Way back before the internet had even been invented, companies hired PR firms to get their name out, build a brand name reputation, and help prospective customers learn about them. Public relations professionals would dutifully go about writing press releases, scoring feature stories, and negotiating product presentation opportunities in the name of finding more buyers.
Then the internet came along and everything changed. Press releases lost their power to serve as a news source because newspapers and magazines were folding. Feature stories weren’t read because they didn’t stand out in the sea of information. Product placement decreased in value because there were so many new ways of viewing content.
Fortunately, there is still a way of getting your name in front of prospects when they look for the product or service you offer. It’s called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. This is a way of formulating your website, blogs, and social media content to be responsive to online search queries. If someone uses Google to search for “hotels in Santa Barbara,” or “restaurants in Santa Ynez Valley,” you want your website to pop up on the first page of their results.
How to Blend SEO Into Your PR Efforts
Here are tips you can use to incorporate more SEO, increase your visibility in search engine results, and help the internet drum up more business for your business:
Make your website accessible: Search engines and potential customers need to be able to easily access your website. In addition to great content, you also want to get the technical parts right. You don’t want someone clicking to your website because you are the answer to their problem, only to get a “website not found” error. Check all pages for functionality, eliminate duplicate content, include title and H2 tags, and have a rich source of content.
Think about keywords: What do prospects search for when they need your product or service? Develop a list of words they might type into the search engine bar. If those words aren’t prominently included in your website copy, your site will not appear in their results. The content needs to be informative and natural; you can’t just add a list of keywords to the bottom of the page and hope it generates results. If there is a lot of competition in your field, incorporate plenty of terms which make your business stand out from the crowd.
Be a valuable resource: Look at your website as a potential customer might and ask yourself, “Does this help me?” You brought in somebody who searched for a particular term, so that had better appear right on your landing page. If you can’t see any benefits, then you’ve got some rewrites to do. Have content that is educational, helpful and easy to understand, and make sure it is current. There is nothing worse than navigating to a site that is chock full of old info. This effort helps prospects learn about you, and also signals the search engine algorithms that your site has something valuable to offer their users.
Provide a great website experience: Have a compelling website experience for your visitors. Most leave in seconds if they don’t think you can help, so have your prime selling proposition front and center. Make a clear learning path, avoid large blocks of content, and include helpful headlines that communicate key selling points. Include lots of pictures, graphics, and videos to quickly provide information. And make it easy to contact or buy from you.
Get social: Once your website strategy is in place, start bulking up your online presence through a concerted social media strategy. Have a Facebook page and Twitter account that offer useful information and drive visitors to your site. Provide the same branding experience across all outlets. This also increases the likelihood that the search engines will aggregate and incorporate additional contact opportunities for your company. Search results that include a website, Facebook page and LinkedIn page for a single company demonstrate a great deal of online flexibility. Use social media to encourage interaction and you’ll also boost search-ability.
Build more links: Search engines love it when other sites link to yours because this reflects your online credibility, but they can’t be random or low-quality links. Ask your current customers and contacts to link to your site if it makes sense for their business. You can provide reviews and referrals for complementary companies, and they can do the same for you. Bring in guest bloggers who will certainly link to your site from their blog, and you may even get organic links just because you have such helpful information in your blog. Make it easy for them by providing sample emails, tweets, or Facebook posts they can use to let others know more about you. You can also search for informative articles online and post comments on them that will introduce a new set of readers to your company.
Review sites: There are a number of online review sites that can help prospects find your business. You need to think in terms of Yelp, TripAdvisor, Open Table, Angie’s List, and other sites people go to gather insights. Initially, you just want to make sure they have the correct basic information such as address and phone number, but then you can ask your happiest clients to start posting reviews. If you’re in a more technical field, make sure your product specifications are included in industry sites.
If you’ve got a real news story, keep in mind that you can still generate PR with media outlets; it’s just moved online, too. If you’ve got a targeted customer base, check out your local media websites and look at ways you can provide news. They might have blogs or event calendars, or you might be able to email an editor or news director with a storyline about your business. SEO really can be the new PR for your company – you just need to know how to use it.
The way companies market their products and services has changed over the last decade. To keep up with competitors in your industry, you need to figure out how to use cost-effective online marketing methods.
To someone who is just looking at online marketing for the first time, it may appear to be an overwhelming and confusing maze. There are plenty of wrong turns you can make, many of which lead to a scary place with your online marketing strategy. The good news is that the Internet marketing maze is something you can perfect over time.
