Self-Published Author Announces Launch of Newly Completed

Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 25, 2014: Self-Published Author, Cheryline Lawson announces the launch of her newly completed book, which she has been working on now for a little over a year. Ms. Lawson has been writing books, electronic books, articles and web content now for more than 15 years. She has a passion for social issues related to child abuse, addictions, domestic violence, rape, incest and infidelity.

The title of this new book is “The Man in the Shadow: He Touched Me Where it Hurt.” The story line is set in the state of Georgia. The synopsis or summary of the book starts with Sarah and Emily as sisters and Regina as their cousin. The girls spend their summer vacation with their grandparents every year. As the girls grew older, strange things began to happen with their grandfather. Days and nights, the girls had to play hide and go seek to escape their grandfather's grip. Sarah, the older one, got to experience his violent behavior, but so did Regina and Emily in other ways.

People who purchase the book will learn how the girls handled it after being recalled in their later years to face their grandfather about the truth. The book is a partially fictional story; with character name changes and some twist and turn for a more creative outcome.

Ms. Lawson has written several books, which are published on Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/cplawson. Some of the books are currently being created as audio books at Audible.com. Ms. Lawson writes to reach people who have had experiences that seem hopeless. Her encouraging and motivational method of writing allows readers to feel as if there is hope for them.

“I love writing, but not just to make money, but to impact and change lives. I want to know that some of my experiences can be transmitted into written form where the right people will read and understand that they are not alone,” Ms. Lawson said in an interview when asked about her motivation for writing this book.

Some of the other book topics include:

·         For the Wounded Soul (First book written)

·         The Sweetest Thing: Caught in a Love Triangle: A Romance Suspense Novel of Betrayal and Love

·         The Inferno of Zane's Redemption: The hunt for redeeming love and a heart revealed for the other man in her life. It was either for love or legacy. She had to choose!

·         Beyond The Crime Scene: When The Law Decides The Fate Of The Accused!

·         A Lost Life: Is this a lost generation, a lost key to life or can they be saved?

·         Anger Management for Teenagers: Urgent help for parents of teenagers who display uncontrollable anger that has been difficult to resolve

If anyone wants information on the list of current books available, visit the website to learn more or email: octane366@gmail.com. The Book is now on sale. CLICK HERE TO BUY.

About OnCourse, LLC: OnCourse, LLC provides reasonably priced books, which are self-published and available via the Internet. By leveraging the importance of self-development, Ms. Lawson remains true to her passion by providing content that touches the heart and gives people courage to make a difference in society.

Company: OnCourse, LLC

City: Fort Lauderdale

State: FL

Zip: 33313

Email: octane366@gmail.com    

5 Small Ways to Amplify Your Business Online for Free

There are specific techniques and resources you can use to amplify your online business without breaking the bank. In fact, it can bring huge benefits that could include more traffic, higher rankings in the search engine, a strong online presence and a higher conversion rate.  Below are several small ways that you can do this:

Guest Blogging

Invite people in your industry to contribute on related websites as guest bloggers. A guest blogger provides free content on your behalf while receiving exposure as a content writer. This not only provides excellent backlinks, but also strengthens your network. Sharing content on a wide range of networks helps you to expand your range and influence. It allows you access to a wider targeted audience.

Populr

With Populr, you can create a landing page for free and direct it to your main web page. It could be used to create a product page as you are getting ready to launch a new product. The service is integrated with analytic solutions and web page template designs and comes with:

Drag and drop features

Video recording

3 domains allowed to be pointed to the account

Sharing capabilities for documents

Tregia

Tregia provides a free service that allows online business owners to discreetly spy on their competition. This doesn’t mean that you are unethical, but that you want to stay abreast of your competition so that you can expand your online business. You have the capability to analyze your competitor’s website to learn what testing tools are being used and the type of analytic tools which are integrated into their website. Of course, you can use the website’s source code to find out a lot of this, but this tool provides a condensed report.

Tweepz

Tweepz allows you to find targeted and influential businesses on Twitter. You can use this free service to search for related Twitter accounts existing from 2006 to 2010. It helps you to find accounts that have been long standing and established. By this, you know that these Twitter accounts are an authority in your industry and possibly will have a huge following.

