SEO Archives - Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer

Social Media to Land Writing Gigs & Make Money

dorriolds — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:20:22 +0000

I am proud to announce my upcoming writers panel! Here’s a LINK to my panel info.
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
ASJA 2015 Conference: Connect for Success at the Roosevelt Hotel (map)
May 1, 2015 • 11AM – 12:15PM
Use Social Media to Land Writing Gigs and Make Money (session: F06)
Do you not “get” how to use social media to make more money? Writers are pressured by editors, publishers and agents to build an online platform. Have you missed out on work because you don’t know the tips and tricks to build a better following — or even where to begin? This accomplished team of five, which includes writers, editors, social media managers, marketing and branding experts, a webmaster and a literary agent, will give you what you need to succeed.
Most ASJA writers are busy hard-working professionals who feel like there’s never enough time in a day. Between deadlines, creative pursuits, researching, and submitting pitches, who has time to blog, update their website and keep up with social media?
In this session you will learn how to use your time efficiently to get the best results. You will be given tips and tricks based on hard-won experience. We’ll talk about the best tools to use for your specific goals and how to stand out online amidst worldwide competition.
You’ll learn about improving your website, blogs, and social media accounts. Find out the different language and etiquette for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube. And, most importantly, you’ll learn how to use social media to make more money.
SPEAKERS:
Dorri Olds is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in book anthologies, and numerous publications including The New York Times. She writes about her obsessions: Movies, A-list celebrities and dogs. Olds is also a web designer and social media consultant with marketing and branding expertise.
Kirsten Koza is the author of LOST IN MOSCOW; A BRAT IN THE USSR, a humorist, Facebook junkie, adventurer and contributor of audacious stories to Travelers’ Tales anthologies. She is the founder of Writers’ Expeditions, which hosts writing and photography workshops while adventuring across exotic destinations. CHRY radio (Toronto) says, “Kirsten Koza is like Judy Blume on acid.”
Nikki M. Mascali is a New York-based journalist with 10 years of experience in print and digital media. She is currently the editor in chief of TheBlot Magazine, an online publication that covers arts and entertainment and social and political issues.
Jason Gross is the Social Media Manager for TheBlot Magazine, freelance writer (Spin, Time Out, Village Voice, Red Bull Music Academy, PopMatters, Film Comment, Book Forum), SXSW music panel moderator, reissue producer, and co-producer/compiler “OHM; The Early Gurus of Electronic Music.”
Tom Miller, literary agent, joined Greenburger in 2014 after 30 years as an editor at Simon & Schuster, Putnam, McGraw-Hill, Wiley, and HarperCollins. Tom represents projects in wellness, culture, self-help, business, spirituality, literary fiction, and narrative nonfiction. Tom has worked with Jared Diamond (winner of a Pulitzer Prize), Dr. Loren Cordain (author of THE PALEO DIET), Deepak Chopra, Steve Forbes, Ginger Rogers, Erica Jong, Judy Collins, Oliver North, Jack Cafferty, Milton Berle, Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Shirley Temple Black, Brian Wilson, Erich Schiffmann, and Roger Walsh.

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of 13 books, including the memoirs,Stuck in the Middle With You and She’s Not There: a Life in Two Genders, the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Boylan’s articles have appeared in GQ, Allure, Glamour and Conde Nast Traveler and she is the Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times op/ed page; she frequently appears on national television, including segments on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Live with Larry King and the Today Show. A writer and civil rights activist, she is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University and serves as the national co-chair of the Board of Directors of GLAAD. Boylan was also one of 24 writers chosen for the Amtrak writers residency. She lives in New York City with her wife, Deedie, and her two sons, Zach and Sean.

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The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For WordPress Sites—It’s in the SEO

dorriolds — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:00:21 +0000

WordPress SEO Article By Yoast

WordPress is one of the best, if not the best content management systems when it comes to SEO. That being said, spending time on your WordPress SEO might seem like a waste of time, it most definitely is not. Optimizing your site to the best practices outlined in this article will help you improve your rankings, gain more subscribers and have a better website in general.

As I take quite a holistic view on (WordPress) SEO, meaning that I think good SEO should be engrained in all aspects of your online marketing and PR, this guide covers quite a lot of ground and is therefore a long read. But it’s worth it!

Eye Tracking: How the Eye Scans Your Web Pages

dorriolds — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:32:39 +0000

Eye tracking determines the eye movements when a visitor first sees your website. Researchers have determined that these are the most common patterns of where the eye first goes to on a web page and then where it moves. This happens in a second as soon as the viewer clicks on your page. The graphs below shows the most common theories (for additional website design tips and tricks see article “The Psychology of Color“).

In this first graph, the circle represents where the eye first goes and then it tracks the way the eye scans the rest of the page and the arrow is where the eye ends up last on their first view.

This graph from Google shows how the eye travels. The colors are “heat spots” — i.e. the most intense and darkest color in this image is where the eye is drawn to the fastest and has the strongest pull. The lightest shade of color represents the worst “real estate” of the page.

The next graph shows the visitor’s eye beginning at the top left of the page, then scanning across the top, where the navigation links are usually placed on websites then the eyes move down. This is basically the way an eye moves as you read a book: left to right, down, left to right, down, etc. The pattern looks like an “F.”

