If your business can get to grips with online press release marketing it can be one of the easiest ways to bring traffic to your website and boost sales. We show you how below.
Benefits Of Press Release Marketing
Offline PR brings you exposure in magazines, newspapers and maybe even local TV or radio; online we are targeting back-links and traffic to our website via well-written, optimised press releases that are interesting and widely distributed.
Traffic comes from the keywords and back-links that are embedded into optimised press releases, which help us get rankings in Google News and the main search engines.
Using A Distribution Service
In order to get a good level of traffic hitting our website we need to use a distribution service for our online press releases.
A great one to use is PRWeb . You submit your completed press release and they will send it to literally thousands of other sites.
A Melbourne SEO Example
You’ve probably seen the “Google
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
How Press Releases Create The Ultimate Testimonial For Your Business
[caption id="attachment_6478" align="alignleft" width="221" caption="Go beyond celebrity endorsements."][/caption]
We have often mentioned the importance of others vouching for your business; when the media vouches for you, that’s the ultimate testimonial– and online press releases are a great way to make that happen.
One of the most important marketing strategies for your business, after you have created an optimised website with a sales funnel in progress, is to “up” the exposure you are getting; this will enhance your expert status, provide free advertising and start to send more traffic your way.
The Value Of Testimonials
Testimonials for your business can come in one of several ways:
Customers – most are happy to say some good words about you.
Celebrity Endorsements – expensive if you need Tiger Woods!
Experts in your Niche – Interviewing them creates the “halo” effect for you
Media and Other Organisations
You should try for all of the
We have often mentioned the importance of others vouching for your business; when the media vouches for you, that’s the ultimate testimonial– and online press releases are a great way to make that happen.
One of the most important marketing strategies for your business, after you have created an optimised website with a sales funnel in progress, is to “up” the exposure you are getting; this will enhance your expert status, provide free advertising and start to send more traffic your way.
The Value Of Testimonials
Testimonials for your business can come in one of several ways:
Customers – most are happy to say some good words about you.
Celebrity Endorsements – expensive if you need Tiger Woods!
Experts in your Niche – Interviewing them creates the “halo” effect for you
Media and Other Organisations
You should try for all of the
Sunday, January 29, 2012
A Sample PR Strategy – The MCG Way!
We have mentioned the “Selling the MCG” story in another post or two but we focus this post on it because it serves as a sample PR strategy for your business.
Below we cover how the idea came about and then how it was brought into the public arena to help sell it.
Of course, in this case we are talking about an Australian icon (the MCG) in a one-off venture, but many of the lessons I learned from this campaign I took into my later businesses and hope that you can use the lessons in yours too.
The Idea
I had just read the “One Minute Millionaire” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen and was intrigued by the story of how someone actually sold pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95 during one of its reconstructions.
A while later I was driving past the MCG and saw that they were knocking one of the stands down and had my light bulb moment.
The MCG was an Australian cultural icon in much the same way as the Brooklyn Bridge is to East Coast Americans and
Below we cover how the idea came about and then how it was brought into the public arena to help sell it.
Of course, in this case we are talking about an Australian icon (the MCG) in a one-off venture, but many of the lessons I learned from this campaign I took into my later businesses and hope that you can use the lessons in yours too.
The Idea
I had just read the “One Minute Millionaire” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen and was intrigued by the story of how someone actually sold pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95 during one of its reconstructions.
A while later I was driving past the MCG and saw that they were knocking one of the stands down and had my light bulb moment.
The MCG was an Australian cultural icon in much the same way as the Brooklyn Bridge is to East Coast Americans and
Friday, January 20, 2012
21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012)
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
Posted by randfish
It's easy to build a blog, but hard to build a successful blog with significant traffic. Over the years, we've grown the Moz blog to nearly a million visits each month and helped lots of other blogs, too. I launched a personal blog late last year and was amazed to see how quickly it gained thousands of visits to each post. There's an art to increasing a blog's traffic, and given that we seem to have stumbled on some of that knowledge, I felt it compulsory to give back by sharing what we've observed.
NOTE: This post replaces a popular one I wrote on the same topic in 2007. This post is intended to be useful to all forms of bloggers - independent folks, those seeking to monetize, and marketing professionals working an in-house blog from tiny startups to huge companies. Not all of the tactics will work for everyone, but at least some of these should be applicable and useful.
#1 - Target Your Content to an Audience Likely to Share
When strategizing about who you're writing for, consider that audience's ability to help spread the word. Some readers will naturally be more or less active in evangelizing the work you do, but particular communities, topics, writing styles and content types regularly play better than others on the web. For example, great infographics that strike a chord (like this one), beautiful videos that tell a story (like this one) and remarkable collections of facts that challenge common assumptions (like this one) are all targeted at audiences likely to share (geeks with facial hair, those interested in weight loss and those with political thoughts about macroeconomics respectively).
If you can identify groups that have high concentrations of the blue and orange circles in the diagram above, you dramatically improve the chances of reaching larger audiences and growing your traffic numbers. Targeting blog content at less-share-likely groups may not be a terrible decision (particularly if that's where you passion or your target audience lies), but it will decrease the propensity for your blog's work to spread like wildfire across the web.
#2 - Participate in the Communities Where Your Audience Already Gathers
Advertisers on Madison Avenue have spent billions researching and determining where consumers with various characteristics gather and what they spend their time doing so they can better target their messages. They do it because reaching a group of 65+ year old women with commercials for extreme sports equipment is known to be a waste of money, while reaching an 18-30 year old male demographic that attends rock-climbing gyms is likely to have a much higher ROI.
Thankfully, you don't need to spend a dime to figure out where a large portion of your audience can be found on the web. In fact, you probably already know a few blogs, forums, websites and social media communities where discussions and content are being posted on your topic (and if you don't a Google search will take you much of the way). From that list, you can do some easy expansion using a web-based tool like DoubleClick's Ad Planner:
Once you've determined the communities where your soon-to-be-readers gather, you can start participating. Create an account, read what others have written and don't jump in the conversation until you've got a good feel for what's appropriate and what's not. I've written a post here about rules for comment marketing, and all of them apply. Be a good web citizen and you'll be rewarded with traffic, trust and fans. Link-drop, spam or troll and you'll get a quick boot, or worse, a reputation as a blogger no one wants to associate with.
#3 - Make Your Blog's Content SEO-Friendly
Search engines are a massive opportunity for traffic, yet many bloggers ignore this channel for a variety of reasons that usually have more to do with fear and misunderstanding than true problems. As I've written before, "SEO, when done right, should never interfere with great writing." In 2011, Google received over 3 billion daily searches from around the world, and that number is only growing:
Taking advantage of this massive traffic opportunity is of tremendous value to bloggers, who often find that much of the business side of blogging, from inquiries for advertising to guest posting opportunities to press and discovery by major media entities comes via search.
