A Penny's Worth » Sales & Marketing Tips

Blogs, and Links, and Google – Oh my!

pjleisch — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:20:12 +0000

What kind of links help your blog? Is duplicate content a problem? These questions are getting tougher to answer. A lot depends on topic, technical choices, longevity, and whether the blog is your primary form of web presence. Lately, the Google deindexing and new algorithms adds more uncertainty. It’s all well and good to advocate natural links and quality content. The question is how long small businesses can survive to acquire “natural” links, especially the sole proprietors, such as writers, bloggers, artists, and others who have to do something to earn a living besides write blogs everyday and maintain multiple websites. Is there an answer to the dilemma?

The answer I’m hearing the most often now is that high-quality original content will win. Do I believe that alone will do it? Honestly, I don’t know. My experience designing and running websites goes back to the early 1990′s. Back then, a good site got traffic and brought the small businesses onto level footing with the big companies that had always had the budget to reach further for customers. Affiliate sales were relatively new, and Internet users eagerly looked for good quality and useful content.

Then, with the advent of more technology and paid links and black hats and white hats, not to mention blogs and plug-ins that do it all for millions of repetitious sales sites, the small businesses have slowly been sliding back down that hill. Facebook requires me to have 30 Likes to see my stats and 25 followers to get rid of the ugly number and get a real name for my page. That’s clearly designed to give priority to established businesses that already have a base of supporters. What happens to the new fellow on the block?

Many of the social media give a heavy advantage to those who can afford automated software. Individuals and small businesses work long hours and struggle to keep up. Some type of Internet connective device has almost become a required appendage. Although, social media is a different area that’s undergoing change, I have to point out that no one can read or follow 10,000+ tweets or followers. It’s clearly only a numbers game, unless you happen to be a movie star with a zillion followers. Do commercial companies really buy those figures when they look at your platform and statistics?

I hope they are smarter than that. The reality is that many of those rather strange looking followers follow you and then cull names and sites from your list of followers. Your followers’ profiles usually list websites, which have an email address or other information, if they want their readers to find them or buy from them. It’s a complicated world. In a very short time, it’s become just another venue to exploit. For people trying to do business, you can’t live without it and you can’t let it run over you or your followers. Personally, I vet my followers and block most of those. They aren’t real readers or followers anyway.

The final answer that evolves will depend on whether the new search criteria helps level the playing field again, as it’s purported to do. In the current economic climate, many small business people and individuals, such as authors and craftspeople, feel they are fighting a losing battle. They are tired of the pressure to keep up a dozen social media sites. They are tired of fighting spam and hackers. They are tired of working long days at their craft and long nights to maintain their web presence. They can’t maintain that type of schedule indefinitely. What’s more, they aren’t seeing a benefit to doing so. Does paying for help pay off?

Again, the answer depends on a number of things. In most cases, it helps marginally. Sometimes, it helps enough to recover the investment, but that’s all. The benefit in those cases is that the site is cleaned up and perhaps, the owner or a staff member learns how to do routine maintenance and updates without ongoing payouts. Other times, a business needs to make an investment in keeping quality content available and current, and they can’t produce their own and run the business. That’s when there’s a payoff to making a reasonable investment in ongoing marketing help.

If you aren’t one of my Twitter followers, I recommend you give it a try. Many of my tweets are about the technical side of social media, websites, and blogs. I try to select the majority of the material for an audience who isn’t highly technical. However, even if you aren’t a techie and never want to become one, you have to understand what happens behind the scenes. How else will you know whether an SEO person or website developer is ripping you off? How will you know what your publisher means when he tells you you need to add keywords to your blog posts? Even if you don’t do the work yourself, don’t be a sitting duck for a ripoff because you don’t understand the basics.

The most recent discussions of the Google search changes promise to change the landscape in many ways. One of the areas that could be hit very hard are the bloggers, most of whom aren’t techies and just do what everyone else does. Mommy Bloggers grew at astronomical rates, and many of them make a decent income from their blogs by reviewing products and services. Blog Hops are one way to get links and traffic that’s become very common. Unfortunately for the bloggers and the vendors, there are signs that those who participate by posting lists of links and different hops every day may fall victim to what’s being called “over linking.” Only time will tell, but watch your stats.

Another area that may be hit are syndication sites. Why? Because those sites usually have a lot of duplicate content. Some sites also require payment. Payment is still a very uncertain area in the new search algorithms. There’s no consensus yet of when it’s OK or when it counts against you. Even the tech professionals haven’t been able to sort it out and agree. Therefore, I won’t try either. The search engines are looking for the first time an article was published, the source. If your material is reposted to several different places, you may hurt your site’s ranking without intending to do so.

