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Blogging Experiment 3.0

I’d like to give you a preview to the next generation of Blogging Experiment. I’m working on a complete design and content overhaul (with some exciting things planned for this site), and I wanted to give you a sneak peak by showing the new logo.

The only thing staying the same - and getting better - will be the content we provide. Aside from that, I’m changing everything. From video to more unique content to a potential blogging forum (to discuss more advanced techniques and strategies to blogging, SEO, Pay Per Click, and more). Basically, I want this site to live up to it’s name - a place where we can talk about the experiments we all undertake to make our blogs and websites better looking, more functional and ultimately more profitable.

Blogging Experiment 3.0 will be one of those sites you look forward to revisiting because of the no-nonsense…bottom line…help you make money online material. That’s my goal, and that’s what I’m going to do!

Deadly SEO Mistakes (7 of Them)

I just got done going through this Free Advanced SEO Course, and I’ve got some work to do! In this latest series of videos and reports, Jerry West covers 7 deadly SEO mistakes that you should avoid at all cost. Here are a three of them:

1. Using Untested Keywords (why most keywords you’ll target will suck…literally suck the profits away from you)
2. Badly Written Page Titles (learn how to make the SEO title tag more appealing than the Adwords ad - and it’s free)
3. Link Building Boo-Boos (most link building techniques don’t work, he shows you which links matter)

There’s 4 more, but you’ll have to watch the video series to see what they are.

Next, they provide 3 amazing videos covering very specific, actionable SEO techniques that the power players use to dominate any niche in any market. The best part, it’s all completely free.

From what I understand, this is only available for the next couple of days. If they extend or shorten the availability, I’ll let you know. Don’t waste any more time. Go watch the videos and learn the 7 SEO mistakes NOW.

Did You Just Accidentally Delete That Wordpress Page or Post?

I did, and I wanted to share with you a quick and easy way to get it back.

So there I was pruning some pages that had been created as holder pages  - and while quickly going the motions: delete, delete, delete…I saw to my utter disbelief and despair that I had deleted one of the main pages to the site inadvertently.

After searching around on Google for a bit, I discovered a Wordpress forum post that was so simple (and genius) it worked. If you’ve dealt with this before, you might have thought it up yourself, but since I hadn’t it was a nice Ah-Ha moment. Here’s what the poster suggested.

1. Go to Google
2. Enter the exact destination of the now deleted page: mysite.com/page-i-just-deleted-because-im-a-moron/
3. Hit the cache button
4. Copy the content from the Google cache and you’re good to go.

I’ll even take it a step further and remind you to copy the source code for the main content pain - as opposed to simply taking your mouse and highlighting the text on the page (by doing it that way you lose images and other various formatting that the html code will keep in place).

So after about a minute, I had found the cache of the page, copied the source, gone back to Wordpress and pasted code, double checked that everything was in tact like before (which surprisingly it was 99% perfect - just one line needed to be centered again), and that was that - a quick and easy solution if you ever accidentally delete a page or post from Wordpress.

Now, if it’s a relatively new post or site and the search engines haven’t had a chance to index it yet, most likely your host can help. Places like Hostgator (where this site is hosted, and whom I recommend 110%), Site5 (another one of my favorite hosts), and most all the major hosting companies take daily, weekly, or monthly backups to your site so if worst comes to worst, you can contact them in a last resort to get your missing content back. In case this has happened to you, I hope this will make getting your content back a little easier.

Oh yea, now go make money online!

How Much Should You Pay For A Logo?

The question is how much you should pay just for a logo? Answering this question is difficult because there are several factors to consider. A normal person has a difficult time knowing how much he should pay someone for designing a logo. Some people think $500 is a reasonable amount, while others will consider this very expensive.

A company that charges you $1000 for a logo may have more experience and knowledge in logo and graphic design. They will (hopefully) spend more time on making your logo a perfect emblem. On the other hand, another designer or company may charge you only $25 for the same specifications but they will most likely only put a fraction of the effort into it. Therefore, cost is hard to nail down. There are actually 4 key factors you should be aware of when it comes to logo design.

Price

This factor is often considered first while going for a logo design. It is fine if you go for a cheap logo design, but think before how much importance a logo can have for your business. Your logo is going to be placed on mediums like stationary, website, promotional material and so on. These marketing collaterals not only introduce your customers to your business, it builds an image about your company through the impression of your logo. Therefore, spending a very low amount may not be reasonable, but spending thousands of dollars also doesn’t make much sense. The better option is to spend in between $100 to $500. You will probably use your logo for at least 10 years, and if you divide cost with the number of months, it only comes out to a few dollars per month. By having these thoughts in mind it is clear that price should not be considered as the major factor among other important aspects.

Level of Service

Service level should be considered on top while selecting a logo design company. It usually depends on the package your selecting. The more you pay the more service options you will get. The service level of a company can be determined by the number of designers who will design your logo, the number of revisions (requests for changes), and the number of initial concepts provided at first round. In addition, money back guarantees are also an important element that should be considered if you don’t like the design or if they don’t deliver your work on time.

