverts, which receive a significant amount of negative user feedback or are otherwise deemed in violation of community standards will not be permitted. 4. Adverts cannot contain, facilitate, promote or reference the following: 1. Offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene or inappropriate language; 2. Obscene, defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful content; 3. Tobacco products; 4. Ammunition, firearms, paintball guns, bb guns or weapons of any kind; 5. Gambling, including without limitation, any online casino, sports books, bingo or poker without authorisation from Facebook; 6. Scams, illegal activity or chain letters; 7. Contests and sweepstakes unless given permission by Facebook to do so; if permission is given, you are subject to Facebook's Promotions guidelines; 8. Get-rich-quick and other money-making opportunities that offer compensation for little or no investment, including "work from home" opportunities positioned as alternatives to part-time or full-time employment or promises of monetary gain with no strings attached; 9. Adult content, including nudity, sexual terms and/or images of people in positions or activities that are excessively suggestive or sexual or provocative images in violation of community standards; 10. Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis; 11. Adult toys, videos or other adult products; 12. Uncertified pharmaceutical products; 13. Spy cams or surveillance equipment; 14. Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees; 15. Inflammatory religious content; 16. Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities; 17. Content that exploits political agendas or uses "hot button" issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda; 18. Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or language of such individual or group; 19. Content that advocates against any organisation, person or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office; 20. Content that depicts a health condition in a derogatory or inflammatory way or misrepresents a health condition in any way. 6. Data and privacy 1. You may not give data you receive from us to any third party, including advertising networks. 2. Unless authorised by us, your adverts may not display user data -- such as users' names or profile photos -- whether that data was obtained from Facebook or otherwise. 3. You may not use user data you receive from us or collect through running an advert, including information you derive from your targeting criteria, for any purpose off of Facebook, without user consent. 7. Targeting 1. Any targeting of adverts based on a user attribute such as age, gender, location or interest, must be directly relevant to the offer and cannot be done by a method inconsistent with privacy and data policies. 2. Adverts with adult themes, including contraception, sex education and health conditions must be targeted to individuals at least 18 years old. Platform Adverts should do this via Demographic Restrictions, not by obtaining user data. 3. Adverts for dating sites, services or related content must follow these targeting criteria (does not apply to Adverts on Facebook Platform): 1. the Relationship Status targeting parameter must be utilised and set to Single; 2. the Sex targeting parameter must be utilised and a single value of Male or Female must be selected; 3. The age targeting parameter must be utilised and the age range selected must start at least at 18 years old; 4. the Interested In targeting parameter must be utilised and a single value of either Men or Women must be selected. 8. Prices, discounts and free offers 1. Adverts cannot be deceptive or fraudulent about any offer made. 2. If an ad includes a price, discount, or 'free' offer, 1. the destination URL for the advert must link to a page that clearly and accurately offers the exact deal the advert has displayed; 2. The advert must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer. 9. Subscription services 1. The advertisement of Subscription Services must comply with the conditions noted below and as determined by Facebook in its sole discretion. "Subscription Services" may include sites that promote downloading ringtones, games or other entertainment services or any site that induces a user to sign up for recurring billing of a product or service. 1. The advert must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer. If the user must subscribe to a service, the service and offer requirements must both be stated in the advert. 2. The recurring subscription must be consistent with what is promoted in the advert copy. 3. At a minimum, the promoted website must clearly and accurately display the price and billing interval (such as per week or once per month) on the landing page as well as any page that prompts a user for Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone number, National Insurance number, physical addresses or email addresses) or billing information (including, but not limited to, mobile phone number or credit card number). 4. If users sign up for the service by transmitting a code by text message, the price and billing interval must be clearly and prominently displayed beside the code. 5. If the service is a subscription, the website must provide a prominent opt-in checkbox or other clear mechanism indicating that the user knowingly accepts the price and subscription service. This should be on the first page where the user enters personal data, and the user should not be able to proceed without opting in. 6. All of the foregoing items should be located in a prominent place on your webpage, as determined by Facebook in its sole discretion, and should be easy to find, read and understand. 