A Customer Loyalty History Lesson
15 Dec 2005, 2:49:25 pm
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TWA used to have absolutely delightful certificates to commemerate flights. They used to give the fanciful certificates to passengers as souveniers -- and as a loyalty buy in.

But unlike attempts at 'keeping' customers interested with temporary gimicks, TWA had them take an oath:

"Now, Therefore, Know Ye, that this Celestial Dominion herewith doth bestow this Certificate of Flight on said Skyliner Passenger, who doth solemnly covenant forever to keep it unsullied and to use, recommend and support Air Transportation to help foster amity between nations and good will amongst the peoples of the Earth. In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, (printed signature) President, Trans World Airlines, Inc."

Wouldn't it be great if you could find such a charming, creative way to ensure your customer's loyalty?

More on Increasing Website Rank
15 Dec 2005, 12:14:34 pm
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If you agree that swapping links, quality links, is good from the point of view of increasing your link popularity, then you'll also see how these links can provide targeted traffic as well.

But the trick here is quality links. We discussed last time how this world in the form of keywords. But there is more to it all than just keywords & searches. Ideally, you'd like to be both offering links out that help you potential customers. These links build credibility, both in your knowledge of the subject or product, & in the sense that you are not wasting their time with dumb or misleading links.

What makes a site worthwhile & helps build your credibility is the content of the site. If we use the example of roses again, you'd like to be working with sites that offer good & original information. And those sites are likely as choosey about who they link to as well. So this brings us to the point of your own site content.

While you cannot place keywords hidden inside your site, or use other spamming techniques to increase your rank, there is a way you can use plenty of keywords right on your site. Amazingly this technique is not only legal, but preferred by surfers everywhere.

What is this mysterious technique? Content.

Yup, good old fashioned writing on the topic. Even if you sell products, you can provide keyword rich content that Google spiders eat up & potential link partners will also love.

In the case of our example rose selling website, use product descriptions as lush as those rose petals. Put in every detail you can think of. Have a section on care of roses. Even a simple 'generic' one will help. But if you put in the extra effort to write your own guide, your customer base will grow like those healthy rose plants you ship out.

If you have great, original content on your site, others will happily link to you - either in exchange for a link, or just some helpful blogger who finds your information wonderful.

And if you are writing your content for the surfer/reader to enjoy, you are not in danger of spamming from the search engine point of view. While many search engines will have limits on the number of times you may repeat a keyword, a writer knows their way around that -- just use different words to convey the same meaning. By varying your words you keep the reader engaged - and you pick up additional readers who may have searched via another set of keywords!

In short, nearly every word or phrase you upload to your site is a potential internet search & the source of traffic from external links.

So go write your content, generate some links, and build that search rank.

Links To Build Search Engine Rank
15 Dec 2005, 12:07:40 pm
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Last time, we covered the necessity for linking in order to give your website the 'weight' it needs to rank high over at Google.com.

Ideally, you build page rank by linking with similar websites: rose websites link with other rose websites, widget sellers with other widget sellers. But obviously there are problems with this. No sane widget seller is going to link to another widget seller - why give your customers to the competition?

So here is where you need to get creative, explore the fine art of linking.

You'll need to know your target market, your audience. Without getting to bogged down in the jargon, simply think of it this way: Where are your customers likely to be? What links can you offer that would seem helpful companion links?

For example, with a website selling roses, good links would be other gardening sites, sites selling or displaying botanical art, flower arranging sites, landscaping sites etc. These other sites may also be selling things - for example books or garden decor items - but they are not selling the same inventory your site is. You might also find email groups, chat rooms, message boards, & other communities that are related & that will exchange lists with you.

Be creative too - perhaps there are cooking with flowers websites, history & lore of flowers, craft sites on using dried roses & pressed flowers, floral painted china websites, pages with poetry about roses... Sometimes these are little sites, and not given much credit as they will not bring in huge numbers of people, but remember, that is not the main goal here. You are trying to increase your 'relevancy' with search engines.

