Wii Games - My Kids' Web site

I've helped my kids start a Web site - they actually have a lot of input although I do most of the technical bits and ghostwriting.

Jamie, 9, Amelia, 6, and Stacie, 5, have a new Nintendo Wii.  They are pretty excited.

So we started a Web site on Wii game reviews. We've gone through some keyword research together using the Google Keyword Research Tool, and are writing some reviews using long tail keywords.

For example, 1300 people a month Google "Wii Active Life Outdoor Challenge" (exact match, meaning they type in exactly that phrase). Yet there are only 921 pages that have that exact phrase (found by Googling the phrase in quotes - Google tells you how matches there are).

Now of those 921 pages that use that phrase, how many do you think concentrate, i.e. are optimized for, exactly that phrase? Probably very very few -- we didn't research further. Instead we threw up a quick yet hopefully useful review, using both personal experience and that of others to add more value (i.e. we read about 150 other reviews online).

I'm betting we snag some of those 1300 searches a month.

We've added Google AdSense, and may add a few other potential moneymakers like Amazon Affiliate links and ClickBank ebooks. My kids will get to buy new games with any proceeds, and if it's a total flop, I'm sure we'll still make enough after expenses to buy 2-3 games minimum.

What did it cost, other than time? Well, I bought OurWiiGames.com for US$2.19 from a domain name sale at GoDaddy this week, normal price about $10.00, and I already have several hosting accounts so that was a non-issue (it's hosted on BlueHost which I recommend - cheap and good).

Now instead of wondering what I'm doing on the computer all day, well, they have an idea now.

PS: My 6 year old wanted it to be a blog, but quite honestly, her writing weekly might just be a bit too much extra work for me :) (she does write well, and may probably be blogging within a year or two)

Turbocharge yourself online with video - 7 simple killer tips

No question, online video is here and is big - and very easy to do.

My friend Gideon, using video on one of his own YouTube channels, and got like 67,400 views in just 8 weeks!

Think a few of these people would click through to your blog or Web site? Oh yeah!

Check out his:

7 Killer Tips For Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

Gideon does a great job, I learned a lot, and 5 minutes after watching this video, I had already implemented some of his advice.

I started another YouTube channel to promote a specific site (took a couple of minutes and it's free). I've optimized my video, which is dead simple if you follow the instructions, and am well on my way.

More later on how I'm using video (and some videos for you too), but for now
Click here for killer tips on turbocharging your online presence with video

I'm going to go watch it again now and take notes this time - seriously. It's short and easy to watch.

I think I'll be doing a couple of videos a week - they are so simple to do, and free to host on YouTube and many other online video services. I may stick with YouTube or may also place them on others like Viddler and Google video etc.

I suppose I should shoot a video on my results? :)

How to Promote Yourself With Blog Comments, Part I

How to promote yourself, your blog, your Website, your charity, your sleazy underworld pursuits, or anything else using blog comments -  a quick two part series.

I'm just giving you the tools -- please play nicely now!

Blog comments are awesome. They let you enter someone else's Internet real estate and leave public statements, which can make you look smart, drive traffic to your blog or Web site, and make Google and the other search engines jump up and down in excitement about how cool you are too. Oh, and the  bloggers wll be happy to if you leave good comments.

First, some basics. Most blogs allow you to leave comments.

You type in your comment, your name, an email (never displayed), along with a URL (something like www.teddemop.com ).

The URL can be to your blog or Web site if you have one, or very simply point to your LinkedIn Profile (every professional should be in LinkedIn - it's complimentary).

The comment may be immediately displayed or it may be "moderated," meaning the blog owner wants to make sure your comment is OK before it gets published.

If you leave an intelligent and thoughtful comment, even if it disagrees with the blogger, some readers may click on your link and come find out more about you. Also, assuming you're using your full name, for example "Ted Demopoulos" instead of "Ted", the search engines will index your comments and associate them with your name. When people look you up online using the search engines, some of these comments will show up and hopefully make you look smart - at least if you leave intelligent comments!

