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Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru 
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Posts Tagged ‘business’Ways to Improve, and Generate Income From, Your BlogSeptember 04th, 2010 Order This Great e-Book for Only $9.99! Hi All! Are you a small business owner or entrepreneur struggling with how to make your blog better for business building? Or, do you want to start a blog but a bit overwhelmed about how to do it…and how to do it effectively? Or, are you trying to figure out ways to generate income online with your blog? Many new clients who come to me fall into one of those categories. So if that describes you, I recommend picking up this terrific e-book (it’s only $9.99!): “A Step-by-Step Guide to a Better Blog” by Kiesha Easley, founder of WeBlogBetter.com. In this info-packed guide, she covers strategies and tips for people who already have a blog but want to improve their content, traffic, and features (like what powerful plug-ins you should add). But there is also great info for beginners who don’t have a blog and are seeking guidance about how to start one–easily and effectively. I picked-up a copy of the guide and found it to be very helpful. Heck, for only $10 bucks, why not??? Also, for those of you who have a blog already, or when you get one started, be sure to read this article: 5 Sensible Ways to Monetize Your Blog by Evelyn Parham. I’ve tweeted this link and shared it on my Fan Page. It is a GREAT article with quick and easy tips about how you can actually make some extra money from your blog. Read it!!! If you pick-up a copy of the e-book, and read the article I mentioned, you will definitely benefit from the tips you’ll learn. We bloggers, newbies or experienced, spend quite a bit of time on our blogs, so personally I find it worthwhile to learn as much as I can to improve mine. It’s an on-going process and there’s always new strategies to check out…good luck! 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 Why Developing a Personal Brand as an Employee is Important for Career SuccessJuly 11th, 2010Hi All! Most people know me as a Branding Expert who works with speakers, authors, solopreneurs (ie: coaches, consultants, trainers, etc.), entertainers, and small business owners. But I also conduct workshops and seminars for employees of corporations on how and why developing a Personal (Leadership) Brand platform for themselves is important to their career growth, success and advancement. And I also discuss this quite a bit in my second book, “Millennials Into Leadership: The Ultimate Guide for Gen Y’s Aspiring to Be Effective, Respected, Young Leaders at Work”. Here is a brief overview, that I call D.A.C.C., which explains why, even if you’re an employee and not self-employed, developing your own Personal Brand in the workforce is necessary: DIFFERENTIATION:
AUTHENTICITY:
CONSISTENCY:
CLARITY:
Take some time to think about your core values, work ethic, personality, and unique attributes that you bring to a work environment, and write your own Personal Brand Positioning Statement. And then once it’s crafted to your liking, proclaim it, live it, and BE your brand! BTW: I even know some employees who have taken it a step further and added a “visual brand” element to their overall branding. What do I mean by this? One woman I know always wears striped socks at work, and she is known for that (as well as her positive personal attributes); and one young man I know is known for always wearing funny hats to work. Think of this in terms of Donald Trump and his hair…we all may laugh at it, but he is keenly aware that it’s part of his visual brand, he knows it is a topic of conversation, and he loves that the media talks about it. In the book that I wrote (mentioned above), I have a whole chapter with quotes from senior executives about the importance of personal branding, as it pertains to leadership, in the workforce. One that I love, and that really sticks with me, is: “Be aware that people are watching what you say and what you don’t say, and what you do and what you don’t do. Your next opportunities, and indeed reputation, will be impacted by the actions and decisions you make day-to-day…everyday.” By determining your personal brand at work, and living it consistently, you are building and creating a “reputation” that can foster career success – faster than the employees who choose not to. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Teleseminars: Are They a Wise Business Choice?June 09th, 2010Hi All! The following post is courtesy of Kathleen Gage, (hugely successful) Online Business Building Expert, and she is a teleseminar pro. Truly. Here are some great insights from her to get you started, or to think about if you’re already doing teleseminars… Teleseminars: Are They a Wise Business Choice? By Kathleen Gage Teleseminars are one of the most incredible ways to build customer loyalty, provide incredible value, position yourself as an expert and make fantastic revenues. The fact is, there are many experts for which teleseminars are the cornerstone of their business and marketing model. To optimize your effectiveness (and revenues) with teleseminars, or any aspect of your product or service offerings, you not only need to know how to develop a great teleseminar you also need to know who is interested in your information, how to market your offerings and how you will sell. Let’s begin with foundation. In virtually any marketing course, a primary area of discussion is defining your target market. Without knowing specifically who your market is, it is difficult to develop products and services your customers will be interested in and be willing to pay for. Here are a few considerations.
