My Blogger Tricks

Building a Brand: The Importance of SEO in Modern Marketing Efforts

Posted: 24 Feb 2022 12:02 PM PST

If you look at modern marketing efforts today, you may notice that there are many moving parts that comprise a marketing program. But perhaps one of the most critical and the most effective marketing tactics you can use involves search engine optimization (SEO). SEO gets you noticed. And if you're starting your own business, or if you're an SEO professional, a deeper understanding of SEO dynamics and how they're constantly changing with the implementation of complex algorithms is essential for marketing success.

Some research has shown that there are approximately 137,000 new businesses being developed each day. And with all of these businesses likely trying to establish a web presence, this makes the need for SEO even more critical for reaching short-term and long-term goals. If you're looking to gain a deeper knowledge of SEO practices, the following will provide a detailed overview of why SEO is important and how you can use SEO to build your brand.

Learning SEO

As mentioned, one thing you have to understand in order to be successful with digital marketing is that SEO is constantly changing. Though there are some industry standards and rules of thumb to follow that have been around for many years, keeping up with changing trends is still going to be part of your success.

Keeping Up with Trends

One of the best strategies for keeping up with SEO trends and for learning the basics of SEO is to look into the best SEO courses and training programs for developing your knowledge. SEO courses offer insider tips, fundamentals of SEO practices, and advanced training that can allow you to better keep up with the changing dynamics of SEO tactics. By enrolling in SEO courses and training, you'll be able to place yourself ahead of the competition as a business owner, or further establish yourself as an expert in the industry as an SEO professional.

Why SEO Matters

According to various studies, there are about 1.8 billion websites in the world today. And that's a lot of competition to say the least. With all of the competition on the web today, it's a wonder that anyone gets any type of exposure. But the fact remains that even though there remains a staggering amount of websites, not all of them are using SEO. SEO enables your website to get ranked higher on a search engine results page (SERP). And the higher you're able to rank, the greater your chances for gaining new business, or for generating greater revenue for your clients. The following list provides an overview of what factors an SEO program can assist with:

Optimizing online visibility
Increasing website authority
Boosts credibility
Supports content marketing
Rank better in local searches
Improves website usability

As you can see, there are many fine benefits related to an SEO program. And there are far more benefits than listed above. But understanding SEO and how to employ the tactics is how you gain these results.

Improving User Engagement

At the end of the day, if you haven't engaged any users, your website is not going to be much help. And a lack of engagement often means that either you have really bad content, or your site hasn't been optimized. An optimized site will bring in high quality traffic. Site optimization along with engaging content goes hand-in-hand. For example, it's a widely known phenomenon that if you're able to make a customer engage longer with your site, he or she will likely develop a better relationship with your brand. And this is how brands are built, on trust and engagement.

Reaching More People

If you want to build your brand, you have to have a broad reach in order to engage the most users. And while many marketing programs focus on marketing to a target audience, SEO offers you the ability to engage with anyone intent on buying. Basically, if you're able to target keywords in the place of building complex user profiles and targeting those demographics, you're more than likely going to correspondingly attract more prospects who are actively searching for your keywords. This is the key to reaching a broader audience and building your brand. Digital marketing may have many moving parts and be subject to the whims of complex algorithms and a changing digital landscape. But learning SEO can not only give you an edge over the competition, it can help to build your professional standings in the world of content marketing.

My Blogger Tricks

Why Your Blog Audience Isn’t Growing (and What to Do)
4 Reasons Why You Should Know About PKI
TOP Fun challenges to try out with your friends

Why Your Blog Audience Isn’t Growing (and What to Do)

Posted: 09 Feb 2022 03:14 AM PST

X Reasons Your Blog Audience Isn't Getting Any Bigger

You may have a great idea for a blog, excellent writing skills, and a consistent publishing schedule – but that's still no guarantee of success. Many talented writers see an initial phase of growth, but they eventually hit a plateau where the blog audience ceases to expand.

If you find yourself in one of these plateaus, it's important to take corrective action; otherwise, your blog growth may remain stalled indefinitely.

The Common Culprits

If your blog has reached a plateau and you're no longer seeing the growth you initially did, one of these factors is probably the culprit:

Repetitive content. Bad content probably isn't your problem; otherwise, you wouldn't have seen the growth that you've already seen. Instead, your problem may be repetitive content. If you're writing about the same topics over and over with no new insights, or if you're covering content to your competitors have covered in sufficient enough detail, there may be a few reasons for your readers to stick around or spread the word about your blog's existence.
Lack of marketing and advertising. You may also suffer from a lack of marketing and advertising. Hypothetically, if your content is good enough, your readers should actively share your stories with others and attract more people to the following. But this doesn't always happen without some sort of initial push. You should be prepared to spend some money on marketing and advertising to kickstart your growth.
Inconsistency or lack of focus. It's also possible that you're struggling from inconsistency or lack of focus. What is your brand? What makes it different from other brands? How often are you publishing and are you sticking to a consistent schedule?
Poor targeting. Do you know your target audience? If you don't have the target reader in mind, it's tough to make your content both compelling and relevant. And if you don't understand your target audience well, you're not going to be able to write for them or market to them competently.