Here are some simple ways to maximize your Internet marketing strategy. The Internet marketing campaign tips below will help build your online presence.
Consider the Bigger Picture
As you start to build your online marketing approach, it’s very important that you consider the bigger picture and your extended plans. This is vital because your entire online presence needs to be cohesive and symmetrical. If you lack cohesiveness between different parts of your online presence, you’ll have a very difficult time trying to maximize your efforts.
Keep in mind that to truly dominate the Internet marketing maze, you’ll want to gear your approach in a way that will accommodate Google search engine algorithms. In being search engine optimized, otherwise known as SEO, with Google, you’ll greatly increase the likelihood of your customers and prospective clients coming across your online networks.
So how does the bigger picture and SEO come together? It’s quite simple.
SEO is measured through a variety of factors. Some of the most important elements include:
» Keywords placed throughout the website
» The name of the website
» Name, address and phone number of the business
» Social media accounts
» How polished the website coding is
When you consider all of these factors, you can see why it’s very important that you avoid switching around the name of your business. The more that you consider the bigger picture and plan for the future, the easier of a time you’ll have when it comes to navigating through the Internet marketing maze.
See What Others Are Doing
Another great way to find out what you should do for your Internet marketing campaign is to look to others and see what they’re doing. This will work if you have competition in your niche market that is successfully implementing its own Internet marketing campaign.
Some of your competitors’ online marketing techniques to observe include:
» How their website looks and is presented
» Which online resources they use, ie. Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.
» How they interact with their clients online
By seeing what works for your competition, you can narrow down the efforts that you effectively put in place for your own marketing approach. There is no time to waste when it comes to being a small business, so learning from the mistakes of your competition will help increase the likelihood of success.
Tailor Your Approach to Your Market
Keep in mind that every company is different. Even though it’s a great idea for you to look at your competition to see what they’re doing, that doesn’t mean this should be something that you settle on. In other words, you may need to tailor your online networking approach to more directly market your clientele.
A prime example of this can be seen between two shoe companies. While both companies may borrow ideas from one another for most of their marketing techniques, the approach may change for Company A if they sell flip-flops, whereas Company B sells winter snow boots.
Another reason that you’ll want to tailor your approach for your specific market is because it will keep you and your audience more interested. Although you might come across, and want to share, a picture of a cute cat that has been shared a million times online, that doesn’t mean it’s something that your target market will take interest in. That’s why the companies that are most effective with the Internet marketing maze know exactly what it is that their audience wants to see. If you can do this, too, then you’ll notice much better results.
Track Your Results
One of the biggest mistakes that companies make with their online marketing includes the failure to observe and track results. Some businesses will just put their market approach in place and assume that things will work. Even some companies that find success will fail to realize that they can change other parts of their approach to try to maximize things in the best way possible. The truth is that you will need to observe your efforts and track your results throughout the lifetime of your online marketing approach.
Change As Necessary
As you track your results, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t for your online marketing campaign. For the things that work, consider keeping them in place to get the most results possible. However, you’ll want to change things that do not work in hopes of making them better. The more effective that you are with tweaking your system, the higher probability it is that you’ll have an inclusive Internet marketing approach that is successful.
If you’ve heard that marketing online is difficult, you aren’t totally off. But while it may be difficult to navigate your way through what seems like a hopeless maze, stay confident that there are certainly ways to be successful with enough hard work and effort. By following the tips mentioned here, you’ll be able to successfully start your approach at online marketing.
The holidays are right around the corner, which means that now is the time for companies to ensure that they have a marketing approach that is geared toward bringing in the most clients possible. Not only will having a tailored marketing approach this holiday season help you close out 2014 with a bang, but it’ll give you a big boost as you prepare to ring in 2015.
If you don’t know by now, marketing has changed drastically over the last few years. The emphasis on online marketing has quickly grown to be much more valuable than nearly any other advertising tool. In order to make online marketing work for your business, it all starts with your ability to be found through a search engine like Google.
You still have a few weeks until Christmas, but now is the prime time for consumer shopping online. Therefore, here are some ways that you can accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas now, to ensure that you get the most amount of traffic that you can during this incredibly popular time of year.
Revamp Your Website
If you can’t find the perfect gift to give yourself this holiday season, look no further than your website. If it has been a while since you last updated your site, now is the time to make some very critical changes that will help you with search engine optimization.
