Author Archives: Julia Wojdacz

Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search engine optimization is vital in the success of your website so here are some search engine optimization tips to ensure you are getting the most out of the effort you are putting into the SEO of your website.

Search engine optimization is the art (or is science?) of making your site rank well in search engines so that people can find it. It takes months, if not years, for a site to rank well for a range of keywords so it is important to be patient. Let’s cover some important SEO tips for you.

Choose Your Keywords Wisely

You need to choose a range of long tail (variations of a main word) and other related keywords. Some topics have a range of keywords that relate to them so it is important to cover all angles. This is includes choosing synonyms (words that have the same or similar meaning), plurals and other words that people may use to find your site. The more the better!

Tracking and Statistics

It is impossible to improve something if you don’t know what is going on. So get a good tracking and stats program like Google Analytics or even the free Awstats in Cpanel to track where your visitors are coming from, what keywords they are finding your site with and where they are leaving from.

Clean Code

Although not proven as a way to rank well, it is advantageous to use clean HTML code on your web pages. This makes the search engine spiders more likely to crawl all of your pages. So make sure your code uses CSS and does not contain jargon that is often inserted by programs like FrontPage.

Emphasize

You can emphasize certain keywords in your content by bolding them or making them headers with the H1, H2 etc tags. This tells the search engines that these are important words.

These search engine optimization tips should get you started on the right track to SEO success!

Beware of What’s Hidden Within – Part 2

So far  the other alternatives I found:

Go to http://www.pctuneup.com/fix. They will give you instructions to download a scanner software to stop the worm/virus. I attempted to download the scanner software and it wouldn’t connect to their database, it kept shutting down. After contacting tech support, I was told this:

“You have several alternatives: A. You can take your computer to your local trusted computer store or “Geek Squad” at Best Buy and be charged from anywhere $300 to $500, plus your computer will be down for 1 to 2 weeks.

B. Another alternative is we can help you get rid of this virus. Once you realize that you have this worm/virus the more you start and shut down your computer the worse it gets! It could eventually ruin your computer for good. We will be happy to fix your computer for a mere $225.00 plus a monthly membership to PCTuneup for $24.95 a month. We will then transfer you to a Microsoft Technician who will remotely work with you to rid your computer of this worm/virus.” or,

C. I contacted Microsoft Support myself and talked with one of their technicians directly and the charge would be $99 for a one time fix or $147 for a year of fixing any software problems with any of their products.

As of right now, since money is tight and I have another computer to use, I am saving up the money to contact Microsoft directly.

I hope this has helped you if you should run into this malicious and dangerous worm/virus.  Please feel free to leave your experiences with this worm/virus in the comment section below. All comments are given approval before being posted.

Please stay tune for updates on this worm/virus outcome as once I contact Microsoft I will be posting how to get rid of this malicious menace!

Beware of What’s Hidden Within

Earlier this spring we all heard about the worm/virus Crypto Wall or Crypto Hijacker. Well, I know it may seem a bit late to write about this worm/virus but I wanted to share my experience with this very hellacious worm/virus, recently.

I have never opened a strange attachment this year so far. The only thing that I can think of is that this worm/virus was attached to a browser update that automatically downloaded. I don’t want to name names because of not knowing for sure, but you even have to beware of what you are downloading even though it doesn’t seem malicious.

Suddenly a few weeks ago I got a warning that showed up in Notepad program warning me that my files were corrupted. It said that my computer files were now under a security key that I would have to go to a really odd website I could get my files retrieved, of course I did not do this! The hackers will send you several links with odd addresses to go to.

Instead I went onto Google and researched what this Crypto thingy was. And the information I found out was not only maddening, but really made you think how malicious these hackers nowadays can get just to not work and blackmail money out of us innocent citizens who work hard for our money.

Apparently, these hackers hijack your computer either by an attachment or piggybacking into your computer. Now, mind you, this worm/virus can stay dormant and not do anything for months! This is what I am dealing with.

As I mentioned at the opening of this article, this worm/virus was found out earlier this year in spring. I was told by a technician that it could have lied dormant all this time and suddenly it went active.

