OK , when I told a friend of mine in the internet marketing field today that I was giving away this information for free on my blog, she told me I was nuts!

But I am just so excited to share this with you I can’t wait until my training program comes out next week to talk about it – so I put together this little video on how to use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to carve out that lucrative niche we started to talk about yesterday.

So, if you haven’t read yesterday’s post on finding a niche, stop reading right now and do it, because you’ll need that base to really get the most out of this video!

Are you starting to see how this can all come together – how it is possible to really do work you love and make money at the same time? Come back tomorrow, because we are going to talk about effective ways you can start to build a reputation in your niche that will help you make the big bucks. This is exciting stuff, people – don’t miss out!

And don’t forget to sign up for early access to my new training video, launching next Wednesday – first 25 people to download the video get a FREE coaching session with me! Click here to get to the sign up page!

Related posts:

1. Finding A Lucrative Niche Is the Key to Success
2. Understanding Your Industry Qualifying Values
3. How to Create a Successful eBook in 4 Steps

Creating eBooks full of valuable content is a great way to do what you love and make money from it. Check out this simple step by step training video to about how I create successful eBooks.

Be sure to scroll down past the video for links to some of the resources mentioned in the video!

• To get your own account with e-junkie (around $5), click here: e-junkie.com
• To access the PDF converter, click here: Free PDF Convert
• To get your own account with BlueHost (free domain with $6.95 hosting package), click here: bluehost.com

Enter your name and email below for access to even more great resources!
Need more reasons to sign-up? Click here!

Related posts:

1. How To Create an Uncommonly Successful Business Website
2. How to Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to Make Money
3. Can You Digg It?

I’d like to start this post by thanking all of you who took the time to Digg, Stumble, and Tweet our little guinea pig post about How to Get Up Early. Today we are going to take a look at the results of the experiment to see how many Diggs we could get on the post as well as what it meant in terms of traffic.

As an added bonus, I have included some interesting experience/tips/tricks from other bloggers about using Digg. Let’s get started!

First, let’s get some numbers out there – for reference sake, I included other bookmarking sites to help us gauge effectiveness:

• Number of Diggs: 28
• Number of Tweets: 14
• Number of Stumbles: 68

Interesting…

Let’s take a peak at traffic on these sites:

• Viewed 128 times on Digg
• Viewed 759 times on StumbleUpon

Now, let’s look at some incoming traffic stats:

• Incoming traffic from Digg: 7%  of search engine traffic (which accounts for 6.7% of total traffic)
• Incoming traffic from Twitter: 5% of non-search engine traffic (which accounts for 16.5% of total traffic)
• Incoming traffic from StumbleUpon: 12% of search engine traffic (which accounts for 6.7% of total traffic)

Looking at these numbers, what really stood out to me (and I’m sure to you as well), is that response on and traffic from StumbleUpon was much more impactful than Digg or Twitter.

The question this whole experiment sought to answer is: does it behoove us Uncommoners to spend our time trying to get out readers to Digg our content, or is there another social bookmark site that is more worth our time?

My answer is: it depends.

While some people swear by Digg (Yaro Starak refers to Digg as a “traffic river generator”), I have found that for my particular site and readers that other syndication means are just as, if not more, effective. Does this mean I will give up trying to get my content Dugg? Heck no! My dream is still to be on the front page of Digg one of these days! It just means that I need to be more savvy about how I go about making that happen.

To help us all understand how to utilize Digg more effectively, I’ve included some great advice from two bloggers who use it and swear by it on a daily basis. I want to hear what you think about Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social media sites – please leave a comment and tell me what you think is the most effective one!

A good way to leverage digg is first, be active on it. Pimp out your profile. Add friends and interact with them… just like Facebook or Twitter. Second, submit all posts to the UT via Digg as well as Twitter, Facebook and Stumble Upon. Not only is digg great for backlinks, but viral exposure. – from Ken Pickard

I too have done a bit of research on the Digg front, because many clients ask about it and want to get information regarding how to get their blog posts on the first page. I think it really comes down to a few things: It’s about how great the content is- is it something that is inspiring, unique, weird, off the wall, interesting, etc…., It’s about who you know – if a power digger submits something for you it gets extra Digg ‘points’, it’s about how Diggers come to your submission – if they click on a URL, search for it via Digg search, or just stumble across it while cruising on Digg, and it’s about doing what you’re doing below….asking people for Diggs. The community of Digg on the surface hates when people ask for Diggs or ask you to submit something, but in the end: that’s how power Diggers become power Diggers. – from Kaila Strong

I hope you’ll think about signing up for The Life Uncommon newsletter! You will get free and immediate access to 3 Exercises That Will Change Your Life…Right Now! just for joining!

