If a picture is worth a thousand words, than an Infographic is worth more than that. How it combines complex data to form graphical representations which demands immediate attention and helps in the understanding of an intricate topic quite effectively! Sounds good?

Having said that, I feel that the concept of Infographic is underestimated and it has lost its charm in the hardcore world of link building strategies. Strangely, it seems that they are created for the sake of thrusting links into them.

Infographic creation is an art. Ideas could get ripped apart during the initial process itself if not managed properly. Below, I have mentioned some basic tips to get started with your Infographic campaign. Hope it works for everyone!

1. Put Your Thinking Caps On!

The concept of Infographic should not be taken for granted. Undoubtedly, it is the best medium to express facts and data graphically to convey our ideas. As an Infographic creator, you should creatively surpass your own limits each time you create a new one. This requires high levels of innovative ideas on a regular basis. Agreed, that Infographic is just one of the ways of promotion in content marketing. But, we can’t neglect the fact that a graphical representation attracts more readers and stays in their mind for many years to come. Don’t ever compromise with the quality of your content and when it comes to Infographic, just make sure it has a catchy concept.

2. An Infographic Has To Be Eye-Catching

The design should be such that the visitor should consume the information as quickly as possible. The whole idea should be perceivable in a few seconds. Design has much more to it than merely fonts and colors. Design is the creative foundation, presentation of information with a goal of generating interest. The following points should also be taken into consideration while creating the almost perfect Infographic:

1. The Flow of the Infographic: The viewer should feel like he is walking through a story.
2. Colors: Infographics should have attractive colors, but again they should justify the theme.
3. Clarity: Make sure the points are mentioned precisely that covers the whole explanation.

3. Push Your Infographic Through A Distribution Plan

“Content will not become Great until it is distributed at the right places”.

The same stands true for Infographic. It is evident that we need to bring on more light on the ideas for distributing Infographics. However, I could jot down a few ways of effectively distributing your wonderful creation; create a blog post, find influential sources who could push the Infographic through their network, submission with article/press release, promotion through YouTube and other video hosting services, submission to sites like www.dailyinfographic.com, www.visual.ly, www.infographicsarchive.com, www.infographicjournal.com, to name a few.

Basically, one of the best ways is to approach the masters of your industry niche with an honest aim of getting their feedback. Find some more influencers and post your Infographic to your social media profiles thanking them for their valuable support. They will reply to your posts, eventually spreading the reach of your Infographic.

4. Show Only Facts and Figures

The obvious reason for creating an Infographic is to give information about a particular topic or issue. One of the major pre-requisites for an effective Infographic campaign, is having accurate information on hand. The Infographic design should be such that it provokes others to talk about it. Don’t overwork on the design so that it hides the message to be conveyed. A design should give justice to all the statistics and information that you want to share.

Having said that, you also need to make sure that the facts and figures are accurate and are not manipulated as the credibility of your Infographic depends majorly on the information shared through it.

5. Infographic Should Be Thought Provoking

How often do we feel the urge to buy a product instantly when we see the commercial on TV? Similarly, the design, the content, the color, the pictures in the Infographic should be able to trigger the senses of the viewer so that they could take your desired action instantaneously. Infographic is a content, and all the rules of writing a good content also applies to this. You have this big idea in your mind and you need to demonstrate the same in such a manner that it generates excitement, force people to think and would like to share with others.

Again, as it is a content, it should be unique, high-quality and relevant. It should attract the attention of the visitors in a way that it makes them think and propel to take action.

6. Make A Clear Call-To-Action

Our goal, admittedly, is to get more and more people to our marketing circle. Sometimes, achieving this goal becomes one helluva task. One of the simplest reasons for this failure is that the Call-To-Action is not loud and clear. Of course, we design the Infographic to share some information. However, we couldn’t overlook the fact that all our perseverance is targeted towards getting more traffic. You will certainly miss the peak if the CTA is not clear.

Make your call-to-action visible enough at the bottom of the Infographic. It could be asking your viewers to follow your company on twitter, entering their details, or downloading some more information of their interest. Make it attractive enough for prospects to complete some kind of your desired action & engage with your organization.