Circle wide at first. Just think of places of interest that would likely appeal to your fellow rose enthusiasts.

Then begin to narrow the list down with other criteria in mind:

Are the pages/sites pleasing? I always view my links page as a 'recommended sites list.' They should offer high quality, decent, and hopefully original content. If the site has 30 pop-ups for 4 lines of text, then it's probably not worth anyone's time.

Do the pages/sites offer enough keywords that you seek? A page about rose poetry may not discuss how to plant them, or what zones they will grow best in, but think of all the lovely descriptive words on colors which a person might be searching for (and you just happen to sell!) But a page on cats, which 'rose people' might also be fond of, isn't likely to help you much - unless it's a photo essay of cats in a rose garden. *wink*

How do they link to other sites? Links pages can be great - or they can be horrid things. I don't just mean they can be bad because they are ugly - full of hundreds of blinking banners. No, links pages can be bad when they are nothing but link farms. Not only is it likely that your link will never be found by a surfer way down there as link #459, but search engine spiders view link farms as a negative not a positive. (For more on this, visit Gracie's Tips here. Note, it's for adult webmasters, but the knowledge applies to all webmasters.)

When you have a list of sites you think are good, link to them. Then ask them to reciprocate. It always looks nice if you have done so & ask for a link back, rather than leading with a promise to do so. And you don't need to write a long email along with the 'search rank explanation' story. Just tell them why you liked their site (everybody likes to be flattered!) & ask for a link in return.

One trick that I also recommend is to ask them to link to your site from a specific page on their own site. For example, one of those sites only has one page on roses - ask them to link to you from their roses page. (This also works to avoid those link farms pages as well.)

If you link first, ask nice, and your site is offering decent content, they will likely give you the link Or at the very least, they may reply with a reason they cannot - there are lessons there as well. But that, my friends, will have to wait for another time.

For now, try the tips above and Google & other spiders will find enough text in common between your website & the linked ones to increase your page rank well enough.

Contact Point: Search Engines
14 Dec 2005, 2:41:53 am
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As covered earlier, searches are the number one way websites are found on the web. So if you have a website, a column, a shop at one of the selling marketplaces, or even a blog that you want more than mom to see, you need to get it listed in the search engines.

I don't think any sane person is going to argue that when it comes to search engines, Google is number one. And with little signs of ending its reign any time soon, I think it's safe for us to begin with our look at website ranking as it's done, or needs to be done, at Google.

I am not going to scare you with the angry confusing mathematical mess that is the Google algorithm. First of all, no one besides the inner-Google-sanctum members know that. Second of all, if I had access to that, I doubt I could understand it - at least not enough to explain it. Thirdly, the almighty algorithm is changed often, with the main purpose of throwing off manipulators. (It's the dream of SEOs everywhere to know that algorithm!)

But right from Google itself, we get a great big hint on where a person with a modest understanding of the internet can begin to get that high ranking on Google:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

What you really need to know from this is that Google likes sites with links, in & out. The more you have in common with those sites that you swap links with, the higher your rank.

For example, you & your link partner both have sites about roses. A person searching for roses will be likely to find both of your sites higher in the listings than a rose site with no relevant links.

Now, if your site is about the care of roses, with lots of content on gardening, pruning, etc, while the other is say a catalog listing of varieties with photos, your rank in a Google search would depend upon the other words used in the search. If the person searched for 'rose mulch' you would likely do better. If they searched for 'varieties of white roses' then your link buddy would.

This is where keywords are vital to your rank - the more you have in common with the searcher's words, the better you place. And your site content works wonders here - you have naturally built in key words in such a fashion as to both charm Google, and interest a surfer.

However, it is likely you are not the only rose website hoping to garner attention, to sell your books or supplies etc. Obviously you and your competitors don't wish to exchange links - no one wants to hand their customers over to another company doing the same thing.

So what can you do - aside from spending big bucks in Google Ads or other campaigns?

