How to Drive Traffic to your Website for Top 10 Ranking

  By byeka | March 10, 2012 - 3:35 pm | Marketing
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How to Drive TrafficLet’s talk about how to drive traffic to your website using proper Search Engine Optimization techniques. Google uses an algorithm to rank websites on where they will appear in the search engine based on two separate categories.

These two categories are on-site optimization and off-site optimization. Other search engines like Yahoo and Bing also do this but somewhat differently. Also, most people use Google every single day, so if you learn how to drive traffic through Google you are doing a huge favour for your own website.

Because of learning how to do this properly, you will also learn how to drive traffic through the other search engines as well. Before anything else, Google looks at your own on-site search optimization to drive traffic, which is a combination of four different things.

  1. Title (just your keyword phrase and nothing else)
  2. URL (your keyword phrase with dashes separating each word)
  3. Description (it includes your keyword phrase; 160 characters max)
  4. Heading 1 (it includes your keyword phrase but can include others as well)

These are listed in the order most importance to least importance, however they are all incredibly relevant.

After Google has looked at a website to determine if it has all of these things, it will then take a look at your off-site optimization to continue ranking. The problem is that very few people actually include these first four things, so if nobody is doing it – Google needs to find a way to rank all of them in order to drive traffic.

The off-site optimization is based on something called backlinks which is a link that goes back to your site from another domain. This is incredibly important when thinking about how to drive traffic to your site. There are two types of backlinks. There is a backlink to your page (BLP) and a backlink to your domain (BLD). There should only be one keyword phrase associated with each page on your website. This is a reason why having many blog posts helps to drive traffic, as each page contains a unique backlink which altogether increases the total amount of backlinks to your domain.

So overall when considering how to drive traffic to your website, there are several things to remember. First, take a look at your on-site optimization which means having your title, URL, description and H1 all matching. Then take a look at how many backlinks you have. If you have all of these in place, you will rank on Google.

Power of Storytelling

  By byeka | March 5, 2012 - 9:52 am | Public Speaking
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Let me tell you about the first time I ever tried my hand at presenting stand-up comedy.

It was a disaster.

I remember being in that small bar on Bloor Street in Toronto, somewhere in the east end around Pape station on the subway line. My friend and I had come across the place after hearing about their free stand-up comedy nights. We had made the trek and ventured in one night to check it out and realized that it was all amateur. Some of it was funny, a lot of it was not; but anybody was welcome to try their hand at doing it, matter how good or bad they may be. I had not yet however, realized the power of storytelling.

The two of us decided that we wanted to give it a shot and for the past two odd weeks we had come up with a slew of jokes that we had rehearsed over and over with each other. We now sat in the bar, milking our drinks, sweating with anticipation as we waited for our turns to be called up.

My friend was called first. I watched him get up and gave him a firm nod as I wished him luck. He did his spiel which got a few small laughs but carried more awkward silences where he had anticipated laughter. Okay, it was done – mine couldn’t be as bad could it?

I was called up next and I walked nervously to the front of the room and began to tell my jokes. They were mostly stories about my life and my family. I had decided I wanted to steer clear of any dirty jokes which most of the people here seemed to do. As I went through my repertoire I got a couple of laughs here and there, but for the most part felt increasingly more and more nervous as my jokes were too often met with silence. The power of storytelling had not yet been mastered. Finally, I reached the end and the MC politely whisked me off saying to give it up for Jonathan – a really funny guy!

Okay, not bad. I wasn’t expecting any tremendous results – next time I would do better. My friend and I went back and reworked our script. This time we would each try doing a bunch of one-liners. We prepared them and came back a couple of weeks later. We delivered them eagerly believing our second attempts would be much better. We couldn’t have been more wrong. It was almost complete silence the whole time.

Why was my first attempt at stand-up comedy better than the first?

Quite simply put, I believe it was because I chose to embrace the power of storytelling rather than deliver generic one-liners even if I was not yet effective at it. To an experienced stand-up comedian this may not be the better approach, but to the amateur, it is infinitely easier to engage your audience by using storytelling. It is more personal and helps people connect. As people, we already think in pictures which allow someone who presents by ensnaring our imagination with stories, to capture our attention. Even as you read my recount, I bet you were imagining me being up there and going through my failed attempts at telling jokes. One-liners on the other hand do not offer any engagement. They can be funny but they are hit or miss and have to grab you immediately.

Live what you preach. If I had written this post simply telling you about why the power of storytelling is powerful, it would not have been nearly as powerful as the way I wrote it by actually telling you a story… about the power of storytelling. It grabs your attention and makes you want to keep reading. It undoubtedly was not the best story you ever read or even one that I spent a lot of time writing, but it still has the effect. Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool, for business, personal, and every type of presentation you will ever do.

Why Strong Presentation Skills are Important

  By byeka | February 29, 2012 - 10:34 am | Public Speaking
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Why Strong Presentation Skills are ImportantFrom my previous article on Power Presentations we already discussed what a strong presentation entails.  Now it is time to talk about why having strong presentation skills are an important asset in your life.

Imagine yourself being in your dream job. Forget all the small steps that will get you there for the time being, just put yourself in that place. Maybe you are thinking of yourself being a powerful CEO of a multinational corporation with a large office overlooking a major city. Perhaps you are thinking of yourself as a famous actor, filming movies in Hollywood. Or maybe you are a well-respected lecturer teaching at a prestigious university. Picture yourself in that dream position. Surrounded by the people that you want to be associated with and in that work environment.

