Archive for the ‘social media’ CategoryHow to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part TwoMarch 22nd, 2011Hi All! This is Part Two of a 2-part series, so hopefully you read Part One and are ready to continue with learning more about article writing for brand building! Okay! So, you’ve outlined a list of article topics your target audience will benefit from, and you’ve written your first article. Now what? There are a wide variety of online article submission and distribution services available that operate in different ways and that serve different purposes. Here is a brief overview of the types that you’ll encounter. They will: Require you to pay a minimal fee, or not charge anything, to distribute your article online and will create a web page for your article that can be found in search results; or, they will have subscribers who pay a monthly fee to access fresh content (i.e. articles submitted by experts like you) and those people will use your article in their blogs, ezines, websites, publications or newsletters; or, the service will pay you a minimal fee if they approve your article and choose to offer it on their website for others to publish; or, they will charge you a minimal fee to distribute your articles to targeted outlets (not just distribute it online) interested in your topic matter. You can find examples of services that match the variety I just provided by performing online searches using phrases like: Free services to submit articles; online article submission; getting paid to write or submit articles; and services to distribute articles online. You will quickly see there are hundreds of options to get your article distributed and found by your target audience! It can be a bit overwhelming, so start by picking a few and try them out. Another option, if you have the budget, is to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) or a freelance article submission expert, and they can do all of this for you. You can find people who can help you by posting a request on a service like eLance.com and you’ll receive responses from many individuals who offer this type of support. Plus, you can also find article ghostwriters on eLance.com who are reasonably priced! But, if you plan to get your articles out to the masses by yourself, here is a link to a compiled list of article submission services…it’s very comprehensive and many of them are FREE!!! But before I conclude this 2-part series, I’d like to share one more strategy you can implement for getting your articles distributed: Contact publications and blogs directly that reach your target audience. No matter what your area of expertise is, there are going to be tons of magazines, ezines, newsletters (print and online), websites, social media community websites, and blogs seeking content from outside authors. You can do online searches to find the ones who reach your target audience and then create a targeted hit-list to inquire if they accept guest articles. You will find that some of them will even have article submission guidelines available on their websites! If they find your topic ideas interesting, feel their audience will benefit from your information, and find your articles to be well-written, there’s a very good chance they will publish your content. And, even better, you will begin to establish a relationship with these targeted contacts and that can lead to their accepting your articles on a regular basis. This is a fabulous scenario because their audience will become more familiar with you and that is a key factor for building your topic expert brand! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa  How to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part OneMarch 07th, 2011Hi All! A very powerful strategy for building your topic expert brand positioning, and for driving traffic to your website, is to write articles and submit them to online article distribution services. Some small business owners also choose to do this for additional income (because there are some article services and media that will pay for your articles), but many experts don’t do it for pay; they write articles for the 2 other key reasons I mentioned. In Part One of this 2-part series I’d like to outline 12 ways to make your articles compelling and how they can become significant traffic-drivers to your website. I’ll then conclude this 2-part series next week by providing you with a list of some popular online article submission and distribution services that you can use to get your articles distributed to the masses. 12 Ways to Create Articles for Brand Building: When you write interesting articles in your area of expertise, it immediately positions you as an expert in your field. It also gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge and this can attract clients to you, as well as attract media interviews for you. But, if you’re not a great writer, don’t panic! You can hire ghostwriters (inexpensively) who will write them for you, and you can simply provide them with the topics you think will benefit your target audience. However, regardless of whether you write the articles or someone does it for you, here are 12 tips for making them compelling and a valuable marketing tool for you:
