SEO part 3

[2008.09.25 18:24:34] Welcome to the CafePress Chat Room
[2008.09.25 18:24:34] Shopaholic Chick has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:24:34] All users in this room have been allowed to talk
[2008.09.25 18:41:43] Kippy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:47:10] Gandalf Parker has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:49:22] Valerie1 has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:52:43] edg has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:53:30] dirtyword has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:54:14] Fricka has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:57:15] Finbar has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:57:57] dreamup has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:58:04] NinaPA has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:59:34] BrittaCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:59:45] Heni has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 18:59:54] LauraCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:00:19] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:00:26] MenagerieMayhem has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:00:37] BrittaCP: Greetings and salutations everybody
[2008.09.25 19:01:16] BrittaCP: So ma
[2008.09.25 19:01:19] Shopaholic Chick: evening everyone!!!
[2008.09.25 19:01:21] MenagerieMayhem: hola
[2008.09.25 19:01:26] Baconation has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:01:43] BrittaCP: So many of you have been with us for our SEO series with Laura
[2008.09.25 19:01:50] BrittaCP: I hope that you have learned a lot
[2008.09.25 19:02:19] BrittaCP: and for those tha may have missed them... we have them all archived
[2008.09.25 19:02:21] BrittaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=14
[2008.09.25 19:02:50] MenagerieMayhem: wow that's handy
[2008.09.25 19:03:06] BrittaCP: We know that most you had questions that couldn't be answered at the time... and some have come up with new ones since the chats
[2008.09.25 19:03:20] BrittaCP: so we wanted to give you an opportunity to ask them today
[2008.09.25 19:03:27] BrittaCP: during our SEO Q&A with Laura
[2008.09.25 19:03:57] BrittaCP: First the rules...
[2008.09.25 19:04:11] BrittaCP: the chat is moderated so your questions will not show up right away
[2008.09.25 19:04:31] BrittaCP: they will go into a queue until reviewed by a moderator
[2008.09.25 19:04:53] BrittaCP: We will try to get to all questions, but may miss some or just get to many... but again we'll try
[2008.09.25 19:05:17] BrittaCP: First I beleive Laura wanted to start out with some questions that were sent to us earlier
[2008.09.25 19:05:26] BrittaCP: and sooooo... i give you LAURA!
[2008.09.25 19:05:40] LauraCP: Hi everyone
[2008.09.25 19:06:04] LauraCP: Hope you are doing well. :-)
[2008.09.25 19:06:18] LauraCP: Last time I mentioned that product naming can influence SEO.
[2008.09.25 19:06:29] LauraCP: I mentioned that you can change product names. On the forums there were some questions:
[2008.09.25 19:06:44] LauraCP: How do I change the base name of an individual product?
[2008.09.25 19:06:46] Scarebaby has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:07:07] LauraCP: There was a geat discussion here: http://forums.cafepress.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/863104/m/987101062 which I’ve edited a bit:
[2008.09.25 19:07:20] LauraCP: If you type in the name for each product rather than applying the same name to a group of products, it can help with SEO.
[2008.09.25 19:07:25] Cartwright has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:07:29] LauraCP: Sometimes you might find that the default product name is not a good fit for you or your designs.
[2008.09.25 19:07:40] LauraCP: “You can change the base name if you edit the product individually
[2008.09.25 19:07:53] LauraCP: It will then stay as you've named it until/unless you use the bulk naming tool on that same product.”
[2008.09.25 19:08:06] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:08:26] LauraCP: Modifying the product name was more common before the bulk naming tools. Each product had to be named individually.
[2008.09.25 19:08:45] LauraCP: Or be a little quicker and do a few at a time:
[2008.09.25 19:08:51] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:09:12] LauraCP: See how 3 products have changed names:
[2008.09.25 19:09:20] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:09:20] Sag has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:09:38] BrittaCP: go ahead and click on the image to see it larger
[2008.09.25 19:09:45] PDF_landover has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:10:15] LauraCP: Here's a very topical question.
[2008.09.25 19:10:23] LauraCP: When should I remove my election stuff from my shop?
[2008.09.25 19:10:42] Cartwright: Never
[2008.09.25 19:10:47] LauraCP: Is there any chance the candidate you have designs for could be re-elected?
[2008.09.25 19:11:06] LauraCP: If so, then if you keep the section alive you will build historical “points” for having a site this isn’t brand new and unknown to the engines next time.
[2008.09.25 19:11:27] Cartwright: Yep and even for the loser...people will buy souvenirs and collectables for a while post-election
[2008.09.25 19:11:35] khorah has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:11:48] LauraCP: Good point about the post election gift possibilities
[2008.09.25 19:12:20] LauraCP: But I think there is a balance to be had with older material.
[2008.09.25 19:12:35] chm has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:12:42] realemon has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:12:43] LauraCP: If your candidate was the winner, what about the ongoing opportunities after the “newness” charm wears off?
[2008.09.25 19:12:50] PDF_landover has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:12:53] LauraCP: This section could be repurposed for new political issues about the candidate.
[2008.09.25 19:13:07] LauraCP: Think about how much stuff has been in the news about President Bush over the past 8 years and not just during the election season.
[2008.09.25 19:13:12] Cartwright: hey, stop giving away my ideas! haha
[2008.09.25 19:13:38] LauraCP: One way to decide is to look at Google trends
[2008.09.25 19:13:45] LauraCP: See what happened last election season.
[2008.09.25 19:13:53] LauraCP: How quick was the drop off after the election?
[2008.09.25 19:14:16] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:14:28] PDF_landover: You should tuck it, not remove it
[2008.09.25 19:14:46] LauraCP: That's a technique I like a lot for the shorter to mid-term.
[2008.09.25 19:14:54] Scarebaby has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:14:54] Gandalf Parker: However changing the description to be post-epection is a good idea. It also boosts SEO to change descriptions
[2008.09.25 19:15:02] LauraCP: Great tip!
[2008.09.25 19:15:02] bonkers has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:15:44] LauraCP: You will also keep your inbound links which will benefit your whole site.
[2008.09.25 19:15:48] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:16:05] LauraCP: One good method would be to move the election section link to the bottom of the shop homepage and remove the section description.
[2008.09.25 19:16:09] LauraCP: Remove many of your election designs but keep a few.
[2008.09.25 19:16:29] Shopaholic Chick: i have designs in a hidden sections from 3 years ago that are reselling now as candidates are rerunning...
[2008.09.25 19:16:44] brainlint has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:17:05] LauraCP: Very interesting. How does the traffic on those pages compare to your newer stuff?
[2008.09.25 19:17:26] bonkers has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:17:43] LauraCP: Do you have the Google toolbar installed? What is the page rank on those older pages? Is is pretty good?
[2008.09.25 19:17:50] cyi has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:17:58] LauraCP: "is it pretty good?"
[2008.09.25 19:18:16] brainlint has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:18:36] realemon: If I don't advertise my store, are random searches the only way to show your stuff?
[2008.09.25 19:18:51] LauraCP: No, you can put it on your facebook page
[2008.09.25 19:18:54] LauraCP: or Digg it
[2008.09.25 19:19:00] LauraCP: or twitter about it
[2008.09.25 19:19:14] LauraCP: or upload a video to Youtube
[2008.09.25 19:19:20] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:19:23] LauraCP: or include a link in all of your emails
[2008.09.25 19:19:38] BrittaCP: these are all free methods of promotion
[2008.09.25 19:19:56] realemon: good idea
[2008.09.25 19:20:01] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:20:01] Shopaholic Chick: well they are not frequent sales, but they are enough that i notice them here and there, most are just state senators and such
[2008.09.25 19:20:06] chm has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:20:18] MenagerieMayhem: Is it advantageous to have several different product descriptions for a single design? One for apparel, one for housewares, etc?
[2008.09.25 19:20:18] chm has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:20:28] LauraCP: Yes, I think it helps in two ways.
[2008.09.25 19:20:45] LauraCP: It helps customers be more confident that they are getting what they are searching for
[2008.09.25 19:21:03] LauraCP: And it helps your content look more unique to the search engines
[2008.09.25 19:21:15] Shopaholic Chick: www.squidoo.com/cafepressfreeadvertising outlines more then a dozen ways tog et free advertising - most are one time things!
[2008.09.25 19:21:25] LauraCP: The problem with keeping sections and designs around indefinitely are:
[2008.09.25 19:21:37] LauraCP: -user interface clutter
[2008.09.25 19:21:48] LauraCP: -makes the customer work harder to find what they want
[2008.09.25 19:22:01] LauraCP: -dilution of the topic on the page to the search engines
[2008.09.25 19:22:13] LauraCP: -more links on the page for the spiders to check during each crawl
[2008.09.25 19:23:03] LauraCP: I mentioned a midterm solution of just re-arranging your sections.
[2008.09.25 19:23:09] LauraCP: Here's a quick screenshot
[2008.09.25 19:23:26] LauraCP: Rearranging your site to bring most important links to the top:
[2008.09.25 19:23:31] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:23:54] LauraCP: The stuff at the top of your page is the most important for SEO
[2008.09.25 19:24:00] LauraCP: the stuff at the bottom counts less
[2008.09.25 19:24:11] MenagerieMayhem: about dilution of the topic - if I have a section about, say, Smiley Faces, and there are 50 subsections with one main design per subsection... is that diluting it too much?
[2008.09.25 19:25:11] LauraCP: If the 50 subsections have unique product names and section descriptions and product descriptions compared to the other 50 subsections, then you should be okay.
[2008.09.25 19:26:06] LauraCP: I would thin your main page with the 50 sections could probably only rank for your most general theme of "smilely" and not so well for the individual design names.
[2008.09.25 19:26:18] LauraCP: Is this what you are seeing?
[2008.09.25 19:26:30] Cartwright: "the stuff at the bottom counts less" - really? Interesting..
[2008.09.25 19:26:46] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:27:12] MenagerieMayhem: is it a good idea to have your product name mentioned once in the description as well? ie Puppy Dog Tshirt as a title, and "Dog lovers really adore our Puppy Dog Tshirt yadda yadda yadda"?
[2008.09.25 19:27:12] LauraCP: So, imagine you are reading a 3 page article. How likely are you to get to the end?
[2008.09.25 19:27:24] LauraCP: less likely than getting to paragraph # 2, right?
[2008.09.25 19:27:46] LauraCP: so because the best pages are the ones designed for users, the engines pay attention to user behavior
[2008.09.25 19:28:02] LauraCP: they know that stuff at the bottom will be seen by fewer people than stuff at the top
[2008.09.25 19:28:23] realemon has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:28:45] MenagerieMayhem: actually, for the section I'm thinking of, I've actually seen a dropoff to absolute nothingness... I was considering going through and sectioning by "humor," "art," etc
[2008.09.25 19:28:50] Cartwright: wow, i never thought of it that way. Thanks.
