ArticlesYour Celebrity Expert Status Starts on the Web! Seven SEO Mistakes to Avoid!Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 Like it or not, your Celebrity Status starts on the web. The first thing anybody does before doing business is goes to the web. If they’ve heard about you from somewhere, they will Google your name or company name to see if you really are an expert. If they have a problem and they need a solution, they’re Google the problem. You have to be everywhere! Unfortunately, the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is constantly changing. Google plays a substantial role in these fluctuations—every time the search giant tweaks its algorithms, SEO strategies must be tweaked to compensate. But in addition to Google-prompted change, there are new software programs, techniques, and strategies popping up regularly. It can be confusing, to say the least! As a result, if you don’t spend time on a weekly basis monitoring SEO best practices, it’s easy to fall out of the loop. And unfortunately, sometimes being outside of the loop can lead to SEO practices that actually harm your website. So today, we are going to take a look at seven common SEO mistakes to avoid. Are you committing any of these? 1) Keyword stuffing. A popular early SEO strategy, the concept of keyword stuffing is simple—you use a huge volume of keywords over and over on a single page. The search engines picked up on those keywords and ranked the site accordingly. That strategy has been outdated for several years now, however, and keyword stuffing today will have a negative impact on your SEO results. You should feature your keywords in the content that you write—but only when they are relevant and natural. Don’t force-feed keywords into your content! 2) Poor keyword selection. One of the very first and most important steps when it comes to SEO is keyword selection. Unfortunately, many website owners rush through this step and wind up investing valuable time and resources into the wrong keywords. There are two fundamental mistakes to be made here—the first is choosing a keyword that is too competitive. Unless you have a tremendous amount of resources to expend, going after competitive phrases like “investments” or “financial advice” is going to leave you frustrated. On the other hand, choosing keywords that have a low search volume won’t help, either. The key is to select “long-tail” keywords that will deliver targeted traffic to your website, without being so popular that it’s impossible to make the first page. For instance, “investment advisor Orlando” or “Financial advice for Florida retirees” would be better choices than the original examples I shared. There are a number of tools that can make the process of keyword selection easier—contact me to learn more! 3) Focusing heavily on article directories. Until about a year ago, submitting content to article directories across the web was a great way to build backlinks. Recently, however, Google has dramatically reduced the weight it gives to article directories. Continuing to post on these directories won’t hurt your SEO results, but it won’t help, either. This could change in the future, but as of now, utilizing article directories as a link-building strategy is essentially a waste of time and resources. 4) Using hidden text. This is another strategy that was effective years ago, but will now actually harm your SEO efforts. Whether it is hiding SEO content at the bottom of pages or utilizing other methods to conceal it, hidden text is simply a losing strategy. Focus on creating valuable content on your website and blog—don’t utilize hidden text. 5) Ignoring video and social media. As strategies like keyword stuffing, hidden text, and article directory submission are phased out of Google’s search algorithm, something has to take their place, right? Lately, Google and other search engines have placed an additional emphasis on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Flickr. This is actually great news for reputable businesses—as it changes the focus of SEO strategies away from content that is more or less invisible to consumers, towards platforms that facilitate market interaction. As a result, not only is developing a strong social media presence a great way to interact with your customers and prospects, but it will also pay SEO dividends. Video content is particularly important—so if you haven’t begun creating a presence on YouTube or other video sites, now is the time to get with the program. Contact me if you’d like help getting started! 6) Ignoring title tags and meta descriptions. Title tags (the text at the very top of your browser window) are very important from an SEO standpoint. Many websites fail to utilize them and end up with title tags like “Home” and “Contact” that don’t do anything for the search engines. Incorporate your keywords into your title tags—for instance, at CelebritySites.com, the title tag on our home page is “Orlando Social Media Agency | Orlando Online Marketing Agency”. Make sure that your title tags are different from page to page, as well—otherwise you’re basically telling Google that every page on your site is the same. Your meta description tags are critical as well—this is the text that often appears under your website on search engines. Don’t engage in keyword stuffing, as you’ll be penalized for it. Instead, summarize the content of each page accurately, while working in keywords naturally. Title tags and meta descriptions have a major impact on your SEO results, so don’t overlook them! 7) Failure to track results. At the end of the day, it’s impossible to know how well your SEO strategy is playing out if you aren’t tracking results. Without reviewing the data, you can’t know which initiatives are working and which aren’t. I recommend reviewing your SEO results on a monthly basis, if not more frequently. At a minimum, pay attention to your search engine rankings for your top keywords as well as traffic levels and sources to your website. How does your SEO strategy measure up? Are you making any of these mistakes? If so, the good news is that now you know better! And even if you have been engaging in practices that harm your search rankings, the damage can be repaired—you simply need to stop what you’ve been doing and shift your resources to appropriate techniques. If you need help building your Celebrity Expert status online, feel free to get in touch with me today if you’d like to learn more about cutting edge SEO strategies that really work! Seven Elements of an Effective WebsiteFriday, January 20th, 2012 Great websites come in different shapes and sizes, but when it comes to creating effective websites that really work (as measured by generating leads and sales), there are several elements that are absolutely essential. Below are seven of the most important—how does your site compare? A great website: 1) Establishes personal credibility. Credibility is always an issue when it comes to closing a sale. Think about your daily life—when was the last time you made a significant purchase? If you think through the process, you’ll realize that at some point during your decision, you addressed the issue of credibility. This is often a simple question you ask yourself, as in “do I really trust that this product or service will work for me?” Keep in mind that this credibility check is even more important online—because consumers are naturally more skeptical. If your website feels “anonymous,” you aren’t going to sell effectively. It’s important that your personal brand is communicated—and that you are presented as a credible and authoritative. Remember that people buy people—so present yourself in the best possible light. 2) Features appealing visuals. Visuals are important for any website—but many designers go too far. Fancy animations may look great to you—but nobody is going to sit around and wait for sixty seconds while your website loads. Your design should be professional, organized, and appealing—but never overwhelming. 3) Offers easy navigation for your target visitors. It is important to ask yourself who your audience will be. If you don’t expect your visitors to be tech-savvy, make sure that your menu navigation system is straightforward and easy to understand. No matter who your visitors are, never make your menus more complicated than they need to be. The goal of your menu system should be to allow your visitors to easily find the information they need (and the information YOU want them to see). So don’t overthink it! 4) Features a strong call to action. This is an area where many web designers go off course. They come up with great content, stunning design, useful tools—everything you could ask for. But then, they forget to come up with a compelling call to action. This can be in the form of a contact box, a free special report that requires an email address, or simply a prominently placed phone number combined with a great reason (a benefit for THEM) for your visitors to contact you. It doesn’t do you much good to have strong traffic to your site if nobody is actually contacting you, right? Without a call to action, you simply aren’t going to maximize the leads you capture or the sales you generate—so make it a priority! 5) Has a prominent opportunity to sign up for free content. Obviously, your primary hope for every visitor is that they will contact you and become a customer. However, it is important to recognize that many of the visitors to your site aren’t ready to commit at the moment. They may be window shopping (Trust me… I do plenty of window shopping, online and at the mall!), they may be researching, or they may just be curious. In any case, they aren’t going to make a purchase immediately—but they likely will make a purchase in the future. If you can capture their contact information, you can begin marketing to them and establishing yourself as the premier provider of the good or service that they’re interested in. If you continue to market to them, you can bet that, when they are finally ready to make a purchase, you will be the first person they contact. You can capture this information a number of different ways—but my favorite is by offering FREE valuable content, as long as they are willing to give you their email address, of course. This can be in the form of a special report, a weekly newsletter, or even a “members only” blog. Remember that the content must be relevant to their interests and must provide value—otherwise, they’re not going to sign up. 6) Includes a great “About” page. A surprising number of businesses fail to include an “About page” on their websites. Not only is this page a great opportunity to provide more information about your business and build a stronger connection between yourself and your visitor, but it’s another great place to build your personal credibility. You can do this by referencing your credentials, highlighting accomplishments, and sharing your knowledge. If you publish a blog, make sure you provide a link. If you’ve written a book, provide a link to your Amazon bio page! Take advantage of your About page to establish your personal brand, build trust, and present yourself as an expert in your industry. 7) Features strong and appealing content. I highly recommend including a blog on your website for a number of reasons. Most obviously, regularly publishing blog entries relating to your market makes you appear knowledgeable and well connected. It sends the strong message to your visitors that you are an expert on the subject. Your blog is also a great way to draw visitors to your website—by posting links on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, you give potential customers a reason to visit your website. And, a regularly updated blog will give your search engine rankings a boost. Google and other search engines love fresh content, and your blog is a perfect place to deliver it. Remember to keep your blog entries focused on your industry and to use your top keywords regularly—particularly in the titles. Whether it is a blog, articles, or videos, take the time to produce great content for your visitors. It can make all the difference! Of course, there is more to creating a great website than I can fit into a single article—but if your site stacks up well in these seven areas, chances are you are going to be happy with the results! On the other hand, if you know that your site needs some work, or if you aren’t sure where to begin, contact me today! I’d be glad to help you out. Online Branding Tips: Give Your Audience What They WantMonday, October 3rd, 2011 Connecting with your audience is critical if you want to establish a strong brand. It’s simple: if they aren’t paying attention to your blog, articles, and social media presence, your brand can’t possibly resonate with them. Many business owners realize this, and go to great lengths to be sure that they are producing compelling content which keeps their audience engaged. However, far too many people overlook the best way to guarantee that they are giving their audience engaging content—which is to simply ask them! Of course, you aren’t literally going to shoot of an email to every blog subscriber or Twitter follower… but there are simple methods available to gauge the interests of your audience. Below are ten great ways to be sure that you are producing engaging content for your online audience: 1) Pay attention to your retweets. Everyone on Twitter loves to be retweeted. But that retweet is more than just an opportunity for additional exposure—it’s a sign that whoever retweeted your tweet found it interesting or informative. If you pay attention, you will start to see a trend emerge, and you’ll be able to identify which types of tweets are most often retweeted. And that tells you something valuable: it tells you which content your audience is most interested in. So figure it out and keep it coming! 2) Monitor your “favorites.” Twitter allows users to mark tweets as “favorites,” which allows the user to essentially bookmark a tweet to be found later. Services such as Fav Star (http://favstar.fm/) allow you to track your tweets that have been marked as favorites. Just as tracking retweets allows you to determine which content your audience finds interesting, monitoring your favorites allows you to identify the tweets that stick out to your followers! 