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Category: Internet Marketing

Keyword Intelligence: Spy Sites

Posted on December 7, 2007

In checking my blog stats today, I found eight incoming links from KeywordSpy [affiliate link].  While it’s flattering that someone, make that anyone, would want to know what keywords I’m bidding on, at first it was a bit unnerving.

Who would want to know how I advertise?

Whoever you are, thank you. In researching myself, I found my top competition from Down Under. But, my campaign isn’t set to reach Australia. And, that’s the only country you can check on with the free trial.

To get complete access to every country, ad copy and top competitors for pay per click keywords, you’ll need to pay $89.00 per month. Considering that a small business owner who attended my blogging for entrepreneurs presentation last month pays at least twice that every day, $89.00 for a month can save you tons time, mounds of wasted effort and at least $89.00 in PPC charges.

If that’s too big for your budget, you do have a lower cost option.

SpyFu, another competitive keyword intelligence tool gives you three days of complete access for under $7. While SpyFu’s results may be a bit dated, you will get information on who’s bidding on what, the average pay per click and even actual ads – for free. Maybe their subscription service is fresher.

Why do you need to know about keywords if you don’t ever plan to run a pay per click [PPC] campaign?

Think of keywords as search terms. Find the most popular and weave them into your blog, your site and your news releases so that you’ll show up in search results – right along side the ads you’re not paying for.

One reason to buy PPC ads is to make sure you pop up on top in mobile searches. As more and more phones morph into mobile search devices, you’ll want to be on top and be found right away.

1 Comment - Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing Blog, Online PR Tagged with: , , ,

2008 Internet Marketing Education Buyer’s Guide

Posted on November 29, 2007

Quick – what did you spend on continuing education in 2007?

Don’t know. Neither do I.

Wendy’s post about just saying no to overspending on useless Internet marketing products prompted me to put together this 2008 continuing education buyer’s guide. I have to admit I was in the room and in on that conversation about spending $50,000 on Internet marketing “business development.”  

Yep, that $50k was quite a jaw-dropper. But, easy to add up when you consider expensive monthly memberships at $500 and up; conference registrations and packages that promise to cure-it-all, all-at-once. Implementing all of it and taking action would take, uh, years.

Wendy’s post prompted me to come up with a continuing education buyer’s guide to help you plan for 2008.

Here’s what you need to do . . .

- build in an annual continuing education component

- focus on one theme like becoming an expert

- carefully evaluate each product’s match to your theme

- listen to a preview call to see if the product is right for you

- don’t believe in the fast cash come on – it’s a fairly rare fairy tale

- research the author/creator/vendor – who are they and where did they come from?

- match the system to your learning style – readers won’t want to watch 20 hours of DVDs and iPod users won’t want to slog through a manual

- never buy anything from a site that has a car or glamorous models on it

- email the creator and ask if the product’s right for you for your situation

- set aside time to take action – don’t have time? Don’t buy the product.

- read every sales letter with a critical eye – don’t get hypnotized by hype

- contact or Google the testimonials – are they really real people or imposters?

- check out the guarantee – and get your money back if you can’t use the product

- be honest: will you be the 1/10 that takes action?

- Tell your spouse or a friend what you expect to get out of taking the course, going to the conference or joining the club. If you can’t convince them that it’s worth it, it’s probably not.

I do believe there is a place for solid content that saves people time and money. That’s why I’m working on a PR course for entrepreneurs and bloggers. And, I will continue to recommend information products I use and like.

What’s your continuing education plan for 2008?

4 Comments - Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing Tagged with:

Public Relations Marketing Analysis: Diagnosing Pain

Posted on November 28, 2007

marketingdoctor

Today’s Marketing Transformation News ezine article, tells you how to diagnose your prospect’s pain. After answering 16 questions, you can develop a cure and treatment plan that replaces pain with results. Let me know what you’d add  . . .

Public Relations Marketing Analysis: Diagnosing Pain

by Barbara Rozgonyi for CoryWest Media, LLC

Diagnostic tests. We use them for cars, people, computers and anything else that’s broken and needs to be fixed. Test results show what’s wrong, how much damage needs to be repaired and give costs or treatment plans to restore the person, place or thing to a healthy state.

No matter what kind of business you run, your prospects are really patients looking for a cure or fix that helps them get results. When you think of yourself as a diagnostic practitioner that prescribes personalized treatment programs, you can diagnose your client’s pain and save them the time and expense of searching for alternative solutions. Here’s a list of 16 questions you can ask your prospect – and your business – to find answers that help you refine your marketing and your service.

For example, most business owners feel the pain of making decisions about marketing. Evaluating options, testing programs, waiting for results – all take time. Some solutions, like elaborate integrated marketing campaigns, require great investments. Others, like online PR, offer almost immediately trackable returns.

Questions to Ask Your Prospects

  1. When did the pain first start?
  1. How long have you had it?
  1. What have you tried to relieve it? Did it work? Why or why not?
  1. Is it a chronic or acute pain?
  1. What results are you looking for?
  1. How fast do you want the pain to go away?
  1. How long does the relief need to last?
  1. What are your willing to do to make the pain reliever more powerful?

Practitioner questions

  1. What kind of “doctor” is qualified to make the diagnosis or write a prescription? What qualifies you as a professional practitioner?
  2. What dose and mix of treatments do you recommend?
  3. Do they need to take anything with your reliever? Anything your pain reliever doesn’t mix with?
  4. Any warnings to follow?
  5. Who or what else might be a pain reliever? How does your relief compare to theirs?
  6. Do you have a “clinic” that treats this disorder?
  7. What type of follow up treatment plan do you offer?
  8. What are typical results over what time period?