[2008.09.25 19:29:21] DDKnight has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:30:03] LauraCP: Providing meaningful sections like "art" and "humor" is a good idea. It should help both users and search engines
[2008.09.25 19:30:37] LauraCP: That actually gets to another frequent question about keywords.
[2008.09.25 19:31:01] LauraCP: Do my keywords fit my designs?
[2008.09.25 19:31:09] LauraCP: Here’s a list of 10-20 words I’m targeting per design…
[2008.09.25 19:31:23] Blipfish drinking brandy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:31:24] LauraCP: 10-20 words is great creativity and great for brainstorming.
[2008.09.25 19:31:34] LauraCP: It is where you have to start
[2008.09.25 19:31:42] LauraCP: Now narrow down to 2-3 per design or per product
[2008.09.25 19:31:57] LauraCP: Imagine you had to describe each product page in 3 phrases of no more than 3 words.
[2008.09.25 19:32:11] LauraCP: That’s your maximum list you can optimize for.
[2008.09.25 19:32:19] LauraCP: But that’s okay.
[2008.09.25 19:32:28] LauraCP: That list of 10-20 can be used a few at a time across different designs and products.
[2008.09.25 19:33:32] BrittaCP: So those are some of the questions that were sent to us earlier
[2008.09.25 19:33:40] edg has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:33:40] BrittaCP: what are some other questions you may have?
[2008.09.25 19:33:48] BrittaCP: hmmmm?:*-/
[2008.09.25 19:35:29] Shopaholic Chick: I found it it appear my screen is scrolling down too far - i will make the image sizes slightly smaller for the section image and then go to 4 across (you can shrink the image size on the section info page for each section)
[2008.09.25 19:35:53] BrittaCP: while you guys are typing... here's another question we got earlier
[2008.09.25 19:35:57] LauraCP: Here's another one. How do I pick good keywords?
[2008.09.25 19:36:16] LauraCP: We talked about that on previous chats, but here's a few quick tools
[2008.09.25 19:36:29] LauraCP: The Google keyword tool can help. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
[2008.09.25 19:36:45] LauraCP: In many ways: By providing search volume, analysis of content, analysis of a specific page, or a specific site.
[2008.09.25 19:37:07] LauraCP: Not just for search for keyword volume - you see!
[2008.09.25 19:37:16] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:37:40] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:37:50] LauraCP: Getting words from content. Example from CafePress about us page.:
[2008.09.25 19:38:30] matisse has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:38:55] MenagerieMayhem: is it a good idea to have your product name mentioned once in the description as well? ie Puppy Dog Tshirt as a title, and "Dog lovers really adore our Puppy Dog Tshirt yadda yadda yadda"?
[2008.09.25 19:39:07] LauraCP: Yes, it is.
[2008.09.25 19:39:10] Shopaholic Chick: i find a good way to think of keywords is look at the design then close your eyes and think about what words describe that image
[2008.09.25 19:39:44] LauraCP: Combining the previous questions about when to take down designs with picking good keywords....
[2008.09.25 19:39:53] LauraCP: You can use the keyword tool for this too
[2008.09.25 19:40:19] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.25 19:40:45] LauraCP: Experiment with "exact" and "broad"
[2008.09.25 19:41:05] chm has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:41:10] LauraCP: This will give you a sense of how people's searches vary.
[2008.09.25 19:41:29] LauraCP: You can even change countries
[2008.09.25 19:41:51] LauraCP: and get ideas for alternate slang or spellings
[2008.09.25 19:42:26] LauraCP: Okay, here's another one. My content is relevant but I’m still not getting traffic from the search engines... Why?
[2008.09.25 19:42:43] LauraCP: Is your page indexed? Check this first.
[2008.09.25 19:43:07] LauraCP: Go to google.com
[2008.09.25 19:43:27] LauraCP: put site:your_url_here.com into the search box
[2008.09.25 19:43:30] LauraCP: see what you see
[2008.09.25 19:43:55] LauraCP: you can also just put your full url into the main google box on the google homepage
[2008.09.25 19:44:09] LauraCP: Is anyone linking to your page?
[2008.09.25 19:44:32] LauraCP: In google, use Link:your_url_.com
[2008.09.25 19:44:38] LauraCP: like link:cafepress.com
[2008.09.25 19:44:59] LauraCP: or use Yahoo Site explorer (see previous chat for full details)
[2008.09.25 19:45:24] LauraCP: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
[2008.09.25 19:45:40] LauraCP: Do you have typos in your title tag?
[2008.09.25 19:45:52] LauraCP: In your descriptions?
[2008.09.25 19:46:16] LauraCP: Maybe your content isn’t really matching the searches people are making because of the mispellings.
[2008.09.25 19:46:29] BrittaCP: Who else has a mind boggeling question that's been on your mind? Go ahead, Laura's a pr
[2008.09.25 19:46:33] BrittaCP: pro
[2008.09.25 19:47:04] Baconation has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:47:25] LauraCP: Here's another: I’m ranking okay, but not much traffic.. Why?
[2008.09.25 19:47:39] LauraCP: Is the title tag is hard to understand?
[2008.09.25 19:47:44] Gandalf Parker has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:47:53] LauraCP: As a user, I may not be sure what “…keyword 1, keywords that are related, cute shopname” is or would lead to.
[2008.09.25 19:48:08] LauraCP: I suggest renaming your title something easy to “get”
[2008.09.25 19:48:40] LauraCP: Compare "cat, kitty, my buddha cat in a bag"
[2008.09.25 19:49:18] LauraCP: to "Cute Ragdoll cat on a tote bag"
[2008.09.25 19:49:30] LauraCP: which one are you more confident about clicking on?
[2008.09.25 19:49:43] LauraCP: If words in titles are misspelled, that can look unprofessional and therefore reduce click confidence.
[2008.09.25 19:49:57] LauraCP: If the description tag is a series of keywords, that isn’t a call to action.
[2008.09.25 19:50:05] GS has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 19:50:06] LauraCP: It reduces appeal and comprehension.
[2008.09.25 19:50:25] LauraCP: For example, “Find four leaf clover Irish designs on t-shirts. Unique Irish gifts, Irish-themed mugs and more designed for collecting or sharing.” is better than:
[2008.09.25 19:50:34] Blipfish drinking brandy has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:50:46] LauraCP: "mugs, Irish, Celtic, green, island, clover, good luck, charm”
[2008.09.25 19:51:03] MenagerieMayhem: does it hurt your search engine ranking to have puppy dog t-shirt, puppy dog mug, puppy dog tank top, etc all in your one section? To continually just repeat puppy dog (whatever) over and over?
[2008.09.25 19:51:31] DDKnight has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 19:51:57] LauraCP: It is an accurate description so I wouldn't say it hurts. But I would say that a little variety could help.
[2008.09.25 19:52:15] matisse: If I spelled "Obama" oboma, I might have gotten a sale today according to statcounter!:)
[2008.09.25 19:53:02] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:53:03] BrittaCP: could you clarify? what exactly is statcounter telling you?
[2008.09.25 19:53:17] Shopaholic Chick: matiss i have a few things with typos in descriptions that have gotten me sales - but on the reverse side they may have cost me some by people being turned off
[2008.09.25 19:54:10] cyi: Is there any way to add a sitemap to our stores (on the cafepress domain)?
[2008.09.25 19:54:12] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:55:17] LauraCP: It depends. You could create a new section, and then add your own html with links to all of your pages.
[2008.09.25 19:55:36] Shopaholic Chick: i will spell things in 2 spellings in the same description (american vs british prefernces) like "if your favorite sport is hockey then this great ice hckey T-shirt will be your favourite"
[2008.09.25 19:56:37] LauraCP: You could also upload a google sitemap to your own site and put in the URLs of your pages on CafePress.
[2008.09.25 19:56:43] matisse: Customers mispell!
[2008.09.25 19:57:21] LauraCP: True. But do more misspell or do more get it right? I think Shopaholic Chick said it well.
[2008.09.25 19:57:24] Finbar: Can those of us that are good at SEO offer that as a service to other CP members?
[2008.09.25 19:57:26] BrittaCP: There are many shopkeepers that share their knowledge on the Forums. If you were interested in selling your services, then I suppose you could market it to other Shopkeepers, just as there are shopkeepers who offer custom templates.
[2008.09.25 19:58:03] cyi: Thanks for the sitemap advice.
[2008.09.25 19:58:12] MenagerieMayhem: you have to be careful about selling SEO... if SKs don't get desired results.... it could be bad for you
[2008.09.25 19:58:17] MenagerieMayhem: what's your opinion on keyword density? How much is TOO much?
[2008.09.25 19:58:22] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 19:58:36] LauraCP: Anything that turns your off as a reader is a good rule of thumb.
[2008.09.25 19:58:48] LauraCP: "you off"
[2008.09.25 19:59:06] LauraCP: It should look natural. Think customer first.
[2008.09.25 19:59:38] Shopaholic Chick: laura on yahoo siteexplorer you cannot place you cafepress sitemap on your non-cafepress url - they decline the sitemap
[2008.09.25 20:00:00] LauraCP: I was thinking about Google. Thanks for the clarification on Yahoo. :-)
[2008.09.25 20:00:07] Finbar: I hate asking...."SKs"?
[2008.09.25 20:00:09] BrittaCP: sorry... Shopkeepers = SK's
[2008.09.25 20:00:10] Kippy has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 20:00:16] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 20:00:24] Kippy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.25 20:00:32] LauraCP: Here's another...Do you have more than one shop or site with the same content?
[2008.09.25 20:00:42] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 20:00:42] LauraCP: The two websites may be competing.
[2008.09.25 20:00:51] LauraCP: Since both have similar to identical content, the search engines have to decide which pages to keep and which pages to ignore.
[2008.09.25 20:01:09] LauraCP: It also creates inbound link dilution as half of your audience may link to one site and half to the other site.
[2008.09.25 20:01:18] LauraCP: This makes each site less powerful.
[2008.09.25 20:01:30] Finbar: NP; I've got to get back to hanging out on the forums again;-)....
[2008.09.25 20:01:40] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 20:01:56] Shopaholic Chick: laura i had that issue so i have been changing my 2 sitesso that www.shopaholicchick.com & www.shopaholic-chick.com have different text while still promoting the same cafepress shops & products
[2008.09.25 20:02:06] LauraCP: and your results?
[2008.09.25 20:02:49] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.25 20:02:54] Shopaholic Chick: i just changed it within the last 2 weeks - so i ams till waiting for the results
[2008.09.25 20:03:05] Fricka: I have a store that I set up as "leak free" for affiliates and then one I host on my own, what should I do in that scenario in regards to SEO? If I had to pick I'd want my own hosted store to be strongest in SEO.