Analyzing Your Efforts to Date

Before you start attempting any tactics to restart your blog growth, spend some time analyzing your efforts to date. Is there a specific point where the growth begins to halt? Are there specific shortcomings in your blog that you know about? Have your readers praised and/or criticized various elements of your blog? Gather all these points of evidence and try to figure out what the root cause of your plateau is.

Investing in Marketing and Advertising

One of your best tools is going to be marketing and advertising strategies, which can directly introduce people to your blog for the first time. Once you've done your market research and you understand your target audience better, you can try one or more of the following strategies:

Search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies available, because it's both inexpensive and infinitely scalable. If you're writing great content, you've already got one of the most important pillars of the strategy; you'll just need to refine your targeting with the help of a solid keyword search tool. From there, you're going to need to invest in offsite guest posts, build links, and perfect the architecture of your site.
Pay per click advertising (PPC). PPC ads can be expensive, but they also have the potential to send practically guaranteed traffic to your site. It's great if you need a short-term boost.
Social media marketing. You should already be on social media promoting your best content. If you're not, now is the time to get started. You can also invest in social media ads to reach even more people, assuming you have the budget.
Influencer marketing/partnerships. Consider partnering up with other content writers and influencers in your space. Collaborating on a shared piece of content or cross-promoting each other's work could be valuable to both of you.

Polishing Your Content Quality

Don't forget to polish the quality and consistency of your content as well.

Stick to a schedule. Make sure you're publishing on a consistent basis. Depending on the nature of your blog, that could be daily or weekly, or even monthly.
Inject more variety. Consider injecting more variety into your blog as well. If you usually write short posts, throw in a few long ones. If you usually write articles, make a few videos.
Get controversial. Don't be afraid to use controversy to your advantage. Controversial subjects may alienate a handful of your readers, but it's only going to make your remaining reader base more passionate and interested.

It takes a lot of work to make a blog successful, even if you're a good writer with a solid idea. Try not to get discouraged if you do hit a plateau early on in your blog growth strategy. There are always tactics that can help you pull yourself out of this rut and get back to your target growth rate.

4 Reasons Why You Should Know About PKI

Posted: 09 Feb 2022 03:02 AM PST

There are IT concepts you should know about if you run a business. You might not be the person or belong to the team that handles all of your IT needs, but you should still understand some of the basic notions. When you do, you can speak to the IT department more easily, and you'll be able to take part in discussions about what technology forms you do or don't need.

With that in mind, let's talk about PKI. We'll explain what it is, and we'll give a few reasons why it benefits you to know about it.

What is PKI?

PKI stands for public key infrastructure. It is a system that governs digital certificate issuance. Digital certificates exist so you can be sure of a user, app, or device's identity anywhere in the world.

If you know that a device has a digital certificate, that's how you can be sure you are not communicating or trying to do business with a fraudulent entity. Some hackers will set up entities that mimic others. They'll try to get you to reveal sensitive information, which they can use against you in various ways.

Now that you know a little about PKI, let's go over some reasons why it matters and what it can do for you.

You Can Understand a Fundamental IT Concept

As we mentioned earlier, some people who either own or operate companies don't know very much about IT. There is not anything wrong with that, necessarily. You might do fine hiring an IT staff that can make all your critical IT decisions.

However, friction sometimes develops in companies with someone on the top rung who does not know the first thing about IT. For instance, you might have a CEO or CFO who ultimately approves the IT budget. Maybe the IT staff or freelancers you hire request more money for some IT resource, like PKI.

You don't know what it is, so you can't understand why you need it. That means you're likely to clash with your IT staff. They will experience frustration because they can't convince you PKI matters, and you will likely feel the same way because you don't have unlimited financial resources.

That's one reason why learning about PKI and understanding it helps. It's a fundamental IT concept, so you're helping your IT staff when you know a little bit more about it and why it matters.

You Can Understand How Much It Costs

Following that thought chain, if you run a company and you know about an IT concept like PKI, you will probably have some idea of how much you need to spend on it. For instance, maybe your company uses servers. Your IT team might let you know that a server base case will cost you about $50,000 if you want a fully-functional PKI system.

