Articles and Tips
Here are some of our recent blog posts. We hope they help you in your endeavor to build your business.
Free Secret Way to Promote Your Business
Got your attention, didn’t it? It’s not really a secret, it’s just that so many people simply skip it, or don’t use it well, that you’d think it was a secret.
Free and Easy Marketing that Everyone Can Use
Are you looking for a set-it-and-forget-it way to keep your company information in front of your contacts? One that’s FREE? Piece of cake!
Your email signature is the perfect opportunity to not only make sure your contacts have information about how to contact you, but it’s a quick way to share links to your web site, your social networking pages, and even a YouTube video channel. Don’t stop there, though… A one-liner about your business that get’s people interested (referred to as your “talking logo” by John Jantsch in Duct Tape Marketing) should also be there.
Every modern email program has some sort of a “signature” option available. Once you set it up, the signature is attached to every email you send out. Most programs even allow you to have multiple signatures. In the case of the Mail app on my Mac, I can have multiple signatures for each email account.
Email signatures should be either text or html. There should be no graphic attachments in your signature — your logo can, and should, be embedded as HTML. The one requirement is that the logo or other graphics must be hosted on the internet somewhere. The “somewhere” can either be on your own hosting account, Flickr, Picasso, Photobucket, etc.
Here are some samples of email signatures that I use:
Computer Design Graphics
www.computerdesigngraphics.com
(757) 271-4602
Valerie Cudnik
Visit My Web Sites: Computer Design Graphics – Garage Sale Finder – Dolly Domestic
contact | XXXX@cox.net | (757) 271-4602
facebook - valerie.cudnik | twitter – valerie_cudnik | linkedin – valeriecudnik
These particular signatures serve various purposes. For instance, the last one is my personal email signature — thus the photo of me and Opal. I’ve just updated it and the Computer Design Graphics (html) version with my social networking information. The logos and graphics help maintain my brand for my various ventures. The last, personal, signature has a bit more formatting; email programs have issues with cascading style sheets (CSS), so I used inline CSS to create the dotted underline beneath the links.
Look for tutorials on how to create these in various email programs soon.
FREE blog setup promotion ended 2/28/2010
Only 7 days left for the FREE blog setup promotion
Including today, Monday, February 22, there are only seven days left to take advantage of our free blog setup offer. Don’t miss out!
How to use GWA Autoresponder in WordPress
There are some great plugins to handle email subscriptions in a WordPress site. One of these is GWA Autoresponder. This video demonstrates how to use this particular piece of software for sending emails to your client list. If you’re not sure if you have this software or another lead generation package installed, such as MailPress, please call.
Free WordPress blogs during February!
Did you know that a blog can double as a website? This website is, in fact, run entirely in WordPress, as are 95% of all my clients’ sites.
I’ve got a great offer for you! I’m setting up self-hosted WordPress blogs for free during the entire month of February. 28 days of bloggy bliss.
Here’s the deal:
- Get your free blog by February 28, 2010 by going to this page, reading through it, and signing up for a free blog.
- Tell your friends to do the same.
Free blogs. Seriously.
But remember, THE FREE BLOG PROMOTION ENDS ON FEBRUARY 28, 2010. No exceptions! So get one now before the deal and the month runs out.
>> Continue >>
WordPress Video Tutorial: How to Use the Built-in Gallery
This video goes through the basic steps for using the built-in gallery feature in WordPress. There are few critical, but often missed steps, and I cover those in this video. If you’ve been scratching your head at why the gallery options sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, this tutorial is for you.
Questions? Comments? Love to hear ‘em!
How to insert a picture into a WordPress post or page
Another really basic video tutorial for WordPress, this one is how to insert a photo into a page or a blog post.
How to make a basic post in a WordPress blog
Everybody has to start somewhere, and I have several clients who want the basics of making a post in video format for quick review, so I put together a quick narrated screen capture video. I’ve tried to cut out the parts where I was rambling… Hey, I’m new at this online training stuff. Getting the hang of it. The video is “branded” with my blogging-specific site, so don’t let that fool you.
Please let me know what you think and feel free to post questions.
Top 5 Tips from “Duct Tape Marketing” by John Jantsch
The book “Duct Tape Marketing” by John Jantsch is easily one of my favorite business marketing books. Jantsch takes tried-and-true marketing concepts and breaks them down into understandable, usable, basic methods – suitable for the average business person.