Now what do all of these jobs and the one you are thinking of probably have in common?

It would be a safe bet to assume that unless you have lottery-winning luck, it took more than just your knowledge in that industry to get you there. That powerful CEO earned his way up to the top through communicating with the right people. The actor who cannot act well cannot make it big in Hollywood. And the lecturer will not earn the respect of his audience without being able to engage their interest.

Every job that involves interaction with other people can be enhanced by knowing how to properly present yourself. Whether it is through motivating, informing, evaluating or persuading; having the ability to be a powerful presenter can get you ahead. And I am not just talking about speaking in front of an audience, but your everyday one-on-one social interactions. In fact, these are just as if not more important than a group presentation as they happen much more frequently and we as human beings decide whether or not we like someone almost immediately after speaking with them.

Being able to handle yourself in a simple conversation is in fact, a big deal.

In my previous article I asked you to think about a teacher or professor you do/did and do/did not like listening to speak. Now I want you to do the same, but instead think of a person you enjoy speaking with one-on-one and someone you do not like listening to speak one on-on-one. Your mother, father, sibling, best-friend, co-worker, lover or whoever else.

What is it about speaking with them that you do and do not like? Is it their ability to make you laugh or smile? Do you have a strong rapport with them or do you always have something to talk about? On the other hand, do you find talking with someone you do not enjoy speaking with to be a drag? Do you find them to be boring, offensive or loud? What does it take to get someone to win you over?

Whatever it is, I bet it has to do with how they present themselves to you. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Power Presentation

  By byeka | February 24, 2012 - 12:03 pm | Public Speaking
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Power PresentationOne of my greatest passions is public speaking, but to put it that bluntly is frankly – not doing it any favours. More to the point – I love watching a captivating public speaker. And I love learning how to become a captivating public speaker.

What do I mean by this?

Think back to your school days (or think about your classes if you ARE in your school days). How many teachers or professors do you have that you just cannot stand listening to? Actually, just think of one. I know you can because quite honestly, who couldn’t? We have all experienced these painful lessons; the drivel that we are forced to listen to them talk about. But that’s not because what they are talking about is boring (well maybe it is), what it is really about is HOW they go about talking about their subjects.

There is nothing – nothing more aggravating than listening to someone speak who is not able to talk about their subject interestingly. It doesn’t matter if they’re talking about rock and roll, aliens, espionage or whatever else. Plain and simple, if they cannot grab your attention and hold it, then nothing else even matters.

Now think about a teacher or a professor that you had (or have) that you LOVE listening to speak. Maybe they speak on a subject you are interested in and maybe not. But chances are that isn’t why you enjoy listening to them. It is because they have something – a certain charm, flair, a great sense of humour, energy or charisma. Maybe it is all of these things. In fact, it would not really be surprising if they do have ALL of these things.

But I bet one thing is for sure. The speaker you enjoy listening to has these qualities and the one you do not like listening to does not have them.

While the concept of doing what I call power presentations is simple, learning to be that type of powerful, charismatic speaker is not. It takes several things to get there. It takes practice and it takes nerves to stand up and speak in front of a crowd. It takes a commitment to getting better but it also takes a burning desire to get better.

It does not matter what type of personality you have. You can be a very quiet type of person or you can be loud and outgoing. There are certain universal qualities that enable one to become a motivational and charismatic public speaker and I hope to explore these with you.

In my next post, I will be discussing why you want to learn how to do power presentations.

How to Get More Web Traffic

  By byeka | February 20, 2012 - 2:44 pm | Marketing, Social Media
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How to Get More Web TrafficAfter you’ve written a new blog post or put up a new page on your website, what do you do? For most people the answer is to share it on Twitter, and sometimes that may be set up to be linked to your Facebook account as well. And if you have any familiarity with search engine optimisation (SEO), then you probably also have considered your blog post to do that as well.

Both of these are great options, and I do these as well. In fact, under recently this was my primary way of sharing my new content. however, there is a much greater way to share your content and that is by using a website called Ping.fm.

Did you ever see the episode of the office where Ryan had started a business called “Woof” that connected all your social networks and posted to them at the same time? Well if you did, that’s essentially what Ping.fm does; and if not, well now you know what it does. The website can be read time-saving tool, however there are some problems to watch out for.

The good:

Ping automatically lets you can connect to 21 different social networks, many which you probably have never even heard of. You only have to connect with each of these networks once, and once you’re connected you can post to all of them in a blink of an eye.

The bad:

Unfortunately there are some problems associated with the service. For instance, four or five of the social networking platforms are available are no longer on the Internet. Like Google Buzz for example or Jaiku. Delicious which is one of the more popular social networking platforms, is currently experiencing communication issues with Ping and cannot link. Finally, at least four of the social networking platforms I tried to connect with; Ping was unable to do so and not give me a valid reason why.

Overall:

Despite some of the setup problems I had connecting my accounts to Ping, I was still able to connect to 10 different social networking sites which is 10 more sites than I had posted my content to previously. In the end, that means having a great deal more exposure. Yes, you will have to take the time to set up an account on each of the social networking platforms individually, at least if you didn’t already have one set up. But the payoff is worth it, because now all the more people will have a chance to see what you have created, and that means more traffic to your website.