10. Adverts for alcoholic beverages 1. Adverts must be targeted to people 21 years old or older in the US, 19 years old or older in Canada, 18 years old or older in the UK and Ireland, and 21 years old or older everywhere else. All Facebook Pages viewer restrictions must be set at 21+ regardless of the country they are in or targeted to. In the case where a user's age cannot be determined, the advert cannot be displayed to the user in question. (Does not apply to applications on Facebook Platform.) 2. Adverts cannot include content that might appeal to (or mislead) minors by implying that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is fashionable or the accepted course of behaviour for those who are underage. 3. Adverts cannot include or target any person under the legal drinking age in the region the advert appears, or be suggestive of the presence of those who are underaged. Additionally, adverts appearing in applications on Facebook Platform must adhere to the Platform policies Alcohol content policy. 4. Adverts cannot portray or promote intoxication. 5. Adverts cannot induce people to consume alcohol in excess, make references to the intoxicating effects of alcohol, depict activities that encourage excessive consumption or that encourage drinking at a rapid rate or suggest the strength of the alcoholic beverage being advertised. 6. Adverts cannot promote any giveaways as a reward for purchasing the alcoholic product. 7. It is recommended that the ad creative contain text that promotes drinking responsibly, eg. "Drink Responsibly" or "Drink Smart". 11. Copyrights and trademarks 1. Adverts cannot include any content that infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary right. 2. The advertiser must have intellectual property rights to the creative and be permitted to display such creative as advertising on the Facebook Site. 12. Spam 1. Adverts cannot contain, facilitate or promote 'spam' or other advertising or marketing content that violates applicable laws, regulations or industry standards. 13. Incentives 1. Adverts cannot offer incentives to viewers for clicking on the ad, for submitting Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone number, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses), or for performing any other tasks. 14. Downloads 1. Adverts must not contain or link directly or indirectly to a site that contains spyware/malware downloads, whether initiated automatically or manually by the user, or other auto-initiated downloads. 2. Adverts cannot contain or link to a site that facilitates or promotes: 1. Collection of demographic and usage information from a user's computer without the user's express consent; 2. Collection or request of Facebook usernames or passwords from any user; 3. Proxying Facebook usernames or passwords for the purpose of automating logins to the Facebook site; 4. Any software that results in an unexpected user experience, including but not limited to software which (i) "sneaks" onto a user's system and performs activities hidden to the user, (ii) may alter, harm, disable or replace any hardware or software installed on user's computer without express permission from the user, (iii) is bundled as a hidden component of other software whether free or for a fee, (iv) automatically downloads without Facebook's express prior approval, (v) presents any download dialogue boxes without a user's express action, or (vi) may violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, patent or any other proprietary right. The following sections do not apply to adverts on Facebook Platform 15. Grammar, sentence structure, spelling and spacing 1. Advert text must be grammatically correct and contain proper sentence structure. 2. Advert text must be in complete sentences. 3. Adverts cannot include excessive repetition (such as "buy, buy, buy"). 4. Adverts must use correct spelling. 5. Advert text must include grammatically correct spacing. 16. Capitalisation 1. Adverts must use proper, grammatically correct capitalisation (such as capitalising the first letter of all proper nouns and capitalising the title of the advert). 2. Adverts cannot include excessive capitalisation (such as "FREE") or incorrect capitalisation (such as capitalising the first letter of every word in a sentence). 3. Acronyms may be capitalised. 17. Punctuation 1. Adverts must include logical, correct punctuation. 2. Adverts cannot contain repeated and unnecessary punctuation (such as "Buy now!!!"). 3. All complete sentences (including if the advert title is a complete sentence) must end with a single punctuation mark. Sentences cannot end with ellipses, dashes, etc. 4. Exclamation points cannot be used in the title of any advert. 18. Symbols 1. The use of all symbols, numbers or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol. 2. Adverts cannot contain repeated and unnecessary symbols. 3. Symbols cannot be used for the following: 1. To substitute for letters (e.g. "$ave" instead of "save"); 2. To substitute for entire words (e.g. "&" instead of "and" or "$" instead of "cash/dollars/money"); 3. As unnecessary abbreviations to shorten character count (e.g. "w/" instead of "with" or "@" instead of "at"). 4. Symbols may be used for the following: 1. If the symbol is part of the product or brand name; 2. If the $ symbol is paired with a dollar amount (e.g. "Save $100 today"); 3. If the # symbol is used for comparative phrases (e.g. "Voted the #1 site by The Guardian").

