Developing our blog takes time and dedication. Understanding how to grow an online relationship is a unique and interesting task. When we initially meet a new blogger, like in real life we’re automatically being judged.

Instead of it being our physical appearance and our attire it’s the look and feel of our blog and public profile. Joining Blog Engage will allow you to develop your brand and increase your blog traffic. Our community will get you prepared for a successful online blog marketing campaign.

Blog Engage is the foundation to your online blog marketing strategy. Don’t start alone like I did! Join the Blog Engage community, start meeting new bloggers. Once your relationships on Blog Engage start growing move to other networks searching out the same network of friends.

Once you start this method of marketing you will continue to branch out and reach more people. Assuming you have a good blog with great content you can almost guarantee success. Remember blog engage is the “Key” to this online marketing success!

Join a Blog Engage group and share niche specific topics with the members of those groups. Add them as friends and get to know them and what they like reading. Visit their blog and make sure to connect on Facebook and Twitter. Remember to build your network connections at all time.

Engage with our members and earn points. Set your goal on becoming a Top User! Your image is displayed in the sidebar linking to your profile along with the top results on the Top Users page.

Join Blog Engage today!

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Official June 2011 Monthly Guest Blogging Contest Post #9
Contest Article

(Source)

If you’ve been paying attention lately (and I sure hope you have), you’ve been hearing quite a bit about Video Marketing as the wave of the future for Internet Marketing and giving your site the competitive edge.

Maybe you’ve watched the video by the lovely Kimberly Castleberry or watched the new product launch video series by Andy Jenkins explaining to you how imperative it is to jump on the video marketing bandwagon.

Or maybe you don’t know who they are but have been hearing things around the bloggersphere. Either way I’m here to tell you that I too agree that Video Marketing is the wave of the future. However, hearing “why” you should do something is great, but what we really want to know is the “how”! Am I right?

So I’m going to take it a step further; I’m going to show two ways now HOW you can maximize your marketing efforts by using video. I’m going to give you some basic tips on how to create your own video today and leverage the power of video marketing; not only putting you in a position of authority, but potentially bringing in tons of traffic to your site.

Getting On Camera

This is going to be the fastest way to get a video up and running and at the same time add a personal touch to your business/blog.

Here are some tools you are going to need:

1. A video camera such as a Flip or Kodak Zi8; both have the capability to upload your videos directly onto YouTube. You can possibly get away with a traditional video camera or standard one, but these are designed to give you the best quality and work extremely well with video syndication sites.

 

2. If you are doing interviews, I would recommend using Skype and purchasing a recording software such as Supertintin.

 

3. At the very minimum, you will need a YouTube account. Ideally, sign up for a TubeMogul account and maximize your efforts by uploading your video to be syndicated to multiple video sites all at once.

 

4. You need the ability to upload your video to your website. For the most part, you just have to simply grab the embed code generated by these video distribution sites and plug it into your website. If you are using WordPress, plugins such as Vipers Video Quicktags makes this process even simpler; all you need is the URL the video sits on.

 

5. You may want to use a video editing software such as Windows Live Movie Maker; most Windows computers automatically have this installed. Just simply upload your video and add such features as captions and credits. Note: once you save your edited video, it will save in a .wlmp format so you will have convert your video to a mp4 format. I would suggest using the One Click Video to MP4 Converter by Brother Soft.

 

6. Some bravery! Getting on camera is a bit scary, I know. But the more you do it, the easier it will become. So practice!

Reasons to get on camera:

• As a way to welcome your visitors to your site and give them a call to action such as opting into your newsletter
• Interviewing other bloggers and entrepreneurs
• Discussing your view on a topic, technique, product/service or business concept
• Provide an inspirational tip to your audience

Can’t seem to get yourself in front of the camera just yet? Here’s an alternative…

Get Behind the Camera – Video Tutorials

Doing video tutorials is a great way to add value to others by teaching them step by step how to achieve a task and at the same time increasing your potential exposure and authority for your niche. This can also be very simple, but is going to take a bit more preparation and planning on your part.

(Source)

Tools you will need:

1. An application to record your videos. There are free versions such as Camstudio.org. But if you are going to do tutorials often I would recommend getting paid versions. Screencast-O-Matic has a paid version; for only $9 you can record up to 60 minutes of video and have a nice selection of editing tools. If you really want to go all out, then look into Camtasia (for Windows) or Screenflow (for Mac).

 

2. You are also going to need a headset with microphone capabilities. Logitech has some good ones that you can get for $40-$50. Or you can invest a bit more an get a headless microphone. Either way, I do suggest you work with mics as oppose to using the default microphone that comes with your computer. The mics will do a much better job as dealing with background noise and audio issues.