Ahh, that is for next time - we will discuss the fine art of linking to your benefit. Everything from defining the ideal list of sites you should link with, how to ask for & get those links, and how to politely decline links you don't wish for.

Working From Home: Basic Tips
14 Dec 2005, 2:11:01 am
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1) Make a list of the daily, weekly, monthly activities that are needed, and the hours required to do them. Look at the list as see when certain jobs need to be done and the best time to do them. For example, most business calls need to be made during those dreaded 9-5 business hours. If you have children, spouses, roommates etc., perhaps you can schedule phone contact times while the kids are at school/napping, adults are at work etc.. Write a schedule from this information.

Once you have created a schedule, post it for all members of the household to see. If you need to, contact others to tell them of your schedule. (I even called my mom and a few friends to tell them I was not available for phone calls during specific hours so they would not be bothering me at work!)

While part of your desire to work from home may be flexibility, this does not mean you shouldn’t schedule your time. Scheduling time will help family members know when you are *not* available, and help you can make better use of your time.

If your work varies, then re-work the schedule as needed. I create my schedules for the week on Sunday night as they change each week due to sales volume, promotions, family appointments etc..

2) List the job titles big companies use to define the work you do. For example, you are the secretary, the janitor, the quality controller, marketing executive etc.

This helps you not only see what you are ‘worth’ on the market if you need to look for a job in the future, but reminds you that you are a professional. If you are not a professional in these areas, and your business needs you to be, then you know which areas you might need help in. You can then get further training or outsource some of your work.

3) Stake your claim. You need to create work space that is *off limits* to other members of the household.

Even if you cannot yet set up an office &/or work area that allows for privacy, you need to make a small area that no one else is allowed to touch. You don’t need your personal mail, child’s homework, the grocery list, or the piece of Tupperware that is supposed to be returned to Aunt Sue stacked on your files.

4) Join professional organizations. This is more than a marketing tool -- this is for good mental health!

Sure, being part of a group can provide business leads, and even help you ‘network’ your way into finding resources, training etc., but working from home can make you feel isolated. Feeling that you have meetings to attend, or having the ability to contact another who *knows* what it is like to do the kind of work you do, is worth even more than those other ‘professional’ reasons.

I belong to several groups. Some are for the ‘community’ aspects, while others are more about education, and even recognition. Don’t sell yourself short either. Be sure to consider groups with large memberships, organizations with membership applications that need to be ‘approved’ (gives you credit for your work & credibility to your clients/customers), and those that are for ‘the big boys’ etc.

It is nice to have a small circle where you can really feel connected, but it is good to venture out and be exposed to new, bigger, more established companies as well. This stretches your comfort zone as well as your reach. Many close business friends I have found, have come from these more ’intimidating’ groups. You may be surprised to find out how many large companies were small once & how many mentors are only waiting to be asked!

Web Traffic
14 Dec 2005, 1:57:49 am
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Hubby sent me this link, with this note:

"There's some software out there called Webalizer, that analyzes web traffic information and does fancy graphs and all that jazz. Lots of websites use it -- thousands, in fact. Happily, many don't secure this info, making it available to search engines. Want to see what real website statistics look like, for sites from small (box54.org) to big (mozilla.org). If you're an infojunkie like me, or if you want to see the difference between counting 'hits' and 'pages', here's the place to look!"

Advertising in RSS Feeds
14 Dec 2005, 1:48:05 am
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As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away.

At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds.

Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed.

Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds.

Review of Current Options

Google AdSense for Feeds
Google's AdSense for Feeds offers contextually targeted advertisements, with a wide selection of advertisers. Google chooses not to divulge the percentage of revenue that is shared with the publisher, so it is difficult if not impossible to predict monthly revenue. The current Google AdSense system for feeds is tied to blogs and does not appear to be overly flexible.
www.google.com/adsense


Pheedo
Pheedo displays categorized advertisements rather than contextual advertisements. The upside to this is that Pheedo's advertisements can be used in conjunction with Google AdSense or AdSense for feeds without violating Google's contract. Pheedo works with the publisher to serve advertisements from similar or related categories associated with the feeds contents.