[2008.09.25 20:04:00] LauraCP: Well, to take it to an extreme, you could label every page "noindex" on the site you don't want to SEO
[2008.09.25 20:04:05] Finbar: Yeah; that's the one thing thst seriously sucks about SEO. Because of the sandbox effect, SEO changes take a while to take effect.....
[2008.09.25 20:04:14] LauraCP: Or you could just give it much weaker content
[2008.09.25 20:04:19] LauraCP: less text
[2008.09.25 20:04:22] LauraCP: no alt text
[2008.09.25 20:04:25] LauraCP: bad titles
[2008.09.25 20:05:16] BrittaCP: There's a balance between being a better shopkeeper or a better affiliate... just need to find it
[2008.09.25 20:05:27] matisse: Laura is describing all of my stores!:)
[2008.09.25 20:05:51] Fricka: Hehe I've never purposely done "bad seo" before. Unfortunately, I am pulling the same products into my hosted site (using cpshop) so if I change the descrips etc it will mean bad seo for my hosted site too.
[2008.09.25 20:06:01] BrittaCP: Alright gang... we've got to wrap it up
[2008.09.25 20:07:07] BrittaCP: I hope this Q&A has helped with some
[2008.09.25 20:07:24] Valerie1 has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 20:07:28] BrittaCP: of those questions you've had building over the past month
[2008.09.25 20:07:38] Cartwright has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.25 20:08:00] BrittaCP: And with that I shall open the lobby for you kids to continue the party
[2008.09.25 20:08:15] LauraCP: Bye! Have a good weekend
[2008.09.25 20:08:16] Message sent to moderator(s)

promoting your cafepress shop free

[2008.09.18 18:59:44] Welcome to the CafePress Chat Room
[2008.09.18 18:59:44] shopaholic chick has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 18:59:44] All users in this room have been allowed to talk
[2008.09.18 18:59:58] BrittaCP: Hello Everyone!
[2008.09.18 19:00:27] Joie: Hi!
[2008.09.18 19:00:28] Iscah Designs: Hello! Thank you for inviting us today!
[2008.09.18 19:00:44] BrittaCP: Thanks for coing out to the chat today
[2008.09.18 19:00:53] BrittaCP: We're going to be talking about online promotion
[2008.09.18 19:01:02] BrittaCP: a few weeks ago we did offline promotion
[2008.09.18 19:01:03] AngelaCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:01:16] matisse: Good morning!
[2008.09.18 19:01:18] bacon has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:01:18] AngelaCP: Good morning!
[2008.09.18 19:01:19] AngelaCP: LOL
[2008.09.18 19:01:23] matisse: Hi Angela!
[2008.09.18 19:01:26] Kippy: oh, testeroo?
[2008.09.18 19:01:28] BrittaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?p=368
[2008.09.18 19:01:32] AngelaCP: oh, what's this about testroo?
[2008.09.18 19:01:34] Tropicando has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:01:38] Iscah Designs: Hello Angela!
[2008.09.18 19:01:40] AngelaCP: hi everyone
[2008.09.18 19:01:46] AngelaCP: happy thursday
[2008.09.18 19:01:57] matisse: I am getting my donots Hawaii time!
[2008.09.18 19:02:01] AngelaCP: awesome - congrats!
[2008.09.18 19:02:05] realemon has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:02:28] Heni has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:02:47] BrittaCP: We have a special guest with us today
[2008.09.18 19:03:11] BrittaCP: Nate... who is an avid blogger and promotion freak
[2008.09.18 19:03:16] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:03:22] BrittaCP: say hello Nate!
[2008.09.18 19:03:25] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:03:30] thegoldstandard: is everyone here for the online promotions chat?
[2008.09.18 19:03:30] nathanmcgee.com: freak is a good description :)
[2008.09.18 19:03:36] AngelaCP: hi nate!
[2008.09.18 19:03:38] GimpDaddy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:03:48] BrittaCP: So before we start.... the chat room rules
[2008.09.18 19:03:51] matisse: Heh Nate!
[2008.09.18 19:03:53] Joie: Hello, Nate!
[2008.09.18 19:03:54] nathanmcgee.com: but I'm a bad speller... so my apologies in advanced :)
[2008.09.18 19:03:59] Iscah Designs: Hi, Nate! Welcome!
[2008.09.18 19:04:00] MaxMuhlin: Hello Nate
[2008.09.18 19:04:01] ThE_RiPPeR: hi Nate!!!!
[2008.09.18 19:04:02] nathanmcgee.com: Hey Gang!
[2008.09.18 19:04:08] matisse: oh no not the rules again!
[2008.09.18 19:04:15] AngelaCP: rules are important... okay, hit it britta!
[2008.09.18 19:04:16] Kunstrxns-Anne has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:04:17] BrittaCP: you can recite them with me if you know them by heart by know
[2008.09.18 19:04:17] BrittaCP: lol
[2008.09.18 19:04:22] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:04:23] Tanith has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:04:33] MyFireArt has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:04:39] realemon has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:04:49] flyingwolf has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:04:52] BrittaCP: The chat is moderated... meaning all your comments and questions go into a queue where they aer reviewed by a moderator
[2008.09.18 19:04:59] realemon has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:05:04] BrittaCP: and once reveiewed it gets pushed out
[2008.09.18 19:05:14] BrittaCP: this is why you won't see your comment right away
[2008.09.18 19:05:30] BrittaCP: at the end of the chat, we'll open the lobby back up
[2008.09.18 19:05:37] BrittaCP: and you can continue the party there
[2008.09.18 19:05:57] BrittaCP: So we ready to talk about online promotion?
[2008.09.18 19:06:00] realemon has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:06:17] Joie: Yes.
[2008.09.18 19:06:19] AngelaCP: Yes
[2008.09.18 19:06:21] realemon has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:06:22] AngelaCP: A few weeks ago, we talked about ways to bring awareness to your shop offline… today we’ll go over a few ways you can promote your shop online.
[2008.09.18 19:06:33] AngelaCP: One of the topics I won’t cover (that you probably all want to hear about) is Search Engine Optimization – as our SEO expert Laura has hosted a few chats on this topic.
[2008.09.18 19:06:55] AngelaCP: If you missed it, be sure to read the transcript on the Chat page: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=14 [transcripts: SEO – copywriting tips, SEO Q&A, and Optimize your shop]
[2008.09.18 19:07:12] AngelaCP: If you have tips or tactics that worked for you, please share. We’d love to hear other ways to promote shops online.
[2008.09.18 19:07:30] AngelaCP: I’m going to start with 3 areas that will help increase awareness of your shop but also help with SEO. I won’t into the SEO aspects, but keep in mind that more pages and content on the web means more opportunities your site comes up on organic search.
[2008.09.18 19:07:59] AngelaCP: The three areas are: Blogs, Social Sites, and Community sites (for your niche).
[2008.09.18 19:08:05] realemon: can anyone see this???????????
[2008.09.18 19:08:21] AngelaCP: This chat is moderated realemon - so your questiosn will go into a queue
[2008.09.18 19:08:32] AngelaCP: Blogging is now a part of most people’s online activity… whether you have a blog just for your site, or a blog attached to a social site.
[2008.09.18 19:08:44] AngelaCP: Blogging is a great way to help people get to know you, your brand, site, etc. It’s written in first person and feels personal. You can talk about your day, your products, what’s close and personal to you… whatever you do, use it to tie back to your site/products.
[2008.09.18 19:09:11] flyingwolf: do I have to get on facebook?
[2008.09.18 19:09:17] AngelaCP: We'll talk about that in a minute....
[2008.09.18 19:09:21] AngelaCP: Take a look at the CafePress Blog. Sure, we have products listed – but the products listed are there as part of a larger conversation. CafePress merchandise is relevant in the real world as part of larger issues, and that’s what the blog highlights.
[2008.09.18 19:09:38] AkJeff has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:09:41] AngelaCP: Think of the CP Blog as “All the news that’s fit to print on a t-shirt.”
[2008.09.18 19:09:53] AngelaCP: If you decide to move forward with a blog, think about what you can talk about that’s interesting to people and how you can work your products in.
[2008.09.18 19:10:25] AngelaCP: If your site is all about vegetarian, you might have a blog sharing vegetarian recipes, up to the minute news, etc… and as you create designs that are clever and personal to vegetarians, share it. Talk about Palin’s love of hunting and protest it! Solicit support with a t-shirt: http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/moose-against-palin-jr-ringer-tshirt/303338083
[2008.09.18 19:10:45] AngelaCP: You get the idea…
[2008.09.18 19:10:52] flyingwolf: where does Cafepress blog go to other than people already in Cafepress blog?
[2008.09.18 19:11:16] AngelaCP: Can you rephrase that flyingwolf?
[2008.09.18 19:11:21] Cartwright: How often does one need to blog for the search engines to see it as fresh and current?
[2008.09.18 19:11:21] nathanmcgee.com: I am posting something on my blog today about this very topic cartwright... rule of thumb, post when you have something to say.
[2008.09.18 19:11:29] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:11:36] shopaholic chick: blogs appear in search results all the time if they have a signifigant amount of content
[2008.09.18 19:11:52] AngelaCP: that is correct shopachick
[2008.09.18 19:11:54] nathanmcgee.com: Don't just post for the sake of posting. People can see through that and you'll lose readers.
[2008.09.18 19:12:12] AngelaCP: Correct Nate. I’d advise against a blog simply to list products because it may not keep people coming back. But, I’m interested to have anyone disagree with me. Is there anyone here that is running a blog featuring products that is successful?
[2008.09.18 19:12:17] GimpDaddy: I get hits from comments I have left on others blogs. If I see a blog that relates to a subject of one of my designs I will try to cleverly drop a link in my comment. It has resulted in a few sales
[2008.09.18 19:12:23] GRaphicdeeziner has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:12:55] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:13:10] nathanmcgee.com: GimpDaddy... something that has worked spectacular for me...
[2008.09.18 19:13:16] AngelaCP: Definitely gimpdaddy. If it's relevant - I say, go for it. Also, blog comments do show up on Google. Lately when I'm searching for political stuff, I am getting a lot of results that are a part of blog comments.
[2008.09.18 19:13:36] GimpDaddy: I have noticed that as well
[2008.09.18 19:13:43] shopaholic chick: ang my http://designsoftheday.blogspot.com was quite popular - and even though i have not added anything in 9 months it stillg ets a fair amount of hits
[2008.09.18 19:13:51] nathanmcgee.com: If you link directly to your product or specific post in the URL field in the comment section, then you don't have to be so obtrusive with the links.
[2008.09.18 19:14:01] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:14:07] shopaholic chick: wait wrong link http://designoftheday.blogspot.com
[2008.09.18 19:14:12] GimpDaddy: yes, I avoid "spamming" blogs
[2008.09.18 19:14:40] Joie: I'm not sure I understand, Nate.