There is a common misperception that just having a website is good enough to help you with your online presence and SEO listings. However, this isn’t the case. Instead, you need to ensure that your website is built with a strong foundation that will make it easier for viewers to find.
To improve the foundation of your website, make sure that URLs are cohesive and consistent, include valuable metadata, and work to keep everything organized along the way as you continue to build your website. Not only will putting in some effort on your website look better and be more cohesive, but it’ll also help it run faster as well. Google shows preference to websites that can load quickly, which is why it’s important that yours does just that.
If you’ve already invested in your website, you may not want to keep pouring money into it if it’s not working for you. However, you can rest assured knowing that your site is not something that should be overlooked, and instead it might be time for you to spruce things up. After all, the Internet isn’t going away, and revamping your website at the end of 2014 will have lasting positive benefits.
Create Holiday Content
Content is king when it comes to SEO results. Therefore, you want to ensure that you have creative and relevant content throughout your website. The more content you upload, the better your SEO results will be.
If you are having a hard time coming up with creative content this holiday season, it might be time for you to spruce up your blog. With a blog, you can write about anything that is relevant to your website, and this will help with SEO.
Since it’s the holiday season, be sure to include something about the holidays in your blog content. Not only does this keep things relevant and give you something to write about, but it’ll also get your viewers in the holiday spirit as they read your content.
Keep Things Consistent During Christmas
Consistency is key as you begin building your online presence with the hopes of dominating search engines. As you start to build up your website, be sure that URLs for your website are consistent.
Consistency will help you with your SEO rankings, but it also helps with cataloging your entire website. Google and other search engines require you to setup an XML site map, and they give priority rankings to websites with a consistent internal linking structure. The truth is that requirements for search engines are always changing, and a more organized website will make it easier for you to make adjustments in the future.
Do yourself a favor and start with consistent cataloging now, and you’ll have a much easier time with marketing your website in the New Year as well.
Consider Christmas Keywords
As a business owner, it can be hard to see things from the perspective of customers and clients. To dominate SEO marketing during the Christmas season, however, this is exactly what you’ll have to do.
Sure, there are plenty of fancy programs out there that will help you with keywords, and many of them are worth investing into. However, if you are on a budget with your business, you only have to think like a consumer to find relevant keywords.
To help accelerate your SEO marketing, consider the keywords and phrases that you believe your clients will be looking for. In doing so, you’ll notice more hits and traffic to your website.
Spread The Holiday Cheer
2014 was a huge year for social media, and you can expect things to only become more dependent on this type of media in 2015. Therefore, be sure that you take the time during the holidays to improve your overall social media influence.
If you aren’t using your social media profile for your business, you are missing out on a big opportunity to draw in new clients. Your social media profile can also help you with improving your image and the perception that customers have of your brand by interacting with them on a regular basis.
Finally, as you also look to improve your social media presence for SEO this holiday season, also be sure to make your website easier to share. If you can easily share your site through your social media links, you’ll notice an increase in views from your followers online.
The year is almost over, so now is your chance to end 2014 with a bang. Consider these tips to help you accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas. If you do so correctly, you’ll also be happy with the benefits you’ll get after the New Year as well.
In today’s tech-driven world, online marketing is a linchpin for success. The average consumer is changing how they go about finding products and services, with the Internet being one of the first places that they look. Therefore, no matter what sort of industry your business is in, its online web strategy is invaluable.
As important as a web strategy is, it’s also important to remember that it’s just one piece of the puzzle that makes up a business. And with so much else to take care of, it can seem nearly impossible to keep up with the ever-changing atmosphere of online marketing. But while it may be worthwhile to hire an online marketer or social media specialist to handle the day-to-day tasks, it’s still important that managers and owners have a basic understanding of web strategy and online marketing.
The “50,000-foot view” is common business-talk that refers to a general understanding of how part of a company works. For example, a business owner may not know every step of the process that a dedicated marketing team makes, but it’s still important for the team to know the general highlights and direction of the company. When it comes to online marketing, here is a general outline that highlights the ABCs of web strategy.
Know Your Audience
As with any approach, the first key is that you know where your target is. Therefore, your web strategy should have a firm understanding of your audience and how you plan to attract it. If you believe that you already know your audience, you may want to think again.
Most companies will begin by setting up an online marketing strategy that approaches their audience the same way that it would with offline efforts. However, it’s important to know that the Internet is changing the way that you reach customers.
