Another year is ending which means a new one is beginning. I thought it would be fun to take a look back in our Analytics and see what topics that we wrote about that you seemed to find the most interesting. It is always fun looking back at a year with some data behind it.

Below is our list of the 10 most popular blogs of 2011. See if you think it all lines up right with how the year went in the internet marketing world and take a look back on a few you may have missed!

10. How and Why to Create Google Alerts

Google Alerts are a great way to keep an ear to the pavement on your brand, your industry or even your own name. In this post, Jenika tells us why they are important and how to set them up.

9. Find What Facebook Pages Like Your Facebook Business Page

This year Facebook added the functionality to participate on Facebook as your brand or business. In this post I talked about finding what businesses and pages like your company page on Facebook.

8. Referring Sites, Search Engines, Direct Traffic – How Do You Get More?

Using Google Analytics you can see how people are getting to your website (referral, direct or search). All three are important pieces of your web marketing pie. In this post I talked about what each referral is about and how to get more of each.

7. 5 Reasons the New Facebook Pages are a Big Deal for Businesses

As previously mentioned, early this year Facebook made major changes to Facebook Business Pages. This post recaps what those changes were and how the were a blessing for many of us maintaining company pages.

6. Stock Image BINGO

One of my personal favorites of the year. Headed to a conference? Take stock (oooh I had to do it) of our Stock Image BINGO sheet and see how many familiar faces, places and icons you see!

5. Learn Something New – View Site Traffic by Hour

One of the best parts about our job is that we are constantly learning (the internet waits for no one). Jenika learned that in the new Google Analytics interface you can view your site traffic by the hour

4. What’s the deal with Groupon and other sites like it?

This year was definitley the rise of the coupon sites. Whether you buy into it or not, they were tough to miss. In this post Jenika helped learn more about what they are and what they could mean for your business.

3. What is Siri? What Does it Mean for How We Search?

Alas, no iPhone 5 this year. Instead we were teased with the iPhone 4S. Other than a better camera, the biggest addition to the new iPhone was Siri a magical personal assistant that talks to you and can perform simple tasks. In this post we talked about what Siri is and how I think it will effect searches in the future.

2. What is the Best Time of Day to Tweet?

This is a popular questions that I get a lot so I took a few minutes to talk about it.

1. What is a QR Code?

This post was actually from 2010! We are sooooo hip! QR codes popped up all over the place this year. In this post I explained what a QR code is. We also got to talk about them with Mainebiz this Fall too.

Happy New Year!
Cheers to a fantastic 2012

Photo credit: nigelhowe

One of the easiest ways to improve your content marketing/social media marketing is to share the load. Instead of being responsible for everything yourself you could share posting, tweeting and writing with other people. Not only will this help you out but it will add different voices to your messaging, which is great for your readers.

You could bring in other staff members to help you create content. You could also take a page from Guiding Stars and use your community to write for you.

If you are going to hand over the keys and use WordPress for your blog, you should set up a User for anyone that will be logging into your blog. As you set them up, you need to choose which Role they will have. This is a very important step and will determine how they can interact with the Admin section of your blog.

Here is a breakdown of the different kinds of Users and what the capability of each level is:

• Subscriber – A Subscriber to your blog does just that – they subscribe to get your content. They are able to manage their profile but they cannot post content to your blog or read draft posts. The largest benefit of being a Subscriber is if you want to leave a comment on the blog, you won’t have to add your information to the form each time.
• Contributor – A blog Contributor can log in and create a post. They cannot publish their post. Someone with a higher WordPress Clearance level has to come in, review the post and can then publish it. This is great for handing over some content to staff or your community but you want to review each piece before it goes live.
• Author – An Author is able to log in, create posts and they can publish them. An Author cannot approve a post written by anyone other than themselves.
• Editor – An Editor can log in, write and publish their own posts. They can also access other people’s posts and drafts. They also have the ability to publish anyone’s posts.
• Administrator – An Administrator has access to everything on the site, including the HTML, CSS and all plugins of the blog. They can add and edit anyone’s posts and they can edit the look and feel of your blog.

So if you are looking to lighten your load for 2012 and want some help coming up with blog entries, try using WordPress User levels to get other voices to your blog but still be in control of what is posted and by whom.

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I don’t know about you but I’ve been cooking up a storm since November! Cookies, pies, and casseroles, OH MY! This is the time of year when we join our friends and family and share tasty treats from each others’ kitchens. There’s something so important about the way food brings people together. Is there something special that you always bring to your holiday events or something you look forward to that someone else will bring?

In the past year I learned of a recipe that I keep bringing to event after event because it’s such a big hit and so easy to make! I’ll leave you with the recipe at the bottom. But first, let’s talk about blogging. I’ve been blogging for Hall’s Vision Blog for almost 2 years. I don’t really consider myself a pro blogger or anything, but I have learned a lot about what readers like and important features to include in a blog. It’s really similar to when you bring a food to share at an event. It has to intrigue others to try it and of course you’ll want people to enjoy it!

