Tag Archives: content

4 Great Examples of Video Content that Converts on Social Media

The post 4 Great Examples of Video Content that Converts on Social Media appeared first on HostGator Blog . They say, “Content is king,” but that’s only true if you are creating the right type of content for your target audience. And when it comes to social media marketing, it’s all about video content. Text and blog content will always have a value and place of its own, but video is getting all of the attention, buzz and engagement when it comes to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram users. When used correctly, it’s also been a huge influencer in higher site conversions as well. With this in mind, today we are going to be looking at four different ways to create video content for your social audiences, while also growing your reach, conversions, and engagement in the process. 1. Create Videos Based on Current Events and Existing Viral Content One of the many benefits to focusing your efforts on video content, is that most of the time a lot of the work is already done for you. With blogging, whall of your content has to be original, but things are completely different with video and images. Everyone is always sharing the same stuff, and making memes, and we often really never know who the original creator or uploader was. A perfect example of this can be seen here . We’ve probably all seen the video of the people in the boat, who aren’t sitting down and are going way too fast. End result, they fly all over the place and the video goes viral. But the reason why this particular example is so perfect, is because “ Rick Lax’s Favorite Videos ” (which currently has 1.6 million Facebook fans) is killing it with videos that have already gone viral. They simply add their own text and commentary to each and republish them under their own channel. This video example alone has more than 50k shares and over 17 million views. 2. Grab Attention with Whiteboard and Text Animation Videos As wonderful as video can be for social media, it’s not simply a matter of uploading a video and then seeing results. When the thought of video comes to mind, many people shy away because they either have no idea how to create them, or they don’t want to spend a lot of money on a design team. Just like anything else, you need to create content that grabs the attention of your audience and makes them want to stop scrolling through their news feed. An excellent way to accomplish this is through the use of whiteboard and text animation videos. These types of videos are also very affordable and easy to make. Using a tool like mysimpleshow makes the video creation quite simple, as you just need to grab images, add text, and then move them around to your liking. Then, once you find an idea and concept that works with an audience, you can continue to tweak and customize it until it’s perfect. If there was ever an example for how important and effective animation and explainer videos are, this video is it. I don’t know many people that actually care how deep the ocean is, or would even spend 10 second to read about it… but when it’s in visual form, it can result in millions of views and new social followers or customers. If you aren’t too familiar with the concept of whiteboard and animation video, or how you can start using them for your own brand or business, check out this article with 17 great examples . 3. Develop Brand Mentions with Industry Experts and Video Interviews How many times have you visit a top influencer blog or online marketing guru site and then started seeing their advertisements and videos on Facebook? It happens all the time, and we will actually cover this in more detail in the next point. What I want to focus on now however, is the importance of video branding and visual association with other experts and trusted brands within a given niche. These videos work well for many reasons. They improve brand awareness and build reputation points as well. It’s not just about people searching for your videos. It’s also about them searching for who you might be doing an interview with. There are a number of tools out there to help with the tracking of social media mentions, while also providing you with some valuable data on who the top experts are within your space — which could lead to more interview and partnering opportunities. The best examples of these co-branded videos are often seen with one-to-one video interviews and webinars, which are then turned into sponsored content on social media. It’s usually Q&A for the first half, then upselling for something in the second portion. If you see someone interviewing or having a chat with someone else you know and trust, you are also more likely to follow and trust them as well. Plus, think about how many people you could be reaching when the person you are interviewing also shares it with their audience. This is something Russell Brunson has been doing for a while to grow his company. Head over to his YouTube account and you can see one of his interviews with Tony Robbins. Once you have something like that in place, you can keep marketing it and milking it for all it’s worth — since Tony is such a well-known and trusted name. Also, once you start to secure bigger names for interviews and JV opportunities, it will make the process of bringing in other influencers much easier. By using social media to host and promote this content, you are also growing a community forum around the content with comments, questions, and sharing. 