Archive for Online Marketing – Page 2

Start an Expert Ebook with an Outline:
11 Steps

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, January 3rd, 2014

Experts-Stuart-MilesAre you an expert? Then you need to write and publish an expert ebook. Now. Before your field gets flooded with too many on the same topic (if it isn’t already). Trust me on this one.

Just as business blogs caught fire in 2004-2005, expert ebooks are what smart professionals use as a key marketing tool to get found, get known and get clients.

If you’re an expert and want to get found online, there’s no better way than to give visitors to your website or blog a free report that shows your expertise, builds credibility and starts conversations.

An expert ebook is a longer version of that report and can easily be sold on Amazon. Traditional publishing barriers have fallen. All that’s standing between you and published author status is a little time and work. So let’s get busy. Here’s why:

This is one of those opportunities on the rise. Don’t miss being on the early crest of the wave.

  • The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) reported U.S. wholesale ebook sales for January, 2010 were $31.9 million, up 261 percent from the same month a year earlier.

  • Ebooks are now outselling hardcover books at Amazon, selling 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, E-Books, How to...Tips, Online Marketing
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How to Become a #1 Expert with a Blog

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

Dr.CharlesParkerAre you #1? If you’re a doctor, lawyer, author, or consultant, you’d like your clients to believe they’ve come to the best professional around. It may be hard to make that claim. Unless, of course, you can stake out a niche online, and show that you’re a number one expert in your field with a blog.

Dr. Charles Parker, for example, is an excellent psychiatrist and certainly not the only one with years of experience treating people with ADHD – attention deficit disorders. But he is #1 in health care blogs for that specialty, according to ShareCare, a key site that ranks health care providers and links them up with people in need.

Dr. Parker’s blog is at CorePsych. I know him personally because I helped him get started blogging. I didn’t teach him everything, but I remember the day he called me from his office in Virginia, with questions. That initial phone call stands out because I was still in a fog, getting coffee at 5 a.m. in San Diego. He was on ET, of course, and ready to go. I don’t usually pick up the phone that early, but that day I did. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, In the News...
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Content Marketing Focus: Lessons from Steve Allen

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

SteveAllenHaving a hard time staying focused on your business content marketing? Focus-schmocus. Sometimes you start off doing one thing and end up an expert at something else. Life is like that.

I look at content marketing as an experiment or adventure. Some things work well and you do more of them. Others, well, let’s hope you haven’t wasted money as well as time.

Steve Allen was a famous comedian who started The Tonight Show, in 1954, long before Johnny Carson became the host (and later Jay Leno). Allen started off in radio but got his first TV job as an announcer for wrestling matches. Here’s what Wikipedia reports:

Allen’s first television experience had come in 1949 when he answered an ad for a TV announcer for professional wrestling. He knew nothing about wrestling, so he watched some shows and discovered that the announcers did not have well-defined names for the holds. When he got the job, he created names for many of the holds, some of which are still used today.

The point I’d like to make is that if Allen hadn’t taken that first job offer, he might not have had the same career path and ended up one of the most respected and admired comedians of all time. He could have just as easily become a jazz pianist in an orchestra.

Instead, he eventually created a new genre of entertainment, the late night comedy-talk show. And he was a pioneer in TV wrestling entertainment. And he still had time to publish over 10,000 songs and win a Grammy for The Gravy Waltz (1963).

Allen wasn’t following any guidelines for his career.  He went with what interested him. When people try to follow too many rules and guidelines, for example, for content marketing and social media, they end up with mediocre results. Why end up where everyone else is?

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing
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Online Content Marketing: Let’s Put the “We” Back Into Weblog

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

Follow-MeI get calls from small business professionals who want to start a blog or an e-newsletter. They’ve usually invested money in a nice website, and then suddenly realize that something’s missing… like customers and leads!

They’re genuinely surprised that with the money they spent on their website, no one is coming to see it, indicate they like it, let alone pick up the phone and call.

