My SEO Gal's First Blog Hop! Whoo Hoo

My SEO Gal is having it's very first Blog Hop of many To come! I'm so excited that we made the decision to get together and start a blog hop. Our first blog hop will start on October 5,2009. How To Sign Up to Participate in our Blog Hops: All you have to do to enter into the hop is enter your blog name and blog url below in our Mck Linky box located below and your site will show up in the box. Click on the Enter Your Blog Url Here link, then Leave a comment below that says you will be participating. Then add a post to your blog about the hop, you have the option to include a prize and post your rules. Come back and get the code for your blog or copy the code as soon as you enter in your blog's information and add the code to your Blog Hop post. You get the code by Clicking on the link under the Mck Linky box below that says Want to participate in this blog? Get instructions here. You can use this wonderful image designed for our Blog Hop by Jen at by J Bee Designs and place it at the top of your blog post or on the side navigation of your blog so all can see. Make sure to upload the image to your computer first then upload it to your blog. Here's a great example of a Blog Hop: http://tlcsilverjewelry.blogspot.com/2009/09/win-vaseline-glass-earrings-mcklinky.html 1 – What is a blog hop? Hop, hop, hop… that’s right! Imagine a themed blog posting in which many other bloggers are posting the same theme, with a list of participating bloggers links on that post that will allow you to HOP to other blogs and see the exact same theme, however different content. For example: Let’s say this week the theme given to us is “My favorite picture”. Everyone in the blog hop group will post their favorite picture and content and at the end of the blog, will post an HTML code that will have a list of all the blog hoppers. In this case, if I go to my blog, I’ll see a post of my favorite picture, my content and a list of all the participating bloggers. So, I can click on another blogger’s link and see their favorite picture...and then just hop from blog to blog…….. Everyone participating may insert the same HTML code so that we will all have the same blog hop list displayed. That way, the visitor will know which ones they have visited and which ones still remain to be seen… Now the question is…. 2 – Why should I participate? Exposure… !!! This is a creative and new way to increase the exposure of your blog, by receiving traffic from your fellow Blog Hoppers and from the visitors. It’s FUN and addicting. Think of our example. Wouldn’t you want to see what everyone’s favorite picture was? And wouldn’t you want to click on all the links to see what they were? And if you found the blog interesting, with interesting articles, wouldn’t you stop and read? Increase your blog’s traffic AND get more followers by participating in this program. It’s a win, win situation. 3 – I want to participate, but I don’t know HTML…. That’s fine!!! The HTML code (Mr. Linky) will be given to you, and if you have questions as to how to add the code, you can me at the contact link : Contact US and get assistance. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity. If you have additional questions in regards to this program, please e-mail Contact Me Otherwise…. What do I do after I sign up: 4.- What you would need to do is to create a blog post before this Sunday October 4,2009 and copy the Mck Linky code that you get below into your blog hop post. Your blog post should display the Blog Hop banner above. The post can be about the blog hop. You would mentioned something like We are participating in My SEO Gal's Blog Hop. If you are giving away a prize then you would say something like. "To celebrate the 1st blog hop of many to come I am giving away a prize. Then you would have your rules to win the prize. Let your readers know to visit other blogs in the MckLinky box to enter to win more prizes. Here are some giveaway entry rules people have used in their blog hops: * Follow our blog and leave a separate comment. * Follow our blog on Facebook's Networked Blogs, leave a separate comment. * For an extra entry Tell all your Facebook friends about our giveaway and leave a separate comment. * Tweet about our giveaway and leave a separate comment. * Post about our giveaway on your own blog, leave us a separate comment with your blog url. * Fan our biz page on Facebook and leave a separate comment. Please leave us a way to contact you in at least one of your comments. The blog hop ends on October 21st so you can put the end date in your contest rules and when you will be announcing the winner. If you aren't giving anything away, you can just start a post about the blog hop and use the image from my blog post in your blog post, make sure to still add the Mck Linky code to your Blog Hop post so people can jump from blog to blog. LET’S GET STARTED!!!! 5. – When the blog hop opens or if you want to add your blog now, you can add your link to the Mck Linky box below and get the HTML link code by clicking on the get your code link located under the Mck Linky entry box. The first week of our blog hop will not have a theme, but the blog hops after this one will have some type of theme that will be announced before the blog hop begins. Our blog hops will last for 7 days to 14 days. The first one will start on October 5 and end on October 21st. Remember to add your link below and don't forget to tweet or retweet about the blog hop by clicking on the little green box located at the bottom right hand side of this post. The blog hop doesn't actually start until October 5, but you can help us promote it by tweeting about the hop, contacting your facebook fans, telling everyone you know that has a blog and invite them to participate. The more blogs that participate the better! To keep up to date on our Blog Hop make sure to follow this blog by clicking on the follow button on the right hand side. So hope to see you while hopping! NOTE: If you want to participate in the blog hop, you MUST put a Mck Linky box on your site right after you add your blog below and you MUST mention the Blog Hop. I will go through the list and remove any links below that do not have the Mck Linky box listed or any blog that does not mention the hop. Carla Phillips My SEO Gal http://myseogal.com Got a Question or need help? Contact My SEO Gal Today for a FREE SEO Quote.

Stumble Upon Is Awesome : Tips On Getting More Exposure On Stumble Upon

You may be aware or not aware of a great site by the name of Stumble Upon.

If you have heard of Stumble Upon then you are already two steps ahead. If not, then you are about to take a huge leap towards online exposure.

So Just sit back and take a load off of your already busy day and take some time to read up on some tips about how your online business can benefit from using the every so popular Stumble Upon bookmarking site.

For starters I will take the approach that you may not know what a bookmarking site is.
A bookmarking site is used the same way you use your favorites or bookmarking button on the top of your browser. The difference between your favorites and a bookmarking site is that you are the only one who knows that a site is your favorite site or that you have stored a site on your computer to return to it in the future. When you sign up for an account on a social bookmarking site, you are allowing other members to view your favorite sites.

It's just like saying, "Hey, I love this site man! I think you may like it too!".

So in essence you are just sharing your favorite websites, news clips, blog post, products, services etc.. with others that share the same or similar interest as you. That is exactly what you can do on Stumble Upon.

Stumble Upon currently has over 8 million registered stumblers.

Stumblers or Stumble Upon members can go to a website and give a thumbs up or a thumbs down review. Once they review a site, that site is then indexed in Stumble Upon's directory.

When a site is reviewed, the reviewer has an option to add "tags" or keywords to the review which makes it easier for a site to be found while a member is stumbling through Stumble Upon's directory.

Once the tags are assigned to a review. That review is shown in Stumblers profiles or sent to their email addresses, as a recommended site. This all depends on a Stumblers interest. Interest are set when someone registers with Stumble Upon. If someone chooses Business as their interest, then they will receive Business recommendations and so forth and so on.

Have I lost you yet?

If so, don't worry, there is a point to this post if you are a website owner.

And here comes my point!! (Dun, Dun, Dunnnnnn.....)

If you own a website and someone stumbles your website and reviews your site on the Stumble Upon site that once again, has over 8 million members. You have the opportunity to get tons of exposure to your website!

If you own a site that is geared towards kids and someone reviews your site and places it under Stumble Upons "For Kids" category. Then your site will be recommended to those Stumblers who have chosen For Kids as one of their interest. Which means that the traffic to your site from that review will be individuals who are interesting in things about or for kids.

Now do you see where I'm going with this?

I think I've covered the basis about what Stumble Upon is and some of the benefits. Now I'll cover some tips on how you can get your site stumbled and reviewed.

Here are some simple and quick tips that you can use to get your site Stumbled:

First you have to get your site reviewed on Stumble Upon before you can get any exposure. You can do this by:

1. Adding a Stumble Upon button to your site or blog. When you do this, your visitors can review or share your site with other stumblers.

Here are a few sites you can go to, to get a Stumble Upon button or share button for your site or blog:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/buttons.php

http://www.addtoany.com/

http://www.addthis.com/

2. Ask your customers, business partners, fellow stumblers, friends etc.. to stumble your site. They can stumble your site by clicking on your share button that you just got from one of the sites above or if you don't have a share button on your site, then they can join Stumble Upon and download their Stumble Upon tool bar and stumble your site and others (I recommend downloading the toolbar).

3. Stumble other website owners sites. If they monitor their traffic stats, they will see that they have some traffic from Stumble Upon then will get curious as to what Stumble Upon is and why are they getting so much traffic from it. They may sign up for an account and then see that you were the one that reviewed their site and they may do the same for you. Just in case you've never seen a Stumble Upon logo they may look something like these or more creative (I like the more creative ones):



4. Want to know if your site has been reviewed on Stumble Upon? But of course you do. To check and see if your site has been reviewed. Simply copy and paste or use the following to check for your reviews. Make sure to replace the yoursitehere with your website name:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/yourwebsiteaddresshere.com

5. Sign up for a Stumble Upon account. I guess this should have been the first tip.

http://www.stumbleupon.com

That's it. That's all there is too it. Of course you will need to take some time to get reviews and add the buttons but it's all worth it in the end.

You can increase your exposure by simply having your site reviewed by one stumbler, can you imagine if you had your site reviewed by hundreds of stumblers. Oh the possibilities......

Need help getting your site reviewed? If you do you can either follow the steps at the link below or join My SEO Ga'ls Networking group and members will stumble and review your site and vice versa:

To add your website link to be reviewed, just click on the link below:

Stumble Upon Reviews

To Join the network group click on the link below:

Network Group for small businesses

I hope you get tons of exposure from these tips!

Carla Phillips
My SEO Gal
http://myseogal.com
Got a Question or need help?
Contact My SEO Gal Today for a FREE SEO Quote.

Twitter Buttons for Blogs, MySpace and Websites

I get a lot of emails asking about where to find Twitter Buttons that can be used on Blogs, Social Networking Sites and Websites.

Well,

I have scanned the web over and over and have always recommending the following sites to those who inquire about the buttons. I have decided to compile a list of sites that you can visit to get free twitter buttons. Some of them have really cool graphics, some of them provide you with the code you need to put on your blogs, social networking sites and websites and some provide you with the image but you will need the code to put on your sites.

Here are some examples of images you expect to find:








Here are some links you can visit to get some of these TOTALLY AWESOME TWITTER BUTTONS. You can click on the links by moving your cursor over the links:

http://www.twitterbuttons.org
http://www.twitterbuttons.com
http://mysocialbuttons.com/buttons/twitter
http://www.twittermysite.com/

This site has some really cool and different Twitter and other Social Networking Icons:
http://www.hongkiat.com

I hope you enjoy them and make sure to check back again over the next week for more social networking buttons.


Carla Phillips
My SEO Gal
http://myseogal.com
Got a Question or need help?
Contact My SEO Gal Today for a FREE SEO Quote.