7. Develop The Habit Of Saying Thank You

One phrase that is taken for granted not only in our day-to-day lives, but also in the business world is saying “Thank You”. This practice has become extinct.

Keep a check on the URL’s where the Infographic was published and also the title of the same. You can do this with the help of Google Alerts or also you could use TweetDeck. These tools will enable you to get all the updates when your Infographic is shared, commented on, pinned or liked. Keep this habit of thanking each time you see that an action has been taken by the viewer. This increases the interactivity which in turn will help in expanding your circle.

7 out of 10 viewers might not have the idea on who created the Infographic. However, if you acknowledge their support, you may increase the count of your followers. Give them a reason to follow you!

Here, I have covered some of the basic points required to create and distribute your Infographic.

Be a little more realistic about your Infographic campaign as improper distribution could lead to a failure and all the efforts and time invested in creating a great Infographic will go in vain. Start networking and find influencers who will definitely help you in distributing your content to the right people in their social circles.

Here are some cool SEO related infographics from cognitiveSEO:

• Black Hat vs White Hat SEO
• What in the name of Google is a “Panda” 
• 14 Facts (& more) about Blekko

This is a Guest Post by:

Sanket Patel is the Founder of Blurbpoint.com. Leading SEO Company since 2006 specializes in Advance Guest Blogging Services, SEO Services, Link Building, Online Reputation Management, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing and many more.  He deeply researched upon Panda/Penguin ultimate recovery process which is working successfully.

The post Infographic – The Lucrative Strategy to Represent Your Content appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Topsy:

Topsy is one of my favourite tools to check which tweets, photos, videos, etc. are trending on the net. This could be helpful to identify the most shared and engaging content. You can also check the most influential people who shared that content and use this information to create a similar or more improved version of the same concept. You can then outreach to those same influences, knowing they are interested in your contents theme and may be willing to share it with their networks.
 

Quora:

This is a Q&A site that is quite useful for collecting ideas as you can find any niche specific questions and answers. This helps to gain an insight into the current trends of an industry. The information is reviewed, organised and edited by users which makes it easy to understand the user behaviour.
 

Google News:

This is the most easy and common way to look for current events and news about your industry, products and keywords. An interesting news piece relevant to your keyword can be used to write a quick, creative and even controversial content.
 

Google Consumer Surveys:

Try using Google’s consumer surveys which can help to get those last minute infographic or blog post ideas.
 

 

Content Curation:

Organising content is quite important to brainstorm for new content ideas. Content suration can be done with the help of many tools like:

Pinterest is all about interesting and unique visuals that can be shared and organised under specific categories and topics. There are many regularly updated boards which can be used to generate ideas for your brainstorm session.

Storify is a great platform that helps users to share stories about an event or occasion. You can curate the most interesting and useful images, tweets, videos, blog posts etc. about an event which can also be shared on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. There is also an option to export this curated content to WordPress blogs.

Delicious is one of the oldest social bookmarking sites. It is a collective source of information that is shared, bookmarked and tagged in different categories which can be set as private or public.
 

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is the most popular professional networking platform. Not many content writers think about LinkedIn while looking for ideas. However, LinkedIn has some great content in the form of discussions that can be used if you are looking to write about your industry related blog post. Join specific groups and look for the topics people are talking about. Use the most recent and engaging idea for your next blog post. You can have an edge over your competitors by simply writing and answering those frequently asked questions in a much more interesting way.
 

Attend conferences and events:

Attending an event or conference, specific to your industry, can be a great platform to generate numerous ideas in a day or short period of time. Networking and socialising is definitely one of the best ‘tools’.
 

Check old posts

One of the best ways to gather ideas for a new post is to check your old blog posts and see if anything can be re-used, updated or written in a more interesting way. This method works really well if the content is worth re-using.
 

Create case studies:

You can always select one of your favourite companies or clients and write a case study about their strategy and achievements. This can be a great method to promote your agency at the same time while creating useful content.
 

Google Trends:

Use Google Trends to search for the most popular and trending topics of your industry.
 

Social Bookmarking Sites:

If your job responsibility involves writing content and research, then checking Reddit and Stumbleupon should be a part of your daily routine. Keeping yourself updated with the most shared content is always helpful.
 