[2008.09.18 19:14:50] thegoldstandard has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:15:22] flyingwolf: people always think I'm spamming them if I talk about my products
[2008.09.18 19:15:28] nathanmcgee.com: Generally, when you post a comment, they ask for your name, e-mail address and an optional URL... you can put anything in the URL
[2008.09.18 19:15:42] flyingwolf: Okay where does the blog go to if the person you want to reach doesn t know about Cafe press
[2008.09.18 19:15:44] AngelaCP: A blog is like a website. If someone doesn't know it's there, it's hard to get seen. So if you have a website, make sure your blog link is visible. If you don't have a website and just a shop - put a blog link on your shop. Treat your blog like a personal website and add the URL on social network sites, optimize it for SEO, etc.
[2008.09.18 19:15:56] AngelaCP: Does anyone have more to add on to this for flyingwolf?
[2008.09.18 19:15:59] GimpDaddy: some blog formats allow you to add a link
[2008.09.18 19:16:03] Iscah Designs: ahh...
[2008.09.18 19:16:04] GimpDaddy: you just need to be clever about it
[2008.09.18 19:16:17] ckrawesky has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:16:20] nathanmcgee.com: Right! *hi-5* gimp-daddy.
[2008.09.18 19:16:22] AngelaCP: yes, don't make it look spammy
[2008.09.18 19:16:22] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:16:29] shopaholic chick: fly dont talk about your products....reply to the post with a comment about the post...but put your url where it allows a url- or tastefully at the end say something like "and i just got this great sticker that supports my view" with a link
[2008.09.18 19:17:07] Joie: Thank you for the example.
[2008.09.18 19:17:11] AngelaCP: Yes Shopac... this is on topic with what Nate is suggesting. Start participating by reading other blogs and making comments when the entry is relevant to your blog.
[2008.09.18 19:17:24] nathanmcgee.com: Make sure you are contributing to the blog post.
[2008.09.18 19:17:26] MaxMuhlin: So, can we now put outgoing links into our shops - without offending Affiliates?
[2008.09.18 19:17:29] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:17:53] AngelaCP: I've stated this in another chat... there is a balance between optimizng your shop for marketing, for seo, for affiliates.
[2008.09.18 19:18:04] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:18:12] AngelaCP: If you feel affiliates are a very important part of your business, you might not want to have any links out of your shop
[2008.09.18 19:18:22] shopaholic chick: it is better to make it look like your referring to someone else's item - then to your own....it tends to look less spammy
[2008.09.18 19:18:22] nathanmcgee.com: no... Honesty is best policy here shopaholic, but put some passion behind your post.
[2008.09.18 19:18:27] wingedturtle has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:18:49] AngelaCP: If affiliates linking directly to your shop is not a big part of your business, I'd suggest focusing on building your brand awareness and promotion.
[2008.09.18 19:18:52] AngelaCP: Does that make sense?
[2008.09.18 19:18:57] flyingwolf: I have a website for my artwork,so I can put my Cafepress blog URL on it, right?
[2008.09.18 19:18:57] nathanmcgee.com: If it is your website... by all means, cross promote!
[2008.09.18 19:19:12] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:19:21] shopaholic chick: max i do not link to the blog from my CP shop but i do from my offsites (non-CP websites)
[2008.09.18 19:19:59] MaxMuhlin: Ok, thanks, gotta work on my offsite website!
[2008.09.18 19:20:05] AngelaCP: So Max, I only suggested if you don't have a website to link from your shop... but that's only if you want to create a voice for your brand to your visitors/customers
[2008.09.18 19:20:12] casadelinda has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:20:18] AngelaCP: your own website is optimal
[2008.09.18 19:20:18] preggoprincess has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:20:53] Iscah Designs: Squidoo is an excellent venue for cross promotion. They even have a section specifically made to advertise CafePress products.
[2008.09.18 19:21:02] Karen has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:21:12] Tanith has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:21:22] Tanith has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:21:27] shopaholic chick: nathan it is the difference between saying "come buy MY sticker" and "check out this great sticker"
[2008.09.18 19:21:27] nathanmcgee.com: How about this... "wow! It is great to find someone so passionate about this subject! This is one of my passions too! It motivated me to make stickers about it!"
[2008.09.18 19:21:38] AngelaCP: I didn't even have Squidoo on the list! but yes, that is a great option as well.
[2008.09.18 19:21:42] GimpDaddy: I really never got my squidoo lens to take off...
[2008.09.18 19:22:05] Tanith: Actually if you play it like you just found it you really will tick people off
[2008.09.18 19:22:26] rusty has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:22:32] rusty has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:22:35] Tanith: Be honest - when it is yours, say so.
[2008.09.18 19:22:42] grace has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:22:43] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:22:58] AngelaCP: So as we mentioned, blogs needed to be maintained often. At least a few times a week – and if that’s not for you, I’d recommend skipping blogs and trying social sites.
[2008.09.18 19:22:59] nathanmcgee.com: So, shopaholic, you can promote your stuff with out actually really pushing. It goes against most marketing principles, but what you are trying to do on is build relationships with people on common interests.
[2008.09.18 19:23:33] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:23:40] shopaholic chick: gimp squidoo works if you make it about a topic - and integrate your shop - not about your shop - because people are not searching for information about your shop - or they would go right to it
[2008.09.18 19:23:40] shopaholic chick: other then sites like myspace & facebook....i find simple places like if you have a yahoo or AOL or AIM account put it in your profile...and ask your friends to add it to their profiles...i get a lot of hits off of AOL profiles & yahoo profiles
[2008.09.18 19:23:51] AngelaCP: Great idea!
[2008.09.18 19:23:54] GimpDaddy: I have used myspace and facebook
[2008.09.18 19:23:58] AngelaCP: Good transition
[2008.09.18 19:24:06] AngelaCP: With social sites, many are a form of blogging – without the commitment. I say this because there are other ways you can keep your site fresh without having to blog often. I’ll cover a few of the popular social sites.
[2008.09.18 19:24:11] electricgreen has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:24:22] AngelaCP: I don't have all the sites so please chime in
[2008.09.18 19:24:28] AngelaCP: Let's start with the top 2
[2008.09.18 19:24:38] nathanmcgee.com: myspace and facebook?
[2008.09.18 19:24:45] AngelaCP: Facebook is the network I’m on…and personally, I find it easy to use and very little commitment.
On Facebook, whenever you update your page or do anything – it provides a feed that updates all your “friends”.
[2008.09.18 19:24:48] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:24:49] AngelaCP: Yes nate :)
[2008.09.18 19:25:05] AngelaCP: You're the pro...so please chime in Nate
[2008.09.18 19:25:11] AngelaCP: For example: if you enter “I’m updating my shop for the holidays – check it out at www.cafepress.com/holidayshop” all your friends will see your update.
[2008.09.18 19:25:22] AngelaCP: Many SKs have created “fan” pages for their shop/site. This is a page for your brand. You can blog on it. You can put notes on it. Share photos. Showcase your favorite products. Allow your “fans” to post comments.
[2008.09.18 19:25:32] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:25:38] AngelaCP: When you have a “fan” page, you can send it out to all your friends so they can become fans of your site.
[2008.09.18 19:26:04] AngelaCP: We should have a thread in Chit Chat for SKs to share their fan pages... that'd be fun
[2008.09.18 19:26:15] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:26:16] AngelaCP: It’s a great way to “interact” with others and get your brand out there – even if it’s on Facebook. Also, these pages do come on search engines.
[2008.09.18 19:26:24] AngelaCP: i heart facebook....
[2008.09.18 19:26:26] Uncle Frog has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:26:30] flyingwolf: whooo, I missed this "fan" part--how do I get fans?
[2008.09.18 19:26:44] AngelaCP: You can send it out to all your friends
[2008.09.18 19:26:52] AngelaCP: I know many of you have fan pages....
[2008.09.18 19:26:58] AngelaCP: is there another way?
[2008.09.18 19:27:01] MaxMuhlin: Yes, it would be good to have a Thread for sharing fan pages because then those of us who haven't a clue (myself !!) can see what a sampling of them would look like. . .
[2008.09.18 19:27:05] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:27:14] Iscah Designs: How/where can you create a "fan" page?
[2008.09.18 19:27:14] nathanmcgee.com: I've done it... it is pretty simple... there are links somewhere in facebook... I'll have to look for it :).
[2008.09.18 19:27:14] shopaholic chick: fly you have to make a page about your site then you can go into the how to promote forum and you will see there is a thread started there already you can list yours and people will add you
[2008.09.18 19:27:31] AngelaCP: Here's the CafePress fan page: http://www.new.facebook.com/cafepress
[2008.09.18 19:27:44] AngelaCP: maybe you guys can post your fan site here for other SKs to add as well
[2008.09.18 19:27:52] shopaholic chick: ang there is one in how to promote already
[2008.09.18 19:28:12] AngelaCP: No, but I can see if we can get a SK to write a "tip" on it
[2008.09.18 19:28:26] AngelaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=15
[2008.09.18 19:28:44] AngelaCP: Anyone that knows... I'd love to have a quick list of tips...and you'll get your shop on the Community page. :)
[2008.09.18 19:28:47] bacon has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:28:50] realemon: how do you stop people from stealing your ideas?
[2008.09.18 19:29:00] BrittaCP: send to cptips@cafepress.com
[2008.09.18 19:29:02] nathanmcgee.com: You want to make sure you cross promote your fan page on your blog :).
[2008.09.18 19:29:07] AngelaCP: You mean your designs?
[2008.09.18 19:29:14] macphreak has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:29:22] realemon: ya, or jsut ideas
[2008.09.18 19:29:42] AngelaCP: If your designs are seen, there really isn't a foolproof way other than to be sure to report it to the Content Usage Policy team for them to look into
[2008.09.18 19:30:02] AngelaCP: Ideas are harder to prevent...
[2008.09.18 19:30:29] Kunstrxns-Anne: Ideas are free...
[2008.09.18 19:30:31] realemon: will a user be kicked off if its obvious?
[2008.09.18 19:30:41] nathanmcgee.com: You might have a great idea too, but someone else might have the same or similar idea...
[2008.09.18 19:30:44] armymom has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:30:52] AngelaCP: If it's a design, they will be dealt w/appropriately
[2008.09.18 19:30:56] macphreak: so who is doing what to promote
[2008.09.18 19:31:10] AngelaCP: Anyone want ot share? I'll move on to MySpace while you guys type...
[2008.09.18 19:31:15] AngelaCP: MySpace works in the same way that Facebook does: you create a network of friends. There are also several great ways that you can use your MySpace page to target audience. I’ve seen Shopkeepers use a variety of different ways to promote their shop.
[2008.09.18 19:31:27] AngelaCP: Use your blog and bulletins.
[2008.09.18 19:31:47] AngelaCP: With MySpace blogs, you can post about sales you may be having, or new designs. You can also use it as a way to promote any contests or fun stuff. I’ve seen Shopkeepers use it as a blog where they talk about things happening in the world, and reference their merch in it.
[2008.09.18 19:31:56] nathanmcgee.com: Promotion is a tricky thing because we are all selling cafepress "stuff" but even that is unique and different.
[2008.09.18 19:32:07] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:32:11] AngelaCP: Your friends have the ability to sign up for blog updates, and automatically receive notification in their account if you posted a new blog.
[2008.09.18 19:32:18] AngelaCP: You can also send out bulletins to your friends to let them know about new things happening. But be careful, you do not want to spam your network with bulletins. It can be annoying, and you will lose friends.
[2008.09.18 19:32:19] nathanmcgee.com: Someone doing artwork will want to promote differently than someone who is doing political stuff.
[2008.09.18 19:32:29] AngelaCP: Since MySpace is customizable, you can do your own CSS to get it to match your shop layout. You can also add things like slideshows and banners
[2008.09.18 19:32:39] AngelaCP: That's what MySpace offers that Facebook doesn't....
[2008.09.18 19:32:43] Wontar: except MySpace blocks CP links, and even deleted profiles that are repeat offenders.
[2008.09.18 19:32:55] nathanmcgee.com: Link to your blog ;)
[2008.09.18 19:33:02] nathanmcgee.com: Which will have tons of CP links ;)
[2008.09.18 19:33:10] macphreak: will it block tiny urls?
[2008.09.18 19:33:11] AngelaCP: if that is the case, the work around is a link to your site/blog
[2008.09.18 19:33:17] macphreak: I am giving out t-shirts to friends I know that are always around lots of people
[2008.09.18 19:33:17] Peggy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:34:00] AngelaCP: There's two more that I'll toss out quickly
[2008.09.18 19:34:08] AngelaCP: Flickr: Flickr is more of a photo blog/community. I’m not going to talk too much about this…
[2008.09.18 19:34:17] AngelaCP: It’s fun and easy to use. I use mine for personal reasons, but do sometimes share CafePress stuff on there. I’ve seen others do that and I think it’s a great option to get you out there.
[2008.09.18 19:34:40] Cartwright has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:34:45] AngelaCP: So if you're using it for fun and enjoy photography... this is a good venue for you. You also have a circle of friends...
[2008.09.18 19:34:52] AngelaCP: Then there's Twitter
[2008.09.18 19:35:02] bearabull7 has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:35:04] AngelaCP: Twitter is more of a micro-blog. I know many SKs are using Twitter…whether it’s for fun, business, or both. Does anyone want to share?
[2008.09.18 19:35:07] GimpDaddy: ive just started using it
[2008.09.18 19:35:33] AngelaCP: I have a twitter with a whole bunch of SKs... I don't really blog myself, but I enjoy reading the "blogging" from other SKs.
[2008.09.18 19:35:37] GimpDaddy: not sure if I like it yet
[2008.09.18 19:35:45] macphreak: share what
[2008.09.18 19:35:48] AngelaCP: you have to be on top of it --- I' not
[2008.09.18 19:35:50] BrittaCP: what you may do on twitter
[2008.09.18 19:35:51] BrittaCP: if you do
[2008.09.18 19:36:27] AngelaCP: So here are a few ideas from the group about ways to promote....
[2008.09.18 19:36:35] GimpDaddy: I have used craigslist locally with limited success, ebay is starting to increase sales for me as well
[2008.09.18 19:36:40] shopaholic chick: i have multiple websites, facebook, blogs, profile links....in addition to the profioe links i will drop my name in a chat room and leave it there...with an away message on saying i am working and a link to my site....i am in a chat room on aol right now actually LOL
[2008.09.18 19:36:48] BrittaCP: for awhile i followed a shopkeeper who specialized in horror themed shirts... and he twittered about the zombie apocolypse
[2008.09.18 19:36:49] MyFireArt: ning.com also hosts many social networks and you can even create your own.
[2008.09.18 19:36:54] Iscah Designs: So, let me get this straight...you create a non-CafePress-affiliated blog and link to it from MySpace?
[2008.09.18 19:36:54] nathanmcgee.com: Yes... I'll expand a bit more on this in a bit :).
[2008.09.18 19:37:02] Tropicando: twitter is getting big. ppl can get their cable company's attention there
[2008.09.18 19:37:11] macphreak: I know cafepress just started folloing me on twitter
[2008.09.18 19:37:12] flyingwolf: what about Gather.com?
[2008.09.18 19:37:20] AngelaCP: Not familiar with that flyingwolf... anyone else?
[2008.09.18 19:37:29] macphreak: what about teebler?
[2008.09.18 19:37:40] BrittaCP: wow... you guys are more on the scene than us
[2008.09.18 19:37:47] AngelaCP: haha, i was thinking the same thing!
[2008.09.18 19:38:01] macphreak: how would we use ebay for sales?
[2008.09.18 19:38:05] realemon: on Ebay do you sell from your store or by ordering your product and shipping it yourself
[2008.09.18 19:38:11] nathanmcgee.com: There are a lot of these social networks popping up all over. Teebler gather.com etc.
[2008.09.18 19:38:13] cyi has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:38:18] GimpDaddy: exactly
[2008.09.18 19:38:20] Wontar: There's plurk, too.
[2008.09.18 19:38:23] AngelaCP: Some people drop ship - meaning once a sale is done, they order from their shop and ship it to the "winner"
[2008.09.18 19:38:52] AngelaCP: If you're limited on time...focus on the popular ones... the ones where most people are on.
[2008.09.18 19:38:54] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:39:05] AngelaCP: it never hurts to be on more... it's just a matter of time and upkeep
[2008.09.18 19:39:08] BrittaCP: of course when you do drop ship for ebay... you want to make it clear how retunrs work
[2008.09.18 19:39:11] macphreak: ok
[2008.09.18 19:39:15] Jaenne: Frienster has a bigger following in Asaia than most other site. If you are marketing to Asia, it might be worth it to hook up on Friendster
[2008.09.18 19:39:22] shopaholic chick: ebay requires you tell them shopper the item will be dropshipped
[2008.09.18 19:39:23] GimpDaddy: thats how I do it. I tell the buyer to email the quantitiy and sizes they want and ship it direct
[2008.09.18 19:40:15] brev87 has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:40:22] AngelaCP: nate has something to share
[2008.09.18 19:40:23] cowpie has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:40:32] macphreak: do you list one t-shirt with image choices and so on
[2008.09.18 19:40:39] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:40:56] AngelaCP: it has to be a specific product and design -- ebay is strict
[2008.09.18 19:41:05] GimpDaddy: yes
[2008.09.18 19:41:07] macphreak: ok
[2008.09.18 19:41:07] AngelaCP: no links to your shop, etc... but you can brand it.
[2008.09.18 19:41:14] nathanmcgee.com: Marketing through networks like facebook and myspace is more about people than products. You need to keep this in mind.
[2008.09.18 19:41:16] cowpie has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:41:26] shopaholic chick: there are a lot of places you can make websites free to if you do not want to pay for one
[2008.09.18 19:41:30] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:41:37] realemon: brand it?
[2008.09.18 19:41:38] BrittaCP: brand the product
[2008.09.18 19:41:45] GimpDaddy: one design per listing, I add larger images using html that cost me nothing and list it as store inventory so it costs me 3 cents a month per listing
[2008.09.18 19:41:57] nathanmcgee.com: Just putting your stuff out there and say "buy my stuff" is not going to be as successful as in the past.
[2008.09.18 19:42:22] AngelaCP: Actually, you can highlight your brand - that's what i meant - put your shop name "Critter's World"
[2008.09.18 19:42:30] goodgollymissmolly has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:42:50] macphreak: you can brand it but notlink it
[2008.09.18 19:42:55] AngelaCP: That is correct.
[2008.09.18 19:43:03] sag has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:43:07] nathanmcgee.com: People what to do buisness with friends and you should put some personality behind the brand. That is why it is important to blog.
[2008.09.18 19:43:20] AngelaCP: So we've pretty much covered social sites and blogging...
[2008.09.18 19:43:21] Jaenne has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:43:42] AngelaCP: I think something worthwhile is participating in a community that's relevant to your shop
[2008.09.18 19:44:00] AngelaCP: if your shop is all about gardening... be a part of that community
[2008.09.18 19:44:10] Wontar has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:44:24] macphreak: iditto
[2008.09.18 19:44:30] AngelaCP: Join the forum and talk to people - i'm sure it's fun and not work for you... be sure to include your website in your signature
[2008.09.18 19:44:44] GimpDaddy: I am a member of several online forums relating to personal interests that are also in many of my designs
[2008.09.18 19:45:06] AngelaCP: When you comment on the blog - include your URL... we've covered that, but repeating it because it's so important. You can get seen by people you normally don't cross paths with
[2008.09.18 19:45:07] drummergirl: Has anyone had good results with Facebook Ads? I tried them, specifically targeting demographics that matched my GirlsCantWhat.com characters, but my sales were minimal. Lots of clicks, tho.
[2008.09.18 19:45:07] nathanmcgee.com: Ads do not typically provide good return and there are many other options that are free.
[2008.09.18 19:45:15] brev87 has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:45:16] AngelaCP: and that means more potential visitors....
[2008.09.18 19:45:28] Peggy: Always get permission to post your website in your sig from a mod first
[2008.09.18 19:45:33] BrittaCP: yes... read the guidelines
[2008.09.18 19:45:47] AngelaCP: That is correct Peggy. Some forums should have guidelines spelled out.
[2008.09.18 19:45:48] BrittaCP: especially on our forums... lol
[2008.09.18 19:45:58] Iscah Designs: Online community? Community within CP? What kind of communities are we talking about?
[2008.09.18 19:45:58] nathanmcgee.com: That depends on what community you want to be involved in... There are communities out there for everything!
[2008.09.18 19:45:58] AngelaCP: You want to be a community member...not a drive-by member
[2008.09.18 19:46:07] MaxMuhlin: Doing your research in joining "a community" is important. I joined a Pekingese group (I have dog shops) only to find that it was mainly populated by 4 or 5 posters who emailed back and forth about NOTHING. . .certainly nothing to do with Pekingese. . .
[2008.09.18 19:46:08] AngelaCP: and it will be obvious which one you are if you're not careful
[2008.09.18 19:46:25] AngelaCP: Good point Max!
[2008.09.18 19:46:33] macphreak: or creat website for others for free and put you banner/link on it
[2008.09.18 19:46:37] Jaenne has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:46:55] AngelaCP: Yes... it can also be a great way to recruite affiliates if your niche is uncommon
[2008.09.18 19:47:12] AngelaCP: For example - the caribou lover's site
[2008.09.18 19:47:35] AngelaCP: Doubtful there's too many out there... if there's a group obsessed w/ caribous and your shop is all about caribous
[2008.09.18 19:47:47] GimpDaddy: I joined a link exchange and it did generate a small amount of traffic but no confirmed sales
[2008.09.18 19:48:29] realemon: is there a favorite program for text and one for graphics? if not, what do the majority of cp users use?
[2008.09.18 19:48:30] BrittaCP: realemon: we'll open up the lobby after the chat and you can ask other SK's for thoughts onthis
[2008.09.18 19:48:33] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:48:36] AngelaCP: It's a natural fit to get them to affiliate to your site. Give them a banner... tell them they get 15% of sales they drive your way. Have them include them in their newsletter, etc... it's a part of striking a deal. It might be easy for some sites...not so easy for others. It's defintely worth a try because the audience is VERY relevant
[2008.09.18 19:48:45] shopaholic chick: i have link exchanges with some shopkeepers and they do well
[2008.09.18 19:48:54] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:48:55] macphreak: I wish CP would have more of a reference to where the buyers are from and so on
[2008.09.18 19:49:06] AngelaCP: You can put a stats counter on your shop
[2008.09.18 19:49:08] macphreak: only if those shops have traffic tho
[2008.09.18 19:49:09] Iscah Designs: How does a link exchange work?
[2008.09.18 19:49:09] nathanmcgee.com: It is basically saying, "I'll put your link on my page if you put mine on yours."
[2008.09.18 19:49:11] AngelaCP: that way, you can see where they are coming from
[2008.09.18 19:49:21] shopaholic chick: avoid webrings - they have fallen out of popularity with people and search engines
[2008.09.18 19:49:35] NiftyGaloot has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:49:42] MaxMuhlin: realemon - there is an entire Thread on what graphics programs various shopkeepers use. . .under Chit Chat. . .
[2008.09.18 19:49:48] nathanmcgee.com: And link exchanges have now become affiliate programs :).
[2008.09.18 19:49:54] realemon: ty
[2008.09.18 19:49:55] AngelaCP: Those used to be popular and a method of online promotion -- good to know Shop. Thanks.
[2008.09.18 19:49:59] macphreak: I soprt of did add a counter, I got it from the teebler site. It's a map of the world and it shows how many people are visiting your shop
[2008.09.18 19:50:15] realemon has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:50:18] GimpDaddy: The one that I used required you to post a banner on your site that was linked to their rotating ads. In exchange your banner as added to the rotation
[2008.09.18 19:50:19] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:50:22] shopaholic chick: mac try www.activemeter.com
[2008.09.18 19:50:54] Peggy: Ceck out statcounter, it's free, and very good
[2008.09.18 19:51:04] GimpDaddy: i use statcounter too
[2008.09.18 19:51:07] nathanmcgee.com: Google analytics is dynamite
[2008.09.18 19:51:07] barbd has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:51:11] AngelaCP: Great ideas everyone
[2008.09.18 19:51:12] grace has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:51:17] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:51:32] AngelaCP: I actually have to leave 10 minutes early for carpool...but i'm passing the mic over to Nate for the last 10 minutes...
[2008.09.18 19:51:37] Peggy: I have google anylitics too. More data always helps!
[2008.09.18 19:51:41] MyFireArt has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:51:46] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:51:52] AngelaCP: There's a bit more to cover... that we didn't get to. But Nate has wonderful and creative ideas...
[2008.09.18 19:51:54] grace has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:51:58] AngelaCP: bye everyone ... here you go Nate!
[2008.09.18 19:52:02] AngelaCP: They're all yours :)
[2008.09.18 19:52:03] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:52:03] Iscah Designs: Love to hear more from Nate
[2008.09.18 19:52:14] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:52:17] nathanmcgee.com: google analitics is really pretty powerful!!
[2008.09.18 19:52:31] AngelaCP has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:52:44] GimpDaddy: I will have to try it
[2008.09.18 19:52:51] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:53:07] Peggy: it's a little overwhelming at first...
[2008.09.18 19:53:33] GimpDaddy: I have no fear LOL
[2008.09.18 19:54:12] flyingwolf has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:54:16] Karen has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:54:17] macphreak: not all a once now
[2008.09.18 19:54:18] Iscah Designs: What forms of promotion do you find to be most effective, Nate?
[2008.09.18 19:54:18] nathanmcgee.com: Blogging and connecting with people. You want to get your name out there as someone who is involved... not just selling.
[2008.09.18 19:54:18] cafemommy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:54:52] nathanmcgee.com: I am a shameless selfpromoter (hence my screen name)
[2008.09.18 19:55:02] nathanmcgee.com: But there are ways to do it tactfully.
[2008.09.18 19:55:25] macphreak: like your email signature is a great place
[2008.09.18 19:55:28] Tropicando: IT'S A GOOD NAME
[2008.09.18 19:55:30] funnycrazytees has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.18 19:55:34] nathanmcgee.com: And still get traffic. You want to be able to understand where your traffic is coming from so you know what methods are working.
[2008.09.18 19:55:45] Peggy: I THOUGHT .com was a strangr last name!
[2008.09.18 19:56:09] matisse has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:56:22] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:56:39] Joie: How do you use the data you get from counters to promote your site?
[2008.09.18 19:56:39] nathanmcgee.com: you can see what demographic is coming to your site... where they are going and where you loose them. Then you can focus on those stronger areas or build up the weak ones.
[2008.09.18 19:56:48] Joie: My sales (few as they are) are ALL coming from the Marketplace. So I guess my attempts at promotion from other sites is not working.
[2008.09.18 19:56:50] shopaholic chick: nathan will you stick around for the lobby chat after the official chat?
[2008.09.18 19:56:50] nathanmcgee.com: Sure
[2008.09.18 19:57:08] BrittaCP: well... hopefully some of what we've discussed here can be put to use and help you out, Joie
[2008.09.18 19:57:14] Iscah Designs: Example?
[2008.09.18 19:57:14] nathanmcgee.com: I'm working on some examples :)
[2008.09.18 19:57:24] Peggy: ...make cookies for chat...
[2008.09.18 19:58:25] MaxMuhlin has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 19:58:29] nathanmcgee.com: Ok...so I have google analytics on my blog nathanmcgee.com (which is all about social media marketing btw ;) ). I know exactly what sites are promoting me and I can reach out to them.
[2008.09.18 19:58:39] macphreak: maybe in the future on this forum we can analise each others shops and get/give input
[2008.09.18 19:58:40] BrittaCP: We've done a shop feed chat before, and will have another one soon. Check the calendar for the schedule
[2008.09.18 19:58:41] BrittaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=7
[2008.09.18 19:58:49] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:59:02] BrittaCP: you can also ask for feedback on our forums
[2008.09.18 19:59:15] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 19:59:20] BrittaCP: http://forums.cafepress.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/784104
[2008.09.18 19:59:58] Kunstrxns-Anne has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 20:00:00] GimpDaddy: Good talk
[2008.09.18 20:00:17] Iscah Designs: Ooh! I like your article "Making Good Comments" at nathanmcgee.com. Lots of good advice!
[2008.09.18 20:00:17] nathanmcgee.com: Thanks :)
[2008.09.18 20:00:22] BrittaCP: go ahead and send out your last comment
[2008.09.18 20:00:26] BrittaCP: oops
[2008.09.18 20:00:32] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.18 20:00:51] Iscah Designs: http://www.nathanmcgee.com/2008/09/12/making-good-comments/#more-195
[2008.09.18 20:00:53] Joie: Thank you.
[2008.09.18 20:01:13] macphreak has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.18 20:01:19] GRaphicdeeziner: Nathan you have been very helpful, thank you
[2008.09.18 20:01:33] BrittaCP: ok... so that is all for today gang. I hope you got some ideas
[2008.09.18 20:01:35] mamm: Thanks much!
[2008.09.18 20:01:42] nathanmcgee.com: I've got an example. If you are a dog shop and you have google analytics set up than you can see that a lot of people are coming for doggy day community (ficticious). You can start posting more and more there and participating stronger etc.
[2008.09.18 20:02:04] nathanmcgee.com: Whew. Here's something else you guys might be interested in... http://www.nathanmcgee.com/2008/08/05/3-rules-of-social-selling-etiquette/
[2008.09.18 20:02:14] Iscah Designs: Yes, wish we could bask in your wisdom longer and more often!

SEO part 2

[2008.09.11 19:00:44] Welcome to the CafePress Chat Room
[2008.09.11 19:00:44] shopa has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:00:44] All users in this room have been allowed to talk
[2008.09.11 19:00:52] Tropicando has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:00:54] TexasFiddler has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:00:56] Valerie1 has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:00:58] Anne_Kunstrxns has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:00:58] PeggyWvB has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:01:02] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.11 19:01:07] BrittaCP: Hi everyone
[2008.09.11 19:01:13] preggoprincess has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:01:18] shopa: hi everyone
[2008.09.11 19:01:20] Tropicando: weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
[2008.09.11 19:01:22] Tropicando: hi all
[2008.09.11 19:01:33] BrittaCP: thanks for joining us this afternoon
[2008.09.11 19:01:50] BrittaCP: as most of you know we've been doing a serises of chats all about SEO
[2008.09.11 19:02:10] BrittaCP: so far we've covered the basics, and then improving your ranking
[2008.09.11 19:02:17] Sag has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:02:35] BrittaCP: for those that may hvae missed them... the transcripts can be found here
[2008.09.11 19:02:36] BrittaCP: http://community.cafepress.com/?cat=14
[2008.09.11 19:02:37] Cartwright has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:03:09] BrittaCP: and so today we continue with SEDO and we have the lovely Laura, our SEO manager, with us today
[2008.09.11 19:03:33] BrittaCP: So before i start... let me just quickly cover the chat rules
[2008.09.11 19:03:38] BrittaCP: The chat is moderated
[2008.09.11 19:04:07] BrittaCP: that means all your comments and messages will go into a queue until they are reveiwed by a moderator
[2008.09.11 19:04:19] BrittaCP: since the chat is only an hour, we may not get to all your questions
[2008.09.11 19:04:26] BrittaCP: but we will try our best
[2008.09.11 19:04:46] BrittaCP: afterwards, we'll open the lobby back up... and you guys can continue the conversation there
[2008.09.11 19:04:48] BrittaCP: alright
[2008.09.11 19:04:50] PeggyWvB: hi Laura
[2008.09.11 19:04:58] Renee has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:05:23] BrittaCP: hhhmmmm she does seem to be missing
[2008.09.11 19:05:25] AngelaCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:05:30] BrittaCP: i think she lost her connection for a second
[2008.09.11 19:05:53] LauraCP has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:06:04] BrittaCP: and here she is!
[2008.09.11 19:06:08] TexasFiddler: howdy Laura
[2008.09.11 19:06:10] Tropicando: yay
[2008.09.11 19:06:17] LauraCP: Hi!
[2008.09.11 19:06:28] LauraCP: Glad to see you all :)
[2008.09.11 19:06:54] LauraCP: Ok, so we’re going to chat about resources and things to keep in mind when writing copy for SEO.
[2008.09.11 19:07:08] LauraCP: We covered a little bit of this in the first SEO chat, this is more in depth information.
[2008.09.11 19:07:29] Kippy has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:07:31] LauraCP: Content is king in SEO. Content is what makes your stores, sites, and pages interesting and worth visiting from a user perspective and from a search engine perspective
[2008.09.11 19:07:51] LauraCP: For the most part, to a search engine content means words. Search engines like text. They are still somewhat to very challenged when it comes to other types of content like images, video, audio, games, and FLASH.
[2008.09.11 19:08:12] LauraCP: CafePress shops tend to have more images than text. That makes it harder for a search engine to understand what each page is about.
[2008.09.11 19:08:16] ShadowLekker has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:08:48] LauraCP: You face this issue every time you upload a new design. How do you tag it so people can find it? How do you tag it so it is relevant to the right searches? Now imagine how much harder it is for a search engine to understand an image!
[2008.09.11 19:09:13] LauraCP: Let’s take this image below. What tags would you use to describe it?
[2008.09.11 19:09:18] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:09:29] NiftyGaloot has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:09:48] LauraCP: anyone have suggestions>
[2008.09.11 19:09:52] Anne_Kunstrxns: Cat, Warhol, psychedelic
[2008.09.11 19:09:54] PeggyWvB: cat,print, warhol,colors
[2008.09.11 19:10:01] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.11 19:10:03] LauraCP: super
[2008.09.11 19:10:10] shopa: art, cat, andy warhol style, kitty, kitten, colorful, color
[2008.09.11 19:10:13] Tropicando: art
[2008.09.11 19:10:27] Ken has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:10:32] Sag: kitten kitty feline pet
[2008.09.11 19:10:33] Tropicando: lolcat?
[2008.09.11 19:10:36] LauraCP: Okay, so imagine is the search engine sees:
[2008.09.11 19:10:39] Kippy: pony.. oh, wait.
[2008.09.11 19:10:41] Cartwright: litho
[2008.09.11 19:11:02] LauraCP: What would distinguish this image from millions of other images on the web? Not much.
[2008.09.11 19:11:25] LauraCP: Okay, so now imagine the search engine saw
[2008.09.11 19:11:58] LauraCP:

Andy Warhol inspired popup of cats

[2008.09.11 19:12:19] Anne_Kunstrxns: Oh yeah! Now I get it.
[2008.09.11 19:12:22] LauraCP: This is better because the image file name, alt text, and nearby text all help describe the content.
[2008.09.11 19:12:39] Cartwright: What about the alt="cat" where does that pull from?
[2008.09.11 19:13:29] LauraCP: It depends on if you are using a template or managing all of your own HTML. But if it is a template from CafePress, then it is going to pull from the product name.
[2008.09.11 19:13:40] LauraCP: We'll talk about product naming in a few min.
[2008.09.11 19:13:43] Tropicando: it doesn't say anything about product
[2008.09.11 19:14:05] Ken has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:14:06] LauraCP: True, for this example, I wanted to keep it straight forward.
[2008.09.11 19:14:12] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.11 19:14:25] LauraCP: Now expand this idea to every Web page you create. In order for it to be meaningful to searchers and engines, you have to provide descriptive words and phrases. Strive for at least 50 words per page. 150-300 is ideal.
[2008.09.11 19:14:32] cyi has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:15:07] LauraCP: It’s hard to think like an engine
[2008.09.11 19:15:24] LauraCP: http://www.seo-browser.com/ is a tool to help you see your site like a search engine.
For example, one of my stores:
[2008.09.11 19:15:46] LauraCP: http://www.seo-browser.com/ is the URL
[2008.09.11 19:15:51] LauraCP: of the tool
[2008.09.11 19:15:55] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:16:12] BrittaCP: you can click on the image to see it larger
[2008.09.11 19:16:20] LauraCP: this is a shop to you a person using a browser like IE or FireFox
[2008.09.11 19:16:35] LauraCP: It looks like this to a search engine:
[2008.09.11 19:16:44] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:17:15] brainlint has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:17:52] LauraCP: A quick word about keywords
[2008.09.11 19:18:08] LauraCP: We talked about keywords in the first chat session so I won’t go over that again. But make sure you are taking the keywords and phrases you researched and targeted and are using them as the basis of your content.
[2008.09.11 19:19:11] PeggyWvB: I have very hight relavant content on one site, but I don't see a lot of traffic there, what am i doing wrong?
[2008.09.11 19:19:11] LauraCP: Where?
[2008.09.11 19:19:15] jd has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:19:27] LauraCP: To the best of your ability, use ALL the optional text fields provided in the shop templates and mandatory and optional fields like the ones in the shop management area. This one below is in the marketing area.
[2008.09.11 19:19:33] PeggyWvB: www.beltain.com
[2008.09.11 19:20:20] LauraCP: We can take a look at this later or I will email after.
[2008.09.11 19:20:28] PeggyWvB: I do that.
[2008.09.11 19:20:35] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:21:02] LauraCP: Take the time to write unique, meaningful, custom descriptions, design notes, section teasers, image alt tags, section descriptions, and section names.
[2008.09.11 19:21:14] LauraCP: Don’t try to be too cute or catchy. Someone searching for a t-shirt or gift is more likely to use straightforward language
[2008.09.11 19:21:34] LauraCP: Title tags
[2008.09.11 19:21:47] LauraCP: Title tags are the most important piece of content on your shops. See image above for where you customize it. Let’s work through an example of SEO-ing a title tag:
[2008.09.11 19:22:03] LauraCP: Before:
[2008.09.11 19:22:10] LauraCP:
[2008.09.11 19:22:28] LauraCP: After possibilities:
[2008.09.11 19:22:38] LauraCP:
[2008.09.11 19:22:47] LauraCP:
[2008.09.11 19:22:55] LauraCP:
[2008.09.11 19:23:21] Cartwright: 1st question: Can we use the word "Onesie" in our teasers and descriptions?
[2008.09.11 19:23:25] BrittaCP: no, you cannot
[2008.09.11 19:23:28] BrittaCP: it is a TM
[2008.09.11 19:23:44] BrittaCP: you can use either infant bodysuit or creeper
[2008.09.11 19:24:20] LauraCP: ok, here are some reasons for not using the first title tag and picking amongst the others
[2008.09.11 19:24:28] LauraCP: • Length of the ‘before’ is too long. Titles should not be more than 70 characters.
[2008.09.11 19:24:40] LauraCP: • “Chamblee High School Class Reunion” only has ~6000 results in Google so low competition, but my content is only applicable to people interested in the class of 1988. So it should be in my title tag.
[2008.09.11 19:24:56] LauraCP: • My site is not really about the reunion so leaving out the mention of product type makes this link harder for searchers to understand in when they see the search results in Google.
[2008.09.11 19:25:05] LauraCP: • T-shirts and Hats alone are not what this site will rank for – too competitive. The 2nd “after” title also doesn’t work well at the PDP level when the product is not a T-shirt or Hat.
[2008.09.11 19:25:31] LauraCP: • CHS is too broad. Check out the search results for “chs class reunion”
[2008.09.11 19:25:45] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:26:07] LauraCP: “1988 class reunion” has more searches than “class of 1988 reunion”… so that is another point in favor of the shorter Title.
[2008.09.11 19:26:20] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:26:38] LauraCP: Final choice: 1988 Chamblee Class Reunion T-shirts & Gifts : CafePress.com
[2008.09.11 19:27:12] LauraCP: Any questions about title tags?
[2008.09.11 19:27:25] Anne_Kunstrxns: Would it make a difference if we added (TM) after Onesie?
[2008.09.11 19:27:43] BrittaCP: sadly no. unless you are gerber.
[2008.09.11 19:27:44] Cartwright has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:28:12] LauraCP: Other places to add content:
[2008.09.11 19:28:15] Cartwright has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:28:21] LauraCP: Make sure you don’t reuse the same words and sentences and links on every page. If every page has basically the same content, how can a search engine tell them apart?
[2008.09.11 19:28:24] Cartwright has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:28:37] LauraCP: Remember that the text at the top of the page is better than at the bottom. I mentioned last time that text at the beginning of a page will be seen by more visitors so is considered more relevant than text buried at the bottom of the page.
[2008.09.11 19:29:00] LauraCP: This means that you need to put some unique, descriptive text towards the top of the page. Don’t try to hide it all at the bottom of the page. If users don’t see it easily, search engines will discount it too
[2008.09.11 19:29:05] Stratman has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:29:09] Cartwright has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:29:18] Karen has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:29:19] LauraCP: Here are some resources to help you learn to write for web audiences:
[2008.09.11 19:29:44] LauraCP: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-write-for-the-web - short and sweet top tips
[2008.09.11 19:29:51] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.11 19:29:56] Tropicando: google trends, did not know that existed
[2008.09.11 19:30:07] LauraCP: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ - expert analysis, insights and guidance from and industry guru Jakob Nielsen.
[2008.09.11 19:30:18] LauraCP: http://www.highrankings.com/seo-writing - Very short book by Jill Whalen
[2008.09.11 19:30:28] LauraCP: http://www.webmasterradio.fm/Specials/Weekly-Rewind/Writing-for-SEO.htm - Audio file from Webmaster Radio
[2008.09.11 19:30:44] LauraCP: http://www.google.com/trends is way cool
[2008.09.11 19:30:57] LauraCP: you can search terms or search websites for popularity
[2008.09.11 19:31:26] LauraCP: And see today's top trends.
[2008.09.11 19:31:37] preggoprincess has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:31:43] LauraCP: Did you know that Houston Hide From the Wind was a popular site today?
[2008.09.11 19:32:18] LauraCP: No one here in this room even knows what it is yet...
[2008.09.11 19:32:21] LauraCP: But Google does
[2008.09.11 19:32:23] Sea Squirrel has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:32:44] LauraCP: Okay, more on content. You can add content to each product name and description.
[2008.09.11 19:32:51] BrittaCP: it's a site reporting wind data
[2008.09.11 19:33:00] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:33:28] shopa: laura text at the top needs to be careful though - i have seen people with 4 paragraphs of text on a section and all thier designs are below the page...i could not even tell it was a store!
[2008.09.11 19:33:53] LauraCP: Yes, I agree. You don't want to hide the designs.
[2008.09.11 19:34:47] Tropicando: Are there any yahoo sites similar to google trends?
[2008.09.11 19:34:51] LauraCP: http://buzz.yahoo.com/
[2008.09.11 19:36:24] LauraCP: And this is another set of Yahoo tools, although not metrics focused: http://publisher.yahoo.com/sell/EnhanceYourSite.php
[2008.09.11 19:37:00] Tropicando: I know this is just an example, but wouldn't some schools have a cow if you made unofficial school shirts? is it case by case maybe?
[2008.09.11 19:37:15] Message sent to moderator(s)
[2008.09.11 19:38:15] Heni has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:38:35] LauraCP: Good point - I could get a C&D letter, but this is for their own charity. And to be safe, you can ask permission.
[2008.09.11 19:38:48] LauraCP: Back to product naming
[2008.09.11 19:38:54] LauraCP: Before
[2008.09.11 19:39:03] LauraCP: CHS 88 Kids Light T-Shirt
[2008.09.11 19:39:22] LauraCP: After: 1988 Chamblee Alumni T-shirt for kids
[2008.09.11 19:39:32] LauraCP: Reasons:
[2008.09.11 19:39:52] LauraCP: We already know CHS is poor choice from research above in google trends
[2008.09.11 19:40:00] LauraCP: People aren’t searching for “light t-shirts” very much and it is also too vague. Does it mean lightweight or light colored or what???
[2008.09.11 19:40:09] LauraCP: This is an opportunistic product – people aren’t looking for kid’s alumni t-shirts as much as they are looking for “alumni t-shirts.”
[2008.09.11 19:40:19] LauraCP: “kid’s alumni t-shirts” doesn’t make much sense when it stands alone. “Alumni T-shirt for kids” can stand alone and be understood.
[2008.09.11 19:40:46] LauraCP: • Product Descriptions are next up
[2008.09.11 19:40:55] Daphne has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:41:12] LauraCP: Before: “Chamblee High School spirit for kids of Chamblee Alumni. Class of 1988 kids and babies can have cool school style for the class reunion. Go bulldogs!”
[2008.09.11 19:41:28] LauraCP: After: “Souvenir t-shirts for kids of Chamblee High Alumni give kids and babies cool school style for the 1988 class reunion. Buy them an “I love Chamblee 88 Tee.”
[2008.09.11 19:41:35] LauraCP: Reasons:
[2008.09.11 19:41:46] LauraCP: You have 200 characters – use them. Remember search engines like text.
[2008.09.11 19:41:56] LauraCP: Bulldogs just don’t match anything else on the page so it isn’t helping relevance
[2008.09.11 19:42:09] LauraCP: 'School' only needs to be mentioned once.
[2008.09.11 19:42:29] LauraCP: "I love ___” is a popular way to search and adds extra reinforcement for the meaning of the image.
[2008.09.11 19:42:39] LauraCP: Souvenir t-shirts provide more unique relevance than just “t-shirts “ and we already used “t-shirts for kids” in the product name.
[2008.09.11 19:43:00] LauraCP: Tips
[2008.09.11 19:43:14] LauraCP: People scan rather than read - use bold, bullets, paragraphs, spacing to make that easier
[2008.09.11 19:43:25] LauraCP: Use short paragraphs
[2008.09.11 19:43:39] LauraCP: The first 2 words in a paragraph or bullet point are key to getting people to keep reading.
[2008.09.11 19:43:50] LauraCP: Use numbers 1, 2, rather than one , two. Engines get it and people like it better.
[2008.09.11 19:44:00] brainlint has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:44:03] Cartwright: any importance to using the words "buy"
[2008.09.11 19:44:53] LauraCP: I tried "get" and "buy" when working on this. Buy attracts people later in the buying cycle. It can be off-putting to "just looking" customers.
[2008.09.11 19:45:12] Cartwright: does google like short Hemmingway-esque sentences...a lot of periods in a paragraph?
[2008.09.11 19:45:54] LauraCP: The number of periods is not so important, but your readers probably do like it better.
[2008.09.11 19:46:15] LauraCP: It is easier to scan
[2008.09.11 19:46:47] NinaPA has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:46:59] LauraCP: They do pay attention to sentence structure, so avoiding long run-on sentences is good.
[2008.09.11 19:47:10] TexasFiddler: For that matter, does Google put any emphasis on actual sentences? Sentences, not punctuated phrases. Words and dots without verbs. etc
[2008.09.11 19:48:27] LauraCP: All the engines are getting better at understanding meaning. Sentences without verbs are less meaningful. So it might make sense in context, but isn't a first choice unless there is good reason.
[2008.09.11 19:48:57] Cartwright: In case I forget to mention it...this has been a very helpful (maybe the best) chat I've participated in here. Thanks!
[2008.09.11 19:49:10] LauraCP: :-) Thank you !!
[2008.09.11 19:49:17] LauraCP: next: Site Design/Architecture based on content
[2008.09.11 19:49:27] LauraCP: The flow of your site and your shop should reinforce your most important keywords and the way people search.
[2008.09.11 19:49:37] LauraCP: Setup your shops so they are organized in a way that supports your topics and keywords and designs.
[2008.09.11 19:50:13] LauraCP: If I had multiple high schools or colleges in my store, I would probably have section for “high school reunion Gifts & T-shirts” and “College Reunion Souvenirs” and then have a separate section for each school.
[2008.09.11 19:50:25] AngelaCP has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:50:37] cowpie has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:50:46] LauraCP: Let’s talk section names and headers:
[2008.09.11 19:50:53] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 19:51:08] LauraCP: •Section Names (title for section page and shows up in the bread crumbs) - really important
[2008.09.11 19:51:14] Cartwright has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:51:31] LauraCP: The breadcrumbs are links so the text in the link is “anchor text.” This is some of the most important text on the page
[2008.09.11 19:51:40] Cartwright has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:51:44] LauraCP: Good: “Chamblee Bulldogs Class of 1988” and “Chamblee 1988 Reunion”
[2008.09.11 19:51:45] Daphne has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:51:57] LauraCP: Bad: “CHS reunion stuff for kids & babies”
[2008.09.11 19:52:02] Sag has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:52:06] LauraCP: Why? CHS is too vague, stuff is not meaningful, relevant, or highly searched. Missing any reference to year, link text is too long, unappealing.
[2008.09.11 19:52:07] The Shadow has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:52:23] LauraCP: Text around links reinforces or dilutes the text in the anchor text. If the text uses similar keywords and adds to the meaning of the link, then the anchor text is more relevant and the image nearby is more relevant to the same set of keywords
[2008.09.11 19:52:48] ShadowLekker: This is great, but it really messes with breadcrumbs since the only text choice we have there is the section name
[2008.09.11 19:53:04] jd has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:53:08] LauraCP: Yes, that's why choosing good section name is key.
[2008.09.11 19:53:17] Tropicando: By sentence structure do you mean semicolons or colons attaching a fragment could be bad?
[2008.09.11 19:54:00] LauraCP: No, not bad. But simple tends to be better.
[2008.09.11 19:54:04] Cartwright: I would tend to write "Chamblee 1988 Reunion T-shirts and gifts" as section name
[2008.09.11 19:54:26] cowpie has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 19:54:37] LauraCP: •Section Teasers (short copy under Section Names)
[2008.09.11 19:54:47] LauraCP: Good:
One cool kid...You or your mini CHS kiddie? It doesn't matter. Sport your Chamblee High School Spirit at the upcoming class reunion

Let your kids show off a bit at the CHS 1988 class reunion. Cute, fun, Chamblee High t-shirts, onesies, hoodies and more!
[2008.09.11 19:55:08] LauraCP: Needs improvement: Chamblee High School Class of 1988 Reunion T-shirts and gifts!
[2008.09.11 19:55:12] TexasFiddler: can't use onesies
[2008.09.11 19:55:21] BrittaCP: that's right! good cathc!
[2008.09.11 19:55:31] LauraCP: T-shirts & gifts for the 1988 Chamblee High Class reunion. Celebrate the bulldog spirit with all your old friends and classmates.
[2008.09.11 19:55:38] MyShop has entered the room "CafePress Chat Room"
[2008.09.11 19:55:52] LauraCP: That's a bit better - and yes, you got me on the Onesie
[2008.09.11 19:56:12] ShadowLekker: Do single quotes - ' - matter or better left unused?
[2008.09.11 19:56:49] LauraCP: Single or double don't matter. I think it can make it easier to read - so it is more of a usability and attracting the click issue.
[2008.09.11 19:56:55] LauraCP: Easy to scan = more clicks
[2008.09.11 19:57:07] Anne_Kunstrxns: This would mainly apply if you were coding rather than using the text entry boxes, am I right?
[2008.09.11 19:57:50] LauraCP: Text entry boxes should be used with an editorial eye. With 200 characters, you have space to make more than one sentence.
[2008.09.11 19:58:00] LauraCP: Another important place for text-rich content is blogs. They can attract both searches and search spiders. If you have one, keep it up to date. Freshness matters with blogs. One entry a month would be a minimum. More is better.
[2008.09.11 19:58:13] LauraCP: Blog tips
[2008.09.11 19:58:23] LauraCP: Blog titles “out of the box” are just the base name of your blog. You want to customize them. That’s very important.
[2008.09.11 19:58:33] LauraCP: This is the address of an excellent WordPress plugin: http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/
[2008.09.11 19:58:46] LauraCP: Putting the title or header into the URL is good. But putting a few relevant keywords separated by dashes is even more useful sometimes
[2008.09.11 19:59:03] LauraCP: Not using the default permalink structure (http://blog.cafepress.com/?p=534 ) helps a blog pages quite a lot.
[2008.09.11 19:59:12] LauraCP: Here’s some good screenshots on how to change permalinks: http://www.bloggernoob.com/learn-to-blog-change-permalink-structure/25/
[2008.09.11 19:59:27] LauraCP: Lots of page views per visitor is not necessarily a good thing, It does not mean that people are reading lots of pages. It ca be heavily influenced by frustrated refinding behaviors. People have a hard time finding again something they found on a blog in the past.
[2008.09.11 19:59:39] LauraCP: Use Google analytics to see what people are using to find your site. Then create blog categories for these keyterms. https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/login
[2008.09.11 19:59:58] LauraCP: And for last: Advanced tips on controlling what content gets indexed
[2008.09.11 20:00:08] LauraCP: The robots meta tag helps you control what gets indexed, how it gets indexed, and what doesn’t.
[2008.09.11 20:00:40] LauraCP: If you do all of your own HTML or have a blog or a stand alone site in addition to your store:
[2008.09.11 20:00:43] LauraCP: The following image is cropped from http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet.
[2008.09.11 20:00:50] BrittaCP sent a picture:
[2008.09.11 20:01:35] LauraCP: That's all I have for today. I enjoyed chatting with you
[2008.09.11 20:01:41] LauraCP: :-)
[2008.09.11 20:02:10] BrittaCP: thanks for coming today. unfortunatly we don't have time for any more questions. however, in a few weeks we will be having a Q&A with laura
[2008.09.11 20:02:24] NiftyGaloot has left the room (logged out)
[2008.09.11 20:02:25] BrittaCP: i urge you to send your questions to communityteam@cafepress.com