The AboutUs Weblog

Make Pay-Per-Click Ads Work for You

by Aliza Earnshaw on 29 July 2010

Pay-per-click, or PPC, can be a great strategy for driving the right people to your website.

But writing good ad copy isn’t easy. Christian Bullock, a senior account executive at search engine marketing firm Amplify Interactive, provides step-by-step instructions for writing effective PPC ads. Do it right, and you’ll get people clicking through to your site at the very moment when they’re seeking what you have to offer.

Christian has tons of experience creating PPC ads. He’s also certified by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as a marketing and advertising professional. Use his tips, and you’ll be writing better PPC ad copy in no time at all. Bonus: Christian includes a link to a useful ad-writing tool on Amplify Interactive’s website.

Do you have some expertise in online marketing you’d like to share with business owners? Is there a topic you’d like us to cover? Send me an email: Aliza@AboutUs.org

Help Google Find Your Web Pages

by Aliza Earnshaw on 27 July 2010

Sitemap for EnergyTrust.org

You’ve put time, energy — and maybe even money — into building a website for your business. Now how do you tell search engines you’re here?

AboutUs community manager Kristina Weis shares the ins and outs of building a simple HTML sitemap in her latest article for website owners. She explains how a sitemap can up your chances of having your site appear in search results, and tells you how to figure out which type of sitemap is most appropriate for your website.

We want to offer AboutUs.org visitors the best guidance and expertise about using the web to grow one’s business. Please let us know what you want to read about — or let us know what you could write about — by sending me an email: Aliza@AboutUs.org.

The Social Web Can Help You Grow

by Aliza Earnshaw on 23 July 2010

Sometimes it seems like every business on the planet has a Facebook page or a Twitter feed — or both. But it’s one thing to set these up, and another to use these popular social networking tools effectively.

Pick up some tips on using these popular social sites from AboutUs community manager Kristina Weis. She shares ideas for what news you can share, and advice for building real relationships with your customers on both Facebook and Twitter.

AboutUs uses both Facebook and Twitter to communicate what we’re doing, and to listen to what our community members have to say. Our experience has been very positive, and yours can be, too.

Followed Links Return to AboutUs.org

by Aliza Earnshaw on 22 July 2010

You might remember our May announcement that we would cease following external links on AboutUs.org, pending a review of our policies and practices. We’re happy to say that we’ve completed the review, and we’re once again selectively following external links on our site.

As before, the default for our site is not to follow external links until an editorial review by our staff determines that they offer real value to AboutUs.org visitors. We’ve resumed following links on all pages created by community members that we’d previously reviewed and that had followed links.

As we said in the original blog post, our decision to no-follow stemmed from the confusion we’d caused by following external links in content we’d been paid to create. We had given the impression of selling links, an activity that’s frowned on by Google, and one that we ourselves don’t endorse.

We still won’t be following links in any content we are paid to create.

As always, we welcome edits by community members who want to share their knowledge of websites. If you edit the AboutUs domain page for a website you think is great, you may request an editorial review by emailing DoFollow@AboutUs.org. If you’ve added good information to the AboutUs page, one of our staff will review the website you’ve written about. We’ll follow the links if we agree the site is valuable for AboutUs visitors.

Our goal is to create a place for people who want to find websites on the topics that interest them, and for website owners and operators who want to promote their sites. We made the decision to resume following external links so we could serve you better.

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Note: Two days ago, community manager Kristina Weis emailed a handful of people who had contacted us personally about the change to no-follow, letting them know that we have returned to following external links after an editorial review. Carter Cole blogged about the change. We’ve heard from a few more people that they’re happy we’re following links again.

If you have any questions or concerns about link following on AboutUs.org, email Help@AboutUs.org.

Win New Business with Email

by Aliza Earnshaw on 20 July 2010

If you own a business, it’s smart to send emails to customers and prospects who have opted in to receiving them. Sharing product updates and company news can bring people back to your website. Do it right, and they might even mention you to their friends.