Google Reader:

Google Reader can provide good amount of content according to your choice of keywords and categories on a regular basis. This source of information is quite beneficial if you prefer to receive specific content about various categories or keywords.
 

Data Visualisation:

Exploring different infographics and data visualisations is also imperative to your research as it presents data or information in a presentable, creative and a more comprehensive way. Sites like visual.ly and Daily Infographic have a vast collection of visuals to explore. To apply your ideas for creating an infographic, sites like World Bank and data.gov.uk can be very useful sources of official data that can be accessed and requested by anyone.
 

Talk to your Colleagues

Last but not the least, having frequent brainstorming sessions with colleagues can be a very beneficial idea for content generation and as a team building activity. This has been one of my favourites as it creates a friendly environment and as a result, ideas keep flowing.
There are many more ways in which you can brainstorm for fresh content and this list is definitely limited to my choice. Please share your favourite methods and tools in the form of comments below if you think they can be helpful.

by Malika Sharma

The post Top tips and tools to brainstorm for creative content appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

In our weekly link building technique column I’d like to stress relationships again. Connecting with people is crucial as websites do not link, people link. Of course there are automated links as well but most of them aren’t worth it.

The best links are editorial links by real people.

Who you get editorial links from? “Editors” obviously. On the Web there are all kinds of editors. They can be

1. webmasters
2. bloggers
3. journalists
4. curators
5. social media users
6. content creators
7. business people

Of course many people fit more than one of these categories. Personally I a bit of all of them. Nonetheless I’d like to explain a bit each one of the groups so you get what I mean.

I consider webmasters people who own a static website. They are capable of adding links to these sites on their own without having to ask a “techie”. According to that definition even my wife and my mother are webmasters. Both of them have more than one site after I they learned to use content management systems. So you see, as even my wife and my mother who aren’t working with the Internet like I do have websites you have millions of webmistresses and webmasters to deal with. Many of them already need your products or services. So by giving away them for free or offering a rebate for a link you might already win them over.

Bloggers are fewer than webmasters but by now also tens of thousands of them you can potentially talk to. I don’t even count dead blogs that get never updated. I mean real regular bloggers with active blogs who cover topics similar to your business. Bloggers are always on the look out for the latest trends, weird products or viral videos. They already wait for you to approach them with your latest gadget.

There are less real full time paid journalists these days but many more part timers and freelancers who struggle to make a living. These people often have minutes to decide what to write about and barely more time to research their subjects. In case they know you already or find you when searching for a specialist in your niche they will be glad if you help them.

Who are curators? Blekko is is so called curated search engine. People are hand-picking sites that get used for Blekko’s custom search engines called “slashtags”. These slashtags get used to display searches from the most trusted sources. Curation is wide spread on the Web today, it’s not Blekko. Many bloggers compile lists of daily articles or other resources. Thus they act as curators.

Admins and active users on forums are curators as well. Everybody who is sifting through the incredible onslaught of information and sorting it to find the gems is a curator on the Web. Some social sites like Tumblr are more about curation than content creation or social networking. Curators are always on the look out for new resources. Some even have forms where you can suggest them. Otherwise email is your friend.

Most social media users have the ability to link to you in one way or another. Remember that every vote, tweet or like are links too. Some count less, other may be even more important than a link as they propel articles to the top of crowdsourced current news or “popular” sections. Social media users are more fickle but also quicker to react. They might feature your content on a whim just because thy like the color of your image or the choice of your background music. True social media users love sharing. Give them something to share and they will to do so.

There are lots of people who aren’t webmasters, bloggers or journalists but who create content ion one way or the other. They might post it on Facebook, in a forum or on another third party service allowing user submissions or user generated content. These content creators have less responsibility than webmaster, bloggers and journalists but often they contribute to big and popular sites. Even in cases where the sites only allow “nofollow” links the support of these content creators can help get more links and exposure elsewhere. Content creators sometimes just need a place to publish their content.

Business people have websites and want links themselves. Thus they are already willing to cooperate with you to create a win to win situation. They might not have great content but instead just a site marketing their products or services. They may even have an ecommerce site aka an actual shop. They may be your plumber, lawyer or even doctor. They would be proud to exhibit your positive review or display you in their featured clients list.

