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Posts tagged: Blogs

2008 Online PR Preview From Canright Communications

Posted on December 12, 2007

CanrightCommunications A few weeks ago, Collin Canright asked Douglass Davidoff, who blogs at Straight Talk PR, to interview me about online PR in 2008. How flattering to get that kind of attention!

When you talk to Doug, you can tell he’s a former seasoned journalist now PR pro/blogger.

“You want me to answer that!?!” was my answer to Doug’s question about how I want to make money in 2008. If you know me, you know my game’s more about fun than money. That was before I knew I would be launching a product in January. Thanks for the kick in the keyboard, Doug.

Find out more about what’s to come in online PR 2008.

Start working on your 2008 online PR agenda.

The story behind the interview . . .

Does networking work 15 years later? Surprisingly, networking ages not only gracefully, but exponentially.

In April, I ran into Collin Canright of Canright Communications at Ken McCarthy’s The System Seminar. I first met Collin and his wife, Christina, about 15 years ago when he was president of the Independent Writers of Chicago.

If you would’ve asked me to pick Collin out of a room, I’m not sure I could’ve done it. But, I’m a stickler for remembering names. When I saw his nametag at The System Seminar, I recognized him.

Fifteen years later finds you at a different, more mature, place in life. While I was just warming up to writing after a career as a sales rep, Collin and Christina were well on their way. It’s almost better to take a break and reconnect at a new common places. This time it’s marketing online, not independent writing.

Who do know that you haven’t talked to in years? Why not search LinkedIn, Google and Facebook to see what they’re up to and surprise them with a voice from the past? 

0 Comments - Posted in Networking, Online PR Tagged with:

USA Today Gives Bloggers Free Ads | How to Get Yours

Posted on December 11, 2007

BloggerPodcasterGuide

Want to advertise, but don’t have an ad budget? Or, you do have an ad budget, but want a free month’s worth of testing?

USA TODAY wants your blog in their Blogger & PodcasterUSATodayBusinessBlogWiredPRWorks Guide.

Here’s what your ad will look like. This screen shot is from the business page. Right now, I’m at number one – don’t know how that happened or how long it will last. And, I also don’t know blogs get rated. I do know that my friend, Christina Hills – The Shopping Cart Queen comes in at number three. I’m in good company.

When I got in on this offer in November, I replied to an email suggesting that only 50 free spots were open. Really, nothing happened – at all – until yesterday when I got an email letting me know that major revisions happened between then and now. I’ll say – wow!

You can change your ad at any time, which appeals to the edgy upgraders out there. Although I don’t yet have a blog logo – it’s set to be conceived and born sometime next month – I came up with this quickly dashed off logo using Word and Snag-it to cut out the image.

WiredPRWorksLogo 

Looking rather lame, especially since I copied the wrong image [it was supposed to be a purply heather background with white text], I decided to use my file photo.

Comparing my ad to the others, you’ll see it’s the only one [for now] with a call to action:

“Create business for your business. Sharpen your competitive edge. Feed into Wired PR Works, your always-on marketing/PR resource center. Published for you by Barbara Rozgonyi, a communications visionary and founder of CoryWest Media, LLC. Blog mentioned in “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott. Special offer: free $97 Power PR Secrets Guide at www.PowerPRSecrets.com. Need a new”

Have to snip of the last three words, but you can see it’s stuffed with keywords and a bio carefully framed into reader benefits.

Here’s how to get your free 30 day ad up and running.

  1. Go to http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday
  2. Select “New User” and go through 6 Step registration process
  3. In Step 2 be sure to select Option #4 and enter `BP‘ in Coupon Code box.

After you upload your ad, check back here and leave a link.

1 Comment - Posted in Branding, Marketing, Marketing Blog Tagged with: , ,

PR Power Index 12-07 | Tied for 2nd Most Improved PR Blog

Posted on December 10, 2007

FriendlyGhostPRPowerIndex

Brendan Cooper’s December 2007 PR Power Index is out.

Most improved, up 14 spots, goes to Public Relations Rogue by Bernie Charland.  We tied for second most improved, up 13 spots, with my [PR] palette written by Martin Waxman.

Now, Wired PR Works ranks at 66/100. Thanks to Brendan for his continued score-keeping.

The PR Power Index is a great resource for PR insights and information – as well as keeping track of who’s who. 

1 Comment - Posted in Online PR Tagged with: ,

Make Headlines: 10 Tips to Your Top PR-Google News

Posted on December 10, 2007

 Fifty

Fifty characters: my recommended target mark and the length of the headline for this blog post.

Making headlines caught my attention last week when a contact in a Yahoo! Group asked if anyone could talk about how to write headlines. After I volunteered, I decided to write this post to share my findings along with ten tips to help you write better headlines.

Where did I come up with shorter is better?

In Business Wire’s post, “Shorter Headlines Can Lead to Google Juice,”  [42 characters with spaces]. you’ll see that Google warns that headlines of over 22 words will get kicked out of search results. Their recommendation? 2-22 words per headline, that’s it.

Kevin Dugan at The Bad Pitch Blog writes:

Even machines capable of reading endless amounts of x’s and o’s at breakneck speed don’t want to wade through fertile fields of long-winded news release headlines.

He goes on to give tips, including skipping the news release. I agree. Why bother if it’s not news?

PRWeb suggests a headline of ideally under 80 characters. LiveWriter’s post title holds space for 55 characters.

In a highly unscientific experiment, I copied the top 10 Google News headlines, here’s how the average headline displayed:

8.5 words

42 characters

49.6 characters with spaces

The longest Google News headline? 9 words, 53 characters and 65 characters with spaces.

A few examples of headlines that work:

Dell: Not the PC company you used to know

Cnet News

What I like: names the company, adds in PC as a search term, brings in you as a reader and suggests a change you need to know about

Study:Try Honey for Children’s Coughs

Washington Post

What I like: starts with the word “study,” which immediately says you’ll read about proven results, uses a call to action “try”, tells you what to use “honey” to stop “children’s coughs.” This news also wound up on the headline screen on the elevator display in my husband’s office while I was out of town. He tested it out with our son. Honey does help. And, hey, you never know where those headlines will show up.

Studios bring in PR doctors

LA Times

What I like: short, to the point with a bit of mystery. You may think the story is about the writer’s strike [it is], but you also wonder what needs to be cured.

Ten Ways to Make Headlines Search Engine Stand Outs

1. Shorter is better, ideally under 50 characters with spaces

2. Include keywords or lead with them

3. Come up with the headline before you write a release, post or article

4. Write a minimum of 30 headlines per piece – it’s faster than you think

5. Include a call to action, if you can

6. Summarize the story in five words or less

7. Test different headline to see what gets the best response

8. Track success rates from a keyword perspective

9. Search for your story using the headline to see where it shows up

10. Go to a news page or your RSS reader and make a list of the headlines you like.

What do think? What works for you when you write headlines?

2 Comments - Posted in Blogging, Online PR, Press Releases Tagged with: ,

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: , , ,