Here’s to your Uncommon Life!

Related posts:

1. Can You Digg It?
2. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part I
3. How To Create an Uncommonly Successful Business Website

As Uncommmoners, sometimes we could all use a little celebrity power in our corner, especially if we are writing books, developing products, or trying to get endorsements. Today, I want to share with you my experience using Contact Any Celebrity, a service that gives us little people a chance to touch the stars…well, at least get them involved in our projects!

Using their database, I was able to make contact with the founder of Craigslist, Suze Orman, Justin Timerblake, and Oprah. That’s right…I said Oprah.

The Challenge

A few months ago, I finished a non-fiction book proposal for a career development book and sent it to my agent to start shopping project.  After looking it over, she said it was perfect except for one thing – it needed some celebrity sparkle.  She casually suggested I get in touch with Oprah, Kim Kardashian, or Suze Orman for some quotes and maybe to write the forward.

Sure…because we are all best friends – I’d just ask them at our next brunch date, right?

But my agent was convinced that I was up to the task, so we delayed sending out the proposal until I could secure some “celebrity sparkle.”

Overwhelmed, I sat down at my computer and Googled every celebrity I could think of, looking for their contact information, or the contact information of their people. I even followed some of them on Twitter and tried to @reply them…yeah, not the best plan, but I had no idea what else to try!

Then I stumbled on Contact Any Celebrity (aff), a subscription service that gives you access to the contact info for just about everyone you can think of. I’ll admit, the front page of the site looks a little sketchy, but since they offered a free trial, I figured “what the heck.”

The Solution

Here were my first impressions (in this order):

• Wow, OK this looks more legit than I expected…
• Sheez, that’s a lot of names…
• Cool, they actually list multiple contacts for each person…
• Neat, I didn’t realize that celebrity supported that charity…

The database has everyone, from musicians to business personalities to actors. For each person, they list an address they can be reached at (via snail mail), what charities or causes they support, as well as a list of contact people for that celebrity (agent, manager, publicist, assistant) along with their phone numbers.

While at first I felt a little disappointed when I realized I wasn’t going to get Oprah’s personal email, I realized that there was actually a quiet genius to being able to reach a manager/agent/publicist: it gives you a chance to introduce yourself and sound official, instead of just sending an email that would likely just get deleted.

Intrigued, I decided to be brave and see what happened when I made a call. Nervously, I dialed the number for Suze Orman’s agent and held my breath.

The number took me to the front desk of a major agency, and a surly receptionist answered. With faked confidence I asked by name for her agent. “One minute,” the surly voice said, and I was connected to the agent’s office promptly.

The agent’s personal receptionist was much nicer – I immediately identified myself as an author with a quick question for Mr. Orman for an upcoming publication. She listened patiently, and then asked if I could hold for a minute. After about one minute, she returned to the line and ask to send the question by email to the agent’s work address. I took the email address, said thank you, and hung up.

Not bad for my first attempt!

I repeated the routine for over 2 dozen celebrities that morning and received similar answers from just about everyone. The emails were sent out, and I sat back and waited for a response.

The Results

Within a week, I had heard back from more than half of everyone in my first batch.  Here is a quick snapshot of what I got:

• 10 personalized rejections (so-and-so loves the idea of this project but can’t comment at this time)
• 4 requests for more information
• 5 quotable comments from celebrities to be used in my publication
• 1 agreement to write the forward for my book

Due to the fact the book is being shopped right now, I can’t share who agreed to do the forward, but let’s just say I’ve already mentioned them and when I told my agent her jaw hit the floor.

I have continued my subscription with the database past the free trial because the cost is low (under $30) and the results were huge. You never know when you’ll need to get in touch with someone’s people fast.

