Paying for Guest Posts

Google consistently looks to punish websites that exploit their search results for financial gain. Amazingly there are literally thousands of SEO 'experts' offering you the kind of advice that is likely to get your site punished in the next Google update, by then of course you will have noticed a surge in your impressions and therefore been happy to give them the money. Of course if the site that they have linking to your website is found to be in breach of any of Google's myriad of rules and regulations, which of course they would never spell out for fear of people getting round them with black hat techniques, then you will find any of the benefit from that link be removed. There will not necessarily be any action taken against your site but in essence the service you have paid for will be worthless.

The move away from links as a strategy to more content marketing it seems has now become awash with those wishing to get your hands on your cash for doing very little. Traditional Content Marketing was a marketplace for good quality writers to connect with companies and websites that wish to have some content written by an experienced writer. This was a great market and led to many top websites investing millions in content to ensure their brand was well known but also had content that was useful for the user.


Getting Content - Paid writing services

The practice of hiring writers to write content is traditional but very popular way for companies and websites to achieve better rankings by having quality content. Google values the content because they see themselves as being on the side of the user, they want the user of Google to have the best time and find the best information. This often means that webmasters get furious with Google about any downgrades or falls in impressions, but you must remember Google is not the provider of a service to a webmaster they are a service for the searcher. This kind of financial transaction is not frowned upon by Google and can be a great way to boost your blog, or product website by having professionally written content. 

Getting Guest Posts - Paid Guest posting

Instead of traditional content marketing Guest Posting paid services now offer you the content and also the placement of the article on a website that will link back to yours. Sounds like even better idea than content marketing right? not only are you getting the content but your getting exposure and a handy back link to boost your Google rank. This may be true in some cases but unfortunately a lot of these paid services are actually placing your content and links onto either useless websites, article farms, spinner websites or no where at all. The reason for this is that real guest posting is a long and laborious task, to find quality websites, write articles for them that they want to use and then having them published can be a process that takes a few weeks, not a couple of hours. So ask yourself why would someone want to do all that work for $20? Perhaps they have a well established network of contacts to have your work published on, or perhaps they have a number of well established blogs of their own that they would place it on. My advice would always be wary of this type of offer. Consider the time it takes and the value it generates, always check where they will publish the guest post prior to payment of any money and make sure that website is something you think is appropriate for your brand. As with the hiring of anyone ensure you have done a sufficient background check before engaging in a financial transaction with them. There is a massive difference in subcontracted work and work done directly by the person you are paying. Sub contracted Content Marketing is huge business, essentially someone sets up a website offering paid writing jobs, offering typically $2 per article and then have a team of people paid $2 per hour to post your articles on websites. So your $20 payment is in fact only 20% to those writers and placer but a massive 80% for the middle man who has a nice website. If you thought it was a lot of work for $20 then it certainly is a lot of work for $2 so you can imagine the output you get.

If you wish to discuss any points feel free to leave a comment, or if you are looking for reputable Content Marketing then leave your details and I'll get back to you.

The Clothes do not maketh the man!

Depending on your industry you will find there is a set dress code for the types of clothes that are deemed acceptable and normal. Obviously for women this list is a lot more complex than for men. The types can be broken down into four main categories:

Formal Business Attire

Most office based companies insist on smart formal business wear from both genders meaning suit and a tie for the men and a smart pant suit or skirt and blouse for the women. But how important is this really? Why do companies bother? Its an interesting question and considering many employees only conduct internal interviews so have no external client face time you can understand the frustration but there is a purpose for it. Those who dress smartly are effectively putting on not only clothes but a mindset. That mindset will be professional and smart. It is easier to speak with authority, improves engagement by ensuring everyone speaks eloquently and also creates a tone that will mean your office may be a more sombre and professional work space.

Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shirt is ironed and top button is fastened with Tie on show.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and colours are not too vibrant.

Some examples of good and bad:

MEN'S

Good Suit

Bad Suit

 WOMEN'S

Good Work wear

 

Bad Work wear

 Smart Casual

A lot of modern offices have now adopted the smart casual approach where shirt and shoes are still expected but ties and suit jackets can be left out. The bad part of this approach is that it leads to a lot of confusion especially for your female workers, they already have a difficult choice when it comes to office wear and this can often lead to an environment where some still apply formal business attire rules and others really go to town with the casual element.


Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shoes worn and shirt collar visible, jumpers should be without slogans.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and no open toed sandals.