I’m not saying not to repost. Just don’t do it for every article and don’t put the same material on several sites. Be sure your site has unique content, and lots of it. When you want to spread your words, use an excerpt and link back to your site to read the article. Whatever you do, repost as little as possible. Write different content for other sites and get people interested in coming to your site. It’s harder, I know. People like to read a lot of blogs in the same place, and I have no idea how the blog aggregators and linking tools will fare when the dust settles.

Guest blogging is still a great bet, as are blog tours. Each site will have new writers, new visitors, and new content to offer. With some good posts, you can entice people to come and read more of your writing. For authors, writers, and people selling services, such as book cover design and consulting, this is great. I’m not as sure it will be great for vendors who’ve grown used to using bloggers to showcase their products. Of course, if it’s not good for the vendors, it won’t be good for the bloggers who’ve build blogs totally around selling products either. Many of the bloggers depend on rafflecopters and blog hops to draw traffic. Pages of links on dozens of sites and visiting other blogs is part of the business.

Good bloggers stop, visit, and leave appropriate comments. They aren’t spammers. The pros integrate their link into their signature or avatar too. Although, it’s perfectly permissible to leave a link in the comments too, as long as it’s relevant. However, it’s still a business. A few other bloggers probably become regular readers of a blog or two they find that resonates with them, but it’s a bit like selling your books only to other writers. Unless you offer writing advice, that’s not your target market for your mystery series. Why? Because those people will get tapped out. They can’t buy a new book from every author that belongs to their group indefinitely. If you write mysteries, you need to connect with mystery fans.

That’s where the Mommy bloggers got it right. They are largely moms or grandmas. They use the same products, which makes the other bloggers part of the target market too. The vendors know that and count on the bloggers and their circle of friends to buy long after the giveaway is over. Their kids aren’t going to be out of diapers tomorrow. It’s a special niche, and it works for this group. However, they may be facing a challenge with the new search algorithms. Only time will tell.

I’ve seen a few bloggers who manage to write quality content and sell products or services at the same time. My hat is off to them. I enjoy reading many of their posts and don’t care that they are being compensated for writing about that product. After all, that’s what marketing and advertising is too. People get paid for writing about products and services. These people often include wonderful content on their sites and write posts that are clearly not paid content. They give the readers a break from the constant sales pitches by offering other information of value, whether it’s recipes, kids games, or business tips. Regular posts count too, but today quality counts more, whatever your subject.

About Penny Leisch

Make Your Website Work For You

pjleisch — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:43:46 +0000

If you write for publication, you soon hear many different reasons to build a website. Then again, all businesses in today’s market are supposed to have a website. Let’s take a quick look at the most common reasons.

No one takes you seriously without a website.
Everyone gets rich as soon as they put up a website.
Everyone sells more when they have a website.
You can make easy money with affiliate links.

These are all popular beliefs, and there is at least a morsel of truth in the first one. However, the other three statements are myths. So how does a writer make a website work for them? And, what can you really expect? The answer lies in the purpose behind your website. Work through the ten steps listed below to develop a website that is as well-focused as your writing

1. Are you selling books and services? Or, are you promoting yourself to build brand recognition—in this case, your name? Analyze the purpose of your site content carefully. If you intend to do both, you need two sites or at least, two clearly defined areas on your website.

2. Who is the audience? Is your product designed to target a specific type of consumer? Are you showcasing a resume? Are you marketing services to other businesses? Define the market you intend to serve.

3. What is your budget? Do you have money to hire professionals to keep a large site up to date? Are you doing the work yourself while you build your career? More writers fall into the latter category. If you are one of them, you can have a great site using very simple tools that are available for free. Just don’t try to compete with major magazines and pros that hire professionals. A few pages that look nice are much better than a site that doesn’t work.

4. Consider your personal time and abilities? If you love the techie world and want to learn HTML, you can build a wonderful site on your own, and it probably won’t take you long to maintain it every month. Of course, WordPress is even simpler. Although, it’s a bit more limiting. If this description doesn’t fit you, don’t worry. Site pros don’t recommend using complicated flaming logos anyway. Your resume doesn’t attract more business by appearing in hot pink with ballerinas dancing around your name.

5. Stay informed. Keep an eye on changes in all areas related to business. Writing is only the product. You don’t sell writing without sales, marketing, packaging, equipment, and communication. Over time, trends change and savvy business people change the product to suit the customer.

6. Affiliate marketing rarely makes anyone rich in today’s market. The benefit of affiliate marketing is the ability to offer customers related products and to draw more people to your site. Customers like one-stop shopping. Of course, exchanging links within a specific market also offers exposure to more potential customers without additional cost.