AboutUs community manager Kristina Weis sends an email newsletter to our community members whenever we have something interesting to share. Her new article, Tips for Sending Email Newsletters, offers her hard-won wisdom about how to get the best results from your email marketing efforts.

In fact, Kristina is sending out the latest AboutUs newsletter this week. If you’re already on the list, you’ll receive it soon. If you aren’t, you can easily sign up for all our news and tips.

Have you learned something important about promoting your business on the web? Would you like to author an article on AboutUs.org? If so, contact Aliza@AboutUs.org.

SEO: Learn from an Expert

by Aliza Earnshaw on 15 July 2010

When it comes to search engine marketing, Anvil Media Inc. stands out for its innovation and expertise.

The Portland, Oregon firm has worked with a wide range of companies and organizations over the past 10 years, applying its marketing and Internet wisdom to each client’s individual needs.

Anvil vice president Hallie Janssen shares that wisdom in her article, SEO: The Basics. It’s the first in a series of articles about search engine optimization and marketing that Hallie’s providing to the AboutUs community.

Hallie is well known in the search marketing community, speaking at industry events and working with professional organizations like SEMpdx. We’re delighted to provide such good advice and education to our community of website owners and operators. Look for more articles from Hallie in the weeks ahead.

Dive deep into your website with Google Analytics

by Aliza Earnshaw on 13 July 2010

Sample graph from Google Analytics blog

You’ve spent time, energy and perhaps even money setting up a great website for your business.

Do you know who’s visiting, and what they’re doing once they get there?

AboutUs community manager Kristina Weis offers a crash course in Google Analytics for website owners who want to know more about the traffic that’s coming to their site.

Kristina offers a quick, easy-to-understand overview of what you can learn about visitor behavior on your website, sifting through the abundant information at Google Analytics to offer up the essentials.

Do you have some expertise to contribute to the growing repository of knowledge at AboutUs.org? Would you like to author an article to help website owners? Send an email to Aliza@AboutUs.org.

Get Local Traffic: Your Business on Google Maps

by Aliza Earnshaw on 9 July 2010

Let’s say you’ve got a thriving card-and-gift shop on one of the nicest retail streets in your city. You don’t have a website, you don’t tweet and you think Facebook is a waste of time. How do you use the web to promote your business?

Fortunately, you don’t need a website or any other kind of web presence to get your business into Google Maps.

AboutUs community manager Kristina Weis offers detailed directions for getting your business to show up in a Google Maps search, along with tips to make the listing work for you. With complete information and a few good customer reviews, your presence on Google Maps can bring you new customers.

Do you have any tips or advice about using the web for grow a business? We’d like to hear from you.
Email me at Aliza@AboutUs.org.

Online Visibility Audit: New on AboutUs.org

by Aliza Earnshaw on 8 July 2010

At AboutUs, we’re always trying to help people learn about websites. We’ve just introduced a new feature intended to help people understand how websites appear to search engines, and how they can alter specific elements on their own site’s home page to make it more visible to search engines.

While the Online Visibility Audit is still pretty new, we’re hearing that it’s useful to website owners who want to make their sites easier to find in search engine results. The audit discusses details such as page headings and which words on a site’s home page appear to be keywords. The audit also shows the descriptive text that search engines are detecting on a site’s home page, and how they’re likely to display that text in search results.

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Share Your Expertise, Win New Business

by Aliza Earnshaw on 6 July 2010

Most people would rather do business with an expert in their field. Professionals who like to write can take advantage of this bias by writing good, information-packed articles and publishing them on the web, where their potential customers can find them.

Linda Barney has used this strategy for the past 20 years to win the attention — and the business — of new clients. Linda’s firm, Barney and Associates, offers technical writing, training documentation, web content writing and marketing services to companies in technology, energy and other sustainability industries.