Tips on How to Donate Your Car

ere is another tip I felt would benefit others. Since locally here in South Florida we are having donations of vehicles to help for our local charities.

Refinancing Your Mortgage - Insights and Help

So I been asked about a certain offer we have in our business and I wanted to touch base about it cause I feel some people don't understand there options.

Best Practices for Sharing Content And Getting Valued Traffic

I tend to get this question a lot with my clients, “Alex, how can I take my content and be able to get the traffic quickly?

New Design for Google Adwords is Here!

I noticed this morning in my Google Adwords accounts that the new design is finally here! Google announced a few months ago about it, and now it is here!

Born of the Gods Booster Box

As I promised before I want to go ahead and do another contest. I decided to go ahead and give away a free booster box to one lucky winner when the set becomes released!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Refinancing Your Mortgage - Insights and Help

So I been asked about a certain offer we have in our business and I wanted to touch base about it cause I feel some people don't understand there options. So I was asked about Mortgage Refinancing and I wanted to touch a little bit about it. Sorry if it isn't anything PPC or SEO related.

Mortgage Refinancing


You should always put lots of thought into making a large financial decision like refinancing your mortgage. Even though it may seem like you could get a lower rate, lower your payments or even cash out some of your saved funds, refinancing can often involve other costs as well, including additional closing costs to secure your new refinanced loan.

Ideally, if you plan to refinance, you should pick the best time and do it only once. While you aren't going to be able to predict the future, keeping an eye on the market for good pricing trends and great rates can help you pick a time when it would be the most beneficial to you.

Some homeowners choose to refinance their mortgages because they'd like to get our of debt, move into an adjustable-rate mortgage, or release equitable funds in order to purchase additional properties or mortgages.
Before you decide if refinancing is right for you, try to sit down and define what your goals are going to be. You should make a list of all of the things you hope to accomplish by refinancing your home and remember, refinancing doesn't make any of your debt go away, however it can help you reorganize it. Often times, this can be a nice break or change from the same routine when it comes to your finances, giving you the opportunity to make any changes to your accounts, since changes in your lifestyle are frequent.

Another great reason to refinance would be if you're seeking to consolidate multiple smaller debts. If you have more than one mortgage or equity loans, consider putting the two payments into one fixed-rate payment. Then you can level out your payments during the time of your loan, without putting yourself into a hardship type situation.

For those who are considering refinancing their mortgages, oftentimes the question is not why, but when. If you're currently paying more for your home than it's worth it may be possible to refinance your home loans using the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Other types of re-financing involve cash-out plans or 'vanilla' refinancing. For any type of refinancing program, you'll also want to be sure that you put your credit history and score in order, this way you can apply for lower rates and better terms.

Refinancing your home loan or multiple mortgages can help you save more money, but it's also necessary to keep from paying into costs which will eat it. Understand that you will always pay the closing costs for a mortgage, no matter what they call them, (origination points, higher interest or higher overall loan amounts) so don't be suckered into thinking you've found a mortgage with no closing costs. Other expenses can involve private insurance or similar lenders fees.


If you have any questions about refinancing your mortgage or you'd like to speak with a professional financial adviser about your options, please don't hesitate to contact one of my good friends at Mortgage Matchers. Interest rates are currently lower than they have been in years, slowly becoming stable again after years of uncertainty in the housing market. Don't miss this opportunity to refinance your own home loan.  

Friday, January 24, 2014

Best Practices for Sharing Content & Getting Valued Traffic



I tend to get this question a lot with my clients, “Alex, how can I take my content and be able to get the traffic quickly?”

Well, the these are some steps I take in sharing my content and being able to increase Alexa rank and overal SERP’s (search engine result position).


Sharing Content


1.       Share your new post on all social media platforms.

 Begin sharing on all your accounts, but not just the main post. You want to also post in the groups as well. Did you even know Linked In, Facebook, and Google Plus have those? If not, I suggest you either create one in your market or look for some that are relative to not only your post…. But your audiences as well.

Don’t even forget to hashtag the discussion that may be popular for others to discover as well. I see this strategy overlooked a lot. Although it may not see immediate results from this, it’s best to conquer all areas then to question “have I done it?”


2.       Post on forums and discussions.

 The main one I find to help a lot is Reddit. This site can do wonders for traffic! I mean gaining quick traffic with people constantly browsing for things is great. You wouldn’t imagine the different topics you can find that will fit your post. So be sure to look into this one as a priority.


3.       Place photo’s on Pinterest, Tumblr, and other picture oriented sites from your content.

If you have an image that your posting about, or just perhaps something to place in the content to make it more visual for the readers… share it! There are ton of websites to work with on your image. Be sure to link it. (Sure it may not be a back link, but it’s still an outside traffic referral source.)