Casual

For modern and art type industries you find the choice is mainly casual, jeans and a tshirt are deemed everyday staples for those working in a more creative environment. This breeds a culture of comfort, engagement and innovation. Allowing your staff more freedom with their clothing lets them express themselves which should be encouraged when working in a creative field. Comfort is also important if they are spending long periods of time at a desk, workbench or other 


PJ's

For the rise in homeworking this has become the office wear of the blogger. Wearing your PJ's is comfortable easy and quick, but it does present some issues, for instance you miss that lovely feeling of getting into your PJs after a long day at work. Also with the rise in the use of skype for meetings the 101 Dalmations onesie may be viewed as slightly peculiar when speaking to a potential client. Also when working with webcams ensure you wear something which has a high neckline, all too often people forget that the other user can only see your head and shoulders so may think you are naked!

The choice of work wear for a business is essential in setting a tone and not a decision that should be chopped and changed, also ensuring that there is a blanket code for all is important to not create a clothing hierarchy. If you supply staff with uniforms then to improve engagement you may wish to take feedback on the uniforms and let the staff have input into the design.

Google Authorship - A Must for Guest Posting?

Google likes to display results with a nice little picture of the author, it has been proven to improve the amount of traffic generated on a Google search as it somehow invokes trust and intrigue. Another aspect to Google authorship is of course that the website you are writing on needs to have a Bio of the author and even perhaps an author page to reference to ensure the Authorship works. If you wish to improve traffic to your articles it makes sense to use Google Authorship, not to mention the chance that your authorship will generate cross article traffic if a person likes your work.

Difficulty of Google Authorship

A Lot of webmasters don't allow their guest posts to have Google Authorship which means that your work is not being accredited where it should be and it is not been given the exposure that perhaps it should be. This is down to the design of many websites making google authorship difficult to do without code. Most Webmasters offering guest posting want to be able to publish the work with the minimum amount of effort necessary. Another complexity is that if you own the publishing and you have access to your Google+ Profile then it means you can quickly check it is all working. If when publishing an article you need to check it is working then you will have to rely on the author adding this to their contributor list. This has led to a rise in the number of websites that prefer to have article series, weekly contribution or a long term relationship with authors, those which continue to run a one article guest post opportunity run the risk of being caught up in spam activity and penalised.

Benefits of Google Authorship - Video

Be Careful

Like anything on the internet you do not want to be affiliated with anything that is spammy or black hat so by giving authorship status to your guest posters you are in effect creating a link from your website to that individual. Whilst checking the links in a guest post are suitable is an obvious step when publishing you may also have cause to check out the author, ensure they are not going to be bad press for your website. Essentially Google wants to use Authorship ranking to eventually get web searches that are impacted by the trustworthy nature of the author. If for instance the author has three followers and only posted two bits of content this might be viewed as having less weight than someone who posts regularly and is well established on social media. This may sound unfair but what it will do is ensure that spammers are not given coverage and that is the ultimate aim in Google's plan. Identifying websites that are spam or black hat is a constant battle for Google and a tool in their arsenal is that most spammers do not have 'real' social media accounts, they have lots of links from bots or fake profiles (Something with social media is constantly looking to rid from their sites) and so authorship will play a vital role in not only ensuring good quality is recognised it will also be a valid tool for Google to get rid of more spam.

Forecasting Workload - Beginners Guide

The first question a business has when it expands is how do I know the amount of work there is and how many staff that requires. It is a tricky subject is your new into the employment game. Up till now you will have relied on yourself to do the activities and depending on your type of work this could be skilled or unskilled labour. You may think resource planning is an activity on required for big business or the corporates and you would be wrong. Correct application of resource planning will maximise your potential output, improve efficiency and also help with marketing. There are companies that will offer you all this for a nice price, but in essence all you need are a spreadsheet and a stopwatch.

Give clear instructions
This is the most important aspect of hitting the ground running by giving clear guides you are saving yourself a lot of rework and mistakes. Unfortunately a lot of companies take the approach of learning on the job, the old you watch me doing it, then you do it while I watch you, then your on your own. This means that bad habits, shortcuts and scenarios may be missed and will lead to panic and confusion later. A well prepared manual is essential if you wish to have a productive employee. But remember they will be behind the average time taken for at least the first 3 months, if not productive by 6 months you should consider further training or performance observations. Well written guides to the work you are done should not be complete in one sitting, always leave them as working documents as often a scenario will prompt an addition, so don't go out and get them laminated for the wall.

