Uncle Sam provided the training and discipline necessary for soldiers to make it in the military. He taught you how to respond to any situation you could imagine, well…at least what you could imagine at the time. Military service may not be a lifelong career for people and in most cases, while veterans never forget this invaluable experience or the skills they acquire through their commitment, there comes a time when a transition back to civilian life occurs. And then what happens?

While Uncle Sam is busy choosing the next generation of America’s servicemen, many veterans feel lost and don’t know how to apply the priceless training and skills they received toward a civilian career . Many don’t realize that their leadership and personal development was not only invaluable to their success in the military but provides a precious tool that can pave the road toward a very rewarding future. It may seem that you’re civilian life is just beginning but you already have the ability to ensure you can adapt without difficulty to civilian life.

How PostMilitary.com Can Help

This is where PostMilitary.com comes in. Developed by CKMG and just recently launched, the site plans to become an integral part of military transition programs and will continue to evolve and discover new ways to honor those who have served. You'll find a variety of resources that allow you to explore several career paths that may be of interest to you and tools to help you realize these goals. Online degree programs and other higher education resources are available from the top universities around the country that specialize in assisting veterans and their families.

Why We Do What We Do

The site accommodates all branches of the military and offers resources catered to each branch specifically, from Marines to the Coast Guard. The site will keep you updated about news regarding legislation or benefits affecting veterans. Conceptualized by Tom Elliott, CEO of CKMG and second-generation Paratrooper, the site’s purpose was and is "to honor the selfless service given to America by our Military Veterans and their supportive families so they may be empowered to succeed in their new endeavors."

For more information, or to find out how you can help make a difference, call (310)706-6903 or visit PostMilitary.com .

We’ve already discussed the importance of keywords when developing web pages and blogging. Keywords are the honey that attracts consumer bees to your site and gets them to stick there. But how do you come up with keywords? How do you know which keywords are the right ones for your pages?

Keyword Tools

Now there are many places you can go online to get keyword help. The easiest is probably Google AdWords Keyword Tool . This tool allows you to input some basic keywords and let it instantly create keyword phrases along with statistics on how much search volume these keywords typically generate. It’s a great way to figure out what phrases should be appearing on your pages and it’s fun too.

Other Keyword Methods

Keyword tools aren’t the only way to generate keywords and keyword phrases. Another good idea is to visit sites that feature products or services similar to yours and see what kind of keywords and keyword phrases commonly appear there. While you’re at it, take note of what you put into the search box in order to find those sites in the first place, so when someone else has this idea, they’ll find you!

Up-To-Date Keywording

As you update your site and as new developments occur in your area of expertise, new keywords may become important. Always keep an open mind and open eye to new words or phrases that are quickly becoming identified with the service you provide. When you’re updating your pages, it’s time to work those in. While in the end, you’ll need good content to keep a steady flow of traffic (or completely bizarre content, check out IsitChristmas.com) keeping fresh keywords moving through your site can give you a tremendous boost in the SEM process.

Creating engaging copy never means making something less readable for the sake of improving SEO rankings. Instead, use the cleverness of subheads to make your keywords leap off the page and into organic searches.

Start Targeting Keywords With the Title

Targeted keyword phrases are best used in subheads because not only does it stand out, but it also saves you the trouble of inserting in every other word. It’s not a matter of repetition, but of making sure you plant those keywords in so many times in an effortless, understandable way.

Whether you’re writing SEO articles or a simple blog, your content should start with the keywords you want to target. It’s just good writing, folks. Creating a title that has nothing to do with the topic -- say, an article about French restaurants that’s titled “Let’s Go Escargot!” -- is not going to get the same number of hits as the easily comprehensible title: “Dining at France’s Finest Restaurants.” While I love a good pun, the joke won’t stick with readers.

Subheadings Help Increase SEO Traffic

The second important bit is how keywords in the subheads of an article or blog will continue to attract SEO traffic without making the article longer. Going back to our snail cuisine title, use a subhead with some keywords attached for a title that is catch and keyword rich. “Top French Fine Dining Experiences,” explains everything and hits the keywords you want to use while restating the same phrases without overdoing it.

