7 Quick Link Tactics

April 30, 2007 | 1 Comment

In an ideal world, you will get lots of visitors to your blog or website from one link on an influential person’s popular website or blog.  This is worth spending time trying to achieve.  However, do not overlook the many ways to get website visitors to find your website a few clicks at a time.  If you do all seven of these, you will get a little bit of traffic from each, and it will add up to great value over time.

  • Press Release - Do an online press release and be sure to include a link to the website.  Not only will the inbound link generate some minor traffic, but your press release may get picked up by others and posted elsewhere, generating more traffic.  Try www.prweb.com
  • Squidoo Lens - Create a squidoo lens and be sure to write some great content as well as create links to your site or blog.
  • Work.com - If you can write about a business related topic, write up a work.cm guide.  Make sure you link to more places than yourself, or you may not get a very good rating.
  • Blog comments - one of the easiest things you can do is post comments on other people’s blogs.  Just make sure you add something of value to the conversation or you may get your post removed, and even if you do not, no one will care to follow your link.
  • Wikipedia - I use a great deal of care when posting something to Wikipedia.  I consider it important to add real value to a topic.  If you can justify a link on the site, you can be sure some steady visitors will be coming along to check you out.
  • Directories - I like blog catalog for blog visibility.  Lots of opportunities are out there.
  • Microsites - Create your own little website, they are cheap, you know.  Focus it on one really great topic and produce a few pages of great content and provide links back to your main website and blog.  With time, this microsite will age and get better ranking in search engines, providing another way for people to find you.

There is a wealth of opportunities to create more roads home (links to your main focus.)  Remember, quality content will always get you better results, and the more locations you have created, the more spots in search engines you will take up.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Finding your Target Audience

April 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Who is your target audience?  I have always known the importance of knowing this, but still found it hard to narrow in and define it well. 

What if, instead of deciding on your target market by size, industry, etc. you decide on your target market by those that get the most enthusiastic about your products and services?

Maybe they are not the target market of your dreams, but they comprise the market most likely to create buzz and refer other people to you.  They are the most likely to stick with you in ups and downs.  And they are the least likely to get upset because the price went up 5%.

Small businesses are not the ideal consulting clients for us.  However, they are the ideal purchasers of my book, Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing.  I consistently see the small business owners have a light bulb come on after reading the book or attending a seminar.  Maybe it is because I developed this strategy to address issues in our own small business.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Your Domain Name

April 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Whether you are naming your business or just picking out the domain name of your website, read this post. There are some pitfalls you can avoid and some of them may not be obvious until the time comes to work with a new marketing agency or webmaster.

For clarity: Your domain name is the word(s) between www. and .com. (or .biz or .net)

Here are some initial important rules.

Choose a domain name where the .com is available. If you get .net, people will make a mistake and type .com anyway. So some people looking for you will end up on the wrong website.

Do not be cute. We have an older domain using 2u in it. People were not sure when to spell it out or could not remember if it was 2u or u2. Even though it was very short, it was also very confusing for some.

Use keywords. The words in your domain will help your search engine ranking for that term.

Be unique. This is the opposite of the keyword comment. If you make your domain fun and unique, it will draw more attention.

— Buzzoodle is fun and unique, but also helps us rank higher for buzz marketing —

Don’t make it too long if you expect people to type it.

Think of misspellings and buy them too. For example, we own buzzdoodle and buzznoodle because we knew people would make those mistakes.

Registering Your Domain Name

The biggest reason I wanted to write this post is an issue I am seeing more and more around registration. If you find a cheap place to host your website and you register your domain through the site, you may end up not having direct control over your domain.

Also, if a marketing or web agency registers it for you, they will probably register it in their account.

The problem here is that you do not have direct control, and if you decide to host your website someplace else it could take months to get moved.

Often it is only a day or two, but more and more we are helping people move from other web agencies and we are spending many hours, and sometimes filling out paperwork, to get domain ownership transferred or moved. It is an unnecessary expense and can be avoided.

If you are signing up with an agency or a less well known - bargain hosting company, first register your domain at a reputable source like www.1and1.com or www.godaddy.com .

Set it up with your credit card and email. Set it to automatically renew. Then give your agency or webmaster access if you need them to configure the settings.

Later, if you want to move, you can change your password and repoint the domain to your new host and not have all the headaches that normally come with a domain transfer. We host websites for clients as well as do buzz marketing. Last year we moved to this practice because it is better for the client. Yes, you may spend $8 a year more (we used to include domain in the hosting) but it is worth it to you in the long run.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Don’t Know Technology?

April 24, 2007 | 1 Comment

This is a common excuse I hear when I am out speaking about buzz and technology.

Clearly, if you want to be technical, you can get server space and install and configure open source software and save a few bucks.  Or you can usually pay a few dollars a month and have it set up and hosted for you.

There is little reason to mess around with blog software, CMS software, CRM software, business plan software, billing or accounting software, or just about anything else you can want. 

Companies are all over the place hosting and customizing these tools at such low rates, that even if you can do it yourself, it rarely makes sense to spend the time.

The key for you is that you can use all of these tools to create buzz or manage your business, and you cannot use the excuse that you do not know techology anymore.  Stuff has gotten too easy and too cheap to not use.  And your ability to be visible and be efficient depends on your ability to use these tools.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzz with Blogs, Small Business, Internet Marketing 

Coffee

April 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment

This weekend I did a presentation in Philadelphia and had a very upsetting experience.  The hotel I stayed in did not provide coffee in the morning beyond the little pot you could make in the room.  You know, you go down stairs and you can get some basic stuff and you can get coffee.