What Is Google Analytics Intelligence

Google has added a new module to Google Analytics called Intelligence. The currently in beta module displays custom and automatic alerts that are created from website traffic operations. It is not sure yet if all Google Analytics users have access to this new module of the website traffic analysis service yet or if it has been made available to select users only.

Google Analytics users who can access it will find a display of their website’s traffic graph along with another bar below that is showing the alerts for the corresponding days. Alerts are color coded with automatic alerts using a light green and custom alerts a light blue color. There will only be automatic alerts in the beginning.



The automatic alerts will give a webmaster immediate information about traffic jumps. This includes major traffic changes to certain pages on the website, a change in a page’s bounce rate, pageviews or a higher or lower than usual visitor stream from a specific country, state or region.



This gives the webmaster a quick overview of traffic developments on a specific web project or website. There are certain possibilities where Google Analytics Intelligence module can help. Webmasters could for instance investigate traffic increases or decreases more effectively as it will for instance display a decrease in traffic to a very popular page on the website. The webmaster could then analyze the issue further.

It is furthermore possible to create custom alerts and this could be very interesting to some webmasters. Custom alerts are created from a list of available alert conditions. The webmaster selects a traffic type to be monitored. This can be all traffic, traffic from a campaign, keyword, medium and landing or exit page. This traffic type is then combined with a metric that is triggering the alert. This again can be pageviews, total visitors, revenue or pre-defined goals. The selected metric is then given a threshold value. An alert is then automatically created whenever that value is crossed.

Another interesting option is to look at weekly or monthly reports which even gives a better overview as day to day variations are something that every webmaster has to live with. Google Analytics Intelligence is available in the left sidebar menu of the Google Analytics

Process of 301 Permanent Redirect

How to implement the 301 Redirect at htaccess level:

Procedure:

1. To create a .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save the file as .htaccess (there is no extension).

2. If you already have a .htaccess file on your server, download it to your desktop for editing.

3. Place this code in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm

4. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it, skip a line, then add the above code.

5. Save the .htaccess file

6. Upload this file to the root folder of your server.

7. Test it by typing in the old address to the page you've changed. You should be immediately taken to the new location.

Notes: Don't add "http://www" to the first part of the statement - place the path from the top level of your site to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space between these elements:

redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved) /old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name) http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name)

When the search engines spider your site again they will follow the rule you have created in our .htaccess file. The search engine spider doesn't actually read the .htaccess file, but recognizes the response from the server as valid.

During the next update, the old file name and path will be dropped and replaced with the new one. Sometimes you may see alternating old/new file names during the transition period, plus some fluctuations in rankings. According to Google it will take 6-8 weeks to see the changes reflected on your pages.


Other ways to implement the 301 redirect:

1. To redirect ALL files on your domain use this in your .htaccess file if you are on a unix web server:

redirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com

redirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com

You can also use one of these in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html
redirect permanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html
redirectpermanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html

This will redirect "index.html" to another domain using a 301-Moved permanently redirect.

2. If you need to redirect http://mysite.com to http://www.mysite.com and you've got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can put this in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]

or this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Tip: Use your full URL (ie http://www.domain.com) when obtaining incoming links to your site. Also use your full URL for the internal linking of your site.

3. If you want to redirect your .htm pages to .php pages and you've got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can put this in your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule (.*).htm$ /$1.php

4. If you wish to redirect your .html or .htm pages to .shtml pages because you are using Server Side Includes.


(SSI) add this code to your .htaccess file:

AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml .html .htm
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
DirectoryIndex index.shtml index.html

IIS Redirect

In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
Enter the redirection page
Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
Click on 'Apply'


ColdFusion Redirect

<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently">
<.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com">

PHP Redirect

Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

ASP Redirect

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<% Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently" Response.AddHeader "Location","http://www.new-url.com/" %>

ASP .NET Redirect

JSP (Java) Redirect

<% response.setStatus(301); response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/" ); response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" ); %>

CGI PERL Redirect

$q = new CGI;
print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/");

Ruby on Rails Redirect

def old_action
headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently"
redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/"
end

HTML Redirect

The HTML redirect allows to introduce a delay before the redirection is performed. It is sometimes called “META refresh” redirect.

