Category: Tips

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Just How Connected Are You? Take Our Test

So just how connected are you to your business with your gadgets? Take our test below to find out. Each yes answer is worth one point.

  1. Do you take your cell phone everywhere you go including the bathroom?
  2. Did you grow your fingernails long and shape them into points so you can type better on your itty bitty phone keyboard?
  3. Do you now pay more to Verizon or your cell provider than you spend for food in one month at the grocery store?
  4. Do you text under the table during boring meetings?
  5. Do you tweet while you are waiting online at a store telling us how slow service is?
  6. Do your kids have to text you to get your attention while you are sitting in the same room?
  7. Do people call your cell phone first instead of your home phone or office phone?
  8. Do you actually answer your business phone after 9:00 PM?
  9. Do you carry refuse to turn off your cell phone even when the sign says to do so like at church or the doctor’s office?
  10. Do you have an internet and email enabled cell phone?

Score:

If you answered yes 8 to 10 times you need some help. Your family would probably be glad you had surgery to cut the umbilical cord that has grown from you to your phone.

If you answered yes 5 to 7 times there is definitely hope that with professional help you could break your addiction to the Internet in your downtime – if you have any.

If you answered yes 2 to 4 times it sounds like you have a life and should give me a call as I am looking for friends to do things with and it sounds like you may actually have some free time.

If you answered yes 0 to 1 time, you really need to get more connected. You may be out of the loop and friends and colleagues would appreciate being able to “hit you up” more frequently.

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A Good Idea Gone Bad – Way Bad

I get newsletters from a small software firm and their last one was a good idea gone bad – way bad. With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, they sent out a newsletter with the headline “Save the Boobies” and then went on to talk about breast cancer and their support for cancer research.

Wow, how do you recover from a huge faux pas such as that? Who ever dreamed up and approved the title showed an incredible lack of sensitivity as well as an overt sexist attitude. That small flippant comment that made it to the headline of their newsletter will clearly be a black eye that will have their PR staff wringing their hands.

So really, how can you recover from a big boo-boo like that? Well first, I would send out an apology to all readers and then donate a nice chunk of change to the local breast cancer foundation or sponsor a runner in a big way in the next breast cancer walk. I would make sure to have a photo op at each event and feature that prominently in the very next newsletter – making the walk match the talk. Second, I would immediately institute a review of any future publications for appropriate professional wording.

What sounds funny in the office or tossed around in jest can have huge public relation ramifications when it sounds too flippant or simply sets the wrong tone in your print or online message to customers and prospects. Even for small businesses crossing the line from professional to questionable must be carefully watched. Remember your reputation is forever even for a small business!

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My Google AdWords Content Strategy

This is an interesting trend that I have seen across many accounts on Google AdWords: conversions to sales from the content network.

So, if you have an AdWords program what is the best practice for trying out content without it sapping your entire click budget? Well, this is what I do. First, I do not move into content until the account is mature and is generating conversions. Typically I start an account out slowly. We start with Google.com only, then expand to search partners. Once we have health and a nice conversion history, I set up a separately funded content campaign and use a small very general keyword list for content. I typically spend around $.10 to $.75 per click depending on the product and typically keep the budget at $5 to $20 per day depending on the overall advertising budget.

I roll the content program for two to four weeks and evaluate if content looks like a bet for the customer in regards to generating conversions. I have had good success with this strategy and have really been able to stimulate additional conversions for certain accounts. I have however found that not all products and services are a good match for the content network. From my point of view the key is the budget delimiter and general but on target keyword list.

Try this out on your AdWords account and let me know how this works for you. You may find out that using the content network smartly you can increase your account conversions with a realistic return on investment.

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How To Be An Effective and Productive Blogger

You bet, you could if you wanted to blog at the beach!We blog professionally for many clients and today I’d like to pass on the tips for effective blogging that I teach to my blog copywriters.

1. To build traffic on your site in 30 days blog religiously five days a week to see a marked increase.

2. To keep your readers subscribed and attract search engines blog a minimum of three days a week.

3. Keep your posts around 200 to 250 words and on one topic. Keep your posts keyword dense but written in proper English.

4. Craft your post title to contain your top keywords and in a phrase that may match a search engine query.

5. Look for interesting content to build readership. Never copy articles on the Web and post them on your blog create your own unique content and write with a distinctive point of view.

6. Stick with blogging and post even when you do not want to. To make it easy, I make a list of post titles and when I need help with an idea I pull a topic from my pre-prepared list.

7. If you are using WordPress blog ahead and set your blog to publish in the future. Many of my busy bloggers do their posts on the weekend and allow WordPress to auto-publish their posts.

8. Do not copy posts from Word directly into any blog control panel. Have you ever seen these characters in a blog post C$A or other characters that look like Russian text? These are apostrophes or dashes from a post that has been copied from Word directly in the blog post screen. We tell our bloggers to post in the control panel. If you feel that you MUST work in Word, copy your post into Notepad manually remove the curly apostrophes with find and replace and then recopy and paste your post from Notepad into the blog control panel.

9. If you want best search engine benefits consider WordPress and install the Meta Tag Plug-in and use it for every post!

10. Don’t stress out over the fact that people typically will not post comments on your blog. This is not an indication that people are reading your blog. Also don’t start blogging thinking that a blog is a forum. It really takes a hot topic for readers to leave a comment. Don’t freak out if you don’t get comments, people really are reading your blog!

If you like these tips, you’ll want to follow our blog on blogging at The Web Authority.