Break workload into defined tasks
When you do everything for a business you can get so wrapped up into your own little rituals and ways of doing things that it all blends into one. But you must break each activity down into work items, this will allow optimised scheduling of activity but more importantly measurement of that activity. For instance you may think that the task of waiting tables is all one job but it isn't, the tasks involved are: Greeting and seating, drinks order, drinks deliver, started/main order, cutlery and sauce setting, food delivery, courtesy check on happiness, food clearing, desert ordering, desert delivery, table clearing, bill delivery, bill collection, table setting. You can see how a job like waiting tables may seem to be something anyone could do, but without instructions they miss one of the 14 steps listed out and you will have angry customers. You may also think you could put waiting table takes on average 1hour but then you are actually measuring the time the people take to complete meal and not the time the waiter spends working, are you OK that they simply stand and watch as the customers eat? do you think they could be fulfilling another role at the same time?

Measure time of each task - SMV (Standard Minute Value)
Take a stop watch and time yourself doing the activity, just a normal pace not rush or too slow. If the activity involved lots of different scenarios then take the most common one you do and time that. Do this for at least 10 observations and take the average time. More than this would be beneficial but unnecessary for your purposes. Mark the task description and the time taken on each observation on an excel spreadsheet, you can use the function =average(cell array) to give you the average of the ten.

Allow for down time
Factor in between 10 and 20% wastage on each timing, this is time for sneezing, errors, toilets breaks and other comfort breaks. It is important to do this otherwise your timings will be unattainable Your own discretion should be used for idle time because it varies depending on the industry. You find those who work with customers directly have far more idle time due to interactions that may be unexpected however those in a manufacturing setting will simply utilise breaks.

Forecasting workload - arrival rates
To measure the arrival rate of each task you can look over historical data. For manufacturing businesses this will be order fulfillment and stock ledgers, if you are a retail business then you can look at the customers and categorise these into a time destinction you wish to measure. It may be daily to begin with but if your operation is over 6 days it may be more beneficial to do this hourly as you will need to do shift rotas for staff. Half hourly is the lowest level you should go down to, other options would be half daily split into morning and afternoon, third daily morning, afternoon and evening.

Once you have captured your historic data (if you do not have historic data then measure it over the next 4 weeks, you may begin to use averaging after 2 weeks but it will be more volatile due to the lack of observations). You can then take average of previous four week periods to future forecast foot flow. But this is not the final step. You should consider any premiums that need to be applied onto specific dates, local fairs, markets, events, holidays or seasonality. The gut feel is the only way you can measure this to begin with unless you have historic data from previous three years. Seasonality will be a small uplift to reflect perhaps a surge in winter or summer, specific daily adjustors would be that you may be busier on the first of the month because that is traditionally pay day locally.

Testing against actuals

Continue to capture your arrival rates and compare these with forecast, this will be the best way to capture any alterations you may need to make.


Overall Workload
You are now in a position to determine the workload requirement for the specific operating days, hours or half hour periods of your operation. This will assist scheduling new staff at times when others may be present but also allow you to see any likely dips in workload that you could focus marketing on to attract business to those quiet times, offers or deals are a way restaurants fill their orders at quiet times e.g. Early bird deals, pre theatre meal deals, etc. The calculation is simple:

Arrival Rates * SMV = Workload minutes
Workload minutes /time period(e.g. within 1 hour would equal 60) = staff requirement

Where staff requirement is below 1 then you can take the following actions:

•  Migrate workload from other time periods that is not event specific e.g. general cleaning, training
• encourage customer migration to that time with incentives, remember that you will be paying higher than usual staff costs during those periods so some money off to ensure productivity may be more prudent financially.
• Create new tasks or take on new work streams
• Diversify your staff to be able to perform more than one role
• Close business during these hours, if the work does not exist to maintain one staff member is it really worth opening the doors?

If this is your first experience of resource planning I wish you luck should you wish to discuss these techniques or require support on documents, templates or other material feel free to leave a comment and I will contact you.

This is an introduction for small operations the complexity of this gets more as your business expands and you will find automation is the only way to go if you want decent analysis of workload.

Click ads - Good or Bad for eCommerce Websites

For many businesses the world of Google ads is seen as something that is perhaps not the best idea. Why would you want an ad for a competitor on your website? Well there is many reasons to have ads placed on your website but make sure you do your homework.

Passive Income

The reason so many bloggers and article based websites use Google ads is because they provide an income in perpetuity and involve absolutely no effort. For blogs advertising is the only way to drive income so Google ads offers an easy to use income generator. Passive income streams are the golden goose for many home based writers allowing them time to pursue other interests with a background income.

