A Guide to SEO Link Building Techniques

It's no secret Google uses links to measure the authority of web pages. If a web page attracts links from other pages Google's algorithm, the software it uses to rank pages and decide which page is number one for a search result, increases the importance of a page.

[caption id="attachment_3961" align="alignleft" width="300"] Anatomy of a Link[/caption]

Anatomy of a Link

The most common analogy of a link is to liken it to a vote. If page A links to page B then page A is suggesting page B is a good page, page A likes page B. The only slight complication is the nofollow tag. In a nutshell the nofollow tag allows links to be added to a page that create a click-able link to another page without the link passing a vote. These are used for text link adverts for example where they will send traffic to another page without passing a vote.

I'm not going to go into any more detail on the nofollow tag here but I'd strongly advise reading the WikiPedia page for an in depth explanation. In short if you want to link from a page on your site to a page on another site without inferring any kind of endorsement use the nofollow tag.




[caption id="attachment_3963" align="alignleft" width="300"] Buying Links[/caption]

Buying Links

here are many ways of buying links. Again you can employ a link building company but you can also buy links directly from website owners. If you buy a link and the link is not nofollowed you are in direct contravention of Google's guidelines. In short if Google discover your purchased links your site may be removed from their directory. In general they will simply remove any value from the links you have bought rather than directly penalize you, however the effect can be the same.

So who buys links? Sadly many companies buy links and as with link building in general there's a whole industry offering links for sale on some impressive websites including many high profile mainstream household names! That said buying links can be very expensive with some organizations charging many thousands of pounds a year for a single link. To further compound this most link sellers require an ongoing payment in perpetuity to maintain the links you purchase. If you go down this route you need deep pockets and you will be running the gauntlet of the search engine spam teams.

[caption id="attachment_3965" align="alignleft" width="300"] Why Links Are Important[/caption]

Why Links Are Important

Having established links are like votes it's not too hard to understand why links are important. Just like a politician wins an election by securing more votes than other candidates, web pages secure the first position in a search result by securing more votes than other pages. However, unlike a political election where all votes are equal, where search engines are concerned this isn't the case, and this is where most of the confusion arises.




[caption id="attachment_3967" align="alignleft" width="300"] How to Identify A Good Link Target[/caption]

How to Identify A Good Link Target

The term link target simply means a web page you would like a link from. Setting aside link spammers, who see all links as equal, identifying a good link target is very simple. A good link target is a web page whose readers might be interested in the content of a page on your site. That's it.

Expanding on this you could argue a good link target is a web page with authority whose readers might be interested in the content of a page on your site, however this simply introduces a whole raft of complications that will see you mired in confusion. There are so many ways of establishing a site's authority, including Google's PageRank technology, SEOMoz's MosRank technology, TrustRank, Spam Signals and any number of other metrics that you should simply consider a page based purely on the simple rule offered above, would this page's readers be interested in my page.

If you adopt this philosophy with your link building work, you will build links that will send you valuable traffic whilst at the same time building your page's authority. It's a win win technique. Of course the link spammers will argue against this suggesting it's time consuming and difficult, and they would be right. These same experts will no doubt want to sell you their amazing technique for search engine domination. They will no doubt have discovered the secrets of building long lasting and effective links with minimum effort and only a few hundred dollars. But ask yourself this. If they have indeed found a fool proof way of building valuable links why are they not simply dominating the search results themselves and making a fortune from affiliate marketing?




[caption id="attachment_3969" align="alignleft" width="300"] Why Links Are Not All Equal[/caption]

Why Links Are Not All Equal

In order to explain this further I'm going to stick with the voting analogy and expand on it. When thinking about links as votes it's useful to consider the term block vote or block voting. Most commonly associated with unions a block vote infers upon one person the voting rights of all members of an organization. Let's say there are 4 people in a room each representing one group of people.

• Mr Smith represents a group of 1000 people


• Mr Jones represents a group of 1500 people


• Ms Samson represents a group of 2000 people


• Mrs Collins represents a group of 5000 people

A proposal is put before the group and Mr Smith, Mr Jones and Ms Samson all vote in favor with Mrs Collins voting against. On the face of it that's 3 in favor 1 against and the proposal would be carried. However, Mrs Collins represents a group of 5000 people, 500 more than the number represented by Mr Smith, Mr Jones and Ms Samson so in fact, the motion isn't carried, it's defeated by 5000 votes to 4500.