Browsers will display the page during the specified time and then move forward to the page pointed to by the redirection.

HTML Redirect Source Code



…
seconds;URL=the-other-url">
…


…

Seconds: the number of seconds the page is displayed, before performing the redirection.

the-other-url : any absolute or relative URL that will be displayed after the delay has expired.

It is recommended that a standard link be added in the page for the few users of browsers that do not automatically follow redirections.

Examples of HTML Redirects


The redirecting page will be displayed during 5 seconds. After this 5 seconds delay, it will be replaced by “the-other-page.html”.


The redirecting page will be displayed during 12 seconds. After this 12 seconds delay, it will be replaced by the home page of this site.


The redirecting page will be displayed and immediately replaced by “another-page.html”. With this zero-delay, many users will not even notice the presence of the redirecting page.

The Complete Guide to the Lead Generation Process

The lead generation process is powerful virtuous circle with 5 components, each supporting the one that follows.

The fifth segment of the circle provides valuable information that greatly improves the results obtained in the next campaign (i.e. virtuous in nature). The 5 components are...

1. Set objectives
2. Get visitors
3. Convert to leads
4. Follow up
5. Analyse and report

This diagram shows where each of these components fits, and how they work together. Note how component 5 flows back into component one, providing useful information to the next lead generation campaign.

Each component has a specific job to do. In the rest of this article we'll take a quick look at how each of them works.

1. Set Objectives:

The objective of any lead generation campaign is to generate a certain amount of revenue. For example, I might invest £500 in lead generation and aim to make £2,000 in gross sales (400% return on investment).

The main metrics that make up your campaign objectives are...

• Campaign budget
• Target ROI (return on investment) expressed as a percentage
• Number of leads needed to achieve target ROI

If you've run lead generation campaigns previously, you can use the results from step 5 to provide some of the ratios you'll need to work out the number of leads required to reach your target for the current campaign.

2. Get visitors

Use online and offline methods to attract people to your lead generation landing page. The following sources can be used to provide visitors to the campaign...

• Offline advertising
• Direct mail
• Email sent to existing clients
• Email sent to a purchased list
• Twitter - click and see how
• Pay per click (PPC) advertising and search engine marketing (SEM)
• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Forum posts (via the signature)
• Press releases
• Article marketing
• Newspaper and online classified sites
• Directories
• Online and offline business networking (e.g. LinkedIn, BNI, BRX)
• Your own, your company's, and 3rd party Blogs
• Social bookmarking sites (e.g. Delicious, Stumble Upon)
• Create and promote a Squidoo lens
• Use an SEO virtuous circle

As you can see, there are a wealth of free and paid options open to you. In fact, there are many more ways to send visitors to your site than I can possibly include in this article. As always, Google is your friend (as is Bing and Yahoo search).

The teaser ads used during this stage have one job to do. They have to persuade people to visit your landing page (see next section).

They must not try to sell the idea of becoming a lead, or buying your product (a common mistake). These teaser ads should also be planned in conjunction with your landing page and the follow up (i.e. sales) conversation.

Everything has to makes sense to the lead, and support the next stage of the process.

3. Convert to leads

This stage is what most people tend to think of as lead generation. It involves a landing page specifically designed to convert a visitor into a lead. Click the link if you're asking yourself what is a lead?

The biggest mistake most people make is to try and sell the product. That's online selling, not lead generation. The job of the landing page isn't to sell the product. It's to sell the value of...

• A phone call
• An appointment
• More information

And that's all it has to do. Stick to that objective, and you'll find your lead generation delivers more leads. It's also worth taking a quick look at the approach outlined in this article (very powerful).

4. Follow up

Once a lead has been generated, it should be followed up within 24 hours (unless the lead specifies otherwise). The sooner you do it, the warmer the lead will be.

If your landing page sells people on the idea of requesting more information, deliver it digitally so it can arrive instantly. You should do this even if you also post the information.

Why? Because the process of becoming a lead is something most of us do on the spur of the moment. The lead generator needs to get in touch as soon as possible and strike while the iron is hot.