Pheedo's system allows for advanced ad filtering, giving publishers control over keyword ad filtering, specific ad filtering or url filtering. Pheedo's system also allows publishers to sell ads to existing advertisers whom they already have a relationship. The revenue split is 50% and feeds can be a sponsored flat rate advertisement or a pay-per-click advertisement, where the publisher is only paid if the advertisement is clicked.
www.pheedo.com

Kanoodle for Feeds
Kanoodles systems for providing advertisements for feeds is similar to Google's but they do not have the breadth of advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements are served based on topics, not to keywords. Kanoodle shares 50% of the revenue generated from the advertisements with the publisher serving the ad.
www.kanoodle.com

Evaluating Options
When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the following:

1. Ad Relevance
In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel. It is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in the feed contain related content, the more related the content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements will be of interest to the reader and clicked. Also the closer the content relates to the feeds theme the higher the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the product or service being advertised.

2. Ad Ratio
Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of advertisements. Readers will become frustrated with feeds that are heavily laden with advertisements and genuine content.

The advertiser is happy as they are reaching a targeted audience the publisher is happy because their advertisement is being clicked and generating revenue.

3. Clearly Denoted as Ads
The debate over editorial control and advertisements rage on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette for publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS advertising partner consider the context in which the advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored material? Or does the content blend so well that it appear as a product or service endorsement from the publisher? Credibility and reputation online matter, and the segregation of advertisements and ensuring they are properly denoted as such will go a long way to enhance credibility with readers.
Clearly as RSS increases in popularity publishers are looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance between quality, consistent content and occasional related advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in RSS feeds. If the balance is not found, publishers may be forced to move to a subscription RSS feed model.


About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev an RSS component for developers.

THE Book of 2005
10 Dec 2005, 10:54:12 pm
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Just out, Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual, by Matthew MacDonald is my favorite business book of 2005.

At first look, this book is for web site designers only. True, web designers will gain much in the way of this book. It covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript and DHTML as well as information on layouts & multimedia. But it's much more than that.

MacDonald addresses design & functionality, marketing, search engines & directories, tracking visitors, the use of forums & communities, PayPal merchant tools, and to top it all off, he includes a chapter on blogs and how to use Blogger.

The author starts at the beginning: the rationale for creating a site in the first place.

So many publications focus on a specialty - at the expense of understanding where that specialty fits into the overal web site plan or goal. Designers aren't always aware of search engine optimization issues. Site owners don't know what to ask for or insist upon.

Will CSS help in your search engine ranking? If so, is it worth the expense of having the site redesigned? Did you even know enough to ask if the designer knew CSS?! If you knew how to put images on the website yourself, would you need to pay a monthly maintenace fee to your designer? When does marketing take place? How do you go about establishing reciprocal links and is worth the trouble? How can you connect with your audience? Do you need community functions? How will you make money with your website - without selling one single product of your own?

This book helps you determine your needs & goals so you can make make well informed design and content decisions.

This book is a way for webmasters, designers, programmers, site owners, marketing professionals, SEOs & others to come see how all the pieces of the puzzle must fit together.

Site owners must be aware of all of these components fit so they can make choices based on information. Small business owners, sole-practitioners etc, will pay dearly if they don't!

For those who provide these services, such as those in web design, SEO, marketing, this book will help you understand what other concerns your clients may have. Asking these questions prior to starting a project will save you & the client lots of time and make the project a more pleasant one.

Had Creating Web Sites been around when I started, it would have saved me weeks worth of research, countless newbie mistakes, and more money than I care to think about. I'd be depressed, only this book is still a valuable resource! (It's never too late to learn! And I'm a huge believer in tweaking, revamping & keeping up-to-date.)

MacDonald's book is easy to read, easy to follow. There are screenshots, illustrations, step-by-step instructions, and sidebars with more details. (If was any more broken down, it would be a liquid *wink*)

Now that you understand it all, you obviously can make better decisions & communicate with any professionals you need to!