A consideration many people never take into account is, “Who do you ideally want to do business with?” Start from the space of, “Where are qualities I look for in my clients that will enhance our working relationship.” After all, you will be putting time, energy and effort into any working relationship. Why not make them the most enjoyable relationships you can? This is just the beginning. The challenge many professionals have is they have not taken the time to identify who wants and needs what they have to offer, but who they ideally want to work with. Without knowing this you may drastically miss the mark. Take time up front to do your homework so that you will benefit your market over the long run and have a great time doing so. To learn more about effectively using the Internet to generate great revenues go to http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm to access the FREE ebook The Truth About Making Money on the Internet.Thanks, Kathleen! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa I’m Conducting a Teleseminar Series in June: Branding, PR/Publicity and Social MediaMay 08th, 2010Hi All! This is a blog post for a bit of self-promotion. Hey! I gotta spread the word, right?? Here’s info about the really cool teleseminar series I’m doing in June…pulled from a Press Release I’m sending out to promote them: Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, is conducting three teleseminars in June for small business owners, entrepreneurs, speakers, industry experts, and authors who want to build their brand awareness and increase sales. The three teleseminar topics are: Brand Building, PR & Publicity, and Social Media. Each one will provide attendees with tips, strategies and advice they can implement immediately, even on a tight budget. The Promote U Business Building Teleseminar Series will be conducted in June 2010, and the dates are: Promote U Through Brand Building, June 8th; Promote U Thru PR & Publicity, June 11th; and Promote U Thru Social Media, June 16th. Each teleseminar is from 10:00 am to 11:00 am PST. And, because these are teleseminars, attendees can attend from anywhere from their phone. Internet and computer access are not required. The event website with details of each teleseminar: PromoteUGuru.com/teleseminars “Lisa knows her stuff and so much fun to work with! I can’t believe how much she has improved my brand positioning, sales, marketing and social media strategies, and PR efforts,” shares one Orrell client, Karin Piper, Author of Charter Schools: The Ultimate Handbook for Parents. “So I can tell you the content she’ll offer in these teleseminars is going to be very helpful…no fluff!” The upcoming teleseminar series is being sponsored by: PersonalBrandingBlog.com, WeMeUs.com and 428Designs.com. And the cost to attend individual teleseminars is $29, or people can choose to attend all 3 for a special package price of $69. “Prior to launching my Promote U Guru business, I ran an award-winning ad agency in Silicon Valley for 20 years. So I have been helping larger companies with branding, marketing, PR and social media for a long time. But now I focus on working with small business owners and individuals, and my vast experience benefits them immensely,” explains Lisa Orrell, a Branding Expert, Marketing Consultant and Business Coach. “Plus, aside from being a business owner for over 20 years, I’m the author of 2 books and a professional speaker myself. So I understand the challenges of those individuals who are trying to promote their books, build a brand platform for speaking, and/or who are trying to grow their small business (in any industry).” Based on her 2 decades of business and marketing experience, Orrell has been interviewed by, or written articles for, a wide variety of media, including: ABC, MSNBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, WomenEntrepreneur.com, U.S. News & World Report, The Silicon Valley Business Journal, China’s Her World magazine (for professional business women), PersonalBrandingBlog.com, BNET.com, and countless others. I hope to see you in my “virtual” classroom for 1, 2 or all 3 of my teleseminars! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Write a Killer Press Release and Where to Deploy It OnlineMay 01st, 2010Hi All! If you’re like a lot of the clients I work with, you probably don’t have a lot of experience writing a Press Release…if any! So I’d like to provide you with some very helpful tips for not only crafting one, but also where to deploy it on online so that the media actually sees it…and so that it shows up in Google searches to provide on-going traffic to your website. Ready? Let’s get started… 1. Make Sure It’s Newsworthy: Some people want to write a Press Release about everything and anything they do, and that’s not a good strategy. Save writing one for big, worthwhile news: Your new book, landing a significant client, an event you’re conducting, etc. And they are not meant to read like articles! They are meant to be “news”! 