Hootsuite

With Hootsuite, you are able to manage a wide variety of social media channels. It allows you to track your website across the various social media websites and set up future automatic posts; especially when you are away on vacation or out of the office on business. By so doing, your followers will always be updated with fresh content while you are gone. You will be able to analyze content to see which ones are the most popular among followers from different social media sites.

Other things to consider

In the past, online marketers took pride in website designs and the visitor’s site experience. While this is still important, it is time to start creating a visual platform with images and video marketing. This gives you the advantage of impressing and persuading your audience. You can build your company brand with these powerful methods and stake your claim in the marketplace where you want to be. Check out my books here on Amazon.com. 

Targeting the Prospect’s Emotions

When you are writing an article, book, electronic book or web content, the prospect’s emotions should be your main target. Believe it or not, people purchase from emotions. Your content has to be focused on what they are feeling at the moment and how you can solve it. People are looking for you to solve their problems. If you can write content that speaks directly to their immediate situation and give them a reason why they should consider the solution you will be providing, you will get the sale.

The Benefits

A prospect looks for benefits of a product or service. What’s in it for me? This is the question in mind when someone comes to your website or reads your blog and articles. If you list the features of the product or service instead of the benefits it will provide to the prospect, you will lose out on a long term customer. Listing the benefits means that you are going to mention the problem first and then give the prospect the solutions that could fix the problem.

Example:

Let’s say you are selling pills for migraine headaches, your copy headline could read something like this:

Have you ever had an excruciating migraine that you just cannot get rid of?

OR

Your migraine is becoming quite unbearable in your life, isn't it?

Notice, I asked a question. By now, your visitor knows that you understand how ‘unbearable’ and ‘excruciating’ a migraine can be. Those are strong words, but they evoke emotions. Your next words, then would be, “I understand what you are going through because I know someone or I have experienced the very same thing.”

Getting Attention

Now you have their attention. What? You or someone you know has gone through the same thing? That is what the visitor is thinking. So that means you more than understand what they are feeling. You have empathy for the prospect and they can sense it through your words.

Next, you would say something like, “Yes, for years I had been searching for something that would stop this pain forever, but couldn't find it until I discovered…”

This is when you put a name to your product and now you are going to list the benefits that the product provides such as:

•         Name of product helped me and my customers to get rid of the migraines once and for all.
•          It provided the relief that I was seeking and it will do the same for you
•          No longer do I suffer from migraines. In fact, I don’t even remember having them and by this time next week, you will feel the same way I do

Humanize the Content

Now, the prospect views you as an ally and not a salesperson. You have gotten their attention because you put a human component to your product in this case. You identified with the person’s feeling because you or someone you knew was feeling pain, seeking a solution and found it. Do you think you would get the sale or a subscriber sign up after this? Of course, you would.

This is how you target someone’s emotions. You let them know that you understand and that you know exactly what they need to fix it. You are now the expert and they will trust you. In addition, you should provide honest testimonials because this does help.

Conclusion

I hope you take note of what is required to reach the targeted prospects that you are seeking. They don’t care about the product features as much. They care that you care!! Go on over to Amazon to view and purchase books that I have written. 

Why Your Business Needs Fresh Content?

So you have a business online, but you are only featuring your products and/or service and wondering why you are not receiving as many sales as other online marketers. Does that sound like you? Well, instead of sitting around waiting for the next sale, why not reach out to your target market to show them that you really care about them? How? I am glad you asked!

Content – that is what people want first. When someone thinks about buying a product or receiving a service, their first thought process is to search for information about it. Most people will go directly to the search engines to find out more about your product/service. Of course, when they come to your website, you may only have a listing and description of the product/service, but what about a list of the benefits that it can provide to the user? And I am not just talking about telling someone that your product will do this or that. It is more than that.

Let’s say you are selling weight loss tablets on your website, your goal should be about letting the prospect know that you understand what they are going through. So you have to speak to their emotions. If you have a personal story, then tell it! The prospect will be able to see that you are a real person. This will get their attention faster.

A Blog is In Order

You should never have a website without hosting and maintaining a blog. A blog platform where you post regularly will take your prospects away from your main website, but it will get them in a better frame of mind to see that you are not just selling a product, but a brand and providing information that is valuable. Your blog is the area where you build relationships through valuable content.