3) Keep an eye on your URL click-throughs. This tip applies to any social media site. Using a service such as bit.ly (www.bit.ly) allows you to determine how many clicks a given link that you post receives. This is an even more powerful tool than tracking favorites or retweets—because it allows you to gauge the actions you are prompting with each post. Obviously, the more click-throughs a certain type of link receives, the more interested your audience is in that type of content. 4) Watch your Facebook Insights. If you have a facebook page for your business (which you should!), you have access to valuable statistics regarding activity on your page. Pay attention to the posts that generate the post feedback, in the form of comments and ‘likes.’ Again, those are the types of posts that your audience appreciates—so keep them coming! 5) Poll your Facebook audience. Facebook offers a “question” functionality for their users. Simply click on “Questions” while viewing your wall and ask away! Something like “What would you guys like to hear about next: YouTube tips or a Facebook strategy?” would work well. Not only does this technique give you an idea of what your audience is interested in, but it is also a great opportunity to interact with them and send the message that their feedback is valued. 6) Track your email marketing or e-newsletter statistics. Most services offer stats for each message that you send out—make sure to pay close attention to which messages are most widely read. Look for trends, and continue to provide the content that seems to be most popular! You can also experiment with various subject lines to see which elicit the greatest response. 7) Monitor click-throughs on your email marketing messages and e-newsletters. The more clicks a certain URL receives, the more valuable the information was to your audience. Once you have figured out the type of material that most interests them, you can create campaigns that truly keep your audience engaged! 9) Directly solicit feedback from readers. This strategy is applicable to your social media platforms as well as any other content you produce. Simply asking your readers to let you know whether or not they found your content helpful is a great way to gauge interest. You can do this by creating a survey to post on your blog, or you can simply send out a tweet asking for feedback. Every interaction you have with your audience is a great chance to continue building your brand, and sending the message that you care about your audience is always a great thing to do! 10) Analyze your blog statistics. Most blogging platforms allow you to view statistics about your blog—which posts are the most read, how people are referred to your blog, etc. Over time, you will notice that certain posts are more widely read and shared than others. This is a great indicator of the type of content your audience appreciates, so do your best to produce more along those lines. If a tree falls down in a forest, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If a business owner writes a blog entry, but nobody reads it, does it really provide any value? I’m no philosopher, but I can promise you that your online presence will be much more effective if you can keep your audience engaged. The way to keep them engaged is to provide content they are truly interested in. And the way to determine which type of content they are interested in is to keep an eye on the metrics I have covered above! As always, if you have any questions, or if you would like further information, you know where to find me! Google+: What Does it Mean for Your Business (And How to Get Started!)Friday, August 19th, 2011 So I’m sure you have heard the recent buzz about Google+ (whether you have had a chance to get started or not)… but what does it mean to your business? Is it all hype and no substance, or might we be witnessing a major shift in the world of social media? The truth is that it is too soon to say for sure. And personally, even though I got my invite a few weeks ago and I see the SEO implications, even I am slow to “catch on.” That being said, we do know that any time Google puts the full power of their brand behind something, it is a force to be reckoned with. Ok- so Google Buzz wasn’t all that great; however, with Google+ we now see the reason for both Google Buzz and Google’s +1 and while it is impossible to say how powerful Google+ will become, here is what we DO know: 1) Google has succeeded in generating a substantial “buzz” around Google+. If you spend much time on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you know what I mean. Seemingly one out of every five conversations right now references Google+. Their launch has been very well executed—by requiring an invitation in order to join, and by limiting the amount of available invites, Google has created an online frenzy. It’s the internet version of a huge crowd camping outside Best Buy on Thanksgiving night in anticipation of massive sales the next morning. Creating a buzz doesn’t guarantee success—but it does mean they are off to a good start. 2) Google+ can be used both personally and professionally. As you know, LinkedIn is a social network catering to professionals and business owners. There is little room for casual interaction with friends and family. Facebook, on the other hand, is primarily used for personal relationships. Their business pages do allow professionals and business owners to connect with their audience and with other businesses, but not as effectively as LinkedIn. Google+ appears to offer the best of both worlds—their “circles” feature allows users to easily sort contacts into different groups. You could have a “friends” circle, a “clients” circle, a “family” circle—and more. While it remains to be seen how this functionality will play out over time, Google+ at least offers the potential of being a great social network for both professional and personal use. 3) Google+ has the potential to revolutionize the online social universe. Why? One word: integration. Google+ has the potential to pull together the countless services offered by Google into one convenient social location. YouTube, Google Places, Google Offers, Google Maps, Gmail… the list goes on and on. While other social networks, Facebook in particular, have been very successful at integrating with a variety of services across the web, Google+ has a tremendous advantage simply by being part of the Google network of services. It is not hard to imagine Google+ profiles given priority in search results, and it seems likely that Google will take every opportunity to link Google+ profiles with services like Google Places. Again, it is too early to predict how it will play out, but it is clear that Google+ has the potential to become literally the center of the internet! What does all of this mean for you and your business? It means you need to get involved immediately! Google recently announced that they will offer unique services for business owners, and have suggested that businesses wait to create their profiles. However, there is no question that business owners and professionals need to join the network, as individuals, as soon as possible. Remember that only a couple of years ago we were debating the merits of Twitter for businesses and business owners. And while many sat on the sideline, the early adapters got a head start and have benefitted tremendously. So even though Google+ may not have the impact many experts expect it to, the upside makes investing the time to get started an easy decision. Getting started on Google+ The first step is securing an invitation. As of now, Google+ has yet to open the doors to the general public. You’ll need to find someone who already has access and ask them to invite you. I’d be glad to invite you if you get in touch! Once you have your invitation, log in and create your profile. Setting up your profile on Google+ is very similar to doing so on other social networks. You’ll want to upload a photo of yourself (I recommend using the same picture that you use on other social networks—remember that consistency is the key to building a strong brand!). Then, fill in the biographical information and personalize your profile. Try not to leave any fields blank—the more complete your profile is, the more professional you look. Now that your profile is complete, begin connecting with others. On your Google+ Home page, if you look to the right side of your screen, you’ll see a list titled “Suggestions.” These are individuals that Google+ thinks you may want to connect with—click on “Show all” and you’ll see a list of potential contacts. Click on their pictures to connect with them. If you have run out of suggestions, you can also search for individuals by typing their name into the ‘Find People’ box at the top of your Home screen. Organize your contacts into circles. Immediately to the left of the ‘Find People’ search box is a button showing two circles—click it and you’ll be taken to the ‘Circles’ page. Simply drag your contacts into the appropriate circles—and if necessary, create a new circle to better reflect your needs. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be off to great start on Google+. It remains to be seen how the platform will evolve (especially with SEO and Google’s personal search results), but once you have created and optimized your profile, you will be in great shape to take advantage of the opportunities provided by this new social platform. If you have any questions or would like further information, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise I look forward to connecting with you on Google+! Video-Marketing Quick-Start Guide: How to Set Up Your Video-Marketing SystemTuesday, July 12th, 2011 A couple of months ago Google released its “Panda” update. The update effectively made article syndication worthless and with no SEO value. The many marketers who used article syndication as a part of their overall SEO strategy need to now figure out what to replace it with. With the release of Google’s Panda update the importance of video and social media has skyrocketed. Now, more than ever, video is a MUST in your online-marketing strategy. Why You Must Start Video-Marketing Immediately! There are five important reasons you must start using videos without delay: 1. Google. Enough said. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, second only to Google (Google also owns YouTube). Instead of having to read solutions, videos provide face-to-face solutions and searchers now use various videos sites (no, not just YouTube) as search engines.
2. Creating short videos for the Internet is simple, quick, and inexpensive. You can create and upload videos to YouTube without expensive equipment or technical expertise. All you need is a computer, a web camera and a good Internet connection. Most modern computers have a web camera and microphone built in that can be used to record your video. Free software is also available to edit your video before exporting to YouTube (Windows Movie Maker for PC users and iMovie for Mac users). 3. Leverage the massive popularity of YouTube for free. YouTube gets more than two billion views a day. By uploading your videos to YouTube, you get access to more than two billion viewers worldwide every day. Best of all, you can create your own video channel to upload and share your videos on YouTube free of charge. 4. Develop better rapport and connection with your prospects. Using online videos allows you to establish a personal relationship and generate a greater level of trust with your audience. You also gain greater credibility because video content is perceived to be more valuable than text or audio content. 5. Benefit from viral spread of your videos. YouTube enables viewers to freely share their favorite videos and to embed them in their own websites and on Facebook. This can result in the rapid spread of your videos across the Internet because users are more likely to share videos rather than text or audio. How to Set Up Your Video-Marketing System Using These Five Simple Steps Creating your first video may seem scary, if you have never done it before. That’s natural whenever you do something for the first time. Think of it as a learning experience and create a short and simple video to upload to YouTube. Once you successfully create your first video, you will gain tons of confidence. In time, you may find it’s easier and more fun to produce video content than text content. 1. Create your first video for YouTube. Thankfully, you no longer need a studio to produce high-quality videos for YouTube. To create your first online video, follow these simple steps:
2. Register for a free account and set up your YouTube video channel. Before uploading your video, you need to register for am account at YouTube, which is free and painless. Follow these three steps:
Your YouTube channel name is the same as your username when you register for a YouTube account. Therefore, choose your username carefully before registering. Do some keyword research and choose a name that contains the main keyword phrase of your targeted niche. For example; if you’re in the dieting industry, instead of choosing a user/channel name like “johnsmith007,” use “loseweightnaturally.” Your YouTube channel address will then be youtube.com/user/loseweightnaturally, which is more likely to appeal to your target audience.
The right keywords in fields such as channel title, type and tags fields will increase the chance of new prospects visiting your site and also help to optimize your channel for search engines.
A professional background is a simple way to stand out from your competitors. To upload a new background to your channel, click on the “Show advanced options” link in the “Themes and Colors” tab of your channel page. Then click on the option to upload your new channel background. (Note: you will need a designer to design this image — if you’re looking for some help, contact me at Lindsay@CelebritySites.com) 3. Upload your first video on YouTube.
4. Optimize your video for your audience and search engines. Title field: Choose a title for your YouTube video so that people can find it easily and it ranks for the right keywords inside the YouTube search engine. For example; if your video contains tips to lose weight naturally, name it “Natural Weight Loss Tips.” Description field: Write a short article describing your video using relevant keywords. Tags field: Add the most important and relevant keywords in the tags area. 5. Embed your YouTube video on your website. Once you have successfully uploaded your video to YouTube, copy the code from the “Embed HTML” box, which you can find in your “Edit Video” page. This code can be sent to your webmaster to be added to your website. (If your website was created using Wordpress, simply click “Edit HTML” within the post editor of your post, paste the video’s code into the body of your post and click “Publish post.”) Taking Video One Step Further YouTube is currently the #1 video syndication site. However, THERE ARE OTHERS. And if you search the “video” results in Google you will see that. Sites like Metacafe.com and Dailymotion.com are also great websites to post your videos. The best FREE resource we have found is Tubemogul.com. Tubmogul allows you to post your video on numerous video sites at one time (yes, including YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion). Thousands of new websites and blogs are created every day. Whether you are already an online entrepreneur or you are planning to start, you have to use new marketing techniques to stand apart from the crowd. The quickest and most effective way to succeed online is to use videos to leverage their tremendous search-engine popularity. Happy recording! Stay Connected with LinkedInMonday, April 25th, 2011 You’ve heard me say it before… LinkedIn can sometimes be thought of as the “redheaded stepchild” of the social media sites. However, with the average household income per user is $109,000 MUCH higher than Twitter or even Facebook, LinkedIn is considered by many to be the most beneficial for business. Launched in May 2003, it now has over 90 million users across a number of countries, accepting English and a number of other European languages. Among these, many are using it to full advantage for their business needs, once they are familiar with how it works. Not sure about LinkedIn and how to best use it? Don’t worry- that’s what this article is for! J Your Profile
Setting up your profile is the most important step in all of this. With Google’s recent algorithm changes social media is becoming more and more important for building your brand online. You want to make sure your profile is filled out completely and that it gives the best first impression it can. And while customizing your profile on LinkedIn is different than Facebook or Twitter, it can be done… and it should be done! Be yourself… always. Show your personality and your expertise. Remember, people buy people. Make Connections
LinkedIn is all about making and maintaining connections. It’s virtual networking. So how do you start making connections? Initially, you can only request a connection from someone you have formerly been in contact with, and it’s a great way to find people with whom you have previously had some kind of working relationship. Being Proactive As with most aspects of life, with LinkedIn you’re only likely to get something back if you put something in. Incorporate some time for LinkedIn into your daily routine and log in regularly. Continue to build your network of connections. Once you have connections, you need to check theirs and see if you already know any of them, so you can add them. If you see people you’d like to be connected to, you can ask your friend for an introduction to them. Read all your connections’ updates and look for ways to be helpful. Read questions and see if you can offer an answer. You can send private messages to your connections, or make your suggestions publicly. The more you give the more you will receive. And if you think highly of someone, give a recommendation. Update your own status regularly. When something works well for you, don’t keep it to yourself. Share it so that others could benefit from it too. Post about upcoming events that might be interesting to your network as well as tips, articles and success stories. One of these easiest ways to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date is by connecting it with your Twitter account. This way you only have to update one place! Groups and Discussions The next step is to join some groups. It doesn’t matter what your business is, there is a group (kinda like “there is an app for that!” Other Ways to Benefit You can find work and other business opportunities. You can add a company page to the site. You can post jobs openings. You can place advertisements on the site. You can link your profile to your blog, etc., etc., etc. One of the BIGGEST tips I can give is that you create a CTA (call to action). You can’t create HTML buttons within LinkedIn, BUT what you can do- is in the section where you can place your website link don’t just call it “My Company.” LinkedIn allows you to create your own title. So “Click here to contact me” or “Click here for Social Media Help” or “Click here for my FREE Report” all are MUCH better titles than “My Company.” Also, be sure and check out LinkedIn’s advanced applications that allow you to add calendars, video and other great ways to help customize and brand your profile. As your connections list grows, be sure to check in on all your connections from time to time. You’ll be amazed at how many people you could reach out to in a very short time. If you make good use of LinkedIn, it could be the best investment of time that you ever make. Tweeting for Small BusinessesWednesday, March 9th, 2011 This article is a little different than the typical article that I write. If you like, you can skip down to the part where I actually get into about “Tweeting for Small Businessess,” however, there is a reason that I’m starting this article the way that I am. When I was a little, my father taught me about the cycles of life and the never-ending ebbs and flow. Like the ocean tide, it goes out, but it will always come back in. A little too philosophical for a 5yr old that was more concerned with the “fishies” in the ocean verse the symbolism it had. But I have grown to understand and appreciate the comforting feeling that although the tide will for sure go out it will always come back in. Knowing that, the challenge is to prepare for the changes in the tide…. On both ends; being prepared for it to go out; making sure there continuity and backups in place to carry you through as well as being prepared for the flood to come back in and making sure those same systems can handle the influx. While some may say that I am young, and I am, I have experienced the ebbs and flows of life both in business and personally. Losing all the money you have, going through short sales of properties, divorce and many other things along the way… the tide was undoubtedly “going out.” So I bring all that up for one reason… social media is no different. The phenomenal rise of social media coincides with one of the worst economic decades this country has ever seen and consumers want more from small businesses, whether it’s discounts, diversified information, tips, or resources. Consumers are finding comfort in social media because they aren’t alone in their situation. At any given time you can go online to various forums, communities and social networks and find someone “like you.” You can find an answer to a question, solve a problem or even become “friends.” Social Media is undoubtedly the “flow” of business right now. I have said this before; social media is not a new concept. It’s human interaction, and that is what we are all after… human touches…. people buy people. So why did “social media” take off the way that it did? In an economic time like we’ve been in, people looked more to their “friends” for bargains and general advice. Consumers have become more skeptical traditional advertising and more dependent on the referral of others. Isn’t that what we do as a society when we get scared? Ask for advice? As scary as it may be, social media is that advice people seek. When used right, the social network “mini-blogger” has the capability to hook a new customer and convert them from follower to loyal customer. There’s a myriad of articles flooding the Internet about how to use social media for your small business, but for the most part these guidelines and blog posts are missing actual examples small business owners can use…. And the one that people are still questioning is Twitter. How can it actually generate business (and profits)? Here’s a list of some of the most common types of small businesses and examples of effective ways Twitter can be used to distribute their messages. Real Estate Agents –Real estate agents provide a service in exchange for a fee, so there’s no real product to Tweet about. However, agents can find success in growing their follower counts by becoming the “go-to” expert in their neighborhood area, Tweeting about news and local happenings, new home listings or information for first time home buyers (or luxury home buyers or any of the other niche industries within real estate). They can also build up a following of other agents and starting a referral community all based on Twitter. Other service industry Tweets: Create a discount or loyalty system for your clients, and then Tweet about it. Maybe you offer 10% off for new customers or a discount if a customer uses your service on the weekend…. Or mentions that they saw your ad on Twitter. Restaurateur- Restaurants of all types and varieties are seeing an uptick in sales this year over last thanks to heavy discounting and mass coupon websites like Restaurant.com. You’ll find that Tweeting about those coupons, directing your customers to specials, happy hour deals and more will not just grow your restaurant’s social following, but bring new faces to your tables too. Other food industry Tweets: Tweet locations of moving vehicle vendors, invite customers to rate your food and interact with other customers on your Twitter feed, or hold a creative contest that somehow allows followers to win gift cards in exchange for interaction with your Tweets. Retail – If your small business retails sports equipment, for example, Tweet about the products that are selling the best and use brand names. Describe the different strengths of that brand and what makes your product or shopping experience unique. Tweeting about your opinions on sports teams and pop culture can be appropriate, but don’t bad mouth other teams. If you sponsor a little league team, Tweet about it. Other retail industry Tweets: Where suitable, Tweet the price advantages you have over your competitors. You can also Tweet links to pages and products on your e-commerce website. For some professionals, finding relevant and interesting things to Tweet about can be much more challenging. Here’s some ideas to get you going if your find yourself itching to get social, but just don’t know where to start. Lawyers – Lawyers do not typically have discounts or products they can Tweet about, however, their firms do have a brand and a reputation. Lawyers can tweet about their accomplishments and their personal approach to popular legislative initiatives. Becoming a specialized and expert voice and personality in a particularly narrow niche can help lawyers attract and retain Twitter followers. Insurance Agents – Ironically, while insurance is a necessity for every adult in America, most of us disdain obtaining or maintaining the various policies we own. Find a unique way to make insurance-related news and information engaging. One way to keep your followers interested it to Tweet about local neighborhood resources and ways to save on insurance. For example: Use dollar amounts and real testimonials. “John Doe saved $364 by switching to us from Generic Insurance Company” is much more attractive and effective than “Save money with us”. Accountants – With every passing year, the U.S. tax law changes, creating a vortex of confusing code, rules, and exemptions most of us need a proverbial machete and weeks of frustration to hack through it all by April 14th. As an accountant, you can Tweet tips and insights that make these changes simple and understandable for your average client. Tweeting effectively for small business doesn’t have to be complicated, a little imagination and out-of-the-box thinking can go a long way! Don’t feel discouraged if you’re in an industry or profession you don’t feel is interesting or suitable for Twitter. As long as your service, product, or offerings bring value to customers, then so too will your words and Tweets. 11 Myths About Social Media MarketingWednesday, February 16th, 2011 Social media has become a very important part of many people’s lives- both personally and in business. The downside of this rapid increase in sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube is that along with all the good information being shared there are also many myths about social media that are commonly believed as fact. Here are 11 myths to be weary of! 1. It’s a new concept. Social media is definitely NOT a new concept; the tools that we now use to “share” information have certainly changed as technology has changed. But social media has been around as long as gossiping has. 2. It is totally free or extremely cheap. Most of the tools and resources required to participate in social media are indeed free. However don’t discount your personal ROI. So there is a balance that you indeed have to look at. What is your hourly rate vs. what is the rate of a specialist who understands how to make a social media campaign work effectively for you and your business? You MUST look at this and decide which is best for you and what is the best use of your time… and keep in mind that as with many aspects of business the old saying you get what you pay for is very true in social media. 3. It is very simple. Using the basic tools and broadcasting information is not complicated. As the social media sphere grows it becomes more and more complex. More and more tools and applications are available every day and it requires time, knowledge and perception to decide which are effective business rules and which a waste of time. 4. It is a short-term fad that we needn’t bother with. The Internet is essentially a space for conversation and free flow of information between individuals and companies. The tools used and platform with the most impact may change over time but I can assure you that customers have become used to the concept of conversational marketing and it is here to stay. Any business that believes interest in social media will simply run its course and then fade is asking to be left out of one of the world’s potentially most lucrative markets. 5. Only teens and young adults are interested in social media. Yes, “Social media,” or rather these big social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube were initially adopted mostly by students, other young adults and teenagers. However, they have now evolved to become a dominant business social media tool. Don’t believe me? Fun fact: It is estimated that almost half of Facebook profiles now belong to people aged 35 and up. And as you know, this age group is a HUGE target market due to their buying power coupled with greater awareness and familiarity with social media tools. 6. Marketing through social media is simply a matter of advertising on Facebook. Strange as is sounds, the way to start marketing via social media is not to start marketing at all. The online community is often suspicious of profiles set up for the sole purpose of blatant advertising. Social media channels are fundamentally all about communication. Listen first, contribute to conversations and start some conversations of your own. Once people trust you and value what you have to say, they will be more receptive to messages about your business. Even then though keep it subtle and low key. 7. Anyone can do it. Too many companies delegate the establishment and management of social media projects to a junior or inexperienced staffer. Mostly this is because they believe it to be very simple or because they don’t see its importance as an element of the overall marketing mix. 8. A successful social media campaign can be handled internally. This goes back to previously mentioned: Personal ROI. Effectively using social media in a business context requires knowledge of the tools, target market and what works and what doesn’t. It can also be very time consuming, especially for an inexperienced person. Generally companies that succeed in using their online presence to complement their offline marketing efforts do so because they make use of a specialist (or team of specialists in the case of larger businesses or projects) skilled in the use of social media. This specialist will work closely with internal people to gain insight into the company’s product or service offering and then mix this with their knowledge of the online landscape to manage the image of the business effectively and gain maximum online exposure. 9. The results of engaging customers via social media can’t be measured. Many aspects of social media engagement can indeed be measured. One of the keys is to have clearly defined outcomes that are desired. If there are no objectives then measurement will be difficult. For example goals like increasing website traffic or getting people to sign up for a newsletter or other communication can be set and accurately measured. Here are some ways you can track: 10. There are no rules. As social media platforms evolve and become more sophisticated, a distinct culture is growing around the technology. As in all cultures a system of etiquette applies. There are some basic rules, like not over-promoting yourself or your business and not attacking other people or groups, that are common to most platforms. The diverse and constantly changing nature of social media mean that the mostly unwritten rules are different from site to site and change with time and the technology. Generally, just keep in mind that it’s called “social” media for a reason… people buy people ☺ Keep that in mind and you should be good to go! 11. The amount of social media connections you have is an indication of your success. Simply having thousands of social media connections is no guarantee of success. You need to be connecting with people with whom you can form a clear communication channel. They also need to be interested in your product and in a position to support your brand. Recruiting random strangers as followers, friends or connections on social media sites is unlikely to increase business for you. Remember that quality counts more than quantity in the interactions you establish. This is also EVER more important as Google released in the beginning of December that the quality of followers and friends will have an impact on your rankings. So just because you have 4,205,937,423,497 (yes, that’s a technical number 6 Important Factors to Consider When Creating a Business BlogThursday, December 30th, 2010 Gone are the days where companies are faceless… with the rise of social media consumers are getting smarter and smarter. Whether it’s the middle of July or now during the Holidays, the first thing anyone does is search for something online. It doesn’t matter if your company is service or product oriented if you’re not online… and online in multiple ways, you should be. Social media is great; I’m a HUGE fan. It provides a platform for businesses to easily connect with their customers, and if you’re using it correctly can 100% increase your bottom line. I’ve recently gotten two different clients solely from Facebook. Now- did that happen over night… absolutely not, I’ve been on Facebook since it was first established… however, it has now become a vital part of my overall business strategy. The problem with today’s “social media” (and I say “today’s” because if you think the concept is new, you’re wrong… it’s just a new platform) is that if Twitter YouTube, Linkedin, Facebook, etc all disappeared tomorrow and you haven’t moved your “friends,” “followers” and “fans” to a list that you can market to you’re is serious trouble. This is why it is VITAL to have a blog on your website… and ideally not just a link from your company site to a blog page… but actually incorporated into your website (this is better for SEO). Although the thought can be overwhelming, I promise you it is worth it. Here are some simple steps to helping you tackle this task. If you already have a blog, still read the rest of this as these guidelines can be used as a formula for organizing the various aspects involved in creating a successful business blog. What You Will Need to Set Up a Simple Business Blog 1. Content 2. Who Writes? There are some FABULOUS ghostwriters out there. I have several that I snatched up to write for our clients. Here’s the key to making a ghostwriter work for you. They MUST know how to write with personality. This is VERY important. There are fabulous writers out there, but they can be dry. You need both a technical writer so there are no grammatical mistakes, but also one that can capture your voice. 3. Marketing and Promotion You must look at the blog as a business. You don’t just open your doors and all the sudden you’re a millionaire (and anybody that tells you that is lying). You open the doors and then you market your business, interact with your community. Same with a blog, you start your blog then use the power of social media to market your blog and interact with your customers. It’s a two-step process and if you’re missing either step it won’t work. 4. Monetization and Profit Generation Here are a couple of ways you can make a little extra money with your blog: Charging other businesses for hosting their ads on your blog; Placing affiliate product ads on the blog; Using CPC textual ads (like Google Adsense) to increase blog revenue; Incorporating CPA adverts into the site. There are many ways to increase the profit from a business blog. The main point to concentrate on is that advertisements can distract from your content so choose wisely. External ads should be topically related to your own content so that readers are likely to be interested and more liable to click on the ads and earn you money. The look of the ads is also important. They should blend in with your blog theme and should be attractive, not garish. Textual ads can appear tacky and distracting if overdone. 5. Overall Design and Brand Establishment If you have the option, ALWAYS have the blog actually a part of your website (this means that your whole website will be put onto wordpress), this is the ideal way to go for search engine rankings. However, if you don’t have that option for what ever reason make sure that you design your blog so that it mimic the overall business (and business website). Also that you link often back to your main website, and have lead capture on your blog just incase your visitors never make it over to your main website. 6. Direction and Purpose The various aspect of a business blog can be altered to facilitate different functionalities. Pure sales blogs will differ from those hoping to work more on CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Of course, there is no reason why a business blog cannot incorporate numerous roles, but if this is to be the case then the specific aims should be established before the blog is designed. Knowing what you expect from a blog and the direction it should take increases the chances of achieving a positive end result with fewer design mishaps. The Bigger the Effort, the Better the Result 6 Tips To Improved Facebook MarketingFriday, December 17th, 2010 When it comes to social networking there’s little doubt that Facebook is the largest and most influential of the social networks online. It has more than 500 million registered user and, at the time of writing this, the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events. For businesses this means that a Facebook page or other piece of Facebook real estate is a serious way to generate social and viral traffic but only if it is done well. There are 900 million objects that people interact with which means, first and foremost, yours needs to stand out. It either needs to provide something that others don’t (unlikely given the amount of competition) or it needs to do what it does better than the competition. One of the most common mistakes by small businesses is believing that Facebook traffic is a quick hit; it can take months to build up a decent sized list of fans that avidly read your content but there are some steps you can take to help attract greater numbers. The Facebook Platform Fortunately, there is an extensive platform on which you can build unique Facebook pages and interact with existing and potential readers and your business needs to make the most of these in order to generate the best possible results. 1. Be Unique Not Generic There is a lot of competition on Facebook, virtually regardless of the type and topic of content that you’re providing. Ensure your Facebook page really stands out by creating a unique design. You don’t have to have the standard Facebook page design and you can implement all sorts of features that help your visitors recognise you as a leader in your field. You can also serve different landing pages to different visitors. For example, fans and first time visitors to your page do not need to see the same thing and Facebook offers the functionality to change these settings. Show a page that encourages non-followers to fan your page, and show the main content to those that have already done so. Offer incentive such as coupons for your products or services, or free resources like Ebooks and other giveaways, to members that have not yet clicked to follow your page. 2 . Use Giveaways Giveaways have long been and continue to be one of the most effective branding and promotional techniques there is. Ebooks, gift items, and coupons are just some of the Facebook-specific items you can offer to those that are willing to sign up for your Facebook fan page. You can offer regular giveaways to members to ensure that people follow you over time and as an extra incentive for becoming what is essentially a subscribed member of your fan page. 3. Use Competitions Competitions can generate even more buzz than a giveaway. If you place a financial value on each of your fans then you can calculate a decent prize to give away. It could be one of your own products or services or something relating to one of your partners. Make sure that it is related to the content you offer as well as the products or services that you promote. Competitions can go viral too, so encourage your readers to spread the word with their friends – you can even build this in to the competition by offering extra prize draw entries for each friend referred to your page. 4. Get Personal Facebook is first and foremost a social network. The fact that it can also be used to help promote your business is an added benefit but users are predominantly on the site because it allows them to connect with others and hunt down content that they are interested in. It is, therefore, a personal experience and your readers will for the most part want to believe that they are dealing with real people. Add a large photo to your Facebook page. If you organise events or can take photos of your visitors some other way then do so, and tag the people in those photos. It is possible to let readers upload their own photos and tag themselves (I would of course watch this carefully, but it can be a great way to get people involved). 5. Say Thanks A little “thank you” can go a LONG way. As soon as somebody becomes a fan send them an unobtrusive message thanking them for becoming a fan and welcoming them to the fold. The message doesn’t need to be long and it can be automated, but remember, people buy people, so a little personal touch will go a long way! 6. Don’t Give Up Don’t be surprised if your Mom and your Sister are your only fans after a few days of adding content and personalising your page. It does take effort to develop a high quality Facebook fan page. Keep posting, keep updating, keep testing, keep evolving, and keep trying – don’t’ give up! Facebook Marketing Facebook is the largest social network online having surpassed half a billion users. While competition is fierce, if you can master the art of creating a popular and beneficial Facebook page then you can also master the art of generating social traffic and your marketing message can go viral producing massive returns in the long run. Happy status updates! ☺ SEO Basics: 20 Tips for Building a Natural-Looking External Link ProfileFriday, October 1st, 2010 OK, so, we all know “External link building is essential for improving search engine rank.” But, the bigger question is HOW do you get these external links. Not to mention that there are so many scams out there by “SEO companies” that manipulate the process making it appear unnatural to the search engines, and quit frankly could result with a red-flag by the Almighty Google. If you’re looking to take FULL advantage of an external linking campaign- here are a few guidelines that you should pay attention to. 20 useful tips for ANY website looking to build up a credible external link profile. 1. Never buy links. Google has stated many times that it will penalize any site that is buying or selling links. The links that are sold are nearly always low-quality, non-relevant and likely to damage a website’s quality score. Note: there are some highly quality links out there that you can get. These can be VERY expensive, and using quite secretive. The links that I am referring to here are from the “link farms.” 2. Build a specific page for external links. Never name this page ‘Links’ as most people do. All this achieves is to inform search engines that a website is trying to obtain links in order to manipulate its search engine position. Search engines want websites that have something useful to offer. Name the page ‘Resources’ or ‘Useful Websites’ and suggest to search engines that the website is interested in offering its readers alternative avenues of relevant content. 3. Two thumbs up for receiving free links by providing quality content. Content is king on the Internet, and by posting quality content, readers are more likely to mention and link back to the source on other websites, providing free links for the original content provider. 4. With the explosion of social networking, word-of-mouth promotion is a powerful ally. Create social networking accounts and provide informative posts that people will share. 5. Upload a video to YouTube, or any of the other video sharing sites. Make a tutorial, create a promotional video, or think of something quirky that will capture the viewers’ interests and include a link in the video pointing back to the main website. ALWAYS INLCUDE A LINK BACK TO YOUR SITE! J 6. Post on forums that are related to the websites area of interest. Interact with other users and make informative posts. Signature links can be included after a set amount of posts. Once the forum user is regarded as an established member, direct links may be allowed in actual posts. 7. Keep resource (link) pages organized. Create separate categories for links and don’t overcrowd the pages. 50 links a page should be a maximum. If the page exceeds 50 links; build more pages. 8. Post on blogs that are topically relevant. Make useful posts or risk having any comments – and links – deleted. Look for blogs that are powered by Wordpress. Looking for a little help on where to comment? Check these tools out: http://commentsniper.com/ 9. Use anchor text for links. Ensure that the website’s main keywords are used within the anchor text. Watch spamming and don’t overload your anchor links. Overloading them can send a red flag to the search engines that a website is manipulating links. Vary the keywords used in links. 10. Do not have all inbound links pointing to one page. The majority of links should point to a website’s homepage , but a decent amount should point to secondary pages. Don’t forget about lower category pages, it is all part of building a natural link profile. When in doubt, go with the “50-50 rule.” About 50% of the links should go directly to your homepage, the other 50% should be spread around the site (just make sure that these are still useful and converting pages for you!) 11. Search engines look for a natural link profile. Build links gradually and spread their location throughout a website. If 20 links are created every Monday and none are built any other day, a search engine may suspect that a website is manipulating links. Spread any link building over time and never create links in bulk batches. Search engines love links but they want them to be achieved naturally. Offer the appearance of a gradual link-building process that looks realistic. 12. The more relevant the link, the better. Not to say that if you are a Doctor and you have a link from a printing company that this link won’t count, but it would be better if you had one from a medical association, medical blog, medical forum, etc. 13. The more authoritative and reputable the site, the better the link. If the linking website is a favorite of the search engines, this link will hold more importance. Remember that links are really votes and the more esteemed the voter, the more influential the vote. Links from high PR sites can be good but do not get too distracted by PageRank – it can be misleading. If you want a good tool to help with deciding high authority pages check out the Firefox plugin “SEO Quake.” 14. Make a website a natural link magnet. Encourage links from other websites by offering their readers a discount or free gift. Let other site owner know that their readers will have the chance of a reduction or preferential service. Website owners love their readers to think they will only get access to a particular offer on another site because their website is the referrer. Most websites will be happy to link to your site if you offer favorable treatment to their readers. 15. If you want a reciprocal link from a website that is slightly out of your league you will have to up the ante. Offer them a premium link. This could be an entire page that is dedicated to their website and their services. All you ask in return is to place a simple little textual link on their site. This may seem a bit one-sided but the link from the bigger site will hold valuable search engine influence and could be worth the extra effort. 16. Add your website to relevant business directories. 17. Article submissions to article directories are a good method for obtaining free links. Check out http://www.submityoutarticle.com. 18. Press Release submission is also a good strategy. We like PRLog.org (and it’s free!). 19. Be aware of NOFOLLOW and DOFOLLOW attributes. There is no such thing as a “DOFOLLOW” tag, it just means that it doesn’t have a “NOFOLLOW” tag and will pass “link-juice” (as we SEO geeks like to call it) to your website. 20. Don’t waste your time trying to arrange a link with a commercial site. These large sites hardly ever accept link exchanges. That does not mean that you cannot post on their blog, if they have one, and gain a backlink from an influential blog. Even better if the blog has a DOFOLLOW attribute. Remember that the blog should still relate to your own site’s content. Links are crucial to achieving a good search engine rank, but be wary of how you obtain links and where you get them from. A successful link-building campaign requires planning, preparation and research. Focus on building a natural link profile. This may take longer to achieve but the end result will be worth the extra effort. A natural link profile will never result in damage to a website’s reputation – unlike many of the quick and easy link-building alternatives. Producing Content that Keeps People Coming Back to Your SiteTuesday, August 31st, 2010 As a result of personalized search, anyone who maintains a website will now have to focus on content more than ever before. In order to remain competitive and ensure continued high ranking in the SERPs, your website will need to include current and informative content that is of real value to your visitors. If you maintain a website or a blog, it is critical that your content is updated on a regular basis. Ideally, you should be adding content every day, especially if your site is new. People will begin to click on your site on a more regular basis in anticipation of what your next piece will be about. They may even bookmark your site. When this happens, Google will recognize it as a site the person likes and will list it higher in the search results when then perform a relevant search. When you are adding content sporadically, people will begin to lose interest in your site and not only will you lose hits but you will also slip further and further in the search results. If you are not able to add content on a daily basis then you should be updating your site at least three times a week. As you can see, quantity is very important producing content. This does not mean that you can slack on quality. Not only will you need to update your content regularly, but it must be of high quality and provide useful and relevant information. Timeliness is essential. You have to be knowledgable of the current trends in order for your site to stay relevant. If you run a niche blog or website, stay on top of the newest developments in that niche so that you can relay that information to your visitors. If you are unsure of what to write about, subscribing to an RSS reader is a great way to quickly find out what the day’s “hot topics” are (Google alerts are also a great way to monitor trends and topics in your industry to comment on). This will usually give you an idea of what your visitors are interested in and you can tailor your content accordingly. Keep your posts brief (but it can be okay to occasionally compose longer more in-depth posts if they are focused and well-written) and pay attention to spelling and grammar. After you have taken the time to develop this fantastic content, does this mean you can now sit back and passively wait for the hits to start rolling in? Nothing could be further from the truth. In many ways, your work is now just beginning, because you will now have to work to ensure that your content is indexed in the search engines. Simply relying on a search engine to eventually crawl to your site and index your content will result in costly delays. Some quick and easy ways to get indexed faster include updating the XML map for your website, posting links to your content on Twitter and subscribing to a service that automatically pings major online hubs and notifies them when you have updated new content. By being consistent in producing content that is high quality, you will not only get a loyal following, but you will also enjoy high search engine rankings, higher rates of conversion and greater credibility in your niche. Increasing Consumer Impatience: Why Businesses Need to Take Notice of Real-Time UpdatesWednesday, August 11th, 2010 The Internet is now faster than ever. With the explosion of social media, and search engine leader Google rolling out its new interface, incorporating real-time updates, people now expect everything in an instant. This sudden shift towards immediate gratification is also likely to have ramifications for business operations and their product transactions. The acceptable periods for digital downloads, customer service responses and even physical deliveries are rapidly diminishing. That old 7-10 business day time-frame is starting to seem like forever and is becoming unacceptable to many. The promise of an email reply within 48 hours will just not cut it anymore. People are becoming increasingly impatient and have gotten used to the new real-time updates – where they receive everything in an instant – and they are transferring these expectations to the business world. If a business wants to maintain customer satisfaction, it will need to prepare for this new fast-turnaround revolution. Failure to keep up could result in lost business, canceled orders and a drop in repeat sales. So what needs to be done to comply with the real-time crowd? For businesses promoting and delivering digital products, the transformation is a relatively simple process. Most digital product dealers may already operate in real-time. Orders are made, processed and sent out within minutes – if the whole process is adequately automated. If a digital retailer is not automating the whole system, they need to upgrade and do so now. Sitting on a digital order and delivering the product 2 days later is not acceptable. Money is now transferred almost instantaneously and so should the products – if this is not done, expect a drop in return custom and a reduction in sales. Customer service has always been notoriously slow to respond in many industries. But with the explosion of social networking there is now no excuse. Companies can use social media sites to keep customers up-to-date, in real-time, with any problems and the ongoing progression of an order. People will not stand for 2-3 day delays for email replies anymore. What used to be a fast response is now an unacceptable waiting period. An initial automated response is still tiresome but acceptable, but the follow-up answer needs to arrive sooner rather than later – or complaints will follow. People are not willing to accept ‘sorry for the delay’ excuses anymore. Companies that sell physical products cannot be expected to deliver immediately – but they are not exempt from the real-time environment. Customers need same day replies and they expect to be kept in the loop every step of the way, from order confirmation, to payment process, and then finally told that their package has been processed, shipped and when it will arrive at their door. Process and packaging needs to be closely monitored and delivery times kept to a minimum. Customers will accept a 3 business day delivery estimate, as long as the company has processed the order efficiently and kept the customer constantly updated with the progress of their order. The old saying ‘Time is Money’ describes the problems facing businesses that fail to respond and accommodate this new real-time perception. If they cannot make efficient use of their time and adapt to this new post-haste consumer expectation, they should anticipate a realistic reduction in their money from a sudden decline in business. Building a website? HTML vs WordpressWednesday, May 5th, 2010 So you want to build a website. Should you go with simple HTML or use a platform like Wordpress. The ultimate answer lies in the question, “What do you want to do with your site?” Let’s look at some advantages held by each option. 1) Updates – How often do you plan to update the site, and who will be doing the updates? Wordpress has a supreme advantage over a straight HTML site when it comes to updates. Not only is it an open-source platform that allows you to use multiple programming languages, so you get all the bells and whistles (HTML, PHP, MySQL, ASP, etc), but it is also user friendly for those who don’t know programming code. In other words, if you are creating the site for someone other than an online marketing agency and you want them to be able them to be able to update the site themselves, Wordpress gives them the flexibility to do so. Of course, you still need to create anything major, but the user will be able to update the blog, add pages and make basic updates without bothering you. One point to Wordpress. 2) Bandwidth – Because Wordpress offers so much, it’s a big platform. This means it takes up a lot of bandwidth. Simple HTML sites tend to take up less space. But ultimately, the extra bandwidth is no big deal if you are prepared for it – just make sure you are prepared for it! Half a point to HTML – HTML is smaller and leaner, but it isn’t really much of an advantage if you are prepared. 3) Plug ins – One of the great advantages of Wordpress is that because so many people use this universal platform, new plug ins are created almost daily. Instead of reinventing the wheel, find a plug in that does what you are looking for and with a few clicks you’re in business. Plug ins can be used to add social media marketing, SEO tools, display images, improve security, add forms, embed videos, lock out spammers and more. Yes, you can do all of these things with HTML, but you have to write the code and hope you don’t make a mistake in your code throwing the whole code off. One point to Wordpress. 4) Security – With hackers around every corner, this continues to be an issue for all websites, regardless of how they are built. However, the advantage goes to HTML on this one. It is much more difficult to hack a site that has been individually coded in HTML, though not impossible. If you go the Wordpress route, it is important to make sure that you keep you with the latest security plug ins. One point to HTML. 5) SEO – If you are building a website, you probably want people to see it. Therefore, putting everything else aside, this is the most important aspect of your website. One of the great features of Wordpress is its ability to integrate SEO into your site. Yes, you can optimize your website with HTML, but you have to know all of the important SEO elements and spend time incorporating each one. Since Wordpress was built as a blogging platform, SEO is kind of built-in (plus there are tons of plug ins to make it even better). You still have to work on SEO, but since Google loves new content and Wordpress makes adding new content a breeze the SEO advantage goes to Wordpress. One point to Wordpress. If you have been keeping tally, then you know Wordpress came out on top. With its flexibility for design and ease to update plus its SEO capabilities and all of the plug ins available, Wordpress comes out on top. While it isn’t perfect (what is) as a social media agency, Wordpress is the platform we use for all of our clients. So, if you are building a website, check it out. 6 Steps for a Digital Spring CleaningFriday, April 16th, 2010 Spring has sprung and closets everywhere are getting a seasonal cleaning, but closets aren’t the only place to de-clutter. No, I am not pointing out the mess in your guest room. I am talking about the chaos on your website. When you built your website, I am sure you had great intentions of staying on top of it. But unless you hired an online marketing agency to watch over your site, like your closet, over time your website probably took backseat to running your business. While it is understandable, it isn’t good. Your website is your digital connection to the world; you have to keep it in good working order. So, let’s shake out the cobwebs and clear out the clutter. 1) Check links. There is nothing more annoying then visiting a website and finding broken or misdirected links. It flat-out looks like you don’t care. Click on every link on your site and make sure it takes you where it should. 2) Check contact info. Is your contact info readily available on EVERY page? You never know when someone is going to decide they have seen enough and they are ready to contact you to sign up, don’t make them search for your contact info, put it everywhere. (And, of course, make sure the info is correct.) 3) Make sure your services are up-to-date. If you list services on your site make sure they are current. I can’t tell you how many times I have inquired about a service listed on a website only to find out that service is no longer offered. If you don’t offer it, remove it. Got new stuff, add it. 4) Check your prices. If you list the price of those services, make sure your rates are current. There is nothing worse then someone finding a cheaper price on your website only to be told they are looking at an old rate list. 5) Add your social media links. Do you Tweet? Do you have a Fan Page? Tell people about it. Include social media icons with links to encourage visitors to stay in touch with you. (Tip from a social media agency, if you still haven’t gotten into the social media scene, get there.) 6) Got news? How old is the “current” news on your site? More than six months? Surely something has happened in the past few months that’s worth sharing. (If there really is nothing newsworthy, maybe you need to do something! Not sure what to do, hire an online marketing agency to help.) We know it’s hard to stay on top of everything you do for your business, so give your website a good spring cleaning and get it back to where it needs to be to make you money. After that, if you are still concerned that you aren’t able to keep up with it, consider consulting with a social media agency to help you stay on top of your digital presence. Don’t let you site go another year before you check to make sure everything is ship-shape. How to Use Facebook as a Branding Strategy for Your BusinessMonday, March 1st, 2010 If you aren’t already connected to the social media revolution, it is time to get your head out of the sand and harness the power of the digital network. If you want to get out ahead of your competition and make consumers excited about interacting with your brand, social media is the way to go. It isn’t an overnight marketing fix, it takes time to build a following, but if done correctly you can use social media to drive people to your website and ultimately to your front door. Are you ready? After building your incredible website and blog, it is time to build a Facebook fan page. Before your run away at the thought of building your own page, let me assure you that it is easy to get started, and I am going to walk you through it. But, of course, if you get stuck or need additional help with the more complicated aspects, we’re always here to help. (But I promise; set up is easy.) The first thing you need in order to create a Facebook fan page is a personal profile. What? You don’t have one yet? Time to get one! I am not going to waste time walking you through profile set up because the steps are pretty self explanatory. Just got to Facebook, fill out the information to get started and let the steps guide you. You can probably set up a basic profile in about 15 minutes. After setting up your personal profile, spend some time poking around Facebook and getting to know the site – have fun. Check out some of your favorite companies’ fan pages (Celebrity Branding Agency for one) and connect with friends. Now to set up a fan page. Once you are logged into Facebook, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Advertising,” and then click “Pages.” There is some great information here about fan pages, so take a moment to read through the information, when you are ready click “Create Page.” As you go through the set-up process, remember that in any branding and marketing it is important to categorize your company in the right area to help people find you. So choose carefully. One of the great things about Facebook is the ease of set up navigation. From here, setting up a fan page is really about following the prompts. Rather than point out each step, let’s look at the important ones to get your personal branding going. 1) Photo – Before you do anything else, make sure you have the perfect photo for your page. Maybe your logo is the best photo for your page, but maybe not. Think about other branding materials you have, maybe something seasonal. Obviously, you want your fans to see your photo and recognize your brand – that’s the goal. But if you have a creative image that is also recognizable, it might help your fan page attract fans with an element of fun. 2) Write something about your company – See the little box under your picture that says “Write something about your company” this is very important because this is one of the items that is visible on every tab of your fan page. This is your elevator statement in 250 characters or less. Be sure to include a link to your website here, and in order to make your link clickable, don’t forget the http:// before the www. (Note – this statement can be changed at any time, so it is a great place to highlight a promotion or other important happening for your company.) 3) Wall Settings – Another important tool in the set up of your page are the wall settings. You have to decide if you want visitors to be able to post messages for everyone to see or if you only want your own messages shown. Unless you have a super controversial company, I recommend starting with allowing everything. It will help you build your wall faster because people like to post messages. If the posts become out of control or unflattering, you can always delete individual posts or turn off the setting all together later. (You will find “Wall settings” under “Edit page.”) Once you fill in all of the basic information, you have successfully created a fan page. Don’t forget, it is easy to change if something changes, so don’t sweat it. Now you are ready to take your page live, it is important for you to let people know about your page. This is where having an already active personal profile comes in handy because if you already have a lot of “friends” who are interested in your company, you can “suggest” your new page to them. Alright you have a page, you have suggested to all of your friends, now what? Now you start the real work. Marketing and branding takes time and attentiveness. You can’t just set up this page and hope people find you. If there is nothing on your page that interests people, no one will become a fan. Social media is fun – your fan page should be too. Post interesting things about your company, but don’t be afraid to post something fun too. Try posting open-ended questions (to entice responses from your fans) such as “What is your favorite XYZ?” “What do you plan to do for the XYZ holiday?” Posting links and/or photos are also a great way to get people interested, plus they are more visually appealing so people are more apt to pay attention. Posting links to your website has the added benefit of pushing people to your site to find out more. Try posting on your fan page every time you update your blog – “Check this out” and attach a link to your blog. Remember, the most important reason you have a Facebook fan page is to use it as a branding strategy to promote your personal brand. So, if your company is very “green” conscious, share tidbits about being green. If your company is all about marketing and branding (like us), you might post pictures of events, links to blog posts and information about the companies you help brand. Those are the basic features of a Facebook fan page, but once you get going you will realize that there are many more things you can add to your fan page such as customizable apps, connect the page to your Twitter feed, and much more. But you can’t do any of the fancy things until you get started with the basics, so for now create your page and start building your fans. Oh, and don’t forget to include a new link on your website to let people know they can become a fan on Facebook. And that is how you can use Facebook as a branding strategy for your business. 7 Tips for Making Twitter Work for You and Your Business!Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 Your ultimate goal when using Twitter should be to network, it’s like an online social hour (or social 140 characters). And like in every networking organization it’s all about who you know, and in Twitter’s case, who you ”follow” and who “follows” you. The key to making Twitter work for you and your business is to weave the social aspects of your life in with your business. So how do you do that? Below, you will find 7 steps that will help you develop not only a loyal Twitter fan base but also reveal some dos and don’ts to making Twitter work for you. First, you’ve got to find people! So, how do you do that? 1. Search for people you may know who are already using twitter via the “find people” link up at the top of Twitter. Once you click that link you can type in their name and see if they’re currently on Twitter so you can connect with them. 2. Using the same “find people” link up at the top and then clicking on “find on other networks” you can match up your current contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and MSN accounts with your contact’s twitter accounts and then follow them from there. 3. Use the twitter search! You can either search right from your Twitter homepage or go to http://search.twitter.com/. Search using the keywords for your industry and find people tweeting about specific topics in your industry and within your niche. From there you can follow them, and also follow their followers! 4. Mix in your “social tweets” with your “business tweets.” Remember, people buy people, and that goes for Twitter too! Build a loyal fan base by allowing them to get to know you, like you, trust you and respect you and weave in the “I’ve written blog about social media, check it out at www.celebritysites.com” (of course, you would actually link to the blog post, but since I haven’t written that yet… which now I will… I just put our homepage in there for demonstration). 5. You can also use http://search.twitter.com/ to find other current tweets about your industry that you can comment on. If you find a tweet that interests you, you can respond directly to that person by using “@TheirName” in your tweet so they get your reply, ultimately contributing to the Twitter community, gaining more content for your own twitter account and participating socially with other users. And finally, here are some of my favorite Twitter tools to make your life easier! 6. TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) allows you to manage your Twitter account in a much simpler way by separating your replies, direct messages as well as specified groups of people. TweetDeck also allows you to update your Facebook status automatically with your Tweets. 7. Tweet Later (http://www.tweetlater.com/) allows you to setup tweets to be sent out at a scheduled time, automatically follow anyone who follows you and send out auto-responders to anyone who follows you. Remember, Twitter can be used for many different purposes including social networking, marketing a business, prospecting, research and new ideas, reconnecting with old friends, etc. Millions are tweeting every day including just about every TV show, radio personality, movie star, pop singer, rap artist, sportscaster and professional athlete. Although this concept may seem a little foreign to you, remember that email was once that way and now it’s second nature! Ultimately, what makes Twitter so popular is the ability to connect with not only friends, but likeminded people. Remember, people buy people! How to Write Content that is Optimized for Search EnginesFriday, March 13th, 2009 To me, I always feel like Search Engine Optimization (or SEO as it is known in the industry) is the big elephant standing in the middle of the room that nobody wants to talk about. It’s a whole lot of work. Right? Or so you’ve been told… It’s true, Search Engines, mainly Google, like to make up complicated algorithms and schemes to try and make this very simple concept into the giant elephant that it is. When it boils down to it… write your copy so that it contains the keywords your potential clients are searching for. Having keywords throughout your copy increases the relevancy of your page for those keywords. Thus, when someone is searching for a particular product or service- you come up! 1. Title Tags: This is the most important place to include keywords. The title tag is the title of your web page- it runs along the very top of your browser and usually contains the name of your company and a brief description. That brief description is where you should include the keywords you are trying to maximize for each page of your web site. Be aware that computers (Search Engine spiders), like humans, read from left to right. They also give the most weight to the words on the far left versus those to the right. Also keep in mind that Google only displays 66 characters in the title tag, everything else will be cut off. So make sure to keep them short, simple and to the point… oh yeah and include those keywords! 2. Headings and Subheadings: Another important place to put keywords is in heading (H1 tags) or subheadings (H2 tags). Search Engines give these tags more weight than they do keywords in the body of your site. So, it is a good idea if you can find a way to incorporate keywords in both the headings and subheadings of your pages- just don’t forget to make sure that they make sense to readers! 3. Synonyms Here’s the thing… although you may think that you’ve got your keywords nailed down to a science… it’s a good idea to incorporate synonyms of these words into your copy. Using synonyms not only breaks up the monotony of just using a single word or phrase, but searchers may be using these synonyms or related words to find your products without you even knowing it. Overture is a great free source that will help you find synonyms and related keywords searchers may be using to find your products or services. To view this keyword tool visit http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. One last little tip. After you’ve got your keywords down and you know how and where you want to use them, don’t forget to make sure your copy is actually readable and it isn’t just loaded with keywords. Once you’ve got that down, the last thing to remember… make sure your copy is interesting! Does Your Website Stand up to Design?Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 I received my copy of The Net Effect this month… by the way, if you do not receive this magazine — GET IT. It will change the way you view the web, SEO and online marketing. It is one of the only magazines I actually read cover to cover each month, but I digress! Interestingly, one of the very first articles I ever read in the magazine was entitled “It’s Your Eyes that Buy!” Funny, if you do not believe that to be true, ask your wife! When was the last time she truly needed that third pair of black heels? Retailers have been dominating this theory for years… online is no different. Research shows that we have only seconds to make a positive impression upon our viewers. If they don’t like what they see — maybe it’s too busy, too complicated or what we commonly refer to as “analysis paralysis” — they will leave your site and, quite frankly, never come back. The design of your site (or even your blog) can help with lead capture as well as lead conversion. Here are five things to keep in mind when designing your site… and if you’re not looking to design a site, ask yourself if your current website does this. If not, you may be looking to redesign your site shortly! 1. Give information to people in bite-sized pieces. Research shows that if you not only group like items together, but also group them into bite-sized pieces, our brains can process the information more easily. 2. Direct people where you want them to go with buttons, shapes and colors. That is why we use a specific format for all of our CTA (call to action) buttons. 3. Product pictures, CTAs and all other buttons should be consistently sized. 4. Use shading and other textures within the design to guide the visitor’s eyes. Texture can also make harsh colors softer on the eyes. 5. Keep colors and fonts consistent throughout the site. Those first few seconds when your potential customer visits your site are all you get to make a good impression, so make it count! “Good visual information design makes smart use of Consistency, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity,” according to The Net Effect. The Social Media Loop- Are You In It?Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 Social Media, as defined by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media), is primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends upon the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities as people share their stories and experiences. Today, Search Engines are looking more and more to the bookmarking trends of these Social Media sites to determine the quality of websites. According to the Search Engine Journal (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-medias-direct-influence-on-search-engine-ranking/5576/), Social Media can help your sites in multiple ways, for example: • Indexing Sites Faster: Humans bookmark sites launched by their friends or colleagues before a search engine ‘bot’ can find them. • Deeper Indexing: Many pages bookmarked are deep into sites and sometimes not as easily linked to by others, found via bad or nonexistent site navigation or linked to from external pages. • Defining Quality: If someone takes the time to bookmark a site, it usually has some quality to it. • Measuring Quality: Essentially, if more users bookmark a page, the more quality and relevance that site has. A site with multiple bookmarks, across multiple bookmarking services, by multiple users is much more of an authority than a site with only multiple bookmarks by the same user. • External Meta Data: Users who bookmark sites tag them with keywords and descriptions that add an honest and unbiased definition, which is created by the public and not the owner of the site. • Co-Citation: Social bookmarking sites tend to categorize sites and pages based upon the tags used by humans to describe the site; therefore search algorithms can classify these sites with their peers. So, to stay on top in the rankings and to make sure you’re a part of the “it” crowd, you should start implementing some of the different Social Media strategies. Here are some of my favorites that we use for clients… and better yet, they’re all FREE: • Tubemogul (http://www.tubemogul.com/) allows you to deploy videos (seeded with keywords) to various video outlets like YouTube, Yahoo, MetaCafe, DailyMotion and many more! You will also be able to see how many times your videos have been watched from each of these sites. • Digg (http://digg.com/) allows you to share content from the Internet that you find interesting. Once a link and story have been submitted, you can cast your vote for the story, also known as a digg. Although your story may get submitted to Digg, digg votes are what will get your story on the front page. • Reddit (www.reddit.com), like Digg, is a social news website where you can post links to various websites. You then can vote on the sites (up or down), thus giving them more presence on Reddit. • del.icio.us (http://delicious.com/) is a social bookmarking web service where users can share sites that they like with others. • Twitter (http://twitter.com/) is a social networking site where you can send text-based updates to other users (otherwise known as “tweets”) to let them know what you are up to. • Knol (http://knol.google.com/k) is closely compared to Wikipedia and is run by Google. This site is more of an article/blog syndication site where users can post articles/blogs, called knols, versus bookmarking the website page for other visitors to view (like dig, reddit and del.icio.us). There are many different Social Media sites out there; these are just a couple of my personal favorites. One thing to note, however; don’t overdo it. Not every post should be put through every media outlet out there. Be sure to mix it up a bit with which Social Media site you are using. Whatever method you choose, get out there and start digging, tweeting and bookmarking your way to success Is Your Website Deadly?Monday, December 8th, 2008 Websites are designed to sit there and look pretty, right? After all, everyone has a website today and don’t you feel obligated to throw some thing up there so that you too have a web address to put on our business card? Unfortunately, THAT is what is wrong with 99% of today’s websites… they do just that, sit there are don’t do anything for you, or your business. In fact, they are probably actually costing you money. Why would they be costing you money? Consider this, you give your business card to someone you meet- and he/she, like all of us, goes and “checks you out” on the Internet. When they arrive they are greeted by analysis paralysis with too many choices on the navigation bar, long paragraphs on the homepage, buttons that may or may not work, articles and documents that haven’t been updated since 2006 (at best), music… and wait…. who are they actually dealing with- a large corporation? Who’s the contact person? So, they say to themselves, “this is too confusing” and leave your site. That person could have been one of your biggest clients; no matter how good your sales pitch was, you lost them through the chaos of your website. Unfortunately, we hear this a lot from our clients. And yes, at one point I too fell victim to the “deadly website.” What do we ALL want when looking to do business with someone? Be it a doctor, lawyer, clothing line, whatever- we look to connect with the person. We wear Nike to be like Tiger, buy dishes to cook more like Rachael Ray, buy Louis Vuitton well, because it’s Louis Vuitton! As a consumer, we want to know them, like them, trust them and ultimately do business with them. Your website should be no different. It should have YOUR personality to it and showcase YOU as the expert in your field. If you can do this, then why would anyone want to do business with someone else if YOU are the expert? To be the expert you have to declare yourself as the expert. You do this through content. I recently received a call from an ABC producer that wanted to speak with one of our clients about being on Good Morning America (although, as the story would pan out she got bumped by our new President Barack Obama- but, that’s a different story….). How did this producer find her? Through a Google search looking for a foreclosure expert in the Orlando area. After visiting her site, which confirmed her expert status, he called to book her. Your website should be doing that too, so that be it a producer or a potential client it hat is searching on the Internet for the expert they find YOU, and your website confirms it! 3 Simple Tips to Make Your Website User-FriendlyTuesday, October 7th, 2008 The one assumption you need to make to follow along with me in this article is “People Buy People.” It can be a hard concept for many people to understand and agree with. However, millions of spent dollars have proven this premise to me, so I consider it more of a law than a theory. (If you’d like more information on this specific topic, check out Jack and Nick’s book, Celebrity Branding You™. You can find it at any bookstore or online at www.CelebrityBrandingYou.com) If you understand the rule that people buy people, then your website MUST have a pleasant atmosphere that allows the visitor to connect with you, your company and your products. By now, you’ve heard me talk about our Celebrity Branding™ philosophies, and the fact that you need your picture on your website goes without saying. But, there are some smaller, often overlooked, areas that shouldn’t be forgotten. Here are three simple tip to make your website user-friendly: 1. Navigation The navigation on your site is probably its most important element. If visitors find your site confusing or cannot successfully navigate through it, they will leave. Make your navigation bar as simple as possible. One of the worst mistakes is using an expanding navigation bar that makes the visitor scroll over it in order for the menu to reveal their options. Most often, this type of navigation bar has too many choices; your visitor doesn’t know where to go, so they get flustered and leave. Navigation on your site is an art, and you should direct your visitors through a logical path to where YOU want them to go (not to where they think they want to go). One way to do this is through call to action buttons or CTAs. We use these buttons on all of our sites; a visitor will go to a main page, and then we can direct them to the parts of that site that we want them to be aware of. We use this method instead of an expanding menu, because we find that it is more logical for visitors. With this method, you can direct visitors to where you want them to go, allowing you to control the buying process. Quick Tip: most “expanding menus” are created in Macromedia Flash. Search engines cannot read Flash, and therefore they will not pick up these links on your website. If the search engines do not pick up the links on the navigation bar and these links are nowhere else on your site, they cannot accurately crawl or index your site. This is search engine suicide, because without even knowing it, you are stopping search engines from understanding what your site has to offer and from driving traffic to you. A good rule of thumb is that a visitor should be able to get to every page on your site with two clicks from your home page. Now, this is not realistic for very complex sites. If your website is complex, you can have a sitemap to help visitors navigate. Some sort of search function may also be a good idea for your site. 2. Page Load Speed It’s hard to believe that some people are still stuck using dial up. Even if you have entered the world of high-speed Internet, no matter what you do, some websites will load slowly. (If you’re frustrated using high-speed Internet, imagine the frustration of those on good ‘ol dial up!) Page load speed is VERY important. I know that when I am surfing the Internet and I stumble upon a site that loads slowly, I get annoyed, frustrated, and don’t browse the site for very long. If your website is loading slowly, you are probably losing out on valuable customers, no matter what business you are in. In today’s web world, we are seeing more and more images, audio files and videos. These things are useful, but you have to be careful that they do not affect the inner workings of your site (in this case, the time it takes for a web page to load). You want to be careful about the size of the images on your website. Both large-sized images and using too many images can cause your website to take too long to load, resulting in visitors leaving. Another tip is to convert videos into a jpeg (image) that only loads and plays the video when a visitor clicks on it. Yes, you may be adding more images to your website, but these are usually small image files; in the hierarchy of the web, a video will slow down your website much more than a small image. Another factor that can influence the load time of your website is the amount of excess code you have on your site (that is a topic for another day – but ask your webmaster, and they will know what I am talking about). 3. Information The number one thing that visitors look for is information. They are coming to your site to be educated about your products and/or services and, most of all, how THEY can benefit. With this in mind, it is critical for the information on your website to be accurate, complete and up-to-date. Visitors will leave your site in a split second if the information you are providing is old news. What’s that best way to provide up-to-date information on your website? The best way we suggest is through blogs and articles. (In case you missed my article last month on how to write a blog in any industry, you can read it on the resources page of http://www.celebritysites.com). By having a section on your website for blogs and articles, you can provide new, relevant and educational information to your visitors. Adding them is not only simple, but it is fast too! So there are my three simple tips for the month on how to make your website user-friendly. Although this covered just the beginning of what your website should contain, don’t worry, I won’t leave you stranded– I’ll reveal even more tips in next month’s article! How to write a “How To” ArticleWednesday, September 3rd, 2008 First to understand why these types of articles are great, you have to understand why people like them so much. So why do people like them? First of all, “how to” articles are easy to follow. Their step-by-step formula makes people think, “I can do that!” And right there, your battle as a writer has been won… you have involved your reader. Step 2 Step 3 If you take one thing away from this article, remember to always keep your focus on your reader and what THEY will benefit from. If you can keep them in mind, and give them what they want, you will be very profitable. Top Three Critical Components for a Search Engine-Optimized WebsiteSunday, May 4th, 2008 Everyone wants to know: How can I get my site on the top of the search engines? Although Google doesn’t publish their magical algorithm that will get you there, there are some well-known facts and strategies to keep in mind when designing or updating your website. 1. Accessibility There are several different components that determine whether or not your site is accessible – and it’s not just about how easily your website can be found. Here are some things to look at: • Broken Links- Check all links on your website regularly. Broken links can hurt you in two different ways. First, if a link leading viewers and search engine crawlers to another part of your website is broken, they cannot access the content. For viewers, this means receiving a very annoying error message. For search engines, this means the page may not get indexed. Second, some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) gurus out there have said that having broken links on your site can actually reflect negatively on your site rankings in search engines. So check those links! • File Size- Typically, websites larger than 150K are not fully cached or indexed by search engines. If you want to make sure your entire website can be indexed, keep it under 150K. • Website Speed (Downtime)- Make sure you are aware how fast your site runs. Not only can a slowly running site be annoying to visitors, but it also bothers search engines. Therefore, your site’s performance can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings. 2. Search-Friendly Text There are several styles of text that cannot be indexed. Making the visible text on a page search-friendly isn’t complicated, but it is an issue that many sites struggle with. Text styles that cannot be indexed by search engines include: text in an image format such as jpg, png, pdf, gif, etc., text embedded in a macromedia flash file, text embedded in a java application, and text only accessible from a form submission (no true link). Don’t worry; even if you do not understand all of these styles, your Webmaster will! 3. Title Tags & Meta Tags Title tags are located at the very top of the browser and tell a visitor what website they are on. More importantly, they tell the visitor how that particular website is going to suit their needs. Meta tags are not as visible, but are also very important. All of these tags help search engines read your site. It is very important for all of these tags to be relevant and contain your top keywords. One last piece of advice: Make sure you have a working and up-to-date sitemap on your website. Sitemaps help search engines understand the flow of a website and how the internal pages link together. This sitemap will help search engines crawl your website and index internal pages. Do Link Building Strategies Work?Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 People always ask me how the syndication of press releases and book-marking your blog in many of the social book-marking sites can possibly generate traffic for your site. The other day I submitted a press release to thousands of online sources for a client. As part of my regular routine, I then put the release up on their web site. Not 20 minutes later they had a new comment on that press release: “I found your site on Technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. I’m looking forward to reading more from you.” Below are a few link-building strategies for you to use in your own business to help generate traffic for your site. 1. Social Book-Marking Sites Social Media book-marking is the strategy used in the story above. It’s also usually the quickest way to get your content read. Use social book-marking sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit and Technorati to bookmark your own As the story above shows, this is a simple way to create a loyal fan base. Find relevant successful blogs in your particular niche that you can comment on. If you find a blog that already has a loyal fan base, become a part of their community and you can tap into that fan base. Start leaving comments on the blogs with a link back to your web site (or blog). Engaging with these relevant blogs is a great way to get noticed. It can also lead to valuable links back to your site. 3. Article Syndication Sites Start writing relevant articles about your niche and syndicate them. There a ton of these article syndication sites out there, some that we use and suggest are http://www.ezinearticles.com, http://www.articlemarketer.com, http://submityourarticle.com, http://www.articlebase.com. Each of these sites allow you to have a byline at the bottom of your article so if someone reads your article and likes what they see they can visit your site for more information. Submitting your article to these types of sites does several things. One benefit is that it allows you to get your information out there (through RSS feeds) on thousands of web sites and can lead to your content being referenced in other posts and articles. Also, make sure to always include your web address in your author byline because each time your article is picked up on a site, it provides a link back to your site, thus generating highly targeted traffic to your web site and also raising your search engine rankings through your increased number of link-backs. Another simple hint: In your byline give the reader a reason to visit your web site. For example, “Want to find more insider secrets to successfully grow your business and increase profits? Check out www.yourwebsitehere.com for a free copy of Top 10 secrets to gaining ridiculous income in 6 months.” (Not to mention if they go and sign-up, then they’re on your mailing list!) Conclusion: Remember, if you don’t take the time to tell people about you and your business then no one will ever know what they’re missing! 13 Tips to Keep in Mind When Writing Your PPC AdsThursday, November 29th, 2007 1. Heading. This is the most important part of your Ad. The heading is what potential visitors see first when looking at various search results. The better the visitor can identify with your heading the more likely they are to click on your ad and visit your web site. Keep in mind that you headline MUST give them what they want. It must give them the answer they are searching for, if it doesn’t they won’t click. On the opposite side of that. The headline is a good place to qualify your prospects. You don’t just want "lookie loos" on your web site wasting your money by clicking on your ad and not signing up for your product. 2. Use keywords in your title. Use keywords that people are searching for in your ads. By using the keyword in the heading it captures the searcher and subconsciously they think that your as answers their search because you have the keyword in the title. 3. Benefit. The first line of the ad should describe the benefit of what you’re offering. Buyers want to know "what’s in it for them" so TELL THEM! For Example: "’new affordable pool equipment". In this example, the benefit is that your equipment is new and affordable. 4. Feature. The second line of your ad should depict a major feature for your particular product or feature. For Example: "deal with experienced experts" In this example, the feature is that your company is experienced and knowledgeable; "Been is business for over 20 years" is another good feature because people assume that if you’ve been in the business for a long time than you know what you’re doing (which may or may not be a good assumption on their part!) 5. Display URL vs Destination URL. Google give you two places to note your URL, one is seen on the ad (the display URL) and one is the actual web site a visitor is taken to when they click on your ad (the destination URL), both are very important. Since the space you are given to get your message across is so small, the display URL is another place that viewers can subconsciously see your information. So, make it simple on them to read and consider using the keyword (of it fits) as a subdirectory of your URL. For example: www.YourWebSiteHere.com/PoolEquipment For the destination URL, make sure that the landing page (the page your visitor is taken to) gives them the answer to their search. If they were looking for pool equipment, DO NOT take them to the home page. Instead, direct them to a page that lists all the different pool equipment you have available. Simply by doing this one trick you will decrease your bounce rate (or the number of people that leave your site without visiting any other page on your site, more importantly the confirmation page that tracks your conversions!) 6. Capitalize EVERY word! Although these ads may say the same thing, but which stands out more to you? For Example: For Example: Pool Equipment So, which do you think is going to attract the eye of the potential buyer? 7. Keyword Methods. There are several methods for choosing keywords 1.[Exact Match]- The search has to match exactly to your keyword with no additional keyword. For example: if [pool equipment] was searched, your ad would only be displayed someone searched for pool equipment and not new pool equipment. 2. "Phrase Match"- Your ad appears when that exact phrase is searched. Your ad will come up even if additional words are used, but you search has to be shown in the exact order. For Example: if "pool equipment" was searched, your ad would come up new pool equipment, pool equipment store, but not for equipment for your pool. 3. Broad Match- If you do not put your keyword(s) in brackets or quotes, then Google will come up with results for all possible matches of your keyword(s). For example: if some searched for pool equipment, your ad would show up for new pool equipment, pool equipment for your home, pool equipment store, etc. Unfortunately, there is no one "best way" to match your keywords. You must take a look at your business and decide what works for your product or service. One more tip- if you decide to use broad match make sure you use negative keywords, such as free. This was your ad would not come up when someone search free pool equipment (unless you really had free equipment to give out- and if that’s the case, let me know and we’ll talk). It is quite easy to note the negative keywords. For example, if you didn’t want free you would write ‘ free in your list of keywords. So you may have a list that looks like this: [pool equipment] And yes, you can most certainly list exact, phrase and broad match keywords. 8. Don’t forget the "www." Make sure that your use the "www" is your display URL. No, it is not necessary and the visitor will still reach your site without it; however, today, our brains are so systematic that by including the "www" it not only draws attention to the web site (and the ad) but it allows our brain to process that we are looking at a URL and thus we should remember what we are looking at. 9. Short and to the Point. You are VERY limited in the amount of characters you get for your ads. Therefore, keep your ads as concise as possible: GET TO THE POINT! 10. Price. We all know price drives a person. Even in real estate if your home isn’t selling than what’s wrong with it? The price. If you have competitively priced your product or service to be the lowest in your market, consider putting the price in your ad title. If a potential buyer sees your low price they’ll probably click on your ad to see what you’re all about. 11. Free. I like free- don’t you? People inherently like ‘free’ things. So, if you are truly giving something away for free (like a free consultation, free bonus, free trial) than consider putting free in your title. Again, it will grab the attention of your potential buyer and encourage them to visit your web site. 12. Two things to look at: CTR (Click Through Rate) and Conversion Rate. Both of these elements are key when you are analyzing the success of your keywords and ads. You must find a "happy medium" between the two elements, because without it, your ads will fail. For Example: If you adjust your ad focusing solely on your conversion rate, although you may be converting more people and thus probably spending more money If you had 1,000 impressions and 4 visitors your CTR would be .04%. Of these 4 clicks, you had 1 conversion for a conversion rate of 25%. Not a bad conversion rate and you’re spending less money to get it. Good right? Well, kind of. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on the way you look at it) Google places rank of CTR and those ads with a higher CTR will be shown more often (keep in mind this is not the only factor but is one of many). So, although you may think you’re doing better because you’re spending less money and getting more leads/conversions you may sacrifice you position with Google. 13. Test, Test and Test AGAIN! Unfortunately, even after spending all the time in the world to make sure you have the best possible ad for your product or service you cannot just “set the ad and go.” You must keep testing the ad to see what works. Yes, at times, this re-testing can be a daunting task, but if you don’t continually test your market, ads and keywords you will loose the game because I guarantee you, your competition is still testing. 7 Fatal Grammar Mistakes to Avoid in Your WritingThursday, November 29th, 2007 1. Your or You’re? First of all, possessive or contraction? "You’re" is a contraction of "you" and "are" saying that "you are’" something. You’re happy. "Your" is a possessive pronoun, for example "your house," "your dog" or "your car." 2. It’s or Its? Here we go with possessive vs. contraction again - "It’s" is a contract of "it" and "is" (or "it" and "has"). For example, "it is cold outside" or "it’s cold outside." "Its" is a possessive pronoun as in "the dog is eating its food." 3. There, Their or They’re? "There" is an adverb describing a location. For example, "Bob set his suitcase there." "Their" is a possessive pronoun as in ”their dog ran away.” "They’re"’ is a contraction of "they" and "are." For example, "they are going to the game" or "they’re going to the game." When it boils down to it’ is it possessive or is it a contraction? 4. Affect vs. Effect I still find myself getting caught up with this one, and I always have to stop and think about it. Affect is generally a verb (using it as a noun is usually avoided), it means to influence. " The Florida State loss will affect their standings in the polls." Effect as a verb means to cause " His look of disapproval effected my shirt change." Effect as a verb means the result – The effect the hurricane had on the house was devastating. 5. Where to put that damn punctuation For some reason people always try to make punctuation tougher than it is and for some reason when using quotes really confuses people. Here is your rule of thumb: When using quotes ALWAYS put the ending punctuation INSIDE the QUOTES- ALWAYS! " It’s sunny outside," said Mary. NOT " It’s sunny outside"’, said Mary. 6. Me or I? For what ever reason, this one took me a while too, but once I got it- it was so simple! The easiest way to tell which to use (me or I) is to take the other person out of the sentence and see if it still makes sense. For example: Which sounds better? "Me went shopping last weekend", "I went shopping last weekend". When you put it that way, it’s pretty obvious. Isn’t it? 7. Then or Than? Simple put: than is a comparison; then is a description of time. For example: "I want to go to the grocery story then go home." |
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Content is Still King
 Success Stories “The online world is a great place to make money and gain notoriety but it can be a tremendous waste of resources if you don’t have the right team working with you. When my previous consulting company was charging me outrageous prices and failing to deliver time and time again, I turned to Celebrity Sites™. Since then my online campaigns have turned around 180 degrees! Its great having Celebrity Sites™ on my team, helping me grow my business and my profits. Don’t wait until its too late, call them today. Trust me, you can’t afford to wait!”
- Chris Hurn, President & CEO, Mercantile Capital Corporation®
CNBC Contacted me because of Celebrity Sites™!
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- Brian Fricke, Owner, President
 “Thanks for everything! We’re crushing last year’s numbers, already. Thanks for helping us spread the word!”
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- Yeosh and Jon
Push Button Productions
 Want to hear Ka-ching again? Well, if your website’s dead, not making money and you don’t how to fix it – good news, there’s an answer.
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Yeah, we like the folks at CelebritySites.com a lot. YOU will too!
- Daniel J. Liebrecht Clean Guru LLC
CNBC Contacted me because of Celebrity Sites™!
I just wanted to take a moment to say WOW! My last website took many years and many versions to never quite get what I wanted. In less than 30 days you guys designed and built a brand new website that I love and now, not even 60 days since it’s been live, I’m starting to get calls from television producers! Just last week I got a call from CNBC because they were searching for financial experts to feature on a new show they are launching and they found me thanks to my new website. This is incredible, thanks so much for the great experience. Anyone who isn’t taking advantage of your unique expertise of Celebrity Branding business people online is missing the boat in many ways!
- Brian Fricke, Owner, President
 Just wanted to take a minute to thank Celebrity Sites™. Making that first impression of what our business is about is very important.
Celebrity Sites™ has done more in just a couple of months than we did in the last 6 years which was nothing because we tried different things but were just were not on track. You knew where to start and how to get there in lighting speed. You guys not only listened to our ideas but gave some great ideas. Whenever we needed to talk to you, you were right there, by email or phone – you name it, you responded. We are so excited every day to see Larry’s Big Idea take shape. The website is second to none thanks to Lindsay and is improving weekly. The ideas that Jack and Nick come up with at each meeting are awesome.
If anyone out there is considering launching their business to just the next level forget it. Get in the elevator with Celebrity Sites™ and they will take you to the top floor (Penthouse). Stay tuned for more!
Kimberlee Frank
“The online world is a great place to make money and gain notoriety but it can be a tremendous waste of resources if you don’t have the right team working with you. When my previous consulting company was charging me outrageous prices and failing to deliver time and time again, I turned to Celebrity Sites™. Since then my online campaigns have turned around 180 degrees! Its great having Celebrity Sites™ on my team, helping me grow my business and my profits. Don’t wait until its too late, call them today. Trust me, you can’t afford to wait!”
- Chris Hurn, President & CEO, Mercantile Capital Corporation®
 Honestly, you guys are the best. I appreciate all that you do and will do for your clients. You guys really go one step and beyond and I will recommend you to everyone.
- Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy
 Celebrity Sites™ is awesome! They are on top of things all the time and keep you out in front of your competition. Thanks again and again!
- Larry Frank (aka Mr. Prepared)
 “I just got off the phone with a reporter for SmartMoney.com for an article about foreclosures that’s going to run on AOL.com in about 2 weeks! She found me by searching on Google and found the press release you did that announced me as a new “expert” for AgentDirectNews.com . Then she went to my website and liked what she saw so she called me up! Imagine, being quoted in an AOL Real Estate story…you can’t BUY that kind of exposure at any price! I knew I was making the right choice to work with you guys and now that has been confirmed ten fold! Thanks for all of your help!”
- Andy Tolbert
 “How many of you Tweet and Twitter? If you’re just trying it out or doing your best to market yourself… check out Lindsay Dicks. She’s the bomb.com when it comes to self promotion.”
-Heidi Hatch, Fox 35 News Reporter
 Wow, you really know what you are doing & I am impressed! CelebritySites took my dead website & literally brought it to life! I never realized what I was missing until my site was completely revamped! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
- Traci Bild
 “It’s always scary changing your website even when you know you need an update. Lots of times you feel like you are on an island and the people developing your website could care less if they respond to your concerns or not. Not only did Lindsay and her staff stay in constant contact with me through the entire process, they responded immediately to each question, and improved on my own ideas for the site. They thought of things that I would have never considered and have also taken my haphazard social media postings and formed a consistent strategy that is sure to blow the doors off anything I have done before. I feel like I have gotten many times over my money’s worth already. Thanks Lindsay and team!”
-Dr. Chris Griffin, Ripley, MS, The Capacity Academy
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Keep an eye on your blog comments. For a blogger, seeing a post lead to a flurry of comments is incredibly rewarding. In fact, the interactivity offered by blogs is one of the reasons for their exponential growth over the past decade. But comments are more than just a reward for a great post—they provide crucial information about your audience. Which types of blog posts inspire the most discussion? What information does your audience most appreciate? The number of comments you receive on a given post is often a great barometer of audience interest. 
) …and either way, you can always start your own! Participating in niche-related groups is one of the KEYS of LinkedIn. Starting your own group helps build your credibility and shows your expertise.
) followers doesn’t mean anything ☺
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