Okay! Get started on creating a list of article topics that will interest your target audience and showcase your topic expert knowledge. And be sure to read Part Two of this series for services that can distribute them for you to obtain massive website traffic and readers! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Business Building Tools for Coaches and ConsultantsFebruary 11th, 2011Hi All! Many of my clients are coaches or consultants, and they hire me because they are struggling with growing their practices and generating more income. And, some of them are also authors who have written a book to help increase their notoriety as an expert so they need my help with their branding and book marketing, too. If you can relate to any of that, and you are a coach or consultant, I recommend checking out these (2) FREE tools, created by my colleague, Kathleen Gage. Kathleen is an online marketing expert and has helped many coaches and consultants increase their income by becoming more savvy about using the internet as a key marketing and sales tool for growing their practices. Here are the 2 FREE Products she is offering: 1. SPECIAL REPORT: What You Need to Know to Start & Build Your Coaching or Consulting Business Again, it’s free and NO OPT-IN is required! Simply click here to receive this info-packed pdf! 2. 3-PART VIDEO SERIES: Build a Successful Coaching and Consulting Business This is ALSO FREE, and simply click here to access the videos! And, if you’re really serious about ramping your practice, be sure to check out the New Horizon’s Telesummit! 12 Experts (one is me!) will be conducting sessions loaded with advice and strategies all about how to grow your coaching and consulting business. Here is a snapshot of what you’ll learn by attending this event: - Attract higher-paying clients There are several different registration options, ranging in price, so you’re bound to find one that works with your budget! And the event is VIA PHONE, so you can attend from anywhere on your phone. The New Horizons Telesummit is February 23rd and 24th, so CLICK HERE for details! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 4 Steps to Leveraging Other People’s Audiences for Big ExposureJanuary 14th, 2011Hi All! I saw the following blog post on ByBloggers.net (an amazing resource for learning effective strategies to create and market digital products), and received permission from them, and the article’s author, to share it here. It’s loaded with great information to help you expand your brand to the followers of other bloggers and online broadcasters (ie: People with podcast shows) who have large audiences. No need for me to go on about this topic…author, Mike Tiojanco, does a fine job on his own! But before you dive into his info-packed article, here’s some info about Mike: He is an entrepreneur, blogger, and partner at BlogcastFM Premium. In January, he is launching his new project, 8 Hour Rebellion, aimed at helping people break out of the 9-5 and live a life free from the chains of an office desk (so he can spend more time with his wife, two kids, and Xbox360). And you can follow him on twitter: @mtio. So, without further delay…here is what Mike has to say about:Leveraging Other People’s AudiencesMost entrepreneurs are familiar with the concept of using leverage to make money. Use other people’s time (OPT) or, more commonly, other people’s money (OPM) to push your business. However, when I launched a membership site, it wasn’t OPT or OPM that made it a success. It was OPA. Other People’s Audiences. Anatomy of a PartnershipLast November, I helped launch BlogcastFM Premium – a membership site that helps people take their blogs to the next level. None of that would have happened without a partnership between myself and the BlogcastFM founders, Srini Rao and Sid Savara. Let’s go step-by-step through the partnership/joint venture (JV) process as I experienced it: 1. Build Your NetworkWay back in February I heard about a new podcast series that was launching – BlogcastFM. I had been reading Sid’s personal development blog and following him on twitter. I was just starting my own blog at the time, so the podcast content was perfect for me. I ended up following Srini on twitter and reading his blog. A couple posts into my blog I shot him an email asking him to take a look. He was kind enough to take few minutes to check it out and give me some feedback. I kept in contact with him via twitter, and eventually pitched him on my very first guest post. At the time I had no clue that these initial contacts would turn into a partnership, but at the time I was just looking to connect with people who were doing what I wanted to be doing. The takeaway: Work on building your network early and often. Many successful bloggers advise that you spend 50% of your time writing content and 50% of your time networking. 2. Listen to People’s NeedsLike I mentioned before, I am a devoted listener of BlogcastFM. I listen to just about every episode the day it comes out, sometimes more than once (I’ve got a 45 min. commute). After listening to that many episodes, a common theme appeared. In just about every episode, Srini commented, “If I could put into action the ideas I get from every interview, my blog would be way more successful than it is.” So even Srini, the host of the podcast… the interviewer himself… needed help pulling the best tips out of every interview and figuring out how to implement them. Surely their audience was having the same issues. I could help with that. The Takeaway: Find something that someone’s audience needs that the blogger doesn’t have time to create (or has no interest in creating). Dave Navarro did this with Naomi Dunford’s audience. Her audience at ittybiz.com consists of small online business owners. She offers marketing and business development advice – a lot of which is focused on creating ebooks and other digital products. However, her material didn’t really focus on how to launch the ebook once it was created – Dave’s specialty. Before partnering on “How to Launch the **** of Your eBook,” Dave Navarro was mostly unknown. It was the partnership with Naomi that put him on the map. 3. Pitch the IdeaBack in September, I approached them with an idea for the product – a membership site offering action worksheets for each of their 100+ interviews on BlogcastFM. They said yes. I think what really put them over the edge is that I provided a sample of the product – an action worksheet for the interview with Sean Ogle. This let them see exactly what I had in mind, as opposed to an abstract description in an