SEO for blogs is both simple and easy to set up, particularly if you're using an SEO-friendly platform like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. For more information on how to execute on great SEO for blogs, check out the following resources:
- Blogger's Guide to SEO (from SEOBook)
- The Beginner's Guide to SEO (from Moz)
- Wordpress Blog SEO Tutorial (from Yoast)
- SEO for Travel Bloggers (but applicable to nearly any type of blog - from Moz)
Don't let bad press or poor experiences with spammers (spam is not SEO) taint the amazing power and valuable contributions SEO can make to your blog's traffic and overall success. 20% of the effort and tactics to make your content optimized for search engines will yield 80% of the value possible; embrace it and thousands of visitors seeking exactly what you've posted will be the reward.
#4 - Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to Share Your Posts & Find New Connections
Twitter just topped 465 million registered accounts. Facebook has over 850 million active users. Google+ has nearly 100 million. LinkedIn is over 130 million. Together, these networks are attracting vast amounts of time and interest from Internet users around the world, and those that participate on these services fit into the "content distributors" description above, meaning they're likely to help spread the word about your blog.
Leveraging these networks to attract traffic requires patience, study, attention to changes by the social sites and consideration in what content to share and how to do it. My advice is to use the following process:
- If you haven't already, register a personal account and a brand account at each of the following - Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn (those links will take you directly to the registration pages for brand pages). For example, my friend Dharmesh has a personal account for Twitter and a brand account for OnStartups (one of his blog projects). He also maintains brand pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
- Fill out each of those profiles to the fullest possible extent - use photos, write compelling descriptions and make each one as useful and credible as possible. Research shows that profiles with more information have a significant correlation with more successful accounts (and there's a lot of common sense here, too, given that spammy profiles frequently feature little to no profile work).
- Connect with users on those sites with whom you already share a personal or professional relationships, and start following industry luminaries, influencers and connectors. Services like FollowerWonk and FindPeopleonPlus can be incredible for this:
- Start sharing content - your own blog posts, those of peers in your industry who've impressed you and anything that you feel has a chance to go "viral" and earn sharing from others.
- Interact with the community - use hash tags, searches and those you follow to find interesting conversations and content and jump in! Social networks are amazing environment for building a brand, familiarizing yourself with a topic and the people around it, and earning the trust of others through high quality, authentic participation and sharing
If you consistently employ a strategy of participation, share great stuff and make a positive, memorable impression on those who see your interactions on these sites, your followers and fans will grow and your ability to drive traffic back to your blog by sharing content will be tremendous. For many bloggers, social media is the single largest source of traffic, particularly in the early months after launch, when SEO is a less consistent driver.
#5 - Install Analytics and Pay Attention to the Results
At the very least, I'd recommend most bloggers install Google Analytics (which is free), and watch to see where visits originate, which sources drive quality traffic and what others might be saying about you and your content when they link over. If you want to get more advanced, check out this post on 18 Steps to Successful Metrics and Marketing.
Here's a screenshot from the analytics of my wife's travel blog, the Everywhereist:
As you can see, there's all sorts of great insights to be gleaned by looking at where visits originate, analyzing how they were earned and trying to repeat the successes, focus on the high quality and high traffic sources and put less effort into marketing paths that may not be effective. In this example, it's pretty clear that Facebook and Twitter are both excellent channels. StumbleUpon sends a lot of traffic, but they don't stay very long (averaging only 36 seconds vs. the general average of 4 minutes!).
Employing analytics is critical to knowing where you're succeeding, and where you have more opportunity. Don't ignore it, or you'll be doomed to never learn from mistakes or execute on potential.
#6 - Add Graphics, Photos and Illustrations (with link-back licensing)
If you're someone who can produce graphics, take photos, illustrate or even just create funny doodles in MS Paint, you should leverage that talent on your blog. By uploading and hosting images (or using a third-party service like Flickr to embed your images with licensing requirements on that site), you create another traffic source for yourself via Image Search, and often massively improve the engagement and enjoyment of your visitors.
When using images, I highly recommend creating a way for others to use them on their own sites legally and with permission, but in such a way that benefits you as the content creator. For example, you could have a consistent notice under your images indicating that re-using is fine, but that those who do should link back to this post. You can also post that as a sidebar link, include it in your terms of use, or note it however you think will get the most adoption.
Some people will use your images without linking back, which sucks. However, you can find them by employing the Image Search function of "similar images," shown below:
Clicking the "similar" link on any given image will show you other images that Google thinks look alike, which can often uncover new sources of traffic. Just reach out and ask if you can get a link, nicely. Much of the time, you'll not only get your link, but make a valuable contact or new friend, too!
#7 - Conduct Keyword Research While Writing Your Posts
Not surprisingly, a big part of showing up in search engines is targeting the terms and phrases your audience are actually typing into a search engine. It's hard to know what these words will be unless you do some research, and luckily, there's a free tool from Google to help called the AdWords Keyword Tool.
Type some words at the top, hit search and AdWords will show you phrases that match the intent and/or terms you've employed. There's lots to play around with here, but watch out in particular for the "match types" options I've highlighted below:
When you choose "exact match" AdWords will show you only the quantity of searches estimated for that precise phrase. If you use broad match, they'll include any search phrases that use related/similar words in a pattern they think could have overlap with your keyword intent (which can get pretty darn broad). "Phrase match" will give you only those phrases that include the word or words in your search - still fairly wide-ranging, but between "exact" and "broad."
When you're writing a blog post, keyword research is best utilized for the title and headline of the post. For example, if I wanted to write a post here on Moz about how to generate good ideas for bloggers, I might craft something that uses the phrase "blog post ideas" or "blogging ideas" near the front of my title and headline, as in "Blog Post Ideas for When You're Truly Stuck," or "Blogging Ideas that Will Help You Clear Writer's Block."
Optimizing a post to target a specific keyword isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. 80% of the value comes from merely using the phrase effectively in the title of the blog post, and writing high quality content about the subject. If you're interested in more, read Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization (a slightly older resource, but just as relevant today as when it was written).
#8 - Frequently Reference Your Own Posts and Those of Others
The web was not made for static, text-only content! Readers appreciate links, as do other bloggers, site owners and even search engines. When you reference your own material in-context and in a way that's not manipulative (watch out for over-optimizing by linking to a category, post or page every time a phrase is used - this is almost certainly discounted by search engines and looks terrible to those who want to read your posts), you potentially draw visitors to your other content AND give search engines a nice signal about those previous posts.