There are plenty of ways to find appropriate blogs in your professional or other area of interest. High on the list is using the blog search engines like Technorati or Google Blog Search. Once you've found appropriate blogs, look at their blog rolls, lists of similar blogs in their sidebars, and you may find some more appropriate blogs.

Part II, "how to make Google and the other search engines jump up and down in excitement about how cool you or whatever you're promoting is, whether it's a charity, random commercial Web site like www.womanshairlossadvice.com, or even something sleazy (use your imagination here).

Part II, How to promote Yourself with Blog Comments and more - click here

How to give away Great Content

"Selling" the free stuff - you need to!

Let's say you got something great, and it's free!

And you've got a bunch of interested people, maybe even raving fans. Perhaps readers of your blog, personal fans of you, or people who really dig your Web site.

What you've got, maybe a special report or audio mp3/CD or whatever, is good enough to sell. Maybe you'll even sell it but first are offering it for free to your favorite fans, maybe for feedback, comments, or just because you're a nice guy or gal.

You let everyone know about it -- and they yawn. A few people download it. No one comments about it.

You know it's great because everyone you've personally shown it to raves about it. They love it. No one else much cares!

What went wrong? Simple.

You've got to "sell" free stuff, same as non-free stuff.

This is not my opinion. It's fact.

You need to create something, let's call it a "sales letter," explaining why it's so cool and why people want it. This "sales letter" might be a blog post, a Web page, an email, part of a presentation to your local pigeon fanciers club or whatever.

In your letter or presentation, you need to stress the BENEFITS. What it'll do for you, not the FEATURES, what it is.

Example - Aspirin:

•     Features - round, white, and small - yawn
•     Benefits - Will make your headache do away - cool! (especially if you have a headache! i.e. it fills a need, real or perceived)

Now here is a real-life example from last week:

I'm fanatical about fly fishing for striped bass and have a pretty popular Web site on the topic. Traffic is exploding. I've got an associated email list with equally fanatical fly fisherman.

I wrote a little special report on fishing. I'm going to sell it eventually.

I email my list and tell them. It's free, just for you, just for now. Friends who reviewed it really love  it. I only get a few downloads. Yawn.

A week letter, I send another email to my fly fishermen friends, stressing:

• Benefits: You'll double your catch, you'll get 'skunked' less, you'll have more fun fishing etc.
• Urgency: Download it NOW, it won't be up long and then I'm selling it
• Social Proof: I added a comment/testimonial from a friend (just one tip caught him more fish last weekend)
• Exclusive: Just for my friends who are currently on my email list

This is all basic sales stuff - and by the way, I neither understand nor like sales!

Net result? FOUR times as many people downloaded it! WOW!

So, you put together something. Maybe a "white paper," special report, ebook, or even a coconut creme pie.

It's GREAT stuff! You NEED to sell it.

Think of it this way:
You're Ripping Off your potential audience if you don't convince them - after all, if it's  great, it will benefit them enormously.

Trying to give away Great Content? You need to sell people on it, just like paid stuff.

Need To Know - Almost Profound Effect?

One book that's had an almost profound effect on me is "Need to Know" by Paul Myers, and he's GIVING it away now. I'm reading it for my 4th go through now. Yes, it's Free.

Profound Effect? Am I serious? Sounds like bull!

Well, yes, in an "online" sense.

He convinced me to build an "online playground" -  actually I've built more than one, and they're paying off too.

The most important started as a blog but morphed to a Web site full of evergreen content (stuff that doesn't go obsolete), and is on a hobby I'm passionate about.

And it's even making me a few bucks, has turned my fly fishing hobby tax deductible (that surprised me!).

I like reading Paul's stuff - I learn a lot from him.

Click here to grab a copy -- before he changes his mind and starts selling it! And he may.

"Need To Know" has also clued me in as to why somethings I've done online weren't even medium successes. Don't get me wrong, I've had some big successes, but some things I thought were no brainers didn't even get a yawn from potential readers online.

I've also got a short list of things to do, which will be fun AND add value to me and others.

You are bound to get at least something out of it, and besides,his writing style rocks!