Bottom line impression: Contact Any Celebrity is a great service,  inexpensive service that comes with lots of resources (articles, books, tips) for successfully getting what you need from a celeb. This isn’t a great site for people who are just looking to star gaze or stalk their favorite celebs, but it is great for entrepreneurs, charity organizers, and business people looking for some “celebrity sparkle.”

You can read more about Contact Any Celebrity here (aff).

Here’s to your Uncommon Life,

Related posts:

1. Maximizing The Internet
2. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part I
3. How to Create a Successful eBook in 4 Steps

By Tanveer Naseer

These days, it’s hard not to take notice of the spread of Twitter into the social mainstream.  Of course, for those who aren’t currently active on Twitter, it can be a bit perplexing compared to other social media sites.  So before we discuss how to effectively use this site, let’s first define what Twitter is.

Essentially, Twitter is a communications platform, a place where people can share ideas and information and engage in conversations regarding that content.

Granted, for those who are not using Twitter on a regular basis, this might not seem obvious, that is until we visualize it as being a river flowing with information, with users found in the various sections of the current (this is why many Twitter users refer to their accounts as “streams”).  From this vantage point, it’s easier to relate to the swirling mass of conversations and its lack of a linear dialogue approach.  Looking at Twitter in any point in time is like tossing a net into a river and catching whatever fish happens to be in that spot at that moment.

Another important point to remember about using Twitter is that it’s not supposed to be a numbers game, of seeing how many people you can get to follow you back.  Instead, to really gain value on Twitter, your goal should be to foster and nurture relationships with others, and this can be for both professional and personal benefit.

With this in mind, here are some points on how to use Twitter for those who are thinking of diving into this information/conversation stream -

1. Give people an idea of who you are

In order to start building relationships with others, you first have to let them know something about yourself.  That’s why it’s important to take some time to create a Twitter bio that will offer visitors to your Twitter page some information about you and what you’re interested in.  If you have a website, blog, or an account on another social site (eg LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc), you should include it in your bio so that people can use it to learn more about you in order to know if you’re someone they’d enjoy following on Twitter.

2. Show what you’re interested in through the content you share

The next thing you want to do is give people an idea of what you’d like to share/talk about in your Twitter stream.  The point here is to attract the people who you’d be interested in engaging and developing relationships with by showing them the common interests you share.  So instead of tweeting random articles, pictures, and videos, share content that you personally find noteworthy and which you think others might enjoy as well.

Another important point to remember is that, just like with blogs, the quality of the content you share will have a significant impact on your ability to draw the interest of others in wanting to follow you on Twitter and converse with you on this social media platform.  By being selective about what you share, you’ll develop a reputation of providing valuable content, which will help draw the attention/interest of others in wanting to connect with you.

3. Share other people’s content in your stream

While it’s important to let people learn more about you, we have to remember that it’s also about learning more about others as well.  One way to do this is to share other people’s content in your stream, what’s referred to on Twitter as “retweeting”.

This is not only a great way to emphasize what topics you’re interested in, but in many ways, it’s also Twitter’s version of the ice-breaker as it gives you the opportunity to engage with others.  Most people tend to post thank you notes for retweets (RTs) and so, if someone thanks you for retweeting their content, be sure to follow up with a reply, including a mention about what you enjoyed about the piece they shared in their Twitter stream.

4. Consistency is key

While you don’t have to tweet for hours every day, it’s a good idea to make time to tweet with a regular frequency to help build your profile of both who you are and what you’re interested in talking about/sharing.  In other words, instead of tweeting every minute for hours at the start and then dwindling down to one tweet every few days, start with a slow, steady pace that you’d be willing to maintain for a couple of weeks.

In the end, it’s important to remember that if you’re new to Twitter, it’s going to take time to both figure out how to navigate this social network, as well as knowing what approach ultimately works best for you to build meaningful relationships with others on this site.  As those like myself who use Twitter regularly can attest, the benefits reaped from engaging others on Twitter makes it definitely worth the time and effort.

Tanveer Naseer is a business coach who works with small businesses and entrepreneurs to develop new strategies for growth and development. You can read his writings on leadership and workplace interactions on his blog.  You can also follow him on Twitter – @TanveerNaseer

*Don’t forget to sign up for the new and improved – and free! – TLU newsletter by clicking here or enrolling below:

Related posts:

1. The New Rules of Twitter
2. Professional Success with Twitter: A True Story
3. Social Media Etiquette

Can you identify what your ‘commonsense solutions’ are?

