It was a brisk winter evening. While editing a Copyblogger article written by Brian Clark, the sound of my fingers tapping on my keyboard harmoniously blended with the rain pattering on the window next to my desk, as the light from the full moon illuminated my computer monitor. Then, as the clock struck midnight, something
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When my middle son was seven, he knocked it out of the park with the first video he created. Back when Rainbow Loom bracelets were hot, he put together a tutorial on how to make a certain type. Within three days, his video received 70,000 views. He also received quite a few nasty comments. He
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The post 3 Simple Keys to a Successful Video Strategy appeared first on Copyblogger.
We’ve talked about search and social snippets before. A rich snippet is what you see below your search listing enriched with rating stars, author information, a thumbnail, etc… scraped from the linked page.
For video listings, Google often shows:
That image is probably going to attract visitors as well as increase the page engagement, as the listing often provides additional information like duration, and a description of the video (so the visitor will be well-prepared to watching the video when clicking-through).
Your mission is to optimize your rich snippets, and so get a better control over your video search result listing.
Here are a few tips to do just that.
Youtube videos rank well! Surprised? Me neither…
You can also use other video hosting platforms (Vimeo comes to mind), and your own website, but maintaining your Youtube presence is a must. Deal with that.
This is very similar to how you would do it for any other content. A few ways include:
Also read: How To Make Your YouTube Video Go Viral
When you embed a video to your page, it’s a good idea to add Schema.org code to make sure it’s easy for search spiders to “scrape”… umm understand your page…
Basically, schema.org is a way that all major search engines will see your video and grab its thumbnail easily. I did a detailed guide (and cheatsheet!) on Schema.org markup.
Schema.org Cheatsheet from Ann Smarty
**The easiest way to get the correct source code is through this handy tool that lets you put in the URL to a video, and it generates one for you. If you do want to go through all the source codes you can go to the official site here.
No, you can promote your videos in any way you see fit. Run ad campaigns, utilize social media, create newsletters… anything you would do to promote any other content can help bring you attention and even launch you into viral status if the planets are aligned.
Like I noted above, this guide is only about making the most of your video search appearance. When people do a search for the topic of your video, they should see immediately that your content will fulfill what they need better than anyone else’s.
You never have complete control over your search results. But covering the basics is essential to get more out of your search listing than your competitor.
Do you have any tips? Questions? Let us know in the comments.
The post How To Control Your Video Search Result Listing appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
We talk a lot on Copyblogger about how to write content that’s more vivid, more memorable, more distinctive. But there’s always another side to that creative coin — the strategic side. Your content might be marvelously entertaining and engaging, but if it’s not placed in a strategic context, you’ve limited its power. Getting smarter about
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The post Blending Art with Strategy for Powerhouse Content appeared first on Copyblogger.
I love presentations. I love going to them and I love giving them. You have a defined amount of time, during which a bunch of people come together to listen to a message. Whether your presentation is online (a SlideShare, a webinar) or in the real world (a talk to a large or small audience),
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The post Use These 4 Copywriting Pillars to Craft Kickass Presentations appeared first on Copyblogger.
You may be surprised to see the lyrics in this article’s image attributed to Leslie Bricusse, because one of the most widely known versions of the song “Feeling Good” was recorded by Nina Simone (no relation to Sonia Simone). So, with no disrespect to Leslie Bricusse … Who the hell is Leslie Bricusse? Leslie Bricusse
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The post How to Feel Good as a Writer: an Origin Story appeared first on Copyblogger.
If you’ve ever used Google Analytics, you’ve probably heard about UTM parameters. UTM parameters aren’t a new technology. In fact, they’re ubiquitous. But they also may be one of the most misunderstood and most frequently abused website tracking tools around. So today, I’m here to explain what they are, why they were invented, when you
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The post The Content Marketer’s Guide to UTM Parameters for Tracking Referrals appeared first on Copyblogger.
One of my biggest passions? Blogs. I love writing for them, I love searching for them and I especially love reading them. The downside to this is that I have a huge number of blogs. I mean there are really lots of great blogs in my niche I need to keep up with.
When you have too many blogs to follow, you run into the problem of actually reading them all. Not that I don’t manage, which is exactly the issue: it can really screw with my productivity – to the point that I sometimes waste way too much time I could be working doing nothing but catching up.