Beginners will benefit from starting out with all this information presented at the start - before they start a website, miss something, mess up and need to rework things.

Advanced folks will benefit from a greater understanding of how it all works together, and pragmatically look at the choices before them.

Even if you believe you are an expert, or at least a mighty-damn-fine-professional, there is much to take from this book. Consider it a re-fresher course, continuing education credits, or what-have-you.

I consider it a Must Have for my bookshelf.

Note: This book comes with a free 45-day online edition & other online resources!

Seriously, get a copy!

Working With Web Designers
10 Dec 2005, 10:14:44 pm
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This site has an excellent, yet funny, overview on The Website Development Process. It helps clients, designers & programmers each understand what their role in the process is.

What's The Deal With Alexa? (Part Two)
10 Dec 2005, 9:54:23 pm
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Is Alexa Is Skewed?

As mentioned in my first Alexa post, there is some concern over a disproportionate number of Asian users which may skew Alexa's data. However, when you look at the traffic volume of the top internet sites and know about internet traffic patterns, it seems Alexa's data is solid enough to sway nay-sayers. Industry experts swear to the integrity of Alexa's rankings for those sites above 100,000.

When it comes to sites ranked above 100,000, there is little difference between Alexa and the paid services. In part, it is because of the way the internet is used. Alexa explains this way:

"Sites with relatively low traffic will not be accurately ranked by Alexa. Alexa's data comes from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users, however, this is not a large enough sample to accurately determine the ranking of sites with fewer than 1,000 monthly users. Generally, Traffic Rankings of 100,000+ should be regarded as not reliable. Conversely, the closer a site gets to #1, the more reliable its rank."

Since these large sites have such high traffic, the data is relatively unmoved by any disproportionate user demographics.

To illustrate the power of these sites, take a look at this information from Alexa's own blog:

Let's break it down by Alexa's Rankings, starting with the Top 500. Out of a total of 18 million sites to choose from, the Top 500 represent less than .003% of sites. But, as you would expect, these sites get a disproportionate amount of traffic. In fact they get 45% of all traffic. No, that's not a misprint. The odds that any Web surfer in the world is on a Top 500 site at any give time is about 50/50.

Moving down the rankings, if you take Alexa's Top 100,000 sites you'll find that almost 3 out every 4 clicks are spoken for. In other words, almost 75% of all the traffic on the web goes to the sites in the Top 100K list, leaving the remaining 18 million or so sites to fight over the scraps.

With numbers like this, it's easy to see why Alexa's numbers are so accurate on the large sites. And to some extent, the smaller sites need not worry if there numbers are off at all - since we scramble for such a small part of the pie, the best thing to do is to concentrate on moving up (decreasing your ranking number).

But even if you do not think much of Alexa, others do.

Why Does Alexa Matter?

It is the only free service doing so. Competitors include Nielsen//NetRatings, ComScore & Compete, all with hefty price tags.

Since Alexa is the most accurate free service for such data, it's the most widely used. Alexa rankings are used by 'everyone.'

If you want to sell ad space on your website, advertisers will want to know your Alexa rank to determine if your site is large enough for them - and to evaluate your advertising rates.

If you want to solicit products to review, those who make the products, publishers & authors, CD producers, software companies etc, they will use your Alexa ranking to determine that you reach a large enough audience to warrent the review product.

If you want to interview professionals, celebrities, authors etc, these people, or their agents and managers, will want to be sure that the interview is worth that person's time - and Alexa ranking will be used for such an evaluation.

If you want to be interviewed, people will consider your Alexa ranking to determine your status as popular, as an expert, as worthy of being interviewed. (Don't be surprised if those folks reading your press release run your URL through Alexa before making a decision to do a story!)

Alexa has become the standard by virtue of it's relative accuracy (especially when it comes to The Big Sites and trends), and as such its ranking is used by many in the evaluation of site popularity. Even if you have reservations about Alexa rankings, particularly with regards to your own site, others are going to use it.

