Google Rank Improvement!

It looks like the strategies I’ve employed in previous posts have paid off. As you can see from the attached photos, my Google rank keeps rising, albeit slowly.

Now, when I log out of Google (because Google also changes your search results based on your Google login and previous searches you’ve completed) and I search “new orleans tutor”, the following happens.

1. Google Local results: #3, behind The Princeton Review and The Tutoring Center.
2. Google search results: #11, first on the 2nd page.

I am very pleased with my progress: pretty good for someone with very few resources for advertising and absolutely no resources to hire SEO consultants, marketing consultants, PR folks, etc. It’s all come from hours of dedicated hard work, research, and old fashioned linking, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

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College Application Essay Tips

You have a couple of minutes at most to impress the admissions team at any school/program. Mostly, they want to know that you can follow rules and articulate coherent thoughts in reasonably correct English. However, if you annoy them with a poor essay, it will count against you. If you bore them with a standard essay, it won’t help you. If you really do something interesting, it may push your application over the edge and get you in.

Obviously, I am not going to give away all of my secrets here, but the following are some important rules that applicants writing personal statements and application essays for college/grad school should follow:

1. Answer the question. This sounds obvious, but you should always make sure you answer the question in your college’s essay prompt. The answer to the question should come in the form of a thesis. If your college/program does not supply you with any specific questions, you still need to have a thesis. In that case, your thesis should answer a question of your own choosing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Local Business Rank in Google

Over the past few days, I have been working hard trying to move my business to the first page of Google Maps/Local results for “New Orleans Tutor” searches.

As of today, I appear 14th in the listings (D on the 2nd page). This is a step up from 20th in the listings, but only part of the way there.

The funny thing about all of this is that my Google AdWords ads (in pink) appear at the top of the listings for these results. But I don’t want to rely on paid advertising for search placement … Wouldn’t it be nice if ads counted for your rank in Google?

Anyway, I ‘ve done a few small things that I think helped me to move up in the rankings a few places here and even in regular Google searches:

1. I started blogging and linking to other sites, which helps build your clout with search engines like Google and Bing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Online Tutoring

Professional Writing Help via Email and the Web

Clearly, many of my writing lessons require in-person meetings for full efficacy. It is difficult to work on long-term skill-building without face-to-face contact. Students usually learn better through direct contact that allows them and their teachers to ask questions, interpret body language, and follow up with each other over a period of time.

That said, there are certain projects that definitely lend themselves to eTutoring: short term and single assignments, and simple editing/feedback. For these types of assignments, I can act in the clients’ long-term best interests, provide good value, and help my clients succeed over the web.

Recently, while in New Orleans, I have served clients from New York City and Connecticut via email in the following two areas:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Good News

A client whose college application essays I edited got into Bard College today.

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Google Rank

My goal: To appear on the first page of Google and Google Local results for “tutoring new orleans”.

Because I am a local business without a storefront, my ranking in Google and other search engines matters a lot in terms of prospective clients being able to find me. I started a website and signed up for Google Local early on, but my rankings have been pretty bad.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Starting a Tutoring Business

I’ve recently moved to New Orleans and started up a new tutoring business. It certainly helps that I did some tutoring in New York, though it has been a challenge to build a viable client base and business model without much of a social network. Add to that the current economy, and one would think I must be crazy to even think of this!

All of that said, Harrington Writing Professionals has been a success. Briefly, I am going to offer some tips to people who are looking to start their own tutoring businesses:

1. Choose a niche and know it. I am a writer. That’s my training. That’s what I am good at. I don’t tutor math or other subjects that I am less than 100% comfortable in. A niche helps a tutor to build a good reputation. I will branch out some for younger clients, but I want to deliver a stellar product. If someone asks me to tutor their child in Trig, I won’t do it even if I did reasonably well in Trig because that’s not my thing.

2. Advertise locally. Most of my clients come from posters that I have put up at universities and businesses in my target areas. It takes hours of touring campuses and main strips to get any payoff from the gruntwork, but it really is worth it in the long run. Read the rest of this entry »

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