Here are a few features that I think make a good recipe for blogging success:

• Keyword-Rich Title – You want a title that intrigues people to read the contents of the blog. But you also want to balance that with a title that is descriptive to search engines about what the blog is actually about. Here’s a great referral about writing headlines that I like to use; it’s an 11-part series put together by Copyblogger to help write better headlines.
• Blog Content – It’s hard to say what the most important feature of your blog is, but if I had to pick one – this is it. It’s the actual content you write about and share. This is make or break for the success of your blog. It has to be insightful, helpful, entertaining, etc. Here are a few blog posts to check out that show you how to find out what content people on your site enjoy and some tips on how to bring your personality to your web content.
• Multimedia – Support the text on the page with an eye-grabbing image or corresponding video. I’ve found that images are so important not only to break up the text on the actual blog but to intrigue users to read the blog post. For example, if you share your blog on Facebook, the post on Facebook will attach the image from the blog. If you just have a linked title to promote the blog, people may pass it over, but the image grabs people’s attention and gives it more of a chance of getting someone to click.
• Sharing Options – Make sure you offer ways for people to share your content. This gets new visitors to your website and also helps validate that popular content to search engines. You should also make sure you’re including the +1 button on your content too.
• Subscription – Include an option for people to subscribe to your blog. If they like the content they’ll want more of it, plus its a great metric to monitor. Not only is it important to look at your site analytics to see how engaged people are with your content but you can also look at how many people subscribe to your blog. Watch how that number grows over time. You want there to be steady growth; it shows that more and more people are interested in what you have to say.

There are so many important features that will help boost your blog not mentioned here like organizing posts into categories and creating both inbound and outbound links. Like any recipe, there are ways to make it your own, whether it’s a secret ingredient or the way it is presented. Whatever works best for you – own it and sell that as its unique value.

If you want more information about blogging here are some great archived webinars:

Beginner 101: Get Your Business Blogging
Beginner 102: Get More Return by Blogging Better
Intermediate: Audience, Analytics, and Online PR: Strategies for Better Blogging

We also have a section in our blog about blogging!

Ok, here it is; my top secret, super yummy, easy to make, favorite recipe to bring to parties…

Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 can quartered artichokes, drained and cut up a bit smaller
1 pkg. Frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 jar alfredo sauce
½ – 1 pkg. Cream cheese softened
¾ cup mozzarella

Combine artichokes, spinach, alfredo sauce, cream cheese, and ½ cup mozzarella into bowl. Put in a casserole dish (sprayed with non stick cooking spray for an easy clean up). Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup of mozzarella on the top. Bake in oven at 350°F for 20-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Serve with tortilla or pita chips. Enjoy!

Flickr Photo Credit: Youssef Abdelaal

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Yesterday I completed my 2011 New Year’s Resolution!

Did you have a resolution this year? Did you complete it? Are you thinking about a new resolution for next year?

Last year, right around this time, I resolved that in 2011 I would start running again. I had gotten out of my normal work out routine and I knew I needed to do something that would be more of a long-term solution, so I committed to completing one 5k each month for the entire year.

I was nervous about this resolution because it was a year-long commitment; it felt big. But I started sharing my resolution with my friends and my family and most everyone seemed supportive. There were a few people who thought I was crazy and I am sure thought I would do it for a couple of months and then just stop. But it was also those people who gave me a little extra fire, like I had something to prove.

I quickly signed up for my first 5k in January so I couldn’t change my mind. I showed up and I finished. I felt good about that because I knew that I had already started reaching my goal. My time wasn’t the best and I walked a lot of it, but I had completed a 5k!

It’s like starting anything, whether you want to start using social media or start a blog, sometimes you just have to start. Then once you’ve started you can assess what you need to do to get better.

If you’re going to set some goals next year here are some things I that I learned that might be helpful:

• You need support. You need to have other people know what your goals are and believe in you. It’s hard to do it alone. If it weren’t for the familiar faces at the finish line or my running buddies I may not have pushed myself as hard. If you are setting goals for you and your team; make sure everyone is all on the same page.
• You need milestones. This particular resolution made it a bit easier to have milestones; I counted each month as a milestone. You can’t set a general goal, it needs to be specific and you need to understand when you’ll check in to assess where you are in accordance to the finish line. So if your goal is to have more revenue in 2012, decide how much more money you want to make and what dates you will check in to review whether you are on your mark or not.
• It’s a mental game. Just like most goals, it does require work to get there, but what I realized is that your head can sometimes be your biggest downfall. Maybe you’re not getting where you want fast enough or have had a fallback and then your brain does this, “Well, you’re failing or have already failed, so what’s the point with carrying on?” Most of the time this is when our New Year’s Resolutions fizzle out. But this is when you need to fight back and remember why you made that goal in the first place. Just like the end of a year marks a fresh start, remember that so does the end of a day. Sometimes I would get down on myself for not having the time to run between each monthly race and even during races sometimes I just wanted to stop and walk. But I remembered that I made this goal for a reason and that I had people that believed in me and it pushed me to carry on.
• Be proud of each step. Yesterday wasn’t the first time this year that I allowed myself to be proud of what I accomplished. I allowed myself to be proud every time I finished a race and completed a milestone. I was proud of myself the first time I ran the entire race without walking or when I beat my best time. It’s the small victories that led me to finishing my last race yesterday. Don’t wait until you have “succeeded” to be proud of yourself; be proud each time you make better decisions that will help you get closer to reaching your goal.
• You have to believe. There’s no point in making a goal for something that you don’t believe will be accomplished. You have to believe in yourself or, if you’re setting goals for your team, you have to believe in them. At the end of the day, I didn’t make the resolution for anyone else but myself, I needed to be my biggest supporter and I needed to believe that I could do it.

Are you thinking about your new year’s resolutions? What goals do you want to accomplish next year? Whatever they are, whether they are in business or personal goals, take into account the tips I noted above; stay committed and determined and be assured that you will complete your resolution. Good luck!

Enjoy more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

When you were little, did you ever have to travel for Christmas? Remember how scared you were that Santa wouldn’t know you weren’t home? I remember writing letters and nagging my parents to make SURE he knew we weren’t going to be home for Christmas.

If you could just capture a thread of that nervous energy and use it to start a fire to get your social media icons on your website and other promotional items – that would be swell. I see so many companies that have a decent presence on social media sites, a great newsletter or a great blog but there is little to no mention of it on their site. Your additional internet marketing efforts should be integrated into the other forms of marketing you are doing… not be separated.

Someone may be in the research phase of their buying process and come across your company. Perhaps they aren’t ready to buy but if they started following your Twitter account, Like you on Facebook, sign up for your email newsletter, subscribe to your blog etc., when they are ready to buy you stand a better chance of being on the top of their mind.

Letting people know where else they can find your content is as easy as adding icons to your website or promotional items. You could also add widgets for social media sites and email newsletter signup boxes right on other pages of your site.

Integrate all of your marketing efforts that you can! Just like you didn’t want Santa dropping your loot off at the wrong house, you don’t want your next customers subscribing to your competitors content over yours!

Photo credit: kdonovan_gaddy

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Thanksgiving Day, every year the same two local radio stations drop their format and go straight to 24/7 Christmas music. Some will cry it is too much. Some will say it is overkill. But… when you feel that twinge of holiday spirit creep in your bones, you know what channels you will be turning the dial to.

So here WE are again for another year to do our Advent Blog schedule – to be consistent. People like consistency. They like knowing what they are going to get. Throughout the year people bring up this series to me. They like it. We like doing it so it is a win-win.

Of course there is always room to surprise people but being dependable for what people want is one of the best things you can do for your business and your marketing messages.

Three places where being consistent will help your internet marketing

1. Keep your website consistent with your industry and with websites in general – Many creatives will disagree with me here but this really depends on your business. If you are in the B2B industry, people are coming to your site to research your company and your services, they are coming for information and they are coming to gather data so they can make a buying decision. While they are collecting that information, they don’t want to learn how to use your website. There are things they have become dependent on like easy to use navigation, an About Us page, product pages etc.
2. Keep your messaging and tone consistent – Make sure the content on your website, blog and social media profiles are consistent. Although many blogs and social media profiles often have a more personal tone, don’t let it be the exact opposite of your company site. A person may get to know you through your social media accounts first and you don’t want them to feel like they got duped when they visit your site.
3. Keep the your posting schedule consistent – If you have an email newsletter, blog or social media profiles you should try to keep how often you post to them somewhat regular. There is something dependable about knowing I am getting a newsletter each week or month. A blog or social media site that sits stagnant for months and then posts in bursts is hard to get any traction on. Space your posting out and make yourself accountable to get things out on a regular basis.

And so beings our consistent routine with the 2011 Advent Schedule! Enjoy!

I was recently talking about blog subscribers versus blog readers with a friend and then I saw this great post from Convince and Convert on his opinion of how to get more blog subscribers.

As you create your blogging goals and strategy, you should have an idea of who you are writing for and make a note of the data points you are going to measure to determine if your blogging initiative is working or if it isn’t. One thing to think about is if you are writing for subscribers or readers.