Quality of Design

Design quality is one other major factor that determines the worth of your logo. If you are ok with paying $1000, it means you also want to make sure and get the value of your money back in the shape of a great design. To assure the quality of design, you should check out the design portfolio of the company, the testimonials written by the customers, and the experience and knowledge they have about logo design.

Company’s Location

Location of a company provides a great deal of advantages to the business owner(s). If you hire a designer who is located outside your country - for example China or India, it would be nearly impossible for you to take legal action against him/her if you come under the case of trademark infringement.

In short, considering price, hiring a logo designer, and getting the final formats all play an important role in determining how much you will pay for a custom logo design. Besides design, your logo is that element which give your company an identity. It really doesn’t matter how much you pay - if your logo doesn’t attract your target market, all the money you just spent is pretty much wasted. Hence, spend a considerable amount of time searching for a suitable logo design company before hiring one. You’ll be glad you did!

This original article, written exclusively for Blogging Experiment, is from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design services based in the UK. Ben was nice enough to not only send this article but a couple ideas for a logo for Blogging Experiment. We’re working on a complete redesign of the site, so it was nice to see someone actually provide relevant content about logo design PLUS provide a personal touch by sending in a couple of ideas for this site. I’ve included the mockups below, so you can see a sample of their work. Coupon Code: Ben has also been nice enough to provide Blogging Experiment readers with a 15% discount by using promo code: MKT-01 at checkout should you decide to hire them to create YOUR custom logo. A big thanks to Ben for the great article and promotion code!

Dropship Focus Now Free?

I’ll keep this quick.

Worldwide Brands and their flagship product Onesource are THE authority for helping small businesses find dropshippers and wholesalers. For almost 10 years, they have linked home business owners with product sources from across the globe (handpicked by the WWB team of experts daily), and if you’ve ever searched for “dropshipping” or “product sourcing” online chances are you’ve heard of Worldwide Brands.

Long story short, their popular Dropship Focus product ($97) is being given away for a short time absolutely free -  no credit card or Paypal address required. I’m going to do a more detailed Dropship Focus Review in the coming days, but considering this offer could end at any time, I wanted to make sure you knew about it as soon as I did. 

I have personally met with the management at Worldwide Brands, and I couldn’t vouch highly enough to their integrity and intense passion to help people make their dream of starting an online business a reality. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to make money with dropshipping as well as learn the 3 most common mistakes new dropshippers make (I especially liked Mistake #2 and would have never thought of it on my own), get Dropship Focus for free today.

The One “Advanced” SEO Technique That DOES NOT WORK

A Note From StomperNet…

Things in the SEO world are constantly changing - but the folks over at StomperNet make it a point to stay on the cutting edge of SEO. Which is why I want you to watch this important free video.

This new video is from Leslie Rohde. If you don’t know who Leslie is, let me just give you the quick description: In 2002, Leslie was the very first person to advance the idea that Search Rankings could be affected by using the text in links that point to a page.

…Yeah, THAT Leslie Rohde.

Since he’s an SEO Engineer, and a StomperNet Faculty Member, I know this video is going to cause trouble. Lots of trouble. LSI has been the “buzz” word for years, and in one fell swoop, Leslie basically shows you why that notion is garbage and how 80+% of the so-called experts have gotten it wrong.

LSI stands for “Latent Semantic Indexing,” and in 2006, Google filed a whole bunch of patents that led a LOT of SEO folks to believe that LSI was in FULL FORCE and EFFECT at Google.

(Too bad NONE of those patents were actually about LSI - they just LOOKED like they were.)

No matter.

In this video, Leslie will PROVE to you that LSI is NOT having any effect on your Search Rankings. Which means, if you’ve been struggling to get Rankings on Google because you’ve been chasing LSI - STOP.

Do this instead. Leslie is going to talk about an SEO Strategy that you ARE going to want to know about…

…It’s called “Referential Integrity”, or “RI” for short.

Yes, this New Video marks the beginning of the SIXTH series of StomperNet’s famous Going Natural Videos. (I heard a rumor they’re re-opening their awesome Stomping the Search Engines 2 and Net Effect Journal for just $1!)

If you want to stop wasting time on SEO and only getting mediocre rankings, then you need to watch this video - more SEO Video Goodness from StomperNet.

P.S. You’re not gonna like the ending. But you really should opt in and see the 2nd part of the video. And if you opt-in, they’ll also send you a 7-part report from Jerry West called The 7 Deadly SEO Mistakes. As an affiliate myself, this targeted report for affiliate marketers looking to rank their sites organically is incredibly helpful!

StomperNet KNOWS SEO. I think they want to prove it to you.

Personal Experience: I am currently one of Clickbank’s top 100 clients (as an affiliate) thanks in part to the training I received from StomperNet (I’m a proud Stomper alumni). You need to at least watch their free content because it’s better than almost any paid SEO training you can find today. It’s beyond current, it’s the techniques SEO experts will be talking about in 2010 as “ground breaking.”

Every time I watch one of their free videos I learn something, and that’s what they want. Watch the video, and let me know what you think. I, for one, am going to completely shift my SEO focus thanks to this free video series.