If you know that when you talk to your IT staff, you won't blow a gasket if they ask for that kind of money. You will understand that's what this sort of thing costs, and you won't take any frustration out on the IT department. In short, you'll know not to shoot the messenger.

You'll Know PKI Means Privacy

Earlier, we mentioned how PKI lets you confirm an entity's identity. If you try to communicate with an app, user, or device, you can be almost positive they're legit if you have a PKI setup.

Identity confirmation is a huge step toward preventing hacker attacks, identity theft, data leaks, etc. All of that matters for your business. If any of those things happen, you will have to go into damage control mode. Your company might have to fold if bad publicity buries you.

However, the PKI concept comes with another aspect that we should mention. When you use it, it ensures your privacy.

Maybe you're communicating with an entity that agrees to make a component you will use in one of your new products. You feel like this new product will propel your business to new heights and allow you to get ahead in your industry.

You don't want anyone to know about these interactions outside of your company and the business that creates this component. If you set up PKI, you can ensure that no one sees or hears about what you have coming down the pipeline.

Industrial spies exist, and you can combat them with technology like PKI. If you know that, you will probably feel a lot better about paying the high price tag for it.

You Can Add a Digital Signature

When you have PKI in place, you can send information back and forth. Maybe you have several companies and individuals with whom you regularly communicate. They might advise you regarding what parts you need, market expansion, a new ad campaign, etc.

You'll likely both have intellectual property. You own the rights to it if it's bespoke. You let each other see it because that's how collaboration occurs.

Still, just because you're letting another entity see your proprietary information or technology, that does not mean they can start using it however and whenever they want. This is where PKI can help you in yet another way. If you set up PKI, you can add a digital signature to anything over which you hold proprietary rights.

If you have a digital signature on your software, especially if you have a bespoke system, that means anywhere someone uses it or interacts with it, they will know that it's yours. You have granted them a limited license to use it, but they can only do so as you have instructed.

As you learn more about PKI, you can see how much it will do for your business entity. Not every company will need it, but larger ones with a significant online presence probably will.

You will have to talk to your IT team about possibly implementing PKI. If you do, you're likely to enjoy other benefits besides the ones we described.

TOP Fun challenges to try out with your friends

Posted: 09 Feb 2022 02:35 AM PST

Our childhood is always full of fun activities that unintentionally force us to reveal our capabilities and strong sides. Enjoying pleasant pastimes and exploiting various challenges to do with friends make you prove your leadership and perseverance. Even if there may not be any competitive intention, the presence of a number of people and the desire to become the greatest transform an ordinary game into a real challenge. Fun challenges for adults are a perfect way to escape from everyday problems and annoying routines. Such engaging activities enable even the most serious adults to feel like kids. Therefore, we introduce the list of extremely amusing and entertaining challenges to try out with friends.

1. Wear or Eat it

For this challenge, you need two bags – one with various food items and one with their names. Take a card and decide whether you want to wear or eat it.

2. Funny Blindfolded Drawing

Your friends need to draw a picture of anything they with their eyes closed. The winner is the person who drew the most vivid picture.

3. Pop Rocks challenge

This is the type of challenge where you should take any unpleasant mixture, like pop rocks or cinnamon, add some liquid, and try to drink it.

4. The Egg Roulette

You need to prepare two types of eggs – raw and boiled. People have to take an egg and smash it on their heads. The principle is simple whether you will be dirty or stay purely clean.

5. The Russian Roulette

The scheme of this challenge is similar to the previous one. Prepare several shot glasses with vodka and several ones with water. Make your friends choose without smelling.

6. Trust or Dare

The well-known game can be really interesting if you stand out against the background of uncomfortable questions. Do not be afraid or shy to choose Dare and express all your creativity.

7. Hoverboard or Roller-blades challenge

Following the rules, you need to set up an obstacle course and offer your friends to complete it. They have to stay on hoverboard or roller blades while completing the course (you can also use any other tools). The time limit should be set as well.

8. Song guessing challenge

The rules are also quite simple. Split into teams and play the melody while another team is trying to guess. Some modifications can be provided as well. For example, some of your friends may play a musical instrument or hum a melody.

9. Laugh and you lose

Choose one person to prepare a playlist of extremely funny videos beforehand. Split into teams, watch videos one by one, and get points by not laughing.

10. Smoothie challenge

Prepare a set of various food items, not only the delicious ones. Cover the eyes of a person, make a smoothie, and offer them to taste. Their task is to name all the ingredients. As you see, the list of fun challenges is not limited to ten points. All of them can be modified and improved according to your creativity, number of people, desires, and equipment. The only rule is to make the process engaging and memorable.

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Friday, February 25, 2022