So, now your computer is hijacked, and you get this warning on Notepad about going to this really odd website –which please do not do this should you get this screen. The instructions, once you are on their website, is to pay a ransom of either $750 up to $1,500 to get your files back. Once the ransom is paid then you will get their “key” to get your files returned unharmed – supposedly! Personally, I wouldn’t trust their word on it.  There are other alternatives!

Tune in next week for the alternatives that I found……

 

 

 

 

 

 

Counting Our Blessings

This time of year is the time where we count our blessings that have been bestowed upon us throughout the year. Whether it be a bountiful crop, a successful business venture we have been working on, finally getting that gigantic project completed, getting new clients or keeping our current clients happy, or more on a personal note making sure we stay happy and healthy.

I started this business 8 years ago with an idea of helping attorneys with their client’s cases.  Since that time my business has evolved into helping marketing researchers, PhD candidates and investigative reporters with interviewing their subjects.  It has also evolved into helping local businesses turn their old drab website into some thing new and shiny to attract new business.  All I can say is Wow Where Did the Time Go?christmas party

I want to take this time to say a big thank you to all of my past and current clients who have helped make Julia’s Virtual Assistant Service a big success. Without you we would not be in business today. I want to thank each and every one of you for your patience, understanding and continued business. We, who are in business, have to remember why we are in business today. We fill a need. We help our clients with different areas of their business that they are struggling with. So let’s each and every one of us in business take a moment to really show our gratitude to our clients by sending them a holiday card saying thank you for their continued business. You will be glad you did.

I Hate Writing Articles-Isn’t There An Easier Way?!

Owning, running and maintaining an internet based business or a site needs articles. Plain and simple, every business who has a site knows this. Even those who don’t have sites but are frequent internet users knows this as well. Articles quench the thirst for information and knowledge of the people. Plus, the articles provide many other benefits for the site.

These benefits are:

  • Putting a site high in the ranking in search results of keywords and keyword phrases that pertains to or are relevant to the site.
  • They provide attraction to website visitors when they are appreciated and is linked to your site from another site or newsletter.
  • Articles provide for the increase of the confidence and trust levels of customers to your site and company.

Many articles are also beneficial to both company and its traffic. When the readers like the articles, they would tell more of their friends, family and peers and recommend your site to them, providing for a larger volume of traffic. You get bigger sales if your traffic trusts and believes in you. Your product or services would be much easier to sell when they know you, know what you are doing and talking about.

So ok, we have established that articles are very important to a site and to business. Articles are crucial to keep ahead in the game, a site must have an article, it is imperative. There is one dilemma though, not many people like writing articles.

Many website owners would rather spend their time on something else, and unless you’re a big time company, you don’t have the necessary resources to use on a pool of article writers. Plagiarism or copying of other articles is frowned upon and could easily get you into trouble, worst case scenario; a hefty fine and jail time.

So what are your options?

Well, for starters if you hate writing articles and you can’t afford to hire people to write for you then don’t. You can get PLR articles or Private Label Right from a variety of sites. The first place to look for these types of articles would be a site like PLR.com or Need-an-Article.com. Here you won’t have problems with copyright infringement and the following penalties and fines if you get caught for plagiarism. You pay a small fee to get a bunch of articles. You read through the article and rewrite it so that it is in your own voice.

With Private Label Rights articles you purchase the label rights to post the article on your website, blog, or to article submission sites, in a newsletter it’s your decision. You post the article as your own. Always remember though that you will have to choose articles that is very relevant to your site.

The downside to private label rights articles is that since it is free for everybody, many of your competitors may have access to them as well. Since every site needs to be original and unique even though you have the same niche, this could be a predicament. You may also have to edit them a bit to place more keywords and keyword phrases to make them better.

Another way to get free articles is to allow other sites which has the same subject or topic as yours to submit articles to your site. This would be only to augment your existing content or else all your articles would be leading to other sites since these articles would have resource boxes with them that could link or direct the readers to their site. That’s why it is important to have your own articles; you could use them to link your site to other sites as well.

But, to truly feel the impact of what a good article to you, go for original ones. There are many article writers who do part time and freelance article writing jobs that charges only minimal fees. You can get good articles that have all the keywords and keyword phrases you need and people are looking for.

The investment you made for these articles would be worthwhile because you could use them for all the benefits you could offer. You hold copyrights to them and you will be able to use them anyway you want. As your articles help you in building your business and your site, you will have more articles to write and maybe then you won’t be having second thoughts about posting articles.