email. The Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to pitch the idea. After my pitch, the feedback the guys gave to me was that this was something they really wanted to create for their audience, but they didn’t have the time to do it themselves. Worst case scenario, they pass, but now you’re really on their radar. The last step: 4. Make Them Love You.This is something I’m still working on, and will continue to work on as long as BlogcastFM is around. Do the best work you can. Make them feel lucky to have you on their team. Remember, your work is a reflection on their reputation. The Takeaway: After someone says yes, provide the best work you can so that they feel that the partnership was the best business decision they ever made. Like I said, I’m still working on this one. I had some family issues that prevented me from doing this over the past month or so, but you better believe I’m going to work my tail off showing them that this was the right decision for them. That said, I’ve got some interviews to listen to and some worksheets to create… BIG thanks to Mike, and to Jonathan, founder of ByBloggers.net, for allowing me to share this! GREAT ADVICE and useful info! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 7 Easy Steps to An Effective Marketing Strategy For 2011January 01st, 2011Hi All! The New Year is here…are you ready with a Marketing Plan and Strategy to enter 2011 organized, poised for revenue growth and career success? If you are, fabulous! However, if you’re like many of the new clients who hire me, you’re probably “hoping” 2011 will be better but don’t really have a plan to make it happen. You may even know your previous marketing efforts have been ineffective, but have no clue what to do to fix and improve them. Oftentimes, I find that small business owners, speakers, authors, coaches, consultants, etc. are good at what they do in their profession, but aren’t that great at marketing themselves, their businesses, and/or their products. They run in circles in a “reactive” mode (versus create a strategic plan) and then wonder why they are struggling to land new clients, sell books, secure speaking opportunities, or generate more income for their businesses through other avenues. If any of this resonates with you, keep reading! Here are 7 steps to help you create an effective Marketing Plan and Strategy for the New Year:
Sure, this 7 step process is a simplistic approach (there are some Marketing Plans that are much more detailed and complex), but you don’t need to make it complicated; that’s what can scare you from even trying to create a basic plan! I’ve helped clients outline an effective Marketing Plan in an hour, so trust me when I say this doesn’t have to be a drawn-out process. I don’t care whether your plan ends up being one-page or 50…just make sure you have some sort of strategic plan so you enter 2011 feeling more organized and in control of your new year! And here’s a link to a Marketing Plan software solution that can help you: Marketing Plan Pro. Cheers to a Prosperous New Year and Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Conduct A Virtual Book Tour to Increase Your SalesNovember 13th, 2010Hi All! Book authors are on a never-ending quest to promote their books, sell their books, and increase awareness for them. Yet, many authors struggle with this. I know this first hand because I have a lot of clients who are authors and seek my help with their book marketing. One effective book marketing strategy that most authors do not use is conducting a Virtual Book Tour; using blogs as the vehicle. There are many ways to do one, so this post will give you some general guidelines to follow and you can adjust, alter and brainstorm additional ideas for your tour. And the great thing about Virtual Book Tours is that it doesn’t matter if your book is new or not! There are many authors who have books that are several years old and their Virtual Book Tour brings the book back-to-life, generates interest for the book amongst people who didn’t know about it when it first came out, and ramps sales again. So don’t think this strategy is just for NEW books! And, it doesn’t matter whether you self-publish or not! I know authors who get hung-up on the self-published status of their book, but it’s NOT an issue! 1.) Establish a timeframe for your tour. This can range from one week to one month. And you’ll want to start organizing it 1-2 months ahead of time for effective planning. 2.) Find blogs that reach the audience you want to target for your book, and contact the owners of those blogs. This can range anywhere from 10 to a million blogs! How many blogs involved on your tour just depends on the time you have to do this outreach and how many blogs are the right fit for your book’s topic. 3.) Tell each blogger the tour’s timeframe and what your expectations are when they participate in the tour. This may include: During the tour, they need to write a review of your book that includes the book’s cover linked to your Amazon page or wherever your book is sold; and you’ll provide them with 1-3 articles that pertain to your book’s topic that they will run during the tour as “guest blog posts” (from you) on their blog. And in the articles you provide them, they’ll include your short bio, pic of your book (or of you), and link to your website. You’ll provide EACH of the blogs that participate the same articles and each of them can run the articles in any order they want during the tour. 4.) Send each participating blogger an organized “kit” for the tour (via email). This should include: General tour info (restate expectations, tour timeframe, roll-out schedule, etc.); file of your book cover; file of your headshot; and the articles you wrote for them to use as “guest posts” (as Word docs with links embedded to your website, Amazon page, etc.). Don’t rely on the bloggers to find the correct links to YOUR stuff! 