Tai Lopez has an excellent article on how to optimize your reading productivity which should probably be your first step. Once you are done there, proceed to the tips below:
The first step is the easiest: cleaning up your RSS and email subscriptions. It’s quite natural that your reading list is constantly growing: you fall in love with new blogs and discover new voices. However this also means that your list is getting harder and harder to keep up with.
Therefore you need regular cleaning.
There is no way that every blog you follow is active, or that you even read it regularly. If you find yourself with a huge list and only a percentage being updated or read, it is time to get rid of some of the clutter.
In the same vein as the above tips, there are browser bookmarks to take care of. My own bookmarks bar on Firefox is nothing but folders with lost of links – so many that I have that little arrow in the corner that pulls a drop down menu of dozens more.
At least, that is what it did look like, before I cleaned up my subscriptions. I did pretty much the same thing as above. I got rid of those that did not update for some time.
Of course, you can always read more if you do it while you are on the go. I spend a lot of time on my phone or tablet when I am out. Whether it is on the bus or train, sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for an appointment, or even in line at the post office – there are many chances to get in some reading.
My most favorite app for that is Feeddler. This is a simple application that works by allowing you to collect, maintain and read RSS feeds right on your iPhone, iPad or Android.
They have both a free and a paid version, the second having some more features. But I recommend the more basic – extremely useful – free one.
Of course, if you want another simple way to take them with you, you can always turn blogs into ebooks to read. This is also a great way to keep a backup of interesting posts or blogs you truly love. It is also a lot easier than it might sound, thanks to a number of handy applications and websites that have been created for this purpose
I have two apps I prefer for this. The first is Calibre. It is a downloadable program, which might put some people off. But it is a one step style of ebook creator, which should provide a certain amount incentive. Especially for those who plan on regularly making blogs into ebooks. You simply download the posts into your tablet or ereader. It is also free, so there is another pro.
The second is Zinepal. Anyone who doesn’t want to download anything, or just plans on occasionally making ebooks, can use this program instead. It lets you put in the URL of the blog, then brings up a list of the most recent posts going back quite awhile. You can choose the posts you want and make the ebook.
If you have turned your favorite blogs into PDF archives to take them with you on your trip and keep reading on the go, you can go one step further and listen to them.
Lots of bloggers have podcasts these days. My favorite example is Social Media Examiner that turns every blog post into a podcast episode. Check your favorite blogs: It may be an option for you too!
One of my personal favorite things to do is create ‘read it later’ lists. These are handy if you just want to keep a collection of random posts, rather than subscribing to the blog itself, or following it. It makes it much easier to keep track of different posts, without stuffing them into bookmarks to be forgotten.
There are a lot of tools for this. One I like is Pocket, which was formerly Read It Later. It now has a mobile emphasis that allows you to access it anywhere, from any PC, your phone or tablet. Think of it as similar to Evernote.
One problem I have when I read through my browser is that my eyesight isn’t great. Some blogs really strain my eyes, and I hate the clutter that ends up all over the page. So I like anything that minimizes those distractions for me.
Look at Instapaper for clutter-free reading.
Don’t your blogophilia suffer because there are only 24 hours in a day. The six tips above will be sure to make it much easier to read all the blogs you like, in the most efficient way possible.
Have some other tools to suggest? Let us know in the comments!
The post 6 Ways to Find the Time for Blog Reading Even on the Busiest Days appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
You can tell we’re heading into Halloween — around the blog, our thoughts have been turning to topics dark and creepy. On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman brought up a thorny question — is it okay to use all of those fiendishly effective headline techniques, or do we run the risk of turning our content into “clickbait?”
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The post Clickbait, Insomnia, and Writing Fears … Nevermore appeared first on Copyblogger.
It seems straightforward enough. We human beings are innately verbal creatures. Writing is just taking the language we dream, think, and speak in, and arranging the words on some paper or a computer screen. So why is it so hard sometimes? I think it’s because the same inventive brains that gave us Harry Potter, A
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The post What’s Your Worst Writing Fear? Dread and Trepidation from Our Editorial Team appeared first on Copyblogger.
