The Success Check List – Are You Making the Most of Your Blog?
Here at SportsRantz University I get my fair share of emails from readers asking how they can further their blog on SportsRantz. I also get a good amount of tweets and Facebook posts from existing members asking how they can gain more exposure with their blog. So I decided to put a quasi-checklist together so that anyone with a blog can ensure they are maximizing their potential.
So here is a simple list of things you should be doing to make your blog a success:
#1 Are You Blogging at SportsRantz.com?
Shameless self-plug? Yes definitely, but there is some truth to this statement. If you’re on another blogging platform you have to ask yourself how high the ceiling is for your potential. How hard is the website you are blogging on working for you to be successful? Are they just using your blog as a way to sell advertising? Food for thought.
At SportsRantz, we have something that no other sports blogging platform has. I can say this with 100% confidence. We are structured on strong SEO methods that provides an excellent foundation to build success on. SEO Drives traffic!
I personally crafted the SportsRantz SEO structure and I have been in the SEO industry for close to 10 years. I worked at one of the top firms in the entire industry and was their leading SEO Manager and SEO Specialist my entire tenure. I was in charge of accounts like Overstock, Vista Print, The Golf Channel, Pedi Ped and even Passages Malibu to name a few.
With that experience I was confident to start my own SEO Company and form my own unique methods. Since 2009, my company has worked on some incredible client websites.
Bottom line – NO website provides you the SEO tools, knowledge, advice and/or resources that we do. The proof is in the pudding. Keep in mind that just because someone owns a website, doesn’t make them an SEO.
With that being said, I strongly encourage you to fully take advantage of what we have on SR University.
#2 SportsRantz University
For those of you who want to take your blog to the next level and don’t utilize SR University…what on earth are you waiting for?
It’s common knowledge that nothing good is obtained without hard work. So if you are not actively learning how to make your blog better, educating yourself on methods or utilizing resources provided to you it’s going to be more of an upward battle. Especially if you want to make your brand popular. If you’re not doing all you can do to improve, your competition will pass you by.
I simply cannot stress enough how important reading the SEO section is and putting it to use in your blog. Also, learn about Branding and Social Media as well. Can’t hurt.
#3 How Unique is Your Content?
As soon as a news story breaks you have every blogger and writer covering it on some level. Bloggers are sure to regurgitate the same information but what are you offering that is different?
Give people a reason to bookmark your blog and trust your coverage. Do you offer opinions supported by facts? Do you have access to an interview or studies on information that goes deeper than the headlines?
People don’t want the same information over and over and they certainly don’t want the same information presented to them with the only difference being the tone and language is different. Be different. Stand out!
If everyone is selling glazed donuts, be the one to offer glazed donuts and coffee.
#4 Must Read Blogivision
So i did a bit of “play on words” there but think of this like TV. Reach out to other writers, athletes and personalities to do interviews on your blog.
Let’s face it, chances are Tom Brady won’t be available to do an interview on your blog, but try semi-pro players, players trying to make a team, etc. Offer interesting content and you’ll get dedicated readers
#5 How Interactive Are You?
This is a great point. If you’re solely relying on Rt’s from SportsRantz and Twittering to drive popularity to your blog, you’re not doing all you can do.
Are you sharing with people on Facebook? Are you in the SportsRantz Group on Facebook? Are you Tweeting RT accounts with your articles? Do you have a newsletter setup for your readers to sign up for?
Tools like this can help in the longrun.
I’ll expound on this article in the future, but for now here is 5 good bulletpoints to process.
Until next time Ranters!
read moreStreaming Your Radio Show on Your Blog
Some folks on SportsRantz.com have a radio show that streams online or is run online completely. But the question is how do you stream your radio show on your blog?
It’s actually quite simple and an excellent way to make sure your readers and listeners get all the information you put out there.
First, make sure your show has the ability to stream online and if so, make sure you have the HTML code to embed the show.
Once you have that step completed, you’re ready for the next step which I have outlined in the video below.
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Introduction to Social Sites on SportsRantz
As many of you know by now we have a brand new feature on SportsRantz.com that allows you to make your own social network hosted on SportsRantz.com. Imagine your own Facebook/Twitter like website that you can build for your friends, fans, listeners or readers. Pretty cool right? Well now it’s easier than ever with our Get Social feature that is essentially a social networking site right out of the box!
To get started take a look at our Tour of the latest feature on SportsRantz!
The Keys to Making Your Radio Show a Smash Hit
Do you host a sports radio show on the internet or on terrestrial radio? Then this edition of SportsRantz University is just for you.