In no particular order, here are my favorite strategies:
- Identify your ideal client (page 2). This is actually chapter 1 in the book, and for good reason, if you don’t know who you are marketing to, you will have no focus in your message. If your business is handyman services, your ideal client is probably a 40-ish woman who either doesn’t have a man around the house or has one that isn’t getting household projects done. How you relate to that market segment is completely different to say, how you relate to a single 20-ish woman.
- Develop a core marketing message (page 20). This isn’t the “mission statement” popularized in the 80s that became a self-aggrandizing joke. Jantsch focuses on setting one’s business apart from the competition. It’s more than just a slogan, too. For Hampton Roads locals, think in terms of WAVY-TV’s “10 on your side” brand. If they didn’t actually deliver on the message, it would be nothing more than a slogan, but the community at large knows WAVY’s history of getting involved. It’s what set’s them apart from the other stations in the area.
- Match your business identity to your message (page 39). Identity includes everything from your logo to your to your website to your outgoing voice mail message. All the components of your identity should clearly identify your company, it should appeal to your target market, and it should differentiate your firm, as well as support the most important aspect of your core message.
- Writing an effective ad (page 115). While this strategy was developed with focus on small display ads, the premise and techniques are perfect for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, such as on Google or Facebook. He talks about writing headlines that get read and a powerful call to action.
- Become an expert (page 156). This is just part of the whole PR chapter, which is quite involved. I’ve seen the same concept in other books, and that is to become a source for reporters when they need to get an expert opinion on an element of a story. The PR chapter goes into detail on how to reach the right media outlets and even outlines the elements of a good press release.
These are just some of the high notes from the book, which is chock full of practical techniques. Jantsch builds on the basics of good marketing practices in a way that the average Joe-business-owner can understand and immediately put to use.
FREE Bing Local listings = FREE Advertising
While Microsoft has had some growing pains in developing their “Bing” search engine, they seem to be moving along. In any case, since Bing is on the rise it would be foolish not to add your business to their local listings. It’s free. Free advertising is ALWAYS good.
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
You have to have a Windows Live ID, but that only takes a few minutes to set up, so don’t use it as an excuse.
Make sure to take advantage of all the category and services fields, just like on Google Local, the more information you provide, the better your listing will work for you. For instance, instead of just saying “handyman”, spell out “tile repair, cabinets, faucet installation, etc.” Really use the space they provide to get specific to capture more of your potential audience.
From what I could see, the only way Bing Local is handling verification is through the regular postal mail, so it takes a few weeks. Perhaps they will add the instant phone verification like Google has in the future. Who knows?
Take 10 minutes RIGHT NOW and add your listing. And if you don’t already have a Google local listing, add one immediately!
10 Blog Traffic Tips
In every blogger’s life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog, chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog, but that’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.
Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.
It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.
Top 10 Tips
10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).
7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.
Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.
6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.
This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.
5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.
4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.
To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.
3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!
2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.
How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.
1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.
I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.
This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.
To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
Updating template files in WordPress
For one client, because we wanted a content box to span two sidebar columns, I chose to use a php “include”, rather than to mess with the css.
This tutorial is a quick demonstration on how to locate the template files and make quick changes to them.
Updating a Text Widget in WordPress
WordPress is one of my favorite content management systems. In addition to being one of the easiest ways to set up an attractive site, it lends it self to SEO, social networking, static pages and blogs, and is really easy for a novice to understand.
Since the majority of my clients are small businesses who want help setting up their site, but plan to make changes and additions themselves, having a simple system is very important. This article is the first in a series of tutorials for basic WordPress functions.
Updating a Text Widget
Text Widgets are one of the options in the appearance panel. Here’s the video.
Promoting Your Business Using Press Releases
Press releases are a great way to get media coverage of your business as well as links to your website. The trick is getting the press releases to the right people. There are several ways to go about this, some are free and some cost money.
For now, let’s consider the free options. There are many, many sources out there that will distribute your press release for free. I found a fairly comprehensive list of free press release sources in an article on Mashable.
Another source of contact information is to pay for access to a site such as Mondo Times. They maintain comprehensive lists of staff members, editors, etc., for most newspapers, magazines, tv stations, etc. Each record contains the name, phone number, fax number, email address, and street address. The basic membership gets you access to each individual record, but they can be painstakingly slow to build one record at a time. The costs for specialized purchased lists can add up quickly.