7. Affiliate programs for your products offer more value in terms of branding and promotion than they do in income. These are market tools. Income is a bonus, but not something you should count on just because you sign up or set up a program.

8. Keep it simple. Learn and grow as you go. Messy sites with links that don’t work lose visitors instantly. The competition is fierce, and your visitors have no reason to stick around if your site doesn’t work properly. One page that works is worth ten pages with errors and bad graphics. Just like a neat, professional business letter, a clean website that works correctly makes a good first impression.

9. WIFM, or what’s in it for me? Those are the first words marketing students learn to answer, and they are the words every customer asks. If you answer that question, you make sales.

10. Everyone says you need a newsletter or mailing list. Well, maybe. There are more newsletters available than blades of grass on a lawn. If you market a service, newsletters are a good venue. They are also very time-consuming. Unless your primary product is service, spend your time writing and selling your writing to the people who will pay you. Recognition has limited value in terms of earning power when those people are not your primary buyer. Many people make the mistake of marketing to their own industry and not the public.

So build your website to showcase your work, and advertise yourself well with fresh, simple content. But, don’t let your website become a full time job if your goal is to write, design custom quilts, or make widgets.

About Penny Leisch

You and Your Business Need Twitter

pjleisch — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:10:15 +0000

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you are missing a lot of exposure. Here are the statistics Twitter shared at their recent developers’ conference, aptly named “Chirp.”

105,779,710 registered users of Twitter
Approximately 55 million Tweets being sent daily
180 million unique visitors monthly
Signing up 300,000 new users daily
Twitter’s search engine getting 600 million searches daily

That’s a lot of potential exposure. Will everyone get tons of new traffic, a new contract, or a new job? No. Do you increase your possibilities? Yes. Just the sheer numbers say you have to cross in front of at least a few more people who can help you, hire you, or buy from you.

There’s a growing amount of research that also says people don’t support businesses that aren’t current, and that means being present on Twitter and Facebook and having a website that looks like you update it regularly.

By the way, updating your website means more than just adding content. It has to have a current look, feel, and behavior. If you don’t have the time, money, or skill to do a major update, choose simple and modern over out-of-date and huge. Then, get you Twitter and Facebook badges on it too. Let the world know you are available.

Read more and link to additional studies from the article, The Truth About Twitters Promoted Tweets. There’s a lot more info in this article than just what Twitter has planned for the future.

My current project is to help a small business build their presence and connect their website with social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), as well as to set up their tweets and a simple, easy maintenance plan because they don’t have time or dedicated resources. It can be done.

Link back to PennyLeisch.com for more information.

About Penny Leisch

Bad Writing and Bad Marketing

pjleisch — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:12:43 +0000

Most small business people and freelancers do their own marketing, especially in the present economy. Many work hard to keep up with new venues in advertising and the new technology that goes with it. I sympathize. I struggle with these things too. However, it never ceases to amaze me the number of postings I see that are poorly written. You may hurt your image, and your credibility, when you take on too much or try to reach beyond your abilities in these areas.

Some postings are obviously written by people for whom English is a second language. Even so, if a person isn’t fluent in the language they are using–especially if that is the language used in the media and audience they are addressing, they need to get help. In other cases, I can’t decide whether what I see is carelessness or poor skills or both. Spelling and typing errors run rampant. Posting for discussions in professional groups on Facebook or LinkedIn isn’t the same as throwing together a quick email to your friends. You won’t make points with the agent who happens to read your post if your work looks like it was written by a first grade student.

Another issue is blatant disregard for the group rules and the annoyance of the group members. There are new marketing “gurus” that teach people how to use the groups to market themselves. The problem is that most of what they are teaching can get you banned. It may work for a while. On the other hand, it may annoy the members so badly that the only responses you get are a lot of angry comments. I’ve seen it happen. Some groups are very proactive.

These groups are set up to discuss professional issues and offer helpful information. Admittedly, some of them are not well monitored. In those cases, people tend to drop out or just turn them off. Obviously, you can’t sell something to a group that isn’t reading your posts. All members need to take responsibility for abiding by the guidelines.

One other issue I see a lot is misdirection. If you want to sell your skills in investment writing or your expertise in restoring antique cars, you need to belong to groups where you will find customers. For example, peer groups of other writers are for learning the trade or asking for advice about resources. They are not your target audience. In fact, some of them are likely to be your competition.

The wide variety of media that’s growing daily is confusing. It’s also widely misused. If you misuse it, you waste time that can be used to grow your business. Slow down and read some tutorials. Take it one step at a time and don’t go overboard initially. A presence is good. However, all visibility is not equal. Poor choices can hurt your image and take a long time to overcome. Move cautiously.