4. Set Up a Remarketing Video Campaign We’ve covered a bunch of different ways to create video content, but not so much on how to effectively target your audience. As with all advertising, it’s ideal to show your best advertisements and ad copies to audiences that are already familiar with your brand or what you have to offer. Once again, this is where the magic of social media advertising comes into play once again. Through the use of remarketing, one can create an ad campaign that will deliver specific advertisements to audiences that have either been to your site and left, subscribed to your mailing list, or are already a follower of your social accounts. These types of video campaigns are ideal with upselling and bringing users back to complete a process they might not have acted on. These are commonly used with webinars as well, often being reminders that a webinar offer is closing and to act soon. There are many different methods for setting these types of campaigns up, and Adespresso has an excellent guide on the different options available. Through the use of custom audiences, you can even create campaigns and retarget users based on how much of your video they watched. Another great thing about remarketing ads is that your advertising dollars are spent more efficiently. Since your ads are being seen by people that are already interested in something you offer, they are more likely to click and buy. Not only can this lead to increased conversions, but also lower ad costs as a result of a much higher click through rate. Video is Here and It’s Also the Future! After skimming through each of the video creation and marketing examples laid out above, you should have some nice ideas for implement similar concepts into your own business and brand. The concept of using video to create content and target your audience is nothing new, but the methods in which you are reach, engage and upsell your video marketing is. Be sure to start using these methods today, as video isn’t just here right now… it’s also the future of all online, offline, and social media engagement. Get started with these 7 video ideas every business should feature on their website. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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How to Optimize Content Before Publishing

The post How to Optimize Content Before Publishing appeared first on HostGator Blog . Even the most engaging content with all the right elements won’t serve the purpose if the search engines can’t find it . Before you hit that publish button, there are several steps you can take which will ensure that your content is properly optimized. If you are ready to invest your time and attention to optimization, the following tips will show you how to do that effectively. Create Content with Optimization in Mind In order to optimize your content, you need to add some important and relevant links, as well as some keywords, to catch the attention of search engines. Some writers make the mistake of creating the content and then placing the links and keywords where they think it fits. This is a BIG mistake! Why? Well, if you add search engine optimization elements after everything has already been composed, it will most probably stick out. Readers can’t overlook randomly added words and links that just don’t naturally fit into the flow of the content. Writers used to stuff articles with meaningless words just so they can add keywords and links to optimize the article. Then in 2011 everything changed because Google established Panda Penalties to make sure that people would be penalized for low-quality, keyword-stuffed content. If you want to write high-quality content with naturally embedded links, you need to know which optimization elements you want to add before you start with the writing process. First, you should know your topic and your target audience. This will help you to search for corresponding optimization elements. Find suitable keywords and valuable links and save them. Along the way, start brainstorming how you can form your content and which subtitles you can create by adding the keywords. During the whole process of research and writing, you will already have your links and keywords ready which will inspire you to write suitable content. By having the optimization elements in mind while you write, you will find a way to add them without sounding forced. Apply Reader-Friendly Formatting We live in the age of people with short attention span or skimmers, how they are popularly called. That is why you need to format your content so that they stay long enough to read through the article and hopefully click on some of the links. There are several elements that every content should have if you want to optimize it in the right way and keep the reader’s’ attention. For reader-friendly formatting, focus on the following: A headline with the main keyword Subtitles which consist of the main or relevant keywords Using H1, H2, H3 metatags for titles and subtitles The main keyword in the first paragraph (recommended) Images with ALT attribute (with main or relevant keywords) Placing keywords naturally and evenly in the text Remember that you’re not writing a book but a text for a website Pay Attention to Content-Length and Readability Focus on the length of the article because you need to write just enough so that the content doesn’t seem stuffed with optimization