By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Many people do not understand the art of linkbait.  In fact, the term is most often associated with negative connotations!  However, there are many classy ways to use linkbait principles to gain inbound links to your blog.

Inbound links are extremely important for SEO.  The links that are pointing to your blog, and the greatest variety of links at that, will greatly increase your organic rankings in search engines like Google or Bing.

The negative connotations surrounding linkbait are usually generated from spammers, as usual.  Here are some great ways you can use linkbait to optimize your blog rankings:

1.  Have an activity: Create an activity relevant to your niche.  For example, a quiz or interactive generator of some kind.  Then, have the ability for those that complete the activity to post the results on their blog or website.  This is a fun way to create inbound links!
2.  Socialize: Being involved in social media can also create valuable inbound links.  Try picking one or two social networks that appeal most to your genre and interests.  Be sure to spend time interacting with others and not just promoting your own content!  This will help you create influence in that community and will power up the links you post.

These are just a few thought-starters!  Try coming up with other ideas of how you can create inbound links to your blog through linkbait.  This is one of the essentials of SEO and is often overlooked!

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

Eight seconds.
No, I’m not talking about bull riding or that 1994 movie with Luke Perry.  I’m talking about the amount of time you have to convince visitors to your website or blog to stay visitors on your website or blog.

For blogging, this is especially important.  If you want your visitors to turn into readers, and your readers to turn into regular readers, your web design needs to be user friendly and interesting.  To give your blog a quick makeover today, try out some of these free Wordpress blog themes.  These are just some of my favorites that I’ve come across recently.  Your readers will thank you

Business Themes

Desk Mess Theme

Coffee Desk Theme

Trendy Themes

Decayed Theme

Dark Splash Theme

Magazine Themes

Daily32 Theme

Turnout Mag Theme

Some Others

Imprezz Theme

Ahisma Theme

Another thing to remember is that clear web design can also help your site get ranked better in search engines like Google and Bing!  If you are having trouble getting your blog ranked, try visiting our SEO blog to read helpful articles on how you can optimize your web page.  You can also visit our free search engine submission to get your blog listed in over 100 search engines and directories!

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

What does your blog design tell your readers?

If you still have that generic blue and white WordPress theme that is standard on all newly created blogs, you probably won’t get the chance to say much.  An unchanged, sterile design not only gives off an air of neglect, nonchalance and antiquity, but it also gives your readers no reason to stay!  This is mainly because so many spam blogs out today keep generic themes like this.  If your reader’s first perception of your blog is that you look like a spammer, how likely is it that they will read on to discover that are not one?  However, a lack of focus in the design of your blog may also force readers to think that you are an amateur blogger and your content will be as uninteresting and unprofessional as your theme.

In short, web design for blogs should be just as much a priority as the content it offers!  Why would a visitor take the time to read your blog posts when it is physically straining on their eyes, due to bright colors, lack of color, inconsistent formatting or poor layout?  Poor design forces the visitor to seek more interesting content elsewhere.

It is so easy to fix this problem!  There are hundreds of sites out there offering a wide variety of free WordPress themes to plug-in to your blog.

One of the best free blog theme sites I’ve come across recently is ThemeFury.  ThemeFury just launched dozens of high-style WordPress themes that fit every blogging niche.  All in all, it’s just a simple blog-theme site.  However, that simplicity is what draws me to it, for unlike most sites boasting “free” items, ThemeFury does not attack their visitors with banner ads, pop-up ads, or other annoying marketing campaigns.

Here at Submit Solution, we love to stay up-to-date on the latest news in online marketing, social media and technology.  Stay tuned for more posts highlighting recent sites, products or trends that we’ve discovered!  We love to share our passion for the industry.  Thanks for reading!

By Britnee Nguyen

Here’s the new marketing technique: Companies using top bloggers to write, blog, and talk all about their product. How do they convince bloggers to willingly do this for free? They give them goodies.

Ford Motor created a new model “Fiesta” that is set to launch next year. Instead of spending money on expensive advertising, they got 100 top bloggers to talk about the product for six months. Bloggers were enticed to do this because they received the “Fiesta for the entire six months.

Not just large corporations are taking advantage of the power bloggers have, but local companies have taken advantage of this also. For example, a small jewelry shop in Utah was giving away free pearl necklaces for a few weeks. How did they get the word out? They invited the top Utah women bloggers to the shop and gave them free stuff then asked them to talk about their experience and post the free coupon on their blog. Their turnout was more than expected through this campaign.

Next time you read on someone’s blog about a product, think twice. They might have been given the actual product or other freebies to get them to talk about it, so it might not be a completely true opinion about it. Nonetheless, companies have found a great way to tap into the on-line community to get the word out about their products in a cheap way.