For example, you may have a stand-alone retail store that nobody outside of your neighborhood knows about, but that doesn’t matter once you go online. Your target audience expands to people around the world when it comes to online marketing and approaching new customers.
By understanding who your audience is and whether it is local, regional, national or global, you can develop an online marketing strategy that directly approaches it. This is also the chance that a business can rebrand its image and find new ways to expand in ways like never before.
Determine What the Audience Wants …
The next step in the web strategy for 2014 should be determining what it is that the audience wants and how easily it will stay interested in what you provide. For example, some online strategies may be to post viral videos to social media accounts. Other businesses might rely on blogging or posting new information for their audience to see. Others may even rely on an email list that is used for a monthly newsletter.
There are a variety of different approaches that may work best for your audience, so determining what it wants will help you focus your approach.
Before you jump to the conclusion that more content is better, keep in mind that this may not be true for your specific market. While there are plenty of videos or memes out there that attract a lot of interest, your target market may not be interested in such “viral content.” Instead, your audience may want more relevant information to your industry and what it is that you provide.
Looking to get 1 million views on a video might be a viable online web strategy for some, but it’s most certainly not the only option. Therefore, know what will interest your audience the most and be sure that this is the type of media you use for your approach.
… And Where They Want To Get It From
It is estimated that Facebook has more than 1.2 billion users who have registered accounts. Twitter has roughly 200 million, and Instagram comes in at around 100 million. These are staggering numbers, but it also shows that there are great disparities between each social media site.
As nice as 200 million users is for Twitter, it has a long way to go before it passes the 1 billion mark like Facebook.
Keeping some of the numbers in mind, it’s important that your web strategy is available to your target market via resources that it uses most often. Facebook is obviously a good resource because of the sheer amount of people who are on it, but it’s not the only outlet for your web strategy. Instead, your business may be better suited with an online blog, YouTube video channel, or a simple monthly email.
If you are aiming your online marketing approach at places where your target audience won’t see it, then you are wasting your time. However, providing information to users where they already are looking will help to increase the online presence of a business.
Optimize for SEO
Anywhere you look for tips on how to make your web strategy better, you are going to hear that SEO should be one of your most important considerations. SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the ranking that a website has on a Google search query. In order to get higher rankings through SEO, a business needs:
» Keyword-rich content that triggers search engine results
» A website that runs smoothly and functions properly
» Correct contact information for a business (called “NAP” for: Name, Address, Phone number)
» No filler content to take up space
Plan Ahead
Whatever your approach is for online marketing, be sure that you plan ahead. This will help you save time and be much more effective with your online approach.
By planning ahead and having a routine schedule for improving your website, you won’t have to worry about missing posts or running short of content. Instead, you’ll always have new material to help with SEO, while also keeping the interest of your audience.
Unless you are ingrained in the web strategy approach of your business, it can be hard to keep up with everything. But with this 50,000-foot view of the best practices of web strategy in 2014, it’s much easier to see how valuable each part of the process is.
SUMMARY: Business owners in Santa Barbara now have an opportunity to learn how to market their businesses every Friday in downtown Santa Barbara.
SANTA BARBARA, CA – September 26th, 2013 – Business owners in Santa Barbara now have an opportunity to learn how to market their businesses online every Friday at lunch. Lunch and Learn e-Marketing is a web marketing seminar presented by Taylor Reaume, founder of Search Engine Pros, a Santa Barbara marketing agency.
The meeting is aimed at small business owners wanting to learn more about online marketing and social media strategy on the web. One attendee’s web site is selected at random for a group web site review. The other attendees analyze the web site and offer objective advice.
“Lunch & Learn e-Marketing is a unique opportunity for local business owners to expand their knowledge of web marketing and learn advanced search engine optimization strategy,” said Taylor Reaume.
The event takes place every Friday 12:30pm-2pm at Verde Restaurant located at 532 State Street. Attendees pay $20 and get a lunch and one drink.
Discover valuable web marketing secrets to help you outrank your competition on Google. Bring your questions, business cards and laptop (optional). Leave with a full stomach and clarity/sanity on 2013 web strategy and web marketing options. Attendees participate in a live web site review and offer constructive feedback as part of the group. It’s educational. It’s informative. It’s delicious. Find out if your web site is winning the race to the top of Google. Open to everyone!