elements but not too much so that you lose the reader’s attention. The recommended length is at least 1,000 words when it comes to writing articles and having a readability score of 60-70 points. Keep in mind that these numbers depend on the niche, so don’t go to extremes. (Note: the HostGator blog team aims for minimum 2,000 words when we really want to rank!) It can be very helpful if you can ask someone to read your article, web post, or blog post before you publish it. Having a second pair of eyes looking at what you wrote from a different perspective can ensure you that you will give the audience what they want. The person who will read your content can tell you whether there is a natural flow or if some keywords or links pop out. This is a helpful way to find out whether you accomplished to create high-quality SEO content. If you want to improve the readability of your content, you can use some online writing tools such as Grammarly , EssaySupply.com , Readable , and GradeProof . Add Social Media Elements Social media is the perfect tool for raising awareness about your brand and what you represent. It is also a very important element when it comes to content optimization . If you want to optimize your content fully you need to be aware that the readers won’t spend their precious time trying to share your content with their friends and family. Considering that social media is the most common place for sharing interesting findings, your content needs to feature convenient social sharing elements. That means that you should add sharing buttons and locate them strategically on a visible place which doesn’t distract the reader such as the top or at the bottom of your page. You can also set it up so that it follows your readers on the left or right as they scroll. Adding social sharing buttons is good for SEO because it helps to generate more traffic, drive more links, and eventually increase SERPs. Include Comments Section Comments are a great way to connect with your readers, establish a certain relationship, and maybe give them some further insight into the subject you are writing about. But what may surprise you is that comment section can also serve as an optimization tool. How is that? Comments will keep your content fresh and updated and since they are part of the content that will matter to search engines especially if they consist of targeted keywords and high-quality links. Your readers can ask you about a different content piece which will attract shares and backlinks. Also, when answering questions you can also add some relevant links. In addition, you will signal Google that you care about providing value to your readers which is always a plus. Veronica Wright, CEO at Resumescentre has shared a valuable piece of advice concerning this topic, “A comment section is great for SEO! However, you need to pay extra attention to unrelated comments, spam, and low-quality links because they can harm the process of optimization. Don’t hesitate to delete those comments.” Final Thoughts The usual steps of optimization such as adding the links and using the right keywords have been discussed million times, but these steps will take you a step further and help you to create high-quality content with just the right amount of optimization. Dedicating your time to content optimization will certainly improve your ranking and provide you with some valuable clicks. That is why it is important to follow these guidelines and adapt them to the type of content you are creating. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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The Best WordPress Plugins Every Blog Needs

The post The Best WordPress Plugins Every Blog Needs appeared first on HostGator Blog . When you build your blog with WordPress, it’s easy to customize it and add cool features with plugins. But which plugins? You can choose from more than 54,000, which is kind of a lot. To help you avoid choice overload, we’ve compiled what we think are the best must-have plugins for new and growing bloggers, especially bloggers who want to gain subscribers, raise their social media profile, ace SEO, and more. WordPress Mailing List Plugins for Blogs Building an audience is the main goal for most bloggers, whether they’re creating a community for fun or profit. The cornerstone of audience-building is building an email list, so you can let your fans know when you publish a new post, launch a contest, or have something else to offer them. E mail Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram is a free WordPress plugin that gives you a shortcode snippet to paste into your posts and pages wherever you’d like an opt-in box. As you add subscribers, you can use the plugin’s dashboard to view, import, and export contacts, create welcome and update emails, send test emails, and integrate with a third-party email marketing service like Constant Contact. WordPress Social Sharing Plugins for Blogs Add to Any lets you add social share buttons to your blog that look good on any device, load fast, and connect your content to more than 100 social networks and messaging apps. Want to see what’s getting shared and who’s following those links? Add to Any also integrates with your Google Analytics and Bitly accounts. Add to Any is free, so you don’t need to upgrade to access all its features. Do you have an archive full of posts you’d like to share again to reach new readers and build your subscriber list? The free version