A blog reader is someone new who stumbles upon your blog because someone shared it with them, they searched for something and you came up in their search results, they found it on a social media site, etc. A blog reader will then read your post, marvel at how smart you are and then carry on with their merry day. They also could do other things like contact you, buy your product online, download your ebook, etc. but generally they come, they read and then they go.

The amount of blog readers you have can be measured by how many visits you blog posts are getting and maybe even how many unique visitors your blog is getting.

A blog subscriber is someone who actually subscribes to your blog. They choose to either receive your blog via RSS or email and each time you publish something, it is sent to them. They have subscribed to your blog because they are a fan, they love your products, they like what you have, and they feel like you are speaking specifically to them. You can measure your blog subscribers in your blog admin section (if you allow subscribers).

How do you get more blog readers?

• Have catchy, attention-grabbing blog titles
• Make sure your posts are helpful so people want to share them
• Have a good social media presence
• Try bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon to reach new readers
• Tie in current news and events where applicable – capitalize on people searching for those phrases or talking about them
• Link to other blogs in your posts
• Invite guest bloggers to post for you
• Interview experts in your field
• Post lists (top ten way to…)
• Write about what you know about

How do you get more blog subscribers?

• Narrow your blog’s focus to a specific group of people
• Make sure it is easy to subscribe to your blog
• Network on other blogs and forums in the niche you are trying to get attention in
• Give your subscribers information they won’t get anywhere else
• Post regularly, let people get accustomed to how often they will hear from you
• Build a brand and community (#21 on SEOmoz’s oldie-but-Goodie-list)
• Ask them to subscribe – add a line at the end of your post, ask people on social networks, popups, etc.
• Write about what you care about

Which is better is up to you. It depends on your goals, your products or services and what you are trying to accomplish. Understand the difference between blog readers and subscribers and which you are trying to reach, then tailor your posts to grab specifically their attention.

What other tactics to do you use get more readers or subscribers? Which do you feel is more valuable for your business?

Image source: g_kovacs

By now we know that beyond your site design and ease of navigation, the heart and soul of your site is the content that is provided there. Often times we ask our clients to figure out what content is working for them; what brings them traffic, what is being shared, what gets people to stay and convert? In some cases it might be obvious what content is popular but many times you have to do a little digging to really see which content are your real all stars.

Thanks to my pal, Google Analytics, the Content Report offers a variety of ways to look at the content on your site and will offer you a better understanding of what kinds of content to continue expanding on. Just by viewing your Content Dashboard you can see the top 10 most visited pages (organized by pageviews for that given time period) and then you can click “view full report” to see more data about those top visited pages. You can start to see which content is:

• Most popular – Organized by the number of pageviews. You can change the date range if you want to see what content was popular over a longer period of time or at a different time altogether.
• Stickiest – In Google Analytics you can click on the top of each column to reorganize the pages by different information (see image of columns below). By organizing the pages by average time on site, you can see which pages people spent the most time engaging with certain content.
• Best retainer – Find out which content keeps the visitor on the site. Organize your website by bounce rate to see which pages kept the user from leaving (the smaller number the better!).

Dig Deeper

After completing the exercise above you’ll start to see some content pages as all stars for your website. With some other content reports available you can dig a bit deeper to see why they might be performing so well.

• Keyword Traffic – One way to understand why certain pages are performing better than others is to determine if the subject matter is something that your audience is interested in. First off, you have to understand what keywords are bringing organic traffic to your site.  Then, in the top content section, you can click a content page and then select secondary dimensions to review for those pages; like traffic sources, visitors, technology, and content. Since I know that the blog, “What is a QR Code” was one of my most popular pieces of content, I want to look at what keywords (under “Traffic Sources”) people typed into search engines that then navigated them to this post. I can know that a large amount of organic traffic was driven by the keywords “smartphone scan box” and “scan box code”and that is verified when I look at the keywords that drive traffic to that particular blog post.
• Entrance Sources – Using secondary dimensions again, you can find out where the traffic that ended up on a certain page had been prior to coming to the website. It might be helpful to understand that your most popular or most engaging content pages came from visitors who were on Twitter. You can find that out by reviewing your entrance sources for certain content pages.
• Navigation Summary – Use the navigation summary to understand more about the how the traffic moves throughout the site while interacting with your known “all star content.” You can see where they had been before a particular page and where they went to after visiting that page. You can see how often a certain page was an entrance page as well as how often a certain page was the last page that a user was on before leaving the site. This just gives you some depth of knowledge about where your opportunities might be or areas of the site that might need to be improved

Big Opportunity

The whole point of understanding which content is making a splash is to continue producing more content around the topics that are more popular to help drive new traffic to your website. You should also take a look at the actual content page – what is your offer? Is it clear? Are you obtaining leads from that page? Understanding your content all stars reminds you that those pages are a good opportunity to get the engaged traffic to take action and convert.