There is no one way to connect with the above mentioned editors. Each one of these groups has some interests and typical needs.

You have to find out what they want and how it relates to your site.

Then you offer them what they need and they are eager to link back to you and say thanks. Of course I don’t refer to money. Paying for links results in the weakest possible link between you and them. It’s neither a relationship nor a real connection. Make sure that you have more to offer than just money. It must be something valuable, useful and extraordinary.

CC image by marcosHB

The post Link Building by Connecting with People appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

One of the most common blogging mistakes when it comes to corporate and business blogs is being opportunistic.

Just earlier today I have been interviewed by one of the largest German radio stations. I haven’t been interviewed as an SEO specialist or SEO blogger though.  I work from Germany and I also blog in German but not about SEO. One of my blogs I have created in the past for clients and still write for is called zeitgeist. As the name already suggests to some extent the blog deals with trends, design, gadgets and the likes.

So I have been interviewed as a blogger of a client blog.

The topic of the interview was Apple, or rather its changing image from the cool outsider to the scary huge moloch. I’ve been critical of Apple for years, like I sometimes also am of Google on my SEO blog. Almost everybody else has been hyping Apple products parroting their ads.

I didn’t like the Apple hype so I started looking behind the curtain of corporate PR and I’ve found things I didn’t like, lots of them. Back then most people didn’t want to read that. Nonetheless I took a stand and over time I’ve become one of the few if not the only blogger really critical of Apple in Germany.

Most other bloggers have been opportunistic, they were just writing what everybody else already did

and what Apple announced itself. The iPhone, iPad or whatever are “magic”, “revolutionary” etc. Their business model was sometimes simply to sell Apple products but mine wasn’t.

The blog I’m talking about is a blog for a price or shopping comparison engine. Or rather it’s less engine it’s more a place where the people are meant to review products. So It’s also a review site. The blog wasn’t really about the ad revenue so I didn’t care. My client knew that I was a real blogger and they let me write what I wanted. 

Do you think I’m really controversial or something? Well, I’m not. I just take a stand and I don’t follow every hype. When I started blogging in 2003 most bloggers were like that. They were very critical and didn’t have to abide by corporate rules or business logic. These days most blogs have to earn money in some way and thus the posts they publish are often shallow, “salesy” or feigning objectivity.

Business bloggers are afraid to get sued, to scare off advertisers or readers.

Or they just hype stuff they sell themselves so they can’t criticize it. Corporate and business blogs do not have to be dull, boring and opportunistic though. Businesses often have whole teams of lawyers. So while bloggers who had no money were not afraid to say what has to be said business bloggers backed by professionals are? Isn’t it a paradox?

There are hundreds of bloggers who write about Apple but they interviewed me because I expressed my honest opinion and didn’t just regurgitate PR. So of all the hundreds of bloggers they chose me for the interview. Also Apple is by far not the only topic I write about. Other blogs deal with Apple only.

Journalists have to at least appear objective while they are not.

Most publications are obviously biased, just think Fox News or CNN and compare them to the BBC and Al Jazeera. Everybody has an agenda. Also most journalism today is about republishing from the major news agencies like

• Reuters
• AFP
• DPA.

In contrast bloggers are by definition subjective and may err. You don’t blog public relations messages or press releases in corporate newspeak. A real person has to blog. A real person has real feelings, preferences and even prejudices. All of these make the blogger trustworthy.

The reader knows the blogger’s limitations and how to read the particular blog.

Readers don’t want more of the same they read everywhere. They want a recognizable voice, they want honest opinions, they want a personal view on things. This is what blogging is about. Business and especially corporate bloggers tend to forget that. Such blogs often fail. The real authentic blogs on the other hand get called up when a national radio station needs an expert to talk to.

How to take a stand when blogging for business?