5.) Mail each blogger a copy of your book. Obviously you need to do this so they can read it BEFORE the book tour launches. And, no, don’t ask them buy it! Mail them a free copy! 6.) Offer several copies of your book to each blogger who participates to use as a giveaway item for a contest they can create (or use it as a free gift for something the blogger wants to promote). You may not want to do this with every blogger who participates (if you have TONS of blogs on the tour), but you’ll want to offer it to the ones who have a lot of traffic. This is a good strategy because aside from them writing a review for your book and running the articles you provide to them during the tour, they can create a contest (or promotion) “around your book” which will be additional exposure for your book. 7.) Thank and mention the blogs who participate on YOUR blog throughout the tour, on Twitter tweet the links to the blog posts they do about (and from) you, mention them on your Facebook Fan Page, etc. Doing all of this is critical because you are giving the participating blogs exposure to YOUR social networks, and that’s good business. The bloggers who participate on your tour are doing YOU a favor so giving them some “link love” and exposure is only right. 8.) Consider sending each blogger who participated in your tour a Thank You gift when it’s over. Again, show them gratitude for their time, effort and help in promoting YOUR book! Okay! That’s a general overview of how to do a Virtual Book Tour. Yes, I could go on & on with more ideas for conducting a successful tour, and ways to make it more elaborate (but that can get costly), so this gives you a good starting point. The “basic” approach I provided can get you great results as long as you PLAN ahead of time and connect with enthusiastic bloggers who are excited to participate in your Virtual Book Tour. And if you want help with ideas, planning, and execution of your tour, or need other book marketing strategies, you know where to find me… Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Cool Online Tools to Reach Targeted Media Interested in Your NewsNovember 01st, 2010Hi All! I wanted to share some very cool tools that can help you reach TARGETED media and industry influencers; who are specifically interested in YOUR news and expertise. By using these tools, you can attract media interviews and get mass media coverage to build your personal or business branding platform, increase your income, and increase the sales of your products (i.e. your book if you wrote one!). AND, I don’t care whether you’re a one-person company, small business, self-published book author, etc. The media (print, broadcast and online) is on the hunt for interesting news and topics 24/7, 365-days a year. So you don’t have to be famous or have earth-shattering news to get their attention! They just want interesting news or segment ideas that will appeal to their audiences. I recently helped an author-client land a featured interview on a popular talk show on Lifetime! And she is a self-published author who just started working with me…getting media exposure rolling CAN happen fast if you make some effort! SO…go for it! 1.) PitchEngine.com Overview: Unlike traditional wire services, PitchEngine enabled users to openly create and share their own content, while including images, videos and attachments at no cost. In 2009, more than 70,000 pitches were shared by 27,000 organizations looking to get the word out to not just journalists, but to bloggers, consumers and other influencers as well. PitchEngine’s “Co-op SEO” concept enables brands big and small to experience exceptional indexing in major search engines. 2.) MediaSyncOnline.com (FREE!) Overview: MediaSync is a free Web-based service from mBLAST that allows Marketers to easily research and use detailed, up-to-date media intelligence on print and online publications, their staff and their areas of coverage. With MediaSync, you can find:
MediaSync allows users to search for the information they need (on their companies, clients OR the competition), refine the results, save their search and receive alerts when new information is available that matches their criteria. They can also upload existing media lists and/or create and maintain new ones, and export it all into a contact list or briefing book. Overview: Check-out my info-packed Learning Guide that outlines the PR & Publicity strategies I help my clients with, and the ones I personally use (which have landed me over 100 media interviews!). This special guide typically sales for $37, but for a limited time I’m offering it for $27. I charge a lot more than $37, let alone $27, for the seminars, workshops and webinars I conduct on this topic…and the info in this Learning Guide is the same as I share in those more expensive events. It covers everything you need to know about attracting the media, pitching the media, writing a killer Press Release, online tools and resources, and MUCH MORE. Simply CLICK HERE for the details of what you’ll learn…it’s on the Products Page of my website. So there you have it…3 very cool tools that can help you reach the media YOU want to reach, and who are interested in YOUR news. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 5 Ways to Use Video to Build Your Brand and Create ProductsSeptember 30th, 2010Hi All! I just posted my newest video on my YouTube Channel. In this video I share 5 quick tips on how you can use video, easily, to build awareness for your brand, blog, products, website, etc. I also share a great tip on how you can quickly and inexpensively create video products that you can sell on your blog or website to generate income online. And, in this vid, I also mention Kristi Hines (follow her on Twitter @Kikolani), social media expert an blogger, because some of the tips I share are from a blog post of hers. In that post she focused on “5 Types of Videos for Bloggers“, but I expanded on those with additional info to help you. Whether you’re a small business owner, solopreneur, speaker or author, you’ll find the tips helpful. And you’ll quickly see that creating promotional videos, how to videos, tutorials, or video products is VERY easily (you don’t need to be a video producer to create them!)