of Revive Old Posts will automatically share your old posts to Facebook and Twitter so you can get more mileage from your content. You can choose the sharing schedule, the number of old posts you want to share, hashtags, and other elements. The Pro version adds sharing for LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Both versions of Revive Old Posts support link shortening services like Bitly and Rebrandly. WordPress SEO Plugins for Blogs When people search for the topics you blog about, can they find your blog? Even great content can be hard to find if it’s not formatted, indexed, and optimized for search engines to understand. That’s why bloggers who want to rank well in searches typically add a few plugins to make that happen. We’ve blogged before about how schema.org formatting can help you generate rich Google search results for your reviews, recipes, articles, and other content. You can do this manually with code, or you can add the All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets WordPress plugin to your blog. This free plugin supports 9 common schema formats, including articles, people, recipes, reviews, and videos. When you install All In One, you get a dashboard that walks you through choosing how your snippets will display, where you’ll add the snippets on your site, and how to test your snippets to make sure they look good. You’ll also want a plugin to help Google’s search engine crawlers understand what’s on your site. You can install the Google XML Sitemaps WordPress plugin to handle this. However, if you’re also going to install Yoast SEO , you may want to use its XML mapping tool instead. (It’s not a good idea to use both at the same time.) Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins out there, and the free version offers a lot of tools to help you optimize your blog. For instance, Yoast helps you optimize each post for a keyword or keyphrase that you want to rank for, shows you how the post will look in Google search results, tells you how readable your post is before you publish it, keeps you from accidentally duplicating content within your site, and updates regularly to keep pace with Google’s ongoing improvements. If you have a large or fast-growing blog, you can detect and fix site-indexing crawl errors by connecting Yoast to your Google Search Console account. WordPress Performance Plugins for Blogs Jetpack is the Swiss Army knife of WordPress plugins, and it can tackle a lot of tasks for you, like scheduled social media posting, statistics collection, and performance improvements. Jetpack also adds its own layers of security to your WordPress blog. When you’re ready to start making money from your blog through ads or direct sales, one of the paid versions of Jetpack can help you with those tasks, too. As your blog grows, it can take longer for your pages to load, especially if you include lots of images in your posts. To avoid this slowdown, which can raise your bounce rate and affect your search rank, compress your images. The Smush Image Compression and Optimization WordPress plugin can handle this for you. You can “smush” images in batches of up to 50 or smush them individually, without losing image quality. (And yeah, pushing the “smush” button is fun.) If you want detailed analytics of your site traffic, the Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights connects to your Google Analytics account and deploys your analytics tracking code for you so you don’t have to paste in the snippet yourself—all for free. Then you can see your Google analytics in your blog’s dashboard. A good backup program is insurance against blog catastrophes. Updraft Plus helps you automate site backups, store your backups in the cloud, and access them easily when you need to restore your site or move to a new host. The free version lets you automatically send your backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, your email, and other cloud services, and it makes it easy to restore your site even if you’re not tech-savvy. (Or, you can upgrade to an automated daily backup for your blog with CodeGuard . CodeGuard packs in additional security features with data backups for up to 5 websites.) Set Up Your WordPress Blog WordPress plugins can help you get the most out of your blog, but they can also impact your blog’s performance. Maximize your blog’s functionality and its performance with a managed WordPress hosting plan from HostGator. You’ll enjoy 2.5x faster load times, automated backups, and more. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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4 Best Free WordPress Themes for Photography Blogs