As I was catching up on my news last night, I caught some of an interview with Sarah Palin.  While the 30 minute segment covered a range of topics, one thing in particular stood out to me:

“Commonsense solutions.”

Regardless of what the interview leader ask, somehow the former governor managed to slip that phrase, commonsense solutions, into her response. This struck me so fiercely, not because I am either for or against Ms. Palin, but because it was an absolutely perfect example of conscious and successful personal branding.

We have talked about personal branding here before, as it is one of the most vital things anyone can do to not only improve their business success but also consciously affect how others perceive them. Part of personal branding is about selecting keywords and keyword phrases (just like in SEO) that signify what you are setting out to do and what you represent.

Returning to our example for a minute, if someone asked Sarah Palin what she represented or strove for, she has a perfect soundbite answer: commonsense solutions.  If I were to ask you after the interview what her platform or goals are, you would easily pick up on “commonsense solutions” as the answer.

This is not accidental.  She (and her team of handlers, PR reps, and managers), spent considerable time honing in on keywords they want to be affiliated with her among neutral onlookers and supporters (enemies have other ideas as to what keywords they would affiliate with her!).

The truth is you can’t control what people thing of you – that isn’t what personal branding is about.  What it is about is actively delivering a message for people to pick up  on about you and your business instead of passively letting someone else brand you for you.

Personal branding is a tool that can help drawn in potential clients, bolster current clients, frazzle competitors, and give you a boost of support.  However, when you don’t consciously emit personal branding keywords, everyone else will just create them for you.  You become passive in your attempts at branding, and therefore are at the mercy of the at times fickle and uninformed perceptions of those outside yourself.

My version of “commonsense solutions” is “actionable personal development” – this is a keyword I try to drop as often as is naturally possible when it comes to explaining and promoting my brand. Other keywords include authenticity, success, productivity, and of course “the life uncommon.”

What are your versions of “commonsense solutions?” What personal branding keywords are you actively trying to get affiliated with your business and yourself?

Here’s to your Uncommon Life,

*Don’t forget to sign up for the new and improved – and free! – TLU newsletter by clicking here or enrolling below:

Related posts:

1. Personal Branding and Mini-Mission Statements for Uncommoners
2. Branding Tips from Coca-Cola Business Director Justin Honaman
3. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part II

Good Saturday Afternoon, friends and Uncommoners!

I hope you’ll check out my guest post, Find Your Blogging Voice: Confessions from a Master Imitator, now live at the wonderful Freelance Writing Jobs.

The article addresses a common problem that many new (and even some seasoned) bloggers experience, and one that can keep your website from ever really get off the ground.

Would love your feedback and opinions – have you ever caught yourself imitating another blogger’s writing style?

Also – the first mailing for Uncommoners International went out this afternoon.  Were you among the fabulous who received it? If not, keep yourself from being left out of the loop next week by signing up for free now!  Click here to sign up!

Here’s to your Uncommon Life,

Related posts:

1. Professional Success with Twitter: A True Story
2. The Great Digg Experiment: Results
3. Walk In Balance All Our Days

In my opinion, the Internet is one of the greatest tools every Uncommoner has at their disposal.  The Internet allows you to reach an unbelievably wide audience to share your ideas, make important connections, and research your passions. It is also one of the key income sources for many Uncommoner, through either the distribution of information, services, traditional goods.

So whether you are a 60 year old Uncommoner who is selling her homemade cookies through her site, or a 20 something Uncommoner who provides essential information on how to get your music on the radio,  it is absolutely imperative to have a business site that not only represents you accurately but also makes you money. Here are some key tips to keep in mind as you create or tweak your successful business website.

Provide Valuable Content

This may seem like a kind of obvious statement, but all you have to do is troll through some random Google results to understand how much junk is floating around in cyberspace.

By providing valuable content to your customers, either in the form of clear product descriptions, blog posts, or carefully crafted articles, will hold the customer’s attention.  Longer attention spans means more of an opportunity for them to notice that online course you’re providing or the totally great customized notepads you are selling.

Providing quality content also helps establish you as an authority on whatever you are selling. If you are following the philosophy of The Life Uncommon, you already know that an essential element of succeeding financially from your passions is to create and own a niche.  Having worthwhile information on your business site can help reinforce you as the leader in your niche and make you a better source for customers than your competition for whatever you are selling.