The bottom graph is the same pattern you would use when writing the letter “Z.”

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No More Kvetching About Facebook Changes

dorriolds — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:56:40 +0000

Okay, so why does Facebook keep changing? The peeps at Facebook are smart. They don’t want other social networking sites to come along and just mimic what they do and steal their Facebookers away. Through constantly analyzing the user experience online, Facebook adjusts accordingly trying to stay ahead of the curve.
Privacy issues are one of the major complaints but keep in mind that outside sites are only allowed access to the information you have listed as public.
Facebook is not going away, even if you’re mad at them for changing. Facebook is predicted to continue to grow and change in 2012. Facebook will buy Digg and improve it’s content curation.
Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter. Though it is still considered a “buzz word” by many in the content world, content curation is now becoming a marketing staple for many companies with a successful online presence.
Another prediction is Facebook’s IPO in 2012. For those who don’t know IPO is an acronym for Initial Public Offering, i.e., the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. May 2012 is the predicted estimated date for Facebook to release its financial information to the public. At that time, because they will have been required to release that info, it is a strong likelihood that Facebook will become a public company. They will fenagle it to their advantage by raising even more money than they’re making now.
Mark Zuckerberg predicted that Facebook will reach 1 billion users in 2012. To learn more about the IPO and how that will translate into dollars read The Wall Street Journal Post, “Facebook Numbers Feed IPO Outlook.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m sticking with Facebook.

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Population and Online Statistics

dorriolds — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 08:38:33 +0000

According to Wikipedia, as of October 22, 2010, the world’s population—the population of humans on planet Earth— is currently estimated to be 6,876,600,000. Spelled out that number is six billion eight hundred seventy-six million six hundred thousand. That is one heckuva lot of people. Hard to wrap my head around it. This figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the International Telecommunication Union’s October 19,2010 newsroom press release, the number of people online by end of 2010 is estimated at 2 billion. The number of internet users has doubled in the past 5 years. The number of people having access to the Internet at home has increased from 1.4 billion in 2009 to almost 1.6 billion in 2010. According to New Media Trend Watch, the number of people online around the world will grow more than 45% to 2.2 billion users over the next five years, according to a report by Forrester Research, Inc. with the global online population expected to reach 2.2 billion by 2013. Asia remains the biggest global internet growth market where 43% of the world’s online population will reside by 2013 with 17% of the global online population in China alone. Growth rates in the US, Western Europe and the major industrialised nations in Asia Pacific such as Australia, Japan and South Korea will slow to between 1% and 3%.

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A Note About Keywords

dorriolds — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:05:20 +0000

How does Google like you to use kewords? Include them in metatags: yeah, that doesn’t hurt; include them in page titles: very important, include them in website content: BINGO!

So, what to do first?

Wrack your brain and think of every possible search term that might lead users to find you over your competitors.

Use Google Search-based keyword tool

Read up on SEO (search engine optimization)

View the source code of your competitors’ pages.

Search Google with the keyword phrases you are considering and see what comes up in the search. Decide if that search yielded similar companies with similar services that you provide. This will tell you if you’re on the right track. If you end up with off-topic sites from your keyword search then you know it’s not a good keyword phrase for you.

Try to be as specific as you can. If a word or phrase is too general it will be very difficult to rise to the top of searches unless you’re willing to pay to appear in the top 3 on Google’s search results pages.

Google especially likes 2-3 keyword phrases that relate to your site. You must add a comma at the end of each phrase to separate it from the next phrase.

For my business, I chose phrases I felt best described our services:

Here’s what I came up with for social media consulting: social media strategy, social media consulting, social media agency, social media monitoring, social media advertising, social media network, social media training, social media services, social media solutions, social networking pr, social media company, twitter facebook and linkedin lessons.

For our web design services I arrived at: website design nyc, web design new york city, website designer nyc, web designer new york city, website maintenance nyc, website redesign nyc, web design seo, search engine optimization, keyword web content, write blog content, internet blogger nyc. A lot of my keywords are inter-related so there is a bit of overlapping.

For example I am also a freelance non-fiction writer, in addition to writing blog and website content. So here are even more keywords to consider: non-fiction writer nyc, creative nonfiction writer, journalist and reporter, nyc reporter and reviewer, NYC Resident magazine, Author profiles, book reviews, artist profiles, nyc events and movie reviews. Ok, well at least I hope you get the general idea about how you can use keywords in your website page titles, website content and keyword metatags. Was this post helpful?

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What is Social Media Optimization?

dorriolds — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:40:24 +0000

The term Social Media Optimization (SMO) refers to how social media is used to drive visitors to your website. Another online method of driving visitors to your site is SEO which, as most of you already know, stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO considers how search engines work, specifically, what keywords viewers use to search. SMO is related to Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM includes Internet marketing methods, i.e., SEO, paid placement in google searches, contextual advertising (targeted ads based on contents of websites), and paid inclusion of websites within a search engine index. But, wait! There’s more: SERPs is Search Engine Results Pages, SEMPO is Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. Ok, confused yet? 🙂

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