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About This Author
Brandiwyn🎶Prep starts 10/1! Author Icon, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  Open in new Window., worship leader  Open in new Window., small business owner  Open in new Window., songwriter  Open in new Window., aspiring author  Open in new Window. and freelance nonfiction writer  Open in new Window. with a chemical engineering degree  Open in new Window..

But that's just my resume.

My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.

Merit Badge in Music [Click For More Info] To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^* Big hugs, Sherri *^*Heart*^* Merit Badge in Organization [Click For More Info] I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311] Merit Badge in Leadership [Click For More Info] For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.


April 28, 2012 at 9:34am
April 28, 2012 at 9:34am
#751874
I'm working on it. We do pretty good business just based on our signage; people see our sign, they Google the name, they find us. But it excludes people who haven't seen the sign. We have some print ads out, but I'd like to build our web presence so we're more visible to Googlers not specifically seeking "Michelle Tuesday Music School  Open in new Window.". I've managed to get our MarketingGrader.com and Klout scores up a smidge, and though I've improved my blogging and social networking, it's still just numbers. MarketingGrader thinks I have a mobile-friendly website, but I don't; not yet. I just have the building blocks in place.

The next trick is inbound links.

I hate talking about SEO. If you have a good website, with good information, that answers the right questions (where can I find "music schools in gahanna ohio" or "guitar lessons in columbus"), that should be all it takes. Google has worked hard to be smart at figuring out if you're the right answer to the question. Meanwhile, people have worked even harder to be sure they are the right answer to the question by outsmarting Google. I just don't think that's the right way to go about it.

But facts are facts, and I can clearly see the statistics that prove my site gets more traffic than many of my competitors, most of whom don't know the slightest thing about SEO, web design, or even marketing at all. And I've gotten there in part by following SEO advice. And all the advice I've researched points to more inbound links.

Some of those can be purchased, and I don't mean buying or trading junk links. I mean buying advertising on legitimate, highly-ranked sites like the local chamber of commerce, school districts, high school sports calendar sites, and the like. You would be surprised at how expensive those are, and I can only afford a few key links. Therefore, I need to supplement that with some cheaper inbound links.

I discovered in my Google analysis that I have an inbound link from this page defined by HubSpot as "authoritative" (which counts more, from a link referral perspective, than a non-authoritative page): http://www.sarah-holroyd.com/blog/welcome/  Open in new Window.. Now, I didn't comment on this blog post to get an inbound link. I commented because Seisa-sleepingcatbooks.com Author Icon is my friend, and I want to see her business succeed. Little did I know that Google would appreciate my support, too.

It got me thinking. An easy way to get inbound links is to read blogs and comment on them. Isn't that what HubSpot has been saying all along, in so many words? It's all about blogs. Social networking, yes, content, yes, but also blogs. Write one, read others, comment comment comment.

I do read blogs, and I read them all the freaking time. They suck me in. I find hours lost because I spent the morning clicking from one interesting article to the next. Do I ever comment? Nope. Not unless it's a friend. Why? Too busy? I read the article, didn't I? I have no opinion? Yeah, RIGHT. I have lots of opinions.

So I'm considering adding "read and comment on blogs" to my daily agenda. I do it anyway. Why not add another item to my to-do list that I get to check?

I may never see sunshine again with all this SEO crap.
*Thought*  Comment   •   View 4 comments


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