Update Regularly

Unfortunately, it isn’t just enough to have good information on your business website – you need to have recent and up to date information.

Updating the content on your site regularly will keep customers coming back to see what’s new, meaning your traffic will be high.  Higher traffic means better search engine rankings, which in turn means more traffic and more revenue.  It is a cycle that can be either beneficial or hurtful, depending on how much you put into it. Brush up on your SEO techniques here

Another unfortunate fact is that no one can tell you exactly how often is often enough for updating information on your site.  Some sites can update only once a week without seeing a major drop in traffic, while others need to update several times a day to keep numbers high.  This is an area that you need to feel out for yourself based on your topic and your customer base, but what is certain is you won’t be able to just put up basic content and then leave it alone.

Establish first, Monetize  Second

This is a tip that is especially important for first time website creators.  The temptation to add advertisements onto your site right from the get go can be great, however it is better to start without ads and establish yourself first.

You hear all these stories about how people make four figures a month from their Google AdSense accounts, however these are typically long term site owners who either have very high monthly traffic or manage multiple sites.  The point is they know how to utilize ads in a way that can earn without interfering with the reader’s experience, and I can tell you from my own days online that it is definitely an art, not a science.

It is better to first establish yourself as an authority, provide valuable content, and generate awareness about your product before you introduce ad boxes which can detract from your message and even from your product.  Some ads that can appear might be from your competitors, and the last thing you want to do is shoot yourself in the foot by advertising your competition next to your own product!

Don’t Be Distracting

Aside from refraining from flashy ad boxes, all successful business websites stay away from visual elements that are distracting to readers and potential customers.  Some things that are distracting to viewers include:

• neon text
• fluorescent backgrounds, or wildly patterned backgrounds
• text that is too big or too small
• text that is unnecessarily bolded, underlined, italicized (or all three)
• Flash boxes (those obnoxious things that have moving words and pictures)
• pop-up advertisements or survey requests

These are but a handful of things which can affect how your customers read your site.  The best bet? Start simple and classically elegant, and then add a few bells and whistles here or there one at a time and watch traffic results to see how they work.

Be Yourself

No matter what you are selling or who you are trying to sell it to, BE YOURSELF.  Use language that makes sense to you, write in paragraphs that feel natural to you, and choose color schemes, logos, and even product names that you are proud of.  The world is full of imitators who are all trying to emulate the latest hot shot, which is why none of them stand out.

Be yourself, present yourself and your ideas and products in a way that is authentic to you, and you will see your business website become a real success.

Here’s to your Uncommon Life,

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Successful eBook in 4 Steps
2. Improve Your Business Skills for Increased Success
3. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part I

All your SEO questions answered – for real – by an expert in the field

In the first part of this post, I shared the big picture of SEO with you based on my interview with SEO expert Kaila Strong, including an overview of what SEO really is, what is the basic terminology, and why your site needs it.    Today we’re going to switch from the macro view to the micro details, and look at what exactly your meta fields should contain.

As a brief recap, in the last post we defined the meta fields as being the meta-title, meta-description, and meta-tags.  These three fields are part of the non-visible code on your site that is used by search engines to “understand” (aka categorize and files) your site.  The more accurate and descriptive the tags are, the better ranking your site will get on search engine results.

But what exactly do you put in those meta fields to optimize your search engine placement? And more importantly, where do you access these fields so you can edit them? Let’s get these questions answered!

Where Is My Meta Data?

Before you can even consider editing your keywords, tags, description or title, you need to first find your meta fields.

The basic answer is that your meta fields are located within the <head></head> tags on your website’s coded pages.  For those of you do not code your website and instead use a front end dashboard to manipulate your page’s appearance, you would find your coded files with the template style files.  These files have the ending .php – if you’re a Wordpress user, then your coded style files can be found under the Appearance -> Editor.

If your site already has meta data, then it will appear somewhere between the <head></head> tags like this:

<head>
<title>your business name and page title<title>
<meta name=”description” content=”a description of your site”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”relevant keywords about your site”>
</head>

If you can’t find these anywhere in your coded header or main index file, then your site currently does not contain any meta information and it needs to be added.