This is pretty much the same as the way links work. Simply put links carry different voting rights and it's perfectly possible for a page with only 3 or 4 links to rank higher than a page with several hundred or even several thousand links. It's this aspect of link building that's so badly misunderstood and the reason there's a whole industry offering to build links on the basis of X number of links for Y number of dollars.

[caption id="attachment_3975" align="alignleft" width="275"] How To Secure the Right Kind of Links[/caption]

How To Secure the Right Kind of Links

There are some people who will argue any link is worth having, they may be right. However, given that we now understand links don't all carry the same weight it should be clear that securing links that carry a lot of weight will have a much bigger impact on your web pages than links carrying little or no weight. So how can you secure links that carry weight? Simple, create something worth linking to! The problem is this isn't simple, it's hard. It requires thought, planning, research, creativity and hard work and because of this most people revert to link spam.




[caption id="attachment_3971" align="alignleft" width="300"] Do Link Building Systems Ever Work?[/caption]

Do Link Building Systems Ever Work?

Yes. There's no doubt some people do discover methods for creating effective links fast and cheaply. There's also no doubt these methods are usually discovered by the search engines and they quickly cease to be effective. By the time you get access to these get rich quick schemes it's a safe bet the person who discovered it has made their money and are now squeezing a few more dollars out of it by selling the technique to you. As with most things in life there's no such thing as a free lunch and these schemes are best avoided.

[caption id="attachment_3973" align="alignleft" width="300"] Link Spam[/caption]

Link Spam

The vast majority of link building companies operate by creating link spam. In simple terms they create links from places such as forums, link farms, directories, blogs, hubs, social bookmarks and an ever increasing number of other ways. There are also hundreds of article directories who, unlike EzineArticles accept low quality auto spun articles in exchange for a link. If you believe all that matters is link quantity you really are spoiled for choice and there are thousands of companies who will build you a set number of links for a set fee.

In order to allow you to make an informed decision let's look at some of the more common link building techniques and discuss why they may not be worth the effort.

• Forums - The most common link building techniques using forums are to create a profile page and a signature link. Signature links allow links to be created at the bottom of posts or comments you leave in a forum. Signature links are at best very low quality and although they may send you some traffic are unlikely to have any long lasting impact on the pages you link to. This is because these links are not merit based, as is the case with all link spam methods, and it's accepted the search engines are getting better at ignoring these links and assigning them no value.


• Link farms - These are employed by many link building companies. A link farm can often have a vast number of websites and web pages within it, all under the control of the link building company. By building a link farm link building companies are able to offer a set number of links for a set fee as they have plenty of web real estate on which to build the links. The problem with link farms is they can be discovered by the search engines and when they are, the links within them will cease to have any positive impact on the sites they link to. There are a number of variations on this theme including a technique where link building companies buy pages within legitimate websites in an attempt to appear credible.


• Directories - These are useful and can create links carrying some value in the sense of attracting traffic to your website. But, in another sense, they are a form of spam; and, as with other spam techniques, links from directories are generally not merit based and as such rarely carry any weight in terms of helping to increase your ranking. There are, however, some notable exceptions such as the DMOZ directory and Yahoo.


• Hubs - These are pages created on services such as Squidoo. In theory Squidoo hub pages or lenses as they are called by this particular service are a great idea and allow people to create pages about something they care about. Sadly the spammers have also realised it's an easy way to create pages for link building so it's a fair assumption using hubs such as this won't have any lasting or hugely positive impact on your website.


• Blogs - Often referred to as SPLOGS (spam blogs) blogs are a favourite haunt of link spammers. They seek out blogs in the hope of leaving a comment and associated link to their client's website. Again these are not merit based unless the blog is actively managed by its owner and popular blog software such as Wordpress automatically nofollow links in comments anyway. This makes the links of little value other than the small amount of web traffic they can generate unless your comment is accepted on a high traffic popular blog.


• Social bookmarks - In their early days social bookmarking sites may have been a source of valuable links but the link spammers have put an end to that. Most of the credible bookmarking sites (Digg, Sphinn etc) recognised their platforms were being abused by link spammers and as a result they nofollow links to deter them.

We could go on looking at the methods and platforms used by link spammers but by now you should be building a general picture. Link spammers generally create links that are not merit based and as such the links you buy from them may work for a while but ultimately will stop working. It may take weeks for them to stop working (days in extreme cases), it may take months and occasionally it will take years but eventually they will stop working as the search engines become better at filtering out the spammy links from the merit based ones.

It may be worth employing a link building company who use the techniques outlined above but if you do you must be aware that you are potentially building your house on sand, which is seldom a good plan.

[caption id="attachment_3977" align="alignleft" width="210"] Anatomy of the Perfect Link[/caption]

Anatomy of the Perfect Link

If you are still reading this you should by now have a very clear picture of what a link is, why it's valuable, and why links are a necessary part of your on-line marketing mix. As this article concludes I want to outline the make up of a perfect link. The perfect link should:

1. Send valuable traffic to your website


2. Tell the search engines your site is an authority

Let's say there's a company called Dive Dorset Ltd. They offer diving holidays off the Dorset coast in South West England. Their holidays are unique and have featured on several TV programmes and articles about the company and their unique approach have appeared in several national newspapers. This has resulted in the company's website securing a number of top quality links, and Google often ranks them highly when people carry out diving related searches.

In Conclusion

There are two clear paths to go down with respect to link building, link spam and merit based. It should be clear link spam will require less effort but won't build long lasting links where merit based requires more effort but builds links that will stand the test of time. The path you choose will depend on many factors not least of which the resources you have available and your appetite for building a business that will stand the test of time.

The search engines are continuously trying to purge their search results of pages employing link spamming techniques although it's clear they have a less than 100% success rate. The link building methods you adopt will depend on your view of how effective the search engines will be at detecting link spam in the future. If you believe they have the resources to overcome it you are left with no option but to build merit based links. If you believe as many do, that the search engines are fighting a losing battle then you might throw your hat in the ring with the link spammers.

Hopefully now you've read this article whichever route you choose you can make an informed choice. If you take nothing else away from it you should understand that links that require minimum effort will likely bring little benefit in the long term. Link building is a cause of much frustration even for SEO specialists and it's easy to see why so many spam techniques are employed. The web is awash with poor quality content created for no other reason than to create a link to poor quality websites that can't attract links based on merit. Indeed many website owners simply can't see a way of creating anything worth linking to on their sites and resort to link spam out of desperation. This author believes there's a better way and ultimately taking this road less traveled will create a website that will stand the business it represents well for the future.

Happy link building!

Effective Social Media for Business Results

It's time to grow your brand by using social media.

To grow your business today through brand awareness and loyalty, Social Media and Content are the foundation for achieving success. A successful Social Media marketing campaign can bear fruit in the form of revenue, but only after creating a social community with engaged and motivated consumers.

Our social media consultants start by gaining a complete understanding of your business goals and current social media efforts.  Next, we  listen to the existing ‘chatter’ dealing specifically with your brand, product or service that is already happening in social media. This allows us to gather qualitative data, in the form of customer feedback, and quantitative data, in the form of measured traffic on the primary social media platforms to guide your competitive strategy.

Armed with this insight, your social media Marketing Game Plan is created and Social Media Strategies and Content Marketing are developed. This involves selecting the appropriate platforms for participation, approving messaging and creating a targeted timeline to publish relevant and engaging content.

Link Building is DEAD, Its a BIRTH of Link EARNING!!!

Did you hear that from Rand Fishkin of SEO MOZ, he has been saying these days. He has been articulating which we have been working silently over for past two years.

Gone are the days when people used to buy links, build links, get links, force links, push links, drop links.

Old-school, super old-school link building tactic was leaving links on guestbooks, forums, open comments, do follow blogs, do follow links, all that kind of stuff. They are extremely effective for getting your site banned from search algorithms.

So how should one go about EARNING LINKS?

The new way to do this is earn links directly with content. You can earn links very, very directly if you create the kind of content that you know someone wants to share, wants to link to, would embed, would write about or blog about or include in their press or their research or in something that says something nice about them.

The link earning way to do that is to get a guest post featured on picky sites and blogs. This is very important. When we say "picky," what we mean is, people who care a tremendous amount about what's being put on their sites as opposed to those who accept nearly every type of guest post or guest article.

The diagram shows how Converged Media works. The most important aspect to Earn Links is through Earned Media. So the overall strategy is to create great content and reach out to the earned media space

 

[caption id="attachment_3703" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Link Building is DEAD, Its a BIRTH of Link EARNING!!!.[/caption]

 

Top 5 Ways Your Business Can Leverage Instagram

Any business can utilize Instagram when it comes to adding photos to a blog post, but it will take a bit of work. Instagram is all about people taking pictures on their mobile phones, and sometimes your company simply doesn’t have the time or energy to do take photos. Therefore, Instagram is probably better utilized in one of the following ways:

1. Contests – This is probably the number one way businesses are utilizing the tool. If your company sells a product, ask customers to take photos of themselves using the product and then upload the photo to win some sort of prize. You can also add an element of interaction by allowing people to vote on their favorite photo.


2. Event Marketing – Asking people to take photos of an event you’re holding is a great way to leverage the tool. This will get people excited about the event and give people a layer of interaction.


3. Social Media – Always share photos of your company or your product/service via social media. Instagram allows a company to add a hashtag to the photo which will help you keep tabs on any pictures of your business via Twitter or another social network.


4. Connection – Your customers are most likely on Instagram, so this is another avenue to form connections. Even if you can’t find value in posting pictures for your particular business, urge your employees to connect with customers via this avenue.


5. Location – Instagram allows a company to add location to an image. If you can add the location of your small business, you increase the likelihood that someone will see your photos if they are new to the area. This works best for restaurants and entertainment joints.

Using Instagram along with hashtags is a great way to make sure you are getting the most out of the photos on your website. Instagram is currently all the buzz, so there is no better time than to get started now.

[tooltip text="Right now, you can only create an Instagram account using their app on your iOS (ex: iPhone) or Android device. To sign up for an Instagram account: Download the Instagram app in the App Store for your iPhone/iPad, or in Google Play for an Android device. Then Once the app is installed, tap the Instagram icon to open it. Tap Register then create a username and password and fill out your profile info (ex: email, name) Tap Done! " placement="top"]How do I sign up for Instagram?[/tooltip]

SEO Tips: 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips for Pinterest

Pinterest is the newest social media addiction- but many don’t know how it can also be used for your business.  Since Pinterest allows search engines to crawl their site and the huge amount of data users have pinned there, boards can show up in Google search results. By simply using the right SEO on your company profile, you can make sure your Pinterest page gets the attention it needs from your consumers.

Here are 10 tips to get you rocking:

1. Share your own content: Uploading your own images provides more value than solely re-pinning other’s images. To be most effective, you should do a healthy mixture of both.

2. Keyword target file names: Be sure to approach file naming from a search engine optimization prospective. “keyword-phrase.jpg” will rank better than “March2012_00011.jpg”.

3. Diversify your pinning: Pinning from a variety of different sources will make your Pinterest boards more compelling and re-pinning, liking, and commenting will definitely affect where your images appear.

4. Add a link: For every image you upload, be certain to edit the pin to add a link. The added link is “nofollow” and, therefore, shouldn’t be given weight according to standard nofollow rules, but this link allows the Pinterest user to click your image for the source. Conversely, links in the description are currently followed, so be sure to add your link to the description as well so Google can follow it and give the URL weight.

5. Description, description, description: Pinterest allots 500 characters for descriptions, and SEOs all over would be remissed if you were not taking advantage and using all 500 characters to give a keyword-dense description, commentary, or explanation of your pinned image. Note that you can edit descriptions of both images you have pinned or re-pinned.

6. Follow the leader: Take time exploring Pinterest to see what types of images catch your eye and what types of content effectively persuade you to engage with them, and then upload similar types of images and content. The more your images are shared and engaged with, the better it will be for your search engine optimization goals.

7. Don’t fall into the advertising trap: Remember that Pinterest is a social media platform. You’ve got to be involved in the conversation. Comment, like, and re-pin other user’s images to help increase your followers, because it’s likely that search algorithms will incorporate how engaging your social media platforms are in the near future.

8. Keyword target board names: This SEO tip is on the same line as keyword target file naming. Create an array of boards with keyword focused names. “Charleston beaches” will serve you better than “Places I love”.

9. Add the website buttons: Give the people what they want when they want it. Add the “Follow” and “Pin It” buttons to your website now. If the buzz around Pinterest fades and people stop using it, you can easily remove the links then instead of waiting to see if Pinterest is here to stay and missing the current opportunity.

10. Be yourself: Pin what you like and be kind to others.

How To Schedule A Future Post In WordPress

You can schedule blog posts to automatically publish themselves at any time in the future. If you want to remove an already published post and automatically republish it at a specific time/date in the future, the directions are the same (see below):

In the Publish module to the right of the post editor, click the blue Edit link next to Publish immediately.



Set the future date/time when you want the post to publish itself and click OK. To schedule a post in the PM, you will need to use the 24-hour clock. For example, 1:00 PM would read as 13:00 in the Schedule a Post module. The time will be based on your location settings in your Settings -> General page.



Instead of Publish immediately, it will now say Schedule for: followed by the date and time you specified, and the button has changed from Publish to Schedule.



Click Schedule. Scheduled posts will be triggered by the first visit to your blog on or after the exact date/time you set. If you see that the scheduled time has come and gone and your post has not published, simply log out of WordPress.com and view your blog’s front page. Your visit should cause the post to appear.

Note: Sometimes you might want to backdate a post. For example, if you’ve just come back from a long trip, you might want to write a post for each day of your travels and have the post dates match the actual days you were away. To backdate a post, simply edit the date before you clickPublish, as described above. In this case, the button will not change to Schedule.

Republishing a Post

Sometimes, you may want to republish an old post. If this is your goal, you have a few different options:

1. You can reschedule your post by editing the date and time the post was published, entering a future date and time, then clicking Schedule. When the scheduled time arrives, the post will jump from its current position in your timeline to the most recent spot on your blog and display the new date and time. The link for the post will also change to reflect the new publication date. When you reschedule a post, it will not redistribute to your email subscribers.


2. You can republish your post by changing the status of the post to Draft, clicking Update, then clicking Publish. When you do this, the post will immediately redistribute to your email subscribers. However, the publication date and time will remain the same, so the post’s link and position in your timeline will remain unchanged. If you want a republished post to show up first on your blog, you can always make it “sticky.”


3. If your goal is to redistribute a post to your email subscribers, you can also try using the Writing Helper.

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Un-scheduling a Post

If you’ve scheduled a post to be published in the future, but changed your mind and want to publish it immediately, head back to the Edit Post page for your scheduled post.

In the Publish module, click on the “Edit” link next to the date for which you’ve scheduled your post:



Then, enter today’s date and time as your scheduled post time and click on “Ok.” When finished, click Publish and your post will be published immediately.

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Troubleshooting Scheduled Posts

If your scheduled post does not appear, check the following:

• Is your timezone correct in your Settings -> General page?


• Did you save your post as a draft rather than schedule it? For the post to publish, you must click the Schedule button.


• Has no one visited your blog yet? Try logging out of WordPress.com and visiting your blog’s front page.

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Video

Watch the “Publishing your post at a later date” video from WordPress.tv.

Publishing Your Post at a Later Date

WordPress 3.6 Has Launced Today - See All The Features!

[caption id="attachment_3553" align="alignleft" width="350"] WordPress 3.6[/caption]

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg today announced the release of the latest version, which includes “bullet-proof” autosave and post locking, a revamped revision browser, native support for audio and video embeds and improved integration with Spotify, Rdio and SoundCloud. WordPress 3.6 is available to download from WordPress.org

Dubbed “Oscar” in honor of Canadian jazz pianist and composer Oscar Peterson, WordPress 3.6 features more than just a new theme and improved revisions. Oscar includes better autosave and post locking, native support for audio and video embeds via an HTML5 media player, as well as improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud.

There are a number of user features:

• The new Twenty Thirteen theme, inspired by modern art, puts focus on your content with a colorful, single-column design made for media-rich blogging.


• Revamped revisions save every change and the new interface allows you to scroll easily through changes to see line-by-line who changed what and when.


• Post locking and augmented autosave will be a boon for sites where more than a single author is working on a post. Each author now has their own autosave stream, which stores things locally as well as on the server (so much harder to lose something) and there’s an interface for taking over editing of a post, as demonstrated beautifully by our bearded buddies in the video above.


• Built-in HTML5 media player for native audio and video embeds with no reliance on external services.


• The menu editor is now much easier to understand and use.

Developer features include:

• A new audio/video API provides access to metadata like ID3 tags.


• You can now choose HTML5 markup for things like comment and search forms, and comment lists.


• Better filters for how revisions work, so you can store a different amount of history for different post types.


• Tons more listed on the Codex, and of course you can always browse the over 700 closed tickets.

New features aside, I recommend upgrading to the latest version from a security standpoint alone. With WordPress powering almost one-fifth of the Web, it’s a very big target for attackers.

Have you downloaded WordPress 3.6? What do you think? Tell me in the comments below...

Start Converting Visitors to Leads With Landing Pages

The goal of landing pages is to convince the visitor to provide you with his or her information in exchange for a high-value offer.  They are the best way to convert a person into a lead. Most small and medium-sized businesses have very few--if any--landing pages on their sites. Research has indicated that 62% of businesses using landing pages have less than 6. Even though they’re not optimally positioned to capture contacts, these companies still have to try really hard to increase their website traffic.

This is really pointless if you don’t have the means to capture contact data.  Way too many people are concerned with their organic rankings on Google while forgetting about the sales aspect of their business.  Isn’t the point of your website to get your visitors to buy your product or service?

[caption id="attachment_3535" align="aligncenter" width="957"] Subway Landing Page Example[/caption]

Why Do I Need Landing Pages?

Obviously the ultimate goal is to have the visitor purchase immediately, but this is actually even rarer than you think--96% of first-time visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. It’s a prime reason why you need landing pages. The next best option is to generate a lead by capturing  visitors’ contact data and adding them to your sales funnel. You will now have the opportunity to email them and nurture them down your sales funnel by continuing to market to them via email, phone calls, or social media to influence them to buy from you.  The more landing pages you have, the more opportunities to generate leads and fill your funnel.

A landing page needs a form to capture contact data for a website visitor. In most cases, you do not want to include your main navigation bar at the top of the landing page so the visitor’s only option is to complete the form. Not including the navigation bar has been shown to increase conversion rates by as much as 100%.

Creating a Landing Page

All of your content on the landing page should be contained above the fold.  This means that the visitor should not be required to scroll down to see any of the page content. Effective landing pages will also contain an image that is relevant to the call-to-action button that drove the visitor to the landing page. The text should be very direct and easy to read.

Landing Page Tips:

• Use a compelling title that is relevant to your CTA.


• Place all of your content above the fold.


• Keep your opening and closing paragraphs to 3-5 sentences.


• Use bullet points to clearly display your value propositions.


• Add a compelling image that is clearly relevant to your offer.

[caption id="attachment_3537" align="aligncenter" width="1161"] 12 Step Landing Page Theory[/caption]

How to Use Landing Pages

A landing page is typically linked to an offer. An offer can be advertised through a call-to-action button on your site, a link in your on-page text, a PPC ad, or even a QR Code on a billboard or a piece of print marketing material.  The point is, you can link to a landing page from just about anywhere and you will want to because landing pages are so effective.

The design of your landing page is extremely important and affects the conversion rate of your forms.  The look, headline, and text must all be relevant to the offer to obtain a high conversion rate.  Design does matter, but that doesn’t mean you need a graphic designer, especially if you use marketing software such as HubSpot, which allows anyone to easily create landing pages.

All too often, we see the cardinal sin of PPC when people link their campaigns to their homepage instead of a landing page.  Another benefit of using these pages, aside from  capturing the data, is that most software should capture visitor data and segment it for you, so you know the exact source of your visitors and new leads. If you are not able to track this data, you will never know how successful your campaign is and you probably need to look into a software such as HubSpot that tracks it for you.

Takeaway

Start building landing pages today and build lots of them--companies that increase their number of landing pages from 10 to 15 receive 55% more leads. Your Contact Us page is technically a landing page, but it does not qualify someone as a lead, so start creating some offers or link your ad campaigns to your newly designed landing pages.  If you need some help with this, please let us know.