Perhaps even more valuable is referencing the content of others. The biblical expression "give and ye shall receive," perfectly applies on the web. Other site owners will often receive Google Alerts or look through their incoming referrers (as I showed above in tip #5) to see who's talking about them and what they're saying. Linking out is a direct line to earning links, social mentions, friendly emails and new relationships with those you reference. In its early days, this tactic was one of the best ways we earned recognition and traffic with the SEOmoz blog and the power continues to this day.
#9 - Participate in Social Sharing Communities Like Reddit + StumbleUpon
The major social networking sites aren't alone in their power to send traffic to a blog. Social community sites like Reddit (which now receives more than 2 billion! with a "B"! views each month), StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Care2 (for nonprofits and causes), GoodReads (books), Ravelry (knitting), Newsvine (news/politics) and many, many more (Wikipedia maintains a decent, though not comprehensive list here).
Each of these sites have different rules, formats and ways of participating and sharing content. As with participation in blog or forum communities described above in tactic #2, you need to add value to these communities to see value back. Simply drive-by spamming or leaving your link won't get you very far, and could even cause a backlash. Instead, learn the ropes, engage authentically and you'll find that fans, links and traffic can develop.
These communities are also excellent sources of inspiration for posts on your blog. By observing what performs well and earns recognition, you can tailor your content to meet those guidelines and reap the rewards in visits and awareness. My top recommendation for most bloggers is to at least check whether there's an appropriate subreddit in which you should be participating. Subreddits and their search function can help with that.
#10 - Guest Blog (and Accept the Guest Posts of Others)
When you're first starting out, it can be tough to convince other bloggers to allow you to post on their sites OR have an audience large enough to inspire others to want to contribute to your site. This is when friends and professional connections are critical. When you don't have a compelling marketing message, leverage your relationships - find the folks who know you, like you and trust you and ask those who have blog to let you take a shot at authoring something, then ask them to return the favor.
Guest blogging is a fantastic way to spread your brand to new folks who've never seen your work before, and it can be useful in earning early links and references back to your site, which will drive direct traffic and help your search rankings (diverse, external links are a key part of how search engines rank sites and pages). Several recommendations for those who engage in guest blogging:
- Find sites that have a relevant audience - it sucks to pour your time into writing a post, only to see it fizzle because the readers weren't interested. Spend a bit more time researching the posts that succeed on your target site, the makeup of the audience, what types of comments they leave and you'll earn a much higher return with each post.
- Don't be discouraged if you ask and get a "no" or a "no response." As your profile grows in your niche, you'll have more opportunities, requests and an easier time getting a "yes," so don't take early rejections too hard and watch out - in many marketing practices, persistence pays, but pestering a blogger to write for them is not one of these (and may get your email address permanently banned from their inbox).
- When pitching your guest post make it as easy as possible for the other party. When requesting to post, have a phenomenal piece of writing all set to publish that's never been shared before and give them the ability to read it. These requests get far more "yes" replies than asking for the chance to write with no evidence of what you'll contribute. At the very least, make an outline and write a title + snippet.
- Likewise, when requesting a contribution, especially from someone with a significant industry profile, asking for a very specific piece of writing is much easier than getting them to write an entire piece from scratch of their own design. You should also present statistics that highlight the value of posting on your site - traffic data, social followers, RSS subscribers, etc. can all be very persuasive to a skeptical writer.
A great tool for frequent guest bloggers is Ann Smarty's MyBlogGuest, which offers the ability to connect writers with those seeking guest contributions (and the reverse).
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are also great places to find guest blogging opportunities. In particular, check out the profiles of those you're connected with to see if they run blogs of their own that might be a good fit. Google's Blog Search function and Google Reader's Search are also solid tools for discovery.
#11 - Incorporate Great Design Into Your Site
The power of beautiful, usable, professional design can't be overstated. When readers look at a blog, the first thing they judge is how it "feels" from a design and UX perspective. Sites that use default templates or have horrifying, 1990's design will receive less trust, a lower time-on-page, fewer pages per visit and a lower likelihood of being shared. Those that feature stunning design that clearly indicates quality work will experience the reverse - and reap amazing benefits.
These threads - 1, 2, 3 and 4 - feature some remarkable blog designs for inspiration
If you're looking for a designer to help upgrade the quality of your blog, there's a few resources I recommend:
- Dribbble - great for finding high quality professional designers
- Forrst - another excellent design profile community
- Behance - featuring galleries from a wide range of visual professionals
- Sortfolio - an awesome tool to ID designers by region, skill and budget
- 99 Designs - a controversial site that provides designs on spec via contests (I have mixed feelings on this one, but many people find it useful, particularly for budget-conscious projects)
This is one area where budgeting a couple thousand dollars (if you can afford it) or even a few hundred (if you're low on cash) can make a big difference in the traffic, sharing and viral-impact of every post you write.
#12 - Interact on Other Blogs' Comments
As bloggers, we see a lot of comments. Many are spam, only a few add real value, and even fewer are truly fascinating and remarkable. If you can be in this final category consistently, in ways that make a blogger sit up and think "man, I wish that person commented here more often!" you can achieve great things for your own site's visibility through participation in the comments of other blogs.
Combine the tools presented in #10 (particularly Google Reader/Blog Search) and #4 (especially FollowerWonk) for discovery. The feed subscriber counts in Google Reader can be particularly helpful for identifying good blogs for participation. Then apply the principles covered in this post on comment marketing.
Do be conscious of the name you use when commenting and the URL(s) you point back to. Consistency matters, particularly on naming, and linking to internal pages or using a name that's clearly made for keyword-spamming rather than true conversation will kill your efforts before they begin.
#13 - Participate in Q+A Sites
Every day, thousands of people ask questions on the web. Popular services like Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com, Quora, StackExchange, Formspring and more serve those hungry for information whose web searches couldn't track down the responses they needed.
The best strategy I've seen for engaging on Q+A sites isn't to answer every question that comes along, but rather, to strategically provide high value to a Q+A community by engaging in those places where:
- The question quality is high, and responses thus far have been thin
- The question receives high visibility (either by ranking well for search queries, being featured on the site or getting social traffic/referrals). Most of the Q+A sites will show some stats around the traffic of a question
- The question is something you can answer in a way that provides remarkable value to anyone who's curious and drops by
I also find great value in answering a few questions in-depth by producing an actual blog post to tackle them, then linking back. This is also a way I personally find blog post topics - if people are interested in the answer on a Q+A site, chances are good that lots of folks would want to read it on my blog, too!
