SeaWaves Blog

Not all blog directories are created equal. Most blog directories are a complete waste of space. Submitting your blog to the average blog directory is a waste of your time.

However, some blog directories are GREAT. Below, we’ve listed what we view as the 5 best blog directories. To be on this list, the directory must be more than a link farm. It must offer some added value to the Internet. They must be *worth* submitting to.

1. Best of the Web Blog Directory

This is the most selective, comprehensive, and perhaps the overall best quality blog directory out there.

2. Blog Catalog

Blog Catalog is a social community blog directory. User interaction and comments makes it stand out. Submissions to Blog Catalog still show up high in Google SERPS.

3. Blogflux

Blogflux is a great directory because of the tools it offers to bloggers. We especially like Blogflux Top Sites which ranks blogs by traffic.

4. EatonWeb Blog Directory

EatonWeb is cool because it algorithmically ranks blogs according to perceived quality. Surprisingly, the algorithm does a good job at showing the best sites first. EatonWeb also assigns each blog a score, which is worth monitoring.

5. Blog Hub

BlogHub shines as a community of blog owners. Submit your site to the directory and join the conversation.

So there you go. If you’re looking for a condensed list of ultra-effective blog directory submissions, this is the one to use. The directories are quality and will actually benefit your blog.

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Here is the US, Thanksgiving is a pretty big deal. Families get together, eat a lot of turkey and pumpkin pie, watch American football, and think about what they’re thankful for.

One of the things I’m definitely thankful for is the internet. I’ve researched SEO, social media marketing, blogging, and internet marketing for about 2 years now. I learned some internet business skills and with those skills, I entered the online business game a couple months ago. I did some freelancing and now I work full-time for Sea Waves. It’s been a learning process. And I’m still amazed that I can make a living working online.

Here are 8 business reasons why I’m thankful for the internet.

1. Global Customer Base

The internet allows you to sell to the whole world. Many niches would not be profitable even in a big metropolitan city. However, these niches become profitable online because the whole world is your customer base. That’s a lot of prospective customers.

Profitable local offline businesses can increase their earnings by going online. I know of a local gaming store that greatly increased their profits by building an online store. They have a good reputation and they leveraged it to create a successful online business.

Also, more people are getting online, so the worldwide customer base is growing.

Read the rest of this entry »

SeaWaves Technology is pleased to announce the launch of eight great new blogs. We hope you get the chance to enjoy the unique and rich articles that are featured at each site.

North Carolina Travel Guide

Written by a long time resident of North Carolina, the North Carolina Travel Guide offers an affectionate look at what she calls the “crown jewel in America’s treasure trove of tourist destinations”.

Life On A Shoestring Budget

Written by an individual who has spent her life living with limited finances, Life On A Shoestring Budget offers tips and suggestions for living frugally in a high-consuming society.

The Garden Granny

A unique and distinctive garden blog where gardening is more than planting and growing seeds. The Garden Granny sees gardening is a way to be in close relationship with the land and to appreciate nature.

The Wise Living Journal

The world can be a confusing place, especially as society seems to constantly speed along at a frenzied pace. The Wise Living Journal is an attempt to guide people to live more intentionally, responsibly and to connect more firmly with their roots and understandings about basic things.

From Mom to Grandma

This is a family blog written by a lifetime mother who is now making the transition to being a grandmother. With wise advice and a great sense of humor, From Mom to Grandma is a joy to read for anyone who appreciates motherhood.

People First Politics

A progressive political blog that seeks to put political power back in the hands of the people. As government becomes less and less in tune with the needs and concerns of the average citizen, People First Politics makes a clear and resounding call for America to get back to it’s political roots.

Poodle Breed Guide

A blog dedicated to the most popular breed of dog on the planet: the poodle. The Poodle Breed Guide pays homage to the breed with affectionate stories and tips for people who have welcomed poodles into their homes.

Science News Review

In today’s society, science affects the lives of everyone, yet few ordinary citizens have an understanding of the current state of science. With clear and basic explanations, Science News Review aims to make science news accessible to the average person.