However, many site platforms (like Wordpress) offer plugins that are designed to help you optimize your site without having you mess around with your code.  Currently, I use “All in One SEO” for Wordpress, and love it.  It allows me to alter my title, description, and tags for each blog post.  The theme I’m currently using also has a SEO tag space for the whole site which save me from having to touch the back-end code.

*Note: messing around in your coded files without coding experience is risky and can result in deleting, editing, and altering things you didn’t mean to and can’t fix.  If you don’t have coding experience I strongly recommend you do not attempt to edit the meta code manually and instead try to install one of these simplified SEO plugins to optimize your site.

The Meta-Title

Once you’ve located your meta fields, the first thing to work on editing the meta-title.  Kaila gave a perfect explanation of what to put in your meta-title:

“When writing a blog the title is everything. Not only is the title of your blog important, but so is the meta title as I described above. The meta title tags are shown at the top of a browser window, and they are also shown on search engine result pages (SERPs). Likely, your tags will differ from the actual title of your blog. A rule of thumb I use is to utilize two main keywords relevant to my blog post, and add a third keyword, my company name. For example, if you had a website (Music of the Soul) about classical instruments and wrote a post entitled “How to Buy the Best Classical Instruments”, your meta title for the page should be: Classical Instruments | Buy Instruments | Music of The Soul.”

SEO Specialist Ross Dunn created a simple, easy to remember meta-formula:

[Keyword Phrase] :: [Description of Page or Website Name]

The Meta-Description

According to Kaila, “Meta description tags should contain at least one of the keywords relevant to your page, along with a brief description of what is contained on that page. The key here is to entice searchers to click on your listing by describing what is continued within. Experts suggest keeping it under 160-170 characters.”

Ross suggests always starting your description with your title keyword phrase.  So using Kaila’s example from above, the description would start with the phrase “Classical Instruments.”

The Meta-Tags

When it comes to meta-tags, Kaila’s advice is surprising.  “While some experts suggest utilizing many keywords in your meta tags, I generally stick to no more than 3 or 4.  Search engines do give weight to meta keywords, but not as much as you’d think. The important advice here, however, is just not to overdo it; which can be true with just about everything in SEO.”

If you are trying to build brand recognition or name recognition, it is important to include those things not only in your site’s meta-tags but also your blog post’s meta tags.  For example, I include “The Life Uncommon,” and “Nacie Carson” in each of my meta-tags to make that when someone searches for this site or for my name they will be able to see a broad range of information.

SEO and the Uncommon Life

I have been working on my titles, descriptions, and tags for the entire life of the site so far, and I can tell you that I will continue to to tweak, edit, and reassess indefinitely.  Do I revamp all my keywords every day? No.  But I do make sure I fill out my SEO information for each post, and every month or two I recheck the keywords on the site at large and make some adjustments. Another thing I do is work through my old posts and adjust keywords as I learn more about SEO and how I can utilize it to increase traffic. While I have no sure proof that my SEO efforts are working, I can tell you that traffic rises significantly here every month – you can take from that what you will.

It is almost a guarantee that at some point in your Uncommon Life you will need to utilize a website or blog to help sell your products, showcase your services, or get your message out there.  SEO is an essential tool that will help you succeed in your efforts.  And like an Uncommon Life, SEO is really a process, not a destination.

Special thank you to Kaila Strong for sharing her valuable time and information!

Related posts:

1. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part I
2. The Great Digg Experiment: Results
3. Maximizing The Internet

All your SEO questions answered – for real – by an expert in the field

I’ll admit it: SEO is one of those buzz terms that I claim to completely understand yet still feel a little fuzzy about – OK, well really fuzzy about.  And I’m willing to bet that you have similar feelings.  Experts say that SEO is the major difference between an amateur website and an uber-successful site, but if you’re like me you’ve found that most resource for SEO basics are just elaborate sales pitches that promise to reveal the big secret if you just pay $49.95 via PayPal.  Yikes.

So I decided to cut through the bull and talk to SEO expert Kaila Strong – yes, a real live SEO expert! – about what SEO is all about, what the basics are, and how to make it really effective for your website or blog.  Kaila is the Social Media Architect for Vertical Measures, an Internet marketing company that specializes in SEO.  She has been kind enough to share her extensive knowledge on the subject with us to clear up all those nagging questions – thanks, Kaila!