Just be authentic in your answer, particularly if you're linking. If you'd like to see some examples, I answer a lot of questions at Quora, frequently include relevant links, but am rarely accused of spamming or link dropping because it's clearly about providing relevant value, not just getting a link for SEO (links on most user-contributed sites are "nofollow" anyway, meaning they shouldn't pass search-engine value). There's a dangerous line to walk here, but if you do so with tact and candor, you can earn a great audience from your participation.
#14 - Enable Subscriptions via Feed + Email (and track them!)
If someone drops by your site, has a good experience and thinks "I should come back here and check this out again when they have more posts," chances are pretty high (I'd estimate 90%+) that you'll never see them again. That sucks! It shouldn't be the case, but we have busy lives and the Internet's filled with animated gifs of cats.
In order to pull back some of these would-be fans, I highly recommend creating an RSS feed using Feedburner and putting visible buttons on the sidebar, top or bottom of your blog posts encouraging those who enjoy your content to sign up (either via feed, or via email, both of which are popular options).
If you're using Wordpress, there's some easy plugins for this, too.
Once you've set things up, visit every few weeks and check on your subscribers - are they clicking on posts? If so, which ones? Learning what plays well for those who subscribe to your content can help make you a better blogger, and earn more visits from RSS, too.
#15 - Attend and Host Events
Despite the immense power of the web to connect us all regardless of geography, in-person meetings are still remarkably useful for bloggers seeking to grow their traffic and influence. The people you meet and connect with in real-world settings are far more likely to naturally lead to discussions about your blog and ways you can help each other. This yields guest posts, links, tweets, shares, blogroll inclusion and general business development like nothing else.
I'm a big advocate of Lanyrd, an event directory service that connects with your social networks to see who among your contacts will be at which events in which geographies. This can be phenomenally useful for identifying which meetups, conferences or gatherings are worth attending (and who you can carpool with).
The founder of Lanyrd also contributed this great answer on Quora about other search engines/directories for events (which makes me like them even more).
#16 - Use Your Email Connections (and Signature) to Promote Your Blog
As a blogger, you're likely to be sending a lot of email out to others who use the web and have the power to help spread your work. Make sure you're not ignoring email as a channel, one-to-one though it may be. When given an opportunity in a conversation that's relevant, feel free to bring up your blog, a specific post or a topic you've written about. I find myself using blogging as a way to scalably answer questions - if I receive the same question many times, I'll try to make a blog post that answers it so I can simply link to that in the future.
I also like to use my email signature to promote the content I share online. If I was really sharp, I'd do link tracking using a service like Bit.ly so I could see how many clicks email footers really earn. I suspect it's not high, but it's also not 0.
#17 - Survey Your Readers
Web surveys are easy to run and often produce high engagement and great topics for conversation. If there's a subject or discussion that's particularly contested, or where you suspect showing the distribution of beliefs, usage or opinions can be revealing, check out a tool like SurveyMonkey (they have a small free version) or PollDaddy. Google Docs also offers a survey tool that's totally free, but not yet great in my view.
#18 - Add Value to a Popular Conversation
Numerous niches in the blogosphere have a few "big sites" where key issues arise, get discussed and spawn conversations on other blogs and sites. Getting into the fray can be a great way to present your point-of-view, earn attention from those interested in the discussion and potentially get links and traffic from the industry leaders as part of the process.
You can see me trying this out with Fred Wilson's AVC blog last year (an incredibly popular and well-respected blog in the VC world). Fred wrote a post about Marketing that I disagreed with strongly and publicly and a day later, he wrote a follow-up where he included a graphic I made AND a link to my post.
If you're seeking sources to find these "popular conversations," Alltop, Topsy, Techmeme (in the tech world) and their sister sites MediaGazer, Memeorandum and WeSmirch, as well as PopURLs can all be useful.
#19 - Aggregate the Best of Your Niche
Bloggers, publishers and site owners of every variety in the web world love and hate to be compared and ranked against one another. It incites endless intrigue, discussion, methodology arguments and competitive behavior - but, it's amazing for earning attention. When a blogger publishes a list of "the best X" or "the top X" in their field, most everyone who's ranked highly praises the list, shares it and links to it. Here's an example from the world of marketing itself:
That's a screenshot of the AdAge Power 150, a list that's been maintained for years in the marketing world and receives an endless amount of discussion by those listed (and not listed). For example, why is SEOmoz's Twitter score only a "13" when we have so many more followers, interactions and retweets than many of those with higher scores? Who knows. But I know it's good for AdAge. :-)
Now, obviously, I would encourage anyone building something like this to be as transparent, accurate and authentic as possible. A high quality resource that lists a "best and brightest" in your niche - be they blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, individual posts, people, conferences or whatever else you can think to rank - is an excellent piece of content for earning traffic and becoming a known quantity in your field.
Oh, and once you do produce it - make sure to let those featured know they've been listed. Tweeting at them with a link is a good way to do this, but if you have email addresses, by all means, reach out. It can often be the start of a great relationship!
#20 - Connect Your Web Profiles and Content to Your Blog
Many of you likely have profiles on services like YouTube, Slideshare, Yahoo!, DeviantArt and dozens of other social and Web 1.0 sites. You might be uploading content to Flickr, to Facebook, to Picasa or even something more esoteric like Prezi. Whatever you're producing on the web and wherever you're doing it, tie it back to your blog.
Including your blog's link on your actual profile pages is among the most obvious, but it's also incredibly valuable. On any service where interaction takes place, those interested in who you are and what you have to share will follow those links, and if they lead back to your blog, they become opportunities for capturing a loyal visitor or earning a share (or both!). But don't just do this with profiles - do it with content, too! If you've created a video for YouTube, make your blog's URL appear at the start or end of the video. Include it in the description of the video and on the uploading profile's page. If you're sharing photos on any of the dozens of photo services, use a watermark or even just some text with your domain name so interested users can find you.
If you're having trouble finding and updating all those old profiles (or figuring out where you might want to create/share some new ones), KnowEm is a great tool for discovering your own profiles (by searching for your name or pseudonyms you've used) and claiming profiles on sites you may not yet have participated in.
I'd also strongly recommend leveraging Google's relatively new protocol for rel=author. AJ Kohn wrote a great post on how to set it up here, and Yoast has another good one on building it into Wordpress sites. The benefit for bloggers who do build large enough audiences to gain Google's trust is earning your profile photo next to all the content you author - a powerful markup advantage that likely drives extra clicks from the search results and creates great, memorable branding, too.
#21 - Uncover the Links of Your Fellow Bloggers (and Nab 'em!)