Like a traveler to other lands, it's the language spoken, and you'll need to use it to communicate - or at the very least, be aware of it enough to understand what others are saying.

What's The Deal With Alexa? (Part One)
10 Dec 2005, 6:50:26 pm
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What is Alexa?

Alexa was founded in April 1996 and acquired by Amazon.com in 1999. It provides dynamic data about the Web, including Web site traffic information, statistics, and other tools:

* URL Information - useful data about millions of Web sites, including traffic rank, load speed, related links, site owner contact information, and adult content identification.

* Browse Category - everything that is needed to build a site browse tree, including lists of sub-categories for a top-level category, most popular sites in a category, and all sites within the category.

* Web Search - Web search based on Alexa's crawl, providing robust support for advanced queries allowing developers to construct difficult queries and incorporate the answers into their applications.

* Crawl Meta Data - meta-data for specific pages found in the Alexa Crawl, including size, checksum, frames, images, and links.

* Web Map - topographic representation of Alexa's Web crawl displaying all links in and links out of specific pages on the Web.

How it works:

Every two months Alexa's crawlers go out and scour the web bringing down 100 Terabytes of Web content and over 4 billion URLs into the archive. By partnering with Google, Alexa has built a new kind of search engine, one that helps users collaborate and find the best sites, with less effort. Sites include e-commerce sites, blogs, news sites and more. Along with crawling, Alexa uses information gathered from folks who use the Alexa Toolbars.

Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users over a rolling 3 month period.

Rankings are based on a combined measure of reach (the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day) and pageviews (the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site - multiple visits to a URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview). The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1. (Note: On Alexa, the lower the ranking number, the better or more powerful the site - so a #1 ranking is the #1 website.)

Alexa's traffic rankings are for top level domains only (e.g. domain.com). They not provide separate rankings for subpages (e.g. www.domain.com/subpage.html) or subdomains (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) unless, as with Geocities and Tripod homepages, Alexa has made special arrangements.

Using the crawlers, & the data from Alexa Toolbars, the data is organized into useful categories of information.

One of the reasons it is disliked (in fact hated by me early on!) is that, as you can see, much of the Alexa data is received by it's toolbar users. And it's a fact that there is a disproportionate number of Asian users. Alexa itself puts it this way:

"The rate of adoption of Alexa software in different parts of the world may vary widely due to advertising locality, language, and other geographic and cultural factors. For example, Korean sites are prominent among our top-ranked sites, but it is unknown to what extent this reflects high rates of general Internet usage in Korea."

This, of course, leads to skewed information. However, as you will see in later articles, Alexa is not to be ignored...

What is Big Mouth Promotions?
10 Dec 2005, 6:45:12 pm
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(The combined 'About,' history, and Mission Statement, if you will...)

Big Mouth Promotions was born several years ago when a rag-tag entrepreneur was eager to share what she knew about doing business on the internet. As time progressed, life became busier, and emailing members in her network of friends & associates became too much of a time requirement for her to keep up with.

However, being both opinionated and a big-mouth, she feels the need to continue to share her thoughts.

As things sit currently, this blog exists as a means for sharing information about marketing & promotions on the internet. This includes, but is not limited to, thoughts on business, marketing, sales and advertising (both on the internet and in the 'real world'), web design, search engine optimization and strategies, website ranking, ecommerce issues, content creation and related book and product reviews.

It is specifically for those with small businesses, homebased businesses, the self-employed, those who freelance, and/or those who are new to business on the web (or in general).

This is by no means The Gospel of marketing on the internet, but merely the experiences and opinions of one person.

Feel free to use the comments section to share your own opinions, advice and your questions - yes, even if they challenge the ideas published here. That's how we all learn.

Now, I return you to the regular blog programming.