It's worth noting that the follow up conversation ought to meet these criteria...

• It picks up where the landing page left off
• It's designed in conjunction with the landing page so it makes sense (and is powerful)
• The person following up must have something useful to offer (i.e. a strong benefit even if the lead doesn't buy)
• The fulfilment material should prepare the way for the follow up call
• It's part of an overall strategy designed to prepare the lead to close
• Don't run lead generation in isolation from, and without incorporating the needs of the sales team

5. Analyse and report

What do successful lead generators do that unsuccessful ones don't? They test and measure absolutely everything. This is much easier than it used to be, thanks to the web's ability to track everything automatically.

This article explains how to use and work out simple direct response measures. It's designed for absolute beginners, and will get you started. This one goes into more detail.

The metrics you produce during this final stage deliver valuable data that can inform the targets and budgets of your next campaign. And the data gleaned from the tests you run can be used to produce ever more powerful ads that send you more visitors per dollar invested, and improve your lead conversion rates.

Think of it as a virtuous circle that feeds back into itself. It's very much a 'pull yourself up by your bootlaces' approach to marketing.

Google’s New Algorithms Technology – Latest 2010 / 2011 Overview

Latest 2010 / 2011 Overview

Hey To all- Here is Google New Algorithm 2011……Big changes in Search Engine Optimization.

Google’s co-founder Larry Page focused on developing the “perfect search engine,” an algorithm that would understand what you mean when you are typing a search term and the search engine will give you the exact results that you were looking for.In our last count, we can happily reveal that there were more than 120 different factors that effect the natural rankings by Google’s latest algorithm. The latest algorithm was updated to penalise websites that use forums with negative feedback to boost their rankings.

Google’s New Algorithm 2010 / 2011 Revealed
Many SEO Gurus have attempted to give a rough outline of what the Google algorithm might look like. Based on research and suggestions this might be how the formula basically could look like;

Google’s Score = (Kw Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain * 0.25) + (PR Score * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) – (Automated & Manual Penalties)
If you are asking yourself how does the latest 2011 algorithm work or what does SEO mean, you will find on this website all the secrets you want revealed for absolutely free. Learn how the algorithm best works and the most common factors that effect your website ranking with this breakthrough revealed information.
Search Engine Optimisation Key Word Usage Factors:-
• Keyword in title tags
• Rich Header tags
• Documents rich with relevant text information
• Keyword in alt tag
• Keywords in internal links pointing to the page
• Keywords in the domain and/or URL
• The order key words appear


Google New Algorithm

Domain Strength / Speed-
• Domain Strength
• Domain Speed
• Local/specific domain name
• Quality Hosting


Registration history-

• When the Domain was registered
• Strength of the links pointing to the domain
• The topical neighborhood of domain based on the in bound and out bound links
• Historical use and links pattern to domain
• Inbound links and referrals from social media
• Inbound Link Score

Age & Quality of links

• Quality of the domains sending links (non paid)
• Links from Authority Websites
• Quality of pages sending links and relevance
• Anchor text of links
• Link quantity/weight metric (Page Rank or a variation)
• Subject matter of linking pages/sites
• User Data

Historical CTR to page in SERPs

• Time users spend on a page
• Search requests for URL/domain
• Historical visits/use of URL/domain by users

Content Quality Score

• Duplicate content filter
• Order of key words in content
• Content update frequency
• Highlighted and visibility of keywords
• Usability and W3C rules

Negative Penalties (for SEO purposes)