When it comes to building links to your website, you have a variety of options. However, without some guidance, you may devote hours upon hours, day in and day out, and get nowhere. Now, I've tried numerous link building methods, but the following are a few of my favorites.

Build Links With Blog Commentary

I covered this one in a previous post, but it's worth repeating. Frequent visits to blogs in your industry is a tried and true method for building links to your website. You also have the opportunity to create relationships with other experts in your chosen field. Leave insightful comments and include your link.

Link Building Through Social Networking Sites

Become and active member of a social networking site, such as StumbleUpon and Digg. Social networking sites are a valuable avenue through which you can get the word out about your website.

With this method, there's a right way and a wrong way. Be sure you understand the policies at your chosen social networking site. The goal is to become a trusted member who makes a worthwhile contribution.

Build Links by Writing Expert Articles

Showcase your expertise in the industry and lease out your talents to other blogs and community websites. Volunteer to write a guest post for an industry blog or submit articles to various community sites, like Ezine and Gather.

You can also take it a step further, by submitting expert articles to the leading websites that specialize in your market. Choosing this route can be a great way to build links and drive traffic to your website -- just make sure you can include your byline.  
 

Landing pages are an integral part of generating leads and a good way to ensure that you get the most out of your traffic. It’s important to optimize them in their design to ensure that potential customers don’t just click away from the page, and you get the crucial information you want. There are several steps you can take to make sure that your potential customer’s have a clear idea of what your offering and are enticed to submit their personal data.

5 Steps to a Better Landing Page

First, it’s important that there be continuity between the newsletter or wherever else they are linking in from and the landing page. You want to make sure that the prospect isn’t confused as to where they are. Even thanking the reader for making it to the landing page, with a statement, is an effective way of letting them know that they are in the right place.

You want to include fields to capture crucial user data. Rather than just listing the services you provide, it’s more effective to first capture the potential customer’s information. When a user submits their personal info, they enter the sales funnel, and then a more effective process of converting prospects into buyers has begun.

You also don’t want to ask too much of the reader. Having to many form field or too much text to read can be extremely overbearing and inspire them to leave the site. Figure out the minimum amount of information you need to capture and include only those fields on the page. Also, don’t be pushy in the line of questioning. Keep it simple and don’t get too personal.

Make sure to provide a promise of privacy and make your policy clear. If a user feels insecure about giving information out, ensuring them that the information will not be shared whatsoever can be reassuring.

Lastly, be sure to follow up immediately after one of your leads responds. If a user goes through the trouble of filling out the form, you want to make sure they immediately get some form of response or further information. It is important to keep the prospect as involved as possible, and not letting their focus shift.

 

Press releases are a good way to get the word out about your business and drive traffic to your website. Use the following tips to spread the news and increase the visibility of your business.

What Kind of Stuff Can I Put in a Press Release?

Well, first, let's get something straight. "Press release" is an outdated term that was common during the era of the printing press. The proper expression is "news release," though many people use the terms interchangeably.

The milestones of your business are newsworthy material -- use them to your advantage. Did you recently add a new product or service? Does your website have new features or an entirely different look? How is your company growth at the end of each quarter? Make an announcement that may be of interest to the public and use it as an opportunity to brag about your business.

Online Distribution Services

Use online distribution services like PR Web as a platform to spread the news about your company. In one shot, your news is sent to multiple media outlets. You can increase your search engine visibility and drive traffic to your website.

Reach Out to Local News Outlets

Don't overlook the power of local news. Pick a few newspapers in your hometown and send copies of news release through the appropriate channels. You may be surprised at the reception you receive through local news outlets. And if your story goes to print? Well, that's called free publicity.

Remember when MTV used to show videos? You know, the thing their name stands for? I’ve heard that video killed the radio star, but what about everyone else? Despite the growing number of artists, it seems as though the cultural icon has just turned to a long list of reality TV programming.

There’s something to be said for video -- not just musically, but on your website. Boosting your blog’s presence is a multimedia effort. No matter how much content you have up on your site, your visibility will increase with video content.

Using Video Content To Your Advantage

Having a blog is great, and having content on the site is better, but mixing it up with other forms of media is what can increase ranking and get you noticed. Adding video content to your blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to score SEO points and gain Internet traffic.

Depending on what kind of blog you have, incorporating videos into your posts is also a great way to demonstrate a point. There are blogs in the online universe that exist solely to comb through and find the best videos, whether they are newsworthy, informational or just plain funny. Either way, the blog with the video is more likely to attract visitors than text alone.

Adding video content to your blog is not very hard. If you’re using WordPress, a simple click of the button or HTML code will help you insert your video into the blog. Make your own videos, add them to YouTube and then add them to your site if you like. By utilizing video content, your blog has taken the next step towards become a dynamic multimedia center. Video may have killed the radio star, but it’s giving the blog new life.

When you're researching how to get your website to rank in search engines, what do you do? Do you consult with ebooks? Do you prefer to troll through forums looking for answers? These are all viable tactics to use, but one tried and true method works especially well online: see what your competitors are doing.

Google Search For Your Keywords

Here's your first step: search Google (or whichever SE you prefer) and see what the top organic listings are. Now you know who your top competitors are for those keywords. Go to these sites and see what they're doing to rank so highly for the words that you want. Are they doing something special with their meta? Do they have great backlinks? Do they have lots of fresh content targeting the words?

Look through these sites and you'll see some great new ways for you to improve your site. That's the great thing about working online: everyone's work is on display for you to inspect. You'll be able to benefit from other people's years of experience and use it to help your site.

Beating Competitors, Not Machine

When you're online, you don't need to make exactly what Google wants. Nope, it's much easier than that. That's the thing with Google, Yahoo and the other search engines, they're quite good at what they do and you can't beat machine. Luckily for you, you don't need to beat machine, you just need to beat your competitors. This is why doing a competitor analysis is pivotal for building high ranking websites.

Once you've seen how everyone else is doing it and how they are getting their rankings, all you need to do is do things slightly better. Make yourself stand out from the crowd and you'll start getting those rankings.

When you’re setting up a website, one of the first things you’re going to have to come up with is a domain name, that URL that people need to type in to get to your site. This is a great thing about the Internet.  Nowhere else in life do you get to choose your own address. Well, you may get to choose it, but you don’t get to choose what it’s called. You’re stuck with: 5489 Drab Place or whatever. Online, your address can be whatever you want it to be.

Available Domain Names

Within limits.  You can’t choose anything obscene and for that matter, anything with an “X” anywhere near it has probably already been co-opted by some porn site. Pretty much every four letter or fewer letter combination has already been used, as is probably every word in the English language not in combination with one or more other words.

My Name Is URL

So what’s a name-maker to do? Keep in mind that your domain name is also your URL, the thing people have to remember in order to type it in to their web browser in order to get to your site. Try to make a domain name that describes your product or service without getting too wordy: WeCleanYourDrains.com rather than TheBestPlumberInTheWorldThatOffersaVarietyofPlumbingServices.com. I’d also avoid too many syllables and too much alliteration. ResplendentRedRackets.com sounds like a distinctive name for your site that sells tennis gear, but it may be more trouble that it’s worth. Was it RedResplendent or ResplendentRed? What was that first word again? Try to keep it simple.

Welcome to Your Site

While the choice of a domain name may not seem that important in the greater scheme of things, the fact is, it is your introduction, the first thing people see about your site, and like they say in the commercial, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression."

I was in the middle of graduate school when I first found CKMG. Boy, was I thrilled to take a break from the full-time grind of academic study. However, after a year-long hiatus, my unfinished business is looming and it's time to get back to the books, at least part time.

Which brings me to the point: education is a continuous process. In order to stay sharp in your chosen field, it's necessary to exercise and enhance your skills. Always look for ways to build on your existing level of expertise. I'm a firm believer in furthering education to meet the demands of this fast paced world.

Further Your Education With Online Courses

Online classes are a flexible option for those juggling various obligations. You have the convenience of learning what you want, when you want, from the comforts of your own home.

Attend a Local Workshop and Further Your Education

In many cases, you don't have to be a traditional student to take advantage of the resources offered by the school. Look for courses in the extended learning program at your local community college or university. This is a great way to enhance your skills and stay up-to-date on the latest advances in your field.