Yahoo bought del.icio.us.
10 Dec 2005, 4:58:04 pm
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We're proud to announce that del.icio.us has joined the Yahoo! family. Together we'll continue to improve how people discover, remember and share on the Internet, with a big emphasis on the power of community. We're excited to be working with the Yahoo! Search team - they definitely get social systems and their potential to change the web. (We're also excited to be joining our fraternal twin Flickr!)

If you don't know what delicious is, it's an online bookmarking service which allows you to access your bookmarks online -- and you can see what other people bookmark as well as see what is getting bookmarked right now.

This allows a marketer to know what other people think are important sites & topics.

This kind of service is called social bookmarking.

Now That You Have a Press Release, What Do You Do With It?
10 Dec 2005, 4:11:18 pm
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#1 My first step is to use press release distribution services. These places send releases to sites, lists, wires & media contacts for you. I do this first as they usually have a waiting period for acceptance, and during that time I can work on the other steps.

Press release distribution services can be pricey, however, there are sites that will do this for free.

My top two places for free press release distribution are:

PR Leap: A free press release distribution service to major search engines, newswires and websites, since 2003, sends your releases to Google News, Topix.net, Yahoo! Search, MSN, MSN News, MSN Newsbot (UK), Moreover, Ask Jeeves, Teoma, Lycos News, NewsNow and others. They also use RSS syndication.

You simply login and follow the directions to submit your press release.

For small voluntary fees, you may increase publication time, the list of places the release is distributed to, and other options. The fees & options will be detailed after you submit your release, making it easy to upgrade if you should desire it.

PR Leap takes roughly 2-3 days to review/accept and publish your press release. There will be a date assigned, and you can submit releases with future dates.

PR Web: This site had offered free online press release distribution services since August 1997, gradually transitioning to a fully integrated press release newswire service. Each day they email press releases to between 60,000 and 100,000 global contacts points including journalists, analysts, freelance writers, media outlets and newsrooms. In addition to email and FTP distributions PR Web operates a proprietary syndication network, XML feeds and a network of robust media Web sites.

While services are free, they ask for support via voluntary financial contributions.

To submit your press release, just login and follow the directions.

PR Web will review/accept and publish your press release in about one day. You will see the assigned publication date, and you may also submit your releases for future publication dates.

#2 Send a copy to your media contacts. You should have or be building a list of press contacts that you can work with on a personal level. They may be very targeted contacts, persons who have worked with you in the past, etc. Email or fax your press release per their preferences.

#3 Send copies to others in your network. Perhaps these people are not members of the press, but they still have the means to broadcast or share your news with others. Such persons may be those with whom you exchange links, those with news sections on their sites, those you do business with (suppliers, clients etc) all ought to know what you've been up to.

If you belong to sites such as Ryze, Tribe etc, you may wish to publish or alert members there as well.

#4 Use your own site newsletter to announce the news. Your fans ought to know your news too! Chances are this will be a shorter note and written specifically for your readers. It will not contain company history or the like, but should be worthy of their attention (if not, then are you sure it was worth the time to write a press release?)

#5 Publish on your website &/or industry blog. Depending upon your site design, you may wish to add this to your company news section, your media page, or your company blog. (If you don't have a company blog yet, more on that later.)

Now, all you can do is sit back, and wait for folks to contact you - or better yet, wait for that free publicity to hit!

Press Release Basics
10 Dec 2005, 3:50:25 pm
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Press releases can be an easy way of getting the media to pay attention to you, and when they work they give you the desired 'free publicity' that companies love.

However, many people who have tried press releases with little or no luck become discouraged and write them off as a waste of time. This is often because of misunderstandings about what a press release is.

The key to writing an effective press release is to focus on the first word in press release: the word 'press.'

A press release is a way for your business to pitch a story or news item to members of the press. If you are lucky, your bit of news can be an addition to a piece they are working on. If you are very lucky, your piece may inspire a feature of its own!

Members of the press are inundated with announcements and story ideas from many sources, and they have limited time & space in which to give their readers & consumers their news & information. So how do they select which ones are worthy? Well, it all comes down to what's intersting.

