I have been building WordPress blogs for about 5 years now and I have set them up in many different configurations. Most of my blogs are single author websites with one topic and some of my blogs are used more like a true CMS with a variety of content types and themes to write on. Some of my blogs have more than one author but almost all of them are used for the specific use of generating leads for new business clients.

I think Wordress is the ultimate platform for lead generation when you consider how fast and easy you can build a robust website on any topic. The SEO features of a WordPress blog make it a marketing machine that can automate the content syndication and marketing campaigns so many leads sites need.

A WordPress Blog can scale up to a huge website so a simple 3 page website can one day become a huge multi-user environment with 1000′s of subscribers. WordPress makes a great squeeze page with a direct link to your call to action and the ease of integrating a number of communication tools such as Contact forms, CRM systems and social media make it the ultimate communication platform for your business.

Do you use WordPress blogs for leads websites?

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Squidoo us a pretty cool Web 2.0 website that used to be a lot more popular but which still can be used to drive qualified traffic, inbound links and authority status for your website project.

Squidoo offers content writers a great platform for creating unique articles and destination pages on any topic you can imagine. A Squidoo lense is a wonderful way to tell people about any product or service you can imagine and they hold value as a stand alone marketing platform but they also serve an SEO purpose as an authority on any keyword you can build a page for.

AS an example we created a page for Pigeon Forge Attractions to use as a promotional deceive for a discount vacations website we are promoting. the Pigeon Forge Squidoo page offers information in events, activities and attractions in Pigeon Forge and serves as a great doorway page to your website.

A Squidoo page is a great pre-sell page that can be used to prep users for the sales pitch on any squeeze page. The domain Squidoo.com is well trusted and can sustain a huge link building campaign without fear of devalued ranking on Google because of too many links to a new website.

Do you Squidoo?

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I’ve been building a lot of blogs lately with great success on most of my sites. I’ve been able to use them to kick start a number of new websites and boost traffic to what used to be some parked domains.

I started to work with some musicians here in Jamaica that were in need of more than a website. I’m hoping to use the blog as a communication platform for a group of Jamaican musicians who want to post their music, videos as well as sell music online. The music selling is going to be a trick I think but I’ll get to it over the next few weeks.

The first three sites are still in early content stages and I am hoping to have the artists and their fans help us with the content development because I simply cannot do it myself. My first blog was for my bredren Ras Slick who turned out to be a much better performer than I expected. His live shows are great and he has a way with the crowd that seems to set him above so many other musicians around here.

I’m looking for the best solution to allow music downloads from these blogs. Anyone got a tip on the ebst way to sell mp3 files in a wordpress blog?

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When I started blogging it was because I could easily write an article on just about any subject. I began to realize I could build a blog for just about anything and soon enough my army of blogs was up to 20 or more sites requiring fresh content each and every week. I soon found myself burned out on writing and many of my articles were starting to sound the same or even worse I just quit updating a few blogs. I had about a half a dozen old blogs that needed some new content and I had ideas for at least another halfdozen sites. How could I keepup with this?

My first effort was to try to find guest bloggers for some of my sites and this worked to a certain extent. People are only willing to write bu so much for a site without some soliod dollars behind it though and the traffic and link trade ideas only allowed for so many blog posts. I decided I needed to hire some new content writers that could produce quality work but still keep my cost per article down under $10 each. Updating a blog every 3 days would require 10 articles per month or $100 at that rate. It’s tough to put so much into a site if it’s not making any money and even harder for a dozen sites in different niche categories.

My goal was to find one person who like me could write on just about any subject with a little research and effort. I searched high and low for advice on information on content for blogs and I came up with some interesting articles from places like Icontact but no real sources for what I wanted. In the end I turned to the Forums at Digital Point where I hired just that perfect content writer who now blogs with me on 15 or so different blogs in a wide variety of subjects. She can produce 350 word articles for under $10 each and she writes for the search engines with some nice keyword research and more in each article. With her working steady my content production has tripled and all of my blogs have fresh nerw articles posted to them on a very regualr schedule.

I have been purchasing articles in packs of 100 or 200 and this allows me to post the articles to my WordPress blogs using the timestamp feature so I can post into the future as far ahead as I wish. Right now 85% of my blogs have unique posts created until March or April of next year. The blogs will automagically make the post and ping the top 50 servers to announce each one to search engines. All I need to focus on now is proper link development and the sites are on cruise control for the next 90 days or so. Many of these are new blogs or old blogs with few recent updates. The 90 days of fresh content should make a marked difference in the sites traffic. I’ll post a review some time later with performance updates on the content.