Topics Of Discussion include:
• Online Marketing • SEO Article Packages • Social Bookmarking • Social Media Marketing • All Inclusive SEO • Local Search & SEO Packages • Video Marketing • Blog Creation • Blog Commenting • Blog Reviews • Forum Posting • Multilingual SEO • WordPress Web Design • Web Directory Submission • Keyword Research • Website Management and Marketing • Website Marketing Strategies • Search Engine Optimization • SEO friendly Web Design • Google Adwords PPC • Press Release Distribution
DOWNLOAD FLYER and RSVP HERE About Search Engine Pros: The Search Engine Pros are a team of advanced Santa Barbara marketing professionals specializing in ethical, economical and effective search engine optimization. As seasoned web architects, they offer affordable search engine optimization and internet marketing packages that bring natural rankings in the organic search engine results. The Search Engine Pros team is comprised of an all star cast of forward thinking web professionals. They help corporations, authors, consultants and small businesses setup cutting edge websites and develop a strong presence online. Their primary business focus is generating more traffic for your web site. Come pick up invaluable tips, network with locals and learn how to increase your web site traffic!
Please call 800.605.4988 or email via our contact form at https://www.thesearchenginepros.com/contact-us/ or by emailing taylor [@] thesearchenginepros.com prior to attending to reserve a seat/ensure we have enough room. You can also send a text message to Taylor at 805-453-9674.
IF YOU ARE A MARKETER: Fellow marketing consultants and web designers are welcome to attend this meetup group provided they agree to post a public Facebook post with a link to our meetup page on the day of the event. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesearchenginepros Google+: https://plus.google.com/103311981304941878108/
Is your internet marketing strategy delivering the results you want? Are you in need of SEO services or link building services?
Today it has become a proven fact that no website can survive without Search Engine Optimization. Every niche is saturated with a high level of competition as a result all websites online have to struggle even harder to stay on top of competition. Without the help of good search engine optimization, it is not possible to keep pace with the competition.
The truth is that many companies are not taking full advantage of the power of natural search to improve web site traffic. These companies may neglect natural search for a number of reasons — they don’t know what it is; they think it is too expensive; they think they don’t need it. But the fact of the matter is that any company ignoring natural search for web site traffic is leaving a good portion of potential revenue on the table. SEO services don’t need to be prohibitively expensive; in fact, when you consider the revenue that properly-executed professional SEO services can provide, they’re a bargain. The same goes for link building services, which can not only drive traffic but increase a site’s search engine profile by an order of magnitude.
As most of the sites are built using CMS these days, it is important to build an SEO-friendly CMS. searchenginepros.com is one of the best places to turn to if we want to optimize and create an SEO-friendly CMS. Thesearchenginepros.com is one of the top Santa Barbara SEO companies that offer a full range of SEO services at affordable prices.
Search Engine Pros specialize in the optimization of WordPress and Joomla Web Sites. They not only provide a full range of SEO services at an affordable price, but they also offer reliable SEO services by employing only white hat search engine optimization strategies that are approved by the search engines. This is an important factor that you need to take into consideration while hiring your Santa Barbara search engine optimization company.
If your internet marketing company happens to engage in black search engine optimization techniques then you are under a high level of risk. Your website will be penalized or even banned by the search engines. Without good online reputation it is very difficult to reach success online.
They also offer complete link-building services. www.searchenginepros.com/link-robot.html.
Are you overlooking the power of celebrity in your marketing?
Like it or not, we live in a world fascinated by celebrity, as evidenced by all the publicity Kim Kardashian’s not so magical wedding and Lindsay Lohan’s ongoing courtroom exploits recently got.
Now you probably don’t want that sort of publicity but not all celebrity promotion is negative. A powerful testimonial or blurbon your website or back cover is a potent sales tool that you are probably overlooking.
Today I have an article for you about how to do just that, get testimonials from influential people that will help you increase sales.
But first, let me tell you about some new books and resources by several friends, colleagues and clients of mine. Some of these resources I’ve used. Others are paid ads.
Books + Resources
With Am I Really Hungry?, leave the nightmare of dieting and find satisfaction with your body. Discover how your intuition works, with proven tips and tools. Take charge of your eating with 10 tools that will change your life. Jane Bernard has your solutions and they are surprisingly easy. Get your copy athttp://tinyurl.com/6pav6rn.
Do you want to grow your business and find new customers?Real-Time Marketing for Business Growth: How to Use Social Media, Measure Marketing, and Create a Culture of Executionis full of examples, tools, and resources to help you create sustainable business growth. Read the Foreword by Ken Blanchard: http://www.marketsmarter.com/books and download free resources!