If other blogs in your niche have earned references from sites around the web, there's a decent chance that they'll link to you as well. Conducting competitive link research can also show you what content from your competition has performed well and the strategies they may be using to market their work. To uncover these links, you'll need to use some tools.
OpenSiteExplorer is my favorite, but I'm biased (it's made by Moz). However, it is free to use - if you create a registered account here, you can get unlimited use of the tool showing up to 1,000 links per page or site in perpetuity.
There are other good tools for link research as well, including Blekko, Majestic, Ahrefs and, I've heard that in the near-future, SearchMetrics.
Finding a link is great, but it's through the exhaustive research of looking through dozens or hundreds that you can identify patterns and strategies. You're also likely to find a lot of guest blogging opportunities and other chances for outreach. If you maintain a great persona and brand in your niche, your ability to earn these will rise dramatically.
Bonus #22 - Be Consistent and Don't Give Up
If there's one piece of advice I wish I could share with every blogger, it's this:
The above image comes from Everywhereist's analytics. Geraldine could have given up 18 months into her daily blogging. After all, she was putting in 3-5 hours each day writing content, taking photos, visiting sites, coming up with topics, trying to guest blog and grow her Twitter followers and never doing any SEO (don't ask, it's a running joke between us). And then, almost two years after her blog began, and more than 500 posts in, things finally got going. She got some nice guest blogging gigs, had some posts of hers go "hot" in the social sphere, earned mentions on some bigger sites, then got really big press from Time's Best Blogs of 2011.
I'd guess there's hundreds of new bloggers on the web each day who have all the opportunity Geraldine had, but after months (maybe only weeks) of slogging away, they give up.
When I started the SEOmoz blog in 2004, I had some advantages (mostly a good deal of marketing and SEO knowledge), but it was nearly 2 years before the blog could be called anything like a success. Earning traffic isn't rocket science, but it does take time, perseverance and consistency. Don't give up. Stick to your schedule. Remember that everyone has a few posts that suck, and it's only by writing and publishing those sucky posts that you get into the habit necessary to eventually transform your blog into something remarkable.
Good luck and good blogging from all of us at Moz!
Feel free to copy and re-post this content or the graphics, but please do link back (or reference SEOmoz if using the images offline). Thanks!
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
3 Ways To Get Media Attention For Your Business
Online or offline, media attention can help our business in quite dramatic ways; below we look at a couple of personal examples of this and then suggest a few approaches that you can start looking at for your own business.
Example: Selling The MCG
My own example of selling the benches and carpets from the MCG is covered in more detail elsewhere but, suffice to say here, it was aided incredibly by the media attention I got following an initial press release and editorial ad.
When lastminute.com.au picked it up and promoted it the faxes hardly stopped for 2 whole days and sales went through the roof.
Obviously it helped that the MCG was part of Australia’s heritage and it was something of an interesting subject for most Australians, but the free media attention I received made me realise just how important it is to a growing business.
HARO Website
HARO is an abbreviation of “Help A Reporter Online” and is a worldwide site that reporters go to and list the
Example: Selling The MCG
My own example of selling the benches and carpets from the MCG is covered in more detail elsewhere but, suffice to say here, it was aided incredibly by the media attention I got following an initial press release and editorial ad.
When lastminute.com.au picked it up and promoted it the faxes hardly stopped for 2 whole days and sales went through the roof.
Obviously it helped that the MCG was part of Australia’s heritage and it was something of an interesting subject for most Australians, but the free media attention I received made me realise just how important it is to a growing business.
HARO Website
HARO is an abbreviation of “Help A Reporter Online” and is a worldwide site that reporters go to and list the
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The Essential Facebook And Twitter Marketing Approaches
How many businesses do you know of out there that are using Facebook and Twitter marketing smartly?
Social media marketing is still finding its “level” somewhat but it seems to me that many businesses misinterpret the opportunities that Facebook and Twitter provide. So below we try to clear that up with some guidelines for the essential approaches involved – and they ARE different.
Essentials Of Twitter Marketing
Twitter is all about engaging with your clients and other people – in 140 characters or less!
The idea is that through Twitter you can disseminate quick information, often in text message style short-hand. This allows you to keep your customers up to date with what’s going on and to share industry news – the shortened URLs provided by the likes of bit.ly allow you to send links to others easily and effectively now.
The purpose is to engage with your customers; you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you but it’s great to stay across
Social media marketing is still finding its “level” somewhat but it seems to me that many businesses misinterpret the opportunities that Facebook and Twitter provide. So below we try to clear that up with some guidelines for the essential approaches involved – and they ARE different.
Essentials Of Twitter Marketing
Twitter is all about engaging with your clients and other people – in 140 characters or less!
The idea is that through Twitter you can disseminate quick information, often in text message style short-hand. This allows you to keep your customers up to date with what’s going on and to share industry news – the shortened URLs provided by the likes of bit.ly allow you to send links to others easily and effectively now.
The purpose is to engage with your customers; you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you but it’s great to stay across
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
How Google Tools Can Help Transform You Into Market Leaders
[caption id="attachment_6338" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Make sure you are always alerted."][/caption]
Getting the news first and reacting first to it is one of the hallmarks of market leaders; in fact people have made their fortunes from being the first to the key news in their field – notable examples exist in the banking and financial sectors.
Nowadays it’s hard to be first with the news because people around the globe are more connected than ever to what’s happening; that’s why a couple of Google tools are so valuable for your online business and can help to propel you to the top of the heap.
Google Reader – or Reeder (iPhone)
Google Reader (Reeder on the iPhone) is a fantastic tool to ensure you don’t have to flit between 20 different websites to read the news you want to read.
Google Reader allows you to pick the most important sources in your industry (most market leaders have blogs which you can select) and it collates all relevant daily
Getting the news first and reacting first to it is one of the hallmarks of market leaders; in fact people have made their fortunes from being the first to the key news in their field – notable examples exist in the banking and financial sectors.
Nowadays it’s hard to be first with the news because people around the globe are more connected than ever to what’s happening; that’s why a couple of Google tools are so valuable for your online business and can help to propel you to the top of the heap.
Google Reader – or Reeder (iPhone)
Google Reader (Reeder on the iPhone) is a fantastic tool to ensure you don’t have to flit between 20 different websites to read the news you want to read.
Google Reader allows you to pick the most important sources in your industry (most market leaders have blogs which you can select) and it collates all relevant daily
Monday, January 16, 2012
7 Ways To Earn Online Market Leadership
Online market leadership should be the goal of every web-based business leader and learning how to position yourself as such is the first step.
Below we take you through the top 7 approaches that can help earn you the title of “market leader” in your field.