Now Let’s start breaking this mammoth concept down…

What is SEO, Really?

Aside from being a nebulous Internet term and oft-used sales gimmick, SEO is actually a straightforward formula for how to get your website or blog to the top of the search engine results.  In case you don’t know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Search Engines, like Google, MSN, and Yahoo, are the top way users will find and navigate to your site if they don’t go directly to your URL.  For example, the majority of the traffic for The Life Uncommon comes from people directly linking to TheLifeUncommon.net, however the next largest source of traffic is from search engines.

According to Kaila, roughly 200 million search engine searches are performed each day, which yield search results that translate to more traffice for your site.  And traffic equals ad revenue, service or product purchases, and more respect in your niche.  Therefore, every day you have 200 million reasons to make sure your site is Search Engine Optimized.

In the simplest terms, Kaila says that “SEO is the process of molding your website to conform to search engine guidelines, thereby facilitating the ease with which their algorithms can determine what your site is about.”  Once it understands your site, it can understand when to return it as a search result.  The better it “understands” your site, the closer your site will appear to the top of the search results, which is what we all want.

SEO Basics

To “understand” your site, search engines pull information from the three “meta” tag categories that are part of your site’s behind-the-scene’s code.  These tags don’t show up on the front end of your site that you view through a web browser, but they are visible to search engines, robots, and other automated crawling programs.

The meta-tags are included in the meta-title, the meta-description, and the meta-keywords.  But don’t let these differnt categories fool you – the name of the game is all keywords all the time.  A keyword is a word or phrase that is used to categorize your site, and when a user performs a search that includes one of your site’s keywords it will appear somewhere in the list of the search results.  For example, some keywords for The Life Uncommon are “nacie carson,” “the life uncommon,” “uncommoners,” “entrepreneur,” “time management,” and “productivity.”

Choosing the keywords you use on your site is an important task that requires a good deal of research.  You need to find words or phrases that have a high search volume and accurately correspond to what your site is about.  One of the best ways to get a sense of how many people search for a particular word or phrase is through the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  This little gem allows you to input a set of words or phrases and then returns the average monthly global search volume – the higher the volume the better a keyword it is.  It also provide synonyms and related keywords to help you use different and more effective keyword combinations.

One of the reasons I love this tool also is that it allows you to input a URL and see what keywords the Google search engine associates with your site.  This is a great check to help you tweak and improve your keywords to make sure you have the best ones for your site.  For example, if you want your keywords to be “money,” “business,” and “power,” and the AdWord tool says that it picks up “Easter bunny,” “chocolate,” and “milk,” for your site’s keywords, then you know you need to do a little SEO work.

Applying SEO

At this point, you may be wondering what SEO work actually entails.  Optimization of your site requires you to make sure that your meta-title, meta-description, and meta-tags contain the keywords you’ve selected, and contain them consistently.

“The keywords you choose to be the identifiers of your site should consistently show throughout your meta information as well as your content,” Kaila says, “Consistency is key.  The last thing you want to do is confuse search engines.”

Optimizing your site for search engines also means building external links through commenting on other blogs, providing links to your site on social media platforms, and creating content on other sites that links back to your main site.

While this main seem like a lot of work, there is method in this madness. Kaila told me that, “if your site is credible and popular, then others will link to you.  This is the premise that search engines are basing their results off of.  In essence, the more links back to your site, the better.”

Essential Optimization

When I asked Kaila what she would consider to be the most important thing a webmaster could do for their site regarding SEO, the answer was simple: keywords, keywords, keywords.  “Re-evaluate your keywords and make changes on-site to your meta-tags and content.  This is the area that most people forget about.  Oftentimes, your site focus changes, and so do the keyword identifiers on your site.  Keep in mind that search engines like consistency, so if you do change your keywords do so gradually.”

There is no doubt that SEO is an integral part of every website’s success.  In the second part of this series, I’ll get down into the nitty-gritty and tell you exactly what you should and should not put in your meta-title, meta-description, and meta-tags, as well as share some expert wisdom from SEO master Kaila Strong.

Related posts:

1. Everything You Need to Know About SEO: Part II
2. The Great Digg Experiment: Results
3. What Are Your ‘Commonsense Solutions’?