Issue with eCommerce

The ads are driven by the content on the page picking up keywords to provide the reader with a valid  impression that may be tempting to click on. Of course if you have a page with your products listed featuring these ads it will likely feature competitors ads on your page. This may be off putting as customers may think you are also selling those products, but it can also be useful. Imagine the scenario where you have a really good quality item at a very competitive price, the ad would show a less favorable option and could drive up your sales, after all comparison prices are one of the biggest improvements that is driving customers online. If you have done your homework and know you are selling great items then you should not fear ads. If however you are a small operation or a very niche product you may find ads are either detrimental to your business or simply not appropriate.

Make Sure they Perform

The key to any ads is to check what they are showing on each page, ensure you can see that the ad is appropriate and if your not happy you may need to spend some time in your ad account setting this up. If you find you are getting more clicks but your sales have increased then you may want to keep them on your site, if however your sales fall and your clicks increase you have a competition problem and need to check it out. Maybe your price is too high, images not clear enough or your quality is not as high as others.

Of course the income from ad revenue is nice to have for small retailers but you need to do a full market research review before you embark on this. Keep an eye on your customers behaviour noting any changes in terms of conversion rate of sales or particular products that recieve higher click through

Content Marketing - The rise of racism online

The Internets big players all use the English language as default, it is the language of the internet and whilst many would argue there are others you cannot deny that if you don't write well in English then your work is doomed.

When you consider the global population it seems surprising that so much of the internet is dominated by English language sites and US and UK based content marketers can command the highest fees. Whilst there is an argument that exists around education standards being higher in western countries it is not always the case. Many webmasters and bloggers won't entertain any non UK or US based writers to do any paid work for them, whilst most countries these websites are hosted in have discrimination laws it amazes me how much casual racism goes on. Online job adverts are the last bastion of freedom to discriminate, allowing people to advertise for all different types of people, regardless of their ability to actually do the job somehow their country of residence or place of birth is a valid tool to exclude their application.

No one would argue that the distasteful way minorities were treated by both the US and UK until protected by law was a good way of operating. Signs in shop windows advertising jobs with the addendum of NO BLACKS ALLOWED were an all too common site. Having eradicated this problem it seems that deep entrenched racist view is quick to manifest itself when given the opportunity.

Pitching problems

If English is not your first language then you should always seek to improve your written ability. This can be done by engaging in social media discussions or perhaps just taking the time to ask for feedback from western bloggers.

If you are still struggling and finding a lot of your pitches are rejected why not use a western based editor to help with your work. This may mean your fee is reduced but after some experience you will find the need for an editor will reduce.

Having worked with a number of analysts and project managers from India in the financial sector the quality of work is never an issue, but there would always be some complaints about report writing or written communication being difficult to understand. This would often be considered a failing in their knowledge when in fact it was not the subject that caused them issue it was simply their ability to communicate that in a foreign language.

Payment Problems

Paypal is the mechanism of choice for most paid blogging sites, so living in a country with paypal restrictions render your opportunities useless. Due to the competitive nature of online writing why would any would be employer go to the effort of paying by other means when they have a queue behind you of people willing to accept paypal payments?

Exchange rates are another issue, often paypal offers some of the worst rates of exchange and this can mean over the course of a month that you are singificantly penalised compared to western bloggers. This exchange rate is yet another mechanism for the middle man to take a larger cut.

Accessing finance for any start up project you may have can prove difficult with credit card issuing and other bank lending not as accessible as the US and UK. These barriers to entry make starting up a new innovative tech company hugely complex.

There is no easy solution to this problem, as with many things online a few bad eggs have ruined the party for everyone. Scammers, spammers and criminals have given many countries a bad image that has resulted in restrictions of payment services offered to any would be paid blogger. Should these countries develop and grow more robust financial systems that protect against such fraud, prosecute and seek to eliminate these scams then they would surely be a boom in growth, unfortunately that is a long process so for today's generation you face a marketplace that is tougher than your western counterparts.

I am not advocating that webmasters should begin to accept poorer quality work just to appease those that would call racism, however I think that often there are judgements made not based on fact but on presumption. I am the first to reject an article that I deem to be poorly written and provide feedback as such, often the writer simply never responds but occasionally you will find someone who takes the time to correct their errors and I would like to think it helps to improve their writing going forward. All I am saying is that we should begin to be a more global and inclusive industry that seeks to help each other, move away from this secret society of black-hat tricks and discrimination.