For the fourth night in a row, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to the sound of a bird outside my window squawking in a unique, almost understated, way that echoed through my apartment as a clicking noise. On this particular night, I was accompanied by a pounding headache — but neither Squawking-Clicking Bird nor
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The post The Best Place to Consistently Find Winning Content Ideas appeared first on Copyblogger.
When I review applications from students in our Certified Content Marketer training program, I get to read some great content. And giving feedback on headlines to make them more powerful is one of my favorite parts of the process. My reason for that is simple. No one will ever know how good your content is
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The post Clickbait or Damn Good Headline? appeared first on Copyblogger.
This week the biggest discussions centered around the shift from organic to paid over the last two years.
Also, Danny Sullivan announced that he will be working at Google in a liaison type role.
Growmap, shared a blog post from research from Brian Wood, SEO at wayfair.com, who stated
“Over the last two years, the total share of organic clicks on page one of our e-commerce SERPs has dropped 25% on desktop and 55% on mobile.”
Would does add the following caveat,
“It’s important to note that this type of CTR change is not true for every SERP. This data is only applicable to e-commerce intent search queries, where ads and PLAs are on nearly every query.”
To quote the announcement, “…My title is still being determined, but the position will be to serve as a sort of public liaison for search. The goal is to increase the connection between those at Google who work hard on search each day and the public that depends on Google for answers. I’ll be educating the public about how search works. I’ll be exploring and explaining issues that may arise. I’ll be looking at ways to take in feedback and work for solutions to improve search going forward….”
The overall feedback from webmaster world members was that this would be positive for the webmaster community.
View full discussion
According to Joy Hawkins, Merchants do not get notified when edits are “suggested.” Any time Joy Hawkins did hear about a notification, it was sent after the edit was live.
Ergophobe shares some of the reasons why traffic may end up in the direct bucket in Google analytics
Over on cre8asiteforums.com, members discuss if featured rich snippets help drive more traffic or if they hurt traffic. Member grumpus comments, ” It’s not surprising for many questions. There’s always the “Short” and the “Long” answer to most questions. If the short answer rings true in the snippet, then the page would logically expound on that and give the long answer as well.”
The post Google Organic Clicks Shifting to Paid, Danny Sullivan to as Google’s Public Liaison and More: Weekly Forum Roundup appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
This is a week of strong opinions on Copyblogger — designed to make you more productive, wiser, saner, and maybe even happier. We want you to do amazing things, so we’re not pulling any punches. On Monday, Stefanie Flaxman encouraged us to get a handle on our information overwhelm, starting with getting smarter about the
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YouTube is one of the most useful tools for content marketing. The problem is the high number of competing videos you have to stand out against. According to the site’s statistics, 100 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube every single minute! You read that right… that is 6,000 in an hour, 144,000 hours in a day.
Your best bet will always be building a consistent audience. But you still have to attract the fan base, and also catch the eye of people once they are loyal watchers who maybe done hit the subscribe button. The trick is to create memorable, attention grabbing thumbnails that will get them to make that click.
** Note, custom thumbnails used to be available only for Youtube partners but Google has made it much easier: Nowadays to be able to upload a custom thumbnail to your video, you need to verify your Youtube channel using a phone number.
And here you go, you have full flexibility with how your Youtube video thumbnail looks in search results and “Related videos” section:
Here are five tips for helping you do that.
Think of the channels you watch frequently. You may have noticed that they have a certain ‘look’ to their thumbnails. These trigger a connection in your mind, letting you know that it is a video you would like to watch. The most successful YouTube channels will use this tactic.
For those who don’t send out consistent videos, the tactic is a bit different. They still opt for recognizable, but it is the content itself that is recognized. A good example is the He-Man singing video. The thumbnail is He-Man with his head thrown back against a sparkling background of rainbow colors. Is it any wonder enough people clicked it to push the clip to viral status?
So when aiming to be recognizable, either make the thumbnail something connecting visually to your content or brand, or just connected to the topic of the content.
Never use bait-and-switch when it comes to thumbnails. However, if there happens to be a related thumbnail that gets a bit risque…well, that can be an effective way of hooking viewers. It may seem a bit sleazy, but you have to admit that you have clicked on your fair share of videos because you were curious about that flash of skin. Come on, you know you have.