…and they can be done (nicely) for free! Ok! I’ll keep this blog post short because the info you really need can be found in the video! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Free e-Book to Improve (or Start) Your Social Media EffortsSeptember 12th, 2010Hi All! Social Media Strategist, Chris Tompkins, CEO & Founder of Go! Media International, has written a very comprehensive “how to” e-book that clearly maps-out the steps and strategies you need to know to improve, or start, your social media marketing efforts. This is ideal for small business owners and solopreneurs! Here is a brief overview of what he covers in this terrific e-book, “Social Jump Start”: 1. How to create a clear picture of what your social media marketing environment will look like 2. What your “voice” and purpose is 3. Creating an organized marketing strategy 4. How to identify your target audience(s) and know what makes them tick 5. Determining your “schedule strategy” for your social media efforts 6. How to ethically interact online 7. And MUCH MORE! Plus, he concludes the e-book with his Top 30 suggestions on how to effectively get started. These quick-hit tips are also loaded with great strategies about effective copywriting, creating easy products to generate traffic and build your list, starting online groups, info about blog tours, and a ton more. Again, this e-book is FREE, so CLICK HERE to check it out. You’re not even required to provide your contact info to download it! The link takes you straight to the PDF. Even if you only learn ONE tip, it may be one that makes a big difference in your branding, sales and business building efforts! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Ten Easy and Affordable SEO Tips for Small Business OwnersAugust 24th, 2010Hi All! Many new clients who come to me have spent a significant amount of money getting their websites designed and developed by a webmaster. Or, they have designed it themselves using many of the templates available. But regardless of “how” their website was done, one thing MOST of them have no clue about is SEO (search engine optimization). The excitement for their new website quickly fades when I have to coach them about SEO; explaining that without an optimized website (or blog) their chances of being found in online search results are greatly reduced…by a TON! Personally, I look at SEO as a science. So I outsource my SEO work to a specialist. However, if budget is an issue for you, and you handle your own SEO, or plan to, here is a great article I recently came across with 10 great tips you can easily implement without breaking the bank. The title is: “10 Quick and Affordable SEO Tips”. It was written by Karen Scharf, the Small Business Marketing Consultant, and her company, Modern Image Communications, also offers affordable SEO services. Here are the FIRST FIVE TIPS she shares: 1. Submit to Search Engines You want to make sure that your website has been submitted to search engines. SEO is all about optimizing your position in various search engines, but this is only relevant if you are actually listed in the search engines. When your website is brand new and it has no incoming links yet, it can be difficult for the spiders to find it, so it’s a good idea to hand submit your site to the search engine. 2. Clean up Your Site Make sure your website is organized and clear. It is especially important to clean up any dead links. Fix any errors that may appear on your site and double check to make sure your entire site’s html is up to par. There are online services that can help you do this. Since search engines primarily work and rank websites through the use of robots it is important to make sure all of the technical aspects of your website are in good working order. This helps ensure that the robots can quickly and freely crawl through your site and they won’t encounter any errors or roadblocks that force them to abandon your site too soon. 3. Use Good Keyphrases If you’re trying to optimize your brand new website for a single keyword, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. Try longtail keyword phrases instead (a phrase that is four words or longer) because they are less competitive and easier to get started with. Be sure to research the phrases that your target market is actually searching for, and then do the competitive research to ensure that you actually have a chance of ranking for those phrases. 4. Create Good URLs Creating readable URLs is especially important if you’re using a content management system or otherwise generating dynamic URLs. While evidence suggests that Google’s new algorithm does not apply much weight to keyword rich URLs, other search engines do. And since it’s such an easy step to create relevant URLs, it’s worth the few seconds of extra time it might take, if only to make it easier on your human site visitors. Make sure that your URLs are indicative of the kind of information that your visitors will encounter on that page. 5. Improve your Title Tags Title tags are still an important aspect of search engine placement, and since they are so extremely easy to update this is a step that definitely needs to be included in your affordable SEO plan. Make sure that your title tags are keyword rich and appropriate to the subject matter of the particular web page. And make sure you use a unique title tag on each and every page in your site. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FINAL FIVE! You definitely need to know ALL 10 of the tips Karen suggests! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa
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