1. Express yourself and your opinion saying “I don’t like x”, “I prefer y”.
2. Cite other, sometimes less known sources “x reports about issues with y”
3. Be honest about your bias “I’ve never been a fan of x”
4. Point out that you represent your own opinion not the company you work for’, say “I” not “we”.
5. Stay true to yourself and when you change your mind say it
6. Don’t follow every hype just to get a few more ad dollars or followers
7. Accept that not every reader has to agree with you
8. Be respectful nonetheless, don’t attack people for no reason
9. When there is a reason, you have the right to be angry (the iPhone suicides are one)
10. Don’t dwell on the positive aspects only, you’re describing not advertising

In the long run intelligent people choose the honest blogs over the shallow ones. When I look at the most popular blogs these days even though they are part of huge media companies by now I still recognize outspoken or controversial individuals behind them. I don’t even like many of them but I even know their names:

• Ariana Huffington
• Pete Cashmore
• Michael Arrington
• Om Malik
• Cory Doctorow

So as a blogger you have to find your voice and make the people out there on the Internet recognize it. I’m still learning how to do it. Now that I write for three SEO blogs I have to manage to stay myself while having a both recognizable and unique voice on each one of them.

* CC image by Trey Ratcliff

The post When Business Blogging Take a Stand appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

In our weekly link building technique column I introduce acquiring links by feeding egos. It might sound a bit weird as most people consider egoism or the ego itself a trait to be ashamed of. So do we actually forage on the negative or even try to take advantage of people into linking to us? No, we and you have just to

appeal to those who you like and make it worthwhile to link back to you.

So again this technique is not a “SEO trick” to fool people, it’s a way to ensure a true win to win situation takes place. In this case you give a lot and receive a lot as a result. What do you give first to be remunerated with a link? You link out. You not only link out you “flatter by association”.

You can make a list of “best of” x list for instance. X can be a blog, a website, even a brand or personal brand. In the best case you combine all of them. Example: “the best SEO blogs” is a typical ego feeding hook I fall prey to when other people are linkbaiting. As I write for two well known SEO blogs for years I tend to wind up on these lists. The CognitiveSEO blog does not show up on these yet but soon enough will as well.

I digress though. The purpose of setting up a the best x blogs list is manifold:

1. You show the others in the niche that you know and like them.
2. They notice you and remember you later.
3. They may even comment.
4. They may spread the news/share the link on social media.
5. In the best case they link back to you. They may today, or they might half y year from now.
6. Also you will rank the term x blogs or x blog in future.

Of course you also make some of the bloggers mentioned in your post part of your audience. Some of them may return of their own accord, others may even subscribe to your blog. Many will forget you until they see another post of yours in their Twitter, Facebook or Google+ stream so make sure to connect with them on these platforms.  Don’t steal time though. Most influencers, connectors and social media mavens have enough to do so time is a sparse resource. Rather reply to their messages and postings than pushing yours.They will become interested in you anyways. Do not focus solely on a-list blogs though.

Famous bloggers do not have the time to connect with new bloggers and they don’t need to anymore.

They are so well known that most of their posts spread by themselves by now. I can see it on the blogs I write for. On SEOptimise posts get shared by the hundreds. On SEO 2.0 only some posts get popular and in most cases they need an initial push to work. Here on CognitiveSEO even some outstanding posts remained unnoticed without active promotion efforts despite the fact that I have a pretty large readership due to my personal brand.

So it’s not the big guys who will help you most in many cases, it’s your peers,

bloggers who are as popular as yourself, or in case of beginners starting out like you do. A guest post on an a-list blog can bring you a larger traffic wave but it’s the other bloggers who are similar to you that will be your readership and send you more visitors repeatedly.

Thus a list of top blogs should be as big as possible and as inclusive as possible. As not all niches and all countries have hundreds of blogs you won’t be able to make it huge everywhere but in some niches beyond SEO a “100 great x blogs” is possible.  You can mix some similar niches or you simply do not focus on the best of but on a comprehensive list. Quality beats quantity though. In case you decide to add crappy or dead blogs just for the sake of getting more weblogs to link to the active bloggers you mention might not feel flattered or even be amused.

Here are some examples of successful feeding ego link baits for SEO bloggers and beyond:

1. Top 100 Social Media, Internet Marketing & SEO Blogs – 2011 | Cision Blog
2. The Ultimate List of SEO Blogs | Yello Robin Blog
3. 29 SEO Experts Share the Most Compelling Content that Influenced Their Works | Kaiserthesage

I also want to point out an older list that didn’t work out as well despite of containing lots of the best resources:

The Top 100 SEO & SEM Resources | Sam Tilston

Why didn’t this post get as much social media and link love? It  contained too many a-list blogs or sites whose owners did not even notice they were included in the list. Mentioning the obvious champions is not enough. Those who are on top don’t care anymore even when they notice. To put it bluntly,

a-list blogger egos are obese by now.