While whatever your business does is interesting to you, your friends and family, is it really news worthy? Likely not. Would you want to read a publication or listen to a program that listed all the little 'news' items about what each company in America did today? Even local reports on all the businesses in your city would be pretty boring to most of us.

When considering writing a press release, imagine yourself having to listen to or read this story about anthoer company in another field... Is it interesting?

If it's not interesting enough for you to hear about someone else, likely the person reading the release will view it in the same way. Remember, they get paid to inform their readers/viewers/listeners, and they have lots of stories to chose from.

If the story idea seems interesting to a small pool of readers, then look for media with an interest in that area. What media reaches your target market? What members of the media would find your press release interesting enough to write a story about it or at least publish a small paragraph about it?

Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of information you provide.

Many media professionals scramble at the last minute, so provide as much information as you can so that the person who is interested in this story will be able to prepare a piece based on the press release only. Give them quotes to use so they will sound like they interviewed you or a member of the business. Give them the company background & other details so they can produce a full piece. Other stories fail to pan out, other pieces will not make the deadline, or they need to fill a small space or sidebar with a feature - and if you keep these situations in mind when you write your press release, you have increased your chances of having a member of the press mention your business.

You'll cultivate good relationships with those in the media if you:

Only send them press releases and other notices when you have something of interest to them.

Provide enough accurate information for them to produce a story on their own.

Provide accurate contact information (email address, phone number) for them to do any follow-up they desire.

Send them professional press releases. (Read How To Write a Press Release, by Linda Formichelli, for a good overview on this.)

In short, respect their time and soon you could be receiving free publicity too.

Marketing Minute: What do they want anyway?
10 Dec 2005, 12:16:53 pm
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In trying to reach your customers, you need to know what they need & want. Not always an easy task! (Neither is taking what they want & turning it into great ad or promotional copy, but that is another topic...)

If you can't afford to form a focus group, try this neat trick:

Check out your competition's promotional materials (brochures, sales letters, web sites, etc.). Many of them include testimonials.

I don't mean copy the testimonials, I mean read them!

By reading the testimonials, and by tracking them, you will get an general overview of trends &/or concerns in your target market.

If those 'happy customers' are gushing about items being in stock, shipping charges & speed, or charming customer service, then those may be areas to focus on. If satisfied clients are glowing about your competitor's professional manner, fabulous communication, ability to meet tight deadlines, whatever, then you know a few things that clients are looking for.

Can you meet or beat their expectations? If so, be sure to list those benefits in your promortional materials!

Brand Hijack
5 Dec 2005, 11:00:12 am
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Notes on Brand Hijack: Marketing Without Marketing by Alex Wipperfurth.

The myth of 'no marketing' is misleading. While it's true that the old days of marketing do not work with most of today's young audience, it would be foolish to think that no marketing is the way to go.

If the professional marketers once viewed the laws of marketing as:

"Branding is the most critical element of commercia success; Find a relevant & compelling connection between your product performance and your target market; Create advertising around an aspirational image associated with the brand."

Then this book shows us how we'll need to evlove into a 'new marketer' - and the author proposes brand hijacking as a path to follow in today's marketplace.

The definition of brand hijack is: The consumer's act of commandeering a brand from the marketing professsionals and driving its evolution.

If you are not sure what that means, the book gives case studies, for example when the punk culture 'took' Dr. Marten's work boots, making the footwear a political statement.

Marketing Minute
5 Dec 2005, 10:59:38 am
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According to a survey by the Recording Industry of America, roughly 7 out of 10 music fans are not aware that their favorite performer has released a new record.

If those big name stars have difficulty reaching their fans, how do those in smaller businesses make sure their fans know of their "new product" or "new service?"

The cheapest, easiest way is to use email lists - all the big boys do it! If you do not have one, add that option now, *today* & start letting your fans know!

NOTE: "Fans" do not need to be paying customers. Folks who never pay you a dime may recommend you repeatedly to buyers, the media, to investors, etc. So start reaching your fan base today, and let them spread the news of your latest releases.