 

3. You will need a video player installed on your website or the embed code generated once you’ve uploaded the video to a video syndication site. Of course the latter would be the simplest option and at the same time provide you the benefits of more potential exposure by hosting the video on sites such as YouTube.

Reasons to get behind the camera:

• You have a technique or tactic you want to teach
• You have a product you want to review
• As a way to help others see what your site/product has to offer

These are just two ways you can quickly start implementing video into your marketing efforts. There are many other ways to use video and many more reasons why they can be very beneficial for your business/blog. So start small but start today. Don’t let your fear of video stop you from taking advantage of the it’s powerful leverage.

Have you used video in your marketing efforts yet? If not, are you willing to put your fears behind you and not be left behind the video marketing dust?

Official June 2011 Monthly Guest Blogging Contest Post #1
Contest Article

There’s been kind of a debate about CLICK HERE not only among us, bloggers, but also throughout all of the community. It’s interesting to see how divided the opinions are and it’s quite fun to see people going crazy over it, so…

…let’s talk about it shall we?

For those of you who don’t know, CLICK HERE is just what it says. It’s the anchor text people often use to get their site visitors to click through to where they want them to go, but…

…does “Click Here” still work?

Well, before I answer that question, let me tell you about why people don’t really like to use that phrase as the anchor text on their blogs and sites.

You see, it’s common knowledge that if you put a keyword you want to rank for in as an anchor text for your links, it’ll help you with SEO. On the other hand, if you use CLICK HERE in your links, it won’t do much for your ranking so…

…what people decided to do is go completely against CLICK HERE and just stick to using keywords for anchor text.

Logical, but…

…there really isn’t anything better to get people to do anything than telling them exactly what to do.

I mean, think about this, if you want someone to go out and get you some oranges, you’re going to tell them just that, right? You’re going to say “could you please go downstairs and get me 3 oranges right around the corner?”

Of course!

If you said anything different, you’d get different results.

It’s the same online. If you want people to do something, you have to tell them exactly what it is, and how to do it, and…

…most of the time you’re going to want your readers to “CLICK HERE to get your free report,” or “CLICK HERE to find out how to lose weight quickly,” etc.

See what I am saying here?

If you just want people to do something, and improving your SEO is a secondary concern to you, then asking people to CLICK HERE is perfectly logical.

On the other hand if all you’re about is SEO, then choosing those two words as your anchor text is going to do little for your rankings (although it can be beneficial. More on that later.)

So…

As with everything else online, CLICK HERE does work if you know what you’re doing.

On a different note, did you know that including a few CLICK HERE backlinks to your SEO campaign will actually help your rankings?

The reason for that is every single site out there, if they’re building backlinks naturally is going to have some CLICK HERE back links, so the fact that you have some…

…makes your backlinking strategy look very natural to Google or any other search engine out there.

We all know what natural looking link building does, right?

So, next time you see some people fighting over whether they should use CLICK HERE or not, just smile to yourself and remember this post, OK?

There’s no right or wrong answers in Internet Marketing and blogging. If you know what you’re doing and if you’re taking action, pretty much anything will bring you a certain degree of success, so…

…just go for it!

It’s official my post is live and I’m in need of your help to win. Like my last contest I’m hoping all our Blog Engage members Engage with me at weblogbetter and comment, tweet and socially share my article with others.

In this guest post I wanted to share how I created Blog Engage and our RSS Service. I enjoyed sharing my story and I hope you all enjoy reading it. Take a few moments and help me win this amazing blogging contest.

What I need from you is very specific. I need votes on blokube and blog interact, I need comments that will help develop conversation and interaction with other readers and members.

The article is inspired by all our blogging members here and all the friends I made online to date. It was written in hopes to encourage you that opportunity for success is real you just have to find what your looking for.

Don’t give up on your blog or website if I can make a success from online blogging so can you. So if you have a moment please come and engage with mo @weblogbetter the article is named, Sometimes it’s right in front of you, you just don’t see it yet

Thanks for all the support everyone and I look forward to your comments.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

When I first started online in 2008 I owned a website that was for sharing information. It seems the site is down now and no longer exists but back in 2008 it was directory of open source software scripts.

I didn’t even know what a blog was I simply enjoyed making free websites using free software. I eventually came across a free software script that allowed anyone to submit links into it and used this to keep track of all the open source scripts.