As for LinkedIn and Facebook, they’re baffled why people don’t interact with them. It doesn’t take a genius (and I’m no genius), but my guess is they have a “me-site,” a “me-blog,” and “me pages” on social media sites.

Instead of generously sharing information about their field of expertise, they share “me-formation.” There’s an “I” in information, but that doesn’t mean you should always talk about yourself. Content should be focused on readers, not you and your business. Sure, people want to know about you, but actually they want to know what you can do for them.

Start everything you write online with a focus on customers and the problems that you can solve for them. Then follow up with building trusting relationships with your readers that lead to sales.

Here’s how online content marketing works for small businesses:

  1. Relationships: Whenever you write content (blog posts, e-newsletter articles, emails), keep the focus on what problems you can solve for your customers. What are their struggles? What do they most desire? Connect with them by writing for them and about them. Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff, Writing Great Blog Content
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5 Reasons to Hire a Content Marketing Writer for Your Business

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

Content Marketing-Hire-Writer-for-your-business“Content is king.” Bill Gates said it, so it must be true.

Gates uttered this one-liner way back in 1996, but the flurry of updates to Google search algorithms during 2012 has ensured that his words still resonate.

Most businesses (be they blog owners, start-ups, or established brands) now know that if they want a competitive advantage, they have to keep information-hungry customers in a ready supply of fresh, relevant, and interesting content. Depending on the type of the business, content might also be expected to be awe-inspiring. No pressure, of course.

One of the biggest problems with content is finding someone to write it. Even if you’re a great writer, or have people on staff who are, it takes time and skill to craft an article, blog or newsletter appropriate for both your audience of potential customers and the search engines.

Could the answer be to outsource the writing to a freelancer?

Let’s consider the benefits of doing so: Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Writing for Others, Freelancing, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content
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My Business Website: Content for Customers… or SEO?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Should my business website focus on keywords and getting search engine results? Or quality content for customers?

Perhaps a more important question is “How do I make the most of each of my web pages so that my business and I get found, get known, and get clients?”

The challenge:

You want to make sure that your business website is fresh, attractive and informative. People visiting your website want to see something that piques their curiosity in you and your products and services.

Or put another way, you want to satisfy readers who ask: “What are you going to do for me that will… (Fill in the blank).”

Always keep that ideal customer in mind when crafting your message. The content must be relevant, new and, of course, SEO “friendly.” This last requirement can seem the most daunting, especially for non-technical professionals who are less familiar with websites and online content marketing.

The “SEO Friendly” site:

For good SEO results, each page needs to be both keyword-rich and current. That means pages are updated frequently with good (relevant) content that is keyword-rich and unique, and appeals to what customers seek. You need to make your keywords obvious.

Do not use a template or basic page format and tweak the content. Search engines will not know which page to rank for what keywords. Similarly formatted content can easily be classified as duplicate content and you risk being penalized or ignored by the search engines. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web
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Are Infographics Becoming Too Complex?

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

There’s no doubt that infographics are an extremely useful internet marketing tool, and as such, they’re becoming ever more commonplace when trying to gain new blog readers. There’s  no better way to attract new customers than with a clever graphic.

The problem, however, is that we’re seeing more and more that are overly complex, and are simply a waste of time. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, would this infographic be better if it were shorter, simpler, or even as text?

The main advantages of infographics, and the main reason they’re used, is that they can convey information quickly and concisely in an eye-catching way. Boring processes and masses of statistics can be explained quickly through the use of a great image, and people love this.

If you’ve got a great product for instance, you can explain some of its main features in a graphic. It’s much better to get a series of facts from an infographic than a large body of text, but if the infographic itself becomes overly long and complex, the point is lost.

Get Your Point Across Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing
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Blog Like Perez Hilton: 10 Ways to Bring Traffic to Your Blog

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

The second-best thing about writing a blog is that you have an opportunity to express your opinions, thoughts, and viewpoints to the rest of the world. But the number one advantage to blogging is that it’s a meritocracy; in other words, anyone can be successful at it!