If you should need any assistance in where to post your articles our service will be happy to post them for you for a nominal fee.

Contact: Julia@juliasvaservice.com for more info.

 

 

Four Steps To A Mistake-Free Social Media Effort

Nowadays, most businesses are using the internet for different purposes. With the increasing results from social media, it is not surprising that businesses find it to be the most useful tool in their online marketing strategies. Yet, there are still some businesses that didn’t even put effort to perfect their social media use. Being so, they are present online but are not reaping the numerous benefits that social media could do for their business.

Is your business one of them?

Now, don’t fret just yet because many businesses have suffered the same fate. The thing is you’re here and seeking remedies. So that means you want to be free from mistakes and want to improve use of social media for your business. Here’s how to clarify your next moves:

1.    Define your goals. In any aspect of a business, goals are most important. You need to set your goals in order to measure your room of improvement. Before doing any campaign or promotion, set a realistic and doable goal. For example, you’re doing business in local area and you wanted to use the social media marketing to create a website or maybe a blog for your business. Your main goal here is to increase web traffic to increase popularity in turn. See? Setting a goal is a great help because it provides direction, and you will have different strategies on how to use the social media effectively.

2.    Acknowledge you audience. Gaining lots of audience can also make your business a success. But, you must gain trust their trust first. To do so, you must make them feel how valuable and important they are. Building a connection with them is a start, or for those who wish to reach out to you, acknowledge their moves.

3.    Engage with your customers. This is all about interacting with your audience. So how do you engage with your customers? What is now the level of your interaction with them? Speaking directly to your customers and speaking to them in social medium is a big difference.  You could start with asking them about their opinions. Call your top ten clients so you will know their insights and feedbacks.  These are ways of making them feel their voice matters.

Second, provide a way for your customers to complain. You don’t want your customers to be unhappy, right? So, it is much better if you provide a way so you can easily answer to their complaints. Lastly, always respond to them. Every time you ask about their opinions or suggestions, make sure that you respond. It makes them feel that you value them and realize that their opinions are important to you. Because of this, they will engage you more. Lastly, campaign and engagement are different. When you say campaign, it is clearly having a pack of people doing something for a specific purpose. Engagement of your clients is all about a commitment that needs to be sustained.

4.    Don’t focus on one social media channel. What comes into your mind if you hear the word “social media”? Is it Twitter? Perhaps Facebook? Those are just examples of social networking sites that people are using to communicate with each other nowadays. Always remember that different people from different platforms are the ones that you are attracting.

So, always make sure that they know on how to get in touch with you on different platforms and various channels. Remember that your audience isn’t using just one platform so tap them all by being in the avenues they’re active in.

Those are just some of the things that you should do to avoid making a mistake in social media marketing. Whether you business will be successful or not, the fate of you business is still in your hands. Just always remember to do your best.

 

 

Is content really the king? You bet!!

In this day and age of online marketing, content has been heralded as king, and for good reasons. People flock to sites not because of the flashy graphics nor the astounding features nor the witty domain name of the said pages, but because of the information contained therein that would enlighten them with their queries of the moment.

Content is even more potent in winning visitors than, say, search engine placements. You may derive a tremendous amount of traffic from the search engines, but if your content is junk, your visitors will never come back. But with good content, you’ll have recurring visitors who will be eager to read your latest update.

You are most probably aware about the importance of traffic. Relying on unique visitors alone won’t give you the traffic that can be considered as sustainable. You must find a way that would encourage previous visitors to return to your site as well. Good content does this with relative ease. It goes without saying then that your website should have rich, premium, informative content. Content is indeed king, and your web pages serves as the throne. For the success of your business, your website should be constructed as such.