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Google is growing up and has just announced a new home page redesign and plans to mature from a basic internet search engine to a new universal search engine whihc displays more than just 10 websites in the top results. Search engine results pages will now include relevant videos, images, news, books and websites. From a search marketers view this is a very bad thing because we will now be sharing the front page results with unrelated items such as pics and videos that are more difficult if not impossible to optimize for.  What used to be 10 spots for websites may now only be 5 websites with 2 videos, 1 pic and a book. When you add all the competition from big sites like Wikipedia and eBay then it really gets tough to achieve first page results for competitive search terms such as products or services.

It looks to me like Google has found a way to deal with spammers and it’s by duiluting the results on their own. This also has the added benefits of increasing clicks to Ads on the page because of the number of non relevant results per page. Think about it. For competitive keywords you may end up with the results above and only 5 pages in the organic serp’s nbut there will always be 10 paid spots on the sidebar that are more targeted. IN effect the Ads on Google will become the most relevant results. If someone is willing to spend the big bucks for top spots and front page results they must be relevant right?

Google Press Center: Press Release

Google Introduces New Search Features and Unveils New Homepage Design

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (May 16, 2007) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to search for and view information online. The company also introduced an updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make it faster and easier for users to find the information they are looking for.

“Our focus has always been making our users’ search experience as simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today’s announcements are a big step in that direction.”

Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor – not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.

The Power of Google Technology

Google is also in the process of deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information. As always, Google™ search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world.

“Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search,” said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. “The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal.”

New Navigation Features

New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information that is relevant to a user’s query. For example, a search for “python” will now generate links to Google Blog Search™, Google Book Search™, Google Groups™, and Google Code™, to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a wider array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered.

Google’s homepage and a number of applications have also been updated with a new navigation bar to provide easier access to popular Google products. Now, instead of having links above the Google.com homepage search box, users will see a navigation bar on the top left side of the page with various Google search properties and popular products including Gmail™, Google Calendar™, Google Docs & Spreadsheets™, and Picasa Web Albums™.

Experience the Experiments

Google also announced today a new experimental version of its popular search service called Google Experimental™, available on Google Labs™. This new test site provides users an opportunity to try out some of the latest search experiments and innovations and provide Google with feedback. One of the first experiments to be featured on the site enables users to view their search results on a map or timeline. For instance, when someone searches for “Albert Einstein” on Google Experimental, they can choose to view the search results on a map that shows locations mentioned within web pages about Albert Einstein or on a timeline that illustrates the history of Albert Einstein’s life. More information on Google Experimental search is available at Google Labs at http://labs.google.com.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

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Everyone who works online understands quickly that in order to be a success online your website needs traffic and the best source of free traffic remains the search engines and specifically the Google Search engine. Search engines have become so important online that they have inspired an entire industry of search engine marketers and web gurus always looking to game the search engines for the best results.

Having your website listed on the front page of Google Search engine result page, or SERP’s as they are know in the industry, for the right keyword can mean big bucks in your bank account in short time. With the going rate on some keywords reaching over $100 in the Google Adsense program it’s no wonder so many are entering the market and calling themselves search engine optimization consultants. In the past couple years it seems like millions of marketers have taken to calling themselves SEO consultants when many of them have no experience in producing long term results from their search marketing. Finding a SEO consultant with the skills and experience to manage marketing for your company isn’t as easy as you think and claims made on a website must be verified.

Shimon Sandler graduated Pennsylvania State University and moved on to his first job as a Marketing Manager for a global detergent company where he was responsible for developing & executing online & offline marketing programs, forecasting, and implementing strategies. He then moved on to DigitalGrit and Did-it.com where he developed enterprise-wide online marketing programs consisting of SEO, Paid Search, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and web/banner design for Fortune 500 corporations. Shimon offers some great advice on internet marketing strategies and his 9 Step SEO consultant pricing guide is an excellent break down of what to expect from a professional search engine optimization consultant.

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I built my first WordPress blog just a few short months back. I’ve had a blogger account up for a couple years now but I never built my own custom blog configuration. With some of my sites I even use blogger to upload files direct to my own domain but I never realized the power in installing my own WordPress blog until I got into ZuneMAX.com. This site grew fast and I know that the tools I used in the blog we’re an important part of it’s success and growth. With this site I have developed WordPress more into a Content Management System (CMS) by adding features such as the SimpleMachines.org forum and the CopperMine Gallery scripts. I’ll write more about those integrations at a later time but for now let me tell you why I love WordPress.

I guess the first things one notices with WordPress is just how easy it makes web publishing. I built my first website in 1997 and since those days it has become almost too easy for anyone to publish anything online. The rise of the blogosphere and power wielded by elite bloggers has been awesome. Bloggers have struck fear in the ruling power structure. Newspapers ar eon edge over lost strength in news and politicians ar flipping over what the influence bloggers have on elections. I don’t fancy myself a powerful blogger or political activist but I do understand business and WordPress is a business tool for me.