1. Develop And Tell Your Story
Your story should reflect your struggle to get where you are today, concentrating not only on the successes and breakthroughs but on the failures along the way. Everyone has a story and telling it is key; because it can form the basis of your web videos and auto-responder campaigns and will help you build the all-important connection with your audience.
Without a story it’s very difficult to connect on the human level and earn market leadership. Think of the “Tony Robbins” story of the simple, poor, overweight guy made good; or the “Virgin” story of the “David vs Goliath” struggle, for example.
2. Conduct Interviews For The “Halo Effect”
Conducting
Below we take you through the top 7 approaches that can help earn you the title of “market leader” in your field.
1. Develop And Tell Your Story
Your story should reflect your struggle to get where you are today, concentrating not only on the successes and breakthroughs but on the failures along the way. Everyone has a story and telling it is key; because it can form the basis of your web videos and auto-responder campaigns and will help you build the all-important connection with your audience.
Without a story it’s very difficult to connect on the human level and earn market leadership. Think of the “Tony Robbins” story of the simple, poor, overweight guy made good; or the “Virgin” story of the “David vs Goliath” struggle, for example.
2. Conduct Interviews For The “Halo Effect”
Conducting
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Questions To Ask Before Launching A Business Social Media Campaign
[caption id="attachment_6299" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Know the purpose of social media."][/caption]
Before you rush headlong into setting up your business Facebook and Twitter accounts and launching a massive business social media campaign, take a moment to think.
Social media is NOT for every business and, even if it is for you, your approach will be more effective if you take the time to ask a few questions of your business before committing resources to social media.
1. Do you understand the Purpose of Social Media Marketing?
There is no point embarking on a social media marketing bonanza without knowing what you want to achieve form it; the end goal will be to increase sales, of course, like any marketing – but social media is a very indirect marketing channel.
If you use traditional “push” marketing on social media you will probably fail; you need to “pull” your clients in to you by providing relevant, informative content and engaging with
Before you rush headlong into setting up your business Facebook and Twitter accounts and launching a massive business social media campaign, take a moment to think.
Social media is NOT for every business and, even if it is for you, your approach will be more effective if you take the time to ask a few questions of your business before committing resources to social media.
1. Do you understand the Purpose of Social Media Marketing?
There is no point embarking on a social media marketing bonanza without knowing what you want to achieve form it; the end goal will be to increase sales, of course, like any marketing – but social media is a very indirect marketing channel.
If you use traditional “push” marketing on social media you will probably fail; you need to “pull” your clients in to you by providing relevant, informative content and engaging with
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Why Social Media Marketing Is The Future Of Your Business
The “naysayers” who question whether social media marketing is worth the time and effort may be missing the point slightly.
Businesses need to start getting the point fairly quickly because social media is growing exponentially and its influence is increasing.
Many of the doubts come from people who expect to sell more directly from social media marketing, but it’s not necessarily about that.
It’s more about the buzz it can create, the fact that you are engaging with your audience and the positive effect it can have on your online presence and your rankings - all of which then lead to increased sales.
“Socialnomics”
In the book “Socialnomics”, by Eric Qualman, the author asks the question about what would be considered more valuable – recommendations from robots (search engine bots working to algorithms) or recommendations from friends?
Of course we value the word of our friends more, because we know and trust them.
This idea is literally
Businesses need to start getting the point fairly quickly because social media is growing exponentially and its influence is increasing.
Many of the doubts come from people who expect to sell more directly from social media marketing, but it’s not necessarily about that.
It’s more about the buzz it can create, the fact that you are engaging with your audience and the positive effect it can have on your online presence and your rankings - all of which then lead to increased sales.
“Socialnomics”
In the book “Socialnomics”, by Eric Qualman, the author asks the question about what would be considered more valuable – recommendations from robots (search engine bots working to algorithms) or recommendations from friends?
Of course we value the word of our friends more, because we know and trust them.
This idea is literally
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
How To Use Contests In Your Facebook Marketing
Facebook marketing is attempted by many but succeeded at by relatively few.
Often its focus is misunderstood, leading to a lack of impact. A good Facebook marketing strategy should revolve around creating highly relevant, compelling content that resonates with people, encouraging them to share and feeding new leads into your sales funnel.
Running contests are a great way to get things moving and we look at a typical way of doing this below.
Online Photography Business Example
An online photography business wanting to use Facebook to promote its services is in a strong position because photos and videos are great visual media for grabbing people’s attention; both can be used to good effect on Facebook.
Assuming you already have some contacts on your business Facebook fan page, how about running a contest amongst your followers?
For a photography business it would be something like a “Cutest Baby” contest where your fans can upload images of their baby; the
Often its focus is misunderstood, leading to a lack of impact. A good Facebook marketing strategy should revolve around creating highly relevant, compelling content that resonates with people, encouraging them to share and feeding new leads into your sales funnel.
Running contests are a great way to get things moving and we look at a typical way of doing this below.
Online Photography Business Example
An online photography business wanting to use Facebook to promote its services is in a strong position because photos and videos are great visual media for grabbing people’s attention; both can be used to good effect on Facebook.
Assuming you already have some contacts on your business Facebook fan page, how about running a contest amongst your followers?
For a photography business it would be something like a “Cutest Baby” contest where your fans can upload images of their baby; the
5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now {you know how I feel about video}
#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
Improve your rank using web videos.
Can you name a good reason why you haven’t started web video marketing for your business yet?
No?
I’m not surprised, because video can help virtually every business; it is considered one of the “low hanging fruit” areas of online marketing because it will enhance virtually everything you are doing online and increases conversions over traditional text and images.
So why wouldn’t you start now? Here are 5 reasons that might just convince you to get started:
1. People Do Business With People
In an online world full of faceless businesses and companies, video allows you to cut through the anonymity and connect with your audience, face to face, person to person.
The importance of this cannot be over-estimated, because it has always been (and maybe always will be) the case that people buy from people.
If you can connect to your clients through video, they are already pre-sold by the time they pick up the phone or request a quote; they already have a sense of who you are and what you stand for; they already know you love what you’re doing because it oozes through in your videos.
Quite simply, they are more likely to buy from someone they know – and they’ll feel they know you better through watching your videos.
2. Increased Authenticity And Transparency
Web video marketing allows you to keep it real! You can demonstrate that you are authentic and trustworthy with nothing to hide: that’s important because people’s biggest fear online is being scammed.
You can show them who you are, what you do and how you do it. This is much more important than having slick, rounded videos – that can all come later!