As a matter of fact, you probably also spotted a few comments that admitted as much themselves. “I came here because of the picture LOL” is a common sight in those comment threads. Embarrassing or not, it works.
But as was said before, never use a naughty looking thumbnail that has nothing to do with the content. That elbow might look like a butt for a split second and so present a screenshot opportunity. However, it is a sure way to make your viewers angry. No one like to be tricked.
Branding is an important aspect of continued visual marketing on YouTube. Which is why you want to keep your thumbnail style consistent all across your channel. If it looks a certain way on one video, it should use a similar motif or pattern for the next. This will assist in the branding of your image, which in turn will connect others to your channel and so what you upload onto it.
Two great ways to do this are to either use a background that stands out, or to use an actual photo of your face. These will both link your videos effectively, and with very little effort. An example of this is PewDiePie, the controversial but popular video game reaction YouTuber. He uses both consistent styles for different types of video (laughing elderly people on his “funny montages” series), and images of his face set to game related backgrounds.
Title cards are a great way to brand videos, attract attention, and just bring a creative and customized element to any video. It can be used not only for the thumbnail, but for introducing the video, as well. The critics on Channel Awesome, such as Nostalgia Critic, Nostalgia Chick, Cinema Snob and Todd In The Shadows all use title cards in their videos that feature work done by numerous illustrators.
Of course, yours don’t have to be quite as elaborate. Just make sure they are high quality, preface the content well, and are (as mentioned before) consistent.
You can also create different thumbnails that act as title cards, but are not the same as those presented in the video itself. The Fine Bros use thumbnails that show a relevant background to the topic of their Kids/Teens/Elders React videos, along with two portrait style shots of the commenting guests making faces. But when you watch the video, the actual title screen uses either several of these, or in the case of Elders React, an old timey animation sting.
If your thumbnail is too busy, it won’t show up properly. Always take into account the size of the photo itself, and how you can best utilize the space while remaining clear. You should also know that it will be used also as a preview image for the embedded player, so the original should be a full 1280 x 720.
As you can imagine, trying to keep a high resolution image that is responsive for multiple platforms, devices and sizes through YouTube itself can be a bit difficult. Try testing your thumbnail design in various sizes to make sure it comes out well.
Colors are pretty self-explanatory… you want something that stands out, and looks good against YouTube’s white background. Dark colors might not show up that well in the sidebar video list shown in other videos. So take that into account.
Creating a winning YouTube custom video thumbnail isn’t rocket science but it may work great for branding and higher click-through. Most of the tips are common sense. But it does take some trial and error to find what brings in the highest number of views and shares.
Keep at it, and you will find the right combinations.
The post 5 Tips for a Winning Youtube Custom Video Thumbnail appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
Maybe you have hopes and dreams about making a living online. Maybe you’ve envisioned a beautiful future where you work four hours a week, you never trade time for money, you sail through a life of ease because you’ve learned to “work smart” and figured out “one weird trick.” The internet doesn’t care. The internet
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The post The Internet Is Not Your ATM appeared first on Copyblogger.
Ah, the #writerslife, #amwriting, #wordcount — wait, hold that thought — #amlookingatmyphone, #destructiveprocrastination, #twitterblackhole, #zerowillpower … dammit what just happened? Every time I pick up my iPhone, I lose a minimum of 20 minutes that I could be writing a first draft of something, anything. The cult of “busyness” beckons me: I scratch at my
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The post 21 Productivity Hacks from 21 Prolific Writers appeared first on Copyblogger.
It was 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night. As I returned home, the battery in my garage door opener ran out of juice and I was unable to enter my car hole. I knew I’d have to buy a nine-volt battery for the device at some point in the near future, so I decided to
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The post How to Get More Value Out of the Content You Consume appeared first on Copyblogger.
The big discussions this week included theories around the recent rankings shakeup and around Googles recent announcement to remove the first click free policy for publishers but is the new approach really a win for publisher?
Google also announced that a huge increase to Adwords daily overspend budget limits.
Member GoodROI calls for explanations around the recent ‘Fall Follies’ in Google SERPS. The major discussion what was role HTTPS had in terms of the recent volatility.
Some other noteworthy observations included:
September 8:
Skynet84: “My hosting is in USA my domain .com I have lose -50% of my organic traffic in just one day on the 8 th September and now after 21 days nothing changed. I have respected all guidelines always have minimalist and perfect user experience website with full of self made content.”
Featured Rich Snippets:
“After all, I feel like it’s the “answer box”. Today, I see answer boxes for nearly everything. This would explain why my traffic is down, while my position remains unchanged.”
Mobile vs. Desktop:
“Mostly nailed on the mobile side. Mobile: Down ~12% MoM at peak. Recovered to down ~4% MoM this week. “
Image Indexation:
Google is deindexing my images, I have 5 sites with 10k indexed images, but after oct 1st now they are all at 2-3k, which means they are deindexing around 70% images from all my sites, and the sites are unrelated to each other (different niche).
Google announced via twitter that Adwords can now overspend double the set daily budget.
To help you hit your advertising goals, your campaigns can now spend up to twice your average daily budget. https://t.co/TUO08wXnl3
— Google AdWords (@adwords) October 4, 2017
In the referenced help page, Google adds that any overdelivery will be credited back to the accounts.
Google announced that they’re removing the controversial first click free requirement for publishers. In its place is ‘flexible sampling’, Google offers two different options:
Option 1: Metering – Requires publishers some number of free clicks, at their own discretion. This policy is like first click free except it allows for a limit on the number of times individual users get to see free content from Google.
Option 2: Lead in – Shows users a snippet of a full article.
In order to take part in flexible sampling, publishers must markup hidden content using JSON-LD, which will allow Google greater precision in terms of aggregating, filtering, and categorizing publisher content.
Webmaster World members discussed whether its worth updating inbound links to your website after switching protocols. From an SEO point of view, the general consensus seemed to be that it is not necessary but lucy24 did not that for inbound links referring traffic, it may be useful to updated the links for users saying, ”
Don’t forget your human users. Every redirect doubles the time before content starts showing up. For users on slow connections, that’s a measurable lag. For users who pay for bandwidth, that’s a few more bytes added to the total.
For that matter, it counts against your own bandwidth too; it’s one more thing for your server to deal with. Why bother with an extra request-and-response set if you don’t have to?”
As part of a conversion to SSL (HTTPS), a Webmaster World member instituted a Content Security Policy (CSP) on their sites. The member also noted that they saw a 12% Google referral traffic bump after making the switch.
Should you retain a CSP after moving to HTTPS?
A Content Security Policy is a computer security standard that can be added to the HTTP header that provides an added layer of protection to help detect and mitigate cross site scripting and data injection attacks, which are used for security issues ranging from data theft, site defacement, as well as passing malware. The member was concerned if the CSP should be retained after the conversion to HTTPS and questions if its worth the extra work for the browser.
Member keyplyr recommends keeping it and states that it works in conjunction to HTTPS, and that “A CSP is probably the single most important security measure you can use in defense of you web properties.
Increase in Google traffic after move to HTTPS?
In addition to the Pjman, keyplyer also noted a bump in traffic after moving to HTTPS also. Member Aristole noted that the increase may actually be due to how switching to HTTPS impacts reporting stating that, “That’s probably just a reporting change. The newest browsers don’t provide some referal information to http sites, and as a result it’s reported as “direct” traffic even though it actually came from google. But when you switch to https, it’s reported correctly as coming from google.”
Cre8asiteforums member cre8pc asks about using a branded name for a term at the exclusion of the generic version for what the service or product is. For example, ” a website where the company is a software developer and nowhere on the site do they use the word “Software”. They stick to using their product names only.” Cre8pc asks if there is an SEO reason for this this naming and reference methodology.
iamlost recommends, “actually, having unique brand/product names is a business best practice as it differentiates yours from all others. It’s the difference of being ‘Kleenex’ and ‘facial tissue”, ‘Levi’ and ‘buycheapjeans(dot)com’. Not using the latter to leverage the first..”
Member glyn adds, “If you are on brand you can register product names or company names as trademarks and submit that to Google so you can lower competitor QS for bidding on your keywords (but you can’t stop them doing that).
Advertising as thelostone says is the way to go and coupled with remarketing and landing pages this can be a powerful to mitgate the financial ruin that will most likely come if you are just running PPC without it.”
The post Did Google Update Just Happen? And Other SEO Discussions: Weekly Forum Roundup appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
