The Importance of Tags

When I first started blogging, I had no clue what the term "tag" meant. Each time I posted an entry, I just ignored that step and published my posts. During that time, I received very little traffic at my blog.

One day I finally decided to figure out what a tag was and why I should include them in my posts. Basically, tags (sometimes called labels or keywords) are another way to optimize your search engine rankings. If you write a blog post about how to make homemade peanut butter, you might include "homemade peanut butter" as one of the tags. When someone types "homemade peanut butter" into a search engine, your blog could very well pop up at the top of the list!

It's a good idea to include several tags with each and every post you write. I advise that you include at least 3, but no more than 6. The more tags you have, the more traffic you'll generate. If you have too many tags, it'll be considered spam by the search engines.

Now for a little story. Last week, I received an interesting comment over at my sewing blog. This person found my blog through an Internet search and was very interested in one of the handmade items that I sell. After some e-mails and sewing, I made a sale. There you go. The power of tags. Use them, and use them wisely!

Squidoo Part 2

Last week, I wrote a little bit about the power of Squidoo. It's a fantastic site. Just sign up and begin creating a webpage with unique content about something you're interested in. For me, that's Internet marketing (and sewing!--I'll be creating a lens for that soon). Anyways, a Squidoo page (or "lens") is a great way to promote your online business.

In the world of Internet marketing, it's all about getting your business webpage link out there! The more places you can promote it, the higher up your search engine ranking will be.

Like I mentioned before, the trick to being successful with Squidoo is to create more than one lens. Also, designate a main lens that you want to put most of your time and effort into. It's essential to update all of your lenses, but especially your main one. Create and update! That's the key to making Squidoo work for you.

Note that you become an "expert" on a certain topic when you create a Squidoo lens. Be sure to focus your lenses around one or two topics. You can't be an "expert" on everything!

Yesterday I spent some time updating my main lens. After doing so, the number of views my lens received tripled in just 24 hours. There's a lot to be said about updating the lens. Keep with it, and you'll begin driving an insane amount of traffic from your Squidoo lens to your business website in very little time.

Under the Weather

I'm not feeling so well today. For the past few weeks, I've experienced very minor cold symptoms. Now it seems I finally have a full-fledged cold. No worries, though. I don't have to call in sick and worry about pissing off my boss--I am the boss!

Last week I wrote a short blog post about "freedom". Now I'm experiencing it. Since I'm working from home, I was able to sleep in this morning. I needed it! Now I'm jamming out a blog post and updating my Squidoo lens for My Internet Business.

I feel a nap coming on, so I think I'll wrap this one up quickly. Hope the cold hasn't visited you this season!