ldsWebguy

A few days ago, I blogged about creating social network called LDS Online at LDSonline.ning.com.

It’s been up for only 3 days and already has 52 members, 7 forums, and 3 groups.

Another post from the Web 2.0 Expo:

Integrating SEO, Usability, and Internet Marketing for High Performance Results

Web sites are not “projects.” They are living, breathing environments. SEO, usability, and Internet marketing are often introduced on completion of the site and retrofitted later to support visibility and promotion to target audiences. This is counter-intuitive and country-productive.

Every aspect of the experience needs to be optimized with intent:

• Web site architecture
• user experience and interface
• content
• metadata
• assets
• media & publicity
• Internet marketing

Proven methodologies

• Competitive research and positioning (not copying other successful sites)
• Keyword research and positioning
• Ongoing content management
• Metadata optimization
• Formatting to maximize efforts, leverage best practices for widespread success (metadata, keyword utilization, etc.)

Since search engine algorithms change, best practices sustain these changes over time, without putting your site at risk of being blacklisted and will perform best for YOUR Web site.

True SEO incorporates (1) company mission, (2) unique value proposition, and (3) pre-qualification of audience. You want to attract people who are perfectly matched to your content.

Usability:

• Give your visitors what they want as quickly as possible.
• Promote engagement before they “bounce” (leave your site).
• Empowers the user to control the experience.
• Empowers viral marketing.
• Provides clear execution of desired outcome at all times.
• Promotes conversion.
• Answer every conceivable question or objection leading to the conversion.

Your mission is to meet the immediate and long-term needs of your audience.

I have launched a social network called LDS Online at LDSonline.ning.com. (Ning is an online service that lets you create, customize, and share your own social network easily and for free.)

LDS Online is intended to be a community of Latter-day Saints where they can share ideas and collaborate on how to best provide accurate and positive information about the Church on blogs and Web sites. It is intended to be a resource for people who want to respond to Elder M. Russell Ballard’s challenge to participate in a gospel discussion online.

It is not intended to compete with either of these two great sites, but to be complimentary to them:

• LDS.net is the premier LDS site for blogging, chatting, sharing testimonies, and participating in groups and forums. LDS Online is the place to help you learn how to do these activities, and also to provide some resources to get you started. It also lets you collaborate with others in forums and discussion threads so you can learn to do these activities more effectively.
• The More Good Foundation Web site is a great resource with ideas to help you share testimony online. LDS Online has a similar purpose, but provides forums, groups, and discussion threads you can use to share ideas and collaborate with others so you can learn to participate online more effectively.

I invite you to participate with us at LDSonline.ning.com.

LDS Online is not owned by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I’m in San Francisco right now at the Web2.0 Expo. Just attended a great session on how to improve blogs. (Oh, no. Now you’ll expect the quality of this blog to improve!)

Here are my notes:

Passion

The most important thing about blogging is passion. If you don’t have passion about your subject, you won’t be engaging enough to keep people coming back nor will you have the stamina to keep it up. (60-80% of blogs are abandoned in the first month.)

Content

Pick a topic that is uniquely you. Focus on your area of expertise. What are you passionate about? Keep it narrow enough so that you are the best there is on your subject. You may want to create your own category so you are the creator of that topic.

Write newsworthy content. Blogs are of the moment; they are event-driven. If it isn’t current, it belongs in a book. Provide exclusive information.

Headlines: Find the most interesting part of the post and put it in the headline. Be plausible sensational, but don’t over promise.

Focused content: Why is your content important? Pick one point about the topic and make your point. It had better be interesting. Respect people’s time by writing what is relevant, timely, and useful.

Linking

Linking causes trackbacks. Trackbacks show up on posts. Posts are crawled by search engines and people click links, especially blog owners.

Moderation

Getting comments is harder than moderating them. Err on the side of openness. Use Akismet to take care of spam. You must read the comments, and comment back. It will build community.

Give back/Add value

Facilitate community. Be a focal point. Participate in existing communities. Give away something for free. Promote your fans.

Promoting Your Blog

Invite people to link to it. Blog regularly so there is something interesting for everyone. Create community wherever you go. Become friends with the friends of your friends. Guest write for other sites.

Distribution: Feedburner is the quintessential distribution channel for blogs. Others: Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz, other blogs, AIDE RSS, FriendFeed, Del.icio.us, Facebook. E-mail newsletters.

I just visited a great site, ReflectionsofChrist.org, which is a good example of a worthwhile project that can touch lives and testify of the Savior.

The project is intended to cast new light on our perceptions of Christ–to inspire though beautiful images and music. As the creator of this site said, “What else do we really own, other than our personal story?” This is his way of testifying of Christ. Can you think of your personal way to testify of Christ to others?

(If you log in to the site, you can also watch some behind-the-scenes videos.)

“There is no known cure for addictive content.”

The Church has just posted a position to hire a Manager of Internet Coordination to assist me in coordinating the content and services on Church sites. Please pass this information along to anyone that you feel meets the requirements.