When choosing to promote your business with press releases, you may want to consider hiring a professional writer to help compose it. A professional can help maintain the focus of the information, as well as write in a professional format that media folks are used to reading. I work closely with a few professional writers, so please contact me if you need help with this part of your marketing campaign.
Quality Links = Better Rankings
Link building must be part of your search engine optimization (SEO) plan. Where content is king on the internet, links are queen. Links back to your site are how the search engines tell whether your content is valuable or not.
Quality Counts
While there are many products available on the internet that claim to get you a substantial number of links back to your site, the quality, or lack thereof, may actually be detrimental to your rankings. If your business is a pet store and your links are on a site about vacations in the Bahamas, the search engines consider this a “junk” link and you may actually be penalized in the rankings game.
Some of the software out there that targets other sites for linking is actually quite sophisticated and will only give you results based on specific keywords.
You want to focus on links on sites that have complementary subjects. If you specialize in accessible real estate for handicapped people, a link on a site with other resources for handicapped people is a quality link. If that site has a good page rank on the search engines, then your link is even more valuable.
Anchor Text
The anchor text is the actual words on the page that you click on. The anchor text of a link is extremely important, because it’s that text that tells the search engine what your site is about.
For example:
For great information about home staging in Norfolk, click here
Check out this valuable information about home staging in Norfolk.
In these two examples the first one appears to be a link about “click here”, not good at all! The second example is a link about specific keywords. The links should be variations of the keywords you are trying to rank for.
Ideally, the links should also be to various pages on your website and not necessarily the home page. A link to the home page is a link to your site, but a link to a sub-page is a link to your CONTENT.
Conclusion
Focus on getting backlinks to your site with consideration to the source of the link, the content of the link, and the destination of the link.
How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR
With all the growth in using social networking as a marketing tool, keeping up with the changes and opportunities can be a real challenge.
This video “How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR – HubSpot Webinar” has great content, just be forewarned… it’s 30 minutes long!
Why Small Businesses Need Both A Logo And An Identity System
By Erin Ferree
Experts urge small business owners to “brand” their business – to use a logo and a set of consistent marketing materials. But, they rarely go into the reasons behind this advice. Here’s a list of some of the benefits to having a professionally designed logo and marketing package:
Not to look so small – Home-printed business cards with perforated edges, or cards printed with standard designs available through Microsoft software or online business card vendors (like Vistaprint) scream, “Small-time vendor!” to your potential clients – and you’ll be similarly compensated.
To increase your chance of getting venture capital or selling a business – If you present a thorough business package, including marketing materials and graphics, your business will look more complete.
To attract more clients – Some clients look for a well-defined company look-and-feel as part of their qualifiers for making a purchasing decision.
To brand yourself – If you’re a consultant, you need a logo in order to build an image and a brand that’s bigger than just yourself.
To convey that you are established – A logo and professionally printed materials show that you are committed to both your business and to your clients.
To give clients a sense of stability – You may not have been in business “Since 1908”, but if you’ve invested in an identity, you’re much less likely to fold in the eyes of your customers. It goes a long way toward building the all-important “trust” factor.
To be more memorable – Forty percent of people better remember what they see better than what they hear or read. So having graphics associated with your business and having consistent graphics on your business materials make you more likely to come to the forefront of potential clients’ minds when they have a need for your goods or services.
To explain your company name – If your company name contains a little-known word or an acronym, the logo gives visual clues to its meaning.
To endear your company name to your clients – A difficult-to-pronounce or -remember company name may make it difficult for your clients to hire you. When potential clients have the need for your services, they can’t recall who you are! But if you reinforce the name with interesting, compelling graphics, they’re more likely to remember that hard-to-recall name, and to pick up the phone and hire you.
To explain an unusual line of business – If your business is nontraditional, or in a hard-to-explain industry, a logo can help to explain exactly what it is that you do.
To show what practices differentiate you from your competition – A well-designed logo can have many subtle meanings, and it can begin to tell the story of how you do business – what special practices make you stand apart from the competition.
To stand out in your field – A well-designed logo and an identity system can put you far above the competition, especially if they are paired with a strong marketing program.
In some industries, a logo is just expected – In the creative services industry, especially, having a logo is an industry standard.
Lastly, do it for yourself! – To show your commitment and for the sense of personal pride it will add to your practice.
These are just some of the benefits of having a professionally designed logo. If your business could use the kind of boost that having a logo provides, then contact us today for a free estimate!
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