Web Marketing Lesson 6: Secret Sauce (Part 2 of 2)
Create high quality content for powerful SEO, Email Newsletter updates and Social Media mentions about your site.
(cont’d)
Be Insightful
Your target demographic (aka: your audience) is endlessly searching for new information and the best methods to optimize the performance of routine tasks. If you publish video content that is both interesting and informative, then by definition, it is also highly sharable video. Practically every single person I can think of, and definitely anyone sharing anything they recently discovered, wants to learn something they didn’t already know from that discovery. And people love watching videos more than anything else they currently do online. That’s why videos can be a powerful tool for curating top performing content.
At my fun-based website The Daily Dose, we curate the best related content, including videos for viewers, whether they’re looking for editorial cartoons, jokes, pranks, cat videos, current trends, or world news. Therefore, be sure to use a similar tactic with your videos, and curate the best, most informative and sharable content which surprises and enlightens your viewers. And it should, of course, be relevant to the audience.
Be Inspirational
As you may already know since a long time, the story of Upworthy’s success is amazing. The website grew to more than six million unique page views per month in its very first year, partly due to its catchy and memorable headlines. One other key reason they grew so rapidly, was that the site searches for inspirational stories and content to share with their sizable audience.
In order to earn the viral advantage you so desire, go and find stories that are inspirational to your readers. Maybe it’s an article about overcoming adversity, or finding ways to cooperate and collaborate. Perhaps it’s about how to succeed in some way. People love stories that relate to their own aspirations, and the more inspiration it gives them, the more your viewers will share it with others.
Of course, making viral videos is not a cake walk. If it were easy, then every business and individual with a smartphone would have their 15 minutes of fame, if not more.
Using this guide and the six key tips properly will help you achieve more shares, likes, comments, re-tweets, follows, etc. and more importantly, it will help you raise your own standards in terms of quality. That in itself, will significantly increase your probability at successfully creating viral content.
Do you have any great tips for creating viral videos and other top trending content? Share in the comments below!
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All right. Now let’s go over how to optimize your content. The following instructions are applicable to most, if not all, content pages.
Section 1: SEO
SEO: Optimize Your Content For Search Engines
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The procedure is standard on any WordPress site with the SEO Yoast plugin installed and configured as described in Web Marketing Lesson 5: Adding and setting up important Plugins.
Here’s what to do in your WordPress Admin area: |
Step 1: In the Admin area, go to the Posts or Pages menu (depending on the type of content you wish to publish) from the Admin toolbar. That’s the vertical menu bar seen on the Left on WP installations in English and other Latin languages.
Here’s the quick list of options and fields to configure:
SEO – What to do to rank well in Search Engines |
Bad Behavior Plugin |
Acunetix WP Security Plugin |
WP Login Security Plugin |
WordPress Firewall 2 Plugin |
WordPress 2 DropBox Backup Plugin |
Akismet anti-spam Plugin |
Done all of that? If yes, then Awesome. Your content is now optimized for search engines. You can put a big green check next to SEO on your page’s list of critical to-dos.
Section 2: Email
As any serious marketer will tell you, email lists are the key to your business’ success. Email lists drive new prospects to Sign Up, Register, Subscribe, Buy and Buy Again. Inside what is commonly called the Acquisitions Funnel, or the Growth Funnel, Email is the key to Retention. And in any serious business, Retention (your repeat customers) quickly becomes the bulk of your revenues.
Email – Your List Is Your Business |
Setting Your Permalinks |
Customizing Your Website Title, Subtitle, and other key WP Settings |
Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin |
Contact Form 7 Plugin |
GD Star Rating Plugin |
W3 Total Cache Plugin |
Google XML Sitemaps v3 for qTranslate Plugin |
Section 3: Social Media
Your social media efforts complete the cycle of creating optimized content, distributing it through your best spokespeople (your email list subscribers) and succeeding at content marketing.
Social Media – Earn proof, authority, interaction and popularity |
Jetpack multi-purpose Plugin |
Digg Digg Social Sharing Plugin |
Pretty Link Lite Plugin |
WordPress Short Codes Plugin |
Step 2: Keep in mind that most plugins are not installed by default. However, some may be, especially if you installed it via a version customized by your web hosting provider. If any plugin on this list is pre-installed, then you just need to check the Read the Instructions, make sure you setup the Settings with your specific details for each one (when required), and make sure any pre-installed plugin is activated by clicking the word Activate in the Plugin’s summary on the Plugins page.
Step 3: For all other plugins, which are not pre-installed for you, click on the “Add New” button which is at the top of the Plugins Page.
Congratulations! Once you have followed the steps outlined above on your target content, your page is rolling and picking up steam. As your content’s distribution grows, you will start to see opportunities to monetize as it reaches a growing number of people.
Step 22: Now be sure to keep your content up-to-date. Do this by editing the page from time to time.
Step 23: On the Plugins or WordPress Updates page, you may update your plugins one at a time, or more than simultaneously, or even all of them at once.
If you prefer watching a video tutorial about installing your site and various key plugins included on this page, checkout this highly useful clip by a fellow online content marketer, Matthew Woodward, who created and maintains his own great website about creating real value and earnings through web publishing.
In the next lesson, we will cover how to analyze the data relevant to your website and its content. The article covers the use of Google Analytics (GA), Google Webmaster Tools (GWT), and other leading data analysis tools. It is the easiest guide to follow the best practices of business intelligence or business insight, both commonly known as BI.
As usual, if you like this article and care to help us in our efforts to put Google’s quality content claims to the test, then I ask you to please share this page with your peers and colleagues on your social networks or any place where web publishers may find it beneficial.
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A little bit of self-promotion: If you need a great marketing agency on a budget you can afford, try our agency, which you can visit at YashaHarari.com. We know you’ll love the level of service and of course, the results.
Previous Lesson:Web Marketing Lesson 6: Secret Sauce (pt. 1 of 2) Adding the power of High quality content, SEO, Email Newsletter updates and Social Media to your site
Next Lesson: Web Marketing Lesson 7: Launch It Lean. When and what your pre-seed startup should spend on with your Marketing & Sales budgets.