The Manager of Internet Coordination assists in coordinating the work of the various departments who provide services to build and maintain Church Web sites (such as writers, editors, audiovisual producers, intellectual property office, Correlation, translation, information architects, interaction designers, and developers). Also works with various product managers to coordinate the content on the major channels of LDS.org, as well as the Gospel Library, online scriptures, general conference, Church magazines, Gospel Topics, calendar, events, etc. Encourages content synergy around audiences and topics. Also develops and executes marketing and promotional plans for making people aware of LDS.org

Applying candidates must have each of the following:

• Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and currently temple worthy.
• Bachelor’s degree; masters preferred.
• 8+ years of experience managing content and services, including extensive experience managing and marketing corporate-level Web products and services.
• Experience in managing projects. Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or Project Management Professional (PMP) certification preferred.

Exceptional candidates will have one or more of the following:

• Understanding of industry directions for developing and delivering content on the Web.
• Proven experience in managing the life cycle of Web content and services, including identifying business needs and success criteria, creating product plans, maintaining and supporting content and services, monitoring and evaluating content effectiveness (metrics), managing user feedback, and creating plans to increase effectiveness.

A more complete job description can be found online (job listing #0800246).

Many Web sites are missing the boat with search engine optimization by focusing primarily on the home page. Key pages of content also need to be optimized, especially when site visitors may jump directly to those pages without going through the home page.

Many people–and in some cases most people–will find your content with a search engine, which will take them directly to the content they seek, instead of being escorted through the home page front door and relying on a site’s internal navigation or internal search engine. While this is a valued benefit of a well-planned search engine optimization strategy, it also raises issues about successfully introducing and cross-referencing content.

It is critical for a site to have a solid information architecture to accommodate a variety of different user scenarios. That model can’t rely on a single home page to introduce visitors to your content and brand. Instead, you need to treat every page like it’s your home page. Brand awareness, site navigation, and marketing need to be reinforced at all levels. Even the deepest parts of your site should help visitors understand what the site is about as if they were seeing your brand for the first time.

Site navigation is not only a user’s guide, it is a communication tool and opportunity to market your content. Carefully consider the navigation labels you use because they will inform site visitors of new offerings that may interest them.

Once on a page in your site, visitors will be most responsive to content related to what they searched for. If done right, contextual promotions will prompt them to read the message and interact with it. Introducing modules that integrate with the content such as “If you’re interested in X, you may also be interested in Y” is a great example of this.

Understanding how visitors arrive on your site and how they get around will help you craft a holistic user experience.

(Several of the ideas in this post came from Business to Business.)

One way to run an effective multichannel messaging campaign is to create a microsite—a centralized site with a unique and easy-to-remember URL. This can be a stand-alone site or part of a larger Web site. The purpose of a microsite is to attract specific audiences and get them to take precise actions—subscribing, placing an order, replying to an invitation, or simply asking for more information.

When developed as the strategic core of a multichannel campaign, a microsite can guide and support the entire promotion. Each marketing effort drives its target audience to the site, which then reinforces key messages, special offers, and promotions.

Another benefit of a microsite is your ability to track and report the results. In fact, you can set up separate URLs for each marketing channel so you know which channel drove how much traffic to the site.

For example, CircuitAlert.com is a microsite developed by Gardner Bender for the launch of its hand tool, the Circuit Alert wire stripper. All advertising, public relations, and other marketing done for the product invited prospective customers to visit the site and “see the tool in action” by viewing a 60-second demonstration video. The effort was a success: tens of thousands were sold within months of the launch.

Stick to Your Message

People usually are on a mission when they come to a Web site. If their goal is to buy your product or request more information, you don’t want to distract them in any way. Microsites can focus on one main message and prevent the visitor from getting lost or disoriented within a larger Web site.

Target a specific audience and tailor your content especially for this group. Provide exclusive content, special offers, breaking news about new products, and allow visitors to sign up for e-mail lists or take surveys.

Benefits of microsites:

Efficiency. Microsites are easy and relatively inexpensive to create and reuse.

Tracking. Monitor how visitors arrive at your microsite and where they click on the page(s).

Customized URLs. Track targeted audiences for each campaign.

Control. Customized content shows visitors what you want them to see.

Data. Research indicates that visitors to microsites share more about themselves than visitors to regular Web sites.

Leverage content. Editorial can be repackaged from other sites and media.

Savings. Using a microsite as a response mechanism is more cost-effective than telephone, mail, or fax.

Get your message heard. Attract visitors to the microsite and tell your message.

This post was adapted from the article Central Station by Grant A. Johnson in Direct magazine.

One of the best ways to get your site or blog listed on page one at any search engine is to have a substantial number of inbound and outbound links. So, how do you get those links? First and foremost, make sure your site has useful, interesting, up-to-date content that people will consider link-worthy. Next, set up a blog as part of your site because it is one of the best ways to build both inbound and outbound links. Below are some ways to get inbound links.