Are you faced with starting over – after losing your job, house, or marriage? Jamie Wolf went from a 6-figure income to homeless and back. Her upcoming book Start Over! How to Go From Burned Out to ON FIRE in 9 Powerful Steps will launch you towards better health, relationships, and finances! Get more info at http://www.jamiewolfllc.com.
Do you ever feel like you are not good enough? That failure could be just around the corner? Ever feel like you are not relating to others as well as you’d like? Bestselling author Sharón Lynn Wyeth gives you a tool to use that creates safe places for you to live and work. Get more info athttp://KnowTheName.com
How you feel about yourself and what you think you deserve drives the quality of your relationships, which is the indicator for your happiness and success. Discover the secrets of creating relationships to make you happier and more successful with Romilla Ready, co-author of two bestselling ‘for Dummies®’ books. Get more info and purchase the books at http://www.relationshipwizardry.com
Feeling stressed because you don’t feel loved, accepted, successful or safe? Dr. Gupta, a well known expert in achieving emotional fullness, can help. Learn how to lead a happy, fearless and meaningful life using his techniques. Go towww.getanemotionaltuneup.com orwww.joyfromdeepwithin.com to pick up copies of his books.
Now on to today’s article …
How to get blurbs from famous people
(note: this article originally appeared in my paid print newsletter Book Marketing Update which goes to members of my Million Dollar Author Club – you can get info at http://www.milliondollarauthorclub.com)
Having a great testimonial—a few words or sentences of praise from a well-known or influential person—can make a huge difference in your marketing efforts. Just ask Shel Horowitz, author of Guerilla Marketing Goes Green and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World
“I had a blurb from Chicken Soup co-creator Jack Canfield on the back of one of my books, and I watched this one sell books, over and over,” Horowitz says. “My prospects would look at the back cover, say, ‘Wow, how’d you get Jack Canfield?,’ open the first page and see the six pages of endorsements, let their eyes get big as saucers—and then pull out their wallets and buy it on the spot.”
Endorsements are one of the most powerful sales tools an author can have. While we all naturally want big names like Stephen King or Stephen Covey, it can be challenging to obtain testimonials from the biggest celebrities. The good news is there are plenty of famous authors, speakers and other well-known people who can be reached—if you’re willing to put in the time and patience to reach them.
Ryan G. Van Cleave, author of Unplugged: My Journey Into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, asked for and received blurbs not only from well-known author Alice Walker, but also from Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC). And all he did was ask for them.
Van Cleave says, “While I considered paying money to one of the various online services that claim to have contact information for thousands of celebrities, I found [Walker’s] contact information on my own using the Internet. I mailed her a short, clear, personal letter requesting her help via a blurb. I was also careful to show that I’m truly a fan of her work.” This approach was successful for Van Cleave in soliciting testimonials from Walker, Hollings, author Kurt Bruner and others.
For his science fiction novel Red Moon, author Chris Berman aimed for the stars when he contacted former NASA astronaut Norman Thagard, who had served as the inspiration for a character in his novel. Again, Berman simply tracked down an email address for Thagard and sent the astronaut a note telling him about the novel and asking for permission to base a character on him. Thagard then requested the manuscript.
Berman says, “About two weeks later, he wrote to say that not only did he give his okay to use himself as a character, but that he loved the story. I asked him to write the foreword for the book and he did, as well as the back cover blurb.”
Targeting authors and speakers with topics similar to yours is another strategy for soliciting testimonials. Take for example Jason Frenn, author of Breaking the Barriers, who managed to score a glowing endorsement for his first book from popular speaker Zig Ziglar.
Since Ziglar’s topics are so closely related to his own, Frenn sent an email through his website requesting that Ziglar consider reviewing his manuscript and providing a blurb. Ziglar’s executive assistant responded and declined his request. Frenn wrote back explaining why he thought Ziglar would be interested in what he had to say and offering a testimonial of his own in exchange.
The assistant then consented to let Frenn send his manuscript. “Three months later, I had his endorsement in my hand,” Frenn says. “A year and a half later, I became a corporate affiliate speaker for the Ziglar Corporation.”
When you see a testimonial from a celebrity or well-known expert on a book cover, you might assume that the author must know some secret trick to getting endorsements or has friends in the industry. But as the above stories prove, you don’t need connections to get great blurbs.