2. The Headline: Make sure it’s short, effective, and not like the headline of an ad, eblast or direct mail piece. A Press Release is not a “marketing” promotional piece; it’s meant to share news in a factual, straightforward way. 3. The Body Copy: I have read many Press Releases that read like an ad or marketing brochure. Wrong! Using hype, exclamation points, marketing speak, etc. is not appropriate. 4. Basic Structure: Headline, intro paragraph that covers the “5 W’s” (who, what, where, when and why) because some media may only run your first paragraph and not the whole thing, second paragraph with more support info or a quote from you, a third paragraph with more support info and details, a fourth paragraph with a quote/testimonial from a client (or expert) about you, a fifth paragraph with boilerplate info about your company, and a short final paragraph with contact info. Keep the paragraphs short and try to keep the length to around one page. Click here to see a formatting example. You can use variations of this! 5. Add Testimonials: It’s always good to include one Testimonial so that someone else is quoted in it saying how great you are. It gives you more credibility. 6. Get Client, Organization or Individual Approval: If you want to mention a client, or any other organization, business, or person, in your Press Release, get approval first! This is BIG. Example: You may have just landed a big newsworthy client, or landed a keynote speech for a high profile company or organization, and want to tell the world about it. Yes, this type of news would warrant a Press Release, BUT those entities may have strict policies about being mentioned in someone else’s Press Release (mandated by their legal departments), and you can get into A LOT of trouble sending out a Press Release with them mentioned in it without approval. A LOT of trouble. 7. Optimize Your Press Release: Add 5-10 keywords or phrases that have received good search results because when you deploy your Press Release through an online service, those keywords will help it get found by people doing searches related to the topic of your Press Release. Click here to use a free keyword search tool that Google offers. You can type in keywords and phrases into this tool and it will tell you how many searches were done that month for them. This will help you determine which ones are worth putting in and it will also provide you suggestions that are variations of the ones you came up with. Online Deployment & Distribution: Okay, so now your press release is written…now what? You’ll want to deploy it through an online service. There are tons of these Press Release distribution services. Note: They vary in cost, so it will boil down to your budget. But most of them enable you to choose the industry(s) and media you want to reach, add keywords, select the date of deployment, and add pictures, images and logos to the upload. Here’s a few that most PR pros I know use, and ones I use: PR9.net is super cheap, around $15 per Press Release. Even when I use one of the other more expensive services listed above, I always deploy through PR9.net, too. I do this because I find my Press Releases do show-up in Google searches through their service, so that’s worth $15 bucks. Also, in addition to deploying it online for mass coverage and distribution, you’ll want to create a targeted list of media you want to reach. Then you can email your Press Release to them and do follow up calls and emails. But don’t attach the Press Release to your email! Paste the Press Release copy into the body of your email to them. OKAY! There is your crash course in writing a killer Press Release, and where to deploy it. I hope you found this helpful! Good luck! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 2010 Social Media Marketing Report Answers How Companies Are Using Social Media to Increase BusinessApril 21st, 2010Hi All, An in-depth (free!) Special Report was just released by Michael A. Stelzner, Executive Editor of Social Media Examiner. It’s entitled: “2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses”. But don’t let the word “marketers” deter you! In this context it simply means ANYONE responsible for the branding and marketing of their business. So whether you’re a speaker, author, small business owner with ANY type of company, or entrepreneur, you will benefit from the info in this Special Report. AGAIN…this is NOT a document just for marketing experts seeking recent statistics and strategies! Here is a brief overview about it and why you should check out this FREE Special Report: Have any of these questions crossed your mind? “How much time do my peers invest in social media marketing? What benefits are they achieving? Where will they focus their efforts in the future?” If you’ve pondered any of these thoughts, look no further. All the answers are right here in this free report. To understand how marketers are using social media, Social Media Examiner commissioned the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. We set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing with this report. A significant 1900 of your peers provided the type of valuable insight you won’t find elsewhere. In this free report you’ll discover:
If you’re in charge of marketing for your business, you’ll want to closely analyze the pages of this report and use it to persuade others. This is FREE and filled with 33-pages of great info! Enjoy! Lisa Why Having Social “Me”dia Syndrome Will Cause You to SufferApril 08th, 2010Hi All! As a Marketing Consultant and Business Coach, I speak with clients, colleagues, or audiences everyday who ask me why their Social Media efforts are dismal. To which I reply: “Have you taken the word ‘Social’ out of Social Media?” To which many respond with, “What do you mean?” People who approach Social Media as Social “Me”dia, struggle. So what DO I mean? Well, see how you answer these questions to see if you’re suffering from Social “Me”dia Syndrome: 1. If you have a blog, do you follow other peoples’ blogs and make (good) comments? Or do you just expect people to follow your blog and show interest in yours? 2. Do you really participate in the Facebook Fan Pages or Groups you’ve joined? Or do you expect everyone just to flock to yours? 3. Do you answer questions or provide solutions to people you follow on Twitter? 4. Do you re-tweet their tweets? 5. Do you thank people for re-tweeting you or following you? 6. Do you take the time to participate in #FollowFriday #FF on Twitter and give props to tweeps you really like so your followers will then know about them, too? 7. If you have a Facebook Fan Page, do you actually go there, daily, and post questions or helpful info that your Fans can respond to? 8. If you have a blog, do you invite Guest Bloggers to write posts and then source them clearly? 9. Do you reach out to people on LinkedIn, participate in Group Discussions, offer advice when questions are asked? 10. On your Facebook Fan Page, do you post interesting questions on the Discussion Board, let your Fans know, encourage them to answer the questions, and/or post new questions? If you answered “No” to more than 3 of these questions, you are suffering from Social “Me”dia Syndrome. You’ve taken the word “Social” out of Social Media and you’ve focused too much on the “Me” in Media. This means your branding, marketing, sales and lead generation efforts will suffer. And this means you and your business will suffer! Take 2 aspirin, shift your perspective, reassess your goals and efforts, and contact me in the morning. Chances are within a few weeks you’ll be feeling much better about your Social Media efforts…and the RESULTS!!! Cheers! Lisa How to Integrate Email Marketing With Social MediaFebruary 06th, 2010Hello, The following article was published on a terrific marketing blog, internetbiznez. Here’s an excerpt but click the link to read the whole article and find out about some new tools they suggest: Five years ago, small businesses are on the hype of using email for marketing their business. But during this climax of using email marketing tool, social networking sites such as Facebook starts to dominate the field of internet marketing.
The main reason why small business are turning their back with email marketing and spend time most in social networking is because people are using social networking for communication than using email system. The average Facebook user spends 55 minutes a day on the site, and the time spent on sites like Facebook has increased 90% in the past six years. Bringing your business into social networking will help you broaden your potentials to reach your business.
Bye for now!
Lisa
5 Concerns About Webinars – And How to Get Over ThemJanuary 27th, 2010Hi All! The following guest post was written by Wayne Turmel – Speaker, writer and president of www.greatwebmeetings.com, a company dedicated to helping people use web technology to sell, manage, train and communicate using today’s communication technology. He’s a regular contributor to Management Issues, BNET and host of The Cranky Middle Manager Show podcast. If you’re looking how to improve your webinars, or learn more about how to even do an effective webinar to build your brand and/or generate revenue, you’ll find this article helpful! “5 Concerns About Webinars – And How to Get Over Them”, by Wayne Turmel Webinars and webcasts are a great way to promote your brand- but there are some common misconceptions that get in the way of using them effectively. Here are some facts and tips from my book, “6 Weeks to a Great Webinar”…
If you’d like guidance on doing marketing/lead generating webinars and webcasts, you can do worse than “6 Weeks to a Great Webinar- Generate Leads and Tell Your Story Your Way”. This workbook contains templates, samples and easy-to-follow checklists for wrangling all the little details you need to tend to for a successful webinar event. Thanks for the great info, Wayne! And thanks for contributing to my new blog! Cheers! Lisa
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