How to get people to link to your site

1. Get found. Find out what phrases people are searching by using a tool like Wordtracker. Then, make sure your pages use those phrases, so people will find you before they find other sites.
2. Stay current. Make sure your pages contain relevant, informative, and interesting information.
3. Promote your site. Encourage readers to digg and del.icio.us your articles. This puts links to your site on some very credible news feeds.
4. Let visitors generate content. Allow comments on articles and blogs.
5. Make lists. There’s nothing is more link-able than a good list.
6. Start controversy. That’s right, don’t be afraid to be controversial. As they say,“any press is good press”.

Consider who would benefit from linking to you

1. Bloggers. A great way to get noticed is to get out into the blogging community and start commenting on other blogs. Most blogging platforms will link to your site when someone clicks on your alias. Many bloggers rely on outside articles to supply their blog with updated, relevant information. Many are a quick “copy & paste” of information with a link to the external source. Even journalistic blogs will cite other blogs as references for their information. Whenever you get an e-mail or a comment from someone on an article you’ve written, make sure you follow up with them. If they are reading your content, they must think you are a reliable resource and this could be the start of a great business relationship.
2. Business Partners. These could be your blogger friends, your conference networking buddies, old colleagues, but they may also be your competition. It may be easier than you think to form a strategic alliance by finding a way that both will benefit. Many people will link to you if you link to them–even competitors.
3. Customers. Who better to spread the word about you than your loyal clientele? Offering links in your thank-you e-mails to related articles, and even outwardly asking them to link to you is a great way to invite traffic to your site. Many people will do so if you just ask. Any incoming link helps.
4. Suppliers. Think about offering testimonials (closing with a link to your site) on the testimonial pages of your dealers. Most organizations can use new testimonials, so a good deed for a good deed is good business. Ask them to list you on their “Partners” page.
5. Friends. If all else fails, talk to your friends. In the digital age, almost everyone has a blog or is part of some social network. Tell your friends to link to your site in their forum signatures, blogrolls, MySpace and Facebook profiles, and anywhere else they can think of.

How to get bloggers to write about you

This is the epitome of link building. If your list of blogger prospects isn’t large enough, find more at Technorati, Google Blog Search and Ask.com’s blog search engine. Here are a few ways to get bloggers to notice you and link to your articles:

1. Contact the blogger. This is a bold move, but if you think that something you’ve written will be of interest to the writer, then by all means, put yourself out there. You can usually find contact details on a bloggers site or contact page. When you contact bloggers, start with a compliment. Talk about how much you enjoy their blog, and do your research beforehand. Make sure you provide them with all the details they need to link to your site. For more tips, check out Ogilvy’s Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics.
2. Comment on other blogs. This has multiple benefits. If you write genuinely-interesting comments, people will feel inclined to learn more about you. Most blogs link back to your Web site if a user clicks on your comment name. Another benefit is that your comments immediately create backlinks to your site. Don’t leave obvious promotional comments; no one likes reading them.
3. Ask for a review. If you are product-based, offer relevant bloggers a chance to receive a free product in exchange for their review. Even if they are not an immediate fan, if they blog about your product you still a backlink that others may follow and even find a different product they prefer.

How to get your competitors to write about you

On the Web and in the blogosphere, it may be you have no competitors at all–just potential partners. Find arrangements that are mutually beneficial when it comes to link-building.

1. Exchange links. A non-threatening place to suggest a link-exchange would be in a blogroll or “partners” area of your competitor’s site. It doesn’t distract their readers but it’s still a valuable placement.
2. Fill a void. It may be that you have a complimentary article or product on your site that they don’t cover and they may see it as valuable to their readers. Many bloggers rely on other bloggers to fulfill their editorial needs by cutting and pasting, or speed-linking (a post composed completely of links to interesting articles and sites) to fill some white space. Fill that space.

How to get other inbound links to your site

Think about user-generated sites to create your own external inbound links. Use forums, online communities, social bookmarks, and online reviews to create live links to your content.

1. Social networks. Read more about how to do this in an article about being a social networking evangelist. It includes a link to our “evangelist toolbox” which shows you multiple places to set up shop and create links to your site from multiple domains, including Digg, MySpace, LinkedIn, Technorati and more.
2. Online Press Releases. If appropriate to your content, consider an online press release, which may generate multiple links to your site from all over the Web. Not only from PR sites themselves, but also from any browsing blogger looking to pick up a story. A list of free and paid resources (as well as a step-by-step how-to) is at Quick guide to distributing press releases online.

How to find out who is linking to your site

1. Try Yahoo! Site Explorer
2. See the backlink tool in Google Webmaster Tools
3. Check out the backlink analyzer Domain Stats Tool
4. The Firefox browser has a great plugin called “Search Status” that displays Google PageRank, Alexa rank, and Compete ranking anywhere in your browser, along with a fast keyword density analyzer, keyword/nofollow highlighting, backward/related links, Alexa info, and more.

This post was adapted from several articles at Mequoda.