Instead, they had a $14 breakfast buffet.  I get it, you want me to use the restaurant.  But all I want is a cup of coffee and maybe a yogurt.  And I am used to not paying for those things in a hotel.

It was like asking me to rent a pillow separately.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

The Dip - Seth Godin

April 23, 2007 | 1 Comment

The DipI am looking forward to reading the book, The Dip, by Seth Godin.  Guy Kawasaki did a recent interview with Seth on his blog.

This topic interests me so much, because once upon a time we were a technology company building another content management system.  We still have it, and it is fine, but we knew the market was moving too fast and we were never going to own the market.  We also found over the years that the pain people felt was not their inability to find tools to manage websites, it was the difficulty of becoming a popular and effective website.  No matter how many scripts you write, being effective takes a lot of man hours and human effort.

So for several years now we have been moving in fits and starts from CMS / Technology to Buzzoodle:  Word of Mouth, Buzz and Internet Marketing.

What Seth says in the interview is very true.  It is hard to transform and give something up, so you can pursue something bigger, more unique and more remarkable for your clients.  After a lot of pain we are just on the upswing out of the dip, and I am looking forward to the next 12 months.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

No Follow Removal

April 19, 2007 | 5 Comments

I frequently talk about the value of giving.  If you give people value, they often reward you by creating some buzz.

So I started out reading Make It Great, which led me to dmiracle - Healthy Web Design, where I read this post about removing the no follow tag from comment links.  I then followed the link to Andy Beard, and finally to the site where I downloaded and installed the plug in.

My whole education took 10 minutes.  And now you will be happy to know that if you comment on this blog, Google will treat the link like a real link and boost your website ranking.  Remember, to get past the sensor, your comment has to be reasonably free of nonsense and meaningless dribble.  I reserve those topics for me.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzz with Blogs, Interesting Buzz, Internet Marketing 

Word of Mouth does not have to be hard - Eddie Bauer

April 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Do you have employees that are passionate and like working with your organization?

Many organizations find creating buzz with employees challenging.  I was at a business meeting where one person mentioned that his daughter works for Eddie Bauer and how much she likes it.  He also mentioned that they are having a 30% off Friends and Family sale and could get us passes.

We discussed Eddie Bauer for a full 3-4 minutes, and it had nothing to do with the meeting.

Sometimes in an effort to be cutting edge, we overlook the obvious.  Eddie Bauer gave its employees something of value that they could easily pass on, and even make extended family and friends advocates that could pass on value. 

Even a non-profit fundraising effort could use this technique.  A unique event for family and friends that donate at least $1.  Get every employee, board member and participant in the organization, including vendors (they are friends, right?) to donate something and attend the exclusive event.  The catch is, you have to be referred.

The big thing here is to capitalize on people’s honest appreciation for the organization and by giving them something of value to pass on.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Results Sell

April 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I participate in a lot of online marketing tools.  Currently I am getting inundated with emails from Fast Pitch, a blog tool that seems like a good idea, but they are missing one critical element.

They would like me to upgrade from the free to the paid listing.  The problem is, I watch my stats and I never see anyone come from my free listing.  I see the same thing from these free press release sites.

I still think Fast Pitch has merit, and I hope they succeed.  However, if you are going to give me something for free, make sure I see some value in it before you start asking me to upgrade.  If I saw 50 hits a week from the free listing, I would be very interested in paying to get more of that.

The problem with Internet tools is that it is usually about quantity.  And it is hard to deliver value when you are trying to build a huge audience.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Are You Influential People?

April 17, 2007 | 2 Comments

Growing up, I was just a really ordinary kid.  Not popular, not very good grades, not athletic, …

I went to school because I had to and I tried to have some fun.  I had some friends and a few really good friends.

A few years after High School, I was waiting tables and still in college and I had the chance to wait on a parent of an old friend.  I’d not seen him for years as he was not one of my really good friends, but we’d spent time together and even gone on a trip together.

I remember I was not especially nice to him.  Nor especially bad, just a bit uncaring.

So I was shocked when I met his mother after years and she told me how influential I was to him.  How he held me is such high respect and had always looked up to me.  I remember thinking, “I was not even very nice to him.  Why did he think that?”

Had I been a little kinder I am sure I would have had a life long friend.  What is more interesting though is that you may talk about influential people, but you may also be influential people without realizing it.  And some simple kindness and generosity could put that influence to good use.

Where might you have a big influence without realizing it?

  • The community - Even if you have a small, struggling business, to someone that has always wanted to have a business but been afraid, you are a hero. 
  • Kids - Yours, those that come over, kids you mentor or teach…
  • Spiritual - If you are involved in a faith based organization, other members could be looking at you as an example of strength.
  • Work - Do your co-workers follow your lead?  Do they feel unhappy with the things you complain about?  Do they like the things you like?
  • Family - are you held up as an example for the other people in the family (Of what to do, or what not to do?)

When I talk about buzz on this blog, I am talking about doing little things regularly that have some influence.  Everyone has influence to a lesser or greater extent.

Recognizing the influence you have and using it to build better relationships, have a more positive impact, and yes, to create a little buzz, is an effort worth making.  You are Influential People.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Buzzoodle, Employee Advocates 

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