• Forums
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Article Submissions
• Blogs
• Link Exchange
• Paid Links
• FFA’s (Free for all backlinks)
Google over the years have persistently pursued innovation, constantly updated its algorithm or algorythm (if that is the way you spell it) and refused to accept the limitations of existing models.As a result, Google’s latest development was the breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted today. And if there is one SEO company that knows how the algorithm works and how would it would boost your rankings on Google organic search that would be White Hat Works.
What’s new about Google’s latest algorithm in 2010 / 2011?
There is much talk in the SEO world about what Google is going to focus on in 2010. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team has mentioned and hinted in various forums, Youtube and on his Blog that SEO professionals’ latest focus should be in 2010. Part of the Caffeine project, apparently in 2010 the speed of your website and web pages loading will now play a major factor in the algorithm.
To achieve faster speed your website needs to be hosted on a super fast host and reducing the overall size of your web pages. Obviously this means moving to a better Internet Service Provider and serving faster websites by increasing the download speed.
This will mean less content on a page, utilising CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and images have to load faster. A webpage downloading speed of 3 seconds or less is pretty good, but 1 second or lower might have to be achieved in cases. You can now measure the speed with a program in the Google’s Webmaster Tools.
Does this mean Google in a way is pushing developers to write and create better websites that load faster and content writers to write quality content instead of quantity content? and the digital marketing guys, will they have to be at the same time creative but their art work must be short, sweat and fast loading? Does using flash animations go out the window? Hosting Video clips on your own website? would that be wise? or better to be hosted on You Tube instead?All these are questions and probably the answers you are looking for is, yes it is!What could happen is Google favouring certain websites and in the other hand penalise other ones. Websites owners that keep stuffing their pages with content, customer reviews, endless blogs and articles, videos, links and endless images will be penalised.
The good news is websites that are clean, focused, compatible and fast will benefit.
Many SEO professionals are saying that this is not fair for the SME’s (small to medium sized business) that cannot afford to be hosted on super fast hosts and do not have large teams that can restructure their websites to go faster. The question is how fast can the cooperate companies react to the ever growing demands of the Internet? Probably not and it will take them months before they even decide what to do. In the other hand SME’s probably will be in a better position to react a lot faster due to quick decision making compensating for all the other factors.
The SEO e-marketers also mention about countries that have slow internet access, like in Scotland and other rural areas where you cannot get broadband? Are they going to get penalised? Probably not, as its the Google Bots measuring the speed and not at what speed the website is loaded in these areas on an end users computer. Actually Google in a way by “forcing” developers to increase their websites overall speed would mean these areas with no broadband will benefit in the long run. Mobile phone users with their web enabled devices like the iPhone and Nexus by Google will be able to load more and more websites, specially the ones that are more lean and load faster.

White Hat Works Conclusion for 2010 and 2011:

• Host your website on a super fast Internet Service Provider
• Use CSS as much as possible and comply with website usability
• Write quality content, not quantity content
• Convert your a Flash website to a HTML website
• Export your Flash animations where possible – more SEO Tips
• Keep images and their size to a minimum without loosing the quality
• Test your website in various browsers and mobile phone devices
• Make your website Google Friendly
• Get free guidance from a reputable SEO E-marketing Company

Faster websites means Google can keep up with the growth of the Internet without the need to keep buying and installing new servers. Many have asked, how many servers does Google have? This is a well kept secret, but if you do your maths and calculations the number of servers could be around 700,000 and growing. These servers are spread over 100 data-centres around the globe and makes Google the largest IT producer of (Co2) carbon emissions on Earth.
Google is in the business of providing a top notch service and encouraging growth, but at the same time be profitable by keeping their costs and carbon emissions down.
Hence the need for this new factor that will be included in the updated Google 2010 Algorythm. Maybe the main reason Google is focusing on speed is because what they really are trying to do is to reduce their carbon foot print and we (SEO guys and website owners) all need to help them achieve this.
One effected company said:
We are an ecommerce site that has been running for almost 5 months and have seen steadily growing traffic. We have made no major changes to our website recently but are continually adding content and products to the site. Our site has been severely affected (almost 50% down on traffic) since last Tuesday (07/12/10) which coincides with the latest 2011 algorithm change which was the response to the New York Times article regarding Black Hat SEO techniques.
I have struggled to find much information about it and it doesn’t seem to be widely talked about at the moment. As far as I can tell it will specifically target site reviews and penalise people with negative feedback. Because we are a relatively young site we don’t have any feedback (negative or otherwise). Is it visible that this could have such a dramatic effect on a site that has essentially done nothing wrong and has anyone had the same problem?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated because we are being hit particularly hard in the lead up to Christmas which should be our busiest weeks.
Thanks Matt Cutt.