Your blog is where you talk about issues that people are going through as it relates to your product or service. This is where you post information that your prospect may not easily find. You talk about what benefits your prospect will receive from your product. In some cases, you don’t even mention your product in the body of the content until you get to the last paragraph; where you will include a link to your product and invite the prospect to take a look.

You don’t want your posts to be promotional. People get turned off by this and the search engine’s new algorithm, Google Hummingbird prefers that your posts be conversational and beneficial to what the person searched for.

The Importance of Content

Content is so important to your business. It gives you expert status. When someone reads your content and is able to tell that you have in-depth knowledge and expertise, who do you think they will come to for more information? You, of course! So why are you not writing fresh content? Is it because you don’t’ have time, you don’t know how or you just don’t care? You are leaving money on the table, if you aren't. 

It is better to hire a writer to do the job for you rather than be so laid back that you don’t take the initiative. Outsourcing is not new and you may need to get on board if you want your online business to catapult. With this advancing information age, you cannot afford not to. And, in addition, you will be able to reach a wider audience. While you sleep, people from all over the world will be looking at what you have to say. Lead them with your content. Don’t lead them with your product page.

If you would like to hire my writing expertise or purchase one of my self-published books to support a full-time writer, then please go to my Amazon Book Page by clicking the link. 

2014 Trends in Content Marketing

Before looking at the 2014 content marketing forecasts, content marketing needs to be clarified. Content is important and what you do with the content is also significant to your results. But - there is a big ‘BUTT.” Yes, I know I used two “T’s” in ‘BUT,” but it was just to see if you were paying attention. That is how you write content – engage your audience and provide value-added information that is not easy to find online. Your prospective customer will consider you an expert, learn to trust you, get to understand your brand and have confidence in the information you provide.

If you want your campaign to be successful when marketing content, you must establish your brand and yourself as knowledgeable in your field. This is the foundation for lasting and continuous business relationships.

To simplify, content marketing is all about building strong relationships and not only just selling a product or service. Some forms of content include:

·         Blog Posts

·         Podcasts

·         Social media Posts

·         Electronic Books

·         Online Videos

·         Guest Blogging

·         Email marketing

·         Webinars

·         Web Content

No matter what format you use to publish content, you must have a “CALL TO ACTION” – always and with no exceptions. Write content that will stand the test of time. A good topic would be “Top 10 Places to Visit in Hawaii.” For someone looking to visit this state, you will be the ‘go to’ person for valuable information.

What to Expect for 2014

For 2014, where is the trend going as it relates to content marketing? What are the challenges that online marketers face? With Google Hummingbird, Google Hangout and Google Helpsout, alertness is required in order not to ‘make Google’ or the search engine angry with you. This means marketers have to stay abreast of the new algorithm rules and guidelines.

Most online marketers use content marketing as part of their marketing approach. However, it is safe to say that some of them may not really be able to express what content marketing means to their business model. I truly think that many business owners will be able to definitively express the concept of content marketing in 2014 and how it aligns to the scope of their business. They will also be able to tell why it is so important. It is not going to be a catch phrase in the mouths of those who still say that “content is king,’ without knowing what that really means.

The New Title

Companies, in the past, hired someone to write content for marketing and would give them the title of:

·         Freelance Writer

·         Marketing Writer

·         Content Developer

However, now companies are placing more significance and emphasis on these employees’ positions since it is much more than just writing content and so look for new titles like Director of Content for 2014. No one will have any doubt; not even the employee, of what the job entails. The improved awareness will force companies to make adjustments and put more money into content marketing strategies.

Companies that don’t go the extra mile to put more into their content marketing budget will certainly lose out in 2014. Whether someone is assigned in-house or on a contract basis, companies are going to need more in content creation and distribution.

Going Mobile

Some companies have not yet caught on to the mobile marketing craze. Mobile marketing taking over and by 2016, companies not on board with this are going to feel the ‘pinch.’ A strong content marketing strategy should be incorporated into the mobile phenomenon. In fact, Google’s new algorithm, “the Hummingbird,’ and the complete cancellation of the previous keyword search tool from Google Analytics is going to quickly force companies to embrace this. What does this mean? Well, to reach your targeted mobile audience, your content must be more concise, well-formatted to meet the guidelines and provide more actionable posts since prospects will be viewing the content from their mobile devices.

If this article was useful to you, please share it with a friend, your followers and anyone who is in your contact. For business owners or companies that want to embrace the concepts and improve their business model, you can hire my services to write marketable content for you. In the meantime, check out my Amazon.com page where I have a list of self-published books. 

Valentine’s Day Ideas that Women can Give to Men

Ladies, can you imagine that Valentine’s Day is approaching soon? Sure, you may already know who will be your Valentine this year, but you may also be anxious about what he will come up with this time. You also know what he wants for his Valentine because you just know, right? So, let’s overlook this part.

Some women don’t like surprises, but most of us do. He might take you to a fine restaurant first or skip that and cook dinner for you; after which you will unwrap the gift he gave you, but don’t have too much of a high expectation. 25% of men would rather have a root canal than come up with new ideas because their creative juice is not like yours, admit it! So you may have to give him some hints to make this Valentine’s Day more memorable than the last.

The Same Gift

You may still have boxes of uneaten chocolate at home from the years before. By now, you probably have seen him bring you flowers and lingerie, which most women don’t mind. However, let’s face it: it is not easy to come up with something new every time. In addition to the pressure of finding the right gift, there is added stress in buying something meaningful. The National Confectioners Association indicated that in 2009, there were approximately 8 billion candy hearts made. However, those days of candy hearts are on their way out, believe it or not.

Valentine Day has been modernized and men know that they have to ‘up the anty,’ and put some more thought into it. This doesn't make it any easier for them. Don’t be alarmed. You know what you want and will be able to give him the shove he needs to go in the right direction.

Interesting Ideas

If you are like most women, you love romance, which means that your man will have to begin to bring out his romantic side. Here are some ideas:

Re-enacting your first date: Most women remember every detail of their very first date and most men have some recollection, but not much. So before February 14^th, when you both are sitting at home or around a restaurant dining table, remind him of how special you felt about that date. Give him details of what made it so special for you. Let him know how important it would be if you could turn the clock back to spark the romance flare by revisiting that same place in time.

Bring out his physical side: Most men love the outdoors and anything physical. If he loves skiing, suggest going on a ski trip; whether locally or out of state, if you can afford it. Gliding on the ice rink together is another option. It can be fun and the closeness will allow you to listen to his heart beating for you and create a loving mood for more romantic and physical stuff later. 

Take a couple’s massage: Massage is something that a lot of couples might be neglecting, but it is one of the most relaxing, pampering and sensual activities that you could suggest for Valentine’s Day. By the time you are both done with all the oils and lotions permeating your sensitive side, you will be ready for the bedroom.

Change the bedroom scene: Rent a hotel room or check into a bed and breakfast nearby. The change of scene will instantly enhance your love life. Just the idea of being alone without all the distractions of home is recipe for a wild night. You can even add role playing to the mix.

Skip the movie or watch the right romantic movie: Many film makers create movies every year to meet the romantic crowd, but be careful what movie you watch on that specific night. Some movies can spark strong opinions and you don’t want to spoil your night with an argument. In 2010, the romantic comedy, “Valentine’s Day,” raked in a whopping $52.4 million, but critics felt that the film, racked with romance, infidelity and divorce caused 40% of the couples that watched it to see a divorce lawyer by mid-February.

Get dolled up: Most women love the chance to dress up and feel special. Even if he has not reserved seating in a posh restaurant, put on one of your finest pieces and make sure he dresses in a suit. Step out into the night with a bit of mystery. You will be surprised where you end up.

Be forthright and take charge of the planning to arrange for a pleasant and romantic Valentine’s Day. Don’t feel bad about doing so. Nine times out of ten, you will do a better job at it than your man. If you don’t, you may end up regretting it and being mad at him for not trying hard enough. 

You could buy a romance novel for him or her and discuss the story. You would be surprised the interesting conversation that you can have. CLICK HERE

Assessing Your SEO Checklist

When assessing your website from a standpoint of the appropriate SEO and indexing, you need to consider several things. These are not mandatory, but think seriously about them before attempting how you want to rank in the search engines. While keywords are good for search-ability and getting the right audience to your website, valuable content is also a part of the successful formula. Let’s discuss the most important things to think about.

Traffic

Everyone’s goal is to drive traffic to their website, correct? Yes, indeed! However, you don’t just want anyone visiting your website. You want targeted traffic, which means people who will likely buy from you. Traffic is not necessarily a search engine ranking issue. If your website ranking drops, it is not indicative of fewer people visiting your website. The problem could be that the search engines are not crawling your website as they should. On the other hand, your website could be crawled, but not being indexed. It could be an issue with extraction. You need to have a contingency plan in place to diagnose this issue. Start by developing a system that reports back to you. The first thing you want to know is where you rank for some of your top keywords and where you are in the SERPs. This will give you a general idea on where you rank in the search engines for certain queries.

Your Web Pages

Your web pages should be organized by categories. This means that it is in your best interest to assess the logs on your server for activities from the search engine bot. This should be done for each category. This gives you a better idea as to the extent and success at which the bots are spidering and indexing your web content. In some cases, you may find some categories getting more ‘crawl’ attention than others. The crawl rates may also vary in each category page. For example, while some pages may have a crawl rate of 100 pages each day, some may have only 10 pages each day. You should be able to view how many pages are picked up by the search engine crawlers from each category page. You should be able to tell how long the bot takes to crawl through your entire website.

Efficiency

The search engines are not going to contribute a lot of crawl time on all of your content. The efficiency of the crawl is important. If you have many web pages to be crawled, you should have your pages organized in such a way that the crawler will know which pages are most essential to crawl.  For example, let’s say you have a subscription page and error page, you don’t want to have those crawled by the search engine bot. These pages are unproductive. You want the crawler to spend more time on productive pages such as your content, about us, services and order page.

Site Maps

For each category, create xml site maps. However, be sure that these are canonical. This means that you should create site map index files that are linked to the other site maps that you have. Make sure they are submitted to Google Webmaster Central.  This will provide an accurate evaluation of the efficiency of the Google crawler on different sections of your website. Even better, you will be able to access resources and tools such as small graphs in the site map report of the Webmaster Central portal. This allows you to properly identify how much of your content has been indexed and the areas that have been crawled. For instance, if you happen to notice Google crawling only one category and only indexing portions of it, you then have a reason to look into why this is happening.

Troubleshooting

You should ensure that there is a problem with your SEO before running a report to fix the issue. So that means if you find that your pages are not being indexed as how they should, this doesn't mean that you have a major problem. Google may probably have de-indexed some of the pages on your website that are duplicated or just ineffective. Therefore, if the traffic coming from the search engine hasn't dropped, there is no significant problem.

Conclusion

There are the five solid tips on assessing your checklist from an SEO perspective. Understanding this is important to optimizing your website and making it search engine friendly. 

Google+ - The New CEO of SEO and Success for Your Brand

There has been a lot of discussion among online marketing experts whether or not Google+ is actually more effective in altering the face of SEO. Many people are still not ready to play ball. They prefer to wait and see. One of the primary reasons for the wait is that some think that Google+ is only being used by a small percentage of niche audience. Despite the dubiousness, it is apparent that Google+ has taken center stage in the world of SEO and it appears as if it will remain so for a long time to come.

Internet technology is ever evolving and that includes the marketing strategies that businesses use to maintain dominance. No business can expect to be successful on just their brand. It will take much more. People want to put a human face to the business. Anonymity is no longer an accepted protocol on the Internet. People are looking for transparency and Google+ seamlessly provides this to every brand.

Dominance at its best

Google+ has made a tremendous impact on SEO. While Facebook may have a superior market share, Google+ dictates SEO with its constantly changing algorithm rules. When you create content using Google+, it is indexed in a similar way as other pages on the Internet. However, since Google is one of the most popular search engines of all times, it goes without saying that content created on their platform will fare better. Any posts made on Google+ remains there for a long time. Compared to a standard tweet, which only receives approximately fourteen minutes of longevity, this is a major advantage from an SEO standpoint.

Google + also provides a higher profile visibility. Once your Google+ profile has been authenticated on web sites where you publish content, your image will appear next to the search results; thereby, gaining more visual attention. As specified previously, a human face offers credibility to a post or an article on a website.

When you set up a Google+ account, you will have a chance to write a profile or biography. Using targeted keywords, you can create maximum visibility when potential customers conduct a search for those keywords.

Content authority

Furthermore, Google+ is closely linked to content authority. When you write authoritative and interesting content, Google will give it higher profile dominance in search results. Google+ authorship will continue to improve your search performance. So it is in your best interest to use targeted keywords and keyword phrases in your content.

It could easily be said that Google+ is an exceptional and emergent social network that is profoundly entrenched into the ecosystem of the major search engine in the ecosphere. If you were to ignore it or undermine its prominence, it may not be a very practical thing to do. In fact, if effectively utilized, it can create new SEO opportunities for your business such as Google Hangouts and Google Drive.

Hanging out

Additionally, Google+ offers another useful feature, which is Google Hangouts. It provides users with the chance to chat face to face within the Google+ platform. You receive access to the video conferencing tool to connect to your customers and employees. This eliminates all geographic barriers and allows you to be more hands-on and productive.

You can conduct your weekly company meetings in Google Hangouts. In addition, you can access the minutes for past meetings, discuss future projects and assign new work to your team members. You can use it to demonstrate your product or discuss your services with your potential customers.

Within the Google+ Hangouts, you can choose a group of fans and conduct question and answer session. You can run a contest during the session and offer a prize to the winner. If your goal is to reach a wider audience, you can be the host of a “Hangout on Air,” which can be recorded and viewed on YouTube. Invite viewers to make comments or ask questions, which you will answer using specific keywords.

Storing and accessing documents

Google drive within the Google+ framework allows you to store documents and share them with specific individuals. Some of these documents could include presentations, spreadsheets, articles and even books.

Conclusion

It is obvious that Google+ has proven its incredible capabilities for enhancing your brand. It is easy to use and provides a streamlined method of collaboration without worrying about distance. There are also many opportunities for search engine optimization. 

Is Google Hummingbird Pecking at your Content?

For online business owners, Google gave absolutely no formal notification at the launch of Google Hummingbird. Apparently, Google decided to go that route in order to handle the more complicated search queries on the Internet. What’s all the pecking about? Google is always on rapid alert – continuously making changes to its algorithm and adding new technological stuff to the already complicated learning curve. You have to be able to keep up. This new development doesn't mean that your content is in jeopardy. It only means that you have to embrace the changes, so that your potential customers can find you easier and in different ways.

With more reliance on Google, users have been searching for longer phrases, which demanded prompt results from Google instead of a range of different page results that may or may not have the answers. Therefore, Google decided to update its algorithm and call it the Hummingbird. The Hummingbird handles conversational searches in a semantic process. So rather than process queries by the corresponding words found on a stored web page, Google Hummingbird comprehends the real framework of the query and returns the exact answer.

Question and Answer Approach

You will have to make changes to your website, since it is obvious that people are seeking the precise answers to their questions. Adapting a question and answer approach means that you may have to create a FAQ page. You don’t have to rewrite your entire existing page content, but adding a FAQ page will definitely help. In addition, it would help to create “How to” articles that answer a question.

Is content still king?

Content is still king, but with Google Hummingbird, you have to write in-depth content that addresses definite needs and wants. Your content should communicate pertinence to meet the needs of your potential prospects. This means that you have to strive to be the authority or expert in your field. Regardless of what Google is looking for, you, as a business owner should strive to provide valuable content to your readers and visitors. These days, many of your prospects are capable of conducting their own search, but you want to make it easier for them by providing information that may take them longer to find or information that they can understand. They will rely on you and treat you as the ‘go to’ business when it is time to find something worthwhile. This puts you in a better position than your competitors. Google will also recognize you for it by giving you top placement over your competition.

Conclusion

The primary goal for implementing the Google Hummingbird was to understand the human need. As a content creator, you should try to give more attention to creating pages for each basic human need and the intent of your prospective customers as it relates to your products and services. In other words, you have to think ahead of the ‘what ifs.’ Begin by mapping out your potential customer’s needs and design your website and content accordingly; using the right keywords, phrases and language to address those needs.