Step by Step: How I Blasted My Story About Ben Breedlove To The World

Filed Under Creative Ideas & Strategies, Featured Articles 

Ben Breedlove Blog Post – I recently wrote a piece that shares how Ben Breedlove inspired me and now I want to share how I’m going to blast this post out to the world.

There are many resources that will help you with your keyword research and I’ve used a bunch of them. There’s the standard Google Keywords Tool but you have to take a good look at the numbers and actually understand them before picking the best keyword for your business.

Please note, I am not an SEO (search engine optimization) expert by any means. I just use the tools that gets me the results that I want.  I’m crafty and I like to get things done rather quickly but done RIGHT the first time around.

Ya know what I mean?

So if you are looking for a full on beginner course on search engine optimization I’d like to point you to this resource right here, “The Beginners Guide to SEO.”

If you like that stuff.

It’s free to read but I can tell ya it’s not something I particularly like doing.  I kind of place SEO (search engine optimization) in the category of “flossing your teeth.” You know it’s something that you have to do yet it’s not exactly fun.

So let’s establish something here, I’ve had an online biz since 2004 and I rarely do SEO. It’s just something I dislike doing, but to be a great example and be faithful with the little things I know I must do it.

It should be part of your overall strategy, always because you are laying down the foundation of what you are doing.  That being said, it’s not going to happen overnight, traffic takes time to build the good ‘ole SEO way so just keep that in mind.

Ok so here we go…

#1 Keyword Research & SEO Stuff

The one thing I do know for sure is that you shouldn’t be trying to target big keywords like, “color.” It’s just not worth the time and effort to do, big companies pay big dollars to rank for those ones so it’s pretty much a “no go” for us little guys.

So I’m looking for long tail keywords,they are where it’s at.

The reason is simple, you can target longer keywords instead that are more specific to your post.  This will be far more targeted in the strategy and way more targeted when your traffic arrives.

The people who plunked in your long tail keyword into Google are looking for exactly THAT term.

But this is how simple I want to make things on myself.

I don’t want to analyze keywords, I want something SO much easier.

So I used keyword analyzer that Adam Short has over at Niche Profit Classroom, it’s the easiest one I’ve found for a non-SEO gal like me.

You can use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool but again, I want easy and don’t want to spend my afternoon analyzing keywords.

So inside Adam’s Keyword Advantage tool I plunked in, “Making A Difference.” Since that’s the main goal of the post, to inspire others to do something HUGE with their life and the one God is calling them to live out.

Here’s a picture of the keywords that came back,

I was thinking I would use “how can I make a difference.” but there’s something else you may not notice about my post from yesterday.

You see at the very end of the post I shared something that is very true to who I am.  I am starting to read for January 1, 2013 “The Purpose Driven Life.” I want to go over it again and I may just do it every single year, who knows. I’ve done it twice now in my life and look forward to a third time here just around the corner.

The best thing I can do for myself is base the post on the keyword “Purpose Driven Life” because when someone clicks on that link at the bottom of my post they may possibly order the book from Amazon.

(Note: You can sign up to their affiliate program here)

This gives me commission and it’s also called “affiliate marketing.” If you didn’t hear the AWESOME podcast on affiliate marketing that I covered with my friend Lynn Terry, you’ve really missed out. It’s by far the best interview I’ve ever done on affiliate marketing.

Anyhow, getting back to keywords I plunked in “purpose driven life” instead to see what would come up for that as it makes more sense to target the keyword that will ultimately build me an income.

I then hit the “analyze” button to see what the tool comes up with for me.

Nice and easy, no brain draining looking at numbers to verify searches to check and see if I’m getting a solid keyword or not.

I’m also using the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin. It makes it easier to get my keywords into the post and make sure I’m getting all the right things in once I have the keyword of choice.

Please note, Adam Short has a $1 Trail for 14 days to access his teachings and his tool. I purchased just for his tools because of how easy they are to use.  Hopefully I can get Adam onto a podcast with me to explain more of this stuff, he’s a true expert.

So getting back a little bit to why we are doing all of this.  There are 2 reasons:

1) we are laying down a rock solid foundation for your biz

2) we are using terms so people who are searching can find YOU

It makes sense and it’s important because YOU are a special person that will help the searcher find what they need.

I just checked back and my keyword “purpose driven life” is still analyzing , So I’ll share with you the other SEO stuff that I need to do once I have my keyword is…

I’m optimizing the entire page based on that one keyword, yes I can do other keyword stuff but I don’t care to and it actually comes out pretty naturally as you write.  (I can hear the SEO people groaning now hee hee)

1) Go back to yesterday’s post about Ben Breedlove and name it with my chosen keyword in the title

2) I scroll down to my Yoast plugin and see that I need to add my “SEO Title” there, add my one main focus keyword and the meta description.

Pretty

darn

easy

yet

still

feels like

I’m having to

floss my teeth.

3) The keyword checker is still searching and some good ones have popped up but I’m waiting for the one “excellent” keyword so I’m moving on.

#2 RSS Feed

What this process is forcing me to do is look at my own framework here on the blog and I can clearly see things that I’m missing.

THE RSS FEED

Yes I have the RSS Icon above in the header of this site but I also *should* have a newsletter sign up form on my site, so I’m heading over to do that now.

After logging into my account I just navigate over to the “Publicize” tab and then click on  “Email Subscriptions” and then click on, “Subscription Management.”

You can see the highlighted code, I’ll just take that and add it to a “text” widget and place it in my sidebar.

By the way, it’s very important for you to own burn your feed and own it as it’s a good asset if you ever decide to sell your site.

I also took my feed and added it to my facebook page with the application “Social RSS” — something easy and simple to do.

Now that I’ve added the Social RSS app to my biz page, my content will now automatically get added to my page without me having to lift a finger every type I create a new blog post.

Nice!

#3 Pinterest

Oh boy oh boy do I LOVE Pinterest!

Last night because I just couldn’t help myself I put together all my boards on Pinterest, I would love to connect with you there too!

It was soooooo much fun putting it all together. Not much more to say but you should totally join, follow me and I’ll follow you.

Fun Fun Fun!

#4 Posting The Blog Post on my Personal Timeline on Facebook

I *just* shared the blog post about Ben on my personal facebook timeline.  I don’t do this too much because it’s my personal page where I connect with family & friends. However alot of people that I meet in the online world and do business with are also connected with me there.

Even more useful than social bookmarking is to leverage your followers.

Facebook, Twitter and the likes are not just for posting random tips.

You should also be posting updates each time you add fresh content to your website.

Your followers can then read, like and retweet your messages, helping to naturally build links. If you use WordPress, there are plugins that can help automate this process.

Another reason I don’t share a ton over there on my personal profile is because it’s a little nerve wracking. My family may read it, my friends from church could possibly read it and my own kids.

Sounds kinda strange that I would have that little phobia huh?

But it’s true.  It’s hard to open up your heart like that with people who know you personally. I’ve done biz online before facebook was even created and although it wasn’t anonymous, it wasn’t personal either.

Strange but true.

It’s kind of funny actually when you think about it, here I am writing a blog post about how to spread the word out far and wide over the internet and yet I’m a little chicken to share with my family and friends.

Weird.

and….

moving on again…

In the end, it’s what helps make your posts go viral on facebook

#5 Deep Link Building

Deep linking is not a new method but it is one that many people overlook.

Linking to a home page rather than your internal web pages is a rookie mistake. Even the PDF I created links to the exact page of the blog post.

Even the stuff I did on Pinterest always links to the *exact* post

While you may feel your home page is the most important page of your website, search engines will question why most of your inbound links are going to the home page.

When people search your website, you want them to find exactly what they’re looking for.

So the most valuable info is the content within your website – your articles, videos and so forth – not bits and pieces summarized on your home page.

Just as external links help build traffic, internal link building is equally important. Building this internal site structure will make it easy for visitors and search engines to crawl your site.

Remember to diversify your anchor text while still using relevant keywords when linking both internally and externally.

#6 Guest Blogging

I’m going to see out some places I can guest blog at that will make a BIG impact and link people back to the post about Ben.  It’s important that I deep link back (using my chosen keyword) to that post as it not only shares my heart but it links back to the book, “Purpose Driven Life” where I’ll make commission and income to survive (which I am very thankful for!).

Writing content on other people’s sites in exchange for a link back to your website is a great way to build links.

If you can write high quality content, people will agree to publish it on their site and the resulting backlinks are both highly relevant and high in quality.

Before you contact random websites, make a list of at least 30 blogs that target the same group of people you do.

These blogs should have high traffic, a large social following and lots of interaction with their followers.

I personally also want to know that the site I’m going to guest blog for will have a newsletter subscription list where I can ask them to let their subscribers know about me and what I’m blogging about.

Of course, I will promote them to my subscribers too, it’s a great way to share new things with them.

As you visit each site and create your list, make a note of topics that you can discuss to each one. Taking the extra time to do this will increase your chances of being accepted as a guest blogger.

I have no idea which sites I’ll be guest blogging at, I’ll start researching after I’m done this post.

#7 Bingo! I have my Keyword

It took the software some time for me to finally be happy with the keyword of choice and it’s super mega easy because it tells me if I have an “excellent, good, fair or poor” keyword.

Plus it’s color coded which makes things super easy.  I also have a wonderful list of keywords that I can now use when I choose to put together a nice review of the book.

So drum roll please….

“a purpose driven life”

is THE keyword that I’ll optimize this blog post on Ben Goodbread.

Going now into Yoast to plunk it all in.

Here’s what I added the keyword to:

• The Title

• The Focus Keyword

• SEO Title

• Meta Description

• The Main Title for my blog post

• Beginning of the Article

• The page URL

• The Tags

• Sprinkled it lightly throughout the article

• Updated the pictures on the page with the keyword (this is called the “alt” tags)

#8 Create a PDF of the Blog Post

Yesterday after I created the blog post I created a PDF of it.  Now I’ll jump into my Google Docs and modify the content while incorporating my keyword.

I don’t know if it makes much difference within the content of the PDF but I know it will be good for me to use the keyword within the link in the footer of the PDF.

The PDF file is also named, “a-purpose-driven-life” so when I load it up to my site, the main keyword is also there.

The reason I created the PDF is so I can submit it to a bunch of PDF sharing sites, one being SlideShare.net.  This is work and it will take me a bit of time to submit it out to the sharing sites but it’s more links coming back to me so there ya go.

#9 Link Baiting – Kinda Sounds Like Fishing

Link bait is any type of content that’s designed for the expressed purpose of going viral or for garnering links.

Two effective forms of link bait include infographics and viral videos.

Create content that people are going to want to share with their friends.

It should be emotional, impactful and original.

Then share it on social sites.

So, I’m having a beautiful graphic created to represent the post. I think it will be very heart warming and impactful.

#10 Share the Post on Twitter

Personally I’m not a huge fan of twitter and rarely look at it on my computer. However when I’m out and about I have Twitter on my phone and often check in.

Especially if there’s something huge happening like the HUGE earthquake we experienced here in British Columbia the day before Sandy hit the east coast.

So, I’ll head over to twitter now and share my post.

#11 I Created An Audio Of The Post

It gives my readers the option to listen to my story from my own voice. It shares my heart, builds connection and you also hear my emotions within the audio.  It was a big post for me to write and I wanted to share it in another way also for those readers who would want to hear something instead of reading.

It was something that I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

Other ideas is I could do a You Tube Video reading it out loud and share that with other video sharing sites too. I doubt I’ll do that though.

 #12 Blog Commenting

Once I have my list ready of the places I’m going to be a guest blogger at, I’ll start making comments on their blogs first so they are aware of who I am.

It also shows me if they respond to comments which I think is pretty important.

#13 Lastly Makes Some New Friends

So how do you start making friends? It’s easy!  Here are three ways:

Connect on social media, through their blog: Leave useful comments, ask thought-provoking questions and be a useful member of their community. However, realize you need to take this communication to a more personal level than simply liking a post or making comments.

Attend in-person events: Face-to-face meetings are the most effective when it comes to cementing relationships. Attend conferences, meetups and other events to meet likeminded business owners.
Offer to write guest posts, do interviews and more. Help others first and it often comes back to you many times over.

And That’s A Wrap!

I’m tuckered out just writing this post, I hope it serves you well today and I’m sure I’ll have more creative ideas as I focus on promoting this one post that inspired me to stand up for what I feel called to do here on this earth.