4.       Social bookmark your content.

Sure Digg isn’t the same as it used to be, but it is still a source. I find to use Stumble Upon Toolbar a lot more cause  I actually see the page index from it, and it's convient. But be sure to use this tactic as another source for people to share as well.


For more information I would be sure to refer to this site. I believe his outline covers mine but gives some additional tips. Best of luck and keep writing!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

New Design for Google Adwords is Here!

Google Adwords

I noticed this morning in my Google Adwords accounts that the new design is finally here! Google announced a few months ago about it, and now it is here!
Barry Schwartz explains that, "The new design is aimed at making the AdWords console more unified with the other products, services and platforms Google offers. Google said the new design aims to also make the console  simple and beautiful user experience that helps you get tasks done quickly and efficiently."

I personally like it and it really feels smooth with the transitions of things. The ability to navigate around the platform is far superior than it previously was. Here is an example of the new design:

Google Adwords Redesign

You probably have not seen the change yet in your account, but expect to see in the next "few weeks" Google says.

To further discuss more on this topic, click here.

Born of the Gods Booster Box

Born of the Gods Logo


As I promised before I want to go ahead and do another contest. I decided to go ahead and give away a free booster box to one lucky winner when the set becomes released!

What  I would like to do differently this time is that the winner actually do a video or article response showing their new box and actually opening up the packs! So if this is something that you feel can do, then go ahead and share this post!

Every entry will be entered into the contest software provided by Hootsuite. Every entry can be entered by either Google plus, Facebook share, Twitter tweet, or even blog mentions.

If you mention on twitter be sure to include @alexhemedinger. I noticed last contest that wasn't done and required me to personally find all twitter shares etc.

The contest was very successful last time, that my wife truly thanks you all for you support!

Also, if any of you have any contests in the future that you would like to see (be reasonable). I will go ahead and consider it.

P.S. I made top 8 at our recent PTQ in Florida! Best of luck to all!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Matt Cutts "Puts a Fork in" Guest Blogging


Matt Cutts SEO Dead

Well it's official.... Matt Cutts has decided that guest blogging is basically gotten too spammy. Here is what he wrote on his blog today:

"So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy."

It really has come no surprise to me honestly. But I am glad this may tone down a bit of the spam on guest blogging. Be sure to no follow your guest posts on your site.

What this means:


Well basically now you can't even guest comment by trying to include keywords that will trigger the site you blogged in for branding purposes such as your name or company. Though honestly it may be a small such volume or change, it's still somewhat relevant.

Here are some of Matt Cutt's video over the timeline about the guest blogging. You can really feel his frustration in his writing and read more of his whole article here.

 


And then if you want to get into the big "grey" area asking him these questions:



Warning! Top 7 Reasons for a Google Penalty! Run Away!



Google Penalty Warning
I am going to be brutally honest here, I am seriously annoyed with this situation on Google’s penalty! I wanted to put together a list of serious causes that your site may be hit with a manual or automatic penalty from Google.

Recently one of the site’s managing has become penalized for the second time….. That’s right the second time! I hope this list helps you so that this may never happen to you personally, or explain better to your cient what may have transpired to their penalty to begin with. Although in usual cases I would suggest to abandon the site instead of constantly trying to remove a penalty. It requires countless hours of work and I hope none of you do any of these, or begin to:

1.       Buying links – This is a tricky and grey area, cause it can and can’t be caught. But one thing is for sure if your purposely buying links to manipulate rankings, then it may catch up to you. From my experiences I would stay away from Web Directories!
2.       Duplicate Content – This one is pretty obvious: Any duplicate content on your site is going to make it less useful, end of story! So make sure content is unique and well-written. Copygator and Copyscape are great tools!
3.       Keyword Stuffing – You have to be real careful on this one. It may/may not help you. The rules aren’t proven at which percentage is the correct ratio, but just be sure to spread and it reads well. Don’t let Google find weird high numbers of keywords on a page.
4.       Too many outbound links – When linking to other websites, make sure it is kept natural. Don’t try to make high quantity of links or swapping with others.
5.       Excessive blocking of robots.txt – This is a flaw I see too common. This can bring an immediate red flag to Google. We understand you may need to do some for legitimate reasons, but don’t overdo it!
6.       Comment spam – Keep a close eye on your comments you are getting. Try to have installed an automatic system on your site.
7.       Spun Content – Oh how much I love when I see this…. This is common and will catch up to you in the future. Be sure to stay away from this tactic, especially if it seems to good to be true. Overall, don’t do it!

There are honestly tons and tons of more other reasons as to why Google penalization may be in place. Rented links, buying tons of keyword domains, 301 redirects, etc….. The best is to stay away from anything unnatural. Put great effort into user friendliness, useability, great content, and more!