Here are some simple steps that would help you build a content site, and fast:

  • Develop the layout that is simple and pleasant to the eyes. By keeping away from flashy ornaments, you’ll be able to manipulate the focus of your visitors to the content you want to share. Let your content carry your web pages and let the words speak for themselves.
  • You cannot rely on words alone, no matter how witty and cleverly used they are. There should be substance behind them as ultimately, the worth of your words is what would impress upon your visitors the true value of your website as a quality resource hub. So do your research.
  • Make sure you know the subject matter by heart before writing your content. If you have questions about the same, do not try to conceal them with silence. Seek out the answers and leave no bases uncovered. Make your content as comprehensive as possible, and your visitors won’t have to look elsewhere to find the answers they are seeking.
  • Your content should be presented credibly. Employing good writing skills would be instrumental to achieve this. Pay attention to the intricacies of writing for the web. Write well, but in a simple manner.
  • Avoid using jargons and flowery words. Keep your paragraphs short so that you could make good use of negative space, that blank area between clusters of words, which would allow your readers’ eyes to rest. Use bullets and numberings as much as possible. Online users are not really known for their patience, and this is something you have to work on.
  • When writing your content, make sure that the first part of your piece is capable of grabbing your visitors’ interest so that they would be motivated to read on. In these times of convenient surfing, bear in mind that your readers can always go to another site if they don’t find your content engaging. The challenge lies in capturing their interests and giving them what they want. This would compel them to read on and stay.
  • Always update your website with new content. Not only will the search engines love this, resulting in a higher page rank for your site, your visitors will likewise be encouraged to return to your site come for the new information you would share.
  • Consider using blogs instead of traditional HTML designs. Blogs are very easy to set up and update. Once you have typed your entries, all you have to do is to click on a button to publish them. A lot of Internet marketers actually use blogs in creating several mini-sites for their AdSense campaign. Blogs allow them to set up multiple pages in one day. And with the way blogs are favorably getting indexed at the forefront of every search engine result, their value has fantastically increased in recent months!

If your article site is powered by Article Dashboard, a great way to get your content out to many article sites with a few mouse clicks is using Articles Submit. This is a great free program that is very easy to set up and will get your articles out to many sites fast. http://www.content-crazy.com/download/artsubmit.zip

Content is king, but you wield control. Furnish the king with royal garments and surely, your online kingdom would reap the rewards at a faster rate.

 

 

Social Network Marketing And What It Can Do For You

Most people ask the wrong questions when talking with marketers: “How can you make money off social networks?”

The value is placed on social networks such as Facebook, Pinterest, Orkut, Friendster, LinkedIn, Mixx, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Twitter and Flikr, while ignoring the real reason these networks were setup and how you can use those ideas to help your business……

The top social networking websites which are Facebook, Twitter, and now Pinterest were founded as a way to stay in touch with friends and family and to meet new people online that all share the same ideas. LinkedIn has a similar slant – it is great for entrepreneurs and professionals who want to keep track of their contacts for hiring / outsourcing. Flicker is just a blindingly simple tool for sharing photos.

The success of social networks marks a dynamic shift in how people are using the Internet. We have evolved from just searching for information to creating and participating in social spaces with other individuals through the Internet. This model is based upon the hive mentality where people identify themselves as part of a group with similar likes and interests that draw them together.

Social networks make viral marketing and word-of-mouth marketing much easier than before. The best use of social networks is not to make money ‘directly’ off them, but to harness their marketing potential and to use them to market your own business. The best way to do that is to optimize your website (including the process of link building) for your target keywords.

Online social networks present an efficient platform for you to use in the spread of your marketing message. In addition, they are also a great tool for getting tons of visitors and thousands of page views to your site.

What this all means is that you need to devote more of your attention towards how you can leverage the traffic you do receive from these sources. To do that, you should allow your visitors to create their own social network centered on your niche topic. The power of this cannot be missed since social networks allow for multiple points of connections between almost anyone on Earth, giving them the ability to find, share, enjoy, and track anything and everything that tickles their fancy.

Social network marketing works in the exact same fashion, except people choose to provide your link without being asked to do so, and places like del.ici.ous, Digg, Blogpulse, and Technorati give them the ability to do that. In offline terms, that means turning towards your friends and family to ask for their opinions. Online, it means turning towards a group of trusted people whose opinions and recommendations you value.

In fact, in lots of cases, you’ve probably done some research on your own, using the traditional search engine marketing model and then turned to a social network that you’re a part of to validate your findings and complete your research by getting their experiences and opinions about the topic. This is social network marketing at work in its purest form.

Online social networks provide the platform needed to speak out (if they are so inclined) or to simply watch the conversations as they happen.