I guess it was about a month or two after I decided to start a community where the members could benefit from submitting links as opposed to me simply collecting links to free software script demo’s. I know many of you want to hear this amazing story about how I invented Blog Engage when in fact it was by luck.

For some reason I decided to create a social community for bloggers. I was hoping you would all come to share your links with us. At this time I was not a blogger, go figure the site would become a success. I seen all the other places bloggers had to market and I’ll be the first to admit they were either poor quality or the community was a bunch of not so friendly people. Ironically they also frowned on self promotion which as a marketer I thought wtf?

One of the largest issues I seen from all these communities was the inability to share links and share recent articles. If you did such an actions people would call you a spammer or other not so nice names. What I wanted to do was create a community that encouraged this type social sharing behavior and credit the bloggers with a points system based on how much they actually shared with one another. Little did I know I was about to embark on a three year Social Media Marketing and Branding career lol.

Three years later, 3500 (REAL) twitter followers and over 5000 registered members Blog Engage is one of the most successful online blogging communities in the blogosphere. Creating this community involved hard work, long nights and tons of mistakes. In fact I was one of the first you know! I took a niche market of digg and made it popular! Actually no, I took the niche market, you made it popular!

Many things have to be taken into consideration when launching a website and I wanted to touch base on some of these aspects today in this article.

Branding

It always amazes me when little or no effort is put into creating a strong brand for a website. What’s even more surprising is how many people are not providing any sort of consistency when selecting their social media profile image and user name.

Branding your website or profile is the most important part to starting and maintaining a successful website. The reason I say both is because people will be judging you from both. Many people know Blog Engage but on the same note many people know me as bbrian017. This is a special case and what I have managed to do is create a brand name for myself while at the same time marketing and promoting the Blog Engage community.

Something that was once unique

When I started blog engage I knew right away the difference between me and the other networks was the ability for blogger to market and promote their own articles without having a negative affect. I also wanted to create a community for social sharing. A community where members would vote, tweet, digg and stumble one another content assuming they found it helpful or interesting. This is when your blog article is Engaged!

Social Media

Without the idea of social media marketing I don’t think Blog Engage would exist. The fundamental strategy for making Blog Engage a success was from meeting and adding new online friends.

Building Relationships

I add friends to my social network all the time. I’m very active on Blog Engage twitter, Stumble, facebook and so much more. Adding friends on these communities is key to the success of Blog Engage. I’ve always been lucky enough to have some great and amazing online friends that help me market and promote the community.

Generating Profits

I knew in order to continue my online activities I had to start generating a steady source of income. Coming up with this idea is not easy you all know that! I eventually came up with the idea to syndicate our members content for a monthly fee. I’ve also added other features and benefits into our marketing program and it’s been a huge success! Contest Sponsorship, Multiple Social Website Submissions, Adsense Revenue Sharing and more.

The customer comes first

I strongly believe customer service is key to the success of any online small business. I try my hardest to provide the best quality of service and support at all times to all paid and non paid members. This is by far the most important aspect of my business. I take great pride in our members.

Share your story…

If you want you can leave a comment and share your story! Who knows, if the article gets big enough I’ll add it a few places where it can become a special post and shared by many bloggers. So share your story! Tell us why you started blogging and where you came from.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

Twitter, bbrian017

Thanks,

Brian

Google recently made waves in the internet world with the much anticipated launch of its new +1 (Plus One) button. Already hailed by many as an imitation of the Facebook Like button, it is essentially a feature that allows users to endorse the results and advertisements that appear on the search page. Whether or not Google’s button can match the impact of Facebook’s Like is something we can debate for days, but either way you look at it, this update is huge. Read on to find out how it could impact your online marketing efforts.

Inside Google +1

A while back, technology circles were hyped about a speculated social offering being concocted behind the scenes by the search company. Well, from the looks of it, Google +1 appears to be what we were waiting on. Not necessarily what some of us were expecting, but the update definitely has a social element to it. Not only does it let people “like” (for a lack of better terminology) search listings, but also see how many of their connections have endorsed the same results. For now, users can view the +1 actions of their connections in Gmail and Google Chat. Word is going around that Google could update the feature to include connections from Twitter and other social networks in the future.  

While it may not sound like much, Google +1 could actually have a major impact from a marketing standpoint. Just think – when internet searchers see that one or multiple people have approved of your page, they will be far more likely to click the link and pay you a visit. Why wouldn’t they? The page is already somehow relevant to what they’re looking for, and the fact that it is endorsed by others only makes it more attractive. In short, Google +1 can potentially help you get more traffic from general users, as well as those you are connected with through your Google accounts.