Learn about the opportunities that are available to you to make your sports talk show a hit, to bring your show to whole new level and to separate yourself from the rest of the radio shows. It’s not all about advertising and spending tons of money on website development anymore. Learn how to get the same powerful exposure by keeping your wallet in your pocket. No need to hire any expensive marketing companies, invest in advertising or deal with any internet marketing ninjas to get to your goals.
Also, get invaluable tips and advice on how to engage your audience, keeping them interested and engaged as well as how to turn first time listeners into life-long listeners.
Also, we explain how SportsRantz fits into all of this, how you can take advantage of the benefits that SportsRantz provides and maximize your overall exposure.
How is Your Branding? A Few Ways to Check
Now that you are getting a tad bit more familiar with the importance of such factors as SEO, Social Media and Branding it’s time to see where you stand!
So here are a few simple steps to researching how your Branding is faring.
1. Google, Yahoo, Bing
The first step is fairly quite simple. Just do a basic web search for the title of your blog. But keep in mind to put your blog title in parenthesis when doing so, especially if you have a longtail name. For example, “Joe’s Yankee blog” or “Joes Yankee blog” should be the search command you enter into the major search engines.
SportsRantz is a one word term, so we don’t necessarily need to surround the phrase with parenthesis, but I do like to check for “Sports Rantz” because I assume that not everyone thinks our company name is one word.
So here are the results when I perform the search for “SportsRantz” in Google:
Click Here to View
On the first page (which should be your main concern) I see the website is #1, our Twitter page #2, our Fan Page #3 and as we go down the list I see more of our social presences in the results. Not too shabby and a good example of our branding success
Here are the results when I perform the search for “Sports Rantz” in Google (notice I spaced the two words)
Click Here to View
Typically, the results show that yellow pages, business listings and some directories list us as “Sports Rantz”. Not a bad thing, but it also tells me that not too many people put a space between “Sports” and “Rantz”, so this actually is a positive since our name is one word. People get it and thus we pat ourselves on the back for good branding
2. Know’Em
I first was introduced to the Know’em website in 2010. Frankly it’s a great site to gauge your brand across social sites, blogging platforms and domains. The site also checks out the Trademark registry which I suggest you do before getting serious about your brand. The last thing you want to do is put a ton of work into something only to find out someone else has a trademark to it, you’d essentially be giving them the free benefit of your diligent work.
The idea behind Know’em it is more for brand protection, is someone using your name or posing as your company?
While the folks at Know’em have a great site, they also charge you for their services. Truthfully speaking, you’re not going to need to have a profile on every social site or blogging platform out there, but it’s good to hone in on the most popular ones. The Digg, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit’s of the world are going to be your main focus and yes….even Myspace (remember that).
These social profiles don’t just protect your brand, build your brand and expand your presence, they also pass a little bit of that link love to you. This is why when you do a search for your brand name in the search engines you will typically see social profiles within the first few pages of the search results
3. Are Your Social Profiles Working for You?
While you are checking out your social profiles, be sure to really read what your profile says. Let’s do a checklist
- Does it clearly state who you are?
- Does it clearly define what your blog is about?
- Does it have a clear link to your blog?
Seems basic in theory, but you would be amazed how many people have a Twitter page with no link to their blog. In fact, even the best bloggers out there fail to do this, even our beloved followers on Twitter
Frankly, there is no sense in having social profiles and put all that work into building them if you are going to leave huge holes in regards to the important stuff. Plus you are leaving a good amount of link juice on the table.
Remember a lot of social gurus and self-proclaimed internet marketing ninjas miss the simple stuff. Don’t fall into that pitfall!
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Exploring SEO: The Value of Local Search Terms
In our last installment of SportsRantz Magazine we looked at the importance of certain factors of SEO, including the practice of Interlinking/Co-Citations and some helpful search commands to help you find more informative results to your searches.
This time, I take you a step further and branch off our original discussion about choosing the proper keywords to target. Especially if you are first starting out, you are going to want to start with some longtail phrases, but phrases that are going to help you increase the power of your brand and give you some nice recognition.
So I explain in detail some local search phrases to incorporate in your blog posts and the importance of interlinking them within every post you make.
As I state in this lesson, Patience is a Virtue. Results do not happen overnight and the SEO practices or internet marketing ninjas (ha) that promise you quick results probably won’t give you long term success and more than likely will get your site knocked out of the search results just as fast as they got you there. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen first hand to clients. It’s not a pretty situation.
To hire Elite Rank Marketing for Local SEO just check us out at EliteRankMaketing.com
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