Testimonials equal sales
Having a testimonial for your book from someone you admire can be a great ego boost—but does it actually affect your sales?
“Absolutely,” says Van Cleave. “There’s a reason so many books—both small press and big NYC publishers—fill the back cover and PR materials with endorsements of all types. We live in the age of recommendation, and if someone you respect or admire endorses something, you’re more likely to buy it.”
Berman also believes that testimonials produce profits. “Having Norman Thagard’s endorsement gave a huge boost in credibility about the book that translated to sales,” he says. “I have been contacted by congressional leaders, astronauts, engineers and an aerospace company about Red Moon.”
Berman solicited a testimonial from award-winning science fiction author Ben Bova for his latest novel, Star Pirates, which resulted in a noticeable increase in website traffic before the book even went on sale.
Better sales aren’t the only upside of getting testimonials. In addition to witnessing the effect of Jack Canfield’s blurb on his sales firsthand, Horowitz says, “I also think the numerous endorsements help not only to sell individual copies, but to secure foreign rights, awards, reviews and other recognition.”
Frenn also mentions the additional benefits of celebrity testimonials. “Both Zig Ziglar and Robert Schuller have given me a tremendous advantage,” he says. “Their endorsements open doors for speaking engagements and other opportunities to enhance book sales.”
So how can you get a testimonial from a famous person for your book? Here’s some top advice from authors who have secured those all-powerful blurbs.
Tip No. 1: Identify and locate your targets
The people you contact to ask for testimonials should have expertise related to the topics covered in your book. (For example, you wouldn’t want a quote from a pet expert on your book about corporate downsizing.) The first step is to identify the famous people you’d most like to endorse your novel or nonfiction book.
If you don’t have contacts you can ask, it’s fairly easy to find well-known people who write or speak about a given topic online. You can search by subject on Amazon.com for books and videos, or run a Google search for “books on [topic]” and take a look at the top results. Bloggers can also be a great source for testimonials. If you don’t read a lot of blogs, you can find a comprehensive listing of the most popular bloggers by subject on Technorati.com.
When you’re selecting people to ask, look for up-and-comers and famous names who are no longer active in their field. “Ask people who are before their peak and people who are no longer in their peak,” says Frenn. “Older people eventually want to leave a legacy.”
Once you have your list of potential blurb targets, the next step is to figure out how to contact them. In many cases, you’ll find contact information for authors at the back or in the front of their books. For hard to find authors, check the acknowledgments at the front of the book—you may be able to contact them through their agent or editor.
The easiest way to find contact information for most experts is online. Nearly every big-name person has a website that includes an email address or a contact form.
Tip No. 2: Do your homework
Make sure you know something about the person you’re contacting for a testimonial before you write to them. Van Cleave notes, “One way people go wrong with soliciting blurbs is to try the generic, scattershot approach. Be specific and personal.”
If you’ve read their books or heard them speak, mention that in a way that shows you’re familiar with their work. Give a compliment and tell them why you admire them—but don’t get too gushy. You don’t want to be viewed as a stalker.
If you’re not familiar with a famous person’s work, but you know they would be a good match for your topic, take the time to read their best-known or latest book. If the person is a speaker, you should watch or listen to their archived video or audio programs. You can often find video clips or radio interviews of well-known people online—just run a search for their name on Google Video or YouTube.
Composing a request for a blurb is a similar process to writing a query or proposal letter to an editor or agent. Open your note by explaining how you’re familiar with the person’s work and why you admire him or her. Then, talk about your book and why it’s similar, and ex plain that you’re requesting a testimonial. You may also want to include any blurbs you’ve already received—but don’t go on for too long. Van Cleave says, “They’re busy, so don’t waste their time with a long, rambling note—keep it to a single page.”
Tip No. 3: Make it easy for them to say yes
If you’ve written a great book, you have a better chance of securing great testimonials. However, that’s not the only way to ease the blurb-gathering process. Many well-known people will consider giving permission to use their names for endorsements they don’t have to write. Horowitz says, “If you give them something worth blurbing, they’ll be willing—especially if you offer to draft something for their approval.”
Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup fame also recommends pre-written blurbs as a way to save time for the person you’re asking for a testimonial. “Write three sample quotes that they can pick from,” Canfield said in a prior interview. “But don’t send the same quotes to 20 people! You’ll need to write new blurbs for each person you contact. This will make their job much easier and help you get dream quotes.”