Is it a Game Changer?

It seems like we’ve been talking about the Google +1 button forever, especially since rumors were running wild before the official launch, but it is important to keep in mind that this is a very new offering. Right now, it is far too early to tell if it will be something marketers can truly rely on to generate traffic and improve business performance. In the end, its longevity will ultimately be determined by the user base, the people who do all the searching online. If people use the feature for what it was intended for, it will probably have an impact on several fronts. If people ignore it, then it won’t be worthy of your time. Since Google +1 is designed for users, its value is pretty much as simple as that.

Although the future isn’t certain, Google +1 is here and already has plans of enhancements in its sights. According to reports, Google is planning on making it more like the Facebook Like button by allowing users to embed the function on their website. If you consider yourself an opportunistic marketer, you will want to keep up with the developments to learn more about how you can benefit from this potentially revolutionary feature.

Official 2011 Second Guest Blogging Contest Post #3
Contest Article

Do you blog? Or if not, do you read blogs? If you do, then this word is not quite new to you. Actually, blogs have been around the web for a long time, although it hasn’t gained much recognition through the previous years. Weblogs, or simply called blogs, are possibly one of the best ways to promote a business, make sales, gain popularity and moreover, make money. So, just in case you would be asking, “What makes blogging a must?”, then I will get to share you some of what I knew based on my experience.

Lots of online businesses opt in for blogging. With a blogging system, a particular online business could somehow let their clients and readers know what are the newest and the latest updates, products and services. It would make all their clients- be it a newcomer or a regular visitor, an easy navigation, accessibility and comprehension. Provided that the blog being maintained by the owner offers the latest news and detailed information, it would therefore not be that hard to reach a wide range of readers and potential customers at the same time.

Why should you blog?

Blogging is open for all. Not only business owners are eligible for starting one, but instead any individual, men or women alike can, and even kids and teens could make one. And moreover, blogging relies entirely on the one who is engaged on it. Besides, starting a blog is free and you could start posting your ideas after you’ve created one. However, if you really want to make the most out of it, you could make a purchase for your own custom domain. There are lots of blogging platforms available around the web. WordPress, Blogger, Typepad and Livejournal just to state a few.

When you blog, you make money. But in what particular way? Primarily, you need to have a wide range of readers and visitors of course. Once you do, then it would be time for monetization. There are lots of monetization schemes applicable and available on the internet. Perhaps the most popular would be Google Adsense, by which you earn revenues by the clicks which you’ve gained from your readers and visitors. Paid advertising, affiliates, Infolinks, AdBrite, BidVertisers and product endorsements- they’re just some among those various monetizing schemes available for you.

When should you blog?

The sooner the better; more particularly if you are owning an online business and wanted to reach a whole new range of clients, visitors and readers. It’s always a wise decision to come up with the idea of blogging once an online business is established.

How to reach a wide range of visitors and readers?

Once a blog is created and posts are published, having it promoted throughout various methods is the next vital step. Engaging in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a whole lot more could bring you traffic to your blog. Other promotional activities include Social Bookmarking, Forum Posting, and engaging on other’s blogs- BlogEngage to make up the list. Also make your blog updated more often. Doing it on a regular basis will do- be it on a weekly or daily or every three days and so on. Don’t keep your readers waiting for the new content to arrive in a blue moon. If you blog once a week, then all those readers who are subscribed in your blog will make it a habit to visit your blog every end of the week to look out for some fresh content.

Last Words

A blog, no matter how beautiful it is too look at, how fresh and unique the contents are, would still be worthless if no one would take the time to look at it. Readers and visitors are the main fuel that keeps a blog running. The absence of it would make your blog turn out to be a “dead blog” as what others call it. I’m still fresh at blogging and still have a long way to go down the road. Before you leave your comment, I just want to let you know I’m still not good at it. This has been my very first guest article and I’m still fresh. If you found something wrong or quite odd, don’t hesitate to let me know. I am open to any critiques. Thanks for taking some time on this article. Hope I have shared some of my know-how. Thank you everyone!

Official 2011 Second Guest Blogging Contest Post #1
Contest Article
2011 Best Guest Blogger Contest Article – Not Completed Yet

Do you care about SEO ? Should I care about SEO ? What is SEO ? I don’t know much about SEO, I never tried to learn [much] about it. Why ? Because I was already bored by “learning about SEO”. SEO, according to my definition is when you optimize or modify your website, so that you increase your exposure and traffic through Search Engines. In this blog post, we will talk about SEO, why I don’t care about SEO. So, your role is to read this post, and answer my post, if you will Thank you !