I'd be interested to hear your views or stories from your own experience.

2013 Top Guide to Guest Blogging

In 2013 the main SEO tactic that will be used is Guest Blogging, you may see others who proclaim that social media is the new must have technique but with social media platforms getting wise to this free advertising expect to see it decline considerably. With Facebook offering advertising at cost to business and blogs this is sure to weed out those looking for free ways to help promote their content, and that in itself is the keyword, FREE. Interestingly you will find plenty of SEO companies and experts use this technique to create business, offering amazing quality content and links to businesses in exchange for sums of cash. So how do you navigate this often baffling world of Guest Blogging? Here is a guide to both posting Guest blogs and recieving.

Guest Blogging Offered

When you are a guest blogger the difficulty is in finding quality websites to submit your content to. Each has their own set of rules and often have such a long list of rules it puts you off even attempting an article. But if you follow the simple guide then you are sure to find plenty of quality websites willing to take your work. For opportunities in Guest blogging you should sign up to a Google+ Community in this niche and also sign up for regular updates from Blogger Linkup

Sourcing and Pitching

• Use social media to find websites offering Guest Posts
• Do not be tempted to contribute to article farms as these will harm whatever links you put into the articles.
• Do not automatically assume higher PR is the key to success. A new website may have lower page rank but will eventually be more profitable to you. 
• Always ensure the website is relevant to your back link. If you are promoting a Fashion blog do not think that writing on a finance blog will help you, although there are obvious cross over genres perhaps music and movies can be tied into fashion.
• Ensure your level of English is flawless, broken English and poor spelling will put off any blogs even if your facts and figures are great.
• Ask the offering party what there rules are for Guest posts, length, back links and images. Do not try to argue this point your in a crowded marketplace so to do so will likely have any offer withdrawn.

Writing

• Ensure your level of English is flawless, broken English and poor spelling will put off any blogs even if your facts and figures are great.
• Ensure your content is long enough, most website owners will ask for between 500 and 700 words but some have begun to ask for over 1000 words minimum.
• Proof read your own work, if you have finished your article read through it, or even get a friend to read over it for you. This means that the website owners will not have to spend time editing your work and more likely offer you future opportunities.
• Do not be tempted to spam link. One or two links in an article is adequate unless the article naturally dictates more. By adding more links you will find many web owners reject your blog offering.

Being Published

• Don't be put off by a rejection. Many sites differ in style and tone and it is not always the easiest task to match to their high standards, remember being a site owner you want to ensure quality is good. Spend time reading some articles on their site to judge the tone, many blogs are informal conversational tone but also you may find others want a much more informative and authoritative tone.
• Remember your articles on other blogs are not just their responsibility to promote, it is in your interests to share this socially and drive some traffic.
• Ensure you keep a record of your published work in a CV format for future pitches.

Guest Blogging Wanted

Offering

• Sign up to Blogger Linkup to find a good array of guest bloggers, also joining blogging communities in your niche will help attract other like minded individuals to your site.
• Offering guest posts to your site does not make you the owner of that individual.
• Ensure your rules are clear and concise. Do not be tempted to be too detailed this will put genuine guest bloggers off.
• Give direction as to what topics may be good, and always ensure you agree the title and brief description before work commences.

Editing

• Don't be afraid to reject guest posts, but ensure you do so politely, say no and offer constructive feedback, a simple no will likely be met by anger but if your explain why then it allows the individual to work on their skills.
• Changing some small elements to an article is fine, but if you are removing entire paragraphs make sure you agree with the Guest Poster first. You would not want to have to remove the content later should they complain.
• If you are also using the work to drive your own back links ensure you state this up front. As a guest blogger there is nothing worse than finding your article riddled with links you did not put there.
• Off topic blogs will not help your Ranking so by publishing work that is foreign to your target audience is not the smartest idea

Publishing

• Always stipulate timescales when agreeing a Guest Post, do not sit on articles for weeks before using them, had the writer known the timescales they may not have sent you it so early.
• Try to publish agreed articles within two weeks, if you cannot do this then simply do not commission any new work.
• Once it is published ensure you send a thank you note and URL to the author. Google loves authorship so it is in your interests to have an author bio on your site.
• Give the article some social media attention by promoting it on your own platforms, just because you didnt write it does not mean you should ignore it. Its your website after all.

If you follow this simple guide you will find the experience much more enjoyable. Not only will you find a huge wealth of talent out there you will also likely come across many not so talented individuals. If you filter out the rubbish with the rules above you should flourish as a well informed blog and blogger.