Digital Manga Illustration-Free Tutorial
Just like Harajuku Girls mixing fashion styles, Joanna Zhou combines several drawing techniques to create a new twist on manga art.
Learn How with Joanna Zhou’s FREE Tutorial
An iconic symbol of Japanese pop culture, manga style has evolved into a popular source of inspiration for creatives around the world.
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LinkBaiting-Good, Bad and Why you Should Try
Try the new form of Contextual Link Building–Link Baiting
Linkbaiting is hard to define because it can be a variety of practices – all of which are to generate incoming links to a website or blog. This can be by giving awards awards, having competitions, and writing posts on other blogs–something interesting to catch people’s attention and get them talking.
Linkbaiting is often thought about in negative terms. Some say that its quality content, others believe its all spam. However way you do it-it can have a positive affect of bringing traffic to your site.
Think of link baiting like fishing. You create a new page/post and dangle it out into the ocean of the web. You wait and hope that some visitors will come and take a nibble and find it a whopper that they have to link to it. The article is the bait and the link is the catch!
Like a fisherman there are some different kinds of hooks you can use:
News hook is one where you report on industry news-a scoop.
Contrary hook are contradictions to what someone else says-make it juicy and controversial.
Attack hook is a personal attack-be careful because with this one you can become fish bait.
Resource hook is an informational page-like top 20 SEO tools…
Humor hook you post jokes, funny stories, videos, or pictures-think YouTube
Some Popular Link Baiting Ideas:
• Write an interesting article or interview
• Run a newsworthy ‘event’ or contest
• Write something new or controversial
• Be the first to write the latest news in your niche
• Create a tool that others can put on their websites but that links back to you
• Create a resource that is just in time for a major event or holiday
• Give something valuable (a service or good you provide)for free
• Become an expert in your niche and write content rich information about it on your website.
Contextual Link Building and Link Baiting can also be enhanced by publishing Press Releases for other industry related web sites about your web site .
Need some Additional Ideas?
Thomas M. Schmitz provides a downloadable PDF for 230 LinkBaiting ideas:
http://www.portentinteractive.com/tom/230-link-bait-ideas.pdf
Is your Website Flunking?
Grade Your Website
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
If you want an A in SEO Visit Trendy Geek Design
SEO 101: Keyword Best Practices and Free Keyword Suggestion Tools
Keywords are the first step in content writing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Without thoroughly researching what keywords you-and your competitors-are targeting, your site will just be another pretty site on the web.
Keywords and Keyword Phrases
Research and evaluate keyword terms that are likely to drive targeted traffic that will result in qualified leads Create a list that represents the relevant terms and phrases that your company desires to be well ranked for.
Things to consider when developing keyword search term list:
- Be concise. It is difficult to optimize a site that has an excessive amount of content.
- The more specific the content, the more specific you should make the keywords and phrases on the page.
- There are considerable differences in query volume of similar terms
- Use regional language nuances for international sites.
- Use multi-word phrases, as single word phrases produce low-targeted traffic.
- Utilize paid search results when available.
When targeting a key search phrase, cover as many related keyword phrases as possible to achieve the highest-possible rank. To be effective, it is suggested that an entire page be dedicated to a particular search phrase.
It is recommended that a separate page is created to each solution or service that is offered or provided. This will allow the site to do the following:
- Each page will have target-keyword-rich Metadata; which includes the Title and Description.
- The use of a targeted-keyword-rich page Headings.
- Opportunities to include all the necessary keywords within the content of the page.
- Keyword rich Internal Links to the other pages of the website.
- When formulating keyword goals for the website, use the terminology that internet searchers use versus what professionals use.
Keyword Don’ts:
- Don’t: Hide text from the visitor: Text colored to blend with the background; CSS “Z” positioning to place text “behind” an image; CSS absolute positioning to have the text positioned far from the page center are all common Black Hat techniques.
- Don’t: Use “Noscript” tags to place hidden content within a page.
- Don’t: Insert frequently searched words or terms in order to attract traffic to pages.
- Don’t: Spam or overuse keywords on a page.
NINE FREE SEO TOOLS:
1. Google.com Keyword Suggestions tool
2. Wordtracker.com Keyword Suggestions tool
3. Digitalpoint.com Keyword Suggestions tool
4. Keyworddiscovery.com Keyword Suggestions tool
5. Selfseo.com Keyword Suggestions tool
6. Bad-neighborhood.com Keyword Suggestions tool
7. Addme.com Keyword Suggestions tool
8. Webconfs.com Keyword Suggestions tool
9. Iwebtool.com Keyword Suggestions tool
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Author:
Angel Singh of Trendy Geek Design. SEO Expert for companies-large and small. Clients include Intelius, Microsoft, HP and many others.
Five Ways SEO Will Evolve In The Next Five Years
By Chris Gill
Fourth generation (4G) cell phones (so-called “smartphones”) promise to provide rich-content internet access through improved connectivity and seamless roaming. Convenient true Web access will mean that it’s no longer necessary to create lo-fi versions of websites. On the other hand, the cell phone interface favors a different way of surfing, where users have access to widgets and aggregated content through a single application. Typing in URLs or performing searches is less convenient on a phone, so sites will have to optimize themselves to either appear in popular aggregation hubs, or bundled with applications that perform a service.
Next Generation Localization
4G networks also herald the next step in localized searches. A mix of GPS functionality, street level imaging and records of physical addresses will lead to what experts have called “augmented reality.” You’ll be able to look through your phone’s camera to not only see whatever the lens is pointing at, but the web addresses, contact information and other online information associated with whatever you see. There are already some primitive applications that do this, and in time this will become a routine way of meshing the Web with everyday life. Businesses will need to find some way to stand out in the barrage of information, particularly in dense urban areas.
The Real Time Web
Twitter provided the first taste of the real time public Web. SMS broadcasting and services like Google Wave will finish the job, providing up to the second information on popular sites and trends. Google has already listed real time search updates as an objective. As a result, future website promotions will have to be far more dynamic than they currently are. SEO experts will need to provide a stream of regular content and buzz to keep sites in the evolving conversation.
Improved Semantics
Web semantics (the relationship between words and their meanings) is in its infancy. The ultimate goal is a search engine that not only indexes data, but actually understands what it is, at least in relation to search queries. As search engines improve title tags and other coding signals (meta data, CSS structure) will be less important than the overall “tone” of the content — whether it seems to have a strong or weak relationship with its target search term. Search engines will understand synonyms and slang better. This puts the focus back on content over coding.
User Mashups
Mashups (user generated combinations) of sites and services are currently delivered in a “top down” fashion via applications and social bookmarking sites such as Digg. Eventually one or more generalized applications will evolve that not only make it easy for the average person to mash up content, but may even automate the process based on the user’s search history. To get noticed, sites will have to find synergy with others to form vertical communities.
About the Author
GILL Media is a leading provider of strategic internet marketing and affordable web design for small, medium and large businesses. GILL Media’s services include economical search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, e-commerce web design, hosting and internet video. These are only a few of its diverse range of services.