Click here to grab a copy - A fun, quick, and valuable read,

I'm working on a simple & fun exercise from the book now -- and I think it'll add value and maybe even make me some money.

It may just set my online direction for the rest of the year - no bull!

Local Blogging Tips: Blogging to Support Local Businesses

An Effective Internet Presence is becoming more important for local businesses, as fewer people even consider using the "yellow pages" these days. Blogs are wonderful for building a local business' internet presence. Basic good blogging practice works well for local blogs, for example writing good content, but there are a few additional things to consider that can make a big difference for local businesses

1) Pieces of Paper and Signs

If you are a Brick-and-Mortar store, you've got some great resources to advertise your blog. You might mention your blog on your invoices, fliers, your sign, etc. If you hand out any promotional literature, e.g. fliers or a sheet of current events in the store, not only mention your blog, but mention recent post topics, which are presumably about things of local interest.

2) Press Releases

The local media loves local news. Writing a press release is well the scope of this article (there are plenty of good resources on line), but a title starting with the word "Local" and stressing benefits (i.e. why people will care) can get the attention of local media. Hand-addressing envelopes to the local media makes them stand out and stressing the local angle can do wonders. You can also send out the press release for free or cheap using an online service like PR Web.

3) Search Engines

Almost everyday I look up a local business - today it was my Cleaner and a Chinese restaurant.

I always look on line first, before defaulting to the phone book. Younger people are even more likely to look on line.

Search engine optimization is critical for your blog and Web site, so that people looking for local services online can find you easily. The basics are simple.

The number one rule -- mention location. I'm tempted to say mention "location location location" because you will want to repeat yourself as we outline below.

Blog Names:

A descriptive blog name that includes location is great! For example a name which includes location keywords such as the name of your town/city, state or other geographical info, for example "Twin-Cities" for Minneapolis/Saint Paul. The name of the service or product you provide is also great, like "Bowling" or "Chinese Food" or "Window Washing."

"Great Bay Bowling" is an OK blog name, but "Great Bay Bowling, Newmarket NH" is much better. The more location specific a name, the more local traffic it will get from the search engines.

Post Titles:

Many of your post titles can benefit from including location.

If you're a fishing tackle shop posting a fishing report, "Fishing Report" is not a good blog post title. "New Hampshire Fishing Report" or "Everglades Florida Fishing Report" or "Cape Cod Fishing Report" is infinitely better! More specific, where appropriate, is even better, for example "New Hampshire Coastal Fishing Report" or "Outer Cape Cod Fishing Report."

For a cooking and food supply shop, "Big Bob's BBQ Restaurant Review" doesn't cut it as a title. "Portsmouth New Hampshire: Big Bob's BBQ Restaurant Review" or similar is the way to go.

Body Text:

Mention geographical location (yes again) and what you provide (again) in the body text also, preferably several times in a natural way if you can. Don't write garbage text to include keywords over and over again, but if you are writing about "Vegetarian Dog Food," it makes sense that you might write "vegetarian dog food" several times in your post. Search engines like that.

The Title Tag

Web pages, which include blog pages, have a "title," and search engines care very much about the title. This is the title of the webpage that shows up in the top of browsers' windows. Most blog software automatically sets the title tag to something at least semi-intelligent, for example your blog's name, and it's usually easily modified.

Web pages are written in HTML, and this HTML contains the title. We can modify a Blog's basic HTML by modifying its "template" (sometimes called a "theme"). For example, we could modify this not over search engine friendly name:

to this much more search engine friendly name:

Blogs actually have several types of pages, including the main page, archive pages, post pages, etc. The details depend on the actual blogging software used.

Local Links

Links are incredibly important for getting search engine traffic, especially relevant links. They raise your site's worth significantly in the search engine's opinion, and will result in higher search engine rankings and more online traffic - which can result in more offline traffic and customers and sales. For a restaurant, relevant links would include "food" related links, as well as "local" related links, for example from local directories, local newspaper Web sites, chambers of commerce, etc.

More of your potential customers are looking online. Good blogging can help catapult a local business' Internet presence and bring in more customers. These are a few ideas to make your local blog really tick!