Another way you can sweeten the deal for busy experts is to give something in return for their time. That’s why Frenn, who hosts a daily radio program, suggested that he record a testimonial for Zig Ziglar in return for an endorsement from him.
“Offer them something that will pique their interest before you ask them to bless you with kind words,” says Frenn. “Remember, for many, writing a blurb for someone else isn’t necessarily fun, nor does it feel like a privilege. So be kind and be willing to pay dearly (not financially) for it.”
Tip No. 4: Never say never
Big names are more likely to provide blurbs and testimonials than you think. “For the most part, other than the very top tier of superstardom, a lot of famous people are open to being approached,” Horowitz says. He should know, having received as many as 80 blurbs for some of his books, and usually at least ten.
Don’t immediately dismiss the idea of snagging a testimonial from a big name, even if you think they’re unlikely to respond. “You have to ask for blurbs,” says Berman. “What’s the worst that can happen? If they say no, it’s not the end of the world.” Sometimes, getting that dream quote from a famous person you admire is only a question away—so just ask. They might say yes.
301 Redirects can be a powerful tool for search engine optimization if they’re utilized correctly. For the webmaster hoping to learn SEO, 301 redirects are a critical service to be understood. This article will explain what exactly 301 redirects are and what a webmaster, whose goal is to learn SEO, should be doing to make the most of them.
One segment of web-based tools that seems to be expanding by the minute is the URL shortener. These are sites like tinyurl.com that allow users to redirect their long, cryptic URL to a much easier to remember web address. It’s obvious that these tools have the potential to make a lot of money: controlling a link is the same as controlling web traffic. And there are a number of ways in which a URL shortener can use the links it creates.
There are several advantages to the end-user of a URL shortener:
The most obvious is that the web address is, well, shorter. A long web address is not only hard to remember, it’s difficult to use in many other web-based services such as a Facebook Status Update or a Twitter tweet. Short web addresses conserve valuable character space in these services.
Many URL shortener services keep detailed traffic statistics about the web address, which means the owner of the shortened web address can see not only how much traffic visited the web address but also where the traffic came from.
A shortened web address hides the “real URL” or the destination page. This is great when your original web address is long and hard on the eyes. But it can also help some unscrupulous page owners by hiding the identity of the page behind the shortened web address, which sometimes might be a page that many users wouldn’t want to visit.
Some URL shorteners allow users to choose a custom web address. The advantage of having a memorable web address is that a web surfer doesn’t have to search for it; it’s also re-usable, meaning the web address can be re-directed to new content. One example is http://tinyurl.com/mypictures, which might point to an online album with an almost indecipherable web address.
The best URL shortening service will use a 301 redirect to pass along their Google page rank to the destination web address. This helps the redirected web address advance in search rankings.
Many web services utilize their own forwarding scripts that allow the link to be loaded into a frame, leaving the original page from which the link was clicked intact – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all do this. This allows a user on this site to link to relevant information without the reader leaving their profile page.
Some URL shorteners give their users access to their link database through an API. These links can provide users with limitless analytics potential to mine data and traffic information. Imagine if TinyURL could be merged with a Reddit or Digg.
But as with anything else, a URL shortener comes with its own set of disadvantages:
As noted above, unscrupulous users can hide potentially offensive or malicious destination pages with a shortened web address. Some URL shortener providers have begun to display the destination address alongside the shortened web address, and this practice will likely become more prevalent.
Creating a web address shortening service is relatively easy, but many attract so much traffic that their web hosting bills skyrocket and their services go out of business. When a URL shortening service shuts down, so do all of the links that anyone ever created with the service.
Shortened web addresses generally don’t convey any information about the content on the destination page and therefore offer no incentives to click on the link. A shortened web address in Twitter won’t contain any link text, and the reader is forced to gather context about the link from the text of the update. Optimizing social media SEO requires an entire skillset in its own right.
Many URL shorteners don’t have robust user account features – they simply allow anonymous users to redirect web addresses. While this might save time, it also prevents frequent users from being able to use a dashboard to organize their shortened web addresses and to keep track of which ones they’ve shortened.
Shortened web addresses generally have no link text and therefore do not associate themselves organically with a keyword. Readers have to either gather context from the surrounding content or take a chance with the link.
“Increase Page Rank And How It Affects Your Rankings”
We will be discussing a variety of topics related to page rank (seo juice) and how it affects your rankings in Google and other major search engines. You will learn SEO and how to increase page rank to attract more visitors to your site.
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