Don’t worry if your first videos are rough around the edges; the key is to just get started, make your mistakes now and improve the quality of the videos over time; people forgive mistakes in videos, but they don’t forgive someone trying to con them.
3. Heightened Expert Status
Web video also allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise – whether it’s via How-To videos or FAQ videos, you are able to show that you know your stuff. It may take time to get to where you want to be but video will get you there quicker than any other medium.
4. It Makes Life Easier For The Visitor
The YouTube phenomenon means that we have come to expect video when we land on a page; many of us don’t want to read large chunks of text but if we see a video front and centre of the page we will click on it. It’s just more inviting and easier than reading a long sales letter, for example.
5. Better Rankings
If we’re in online marketing we’re in the business of getting rankings to generate traffic to our website. With web video it’s relatively easy to rank well because the competition is still not that fierce in many business areas.
We have seen how video results have merged with text, images and maps in search engine results; using some general video SEO pointers can help you dominate results for certain keywords.
Are you convinced? You still don’t believe in the power of web video marketing? Well I suggest you head on over and watch the FREE Competition Crusher workshop at www.crusherworkshop.com. Then let us know if you’ve changed your mind!
Other Posts You May Be Interested In:
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Monday, January 9, 2012
5 Reasons To Start Web Video Marketing Now
[caption id="attachment_6260" align="alignleft" width="216" caption="Improve your rank using web videos."][/caption]
Can you name a good reason why you haven’t started web video marketing for your business yet?
No?
I’m not surprised, because video can help virtually every business; it is considered one of the “low hanging fruit” areas of online marketing because it will enhance virtually everything you are doing online and increases conversions over traditional text and images.
So why wouldn’t you start now? Here are 5 reasons that might just convince you to get started:
1. People Do Business With People
In an online world full of faceless businesses and companies, video allows you to cut through the anonymity and connect with your audience, face to face, person to person.
The importance of this cannot be over-estimated, because it has always been (and maybe always will be) the case that people buy from people.
If you can connect to your clients
Can you name a good reason why you haven’t started web video marketing for your business yet?
No?
I’m not surprised, because video can help virtually every business; it is considered one of the “low hanging fruit” areas of online marketing because it will enhance virtually everything you are doing online and increases conversions over traditional text and images.
So why wouldn’t you start now? Here are 5 reasons that might just convince you to get started:
1. People Do Business With People
In an online world full of faceless businesses and companies, video allows you to cut through the anonymity and connect with your audience, face to face, person to person.
The importance of this cannot be over-estimated, because it has always been (and maybe always will be) the case that people buy from people.
If you can connect to your clients
Sunday, January 8, 2012
5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos {yes}
#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
Your web videos should be spread far and wide but, in terms of your website, there are some key pages where it is irreplaceable.
Video increases conversion rates of leads – so it is a powerful tool to encourage a call to action. That means it needs to be sitting on your pages with the highest traffic.
Check with Google Analytics what your most visited pages are. Then add video to it. The likelihood is that some of the following pages will be the key ones:
Your Homepage
When customers land on your homepage they are looking for something. If you have done your “homework” you should know before you set up your site who will be visiting, who your ideal client is, what they are looking for and what you should be saying to them.
This means that your video on the homepage can address their biggest frustration; you can describe it better than they can and this will create the all-important connection by showing them that you understand their problems; then offer the solution and call them to action.
This will increase the chance of getting them to pick up the phone, sign up for your free report or send an email for a quote, because you are “pressing all the right buttons” in their minds.
Services Page
On your services page you can use video to explain exactly what you offer, with no ambiguities. The visual and practical element of video should be a great advantage over using text and images to convey the benefits of your products and services.
About Us
Tell your story through video on the About Us page and show your customers how you have faced many of the problems they face and how you overcame them to be where you are today. This will create the connection and show what a great position you are in to offer the solutions.
FAQ Page
FAQ auto-responders are great for demonstrating your authority and expertise in your market area. Choose 10 of the questions your customers regularly ask and 10 questions they should ask; then make short web videos for each.
Testimonials
Video is excellent for providing proof and credibility for your business. Create customer testimonials and try to interview some of the industry leaders on video so that everyone can see how you and your business are mixing with the right people and getting results.
Promotional business videos can be uploaded to video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and many others, but the purpose is usually to drive visitors back to your website. That means you need to get videos on all of the pages of your site where people will land.
There are plenty more online video and general online marketing strategy tips like these in the free-to-watch Competition Crusher workshop. Simply click here to learn more about it.
Use web videos to transform your web pages.
Other Posts You May Be Interested In:
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5 Live Video Recording Tips For New Video Makers
Don’t let the hot flushes ruin your first video-making experience! Live video recording can be a little daunting at first but good preparation for your videos will go a long way to calming the nerves and shooting something that looks and sounds professional.
We go through five tips to record live video below, which should help you.
1. Script It But Don’t Read It
Prepare what you’re going to say; in fact the script you write will be the single most important aspect of your video because, ultimately, it’s your message and how you deliver it that counts.
When you’re delivering in front of the camera don’t read or you will probably sound “wooden”. The skill is in using the script as a guide but making it sound natural - like it’s off the top of your head.
This may not come easy but it’s what actors do all the time; the Braveheart speech from William Wallace on horseback that sends chills up everybody’s spine – it’s highly scripted but appears
We go through five tips to record live video below, which should help you.
1. Script It But Don’t Read It
Prepare what you’re going to say; in fact the script you write will be the single most important aspect of your video because, ultimately, it’s your message and how you deliver it that counts.
When you’re delivering in front of the camera don’t read or you will probably sound “wooden”. The skill is in using the script as a guide but making it sound natural - like it’s off the top of your head.
This may not come easy but it’s what actors do all the time; the Braveheart speech from William Wallace on horseback that sends chills up everybody’s spine – it’s highly scripted but appears
5 Places On Your Website To Use Web Videos
Your web videos should be spread far and wide but, in terms of your website, there are some key pages where it is irreplaceable.
Video increases conversion rates of leads – so it is a powerful tool to encourage a call to action. That means it needs to be sitting on your pages with the highest traffic.
Check with Google Analytics what your most visited pages are. Then add video to it. The likelihood is that some of the following pages will be the key ones:
Your Homepage
When customers land on your homepage they are looking for something. If you have done your “homework” you should know before you set up your site who will be visiting, who your ideal client is, what they are looking for and what you should be saying to them.
This means that your video on the homepage can address their biggest frustration; you can describe it better than they can and this will create the all-important connection by showing them that you understand their problems; then offer the
Video increases conversion rates of leads – so it is a powerful tool to encourage a call to action. That means it needs to be sitting on your pages with the highest traffic.