I have taken this free blogging software and adapted it to my own needs with a variety of free plugins from WordPress developers and the community as a whole. Another piece of beautiful open source software has established a strong business site for me at little or no cost beyond my time and efforts. I have learned quite a bit about web development in the past few months just by playing around with this tool and all it’s wonderful features. I think the SEO advantages to running a WordPress blog are worth the time and learning curve on their own. Built in features such as SEO friendly "PermaLinks" and "RSS Feeds" have shown a great benefit in getting the site spidered and content indexed properly. The Google Sitemap plugin and Ultimate Tag Warrior are awesome and powerful tools you can pick up for free on the web.

I’ll be going into much greater detail with the WordPress tools and Plugins tips on this blog for some time to come. I now feel comfortable with all the built in features and I’ll go over use of those some more but it’s the customization that makes this software so awesome and that’s what we’ll be showcasing here soon.

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I’ve had a few directories over time but part of this years changes involved converting a dozen or so single page affiliate sites over to web directories utilizing a link directory software application. My goal was to try to use the platform as link exchange tools for the site and also as a way to generate some fresh content through new site submissions.

I took a look at many different packages and ended up selecting WSNlinks.com for a few reasons. First and foremost I chose WSNlinks for the robust tools and features available in their paid directory script. They offer a free directory script but I was looking for a little bit more in a link directory script for these sites and WSNlinks fit the bill. The script was well written from a users point of view. The admin tools are quick and easy to access and you can customize almost every aspect of the directory. WSNlinks is perfect for people looking for a quality SEO friendly directory script with more bang for the buck then any other in my opinion. I’ll spare you the run down but there are a lot of scripts and I tried the top ten I think and WSNlinks is my choice for the better tool to manage multiple sites with.

For SEO purposes you can’t beat this script for site enhancement and management tools. The built in HTACCESS and modrewrite takes care of SEO friendly url’s’ and there are more tools for setting these sites up then I found in any other script at the price point. Even the free version lets you do some cool stuff like set who can submit links and categories but the advanced features in this make it my favorite directory script.

The Sponsor level paid links directory is very cool but my favorite part was the DMOZ importer which allowed me to suck down a category navigational structure based on the webs leading directory and build each site in a matter of minutes when compared to the days it may have taken me in the past with our tools. The DMOZ importer in conjunction with the Tulip JAR file allows me to select whether I want to import just the category structure or if i also want to import the links from DMOZ as well. If you want to kick start a new directory then the DMOZ import is the way to go. You can have a brand new directory up and running from a clean install in minutes once you’ve done one the first time. First time installation and total configuration was very easy and the customization options will have you fiddling around with settings for a long time.

WSNlinks offers a private message system, comments and various levels of users permissions to allow you to set just what members can or can’t do. This script also offers a very unique tool in the Integration Generator which will help you configure your site to work with a large list of other scripts. In one case we took the WSNlinks directory script and integrated it with a PHPBB forums allowing users to cruise from the link directory to the forums under one login. The features we’re very well received in the forums and we have had a great participation across both sides of the site. Integration is not for every site but tying the forum to the directory was a very desirable feature on a portion of our network and has worked out very well.

I was able to take domains with less then 3 pages on average to each site and with the help of these SEO friendly directories no have 1000′s of pages of cached content on Google servers and a big boost in traffic with the introduction of so many new keywords. The domains I used had existing PR value and I was able to boost sales of links by increasing the number of indexed pages to sell links on. I integrated the CARP RSS feed system from GeckoTribe and have the beginnings of my own CMS system. I’m considering a new version with a WordPress blog integrated but the trouble lies in making it sync with WSNlinks logins properly. There are some issues with password formats outside or my skill set I am working on my but I think I can get it to happen. I’ll showcase my work on that in later posts possibly.

A healthy directory program is an important part of the Index MAX network of sites and should be a consideration for all network managers. Directory scripts like this make better sense to me for use as domain holders then landing pages.Even if it’s a lower grade content you can still get more indexed page then by parking domains at your registrar.

I suggest you test drive the demo at WSNlinks.com when you want to setup some directories.

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Affordable Web Pro has been about affordable website development and marketing services since 1999. In that time this site has undergone many changes. Today we announce yet one more change and a new direction for AffordableWebPro.com in general. The old site is gone and has been replaced by this WordPress Blog you see before you. This new blog will showcase the development of the Affordable Web Pro network of websites and the tips adn tricks we use to make affordable websites.

Our primary focus will be on open source development platforms and scripts and aoftware used to power the Affordable Web Pro Network. Stay tuned to some great tips and articles on PHP, MYSql, WordPress, SMF and so manyother great open source projects.

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