Just look at Perez Hilton. He comes from an unremarkable background far away from Hollywood, but his blogging has amassed thousands of followers and his approach has changed the way people view the entertainment industry

Of course, being a winning blogger is more than just creating good content. You have to be able to get people to read what you write on a consistent basis. Here are ten ways to increase traffic flow to your blog:

  1. Put your blog in your email signature. This is a task that you can complete in less than a minute. After you do so, every email that you send will be a marketing message that could bring you another reader. (Hint: check out WiseStamp!)
  1. Go to your target audience. Find the communities where your potential readers get together. Then determine which ones are more likely not only to read your blog’s content, but also share it with others.
  1. Use social media. Share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and the many other popular Internet gathering places. Enlist services like StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Reddit to help spread your message.
  1. Optimize for search engines. This sounds technical and complex, but all you really have to do is watch a tutorial video and learn how you can leverage what you write without making many significant changes to it. (Handy hint: subscribe to ScribeSEOTool and learn how to optimize each blog post with a handy checklist!)
  1. Seek out similar blogs. You can comment on blogs that publish similar content, and in the process reference your own blog in the hopes of piquing the interest of that blog’s followers.
  1. Invite – and write – guest posts. Getting established bloggers to write a guest post for your blog can boost your standing in a social community – and being a guest poster can showcase your writing talents to a new audience. (See Patsi’s post about a nifty way to get guest authors to participate in an exchange program for your blog.)
  1. Conduct surveys. People love to express their opinions, and one easy way to let them do that is to conduct surveys on any topics relevant to your blog. You can either utilize a polling widget or plug-in, or just ask for responses in your blog’s comments section.
  1. Create your own graphics, photos, etc. How will this generate traffic? Because if you license them so that people who repost them must credit your blog, you can build another channel of traffic flow to your blog.
  1. Enable subscriptions. It can be as simple as creating an email newsletter or making your blog accessible to RSS feeds. Readers are great, but getting a good core of loyal followers can exponentially increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
  1. Incorporate analytics – and study them. There are so many easy-to-use blogging analytics tools out there. But the real successful bloggers pore over their results and tailor their blogs accordingly.

Image credit: wikipedia.org

About our Guest Author: Chris Martin is a freelance writer and blogger who writes about the hottest topics on the Web at www.business.com.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing
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How Content Marketing Works on Pinterest

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

For a social media site to truly step into the spotlight, it has to have something special. Pinterest is one show-stopping sharing site that has taken the Web world by storm. A study done by Shopify, shows the growth of this site is better than Facebook and Twitter at the same point in their history. So how does your content marketing strategy work for this site?

According to Wikipedia, Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections or ‘like’ photos. Their mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing.

Orders from Pinterest are double those of Facebook and the site is the leader in average dollar amount per order, over sites such as Google, Amazon and Bing. Marketers are trying to find the best ways to leverage their companies and clients on this photo-driven site. So, how do these online marketing professionals incorporate content marketing while on Pinterest?

What to Share

For sure, this new social site is a no-brainer for retail stores and e-Commerce sites. However, if you’re in a B2B business or sell services or have products that might be tricky to show off on an image driven site, what to share as part of your content marketing strategy can be a roadblock. Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff
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Social Media: 3 Things Teenagers Can Teach Business About Getting It Right

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

It seems that the younger the employee, the more frequently they use social media. While it is still relatively easy to find baby boomers who have no social media accounts, it’s tough to find a millennial without at least one online profile. Tougher still is finding a teenager who is not connected on Facebook and Twitter.

The difference between teens and their older counterparts on social media platforms is that they use it less to connect, and more as a creative outlet. Most of the friends that teens have through social media are the same ones that they see on a regular basis at school. As a result, social media outlets are used less to connect and more to keep up. (Image: freedigitalphotos.net)

It can be easy to write our youthful “friends” off as irrelevant to our own social media pursuits. The truth is that there is actually a lot to be gleaned from the younger generation. In many ways, they get a lot right when it comes to social media. Here are a few tips savvy social marketers can take away from teens: Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Stuff
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