The post 4 Best Free WordPress Themes for Photography Blogs appeared first on HostGator Blog . A well-designed blog is a must, by definition, for photo bloggers, but professional photographers and Instagram addicts can benefit from having a photo blog, too. That’s because a blog that’s set up to show off images does more than connect bloggers and fans. A regularly updated blog also helps pro photographers keep their portfolio current and helps them rank better in search results. And photographers with a following on Instagram can use a blog to reach a wider audience with their images and build a list of prospects who may want to buy prints, products, or how-to know-how. To create a photo-friendly blog, you’ll need a theme that’s designed with images in mind. Here are four of our free favorite WordPress themes for photography blogs. 1. Camer Camer is an image-grid based theme from Blogging Theme Styles . Images on Camer’s pages only display text when site tap or mouse over them, which keeps visitors’ focus on your work, not your words. Camer’s layout for computer screens features a full-width text header above a 4-column image grid. On phones, Camer displays images in a single column. The free version of Camer is designed to work with Gutenberg, the new modular editor for WordPress that’s meant to make it easier for users without web design backgrounds to create and update their websites. Camer’s free version includes an unusually wide array of design options, such as five page templates, thirteen sidebar position options, a built-in menu for social media feeds, and more.   To get tools to let you adjust the width of each section on your pages, plus additional layouts, page templates, and sidebar positions, you can upgrade to Camer Pro ($49).   2. Himalayas Himalayas from Theme Grill is one of the most popular single-page themes around, and it’s a great option for photo bloggers who want to keep their site simple while showing off their best work. The full-width banner slider is followed by a blog section with featured images and text snippets and a portfolio section that’s all images with mouse-over/tap text display. There’s a built-in call-to-action button so you can invite your visitors to sign up for your newsletter, contact you to book a sitting, or visit your online store. Services and portfolio widgets help showcase your work, too. The pro version ($69) is WooCommerce compatible and includes Google fonts along with font size, color palette, and slider options not available in the free version.   3. Image Gridly Photographers can display their work and their words with Image Gridly from Superb Themes . The name probably gives away that the layout for this theme is an image grid. Unlike Camer (above) Image Gridly overlays titles on the lower third of each image, so users can see text related to each photo without having to tap or mouse over. Image Gridly’s desktop display includes a full-width banner photo with a three-column image grid below it. On smartphones, Image Gridly’s display has a full-width banner followed by featured post images displayed in a single column. Image Gridly’s free version is a great choice for showing off photography, but it lacks some of the features that other free themes include, like tools to customize the theme’s appearance, Google fonts , and speed and search optimization. Upgrading to the premium version (starting at $26) adds these features and tools.   4. Juliet Juliet is a minimalist, image-heavy, feminine theme from Lyra Themes that’s a solid choice for photo bloggers who enjoy writing about their work. It’s designed as a fashion blog theme, but the full-width image header followed by a 4-column row of featured images from different blog categories works for other types of photography, too. Juliet is responsive, WooCommerce compatible, and lightweight for fast image load times . The free version also gives you options for image and text logos, overlay colors for the banner, background color and image, sidebars, headers and footers, and two different skins. Although the free version has enough features to get most photo bloggers off to a strong start, the pro version ($35 plus $8/month for support and updates) has a lot to recommend it, like a lookbook template that could make a great portfolio tool, additional video display options, Jetpack-powered social media sharing tools, and an email subscription widget.   Picturing Your Ideal Photo Blog Theme Each theme publisher offers a live demo so you can see how their designs look and work on computers, tablets, and phones. However, it’s a good idea to try out the themes you like with your own blog content before you commit to one theme. As you try them out, ask yourself a few questions: How does the theme look with your content? Does the overall design of the theme work with the overall themes and mood of your photos? For example, a soft-looking theme like Juliet might be a great showcase for portrait photography but not so much for shots of brutalist architecture. Do you want to make money with your blog ? If you plan to sell prints of your work on your site, display ads, or set up a customer service chatbot to connect with potential clients, does the theme integrate easily with the tools you’ll need to use? How quickly does your site load with the theme installed? Images can dramatically slow down page load times, which can lead to lower search-results rankings, more bounces, and less traffic overall. Ideally, each page on your photography site should load in less than 3 seconds. Once you start using a theme, keep an eye on your blog’s bounce rate, the average length of time visitors spend on your site, and whether conversions are increasing, falling, or staying flat to get a sense of whether your theme is helping visitors get the most from your content. You can also listen for feedback from your visitors to see what they think of it. Do the images display properly for them? Can they navigate around the site easily? Use their questions and comments to get a clear picture of where the theme is working for you and where it may need improvement. Then, optimize your photo blog with these essential tools . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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