Why I don’t care about SEO ?

This is my first Search engine optimization (SEO) related article. So, before I begin, I have to tell you that I am a beginner. I am a newbie blogger and I don’t know much about Search Engine. I am not a guru on these topics. But, I can give you a good article to read, an article that is adopted from my experiences with SEO. Let’s Start :-

Nowadays, there is a lot of SEO talk going on. And, if you ask me, I don’t like it very much. Why ? Most of the articles about SEO is just the same thing. Nowadays, I also see the trend of new SEO tools. Blogger from all round the world are spending money on SEO tools. Why do they do that ? What do they want ? To understand why people do this, we need to understand the real meaning of SEO. Let me ask you, Why do people care about SEO ? People care about Search Engine Optimization because they want to increase their exposure through Search Engines. Search Engines do play an important role in Traffic Generation.

Yes, Search do play an important role. But it is not that important.

You know what,

I don’t care much about Search Engine Optimization. Screw SEO !

Just, go with it. I haven’t done much Search Engine Optimization. I started blogging 2 years ago. But, I have not done much SEO in this time period. All I did was submit my sitemap to Google. That’s all the SEO I did, until I switched to WordPress. After I switched to WordPress, I installed many plugins related to SEO. I didn’t do much, except for saving the settings. That’s all the SEO I have done until now.

But, hey, here is the good thing : I got pretty good traffic from Google. Search Engine Optimization, yes I mentioned earlier, is just one form of marketing. If I don’t want to do Search Engine Optimization, I won’t do it. By the way, let me tell you one more thing : Most of your guys who read this post blog about blogging. There are not many people (as a percentage) who search for Blogging in Google or in some other search engine. Who searches for blogging tips and/or money making in Google ? Those who are interested in it, right ? And who exactly is interested in these topics ? Bloggers or want to bloggers, right ?

Conclusion = Bloggers or want to be bloggers search for these keywords :- Blogging, Blogging tips, Money Making etc.

Bloggers use Search Engine Optimization because they hope to expose their blog/brand to these blogger or want to be bloggers. So, my question here is

Isn’t there a better marketing option, through which I can get more exposure without that much knowledge/work ?

Of course, there is a better way to market your blog.

Other Marketing Options – Social Media, Social Bookmarking Sites, Blog Forums

Why you should use better options ?

Let me tell you the reasons :-

1) Better Exposure – The chances of exposure are greater for other marketing options. For example, there is a better chance for a blogger to see your blog on a blog forum, social bookmarking site like Blogengage.com, Blokube.com, Bloginteract.com etc. There is a better chance that I will read your post on one of these sites (compared to some search engine).

2) Better Exposure to More People

Your exposure is greater. Yes, there are a lot more people who use search engines than social bookmarking sites.  But,your chance of catching their eye is small. In social bookmarking sites, blog forums and social media, you have a better chance of catching someone’s attention. You also have a better chance of getting more people to click on your link.

Conclusion : Its better to market your content some other way, because you have better chances of getting more traffic. You have greater chances of getting more people to visit more of your content. Others ways of marketing that I listed in the sub heading are also beneficial because they provide you with greater advantages. Social Media sites, Social Bookmarking Sites and Blog forums require networking to get the best results. This is beneficial because networking helps you to increase your reputation among others, your influence on the people.

So, what do you say ?

Is Search Engine optimization worth it ?

I didn’t tell you that you can’t do SEO. I also didn’t tell you that I don’t do SEO. What I did tell you is that, I don’t do much SEO. And that is exactly what I have to tell you : Don’t do much Search Engine Optimization. Don’t give it more importance that is deserves. Most of the bloggers give SEO more important attention than it deserves. Yes, SEO can help you a lot. But, don’t waste your time on Search Engines. I am not a Search Engine Expert, but I am a good blogger. There are a lot of bloggers who might tell you that I am wrong here. Absolutely, I am not wrong here (I can tell you this because I have been researching on this). I have viewed the trends. But still I am not a guru on this subject. All I did was give my honest opinion on this issue.

Conclusion

Before you comment on this post, let me tell you one more thing : I want your honest opinion. If you don’t agree with what I said, its fine with me. I am not a great blogger who knows everything. Rather, I am a newbie blogger who doesn’t know much about blogging or Search engine optimization. As I mentioned earlier, this is my first SEO article, if there is anything wrong with what I said, please correct me. I would be glad to learn from you. Thank you for reading my post. If you think that my post deserves a comment, please do it. You are more than welcome to share my post, or write a follow up to it. Thank you for all your support !