Blogs can be a great way to earn revenue, but not without the effort of building site credibility, valuable content, and a readership.  This is why the majority of blogs fail!  Most people who manage blogs don’t have the patience or frankly the time to maintain a blog that continually produces great content and value to its target audience. However this is not a blog about how build an audience and generate traffic.  It is meant to discuss the different types of blog monetization models.  Traffic, visibility, and brand awareness are what determines what you can charge an advertiser. Advertising/SponsorshipHaving...

Google will be releasing a new type of search, called Google Social Search, which will allow social content from websites like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Linkedin to be pulled into Google search results.  This is a response to Microsoft’s recent announcement of a deal with Twitter and Facebook that will allow updates to be found in Bing search results.  More and more users are engaging  and communicating through multiple social outlets including social networks, blogs, micro-blogging, and user generated content. Google Social Search is the newest way for Google to keep up with social...

Now that Google has condensed its local business listing results in the SERPs from 10 to 7, it is important to improve your LBL rankings.  After reading many articles and blogs, including David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors and through lots of experience with our clients, I am convinced that proximity to the center of the city is a bigger factor that people think.  I understand that Google’s LBL algorithm is much more complex than just showing business listings close to the city searched, but there is a lot of evidence that proves your physical address is a significant factor. Here...

With Google’s algorithm placing more emphasis on off-site optimization and link building, it is essential that you take the time to analyze who your competitors are gaining backlinks from.  There are a number of link analysis tools out there that will help automate the research process. Factors to keep in mind when analyzing competitor links:Link Relevancy:  How relevant is the site linking to your competitor? Is it a localized link? same TLD? Quality of the Link:  How credible is the site linking to your competitor?  Is the site in a “bad neighborhood”? Variety of Links: ...