Check with Google Analytics what your most visited pages are. Then add video to it. The likelihood is that some of the following pages will be the key ones:
Your Homepage
When customers land on your homepage they are looking for something. If you have done your “homework” you should know before you set up your site who will be visiting, who your ideal client is, what they are looking for and what you should be saying to them.
This means that your video on the homepage can address their biggest frustration; you can describe it better than they can and this will create the all-important connection by showing them that you understand their problems; then offer the
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Top 8 Questions To Ask When Making Video Testimonials {solid}
#1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
The Top 8 Questions To Ask When Making Video Testimonials is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company
Get OK'd by your customers.
Video testimonials are like gold nuggets for your business. Every one adds credibility and authority to you – and we’ve mentioned many times that this is the currency you want to be dealing in online; you NEED it to make sales.
There is a definite strategy to making good customer testimonials that sell your business and that begins with knowing what to ask.
Try the eight questions below for size, first of all:
- How were things going before us?
This allows them to talk about the problems they were facing and some of the issues they were struggling with before you came along.
- How did you find us?
- Why did you choose us?
- How was it working with us?
This gives your customer the chance to say how easy and pleasurable you were to work with and how you addressed their needs and concerns.
- What were the results?
The all-important results are what any prospective buyers want to hear about, so spending time on this point is important.
- What did it mean to you?
This allows them to tell the “afterwards” story about the benefits your products or services brought to their business.
- Why would you recommend us?
Again, this focuses the viewer on the things you do better than any other business for your customers.
- Anything else you’d like to add?
Before, During And After
The above questions will be effective in eliciting the responses you need from your customer because they will tell the before, during and after story that you need to connect with your viewers.
The customer’s story should ring bells in the viewer’s head, identifying similar problems and issues they have and showing how your business was able to address and solve those issues. This connects them to the customer and they will see how you will be able to do the same for their own business.
Early And Often
The general rule with testimonials is- whether by text, audio or video – testimonials should be gathered early and often; don’t wait around – strike when the iron is hot!
If you have delivered great products and provided excellent service nobody will mind raving about how good you are; it’s best if you can get video testimonials as these have the greatest impact of all.
This important aspect of online business is just one of many topics covered in the Competition Crusher workshop; from start up through to ongoing marketing strategies, all the key points are covered and it is available to watch just by clicking here.
Other Posts You May Be Interested In:
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The Top 8 Questions To Ask When Making Video Testimonials
[caption id="attachment_6164" align="alignleft" width="194" caption="Get OK'd by your customers."][/caption]
Video testimonials are like gold nuggets for your business. Every one adds credibility and authority to you – and we’ve mentioned many times that this is the currency you want to be dealing in online; you NEED it to make sales.
There is a definite strategy to making good customer testimonials that sell your business and that begins with knowing what to ask.
Try the eight questions below for size, first of all:
How were things going before us?
This allows them to talk about the problems they were facing and some of the issues they were struggling with before you came along.
How did you find us?
Why did you choose us?
How was it working with us?
This gives your customer the chance to say how easy and pleasurable you were to work with and how you addressed their needs and concerns.
What were the results?
The all-important results are what
Video testimonials are like gold nuggets for your business. Every one adds credibility and authority to you – and we’ve mentioned many times that this is the currency you want to be dealing in online; you NEED it to make sales.
There is a definite strategy to making good customer testimonials that sell your business and that begins with knowing what to ask.
Try the eight questions below for size, first of all:
How were things going before us?
This allows them to talk about the problems they were facing and some of the issues they were struggling with before you came along.
How did you find us?
Why did you choose us?
How was it working with us?
This gives your customer the chance to say how easy and pleasurable you were to work with and how you addressed their needs and concerns.
What were the results?
The all-important results are what
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Guide To The Essential Web Video Equipment
Web video equipment needn’t cost you a fortune; but there are certain essentials you’ll want, to make decent-looking and sounding video that helps you get your message across.
Below we take you through the basic equipment that you’ll need; you can spend as little as about a thousand dollars on this...or the sky’s the limit at the upper end of the range!
The Lights
Lighting is important – you are making a business video, not a ghost movie, so make sure you have three lights positioned in a 3 point system: that’ one to the right, one to the left and one behind you; this will avoid any “Hammer House of Horror” effects!
Another lighting tip is to turn off any external light sources in the room.
The Camera
This needn’t be a camera to rival Steven Spielberg’s! A “Flip” camera will be fine for many of you or, if you want something a little more advanced, try a Canon 60d which is a digital SLR model that shoots great video.
If you are really on
Below we take you through the basic equipment that you’ll need; you can spend as little as about a thousand dollars on this...or the sky’s the limit at the upper end of the range!
The Lights
Lighting is important – you are making a business video, not a ghost movie, so make sure you have three lights positioned in a 3 point system: that’ one to the right, one to the left and one behind you; this will avoid any “Hammer House of Horror” effects!
Another lighting tip is to turn off any external light sources in the room.
The Camera
This needn’t be a camera to rival Steven Spielberg’s! A “Flip” camera will be fine for many of you or, if you want something a little more advanced, try a Canon 60d which is a digital SLR model that shoots great video.
If you are really on
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Don’t Be A Perfectionist Non-Starter With Business Video Making!
[caption id="attachment_6145" align="alignleft" width="203" caption="Just do it!"][/caption]
Being a perfectionist is great in some areas, but I find that when it comes to business video making, it can be used as a reason not to do anything at all!
The only thing worse for your business than bad web video is no web video, so it can often be a case of biting the bullet and just getting started.
Typical Reasons Not To Start
We hear many reasons why businesses have not yet started a web video strategy:
“We don’t have the right equipment”
“We haven’t found the right video production company to help us”
“We’re waiting for the end of the financial year”
“We just need to get “this” out of the way …then we’ll….”
“We want to read up a bit/go on a course/find some tutorials so that we get it right…”
“We are working on a strategy now”
Just Do It!
Our advice to any business that finds itself uttering any of the above is
Being a perfectionist is great in some areas, but I find that when it comes to business video making, it can be used as a reason not to do anything at all!
The only thing worse for your business than bad web video is no web video, so it can often be a case of biting the bullet and just getting started.
Typical Reasons Not To Start
We hear many reasons why businesses have not yet started a web video strategy:
“We don’t have the right equipment”
“We haven’t found the right video production company to help us”
“We’re waiting for the end of the financial year”
“We just need to get “this” out of the way …then we’ll….”
“We want to read up a bit/go on a course/find some tutorials so that we get it right…”
“We are working on a strategy now”
Just Do It!
Our advice to any business that finds itself uttering any of the above is
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