Once you have all the answers, present yourself as a diagnostic practitioner and see how selling products, getting new members or raising awareness gets easier and easier. After all, who doesn’t want to be free from pain?

About the author . . .

An in-demand publicist, professional speaker and marketing communications consultant since 1990, Barbara Rozgonyi is grounded, edgy and prophetic. “Panoramic PR,” Barbara’s latest project, compresses everything she knows into an affordable, manageable course that teaches small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors, experts, coaches and anyone else who wants more free publicity how to get completely covered by being fully exposed. Claim a free report and get automatic articles like this one at http://www.powerprsecrets.com.

0 Comments - Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing Tagged with: ,

How Online Press Releases Build Affiliate Sales

Posted on November 14, 2007

affiliatemarketingtipswiredprworks

Want to earn commissions for recommending products? Many sites or products offer affiliate commissions every time someone who clicks your link makes a purchase. [Note: actual affiliate link included in post for illustration purposes]

Most Internet marketers make affiliate sales when they promote products to their email lists. Bloggers reap affiliate sales rewards by recommending products in posts or in blog display ads.

If you’re looking for a way to market affiliate products beyond email and blogging, try online press releases. In the last week, two PR Web releases published 15 months ago each brought in an affiliate sale.

Here’s how to keep your press release selling . . .

- buy a URL and forward it your affiliate link in your domain management center – for example, www.bloghostingpros.com, links to my BlueHost affiliate site

- hyperlink your anchor texts to link to your affiliate URL so that blog hosting pro, BlueHost links to your affiliate site. Google picks up these anchor text as keywords. You’ll want to use one in the summary, one in the beginning and one towards the end

- call for action two times – once at the end of the introductory paragraph and once and the end of the release

- list benefits, not features, to let the reader know the advantages of buying the product

- quote a few experts or the product creator to add credibility and dimension

- only promote products that you stand behind; check out everything before you recommend it

- experience the product and write a review that gives pros and cons

- track your affiliate clicks and sales so that you know what works with your audience – does it take 100,000 views to sell one item or can you sell 20?

- invest in a high quality distribution partner that hosts your release and allows you to add multi-media elements like audio and video

- keep distributing releases, each one targeted for a different audience or a different benefit

- last but not least, write a headline that attracts attention, is 80 characters or less and contains at least one of your top keywords

0 Comments - Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Blog, Press Releases Tagged with: ,

BlogWorld | Building an Online Community

Posted on November 12, 2007

Speakers

Wendy Piersall, Emomsathome

Matt Colebourne, CoComment

Dave Nalle, BlogCritics

Great session – please share your impressions or thoughts about building an online community.

The tone that Wendy sets in her posts is extremely personal. She stays appropriate and relevant. Because that tone is there, people are respectful. That personal aspect causes them to want to join the conversation more. People are touched emotionally. As much as you can do that. As passionate and personal as you can get, that’s what makes people want to share.

Any time you do see a new comment come in – shoot them an email, encouraging other new people – making your blog user-friendly for all levels. They might be too afraid to ask that publicly, put a little something in your side – beginners guide as a little welcome mat.

Wendy tries to let her readers know they come first. With that tone set, she suggest her readers work together and connects them via email. We need to push them to talk to each other. I don’t want it to be a one-way project. Tell me what you want and I’m going to have you guys work together. Within your own niche, there are ways to help readers work together. Put them in the spotlight. Really important, really simple and really easy to achieve. You need to answer that question every day: What’s in it for them?

Profitability on a blog is a wonderful dream, but unless you have something to sell, it’s a lot harder to make a profit on a blog. Find other creative ways to include ads. Find things to be related on that topic. It may take a very long time for a blog to take off. Go to blogger, click on next blog in random and you can click on dead blogs.

Wendy – the stickier that your blog is, the more that they’re invested in the content, the less they’re going to be interested in buying. What do you want? Clicks versus sticky? Sometimes they work against each other. Moneytize a sticky blog: sell your own products, direct.

Want to make good money? Join another group or create your own. You can get more attention. You can do deals and that pushes your monetization from a few cents to the $2-5/000 range.

Wendy realized that in order to grow her blog, she launched six more blogs on her site, but now she has six other people creating content for her site. Two of her readers are now writers. She went through a hiring process.

It’s important to advertise your blog as well. One way is to become associated with a larger site like BlogCritics with the goal of getting their name out there so the traffic will be driven from their site. Extends the community from your blog outside your blog. Community is everywhere. You need to be part of other communities as well.

IF your blog is sticky, your readers will come for the conversation. The number one way is to create ways to bring people into conversations.

Show people that there is a community, show some of the interaction so that new people realize that they are becoming part of something. A top commentator widget – with the number of comments next to the title encourages people to post. Be as open and as honest and as personal as you possibly can. The most comments out there come when people talk about life.

wendypiersall-barbararozgonyi

Updated 11.13.07 With Wendy Piersall at BlogWorld.

Browse Wired PR Work’s BlogWorld Expo 2007 collection.

One in a series of lightly edited transcripts or comments by Barbara Rozgonyi.

1 Comment - Posted in Branding, Internet Marketing, PR Tagged with: , ,