One of the most important concepts to understand in online marketing is having points of differentiation. This means doing things that make you different from your competitors. In many niches, there are a lot of competing sites. The sites that provide unique offerings will get noticed while the sites that simply follow the status quo will get ignored.

Here is a practical way to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your niche: Add audio and video to your sites.

This may be surprising to you, but a big percentage of the population doesn’t read. I found these quotes from the short ebook, Teaching Sells.

• 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion.
• Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

In light of these stats, it’s surprising to find that many sites don’t offer video and audio content. And if a site does have video and audio content, oftentimes that content is not prominent on the site. Webmasters are readers, so we expect our audience to be readers too. However, the stats are clear. Many people don’t read much.

You can see the popularity of non-text content. YouTube, a video hosting site, is one of the most visited sites on the whole internet. The audiobook industry is growing and it’s worth over $400 million.

It’s doesn’t have to be a difficult thing to produce audio and video. You can take your existing text content and use them as a basis for your audio and video products.

Also, as you may have seen on YouTube, your non-text content doesn’t have to be super high quality. Your video content doesn’t have to look like it was created by a Hollywood studio. Your audio content doesn’t have to sound like it was made by a professional radio advertising firm. If you have a small budget, you can still produce quality non-text content. One of the most popular videos on YouTube was a online show produced by a webcam that cost less than $200.

By creating non-text content, you can get on relevant sites like podcast directories and video hosting sites. If you want your video and audio content to be found in the search engines, add text to your content. I like to publish transcriptions of my audio and video content.

Finally, you’re probably one of the few sites in your niche that’s using audio and video, so your site’s reputation and branding should go improve.

Further Reading

• Using Video and Audio to Build Your Brand
• Sketchcasts (another non-text way to produce content)

The community has all these little endearing qualities and I thought it would be cool to document them and also ask for additions in the comment section. I’m listing some of these as inside jokes that only certain people will get, sorry…

1. Black hats are always on the run
2. The best SEOs are silent SEOs
3. All the SEO girls want Rand Fishkin cuz Rand Fiskin is the pretty boy of SEO.
4. Text link ads are like crack - their addictive and carry heavy withdrawal symptoms
5. Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall are thankful for their college educations
6. White hats don’t get anything done
7. Shoemoney loves ringtones and photoshopped checks
8. Grey hats have all the fun

Aaron Wall has an excellent short post about the power of simplicity. He writes:

Some of the posts I write about the macroeconomic trends of online publishing and the search economy take 5 hours to write, get few or no comments, get few or no citations, and probably scare off potential customers. Those posts do not cater to people looking to buy SEO information. The short SEO videos I recently made are easier to create and easy to consume. Daily sales are near my all time high.

Oftentimes we build new sites in niches we’re experts in. This is a good thing. Expert knowledge is valuable. Expert content gets links and shows our readers we know what we’re talking about. However, because we’re experts, we often forget most of our readers are not experts and so we write too many “high level” articles. What’s the most useful content for our readers? I think it’s basic, fundamental content. The stuff for beginners.

Much of the content on Aaron Wall’s short SEO videos are basic SEO principles. Yet he’s making much more sales. The simple videos make him more money because they target people that are more likely to buy his SEO ebook. The SEO experts that follow his blog probably won’t buy his ebook because they’re experts already.

As a blogger, sometimes I feel like I should not post content geared towards beginners because I want to show off my expertise. Showing off your expertise is not a bad thing but make sure to intersperse beginner content with expert content. The simple, basic content reaches more readers. And even experts need to brush up on the basics.

Also, learn how to write the basic fundamentals of your niche in different ways so you don’t sound like a broken recorder Use different examples and illustrations. Use different mediums like video, audio, charts, graphs, pictures, and even sketchcasts.

People learn in different ways, so by varying your mediums and illustrations, you’ll be able to reach more people with the same content. Your content can be reformatted multiple times. This adds value to your site without you having to come up with new content. Also, this leads to better branding and market positioning.

So, ask yourself? Who are you targeting with your content? Is it mostly experts like yourself? Or is it also people who know less than you and are more likely to buy your product?