By Nick Lewis

Guest blogging can be a great e-marketing strategy and help establish you an an authority, terrific for SEO and social media campaigns.

A good blog can be the centre of an effective social media marketing strategy, and, particularly if it’s hosted on the website you want to promote; can be an excellent way of driving traffic. Websites are fantastic for pushing your message out there, but blogs allow greater flexibility in staying up to date and demonstrating your specialist knowledge in your particular niche.

Not only that, but a well loved blog can become a platform for guest blogging, which will allow you to spread your genius even further into cyberspace. If you contribute a knowledgeable post to a well-respected blog, traffic will follow you back to yours, which will have earned extra kudos as a destination for decent information by virtue of your guest post.

On the flipside, if you can attract guest bloggers to write on your blog, you not only get the benefit of having fresh content to appease the Google gods, but you are further entrenching your blog’s authoritative reputation. This can be spread throughout other social media channels to drive even more traffic to your blog, which will translate to traffic for your website (if it has been designed effectively).

The potential benefits to be reaped from keeping a good blog, guest blogging and attracting guest bloggers are obvious, and that is why a blog should be a key part of your web design. An orphaned blog will serve no purpose; you may attract readers but the end-goal is for them to click-through to your actual website. As such it is a good idea to host it on your website so that people are already there, and need merely follow header links to discover your services. Making blog integration a key feature of your web design will allow you to drive traffic to your products or services much more effectively than tacking one on at the end.

The marketing strategy of blogging and guest blogging is simple: become an expert and establish yourself as an authority. As every blog thrives on fresh content, most well reputed blogs will be open to the suggestion, and it is an easy way of showing off your knowledge.

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Guest Blogging as an Effective Marketing Strategy is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

By Richard V. Burckhardt

Got something to say? Guest blog at The Web Optimist.

Just so you know, The Web Optimist blog is open to guest blogger articles related to SEO, VOIP and search marketing. These guest posts are free, of course (take that, Google!) and posts must be a minimum of 250 words in length.

Guest blog post in the following categories for free – SEO, PPC, Social Media, News, Reviews. All are moderated and edited. Inappropriate posts will be deleted. Be civil, folks! A total of three links are allowed within the body text (two of which can point to your own sites). Obvious spam, inappropriate or off-topic content will not be considered. In other words, if I do not like it, I will not publish it!

Simply go to the Contact page to submit your article idea. I’ll set up frequent contributors with an author’s account.

Call for Guest SEO Blog Articles is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Guy Kawasaki of AllTop.com said he was late to blogging. First year was easy because he just regurgitated his existing content. Second year was tough. Third year he hit the wall. Then, he discovered Twitter.

“I was born to tweet!”

It took him a month or two to figure it out. At first, it was “what is this crap?” Only 140 characters?

Now he says, do you know how much better the world would be if all communications was limited to 140 characters?

“Twitter for me is a weapon to promote AllTop.com. I believe I have to tweet high value, very informative links so that people will tolerate my promotion of Alltop.”

Alltop.com is Kawasaki’s topic related “magazine” site.

The moment you go to search.twitter.com and search for yourself or company, you open yourself up to finding conversations, he says.

One of his favorite tools is Twitter Hawk which always looks for a string, drafts auto tweet and sends to persons looking for that string. Twitter Hawk records that it sent a tweet to a Twit and will not send to that person again. It also costs .05 each to send the tweets to help reduce spamming. Check it out at http://www.twitterhawk.com/ .

Isn’t this spamming?

“If I do it, it’s good marketing. If someone does it to me, it’s spam,” Guy says with a smile.

Another great utility he recommends is Tynt. With Tynt, you copy a line of javascript into you blog code. When someone copies text from your blog, an attribution link (your blog) shows up. Great for content theft because it drives traffic back to you and it provides a management console where you can see what is being copied. Check out http://www.Tynt.com .

And, Guy thinks that the more dumb an idea, the more likely it is to work, citing examples of ideas that sound so far out that they sound ridiculous, but are successful.

His current book is Reality Check and his web site is http://www.guykawasaki.com .

Guy Kawasaki at PubCon Austin is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Unlike a certain recent political candidate we’re all familiar with, I know when it’s time to concede. John Carcutt is the winner of the Search Engine Journal Blog Off. John’s finalist post Are S E O Forums Still Needed? beat out my own 25 Blog Optimization Tips Even Dear Old Dad Could Ace to take the top prize.

What can I say? John has this ability to come up with topics near and dear to an SEO’s heart, write great content about them and attract Sphinns like a magnet.

Great work, John!

I really don’t see coming in second for the competition as a loss, though. Far from it. I blog because I love to share what I know. That’s really what blogging is all about. Every time I get the opportunity to publish some of the things I have learned in a subject I am passionate about (in this case, SEO), I’m a winner. It’s such a feel-good thing for me. As far as I am concerned, sharing amounts to taking the prize!

That’s what my blog, The Web Optimist, is all about. I certainly don’t make money with it. It’s just a place for me to share the tips and tricks I pick up along the way as an in-house SEO. I also manage, optimize, edit and write most of the content for The Eye Zone, the eyewear blog of FramesDirect.com, my employer, so I do a LOT of writing every week for it. Squeezing time in to write for my own blog (or something for Search Engine Journal if I think I’ve got something good), can sometimes be difficult. But, when I can, I love doing it.

So, we’re all winners here. Lots of great content and tips came out of this competition. The folks over at Search Engine Journal are the best!

Now, I think I’ll retire to the chaise lounge by the pool and console myself with the bright California sunshine, clear blue skies, gorgeous Palm Springs mountain views and a glass of White Merlot (or two).

Loser? Naw…

Losing to Win: Taking the Prize by Blogging is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO