How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques

If you're just heard the phrase 'Tag and Ping' and scratching your head in puzzlement --- this article may be worth your time. Not that Tag and Ping is some magic marketing formula that will deliver untold riches. It won't.

It is just one more marketing tool professional online marketers are using to give their site or sites a competitive edge over their competition. It will help put your site on the Internet map and if done right, Tag and Ping will deliver plenty of very targeted traffic to your sales pages. It will boost your rankings and increase your sales.

Tag and Ping is one of those simple, yet relatively unknown marketing techniques savvy Internet Marketers have been using and trying to keep quiet for years. To truly understand how Tag and Ping works, you will have to know some basic background information on keywords, blogging, tags, and how all these can work in sync to deliver traffic, links and sales to your site.

What are Blogs?

Most web users will know a blog is an online journal where bloggers post their daily or hourly entries (their opinions, views, info, links) on any subject that interests them. The most popular blogging systems are Blogger.com (owned by Google) Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves), LiveJournal, and many professional marketers use the free WordPress software which they can host on their own websites.

Each blog has its own RSS feed -- RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication although its original acronym stood for Rich Site Summary. These RSS feeds broadcasts the information in the blog posts to all concerned parties -- those who have subscribed and use an RSS reader or aggregator to view the posts. Or more commonly, they use the FireFox browser, Google Desktop, or MyYahoo to access their favorite RSS feeds. The next version of Windows will have RSS embedded into its operating system.

What are Tags?

Tags are really another name for keywords. Most surfers will know keywords are the exact words Internet users type into search engines to find what they're looking on the world wide web. Tags work in the same way and are a form of social bookmarking, a way of classifying and accessing all that content in all those countless blogs.

Many major blogging directories such as Technorati use tags to serve up the information to its patrons. One simple technique to create a tag in Technocrati:

<*a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Laptops" rel="tag">Laptops<*/a> (remove asterisks in actual code)

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

What the heck is a Ping?

A ping is a simple way to notify the different search engines to let them know that your blog has been updated. You call up or ping your blog post.

You bookmark or place an entry in any one of the countless blogging sites such as Technorati, Furl, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Flickr --- you go to these sites and click your blog or tag to inform them you have updated your blog. Many blogging systems will automatically ping your blog updates.

Or you can do this manually, for example Technorati's ping form is here: http://www.technorati.com/ping

Simple Way to Ping

If this is still confusing to you, one simple way to ping your tags/blogs is to use a site like: http://pingomatic.com/ and it will automatically ping your blog in many of the most popular blogging services.

Enter The Online Professional Marketers and It All Hits the Fan

Of course, online marketers have long discovered that the whole blogging system -- blogs, rss, tags, pinging -- is an excellent marketing vehicle. One great marketing system delivering targeted traffic to their products and services.

It really is a corruption or commercialization of blogging and this surely wasn't the idea the original designers of blogs had in mind. But the whole blogging system is so lucrative, many professional marketers (the author is pleading the fifth!) are using blogging systems like WordPress to create mainly marketing sites that may have little resemblance to a real blog. It just uses the backbone structure of blogs, RSS, Tags to give their sites a slight competitive edge in a very competitive world.

As we saw with the 'comment spam' there is a great likelihood that Tag and Ping will be misused and further antagonize the blogging purists. So if you are going to use Tag and Ping make sure you're creating valuable, usable content -- then most sites will want to link to your site anyway. Content is still king no matter what tricks the professional marketers want to use. Always will be!

Using a Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Technique With Technorati

To explain further the whole idea of Tag and Ping. Lets just walk through a marketing system you can quickly create using Technorati, one of the most popular blogging services.

First, sign your blog up with Technorati. This is quite a simple procedure. Just upload a photo, doesn't have to be of you -- your site's logo will do. Register your profile with your 20 or so tags relating to your blog. Make sure these are keywords you're marketing with your blog. Then you have to place the Technorati code on your blog for a link back.

Next, you must understand that Technorati creates a landing page for each tag in their system. This page is made up of four parts:

- Flickr Photos

- Recent blog posts tagged with that keyword or phrase

- Who’s Blogging About sidebar which links to any profiles of blogs that those same keywords or phrase in their profile

- Links from Furl for the same tag

So to take full advantage and to use this marketing technique you have to sign up with both Flickr and Furl. Your aim is to get your links in all four spots on this Technorati landing page for your tag or keyword.

When signing up for Flickr, many marketers use their site's name for their Flickr username, just use a dash instead of a dot in your site's url. You can use a photo of the product they're promoting to get a link from Flickr in the top spot on the landing page. Pick your tags and description for the product.

Set up a Furl account and download the Toolbar , bookmark a few sites to get the hang of how its done.

Now You're Really To Put Everything Together To Tag and Ping

1- You can start with the Flickr photos at top of the Technorati page.

Just post a photo or cover image into your Flickr account, making sure you tag it and use a catchy headline in your description. Link it to your landing or affiliate page url. Example:

Don't buy another marketing tool until your check out this site.

2 - Next, make the first of your blog posts on your particular subject or product to your blog, making sure you tag it with your keywords and then ping Technorati. Make all your posts good content, reviews, product information or free downloads. Your entry will appear on the top of the list for that tag shortly in Technorati.

3 - Furl your blog post and your landing/affiliate page with your tags to make sure your entry/post is listed the bottom section of the Technorati page for your tag.

To work this system, add another blog post every few hours, Tag and Ping, plus Furl your posts. For better results you can sign up for countless other social bookmarking sites and bookmark your pages. Here are just a few good ones: del.icio.us, blinklist, moreover, icerocket, weblogs...

Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl

This is just one Tag and Ping method, professional marketers have countless systems and sites working many variations on this relative new marketing technique. But the information given above should get you started on your own Tag and Ping marketing system.

Remember, blogging and RSS are the wave of the future, make sure you're geared up to take advantage of all they have to offer. You must have at least one blog on your site. Use WordPress if you can -- Blogger will do in a pinch!

Just make sure you're using some Ping and Tag marketing techniques to harvest all those links, traffic and sales for your site. This is one marketing technique you should now be using. Just remember to Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl - Rinse and Repeat!

About Author:
The author operates numerous sites on the web, his first was a general Internet Marketing site http://www.bizwaremagic.com And his latest site is Marketing Tool Guide where you can find all the latest helpful and effective marketing tools, including Free Internet Marketing manuals: Internet Marketing Tools Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Tag: ping

Marketing Tips From The Tag And Ping School of Marketing

Tag and Ping, Google Analytics, Micro-Dissecting Logs, Visual PageRank...

What does all those topics have in common?

No, I haven't gotten into the happy-pill jar, just in case you're wondering! What does all those topics have in common? They are all marketing tactics or strategies I am presently using to promote and propel my sites into the ever increasing, all encompassing Internet stratosphere.

Let's face it, there are countless marketing methods, tricks, tips, strategies you can use to give your site an edge over the competition. And yes, there are many marketing secrets left to be told. More being born each day. Countless secrets most of us will never discover, let alone understand.

But what you have to understand, each webmaster or marketer employs a whole set of techniques to promote and propel their sites. Each marketing system is different, each one can develop into a complex creature slowly weaving its presence into the fabric of the world wide web. Might sound a bit fantastic, but it is nevertheless true.

Also know each website on the Internet has its own unique linking structure, connections, keywords, traffic... its own unique genetic link-code. Why should da Vinci have all the fun!

Each webmaster, whether they realize it or not, creates this unique linking structure for each site they build. From day one, when the first link is placed on their site -- this complex marketing structure is put into motion. What makes some sites succeed, what makes them become successful automatic profit generating machines... while others fail? That is the real question. That is the only real secret you need to know.

Of course, a site's content plays a major role, but even two sites with more or less the same content will have two totally different dynamic linking structures created. One may succeed, the other fail.

So in this line of thinking, I thought I would tell you some of the marketing strategies I use for my sites and also reveal what I believe to be the underlying factor that is key to the whole shebang. Tactics that will promote and propel your site into the center of the world wide web. Are you Ready? Here goes:

Tag and Ping

A few years back, it was all blog and ping. This technique really worked for a while. You wrote a keyword rich entry into one of your blogs and then pinged this entry with one of the many blogging directories or sites like MyYahoo to get the information spidered and indexed. The search engines wised up quickly and it no longer works as well.

Now, you will hear the magic words 'Tag and Ping' till you're sick of hearing them. This is a method I have been using for some time. It's basically the same thing, only you're using the tag or tagging system of such sites as Technorati to draw attention to your tag or keyword.

It has a special application for keyword marketing and is very effective for getting traffic and links to your keywords. One simple way to use tags with Technorati:

<*a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Computers" rel="tag">Computers<*/a> (remove asterisks in actual code)

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

Since this is a relatively new way of marketing your site, expect it to work for a little while. Until the spammers get in and ruin it, like they did to blog comments.

Google Analytics

This is a free program from Google that every webmaster should be using. If you don't use it -- get it! www.google.com/analytics

Google Analytics will give you priceless information about your sites, your links, your visitors and your marketing. It will show you which pages are working, which pages are not working. It will tell you which pages holds your visitor's attention, which pages lead to your marketing goals/sales...in other words it will tell you how effective your site is at getting the job done.

The more knowledge you have about your site, the more successful it will be. A lot of times, being a success is finding/tracking the one method or technique that works and repeating it again and again on your other pages or sites. Google analytics will help you find the successful techniques on your site. Then you have to run with them.

Micro-Dissecting Logs

Another valuable source of information about your site is in your daily logs. If you're not dissecting or micro inspecting your daily hosting logs, you're not realizing the full potential of your site. Your site's logs holds the keys to your site's success, it holds the information that will make your site profitable or more profitable.

It will give you information on your site, it will also give you information on your site's visitors. The real key to Internet marketing is finding out what exactly your visitors are looking for and then giving it to them. Find out the exact keywords your visitors type into search engines, then supply the answer or solution on your site. It is as simple as that -- give your visitors what they want.

Whether it is more information on 'the nature of the universe' or where they can purchase the cheapest laptop? Just supply the answer to their question. Your daily logs will give you this information, read them, dissect them and most of all use them to give your visitors what they want. Make your content relevant.

Buying Links

This marketing technique has mixed reviews, many marketers use it -- many discourage it.

You have to be very careful when buying links, know exactly what you're buying and be wary of the search engines who may look down upon this practice. Don't buy any links from link farms, or sites which have been banned from Google. Stay clear of any black hat tricks or methods, play fair and you will win in the long run.

To me, buying links is just another way of advertising your site. If your site or online business is successful, naturally you're going to put some of your profits back into promoting or advertising your site. One way to do this is through buying links on high ranked pages/sites: PR5 or over.

I recently bought my first text link!

It's something I rarely do, mainly because my article writing produces many one-way links back to my site. However, there was one site I just wanted to get a link from, and if it means I have to pay $7 a month for the link, so be it.

Currently the page has a PR0! Why would I buy a link on a PR0 page -- don't worry, still haven't gotten into that happy-pill jar. Because it's a very new popular page on a very popular new site. The site is www.iwebtool.com and it has an Alexa ranking under 2000. The site is about a year old! The page itself holds what I believe will be a very popular webmaster tool that shows you visually all the PR rankings on any webpage on the net. Visual PageRank.

In other words, just type in any url and it will show you visually all the Google PR rankings for all the links on that page, internal links and external links. Valuable information any webmaster or marketer can use. Besides, that page has a cool factor which in my opinion will propel it to a very high PR ranking in the future. There are already a few pages on this site with a PR6 ranking, but all those links have been sold. Once this new page was created, I jumped at a chance to get a link there on that site.

Other places to purchase links:
www.linkhaul.com
www.linkadage.com
www.textlinkbrokers.com

One more Marketing Technique

There is one more important marketing method that makes all the above techniques pale in comparison. This simple technique is article marketing. Write simple informative articles on the subject of your site. Submit these keyword rich articles to online article directories like ezinearticles.com and place links back to your site in the resource box at the end of each article.

Article writing is one of the best methods to market your site, you will be surprised at the effectiveness of this simple marketing technique. Done correctly, it can be your most powerful marketing tool.

Information Core.

Did you get the big picture? Did you get the underlying theme running through all these Internet marketing techniques? The common thread that holds everything together? What makes them effective?

That common thread is Information.

Information runs the web. It is the center. Dispensing this information is a complex system consisting of search engines, directories, websites, blogs... you must entangle and entwine your site as deeply as you can into this information process.

That's why article writing is such an effective marketing tool, it strikes at the center of this essential process. It places your content and your site right in the middle of all this exchange of information. The more relevant your content, the closer you will get to the real action and the more popular your site will become.

Remember, all these marketing techniques are not really secrets, just effective ways you can promote and propel your site or sites closer to the information core that runs the web. The thread that binds everything together. The closer you can get your site to this center, the better it will flourish. The more you can entangle your site into the whole mix.... search engines, directories, links to popular sites... the more successful your site will become.

All these marketing techniques: tag and ping, article marketing, buying links... will help place your site into this information mix. Likewise, Google Analytics, micro-dissecting your logs, and visual pagerank are all information gathering methods every webmaster should use to make this journey easier and quicker. Knowledge is the only real marketing tool you need.

So go 'Tag and Ping' all you like but realize it is just the latest in a long line of marketing techniques you should be using to promote and propel your site closer towards the one common thread that really matters.

Information.

About Author:
Titus Hoskins owns and runs numerous sites on the web. To receive more useful marketing tips and to discover the latest Marketing tools which will help promote and propel your own website into the Stratosphere! Visit his main site here: Internet Marketing Tools. Or sign up for his popular List Building ecourse here:Email List Building Copyright © 2006. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

Tag and Ping

Hi,

In this blog, i will discuss and give some tips of tag and ping method!

Make sure you come here every days!

Regards,
~LifeJR~