This contest is all about generating traffic the more traffic your posts get the higher your chances of winning are.
Blogging Tips and tricks
Blog Often: The more posts you have, the more frequently the blog is updated, the more your rss is updated which should result in more page views.
Blog about what you Like: We ran into problems with last years contest in restricting when / what our Bloggers were allowed to blog about. This year we would like to keep the lines of communication open and allow people to blog on anything related to IT that they are passionate about as it will allow for more informative and opinionated posts which is what blogging is all about.
Syndcation: New for 2009 is Blogger Pages: (Example) which is a page for each blogger that lists all of thier posts and updates every time a new post is made. Each Blogger even has thier own RSS Feed (Example) so that you can send it to your friends or use it in Socail Networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to automatically update everytime you make a new Blogging Idol post.
Good Content: Their is no substitution for useful engaging content. The better your content is the more views and positive feedback you will get from the community. Bad speeling and Obvious technical misakes takes away form your credabillity as a expert…. see what I mean.
Community: Blogging is about engaging and responding to your community. Be prepared to moderate comments on your story and respond to peoples questions and comments quickly. You can even do follow up pieces based on a comment left on an old post. Ther quicker you respond and the more thoughtfull your answers are will build credability to your blog and keep users comming back for more interactivity.
“How to use Google Insights and Google Adwords”
This how to use the “Google Insights” tool and Google Adwords keyword tool. This will assist you to get the best keyword ideas.
a) Log in to your Gmail account ( SCREEN CAPTURE # 1 )
b) Then type “google insights” in Google Search box. Click on “Google Insights for Search” ( SCREEN CAPTURE # 2 )
c) As a first example, let’s choose “Search Terms”. Under “filter”, choose “Web Search” (2), “Canada” (3), “Last 7 days” (4) and “All Categories”; then hit “Search”. That will generate stats on the top ten searches and top ten “rising searches” in Canada for the last 7 days, for all categories. ( SCREEN CAPTURE # 3 )
d) Ok, so now let’s refine the search, Let’s figure out what are the “top searches” and “rising searches “ for the “computer” category. Instead of “All Categories”, let’s choose “Computers & Electronics” ( SCREEN CAPTURE # 4 )
e) As seen in Screen Capture # 5 the top “rising searches” for the “Computer & Electronics” Category are “conficker” and “april 1 virus”.
f) We can refine results further, so let’s click on “april 1 virus” for instance and navigate through the subcategories that the keyword belongs to. Screen Capture # 6 displays the resulting graph. We can compare the “april 1 virus” growth with the Category growth itself, or the Sub-Category growth itself. Hovering over the line graph we can see the stats that indicate “april 1 virus” has experienced a 158% growth during the past 7 days.
g) Screen Capture # 7 further explains how to interpret the percentage numbers in the graphs.
h) Now we have identified a “rising search” that reflects current reality. As screen capture # 6 shows the keyword “april 1 virus” is a great keyword suggestion at this very moment.
i) We can further explore keyword Ideas by using the Google Keyword tool: Let’s go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type “april 1 virus” ( SCREEN CAPTURE # 8 )
j) Screen Capture # 9 shows the results as organized by Estimated Avg. CPC, Approx Search Volume: February, and Approx Avg Search Volume. These are the top results organize by Aprox. Search volume in February:
• “April 1 virus” (TOP KEYWORD PHRASE)
• “Computer Security”
• “Antivirus”
• “Malware”
• “Canada”
• “Ontario”
• “anti virus”
• “virus scan”
• “virus removal”
• “anti virus software”
• “Trojan virus”
• “spyware virus”
Keywords Estimated Avg. CPC Approx Search Volume:
February Approx Avg Search Volume
anti virus $3.45 1500000 1500000
virus scan $3.58 450000 368000
virus removal $3.51 301000 201000
anti virus software $3.58 246000 201000
virus $3.04 246000 5000000
w32 $1.36 201000 135000
trojan virus $2.43 165000 110000
remove virus $2.90 135000 90500
spyware virus $3.83 110000 90500
virus exe $1.48 90500 49500
virus remover $3.87 60500 49500
virus trojan horse $2.58 49500 27100
To conclude, by using “Google Insights” and “Google Keyword Tool” the proper way, we can identify “rising searches” and associate them with keyword ideas that have a high search volume, within a given time frame. This is one of the best techniques for driving visitors to your blogs.
( Double click on the images to enlarge if you need)
SCREEN CAPTURE # 7
SCREEN CAPTURE # 8
SCREEN CAPTURE # 9
SCREEN CAPTURE # 1
SCREEN CAPTURE # 2
SCREEN CAPTURE # 3
SCREEN CAPTURE # 4
SCREEN CAPTURE # 5
Below you will find a link to an excel sheet that shows you quick keyword research data completed by our SEO Team. Our Blogging Idol topics are general, further refinement can be accomplished by using Google Insights in combination with the keyword tool shown above
http://www.itworldcanada.com/documents/blogging-idol-keywords.xls
Thank you and if you need anything please let me know, Anna Demetriou (Production Coordinator)416 290 0240 ext 168