And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com

Religion, Politics and Your Internet Presence: A rebuttal

Thanks to Joe Bell (aka Joseph Stephen Bell), for his views on religion (and politics)on your personal Internet Presence (you can see mine are in my free ebook, Effective Internet Presence: Now required for success in business and life)

Your comments on an effective web presence were very helpful.  However, I must disagree with you regarding your approach to the topics of religion and politics.  While I agree that there are people who tend to wear their peers out with their specialized views in these areas, most people with such interests will know better than to "annoy" their friends and coworkers.  In the case of religion particularly, most religious people I know are actually quite graceful socially, and know how to navigate a friendly conversation on most any topic, be it religion, politics, or whatever.

Therefore, if potential employers or customers are dropping you from consideration due to the legitimate and socially appropriate expression of deeply held beliefs, they are the problem, not you.  Blind and unthinking prejudice is harmful to everyone it touches.  If you had argued it is simply pragmatic to avoid self-revelation on these topics because so many people will invoke their prejudices, I would have felt better about your position.  However, you seem to be saying that because religious people actually tend to "be annoying," they should obscure this vital component of their personality.  In short, they should keep their religion totally out of the public view, as if it were some loathsome disease.  In other words, you were actively reinforcing the false stereotype of obnoxious religiosity unfairly projected on the vast majority of religious people who are really decent folks.

If such is the price to pay for an effective web presence, it is too high a price.  I intend to take most of your advice, but I urge you to use your position of influence, not to be an agent of suppression through fear, but to encourage an atmosphere of tolerance in the virtual world we all must now inhabit ... together.

The New ".me" extension -- Is It Worthwhile?

I'm getting lots of questions about the new ".me" domain.

Is it worthwhile getting YourName.me ?

Good question, and the answer is "it depends."

First you can check at if it's available at Dotster, my preferred domain registrar.

I would certainly give preference to .com domains first, then probably .net and .org.

If you already have YourName.com or maybe .net or .org, then the answer is maybe. It won't hurt, and if you have a somewhat common name or a lot of competition it may be a good idea.

Since "Ted Demopoulos" is not common and my Internet presence is well established, I don't care about ".me".

However I think ".me" is a good choice for many people.

If your preferred name .com is not available, even if you have YourName.org or YourName.net, I'd consider YourName.me, especially if you don't have a very well established Internetpresence yet (like if you don't have most or all of the 1st page Google results).

If YourName.com, YourName.org or YourName.net, isn't available, then I would pounce quickly! Domain names,especially "Name" names are disappearing rapidly.

Even if you do nothing with YourName.me for a while, it may be a great investment.

Again, I use Dotster for most of my Domains. Click here to see if YourName.me is available. Their hosting is a good deal too.

Over and out!

Ted Demopoulos (.com)

Do you Google people and then mention it?

Do you Google people and then discuss the results with them?

My friend Jim tells me all the women he dates ALWAY Google him, and use what they find online as a basis for conversation. Now Jim is a high tech executive, so there is quite a bit online about him, including his blog, so there is always a lot to talk about.

Interestingly he's googled all the women he's dated recently and usually finds little or nothing about them online. Jim IS ahead of the curve, as you all are just because you're reading this if nothing else!

I've recently had two of my son Jamie's friend's parents tell me they've googled me, and comment and what they found. Then again my email signature says "Google me" and allows people to google me with a mouse click.

When you are meeting with someone you don't know well it's common to google them beforehand. Are you comfortable mentioning that you googled them, and comfortable if they mention they googled you?

Do you feel differently if it's in a professional or personal setting?

That's an open question, and a pretty interesting one.

If I get enough feedback I may summarize the results.

Online Reputation Management: How to Bury Digital Dirt

People are always looking you up online whether it’s before they meet with you, offer you a job, or even date you, so what do you do if some “bad stuff” or at least undesirable or inaccurate things about you appear high in search results? Your online reputation is important, so how can you handle this so-called “digital dirt”?

Here are three techniques that can help get rid of digital dirt.

Click here to Continue Reading