Feed the hungry egos to acquire links. Don’t forget the most important ones of course but the most important 10 may not notice you. My ego is still small enough to notice and appreciate incoming links. I may even use cognitiveSEO tools to search for my backlinks and find out. Also my ego is not too big to appreciate others like I did with the best linkbuilding blogs post.

* CC image by Xabier M.

The post How to Acquire Links by Feeding Egos appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

“Content is king” is one of the widest spread Internet memes. Whether you agree or not you will see the phrase referenced all over the place. For several years Google was one of the most ardent supporters of the “content is king” philosophy.

Why does Google want you to “create great content” and lots of it?

In order to explain why I wanted to track the first mention of “content is king” just to find out that Bill Gates declared in January of 1996. Also Sumner Redstone of Viacom said it before Bill Gates. So Google is not the originator of the phrase. What’s even more interesting is not only who said it first but also in what context and why.

It seems the idiom “content is king” is even older than that.

On Google Book search you can find two books by historian A. Wyatt Tilby who had used the expression in 1914. The definition of content did not mean text, audio or video at that time but had the other meaning we still know as in “being content” or “satisfied”. This might sound positive today but back then it meant rather restrained or resigned. 

First, it was the term copywriter. That was generated from the term copy used for among printers and newspapermen for in the printed magazines and newspapers’ industry. “Copywriter” appeared around 1870 when a man who wrote advertisments began to be called copy writer to be distinguished by the news writer. Translated into Modernese, copywriter and copywriting become original writer and original writing/ original content.

The term “content marketing” appeared in 2001, when Penton Custom Media (at the moment Penton Marketing Services) started using it for a targeted audience online. Using the content marketing you can display the information in different types of format: news, podcast, blog post, infographics, charts, e-books, white-papers, email newsletters, case studies, how-to-guides, videos, interviews and so on. 

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that “content is king” originated during the heydays of the British monarchy.

Back when the king forced the people to be content as in “constrained” (restrained and contained) where the noun stems from. So content is basically what is contained somewhere according to etymology. We don’t have to follow the path back to the monarchy to recognize that the history of the phrase “content is king” is a bit older than the Internet itself.

Ruport Murdoch of News Corp is also cited as spreading the notion that “content is king”.

So we see that media moguls (or kings) like the notion that content is king. Whether it’s

1. Viacom
2. Microsoft
3. News Corp
4. Google

they all want to convince you that content is king. Why? It’s because they want that content to sell it. 

Content is king not only because it satisfies the people it also makes fortunes and media moguls happy. Just like the peasants of British North America who were satisfied in dire poverty because “content is king” not only the underpaid content farm workers struggle to make the content kings rich. Sumner Redstone tells us that the other side of the “content is king” debate was “distribution is king”. Today both is true. Bill Gates anticipates most of it. He explains that it will be difficult to earn real money online on content for years to come, at least for content creators.

Those who take your content and redistribute it earn the most money.

It’s the way with content farms and Google alike. The information gate keepers in the media corporations make most of the money by content, not the single content creators. So next time someone is saying “content is king” or something else “is king” make sure to remember where the content monarchy originally stems from and who wants to maintain it.

It’s obvious that creating lots of quality content can get compensated by attention, links and a bit of money as well.

You have to remind yourself that you are just the peasant on the content fields who toils mostly for others when you create content. Those who distribute and “tax” it by ads. Sometimes it seems like SEO was only about content creation by now.

SEO also works for sites that have only a few pages as well.

Ideally SEO does not rely solely on content. The others want you to create content forever. You try to work less on the fields and earn more money. Otherwise SEO would not exist anymore as a separate discipline.

Many thanks to social media strategist Andrew Burnett who pointed out the Google Book search I mentioned above on Twitter .

*CC Image by Peter Clark.

The post The Content Monarchy: Who Says “Content is King” and Why? appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.