Web Marketing Strategy

A sample document for Web Marketing SEO Strategy/Plan
Developed by
Bojja Balasubrahmanyam



      1)  Executive Summary:
This strategy and web marketing plan includes a search engine strategy to get the customer placed at top positions in the search engines online. This strategy is particularly tailored according to your time and financial constraints/budget. This comprises of selecting and focusing on the most appropriate key words suiting your business, paid listings campaigns management, improving and maintaining search engine rankings, directory listings, increasing link popularity, writing web copies (Articles & PRs) and various other marketing tactics & strategies to boost traffic and ROI growth. 
Results of all these will be measured by industry standard web analytics tools & software. It will help in reporting our success and to focus and strategize in a better way. 





2.    Industry Analyses:
            SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Opportunities
Threats:
Analysis of the Company, Customers, Competitors and regulatory environment. 
3.    Target Market:

Showcase the current market demographics:
This will reveal customer’s income, interests, psychological mindsets, trends, activities, needs & preferences based on age groups and geographical areas. 




 Marketing Strategy and Objectives:

                    Marketing Objective and Mission Statement:
   To be given by the concerned authority. 
•    General Strategies to reach objectives and fulfill mission.
                       On Page Optimization (Organic Listings):
•    Website preliminary Analysis.
•    Keyword Research.
•    Identifying Keywords for particular pages.
•    Basic Design and Page layout.
•    Website verification for validation of source codes (HTML & CSS).
•    Site internal Link Analysis. (Linking of pages with other pages)
•    Broken Link Check.
•    Check for non-crawler friendly portions in website. Flash, Java Script, frames.
•    Website Navigation and flow corrections – Search engine friendly.
•    Website Architecture Suggestion and corrections – SE friendly.
•    Title & Meta Tag Optimization.
•    Anchor Text and Image Tag Optimization.
•    Check for unique content. Remove plagiarism.
•    Content Optimization –

1.    Keyword Density, Keyword Proximity & Prominence.
2.    Header Tag Optimization.     
3.    Website XML Sitemap development and Search Engine Syndication.
•    Determine a minimum page size according to the content and info provided in the pages.
•    Website Usability Analysis, suggestion & Correction.

                   Off Page Optimization Website Promotion:
•    Directory Submissions.
•    Site External Link analysis.
•    One Way Link Building.
•    Two Way Link building – Reciprocal Links.
•    Three Way link building.
•    Submitting site to niche directory website.






                                        Articles writing & submissions to top Article Directory.
•    Creating and Publishing Ezines.
•    Press Releases creation and top PR website Submissions. 

      Specific Marketing strategies and plans suiting needs. (Organic & Inorganic)

•    Blog Creation & Maintenance.
1.    Blogger, Typepad, Server Based.
2.    Custom developed blogging.
3.    Opens Source blogging software like Word press.

•    Viral Marketing
1.    Blog Marketing.
2.    Promotion of website products and services in relevant online Forums and Chat groups.
3.    Promotion website products and services in Online Groups and communities.


•    Social Media Optimization & Marketing.
1.    Book-marking sites.
2.    Profile Sharing sites, community portals & websites.
3.    Websites of genre My Space etc. 
4.    Local Business Listings

•    Search Engine Marketing.
1.    Google Adwords - Pay Per Click
2.    Yahoo Search Marketing
3.    MSN Ad center


•    Product Listings in Shopping & Auctions Sites.
1.    Froogle, Bizrate, mySimons.
2.    Yahoo Shopping auction, Amazon, shopping.com.

•    Affiliate Marketing.
1.    Content and niche sites, including product review sites.
2.    Network Websites.
3.    Coupon and rebate sites that focus on Sales promotions
4.    Blogs & RSS.

•    Content Syndication.
1.    Website Content RSS & Atom Feeds.
2.    RSS Directory Submission.
3.    Blog RSS syndication.



                                             Email Marketing.
1.    Server based tools.
2.    Mailworkz, Lyris ListManager etc.

•    Others – Offers, surveys, contests, exchanging ads – banner, text etc.



•    Website Analytics & Reporting.
1.    Website Traffic Tracking and prediction.
2.    Identifying Leads and Weak areas.
3.    Analysis and Reporting Tools like Web Trends, Omniture, and Google Analytics.



5.    Budgets, Implementation, and Time Span:

•    Budgeting and Analysis
•    Implementation
•    Time Span



6.    Appendices:


7.    References: